Ocelopotamus

News, culture, and politics. Not necessarily in that order.

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Entries Tagged as 'Peoria'

Coming in November: The History of Chicago Punk on Film

October 26th, 2007 · 4 Comments · Chicago, Culture, Film, History, Illinois, Music, New Wave, Peoria, Video

My friend and colleague Chris Tillman and her husband Joe Losurdo, working under the name Regressive Films, have collaborated on a new documentary about the history of punk rock in Chicago. Titled You Weren’t There — A History Of Chicago Punk 1977-1984, the film will have its world premiere on Saturday, November 24 at the […]

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Liking Norma Rae

July 10th, 2007 · Comments Off on Liking Norma Rae · Activism, Culture, Film, History, Labor, Media, News, Peoria, Politics, The Economy, Stupid

After reading this piece, which originally ran in The Nation, I bumped Norma Rae up on my Netflix queue and was very glad I did. I was really too young for it when it came out in 1979, and had somehow never gotten around to renting it in the years since. And seeing Norma Rae […]

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Weekend in Peoria, and a Sign of the Times

June 27th, 2007 · 10 Comments · Books, Culture, Food, Illinois, Journal, Labor, LGBT, Meta, New Wave, Peoria, Photos, Restaurants, The Economy, Stupid, Vegetarian & Vegan

You may have noticed things have been a little slow around the OcPot this week, because I spent the past weekend visiting my parents in scenic Peoria, Illinois. I’m now paying the usual price for taking a couple of days off, with everything I have to do piled up to twice its normal height. It’ll […]

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Tolkien’s Children of Hurin: Break a Leg, Professor

April 17th, 2007 · 5 Comments · Books, Culture, Fantasy, Journal, Lit, Mythology, News, Peoria

It appears that Christopher Tolkien has one more book to produce out of his father’s magic hat, although this one will almost certainly be the last. The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Tolkien goes on sale today, three decades after his death: Tolkien’s son and literary executor Christopher, now in his eighties, constructed “The Children […]

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Music: “We Can Get Together”

April 11th, 2007 · 1 Comment · Culture, Journal, Music, New Wave, Peoria, Video

Here’s Icehouse’s ecstatically edgy crossover single “We Can Get Together” from 1980, which never fails to give me that particular New Wave frisson that results from just the right ratio of synthesizers to spiky guitars complemented by a sublime angst-in-my-pants vocal style. And oh yeah, they were still called Flowers when they made this video, […]

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