Parks and Recreation: Season Three/Shut Up Little Man!: An Audio Misadventure

Parks and Recreation: Season Three (2011)
My viewing of the third season of Parks and Recreation was long overdue, and I'm glad that it finally happened. Season two is hard to top, but it was accomplished. These characters are tremendously strong; possibly more so than any comedy I can think of since Arrested Development. Some of the plot lines are bit too ridiculous are even stupid, but with characters this great, it doesn't even matter. Amy Pohler, Aziz Ansari and Nick Offerman continue to play memorable roles, and that Rob Lowe and Adam Scott have become part of the regular cast is a huge bonus. Lowe is fantastically ridiculous here and makes the series that much better. It's also nice to see Scott play a character with some sensitivity, even though he rules hard at being the asshole. I know that the quality of Parks and Recreation has to hit a peak and start diminishing at some point soon, but it doesn't seem to have happened yet.


Shut Up Little Man!: An Audio Misadventure (2011)
Written and directed by Matthew Bate
One weekend in May 2006, I accompanied some friends of mine in a Bloomington, IN based band called Husband & Wife on a weekend tour around Michigan and Indiana, and they introduced me to Shut Up Little Man!. In the mid-80s, two young, punk midwesterners move to a shitty apartment complex in San Francisco and end up living next to two old drunks who curse at and fight with each other every night. The midwesterners decide to document these happenings by illegally recording the neighbors' arguments and distributing the tapes among friends. As the years go on, the legend grows, and Shut Up Little Man! develops an insane cult following. This documentary touches on all of the good and bad that came from these recordings, as well as the culture of audio verite and field recording, and is really well done. And, if you've never heard let alone heard of the original Shut Up Little Man! sound clips, please let me know, and I will share them with you. It is some of the funniest shit I have ever heard.