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On Thursday, April 2 at 9:00 p.m., Ed Wood's Glen or Glenda? kicks off my series at Doc Films called WTF?: The God-damnedest Things Ever Seen. "The legendary Ed Wood offers this bizarrely incompetent attempt to explain his own penchant for transvestitism—particularly for angora sweaters. A morphine-addled Bela Legosi, spewing out nonsense in an inexplicable role as a scientist "pulling the strings" of the action, is the best actor of the cast, which even includes Wood himself as the titular Glen/Glenda. There is no discernible structure, and stock footage makes up a good chunk of the actual screen time. Yet despite his lack of technical or narrative skill, Wood's obvious sincerity is what makes the film so endearing." Doc is located at Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 E 59th St. in Chicago. Tickets are $5, or $26 for a quarterly pass.

This month's Encyclopedia Show, where I lead the house band The Encartagans, presents poems/songs/stories/artwork/puppets about The Future. Derrick Brown, one of my favorite performance poets, will be making an appearance. It's on Wednesday, April 1 at 7:00 p.m. at the Chopin Theatre at 1543 W Division in Chicago. Tickets are $5.

Why stop there with the Tati images? LIFE Magazine has hosted on Google a wonderful series of photos of Jacques Tati wandering around New York from a November 1958 issue. The photos are a sort of reverse Play Time, with Tati, dressed in character as Monsieur Hulot, as a tourist in America, rather than guiding an American tourist in Paris. Remarkably, some of the images of the urban landscape are strikingly similar to moments in Play Time, which wasn't released until nine years later.

The complete set of photos is here.

Starting this month, La Cinémathèque française in Paris is doing a retrospective and festival devoted to my favorite director, Jacques Tati. I really wish I could be there for it, cause there's absolutely nothing better than seeing Tati in a theatre. In his case, I don't think it's just snobbery to say that his films can only truly be seen on a big screen.

But what really makes me smile is just how charming the splash animation and overall design for the Cinémathèque's Tati site is.

This site is similarly lovely - apparently they've reconstructed a set from Jour de Fête? Wonderful.

Oh, and one more. Here's the beautiful design for the recently released Criterion DVD of Tati's Trafic: