Any list of top indie filmmakers would include Richard Linklater. But maybe because he has proven such a stylistic chameleon, shifting from the scruffy, seeming verité of his iconic "Slacker" (1991) the glitz and gloss of mainstream studio films like "School of Rock" (2003) and "Bad News Bears" (2005) he doesn't have the more recognizable profile of such more recognized auteurs as Quentin Tarantino, Stephen Soderbergh, etc.

In a time when there’s a lot of pomp, circumstance, and bullshit, frankly, that comes along with a live show, it’s refreshing to see the MARK LANEGAN BAND play it straight. When showtime rolled around this past Sunday at the Paradise Rock Club, the former Screaming Tree and the members of his band filed quietly onto the stage, didn’t acknowledge the crowd before launching into a raucous version of “The Gravedigger’s Song,” the opening track from their latest record, Blues Funeral [Off The Record 01.

So, what if Saturn actually fell into the sea? We'll find out this month, as Boston's rocket-fed neo-glam heroes THE DAILY PRAVDA carry the torch as May's WFNX Local Exposure band for the month of May. Pravda just released their Dead House EP last weekend with a rousing gig at Radio in Somerville, and now set their sights on a free WFNX-presented show on Wednesday, May 30 at the Hard Rock Cafe.

The Oscar-winning success of The Artist reminded moviegoers that people were making films before, say, Titanic. And so Mark Cousins's marathon series The Story of Film: An Odyssey has come along at an auspicious time. The 15 hour-long episodes begin with the first cinema pioneers - like Georges Méliès, now familiar to fans of Martin Scorsese's Hugo - and progress to the present day and the oneiric complexities of David Lynch and Alexander Sokurov.

It was one of the unlikeliest sports wagers in recent memory. CUT COPY were locked in a bitter dispute with Zonoscope mixer Ben Allen, a devout Atlanta fan (they exist!) who was repping his Hawks against the Australian electronic pop band's beloved Boston Celtics.

Remember when every novel was called The ______________'s Wife or The ___________'s Daughter? Well, now it's orphans. A hardcover copy of The Orphanmaster showed up on my desk today, recalling (of course) last year's The Orphan Master's Son. But let's not forget about When We Were Orphans, The Age of Orphans, or Oliver Twist

Happy Mother’s Day, and props to Manchester City for winning the Premiership. What a day! We capped it off by bringing HOORAY FOR EARTH into the studio, trying to put an end to all this “Are They Boston or New York?!” nonsense. Not sure we did, because Noel Heroux still lives in Brooklyn and doesn’t appear to be moving back anytime soon.

How long did it take for the internet to start making Adam Yauch hologram jokes? Oh, about 30 seconds. Here's a random assortment of people who probably thought they had an original thought.

It seems obvious now, but it took the programming geniuses at the Brattle to pair these two movies for Mother's Day. Perhaps Alfred Hitchcock's scariest film, Psycho (1960; 7:15 pm) demonstrates the terrible things that can happen when Oedipal obsession, voyeurism, taxidermy, and motel management come together under one spooky roof.

Welcome to "Meet the Mayor," a segment in which we interview local Foursquare Mayors in their natural habitats.

Public Storage - Self Storage
Christian Campagna

So why are you mayor at this here storage locker?

I just moved into a new place a couple of months ago, and it's been slow moving my stuff in there.

In one of the most visually appealing music videos we've seen in a while -- and without any of the therapy-inducing nipple visuals of that Big Digits video we last lassoed under Awesome Video Alert -- ensemble indie-pop collective the MICHAEL J. EPSTEIN MEMORIAL LIBRARY is back with "Amylee." Shrinky-Dink-like depictions of the band assemble to ward off the oncoming dolphinpocalypse (lolque?) by enlisting a female shark assassin to travel to outer space and destroy their marine mammal counterparts.

Maybe I'm giving too much credit to Hollywood studios, but you've got to suspect that they are aware that there's a big-deal election happening in November and so they might be marketing and releasing films with that in mind. Maybe not so much to influence the outcome of the election as to exploit audiences' feelings about it.

On The Download had a spy in the trenches at Fenway Park a few weeks ago, and they came back with audio of this exact conversation...

John Henry: "The Red Sox are a mess, we already lost Heidi Watney, and there are empty seats around the ballpark... in May?!? How do we get people to come to Fenway Park in August?

Last week, the Herald reported that a woman was bilked out of $160,000 by a band of rogue hypnotists. (I like hypnotists.) A couple days later, I spoke with the Amazing Kreskin (who, with all due respect to Miss Cleo, is the greatest television mentalist the world has ever known).

So, what does the high school pranks and bullying story tell us about Mitt the man?

One of the best concise summaries I've ever seen of Mitt Romney's character comes on page 3 of R.B. Scott's "Mitt Romney: An Inside Look at the Man and His Politics," which came out late last year. Scott opens his biography with the tale of Romney's 1981 arrest in Natick, a minor incident which he has tried hard to keep under wraps: attempting to take his family boating, Romney had gotten into a confrontation with a park ranger over the status of the boat registration; the ranger ended up warning Mitt that if he put the boat in the water he'd be fined $50 -- so Romney pulled out $50 cash, as if to cover the fine in advance.

It's time for another installment of the Book Rat Project, the sustained experiment in which a book critic (me) attempts to act as a human algorithm for a willing subject (my Phoenix colleague Will Delman). After a misguided effort to make my subject read a critically revered novelist in translation, I realized that one of my favorite books last year, Chris Adrian's The Great Night, is now available in paperback.

Guillermo Sexo play Zuzu on Monday

MassArt Spring Sale | No admission to browse hand-blown glass, ceramics, oil paintings, handmade jewelry, and more at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design on Thursday, May 10- Saturday, May 12 from 10 am-7 pm | inside.massart.edu/springsale

"Endowment for Unexceptional Humans presents a Storytelling Auction" | Nine local authors, including William Giraldi and Christopher Boucher, read stories about personal items of significance -- including signed books and childhood art projects-- and then auction off the items to benefit the local JP non-profit at the First United Church in Somerville on Friday, May 11 @ 8 pm [donations accepted] | unexceptionalhuman.

It's crunch time. Voting for this year's poll closes May 18...that's soon! Local nominees in hip-hop, psych/experimental, electronic, jazz, live act, new act, and more are bringing it full force this week. Try to get out and see as many as you can, then get those votes in before it's too late. Power to the people.

I just spoke with Arline Isaacson, who was a central figure in the battle for same-sex marriage here in Massachusetts. Isaacson says that even yesterday morning, when word was spreading that Obama was going to speak on the issue, she didn't believe he would come out fully in favor of the right for same-sex couples to wed.

"I give him a lot of credit for this," Isaacson said.