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Beauty
Rest and Relaxation at Milliken Creek Inn & Spa
So you don’t know what to get Dad for Father’s Day? Instead of fussing over nondescript websites in search of a stirring yet appropriately generic gift for the big guy, consider allowing him a pas de deux with nature and the promise of a good night’s sleep. While you might not be able to get him to pack his bags in time for Sunday, a belated sojourn to Napa Valley’s premier riverside retreat, Milliken Creek Inn & Spa, will be sure to impress. More
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Restaurants
Bringing a New Sense of Community to SOMA
Opening the massive front door of this wine bar/restaurant/café just might be the most difficult obstacle to the evening, but once the door's ajar (often the hostess will lend a hand), the 40-plus by-the-glass wine list, wood oven-grilled pizzas, and airy décor will make for a relaxing evening. Perhaps that's why when we visited Local Kitchen and Wine Merchant (sans reservations) for dinner on a Tuesday night, we snagged the last seats in the whole place -- two spots at the 30-foot-long, walnut-topped communal table. More
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Movies
A Documentary for Surfers and Non-Surfers Alike
Surfwise, a documentary directed by Doug Pray, explores the life and times of the Paskowitz clan, the “first family of surfing". Combining talking head interviews with 85-year old Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, his wife, Janelle, and his nine children, archival footage, and photographs of Paskowitz and his family shot over the last fifty years, Surfwise is nothing less than compelling filmmaking. It also doesn’t matter whether you’re a surfer or even if have a passing interest in surfing. More
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Movies
Overbroad Satire Misses More than it Hits
A personal project for writer-producer-actor John Cusack (High Fidelity, Gross Pointe Blank, Say Anything), War, Inc. is a political satire that’s acerbic, caustic, mordant, but hampered by a seen-that, know-that-already feeling and hit-or-miss gags that undercut its anti-war, anti-corporate, anti-corruption themes. War, Inc. isn’t going to convince anyone who isn’t already on the center-left of the political divide to switch political allegiances and vote differently in the upcoming presidential election, but what the film does have is John Cusack's engaging, sympathetic performance. More
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Music
Released on Siberia Records 5/27/08
Not as ostentatious as Scissor Sisters nor as gritty as Justice nor as fun as Daft Punk nor as raw as The Rapture nor as interesting as much of the dance music industry, Midnight Juggernauts debut, Dystopia, doesn’t live up to the bands preordained success. The Australian band was handpicked by Justice to open a US tour, and have subsequently played with Bloc Party, Klaxons, !!! and countless other cool, adventurous dance bands. It’s hard to hear the potential when there are so many other options. More
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Music
Self released on Shipwreck Music & Co, 5/17/20
I think The Hour is Upon Us, the new album from L.A.’s Hour of the Shipwreck, would have scared the bejesus out of me as a child. At first listen I considered it to be the quintessential soundtrack to any and every game of Dungeons & Dragons from this moment forward, but I fear it may send too many children running home to their mommies at full throttle. More
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Music
Released on Sub Pop Records, 6/3/08
“White Winter Hymnal", the second track on Fleet Foxes debut, is a dagger. The band is “folky", but not in the ramshackle, bon vivant, Devendra Banhart-style of “folk” that critics have kneaded into a long-tailed music movement. Fleet Foxes sound more encyclopedic, traveling through dusty record collections on each song. The captured influences make for a good folk rock record, full of dreamy four part harmonies and authoritative fingerpicking. More
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Music
SF Station Blows It Up
There is nothing I could say that hasn’t already been said about REM and Michael Stipe over the last 26+ years of their career so I am going to keep this short and sweet. Coming into the show I knew it was going to be something great and, man, was it; they played every song that I had wanted to hear along with all their new tunes, which are now attracting new fans who filled the way sold out Greek. Michael and the gang know how to rock a crowd not only with great songs but also simply with their stage presence. More
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Movies
It Ain’t Happening...
M.Night Shyamalan first made his mark as the writer/director of the cleverly constructed and well executed The Sixth Sense. Shyamalan’s subsequent efforts have (arguably) become progressively worse. In a desperate attempt to recapture some of the magic of his first film, the trailer for The Happening only mentions The Sixth Sense and Signs (the best reviewed Shyamalan films). For those clinging to the hope that The Happening will rival The Sixth Sense, prepare for disappointment. More
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Music
Good Vibrations From Seattle
With snowflakes falling in the mountains surrounding Seattle as it experiences the coldest June in its record books, The Blakes will welcome a bit of California sun when they leave their home base for a mini tour through the Golden State. The tour, a warm up for a summer vacation through Europe with the Brian Jonestown Massacre, stops at Bottom of the Hill on June 22nd. Garnet Keim (guitar/vocals), who forms the garage-rock outfit with his brother Snow Keim (bass/vocals) and drummer Bob Husak, spoke with SF Station during a phone interview. More
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