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Help Me Do the Right Thing
This tasty and sometimes disturbing work explores the transformative and healing powers of sexuality. In it we witness sweet, prim Midwestern girl Peggy, masterfully played by Jennifer Claire, steadily unraveling as her inner erotic fantasy life begins to merge with her drab, staid real-world life. It's by turns funny, scary, gripping, and sexy, with overtones of Sex Lies and Videotape, Michel Foucault, and BDSM master/slave interrelationships.
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Getting Frisky for Valentine's
San Frisky is what San Francisco ought to be called. Look around and you can find a bedlam of fanciful, fun, fetish fashions to wear not only at fairs, balls or clubs but also in your lair. Getting frisky for only Valentine's or the Folsom Street Fair seems so conservative when there are so many other outfits to wear every day of the year.
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Laced Up and Ready to Roll
Already on their way to being the next hyphy sensation out of the Bay Area, The Pack made waves with the breakthrough song "Vans" -- an ode the famous skateboarding shoe company. Now the group is hoping to continue the momentum with its recently released EP Skateboards 2 Scrapers, a new shoe line and a forthcoming debut LP, which will feature a collaboration with crunk Atlanta brethren Dem Franchize Boyz. Rapper/Producer Young L spoke with SF Station during a phone interview.
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SF Station Blows It Up
While standing in front of the stage surrounded by hardcore fans waving Australian flags, wearing face paint and screaming for the band to hit the stage, I felt like this was a soccer match. When Cat Empire hit the stage they showed me that they were not soccer players but amazing musicians. There is no way that I can put the band into one class; they are a mix of Soul, R&B, Rock, Punk and 10 more styles of music that made my ears perk up and listen. Both of the lead singers are incredible, particularly Harry James Angus' vocal range, which moved between octaves like he was a machine.
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Released on Wichita Recordings, 1/30/07
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah received an astonishing amount of attention in 2005 when their self-titled, self- released album was released. The buzz surrounding said album drew David Bowie and David Byrne to a few of the band's shows. The interest of Byrne is not terribly surprising as lead vocalist, Alec Ounsworth sounds eerily similar to him at times.
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Released on Om Records, 2/27/07
Om Records presents yet another exciting, reputation worthy collection of the best up and coming hip-hop-don't-stop roster. This independent deep-house/dance/electronic dedicated record label was founded in SF in 1995. For their first release entitled Groove Active, Om made introductions with solid acts such as The Roots, DJ Shadow, Blackalicious, A Tribe Called Quest, Brand New Heavies, to name a few. Om has then set their steady stream of what is now their imprint sound.
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Released on Blood Shake Records, 2/27/07
Though not necessarily a novel debut from Richmond, Virginia's The National Lights, The Dead Will Walk, Dear is a simple and thoughtful reaction from musicians very obviously in love with the neo-folk movement we find ourselves submerged in as of late. So if it is something innovative and new you seek, do not stop here. The National Lights is for those who love the hushed vocals of Sufjan Stevens, the banjo triplets of Iron & Wine, the lap steel of Calexico, the harmonies of early Mountain Goats, and yet do not mind the glaring, unadulterated similarities.
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The World's About to Get Brighter
January and February is typically a tough time for the ardent cinemaphile as multiplexes are crammed with typically heavy, dark Oscar frontrunners or garbage that didn't make the cut last year (Code Name: The Cleaner anyone?). Fortunately, our good friends at IndieFest have assembled a broad and eclectic mélange of films.
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Run, Edie, Run
By the mid-60s, Andy Warhol had firmly established himself as the front man for the "Pop Art" movement in the United States. Commercially successful as a painter and illustrator, Warhol turned to making avant-garde films in the "Factory", a performance and production space in midtown Manhattan where Warhol collaborated with other artists, drag queens, and assorted hangers on, to make experimental films (when they weren't partying or helping to mass produce silkscreens and lithographs). In January of 1965, Warhol met an ingénue new to Manhattan, Edie Sedgwick, at a party. Under Warhol's direction, Edie became a celebrity...
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Emotional Dispatches From a City of Lost Children
The Dead Girl is a raw, unflinching glimpse at the wounded, interconnected lives of those touched by a murder. The victim is Krista (Brittany Murphy), a runaway-turned-prostitute who has the misfortune, one fateful night, of hitching a ride with a serial killer. Left behind are her estranged mother, her emotionally broken roommate and others whose connections to the crime are a bit more tenuous. Then there's the killer and his frustrated wife, who wonders where her husband disappears to for days at a time.
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A Pretty Big Mistake
Eddie Murphy made some of the funniest comedies of the 80s. The pinnacle of his reign as comedic superstar was arguably Coming To America. Murphy was astonishing in this film as he played several of the characters in this comedic gem. Since then, it's been hit and miss (ok...mostly miss).
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A Fine, Young Cannibal
The charming cannibal Hannibal Lecter is back for another round of flesh eating fun and games in Peter Webber's Hannibal Rising. After the box office success of Hannibal in 2001 and the remake of Red Dragon in 2003, studio executives are back to make a few more bucks off of one of the most compelling anti-heroes in recent memory. What we get in Hannibal Rising is an origin story that focuses on the traumas that shaped/molded a future flesh eating serial killer.
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