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Filling a void in SOMA
Remember when fondue was all the rage and not only could you find it on most menus but restaurants also started popping up that were entirely devoted to the dipping craze? Well, wine bars seem to be the newest fashion, especially those that offer small plates to nosh on. While wine and gooey cheese dips are different ends of the longevity scale, this recent outcropping still begs the question: does every neighborhood need its own wine bar or two?
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San Francisco's Indie Festival Spotlights Local Talent
For ten days this May, over a dozen San Francisco venues will be hosting an explosion in local musical and visual talent. The Mission Creek Music and Arts festival will kick off its 11th year on May 10th with the usual brilliant lineup of new and promising musicians and artists. This year also marks the first time the festival has opened its stages to include dance artists in the much anticipated Dance Maverick performances.
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SF Station Blows It Up
One of hip hop's legends hit the stage last week at Mezzanine and blew the roof off the place. Performing songs from his new album Hip Hop is Dead, Nas showed everyone in the building what a true MC is all about. There was one great surprise at the show when Snoop Dogg walked out to say hello and do a few tunes.
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Riffing with a Stroke <
With his bandmates in The Strokes popping out babies and an apparent hiatus on the horizon, Albert Hammond Jr. has stepped out of his role as rhythm guitarist for the band with a new solo album (Yours To Keep, released March 2007) and a string of concerts in the United States and beyond. Hammond launches his latest tour May 20th at the Independent. He spoke with SF Station during a phone interview from his New York apartment.
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The Rage Returns
Director Danny Boyle injected new life into the zombie genre with 2002's 28 Days Later. The zombies in that film were far from the slow, doddering undead from previous zombie films. In fact, they were quite the contrary. Boyle's zombies were wicked fast, unrelenting, and insatiable. Nearly five years later and zombies are STILL box office gold. With this in mind we get the follow up to 28 Days Later, the appropriately named 28 Weeks Later.
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Perceptive, Moving Australian Drama
In twenty-two years, Australian filmmaker Ray Lawrence has directed just three feature-length films. His first film, Bliss, an adaptation of Peter Carey's darkly satirical novel about contemporary Australian society, won major awards. After a fifteen-year drought, Lawrence adapted Andrew Bovell's play, "Speaking In Tongues", for the screen as Lantana, an Altmanesque, web-of-life drama, which then went on to win five awards, including Best Picture, at the 2001 AFI Awards. A half a decade later, Lawrence is back with his third film, Jindabyne, an adaptation of Raymond Carver's short story, "So Much Water So Close to Home".
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Urban Documentary About Hopeful Rappers Soars
In 1999, Chris "Kazi" Rolle, a former performing arts student, rapper and one-time street hustler, created the "Hip Hop Project" under the auspices of Art Start, a non-profit organization dedicated to bringing art and inner-city teenagers together. The Hip Hop Project was an outreach program for inner-city teenagers interested in becoming hip hop artists or joining the music industry. Over the next six years, it became a surrogate family, with the youthful Rolle as a surrogate father figure. Remarkably, Rolle was only in his early twenties when he started the Hip Hop Project.
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Affecting Romantic Comedy/Drama
Written and directed by the late Adrienne Shelly (Trust, The Unbelievable Truth), Waitress, an off-kilter romantic comedy/drama, was received warmly at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival by audiences and critics alike. Fox Searchlight picked up the distribution rights from Shelley's producers, hoping to repeat last year's breakout success with Little Miss Sunshine. Maybe, maybe not, but Waitress does have a lot going for it, from an unconventional storyline, a clever plot device in the central character's pie obsession, quirky, offbeat dialogue, and Shelly's obvious gifts both behind and in front of the camera.
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Nothing Burns Like An Old Flame
Tom (Zach Braff) and Sofia (Amanda Peet) are two newlyweds with a baby on the way. Sofia has given up her job as a high-powered attorney to be a fulltime stay at home mom. Fortunately, Tom's career as a chef is on the rise. Unfortunately, Tom's low tolerance for bullshit and tendency to open his mouth at the wrong time gets him shitcanned in short order. In a desperate move, Tom and Sofia move to Ohio where Tom gets a job at the ad agency where Sofia's father works. It is here where Tom has the misfortune to run afoul of The Ex.
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Forget About the Wine-Tasting
Evidently, spring is in the air, romance is upon us, and throwbacks to the tried and true dinner-n-a-movie combination just won't make the cut anymore. That's no secret to jet-setting young urbanites and seasoned weekend lovebirds who flock to Gaige House, a cozy Sonoma County hamlet that can't help but inspire its inhabitants to turn their cell phones off and their taste for the finer things in life on.
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Don't Cut Those Apron Strings
Housework can be sexy. Yes, you read that correctly. Recall, if you will, the scene from Anchorman when Ron Burgundy fantasizes about coming home to his lovely Veronica clad in nothing but an apron after a "hard day's work" of keeping house? As the countdown to Mother's Day continues, consider gifting the ladies in your life with a sassy apron or two.
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