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The Tide is High -- and Dry
I've often wondered how restaurants that serve three different menus a day manage not to go manic. How can one be an expert baker in the morning, and then a genius with a quiche come noon, and then follow it all up with a full roster of dinner entrees just a few hours later? This challenge is rarely, if ever, executed well, but I always admire the goals these eateries set for themselves -- and often wish for simpler fare.
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The Simple Things in Life
In a genre marked by failure, tragedy and self-destruction, Mike Ness is a rare example of longevity. With a music career that has lasted nearly 30 years, the southern California punk rock icon says his band Social Distortion is at its peak with its largest fan base ever. The band will perform near the tail end of full day of rock music at BFD at Shoreline Amphitheater on June 9th. Ness spoke with SF Station during a morning phone interview from his home in Orange County.
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SF Station Blows It Up
New York City exports another great band with Priestbird (formally Tarantula AD). Seeing them at a small spot like the Hemlock was a hell of a time. These guys are damn talented with a sound that defies classification, but if I had to compare them I would to so to Arcade Fire. They performed music from their new album In Your Time.
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Released on Milon Records, 6/5/07
Tapping into a range of signals from far out funky electronic folk beats to spacey jazz to indie pop, From L.A. With Love presents a fresh mix of new tunes from SoCal's emerging new music scene. The cd includes individual works of art created to match each of the 17 songs -- all independent musicians and artists who have previously worked in some shape or form with Andrew Lojero.
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Released on Drag City, 3/30/07
On a predictably foggy Saturday night in San Francisco I ventured to the Hemlock tavern. The mission at hand was to see King Kong perform from their album Buncha Beans as part of San Francisco's Mission Creek Music Festival. I had hopes that seeing an intimate performance would deliver a shock of vitality and provide a different perspective to what had been a lukewarm listening session of their CD.
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Released on Ministry of Sound, 3/19/07
Let's go, all you hyped up die-hard, trance dancing, never ready for tire, musical mongrels! Here's Christopher Lawrence mixing his best sick shtick on Gatecrasher: Live In Moscow. This imported two CD showcase is a huge landmine of ferocious energy from one underground trance mix exploding into another. For trance fans, Gatecrasher: Live In Moscow is an absolute must-have!
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Where Babies Come From
In 2005, we were blessed with one of the most brilliantly conceived comedies ever in writer/director Judd Apatow's The 40 Year Old Virgin. Two years later and Apatow is back with Knocked Up. The premise of Apatow's latest is perhaps as absurd as his directorial debut 2 years ago. In short, a deadbeat stoner somehow manages a one night stand with a driven, gorgeous blonde and naturally, she ends up "knocked up".
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Uneven Russian Fantasy/Horror Sequel
Billed as the "second chapter in the epic fantasy trilogy," Day Watch ("Dnevnoy dozor"), directed by Timur Bekmambetov from a screenplay co-written with novelist Sergei Lukyanenko is less the middle film in a trilogy than the conclusion to a two-part story that began with Night Watch, a fantasy/horror/action film released three years ago in Russia and Europe to critical acclaim and positive box office returns.
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The Serial Killer Next Door
Back in the mid-80s when actor Kevin Costner established himself as a box office draw, he was compared to Hollywood icon Gary Cooper, primarily for his ability to play decent, respectable characters that never strayed from their moral identities. After several expensive flops and misfires, Costner was relegated to the B-list. He's back in a lead role, though, in director/co-writer's Bruce A. Evans psychological thriller , Mr. Brooks, playing the titular character, a successful businessman by day and equally successful serial killer by night.
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An American in Paris, Struggling to Survive
Calling all angels! André (Jamel Debbouze, best known to American audiences for his bit role in Amélie) is a luckless loser who is drowning in a sea of gambling debts. Worse yet, his creditors have lost patience, giving him a few scant hours in which to make good...or else. Stuck in Paris -- though claiming, rather dubiously, to own a posh apartment in New York -- André appeals to the American embassy, then to the Parisian police. When they turn him away, there is only one option left: suicide.
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Preaching to a Select Choir
There are some who contend that Western corporate interests (represented by institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund) serve to impoverish and debilitate millions of African citizens, but many more are either unaware of or indifferent to these issues. The former may gravitate toward Mauritian director Abderrahmane Sissako's Bamako, provided they can find it playing in some small art-house cinema. For the latter, there's always Shrek the Third.
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Wellness Beckons
For harried city-dwellers, Oakland's Piedmont Avenue is like a sojourn to another time -- one where residents stop to greet each other to chat about the weather, and it's safe enough to keep your doors unlocked. But the quaint, small-town feel is assuaged quite a bit by the spattering of chicness: hip yoga studios, used book stores, antique shops, and stylish fine dining populate the area with a relaxed elegance that make Piedmont Avenue an apt backdrop for a place like Meditrina World Healing Spa.
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