Bolero! from San Francisco is a group dedicated to remembering the psychedelic rock sounds and Latin vibes that briefly made that city a beacon of youth culture in the 1960s and 1970s. A memory stone from an age before four decades of Reaganomics and venture capital turned that once-beautiful peninsula into a shittier version of […]
The Miniplex
Posted inArts + Scene
Swan Dive
FEUD: CAPOTE VS. THE SWANS. Whoever said, “Hating someone is like drinking poison every day and expecting the other person to die,” clearly never saw The Princess Bride. Of course, there is a caustic burn going down, but a good low-stakes grudge can be energizing, feeding competition and giving focus to the day’s million scattered […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Music Tonight: Saturday, Feb. 17
The Miniplex is the place to go tonight if you are hankering for a showcase of local bands, courtesy of Lighthouse Records. I can vouch for Pill for Thrills as a solid chunk of fun, and have yet to enjoy the works of Queen Karma, Porcelain Dog and Dinner Service, but I look forward to […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Not Valentine’s Day
Some might say I am not a romantic. I don’t think it a fair criticism, nor do I think it’s true. At the same time, though, I don’t intend to write anything here about Valentine’s Day movies. And even though I’m sure there is something in Lisa Frankenstein — a neon-tinged reanimation teen rom-com — […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Zone of Interest‘s Horrors, Seen and Unseen
THE ZONE OF INTEREST. Presented with the briefest description of this, e.g. a glimpse inside the domestic life of the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, one’s mind might immediately go to Hannah Arendt’s commentary regarding the “banality of evil.” Which is a reasonable leap, as that phrase has so frequently come into use when […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Monsters of Our Own Making
POOR THINGS. Yorgos Lanthimos — born of the glorious, unholy, chimeric union of Luis Buñuel, Ken Russell and Terry Gilliam — has spent much of his storied career exploring parentage, innocence and humanity’s baser impulses through the bleak and delightful lens of his particular brand of absurdism. And now, having joined in a bizarre and […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Might Have Beens
With the joys and horrors of our most recent, apolitical global cataclysm rapidly diminishing beyond the remembering, we return to some version of normal. Which is to say, many of the smaller, headier but nonetheless celebrated releases of 2023 are just now making their way to screens where country folk like ourselves can access them. […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Who’s Game?
SELF RELIANCE. Having not yet watched Minx — the Starz smut-mag series — I last checked in with multi-hyphenate Jake Johnson for Ride the Eagle (2021), a charmingly unassuming indie throwback from a time when, still in the throes of the plague, we could be forgiven for thinking the movie business might be in for […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Music Tonight: Wednesday, Jan. 17
Speaking of the Miniplex, new weekly free queer dance event Big Mood will be rolling out tonight at 8 p.m., with sonic bounce provided by the venerable DJ Pandemonium Jones. If you are looking for an older institution, the Harlem Globetrotters are in town at the same hour for a showcase face off against their […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Music Tonight: Tuesday, Jan. 16
One of the best outdoor backyard shows I caught in the last few years was an ecstatic drone set by the raga-metal group Biomass, headed by Open Head Records honcho Luke Aronie. Sadly, the group migrated to Los Angeles some time ago, but they’re back for a night of the good, soul-scouring loud and pretty […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Good Grief‘s Best Friends
GOOD GRIEF. With a brief break in the rain at last, I was in no mood to delve into the weedy waters of grief this week but here we are. Had it not been Dan Levy writing, directing and starring in the Netflix drama/comedy/romance, I would have spared myself all thought beyond what an 80-minute […]
Posted inArts + Scene
Music Tonight: Sunday, Jan. 7
The Miniplex is hosting a very special gig tonight at an early start time of 7:30 p.m. Rangda is a supergroup composed of Ben Chasny from Six Organs of Admittance and Comets on Fire, guitarist and avant folk composer Sir Richard Bishop, and New York City-based free jazz drummer and master improviser Chris Corsano. This […]