Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Amy Miller is an old friend of Spinning Platters. She’s also the funniest person in Portland, OR, and was on the final season of Last Comic Standing. She was one of the earliest fans of the site and, despite her continued fame, she still managed to squeeze out some time to talk to us.
She’s going to be headlining at Punchline in SF this Wednesday, January 27th. Tickets are available here!
There is no shortage of great talent that graces our SF stages during Sketchfest. Tonight, however, we got not one, but two, of the most important comic minds ever. Everyone knows Billy Crystal, star of Soap, Saturday Night Live, When Harry Met Sally, etc., and, although you may not know Alan Zweibel by name, you may have more of his words memorized than Billy Crystal’s. He was one of the main writers during the first few years of Saturday Night Live, as well as It’s Gary Shandling’s Show, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Monk, and many, many more.
We recently lost one of the most imaginative artists in the history of creation. As a result, this week is a special week. These are your best options for shows this week, and how Bowie-esque they are. Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 1/14/16-1/20/16”
The Dead Pilots Society is a podcast hosted by Ben Blacker and Andrew Reich. The premise is simple: there are hundreds of scripts for pilots out there that never get filmed. Many of them are fine pieces of writing, but the tv networks simply didn’t have use for them. So, they bring in actors and do them “Reader’s Theater” style. Toady at the Eureka, we were treated to two sitcom pilots that were both optioned by networks, but never made it to production. Today was their first time doing it with an audience. Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Dead Pilot’s Society at Eureka Theater, 1/10/16”
A good critic thoroughly researches his or her subject well ahead of the event they are reviewing. They learn about the subject, the history of the producer, and a bit about the fans. I did not do this. I liked the name “Fishing with John.” And when I saw that Parker Posey was interviewing the creator of this thing, I decided that this was likely to be interesting. Also, I was in the neighborhood and heard rumor of transit delays, it was raining, and I just wanted to hide in a theater for a couple of hours while the storm passed. Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Review: Fishing With John at The Castro Theater, 1/8/15”
Ron Funches has been the king of dry, soft spoken wit since he first popped on the scene in 2011. After spending years on the road, he’s hit the big time. He’s one of the stars of NBC’s hit sitcom Undateable and is also a regular on @midnight as well as the dearly departed The Kroll Show. Spinning Platters had the honor of getting to speak to Funches recently.
Funches is playing Swedish American Hall on Saturday, January 9th (Tickets Here). He’s also doing a special brunch time set at Cobb’s on Sunday, January 10th (Tickets Here). Continue reading “SF Sketchfest Interview: Ron Funches”
WHAT?!? Sketchfest is already here?!?! It’s quite a bit earlier than usual this year; I’m sure that this is due to some strange event — wherein grown men run around and throw objects at each other in order to help promote the new Coldplay album — interfering with everything in the Bay. If you are actually interested in the big football game in Santa Clara, this list probably isn’t for you. However, if you’re like me and have never seen a football game nor got picked for anything athletic in their life, this is your list. This is where you go to determine which of the 824,422,122 amazing comedy events will be happening in San Francisco over the next three weeks.
SF Sketchfest runs from January 7th – 24th. A full schedule of events can be found here.
This week around the San Francisco Bay Area: Love! Honey! Medicine! Class war! Typos! Beards! And a moonlighting winemaker.
Let’s preview the week’s upcoming shows, shall we?
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts: 12/3/15-12/9/15”
Henry Selick is a true innovator. He’s one of the very few people to bring the joys of stop motion animation to the masses, and managing to have great success with the form. Spinning Platters had a rare chance to have a chat with him ahead of the SF Symphony presenting the film with live score later this month.
You can pick up tickets here! Don’t miss this very special event, and, after the jump, here’s our interview! Continue reading “Spinning Platter Interview: Henry Selick, Director of Nightmare Before Christmas“
For many years, I’ve said that Treasure Island Music Festival was the best music festival in the world. When I made that declaration 8 glorious years ago, after enjoying a mind blowing set by DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist at the inaugural fest, my music festival experience was limited. I’d been to a few all day shindigs at Shoreline, a single Coachella, and a few Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and Power To The Peaceful events. This year alone I’ve been to a dozen festivals so far. And, still, I declare Treasure Island Music Festival to be the closest thing to perfect a music fest can be. Continue reading “Show Review: Treasure Island Music Festival 2015”