Spinning Platters Interview: Rae Livingston and David Owen of Outside Lands, Pt 1

Outside Lands generally does quite well with the music lineup. However, I have always thought that the real gold at the festival has been the bookings for the Barbary. This year, we finally found time in their busy schedule to talk to some of the people behind those amazing bookings: Rae Livingston of Another Planet and David Owen of SF Sketchfest. We got to spend a little time with them to discuss the history of the stage, the booking process and their careers, and for a bit, we just got to nerd out about comedy.

Limited 3 Day and single day tickets to Outside Lands are still available! You can also check the full Barbary schedule!

SPINNING PLATTERS: So you’ve got Another Planet and SF Sketchfest, both doing that booking. How does that collaboration work? Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Rae Livingston and David Owen of Outside Lands, Pt 1”

Interview: Actress Kelly Macdonald and Director Marc Turtletaub

Actress Kelly Macdonald and director Marc Turtletaub discuss their new indie film Puzzle

Puzzle director Marc Turtletaub with lead actress Kelly Macdonald. (photo by Alex Geranios)

A neglected housewife turns the tables on her dull life by enrolling in a jigsaw puzzle competition in the new film Puzzle, one of the breakout hits at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Director Marc Turtletaub and lead actress Kelly Macdonald (Trainspotting) are the first to admit that a movie about competitive puzzle building may not be at the top of everyone’s must-see list, and yet the duo have managed to make a compelling movie despite those odds.
 
The pair recently traveled to San Francisco to promote Puzzle and found that the Bay Area reception to their movie was just as rapturous as the one on the festival circuit. We recently sat down with them to talk about the movie, and the following is a transcription of that conversation.

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Outside Lands 2018: Top 10 from the Bottom Half of the Poster

As we head into the 11th year of Outside Lands, it’s also important to commemorate the fact that this is the 5th year in a row that I’ve been encouraging you to show up early and check out the smaller stages. I am well aware of the fact that my first one of these, in 2013, managed to guide you to several amazing bands, but missed the fact that a little bass and drums duo on Fueled By Ramen called Twenty One Pilots was playing. This also proves my point that you should get there early, because you never know when you are gonna stumble across a band that’s gonna be selling out arenas in just a couple years. Other passed “bottom-halfers” included The Black Keys, Courtney Barnett, Portugal. The Man, Janelle Monae, Father John Misty, Foster The People, and others that moved on to be massive stars.

So, here are my top 10 favorite acts from the bottom half of the 2018 Outside Lands line-up. Continue reading “Outside Lands 2018: Top 10 from the Bottom Half of the Poster”

Spinning Platters Interview: Choreographer Annie-B Parsons

New York, NY – December 16, 2015 – Annie-B Parson, at her home in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.

David Byrne’s American Utopia has been regarded as one the most ambitious stage shows in rock history; a performance that enables the entire band to move freely about the stage is rare. Spinning Platters recently had an opportunity to catch up with one of Byrne’s collaborators on this project, choreographer Annie-B Parsons, to discuss this show, her method, and music in general.

How did you end up syncing up with David Byrne? Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Choreographer Annie-B Parsons”

Film Review: Mission: Impossible—Fallout

Impossibly, the missions continue

Left to right: Henry Cavill as August Walker, Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt and Rebecca Ferguson as Ilsa Faust in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

The sixth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise finds Ethan Hunt and team missioning for our greater good all over the world. After six films, the franchise has worn some pretty deep grooves on the floor of the house of action adventure. To offer some new perspective, this reviewer decided to bring in a fresh voice, that of his wife. 

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Theater Review: Redwood City Players is a company to watch with stunning production of Dogfight

Raissa Marchetti-Kozlov shines as Rose in coming of age Vietnam musical, Dogfight. Photo courtesy of Benjamin Canant/Wilderspace Photography, 2018.

On their last weekend in San Francisco before their deployment to Vietnam, three young soldiers play the cruel tradition of finding the “ugliest” girl in town. Rules are set, bets are made, and the search begins.

Eddie Birdlace (Jason Mooney) stumbles upon a young woman with a gorgeous voice at a local cafe. A dreamy singer-songwriter wannabe a few years ahead of her time, Rose Fenny (Raissa Marchetti-Kozlov) is everything Birdlace could ever want… to win the bet. Continue reading “Theater Review: Redwood City Players is a company to watch with stunning production of Dogfight“

SFJFF38 Spotlights #2: To Dust/The Last Suit/Simon and Théodore/Wajib/The Devil We Know

The 38th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is going strong; it entered its second week today, and we’ve got five more spotlights for you (you can find our first round of coverage here). Below we profile four more feature films and one documentary. Complete programming and ticket information can be found here; now get out there and see some films before the Festival ends on August 5th!

Continue reading “SFJFF38 Spotlights #2: To Dust/The Last Suit/Simon and Théodore/Wajib/The Devil We Know“

Film Review: Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot

The self and its discontents

Joaquin Phoenix as John Callahan and Jonah Hill as Donnie star in DON’T WORRY, HE WON’T GET FAR ON FOOT.

Over the years, the director Gus Van Sant has returned time and again to his favorite subject: our constant struggle with self-deception and our many, mostly failed attempts at self-discovery. Let’s start with some dreamy-eyed pharmacy thieves (Drugstore Cowboy), move to homeless hustlers (My Own Private Idaho), catch up to a hitchhiker with enormous thumbs (Even Cowgirls Get The Blues), watch an aspiring TV Newswoman (To Die For), and let’s not forget the genius mathematician janitor at M.I.T. with girl trouble and the world’s funniest psychologist (Good Will Hunting). Van Sant’s characters show what an illusion we can be to ourselves. Does he return to this ground in Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot? Absolutely. Is it worth it to follow him yet again on this journey? Mostly.

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Film Review: Eighth Grade

The agony and the adolescence of middle school

8th grader Kayla (Elsie Fisher) spends much of her free time on her smart phone. 

Regular readers of Spinning Platters may have noticed that I’m partial to coming of age films; The Way, Way Back is a personal favorite, and I had both The Edge of Seventeen and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl on my Top 10 lists for their respective years. But all three of those have now been pushed aside in favor of a new genre champion: writer/director Bo Burnham’s feature debut Eighth Grade sets a new standard for all future coming of age pictures. Filmmakers may as well concede now, because no other film will ever come close to measuring up to this exquisite masterpiece.

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Film Review: Blindspotting

Local boys make good in masterful look at their changing city

Longtime Oakland friends Collin (Daveed Diggs, l.) and Miles (Rafael Casal) assess their changing city. 

Berkeley High grads and old friends Daveed Diggs (of Broadway’s Hamilton fame) and local slam poet and artist Rafael Casal join Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station; Black Panther) and Boots Riley (Sorry to Bother You) in bringing Oakland to the big screen, in a timely and powerful picture that should be required viewing not only for all Bay Area residents, but also for those who want to understand the ever shifting cultural and economic landscape of a Bay Area in flux. Diggs and Casal both wrote and star in Blindspotting, under the direction of their TV and short film director friend Carlos López Estrada, who makes his extraordinary feature film debut here, and was rewarded with a Sundance Grand Jury Prize nomination for his efforts.

Continue reading “Film Review: Blindspotting“