starring: Meryl Streep, Tommy Lee Jones, Steve Carell
written by: Vanessa Taylor
directed by: David Frankel
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for mature thematic content involving sexuality
Film Review: “Hope Springs”
Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 8/9/12 – 8/15/12
Since Outside Lands sold out for the first time ever this year, I bet you are looking for options! Well, there is an amazing double header at Hella Jelly Warehouse in Oakland on Saturday, August 11th! The great Kimya Dawson and her former Moldy Peach associate Only Son will be tickling your ears, and SpinningPlatters wants to send you there! Enter here before noon on Friday, August 10th. Winner will be informed by email!
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 8/9/12 – 8/15/12”
Show Review: Jay Brannan at Great American Music Hall 8/4/12
Leaving the Great American Music Hall Saturday night, sure we talked about the great show and how opener Chris Pureka was a perfect fit, but mostly we talked about how Jay Brannan should be a superstar. His personality beams charm at you from the stage and his voice is clear tenor perfection that emotes every single word, so much so that it can almost break your heart. So why isn’t he super famous? Continue reading “Show Review: Jay Brannan at Great American Music Hall 8/4/12”
Our Guide to the 2012 Outside Lands Music Festival
Every year, every festival in America claims to have the “best line up ever!” Well, San Francisco’s Outside Lands Music Festival has made to its 5th year, and they really are going to have a seriously difficult time topping this year’s event. Of course, this means that there are conflicts galore! You’ve got six stages of entertainment to try to decide between at any time of day.
The schedule can be awfully intimidating. Which is why I’m here to help guide you through the complex maze that is the Outside Lands schedule. Without further ado, here is SpinningPlatters’ Official Guide to Outside Lands 2012.
Continue reading “Our Guide to the 2012 Outside Lands Music Festival”
Spinning Platters Interview: William Friedkin on “Killer Joe”
“Fire away. Anything. Don’t be polite.” William Friedkin is feeling pretty candid these days. Maybe it’s because after nearly six decades in the business, the Academy Award-winning director of such classics as The French Connection and The Exorcist has nothing left to prove. Maybe it’s because he’s been working on his memoirs, due next year from HarperCollins, and is still in confessional mode. Or maybe he’s just well past the age where you stop giving a fuck what anyone thinks about you (he turns 77 this month). The night before our conversation, Spinning Platters attended a screening of his gleefully sadistic new movie, the NC-17-rated Killer Joe, followed by a moderated Q&A with Friedkin that quickly turned into a rowdy one-man show. Refusing to be seated, Friedkin stood in front of the jam-packed theater for nearly an hour and pontificated at length about his career, the controversy over Killer Joe, and anything the audience wanted to talk about. He even volunteered questions he figured we were too sheepish to ask (“Who wants to hear how I discovered Linda Blair?”). When he was informed that the theater needed him to wrap up, he was unfazed. “Why, what are they gonna play? Isn’t it too late to start a movie?”
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: William Friedkin on “Killer Joe””
Show Review: The Dirty Projectors, Wye Oak at The Fox Theater, 7/28/12
No Two Doves. They didn’t play Two Doves! Two years ago my compadre (from here on out known as The Editor) tried to convince me to see Dirty Projectors at the Fillmore. I bailed on him for Vampire Weekend, Beach House, and The Very Best at the Greek (I don’t think that was a complete fail, one band with harmonies and African beats for another. And fun fact! According to Wikipedia, Ezra once played sax for Dirty Projectors!). The point of this rambling intro being that my only knowledge of Dirty Projectors was their song Two Doves, a lovely but slow emotional song. Not something I’d want to spend all night listening to. In other words, I was an idiot.
So this time, after some more research, I accepted El Editoro’s invitation to see the band at The Fox Theater in Oakland. After all they serve some tasty nachos at the Fox.
Continue reading “Show Review: The Dirty Projectors, Wye Oak at The Fox Theater, 7/28/12”
10 Quick Questions with Scott Aukerman
Scott Aukerman first came onto the national radar as a writer and occasional performer on Mr Show. In the year’s since Mr Show’s cancellation, he’s probably most famous for his Comedy Death Ray show, which later evolved into the excellent podcast Comedy Bang Bang. He also has created his own network of podcasts under the banner Earwolf.com. Recently, IFC has opted to pick up Comedy Bang Bang as a TV show. He is also bringing Comedy Bang Bang on the road, and he will be doing the show with guests Paul F Thomkins, James Adomian, and opener Kurt Braunohler at The Herbst Theater in San Francisco on August 3rd. Tickets are available here!
SpinningPlatters had the opportunity to ask Mr Aukerman a few questions about his career, his future, and learning that he might not remember every minute bit of every sketch he’s ever written. Continue reading “10 Quick Questions with Scott Aukerman”
Show Review: Spoek Mathambo with Pegasus Warning, Duckwrth and Armani Cooper at Brick & Mortar Music Hall, 7/23/2012
The death, rebirth, and re-death of hip hop music is a continuing cycle that has been foretold, discussed, and beaten into the ground so often that it seems to be a career staple for any artist that will willingly embrace the label. The genre itself seems to be in a constant struggle to maintain relevance as an art form, and as a powerful method of expression, while also battling to remain incredibly popular and appealing to fans of all creeds and backgrounds. There is a constant race to be the next big MC, the next hot producer, or to do something wholly original with your performance that eschews established “rules” of hip hop in favor of something fresh, but also accessible. Adding a set of live instruments, and a thunderous stage presence during his delivery, are two key elements that South African hip hop newcomer Spoek Mathambo (pronounced “Spook Mah-tem-bo,” real name Nthato Mokgata) is using to shatter such conventional stylings, and bring startlingly bright life into the world of beats and rhymes.
Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 8/2/12 – 8/8/12
The final week before Outside Lands, and we have a whole lot on our docket. We’ve got no less than 8 bona fide rock legends coming to town, as well as 3 of SpinningPlatters’ all time favorite acts. Consider this your warm up for Golden Gate Park.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 8/2/12 – 8/8/12”
Spinning Platters Interview: Cillian Murphy and Rodrigo Cortés on “Red Lights”
In the dramatic thriller Red Lights, Cillian Murphy and Sigourney Weaver star as the world’s foremost investigators of paranormal phenomena. Professional skeptics, they have debunked dozens of fraudulent mind readers, ghost hunters, and faith healers by detecting “red lights”, subtle clues to the trickery behind each of these “supernatural” occurrences. But when a world-renowned psychic (Robert De Niro) suddenly resurfaces after a lengthy exile — and the death of his biggest critic — they begin to investigate him, despite increasingly bizarre and dangerous incidents the closer they get. Co-starring Elizabeth Olsen and Joely Richardson, Red Lights is the second English-language film by Spanish writer/director Rodrigo Cortés, who previously created the acclaimed Ryan Reynolds thriller Buried. Below, Spinning Platters talks with Murphy and Cortés about manipulating the human brain, Murphy’s reflections on 28 Days Later and Inception, and how profoundly unamused he is by my phone’s autocorrect.
Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Cillian Murphy and Rodrigo Cortés on “Red Lights””