Spinning Platters Predicts the 2012 Oscar Nominations: What Should — and Will — Be Nominated

Ellie Kemper, Oscar hopeful Melissa McCarthy, and Wendi McLendon-Covey in BRIDESMAIDS

The Academy Awards are commonly referred to as the gay Super Bowl, and for good reason: they each represent the culmination of months of grueling, bone-crunching competition, tend to feature misguided musical numbers, and are ultimately about impossibly wealthy people fighting over trophies while the rest of us cheer from the breadlines. In short: it’s the best thing that happens all year. My post-Oscar depression is far more devastating than even the worst case of post-Christmas blues. Such emptiness. The nominations for this year’s 84th Academy Awards will be announced in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, January 24. After the jump, check out my picks for what should be nominated and what we’re likely to read about on Tuesday.

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Film Review: “Haywire”

Gina Carano and Michael Fassbender in HAYWIRE

starring: Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Bill Paxton, Michael Angarano

written by: Lem Dobbs

directed by: Steven Soderbergh

MPAA: Rated R for some violence

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Film Review: “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”

Thomas Horn and Sandra Bullock in EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE

starring: Thomas Horn, Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, Max von Sydow, Viola Davis, John Goodman, Jeffrey Wright

adapted by: Eric Roth

directed by: Stephen Daldry

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for emotional thematic material, some disturbing images, and language

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 1/19/12-1/25/12

Although SF Sketchfest begins this week, there is still plenty of music in the city this weekend, too! It’s time to get your ear plugs warmed up — mostly cause it’s really cold out — and get moving!

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Stop SOPA/PIPA – 4 Ways You Can Help

Today some of the largest entities on the Internet including Wikipedia, Reddit, and MoveOn.org will go completely dark, for 24 hours, to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA – fun fact: “Sopa” means “trash” in Swedish) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). These two bills, introduced to the House and Senate back in October, respectively, would allow the U.S. Department of Justice and copyright holders to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. I should mention that action can be taken without due process. So, for example, if I posted a YouTube video on Spinning Platters, the copyright holder could have this site (and even YouTube, itself) shut down without any notice. Continue reading “Stop SOPA/PIPA — 4 Ways You Can Help”

Show Review: Andy Grammer with Ryan Star and Rachel Platten at Great American Music Hall, 1/15/2012

Andy Grammer

Until recently, I barely knew the names Andy Grammer or Ryan Star.  Rachel Platten, however, was a name I knew – I’d just seen her open for the musically delicious Keaton Simons back in October.  Adorable, charming, and a catchy singer-songwriter, I made a mental note to review her set next time she came to the Bay Area.  Which is how I found myself researching the likes of Ryan Star and headliner Andy Grammer last week, in preparation for last night’s show at SF’s Great American Music Hall.  I knew a song or two from each guy (“Start a Fire” and “Breathe” from Mr. Star, and last year’s catchy hit “Keep Your Head Up” from Andy), all of which I liked enough to get excited to discover new tunes.  As it turned out, the show would exceed my expectations tenfold. Continue reading “Show Review: Andy Grammer with Ryan Star and Rachel Platten at Great American Music Hall, 1/15/2012”

A Nerd’s Guide To SF Sketchfest 2012

A sketchy nerd!

For 11 years, San Francisco has had the opportunity to witness the best in comedy. And, for the third straight year, we’ve helped you dig through the 500,000,000 amazing shows to find the best shows for only the nerdiest of San Franciscans. And, since I am a man of exquisite taste, you will trust my guidance.

You can purchase tickets for these and all of the other shows at SFSketchfest.com. Many of these sell out, especially the ones that I want you to go to, so decide quickly!

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Show Review: Devo with The Punk Group at the Fillmore, 1/14/2012

Are they not men? They are DEVO!
Are they not men? They are DEVO!

While there is all manner of serious business involved in a tour, a concert, or even a single small show at a tiny club down the street, there’s no reason to think that the performers involved can’t have a sense of humor about their craft. To enter a career where one spends a great deal of time under a many-headed microscope, subject to all form of criticism and judgment, it’s a stifling gig to churn out a repetitive set, stick to the shadows, and keep your eyes to the floor as if you’re just waiting for the experience to end. It makes far more sense to abandon that sense of self-severity in the name of fun and celebration, to embrace the rock concert as the spectacle it has always been revered as, and to explode with enthusiasm for every minute of the evening. This is a job best suited for seasoned veterans, as well as musical acts that decide to live outside the realms of defined genres and formulaic sounds — and the Akron, Ohio quintet known as Devo proved themselves more than up to the task.

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Spinning Platters Interview: Mike Brown

Comedian, Mike Brown

Mike Brown is a comedian based in New York. His work shows exceptional polish and his career shows excellent promise. He is performing January 21st at the Purple Onion for the Rooftop Comedy Showcase.

Spinning Platters: Where are you from originally?
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Why you should attend SF MusicTech Summit, Music Hack Day, and Music Startup Academy

This February, make something happen with all the right resources.

“We should start our own group; I’m not sure what the title would be but it has to encompass the fact that we are some of the few, the brave, that have attended every single SF MusicTech Summit in existence.” That’s basically what my friends, Scott Schiller, Jordan Harband, and I were joking about as we basked in the sun flooding Japantown’s mall courtyard during lunch break at the last event in September. Continue reading “Why you should attend SF MusicTech Summit, Music Hack Day, and Music Startup Academy”