donald glover – Spinning Platters

Film Review: Solo: A Star Wars Story

Joonas Suotamo is Chewbacca, Woody Harrelson is Beckett, Emilia Clarke is Qira and Alden Ehrenreich is Han Solo in SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY.

Solo: A Star Wars Story, which opens today in just about every Bay Area theater, is a big-screen comic-book origin story, with an accomplished and sometimes first rate cast in front of the camera, and some seriously seasoned talent behind it. Unfortunately, in the year-and-a-half since principal shooting began, issues real and manufactured have given the internet too much time to speculate, postulate, pontificate, and generally expectorate on any number of meaningless side stories. Thankfully, at the center of this mostly worthless dead zone of internet fodder lies a straightforward, entertaining film that should service, if not delight, Star Wars fans and casual viewers. Continue reading “Film Review: Solo: A Star Wars Story“

Film Review: The Martian

Scott captures our imagination with riveting survival story

Abandoned astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) checks out his Martian surroundings.

No movie better exemplifies Kurt Vonnegut’s assertion that “science is magic that works” than Ridley Scott’s engaging new film The Martian. Based on Andy Weir’s novel of the same name, Scott’s picture is less a fantastical science fiction story like his Alien or Blade Runner, and more a pure and utterly gripping survival story, in the vein of pictures like Castaway or even 127 Hours. Only here, our hero isn’t trapped somewhere with the luxury of oxygen like a canyon in Utah or a remote tropical island, but years away from any human help, alone in outer space, on the inhospitable planet Mars.

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Spinning Platters SXSW 2014 Report: 34 Instant Band Reviews

I didn’t go to SXSW last year. And I, literally, spent all of 2013 being sad about it. SXSW is like live music Disneyland. Sadly, complete with the lines and the getting frustrated about all of the people with Fast Passes cutting ahead of you. However, if you play your cards right, you can see an obscene amount of live music. In four days, I got to enjoy 34 bands. And I didn’t even try that hard this year.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 2/27/14-3/5/14

OMG! This week is NUTS!!!

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Photo Journal: Rock The Bells at Shoreline Amphitheater, 8/27/11

Guerilla Union’s annual traveling hip hop roadshow touched down in Mountain View recently, and it may have been the best one yet. It proved that Lauryn Hill can still play the big rooms. It proved that The Infamous Mobb Deep, Cypress Hill’s Black Sunday, Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star, and Illmatic by Nas are all classic records have stood the test of time. We saw that comedian Donald Glover’s alter ego Childish Gambino is doing some of the most inventive stuff in hip hop. We also learned that no matter how much critical acclaim you’ve got, you still have to contend with nature, causing east coast rappers Mac Miller and Doom to stay behind.

Without further adieu, here are the sites of Rock The Bells 2011:

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 8/25/11-8/31/11

icarly-cast1 — Miranda Cosgrove canceled her gig at The Fox this week due to a bus accident. Boo!

My cat keeps sitting on my hands, making it really hard to type something witty. So I’ll get her to talk to you instead:azMNBSAMBDS,MCDEHBJCD GQWCHVJEC VEN

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Show Review: IAMDONALD tour with Donald Glover/Childish Gambino at The Fillmore, 4/28/11

If you read Spinning Platters with any regularity, you know I love Donald Glover, so let’s just get the personal stuff out of the way now. I spent all day with an increasing sense of agitation waiting to see if I was going to get a pass for the IAMDONALD show at the Fillmore tonight. I got stuck in some angry self-righteous critic reel where I actually thought I deserved a ticket. Well, I did write this review of the preview show. Then I campaigned hard for Donald Glover/Childish Gambino’s album Culdesac to win album of the year in 2010. Then I gave his fans a SXSW award (and missed The Dead Milkmen to see him!). Is it possible this makes me his biggest fan? And is it possible for a show to live up to expectations after all that? Continue reading “Show Review: IAMDONALD tour with Donald Glover/Childish Gambino at The Fillmore, 4/28/11”

Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 4/28/11 – 5/4/11

Since I’m filling in recommending shows to see this week, I’m changing things up! Some nights, I’ll recommend only one show, meaning if you’re not seeing this, you can stay home, play with the cats, cook dinner for your loved ones, or anything else you feel like doing. And other nights, I’ll recommend many shows, which means if you’re not at a show, you’d better have a darned good excuse! (And if you’re in Vegas this weekend, say hi. Click that cool floating contact bar on the left.) Continue reading “Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 4/28/11 – 5/4/11”

Marie’s Best of SXSW 2011 Awards

AvSBows — Art vs Science = Happy Award Winners

This year I probably saw even less buzz bands than the average blogger than last year. My priority was to have a good time, whether that be hanging out with friends or watching great music. So this list is a testament to all the artists, people and venues that made my time in Austin memorable. Continue reading “Marie’s Best of SXSW 2011 Awards”

Dakin’s SXSW Journal: 47 Instant SXSW Gig Reviews

5542594416_24ce02c858_b — It ain't no party unless the cops show up!

Another SXSW has passed, and this year, I intended on doing a daily diary, but the internet kind of sucked in our hotel, and I also really wanted to sleep, so instead you get this: a big, huge list of everything awesome at SXSW, including some amazing day parties thrown by our friends at Terrorbird, Force Field PR, Ticketfly, SPIN, NPR, and MOG (thanks!), leaving me pretty tired and delirious. For those of you that don’t want to read, I’ll sum it up: Best bands that I’ve never heard of before were Attic Ted, The Death Set, and DOM. The Kills did not kill, but TV On The Radio, Death From Above 1979, and The Dead Milkmen all played great comeback sets. Now, sit back, relax, have a Shiner Bock and read on:

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