Tag: Ice Cube

Festival Preview: BottleRock Napa Valley 2025

It’s that time again, music festival fans: BottleRock Napa Valley has announced the lineup for 2025’s festival, which will take place this May 23-25 near downtown Napa.

Headlining this year’s event are Noah Kahan, Green Day, and Justin Timberlake. I’ve seen Kahan once, but am happy to catch him again. I’ve never seen Green Day and can’t wait to finally get my chance! I’ve seen Timberlake many times, but it’s been nigh on two decades since then (not since 2007/ FutureSex/LoveShow days). I’m definitely curious to see how his performances have evolved over the years, as I haven’t really followed his music much (unless Trolls counts)…

Anther act I’m looking forward to checking out is Khruangbin (though I would have loved this even more if the powers-that-be had arranged it when Leon Bridges was there as well, so they could perform together a little). I’m hoping to arrange my schedule to catch some of the following artists as well: Cage the Elephant, Ice Cube, Sublime (loved them with Rome, but I’m really excited to see Jakob Nowell as the new frontman), Goose, Sofi Tukker, 4 Non Blondes, E-40, Flo Rida, Kaleo, Allen Stone, Sharon Van Etten, Two Feet, Kate Hudson, and BBY.

On top of all this fantastic music, remember you can always count on BRNV to provide an endless stream of insanely delicious food and wine choices (this is Napa, after all), plus craft beer & cocktails, shopping, BottleRock Spa, Silent Disco, the Williams-Sonoma Culinary Stage (the lineup for that will be announced as we get closer to the actual event, but it’s always a good time), and much more!

I’m ready now, but the event is still months away. To pass the time, check out this year’s BottleRock Napa Valley Preview Playlist here: I hope you enjoy listening as much as I do! If you don’t have tickets yet, you can get them here. See you in May in Napa!

Film Review: Fist Fight

Run, don’t walk, away from this fight

Mr. Campbell (Charlie Day) and Mr. Strickland (Ice Cube) moments before they get into a… wait for it… fist fight.

I’m going to try and keep this review short, since you, gentle Spinning Platters readers, deserve better than even to have to read about this painfully awful, joyless, and unfunny new “film.” And I use that term loosely. Suffice to say I sat through 90 minutes of the most mean-spirited, petty, and demoralizing material ever presented as comedy on screen just to bring you this warning: Do. Not. Go. See. This. Movie. It hurts me to even say its title, but in the spirit of educating you so you know what to avoid, the picture in question is called Fist Fight; if you see it on your local theater marquee, now you know to instead choose to see literally anything else that’s playing.
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Treasure Island Music Festival 2016 Journal, Day 1

Photos by Paige Parsons unless otherwise noted
All photos by Paige K. Parsons unless otherwise noted.

For 10 years, the Treasure Island Music Festival has been one of the best-run and best-booked music festivals in the world. Situated on Treasure Island’s west lawn, we got to experience picturesque views of San Francisco, along with some of the best weather and some of the most innovative performers of our time, often just before breaking out to the mainstream. For 9 of those 10 years, everything went off pretty much perfectly; this year, however, mother nature decided that things were going a little TOO well for the festival, and it was time to see how the good people of Noise Pop and Another Planet would handle, well, everything she’s got. In my own humble opinion, they handled it rather nicely, and the 10th year was, once again, extraordinary.

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Film Review: 22 Jump Street

School in the summer has never been so awesome.

Too cool for school.
Too cool for school.

The unlikely success of 2012’s 21 Jump Street prompted the production and release of the sequel, 22 Jump Street, which ends up being funnier, more ridiculous, and more exciting than it’s predecessor.  Phil Lord and Christopher Miller must be on cloud nine right now since the writing/directing duo has experienced unbelievable success with 21 and 22 Jump Street, the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs series (they wrote and directed the first and produced the sequel), and one of the top rated and grossing movies of the year, The Lego Movie.  Lord and Miller find creative ways to inject a constant stream of humor into their films.  In the case of 22 Jump Street, they once again exploit the infectious chemistry between Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum and deliver a script that has no shortage of joke types — including slapstick, sight gags, witty banter, and an abundance of self-referential and meta humor.  With such a clever script and the chance for us to revisit the budding bromance at its core, 22 Jump Street is comedic gold and perfect summer fun.

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 8/23/12 – 8/29/12

 

Getting the band back together for a show at The Regency Ballroom this Wednesday Night!

It’s time for another beautiful week of rock & roll! LA’s FYF Fest is bringing a bunch of really special gigs to SF, starting this week Desaparecido’s first ever show in SF! It’s going to be a good Late Summer.

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Film Review: “21 Jump Street”

Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill in 21 JUMP STREET

starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson, Dave Franco, Ice Cube, Rob Riggle, Nick Offerman, Ellie Kemper, Jake M. Johnson, Chris Parnell

written by: Michael Bacall and Jonah Hill

directed by: Phil Lord and Chris Miller

MPAA: Rated R for crude and sexual content, pervasive language, drug material, teen drinking and some violence

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Spinning Platters Weekly Guide to Bay Area Concerts, 9/23/2010-9/29/2010

Instead of a quick, witty thing to say, I just want you to figure out which band playing this week is being spoofed with the photograph above. Winner gets a note from me telling you that you won!

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Spinning Platters Picks Six: Reasons Not To Kill Kanye West

This photograph may negate this entire list
This photograph may negate this entire list

[Editor’s Note: Spinning Platters does not actually encourage the murder of pop stars.]

I really can’t stand Kanye West. The character that he has created, the socially awkward egotist, comes off unnatural and a bit bothersome. He has become an icon that is bigger than the music he creates, which is generally a bit boring. His emotional outbursts in the beginning were funny, but now are just embarrassing. I agree that George W. Bush may not care about black people, but I don’t think Kanye was looking to make a statement, he was looking for a soundbite.

I should not be so judgmental. He may even be a nice guy! So, I will do the Christian thing and compile a list of six things that Kanye West has done that I believe are good things.

Thus begins my six reasons not to kill Kanye West:

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