(Australia; 90 min.) Writer-director Joseph Sims’ feature debut is an odd mix of Tarantino pulp and Wes Andersen quirk, telling the story of a brother and sister who shake up a small town for one weekend when they make it a stop-off on their psychopathic road trip.
Articles by Steve Palopoli
Andrea Blum learned fresco painting from a man who once served as the assistant to Diego Rivera. She was living in Italy then, also apprenticing to master cheesemakers. She worked as a decorative painter at the same time creating a cooking school in Tuscany. She graduated from the Columbia School of Journalism, focusing her reporting on food issues. Wherever she goes, whatever she’s doing, art and food are tightly intertwined.
It’s easy to talk about the awesome power of Waters’ fully operational stage show, but underneath the spectacle of what is certainly the most epic rock concert I’ve ever seen, there was a feeling of liberation radiating from the man at the center of it, which gave the music’s themes of escape from misery and hatred a new power.
The historic Fox Theatre reopens under new management and with a new vision for live music in Silicon Valley. The Fox is known for blues and Americana but will also be bringing Latin, Ukranian, world music, comedy, and Broadway shows.
In the South Bay, foodies are expected to know their northern curries from their southern dosas. The new Steps of India seeks to hone that curry consciousness even further, billing its cuisine as Northwest Frontier fare. That’s a good hook for this area, especially as it lands in a crowded field of South Bay Indian restaurants. Even right in its Cambrian Park neighborhood, just down the street on Union Avenue, Rangoli has long held court as the most popular Indian cuisine this side of Amber India.
Bill Maher is the measured, gentlemanly “but seriously folks” sideman to Jon Stewart’s rebelliousness: capable of taking a blimp-launching nutter like Ron Paul and polishing him up to the point where Ron Paul.com feels like officially linking to the I-view. But that’s the point: every night, and every time Maher opens his mouth, he makes someone mad.
B.B. King just won’t quit playing. He was doing farewell tours as far back as four or five years ago, and certainly he’s slowed down, but the man is 84 years old. He’s still vibrant and funny, and he can still play the hell out of a guitar.
When Morrissey blew off his single Bay Area appearance last year, who was there to take one for the team? This Charming Band, this area’s premier Smiths tribute band—aw hell, let’s just go ahead and say it: the best Smiths tribute band anywhere, period.
Coming out of the folk moment of the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, Joan Baez became the voice of a generation of activists. She is also has one of her generation’s flat-out best voices, wielding it on a string of gold records that helped popularize her favorite songs by other artists through the years, from Dylan (who she helped launch to stardom) to Steve Earle.
This year’s San Jose Jazz Festival features everything from funk gods George Clinton, Maceo Parker and Tower of Power, to a whole stage devoted to blues, to salsa, to…oh, yeah, jazz!
