Category Archives: Arts & Media

The Must-See Pants at This Year’s Treasure Island Festival

It’s October, and that means two things for San Francisco. One is that its time to start thinking about your costume for Halloween – and the other is that it’s time to start thinking about your outfit for Treasure Island. This year’s jeans festival features Washed Out, Bleached, and White Denim. What will YOU wear?

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Washed Out – a classic look, washed-out jeans are having a moment with the emergence of ‘normcore’. Get your Seinfeld on!

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Bleached – this throwback will remind you of some of your favorite pants from the ’80s and ’90s.

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White Denim – while white denim may have had its heyday a decade ago with pants such as the White Stripes and Andrew WK, many continue to still rock it. But at Treasure Island, a word to the wise – beware of grass stains.

Album Review: Three If By Sea – “Sailor’s Delight”

The Portland, NE folk trio return with another fresh catch of hooky tunes. After their 2008 debut, “Nautical By Nature”, many pegged this sea-chanty threesome’s early success as a red herring. But on their follow-up release, they’ve got their sea legs and it shows. The band packs a punch on rabble-rousing party anthem “Three Sheets to the Wind”, as well bemoaning the morning after with “Man Overboard”. And with songs such as “The Sea is a Cruel Mistress” and the Springsteen-esque ballad “Weathering The Storm”, “Sailor’s Delight” proves that Three If By Sea can really shiver your timbers.

Halloween 2014: Robin Williams or Phillip Seymour Hoffman?

With the news of the death of Hollywood legend Robin Williams, the first question on many people’s mind was, “Do they still make adult-size Genie costumes?” But not so fast – what happened to that Brandt from The Big Lebowski costume you’d been planning on wearing? We’ll help you make the tough decisions that these serious moments call for.

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The Big Lebowski is a perennial favorite, a true modern classic, but Hoffman’s character basically is just a guy in a suit. We’d recommend this costume if you look like Phillip Seymour Hoffman, otherwise probably not advisable.

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However, you don’t have to look anything like Robin Williams for anyone to know WTF you’re supposed to be with this outfit. Well, it helps if the people at your Halloween party either grew up with Nick at Nite in the early nineties, or are over 45 years old.

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As long as we’re doing ’70s throwbacks, who could forget Phillip Seymour Hoffman playing legendary rock critic Lester Bangs in “Almost Famous”? Probably most people. Unless you’re willing to yell in people’s faces about how under-appreciated the Stooges were in their prime (and we know that some of you are), this costume might be just as under-appreciated. ‘Almost’ a good idea.

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But wow, if you can find this jacket that Williams is wearing in “Death to Smoochy”, how could you not wear it? Like, every day?

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Hoffman plays a Catholic priest in “Doubt”, but if you have a Catholic priest outfit lying around…

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Why not go as Williams in “License to Wed”? No “doubt” about it!

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Sadly, unless you’re Tom Cruise in “Mission: Impossible III”, most Phillip Seymour Hoffman costumes involve little more than wearing a tuxedo and looking like Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

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Now here’s where it gets tricky. Mrs. Doubtfire, one of Williams’ most beloved roles, is a pretty serious makeup job…

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Whereas Hoffman in ‘Flawless’ is basically just a headband, lipstick, and some sexy lighting.

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Basically, at the end of the day, Scotty from “Boogie Nights” is a pretty solid choice, as is the awesome gay stereotype from “The Birdcage”. Let’s just hope there are enough Genie costumes to go around – one would imagine that Party City is having some high-level meetings about this right now.

RIP guys!

New on DVD: “Who Authorized This?”

Giving one of 2013’s most underrated performances, Harrison Ford shines in this tender comedy about a demoted ad exec whose young boss (Taylor Lautner) starts dating Ford’s daughter (Ellen Page). Extras: In several intriguing deleted scenes, Ford scores with laughs (his hair dye starts running during a staff meeting) and drama (a spirited clash with Lautner); the commentary from Lautner and director Samual L. Jackson starts off promisingly until both men lose interest. (PG-13)

Paul McCartney

Fans Say Goodbye to Paul McCartney at Final Candlestick Show

Bay Area music and sports fans are preparing for a blow-out spectacular when Paul McCartney performs the final show at Candlestick Park, with demolition of the iconic stadium scheduled to begin at the end of the concert. Fans will have the option of staying in their seats for the demolition of the stadium. McCartney himself will begin the demolition from the center of the field, bringing the 69,732-capacity stadium crashing down on top of him. The site of the stadium will become an instant memorial to McCartney’s musical legacy, as well as a somber reminder of the fans who gave their lives at his final concert. Expect to hear such classic songs as ‘Helter Skelter’, ‘Live and Let Die’, and ‘Band on the Run’.

Movie Review: “He’s Getting Away!”

Raggedy, dirt-smeared and undersized, Danny (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) wears a metal collar and lurks passively on the sidelines as his boss, a burly gangster (Morgan Freeman), demands payment from a client. When the client balks, the crime boss unfastens the smaller man’s collar and barks, “Get ’em!” Danny springs into action, beating to a bloody pulp the client and at least a dozen henchmen. “He got away,” the gangster says afterward, patting an expressionless Danny the way one would a dog and reattaching his collar.

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Movie Review: “Who Sent You?”

Liam Neeson proves he has the chops to play it (mostly) straight as a sad sack living on his own lawn after his wife dumps him. His redemption? A sweet friendship with a local kid (Elijah Wood).

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Movie Review: “You Up?”

Real-life pals Justin Timberlake and Sandra Bullock team up for the first time in this romantic comedy, out Feb. 11, about a plastic surgeon who asks his assistant to pose as his ex-wife. Director Dennis Dugan says Bullock kept Timberlake in stitches. “Every joke, every ad lib he threw at her she smacked out of the park. He loved it!”

You Almost Got Away With It, Didn't You

Movie Review: “You Almost Got Away With It, Didn’t You”

At the end of what has felt like the longest winter ever, it’s a relief to take a cinematic journey to sunny Brazil, complete with bumping samba music and a visit to Carnival. When Blu (Mark Wahlberg) is taken from Minnesota to meet the world’s only other blue macaw, free-spirited Jewel (Anne Hathaway), in Rio, they must work together with their feathered friends (George Lopez, Jamie Foxx and will.i.am) to escape bird smugglers.

Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs Recap: Episode 5

Let’s see… So I think the dad dinosaur got in trouble at work, and the baby dinosaur didn’t really do anything besides catchphrases, and then the two teenage dinosaurs were, like, in trouble at school? and trying to keep a secret from the parents? Or maybe I’m thinking of a Simpsons episode? It was a long time ago.