Laura Veirs Fri Nov 5 Doug Fir Lounge 830 E Burnside “It was a funny show,” says Laura Veirs, but she isn’t exactly laughing. Veirs is describing the tour stop her band made recently in Oklahoma City. “It was kind of like an old juke joint vibe,” she recalls of The Blue Door. There were […]
Sean Nelson
Posted inMusic
Cottage Industry
Uncovering the Wealth of Centro-Matic
Centro-Matic Fri Oct 22 Dante’s 1 SW 3rd The first time I saw Centro-Matic play was basically the Platonic ideal for Centro-Matic shows. It was in the band’s hometown of Denton, Texas, in the spring of 2002, at a small rehearsal space/nightclub/ bar/vintage-video-game parlor called Rubber Gloves. It was packed beyond belief with devout followers […]
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All That for a Blowjob?
Vincent Gallo’s The Brown Bunny Kind of Sucks
The Brown Bunny dir. Gallo Opens Fri Oct 8 Cinema 21 There are many kinds of blowjobs–masterful, merciful, hostile, desperate, obsequious, loving, et al. –and even the worst of them is pretty good. The one featured in Vincent Gallo’s The Brown Bunny is the most troubling kind, especially when you consider that the film doesn’t […]
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Why We Love Them
The Pixies vs. Fan Expectations
The Pixies Sat Sept 4 Les Schwab Amphitheatre 344 SW Shevlin-Hixon Dr. If their recent sold-out reunion tour has proven anything, it’s that almost everyone has something to say about the Pixies. Since their upcoming appearance has many of us squirming like schoolgirls, we figured we’d let lots of people weigh in with their love […]
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A Deeper Well
Rogue Wave Draws On
Rogue Wave Wed Aug 25 Holocene 1001 SE Morrison The 347th Sub Pop renaissance (with an emphasis on Pop this time, thankfully) continues with the reissue of Rogue Wave’s monumental debut CD, Out of the Shadow. Though the album was originally self released by singer/songwriter Zach Rogue, it feels utterly at home on Sub Pop, […]
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Surfin’ USA
The Exhilaration and Respect of Riding Giants
Riding Giants dir. Peralta Opens Fri July 23 Cinema 21 This fascinating exploration of the culture of big-wave surfing by the director of the skateboarding documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys is distinguished first by the quality of its footage. I have no idea how Stacy Peralta and his crew managed to get on top of the […]
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Axis of Medieval
Arthurian Revision Flirts With Topicality
King Arthur dir. Fuqua Now Playing Various Theaters I’ll admit to being disappointed that King Arthur is better than I expected (and not just because I was looking forward to using the headline “Suckscalibur!”). Though the film is basically crap, it is tremendously entertaining and engaging crap: beautifully photographed, edited with masterful precision, and peopled […]
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Cubby Love
Two Brothers: More Than Kitty Porn
Two Brothers dir. Annaud Opens Fri June 25 Various Theaters Unless his next film is about the misadventures of a pack of fluffy bunnies, it’s hard to imagine that Jean-Jacques Annaud (who also made The Bear; in addition to Seven Years in Tibet and Quest for Fire) is ever going to trump the cuteness standard […]
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Sunshine Boys
An Interview with Gondry and Kaufman
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind dir. Michel Gondry Opens Fri March 19 See review page 35 The first thing to know is that Michel Gondry is a visionary director, as demonstrated by his inventive music videos for Bjork, the White Stripes, and others. With his powerful new film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, […]
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Who’s Your Daddy?
Brilliant Documentary Blurs Emotion
My Architect dir. Kahn Opens Fri Feb 5 Cinema 21 My Architect isn’t really about architecture. It’s not even about its subject, Louis I. Kahn, except insofar as the late master builder and his immortal buildings remain an enigma to his son Nathaniel, the filmmaker behind this extraordinary documentary. Nathaniel Kahn’s film is about the […]
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Quantum Leap
Ashton Kutcher Ponders Complexity
The Butterfly Effect dir. Bress & Gruber Opens Fri Jan 23 Various Theaters The Butterfly Effect is the latest, stultifyingly terrible feature-length advertisement for Ashton Kutcher’s bone structure. Kutcher plays Evan, a genius psychology student (just play along) whose area of expertise is memory, specifically the way memories are stored in the cerebral cortex. It […]
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The End of All Things
Lord of The Rings’ Multiple Climax
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King dir. Jackson Opened Wed Dec 17 Everywhere After the first two installments of the Lord of the Rings series, I staggered out of the theater with wet eyes and told everyone who would listen that the films’ only flaw was that they weren’t each eight hours long. […]