Most bands have a difficult time enduring long enough to make seven albums. That’s not so with New York’s indie Blonde Redhead, which plays Bimbo’s in San Francisco next week. The band’s latest recording, "23," is strikingly accessible, showing movement away from Sonic Youth-generation noise rock toward a dazzling, if dark, pop sensibility.
Read More
When Yuja Wang returns to Davies Hall today to play the Beet-hoven Piano Concerto No. 2 with the San Francisco Symphony, will she still be the teenage piano prodigy acclaimed on three continents? "No," she says, laughing, but perhaps with a tinge of regret in her voice.On the phone from Philadelphia, where she attends the Curtis Institute, Wang doesn’t play coy about age, the forbidden subject in the world of stars.
Read More
And then there was the concert against carbon dioxide. Inspired by Al Gore’s (and now Arnold Schwarzenegger’s) environmental campaign and the film "An Inconvenient Truth," there it was: the "Cozy Concert for Climate Concerns" Saturday at San Francisco’s First Unitarian Universalist Church.Opera conductor Sara Jobin and environmentalist Monisha Mustapha organized the impromptu musical celebration of the national campaign for "cutting carbon dioxide 80 percent by 2050."
Read More
Twenty-two-year-old Sunkrish Bala’s acting career has gotten off to a good start, and he’s the first to say so."It’s very lucky and serendipitous that it happened so soon," the well-spoken, great-looking Bala says, talking about his co-starring role on the new ABC series "Notes From the Underbelly," which moves to its new time slot, 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, this week.Bala, who grew up in San Jose, plays a guy who’s embarking on parenthood. Being a 2006 graduate of UCLA, Bala isn’t much like his character Eric, an obsessive-compulsive husband and businessman in his 30s.
Read More
KQED Public Television has been nominated for 13 Northern California Emmy Awards, which will be presented May 12 in San Francisco. For all nominees, visit www.emmy.sf.tv. KQED nominees include: » Station Excellence: Jeff Clarke, general manager » Documentary: "Truly California: Frisbee: Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher," David Di Sabatino, producer/writer » Arts/Entertainment, special: Truly California: Mighty Warriors of Comedy," Kibi Anderson, producer
Read More
At long last: a small concert hall on this side of the Bay to rival Berkeley’s Hertz Hall. It took Ruth Felt’s San Francisco Performances a full year and a half after the opening of the de Young Museum to set the debut of Koret Auditorium as a concert hall, but it was worth the wait, although size is a problem: 280 seats vs. Hertz’s 678 and Herbst’s 928 — different scales of economy.
Read More
A recent tabloid report claimed that "Titanic" stud Leonardo DiCaprio, 32, and his Israeli supermodel girlfriend, Bar Rafaeli, 21, are rushing to the altar because she is pregnant. But Leo’s rep dismissed the rumor as "100 percent made-up bollocks." Too bad — their baby would have some gorgeous genes! Brad to press: Leave Angelina alone!
Read More
Works by painter Michael Page and sculptor Thomas Wargin are on view through April 27. Both artists capture otherworldly figures in moments of strength and calm. The artwork is on display most Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturdays at Varnish Fine Art, 77 Natoma St., San Francisco. There’s a bar and happy hour from 5 to 7 p.m. Visit www.varnishfineart.com.
Read More
"Can we define the present moment independent of the past?" Lewis, a super-achieving African-American professor, asks his students in a math lecture. That question is the central theme of Tanya Barfield’s two-hander, "Blue Door," now receiving a stellar production at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Unfortunately, the answer is perfectly evident to the audience, if not to the play’s central character, thus making "Blue Door" heavy-handed and repetitive. Nevertheless, with its snatches of original song and its carefully scripted storytelling, it’s entertaining and deeply affecting.
Read More
It’s been a year since Sacha Eckes, a curator at downtown’s avant-garde happy hour hangout, 111 Minna Gallery, introduced Sketch Tuesdays. "I was just thinking of ways to involve the arts community in the gallery," Eckes said at last month’s event. On the third Tuesday of every month at 111 Minna, on Eckes’ invitation, local artists hunker down at a table, booth or bar stool to sketch, draw, paint or go about their craft in any number of ways — as long as they do it within their designated space.
Read More
URL: http://www.sfexaminer.com/archive/21?page=703&quicktabs_6=1
