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Letters

Letters to the Editor

Week of Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Published: May 19, 2004

Z-Tripped Out Please, leave the Kraftwerk arguments at home where they belong: While I applaud coverage of the excellent Z-Trip and the (somewhat related) mash-up phenom, [Garrett Kamps'...

Music

Return of the Jedi

Once hailed as the savior of instrumental hip hop, RJD2 is back with his sophomore release

By Darren Keast

Published: May 19, 2004

Now that everybody can (and does) have his 15 minutes of fame, it's about time we completely overhauled Mr. Warhol's prediction, especially when it comes to hip hop: In the future, let's hope that...

House of Tudor

House of Tudor

Outsider artists scream "Death to Electric Guitars!"; neo-burlesque's best step into Broad Daylight.

By Silke Tudor

Published: May 19, 2004

There are those who believe real art is born out of a struggle against the status quo -- that the truly inspired will find a way to express themselves even if it's in the parking lot of the local...

Hear This

Hear This

By Sam Prestianni

Published: May 19, 2004

Alice Donut was never the popular band on the block. Despite upbeat albums like 1989's Buckets Full of Sickness and Horror in an Otherwise Meaningless Life and 1992's The Untidy Suicides of...

BeatBox

BeatBox

By Nate Cavalieri

Published: May 19, 2004

1997 might as well be a lifetime ago. Back then we'd rake in piles of dot-com cash every week just to blow it every weekend on a fascination with four-on-the-floor club culture. Maybe that's why...

Film

The Weirdest Movie in the World

Nobody does nostalgic melodrama like Guy Maddin

By Melissa Levine

Published: May 19, 2004

Ah, the peculiar genius that is Guy Maddin. Who else but the morose Canadian director, born and raised in one of the coldest cities in the world, would marry silent film, 1930s movie musicals,...

Film

The Unlikely Lambs

Carandiru reveals the human side of Brazilian prisoners, then leads us to their slaughter

By Bill Gallo

Published: May 19, 2004

Moviegoers who know the tides of recent Brazilian history will likely get more from Hector Babenco's new prison movie, Carandiru , than the rest of us, because the filmmaker tells us so little...

Film

Blessed Are the Cheesemakers

Python's Brian returns, bearing cinematic salvation

By Gregory Weinkauf

Published: May 19, 2004

In 2004 A.D., as the five remaining members of the legendary Monty Python comedy troupe lie in coffins in a Vanity Fair spread to jeer at their own deaths, it's really nice to have them back...

Film

Nice Pussy

A killer cat steals a wonderful movie

By Robert Wilonsky

Published: May 19, 2004

The first few minutes of Shrek 2 are cluttered with more references to the movies than David Thomson's thick, rich history text The New Biographical Dictionary of Film . Watching it is like...

Reps Etc.

Reps Etc.

Published: May 19, 2004

Commentary by Gregg Rickman ( greggr1@mindspring.com ). Times compiled from information available Tuesday; it's always advisable to call for confirmation. Price given is standard adult admission;...

Night&Day;

Retro Rank

Scurrilous, rude, and witty: Get stung by The San Francisco Wasp

By Joyce Slaton

Published: May 19, 2004

The San Francisco Wasp was aptly named. In its 65 years of publication, the magazine specialized in the kind of acerbic, waggish political commentary absent from today's simple-minded partisan...

Night&Day;

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

Published: May 19, 2004

Wednesday, May 19, 2004 Lap steel guitar, layered, dreamy vocals, and wide-ranging instrumentation mark the sound of Summer Hymns ' latest EP, Value Series Vol. 1: Fool's Gold . It's a good...

Night&Day;

Stairway to Heaven

Chain smokers, stay home: climbing the city's stairs with an expert

By Nate Cavalieri

Published: May 19, 2004

"Warning: People with severe heart conditions, arthritic knees, or two-pack-a-day smoking habits should participate at their own risk." Such a disclaimer would be appropriate for "Stairway Walks...

Urban Experience

Boom Goes Bust

Remember the not-so-good old days?

Published: May 19, 2004

WED-THURS 5/19-20 Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away -- all right, four years ago in California (San Francisco and Silicon Valley, especially) -- a big chunk of the populace was giddy...

Sports/Outdoors

Give It a Spin

"Bike to Work Day" rolls on

Published: May 19, 2004

THURS 5/20 There are so many reasons to see San Francisco by bike: gorgeous views, cardiovascular benefits, and the smug feeling of never again having to wait for Muni. It would be perfect if...

See/Be Seen

Curiouser and Curiouser

Arts patronage is alive and well

Published: May 19, 2004

FRI 5/21 We were skeptical at first: We're not fans of companies plastering their names all over, like the Spider-Man 2 folks recently tried to do. Some things are sacred, and we hope art...

Performance

A Big Hit

Hairspray charms

Published: May 19, 2004

ONGOING 5/19-7/3 My friend Karen had to force me to attend the opening night of Hairspray , the latest "Best of Broadway" spectacle. We had previously been to see Mamma Mia! at the same...

Stage

Setting Off

Around the world with Jeff Greenwald

By Karen Macklin

Published: May 19, 2004

A veteran traveler and best-selling author, Jeff Greenwald has explored five continents in his 50 years; written for dozens of magazines and received a journalism fellowship from the Rotary...

Stage

A Transylvanian in Silicon Valley

Dodging bullets, delivering truckloads of blood -- just another day in Romania

By Jonathan Kiefer

Published: May 19, 2004

Although capped off with a coda of motivational speech, Silvian Centiu's monologue -- about his clamber from Eastern Bloc anguish to upper-level management at Oracle -- doesn't carry a moralizing...

Stage

"The Pinter/Albee Duet"

Each playwright packs plenty of fierce eloquence into a single devastating act

By Jonathan Kiefer

Published: May 19, 2004

Theatre Rhinoceros mounts a double feature of civil savagery from two modern masters of English dramaturgy. Edward Albee's The Zoo Story and Harold Pinter's The Collection are among both...