Movie News, Concerts and Other Local SF Events

It's been a while since I've made an honest to goodness blog post. I mean, these rambling diatribes about stats and facts and specs and all just get long...

First some local events to peep. Dine About Town is winding down, ending on Wednesday, Jan. 31st. So get out there and eat! Howard Jones is playing Red Devil Lounge on 1/31, tix are sold out, but I wonder if they'll release some at the door? Hmmm. Not to worry, things can only get better. lol. The Abigail Morgan boutique store on Union Street is having a clearance sale up to 80% off, thru Sunday (1/28).
Drift Denim Essentials Boutique is where you really ought to be shopping if you're in the know and scopin' for some swank new denim. They just recently opened at 815 Washington St. in Oakland... Yes, Oak-town makes my blog for a fashion boutique no less. fer real real, don't hate.

The Castro Theatre is having a Film Noir festival (Noir City 5), showing many 19040's and 50's films that have never been panned and scanned to VHS nor DVD. Then, there will be some double features offered... And at the end of the month, Wed. Feb. 28th is a noteworthy double-bill of Alfred Hitchcock: The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes. Both are true classics shot masterfully, with plenty of Hitchcock suspense, drama, and tension. I personally think these two films comprise some of his best slightly lesser-known films.

Never to be outdone, The Red Vic Moviehouse has plenty o' goodness on tap (well, not that kind of tap)... Sun- Tues. Feb. 4th-6th The Wild Blue Yonder is showing. Use unseen footage from the NASA space shuttle program, blend it with ice-diving scuba footage at the Antarctica, and add in a score including a Senegalese singer, Dutch cellist, and Sardinian shepherd choir... That about sums up this movie- kinda. I am down like Charlie Brown with how this film sounds.

Sunday and Monday, Feb 18th & 19th, The Red Vic is screening Tideland by Terry Gilliam. This film seems And then, they move on to offer Brazil- still my favorite movie of all-time. I can't stand the revised one sheet (er... movie poster), but that's just me.

More planning ahead might just include Valentine's Day for some of you. Yoshi's at Jack London Square is featuring Branford Marsalis Feb. 12-15th. Only prollem is 2/14 shows are already sold out. All tix are $26-30, so a great deal if you like the sweet saxophone sounds of Branford and his quartet.

Now, some movie news. I've blogged about just how hot 300 is going to be, I'm saying right now that it'll make top-twenty for box office opening weekend (March 9th) release fo' sho'- prolly landing 5th-8th on the all-time records list. Rotten Tomatoes has an article claiming that 300 is now slated to also be released for IMAX! Yes, as the first IMAX feature film released for 2007. wow. See, things can only get better. lol.

So what else am I interested in? Well, along the lines of Tideland, Wild Blue Yonder, and Twelve Monkeys (kinda topic-wise here), is Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain. I was totally impressed with Aronofsky's first film, Pi, which reportedly had a budget of $60k. Well, that was before it was bought and screenplay was revised and whatever, so who really knows? Anyways, I liked Requiem For A Dream well enough, but The Fountain looks stunning. Waiting for the DVD release... There is a feature article on RT, but I must warn you: it kinda includes spoilers, if you don't wanna know too much, don't read it. Cheers.

image credits: Drift from DriftDenim, Tideland from Red Vic Moviehouse, The Fountain from imdb.com.