Artsweek

“World’s Greatest Dad”

February 4, 2010 by

So the Oscar nominations came in Tuesday. As usual, they were all for boring, safe, generic movies. Almost nothing edgy or off the beaten path made the cut. Just the same old, same old and Meryl Stree...
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Hard to Find Venue Is Back in Business

February 4, 2010 by

It might not look like much from the outside, but the Hard to Find Showspace is a local legend. Bigger than beloved venues like the Biko Co-op or the Pink Mailbox, the music venue run by brothers Josh...
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Word Farm Benefits Amateur Screenwriters

February 4, 2010 by

It was barely 9 a.m. on a Saturday, but the halls of the new Social Sciences and Media Studies building were abuzz with chatty students munching on cereal and pastries. Welcome to Word Farm.
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Gauchos Storm SBIFF

January 28, 2010 by

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival has always dedicated a portion of its programming to showcasing the talent of local filmmakers, and this year is no different. In fact, six short films ma...
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“Chip” Off the Old Block ****

January 28, 2010 by

A band that's put out a couple records and developed a solid fan base can usually take one of two seemingly contradictory paths -- consistency or musical evolution. Hot Chip's One Life Stand shows how...
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Grupo de Rua @ Campbell

January 28, 2010 by

Creating a bold new voice for hip hop, Bruno Beltrão, artistic director of Grupo de Rua, transforms street dancing into a classical piece of dance theater that reflects a dancer's everyday life i...
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“Legion” = Unholy Failure * 1/2

January 28, 2010 by

The single redeeming value of "Legion" is that it only takes itself half seriously. Unfortunately, neither half really merits watching.
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SBIFF 2010’s Feature Films

January 21, 2010 by

Featuring a whopping 196 films -- in addition to a slew of panels and tributes -- for its 25th anniversary, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival's 2010 lineup is more than a little bewilderin...
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This Spoon Isn’t So Sharp **

January 21, 2010 by

Austin-based band Spoon has garnered a reputation for dependability, releasing solid album after solid album for the last 10 years or so. The band's last effort, 2007's bizarrely titled Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga...
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Obama vs. Rabid

January 21, 2010 by

You know what they say: Where there's smoke, there's fire. Or in the case of the last couple of weeks, where there's rain, there's drama. Let's take a look at the bad, the ugly and the "WHAT IS THIS??...
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“Eli” Doesn’t Rewrite the Book **

January 21, 2010 by

Walking into the theater, I wasn't sure what to expect of the Hughes Brothers' latest flick. Of course, that may be the curse of January film drudge more than anything else, but "The Book of Eli" was ...
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Sonic Youth at the Wiltern

January 14, 2010 by

One more reason to hate tennis (as if you needed another one): Last September, the veteran experimental rockers of Sonic Youth announced they would be cancelling the remainder of the dates on their We...
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Weekend Delights Again ****

January 14, 2010 by

Despite the backlash from its much-hyped debut album, the NY-based Vampire Weekend avoids showing any signs of a sophomore slump with its latest album, Contra. The foursome of Ivy-Leaguers preserves t...
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Another Michael Cera-nade ***

January 14, 2010 by

Twenty-five years ago, Michael Cera wouldn't even have been cast as the goofy sidekick in a John Hughes film. Today, he's shaping up to be an honest-to-god movie star.
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Terry Gilliam’s “Parnassus” Is Quite a Trip ***

January 14, 2010 by

Visionary director Terry Gilliam ("Brazil," "Time Bandits") swings for the fences in "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus," a mostly successful but uneven film about an ancient storyteller struggling to ...
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