The Barn was filled with rows of plastic chairs and the sounds of funk music on Wednesday night as the crowds filled in for “Comedy Apocalypse XII.” Hosted by KUCR and emceed by UCR’s own Juan “Action” Flores, the night promised laughter for the Barn’s last event this quarter. The usual mishmash of amps and instruments seen on stage...
January and February are often poor months for moviegoers: Big studios release tawdry films while most of the country is holed up in heavy rain or snows. These movies can be so bad, one wishes that there was snow or sleet in Southern California so we need not put up with such terrible movies. Case in point: “Hot Tub...
Jose Gonzalez, Swedish indie folk singer, songwriter and guitarist, has released his most recent work, “Vestiges and Claws,” in a return to much of the same melancholic, spatial folk music he has released in the past. The album is a series of 10 midtempo indie folk jams that use Gonzalez’s usual formula of layered finger-style nylon guitar playing and...
At the beginning of this week’s “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” I had some qualms about its plotlines. The main plotline in “The Wednesday Incident” seemed like another case of the show foregrounding Jake (Andy Samberg) while the subplot seemed to have forgotten how Amy (Melissa Fumero) and Rosa (Stephanie Beatriz) act. The end of the episode thankfully subverted how I expected...
Sometimes, a film is so formulaic that it becomes terrible. It’s a heavy-handed, predictable mess that plucks on your heartstrings like the world’s least accomplished violinist. I often have to remind myself, in trudging through the slew of video games, TV and movies that encompass my pop culture addiction, that many formulas are adopted, used and re-used into oblivion...
After phenomenal success with their hit album “Night Visions,” Imagine Dragons is back with their latest album, “Smoke + Mirrors.” This album is good news for fans of their previous work, who will recognize frontman Dan Reynolds shouting at the top of his lungs, a mix of pop and rock elements and of course, an ever-prominent drum line. Imagine...
Hundreds made their way to the HUB Plaza Thursday night for UCR’s sixth annual “Winter Soulstice” concert. Put on by ASPB, Winter Soulstice has brought out artists such as Jhene Aiko and industry veteran Ginuwine. Attendees arrived in droves to watch performances by up-and-coming R&B artist Kehlani, Malaysian songstress Yuna and R&B crooner Omarion. The event setting was interestingly...
“Kingsman: The Secret Service” is a spy-action comedy film directed by Matthew Vaughn based on the comic book “The Secret Service,” created by Dave Gibbons and Mark Millar. The film tells the tale of Gary “Eggsy” Unwin (Taron Egerton), son of a deceased secret agent who is part of an organization known as the Kingsmen, an order of secret...
In contrast to the tragic “Hamlet” or the comedic “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” William Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure” is hard to pin down to a specific genre other than a “problem play” — an ambiguous work that is mutually fraught with violence and brimming with laughter. It is often the hardest play to perform due to the nuanced nature...
I like to think that when I look back at writing for this newspaper years from now, some of my articles, even written through the constraints of a music or film review, will reflect somewhat what state of mind I was in. After all, even behind this faceless writing you see on the page or screen, I’m sitting here...