It's narrated in a skeptical sort of voice by Iggy Pop. If there are no stars, there are recurring figures. One was Tim Yohannan, publisher of the zine Maximum Rock and Roll. Yohannan was a Berkeley Maoist who felt that punk heralded the revolution to come. This indefatigable organizer was hard-nosed enough to debate Bill Graham on the state of rock music on KPFA radio. Larry Livermore, a writer and a founder of Lookout! Records, captured the sounds of the times. Throughout this film are the still photos of Murray Bowles, who caught hundreds of images of this fleeting underground scene. » Read More

There's been much head-scratching lately in the wake of David Weigel's book on the age of prog-rock: is that era better described as a catastrophe, or a calamity? The Dark Tower is a prog-rock movie, with its citations of King Crimson, long gun solos, portentous words and po-mo borrowings from kid's books. As scripted, it looks like something from M.Night Shyamalan-the man who would be [Stephen] King. In fact, it's a condensation of eight King novels, squished into 90 minutes of chalky, metaphysical space Western. In the navel of the universe is an immense tower shooting out good vibes to the denizens therein. Outside the spell it casts are a menagerie of Lovecraft-ian beasts, lurking and waiting. Also keeping them back are the bullets of » Read More

A block from the main corridor of the First Friday Walk, a mass of artsy youth congregated at Social Policy for "Our Heaven"-a mixed-media showcase of 19 local artists with a single common thread. Inside SoPo, a half-animated video was playing on the wall. Spicy soup bases, udon noodles and soy sauce bottles lined the brightly lit aisles of a supermarket. It was a familiar sight for those of us who grew up accompanying our parents to the store-if your family was Asian, that is. The video was created by Josiah Columna, a Filipino American artist whose stop-motion animation and found footage mashup was one of many works on display at the cafe-by-day, gallery-by-night venue on Friday. » Read More

If you think you've had a bad year, San Jose's Northside Theatre Company has you beat. When the Anderson Reservoir spilled over this past winter, many San Jose neighborhoods found themselves at the mercy of the elements. After two weeks of heavy rain in late February, waters in Coyote Creek reached a critical level, and entire San Jose neighborhoods were flooded. All told, more than 14,000 residents were forced to evacuate their homes in a disaster that cost nearly $100 million in damage. One of the victims was the Olinder Community Center, home to the Northside Theatre Company since 1980. Like most theater companies, Northside started its year planning a season's worth of performances, capped by its annual holiday production of "A » Read More

Featuring a cast of aspiring young actors from a variety of Bay Area junior high and high schools, the play is presented by the Palo Alto-based youth theater company, A Theatre Near U, in cooperation with the Pear in Mountain View. Just as in the novel, the play follows the plight of a small group of schoolboys marooned on an unpopulated island somewhere in the Pacific. Though the group attempts to work together at first, factions soon form and the children fight among themselves as they struggle to survive and find rescue. An allegorical tale first published in the U.K. in 1954, Lord of the Flies was Golding's response to the rise of Hitler, and feels particularly relevant in today's fractious political climate. "It is easier than we » Read More

Every time the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest comes around, not enough emphasis is placed on the educational arm of the San Jose Jazz operation. To focus on just one example, Progressions is an intensive program helping low-income, at-risk youth develop their musical talents, a process inseparable from learning teamwork, social skills and critical thinking. The goal is to keep elementary-age kids out of gangs, in school and locked in a groove toward a creative life, so much so that the program is partly sponsored by the Mayor's Gang Prevention Task Force. Progressions started in the spring of 2011 at Santee Elementary, which is part of the Franklin-McKinley School District. During its first year, the program taught kindergarten through third » Read More

It's good for a man to have goals, though ideally not one that involves growing a fern out of your comforter. As you appear to understand, the problem isn't ill will; it's "I, Robot." The first time your husband wondered "Where do I put this wet towel?"-perhaps at age 10-his brain said, "Easy peasy...just drop it right there on the bed." Sadly, it seems his superhero bedspread didn't pipe up: "Superman's got a ton to do today, and flying your wet towel over to the hamper is not on his agenda." Our brain is an efficiency expert. Figuring things out the first time around (a la "what should I do with this towel?") takes a bunch of energy. But, as neuroscientist Donald Hebb pointed out (in somewhat more neuroscientific terms), as you do an » Read More

In my astrological opinion, your life in the coming days should draw inspiration from the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia, a six-day bout of revelry that encouraged everyone to indulge in pleasure, speak freely, and give gifts. Your imminent future could (and I believe should) also have resemblances to the yearly Doo Dah Parade in Pasadena, which features a farcical cavalcade of lunatics, like the Shopping Cart Drill Team, The Radioactive Chicken Heads, the Army of Toy Soldiers, and the Men of Leisure Synchronized Nap Team. In other words, Aries, it's an excellent time to set aside your dignity and put an emphasis on having uninhibited fun; to amuse yourself to the max as you experiment on the frontiers of self-expression; to be the » Read More

Every year that Cafe Stritch pays tribute to its patron saint, Rahsaan Roland Kirk (1935-1977), bright moments appear on multiple levels. Spacetime continuum-shattering vibes have already surfaced in this, the fifth year of Rahsaanathon, via the presence of Todd Barkan, proprietor of the legendary jazz club Keystone Korner in San Francisco. Barkan toured with Kirk multiple times and showed up a month ago at Stritch, ratcheting up the anticipation for this year's festivities. Kirk's influence is multidimensional. He lost his sight at an early age, but he still played three saxophones at once, including a straight alto that gave Cafe Stritch its name. His music and positive, uplifting attitude left a long-term impact on thousands of » Read More