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Treasure Trove at Night
Every time I return to our beautiful city from a jaunt in The Big Apple I find myself wishing there were more unique concept stores and non-chains open in the later evening hours. Enter Guruguru, open seven days a week from 4pmish to 10:30pmish for the night owls, early lushes and appreciators of aesthetically pleasing objects. More
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Restaurants
Going up?
When Fifth Floor opened in 1999, on the fifth floor of the Hotel Palomar, San Francisco swooned over its luxuriously innovative food and decor. Dishes such as a playful poussin with foie gras jus showed off Chef George Morrone's honed technique and aptitude for fun. Over the next few years a generation of high-spenders were introduced to fine-dining and pricey Burgundy atop its zebra-striped carpets. More
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Music
Columbia Records, 10/07/08
On October 7, Bob Dylan released the eighth volume of his Bootleg Series, but even eight times on, this collection of rare, unreleased and alternatively recorded gems, just keeps getting better. Thought you had heard all of Dylan’s greatest? Think again -- because really there is no such thing. Dylan’s professional life is a work in progress and this album proves that there are plenty more tricks up the old dog’s sleeve. More
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Movies
Bruce Willis With a Beard
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
The name lends itself to many interpretations, mostly negative. But I’ll refrain from the silly puns because the title actually does fit the film. It follows successful film producer Ben (Robert De Niro) who, by the end, is asking himself that exact question – What Just Happened? OK, so maybe I will have to invoke the lame pun because that’s also the question I was asking myself -- and I wasn’t sympathizing with De Niro’s character. More
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Movies
Wong Kar-Wai’s Classic Tale of Lost Love (Remastered)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Wong Kar-Wai’s (My Blueberry Nights, 2046, In the Mood for Love) fourth film, Ashes of Time, released in 1994 in Hong Kong and over several years in the West, returns to cinemas fourteen years later with a new print (cobbled together from various sources) that better serves cinematographer Christopher Doyle’s super-saturated palette, a new score better suited to its themes and setting, and more coherent, more accessible storytelling. Still present, of course, is Kar-Wai’s idiosyncratic, introspective, character-first, action-second take on the wuxia (Chinese swordsman) genre. More
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Movies
Solid, yet Underwhelming, Adaptation of the Bestseller
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
The Secret Life of Bees, adapted and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball) from Sue Monk Kidd's bestselling novel, is a sweet-natured yet occasionally contrived poignant coming-of-age film set in South Carolina in the weeks and months after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law. More
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Movies
Surprisingly Sweet-Natured Teen Sex Comedy
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
From Porky’s to American Pie, Euro Trip and Superbad, teen sex comedies have been successful thanks to a tried-and-true formula: geeky, undersexed protagonist, equally undersexed friends plus a lust-worthy but improbable object of desire equals ninety minutes of ridiculously raunchy humor and a reaffirmation of the monogamous status quo. The latest teen sex comedy, Sex Drive, co-written by Sean Anders (Never Been Thawed), unvaryingly follows the teen sex comedy template, but thanks to an appealing cast, humor that only crosses the offensiveness threshold once or twice. More
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Movies
Avenging Angels Adrift in the Dark Night
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Max Payne isn’t about to win any popularity contests. He’s a brooding, self-centered avenger with a badge, obsessively working a single cold case -- the murder of his wife and child. He greets the friendly advances of a new co-worker with an icy stare. And he’s lousy at parties. More
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Movies
The Cowboy Who Would Be King
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Disgruntled voters hoping for a full-scale evisceration of the Bush administration might be disappointed by Oliver Stone’s W., which treats America’s 43rd president so evenhandedly it could easily be described as sympathetic. Stone, whose liberal reputation precedes him, is a natural instigator, and there will always be those who dismiss his historical dramatizations as fanciful or worse. But even his harshest critics would be hard-pressed to deny that W. is more fair and balanced than anyone had a right to expect. More
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Music
Released on TSM Records, 10/14/08
This is The Secret Machines’ third album and first without founding member and guitarist Benjamin Curtis. Curtis’ position is filled by Phil Karnats and, unfortunately, he seems to have come at a bad time. Ever since the group’s explosive 2004 debut, Now Here Is Nowhere, they have gone steadily downhill -- and The Secret Machines continues that trend. It’s frustrating because it’s obvious that the group has so much talent. More
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