Nothing more than a collection of roughly two dozen unrelated sketches, The Kentucky Fried Movie succeeds most at skewering its own medium: American commercial cinema. Fake trailers mock the exploitation fads of the era with Cleopatra Schwartz (blaxploitation), That’s Armageddon (disaster movies) and Catholic High School Girls in Trouble (youth sex films); they’re so dead-on, […]
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Posted inMusic
Kali Ra — Electric Living
“Black Leather Demon” is a cranium-pounding opening that recalls a time when Marilyn Manson wasn’t a bloated joke, but the album really kicks things into gear with the second cut, the title track, a song so sweeping and beautiful that it would be on my playlist for traversing a futuristic wasteland of death and darkness, […]
Posted inArts & Culture
Would You Rather
In order to afford a bone marrow transplant for her ailing brother (Logan Miller, The Bling Ring), young, unemployed Iris (Brittany Snow, Pitch Perfect) accepts an exclusive invitation to a dinner party hosted by businessman Shepard Lambrick (Jeffrey Combs, the Re-Animator trilogy), at which his foundation will award a sizable sum of money to one […]
Posted inArts & Culture
The Arrested Development Documentary Project
Well, it left this fan with an unpleasant aftertaste. At first, I was uncertain who the doc was for. While it certainly is accessible enough for the uninitiated, those people aren’t likely to run across it or even be interested if they do. And since I didn’t learn anything from it, the already converted aren’t […]
Posted inArts & Culture
John Dies at the End
“My name is David Wong. I once saw a man’s kidneys grow tentacles,” intones our genial narrator and protagonist (the heretofore unknown Chase Williamson) who boasts psychic abilities that include communicating with the dead. He and his best bud, John (Rob Mayes, MTV’s The American Mall), operate as freelance ghostbusters when they’re not beer-drinking slackers. […]
Posted inNews
From board to booked
District Attorney David Prater Photo: Mark Hancock Mack Martin, an attorney for the board members, called the charges unfair. “What they did is not a crime,” he said. “That’s my opinion, and my opinion is just as important as David Prater’s.” But the D.A. contends he had no choice after he offered not to pursue […]
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Boxed in
Box, a developer and owner of The Greens Country Club, said he has has few alternatives in connection with the sacred dome, which long ago lost its glistening golden look of yesteryear. His top options include the sale of the property or its demolition. Box is losing $10,000 a month on the old, vacant bank […]
Posted inMusic
Tracks of my ears
Sleek and stylish electro duo The Deer Tracks is about as overtly Swedish as a certain chef from The Muppets, which means the blood coursing through the two members’ veins all but guarantees they construct ridiculously infectious pop music far more sturdy than an IKEA shelving unit. In fact, they do. The two — singer/chanteuse […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Through the grapevine
Photo: Shannon Cornman Michael David’s Zinfandels, especially 7 Deadly Zins, are well-established in the state, but now the California winery’s higher-tier wines are finally available. In keeping with the deadly sins theme, the upper-tier Zinfandels are named Lust, Gluttony and Sloth. Not the jammy, soft David wines we’ve seen thus far, these bigger and brawnier […]
Posted inMusic
Cave in
“They say no news is good news,” sing The Caves, and given the six-year gap between the Kansas City, Mo., band’s loose formation and the release of its first record, Duplexiaville, maybe they’re right. The Caves find its players abandoning their earlier ties to harder rock, instead spending their lengthy off-season honing sweet harmonies, subtle […]