KQED: Arts & Culture

Art Review: Anonymous Postcard

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 06:00:00 PST

Do you have a burning criticism or commendation that you'd like to get off your chest but feel too shy to let others know? Or perhaps you're not shy at all, but you want your opinion to pack a little more visual punch?

Event: The Rickshaw Stop Celebrates Its 5th Birthday!

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 06:00:00 PST

In January of 2004, some entrepreneurial folks took a camera studio on Fell Street at Van Ness and transformed it into the Rickshaw Stop, a venue that, in its five years of existence, has become one of the premier music spots in San Francisco.

The Writers' Block: My Other Family

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 06:00:00 PST

J. M. Tyree reads "My Other Family," a story of child abandonment and revenge that takes place in a Wal-Mart.

Best and Worst Music of 2008

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 06:00:00 PST

As the good ship 2008 nears the end of its voyage, it's time to look back at the year's musical peaks and troughs.

Year in (Art) Review

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 06:00:00 PST

2008 is about to be auld lang syne, and it was a stellar year for my art viewing pleasure.

Rockin' the Civic Center on New Year's Eve

Mon, 29 Dec 2008 06:00:00 PST

When it comes to live music, San Franciscans are just plain spoiled, and no night better typifies the city's embarrassment of auditory riches than New Year's Eve.

InterBay 2008: My Best-Ofs, Online Plus Off

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 06:00:00 PST

Living in the Bay Area we don't ACTUALLY have more access to the world wide whack, but it usually feels like we do.

The Don't List: Looking back on 2008, ahead to 2009

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 06:00:00 PST

Of the dozens of performances and exhibitions I've been fortunate enough to cover for KQED during the past year, several stand out as events I don't think I'll ever forget.

Pop Culture: High and Low: The Top 5 and Bottom 5 Films of 2008

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 06:00:00 PST

This was a mediocre year for movies, and that's being generous. Compared to the bumper crop of outstanding films released in 2007, the last 12 months have been a dreary slog.

DVD Review: 10 last-minute, locally relevant DVD gift ideas

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 06:00:00 PST

When giving the gift of DVD (or Blu-ray, if you're there yet), the easy rule of thumb is to always get something you'd want to watch with the person you're giving it to.

Pop Culture: What The Bleep is Information Aesthetics, Anyway?

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 06:00:00 PST

Academics and trendwatchers agree: in terms of mass communication, we live in a period of transition between words and images.

Art Review: Yves Saint Laurent and Couture

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 06:00:00 PST

Couture is a paradox. As a concept, couture can only exist in an industrialized society, where things are purchased "off the rack." Couture's value lies in its distance from the ordinary.

A Bay Area Holiday Music Sampler

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:00:00 PST

Tis the season for festive music celebrations and releases in the Bay Area! There are plenty of things to do between x-mas and the new year, and lots of great holiday music to check out.

Event: Other Cinema: New Experimental Works

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 02:00:00 PST

Other Cinema's quasi-annual New Experimental Works showcase packs so much bewitching, perplexing, WTF'ing, un-boring cinematic fringery into a single evening that it might even counteract a whole month's worth of over-serious multiplex Oscar bait.

Film Review: Timecrimes

Fri, 19 Dec 2008 06:00:00 PST

Timecrimes is one of those super lean independent films that unfolds with clockwork efficiency -- just a few characters, a remote location, no wasted action, and no extraneous dialogue.

Art Review: Stolen Land

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 06:00:00 PST

I want to be a hobo. To ride the rails over the High Plains, campfires and tin cans and burlap sacks for sheets.

The Writers' Block: The Revisionist

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 06:00:00 PST

Miranda Mellis reads a passage from The Revisionist about a civil scientist hired to 'revise' the facts of a crumbling society.

The Bay Bridged: Michael Zapruder

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 06:00:00 PST

The Bay Bridged spotlights Michael Zapruder, an incredibly talented San Francisco singer-songwriter whose album, Dragon Chinese Cocktail Horoscope, was released in late October 2008.

Book Review: Bill Drummond: 17

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 06:00:00 PST

The founding principle of The17 is the idea that all recorded music is dead, destroyed by the ease and carelessness with which we now access and consume it. The17 is an attempt to wipe the slate clean and return to a musical Year Zero.

Film Review: Pray the Devil Back to Hell

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 06:00:00 PST

There's no polite way to say this, but you wouldn't think a documentary about Liberia could be uplifting.

Film Review: Requiem for a Lightweight: Frost/Nixon

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:00:00 PST

Ron Howard's tedious and pretentious Frost/Nixon is misconceived on so many levels, it's a tossup where to begin.

Event: Club Chuckles' Five Year Anniversay Blowout

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 06:00:00 PST

Since December 2003, Club Chuckles has hosted an impressive variety of cutting edge local and out-of-town comedians monthly at the Hemlock Tavern. It's a non-traditional venue for comedy, appropriate to showcase some non-traditional acts.

Festival Report: Quebec Film Week

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:00:00 PST

First, consider the concepts: A near-future dystopia, in which some bureaucratic functionary's fantasy life begets corrosive social satire. A tale of late-'60s suburban dysfunction, as viewed through the prism of adolescence.