August 2010 – Page 2

The Valley of Death – Doc puts audience on the front lines of Afghanistan in ‘Restrepo’

August 13, 2010June 16, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Misha Pemble is startled by the sound of gunfire during a firefight across the valley with insurgents at the Restrepo outpost in the Korengal Valley of Kunar Province, Afghanistan. Below, Pemble, left, and Murphy, right, from the Second Platoon, enjoy a joke. At bottom, clothes hang out to dry as rain clouds gather over the Restrepo bunker.

You don’t need a Wikileaks account to know that things aren’t going well for America in Afghanistan; you just need to watch the gripping two-hour documentary “Restrepo.”

Embedded within a small company in Northern Afghanistan, filmmakers Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger stayed with U.S. soldiers for a 15-month tour of duty. The company has been ordered to build an outpost that overlooks one of the deadliest areas in Afghanistan, the Korengal Valley. The mountaintop is in the “middle of nowhere,” and though they can see the larger base camp from on high and watch as helicopters land and take off, they may as well be in another country, as one soldier says.

Low-Strung – L.A.’s hard-to-classify-and-quantify String Theory returns to Nights

August 13, 2010June 16, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Conjuring both unique sounds and smoothe moves, String Theory wil be perform at this month?s ?Nights" at SBMA. Courtesy photos — Conjuring both unique sounds and smoothe moves, String Theory wil be perform at this month?s ?Nights” at SBMA.
Courtesy photos

As Santa Barbara Museum of Art’s Nights gets ready for its final shindig of a shorter season, the group String Theory is readying a fourth appearance at the party. Attendees at previous Nights over the years will remember String Theory, which is hard to miss: cello, violin, saxophone, flute, keyboard, bass, drums and vocals make up a band line longer than the room. Their gigantic harp of sorts, with its brass strings, has been installed in large theaters everywhere from Singapore to Palm Desert, even for one performance at the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Each space has its own acoustics, and each performance is different.

For this month’s Nights, the group will return to the back patio, where they played their first SBMA gig. They’ll also be including video projection on the back walls of the patio.

So Long and Adieu – ‘Farewell’ uncovers a true spy tale of the 1980s

August 13, 2010June 17, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

“Farewell” features strong lead performances from two directors-turned-actors in a story of Russian espionage. One is Emir Kusturica, in whose films “Black Cat, White Cat” and “Underground” we got some of the best Eastern European films of the late ’90s. The other is Guillaume Canet, the French director of the very exciting 2006 thriller “Tell No One,” who has a long acting résumé.

In “Farewell” they make an interesting pair, as Kusturica plays Sergei Gregoriev, a Soviet colonel who has grown disillusioned with life under communism. He is looking to leak state secrets in order to have a better life for his son, whom he rarely talks to, and his wife, whom he is cheating on with his secretary.

A Fine Romance – Scriptwriter debuts his play at Center Stage

August 13, 2010June 17, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Center Stage Theater kicks off its 20th anniversary week with a reminder of how it has given breaks to up-and-coming playwrights.

“Hopeless Romantic” is Steve Kunes’ first foray into theater after a long career writing scripts for Hollywood. For Saturday night’s play reading, the writer has pared down his usual ensemble cast, instead opting for multi-scene works for two actors.

Break Time’s Blood on the Water

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We predict that, in the not-too-distant future, Shark Week will be some sort of unofficial holiday. People get very excited about this week, at least in lip service, and there’s so many televisions in bars now, it begs the question: Why not have a week when we can raise our glasses in toast while footage of great whites spool behind us?

That was the impression we got, anyway, when we left Break Time, the hidden bar on Encina Road in Goleta. They were just coming off shark week, and we couldn’t help but notice the amount of plastic sharks hanging about. When we first visited Break Time a few years ago, the bar was about to be transferred to the daughter of the Michel family, Liz, after years in the family. Liz Michel still runs the place, along with husband Carl, and they’ve been making a fair go of it.

Run Run Run Runaway – Two kids set off for Dublin in ‘Kisses’

August 6, 2010June 17, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Shane Curry, left, and Kelly O'Neill, right, play teen runaways in "Kisses." — Shane Curry, left, and Kelly O’Neill, right, play teen runaways in “Kisses.”

Two Irish pre-teens get in trouble with their abusive families and runaway to the big city in “Kisses,” a cute but not always successful film from director Lance Daly.

Dylan (Shane Curry) lives with a drunk, unemployed dad and a mom struggling to make ends meet. We first see the father yelling death threats at a toaster, and that’s the mood we see him in for most of the opening sequence. No wonder Dylan pines to curl up under headphones to the comfort of his Gameboy. Next door, Kylie (Kelly O’Neill) suffers spoken abuse from her sister, is made to walk her infant sister around in a pram and hide from her creepy uncle.

Rock of Ages – 50 years after they first started gigging in S.B., The Tridents return

August 6, 2010June 17, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Although it may be hard for a young band to believe, not all groups in the 1960s had aspirations for fame, fortune and a record contract. For some, it was just a great job. For band members of The Tridents, an instrumental surf band that rocked Santa Barbara regularly from 1962 to 1966, it was the time of their lives.

Inspired by The Ventures (“Walk Don’t Run” and the “Hawaii 5-0” theme song), The Tridents became a go-to dance band for Santa Barbara’s youth scene. The members have all kept in touch over the years, and now, this Friday and Saturday, they will celebrate 50 years of playing together with a concert at Chuck’s Waterfront Grill. Also on the bill is The Duquanes, a vocal group that has been around for 48 years.

Roundin’ Third’s Mind Eraser

August 6, 2010June 17, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Remember those signs on the way out into the desert: “Last Chance for Gas”?

Well, Roundin’ Third Sports Bar, tucked behind a 7-Eleven, is the proverbial “Last Chance for Booze” until Buellton.

Let us switch that around, though, and suggest all you Santa Barbarans got it wrong. For all the blue-collar workers in Gaviota, for all the locals in Ellwood, for all the retirees in Winchester Canyon? REPRESENT! This sports bar in a strip mall is actually your first chance for booze. And here you may stay.