[ Golden Gater Online - September 18, 1997 ]
"Let's have breakfast together.....Should I call you, or nudge you? " Ba-da-bang, baby, the Luckster just loves that one. Careful though, be tactful and use at your own risk because Mr. Lucky cannot be held responsible for any drinks that are consequentially thrown in your face.
WHAT'S SHAKIN'
Stem, my friends, could very well be the best Liverpudlian guitar-based pop band to ever come from Canada. Successfully combining folk-oriented melodies and heavy soul with quasi-psychedelic guitars, Stem is more deserving of success than, say, those drunken sods in Oasis.
While the Gallagher brothers have made a career out of tepid, unoriginal controversy (comparing themselves to God and the most publicized inter-band sibling rivalry since the Kinks), and while Beatles' rip-offs - excuse me, influences - pop up here, there and everywhere on the new Oasis album, Stem is the real deal.
Best of all, while Oasis gets the high-profile $60-a-pop gigs opening for U2, Stem is playing here, on campus (at the Depot in the Student Union building) today at 5 p.m. Admission is free. Mr. Lucky says grab a pint of Bass at the pub and dig it, baby!
ON CAMPUS
Rumor has it that local North Beach swinger Nicholas Cage will be among the high-profile celebrity-type people on campus Friday night when the Arts and Industry Cinema Theater is dedicated to his father's name. SF State Dean Emeritus August Coppola will be honored Friday with a hoity-toity wine reception, buffet and dedication, followed by a screening of the film "Tales for Hoffman."
Too bad for you, your brush with greatness and celebrity hobnobbing will be hindered, lest you have $75 to donate to the cause. However, a conversation with Coppola at 11 a.m. Thursday at A&I 101, followed by a reception at noon at the Casablanca Room in the Creative Arts building are open to all starving and starstruck students.
AROUND TOWN
You crazy, kinky, hard-core swingers-in-the-know understand all about Stinky's Peep Show every Thursday night at the Covered Wagon Saloon (911 Folsom), and even if you don't, try and check it out tonight. Local sensations Me First & the Gimme Gimmies will be performing their infectious punk covers of '70s classics such as James Taylor's "Fire and Rain," and Terry Jacks' "Seasons in the Sun." Oh, and while you're there, be sure and check out the back room. If you don't, you will not have seen, you will not have experienced Stinky's Peep Show as God meant it to be.
Once was a time, long before the gin-soaked maturing process of Esquival and other space-age bachelor pad music when a young, less jaded Mr. Lucky wore out the grooves on his vinyl copy of "Live at Budokan." 'Tis a tragedy that most only remember Cheap Trick for their sappy MTV power ballads, because in their time, they were critically acclaimed masterminds of the raw Power Pop; a genre that also spawned the Buzzcocks, Romantics and even Supergrass.
Twenty years after playing to those screaming teens at Budokan, the original line-up is back with a sharp, new, self-titled album. They headline the Trocadero Saturday night before heading south for two gigs at the House of Blues in Hollywood.
FLICKS
Speaking of Hollywood, the land where dreams come true is gleamed over in "L.A. Confidential," which opens in theaters this week. Based on a somewhat confusing epic crime novel by James Ellroy, the film is beautiful aesthetically, but the story of hard drinking, corrupt racist Los Angeles cops in the 1950s drags on for about an hour too long. Kim Basinger, as a mysterious bombshell hooker doesn't help, either. Puh-leeease. If ignorance was bliss, the girl would be orgasmic.
If corrupt Los Angeles cops are your bag, and you can sway the temptation of glossy Hollywood epic, then go and check out a much more absorbing film concerning corrupt, abusive, racist L.A. cops.
Bang, a low-budget independent thriller which opened Wednesday at the Four Star, stars Darling Narita (is it just me, or do you love that name?) as an unnamed Asian American heroine who is victimized by a sleazy film producer during an audition. After a failed rape attempt by a white cop, she handcuffs the bloke to a tree and becomes empowered when she impersonates him by donning his uniform, boots, Poncharella shades and taking off on his motorcycle.
Peter Greene, who was unforgettable as the affectionate Zed in Pulp Fiction, provides a heartfelt performance as a homeless man. Director Ash (yes, Ash is his whole name) had worked previously as a strip-o-gram to help finance his earlier shorts and was overwhelmed by requests to show up as a policeman. Amazed by how much people's attitudes transformed and surprised by how his own behavior was affected, he was inspired to write the script. Working on a $20,000 budget, he shot the entire film on recanted film with borrowed cameras, and the cast predominantly worked for free.
Actress Narita will be on hand to introduce the film at 8 p.m. Saturday night at the Four Star. (2200 Clement St. at 23rd Avenue, (415) 666 - 3488).
[ Golden Gater - September 18, 1997 ]