It’s Easter weekend, but you don’t have to just color eggs and eat sticky Cadbury Creme Eggs. And you’re probably not going up to Indio for Coachella. So here’s what you can choose from locally…
FRIDAY…former Poway resident and blink-182 member MARK HOPPUS will hop over to the Magnolia Performing Arts, but be warned – you won’t be hearing punk songs. He’s doing spoken word, and talking about his new memoir.
San Diego County Orchid Society hosts its annual free spring show (and sale) in BALBOA PARK this Easter weekend. It starts Friday and runs Saturday and Monday.
Get your green body paint out. The Rooftop Cinema Club EMBARCADERO is showing WICKED.
Steve Martin wrote a musical with Edie Brickell called BRIGHT STAR. You can see it performed by the Lamplighters Community Theatre in LA MESA. Opens FRIDAY and runs through May 18.
TRIBUTE BANDS: I’m a huge fan of Thin Lizzy (their singer was another heroin casualty), but you can hear their great songs when the boys come back to town to play the Tower Bar in CITY HEIGHTS.
And guess which two bands are paid tribute with STEELY DEAD? Yep, Steely Dan and the Grateful Dead. Winstons Beach Club in Ocean Beach has for decades had a Dead tribute band play, so it’s only fitting that Steely Dead will play there.
SATURDAY: The City of CARLSBAD is hosting an EGGstravaganza SPRING FESTIVAL at POINSETTIA PARK. Bring your Easter basket and leave the candy for the kids.
Celebrate Earth Day at SAN DIEGO EARTH FEST in BALBOA PARK. There will be conservation and environmental booths plus food, crafts and live music at this family and pet friendly event, plus FREE parking.
The SIX STRING SOCIETY presents WHITNEY SHAY & FRIENDS at Sunshine Brooks Theater in OCEANSIDE. Shay is one of my favorite local singers, and among the many talented musicians – LAURA CHAVEZ, who I think is the best female guitar player on the planet. Her blues and rock licks knock my socks off every time.
In SPORTS, the San Diego Gulls play the Coachella Valley Firebirds at PECHANGA and the San Diego Mojo have a volleyball game against the Vegas Thrill, which should be thrilling. That’s at the SDSU Aztec Bowl.
SUNDAY – it’s Easter, so obviously you can find Easter services at lots of churches, brunches at lots of restaurants, and if you want a bit more fun for the kiddos, seek out the few places having Easter egg hunts.
This is a rare weekend where you can see three good MOVIES.
THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND. I caught this at the Angelika Film Center, which always does a great job of showing some of the smaller movies that might fly under the radar. This reminded me of the three music themed movies filmmaker John Carney (not the Chargers former kicker) has made – Once, Sing Street, and Begin Again. This is about a lonely guy living in a mansion on an island. He hires a once popular singing duo (one of them played by Carey Mulligan). They have broken up, and each doesn’t know the other was invited. They also don’t realize that they’re playing a show for just one person. Now, anybody that’s paid the outrageous fees for a meet-and-greet with their favorite band can understand why a rich person would do this. (I was surprised my friend paid $700 for a meet-and-greet with ZZ Top, and they weren’t allowed to get autographs or photos, just talk to the band as a group of fans, and then shake their hands and leave. So this guy paying $500,000 for a private concert on the beach, perhaps isn’t such a bad investment.) It helps that the characters are charming and there are lots of humorous moments. 4 stars out of 5.
SINNERS is another music intensive movie. Ryan Coogler (Creed, Black Panther) has made a great love letter to the blues. It’s the early ‘30s in Clarksdale, and two twin brothers (played by Michael B. Jordan) have robbed the mob, and want to set up a juke joint. It kind of has a Robert Johnson type of story. The always reliable Delroy Lindo plays the town drunk, but is a talented harmonica player (we get to hear a few Little Walter songs, and a great version of “Boogie Real Low”). The score and songs were terrific. I heard a few Willie Dixon tunes, and it was fun to hear “Wang Dang Doodle” but with the opening riff of “Smokestack Lightning” (especially since the brothers are named “Smoke” and “Stack”). I went nuts seeing Buddy Guy at the end, but as you can see, these guys are in my wheelhouse. Yet you don’t have to be a blues lover to appreciate this. Oh, and the second half of the movie becomes a vampire film. Coogler in those scenes does interesting stuff with folk and Irish tunes, as the vampires try to get “invited” into the juke joint. He also takes a scene out of “The Shining,” which was fun. It also felt a bit like “The Blues Brothers” the way the brothers would go to different areas to “get the band back together.” It was fun to see the people involved in this in the credits – Lars Ulrich (Metallica), Jerry Cantrel (Alice in Chains), and a musician I interviewed when he was a teenager in the early ‘90s – Eric Gales. This reminds me a bit of “Cowboys & Aliens.” We all laughed at the corny title, but Jon Favreau made a good Western, it just happened to have aliens attacking. Well, Coogler made a great period piece with blues, and interesting characters – it just happens to have vampires attacking. 3 ½ stars out of 5.
THE WEDDING BANQUET is another movie that you can catch at the Angelika and a few other theaters around town. The trailer looked hysterical. But this is like that comment you always hear – “The trailer showed all the funny parts.” Yet that doesn’t mean this is a bad movie. It’s just not as funny as I had hoped. Where it won me over is that you care about all these characters. There are two couples – one is gay, the other is lesbian. They’re Asian, and one couple has a supportive mom (who has an interesting backstory with the daughter). With the other couple, the guy was raised by his grandmother who is rich, and could cut him off if he doesn’t take over the family business, and perhaps if she finds out he’s gay. When she surprisingly arrives in town – pictures are hidden, Lilith Fair posters taken off the walls, and…you get the point. I’m not the biggest fan of Bowen Yang (he might be the least funny member of Saturday Night Live), but he’s great in this, playing a troubled guy who just doesn’t want to commit. And it breaks our heart that his boyfriend is so in love with him, yet is turned down on his marriage proposal. Yet when the couples decide to do a fake marriage, so it’s a man marrying a woman, to make the grandmother happy – hijinks ensue. There’s great supporting work from Lily Gladstone, who was one of the only things I liked about “Killers of the Flower Moon” a few years ago.