FRIDAY –
We’ve all done air guitar, either with an old tennis racquet in the garage or just pretending we had a sunburst Gibson Les Paul in our hands (well, that was my air guitar of choice). At the Booze Brothers Brewing Company in VISTA, they’re hosting the US AIR GUITAR CHAMPIONSHIPS. It’s part comedy spectacle, part rock concert, and…nobody will break any guitar strings. It’s free, too.
At the SAN DIEGO COUNTY FAIR – it’s THE EXPENDABLES (the rock band, not the action movie stars). They’ll be on stage at 9 p.m. Earlier in the evening, at 7:30, it’s country star JON PARDI.
A few singers have died recently at 82-years-old – Brian Wilson, Lou Christie, and Sly Stone. Someone who has made it to 83 is WAYNE NEWTON, and he’ll be singing “Danke Schoen” and his other hits at Pechanga Casino in TEMECULA.
SATURDAY –
Lots of car shows and farmer’s markets in various cities to hit in the morning. At night…
MOULIN ROUGE! THE MUSICAL is at the Civic Theatre DOWNTOWN. It won 10 Tony Awards (including “best musical”). It’s also playing on Sunday night.
The MAINLY MOZART ALL-STAR ORCHESTRA is back with another show at the Epstein Family Amphitheater in LA JOLLA.
Remember ARSENIO HALL? He’ll be bringing his comedy to Sycuan in EL CAJON.
BEE GEES GOLD – a tribute act, will surely be performing songs from “Saturday Night Fever” on Saturday night. They’ll be at the Balboa Theatre DOWNTOWN.
SUNDAY –
If you’re feeling dead from the activities Friday and Saturday, then seeing DEAD MAN’S PARTY at the SAN DIEGO COUNTY FAIR would be perfect. Nothing gets people going like an Oingo Boingo tribute. Other bands playing are: Banda El Recodo and Banda Los Recoditos. Both shows are free with fair admission, which is nice, since you pay extra to see so many of the bands now.
And who doesn’t love Dolly Parton? Her show DOLLY PARTON’S THREADS: MY SONGS IN SYMPHONY will feature her songs and the stories behind them, with a symphony, and guests vocalists and musicians. She’ll be on the big screen at RADY SHELL telling stories (and all the ads point out: Please note, Dolly Parton appears on screen only at this event).
ON TV –
Season 4 of THE BEAR, all 10 episodes, dropped on Wednesday. Yes, Chef!
SQUID GAME starts up Friday on NetFlix, for season 3. This is the final season so…will everyone die?
And for the KOGO crowd, who all grew up with Baba Wawa…a documentary streaming on Hulu: Barbara Walters – Tell Me Everything.
AT THE MOVIES –
F1® THE MOVIE
I think the best writer of sports films is Ron Shelton (Bull Durham, White Men Can’t Jump, Tin Cup, Best of Times, The Great White Hype). I had dinner with him before the Coronado Film Festival, and when I left, the entire interview wasn’t on my tape recorder. I do remember I asked him why, since he’s covered boxing, basketball, football, golf, and baseball…has he never written a film about racing. He said he did, but studios didn’t think anybody would be interested. He then brought up Ron Howard’s great movie (Rush). I have no interest in racing, but I liked that movie, as well as Tom Cruise’s (Days of Thunder), and some of the documentaries I’ve seen on race car drivers (Adam Carolla’s underseen one on Willy T. Ribbs). Another was on Senna (whose name pops up a few times in F1). This fictional story is about Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), who was a promising FORMULA 1 driver, but a crash derailed his career. It’s 30 years later, and his former teammate (Javier Bardem) tracks him down in a laundromat. He now owns a team and wants Sonny to make a comeback. He’ll just have to deal with Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), a cocky youngster who wants all the attention. The movie was two hours, and I was never bored. My wife got a bit bored with the racing scenes, but liked the movie. I was pleasantly surprised that Pitt’s love interest was almost age appropriate (although somebody needs to explain to me why in movies when a couple gets together for the first time, when there’s been sexual tension – do they just start going at it in the hallway, before they get inside the hotel room? Does anyone do this in real life? But I digress). There might be some things you’ve seen in other underdog sports films, or racing movies, but it’s an enjoyable ride. There’s terrific cinematography, and I appreciated the exposition you got from the announcers. It helps those of us that don’t know a lot about racing to understand exactly what’s going on. 4 stars out of 5.
M3GHAN 2.0
My wife and I loved the first Megan movie. It was campy fun with lots of jokes. This had fewer jokes, and no scares. This is 2.0, but it didn’t have any upgrades! Now I should note – I only saw an hour of it. That’s because firefighters ran into the Mission Valley theater during the screening and told everyone to evacuate immediately, as the lights were turned on. The entire movie theater had all their screens evacuated. And I wasn’t enjoying it enough to come back the following day for the screening. Neither my wife and I were enjoying it all that much (although she seemed to like it more than I). 1 ½ stars out of 5, for the first hour.