Lots of ideas for things you can take your mom or wife to for Mother’s Day. There are dinners and brunches at various restaurants, but here’s a list of some other ideas.
FRIDAY –
If you like Zydeco, blues, swing and live music in general, check out the GATOR BY THE BAY FESTIVAL. Lots of bands, lots of crawfish. Happening all weekend DOWNTOWN.
A film festival I’ve gone to a few times and always enjoyed, the GI FILM FESTIVAL, will be at the Museum of Photographic Arts in BALBOA PARK. It’s three days of powerful films that center around the military.
You can take your madres, to see the Padres. They’re at Petco Park this weekend against the Cardinals.
What mom doesn’t like the jazzy sounds of PAT METHENY? You can catch him at Humphrey’s by the Bay, with a nice view of the boats on the water, in SHELTER ISLAND.
ASHLEY KUTCHER, not to be confused with Ashton, is bringing her country-pop sounds to the House of Blues DOWNTOWN.
If you didn’t get enough of Michael Jackson at the movie theatres recently, you can see the live show: MJ – THE MUSICAL at the San Diego Civic Theatre DOWNTOWN all weekend.
And for more impersonators/tributes, there’s Oasis in Ocean Beach, Cher in Vista, and Marvin Gaye in Temecula at a winery.
SATURDAY –
If you're bummed you can't watch SAN DIEGO FC, they'll be in Seattle, and you can always listen on San Diego Sports 760 starting at 7pm.
If you don’t want a quiet brunch with mom, how about MARIACHI TRIBUTO A TRES GRANDES. They’re a world-renowned ensemble, and they’ll be playing at the Magnolia Performing Arts Center in EL CAJON, both Saturday and Sunday nights.
Comedian and actress BECKY ROBINSON is at the Balboa Theatre DOWNTOWN.
Jamaican dancehall singer SISTER NANCY is at the Music Box DOWNTOWN.
SUNDAY –
If your mom is more into laughs than a liquid brunch, take her to see comedian TODD BARRY at the Belly Up Tavern in SOLANA BEACH.
ON STREAMING –
Yo, cousin! THE BEAR dropped a surprise prequel episode – GARY - showcasing Mikey (Jon Bernthal) and Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) set a few years before the show began. Yes, chef!
AT THE MOVIES –
MORTAL KOMBAT 2
Anybody going to take their mom out for brunch, and then to see a movie based on a gory video game, where humans and creatures fight, trying to defeat the dark rule of Shao Kahn, which threatened life on the Earthrealm? Yikes, I lost IQ points just writing that last line. I never saw the first movie or played the video game. And movies with constant fight scenes haven’t impressed me since I was 12-years-old watching Bruce Lee films. So I went kicking and screaming (no pun intended), which kind of bummed me out, as they were screening the Billie Eilish concert movie the same night (and I kind of like her songs, and was curious to see what James Cameron would do with this 3-D concert experience). I’m sure in this I missed a lot of the Easter eggs, and the scenes that were fan service. Some of the visuals were cool, some were goofy. But what made this movie tolerable for me, was it had a lot of one-liners that were funny. For example, Karl Urban playing Johnny Cage, is drinking away his sorrows in a bar (reminding me of Hugh Jackman in that Deadpool movie). A fan recognizes him from his cheesy, ‘80s action pictures. When he says they should do a reboot, Cage responds, “Nobody wants that. They want to see Keanu Reeves kill a thousand people with a pencil.” And the backstory where we got to see clips of Cage’s show, while he waits to sign autographs at Comic Con – was fun (and reminded me of how bad we felt for Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler”). Unfortunately, a lot of the other characters were underdeveloped. There were also too many characters (although I’m sure the video game has that many). The story (or lack there of) was also a bit uneven, with fight scenes that felt shoe-horned in. I did like Australian actor Josh Lawson as Kano. He had some good lines, and a really cool eyeball that shot lasers. I’ll be visiting my optometrist Monday. There were various scenes that had me thinking of other movies. A hat that was thrown as a weapon, made me think of Odd Job from “Goldfinger.” When the cheesy rock anthem “Rock You Like a Hurricane” by the Scorpions was played, I thought of how funny it was in “The Interview” (an underrated Seth Rogen/James Franco comedy) when they played “Winds of Change.” I’m guessing fans of the video game will enjoy this adaption, although I brought two co-workers that were excited to see it, and both felt it was merely “okay.” One said it was a bit too campy. I was surprised I seemed to enjoy it more than them. Mortal Kombat II: Fighting Boogaloo. 2 stars out of 5.