A View of San Francisco: North Beach

A View of San Francisco: North Beach

A View of San Francisco: North Beach

A View of San Francisco: North Beach

A View from San Francisco: Transamerica Pyramid

A View from San Francisco: near Montgomery BART stop

A Movie Review: The Way, Way Back

The Way, Way Back. This is a wonderful and somewhat painful tale of flawed adults parenting awkward young teenagers. And what is truly interesting is the relationship that develops between the water park manager and our lead.  And though I love movies such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower, I especially appreciate the fact that our lead character is not a wanna-be writer with an IQ that will blow you away, but is just a normal kid.

A Movie Review: Fruitvale Station

Fruitvale Station. A solid movie; however, I felt like I was getting an overly glossed up point of view of Oscar.  Also, the movie doesn't take the time to dive into the tensions between the poor and law enforcement.

A Movie Review: Pacific Rim

Pacific Rim. I don't think this movie started off very well.  An early conversation goes something like this when a monster sighting wakes up two military personnel in the wee hours of the morning:

"What time is it?"

"2 o'clock."

"2 a.m.?"

Of course, it is 2 a.m.  Do you really think the army would let you sleep from 11 p.m. or whatever time they went to sleep all the way until 2 p.m.  And I thought military used military time anyways.

Also, the first attack happens during the Obama years.  I'd like to know how we made those robots work so well so quickly when Boeing can't even get their Dreamliner to function properly after years of testing.

Never mind all that.  This movie isn't brilliant Oscar stuff, but it is a very good summer popcorn movie.  The fights are cool.  And even though it would seem the use of a sword would be a weapon of choice for close combat versus having a blaster that takes forever to warm up, it is good that it is eventually brought to the fight.

A Movie Review: World War Z

World War Z.  For all the talk about now this movie was a mess, I do think it turned out to be a very thrilling movie.  It is Contagion on adrenalin.  It isn't as scary as one might assume considering that this is a zombie movie.  Even the fact that these zombies have amazing speed that allows them to outrun even the fastest human being doesn't really increase the scare factor.  Instead, this is a very well done medical investigation movie that stands above Contagion.  I even like how the "cure" was found better in World War Z versus Contagion.

Make Music Pasadena: Killola

Make Music Pasadena: Letting Up Despite Great Faults

I last saw them at Silverlake Jubilee.  Loved them then and loved them a couple months back at Make Music Pasadena.

Make Music Pasadena: Dom La Nena

So long since Make Music Pasadena.  Here's a photo of Dom La Nena.

Make Music Pasadena: The Dustbowl Revival

Been awhile since Make Music Pasadena, but I've been busy.  

A photo of The Dustbowl Revival.

A Restaurant Review: Ananda Fuara

Ananda Fuara.  The restaurant was semi-packed when I arrived.  My opinion; however, is that it doesn't rank as one of the better vegetarian restaurants in San Francisco.  I got the neatloaf dinner, which they said was one of their specialties.  If so, I wasn't too into it.  It was okay, but not great.

A View from San Francisco: anti-Hipster sticker

A View from San Francisco: around Market Street

A View from San Francisco: around Market Street

A View from San Francisco: around Market Street

A View from San Francisco: around Market Street

A Movie Review: Monsters University

Monsters University. An enjoyable movie about characters who aren't scary, but want to be scary. Kids, please don't look under the bed or listen too hard.

A Movie Review: Despicable Me 2

Despicable Me 2. Minions. Birthday parties. Girls growing up. Evilness in the world that needs to be resolved. I consider this cartoon to be the best movie of the year (so far).

A Movie Review: The Heat

The Heat. When a movie is liked both by critics and audiences, I usually find myself agreeing. Not with this movie. I could have saved my money on this one.

A Movie Review: Man of Steel

Man of Steel. I don’t know why the critics don’t universally love this movie (via Rottentomatoes we have a 56% rating). I have to say I really enjoyed it. Though I do have one question: Yes, Superman is all powerful but he does have to fight Genral Zod who is also all powerful. Zod does make a point when he states that Superman is a farm boy fighting a man who is trained for battle. How does Superman beat Zod who is a far superior warrior?  Whatever, I will say that this is one thrilling and fun movie. I love how his boyhood is done in brief flashbacks versus us having to sit through another linear story line of a story many of us already know.

A Movie Review: This is the End

This is the End.  The movie starts out hysterically with Seth Rogan picking up his friend Jay Baruchel at the airport. It is funny that everyone is trying to talk to Seth while ignoring Jay. They soon party it up, getting stoned at Seth’s house. They then take a taxi (nice add to the move as you don't want folks high while driving) to a house party being hosted by James Franco. A number of celebrity cameos pop up. For awhile, it looks like a Project X for celebrities. Then the inevitable end of the world hits. The earth opens up and many of the celebrities are swallowed up and sent down to the burning pits of hell. Our remaining celebrities (Jonah Hill, Danny McBride and Craig Robinson also survive) are left in purgatory, trying to figure out what in the world is going on.

This movie lasts close to 2 hours. With about 30 minutes to go in the movie it feels like this movie is just a one joke movie and really should just wrap up; however, it takes a nice turn with them leaving the house and the movie picks back up in a fun way.

The audience I watched the movie with was laughing from the beginning to the end.  That is always a good indicator.

A Movie Review: Star Trek into Darkness

Star Trek into Darkness.  Star Trek II:  Wrath of Khan is better than Star Trek into Darkness.  That doesn't mean it isn't a good movie.  Enjoy the movie for what it is: a good summer popcorn movie that has a beginning that doesn't seem to make sense other than to start the movie off with some action.

A Movie Review: Fast and Furious 6

Fast and Furious 6. I love how this series has kept up its high standards. It got a second chance at life and took it and turned it into a wonderful series. Maybe this movie doesn’t rank as well as Fast 5, but this slight tick down still gets the heart pumping. Only thing, I’m betting that you don’t want this gang coming to your country. Brazil. Spain. They’ll do some serious damage to your roads. Lol.

A Movie Review: Iron Man 3

Iron Man 3. In my opinion, the Iron Man movies have steadily gone down hill. The first should have gotten an Oscar nod. The second was a great summer pop corn movie. This one: passable. Not horrible, but hardly up to the par with the others.

A Restaurant Review: Souley Vegan in Oakland

Souley Vegan:  The first time I went I wasn't totally sold on the food.  I got a 3 item plate:  Southern fried tofu, mac and cheese, and cornbread.  I really loved the mac and cheese, but wasn't sold on the Southern fried tofu or the cornbread.  The owner was super nice; however.  I decided to go back and switched up my selections.  I got the BBQ tofu, black eye peas, and biscuits and gravy.  I was totally sold.  So my opinion:  skip the Southern fried tofu.

When I got there around 7 p.m., there was a line out the door to order food at the counter.  The line quickly died down to the point where a person coming in could go right up to the counter.  Then I took a brief walk around the area.  As I was heading back to the BART, the line was once again out the door.  Two distinct waves of hungry eaters.  Why am I mentioned this?  I don't know, I just found it interesting.

A View from Oakland

A View from Oakland