When the ancient Polynesians invented surfing, they often used a paddle to help them navigate. Fast-forward a few millennia, and Stand-Up Paddleboarding, or SUP, finds itself trendy again. Part of its increasing popularity is that standing upright allows surfers to spot waves more easily and thus catch more of them, multiplying the fun factor. Paddling back to the wave becomes less of a strain as well. The ability to cruise along on flat inland water, surveying the sights, is another advantage. Finally, its a good core workout. If youre sold on the idea, schedule an intro SUP lesson, free with board and paddle rental, and you may find yourself riding the waves like a Polynesian king.More
Many of us remember coming home from our elementary schools with freshly glazed pinchpots, cups, or whatever else our young imaginations could conjure up. Saturday mornings at the Randall Museum can bring that memory back, or create a new one for the youngsters. Ceramics make great gifts — especially on Mothers' and Fathers' Day. Hop on board for the Randall's once-weekly class, and for $6 and two weeks to have your work fired and glazed, you'll have all the materials you need.More
December is almost over - the New Year is coming up and everyone is busy drying off from the rain or holiday shopping. Let's take a look at what's happened this month.
December is almost over - the New Year is coming up and everyone is busy drying off from the rain or holiday shopping. Let's take a look at what's happened this month.
The Howling was not Joe Dante's first film. He'd already co-directed Hollywood Boulevard in 1976 with Allan Arkush, 1978's Piranha by himself, and did uncredited work on Arkush's 1979 Rock 'n' Roll High School. They're all classics in their own way — Piranha was written by John Sayles! — but it was The Howling that put him on the map. Released during the werewolf-happy year of 1981, which also saw saw the releases of An American Werewolf in London and Wolfen, it brought Dante to the attention of Steven Spielberg. Spielberg he cast Dee Wallace Stone in E. T. after seeing her in The Howling, and kickstarted Dante's most fertile period, a chain of solid work including the best segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie, followed by Gremlins, Explorers, Innerspace, The 'Burbs, and the underrated Gremlins 2: The New Batch, and what may be his masterpiece, Matinee.
Just what the heck this movie is actually called depends on where you look. The onscreen title is Howling II: Your Sister is a Werewolf, and that's what Shout! Factory is officially calling it, but that's also a very dumb title which I personally reject. (The posters and trailers imply that it's actually Howling II: It's Not Over Yet, which is perhaps a little less dumb.) The "sister" of that title is Dee Wallace Stone, seen in footage from the first film, and the "your" is a big hunk o' beef Ben (Reb Brown). He's recruited to go to Transylvania to take on the werewolf queen Stirba (Sybil Danning, in all her squished-cleavage glory).
Howling II doesn't have a lot going for it, but I'll give it this: there was an attempt to cash in on the whole "New Wave" thing, which wasn't really a thing anymore by the time of the film's 1985 release, but by god, it has the band Babel performing their song "Howling" in a club in Romania, both early in the film and again over the end credits. The quality of the video below is lousy, but I gotta say, the song is catchy (and you can hear it better in the trailer).
The movie also stars Christopher Lee (RIP), and in his audio commentary, director Philippe Mora says that Lee kinda hated everything about being in the movie. [UPDATE: Mr. Mora disagrees with my interpretation of what he says in the commentary about Mr. Lee's feelings about working on the film, and we bicker about it in the comments below. Check it out, it's fun!] In his own commentary on the Gremlins II Blu-ray, Dante recalls with some amusement that when he met Lee, the first thing Lee did was to apologize for having been in Howling II. For his part, Dante says he hadn't even remembered that he'd had been in that film in the first place. No doubt Lee was relieved, and he was a consummate professional, so you can't really tell how much he hated being there. And he was such a class act, he even maintained his dignity while wearing these.
Howling II has two particular footnotes in horror-movie history. For starters, it's one of that string of horror sequels in which an American director is followed up by a not-American director, more often than not Italian. Other notable examples include Jeannot Szwarc's Jaws 2, Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2, and perhaps most notoriously, Claudio Fragasso's Troll 2. The sequel to Dante's other early-career horror movie, Piranha 2, was directed by some "James Cameron," which is an Italian name if I've ever heard one.
The other footnote is that it spawned a series of sequels which, if they didn't go straight to video, might as well have: 1987's The Marsupials: Howling III, 1988's Howling IV: The Original Nightmare, 1989's Howling V: The Rebirth, and 1991's Howling VI: The Rebirth. Shout! Factory even released III, V, and VI in a triple-feature Blu-Ray back in 2010, because somebody had to.
But if you have to see a Howling film, be sure to start with the original.
Sub Pop recording artists 'clipping.' brought their brand of noise-driven experimental hip hop to the closing night of 2016's San Francisco Electronic Music Fest this past Sunday. The packed Brava Theater hosted an initially seated crowd that ended the night jumping and dancing against the front of the stage. The trio performed a set focused on their recently released Sci-Fi Horror concept album, 'Splendor & Misery', then delved into their dancier and more aggressive back catalogue, and recent single 'Wriggle'.
Opening performances included local experimental electronic duo 'Tujurikkuja' and computer music artist 'Madalyn Merkey.'"