Ray Kurzweil has always had an eye for solving problems, whether it was with his reading machine for the blind or his Kurzweil K250 synthesizer. Now he is dedicated to solving humankind’s greatest problem — the advent of death. This was the topic of his lecture Saturday night in Wheeler Read More…
Here’s how to put on a disturbingly hilarious and outrageously entertaining musical in a confined basement-slash-student-theater: Take six socially awkward and sensationally idiosyncratic elementary school students, give them each a Red Bull or two and have them battle it out in a local spelling bee put on by equally strange Read More…
“It’s all about energy; when you catch a flow, you’re maybe starting out with a couple words and a contact or a rhyme but you literally catch it. You can feel the energy building,” Kaila Love said when asked if one could learn freestyle. Like her response, her energy caught Read More…
Michael Bao’s friends call him Mikey, and on the weekends, they all play Mario games on the Wii. Bao, a second-year EECS major at Cal, is known for not being particularly good at Super Mario Bros. — but when it comes to making games, Bao’s friends turn to him for Read More…
Those behind the scenes in music rarely get properly recognized. This isn’t the case for Grammy Award-winning audio engineer Young Guru, who has engineered and mixed seven of Jay-Z’s 11 solo albums, as well as music from several other high-profile musicians. Guru kept mum about Jay-Z’s forthcoming album. “I can’t Read More…
Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown There are only three remaining Japantowns in the United States, and we are lucky to have one in San Francisco. Every year, in each of the three Japantowns, the blooming of the Japanese cherry blossoms, the “sakura,” is celebrated with a festival that attracts hundreds Read More…
This past weekend welcomed the month’s First Friday festivities, and, as usual, hundreds of Bay Area socialites came out to celebrate art, music and good vibes throughout downtown Oakland. One of the city’s very own arts and culture magazines, Wine & Bowties, brought Syd tha Kyd to The New Parish Read More…
Following seven years of relative dormancy, the Knife’s Karin Dreijer Andersson and Olof Dreijer have released Shaking the Habitual, an explicitly political record that forces listeners to adapt to its uncompromising, unconventional and seemingly inaccessible terms. The dense, sprawling work, with its politicized lyrics, industrial sounds and chilling ambience, is Read More…
If there’s one problem plaguing the creative output of NYC trio Yeah Yeah Yeahs (and rest assured, there is likely more than one problem), it’s that they don’t have much to prove anymore. After ascending to notoriety with their gritty, minimalist debut Fever to Tell, they managed to conjure up Read More…
The Flaming Lips have become something of a flanderized band. That is to say, much like Ned Flanders from “The Simpsons,” time has turned them into a caricature of what they once were. With each new release, this group of esoteric psychonauts becomes more exaggeratedly esoteric and psychonautical. Their 2009 Read More…
