The kids at SUPERB! are back and booking. Having lured the likes of both Girl Talk and the Counting Crows to the depths of lovely Lower Sproul Plaza in semesters past, this time around expect yet another incredibly hit and miss lineup. But wait—get enthusiastic! This time around, the hit/miss ratio may depend on you. Seems a band or two may hinge on popular demand. If you care about Islands or Wu-Tang’s Raekwon the Chef, read on …

While Islands, the Canadian Indie Rockers anticipating the release of their third album, are absent from SUPERB!’s online concert calendar, their MySpace page conspicuously includes a show at UC Berkeley (Lower Sproul Plaza), Oct. 23. What’s goin’ on, SUPERB!?

On to Raekwon. Our trusty Facebook feed fed us this: what appears to be an appeal to us. Seems that the Chef may hit up Lower Sproul Plaza, a la SUPERB!. (Apparently) all we need are 500-800 students willing to throw down a couple bucks. Right now the member count’s at 202. Let’s make this happen?

And then the for-sures:

Picture Atlantic, on October 9 at noon for free.

The Stone Foxes, on October 16 at noon for free.

Steve Aoki, on October 28 at noon for free.

Image Source: mookitty under Creative Commons.
SUPERB [Website]

Say what you will about SUPERB!’s usual lineup of movies, this semester’s looks stronger than past ones.

Unfortunately, the schedule is already under way but you can still catch a few good ones. All films are $3 with Cal ID and $5 for general admission, with the exception of “Star Trek,” which can go for $1 if you wear a super special awesome homecoming T-shirt! Yay! And they’re all at Wheeler Auditorium.

As of this posting, here they are in chronological order:

*Star Trek: Friday, Oct. 2 at 7:00 and 9:30 p.m.

*The Hangover: Friday, Oct. 9 at 7:00 and 9:00 p.m.

*‘Arry Pottah and dee ‘alf Blud Prinz†: Friday, Oct. 23 at 7:00 and 10:00 p.m.

*District 9: Friday, Nov. 6 at 7:00 and 9:00 p.m.

*Ponyo 500 Days of Summer: Thursday, Nov. 19 at 7:00 and 9:00 p.m.

*Inglourious Basterds: Friday, Dec. 4 at 7:00 and 9:30 p.m.

†Translated to British for your convenience.

EDIT: Ponyo has been canceled and replaced with “500 Days of Summer” at the same time, location and price.

Image Source: Xystance under Creative Commons
SUPERB Films [List]

UC Berkeley is home to a distinct breed of cigarette rollin’, mustache sportin’ cats who silently reek with that certain “Yeah, I’m in a band” quality.  Greater yet is the population of guys at frat parties who, in the presence of women, strategically proclaim their membership in, you guessed it, “a band.”  However, this news is for the smaller, probably subtler group of folk who are actually in bands: SUPERB concerts extends an unprecedented invitation to participate in a “Local Band Showcase,” with the campus as your stage!

SUPERB generally books artists to play on Lower Sproul Plaza on Fridays, both at noon and during the coveted 5-7 p.m. slot.  You may remember such unforgettable performances as Immortal Technique, The Coup and Speechwriters LLC from last semester.  While these artists traveled from far and wide to grace our Sprouly stage, SUPERB seems to have decided to embrace the “go local” mentality.  What, with all this Panda Express, Tully’s, and Whole Foods nonsense, maybe a bit of local sonic flavor is exactly what we need.  To apply for a spot in the showcase, shoot an e-mail to superbconcerts@gmail.com by Mar. 16 and stack some cred behind your “Yeah, I’m totally in a band” attitude.

Image Source: Mookitty under Creative Commons
SUPERB [Website]

While the SUPERB site is being updated for relevance, the Clog managed to grab a list of Friday films for this semester. Check it:

Thursday, Mar. 12
“Milk” at 7:00 and 9:30 p.m. in Wheeler Auditorium

Friday, Mar. 13
Spike & Mike’s Sick & Twisted Animation Festival at 7:00 p.m. in 2060 Valley Life Science Building.

Friday, Apr. 3
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” at 7:00 and 10:00 p.m. in Wheeler Auditorium.

Friday, Apr. 17
“Slumdog Millionaire” at 7:00 and 9:30 p.m. in Wheeler Auditorium

Tickets are usually $5 for general admission but only $3 with Cal ID. Also remember that SUPERB shows free sneak peeks of new releases every now and again.

Image Source: jessica @ flickr under Creative Commons
Earlier: Yes, SUPERB Still Showing Those Cheap-o Flicks

Looking forward to SUPERB’s line-up of cheap movies in Wheeler this semester? So are we, but unfortunately the SUPERB site isn’t delivering. Lucky for you (and us), we snagged a list of movies and their screenings for online perusal.

Friday, Sept. 12
Campus Movie Fest: doors at 6:30 p.m., show at 7:30 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 19
“Sex and the City”: 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 10
“Wall-E”: 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Friday, Oct. 24
“The Dark Knight”: 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Friday, Nov. 14
“Pineapple Express”: 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 5
“Tropic Thunder”: 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.

All showings are in Wheeler Auditorium, and the price is totally reasonable (usually under $5 with Cal ID if the price hasn’t changed).

Image Source: jessica @ flickr under Creative Commons
SUPERB [Web site]

Speaking of hippies, Loth’s dinner starts at 6:30 p.m. tonight, followed by Casa Zimbabwe at 7 p.m. and Afro House at 7:30 p.m. The rest of the schedule follows after the cut.

Wednesday
Loth 6:30 p.m.
Casa Zimbabwe 7 p.m.
Afro House 7:30 p.m.

Thursday
Kingman 6:30 p.m.
Wolf 6:45 p.m.
Wilde 7 p.m.

Friday
Cloyne 6 p.m.
Stebbins 6:30 p.m.
Sherman 7 p.m.

Free movie. “The Forbidden Kingdom”: random American kid travels back in time to ancient China, whups ass. Jet Li and Jackie Chan’s dreadlocks make appearances. The film will screen tonight at 8 p.m. in Wheeler Auditorium. Passes are available in the Naia Lounge.

Free reading about cuffs, chains, and paddles. At 5 p.m. tomorrow afternoon, Melanie Abrams will read from her forthcoming novel “Playing” in 190 Doe Library.

The novel is about a woman who enjoys being beaten, dominated and humiliated by her older Indian lover. We don’t yet know if Ms. Abrams will choose to divulge some of her book’s more electric passages during the reading, or wimp out and read about the trauma her protagonist suffered as a child instead. Either way — the anticipation is giving us thrills and chills in our underpants.

Free … display. Three cheers for artsiness and anomie! A PostSecret showing will take place in 110 Barrows on April 24th from 6 to 8 p.m. Next Friday is still a ways off, but the organizers are encouraging students to mail in their own postcards to 2533 Durant Ave, Apt. 31, Berkeley, CA 94704, or drop it off in the box on Sproul. Jeez. Which box on Sproul?

Image Source: bcveen under Creative Commons

While the ASUC candidates were duking it out over god-knows-what in Barrows Hall, somewhere just out of earshot, the Superb Spring Concert rocked Lower Sproul Plaza. By the time the show started, most people knew that the “surprise” guests were, in fact, the Counting Crows, so we didn’t see anyone stalk off in a huff mumbling about how they’d heard William Shatner was coming.

If they sound familiar, but you can’t quite put a tune to a band name, the Counting Crows are most recently known for their Academy Award-nominated song, “Accidentally in Love,” but are much better known for their slightly-sporadic string of massive hits during the nineties. Whatever associations the audience had with the band, they all melted together into a big, steaming pile of love when front man Adam Duritz, a Berkeley alum, slurred fondly about playing on Sproul Plaza in the past, then later pulled on a Cal sweatshirt.

After the performance, which finished with a 4-song encore, the air was abuzz with raging debate about Duritz’s precise level of intoxication, as the crowd–largely comprised of an awkward combination of hipster students, and alumni from the nineties who brought their young children–dispersed. In Duritz’s defense, however, sources say that the jumping and wobbling lead singer had injured his ankle (or heel, or something … ), not to mention the guy did sound great.

Quite a few audience members also expressed displeasure at what they viewed as the band’s implied stubborn refusal to play their most currently recognizable hit, “Accidentally in Love.” But hey, if you wrote an over-played toe-tapper for “Shrek 2,” you might not feel like playing it all the freaking time, either.

Image Source: Alex Cohen
Earlier: The Daily Californian Elections Circus … er, Forum
Counting Crows [Wikipedia]
Counting Crows Mr. Jones Live From Sproul Plaza 4/4/08 [YouTube]

Anyway, long story short, we ended up sitting (uncomfortably, mind you) through the entirety of one of the finest perpetuations of the “Berkeley stereotype” to ever kind of hit the big screen. Luckily, the audience seemed to have a good sense of humor and a healthy affinity for irony, because to say that this film was bad would be, frankly, giving it a bit too much credit. Sure, “The Fonz”–Henry Winkler. Duh?–made a decently-acted paternal appearance, and Tom Morello (who we just found out is actually in the band, Audioslave) is present as a reticent ‘Nam vet-cum-activist. We’re reasonably certain the rest of the cast was a bunch of hot amateurs. Case in point–the young protagonist is the director’s recent Berkeley grad of a son, Nick Roth. Who, incidentally, looks like a cross between that guy from “Airbud” and “Transamerica,” and Adrian Grenier. Anyone? Anyone? Alright.

Since both Bobby and Nick Roth are Berkeley alumni, Bobby Roth decided to make a film that bridges the father-son generation gap, grappling with the complex notion that Iraq may really just be another Vietnam. Gee, we haven’t heard that one before. Judging by the overly-simplistic way that Vietnam and student protests were treated in the film, it seems as if Bobby Roth was also trying to tell us, “war is bad because people die.” Oh, and while we’re at it, “damn the man,” “capitalism sucks,” “all you need is love,” and “your parents just want you to have the life they never had.” The originality was truly inspiring, really, it was.

To be fair, though, this movie is pretty entertaining, if you take it as a spoof of movies like “Across the Universe” that try too hard to encompass too much of “Drugs, Sex, and Rock ‘n’ roll” counterculture, or as a satire of the broad stereotypes surrounding our hallowed institution. It also scores points with a Cal student audience because of its “Hey, look! It’s Wheeler! I was there this morning!” factor. In other words, if it were a Berkeley student’s film, we might be impressed, but if you want a nuanced approach to youth in that era we recommend “The Wonder Years.” No joke–Fred Savage rocks our socks.

Unfortunately, we’re not entirely sure whether the director viewed “Berkeley” in the same way his “intended audience” did: with a grain of–OK, with a salt shaker. No one seemed hesitant to laugh, even during what were possibly serious scenes. A trip to IMDB reveals that the film is characterized as “drama.” Whoops. Well, maybe the elder Roth shed some light on the subject during the Question and Answer session that supposedly took place following the screening, but we, um–we couldn’t stay. Yeah, we, uh, had somewhere to be…

Image: Berkeley [Website]

Berkeley the film [Website]

Earlier: New Movie Oh-So-Creatively-Titled “Berkeley”

Internet Movie Database [Website]