Haynes’ latest film, 'The Velvet Underground', rates special handling because the Velvets were simultaneously more dangerous and more attractive than the rest. The new film is a hypnotic, kaleidoscopic, split-screen, rapid-montage, black-and-white documentary exercise in disorienting adulation, so thick with allusions that it would take a list to piece together the splintered impressions.

From carrying his own cannabis brand, “Nump’s Smackers Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich” and Sideshow Tone’s FHUF Suckaz, to providing all sorts of other cannabis, Bolo CBD, edible, pre-rolled and indica goodies like “Grape Pie” and “Grape Sorbet,” Perfetto lives up to his promise made back in 2005: He really has grapes. And, perhaps more importantly, he’s doing it as a proud Bay Area Pinoy.

Los Tangueros came together four years ago. They honed their sound playing clubs, concert halls and milongas—tango dance parties that take place every night of the week. El Valenciano, in the Mission District, has hosted a weekly milonga for more than 20 years. When everything came to a halt during the pandemic, Jacobsen decided to use his time to produce 'Alma Vieja' (Old Soul,) the band’s debut album.

Legendary comic artist R. Crumb recalls that when he and Rodriguez started out, 'Comics were held in utter contempt by the educated upper class'—a fact that evidently spurred former outlaw biker and art-school student Rodriguez to épater les bourgeois. Says 'Maus' author, Art Spiegelman, 'The avant-garde was not following the commercial rules' with its lurid sex and violence. 'He [Rodriguez] always punched up,' declares writer Ishmael Reed. According to performer/columnist Susie Bright: 'Spain is a trickster and a classic satirical artist.' Cartoonist Ed Piskor credits Rodriguez with 'opening the doors to today’s graphic novels' with his classically trained drawings."

“I’d been toying with the idea of a blues opera for a while. I like rock operas like Green Day’s American Idiot and the Who’s Tommy. I began imagining a romantic blues adventure, based on the hero’s journeys from Greek and Roman mythology. A kid in rural America is dreaming of a different life. When a bluesman comes to town, he’s changed forever. After hearing the blues, he decides to start a band and go on the road. I ran the idea past Bruce Iglauer, head of my label, Alligator Records. He didn’t think it was a bad idea, so I pursued it."

Publicity for 'Wife of a Spy' claims that Kurosawa’s multi-layered marital melodrama/war story—written by the director with Hamaguchi Ryûsuke and Nohara Tadashi—has a whiff of Alfred Hitchcock about it, perhaps with the devious, suspenseful romance of Notorious in mind. For us, Satoko and Yusaku’s tension-filled relationship owes just as much to the labyrinthine conspiracies and paranoia of director Fritz Lang.