It's a sad, sad time in the life of a huge DC nerd like myself when I'm more excited about movies based on Marvel characters than the Green Lantern flick which is opening this weekend. But the reason is simple: I really can't stand the casting. Now, Chris Evans as Captain America = me standing in line for a ticket. Michael Fassbender as Magneto = me seriously considering starting an online petition to get MGM to ditch Daniel Craig and cast the dude as the next James Bond. But Ryan Reynolds as the Green Lantern? Ugh. No thanks.

I just had to ask: are those prescription glasses you two wear?

They are, according to guitarist and eldest brother Paul DeGeorge, who represents Harry Potter in his seventh year at Hogwarts, while his younger brother and drummer Joe plays the role of Harry as a fourth-year. The glasses they wore when the two first began touring are “long destroyed” though, Paul admits, “we rock pretty hard.”

Now going on for six years, the Capitola Rod and Custom Classic has become a staple of car shows during the summer. And why not? The Capitola Village is a prime location for such an event. The small shops, the beach, and Margaritaville create the perfect environment. Walking down street after street of cars, the sun shining off the chrome, it’s hard not to love what you see.

But what you can’t see is the thick feeling of nostalgia that’s around. The people hanging around their cars are talking about cars, about being in cars, about hanging out with their friends when they were young, when it was better than today. It’s different for me, since I don’t have that true nostalgia, but what we do share is a true love for cars. And you can see that from the people who come down and walk around and look. Whether or not they’re experts, they know a nice car when they see one. They don’t make cars like they used to.

Diana Jones gets ‘High’ channeling Appalachian tunes
Purity is inherent in the songs of Appalachia. Nashville-based singer and songwriter Diana Jones believes that the old mountain hymns and forest ballads continue to ring true to this day because the people who composed them did so without any pretense.
“They weren’t singing because they had a career, or wanted to go on stage,” Jones says of the music first pioneered in the mountain ranges of the eastern United States. “They were singing because it was a part of their community and society.”

The progenitors of the music were attempting to make sense of natural disasters, love, crop booms and busts, life and death, says Jones, who adeptly channels the sounds of the Appalachian range on her latest record, High Atmosphere, released April 5.
The music of Appalachia has always resonated with Jones, who will bring her show to Don Quixote’s in Felton on Wednesday, June 15. She says that even as she grew up in New York, she always felt a connection to the melodies and stories she heard coming from the mountains.

Back at the turn of the century, Bryan Singer's reverent cinematic take on the X-men helped establish a tone for comic book movie adaptations that can still be felt to this day. By taking the source material seriously Singer managed to hit a sweet spot for moviegoers that grounded Marvel's mutants in a familiar reality, yet still allowed for many of the super hero flourishes expected from fans who'd waited years to see these characters come to life on the big screen. Later he followed up with an incredible sequel in X-Men United, which expanded upon everything great about the original and would go on to relax in a comfy spot near the top of a lot of "best comic book movies ever" lists.

Director Christopher Nolan's vision of everyone's favorite caped crusader not only made The Dark Knight the biggest film of the summer of 2008, but also launched it into a top spot on the list of all time domestic box office receipts. It even went on to snag a posthumous supporting acting Oscar for Heath Ledger's already iconic portrayal of the Joker as well as become the gold standard for comic to film adaptations.

So the wait for the upcoming third entry in the series (The Dark Knight Rises) has been understandably torturous. In fact, after nearly 3 desperate years of hoping for even the slightest bit of information to slip out of camp Nolan, it wasn't until just this past month that our first (albeit brief) glimpse was given at what to expect in the next installment. Specifically, Tom Hardy in costume as Batman's new nemesis:

With summer on its way and the music festival circuit approaching, it’s nice to know that a relatively new one is within reach. Now in its third year, the 2011 Mother Hips Family Hipnic took place in Big Sur at Fernwood Campground on May 14 and 15. Having grown beyond the confines of the Henry Miller Library, local promoters (((folkYEAH!))), upped the ante and created a first class concert experience complete with tents, families, a festive atmosphere and Mother Hips fans stoked to have two days with their favorite band.

The opening bands on both days were a mixture of Americana roots and new California Soul with only a smattering of attendees paying attention—most were busy setting up camp, hiking the beautiful terrain and making friends with neighbors. But heads turned when Nicki Bluhm took the stage with her band, The Gramblers.

Hot Club of Cowtown sidesteps tumbleweeds, stomps out labels
Nothing irks Elana James more than to hear her trio described as being a part of some retro movement.

“We get pigeonholed as these western swing revivalists, which we absolutely can’t fucking stand,” James says over the phone from her Austin, Texas home. “This notion that we are living in a sepia-tone, alternative universe is complete bullshit.”
James, the sharp-tongued, fiddler and singer for Hot Club of Cowtown says that her music is just as modern as anything on Top 40 radio today. “It just so happens that this is what inspired this band.”

By “this,” James means western swing and hot jazz, two genres pioneered by artists like Bob Wills and Stephane Grappelli, respectively. The way she sees it, just because the music harkens back to a specific time and place—in the case of the aforementioned musical styles, the 1930s and 1940s—doesn’t mean that it can’t be thoroughly rooted in the present.
“Everyone draws on things that came before them,” James says.

A night of Tax Relief Comedy files into the Kuumbwa.
The Kuumbwa Jazz Center is the most intimate and acoustically perfect room for comedy in Santa Cruz. Even with a small crowd the laughter percolates, and on Saturday, the moment was ideal for a thematic comedy event.

The premise of the show was Tax Relief Comedy and the opening comic and host was none other than the irascible Glenn Beck, played by Kurt Weitzmann. A soul of the Bay Area comedy scene, Weitzmann has spent decades honing his craft—bringing forth such notable classic ensemble pieces as The Hitler Roast and The Jesus Roast. Imitating one of the most deranged characters in the political media melee has its challenges: like, how do you outdo somebody who already is a parody of himself? But the small audience warmed up to Weitzmann’s shenanigans and he set the stage for the most spoofed bouffant in the biz.