Merry Christmas!

Coachella: Day 3, Week 2

The final day of Coachella was one of savage musical extremes lurching from the gossamer harmonies of Sweden's First Aid Kit...

...to the feral intensity of Wild Flag...

In between, Santigold kicked ass while Girl Talk's Gregg Gillis ignited the crowd into a frenzy of dancing weenies...

Yuko and I strolled the grounds under a blistering-blue panoply of palm-studded vistas, taking in the sights and kicking up our heels....

After a few brews and a scorching set by At The Drive-In, I cooled off (just a bit) in the VIP area...

Refreshed, we found a soft spot in the grass and chilled while Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and the now-infamous hologramic Tupac brought the fest to a close...

2012: The Rise Of Africa!

Africa rises in director Roland Emmerich's new megaflick "2012," literally. I would almost include the entire developing world if it wasn't for the annihilation of India and parts of South America. Rich nations are totally wiped out. One after another - the US, Germany, France, Canada, Britain, Japan - are swallowed up by the shifting earth's crust or tsunamis the size of the himalayas. This could be interpreted as revenge for all the crap the industrialized world has dumped on the planet until you realize at the end that a small fleet of gigantic "arks," (as in Noah), are enroute to Africa to begin the process of "civilization" all over again. Nice subtext. Ugh! Those poor people.

The film itself is decent entertainment - the visuals, special affects and most of the performances put it above Armageddon or Independence Day. But it's rife with a dour kind of melodrama and dialogue that sticks in the teeth, if not to the camera lens.