Riverside Film, Theatre, & Presentations 5/25-31/2002
Hot Tip: Spike & Mike Night at The Fox featuring a Sick & Twisted Collection curated for Riverside, The New Documentary, musical performances, and FUN!
Pick of The Week: Spike & Mikes Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation / Animation Outlaws at The Fox
A little background, if I may...
The pre-pandemic Hey Riverside was pretty much the opposite of this newsletter and I had a lot of help from some awesome friends. Once we got on the other side of 2020 (and most of 2021), we had differing ideas & priorities of what we wanted to do in the aftermath. I kept Hey Riverside and transitioned it to a newsletter (less time in front of a camera) while Patrick Maloney and Tim Brown have continued on with Mission: Riverside and a format more similar to what we used to do.
One of the best things to happen in our early years of collaboration was arranging a phone interview with Craig “Spike” Decker, former Riverside resident and the co-founder of Spike & Mike's Festival of Animation (he and Mike did their first one at RCC's Landis Auditorium) and the later Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation. Animation and Sick & Twisted freak Patrick did the honors and we ended up with a lengthy and unique talk with a guy who has had a major role in the animation we all enjoy today.
Even better: Patrick got the opportunity to bring the Sick & Twisted Festival back to Riverside with Spike's blessing.
There were two wildly successful Festivals at the Fox.
During this time, the documentary Animation Outlaws was released, bringing to the big screen the story of two kids from Riverside who ended up underwriting the early work of some of the greatest animators of the last 40 years. And guess what? Patrick and I got to be in the movie!
Now for the deets:
Saturday’s show is the third since Festivals resumed at The fox and was scheduled for 2020 prior to COVID-19.
The night will open with a rare solo acoustic set by Eva Mikhailovna of Eva and The Vagabond Tales. Animation Outlaws will screen first and then it's time for the Sick and the Twisted.
Spike will be there with loads of cool, historic merch for sale (and for signing). The Simpsons animator/writer/director/producer David Silverman will make an appearance, along with a few other big names in animation that I'm not supposed to mention yet.
Anyway, if you're like me and have a history with Spike & Mike and Landis Auditorium and the (ahem) festive atmosphere of those early shows, you know what I mean. It's only a $16 ticket and you owe it to yourself to indulge that sick & twisted cartoon fan you've been keeping inside for these last three years.
A HUGE shout out to Patrick for making cool things happen in Riverside.
SATURDAY MAY 28 8:00PM: Spike & Mikes Sick & Twisted Festival of Animation / Animation Outlaws | Fox Performing Arts Center, 3801 Mission Inn Av, (951) 779-9804 | Tickets $16 | 18+
Summer of Soul at The Culver Screening Room
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, The Culver Screening Room will feature Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised).
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson took the forgotten film footage of 1969's Harlem Cultural Festival and created a celebration of community coming together in the healing power of music.
It's thrilling to see the live performances from R&B, gospel, and jazz artists. A young Stevie Wonder commands a drum set with funky authority before switching to a clavinet / wah-wah combo and sound that foretells his 1970s streak of classics. Sly & the Family Stone delivers a sweet, inclusive multi-culti dance party. And a young, adorable Gladys Knight and her Pips show off their already impeccable vocals and choreography.
What hit me most of all was the atmosphere. The warm stage tones (lit only by the sun) and the faces of the audience in Mount Morris Park in the summer of 1969. The stories of the people who attended bring the present to the past and underscore how far we've come and how for we've yet to go.
Yes, this film is on the streaming services but it will be something special on the Culver screen.
FRIDAY MAY 27 7:00PM / SATURDAY MAY 28 3:00PM, 7:00PM / SUNDAY MAY 29 1:00PM
Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) | Culver Center of the Arts, 3834 Main St, (951) 827-4787 | Tickets $5-$10, Matinees $5-$8
Last Chance for Mystery with The Riverside Community Players
It's the closing weekend for Riverside Community Players’ production of Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. There are two evening shows on Friday and Saturday, and two matinees Saturday and Sunday.
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