San Diego's Top Weekend Events: American Fireworks And New Zealand Comedy

I am Tom Fudge in for Maureen Cavanaugh and you are listening to KPBS Midday Edition, it's the Fourth of July weekend coming up and KPBS arts producer and editor Nina is here with me to talk about San Diego's top weekend of friends, good to see you. Hello. The San Diego Symphony will celebrate America's birthday with its grand star-spangled pops, what happens at this performance? This is a get ready before the Fourth of July, it is the season opener for summer pops, they are going to be playing music for movies, Broadway show tunes, popular songs, there will be a military salute and free concert activities for kids starting at 6 PM. Will there be fireworks? Oyez, it's not technically the Fourth of July but there will still your grand fireworks finale every night. I have been calling it the summer pops but I should not because it has a new name? Yes, they are calling themselves bayside summer nights, it's a new diverse lineup in the new Jazz series and a Sunday Sunset lineup. I believe you want to talk about some other concerts that we can look forward to in the future? Yes, people associate summer pops with classical music but this year there will be a lot of tributes on the actual Fourth of July there is a tribute to Johnny Cash. There is a salute on July 4 team, the Beatles program on the 15th and 16th, there is one my family is looking forward to in that a sing-along with driveway on August 5 and sixth. In a Raiders of the lost Ark movie screening with music on August 19. One that a lot of people are looking forward to is a concert or concerts that are playing around, con. Yes, they do fun shows during the event and this year they have some concerts that are going to be like video games, they will play the music of video games like Zelda and there could be some surprises, last year they did a secret Star Wars concert where they just brought people that were over there to bring and see the star were show. We have an lazy clip of that. Let's hear it. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] The secret is revealed when they played the Star Wars music. You can see it's not like your dad summer pop. The San Diego Symphony kicks off the new season with star-spangled pops on Friday and Saturday and if you are looking for more events you will find a comprehensive list at our website www.kpbs.org Moving on, we are in the middle of summer movie season but in San Diego that has a different meaning is there is more than one dozen spots around the county where people can watch movies outside, often for free. Tell us about these outdoor movie screenings. San Diego has the perfect night weather, it is cool, there is no bugs and outdoor movie screenings are growing in popularity. You can find free family films at parks all over and there are themed nights at the Museum of art and the classic films with wine, you can find out for movies by the pool. This week and there are unique events? Yes, there's a new series at the Hotel Del and they will be screening the Wizard of Oz, they haven't beachfront Mann said they will be screening not on Friday. Then field of dreams will be broadcast aboard the USS Midway on Saturday. Then you can find the original Ghostbusters over at liberty station also on Saturday. Arete, how does all this work, due to show up? Normally you show up and you always have to go a little early to secure a spot, a lot of these are free so people show up to get their places and you can bring picnics, a good thing to do is bring a sweater and you will be out for a late night because the films to start after sunset. Sounds fun are there other events? Yes, definitely people should check out summer movies and the park because every weekend may have free movies and neighborhood parks all over San Diego. Another one that people like is the Stone movie nights because they have offbeat films like this year they are doing the jerk and raising Arizona. There is a new one by the Latino film Festival and they are mixing Latin family and new movies and they will have activities before hand. Quite a variety and you will find a list of these outdoor summer movies for us on the KPBS arts calendar which is www.kpbs.org /arts. Finally, if you are in the mood for a comedy rock concert, don't you find yourself in that mood occasionally? The flight of the Concordes will be in town and tell us more about this band. They are in New Zealand duo that combine dry humor with indie music in the if unique sounds, it's hard to explain so I will play a clip. [Music] Is this been popular? Yes, this video is the guys go into the café and when they start singing in French it turns into a French movie, they had an HBO show called flight of the Concordes from 2007 two 2009, that is where they got their following and they were offered to go on Saturday night live back then and they turned it down. Tell us a little more about the guys in the group. It consists of Bret McKenzie and he won an Oscar in 2012 for a song he wrote for the new Muppet movie, called man or Muppet and Jermaine Clement is a lot of acting and voiceover work, you could've heard amid Brio or The Simpsons, he is everywhere. Side of the Concordes performed Saturday at the open-air theater and I have been speaking about weekend events with the KPBS arts producer and editor Nina Garin, thanks for coming in. Thank you, have a good weekend.