Pixel Vision Archives — Page 112 of 133 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

‘Tokyo Gore Police,’ ‘Machine Girl’ splash down at Hole in the Head’s finale

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June 20, 2008

One-armed bandit: Machine Girl‘s Asami lost an arm in her battle against a shady ninja family, but that doesn’t mean you should stand in the way of her quest for vengeance (witness the poor slob in the rear).

Ho boy, are you ready for the nightmares? That’s practically guaranteed this weekend as the Another Hole in the Head fest closes out with its final mow-down. Fans of arterial spray, extreme Japanese filmmaking, random acts of unkind dismemberment, and fatal flying guillotines will be able to get their geek on one last, but hella amazing time with this last-minute double feature of Japanese shock-and-argh at Brava, showcasing the late add Tokyo Gore Police and crowd fave Machine Girl. The quickie downlow:

MACHINE GIRL

Possibly the most exuberantly bloody and cartoonish offering in the fest, which bites off/pays homage to Grindhouse AND Kill Bill. This archetypal Japanese revenge story – passionate and cruel by turns – hinges on the trials and tribulations of Ami Hyuga (Asami), a high-school basketball nut, fresh-faced daughter of an accused killer, and loyal big sister. Her younger brother becomes snared by spiralling gambling (!?) debts and ends up in hock to the local budding young hoods, including the son of a yakuza/ninja kingpin (whose devil ‘do bears a remarkable resemblance to that of Prodigy’s lead vocalist) – it doesn’t end prettily. Something snaps in Ami, and she goes after the kids responsible for her bro’s death, only to come up against a formidable array of monstrous parents driven to protect their equally rotten offspring. Losing her arm – slowly – in a nasty torture scene just sends her over the edge. Don’t even ask yourself how she can possibly operate a attachable machine gun with a stump – Rose MacGowan figured out how in Planet Terror, so can she.

You won’t soon forget the memorably ’60s-ish comicbook-like action sequence opener, evocative of both Seijun Suzuki and Sin City, or the finale, less a balletic bloodbath than a completely over-the-top showdown between the “Super Mourner Gang” of grieving parents (just because your son chose to become a ninja doesn’t mean you don’t hurt), giant holes blasted in bodies, a driller bra donned by the meanest mama ever, and a scalping scene that combines disco strobing and an almost Looney Tunes-esque dark comedy.

TOKYO GORE POLICE

Also produced by the venerable exploitation house Nikkatsu (well, they made all kinds of films, though their “roman porno” and “pink” softcore films brought them infamy) with a few of the same actors popping up, Tokyo Gore Police is the eagerly awaited, latest turn by the cruelly beauteous Audition S&M star Eihi Shiina. Here, she’s a girl cop – part of a sinister Philip K. Dick-ish privatized police squad commissioned with ridding the world of monstrous psychopaths who grow weapons out of whatever body part they lose. Sound familiar? Yes, these are the same good – or bad, depending on how you feel about this level of gore – people at Nikkatsu who gave you Machine Girl.

Directed by first-time auteur Yoshihiro Nishimura (who crafted special effects makeup for Machine GIrl, the also memorable Hole in the Head features Exte and Meatball Machine), Tokyo Gore Police is chock-full of disturbing scenes: point-blank exploding heads (recurring like a child’s bad dreams), exposed brains, intimations of limbless sexual servitude, and natch the Snail Girl, above. But the movie’s blend of Ultraman live-action monster brouhahas and a Burner-y, nouveau goth-steampunk aesthetic that, personally, pulls me out of the narrative. I felt a little less invested in Tokyo Gore Police than the more, ahem, classically B-minded Machine Girl. But, hey, this isn’t a competition – unless you want to see how far I can throw a severed hand – so stick around for both flicks. Shock fiends won’t be disappointed.

Creepy crawlies: Snail Girl

MACHINE GIRL AND TOKYO GORE POLICE
June 22, 6 and 8 p.m., call for price
Brava Theater
2781 24th St., SF
For tickets or more information, call (415) 820-3907
www.sfindie.com

Free glam lashings at Shu Uemura, all summer long

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June 19, 2008

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Color me impressed: the source (water) color palette from Shu Uemura‘s limited-edition summer collection, Hana-bi.

I had too much sake to steer last night – the Muni was just the ticket after the fab lil’ get-together at Shu Uemura‘s Fillmore Street boutique. Shopping Spy dug the Osaka sashimi and sushi and admired the diamond-lined lash jobs going down at the store’s Tokyo Lash Bar.

But even if you didn’t make the soiree last night, you can taste the pleasure of the (faux) lash as well. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the first Shu Uemura boutique in Tokyo, the store is offering complimentary eyelashes and lash application every Thursday beginning today, June 19, and continuing through July 31. Make an appointment for a spot between 5 and 7 p.m. Will your life – or your gorgeous peepers – ever be the same?

Shu Uemura
1971 Fillmore at Pine, SF
For reservations, call (415) 395-0953

Montreal Fringe Festival: on y va le Fringe!

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June 19, 2008

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By Nicole Gluckstern

It’s official, I’ve gone bi. Bi-coastally Fringe that is. The 18th annual Montreal Fringe Festival has begun, and I’m here to play my role. Like the San Francisco Fringe, of which I’m also a part, the Montreal Fringe offers an eclectic array of unjuried theatrical performances, from dance to drama, acrobatics to absurdities, spoken word to shadow puppetry. Unlike the SF Fringe however, Montreal is a major player in the Canadian Fringe Festival circuit, attracting a large variety of international performers, many of whom will spend the entire summer fringing on the road. It’s also one hell of a party. I’m not cheating on San Francisco, I reason. I’m broadening my horizons. If last year’s Montreal Fringe, my first, was but a dalliance, this year’s for real. While normally it’s fringe performers who do the touring, I figure that as a fringe technician, I shouldn’t have to get left out of the fun.

Fringe folk. Photo by Cindy Lopez.

And so it’s started. It’s humid and the air is redolent with cooking grease from nearby fry haven (heaven!), Patati Patata, as the Fringe kicks off in the Parc des Amèriques with a performance from local lo-fi band, The Unsettlers. My new favorite band! Whisky-soaked is such a cliche by now, so I’ll just say the lead vocals rasp purposfully somewhere between Tom Waits, Mark Lanegan, and the Pogues, while the band keeps the shipwrecked melodies trembling and swinging with a variety of duct-tape repaired instruments such as the accordian, the bowed bass, harmonium, trombone, clarinet, a kickdrum made of an industrial plastic garbage can, and a two-foot tall baby grand piano.

I’m a highway star

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June 18, 2008

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By Dona Bridges

From Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof, the last great car movie

June is here at last, and the door to summer is swinging on its green hinges—we may even get one of those fabled, rare warm nights tonight. Last night I saw some girls optimistically wearing shorts and flip-flops after the sun went down and the temperature plunged, but I figured they were from England, like the guy who mythologized those almost non-existent “Warm San Franciscan Nights.” Or maybe they’re hot blooded, check it and see. Who knows?

Usually, I’m happy to stay in my fair city during the month of June even if I can sometimes still see my breath at night. We have summer sunshine all day long; we have gorgeous parks in which to sip (or chug) rose and High Life; and we have Pride, which I’m sure is going to be even more off the hook than usual due to righteous gay marriage hoopla.

This June, however, I’m going to make like a tree and get out of here.

Quickies: Fast reviews of Frameline fest films

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June 18, 2008

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Still from The Lost Coast

FRIDAY, JUNE 20
The Lost Coast (Gabriel Fleming, US, 2008) Writer-director Fleming recorded location sound for Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy (2006), and all that time spent in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains must have rubbed off on him. His sophomore film is also steeped in a fog-kissed poetic naturalism, and it gives as much screen time to California’s rugged coastline — and its urban approximation in Golden Gate Park — as it does to the pair of longtime male friends at its center. Old Joy’s homosocial hiking retreat is swapped for a listless Halloween all-nighter, after which Jasper and Mark must confront the lingering memory of a high school tryst. Ian Scott McGregor and Lucas Alifano’s fine performances give this brief feature’s familiar premise unexpected emotional weight. (Matt Sussman)
10 p.m., Victoria
Saturn in Opposition (Ferzan Ozpetek, Italy, 2007) Keats’ epitaph “Here lies one whose name was writ in water” could just as well apply to Lorenzo, the handsome, successful sun around which orbit a fractious but loving circle of forty-something friends in Ferzan Ozpetek’s anticipated return to Frameline. Ozpetek (Steam, 1995) takes his time introducing Lorenzo’s makeshift family of ex-lovers, coworkers, yakhnes and admirers — each beautifully acted — before the character suffers a freak stroke. The sudden tragedy causes the group to reevaluate the forces that undermined and sustained their relationship with Lorenzo — and with each other — as they struggle to confront their grief. Ozpetek has crafted an unassuming but deft ensemble drama that earns every hanky it calls for. (Sussman)
9:15 p.m., Castro

Local Artist of the Week: Julie Chang

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June 17, 2008

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LOCAL ARTIST Julie Chang
TITLE Riding Home
THE STORY This is part of a series of 10 paintings interpreting the early Buddhist “Ox-Herding Pictures” describing the path to enlightenment. While the first depictions can be traced to the 12th-century Chinese zen master Kuoan Shiyuan, Chang’s translation is rooted in her experience as a first generation Chinese American growing up in Orange County. Recycled imagery — from family photos, textile designs, pop culture, and logos on Chinese takeout bags — forms the basis for much of the work.
BIO Julie Chang received her MFA from Stanford in 2007 and is currently an artist in residence at the Headlands Center for the Arts.
SHOW “Summer Reading: Artists Interpret Literature.” Thurs/21 through August 9; Tues.–Sat., 11 a.m.–5:30 p.m. Hosfelt Gallery SF, 430 Clementina, SF. (415) 495-5454. Solo show at Hosfelt Gallery in New York in April 2009. www.hosfeltgallery.com
WEB SITE www. juliewchang.com

Semi-conscious consumerism: Nike + American Apparel = what, exactly

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June 13, 2008

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By Justin Juul

I know I’m not supposed to buy Nike shoes because they’re made by starving children in developing countries — unlike Converse, New Balance, and Reebok shoes which are all made by high-paid workers right here in San Francisco — but holy shit has Nike made an awesome sneaker. Their new Free-Everyday line has a super-streamlined look with a custom-colorway option, which is what really sealed the deal for me (mine are all grey with brick-red highlights).

But that’s not all. They also come with a little microchip you can slide into the sole. The chip pings to a bracelet (or an iPod) so you can monitor your progress. Also, if you’re a nerd, you can personalize the back of your new shoes with a two-word phrase. I was going to get “America Rules” emblazoned on mine, but there was a copyright issue so I chose “Manifest Destiny” instead. * Come on! Starving children are great and all, but really, how could I not buy a pair of these things?

You see, I’m a runner, but until I got my Nikes I was just a casual nighttime runner, a secretive runner if you will. Now, I’m a machine. I’ve already clocked 50 miles on my new kicks and I’ve got my sights set on running the first half of the SF marathon in August. Why the sudden change? Well, it sucks to admit, but I’ve never publicly expressed my love for running because runners are fucking dorks. Have you seen their shoes!? Before the Nike Free-Everyday was released, the only running shoes you could get –good ones, I’m talking about—looked like they’d been designed by colorblind robots from the planet Zorton. This isn’t 1986, guys. This isn’t Back to the Future II. Mismatched neon, totally useless plastic ridges, and air bubbles may have been cool at some point, but this is the nineties, man. I need my kicks to look fresh! And now they do. But compromising my morals wasn’t as easy as I thought it’d be. And soon, other problems began to surface

Fashion bug: Minnie Wilde puts wind in our sidewalk sales

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June 13, 2008

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Shopping Spy casts a gimlet eye upon yet another delectable little bargain extravaganza this weekend: local girly fave Minnie Wilde will be throwing a “Sunsational Sidewalk Sale,” Saturday, June 14, 11 a.m.-7 p.m., and Sunday, June 15, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Word has it that spring styles will be 25%-30% off, seasonal samples will go for $30 and up, and previous season’s backstock will be marked down to $20-$75. You just have to get on down to Minnie Wilde, 3266 21St. at Valencia, SF. (415) 642-wild.

Treasure Island welcomes vinyl dildos and tankers of lube

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June 12, 2008

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We honestly thought the Exotic Erotic Ball would be the last event to leave the beleaguered Cow Palace. But sure enough, we’ve just learned that the 28th annual “celebration of flesh, fetish and fantasy,” in fact, won’t be held at the legendary Daly City venue. Instead, organizers have moved it this year to Treasure Island. The ball’s operator says the event simply outgrew Cow Palace, but it may also have been Daly City’s campaign to get rid of the convention center and replace it with a massive development project to include a grocery store, condos and some chain retail outlets.

In announcing the move, Treasure Island’s director of operations, Mirian Saez, tried to get all hip and claim that the all-but-deserted sliver of land out in the middle of the Bay that developers are currently planning to build a small city on has a long history of hosting sordid celebrations of sin. During the 1939 World’s Fair held at Treasure Island, for instance, one of the most popular attractions was a strip show known as Sally Rand’s Nude Ranch where women wore cowboy hats, gun-belts, boots and not a lot else, according to a statement.

So, Treasure Island officials reasoned, why not have the Exotic Erotic Ball there, too? I mean, apparently they’ve been naked and banging each other out there for years anyway. Maybe that’s why Willie Brown had a particular fondness for sending patronage hacks out to Treasure Island’s administrative offices. Okay, that’s totally unfair.

The show’s producer, Howard Mauskopf, said in the statement that he loved Cow Palace, but the island will be a logistical improvement:

“We had big fun at the Cow Palace and threw some of our best parties ever at that site. But, on Treasure Island, we will have greater flexibility, and all the space we could possibly want. Plus, it’s one of San Francisco’s most idyllic and scenic waterside locations with unparalleled panoramic Bay views, and it has its own spicy and salacious past, just like the ball.”

According to the ball’s official history, it began in 1979 when Perry Mann hosted the shindig in his San Francisco penthouse apartment to collect campaign money for a presidential candidate running on the Nudist Party ticket at the time. His slogan? “I have nothing to hide.”

*Image courtesy Breaktaker.com.

Lit: Interview with Favianna Rodriguez

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June 11, 2008

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By Liam O’Donoghue

Favianna Rodriguez is from Oakland and she lives there today. She is the co-editor, along with Josh MacPhee, of Reproduce and Revolt: A Graphic Toolbox for the 21st Century Activist (Soft Skull Press, 192 pages, $19.95). On the eve of the book’s release party, she recently spoke about the project’s origins, forging connections between groups and the Bay Area’s role in activist art.

Cover of Reproduce and Revolt

SFBG: Even in the socially conscious art world, it’s usually men who get the most spotlight.So, first of all, I want to give you props for raising the profile of so many radical womyn artists with this book. Can you tell me about any challenges or goals specifically related to gender issues that you had with this project?

Favianna Rodriguez: I’m a first generation woman of color. My parents were immigrants. So it was very important to me for the book to represent not just women, but women of color. We’ve got lots of artists from Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Argentina in this book.
My co-editor, Josh MacPhee, is a white male – he’s cool, very anti-racist – but he understood that with a project like this, which involves getting global artists to submit royalty-free art, it was very important to have a woman of color in a leadership position. Of course, the political art world is male-dominated, so some of the sections, especially the “war and peace” chapter, were overwhelmingly male, and we really had to work on creating the balance of perspectives that we wanted [throughout the book].
But women of color aren’t the only ones that are generally under-represented – black men are another example. This book is just the first phase. We’re just getting started, because we’ve got a good selection of Latin American artists [featured in the book], but we want to expand to include more Asian and African artists with the next editions. It’s all about building networks.

SFBG: What inspired you to start this project?
FR: Josh was collecting graphics and I’d been talking with Bay Area women artists about doing something like this, so we decided to merge our projects. I wanted to make it a multilingual project and I brought in tech people so we could make this all happen online. This book was totally compiled and edited online. We did artist authorization documents and design and had political discussions online.
The book has over 300 images from 12 countries, and the Web site that will launch on July 1 is also going to be bilingual. It’s going to have all the graphics in high-resolution, available for download, because nobody wants to scan images anymore if they don’t have to.

Local Artist of the Week: Tara Tucker

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June 11, 2008

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LOCAL ARTIST Tara Tucker
TITLE Double Trouble
THE STORY “My work is about natural history and human psychology. All the animals in Double Trouble are from Africa. The secretary bird eats snakes. The snake in Double Trouble is a green mamba, a really dangerous part of the cobra family. The baboon is ‘me,’ and I’m hanging with my friend that is a bit of a user, but eats snakes.”
BIO Tara Tucker lives in Berkeley and teaches at Creative Growth in Oakland. She has an MFA in sculpture from California College of the Arts and is represented by Rena Bransten Gallery, where she had a solo show in 2007.
SHOW “Resisting Dominion: Nature and New Political Narratives,” Thurs/12 through August 16. Wed.–Sat., noon–5 p.m. Opening reception: Thurs/12, 6–8 p.m. San Francisco Arts Commission Art Gallery, 401 Van Ness, SF. (415) 554-6080. www.sfacgallery.org
WEB SITE www.taratucker.blogspot.com

Lit: Beautiful Children and what doesn’t stay in Vegas

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June 11, 2008

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By Todd Lavoie

The notion that Las Vegas is a playground for complete id-indulgence certainly holds resonance for a nonstop onslaught of tourists. But what is the city like for folks who work and live in such an environment?

It’s a question worth considering. Unfortunately, many answers are prone to the hypocritical grandstanding trotted out by self-described moralists such as William Bennett (whose fondness for Vegas’ betting tables, once it became public, ultimately proved more than a bit inconvenient for such posturing). Truth be told, one could probably gain more meaningful insight from the storylines of CSI: Las Vegas than from the wild-eyed Sodom and Gomorrah depictions of the city whipped up by preachers and political pundits. At least the TV show explores motives and surrounding circumstances rather than summarily damning everyone to hell.

The glitter-glue cover of Charles Bock’s Beautiful Children

A more valuable contribution to the dialogue has arrived with Charles Bock’s debut novel Beautiful Children (Random House, 417 pages, $25), a sweeping portrait of the author’s home town which strips away the city’s glittering veneer to reveal a degraded core. At the epicenter of Bock’s troubled Las Vegas landscape sits twelve-year-old Newell Ewing, a coddled, almost joyless boy — comic books are his chief source of comfort — who suddenly disappears from his affluent suburban home. Newell’s parents, Lincoln and Lorraine, are both haunted by personal compromises. They also have never bridged an understanding with their only child.

Happy birthday, pardner … splash!

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June 10, 2008

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This Wednesday at 6pm: Is there any better way to celebrate both John Wayne and the warm weather?

Yelp is on the way

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June 10, 2008

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By Dona Bridges

Sometimes I want to give you my heart, Yelp.com. I want to praise you in typo-ridden prose and give you that highest of all honors, the five star rating. You are a star, a soapbox, a great leveler of the playing field, where the voices of the people at last ring loud and clear, audible above advertisers and bullshit merchants.

Sure, some of my friends talk shit about you. They say that you’re too influential, and we now have to live and die by the sharply worded textual swords wielded by Laura B. or other (less hilarious) Yelp members. My restaurant co-workers click through your reviews and say, “What if I came to your workplace, then wrote about it on a highly trafficked website? While not bothering to fact check?” I might agree sometimes, especially when there’s a new review of my workplace that uses words like “slow,” “annoying,” or – how ’bout this —”bitch.”* I might roll my eyes, get all red in the face, and join the hating party: “Yeah! You come in here and do my job! Then I’ll yelp you until you cry!”

Is it me or the Marina?

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June 9, 2008

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Today, while walking down Union Street in the Marina in my green She-Bible mini dress, I got hit on twice in one block. And not just a whistle or a “damn, girl, you look good,” or even a “that’s a great dress,” (which I got earlier at the SFMTA office on Van Ness), but honest-to-god pick-ups. A tall guy in a baseball hat sitting outside a bank told me I was beautiful and asked where I was headed. “Working,” I said, and smiled as I walked quickly away.

Half a block later, a man on a motorcycle with an orange Mohawk helmet stopped his bike and asked where he was taking me to dinner.

I blame it on She-Bible, the local design team who made my badass green version of this dress.

White tigers: Your fierce queer arts week at a glance

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June 9, 2008

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Pride is a rock! Whether a diamond or a millstone depends on which side of the Miller Lite bottle you view the whole dang sprawling homolicious mess from. HOWEVER, as usual, there’s a plethora of amazing performances and events happening — not only the gargantuan upcoming Frameline and Queer Women of Color Film Fest (of which I and the fab Johnny Ray Huston write about in this Wednesday’s Guardian) but also the citywide 11th Annual National Queer Arts Festival, that started at the beginning of June and continues throughout. Here’s a few choice choices from the NQAF coming up this week.

BUT FIRST — bonus pics! did you know that Seigfried of Seigfried and Roy was in town on Saturday (at the the Castro’s Lookout Bar) to celebrate his 250th birthday with his “protege” Darren Romero, “The (Gay) Voice of (Twink) Magic”? See his wizardly wizened face below, with fab girl about town Miss Kate and kind-of-bitchy Gloss Magazine columnist Pollo Del Mar. (Photos by Darwin Bell.) Roy did not attend.

Now, out with the claws, and check here for more NQAF info and great events:

>>Kirk Read, This is the Thing

Kirk Read, photo by Ed Wolf

450 pound sex work clients, surly Guitar Center employees, teenage Satanism, and touring through rural Alabama with strippers — what else would you want an evening of spoken performance to deliver? Perennial SF literary hotshot Kirk Read takes on sex work, hallucinations, and the apocalypse in this multinight odyssey, with musical accompaniment by Jeffrey Alphonsus Mooney.
June 10-14, 8pm, $12-$15
The Garage
975 Howard
Tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/32515

Fashion bug: Prada, Built by Wendy sale it up

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June 7, 2008

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Cool and collected in Built by Wendy.

Shopping Spy eyes two lil’ sales that should be on all fashion-trawling bargain hunters’ radar.

One: fashionista staple Prada‘s painterly, juicy-cute spring/summer line is now on sale – don’t the models look like Karen Kilimnik waifs lost in a Oskar Kokoschka dreamscape? Love those crazzzeee-awesome tulip-heeled, jewel-hued shoes. I haven’t checked the sale out, but for those who wanna beat Shopping Spy to it, the SF store is at 140 Geary, SF. (415) 391-8844.

Is that actress Robin Tunney modeling the fall ’07 Built by Wendy line?

Two: Longtime coolster NYC label Built by Wendy is ushering in its new SF store with a neat lil’ sample sale. It started Friday – and lordy, the lines to the two dressing rooms were long. Not as bad as the windy queues for the Xbox or iPhone, but Shopping Spy thinks the new store can use more o’ those and full-length mirrors. Oh well, it’s a work in progress, much like your toils over those fab Built by Wendy sewing patterns.

The boutique is set to officially open on June 15, and in the meantime you can pick up bargains on their recent collections: mini-trenches, safety-pinned sweaters, striped shorts, cute jumpers, blouson-ish silk party frocks, and flower-strewn sexy-secretary blouses. No guitar straps in sight. Designer Wendy Mullins’ coats and jackets come in at around $140 on sale, the silk dresses are about $70, the tops are around $45-$60, T-shirts are $20, and bare, tied-strap cotton play-tops clock in at $10. Hey, there’s men’s stuff, too. The sample sale continues Saturday, June 7, noon-7 p.m., and Sunday, June 8, noon-6 p.m., at the new Built by Wendy San Francisco, 3520 20th St. between Valencia and Mission, SF. (415) 824-1582.

The real way to lick McCain

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June 6, 2008

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Courtesy of Bay Guardian production designer Jason Arnold

CupcakeCamp: Pastry Potlucking 2.0

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June 6, 2008

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By Susie Cagle

Nearly ten years after boutique New York bakeries and Carrie Bradshaw brought the lil’ cupper into the spotlight, it’s probably safe to say cupcakes have jumped the shark. Now you can find a cupcake novelty T-shirt in every clothing store, but you’re lucky to spot a nice simple brownie in the bakery case at the local coffee shop. If anyone would be sensitive to this overexposure, I’d think it would be trend-obsessed tech taste-makers, which is why CupcakeCamp — last Sunday’s bake-off for the 2.0 crowd — came as something of a surprise. This isn’t exactly the crowd I’d think of when I think of “cupcake people.”

So when I decided to go, I had an inkling of what I was getting into. But I truly wanted to believe that CupcakeCamp was just the sort of thing an earnest cupcaking socialist like me would like.

Built by Wendy causes pocket wriggles

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June 5, 2008

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By Dona Bridges

I could have sworn that my credit card wriggled in my pocket as I was walking along Valencia the other day in the glorious Mission sunshine. I figured it was a Pavlovian response to the red and white awning of Minnie Wilde, a frequent stop for me (and source of many, many free airline miles courtesy of United Visa). I shrugged off the supernatural tremor and walked on determinedly: later for you, my plastic frenemy.

Local Artist of the Week: Ryan Alexiev

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June 5, 2008

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LOCAL ARTIST Ryan Alexiev
TITLE Postcard invite for “The Land of a Million Cereals”
THE STORY Cereal is the most popular breakfast food, and the third most popular product in American supermarkets. Currently there are more than 400 cereals, primarily distinguished by their ad campaigns. The substance of cereal is, in this light, ideology. Through prints, sculpture, video, and drawings, “The Land of a Million Cereals” explores cereal’s history and importance as a paradigmatic consumer product. In the role of a Bulgarian peasant, Alexiev does battle with Frankenberry, who wields a powerful golden spoon — free in every box!
BIO Ryan Alexiev was born in Los Angeles and raised in Alaska by Bulgarian immigrants. He received a BFA in history from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004 and an MFA from California College of the Arts in 2007. He currently lives and works in San Francisco.
SHOW “The Land of a Million Cereals,” Fri/6 through July 12. Wed.–Sat., 1–6 p.m. or by appointment. Opening reception Fri/6, 6–9 p.m. Mission 17, 2111 Mission (Suite 401), SF. (415) 861-3144, www.mission17.org.
WEB SITE www.ryanalexiev.com

Hola, Maria! Alternaqueer Latinos get arty

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June 5, 2008

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Queer queer queer season is heating up — the monthlong National Queer Arts Fest is in full swing, Frameline Film Fest is set to explode — and the exuberant, popper-fueled alternaqueer-Latino arts subculture is ready to blow your mind this friday eve:

Featuring some of my fave art-intellects on the scene — Robert Guzman, Leo Herrera and Allan Herrera of HomoChic, and Jody Jock — this subversive Latin free-for-all is all about “how gay culture survives.” Plus, the reception tomorrow will be bursting with who’s-who hotties on the hoof. Incendiary artist statement after the jump.

Maria
Opening reception Fri/6, 7:30pm
Galleria De La Raza
2857 24th St.
(415) 827-8009
www.homochic.com

A touch of Warren Sonbert

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June 4, 2008

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Over the past month, Konrad Steiner of Kino 21 and I have presented two programs of films by Warren Sonbert. For me, it isn’t an overstatement to say the experience has been a revelation, and not just because opportunities to see this SF filmmaker’s work are rare.

The third and final night of our Sonbert series takes place Thursday, June 5, and it unites the complex montage and silent focus of the first program (Sonbert’s 1971 magnum opus Carriage Trade, which screened at SF Camerawork) with the musicality of the second program (“Pop Witness,” which connected Sonbert’s early Warhol- and Anger-inspired ‘60s films to his magnificent and distinctive return to sound over 20 years later).

Warren Sonbert

“Narrative Vertigo” has two parts. The first half belongs to the 1983 silent work A Woman’s Touch, where Sonbert takes inspiration from two mainstream Hollywood directors he especially loves, Douglas Sirk and Alfred Hitchcock. The second half brings 1991’s Short Fuse, a sound film completed four years before Sonbert’s AIDS-related death in 1995 at the age of 47. Sonbert had a flair for two-word titles, and Short Fuse is a poignant example: he crams a life more vibrant than most people’s dreams into 37 minutes.

Come see it with me if you’re free.

Kino 21 presents
Films of Warren Sonbert: “Narrative Vertigo”
Thursday, June 5, 8 p.m.; $6
Artists’ Television Access
992 Valencia, SF
www.kino21.org

Another Hole in the Head: another couple of reviews!

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June 4, 2008

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The San Francisco Independent Film Festival’s sci-fi, horror, and fantasy offshoot Another Hole in the Head kicks off tomorrow! Read Trash’s take on HoleHead’s offerings here; intrepid film intern Amber Humphrey chimes in below with mini-reviews of two fest flicks that just happen to be made by local filmmakers. Check HoleHead’s website for screening information.

Circulation In writer-director Ryan Harper’s unique vision of the afterlife, Gene, a retired American truck driver, and Ana, a Mexican waitress, meet while traveling through a desert purgatory where the dead gradually develop animal-like instincts. The story moves at a very deliberate pace and though there is an enjoyable sense of menace from start to finish — Ana’s jealous ex-husband stalks her, even in death — the film feels unnecessarily elusive. Gene seems like a pretty decent guy; so why is he turning into a blood-thirsty spider? This being said, Circulation may be worth watching simply for those oddly entertaining moments of fly regurgitation.

Homeworld When a race of telepathic aliens threaten to destroy mankind, a military strike team equipped with a deadly virus is sent to the alien home world to exterminate them. Down on the planet, what first appears to be a simple enough task is quickly complicated as the boundaries between reality and illusion and right and wrong are blurred. Homeworld primarily focuses on the crew’s psychological journey — which I suppose is to be expected when facing telepathic aliens—but the characters rarely seem to be in any kind of physical peril. Though the film is often visually impressive, there isn’t much action—which I would be willing to forgive if the dialogue had a little more punch.