By Steven T. Jones
Formerly jailed blogger Josh Wolf faced off against Stephen Colbert’s pseudo-conservative schtick and wit last night on the Colbert Report — and Wolf came through it like a champ. Check it out for yourself, here. BTW, Josh, love the mohawk and suit combo.
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Pixel Vision
Dell’uva: my kind of wine bar
By Molly Freedenberg
I like wine bars. Not only for the obvious reason — good wine — but because they tend to be small, intimate, and a bit quiet – the perfect place for an intimate conversation or romantic rendezvous. The thing about them, though, is they also often tend to be pretentious. Or stark. Or cold. Or all of the above. And this is too bad for someone like me, who enjoys the occasional dress-up affair but is more of a Pabst and jeans and easy laughter kind of girl.
Enter Dell’uva, a brand spanking new (as in, less than a month old) wine bar in North Beach. This place has the ambience of a nice coffee shop, the soundtrack of a good neighborhood bar (you might hear hip hop, indie rock, or reggae on any given night), and the visual stimulation of a sports bar (yes, there are TVs showing basketball and football – though I’m trying to convince the owners to host a Lost night when the season starts up again).
I’d dump her too
By Molly Freedenberg
I must admit, I was excited about . I like Debra Messing. I liked the First Wives Club. And I have some kind of strange, in-born affinity for the dumped, abandoned, lost, and unappreciated. (Charlie brown Christmas tree, anyone?) So I was primed and prepared to like the Will and Grace star’s new USA TV show (which premiered May 31). What’s more, the first time I saw it I was drunk, tired, and suffering the kind of insomnia born of too much wine and too much Diet Coke.
But.
Even so.
I found the show cheesy. And irrelevant. And overacted. I can’t look past the fact that it’s a navel-gazing premise about a Hollywood executive’s wife who’s left to suffer the indignities of not getting in the good restaurants (the horror!) or hanging out with the celebrities (even more horror!) after her high powered husband dumps her without warning ort explanation. Maybe this resonates with Beverly Hills first wives, but there’s nothing universal enough in this show to extend beyond that demographic. At least, not in the first episode. “And I’m not sure there’s enough here for me to give it a second shot.
Of course, I am a never-married journalist living on a salary that affords me the kind of luxury you can enjoy with three roommates and no in-house washing machine, so I might be biased. But still. There’s so much potential with this actress (I refuse to call her an “actor”) and with this premise. Why waste it on Hollywood clichés?
Sigh.
Back to DVDs of Buffy and reruns of Lost for me.
Ye olde Expansion: days of wine and roses
By Stephen Torres
Back when I was bright-eyed youngin’ in the city and my liver was still shiny and hale, I made my daily bread by working at the recently deceased MacArthur Park in Jackson Square. This was right before the dot.com belle-époque had a meeting with its maker, and times were fast and easy.
We had a pretty fun, outgoing crew at MacArthur, and one of my co-workers, Robin, tended bar part-time at some place called the Expansion up on Church and Market. Like I said, these were the days when my experience in the ways of the gin bin was still relatively little, however it would be this crusty old watering hole that would guide me into being a full-fledged pro.
Cool shit: A brief history of women in art
posted by Molly Freedenberg
By “brief” I mean 3 minutes. And by “history” I mean 500 years.
Sure, it gets a little tedious after awhile. But tell me that shit isn’t cool.
Money for nothing and the booze for free
By Molly Freedenberg
During the summer of 2000, as a a recent college grad with a lot of desire to drink and only a little money with which to do it, I made a chart of Portland bars’ happy hours, drink specials, and free food nights so I’d always have know where to drink affordably. The chart was divided by day. It was color coded. It also was a ridiculous waste of time – particularly since bar policies change so often that my chart was quickly rendered obsolete.
But I stand by the fact that the idea of such a resource was a good idea: for example, it’s Wednesday, it’s two o’clock, and I’m thirsty. Oh look! The chart says it’s half off beers at My Father’s Place right now! … or whatever.
New York businesses already know that giving away alcohol is actually in their best interest. But Bay Area bars still need to catch on. “I never thought I’d say it, but SF needs to loosen up a bit,” said myopenbar staff writer Dave Schonenberg.
Well, the folks at sf.myopenbar have taken that idea (not from me, mind you) and improved upon it by about a thousand perfect. These wise folks compile a list of all the ways and places to drink for cheap or free in the SF area. And they’re actually places you’d want to go, like Amnesia for karaoke and $2 PBR, El Rio for free oysters and $2.50 drinks (today), or the Swap SF event for vodka, coffee, and clothes-sharing for $5 (Saturday). Plus, they include events like Critical Mass (Drinking on your bike is free, isn’t it?) and art gallery openings.
Arrrooo! ‘Oceans Thirteen’ vs. cougars
OK, someone has to voice it: was I the only one who detected a whiff of misogyny in the latest three-quel to shamble lazily into our movie theaters, Oceans Thirteen?
Ellen Barkin’s ruthless manager Abigale Sponder inflicts her rigid beauty standards on a would-be casino cocktail waitress.
Ladies note: all that self-tanner use is admirable ‘n’ all – kudos especially for the job around the wrinkly peepers of Al Pacino – but what’s with Steven Soderbergh and company’s conflicted treatment of the bad girl of the piece: Pacino’s assistant Abigale Sponder, played by Ellen Barkin who’s sexed up in a tight hot-pink sheath, boobage jacked up to bubble-like Wonderbra proportions. Her chest literally steals the second half of the show: it’s impossible to look at anything else when she’s or they’re on screen. Is overt retro-sexism acceptable when it’s swathed in Rat Pack-style nostalgia and quasi-pro-sexy feminism? Yet the fact that the Matt Damon character – of all of the crew and in a faux honker to boot – can swoop the “cougar” as he calls her, is insulting. There’s no need to roll out the “real” weaponry like Brad Pitt.
Older women are ripe prey for any ole member of Danny Ocean’s crew?
On the surface, one might posit that Barkin’s lusty portrayal is empowering for older gals, but you can’t hide the contempt in the filmmaker’s gaze – never mind that she’s a bad guy’s moll in the style of Natasha and Boris. The fact she’s served up – the sole female “name” among the many Hollywood hotties – like a aging flesh sandwich as some sort of signifier of corruption in Ocean‘s glam universe, reeks of not-so-covert crone-bashing.
I’m all for juicier parts for older actresses, but do worthy players like Barkin need to stoop to this?
All hail Air Guitar Nation
Bang your head and break out your best moves, rockers. Director Alexandra Lipsitz’s Air Guitar Nation was one of the sweet, funny, and shockingly heart-warming surprises of the Asian American film fest this year; you get another chance to see it at the Red Vic today, June 7.
C-Diddy rocks the haus in Air Guitar Nation.
And if you’re still slacking, know that it comes out in August on DVD. Of course, if that’s not enough know that the real thing the doc is based upon – the US Air Guitar Championships started yesterday in DC and ends in SF at the Independent on June 28. So gentlemen – and ladies – start your night moves – and remember the US national finals are in NYC on Aug. 16 and the world championships are, as always, in Oulu, Finland in September.
I spoke to Lipsitz this spring when her doc took its first turn through SF theaters.
Director Alexandra Lipsitz.
Bay Guardian: What brought you to air guitar?
Alexandra Lipsitz: Kriston Rucker and Cedric Devitt, the guys in the movie who are the narrators – they read about it in the Wall Street Journal, went and filmed in Finland in 2002 and came back and pitched it as a television show to Magic Elves, the company I work with. My sister owns the company, Jane Lipsitz, along with Dan Cutforth. We do shows like Project Greenlight, Project Runway, Top Chef, Last Comic Standing, a lot of reality TV shows. Kriston and Cedric brought the idea to them as sort of an anti-American Idol television show.
Pop! goes Monterey
By Molly Freedenberg
In case you hadn’t heard (though you’d have to have spent the past two months on acid to have missed the news by now), this year is the 40th anniversary of just about every major event that defined the music and culture of the 60s. Which means this summer should be full of all kinds of cool, interesting, psychedelic, retro events celebrating that fact. (Check out our Summer Guide list of Summer of Love events to see some of them.) Like this one, a screening of a documentary about and made at the original Monterey Pop Festival (and an interview with the filmmaker). Sure, it’s in Monterey, but you were thinking of taking a road trip next weekend anyway, right?
And if you’re not sure what the hell I’m talking about or why you should care, check out the wikipedia entry on the Festival that launched the careers of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin to America, acted as the precursor to Woodstock, and brought Moog’s synthesizer to the Doors’ attention here.
Hip to be screwed
By Deborah Giattina
As always, a trip to the Commonwealth Club proved to be an edifying venture. For last night’s event, Hot Young Sommeliers (that’s pronounced so-mol-yay), the club rounded up three of the aforementioned creatures from the front houses of our city’s finest restaurants.
Now, I don’t know very much about wine, and young is such a relative term, n’est-ce pas? But I know hot, as in wouldn’t kick ‘em out of the sack, not as in a wine that heats your palette because it has too much alcohol (ew). And all three panelists–Mark Bright of Oola, Christie Dufault of Quince Restaurant, and Courtney Cochran, steward of the monthly Hip Tastes events–definitely met my grape expectations.
Oola’s hot sommelier, Mark Bright, gives his girlfriend a cool look
Thinking p.i.n.k.
By Molly Freedenberg
Some scientists try to cure cancer. Some build robots that vacuum our houses for us. But the really important scientists are the ones developing new beverages for upscale clients. Like p.i.n.k., a vodka that has caffeine and guarana already in it so you don’t have to mix it with cloying, syrupy, expensive Red Bull. Superfluous? Or brilliant? Can’t it be both? I’m sure you’re just dying to know…
See? p.i.n.k. is s.w.a.n.k. (Apparently, the name is an acronym for the distilling process, which is a ginormous company secret.)
Give me soccer or give me death
By Gazelle Emami
During World Cup fever about this time last year, I found soccer the way some people find religion. Or maybe it was more in the vein of finding yourself with a drug addiction. Either way, once it’s in your blood, soccer becomes a way of life, and it can make you crazy.
So as my friends and I rushed to the stadium Saturday afternoon for the U.S. Men’s National Team (MNT) vs. China match in San Jose, 20 minutes into the first half, hearing the crowd go wild over Marcus Beasley’s penalty goal for MNT, my heart sunk a little at the thought that I’d missed the only chance to see a goal that afternoon. But at the same time, the sound of that crowd made my heart beat a little quicker and my feet move a little faster. Was this panic or excitement I was feeling? This game can make your emotions go a little haywire.
The crispy crimson killer
By Stephen Torres
Spending a year in Mexico City provided some insight into the possibility of what is deemed edible. Like most cultures throughout the world, insects and their kin are considered delicious little morsels to not only chilangos (residents of the capital) but most folks throughout the country. They even have that sort of “adorable and delicious” relationship with some bugs that we share with say bunnies or piglets. One such example would be el chapulin (the grasshopper.)
Adorable, delicious … deadly?
Chapulines are a longtime mainstay of mexican culture stretching from the days of Tenoch all the way down to the lovable El Chapulin Colorado, a goofy superhero icon of mexican TV. Beyond that, however, they are also a tasty snack enjoyed my millions that are often compared to dried shrimp. You can get them pretty much anywhere in a bag to go with lime and chile or perhaps in a taco.
On this side of the border, however, they can be a little scarce and finding them even in the most extensive mexican grocery store can be tough. As a result, like most stuff down there, when you’re feeling a little nostalgic or homesick you just ask someone to stick some in their knapsack on their next visit home.
Catching the tail of BALLE
Gazelle Emami checks out Berkeley’s film-oriented BALLE Conference ….
The purpose of educational films—bear with me—are to inform the public. But here’s where they bump into their biggest obstacle. Unless Al Gore is at the helm, they’re probably not going to get wide viewing beyond festivals that are specifically geared toward showing films of their kind. Enter the first ever Business Alliance for Local Living Economies’ (BALLE) Conference Film Festival, a two-day event that was held this past Tuesday and Wednesday at UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Auditorium. The festival’s goal was to build positive sentiment for the BALLE Conference this weekend, kind of like a pep rally for the big game. BALLE, which represents 47 local networks and more than 15,000 small businesses and community organizations, holds an annual conference gathering the preeminent leaders in green industries to discuss pressing issues facing the economy.
Still from Manufactured Landscapes, a film the opened the conference
According to festival organizer Lisa Katovich, she knew they would be preaching to the choir for the most part. Therefore, Katovich and others tailored the festival’s content to approach the subject matter from a difference angle. So it didn’t really matter that only about 30 people were scattered around an auditorium that can hold roughly 700. By the end, at least all 30 left the room a little more enlightened, as opposed to the hundreds that left Spiderman 3 disappointed, if not a little dumber.
Love is in the air
By Beth Gilomen
I’m new to the city and don’t know many people yet, so I must admit, I’ve been browsing the craigslist missed connections for the last two weeks, passively hoping that someone out there wants to meet me. So far, no luck. But here’s what I have found: there are a lot of you in San Francisco looking for some love in your lives. I feel for you, and apparently, so do the people running this year’s Carnaval San Francisco . The 29th annual bash kicks off this Saturday with the theme Love Happens.
In addition to the usual activities, such as a parade, music, and dancing, this year’s celebration of Latin American and Caribbean cultures will feature speed dating (for those of you ready to get off the computer and reconnect with the real world) and weddings/ commitment (or re-commitment) ceremonies. The ceremonies take place right before the parade on Sunday – and, really, what better way is there to celebrate new unions than a community reception like Carnaval?
So, as cliché as this sounds, give your laptop a rest, go outside, and let a little love happen to you this weekend. I’ll be out there with you.
P.S. If you’re not quite ready to escape the Internet dating circuit, Carnaval SF offers an online dating service as well at www.carnavalsf.com/love .
Beauty with bite
By Beth Gilomen
Visiting the Conservatory of Flowers’ current special exhibit, Chomp, flooded me with memories of fourth grade field trips – if they’d had a “Little Shop of Horrors” theme. Yes, the playfully titled show features carnivorous plants from all over the world (that’s right, these plants eat meat), displayed almost too close for comfort.
I say “almost,” because I was assured that none of these hungry little predators are harmful to humans. Even sticking your finger inside a Nepenthes pitcher and leaving it there for a few days will only give you a sunburn-like discomfort. Of course, you wouldn’t want to let your pet mice near one.
Artsfest
Artsfest 2007 Arts Expo Attendees To Create Gaint Peace Sign
Collaborative Art Project Sponsored by MySpace.com
MySpace.com and the Bay Area’s Create Peace Project have teamed up with Artsfest to offer attendees of all ages at the Artsfest 2007 Arts Expo the opportunity to create a giant peace sign made from individually created peace cards.
Based on the idea that ‘what you create will change the world,’ this collaborative community art project is part of a daylong celebration of the arts on Saturday, May 19 from 11am to 6pm in front of San Francisco City Hall (Polk Street at McAllister).
The 32 foot by 32 foot peace sign engages participants to become ‘culture catalysts’ for peace. Furthermore, the sign is designed to travel to peace and community events throughout the summer and Artsfest 2007 organizers are arranging a location for its permanent display in the Bay Area thereafter. In addition to the on-site creation of this artwork, MySpacers can also create online video cards that will be uploaded to a peace card gallery at www.myspace.com/artsfest.
Artsfest 2007 Arts Expo is a free, family-friendly, multi-cultural event that features daylong entertainment including music, dance, theatre, spoken word, visual arts, fashion, food, a beer and wine garden and more. Headliners include the hot alt rock band RubberSideDown, Hot Pink Feathers, Blue Bone Express, Lutsinga Musical Ensemble, Youth Speaks and many others.
As a unifying non-profit organization in the San Francisco Bay Area, Artsfest is a culture catalyst that engages and connects people in the arts, business, media, non-profit, government and the public sectors by producing and promoting art events and services that inspire cooperation, creativity, commerce and a culturally vibrant community.
Visit Artsfest at www.Artsfestsf.org or Create Peace Project at www.createpeaceproject.org.
Support your local band…shell
Some people make plans to spend their summer drinking beer and barbecuing beef ribs. Others have slightly more ambitious goals. Like the people behind the Panhandle Bandshell project, a temporary installation made from reclaimed materials meant as a community performance and acoustic music space. These architects, artists, activists, freaks, friends, and volunteers are spending their whole summer doing manual labor for the collective good.
So how can we help them? (Other than drinking a beer and eating a rib in their honor?) There are all kinds of ways to be found on their website. But the most immediate is to stop by tonight’s fundraising event at Madrone. There will be a silent auction featuring local merchant wares and art, a short bandshell design presentation, and music and performance by Dr. Abacus, Allison Lovejoy, Clide vs Crocodiles,Cohen, and DJ Delachaux.
INFO: Wednesday, May 16. 8pm-2am. $5-$20 sliding scale. Madrone Lounge, Divisadero at Fell, SF.
SFSYO: Celebrating 25 years of serving the community and kicking ass
By Molly Freedenberg
It’s rare that a youth orchestra performs Beethoven’s monumental Symphony No. 9, the one famous for being created after he went deaf (and also for being considered one of mankind’s greatest artistic achievements.) But the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, who will present the symphony on Sunday, May 20, is no ordinary youth orchestra.
No, this ensemble of 100 culturally diverse musicians ranging in age from 12 to 21 is considered one of the finest of its kind in the world. And that’s not just because it’s been providing tuition-free orchestral experience to youth for 25 years. It’s because the experience these kids are getting is a world-class, pre-professional caliber musical education. (After all, how often do you think youth orchestras get to work with Yo-Yo Ma and Isaac Stern the way SFSYO has? Answer: almost never.)
It’s basically a guarantee then, that Sunday’s 25th Anniversary concert will amaze and impress – especially considering the performance will include Grammy Award-winning San Francisco Symphony Chorus and four San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows as soloists. Oh yeah, and Colin McPhee’s Tabuh-Tabuhan, a work inspired by Indonesian gamelan music (you know, more of the usual youth orchestra fare…)
SFS YOUTH ORCHESTRA 25TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT (including post-concert reception and anniversary exhibit)
May 20, 2 p.m.
$10 general, $75 reserved
Davies Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness, SF
(415) 864-6000
sfsymphony.org
L’Bel of the ball
By Molly Freedenberg
We get press releases all the time asking us to consume things, listen to things, attend things, write about things – from the International Conference of This and Such (no, I usually don’t go) to caffeinated vodka (damn straight I’m going to try that one…). But unless these releases have something to do with what I’m working on right this second — as in, I’m invited to a press conference on proper pool enjoyment techniques the week I’m doing Summer Guide — or they’re offering me something I actually really want — as in, Hey! Have this pair of oxblood knee-high boots from Fluevog for free! — they usually go into the Pile o’ Papers to be Looked at and Thrown Away Later.
Forty feet o’ spa goodness
But not when I got the invite for a mini-facial, skin consultation, and make-up application from the cosmetics company L’Bel. I mean, hey. The release said “Mobile Spa.” I imagined it something like a fancy pizza delivery service: “Hello, I’d like to order a facial, a hand massage, and some flattery. Please hold the speech about how quitting smoking would be better for my skin. Please drop these off at 135 Mississippi in Potrero Hill at 2pm. Oh, wait. That’s nap time. How about 3?” Who can resist that? Not me, the girl whose vanity (I mean, uh, whose dedication to the health of her skin) is only matched by her supreme laziness.
Ain’t no trash in this trailer
Of blowjobs and SF Weekly’s spurious claims to great (arts) journalism
The SF Weekly’s obsession (jealous much?) with our 5/2 cover story on Vincent Gallo and the Mission Creek Music and Arts Festival is forcing me to put one of my credos – “Don’t make me cut you!” – into practice.
I read, or at least glance at, the Weekly. It’s one of the less rewarding requirements of my current job. So I couldn’t help but notice that its Sucka Free City column has launched two successive attacks on a recent profile I wrote about Gallo. Got that? That’s two different Weekly articles about one alleged “puff piece.” I guess there must be something to what we’re doing for them to be so strangely fixated.
I have better things to do, and better work to put in the paper, but I’ll use this blog to pick these Sucka Free City articles off one by one, talk a little about misogyny and lame Cro-Magnon straight journalist dude posturing – a relevant topic here – and then add some real observation about the state of arts journalism as executed, and I mean executed, by the SF Weekly and their overlords at the New Times, excuse me, Voice Media.
NIMBYs wanna 86 Club Six (updated)
UPDATE: I ADORE all the controversy this post is causing (thanks BeyondChron!). Admittedly I wrote this almost a month ago, then hightailed it to the jungles of Peru — just as the facts of the case were becoming clearer. Steve Jones elaborated on the case later in the game here. It’s encouraging that Sixth Street residents are organizing to protect their living conditions, but the reality is that Club Six is zoned properly and obeying the rules, as far as I know. And I stand by my opinion that Six is one of the liveliest clubs in the city. Also admittedly, I jumped to some distasteful conclusions right away (although I was acting at the time on the info available — like any good hothead blogger). But that’s the fun of being a drama queen.
So now some whiny “Not In My Backyard” folks are after one of the best big hip-hop/dubwize/ragga/house spots in the Bay — the six-and-a-half year-old Club Six.
I love Six — the subterranean downtown-ness of it — definitely a little rough around the edges, but nice and soft inside. The irony of this whole sad affair is that the complaining neighbors are saying that Six is too loud — ON SIXTH STREET! Bwahahaha! Are they kidding? Not only has Six’s owner, Angel Cruz, invested a ton o’ duckets into soundproofing the place, but — C’MON! –it’s Sixth Street. The rowdies on the street fart louder than Club Six.
Still, Six faces its license getting pulled for a month, which would break the place. Click here to read an open letter from Angel to the nightlife community, and see how you can help (PDF). Folks like us helped save Hole in the Wall last week — let’s pitch in and keep nightlife diverse in the Bay!
Science and Engineering: A Q&A with Vincent Gallo
Attention, Class of 2007: No matter your age, please read all the way to the end of this conversation with Vincent Gallo to discover what he hopes you will contribute to our future.
All curious others, get ready for an illustrated chat that moves through some of Gallo’s fave screen idols and non-auteur films to explore his ideas about making music and movies, and also includes my story about a lifesize wax candle of Richard Nixon’s head.
Cameos by Hilary Duff and Michael Jackson.
Week Two: San Francisco International Film Festival
WEDNESDAY, MAY 2
The Last Days of Yasser Arafat (Sherine Salama, Australia/Palestine, 2006)
When Australian filmmaker Salama finally does get to sit down with Yasser Arafat, she remarks that it’s the second-generation Palestinians who come back to their ancestral homeland. Salama, in any event, can’t seem to stay away; Last Days chronicles her two months-long attempts at interviewing Arafat in his Ramallah compound. The filmmaker has a weakness for stating the obvious and her visual style is nil, though her plight does open up a starkly comic portrait of Palestinian bureaucracy. Last Days is most compelling in its final minutes, when, without the voice-over, Salama documents Arafat’s coffin touching down in Ramallah, the helicopter swarmed by a startling crowd of thousands. 1:15 p.m., Kabuki; Sun/6, 6:15 p.m., Kabuki. (Max Goldberg)
The Last Days of Yasser Arafat