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American Idol: The Diddy and Hilfiger edition

Andrew Lam
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Two things:

1. You can’t do a whole American Idol with a Billy Joel theme. He didn’t write any good songs, and most of them are really bad. All it does it make the contestants look lame.

2. Diddy’s not much of a song coach. Tommy Hilfiger, this week’s celebrity fashion guru, has no idea how to dress performers for the show. Every suggestion they made was dumb. Every contestant who wore Hilfiger’s picks looked horrible, out of place, ridiculous. Sell some jeans, Tommy.

Actually, three things:

3. The only one who got how stupid all of this was and responded in style was Heejun, who made fun of the whole spectacle, pissed off Steven Tyler (who never gets mad), confused J-Lo and Randy — and had me laughing so hard I almost lost my Bud Light.

On to the show:

J-Lo, as always, looks gorgeous. Steven might as well be wearing pajamas. Randy needs to lose the weird pins on his shirt.

Deandre tries “Only the Good Die Young.” Diddy tells him to look J-Lo right in the eye, because “she’s a Catholic girl and she’ll get it.” He doesn’t. The song is nothing but pop schlock; he does the best he can, but you know, garbage in, garbage out.

Erika. “New York State of Mind.” A painful dirge. Viv’s OK with it. I hate it.

Joshua. “She’s Gone Away.” Whatever.

Skylar. “Shameless.” The best of the night so far; she makes a dumb song sound kinda country. Except that outfit! Tommy! Sell some jeans. Go away.

Elise. “Vienna.” At least she sounds like a smoky lounge singer, and since Billy Joel pretty much defines bad lounge singer, it worked.

Phillip. “Moving’ Out.” Totally different from the original, like a new song, with almost a punk edge to it. Nice. Best interpretation of Billy Joel ever.

Holli. “Honesty.” Terrible song, great singer.

And then Heejun. This guy’s a winner. He made fun of Tommy Hilfiger, made fun of the whole fashion-statement thing, made fun of the piano player — and really, really made fun of Billy Joel. “My Life” is one of the worst BJ songs ever, which is saying something, and Heejun raced around and sang it like he was making a joke on everyone, starting with the songwriter. Amazing. The best and only AI parody in history. Steven was angry from the start — he realized immediately that this was a goof, and at the end he told Heejun that “at some point, you have to take it more seriously.” J-Lo didn’t quite get the joke (or maybe she did), but she did call it “a breath of fresh air.” Ayup.

Jessica. “Everybody Has a Dream.” She’s such a great singer, even this crap can’t hold her down. Colton. Someone had to do “Piano Man,” and he plays the piano, so why not. Viv loved it. J-Lo got the “goosies” again. Me? I love Jennifer’s goosies, but I’ll pass on the Piano Man.

Heejun was in the bottom two, since America clearly has no sense of humor, but he survived and Erika’s gone home, new hairdo and all. Catch you next week.

 

 

Get ‘Wilde’: Al Pacino’s new doc receives red carpet opening at Castro

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Get ‘Wilde’: Al Pacino’s new doc receives red carpet opening at Castro

All my amigo Morlock E. wants to know is where Frank Chu is, since Frank Chu is still a fairly good indicator of being at the most happening event of the evening — or at any rate the one with the most television cameras. But instead of Frank, all we see is a crush of autograph seekers pressed against the velvet rope separating them from the red carpet unfurled outside the Castro Theatre. They’re not here to see Frank Chu, and in truth, neither are we. We’re here to get a photo of Al Pacino and maybe touch the hem of his cloak, at the US premiere of his latest project, a documentary entitled Wilde Salome.

Since it’s not every day San Francisco gets to play host to a big premiere, the Wed/21 turnout is robust, convivial. Also a fundraiser for the GLBT Historical Society — there are some quite dapper dandies in attendance, an element one feels certain Wilde would have approved of. But one gets the impression that the autograph-hounds are less enamored with the Wildean aspect of the event rather than the chance to shake the hand of Scarface, but Wilde, with his penchant for “rough trade” might well have approved of that too.


Morlock perks up when a gigantic luxury mobile pulls up and disgorges a gaggle of socialites onto the red carpet. “Are they escorts?” he demands to know. He indicates the license plate, ESCORT1 as proof, but attempting to explain custom business plates to contrarians is really a wasted effort, so I let it go as the ladies line up against a somewhat unimpressive backdrop of sponsorship logos and dimple cutely for the cameras. In truth, it’s the mechanics of events like these that interest me most, everyone doggedly intent on playing their respective roles, from the principles to the sycophants.

Morlock’s base improv is a small wrench in the smoothly-rehearsed order of things, but fortunately we don’t have much longer to wait. Another sleek black vehicle rolls up and Pacino rolls out. And like the red sea caving back in on top of the Egyptians, the orderly crowd becomes a desperate, notebook-waving mob. Expertly hustled through the throng, Pacino poses quickly against the backdrop before being swept inside by security. And there, in his scattered wake, we finally spot Frank Chu. It’s always good to see a familiar face.

It’s been 130 years since Oscar Wilde was himself in San Francisco — March 26, 1882 to be precise — and close to 30 years since Pacino played The Curran Theatre as Teach in David Mamet’s “American Buffalo,” but in Pacino’s good-humored introductory speech, he expressed his fondness for his San Francisco days, appropriately framed against a similarly complimentary Oscar Wilde quote about our torrid Babylon.

In the vein of Looking for Richard, Wilde Salome began as a personal project of Pacino’s, who admits to having made several such documentaries in the past, though Richard is the only one that he’s ever released—until now. Tracing the circuitous path of a method actor in search of not just his character but also the motivations of that character’s creator, Wilde Salome is partly an exploration of Oscar Wilde’s most controversial play “Salome,” and partly an exploration of the man himself. Filmed in part during a run of Oscar Wilde’s “Salome,” at the Wadsworth theatre in LA, in which Pacino played King Herod, and in part in the company of “experts,” (Gore Vidal, Tom Stoppard, Tony Kushner, and Bono to name a few) fleshing out the historical details of Oscar Wilde’s life, the action unfolds in a series of non-chronological scenes with Pacino as the thread connecting them together.

Opening with the line “this is a story about an obsession” the film proceeds to delve into about a dozen: Pacino’s obsession with both his portrayal of Herod and Wilde, Wilde’s obsession with his boorish lover “Bosie” (Lord Alfred Douglas), Herod’s obsession with his step-daughter Salome, Salome’s obsession with the prophet Jokanaan, Film Producer Barry Navidi’s obsession with their tight shooting schedule, and even each individual actor’s quirky backstage rituals. In one scene, Pacino throws a party, in order to instill the impression of a raucous banquet gone too far in the actors, and especially in Jessica Chastain, whose intoxicatingly toxic portrayal as Salome speaks volumes on “the destructive power of sexuality,” a Wildean parallel.

In fact, if the movie has a sleeper star it is certainly Chastain, whose actor’s instincts appear as sharply honed as those of any of her older co-stars, and her wrathful dance of the seven veils reads as practically a throwdown challenge to the old guard. Herod’s certainly. And maybe even Pacino’s. Though seeing Pacino graciously holding court at the Castro did give the impression that he’s got a few years in him before he’ll have to worry about being summarily dethroned.

Making burrata cheese with the Milk Maid

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As a little girl, I used to walk by a cheese shop in the neighborhood, flare my nostrils and exclaim “One day I want to work in a cheese shop.” That funky, musty fragrance has an intoxicating draw for me and always will. My one-month stint as a vegan in college failed only because I missed cheese too much. I still haven’t worked in a cheese shop, but when I heard about the cheese making classes with the Milk Maid, I just knew I had to go!


The Milk Maid, aka Louella Hill, is brimming with information and love for cheese. She has studied cheese making in Italy and across the East Coast and is currently working on a book about cheese making in her San Francisco home, which is jam-packed with all things moldy and milky.

The cheese class was held at an outdoor kitchen in the Ferry Building. We learned how to make burrata, a fresh, Italian-style cheese made of mozzarella and stuffed with a variety of creams, from thick cultured cream to sweet mascarpone. The process of making burrata involves melting fresh curd, forming a ball and then quickly stuffing it with cream. Sounds pretty simple, but it actually requires a lot of attention, speed, and probably years of practice. Luckily, everyone was just having too much fun to care about getting it perfect. When “mistakes” happened, they usually just ended up getting eaten. No great loss there.

After an hour of melting, pulling and stuffing, the Milk Maid sent us on a our way, but not without a slice of a gigantic moldy block of cheese that she was trying to get off her hands, and fixings to make more burrata in our own kitchens. On the very crowded bus ride home, I could smell the essence of gym-socks and super funk wafting up from my bag of goodies. I’m sure my commuter buddies were loving it. I sure was!

The performant: Lucky buggers

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Fortunate forays into entomophagy and Éire

In the estimable 1885 tome Why Not Eat Insects? (charmingly reprinted by Pryor Publications) Vincent M. Holt puts forth a simple culinary challenge, not in the contrarian vein of Jonathan Swift’s “Modest Proposal,” but apparently in earnest. Pointing out a few certain truths about bugs and arachnids often overlooked by the squeamish (their undeniable resemblance to crustaceans, their clean eating habits, and ready availability), Holt goes on to describe with epicurean delight the taste of butter- sautéed locusts and an equally buttery wood-louse sauce.
Entomophagy expert Daniella Martin whose well-documented fascination with creepy-crawly cuisine began with an encounter with “The Eat-A-Bug Cookbook,” by David George Gordon, gave a cooking demonstration of tempura-battered bugs rather appropriately in front of the Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum. Fisherman’s Wharf may not be a place especially known for enterprising culinary effort, but there certainly was foot traffic aplenty, and surprisingly, no shortage of volunteers to nosh from Martin’s unique “menu.”

Martin, a disarmingly charming hostess with a well-practiced patter gave a brief primer on prep (burning the hair off the tarantula with Bacardi 151, for instance) as she dunked her crispy critters in a pocket-sized fryer. The more intimidating insects were devoured first, since downing a scorpion tail imparts more bragging rights than a comparatively tame cockroach, and certainly there’s more meat on ‘em. In fact, from my vantage point, the pristine flesh of an Emperor scorpion looked very much like the other other white meat—and if Martin has her way, that might be exactly what we’ll be calling it in a few years.

There was no bug-eating in evidence at Amnesia on St. Pat’s, but plenty of lucky buggers milling about all the same. Just missed Sean Hayes by a whisker, but grabbed a front row spot just in time for Kelly McFarling. Accompanied by Tim Marcus on guitar and her own banjo, she shimmered effervescent through a short set of songs off of her debut album “Distractible Child,” including a lovely rendition of her hometown lament, “Atlanta,” which she performed as a duet with Megan Keely. After a tip of the hat to the old sod with a well-received cover of U2’s “One,” she surrendered the stage to The Barbary Ghosts, who sang a rollicking set of sea chanteys and drinking songs—both traditional and originals. Eminently danceable gems such as “I’se the B’y,” rubbed elbows with “Whiskey You’re the Devil,” and “Danny Boy” evoking a proper Irish spirit, though the Ghosts, whose ranks include Amnesia owner Shawn Magee, all actually hail from various corners of the US.

Speaking of evoked spirits, Shameless Seamus and the Aimless Amos’s managed to channel both the raucous unpredictability of a mid-’80s Shane McGowan gig and a Hobo junkyard band just tumbled from a rattling boxcar with a stage full of musicians including a Bouzouki, not enough microphones, some onstage moshing, and a well-timed stage dive or two. A leave no-blarney-stone-unturned setlist included Pogues’ classics (“Sally Maclennane,” “Dirty Old Town”), Irish folk tunes (“The Rattlin’ Bog”), and crowd-pleasing sing-alongs (“All For Me Grog”). One part Éire, one part alt-Americana, one part pure San Franciscan, the rollicking rowdies proved the perfect antidote to the panicked desperation that so often characterizes the dregs of “amateur night”, for which we were all lucky. Slàinte.

Street Threads: Look of the Day

Andrew Lam
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Street Threads: Look of the Day

Today’s look: Lexi, Dolores Park

Tell us about your look: “Your graffiti is tight as fuck.”

“Hunger Games” tix sold out? See one of these movies instead!

Sue Vaughan
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Reports are flooding in about sold-out Hunger Games woes. Don’t worry, you won’t have to hit up John Carter again for your cinematic fix — here’s a list of some great new films opening this weekend, from mad action to tender realism. For even more, hit up this week’s Film Listings. All films open Fri/23.

The Kid with a Bike Slippery as an eel, Cyril (Thomas Doret) is the bane of authorities as he tries to run away at any opportunity from school and a youth home — being convinced that the whole adult world is conspiring to keep his father away from him. During one such chase he literally runs into hair-salon proprietor Samantha (Cécile De France), who proves willing to host him on weekends away from his public facility, and is a patient, steadying influence despite his still somewhat exasperating behavior.

It’s she who orchestrates a meeting with his dad (Jerémié Renier, who played the child in the Dardennes’ 1996 breakthrough La Promesse), so Cyril can confront the hard fact that his pa not only can’t take care of him, he doesn’t much want to. Still looking for some kind of older male approval, Cyril falls too easily under the sway of Wes (Egon Di Mateo), a teenage thug whom everyone in Samantha’s neighborhood knows is bad news. This latest neorealist-style drama from Belgium’s Dardenne Brothers treads on very familiar ground for them, both in themes and terse execution. It’s well-acted, potent stuff, if less resonant in sum impact than their best work. (1:27) Embarcadero, Shattuck. (Dennis Harvey)

Drama not your thing? Hold onto your butts for this one…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0hSL3a_kaw

The Raid: Redemption As rip-roaring as they come, Indonesian import The Raid: Redemption (from, oddly, a Welsh writer-director, Gareth Huw Evans) arrives to reassure genre fans that action films are still being made without CG-embellished stunts, choppy editing, and gratuitous 3D. Fists, feet, and gnarly weapons do the heavy lifting in this otherwise simple tale of a taciturn special-forces cop (Iko Uwais) who’s part of a raid on a run-down, high-rise apartment building where all the tenants are crooks and the landlord is a penthouse-dwelling crime boss (Ray Sahetapy). Naturally, things go awry almost immediately, and floor-to-floor brawls (choreographed by Uwais and co-star Yayan Ruhian, whose character is aptly named “Mad Dog”) comprise nearly the entirety of the film; of particular interest is The Raid‘s focus on pencak silat, an indigenous Indonesian fighting style — though there are also plenty of thrilling gun battles, machete-thwackings, and other dangerous delights. Even better: Redemption is the first in a planned trilogy of films starring Uwais’ badass (yet morally rock-solid) character. Bring it! (1:40) Sundance Kabuki. (Cheryl Eddy)

Just looking for a feel-good movie (with added bonuses: cute cop, insane musicians)?

Sound of Noise The ingenious 2001 short Music for One Apartment and Six Drummers expands to feature length — and blankets an entire (unnamed) Scandinavian city in anarchic soundscapes — in Ola Simonsson and Johannes Stjärne Nilsson’s eccentric, engaging comedy. A cop (Bengt Nilsson) on the anti-terrorism squad also happens to be the only tone-deaf member of his musical-genius family; the fact that his name is Amadeus only makes his hatred of music all the more potent. When a mysterious band of percussionists begin holding disruptive performance-art “concerts” in odd places (a hospital, a bank), Amadeus becomes obsessed with the case — though, in a nifty bit of fantasy, once an object has been played on by the group, he can no longer hear the sound it makes. Sound of Noise is worth seeing just for the toe-tapping musical interludes, played on objects both commonplace  and ridiculous, but Nilsson and the musicians (especially ringleader and lone female Sanna Persson Halapi) are also deadpan delights. (1:38) SF Film Society Cinema. (Cheryl Eddy)

Plus, at rep houses:

A tribute to William Shatner Thurs/22 at the Vortex Room: “Deep Shat”

And some seriously sick, twisted (read: amazing) B- and Z-movie finds Fri/23-Sun/25 at the Roxie: “Cinemadness”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTCJWVLfAYo

7 spots for wine and wi-fi

Andrew Lam
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Are those cubicle walls closing in? For those of us who prefer to pair our work with a side of wine, here are some places to consider retreating to when the office begins to feel stale.

The Grove

Curl up in a comfy chair or communal wooden bench with a glass of red wine at one of this quaint café’s three locations, and you won’t want to leave. 

Mon.-Thu. 7 a.m.-11 p.m.; Fri. 7 a.m.-11:30 p.m.; Sat. 8 a.m.-11:30 p.m.; Sun. 8 a.m.-11 p.m. 2016 Fillmore, SF. (415) 474-1419

Monday-Friday 7 a.m.-11 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday 8 a.m.-11 p.m. 690 Mission, SF. (415) 957-0558

Monday-Friday 7 a.m.-11 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday 8 a.m.-11 p.m. 301 Hayes, SF. (415) 624-3953

Matching Half

Bright, airy Nopa neighborhood café that serves Sightglass coffee, sought-after almond croissants, and a small selection of red and white wines; a quintessentially San Francisco café conducive to productivity. 

Mon.-Fri. 7 a.m.- 7 p.m.; Sat.-Sun. 8 a.m.-7 p.m. 1799 McAllister, SF. (415) 674-8699, www.matchinghalfcafe.com

Coffee Bar

This chic Mission spot has a frequently rotating list of wines from Spain, New Zealand, Napa, and beyond. The barista recommends the citrusy, medium-bodied Hunter’s sauvignon blanc. 

Mon.-Fri. 7 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sat.-Sun. 8 a.m.-7 p.m. 1890 Bryant, SF. (415) 551-8100, www.coffeebar-usa.com

Noeteca

Last year our readers named this warm and cozy Noe Valley space the best wine bar in the city. Its wine list has been carefully curated, and its price list won’t break the bank. Try the much-hyped Sexual Chocolate California red, and get back to us. (Half-glasses start at $4.50.)

Wi-fi hours are limited to weekdays from noon to 4 p.m. 1551 Dolores, SF. (415) 824-5524, www.noeteca.com

Vinyl

Happening Divisadero Street wine bar with a lengthy list of West Coast and foreign selections. Best bet is to stroll over on a Wednesday night for grub from the Fogcutter Food Truck or Thursday for pizza from Pizza Hacker. 

Mon. 5:30-10 p.m.; Tue.-Thu. 5:30-11 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 5:30 p.m.-midnight; Sun. 5:30-10 p.m. 359 Divisadero, SF. (415) 621-4132, www.vinylsf.com

Press Club

If you like your wine coupled with an environment that’s quite swankier than your average SF café, Press Club’s the call. Most of the bar’s wines are from Napa and Sonoma, and its menu features seven themed flights.

Mon.-Thu. 4 p.m.-10 p.m.; Fri. 4 p.m.-12 a.m.; Sat. 2 p.m.-midnight. 20 Yerba Buena Lane, SF. (415) 744-5000, www.pressclubsf.com

Bean Bag Café

Fun, friendly café a drunk stumble from The Independent. Come for the scene and the $4.50 glasses of zin or cab.

Mon.-Fri. 7 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sat. 7:30 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun. 8 a.m.-10 p.m. 601 Divisadero, SF. (415) 563-3634

Street Threads: Look of the Day

Andrew Lam
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Street Threads: Look of the Day

Today’s look: Kayla, New Montgomery and Mission

Tell us about your look: “My fashion is inspired by my grandmother because she gives me all her old things.”

Artists still puzzling over destruction of international exchange mural

Andrew Lam
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In 2003, artists from a San Francisco-Indonesia cultural exchange painted murals on one of the outer walls of Project Artaud, a non-profit art collective in the Mission that provide live-work studios and exhibition space for artists. Within nine years, the expansive mural became a part of the street’s geography — adorning the street like colorful flowers or trees — and was loved by neighbors and passersby alike. But starting last month, tags started to appear on top of the paintings, and within a 24-hour span, the mural faced its tragic and final destruction.

“It feels like a death,” said Jonah Roll, one of the mural’s artists, during a Guardian interview at his home in Project Artaud. During their interview with the Guardian, Roll and Alejandra Rassvetaieff (another artist whose mural was ruined) attempted, to no avail, to understand the reasoning behind the tagger’s recent actions. With so many other empty street walls, why did somebody choose to tag here? Could it have been a personal attack? And is there ever a worthy excuse that justifies destroying someone else’s artwork? 

“If you consider yourself an artist, I don’t think you can just paint on top of another artist’s work,” commented Rassvetaieff. “It’s sad because the murals in the Mission have been here for years, and it’s something that people should respect.”

Scenes from the mural’s 2003 creation. Photos via Project Artaud

The mural was created in 2003 as part of a collaboration between San Franciscan artists from the Clarion Alley Mural Project and artists from a public art collective in Indonesia (the project also gave birth to murals at Rainbow Grocery, Clarion Alley, and Le Beau Market in Nob Hill. Entitled “Sama-sama/You’re Welcome,” the wall was completed after a cultural exchange that sent CAMP artists to Indonesia, and Indonesian artists here to San Francisco. The wall recieved a Best of the Bay award from the Guardian in 2004 for Best Transnational Art Undertaking.

Although there are rumors as to who may have done the taggings — Rassvetaieff noticed the same signature sprayed on her friend’s mural on Market Street — the artists preferred not to disclose names during the interview. “It coincide[d] with a big tagging of work in Clarion Alley that got destroyed around the same time,” said Roll, “they’re doing it for publicity, to spread their name.”

Graffiti is increasingly becoming accepted as a respected art form — and for many good reasons. It serves as an expressive channel for underrepresented people, especially  youth, and is a kind of satisfying slap in the face of corporate advertising that often mars our streetscapes. But tagging on community murals is not a stance against big business. Individual people dedicated hours towards creating these panels of art. 

“I respect the art form of graffiti — there’s a lot of amazing work out there— but it’s sad when something that has value to our community is destroyed,” said Roll. 

The mural in question was a community project that was self-funded by the seven artists. Roll’s section of the mural was a painting dedicated to the passing of his mother and the birth of his new family. Rassvetaieff’s mural, titled “Happiness,” showed a couple embracing under a starry night sky. She said it was meant to celebrate the soul of the human being. 

But Roll’s love for her work was no match for the endurance of the taggers, who returned again and again to re-tag the wall. “I couldn’t even go out there in the end for the last tags,” concluded Roll. “I was completely exhausted.” 

Perhaps the most regrettable loss of all was Federico “Pico” Sanchez’s colorful watermelons. The esteemed muralist and art community leader recently passed away in November 2011. 

Street art and graffiti should be working alongside each other — challenging traditional notions of art and working together to promote a sense of expressive cohesiveness in the community. Competition is great, if it fuels growth and demands progress. But artists, hone your craft and create an attention-worthy piece. Real talent tends to get noticed — especially on the streets. 

Weary of covering up tags, Project Artaud members eventually painted the wall a solid shade of green. Bummer.

Guardian photo by Marke B.

Street Threads: Look of the Day

Andrew Lam
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Street Threads: Look of the Day

Today’s look: Ryan, Dolores Park

Tell us about your look: “Keep it comfortable. I don’t like just one style.”

Entering the pixels at the Creators Project

Andrew Lam
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The computer mouse was invented by Douglas Engelbart in 1963, and don’t get Jamie Zigelbaum wrong, because he thinks it was a great invention.

For its time.

But, surrounded by his and other feats of computational art at last weekend’s Creators Project at Fort Mason, Zigelbaum was understandably over the mouse.

“I don’t want to poke at things with a stick anymore. I want to form things with my hands. And touchscreens, that’s still like poking stuff behind glass,” he says.

I’ve had my share of psychedelic discussions at festivals, and this is actually not one of them. Zigelbaum and creative partner Marcelo Coelho created the epic-sized Lite-Brite behind us that allows Creators Project-goers the chance to manipulate pixels with their hands. Touch one of the palm-sized magnetic boxes and its oscillating light will change colors – touch one and then another and the second will swap hues to reflect that of the first. Your body becomes a conduit. We stayed far away from technical details in our interview, so don’t expect me to explain how this happens. 

His project is one of many lining the Herbst Pavilion hanger early in the afternoon on Saturday. Hours still lie between us and the festival’s musical headliner the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (check Guardian music editor Emily Savage’s report for the best of the day’s sounds), and the space is relatively calm, lacking lines, and resembles a museum more than part of a weekend-long affair of big ticket bands and hype organized and curated by VICE and Intel. 

Jamie Zigelbaum guards over his baby at Creators Project. Guardian photos by Caitlin Donohue

There is a constant, ambient hum. One side of the space is lined by Chris Milk’s “The Treachery of Sanctuary,” a massive three-panel interactive projection that allows users to be converted into a wing-flapping guardian angel or two other flight-related visual trip-outs. Outside in Fort Mason’s bitter winds stands the festival’s version of Mecca: a 40-feet by 40-feet cube made of scaffolding grid traversed by beams of light, perfectly calibrated to match the work’s haunting soundtrack of chords arranged by composer Scanner. 

Zigelbaum’s piece is situated in what he calls the “Media Lab triangle,” a triad of works by artists who studied at MIT’s Media Lab. The other two are Casey Reas, who has made a slow-doodling Technicolor algorithm and Sosolimited, with a Big Brother-skew of a live TV channel feed.

Compared to other places where Zigelbaum and Coelho have shown work (Design Miami during Art Basel Miami Beach comes to mind), Zigelbaum says the Creators Project has a less commercial focus, and is more dedicated to the kind of computational, gestural art that he does. 

Be the bird: Chris Milk’s “The Treachury of Sanctuary”

“These people are just really interested in this stuff,” he reflects. Zigelbaum’s primary interest lies in getting people to realize that “computing can be a much deeper and richer form,” than is typically employed by our hunt and peck iPhoning era. His Creators’ piece “Six-Forty by Four-Eighty” could be adapted for commercial use, he thinks, though the right offer hasn’t presented itself to himself and Coelho yet. 

But surely having his piece at a traveling festival that has been incarnated everywhere from Sao Paolo to Seoul gives him a wider perspective on the capabilities of the system he and his co-artist have built. Festival-goers constantly discover new features of the piece, like when one pushed all the pixels together, and left a human-shaped shadow on their surfaces after someone changed the color scheme with the piece’s remote behind their back. Zigelbaum is still surprised by what his creation is capable of.

Wandering through “Origin” by United Visual Artists

The human traffic is also a good reminder that not even computational, gestural interface art lasts forever – hence the three staff members positioned around the velvet ropes of “Six-Forty by Four-Eighty”. 

“Oh yeah, people will take the pixels,” Zigelbaum sighs. “It’s like, c’mon – that thing isn’t even going to be lighting up after a week! The pixel will end up in the garbage.”

American Idol: Warrant check edition

Zelda Bronstein
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American Idol: Warrant check edition

Damn, I’m a day late here, sorry: All this fuss over the sheriff of San Francisco has taken me away from my sacred American Idol responsibilities. But Vivian has been on the case for me, and I caught most of the March 14 show and Viv watched March 15, so I’ve got the scoop, which goes like this:

What is up with AI kicking off a really cool guy with a great voice who had a couple of really stupid warrants out for giving a false name to a cop — in New Jersey? Seriously — and interrogating him on the air? This isn’t Judge Judy, dudes; bad, bad form. 

But we solider on, minus Jermaine Jones, to the next round, where everyone has to sing a song from the year they were born, which also allows us all to watch pretty inane baby videos and hear proud parents say insightful things like “she was always a handful.” Not the best night of performances; actually, pretty bad all around.

J-Lo is wearing a yellow top that makes her look like a banana. Randy has a red jacket and a polka-dot shirt (huh?) Steven’s in a hippie hat, shirt open so we can see his non-hairy chest and his disco chains.

Phillip has a kidney stone, which we have to hear all about, but the surgery was successful (whew!) and he was able to do a fairly tolerable “Hard to Handle.” Jessica, who is one of my faves, wearing heels so high she looks like she’s on stilts, does “Turn the Beat Around,” decent, but not her best song. Wil.i.am is giving them backstage advice, and so far most of it sucks.

Heejun asks Wil.i.am for Fergie’s phone number, then says he loves his girlfriend most, but that Fergie and J-Lo are close behind. “Right Here Waiting” is entirely the wrong song (thanks, coaches) done the wrong way but I don’t care — he’s still Number One.

Elise has a cool voice, and fucks up “Let’s Stay Together,” but pulls it back in by the finish. Deandre has the worst child video — he’s in a red suit singing “76 Trombones” — and his version of “Endless Love” is boring.

Shannon — she of the “hot, humid and happening” — tries Mariah Carey. No. The judges loved it but Viv and I said: Train wreck.

Colton. “Broken Heart.” Does a good job with a really bad song.

Erika. Going a long way in this show, she’s one of the best. “Heaven.” We liked it more than the judges did.

Skyer. Such a redneck that she wears pistol earrings. “Love Sneakin’ Up On You.” She rocks Bonnie Raitt with a country twist; on of the best of a bad night.

Joshua. “When A Man Loves A Woman.” Now we’re talking American Idol — the guy’s amazing, the AI moment of the week, J-Lo is so excited that she blurts out “that was the best thing I’ve ever heard on American Idol.” Sorry Scotty. Steven: “You gave it so big that God came through your eyes.” I’m not even going there.

Hollie. Celine Dion. Continuing the terrible song selection, but she can sing.

Too late for a spoiler — Shannon’s gone home.

 

Street Threads: Look of the Day

Andrew Lam
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Street Threads: Look of the Day

Today’s look: Sandra, Yerba Buena Lane and Market

Tell us about your look: “I like to look different, not like everyone else.”

The Performant: The mourning after

Andrew Lam
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Explorations in the language of the living at SFAI and NOHspace

Long before I moved to San Francisco, there were already certain things I’d learned to associate as being quintessentially San Franciscan via some kind of cross-cultural osmosis: the Castro, the cable-cars, Critical Mass, and George Kuchar.

True, the prolific filmmaker was himself a transplant, but his influence was indelibly stamped on San Francisco’s filmic underground. And unlike some heroes, who live impossibly removed from their admirers, George was accessible to his as a teacher, a neighbor, a legend, and a friend. Six months after his passing, a thoughtfully-curated tribute to his legacy opened at the San Francisco Art Institute — where he  taught absurdly-monikered classes in filmmaking such as “Electro-graphic Sinema” for 40 years. 

Since the hallmark of a successful memorial is to celebrate in the company of the living, a string of heartfelt eulogies and screenings of clips took place in the SFAI lecture hall, presented by friends and family, elders and youth. United thusly in our pleasant memories of the man, we entered the Walter and McBean Galleries, which had been transformed into a monument to the myth — a gleeful hodgepodge of photographs, set dressing, racks of cheap costume pieces, sketchbooks, choose-your-own screenings of the over 200 films in George’s oeuvre, and playful, personal ephemera.

Down the hall, an interactive studio installation encouraged visitors to get dressed up in a costume and “star” in their own straight-to-video blockbuster. A veritable Rosetta Stone on the language and legacy of Kuchar’s no-budget filmmaking, the exhibit runs through April 21, and is free to the public: adoring fans and the unconverted alike.

Part memorial for the dead, and part fundraiser for the living, the nationwide, one-night only performance series Shinsai found San Francisco stage time at both NOHspace and ACT. Directed by Theatre of Yugen apprentice Nick Ishimaru, the NOHspace edition opened with a trilogy of monologues penned by Suzan-Lori Parks that begged the question “where were you on 3/11”? Similarly themed play-lettes followed, including an introspective monologue on grieving by Phillip Kan Gotanda. Mixing dance, classic noh, and a quixotic bit of performance art (Jose Navarrete’s “Found and Lost”) into the evening put a distinctive stamp on the event. 

What most tied the disparate disciplines together were the expressive nuances of the hands, mimicking in certain ways the purported intricacies of the language of fans, secretive yet overt. In the dances of Las Japonesas Flamencas, each finger held its own position, extending the arch of an elbow or the turn of a wrist, a gestural eloquence. In contrast, the extremities of Nick Ishimaru and Meg Theil in a comical excerpt from kabuki drama Vengeful Sword, remained actively poised yet perfectly still as they each portrayed Manno, a wily Madame. The event ended with Heather Law’s graceful Hula ’Auana, hands fluttering like startled birds and 1960’s Go-Go girls, hearkening to an era of popular dance “moves” like the hand jive with the subtle grace of her more refined art: an expressive, whole-body sign language which spoke of life. 

Street Threads: Look of the Day

Andrew Lam
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Street Threads: Look of the Day

Today’s look: Kelly, Howard and Third Street

Tell us about your look: “Skirts for life!”

Street Threads: Look of the Day

Andrew Lam
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Street Threads: Look of the Day

Today’s look: Jackie, Dolores Park

Tell us about your look: “I just got this dress today at NO. I sold some clothes and bought this dress.”

Outerlands: Serving sunshine by the seashore

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Speaking with surfing-baking co-owner Dave Mueller about the Outer Sunset hotspot

I’m on the southeast corner of Judah Street and 45th Avenue—roughly five blocks from the cold, churning sea—on a bright winter morning. Outerlands will open for lunch in an hour, and the restaurant’s chef and a couple of employees are swiftly making preparations. Dave Muller offers me a cappuccino, which he whips up seamlessly, and asks if we can chat outside in the sun.

Muller co-owns this cozy Outer Sunset eating space known for its savory soups and sandwiches, handcrafted bread, and earthy atmosphere with his wife, Lana Porcello. Muller and Porcello had teamed up on visual art and music projects before Outerlands, but Muller calls the restaurant their most 50/50 artistic collaboration.

Noticing a need for food in this remote San Francisco neighborhood pressed up against the Pacific, Muller and Porcello set out in 2008 to design and build a soup kitchen of sorts. “We planned on serving a few soups a day and fresh-baked bread,” Muller says, smiling. “Simple.”

Muller is the man behind Outerlands’ thick, delicious slabs of levain bread. He originally considered buying bread instead of baking it, but Tartine’s bread-maker Chad Robertson, whom Muller met through surfing, encouraged him not to. “You can just make your own bread,” Robertson said. “I can show you how to do it. It’s not that hard.” 

Since Outerlands opened its doors in 2009, the intimate sea dwellers’ escape has evolved into a destination for foodies traveling from east of Golden Gate Park, New York, and Sweden alike. Muller designs and mixes cocktails in addition to making his bread, and the couple employs a full-time chef (Brett Cooper) and a pastry chef (Zoe Dering). Despite the buzz, simplicity remains at the heart of their enterprise.

“We find the best ingredients and cook them as simply as possible to bring out their natural flavors,” explains Muller. Outerlands sources its ingredients locally and is currently operating at 98 to 99 percent organic.

Keeping prices as low as possible—a grilled cheese sandwich brushed with garlic oil goes for $5—Muller is committed to serving the Sunset wholesome, handcrafted food you’d probably have to pay more for across town. “I love having a connection to my community and having something to contribute that I believe in—food that’s healthy, stimulating, and sustainable,” says Muller.

Muller’s background in art, farmers’ markets, and surfing helped inform the concept behind this eight-table restaurant built from wood. Although Muller says he didn’t do much research when he was building Outerlands and simply “did what made sense,” he considers Big Sur an aesthetic influence, as well as things his friends have built.

Outerlands seems to have been born out of a desire to build a sanctuary: the perfect place to share a meal. Muller says they wanted to create “a healing environment—a place you could go to and feel nourished.”

I think they’ve succeeded. Eating at Outerlands sort of feels like your mom has made you your favorite dish and is serving it to you—along with an expertly mixed antifogmatic—while you’re warming your feet by a fire after a four-hour surf session and conversing with the most compelling person in the world; or something to that effect.

Outerlands serves lunch and dinner Tuesday through Saturday and brunch on Sunday. The dinner menu features savory meat dishes, e.g. cumin crusted pork tenderloin and braised shank with cranberry beans, smoked dates, cabbage, and juniper, as well as mouth-watering vegetarian options like the fresh cavatelli with wild mushrooms, winter squash, rapini, and parmesan. Brunch favorites include the bacon-stuffed dutch pancake outfitted with organic maple syrup drizzle, along with lemon ginger apple cider.

The wait for one of the eight tables can be long on the weekends, but the expansion that’s in the works may make it a bit easier to get in. They’re knocking down the wall between Outerlands and what was formerly Wo’s Restaurant, building a bar, and adding over 20 seats this summer.

I thank Muller for his time, and wander into Outerlands to snap a couple of photos. It’s 11 a.m. on a Thursday, and the place is already starting to fill up. Muller quickly disappears into the restaurant’s treehouse loft to continue putting in the hours he calls “excruciating, but worth it.”

OUTERLANDS

Tues.-Sat. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. (lunch); 6-10 p.m. (dinner);

Sun. 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m. (brunch)

4001 Judah, SF

(415) 661-6140

www.outerlandssf.com

 

 

Street Threads: Look of the Day

Andrew Lam
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0
Street Threads: Look of the Day

Today’s look: Ivy, Dolores Park

Tell us about your look: “Wear whatever the cleanest thing on your floor is.”

Street Threads: Look of the Day

Andrew Lam
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Street Threads: Look of the Day

Today’s look: Inga, New Montgomery and Mission

Tell us about your look: “I love fashion! I try to put things together that are different.”

Live Shots: Women’s History Month office intrigue with 3 Girls Theatre

Andrew Lam
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In celebration of Women’s History Month, 3 Girls Theatre is staging a lunar cycle chockful of girl power greatness. Part of its month of XX chromosoned-fueled creativity opened Friday, March 9: The Right Thing. The production provides a strikingly realistic window into the life of a female CEO via a long day spent in ruthless mediation on her recent expulsion from her high-power job amid allegations of sexual harassment. The play tells the truth about being a woman in a male-dominated workplace, while dissecting the inner workings of what feels like a real life legal dispute. All the actors held their ground while playing either a super-smart judge or a super-slimy ex-boss, but the real fireball of the show was spunky-punk Sam — the sexual harassment victim — played by Karina Wolfe. With a red head of hair and serious Madonna lace gloves, Wolfe’s character brought something colorful and quirky to the world of “executive Barbies.” The show runs until April 1 and opening night sold out, get your tickets soon!

The Right Thing

Through April 1, various times, $20-$38

Thick House

(415) 801-8081

1695 18th St., SF

www.thickhouse.org

www.3girlstheatre.org

 

Earthquake relief, one year later: “Shinsai: Theaters for Japan”

Sue Vaughan
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Earthquake relief, one year later: “Shinsai: Theaters for Japan”

On March 11, 2011, hot on the heels (so to speak) of a devastating 9.0 earthquake and resultant tsunami, the world’s largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl made Fukushima, Japan a household name. And just like previous mega-disasters such as the Sumatran tsunami of 2004, and the 2010 quake in Haiti, Japan’s unexpected and devastating crisis drew attention and support from across the globe.

One year later, with an estimated 300,000 people still homeless from the combined natural and unnatural disasters that shook the Fukushima prefecture, it appears that the crisis is far from being over. Inspired by an impromptu fundraising effort spearheaded by New York-based, Japanese-born actor James Yaegashi, a unique memorial will take place Sun/11 in theaters across the United States.

Entitled “Shinsai,” which means “great earthquake,” the structure of the performances is up to the individual participating theatres — a tactic utilized by the roving world premiere of Suzan-Lori Parks’ 365 Plays — the common material a series of exclusive ten-minute shorts penned by some of the greats of both the American and Japanese Theatre Scene: Toshiro Suzue, David Mamet, Edward Albee, Oriza Hirata, Philip Kan Gotanda and Parks, to name but a few.

Two San Francisco playhouses will host their own versions of Shinsai. Theatre of Yugen will present works by Gotanda, Parks, Naomi Iizuka, and others as well as special dance performances by Heather Law and Las Japonesas Flamencas. American Conservatory Theater will host readings of several of the works with a lineup of eight Bay Area actors and seven directors, including Anna Ishida and Evren Odcikin. All proceeds will go to the Japan Playwrights Association, to fund the rebuilding of infrastructure supportive of theatre artists in the affected regions. Developed by Theatre Communications Group, this event has the potential to remind us both of the importance of the arts within any given society, and that of any given society upon the global stage.

Sun/11, 5:30 p.m., $15

Theatre of Yugen, NOHspace
2840 Mariposa Street, SF
(415) 621-0507
www.theatreofyugen.org

Sun/11, 7 p.m., $5

American Conservatory Theater
415 Geary, SF
(415) 749-2228
www.act-sf.org

Large, in charge: “Elephant Seals” at the SF Ocean Film Festival

Sue Vaughan
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Featuring an incredible variety of fascinating films about the ocean and its importance in nature, along with the role it plays in our society, the ninth San Francisco Ocean Film Festival (running now through Sun/11) showcases programs ranging from documentaries on marine life and environmental science to surfing videos and parables about pollution.

One of the highlights of this year’s festival is the short film Into The Deep With Elephant Seals (screening Sat/10), which offers a unique look at how marine biologists are using new technology to study the elephant seal population at Año Nuevo, just down the coast from San Francisco. Filmmaker Sheraz Sadiq, who produced the film for KQED as part of the station’s excellent QUEST series, says that he and his colleagues had wanted to do a story on elephant seals for some time, but had waited for the right mix of criteria to be met before setting out to do so.

“We wanted to take a different approach, we wanted to highlight the use of technology and the brilliant researchers who are pioneering the use of this technology to understand more information about elephant seals — where they go, what they eat, how long they dive,” he explains.

The captivating short introduces the work of UCSC Professor Dan Costa and his team of students, who are placing — and then retrieving — new satellite tags on a series of elephant seals to gather a variety of data about the animals. Once the story idea was approved, Sadiq and his team had to consider a number of logistical factors and faced a variety of challenges in order to get the project made.

“The timing was very tricky because the elephant seals at Año Nuevo breed from December to March, and getting the necessary permits, the necessary permissions, and working out all those details, along with trying to coordinate our production process with the research team was a bit of a challenge,” says Sadiq.

Even once all the needed arrangements had been made, the film crew faced yet another obstacle — they were going to attempt to film the retrieval of a satellite tag from a specific female subject, who could be at any part of the rookery that day, and not necessarily be in a spot easily accessible by the team. Luckily, the elephant seal was found in a reasonable area, and the day’s work was completed, but not without a close encounter that made an indelible mark in Sadiq’s mind.

“We were just a few yards from a couple of massive, slumbering male elephant seals, then without warning, one of them decided to challenge the other, and reared his massive head and let out this large bellow, and we literally froze in our tracks. It looked as though one was going to charge the other, and if you’ve ever seen a male elephant seal fight, it is a sight to behold, it’s these massive blubbery giants just going at each other. The park ranger very calmly told us to just step back, which is what we did, and fortunately the threat dissipated. That’s definitely a production moment I’ll never forget — and one that I don’t want to relive.”

The film presents a wealth of information and knowledge about elephant seals in a remarkably short amount of time, telling the sad story of how the animals — which can weigh up to 4,500 pounds — were nearly hunted to extinction for their oil-rich blubber in the 1800s, and were reduced to a colony of about only 30 individuals along the coast of Mexico before being protected and making an incredible comeback in the intervening years, reaching a population today estimated to be 170,000.

It also clearly maps out what scientists are learning today from their tagging research, including how far the pinnipeds travel out into the Pacific Ocean during their yearly migrations.

Sadiq attributes part of the film’s success to Costa. “He was terrific,” he says. “I could tell within five minutes of interviewing him that the interview was going to be sterling, he is so comfortable in front of the camera, and that is awesome. When you’re a producer, and you have to talk with incredibly smart researchers, there are some times unfortunately when they’re absolutely amazing, impeccable researchers, but they are just at that rarified academic point of view that it is kind of hard for them to come down and make their research accessible to a lay person. But Dan didn’t have that problem at all. He was extremely comfortable talking to a non-scientist like me about his research, the significance of the research, and why the elephant seals are such fascinating, charismatic animals, and why he had been studying them for 30-plus years.”

When Into The Deep With Elephant Seals screens during the 10 a.m. program Sat/10, Sadiq will be in attendance, and hopes that both the audience at the festival and future viewers take away a few key things from the film. “I really hope that viewers, especially young people, will get inspired by the work of Dan Costa,” he says. “I hope they see this and learn a little bit more about the scientific process and these amazing tools — it’s fascinating and a great joy to see the scientists and the passion that they bring to bear on their research. Plus, I hope they take a keen understanding of elephant seals and their comeback from the brink of extinction — this is a great conservation story.”

San Francisco Ocean Film Festival

Through Sun/11, $5-$12

Bay Theater

Aquarium of the Bay, Pier 39, SF

www.oceanfilmfest.org

Street Threads: Look of the Day

Andrew Lam
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Street Threads: Look of the Day

 

Today’s look: Aris, Mission and Third Street

Tell us about your look: “Be yourself.”

 

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