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Spontaneous Victorian combustion: “Jane Austen Unscripted” returns to the Bay Area

Sue Vaughan
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Spontaneous Victorian combustion: “Jane Austen Unscripted” returns to the Bay Area

More signs of gentrification in the Bay Area, this time sanguine, as Los Angeles-based Impro Theatre’s acclaimed show, Jane Austen Unscripted, returns starting tonight (Wed/7) for gigs at 142 Throckmorton Theatre (Mill Valley) and BATS’ Bayfront Theater (SF). If you saw Jane Austen Unscripted in one of its two previous local engagements over the last few years, you already know the group sports some of the quickest wits in the Western canon. Jane Austen Unscripted is directed by BATS cofounder Dan O’Connor and comedian-writer Paul Rogan and features an amazing cast of improvisers, fully capable of creating a full-length play in the style of Jane Austen spontaneously each night, with a theme suggested by the audience. Improv fans, Austen fans, ceiling fans: this stuff is hot. A funnier, sharper assemblage of off-the-cuff maestros is hard to come by, especially in cuffs like these.

For those left hankering for more by Jane Austen Unscripted, know that one of its cast members, Stephen Kearin, returns to the Bayfront stage the following week as one-third of 3 For All, in its final two shows of the year. 3 For All is comprised of Kearin, Rafe Chase, and Tim Orr, but this trio contains multitudes. Pick your genre, call out a topic; these improv comedy veterans are always worth seeing: utterly distinctive and never the same. You can check out some recent insta-masterpieces here.
 
Jane Austen Unscripted

Wed/7-Thurs/8, 8 p.m., $25-30

142 Throckmorton Theatre

142 Throckmorton, Mill Valley

(415) 383-9600

www.142throckmortontheatre.org

Fri/8-Sat/10, 8 p.m.; Sun/11, 2 p.m., $20-30

Bayfront Theater

Fort Mason Center

Building B, Third Floor, SF

www.improv.org 

 

3 For All

Sept.16-17, 8 p.m., $25-28

Bayfront Theater

www.improv.org

Sticky palms: check out our nug porn gallery

Andrew Lam
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0

I touched base with some of the guys with the toughest job in the world this week in Herbwise, our month-old marijuana column. Yessir folks, meet your professional weed photographers — potographers, if you will. Danny Danko, senior cultivation editor at High Times — who included some indoor growhouse shots that he told me were the trickiest to get due to light wave vagaries — and Ryno Barela, who is in charge of photography and social media over at SF’s Vapor Room were kind enough to send over some of the shots they think best represent their profession. Point, click, pass.

Remembering Graham and George

Sue Vaughan
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Remembering Graham and George

Bay Area film fans are still reeling from the loss of popular San Francisco Film Society executive director Graham Leggat, who passed away August 25 at age 51 after an 18-month cancer battle. (In a statement, SFFS board of directors president Pat McBaine called Leggat’s tenure “the best years in the life of the Film Society.”)

Today comes another blow, from multiple social media and blog reports, of yesterday’s passing of George Kuchar, beloved underground filmmaker extraordinaire. By himself and with his twin brother, Mike, George Kuchar — who influenced innumerable young artists while teaching at the San Francisco Art Institute — directed over 200 films, as wild and creative as they were low-budget, and almost always boasting titillating titles: Color Me Shameless (1967), Hold Me While I’m Naked (1966), The Devil’s Cleavage (1973). He also wrote the screenplay for 1975 horror-porn-turned-midnight-classic, Thundercrack!

George and Mike Kuchar have been a favorite subject in the Guardian’s pages over the years (recent stories here, here, and here). The uninitiated can get a jump start on celebrating George’s glorious legacy by first checking out Jennifer Kroot’s 2000 documentary, It Came from Kuchar; a wide selection of Kuchar films can be found at Canyon Cinema and, for those of us without film projectors, on YouTube. (Also recommended: the brothers’ Reflections from a Cinematic Cesspool, with an intro by John Waters.)

RIP.

Appetite: 3 new gins from St. George’s

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Appetite: 3 new gins from St. George’s

Consistently, St. George Spirits (also Hangar One) wears the crown for renegade inventiveness. As I wrote last year, Lance Winters, master distiller, and distillers Dave Smith and Chris Jordan, lead the way in out-of-the-box creativity. Never have I seen the like of their test tube apothecary of experimentation where they’ll try anything, from foie gras and beef jerky, to carrots and fresh Dungeness crab, to see what works as a spirit.

So it is no surprise that they are releasing not one, but three gins, each a diverse expression never before replicated. This would be of no use if taste wasn’t paramount… and it is. Terroir-inspired with locally foraged ingredients that Winters and crew foraged themselves from the likes of Mt. Tam in Marin and along Highway 1, each manifests noteworthy attributes, expressing the Bay Area in ingredients and attitude, with elegant, Old World labels and artwork.

BOTANIVORE GIN
Made from 18 botanicals, including caraway, ginger, California bay laurel, wild fennel, dill, celery seed, coriander, Botanivore reflects the heaviest juniper notes of the three, and thus is most similar to a more traditional London dry gin (or as traditional as St. George gets). A clean gin & tonic showcases its citrus, herbal, floral notes, while the juniper stands firm.

DRY RYE GIN
Pot-distilled with a rye base? You already know it’s going to be interesting. Rye grain delivers spice, while caraway and black pepper notes add woody, earthy nuance to juniper-properties. St. George calls it a gin for whiskey lovers, though I find it almost more a sophisticated white whiskey with gin undertones. Grapefruit and lime peel add brightness to its malty depth.

TERROIR- MT. TAM GIN
A true Golden State tribute, this gin reflects the glories of Northern California. Made from hand-harvested juniper berries, Douglas fir (from Mt. Tam), coastal sage, fennel, California bay laurel, cinnamon, cardamom, lemon, to name a few, a portion of sales go to support California wilderness, preserving our mighty state’s nature as the gin reflects its diversity. To me, this is the most special and striking of the three. Though there is much to love in each, Terroir is such a unique expression, unlike any other spirit out there.

In limited release initially (approx. 500 cases each), will be released September 9 (if not earlier this week) in California, New York, Colorado, Texas, Florida and Chicago, at $35 for 750ml bottle; $12 for 200ml). Purchase online at www.stgeorgespirits.com.

— Subscribe to Virgina’s twice monthly newsletter, The Perfect Spot

The Fillmore’s facelift: Independent Artists Week fills the street

Andrew Lam
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Bayview native Meaghan Mitchell first started working in the neighborhood as a hostess at 1300 on Fillmore. Not anymore – now she co-owns a pop-up neighborhood art gallery across the street from the restaurant and is organizing an entire week of events geared towards filling the historic neighborhood’s streets again (Independent Artists Week, now through Sun/11).

The Fillmore’s the kind of neighborhood that inspires creative growth, famous for its days as a cultural hub where African Americans celebrated the arts, succeeded in the business arena, and solidified community. This week’s lineup of IAW events hopes to highlight that legacy, with speed networking for creative types, free art walks, and more. 

Because right now, the area definitely needs some shine.

“We’re struggling with the identity of the Fillmore right now,” says Mitchell, who sits in her small gallery space surrounded by paintings and sculptures done by local artists during her interview with the Guardian. Sisters Melorra and Melonie Green co-own the space, and Mitchell gives us a tour of the neighborhood art the three have filled their gallery with, from elaborate metal wall sculptures to small drawings by local grade-schoolers. The Greens are the other two lead organizers of Independent Artists Week. 

Mitchell gestures to the towering condo and apartment buildings visible through the gallery’s front windows. “Look at all those apartment buildings. Where do those people go?”

Despite its history of locally-owned businesses, Fillmore is far from bustling during the daytime, when the street’s renowned jazz clubs are closed. There’s a handful of black-owned businesses (including New Chicago Barbershop, which we profiled earlier this summer) that are still standing, but you see a lot of empty storefronts when you walk down the sidewalk. 

Mitchell and her partners would like to reverse that trend. “There’s so much potential for African American people to take back our neighborhood,” she says. “Facilitating our own events is a part of that.”

She should know – she learned from an event-planner extraordinaire. Mitchell says she owes her organizing skills to Ave Montague, the woman who was in charge of public relations at 1300 when Mitchell was first hired on. 

“She made this neighborhood poppin’,” remembers Mitchell. Montague organized the Black Film Festival, and took Mitchell under her wing, training her to help coordinate a slew of other events that were important to the Fillmore community – and the country. Montague passed away shortly after she threw the official West Coast inauguration party for Barack Obama in 2008. 

“When she died, this neighborhood was in a different place,” says Mitchell. “It was grey.”

There was some question about who would take up Montague’s crusade to make Fillmore Street a vibrant center of black Bay Area culture once again. But not for long – soon Mitchell and the other neighborhood business-owners and advocates from the Fillmore Community Benefit District were back in talks with the Mayor’s Office, which is now once again subsidizing their event-planning efforts. 

Of course, Mitchell says, there are challenges to this kind of city government-funded community organizing in a neighborhood that was gutted by “redevelopment” campaigns in the past. Long-time residents are less than thrilled to put the future of the neighborhood in the hands of organizations responsible for driving out black families in the first place. She’s attended CBD meetings that ended in shouting and finger-pointing over who did and didn’t deserve a piece of the $800,000 the Mayor’s Office had contributed to their work. 

“You’ve got to check in with folks.” Mitchell says that even though she is a San Francisco native, she’s still a newcomer to the Fillmore scene – and that a big part of her work is involving the long-time movers and shakers in the area. She now holds monthly merchant meetings that started out with three and now generally attract 11 participants. 

But it’s worth it to become a part of a neighborhood this unique. “[Working in] the Fillmore, it was the first time I worked in a place where I really felt appreciated,” she says. “I met all these prestigious African American people who helped me and who I could look up to.” 

Hopefully this week’s events will provide similar opportunities for other up-and-comers – check out the schedule below to see what’s on offer for artists, art lovers, wannabe yogis, and anyone who is into the idea of a new, brighter Fillmore. 

Photo above right: Mitchell has joined Fillmore’s entrepreneurs with a gallery space of her own on the strip. Photo by Caitlin Donohue

 

“Opportunity Knocks” speed-networking event

Local music scenesters, public relations experts, and other sources of knowledge on making a living off of art in the Bay Area will be available to chat with artists on those topics and more. 

Tues/6 7-9 p.m., $15. Yoshi’s, 1330 Fillmore, SF. 


Sustainable fashion fair-clothing swap

Trade in your clothes for other people’s hand-me-downs – style on a budget (and with a low carbon profile, hell yeah). 

Wed/7 7-10 p.m. African American Cultural Arts Center, 762 Fulton, SF. 


Thank You Awards

Honorees will include filmmaker Kevin Epps, Sup. Ross Mirkarimi, and other supporters of the local arts community. 

Thu/8 7-9 p.m., $15. African American Cultural Arts Center. 


Fillmore Art Walk

Art in the streets! Tour the neighborhood’s galleries and businesses (including Mitchell’s space at 

Fri/9 6 p.m.-midnight, free. Fillmore between Post and McAllister, SF. 


Healing arts demonstration

The perfect, low-commitment intro to tai chi, yoga, acupuncture, meditation, and more. Swing through to ask about body and soul woes with experienced practitioners in the sunshine. 

Sat/10 9 a.m.-1 p.m., free. Fillmore Center Plaza, Fillmore and O’Farrell, SF. 


Western Addition Sunday Streets

A huge swath of Fillmore, Divisadero, and the Panhandle will be blessed with a free roller disco, break dancing lessons, free bike repair and rental, and of course lots of car-free asphalt for walking, biking, boarding, and blading community members. 

Sun/11 11 a.m.-4 p.m., free. Various streets in Western Addition, SF. www.sundaystreetssf.com

 

 

Street Threads: Downtown Edition

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Street Threads: Downtown Edition

Today’s Look: Christopher, Seventh Street and Market

What’s your style philosophy? “Do what works for you.”

 

Craving more Street Threads? Check out Ariel’s official Street Threads book and blog.

Appetite: Refreshing the Starlight

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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0

Sampling the new, revamped Harry Denton’s Starlight Room cocktails. All photos by Virginia Miller

Tonight, September 6th, Harry Denton’s legendary Starlight Room will reopen, revamped, with brand new menus and look. Though the space wasn’t quite ready for a sneak peek, I was able sample a few of the cocktails that will be on offer from bar manager Joel Teitelbaum’s winning menu.

Grouped together by time periods, the menu starts with the 1600s and punch, ending with Starlight Room classics from great bartenders who have launched from here over the years (like Tony Abou-Ganim, Marco Dionysos, Jacques Bezuidenhout). Other sections include The Jerry Thomas Years (1860’s), The Dry Years – Prohibition (1920-1933), and Dark Times (1980’s – this one with updated versions of ’80’s hits like the Fuzzy Navel).


Peppered with colorful quotes from W.C. Fields to Homer Simpson, the cocktail and bar food menus are playful and wide-ranging. They walk the fine, thin line of pleasing a steady stream of out-of-towners (due to the bar’s legendary status, location in the Sir Francis Drake hotel http://www.sirfrancisdrake.com/ and on Union Square), but also giving locals and drink geeks strong reasons to stop in.

I sampled five drinks utilizing everything from pisco to calvados. Each was elegant and interesting, yet gentle and subtle enough to introduce (and hook?) the uninitiated on the likes of Scotch, mezcal, genever.

In my photo captions, I describe the cocktails sampled. I encourage you to head out to celebrate the re-opening of a legendary spot I suspect will not only be better than ever, but will finally offer what shouldn’t be a rarity in our fair city: well-crafted, artisanal drink and bites… with a stunning view.

— Subscribe to Virgina’s twice monthly newsletter, The Perfect Spot

The Performant New York Edition: Too Much Rain Makes the Baby Go Soggy

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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0

Neo-Futurists and “Ostalgia” weather the storm

No performance in New York was quite as impactful as the front row seats we had for Hurricane Irene, as subdued as she was in comparison to her North Carolina appearance, and with the MTA not running and theatres large and small shuttering their windows and barring their doors, mostly everyone just stayed home and watched the lightning instead. Good thing I’d gone to see New York’s “only open-run Off-Off-Broadway show”, the Neo-Futurists’ “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind,” and the “Ostalgia” exhibit the night before, or this week’s installment would be a total washout.


Since 1988 in Chicago and 2004 (plus three years in the ‘90’s) in New York City, “Too Much Light…” has been a weekly event featuring a high-energy ensemble attempting to perform 30 original plays in 60 minutes. Ranging in subject (last weekend) from drunken dancing jellyfish to repression of homosexuals on the African continent to a Shakespearean pie-fight, each play is performed in a random order according to numbers shouted out by the oddience. Though given a “menu” of titles at the door it’s impossible to know what to expect from a play called “portrait of a little town near the top of Maslow’s pyramid” (a brief description of the inhabitants represented by illuminated models of their houses), or “Life I Love You, all is Groovy” (three actors dunking themselves repeatedly to an iconic Simon and Garfunkel tune) until viewed, and to ensure non-repetition of experience, each week dice are rolled to determine how many plays will be dropped from the roster to be replaced with brand-new ones.
   
“Remember,” a smiling cast member reminded the applauding crowd, “if you’ve seen one Neo-Futurists’ show you’ve seen it once.”

Highlights of Friday’s show at Horse Trade’s Kraine Theatre included the snacks (sold-out shows include a free pizza ordered for the entire theatre), the gratuitous display of flesh (it was also the Half-Nekkid edition), the introduction of newest company member, Ricardo Gamboa, a brief shadow play deconstructing the phrase “a murder of crows,” the aforementioned monologue about the repression of African homosexuals (“The African Pig and Dog Report”) performed by company member Nicole Hill, a scripted pickle fight, and “(un)see,” a moody reflection on indelible images branded on the brain which branded itself on mine with bursts of incandescent light punctuated by abrupt blackouts, as a hooded figure (Jill Beckman) crawled across the stage recounting the memory of a tragedy.

Meanwhile, at the shiny, metallic behemoth of the New Museum down Bowery way, an intriguing exhibit of Eastern Bloc reminiscence entitled “Ostalgia,” is combining installation art, video, photography, sculpture, and paintings from a large cross-section of contemporary artists influenced by Soviet occupation.

Taken from the German term “ostalgie” or “nostalgia for aspects of life in East Germany,” “Ostalgia” broadens its borders to include artists from some 20 countries. Members of the “Moscow Conceptualist” movement such as Erik Bulatov, whose triptych of boldly-colored, abstracted landscapes dominate the gallery wall on which they hang, German sculptor Thomas Schütte, whose ominous metal and clay “3 Capacity Men” watch over a series of Michael Schmidt photographs of post-Cold War Germany, Lithuanian videographer Deimantas Narkevicius represented by his quirky video footage of a re-installation of a statue of Lenin, and Russian arts collective Chto Delat? (What is to be done?) with an impressively detailed, interactive timeline of the “Rise and Fall” of the Soviet Union interspersed with strange mythological creatures and wry commentary.

Much like an evening of Neo-Futurist playwriting, the bravery and breadth of subject is as varied as it is irrepressible, gazing forward into the future through the lens of a difficult past.

Street Threads: Downtown Edition

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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0
Street Threads: Downtown Edition

Today’s Look: Min, Taylor and O’Farrell

What’s your style philosophy? “Don’t match.”

Craving more Street Threads? Check out Ariel’s official Street Threads book and blog.

 

5 Things: August 31, 2011

Andrew Lam
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5 Things: August 31, 2011

>>SEPHARDIC LINES Gorgeous and wide-ranging contemporary dance company Alonzo King LINES Ballet just announced its new season, taking place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Oct. 14-23. Among its offering will be an as-yet-unnamed (it’s that fresh) world premiere set to the music of the Sephardic Jewish tradition. We can’t wait to see the bodies in motion accompanying this description: “After the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Portugal at the end of the fifteenth century, the ensuing Sephardic diaspora reached North Africa, the Ottoman Empire, and other parts of Western Europe, as well as the Americas. Sephardic music developed according to region … In Morocco, we hear the explosion of Arab-Andalusian rhythms set to Judeo-Spanish and Hebrew lyrics, while in Turkey the sounds of Middle-Eastern a capella singing are infused with the santoor, ‘oud, and nei. Solo voices and subtle instrumental accompaniments hint at the music’s medieval roots in Spain. Sephardic music continues to be a living manifestation of the idea of convivencia: a fluid, creative, vibrant place of cultural crossing, which shows that art knows no boundaries.”

>>HAPPIER LATER We did not know that there was a happy hour every midnight at  beer-heaven Gestalt Haus in the Mission! From 12am-1am you get $1 off all drafts. With a draft menu that includes imports like Weihenstephan and Leffe Blonde, and microbrews like  Hunterspoint Porter and White Lightning, we’ll be able to afford to broaden our p(br)alate.

>>CANNABIS CALL Two bummer bills passed through the California state legislature today: SB 847, which would ban cannabis co-ops within 600 feet of a residential zone and AB 130, which would make it legal for cities and counties to ban dispensaries entirely. Way harsh for tokers in rural areas. Americans For Safe Access has an easy way you can speak out against the bills, and the organization is suggesting you take action today. 

This what your SF autumn-summer could look like. Yes, like a PowerPoint presentation

>>SKIP THE BROWN BAGGED TECATE, YOU DESERVE IT With Mexican Independence Day right around the corner (September 16), this may be a good time to start thinking celebratory tequila. We got a very nice email from SF-based distiller Don Julio‘s camp today encouraging us to consider the pomegrante. Well really, to consider this, which comes just in the nick of time for the start of sunny season in Dolores Park:

1 1/2 ounces Don Julio blanco tequila

2 1/2 ounces pomegrante juice

2 teaspoons sugar 

1/2 ounce lime juice

>>YOUNG BREEZEE Yesterday, Mission Mission posted this video of a former local rapping about bikes. The song is by Breezee One, who wrote the blog Mission Boyfriends (about her sexual exploits amongst the hipper class). After returning to her native Detroit, Breezee One made this video for her song “Bike Chase.” It lacks in lyrics and flow, but makes up for it in style and sentiment. She raps about “Bianchis, Peugeots, Cinellis, Fujis” and declares that she, “cruise[s] past Ferraris” later adding, “bikes are the only transportation we use.”

 

BREEZEE ONE – BIKE CHASE (Directed by GAREN.) from BREEZEE ONE on Vimeo.

The Performant New York Edition: Fringe 101, an essential lexicon

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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The Performant New York Edition: Fringe 101, an essential lexicon

Well, the 16-day New York International Fringe Festival has just wrapped up, and frankly it’s all a bit of a blur. Figuring out to watch next as the festival wound down was a delicate task as fraught with mystery as when it began. Was it worthwhile to attend “A” if it meant losing the opportunity to see “B” altogether? Wasn’t that one show about scuba-diving sewer rats supposed to be off the hook? Did the show about demonic possession in Uruguay already close? Which critic reviews or citizen commentary could be trusted? Which program blurbs can be relied upon to really reveal the truth about their show?

It’s times like these when an official program guide lexicon would come in handy, so that Fringers might have an easier time determining what they’ll truly be in for when they had over their fistful of coin and storm the theatre gates.

So here, just in time for own very own San Francisco Fringe Festival, which celebrates its 20th year this September, is the first definitive Fringe Program Guide Glossary, which can be applied to any (Anglophone) Fringe Festival in the world. Since tastes vary, this glossary is in no way designed to en/discourage attendance for any show, just an attempt to translate some of the more common descriptors into recognizable audience-speak.

Bare Bones: We’ve never heard of kickstarter

Cheese: Neo-surrealists in the house

Classic: We don’t need the rights to present this work

Dark: At least one of the characters dies

Disturbing: If you don’t like fart jokes

Dynamic: Theatre Arts undergrads

Edgy: Guaranteed to offend at least one minority group

Erotic: For inexplicable reasons, won’t include nudity

Existential: At least half of the characters die

Experiential: Audience participation required

Experimental: We decided not to bother writing a script

Fresh Take: You’ve seen this play 100 times before

Hilarious: If you like fart jokes

Inspirational: Overcoming the effects of an upper middle-class upbringing

Interactive: Don’t sit in the front row

Internationally-acclaimed: Also performed at the Winnipeg Fringe

Multi-media: If our projector breaks we’re screwed

New Translation: We worked way harder on this show than you can imagine

Noir: Will be wearing great hats

Noirish: Couldn’t afford great hats

Poignant: There will be at least one monologue about innocence lost

Provocative: Will include violence and nudity

Quotes from famous people: Assistant Director used to walk their dogs

Quotes from previous runs: We have had a chance to rehearse this

Reimagined: We don’t actually have the rights to present this work

Sensitive: Over-wrought

Site-Specific: Wear layers

Riveting: The stage manager’s mother-in-law said so

Thought-provoking: Will include either violence or nudity

Uncompromising: Guaranteed to offend pretty much everyone

Unforgettable: No matter how hard you try

Universal: Fart jokes

Visceral: Don’t sit in the front row

Wacky: A kazoo will definitely make an appearance at some point

With a twist: You can see it coming

World Premiere: We haven’t had a chance to rehearse this

5 Things: August 30, 2011

Andrew Lam
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5 Things: August 30, 2011

>>A HURRICANE OF YIPS The great Chihuahua airlift of 2011 — in which a planeload of unwanted West Coast pups were to be flown from L.A. to new homes on the East Coast (where “there is a demand for them”), dubbed “Operation: Chihuahua,” has had to be delayed due to flight rescheduling around Hurricane Irene. But never fear small dog lovers (Chelsea gays)! Virgin is in the process of rescheduling what is surely the Saigon or Berlin airlift of our time, and even offering a “No Chuhuahua Left Behind” package — “each ticket to Mexico booked by 11:59 p.m. Thursday will contribute $25 to support ‘local dogs and future airlift flights.'”

>>24-HOUR VEGAN PIZZA ALERT! 24-HOUR VEGAN PIZZA ALERT! We’ve been really, really into vegan pizza lately here at the Guardian — and while our old standby is a simple veggie minus cheese from neighborhood spot Goat Hill Pizza, we finally had a post-clubbing opportunity to experience newly revamped pie parlour DNA Pizza, conveniently located right next to party-central DNA Lounge itself. It’s open 24 hours! It has lots of options! Best of all, there’s an excellent vegan overload called “The Whole Damn Vegan Garden”: spinach, basil, tomatoes, red onions, artichoke hearts, black olives, daiya vegan cheese, and bell pepper on some pretty great crust. No need to sink into dead grease after drinking at the goth party, y’all. 

>>RAISED VOICES A group from the San Francisco Girls Chorus will be singing and marching in protest today over the non-renewal of its longtime artist director, Dr. Susan McMane. The protestors, comprised of current singers and graduated alumnae, will meet at 5 p.m. at the San Francisco Opera House then sing-march to the San Francisco Girls Chorus building at 44 Page. McMane, who has been with the choir for over 10 years, learned in late July that her contract would not be renewed. The chorus is protesting for answers as to why this decision was made.

>>IF THE GLOVE FITS… Scene from last night’s birthday tribute to MJ at Showdown, hosted by our Fist Fam buddies. We’re still wearing ours today guys. It’s making it really hard to type this.

Photo by Dennis Beckmann

>>LAST NIGHT A BJ SAVED MY LIFE No one on Earth has every maintained a daily video blog for four years — besides BJ Dehut (disclaimer: this might not be true). We’re kind of sorry to turn you onto the LA DJ and marketing consultant’s deal because… well there goes the rest of your afternoon. Here, watch this one and try not to think of his 51 months of backlogged video weirdness, hip-hop, and 1950s knife-throwing mothers.

Street Threads: Downtown Edition

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Street Threads: Downtown Edition

Today’s Look: Natalia, O’Farrell and Powell

Describe your fashion philosophy: “Natural style.”

5 Things: August 29, 2011

Andrew Lam
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0
5 Things: August 29, 2011

>>HOLLYWARD Hayward got a little more flash this week with the addition of Andrew Kong Knight’s two three-story-tall “Hollywood Meets Hayward” murals, which reimagine the town’s city center landmarks as an annex of Tinsel Town.

>>TWANG AID Twang to the Rescue – a concert for three local musicians displaced by the July 20th Waller Street fire – takes place tomorrow (Aug. 30) at Cafe Du Nord. It’s a mix of bluegrass and country bands coming together to support their fellow musicians: Pam Brandon, Tom Drohan, and Gayle Schmitt. The house at 434-436 Waller was so badly burnt that it was deemed uninhabitable (though luckily, no one was hurt). The fundraiser concert will include live performances by Windy Hill, The Royal Deuces, Lady A and the Heeldraggers, Misisipi Mike’s Midnight Gamblers and more. [Via Haighteration]

>>WE SWEAR WE’RE DONE TALKING ABOUT J-POP SUMMIT AFTER THIS We thought that just watching ourselves on camera in front of the throngs in Japantown’s New People mall was nerdy enough during the Japanese pop culture fest this week, but come to find out that the image on the flatscreen we were mugging for was actually connected to a livefeed leading to a Japanese website. Wait — so all those typed messages (“cowgirl!” and “we will get married now!” figured prominently on our turn) were from actual people on the other side of the world. Hope they enjoyed our manic fist-pumping — and thanks a lot, Niconico.com. But another fount of cat videos is always appreciated. 

>>THANKS FOR THIS, CORNELL UNIVERSITY Two AI bots decide to chat with each other, and what do they do? They argue — or rather, they contradict each other. Then they talk about God. If this is what the world is coming to, then John Cleese predicted it 45 years ago. 

>>LADY GAGA’S PERFORMANCE ON LAST NIGHT’S VMAS WAS EXTRAORDINARY

 

J-Pop Summit 2011: Style shots

Andrew Lam
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Outside on Post Street and in the Japantown Peace Plaza, pastel-colored babydoll dresses flounce past homemade space-samauri hoods. Everyone’s wearing really long turquoise wigs (they’re clones of the Vocaloid character Hatsune Miku, try to stay with us here), gaudy plastic baubles glued to their fingernails. A judge at the Baby The Stars Shine Bright runway contest is pleased with one contestant’s canny use of a plush llama as accessory. “I like how you incorporated alpaca — that’s really ‘in’ in Japan these days.”

Whimsy was a central characteristic at the heart of this year’s J-Pop Summit Festival. But it wasn’t all eye-popping plastic and the gluing of themed objects to your pigtail hairpiece. Inside the welcome cool of the New People mall’s top-floor Superfrog Gallery, a more sober form of fashion was being explored. Sou Sou‘s Takeshi Wakabayashi was explaining his brand’s commitment to blending traditional forms of Japanese clothing with modern textiles.

“Downstairs there are a lot of people excited about Lolita fashions,” Wakabayashi says. “I hope next time they come they will be excited about Sou Sou fashions.”

Sharing the stage with the designer was five of his looks — handsome, dark colored kimonos, some with bold, geometrically patterned scarves and sashes would about. At their feet, the clothing items that the company is perhaps best known for: cloven-foot sneakers in vivid color combinations. 

They look a little space age, these shoes. They perhaps wouldn’t be out of place with the anime royalty strutting to the next Danceroid show on the Peace Pagoda stage. But Wakabayashi explains that the design is meant to be functional.

“You can actually get a very stable grip on the ground,” he says. He recommends the split-toe shoes for everything from sports to carpentry to mining and traditional festivals, his slide show clicking through photo examples of individuals using them for just those things. 

“We’re helping preserve traditions in Japan,” he tells the audience. He might just be right on that — his own outfit, flowing and kimono-y though it is, smacks of urbanity. The patterns are sleek, even if the profile is a bit billowing. He shows a slideshow of his production facilities, where textiles are designed on 100-year old looms made by Toyota (the designer tells us that a representative from the car company visited the factory once — now one of the looms are in the corporation’s musem for posterity).

New People founder Seiji Horibuchi introduced Wakabayashi to the audience assembled at Superfrog. He says he had trouble at first convincing the designer to open his mini-store in his San Francisco Japanese pop culture mall at first. But after a little convincing, he’s been there since day one of New People’s opening. Now, Wakabayashi says “simply put, it just thrills me [to see Americans wearing our designs]. I think that the craftsmen, they really get a kick out of seeing our designs in the States.”

Sou Sou’s textile designs are the true center of its traditional-modern aesthetic blend. Many of the colorful prints are modeled off of old patterns. One line is based around traditional Japanese sweets. At the reception hosted by the Japanese consulate following Wakabayashi’s presentation, these make an appearance on the refreshment table: candies placed carefuly on top of decorative postcards, meant to be souvenirs of culture sampled. 

Which is not to say that the circus-themed Lolita fashion show outside was any less cultural. “A” for inclusive, J-Pop Summit. 

Appetite: 3 to watch — new restaurants, noteworthy bites

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Open for a matter of weeks or months, these new spots show promise with dishes I’m still thinking about…

LE BORDEAUX – French sausage
The new Le Bordeaux, tucked away in North Beach, holds some subtle surprises. General description: ultra-traditional French bistro fare in a Euro cafe with woodsy, rustic country lodge feel. It’s a blessedly mellow respite for lunch or dinner. The winning dish thus far is Boudin blanc ($18), that light, gentle white pork sausage I love so, common in France as well as in New Orleans cuisine.

It sits atop a mound of caramelized apples and crumbled speculoos, a graham cracker-reminiscent cookie/biscuit. Savory and sweet, the plump sausage dribbles its juices over pastry crumbs. Just like dessert… but with sausage.

524 Union Street
(415) 529-1674

RENDEZVOUS TAPAS LOUNGE – orange blossom beignets
The new Rendezvous Tapas Lounge may be roomy to the point of stark, but shared plates at the hands of executive chef Mattin Noblia’s (who many know from Top Chef fame or at his previous restaurant, Iluna Basque) are made with care. Paper-thin, citrus-radiant octopus carpaccio ($12) and warm, stuffed piquillo peppers ($7) oozing with soft goat cheese, stand out. Orange blossom beignets ($7) truly do dissolve in the mouth. Yes, we’ve seen plenty of beignets on dessert menus in recent years, but orange blossom is an inspired accent, while these eggy-light beignets evoke my favorite Chinese baked goods by way of France. Not too sweet, they are fluffy and comforting.

Of note, the weekend brunch (savory or sweet crepes, crawfish bisque, mimosas, Bloody Marys, etc…) intrigues with a DJ spinning old school hip hop and bar manager Anthony Baker serving off-menu cereal cocktails. Golden Grahams are shaken with Jameson, milk and honey simple syrup (or Honey Nut Cheerios with Amaretto, Fruit Loops with berry vodka) for that finish one gets when nearing the milky bottom of a cereal bowl.

2080 Van Ness Avenue
(415) 409-0660

CANA – Cuban pastries
Oakland’s new Cuban cafe, Cana, is a welcome addition in a region sparse on Cuban treats. Pretty much a walk-up counter with one table inside plus patio seating, Cana scratches the Cuban itch with eats like a hefty Cubano ($8.50) loaded with pork, ham and Swiss cheese, crunchy with pickle, contrasted by hot mustard. But I go for the pastries, like a chocolate ancho chile cookie, or a flan-like guava tart (Pastry de Guayaba), silky subtle with guava. Sip a custom-ground Cafe Cubano or other espresso drink for a robustly sweet accompaniment. Watch for their soon-to-open, next door bar/lounge focused on rum & agricole cocktails, with an in-house cane press (!), cigars, their cafe menu, and live music.

530 Lake Park Avenue, Oakland
(510) 832-1515

— Subscribe to Virgina’s twice monthly newsletter, The Perfect Spot

J-Pop Summit 2011: Baby, the Stars Shine Bright and Danceroid

Tony Robles
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Turn one direction and witness a costumed young woman performing a choreographed dance to popular Japanese vocaloid songs. Spin another and see a crowd of stack-heeled revelers, mimicking her dance moves while wearing poofy black tutus, striped tights,spidery false eyelashes dipped in inky color and glitter, and sporting tiny top hats above teased blue cotton candy wigs.

The performers and audience at this weekend’s J-Pop Summit Festival 2011 in Japantown were a sight to behold. The lines between singer, dancer,and costumed attendee were blurred; this could be due in part to the layered slab concrete stage below the Peace Pagoda that seems to flow directly into the wind-swept crowd. It was here, on these steps, below the looming structure, where Elegant Gothic Lolita-devotees competed in a Baby, the Stars Shine Bright circus-themed costume contest, where Ikura and Kozue of pop sensation Danceroid showcased the latest moves out of Japan, and where scores of Bay Area and Japan-based musicians took the stage.

All photos by Chris Stevens.

Tim Lincecum Bobble Head Day comes to AT&T Park. Giants fans get their Freak on.

Andrew Lam
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“They’re taking torture to a new level.”

Such were the words of Giants manager Bruce Bochy after his team’s exhilarating 10th inning 2-1 walkoff win versus the visiting Houston Astros on Saturday night. Although it might not have been the best fielded game or the offensive show of force the Giants have been longing for, the team escaped with a win thanks to the bat of trade deadline acquisition Jeff Keppinger. 

But before the night’s climactic finish on the field, a different kind of celebration took place, just off it. It was Tim Lincecum Bobblehead Day at AT&T Park.

Giants fans impatiently lined up for their chance to get a miniature model of their beloved freak. Thousands of fans dressed in orange and black crammed their way into lines that surrounded every inch of the ballpark. 

The 25,000 bobbleheads available vanished within minutes of the gates being opened. If you didn’t line up at least two and a half hours before the game, you probably missed out on the action.

One of the die-hard fans anxiously waiting his opportunity to receive his figurine was Robert Novoa. A 52-year old San Francisco native, Novoa has been a Giants fan since 1963 and has memories of the Giants teams of the ‘60s and legends like Willie Mccovey and Willie Mays. He arrived in front of the Willie Mays gates six hours before the start of the Saturday night’s ballgame, but he was still all smiles at the prospect of scoring his one-of-a-kind Tim Lincecum bobblehead. “[Lincecum’s] the best there is right now. He’s got a unique way of pitching the ball. You have to watch him,” he said. 

But though the pregame chaos was pure Lincecum, the night’s on-field spotlight shined on another Giant. To a roaring, sold-out crowd, left handed pitcher Eric Surkamp took the mound, making his major league baseball debut. Prior to Saturday night’s game, Surkamp played for the Giants’ minor league team Richmond Flying Squirrels. 

“It was awesome. You dream about it your whole life. And for it to finally come true, is amazing,” he said.

The rookie pitched six solid innings, striking out four and allowing just one earned run. Surkamp, who admitted that he couldn’t feel his legs at the beginning of the game, was able to rid himself of the pre-game jitters and put on quite a performance in front of his friends, family, and 42,000 Giants fanatics. “The kid was impressive tonight,” said Bruce Bochy. “He comes in a packed house, pitching his first game. Believe me you’re nervous, you’re amped up, but he never showed it and looked very comfortable out there. I thought he did a great job.”

With the ups, come the downs. Outfielder Nate Schierholtz was placed on the 15 day disabled list with a bone fracture on his right foot; adding to the never ending list of injury ridden Giants. This marks the twenty-fifth time the Giants have used the disabled list, the most in the majors.

The win versus the Astros was the Giants second straight consecutive victory, something they hadn’t done since August 13th. However, they still remain three games back of the Arizona Diamondbacks who beat the San Diego Padres 3-1.

“Hopefully we’ll get on a roll here, keep this thing close, and get this offense clicking”

The Giants will look for production from right fielder Carlos Beltran to provide some offensive prowess for the ball club. Since returning from the disabled list and missing thirteen games, Beltran has been impressive; going 7-for-16 with a .438 average. Beltran went 2-for-4 on Saturday with a run batted in during the first inning.

Up next the Giants look to capitalize on a three game series against the struggling Chicago Cubs, and then will await the arrival of the Arizona Diamondbacks for a crucial weekend series.  

Game Note: On Sunday The Giants lost to the Astros 4-to-3 in eleven innings, and are now four games back of the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL West Division.

 

 

5 Things: August 26, 2011

Andrew Lam
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>>WATER WORKS Everyone’s abuzz about Ali Farzat, the Syrian cartoonist whose hands were broken after creating wildly popular illustrated works critiquing the government. The assault on Farzat is a reminder that art has the power to change minds and lives — an idea that US artists with Estria Miyashiro’s Water Writes mural series were fully with when they teamed up with young people to create eight environmental justice-themed murals at water purification sites in eight days in Gaza. The beleaguered city was the project’s fifth stop — including already-completed Phillipines and Hawaii walls, the Water Writes project will go to 10 worldwide cities in total.

>>BABY BANKROLL Back in June, Tim Redmond looked at the reasons for why families stay in San Francisco. His isn’t the only clan that is sticking in the city: Broke Ass Stuart just launched a new column called Mommy No Bucks that’ll be looking at how all us broke asses (with children!!) make it work in the concrete jungle. 

Not til you’re 21, honey. 

>>CHEESE IT! With all the experimental mixologists in San Francisco and our very own grilled cheese food truck, Toasty Melts, you’d think we’d be the first to come up with this: the grilled cheese martini. The Internet has been aglow in gooey praise/disgust the past few days over this concoction, which can be ordered at Bennett’s Pure Food Bistro in Seattle and the Cellar at Beecher’s in New York – both owned by Kurt Beecher Dammeier. It consists of grilled cheese sandwich-infused vodka (“six piping hot sandwiches in 10 gallons of vodka”), fresh tomatoes, basil, and tomato juice. Sounds like vomit central.

>>WINING DOWN We went to check out the public premiere of Wine From Here, a documentary on California’s nascent natural wine culture. Natural wine, we say? Yeah, the definition’s under a fair amount of debate — never more evident than at the filmmaker Q&A after last night’s screening at the Victoria Theatre. The crowd quibbled over things like the use of oak barrels (shouldn’t the fragrant wood be considered an additive since it alters vino’s flavor profile?), labeling moratoriums, and relative price points of wine grown with and without the addition of foreign yeasts, dyes, and government-approved chemicals. Hopefully the differences of opinion were smoothed over at the screening’s after-party at natural wine-friendly Heart, where the profiled vignerons’ bottles were on the menu, including pours from Coturri Winery and Berkeley’s Edmund St. John.

>>BLAST-OFF TO THE WEEKEND When the aliens come for us, we hope they have noodle faces like the claymates in the new Hopie Spitshard and Del the Funky Homosapien video for Hopie’s single “Space Case,” shot outside Beauty Bar and around the Yay. And we hope they transmorgrify our faces with the same fly colorblock eyeshadow as Bay Area MC Hopie’s. And we hope that the ray of light doesn’t come for us today — we wanna catch Spitshard’s show at 111 Minna tonight, part of a fundraiser for Alameda’s Bohol Circle Filipino community center. 

 

Appetite: Oompah and bratwurst in Larkspur

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Think towering redwoods, smoky aromas of sausages, onions and peppers wafting from a grill, German beers on tap from a cooler, and a darling oompah band of elderly gentleman playing with spunk and skill. Enter the just-launched-this-week Biergarten at the Tavern at Lark Creek. For a short jaunt from the city to Larkspur, it feels worlds away.


I arrived the inaugural Sunday, 8/21, to sunny, fresh air and the knowing shade of those gorgeous redwoods that flank the Tavern (more a classic yellow and white house than tavern). The Biergarten will run every Sunday through October 30 (2pm–5:30pm) outside the restaurant. It evokes Munich beer garden days but with a decidedly California spirit from towering redwoods and elevated beerhaus food.

Chef Aaron Wright grills up smoked beer or chicken apple sausages and garlic bratwurst, juicy and savory, accompanied with grilled onions, peppers and two types of mustard. House-made pretzels come generously dusted with sea salt, or German potato salad helps in soaking up pints of Spaten’s Pilsner and Dark Optimator. Food operates with a ticket system (1-2 tickets, at $5 each, per dish or beer).

When the oompah band raised their steins with rowdy joy, I raised mine, feeling time stop if for a moment, aware of the simple joys of taste, smell, music, camaraderie and nature on a Sunday afternoon.

— Subscribe to Virgina’s twice monthly newsletter, The Perfect Spot

5 Things: August 25, 2011

Andrew Lam
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5 Things: August 25, 2011

>>COMIC ZEN We just want to breathe deeply and slow our caffiene mainline (ironically) when we read Paul Madonna’s All Over Coffee comic strip (is it a strip when it’s a single panel? More research is needed here). Shit is peaceful. Perhaps that’s why the Zen Center is tapping Madonna for this talk on creative theory, highlighted by a slideshow of his luminous scenes from our city’s vertiginous hills and boring flat parts.

>>PINTXO US, WE’RE DREAMING Next week, our restaurant reviewer Paul Reidinger writes about Txoco, a newish Basque restaurant in North Beach (RIP the similar Iluna Basque, whose Top Chef contestant chef, Mattin Noblia, now helms Rendezvous Tapas Lounge. We’ll leave the overall verdict to Paul, but we simply adore the pintxos — basically an hors-d’oeuvre-sized version of tapas. We had some stellar pintxos in Basque country earlier this year, and these little bites (technically each individual pintxo should last exactly two bites) whisked us back. Do not miss the boquerones (anchovies in olive oil, this version served with quail egg, manchego cheese, thyme, avocado, and aioli). Three dollars for two bites might cause some to balk, but each of those bites is a meal unto itself.  Basque in the glory!     

Vegan Filipino snaxx going mobile. Photo via No Worries

>>SOME WORRIES Before we even had a chance to visit, Oakland’s vegan Filipino restaurant No Worries is transitioning from a brick-and-mortar space to a food truck. “We’re minimizing our waste and we’re using less resources. We’re also more accessible to the community,” says owner Jay Ar-Pugao in this very positive video. September 1 No Worries goes mobile — which will, come to think about it, probably up our chances of every actually eating its food. [via Vegansaurus]

>>NUT YOUR AVERAGE DIVIS DIVE In an attempt to fashion itself into a one-stop shop, tiny KK Cafe on Divisadero began quietly began serving huge burritos last month. The cafe, owned by neighborhood legends Jack and Margaret Chang, already serves a fairly baffling mix of burgers (huge, juicy, and cheap), Chinese hot plate meals, and croissantwiches. But its most well-known product is the peanut milk, a concoction said to have healing powers. The Changs added beef and chicken burritos to their menu at the request of the rabid customers who stop off daily for another jug of Signs and Wonders peanut milk.

>>NO FUNCTION JUNCTION Oh dear, L.A. friends and fans, it looks like this year’s huge annual outdoor Sunset Junction festival in Silver Lake — featuring bands as varied as Butthole Surfers, Hanson(!), and Ozomatli — has been cancelled. War on Fun alert down south! (Well, it would be one, except corporate giant Live Nation was basically bankrolling the thing, until it wasn’t.) Luckily, some lovely DIY souls are trying to save the day with a guerrilla No Function Junction spur-of-the-moment festival of their own in multiple venues near the same spot. If you’d planned to head to head to Silver Lake this weekend, there’s still plenty to go for. Nothing, however, will be able to equal the drama of this absolutely amazing moment with Deneice Williams at Sunset Junction 2007  — she fell right off the stage, but before the ambulances came, she sang her heart out. Now THAT’s rock ‘n roll.

 

 

 

Fall. Arts. Handy.

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Fall. Arts. Handy.

Movies, concerts, festivals, games, plays, nightlife, dance … get a good jump on the awesome season ahead with our full Fall Arts Preview here.  

Street Threads: Downtown Edition

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Street Threads: Downtown Edition

Today’s Look: Emma and Izzy, Taylor and Turk

Describe your fashion philosophy:

Emma: “Dress how you feel.”

Izzy: “Awesome!”

Craving more Street Threads? Check out Ariel’s official Street Threads book and blog.

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