Today’s Look: Jai, SF State
Tell us about your look: “I’m an exchange student from China. I’m studying finance.”
- No categories
Pixel Vision
Competitive bearding comes to a town near you
So you read about the upcoming National Beard and Mustache Championships in Bend, Oregon. But where the hell is your local fix for competitive bearding? Well fear not, my sweets — beards are popping up in the budding Bay summer like chanterelles ‘neath the roots of California oaks and conifers (metaphor courtesy of David Arora). We just couldn’t be happier about it. On Thu/27, Edinburgh Castle will be hosting its own charity showdown of the beard bedecked to benefit Smile Train, a group that helps kids with cleft palates. SFBG just received word of from event organizer Brian McGregor, who is a cultivator of a smashing Imperial ‘stache himself. Brian, tell us more!
San Francisco Bay Guardian: What attracts you to the bearding scene?
Brian McGregor: I’m a visual artist, and growing my Imperial partial beard and mustache has allowed me to use my face as a canvas, sculpting a unique style known to some as “Art on my Face.” In terms of my attraction to bearding, it’s an effortless hobby that comes and grows. When people ask me why I grow it, I typically respond by saying it’s not something I chose to grow, rather it chose me.
SFBG: Are you competing at Bend? If so, how long have you been competing, and in what category and subcategory do you compete?
BM: I will be competing in Bend, and it will be my first national competition. However, I do have some East coast wins under my belt. I’m registered in the partial beard and mustache category and have been growing for over a year.
SFBG: Who do you expect to compete at Edinburgh Castle? Why did you pick that bar as your venue?
BM: So far the event promises to be packed full of facial hair enthusiasts. We have two well known local competitors attending, Jack Passion and Xavier Marvel — but there is sure to be many other worthy opponents. In terms of the venue I wanted a non-judgmental place associated with history and culture. My great-grandfathers all had tremendous facial hair, something which has always been prominent in my family. Since I’m the first generation off the boat from Scotland, and after speaking with Alan Black [bar manager at the Castle], and hearing his wondrous thick accent, Edinburgh Castle seemed the most appropriate place to celebrate the event.
SFBG: Why doesn’t San Francisco have its own bearding chapter? So many other cities do, do we not merit our own team of beards?
BM: Good question. I was born in Boston and perhaps felt I wanted a native to the Bay area to take action. However, Thursday night I will have an email sign up to join San Francisco’s Beard and Mustache Society. I will be recruiting a team to start this new chapter, bring facial hair awareness to people of all ages.
SFBG: Any last words for your bearding public?
BM: Keep in mind this event is also a fundraiser. All the money raised at the door benefits Smile Train, which helps kids receive surgery and care who have been born with a cleft palate. With such a great cause, this will sure be an evening not to miss. After San Francisco and Bend, I will be traveling to Manchester Tennessee where I will be hosting a Beard and Mustache Competition for 80,000 people at Bonnaroo, a four day music and arts festival. I will have the stage each day where registration, judging, and performances by the band Flavor Savers will take place. I also have a fleet of rickshaws designated for Mustache Rides, so if anyone if heading to Bonnaroo be sure to say hello!
“Art in Your Face”: A Bay Area Beard and Mustache Benefit
Thurs/27 6-10 p.m., $5
Edinburgh Castle
950 Geary, SF
(415) 885-4074
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=119314088080238&ref=ts
East Oakland’s peaceful Youth Uprising
Six months ago, Javae Reed could hardly have pictured himself as part of the solution to the problems that plague the East Oakland community where he grew up. Fresh off an incarceration in Reno (Reed had relocated temporarily to be with his mom) on charges of robbery, the 19 year old didn’t have a history of positive association with the system. But thanks to Youth Uprising, a youth advocacy non-profit — which celebrates its fifth anniversary with a gala fundraiser Tues/25 — Javae has landed a job, and got his driver’s license. Not to mention the fact that he’s performing policy work that will make a real difference for other young people like himself.
“I always had this potential in me,” Reed told me over the phone as he sat alongside YU director of strategy and investment director Maya Dillard-Smith. “I just needed that guidance to find it.” After hearing of Youth Uprising through a friend upon his return to Oakland, Reed went to check out the program. The next day, he found himself heading out for a Youth Uprising LeaderShift retreat with 29 other young men, a trip which focuses on teaching individuals who are already leaders among their peers how to use their charisma and intelligence in a constructive direction.
Reed, a naturally outgoing guy, immediately found his niche. “By the second day, everybody was social, I got comfortable, the staff showed me support, we had fun. I became a part of the YU family,” he recalls.
It’s indicative of the community-driven nature of YU that Reed was able to connect so readily. The organization celebrates a multi-pronged approach to youth empowerment, focusing both on physical (they operate the most used health clinic in Alameda County) and interior needs (a full purpose media lab gives participants a chance to use their voices artistically, and YU sponsors dance, theater and fine arts programs).
Reed was chosen to become a workshop facilitator, and the organization got to work helping him overcome the obstacles to employment for a young black man in Oakland. Through the Mayor’s Summer Jobs Program, they placed him as a janitor, enrolled him in a computing class to further develop his potential.
And then he was tapped to play a larger role. East Oakland is one of the 14 neighborhoods Building Health and Communities, California’s largest health care foundation, has chosen as a major aide recipient through 2020. Research was needed, however, to identify just how that money was to be allocated.
Who better than the area’s youth themselves to figure that out? Youth Uprising, the lead agency on the project, put Reed and a team of his peers in charge. They were tapped to draw up a survey for their neighborhood that touched on health and safety issues, then gathered responses, and presented their findings to BHC stakeholders (perhaps not surprisingly, national health care reform topped the list of concerns they uncovered). Their conclusions would drive $10 million in social investments.
It was an empowering experience. “You know these things are right, but you’ve never walked in my shoes,” Reed tells me. Although he’d never located himself in politics before, he can now say confidently “I speak for myself — and my generation.”
Reed’s lightening quick transition from disenfranchised youth to community leader is just the kind of change that Youth Uprising wants to keep on the country’s to-do list. “Some people believe the investment should be on the back end with incarceration,” says Dillard-Smith. “But we’re building up social enterprises.”
Which hasn’t been easy in an era of social service mass murder — but YU is pulling through. “We’ve got to have a diversified funding strategy, because the needs of this community are not going away when the funding does,” Dillard-Smith says.
YU’s developing ways to get businesses involved in a way that touches more than just the youth they served. They’ve teamed up with Silicon Valley corporations to keep their data entry programs from being outsourced overseas. “The young people we work with are incredibly computer literate, even when they can‘t read and write,” says Dillard-Smith. They’ve set up their own youth run Corners Café, which gives chosen program participants a chance to develop job skills in a real life environment, and is set to cater your next event.
With all this self made empowerment, it should be no surprise that YU was lauded by US attorney general Eric Holder as a “perfect example” of how change can happen in our beleaguered country. Check out their anniversary on Tues/25, featuring civil rights activist Lateefah Simon — you’ll join the Uprising, too.
Youth Uprising 5th Anniversary Event
Tues/25 6:30-8:30 p.m., $50 donation
8711 MacArthur, Oakland
(510) 777-9099
www.youthuprising.org
The Daily Blurgh: Blue in the face, Twain lives
Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond
Blue is beautiful, but Yves Klein’s International Klein Blue is especially so. Local experts explain why.
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John Mark Karr, who falsely confessed to the murder of JonBenet Ramsey in 1996, is back the news. This time, he is the subject of, “an unofficial nationwide manhunt,” in the face of allegations that he, “has been trying to create a cult of JonBenet Ramsey lookalikes he is calling ‘the Immaculates’ — blond girls as young as 4 years old with small feet — and has been threatening harm to one of the girls, whom he used to recruit others and who escaped from his influence.” Yikes! And the topper: Karr claims to have had sex reassignment surgery within the past two years.
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Mark Twain’s autobiographical writings to be released after century-long wait.
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Small mammal fossils excavated around Shasta County demonstrate that climate change has impacted biodiversity for thousands of years.
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Jews for Jesus founder (and SF resident) Moishe Rosen dies at 78.
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People on poppers.
Cross-post Monday: I do SFist. Hard.
It was a true honor — nay, a true honor and a privilege — to participate in SFist’s great “will blog for food” guest-writer program, Day Around the Bay, this evening. Check it out, and inundate SFist editor Brock with requests that he guest-write my Super Ego nightlife column. (He will mention drinks with chic lesbians at Orson.)
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Stan, SF State
Tell us about your look: “These shorts I got yesterday at Buffalo. I’ve never heard of the brand. I think they’re from Japan.”
The Daily Blurgh: No monkey business from Hollywood
Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond
Boooo! SF-set Planet Of The Apes prequel probably won’t be shot in SF.
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Sea lion thinks it’s people!
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See San Francisco in glorious color, thanks to the wonderful online archive of Charles W. Cushman’s Kodachrome slides of the city, shot between 1938 and 1969 (Caliber SF via Eye on Blogs).
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The origins of Mission Carnaval.
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Things women in the news have done recently: impersonated an FBI supervisor, smuggled meth inside a bible, and hid in a coffin to escape custody.
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Richmondsf takes a tour of the architectural marvel that is the Neptune Society’s Columbarium.
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In honor of the upcoming Harvey Milk Day, here’s a clip of Harvey schooling local, former News Talk host Juana on religious hypocrisy and the Briggs Initiative with plenty of passion and charm:
A close-up view of Boot & Shoe
The pies that fly out of the oven at Oakland’s Boot and Shoe Service make other dough-marinara-cheese combinations look flat and lame. Crispy, brick oven-fired crust, organic toppings and loads of flavor are partly responsible for the prized pizza goodness, but it’s also the layers of love baked into every bite.
As I wrote in this week’s article on the restaurant, “Hot Slice: Oakland’s Boot and Shoe Service Wants to Love the Shit Out of You”, owner Charlie Hallowell is all about filling people’ stomachs with good stuff while simultaneously allowing them to relax, be served and drink accordingly.
I peeked around the joint shortly before they opened for dinner last week and snapped some photos. Sweet local art adorned all walls, baskets of fresh ingredients sat patiently, waiting to fulfill their duty and the staff buzzed with preparations.
Feeling in the mood? Get there early to avoid the wait, order it all and get a little love for yourself.
BOOT AND SHOE SERVICE
3308 Grand Ave., Oakl.
(510) 763 2668
Beards! Championship-bound, Bay Area beards!
Facial hair isn’t something that Xavier Marvel grows for the glory. This is his life. “I didn’t decide to go to the championships and then grow my musketeer,” says the dashing Marvel, who will represent the Bay Area at the upcoming 2010 National Beard and Mustache Championships in Bend, Oregon (June 5). I spoke to him recently on the phone, painfully divorced from seeing his follical glory in person. “I already had it. The competition is not the reason for my facial hair, it’s just sort of a bonus.”
Marvel sports a musketeer, a goatee-mustache combination popularized by the Dumas swashbucklers. Does the musketeer spirit, er, grow on him? “Sure, I try to practice chivalry as much as possible. Being a gentleman, that’s kind of my way. Plus, I’m half French, so I do feel that it’s in my blood to some degree. Do I go out challenging people to duels? Not really.”
The beard makes the man. Marvel’s been sporting facial hair since letting his peach fuzz fly at the tender age of 16, and he’s already competed in last year’s World Championships in Anchorage (in the “Partial Beard” category, subcategory Musketeer). He didn’t place in the top three, losing to long time veterans of the competitive bearding world. But, he says, “I’m not the most serious competitor — I shaved three months ago. I’m not anywhere near Jack Passion’s level of devotion. Are you familiar with Jack Passion?”
This is Jack Passion. Photo by Alessandro Sicco
Well shoots Xavier, I wasn’t. But I fixed that real quick, and I’m glad I did – Jack Passion is the man. A 26 year old from Walnut Creek, Passion has won the World Championships two years in a row in the big daddy of beard categories, Full Beard Natural (or “Natty,” as Passion has nicknamed it). “I’m the Muhhamad Ali of beards,” he told me — with no lack of follicular braggadacio — over the phone today. Passion’s now got his own (sick) line of faux beard tees, and penned The Facial Hair Handbook, which he respectfully suggests for all those interested in getting their beards up to speed for the upcoming national championships.
“Big Red,” as his luscious belly length locks have been dubbed, is so spectacular in fact, Jack’s sitting Bend out this year as a competitor. After seven years of growing his beard and five years of professionally slaying all competition with it, he cites a desire to pace his beard career as reason for the break. Which is all good — he’ll still be in Bend as an MC and judge. But don’t expect the relief for his competitors to last past the Oregon showdown. “This competition may incite a fire in my soul. If that’s the case, I’m to have to crush all these guys and their hopes for bearded glory,” Passion revealed.
Fellow Bay area representative Marvel is stoked for the chance to have another swat at hairy ascension. “I have a good laugh with it, now I can go bond with my bearded brothers, travel a bit, see a new place — and then I get a chance to claim a title for my beard.” God speed, Javier. At the risk of journalistic objectivity, we here at SFBG are pulling for you and the musketeer.
Stay tuned! Turn to sfbg.com for Jack Passion’s post National Championship rundown! The costumes, the carnage! The Muhammad Ali of beards tells us how it all went down!
2010 National Beard and Mustache Championships
June 4-6, $10
Les Schwab Amphitheater
344 Shevlin Hixon, Bend, OR
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Brandon and Joseph, SF State
Tell us about your look:
Brandon: “This is all Club Monaco, because I work there.”
Justin: “American Apparel and a Club Monaco oxford.”
The coffee shop-dollar store king of Divco
One questions the need for another coffeehouse on Divisadero – seems like every time I turn around there’s another corner store churning out lattes and biscotti. But clearly I lack the vision of Haile Taddesse, owner of the 99¢ Divis Variety Discount at Divisadero and McAllister. “I am a coffee addicted person,” the Eritrean business owner tells me. “I grew up in a coffee country.” And no offense to the other establishments on his street, but he thought their coffee was mediocre. So, sick of trekking “ten blocks, or a mile even,” to find Philz or Blue Bottle, he decided to expand his business empire with a cafe next door to his dollar store.
Which makes for an interesting blend of customers. The DivCo (Division Corridor) neighborhood demographics are changing rapidly these days. Older restaurants and barbershops are ceding their storefronts to trendy new restaurants and coffee shops. Hell, some people (we won’t go into who those people are, we don’t particularly jibe with them) have even made up a name, NoPa, for the stretch, eschewing the working class implications of Western Addition.
So it’s nice to see a long time business owner successfully adapting to the winds of change. This morning when I visited, business was rolling at the five year old 99¢ Divis. A group of immigrant men chatted with Taddesse about politics (“I like Reagan and Clinton. Reagan was respected abroad. Americans, they don’t care about that.”). On the other side of the door that leads to Oasis Cafe, a cheerful barista made sandwiches and coffee for young people, and a few individuals working on their laptops.
And true to his word, Tadesse’s got some damn good coffee. Ten different kinds of beans sit behind the counter, and drinks are made on a cup by cup basis. “Most coffees around here are deceptive,” he told me. “You don’t see them make it. I am trying to make everything fresh for the neighborhood.” I tried the Divisadero blend, which I was told was the darkest of the blends that day. It gave me a rich jolt that I must admit is hard to come by at other spots down DivCo.
Seating is ample and comfortable; banquettes and deep, overstuffed leather armchairs. There’s a large mural of an oasis on the back wall, painted free of charge by a fellow cafe owner who just wanted to contribute something to Tadesse, who turns in 16 plus hours a day at his mini commercial empire. Already, an extensive menu of milkshakes, fresh juices, omelettes, and sandwiches are available — but the owner sees all this as merely the beginning for the cafe. He has plans for an Ethiopian food menu, soups, outside seating for his customers.
Business at the cafe, located on less frequented stretch of Divisadero blocks from both the Mt. Zion Hospital lunch crowds and the hot Lower Haight blocks, has already exceeded Tadesse’s expectations. Which flies in the face of the advice from the friends who wieghed in when he first concieved of Oasis.
“They said not to waste my money, that it was a bad location,” he tells me as another customer unloads an armful of cheap toiletries at the dollar store counter. “But it’s not up to the competition. It’s up to you, and your product. I said ‘don’t worry, I’ll show you.’ ”
99¢ Divis Variety Discount & Oasis Cafe All in One
901 Divisadero, SF
(415) 474-4900
May the tastiest critter-friendly cupcake win
Your chops sink into the rich, sweet fluff and your lips are left with a coat of luscious frosting; cupcakes are the things dreams are made of and especially the dozens that will be up for tasting this weekend at the Rock Paper Scissors Collective‘s 2nd Annual Vegan Cupcake Bake-off. No butter, no eggs people– all that delicious and they’re animal friendly…pretty sure that will be my excuse for chomping well over five cups.
This bake-off isn’t meant for observation– four bucks gets you a napkin, fork, plate, and a chance to nimble and snack on a the tantalizing entries of frosted vegan treats. Try them all and then vote for your poison. Will it be chocolate drizzle or peachy keen? Oh, the choices we must make.
Last year’s winner, Laurie Ellen, dazzled taste buds with her vegan strawberry-lemonade cupcakes and earned not the typical loads of ridiculous fame and fortune, but a sweet sense of local pride and a good, sugary feeling on her insides. Yum! The taste testing, the baking and more taste testing– I’m guessing the labor of a baker is quite hard to bear and if only I were best friends with one of these candied cooks, I could surely help out.
This baker’s triumph needed to be further explained and luckily Ellen was up for hinting at a couple of her yummy secrets.
SFBG: Tell me about the crafting of your Strawberry-Lemonade recipe?
Laurie: The recipe last year came out of a last minute dinner at a friends house. I decided to make some cupcakes using lemons from the meyer lemon tree in my backyard that had been fruiting gloriously and some strawberries a coworker brought into work which I had recently made into preserves. It was a union between making something seasonally relevant and making something with items in my pantry.
SFBG: How many cupcakes did you eat in preparation?
Laurie: Well, I usually eat one from every batch and I made about 6 batches leading up to and including the competition, so 6, at least.
SFBG: Who else ate them?
Laurie: Friends, coworkers, strangers, anyone who wanted one, I was itching for feedback.
SFBG: What was the best part about your winning cupcake last year?
Laurie: The people that came up to me after the competition telling me it was the first vegan baked good they had eaten and that it really surprised and challenged the notion of what they thought a cupcake was or could be.
SFBG: What drink would pair best with the strawberry lemonade cakes? Vodka? Milk?
Laurie: An icy cold Arnold Palmer.
SFBG: Do you always bake vegan?
Laurie: About half the time. Although I am not vegan I have friends and family in my life who have a variety of dietary differences and if I am making something, especially dessert, I want everyone to be able to enjoy it. I think it has come in pretty handy and people are surprised and excited when they realize that they can enjoy dessert too.
SFBG: Any hints as to what you’ve whipped up for this year’s contest?
Laurie: You’ll have to come out to RPSC to check it out, it is a refreshing summer cupcake, I hope people will enjoy it.
Besides the bake-sale itself, Paper Rock Scissors will have a bunch of crazy-cupcaked themed events, good for distracting sugar teeth from the pans of goodies. A cookbook of all the vegan treat recipes will be for sale, meaning you can attempt to replicate your favorites. Bring-Your-Own-Tee shirt/totebag or whatever and get it branded with a lovely screen printed cupcake or grin with your mouth full in the cupcake photo-booth.
2nd Annual Vegan Cupcake Bake-off!
Sat/22, 2-5pm, $4
Rock Paper Scissors Collective
2278 Telegraph, Oakland
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Kimberly, SF State
Tell us about your look: “Mostly thrift. I love thrift. It’s the only thing I love in my heart.”
The Daily Blurgh: Straight talk and space calcium
Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond
Local, totally awesome new media experiment 48 H — a print magazine produced, as its title suggests, in just two days using online social networking and publishing resources — was sent a cease and desist letter by old media dinosaur CBS, which owns the television news magazine 48 Hours. Come on folks. We’re all journalists here. Can’t we all just get along?
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The only dating formula you need.
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It’s hard out there for small to medium-sized museums (especially local ones).
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Supernovae: They do a body good?
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Awkward! (Especially considering that tonight was the State Dinner honoring Mexico.)
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Congratulations! Two giant gay metallic penises are your new Olympic mascots, Great Britain.
May 20: Take Back the Mic
Tomorrow evening’s kickoff event to Take Back the Mic marks the start of a nationwide community media campaign with music, storytelling, and interactive new media at the Ashkenaz in Berkeley.
Musician and radio host Derrick Ashong, who is organizing the project with author and musician Aaron Abelman, describes Take Back The Mic as “a new youth and young adult centered cultural movement. Via innovative uses of technology coupled with the power of local networks of youth, community organizations, educational institutions and businesses, TBTM will help to develop a new generation of young people armed with the tools to tell their own stories using digital and social media.”
The idea, Ashong told the Guardian, is to bring environmental justice issues to the fore by joining with impacted communities and harnessing new media, music, and the Internet to “share the world through their eyes.” In the Bay Area, the effort has grown out of a partnership between CommuniTree, the Local Clean Energy Alliance, Bay Localize, the Greenlining Institute, the Ella Baker Center, and a number of local environmental and community organizations.
The nationwide campaign will partner with community groups in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and North, NJ to launch similar efforts, says Ashong, a Harvard-educated musician who is originally from West Africa.
The Ashkenaz event will feature Ashong’s band, Soulfège, as well as Audiopharmacy, Seasunz & Ambessa FiyaPowa, the Aaron Ableman Ensemble, Sunru and DJ Divinity, as well as storytelling by representatives from Bay Area social and environmental justice movements. People are encouraged to bring their own recording devices, like Flip camcorders and iPhones, to shoot clips and upload them online for everyone to view. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the show starts at 8. It’s $8 before 8 p.m., and $10 to $15 on a sliding scale after that.
The narrative of communities impacted by environmental justice problems “is a very complex and nuanced narrative,” noted Tara Marchant, Manager of the Green Assets Program for the Greenlining Institute, which advocates for green jobs and improved air quality in low-income communities such as East Oakland. “We’re really looking at how the excitement around this movement invites communities who don’t necessarily feel like they’re part of the conversation” to share their narrative with the world, she said.
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Wes, SF State
Tell us about your look: “Everything here is from my dad or a thrift store.”
Darryl gets live: Craig Robinson hits SF stand up
Perhaps you’ve heard of Craig Robinson. You’ve certainly seen him — between The Office, turns in Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, Hot Tub Time Machin\e — plus guest appearances on pretty much every single successful sitcom of the past decade or so — he’s totally “that guy” these days. You know, “that funny guy,” “that bouncer guy,” even “that black guy” (groan, racial identifiers). But when we chatted over the phone a few weeks ago in anticipation of his upcoming stand up show at Cobb’s Comedy Club (starts Thurs/27), the turbo calm Robinson let me know that “hey man, where do I know you from?” is only the second most popular line he’s approached with these days.
“They ask me, ‘can we make love?’ ” he deadpans. Right. Wasn’t expecting that. And then laughs as I scrabble together a follow up question. “No, the number one is ‘hey you’re that guy!’ ”
Robinson’s been playing the comic foil for some time now. He got his start in stand up at Chicago’s Second City, perfecting an dry act that featured the big man sitting down at a piano for little forays into melodic riffing. Despite his triumph on the big and little screens, he’s not trying to reinvent the wheel with it. “My act is unchanged. I’m not looking for new stuff. My fans are going to love that I’m still doing it, and the people who are, like oh I’ve seen it, well hopefully they won’t come.”
His characters have typically been back up players — the overly honest bouncer in Knocked Up, Darryl the warehouse manager of The Office — but they’re far from overshadowed by his more famous co stars. Robinson’s roles tear holes in standard power structures, makes us an observer of the scene through his eyes. Maybe that’s why Darryl’s getting called up to the main character echelon of The Office. Maybe people just dig the way Robinson does things.
Or maybe not. When I ask him about his newfound centrality in the show’s episodes, I can hear the shrug in the short silence that follows. “I don’t know,” he tells me. “I wish I could say, yeah, the people demanded more Darryl. But I don’t know how it happened. One day my manager says, they’re talking about moving you up.”
Robinson seems to enjoy his tenure on network TV’s send up of corporate culture. He’s a big Steve Carrell fan (“You knew right away Steve was the man. He threw the ball from one side of the court to the other side,”) and certainly the show’s made his face a no-brainer for more high profile comic roles.
But not everyone wants him for his looks. He recently lent his other talents to the team behind Shrek 4. “The director Mike Mitchell and I played with the character until we came up with an she-ogre named Cookie. Let the games begin,” he says with a chuckle.
Craig Robinson
Thurs/27-Sun/30 8 p.m. (also 10:15 p.m., Fri and Sat), $23.50-25.50
Cobb’s Comedy Club
915 Columbus, SF
(415) 928-4320
www.cobbscomedyclub.com
The Daily Blurgh: Flipper goes commando and Gidget almost loses it (again)
Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond
In the near future, Navy Marine Mammals will prevent the next diabolical underwater plot hatched by marine-loving terrorists. In fact, they’re doing it off the coast of California right now. Lest you be worried that these aquatic freedom defenders are “canaries in a coalmine” (but in water!), rest assured that, “None of the animals have been harmed in the anti-terrorist work. They never have to carry potentially catastrophic mines.”
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The sexual history of “Gidget.”
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UC Berkeley plans on asking incoming freshman and transfer students to submit DNA samples swabbed from their inner cheeks, “in an effort to introduce them to the emerging field of personalized medicine.” Yeah right. We know that UCB is going to take a page from Philip K. Dick and use the genetic data to blackmail the students when they attempt to do things like go on hunger strikes or protest budget cuts.
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Boing Boing has a neat-o preview of this year’s Maker Faire.
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Creepiest headline of the day: Slain woman found in suitcase off Embarcadero
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Most delicious word of the day: “maize’wiches“
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Piece of Internet wisdom of the day, courtesy of Slog commenter gloomy gus:
“The internet is 45% sadness, 45% anger, and 10% things to soothe the sadness and anger, meaning: cats and advice.”
Quick Lit: May 19-May 25
Literary readings, book tours, and talks this week
Michael Chabon, Chuck Palahniuk, a celebration of Bukowski, Carol Queen revisits exhibitionism, Rebecca Solnit and Mona Caron create a California bestiary, and more
Wednesday, May 19
A California Bestiary
Authors Rebecca Solnit and Mona Caron partnered to create their own book of magical California beasts inspired by medieval bestiaries that were more fanciful than factual.
7 p.m., free
Green Arcade
1680 Market, SF
(415) 431-6800
Celebrate Bukowski
Celebrate the release of Absence of the Hero: Uncollected Stories and Essays by Charles Bukowski with editor David Calonne in conversation with Garrett Caples and readings from Stephen Elliot and Daphne Gottlieb.
7 p.m., free
City Lights Bookstore
261 Columbus, SF
(415) 362-8193
The Empire Strikes Out
Author Robert Elias reads from his new book The Empire Strikes Out: How baseball sold U.S. foreign policy and promoted the American way abroad, which takes an eye-opening look at baseball’s relationship to the American empire, from the revolutionary era to the present.
7:30 p.m., free
Pegasus Books Downtown
2349 Shattuck, Berk
(510) 649-1320
Michael Chabon
Join bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon as he discusses his new memoir, Manhood for Amateurs.
7:30 p.m., free
The Booksmith
1644 Haight, SF
(415) 863-8688
“Massive Stars and Their Temper Tantrums”
Join UC Berkeley professor Dr. Nathan Smith as he discusses the properties of the most massive stars, and the life and death of large, unstable stars, such as Eta Carinae.
7:30 p.m., free
Randall Museum
199 Museum Way, SF
(415) 554-9600
www.randallmuseum.org
Carol Queen
Attend a book party for Queen’s 1996 book, Exhibitionism for the Shy, featuring new chapters on internet exhibitionism and added interviews. Dress up, show off, and talk hot at this discussion on finding your own erotic identity and comfort zone to become the erotically outgoing soul you’d like to be.
6:30 p.m., free
Good Vibrations Berkeley
2504 San Pablo, Berk.
http://events.goodvibes.com
Thursday, May 20
An evening with Chuck Palahniuk
Hear the famed author of Fight Club discuss his new book Tell All, a Sunset Boulevard homage to Old Hollywood, filled with name-dropping and nostalgia.
7:30 p.m., $36
Swedish American Hall
2174 Market, SF
(415) 863-8688
California Condors
Learn more about the reestablished population of California Condors after their near extinction 30 years ago at this talk with National Park Service wildlife biologist Daniel George titled, “The Natural History and Future of California Condors.”
7:30 p.m., free
First Unitarian Universalist Church
1187 Franklin, SF
www.goldengateaudubon.org
The Food Industry
Hear Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times reporter Michael Moss discuss lapses in food safety, nutrition related issues, the White House’s war on obesity and more in conversation with KQED reporter Sarah Varney.
Noon, $20
Commonwealth Club
2nd floor
595 Market, SF
(415) 597-6700
Hearts for Madeline
Hear author Page Hodel talk about her new book about when she met Madelene Rodriguez, who soon after died of cancer, and how she still leaves crafted hearts on her doorstep to say ‘I love you.’
7:30 p.m., free
Books Inc.
2275 Market, SF
(415) 864-6777
InsideStorytime: Crime
Enjoy readings from crime writers Lisa Lutz, author of The Spellmans Strike Again, Mark Coggins, author of The Big Wake-up, Seth Harwood, author of Jack Wakes Up, Mitzi Ngim, and Julie Graham with MC Ransom Stephens.
6:30 p.m., $3-$5 sliding scale
Café Royale
800 Post, SF
(415) 505-0869
www.insidestorytime.com
Low Bite
Attend this launch of Sin Soracco’s new prison novel about survival, dignity, friendship, and insubordination inside a women’s prison.
7 p.m., free
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia, SF
www.mtbs.com
“Lyman vs. Niman: Can you be a good environmentalist and still eat meat?”
Raising livestock is resource-intensive and, we are beginning to learn, a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Nicolette Hahn Niman, a Marin rancher and author of Righteous Porkchop, will argue that there is an ecologically sustainable way to eat meat against Howard Lyman, the author of Mad Cowboy: Plain truth from a cattle rancher who won’t eat meat.
7 p.m., $10-$20
David Brower Center
Richard & Rhoda Goldman Theater
2150 Allston, Berk.
(510) 859-9100
Friday, May 21
To Teach: The Journey, In Comics
Graphic artist Ryan Alexander-Tanner brings William Ayers’ memoir To Teach: The journey of a teacher to life in this new graphic novel.
7 p.m., free
Green Arcade
1680 Market, SF
(415) 431-6800
Saturday, May 22
“Shanghai”
Attend an Asian Art Museum docent talk featuring a lecture and slideshow presentation about the museum’s exhibition “Shanghai.” The talk will be in English and Cantonese.
2:30 p.m., free
Chinatown Branch Library
Community Room
1135 Powell, SF
(415) 355-2888
Very Good-Looking Seeks Same
Author Robert Philipson will read from his new book, Very Good-Looking Seeks Same: Gay profiles in search of love, a new volume of transgressive, internet inspired poems, at this event featuring refreshments and live jazz music.
5 p.m., free
San Francisco LGBT Center
4th floor
1800 Market, SF
(415) 865-5555
Sunday, May 23
Broken Promises, Broken Dreams
Hear author Alice Rothchild explore the complexities of Jewish Israeli attitudes and the hardships of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza through personal narratives based on work with medical delegations in the region.
3 p.m., free
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia, SF
www.mtbs.com
Monday, May 24
Sunnyside
Bay Area author Glen David Gold discusses his new American epic, Sunnyside, starring Charlie Chaplin, about dreams, ambition, and the birth of modern America.
7:30 p.m., free
The Booksmith
1644 Haight, SF
(415) 863-8688
War: As Soldiers Really Live It
Hear Sebastian Junger discuss his new book about the reality of combat, the fear, honor and trust among men in an extreme situation whose survival depends on their absolute commitment to one another. His on-the-ground account follows a single platoon through a 15 month tour of duty in the most dangerous outpost in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley.
7:30 p.m., $12
First Congregational Church of Berkeley
2345 Channing, Berk.
(510) 848-6767
Tuesday, May 25
A Poem for Mother Earth
Attend this poetry sharing and community healing ceremony featuring poetry, spoken word, and music from migrant Raza, indigenous youth, adults, and elders in poverty focused on the impacts of climate change on indigenous peoples and poor people of color.
Noon, free
Galleria de la Raza
2857 24th St., SF
www.poormagazine.org
Benefits: May 19-May 25
Ways to have fun while giving back this week
Friday, May 21
Threatened, Endangered, Extinct
Celebrate 2010 Endangered Species Day at this lively discussion with experts currently creating strategies to protect biodiversity and convert consumers worldwide featuring cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, a silent auction including travel, restaurants, jewelry, limited edition signed wildlife prints, and more.
6 p.m., free
The University Club
800 Powell, SF
RSVP to sullivan@wildaid.org
Three-Minute Picture Show
Shake your booty to the music of Ron Silva and the Monarchs and enter to win raffle prizes from 3 Fish Studios, Books Inc., Gregory Cowley Photography, Interior Design Fair, Madrone Art Bar, and more at this benefit soiree featuring a screening of past Three-Minute Picture Show audience favorites.
7:30 p.m., $7
Make-Out Room
3225 22nd St., SF
www.threeminutepictureshow.com
Saturday, May 22
Bachelor Firefighter Auction
Bid on a smokin’ hot bachelor and enjoy raffle prizes, music, and other suprises at this fundraiser for the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to enhancing the lives of burn survivors and promoting burn prevention education.
8 p.m., $35
Sir Francis Drake Hotel
450 Powell, SF
http://buyfiremen.eventbrite.com
Harvey Milk Diversity Brunch
Celebrate the birthday and life of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay elected official. Enjoy well-known speakers from the LGBT community, food from Hott Box Catering, and more at this fundraiser for La Cocina, a small business support resource.
10:30 a.m., $65
The Arc of San Francisco
1500 Howard, SF
www.milkday.org
Public Glass Auction
Attend this benefit auction featuring the work of more than 60 renowned glass artists, wine, and hors d’ oeuvres. Proceeds will go towards Public Glass’ education program that reaches 300 students a year.
4:30 p.m., $50
First Unitarian Universalist Church and Center
1187 Franklin, SF
www.publicglass.org
Reliquarium
Attend this auction of reliquary-like objects representing the artistic DNA of writers and artists, housed in an attractive container. Participating artists include Justin Timberlake, Lemony Snicket, Jonathan Lethem, Anne Waldman, and more. Proceeds to benefit Small Press Traffic, an organization that brings together independent readers, writers, and presses.
5:30 p.m., $20 includes refreshments
California College of the Arts
Graduate Writing Studio
195 De Haro, SF
www.sptraffic.org
Sunday, May 23
Backyard BBQ for Chile
Join the Art House Gallery at this backyard potluck BBQ to benefit the Chile Earthquake Relief Effort featuring live music by Rafael Manriquez, Esteban Bello, Clara Bellino, and more. Look for the balloons.
Noon, $5-$50
Edith between Cedar and Lincoln, Berk.
(510) 472-3170
Castro County Fair
Join AIDS Emergency Fund on Harvey Milk weekend for a one of a kind county fair and fundraiser, featuring a dog-owner look alike contest, carnival games, country western dancing, a pie baking contest, an orchid show, field day events, and more.
10 a.m., $25
The Armory
14th at Mission, SF
www.castrocountyfair.org
Chance for Change
Enjoy a night of food, music, an auction, and a tribute to the struggles of homeless women and children at this fundraiser for Berkeley Women’s Daytime Drop-In Center, a daytime program for homeless women and their children.
3 p.m., $50
St. Alban’s Episcopal Church
1501 Washington, Albany
(510) 548-2884
www.womensdropin.org
Hidden Gems Garden Tour
Take a look at ten inspiring private gardens and public spaces with gardeners on hand to answer questions at this fundraiser for the new Potrero Hill Library.
10 a.m.; $25, $40 for two
Christopher’s Books
1400 18th St., SF
(415) 255-8802
All States Best Foods
1607 20th St., SF
(415) 642-3230
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Katherine, SF State
Tell us about your look: “It’s my ‘going on BART’ comfy outfit and it’s a nice day!”
The Daily Blurgh: Creepy mannequins, big words
Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond
An ode to the creepy child mannequins of Siegel’s Fashions for Men and Boys on Mission.
*****
*****
Haight-dwellers, meet SOPA.
*****
Today, in you can’t make this stuff up: “In 1997, a Mexican woman who was living in Cuernavaca looked at the cover of the magazine Contenido—a Reader’s Digest-y sort of publication—and saw on it the face of her common-law husband. She had been his partner for 21 years and borne him two children, and she knew him as a private detective or ‘CIA agent’ who, for understandable work-related reasons, put in only occasional appearances at home. Now she learned that he was a priest and and that his real name was Marcial Maciel. He was, the magazine said, the head of an order whose strictness and extreme conservatism appeared to hide some vile secrets: the article, picking up information first brought to light in an article by Jason Berry in the Hartford Courant, revealed that nine men, one a founder of the Legionaries, another still an active member, and the rest all former members of the order, had informed their superiors in Rome that Maciel had abused them sexually when they were pubescent seminarians under his care.”
*****
This sentence cannot be found guilty of the linguistic sin of mytacism.
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Oh yeah. That lumbering mass of drunk people in funny outfits happened Sunday. Brittney Gilbert rounds up web coverage.
*****
“You’re gonna get all krauty”
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q5BWFIx8Ijs
The Daily Blurgh: Disgruntled British teens, blog tourism, Bootsy Collins trips out
Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond
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“So, hi there, Mission! Love what you’ve done with the place!”
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Bay Area farmer’s markets by the numbers.
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Discussion: Minor Hitchcock
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Bootsy Collins dishes on LSD and James Brown (h/t: boingboing):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZScoOkBENsQ
Hayes Valley Farm grows an urban farming community
Don Wiepert hasn’t always enjoyed the view out his bedroom window as much as he does now. An eight year resident of Oak Street, the senior citizen has a wonderful vantage point of the highway on-ramp covered in potted fruit trees and fava beans by Hayes Valley Farm, where he volunteers on a weekly basis. Before the community farming effort, he says, the parcel of land’s only crops were slightly less savory.
“This was a place for homeless living,” he tells me on my recent trip to see the fruits of the exciting new neighborhood project. “It was fenced off, ugly, inaccessible. Now it’s wonderful.”
His enthusiasm seems to be shared by everyone who enters into the Hayes Valley lot. On this windy Thursday afternoon, volunteers are collaborating on the various steps needed to make this exercise in urban farming a success. In one corner, a greenhouse is being erected. Over there, fellow volunteers plant the seedlings nutured in Wiepert’s own living room. Small hills that were once home to nothing but trees languishing under ivy covered, and oil soaked ground support rows of fava beans, and young lettuce.
Organizer Jay Rosenberg explains the process to me as we tour the fields he helped to envision. Back in 1964, neighborhood activists, including the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association organized to stop the progress of the central freeway that would connect US-101 to the Golden Gate. The show of community force was impressive, but it stranded the planned highway on and off-ramps on a block of land between Octavia and Laguna Streets. “They left them here standing like ruins,” Rosenberg tells me. “This was a 2.2 acre forgotten space.”
The blocks, designated parcels “P” and “O” by the city, devolved into a gothic, ivy covered problem for the neighborhood. They were claimed by drug users and homeless tent communities — until Rosenberg, Christopher Burley, and David Cody, three young men with experience in sustainable entrepreneurship and permaculture, identified the land as yhe ideal spot to bring a self-sustaining food system into the neighborhood.
At first meeting weekly with community members at nearby Suppenkuche, the three formulated a plan to start an urban farming education and research center. On January 22nd, 2010, after months of permit-wrangling with the city and work with the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, they had the keys to the cyclone fences that surround the property.
Which really, was just the beginning. The trees on the lot were slowly being choked by the insidious ivy that had infiltrated the area, and the soil itself was highly toxic from years of brake dust, lead-based oils, and carbon monoxide emissions from cars. Even what crops to plant was at issue. Due to it’s heavy winds, chilly summer nights and minimal rainfall “San Francisco is a cool, Mediterranean-like, foggy desert,” says Rosenberg, making for unique agricultural conditions.
All sizable challenges, but they’re no match for the combined brain power of the Hayes Valley Farm team. The three, and an ever-growing army of neighborhood volunteers, got to work planting fava beans; natural nitrogen producers whose very shoots enrich the soil around them, as well as producing food. They’re adding the chopped down ivy to 80,000 pounds of donated cardboard, and mulch from the city’s regular landscaping program to turbo-fertilize their new farm.
They’ve also found ways to kickstart the harvest while the soil repairs itself. Rosenberg proudly walks me down the rows of what volunteers like to call “San Francisco’s largest patio garden,” over 150 sapling fruit trees and 1,500 plants that sit happily on Parcel P’s old freeway on-ramp. The “freeway food forest,” as Rosenberg calls it, is already helping to feed the 1,000 community members who have already put in 4,000 hours of volunteer time on the farm since January.
It’s merely the beginning for the farm. Although organizers have heard rumors that the city intends on building condos on their land in the next three to five years, Rosenberg says “We championed to be here in a temporary fashion.” An interactive classroom is in the works, one wall to be formed by a mural painted by students at the Chrissy Field Center. Although someday Rosenberg envisions produce and fruit tree sales, he hopes to continue offering the volunteers that help the farm flourish fruits and veggies to take home with them.
For Wiepert, though, the farm is more than just an outdoor larder. “I appreciate the opportunity to hang out with the younger people and their energy here,” the man tells me, moments before flinging a stick for one of the farm’s part-time dogs to chase after. “I think this place facilitates a feeling for a lot of people that they’re doing something meaningful,”
To welcome the farm into the neighborhood, organizers are planning a series of outdoor screenings of films that educate on soil depletion and other environmental topics. Popcorn and live entertainment included.
Hayes Valley Farm Film Night feat. Dirt! The Movie
Tues/18 Gates open at 7:30 p.m., films start at 8:15, $5-18
Hayes Valley Farm
450 Laguna, SF
www.hayesvalleyfarm.com