Today’s Look: Seungtaek, Sacramento and Polk
Tell us about your look: “My jacket, shirt, and pants are all from Korea.”
- No categories
Pixel Vision
The Daily Blurgh: That cat should have won the prize
Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond
“We offer a kind of grittiness you can’t find much anymore,” said Randy Shaw, a longtime San Francisco housing advocate and a driving force behind the idea of Tenderloin tourism. “And what is grittier than the Tenderloin?”
Now that San Francisco is going to court the tourist dollars of baby boomers descending upon the TL in search of reawakening the pleasure centers of their youth – the music! the drugs! the picturesque squalor! – perhaps City Hall should also consider starting up tourism franchises in other “gritty” parts of the city?
(But gawking humorously at the poor, addicted, and metally challenged makes for such a sensational blog post! –Ed.)
Also: Drubbing! This headline is the second Google hit that comes up for the search: “slumming San Francisco.” Take that, spendy New York Times (which seems to have a long history of reporting on slumming in other cities).
There are too many golden nuggets to choose from in Roger Ebert’s account of working on the Russ Meyer-directed Sex Pistols film that never was, but this exchange is one of them:
Meyer opened up by informing Johnny Rotten that with his stovepipe arms he wouldn’t have survived one day in the army.
“What do I want with the fucking army?” Rotten said.
“You listen to me, you little shit. We won the Battle of Britain for you!”
I reflected that America had not been involved in the Battle of Britain, and that John Lydon (his real name) was Irish, and therefore from a non-participant nation. I kept these details to myself.
The anxiety of influence: The debate going on in the comments on this Fecal Face interview with local artist Maxwell Loren Holyoke-Hirsch is heated. Holyoke-Hirsch doesn’t seem to lack faith in his abilities (he is quoted as referring to himself as, “the hardest working illustrator and artist based in San Francisco, California”), although irony is sometimes lost in transcription. Hubris aside, there is still the question of whether or not his art, as some comments posit, swagger-jacks Chris Johansson and Barry McGee. But kids, it’s OK. Put down those rocks! Didn’t you know street art has already jumped the balaclava’d shark?
(Kidding!)
We love our cat
for her self
regard is assiduous
and bland
Congrats to personal fave Rae Armantrout for winning this year’s Pulitzer Prize in poetry. Cat people, this may be finally be your salve for the incredibly raw wounds from our canine-centric Pets issue.
Youth Speaks’ young poets roar
“Poetry’s made a big difference in my life. It’s allowed me to express myself in ways that I never would have been able to,” says Erica McMath Sheppard, 17, one the winners of Sat/3’s Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam at the Warfield Theater.
Her victory was the culmination of many years of hard work. Erica started participating in the Youth Speaks program when she was 13, and competing in the yearly slam competition at 14 years old. On Saturday, before a sold out crowd at the Warfield, she spoke with a light borne of a difficult adolescence, one spent in the cold bureaucracy of Child Protective Services, but through which she has nonetheless thrived academically.
“You look at America in the 21st century, who is the voice? What does it look like?” Youth Speaks executive director James Kass founded the non-profit in 1996 to provide public school kids with access to arts education in a state where such programs are rapidly being downsized into nonexistence. He says that, although professional artists have emerged from Youth Speaks’ programs, what the YS assemblies, after school workshops, and guest speakers really want to accomplish is the development of teens’ creativity, and by extension, their ability to think critically about the problems of the day. “Some kids go into teaching, go into non profit work,” he says. “This is about developing leaders.”
It’s a mission that resonates. One need only consider last Saturday’s event at the Warfield. Rows of cheering fans, hanging on their every word — would that this rapt attention were always present when youth spoke.
“It was an exciting experience,” says McMath-Sheppard, whose two poems focused on eating issues and the fallacies of Child Protective Services, whose care has shuffled her from homes in Potrero Hill, to the Tenderloin, to the Mission — where she is legally required to move from the day she turns 18. “It was so inspiring to share that love from the stage, and get the hugs and kind words afterwards. It was amazing.”
McMath will join Youth Speaks winners Bryant Phan (Oakland, age 17), Hadeel Ramadan, (San Bruno, 19), Jasmine Williams (Daly City, 19), Dominic Nicholas (Oakland, 18), and Natasha Huey (Berkeley, 19) in representing the Bay area at the Brave New Voices Festival in Los Angeles on July 23rd.
“I don’t really title my poems,” says McMath. “I know a lot of poets do, I just don’t label them like that.” Below, her untitled slam winning case against Child Protective Services.
Yesterday I had a meeting with my social worker
Katie said, “Children and family services will only house you until you’re 18 if you have your high school diploma or GED.”
She asked when I turn 18. I said, “June 18 th.”
I asked when I had to leave. She said “June 18th”
On my 18 th birthday I could be homeless
the only exception to this rule is if I were to decide to drop out of high school, but if I was gonna drop out, it would’ve been in 9 th grade—not 65 days before I graduate.
I just found out I will be booted from my house
Happy birthday Ericka get the fuck out
Correction—Happy birthday number 35876-b
We need you to get your shit and leave immediately
and I was angry
and I am scared
because it’s hard to recognize your own potential when know one else wants to let the fire inside of you burn
she told me if I was to get pregnant additional services would be offered
I asked if this was her suggestion
She replied, “No, but I did want you to have this information though…”
On my 18 th birthday, I could be homeless
You do not become an adult because you turn 18
you just get to buy a pack of cigarettes to deal with this shit
Why cant CPS understand that I am still a child
Or I was never allowed to be
Because I was always too busy
working
paying bills
Being active at my little sister’s back to school night
And now finding a place to stay
This is the reason that three percent of foster youth go to college and only one of that three percent graduates
My last roommate was a prostitute
And as much as I wanted to giver her a speech about how precious her body was
I couldn’t
Because she was in the same position I am in now
She was a number
and I am number 35876-b
I am not as strong as I make myself out to be
I don’t learn how to magically do shit when I turn 18
I am disorganized
have time management issues
have a hard time code switching when I need to
I need help and this system refuses to help me
And you could believe that I can help my damn self ‘cause I been helping my dam self my entire life
But why doesn’t Katie acknowledge how important it is for me to go to college (slowly)
At 18 my number turns into what’s called inactive dependency
Emancipation
Lincoln freed the slaves
Katie is freeing me
This system was set up for
People
excuse me
numbers like me live off of welfare checks,
And taste crack instead of their degree
and lay on there black and make babies
Then we can be the black Brady bunch and live on food stamps
Or purposely go to jail after all it is three hots and a cot
How do u expect us to fly with broken wings
Numbers like me are notorious for failing
Because I am black
A women
Disabled
Broke/lower class
don’t live with her mother and doesn’t know her father
And in this shady as child protective services system
But no protecting will be offered when I turn 18
I don’t want to be 35876-b
I just want Katie and the whole protective services system to notice me
Katie did you know that I will be the 1 st generation in my family to get my degree
Katie did you know that I go to two different schools one at day another by night just to guarantee that I will graduate on time
did you know that I am a poet
Katie did you know that I am a person
that my name is Erica Sheppard McMath not 35876-b
Katie I wish you where here to hear this but you don’t get paid on Saturdays (pause)
and please excuse my unpleasant attitude but on behalf of every other foster youth I need to tell you that abandonment is not a joyful feeling
I understand that to you this is just a 9-5
but for me this is my life that is being put on the line
we are in this system because we were abandon
once again I am being abandon
and I will be ok because I’ve always done what I have needed to do therefore I will survive Katie
but no thanks to you
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Kelly, Divisadero and California
Tell us about your look: “I like clothes that are accessible and that I can move and work in.”
Fashion Armageddon? Nah, it’s just the great American Apocalypse
By Chhavi Nanda
The majority of mankind is under the misconception that an apocalypse is primarily associated with the end of the world – some sort of eschatological final battle. Perhaps it’s the slew of movies such as 2012 or The Road influencing our mind to veer into that territory. But an apocalypse doesn’t necessarily mean an ending — even adherents of the Book of Revelations know there’s a next chapter. An apocalypse is defined as “the lifting of a veil or a revelation.” Late last month, a fashionable veil was lifted: a new collective Web site of vintage fashion, entitled American Apocalypse, was exposed to the world.
I attended the first editorial shoot for American Apocalypse. The motif of the shoot was “Clown, Chola”. Although Urban Dictionary defines chola as “the girls my brother gets pregnant,” there’s much more to a chola than that, obviously. The chola aesthetic includes thick eyeliner, thin drawn on eyebrows, lip liner, gelled hair, high pony tails, gold chains, piercings, tattoos, flannel shirts, Converse or Nikes. And of course she has to be a ruthless gangbanger. You know, like that Lean Like a Chola song says “lean like a chola way up high, thick eye liner in my eye, cruise all day, drink all night, got four kids with three guys.”
I walked down Geary Street at around 11:30am; the models were standing outside of Harput’s Union smoking their cigarettes in anticipation for the shoot to start. None of them had their makeup on yet and their hair wasn’t done either. I didn’t feel as guilty walking into the shoot hung over from the Friday night before. The owner of the store, Gus, greeted me kindly. Then the models, photographers, clothing stylist, make up artist, and the rest of the crew scurried down to the gritty basement of Harputs, where the shoot took place.
There were boxes, bags, and racks full of beautiful clothes and accessories. I was overwhelmed, and for a brief second wanted to jeopardize everything to run away with all these clothes, hoping no one would notice, but in my better judgment, I just stuck around for the shoot. The hairsprays, gels, doorknocker earrings, and – yes! — the paisley bandanas came out. As hair and make-up was being done, a nice mix of Spice Girls, Gucci Mane, and indubitably Bone Thugs and Harmony played in the background, to get the girls in a “Thug Life” mood.
Witnessing all the make-up and hair getting done I could finally see the vision coming in clearly. Envision this scenario with me: Bozo the Clown meets Frida Kahlo, if Frida Kahlo lived in this day in age and was a little more badass. After hours and hours (and several eyeliners), the girls were ready. They modeled both in the basement and on the busy streets around Union Square. People in traffic and pedestrians watched curiously.
The shoot included some of San Francisco most exclusive models; Fernanda Toledo, Alexis Hutt, Alexandra Kammen, Annalise Lundeen, and Ali Lovell. The mastermind that painted their faces so they were ready to perform in the Chola Circus was Matt Wanaraksa. The hair was a collective effort from the models and stylists.
The creative minds behind the shoot were Sam Banks along with Brooke Candy, also assisting on the set was Rachel Esterline. Esterline has been a stylist for the last six years and has generously opened up not only her own wardrobe, but also several of her clients’ to give a helping hand while American Apocalypse builds up its stock. Her clients include some of San Francisco most elite and fashion-conscious women that strut down Maiden Lane after their weekly yoga and meditation classes. Although Rachel is a prominent stylist, Brooke Candy and Sam Banks were the visionaries behind this shoot. Sam and Brooke, coordinated, conducted creative direction, and styled the models head to toe, while Rachel directed and did the photography for the shoot.
At some point in this decade, the word vintage was added to the fashion bible. Vintage used to be a word that was applied to wines or some grandfather’s Bentley. But somehow between drinking vintage wine and driving vintage cars, a woman walking in to a room with a vintage dress suddenly gained the right to have a holier-than-thou persona. If you admire my dress, I would retort with a smirk, “I know you want it, but too fucking bad, it’s vintage. You can’t have it. “ There is just something about rummaging through an obscure thrift shop or junk yard, or the closet of a underground fashionista that gives one a thrill of being an individual. American Apocalypse gives us the opportunity to have those pieces in our closet that we know no one else out there has, while still remaining fashionable. It isn’t the end of the world, just a fashion revelation.
AMERICAN APOCALYPSE
Uncovering visions with SFMAPP
Maybe we’re a little too old to go searching for chocolate eggs and ginormas white bunnies in grassy fields, but last weekend there was an alternative Easter scavenger hunt for grown-ups, thanks to SFMAPP, the San Francisco Mission Arts & Performance Project. This bi-monthly art event brings together artists, musicians and poets and scatters them among cafes, backyards, and galleries for a diverse evening of music and art in sometimes the most unexpected places.
With my buddy Clairebear, we headed out into the cold April night. First we stopped at Red Poppy Art House where we listened to Benn Bacot sing some classy jazz tunes, while we mused over our recently acquired treasure map. After consulting our map we both agreed that our next stop must be the Secret Garden. I mean how cool is that — we were off to a Secret Garden and, yes, we got lost on the way. It was that secret.
After a few wrong turns, we finally walked down a sweet smelling path to the garden and found a small crowd of people (or should we call them garden elves?) listening to Jonathan Stephen and his friend Josh play a lovely cover of a well-known mandolin piece by Chris Thile. The stage was perfectly centered under a canopy of trees draped in twinkling lights, which created a truly magical ambiance.
Back en-route, we headed to Area 2881, where we were greeted with a sign that read “Rotating Amusement Devices by Carl Pisaturo.” Sweet. What the heck does that mean? When we got inside the gallery, we encountered metallic sculptures whirling and twirling at varying velocities that were incredibly entertaining to look at. With added spacey music and pink and purple light filling the room, it was a totally awesome experience.
Back to the mapp! Trotting along, we stopped at Galeria de la Raza for a movie overload in a piece called “Hollywoodpedia” by Mexican artist Artemio, that collaged together clips from thousands of popular films, based on themes like Love, Failure, and War. The project took years to make and millions of hours of movie-watching to complete, but was definitely worth the oh-so-clever final product.
By that time, Clairebear and I were hungry, but luckily there was a foodie stop on the mapp, so we headed to La Victoria Bakery for live music and snacks from “Sweet Corazon De La Mission” that included delightful edibles by local food cart vendors. We ended the evening at Precita Eyes, to gaze over the colorful mural-style art pieces filling their gallery. Clairebear and I both agreed, it was best scavenger hunt we’d even been on, despite the lack of chocolate bunnies.
White Walls gives street art a place to hang its hat
Since writing my article in this week’s Guardian on the state of street art in San Francisco, the definition of the term has been… not rankling me, but sitting in my head like things that can’t be resolved tend to do. But a recent conversation I had with the owner of White Walls and Shooting galleries, Justin Giarla gave me a good look at why street artists go indoors. He took me through his current exhibition of works by the legendary stencilist Blek Le Rat, Hush, and Above — “street” artists all, who are finding brave new worlds through work on canvas.
“Once these guys get older, they don’t want to be going to jail anymore,” the proprietor of the Tenderloin gallery told me. Giarla has long been interested in the artwork of graffiti artists, and has been putting shows on like this one since White Walls opened in 2005. “Plus, you need to make money to do bigger and better things.”
…and this one outside the gallery?
We’re standing beneath a forest of arrows suspended in mid air. They’re the work of Above, who at 27 years old has been placing them in improbable urban junctures for the past eight years. “He’d put them in places where you’d think, ‘how the hell did he do that?’” Giarla tells me. “Over the intersection of Market and Geary, places like that.” Before us is a canvas rendering of one of Above’s life size stencils, a young girl blowing expanding heart bubbles to a boy who rises with them into the air. The original of “First Love,” as the work is titled, was an unauthorized piece on the wall of an elementary school in So Cal. Above threw it up in the middle of the night to escape notice from the authorities. This one is retailing for more money than I’ve spent on art, like, ever. That’s a big change in the art’s intent, isn’t it?
“Once you take it out of the street, it’s no longer “street” art, it’s fine art,” Giarla says. “That’s not to say what’s in the street isn’t fine art — it’s more like the difference between free art and fine art.” Street artists find a whole different set of artistic challenges, he tells me, when they start showing in galleries. Giarla notes that for artists like Above, whose White Walls exhibition is his first gallery show, “it changes the art visually. All of a sudden, all these limitations get put on it. Sometimes street art doesn‘t translate visually when it‘s altered to fit gallery format.”
“First Love” by Above — the indoor one.
And Giarla is the first to admit that the audience of the art is altered by the change. “What art is, is dictated by the people who see it. The neighborhood you put it up in determines who sees it.”
Giarla was drawn to this kind of interaction with the world of public art because of a respect for the form. He says he finds street art “the most free expression of art, meant for everyone, not elitist,” and in a way, he’s furthering the capabilities of artists like Above and Hush (whose geisha murals and paintings decorate the room next to Above’s arrows) to do more, travel more, and create more public works by providing them a forum to sell to big money art collectors. Which is cool.
And I guess it answers some of my questions about why street art wants to hang with the denizens of fine art. It helps though, when they keep their original audience of public passers-by in mind.
An eloquent nod to this kind of access splashes across the back entrance of White Walls. Giarla had Hush paint one of his shy geishas on the gallery’s doorway in the slightly seedy TL alley. Nearly identical copies of her hang on the walls inside, but this geisha can still enjoy an audience not overly given to wine and cheese receptions.
Blek Le Rat “Faces in the Mirror,” Hush “Passing Through,” and Above “Transitions”
Through June 5
White Walls/Shooting Gallery
839 Larkin, SF
(415) 577-1275
The Daily Blurgh: Bros before trolls
Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond
For the love of God, iPad, or printed matter, please read former Guardian culture editor, and current lead editor of science and sci-fi wonderblog io9, Annalee Newitz’s eye-opening summary of the 5 ways the Google Book settlement will change the future of reading (one plus: “pulp science fiction will make a comeback in ways you might not expect”).
“It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.”
Early master of photography actually insane cuckold killer: “This commission took [Edweard Muybridge] out of San Francisco at a convenient moment: He’d recently murdered his young wife’s lover, but squeaked by with an acquittal in court — one part of his defense had been that only someone already unbalanced would take the risks that Muybridge did in Yosemite, just to get a picture.”
Meanwhile, still-living photo-snapper The Tens got a peek inside the bowels of Kink.com (h/t Mission Mission)
The Awl preaches bros before trolls: “Instead of shaking your Internetty fist at all that angers you though, what if you ignored it and discussed things that do work, things that are wonderful, and encouraged others to do the same?”
These gorgeous creatures – children of video artist and endless font of inspiration Kalup Linzy — are hitting Berkeley Art Museum tonight with support from DJ Bus Station John, starting at 6pm. Get it!
Park it here: an alterna-Dolores six pack
The other day, sharing the scrap of blanket space I was able to hustle between 1,000 of my Vitamin D deprived brethren, I spotted:
1. A green parrot. On a man’s shoulder.
2. A green python. Ditto, shoulders.
3. An LED light filled, fixed gear frame.
All in a ten foot radius. Freaky! Unique! Not very relaxing! Conclusion: I need a break from Dolo.
Luckily, I made a serendipitous discovery: there are other parks in San Francisco! Many, in fact. Here are some green spaces that are sunny, green, and relatively free of studied self imagery:
Alamo Square
Okay, so perhaps this won’t provide much respite from those hip cats and their big snakes — on a sunny day, Alamo is almost as flush with BBQs and irony as it’s neighbor in the Mission down South. But Alamo’s got the most iconic view in the city (if your icons, as mine, are based on early ‘90s sitcoms) and a really cool shoe garden by the public bathrooms.
Walk in at: Steiner & Hayes
Lafayette Square
One of the most intelligent ideas our city planners had was to put a park on nearly every peak in our city. Head up to Lafayette Square, deep in the heart of tony Pac Heights, and you can see their brillance manifested for yourself — a panoramic view of urban valleys, green hills. This park is where all the little old rich ladies go with their little old rich dogs, and its pristine lawns is aching for a little more infiltration by the prols.
Walk in at: Sacramento & Laguna, SF
Alta Plaza
One hill over, Alta Plaza is Lafayette’s only slightly less ritzy cousin. Most of the lawn space is on a terraced slant, perfect for when the sun is in the southern end of the sky. And should you get the yen to rise up and do something, Alta’s got superb tennis and basketball courts that are rarely occupied on weekdays.
Walk in at: Clay & Steiner, SF
Ocean Beach
Did you know that the western side of the city is lined by the Pacific Ocean? It’s true! And while Ocean Beach no longer features the amusement parks and boho repurposed streetcar villages, it’s still one of the coolest things about living here. Pick a sunny day (or a tempestuous one if you dig watching storm action in a solid coating of Gore-Tex) and post up between a couple dunes, where you chill in a little wind sheltered, clothing optional cove of your own. [note: nudity not really legal]
Walk in at: Judah & Great Highway, SF
Misson Creek Park
With all the UCSF construction in the neighborhood to the south, who knows how long it’ll stay this way, but for now, Mission Creek Park reminds me the river we used to escape to when I was in high school; a spot where we could swim that was still close enough to the city to be doable on a half day off. Don’t swim in Mission Creek (actually, do it! That’d be hilarious!). But you get what I mean, here’s a place to hang, eat, read, smoke that J — next to a river. Bliss.
Walk in at: Channel & 4th St.
Fillmore Center
Am I really blowing up the spot on this little oasis? Dang, I’m taking this whole journalism thing seriously. Consider yourself in on the greenest little patch of lawn in Western Addition — enter in through the snazzy plaza, and head straight past all the old people on benches to the wall of cascading water in back, which has a tranquil little pool and all the empty lawn space you need. All this solitude does come at a price though: BYO tamales and ganja treats.
Walk in at: Fillmore & O’Farrell
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Annie, Van Ness and Jackson
Tell us about your look: “I gotta catch my bus!”
Holy smokes, could it be… the biggest SF mural ever?
The answer is yes, yes it will be. And how did the madness begin? “I was in the neighborhood and I saw this wall. And me being me, I got really excited and wanted to paint it.” And so it started, Brian Barneclo’s latest SOMA mural project, whose launch will be celebrated alongside “Systematics,” his solo (indoor art) show at fabric8 on Sat/10.
See a wall, paint it; It’s a common enough story in SF — until you look at one small variable; Barneclo’s wall is 600 feet long and 40 feet tall. And he intends to cover the whole thing. That’s 24,000 square feet, making Barneclo’s “Systems” the largest mural yet in a town filled with them. “That was recently pointed out to me,” he told me in a recent interview. “It’s an interesting thing because, yeah, its going to be helpful [for fundraising], people like to hear that stuff, ‘it’s the loudest, it’s the biggest.’ But it really has no… [the size] is such a byproduct.”
Barneclo’s known for his ambitious projects. The artist — in whose aesthetic fabric8 gallery owner and long time associate, Olivia Ongpin, detects traces of both the Mission school and the Bay area figurative movement from the ’50s and ’60s — has installed large scale pieces all over town, from Nopa, to the inner Mission, even on the side of our humble Guardian building. His most well known works are urban cultural/architectural jumbles, representational maps of the iconic streetlamps, restaurants, and skylines that we call our city. “Systems” will be a reflection of Barneclo’s recent meditations on interconnectivity; in our society, our city, and in our own bodies.
A mock up of “Systems,” slated to be completed by June
It’s easy to see why this particular wall caught the muralist’s eye. The 7th St. and Townsend building, owned by Crescent Cove Apartments, plays a visible role in the neighborhood. Barncelo’s wall can be seen from both I-80 commuters and Caltrain passengers, the train tracks passing at the wall’s base. Barneclo thinks it’s high time such a prominent canvass was utilized for art. “I think when we’re done, people will be like, ‘I can’t imagine that without a mural.”
But the mural’s not done yet. There’s the matter of funding, though Barneclo has already secured a $10,000 grant from Adobe and thinks “people are inclined to get behind the project once they see some action happening.” Barneclo has already put in nearly two years of permission getting and permit securing into the project, along with partner Christi Azevedo. And of course, there’s still a whole lot of wall to be painted.
But that will be the easy part. Barneclo completed “Food Chain,” his 200 by 25 foot mural on Shotwell between 14th and 15th Street in ten days, with only one helper. His goal is to maintain that same pace for “Systems,” completing the mega mural in one month with a team of three helpers. Barneclo doesn’t sound too stressed about the task ahead. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead. If I have a chance to take a month and paint one big mural, what more can I ask for? I mean, my girlfriend probably won’t like it, it’s probably going to be all I’m talking about and thinking about.”
Will he make it? Ongpin thinks so. “This might seem like a daunting prospect,” she said. “But if you look at the scope, and amount of murals he’s done around the city for the past six or seven years, I’m sure he can do it and do it well.”
So get ready, San Francisco, because “Systems” is set to be one of the first things some commuters see when they hit SOMA. “It’s almost a welcome to SF to people who are riding the train,” Barneclo imagines. “Or a farewell. Its like a port. Treat it like a “Boom! Welcome to San Francisco.”
Brian Barneclo‘s “Systems” Mural launch party/ “Systemics” exhibition
Sat/10 5-9 p.m., free
Fabric8 Gallery
3318 22nd St., SF
(415) 647-5888
The Daily Blurgh: Stick a Bjork in it
Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond
So what if the Fader posted this last week? Vallejo royalty E-40’s new Bjork-sampling track, the Droop-E produced, “Spend the Night” is too fabulous not to share (and it looks like the NY Times likes it too). The icing on the cake is that Bjork cleared the samples, taken from “Oceanea” off of her, IMHO severely underrated, acapella album Medulla. And as Fader commenter bollocks noted, this isn’t the first time Queen B has appeared on a local hip-hop track. The timpani-heavy riff from “Human Behavior” was used back in 2003, “by Bay Area legends Hieroglyphics, for ‘Let It Roll,’ off their classic album Full Circle.” Thanks for the knowledge.
I bet I can guess what you’re doing on your coffee break. Wheee!
Slog nicely sums up the cases of Gregory Lee Giusti, who was arrested yesterday for allegedly threatening House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over her support of the health care reform bill (he threatened us too), and Charles Alan Wilson, who allegedly threatened to kill Washington Senator Patty Murray over her support of the health care reform bill, best: “Powerful Women, and the Men Who Threaten Them.”
“Let’s just say that if Malcolm breathes, it’s too much for me to stomach.” Johnny Rotten on the Sex Pistols’ former manager Malcom McLaren. RIP, Madame Butterfly Buffalo Gal Duck Rock. (Watch all three simultaneously for our version of heaven?)
Researchers at UCSF School of Pharmacy want you to know that the bacteria in that tainted burger patty could become the next Monet.
Tonight, SFMOMA presents “Streets of San Francisco: Filmic Journeys,” a program of over 50 years of footage of SF’s streets as filmed by the many wonderful experimental filmmakers – including Martha Rosler, Hollis Frampton, Lawrence Jordan, and more – who have called this city home and muse. 50 footage!
The Daily Blurgh: The true price of free food tattoos
Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond
A. E. Housman (who once deliciously referred to poetry as a “morbid secretion”) said, “Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure. ” And as John McWhorter so ably demonstrates, Sarah Palin’s words — or at least the art of parsing them — can be extremely pleasurable:
“This reminds me of toddlers who speak from inside their own experience in a related way: they will come up to you and comment about something said by a neighbor you’ve never met, or recount to you the plot of an episode of a TV show they have no way of knowing you’ve ever heard of. Palin strings her words together as if she were doing it for herself — meanings float by, and she translates them into syntax in whatever way works, regardless of how other people making public statements do it.”
She’s no delicate petal-pusher. How pretty are the state’s highway medians at this time of year? Check the Desert Wildflower report for daily updates.
No it’s not clip art. That twilight landscape on your iPad desktop was actually shot by a local. (h/t to Boing Boing)
“A San Francisco eatery has convinced some customers to get tattoos in exchange for free food for life.” Hint: It’s not Michael Mina — but possibly a replay of the great burrito tattoo “disaster” of 1999.
This was supposed to be worth $5.8 million at the time. Like Gezundheit.com
An addendum to yesterday’s esteemed guest columnist: the New York Times’ Bay Area blog (the nerve!) ran a profile yesterday of Glendon Hyde, aka our favorite punk rock dragtavist, Anna Conda. She knows from first hand experience what gets lost – and more importantly, who gets displaced — when a gayborhood becomes just a neighborhood. Granted, Polk Street’s de-gayification has been happening for decades now (the pink flight to the Castro began around the mid-to-late 60s), and is just one part of the long, ongoing story of gentrification in the TL. Still, Anna/Glendon’s efforts to “Take back the Polk,” and now, her current campaign for the District 6 supervisor’s seat, should serve as rebukes to Katz’s patronizing mourning of communities that he was only superficially invested in.
Finally, in honor of Lady Day would have been 95 today I’ll leave you with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs
Appetite: 3 delectable pastrami sandwiches
Who says you can’t get a proper pastrami sandwich in the Bay Area? Granted, that’s one of the things I miss most from days growing up in Jersey when my Dad would take us to the city for pastrami at Carnegie Deli. You have to hunt here but there are a few gems, besides classic Miller’s East Coast Deli. P.S. I’m wishing Orson would bring back its unparalleled pastrami and kraut pizza.
Morty’s Deli
Long a sandwich favorite of mine, the Tenderloin’s Morty’s keeps it real, East Coast style, with an array of sandwiches so good, it was no surprise when word eventually got out and the days of a quiet lunch here (I remember them) were long past. Though it’s not open weekends, it’s a worthy lunch destination (or regular stop for the Civic Center set), especially for their rockin’ Reuben ($7.50), with pastrami, of course, sauerkraut, melting, oozy Swiss cheese, and Russian dressing on rye. They even have a Soy Rueben ($6.75) if you can’t do meat. It’s not an unrealistically huge sandwich, and it’s as comforting as it gets.
Mon-Thu, 8am-8pm; Fri 8am-6pm
280 Golden Gate, SF
(415) 567-3354
www.mortysdeli.com
Buttercup Grill
Buttercup Grill takes a non-descript, 70’s-looking diner in downtown Oakland and infuses it with home-cooked love, especially in decadent (and cheap – under $4 for most hefty slices) peanut butter pie or signature upside down apple pie… recipes of owner, Debbie Shahvar. As far as pastrami sandwiches go, they make a traditional version loaded with fragrant meat and the light crisp of toasted rye bread. Accompanying sides of coleslaw and potato salad make it one nostalgic East Coast meal.
229 Broadway, Oakl.
(510) 444-2976
www.buttercupgrillandbar.com
The Kitchen Table’s kosher delight. Photo by Virginia Miller.
The Kitchen Table
I have some serious service and pricing issues with Mountain View’s The Kitchen Table (see my Perfect Spot write-up). That being said, maybe you should order one to go next time you’re down in the South Bay. The kosher, upscale restaurant does a pastrami ($12 plus $1-$6 for add-ons like sauerkraut or Fresno chilis) unlike the other two I listed. The meat is shaved paper-thin and you’re about ready to balk at price vs. size. This is no authentic East Coast pastrami. But as the folds of meat melt in your mouth within house-made sourdough rye bread, you start to rethink the classic sandwich. Who knew pastrami could taste so light, even airy, yet blissfully meaty?
142 Castro Street, Mountain View
650-390-9388
www.thekitchentablerestaurant.com
Visit Virginia’s site: www.theperfectspotsf.com
A lyrical “Eatrip” to Japan
A white tent, lit up like a lantern in the midst of a field darkened by night. A gathering of diverse souls; a musician, a hippie, a film director, all seated on the floor about a low, round dinner table. It could be anywhere (well no, not really, that whole tent thing is kind of crazy). But then, an exquisite dish is passed around, to the delight of the bohos gathered. It’s transcendent! It’s fresh! It’s radishes and strawberries. We’re not in Kansas anymore.
But we are in the midst of a beautiful film about Japanese food culture — Eatrip, which has its US premiere at New People’s Viz Cinema Sat/10 through Thur/15.
Here’s why I’m stoked; I know that outside my window the San Franciscan sun is shining down — but fellow Americans, believe you me when I say it’s raining. I’m talking about the deluge of knowledge our well meaning Information Age has hoisted on us regarding the tragedy of food in America. We’re fat, we eat processed shit, our system’s fucked. On and on. Where Eatrip triumphs is not only it’s beautiful, colorful food pornography (mixing grains and water in a big wooden bowl never looked so good), but rather its examination of somebody else’s relationship to what they eat. It’s a chance to look out from underneath our umbrellas to other weather systems.
Sure, many of the eaters that director Yuri Nomura profiled are perhaps exceptional, most with one foot (at least) in the ethereal. One of her most lyrical sequences follows a woman around her cabin in the mountains, where she lives and prepares food with her children to feel closer to the earth. A Japanese back-to-lander? And why ever not? There’s also a monk featured, whose thoughts on food as one of life’s great pleasures might come as a surprise to folks familiar with the “eschewing worldly delights” view of meditative monkdom.
So how are we to relate this pastoral view of diet to Japanese culture as a whole? Does Eatrip reflect a country’s whose style of eating is more conscious and slow, or are these individuals outliers to the madness, a la Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms in Food, Inc.? We can ask him ourselves at the movie’s first showing this Saturday, when Nomura will be on hand for the showing and “food and talk party” with Mishima Brackett, former creative director at Chez Panisse.
In the meantime… strawberries and radishes… I could get down with that.
Eatrip US premiere & reception
w/ director Yuri Nomura
Sat/10 7 p.m., $50 ($10 for regular screenings)
Viz Cinema @ New People
1746 Post, SF
(415) 525-8600
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Julia, 24th Street and Castro
Tell us about your look: “Post long-weekend work outfit.”
Dolores Park Movie Night starts a fresh season of flicks
Blanket. Booze in a paper sack. Treats. Those are probably the ingredients to any adventure at Dolores Park, but wouldn’t it be better if Michael J Fox was there, too? Maybe not the real guy, but the cute ’80s version in Back to the Future [Universal Pictures, 1985] could be cool, or at least it will be when Dolores Park Movie Night starts up this Thursday.
Come spring, some nice guys who live near Dolores Park put on a free movie the second Thursday each week, with a promise of zero affiliations, no causes, no politics and minimal organization. Just a community movie in the great outdoors. They pay their permits and costs with the help of donations and popcorn sales– eat up, hipsters!
The event is meant to be local, meaning the crew in charge urges you to bring your family and friends, neighbors, behaved children and happy dogs. I think East Bay inhabitants are still OK, but I wouldn’t invite that blondie and her pack visiting from the Midwest. And for this specific showing, people from the future are OK, too.
Back to the Future
Thurs/8, 7:30pm, Free
Dolores Park
Dolores & Church and 18th & 21st, SF
The Daily Blurgh: Howdy, gaybor!
Tuesdays will occasionally be given over to a guest columnist. This week, please welcome a bitter queen.
Have you heard? Gayboorhoods are becoming extinct. So sayeth Matt Katz tosday in Obit mag, a self identified straight man who has spent enough time among that mythic fairy land, “where gay people lived and hung out, somehow fulfilling stereotypes while simultaneously stimulating social justice” (via hand jobs?) to tell us of the local color that once flourished there and to lament their passing.
Thank God we have intrepid Margaret Meads like Katz — who even once let a gay squeeze his bicep at the gym (no homo!) — to wax nostalgic about the good old days of double dutch jumping trannies on the corner. You see, children, the gayborhood was a wonderful, rainbow-hued place of escape “where cleverness, artistry and merriment is applauded.” Huzzah! You know, I still can’t go out in the Castro without some Oscar Wide wannabe vomiting bon mots onto my chinchilla gilette to the applause of onlookers.
But seriously, even though Katz’s commentary on the changing face of urban gay life has as much nuance as a college freshman’s five paragraph essay (to wit: “The demise of the gayborhood indicates that America is more mixed – ethnically, economically, sexually — than ever before.”), his overall thesis is true, to some degree. Yes, there is greater social acceptance of homosexuality and thus less need for the self preservation of a ghetto. Yes, the Internet is a factor, at least in the demise of bar culture — even though bars continue to be perhaps the only reason anyone still frequent gayborhoods (see the Katz’s final ‘graph). And yes, the Castro is a Pottery Barn-upholstered shell of its former hedonistic self blah blah blah.
But to applaud gayborhoods as the superficial pleasure domes of memory where “people don’t pretend that the real world is anything all that important” is to wholly ignore their historical importance as sites of political organizing and resistance (that’s “stimulating social justice”). Oh, and speaking of queer political activism, there’s that other factor that shook up the gayborhood. You know, AIDS. But don’t go looking for any mention of it in Katz’s obit. Why would he want to talk about an unattractive thing like that? Get Lil Miss Ally another Long Island Iced Tea. I’m going back to dusting my Erte lamps.
Benefits: April 7-April 13
Ways to have fun while giving back this week
Thursday, April 8
1369 Lights
Be among the first to get a copy of the new Moholy Ground Magazine, the New Photography Journal. Meet Moholy Ground staff and featured artists and enjoy cocktails and music from DJ BoomBostic spinning soul, motown, and funk. The Moholy Ground Project publishes nonprofit art journals and books and provides low cost promotions and marketing to art organizations and individuals involved in the art community.
7 p.m., $5
Blue Six Acoustic Room
3043 24th St., SF
www.moholyground.org
Friday, April 9
FACT/SF
Grab some gloves, hats, or any other costumes you feel like wearing and head to this fundraiser party for the dance troupe FACT/SF featuring a silent auction, drinks, snacks, performances by Light Fiction, Lily Taylor, Emily Woo Zeller, DJ Nuxx, and more, including a sneak preview of FACT/SF’s new project, The Consumption Series.
8 p.m., $20-100 sliding scale
Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory
1519 Mission, SF
www.factsf.org
Saturday, April 10
Catwalk 2010
Watch as aspiring male to female transgender models from all over the country compete for the Catwalk 2010 crown in categories such as cocktail wear, swimwear, and evening wear. Proceeds from the event go to the AIDS Housing Alliance.
7 p.m., $40
SOMArts Gallery
934 Brannan, SF
catwalkusa.com
Poker Tounament
Attend this poker tournament to benefit Bay Area Women Against Rape (BAWAR), an organization that provides 24 hour services for survivors of sexual assault and their significant others. First, second, and third place winners will receive prizes and there will be raffle drawings throughout the night.
7:30 p.m., $50 buy in
Station Barber Shop
Suite 100
4400 Grand, Oak.
(510) 214-2299
poker@bawar.org, call or email to register
Soiree 8
Celebrate the San Francisco LGBT Community Center’s eighth anniversary with a night of decadent foods from San Francisco restaurants, entertainment from queer artists, and flowing cocktails featuring special guests Theresa Sparks and David Campos. The evening is scheduled to end with a dance party with music by local DJs.
7 p.m., $95
Terra Gallery
511 Harrison, SF
soiree.sfcenter.org
Sunday, April 11
Rose Pistola Cooks for North Beach
Enjoy a bountiful family style dinner, served at long tables, and accompanied by wines by Fancis Coppola Wines to benefit the North Beach Citizens, a neighborhood organization for the homeless. The hosts of the evening will be Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Jeanette Etheredge, so expect poetry readings, film screenings, dancing, and other suprises.
6 p.m., $125
Basement of Sts. Peter and Paul Church
666 Filbert, SF
www.northbeachcitizens.org
Quick Lit: April 7-April 13
Literary readings, book tours, and talks this week
Wednesday, April 7
How to Defeat Your Own Clone
Hear authors Terry Johnson and Kyle Kurpinsky deliver educational and entertaining advice on how to survive the not too distant bioengineered future at this reading of their recent book, How to Defeat Your Own Clone And Other Tips for Surviving the Biotech Revolution.
7:30 p.m., free
Booksmith
1644 Haight, SF
(415) 863-8688
The Racial Discourses of Life Philosophy: Négritude, Vitalism, and Modernity
Attend this reading and discussion on this new book by author Donna V. Jones, where she revisits narratives on life produced in the early twentieth century and shows how Bergson, Nietzsche, and the poets Léopold Senghor and Aimé Césaire fashioned the concept of life into a central aesthetic and metaphysical category while also implicating it in discourses on race and nation.
5:30 p.m., free
University Press Books
2430 Bancroft, Berk.
(510) 548-0585
Spiritual Life of Bay Area Tribes
Attend this lecture on the spiritual life of Bay Area native tribes by Richie Richards of Lakota descent, who is a Native American specialist dedicated to bringing Native American studies to elementary schools.
7:30 p.m., free
Northbrae Community Church
941 The Alameda, Berk.
(510) 526-3805
Thursday, April 8
Manwha For Girls
Join authors Trina Robbins, Mike Madrid, and curator Andrew Farago as they discuss the role of girls and women in comics and female comics artists in conjunction with the current exhibit, “Korean Comics: A society through small frames,” in the Jewett Gallery open through June 13.
6 p.m., free
San Francisco Main Library
Lower level, Latino/Hispanic community meeting room
100 Larkin, SF
(415) 557-4400
Mystery Panel
Check out this mystery panel featuring Shirley Tallman, author of Scandal on Rincon Hill, and Ronald Tierney, author of Death in Pacific Heights.
7 p.m., free
Books Inc. Laurel Village
3515 California, SF
(415) 221-3666
“Why there are words”
Hear a diverse group of award winning authors read selections from their work that fall under the theme “crazy.” Featured writers to include Ethan Watters, Tom Barbash, Wendy Tokunaga, Allison Landa, Ryan Sloan, and Aggie Zivaljevic.
7 p.m., $5
Studio 333
333A Caledonia, Sausalito
(415) 331-8272
Saturday, April 10
Amy Goodman
Investigative journalist Amy Goodman says, “The role of reporters is to go where the silence is and say something,” and she does exactly that. Goodman is known for her dedication to looking beyond mainstream media news to expose human rights violations and political injustice. Hear her discuss her views and recent book, Breaking the Sound Barrier.
5:30 p.m., $20
Commonwealth Club
595 Market, 2nd floor, SF
(415) 597-6700
Diet for a Hot Planet
Author Anna Lappe believes that if we are serious about addressing climate change, we have to talk about food. Hear more about this theory at a reading of her new book, Diet for a Hot Planet: the climate crisis at the end of your fork and what you can do about it. Sponsored by the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUSA).
11 a.m.; $10, proceeds to benefit the Small Planet Fund
Port Commission Hearing Room
Ferry Building
101 Embarcadero, SF
(415) 291-3276 ext. 106
Kings of Poetry
Attend this spoken word poetry event featuring African American poets from throughout the Bay Area. Open mic to follow.
2 p.m., free
San Francisco Main Library
3rd floor, African American Center
100 Larkin, SF
(415) 557-4400
Pearl of China
Hear Anchee Min discuss her latest novel about Nobel Prize winning author Pearl S. Buck, a writer that Min was forced to denounce during the Cultural Revolution in China. Part of the Asian Art Museum’s current exhibit celebrating Shanghai, through Sept. 5.
2:30 p.m., free
Chinatown Branch Library
1135 Powell, SF
(415) 355-2888
Sunday, April 11
Phillip Schultz
Hear Pulitzer Prize winning poet Philip Schultz read and discuss selections from his recent book of poetry, The God of Loneliness, at this celebration of the third anniversary of Writers Studio Workshops in San Francisco.
3 p.m., free
Space Gallery
1141 Polk, SF
(415) 377-3325
Judith Tannenbaum
Hear Judith Tannenbaum discuss her new book of poetry, By Heart: Poetry, prison, and two lives, about her relationship with poet Spoon Jackson, an inmate in the California prison system serving life without parole, as she examines injustices in our prison system.
4 p.m., free
Booksmith
1644 Haight, SF
(415) 863-8688
Monday, April 12
Mark Danner
Hear journalist and author Mark Danner discuss his new book, Stripping Bare the Body, written from and about the world’s war zones, with New York Times Op-Ed columnist Frank Rich.
8 p.m., $20
(415) 392-4400
www.cityboxoffice.com
Get Lit!
Bring your own literary contributions or those of your favorite authors to share at this candle lit, wine bar literary salon.
7 p.m., free
1550 Hyde Café and Wine Bar
1550 Hyde, SF
(415) 775-1550
Legend of a Suicide
Hear author David Vann discuss his new collection of five short stories and one novella that center around the story of an Alaskan father’s suicide.
7 p.m., free
Books Inc. Berkeley
1760 4th St., Berk.
(510) 525-7777
No Rich, No Poor!
Join Charles Andrews in this discussion based on his new book about whether capitalism can be repaired or if it needs to be replaced and what a potential new “program of common prosperity” could look like.
7 p.m., free
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia, SF
(415) 282-9246
www.mtbs.com
Wordcatcher
Take a tour into the obscure territory of word origins in Phil Cousineau’s new book, Wordcatcher: An odyssey into the world of weird and wonderful words.
7:30 p.m., free
Booksmith
1644 Haight, SF
(415) 863-8688
Tuesday, April 13
The Collected Poetry of Dahlia Ravikovitch
Hear translators Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld discuss the poetry of Israel’s leading female poet Dahlia Ravikovitch and the newly released collection of her verse, Hovering at a Low Altitude: The collected poetry of Dahlia Ravikovitch. Ravikovitch’s innovative and political poetry provides an inspiring window into the writer’s tortured life as an activist in Israel.
12:30 p.m., free
111 Minna Gallery
111 Minna, SF
(415) 974-1719
“Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?”
Hear author and performer Josh Kornbluth discuss his process in creating his one-man show, Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?, in response to Warhol’s 1980 series of paintings of prominent Jewish historical figures.
7:30 p.m., free
Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis, SF
(415) 567-3327, ext. 704
Live Shots: Edible Art Contest, Omnivore Books, 04/01/10
Foodies filled Omnivore Books in Noe Valley on Thursday night, some to compete and some to eat, for the first Edible Art Contest. The competitors were judged on taste and creativity and the mix of entries were quite impressive.
There were “still-life” cookies, a “swimming pool” of chocolate pudding complete with a paddling pup and orange inner-tube, and “salumi” made with dried fruit and nuts created by local gluten-free cookbook writer Jacqueline Mallorca.
Once everyone had sampled each entry, it was time to vote. The runner-up of the contest was an amazing three tiered princess cake covered in edible cameos and gold icing, but the winner was the “Alabama Lane Cake,” inspired by To Kill A Mockingbird and said to have enough bourbon in it to have actually been the culprit of the poor bird’s demise. All the entries were decadent desserts and after several kinds of cakes, cookies and pudding, I was on a major sugar high and just grateful I could actually hold my camera steady with all that sweetness rushing through my veins.
Omnivore Books, with its incredible collection of awesome new and old food books, hosts all sorts of other cool events (Alice Waters will be there on April 10th) and food contests, making it pretty much a foodie’s idea of heaven.
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Sue (and Duncan), Broadway and Polk
Tell us about your look: “My ex-girlfriend got me this shirt in New York. She said ‘I saw this shirt and it reminded me of you because it’s very gay.'”
Passing and tipping the hat at Mission Street Food
Oh yeah, I’d been around the block. I’ve crawled these mean food-strewn streets we call the Mission. I’d noshed my way between the tasty chicken tacos at El Toyanese truck and the delectable $1.25 carnitas numbers at the mobile Gallo Giro. I’d caught the creme brulee cart in action, caramelizing on the spot and passing out the freebies in Dolores Park. I’d partaken in the bacon dog as the vagabond seller scooted down the block, away from the ooshing bouncer at Bruno’s.
So as a street food fan in the barrio, I’d been dying to try Mission Street Food. The fact that it’s only open two days a week — Thursdays and Saturdays — is a bit of stopper, as is the fact that you gotta make reservations via e-mail. Yet I finally got around to it and snuck in early on a quiet Thursday — it’s Lung Shan Restaurant most days of the week, and the only sign that things were at all different is the hipster-heavy staff. The seating could have been savvier: why was another couple squished so closely beside us when there was so much space in the rest of the restaurant? But hell, the staff played it fast and loose with the smiles, and the profits go to charity, so away we went with an homage to chef Michel Bras.
Seated in the dimness beneath Lung Shan’s impressively camp artwork of wild Chinese steeds, we skipped the full-table tasting menu and zoomed straight for the creamed egg with beluga lentils, creme fraiche, and allium bouillon. It was delicate and savory, though the flavor could have been bigger (that goes twice for the somewhat puny portion).
But, oh, my, the gargouillou stole the show. The salad was made with 25 or 30 raw and cooked vegetables, herbs, and edible blossoms — not the 40-something veggies in Bras’ original, our server explained humbly — but my taste buds didn’t mind one bit. Delightful. Next up was the poached local halibut, perched on pearl barley with rau ram, asparagus, and sea urchin. A beautiful way to finish, with superfine, melting textures.
The cheese course didn’t tempt, so we left for Bi-Rite Creamery in search of a finale, but I’ll be back for another homage — or anything else Mission Street Food scrapes off the avenue.
MISSION STREET FOOD
2234 Mission St., SF
blog.missionstreetfood.com
The Daily Blurgh: But will it blend?
Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond
Last Wednesday (forgive our slowness) the New Yorker offered a tantalizing sneak peak at Andrew Pilara’s soon-to-be-not-so-private collection of more than 2000 photographic works, a rotating selection of which will be displayed at Pier 24. Not only is the speed at which Pilara — the president and senior portfolio manager of the RS Value Group and a member of SFMOMA’s Board of Trustees – has amassed his staggering collection astounding (six years!), but the quality and breadth of his holdings would send any photography curator worth their salt into apoplectic fits. In addition to name-dropping Jackie Nickerson, Vera Lutter, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Marilyn Minter, and Dorothea Lange, the New Yorker also mentions that Pilara owns all fifty-two of Lee Friedlander’s “Little Screens” (which SF’s Fraenkel Gallery last displayed in 2001) and all of Garry Winogrand’s “The Animals.” In the words of Rachel Zoe, “I die.”
Also of interest: “Each work is installed without any caption information, so looking becomes an exercise in recognition and speculation, and ultimately conversation.” I like this approach, in theory. And based on the caption information in the article’s accompanying slide show, it seems that whoever hung the photographs has an eye for not only what’s visually resonant, but more importantly, for what will spark a conversation. One example: Vanessa Beecroft’s highly theatrical and controversial portrait of a Sudanese woman nursing two malnourished infants hangs next to Dorothea Lange’s famous “Migrant Mother.”
Joe public will have to wait until “later this spring” to check out Mr. Pilara’s goods, but for those curious as to the look of the place, Envelope A+D, the firm responsible for renovating the old pier, has posted artist renderings and a description of their projected re-design. Coupled with SFMOMA’s recent announcement (http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/407) that the museum will re-stage the influential 1975 George Eastman House exhibit New Topographics in June, SF looks like the place to be for photo buffs this S-S season.
In tech news, the only question I have about the iPad is: will it blend?
I want to second the Awl’s gay-dazzled love for the I Am Love trailer. The trailer is almost so perfect as to make watching the actual film (which screens at this year’s SFIFF) pointless. Cut at the speed of any contemporary fantasy-action-CGI-craptacular, the I Am Love trailer has everything: Tilda Swinton in fitted rich lady clothes; the Italian countryside; suggestive food preparation; a hunky and hirsute otter-chef; references to family (just like the Olive Garden!); references to Vertigo; Tilda Swinton’s cheekbones; furtive glances; lovemaking! You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll swoon. I die.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhbTeBneRVU