By Kimberly Chun
Sighted in the Mission District at 23rd and South Van Ness: one of my fave murals in the barrio, El Immigrante by Joel Bergner (2005).
- No categories
Pixel Vision
Enter our LIT123 contest!
An oldie but goody from the the Early Office Museum
Hey SF scribes! Tell us a story — fiction, nonfiction, or poetry — that reflects life in the Bay IN EXACTLY 123 WORDS. Our 10 favorites will be printed in our 10/7 issue and the writers will win a gift certificate to Books, Inc.!
(Send your entries to culture@sfbg.com by Tuesday, September 22. Put “Lit123” in the subject line, and please include your name or nom de plume and city. See more details here.)
You’ve only got a little over a week left, so get to scribblin’! Here’s an example, written by our Executive Editor Tim Redmond, to get your gears lubricated:
Moon and I are walking through McLaren Park, looking for the dog run with the pond so she can chase ducks. But I have no sense of direction, so we wind up wandering toward where the park turns into a neighborhood where old white hippie-type men tend to be way out of place. And along come two young guys out of gangster central casting — tough, big, tats, baggy plants and puffy coats, and I’m maybe just a little bit nervous, until I notice that they’re … holding hands. So then I smile nice, and they smile back and we go on walking as I wonder: Is it homophobic of me to just assume that gay men are unlikely to be violent thugs?
Street Threads: Look of the Day
SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s Look: Janet, Arguello and Balboa
Tells us about your look: “Pretty much I go for comfort and cheap.”
‘Best of British Noir’ bonanza of shadiness
By Max Goldberg
Lady, It Always Rains on Sunday
That undisputed champ of repertory programming, film noir, is getting a good workout during otherwise sunny September. Elliot Lavine combs the Columbia vaults for a 22-film Roxie bonanza, while the Castro Theatre and Pacific Film Archive look across the pond for a touch of "tea and larceny." Even if it’s disingenuous to label these Anglo entries as noir — the camera angles are right, the mannered scripts not so much — the down-and-out British crime films make for a fascinating mirror image to their American counterparts, not least for the visible evidence of World War II trauma. The rarity-heavy PFA series will better satisfy the buff, but only a fool would pass up a week’s worth of Rialto restoration prints at the Castro. Three of the five films are Graham Greene affairs, including a long-overdue re-release of Brighton Rock (1947). The real discovery of the series, however, is Robert Hamer’s It Always Rains on Sunday (1947), an unusual mélange of kitchen-sink drama, Dostoyevskian moral tale, and on-the-lam thriller. If the steady downpour is pure noir, the film’s narrative is less typical. Instead of concentrating trauma and repression into a single (male) figure, Hamer spreads it around an entire East London neighborhood. There is a escaped convict at the center of the story who looks every bit the seductive part, but in spite of a stylish chase finale, Hamer is more interested in the drab corners of ordinary deceit. His resourceful dramatizations of working class spaces — and specifically their lack of privacy — are consumed with an anxiety far in excess of the film’s serviceable plot.
RIALTO’S BEST OF BRITISH NOIR Sept. 11–16, $10. Castro Theatre, 429 Castro, SF
(415) 621-6120, www.thecastrotheatre.com
Better than sex? ‘Architecture and and the City’
By Marke B.
I don’t know whether this is awesome or boring, but one of the most perverse pleasures to be had in the Bay for the last decade has been fantasy house-hunting — dressing like you can afford more than a rent-controlled railroad flat’s closet and hitting the Sunday open-house real estate orgy circuit, mostly to decry the recent penchant for tacky recessed lighting and cheap beige granite counter-tops. The ’80s are back! If you’re a premium architecture and design junkie, though, you’ll be swooning all September — launching your intellectual and tactical fantasies into the clouds with the Architecture and the City festival, presented by AIA San Francisco. The sixth annual celebration of unique builds, the nation’s largest, not only takes you on the San Francisco Living: Home Tours drool-a-thon (Sept. 12-13) focusing on smart sustainability, but also explores a bonanza of exciting, dialogue-stimulating Bay design ideas through presentations, investigations, demonstrations, and more. Prepare to push up your teeny octagon-shaped eyeglasses and scream, "Build it! Build it NOW!"
ARCHITECTURE AND THE CITY Through September 30. Check Web site for locations, times, and prices. www.aiasf.org/archandcity
Preview: “Corpo/Ilicito: The Post-Human Society 6.9”
By Robert Avila
Violeta Luna photo by Zach Gross.
Humans and post-humans take note: Corpo/Ilicito: The Post-Human Society 6.9, latest provocation-installation from acclaimed Mexican American performance artists Guillermo Gómez-Peña and Violeta Luna (aka La Pocha Nostra), unfurls for two nights only, this Friday and Saturday, at CounterPULSE.
Corpo/Ilicito premiered in the 2009 Habana Biennale in Cuba and the Trouble Festival in Brussels. This weekend marks its Bay Area premiere. In terms of what you might expect, here’s this from their press release: “In their latest project, la Pocha creates a performance setting that is both live jam session and reflective zone. The full environment installation ultimately allows the audience to co-direct the fate of the performance.
“Gomez-Peña has said about this project: ‘As live artists, our task is to create living metaphors that articulate a new aesthetic, culture, spirituality and a sexuality that emerge out of the ruins of our Western civilization.’”
These are the ambassadors from badass. Go ahead and call them edgy, especially if by edgy you mean pissed off. Or edgy as in the fractured, fractious frontier running between Mexico and the United States — slithering East to West, West to East, in all its slippery serpentine significance, delusional substance, riotous pretense and delightful permeability. And while you’re at it, throw in all the other frontiers of identity that go into limning our “postmodern” “Western” borderline personalities.
Fri/11-Sat/12, 8 p.m., $15-20
CounterPULSE, 1310 Mission, SF
(415) 626-2060, https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/73700
Street Threads: Look of the Day
SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s Look: Daneekah, Lyon and Fulton
Tell us about your look: “I got these overalls at Crossroads for $8.”
Appetite: Joy of Sake and Ghirardelli Chocolate Fest bring the flavor
Every week, Virginia Miller of personalized itinerary service and monthly food, drink, and travel newsletter, www.theperfectspotsf.com, shares foodie news, events, and deals. View the last installment here.
EVENTS
9/10: Joy of Sake at Yoshi’s San Francisco
Though you cannot imagine a Japanese meal without sake, you know there’s a whole world of sakes out there you have yet to discover. The Joy of Sake is an annual event highlighting the best of the rice spirit, featuring 100 gold and silver award–winning sakes (and finalists) from the 2009 U.S. National Sake Appraisal. Junmai, ginjo, and daiginjo… it’s all here for tasting, including 49 unavailable in the U.S. In the past, this event has been held at hotels at a higher cost with over 200 sakes, beyond medal winners. This year, the best have been weeded out for you and it takes place in the ideal, Japanese-chic setting of Yoshi’s San Francisco. Skilled Executive Chef, Shotaro "Sho" Kamio, serves an all-inclusive menu of dishes like Okinawa rock sugar–braised short ribs with peach compote, Kakiage Tempura fritters with veggies, shrimps and scallops… or why not wood burning–oven roasted American Kobe Tri-tip with caramelized shallot teriyaki? It’s an education and a feast, all in one evening.
7:30–10:30pm (food 8-10pm)
$50 advance, $60 at the door
Yoshi’s on Fillmore
1330 Fillmore Street
415-655-5600
888-799-7242
http://joyofsake.com
9/12-13: Ghirardelli Square’s 14th Annual Chocolate Festival
If your not "festival-ed out" yet, it’s almost time for the Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival, benefiting Project Open Hand. Going 14 years strong, the weekend hosts over 40 vendors serving chocolate well beyond truffles (including Amore Chocolate Pizza, Ana Mandara, Boomerang Vodka Chocolate Martinis, Bo’s Best Pancakes, Eat My Love For You Vegan Desserts, Gelateria Naia, Kara’s Cupcakes, Kika’s Treats, Mighty Leaf Tea, Pacific Puffs, Spun Sugar, The Toffee Company), loads of chef demos hosted by Season 3 Top Chef finalist, Casey Thompson, the “Hands Free Earthquake Ice Cream Sundae Eating Contest" (may be even be more fun to watch than to participate in), Cadillac Ride & Drive (Cadillac is displaying luxury cars in the Square while offering visitors an opportunity to test-drive the 2010 SRX – not sure what gets you ‘in’?), and Crown & Crumpet hosts a tea party with chocolate teas, scones, sandwiches and truffles (both days at 3pm, $12). Surrounded by chocolate sampling stations and views of the Bay, it’s not a bad weekend.
Free; $20 for 15 tasting tickets
9/12-13, 12-5pm
900 N. Point Street
415-775-5500
www.GhirardelliSQ.com
Introducing our LIT123 contest!
Camus can do, can you?
Hey, y’all — grab your peacock-plumed keyboards, polish up your virtual inkwells, and unleash your mini-Kerouac because we’ve got a little competition for you to take part in. Wanna win a nifty gift certificate to Books, Inc?
All you have to do is submit a little story — fiction, nonfiction, or poetry — that somehow reflects living in the Bay Area to culture@sfbg.com by Tuesday, September 22. (Put “Lit123” in the subject line, and please include your name or nom de plume and city.)
The catch? All entries must be exactly 123 words. Easy as 123, right?
We’ll publish our 10 favorites in our special Writers Issue on 10/7, and give those authors gift certificates to Books, Inc. To help get you started, here’s a horrific little story by our always zombie-fightin’ arts and entertainment editor. Submit yours today!
Alone in his dilapidated Victorian, the hulking cannibal mutant arranged his weapons collection with pride. There was the chainsaw he’d refurbished after finding it abandoned on the 22; the hatchet and axes he’d inherited from his hulking cannibal mutant father; and the set of steak knives he’d ordered from QVC. He also had, strewn about his SoMa property, various bear traps, pits concealed with leaves, trip wires, and so forth. Earlier that day, he’d waddled out to the nearest road — pothole-strewn, dirt, the kind of route only a traveler lost mid-shortcut would take — and felled a large tree that blocked both lanes. It would only be a matter of time, he figured. He was ready. And man, was he ever hungry.
Film review: “A Woman in Berlin”
By Louis Peitzman
As titles go, A Woman in Berlin is rather vague. A clearer option, to borrow from a popular children’s books series, would be A Series of Unfortunate Events. Based on a true story published anonymously by, well, a woman in Berlin, the film recounts the tribulations faced by German women at the end of World War II. As the Russian army occupies Berlin, these ladies must defend themselves against rape and domination while they await their husbands’ return. It’s a dark chapter in history — and a frequently forgotten one at that. But though A Woman in Berlin may be an important film, it’s not a good one. Without the cinematic flair required to handle a story of this magnitude, writer-director Max Färberböck turns the movie into something monotonous and draining. The characters are morally ambiguous but not interesting; the plot is depressing but tedious. I’m reminded of a quote from The History Boys (2006), another film that touches on (albeit briefly) the atrocities of the second world war: “How do I define history? It’s just one fuckin’ thing after another.”
A Woman in Berlin opens Fri/11 in Bay Area theaters.
Get your fringe on: SF Fringe Fest brings out the irresistable
By Cheryl Eddy
Ticonderoga pulls no revolutionary punches
PREVIEW There is literally something for everyone at this year’s 18th annual San Francisco Fringe Festival. Don’t try to argue, man — this year’s slate, which jams over 250 performances of over 40 experimental works by companies near and far into just under two weeks, is incredibly diverse. And though the old judging-a-book-by-its-cover cliché definitely applies to theater, some of the titles here are pretty irresistable: Hell, the Musical (inhabitants include a Valencia Street dyke and a Marina ditz); Spider Baby the musical (based on the 1968 movie subtitled The Maddest Story Ever Told? Yes, please!); and the Ed Gein-inspired The Texas Chainsaw Musical (sense a theme here?). For fans of history and, uh, sketch comedy, there’s the Revolutionary War-themed Ticonderoga; for morally-conflicted mountain climbers, there’s The Tao of Everest; and for anyone who thinks plays are boring, there are several on tap that challenge that belief in the most scandalously delightful ways, including Bible-stories-on-crack Pulp Scripture and the site-specific Missing: fugue #9: wear a warm coat, performed as audiences stroll through Bayview’s Quesada Gardens.
SAN FRANCISCO FRINGE FESTIVAL Sept 9–20, $10 or less. Various venues (main venue is Exit Theater, 156 Eddy, SF). (415) 673-3847, www.sffringe.org
Street Threads: Look of the Day
SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s Look: Chris, University of San Francisco
Tell us about your look: “I like dark, primary colors. Today I’m wearing all blue and black.”
Street Threads: Look of the Day
SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s Look: Bryan, Balboa and Arguello
Tell us about your look: “I got these glasses from the thrift shop in LA.”
Street Threads: Look of the Day
SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s Look: Ashley, University of San Francisco
Tell us about your look: “This is all American Apparel.”
Hats off to Paul’s!
Text by Nicole Gluckstern. Photos by Gabe Magaña 
Richmond District residents and fedora aficionados who mourned the temporary closure of Paul’s Hat Works on Geary will have no excuse to go out on the streets hatless again, now that the 91 year-old custom haberdashery has reopened its doors with new ownership at the helm. For the first time since its inception, Paul’s will be an entirely woman-run, worker-owned operation, but the focus and craft of hat-making by hand is one they’ve inherited from three generations of hatters, all the way back to Napolean “Paul” Marquez, who founded his namesake storefront in 1918. 
Olivia Griffin, Kirsten Hove, Wendy Hawkins, Abbie Dwelle Trained in traditional hat-making by previous owner Michael Harris, who’s been hatting for about forty years, Paul’s new owners, Abbie Dwelle, Olivia Griffin, Wendy Hawkins, and Kirsten Hove are hoping to breathe new energy into a time-honored craft, one toquilla palm fiber body and grosgrain ribbon at a time. 
Olivia Griffin persons the counter A whirlwind tour of the premises at the grand opening gala last Saturday revealed a cosy retail floor, a vintage glass-paneled display cabinet, a museum-quality array of hat blocks and brim shapers, and a slightly diabolical-looking conformiteur, a hat-shaped device with vaguely medieval head vise undertones, used to measure the circumference of the skull (a completely painless process, I am assured). 
Wendy Hawkins and a potential customer try out the conformiteur Because it’s still the season for straw, a wide variety of Panama hats were on display, ranging from high-end superfine weaves to the coarser “creative” line — a pocketbook friendly choice for hard times. “If you take care of it, a Panama hat will last you a lifetime,” co-owner Wendy Hawkins says, showing off 75 year-old model. Now that they’ve finally opened their doors, will the spirited proprietors of Paul’s succeed in their mission to “bring the hat back”? Only time, and perhaps your wallet, will tell. 
Paul’s Hat Works 6128 Geary Blvd, SF (415) 221-5332 http://hatworksbypaul.wordpress.com
Street Threads: Look of the Day
SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s Look: Mystery Lady, Union and Laguna
Ariel says, “I took this woman’s photo because I thought her glasses were amazing … but then her bus came and she ran off! I tried to get her name and story but she was too fast!”
Street Threads: Look of the Day
SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s Look: Nadia, Fillmore and Post
Tell us about your look: “I was a top model when I was a young woman in Bulgaria.”
Street Threads: Look of the Day
SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s Look: Myloan, Buchanan and Union
Tell us about your look: “I’m on my way to my birthday dinner tonight at Osha Thai.”
Appetite: Bunny Chao, jalapeno spaghetti, cheap Krusovice, and more
Every week, Virginia Miller of personalized itinerary service and monthly food, drink, and travel newsletter, www.theperfectspotsf.com, shares foodie news, events, and deals. View the last installment here.
MJ, with Mary, at Doc’s Clock. Photos by Virginia Miller
EARLY TAKES on new OPENINGS
Three Papayas at Doc’s Clock
Guardian readers are no stranger to Doc’s Clock, a longtime favorite dive bar of many of us, where they pour it strong and keep it real. There’s been something special afoot at Doc’s on Sunday afternoons the last few weeks — you can get your Bible reading in over a Bloody Mary as Three Papayas (aka Chef Ta-Wei Lin) cooks up Vietnamese brunch. Open your Bibles to Papayas’ menu and choose from around five huge entrees (all $8) like papaya salad, a Vietnamese crepe (vegetarian or with pork and shrimp), or the Bunny Chao, a hollowed-out (bread filling piled neatly on the side) loaf of bread stuffed with green lentils, veggies and cardamom-pods. Lin keeps the plates exciting with an array of garnishes and in-season fruits like figs, passion fruit and papayas, of course. Doc’s capable bartenders take care of the drinks. Ryan bartends on Sundays and his Bloody Mary ($8) is killer: sometimes he grills juicy tri-tip and crisp asparagus for a meaty, peppery version (vegetarians can stick with non-carnivorous asparagus). Sit at Doc’s bar with a fresh plate of Vietnamese creativity on your Michael Jackson (Jackson 5 era) placemat, and you’ll wish every Sunday was this chill.
12-4pm Sundays
2575 Mission Street
415-824-3627
http://twitter.com/threepapayas
Giant Mexican carrot juice will conquer us all
By Marke B. Photos by Hunky Beau
One heck of el jugo de zanahoria
Yesterday afternoon, I came to with a fierce craving for Mexico’s wonderfully traditional hangover cure: chilaquiles. So me and Hunky Beau hopped on the Aprilia and zoomed out to the Chava’s in the Mission for a heaping plateful of tortilla chips fried and scrambled with eggs, peppers, and salsa — yum. But really, it was the ginormous four-dollar tinted gobletful of fresh-squeezed carrot juice that snapped me out of my “dancing like a fool all night at the EndUp at DJ Ruben Mancias‘ Devotion party” haze. Seriously, they could have served this as a shareable favorite at the old Trader Vic’s. Highly recommended if you’re ever in the same position.
An eager model demonstrates
Chava’s
2839 Mission near 24th St.
(415) 282-0283
Street Threads: Look of the Day
SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s Look: Natasha, Charlton and Union
Tell us about your look: “We’re trying to get our new store White Label going and we stock all the latest fashion. This outfit is from there.”
Street Threads: Look of the Day
SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s Look: Lindsey, Webster and Union
Tell us about your look: “My style is eclectic. I like to mix some classic pieces and then some more trendy pieces together.”
Acrimony brings SUPER to the city
By Mayka Mei
So you follow them on Twitter because it would be too obvious to friend them on Facebook. Well, now you have more of a reason to stalk your favorite San Francisco creatives, and the end of the rainbow leads to free shades and a party.
Hayes Valley boutique, Acrimony, will be kicking off Super in the City, an all-out scavenger hunt, on September 1. They’ve pooled together 40 of San Francisco’s local celebrities to each wear a pair of Italy’s trendy SUPER sunglasses throughout this (hopefully) sunny September. The innovative icons — including SelfEdge’s Kiya Babzani, Thrillist’s Nick Elliott, and BlowUp’s Ava Berlin — will be posting clues to their whereabouts on Acrimony’s Twitter (ShopAcrimony). Get yourself to the hot spot on time and you win the SUPERs!
The sunglasses are much more than sunglasses, though, of course. First off, they’re worn by the likes of KanYe West, Gwen Stefani, and the Kills. Second, and probably more importantly because who cares what everyone else is wearing, they’re your ticket into an exclusive party hosted by Acrimony, Vice, and SUPER. Exact time and location are confidential. Obviously.
So there you have it. Follow the Twitter and take the shades off of someone’s face. Consider it having your cake and eating it, too, since your current pair of sunglasses probably didn’t earn you enough street credit to get past any velvet ropes previously.
Super in the City. Scavenger hunt. Twitter. SUPERs. Golden ticket. I hope they play R. Kelly’s “Superman High.”
SF Street Art: Play ball
By Kimberly Chun
Spotted in an empty storefront with a “for lease” sign on Market at Montgomery.