SFBG Blogs

The historic PG&E/clean energy vote today

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And so, after a Guardian campaign that started in 1969 to kick PG&E out of City Hall and bring the city’s own Hetch Hetchy public power to San Francisco residents and businesses, the San Francisco Chronicle reported  in Monday’s edition ( 9/17/2012)  that San Francisco “is on the threshold of taking a major step into the public power realm.”

The lead story by John Cote, under a big front page head “Clean power plan would skirt PG&E,”  nicely laid out the CleanPowerSF program and even said that the plan “would effectively break Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s decades-old monopoly on the consumer power market in its headquarters city.”

He quoted Sup. David Campos, sponsor of the legislation, as saying that “This is about giving consumers a choice. And for the choice to be meaningful, it can’t be dependent on one company deciding the energy future of this city.”  The plan goes before the board on Tuesday (9/18/2012) and public power advocates say they have the votes for passage, despite PG&E’s furious lobbying inside and outside City Hall.

What Cote didn’t say, and what the Chronicle has been blacking out for decades, is the crucial point that this clean energy/ public power plan is no ordinary vote on an ordinary issue.  It is an extraordinary vote that would  start the process to enforce the federal Raker Act of 1913 that mandates that San Francisco have a public power system because the city dammed Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park for its cheap public water and cheap public power.  The city got the cheap Hetch Hetchy water, but it never got the cheap Hetch Hetchy power because PG&E stole it and forced the city to buy PG&E’s expensive private power all these years. The cost: billions of dollars for decades to the taxpayers and enduring structural corruption at City Hall. The Guardian has called this PG&E/Raker Act scandal the biggest urban scandal in U.S. history. It still is.

It’s quite a story and I urge you to check out the hundreds of investigations, stories, editorials, cartoons, and graphics the Guardian has used for years to illuminate the scandal and fight to enforce  the Raker Ac t and bring our own Hetch Hetchy power to our own people in San Francisco.

Buried in the Cote story is a key political point: Mayor Ed Lee, the man who became interim mayor on a phony premise and then lied his way into a full term as mayor, reiterated his “concerns” through a spokesperson that he is, gosh, golly, gee, “concerned about the opt-out provisions, the risks associated with the contract and the cost to residents.”

Marvelous. Simply marvelous. Lee is once again enunciating the PG&E line that mayors before him, notably Willie Brown and Gavin Newsom, have used to keep City Hall safe for PG&E and undercut the threat of public power coming to San Francisco and disturbing PG&E’s questionably legal monopoly. Brown, let me emphasize, was under PG&E’s thumb before, during, and after his mayoral tenure and now operates as an unregistered, $200,000-a -year PG&E lobbyist, Chronicle columnist, and key Lee confidant  and ally.

The current public power proposal isn’t as strong as the three public power initiatives that PG&E spent tens of millions of dollars to defeat.  PG&E would still own the lines and network, handle maintenance, and send out the bills.

But the proposal would provide l00 per cent renewable power to residents who want to pay a bit more for it, build a customer base and revenue stream for city-owned renewable power generation, advance the city’s greenhouse-gas reduction goals, and set aside $2 million to study public power options.  Most important, it would be a helluva good first step toward enforcing the public power provisions of the Raker Act and kicking PG&E out of City Hall.

The supervisors and Lee should approve the legislation and move it forward vigorously and without delay.

This is a historic moment and a historic vote in San Francisco history.  The question is, who is going to be on the right side of history and who is going to be on the wrong side of history with a PG&E vote that will live in infamy?  B3

P.S. A tip of the clean energy hat to Ed Harrington, who successfully wrestled  the proposal through the sea of crocodiles and hippos at City Hall.  He delayed his retirement as general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to finish up the proposal.  “This is the single biggest program that is even on the  horizon within the city and county of San Francisco to make any difference toward any of the goals that you have set as board members in terms of having a change in greenhouse gas emissions and climate change in San Francisco,” he told the supervisors’ budget committee last week as reported by Cote.  “This program can make a dramatic change.”  

And a tip of the clean energy hat to Sup. Campos, who put the proposal forward up against  fortress PG&E,  More: a tip of the clean energy hat and a  bow to all the many public power advocates who have fought for years to bring clean energy and public power out of the wilderness and to this position. Furthermore, I salute  Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, who led the first  two public power initiative campaigns as the unpaid manager and then took on the herculean job of orchestrating the clean energy/cca proposal inside City Hall .when he became a supervisor. Mirkarimi is now paying the price for, among other things, successfully taking on PG&E and the PG&E establishment. His was an enormously courageous and important public service.  On guard,   B3

 

Heads Up: 8 must-see concerts this week

Tony Robles
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Legends of doom, of ska, and of Latin jazz all make SF appearances this week: Yob, the Uptones, and Eddie Palmieri. And then there’s the indie rock wizard crew, Wilco, which is bringing out fellow legends Cibo Matto and the irreverent Jonathan Richman for its one-two punch of Bay Area shows.

Of course, there are other kinds of icons, there are future-greats in the making (Ringo Deathstarr and Holograms) and events bound to create lasting memories (Bay for the Bayou Benefit) glittered up with even more prestige via Allen Toussaint.

Here are your must-see Bay Area concerts this week/end:

Ringo Deathstarr
Ringo Deathstarr has it all: the rampant My Bloody Valentine comparisons, the supercute girl with bangs, the supercute boys in tight pants, the best band name ever (psh, Pitchfork incorrectly dubbed them “absurdly named fuzz-rockers”), and the musical chops to back it all up. The Austin, Texas trio also seems like fun to hang out with; invite them for a beer after the show to celebrate their newest release, Mauve (which drops Sept. 24 on Sonic Unyon Records).
With Permanent Collection, Chasms
Wed/19, 9pm, $7
Milk Bar
1840 Haight, SF
(415) 387-6455
www.milksf.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxyYPlv4RVs

Azure Ray
“Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor are Alabama natives, childhood friends, and progenitors of dream pop duo Azure Ray. Throughout most of their Azure work, the pair grounded their tracks in vocal harmonization and added in some folksy acoustic guitar and/or piano melodies, such as in 2010’s Drawing Down the Moon. But in the latest LP released this month, As Above So Below, Fink and Taylor immerse their warm vocals in electronic atmospherics, vocal delay effects, and a smattering of bass.” — Kevin Lee
With Soko, Haroula Rose
Thu/20, 8pm, $15
Swedish American Music Hall
2174 Market, SF
(415) 431-7578
www.cafedunord.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G939RSPIfIU

Bay for the Bayou Benefit
This event, featuring New Orleans R&B artist/iconic singer-songwriter-pianist Allen Toussaint and his band, and soulful locals the California Honeydrops and the Shots, would be a must-see without the added bonus of it being a fundraiser, though it does get a bit pricey thanks to that important benefit aspect. The concert (and live auction) will raise funds to help save the Louisiana coastal wetlands – which are rapidly disappearing.
Bimbo’s
Fri/21, 8pm, $75-$100
1025 Columbus, SF
(415) 474-0365
www.bimbos365club.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGAFOz5GA8I

Wilco (and Cibo Matto and Jonathan Richman)
“As recent sold-out performances at the Fox attest, Chicago’s Wilco is an easy sell. Eight albums in with 2011’s The Whole Love, Jeff Tweedy continues to catalog tender hearts at the edge of maddening fights, backgrounded arguably the most expansive band in rock. But the added draw this time are the openers; Friday is a second chance for anyone who missed Cibo Matto’s reunion show at Bimbo’s last year, while Saturday features beloved raconteur Jonathan Richman, with extra of room for him to let loose his signature dance moves.” — Ryan Prendiville)
Fri/21 with Cibo Matto; Sat/22 with Jonathan Richman
7:30pm, $49.50
Greek Theatre
2001 Gayley Road, Berk.
(510) 548-3010
www.apeconcerts.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp1AIh2DkI0

Holograms
Stockholm’s Holograms boasts the anxious panic of synthy ’80s new wave backed by hard-hitting punk beats, riffs,and hollers. Something like slapping Sham 69 on an illuminated dancefloor, neon lasers darting over their snarling faces. You’ll pogo if you know what’s good for you.
With Maus Haus, Group Rhoda, DJ Omar
Fri/21, 9pm, $10-$12
Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell, SF
(415) 861-2011
www.rickshawstop.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOrRmH4azlk

Yob
“Eugene, Oreg.’s Yob has been producing sprawling doom metal landscapes since 1996, but it’s taken until 2012 for it to get noticed. Though the mainstream press has finally picked up on the band — Spin Magazine placed its sixth album, Atma, in its top 50 records of 2011 — Yob’s masterful songwriting and awesomely sinister energy hasn’t lost any of its edge. Atma is a megalith of slow, chugging riffs and discordant melodies, the shortest song clocking in at seven minutes and 33 seconds. Vocalist (and Krav Maga instructor) Mike Scheidt shrieks and growls over the sludge like a demon that has finally been unleashed.” — Haley Zaremba
With Acid King, Norska
Fri/21, 9pm, $12
Brick and Mortar Music Hall
1710 Mission, SF
(415) 800-8782
www.brickandmortarmusic.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaSkJMH3-Pw

The Uptones
You know that checkerboard brand of 2tone ska, when it moved from its first wave in Jamaica to its second in the UK and US? Bands like the Toasters, the Specials, the English Beat, and yes, the Uptones, were all a part of that bubbling new scene. In fact, the Uptones have oft been breathlessly noted for having the specific distinction as “one of the first bands devoted to playing ska on the West Coast.” Three decades and some change later, the brass-heavy Berkeley ska band is still doing it, for your reverential skanking pleasure.
With Nino Zombie
Sat/22, 9pm, $10
RKRL
52 Sixth St., SF
www.RKRLsf.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYG-LTM_byU

Eddie Palmieri
Nicknamed the “Latin Thelonious Monk,” Eddie Palmieri has been bringing Latin dance music – with a twist – to the States since ’60s. The colorful jazz pianist and bandleader has inspired generations of performers with unconventional style and an exciting fusion of sounds. This weekend, he plays a free show in the Yerba Buena Gardens.
Sun/23, 1-3pm, free
Yerba Buena Gardens
745 Mission, SF
www.ybgf.org
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftQDhQ2UXo8

Endorsement interviews: Shamman Walton for School Board

Zelda Bronstein
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Endorsement interviews: Shamman Walton for School Board

Shamann Walton, who runs a youth development program, told us what most candidates tell us — that the schools don’t have enough money. But he’s also suggesting solutions, ones that don’t require the kind of dramatic change in Sacramento that is years away. He talks about leverage federal vocational training funds, about pushing to get more General Fund money for the San Francisco schools, about demanding that developers set aside some money for public education. Walter has plenty of experience in education — he taught at a public school in Solano County, worked with at-risk kids and has helped the SFUSD with support and transition programs.

Walton said he would have voted against skipping seniority for the so-called Superintendent’s Zone schools; when it comes to layoffs, he said, “you have to let the teachers and the union decide that.” You can listen to the full interview after the jump.

Endorsement interviews: Rachel Norton for School Board

Zelda Bronstein
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Endorsement interviews: Rachel Norton for School Board

Rachel Norton, one of three incumbents seeking re-election to the San Francisco School Board, sees herself as an advocate for parents, particularly parents of special-ed kids. She told us she was proud of the dramatic gains the district has made in some of the lowest-achieving schools and said that in her time on the board, the district has done a remarkable job of managing its budget. She wants to make school food a major priority in the next four years and will be pushing the idea of building a central kitchen so food can be prepared locally instead of shipped in from the midwest.

She also explained her vote to defy the teachers union and protect junior teachers at 14 schools from layoffs.

You can hear the entire interview after the jump.

 

How Jerry Brown got us here

Zelda Bronstein
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How Jerry Brown got us here

Jerry Roberts, who has long been among the best political reporters in California, has a nice, detailed piece on CalBuzz about Jerry Brown’s history and legacy — and how California got into the mess that the Guv is trying to get us out of. (It’s a nice complement to this Chron interview, in which Ol’ Jer takes us back to his seminary days and tells us how much he loves austerity: “I took vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. I am ready, OK?”

Jesus, Guv — we all know you’re cheap, but “obedience” really isn’t part of your personality. And chastity? For real?

But let’s get back to austerity. Brown is clearly hanging his governorship on Prop. 30, his tax measure, and is happily warning us all that things will really, really suck if it doesn’t pass. Roberts does a good job explaining how Prop. 13 — which a much-younger Jerry opposed before he supported it — laid the groundwork for the state’s endless budget mess be capping local property taxes and giving the state Legislature control over how much money flows to cities and counties.

The one missing element: Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The state budget was never simple, and California schools in particular never recovered from Prop. 13, but Schwarzenegger instantly made things much worse the day he took office in 2003 when he terminated much of the Vehicle License Fee, costing state and local government about $4 billion a year. Schwarzenegger derided the fee as a “car tax,” but it’s actually a fee that keeps counties from assessing cars as personal property. Either way, that’s a huge chunk of money, and while it was popular, it played into the idea that we can have something for nothing — similar to the Bush tax cuts.

So I guess all we can do is quote Jerry:

There is a lot of magical thinking in Washington and in Sacramento and, maybe, I might even say, Western civilization,” he said. “We had it easy and now the moment of truth is upon us. … We’ve got to pay for what we want. And if we don’t want to pay, then we have to deprive ourselves of that which we would like, and it’s very hard to get people to make that choice.”

Opinion: Let reporters into prisons

Zelda Bronstein
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Opinion: Let reporters into prisons

As a young public defender, I represented an innocent man who was convicted of
murder.

John Tennison was serving a sentence of 25 years to life when, in 1997, I
contacted a 20/20 news producer, who agreed to feature the case.

Tennison had already lost seven years of his freedom. A national broadcast
exposing concealed evidence, perjury and misconduct by police and prosecutors in
the case could reverse his fate and reunite him with his family.

But when prison officials denied the television crew an interview with my
client, producers were forced to withdraw. No interview meant no story.
 
Tennison was eventually exonerated, but it took 14 years. Fortunately, a
reporter from the SF Bay Guardian named Adam Clay Thompson accompanied me during
a prison interview as my paralegal and was able to meet and interview Tennison.
He wrote a cover story that exposed the injustice of Tennison’s case and
started the ball rolling towards his eventual exoneration. I am convinced that
if media access were granted in this case, it would have restored his freedom
years earlier.
 
For the past 15 years, California’s prisons have operated in a virtual media
blackout. With the flick of his pen, Governor Jerry Brown has the opportunity to
turn on the light.
 
Now on his desk is AB 1270, also known as the Prison Media Access Bill. The
bill, authored by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, would restore the press’ ability to
conduct pre-arranged, face-to-face interviews with specific prison inmates.
 
Currently, reporters may interview inmates who are hand-picked by prison
officials. They are not allowed follow-up contact, making it impossible to know
whether a prisoner has suffered retaliation as a result of the interview.
 
It wasn’t always this way. During Brown’s first stint as governor, the press was
free to fulfill its watchdog role in California prisons.
 
In 1996, prison officials clamped down on press access under the guise of
discouraging tabloid media from making celebrities of notorious killers. In the
process, it also made it far harder to expose systematic abuse, fiscal
mismanagement and unsafe conditions for guards and inmates alike.
 
It was under this information shut-out that inhumane conditions were allowed to
fester to the point that the Supreme Court intervened in 2011, ordering the
release of 46,000 inmates.
 
It was nearly a century ago that US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote
that sunlight is the best disinfectant. It remains no less true today.

Government accountability is impossible without media access. The 2011-2012

state budget allocates $9.2 billion in taxpayer money to the CaliforniaDepartment of Corrections and
Rehabilitation, yet public information is limited by CDCR’s current restrictive
media policies.

Taxpayers deserve to know where their money is going. Like John Tennison,
innocent men and women languishing in California’s prisons deserve to tell their
stories.

Jeff Adachi is San Francisco’s public defender.

Avant-garde chaos to deep musical connections

Tony Robles
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Avant-garde chaos to deep musical connections

“How the hell did this happen?” asks Anthony (Ant) Anderson, sitting in Willard Park, Berkeley, on a sunny afternoon. Ant lives in a house not far from here known as Church, which is where his story – and his weekly jam sessions – began. The “this” in question is his role in both the evolution of Church, and the weekly People’s Jam night, which pal Dustin Smurthwaite created at a club in Oakland.

Ant was invited to live at Church by his friend Erico Cisneros, who he met at a show in San Francisco.  At the house, Ant met Michael Shaun and Emma James – beginning in May 2011, the trio began to celebrate the end of each weekend with Sunday night jam sessions. John Burke moved into the house later and became a central part of the Church house.

A variety of local East Bay musicians began dropping by and providing instruments, expanding the group jams. “We have friends who have given us speakers and a PA system, people donate phones, professional soundproof phone pads to keep the sound in, and people bring food and drinks,” Ant says. “Once, our friend even set up a whole bar. People have just been so giving.”

Well-known musicians began stopping in as well, including David Satori from Beats Antique.

Enter partner in music, Smurthwaite: one night Ant was playing with local folk rock band Whiskerman (led by Graham Patzner, brother of Anton and Lewis, who perform string metal in Judgement Day), and Smurthwaite was in the audience. “Before I knew it he just hopped onstage and grabbed a spare trombone…while I played trumpet,” Ant says with a chuckle, his characteristic grin spreading wide across his face.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHQvIt4kfk0

“I just saw the opportunity,” Smurthwaite says from his practice space in an Oakland warehouse. “Most people didn’t even know I played trombone.” Smurthwaite is a multi-instrumentalist, who was more known for playing bass and keys back then. “All I had time for was basically giving Anthony a pat on the back before I began playing, and then we exchanged phone numbers afterward.”

In addition to the Church jams, Smurthwaite had been playing every Wednesday with Steve Taylor’s band at the Layover in Oakland. At the Layover, Taylor was playing improvised music – not quite a jam session – and when he got too busy, he asked Smurthwaite if he wanted to take over the event.

Smurthwaite ran the club night for a month or so, then called up Ant to join him and come on as the official host. It now takes place weekly in downtown Oakland at the Layover.

So what kind of music should you expect to find on your average night at People’s Jam? “The Jam is centered around funk, neo soul, hip-hop, jazz, and a crew of Balkan musicians who have also started coming through. We have numerous instruments regularly in the horn section, [we] often see a clarinet or two, and string players like cello or violin, when we can amp them. There is a strong Latin sound as well,” adds Ant.

The house band (known collectively as Bay Funk) consists of Ant, Smurthwaite, Cisneros on bass, Jesse Scheehan on tenor sax, Dan Schwartz and Patrick Aguirre on drums, Kevin Rierson on bass, Derek Yellin on piano. Vocalists Sarah Aboulafia, Sally Green and Povi Chidester also frequent the event, as well as Michael Shawn Olivera Cuevas, from the Church house, who is a poet, artist, and MC.

“It is all about communication with the band,” Smurthwaite says. “It’s best to be as direct as possible.”

Smurthwaite points out that People’s Jam has also been a great opportunity for people to express themselves during the Occupy Movement and economic crisis. “Your voice is amplified – people can here you. That’s a powerful thing,” he says.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM3Z8Or-ACo

“It’s great because both [Church and People’s Jam] are free,” Ant says. “Although Sunday and Wednesday are unconventional nights for such parties, it benefits musicians because they can also play shows on busier concert nights.” He adds, “Also Sundays can be bleak, the end of the weekend, so it works out great because after Church, you have this extremely festive and positive feeling makes you feel stoked going into Monday.”

Both events – Sunday’s Church jam sessions and Wednesday’s People’s Jam at the Layover – maintain a grassroots mentality.

“I used to send out literally 300 texts to everyone I know every Wednesday inviting them to the Layover. It was really slow at first, as we started invited people from Church to come and they became the main core of people who began to attend. Church and the People’s Jam, side by side, began creating a community of people – that is how we came up with a core group of musicians.”

I have never been at an event quite like the People’s Jam. There are open mic nights and there are concerts – but the Jam finds the perfect in-between. The majority of performers are confident and relaxed. You can dance uninhibited and never worry about being judged, but you can just as easily sit at the bar and watch the band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB9_bU8qiKg

It’s a safe environment for self-expression, and Ant and Smurthwaite work hard to keep it that way. Smurthwaite explained to me how they make a point to incorporate the diverse array of people that come through the Layover.

“At first we had nights where the music was just unintentional avant-garde chaos, it was like, barely hobbling along on one leg, trying to make it happen with barely any musicians and no audience. The audience has transformed over the past year from no one in the bar to an absolute army of musicians, getting so into it,” Ant says.

“I have heard at least five different people tell me ‘This is the best party I have ever been to in my life’, which I find mind blowing. A lot of people I know have met their significant other at Church or Layover, they have made friends there, formed bands. It is a constant thing I hear of, these new relationships and connections.”

People’s Jam
Every Wed/10pm, free
Layover
1517 Franklin, Oakl.
(510) 834-1517
www.oaklandlayover.com

Calvin Trillin: Calling in the Humanizer Man for Mitt the Twitt

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Calvin Trillin: Deadine poet:  Calling in the Humanizer Man

Analysts say that Romney campaign strategists face the challenge of humanizing their candidate.

–News reports

They’d like it if this man the folks are seeing

Resembled more an actual human being.

For that he’d need some warmth and schmaltz and soul;

Then he’d appear less plastic and more whole.

So in their dreams of triumph they aspire

To show that their guy bleeds and may perspire.

This can be done at once, without delay:

Tne Humanizer Man is on his way.

 

Yes, any candidate with boardlike stiffness

Can be adjusted with surprising swiftness.

Tbe Humanizer Man’s done this before.

Though he fell short of loosening Al Gore,

He’s had a host of triumphs in his day.

So if Mitt’s men believe, to their dismay,

Their man’s as human as a Charolais.

No need to cry, “Caramba!” or “Oy vey!”

For everything is going to be OK.

To give him hope you only have to say,

“The Humanizer Man is on his way.”

Calvin Trillin: Deadline Poet (the Nation, (9/24/2012)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Occupy

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Occupy celebrates its one-year anniversary Monday, and many of the groups who have gotten involved over the past year will be going all out. These groups’ goals–  including ending unjust foreclosures,  fighting displacement of queer people and homeless people, and taking back power from banks and the one percent– are a lot to achieve in one year. But they’ve made great stride. They’ll celebrate, and commit to another year of action, on Monday. 

Occupy Bernal, Occupy Noe and Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment will put the pressure on banks that continue to foreclose on San Franciscans despite widespread evidence of fraud and a city resolution calling for a moratorium on foreclosures. At noon, they will hold a rally highlighting the ways that the foreclosure crisis disproportionately affects seniors, veterans and disabled people- find them at 401 Van Ness. At 3pm they will rally One Market Plaza, the officers of Fortress Investment Group board co-chair Peter Briger, infamous amongst the “foreclosure fighters” for his role in selling off distressed home mortgage debt.  

In the Castro, Community Not Commodity, the coalition that formed around an Occupride march protesting the corporate takeover of the Gay Pride Parade and continues to fight “increased rent, foreclosures and evictions, and the displacement of queer and homeless youth.”  They will meet up at 2pm at 18th and Castro for a speak-out, followed by a march on the banks at 3 and a sit-in protesting sit-lie at Harvey Milk Plaza. 

Also at 2pm, Occupy Oakland is throwing a street party. They’ll converge at Embarcadero and Market at Justin Herman Plaza (renamed Bradley Manning Plaza by the people from Occupy San Francisco, whose encampment stood there for three months last fall.) Organizers advise: stay tuned for Oct. 10, the one-year anniversary of Occupy Oakland. 

But Occupy San Francisco didn’t start at Justin Herman Plaza. It started Sept. 17, 2011 at 555 California, outside the building that houses the Bank of America west coast headquarters along with Goldman Sachs offices. It’s there that everyone will converge at 5pm for a raucous casserole-style march with the Brass Liberation Orchestra, followed by guerilla movie screenings, food to share, and a debt burning: “bring dept papers (BYOD) to burn symbolically,” say organizers.

Can’t wait for tomorrow? Occupy SF hosts a day of poetry and speakers at Justin Herman Plaza today. The Human Be In, the unpermitted music and skillshare festival that brought hundreds to play music, teach workshops, and “transform space” in a dusty spot near Ocean Beach yesterday continues through tonight.  Occupy Bay Area United is also throwing a rally and teach–in focused on corporate greed starting outside 555 California at 7pm. 

Occupy is dead! Long live Occupy!

Toads! Conniving one-percenters! And giant sharks! New movies

Sue Vaughan
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This week, check out the offerings at Cine+Mas, the San Francisco Latino Film Festival, plus reviews of quirky docs Beauty is Embarrassing and Cane Toads: The Conquest, in my overview here. Also, Los Angeles-based underground superstar Damon Packard visits Other Cinema Sat/15 with his latest, Foxfur; he chats about it here.

A pair of interview-reviews, as well: Dennis Harvey talks to Ira Sachs about dark relationship drama Keep the Lights On, and Kimberly Chun talks to Nicholas Jarecki about financial-world thriller Arbitrage. Harvey also writes up doc Girl Model, a devastating look at the global modeling industry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HitH8qJxCg

Oh, and Hollywood? They’re banking on you wanting to go under the sea (again) with Finding Nemo 3D. Shaaaaaark!

Snap Looks: Glamorama fashion director is glamorous

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Snap Looks: Glamorama fashion director is glamorous

I kind of adore that Laura Schara is not just the fashion director who oversees the annual Macy’s fall fashion kickoff show and fiesta, Glamorma  (a valuable fundraiser for AIDS Emergency Fund, Glide, and Project Open Hand), she’s also the offical Macy’s “trend correspondent,” responsible for “translating emerging fashion trends for the department store.” I did not know this position could exist! And while I doubt we’ll be seeing much Hood by Air or RHLS appearing on the couture floor any time soon (maybe I’m wrong), I’m sure she gets to translate a lot of intriguing things.

Like Britain! And Nicole Richie! Glamorama is tonight, Fri/14, the theme is “The British Invasion.” Below, Laura shared a few quick words about the theme, the designers, and the glamour that is SF.

SFBG Could you tell us a little about the British Invasion theme  — did you have a hand in its development? And what specific appeal do you think the theme has for our moment?

LAURA The British seem to be invading pop culture and fashion recently, so that combined with the Olympics and the 50th Anniversary of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles made this seem like the right fit for the theme of Glamorama this year.
 
Also, Duchess Kate has definitely become a fashion icon herself and I think she has influenced some of the current fashion trends.  We are seeing classic dressing make a comeback not only for women but also men. So that also makes this theme the perfect fit this year. 

SFBG How did you choose the designers to work with, and how (if applicable) did you tailor their specific strengths to fit within the theme?

LAURA Each year we chose the designers based on a few things, and we always want to showcase a variety of designers that will appeal to everyone in the audience. We’ll show everything from classic lines, to avant garde and modern, to those contemporary designers. Also we take into consideration of what is new at Macy’s and of course Glamorama being Macy’s fall fashion kick off event, we will launch new lines at this show. This year we are excited to launch Nicole Richie for Macy’s Impulse.

SFBG Do you have overall thoughts about the state of fashion in the Bay Area? What excites you or makes you think?

LAURA I can tell you I have traveled to many destinations working on fashion events and this city always has some of the best shopping in the world.  You can find anything here from talented local designer merchandise to whatever is hot off the runway. It’s one of my favorite cities to shop in.

Appetite: What not to miss at SF Cocktail Week

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Appetite: What not to miss at SF Cocktail Week

SF Cocktail Week is here once again, drawing out cocktail geeks, spirits aficionados, and those seeking a memorable event or a fine drink.

For those of you who attended last year’s San Francisco Cocktail Week, you know it was jam-packed with some downright magical events, celebrating our city’s rich cocktail heritage and talent that has influenced the cocktail renaissance globally. There’s another strong line-up this year, in keeping with the memorable highlights from last year and the year prior.


To name a few, the annual party at St. George’s WWII hangar and distillery is always one of the highlights of Cocktail Week. This year the theme is cops and robbers with bartenders serving drinks behind bars, squirt gun target practice, live music from funky-fun Hot Pocket, and food from Tacolicious, Breads of India and Five Ten Burger.

The second annual Legends Awards http://sfcocktailweek.com/legends-awards.html honors legends in the drink world, including a lifetime achievement award for Miles Karakasevic, 13th-generation master distiller at Charbay. Best of the West assembles top bartending talent from cities of the West Coast, and for the first time this year, food carts and cocktails gather at Spirited Food Trucks in the new SoMa StrEat Food Park, heated patio and all. Another new event this year? Jupiter Olympus’ California Altered State Fair, a raucous event of games, fried food, contests in a state fair theme with drinks like a Salt-Water Taffy Old Fashioned or a Manhattan Sno-Cone.

There are dinners, after parties, and nightly events… a little something for everyone in a city that has long known how to craft a fine cocktail. Tickets and schedule here.

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

Ethics Commission rejects Mirkarimi delay request

Sasha Cuttler
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Ethics Commission rejects Mirkarimi delay request

The Ethics Commission – in a decision made by Chair Benedict Hur, to whom the commission had given the authority to make procedural decisions – today rejected a request by attorneys for suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi to delay transfer of his official misconduct case to the Board of Supervisors until after the Nov. 6 election.

Mirkarimi’s attorneys argued that the decision has been overly politicized during the election season, with supervisorial challengers turning the decision into a litmus test and interest groups polling voters on whether they would be more likely to reject supervisors who voted for reinstating Mirkarimi. The City Charter requires the board to act within 30 days of receiving the official record from Ethics, which will probably happen early next week.

“The fate of the sheriff has been made a key political issue in the election by the media, candidates, consultants, mayoral appointees to commissions, and others. Sending the record to the Board immediately prior to an election deprives the Sheriff of a neutral decision-maker, as guaranteed by the Due Process clauses of the 5th and 14th Amendments,” attorney David Waggoner wrote to the commission on Sept. 10, attaching eight articles and campaign pieces linking the Mirkarimi decision to the supervisorial races.

But Hur disagreed. “There is no evidence suggesting that any member of the Board of Supervisors will disregard the facts and the law and instead vote to sustain the charges based upon perceived political pressure,” he wrote. Actually, he argued that “granting the Sheriff’s request would cause the Commission to engage in the type of political maneuvering that it seeks to avoid. The commission will not manipulate the timing of the Board’s decision in a misguided attempt to predict the nadir of public pressure on the Supervisors.”

Mirkarimi told the Guardian that he was disappointed by the decision, noting that it was Mayor Ed Lee’s piling on of excessive charges that the commission found no evidence to support that have delayed the board’s deliberations until the height of the election season. “This is so vividly and transparently political.”

Space jam: 5 talks you must catch at this weekend’s UFO convention

Andrew Lam
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If someone is willing to put in the time, effort, and money into putting on a convention, common sense would hold that this someone believes strongly in said cause. I mean, if the adage wasn’t true, Comic-Con wouldn’t exist, or maybe it would, but it’d be a neutered, unrecognizable version of its current self.

But such presuppositions don’t apply to the creator of this weekend’s UFO Con at the Santa Clara Marriott, Brian William Hall. Hall “does not believe in UFOs and aliens,” as he remarked in a recent phone interview with the Guardian.

In fact, Hall (who, not surprisingly, is also the lead organizer of Santa Clara’s yearly Conspiracy Con) doesn’t even believe in the word “believe.” According to him, “what we believe has absolutely nothing to do with the truth”. He and co-producer Lorien Fenton, – whose first name sounds like a constellation – aren’t staging the convention to speculate over Area 51 and blurry photos of circular objects.

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

Rather, they are utilizing UFO Con as a means in exploring and investigating the questions that have dogged humankind since the time of the first cave paintings. Why are we here? Where have we been? Where are we going? Perhaps you can uncover the answers via the convention’s packed schedule of speakers expounding on such topics as cosmic mythology, abductions, and ufology. Below, we presented to you five mind-bending talks aim to place your consciousness on a higher level, though there is the possibility they will leave you with more questions than answers.

Andrew D. Basiago: “Jump Room”

Basiago’s speech will mainly touch on the CIA’s secret Mars project that supposedly had agents “jumping” through the space-time continuum. CIA conspiracy check.

Sat/15, 5:15-6:30pm

Michael Schratt: “UFO Magical Mystery Tour”

Colorful in name and in content, the UFO Magical Mystery Tour will take you on an stirring ride through the subject of ufology. Case by case, Schratt will debunk the misinformation surrounding such events as the flying pyramid, the army helicopter incident, and the Hudson Valley boomerang.

Sat/15, 10:15-11:30am

Les Velez: “OPUS: The Organization For Paranormal Understanding and Support”

It’s hard out here for UFO conspiracists ain’t it? If you’ve had any “extraordinary states of consciousness, fortean, spiritual, or parapsychological phenomenon, close encounters with non-human entities, and/or UFO activity” and are feeling pretty shook about it then OPUS is there for you. 

Sat/15, 9:00am-10:00am

Kim Carlsberg: “My Secret Life: One Woman’s Account of Eight Years of Alien Abduction”

Hey it wouldn’t be UFO Con if there wasn’t someone talking about being abducted by aliens. Carlsberg, a heavy hitter in the literary genre of “contact literature” will be enlightening the audience about her encounters of the third kind which first started in 1988 on a beach in Malibu.

Sun/16, noon-1:15pm

Richard Dolan: “UFO’s For The 21st Century Mind”

Richard Dolan could be considered one of the headliners of UFOSpaceCon seeing how he is one the most prominent and respected researchers when it comes to UFOs and the like.  Dolan will dutifully explain that despite all the peril our modern world faces, UFOs are just as relevant today as they were last century because when faced with climate change and economic depression people lose sight of the bigger cosmic picture. Highly recommended for forward-thinking types.

Sun/16, 10:30-11:45am

UFO Con

Sat/15-Sun/16, $89-$159 

Santa Clara Marriott

2700 Mission College, Santa Clara

www.ufocon2012.com

The Performant: Further

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The Performant: Further

You’re either on the bus, or you’re off the bus at Popcorn Anti-Theater’s Fringe Festival revival

As lovers of art, adventure, and reckless shenanigans might recall, the monthly Popcorn Anti-Theater bus shows last rolled about eight years ago, and while plenty of other groups have used buses as vehicles to drive a performance since, none have managed it with the same regularity and broadness of scope.

The aggressively anything-goes vibe of Popcorn events of yore combined theatrics, live music, dance, poetry, gibberish, urban exploration, and plenty of oddience participation into a series of unpredictable occurrences. Since the shows were pulled together by different collaborators each month, it wasn’t always necessarily “good” art (a specious qualifier at best), but it was almost always good fun, so when I hear that Popcorn is making a rare appearance at the San Francisco Fringe Festival, I immediately resolve to check it out.


Although the pristine white rent-a-bus is only half full as we pull away from the EXIT Theatre, the morale is high. As we settle into our seats, an attractive young woman in a lab coat, Assistant J (Crystelle Reola) passes out index cards and pens and instructs us to write down our deepest desires as the grey-wigged Professor Murnau (V.N. Von Boom Boom) introduces herself as dead. As the bus noses along, en route to our secret destination, we are treated to video footage of a group of cute kids undergoing a test of their willpower ala the 1972 Stanford Marshmallow Experiment. We also receive marshmallows of our own, which some folks eat immediately, and others save for later.

We wind up on Treasure Island where we encounter the rest of the cast who, according to the script, were mysteriously instructed to show up at a secret location for undisclosed reasons. An unlikely trio, a wealthy businessman, a self-important socialite, and an aging radical, they fuss and squabble, their action framed by a bright string of distant city lights. Gradually they come to realize that they were all part of the original Stanford Marshmallow Experiment, and that the dead professor and the beguiling Assistant J. have brought them back together to “conclude” the experiment. The world, it seems, is divided into “Gobblers” and “Resisters”. The marshmallow still tucked warm in my pocket attests to my abilities in impulse control, but *what does it all mean?*

Written and directed by Patricia Miller, “Sugar High: The Four Marshmallows of the Apocalypse,” heralds Popcorn’s return to the (very) small stage and monthly social calendar. Originator and ringleader Hernan Cortez promises to roll out the bus rides every first Friday of the month, with an emphasis on unconventional performance structure and scenic site-specificity, or what he calls “the diesel-driven processional spirit of adventure.”

“The idea is to be short, sweet, and mobile,” he explains of the hit-and-run style of Popcorn’s “thea-tours”. “Most performance (can be) executed in less than five minutes, seven tops. Basically if you can’t communicate in a short time span, you can’t communicate.” But he emphasizes that almost any artistic discipline can be a part of Popcorn. “If anyone musician, comedian, actor, scientist , cook, burlesque , variety act  has had a hard time finding a stage to perform on, you may find a home here.”

As we pull back up to the EXIT Theatre, left to ponder the concepts communicated to us during our brief sojourn to a parallel universe, I realize I still have my marshmallow and look forward to my reward. Sadly it appears that the reward for not eating my marshmallow early is only the opportunity to eat it late. Fair enough, I suppose. Marshmallows don’t grow on trees. But I’m not entirely sure the experiential portion of the show can be called complete without the possibility to win a second. Maybe next time.

Snap Sounds: Laetitia Sadier

Tony Robles
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LAETITIA SADIER
SILENCIO
(DRAG CITY)

In her 20 years as the lead singer of Stereolab, Laetitia Sadier has dependably imparted a vital, earthy humanity to her band’s sterile, mechanized productions.

In turn, on Silencio, her newest full-length, Sadier forgoes Stereolab’s rigid aura, in favor of a warmer, airier sound, more relaxed in approach, and endearing in its lack of cohesion.

Jumping between sun-kissed bossa nova tributes (“Moi Sans Zach”), psych-lounge numbers a la Air (“There is a Price to Pay for Freedom”), and breezy, Yo La Tengo-ish pop tunes (“Auscultation to the Nation”), Silencio allows Sadier’s various musical influences to breathe and linger, without being upstaged by the motorik propulsion, and Jetsons kitsch, of the Stereolab formula. An ideal sunny-day-in-the-Mission-with-headphones record.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7bSAsvHFjo

Committee approves CleanPowerSF over downtown opposition

Sasha Cuttler
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Committee approves CleanPowerSF over downtown opposition

The question of whether San Francisco creates a renewable energy program that offers an alternative to Pacific Gas & Electric got its first major hearing at City Hall today, with the business community claiming it’s too expensive and supporters arguing that the time has come for the city to address climate change and the long-term energy needs of city residents and businesses.

The Board of Supervisors Budget & Finance Committee voted 2-1 in favor creating CleanPowerSF, entering into a contract with Shell Energy Northern California to administer the program, and devoting $19.5 million from the San Francisco Public Utility Commission’s water fund to help launch it and buy clean power for city residents.

Sups. John Avalos and Jane Kim supported the project, while Sup. Carmen Chu was opposed. It now goes to the full Board of Supervisors next week, where it is expected to have progressive support and be opposed by the fiscal conservatives.

“I do think we will have the necessary majority to get this through,” the measure’s sponsor, Sup. David Campos, told us. But one open question is whether Mayor Ed Lee will veto a measure that his SFPUC appointees developed but his downtown allies are trying to kill, and if so, whether there are eight supervisors willing to override a veto.

But Campos noted that SFPUC officials testified today that CleanPowerSF is the only way they’ve identified to meet the city’s ambitious official goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which call for a reduction of 20 percent below 1990 levels by the end of this year and an 80 percent reduction by 2050.

Supporters who testified today included environmentalists, progressive groups, and young people who cast addressing climate change as the defining struggle of their generation. “This, not to go overboard, is the most important vote you’ll ever do,” said the Sierra Club’s Arthur Feinstein.

Those who spoke against the program included the usual array of downtown groups that have traditionally defended PG&E’s interests – including the Committee on Jobs, Golden Gate Restaurant Association, and Plan C – and they were joined by an unusually large number of elderly Asian individuals wearing stickers opposing the project.

“It’s a bad program that doesn’t meet even the basic elements of its original promise,” said Chris Wright, executive director of the Committee on Jobs, which PG&E has helped fund since its inception. Like most CleanPowerSF opponents, they have long opposed even the concept of community choice aggregation (CCA), the state law that allowed the city to create CleanPowerSF.

PG&E’s longtime support by local politicians has eroded in recent years because of its overkill campaigns against public power initiatives and supporters and its negligence in the deadly San Bruno pipeline explosion.

Even GGRA Executive Director Rob Black told the committee, “PG&E, a local company, candidly has its problems.” But he and other project opponents – and even a few supporters of the project – centered much of their opposition on the involvement of Shell, which has a bad reputation and environmental record, like almost every other multinational energy company.

“I have the same qualms about Shell that everyone else does,” said Katherine Roberts, who said that she nonetheless supports the project, calling it the only way for most San Franciscans to directly support the development of renewable energy sources. Shell was the sole bidder on a project that requires enormous financial wherewithal.

Campos calls the focus on Shell a diversionary tactic: “PG&E already buys energy from Shell. To the extent people don’t want Shell in the picture, Shell is already in the picture.”

Both the supervisors and the mayor will be under intense pressure to derail CleanPowerSF, with that campaign led by downtown groups and IBEW Local 1245, the union that represents PG&E workers. Sup. Scott Wiener, who says he’s still undecided, told us that his office was flooded with phone calls today, mostly in opposition to the project.

In the face of protest, City College moves forward with tough decisions

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The City College Board of Trustees passed the college’s budget and new mission statement yesterday, as well as a proposal to request a special trustee to work with the board as they face an accreditation process and dire financial situation.

The special trustee will advise the board on decision making. But they also have the power to overrule board decisions, something opponents called an undemocratic process.

About 40 of those opponents stormed the meeting. The activists, from the Save CCSF coalition, surrounded the trustees and, when several walked out of the room, sat down at their meeting table.

“I propose that we convene the People’s Board of Trustees. All in favor, say aye,” CCSF journalism student Alex Schmaus declared with a bang of the board’s gavel.

The “People’s Board of Trustees” then passed a few proposals. They passed a proposal that “students appoint ourselves special trustee and oppose any other kind of special trustee,” and that “we stand in solidarity with the teachers’ strike in Chicago.”

The dissenters left the table voluntarily, but were briefly confronted by campus police when they continued to march, chant and hold banners inside the meeting room.

Afterwards, the Board of Trustees resumed their meeting. Trustees William Walker and Chris Jackson voted against calling the question to vote on the special trustee, citing a lack of sufficient information about the powers of the special trustee, such as details about how and when their vote would supersede board decisions and the process for firing the special trustee.

The proposal to invite a special trustee passed 6-1, with Chris Jackson voting no.

“This is a monumental step for the lack of information we have in this process,” Jackson told the board concerning his vote.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O25Xnjj4RmY&feature=youtu.be

Video by Joe Fitzgerald

Tension and passion at the meeting underlined the community’s commitment to CCSF and dismay at the situation it faces. As SEIU 1021 representative Angela Thomas said during public comment, “None of us are happy. None of us.”

Save CCSF certainly isn’t happy. Many students involved had already been fighting the Student Success Act, which prioritizes those students who get through school in two years rather than those who take longer, as well as those in non-credit classes, ESL classes, and lifelong learners. Now, they fear that the accreditation process will cause City College to make cuts along similar lines.

“We are not a junior college. We are a community college,” said Shanell Williams, Associated Students president at Ocean campus.

Teachers and staff are also hurting. The 2012-2013 budget, passed at last night’s meeting, includes reductions in pay for both groups of college employees. During public comment at the board meeting, American Federation of Teachers 2121 Alisa Messer engaged the protesters in dialogue.

“Difficult decisions are coming down on us. We need to fight against them when appropriate and work with them when appropriate,” said Messer.

“The faculty of this college has voted for the pay cut at 89 percent. We did it because we love this college and we want to turn it around,” she later added.

Thomas also made comments directed at the protesters. “I see the same things you guys see,” she said. But she added that the trustees were forced into difficult decisions, and called protesters’ anger towards the board misplaced.

“I don’t have time for fighting folk that ain’t my enemy,” said Thomas.

At the meeting, the board also approved a revised mission statement. The new mission statement does not mention lifelong learning as a goal of the college, a concern for some of the public present at the meeting.

“I’m a senior who found City College towards the end of my career. We have a lot of seniors who are lifelong learners. And the mission statement just got rid of them,” said Al Yates, Vice President of the Associated Students at the Southeast campus.

One of the disagreement that permeated the meeting was the choice between working together to meet the accreditation requirements or coming together to protest and somehow resist those requirements, which many in Save CCSF say could lead to austerity measures and privatization.

Board members delayed the vote on the issue of requesting a special trustee at their last meeting after a smaller protest. They were provided with a packet of documents with information about the special trustee, but some critical questions remained unanswered.

The special trustee will advise the board on decision making. But they also have the power to overrule board decisions–to “stay and/or rescind board actions where such actions are inconsistent with the developed recovery plan, accreditation standards, and the fiscal health of the district,” according to a letter from Executive Vice Chancellor for Programs Erik Skinner.

What process and criteria define that “inconsistency” remain unclear.

“We can only go on the language that we have in the letter. We don’t have any additional or special knowledge other than what the state chancellor has told us,” said City College spokesperson Larry Kamer.

Those questions may come to the forefront as the board selects and begins to work with a special trustee.

“Now that the vote passed, its important to have an open and transparent process to select the trustee,” said Jackson after the meeting.

Localized Appreesh: Permanent Collection

Tony Robles
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Localized Appreesh is our thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.

What began life as the solo side project of Young Prisms’ Jason Hendardy is now a fully functioning local shoegaze operation. Permanent Collection, just last month released debut full-length Newly Wed Nearly Dead on San Francisco’s Loglady Records (another entity Hendardy is a part of).

Swathed in hazy guitars with on-point murmuring vocals, Newly Wed Nearly Dead is a package that should be presented to angsty teens upon puberty. Here, listen to this and then go back to study its influences from the late 1980s for a map of underground pop and the origins of shoegaze.

Also, doesn’t the below video for “It’s Alright” kind of weirdly remind you of a modern San Francisco version of Smashing Pumpkin’s video for “1979?” Just me? Either way, it’s a fun shoot, the band cruising through the rain-slick city, drinking 40s and stopping by local diners (It’s Tops?) for fried food and condiment slurping.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnTJ3U_hdeo

Clearly, the band’s off to a good start. Now go see it live. Permanent Collection plays the daytime street party, Rock Make this weekend and Milk Bar with Ringo Deathstarr next Wednesday, Sept. 19. But first, it gave us the rundown on a few favorites (MTV in ’93, California girls, free sunday barbecue at Molotovs) and the things it could live without (the San Francisco garage rock bubble).

Year and location of origin: Late 2010 as a single person band, 2011 as a full band.

Band name origin: A name to make songs under.

Band motto: No one likes it when bands play more than 25 minutes.

Instrumentation: Jason – Guitar/vocals, Megan – Bass, Brenden – Guitar, Mike – Drums.

Description of sound in 10 words or less: 
Jason – some kind of pop songs.
Brenden – MTV in ’93.
Megan – drowning in the ocean.
Mike – Loud.

Most recent release: Newly Wed, Nearly Dead.

Best part about life as a Bay Area band:
Jason – Everyone is an artist.
Brenden – California girls.
Megan – Weather.
Mike – Learning about the awesome Bay Area bands that came before us.

Worst part about life as a Bay Area band:
Jason – Everyone is an artist
Brenden – The San Francisco garage rock bubble
Megan – Tourist
Mike – It’s getting hard to set up house shows in SF

First album ever purchased:
Jason – Please Hammer Don’t Hurt Em by MC Hammer on cassette from Tower Records.
Brenden – Nevermind by Nirvana.
Megan – Crazy Sexy Cool by TLC.
Mike – I think it was Green by REM.

Most recent album purchased/downloaded:
Jason – Beyond Living by Milk Music.
Brenden – Love Tara by Eric’s Trip.
Mike – S/T by Happy Noose.

Favorite local eatery and dish:
Jason – Tacos from La Taqueria on Mission.
Brenden – California Burrito and a Budweiser from Los Coyotes Taqueria.
Megan – Free sunday BBQ at Molotovs.
Mike – Pizza from Serrano’s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnTJ3U_hdeo

Rock Make Street Festival with Permanent Collection, John Vanderslice, Exray’s, Burnt Ones, Metal Mother, and more
Sat/15, noon-7pm, $3-$5 donation
Treat and 18th Street, SF
www.rockmake.com

Photographic perspective: Salvaged shots from Japanese tsunami come to Intersection of the Arts

Andrew Lam
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Let the photos above serve as a reminder that your humpday muck-ups really aren’t the cataclysms they seem to be.

The shots are from an exhibit that opens today at Intersection for the Arts called “(re)collection: Family Photos Swept By the 3/11 Japan Tsunami”. They’re representative ofa massive collection of photographs salvaged from crushed homes in the wake of the 2011 magnitude 9.0 earthquake offshore from the island nation. That’d be the one that caused the devastating tsunami, flattening coastal towns like Tohoku, where massive numbers of lives were lost and where these images were collected by rescue workers. 

It started organically, the effort that later came to be know as the Memory Salvage Project. People — police officers, military troops, firefighters — just started bringing the damaged photos to the gymnasium of a Tohoku elementary school.

750,000 were collected, if you can believe it or not. And now, on display on the somber walls of Intersection, are men wearing 3D glasses, babies riding grandpas, formal shots of kimono and stiff-looking, suit-clad groups. There’s some images that have been destroyed as completely as the lives they were meant to document. Unintelligible photos are on display as well.

“It’s really one of the most profound things I’ve worked on in my 14 years here at Intersection,” Kevin Chen, the art organization’s program director for visual arts, told us in an email that accompanied the images for this post. The show serves as a reminder of the blanketing tragedy of natural disaster, and should clarify that the GChat blowout you just had with your boyfriend truly does not qualify as the end of the world. 

“(re)collection: Family Photos Swept by the 3/11 Japan Tsunami”

Through Oct. 27

Opening reception: Wed/12 7-9pm, free

Intersection for the Arts

925 Mission, SF

www.theintersection.org

Live Shots: Blondie and Devo at the Warfield

Tony Robles
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I was flipping around on my car’s FM dial last week and had the bleeding-from-the-ears misfortune of coming upon Taylor Swift’s staggeringly awful new single. I thought for a moment that I landed on some kind of Disney or Nickelodeon channel, where corporate-oriented bands score those awkward tween TV shows. In reality though, Swift is currently selling the shit out of the thing on iTunes…and leaving me to question my faith in humanity’s hearing.
 
So I was all the more enthusiastic as I headed to the Warfield on Monday night for the Devo and Blondie double bill. Clearly, I was in need of some kind of authentic audio to counter balance the heavy dose of vapid pop I had stumbled into on the airwaves. And even as their 1979 heyday grows ever more distant, Blondie and Devo delivered in a big way on Monday.
 
In a Warhol-esque gold lame getup, Debbie Harry exuded all the badass charm that you would expect of her, delivering a great set to a dedicated crowd that delighted in Blondie classics like “Heart of Glass” and “Hanging on the Telephone.” Harry sang “Call Me” with an exquisite edge that seemed to all by itself unravel my modern music frustrations.
 
Better yet, was the aberrant entity known as Devo, which filled its opening slot with an eruption of live wire punk energy that proved strangely relevant to the age we reside in. It was more punk than anything you’ll find at Warped Tour, more neo-futuristic than Skrillex and his plastic space ship stage at Outside Lands. “What We Do,” “Are We Not Men,” and of course “Whip It” were all showcased as Devo built its sublime dozen song set to an oddball fever pitch, amid pixilated waves of scrolling visuals and numerous costume changes.
 
All told, I left Sixth and Market to return back to the future with my confidence restored in American music. Swift’s new single isn’t the first time that radio (or MTV or iTunes) has hurled all manner of sonic schlock in our direction. And if that’s true, then Blondie and Devo suggest that the inverse must also be true: that genuine audio eventually rises to the top in the long term, through one avenue or another.
 
And if it arrives wearing one of those weird red conical hats, then so be it.

 

All photos by Charles Russo.

PG&E union mounts attack on Clean Power SF

Zelda Bronstein
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PG&E union mounts attack on Clean Power SF

The union that represents PG&E workers — and has opposed every single public-power initiative in modern San Francisco history — just launched an attack on Clean Power SF. And the union’s business representative is having a hard time explaining exactly why he’s working with PG&E to try to undermine this modest step toward public power.

Hunter Stern, with IBEW Local 1245, sent a press release out Sept. 11 announcing the start of a campaign to convince the supervisors not to approve the Clean Power SF plan. The line of attack: Shell Energy, which got the contract to supply sustainable energy to customers in the city, in competition with PG&E. The pitch:

San Francisco city government is considering a proposal to partner with Shell Energy of North America to inaugurate SF’s so-called “clean power” program. If the Board of Supervisors approves the proposal, San Francisco would pay millions to Shell, one of the most notorious environmental violators in business today.

Shell’s a pretty bad company. So is PG&E. So is just about everyone in the energy business. Not justifying Shell’s behavior, just noting: If you want a contractor to deliver electricty to San Francisco, you aren’t going to get a cool independent small business. You aren’t even going to get Google. These folks are evil, all of them.

Oh, and by the way: Shell Energy also sells power to PG&E (pdf). Stern’s boss has a contract similar to what the city is going to get. So the PG&E power we all pay for today is in part Shell power. And as Sup. David Campos points out, it wasn’t as if the city chose Shell over some better competitors: There was no other company out there anywhere in the world that responded to the city’s bid process and offered to work with Clean Power SF.

The key point here is that Clean Power SF is going to use Shell as a bridge — the private outfit will deliver power generated at renewable facililities to the city’s power operation, which will resell it to customers … for a while. The goal is to use the revenue stream from the sales of power to back bonds that will allow the city to build its own renewable energy system. Five, maybe ten years down the road, San Francisco will have solar generators on city property (including large swaths of Public Utilities Commission property in the East Bay), wind generators, maybe at some point tidal generators, and will be able to sell cheap, clean, local power to customers. Shell will be gone.

Let’s face it: this is a step on the path to creating a city-owned and city-run power system — that is, a step to eliminating PG&E as a player in San Francisco’s energy future. Public power will be cheaper and cleaner — and it’s going to take a while to get there. Which is why we need to start now.

PG&E knows this, too, and is fighting to block Clean Power SF, which comes before the board’s Budget and Finance Committee Sept. 12. Now IBEW is allied, as usual, with the giant company.

The Stern press release talks about how Clean Power SF will be expensive:

The average home can expect to see a rate increase of 77% over their current PG&E electricity generation rates. That comes out to an increase of over $200 per year.  The higher cost of power would eat up more and more of the City budget, forcing service reductions and costing San Francisco vitally needed jobs. Our local economy would take a multi-million dollar hit.

Actually, not true: The only people who will pay for Clean Power SF are the ones who want it. The idea is that a significant number of San Franciscans will be willing to pay a little more — maybe $10 a month — to help save the planet. The ones who want to stick with PG&E wil have every opportunity to do so. The city budget isn’t taking a hit — municipal services already use the city’s Hetch Hetchy hydropower. This doesn’t cost the city money or jobs.

It will, of course, hurt PG&E.

I called Hunter Stern to talk about all of this, and we had a long conversation. He was polite and answered all of my questions. Sort of.

He insisted that IBEW isn’t against community choice aggregation, that he’s only worried about the city budget and the impacts on ratepayers. And Shell. So we started going around in circles, like this:

Me: So you don’t oppose Clean Power SF?

Stern: We are not opposed to community choice aggregation. Just to this contract with Shell.

Me: I’m told Shell is the only contractor willing to fulfill this role.

Stern: That’s what I’m told, too.

Me: So if you support CCA, what should the city do?

Stern: Find somebody else.

Me: The city has made it clear there IS nobody else.

Stern: We should put this on hold and wait around until there is.

Me: Why is IBEW unhappy with Shell?

Stern: This is contracting out.

Me: Is Shell Energy a nonunion company?

Stern: They don’t generate power, they just buy and sell, so they don’t really have any employees who could be in IBEW.

Me: So what if they city can use this revenue to build its own renewables, with union labor?

Stern: We aren’t opposed to the city building its own renewables.

Me: But the idea here is to use the revenue stream from Clean Power SF to raise money for local renewables.

Stern: You don’t need revenue to build local renewables. Just creativity.

Me: But the city has a huge budget problem now. There’s no money to build local generation unless you have a revenue stream to bond against.

Stern: There are creative ways to do it.

Me: So you support CCA. You support building local renewables.Clean Power SF is a CCA program to build local renewables. Shell is the only company that answered the city’s call for bids for this project. You don’t have any labor issues with Shell. I don’t understand where you’re coming from.

Stern: I don’t disagree with your checklist.

Me: So why are you against this project?

Stern: We don’t think this is good for the city or for the ratepayers.

Me: But the ratepayers don’t have to be a part of it if they don’t want to.

Stern: I think the way the city is approaching that is a good strategy.

Round and round and round. It was making my head hurt. I wish I’d put it on tape so you could all listen.

I passed the press release along to Tyrone Jue at the SFPUC. He had a pretty clear response:

This attack is not surprising. IBEW is one of the largest unions at PG&E. They historically side with PG&E on all their issues. The fact is CleanPowerSF will not cost IBEW workers jobs. Ironically, the local renewable build out phase will be creating even more green union jobs. This happens while we weaning ourselves off dirty fossil fuel sources.San Franciscans want the choice to embrace a clean energy future. While PG&E shareholders stand to lose with CleanPowerSF, the consumer and environment stand to win.

He added:

Our ‘little creativity’ involves reinvesting revenue into aggressive energy efficiency and local renewable generation projects.  We’re simply not motivated to maximize profit at the expense of our customers or the environment.   Our common sense goal is to reinvest revenue into real projects that will reduce San Francisco’s carbon footprint, create local jobs, and build a sustainable energy future that is better for the environment and our customers.

Ugh. This is going to be a battle royal. I hope there are six votes on the board for Clean Power SF, which is imperfect but important. And then Mayor Lee will have to decide whether to side with his highly respected SFPUC general manager, Ed Harrington, who wants to make this happen, and PG&E, which doesn’t.

Oh, by the way: PG&E pays Willie Brown about $250,000 a year as a “legal retainer.” And I hear the mayor takes his phone calls.

Commissioners sharpen Mirkarimi case and select unlikely rep

Sasha Cuttler
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Commissioners sharpen Mirkarimi case and select unlikely rep

 The Ethics Commission wrapped up nearly six months worth of proceedings on the official misconduct charges against suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi today, finalizing its findings of fact and choosing Chair Benedict Hur to make its presentation to the Board of Supervisors even though he was the sole dissenting vote against removing Mirkarimi from office. 

After making the key decisions during a marathon meeting on Aug. 16, today’s hearing was mostly about mopping up, and it was the most sparsely attended of the hearings so far. But there were still a couple of tough issues to hash out, and the commissioners who voted against Mirkarimi tried to strengthen their case at the last minute.
The City Charter mandates removal of an official if at least nine supervisors find he committed official misconduct. The commission had earlier discussed how they viewed that finding and the punishment as separate issues, but decided against recommending a punishment after discussing that charter language. 
Commissioner Beverly Hayon today sought to remove any doubt about where she stood, adding a personal statement into the record that she thought the sustained charges — its 4-1 finding that Mirkarimi’s grabbed his wife’s arm during a Dec. 31 argument and subsequently pleaded guilty to false imprisonment — warranted Mirkarimi’s removal.
In a sign that the commissioners are paying attention to the political climate that has formed up around their deliberations, she made a reference to a discussion and vote last month by the Commission on the Status of Women and sought to clarify any “confusion” about where she stood.
Commissioner Paul Renne also sought to sharpen the findings of fact by adding language indicating the commission found the testimony of Mirkarimi and his wife, Eliana Lopez, to be a less credible and compelling description of what happened on Dec. 31 than the tearful 45-second video that neighbor Ivory Madison helped her make days after the incident displaying the bruise on her arm and saying she wanted to document the incident in case they divorced and there was a custody battle over their three-year-old son. 
That language was inserted in the document without objection, a decision that drew a sharp rebuke from Lopez’s attorney, Paula Canny, during the public comment portion of the hearing. “My client wants you to know that you’re flat out wrong,” Canny said, criticizing the commission’s hostile treatment of both Lopez and Linnette Peralta-Haynes, Lopez’s confidante on the day Madison unexpectedly called the police. 
“It has to be Eliana is not credible to justify your finding,” Canny said, accusing commissioners of selecting facts to fit impressions they formed when watching the emotional video. “The only reason Eliana made that video is to be used in a custody dispute.”
Mirkarimi attorney David Waggoner tried unsuccessfully to make changes to a commission summary document that he called “very one-sided,” including trying to add language indicating that the commission had unanimously rejected most of the charges that Mayor Ed Lee brought against Mirkarimi, such as witness dissuasion, abuse of power, and interfering with a police investigation. 
Waggoner also objected to Hur’s suggestion that attorney Scott Emblidge, who is doing pro bono legal work on the proceedings for both the commission and the Board of Supervisors, calling it a conflict of interest given that the commission’s role is akin to that of prosecutor. And on that point, he found support from Renne, who was unaware that Emblidge will also be advising the supervisors, a dual role he found troubling. “I’m a little surprised and I don’t know why the board doesn’t have independent counsel,” Renne said.
Emblidge promised a “dry recitation” of the commission’s findings, but Waggoner recommended the commission’s executive director, John St Croix, when pressed by Hur for an alternative, a choice Hur rejected because St. Croix hasn’t been present at all the hearings. Finally, Renne suggested that Hur do the presentation, saying that he has been fair and represented all arguments well during the proceedings so far, something that Hayon and Commissioner Dorothy Liu enthusiastically agreed with. 
It was an unconventional decision given that Hur made strong arguments on Aug. 16 about the troubling precedent that he thinks the commission’s decision represents, saying it gives the mayor too much power and opens the door to political manipulation if the official misconduct provisions are construed so broadly.
But he accepted the duty, telling the commissioners: “I’m willing to do it. It is awkward given that I was in the dissenting view, but I’ll do my best.”The case is expected to be sent to the board by Sept. 18 and it will have 30 days to act, meaning the decision will be just a few weeks before an election in which five supervisors are running to keep their jobs.Mirkarimi’s team has sought to delay the transfer of the case until after the election, noting many political interest groups and supervisorial candidates have been publicly putting pressure on the supervisors to remove Mirkarimi.
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