SFBG Blogs Archives — Page 121 of 597 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

Gosh, we need more condos for millionaires

Zelda Bronstein

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June 21, 2012

Gosh, we need more condos for millionaires

I guess it’s really, really important for San Francisco to build more housing for the very rich because there’s just such a profound need for it. In fact, the demand for million-dollar condos is so high, and the supply so tight, that the folks at Rincon Tower (which is hideous) are bringing in celebrities to try to sell the last few units.

You don’t find many mid-range and affordable units sitting on the market; in fact, there’s a long waiting list and a lottery for affordable housing. Because there’s more demand than supply. On a policy level, one would think that the city would seek to match supply and demand (since the free market clearly isn’t doing it). But no: SF continues to approve housing for people who don’t need it and won’t balance that out with the level of affordable housing that IS desperately needed.

Smart.

Dueling pot protests precede rejection of a permit appeal

Sasha Cuttler

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June 21, 2012

12

Dueling pot protests precede rejection of a permit appeal

Dueling demonstrations in front of City Hall yesterday afternoon – with one side supporting medical marijuana dispensaries and the other protesting the city’s February approval of three new clubs in the Outer Mission/Excelsior area – preceded the Board of Permit Appeals decision to reject an appeal challenging Mission Organics.

That was the first of the three clubs to pull their building permits to open up shop in a part of the city that currently has no cannabis dispensaries. Yet a group of residents from the region – which includes District 11 supervisorial candidate Leon Chow – has been angrily agitating against the clubs and claiming they expose children to an illegal drug.

Bearing signs that included “Stay away from pot clubs” and “Keep the weeds away from kids” – most in both English and Chinese characters, with a smattering of Spanish translations – the predominantly Asian protesters squared off against a slightly larger crowd of medical marijuana supporters bearing signs that included “Respect Local Law” and “Marijuana is Medicine.” Together, it was a crowd of a couple hundred lining the sidewalk, drawing reactions from passing motorists.

Asked whether he would try to undermine the city’s system of regulating medical marijuana facilities if elected to the Board of Supervisors, Chow told us, “We’re opposing this, but I don’t think it would be my priority.”

Chow said he was “opposing high density,” noting that the Planning Commission approved three dispensaries in the area on Feb. 21, but he also raised concerns that the clubs make it easier for children to get marijuana, that they cater to healthy people just looking to get high, and that city regulations conflict with federal law.

“We don’t want healthy young people to be exposed to people coming out of medical marijuana clubs,” Chow told us. Asked whether he had similar concerns about bars and liquor stores, he said that he did but “there’s nothing I can do” to shut down existing businesses that sell alcohol.

“I don’t want there to be more liquor stores,” he said, although he assured us that, “I’m not a conservative, crazy, church-going Republican.”

Yet supporters of Mission Organics – whose workers will be represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union – did call Chow a hypocrite given that he works for SEIU-UHW. “So it’s a union representative opposing a union business,” said Matt Witemyre, an organizer with UFCW who was demonstrating in support of Mission Organics, which he said has agreed to a strict code of conduct that will make them good, responsible members of that community.

“The vast majority of the neighborhood is in support of the project,” Ariel Clark, an attorney representing Mission Organics, told us, characterizing protesters as a small yet vocal part of the neighborhood. The appeal was filed by Steve Currier, president of the Outer Mission Merchants and Residents Association.

Long after most of the protesters on both sides had gone home, the Board of Permit Appeals voted 3-1 to reject the appeal, clearing the way for Mission Organics to open on the 5200 block of Mission Street. But opponents have vowed to continue their fight and appeal the permits for the other two approved clubs – Tree-Med and The Green Cross, a venerable cannabis delivery service – when they apply for building permits.

Corporations are people, but I guess unions aren’t

Zelda Bronstein

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June 21, 2012

15

Corporations are people, but I guess unions aren’t

So seven of the Supreme Court Justices, including all of the ones who voted for corporate free speech in Citizens United, have decided that unions aren’t the same as corporations and don’t have the same political rights.

The court ruled 7-2 that unions can’t use their members’ dues for political campaigns unless they ask first. That doesn’t sound so awful; gee, if you’re going to take my money and spend it on a candidate I don’t like, shouldn’t I get a chance to say no? (Of course, that’s already the case, and this ruling is pretty narrow — the union wanted to raise the money and offer refunds to members who asked. The court says you have to ask first.)

But the distinction here is interesting. Corporations don’t have to ask their shareholders in advance before they donate money to political campaigns. In fact, they don’t have to ask shareholders — who, in theory, are the members of the corporation, the owners, the ones whose financial interests are most directly at stake — at all.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. can use millions of dollars of its shareholders’ money to support candidates and causes — and if you’re one of the poor retired workers who holds PG&E stock as part of your pension, you think you have any say? No, you don’t.

So what this does is further erode the power of the one large established group that can sometimes spend close to what big business does, and that’s organized labor.

Ladies and gentleman, the Bay’s youth spoken word team (and where you can see them spit)

Andrew Lam

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June 21, 2012

0

Ladies and gentleman, the Bay’s youth spoken word team (and where you can see them spit)

Hey you, over-20 person. Do you ever wonder what what on the minds of today’s teens? The answers are heavy, and they soar from the mouths of spoken word poets — especially those of the recently-announced team that will be representing the Bay Area at this year’s Brave New Voices international slam on July 21. Care to meet them?

Bay Area grand slam champion: Nyabingha McDowell, Richmond, Salesian High School, age 15

Obasi Davis Oakland, Berkeley High School, 16

Colleen Hamilton-Lecky Berkeley, Berkeley High School, 15

Allison Kephart Pacifica, Oceana High School, 17

Marje Kilpatrick Richmond, Holy Names High School, 15

Queen Nefertiti Shabazz Berkeley, Lick-Wilmerding High School, 17

Take note of the names above. These young people deserve our support. Consider them your Baybies.

This year, the BNV International Youth Poetry Slam Festival will bring more than 500 poets and their mentors from around the globe for five days of open mics, preliminary poetry slams, and writing workshops beginning July 19.

For the kids, the competition is an opportunity to spit the most difficult, strange, or meaningful aspects of their lives into a mic. For the listeners, the slam is just that — a shock to the senses in a society that rarely lets its kids go unedited.

In preparation for the festival, teams of four to six poets aged 13 to 18, have been selected by way of city and region-wide poetry slams throughout the year. Locally, the SF nonprofit Youth Speaks organizes and coordinates BNV representatives. Youth Speaks is also the progenitor of the festival, which has now spread to include participants from Guam, South Africa, Taiwan, and New Zealand among other countries.

After rehearsing, rewriting, and reinventing their poetry for months, the poets step into the final spotlight for three rounds of onstage recitation, both in tandem and solo. Meanwhile, the kids offstage get to meet and spit words with poetic peers that hail from places like New York, Chicago, South Africa and Taiwan.

James Kass, founder and executive director of Youth Speaks, says it is important that participants come from varied backgrounds.

“The kids get to know each other and hear from each other, and see their similarities and differences,” he says. “They really represent the changing demographics in the country. They really represent the future of the country.”

15-year old Nyabingha McDowell at the Bay Area grand slam finals. Photo by Ashleigh Reddy

He adds that it is just as important to bring in a diverse audience.

“A lot of adults, their main interaction with teenagers — if they don’t have kids — is through the mass media. We want to dispel those myths and stereotypes that are created. Adults need to hear directly from teenagers what they’re talking about and who they are.”

Now a decade and a half old, BNV began in San Francisco in 1998 following an inaugural Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam the previous year.

“I look back to the very first [BNV] we did when there were only four teams and we had hardly any crowd,” Kass says. “But the kids that came from these four different cities immediately started connecting and started feeling that they were part of a larger movement.”

The BNV Festival takes place in a different US city each year, but this year’s competition brings the beatniks back home to the Bay. Says Kass: “If you think you don’t like poetry, if you think you don’t know what’s going on in the youth world, come check it out because it’s a whole different experience. It’s an incredible place to be.”

Brave New Voices International Youth Poetry Slam finals

July 21, 7pm, $20

Fox Theatre

1807 Telegraph, Oakl.

www.bravenewvoices.org

The Performant: No place like home

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

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June 21, 2012

1

KC Turner’s House Concert series gets up close and personal

When did the home become a fortress? It’s as if each city block were comprised of hundreds of tiny sovereign states squeezed in next to each other, doors locked and shades drawn, the notion of running next door for a cup of sugar all but lost. Who even uses sugar anymore, let alone pesters their neighbors for an emergency ration of it? It must be this entrenched reclusiveness that makes the idea of a house concert especially appealing. When just the act of opening your home to a group of strangers feels subversive, the act of accepting the invitation can feel downright revolutionary—a banner waved against the forces of encroaching isolationism.

Call KC Turner a field commander of the revolution, then. For over five years he’s been wrangling space for his well-regarded house concert series, not to mention names that draw people to keep coming back for more: Sean Hayes, Ben Kweller, Chuck Prophet, Peter Case, Matt Nathanson. From tiny living rooms that might seat 10-20 people to expansive backyards that fit 100, the low-key, mostly acoustic shows offer artists a unique opportunity to connect immediately with attendees (and attendees with each other) without the dubious comfort of artificially-imposed distance. At a house show, everyone has to use the same toilet. It’s a great equalizer.

The casual familiarity of a house concert makes it a perfect showcase for local troubadour, John Vanderslice, whose legendary nice-guy charisma and onstage confessional meanderings often make it seem like he’s in his own living room, even when he’s playing for a crowd of hundreds. Saturday night, at an exquisitely funky private home cum arts space boasting an incredible black and white John Baden mural, sculptures by Robert Bengston and Jonathan Weisblatt, and a small but fully functional performance space built in the garage, around a hundred people crowded in to see him perform. After a luminous Debbie Neigher opened with songs from her eponymous album, Vanderslice and frequent collaborators Jason Slota (drums) and Jesse Cafiero (double bass) squeezed precariously onto the charmingly minute stage.

After riffing humorously on Twitter frenemy “not_john_vanderslice” (“he called Henry Rollins a jarhead,” he grudgingly admired) and playing the Davies Symphony Hall with the Magik*Magik Orchestra, he launched into “Dead Slate Pacific,” an introspective ode to psychotropic medication and the cold waters of a personal abyss. A David Bowie cover (“Sweet Thing”) followed by man-on-the-moon saga “Lucifer Rising,” the wrenching “I’ll Never Live up to You,” and the enigmatic curiosity “Numbered Lithograph,” comprised the solo acoustic part of the show, after which his fellow musicians gratefully joined in.

Vanderslice is a consummate story-teller, and from musical meditations on PTSD, New Haven, and David Lynch films, to joking asides about the awkward shame of showing up for a nice dinner with friends with cat hair all over your jacket, he skillfully held the attention of the oddience for the entire set, despite the uncharacteristically warm weather that turned the cozy confines of the space into a bit of an impromptu sauna. But it was everyone’s willingness to overlook such petty discomfort that really exemplified the comfortable community vibe of a house concert. After all, it seems unlikely that, ten years down the road, attendees will remember being a little warm. But probably no one will forget the night they saw John Vanderslice perform in someone’s garage—which is precisely the kind of memory worth creating more of.

www.kcturnerpresents.com

Appetite: A bright Spring Mountain Sour

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

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June 21, 2012

0

Subtle mixing at Perfect Puree’s press event, and a sampling Charbay’s new whiskey releases

Thanks to Napa-based Perfect Puree for a recent intimate dinner celebrating Perfect Puree neighbor Charbay Distillery’s new spirits releases at Jasper’s Corner Tap.

The ever-talented Kevin Diedrich (bar manager at Jasper’s) crafted three drinks using Perfect Puree’s fresh, bright purees. In typical Diedrich fashion, subtlety and balance wove together each, from a Thymely Fashioned, vivid with Charbay White Whiskey, Perfect Puree Thyme Citrus puree (one of their new flavors), Galliano and bitters, to a beautifully frothy with egg white Spring Mountain Sour, named after the home of Charbay on Spring Mountain in St. Helena.

The Sour was a mix of the White Whiskey, Marie Brizard Creme de Cacao, Perfect Puree Chipotle Sour puree (a little goes a long way with peppery smoke), Green Chartreuse and aforementioned egg white.

Charbay R5 Whiskeys

As an avowed whiskey lover, Marko Karakasevic’s (Charbay’s distiller, alongside his father, Miles) whiskeys are among the best I’ve had anywhere. But his fantastic beauties, like Release II are out of the price range of many of us at $300+ a bottle, though I would call it one of the few worth a splurge.

Thankfully, his new whiskies are on the way, each actually distilling Bear Republic’s http://www.bearrepublic.com/ finished beer, aging it in oak or stainless steel. Marko has been distilling bottle-ready beers for years, like the pilsner he used for his Release I whiskey in 1999.

Charbay’s new whiskies are well under $100 , the first just-released set (small production, roughly 650 cases) made with Bear Republic’s Racer IPA: think hoppy, herbaceous, redolent of pine, papaya, and malt.

The first, R5 Clear Whiskey ($52), is aged in small stainless steel tanks for 22 months after being distilled in a double copper Charentais alembic pot still. The second is R5 Aged Whiskey ($75), aged in French oak for 22 months, continuing the hoppy, bright, fruity, lychee direction. I tasted this whiskey in its early incarnation at 6 and 12 months – at each stage it was already a winner. Both are unique entries in the American whiskey category, especially approachable in this price range.

I’m particularly excited for Charbay’s upcoming release made from Bear Republic’s stout – again, at early stages of tasting, it is already brilliant. Hopefully, these more affordable whiskies will introduce more to the uniqueness of Charbay’s whiskies. Stay tuned for release dates and where you can find R5 this Summer here http://www.charbay.com/productinfo.aspx?ProductID=WHISKR5A7.

Tequila Tapatio

Tequila fans are thrilled that Tequila Tapatio, one of Mexico’s best quality-for-value tequilas (the blanco retails at $33 per bottle) distilled by delightful tequila master Carlos Camarena, is finally available in the US for the first time through Marko K Spirits, Charbay distiller Marko Karakasevic’s import company.

Tequila Tapatio is already on it’s way to numerous bars, restaurants and stores in California, New York and 7 other states, including being well stocked at Tres http://tressf.com/ here in SoMa (a list of where to find it here).

Although I knew months back Marko would be the importer, it’s taken awhile for the tequila to arrive to the US. Now it’s here and it is smooth, robust, primed to be the savvy bartender’s well tequila of choice.

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

Behind the CBI chief’s “resignation”

Zelda Bronstein

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June 20, 2012

5

Matier and Ross reported today that Vivian Day, the director of the Building Inspection Commission, was stepping down and taking another city job (at the same pay). But there’s a lot more to the story.

A leader in the Residential Builders Association who serves as the chair of the Building Inspection Commission was behind the move oust Day — and he did it without informing other members of his panel.

Angus McCarthy, the residential builder representative on the commission, hauled Day into a meeting that involved a senior representative of the city’s personnel department to discuss his desire for her to resign, emails obtained by the Bay Guardian show.

Micki Callahan, the city’s Human Resources Director, met with Day and McCarthy May 22, the emails show, and Day was offered an alternative job with the city at equal pay if she would step down.

“I was asked to ‘resign’ by June 30, 2012 by Angus who stated he was speaking on behalf of the Commission who wanted a change in leadership,” Day wrote in a May 23 email to McCathy and Callahan. “I understand that I serve at the will of the Commission, but I was surprised by the fact that people were being interviewed for my position without some notice to me as a courtesy.”

She noted that she didn’t want to resign and needed to hear that the entire commission was backing up McCarthy.

The problem: At least two other commissioners I spoke to told me they had no idea the commission chair was calling on the director to resign, and one of them, Debra Walker, said she wasn’t looking for a change.

“They’re trying to get rid of Vivian because she isn’t corrupt,” Walker told me.

In a May 23 email, Callahan wrote that “we wanted to you explore with you your interest in pursuing a voluntary resignation in a way that was respectful of your contributions to the city.”

But Day was having none of it, and complained by email that she was being harassed by the builders. The previous commission chair, Mel Murphy, also tried to drive her out.

“I spent a year being harassed in front of the Commission because I would not bend Civil Service rules to accommodate [Murphy’s] wishes regarding staff,” Day noted.

By law, the BIC must include a residential builder, a residential landlord, a licensed structural engineeer, an architect, a tenant, a nonprofit housing provider and a member of the general public.

I contacted Day, who told me that she couldn’t comment. McCarthy told me by email that “this is a personnel matter between the Director and Human Resouces, [so] I have been advised by the City Attorney’s office to avoid commenting on the matter.”

Myrna Melgar, who holds the public seat, told me that McCarthy had never spoken to her about Day and that the commission had held no meetings to discuss her job or tenure. Melgar told me that she’s not sure Day is strong enough on tenant issues, but never told McCarthy that she wanted a new director.

There doesn’t seem to be widespread concern among tenants about Day’s performance. Tommi Avicolli Mecca, who works at the Housing Rights Committee, told me he and his colleagues have no issues with her.

Walker confirmed there had been no discussions about Day resigning among the commissioners. Any move to oust the director would require a closed-sesion meeting on the topic, and none has been scheduled, Walker said.

But according to a May 24 email from Day to Callahan, “Angus did state that the ‘commission wanted a change in leadership.’”
She added: “The Commission has not been convened to discuss this issue and I do not want to voluntarily resign. … If the Commission wants a change, thyen the Commission should be respectful to me and not back door and try to force a voluntary resignation from me.”

All of which leaves two obvious possibilities: McCarthy went ahead and tried to push Day out, claiming that he had the rest of the commission behind him — or else McCarthy spoke privately with several other commission members to line them up, in which case he violated the Brown Act, which mandates that such discussions be held only at a scheduled meeting with a quorum present.

The residential builders’ anger with Day is a bit puzzling. She hasn’t been exactly a rabid anti-development type. The Chron says the mayor thought she was “an obstructionist blocking the mayor’s efforts to build more housing and boost neighborhood economic development,” but it’s hard to see any evidence of that.

I asked Randy Shaw, director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, a big fan of McCarthy and an ally of the mayor, if he had seen any problems with Day. “I’ve never met her,” he emailed tersely.

One person close to DBI had a different take on the situation. “The RBA has been running the department for years,” this person, who asked not to be named, told me. “Vivian wasn’t one of them. So they figured they might as well just put their own person in charge.”

Avalos emerges as the board’s main progressive champion

Sasha Cuttler

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June 20, 2012

23

Avalos emerges as the board’s main progressive champion

Sup. John Avalos seems to be the only consistent champion of progressive values at the Board of Supervisors these days, as he demonstrated once again yesterday as he tried to present some alternatives to the neoliberal corporatism that has seized City Hall over the last couple years.

Last week, Avalos was the only vote against a pandering proposal by Sup. Mark Farrell to exempt more small businesses from the city’s payroll tax, which is projected to cost the city $1.5 million next fiscal year and $2.5 million the following one, blowing a $4 million hole in the two-year budget that supervisors are now finalizing for approval in two weeks.

Yesterday, as the measure was about to receive final approval on its second reading, Avalos made a motion to delay it until after the fall election when voters may consider a pair of measures to transition from a payroll to gross receipts tax as the means of assessing local businesses. Mayor Ed Lee and Board President David Chiu introduced one measure that is revenue neutral, while an alternative by Avalos would bring in about $40 million per year.

Avalos didn’t have the votes for the long delay, so he got behind a compromise motion by Sup. Jane Kim to delay the measure until July 10 so the Budget Committee can at least factor it into its deliberations. Farrell opposed the move, insisting that “this is about creating jobs now,” despite the fact that businesses couldn’t apply for the exemption until next February.

A spirited debate followed, in which Avalos criticized City Hall’s current penchant for business tax cuts and questioned whether it really creates the jobs its boosters claim. He also noted that it is the multitude fee increases that local politicians have approved in recent years to balance the budget without raising taxes that have become most onerous for small businesses.

“When we were raising fees over the last five years, we were raising taxes on small businesses,” Avalos said, suggesting that rolling back those fees and taxing larger corporations that can afford it is a better strategy for helping small businesses and encouraging them to create jobs.

Eventually, Avalos won the short delay on a 7-4 vote, with Sups. Farrell, Carmen Chu, Sean Elsbernd, and Scott Wiener opposed.

Meanwhile, Avalos managed to place on the fall ballot an increase in the real estate transfer taxes paid on properties worth $2.5 million or more, convincing Sups. Kim, David Campos, and Eric Mar to support the proposal as the 5 pm deadline for at least four supervisors to place measures on the ballot neared. It would raise $16 million and compete with a similar measure by Lee that would raise $13 million through a smaller increase on properties worth more than $1 million.

Avalos also joined Campos and Chiu in opposing final approval for the 8 Washington housing project for the uber-wealthy. On the same 8-3 vote, the board also rejected Chiu’s efforts to allow opponents of the project to circulate referendum petitions without having to lug around a thick stack of all the studies referenced in the project approval.

Chiu appealed to his colleagues to support “citizens of San Francisco exercising the constitutional right to referendum,” but he won few sympathies on a board that these days seems most concerned with the interests of this city’s wealthiest individuals and corporations.

Maybe I should move to France

Zelda Bronstein

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June 20, 2012

57

I know that would make some of my happy trolls even happier. But then I’d have to learn French. And I don’t know if the bars in Paris have Bud Light.

But when you look at the agenda of the new French government, it’s pretty much what a lot of us, including a lot of non-Socialists, have been advocating for the United States: Tax the rich, end tax breaks for banks and oil companies, hire a lot of new teachers, invest in youth and the future, don’t get your pants in a wad about short-term deficits, legalize same-sex marriage … damn. They’ve got it all.

Or rather, Fichu. Ils l’ont obtenu tous.

Did I get that right?

Of course, the critics are terrified about the same things they all seem terrified about whenever anyone in San Francisco talks about local taxes on the wealthy: OMG! The rich will all leave town and go live in Fresno! See:

The pledges have prompted fears of an exodus of wealthy footballers and pop stars to lands beyond the French border.

I suppose. But I suspect a lot of wealthy Parisians will stay Parisians even if their taxes go up. They live there for a reason, as do San Franciscans, and Californians. What, you’re going to play football in France and live in Antwerp? That’s not going to go over too well.

So this will be a fine experiment here. If France doesn’t collapse and Paris doesn’t empty out and the world doesn’t end, maybe we’ll all learn a lesson. Oui?

Food trends unite: New Peruvian pop-up on Market Street

Andrew Lam

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June 20, 2012

1

Could it be that tacutacu is the new taco, and cebiche the new calimari? Places like Mochica, Piqueos, and Destino have us surfing a wave of Peruvian food fandom — and now two SF food trends have merged in happy unity. Chef Christopher Kese have started a weekly gourmet Peruvian pop-up restaurant, perfect for your Wednesday dinner.

The party takes place at SF Food Lab every Wednesday, where guests will be offered a variety of staple dishes that include mushroom and beef heart skewers, the spicy Afro-Peruvian rice dish tacutacu, and a traditional Peruvian ice cream dessert. Tonight (Wed/20), Gomez and Kese will be whipping up offer sashimi drizzled with a spicy-citrus leche de tigre sauce and a cilantro lamb stew. Afro-Peruvian salsa music that’ll serve as the perfect soundtrack to your .

Kese was studying in Peru’s mountainous regions when he felt the pull from its gastronomic traditions — he actually ditched the history thesis he was working on through the University of Washington in order to study the food more deeply.

Cebiche for what ails you

“Talking with the people there, a lot of people were angry with their government and didn’t feel like a part of Peru,” says Kese in a phone interview with the Guardian. “But when it came to the food, they felt so proud of being Peruvian. I fell in love with the social aspect of the gastronomic movement there. They celebrate the diversity of it.”

With 11 of the world’s 13 ecosystems at its chefs’ fingertips, Peru’s cuisine exhibits a diversity that may explain its current vogue. Fresh fruits and vegetables are available at the country’s higher elevations, and the coast brings in fish that stands up to the best of Japan’s sushi stock.

“That’s a part of the basis of Peruvian cuisine,” Kese says. “Any food has a place in it. There’s a really eclectic immigration.” He cites the country’s waves of immigrants from China, Japan, Italy, and Spain — not to mention its rich indigenous heritage — as important contributors to the country’s “melting pot of flavors.”

It’s only natural, then, that the culinarily-eclectic United States would eventually start salivating over Peruvian fare. All signs point to the trend’s longevity — there are currently 80,000 culinary students in the city of Lima alone.

“[Peruvians] have this huge, domestic, culinary tradition,” says Kese. “They’ve also had a self-defeatist attitude in the past — as many developing countries have. But if you go there today and ask which country has the best food in the world, they’ll say ‘Peru’ very proudly.”

Kese plans to use the pop-up to build a close relationship with clientele before acquiring his own kitchen space and restaurant front. To our way of thinking, he can take his time: a cilantro-infused, perfectly-skewered pop-up party set to the sound of salsa sounds like fun enough for now.

Lima Peruvian Food pop-up dinner

Every Wednesday 5:30-10:30pm, free entrance

SF Food Lab

1106 Market, SF

(206) 795-4193

www.limaperuvianfood.com

Philip Glass and Joanna Newsom’s one-off concert to save the Henry Miller Memorial Library

Tony Robles

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June 20, 2012

0

He’s worked with the likes of Ravi Shankar, Leonard Cohen, Woody Allen, and Allen Ginsberg. Next week, one of the most influential living composers, Philip Glass, will add singer-songwriter-celebrated harpist Joanna Newsom to his list of collaborators.

On Monday, they will take the Warfield stage, along with violinist Tim Fain, in a one-off performance to benefit Big Sur’s Henry Miller Memorial Library.

A fixture of Northern California’s artistic heritage, the library will face closure this fall unless it manages to raise $150,000 to upgrade its water system to existing code. Glass and Newsom, both proponents of the library, have joined forces to secure its future.

Dedicated to the acclaimed author of Tropic of Cancer, who moved to Big Sur in 1944, the Henry Miller Memorial Library isn’t a library in the conventional sense.

The small wooden cabin, serving as a bookstore and community center, is nestled in a redwood grove on the Big Sur coastline, right beside a grassy area where concerts are held. The stage has drawn performers as varied as Laurie Anderson and Fleet Foxes, all of whom have found something special in its intimate, picturesque setting.

According to executive director Magnus Toren, the library “ties into what Big Sur represents for many people, which is… getting out of the hustle-bustle of regular life, oftentimes urban life. It’s a little bit of a sanctuary… As soon as you enter through the gate, you feel transported into a different kind of world.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbkp6wd5s0k

Glass, a Manhattanite, was inspired by the library’s setting when he gave his first concert there in 2008, describing it as, “a very, very idyllic place to perform.”

Yet, his attachment to California didn’t stop there. In 2011, Glass established the Days & Nights Festival, a two-week multimedia arts showcase held in Carmel Valley, which will present the upcoming benefit at the Warfield, along with folkYEAH!.

Given their respective backgrounds, the thought of a collaboration between Glass and Newsom has raised some eyebrows.

Credited alongside Steve Reich and Terry Riley for radically altering the direction of 20th century classical music, Glass is celebrated for his early minimalist works (Einstein on the Beach; Music in Twelve Parts) his film scores (Koyaanisqatsi), an immense collection of symphonies, operas, and ballets, and of course, his many collaborative projects.

Glass’ symphonic renditions of David Bowie’s Low and Heroes are a testament to his “maverick” status in the world of composition.

Newsom too has an individualist appeal. The native Californian has garnered a large following over the past decade for her innovative, highly percussive approach to the harp.

Noted for her eccentric, high-pitched voice (she can recall a young girl and an elderly woman in the same breath) and genre-bending songwriting methods, Newsom is esteemed as any singer-songwriter of her generation. “She has a command of the whole range of the [harp], and can adapt her voice to it very well,” Glass explained during a phone call last week.

On her most acclaimed album, Ys, (co-written with revered pop-collagist Van Dyke Parks) Newsom filtered extensive “songs” through a flowing set of dynamics, more befitting of a classical composition than an indie-folk record.

“Artistically, and musically, [the collaboration is] just so interesting,” Toren says. “They’re both iconoclastic. They’re both on the outer edge of certain areas in music. And so, I felt… there could be some synchronicity, some kind of chemistry. And, I think that’s what’s happening.”

Based on the success of several rehearsals in New York, Glass speaks enthusiastically about the collaboration, and the new places it has taken him as an artist. “[Although] I’ve used the harp a lot in orchestral music, I’ve never been in such an intimate relationship with it… It brings out a texture in the music I write… which I’m hearing, almost for the first time.”

Next Monday, the audience should expect solo material from Newsom, Glass, and Fain, in addition to collaborative renditions of Newsom’s songs and Glass’ trios.

When asked if he accepts the title of “classical composer”, Glass was quick to identify himself as a collaborator, above all.

“Part of my agenda,” he explained, “was to get out of the new-music ghetto, into a bigger musical world, where I could work with David Bowie, or Emmylou Harris, or Joanna Newsom… and it wouldn’t be a surprise. No one’s going to say ‘what is he doing now?’ because I’ve done it so much that it’s more like, ‘there he goes again!'”

A Benefit for Big Sur’s Henry Miller Memorial Library
Philip Glass and Joanna Newsom with Tim Fain
Mon/25, $62.50-$140
Warfield
982 Market, SF
(415) 345-0900
www.thewarfieldtheatre.com

Guardian voices: Outside the Bay Area Bubble

Zelda Bronstein

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June 20, 2012

7

Guardian voices: Outside the Bay Area Bubble

This week I’m back in the midwest, where my roots are strong and my mother is approaching her retirement years. I’m thinking about the vast geographic and cultural distance –both real and imagined — between the San Francisco, California where I now live, and the great state of Iowa, which made me so much of who I am.

Here I am, sweating through a ridiculously muggy midwest summer heatwave, thinking about how it is that I am black, a lifelong social justice activist and organizer, and a married, dyke mama who hails from a small, working-class Iowa town where sweet corn and tomatoes once grew in my own backyard.

When I tell people that I’m from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, there is a kind of shocked silence I’ve become accustomed to. I’m used to people’s confusion about how I – given my politics and identities — could possibly be from such a place. And, while I find it extremely problematic, I’ve also gotten used to a dismissive arrogance about Iowa, a comfortable ignorance about the heartland, and a total failure to comprehend why I long for my Nana’s lilac-lined house at 1339 10th Street and why I have so much hope for middle America.

I work, organize and am raising a family in the “Bay Area bubble” but being from Iowa has developed in me core values that are decidedly anti-bubble, and deeply pro-working America. My ancestors built the wealth of this nation, and I consider the whole place mine – to love and rage over, to listen to and understand, to organize and to challenge. I have not committed my life to social change just for a privileged few on the East and West Coasts. This is, fundamentally about all of us, the 99 percent in San Francisco, through the heartland, down South and all the way to upper tip of Maine.

My four-year-old son was born in San Francisco, and he is a proud Frisco kid through and through. We have a multi-racial community that dances and organizes for justice together, he considers Salvadoran pupusas a special treat, and he loves remembering the day the Giants won the World Series and it seemed like everyone in the city was a member of the same big family.

But today, I’m writing from a cramped apartment in a seven-story public housing building in Michigan where my mother now lives with her scores of books, photography equipment and cute dresses from QVC. She and I are from a clan of Gibsons, black folks from working-class Iowa where my great grandparents worked on the railroads, and where my grandfather slaughtered pigs and went on strike with his white coworkers to defend the gains of their union.

We’re from the Iowa, where my mother attended black churches as a child and found Islam as an adult, and where she, as a struggling single mother, read black feminist poetry and first fought battles with Ronald Reagan’s backwards welfare policies.

We’re from the Iowa that is a center of agribusiness and everything that’s bad about corporate food production in this country. We’re from the Iowa that rallied for Jesse Jackson’s run for president, voted for same-sex marriage, and where Obama won the caucuses back in 2008.

But Iowa has also gone from unionized, inter-racial meatpacking plants to non-union poultry factories that exploit undocumented Latino workers from as far away as El Salvador and Guatemela. We’re from the Iowa that is indeed mostly white, where my first best friend grew up – a sweet white working class red head – and our mothers shared survival stories of single, working-poor motherhood. And I’m from the Cedar Rapids, Iowa that, unlike San Francisco, is actually growing its black population and is home to a thriving center of African American community history.

For most of my adult life, as I’ve been marching against war and racism, I’ve also been defending this Iowa, fighting against the tendency toward self-righteous superiority I’ve found among too many activists in the Bay and on the East Coast. It’s the same arrogance that the Right exploits in its scandalous but effective pseudo-populist campaigns against so-called liberal elitism.

It’s my experience that people on the left think they know what it means to be Iowan. Iowans are used as stand-in for a stereotypical idea of backwards, irrationally racist white America that ‘doesn’t vote its class interests’; Iowa is a convenient marker for everything less cool, hip, cosmopolitan and liberal than, well, San Francisco.

This kind of dismissive arrogance leads to a refusal to develop, in any meaningful, long-term way, an organizing agenda for the majority of the country, and has been one of the errors of progressive politics for a long time.

We can change this. When we are thinking about the politics of immigration policy, Occupy Wall Street, gay marriage, the movement against corporate food policy, or the politics of race, poverty and labor unions, we have to think about Iowa. Think about the white working class Republicans. Think about my mom’s friend in Iowa, raised on an old fashioned farm and now leading an organic farming collective there. Think about the proud struggle for small farms, union work, and participatory democracy there.

And think about what it will really take to make the Bay, Iowa and the whole nation a place where we can all develop our full human potential, have true mutual respect for one another, and are able to struggle through our deep divisions without exclusionary moral superiority, top-down “we know what’s best for you” politics and where all of us who want to live out our old age on a quiet lilac-lined porch in Iowa, can do so in peace and dignity.
As we make our plan to build a new progressive majority, let’s stay open-minded and take our organizing to a whole new level.

Tasting the rainbow at CUESA’s Stone Fruit Tour

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

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June 20, 2012

1

Photos by Bowerbird Photography

As a child, my mom remembers driving with her father to a cherry farm to check out the farmer’s crop. My grandfather was a wholesale produce man whose job was to visit farms and buy whole harvests for the season. The farmer would give her huge cherries bigger than her hand and allowed her to gorge on the juicy fruit. My grandfather died when my mom was five years old, and so this memory is special to her. This story is important to me as well, since I never met my grandfather, and have always been curious about California’s orchards.

CUESA, which organizes the farmers’ market at the Ferry Building, also hosts farm tours. I signed up for the Stone Fruit Tour, and boarded a bus on Fri/15 which left the Ferry Building and took us to the Central Valley, first stopping at Bella Viva orchards in Denair, about two hours east of the city.

The sun was hot and the orchard smelled like warm fruit. We meandered through white nectarines, yellow peaches, eating (and eating!) as we went, sticky nectar dripping down our shirts. Bella Viva is a family business, run by the Martinos family. Victor Martinos gave us a tour, along with one his daughters (he has two, Belle and Vivian, hence Bella Viva, which means “beautiful long life” in Italian). We learned about his organic farming practices. He strings pheromone paper strips in the trees to confuse pests and scatters the property with homemade owl homes to hunt gophers that enjoy munching on cherry roots.

The Martinos also own another orchard that is non-organic, or conventional, and compared his practices. I was surprised to hear that some of the organic sprays (like lime sulfate, which has a skull and cross bones on the label) are more toxic than the conventional alternatives, especially when it comes to preventing the dreaded bloom rot. In fact, he is prohibited by law from using the same sprays he uses at his organic orchard at his conventional one because of its proximity to a school. I got the impression that Martinos takes safety seriously, holding frequent meetings with his workers, and requiring them to wear protective suits and masks when applying hazardous sprays.

We were allowed to carry back as much fruit as we could hold in our two bare hands. My strategy was to eat as much as I could off the trees, then and there. Talk about fresh! High on fructose, we made our way to an open field to check out the orchard’s impressive drying operations. As far as the eye could see, red cherries dried in the sun. Pretty stunning!

After a delicious lunch made from farmers’ market produce, that CUESA whipped up, we headed out to our second stop, CandyCot Fruit Company apricot orchard in Waterford. These are no ordinary apricots. John Driver, the owner, is like a mad-scientist seeking to breed the perfect apricot. He spent years in Central Asia, the fruit’s origin, searching for the perfect specimens. It took him a whole fifteen years to create his crop, which is fit for California weather and was approved (after two year in quarantine) by the USDA. He plans on selling them this week at the Ferry Building farmers’ market. They are unlike any apricot you’ve ever tasted, sweet and complex. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bi-Rite creates a gourmet ice cream flavor for it.

On the bus ride home, as Sam Love dozed off in the evening sun, I looked out the window at the passing trees, dripping with summer wonderfulness, feeling, perhaps not unlike how my mom felt as a little kid on her way back to the city after a day spent at the orchards.

Ethics Commission undercuts the main witness against Mirkarimi

Sasha Cuttler

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June 20, 2012

213

Ethics Commission undercuts the main witness against Mirkarimi

The testimony of the star witness in Mayor Ed Lee’s official misconduct case against suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi came in for harsh criticism by the Ethics Commission last night, with that body striking most of it as prejudicial and unsupported hearsay evidence that should have never been introduced, something that even the city’s attorneys admitted and apologized for.

It was a serious blow to the city’s case that also undercuts the written testimony of the city’s domestic violence expert, attorney Nancy Lemon, who based much of her analysis and judgments on this discredited and disallowed testimony of Ivory Madison, the neighbor and confidante of Mirkarimi’s wife who reported the Dec. 31 domestic violence incident to police.

Meanwhile, Lee was confronted by a large pack of reporters following his monthly appearance before the Board of Supervisors earlier the day, which peppered him with pointed questions about his decision to bring what is evolving into an expensive, complicated, and nasty prosecution of Mirkarimi rather than simply allowing him to be recalled by voters. The exchange made news when Lee characterized Mirkarimi’s arm-grabbing incident as “the beating of his wife.”

Mirkarimi and his attorneys labeled that comment and much of the city’s case as simply a smear campaign that goes well beyond the narrow question of whether Mirkarimi committed official misconduct and should be removed from office, which the commission is still in the process of setting up procedures to answer.

Yesterday’s hearing dealt mostly with deciding whether to exclude or allow the written testimony of nearly two dozen witnesses. The only testimony that was stricken entirely was that of Paul Henderson, Lee’s criminal justice adviser, who testified that Mirkarimi’s guilty plea to misdemeanor false imprisonment for the grabbing incident would hurt his ability to function as the sheriff. The commission found the testimony to be irrelevant and prejudicial, clearly upsetting Deputy City Attorney Sherri Kaiser.

But the big news from last week’s hearing was the dim view that the commission took of Madison’s 22-page declaration, which painted Mirkarimi as domineering and oppressive, a bleak picture that she attributed to his wife, Eliana Lopez, as conveyed during repeated conversations between October and December as the couple was having marital problems. Madison is the main source supporting the city’s most serious allegations: that Mirkarimi abused his wife and then tried to thwart a police investigation

Commissioner Paul Renne – a career litigator appointed to the commission by the District Attorney’s Office – took the lead role in criticizing Madison’s testimony and the city for allowing it, ruing the fact that it was used by the Examiner and other media outlets to paint a defamatory “portrait of verbal abuse and child neglect inside Mirkarimi’s fear-ridden household,” as the Examiner put it on the cover of yesterday’s paper.

“I saw that and I thought maybe this idea of [taking initial testimony through written] declarations is not protective of the interests of everyone,” Renne said.

“I was disappointed by the content of Ivory Madison’s declaration. A first-year lawyer should know that much of it is inadmissible and it should not have been given to us,” Renne told Deputy City Attorney Peter Keith, calling it “clearly hearsay, clearly having the intention of poisoning the well of this hearing.”

Keith didn’t even try to defend most of the declaration, responding to Renne by saying, “We have an independent witness that is represented by [her own legal] counsel and we didn’t have control over everything that was submitted…I think the criticism is well-taken and we didn’t mean to put matters before the commission that are not relevant.”

“But you were the one who submitted the declaration,” Renne responded, telling Keith that the city must avoiding engaging in character assassination that goes beyond the scope of the commission’s inquiry, which will result in a formal recommendation going to the Board of Supervisors near the end of summer.

“My recommendation is we reject the declaration and you bring her in for live testimony,” Renne recommended. The rest of the commission seemed to agree with Renne’s criticism, but it opted to go through the declaration line-by-line, removing most of it from the proceedings. Madison is also expected to testify live and be subjected to a tough cross-examination by Mirkarimi’s attorneys, who say she has blown the incident out-of-proportion and broke the confidence of Lopez, who denies that Mirkarimi was ever abusive.

In arguing unsuccessfully for much of Madison’s written testimony to remain in the record, Keith told the commission that it was the basis for Lemon’s assessment of patterns of behavior by batterers, thus undercutting that testimony as well.

“If they’re untrue, they’re meaningless, right?” Renne asked Keith, referring to the sensational tales Madison told about Mirkarimi’s controlling behavior.

But Keith said that even if the stories Lopez told Madison were untrue or highly embellished – as Lopez’s attorney, Paula Canny, has implied as she characterized her client as building a child custody case in the event the couple divorced – they are still relevant to understanding why Madison reported Mirkarimi to the police.

“Whether or not these actions happened, it’s relevant to her concerns,” Keith said.

But Mirkarimi attorney Shepherd Kopp said that, like much of the city’s case, hearsay testimony based on flawed and prejudicial information should be irrelevant to these proceedings and shouldn’t be allowed as evidence against Mirkarimi.

“Their expert, Ms. Lemon, can believe what she wants, but that doesn’t mean it should come in as evidence,” Kopp said.

The hearing was continued to next week when Mirkarimi, Lee, and other key witnesses are expected to begin giving live testimony before the commission on June 28 and 29. Click here to read the various documents associated with the case.

Chuckle connection: The Bay’s most diverse comedic line-up goes on tour

Andrew Lam

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June 20, 2012

0

Chuckle connection: The Bay’s most diverse comedic line-up goes on tour

There’s no question that a childhood spent growing up Ethiopian in Haight-Ashbury made fertile ground in which to grow a stand-up career. That’s where Yanye Abeba is coming from. Abeba is performing in Kung Pao Kosher Comedy‘s second Color of Funny comedy tour on Thu/21 and Fri/22. Her schtick will be part of a unique line-up — and afterall, how many other people can pull on the interactions between their first generation African father and the homeless kids on Haight Street for their funny?

The divergent Color of Funny’s line-up can perhaps best be described as a comedic gumbo. Other performers include one of India’s few professional female stand-ups, venture capitalist turned storyteller Dhaya Lakshminarayanan. Joining her, award-winning broadcast journalist Maureen Langan (at the Thu/21 Berkeley show only) will bring tales of being the daughter of an Irish immigrant mother and garbage man father. Recent college graduate Nathan Habib (at the Fri/22 Santa Cruz) grew up in a Jewish-Israeli household with a Latvian mother and an Italian-raised dad. [Editor’s note: we interviewed Habib about pushy moms and Chinese restaurants back when he was a fresh-faced 21 years old.]

“There are so many points of view in this world,” Abeba says of this group of funny people in an interview with the Guardian. “Talking about our experiences in a comedic way gets people interested. They realize that even though their parents are from the ‘burbs and mine are from Africa, we have common experiences.”

Abeba’s acts recurrently discuss the clash between her Ethiopian and American backgrounds. “Ethiopian culture is so different from American culture and it makes for great comedy,” she says, adding that she is still shocked by how many people can’t find Ethiopia on a map but know the region was starving. “Inspired by Whoopie Goldberg,” Abeba employs comedy to combat cultural ignorance. Lately, she says her stand-up is focused increasingly on politics because she is concerned about this country.

“I worry that people have become apathetic and aren’t really paying attention as their lives slip deeper into poverty,” says the comedian.

So when the Occupy movement arrived in SF, Abeba was excited and began attending events. But she quickly became disenfranchised when she encountered people whose focus was on personal issues with parents and cops, not capitalism or the banking system.

That disconnect became punchline fodder. “I just looked at it as another source for material,” she says. “Don’t get me wrong, I believe in the original message of the Occupy movement and I think that it is time things changed so that more people have opportunity. I think this country is for everyone, not just the Koch brothers.”

So she’s not diminished the Occupy ethos – but she is looping its reality in with her own activism of simply being a woman in stand-up. Because there are not many female comedians, and even less female comedians of color, Abeba has had to roll over several gender stereotypes.

“I have a had a lot of men in this industry tell me that women have no place doing comedy, and that women aren’t funny,” she says. “They think all we do is talk about our periods and dating.”

She adds that if she had a nickel for every time she heard a man talk about anal sex and some hot chick, she would own a Range Rover.

“Some of my favorite local comedians are different from the mold,” she says. “They are transgender, disabled, Indian, gay, and their point of view matters. As you get to know them through their comedy, you become more accepting of some one who is different because they touched you with their truth.”

“Kung Pao Kosher Comedy Presents the Second (Sorta-Annual) Color of Funny”

Thu/21 8pm, $20

Julia Morgan Theatre

2640 College, Berk.

www.berkeleyplayhouse.org

Fri/22 8pm, $20

Kuumbwa Jazz Center

320 Cedar, Santa Cruz

www.kuumbwajazz.org

Don’t funk with THEESatisfaction’s groove

Tony Robles

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June 20, 2012

0

Cat Harris-White and bandmate Stasia Irons know how to write a memorable lyric. “Queens of the Stoned Age/and princess of time/feel our energy/floating through your mind.”

The totally DIY hip-hop duo, which makes up THEESatisfaction, earlier this year released groundbreaking, 30-minute debut LP awE NaturalE. But they’ve long been a part of the emerging Seattle art scene. In it, they’ve been creating a nearly incomparable sound, at least, galaxies away from swag, with roots in soul and jazz overlaid by spacey electronic beats, cosmic funk zaps, and unexpected twists, along with eloquent sing-rapped verses.

Each track on the record holds a mini story, another sound exploration. The chopped, wordless R&B opener “awE” blends easily into funky beat-poetry style “Bitch,” on which the duo sings, “I’m always finding a time/when I feel I need to please you/but why do I even give a fuck/A fuck about/how the world trails off/off.” Fade out.

There’s floaty, twinkling “Juiced” and powerful closer “Naturale”. Synthy, whistle-dropping, hand-clapping jam “QueenS” should, in a perfect world, be the summer anthem of 2012. On it, their mission statement: “Leave your face at the door/turn off your swag /check your bag.”

I talked with both Harris-White and Irons about all this – musical origins, the nature of DIY creation, being sci-fi Trekkies, Seattle’s current hip-hop surge, harmonizing with Drake, and memorable personal anthems (hint: Montell Jordan) – prior to their SF show this weekend:

SFBG How was the Europe tour?

Cat Harris-White It was really good, we did 12 shows out there in two weeks so it was kind of intense, but the crowds were really cool. We got to see a lot of cool people and go to different places we’ve never been – we went to the Netherlands, where we’ve never been before, and Brussels.

Stasia Irons This time we got to go up to Sweden and Belgium, we even dipped into Germany, we didn’t have a show there but we passed through Dusseldorf, Germany, so that was awesome. We went out in Scotland to a nightclub and [laughs] we had a lot of fun. We were out pretty late, but that’s how they party.

SFBG It must be much easier to get around on tour with just the two of you, as opposed to a larger backing band, or with roadies?

SI Yeah, it’s much easier, you can take the train.

SFBG [THEESatisfaction] comes from a pretty DIY sensibility, a scene where you’re making your own handmade CDs and tapes?

CHW Definitely, we were doing our own thing. We’re self-managed. It’s just a totally different experience, because we get to make the decisions and decide what we’re doing.

SFBG Does that also influence the style of music you’re making?

SI Yeah, when we first started off we just made music for ourselves, just to enjoy at home and play around. We kind of developed the way we sound over time just listening to a lot of different kinds of music and figuring out what we wanted.

We really like gospel and jazz. We both come from those genres. I was more heavily in gospel and Cat was well-versed in jazz. So we started there. And then since we’re doing it ourselves, we can go anywhere we want with it.

SFBG I’ve seen a lot of comparisons, to acts like Shabazz Palaces or even ESG, but beyond that I feel like it does have a very different sound, and it probably comes from that DIY sensibility – how do you feel about comparisons to other acts?

CHW I accept them, and it’s cool that people can draw those lines. I’m never really offended. I like when they’re able to pick out people who I really like. Someone told us that we reminded them of TLC and SWV and Digable Planets.

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

SFBG On the album, there are such interesting turns of phrases, and wordplay, I was wondering where that came from – are you voracious readers, students of hip-hop?

SI We read a lot, especially now more than ever. When we first started out we were just listening to a lot of music, and not really reading a lot. But now, since we did the album, we were heavily in to black sci-fi authors. I went to school for English, and Cat went to school for vocal jazz, so that’s the reason too.

SFBG There are some sci-fi sounds, outer-space atmospheres on the album — was that sort of spacey vibe intentional?

CHW Yeah, we’ve always been into sci-fi too, I’m totally a Trekkie and everything like that. We’ve always been into outer-space and exploring beyond what’s here on earth, and exploring deeper into what is here on Earth. Where we come from, where we’re going. We’re researchers and historians. We’re always interested in finding out different information, I guess that comes out in our sound.

SFBG Who are some of the authors you’re reading currently?

CHW Right now we’re reading a lot of Octavia Butler.

SI Toni Morrison. Oh, Shakespeare.

CHW Shakespeare definitely. Alice Walker as well.

SFBG I feel like “Queens” is a really anthemic song – a song that people want to shout out the lyrics to – what were the anthems of your youth?

CHW Growing up I listened to a lot of George Clinton and P-Funk and Parliment. “We Want the Funk” and just all their songs. You know what I’m saying? Those songs go on for like 10 minutes and they’re just chanting and harmonizing and blending things, so those kind of songs were anthemic, but also songs from Chic and SOS Band and other songs like that that have the same kind of vibe.

SI My mom listened to R&B a lot — so “This Is How We Do It” comes on, obviously I’m going to be reciting all the lyrics. Party jams like that. A lot of New jack swing and shit too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hiUuL5uTKc

SFBG What’s your music scene like in Seattle?

CHW Yes, Seattle is poppin’ right now, as far as music. A lot of friends are involved in it, not necessarily only music, but arts, authors. A lot of artsy people. But hip-hop is what’s really going on right now. It used to be a lot of grunge and indie bands and they’re still there, but I see like a lot of different kinds of hip-hop coming out of Seattle right now.

As you said Shabazz, and then there’s Champagne Champagne, a lot of great hip-hop DJs – Chocolate Chuck. There’s punk hip-hip, party hip-hop, sad hip-hop [laughs], Christian hip-hip.

SFBG Christian hip-hop?

CHW [Laughs] there’s a lot of that going on. That’s actually how I started getting involved [with music]. When I was kid, going to church, there was a group called Cave and I didn’t know they were Christian hip-hop, they never cursed or anything but their songs were just really good and usually gospel hip-hop isn’t all that good, but they were pretty dope.

SFBG Any thoughts on the current state of mainstream hip-hop? I guess “mainstream” is kind of a fast and loose description, but radio-popular hip-hop in 2012?

CHW I don’t have a problem with it essentially in a big way, because there’s always a certain place for it, on the radio and TV. There’s always been a popular format of music, music that’s highly promoted to the world. The music you’ll hear when you go places – you’ll hear Flo Rida or Odd Future or Nicki Minaj, or maybe LMFAO. There’s music that will always be promoted because there’s a certain force behind it and that’s fine. It’s been around as long as radio’s been around.

SFBG Do you have any dream collaborators?

CHW Fantasy-wise, Prince or Stevie Wonder. Missy Elliot, Timbaland too. Esperanza Spalding. Drake [laughs], we can harmonize with Drake.

THEESatisfaction
WIth Le Vice
Fri/22, 9pm, $14
Independent
628 Divisadero, SF
(415) 771-1421
www.theindependentsf.com

Voices of “The Queer Youth of Today”

Charles Russo

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June 19, 2012

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For the cover of our Queer Pride Issue, the Guardian rallied a group together to take some photos and ask them about their experiences as queer youths in the Bay Area. Go to the jump to hear more from Angel, Brian, Dennis, and Huitzi.

(Photos by Keeney and Law)

Angel, Intern, SF LGBT Community Center
“I’m really excited for Pride! I’ve never been… this is going to be my first time, so I’m really excited…”

Brian, Recent SF Transplant
“I grew up in Texas. By coming out here I’m coming into a new world where it’s ok being gay, it’s ok being you you are, it’s ok me loving Angel, and it’s ok flaunting it. No one is going to say anything about that. I think the Bay Area is where I was meant to be.”

Dennis, Poet/Musician/Queer Youth Educator
“What inspires me is adversity, because it’s something that enrages me and something that fuels me to overcome.”

Huitzi, Poet
“What inspires me? Seeing other people display their strength. Especially if they want to help people that are going through the same things they did. Seeing people take a stand for what they believe in… I love that.”

Localized Appreesh: Pins of Light

Tony Robles

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June 19, 2012

0

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

Drop Lemmy Kilmister in a whirling vat of hallucinogenic acid, and you may start to hear San Francisco’s Pins of Light emerge. The Alternative Tentacles band is made up of hard rocking, black metal-dipped cogs: scratchy-throated singer-bassist Shane Baker, brutal guitarists Jake Palladino and Ravi Durbeej, and pummeling drummer Phil Becker, who are also current and former members of Dead and Gone, Hightower, and Triclops.

The band’s hellfire debut album II – recorded at Lucky Cay Recordings in Potrero Hill – draws from elements of metal, punk, and ’70s rock’n’roll. Songs like album opener “4112” and punkish “No Way Home” lend easily to the brutal mosh, or at least some furious headbanging. The record came out earlier this year – pick it up now – and the band headlines Hemlock Tavern this week:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhn9Yd8sgVs

Year and location of origin: Fall 2008

Band name origin: Yvan Kawecki [Ed. note: Fleshies guitarist]

Band motto: I love you.

Description of sound in 10 words or less: Vibrations that travel through the air that can be heard.

Instrumentation: 2 gits, bass, vox, drums!

Most recent release: Debut LP on Alternative Tentacles, II.

Best part about life as a Bay Area band: The view.

Worst part about life as a Bay Area band: The other side of the world is so far away.

First album ever purchased: 45 of In the Air Tonight by Phil Collins.

Most recent album purchased/downloaded: new Toys that Kill, Fambly – ripping!!!

Favorite Bay Area eatery and dish: Cathead’s BBQ. Cornmeal Crusted Tofu. And I’m not even a vegetarian!

Pins of Light
With Hot Victory, Lozen
Wed/20, 9pm, $7
Hemlock Tavern
1131 Polk, SF
(415) 923-0923
www.hemlocktavern.com

Pride leather marshalls hail a “kinky renaissance”

Andrew Lam

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June 19, 2012

2

Pride leather marshalls hail a “kinky renaissance”

It was almost Pride Week, I’ve had two leather luminaries hanging out at kink coffeeshop Wicked Grounds – it just seemed like an opportune time to start waxing philosophical about the possibility of a kink renaissance in San Francisco.

“There just seems to be this general coming-out,” said Leland Carina, who as a member of the SF girls of Leather has done her part to increase the inclusiveness and malleability of her kink community. She likened this expansion to the capital-R Renaissance, which happened after the threat of bubonic plague had been mitigated. Likewise, she said, the kink community in San Francisco is finally hitting a point where the fear of AIDS no longer rules people’s sexual encounters.

Race Bannon, Carina’s co-leather marshall in this Sunday’s Pride parade, hadn’t thought of it that way – but Carina’s theory resonated with him. “We’ve figured out how to deal with [AIDS], and we’ve moved past it. I call what’s happening a kinky renaissance.”

The two of them should know. Bannon and Carina are connectors in the leather community. In our chat at Wicked Grounds, the two surmise that they were chosen to be Pride’s leather marshalls based on their approachability and connection with their playmates and community members. They are both very good at creating community on the Internet through social media — but are both rather accomplished perverts off the web as well.

Brief descriptions, for those of us that thrive on bullet points:

Leland Carina

Founding member of SF girls of Leather
Now retired from SF girls, but works to promote and brand the movement in other cities. To date, there are girls chapters in Arizona (the original group, SF was the second), Seattle, Dallas, Houston, Austin, Tulsa, New York, among other regional chapters
Until recently, Carina was a graphic designer at Kink
Correspondent for leather news blog Leatherati
Leader in the SF Bay Leather Alliance

Race Bannon

Joined leather community in 1972
Became heavily involved in Los Angeles in 1980 when his “intense connection” was noticed by others at a play party called Avatar
On the board of the National Coalition for Sexual Fredom, acts as its social media coordinator
Involved with Community-Academic Consortium for Research on Alternative Sexualities (CARAS) and the Leather Hall of Fame
Founder of Kink Aware Professionals
Winner of many, many leather lifetime achievement awards

They are the Miss Universes of the leather community, if that’s not too distasteful to say. “It’s mainly a wave and smile sort of thing,” says Carina – who will be wearing a red latex dress for her pageant moment made by an ex “roller derby sister” who runs Lust Designs. But be that as it may, Bannon and Carina are determined to make what they can of it. The two have pledged to do what they can to raise attendance numbers in their contingent so that the Pride hoards can see for themselves the growing scope of the leather community. They’ll be towed in the parade by human ponies, expertly trained by human pony mistress Liliane Hunt.

In the spirit of a true pageant host (I was channeling Sinbad in 2000, which I chose because Montell Jordan was the musical guest that year. My second pick would have been Jerry Springer in 2008 because Lady Gaga was his musical guest. You really need to read this list), I end our meeting with a truly corny question. What is the biggest challenge facing the leather community today?

“Right now we have a very kumbaya status,” Bannon smiles, as Carina grimaces a little from across the table (surely, a girl of Leather has a bit different view on schisms in the community than an established older gentleman). Bannon also said that finding space for playtime is always a challenge in a city as dense and expensive as San Francisco.

For Carina, the challenges have more to do with the forces outside the community. In an era when Rihanna boldly displays her kink proclivities in her music videos on MTV and 50 Shades of Grey is thrilling the harnesses onto Middle America, she says, “I’m interested in how that’s going to affect the community. After queerness becomes accepted, BDSM and polyamory becomes the next big thing.”

Pride parade

Sun/24 10:30am, free

Begins at Market and Beale, ends at Market and 8th St., SF

www.sfpride.org

Live Shots: The Temper Trap at Warfield

Tony Robles

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June 19, 2012

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Australian indie rock band the Temper Trap played to a nearly-full Warfield theater on Saturday night, where devoted fans screamed every word along with singer Dougy Mandagi.

The sparsely decorated stage — the flashiest set piece was a boomerang taped to the mic stand — left all the attention on the band, giving a feeling of stripped-down intimacy usually reserved for smaller shows.

Why do Lee, Chiu, and others want to stifle economic growth?

Sasha Cuttler

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June 18, 2012

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Why do Lee, Chiu, and others want to stifle economic growth?

Why do Mayor Ed Lee, Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, and San Francisco’s two major daily newspapers want to punish success? Because that’s exactly what their proposal to create a new gross receipts tax for businesses – in which corporations would be taxed more as they grow, thus encouraging economic stagnation – would do.

Right now, the city taxes businesses through a payroll tax, levying taxes based on the number of employees the company has. But under a gross receipts tax that would replace the payroll tax, employees have a disincentive to be productive and efficient and increase their companies’ profits because that would expose those companies to more of the city’s onerous tax burden.

Why would investors and employees want to grow a business in San Francisco when that would only submit them to higher taxes. Clearly, this is anti-business measure that is likely to plunge our local economy back into the depths of the recession. Don’t our leaders understand the need to help this fragile economic recovery?

Okay, okay, in case you haven’t guessed it yet, the previous three paragraphs are satire of the ridiculously overblown and misleading political rhetoric used by Lee and other critics of the city’s payroll tax, which they deride as as “job killer” that makes companies not want to hire new employees.

“Mayor Lee and Board President David Chiu proposed a gross receipts tax as an alternative to the City’s current payroll tax, which punishes companies for growing and creating new jobs in San Francisco,” Lee’s office wrote in a press release it distributed last week.

Yet my argument that a gross receipts taxes “punishes companies for growing” is just as logically sound as Lee’s argument that the payroll tax discourages companies from “creating new jobs” – and both arguments are also complete hyperbolic bullshit. But it’s seductively simple and widely parroted bullshit.

“To attract more companies to San Francisco and encourage existing employers to hire more employees, it is past time to do away with this tax,” our new neighbors down the hall, the editors of the Examiner, wrote in their editorial today, a oft-repeatedly refrain from the Chronicle and SF Chamber of Commerce as well. It later added that switching tax methods “wouldn’t penalize companies for employing people or paying them well. And city policy wouldn’t give employers any incentive to shed employees during a downturn.”

But the reality is that the 1.5 percent payroll tax is too small to really be a factor in the decision by corporations to add new employees, something they are already loath to do unless forced to by rising demand. It is simply one imperfect gauge of the size of a company and its ability to pay local taxes, just as the gross receipts tax is.

Health insurance costs, which Lee’s CPMC deal doesn’t adequate contain, is a far bigger factor in a company’s hiring decisions. So is commercial rent, which Lee’s corporate welfare policies are causing to go up downtown and throughout the city.

For decades, conservatives have tried to sell the general public on bogus trickle down economic theories that we all benefit from corporate tax cuts and that people will simply stop working if you tax them, ideas that should have been discarded as they were discredited. But they’re back with a vengeance, in supposedly liberal San Francisco of all places, actively peddled by key Lee supporters like billionaire venture capitalist Ron Conway, who only recently dropped his Republican party affiliation in favor of declined to state.

But it’s time to call out this voodoo economics for what it is: self-serving bullshit that ought to be rejected by citizens of a city that prides itself as being more educated and enlightened than the rubes in the flyover states that have been so thoroughly manipulated by the Republican Party and Blue Dog Democrats, to the detriment of our entire country.

Now, the Examiner’s argument that the business tax reform proposal would broaden and stabilize the tax base is a sound and meaningful argument, which is why the concept enjoys widespread support from across the ideological spectrum and is worth doing (although progressives rightful argue that if the tax base is being broadened then the city should reap some benefits from that, logic that Lee inexplicably resists).

Yet as the City Hall debates that will shape the details of business tax reform begin in a couple of weeks, it’s time to drop this misleading “job killer” label that has been promulgated by Republicans and other fiscal conservatives over the last decade and have an honest debate over what’s best for San Francisco’s private and public sectors.

Landlords and government, or WTF Chuck Part Two

Zelda Bronstein

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June 18, 2012

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Landlords and government, or WTF Chuck Part Two

If you didn’t get enough from my latest WTF, Chuck, Calitics has a nice addition. In a discussion about the governor’s tax proposal and the likely opposition, Brian Leubitz notes that the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is going to run its usual playbook: Government is fat, government is bad — oh, and here’s a few examples of wasteful spending. Notes Leubitz:

Of course, take any large organization and you can find some dumb stuff going on. And, the California government is such and organization. But, just because there is a small stupid thing going on, doesn’t mean that we should just toss the big, smart things that go on every day. Like, you know, educating our children, maintaining our streets, and so on. California government is simply too big to fail.

Yet, that is where we are headed. With the continued pessimism and me-first attitudes of the anti-tax organizations, we are stuck on a 20th century budget in a 21st century reality.

Yes: In San Francisco city government, there are small stupid things going on. There are overtime issues and (some) pension issues, and somewhere, somebody’s probably getting an extra welfare check. You simply cannot have a $6 billion budget and not have some types of waste. Anyone who has ever run anything larger than a lemonade stand knows that.

And if that’s what the press focuses on, then we’re going to fail as a country, a state and a society.

WTF, Chuck: Those poor exploited landlords

Zelda Bronstein

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June 18, 2012

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WTF, Chuck: Those poor exploited landlords

In my continuing attempt to make sense of the politics of the Chron’s C.W. Nevius, I present: What The Fuck, Chuck — the saga of the poor landlord.

I’ll try to be fair: There’s nothing inherently wrong with this story. I don’t like rich people taking advantage of anything, particularly rent control. It’s true that there are a few people who are cheating, good for Chuck to expose them (tho he didn’t exactly name names). You can’t make better copy than a family that moves to Hawaii (!) and keeps a rent-controlled house in the Richmond. (Of course, maybe the parents needed to be there for a couple of years for work, and were hoping to return to their family home and the landlord wouldn’t allow sublets, but whatever. Sounds horrible.)

And I’m not excusing it for a minute.

But I’ve never seen Nevius write a story about a family that can remain in this city only because of rent control, or a longterm tenant being forced out by the Ellis Act to create “homeownership” opportunities for a wealthier person who can buy a tenance in common, or a landlord who lies, cheats and abuses tenants to get rid of them so he or she can raise the rent — and those are far, far more common occurences. Those are problems that happen every day in this city.

It’s always about the poor landlords.

Yeah, there are bad tenants. But anyone on the front lines of the renatl-housing struggles in San Francisco can tell you that the abuses by the property-owning class radically exceed the harm caused by the tenant class.

I feel about this the same way I feel about the ongoing stories on bloated city employee pay and pensions. Yes, it’s true: Some city employees game the overtime and pension systems and in effect pluck money from the pockets of the taxpayers. I see no reason why a police chief who retires at 55 should get $250,000 a year for life.

But it’s also true that a lot of city employees earn a basic middle-class salary and get a pension of maybe $30,000 a year, which is hardly excessive — and the fact that the private sector quit giving pensions decades ago doesn’t mean that the public sector is wrong to do it. But all of these stories create a powerful Big Lie mythology of bloated public payrolls, which undermines any effort to raise taxes for desperately needed public services.

You tell people enough tales about the poor landlord and the rich tenants and you start to make rent control look like a bad idea. Which is about the worst thing you can do in San Francisco today, where the existence of any middle class at all is primarily the result of rent control — and if anything, rent control ought to be stronger.

In other words: A little perspective here, please.

Heads Up: 7 must-see concerts this week

Tony Robles

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June 18, 2012

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There are some thrilling Pride events heading your way this weekend, and trust me, that thorough events list is a-coming.

But before all that, a friendly reminder about the other glitzy-grimy concerts and shows this week and weekend that’ll get your motor running: cosmic hip-hop extraterrestrial wordsmiths, Grass Widow for charity, your DAD, hardcore-with-horns, supersexy beatmakers, and more.

It just so happens that most of the essential concerts this time around are located in the Mission District; you might want to hunker down in the hood for a week, surviving on Pimm’s cups, spicy burritos, and a smug sense of self-satisfaction. Here are your must-see Bay Area concerts this week/end:

Hélène Renaut
Hélène Renaut premieres a dreamy-creamy new video for her song “The Deer Convention,” made by local filmmaker Zach Von Joo, at this Lost Church appearance. Renaut, who has a sweet French ’60s folk-pop singer thing going on, Françoise Hardy and the like, is Brittany-born and San Francisco-based. Is Zou Bisou Bisou passé now, or can we still reference it? How about that slow-twisty tween beach dance scene in Moonrise Kingdom? Ooh-la-la.
Wed/20, 7:30pm, $10
Lost Church
65 Capp, SF
www.thelostchurch.com
This is not the video (that premieres at the show, of course, and at midnight on the Web)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kMwNsBIV9c

La Plebe
Described by openers the Fucking Buckaroos as “phenomenal hardcore-with-horns,” La Plebe lives up to its reputation. The decade-old act is very much worth checking out, like Rancid in Spanish with the added depth of brass. This show kicks off the band’s summer tour, so send ’em out in raging SF style.
With Fucking Buckaroos, Dazu
Wed/20, 8:30pm, $8
Sub-Mission
2183 Mission, SF
(415) 255-7227
www.sf-submission.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoSYwe77_to

Baby and the Macks, Dresses, DAD
This show introduces Baby and the Macks (Anna Ashe’s new soul band), welcomes back SF’s Dresses, and celebrates avant-pop Oakland phenom, DAD. And you know how we all love celebrating DAD in June.
Thu/21, 9pm, $7-$10
Amnesia
853 Valencia, SF
(415) 970-0012
www.amnesiathebar.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD6OMLcf46U

Grass Widow
Premiered last week, Grass Widow’s “Goldilocks Zone” video is creepy, retro sci-fi fun, a perfect sensation for the melodic local post-punk band with those eerily enveloping vocal harmonies. The track is a cut off newly released record Internal Logic, for which there’ll be a proper album release show July 20 at Rickshaw Stop. But before that, catch the trio just prior to its summer tour with a show at Verdi Club – a benefit for The Haley Butcher Organization, which helps terminally ill children.
With Carletta Sue Kay, Hindu Pirates, Nicole Kidman (Jon Barba), Shannon and the Clams
Fri/22, 8pm, $12
Verdi Club
2424 Mariposa, SF
(415) 861-9199
www.verdiclub.net
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFJazD46uvA

Sister Crayon
Sacramento quartet Sister Crayon mixes uber-sexy textured electro music bursting with hypnotic beats (on traditional kit and drum machine) and the delicately swelling, airy vocals — à la Blonde Redhead — of Terra Lopez. The band, which opened for Built to Spill on its last tour, is coming off two sold-out hometown shows in SacTown, a free covers EP, and a video for their smooth if silly cover of Biggie’s “Going Back to Cali.”
With Sea of Bees, Jhameel
Fri/22, 9:30pm, $12
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St., SF
(415) 621-4455
www.bottomofthehill.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BklxcL7li_o

THEESatisfaction
Seattle-based duo THEESatisfaction likely created the cosmic sound of the future, showcased in debut full-length (though many DIY CDs and records came before it) awE naturalE. That shiny long-player is packed tight with anthemic, wordy, sisters-with-attitude extraterrestrial wordsmithery. Whatever you do, don’t funk with that groove.
With Le Vice
Fri/22, 9pm, $14
Independent
628 Divisadero, SF
www.independentsf.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGWFBt_IPOg

The Men
Not to be confused with JD Samson’s electro-poppy Men, the Men is scuzzy, smash-your-instruments, hollering rock’n’roll hardcore. Yet it’s outta step with conventionally noisey acts of that genre; just check out the melodies and Buzzcocksian chords in latest release Open Your Heart (March 2012, Sacred Bones). It’s aggressive sonic assault for music nerds.
With Wax Idols, Burnt Ones
Sun/24, 9pm, $12
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St., SF
(415) 621-4455
www.bottomofthehill.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NEjJJYp9fo