SFBG Blogs Archives — Page 353 of 597 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

DanceWright Project enlivens every turn

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September 17, 2009

By Rita Felciano

"Jamie Ray Wright came to dance later than most," the choreographer and artistic director of the DanceWright Project says of himself — an understatement if there ever was one. At Stanford, Wright was a pop musician who then embarked on a career in marketing. For 20 years he watched dance from the audience’s perspective but finally "could stand it no longer" and started to study ballet 24/7, three hours a day. No, he didn’t become even a second-rate Barishnikov — but he did become a choreographer whose work has been floating around the Bay Area for the last half dozen years or so, most prominently at the Black Choreographers Festival. Neither are his dancers virtuosi. But what he and they have in common is a sense for craft, a lack of pretense, and a love for ballet that enlivens every turn, every gesture and every encounter. In addition to pieces from the rep, the evening will feature a world premiere, Bella Donna, performed to the live playing by jazz guitarist Chris Tozzi. This is the DanceWright’s first self-produced evening, and it has invited some other "newcomers" to share the program. Enrico Labayen, who used to be very active in the Bay Area a decade ago, is resurrecting his Labayen Dance/SF; Kat Worthington, a dancer with Wright, is introducing her own group; and the locally little-known Dac Pac, a youth company from Santa Clara.

DANCEWRIGHT PROJECT AND SPECIAL GUESTS Fri/18–Sat/19, 8 p.m., $15–$18, Dance Mission, 3316 24th St., SF, (415) 826-4441, www.brownpapertickets.com/event/76954

‘Best Erotic Comics’: please get bigger

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September 17, 2009

1

By D. Scot Miller

BEST EROTIC COMICS 2009
Last Gasp, 1995
Edited by Greta Christina

The cover art by Junko Mizuno alone makes Last Gasp’s Best Erotic Comics 2009 worth the price of admission. His gothic-Sanrio-sex-kittens getting into all kinds of weird mischief, involving sleeping-spray and whips among other things, is just one example in this well-pieced and well-paced collection.

There’s something for everyone in this one, but I have my favorites:

Cephelapod Products weighs in with an homage to the bawdy “just for larfs” period of the 1940s and ’50s, and returns with the look and feel of the 60’s underground “Zapp” comic days that is so dead-on that I feel like I’m in the back of the record shop.

Toshios Saeki reaches even further back to early Japanese erotica to do that sexy double-entendre thing with the word “fantasy.” Saeki does the best tentacles in the biz, and he creates passionate embraces that make even the most supernatural seem like the most natural.

A long-time favorite of mine, Christy C. Road, brings “Reclaim Yourself: Revolution On A Battery Operated Phallus,” which it actually is. Whether it’s a bicycle or a buttplug, Road’s lines, color and emotion feel like liberation to me. Delicious, shameless sex is part of the revolution, better believe it. Even/especially when you’re by yourself.

Belasco’s Brothers of New Essex

In that same vein, Belasco (best known for his “Brothers Of New Essex” graphic novel) opens “Th’Floodgates,” the most poignant, concious, and healing story in the book. Comic book sex can be about sex as a healing energy of succor and an expression of love too. Who knew?

But it ain’t all love-taps in here. Best Erotic Comics 2009 is rough, soft, frightening, and soothing with each turn of the page. Whips, guns, pixies, paronoia, and perverison inter-mingle here, if the thunder don’t get you, the lightning will. Are these truly the best erotic comics 2009 had to offer? Hardly. With manga and web-based comics being published everyday, it’s time for Last Gasp to consider making 2010’s edition much, much bigger.

Street Threads: Look of the Day

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September 17, 2009

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SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today’s Look: Maggie, University of San Francisco

Tell us about your look: “I like a lot of color, but not too much all at the same time. That can be overwhelming!”

Burning Man’s contribution to urbanism

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September 16, 2009

11

By Steven T. Jones

Time.com’s “5 Things Cities Can Learn from Burning Man”

Gabriel Metcalf was just giddy when he heard about Burning Man’s 2010 art theme: “Metropolis: The Life of Cities.” It beautifully brought together two of his two passions. In addition to being a four-time attendee of the event, he’s the executive director of the San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association.

“I can’t believe the Burning Man theme. It’s just so awesome,” he said, palpably giddy. “Black Rock City is one of the great cities of the world.”

That’s high praise from someone whose days are devoted to studying urban life and its myriad challenges, and a testament to the fact that Black Rock City has successfully made the transition from frontier to city. Metcalf was equally excited about the other Burning Man news that I reported in today’s Guardian: how Black Rock LLC wants to create a year-round retreat and think tank on the playa and how they want a high-profile headquarters in the vicinity of SPUR’s new Urban Center, which opened earlier this year.

“One thing I love about Burning Man taking on the question of urbanism is it’s going to not just be about physical placement, how you lay out the blocks and streets, but about community in a larger sense,” Metcalf said. “The exploration of different forms of community is what I think is so interesting and transformative for the people who go there.”

Business as usual at City Hall this fall?

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September 16, 2009

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Tuesday marked a return to business, as the Board of Supervisors reconvened after a month-long recess.
It also seemed to mark a return to business as usual on the part of those elected officials who occupy City Hall, including Mayor Gavin Newsom, and, of course, the folks who love to hate them.

Outside, former D8 supervisorial candidate, Libertarian Party member and sex worker Starchild, tanned and stripped down to the waist, was demanding an audit of the federal reserve as outlined in H.R. 1207, and as part of the “Campaign for Liberty.”

Hot sex events this week: September 16-22

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September 16, 2009

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Compiled by Molly Freedenberg

Kick off Leather Week with the Leather Walk on Sunday.

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>> Sex Workers’ Writing Workshop
Gina de Vries hosts this workshop for current and former sex workers who want to share their writing and get honest, non-judgmental feedback.

Wed/16, 6:30pm. $10-$20
Center for Sex and Culture
1519 Mission, SF
www.sexandculture.org

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>> IXFF Independent Erotic Film Competition Premiere
Before the film rolls, step into the Pleasure Lounge upstairs, where the drinks are cold, the dancers are hot, and guests spin to win free prizes to the sounds of live jazz and sultry burlesque.

Thurs/17, 7-10pm. $10.
Castro Theatre
429 Castro, SF
www.goodvibes.com
>> Couple’s Massage Workshop
Join Anya Drapkin and Maggie Richardson for a two-hour workshop on massage for couples. Bring a lover or a friend.

Thurs/17
(415) 370-6499
For information or registration, email bloomingpartnerships@gmail.com

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Prison report: Mass releases?

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September 16, 2009

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By Just A Guy

Editors note: Just A Guy is an inmate in the California state prison system. His dispatches run twice a week.

I am constantly amazed at the cowardice of the politicians who are running this state. The Legislature passed the prison bill, reducing the population by 16,000 inmates — but this is a watered-down bill that still leaves $200 million more for California to wrest from other areas, like education and health care.

No one wants to be seen as soft on crime — but a lot of the crimes people are in prison for are moral crimes. Any crime in which there is not an actual victim — that is, a person or entity — should not be a crime, period.

Eighteen percent of the inmates in California are in for drug-related crimes — possession or sales. That’s roughly 30,000 people. Why not let all of them out, now?

Politicians seem only able to describe the decisions they make when they are accused of something — rarely do we see a thoughtful conversation held about a topic that necessitates a dialogue. Like the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, these legislators do what they want, when they want, to whom ever they want, but hide behind the veil of public safety when questioned about their actions — which will, in the long term, harm public safety.

I don’t understand how the general public keeps allowing this ridiculous spending on prisons to go on unquestioned. Are the voters so caught up in their own little worlds to not realize the long-term impact of the terrible laws and terrible system? It must be — because it keeps going on, unchecked.

The president’s health-care reform plan has the public screaming and yelling and talking about long-term costs etc. But they can’t seem the forest for the trees when it comes to prison spending. It goes to show how shortsighted people can be when it comes to their own wallets. It’s akin to never getting your home checked for termites, then being surprised when the house comes crashing down around you, but the chimney still stands.

It’s pretty obvious that the plan in Sacramento is really to just allow the feds to come in and take over the problem. California has until Friday to show the court its plan to replace the prison pop by 43,000 over the next two years. Right: They can’t even figure out how to reduce it by 27,000 over one year. You think they’ll come up with a workable plan by Friday?

The Supreme Court already denied CA’s appeal to extend the deadline.

Mass releases — coming soon, to a theater near you.

MisterMayor? Is anybody home?

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September 16, 2009

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By Rebecca Bowe

Video by Sarah Phelan

SEIU Local 1021 paid a visit to Mayor Gavin Newsom at his City Hall office yesterday, but his doors remained closed and locked. It won’t be the last time Newsom will hear from them, however. The union is launching an aggressive campaign to “dog the mayor,” organizer Robert Halaand told the Guardian, to pressure him to uphold the city’s commitment to comparable worth.

In 1986, San Franciscans approved Proposition H to enshrine the principal of comparable worth — ensuring pay equity for jobs that are held predominantly by women and people of color in an effort to combat institutional sexism and racial discrimination. Since certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and unit clerks employed in San Francisco’s public hospitals fit that description, their pay was gradually increased in the years following the passage of Prop. H.

However, budget cuts made in recent months resulted in those hospital employees getting cut and simultaneously reclassified into lower-paying positions. From SEIU’s perspective, the downgrades signify a form of discrimination and the reversal of a hard-won gain for women and people of color in San Francisco.

Latin psych-funk explosion with Brownout

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September 16, 2009

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By Marke B.

Smoke out with Brownout. Photo by Sandy Carson

This week in the paper, I write about eight-piece Latin psychedelic funk outfit from Texas, Brownout. I’m really digging, in a mellow way, their new album Aguilas and Cobras on Six Degrees Records. You should throw on a rad patterned suit jacket and some slick shoes, light up something nice, and check them out at Elbo Room this Friday.

Want a taste? Check out this primo Brownout mix from Austin’s DJ Chicken George and download their Olvidalo track.

Oh, and here’s their new video for “Slinky”

BROWNOUT
Fri/18, 10 p.m., $8–$10
Elbo Room
647 Valencia, SF
(415) 552-7788
www.elbo.com

PARK(ing) Day finds the plot

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September 16, 2009

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By Molly Freedenberg

Screw the consumerism of Christmas, the war imagery of Independence Day, and the inevitable disappointment of New Year’s Eve. Our favorite holiday of the year is PARK(ing) Day, when individuals and groups around the world turn metered parking spots into the playgrounds of their dreams. Started in 2005 by the SF art and design collective Rebar, the event takes advantage of a legal loophole that allows any (legal) use of parking spots as long as the meter gets paid. (Think of it as miniature, short-term space rental.) Want kiddie pools and pink flamingos on Valencia Street? Sod and benches outside a Haight Street shop? A mobile grassy knoll taking up residence in the mayor’s parking spot? It’s all fair game. Nearly five years in, the idea has become so popular that, on certain city boulevards, a stroll on PARK(ing) Day can feel like a street festival — minus the annoying commerce (if people are playing by Rebar’s rules). One part fun, one part frivolity, and two parts commentary on the way we use urban space, this open source project makes an ordinary workday … ahem … a walk in the park.

PARK(ING) DAY Fri/18. Find information, maps, and instructions on how to construct your own park at www.parkingday.org.

Street Threads: Look of the Day

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September 16, 2009

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SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today’s Look: Lordes, 11th St. and Howard

Tell us about your look: “I just put this outfit together. I got my hat at a thrift shop.”

Michael Moore coming to SF

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September 15, 2009

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By Steven T. Jones

We’re now getting word that the Commonwealth Club’s Inforum speakers series has just landed a big fish for this week: filmmaker Michael Moore, whose new “Capitalism: A Love Story” promises to make a big splash when it hits theaters on Oct. 2 (check out the glowing review of the film by Beyond Chron’s Randy Shaw, who saw an advanced showing yesterday at the AFL-CIO national convention).

Inforum officials tell us Moore will speak here in San Francisco on Thursday evening, Sept. 17, although details and ticket information haven’t yet been posted on the club’s website, although that’s expected soon. More to come.

Editorial: City Planning’s latest mess

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September 15, 2009

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When, oh when, will Dean Macris finally go away?

EDITORIAL The San Francisco city planning director, John Rahaim, has kept a fairly low profile since taking over the troubled department in 2008. But some serious problems are starting to fester on his watch — and if he and the planning commissioners don’t clean up the mess, the supervisors need to step in.

Rahaim remains somewhat in the shadow of the former director, Dean Macris, who is responsible for some of the worst San Francisco development problems of the past three decades. And the Macris influence is still very heavy in the department. But Rahaim needs to step out and show that things are going to change. For starters, he should:

•Scrap the plan to privatize environmental review. As Rebecca Bowe reports on page 15, the department is looking at bringing in outside consultants to help clear up the backlog in the Major Environmental Analysis division of the Planning Department. It’s a horrible idea — the environmental consulting firms that do this work make most of their money from developers, and that’s where their loyalties will always lie. The city planning staff is by no means perfect, but at least the unionized MEA staffers have some ability to demand that builders follow the rules and that environmental impact reports are relatively honest. The whole idea comes (not surprisingly) from the big developers, particularly Lennar Corp. at Hunters Point and the consortium looking to redevelop Treasure Island; they’re worried about the short-staffed Planning Department’s slow pace of project review. But we don’t see those developers helping raise new revenue for the city — money that could allow planning to hire more staff.

Newsom can’t rewrite history, but he can sell his soul

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September 15, 2009

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By Steven T. Jones
379-cover.web.jpg
On the day that former President Bill Clinton endorsed Gavin Newsom’s campaign for governor, it’s hard to believe the local blog post that Newsom is about to call it quits, and sources I consulted dispute key tenets of the anonymously sourced article. Yet there’s still plenty of reason to believe that Newsom’s quest is doomed.

While Newsom’s sleazy affair with Ruby Rippey-Tourk was already bound to hurt his candidacy, it is how he handled it afterward that really makes Newsom look untrustworthy and immoral. I attended the 2007 press conference where Newsom blithely admitted “everything you may have heard or read is true” regarding the affair, only to recently tell the New York Times Magazine and Fast Company just the opposite, that there was “a story that has yet to come out” in which Newsom looks good.

This is seriously delusional stuff, the product of a deeply megalomaniacal mind, as if he actually sees himself as a victim for banging his top aide’s wife. It’s reminiscent of his wife Jennifer Siebel’s disturbing quote in the Chronicle that was followed by her crazy extended comment to SFist blaming Ruby for the affair and excusing Newsom’s behavior on the grounds that she supposedly showed up drunk at his door, an odd “date rape as defense” strategy.

I and other journalists have long hounded Newsom to address issues raised by the affair, and he’s always refused to discuss it. Yet now, as he worries about the impact of this affair on his ambitions, suddenly there’s an “untold story.” Newsom is already held in very low esteem even by his former supporters, but if he and his top political henchman, Garry South, continue to try to rewrite this sordid history by dragging the Tourks through the mud again, our mayor might find himself a top candidate for San Francisco’s All-Time Hall of Shame.

Gavin, if you still have a soul, now’s probably a good time to search it and decide if you really want to trade it in for your longshot pursuit of power.

Dick Meister: The union makes us strong

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September 15, 2009

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It’s for very good reason that San Francisco has long been considered a premier “labor town.”

By Dick Meister

(Dick Meister, former San Francisco Chronicle labor editor and labor reporter for KQED-TV’s “Newsroom, ” has covered labor issues for a half-century as an author. reporter, editor and commentator.)

The 75th anniversary of the San Francisco general strike this year should remind us of the key role that organized labor has played in the city’s economic and political life, through good times and bad – often despite fierce opposition, sometimes despite the reluctance of unions to adjust to changing circumstances.

Local labor history is full of dramatic events. But none have been more dramatic than the general strike that brought the city to a standstill for four days in July of 1934 during a time of economic troubles even greater than we’re facing today. People in just about every occupation walked off the job in support of longshoremen who had struck on their own to demand an end to their truly rotten working conditions.

‘We Did Porn’: Zak Smith gets sticky

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September 15, 2009

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By D. Scot Miller

WE DID PORN: MEMOIRS AND DRAWINGS
(Tin House Books)
by Zak Smith

I admit it. I was fully expecting to hate Zak Smith‘s book about his alt-porn experiences. Yes I was. Trendoid motherfucker gonna tell me about porno? What’s this artsty-fartsy, probably spoiled, uber-talented white boy artist got to say to me about fucking somebody?

Turns out, quite a bit.

I have to say that after the first chapter of this engrossing tome, Zak Smith had changed my life forever. He made me overcome my fear and predjudice of hipsters – something that Miranda July and Dave Eggers could not do – and listen to his tale of making alt-porn and living gonzo in alt-porn world. Not the best writer in the world, Smith makes up for his Hunter Thompson parroting with honesty and constant lucidity.

Zak at work as “Zak Sabbath,” alt-porn star

“The most hideous thing about pornography,” he says early on, “is that it works. On you.”

Snap Sounds: Mos Def

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September 15, 2009

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By D. Scot Miller

MOS DEF

The Ecstatic

(Downtown)

After 2006’s somewhat tepid though promising True Magic (Geffen), Mos drops the best hip-hop album of 2009 thus far. Named after Victor Lavalle’s novel, with cover art from Charles Burnett’s Killer Of Sheep, this is a gem that I just can’t stop playing — especially "Priority" and "No Hay Nada Mas"

Mos Def, “Quiet Dog” Live

Appetite: Root beer floats, grilled moist melts, shrimp creole, and more

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September 15, 2009

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Every week, Virginia Miller of personalized itinerary service and monthly food, drink, and travel newsletter, www.theperfectspotsf.com, shares foodie news, events, and deals. View the last installment here.

DEALS
Just for You’s new happy hour and New Orleans inspired bites
Despite this past weekend’s thunderstorms, our Summer is still in its early stages – Just for You Cafe commemorates an SF Indian Summer (and their nostalgia for New Orleans, which I acutely share) with new menu items and Wednesday through Friday happy hour specials. There’s $4.50 Root Beer Floats made with Nawlins’ own Abita Root Beer and our Mitchell’s Ice Cream. And it wouldn’t be an ode to the South without Red Beans and Rice ($4.50, $2 to add Louisiana hot sausage), Hush Puppies ($4) or a Creole Sampler ($6) of red beans and rice, jambalaya, and shrimp creole. Heineken and Miller beers are $2 and there’s Chicken Empanadas ($2.25) or Crispy Chicken Tacos ($2.95) for a veer off the New Orleans’ path.
Wednesdays-Fridays, 4:30-6:30pm
732 22nd Street
415-647-3033
www.justforyoucafe.com/specials

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NEW OPENING
Fish & Farm launches American Box
Gourmet lunches from top notch chefs continue to proliferate downtown, with Fish & Farm now in the mix, launching American Box. Executive chef, Chad Newton, created a menu that, similar to the flagship restaurant, is farm-fresh, local, sustainable. Eat from changing menu items, like a "Chop" Salad ($9) with Molinari salami, a Double Taco Box ($7), or a Grilled Moist Melt Box ($8, a rye, cheddar, pickle, caramelized onion sandwich), to go or in Fish & Farm’s dining room. Save room for cookies or brownies for dessert.
Monday-Friday, 10:30am-1:30pm
Cash only
339 Taylor Street
415-474-3474
www.americanboxlunch.com

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EVENTS
Test your blind wine tasting skills at Press Club all month
So the Governator himself has dubbed September California Wine Month (isn’t every month?) No matter… I like the sound of Press Club‘s Blind Tasting throughout the month – to test or improve your tasting skills, as the case may be. In Press Club’s roomy underground environs, $17 will get you pours of three wines, each selected from some of Nor Cal’s best wineries. If you’re feeling comfortable, submit your guesses as to each wine in the blind tasting and be entered to win a $50 private tasting for two.
20 Yerba Buena Lane
415-744-5000
www.pressclubsf.com

Street Threads: Look of the Day

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September 15, 2009

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SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today’s Look: Liz, University of San Francisco

Tell us about your look: “My fashion inspiration is Chloe Sevigny.”

Jim Carroll’s Go-Go’s Nico coke joke

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September 14, 2009

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By Marke B.

Poet and punk hero Jim Carroll, (August 1, 1950 – September 11, 2009)

From Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain’s Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (Penguin, 1996):

Jim Carroll: I was at the Mabuhay Gardens, which was like the CBGB’s of San Francisco, and I was trying to hit on one of the Go-Go’s. I had this really good coke, so I’m doling out some lines in the manager’s office, and we’re doing some and then all of a sudden Nico comes in.

She sees the coke and says, “Is that cocaine?” Then she says, “Oh, you are Szhim Carroll. I read about you. You are so skinny, I am so fat.”

She was really large and she looked pretty bad. I said, “You sounded great. Here, have some coke.”

She was really thankful. She said, “Oh, this is very good coke.”

I said, “Thanks. Coming from you that’s a real compliment.” Hahaha.

Sexy celluloid: Good Vibrations Independent Erotic Film Festival artists speak!

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September 14, 2009

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By Louis Peitzman

Festivities for the fourth annual Good Vibrations Independent Erotic Film Festival (aka IXFF) are now underway — but the main event is a film screening Thurs/17 at the Castro. What follows is the first installment in a series of interviews with filmmakers from the fest.

Filmmaker: Petra Joy
Film: Hardback

San Francisco Bay Guardian: What was the inspiration for your film?
Petra Joy: I wanted to show the power play between this real life couple. Even though she is usually more dominant and he is the (hunky) submissive, their sexuality is fluid and flows freely. The resprect each other and it turns them on to pleasure each other in body, mind and soul.I also wanted to break the big taboo of women penetrating men and celebrate the prostate as a highly erogenous zone.

SFBG: What did you hope to accomplish with it?
PJ: I wanted to show that s/m sex does not have to be extreme and role patterns not cast in stone. Just becasue he licks her feet does not mean that she will not enjoy to be penetrated by him. I hope to inspire women and men to experiment more and make their fantasies come true – far away from all the definitions of gender roles and classifications of sexuality they are often hemmed in by.

Update on effort to close Potrero power plant

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September 14, 2009

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By Rebecca Bowe

The California Independent System Operator (ISO), a quasi-governmental body that oversees the state’s electric grid, held a hearing about San Francisco’s Mirant Potrero Power Plant on Friday to decide whether the polluting facility should be required to stay in operation through next year.

The hearing came about a month after City Attorney Dennis Herrera struck a deal with Mirant to shutter the entire plant by the end of 2010. That agreement will only stick if the ISO is willing to release the plant from a Reliability Must Run (RMR) contract, which has kept it in operation for decades despite opposition from San Francisco elected officials.

In short, the ISO indicated that it would be willing to release Unit 3 — which represents the lion’s share of the power plant’s emissions — from the RMR contract by spring of 2010, but it still hasn’t budged on the smaller, diesel-fired units known as 4, 5, and 6.

We received this detailed update from Joshua Arce, executive director of the Brightline Defense Project, who attended the hearing.

I would summarize by saying that environmental and community groups saw movement from ISO, but we think they can do better.

I’ll miss the defenestration building

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September 14, 2009

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By Tim Redmond

I’m not about to start a campaign here; I know the place is falling apart and a hazard to everyone and ought to be turned into affordable housing, so there’s no rational reason to protest the Redevelopment Agency’s plan to bulldoze the old Hugo Hotel.

But I have to say: I’m going to miss the place.

It just sat there for so long, a weird piece of street art, an abandoned building with furniture flowing out of the windows and hanging on the walls defying gravity and progress. Every time I’d pass by, I’d say: God, I love this fucking city.

It was just art for art’s sake, no money in it, no sign describing the vision of the artist, no discussion of what it means or meant … just old stuff miraculously bolted to the old crumbling walls of an an old crumbling building. I always wondered what would fall down first and what the green couch would look like after it hit the sidewalk.

It was never meant to be permanent. And now it will be gone. That’s appropriate, in a sad kind of way.

But every time something truly strange goes away, San Francisco loses a bit of itself. I hope we don’t forget this one; maybe Redevelopment can find the cash to hire a photographer to document the place, and put great big color pictures of it up in the lobby of the new, clean, sterile project that takes its place, just to remind us that things were different here, once.

Live Shots: Power to the Peaceful 9/12/09

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September 14, 2009

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Text and photos by Ariel Soto

The air was thick with friendship and love as about 70,000 people went into tree pose to say a united prayer for peace in Speedway Meadows this Saturday for the 11th annual Power to the Peaceful concert. The day long concert has been the pride and joy of Michael Franti for the past decade, whose own music strives to motivate and cultivate love and peace between all us human beings.

This year the special guests included Alanis Morissette, Cherine Anderson, and Sly and Robbie along with inspirational speakers such as former Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney and Tibetan monk Namkha Rinpoche who hinted at the possibility of the Dalai Lama coming to next year’s Power to the Peaceful.