SFBG Blogs

The Bay’s Grass Widow sounds out mesmerizing shapes

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By Michael Harkin

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Grass Widow‘s harmonious post-punk tension is fostered below SF street level, in a former meat locker containing, among other things, a very charming quilt with the band’s name patched into it. In anticipation of an impending record release — the band plays Thursday at ATA — I met there with bass player Hannah Lew and drummer Lillian Maring (guitarist and trumpet player Raven Mahon was overseas), who, although living far apart — Maring is on the East Coast at present — were clearly very happy to be together.

"It’s not like there are any dispensable characters," explains Lew. After the dissolution of Shitstorm, Lew’s former band with Mahon, the two started playing together in 2007 with Maring, who was in the city for the summer from Washington state. Though Maring went back up north for a bit, she says she quickly returned and the trio "got really serious" — serious enough to tour the U.S. the following summer after cranking out a wonderful demo CD-R/ cassette that makes up most of their upcoming self-titled 12-inch on the local Make a Mess label.

The Blender: What we’ve been eating

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By the edacious Guardian staff

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Mmm .. matzoh brie

(1) Pit-roasted whole pig in banana leaves, Santa Cruz Mountains

(2) Matzoh brei and brisket

(3) Fries with eyes, Anchor and Hope, SF

(4) Two towers of stacked donuts while watching Twin Peaks

(5) Pagan Sunday dinner with steak, celery root mashed potatoes, strawberry mousse

Street Threads: Look of the Day

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

Today’s Look: SF Slim, 16th Street and Sanchez

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Tell us about your look: “”Lo rez.”

Bonus recipe: Gary Danko’s chicken stew

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In the latest edition of FEAST, our guide to dining and drinking in the Bay, we asked three local chefs to create recipes using part of a chicken and a few simple, affordable ingredients. Below is a bonus recipe from Gary Danko.

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Chef Gary Danko gives Guardian readers more ideas for affordable, delicious home dining.

Spiced Chicken-Chickpea Stew

Serves 8
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 teaspoon cracked black peppercorns
5 whole cloves
1-inch piece cinnamon stick
2 small yellow onions, finely diced
4 pounds chicken thighs, trim excess fat
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2-3 teaspoon kosher salt or to taste
2 cups boxed or canned chopped tomatoes
1 to 3 cups water or just to cover
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads, finely ground (optional, but delicious)
1 teaspoon toasted cumin
1/2 teaspoon Garam Masala (see recipe below)
2 15-ounce cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup chopped cilantro, mint and scallions

In a thick bottomed soup pot, heat the olive oil. Stir in the pepper, cloves, and cinnamon stick, cooking until the spices start to sizzle. Stir in the onion and coat with oil mixture, cooking for five minutes or so. Place chicken in pot and cook until each side is opaque and slightly golden brown, stirring the onions so that they do not burn. (You want a slight caramelization.) Stir in the turmeric, cayenne pepper, tomatoes, water, saffron, cumin and the Garam Masala.

Rev. Billy runs for mayor of NYC

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By Steven T. Jones

Billy Talen was an activist and performance artist living in San Francisco in the early ‘90s when he became Reverend Billy, the charismatic founder and pastor of the Church of Stop Shopping. “We were always looking for ways to highlight the politics of our time,” Talen said. “One of the ideas we had was to appropriate the right-wing icon.”

Talen, his alter ego, and his flock have evolved over the years: moving to New York City in 1996 to preach the evils of rampant consumerism from the streets of Times Square, transformed by 9/11 into something like a real church, attending Burning Man in 2003 and developing an important relationship with that community, performing around the world, making the excellent film “What Would Jesus Buy?”, and this year renaming themselves the Church of Life After Shopping to better capture the redemptive nature of their calling.

But last month, Rev. Billy took an even larger leap of faith, announcing his Green Party candidacy for mayor of New York City. He will run against Mayor Michael Bloomberg the man, but also Michael Bloomberg the Wall Street made billionaire, as potent a symbol of the capitalism ethos and excesses as any in the country.

The Guardian caught up with Talen yesterday at his campaign office in SoHo (a neighborhood where he also lived until being driven to Brooklyn by rapidly rising rents) for a long conversation about a campaign that seems to highlight the most pressing issues of these turbulent times. We’ll post excerpts from that interview, and regularly check in with the unfolding campaign, periodically between now and November.

In other words…to be continued.

Behind the Democratic Party lunch picket

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Chris Daly amid the picketers. Photo: Luke Thomas, Fog City Journal
By Rebecca Bowe

Imagine it’s a sweltering day, and you’re on a crowded sidewalk in a dark suit surrounded by about 200 tough, angry men who are booing you in unison, clamoring for your resignation, and yelling inches away from your face as you pass by. Do you try to dodge the swarm and duck into the building you’re headed to? Not if you’re Supervisor Chris Daly.

This afternoon, when Daly showed up downtown for the San Francisco Democratic Party Unity Luncheon at the Sir Francis Drake Hotel, a crowd of building-trades union members greeted him with shouts and jeers. With cameramen shadowing his every move, Daly paraded up and down the line, seeming almost as if he enjoyed soaking in all the negative attention, getting into heated exchanges with some of the protesters and shaking hands with others. At one point, when the tradesmen started chanting, “What do we want? Jobs! When do we want them? Now!” Daly simply joined in with the chorus, punching his fist into the air for emphasis. Once people caught on, they stopped chanting and booed him all over again.

According to San Francisco Building and Construction Trade Council head Michael Theriault, the protest was over proposed changes to the city’s planning code that would strengthen historic preservation standards, which he said he feared would “freeze the entire city as a historic preservation district” and put a drain on already-scarce construction jobs. Much anger was directed toward the Historic Preservation Commission, a city body created by Prop J — a ballot measure authored by San Francisco Democratic Party chair and former Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin, placed on the ballot by an 11-0 vote of the supervisors, and approved by nearly 60 percent of the voters last November.

But the underlying issue was the Board of Supervisors’ 6-5 vote on April 14 that rejected Larry Mazzola Jr. as board director of the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. Mazzola, who helps run the plumbers’ union, was the San Francisco Labor Council’s choice for the seat, but his appointment was blocked by the board’s six progressive members, who were more inclined to go with Dave Snyder — a transportation expert who was deemed more qualified. “The majority of the Board of Supervisors has taken up a war against labor, and they disrespect labor. It’s all about us losing our jobs and our health coverage,” Mazzola told the Guardian just before he turned and started chanting, “Daly, resign!” about three inches away from Daly’s face.
But in an interview for a Guardian story that will hit stands tomorrow, Daly said, “at the same time the plumbers were attacking me, I was sponsoring paid sick days. It’s the six members of the board that are the most pro-labor who voted against Larry Mazzola.”

The “tax day” defense

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This surveillance photograph of the suspected bank robber is posted at the SFPD’s website.

The San Francisco Police Department has issued a description of a bank robbery suspect who threatened to blow up the Bank of America at 50 California Street, on April 15, aka tax day, if his demands weren’t met.

Carrying a black lap top case, the suspect, who is described as “a white male, 6’, 190 lbs., last seen wearing a
baseball cap with “SF” on it, a khaki buttoned shirt, and blue jeans,” allegedly “entered the
Bank of America on California Street, at approximately 12:50 P.M, and asked an employee to speak with the manager because he wanted to make a large withdrawal,” according to a SFPD press release.

The manager took him to a room, where the suspect allegedly “explained that he worked for an organization that is concerned about government bailouts of corporations.”

The suspect, who apparently was smiling throughout, then demanded cash, stating, that unless the manager complied, he would “detonate a bomb that he was carrying with him.”

The cash, the suspect explained, “would go to people who deserve it,” according to the SFPD.

The manager withdrew a large amount of cash from a vault and gave it to the suspect, who fled the bank on foot.

For more information–or if you have information for the police, call the SFPD’s Public Affairs Office at 415.553.1651.

Sonic Reducer Overage: Vivian Girls, Ghost, Spinal Tap, How to Destroy the Universe, and more

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Take the wheel: Vivian Girls’ “Tell the World.”

How to destroy a weekend – or, for that matter, a weeknight? Sticky, sweaty, and sill up for fun – SF knows how it’s done. Telling ya, there’s so much more to see and hear than we could fit into print.

Dry Spells
Folk rock gets another angelic kick upstairs when the Bay Area band gets onstage. With Pillow Queens and Vultures. Wed/22, 9 p.m., $6. Hemlock Tavern, 1131 Polk, SF. (415) 923-0923.

The Pets
The Oaktown garage-rock threesome preps for its European journey. With International Espionage and Master Volume. Wed/22, 9 p.m., $5. Kimo’s, 1351 Polk, SF. (415) 885-4535.

Don’t blame it on Onek

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Text by Sarah Phelan

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David Onek is a San Francisco Police Commissioner and founding executive director of the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice.

When the Board voted to support due process for all youth, a few weeks ago, the ever irascible h. brown went off on one of his infamous rants, this time targeting the SFPD in general and San Francisco Police Commissioner David Onek, in particular.

“Isn’t there a police commissioner named David Onek who created a half million dollar program to milk this cow, then resigned from the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice so that his firm could grab a third of it?” brown ranted. “Write about Onek. Too hot a potato?”

I don’t normally reply to Brown’s comments, but this time they got my attention because I recently unearthed communications in a public records request related to an investigation into the city’s criminal justice department that show that Brown’s claims—namely that Onek created a MOCJ grant program and benefited financially from it—are not only false, but also resemble unsourced claims in a August 2008 Chronicle article.

As such, these claims deserve to be addressed, even if some pieces of this particular MOCJ puzzle are still missing.

So, I went back, reviewed the MOCJ records again, and tried to piece together what really happened—for the sake of brown, Onek and anyone else involved in this saga, which appears to have been driven by anti-immigrant hate mongers, has harmed countless immigrant families, and lead to the Board’s support of due process for all.

SFSU MFA art show: New visions and decay

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By Danica Li

Any long-suffering graduate student will tell you that assembling a thesis out of thin air is something that requires a lot of time, a lot of love, and just a pinch of lunacy. The Department of Art at San Francisco State University (SFSU) is graduating artists from its three-year MFA program this month, and work by eight of them will be on display at the university studio through May 13. The contributions run the gamut: there are photography pieces, sculptures, paintings, samples of performance art, and installations.

Tom Griscom, Beale Street, 2008, 8 inches by 36 inches, digital pigment print
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Rosie Sesler, Penis of the Quomerticus fere, mixed media, 6″ by 4″ by 4″
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Clare Szydlowski, Untitled, gum biochromate, 28 inches by 70 inches
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Seriously? The exhibition is nothing if not a prime chance for the keen-eyed art fanatic to come and rub his hands over bottled fallopian tubes and black and white photos of urban corrosion. Some highlights include Clare Szydlowski’s “The Obvious Unseen: Landscapes of Efficiency and Decay,” Tom Griscom’s landscape photography, and Rosie Sesler’s sculptures, which in the past have taken on the form of exotic, self-created animal species alien to this world and the next.

Snap Sounds: Telepathe

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By Brandon Bussolini

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Telepathe
Dance Mother
(IAMSOUND)

This debut album by a pair of self-styled producers finds Telepathe at a turning point some bands only reach several albums into a career: ditching trad-rock instruments for synths and sequencers, and turning an eager ear to mainstream pop for cues. A recent profile of the Brooklyn duo of Melissa Livaudis and Busy Gangnes (formerly of First Nation and Wikkid, respectively) portrays the band coming into their own by teaching themselves Logic, a software production program. Dance Mother fleshes out the bedroom MIDI sketches with typically precise production from TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek. It also plays up the retro-tinged futurism: indie rock’s an insular enough realm for a Mannie Fresh influence to be novel.

Dance Mother’s opening salvo of “So Fine” and “Chrome’s On It” crutches on indie’s high tolerance for mumbled lyrics. The melodies are potent stuff, though, and the songs’ productions, which might not have taken more than an hour to throw together, stand in contrast to the vogue for wet, overworked psych in the band’s home borough. There’s some unevenness to those two compositions, which are the album’s most accessible — it’s hard to decide if we should be frustrated or charmed by the way “Chrome’s On It” smooshes lovely, indistinct verses into a daffy breakdown. (Livaudis sings, with a kind of suburban carriage, “I can feel the real bang bang, I can do the real thing thing.”)

Telepathe, “So Fine”

By track three, Telepathe’s trying out both the Velvet Underground’s “Murder Mystery” sing-speak and the heavy romantic deconstruction of the Kim Gordon-led Sonic Youth Evol track “Shadow of a Doubt.” By track six, Livaudis and Gangnes are making a serious bid to be your new favorite band with the heart-tugging swoon “Can’t Stand It,” which marries the chiming samples of Seefeel and waifish contemporary doo-wop. It’s so measured that you take your emotional cues from the repeating floor tom-and-cymbal motif. This is one to put on the shelf next to Merriweather Post Pavilion for achievements without guitars.

More vids after the jump:

Hot sex events this week: April 22-28

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Compiled by Molly Freedenberg

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Charles Gatewood has been documenting the underground sex and fetish scene for decades. Check out his retrospective slideshow at The Citadel on Thursday.

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>> “Give Her a Hand” Sexual Massage Course
Get all the skills you need to turn your hands into amazing sex toys, including advanced fingering, labia play, combining vaginal, clitoral, and anal stimulation, adding toys, and more.

Wed/22, 8pm, $25-30
Good Vibrations
603 Valencia, SF
www.goodvibes.com

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>> Charles Gatewood: A retrospective slideshow
In his slide lecture, Gatewood – known for documenting America’s sexual underground in the mid-60s, will show photos from every phase of his career, including work from Sidetripping, Forbidden Photographs, Primitives, True Blood, and Photography for Perverts.

Thu/23, 7-9:30, $30
SF Citadel
1277 Mission, SF
(415) 626-1746
www.sfcitadel.org

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>> Hypnosex Workshop
Learn to eliminate sexual inhibitions and shame, enhance your pleasure, and go beyond full-body orgasms at this two-day play-and-personal-transformation workshop. Bring a friend or lover and you’ll each get $100 off.

Sat/25, 9am-Sun/26, 6pm, $397-497
Secret, intimate location in the Bay Area
www.hypnosex.eventbrite.com

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>> Diamond Daggers Femme Follies
Burlesque! Brains! Brawn! It’s the official Bay Area book release party for Femmes of Power: Exploding Queer Femininities, and it’s sure to be a blast, thanks to performances by Simone de la Getto, Vixen Noir, Twilight Vixen Revue, and more..

Sat//25, 9pm, $12-20
Fat City
314 11th St., SF
www.diamonddaggers.com

Freakin’ with Dan Deacon

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By Michelle Broder Van Dyke

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I first saw Dan Deacon perform at Oberlin College’s venue the ’Sco, a den of nascent creativity that eventually brought me to a city sometimes referred to by the same three-letter abbreviation. Deacon was there, balding and bearded, his glasses taped to his head, his muffin-top iced by a bright pink T. He set up his mad scientist’s table of electronics in the audience’s usual domain. Different colored cords sprang out in every direction and there were multiple mics for his one-man show. Lit by a neon green skull, Deacon began stretching, then implored the audience to stretch. They did.

Not only did we all stretch with Deacon, we danced with Deacon. For a generation that has been taught that to move is to be judged — or whatever excuse keeps scenesters so static — such an act is similar to the miracle of the Virgin Mary getting pregos. Deacon’s inhibition-less philosophy was infectious: not only were the undergrads dancing, they were willing to participate in a high-five conga line and compete in a dance-off.

Dan Deacon, “Crystal Cat”

Although the complexities of Deacon’s music become clearer when heard on an iPod, the experience verges on seizure-inducing. Live, the same music becomes hypnotic. Like his earlier work, Deacon’s newest album Bromst (Carpark) is as much a singular composition as a collection of tracks, which should make it exhilarating to encounter. In concert, he has arranged for it to be played by a 15-piece ensemble. Now that he’s decidedly bigger — in band, popularity, and girth — it’s hard to predict how the intimacy and audience participation aspects of his performance will be affected. But it is sure to be a blast. And a bromst. (Deacon said he made up the word for his album title because it doesn’t have a meaning and he likes the way it sounds.)

DAN DEACON With Future Islands and Teeth Mountain. Thurs/23, 9 p.m., $13. Great American Music Hall. 859 O’Farrell, SF. (415) 885-0750, www.gamh.com

Street Threads: Look of the Day

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

Today’s Look: Rollin, 18th Street and Castro

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Tell us about your look: “I got this jacket in Hong Kong.”

Editorial: Slow down the Sunset solar project

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Why is the Obama administration giving tax breaks for private projects that aren’t available to cities?

EDITORIAL
The concept is so good it’s hard to imagine why anyone would criticize it: the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission wants to cover the Sunset Reservoir with solar panels, creating the largest municipal solar generating project in the country. The money would come from existing SFPUC revenue — no new taxpayer dollars. The Sierra Club loves the idea, and Mayor Gavin Newsom is pushing it.

We agree that the reservoir is a perfect place for a solar project, and that the city ought to be pursuing this.
But the structure of the deal makes us uncomfortable — and the financing shows a serious flaw in how federal money for renewable energy is allocated.

POA agrees to $17 million cut over two fiscal years

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Mayor Gavin Newsom has announced that the city’s labor contract with the San Francisco Police Officers’ Association (SFPOA) has been amended and will net the City nearly $17 million in savings over the next two fiscal years.

“These officers, whose own jobs are not in jeopardy, are reaching out to save the jobs of other city employees,” Newsom said in a press release. “We appreciate their public spirit and leadership.”

“It was the right thing to do,” said SFPOA President Gary Delagnes.

The amendment reduces police contract expenses by 5 percent over fiscal years 2009-10 and 2010-11, by deferring 2 percent in wage increases, reducing night shift differential payments, and suspending a sick leave cash-out program.

The agreement will be extended one year beyond its original term, to June 30, 2012, with a final-year wage increase based on a survey of local police agency pay rates, the statement said.

Appetite: Hot tamales, banana cookies, $1 martinis, and more

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By Virginia Miller

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Hot Tamales on Sun/26. See “Events” below

As long-time San Francisco resident and writer, I’m passionate about this city and obsessed with exploring its best food-and-drink spots, events and news, in every neighborhood and cuisine type. I have my own personalized itinerary service and monthly food/drink/travel newsletter, The Perfect Spot, and am thrilled to share up-to-the minute news with you from the endless goings-on in our fair city. View the previous installment of Appetite here.

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NEW OPENINGS

Anthony’s Cookies satisfies your cookie craving all day long
On the same Mission block as Suriya Thai (R.I.P.), is a new cookie kitchen that can help assuage the loss of my favorite Thai. Anthony (who has spent over 10 years perfecting his craft) and his staff give a friendly welcome as they bake, for now offering a half dozen cookies for $5, or $9.25 a dozen, eventually selling them individually. On the blessedly smaller side, they’re warm and about as homemade tasting as they smell. There’s toffee chip, banana (like banana bread in cookie form), cinnamon sugar, whole-wheat oatmeal cranberry, gooey chocolate chip, and maybe my favorite? Cookies and cream. Tastes like home.
1417 Valencia, SF
415-655-9834
www.anthonyscookies.com

Moussy’s brings French cooking classes, movies and Petit Dejeuner to Nob Hill/Polk Gulch
Downstairs from Alliance Francaise, there’s a new stop pre or post AF’s French language classes and film screenings: Moussy’s, an intimate, candlelit cafe for a morning croissant and cappuccino, or lunch time respite, serving salads, baked brie, and pot pies. They’ll soon be offering French cooking classes and film nights, too, ensuring that foodies, expats, bohemian artists, poets and aspiring cooks have a true Parisian cafe hangout.
1345 Bush, SF.
415-441-1802
www.moussys.com

Distractions: Seth Rogen, age 13

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By Molly Freedenberg

I’m not a huge Seth Rogen fan. He’s charming enough, I guess, and I always have a soft spot for Jewish actors who aren’t conventionally attractive (Jason Schwartzman and Woody Allen, I’m talking to you). But since I am neither a 17-year-old boy nor a stoner, Rogen’s comedies simply don’t do much for me; hence, neither does he.

However, I’ve developed a new affection for him after stumbling across a video of him performing stand-up as a teenager on one of my favorite time suck sites, www.idontlikeyouinthatway.com. In the video, he’s surprisingly confident and funny for his age. Plus, he’s taking shots at Judaism — a sure way to warm this semi-Semite’s heart.

I’m still not going to see Observe and Report, or probably ever finish more than 20 minutes of Knocked Up. But when he gets a little older and starts doing more comedian-turned-serious-actor stints (a la Jim Carrey in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), I might actually buy a ticket to see him rather than watching his film for free via www.sidereel.com. Nice job, 13-year-old Seth. You’ve (almost) caught yourself a nice (almost) Jewish girl. At least, as a possible fan.

Cab drivers rally against privatization

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By Tim Redmond

One of the tricky ways Mayor Gavin Newsom is going to try to pretend to balance the city budget is by selling off taxi medallions, the permits needed to operate a cab in the city. And the drivers, with the help of Sup. Eric Mar, are organizing to fight back.

Mar, the Asian Law Caucus, the United Taxi Workers and others will hold a demonstration tomorrow, Tuesday May 21, on the steps of City Hall to denounce the plan. This is going to be an epic battle — the mayor sees the permits as a source of tens of millions of dollars, and drivers and their advocates say a public resource is being put on the auction block — and that ordinary drivers will get screwed.

I’m glad to see that Mar is taking this on — cab-industry politics is complicated and often rough, and the anti-privatization folks in the cab industry need an ally at City Hall.

San Franciscans say ‘hell no’ to new offshore oil leases

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By Rebecca Bowe

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Photo by Christopher Chin / COARE

U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar was welcomed to San Francisco last Thursday by a host of activists dressed as marine creatures, including a few diehards in head-to-toe polar bear costumes who were probably becoming endangered species themselves by standing out in the sun. At a public hearing called to solicit comments about a federal plan for new offshore-oil development, environmentalists and elected officials demanded that the new interior secretary reject new leases for oil drilling off the California coast.

Sen. Barbara Boxer called new offshore oil drilling “an environmental and economic disaster for California” and called for investment in green alternatives instead. Her statements were echoed by a host of congressional representatives, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, and speakers from organizations such as the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and others.

The five-year leasing program was a parting gift from the Bush administration. Salazar put it on hold so that he could hear from stakeholders in coastal regions. He’s also shifted the focus from oil and gas exploration to possibilities for developing offshore renewable energy including wind, wave, and tidal power. But he noted that oil and gas development would remain on the table.

Look for the full story in the Guardian on Wednesday. In the meantime, the proposed plan can be found here. The Department of the Interior will accept public comments until September 21.

BART (finally) opens a meeting

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By Tim Redmond

In the wake of a storm of criticism, here and elsewhere, the BART Board’s police oversight committee has finally started holding open, publicly noticed meetings.

At the first meeting, this morning in Oakland, “they tried to take credit for the public notice, but I reminded them that the only reason they issued a notice is that we’d already emailed it out,” Quintin Mecke, communications director for Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, told me.

So now it’s on the record: Every monday morning, 10 a.m., at BART’s headquarters at 300 Lakeside, Oakland. Feel free to show up and ask why it’s taken 17 years for the board to even begin talking about police oversight.

Daly and the Democrats

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Daly, Longo

By Tim Redmond

The race between Chris Daly and August Longo for regional director of the California Democratic Party has gotten a blog lot of blog press — far more attention than this low-lvel internal party stuff garners. Frankly, most people have no idea what a regional director does, or why it ought to matter to them.

But there’s a lot more going on here than what the cynics see as Daly looking for a new job when he’s termed out of office. (By the way, this isn’t exactly a job — the regional directors aren’t paid. It’s a volunteer position. And other than the chance to move up in state party leadership, it’s not a job that carries a lot of power or influence. Honestly — how many of you even knew that Longo was the ten-year incumbent?)

At the last state convention, there were signs everywhere that the Howard Dean wing of the party, the young, tech-savvy activists who were coalescing around Barack Obama, was getting restive. You saw it at the Resolutions Committee, where a handful of party-reform measures popped up, and were nadily shot down by state party Chair Art Torres. You saw it when Hillary Clinton was booed over Iraq. The Old Guard kept control, but you got a sense that the energy was all on the other side.

And now that Obama’s in the White House, that reformer energy will be even more visible in Sacramento this weekend. The Daly-Longo race won’t by itself change the party, but it will be a signal about its future direction.

Snap Sounds: Two San Franciscos

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By Marke B.

Two recent releases, both based on the Bay by Bay favorites. The first, “Young San Francisco” by SF’s Boy in Static, aka Alexander Chen and Kenji Ross, from their new album, Candy Cigarette (Fake Four Inc & Circle Into Square) is way too cute — check out their new “East Bay to Back Bay” XLR8R podcast mix for a great listen to some more new, slightly twee West Coast indie pop (loving “To the Sea” by Portland’s Mint Julep).

Boy in Static, “Young San Francisco”

The second recent track focusing on the Bay is by SF hip-hop stalwart Kero One, “Welcome to the Bay,” off his sophomore disc, Early Believers (Plug Label). I really wanted to like this one more — I’ve been a fan for a while, and Kero’s def got the chops, working with everyone from Talib Kweli to Mark Farina — but it seemed a tad too polished for me, despite the nice groove. Still, it’s a breezy listen for a steamy day. From what I’ve heard of Early Believers it’ll be a perfect summer BBQ collection.

Kero One, “Welcome to the Bay”

Something both of these songs have in common is a young Asian American perspective on the homebase. Kero’s is especially poignant, talking about why his parents came here at a time when “words like ‘chink’ were teachable.” Really feeling the latitude of historical perceptions coming forth in two distinct tunes.

View the previous Snap Sounds here.

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