SFBG Blogs

Hail Bale

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Zomg, the new Terminator Salvation trailer is out today. We’ve all listened to star Christian Bale’s awesomely vitriolic rant, and we’ve all seen The Dark Knight (some of us more than once, apparently, since the movie’s box-office haul was somewhere in the bajillions). Hell, if you’re like me, you’re already looking forward to the summertime release of Public Enemies — Michael Mann’s Depression-era gangster drama starring Bale as a G-Man out to nab Johnny Depp’s John Dillinger. No trailer for that flick yet (it’s out July 1), but Bale’s got plenty more, in a diverse career that includes everything from his debut in 1987’s Empire of the Sun to 1998’s Velvet Goldmine; 2000’s American Psycho; 2005’s The New World; and 2007’s Rescue Dawn and I’m Not There.

But there’s a Bale movie that often gets overlooked — and no, I don’t mean 1993’s Swing Kids or even 1992’s Newsies. I’m talking post-apocalyptic despair, shaggy facial hair, fire-dodging reflexes, and the ability to act opposite a ridiculously over-the-top Matthew McConaughey while keeping a straight face. Yep: it’s 2002’s Reign of Fire, y’all.

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: Michael, 24th St. and Diamond

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Tell us about your look: “My wife dresses me. She has a great eye and she even made me this hat.”

Editorial: Fisher’s Folly threatens the Presidio

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The commercialization of the Presidio stands as a legacy of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Back in 1994 Pelosi bowed to Republican demands and decided to take the new park away from the people who run every other national park in America and turn it over to a developer-run Presidio Trust. The result: the wildy inappropriate Fisher Museum.

EDITORIAL

The latest proposal for developing the Main Post at the Presidio national park shows exactly what’s wrong with the privatized, developer-driven planning that has plagued the 1,400-acre jewel since Rep. Nancy Pelosi took control of it away from the National Park System.

The centerpiece of the new plan, released last week, is the same old monument to the greed and ego of Gap Inc. founder Don Fisher still gets his art museum, a three-building, 200,000-square-foot development that has no place at the Presidio. Oh, it’s not quite as ugly and intrusive the original design: most of the main gallery will be underground, and the roof will be green. How lovely.

The pain of Newsom’s immigrant policies

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EDITOR’S NOTE: THIS STORY CONTAINS TWO CORRECTIONS.

By Deia de Brito

When a coalition of 30 immigrant rights organizations held a town hall meeting at Horace Mann Elementary School last week, Mayor Newsom skipped the session and sent an aide. That’s too bad-the testimony was chilling and the mayor might have learned something about the tragic consequences of his policies.

The San Francisco Immigrant Rights Defense Committee has been mobilizing since Newsom announced last July that the city would contact federal immigration authorities whenever youth suspected of being undocumented were arrested on felony charges. The key word is “arrested” – young people in this city are taken into custody and charged on thin or false evidence all the time. So an innocent person whose charges are later dropped could still face deportation.

Among those present were City Assessor Phil Ting, representatives of the San Francisco Police Department, the Immigrant Rights Commission, the Office of Civic Engagement and Immigrant Affairs, the San Francisco Unified School District, and supervisors David Chiu, David Campos, Eric Mar, and John Avalos.

“The biggest problem was that the mayor didn’t attend,” said SFIRDC organizer and Asian Law Caucus attorney Angela Chan. “There’s been no discussion about a policy that has had such a huge impact on the immigrant community.”

And there’s no doubt, based on what we heard that day, that the impact is indeed huge – and disturbing.

“ICE came to my home and took five people, including my husband. He’s in jail and I don’t know when he’ll be home,” said a Mission District resident. Similar stories echoed across the room. Fear and uncertainty were tangible.

Ask a Porn Star: Sex with Stephen Boyer

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In which super sexy porn people answer questions – each week – from Bay Area locals. View the last installment here.
Mediated by Justin Juul

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Fielding your questions this month is local writer/porn star, Stephen Boyer. Check out some of his movies/pics here and an excerpt from his upcoming novel here. Read our 2008 interview with Boyer here.

Gerry H: Do you ever get bored in the middle of a sex scene?

Boyer: I tried to do a scene with a trans-woman once and she couldn’t get it up. Then she started to complain that she was sick. After that, she started having all of these negative body issues and eventually broke into tears. A few minutes later, she was saying she wanted to leave the porn world once and for all. I wasn’t bored, but the experience was sad and disheartening. So no, I’ve never been bored but I’ve had negative experiences.
Another experience that comes to mind happened a few years ago on set in Los Angeles. The shoot lasted four days and was a porn version of the popular TV show “Survivor.” Every day a few of the boys would get kicked off. One of the boys had just turned 18 and had recently run away from home because his parents were really conservative. He was struggling to pay rent so he got into porn. The “Survivor” thing was his first shoot and the director wanted him to bottom, but not just for anyone; the director specifically made him bottom for a guy with a 12-inch dick that was also really thick. When the boy’s scene finally came up, everyone was watching because no one believed he could take it. But he did. The kid took the dick for like four minutes and then a huge pool of blood shot out of his ass. He was kicked off the show that weekend. He was paid but he didn’t make as much as the rest of us who had “survived” the whole thing.

Daly introduces rule changes to aid struggling tenants

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By Rebecca Bowe

As the economic downturn deepens, millions in state and federal funds have been allocated to struggling homeowners who are falling behind on mortgage payments. Today, Supervisor Chris Daly will ask the Board of Supervisors to extend a life raft to another group of people who are worried about losing the roofs over their heads: tenants.

“Homeowners aren’t the only ones struggling with the financial crisis. Most San Franciscans are renters,” Daly points out. “It’s about time we do something to help tenants who are losing their homes. In this crisis, it is not appropriate for landlords to be raising rents that tenants can’t afford.”

Toward that end, Daly will introduce a “renters economic relief package” at today’s board meeting, which proposes several amendments to the city’s rent-control law. The three changes are designed to ease some of the pain for San Francisco renters, who face the pressure of rising rents even as the economy continues to slide. In 2009, the Board of Realtors projects a 7 percent rent increase for vacant units, a measure that’s looked to as a barometer for how the rental market is behaving, according to Ted Gullicksen of the San Francisco Tenants Union.

Noise Pop: A.C. Newman, Dent May banish jadedness at the Independent

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Western Add mad: A.C. Newman.

By L.C. Mason

There was no brooding or angst at the sold-out A.C. Newman and Dent May and His Magnificent Ukulele gig at the Independent Saturday night, Feb. 28.

Bathed in reds, pinks, and yellows evocative of the breezy, sun-and-sand-filled love romps his music brings to mind, Dent May and his band of jaunty, falsetto-wielding cohorts took the audience to a place far from their hardened city lives. Seamless harmonies, maraca shakes, and gentle ukulele strums dovetailed at the warm, bursting heart of the Mississippi native’s throwback sound.

Are you Loney Dear? The Swedish band takes a ride into the darkness

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LONEY DEAR
Dear John
(Polyvinyl)

By Todd Lavoie

Can a simple punctuation change make such a big difference? Serious business for the wordsmiths and grammarians of the world, but I’d reckon maybe also for Emil Svanängen, the sweet falsetto behind the Loney Dear moniker. Up until recently, the Swedish vocalist had been known for two things in particular: sunshine-kissed happy-pop and a clunky ol’ comma dropped thud-like in the middle of his alias.

Alas, Loney, Dear is no more – having bid b-bye to that pesky punctuation mark, he also seems to have reined in the giddiness quite a bit, as documented on his latest, Dear John. Intended as “the final piece in a five-album puzzle,” the disc offers considerably more melancholia than before, along with a cleaner, more intimate production.

Save public-access TV!

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By Tim Redmond

Sup. Ross Mirkarimi has introduced a measure that might help save public-access TV, in San Francisco and elsewhere. It’s not that radical – just a nonbinding resolution calling on the federal and state government to make a small amendment to legislation that currently threatens the existence of PEG – public, educational and government – programming on cable TV.

But it’s got the giant AT&T all agitated, and lobbyists are descending on City Hall to crush it.

The background is a bit complicated, but I’ll try to make it simple. In 2006, the state of California passed a very bad law called the Digital Infrastructure and Video Competition Act (DIVCA), which took away from cities and counties the ability to regulate cable-TV franchises. Now the state Public Utilities Commission – a crew of pro-industry hacks if there ever was one – has that jurisdiction.

One of the results: The city of San Francisco no longer has the ability to require that the operator of its cable franchise provide money for PEG programming. Meanwhile, an old federal law (from 1934) allows cities to mandate that cable franchises pay for capital facilities for PEG – but not for operating expenses.

And the city’s franchise agreement with Comcast is ending this year, and with it will go some $600,000 in operational funding for the city’s public-access TV. More than a dozen PEG channels in Los Angeles county have already gone dark; that could happen here as soon as June.

Mirkarimi wants the state and the feds (that is, our powerful Congressional delegation and our relatively powerful folks in Sacramento) to revisit this, and make a very modest change in law that would allow franchise money to be used not just for capital expenses but for operating budgets.

AT&T dashed off a letter to Mirkarimi Feb. 27th whining about the measure and insisting that the city should pay the PEG expenses out of its existing franchise-fee money. That money goes to the general fund; at a time when the entire social safety net in San Francisco is about to collapse, who really thinks that money will be diverted to public-access TV?

The measure comes up tomorrow at the board. Seems like a no-brainer to me. Who will the AT&T lobbyists get to?

The Rainy Day Fund — a better way?

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By Tim Redmond

I get the concerns about Sup. Chris Daly’s proposal to amend the city’s Rainy Day Fund. But in the end, there’s probably a way to make it work that’s better than a lot of unpleasant alternatives.

The Rainy Day Fund was Tom Ammiano’s gift to San Francisco, a brilliant piece of legislation that has saved the public schools and will save hundreds of jobs and critical public services this year. The bill ensures that the city sets aside some of its money in good years, so there’s something to draw on in really bad times.

And these are really bad times.

Last year, money from the Rainy Day Fund saved the school district from laying off hundreds of teachers. In the wake of the governor’s assault on public education, the local schools will need another allocation to prevent this year’s disaster.

The way the bill works, the city can take up to half the money in the fund in dire times, and the schools can get up to 25%. That means there’s no temptation to raid all the money at one time.
If we hadn’t had the fund – and there were plenty of people who didn’t think it was a good idea when Ammiano introduced it – we’d be in way worse shape now.

What Daly wants to do – with the support of city employee unions – is amend the legislation to allow the supervisors, by majority vote, to take as much of the money as they need to preserve health and human services if the city’s deficit exceeds $250 million.

Ammiano is against that; he sees it as an attack on the idea of the fund, which is supposed to ease budget problems not just in one year but for the future as well. Sup. David Campos, who I respect and trust, is also against the Daly measure. “This year is bad, but next year is going to be bad, too,” he said.

And I get that, and I get that labor wants to preserve services (and jobs) right now, because once those jobs and services go away, it’s really hard to get them back.

So let’s recognize that both sides have a point, neither side is bad or evil, there are good progressives who disagree on this – and take a look at the numbers.

Ammiano: ‘Si se puede’

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Today’s Ammianoliner:

Si se puede: Yes we Cannibus!

(From the home telephone answering machine of Assemblyman Tom Ammiano on March 2, 2009 after he introduced a bill to legalize recreational use of marijuana last week).

Eco-Boutique of the Week: Eco Citizen

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SFBG’s Juliette Tang peeps the best eco-friendly products and boutiques. Check out her most recent installment here.

Eco-friendly fashion a wonderful concept we should all get behind, but not so wonderful are the poor quality, high cost, and bad design that too often accompany the eco-friendly clothing on the market. Who wants to wear scratchy hemp cargo pants? What about a lumpy wool sweater with an embroidered peace sign? Eco Citizen fights the stereotypes associated with green clothing – that eco-friendly garments are ugly, uncomfortable, or out of touch with what’s currently in style – by offering beautiful garments with high design value that appeal on both an ecological and aesthetic level.

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: Marika, Oakland

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Tell us about your look: “My fashion philosophy is eclectic. I like to change it up from day to day, but right now i am really into yellow thrift store sweaters.”

Appetite: Txistorra burgers, ultimate bar food and a new Date Night

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By Virginia Miller

As long-time San Francisco resident and writer, I’m passionate about this city and obsessed with finding and exploring its best food-and-drink spots, deals, events and news, in every neighborhood and cuisine. I started with my own 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.

New restaurant openings

Flavors of Spain delight Noe Valley at Contigo

Noe Valley’s tastebuds awaken to the flavors of Spain as chef Brett Emerson shares his passion for and knowledge of Spanish cuisine in this week’s debut of his long-awaited Contigo. This isn’t your usual tapas joint. The gorgeous, sleek room, wood-fired oven, and charming back patio with emerging vegetable garden, set the stage for warm service reminiscent of a welcoming neighborhood hangout in Spain.

Conversing with friends over a glass of Cava, Sherry or Rioja, order fresh Anchovies straight from Spain, intriguing Oxtail Fritters, a salted Rock Cod and Orange Salad or the Txistorra Burger with manchego cheese and fried onions. If the sneak preview I attended is any indication, this will be many a local’s regular go-to for finely-crafted food that comforts as well as challenges the palate.

1320 Castro Street
415-285-0250

Pickles opens in FiDi serving gourmet burgers under a retractable roof

The closing last year of Myth, one of our better upscale restaurants, was a sad one. But Myth alum chef Matthew Kerley has resurfaced in an unexpected place: the former Pickles (the new owners kept the name) which, prior to that, was Clown Alley. I personally am happy to see creepy clown motifs and circus colors gone. The place has gone upscale, or as upscale as a burger joint can, with brown tones and wood, a fireplace and a retractable roof in the shadow of the Transamerica Building. The menu entices with bacon burgers, mini corn dogs, beer-battered onion rings, sundaes and favorites from the also-shuttered Cafe Myth menu, like deviled eggs and Brussels sprouts. I’ve heard about long lines and service issues still to be worked out, but give ’em time… gourmet burgers are the right idea for the Financial District set by day or North Beach crowd at night (Pickles will soon be open till 3am; it’s lunch only until April 1st).

42 Columbus Avenue
415-421-2540

Bar news

North Beach’s 15 Romolo re-invents itself with premium cocktails and crispy hot dogs

15 Romolo is back. The North Beach fave re-opened a few days ago, reinvented by bartenders from Coco500 and Rye. It’s in an alley, and there’s a still that speakeasy air about it, but the aqua-colored interior is gone, with a more understated look and neutral tones. $8 cocktails, like the Yellow Bicycle (St. Germain, Yellow Chartreuse) or a classic Corpse Reviver #2, are made with premium liqueurs, while there’s also a wealth of top shelf pours and gourmet beers, like local Speakeasy’s Hunters Point Porter. A kitchen is the biggest addition, with two deep fryers frying up tortilla-wrapped Crispy (hot) Dogs, Pork Sliders and Savory Funnel Cakes. Now that’s what I call the ultimate bar food.

Happy hour daily, 5-7:30pm
15 Romolo Place
415-398-1359

Events

Tre Bicchieri, Slow Food’s Italian Wine Awards, comes only to N.Y., L.A. and S.F.

Only coming to three cities – New York, L.A. and yes, S.F. — Tre Bicchieri (i.e. “three glasses”) is the Italian wine event of the year with some big names hosting. Gambero Rosso and Slow Food Nation are showcasing wine producers honored with the Tre Bicchieri award. Tickets are available through K&L Wine Merchants at $50, which includes a complimentary copy of Gambero Rosso’s “Italian Wines 2009” (a $40 value and guide to all things Italian wine). Sounds reasonable for the added bonus of being able to taste more than 100 wines at the event.

4:30-7pm
Fort Mason Center, Herbst Pavilion
415-441-3400

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Cafe Maritime’s seafood platter

Deals

Cafe Maritime impresses your date with free champagne and cream pie

Cafe Maritime is one of those underrated gems that’s been around for years but many locals still don’t know about. One reason: it’s tucked in the midst of cheap motels and chain restaurants on Lombard Street, where a few unexpected spots reside (hello, the ultimate, Zushi Puzzle ?) Maritime is one of those cozy New England seafood houses serving buttery lobster rolls, crispy fish and chips and creamy chowders. Wednesday nights are now “Date Night Special” with a free glass of champagne with dinner and a free coconut cream pie to share afterwards. On top of that, there’s a new prix-fixe every night with three courses for $33, starting with New England Seafood Chowder or a salad, moving on to your choice of four entrees, ending with dessert.

2417 Lombard Street
415-885-2530

Classes

Go whole hog with Meatpaper mag’s butchery class at UC Berkeley

The Society for Agriculture and Food Ecology starts the series, “Meet your Meat,” with “The Art of the Butcher,” a class at UC Berkeley hosted by Meatpaper magazine . The meat panel is all-star: Ryan Farr, formerly of Orson, now Ivy Elegance, A16/SPQR/Urbino’s Nate Appleman, Avedano’s Melanie Eisemann and David Budworth, Mark Pasternak of Devil’s Gulch Ranch and moderator, Marissa Guggiana of Sonoma Direct and Meatpaper. Ryan Farr demonstrates how to break down an entire carcass into cuts of meat, while the panel discusses getting whole animals from local slaughterhouses to more humanely, economically use all meat instead of buying plastic-wrapped grocery store meats.

7pm
UC Berkeley Campus, 105 North Gate Hall
Berkeley
510-536-5800

www.agrariana.org/speakers

RSVP: agrofoodecology@gmail.com

New push for Harvey Milk Day

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By Steven T. Jones
Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation by Mark Leno (then an Assembly member and now a Senator) to establish May 22 as “Harvey Milk Day,” honoring the late San Francisco supervisor’s birthday with a “day of special significance” marking his causes and encouraging schools to teach children about his life.
Tomorrow, Leno will try again with Senate Bill 572, and this time he’s appealing with Schwarzenegger’s Hollywood side by tapping Sean Penn, who just won the Best Actor Academy Award for his title role in “Milk.” Leno and Penn will appear at 11 a.m. tomorrow at Tosca Cafe (242 Columbus) and will be joined by Assembly member Tom Ammiano, Geoff Kors of Equality California, activist Cleve Jones (a character in Milk and consultant to the film), and Milk’s nephew Stuart MIlk.
Mindful of not pushing too far in tough fiscal times, Milk Day would not be an official holiday from work, but it would finally recognize a civil rights leader who was ahead of his time.
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Noise Pop: Port O’Brien, Odawas, Afternoons find safe harbor at Cafe du Nord

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Plucky: Port O’Brien at Cafe du Nord. All photos by Ariel Soto.

By Ariel Soto

Deep from within the depths of Cafe Du Nord came sounds of ships and seafarers, as Port O’Brien took the stage Friday, Feb. 27, for a concert that could have literally rocked a boat. They shared the stage with Afternoons, who got the whole house dancing, and Odawas, who told the audience “We may not be what you want… but we’re what you need.”

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Dancing daze: Afternoons.

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Psyched-ya mysticism: the Lovetones hit the spit with ‘Dimensions’

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By Danica Li

For the past decade and a half, Matthew J. Tow has had a slew of musical projects bubbling on the back burner. Aussie rock outfit Drop City, formed by Tow in 1993, is probably the band for which Tow is most widely known for fronting. A series of solo forays followed. Under the moniker Colorsound, Tow produced a half dozen albums over a decade before the psychedelic rockers of the Brian Jonestown Massacre co-opted Tow for the better part of a three-month tour.

When Tow formed the Lovetones in 2002, and released its debut, Be What You Want (Bomp!), he was immediately – and perhaps hyperbolically – hailed an apostle of David Bowie, Ray Davies, and Lennon and McCartney by bigwig media outlets like Rolling Stone. Originally described as a side project, but now presumed to be Tow’s primary occupation, the Lovetones return in style with Dimensions, a medley of hypnotic pscyh rock, byzantine instrumental detours, and ’60s-era balladry.

Please, Hearst, don’t leave us with just the Examiner

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By Steven T. Jones

This morning’s San Francisco Examiner, with its ridiculous cover story puff piece on Pacific Gas & Electric CEO Peter Darbee, offers another compelling reason why it would be disastrous if Hearst Corp. shuts down the San Francisco Chronicle.
This great city simply can”t have its sole daily newspaper, owned by a right-wing zealot from Colorado, claiming that our only hope for dealing with global warming is a business executive whose company isn’t even meeting the modest renewable portfolio goal of 20 percent and who admits to only recently being convinced that climate change is happening and expressing surprise that those who long denied it were full of shit.
It was embarrassing enough that the Examiner endorsed John McCain for president, but now we have obvious and dubious corporate flackery being presented as journalism. For all the Chronicle’s flaws and shortcomings — and there are many — they at least maintain some semblance of professional journalism standards. With the exception of some solid local stories by real journalists, the Examiner is simply a newsletter for the narrow corporatist perspective. It’s an insult to San Francisco.

wfmu ram tribute

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hi Kimberly,

Just a heads up about a breaking music news item that involves Hank IV, our side-project The ThemeWeavers and a star-studded cast.

The annual WFMU fundraiser marathon starts on Sunday, March 1st. For people who pledge at least $75 to Tom Scharpling’s “The Best Show on WFMU” program, one of the premium prizes is a various artists track-by-track cover of Paul McCartney’s classic 1971 album, Ram, featuring:

Danielson Family
Death Cab for Cutie
Dump (James McNew from Yo La Tengo)
Hank IV
Ted Leo
Aimee Mann
Portastatic (Mac from Superchunk)
The Spider Bags
ThemeWeavers LLC

plus a couple of other top-shelf acts that can’t yet be announced.

This RAM tribute will only be available for two weeks only. It won’t be sold anywhere nor will it be available anywhere after the conclusion of the WFMU Marathon.

If you want more info on this, just let me know.

best,

Tony

==

WFMU is 100% listener-supported freeform radio and a linchpin entity in American and international independent music and culture.

http://www.wfmu.org/marathon/index.shtml
http://www.wfmu.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_Show_on_WFMU
http://wfmu.org/playlists/BS

Meister: Baseball – more than a man’s game

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By Dick Meister

Another season of professional baseball is upon us, another season of a sport that’s billed as the “National Pastime,” yet bars half the population
– the female half – from the playing field.

Major and minor league teams, as well as most amateur and semi-professional clubs, have kept the game largely what it has been since its beginnings: a chewing, spitting, macho game reserved for men. Women are allowed to watch, but only rarely have they been allowed to come out of the stands and play.

Major League Baseball made it official in 1952, when teams were banned from signing major or minor league contracts with women.

Suck my manhole part 4: Porn god Buck Angel talks community and the future

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Justin Juul takes on singular porn hottie Buck Angel in part four of this exclusive SEX SF interview. See part three here.

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SFBG: How do you fit into the GLBT activist scene?
Angel: I’m not so into it. I mean, I certainly respect the GLBT community, but I’m more of an individualist. I do what I do for me. As far as a specific FTM transsexual community goes, I’m a little wary. I mean, they were nothing but critical and rude when I was first getting started. They were very disrespectful. They thought I was misrepresenting the transsexual-man community and I was like “I’m not representing any community. I represent Buck Angel!” They’ve shown a little more support recently, but my initial experience with the FTM community left a bad taste in my mouth.

SFBG: It probably wouldn’t have been so bad if you were just a regular actor right?
Angel: Exactly. But because I show sexuality, I’m suddenly cast as negative role model for transsexuals. The most frustrating part is that, like I said earlier, I don’t identify as a transsexual. I’m a man. You know, I’ve gotten so much shit from people and had so many labels thrown at me that I just can’t care anymore. I don’t care what anyone thinks about me…except maybe my wife.

Local Artist of the Week: Andrew Li

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LOCAL ARTIST Andrew Li

TITLE Untitled

BIO Andrew Li was born in San Francisco in 1965. He has been making art at Creativity Explored since 1990 and is currently a student at SF City College.

STORY Li’s loose, sketchy drawings reflect his rapid artmaking process. Cityscapes, figures, and machines are his most frequent subject matter. He typically sketches from life, incorporating what he observes in SF and during his travels into artwork with precise perspective and an attention to detail.

SHOW "Andrew Li," through March 21. Jack Fischer Gallery, 49 Geary, suite 440, SF. Call for hours. (415) 956-1178, www.jackfischergallery.com

WEB www.creativityexplored.org

Noise Pop: Memory spied – Sholi’s Paym Bavafa on Googoosh, recording, and more

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Shining through: Sholi. Photo by Peter Ellenby.

More musings from a href=”http://www.sholimusic.com/”>Sholi‘s thoughtful vocalist-guitarist Payam Bavafa. For the first part of this interview, go here. Sholi performs Saturday, Feb. 28, at Bottom of the Hill, as part of Noise Pop ’09.

SFBG: How did Sholi come together?

Payam Bavafa: We went into the studio with Greg Saunier in 2006. Then we took the record home and deconstructed the recordings and redid a lot of the recordings and recorded in a lot of different spots and apartments and various home setups. [Greg would] poke his head in every now and then to just give advice and help out on mixing. It was kind of a long labor of love.

Objects of Obsession: Featherlight

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SFBG’s Laura Peach rounds up local items and experiences to die for. See her last installment here.

A few months ago I skipped down to Mexico to escape the cold and rainy west coast winter. As I stood in the square outside Museo National de Arte, smiling as the sun warmed my face, a group of traditional Aztec dancers started to dance. As their feet stamped the stone in unison I found myself mesmerized by the vibrant feathers swaying in their fancy headdresses.

When I travel, I usually pick just one thing from each place I visit to incorporate into my wardrobe to remind me of the beautiful places I’ve been. My sentimental takeaway from Mexico was, of course, feathered. I found a wispy pair of earrings I loved from a street vendor and every time I wear them, I hear drum beats and see swirling headdresses—at lease for a moment.

Back in San Francisco, I was again allured by feathered headdresses, this time as a fun accessory. For there is something magical about having feathers in your hair (or on your head). They take off some of the weight of the world and make the possibility of flight seem real. Here are a few ways to bring featherlightness into your life.

————–

1. Head Games

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The playful colors and textured layers of this hairpiece ($68) make a strong statement. Rooster and pheasant feathers move with the breeze and every turn of your neck. “Each little feather is like a work of art in itself,” says local Circadian Studios designer Deanna Abney. “I was in awe of the spectacular colors and shapes.” All the feathers are naturally molted, then steamed and sanitized. So no stress that any unwelcome visitors will nestle in your tresses. This may just bring out the Aztec dancer in you.
Dress, 2271 Chestnut, SF. (415) 440-3737

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