George Powell, longtime Examiner and Chronicle employee, sent me the following critique of the obituaries of Charlton Heston. Personally, my favorite Heston portrayal was of the honest Mexican detective, as directed by Orson Welles in “Touch of Evil.” I also liked the idea of the two working together and Heston’s touching explanation of what he and Welles were trying to do dramatically in this most interesting Welles film.
By George Powell
By Justin Juul
Like perhaps everyone in the world for the past two years, I can’t stop watching certain YouTube clips. And blogging about them. There’s the Danzig vs. Shakira mideo, the Mike Tyson montage, The Mini-Mall Rapper Guy , Trapped in The Closet (duh), and now there’s Ashkon, a Bay Area rapper whose latest song/video “Hot Tubbin’”, was released to YouTube on March 24.
It unexpectedly got placed on the site’s front page the very next day, propelling the relatively unknown artist into the weird world of Interstardom. The Guardian caught up with Ashkon recently (by calling the phone number he forgot to edit out of the final cut for Hot Tubbin’) to see how it feels to be Internet-famous.
SFBG: Hello, is this Ashkon?
Ashkon: Yeah man. It’s me. Who’s this?
SFBG: It’s Justin Juul from The SF Bay Guardian. I just wanted to find out if the rumors were true, that the number you show in your Hot Tubbin’ video really connects to you.
Ashkon: Ha! Yeah. It’s me. Definitely.
SFBG: That’s pretty brave dude. Has your life changed at all since your video hit the front page on YouTube?
Ashkon:Ha ha. Yeah it has. Now I get thousands of phone calls a week from random people like you.
SFBG: Have you gotten any weird ones?
Ashkon: Oh hell yeah. I had this one stalker, some guy, who was calling me like every day. That was kind of creepy. Also, a lot of people have taken it as an opportunity to just call up and mess with me, as you could probably imagine.
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Tonight, I’m off to see Roy Andersson‘s You, the Living and then Frank Black‘s live accompaniment to 1920’s The Golem. Three years ago at SFIFF, I saw Frank Borzage’s 1927 Street Angel with a live score by the American Music Club, and it was one of the great movie nights of my life. I hope this one comes close.
Word has it that Roy Andersson’s You, the Living blows — in the best possible sense
The Golem will soon be hit with a wave of Frank Black’s sonic mutilation
Ariel Soto, our video photojournalist about town, checks out the amazing Destination Baking Company in Glen Park:
By Justin Juul
Broke Ass Stuart is a travel writer, an SF cult hero, and one of the luckiest sunzabitches you will ever meet. Not only does he get paid to travel the world and write, but he also gets to do it as himself. Most travel writers have to water their stories down for those crappy airplane magazines or they just write thousands of fact-of-the-matter-reviews designed for hurried tourists. But not Stuart. He doesn’t have to do any of that shit.
His first book, Broke Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in San Francisco, which he originally published himself as a zine, helped him carve a niche as a new voice in an industry overpopulated by impersonal clones. Since releasing his first book, Stuart has gone on to write a second SF edition and he recently spent ten months in New York doing research for his newest book, Broke Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in New York City. Sounds like a dream come true doesn’t it? Well, apparently travel writing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. After four years of writing Broke Ass Stuart books and doing odd jobs for Lonely Planet, Stuart’s life is in shambles. He’s homeless, disoriented, and still broke-as-fuck.
The Guardian caught up with Stuart recently to remind him that his job is awesome and that other financially challenged writers (ahem) would kill to be in his position.
SFBG: So what’s up with your New York book? Did you make tons of money off it?
Stuart: No dude. Let me tell you, writing books is not the way to wealth and fame. I blew through my New York advance pretty quick and wound up waiting tables the whole time I was there. The book’s not coming out till November so I won’t be getting any royalties for a long time. I can’t even think about that money, really. I mean, I’ve been waiting tables for nine years.
SFBG: Shit. Yeah. So have I actually.
Stuart: It’s like a fuckin’ bad habit. It’s such a weird subculture, you know? Like people in the restaurant fucking each other, tons of drugs. And then you get out at night and you’re all revved up from dealing with assholes all night…
SFBG: So you take all your tips and go blow it another bar.
Stuart: Exactly. It’s definitely, uh, special.
THE INTERCHANGEABLE HEARTS
Lost
(Zeitgeist)
By Todd Lavoie
Losing oneself isn’t necessarily something to shy away from; in the case of the debut EP from San Francisco trio Interchangeable Hearts, such an outcome should probably be welcomed. Fronted by the coolly unhurried vocals of Lina Hancock, the three-piece arrives well-versed in matching stark atmospherics with melancholic ruminations on matters of love, at times recalling Midnight Movies at their most minimal or Sub Pop-era Saint Etienne at their most somber.
“Now That I’m Gone” is a captivating opening statement, starting off with a ghostly slink of haunted-house organ and sumptuously detached vocals before spinning itself into hi-hat- and bubble-bass-driven disco release, with Hancock achieving a curious blend of resignation and euphoria in her dancefloor declaration, “All the stars in the sky and the light in my eyes/it makes me fall apart.” Fluid bass lines and weightless organ whirrs also largely inform the engrossingly floatable handclap-funk of “March,” and the elegant balladry of “Be Mine” glides along with a tearful melody and stately piano worthy of Burt Bacharach – think Ivy without the French-accented vocals.
“Maze” offers the Interchangeable Hearts at their most spooked-out, thanks to the billowing puffs of organ which keep the song hovering somewhere in the ether. Top marks, however, go to “On My Knees,” a coy tempo-shifter buoyed by Hancock’s taunting chorus of “look me in the eyes and make me remember you.”
San Franciscans don’t easily let go of good or noble ideas, which is why we’ve long supported the impeachment of war criminals George W. Bush and Dick Cheney – and long been frustrated at the stubborn refusal of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to do anything to hold this administration responsible for its treasonous misdeeds.
It’s been more than three years since I and the Guardian laid out our strong “Case for Impeachment,” and more than a year since Brad Newsham and hundreds of his local cohorts launched the simple but effective Beach Impeach project, the fifth installment of which takes place at 10 a.m. this Saturday at Ocean Beach.
But whether we’re penning thoughtful articles, marching in the streets, collectively aligning our bodies to spell the word “IMPEACH!” or starting political campaigns, the message is the same: we are sickened by the possibility that Bush and Cheney will finish their terms and head off into retirement without ever being held accountable for illegally and deceitfully leading us into an immoral and unjustifiable war, among their many abuses of power.
And that frustration has now fallen hard on Pelosi. I don’t realistically share the hopes of the Shirley Golub for Congress campaign that they might defeat Pelosi in the June primary election, but I’m sure she’ll pick up lots of protest votes. Same thing this November when high-profile anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan takes her independent run at Pelosi.
Let’s face it, this Democrat-led Congress has been a big disappointment. And it’s not because, as they’re fundraising pleas would have you believe, that their majority isn’t large enough (although that might help a bit). It’s because Pelosi and company are too afraid or too invested in the system to really challenge the powerful on behalf of the people.
But at least we can send our signal to the world while kicking it on the beach and pray they understand that we’re not all complicit in this dying empire’s crimes.
They say money talks. So what does Lennar’s latest campaign expenditures tell you?
One day after our latest article about Lennar’s plans to takeover the Bayview came out, the developer’s most recent campaign filings show that between March 18 and April 19, Lennar Homes spent another million dollars to influence the Battle for the Bayview.
To date, this an out-of-state developer has spent a total of $2.23 million to defeat Prop. F (which requires that 50 percent of Lennar’s proposed 10,000 new units of housing be truly affordable to people living in the Bayview)supporting instead an initiative that would allow it to build at least 75 percent of these new units as luxury condos.
Indian Jewelry – fun people toting Free Gold. I talked to member Tex Kerschen about all manner of things the other week; the Houston, Texas, ensemble makes some noise tonight at the Hemlock Tavern.
SFBG: What are you up to right now?
Tex Kerschen: Free gold. Putting everything on the line. I’m just kididing – I’m being glib. Yeah, I guess in terms of what we’re literally about to do – we’re literally driving from the country to the city, moving things. We spent the past year in Houston, in a house, and when we’re really busy we hole up in the country.
SFBG: Got a lot of jewels to move?
TK: Bracelets and necklaces and baubles – a couple year’s worth of stuff. Got bits and pieces of musical gear that I neglected to pick up before. We just have a diehard postivitist attitude.
Today’s Ammianoliner:
Anne Marie Conroy becomes rock star. “I’m neither grateful nor dead, she says.”
(From the home telephone answering machine of Sup.Tom Ammiano on Thursday April 24, 2008.) B3
By Bruce B. Brugmann
More on the kind of media news the mainstream media conglomerates censor as a matter of policy: news involving the conglomerates and how they seek major concessions from the government:
This morning, the Senate Commerce unanimously approved a “resolution of disapproval” as the first major step toward an official congressional “veto” of the Federal Communication’s new rules that gut media limits.
Here’s the call to action from the freepress action fund, a national non partisan organization working to reform the media.
Big Senate Win Today: Let’s Stop Murdoch
Photo by Peter Grigsby, Office of Governor Schwarzenegger.
After meeting with Sen. Carole Migden and other elected officials and activists concerned about the health implications of plans for aerial spraying designed to eradicate the crop-threatening light brown apple moth, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today delayed the spraying pending additional testing.
“I am very gratified that the Governor listened to my concerns about the safety and efficacy of aerial spraying and agreed to postpone the spray until additional tests are completed,” Migden said in a prepared statement.
After a series of toxicology tests on the spray, which includes a moth pheromone designed to disrupt mating patterns, the spraying has been delayed until at least Aug. 17. Despite the delay, the governor still seems to indicate that the spraying is inevitable, saying in a prepared statement, “I am confident that the additional tests will reassure Californians that we are taking the safest, most progressive approach to ridding our state of this very real threat to our agriculture, environment and economy.”
Others in the Migden delegate included Sen. Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento — and the likely next Senate president), Marin County Supervisor Judy Arnold, the Sierra Club’s Bill Magavern and Paul Schramski, State Director of Pesticide Watch.
But it is Migden that could enjoy the biggest political bump from the delay of the controversial spraying until after her June primary challenge from Mark Leno, hoping that her campaign finance and other problems might be overshadowed by the reminder that she still has the juice to get into the Governor’s Office and deliver the goods.
By Jeffrey M. Anderson
This year, it’s Asia Argento‘s festival, and we’re all just invited. I’ve heard through the grapevine that Asia will not be in attendance at the 51st San Francisco International Film Festival, but her diva-ness will exude throughout. She’s in no less than three festival films this year, a feat I can’t remember ever having been duplicated (if you were quick enough, a fourth one, Boarding Gate, recently opened and closed in San Francisco).
Asia Argento picnics in The Last Mistress
Asia has always struck me as an unholy fusion of Uma Thurman and Rachel Weisz, but far more daring and alluring. In her father Dario Argento‘s Mother of Tears, she looks unbearably sexy striding through the streets of Rome in a black raincoat. A raincoat! She’s not so much an actress as she is a force of nature; she explodes rather than performs. None of her films can be categorized as trifling, bland or boring, and she sets the bar for guts at this year’s festival. Among the rest of this year’s films one can find elements of psychotronic cinema: dangerous marginal ideas like time-travel, ghosts, murder, martial arts, gore and sex. This is no shoe-gazing, hand-wringing fest. We’ve got some of the strangest films since Harmony Korine’s Gummo turned up in 1998.
Events kick off tonight with Catherine Breillat’s The Last Mistress — starring Asia — and the big opening night party. I’ll talk more about the film tomorrow. After that, I’ll do my best to prowl around the festival front lines, and report back on what I see. I’ll be here every day, unless I somehow fry my retinal nerves in the meantime…
Five random early picks: Bela Tarr’s The Man from London, Peter Chan’s The Warlords, Jia Zhang-ke’s Still Life, Alexander Sokurov’s Alexandra and Craig Baldwin’s Mock Up on Mu.
Tonight seems to be the time to check out that storefront marked Fecal Face Dot Gallery – you know, right where Go-Ugh tears into Market, near the delish Brazilian meats playzone, Espetus Churrascaria. Tonight, “Kottie Paloma and the Daily Strangers,” the space’s first solo show, opens from 6 to 9 p.m. The Guardian rhapsodized former Low Gallery honcho and Fecal Face impessario John Trippe way back when (and we dug the art-opening photos he’d contribute to the paper), so get out and support his latest project. He e-mails:
“Featuring over 250 5-by-7-foot graphite portraits that San Francisco artist Kottie Paloma produced over the last 2 years (each titled A Daily Stranger), the work forms a survey of the strangers in Kottie’s life.
“The Daily Strangers series is based on the idea of seeing the same person on a daily basis without ever getting to know that person. They are just a face in one’s life. An interesting individual kept at a safe distance. To get to know these particular strangers could possibly ruin whatever fantasy one has made up in their head about these people.
By Dina Maccabee
The rumors are true: a band member has confirmed that if you buy Chow Nasty‘s new album Super (Electrical) Recordings (Omega/Redeye) at an independent record store, you can get into their show at the Uptown in Oakland on April 25 for free, if you bring a receipt. Granted, that might be an easy sell to folks who already dig the Bay Area band’s guerilla party tactics but just haven’t gotten around to picking up their own personal copy of Super (Electrical) Recordings. Isn’t it more likely, though, that you’d be lured into buying a CD after taking in a kick-ass set and enough beer to soften the impact of forking over 15 bucks?
No matter, the thing to celebrate here isn’t free admission to the Uptown – it’s that these guys managed to translate even a fraction of the lunacy of their live show to a recording. Chow Nasty is the party-est band I’ve ever seen, crafting a militantly bizarre beat-fest out of stage rituals paying homage to James Brown and the Beastie Boys.
On tape, the combination of inanely indelicate rhymes (like MC Pep Love’s contribution, “I’m a give it to you / it’s a party in your mouth / and I’m coming through,” a slightly zany approach to hip-hop conventions, and a kind of studied boneheadedness result amid a fantastic funk frenzy reminiscent of Beck’s Prince-loving album Midnight Vultures (DGC, 1999). For this tour the drum-machine-vocals-bass trio includes a sidekick on trombone and guiro who reportedly refuses to perform in anything but a sleeveless velour track suit. Hell, yes – or should I say, “Ungawa!”
CHOW NASTY
With Trackademics, HotTub, and DJ Eddie Bauer
Fri/25, 9 p.m., $8
The Uptown
1928 Telegraph, Oakland
(510) 451-8100
THURS/24
The Last Mistress (Catherine Breillat, France/Italy, 2007) Catherine Breillat steps back from one of her bluntest provocations — 2006’s Anatomy of Hell — to deliver this barbed, intelligent adaptation of Jules-Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly’s 1851 novel. Asia Argento is heroic as the titular courtesan, a seething, powerful woman working outside bourgeoisie bounds. On the eve of his marriage to a suitably chaste maiden, the entitled, Mick Jagger-lipped Ryno de Marigny (Fu’ad Aït Aattou) narrates his decade-long affair with the magnetic mistress to his fiancées grandmother (she’s rapt). Locked into place by an attraction at once destructive and indestructible, they’re not star-crossed lovers so much as fatal accomplices. An intriguing cocktail of classical framing and modern malaise, The Last Mistress is Breillat’s best work in years — not least of all because of her clear affection for the material. (Max Goldberg)
7 p.m. Castro
FRI/25
Alexandra (Alexander Sokurov, Russia, 2007) Alexandra’s seventy-something title figure (Galina Vishnevskaya) takes the laborious journey to Chechnya, where the grandson (Vasily Shevtsov) she hasn’t seen in seven years is stationed at a large army base. This latest by Russian master Sokurov isn’t exactly narrative-driven — Alexandra wanders about the vast compound and war-torn nearby town, trying to re-instill a little humanity between weary, wary occupiers and occupied — but it’s one of his least abstract, most emotionally direct works. In her first film role (and a non-singing one), veteran opera singer Vishnevskaya etches a character whose long-suffering indomitableness is Mother Courage as Mother Russia. (Dennis Harvey)
7 p.m., Kabuki. Also Sun/27, noon, Kabuki; May 4, 4:15 p.m., PFA
Black Belt (Shunichi Nagasaki, Japan, 2007) Hai karate! Ably armed with authentic martial arts aces in lead roles and a stripped and ripped discipline that allows for only one or two evil cackles from warlord villains, auteur Nagasaki transforms his masterful piece of genre filmmaking into a brink-of-WWII parable about the uses of power and the wisdom of passive resistance. The year is 1932 and an imperialist Japan has just invaded Manchuria. The next takeover: a peaceful Kyushu karate dojo where the students — arrogant and aggressive Taikan (Tatsuya Naka), dutiful and gentle Giryu (Akihito Yagi), and peacemaker Choei (Yuji Suzuki) — are not quite ready to go quietly into the armed forces. Black Belt trounces typical CG kung fu: the fact that the actors are karate masters gives the film a texture of authenticity unseen since the days of Bruce Lee, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan, lending weight to thoughts and deeds. (Kimberly Chun)
8:45 p.m., Kabuki. Also Sun/27, 1:30 p.m., Kabuki; Tues/29, 1:30 p.m., Kabuki
Brick Lane (Sarah Gavron, England, 2007) Adapted from Monica Ali’s novel, Brick Lane — which takes it’s name from a London street on which many immigrants reside — is a clichéd, romantic, finding-one’s-home story. After her mother commits suicide, Nazneen (Tannishtha Chatterjee) is forced to leave Bangladesh in order to marry Chanu (Satish Kaushik), who lives in London, England. There, she submits herself to the unexciting life of pre-arranged marriage until she meets Karim (Christopher Simpson), who sweeps her off her feet. One of the most aggravating things about the film is that Nazneen finds the power to take charge of her life through her affair with Karim. Apparently her daughter’s constant plea for Nazneen to start verbalizing her will was of secondary importance. (Maria Komodore)
7:15 p.m., Kabuki
“The Golem with Black Francis” (Paul Wegener and Carl Boese, Germany, 1920) An original score composed and played live by the Pixies’ leader is a mighty enticement, but even without it, this classic 1920 German silent would be worth seeing in a promised beautiful archival print. Drawn from medieval Jewish folklore, it tells of a rabbi’s creation of a clay man to protect the ethnic ghetto from a Christian emperor’s heavy hand. Co-directed by Wegener, one of the masters of cinematic German expressionism (who also plays the Golem), it’s an impressive, strikingly designed mix of horror, history and political commentary. (Harvey)
9:30 p.m., Castro
Today’s Ammianoliner:
Joe Nation comes out! Against crime and change. zzzzzzzzzzz
(From the home telephone answering machine of Sup. Tom Ammiano on Wednesday, April 23, 2008) B3
By Bruce B. Brugmann
I liked the jaunty conclusion to Maureen Dowd’s column summing up the Pennsylvania election in the Wednesday, April 23 New York Times:
“Before they devour themselves once more, perhaps the Democrats will take a cue from Dr. Seuss’s ‘Marvin K. Mooney Will You Please Go Now.’ (The writer once mischievously redid it for his friend Art Buchwald as ‘Richard M. Nixon Will You Please Go Now!’ They could sing:
“”The time has come. The time has come. The time is now. Just go…I don’t care how. You can go by foot. You can go by cow. Hillary R. Clinton, will you please go now! You can go on skates. You can go on skis…You can go in an old blue shoe.
“‘Just go, go, GO!'” B3
Here’s a press release on an unusual coupling of musical legends as put together by Lee Houskeeper, press agent and worthy keeper of the flame for rock and roll music from the l960s and beyond:
Ramblin Jack Elliott And Country Joe McDonald
An Evening of Song, Stories, Wit, Wisdom and Much More . . .
Living Legends Share Stage for the
First Time in Berkeley April 25 & 26th
WHERE: Cafe de la Paz 1600 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, CA
WHEN: Friday & Saturday, April 25 & 26th -7:30 PM
TICKETS: $40 in advance (100 seats per night) Cafe de la Paz (510) 843-0662
http:///www.cafedelapaz.net
I first met Country Joe on stage at Woodstock a few years after he recorded a Woody Guthrie tribute LP in Nashville. In 1976 I met Ramblin Jack Elliott at my buddy Phil Ochs memorial in New York. Jack had introduced Dylan to Woody and has performed Guthrie songs his whole career. When I caught Jack at the Noe Valley Ministry earlier this year I was amazed that he and Joe had never met and got them together for this historic union Friday and Saturday in Berkeley.
This one time only get together will be a rare and historic treat for the lucky 100 per performance. There has been no advertising and I would be forever in your debt if you would let folks know about the show. The following is a
Two of Music’s Living Legends
and long time evangelical Woody Guthrie devotees Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Country Joe McDonald recently broke bread together for the first time at Cafe de la Paz
…and something special happened. Jack picked up a guitar and started playing Woody Guthrie’s Ladies Auxiliary and Country Joe, who has been performing his critically acclaimed tribute to Woody: This land is Your Land (premiered at Cafe de la Paz, dropped his jaw when Ramblin Jack sang some long forgotten stanzas to the popular old Union ballad. After hours of swapping lies, stories and lessons on text messaging, the two decided to do an intimate one-time only show right in Cafe de la Paz’s intimate (100 seat) Fiesta Room.
Lee Houskeeper
Managing Editor
San Francisco Stories
(415) 777-4700
newsservice@aol.com
You might remember local political cog Annemarie Conroy from such films as The Career Hack and How to Get Inexplicably Bigger Job Titles in San Francisco Without Real Credentials. After disappearing for a while, she’s back. Joe Russoniello, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, just announced that Conroy is his new “law enforcement coordinator.”
Her primary responsibilities will be to “maximize the use of federal resources to meet crime abatement objectives,” be a “chief liaison to local law enforcement officials” and direct the district’s “Project Safe Neighborhood and Weed and Seed programs.” Despite the confusing title, that last program there involves taking on drug activity and gangs with the feds, which she’s no doubt suited to do.
Some of you might recall the trajectory of Conroy’s career. Dan Noyes at ABC 7 pointed out in 2005 that when Newsom appointed her to head San Francisco’s Office of Emergency Services, she had no experience in disaster management, but she did have political connections, just like Michael Brown, head of FEMA when Katrina struck. A retired Navy admiral who held the job before Conroy went public and declared that Newsom should remove her for being ill-prepared, and behind the scenes, the fire department wasn’t happy about her post either. She finally resigned in January of 2007.
By Ariel Soto
The EcoCenter at Heron’s Head Park groundbreaking ceremony was held yesterday, April 22, in San Francisco’s Bayview/Hunters Point. The EcoCenter will be the first LEED-certified building in the southern part of the city and first building to run completely off the grid. Heron’s Head Park was opened in 1999 to provide an open and natural space for the communities nearby, and since then more than 1,200 volunteers have helped restore the area by removing invasive plants and trash and replacing them with native plants. With the continuous support and effort of the Port of San Francisco and Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ), the EcoCenter will finally open, giving students the opportunity to learn in hands-on programs about issues such as clean air and water, renewable energy, healthy foods and open space restoration. (To get involved in the Heron’s Head Park project, contact Laurie Schoeman at: lcprojectmanager@lejyouth.org) Here’s some pics from the event.
The entrance to Heron’s Head Park with the old PG&E plant in the background that’s in the process of being demolished.
Goats are used in Heron’s Head Park as a natural method of weed control.
Volunteers gather at Heron’s Head Park before the beginning of the groundbreaking ceremony.
A Scrophularia californica, or Bee Plant, is just one example of the many native California plants that will be re-introduced into Heron’s Head Park.
Beautiful Heron’s Head Park.
Milton Reynolds, a member of Literacy for Environmental Justice, started the day’s events at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new EcoCenter at Heron’s Head Park.
No foolin’: Traditional Fools at the Eagle. All photos by Jen Snyder.
By Jen Snyder
Remember when you were never held accountable for anything – save for your room being clean? Man, I do.
I’ve got to say, the Oh Sees, Traditional Fools, and Master Slash Slave show at the Eagle Tavern this past Thursday, April 17, dredged up feelings of nostalgia for me. I don’t know if it’s the comfy charm of the most relaxed gay bar ever, or if because past Bay Area indie gods dotted the crowd, as members of Coachwhips and Erase Errata buzzed around, but there was a carefree feeling about the show. If you like reminiscing about your childhood, I can only suggest listening to at least one of these local bands the next time you find yourself hunting for tunes.
Remember how much of a bummer it was when you had to go to school for eight hours every day, starting at 8 a.m.? That was insane – especially if you went to an extremely ill-equipped public high school with no money to upgrade computers straight out of the Oregon Trail days. The Traditional Fools reminds me of the days you feigned sickness, stayed home, and watched Wayne’s World three times in a row.
Man Man, oh, man.
Man, there’s too much to do – you can blame it on Coachella for luring so many interesting acts westward.
MAN MAN
Beards, stuffed animals, and the sound of Philadelphia – this is what Man Man shows are made of. Man Man’s new album, Rabbit Habits (Anti-), has also been touched by facial hair. Count on much instrument passing, a palpable sense of humor, and fever dreams revolving round cheesetofu sandwiches. With Yeasayer. Wed/23, 9 p.m., $16. Great American Music Hall, 859 O’Farrell, SF. (415) 885-0750.
RACONTEURS
A pretty fun rockin’ time was had by all at the supergroup’s last show at the Warfield. Consolers of the Lonely sound like the combo are up to their mad, sad old tricks. With Birds of Avalon. Wed/23, 8 p.m., sold out. Bimbo’s 365 Club, 1025 Columbus, SF. (415) 474-0365.
HER SPACE HOLIDAY
San Mateo rising! Suburban savant Marc Bianchi is back from holiday with a new album to come on Mush Records – and his first children’s book, The Telescope, which was released in Japan. With Lymbyc System and Head Like a Kite. Thurs/24, 9 p.m., $12. Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., SF. (415) 621-4455.
Michael Kang of the String Cheese Incident is in at the Digital Be-In.
The sun may have set on Earth Day, but that doesn’t mean the musically oriented eco-celebrations can’t continue. Here are a few more events:
DIGITAL BE-IN 16: ECOCITY
An Ecocity theme and speakers, exhbiits, installations, an eco-fashion show – and live music by Michael Kang (String Cheese Incident), Waterjuice (Vaporvent), Lumin with Irina Mikhailova, Yossi Fine (Ex-centric Sound System), Diana Rosa, and MC Yogi, and DJs Rhythmystic (Rhythm Society), Alex Theory (Mystic Vibration), Irina Mikhailova (Cyberset), Neptune (Beat Church), Dov (Cyberset, Muti Music), Goz (Cyberset), Omer (Harbin), Timonkey (Muti Music), and David Shamanik (Rhythm Society). Fri/25, 7 p.m.- 4 a.m., $20-$25. Temple, 540 Howard, SF. (415) 750-0971.
CARNAVAL SAN FRANCISCO’S ECO-GREEN FESTIVAL
Zona Verde is the theme of this green fete – which organizers are claiming as the largest outdoor green event in the city. Tribal DJs will be force along with sacred healing ceremonies, art installations, and natural home and alternative energy vendors. May 24-25. time to be announced. Harrison and Treat at 17th St., SF.
HARMONY FESTIVAL
Alongside eco-awareness booths and holistic health product peddlers are performances by Angelique Kidjo, Paula Cole, Mickey Hart Band with Steve Kimock and George Porter, George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic, Arrested Development, Jackie Greene, Charlie Musselwhite, Mike Stern Band with Victor Wooten and Friends, the Devil Makes Three, and the Amazing Techno-Tribal Community Dance. June 6, 2-10 p.m.; June 7, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.; June 8, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. with after-hours shows from 10 p.m.-2 a.m.; $25-$139. Sonoma County Fairgrounds, 1350 Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa.
