SFBG Blogs

Joakim: Very tall, very French

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By Vanessa K. Carr

It’s hard to tell sometimes with the French: how much of their dry humor and peculiarity is due to their French-ness, and how much is straight up eccentricity? For French electronic music producer and Tigersushi label manager Joakim (Versatile, K7), it’s most definitely the later. Due in part to his inordinately tall, praying mantis-like frame and understated manner, Joakim’s idiosyncrasy is what makes his magic; the fact that his fantastically hypnotic live performance is also sort of awkward, for example, makes the experience all the more immediate and real.

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Joakim, 31, burst onto the notorious Paris electronic music scene nine or ten years ago by starting encyclopedia music website (and now label) Tigersushi and releasing several of his own tracks on Versatile. Since then, Joakim has released three full-length albums and a storm of 12″s and remixes. His most recent album, Monsters and Silly Songs (K7 2007), spans an impressive range of genres, from electro and hard techno to dark pop and ambient noise. You can stream the full album here.

Joakim and his Ectoplasmic Band perform live this Friday night (2/15) at Fat City, courtesy of Blasthaus, with Portland electro/disco duo Glass Candy; DJ sets by Foreign Islands, Sleazemore, and Honey Soundsystem; and visuals by the fabulous DJ Pee Play.

SFBG: What kind of music did you listen to growing up?

Joakim Bouaziz: I started to grow up very early. I was mostly listening to classical music.

SFBG: Where you classically trained as a musician?

JB: Yeah, but every time I hear that expression, it sounds really weird.

SFBG: Why is that?

JB: It sounds like I’ve been in the army or something.

Pollo Del Mar explains it all for you

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Eager-eyed writer Justin Juul continues his Guardian’s SF series “Meet Your Neighbors” by interviewing the current reigning Miss Trannyshack (and local journalist) Paul E. Pratt, aka Pollo Del Mar.

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Paul E. Pratt is an entertainment journalist who leads a double life as a crazy ass drag queen. So, when he’s not interviewing people like Spike Lee and Oliver Stone he’s getting all fierce and fabulous down at Trannyshack, where he was recently crowned Miss Trannyshack 2007. I’m not exactly sure how it happened, but I wound up spending the better part of a recent quiet Sunday drinking Pilsner and watching a drag show with Pratt at Mecca in The Castro. Here’s what he had to say.

SFBG: Hey, you don’t look like a drag queen at all. Whaddup with that?

Pratt: Well, I like to keep a fine line between who I am in drag and who I am out of it.

SFBG: Yeah, I didn’t know what to expect before I met you. I kind of thought you’d be all dolled up, ten feet tall and scary.

Pratt: Well that’s something you see more of in the Midwest, where I used to live. A lot of the drag queens out there feel sort of forced to live in drag all of the time. You’ll see a lot of transgender people, men trying to become women. The point of the community out there is different in that sense. San Francisco has another side. There’s the pageant circuit — the Imperial Court thing — that you’re seeing some of now. And then there’s the Trannyshack crowd. It’s not so serious out here. I mean, there are straight guys who perform occasionally. There are also female drag queens — we call them faux queens — and even couples like Landa Lakes and Miso Hornay. You don’t find too much of that elsewhere.

SFBG: So what you do is more just for fun then?

Pratt: It’s for fun and glamour and fabulousness.

The SF Weekly’s war of attrition

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Another fascinating day in court in the Guardian’s predatory-pricing lawsuit against the SF Weekly and its corporate owner. The Weekly is now well into its defense case, and the lawyers for the 16-paper chain that owns the paper are making the same arguments they’ve made all along. And they aren’t holding up very well.

The Guardian, as readers of this blog know by now, is claiming that the Weekly and Village Voice Media, the chain formerly known as New Times, sold ads below cost in an effort to harm the local competitor.

Today’s main witness was Jed Brunst, the company’s Phoenix-based CFO. H. Sinclair Kerr, the Weekly’s lead attorney, asked Brunst why New Times decided to buy the Weekly in 1995. “We saw San Francisco as a very vibrant market,” Brunst testified. “We saw it as an opportunity to make money and to practice good journalism.”

It was clear that Brunst was well prepared – much of his testimony seemed pre-rehearsed, which is not terribly surprising. Lawyers in a case like this typically make sure their own witnesses aren’t going to surprise them.

But Brunst got out of the box with a big problem: He said the chain saw San Francisco as a good opportunity to make money. And it became clear as the day went on that the Weekly had never made any money at all. Neither had the East Bay Express, which New Times bought in 2001. Both lost huge amounts of cash.

Climate change: yes? no? banana?

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Global warming is just one of many, many emergency environmental issues — like, the world is just plain looking trashy lately — but, hey, warming gets all the press these days. Whether or not the uptick in earthly sweatiness is caused by man (“anthropogenic”) or cosmos (solar flares?) is kind of a moot point: everyone pretty much agrees there’s some warming going on, and, to me, anything that panics consumers into using less and actually thinking about how products are made and where they come from is a good thing. Consumer consciousness needs a swift kick in the pants — let the panic continue!

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Yet it’s been awfully confusing to follow the warming debates — especially since it’s so easy in these days of selective media to just read things you agree with. Luckily, Interneteurs Douglas Campbell and Dennis Dutton (who maintains the mighty fine Arts & Letters Daily Web site) have started Climate Debate Daily, which collates recently Web-published “Calls to Action” and “Dissenting Voices” on either side of the debate (perhaps a bit simplistically). Informative!

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IndieFest: “Pop Skull”

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Any movie that kicks off with a warning to epileptics — high strobe content ahead! — is gonna attract a certain lurid interest. Adam Wingard’s Pop Skull follows a small-town drug addict (co-writer Lane Hughes) as he lurches from hallucination to barely-tolerable reality; his flash-happy mind often seems garbled from the ghosts of experimental films past. The film’s jarring sound design, in particular, owes a lot to the avant-garde. Disturbing imagery and a sense that the things we’re seeing may or (more likely) may not really be happening to our scruffy hero adds to the film’s overall sense of creepy unsettlement. I watched it on DVD in my living room and it made me jumpy — catch it tonight at the Roxie and the effect will no doubt be amplified to freakish degrees. And yeah, that’s a recommendation.

Pop Skull screens tonight, 9:30pm, at the Roxie. Visit the IndieFest web site for more info.

Five Days Homeless: The Journals

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MSC South, one of the city’s largest homeless shelters

by Amanda Witherell

DAY ONE – Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Multi-Service Center South, 525 Bryant Street

In San Francisco, you’re not supposed to just walk into a homeless shelter and get a bed, but I decide to give it a shot.

The woman behind the counter wants my “last four.” I have no idea what she’s talking about. She clarifies – of my social security number.

“I don’t think you’re going to find me in the system,” I tell her.

“You’ve never been here?” She says with surprise. She sets up an account for me, with my name, SSN, and date of birth. (Later, I discover I’ve been listed as male — something one of her co-workers kindly fixes.)

I’m told they only have beds at Ella Hill Hutch – do I know where that is? I shake my head no. She passes me off to another staffer, named W. who looks at the clock and decides he’ll “drop beds” and see if they can get me in here tonight instead. He goes through the reservations and identifies the no-shows who haven’t turned up in time for curfew at 6:30. The rule is simple: miss curfew, good-bye bed.

SPORTS: Pants on fire

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By A.J. Hayes

Host Allen Ludden and regular panelist Larry Hovis, of Hogan Heroes fame, may have passed on ages ago, but look for the Liar’s Club

to make a big return to television on Wednesday.

This time the star will be none other than ace pitcher Roger Clemens, and his audience will be members of Congress and baseball fans desperately seeking closure to the steroids era.

Like a Clemens strikeout pitch, expect the untruthfulness to come fast and furious.

Despite being sworn to tell the truth, Clemens will do anything to get around the accusations that he used performance-enhancing drugs to take his baseball career to a higher level at an age when pitchers have traditionally moved to mop-up roles.

Ammiano: Berkeley weather forecast

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Today’s Ammianoliner

Berkeley weather forecast:

Storm clouds with a marine layer.

(From the home answering machine of Sup. Tom Ammiano on Tuesday, April 12, 2008). B3

Search for shelter: Bryan Cohen’s nightly journals

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Editor’s Note: Guardian intern Bryan Cohen contributed to this week’s cover story: “Shelter Shuffle: Inside San Francisco’s confounding system of housing the homeless.” What follows is a fascinating log of his experiences:

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Mural on the southeastern wall of MSC South, one of the city’s largest shelters

By Bryan Cohen

I have a new saying for the San Francisco Human Services Agency: fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice shame on me; fool me three times . . . Oh wait, shame on you again because public service programs shouldn’t be in the business of fooling people — or making them feel shameful about being fooled.

Here’s the story – I’d just arrived in San Francisco from Boston when my car was impounded. I got a job, but came up short for a down payment on an apartment. With no back up cash, staying at a hotel would put me back even farther and I don’t know anyone on the west coast, let alone the state of California or the Bay Area.

All of this is absolutely true, except for one fortunate detail: I was able to Craigslist my way into a short-term apartment. Otherwise, this would have been much more than just an undercover investigation for a newspaper.

I took off on a chilly Saturday evening, expecting at the very least a gym floor and a blanket. Three days later I had yet to see a bed or a good nights sleep. And to add supreme insult to that injury: official city reports I reviewed later showed lots of vacancies at the very shelters that were denying me and others a place to stay.

What’s this world coming to?

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Back when I was a young girl, we didn’t have fancy things like condom paperweights. We grew our own food. We walked to school. Barefoot. Uphill both ways. And we carried our goddamned condoms in our pockets. Like normal people. Next thing you know they’re going to let women start wearing pants.

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If you’re going to spend $16.95 for one condom, I’m thinkin’ you’d better either be rich, or not expect to get laid very often.

Mixed verdict on SFPUC appointments

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Guardian reporter Sarah Phelan reports from City Hall that the Board of Supervisors has voted 8-3 (with supervisors Michela Alioto-Pier, Sean Elsbernd and Carmen Chu in dissent) to reject the reappointment of Ryan Brooks to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. But in a surprising and inexplicable move, Sup. Chris Daly flipped his vote on the reappointment of Dick Sklar, providing the swing vote in favor of the nominee of Mayor Gavin Newsom. Sklar, with lots of supporters present, was approved 7-4.
Daly’s move surprised those who have sought to reject the pair and there’s now widespread speculation on what kind of deal Daly cut with the high-profile Sklar supporters (even Sen. Ted Kennedy was making calls on Sklar’s behalf), but Daly made few credible comments to reporters. Check back here later for Sarah’s full report.

P.S. The board also failed to muster the votes to block the mayor’s three new Municipal Transportation Agency appointments. All in all, it was one of Newsom’s better days at the board since he moved into Room 200.

Show your love for 21 Grand

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Recently on display at 21 Grand: works by Kerri Lee Johnson (above) and Chela Fielding.

By Dina Maccabee

To be honest, I don’t go to 21 Grand that often. I live in San Francisco, and 21 Grand is in Oakland. Plus, I have a tardy streak, and it’s really better if you get to shows there in a timely manner, since once the music starts, it tends to have a sit-down-and-listen type of vibe – which is as it should be; performances there are unique enough to deserve an audience’s full attention.

Still, it’s important for me to know that 21 Grand endures, even if I only enjoy its spartan decor and mismatched chairs in my imagination. Considering recent Grammy hype, I take comfort in the idea that there are songs, pieces, and players that can’t be assigned to any nomination category.

Sure, I haven’t composed any graphic scores lately for coloratura and Tickle-Me Elmo. But the point is, if I wanted to, I could, and I could probably perform them at 21 Grand. Not to say that, in this case, egalitarianism begets mediocrity. The roll call truly influential underground luminaries and celebrated artists that have visited 21 Grand since it opened in 2000 is too long to list here. Some of my own favorites have included locals like Myra Melford, Ben Goldberg, Phillip Greenlief, ROVA Saxophone Quartet, and Fred Frith.

Rain on Diego’s Umbrella

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By Molly Freedenberg

I don’t what’s going on, but I’ve been hearing about break-ins happening to bands more and more over the past few months. The latest? SF darlings Diego’s Umbrella. Here’s the story, and how you can help, in their own words:

“Hello everybody, Unfortunately we had a bit of tragedy strike while we were on tour in the Northwest as our trailer was broken into and a good deal of our equipment was stolen.

The police have no leads as of yet and many times these crimes go unsolved so we are coming to terms with the reality of the situation. As we are still starving musicians this comes as a huge blow and we are trying to reach out to anybody who can help. If you have ever seen us, heard us, met us, danced with us or laughed with us, please consider the smallest donation to help keep Diego’s Umbrella playing.

They can be sent to:
Diego’s Umbrella
530 Divisadero St. 204
San Francisco, CA 94117

Anything and everything is appreciated

Thanks,
D.U.

To contact:
diegosumbrella@yahoo.com”

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DU at the Roxy in L.A. With equipment. See, bands play better that way.

Reject Dick Sklar and Ryan Brooks from the PUC

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By Bruce B. Brugmann

2/12/08

To the supervisors (by immediate fax and email):
It is high time for the supervisors to stand up to the mayor today and reject his PG&E friendly nominees for the PUC and PG&E’s latest attempt through PG&E’s Eric Jaye (PG&E is his client) to keep the PUC safe for PG&E for yet another generation. It is high time to start undoing the longtime policy: When PG&E spits, City Hall swims.

B3, who is watching the fumes from the ruinous Potrero Hill power plant from my office window at the bottom of Potrero Hill, courtesy of PG&E

Click to read editorial: Reject Sklar and Brooks

Click to read editorial: Standing up to the mayor

I’ll keep you posted on yet another chapter in the ongoing PG@E/Raker Act Scandal, which the Guardian and I consider the biggest urban scandal in U.S. history. If you doubt it, check our stories and editorials since l969.
B3

Window shopping

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By Colleen McCaffrey

The last time I attended an opening at the ATA gallery I saw an enlightening documentary by Kami Chisholm, FtF: Female to Femme, which I almost missed entirely because the gallery entrance was so obscure, furthered by a dark velvet curtain hanging between the door and the packed auditorium.

But the current exhibit, Katie Bush’s provocative pixel exhibition of genital intercourse animation “Unremarkable People Having Sex,” was much easier to spot, as it was being displayed in the right window gallery amidst red velvet drapes and boas. The display was reminiscent of a Christmas-themed striptease gone awry, but who could notice as animated images of penis, vagina and intercourse flashed across the screen?

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Newsom’s Friday Special

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Budget Analyst Harvey Rose says he couldn’t believe it when he got a call from the San Francisco Chronicle reporters on Feb. 8, asking him to comment on a draft report that Mayor Gavin Newsom had just released — five days before the Board of Supervisors was scheduled to see the report’s final, authorized version.

Rose’s draft, which Newsom did not invite the Guardian to read, reportedly slams the Mayor for taking more than $1 million a year from the budgets of several city departments, including the Human Services Agency and the Municipal Transportation Agency, and using these funds to pay the salaries of 11 staffers.

“I was absolutely appalled, because I never issued that report,” Rose told the Guardian, explaining that, in the interests of objectivity, he lets audited departments see a draft before he delivers the final version to the Board.

“It’s totally inappropriate to discuss a not yet signed report,” Rose said.

Sup. Jake McGoldrick who commissioned the report, called Newsom’s leak, “a serious breach of trust, a Karl Rovian move.”

“They wanted to spin the story their way, do a character assassination on Harvey Rose, instead of having a civil, open discussion,” McGoldrick said. “It’s not so much the report that disturbs me, as the way the Prince formerly known as the Mayor is handling the report.”

Even Newsom ally Sup. Sean Elsbernd said the Mayor broke normal auditing procedures.
“Usually, reports aren’t released until the t’s are crossed, and the i’s are dotted,” Elsbernd said.

Ammiano: and the Grammy goes to…

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Today’s Ammianoliner:

And the Grammy goes to ….Hillary Clinton’s fired campaign manager for “I’m Not Going to Rehab.”

(From the home answering machine of Sup. Tom Ammiano on Monday, Feb. 22, 2008.)

Personal note to Tom: Enunciate, Tom, enunciate! B3

Slap that ass for spring

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By Justin Juul

“I don’t know what it is about women, but I will go to my grave wanting to pet their butts and boobs.” — Kurt Vonnegut

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If Mr. Vonnegut had been born 50 years later, his famous quote might read something more like I don’t know what it is about women, but I will go to my grave wanting to spank their asses. What? Haven’t you heard? Spanking is the new hugging. Everyone’s doing it. And it’s totally natural too. Behind-the-scenes activities may differ from relationship to relationship, but nearly all of them involve some sort of spanking ritual. My girlfriend, for example, gets spanked whenever she reaches for fruit from the bottom drawer of the fridge. She gets it when she’s tying her shoes, petting her cat, and well, anytime really. And she loves it! (I hope.) But alas, there’s a stigma attached to spanking. It’s something only immoral sex freaks do, some people say. Well, this is San Francisco and we say spank away.

But how, you ask. Well, there are plenty of ways to slap an ass. But, as with most things, it’s best to get some guidance. Thank god for Good Vibrations. And thank god for Rosy Cheeks, the store’s new spanking instructor. Apparently, while the rest of us were out stuffing our faces and drinking eggnog over the holiday break, Ms. Cheeks was drafting the lesson plan for her new class, Hot Spanking, which she’ll be teaching in March at The Good Vibrations store on Polk Street. Too late for Valentine’s Day — but springtime’s coming, people. Time to get that ass in gear!

Hot Spanking
March 18, 8pm-10pm
$25 pre-register/$30 drop-in
Good Vibrations
1620 Polk Street, SF
(415) 345-0400
www.goodvibes.com

Lost modern love — revealed

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Lost Art Salon, winner of a 2007 Best of the Bay award, and one helluva neato gallery, is having another of its delightfully star-studded openings on Valentine’s Day in honor of its “Modern Love” show, featuring heartfelt artwork chosen from its library of 3000+ pieces. Lost Art proprietors Rob and Gaetan spelunk the globe for masterpieces by little-known or unacknowledged modernist artists — their finds somehow transcend kitsch and expand the definition of modernism. Anyhoo, with champagne, cupcakes, and :little songs of love by Uni,” this could be the start of a perfect date evening, no? You might even fall in love with one of their lost artists.

“Modern Love” opening party
Feb 14, 5:30-8:30pm, Free
Lost Art Salon
245 S. Van Ness, #303
415-861-1530
www.lostartsalon.com

The bears are a-comin’!

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If you happen to notice large numbers of big furry gays prowling the streets, gyms, cafes, dance floors, and internets of SF this week (craigslist M4M is a total hirsute hoot this time of year), then be not alarmed — it’s merely the influx of hearty attendees for International Bear Rendezvous 2008, the huge hairy gathering sponsored by the Bears of San Francisco.

The conference/celebration takes place Feb 14-18 at the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway — and it’s pretty all-encompassing, with satellite pudge-parties and ravenous ribaldry (with Tiffany?!?), and also a few panels and local vendor booths (although the emphasis seems less and less on these each year).

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Cub and the City

I got a lot of shit last year for writing about changes in the bear community (what I dubbed Bear 2.0) now that a younger generation of bears has come of age, with its focus less on community activism and combating negative gay mainstream stereotypes a la twinky Will and Grace and more on dancing to techno and having slutty fun (and a sense of humor, duh). It’ll be interesting to see how right I was again this year, but I’m a full on chubby-chaser, darlings — and February is huntin’ season in this neck of the woof woods. Suit up!

Amy Grammy double-whammy kills it

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Wow — on my second week in rehab I was scaling the drywall with toothpicks under my fingernails. But maybe if you put me in a closed studio packed full of record label plants and some stellar backing musicians (with an intro by Cuba Gooding, Jr.) then perhaps I could have delivered one of those super-extra special TV historical moments that Amy Winehouse provided last night at the Grammys, with the below double medley.

Her face at the end, a mask of screaming “fuck you” extrospective hypocrisy had me screaming “punk-ass goddess!!!”

The Chicken Doves

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Click on the title below for full article.

The Chicken Doves
Elected to end the war, Democrats have surrendered to Bush on Iraq and betrayed the peace movement for their own political ends

by Matt Taibbi

Mike Lacey ducks the big ones

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I missed the trial on Friday, so if the SF Weekly’s hit man, Andy Van De Voorde, wants to take a swing at me for posting information on the testimony, fine: I’m smiling, Andy. (I’m also not the only person in the courtroom from the Guardian who knows what’s going on and can take notes.)

But before we get to the day’s events, let me do my all-too-regular Van De Voorde correction file. From his most recent blog:

“What’s your official title?” asked Weekly attorney H. Sinclair Kerr Jr. in what is a traditional first question for witnesses.

“I’m the executive editor of the company and apparently the mascot,” Lacey replied.

The remark was a reference to testimony from Guardian executive editor Tim Redmond, who last week said under oath he thought of Lacey as a New Times mascot.

Um, no Andy. I didn’t say that, under oath or otherwise. That testimony was from Jennifer Lopez, who used to work for the SF Weekly.

And jeez, Andy’s in court every day.

Another correction:

[Guardian attorney Ralph] Alldredge was also skeptical about why [New Times CEO Jim] Larkin hasn’t attended the trial—an odd question given that he could have subpoenaed the New Times executive.

Actually, Andy, you might check with your lawyers: This is a California case, and as long as Larkin doesn’t live here and can’t be found within the borders of the state, we can’t subpoena him. Interesting that he hasn’t shown up once for the trial; if he had, we could have compelled him to take the stand and answer a few questions.

Now then, since we have that cleared up, let me go to the day’s events. Here’s our report:

Mike Lacey took the stand in the Guardian’s predatory pricing trial against the SF Weekly and had some trouble answering some key questions.

The editor in chief of the SF Weekly’s parent chain, the VVM/New Times/SF Weekly, said at one point that the SF Weekly was a better paper in “most all respects” to its competitor, the Guardian.

Lacey said that the Weekly was better in layout, stories, design, graphics, readers, everything. Also, he said that the Guardian was “obsessed with City Hall and City Hall minutiae” and the city was full of young people who didn’t vote and weren’t interested in politics and they came to the Weekly.

If the Weekly is such a better paper, Guardian Attorney Ralph Alldredge prodded on cross examination, why does the Weekly sell its advertising at rates so much lower than the Guardian? Why doesn’t a Weekly advertising sales person sell its advertising space at a rate higher than the Guardian? Why doesn’t the Weekly command a premium price?

Lacey ducked the questions.

Clubs: I feel so Debaser

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Yes, shake yourself, wake yourself, shiver ye timbers, and don ye olde kinderwhore frock. There’s a newish club in town, courtesy of those Neon kids: Debaser, a ’90s alternative dance party that has yet to find its firm monthly footing but will nonetheless shake the rafters at the Knockout Saturday, Feb. 9.

Tomorrow’s Valentine’s special showcases DJs Jamie Jams (Avery Island), EmDee (Club Neon), and Jessica (Club Lovely); bearer of the best Courtney Love-style baby doll dress gets a gift certificate to Thrift Town. Sorry, no lurid imagery available yet: Jams confesses that lame ole 2D pics fail to convey the “sheer mania” going down. Last month, he says, “We seriously had 300 people in flannels moshing to records and screaming all the words to the Cranberries.” Scary! But fun at the same time, no? And never fear, Breeder babies, if you miss this month’s, you can always get your Kurt on at the next party on March 1.

Debaser
Saturday, Feb. 9; 10 p.m.; free with flannel before 11 p.m., afterward $5
Knockout
3223 Mission, SF

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