Art

The Chamber of Commerce scorecard: You gotta be kidding

Zelda Bronstein
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The Chamber of Commerce scorecard: You gotta be kidding

The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce has released a voting scorecard on the supervisors — and it’s a bad joke. The Chamber says the scorecard shows who are top opponents of business in the city, the ones who don’t support “job creation and government efficiency” — two poll-tested buzzwords the Chamber will try to use in supervisorial campaigns this fall.


But there are only ten votes on the scorecard — and they don’t even remotely represents the most important jobs, business or economic issues the board has addressed in the past year.


Seriously: Does anyone think that naming rights for Candlestick Park has had a huge impact on the ability of businesses to create jobs in the city? How about a resolution supporting a proposed Contemporary Art Museum?


And since small, locally owned independent businesses are the single largest private-sector job generators, how does the Recurrent Energy deal — a giveaway to a big power company — help create jobs?


Of course, that’s not what this is about. The scorecard issues were carefully chosen to make the progressives look bad. And, as always, the Chamber has completely ignored the fact that the largest employers in San Francisco are public-sector agencies, and that cutting government programs and blocking new sources of revenue are the real “job killers.”


We’re putting together our own scorecard, measuring a wider range of votes on key issues in the past year. What were the most important? What really mattered to San Franciscans? The comment lines are open.

The Daily Blurgh: That cat should have won the prize

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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The Daily Blurgh: That cat should have won the prize

Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond

“We offer a kind of grittiness you can’t find much anymore,” said Randy Shaw, a longtime San Francisco housing advocate and a driving force behind the idea of Tenderloin tourism. “And what is grittier than the Tenderloin?”

Now that San Francisco is going to court the tourist dollars of baby boomers descending upon the TL in search of reawakening the pleasure centers of their youth – the music! the drugs! the picturesque squalor! – perhaps City Hall should also consider starting up tourism franchises in other “gritty” parts of the city? 

(But gawking humorously at the poor, addicted, and metally challenged makes for such a sensational blog post! –Ed.)

Also: Drubbing! This headline is the second Google hit that comes up for the search: “slumming San Francisco.” Take that, spendy New York Times (which seems to have a long history of reporting on slumming in other cities).

 
There are too many golden nuggets to choose from in Roger Ebert’s account of working on the Russ Meyer-directed Sex Pistols film that never was, but this exchange is one of them:
 
Meyer opened up by informing Johnny Rotten that with his stovepipe arms he wouldn’t have survived one day in the army.

“What do I want with the fucking army?” Rotten said.

 “You listen to me, you little shit. We won the Battle of Britain for you!”

I reflected that America had not been involved in the Battle of Britain, and that John Lydon (his real name) was Irish, and therefore from a non-participant nation. I kept these details to myself.

 
The anxiety of influence: The debate going on in the comments on this Fecal Face interview with local artist Maxwell Loren Holyoke-Hirsch is heated. Holyoke-Hirsch doesn’t seem to lack faith in his abilities (he is quoted as referring to himself as, “the hardest working illustrator and artist based in San Francisco, California”), although irony is sometimes lost in transcription. Hubris aside, there is still the question of whether or not his art, as some comments posit, swagger-jacks Chris Johansson and Barry McGee. But kids, it’s OK. Put down those rocks! Didn’t you know street art has already jumped the balaclava’d shark?

(Kidding!)

We love our cat
for her self
regard is assiduous
and bland
 
Congrats to personal fave Rae Armantrout for winning this year’s Pulitzer Prize in poetry. Cat people, this may be finally be your salve for the incredibly raw wounds from our canine-centric Pets issue.

Uncovering visions with SFMAPP

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Maybe we’re a little too old to go searching for chocolate eggs and ginormas white bunnies in grassy fields, but last weekend there was an alternative Easter scavenger hunt for grown-ups, thanks to SFMAPP, the San Francisco Mission Arts & Performance Project. This bi-monthly art event brings together artists, musicians and poets and scatters them among cafes, backyards, and galleries for a diverse evening of music and art in sometimes the most unexpected places.

With my buddy Clairebear, we headed out into the cold April night. First we stopped at Red Poppy Art House where we listened to Benn Bacot sing some classy jazz tunes, while we mused over our recently acquired treasure map. After consulting our map we both agreed that our next stop must be the Secret Garden. I mean how cool is that — we were off to a Secret Garden and, yes, we got lost on the way. It was that secret.

After a few wrong turns, we finally walked down a sweet smelling path to the garden and found a small crowd of people (or should we call them garden elves?) listening to Jonathan Stephen and his friend Josh play a lovely cover of a well-known mandolin piece by Chris Thile. The stage was perfectly centered under a canopy of trees draped in twinkling lights, which created a truly magical ambiance.

Back en-route, we headed to Area 2881, where we were greeted with a sign that read “Rotating Amusement Devices by Carl Pisaturo.” Sweet. What the heck does that mean? When we got inside the gallery, we encountered metallic sculptures whirling and twirling at varying velocities that were incredibly entertaining to look at. With added spacey music and pink and purple light filling the room, it was a totally awesome experience.

Back to the mapp! Trotting along, we stopped at Galeria de la Raza for a movie overload in a piece called “Hollywoodpedia” by Mexican artist Artemio, that collaged together clips from thousands of popular films, based on themes like Love, Failure, and War. The project took years to make and millions of hours of movie-watching to complete, but was definitely worth the oh-so-clever final product.

By that time, Clairebear and I were hungry, but luckily there was a foodie stop on the mapp, so we headed to La Victoria Bakery for live music and snacks from “Sweet Corazon De La Mission” that included delightful edibles by local food cart vendors. We ended the evening at Precita Eyes, to gaze over the colorful mural-style art pieces filling their gallery. Clairebear and I both agreed, it was best scavenger hunt we’d even been on, despite the lack of chocolate bunnies.

White Walls gives street art a place to hang its hat

Andrew Lam
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Since writing my article in this week’s Guardian on the state of street art in San Francisco, the definition of the term has been… not rankling me, but sitting in my head like things that can’t be resolved tend to do. But a recent conversation I had with the owner of White Walls and Shooting galleries, Justin Giarla gave me a good look at why street artists go indoors. He took me through his current exhibition of works by the legendary stencilist Blek Le Rat, Hush, and Above — “street” artists all, who are finding brave new worlds through work on canvas.

“Once these guys get older, they don’t want to be going to jail anymore,” the proprietor of the Tenderloin gallery told me. Giarla has long been interested in the artwork of graffiti artists, and has been putting shows on like this one since White Walls opened in 2005. “Plus, you need to make money to do bigger and better things.”

…and this one outside the gallery? 

We’re standing beneath a forest of arrows suspended in mid air. They’re the work of Above, who at 27 years old has been placing them in improbable urban junctures for the past eight years. “He’d put them in places where you’d think, ‘how the hell did he do that?’” Giarla tells me. “Over the intersection of Market and Geary, places like that.” Before us is a canvas rendering of one of Above’s life size stencils, a young girl blowing expanding heart bubbles to a boy who rises with them into the air. The original of “First Love,” as the work is titled, was an unauthorized piece on the wall of an elementary school in So Cal. Above threw it up in the middle of the night to escape notice from the authorities. This one is retailing for more money than I’ve spent on art, like, ever.  That’s a big change in the art’s intent, isn’t it?

“Once you take it out of the street, it’s no longer “street” art, it’s fine art,” Giarla says. “That’s not to say what’s in the street isn’t fine art — it’s more like the difference between free art and fine art.” Street artists find a whole different set of artistic challenges, he tells me, when they start showing in galleries. Giarla notes that for artists like Above, whose White Walls exhibition is his first gallery show, “it changes the art visually. All of a sudden, all these limitations get put on it. Sometimes street art doesn‘t translate visually when it‘s altered to fit gallery format.”

“First Love” by Above — the indoor one. 

And Giarla is the first to admit that the audience of the art is altered by the change. “What art is, is dictated by the people who see it. The neighborhood you put it up in determines who sees it.”

Giarla was drawn to this kind of interaction with the world of public art because of a respect for the form. He says he finds street art “the most free expression of art, meant for everyone, not elitist,” and in a way, he’s furthering the capabilities of artists like Above and Hush (whose geisha murals and paintings decorate the room next to Above’s arrows) to do more, travel more, and create more public works by providing them a forum to sell to big money art collectors. Which is cool.

And I guess it answers some of my questions about why street art wants to hang with the denizens of fine art. It helps though, when they keep their original audience of public passers-by in mind. 

An eloquent nod to this kind of access splashes across the back entrance of White Walls. Giarla had Hush paint one of his shy geishas on the gallery’s doorway in the slightly seedy TL alley. Nearly identical copies of her hang on the walls inside, but this geisha can still enjoy an audience not overly given to wine and cheese receptions. 

Blek Le Rat “Faces in the Mirror,” Hush “Passing Through,” and Above “Transitions”

Through June 5

White Walls/Shooting Gallery

839 Larkin, SF

(415) 577-1275

www.shootinggallerysf.com

 

The Daily Blurgh: Bros before trolls

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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The Daily Blurgh: Bros before trolls

Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond

For the love of God, iPad, or printed matter, please read former Guardian culture editor, and current lead editor of science and sci-fi wonderblog io9, Annalee Newitz’s eye-opening summary of the 5 ways the Google Book settlement will change the future of reading (one plus: “pulp science fiction will make a comeback in ways you might not expect”).

 “It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.” 

Early master of photography actually insane cuckold killer: “This commission took [Edweard Muybridge] out of San Francisco at a convenient moment: He’d recently murdered his young wife’s lover, but squeaked by with an acquittal in court — one part of his defense had been that only someone already unbalanced would take the risks that Muybridge did in Yosemite, just to get a picture.”

Meanwhile, still-living photo-snapper The Tens got a peek inside the bowels of Kink.com (h/t Mission Mission)

The Awl preaches bros before trolls: “Instead of shaking your Internetty fist at all that angers you though, what if you ignored it and discussed things that do work, things that are wonderful, and encouraged others to do the same?”

 

These gorgeous creatures – children of video artist and endless font of inspiration Kalup Linzy — are hitting Berkeley Art Museum tonight with support from DJ Bus Station John, starting at 6pm. Get it!

 

 

Holy smokes, could it be… the biggest SF mural ever?

Andrew Lam
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The answer is yes, yes it will be. And how did the madness begin? “I was in the neighborhood and I saw this wall. And me being me, I got really excited and wanted to paint it.” And so it started, Brian Barneclo’s latest SOMA mural project, whose launch will be celebrated alongside “Systematics,” his solo (indoor art) show at fabric8 on Sat/10.

See a wall, paint it; It’s a common enough story in SF — until you look at one small variable; Barneclo’s wall is 600 feet long and 40 feet tall. And he intends to cover the whole thing. That’s 24,000 square feet, making Barneclo’s “Systems” the largest mural yet in a town filled with them. “That was recently pointed out to me,” he told me in a recent interview. “It’s an interesting thing because, yeah, its going to be helpful [for fundraising], people like to hear that stuff, ‘it’s the loudest, it’s the biggest.’ But it really has no… [the size] is such a byproduct.”

Barneclo’s known for his ambitious projects. The artist — in whose aesthetic fabric8 gallery owner and long time associate, Olivia Ongpin, detects traces of both the Mission school and the Bay area figurative movement from the ’50s and ’60s — has installed large scale pieces all over town, from Nopa, to the inner Mission, even on the side of our humble Guardian building. His most well known works are urban cultural/architectural jumbles, representational maps of the iconic streetlamps, restaurants, and skylines that we call our city. “Systems” will be a reflection of Barneclo’s recent meditations on interconnectivity; in our society, our city, and in our own bodies.

A mock up of “Systems,” slated to be completed by June

It’s easy to see why this particular wall caught the muralist’s eye. The 7th St. and Townsend building, owned by Crescent Cove Apartments, plays a visible role in the neighborhood. Barncelo’s wall can be seen from both I-80 commuters and Caltrain passengers, the train tracks passing at the wall’s base. Barneclo thinks it’s high time such a prominent canvass was utilized for art. “I think when we’re done, people will be like, ‘I can’t imagine that without a mural.”

But the mural’s not done yet. There’s the matter of funding, though Barneclo has already secured a $10,000 grant from Adobe and thinks “people are inclined to get behind the project once they see some action happening.” Barneclo has already put in nearly two years of permission getting and permit securing into the project, along with partner Christi Azevedo. And of course, there’s still a whole lot of wall to be painted. 

But that will be the easy part. Barneclo completed “Food Chain,” his 200 by 25 foot mural on Shotwell between 14th and 15th Street in ten days, with only one helper. His goal is to maintain that same pace for “Systems,” completing the mega mural in one month with a team of three helpers. Barneclo doesn’t sound too stressed about the task ahead. “I’ll sleep when I’m dead. If I have a chance to take a month and paint one big mural, what more can I ask for? I mean, my girlfriend probably won’t like it, it’s probably going to be all I’m talking about and thinking about.”

Will he make it? Ongpin thinks so. “This might seem like a daunting prospect,” she said. “But if you look at the scope, and amount of murals he’s done around the city for the past six or seven years, I’m sure he can do it and do it well.”

So get ready, San Francisco, because “Systems” is set to be one of the first things some commuters see when they hit SOMA. “It’s almost a welcome to SF to people who are riding the train,” Barneclo imagines. “Or a farewell. Its like a port. Treat it like a “Boom! Welcome to San Francisco.”

 

Brian Barneclo‘s “Systems” Mural launch party/ “Systemics” exhibition

Sat/10 5-9 p.m., free

Fabric8 Gallery

3318 22nd St., SF

(415) 647-5888

www.fabric8.blogspot.com

The Daily Blurgh: The true price of free food tattoos

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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The Daily Blurgh: The true price of free food tattoos

Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond

A. E. Housman (who once deliciously referred to poetry as a “morbid secretion”) said, “Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure. ” And as John McWhorter so ably demonstrates, Sarah Palin’s words — or at least the art of parsing them — can be extremely pleasurable:
 
“This reminds me of toddlers who speak from inside their own experience in a related way: they will come up to you and comment about something said by a neighbor you’ve never met, or recount to you the plot of an episode of a TV show they have no way of knowing you’ve ever heard of. Palin strings her words together as if she were doing it for herself — meanings float by, and she translates them into syntax in whatever way works, regardless of how other people making public statements do it.”

 

She’s no delicate petal-pusher. How pretty are the state’s highway medians at this time of year? Check the Desert Wildflower report for daily updates.

No it’s not clip art. That twilight landscape on your iPad desktop was actually shot by a local. (h/t to Boing Boing)

“A San Francisco eatery has convinced some customers to get tattoos in exchange for free food for life.” Hint: It’s not Michael Mina — but possibly a replay of the great burrito tattoo “disaster” of 1999.

This was supposed to be worth $5.8 million at the time. Like Gezundheit.com

An addendum to yesterday’s esteemed guest columnist: the New York Times’ Bay Area blog (the nerve!) ran a profile yesterday of Glendon Hyde, aka our favorite punk rock dragtavist, Anna Conda. She knows from first hand experience what gets lost – and more importantly, who gets displaced — when a gayborhood becomes just a neighborhood. Granted, Polk Street’s de-gayification has been happening for decades now (the pink flight to the Castro began around the mid-to-late 60s), and is just one part of the long, ongoing story of gentrification in the TL. Still, Anna/Glendon’s efforts to “Take back the Polk,” and now, her current campaign for the District 6 supervisor’s seat, should serve as rebukes to Katz’s patronizing mourning of communities that he was only superficially invested in.

Finally, in honor of Lady Day would have been 95 today I’ll leave you with this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs

Hey kids! It’s Panique time!

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Hey kids! It’s Panique time!

CULT DVD Alejandro Jodorowsky and Fernando Arrabal have overlapped their whole lives. The Chilean Jodorowsky and Spanish Arrabal arrived in Paris is the mid-1950s, eventually cofounding (with late, lesser remembered artist French artist Roland Topor) the Mouvement Panique — a post-surreallist group named after the god Pan and dedicated to “terror, humor, simultaneity.” The two initially focused on theatrical performance and have in subsequent decades created massive bodies of plays, poetry, novels, visual art (paintings for Arrabal, comic books for Jodorowsky), and more. Internationally, they’ve been most widely experienced as filmmakers of some notoriety whose sporadic work in that medium was busiest during the wide-open late 1960s and early ’70s.

Jodorowsky, of course, rates high on any cineaste’s list of cult idols for the blood-soaked spaghetti western Christ parable El Topo (1970) and mystical-baroque colossus The Holy Mountain (1973), both recently freed from decades of legal trouble for legitimate DVD release. Arrabal’s films have been even harder to see and have fallen into comparative obscurity, partly because they’re less “fun” despite sharing much in the way of striking, shocking, and frequently blasphemous imagery.

In 2005 Cult Epics brought out a collection comprising his first three features: Viva la muerte (1970) and The Guernica Tree (1975), two violently grotesque fantasias about the Spanish Civil War whose dead included his own assassinated painter father, a loyal Republican; plus I Will Walk Like a Crazy Horse (1972), a no-less surreal yet strangely touching love story of sorts between an urban playboy on the run and the three-foot-tall male desert hermit.

Given their penchant for full-frontal nudity, antifascist politics, desecration of religious iconography, and other MPAA-unratable themes, perhaps the weirdest overlap between the two most famous “Panique” insurrectionists is that each once strayed into the alien realm of family entertainment. (They no doubt seized this inapt moment as a respite from perpetual funding woes, which famously scuttled Jodorowsky’s ready-to-go Dune and his El Topo sequel.)

Unsurprisingly, the results did not send Disney into a market-dominance panique. In fact, Jodorowsky’s 1978 for-hire project Tusk was, at least until recently. one of the most infamously unseen movies ever made, a literally and figuratively elephantine India adventure deemed unwatchable for any audience. Check out the cruddy French-language dupe with Spanish subtitles on YouTube and see how far curiosity gets you.

Arrabal’s kid flick wasn’t quite so fully buried, but it too has remained an obscure object of completist desire. Fortunately his second and final DVD collection from Cult Epics just arrived to fill that need. Nominally released in 1982, French-Canadian coproduction The Emperor of Peru stars Mickey Rooney — there goes the scenery in one big chew — as a wuvvable wheelchair-bound eccentric found living in the forest by three children on summer holiday. A former steam train engineer, he teaches them to run an abandoned locomotive so they can take their Cambodian-refugee friend back home to his parents. Never mind that there’s probably not much rail linking the South of France and Phnom Penh, let alone that in 1982 the Khmer Rouge remained very active.

How many children’s films would have dialogue like “Father’s in a concentration camp”? Emperor‘s real raison d’être, in any case, is its myriad fantasy sequences, sprung from the childish imagination of Toby (Jonathan Starr). In his daydreams he’s a firefighter or astronaut whose heroic deeds are applauded by such bystanders as Napoleon Bonaparte. Amid the goofy, mostly innocuous proceedings are stray moments of unmistakable Arrabal — as when Rooney, in full Arabian Nights regalia, is surrounded at imperial court by dwarf attendants. (Arrabal has a thing for little people.)

The new collection also includes Car Cemetery, a 1983 New Wave “punk” pose fest with Gallic pop king Alain Bashing as a postapocalyptic rock star Christ (ouch indeed). Among other rarities are Arrabal’s delightful hour-long 1992 video Farewell, Babylon!, a collage of past works, impish narrative, and sampled New Yorkers including Spike Lee and Melvin Van Peebles.

Hot for learning

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Hot for learning

caitlin@sfbg.com

CAREERS AND ED Quick — what art, sport, language, trade, or superpower would you acquire, given the opportunity? Answer in mind? Sweet! And attainable. In this wild and woolly city of ours, there’s an expert waiting to teach you just the skill you’ve been missing. Here are a few to get you started.

 

HEAVY METAL AEROBICS

Jane Fonda had no idea that one day her neon Spandex would stretch and sweat to strains of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, but there you have it. Get in shape with Workshop’s cardio/strength-training rock routine.

Sun 1:30-2:30 p.m., Tues 7:45- 8:45 p.m. $10. Workshop, 1798 McAllister, SF.(415) 874-9186.www.workshopsf.org

 

MINI NONSTOP BHANGRA

Your babies will be in the Bollywood mood when they attend this family version of the popular Indian folk dance lessons/club night. Bhangra dancing is take-no-prisoners fun.

April 10, 12 p.m.–3 p.m. $5-$10. Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell, SF. (415) 694-9080.

www.mininonstopbhangra.com

 

PLEIN AIR LANDSCAPE WORKSHOP

Learn to interpret the urban wonderland around you à la Cézanne, with pencil and watercolors complimenting each other’s touch. This City College Continuing Education class takes you out in the field to get your art on.

April 10–May 15, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. $140-$150. Fort Mason Building B, SF. (415) 561-1860. www.ccsf.edu/Services/Continuing_Education

 

FUNDAMENTALS OF WOODWORKING

Ever want to build a mandolin, learn about electromagnetism, or construct your own steel forge? Nonprofit organization the Crucible has got you covered. Woodworking 101 is a good way to ease in for the hands-on newbie.

April 24–25, 10 a.m.–6 p.m. $235. The Crucible, 1260 Seventh St., Oakl. (510) 444-0918. www.thecrucible.org

 

INTRO TO CLIMBING

Wondering where all the healthy beautiful people hide themselves in SF? Get thee to the climbing gym. Just make sure you take the intro course before scuttling up that nearest wall. Babygirl’s not impressed by unintentional abseiling.

Mon–Fri 12:30, 2:30, 6 and 7 p.m., Sat–Sun 10:30 a.m., 1 and 3 p.m. $28. Mission Cliffs, 2295 Harrison, SF. (415) 550-0515. www.touchstoneclimbing.com

 

BASIC MARIJUANA SEMINAR

Your gateway class into the world of Oaksterdam University’s encyclopedic knowledge of all things ganja related. Its 101 weekend course schools you in weed history, law, horticulture, treat-making, and “budtending,” sure to snag you that sweet gig at the dispensary down the street.

April 10-11 & 17-18, 11 a.m.- 4 p.m., $250. Oaksterdam, 1600 Broadway, Oakl. (510) 251-1544. www.oaksterdamuniversity.com‘

 

DISCOVERING YOUR LIFE PURPOSE AND CAREER DIRECTION

This class clearly isn’t for you — because you have the rest of your life healthfully, successfully planned and plotted … right? Just in case you don’t, Randi Benator leads a workshop on finding the career path that will help you give your best to your community and yourself.

July 17 10 a.m.– 5 p.m. $150. SF State Downtown Campus, 835 Market, SF (415) 817-4247. www.cel.sfsu.edu

Part of the solution

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Part of the solution

Caitlin@sfbg.com

CAREERS AND ED Just a thought. As our country becomes an economic-cultural stew fraught with problems so complex we don’t even know yet what they are, different approaches to education may be necessary for tomorrow’s good guys. Which is why it’s so positive that Bay Area higher ed institutions have developed unique degree programs that anticipate tomorrow’s issues today. From robot wars to social stratification — learn about this stuff and you’ve got the skills you need for the battles to come.

 

PHILIPPINE STUDIES

Rare is the program in our country that offers a concentration in the culture and history of the Philippines. But with 40,072 Filipinos in the Bay Area, that’s an oversight USF was happy to correct with this concentration, which can be paired with any of its undergraduate degrees to create a Filipino context within science, art, nursing, or the humanities.

University of San Francisco, 2130 Fulton, SF. (415) 422-5555, www.usfca.edu

 

LABOR AND COMMUNITY STUDIES

This associate degree program focuses on giving working people the educational background they need to be effective in the world of labor union activism — collective bargaining, labor law, and workplace discrimination issues, among other things. The school also runs not-for-credit programs that link minority students and workers up with job training for careers in the trades. Kicking ass for the working class, and all that.

City College of San Francisco, Evans Campus, 1400 Evans, SF. (415) 550-4459

www.ccsf.edu

 

TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP

On the slightly less tangible end of the spectrum, the California Institute for Integral Studies offers an online master’s degree program for “personal transformation and creating positive change in the world.” Courses focus on group mediation, identifying one’s own strengths and weaknesses, and effective leadership. Let Your Love Shine 101 (for professionals).

California Institute for Integral Studies, 1453 Mission, SF. (415) 575-6100, www.ciis.edu

 

EQUITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE IN EDUCATION

There’s no way an equitable educational system wouldn’t improve this crazy old country of ours. To that end, the future teachers and leaders in this concentration of the master’s program in education study historical/political perspectives of injustice in schools, with a mind to changing things about the way Americans learn.

San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway, SF. (415) 338-1111, www.sfsu.ca

 

DISABILITY STUDIES

A unique minor at Berkeley examines how the concept of disability has been shaped and created by our social constructs over time. Attention is also paid to how the interpretation of disability has been highlighted in law, art, and politics. The Web site on the study features a wheelchair basketball league open to all comers regardless of bodily capabilities.

University of California Berkeley, Berk. (415) 643-7691, www.berkeley.edu

 

COMPUTER GAME DESIGN

Look, not everything in the future’s gonna be heavy! We’re still gonna need people who are real good at making blood look realistic and keeping a step ahead of everyone’s World of Warcraft avatars. The students in this undergraduate major have seen the light: if we don’t master the machines, they master us.

University of California Santa Cruz, 1156 High, Santa Cruz. (831) 459-0111, www.ucsc.edu

Whatever it takes

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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0
Whatever it takes

culture@sfbg.com

CAREERS AND ED It’s not everyone’s idea of a good time to be choked from behind and thrown into a wall repeatedly, although this is San Francisco. But this is no kinkster playground; rather, it’s an unprepossessing mirrored studio on the Nob end of the Tenderloin where a diverse group encompassing just about every age, gender, and athletic quotient gathers to learn the hand-to-hand combat and self-defense techniques of Krav Maga. Krav is martial without the art: crude but effective street-fighting techniques and counter-weight defenses honed into body memory through repetition, use of full force, and peer coaching. Unlike more rigidly codified martial arts systems, which put an emphasis on form and fair play, Krav puts an emphasis on “whatever it takes.” Whatever it takes to get home alive.

And the tradition of Krav Maga — “contact combat” in Hebrew — takes that mantra very seriously. Developed in the 1930s by Slovakian boxer Imi Lichtenfeld to help Jews defend themselves from anti-Semitic attacks, the “Israeli jujitsu” technique was honed by the Israeli Defense Forces for military purposes. Krav Maga San Francisco, founded in 1999 and owned by brown belt Barny Foland, offers 70 classes, and prepares you for any untoward situations.

A relative newcomer, I attend level one classes at Krav Maga San Francisco once or twice a week, schedule permitting. This week we’re learning to break free from a choke from behind, followed by a push. The first thing we learn when being thrown into a wall from behind is how to protect the face, blocking the impact with our forearms and turning our heads to the side. “That part’s pretty important,” our instructor quips. “You can’t see them now, because we painted over them, but there used to be blood spots on the wall where people bashed their noses.” Good to know.

The next step is breaking the choke, and though the movement itself is not complicated, training it to feel intuitive takes longer. Basically, the chokee shoots an arm straight into the air and quick turns, breaking the hold through leverage. Of equal importance to the choke-break is the follow-though, defensive moves morphing into offense: hammer strikes, groin kicks, a few rapid-fire punches to the soft tissues. Without pads, we mime the strikes, which earlier we practiced at full force on unwieldy foam “shields”. The choking is real enough, though, as is the body-slam, and two days later, a tender spot the size of a thumb rests below my jawline, and bruises on my elbows attest to how I finally learned to not block with them.

The hardwiring process and use of full-force is what inspired me to take Krav in the first place. I had already taken an IMPACT (www.impactbayarea.org) self-defense seminar, which taught me how to take a fall and fight hard from the ground. But Krav aims to keep students on their feet. I find the benefit to training face-to-face against my peers (instead of a “padded suit”) is two-fold. Firstly I learn to strike with force against a person whose face I can see, and secondly, I learn to absorb their blows, a crucial key to surviving a real-life attack. Taking the time to help each class member master every skill genuinely is a top priority at Krav Maga SF. I’ve attended aerobics classes that were more competitive.

Foland assures me it’s the norm. “Anybody who wants to come in and train for competition, we send them down the street to the local kickboxing gym. You can be in a level one class and have level four students in there with you, and the only reason you would know it is because they’re really good, and they’re trying to help you learn. You show your skill by how much you help your partner.”

Of course, folks looking for a more graceful, philosophy-based martial art might ultimately decide that Krav Maga is just too rough around the edges. I think of the earnest man who attended an intro session about a month ago. He’d been blocking well all night, but balked when our instructor urged us to aim our punches for the throat, in order to cause “the most amount of damage in the quickest amount of time.”

“But couldn’t you damage someone permanently if you hit them in the Adam’s apple,” the man asked, concerned.

“I didn’t start the fight, remember,” our instructor said firmly. “But I’m going to finish it.”

KRAV MAGA SAN FRANCISCO

1455 Bush, SF

(415) 921-0612

www.kravmaga-sf.com

 

Dreams on 45

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Dreams on 45

johnny@sfbg.com

MUSIC Sonny Smith is sitting at a window table at the Latin with a cap on his head and a small glass of red wine and some 7-inch single cover art by Stephanie Syjuco in front of him. I get a whiskey and sit down to talk about the matter at hand: art, music, mythologies, and “100 Records,” the gargantuan yet in some ways quite local show of sounds and images he’s putting together at Gallery 16. One man, 100 records — with help from dozens of artists, a number of musicians, a carpenter, and an electrician, Smith not only has created a number of 45s by fictional musicians and bands, he’s built a jukebox to play them.

The due date for Smith’s mammoth creation is a week away, and he’s in the final stages of assembling it. “I’ve been struggling to write down all the bios,” he says, as we talk about some of his imaginary recording acts, which range from New Orleans drag queens to Utah nature lovers. “They’re not Wikipedia-esque, but more like entries in a Rolling Stone Encyclopedia [of Rock & Roll]. At the beginning, I was swapping names and titles all the time — if a surf jam turned out to be a folk song, I could give it to another character. But now, with the last three [records], it has to be what it is.”

What is it? An open-ended project, not solo and self-enclosed in the manner of the Magnetic Fields’ 1998 69 Love Songs, where Stephin Merrit’s formulaic writing reached its apex. Instead, Smith is allowing “100 Records” to form itself as he assembles it. “I’ve only brushed up against the edges of it all becoming interwoven,” he explains over the post-work barroom din. “It’s almost as if I’d rather it not be — if you read the Harry Smith Anthology [of American Folk Music], or a biography of a musician, it’s enjoyable that there are so many loose ends.”

The visual artists contributing to “100 Records” — including William T. Wiley, Alicia McCarthy, Harrell Fletcher, Paul Wackers, and Mingering Mike (who knows a thing or two about creating folk musical figures) — have responded to Smith’s call for cover art in a variety of ways. “Alice Shaw was this character Carol Darger, and I was Jackie Feathers,” Smith says, to give one country-tinged example. “Their biography is that they’ve gotten married and been divorced twice. We took photos together for cover art. And Jackie Feathers also has solo records with art by different artists.”

When one thinks of Sonny Smith, band names don’t come to mind, though his latest endeavor Sonny and the Sunsets plays wittily off of his current San Francisco neighborhood. For years, Smith has put his plain name forward rather than come up with musical monikers. “100 Records” changed all that. “What’s weird is that I tried for years to come up with cool band names,” he says. “I’d come up with one and think, ‘That’s dumb.’ I’ve never had a knack for it. But because [the acts in “100 Records” are] fictional, it was easy to come up with band names — the names came left and right. A lot of the names that came to me I’d be happy to use as real band names. In fact, I’m trying to get a couple of the bands to become real bands.”

Indeed, one of the groups on “100 Records,” the Loud Fast Fools, will soon make the transition from fiction to the reality of today with a gig at the Knockout. Smith’s recording process for the project has been varied. He’s taken instrumental passages from obscure ’50s, ’60s, and ’80s songs, patched and lopped them with Guitar Hero, and put vocals on top. He’s recorded solo. He also knocked out dozens of songs with a multi-instrumentalist group of largely San Francisco musicians, some of whom he refers to by last name: Stoltz, Dwyer.

“There are a couple of balls-out, crazy ‘Louie Louie’-type numbers, and Spencer [Owen] played drums on those,” Smith says, describing the sessions. “It was some of the best drumming I’ve ever played with. He had these bizarre beats and fills. I thought, ‘This is so perfect — this is probably how a song like “Louie Louie” happened.'”

A spaghetti-narrative project like “100 Records” is a natural for Smith, a storyteller who has documented his life in comic book form and written plays. Later in the interview, with the Rolling Stones’ Tattoo You on the stereo at my apartment, he tells me that one of the first singles he bought was by Mick Jagger. “I didn’t buy it because I knew anything — the guy at the record store just told me to buy it,” he says. “It was a record store in Fairfax that was Van Morrison’s parents’ record store. He just bought the store and put his parents there to run it.” This anecdote then spirals into a funny one that a member of Morrison’s band told him about being stuck playing an endless version of “Domino” on a darkened arena concert stage while Morrison secretly caught a cab and a plane to L.A.

Smith has a keen eye for the mythologizing involved in music, and how a college radio DJ can build the guy down the street into a mysterious cult figure. Around the release of one album, his label pestered him to write a fake Pitchfork review, but he declined. “I’d be more into writing a fake Playboy interview,” he says. Ironically, Pitchfork has come calling of late, writing about Sonny and the Sunsets.

Internet career-makers come and go. For now, Smith is more concerned with opening night of “100 Records” and the debut of his own art contribution to the show, a customized jukebox. “It’s a hell of a thing, ” he says, after breaking down the differences between Wurlitzers and other brands, and explaining that a rat-infested jukebox buried under stacks at Adobe Books first inspired the idea. “My friend who is a master carpenter used this German ’50s jukebox as a reference. It’s almost like a joke — like making a stove from scratch. Why would someone do that? But someone did.” That someone is Smith, and he’s hosting a jukebox party this week.

SONNY SMITH: 100 RECORDS

With music by the Sandwitches and Sonny and the Sunsets

Fri/9, 6–9 p.m. (through May 14), free

Gallery 16

501 Third St., SF

(415) 626-7495

Benefits: April 7-April 13

David Talbot
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0
Benefits: April 7-April 13

Ways to have fun while giving back this week

Thursday, April 8

1369 Lights
Be among the first to get a copy of the new Moholy Ground Magazine, the New Photography Journal. Meet Moholy Ground staff and featured artists and enjoy cocktails and music from DJ BoomBostic spinning soul, motown, and funk. The Moholy Ground Project publishes nonprofit art journals and books and provides low cost promotions and marketing to art organizations and individuals involved in the art community.
7 p.m., $5
Blue Six Acoustic Room
3043 24th St., SF
www.moholyground.org

Friday, April 9

FACT/SF
Grab some gloves, hats, or any other costumes you feel like wearing  and head to this fundraiser party for the dance troupe FACT/SF featuring a silent auction, drinks, snacks, performances by Light Fiction, Lily Taylor, Emily Woo Zeller, DJ Nuxx, and more, including a sneak preview of FACT/SF’s new project, The Consumption Series.
8 p.m., $20-100 sliding scale
Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory
1519 Mission, SF
www.factsf.org

Saturday, April 10

Catwalk 2010
Watch as aspiring male to female transgender models from all over the country compete for the Catwalk 2010 crown in categories such as cocktail wear, swimwear, and evening wear. Proceeds from the event go to the AIDS Housing Alliance.
7 p.m., $40
SOMArts Gallery
934 Brannan, SF
catwalkusa.com

Poker Tounament
Attend this poker tournament to benefit Bay Area Women Against Rape (BAWAR), an organization that provides 24 hour services for survivors of sexual assault and their significant others. First, second, and third place winners will receive prizes and there will be raffle drawings throughout the night.
7:30 p.m., $50 buy in
Station Barber Shop
Suite 100
4400 Grand, Oak.
(510) 214-2299
poker@bawar.org, call or email to register

Soiree 8
Celebrate the San Francisco LGBT Community Center’s eighth anniversary with a night of decadent foods from San Francisco restaurants, entertainment from queer artists, and flowing cocktails featuring special guests Theresa Sparks and David Campos. The evening is scheduled to end with a dance party with music by local DJs.
7 p.m., $95
Terra Gallery
511 Harrison, SF
soiree.sfcenter.org

Sunday, April 11

Rose Pistola Cooks for North Beach
Enjoy a bountiful family style dinner, served at long tables, and accompanied by wines by Fancis Coppola Wines to benefit the North Beach Citizens, a neighborhood organization for the homeless. The hosts of the evening will be Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Jeanette Etheredge, so expect poetry  readings, film screenings, dancing, and other suprises.
6 p.m., $125
Basement of Sts. Peter and Paul Church
666 Filbert, SF
www.northbeachcitizens.org

Quick Lit: April 7-April 13

David Talbot
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Quick Lit: April 7-April 13

Literary readings, book tours, and talks this week

Wednesday, April 7

How to Defeat Your Own Clone
Hear authors Terry Johnson and Kyle Kurpinsky deliver educational and entertaining advice on how to survive the not too distant bioengineered future at this reading of their recent book, How to Defeat Your Own Clone And Other Tips for Surviving the Biotech Revolution.
7:30 p.m., free
Booksmith
1644 Haight, SF
(415) 863-8688


The Racial Discourses of Life Philosophy: Négritude, Vitalism, and Modernity
Attend this reading and discussion on this new book by author Donna V. Jones, where she revisits narratives on life produced in the early twentieth century and shows how Bergson, Nietzsche, and the poets Léopold Senghor and Aimé Césaire fashioned the concept of life into a central aesthetic and metaphysical category while also implicating it in discourses on race and nation.
5:30 p.m., free
University Press Books
2430 Bancroft, Berk.
(510) 548-0585

Spiritual Life of Bay Area Tribes
Attend this lecture on the spiritual life of Bay Area native tribes by Richie Richards of Lakota descent, who is a Native American specialist dedicated to bringing Native American studies to elementary schools.
7:30 p.m., free
Northbrae Community Church
941 The Alameda, Berk.
(510) 526-3805

Thursday, April 8

Manwha For Girls
Join authors Trina Robbins, Mike Madrid, and curator Andrew Farago as they discuss the role of girls and women in comics and female comics artists in conjunction with the current exhibit, “Korean Comics: A society through small frames,” in the Jewett Gallery open through June 13.
6 p.m., free
San Francisco Main Library
Lower level, Latino/Hispanic community meeting room
100 Larkin, SF
(415) 557-4400
 
Mystery Panel
Check out this mystery panel featuring Shirley Tallman, author of Scandal on Rincon Hill, and Ronald Tierney, author of Death in Pacific Heights.
7 p.m., free
Books Inc. Laurel Village
3515 California, SF
(415) 221-3666

“Why there are words”
Hear a diverse group of award winning authors read selections from their work that fall under the theme “crazy.” Featured writers to include Ethan Watters, Tom Barbash, Wendy Tokunaga, Allison Landa, Ryan Sloan, and Aggie Zivaljevic.
7 p.m., $5
Studio 333
333A Caledonia, Sausalito
(415) 331-8272

Saturday, April 10

Amy Goodman
Investigative journalist Amy Goodman says, “The role of reporters is to go where the silence is and say something,” and she does exactly that. Goodman is known for her dedication to looking beyond mainstream media news to expose human rights violations and political injustice. Hear her discuss her views and recent book, Breaking the Sound Barrier.
5:30 p.m., $20
Commonwealth Club
595 Market, 2nd floor, SF
(415) 597-6700

Diet for a Hot Planet
Author Anna Lappe believes that if we are serious about addressing climate change, we have to talk about food. Hear more about this theory at a reading of her new book, Diet for a Hot Planet: the climate crisis at the end of your fork and what you can do about it. Sponsored by the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture (CUSA).
11 a.m.; $10, proceeds to benefit the Small Planet Fund
Port Commission Hearing Room
Ferry Building
101 Embarcadero, SF
(415) 291-3276 ext. 106

Kings of Poetry
Attend this spoken word poetry event featuring African American poets from throughout the Bay Area. Open mic to follow.
2 p.m., free
San Francisco Main Library
3rd floor, African American Center
100 Larkin, SF
(415) 557-4400

Pearl of China
Hear Anchee Min discuss her latest novel about Nobel Prize winning author Pearl S. Buck, a writer that Min was forced to denounce during the Cultural Revolution in China. Part of the Asian Art Museum’s current exhibit celebrating Shanghai, through Sept. 5.
2:30 p.m., free
Chinatown Branch Library
1135 Powell, SF
(415) 355-2888

Sunday, April 11

Phillip Schultz
Hear Pulitzer Prize winning poet Philip Schultz read and discuss selections from his recent book of poetry, The God of Loneliness, at this celebration of the third anniversary of Writers Studio Workshops in San Francisco.
3 p.m., free
Space Gallery
1141 Polk, SF
(415) 377-3325

Judith Tannenbaum
Hear Judith Tannenbaum discuss her new book of poetry, By Heart: Poetry, prison, and two lives, about her relationship with poet Spoon Jackson, an inmate in the California prison system serving life without parole, as she examines injustices in our prison system.
4 p.m., free
Booksmith
1644 Haight, SF
(415) 863-8688

Monday, April 12

Mark Danner
Hear journalist and author Mark Danner discuss his new book, Stripping Bare the Body, written from and about the world’s war zones, with New York Times Op-Ed columnist Frank Rich.
8 p.m., $20
(415) 392-4400
www.cityboxoffice.com

Get Lit!
Bring your own literary contributions or those of your favorite authors to share at this candle lit, wine bar literary salon.
7 p.m., free
1550 Hyde Café and Wine Bar
1550 Hyde, SF
(415) 775-1550

Legend of a Suicide
Hear author David Vann discuss his new collection of five short stories and one novella that center around the story of an Alaskan father’s suicide.
7 p.m., free
Books Inc. Berkeley
1760 4th St., Berk.
(510) 525-7777

No Rich, No Poor!
Join Charles Andrews in this discussion based on his new book about whether capitalism can be repaired or if it needs to be replaced and what a potential new “program of common prosperity” could look like.
7 p.m., free
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia, SF
(415) 282-9246
www.mtbs.com

Wordcatcher
Take a tour into the obscure territory of word origins in Phil Cousineau’s new book, Wordcatcher: An odyssey into the world of weird and wonderful words.
7:30 p.m., free
Booksmith
1644 Haight, SF
(415) 863-8688

Tuesday, April 13

The Collected Poetry of Dahlia Ravikovitch
Hear translators Chana Bloch and Chana Kronfeld discuss the poetry of Israel’s leading female poet Dahlia Ravikovitch and the newly released collection of her verse, Hovering at a Low Altitude: The collected poetry of Dahlia Ravikovitch. Ravikovitch’s innovative and political poetry provides an inspiring window into the writer’s tortured life as an activist in Israel.
12:30 p.m., free
111 Minna Gallery
111 Minna, SF
(415) 974-1719

“Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?”
Hear author and performer Josh Kornbluth discuss his process in creating his one-man show, Andy Warhol: Good for the Jews?, in response to Warhol’s 1980 series of paintings of prominent Jewish historical figures.
7:30 p.m., free
Jewish Community Library
1835 Ellis, SF
(415) 567-3327, ext. 704

Live Shots: Edible Art Contest, Omnivore Books, 04/01/10

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Foodies filled Omnivore Books in Noe Valley on Thursday night, some to compete and some to eat, for the first Edible Art Contest. The competitors were judged on taste and creativity and the mix of entries were quite impressive. 

There were “still-life” cookies, a “swimming pool” of chocolate pudding complete with a paddling pup and orange inner-tube, and “salumi” made with dried fruit and nuts created by local gluten-free cookbook writer Jacqueline Mallorca.

Once everyone had sampled each entry, it was time to vote. The runner-up of the contest was an amazing three tiered princess cake covered in edible cameos and gold icing, but the winner was the “Alabama Lane Cake,” inspired by To Kill A Mockingbird and said to have enough bourbon in it to have actually been the culprit of the poor bird’s demise. All the entries were decadent desserts and after several kinds of cakes, cookies and pudding, I was on a major sugar high and just grateful I could actually hold my camera steady with all that sweetness rushing through my veins.

Omnivore Books, with its incredible collection of awesome new and old food books, hosts all sorts of other cool events (Alice Waters will be there on April 10th) and food contests, making it pretty much a foodie’s idea of heaven.

Stage listings

David Talbot
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0

Stage listings are compiled by Guardian staff. Performance times may change; call venues to confirm. Reviewers are Robert Avila, Rita Felciano, and Nicole Gluckstern. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com.

THEATER

OPENING

"DIVAfest" Exit Theatre, 156 Eddy; 673-3847, www.theexit.org. Opens April 8, check website for dates and times. Through May 1. The ninth annual festival features plays and performances by women artists.

BAY AREA

Girlfriend Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison, Berk; (510) 647-2949, www.berkeleyrep.org. $27-71. Previews Fri/9-Sat/10 and Tues/13, 8pm; Sun/11, 7pm. Opens April 14, 8pm. Runs Wed, 7pm; Thurs-Sat and Tues, 2pm (also Sat, 2pm); Sun, 2 and 7pm. Through May 9. Berkeley Rep presents a new musical written around Matthew Sweet’s love songs.

A History of Human Stupidity LaVal’s Subterranean Theatre, 1834 Euclid, Berk; (510) 499-0356, www.randt.org. $16-20. Previews Thurs/8, 7:30pm. Opens Fri/9, 8pm. Runs Thurs-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 7pm. Through April 25. Rough and Tumble performs Andy Bayiates’ intellectual vaudeville, an examination of stupidity.

The Lysistrata Project Regent House, 2836 Regent, Berk; www.crowdedfire.org. $10-15. Opens Thurs/8, 8pm. Runs Thurs-Sat, 8pm. Through April 23. Crowded Fire presents Elana McKernan’s Aristophanes-inspired tale as part of its Matchbox Production development program for new works.

To Kill a Mockingbird Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro, Mtn View; (650) 463-1960, www.theatreworks.org. $27-62. Previews Wed/7-Fri/9, 8pm. Opens Sat/10, 8pm. Runs Tues-Wed, 7:30pm; Thurs-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Sun, 2 and 7pm. Through May 9. TheatreWorks performs Christopher Sergel’s adaptation of Harper Lee’s literary masterpiece.

ONGOING

*…And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi Cutting Ball Theater, 277 Taylor; 1-800-838-3006, www.cuttingball.com. $15-30. Thurs-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 5pm. Through April 25. In this inspired poetical-historical counter-narrative from Bay Area playwright Marcus Gardley, Greek mythology, African American folklore, personal family history, and Christian theology are all drawn irresistibly along in a great sweep of wild and incisive humor, passion, pathos and rousing gospel music as buoyant and wide as the Mississippi — or rather Miss Sippi (the impressive Nicole C. Julien), personification of the mighty and flighty river. The Cutting Ball-Playwrights Foundation coproduction, lovingly directed by Amy Mueller, sports exquisite design touches from Cutting Ball regulars like Michael Locher, whose gorgeous plank-wood set serves as the ideal platform for a work both magnificently simple and eloquently evocative. (Avila)

Baby: A Musical Off-Market Theatres, 965 Mission; 1-800-838-3006, www.roltheatre.com. $20-32. Thurs-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through April 18. Ray of Light Theatre performs a comedy about pregnancy.

*Den of Thieves SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter; 677-9596, www.sfplayhouse.org. $40. Tues, 7pm; Wed-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 3pm). Through April 17. Stephen Adly Guirgis has been good to SF Playhouse. The company already scored big with two of the New Yorker’s gritty, dark and sharply funny plays, Our Lady of 121st Street and Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train. Director Susi Damilano continues the streak with SF Playhouse’s latest, the less heavy but very funny Den of Thieves, about an unlikely foursome of inept bandits caught trying to heist a Mafioso’s safe under a discotheque in Queens — a simple tale that gives plenty of scope to Guirgis’s muscular way with dialogue and the clash of characters. It’s a meaty comedy, and the exceptional cast sells the conceit so beautifully they make it a crime to miss. (Avila)

Desperate Affection Royce Gallery, 2901 Mariposa; www.expressionproductions.com. $28. Thurs/8-Sat/10, 8pm. Expression Productions presents a dark comedy by Bruce Graham.

The Diary of Anne Frank Next Stage, 1620 Gough; 1-800-838-3006, www.custommade.org. $10-28. Thurs-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 7pm. Through May 1. Custom Made performs Wendy Kesselman’s modern take on the classic.

Eat, Pray, Laugh! Off-Market Theaters, 965 Mission; www.brownpapertickets.com. $20. Wed, 8pm. Through April 28. Off-Market Theaters presents stand up comic and solo artist Alicia Dattner in her award-winning solo show.

An Enemy of the People Eureka Valley Recreation Center Auditorium, 100 Collingwood; http://sffct.wordpress.com. Free. Fri/9-Sat/10, 7:30pm; Sun/11, 3pm. San Francisco Free Civic Theatre performs Henrik Ibsen’s drama.

Frau Bachfeifengesicht’s Spectacle of Perfection Stage Werx Theatre, 533 Sutter; 1-800-838-3006, www.circusfinelli.com. $15-20. Fri-Sun, 8pm. Through April 25. San Francisco’s all-women clown troupe, Circus Finelli, performs their comedy show inspired by European circus acts and American vaudeville.

Lady, Be Good! Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson; 255-8207, www.42ndstmoon.org. $8-44. Wed, 7pm; Thurs-Fri, 8pm; Sat, 6pm (also Sat/10, 1pm); Sun, 3pm. Through April 18. 42nd Street Moon presents George and Ira Gershwin’s madcap tale of a brother-sister vaudeville team in the 1920s.

*Legs and All Climate Theater, 285 Ninth St; 346-1411. $15-20. Thurs/8-Sat/10, 8pm (also Sat/10, 3pm). After last year’s SF Fringe run and fresh from a roundly lauded New York appearance, San Francisco–based physical comedienne Summer Shapiro brings her cheeky-fresh show back to the Climate Theater. Since last appearing in workshop form at the Climate, a solo piece has bloomed into a pas de deux between Shapiro and Brooklyn-based performer and co-creator Peter Musante (Blue Man Group, New York), becoming a sassy and shrewd physical-comic deconstruction of romance by two hapless, winsome characters — an eat-drink-man-woman-pie sort of thing. The show’s series of short vignettes hits all the right notes in its playful skewering of love’s half-bemused pleasures and general panic. I wept copiously at the precision here, but most people will likely laugh and reach out for their loved ones, or at least warmly squeeze the knee of the patron seated next to them. Deft physical comedy to an eclectic and bouncy soundscape (from Musante and Jeremy Shapiro, and including an original score by local composer-musician Brandi Brandes) substitute quite nicely for the usual he-she dialogue, though there’s a brief, absurdist version of that too. Just shy of an hour in length, psycho-romantic Legs offers a swift all-ages kick in the funny groin. (Avila)

*Loveland The Marsh, 1074 Valencia; 826-5750, www.themarsh.org. $15-50. Sat, 8:30pm; Sun, 7pm. Through April 25. Starting May 8, runs Sat, 5pm and Sun, 2pm at the Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston, Berk. Through June 13. Los Angeles–based writer-performer Ann Randolph returns to the Marsh with a new solo play partly developed during last year’s Marsh run of her memorable Squeeze Box. Randolph plays loner Frannie Potts, a rambunctious, cranky, and libidinous individual of decidedly odd mien, who is flying back home to Ohio after the death of her beloved mother. The flight is occasion for Frannie’s own flights of memory, exotic behavior in the aisle, and unabashed advances toward the flight deck brought on by the seductively confident strains of the captain’s commentary. The singular personality and mother-daughter relationship that unfurls along the way is riotously demented and brilliantly humane. (Avila)

Macho Bravado Thick House, 1695 18th St; http://machobravado.eventbee.com. $15-25. Thurs-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 5pm. Through April 24. Asian American Theater Company performs Alex Park’s drama about a Korean-American soldier dealing with life on the home front after fighting in the Middle East.

Othello African American Art and Culture Complex, 762 Fulton; 1-800-838-3006, www.african-americanshakes.org. $20-30. Wed-Thurs, 10am (school matinees); Sat, 8pm; Sun, 3pm. Through April 18. African-American Shakespeare Company closes its 15th season with this adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, set during a modern-day military tribunal in Iraq.

Pearls Over Shanghai Hypnodrome, 575 Tenth St.; 1-800-838-3006, www.thrillpeddlers.com. $30-69. Fri-Sat, 8pm; starting July 10, runs Sat, 8pm and Sun, 7pm. Extended through August 1. Thrillpeddlers presents this revival of the legendary Cockettes’ 1970 musical extravaganza.

The Real Americans The Marsh, 1062 Valencia; 826-5750, www.themarsh.org. $18-50. Wed-Fri, 8pm (April 16, show at 9pm; starting April 24, no Fri shows except May 28, 8pm); Sat, 5pm; Sun, 3pm. Through May 30. The Marsh presents the world premiere of Dan Hoyle’s new solo show.

Scalpel! Brava Theater Center, 2781 24th St; 647-2822, www.brava.org. $20-35. Thurs-Sat and April 14, 8pm; Sun/11, 3pm. Through April 17. Writer-director D’arcy Drollinger’s world premiere is a comedic rock thriller that satirizes the pursuit of plastic-surgery perfection.

Shopping! The Musical Shelton Theater, 533 Sutter; 1-800-838-3006, www.brownpapertickets.com. $27-29. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Ongoing. The musical is now in its fifth year at Shelton Theater.

Suddenly Last Summer Actors Theatre, 855 Bush; 345-1287, www.actorstheatresf.org. $15-35. Thurs/8-Sat/10, 8pm. Actors Theatre presents one of Tennessee Williams’ finest and most famous plays.

Vigil American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary, SF; 749-2228, www.act-sf.org. $10-82. Tues-Sat, 8pm (also Wed and Sat, 2pm); Sun, 2pm (also Sun/11, 7pm). Through April 18. Olympia Dukakis and Marco Barricelli star in Morris Panych’s comedy about a self-involved bachelor and his dying aunt.

What Mama Said About Down There Our Little Theater, 287 Ellis; 820-3250, www.theatrebayarea.org. $15-25. Thurs-Sun, 8pm. Through July 30. Writer-performer-activist Sia Amma presents this largely political, a bit clinical, inherently sexual, and utterly unforgettable performance piece.

BAY AREA

*Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison, Berk; (510) 647-2949, berkeleyrep.org. $13.50-27. Wed/7 and Sun/11, 7pm (also Sun/11, 2pm); Thurs/8-Sat/10, 8pm (also Thurs/8 and Sat/10, 2pm). Using the medium of photography as its unifying thread, Naomi Iizuka’s Strange Devices ties together two moments in time — the 19th century and the present — as a collector of rare Meiji-era photographs (Bruce McKenzie) comes to modern Yokohama to make a buy, eager to believe in the constructed reality their images represent. But as the tantalizing fragments of a mystery of birthright unfold within an elaborate web of forgery, fraud, and blackmail, so does the realization that, even posed, the truth of a photograph lies within the moment of time it captures, even when misinterpreted by the viewer. (Gluckstern)
*East 14th: True Tales of a Reluctant Player Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston, Berk; www.themarsh.org. $20-35. Fri/9, April 16, 30, and May 7, 9pm; Sat/10, May 1, and May 8, 8pm; April 18 and 25, 2pm. Through May 8. Don Reed’s solo play, making its Oakland debut after an acclaimed New York run, is truly a welcome homecoming twice over. (Avila)

Equivocation Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller, Mill Valley; (415) 388-5208, www.marintheatre.org. $34-54. Tues and Thurs-Sat, 8pm (also April 17 and 24, 2pm); Wed, 7:30pm; Sun, 2 and 7pm. Through April 25. Marin Theatre Company performs Bill Cain’s drama, set behind the scenes during Shakespeare’s time at the Globe Theatre.

John Gabriel Borkman Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison, Berk; (510) 843-4822, www.auroratheatre.org. $34-55. Opens Thurs/8, 8pm. Runs Tues and Sun, 7pm (also Sun, 2pm); Wed-Sat, 8pm. Through May 9. Aurora Theatre Company performs Henrik Ibsen’s pointed indictment of capitalism.

*A Seagull in the Hamptons Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby, Berk; www.shotgunplayers.org. $15-30. Wed, 7pm; Thurs-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 5pm. Through April 25. Emily Mann’s free adaptation of Chekhov’s Seagull captures the essence of his early "comedy" — very much a human comedy, brimming with pain, turmoil and tragedy in equal measure with laughter, love and folly — and yet manages to be completely of its own (our own) time and place, so effortlessly as to seem a little miraculous. It helps, naturally, that director Reid Davis has assembled a very solid and enjoyable ensemble cast for this wonderfully tailored Shotgun Players production. (Avila)

PERFORMANCE/DANCE

"Bijou" Martuni’s, Four Valencia; www.dragatmartunis.com. Sun, 7pm. $5. Cabaret showcase with Alyssa Stone and others.

"Catwalk 2010" Somarts, 934 Brannan; www.brownpapertickets.com. Sat, 7pm. $35. Tita Aida hosts this search for the next transgender supermodel.

Mario Cantone Castro, 429 Castro; 392-4400, www.cityboxoffice.com. Sat, 8pm, $27.50-49.50. The Broadway and Sex in the City star performs.

"The Dance Hour" CounterPULSE, 1310 Mission; www.brownpapertickets.com. Thurs-Sat, 8pm, $20. Stephen Pelton Dance Theater performs new works and audience favorites.

"A Funny Night for Comedy" Actors Theatre of San Francisco, 855 Bush; www.brownpapertickets.com. Sun, 7pm. $10. Marga Gomez headlines, with Morgan, Ronn Vigh, Tom Smith, and Katie Compa.

"Gotta Dance" Novellus Theatre, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 700 Howard; (510) 526-8474. Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. $12-20. Gil Chun presents this eclectic program of tap, hula, jazz, and ethnic dances.

"Hysteresis" Dance Mission Theater, 3316 24th St; 287-0192, www.double-vision.biz. Fri-Sun, 8pm, $15. Double Vision presents this evening-length dance work with choreography by Pauline Jennings.

"Kung Pao Kosher Comedy presents Comedy Returns to El Rio!" El Rio, 3158 Mission; www.brownpapertickets.com. Mon, 8pm. $7-20. Lisa Geduldig presents and performs at this comedy show, also featuring Maureen Langan, Dhaya Lakshminarayanan, Bob McIntyre, and Erin Souza.

"ODC Theater presents SCUBA" ODC Dance Commons Studio B, 351 Shotwell; 863-9834, www.odctheater.org. Sat-Sun, 8pm. $18. This dance series includes new work by Megan Mazarick, Locust, and the Foundry.

"Previously Secret Information" StageWerx Theatre, 533 Sutter; www.brownpapertickets.com. Wed/7, 8pm; May 16 and June 13, 7pm. $10. Joe Klocek hosts this storytelling series.

Slomski Brothers with Red Hots Burlesque El Rio, 3158 Mission; www.elriosf.com. Fri, 7:30pm. $5-10. Vaudeville and burlesque performers.

"Snob Theater" Dark Room, 2263 Mission; www.darkroomsf.com. Thurs, 8pm, $10. Music and comedy with Mary Van Note, Natasha Muse, Emily Heller, and more.

"Three Stories" Mission Dolores School Auditorium, 3320 16th St; sixteenthstreetplayers@yahoo.com. Fri, 7:30; Sat-Sun, 3pm. Through April 18. Free. 16th Street Players perform one-act plays by Anton Chekhov, Susan Glaspell, and Jean Giraudous.

"Ungrateful Daughter: One Black Girl’s Story of Being Adoped Into a White Family … That Aren’t Celebrities" StageWerx Theatre, 533 Sutter; www.brownpapertickets.com. Thurs/8 and April 22, 8pm. $15-25. Lisa Marie Rollins performs her solo show.

Music listings

David Talbot
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0

Music listings are compiled by Paula Connelly and Cheryl Eddy. Since club life is unpredictable, it’s a good idea to call ahead to confirm bookings and hours. Prices are listed when provided to us. Submit items at listings@sfbg.com.

WEDNESDAY 7

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Boy in the Bubble, Actors, Catholic Radio, DJ Dudehouse El Rio. 9pm, $6.

*Faith and the Muse, Jill Tracy, Tell Tale Heartbreakers, Sunshine Blind DNA Lounge. 9pm, $15.

Gram Rabbit, Spindrift, Foxtail Somersault Red Devil Lounge. 8pm, $8.

Adam Green, Dead Trees Café du Nord. 9:30pm, $15.

*Patty Griffin, Buddy Miller Fillmore. 8pm, $35.

Moira Scar, Attic Ted, Slow Poisoner Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $5.

Moldover, Nonagon, Celeste Lear Hotel Utah. 8pm.

Curtis Salgado Biscuits and Blues. 8pm, $18.

Sherwood, Seabird, Black Gold, Reece Rickshaw Stop. 7pm, $15.

DANCE CLUBS

Afreaka! Attic, 3336 24th St, SF; souljazz45@gmail.com. 10pm, free. Psychedelic beats from Brazil, Turkey, India, Africa, and across the globe with MAKossa.

Booty Call Q-Bar, 456 Castro, SF; www.bootycallwednesdays.com. 9pm. Juanita Moore hosts this dance party, featuring DJ Robot Hustle.

Hands Down! Bar on Church. 9pm, free. With DJs Claksaarb, Mykill, and guests spinning indie, electro, house, and bangers.

Jam Wednesday Infusion Lounge. 10pm, free. DJ Slick Dee.

Machine Sloane, 1525 Mission, SF; (415) 621-7007. 10pm, free. Warm beats for happy feet with DJs Sergio, Conor, and André Lucero.

Mary-Go-Round Lookout, 3600 16th St, SF; (415) 431-0306. 10pm, $5. A weekly drag show with hosts Cookie Dough, Pollo Del Mar, and Suppositori Spelling.

RedWine Social Dalva. 9pm-2am, free. DJ TophOne and guests spin outernational funk and get drunk.

Respect Wednesdays End Up. 10pm, $5. Rotating DJs Daddy Rolo, Young Fyah, Irie Dole, I-Vier, Sake One, Serg, and more spinning reggae, dancehall, roots, lovers rock, and mash ups.

Synchronize Il Pirata, 2007 16th St, SF; (415) 626-2626. 10pm, free. Psychedelic dance music with DJs Helios, Gatto Matto, Psy Lotus, Intergalactoid, and guests.

Yoruba Dance Sessions Bacano! Som., 2925 16th St, SF; (415) 558-8521. 9pm, free. With resident DJ Carlos Mena and guests spinning afro-deep-global-soulful-broken-techhouse.

THURSDAY 8

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Growlers, Sandwitches Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $10.

Miles Kurosky, Pancho-san, Lia Rose Bottom of the Hill. 8:30pm, $12.

Late Young, Jaws Knockout. 9:30pm, $7.

Light This City, Comadre, Funeral Pyre, Early Graves Thee Parkside. 9:30pm, $12.

Montana 1948, DownDownDown, Beta State, Brooks Was Here Café du Nord. 8:30pm, $10.

Murder By Death, Ha Ha Tonka, Linfinity Slim’s. 9pm, $16.

*Ty Segall, Numerators, Bridez Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $6.

"Stevie Ray Vaughn Tribute with Alan Iglesias" Biscuits and Blues. 8pm, $16.

White Buffalo, Joey Ryan Hotel Utah. 9pm, $12.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Graham Connah Socha Café, 3235 Mission, SF; (415) 643-6848. 8:30pm, free.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Valerie Orth Band Revolution Café, 3248 22nd St, SF; (415) 642-0474. 8:30pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Afrolicious Elbo Room. 9:30pm, $5-7. DJs Pleasuremaker and Señor Oz spin Afrobeat, Tropicália, electro, samba, and funk.

CakeMIX SF Wish, 1539 Folsom, SF; www.wishsf.com. 10pm, free. DJ Carey Kopp spinning funk, soul, and hip hop.

Caribbean Connection Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $3. DJ Stevie B and guests spin reggae, soca, zouk, reggaetón, and more.

Drop the Pressure Underground SF. 6-10pm, free. Electro, house, and datafunk highlight this weekly happy hour.

Funky Rewind Skylark. 9pm, free. DJ Kung Fu Chris, MAKossa, and rotating guest DJs spin heavy funk breaks, early hip-hop, boogie, and classic Jamaican riddims.

Good Foot Yoruba Dance Sessions Bacano! Som., 2925 16th St, SF; (415) 558-8521. 9pm, free. A James Brown tribute with resident DJs Haylow, A-Ron, and Prince Aries spinning R&B, Hip hop, funk, and soul.

Heat Icon Ultra Lounge. 10pm, free. Hip-hop, R&B, reggae, and soul.

Kick It Bar on Church. 9pm. Hip-hop with DJ Jorge Terez.

Kissing Booth Make-Out Room. 9pm, free. DJs Jory, Commodore 69, and more spinning indie dance, disco, 80’s, and electro.

Koko Puffs Koko Cocktails, 1060 Geary, SF; (415) 885-4788. 10pm, free. Dubby roots reggae and Jamaican funk from rotating DJs.

Mestiza Bollywood Café, 3376 19th St, SF; (415) 970-0362. 10pm, free. Showcasing progressive Latin and global beats with DJ Juan Data.

Motion Sickness Vertigo, 1160 Polk, SF; (415) 674-1278. 10pm, free. Genre-bending dance party with DJs Sneaky P, Public Frenemy, and D_Ro Cyclist.

Peaches Skylark, 10pm, free. With an all female DJ line up featuring Deeandroid, Lady Fingaz, That Girl, and Umami spinning hip hop.

Popscene 330 Rich. 10pm, $10. Rotating DJs spinning indie, Britpop, electro, new wave, and post-punk.

Represent Icon Lounge. 10pm, $5. With Resident DJ Ren the Vinyl Archaeologist and guest.

FRIDAY 9

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Citizen Cope Fillmore. 8pm, $25.

*Fear Factory, Amon Amarth, Eluveitie, Dirge Within Regency Ballroom. 7pm, $27.

Roy Gaines Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $22.

John n Jesse, Ziggy King and the Jokers Epicenter Café, 764 Harrison, SF; (415) 543-5436. 7pm.

Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, DJ Logic Independent. 9pm, $25.

Love of Diagrams, Weekend, Fever Dream Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $7.

Miko Marks, Andre Thierry Slim’s. 9pm, $16.

Noodles, All Ages, Golda and the Gunz, El Nino Red Devil Lounge. 8pm, $12.

Retribution Gospel Choir, Carta, Sarah June Hotel Utah. 9pm, $10.

7 Walkers featuring Bill Kreutzmann and Papi Mali with George Porter Jr. Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $25.

Rube Waddell, Sweet Bones, Cheetahs on the Moon, Unpopable Bottom of the Hill. 9:30pm, $9.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 9 1616 Bush, SF; (415) 771-1616. 8:30pm, $15.

Black Market Jazz Orchestra Top of the Mark. 9pm, $10.

Eric Kurtzrock Trio Ana Mandara, Ghirardelli Square, 891 Beach, SF; (415) 771-6800. 8pm, free.

Sounds of Blackness Yoshi’s San Francisco. 8 and 10pm, $24-34.

Thorny Brocky Red Poppy Art House. 8pm, $10-15.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Jackie Rago and the Venezuelan Music Project El Rio. 4pm, $10-25 sliding scale. With DJ La Rumorosa.

Jonathan Shue Socha Café, 3235 Mission, SF; (415) 643-6848. 8:30pm, free.

"That Night in Rio" Café du Nord. 9pm, $15. Samba party with Grupo Samba Rio and Dj Fausto Sousa.

Matt Turk Revolution Café, 3248 22nd St, SF; (415) 642-0474. 8:45pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Activate! Lookout, 3600 16th St, SF; (415) 431-0306. 9pm, $3. Face your demigods and demons at this Red Bull-fueled party.

Bar on Church 9pm. Rotating DJs Zax, Zhaldee, and Nuxx.

Blow Up Rickshaw Stop. 10pm, $10. With rotating DJs.

Evil Breaks DNA Lounge. 9:30pm, $20. Breaks with Fine Cut Bodies, Left/Right, Aaron Jae, and more.

Exhale, Fridays Project One Gallery, 251 Rhode Island, SF; (415) 465-2129. 5pm, $5. Happy hour with art, fine food, and music with Vin Sol, King Most, DJ Centipede, and Shane King.

Fat Stack Fridays Koko Cocktails, 1060 Geary, SF; (415) 885-4788. 10pm, free. With rotating DJs Romanowski, B-Love, Tomas, Toph One, and Vinnie Esparza.

Fo’ Sho! Fridays Madrone Art Bar. 10pm, $5. DJs Kung Fu Chris, Makossa, and Quickie Mart spin rare grooves, soul, funk, and hip-hop classics.

Gay Asian Paradise Club Eight, 1151 Folsom, SF; www.eightsf.com. 9pm, $8. Featuring two dance floors playing dance and hip hop, smoking patio, and 2 for 1 drinks before 10pm.

Good Life Fridays Apartment 24, 440 Broadway, SF; (415) 989-3434. 10pm, $10. With DJ Brian spinning hip hop, mashups, and top 40.

Gui Boratto Mighty. 10pm, $15. With Nikola Baytala and more spinning techno.

Gymnasium Stud. 10pm, $5. With DJs Violent Vickie and guests spinning electro, disco, rap, and 90s dance and featuring performers, gymnastics, jump rope, drink specials, and more.

Hot Chocolate Milk. 9pm, $5. With DJs Big Fat Frog, Chardmo, DuseRock, and more spinning old and new school funk.

Look Out Weekend Bambuddha Lounge. 4pm, free. Drink specials, food menu and resident DJs White Girl Lust, Swayzee, Philie Ocean, and more.

M4M Fridays Underground SF. 10pm-2am. Joshua J and Frankie Sharp host this man-tastic party.

Menage a Birthday Party Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $10. Benefit for Northern California Youth Leadership Seminar with DJs spinning music celebrating famous threesomes (like TLC!)

Rockabilly Fridays Jay N Bee Club, 2736 20th St, SF; (415) 824-4190. 9pm, free. With DJs Rockin’ Raul, Oakie Oran, Sergio Iglesias, and Tanoa "Samoa Boy" spinning 50s and 60s Doo Wop, Rockabilly, Bop, Jive, and more.

Sensitive Thug Club Six. 9pm, $7. With DJs Whooligan and J. Boogie spinning hip hop, soul, funk, dancehall, and breaks.

Strictly Video 111 Minna. 9pm, $10. With VDJs Shortkut, Swift Rock, GoldenChyld, and Satva spinning rap, 80s, R&B, and Dancehall.

Treat Em Right Elbo Room. 10pm, $5. Hip-hop, funk, and more with DJs Vinnie Esparza, B. Cause, and guest Joe Quixx.

SATURDAY 10

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

*Exene Cervenka Rasputin Music, 67 Powell, SF; www.rasputinmusic.com. 4pm.

Citizen Cope Fillmore. 8pm, $25.

"Fifth Annual Funk Out with R.O.C.K." Café du Nord. 9pm, $15-25. With Stymie and the Pimp Jones Luv Orchestra.

*Grannies, Fast Takers, Blank Stares El Rio. 10pm, $7.

Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, DJ Logic Independent. 9pm, $25.

*Kowloon Walled City, Hollow Mirrors, Across Tundras, Lost Machine Thee Parkside. 9pm, $7.

*McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Orange Peels, Ralph Carney’s Serious Jass Project Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $7.

Society Dog, Hot Farm, Empireslum Thee Parkside. 3pm, free.

Tender Mercies, Naked Barbies, Yard Sale Hotel Utah. 9pm, $8.

Tornado Rider, Stomacher, 3rd Rail, I the Mighty Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $14.

Phillip Walker Biscuits and Blues. 8pm, $20.

We Are Wolves, Parlovr, Off Campus Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $10.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 9 1616 Bush, SF; (415) 771-1616. 8:30pm, $15.

Bobby McFerrin’s VOCAbuLarieS Nob Hill Masonic Center, 1111 California, SF; www.sfjazz.org. 8pm, $25-85.

Eric Kurtzrock Trio Ana Mandara, Ghirardelli Square, 891 Beach, SF; (415) 771-6800. 8pm, free.

Ricardo Scales Top of the Mark. 9pm, $15.

Sounds of Blackness Yoshi’s San Francisco. 8 and 10pm, $34.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Bryan Byrnes Socha Café, 3235 Mission, SF; (415) 643-6848. 8:30pm, free.

Derek Lassiter Red Poppy Art House. 8pm, $15.

DANCE CLUBS

Audio Alchemy Yoshi’s San Francisco. 10:30pm, $15-25. With Mix Master Mike, DJ Shortkut, and Jazz Mafia All-Stars.

Bar on Church 9pm. Rotating DJs Foxxee, Joseph Lee, Zhaldee, Mark Andrus, and Niuxx.

Blowoff Slim’s. 10pm, $15. With DJs Bob Mould and Rich Morel.

Bootie DNA Lounge. 9pm, $6-12. DJ Earworm headlines this mash-up party.

Cockblock Rickshaw Stop. 10pm, $7. DJ Nuxx and guests spin at this queer-friendly dance party.

Dead After Dark Knockout. 6pm, free. With DJ Touchy Feely.

Electricity Knockout. 10pm, $4. A decade of 80s with DJs Omar, Deadbeat, and Yule Be Sorry.

Frolic Stud. 9pm, $3-7. DJs Dragn’Fly, NeonBunny, and Ikkuma spin at this celebration of anthropomorphic costume and dance. Animal outfits encouraged.

HYP Club Eight, 1151 Folsom, SF; www.eightsf.com. 10pm, free. Gay and lesbian hip hop party, featuring DJs spinning the newest in the top 40s hip hop and hyphy.

Mini Non-Stop Bhangra Rickshaw Stop. Noon-3pm, $5-10. Family-friendly Bollywood dance party.

No Way Back 222 Hyde, 222 Hyde, SF; (415) 345-8222. 10pm, $10. With DJs Trevor Jackson, Solar, and Conor.

Same Sex Salsa and Swing Magnet, 4122 18th St, SF; (415) 305-8242. 7pm, free.

Social Club Lookout, 3600 16th St, SF; (415) 431-0306. 9pm. Shake your money maker with DJs Lee Decker and Luke Fry.

Spirit Fingers Sessions 330 Ritch. 9pm, free. With DJ Morse Code and live guest performances.

Spotlight Siberia, 314 11th St, SF; (415) 552-2100. 10pm. With DJs Slowpoke, Double Impact, and Moe1.

Tormenta Tropical Elbo Room. 10pm, $5-10. Electro cumbia with Ghosts on Tape, Disco Shawn, Oro11, and more.

SUNDAY 11

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

"Battle of the Bands" DNA Lounge. 5:30pm, $12. With Amalgrama, Ten Days New, Wheels Have Eyes, and more.

Edie Sedgwick, Pozor, Leslie Q Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $6.

Ordstro, Tigon, Former Thieves, Benoit, Caulfield, Deadman, Versions Submission Art Space, 2183 Mission, SF; (415) 503-1425. 7pm, $6.

P.K. 14, Carsick Cars, AV Okubo Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $10.

Michael Rose, R2D2, Reggae City Slim’s. 9pm, $30.

Serena Ryder, Ryan Star Café du Nord. 8pm, $12.

*Slough Feg, Bible of the Devil, Orchid Thee Parkside. 8pm, $10.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Lua Hadar, Jason Martineau Bliss Bar, 4026 24th St, SF; (415) 826-6200. 4:30pm, $10.

Noertker’s Moxie Musicians Union Hall, 116 Ninth St, SF; www.noertker.com. 7:30pm, $10.

Sounds of Blackness Yoshi’s San Francisco. 2 and 7pm, $5-34.

Tomasz Stanko Quintet Florence Gould Theatre, Legion of Honor, 100 Legion of Honor Dr, SF; www.sfjazz.org. 2pm, $25-40.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Country Casanovas Thee Parkside. 3pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

DiscoFunk Mashups Cat Club. 10pm, free. House and 70’s music.

Dub Mission Elbo Room. 9pm, $6. Dub, roots, and classic dancehall with J Boogie and Vinnie Esparza.

Gloss Sundays Trigger, 2344 Market, SF; (415) 551-CLUB. 7pm. With DJ Hawthorne spinning house, funk, soul, retro, and disco.

Honey Soundsystem Paradise Lounge. 8pm-2am. "Dance floor for dancers – sound system for lovers." Got that?

Jock! Lookout, 3600 16th St, SF; (415) 431-0306. 3pm, $2. This high-energy party raises money for LGBT sports teams.

Kick It Bar on Church. 9pm. Hip-hop with DJ Zax.

Lonely Teardrops Rock n’ Roll Night Knockout. 9pm, $4. With DJs dX the Funky Granpaw and Sergio Iglesias.

Lowbrow Sunday Delirium. 1pm, free. DJ Roost Uno and guests spinning club hip hop, indie, and top 40s.

Movement Temple. 9pm, $15. A benefit for CommuniTree and after party for the Green Festival featuring a live performance by Abstract Rude with DJ Drez, and DJs Ana Sia, David Satori, Aima the Dreamer, Sake One, and Abai.

Religion Bar on Church. 3pm. With DJ Nikita.

Stag AsiaSF. 6pm, $5. Gay bachelor parties are the target demo of this weekly erotic tea dance.

MONDAY 12

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Buxter Hoot’n, Mark Matos and Os Beaches, Nick Jaina Elbo Room. 8:30pm, $5.

MGMT Fillmore. 7pm, $30.

Ruby Suns, Toro y Moi, Dreamdate Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $10.

DANCE CLUBS

Bacano! Som., 2925 16th St, SF; (415) 558-8521. 9pm, free. With resident DJs El Kool Kyle and Santero spinning Latin music.

Black Gold Koko Cocktails, 1060 Geary, SF; (415) 885-4788. 10pm-2am, free. Senator Soul spins Detroit soul, Motown, New Orleans R&B, and more — all on 45!

Death Guild DNA Lounge. 9:30pm, $3-5. Gothic, industrial, and synthpop with Decay, Joe Radio, and Melting Girl.

M.O.M. Madrone Art Bar. 6pm, free. With DJ Gordo Cabeza and guests playing all Motown every Monday.

Manic Mondays Bar on Church. 9pm. Drink 80-cent cosmos with Djs Mark Andrus and Dangerous Dan.

Monster Show Underground SF. 10pm, $5. Cookie Dough and DJ MC2 make Mondays worth dancing about, with a killer drag show at 11pm.

Network Mondays Azul Lounge, One Tillman Pl, SF; www.inhousetalent.com. 9pm, $5. Hip-hop, R&B, and spoken word open mic, plus featured performers.
Skylarking Skylark. 10pm, free. With resident DJs I & I Vibration, Beatnok, and Mr. Lucky and weekly guest Djs.
Spliff Sessions Tunnel Top. 10pm, free. DJs MAKossa, Kung Fu Chris, and C. Moore spin funk, soul, reggae, hip-hop, and psychedelia on vinyl.
TUESDAY 13
ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP
Taina Asili y la Banda Rebelde, Lila Rose, Genie Café du Nord. 9:30pm, $10.
Blue Scholars, Bambu Slim’s. 9pm, $13.
Fat Tuesday Band Biscuits and Blues. 8pm, $15.
Jen Grady, Kevin Florence, Ploughman Club Waziema, 543 Divisadero, SF; (415) 346-6641. 8pm, free.
Jel, Serengeti, Odd Nosdam Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $20. Benefit for Haitian relief by Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL).
Little Dragon, VV Brown, Hottub Independent. 9pm, $20.
MGMT Fillmore. 7pm, $30.
Neighbors, Lazer Zeppelin, Ghost to Falco Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $6.
Robot Bombshelter, Marrow, Girls N Boomboxes Elbo Room. 9pm.
DANCE CLUBS
Alcoholocaust Presents Argus Lounge. 9pm, free. With DJ What’s His Fuck and DJ Crystal Meth.
Eclectic Company Skylark, 9pm, free. DJs Tones and Jaybee spin old school hip hop, bass, dub, glitch, and electro.
La Escuelita Pisco Lounge, 1817 Market, SF; (415) 874-9951. 7pm, free. DJ Juan Data spinning gay-friendly, Latino sing-alongs but no salsa or reggaeton.
Rock Out Karaoke! Amnesia. 7:30pm. With Glenny Kravitz.
Share the Love Trigger, 2344 Market, SF; (415) 551-CLUB. 5pm, free. With DJ Pam Hubbuck spinning house.
Womanizer Bar on Church. 9pm. With DJ Nuxx.

Events listings

David Talbot
-
0

Events listings are compiled by Paula Connelly. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com.

WEDNESDAY 7

California Nights California Historical Society Museum, 678 Mission, SF; (415) 357-1848. 6pm, free. Connect, learn, and discuss the future of the Golden State at this open house in conjunction with the current exhibition, Think California, a collection of artwork, artifacts, and ephemera that represent different parts of California’s history.

Castro Farmers’ Market Noe between Market and Beaver, SF; for a list of farmers’ markets in the area, visit pcfma.com. 4-8pm, free. Attend the seasonal opening of the Castro Farmers’ Market and enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables, live music, a blessing by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and more.

Women’s International Film Festival Various Bay Area locations, visit http://www.sfwff.com/ for more information. Wed. – Sun., ticket prices vary. Choose from a diverse selection of films made by female filmmakers from around the world, featuring work by local and international women in all areas of film, in short and feature productions.

THURSDAY 8

1369 Lights Blue Six Acoustic Room, 3043 24th St., SF; www.moholyground.org. 7pm, $5. Be among the first to get a copy of the new Moholy Ground Magazine, the New Photography Journal. Meet Moholy Ground staff and featured artists and enjoy cocktails and music from DJ BoomBostic spinning soul, motown, and funk. The Moholy Ground Project publishes nonprofit art journals and books and provides low cost promotions and marketing to art organizations and individuals involved in the art community.

BAY AREA

Freedom Dreams @ 17th, 510, 17th St., Oak.; (415) 777-5500. 7pm, $5-$20 sliding scale. Attend the launch party for Community United Against Violence’s (CUAV) Safetyfest, a festival celebration safe ways for queer and trans people in the Bay Area to strut their stuff. Proceeds to benefit CUAV’s programs supporting LGBTQQ survivors of hate and domestic violence.

Three Ring Bingo RhythMix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding, Alameda; (510) 865-5060. 7:30pm; $20, including one drink. Play ten knockout rounds of Bingo while enjoying performance art spectacles complete with live entertainment, tumbling numbers, cash prizes, the Yay Girls, Lucky Lucy, and emcee Mr. Entertainment.

FRIDAY 9

BAY AREA

"What I Learned at Straight Camp" UC Berkeley Campus, room 2050 VLSB, Dwinelle Hall, off Bancroft and Telegraph, Berk.; atheists.meetup.com. 7pm, free. Hear about Ted Cox’s undercover stint in gay-to-straight therapy programs at this presentation including music, videos, and a live demonstration. Cox is a godless writer from Sacramento.

SATURDAY 10

Cesar E. Chavez Parade and Festival Parade starts at 19th St. and Guerrero; 24th Street Fair, 24th St. between Treat and Bryant, SF; (415) 621-2665. Noon parade, 1pm street fair; free. People of all races and creeds are encouraged to participate in honoring the life and work of civil rights and labor leader Cesar E. Chavez at this parade and festival featuring live music, ethnic dance, entertainment, food vendors, and more.

BAY AREA

Yuri’s Night Bay Area NASA Ames Research Center, Hangar 211, Moffett Field, Mountain View; ybna.org. Noon – Midnight, $49.50. Join other space enthusiasts to interact with exhibits from a wide range of groups including Google Earth, Zero Gravity Arts Consortium, Loco Bloco, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and more and catch the huge line up of musical acts to be performing on two stages including N.E.R.D., the Black Keys, Les Claypool, Common, and more.

SUNDAY 11

Reinventing Porcelain San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum, Departures Level, International Terminal, San Francisco International Airport, SF; (650) 821-6700. 1:30pm, free. Attend this lecture with Malcolm D. Gutter, professor at Foothill College and UC Berkeley Extension, about the development of Meissen, Europe’s oldest porcelain, during the Golden Age. This lecture is in conjunction with the exhibit, "Evolution of a Royal Vision: The Birth of Meissen Porcelain," through Sept. 13.

Phillip Schultz Space Gallery, 1141 Polk, SF; (415) 377-3325. 3pm, free. Hear Pulitzer Prize winning poet Philip Schultz read and discuss selections from his recent book of poetry, The God of Loneliness, at this celebration of the third anniversary of Writers Studio Workshops in San Francisco.

Wildflower Ramble Mt. Livermore, Angel Island Park; (415) 435-3522. From Tiburon take 10am ferry, meet at Gift Shop at 10:30am. From San Francisco take 10:35am Blue and Gold Fleet ferry from Pier 41, meet at Visitor’s Center at 11am; $5. Learn about the wildflowers that grow on Mt. Livermore on this docent led, 4 1/2 mile hike. Wear comfortable, layered clothing. Bring lunch and liquids.

MONDAY 12

No Rich, No Poor! Modern Times Bookstore, 888 Valencia, SF; (415) 282-9246. 7pm, free. Join Charles Andrews in this discussion based on his new book about whether capitalism can be repaired or if it needs to be replaced and what a potential new "program of common prosperity" could look like.

Post-Punk Extravaganza Needles and Pens, 3253 16th St., SF; (415) 255-1534. 7pm, free. Join Microcosm Publishing for their West Coast author tour featuring zine author Joe Biel showing his latest documentary, If It Ain’t Cheap It Ain’t Punk, followed by a Q&A about DIY Publishing, Mia Partlow and Michael Hoerger presenting the secret history of food and espionage in conjunction with their new book, Edible Secrets, and more.

The Daily Blurgh: Splinters of the cross

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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The Daily Blurgh: Splinters of the cross

Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond

“An unbelievably hermetically sealed spherical inalienable maze of light and sound seeing imagery expand in every direction.”

I was reminded of the words of visionary architect and late SF resident Achilles Rizzoli – who spent his life drafting gorgeous symbolic portraits of friends, family, and loved ones as fantastic buildings, the cornerstones of which would never be laid – when I saw this Wired video that Boing Boing posted about Rohnert Park artist Scott Weaver’s enormous sculpture of San Francisco done entirely in toothpicks.

Weaver has been at work on his creation for nearly three decades, having turned down multiple offers last year from Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Museum to buy what he views as an example of, as he told KGO at the time, “what can be done in life if you create and use your imagination.”

“But is toothpick art woodworking?” asks Fine Woodworking Senior Editor, Tom McKenna, in an article from last August about artist Steven J. Backman, who he describes as, “perhaps the preeminent toothpick sculptor in the country.” If Weaver’s accomplishment evokes Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights by its fantastic condensation, Backman’s pieces – many of which are based on local landmarks and attractions, such as the Golden Gate Bridge or a trolley car – go the route of Picasso’s early still life paintings, their forms connoted through pared down lines and simple, pronounced shapes. Even SF Mayor Gavin Newsom gave his seal of approval back in 2005, proclaiming January 11th of that year to be Steven J. Backman Day.

Backman’s art is a wonder of engineering. But Weaver’s is simply wondrous.

 

But what wonders of mental engineering also lurk in the virtual-pet analogue world?

 

And now, again, just in time for Easter, we turn to an Andy Rooney-inspired feature I’d like to call: “You got my goat!”

“Do you Want Men Dressed as Women Teaching Your Kids?”

Hell yes!

But listen up, Traditional Values Coalition. We need to talk about your look. It’s busted. Don’t you know ominous, dark clouds went out of fashion after everyone and their mother mocked the National Organization for Marriage’s “Gathering Storm” ad? Weak. Sauce.

What you need is some drag queen valkyries or some shit like that thundering out of the heavenly maw, ready to swoop down and piss on the souls of those studious young folk, whose preciousness is so inviolate as to make Justin Bieber look like the next jailbait-hungry mark to get punked on To Catch a Predator (just give him time).

If you want fierce, bitch, you gotta go Wagner.

Wear your heart on your boob

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Wear your heart on your boob

Do your tassels swing low? Do they shimmy to and fro? Spring is here and as anyone taking a casual stroll in the Castro knows, clothing is optional. The guys have been walking around without shirts since forever, so why not put out and paste up, ladies– your rack was born to shine with red sparkles and dangling ribbons.

Walking in the Haight yesterday, a glimmering set of blue hearts poked me in the face and lured me straight into an adorable lingerie shop for closer inspection. Dollhouse Bettie sports a few different pairs from the Oregon designer, Gothfox Designs, but these bridal satin, royal beauties are classically stunning. These pasties even come with a fancy name, “J’amie l’ocean”, alluding to their oceanic inspiration.

Gothfox Designs

Skip the swimsuit and sport a nifty set of pasties for zero tan lines– the matching trim and tassels are guaranteed to pull in a wave of looks and approvals. 

With tit stickers on the brain, I checked into the featured set at Madame S and was more than pleased with these “Heartbreaker Pasties.” This San Francisco store makes these flattering hearts in their very own latex production lab, located just behind the storefront in the SOMA neighborhood. The tight, naughty black latex will hug your nipples and the blood red trim definitely has the power to make hearts (and organs) pound with desire.

Heartbreaker Pasties

The cup-less bra is a perfect accessory for any pair of pasties– keeps things perky. 

Scared to sport ’em under a blazer like Rihanna? Wear them at home for your lover, test ’em out while vacuuming or put on a one-woman show in the mirror while you practice twirling. And if you really want to throw timid over the bridge, take the breast art for a test cruise during the SF World Naked Bike Ride. I bet you’ll have a hard time taking them off…and not because of the glue. 

Start your “Vinyl Addiction”

Andrew Lam
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Start your “Vinyl Addiction”

“Here’s my Jaguar Warrior.” Jesse Hernandez pulls out his toy, and sets it on our café table with a broad smile. Two women at the next table over are immediately intrigued. “Oh, that’s beautiful! What is that?” they coo. Hernandez seems flattered by the compliments, and patiently explains that it’s a vinyl toy and that he designed the elaborate yellow cat figurine with the sweeping blue plumes and fierce, fanged skull peering out of its face. And yes, it’s pretty cool.

One gets the impression that, as host of MYX TV’s new show “Vinyl Addiction,” (who celebrates its launch party and the release of an exclusive Hernandez toy Sat/3 at New People) Hernandez is used to explaining to people just what these cute/creepy little dolls are. He certainly got me to understand their appeal.

“There’s a multi-faceted quality to [vinyl toys],” Hernandez explains. The toys, which are often designed by well known artists, are manufactured in runs ranging from the mass release to the limited edition, to the one-off “custom,” hand painted by the artist themselves. Springing initially from the heavy character culture in Japan and Hong Kong in the late nineties, their designs can range from precious to unsettling, from manga to menacing. “They’re usually both,” says Hernandez “they’re cute, but really messed up. Or it’s dangerous and cute.” 

It’s easy to see why the seniors at the next table were intrigued by Hernandez’s design. The “jaguar” design is painted onto a bunny doll, the cat ears superimposed on the floppy rabbit ones. Though simplified from many of his custom runs, the artwork on the doll is at once, fierce, tribal and modern. It’s only slightly adorable when taken in with its globular cartoon rabbit form.

Hernandez has dubbed his style “urban Aztec,” and he deploys it in a dizzying array of mediums. He creates beautiful drawings (“everything I do is based on drawing,” he says) and fine art paintings of Aztec warriors and mythological figures, reflecting his Yaqui/Chicano heritage. “You have to push the limits,” he says. “I wanna make something timeless.”

He shows a slightly more city-oriented side in his animated sequences, painting a picture of life in the Bay Area, where he grew up, with “The Nutshack,” his original MYX series that he art directs and co-created. Hernandez says many artists come to vinyl toys as an offshoot of their production of other kinds of art. “Vinyl toys can be a stepping stone, a rite of passage for an artist to have something [mass produced].”

With all these projects, it baffles the mind that Hernandez could take on another job. But it’s clear that “Vinyl Addiction” sprang from his respect for the vinyl toy movement- and a desire that an artist be the one to tell their story. 

Most episode shoots, it’s just him and the cameraman. Though he now holds the titles of the show’s host/producer/creater/director/editor/animator, Hernandez was loathe, at first, to become the oncamera host of “Vinyl Addiction.” But now that two years after shooting the pilot with co-field producer Roland Posadas, he sees his involvement as key to part of the show’s effectiveness. “I think it brings out that level of authenticity,” he says. “This is my culture. Everyone knows I’m a part of it, and I want everyone to be shown in the best light possible.” 

His expertise of the topic is evident in the preview reels of the program, which will air nationwide through On Demand and in MYX’s three urban markets of the Bay, Orange County and Northern Virginia. Hernandez goes to his colleagues’ gallery and custom shows, profiling artists and companies involved in making the toys. 

“The hardest challenge,” he says, was to figure out a way to cover the topic in a way that made sense to people who didn’t know much about vinyl toys, to educate them on the art form. He resoved the issue with “Vinyl Vocab” segments, which take a moment to teach viewers the definition of one of the scene’s specialty terms. Hernandez’s voiceovers during the lessons are done in a faux British accent, which seems to poke fun at the concept of codifying a scene that, up to now, has been pretty esoteric.

But Hernandez is sure that the popularity of vinyl toy art is on the rise in America. He says mainstream companies are picking up on the toys’ aesthetic to appeal to consumers. “So many people are into the look [of vinyl toys], even if they don’t understand it. It’s an unknown art form.” Two years ago, he told MYX that they had to produce “Vinyl Addiction” to be in on the first wave of the toys’ growing US popularity.

I’m going to have to agree with him that it’s hard not to love the vinyl doll. Even I, with whom the verb “collect” and the concept of the “collectible” sit poorly due to my inveterate nomadism, couldn’t help but paw at some of the more striking pieces. Hernandez met me at Kidrobot, a store on Haight street that’s been selling it’s own line of vinyl toy figurines and T-shirts since 2002. He tells me he always used to love coming here to see the new releases. 

Inside, the stark white walls are lined with glass cases full of nicely displayed vinyl friends. Here, a couple of blasé kids sumple, only their shaggy heads and limbs protruding from cans labeled “Boring Juice,” there, an adorable rhino brandishing a revolver. Not to mention all the spikey, snarling things that are just… so cute. 

Suddenly, I can understand the motivation of all the friends I have with vast toy collections. They’re witty. They’re creative. They’re art. I like them. And, judging from the drive of Hernandez and “Vinyl Addiction,” I don’t think I’ll be the only one.

 

“Vinyl Addiction” launch party

Sat/3 7-10 p.m., free

New People

1740 Post, SF

www.vinyladdiction.tv

 

Ross on the road: The great white north

Zelda Bronstein
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Ross on the road: The great white north

Editors note: Guardian correspondent John Ross is traveling across the nation pomoting his new book, El Monstruo — Dread & Redemption in Mexico City, and is sending us dispatches from the road. This week: Twin Cities, Madison and Northern Michigan.


 1. BLUE IGLOO


As I deplaned the Southwest Shuttle from Denver wrapped in my blue igloo, a puffed up garment that doubles my skeletal girth, a sudden spasm of panic punched me in the gut. Had I slept through my stop and disembarked in Fargo, North Dakota instead?
Minneapolis might just as well have been Fargo. The dead winter landscape lay frozen under week-old snowdrifts and the Twin Cities shivered in negative wind chill numbers beneath a leaden sky from which a cold hard rain would pelt down for a week. Fargo or Minneapolis? It didn’t much matter where I had landed – just don’t toss me into the wood chipper.


On my first evening in this desolate region, I was invited to dialogue with the Minnesota Immigrant Freedom Network at a community center in St. Paul. About 15 transplanted Mexicans, many of them related by marriage or friendship, pulled together in a circle in the gymnasium while the kids romped in the other room. Each called out his or hers’ “patria chica,” their home state or region or town. I talked about Mexico down on the ground today in the cheerless winter of 2010, the 100th anniversary of a distant revolution. How four out of every ten heads of households are out of work. 10,000 farmers and their families forced to abandon their milpas as millions of tons of NAFTA corn inundate the country. 19,000 dead in Felipe Calderon’s disastrous attempt to beat down the drug cartels. Who will be next?


Those in the circle leaned forward on their folding chairs, bending into my words as if I was a messenger bringing bad news from home. One woman began to weep and another rose to comfort her.


Later, I pulled out my book, El Monstruo – Dread & Redemption in Mexico City to show them what I had written. Families who would probably not eat meat for a week if they bought one snapped up three Monsters and asked me to sign them for their children — Alejandra, Yesica, Jeni, Alfonso, Jonaton — so that they could learn about the country they had been forced to abandon, in their new language.


As the session wound down, Mariano (not his real name) invited the families to a Jewish Seder the next week at a progressive Minneapolis schul. Then they would get on the buses and head for Washington D.C., a 150 hour round trip, to march for immigration reform on March 21st, the first day of spring. In the nooks and crannies of Obama’s America, Mexicans were beginning to come out of four years of social hibernation to rally for immigration reform, not a hot button issue in this economically strewn landscape.


I hung up with my old camarada Tomas Johnson, one of the apostles of fair trade Zapatista coffee — similar dispensaries like Just Coffee in Madison and Higher Grounds in Michigan are sprinkled over the frigid Midwest. Café has played a diminished role in the slender Zapatista economy ever since Muk’Vitz, a Tzotzil Indian cooperative, imploded when coffee prices soared — coyotes, bottom-feeder speculators, started showing up on the members’ doorsteps offering a few pesos more than the fair trade price.


Coffee is not an ideal resource upon which to build Zapatista autonomy — the price is set far away on commodity exchanges in London and New York and the product itself is destined for the jaded palettes of the connoisseur class in the cities of the north. Moreover, the coffee crop soaks up corn land and adds nothing to indigenous nutrition.


I marked my journey into my 73rd year at a house fiesta hosted by Tomas’s steady squeeze, an audiologist who gifted me with a hearing aid so that I might be able to decipher that questions hurled at me from the small audiences I address. This time last year, I was being wheeled into a green, antiseptic operating room for a round of chemotherapy that would k.o. the tumor that had taken over my liver. This birthday is the real gift.


I entertained privileged white students at several universities during my stay in the Twin Cities, got hopelessly lost in a frigid wasteland trying to find a Lutheran college, told tall tales to a handful of Raza at the U. of Minn, and attended a showing of the Benny More bio-pic at a jam-packed local theater. Benny’s scintillating calor radiating from the screen in waves of tropical heat juxtaposed oddly against the backdrop of the frozen north. Minneapolis-St Paul, with their new populations of color – Somalis, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Hmung, and Latinos – spice up this staid old state with exotic flavors. The music has changed: Reggaeton and Rancheros have replaced Spider John Koerner. I drink in the Albert Ayler-like contortions of a longhaired white boy at a jam session downstairs at the Clown Lounge.


Politics too are not as usual in this once-upon-a-time farmer-labor socialist paradise: Keith Ellison is the nation’s first Muslim congress person and a middle-of-the-road Democrat comedian stands small in the shoes of Paul Wellstone. In the other corner, the pit viper Michelle Bachman spits her venom into the black lagoons of Obamalandia.


II. TURKEY MOLE


I’m back on the Big Dog — there are plenty of Mexicans here but no Mexican bus. On the jump over to Madison, I chat with a well-seasoned black man during a smoke break. He wants to know where I’m headed. I’m on a low-rent book tour, I explain, I move from city to city to sell my books. “I’m on a book tour myself,” he laughs, “I get off where I want to and see if I like it or not. Hung up in Oswego for eight days but wasn’t anything there for me…”


There is a down-at-the-heels traveling class — the evicted and foreclosed, laid off and uprooted — rolling around the underbelly of this damaged country with no fixed destination in mind, looking for a place to light, some place that feels like home.


Norm Stockwell, who keeps WORT-FM, the Voice of Madison’s Voiceless, choogling, picks me up at the Greyhound depot, a furniture-less warehouse that resembles an immigrant detention center on the outskirts of town, and drives me over to the once-a-month Socialist pot-luck, but only scraps and few stained paper plates are left. A few hours earlier, the Madison P.D. visited the premises at the behest of the Wisconsin Socialist Party to remove a truculent member who had been abruptly expelled from its ranks, an astonishingly unpolitical resolution to a political dispute.


Madison is a city that doesn’t leave much up to chance. Cops are ever at the ready to surveil radical meetings. One cannot post a hand-scrawled street sign protesting injustice without first obtaining a permit from the city. No household is allowed to house more than three chickens (no roosters), a law that necessitates chicken inspectors and has given birth to the Chicken Liberation Front.


The State Capitol, a knock-off the Nation’s, is forever on the eyeline in Madison to remind one of the power of the State, I expect. The city is laid out on a grid so that all avenues spoke off from its monstrous dome – you have to move out of town to escape the radiation.


On Saturday, March 20th, a fistful of eternal protestors gathered at the foot of this granite beast to mark the start of the eighth year of the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq and the decimation of millions of its people. As I trudged up State Street towards the Capitol, I flashed back to our feverish days as Human Shields in Baghdad in March 2003 and thought about Sasha for whom the war never goes home, climbing the hills of Amman, delivering collateral repair from dawn to dusk to the million Iraqi refugees that forgotten war has exiled to the Jordanian capitol.


Our presidents invade so many foreign countries that they can’t even remember the name of the last one they destroyed. Iraq has been erased from the North American mind screen in favor of Afghanistan, the Good War on Obama’s agenda. Last month, Sasha and Mary’s Collateral Repair Project took in just $50 in donations and CRP is in danger of folding. Send them some Yanqui shekels at (www.collateralrepairproject.org.)


The annual commemoration of the Iraqi genocide draws smaller and smaller knots of humanity each year — 80 or so souls in Madison, 500 in San Francisco, not 10,000 in Washington. But the next day, as Baracko’s Dems braved the racist jibes and hard fruit of the Teabaggers to enter the hallowed halls of Congress and narrowly vote up a phony health care reform bill that excludes immigrants from coverage and leaves the insurance congloms on top, 200,000 assembled outside to back up a proposed immigration reform that smells just as cheesy as Obamacare.


The rally proved to be the largest confluence of immigrant workers since that miraculous May 1st four years ago when millions came out of the shadows to shout “aqui estamos y no nos vamos.” After that milestone moment, the immigrant rights movement was driven into the underground by Bush’s ICE raids, Lou Dobbs, the Minutemen, real-time Mexico bashing with knives and bottles, Sheriff Joe’s Arizona storm troopers, good ol’ American-as-apple-pie racism, and the squeamish response of the official Latino leadership.


Now the indocumentados are taking their first baby steps back into the maelstrom of U.S. politics. Hundreds of grassroots groups like the Minnesota Immigration Freedom Network rented buses and drove off to Washington on the first day of spring and May 1st, the day on which immigrant workers first took to the streets of America 124 years ago in the battle for the eight hour day, now looms large on the calendar of resistance.


Lester Dore is a graphic artist who operates under the influence of the king of the calaveras Jose Guadalupe Posada, the brothers Flores Magon, and the breathtaking explosion of popular art that detonated on the walls of Oaxaca during the 2006 uprising in that southern city. Lester whips up a pair of prints to celebrate the publication of “El Monstruo” and the life after death of Praxides G. Guerrero, the first anarchist to fall in the 100 year-old-this-year Mexican revolution. He serves up a big pot of Mole de Guajalote (Turkey) and invites us over. Three compas from Toluca in Mexico State share the sumptuous repast and the conversation quickly slides into Mexican. I learn the origin of the Chilango-ismo “teparocha” (falling down drunk) but eschew the vino (the liver lives on.)


III. SANCTUARY IN THE HEARTLAND


Driving the long route around Lake Superior into northern Michigan, the first tentative fingers of spring have brought a thawing to the land. The cherries that draw thousands of migrant workers to the Lower Peninsula are threatening to burst into bud. Gladys Munoz (her real name) directs Migrant Health Services for seven northern Michigan counties. She is based in Traverse City, a comfortable upper crust enclave — the billion buck mansions out on the peninsula are in the El Chapo Guzman category of ostentation (Michael Moore is rumored to be in residence in the environs ensconced in a lavish log cabin roughly the size of downtown Flint.)


Gladys knows where the bodies are buried. We ply the backroads to the labor camps hidden away down in the dank gullies. Guatemalans and Mexicans stream into this region each spring to do the stoop labor no gringo will do and pick the Maraschinos that top off the parfaits of the few upwardly mobile Americans left in the wake of the ravaged economy (Michigan unemployment clocks in around 15%.) Gladys tells me about three babies born without brains — she suspects pesticides. She speaks about a man from Chiapas who hung himself when he found out that he had contacted AIDS — a priest was called upon to perform an exorcism at the house where he expired. And a young Triqui Indian mother from Oaxaca picking cucumbers for a Vlasic pickle contractor who was stranded in a country that doesn’t recognize her language after her husband went fishing for supper without a license and Fish & Game turned him over to the Migra.


We visit with Liliana (not her real name) from the drug war-riddled hot lands of Guerrero state. The patron is a kindly old farmer who has installed cable TV for the workers and we watch Barack Obama extol the wonders of his tarnished health care bill. Liliana’s husband is picking oranges in Florida but will soon return to work the cherry. She says he doesn’t much believe that an immigration reform measure will make it out of congress – “just some more blahblahblah…” But Liliana will march this May 1st if she can get a ride — undocumented workers are not permitted drivers’ licenses in the state of Michigan.


Traverse City is good to me. I perform at a local organic coffee roaster for a roomful of social change agents. The next morning, Jody T. who gave up her life to drive this garrulous old gaffer around the bioregion, steers the Viva into a trepidatious triangle. Cadillac was once the home base for Timothy McVeigh and the Michigan Militia, a recent flashback on the Ten O’clock News after a Christian posse purportedly targeted cops for blood sacrifice in preparation for the appearance of the Anti-Christ. To the west, small towns with Dutch-inflected names like Holland and Zeeland and Vreland dot the lakeside.


White clapboard outposts of the Dutch Reform Church, the architect of South African apartheid, their steeples spiring piously into the spring breeze, hug the highway. The Dutch Reform Church is the spiritual home of the Prinz family whose most celebrated spawn, Eric, is the go to guy at Blackwater. Further south we slide into Grand Rapids where the similarly affiliated DeVos dynasty’s Amway holds sway. The Prinzes and the DeVoses (a good reason not to root for the Orlando Magic) finance such repositories of right-wing fanaticism as Focus On The Family and Operation Rescue. The largesse of Dick DeVos rivaled the Mormon Church in putting California’s homophobic Proposition 8 over the top.


Grand Rapids, once the furniture capitol of the known universe and now the home of the Gerald Ford Museum of Presidential Imbeciles, is a good boxing town (Buster Mathis and Roger Mayweather have gyms here) and a swelling Latino population has changed the complexion of the city. Despite the downturn, Grand Rapids is trying to upgrade its downtown but the further one gets from the core of the city, the seedier things look.


Koinonia House is a sanctuary near the old demolished heart of Grand Rapids — in fact, it is the only structure left standing on its block. Established by disaffected seminarians like Jeff Smith in the early 1980s when the U.S. waged war on Central America, K House became a station on the underground railroad built by the Sanctuary Movement. The first refugees were Guatemalan Indians fleeing the scorched earth genocide of Efrain Rios Montt. In recent years, K House has taken in Mexicans fleeing that “desgraciada pobreza” back home, like Carlos and Alynn (their real names) who have brought their remarkable art with them to El Norte.


Jeff kicks back and reminisces about the fates of former tenants. The big-bellied wood stove belches out waves of warmth on a chill late March morning. The big arms of the fluffy old lounger envelop a weary traveler and hold him close. K House remains a sanctuary deep in the heart of a wounded land.


Stay tuned. Chicago, St Louis, Jackson Mississippi – there is still a whole lot of traveling to do as the Monstruo tour moves eastwards.               


FIN


John Ross and “El Monstruo – Dread & Redemption in Mexico City” will visit St. Louis April 4th-7th, and Millsaps College Jackson Mississippi April 9th for a symposium on Mexico City – he will tour Baltimore, Washington, New York, and Boston April 19th through May 1st. For details write johnross@igc.org.

Art/S Global Tapas

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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Art/S Global Tapas

paulr@sfbg.com

DINE You walk into a restaurant that offers “global tapas,” and you see a sushi chef standing behind a sushi bar, like an extra player who’s been thrown into some mammoth baseball trade to sweeten the deal, a utility infielder or the fabled “player to be named later.” Apart from this apparent anomaly, the restaurant is good-looking, with a long screen of dark wooden louvers to separate the bar from the dining room, halogen lamps like dangling stars, and plenty of green paint. The place is called Art/S, and the worst criticism that can be made of the physical layout is that the large front windows are filled with Lombard Street traffic.

A few years ago, an excellent restaurant called Sangha, in the Glen Park Village, offered a menu that mingled nuevo Latino and Japanese elements with surprising success (although it didn’t save it from closing late last spring). Still, the Sangha run suggested that Japanese cuisine was not necessarily insular and could sometimes be mixed and matched with other cuisines.

At Art/S, the riff is match, not mix. There is no overt cross-cultural pollination; the two-sided menu card offers a California hodgepodge, with Iberian and Mexican touches, on its front face, while the Japanese items are to be found on the other side. The twain do not meet. Over the head of the sushi chef is a long chalkboard — a kind of scoreboard for the food-involved — listing delicacies such as paella negra (made with squid-ink rice), but he can’t see it.

Paella is one of the few full-sized plates. Most of the dishes are smaller, though large enough to be shareable, and they range in tone from classic bar food to exercises in sophistication that would play well in the temples of haute cuisine downtown. We were especially impressed, in the latter vein, by the yellowtail crudo ($9), which arranged flaps of fish in the shallow wells of a long, narrow porcelain tray, thatched them with shredded radish and slices of jalapeño pepper, and gently doused them with a tart truffle ponzu sauce.

The bar-food angle is well-served by such shamelessly fatty crowd-pleasers as cheese croquette ($9), a blend of white cheddar and mozzarella cheeses like molten lava in a crust of fried breading and served with a ramekin of balsamic vinaigrette, as dark and viscous as used motor oil and quite tasty, though superfluous. Another small plate with similar visceral appeal is the Cali chili-fried potato ($5), spears of Yukon Gold sprinkled with chili flakes and presented with an addictive caesar aioli.

The Iberian-tinged dishes, interestingly, caused some division of opinion. The pintxos chorizo ($7) sounded Spanish, even Basque (“pintxos” is the Basque equivalent of “tapas”), but the chorizo lengths in question were Mexican, made from fresh pork, with plenty of garlic and chile. (Spanish chorizo is air-cured, like prosciutto, and typically seasoned with smoked paprika.) Atop each sausage cylinder, a tab of sweet potato had been fastened with a toothpick, and I wasn’t sure why. The tabs were as pale as Monterey Jack cheese and didn’t add much flavor or texture — not that Mexican chorizo needs help in the flavor department.

The Galicia octopus ($9), an earthenware crock filled with octopus and potato chunks in a spicy dark tomato-based sauce, also left a hung jury. The sauce had the faintly bitter bite of smoked paprika, which perhaps is an acquired taste, and I long ago acquired it; I thought it made a handsome contrast with the faint sweetness of the octopus. Others disagreed. Further objections were raised (rather spuriously, I thought) against the potatoes. They weren’t exactly necessary, but they did add some ballast to the dish. On the other hand, everyone like the spiced chicken tacos ($6 for two), which were made with proper corn tortillas and enlivened with blue cheese.

Fish: several varieties are offered as “sizzling” plates, among them an excellent mahi-mahi filet ($10), dense, meaty, and juicy atop a jumble of bean sprouts, green peas, yellow zucchini, goji berries, and Meyer lemon in a garlic sauce. For unsizzling, flip the menu card and find an extensive list of nigiri, sashimi, and rolls, including spicy tuna — the “ultimate” ($7.50) — and Cancun ($9), with smoked albacore, roasted jalapeño peppers, avocado, and spicy radish. The Cancun struck me as a Californication (a quite nice one, though), while the former strongly appealed to a member of our party who’d never eaten a sushi-style dish before: an already small world growing a little smaller.

ART/S GLOBAL TAPAS

Dinner: Sun.–Wed., 5:30-10 p.m.; Thurs.–Sat., 5:30–11 p.m.

2353 Lombard, SF

(415) 931-7900

www.artsglobaltapas.com

Full bar

AE/DS/MC/V

Moderately noisy

Wheelchair accessible

Our Weekly Picks

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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THURSDAY 1

FILM

Gumby Dharma

When he created the characters Gumby and Pokey in the 1950s, Art Clokey indelibly imbedded himself into modern pop culture, making a lasting and loving impression on generations of fans. That magical connection is chronicled in the Emmy-winning 2005 documentary Gumby Dharma, which delves into the beloved animator’s long life, canvassing the more well-known side of Clokey and his artistic triumphs, as well as several personal tragedies and his search for a spiritual path. Clokey, who passed away in January, had a studio in Sausalito for many years, and his life and creations will be celebrated tonight at a screening of the wonderful documentary, with its producers and several special guests in attendance. (Sean McCourt)

7 p.m., $6.50–$9

Balboa Theater

3630 Balboa, SF

(415) 221-8184

www.balboamovies.com

www.gumbydharma.com

 

EVENT

Craft Bar

Oh, the infamous Bill Cosby sweater — that oversized knit with a plethora of shapes and colors that makes you cringe at the sight of it. Yeah, that one. Well, now you can air that old thing out and put it to some use at Craft Bar. Enjoy a night of dexterity and drinks as DIY virtuoso Katy Kristin demonstrates how to chop up that old throw and create plush stuffed animals and snuggly beer cozies. Before you know it, you’ll be downing tall cans at Zeitgeist with your new cozy. (Elise-Marie Brown)

6 p.m., $5 (free with student ID)

Museum of Craft and Folk Art

51 Yerba Buena Lane, SF

(415) 227-4888

www.mocfa.org

 

DANCE/PERFORMANCE

Reggie Wilson and Andréya A Ouamba: The Good Dance—Dakar/Brooklyn

Reggie Wilson’s San Francisco debut in 2007 disappointed because it only presented a few short pieces he had created in the 1990s. But at least it whetted the appetite for more substantial work similar to what he had presented in other Bay Area venues. Now all is forgiven. The Good Dance—Dakar/Brooklyn, co-commissioned by YBCA, is a full-evening dance theater piece by Wilson and Senegalese choreographer Andréya Ouamba that explores a mutual preoccupation: the continued presence of the past in our lives. The Mississippi and the Congo serve as the central metaphors for this cross-cultural collaboration of dance, text, and vocals by Wilson’s Fist & Heel Performance Group and Ouamba’s Compagnie 1er Temps. (Rita Felciano)

8 p.m. (through Sat/3), $25–$30

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

700 Howard, SF

(415) 978-ARTS

www.ybca.org

 

VISUAL ART

“A Dog’s Life (with a Special Appearance by Cats)”

A collection of funny cartoons focusing on man’s best friend — along with some pals in the feline world — the new exhibit “A Dog’s Life (with a Special Appearance by Cats)” draws from the Schmulowitz Collection of Wit and Humor at the San Francisco Public Library. Among the selections on display are works from artists such as James Thurber, George Booth, and Charles Schulz. Snoopy is in the house. (McCourt)

9 a.m.–8 p.m. (through May 31), free

San Francisco Public Library

Skylight Gallery, sixth floor

100 Larkin, SF

(415) 557-4277

www.sfpl.org

 

COMEDY

Marga’s Laugh Party: April Fools Edition!

Marga Gomez threw an uproarious laugh party in February. Now she’s back to host another night of laughter, dancing, and, of course, boozin’. Special guest W. Kamau Bell is celebrating the release of his new comedy CD, Face Full of Flour (Rooftop Comedy Productions). Other comedians on the bill include Gomez, Yayne Abeba, Tessie Chua, Loren Kraut, and Bucky Sinister, while DJ Sammy Franco brings the music. (Brown)

8 p.m., $10

Cafe du Nord

2170 Market, SF

(415) 861-5016

www.cafedunord.com

 

FRIDAY 2

EVENT/VISUAL ART

“A Benefit for Ed Hannigan: WonderCon Weekend Party”

As an artist for DC and Marvel comics back in the 1970s and ’80s, Ed Hannigan helped bring to life titles such as Batman, Green Arrow, Spider Man, and more. Now suffering from multiple sclerosis, Hannigan is getting help from some superheroes. The nonprofit Hero Initiative takes care of ailing artists, many of whom have spent their careers as contractors and have no pensions or retirement funds. Tonight the organization is sponsoring a benefit party to raise money for Hannigan’s care, with several artists, such as Sergio Aragones (MAD, Groo), in attendance. The festivities include an auction of rare items. (McCourt)

8 p.m., $10–$35 sliding scale

Cartoon Art Museum

655 Mission, SF

(415) 227-8666

www.cartoonart.org

 

EVENT/VISUAL ART

Lower Haight Art Walk

Art openings and events are notorious for their intimidating nature. The art might be hard to “get,” and the elitists might challenge you on the difference between modern and postmodern perspectives when the reason you went in the first place was to snack on the free-range chicken tacos and sip homemade kombucha. The Lower Haight Art Walk, on the other hand, won’t give you a headache. Expect an evening of bar-hopping, live music, dancing, and — of course — art shows sprinkled throughout a four-block stretch in the Haight. Who knows, you might even like what you see and buy a piece or two. (Brown)

7 p.m., free

400–700 Haight, SF

www.lowerhaight.org

SATURDAY 3

 

COMEDY

Mo’nique

In Anthony Hamilton’s “Sister Big Bones” video, the R&B singer makes an ass of himself for Mo’nique’s curves, donning disguises and crashing his cruiser bike just to get closer to the bodacious lady’s heat. He’s not the only one with a crush. The stand-up comedian has made some of the bravest career choices in the business, augmenting her BET talk show with TV specials in which she talked with women in federal prison and, most famously, her role in last year’s Precious as the most horrific mother of all time — which made her a lock for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. It’s easy to forget that on top of everything, she’s real funny too. Check her stand-up act this weekend — just be prepared to walk away with some more unrequited love in your life. (Caitlin Donohue)

8 p.m., $39.50–$59.50

Paramount Theater

2025 Broadway, Oakl.

(800) 745-3000

www.paramounttheatre.com

 

MUSIC/CLUB

Hard French

Look, hot queers into anything but ancient circuit techno and contemporary plasticene ladybots: I adore your Sunday beer busts, your Friday happy hours, your Monday-night free-for-alls (and all-for-mes). But when it comes to a jam-packed Saturday-afternoon dance party rocking girl groups, boogaloo, and garage stompers, it’s finally oui the hard way — Hard French, that is, a raucous party filling the weekend void with BBQ animals on the grill, marinated animals on the patio and dance floor, and DJ Carnitas and Brown Amy on the tables. DJ Bus Station John joins them this time around for some meaty amuse-bouches. My only quibble? It’s only once a month. Hélas! (Marke B.)

3–8 p.m., $5

El Rio

3158 Mission, SF

(415) 282-3325

www.elriosf.com

 

EVENT

Vinyl Addiction Launch Party

Vinyl toys — they’re surprisingly intriguing, aren’t they? Cute little round-headed rabbits and bears, baby dolls and yetis, usually with some subversive detail. That baby doll cranks its mouth open in a scream, and on closer inspection, the rabbit appears to be a necro-bunny, back from the grave. Maybe your little yeti’s sheer smoothness freaks you out after a while. What do they get up to on their shelves, late at night? Jesse Hernandez is on a mission to figure it out. The artist’s new online show, Vinyl Addiction, focuses on the creators of these little monsters, which are popping up all over as offshoots of the manga and graffiti scenes. Watch the premiere in New People’s trippy theater and celebrate the birth of something different in the art world. (Donohue)

7–10 p.m., free

New People

1746 Post, SF

(415) 525-8630

www.vinyladdiction.tv

 

SUNDAY 4

MUSIC/EVENT

Nobunny’s 9th Annual Easter Egg Bash

Can you imagine performing in a stinky, sweaty bunny mask for nine-plus years? Well, I guess you still wouldn’t have it as bad as Buckethead. Nobunny is garage-punker Justin Champlin, and this bunny shows no sign of giving up his floppy-eared head anytime soon, going so far as to stand in for the Easter Bunny himself at today’s Easter Egg Bash. Known for singing pants-less and drunk — often into a microphone shaped like a carrot — Nobunny puts on a show for those of us who like a little spectacle with our music. Go ahead and give a Muppet a hug — just don’t get any yolk in your hair. (Peter Galvin)

With the Bananas, Mayyors, Rantouls, Splinters, and Sir Lord Von Raven

8 p.m., $10

New Parish

579 18th St., Oakl.

(510) 444-7474

www.thenewparish.com

 

MUSIC

Hot Air Music Festival

Easter in San Francisco may mean hunky Jesi and egg-rolling nunnery, but we contemporary music lovers will be squealing “Good Lord” all day (polymodally chromatically, of course) at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Hot Air marathon. Three wide-eared conservatory graduates — Matthew Cmiel, Andrew Meyerson, and Carolyn Smith — have put together eight straight hours’ worth of rare live aural pyrotechnics, including works by lionized off-beaters Steve Reich, Gyorgy Ligeti, and Lou Harrison, as well as wonderful newbies Mason Bates, Missy Mazzoli, and Luciano Chessa. Add in puppets, the Picasso Quartet, and local bass clarinet duo SQWONK, and that bunny is cooked. We’re stayin’ indoors. (Marke B.)

2–10 p.m., free

SF Conservatory of Music

50 Oak, SF

(415) 864-7326

www.hotairmusic.org

 

MONDAY 5

EVENT/FILM

“SFFS Film Arts Forum: Tales from Terror Town”

The premiere of Peaches Christ’s feature-length directorial debut, All About Evil, is just around the corner, and to whet everyone’s appetite for the nail-polish-hued blood, Christ herself — a.k.a. Joshua Grannell — is on hand tonight to discuss the perils and pleasures of making a movie with more talent (including Mink Stole, Natasha Lyonne, and teen idol Thomas Dekker) than money. Christ will be joined by the Butcher Brothers, whose new movie, The Violent Kind, is a biker bloodbath. (Johnny Ray Huston)

7 p.m., $8 ($5 for members)

Mezzanine

444 Jessie, SF

(925) 866-9559

www.sffs.org

 

TUESDAY 6

EVENT/VISUAL ART

“The Roadmap to Extinction: Are Humans Disappearing?”

Every once in a while, a wise man I know will tire of the endless discussion about the impending death of Earth. “It’s not going to be the end of the planet; it’s just going to be the end of us!” he is wont to exclaim. Truly, our global importance wanes as our carbon emissions wax. This self-extermination is the subject of a photo exhibit at this info night–reception for the Global Justice Ecology Project, an organization that works on the topics of climate justice and forest protection. In a uniquely San Franciscan convergence, the night’s learning is going down at Good Vibrations — a store whose arsenal of procreation-inspiring implements might huskily whisper “no” to the photo exhibition’s pressing query. (Donohue)

5:30–7:30 p.m., free

Good Vibrations

1620 Polk, SF

(415) 345-0400 www.globaljusticeecology.com www.goodvibes.com The Guardian listings deadline is two weeks prior to our Wednesday publication date. To submit an item for consideration, please include the title of the event, a brief description of the event, date and time, venue name, street address (listing cross streets only isn’t sufficient), city, telephone number readers can call for more information, telephone number for media, and admission costs. Send information to Listings, the Guardian Building, 135 Mississippi St., SF, CA 94107; fax to (415) 487-2506; or e-mail (paste press release into e-mail body — no text attachments, please) to listings@sfbg.com. We cannot guarantee the return of photos, but enclosing an SASE helps. Digital photos may be submitted in jpeg format; the image must be at least 240 dpi and four inches by six inches in size. We regret we cannot accept listings over the phone.

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