Voguing — that drop-dead fabulous and seriously competitive gay African American dance-battle art form — has recently come back into the spotlight, with a new generation of club kids and art queens taking to the floor to chop, mop, drop, drag, gag, and get “cunty.” San Francisco, of course, has put its own spin on the high-attitude, limb-flinging style that originated in the ’70s in underground ballrooms on the East Coast, transforming the dance into a way to get in shape. You may not have come from the streets, but you’re going to leave Vogue and Tone with amazing thighs, honey. The wiggy workout class — Tuesdays, 7-8:30pm, at Dance Mission Theater and Thursdays, 8:30-9:45pm, at ODC Commons — is led by kicky, spinny showman Sir JoQ, a.k.a. Jocquese Whitfield. The dance has also hit the club circuit, leaping on a recent trend of retro-style dance-floor workout sessions, so be on the lookout and don’t throw shade. If all you know of vogue is that old Madonna track, it’s time to get in-shape and up-to-date.
Art
Best of the Bay 2012: BEST FAIRY EXPLOSION
Once every year, right around Pride time in June, a fantastical fey Imaginarium of uninhibited queer art, dance, theater, ecology, lube-wrestling, puppy piles, porn debuts, and fearlessly naked fabulosity pops up in the old Tower Records building in the Castro. This is the fag-ulous Faetopia festival which, for one delirious week, complements the corporate-sponsored and slickly marketed Pride happenings with a burst of summer solstice fairy dust. The event comes courtesy of the Radical Faeries, those scruffy pan-sexual Pagan sprites whose naturist movement has a long history in the Bay Area, where they spread their gay-gay wings from untamed redwood groves to notorious Burning Man camps. More than 50 artists join forces to create programs — like Gay Hist-Orgy (performer Ian McKinnon’s “cruise of gay historical figures”) and Flaming Queens on Fire! (fire-dancing lessons) — that stuff some good ol’ polymorphous perversity into Pride’s polished corners. And at the very center? Faetopia’s there too, with the hippie-chill Fairy Freedom Village area within the Civic Center festival itself.
Best of the Bay 2012: BEST ART PARKING
On an otherwise nondescript block in SOMA, there is a door painted come-hither red. Don’t be shy, grab that knob! Inside you’ll find God knows what: dance, theater, performance art — it’s something different almost every night. And as bonus, if you come away confused or disgusted from this churning artists’ incubator, you’re only out a few bucks. The Garage has been around since Joe Landini opened shop in a storefront around the corner from his current location. Landini’s mission was to create a safe house for artists, a place to try anything. It has made the venue, with its programming, residencies, and workshop performances, appealing to local art-makers and adventurous audiences alike.
715 Bryant, SF. (415) 518-1517, www.975howard.com
Best of the Bay 2012: BEST DANCE DOMINATION
You may not know this, but you are living in the shadows of an empire. An empire with an origin spanning three continents and stretching back to 2006. Its ruling class is composed of fierce athletes and dedicated artists who preserve a lively tradition with the concentration of tigers on the prowl — but who aren’t afraid to dress up in outrageous costumes and re-enact hilarious Bollywood movie sequences. Behold, Bhangra Empire, a dazzling entity of interlocking steps and poised limbs that performs contemporary variations on bhangra, the Punjabi harvest dance that was transformed in underground clubs in 1980s London into a vital global art form. The Bay Area, with its huge Indian population and many fans of all things subcontinental, has embraced bhangra wholeheartedly, and the Bhangra Empire troupe — our hometown representative at national bhangra dance competitions (and even at the White House) — helps keeps us all on our toes.
Best of the Bay 2012: BEST OPEN SOURCE UTOPIA
“We’re giving tax breaks to companies that allow people to meet in a virtual space,” Erick Lyle told the Guardian prior to the opening night of Streetopia, a multidisciplinary, utopian community art festival that he, Kal Spelletich, and Chris Johanson curated. “But this event will really show the vibrancy that is right here.” In the battle to keep the second tech bubble from edging everyone else out of the city, Streetopia was proactive, asking its participants not for dire predictions, but to share images of what their utopian SF would look like. For more than a month, there were classes on civilian investigative reporting taught by working journalists, dance performances in the street, shared meals in the Tenderloin National Forest, art in empty storefronts, and much more — proof positive that a San Francisco which doesn’t require stock options of its inhabitants is still very much thinkable and alive.
Best of the Bay 2012: BEST HEAVY METAL STITCH WIZARD
He’s the mustachioed maniac who wields a sewing machine and an endless array of heavy metal T-shirts, creating quilts depicting claw-bearing beasties, horned skulls, and other images that wouldn’t be out of place on an Iron Maiden stage backdrop. Ben Venom (née Baumgartner), whose MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute definitely didn’t include quilting, is self-taught when it comes to pieces like his massive quilt, “See You On the Other Side,” featured in Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ prestigious Bay Area Now 6 exhibition. He also presented work in You Should Be Living, a display of metal-inspired pieces at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery in Birmingham, England (homeland of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, and Napalm Death). Venom has even whipped up a baby quilt for an infant who’ll grow up with a unique appreciation of Metallica and the Scorpions.
Best of the Bay 2012: BEST SPLASH OF GREEN
Need a bit of gentle encouragement before you open your home to an exquisite orchid? Will it take a little nudge before carnivorous pitcher plants share space with your beloved ironic porcelain figurines? Maybe a delicate hand is called for when it comes to developing a chic terrarium habit. Michelle Reed, the owner of indoor plant paradise Roots, has no problem with all that — her gorgeous little boutique is there to help green up your apartment and let the sunshine in. Besides delectable, mood-brightening plants for your inner sanctum, the store also stocks a healthy selection of local art to elevate your interior design aesthetic, as well as a neat array of planters and supplies (we’re in love with the heart-shaped wall planters that look like little light sconces). Let your tight, high-rent space breathe a little easier with help from Roots’ little friends.
425 S. Van Ness, SF. (415) 817-1592
Best of the Bay 2012: BEST RIBS IN THE ROUGH
BEST RIBS IN THE ROUGH
One need only scope the location of Double D BBQ next to the decidedly unlovely International Avenue to grok that the storefront incarnation of this former food truck is as unpretentious as it is under-hyped. Credit this food-first attitude to owner Duane Orr’s blunt (but friendly) personality. Screw décor — his art is barbeque. Our favorite is his brisket sandwich: greasy, fatty, saucy chunks of meat falling out of a soft roll. Double D’s Texas-style red sauce, sold by the bottle, is sweet and tangy with a mild spice. Other menu highlights? Ribs and chicken grilled with a perfect hint of char, and creamy, peppery macaroni and cheese. Fair warning: we’ve begun to have severe Double D brisket cravings. A similar yen might lead you to cavalier disregard for aesthetic niceties.
1240 First Ave., Oakl. (510) 228-7000, www.doubledbbq.net
Best of the Bay 2012: BEST ART SQUAWK
Sure, on any given Sunday the Rare Bird is flush with vintage duds for guys and gals, antique cameras, birdhouses, jewelry, and trinkets. But for all you birds looking to truly find your flock, fly in to this fresh store on third Thursdays during the Piedmont Avenue Art Walk. Rare Bird proprietress Erica Skone-Reese hatched the event a year ago, and has chaired the art walk committee ever since, giving all those art-walk lovers who Murmur, Stroll, and Hop (all names of Bay Area art walks, for the uninitiated) a place to home in between first Fridays. Can’t make it when the Ave.’s abuzz? No worries. Rare Bird curates an always-changing list of featured artisans — like Featherluxe, who’ll fulfill your vegan feather-extension needs should you have them — and recently began offering classes in all art forms trendy and hipster, from terrarium making to silhouette portraiture.
3883 Piedmont, Oakl. (510) 653-2473, www.therarebird.com
Best of the Bay 2012: BEST FUTURE OF THE PRESS
BEST FUTURE OF THE PRESS
This might get a little meta, so pull up a bar stool, grab a stiff drink, and bear with us. Better yet, let’s go down to Local Edition bar, where the walls are adorned with perfectly preserved newspapers from the great days of print journalism (ahem, not yet over by the way) and the cocktail menu, designed by Ian Scalzo of Bourbon and Branch, offers playful twists on classics any fedora-sporting muckraker worth her salt would be more than familiar with. Yes, in the plush, Art Deco-ish space you’ll find displayed a copy of the Guardian’s first issue from October 1966 and other legendary artifacts of historic Bay Area journalistic output, yellow or otherwise, plus a vintage typewriter or two. It’s a dreamy wayback machine for romance-addled Lois Lanes and Clark Kents — and it all takes place in the basement that once housed the Examiner’s (and The Call’s) printing press. There is nary an emoticon, comments section, or LOLcat in sight. If the future of print is leading to this sort of thing, we’ll stick with ink and drink.
691 Market, SF. (415) 795-1375, www.localeditionsf.com
Best of the Bay 2012: BEST CUMMUNITY CENTER
Nenna Joiner’s done a number on us. In a Bay Area full of superlative sex shops, her Feelmore510 — which opened a year and a half ago — has run away with our sex-positive souls. What makes her business stand out? It could be her rainbow of pornos (Joiner herself makes skin flicks that have an emphasis on racial, sexual, and body-type diversity) or, it could be the pretty store design, with erotic art displayed in the shop’s plate-glass windows. You’ll often find Joiner at her store as late as 1:30am: besides outfitting her customers with stimulating gear, she hosts in-store sex ed lectures and movie screenings. “Sex is a basic need for survival,” she told the Guardian in an interview earlier this year. We agree, and that’s why Feelmore510’s a new East Bay necessity.
1703 Telegraph, Oakl. (510) 891-0199, www.feelmore510.com
Best of the Bay 2012: BEST FOUND IN TRANSLATION
BEST FOUND IN TRANSLATION
Though that old cautionary tale of the Chevy Nova selling badly in Spanish-speaking countries (Get it? No va?) is apocryphal, there is still plenty of research each year dedicated to the economic impacts associated with poor or culturally-insensitive translation. But who is watching out for the less tangible art of translation of, well, art — and its potential for cultural cross-pollination? In fact, that would be the Center for the Art of Translation. The non-profit organization won’t help your company make overseas business deals, but it will help broaden our cultural understanding through outreach, education, and public events. By helping to support translators, giving children tools for literacy and critical thinking, and hosting public talks, the Center makes our world a little smaller and a whole lot richer.
582 Market, SF. (415) 512-8824, www.catranslation.org
Best of the Bay 2012: BEST MOTHERBOARD MOTHERSHIP
BEST MOTHERBOARD MOTHERSHIP
Started by partners Azam Khan and Oliver Maddox last winter as part of the duo’s quest to offer fair rates on Apple and high-end PC repair, Love Haight Computers deals in new machines, plus customization, refurbishment, diagnostic services, accessories — and rotating art displays? One of the shop’s goals is to support its community, so it makes perfect sense to showcase the artwork of deserving friends for the tech-needy to peruse. If Best Buy makes you squirm and Geek Squad’s orange-and-blue offends your delicate aesthetic sensibilities, head to this Lower Haight comp store-art show. Bonus point: Khan is easily one of the most charismatic tech geeks we’ve met in ages, and he promises “not to rip you off.”
437A Haight, SF. (415) 799-4600, www.lovehaightcomputers.com
Best of the Bay 2012 Editors Picks: Shopping
Best of the Bay 2011 Editors Picks: Shopping
BEST CHARGE AHEAD
Though electric bikes far outnumber cars in communities from China‘s crowded cities to mountainous towns in the Swiss Alps, they have yet to catch on here in the States. Regardless of the reason, and despite SF’s hilly terrain — quite possibly the perfect venue for the bikes’ charms — the owners of New Wheel make this list for sheer entrepreneurial derring-do. Karen and Brett Thurber went ahead and opened the city’s first e-bike-focused store, where they also do repair, hawk sleek Euro-designed accessories, and host the neighborhood’s first e-bike charging station. The station, designed as a gas pump from that not-so-distant era when we needed to drive cars to work (we are writing you from the future), also charges cell phones, digital cameras, and more — quite the charge for the Bernal Heights community.
420 Cortland, SF. (415) 524-7362, www.newwheel.net
BEST FRESH PREP
Guardian photo by Brittany M. Powell
Holy Vampire Weekend, Kanye — no need to waste your time drooling over the archives of Street Etiquette, the sharpest neo-preppy style blog of our time. Fulfill your up-to-the-minute Ivy League-ish yearnings (with a dash of street-level snazz) at Asmbly Hall, the Fillmore men’s and women’s clothing shop for the sophisticated prepster. The natty clothes aren’t priced too outrageously (button-down shirts are around $80), and familiar classics are tweaked with unique elements like scalloped collars and stripy inseams. Husband-wife owners Ron and Tricia Benitez have reworked an old mattress store into an absolutely lovely space with brick walls and blond wood floors. Here’s where you’ll score that funky two-tone cardigan, irreplaceable Macarthur shirt, or dreamy summer beach dress. You’ll have to supply your own air of undergrad gravitas.
1850 Fillmore, SF. (415) 567-5953, www.asmblyhall.com
BEST SHUTTERBUG SECRET
Hidden in a corner of the beloved Rooky Ricardo’s Records store is the domain of Glass Key Photo owner and photography enthusiast Matt Osborne. From a funky wedge of floor space, Osborne offers a top-notch, well-edited, and cheap selection of cameras, film, and darkroom gear. Much of his treasure is stored in an old-school refrigerator case, making for an appealingly bizarre shopping experience. Customers thirsty for hard-to-find photographic gear should check out Glass Key before the bigger-name stores — even if the refrigerator doesn’t hold the key to your photographic fantasies, Osborne is happy to special order what he doesn’t have. He also earns rave reviews for his camera repair skills, and sells root beer to thirsty shutterbugs.
448 Haight, SF. (415) 829-9946, www.glasskeyphoto.com
BEST VINTAGE MEGAVAULT
It is no secret that San Francisco has thrifting issues. Due to the admirable commitment to cheaply bought fashion (and high incidence of broke, under-employed drag queens), most of our used clothing stores are heavily picked over — or well-curated, with ghastly price tags to match. Those sick of fighting could do worse than steer their Zipcars north. In Sebastopol sits Aubergine, a high-ceilinged mega-vault stuffed with vintage slips, half-bustiers — clearly geared toward the Burning Man strumpet — menswear, and the occasional accessibly priced Insane Clown Posse T-shirt. Racks on racks on racks on racks — and if you need a break from bargain browsing, you’re in luck. The shop has its own cafe and full bar, where many nights you’ll find live music from gypsy dance to jazz drumming.
755 Petaluma, Sebastopol. (707) 827-3460, www.aubergineafterdark.com
BEST BLEMISH-VANISHING BOTANICS
The charming, chatty cashiers at the Benedetta Skin Care kiosk in the Ferry Building have clear, shiny skin, but it’s not due to the local produce from the farmers market outside. Based in the Petaluma, Benedetta offers organic, botanics-based, sustainably packaged products that actually work. Take a tip from your freshly scrubbed lotion sellers: rather than loofah-ing your skin to a pulp with packaged peroxides that — let’s face it — sound kind of scary when you actually read the fine print, refresh with the line’s perfectly moist Crème Cleanser that leaves skin smelling like a mixture of rosemary and geranium. From anti-aging creams to deodorants and moisturizing mist sprays, this small company offers treats for all skin types — perfect for popping in next to your small-producer cheese wheels and grass-fed charcuterie.
1 Ferry Building, SF. (415) 263-8910, www.benedetta.com
BEST TOME TRADE
Interested in perpetuating a bibliophilic mythos among your houseguests? Turned on by the image of sitting quietly by a roaring fireplace, sipping a brandy, and reading Kafka amid towers of dusty tomes? Well, the Bay Area Free Book Exchange has those tomes for you to own. Since its opening in 2009, the Exchange has given away more than 245,000 free books for the sole joy of making knowledge accessible in book form. The nonprofit is run by a collection of book-lovers in El Cerrito who sell some of the donated volumes on eBay in order to pay rent, electricity, and other expenses. The rest of the stories, however, make their way to the Exchange’s storefront, where every weekend customers are invited to take up to 200 titles at once. Stock your bathroom with freaky medical guides? Actually read the books you snap up? We’ll let you work out the ethics on your own.
10520 San Pablo, El Cerrito. (510) 705-1200, www.bayareafreebookexchange.com
BEST INDIE KITCHEN MENAGERIE
Guardian photo by Godofredo Vasquez/SF Newspaper Co.
It can be hard to beat the sheer variety offered by your Ikeas and Bed Bath & Beyonds when it comes to fresh new flatware or an upgrade on your trusty college-era rice cooker. Lucky for local business fans (which we assume you are if you’re this deep into our Best of the Bay issue), there’s a little-guy alternative: Clement Street’s Kamei Restaurant Supply. Kamei has dishes for every occasion: light blue earthenware plates with fetching designs of cherry blossom trees, coffee mugs shaped like barn owls and kitty cats, tea sets, sake sets, and every cooking utensil a chef could desire — plus paper umbrellas with koi fish prints and flip-flops. Maybe ‘cuz with all the savings you’ll spot in Kamei, you’ll be able to afford more beach trips.
525 Clement, SF. (415) 666-3699
BEST CUMMUNITY CENTER
Guardian photo by Amber Schadewald
Nenna Joiner’s done a number on us. In a Bay Area full of superlative sex shops, her Feelmore510 — which opened a year and a half ago — has run away with our sex-positive souls. What makes her business stand out? It could be her rainbow of pornos (Joiner herself makes skin flicks that have an emphasis on racial, sexual, and body-type diversity) or, it could be the pretty store design, with erotic art displayed in the shop’s plate-glass windows. You’ll often find Joiner at her store as late as 1:30am: besides outfitting her customers with stimulating gear, she hosts in-store sex ed lectures and movie screenings. “Sex is a basic need for survival,” she told the Guardian in an interview earlier this year. We agree, and that’s why Feelmore510’s a new East Bay necessity.
1703 Telegraph, Oakl. (510) 891-0199, www.feelmore510.com
BEST AU NATUREL FOR OENOPHILES
Much of the wine we drink is stuffed full of chemical preservatives. Purists like wine critic Alice Feiring have raised a hue and cry over the industry’s reluctance to force producers to label these ingredients. We have to give it up to a little shop off of Polk Street for supporting the so-called “natural wine” movement which encourages additive-free imbibement. Biondivino is charming enough in its own right: library-style shelves full of luscious Italian pours, among which proprietor Ceri Smith has made sure to include many natural wines. And because these bottles tend to be produced by small scale vineyards, Biodivino helps support the little guys, too. Sure, sometimes all you can spring for is a bottle of three-buck Chuck (natural wines can be pricey) — but props to Smith for giving consumers the choice.
1415 Green, SF. (415) 673-2320, www.biondivino.com
BEST DIY PANDA BAIT
“If just owning a bamboo bike was the end goal, we’d just build them for you,” said Justin Aguinaldo in a Guardian interview back in February. “For us, it’s about empowering more people and providing them with the value of creating your own thing.” Aguinaldo’s Tenderloin DIY cycling hub Bamboo Bike Studio doesn’t just produce two-wheeled steeds whose frames are made of easily-regenerated natural materials — it teaches you useful bike-making skills so that you can be the master of your own self-powered transportation destiny. Buy your bike parts (kits start at $459), and then get yourself to tinkering. After a weekend-long session with Bamboo Bike Studio’s expert bike makers, you’ll have a ride that’s ready for the hurly-burly city streets.
982 Post, SF. www.bamboobikestudio.com
BEST LITERARY VALHALLA
For lovers of esoteric literature, 2141 Mission is a dream come true. The unassuming storefront (the building’s ground floor is occupied by the standard hodgepodge of Mission District discount stores) belies a cluster of alternative bookstores on its upper levels. Valhalla Books is flush with titles in their debut printing; Libros Latinos holds exactly that; lovers of law history will find their joy in the aisles of Meyer Boswell; and the building’s largest shop, Bolerium Books, holds records of radical history — volumes and magazines that together form a fascinating look at the gay rights, civil rights, labor, and feminist movements (and more!). Most visitors make the pilgrimage with something specific in mind, but walk-ins are welcome as long as they have a love of the printed page.
Bolerium Books, No. 300. (415) 863-6353, www.bolerium.com; Libros Latinos, No. 301. (415) 793-8423, www.libroslatinos.com; Meyer Boswell, No. 302. (415) 255-6400, www.meyerbos.com; Valhalla Books, No. 202. (415) 863-9250
BEST EXQUISITE ADZES
Some chefs drool over the copper pots at posh cooking stores. Artists lovingly caress the sable brushes in painting shops. But what aspirational retail options exist for the you, the craftsman? Home Despot? Perish the thought! Luckily, your days of retail resentment are over. At the Japan Woodworker, you can fondle high-end power tools to deplete your paycheck, plus tools hand-made in traditional Japanese style — like pull saws, chisels, and adzes — which are not only beautiful, but quite affordable. If you’re the type of person who savors doing things the slow way, the tools found here will do much to imbue your projects with love and care. And if you’re not, perhaps it’s time you paid a little more attention to detail — a very Japanese value, indeed.
1731 Clement, Alameda. (510) 521-1810, www.japanwoodworker.com
BEST BUSHELS OF BUDS
Ever rolled your eyes at the endless articles on flower arranging found in home magazines — as if you had the money or the time? Then you might be due for a visit to the San Francisco Flower Mart. The SoMa gem sells cut flowers of every description at wholesale prices, making it the perfect playground for those looking to get plenty of practice, per-penny, poking stems into vases. And if your Martha Stewart moment doesn’t seem imminent, there are plenty of other fixin’s — giant glass balls, decorative podiums, fish tanks, driftwood, grosgrain ribbons, flamingo-themed party supplies — to rifle through. It’s the perfect place to while away your lunch break: it smells great, and it even has a perky little cafe to caffeinate your midday visit.
640 Brannan, SF. (415) 392-7944, www.sfflmart.com
BEST NEIGHBORHOOD FIXTURES
Photo by Godofredo Vasquez/SF Newspaper Co.
Hey, you with the dreams of a better bathroom! There’s no need to put up any longer with that cracked toilet bowl, that faulty faucet, that perma-grody bathtub, or that shower head that suddenly switches into “destroy” mode at the worst possible moment (i.e. right in the middle of herbal-rinsing your long, lustrous hair). Head down — or direct your responsible landlord down — to the cluster of independent home supply stores at the intersection of Bayshore Avenue and Industrial Street in Bayview-Hunter’s Point. There you’ll find K H Plumbing Supplies, a huge family-owned and operated bathroom and kitchen store with everything you need to fulfill your new fixture fantasies. The staff is extra-friendly and can gently guide you toward affordable options in better-known name brands. Even if you have only a vague idea as to which of the thousand bath spouts will reflect your unique personality, they’ll find something for you to gush over.
2272 Shafter, SF. (415) 970-9718
BEST GET LIT
Back in college, you probably had that friend who dressed up as a Christmas tree on Halloween and had to dance near a wall outlet all night so he could stay plugged in. Or … maybe you didn’t. Either way, costumes that light up are no longer just for burner freaks and shortsighted frat bays. With a little help from Cool Neon, anyone can get lit in an affordable el-wire wrapped masterpiece of their own creation. Wanna cover your car with LEDs? This place can do it. Creative signage for your business? No problem for these neon gods. And even if you’re just missing the sparkly, lit-up streets of the holiday season, Cool Neon can oblige: its Mandela Parkway façade is a light show in itself.
1433 Mandela, Oakl. (510) 547-5878, www.coolneon.com
BEST ART SQUAWK
Sure, on any given Sunday the Rare Bird is flush with vintage duds for guys and gals, antique cameras, birdhouses, jewelry, and trinkets. But for all you birds looking to truly find your flock, fly in to this fresh store on third Thursdays during the Piedmont Avenue Art Walk. Rare Bird proprietress Erica Skone-Reese hatched the event a year ago, and has chaired the art walk committee ever since, giving all those art-walk lovers who Murmur, Stroll, and Hop (all names of Bay Area art walks, for the uninitiated) a place to home in between first Fridays. Can’t make it when the Ave.’s abuzz? No worries. Rare Bird curates an always-changing list of featured artisans — like Featherluxe, who’ll fulfill your vegan feather-extension needs should you have them — and recently began offering classes in all art forms trendy and hipster, from terrarium making to silhouette portraiture.
3883 Piedmont, Oakl. (510) 653-2473, www.therarebird.com
BEST PLACE TO STASH YOUR NERDS
Got nerdy friends you just can’t understand? Feel bad asking them to explain, for the tenth time, the difference between RPG, GMT, MMP, and D&D? WOW them with a trip to Endgame. Not only will they find others who speak their language, but — because they can spend hours browsing board games, card games, toys, and trinkets — you’ll have them out of your hair … at least until you can look up what the heck they’re talking about on Urban Dictionary. Add an always-open game room, plus swapmeets, mini-cons, and an online forum, to equal more nerd-free hours than you can shake a pack of Magic Cards at. Just be careful you don’t find yourself lonely, having lost your dweeby mates to Endgame’s undeniable charms. Or worse: venture in to drag them out and risk being won over, yourself.
921 Washington, Oakl. (510) 465-3637, www.endgameoakland.com
BEST KNOBS OF GLAMOUR
In addition to being part of a string of friendly neighborhood hardware stores, Belmont Hardware‘s Potrero Hill showroom brims unexpectedly with rooms of fancy doorknobs, created by the companies who design modern-day fittings for the likes of the White House and the Smithsonian. A gold-plated door handle with an engraving of the Sun King? A faucet set featuring two crystal birds with out-stretched wings, vigilantly regulating your hot and cold streams of water? It’s all at Belmont Hardware. With a broad range of prices (you can still go to them for $10 quick-fix drawer knobs and locks, don’t worry) and an even broader scope of products, Belmont represents a world where hardware can inspire — check out the local chain’s four other locations for more ways to bring the glory home.
Various Bay Area locations. www.belmonthardware.com
BEST ONE-UP ON INSTAGRAM
The square aspect ratio and grainy filters of everyone’s favorite $1 billion photography app turn perfectly good shots crappy-cool with the swipe of a finger, allowing smart phone users everywhere to take photos way back. But to take photos way, way back, you have to be in the Mission for a tintype portrait at Photobooth. These old-timey sheet-steel images were once popular at carnivals and fairs; even after wet plate photography became obsolete, tintypes were deemed charmingly nostalgic — a sort of prescient irony that pre-dated hipsterism yet neatly anticipated it. Perhaps that same appreciative irony applied to the tintype’s tendency — due to long exposure time — to make subjects look vaguely, yet somehow quaintly, sociopathic. Or, as the Photobooth website delicately puts it, “Traditionally, tintypes recorded the intensity of the individual personality.”
1193 Valencia, SF. (415) 824-1248, www.photoboothsf.com
BEST REALITY TV-STYLE SCORES
Gold Rush Alaska? Deadliest Roads? Swamp Life? Though you love ’em, it’s hard to apply what you’ve learned during those late-night trashy-television-and-junk-food binges. But fans of Storage Wars and American Pickers, rejoice! At the Santa Cruz Flea Market, you’ll meet folks who locker for a living and travel hours to sell their scores — everything from fur coats to antique fuel tanks. Pick through yourself to see what invaluable treasures turn up: belt-driven two-seater motorcycle? Check. Handmade blown glass, Civil War memorabilia, bootlegger’s copper still? Check, check, check. Come for the farm-fresh produce, aisles of leather boots, plastic whosee-whatsits and electronics of dubious provenance, or, if Man Versus Food is more your style, challenge a massive stuffed baked potato or shrimp ceviche tostada.
Fridays, 7am; Saturdays, 6am; Sundays, 5:30am; $1-$2.50. 2260 Soquel, Santa Cruz. (831) 462-4442, www.scgoodwill.org
BEST HOGWARTS GREENHOUSE FOR MUGGLES
They may not scream when you uproot them or ensnare you with insidious vineage, but the exceptional succulents, epiphytes, and bromeliads at Crimson Horticultural Rarities will certainly tickle your fancy — in a perfectly harmless way. Find everything necessary to cook up an enchanted garden or adorn your dorm room (four-poster bed not included) in singular style. Proprietresses Leigh Oakies and Allison Futeral indulge your desires with oddities ranging from the elegant to the spectacular to the slightly creepy, and will even apply their botanical wherewithal to help you create a whimsical wedding. Or, if your potions kit needs restocking, Crimson can supply sufficient dried butterflies and taxidermied bird wings to oblige you. (Collected, cruelty-free, from California Academy of Sciences.)
470 49th St., Oakl. (510) 992-3519, www.crimsonhort.com
BEST POLKA PURVEYOR
Though Skylar Fell fell in love with the squeezebox via a happy exposure to the punks of the East Bay’s Accordion Plague back in the 1990s, she knows to pay homage to the masters. Fell apprenticed with master repairman Vincent J. Cirelli at his workshop in Brisbane (in business since 1946!) and at Berkeley’s now-defunct Boaz Accordions before opening Accordion Apocalypse in SoMa. The shop, which both sells and repairs, also stocks new and antique instruments in well-known brands (to accordionists, that is) Scandalli, Horner, Roland, and Gabanelli. Fell will fix you up if you bust a button on your beloved accordion, and she has made her store into a hub for lovers of the bellows — check out the website for accordion events coming up in or out of the city.
255 10th St., SF. (415) 596-5952, www.accordianapocalypse.com
BEST ILLUMINATI
Situation: You’ve just moved into a new place, only to look up and discover that the previous owner somehow Frankensteined three different desk lamps from the more aesthetically challenged end of the 1990s into a living room light fixture. It must die. Worse: Your aunt just gifted you the most generic Walmart wall sconces ever for your housewarming present, and she is coming to stay next month. Perhaps worst of all: You’ve just discovered a gorgeous 1930s pendant lamp in the basement, but it’s banged up terribly and who the heck knows if it works? Solution to everything: the wizards at Dogfork Lamp Arts, headed by owner Michael Donnelly. Services include restoring and rewiring antique lamps and light fixtures, and even reinventing ugly ones — making glowing swans of your awkward mass-market ducklings. (We discovered Dogfork’s magic at the new Local’s Corner restaurant in the Mission, where a pair of Pottery Barn lamps were transformed into wonderfully intriguing, post-steampunk sconces.) Rip out that gross track lighting and put up something unique.
199 Potrero, SF. (415) 431-6727, www.dogfork.com
BEST STYLE FOR APOCALYPSE SURVIVAL
Triple Aught Designs fills a post-North Face niche almost too-perfectly: the outdoor apparel company is locally based (it’s headquartered in the Dogpatch) and personable (the recently opened outlet in Hayes Valley offers a friendly, intimate shopping experience). It is also light-years ahead in terms of tech and design: hyper-strong micro-thin jackets and hoodies in futuristic battleground colors so styley we’d seriously consider sporting them on the dance floor, plus elbow armor and space pens that zip right past wilderness campouts and into Prometheus territory. We’re particularly enamored of the Triple Aught backpacks — these strappy beauts could have been nabbed from a boutique on Tatooine, a perfect look for riding out the coming apocalypse.
660 22nd St.; 551 Hayes, SF (415) 318-8252, www.tripleaughtdesign.com
BEST SPLASH OF GREEN
Guardian photo by Godofredo Vasquez/SF Newspaper Co.
Need a bit of gentle encouragement before you open your home to an exquisite orchid? Will it take a little nudge before carnivorous pitcher plants share space with your beloved ironic porcelain figurines? Maybe a delicate hand is called for when it comes to developing a chic terrarium habit. Michelle Reed, the owner of indoor plant paradise Roots, has no problem with all that — her gorgeous little boutique is there to help green up your apartment and let the sunshine in. Besides delectable, mood-brightening plants for your inner sanctum, the store also stocks a healthy selection of local art to elevate your interior design aesthetic, as well as a neat array of planters and supplies (we’re in love with the heart-shaped wall planters that look like little light sconces). Let your tight, high-rent space breathe a little easier with help from Roots’ little friends.
425 S. Van Ness, SF. (415) 817-1592
Best of the Bay 2012 Editors Picks: Arts and Entertainment
Best of the Bay 2011 Editors Picks: Arts and Entertainment
BEST HEAVY METAL STITCH WIZARD
Guardian photo by Brittany M. Powell
He’s the mustachioed maniac who wields a sewing machine and an endless array of heavy metal T-shirts, creating quilts depicting claw-bearing beasties, horned skulls, and other images that wouldn’t be out of place on an Iron Maiden stage backdrop. Ben Venom (née Baumgartner), whose MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute definitely didn’t include quilting, is self-taught when it comes to pieces like his massive quilt, “See You On the Other Side,” featured in Yerba Buena Center for the Arts’ prestigious Bay Area Now 6 exhibition. He also presented work in You Should Be Living, a display of metal-inspired pieces at the Wolverhampton Art Gallery in Birmingham, England (homeland of Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, and Napalm Death). Venom has even whipped up a baby quilt for an infant who’ll grow up with a unique appreciation of Metallica and the Scorpions.
BEST OPEN SOURCE UTOPIA
“We’re giving tax breaks to companies that allow people to meet in a virtual space,” Erick Lyle told the Guardian prior to the opening night of Streetopia, a multidisciplinary, utopian community art festival that he, Kal Spelletich, and Chris Johanson curated. “But this event will really show the vibrancy that is right here.” In the battle to keep the second tech bubble from edging everyone else out of the city, Streetopia was proactive, asking its participants not for dire predictions, but to share images of what their utopian SF would look like. For more than a month, there were classes on civilian investigative reporting taught by working journalists, dance performances in the street, shared meals in the Tenderloin National Forest, art in empty storefronts, and much more — proof positive that a San Francisco which doesn’t require stock options of its inhabitants is still very much thinkable and alive.
BEST REASON TO DOWNLOAD THE WHOLE ALBUM
In the age of downloadable singles and quick-click clips, UnderCover Presents‘ series of one-whole-album-with-one-live-show pairings values the full record experience. The quarterly event is an inspired mashup comprised almost entirely of Bay Area-based musicians, with each band performing just one reinterpreted song off a classic album. Thus far, there have been shows at Coda (now Brick and Mortar Music Hall), Public Works, the Rickshaw Stop, and the Independent; full nights spent luxuriating in every crevice and groove of the Velvet Underground’s Velvet Underground and Nico, the Pixie’s Doolittle, Nick Drake’s Pink Moon, and Black Sabbath’s Paranoid. To complete the sparkling tribute experience, a pre-recorded album of all the covers is doled out at each performance, to be played in its entirety beyond those singular shows.
BEST MOVIE THEATER IN WHICH TO LOSE YOUR MIND
“A place beyond time, beyond space to experience movies, drinks, and cosmic reverberations.” We know this is Best of the Bay, but the Vortex Room is a contender for Best of the Galaxy. A website, a lounge, a retro-flavored rip in the space-time continuum? Yep, it is all of the above. Host with the most Scott Moffett draws from in-house Cosmic Hex Archive, which includes an online library of delicious, nearly-forgotten sleaze and genre gems (just a taste: 1976’s Soul Hustler, a.k.a. The Day the Lord Got Busted). Most films cost $3.95 to download, but are even cheaper if you become a member. For maximum magick, get thee to one of the Vortex Room’s cult-film double-features, which start up again, weekly, in August.
1082 Howard, SF. www.cosmichex.com
BEST DANCE DOMINATION
Photo courtesy of Bhangra Empire
You may not know this, but you are living in the shadows of an empire. An empire with an origin spanning three continents and stretching back to 2006. Its ruling class is composed of fierce athletes and dedicated artists who preserve a lively tradition with the concentration of tigers on the prowl — but who aren’t afraid to dress up in outrageous costumes and re-enact hilarious Bollywood movie sequences. Behold, Bhangra Empire, a dazzling entity of interlocking steps and poised limbs that performs contemporary variations on bhangra, the Punjabi harvest dance that was transformed in underground clubs in 1980s London into a vital global art form. The Bay Area, with its huge Indian population and many fans of all things subcontinental, has embraced bhangra wholeheartedly, and the Bhangra Empire troupe — our hometown representative at national bhangra dance competitions (and even at the White House) — helps keeps us all on our toes.
BEST FEMINIST RECORDING STUDIO
Ladies in the music biz deserve to be heard — weirdly, that still needs to be reiterated in 2012 — and Women’s Audio Mission is helping them get loud. The nonprofit is staunchly dedicated to “the advancement of women in music production and the recording arts.” As it notes, this is a field where women are chronically under-represented. WAM hires teachers for recording classes and has its own in-house studio, which means affordable recording time for budding female artists. Last year, the truly exciting local all-girl teenage rock ‘n’ roll band the She’s recorded their debut album at WAM, and this year the band is gaining some serious traction with radio spots. Ever grateful, the quartet behind the She’s credits WAM with realizing their dream (aww). Other clients include Kronos Quartet, Making Dinner, and Brazil’s Constantina. Here’s to a female future of recorded sound.
1890 Bryant, Suite 312, SF. (415) 558-9200. www.womensaudiomission.org
BEST AMATEUR WRESTLING HOT DAMN
Photo by Gariel Hurley
After a wild first couple of years, Oakland’s premiere way-amateur wrestling night, Hoodslam, is still flexing its muscles once a month — these days at the Oakland Metro Operahouse. Full of soap opera-worthy subplots, grudge matches, awesome costumes, awesome-er characters, a noisy metal house band, burlesque interludes, giant plushy referees, and oh, even some wrestling, Hoodslam’s signature mayhem makes us downright giddy on so many levels. Whether we’re watching a pair of zombie fighters body-slam each other into the ropes, a bondage gear-wearing gimp get tossed over them, a mafia mob throw fedoras into the ring, or a squadron of burly stoners mop it up with whoever their hapless opponents of the moment might be, we’re right there with them, climbing the ladder, and getting higher. Fuck the fans!
Oakland Metro Operahouse, 630 Third St., Oakl. (510) 763-1146, www.birdswillfall.com
BEST YOUNG ADULT HIP-HOP MISCHIEF
It is no small feat to write about suburban kids loving hip-hop without coming across as condescending or a-historic, but somehow a free-styling Minnesota-bred woman managed it. San Francisco-based author Laura Goode triumphed with Sister Mischief (Candlewick, $16.99, 367pp), a young adult novel about a gang of outsider girl friends who take on the powers of conformity at their whitebread, fundamentalist-controlled high school by forming a queer-straight hip-hop alliance (and performing their feminist lyrics for unwitting audiences). The book is hardly preachy, but does include teenage conversations about race, cultural co-optation, and sexuality — along with a scene that pretty well teaches you how to smoke weed — and is flush with curiosity, radicalism, and outright guffaws.
BEST GRAPHIC OCCUPATION
Graphic journalism isn’t really new, though given the reluctance some people have in acknowledging its legitimacy, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a more fringe concept than it actually is. Bay Areans are blessed with a wealth of these non-traditional journos, who document everything from a day in the life of a Mission District bartender to the gritty realities of an afternoon on Sixth Street. Susie Cagle‘s in-depth coverage of Occupy, for instance, has kept our eyeballs glued to our computer screens and Twitter feeds pretty much since the movement’s inception. Sharp, savvy, unsentimental, and blessed with an expressive pen and a keen ear, Cagle illustrates her eyewitness accounts of encampments, raids, building occupations, marches, and more with images that cut straight to the human core of the stories she gathers.
BEST GRAND DAME MAKEOVER
Culminating in a grand reopening in 2009 after 43 years of dereliction, the revitalization of Fox Theatre should serve as a model for all of the Bay Area’s beautiful rundown old movie houses. As befitting a building owned by the City of Oakland and listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, the $73 million renovation was done with an eye for detail. Myriad are the Fox’s charms: its grand old marquee; its cross-legged statues flanking the stage, regarding the audience with glowing green eyes; the ornately-molded ceiling, mosaic walls, and exceptional acoustics. The A-list talent on stage can’t help but notice the grandeur of its surroundings, and awestruck shout-outs to the theater between songs, in front of 2,800 rapt audience members, are common. Whoever’s headlining is almost beside the point when one is surrounded by such architectural beauty.
1807 Telegraph, Oakl. (510) 302-2250, www.thefoxoakland.com
BEST EDIBLE PLAYLIST
We’ve heard the phrase “chefs are the new rock stars” enough to make us (s)cream. Turntable Kitchen both embodies this sentiment and finely chops it to pieces. Husband and wife duo Kasey and Matthew put together the website, with occasional help from a drop-by musician or chef. A typical visitor might stop by the Turntable Kitchen to hear “three belly-burning covers of the Clash’s ‘Guns of Brixton'” in the Served Three Ways feature, or to get the ingredients for the perfect asparagus frittata in the recipe index — musically paired to Field Music, thanks to the dishes’ festive and delicate notes. Or maybe they’ll sign up for the popular Pairings Box, which arrives each month with recipes, dry ingredients, and a limited-edition vinyl seven-inch single meant to match the mood of the meal inside.
BEST ART PARKING
On an otherwise nondescript block in SOMA, there is a door painted come-hither red. Don’t be shy, grab that knob! Inside you’ll find God knows what: dance, theater, performance art — it’s something different almost every night. And as bonus, if you come away confused or disgusted from this churning artists’ incubator, you’re only out a few bucks. The Garage has been around since Joe Landini opened shop in a storefront around the corner from his current location. Landini’s mission was to create a safe house for artists, a place to try anything. It has made the venue, with its programming, residencies, and workshop performances, appealing to local art-makers and adventurous audiences alike.
715 Bryant, SF. (415) 518-1517, www.975howard.com
BEST FRESH TROUT
Recent SFSU Theatre Arts grad Megan Trout might be relatively new to the Bay theater scene, but we’ve had our eyes on this rising young star since she burst out with the 11th Hour Ensemble’s first devised-theater piece Alice in 2010. Fearless, versatile, and dynamic, endowed with crack comic timing and equally enviable dramatic chops, Trout has swum in the weird and wonderful waters of the Aurora Theatre’s Metamorphosis, Symmetry Theatre Company’s Patience Worth, Megan Cohen’s A Three Little Dumplings Adventure parts one and two, Boxcar Theatre’s Buried Child, and A Lie of the Mind (to name but a few), while continuing to create new intensely physical theater works with the 11th Hour Ensemble, of which she is a co-founder. We honestly have no idea what play or theater space she’ll turn up in next — but we’re definitely looking forward to it. You should be too.
BEST MARIACHISTAS
Photo courtesy of Mariachi Femenil Orgullo Mexicano
Those of you who are familiar with such things will know one rarely sees a female mariachi musician. Rarely, but not never: introducing Mariachi Feminil Orgullo Mexicano. The 10-person troupe boasts full string, brass, and rhythm sections, and every member is a woman. Feminine force like this — wrapped in electric blue, floor-length skirted uniforms edged in stunning silver trim — isn’t something you see every day at your favorite restaurante. Established in 2007, the education-minded troupe was the first XX-chromosomed group of its kind in the Bay Area. Since then, it’s been winning over audiences with its plaintive, powerful renditions of Mexican classics and new favorites.
BEST USE OF CLASSIC FILM FOOTAGE IN A RAP MUSIC VIDEO
Car chases don’t get much better than the scenes of Steve McQueen speeding through San Francisco in Bullitt (1968). Given the driving, heart-pounding beat and casual-cool flow of San Jose rapper Antwon’s “Helicopter” music video — the track’s off the Fantasy Beds mixtape — it made perfect cinematic sense for director Brandon Tauszik to match the song with quick vintage clips of the classic flick. The resulting three-minute video dips between those intense McQueen thousand-yard stares as cars lunge over notoriously steep hills in a washed out Technicolor haze, spliced with modern next-big-thing Bay Area hip-hop producers (Antwon, MondreMAN, and Squadda B of Main Attrakionz) and their undeniably attractive pals, wandering their neighborhoods, chilling on porches, and pouring spicy Sriracha over hearty breakfasts. “Fuck ’em all/that’s my new motto” Antwon raps as the beat steadies and scenes flash by — a thrilling compliment to the classic footage, given the film’s original jazz score.
BEST PUNK PUSHERS
Shop, record label, small concert purveyor — Oakland’s 1-2-3-4 Go! Records is a multi-use punk haven, selling rare and highly desirable underground vinyl, releasing albums by noisy locals, and hosting roaming growlers in an intimate setting. Like its down-south contemporary, indie-music haven Burger Records, 1-2-3-4 Go! harks back to the days of dusty record shops acting as all-purpose hangouts, and doing it well. The site has hosted all-ages shows by Australia’s Royal Headache, Audacity (a Burger Records favorite), and locals Uzi Rash, Apache, and Street Eaters. The label has released vinyl by East Bay garage messiahs Shannon & the Clams, King Lollipop, and the Sandwitches, among others. And the cozy store has welcomed scads of eager rock ‘n’ roll fans from throughout the Bay, with open denim jacket-clad arms.
423 40th St., Oakl. (510) 985-0325, www.1234gorecords.com
BEST JEDI MASTERS
A long time ago (actually every Sunday, noon-3pm) in a galaxy far, far away (in fact, Studio Gracia in SoMa) … there came a troupe of heroes to teach and uphold a masterful tradition of movement, grace, control, and oneness with a universal force. No, not yoga — think Yoda, and picture Force with a capital F. Then envision a choreography class filled with lightsaber-wielding Jedi aspirants eager to keep the Star Wars legacy alive IRL. Not that there’s any danger of that boundless franchise running out of nerd fuel, but the Golden Gate Knights, organized by Alain Bloch, certainly have a stellar thing going. Who wouldn’t want to learn the “fancy flourishes and spins, including forward and reverse spins, inverted grips, and figure eights” of lightsaber brandishment in an atmosphere so respectful of its Jedi legacy that each class begins with five minutes of meditation? You get a little exercise out of it, too — in no time, it’ll bye-bye Jabba, hello Leia.
BEST DECEPTIVELY EPHEMERAL FILM FEST
Really though, Disposable Film Festival is a misnomer. Founded in 2007, with an inaugural event at Artists’ Television Access in early 2008, DFF has since evolved into a traveling-fest juggernaut with screenings in Paris, Beijing, Brazil, Macedonia, Argentina — basically, anywhere with open-minded audiences hungering for unique short films. Here’s where the “disposable” part comes in: the films are made DIY-style, using technology of the hand-held, pocket-sized, and easily-accessible-to-everyone variety, like cell phones and webcams. And though its festival screenings are a global phenomenon, DFF also hosts workshops, panel discussions, and other events (bike-in movies!) aimed at inspiring artists — especially young folks who are just discovering the wide world of creative filmmaking beyond those 3D superheroes at the multiplex.
BEST FAIRY EXPLOSION
Once every year, right around Pride time in June, a fantastical fey Imaginarium of uninhibited queer art, dance, theater, ecology, lube-wrestling, puppy piles, porn debuts, and fearlessly naked fabulosity pops up in the old Tower Records building in the Castro. This is the fag-ulous Faetopia festival which, for one delirious week, complements the corporate-sponsored and slickly marketed Pride happenings with a burst of summer solstice fairy dust. The event comes courtesy of the Radical Faeries, those scruffy pan-sexual Pagan sprites whose naturist movement has a long history in the Bay Area, where they spread their gay-gay wings from untamed redwood groves to notorious Burning Man camps. More than 50 artists join forces to create programs — like Gay Hist-Orgy (performer Ian McKinnon’s “cruise of gay historical figures”) and Flaming Queens on Fire! (fire-dancing lessons) — that stuff some good ol’ polymorphous perversity into Pride’s polished corners. And at the very center? Faetopia’s there too, with the hippie-chill Fairy Freedom Village area within the Civic Center festival itself.
BEST TECHNO OUR WAY
In response to the onslaught of mass-produced, sugar-rush electronic sounds ruling the pop charts these days, many finer San Francisco dance floors have returned to a more underground aesthetic. This renaissance of sophisticated techno plugs into a global movement — unabashedly intelligent, yet still madly danceable. And while many fantastic local party promoters have emerged, the As You Like It crew has been on a massive tear like no other. In just two years, they have risen from a nomadic underground existence to pack larger legal venues with dozens of parties that feature uncompromising local and international talent, yet never lose that singular, slightly extra-legal vibe and attention to detail. Some of the most exciting names in dance music have passed through the Bay Area thanks to As You Like It’s dedication, helping to make our party scene an essential destination for dance fanatics. To fittingly repurpose one of the crew’s favorite adjectives: quality.
BEST YOU BETTA WORK
Photo by Anastacia Powers
Voguing — that drop-dead fabulous and seriously competitive gay African American dance-battle art form — has recently come back into the spotlight, with a new generation of club kids and art queens taking to the floor to chop, mop, drop, drag, gag, and get “cunty.” San Francisco, of course, has put its own spin on the high-attitude, limb-flinging style that originated in the ’70s in underground ballrooms on the East Coast, transforming the dance into a way to get in shape. You may not have come from the streets, but you’re going to leave Vogue and Tone with amazing thighs, honey. The wiggy workout class — Tuesdays, 7-8:30pm, at Dance Mission Theater and Thursdays, 8:30-9:45pm, at ODC Commons — is led by kicky, spinny showman Sir JoQ, a.k.a. Jocquese Whitfield. The dance has also hit the club circuit, leaping on a recent trend of retro-style dance-floor workout sessions, so be on the lookout and don’t throw shade. If all you know of vogue is that old Madonna track, it’s time to get in-shape and up-to-date.
BEST ESOTERIC GUIDEBOOK
City Notes: San Francisco will never counsel you to try the chowder bowl at Fisherman’s Wharf. Nor will it prove useful in finding the best way to walk between Chinatown and the Ferry Building. It won’t give you directions at all, for that matter. The artful wood-bound guidebook, put together by a team of Wesleyan alumni headed by Jesse Coburn, is comprised of quiet shots and histories behind 25 little-known sites in San Francisco, such as the Columbarium, Molinari-Mana Park, Mount Davidson, and the Swedenborgian Church. City Notes doesn’t spill the address beans, making it the perfect treasure hunt for the urban explorer-wanderer. The book’s covers are hand-bound to the velvety sheets within; its producers had so much fun making the finely crafted object, in fact, that they plan on putting together similar guides for other cities around the world.
BEST SUPPORT SYSTEM FOR CIRCUS FREAKS, ACOUSTIC GEEKS, AND SOLO EXHIBITIONISTS
How does Stagewerx proprietress Ty McKenzie do it? She always finds the way to a “yes” where others might jump to a “no.” In both its old location on Sutter Street and its brand-new digs on Valencia, Stagewerx has created a supportive environment par excellence for performers of every discipline, amateurs and seasoned pros alike. From ongoing performance series such as Solo Sundays and Previously Secret Information to the raucous hi-jinks of Picklewater Clown Cabaret and Circus Finelli; from Tom Sway’s low-key, lo-fi music series Underground Sound to ambitious runs of new works by companies such as PianoFight, Wily West Productions, and Foul Play, Stagewerx’s focus on helping quirky and emerging artists find a “yes” of their own is more than refreshing — it’s essential.
446 Valencia, SF. www.stagewerx.org
BEST ROCK ON SIXTH
For all the underworld grittiness ascribed to the storied block of Sixth Street between Market and Mission, you’d think the guttural yowl of punk — or at least the soothing howl of good ol’ rock and roll — would be an integral part of the roiling Sixth mix. And yet, can you believe it, there was nary a hole-in-the-wall live rock club there (or anywhere else in the mid-Market or downtown area for that matter) until RKRL, our very own CBGB, opened last year. The result of a collaboration between Club Six and the wild LowSF crew, RKRL has already hosted an onslaught of local and extra-local rabble-rousers, including the Devil’s Own, Ruleta Rusa, the Mutilators, and Animal Games. Are we back in a world where down-and-dirty downtown rock clubs still exist? Hell yes.
52 Sixth St., SF. (415) 658-5506, www.facebook.com/RKRLSF
BEST FOGOLYSTICS
Since 1989, when the troupe was founded by community leader Carlos Aceituno, Fogo Na Roupa has been taking to the streets, the stages, and the dance studios with its rhythmic, Latin-African-hip-hop fusion beats. Where might you have seen them perform? Perhaps during its be-feathered, be-dazzled promenades through SF Carnival — with as many as 200 performers in a single appearance, the group is hard to miss. If you’re feeling the fogolystics — the term the troupe has coined to describe its powerful mix of musical genres — you can add your sparkle to the mix. On Tuesdays and Saturdays they hold an open practice at Mission Cultural Center that you can jump in for just $10. Seriously, everyone is invited — the group prides itself on performers ranging from kids to senior citizens.
(510) 286-7926, www.gofogo.com
BEST ALL-AROUND GRRRL POWER
Basic bar moves and halting hip-hop steps may be what stuck with you from the dance classes of your youth, but (thankfully) today there’s a new kind of movement program that’s all about teaching confidence and power, in addition to how to rule a dancefloor. We’re talking about Grrrl Brigade. Dance Mission Theatre hosts this series of classes in hip-hop, jazz, modern, and taiko (that’s Japanese drum dancing) for nine to 18-year-old females. As they rock the courses, their leadership develops along with their dance skills. Grrrl Brigade students roar with self-esteem, thrive on collaboration, and have been known to pound away on gigantic drums, taking the stage each year in a young person’s version of The Nutcracker, and in a springtime show focusing on real-life issues the performers deal with when they’re not in the spotlight.
Dance Mission Theater, 3316 Mission, SF. www.dancemission.com
BEST BAR TO TATTOO ON YOUR BICEP
Guardian photo by Brittany M. Powell
Some may have seen the deserted stretch of Harrison Street as a business liability, but Jay Beaman and Oliver Piazza of Thieves Tavern and Dirty Thieves didn’t let the low walk-up potential dissuade them from opening Dear Mom. We’re glad. Because if they had, we’d be bereft of their expansive boozery (once the salsa club El Rincon) flush with affordable booze, a photobooth, beckoning seating areas, and a kitchen that hosts pop-up eateries hawking sushi, fried green tomato hamburgers, and everything in between. The one thing Mom needs to be an SF standard is cheapo local icon Broke Ass Stuart hawking picklebacks (whiskey shots with pickle juice chaser, duh) on Wednesday nights in his never-ending quest to pay rent. Oh wait, that actually happens.
2700 16th St., SF. (415) 625-3362
BEST ROBOT DUNGEON
Guardian photo by Brittany M. Powell
From the outside, it’s an unassuming Mission District storefront, infrequently open to the public. But inside, Area 2881 reveals a rare glimpse into the private lives of robots. Perched on miniature foot-lit pedestals, two robot slaves dance for roving audiences, their slightly jerky motions belying the complexity of their 41 meticulously designed joints. The slaves appear both vulnerable yet indestructible, humanoid yet alien, and the weird spectacle of their forced entertaining is both unsettling and strangely affecting. The rest of the room is a whirring, spinning, buzzing paroxysm of light and kinetic sculpture, ushered into this world from a parallel plane by the human hands of mild-mannered applications engineer by day, mad scientist by night, Carl Pisaturo.
2881 23rd St., SF. www.carlpisaturo.com
BEST NIGHT IN THE MUSEUM
Afterhours museum parties full of bright young things witnessing cool artistic happenings are anything but a rarity in our forward-thinking area. And really, we wouldn’t have it any other way. May we especially highlight the amazing series that is L@TE: Friday Nights at BAM/PFA? This is — probably — the only such affair at which an “electric orchestra of pickle jars accompanied by abstract lighting machines” and the occasional pop-in by Devendra Banhart are a given. The wonderfully heady and innovative social gatherings fill the Berkeley Art Museum with experiential art and music (construct rainbow prisms, listen to Negativland, deconstruct Scritti Politti records, join an avant-cabaret) and light up the Pacific Film Archives with glorious 16mm and 35mm prints of rare and recently restored films. Also: dancing! If you’ve ever dreamt of meeting a soul mate while watching 3-D animation, participating in interactive dance performances, and peeping the latest emerging local artists, you need to get L@TE.
Occasional Fridays, 5:30-9pm, $7. Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way, Berk. (510) 642-0808, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu
BEST ARTS HIGH NOTE
Whether it’s the free yoga classes, creative summer art camp, or Saturday afternoon alfresco concerts, the Bayview Opera House‘s offerings are as vibrant and active as they were when the building was built in 1888 (maybe more so? The Guardian wasn’t around back then). The historic landmark community center supports the still-diverse neighborhood of Bayview-Hunters Point, hosting awesome fundraisers like Black Men Can Cook and Mendell Plaza Presents, a 12-week concert series that transforms a little triangle of pavement into a full-on dance floor featuring local neighborhood musicians — not to mention domino tables and BBQ — alongside a community garden filled with vibrant veggies. Kids from the 100% College Prep Club make up much of the musical talent. Here’s to 125 more amazing years.
4705 Third St., SF. (415) 824-0386, www.bvoh.org
Best of the Bay 2012 Editors Picks: Food and Drink
BEST OF THE BAY 2012: EDITORS PICKS
Food and Drink
BEST COOKBOOK CHEFTIVIST
In this era of Paula Deen-Anthony Bourdain warfare and endless glossy spreads of chefs-cum-rockstars-without-the-rock, you are to be excused for not caring about yet-another celebrity chef writeup. But stay your cleaver. Oakland’s own Bryant Terry considers himself an activist who uses comestibles as a medium for social change, not TV dinner promotion. Terry’s beautiful, seasonally sensitive vegan cookbooks — his latest is The Inspired Vegan (Da Capo Lifelong Books, $19, 240pp) — contextualize recipes so that the connection between eating healthy and having healthy communities is clear. He also tours the country educating audiences about vegan lifestyle and cooking, with a focus on minority communities, and makes no bones about the fact that he thinks families could stand to spend more time in the kitchen together.
BEST LOCAL UNION, PINT DIVISION
Visitors to the SF Beer Week opening gala might have been surprised to find that a sizable portion of the Concourse Exhibition Center was dedicated to beer brewed right here in the Bay Area. Our beloved Anchor Steam and 21st Amendment breweries are no longer the only sudsers in town — no, not by a long shot. This expansion in local brew is part of a national trend, but local leaps may be due, in part, to the efforts of the SF Brewers Guild — an association, born in 2004, of 10 of the city’s best-loved new breweries, including Magnolia Pub and Brewery and Thirsty Bear Brewing Company. In addition to Beer Week, the group organizes a “meet the brewers” event every month, an easy entry point for those who want to take their local beer boosting past six-pack status.
BEST LAING IN THE ‘LOIN
Foodies know: if you want sit-down Filipino cuisine, head to Daly City for the densest concentration of deliciousness. Yet there’s an outlier — a humble little Tenderloin hole-in-the-wall steadily serving the real deal. Family-run Kusina Ni Tess dishes out kare-kare, a peanut sauce-based Filipino stew; picadillo, a savory mélange of ground pork, carrot, potato, and green peas; and fish in tangy, sweet-sour broth. For breakfast, savor garlic fried rice with egg and your choice of meat: try Filipino corned beef or daing na bangus (butterflied, skin-on milkfish). The staff will offer tastes to help you choose from the hearty, ultra-cheap menu — all dishes under $9 — but don’t miss the laing: taro leaves cooked in coconut milk and shrimp paste, tinged with subtle chile heat. Finish it all off with egg pie or young coconut pie.
237 Ellis, SF. (415) 351-1169
BEST BABKA, BUBBELEH
Guardian photo by Brittany M. Powell
Have you ever fantasized about eating a chocolate bar for breakfast and totally getting away with it? (Be honest now.) No need to slip a Snickers in your Corn Flakes — or even worry about dessert for a couple weeks — when you’ve got a huge, heavy, delicious babka from Wise Sons in your breadbox. Evan Bloom and Leo Beckerman’s canny tribute to traditional Jewish food made the transition from popular pop-up brunch and Ferry Plaza Farmers Market stand to perhaps too-popular brick-and-mortar deli this year. The charming old-school atmosphere and menu filled with dishes like the mouth-watering chopped liver, the addictive pastrami cheese fries, and the vibrant pickle plate are certainly worth the often considerable wait. But it’s the formidable chocolate babka, made of scrumptious dark chocolate ribboned through dense, cinnamon-flavored, brioche-like dough, that really has us missing Grandma (although perhaps she wouldn’t approve of such indulgence).
3150 24th St., SF. (415) 787-3354, www.wisesonsdeli.com
BEST RIBS IN THE ROUGH
One need only scope the location of Double D BBQ next to the decidedly unlovely International Avenue to grok that the storefront incarnation of this former food truck is as unpretentious as it is under-hyped. Credit this food-first attitude to owner Duane Orr’s blunt (but friendly) personality. Screw décor — his art is barbeque. Our favorite is his brisket sandwich: greasy, fatty, saucy chunks of meat falling out of a soft roll. Double D’s Texas-style red sauce, sold by the bottle, is sweet and tangy with a mild spice. Other menu highlights? Ribs and chicken grilled with a perfect hint of char, and creamy, peppery macaroni and cheese. Fair warning: we’ve begun to have severe Double D brisket cravings. A similar yen might lead you to cavalier disregard for aesthetic niceties.
1240 First Ave., Oakl. (510) 228-7000, www.doubledbbq.net
BEST BREW-NOS AIRES
If you’re looking for the perfect brew to pop into your Dolores Park-prepped picnic basket, look no further than the new-ish Ceveceria de Mateveza, where Mateveza’s signature ales, lagers, and IPAs brewed with that stimulating Argentinean beverage yerba mate await in a park-side brewpub location. There are ready-to-go bottles for the sunshine-inclined, but also perfect blends of stimulating mate and smooth-tasting hops on tap if you prefer to snag a pint — plus one of the joint’s sweet or savory emapanadas — and hang indoors. Just don’t let the décor fool you; the picturesque shelves of Buenos Aires paraphernalia belie the fact that real porteños would never befoul their beloved tea with beer. Thanks goodness we’re in San Francisco, where alternative couplings are a point of pride.
3801 18th St., SF. (415) 273-9295, www.ceveceriasf.com
BEST VALUE-ADDED WAFFLE
Despite regulations handed down by the city’s Medical Cannabis Task Force, which have eschewed food that can’t be stored at room temperature and have made mandatory stringent labeling guidelines to prevent kiddos from getting caught up in too-cute pot food, Bay Area medicated food producers continue to innovate. See: various trail mixes, hard ginger and cinnamon-flavored candies, and high-class chocolate. But our favorite non-traditional cannabis food item isn’t all that non-traditional … in Amsterdam. Canna Organics’ Stroop Waffle packs a punch at four doses per pair of flat waffle cones, stuck together by a chewy, sticky layer of caramel. It’s like carnival food, but meant to take you on a journey to alleviate your aches and pains, neuroses, and various other maladies.
Available at various Bay Area dispensaries
BEST SPICY CRACKER
Noe Valley’s new destination sushi bar Saru does an excellent job of revamping its closet-sized space, making it feel roomier, sleeker, and, thanks to large front windows and an elegant brown color scheme, altogether different from the previous two sushi spots occupying the same space. Any sushi bar serving “the lobster of prawns” — pristine, raw spot amaebi — is already savvy. In addition to the usual salmon and tuna offerings, adventurous eaters can try plenty of playful, unique bites prepared with care, including the wonderful “spicy cracker” — a crispy sheet of seaweed fried in tempura and topped with spicy tuna and avocado. Sushi nachos? Yes, please! Also neat: tasting spoons filled with vivid, raw fish, drizzled in elegant dressings like truffle oil. Snappy rolls satisfy while cheery service welcomes you back.
3856 24th St., SF. (415) 400-4510, www.akaisarusf.com
BEST SEASONAL SUDS
Don’t scoff at fruit beer — at least not until you’ve tried a bottle from Almanac Beer Co. Jesse Friedman and Damian Fagan make but one kind of small-batch beer a season, testing and re-tasting until they’ve hit upon the perfect produce with which to pair their bottlings. But we’re not talking coupling suggestions here. Almanac chooses an agricultural partner for each of its releases, adding to that beer’s standard mash bright harvest flavors from places like Kingsburg’s Hamada Farms, source of enviable citrus fruits, and Heirloom Organic Gardens, whose springtime fennel graces this year’s earthy Bière de Mars. Each release is limited, stamped with an eye-catching label, and let to ferment a third time in the bottle itself, lending each sip a sprightly, effervescent fizz.
BEST ALL-AMERICAN CONFECTIONARY OVERLOAD
What’s more American than apple pie? We’re of the informal opinion that it’s milkshakes, and no, we’re not being paid by the American Dairy Association to say that. Imagine our glee, then, when the quietly unassuming Chile Pies opened up and — in addition to tasty treats such as empanada-like tamale hand pies and green chile pot pies with cheddar cheese crusts — an extravagant decadence known as Chile Pies’ pie milkshake also made it onto the menu. That’s right. It’s pie. And milkshake. Any pie you want and any flavor of Three Twin’s truly superior ice cream, served in a generous glass mug and topped with a billowing drift of whipped cream. Share it with a loved one to prevent instant coronary arrest, or live dangerously and gobble down a whole one yourself. You’ll never look at pie à la mode with quite the same dotage, guaranteed.
601 Baker, SF. (415) 614-9411; 314 Church, SF. (415) 431-9411, www.chilepies.com
BEST GEMÜTLICHKEIT
Mention Speisekammer Restaurant to islanders who know, and you’ll get an instant flash of that gemütlichkeit, or cheery coziness, the spot is renown for. They’ll bend your earbone raving about the dishes served up under the ownership of former Cafe du Nord honcho Cindy Johnson-Kohl: the succulent sauerbraten served with a side of red cabbage and spätzle, the cabbage rolls, the potato pancakes with house-made apple compote — or for the unrepentant carnivores in the fam, the Gegrillte Fleischplatte, a family-style grilled meat platter spilling over with sausages. It’s the lip-smacking stuff of liebling’s dreams — and it’s all begging to be washed down with a selection from the expansive drink list, and accompanied by live music from locals like the Frisky Frolics jazz cats, and Cali country outfit Kit and the Branded Men.
2424 Lincoln, Alameda. (510) 522-1300, www.speisekammer.com
BEST IT’S WHAT’S INSIDE THAT COUNTS
Christine Doerr, the chocoholic force behind Neo Cocoa, makes truffles sans the outer hard chocolate shell. Why bother with an extra layer when you can go straight to the gooey ganache inside, capable of melting perfectly in your mouth? After all, isn’t their filling the reason why we eat truffles in the first place? That was Doerr’s thought, anyway, when she enrolled in La Cocina’s food vendor incubator program. Now she has her own personal chocolate kitchen and her amazing, ridiculously decadent chocolates can be found all over the Bay Area. Warning to all Neo newbies: these truffles are dangerously addictive!
BEST CURD CRUSADER
Cheesemaking: the process sounds intimidating, but no matter how you slice it, it’s all about caring for curds. You, the non-dairy-farming urban-dweller, can learn the mores involved in this delicate relationship via the Milk Maid, a.k.a. Louella Hill. Hill will let you taste some of the mind-blowing blue cheese she concocts in her home kitchen. But she doesn’t really want to make cheese for you, though she could. Instead, she wants to empower you to make your own wedges and wheels. She imparts lessons in classrooms, at farmers markets, even at alt-hip bachelorette party tutorials. Having studied cheese-making from the Hudson Valley to Northern Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, the woman oozes sharp, smelly, and semi-soft expertise — you could do a lot worse than let her teach you to baby a blue.
BEST OLD SCHOOL PANINI
There are places in North Beach that are parodies of themselves: fake replicas of what someone from North Dakota might think a San Francisco Italian restaurant would look like. Too often, the meals these pretenders serve are a tepid farce. Not so with the grilled mozzarella and tomato panini from Mario’s Bohemian Cigar Store Cafe. The sandwich’s authenticity mirrors that of the small, sometimes crowded restaurant and local hangout itself, which hasn’t changed much in the three decades we’ve been going there. The menu is limited, but the food is excellent, featuring fresh ingredients simply prepared. Take the panini in question: eaten alongside a glass of red or Campari on the rocks, it makes a perfect SF lunch. A nice reminder that everything old and cool hasn’t been priced out of town.
566 Columbus, SF. (415) 362-0536
BEST TOFU SORCERERS
Guardian photo by Ariel Soto-Suver
It’s rare to taste a sliver of tofu fresh from the package that melts in your mouth. Blocks of the standard grocery-store variety are best used in sizzling cooked-up meals, sopping up sauce or marinade to provide any substantial taste. But not so the bricks from Hodo Soy Beanery, crafted in a cheery Oakland factory that offers weekly tours. No, this tofu is good enough to eat raw. Hodo, which opened its doors in 2004, even goes above and beyond its gleaming white cubes of organic, non-GMO protein. The company sells the whole soy cow: soymilk, snack-friendly yuba strips, five-spice tofu nuggets, and lemongrass curry nuggets. Varieties are sold throughout Bay Area specialty food shops and farmers markets, but we highly recommend coming out to Hodo’s factory, where you can couple your shopping with a tour of the factory floor.
2923 Adeline, Oakl. (510) 464-2977, www.hodosoy.com
BEST SATISFYING READ
Directions for preparing seaweed burger, mouth-watering ramen that doesn’t come from a Styrofoam cup, and monkfish tripe have all found their way into the pages of local publisher McSweeney’s sizzling new food quarterly Lucky Peach. Each volume, available in paper only, is comprised of more than 150 pages and contains recipes and writings that stimulate the intellect and taste buds simultaneously. Yummy examples of contributing foodies and writers: David Chang, Peter Meehan, Anthony Bourdain, Ruth Reichl, John T. Edge, Todd Kliman. The magazine’s issues (there have been four so far) are brimming with personal essays, short stories, taste tests, interviews, and heaps of recipes. In a time when most magazines are scaling back, Lucky Peach offers a conspicuously fulfilling read.
BEST A LA CART
State Bird Provisions opened in late 2011, honoring Lower Fillmore’s jazz spirit with inventive plates (a bargain at $5-18 a dish) flowing from the kitchen like high-flying jazz riffs — with one major innovative twist. Most are presented dim sum-style, rolled through the pegboard-walled dining room on carts or offered on trays for your pick-and-choose pleasure. Dynamic husband-wife chef duo Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski, formerly of Rubicon, change the menu constantly, transcending now-typical seasonality restraints to take flight with visionary flavor combinations and presentations. A helpful map of the nation’s state birds adorns the restroom, but there’s only one on the menu: the California quail, of course. Fried and crusted with pumpkin seeds; sided with a couple cart picks like eggplant “fries” with pimenton and charred wax beans with pickled-egg salad; and chased down with dreamy shots of peanut muscovado milk; it’s a real plate-licker.
1529 Fillmore, SF. (415) 795-1273, www.statebirdsf.com
BEST GENERATIONS OF DISTILLATION
It’s a true family affair at Charbay Family Vineyard and Distillery, located in the wilds of Napa’s Spring Mountain district, where father and son Miles and Marko Karakasevic distill together, while wives Susan and Jenni run the business with them. Descended from 13 distilling generations, Grand Master Distiller Miles has a heroic history, having left former Communist Yugoslavia for North America in 1962 and eventually founding Charbay with his family in 1983. Marko has been involved with the business since the ripe-old age of 10, growing up among St. Helena’s vines. Charbray covers distilling, brewing, and winemaking: Miles’ Old World aesthetic and precision partnered with Marko’s forward-thinking vision is apparent in everything from tequila and vodka to rum and port. Cases in point: Miles’ elegant 27-year brandy and Marko’s just-released, one-of-a-kind Bear Republic IPA and stout beer whiskies.
4001 Spring Mountain, St. Helena. (707) 963-9327, www.charbay.com
BEST FRESH-SQUEEZED FLIGHTS
If founders Derek Castro and Luisa Alberto have anything to say about it, the juice bar is the wine bar of the future — and, given Castro and Alberto’s Blue Bottle past, it’s not surprising that they feel a fresh-squeezed swig can have all the body and depth of a finely prepared coffee. Pronounced “so,” SÔW is their regular pop-up juice bar inside Pause Wine Bar, at which they hope to prove that juices deserve all the attention to nuance and provenance as their more fussed-over beverage cousins. Tastings are served at room temperature so as to not numb flavors, and in garnished glasses much like artful cocktails. Yes, flights are sometimes available, offering the chance to taste (and see) an entire rainbow of fascinating flavors; a recent one even featured Early Girl tomatoes. Currently only open weekends, the SoWers hope to add weekdays with more tastings, an expanded menu, and an even bigger following of nectar connoisseurs.
Every Sat and Sun in Pause Wine Bar, 1666 Market, SF. (415) 637-7343, www.sowsf.com
Win ultimate cool points on a night in North Beach by taking your friends to Chubby Noodle, a wee Asian hideaway in the back of the shabby-classy Amante bar. Order at the back kitchen window — illuminated by a neon sign asking, “Hungry?” — then slide into roomy booths for Korean tacos, house kimchi, spicy garlic noodles, and Hawaiian poke. (Cheeky chef Peter Mrabe, also of hip taqueria Don Pisto’s, tosses steaming bowls of buttery grits into the menu mix, too.) The standouts, however, are heartwarming red miso ramen and — especially — organic buttermilk-brined fried chicken in generous five-piece wings or strips. It’s American fried chicken with Asian attitude, dipped in habit-forming, creamy sambal dipping sauce. And everything is under $13. Skip Italian next time you’re in North Beach and opt for something a bit more adventurous and a bit more, er, chubby.
570 Green St., SF. (415) 361-8850, www.thechubbynoodle.com
BEST SIX-WAY STIMULANT
We said it when this hot spot opened in 2010, and we’ll say it again: the coffee preparation at Ma’velous ranks among the best you’ll find anywhere. Coffee geeks are stoked that here you can have your coffee prepared six different ways, via Chemex extraction, Kyoto slow-drip, Siphon machine, French press, Hario V60 drip, or Ma’velous’s own unique espresso machine. Owner Phillip Ma rotates bean selections from around the world: roasters include Verve, Intelligentsia, and Norway’s Tim Wendelboe. Another uniquely Ma’velous feature is the cafe’s artistic eco-design by Adeeni Design Group: retro-modern reclaimed furniture, sophisticated graffiti from street artist Eddie Colla, and pressed tin ceilings. Bonus points for remaining a WiFi-free respite where the menu of supreme espressos — paired with a good book — makes the coffee ritual a luxurious experience rather than a utilitarian necessity.
1408 Market, SF. (415) 626-8884 www.maveloussf.com
BEST BOWLING IN THE GUTTER, BUT EATING WITH THE STARS
Guardian photo by Brittany M. Powell
The new Mission Bowling Club is one badass bowling alley. There’s no funky smell or dated dinginess (charming for some, we know) in this open and industrial space, which boasts a large front patio, a bar area, and two dining areas — both downstairs near its six lanes and upstairs overseeing all the striking action. With its retro-fetish crowd and quirky flourishes, you could dismiss the whole thing as Mission hipster — but never has bowling food been taken to such gourmet heights. The menu was designed by none other than that Mission Chinese Food and Mission Street Food wunderkind, Anthony Myint. Cheer on bowlers from comfy couches while sipping a dreamy cocktail, or pick up that spare accompanied by a plate of ratatouille, some crisp pork belly, a beloved Mission burger — or its worthy vegan kale-and-chickpea alternative.
3176 17th St., SF. (415) 863-2695, www.missionbowlingclub.com
BEST PEANUT BUTTER CLOUDS
Despite our American love for all things soft, saccharine, and somehow edible, vegans and equinophiles alike are saddened by the innocuous-seeming marshmallow, which often includes gelatin derived from horse hooves and other slaughterhouse scraps. But worry not, sweet things, Benkyodo Company has treats that top the standby campfire comfort. Namely, mochi, a Japanese delight made of glutinous rice that is pounded and molded into sweet submission. Soft clouds of heaven — and they come in a variety of flavors like strawberry, green tea, mugwort, adzuki, and, wow, peanut butter. Benkyodo’s mochi has the texture of your favorite childhood sweet, with the flavors — and food justice acumen — of a grown-up gourmand.
1747 Buchanan, SF. (415) 922-1244, www.benkyodocompany.com
BEST VEGAN ROLL CALL
The 100 percent vegan cinnamon rolls at Cinnaholic, the Berkeley sweet tooth haven, are naturally sweetened with beet sugar, endowed with far-out flavors like blueberry pie and Oreo explosion, and custom-ready. Just let the sugary staff know what kind of frosting and toppings — strawberry shortcake roll? Maybe a drizzle of mocha and almonds? — light your oven. And just like that irritatingly talented, socially conscious friend whose Facebook page makes your own video links and witty one-liners look frivolous, owner Shannon Michelle has made Cinnaholic’s blog a community resource. The website is great for updates on local animal rescue events, and its pretty photos of waiting rolls serve as a delicious testament to the fact that eating vegan doesn’t have to mean going home with sub-par pastry.
2132 Oxford, Berk. (510) 647-8684, www.cinnaholic.com
BEST KIND OF STRICT
If things have been rough on your soul lately, forget the prose of that insipid, chicken-related book series and turn your page to Israel’s Strictly Kosher’s matzo ball soup. While other deli’s versions are salty, one-dimensional facsimiles of a real pick-me-up, the version at Israel’s, which also does strictly Kosher catering, is home made by co-owner Faina Avrutina with savory broth to comfort you on windy days and massive matzo balls that’ll fill you up just enough to not get blown sideways by gusts of outrageous fortune (throw in one of the excellent sufganiyots and you’ll be even more ground-bound). And it’s not just the eating that’ll do you good — a genuinely kind staff soothes city-weary troubled minds and will make you feel like you just dipped into your parents’ cozy kitchen.
5621 Geary, SF. (415) 752-3064, www.israelskosher.com
BEST FULL-SCOPE ROAST
Guardian photo by Brittany M. Powell
The smoky dark brew served up by the folks at Sightglass Coffee certainly isn’t indicative of the sibling-owned roastery and cafe’s mission of transparency. Brothers Jerad and Justin Morrison started their SoMa enterprise aiming to treat the cup of coffee less as a product than a democratic sensory experience — an intuition, a smell, a sound, a sight. Thus, the name of their cavernous new shop, which roasts and brews in a single warehouse space that has proven popular among the hip-pretty techies (almost as hip-pretty as the Sightglass staff that serves them) who roost in the area. Using small-production methods to ensure freshness and authenticity, Sightglass provides a unique place that’s simultaneously homey (baristas are quick to introduce themselves) and airily trendy.
270 Seventh St., SF. (415) 861-1313, www.sightglasscoffee.com
BEST REASON TO SCREAM IN DOLORES PARK
Photo by Gene X. Hwang/Orange Photography
Have you ever been reclining in Dolores Park, wiping off the burgundy mustache left by your third bottle of wine, when the thought hits: someone chipper, dressed in a vintage Alpine peasant dress, presenting you with a tray of succulent sweets, would just hit the spot? Question number two: has the dreary gray wallpaper of your office ever begged the same dose of sugary sunshine? Christa Hill’s dessert catering company Hey, Cookie!, then, is the stuff of your dreams. Offering everything from vegan Mexican wedding cookies and oatmeal butterscotch chip cookies to fudge brownies and rice crispy treats, it’s clear that the biggest draw of Hey Cookie! isn’t its dirndls. Unofficially coined the Cookie Girl, Hill epitomizes service with a smile, and her staff follows suit, so feel free to shout them out at your next Dolo hill sit.
(415) 999-0205, www.twitter.com/heycookiesf
BEST GOURGÉRES
We don’t know what makes the clutch of cafes around Church and Market in SF so inviting — OK, we do: great service, good coffee, and a laidback, no-hurries vibe — but we find ourselves drawn here more often than not on those precious early mornings off. French bakery Thorough Bread and Pastry is one of those cafes, and although the punny name evinces a slight groan, the trés magnifique selection of authentic French pastries keeps us coming back for more. There are flaky croissants, of course, and fruit-laden tarts, dense and drenched baba au rhum and mint-kicky grasshopper cakes, wee sugar-dusted chouquettes and almond-brown butter financiers. And could anything be more perfect on a foggy morning than a small bag full of fresh-out-the-oven gougéres? The original cheesy puffs, these savory, bite-sized beauties (four for $1.50) instantly bring out the sunshine. Combine them with a steaming cup of coffee, s’il-vous plaît, and you’ve got breakfast pegged.
248 Church, SF. (415) 558-0690, www.thoroughbreadpastry.com
BEST CAN-ARCHY
When it comes to the latest trends in pickling, canning, jarring, putting up, putting by, or just plain preserving, we’ve got a dirty little secret: everything we know about Mason jar-ology comes from the amazing Punk Domestics. Food and travel blogger Sean Timberlake, with support from his husband Paul Brown and terrier Reese, took inspiration from canning expert and former Guardian writer Karen Solomon — particularly a review of one of her books that mentioned the “punk domesticity of the hipster DIY movement” — to launch a content aggregation site for can-atics of everything dried, cured, or otherwise preserved. It’s jam-packed with links to community-posted articles with helpful hints and innovative techniques from around the Web, plus heads-ups on events, giveaways, recipes, and book releases. Ever wonder about micro-farming, curing meats, making cheese, or pickling duck eggs? No need to keep a lid on it when the Punk Domestics are in the house.
BEST MARMALADY
Who wouldn’t want all the colorful bounty of the Bay Area served up on a nice piece of toast (preferably sourdough, in our case)? Meyer lemon, Santa Rosa plum, pear, apple, mild pepper, lime, nectarine, grape … these fruits (plus pineapple, kiwi, rose petal, lavender, and blueberry) are gathered from backyards and garden plots by the ever-foraging Aunt Kitty, a.k.a. Kitty Myers of San Francisco’s Sunset District, and transformed into the most spectacular jellies imaginable. The secret is not simply organic; it also lies in the unique combination of two or three parts fruit to one part sugar, allowing a lush effulgence of natural flavor. Besides delicious marmalades packaged in distinctive little Mason jars and sold in local cafes and grocery stores, Kitty’s homegrown company, Aunt Kitty’s Kreations, also supplies apple and mango chutney, piccalilli and cranberry-orange relish, and even fudge. According to legend, many of Aunt Kitty’s products were actually developed in her church’s basement — maybe that’s where the wholesome flavor comes from?
BEST PUPUSA PARADISE
If you were to describe Mission establishments by historical eras, El Paraiso Cafe would be decidedly Post-German working class, Pre-Valencia Street $200 cork wedges. Its menu bears the marks of a business whose customer base does not guide its brunch-seeking steps toward outrageously pricey gluten-free breakfast plates. Rather, El Paraiso is perfect for that Mission dream of a neighborhood half-full of families and transplants from all over the world and half-full of broke boho Americans — OK, and those who are a mix of the two — who flock toward piping hot pupusas accompanied by free, generous bowls of curtido (piquant, fresh coleslaw) and thin red salsa. And it’s all parked kitty-corner to the yelping soccer children and sunbathing elders of Parque de los Ninos Unidos. Did that Mission ever exist? Or are we thinking of paradise?
1198 Treat, SF. (415) 824-2535
BEST SECRET WORLD OF CHEESE
Be not fooled by Gourmet & More‘s small size. This long, skinny Hayes Valley specialty shop, owned by French-born longtime Bay Area residents Laurent and Josiane Recollon, is bursting at the shelves with all manner of goodies for the gourmand. Foie gras has flown the coop, but there’s an array of tasty imported meats (prosciutto, salami, chorizo), breads, sweets (no such thing as “too many macarons”), fancy mustards and oils, and made-to-order sandwiches (to-go, or to eat on Gourmet & More’s back patio). But the best part, bien sûr, is the climate-controlled shoplet tucked away at the back, stuffed with more than 300 kinds of cheese. Customers are encouraged to sample before they buy (any wonder that there’s sometimes a line to get in there?). We repeat: cheese room. Who needs Paris?
141 Gough, SF. (415) 874-9133
BEST CLAWS FOR CELEBRATION
It is ridiculous that we are about to register a wee bit of complaint regarding the Bay’s incredible surplus of native seafood — we could happily live on Tomales Bay oysters, Dungeness crab, and all those other tasty species one finds stewing in our hot pots of cioppino. And yet … we do miss a nice fresh lobster to go with our bubbly on special occasions, or some genuine surf to pair with our turf when we’re feeling old-school romantic-fancy. That’s when we head to our secret Maine-line to East Coast crustacean bliss, New England Lobster Company in South San Francisco, which offers not just succulent, flown-in pinchers both live and frozen, but steamers, scallops, mussels, clams, and many other treasures of the briny deep. And hey, what do you know, you can score some good ol’ Dungeness here, too. Don’t miss the super-delish lobster rolls from the lunchtime food truck in the parking lot, either. (Motto: “We’re on a roll!” LOL.) Time to get cracking.
170 Mitchell Ave., (650) 873-9000, www.newenglandlobster.net
BEST POP-UP RIVER OF LIQUOR
The Bon Vivants cocktail crew — Scott Baird, Josh Harris, Jason Henton — is a local treasure, throwing some of the coolest, most innovative parties around. They’ve also created winning cocktail menus, like the one at Berkeley’s new Comal, while working on their long-awaited Mission bar Trick Dog. But till then, tipsy transients can catch them at their more fleeting establishment, the Rio Grande Bar. What started as part of A Temporary Offering — the intriguing rotating pop-up project that inhabits the entire ground floor of the Renoir Hotel — may soon (we hope) become a permanent destination. Or it could morph into roving gypsy bar. Evoking a funky border-town roadhouse as Quentin Tarantino might interpret it, the bar is already a cute-kitschy go-to for cocktailians in the know. There, tequila, mezcal, whiskey, and beer (in cans) flow. No drink menu is needed: talented bar staff create bracing beverages based on your mood. Or simply opt for a Dos Equis while grooving to live bands on the mini stage, beneath shrines to 1970s adult film star Vanessa del Rio and the Virgin of Guadalupe.
1108 Market, SF. www.bonvivants-sf.com
BEST BRIGHT-EYED BREAD GUY
Photo by Rafi Aji
Here’s how Vermont-bred Josey Baker launched Josey Baker Bread: he walked into Mission Pie and asked (sweetly) if he might borrow some oven space. The neighborhood bake shop obliged, and to no one’s surprise (the alluring qualities of handsome men and fresh-baked bread being what they are) Baker’s business took off, delighting subscribers to his poppy, walnut, and black pepper parmesan loaves — delivered weekly to your door! — and walk-in customers alike. On some days he has even given away bread on a by-donation basis; we’ve seen it. Now he’s set to open his own bakery in partnership with Four Barrel on Divisadero. His fans may be excited by swirling rumors of a toast bar, but for us it would be enough to just see that smile again. He may not be oblivious to his own charms; his website recommends that you write him a love letter. Josey, does this count?
736 Divisadero, SF. joseybakerbread.wordpress.com
Best of the Bay 2012 Editors Picks: City Living
Editor’s Picks
City Living
BEST VOICE OF VICTORY
Whether it’s Pablo Sandoval stepping into the box or a struggling rookie trying to catch a break, the next batter up at AT&T park is always ushered in with unwavering excitement and energy. That recognizable voice pinging around the field belongs to Renel Brooks-Moon. For 12 years, she has served as the announcer for your San Francisco Giants. Born in Oakland, Brooks-Moon currently puts the Bay Area on the map as having the only female announcer — and one of the first African American announcers — in Major League Baseball. From the team’s near-World Series victory in 2002 to the eventual 2010 World Series win, Brooks-Moon’s voice has narrated the Giants’ most shining moments. She’s even done what most of the players can’t: earn a spot in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Heads-up to you non-sports fans, Brooks-Moon has also hosted 98.1 KISS FM’s Renel and Christie in the Morning, for 15 years.
BEST ELECTROSTATIC MEME
Photo by Phil McGrew
Currency traders who live with epic views of the Bay Bridge have all the luck. One night, they’re sitting around taking photos through the window of their apartment, the next day their shot is everyone-and-their-mothers’ Facebook cover photo. Such was the story of Phil McGrew’s picture of eight bolts of lightning hitting the Bay Bridge from that incredible April 12 spring storm. McGrew has been taking photos as a hobby for just two years, so he could have hardly expected to capture of all four of the bridge’s towers being struck by bolts — or to capture so completely the local Internet imagination. “I showed [my girlfriend] Sherry right away,” he told the UK’s Daily Mail. “She thought it was fantastic.” You and our newsfeed both, Sherry.
BEST SMOKE ON THE AIR
We love the activists on the medical marijuana scene, but you can’t attend one of the Bay’s many cannabis expos without noting that the vast majority of attendees are of the male persuasion. This is precisely what tickles us green about Merry Toppins and Vaperonica Dee’s weekly Mutiny Radio podcast Cannabis Cuts. The young women spend hours intelligently dissecting the pot news of the day, playing chilled-out stoner tunes, and conducting smooth interviews with many of the area’s Mary Jane movers and shakers. “We’re changing the idea that there could be a profile of a standard cannabis activist,” Dee told us in a recent interview. And, since public perception of stoners could be the one thing that’ll change repressive federal policy, that’s an important sound byte, indeed.
Tuesdays, 4 p.m.–6 p.m. www.mutinyradio.org
BEST TUDOR TIMEWARP
Eschew the 13-hour flight and bloody horrible exchange rate: access ye olde England in less than 30 minutes with a car ride over the Golden Gate Bridge. Nestled between Muir Beach and its nearby redwood rings is the whitewashed Pelican Inn. Visit for its cozy pub, which hosts a long list of mostly European brews — or perhaps you hanker for its traditional English fare, with greens harvested from the neighboring Zen Center and served in a dining room of dark wood illuminated by candlelight. Can’t get enough of the countryside castle vibe? Stay the night. The eco-conscious can earn their fish ‘n’ chips the car-free way — spend a few hours hiking across the Coastal Trail from bus-accessible Tennessee Valley and you’ll never need to gas up.
10 Pacific Way, Muir Beach. (415) 383-6000, www.pelicaninn.com
BEST FADES WITH FLAIR
Guardian photo by Godofredo Vasquez/SF Newspaper Co.
Guys, it’s that time again: the moment your friends have ceased to be fooled by that hat you wear to cover up the fact that you desperately need a touch-up on your fade. Never fear, the New Chicago Barbershop #3 is a time-tested solution to your lackluster attention to grooming. Plus, the place has flair: step in the shop, and feel like you’ve stepped back into the an early-1970s Fillmore District business. With pictures of Dizzy Gillespie and Muhammad Ali on the walls, a shoe shine station, and never-ending barbershop banter, this is as authentic as it gets. For 45 years, the longest-standing shop on its block has cut local stars, visiting celebrities, and everyday neighborhood residents. Just don’t let the old-school vibe fool you — New Chicago’s haircuts will make you feel like a new man.
1551 Fillmore, SF. (415) 563-9793, www.newchicagobarbershop.net
BEST BAIT BLOG
Photo via The Monkeyface News
The deep-sea-ded truth of fisherman Kirk Lombard’s angling blog the Monkeyface News is that you need never have hoisted a rod to partake in its charms. Lombard’s tales of shad runs and striped bass population numbers are interspersed with musings about German disco quartet Boney M., and complaints regarding weekday sobriety. Aiming to learn how to poke pole the blog’s titular monkeyface eels from a hands-on video, or find out whether you can use a jig to catch a rockfish? Find out here — or on Lombard’s almost-just-as-good tour site, Kirk Lombard’s Sea Forager. An ex-Department of Fish and Game surveyor, Lombard preaches sustainable fishing practices in his fishing seminars — which have included an urban fishing-foraging series conducted through Forage SF. Newbie eel hunters, you’ve come to the right place.
BEST USERS UNION
“Nothing about us, without us.” That’s the mission statement of the San Francisco Drug Users’ Union, an innovative organization sponsored by the Drug Policy Alliance that meets regularly to discuss self-advocacy in politics. If human history — and nature — is any indicator, people are never going to stop using drugs. Accepting that, it’s an easy leap to imagine, then, that drug users are people. And since drug use takes up a lot of time, and most certainly comes with its own occupational preoccupations, it stands to reason that these people deserve to be able to organize to represent their own interests (especially when they run contrary to those of the self-propagating prison-industrial complex). The SFDUU makes this logic a reality. A recent project included a showcase of professionally designed models for safe injection sites. Safe places to shoot up? It seems so sensible!
General meetings first and third Mondays, 5:30 p.m., free. 149 Turk, SF. www.sfdrugusersunion.org
BEST SQUEAKY-CLEAN QUEENDOM
Just as though it were real hamlet, Norge Laundry and Cleaning Village is guarded by two watchful matriarchs. The funky pair of female sovereigns, Lorene Howard and Genny Bruggen, have owned Norge for eight years, and recently started hosting live concerts for their people. Frequently delighting the masses are endearing glam rockers the Clarences, who set a joyful tone with Bowie face paint and handfuls of glitter confetti. They alternate with various singer-songwriters and one-man bands that defy categorization. Howard brags that Norge has the “hottest dryers in town,” but more importantly, she and Bruggen are the warmest proprietors you’re likely to find. Added bonus: get on a regular cleaning schedules and the ladies will pass you life advice, and even switch your load from washer to dryer if they find you a welcome addition to the fabric of their lives.
3908 Grand, Oakl. (510) 653-3435
BEST INDOOR PERCH FOR INFINITE INSPIRATION
Killer panoramas aren’t hard to find in San Francisco. But what if you want a bird’s eye view of beauty that’s unfettered by cold winds and within an arm’s reach from a good read? The Potrero Hill branch of the San Francisco Public Library is a modern two-story building awash in natural light. Its best spot is the row of squishy armchairs aligned inches from a wall of windows facing out over the northwestern horizon, with a clear view of the landmarks galore splayed beyond Potrero’s rooftops. Claim one of these chairs and you’ll be rewarded with an expansive landscape that’s at once geographical and intellectual, giving the contemplative bookworm both a superior vista of the peninsula and a clean, well-lighted place from which to explore the literary world.
1616 20th St., SF. (415) 355-2822, www.sfpl.org
BEST ROCK ‘EM SOCK ‘EM REVELRY
What do you do for a ‘tweenager’s birthday? Too old for a scavenger hunt, too young for a dance party, too quickly bored for pretty much anything. Except, that is, a good robot war. Thanks to Bot Bash Parties, you don’t even have to leave your house for such mechanical mania. Zachary Lytle, who built his first robot when he was younger than some of his party guests, and who has won the world robotics tournament three times, will set up a four-foot-square ring in your living room that’ll house a tournament of six vicious, whirring, cutting, flipping remote-controlled robots that can occupy as many as 24 kids. Along the way, partygoers are treated to a basic roboting lesson. For world-weary ‘tweens and their parents, this does compute.
(707) 228-5088, www.botbashparty.com
BEST DRYER DR. FRANKENSTEIN
It wheezes, it shakes, it whines, but somehow, it always gets your clothes clean. Until the day you’re ankle-deep in detergent bubbles. Time to call Noel Appliance! Noel Guzman knows just about everything that can go wrong with any brand of washer, dryer, even dishwasher. Just text him (he gets back to you in minutes), send his phone a photo of your dead machine, and let him give you an estimate right away. Chances are, Guzman can fix it for way less than it costs to buy a new one — his house calls go for $35 — so why fill landfills on account of minor mechanical problems? If the thing really is beyond repair, Noel sells floor models and good lightly used appliances for much cheaper than you can find in most stores. And he delivers.
(650) 740-5296, www.noelappliance.com
BEST BDSM BOOSTERS
Why did the American Psychiatric Association declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973? It had less to do with the goodness of the controlling body’s hearts and more to do with science: study after study failed to find a correlation between being attracted to your own gender and being any kind of crazy. It is upon this principle that the Community-Academic Consortium for Research on Alternative Sexualities (CARAS) was founded in 2005 — only with kink, BDSM, leather, and consensual non-monogamy in mind. CARAS’ mission is to educate mental health professionals on alternative sex — not to mention fund the kind of high-quality research that will make the difference when it comes to how academia, and eventually, society, looks upon a little disorderly conduct in the sensual sphere.
BEST PAWS ACROSS AMERICA
Never heard of Pawesome? Sorry — your computer-bound hours are about to take another nosedive in productivity. Don’t wag your hyperactive point-and-clicker at us: it’s for a good cause! Local besties Sonia Zjawinski and Sarah Han started the website (now bi-coastal — hey Brooklyn) out of a sheer, possibly manic affection for all things furred and feathered. A brief trip down the front page might reveal a compilation of parakeet-on-skateboard clips, a portrait of a bar kitty, or an automated laser pet toy — but will also cover serious matters, such as the story of a new shelter or a breaking animal rescue from across the country. The site also puts a focus on healthy animal feed and products, so feel redeemed patronizing its pixels — even if you came looking for that video of the doggie and guinea pig kissing.
BEST EPL IN THE AM
You know you’re in the presence of hardcore devotion when all available seats at the pub are snagged ahead of a pre-dawn English Premiere League match. Such is the reality at Danny Coyle’s. The bar’s biggest team draws are Liverpool (which lured visiting movie star Clive Owen, spotted rooting for the Reds in April), Arsenal, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea, and Tottenham Hotspur. Friendly bartenders are skilled at passing pints through a crowd and ample TV screens offer good vantage points from every corner. Danny’s and nearby neighbor Mad Dog in the Fog — a larger and often even more-crowded joint — are the reason you’ll hear gasps, taunting rhymes, anguished cries, and goalllll celebrations echoing through the Lower Haight’s early a.m. mists.
668 Haight, SF. (415) 558-8375, www.dannycoyles.com
BEST TM4M TRAINING
Blood is rushing to your first chakra, you’re incredibly horny, and you’re desperate to get off. But the complexities of your body have you feeling a bit insecure about where to go to have that full-body, no-commitment release you’re craving. No fear! San Francisco is a city saturated in sex, and Eros — a safe-sex-on-premises site — hosts casual sexual forays between all kinds of men, regardless of what they have going on below the belt. Eros’ Transmen for Men (TM4M) is a unique program held every second Thursday developed to foster a dialogue between transmen and cis-men on how to have hot and steamy casual encounters with each other. There’s more: Eros is open seven days a week, and is always committed to celebrating the queer masculine spectrum.
2051 Market, SF. (415) 255-3921, www.erossf.com
BEST SKIN DEEP
Skin care and acne treatments are not the most comfortable things to which you can submit your face. But trust in the seasoned vets at Studio Abasi, a skin-miracle shop tucked above the serene and lush Berkeley City Club. You’ll walk away from the salon with a comprehensive guide to your skin, including details a regular dermatologist might forego in favor of a quick prescription. That — combined with owner Shannon Carter’s fondness for screening her favorite YouTube videos while she works to keep your mind off the pain of beauty — makes visiting Abasi feel more like swapping skin-care secrets at a sleepover than a trip to the doctor’s office. After all, your skin is the outermost layer of yourself, a sensitive subject that can often bring up emotions (and excruciating blackheads.) Better to get a skin care professional who enjoys talking it out, face-to-face.
2315 Durant, Berk. (510) 665-5544, www.studioabasi.com
BEST PRIDE ON WHEELS
Photo by Trevor Traynor
Though some may quibble with the presence of lowriders at Sunday Streets in the Mission — you can often find the hydraulic-enabled, candy-painted whips parked off 24th Street as they prepare to roll out in high-gloss fashion — the cars actually recall an important chapter of the neighborhood’s history that doesn’t get enough play. According to Roberto Hernandez of the SF Lowrider Council, lowriding the Mission’s main drags was so popular in the 1980s that tourist buses would come to check out the cars, causing traffic that led to police intervention and brutality. The Council was formed in response to the harassment, and is experiencing a rebirth these days as lowriding comes back into fashion. Nowadays, member clubs have five to 30 members of all genders and races. The only requirement to join, says Hernandez, is a “finished, tight, ready-to-roll lowrider.”
(415) 206-0577
BEST MUSHROOMING POPULARITY
Enough tripping over yourself at music festivals — the best kind of festive fungi has to be that which is found at the ever-growing SF Mycological Society’s Fungus Fair. Each December, Bay Area mycophiles meet up for a weekend (usually in Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science) to enjoy lectures, vendors selling mushroom-dyed sweaters, and entire rooms full of specimens hand-picked by members of the Society. Attendees can also take advantage of copious class offerings: ever wondered, for instance, about the best way to serve a black chanterelle? Take the mushroom cooking class. Best of all, you can find out what SFMS gets up to during the rest of the year: San Francisco is home to the country’s longest-running mycology programs (at SF State), and the Society hosts beginners’ foraging hikes all throughout the year for the budding, mushroom-loving spore.
BEST PLACE TO FLIP OUT
Guardian photo by Brittany M. Powell
It sits, waiting for the next young bendy soul: a vast, matted wonderland of balance beams, pommel horses, uneven bars, and gargantuan trampolines ready to be bounced upon and jackknifed off of. American Gymnastics Club has been molding San Francisco’s Kylie Ross hopefuls into competitors for decades. Though simple somersault class is available for preschoolers, those with thighs of steel and grace to boot can sign up for the competitive program, where they can vie for college athletic scholarships and test their nerves at state championships. Visit its Judah location — an institution — or the newer Bayshore facility. Both offer ample classes for the little one, or, if you wanna hit the mat as well, tykes from 18 months to three years can bring in the ‘rents for parent participation-friendly classes.
2520 Judah, SF. (415) 731-1400; 390 Bayshore, SF. (415) 920-1704, www.americangymnasticsclub.com
BEST LABORATORY FOR MOLE-DING YOUNG MINDS
There’s a frozen fox in the fridge, an assortment of snakes on the sideboard, and a hedgehog hunkered down in a little pen. There are gadgets whirring and vibrating, measuring the cacophony from a caboodle of broken-down instruments. There are pulleys and levers and bells and whistles and plenty of chemicals that make a good bang. And at the Mission Science Workshop, there’s no slab coat required — just a healthy dose of curiosity. Founder Dan Sudran encourages kids of diverse backgrounds to squish, mold, spin, and explore — whether it’s making giant cardboard strands of DNA; playing with vacuums and electromagnets; or assembling your very own vermin from individual containers filled with teeny-tiny pelvises, scapulae, and spines at the Build-a-Mole station — batteries not included.
3750 18th St., SF. (415) 621-1240, www.missionscienceworkshop.org
BEST MOTHERBOARD MOTHERSHIP
Started by partners Azam Khan and Oliver Maddox last winter as part of the duo’s quest to offer fair rates on Apple and high-end PC repair, Love Haight Computers deals in new machines, plus customization, refurbishment, diagnostic services, accessories — and rotating art displays? One of the shop’s goals is to support its community, so it makes perfect sense to showcase the artwork of deserving friends for the tech-needy to peruse. If Best Buy makes you squirm and Geek Squad’s orange-and-blue offends your delicate aesthetic sensibilities, head to this Lower Haight comp store-art show. Bonus point: Khan is easily one of the most charismatic tech geeks we’ve met in ages, and he promises “not to rip you off.”
437A Haight, SF. (415) 799-4600, www.lovehaightcomputers.com
BEST FOUND IN TRANSLATION
Though that old cautionary tale of the Chevy Nova selling badly in Spanish-speaking countries (Get it? No va?) is apocryphal, there is still plenty of research each year dedicated to the economic impacts associated with poor or culturally-insensitive translation. But who is watching out for the less tangible art of translation of, well, art — and its potential for cultural cross-pollination? In fact, that would be the Center for the Art of Translation. The non-profit organization won’t help your company make overseas business deals, but it will help broaden our cultural understanding through outreach, education, and public events. By helping to support translators, giving children tools for literacy and critical thinking, and hosting public talks, the Center makes our world a little smaller and a whole lot richer.
582 Market, SF. (415) 512-8824, www.catranslation.org
BEST NEW GROWTH FOR OLD ROOTS
There were the decadent early years as the apex of luxe accommodations for 1930s travelers, and there was the ignominious segregationist past. There were mid-century decades as a soppy, swinging, jazz, funk, and blues-infused cultural mecca, and there was the descent into disrepair and the tenure as over-crowded and under-loved SRO. From evictions to an ultimate rebirth, Oakland’s iconic Hotel California has weathered many seasons. Now a low-income housing development, the landmark boasts the Hotel California Garden, a thriving greenhouse enterprise and farm which, in partnership with the People’s Grocery, sponsors programming and events, and acts as a hub for community building and gathering. The garden has supported the emergence of a resident’s council, hosts volunteers for work days, and employs hotel residents to grow and tend edible plant starts which are sold at an affordable price throughout the larger community. Most definitely a spring-like awakening.
3501 San Pablo, Oakl. (510) 652-7607
BEST SUPERFRIENDS
The “It Gets Better” campaign may get all a lot of press when it comes to encouraging queer teens to hang in there in the face of bullying and fear, and not succumb to depression. But there’s an amazing organization that, for the past 14 years, has been working to empower teens to make it better right now. (It even recently launched the Make It Better Project to directly involve teens in making schools safer for LGBTQ peers.) The Gay Straight Alliance Network started in San Francisco and has grown into a hugely popular global entity, uniting queer and questioning teens and straight allies in the fight against homophobia through classroom interaction and school activities. Last year’s Northern California GSA youth conference trained hundreds of young activists to help teachers comply with California’s new FAIR Education act, which requires schools to include factual information about gay people in existing social studies lessons. These brave kids don’t want to wait to move toward acceptance.
BEST FUTURE OF THE PRESS
This might get a little meta, so pull up a bar stool, grab a stiff drink, and bear with us. Better yet, let’s go down to Local Edition bar, where the walls are adorned with perfectly preserved newspapers from the great days of print journalism (ahem, not yet over by the way) and the cocktail menu, designed by Ian Scalzo of Bourbon and Branch, offers playful twists on classics any fedora-sporting muckraker worth her salt would be more than familiar with. Yes, in the plush, Art Deco-ish space you’ll find displayed a copy of the Guardian’s first issue from October 1966 and other legendary artifacts of historic Bay Area journalistic output, yellow or otherwise, plus a vintage typewriter or two. It’s a dreamy wayback machine for romance-addled Lois Lanes and Clark Kents — and it all takes place in the basement that once housed the Examiner’s (and The Call’s) printing press. There is nary an emoticon, comments section, or LOLcat in sight. If the future of print is leading to this sort of thing, we’ll stick with ink and drink.
691 Market, SF. (415) 795-1375, www.localeditionsf.com
BEST PRAYER FOR UNITY
A sanctuary that offers religion to some and is open to all, St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church genuinely lives by JC’s should-be truism, “there are no outcasts and all are welcome.” Volunteers from the church’s congregation manage the Cyprian’s Arc community center, which opens its doors wide as a music venue and meeting space for neighbors of every age, belief system, and background. Local activists, like those from the sustainability-driven Wigg Party, organize workshops and events within the St. Cyprian’s public areas. And the 89-year-old church’s efforts at community building, such as a recent oral history project, remind Panhandle neighbors that even — perhaps especially — in a rapidly changing community, they are connected at the roots of the ‘hood.
2097 Turk, SF. (415) 567-1855, www.saintcyprianssf.org
Best of the Bay 2012 Readers Poll: Food and Drink
BEST OF THE BAY 2012: READERS POLL
Food and Drink
BEST OVERALL RESTAURANT
Nopa
560 Divisadero, SF. (415) 864-8643, www.nopasf.com
BEST NEW RESTAURANT (TIE)
AQ
1085 Mission, SF. (415) 341-9000, www.aq-sf.com
Central Kitchen
3000 20th St., SF. (415) 826-7004, www.centralkitchensf.com
BEST BUDGET RESTAURANT
Jake’s Steaks
3301 Buchanan, SF. (415) 922-2291, www.jakessteaks.net
BEST SPLURGE RESTAURANT
Gary Danko
821 North Point, SF. (415) 749-2060, www.garydanko.com
BEST LATE NIGHT RESTAURANT
Nopa
560 Divisadero, SF. (415) 864-8643, www.nopasf.com
BEST ROMANTIC RESTAURANT
Foreign Cinema
2534 Mission, SF. (415) 648-7600, www.foreigncinema.com
BEST FOOD/DRINK FESTIVAL
North Beach Festival
BEST FOOD CART
Chairman Bao
(415) 813-8000, twitter.com/chairmantruck
BEST FARMERS MARKET
Ferry Plaza Farmers Market
1 Ferry Building, SF. (415) 291-3276, www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com
BEST PIZZA
Little Star Pizza
Various SF locations, www.littlestarpizza.com
BEST SANDWICHES
Ike’s Place
3489 16th St., SF. (415) 553-6888, www.ilikeikesplace.com
BEST BURRITOS
Taqueria Cancun
Various SF locations
BEST BARBECUE
Memphis Minnie’s Barbecue Joint and Smokehouse
576 Haight, SF. (415) 864-7675, www.memphisminnies.com
BEST SUSHI
Ichi
3369 Mission, SF. (415) 525-4750, www.ichisushi.com
BEST BOWL OF NOODLES
Citrus Club
1790 Haight, SF. (415) 387-6366, www.citrusclubsf.com
BEST SOUP
San Francisco Soup Company
Various SF locations, www.sfsoupco.com
BEST SALADS
Blue Barn Gourmet
2105 Chestnut, SF. (415) 441-3232, www.bluebarngourmet.com
BEST SEAFOOD
Woodhouse Fish Co.
Various SF locations, www.woodhousefish.com
BEST SOUL FOOD
Brenda’s French Soul Food
652 Polk, SF. (415) 345-8100, www.frenchsoulfood.com
BEST ITALIAN
Delfina
3621 18th St., SF. (415) 552-4055, www.delfinasf.com
BEST MIDDLE EASTERN
La Med
Various SF locations, www.cafelamed.com
BEST INDIAN
Dosa
Various SF locations, www.dosasf.com
BEST MEXICAN
Puerto Allegre
546 Valencia, SF. (415) 255-8201
BEST CHINESE
Mission Chinese Food
2234 Mission, SF. (415) 863-5710, www.missionchinesefood.com
BEST THAI
Osha
Various SF locations, www.oshathai.com
BEST VEGETARIAN
Greens
Building A, Fort Mason, SF. (415) 771-7955, www.greensrestaurant.com
BEST VEGAN
Gracias Madre
2211 Mission, SF. (415) 683-1346, www.gracias-madre.com
BEST BREAKFAST
Dottie’s
28 Sixth St., SF. (415) 885-2767
BEST BRUNCH
Zazie
941 Cole, SF. (415) 564-5332, www.zaziesf.com
BEST LUNCH
The Pork Store
Various SF locations, www.porkstorecafe.com
BEST APPETIZERS
Cha Cha Cha
Various SF locations, www.cha3.com
BEST DESSERT
Tartine
600 Guerrero, SF. (415) 487-2600, www.tartinebakery.com
BEST SERVICE
The Pork Store
Various SF locations, www.porkstorecafe.com
BEST FOOD AND/OR DRINKS WEBSITE
Tablehopper
BEST CAFÉ
Cafe Flore
2298 Market, SF. (415) 621-8579, www.cafeflore.com
BEST CUP OF COFFEE
Philz Coffee
Various SF locations, www.philzcoffee.com
BEST CUP OF TEA
Samovar Tea Lounge
Various SF locations, www.samovarlife.com
BEST OVERALL BAR
Harlot
46 Minna, SF. (415) 777-1077, www.harlotsf.com
BEST NEW BAR
Monarch
101 Sixth St., SF. (415) 284-9774, www.monarchsf.com
BEST DIVE BAR (TIE)
The Knockout
3223 Mission, SF. (415) 550-6994, www.theknockoutsf.com
El Rio
3158 Mission, SF. (415) 282-3325, www.elriosf.com
BEST SWANKY BAR
Bourbon and Branch
501 Jones, SF. (415) 346-1735, www.bourbonandbranch.com
BEST SINGLES BAR
Madrone Art Bar
500 Divisadero, SF. (415) 241-0202, www.madroneartbar.com
BEST SPORTS BAR
Kezar Pub
770 Stanyan, SF. (415) 386-9292, www.thekezarpub.com
BEST HAPPY HOUR
Iron & Gold
3187 Mission, SF. (415) 824-1447, www.ironandgoldsf.com
BEST WINERY
V. Sattui
1111 White, Saint Helena. (707) 963-7774, www.vsattui.com
BEST WINE BAR
Noeteca
1551 Dolores, SF. (415) 824-5524, www.noeteca.com
BEST BREWERY
Anchor Brewing
1705 Mariposa, SF. (415) 863-8350, www.anchorbrewing.com
BEST SELECTION OF BEERS
Toronado
547 Haight, SF. (415) 863-2276, www.toronado.com
BEST CREATIVE COCKTAILS
Alembic
1725 Haight, SF. (415) 666-0822, www.alembicbar.com
BEST BLOODY MARY
Zeitgeist
199 Valencia, SF. (415) 255-7505, www.zeitgeistsf.com
BEST BAR STAFF
DNA Lounge
375 11th St., SF. (415) 626-1409, www.dnalounge.com
BEST POT EDIBLES
Vapor Room
607 Haight, SF. (415) 626-2100, www.vaporroom.com
BEST BAKERY
Devil’s Teeth Baking Company
3786 Noriega, SF. (415) 683-5533, www.devilsteethbakingcompany.com
BEST BUTCHER SHOP
Olivier’s Butchery
1074 Illinois, SF. (415) 558-9887, www.oliviersbutchery.com
BEST CHEESE SHOP
Cowgirl Creamery
1 Ferry Building, No. 19, SF. (415) 329, 4000, www.cowgirlcreamerysidekick.com
BEST CHOCOLATIER
Fog City News
455 Market, SF. (415) 543-7400, www.fogcitynews.com
Best of the Bay 2012 Readers Poll: Arts and Entertainment
BEST OF THE BAY 2012: READERS POLL: ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
BEST MOVIE THEATER
CASTRO THEATRE
429 Castro, SF
(415) 621-6120
BEST REP FILM HOUSE
ROXIE THEATER
3117 16th St., SF
(415) 863-1087
BEST THEATER COMPANY
BATS IMPROV
B350 Fort Mason Center, SF
(415) 474-6776
BEST DANCE COMPANY
ODC
3153 17th St., SF
(415) 863-9833
BEST DANCE INSTRUCTOR
MICAYA
BEST PERFORMANCE SPACE
Z SPACE
450 Florida, SF
(415) 626-0453
BEST FILM OR ARTS FESTIVAL
SAN FRANCISCO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
BEST MUSEUM
DE YOUNG MUSEUM
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, SF
(415) 750-3600
BEST ART GALLERY
SECESSION ART AND DESIGN
3361 Mission, SF
(415) 279-3058
BEST ARTIST OR COLLECTIVE (TIE)
CREATIVITY EXPLORED
3245 16th St., SF
(415) 863-2108
MILLION FISHES
2501 Bryant, SF
BEST FILMMAKER
PEACHES CHRIST
BEST ACTOR
LISA ROWLAND
BEST AUTHOR
DAVID PEREZ
BEST ZINE
SPECIOUS SPECIES
BEST PUBLISHING HOUSE
LAST GASP
BEST ARTS OR MUSIC WEBSITE
THE BAY BRIDGED
BEST RECORD LABEL
FLENSER RECORDS
BEST BAND
MAD NOISE
BEST SINGER-SONGWRITER
MISISIPI MIKE WOLF
BEST DJ
PRINCE ARIES
BEST MUSIC FESTIVAL
OUTSIDE LANDS
BEST OVERALL PARTY VENUE
DNA LOUNGE
375 11th St., SF
(415) 626-1409
BEST OVERALL DANCE PARTY
BOOTIE
Saturdays, 9pm-late, $10 before 10pm, $15 after
DNA Lounge
375 11th St., SF
BEST ROCK CLUB
BOTTOM OF THE HILL
1233 17th St., SF
(415) 626-4455
BEST REGGAE CLUB
PIER 23
Pier 23, SF
(415) 362-5125
BEST HIP-HOP CLUB
CLUB SIX
60 Sixth St., SF
(415) 863-1221
BEST JAZZ CLUB
YOSHI’S
1330 Fillmore, SF
(415) 655-5600;
510 Embarcadero West, Oakl.
(510) 238-9200
BEST SALSA CLUB
CAFÉ COCOMO
650 Indiana, SF
(415) 824-6910
BEST HOUSE/TECHNO CLUB
MIGHTY
119 Utah, SF
(415) 762-0151
BEST AFTER-HOURS CLUB
THE END UP
401 Sixth St., SF
(415) 896-1075
BEST TRIVIA NIGHT
EDINBURGH CASTLE
Tuesdays 8pm, free
950 Geary, SF
(415) 885-4074
BEST JUKEBOX
LUCKY 13
2140 Market, SF
(415) 487-1313
BEST KARAOKE BAR
THE MINT
1942 Market, SF
(415) 626-4726
BEST OVERALL QUEER PARTY
HARD FRENCH
First Saturdays, 2-8pm, $7
El Rio
3158 Mission, SF
BEST GAY BAR OR CLUB
TRUCK
1900 Folsom, SF
(415) 252-0306
BEST LESBIAN BAR OR CLUB
LEXINGTON CLUB
3464 19th St., SF
(415) 863-2052
BEST CLUB FOR TRANSPEOPLE
EL RIO
3158 Mission, SF
(415) 282-3325
BEST DRAG SHOW
TRANNYSHACK
BEST DRAG KING OR QUEEN
PEACHES CHRIST
BEST BURLESQUE ACT OR SHOW
HUBBA HUBBA REVUE
BEST COMEDY SHOW
COBB’S COMEDY CLUB
915 Columbus, SF
(415) 928-4320
BEST COMEDIAN
MARGA GOMEZ
BEST MAGICIAN
ROBERT STRONG
BEST OPEN MIC NIGHT
HOTEL UTAH
Mondays, 7pm, free
500 Fourth St., SF
(415) 546-6300
BEST LITERARY NIGHT
WHY THERE ARE WORDS
Second Thursdays, 7pm, $5
Studio 333
333 Caledonia, Sausalito
BEST STRIP CLUB
THE LUSTY LADY
1033 Kearny, SF
(415) 391-3126
BEST SEX CLUB
EROS
2051 Market, SF
(415) 255-4921
BEST PORN STUDIO
KINK.COM
On the Cheap Listings
Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Picks.
WEDNESDAY 25
Grey Panther picnic Live Oak Park, 1301 Walnut, Berk. (510) 548-9696. 1:30-3pm, free. Come hang with the older radical set at this summer fun time – music, poetry, politics welcome.
Bollywood Nights after-hours at the Conservatory of Flowers Golden Gate Park, 100 JFK Drive, SF. www.conservatoryofflowers.org. 6-10pm, $5. Non Stop Bhangra fills the humid air with Punjabi folk notes at this gorgeous greenhouse – learn how to dance bhangra with the group and grab a free cup from the Chai Cart afterwards, with a snack from the Curry Up Now food cart to boot.
KQED free film screening Roxie Theater, 3117 16th St., SF. www.kqed.org. 8pm, free. Two stories of San Francisco take the stage in this free double feature: A Brush With the Tenderloin, the story of muralist Mona Caron’s ode to the neighborhood, and Stage Left, which looks at the San Francisco Actor’s Workshop and its effect on the city’s theater community, starting in 1952.
THURSDAY 26
SF International Poetry Festival Various SF locations and times. www.sfipf.org. Through Sun/29. Readings with bards from around the world take place across SF this weekend – from North Beach to Civic Center Plaza, Amiri Baraka to poets from Sweden and the Phillipines. Check out a stanza or stay for a neighborhood-wide poetry crawl.
“The Berkeley You Didn’t Know” Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists, 1924 Cedar, Berk. www.bfuu.org. 7pm, donations suggested. Three Berkeley historians – including the first black woman to serve on the town’s city council – talk about radical traditions in their city. The event is part of this year’s LaborFest (www.laborfest.net), and was organized to provide food for thought for this era’s activists.
FRIDAY 27
Gilroy Garlic Festival Christmas Hill Park, Gilroy. www.gilroygarlicfestival.com. Also Sat/28 and Sun/29. 10am-7pm, $17 one-day admission. Whoever the genius was that snagged the breath mint sponsor of this year’s garlic cook-off: clap, clap. Come for the entertainment (rockabilly to mandolin), stay for the pageant (Miss Gilroy Garlic!), eat garlic-graced snacks from icecream to salmon throughout the day.
“The Culture of Beer” San Francisco Art Institute, 800 Chestnut, SF. (415) 437-1357, www.sfai.edu. 3-9pm, free with pre-registration. Hans Winkler turns the SFAI campus into a beer garden, complete with suds-themed readings, hard-to-find German pints, and originally-designed coasters.
SATURDAY 28
Ohlone basket ceremony Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak, SF. www.museumca.org. 1-3pm, free museum admission. Myriad are the issues involved in exhibiting Native Peoples’ crafts, which oftentimes were never meant to live in a sterile museum environment. That’s what makes this ceremony welcoming Ohlone scholar Linda Yamane’s specially-commissioned basket to the museum – it was made to be here. In honor of the 20,000-stitch, 1,200-bead work, the whole family’s invited for storytelling circles, and performances.
Graffiti panel discussion and BBQ 941 Geary, SF. www.941geary.com 2-5pm, free. Local graf artist Apex and the president of aerosol spray can company Montana Colors are among those on this panel looking at graffiti and the environment. Before the chat, get loose with BBQ and beer sponsor Trumer Pils.
Beer Olympics Impala, 501 Broadway, SF. Celebrate the opening of the London 2012 Olympics at Impala’s Beer Olympics. Come wearing a unitard of your choosing – triple “country shots” will be available for the flag of your elected homeland, a perfect warmup for the beer pong, flip cup, and relays that will take place throughout the evening.
“Hotter Than July” bellydance extravaganza La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck, Berk. www.lapena.org. 1pm, $10-$25 suggested donation. Undulate your way through Saturday at this showcase of Bay belly beauties. The cost of your admission goes to supporting Girls Raks Bellydance, a program that improves young girls’ body image through lessons in a judgement-free dance form.
World Naked Bike Ride Justin Herman Plaza, SF. www.worldnakedbikeride.org. 11am, free. Protest global oil dependency by cycling in the buff through town – you’ll be joined by eco-nudes all over the world at the concurrent events in other cities.
Berkeley Kite Festival Cesar E. Chavez Park, 11 Spinnaker Way, Berk. (510) 235-5483, www.berkeleykitefestival.com. Also Sun/29. 10am-6pm, free. A Japanese kite team, ginormous animal flyers, and ample opportunities to make your own creation take center stage at the 27th year of this festival. Soar in for kites, snacks, and a bouncy house for the kiddos.
“No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics” Pegasus Book, 2349 Shattuck, Berk. (510) 649-1320, www.pegasusbookstore.com. 7:30pm, free. Justin Hall visually presents the new compilation he edited of LGBT cartoons going back four decades. The book includes Dan Savage’s early work, not to mention Alison Bechdel, Howard Cruse, and Ralf Konig.
SUNDAY 29
Up Your Alley Dore Alley between Howard and Folsom, SF. www.folsomstreetfair.com/alley. 11am-6pm, $7 suggested donation. Each year before the world descends on San Francisco for the leather mania of Folsom Street Fair, Up Your Alley takes place for a slightly more local, intimate, kink street fair. The Folsom-Dore production company donates thousands of dollars each year to small nonprofits, so feel real good about being real bad here.
MONDAY 30
A Million Heavens McSweeney’s book launch party Amnesia, 853 Valencia, SF. www.amnesiathebar.net. 6:30-8:30pm, free. A piano savant in a coma, a wolf on the porowl, a motley vigil in the New Mexico winter. Learn more about the plot of – and raise a glass in this tiny, soju cocktail-endowed Mission venue — John Brandon’s latest novel at this release party.
TUESDAY 31
Stories in the Sand: Sunset District 1847-1964 reading St. Philip’s Catholic Church, 725 Diamond, SF. 7pm, $5. Author Lorri Ungaretti reads from her new book on the early to mid-20th century pioneers who settled the sand dunes of the Sunset. The event is free for members of the SF History Association, which is hosting the event.
Music Listings
Since club life is unpredictable, it’s a good idea to call ahead or check the venue’s website to confirm bookings and hours. Prices are listed when provided to us. Visit www.sfbg.com/venue-guide for venue information. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Picks.
WEDNESDAY 25
ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP
Alberta Cross, Everest, Aaron Lee Tasjan Independent. 8pm, $15.
"Bay Got Soul" Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $5. With Melismatics, Miss Hicks & the Superhicks.
Carletta Sue Kay, Detective Agency, Bugs in Costumes Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $7.
Keith Crossan with Daniel Castro Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $15.
Crystal Stilts, Mantles Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $15.
Magic Leaves, Lawlands, Grand Lodge Cafe Du Nord. 8pm, $10.
Jason Marion vs Lee Huff Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9:30pm.
mewithoutyou, Kevin Devine, Buried Beds Slim’s. 8pm, $16.
Passenger & Pilot, Annie Girl & the Flight, Nora Toomey Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $10.
Terry Savastano Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.
Spoek Mathambo, Duckwrth, Armani Cooper Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $10-$13.
Teenage Bottlerocket, Dopamines, Elway Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $12.
Tiger Honey Pot, Heavy Voodoo, Elegy, Crimson Scarlet Knockout. 9pm, $7.
JAZZ/NEW MUSIC
Jill Burton, Scott Walton, Tim Perkis Meridian Gallery, 535 Powell, SF; www.meridiangallery.org. 8pm, $8-$10.
Cat’s Corner with Nathan Dias Savanna Jazz. 9pm, $10.
Cosmo AlleyCats Le Colonial, 20 Cosmo Place, SF; www.lecolonialsf.com. 7-10pm.
Dink Dink Dink, Gaucho, Eric Garland’s Jazz Session Amnesia. 7pm, free.
Andrea Marcovicci Rrazz Room. 7:30pm, $35-$45.
Ricardo Scales Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 6:30pm, $5.
FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY
Justin Ancheta Pena Pachamama, 1630 Powell, SF; www.pachamamacenter.org. 8pm, free.
Maria De Barros Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $20.
Toast Inspectors Plough and Stars. 9pm.
DANCE CLUBS
Booty Call Q-Bar, 456 Castro, SF; www.bootycallwednesdays.com. 9pm. Juanita MORE! and Joshua J host this dance party.
Coo-Yah! Som., 2925 16th St, SF; (415) 558-8521. 10pm, free. DJs Daneekah and Green B spin reggae and dancehall with weekly guests.
Full-Step! Tunnel Top. 10pm, free. Hip-hop, reggae, soul, and funk with DJs Kung Fu Chris and Bizzi Wonda.
Hardcore Humpday Happy Hour RKRL, 52 Sixth St, SF; (415) 658-5506. 6pm, $3.
Obey the Kitty: Ean Golden, Justin Milla Vessel, 85 Campton, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $10.
Shutter Elbo Room. 10pm, $5. With DJs Nako, Omar, and Justin.
THURSDAY 26
ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP
Ettes, Nectarine Pie, Warm Pie Thee Parkside. 9pm, $10.
Farewell Drifters , Shants Hotel Utah. 9pm, $10.
Gunshy Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.
Harry & the Potters, Potter Puppet Pals Slim’s. 7:30pm, $15.
Lee Huff vs Jason Marion Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9:30pm.
"iStandard Producer Showcase: Bay Area Edition" Rockit Room. 9:30pm, $15.
King Tuff, Jaill, Coathangers Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $12.
Hamilton Loomis Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $15.
Pacific Dub, Katastro Cafe Du Nord. 8pm, $10.
Sioux City Kid, Ferocious Few, Mahgeetah Independent. 8pm, $15.
St. Lucia, Do, popscene DJs Rickshaw Stop. 9:30pm, $14-$15.
Sweet Chariot, Cuates, Josh Harmony Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $7.
Tumbleweed Wanderers, Rin Tin Tiger, Ghost and the City Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $15.
JAZZ/NEW MUSIC
John Pizzarelli Quartet Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $24; 10pm, $20.
Andrea Marcovicci Rrazz Room. 7:30pm, $35-$45.
Ned Boyton Trio Bottle Cap, 1707 Powell, SF; www.bottlecapsf.com. 7-10pm.
Eddy Ramirez Savanna Jazz. 7:30pm, $5.
Slippery Slope, Allison Lovejoy, Mindi Hadan Amnesia. 8pm, $7-$10.
FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY
Bluegrass and old-time jam Atlas Cafe, 3049 20 St, SF; www.atlascafe.net. 8-10pm, free.
Set Dancing Plough and Stars. 9pm.
Twang! Honky Tonk Fiddler’s Green, 1330 Columbus, SF; www.twanghonkytonk.com. 5pm. Live country music, dancing, and giveaways.
DANCE CLUBS
Afrolicious Elbo Room. 9:30pm, $8. Live acts Luminaries and Afrolicious, and DJ-host Pleasuremaker spins Afrobeat, Tropicália, electro, samba, and funk.
All 80s Thursday Cat Club. 9pm, $6 (free before 9:30pm). Two dance floors bumpin’ with the best of 80s mainstream and underground with DJ’s Damon, Steve Washington, Dangerous Dan, and guests.
Base: Chaim Vessel, 85 Campton, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10m, $10.
Tropicana Madrone Art Bar. 9pm, free. Salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, and more with DJs Don Bustamante, Apocolypto, Sr. Saen, Santero, and Mr. E.
FRIDAY 27
ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP
Anthem Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.
Big K.R.I.T, Casey Veggies, Big Sant, Tito Lopez Slim’s. 9pm, $21.
Bone Awl, Cirrhus, Verglas Elbo Room. 9:30pm, $8.
Bruises, Dirty Ghosts, Sporting Life Bottom of the Hill. 9:30pm, $10.
Future Twin SPARC Dispensary, 1256 Mission, SF; RSVP www.sparcsf.org/gkr. 7-10pm, free.
Lee Huff, Rome Balestrieri, Jason Marion Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm.
Intelligence, Personal & the Pizzas, Ggreen Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $10
"iStandard Producer Showcase: Bay Area Edition" Rockit Room. 9:30pm, $15.
Malone Brothers, Huckle Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $21-$25.
Memorials, Seshen, Mission Bells Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $10-$15.
Sam Chase, Bikini Complex, Debbie Neigher Independent. 9pm, $12.
EC Scott Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $20.
Social Studies, Battlehooch, Siddhartha Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $10.
Tambo Rays, Meat Market, Cogito, Evil Eyes Thee Parkside. 9pm, $6.
JAZZ/NEW MUSIC
Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.
Carol Luckenbach Savanna Jazz. 7:30pm, $8.
Terry Disely Bottle Cap, 1707 Powell, SF; www.bottlecapsf.com. 7-10pm.
Andrea Marcovicci Rrazz Room. 7:30pm, $35-$45.
Meta Bionic Lab. 8pm, $12-$25. Multimedia performances by M+V, Guillermo Galindo, NASSA.
Supplicants Red Poppy Art House. 9pm, $12-$20.
FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY
Baxtolo Drom Amnesia. 9pm, $7-$10.
Wil Campa y su Gran Union Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $20; 10:30pm, $20.
Coelho & Ridnell, Antonio Guedes and Chillaquiles Cafe Du Nord. 9:30pm, $12.
Lady Crooners Plough and Stars. 9pm.
Taste Fridays 650 Indiana, SF; www.tastefridays.com. 8pm, $18. Salsa and bachata dance lessons, live music.
Trio Garufa de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden, SF; deyoung.famsf.org. 6pm.
Vindya Red Poppy Art House. 8pm, $15.
DANCE CLUBS
Crystal Method (DJ set), Opulent Temple resident DJs Public Works. 10pm, $20-$25.
Joe Lookout, 3600 16th St.,SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 9pm. Eight rotating DJs, shirt-off drink specials.
Old School JAMZ El Rio. 9pm. Fruit Stand DJs spinning old school funk, hip-hop, and R&B.
Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music with rotating DJs including Stepwise, Steve, Claude, Santero, and Elembe.
Project Mayhem DNA Lounge. 9pm, $10-$15. Dubstep with Bassex, Rudebrat, DJ Mykill, Liam Shy, Atom One, and more.
Toolroom Knights: Filthy Rich Vessel, 85 Campton, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $10-$20.
SATURDAY 28
ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP
Rome Balestrieri, Jason Marion, Lee Huff, Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm.
Big Eagle Riptide. 9:30pm, free.
DRMS, Shotgun Wedding Quintet, St. Tropez Rickshaw Stop. 8:30pm, $12.
4OneFunktion, Jeremy Ellis Elbo Room. 10pm, $10.
Hamsa Lily, Fanna-Fi-Allah Sufi Qawwali Party Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $20-$25.
Kaskade, Dirtyphonics, Fareoh Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, 99 Grove, SF; www.apeconcerts.com. 8pm, $59.50.
Loquat, Young Digerati, Foxtail Somersault, Tzigane Society Slim’s. 8:30pm, $14.
Joyce Manor, Wild Moth, Summer Vacation, Yulia Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $10.
MC Meathook & the Vital Organs, Butt Problems, Go Time!, Tender El Rio. 9pm, $7.
John Pieplow Red Devil Lounge. 8pm, $10.
Planet Booty, Jaysonik Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $7-$10.
Rasio Revolt, Year of the Fist Thee Parkside. 3pm, free.
Sister Sparrow & the Dirty Birds Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $15.
Steel Pulse Independent. 9pm, $35.
Earl Thomas & the Ambassadors Biscuits and Blues. 7 and 9pm, $22.
Top Secret Band Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.
Truth & Salvage Co., Oak Creek Band Cafe Du Nord. 9pm, $10-$12.
Urban Blight, Creem, Permanent Ruin, Hunting Party Hemlock Tavern. 9Pm, $7.
Yanni Nob Hill Masonic Center, 1111 California, SF; www.masonicauditorium.com. 8pm, $49.50-$125.
JAZZ/NEW MUSIC
Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.
Wil Campa y su Gran Union Yoshi’s SF. 8pm and 10:30pm, $35.
Andrea Marcovicci Rrazz Room. 7:30pm, $35-$45.
Reedsman Jim Butler Savanna Jazz. 7:30pm.
FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY
Wil Campa y su Gran Union Yoshi’s. 8 and 10:30pm, $25.
N. Rumba Ramp, 855 Terry Francois, SF; www.theramprestaurant.com. 5-8pm, free.
Sons of Bitches Plough and Stars. 9pm.
DANCE CLUBS
Bootie: Mysterious D’s Birthday DNA Lounge. 9pm, $10-$15. With DJ Mysterious D, Smash-Up Derby, Adrian, John! John!, Dada.
Icee Hot with Jam City Public Works Loft. 10:30pm.
Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music with rotating DJs including Stepwise, Steve, Claude, Santero, and Elembe.
Scooter and Lavella Vessel, 85 Campton, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10Pm, $10-$20.
SUNDAY 29
ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP
Bordertown Saints, Get Dead, City Bottom of the Hill. 1pm, $8.
Caustic, Everything Goes Cold, Crashfaster, Whormongr DNA Lounge. 8:30pm, $11.
Dangerous Summer, New Empire, From Indian Lakes Cafe Du Nord. 8:30pm, $10.
Extra Classic, Low Flying Owls, Pony VIllage Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $7.
Iron Maidens Broadway Studios, 435 Broadway, SF; www,broadwaystudios.com. 8pm, $15.
Aaron Leese and the Panhandlers Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $5.
Psychic Paramount, Phil Manley Life Coach, Barn Owl Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 8pm, $9-$12.
Terry Savastano Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.
Two Man Gentleman Band Amnesia. 8pm, $10.
Watsky, Dumbfounded & the Breezy Love Joy Band Slim’s. 9pm, $14-$16.
JAZZ/NEW MUSIC
Adrian Areas Latin Jazz Ensemble Savanna Jazz. 7pm, $7.
Anna Maria Flechero Bliss Bar, 4026 24 St, SF; www.blissbarssf.com. 4:30-7:30pm, $10.
Andrea Marcovicci Rrazz Room. 5pm, $35-$45.
Resonance Jazz Old First Concerts, 1751 Sacramento, SF; www.oldfirstconcerts.org. 4pm.
FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY
Forro Brozuca Ramp, 855 Terry Francois, SF; www.theramprestaurant.com. 5-8pm, free.
John Sherry, Kyle Thayer Plough and Stars. 9pm.
Twang Sunday Thee Parkside. 4pm, free. With Golddiggers, Whiskey Pills Fiasco.
DANCE CLUBS
Dub Mission Elbo Room. 9pm, $6. Dub, dubstep, and dancehall with DJ Sep, and Matt Haze.
Jock Lookout, 3600 16th St, SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 3pm, $2. Raise money for LGBT sports teams while enjoying DJs and drink specials.
Domingos Latinos Blue Macaw, 2565 Mission, SF; www.thebluemacawsf.com. 6pm, $10. Salsa dance party with live Afro-Cuban salsa bands.
MONDAY 30
ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP
Damir Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.
Local Strangers Osteria, 3277 Sacramento, SF; www.osteriasf.com. 7pm, free.
This Century, Austin Gibbs, Panic is Perfect Bottom of the Hill. 7:30pm, $10.
Z-man, Lroneous, Bpos, DJ True Justice Elbo Room. 9pm, $7.
JAZZ/NEW MUSIC
Bossa Nova Tunnel Top, 601 Bush, SF; (415) 722-6620. 8-11:30pm, free. Live acoustic Bossa Nova.
DANCE CLUBS
Death Guild DNA Lounge. 9:30pm, $3-5. Gothic, industrial, and synthpop with Joe Radio, Decay, and Melting Girl.
Crazy Mondays Beauty Bar, 2299 Mission, SF; www.thebeautybar.com. 10pm, free. Hip-hop and other stuff.
M.O.M. Madrone Art Bar. 6pm, free. DJs Timoteo Gigante, Gordo Cabeza, and Chris Phlek playing all Motown every Monday.
Soul Cafe John Colins Lounge, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 9pm. R&B, Hip-Hop, NeoSoul, Reggae, Dancehall, Reggaeton, Salsa and more with DJ Jerry Ross. Happy hour all night.
Vibes’N’Stuff El Amigo Bar, 3355 Mission, SF; (415) 852-0092. 10pm, free. Conscious jazz and hip-hop from 1960s-early ’90s with DJs Luce Lucy, Vinnie Esparza, and more.
TUESDAY 31
ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP
Electric Shepherd, Billions and Billions Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $6.
Family Folk Explosion Amnesia. 9:15pm, $5.
Gaucho Bottle Cap, 1707 Powell, SF; www.bottlecapsf.com. 7-10pm.
Kissing Party, Bam! Bam!, Party Owl Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $5-$7.
La Montagne, Sit Kitty Sit, Fever Charm Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $10.
Razor Skyline, Drop Black Sky, DJ Kit Elbo Room. 9pm, $7.
Solid Attitude, CCR Headcleaner, Raw Nite, Molestations Thee Parkside. 8pm, $5.
Soulfly, Incite, Lody Kong Slim’s. 8pm, $26.
Stan Erhart Band Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.
JAZZ/NEW MUSIC
Crown Syncopators Pier 23, Embarcadero at Filbert, SF; (415) 362-5125. 5-8pm.
Luisa Maita Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $18.
DANCE CLUBS
Eclectic Company Skylark, 9pm, free. DJs Tones and Jaybee spin old school hip hop, bass, dub, glitch, and electro.
Burning Man challenged as La Contessa arson trial begins
Burners aren’t too worried about an appeal that’s been filed challenging federal permits that will allow more than 60,000 people to attend Burning Man this year, but some of them are more hopeful that a trial starting next week in Reno will finally get some justice in the 2006 arson attack that destroyed the iconic art car La Contessa.
Members of San Francisco’s colorful Extra Action Marching Band and other creators of La Contessa – an authentic-looking Spanish galleon built around a bus, which appeared to sail across the Black Rock Desert – have rented a house in Reno where they’re preparing for a trial set to begin on Monday.
As we reported in a Guardian cover story shortly after the incident, Nevada landowner Mike Stewart – who had a history of conflicts with Burning Man – torched and removed La Contessa, which was being stored with permission on a property that he purchased near Gerlach, Nev., without first trying to contact its owners. The massive vehicle was too large to legally drive on the highway and its builders say they would have relocated it if they were contacted, as state law requires before destroying abandoned vehicles.
This trial has been years in coming. Plaintiffs Simon Cheffins and Greg Jones – the main designers of La Contessa – originally filed a federal lawsuit under the Visual Artists Right Act, which makes it a crime to destroy sculptures or other works of art, but a judge ruled that La Contessa didn’t qualify because it was a vehicle and therefore “applied art.”
The case is now a simple “conversion claim” in state court, alleging Stewart acted in a malicious and negligent manner, but the trial is expected to last more than two weeks as a parade of Bay Area burners involved with the project paint a picture of the long and difficult process used to create the artwork and its iconic role in Burning Man history.
Meanwhile, the appeal of Burning Man’s permits was filed last week by Christopher Brooks, who uses the Black Rock Desert for wind sailing and alleges that Burning Man is impacting the playa’s surface by creating sand dunes. Black Rock City LLC, the SF-based company that stages Burning Man, denies the charge and says the detailed environmental assessment recently approved by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) found no significant cumulative impacts created by the event.
“We’re not too concerned about it,” BRC spokesperson Megan Miller said of the appeal. “We work hard to minimize our impact on the desert.”
Regardless, the appeal won’t have an impact of this year’s event, which begins Aug. 26. The appeal will be heard by the Interior Board of Land Appeals, which is so backlogged that it still hasn’t heard BRC’s appeal of BLM’s decision to place Burning Man on probation for exceeding last year’s population cap of 50,000 on two days, which BRC filed late last year.
As Miller said, “We’re right on track for a great year.”
Guardian City Editor Steven T. Jones is the author of The Tribes of Burning Man: How an Experimental City in the Desert is Shaping the New American Counterculture, which includes the story of La Contessa’s life and death.
Heads Up: 8 must-see concerts this week
Total Trash’s bodacious two-day barbecue bonanza in Oakland tops the list of must-see live shows this week, but there’s plenty more to see, including synth heavy beach-pop created by an ex-choir boy, beat punk girl gangs, and some Adult Swim-approved indie rock.
Of course, Fiona Apple at the Fox Theater is long sold out, but if that wasn’t the case, Miss-Long-Album-Title would be here too. Enjoy it, ticket-holders. Or, squire your spots now for her Sept. 11 show at the Warfield.
But in the meantime, here are your must-see Bay Area concerts this week/end:
Crystal Stilts
Someone commented on the video below, “The Doors mixed with The Velvet Underground calling from the grave!” And yeah, that’s pretty much it for the Brooklyn-based jangle-pop five-piece.
Wed/25, 8pm, $15
Great American Music Hall
859 O’Farrell, SF
(415) 885-0750
www.slimspresents.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zIJTwhsHjc
St. Lucia
Synthy beach-pop? Holidays on molly-days? Futuristic yacht rock? Sun-baked dream-pop? Yes, St. Lucia is all that, and then a little sprinkle of white sand more. There are sax solos over synth and pinging calypso beats here, people. Sip a fruity cocktail at the show at the show, and soak in the warmth of shiny former choir-boy Jean-Philip Grobler.
Thu/26, 9:30pm, $14-$15
Rickshaw Stop
155 Fell, SF
(415) 861-2011
www.rickshawstop.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZYM3XwgHwA
The Ettes
The Ettes are like a black-leather clad girl (and token dude) gang. And bone-rattling garage revival is the name of the game for the Nashville-via-LA crew. Or wait, they call it “beat punk.” Whatever. The perpetual openers – for stadium rock bands like the Black Keys, Dead Weather, and Kings of Leon – get some deserved spotlight/headline time at Thee Parkside. Here’s a weird video they made with Patton Oswalt.
Thu/26, 9pm, $10
Thee Parkside
1600 17th St., SF
(415) 252-1330
www.theeparkside.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJxkN9cKQAs
King Tuff
A few years back, before he made the move from Vermont to LA’s Laurel Canyon, sleazy garage guitar wonder King Tuff recorded 30 demos in the middle of the night. It just pours out of him. The result was a self-titled Sub Pop album that stood out as something only Tuff could create. He later told me, “If I’m into something, it’ll bleed into my music…so sometimes, I don’t listen to anything.”
Thu/26, 9pm, $12
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St., SF
(415) 621-4455
www.bottomofthehill.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eghg8092l_E
Wye Oak
“Baltimore rockers Andy Stack and Jenn Wasner make up indie rock duo Wye Oak, a band with a folk foundation but contrasting distortion and dream pop leanings. Recently commissioned to write and record a song for the Adult Swim Singles Program — a series of summertime freebie downloads — Wye Oak came up with “Spiral,” a swirling, poppy and decidedly darker track than previous tunes.” – Julia B. Chan
With Dirty Projectors
Fri/27, 8pm, $25
Fox Theater
1807 Telegraph, Oakl.
(510) 302-2250
www.thefoxoakland.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-7dTjgn7dc
Total Trash BBQ Weekend
Paint your face with tangy barbecue sauce – it’s Total Trash BBQ Weekend! What better way to celebrate summer – and all things sticky and American – than with your friends from Total Trash? Night one, do the Watusi on the swanky Continental Club dancefloor with garage doo-woppers Shannon & the Clams, surf-punks Guantanamo Baywatch, and more. And on day two (Total Trash Barbecue Bonanza), invade Eli’s Mile High Club with Oakland priestess Mom, fuzzy punks Pangea, colorful art-rockers Sam Flax, and so-many-more. Plus, there’ll be a corn-eating contest and grills for cooking. As always, bring a napkin.
Sat/28, 7pm, $8-$10
Continental Club
1658 12th St., Oakl.
Brown Paper Tickets: Night One
Sun/29, 5pm, $8-$10
Eli’s Mile High Club
3629 MLK Jr. Way, Oakl.
Brown Paper Tickets: Night Two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_qazrmZLhg
The Psychic Paramount
“Spiritualized minus the spacecraft? Tortoise as a bar band? Post-rock without all the drama? The Psychic Paramount is a record collector geek’s dream band, reflecting countless sub-genres as it hammers away at a relentlessly Krautrockian insistence on mechanical groove.” — Taylor Kaplan
With Phil Manley Life Coach, Barn Owl
Sun/29, 8pm, $12
Brick and Mortar Music Hall
1710 Mission, SF
(415) 800-8782
www.brickandmortarmusic.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeF8ksPNqXM
Guardian feminism panel calls for change, gang activity
In the interest of behaving badly, let us first say that we won’t apologize for the “roving feminist gangs” comment, nor the laughter that ensued at our July 11 “Bay Area Feminism Today” panel. In the light of the sexual attacks that have terrorized Mission District residents this year, Celeste Chan’s joke (actually a reference to comments made by Fox News in reference to the New Jersey Seven) has to be read as a self defense tactic — and source of comfort and strength to the women living in the neighborhood. Not a threat to men. Unless they’re commiting sexual assault, of course — but then, women commiting sexual assault will probably have the gang’s wrath to face as well.
Seven women from all walks of Bay Area activism — arts, nightlife, immigrant advocacy, domestic violence organizations, and more — came together at City College’s Mission branch to discuss what our SF progressive community needs to work on, recent feminist victories, whether they even believe in the term “feminism,” and everything in between. Our “Faces of feminism” cover story announcing the event attracted a decent-sized crowd of around 120 (mainly young women, with zero male elected officials in attendance.) We laughed, we nearly cried, we came away with a lot to think about. Here’s some of the general topics that were discussed. And here’s to this being a spark for continued talks, however a Fourth Wave Bay feminism may take shape.
>>FOR THE FULL BIOS OF OUR PANELISTS, CHECK OUT THE EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
Reproductive justice
Reproductive justice has long been a feminist goal, but with the recent spate of attacks on birth control and abortion access it’s come up again. Are we here in the Bay Area isolated from the War On Women?Some panelists thought we can affect the country’s situation positively.
“Part of what we do here in the Bay Area is we send strong women to Washington,” the Drug Policy Alliance‘s Laura Thomas said. “We are responsible for a significant amount of women in Congress.” But California’s reproductive justice situation is more complicated than it may seem. St. James Infirmary‘s Stephany Ashley noted that reproductive health here is under attack with “criminalization of HIV-positive people,” and that California “just cut all funding for HIV prevention for women.”
>>CHECK OUT REBECCA BOWE’S RECORDED LIVESTREAM OF THE EVENT HERE
Chan, founder of Queer Rebels Productions, added that California is cutting domestic violence services through slashing CalWORKS funding. Mujeres Unidas‘ Juana Flores noted that the Bay’s Latino communities can find it difficult to support aspects of reproductive health because of religion and tradition. But she said that people need to work together and realize that “it’s a real war. It’s a real war on us.” She warned that “politicians are not going to fix things just because they want to improve our lives. We need to fight back.”
Transgender activist and member of SF’s Youth Commission Mia Tu Mutch said that part of the war on women has been a wave of anti-trans legislation across the country, as well as a wave of hate crimes, especially against trans women of color. Some legislation in Tennessee is making it more difficult for trans people to go the bathroom, she said. “Reproductive justice is important, but we also need just the simple right to pee.”
But what about the word itself?
Does feminism have power as its own concept now, or has its work been rightly subsumed into the queer movement, the civil rights movement, and other forms of activism? “A lot of us can agree that there isn’t something you can point to and say, this is the feminist movement in San Francisco,” Ashley said. “But there are many important feminist projects happening.”
Alix Rosenthal, who created a controversial women’s slate in her bid for re-election on the SF Democratic County Central Committee recalled how “30 to 40 years ago, we all had to join together because there weren’t enough of us. Now people have splintered off.” Chan brought up the bicycle scene in 1983’s feminist sci-fi film Born in Flames, and quoted Audre Lourde: “for so long, we’ve been on the edge of each other’s battles.”
Tu Mutch said that she “would rather identify as fighting for LGBT rights, progressive rights” than as feminist. But, she continued that it is “under the system of patriarchy that we’re all getting screwed over.” She said that women are treated as second-class citizens, and trans and gender non-conforming people are treated as third class citizens in our society. Edaj, longtime Bay Area DJ and director of the Women’s Stage at Pride for a decade, agreed that the word feminism “sparks a lot of emotion in people” and can create obstacles in growing support. Said Flores: “it’s a big word. People call me a feminist when I claim my rights. When I see another women who is suffering or being abused it’s unbearable to me,” Flores said. “When someone calls me a feminist, I feel proud.”
The inward gaze: how does the San Francisco progressive community do on feminist issues?
In a word: okay. But there’s work to be done even here, in “progressive” San Francisco. Thomas led the charge, talking about the state’s current legal ability to shackle women prisoners during childbirth. Tu Mutch expressed a need to stop “pitting groups against each other,” and to get rid of a City Hall attitude that says “my budget is more important than yours.” Tu Mutch said “there’s still rampant transphobia and gender essentialism,” that affects not just women, but the “countless people born with intersex conditions and who identify outside the binary.”
Ashley pointed out that “even some of our favorite male progressive politicians, you don’t see them cultivating leadership among women, queer people, trans people.” She talked about how that’s a traditional feminist organizing principle, “mentorship and meaningful participation, not just tokenizing participation.”
As a (not) side note, there wasn’t a single male politician in the audience that day. As Ashley put it, “patriarchy is really the problem.” Ashley and panel moderator, SFBG culture editor Caitlin Donohue shared the fact that they’ve felt diminished by remarks made by and in the company of the city’s so-called “progressive politicians.”
Recent feminist victories
But enough depressing stuff. How about recent feminist victories, asked an audience member.
This question was met with a disconcerting silence. Until Chan jumped in: “I’m really inspired by the place queer arts are at right now.” She told of the “lineage of resistance” of art that deals with questions like “how do people survive the unimaginable? How do people survive the truly horrific?” Disturbing incidents like that of transgender prisoner Cece McDonald beg the question, “is the perfect victim a dead victim? If you fight back, you’ll be criminalized? Now more than ever we need a movement. We really need to come together,” concluded Chan.
Rosenthal saw hope in surprising places. “Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman,” she said. “These women are so incompetent. But they made it. They really made it.” She talked about how usually women have had to be five times better than the men they competed with, but “Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman are not five times better than anyone. But they made it.”
Laura Thomas was inspired by Julia Bluhm, the 14-year old ballet dancer from Maine whose online petition led Seventeen to promise to stop using Photoshop to alter women’s body types. Ashley acknowledged Tu Mutch’s advocacy work, and said she was recently inspired by a “take back the plaza” event Tu Mutch had organized. Edaj was inspired by being named a Pride Grand Marshall, and the feeling that the Pride organization was acknowledging the importance of the space created at the Women’s Stage. She was also inspired by Morningstar Vancil, a Filipino vet who is a two-spirit drag king, and Vancil’s commitment to disabled veterans issues.
Action items
In response to a question that asked what the 2012 action plan for Bay Area feminists should involve, Ashley said “principles of intersectionality, anti-colonialism, anti-capitalism” had to be valued more than they have been in past feminist movements. They’re there in Third Wave feminism, Ashely said, only they are “wrapped up in theory and academia.” Those guiding principles should have “more on the ground” applicability. What needs to happen right now, speaking of on the ground? Back to 2012’s spate of sexual violence in the Mission, there’s a distinct necessity for “a perfect community response that doesn’t involve the police, so that we all of a sudden feel really comfortable taking a walk at 3 in the morning through our favorite neighborhood.”
Flores said that any new form of feminism would need to be about “mutual respect” and “against any form of injustice,” to which Thomas agreed, saying it needs to be “less theory, more practice.” It also, Thomas said “has to deal with gender in a different way. A new feminism needs to go beyond gender, or deal with gender differently” in the sense of respecting gender non-conforming identities. A tricky prospect, she admitted. “How you develop a gendered movement that doesn’t use gender as a defining construct, I don’t know.” More specifically, she underlined the importance of “progressive revenue measures,” and “an end to cuts to childcare and domestic violence programs.” “Our economy’s not coming back through more cuts. We need revenue, more taxes,” she said, to cheers from the crowd. Well this was a Guardian forum, after all.
Edaj reiterated that “that word scares off a lot of people who might otherwise want to join.” Tu Mutch underlined that it would need to “take up the idea that men and women are opposites. That only serves to degrade women.” A new feminism, she said, would be about “turning away from that and realizing there’s lots of different genders.”
Tu Mutch said she would like to see success for her organization to fight for trans healthcare rights, FEATHER. “People have to spend ridiculous amounts of money to transition,” she said. “We need universal healthcare for all, including trans people.”
Chan pondered the question. In the end, she concluded, “roving feminist gangs,” inspiring at least one angry letter from a slighted middleaged white man in the crowd. Which wasn’t the only reason why we deemed the panel a success, but an important one.