Mission Archives — Page 62 of 201 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

The tuning forks

Andrew Lam

August 28, 2012

culture@sfbg.com

EAT BEAT Since the dawn of Chuck E. Cheese, food and tunes have been intertwined in the human psyche — yielding not only musical fruits, Meat Puppets, and that wine by Train entitled, yes, "Drops of Jupiter" (sorry, Wine Country), but also all manner of melodious dining experiences as well. Of course, the Bay is brimming with tasty music-food mashups: Ethiopian and ivory-tickling at Sheba Piano Lounge, chicken mole and goth at DNA Lounge, sushi and jazz fusion at Yoshi’s, biscuits and blues at Biscuits and Blues, kielbasas and punk at Zeitgeist. Here are some of our current favorite local freeform music-food mixes.

SHRIMP ‘N’ GRACE

Even if all you’re currently worshipping is this Fillmore Street cornerstone’s lemongrass-ginger house-cured salmon with cornmeal pancake and molasses glaze, 1300‘s weekly gospel brunch is sure to inspire devotional highs. A live band belts rousing hymns, and attendees down bottomless pomosas (bubbly with splashes of pomegrante liquer) with plates of chef David Lawrence’s global take on soul food in swank dining room settings.
Sunday seatings 11am and 1pm, $6 entertainment fee. 1300 on Fillmore, SF.

(415) 771-7100, www.1300fillmore.com

YUMS, UKES

"Bacon Crack" chocolates, vegan soul food, and champagne funnel cakes go fabulously with a ukelele chanteuse — as any attendee of Forage SF’s upcoming Night Market will be able to attest. The organization dedicated to promoting ultra-local nourishment has been striking gold with this recurring nightlife-snack event, at which local small vendors rub elbows with the Bay’s musicos, DJs, and of course, party-hard foodies. Check out Uni and Her Ukelele, the 29th Street Swingtet, and Izzy*Wise this Friday at Public Works.

Fri, September 7, 5-9:30pm, $5. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com

BEEP BEEP EATS

Why don’t gay bars have better food? Unfussy Mission hangout Truck isn’t in the Castro (which explains why it hosts some of the neatest non-pop dance nights in the city, ranging from ska to witch house), so maybe that helps. And although our clogged arteries adore its equally unfussy burger and fried pickles daily menu, we’re stoked about its sporadic Truck Stop Cafe pop-up. Featured? Duck-fat Chex mix, manchego gougères, and bourbon and coke floats. Also look out for Truck’s monthly (third Wednesdays) other pop-up, Swallow.

Wed/29, 6-10pm. Truck, 1900 Folsom, SF. www.facebook.com/TruckStopCafe

FAT LADY SINGS

You didn’t go to the opera tonight? Ugh. Thankfully, at least La Traviata restaurant in the Mission doesn’t care — the red sauce, white tablecloth dining room is open to Philistines and Leontyne Price fans alike. Walls are lined with signed photos of famous ariaists, which you will peruse only until congenial waitstaff piles your table high with baskets of piping-hot bread, antipasto, caprese salad, chicken piccata, and wine. You can also try Tosca for opera eats, but rumors of the cafe’s imminent replacement with a strip club may yield savory beats of a different nature.

2854 Mission, SF. (415) 282-0500

RIBS ARE GONNA COME

R.I.P., punk rock BBQs at Richmond neighborhood mainstay 540 Club. But viva DJ Al Lover, who has occupied the vacuum with tunes of a different nature: soul 45s that lend a sunny quality to the mistiest of Fundays. Couple this with a bloody beer and a BBQ spread assembled by scrappy bar regulars that can feature greens, ham, cornbread, and more and you have yourself a neat little Sunday at the monthly Sam Cooke-Out.

Third Sundays, 1-5pm, free. 540 Club, 540 Clement, SF. (415) 752-7276, www.540-club.com

HORN SAFARI

Compared to the shiny surfaces of Yoshi’s well-known sushi tables, the ambiance at Savanna Jazz Club has more down-and-dirty jazz-person cool. The barely-lit Mission room hosts trumpeter Eddie Martinez and crew every Thursday starting at 7:30pm ($5 cover) — arrive early to grab the semi-circle booth table, order a safari platter (rice, beans, avocados, salad, plantains, and a meat option) and a bathtub-sized Manhattan, and take in the parading guest musicos and friendly onstage banter.

2937 Mission, SF. (415) 285-3369, www.savannajazz.com

KOTO ROLLS

Amasia Hide Sushi near Duboce Park is one of those idyllic neighborhood Japanese joints that offers succulent little rolls of inventiveness, rainy day sake specials, origami kits at every table, and lovely views of tree-lined, boulevard-like Noe Street. On select evenings (call ahead) it also offers beautiful live koto music, played by Shoko. The koto is an imposing, many-stringed zither that takes up a substantial portion of the small space, its enchanting notes floating among the dish-laden tables.

149 Noe, SF. (415) 861-7000

LUCITE LUNCH

We actually can’t remember what music they play (your standard strip club Def Leppard-meets-Snoop Dogg, we imagine) — but we do remember the high-velocity cracking of plastic heel hitting the floor at Gold Club’s free lunch buffet. The luxe gentlemen’s club in the middle of downtown provides a robust fried chicken spread, with enough fixin’s — salad, potatoes, lasagna, dessert, whatever the kitchen is serving up on the blessed day you enter — that vegetarians can get their mid-day boobie fix as well. Just remember, finger lickers, free scarfing does not give you permission to forget to tip.

Monday-Friday, 11am-2pm, $5 admission. Gold Club, 650 Howard, SF. (415) 536-0300, www.goldclubsf.com

Rich appetites

Andrew Lam

August 28, 2012

emilysavage@sfbg.com

CHEAPER EATS “By the way, I have the best peanut sauce recipe ever. I would say it’s one of the top three things about me, my peanut sauce recipe.” Author-blogger-chef Gabi Moskowitz mentions over brunch at the Dolores Park Cafe in her Mission neighborhood.

“I develop crushes on peanut sauces and tinker until I get them just right. And — sidebar — peanut sauce, if you make a batch of it and keep it in your fridge, you’re like, 50 percent on your way to dinner.”

Moskowitz is full of helpful asides like this. She initially was discussing her Vietnamese spring rolls recipe, a popular dish she wrote about on her blog — BrokeAss Gourmet — and subsequently included in her first cookbook, The BrokeAss Gourmet Cookbook (Egg & Dart, 224pp, $16.95), released this spring. The book’s subtitle? “Recipes To Keep Your Taste Buds Happy and Your Wallet Thick.”

But the peanut sauce digression is probably the best representation of Moskowitz’s personality. The former kindergarten teacher is friendly and funny, obsessed with good food, and the consummate teacher, always looking for a way to make things better and cheaper. She just wants you to love her peanut sauce and much as she does.

And that’s why the formula for BrokeAss Gourmet dot com, and The Brokeass Gourmet Cookbook, works so well. It’s simple but creative dishes, made with inexpensive components (each ingredient is listed with a price), and explained in a relatable way. Moskowitz always dishes on how she came to these recipes, be it after a rude ex-boyfriend criticized another meal, or a when a close friend fell ill and needed something warm and appetizing in her belly.

The book includes pantry staples and recipes for meals such as lamb-feta burgers, sundried tomato ricotta gnocchi, and garlic-lemon-rosemary chicken (“Third Date Chicken”), which she deems the sluttier version of the legendary “Engagement Chicken.”

The blog, which began in 2009, saw near-instant success, after MSN Money covered it just two weeks after the launch. The morning of the article, Moskowitz says she awoke to see 30,000 hits over 24 hours. Just before the launch, she became aware of the other brokeass, Broke-Ass Stuart — who wrote a popular lifestyle book and runs his own site — and contacted him to let him know. He was fine with the name, as he didn’t plan to cook or include recipes on his own site, and Moskowitz says it was the start of a great friendship. The two support each other on their respective sites.

On the BrokeAss Gourmet site, the chedder-thyme knishes and brown butter pumpkin mac and cheese are the long-running top posts. When Moskowitz was featured in an iPad food app called Appetites, the New York Times wrote it up and included a mention of that creamy fall mac and cheese recipe.

When it came to choosing which posts to include in the cookbook, Moskowitz said she wanted it to be a “really excellent first cookbook for someone” and to show that it’s possible to eat well on a budget.

“I grew up in Sonoma County; I live in the Mission in San Francisco, where food is king. It’s not enough for me to just eat, I think it’s really important to eat well, and to eat fresh food. Even when I was making no money at all, I wasn’t willing to compromise my lifestyle in that way, I wanted to make it work.”

Now that the initial buzz of the cookbook has slowed down a bit, Moskowitz is still wildly busy, keeping up with the blog posts, working on some top-secret TV projects, and finishing the manuscript for her second book: The Brokeass Gourmet Pizza Dough Cookbook. That one is about the different meals you can make with pizza dough, besides the obvious (naan, cinnamon rolls, calzones, donuts, Italian stromboli appetizers).

As with much of her food writing, the concept came from a personal experience. She was invited to a potluck dinner party a few years back and the host asked her to bring a main course. “I had this huge batch of pizza dough and 15 minutes before I was supposed to leave, the host called to say the party was canceled. I was like, ‘ah man, I have all this stuff!’ and I’d basically spent my grocery budget on it, but I found that I could do a million and a half things with pizza dough.”

While she did make a great many dishes with that leftover dough, her weekly go-to meal staple is a bit different. She has a $15.94 Duc Loi Supermarket trip nailed (of course, did a post about it). And her personal comfort dish is built with it: soba or rice noodles with that crush-worthy peanut sauce, shredded vegetables, and shallow-fried cube sprouted tofu. Sometimes garnished with crushed peanuts or sprouts and chili paste.

“I’ll make a big batch of it and seal it in the fridge if I’m having a busy week, and then that’s just what I’ll eat at the end of the day.” Even as the conversation comes to an end, and the Dolores Park Cafe dishes are pushed aside, Moskowitz is still giving tips on low-cost eats.

Our Weekly Picks: August 29-September 4

Andrew Lam

August 28, 2012

WEDNESDAY 29

Enorchestra

In between his roles as “Roxy Music co-founder” and “ambient guru,” musician/non-musician Brian Eno recorded a sequence of four visionary, distinctive solo rock records. So, when Bay Area superfans Doug Hilsinger and Caroleen Beatty released a cover-to-cover reinterpretation of Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) upon its 30th anniversary in 2004, they were overjoyed to receive compliments (and liner notes!) from Eno, himself. Having since expanded to a seven-piece, Enorchestra’s two-drummer, three-guitar assault lends a vitalic, muscular drive to Eno’s dry pop experiments. Performing the album in its entirety, they share the bill with garage-y psych-punks Thee Oh Sees, fresh off their well received Outside Lands set, at this benefit for Blixa, Sluggo from the Grannies’ 4-year-old son, who was recently diagnosed with leukemia. (Taylor Kaplan)

With Dirty Power

9pm, $14

Bottom of the Hill

1233 17th St., SF

(415) 621-4455

www.bottomofthehill.com

Desaparecidos

Omaha, Nebraska’s indie rock king and side-project junkie Conor Oberst has had a busy summer. After a 10 year hiatus, his post-hardcore band Desaparecidos are back, and they’re pissed off. Continuing the harsh sociopolitical criticism established in their first and only album Read Music/Speak Spanish, Desaparecidos precluded their summer tour by releasing two new scathing singles. The first, “MariKKKopa” gives voice to America’s disadvantaged immigrants and calls out Arizona’s Sheriff Joe Arpaio for taking pride in being compared to the Ku Klux Klan. The second single “Backsell” takes on capitalism by way of telemarketers. Remember when a good protest song could change the world? So does Conor Oberst. (Haley Zaremba)

With the Velvet Teen

8pm, $25

Regency Ballroom

1290 Sutter, SF

(415) 673-5716

www.theregencyballroom.com

Virgil Shaw and the Killer View

Get ready for a night of folk tales and Americana at the gorgeous Great American Music Hall. Headliners Virgil Shaw and the Killer have been hailed by Rolling Stone and the New York Times for their wayward wandering tales and sound. San Francisco string band the Human Condition brings songs that open with relatable, twangy refrains such as, “Well she broke my heart/and she broke my first guitar/So I moved back to the city/and now I’m playing in the bars.” Also go to check out the hauntingly beautiful solo instrumental (and some spoken poetry) project of Two Gallants’ drummer Tyson Vogel, called Devotionals. (Shauna C. Keddy)

With Betsy and Beau, Luke Sweeney and Wet Dreams Dry Magic

8pm, $13

Great American Music Hall

859 O’Farrell, SF

(415) 885- 0750

www.slimspresents.com

THURSDAY 30

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart

When New York City’s the Pains of Being Pure at Heart got together, all they had was a band name, which vocalist Kip Berman took from the title of a children’s story a friend had written. After the band began writing and uploading dreamy pop songs to their MySpace page, it became clear that they had more going for them than a pretty moniker. Their fuzzed-out, whimsical music matches the name’s theme of innocence and angst perfectly and has gotten the attention of critics and music-lovers alike. The band is often compared to fellow shoegazers My Bloody Valentine, which is pretty much as high as praise gets in the indie rock world. (Zaremba)

A B and the Sea, popscene DJs

9:30pm, $17

Rickshaw Stop

155 Fell, SF

(415) 861-2011

www.rickshawstop.com

RAW SF

Welcome to RAW, a monthly showcase of San Francisco’s emerging independent and underground artists. Painters, screenprinters, graffiti artists, fashion designers, makeup artists, photographers and musicians all converge to display their latest works, talk shop, imbibe a drink or two, and shake a little tail. Live artists throw down some paint in the front room, while the main gallery includes San Diego’s Jason Acton, a colorblind artist who channels his inner Andy Warhol with vivid, pop art-themed acrylic works. Slayers Club firespitter Joe Mousepad and deejay Matt Haze keep the crowd moving until the afterparty, when Oakland’s Boats and Sacramento’s Rufio drop beats, glitch, and bass. (Lee)

Show: 7pm-9pm; afterparty: 9pm-midnight, $15

1015 Folsom

(415) 431-1200

www.1015.com

FRIDAY 31

Vertigo

Celebrate the San Francisco-set, 1958 Hitchcock classic that just unseated 1941’s Citizen Kane as the greatest film of all time* by watching it in 70mm at the Castro Theatre. (*According to a Sight & Sound critics’ poll; no word on where actual greatest film of all time, John Carpenter’s 1982 The Thing, fell on that list.) Vertigo is, indeed, the cinematic equivalent of a flawless diamond, following Jimmy Stewart’s fragile ex-cop as he trails impossibly glamorous Kim Novak up Nob Hill, through the Mission, and into the icy waters under the Golden Gate Bridge. Masterful filmmaking — and if you’ve only ever seen it on DVD, the experience of watching it mega-sized will be mind-blowing. (Cheryl Eddy)

Through Mon/3

8pm (also Sat/1-Mon/3, 2 and 5pm), $8.50–$11

Castro Theatre

429 Castro, SF

(415) 621-6120

www.castrotheatre.com

Tiger and Woods

Tiger and Woods are electronic music’s Batman and Robin, a mysterious disco-spinning duo whose origins are little known. They lurk in the shadows, devoting themselves to the search for the rarest funky cuts on vinyl to remix and remaster. They travel around the world, performing in masks (well, wide-brimmed hats) and concealing their identities while dropping their latest funkified remakes. Last year’s Through the Green served as both an homage to and a fun romp through 1980’s keyboard-laden, post-disco. The twosome apparently like to keep things offbeat and quirky — on their Facebook page, they use the monikers Larry Tiger and David Woods, presumably a shout out to Larry David, of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm fame. (Lee)

With Lovefingers, Kenneth Scott, Rich Korach, Brian Bejerano

9pm, $15–$20

BeatBox

314 11th St., SF

(415) 500-2675

www.beatboxsf.com

The Vaselines

In the late ’80s, Scotland’s the Vaselines released just a couple of EPs and one full-length album before calling it quits after two short years together. However, thanks to big-name fans like Kurt Cobain, who covered three of their tunes with Nirvana, and exposed the band to larger audiences around the world, new generations have rediscovered and fallen in love with the duo in the ensuing decades. Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee reformed the group for a series of outstanding shows in 2008, prompting the recording and release of a new album, Sex With An X, in 2010, which perfectly captured the unique and infectious spirit of their earlier work. Be sure to catch them tonight at one of only four US shows booked for this year. (Sean McCourt)

9pm, $22

Independent

628 Divisadero, SF

(415) 771-1421

www.independentsf.com

SATURDAY 1

San Francisco Zine Fest

Like the zines themselves, the offerings at Zine Fest are a DIY mishmosh of great things, from the Xerox’d, hand-stapled anarchist variety, to glossy, colorful graphic novels. They’ll all be on display and for sale, at the 11th annual event. And, as in years past, there will be panels and workshops for aspiring zinesters. Topics in 2012 include “From Webcomics to Print,” “Sewn, Not Stapled,” and “DIY Animation Workshop.” This year’s featured guest artist is LA-based writer and illustrator Sarah Oleksyk, who works as a writer and storyboard artist for Cartoon Network’s Regular Show, and just released graphic novel Ivy. She’ll be on hand Saturday for a workshop Q&A. (Emily Savage)

Through Sun/2, 11am-6pm

San Francisco County Fair Building

1199 9th Ave., Golden Gate Park, SF

www.sfzinefest.org

Yeasayer

“Live in the moment/never count on longevity, please” pleads Yeasayer’s Chris Keating on new album Fragrant World. It’s a line that applies to the Brooklyn-based band, which faced a difficult task of following up on the success of 2010’s Odd Blood. Never a band to stay static, Yeasayer opts for darker and moodier moods in Fragrant. Gone is the upbeat power pop on Odd‘s “O.N.E.” and “Ambling Alp,” and in comes sinister effects and sequenced electronic percussion loops. “Longevity” is a haunting, low-slung premonition filled with bass drops, while the “Devil and the Deed” sounds like a futuristic confessional/gospel. (Lee)

With Daughn Gibson 8pm, $25

Fox Theater

1807 Telegraph, Oakl.

(510) 548-3010

www.thefoxoakland.com

SUNDAY 2

Oakland Pride

Bigtime Queer Pride comes twice a year ’round these parts, pilgrim. And while the Bay has yet to experience the polarization of LGBT crowd types that affects, say, LA Pride vs. Long Beach Pride, Oakland Pride’s flavor is a lot more spontaneous and organic feeling than San Francisco’s “mega event.” Don’t expect garish floats, multiple stages, corporate logo overload (or free entry, alas, but you get a good, gay value.). Do expect a flat-out celebration of everything that makes Oakland’s queer community so vibrant, including a plethora of family entertainment and truly rainbow-like diversity (we are stoked to oompah-hoof it to rad musical acts K-Paz de la Sierra and Banda Cienega). Oh yes, there will be divas as well, including rapper Rah Digga and CeCe Peniston, whose spirited “Finally” was the least offensive of the five songs gay bars played over and over throughout the whole of the 1990s. (Marke B.)

11am-7pm, $10, $5 for 12 and under

20th St. and Broadway, Oakl.

www.oaklandpride.org

MONDAY 3

John Maus

A longtime session player (if those exist in the indie rock world) for Animal Collective, Ariel Pink, and other fuzzed-out, left-field pop entities, John Maus made his case as a solo artist with last year’s breakthrough LP, We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves. Like a more electronic take on Before Today‘s faded, tape-obsessed pop sorcery, Maus’ recorded output overflows with smoke-and-mirrors studio subterfuge, raising all kinds of questions about his live approach. Will Maus take the stage all by his lonesome, or will he have some conspirators in tow to work the candy synths and synthetic drums? Come find out, and get lost in the haze.(Taylor Kaplan)

9pm, $13

Independent

628 Divisadero, SF

(415) 771-1421

www.theindependentsf.com

Hot Snakes

You know how band reunions can take place for one of two reasons? One, for the band to stroke its own ego, and two, to give back to the legions of loyal, desperate fans who’ve been patiently waiting, year after year. (Okay three: money, but that’s likely not the case here.) When Hot Snakes traveled to SF earlier this year, after a way-too-long hiatus, they seemed to be in it for both themselves and for those ravenous fans. The noted band of San Diego musicians, led by John Reis and Rick Froberg, looked like they were having a blast, positively ripping through thunderous post-hardcore classics off 2000’s Automatic Midnight, 2002’s Suicide Invoice, and 2004’s Audit in Progress. Given their backgrounds and sonic exercises in post-Hot Snakes bands (Obits, Night Marchers), there wasn’t a rusty nail in the bunch. So they’ve rejoined their post-Drive Like Jehu act and toured, and are now touring once again; I guess it’s post-reunion at this point, though no less exciting for the wild-eyed fans. (Savage)

With Mrs. Magician

8pm, $23

Slim’s

333 11th St., SF (415) 255-0333

www.slimspresents.com

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Music Listings

Andrew Lam

August 28, 2012

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 29

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Black Cobra Vipers, French Cassettes, Brass Bed Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $10.

Bleached Palms, Big Drag, Standard Poodle, Apopka Darkroom Cafe Du Nord. 9pm, $7.

Civil Twilight, Morning Parade, Vanaprasta Independent. 8pm, $14.

Desaparecidos, Velvet Teen Regency Ballroom. 8pm, $25.

Guella, Grand Nationals, One Way Station Elbo Room. 9pm, $7.

Johnny Legend, Top Ten, Chuckleberries Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $7.

Nathan and Rachel Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

"SF Underground Music Fest" 50 Mason Social House, SF; www.50masonsocialhouse.com. With Mr. Kind, Phoenix Twins, Felsen.

Virgil Shaw and the Killer Views, Human Condition, Devotionals Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $10.

Thee Oh Sees, Enorchestra, Dirty Power Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $14.

Versions, Monuments Collapse, Cascabel, Braeg Noafa Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $6.

Greg Zema vs Joel Nelson Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9:30pm.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

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.

Bela Fleck and the Marcis Roberts Trio Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $30; 10pm, $26.

Ricardo Scales Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 6:30pm, $5.

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.

Hardcore Humpday Happy Hour RKRL, 52 Sixth St, SF; (415) 658-5506. 6pm, $3.

THURSDAY 30

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Black Mountain, Quest for Fire Independent. 8pm, $17.

Hello Echo, Tzigane Society, Campbell Society Amnesia. 9pm, $7-$10.

John Lawton Trio Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Lusjoints, Extra Classic, Sun Life Cafe Du Nord. 8:30pm, $10.

Jason Marion vs JC Rockit Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9:30pm.

Pains of Being Pure at Heart, A B & the Sea, popscene DJs Rickshaw Stop. 9:30pm, $15-$17.

Erica Sunshine Lee, Windy Hill Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $5-$7.

Two Gallants Amoeba Music. 6pm, free.

Ugly Winner, Hazel’s Wart, Big Mittens Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $6.

Why?, Doseone, Serengti Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $18.

Yonat & Her Muse, Juanita and the Rabbit, Bye Bye Blackbirds Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $10.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Bela Fleck and the Marcis Roberts Trio Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $30; 10pm, $26.

Stompy Jones Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 7:30pm, $10.

Ned Boyton Trio Bottle Cap, 1707 Powell, SF; www.bottlecapsf.com. 7-10pm.

Savanna Jazz Jam with Eddy Ramirez Savanna Jazz. 7:30pm, $5.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

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, $5-$7. With DJ-host Pleasuremaker spinning spin Afrobeat, Tropicália, electro, samba, and funk.

All 80s Thursday Cat Club. 9pm, $6 (free before 9:30pm). ’80s mainstream and underground with DJ’s Damon, Steve Washington, and Dangerous Dan.

Tropicana Madrone Art Bar. 9pm, free. Salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, and more with DJs Don Bustamante, Apocolypto, Sr. Saen, Santero, and Mr. E.

FRIDAY 31

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Back Pages Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Rome Balestrieri, Jason Marion, Guido Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm.

A.A. Bondy, ESP, UFO Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $17.

B. Hamilton, Chrystian Rawk, Feral Cat Amnesia. 9pm, $7-$10.

Chixdiggit!, Meat Sluts, Boats! Thee Parkside. 9pm, $10.

CyClub, East Bay Brass Band Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $7.

Ryan Darton Hotel Utah. 9pm, $8.

Go Van Gogh Make-Out Room. 7:30pm, $8.

Jounce, Elephants in Mud Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 7:30pm, $5-$8.

Modern Heist Brainwash Cafe. 8pm, free.

Revision Evenodds, Under the Musical Direction of Kev Choice Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 10pm, $8-$10.

Solwave, Super Adventure Club, Major Powers and the Lo-Fi Symphony Bottom of the Hill. 9:30pm, $10.

Swamp Angel, Fascinating Creatures of the Deep, Badmen Cafe Du Nord. 9pm, $10.

Turbonegro Slim’s. 9pm, $28.

Vaselines Independent. 9pm, $22.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

Black Jazz Orchestra Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 9pm, $10.

Terry Disely Bottle Cap, 1707 Powell, SF; www.bottlecapsf.com. 5:30-8:30pm.

Bela Fleck and the Marcis Roberts Trio Yoshi’s SF. 8 and 10pm, $40.

Bryan Girard, Graham Bruce Palindrome Savanna Jazz. 7:30pm.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Baxtalo Drom Amnesia. 9pm, $7-$10. With live music, gypsy punk, belly dancing.

Taste Fridays 650 Indiana, SF; www.tastefridays.com. 8pm, $18. Salsa and bachata dance lessons, live music.

Chucho Valdes Pena Pachamama, 1630 Powell, SF; (415) 646-0018. 8pm, $20-$39.95.

DANCE CLUBS

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.

Original Plumbing Elbo Room. 10pm, $3-$7.Trans dance party with DJs Chelsea Starr and Rapid Fire.

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.

SATURDAY 1

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Band of Heathens, Trishas, Birdhouse Cafe Du Nord. 9:30pm, $12-$15.

Brown Bird, These United States Independent. 9pm, $14.

Burn River Burn, Fortress, Cormorant, Prizehog Slim’s. 8:30pm, $8.

Citizen’s Arrest, Yadokai, Rat Damage, Wartrash, Stressors Thee Parkside. 2pm, $10.

Foxtails Brigade, Yesway, Whiskerman Bottom of the Hill. 10pm, $10.

Goldenboy, New Familiar Thee Parkside. 9pm, $8.

Honey Wilders Band Riptide. 9:30pm, free.

Lost Bayou Ramblers Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 8pm, $7-$10.

Promise Ring, One AM Radio Fillmore. 9pm, $25.

Sands, 3 Leafs, Body Swap Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $7.

Nathan Temby, Jason Marion, Guido Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm.

Ticket to Ride Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

Bela Fleck and the Marcis Roberts Trio Yoshi’s SF. 8 and 10pm, $40.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Craig Ventresco and Meredith Axelrod Atlas Cafe, 3049 20th St, SF; www.atlascafe.net. 4-6pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Bearracuda Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $6-$8.

Bootie SF DNA Lounge. 9pm, $10-$15.

Haceteria Acid Meltdown with Exillon Deco Lounge, 510 Larkin, SF; www.decosf.com. 9pm, $5. With Nihar, Tristes Tropiques, and Jason P.

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.

Saturday Night Soul Party Elbo Room. 10pm, $5-$10. With DJs Lucky, Paul Paul, Phengren Oswald.

SUNDAY 2

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Dropdead, Bumbklaat, Permanent Ruin, Vacuum, Elegy Thee Parkside. 1pm, $10.

John Lawton Trio Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Laurie Morvan Band Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $15.

Melody and Tyler, Ali May 50 Mason Social House, SF; www.50masonsocialhouse.com. 8pm.

Men Independent. 9pm, $12.

Old 97s, Those Darlins, Rhett Miller Fillmore. 8pm, $26.50.

Sandro Perri, Steer the Stars, Max Porter Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $10.

Pharcyde Yoshi’s SF Lounge. 9pm, $26.

Tidelands, Yassou Benedict, Hannah Werdmuller Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $7.

Vektor, Hatchet, Apocryphon Thee Parkside. 8pm, $10.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Mike Greensill Trio Old First Church, 1751 Sacramento, SF; (415) 474-1608. 4pm. $14-$17.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Kally Price Old Blues and Jazz Band Amnesia. 8-11pm, $5.

DANCE CLUBS

Dancing Ghosts Raven, 1151 Folsom, SF; www.ravenbarsf.com. 9:30pm, $5. Darkwave dance party with DJs Xander and Sage.

Domingos Latinos Blue Macaw, 2565 Mission, SF; www.thebluemacawsf.com. 6pm, $10. Salsa dance party with live Afro-Cuban salsa bands.

Dub Mission Elbo Room. 9pm, $8-$10. With DJ Sep, Ludichris, Vinnie Esparza, and soundsystem set with Mista Chatman.

Hero White Party Ruby Skye, 420 Mason, SF; www.rubyskye.com. 6pm-midnight. With David Aude, and Jamie J. Sanchez.

Jock Lookout, 3600 16th St, SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 3pm, $2.

MONDAY 3

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

"Cowgirlpalooza" El Rio. 3pm, $10. With 77 El Deora, Rumble Strippers, Patsychords, Kit and the Branded Men, Kitty Rose.

Damir Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Gold Panda, Doldrums, Nanosaur Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $16-$18.

Hot Snakes, Mrs. Magician Slim’s. 8pm, $19.50-$23.

John Maus Independent. 9pm, $13.

Superhumanoids, JJAMZ, Teenage Sweater Cafe Du Nord. 8pm, $12.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

James Cotton Superharp Yoshi’s SF. 8, $28; 10pm, $20.

Bossa Nova Tunnel Top, 601 Bush, SF; (415) 722-6620. 8-11:30pm, free. Live acoustic Bossa Nova.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Belle Monroe and Her Brewglass Boys Amnesia. 9pm, free.

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, reggae, dancehall, and salsa with DJ Jerry Ross.

Vibes’N’Stuff El Amigo Bar, 3355 Mission, SF; (415) 852-0092. 10pm, free. Conscious jazz and hip-hop with DJs Luce Lucy, Vinnie Esparza, and more.

TUESDAY 4

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Big Business, Federation X, Pins of Light Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $12.

Fat Tuesday Band Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $15.

Ferocious Few, Tumbleweed Wanderers Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, free.

Heavy, Silent Comedy Slim’s. 8pm, $16.

King Khan and the Shrines, Apache Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $16.

Kishi Bashi, Last Bison Cafe Du Nord. 7:30pm, $10-$12.

Lightning Bolt, No Babies, Future Twin Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $12.

Something Fierce, Occult Detective Club Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $7.

SparkBox, Annie Girl & the Flight, Emily Jane White Amnesia. 9pm.

Stan Erhart Band Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

True Mutants, Apogee Sound Club, Yes Gos Knockout. 9:30pm, $6.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Debo Band Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $16.

Gaucho Bottle Cap, 1707 Powell, SF; www.bottlecapsf.com. 7-10pm.

Marty Eggers Pier 23, Embarcadero at Filbert, SF; (415) 362-5125. 5-8pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Eclectic Company Skylark, 9pm, free. DJs Tones and Jaybee spin old school hip hop, bass, dub, glitch, and electro.

On the Cheap Listings

Andrew Lam

August 28, 2012

Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Picks.

WEDNESDAY 29

Martin Lee: Smoke Signals The Booksmith, 1644 Haight, SF. www.booksmith.com. 7:30pm, free. Given the current tumult gripping the cannabis world, it behooves us to learn a little about the history of marijuana in the United States. Enter author Lee, whose new book promises a panoramic look about where the leafy green plant has been, a boon to pot activists everywhere.

Twin Peaks Tunnel screening and discussion California Historical Society, 678 Mission, SF. twinpeakstunnel.eventbrite.com. 6-8pm, free. Learn all about the 1914-’16 dig through the mountains from this rare 28mm print of a 1917 film about the project. Historians Rob Byrne and Woody LaBounty will be on hand to describe the utter coolness of the original Big Dig.

THURSDAY 30

Paws For Consideration book release The Women’s Building, 3543 18th St., SF. www.womensbuilding.org; www.amybutcher.com. 7-8:30pm, free. Celebrate the release of Women’s Building board member Amy Butcher’s new mystery novel, which features a wheelchair-bound protagonist bound to investigate a mysterious death by the appearance of a nervous Boston terrier named Skittles.

FRIDAY 31

Lunchtime artmaking in Nomadic Grove Jessie Square, 736 Mission, SF. www.thecjm.org. 12:30-1:30pm, free. Learn pencil drawing techniques from artist Jen Ewing at this midday drop-in tutorial, designed by the Contemporary Jewish Museum to foster public engagement with the museum itself.

SATURDAY 1

Millbrae Art and Wine Festival Broadway between Victoria and Meadow Glen, Millbrae. www.miramarevents.com. 10am-5pm, free. Small town fair fun abounds in Millbrae this weekend – head over for live tunes, silly spuds potato spirals, giant sausages, shady bar seating, kid’s activities, and a classic car show.

Belmont Greek Festival Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Cross, 900 Alameda de las Pulgas, Belmont. www.goholycross.org/festival. Through Mon/3. Sun.-Sat., noon-10pm; Mon., noon-8pm, $5/day. A few words, and you should be good to go. Souvlaki. Dolmades. Baklava. Kourambiedes. Galactobouriko. Whether those words ring a bell for you or not, head out to this cultural fest, and dance off the calories of your new vocabulary with traditional kalamatiano, tsamiko, and zeimbekiko numbers, performed by the intrepid Sons of Ulysses.

Mark Benson: “Get the Flu” Ever Gold Gallery, 441 O’Farrell, SF. (415) 796-3676, www.evergoldgallery.com. Through Sept. 27. Opening reception 6-10pm, free. Artist Benson subjects participants to varying temperatures in this exhibition of space heaters and air conditioners, evoking ever-growing feelings of discomfort. Couple that with a nurse administering actual flu shots and you have a uniquely participatory look at human control and the modern definition of comfort.

Beasts and Beats: Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com. 9pm-2am, $5-8. Celebrate the half-empty city vibe during Burning Man at this art buffet. Peruse works from over 50 San Francisco artists while moombahton, global bass, and house pump from the DJs’ sets.

Rawdance: Concept Series 12 66 Sanchez Studio, SF. www.rawdance.org. Also Sun/2. Sat., 1 and 8pm; Sun. 3 and 8pm, sliding scale admission. Five guest artists join Rawdance in this diverse lineup, from Palanza Dance’s excerpt from an interpretation of Hans Christian Andersen’s Thumbelina and detour dance’s “Imitations of Intimacy.”

SUNDAY 2

Oakland Pride 19th St. and Franklin, Oakl. www.oaklandpride.org. 11am-7pm, $10. Maybe it’s not as large as the SF Pride throwdown, but Oakland’s celebration of LGBT gettin’ does a much better job of representing the diversity of the Bay. Headliners CeCe Peniston (remember her ’90s dance hit “Finally”?), Flip Mode Squad’s Rah Digga, and Duranguense band K-Paz will provide beats, and the kids garden will have temporary tats, ballet performances, bubbles, and bouncy castles for the whole fam.

Gay Men Draw Vaginas art party Dolores Park (Gay Beach), Church and 20th St., SF. Facebook: Gay Men Drawing. 1-5pm, free. Sure, the book that editors Shannon O’Malley and Keith Wilson are putting together is pretty well explained by this party’s moniker, but if you’re not a male homo you’re still welcome – put your idea of the female genitalia to paper, on a fine Dolo Sunday.

The Blue Angel Berkeley Underground Film Society screening The Tannery, 708 Gillman, Berk. berkeleyundergroundfilms.blogspot.com. Doors 7pm, film 7:30pm, donations accepted. BUFS brings little-seen films to the masses with this pay-what-you-can screening of a 1930 tale of scolding professor who falls in love with a speakeasy dancer, directed by Josef von Sternberg.

TUESDAY 4

The News queer performance series SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan, SF. www.somarts.org. 7:30-9pm, $5. A monthly display of the wisest and wackiest of queer stage art, a typical edition of the News can include trash fashion, passionate odes to black beauty, and improvisational dance. Tonight, check out Philip Huang, Alexander Alvina Chamberland, Ryan Crowder, and more.

Jesus-free food

Andrew Lam

August 28, 2012

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,” Jesus supposedly said way back when. In San Francisco, there are a multitude of churches that offer free food to the hungry (find a handy list at www.freeprintshop.org).

But what follows is a list of secular organizations that share food — for the planet, for self-determination and providing for community outside of the system, for healthy food untainted by hormones, pesticides and GMOs, for food not grown by exploited workers, and for many other reasons, these groups bring food straight to the people.

FREE FARM STAND

Where: Parque Niños Unidos, 23rd St. and Treat. When: Sundays, 1-3pm. Numbers given out at around noon. The Free Farm Stand gives out food and flowers grown at the Free Farm on Eddy and Gough, where local volunteers grow and harvest produce. They also share local organic surplus produce left over from several farmer’s markets and produce brought in from neighbors and from locally gleaned fruit trees.

The philosophy of the Free Farm is food sovereignty. Why should anyone go hungry, or go broke, feeding themselves and their kids? Instead, they figure, they should get for free what the earth gives. They facilitate this by offering the farm’s harvest — as well free sprouts and plants, that people can use to grow food themselves.

“The solution to the problem of hunger is to share the abundance that’s out there and to encourage people to grow food and share some with those in need.” said a Free Farm Stand organizer. “We can set up neighborhood networks of people growing food and sharing their surplus.” The Free Farm Stand is a step towards that vision.

BETTER DAYS TO COME

Where: Tuesday, 16th and Mission, Thursday, Turk and Taylor. When: 6pm. Some of the folks at Better Days to Come have God in mind, but the organization’s founder, Leonard Fulgham, came from not the churches but the prisons. As its mission statement says, “Mr. Fulgham began mentoring many of the younger inmates, while having the unique opportunity to hear their stories. Many of their stories outlined how they landed in the prison community and why they continued to return. Being homeless upon release back into society is a commonly known contributing factor to these ex-offenders being hungry while being starved by the lack of job training and vocational skills.” Fulgham passed away March 24, 2012, and in his memory, the organization began serving two hot meals a week.

CURRY WITHOUT WORRY

Where: Civic Center Plaza at Hyde and Market. When: Tuesdays 5:45-7pm. Curry Without Worry serves vegetarian food, mostly Nepali and mostly with five courses, in San Francisco every week. It does the same at its other branch in Kathmandu. Shrawan Nepali once owned a restaurant, Taste of the Himalayas, but used the proceeds to start Curry Without Worry and eventually sold it when “I realized I was not a businessmen.” Instead, he’s a man who feeds people a vegan five-course meal, which includes a sauce made from timur, herbs that grow in his Himalayan hometown but are rare in the US. “Our mantra is healthy food for hungry souls,” says Nepali.

FOOD NOT BOMBS

Where and when: Monday, UN Plaza at 6:30pm and 16th and Mission at 7pm. Wednesday, UN Plaza at 6pm. Thursday: 16th and Mission at 7pm. Saturday: Haight and Stanyan at 5pm. After 30 years, Food Not Bombs still serves almost daily in San Francisco at a few locations throughout the city. Volunteers cook meals then bring them out to the people, bringing home the message that there’s enough to go around and you shouldn’t need money to feed yourself. The Saturday team still shares food at Haight and Stanyan, where Food Not Bombs first parked three decades ago.

FOOD BANK OF AMERICA

Where: In front of the Bank of America at 2701 Mission. When: Thursday, 5pm until food runs out. Occupy-related people, carrying on from the giant Food Bank of America action on Jan. 20, when the Bank of America at the Embarcadero locked its doors after activists set up a food table and hung two interactive banners where passers-by could write what fit under the category “person” and what fit under the category “corporation.” They hung a third banner saying Food Bank of America, hundreds ate a hot meal, and the concept caught on. Now, people who have been gathering food donations for Occupy and otherwise give away fresh produce and hand out information about credit unions weekly in front of the bank.

COMMUNITY FEED

Where: Mendell Plaza, at Third and Oakdale. When: Every third Sunday, 10-2. A few organizations, including the Black Star Riders Coalition and the Kenneth Harding Jr. Foundation, work together to put on this food giveaway every other week. It takes place in Mendell Plaza, the square that some have renamed Kenny’s Plaza after Harding, who was killed in the plaza at 19 years old after a dispute with SFPD officers over bus fare. “First, we definitely want to honor Kenny, that’s why we got there,” said Tracey Bell-Borden, one of the organizers of the Community Feed. “But there’s been a lot of activity in that area for a long time. So it’s really about healing the community,” she said. “We have to take care of our community.”

Other options for St. Luke’s

Andrew Lam

August 28, 2012

EDITORIAL California Pacific Medical Center wants to build a fancy new hospital in San Francisco without meeting the city’s demands for housing, transportation, and health-care mitigations. And the arrogant leadership at the private nonprofit thinks it can hold the city hostage: If the mayor and the supervisors don’t approve the new medical complex on Van Ness Avenue, CPMC has threatened to close St. Luke’s — threatening a critical part of the local health infrastructure.

It’s a dangerous game: CPMC must rebuild its aging California Street facility to meet state seismic safety codes, and, given the importance of the San Francisco market, clearly isn’t going to do a Twitter and threaten to move out of town. The city can’t afford to lose St. Luke’s — other than the overburdened SF General, it’s the only hospital on the south side of town and a critical, life-saving facility for residents of the low-income southeast neighborhoods.

But CPMC keeps leaving itself ways to abandon the Mission District facility. And even the offer to save the hospital is weak: The facility would be cut almost in half, to only 80 beds.

So it’s time to come up with other options, ways to take that CPMC gun away from San Francisco’s head and ensure the future of health care in the southeast. And city officials ought to be willing to try unusual ideas. Here’s one:

Why not seize St. Luke’s under eminent domain and ask the University of California, San Francisco to help run it?

It’s not as crazy as it sounds. CPMC insists the facility is old, needs its own seismic rebuild and loses money. So it’s not as if the health-care giant could demand some huge compensation. The city could probably get it for next to nothing.

St. Luke’s isn’t profitable — but that’s in part because CPMC has shifted some of the more lucrative services to its other campuses.

UCSF already provides the medical residents for SF General, which operates in part as the medical school’s teaching hospital. UCSF is also expanding rapidly, investing huge amounts of money into its new Mission Bay campus. The idea of integrating St. Luke’s into the school’s training and research programs makes a certain amount of sense.

The city — and perhaps UCSF — would need to pay for the seismic upgrade, no small deal, and in the short term, cover operating losses. But the city’s going to have to pay those costs one way or another: The way CPMC is talking, most of the costs of rebuilding St. Luke’s will be passed on to the taxpayers and to local health plans (including the taxpayer-funded city health plan) anyway. If nothing else, CPMC wants the city to absorb the massive costs of mitigating the housing and transit impacts of the Van Ness hospital in exchange for keeping a (diminished and inadequate) St. Luke’s alive. The closure of St. Luke’s would put fiscally unbearable demands on SF General.

And guess what? The minute city and state officials start talking about an alternative future for St. Luke’s, CPMC and its parent, Sutter Health, lose the only real leverage they have to demand a bad deal for the Van Ness project.

It’s at least worth talking about.

Alerts

Andrew Lam

August 28, 2012

Wednesday 29

Bernal Heights outdoor cinema Roccapulco Supper Club, 3140 Mission, SF; www.bhoutdoorcine.org. 7pm, $10 suggested donation. The first of five nights of film screenings in Bernal Heights. At this kickoff party, enjoy drinks, food and music from the Bernal Jazz Quintet before a lineup of short films celebrating community and organizing in the Bay Area. Films include Berkeley High School students on heritage and identity, “Occupy the Auctions Dance Party!” in which Occupy Bernal and ACCE stop evictions on the steps of City Hall, and a tour of Alemany Farm (also the beneficiary of the event’s ticket price), among others. The event also includes the announcement of winners of the Best of Bernal and Spirit of Bernal Awards and the first-year recipients of the Mauricio Vela Youth Film Scholarship.

Occupy, the state of the movement Mediterranean Café, 2475 Telegraph, Berk; www.occupyoakland.org. 7-10pm, free. Einar Stensson, a sociologist at Stockholm University and activist at Occupy Stockholm during the fall of 2011, studied Occupy Oakland for two months. Why did the movement start and spread so quickly around the globe? How is Occupy organized? Who matters in the movement and why? What is the future of Occupy? Come hear his perspectives on where Occupy is, locally and internationally.

Friday 31

Occupy the Bay The 25th Street Collective, 477 25th St., Oakl; www.occupyoakland.org. 6pm, $25. “This week in Oakland, California will go down as a watershed moment. People across America were disgusted by what they saw here. Average Americans trying to stand up and peacefully assemble, to be brutally savaged and attacked by the police department that they pay for.” So said Michael Moore to a fired up crowd in the wake of the Oct. 26 Occupy Oakland eviction that rained tear gas and rubber bullets on demonstrators. This is just one of the many historic events caught on tape by filmmakers Jonathan Riley and Kevin Pina, whose documentary Occupy the Bay is screening around the Bay Area before it starts showing in film festivals. On Friday, stick around for special musical performances from Jabari Shaw, Shareef Ali and Super Natural.

Enemies of the state: In their own words Station 40, 3030B 16th St., SF; station40events.wordpress.com. 7pm, free. After a year of Occupy and years more of struggle by people who are not down with the state, there are a lot of people in jail and prison. At this event, organizers will read writing from those locked up. Poems and statements from Truth and Kali of Occupy Oakland and a statement from Jesse Nesbitt, the May Day brick-thrower we profiled (“Who is the Brick Thrower?” 5/8/12). As the event description says, “Any effort at anti-repression in the face of lengthy prison terms must be aimed at bringing down separation at all costs.” Come fight the separation and connect.

Original Plumbing birthday celebration Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF; www.originalplumbing.com. 10pm, $3-6. Original Plumbing, the trans male quarterly magazine, is throwing a party celebrating its third year on this planet. It now lives in the Brooklyn part of the planet, but it all started in San Francisco, and they’re coming back here to party. “We feel that there is no single way to sum up what it means to be a trans man because we each have different beliefs, life experiences, and relationships to our own bodies,” say the organizers, and they started the magazine to document this diversity of experiences. Celebrate with the editors Amos Mac and Rocco Katastrophe, and performances by Rocco Katastrophe with special guests Billie Elizabeth, Nicky Click & Jenna Riot. Birthday cupcakes available!

Tuesday 4

Rally to save City College City Hall steps, 1 Polk, SF; ProtectOurCityCollege@gmail.com. 12pm, free. A rally in support of Prop A, the local ballot measure that would create a parcel tax for revenue to City College of San Francisco. “If City College is to survive and maintain accessibility, educational quality and the mission of serving low-income and underrepresented students with the best educators and staff, we must pass Prop A,” say organizers of the rally, which include students, teachers, staff and supporters.

Dick Meister: Let’s count our blessings on Labor Day!

August 28, 2012

By Dick Meister

Dick Meister, former labor editor of the SF Chronicle and KQED-TV Newsroom, has covered labor and politics for more than a half-century. Contact him through his website, www.dickmeister.com, which includes more than 350 of his columns.

OK, it’s time to celebrate Labor Day, time to celebrate the labor movement that won a wide range of benefits for working people. That includes, of course, a paid day off on Labor Day and other holidays or extra pay for working on the holidays. But there’s much more than that. Much more.

We can also thank unions for:

* The eight-hour workday with meal and rest breaks.

* Forty-hour work weeks and three-day holiday weekends.

* Overtime pay and paid vacations, sick leave and maternity leave.

* Major help in the enactment of anti-child labor law laws and increased public education funding.

* Medicare and retirement and disability benefits.

* Job security and other workers’ rights.

* A strong political voice for unions that helped enact Social Security, unemployment insurance, workers compensation, health and safety and minimum wage laws and has helped elect pro-worker office holders.

* Important help in the passage of key civil rights and civil liberties laws that have particularly helped political dissidents, women and minorities and military veterans.

Certainly not every worker enjoys all the union-backed benefits. But even the non-union workers who make up the vast majority of working people these days have many of the benefits. And, thanks to the efforts of unions, they have the opportunity to win all of the benefits.

You can be sure that on this Labor Day, as on all others, political candidates will have lots to say about unions. You can expect, however, that not much will be heard from Republicans. Their usual ranting in behalf of their moneyed backers about the evils of “Big Labor” and “union bosses” will be muted, lest they offend potential blue-collar supporters. Democrats undoubtedly will voice their usual support for union members and workers generally, many sincerely, some simply in hopes of gaining blue-collar support.

Union opponents seem to forget that unions are democratic organizations, whose members generally have a strong voice in their unions’ activities. Union officers are elected, after all, and so are answerable to their members.

Union positions on political candidates and issues, as well as financial contributions to candidates, are not dictated by union officers, despite what anti-union politicians assert. Union positions and union political spending are determined by the votes of union members, usually on the recommendations of their Committees on Political Education (COPE). Officers who don’t reflect their members’ position face replacement by membership vote.

Once, Labor Day meant big parades in cities nationwide. But no more. Although union numbers continue shrinking, unions are surely here to stay. They’ve fought their way into the Establishment. They still parade here and there, but no longer feel that parading is necessary to show their strength and importance.

Unions are much more likely to mark Labor Day with the political activity that has become as important to them as economic activity since their arrival into the ranks of the economically accepted.

Thus the Labor Day messages of union leaders will stress politics. That will largely include support for President Obama, despite union complaints that he has not worked hard enough to overcome congressional opposition to pro-labor reforms that he’s proposed or supported. From labor’s point-of-view, Obama is nevertheless very much preferable to Mitt Romney, just as most other Democrats are preferable to their Republican opponents.

Despite much opinion to the contrary, the union stress on politics, rather on winning broader public support for unionization, does not mean that all unions have reached a permanent, unshakeable position in society.

Nor does it mean that unions are not still fighting battles that are as almost as significant as those of the 1930s and 1940s that drew broad support from a public which sometimes frowns on unions, now that they have secured the strong position in society which the public helped them win.

Labor influence is not measured strictly by the number of union members, because of labor’s strong influence in politics and because the wages and conditions of unionized workers set the standard for all workers. Yet numbers are important, and unions generally have been struggling just to keep overall membership steady.

Currently, only about 12 percent of privately employed workers are unionized. But while their numbers have remained low, the figure for unionized public employees has grown to nearly 40 percent. That has put public employee unions in the vanguard of the labor movement, and given the movement new, badly needed strength, although also raising strong political opposition to public employee unions.

There are some fairly solid reasons for the decline in union membership overall, ironically including the unions’ loss of their position as underdogs, the widespread granting of union conditions to non-union workers and illegal employer interference in voting by workers on whether to unionize.

Perhaps the most important reason for the decline in union membership has been a fundamental change in the workforce. Once dominated by blue-collar production workers, it has come to be dominated by white-collar service workers. But organized labor sometimes has been slow to move into white-collar fields outside of public employment.

Labor Day should cause us to reflect on the great importance of the labor movement’s vital mission – its organizing of workers to win economic and political strength and helping elect pro-worker officeholders, its help in creating jobs and otherwise aiding the millions of Americans who remain unemployed or otherwise in economic distress.

So while you may not be able to see a parade on Labor Day, labor is still doing many other things well worth watching, and well worth supporting.

A footnote: Despite what the standard history books say, the first real Labor Day celebration was not held in New York City in 1882, but 14 years earlier right here in San Francisco. That was on February 21, 1868. Three thousand paraded the city’s streets by torchlight to mark enactment of the 8-hour-day law in California.

Happy Labor Day!

March for women’s rights this Sunday

August 24, 2012

As the war on women rages on, Defend Women’s Rights marches will fight back Sunday.

This week started off with Missouri Rep. Todd Akin’s comments that seemed to suggest a belief that women who are raped are less likely to get pregnant. This was just one more drop in the bucket, if the bucket is reasons why men who don’t understand how reproduction works shouldn’t get to legislate policy that affects it. Remember when Michigan Rep. Lisa Brown was barred from participating in a House debate after daring to say the word vagina during an abortion debate? As Brown said at the time, “If I can’t say the word vagina, why are we legislating vaginas?”

People at the Republican National Convention in Tampa next week who find vaginas “lewd,” and yet work tirelessly to strip away reproductive rights, will surely be offended by some of what protesters are bringing to the convention. People with CODE PINK, for example, will be dressed in giant fluffy vagina costumes.

Women’s rights, of course, is broader than just reproductive rights. And a range of issues, including immigrants right, the pay gap, housing and welfare will be addressed at nationwide protests Sunday.

The Aug. 26 day of action is scheduled to coincide with both the RNC and Women’s Equality Day, which celebrated the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Women fought tooth and nail for rights before, since and after that day, and Women Organized to Resist and Defend (WORD), the group behind the day of action, sees itself as part of that tradition.

“We realized that we really needed to have a group that was ready to fight right now for women’s rights,” said Meghann Adams, an organizer with WORD.

For the march’s organizers, the Democratic National Convention happening in Charlotte right after the RNC is just as much reason to march. As they note on their website, “While President Obama is not a right-wing pro-lifer, we cannot count on him or any politician to defend our rights. In fact, in order to reach a budget compromise with Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner in July 2011, President Obama said, “I’ll give you abortion in D.C.”

“If you can’t make it to protest in Tampa and Charlotte, join or organize a protest in your community,” their statement reads. “There is a long, proud tradition of women in the United States mobilizing and fighting to win equality and respect. Let’s continue this legacy this summer!”

The march will leave from 24th and Mission at noon on Sunday, Aug. 26.

More ‘Work MORE!’ with Mica Sigourney/Vivvyanne Forevermore

Sue Vaughan

August 24, 2012

More ‘Work MORE!’ with Mica Sigourney/Vivvyanne Forevermore

If Friday means Some Thing — the popular late night drag performance showcase at the Stud — then tonight means something More: opening night of “Work MORE! #5,” the hybrid performance installation headed up by Some Thing’s charismatic and catalytic hostess, Vivvyanne Forevermore, alt-persona of artist-curator Mica Sigourney.

Tonight has even a little more More than that: it’s also four years to the month since Vivvyanne Forevermore first stepped onto the San Francisco stage. It’s an auspicious moment, in other words, for one of Sigourney’s more ambitious Work MORE! undertakings to date (with the possible exception of next year’s planed tour of Work MORE! #4, but more on that below). Number five brings together (at CounterPULSE this weekend) a group of drag queens, visual artists, dancers and performance artists in an overlapping series of collaborative performance installations that do away with the usual proscenium setting in favor of a loosely compartmentalized stage that’s more like a haunted gallery.

“Logistically, I’ve never done anything like this at all,” says Sigourney, speaking at a SOMA café last week. “It’s going to be too hot, it’s going to be too loud, and it’s not going to be easy.” But then, he immediately adds, “that’s not any different from a drag bar.”

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

The Work MORE! series has been chipping away at the wall between nightlife and theatrical performance through five iterations and counting, so maybe people will understand that without much prompting. “Hopefully people will realize how much agency they have.”

As Work MORE! continues to grow in scope, it’s also grown in popularity, enough that Sigourney is able to float a little money in the direction of the artists. Not a lot yet, he admits, “but you don’t have to worry about buying your wig — and you can keep it afterwards.” Beyond the ambitious tour next year, Sigourney hopes to make Work MORE! a sustaining enterprise.

“I’d like it to be, not an institution, but a program that happens yearly or twice yearly that can support itself and can support the artists,” he says, explaining that that means supporting unique collaborations unlikely to take place anywhere else. “I mean Dean [Disaster] and Philip [Huang] as a collaborative team? I would never have thought of that,” marvels Sigourney.

“Or like Jonathan Solo, who is a beautiful illustrator and artist, a favorite of mine, and the fact that he’s working with Diamanda Kallas, that’s a valuable creative collaboration. I want to be able to facilitate that kind of work,” says Sigourney. “That’s what I want to do.”

More of last week’s conversation with Mica Sigourney follows.

San Francisco Bay Guardian When did you start doing drag? You started in theater; those were separate things entirely?

Mica Sigourney Yeah, I did theater for a long time. I started doing theater when I was five, like outside of school, continued in college for two years and then stopped. I moved to San Francisco in 2004. I had a residency at Jon Simms Center. Then I stopped again doing any performance from 2004 to 2008. I was drawing at that point, doing screen-printing and fine art, soft sculpture.

Then I started doing parties and nightlife. I started doing this party, which was called Tiara Sensation and is now called Some Thing. We moved to the Stud two months after it started. And when we moved to the Stud, I knew they had a stage there, and if we had a stage I had to host, because I was the host of the party. I mean that was my job. So it happened organically. I really didn’t want to. Like the first two numbers I did were terrible. I had no idea how to make a thing. But part of it too.

By the time I met Fauxnique I was already doing drag, but meeting Fauxnique — she came from a technical background in dance — just seeing the way different people had navigated it and gone through it was really helpful. So I started doing it four years ago this month.

SFBG You never had any drag inclinations before?

MS No, that’s not true. When I was younger I used to dress up a lot. You could say I was a club kid. I collected women’s clothes and high heels but I never bothered to do drag with them. As a teenager going out in New York I idolized drag queens, but I just never thought that I’d be able to do it right. There was like one time in 2001, when I was in San Francisco, where I stepped out in drag, but never did it again. It wasn’t until I met the right people that I felt supported, that I felt like I could try it.

SFBG These people gave you the knowledge you needed?

MS Completely. One of the ideas behind Work MORE! is that drag is a folk art. There’s not really a technique, drag is more like the modality that you participate in, so your knowledge comes from either directly witnessing it from somebody else, and studying them, or by watching someone else and having them teach you like a parent or a mentor. So my mentors would be Glamamore, who’s my drag mother; Kevin, the DJ at my party who’s a drag queen and has had an influence on me; Hoku Mama Swamp; and Fauxnique are all probably my immediate inspirations and people who significantly helped me in different ways.

SFBG How did Work MORE! start?

MS It started the first year of Too Much!, the Keith Hennessy thing when it was at the Off Center. Julie [Phelps] just reached out and asked me if I wanted to do something. And my club had just moved to Friday nights from Monday nights, so I’d been curating a show for that for a while, and I wanted to try to curate something outside of my nightclub scene. I was just getting into the dance world more, the art world more, and so I wanted to try writing a real curatorial statement, and so I just did and they let me do it. And every time I’ve been super moved by the amount of effort and what people make for it.

I just kept doing it as a side project for myself so I could stay fresh. And we’re going to tour next spring so last year we made this really big piece—so it’s different every year, which also keeps me interested.

SFBG What’s the show you’re touring with?

MS It’s going to be the show we did last year. The premise for that was that we took 11 solo artists and allowed them to sub-organize and create pieces together. It was hugely collaborative. We made a master list of 20 numbers. Then I cut it down. So each person was set up as a director of each number, and then cast different performers for each number, so it was just this network of people working together on these different pieces. It was very like segmented but overlapping. I’m hoping to take a modified version of that show on tour, starting with colleges, in April of next year. My goal is to do West Coast, Midwest, and South, and see if it has legs and try to take it to the East Coast and abroad if we can.

I mean, I never booked a tour so I didn’t realize how expensive it is. Also how expensive it is to travel with drag queens, because they need two hours to get ready, so you can’t, like, roll into a venue. You need to get there three hours ahead. Somebody has to be doing tech. It’s not like a literary tour or a band where you roll up and unload. It’s not that.

SFBG It’s a complex show too, as you were just describing.

MS Yeah, though now that we have the framework I can look at the video and say this [part] was directed this way by someone who may or may not be in the cast but that’s how we’re going to do it. The way it was generated was more in line with the mission of Work MORE! than the output. The output is a beautiful drag show that has a lot of people in it, more than you usually see because drag queens are usually solo artists. And you get to see them changing, there’ s exposure of the artifice and all that.

SFBG Have you toured before?

MS I went to London with Fauxnique [in her show, Faux Real]. We did it at the Hot August Fringe Festival.

SFBG How was that?

MS It was really cool. I didn’t know people were going to get all the references, because it’s so American — well, not completely American, but being a teenager in America and listening to Morrissey is really specific. People loved it. I think they were really confused by a woman doing drag, though.

SFBG It’s more unusual there?

MS I guess so. Also, in London all the drag queens sing their songs, whether or not they should. It’s live singing. So Fauxnique lip-syncing was a little different.

It makes sense when you call drag a folk art, especially considering the way things are learned and traded, but you also bring up the way it can be really regionally specific.

MS Absolutely. In San Francisco you have the new strong tradition of gross out, like lots of blood, taking off your clothes, what Trannyshack was really good at [fostering], which is beautiful and genius but really specific to here. I think with RuPaul’s Drag Race and the advent of Facebook and all that, things are probably becoming less specific, which is kind of sad to me.

But actually in the first Work MORE!, the assignment wasn’t collaborative. It was after the second Work MORE! that it became focused specifically on collaboration. The first one was about just tradition. Let’s go back to the traditions of lip sync, glamor and femininity. That was the assignment. You had to use those three things in extreme ways. It was about finding roots. Where does drag come from for us now? What are the things being ignored or that can be enhanced more? But a dream for me is to do a Work MORE! where it’s a collaboration between artists not from the U.S. and some from here. Because the social aspect [of Work MORE!] is about the sharing of traditions, and the strengthening of queer community, crossing lineages or genealogies. So I think that would be really interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yZK0QRGpTw

Work MORE! #5

Thu/24-Sat/26, 8pm, $15-$20

CounterPULSE

1310 Mission, SF

www.counterpulse.org

City College board takes first step toward scaling back its mission

Sasha Cuttler

August 24, 2012

[CORRECTED BELOW] The first step was taken in changing City College of San Francisco’s educational mission at last night’s Board of Trustees meeting, a decision that would drastically alter what programs the college funds and who it serves.

The college’s mission statement is an overarching funding guideline, according to Gohar Momjian, the college’s accreditation liaison officer. She presented the mission statement workgroup’s findings to the college’s board and a packed room of faculty and students last night.

Momjian oversees the 15 workgroups responsible for addressing the major areas the Accrediting Commission of Community and Junior Colleges told the school it has to rectify. A failure to do so by March 2013 could result in the revocation of the school’s accreditation, which is necessary for the college’s degrees to be recognized and for the school to receive federal funding.

Simply put, City College was tasked by the ACCJC to gets its mission in line with current fiscal realities. The workgroups, tasked with brainstorming ways to reshape the college and meet the criteria of the accreditation team’s findings, will use the new mission statement as a guide for what programs are viable, said Momjian.

So what was cut out of the new mission statement? Completion of adult high school diplomas, GED’s (which help students test out of high school), active engagement in the social fabric of the community, lifelong learning, life skills, and enrichment courses were all dropped from the revised mission statement. [[8/27 CORRECTION: Transitional Studies, which includes GEDs and basic adult education, ended up being in included in the primary mission]].

In their place was a statement making these things “conditional” on available resources. “In addition, the college offers other programs and services consistent with our primary mission, only as resources allow and whenever possible in collaboration with partnering agencies and community-based organizations,” reads the new draft statement of the college’s mission.

Essentially, the college promises to enrich the community only if the resources are available to do so. Students and faculty from classes geared towards older adults and also disabled students came out to oppose changes to the mission statement, and a loss of their funding.

“We have students that will wait 40 minutes in the rain in a wheelchair for a bus to get to class,” Disabled Students Programs and Services faculty Katherine Brown said to the board.

Shelly Glazer, faculty in the older adults program, left the board with a warning. “Here are the almost 2,000 letters written to the Student Success Task Force when they tried to cut our dollars,” Glazer said, dropping the huge stack of paper on the top of the podium. “They need your support, and you need theirs.”

Importantly, English as Second Language classes and basic skills classes were preserved in the primary mission guideline. “There are compromises made in the mission statement. There are things we can do under [better] conditions,” said Momjian in her report to the board. “That was our compromise.”

The board made a motion to approve the new draft mission statement, and voted unanimously in favor. The board will look at a second revised mission statement on Sept. 11, and take a final vote to amend the mission statement on Sept. 27. The draft mission statement can be read at the City College website here.

Forty-five problem areas were found in City College’s financial structures by a financial consulting group at the same college board meeting last night. The findings left the college board nearly speechless once the report was complete.

The Financial Crisis Management Team, known as FCMAT, was paid for by the state community college chancellor’s office and assigned to City College to help it review its finances. This was good timing with the recent accreditation troubles, but officially has no connection to the recent accreditation team visit or with any direction from the state chancellor’s office, FCMAT Chief Analyst Michelle Plumbtree told the college board.

Plumbtree and her associate Mike Hill made the presentation to the board on behalf of the four members of the “financial SWAT team,” as they’ve been dubbed by the board in the past. The report it gave to the board that night was only the tip of the iceberg.

“The report itself is going to be in the realm of 65 pages. There are about 45 specific recommendations,” said analyst Mike Hill. “But we do want to give you a sense of some of our observations first, and some of our recommendations grouped together.”

The hit list was read in a bullet point fashion, and as he rattled off each of the findings, the silence in the room deepened:

The district has made a cost structure over time that can’t be sustained in this economy.
The district opted for short term solutions.
Employee contracts have been made without long-term analysis.
Decision making has been made by power and political whim rather than logic and fairness.
The conduct of key leaders and the culture within the district have greatly diminished the role and the effectiveness of the management team.
The district lacks data to assess sites.
The district supports much more faculty than its closest peers.
There’s a history of maintaining a small fund balance, with 90-92 percent of the budget being committed to salary and benefits, the college needs to make adjustments.
The department chair structure is not cost effective nor administratively sound.
We’re recommending a reduction in full time faculty through attrition.
We’re recommending the district not subsidize categorical programs, and that current subsidies be reassessed (the state cut funding for some categorical programs, like the second chance program, and City College has been eating that cost to the tune of around $20 million a year, according to AFT 2121 president Alisa Messer).
Consider either elimination of department chairs or diminish them while empowering deans and giving them the ability to act.”

“There’s a lot there, it covers a lot of territory, and you need to see the context and data and analysis in order to have informed questions, or else you’ll be spinning our wheels,” Hill said to the stunned board.

Chief Analyst Michelle Plumbtree concluded by cautioning the board against inaction. “The circumstances the district found itself did not happen overnight, decisions made over many years brought you here,” she said. “You’re going to have to move quicker than you want to, but that’s what’s needed.”

“Some of these things are new to me, but some of these things have come up in work groups. Some of these things are things we’ve known for years,” board President John Rizzo said after the report concluded. Financial administrators at City College declined to comment before the release of the full report. The 65-page final report will be made public on Sept. 18, and given to the college board a few days before that, Plumbtree said.

The City College Board of Trustees motioned to delay one of their most controversial votes at last night’s board meeting.

The board hopes to bring in a “special trustee,” who would be provided by the state, to help guide them through their recent accreditation woes. A special trustee is not simply a guide. A special trustee has veto power over the college board, giving the trustee unilateral decision making powers, according to college officials that night.

Most of the board welcomed the notion of outside help. The board has asked for $1.5 million dollars in cuts that never got made, Rizzo said, arguing for the need for the special trustee.

“It’s an enormous wealth of expertise that we do not have…We need someone from the outside to tell us where that mistake was made,” Rizzo said.

Trustee Chris Jackson wasn’t sure that the board had full knowledge of what it was asking. “I support a special trustee, but I have questions…How long would a trustee be here? What’s the process of asking them to leave?” Jackson asked, to the applause of the audience.

It was student Trustee William Walker who clarified the students’ position. He had a meeting with students the previous day, and they strongly disagreed with bringing in a special trustee to help run the school.

Given the history of special trustees in college districts, it’s not surprising why. A report by the LA Sentinel shows the discord brought by one special trustee to the Compton community college district, also facing accreditation woes. To read a report of Compton College’s and how it mirrors City College, check out the Guardian report “Saving City College.”

Special trustee Dr. Genethis Hudley-Hayes, was removed from her position as special trustee by State Community College Chancellor Jack Scott last September, according to the Sentinel article. The article cites multitudes of complaints against her by the community, who wrote a six page letter to Gov. Jerry Brown and Scott asking for Hayes’ removal.

“Who do you serve and why are you here?” Associated Students President Shanell Williams said to the board during its public comment session. “It’s shameful… If you can’t make decisions without a special trustee, then we need a new board.”

Student Kitty Lui said that the board’s decision to bring in a special trustee would undercut the democratic will of the community.
“If you don’t know how to move forward, I don’t know why you’re still here,” she said.

Despite students’ objections, if the board does not choose a special trustee, the likelihood is that one will be imposed on them, Jackson said. The board ultimately decided to shelve the decision until a special meeting on Sept. 11.

Interestingly, the “financial SWAT team,” FCMAT, thinks that a special trustee is a good idea. “To have an outside expert is always good,” FCMAT Chief Analyst Michelle Plumbtree told The Guardian. “Sometimes, you’re just too close.”

How to be a sex-positive parent, from a woman who knows

Andrew Lam

August 24, 2012

How to be a sex-positive parent, from a woman who knows

“It’s almost a cliché to say that families come in all shapes and sizes, but they really do”

I’ve always found the expression “the birds and the bees” queer. As a child I somehow knew the expression had sexual connotations, but I could never understand why the birds and bees were having sex together. They seem like such an odd pairing.

Airial Clark, or as she’s known on her blog, the Sex-Positive Parent, could have explained to a prepubescent me that the expression was merely a metaphor about having a talk about sex with kids. More importantly, I’m hoping Clark will teach me how to explain to my future child how it is that one of their daddies used to be a little girl.

Clark has a master’s degree in human sexuality from San Francisco State University, and is the proud parent of two beautiful children. She hosts a Youtube channel on which she provides sex-positive schooling. If you’re in town this weekend, you should check out her series of four workshops on sex-positive parenting at the Center for Sex and Culture. I caught up with her via email for a sneak peek at what she’ll be sharing.

SFBG: What have you told your children about sex and your own sexuality?

Arial Clark: When talking about sexuality with kids, the focus has to be on them. Where are they at in their development? What do they need to know? What are they comfortable hearing? What have they been observing? It shouldn’t be about me as the adult.

SFBG: In interviews you often discuss the wide range of familial matrixes, or ways that families are configured. How do we go about cultivating acceptance among kids about the diversity of the family matrix?

AC: This is a great question- especially in the Bay Area where respecting cultural diversity is a goal we are all striving for. It’s almost a cliché to say that families come in all shapes and sizes, but they really do. Families also change shape over time. The first step in cultivating acceptance and respect is to let kids know that not all families look like their own and that is just how the world works. This message works for kids in more traditional family structures as well as for kids in under-represented family structures too.

SFBG: You also talk a lot about diversity among parents — gay parents, kinky parents, poly parents. What kind of parent would you describe yourself to be?

AC: Like all parents, I have to maintain healthy boundaries with my kids and focus on what they need for their healthy development. I also have to respect their privacy. The important thing for parents to remember is that labels are secondary to your role in their life. Your child sees you a parent first and everything else second. When I refer to a certain type of parent, that is more about self-identification for seeking support. All parents need role models. Finding other parents who share your same concerns is vital so we have this system of identification around sexuality in order to combat stigma and prejudice of all kinds.

SFBG: How can parents begin to identify some of the sex-negative and hetero-normative scripts they may be passing along to their children?

AC: This is the first suggestion I make to parents who want to create a more sex-positive dialogue in their family: what are your beliefs about sexuality and gender? It takes some self-reflection and bravery to differentiate yourself from how you may have been raised. How do you talk about relationships in front of your kids? What language do you use about feeling desirable, or feeling protected, or feeling uncomfortable? Most parents choose silence as opposed to directly voicing their dissent with more traditional cultural norms, so kids depend on subtext. My suggestion is to start bringing it out into the open.

SFBG: You discuss at length what a sex-positive parent should be. How would you describe a sex-positive child?

AC: A sex-positive child is safe, protected, and knows about consent and boundaries. They have access to accurate and age-appropriate information about reproductive biology as well as the emotional and social realities of sexuality. A sex-positive child is not a sexualized child.

SFBG: What are some practical tools parents can start using to cultivate healthy conversations around sexual diversity with their children?

AC: I always recommend asking questions first. Ask your kids what they think about characters on a TV show, or their friend’s parents. Begin by asking and then listen. Let them know that what they think matters. Ask them why they think people dress in a certain or way, or what they think the lyrics to a song means. Using media to distance the conversation can make both parent and child more comfortable.

Also, sharing stories from when you were their age is a great way to know what to say and to relate to where they are now. Share anxieties you had, or weird situations you were in. You don’t have to tell them everything, you’re the adult so you’re in control of the narrative, but start with something true and go from there. As they get older the depth of the topic will increase. Remember these are life long conversations; it’s a gradual process in parallel to their maturation.

SFBG: Is there an ideal time for parents to start having conversations about sex with their kids?

AC: Before they become sexually active! Parents need to set the foundation way in advance. That is why age-appropriateness is so important. At every stage of development, there are conversations relating to sexuality to be had.

SFBG: How does one create a sex-positive environment in such a sex saturated culture (with television, social-media, books, and conversations you may have with other adults)?

AC: I remember being so overwhelmed by how much sexualized imagery and content was being directed at my kids when they were pre-school-aged. Everything around them had to do with gender and reenacting sexualized behavior. I felt inundated. All you have to do is take a step back to see how much sexuality is used in marketing to kids and in children’s programming. Placing that constant stream of sexualized information into a container, detaching it from the child, is something parents can do to cultivate sex-positivity. We can talk to our kids about what is being directed at them by problematizing the messages about sexuality.

SFBG: You are hosting a sex-positive workshop this weekend. What can attendees expect?

AC: Saturday’s classes are tailored to parents with alternative sexualities- parents who often don’t see themselves in parenting books or online forums. In the morning we’re going to talk about stigma and finding support as both parents and members of sexual minority groups. In the afternoon we’ll work on coming-out strategies specific to non-traditional families. I’m going to teach parents how to both educate and advocate from a sex-positive perspective.

Sunday’s workshops are designed for a broad audience. The morning workshop is about what to say and when to say it. The afternoon class is about how to communicate your sex education values with other adults in your child’s life. Maybe you and Grandma need to talk about how you plan to teach your kids about sexuality because it is going to look a lot different then how she taught you. Having those conversations are tough as well.

SFBG: What is your favorite thing about being a parent?

AC: Watching my children grow into the people they are is pretty amazing. I am so proud of them, and I am consistently impressed with the things they come up with. Being a parent is the ultimate form of geekery for me.

Sex Positive Parenting

Four sessions: Sat/25 and Sun/26, 10:30am and 1pm, $25/each, $75/four sessions

Center of Sex and Culture

1349 Mission, SF

www.sexandculture.org

Dishing the dirt

August 22, 2012

le.chicken.farmer@gmail.com

CHEAP EATS I didn’t do justice to Curry Boyzz, my new favorite restaurant, in last week’s review; I realize that. I completely and utterly neglected to mention who I ate there with!

Well, Hedgehog.

Moving right along …

Wait, there was someone else at our table, I feel certain. But Hedgehog, who is the half of our family that remembers things, is at work. She is also the half of our family that works.

With headphones on! So I am going to have to figure this out for myself, think think think … It was somebody skinny, I’m thinking, and so probably a vegetarian. Super skinny. With dreadlocks, and wearing a kind of cardboard hat or scarf, or something. With a price tag on it.

Doh! It wasn’t a vegetarian so much as a mop. Our spanking new, microfiber, swivel-headed dust mop that we’d just picked up at Cliff’s Hardware. I remember now: we wedged the handle through a chair back and its green dreadlocked head kind of watched over our meal, kind of hungrily. In fact, while Hedgehog used the bathroom, it spoke to me.

“That Tikka Masala looked pretty good,” it said.

“Yeah, well,” I said.

And in other news, I did a thing I haven’t done since the ’90s: I ate three Mission burritos in a week, and — funny thing — this was the week we were chicken-sitting in Alameda. When we are stationed in the Mission, Hedgehog and me, and our mop, we don’t eat burritos.

But we were going to watch that movie in Dolores Park with some buds, so we went to Cancun first. And we were going to a baseball game in Oakland, but I was in SF for some reason, and stopped at El Toro on my way to BART.

And Papalote, on a different day, but now I’m mad at them. Hardly any meat on my carne asada burrito: for shame, considering its relative expensiveness! And it was rolled all wrong, so that, cross-sectionally, one side of the burrito was just pretty much rice, and the other side had a few fairly tasteless beans and occasional chunks of meat. Pfft.

Lucky for them, they’re still my favorite taqueria, the orange salsa’s so goddamn good. I’ll just never eat there again, is all.

Hedgehog’s idea is to buy jars of Papalote’s overpriced orange salsa to take home and put on Cancun burritos.

So you see? You see why I love that lesbian? Even though she’s gluten free and dairy free, and made me eat at Radish for lunch today just because they had gluten free po-boys.

But at least she eats meat. Unlike some mops that I know.

So it shouldn’t surprise longtime readers of this column that her new favorite restaurant, like mine (after all these years), is Cancun. Specifically, the one on Mission and 19th, where I gained 20-some pounds in my thirties.

But it’s a 20-year tradition of mine not to review Cancun. To dwell on it, but never to actually review it. Therefore, I give you my other new favorite restaurant, Radish, the thing that finally happened across the street from the Lexington Club. Where I don’t drink, ’cause I’m too old.

But on our way to Cancun, we have to walk past one or the other, and lately it’s been Radish, so’s Hedgehog can look at their menu. We tried to eat there on a weekend but the line was too long.

Today (a weekday), I got the fried oyster po-boy, and it reminded me of Papalote’s carne asada burrito in that there were only about four or five oysters in it. And they weren’t very well battered. They just kind of crumbled.

But the bread was good! It was slathered with what they call “Cajun dirt.” I’d hoped that this would be the same thing Cajuns call “dirty rice,” which is chopped up giblets and liver and stuff, but no. It was reminiscent of muffuletta spread, which is more Italian than Cajun: chopped olives, onions, and lemon.

Good. But the best thing about Radish, as far as we could make out, was the homemade root chips: potato, taro, and yuca — yum!

RADISH

Mon-Tue 5-10pm; Wed-Thu 10am-10pm; Fri 10am-11pm; Sat 9am-11pm; Sun 9am-5pm

3465 19th St., SF.

(415) 834-5441

www.radishsf.com

MC,V

Beer & wine

Howdy, strangers

August 22, 2012

arts@sfbg.com

FALL ARTS Gemma Paintin and James Stenhouse were obsessed with Americana long before the two Bristol-based performance makers (known collectively as Action Hero) ever set their cowboy boots in the United States. In fact, they’d performed their site-specific first piece, a barroom exploration of the Western (called simply A Western) for years before lobbing it into the belly of the beast, where it appeared as part of Austin, Texas’ Fusebox Festival in 2010.

“We were shitting it,” remembers Paintin, in a British phrase meaning mighty fretful. But the crowd loved it; Paintin calls it their best audience ever. She and Stenhouse have worked together since 2005 on pieces that engage the audience as co-conspirators as well as subjects in their own right. A good example is their piece, Watch Me Fall, which had the audience cheering on a series of ridiculous, slightly risky stunts from either side of a long runway, a work that Paintin explains was inspired by the duo’s interest in motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel.

>>VIEW OUR FULL FALL ART 2012 PREVIEW

A diminutive woman with bright blond bangs, Paintin spoke last week at a sidewalk table outside BrainWash Café, fresh from a rehearsal at CounterPULSE, where she and James were in the fifth day of leading a collaborative performance workshop with a selected group of Bay Area–based American artists (Laura Arrington, Andrea Hart, Xandra Ibarra, Richie Israel, Elizabeth McSurdy, Mica Sigourney, and Ernesto Sopprani).

Stenhouse was not able to join the conversation — rehearsal had run long and he was following its willy-nilly course to a local karaoke bar, where he and the rest of the group were planning to take turns singing Tammy Wynette’s “Stand by Your Man.” A couple of days earlier, the group had gone tailgating at a pre-season NFL game in Oakland. Such are the trails, happy or otherwise, down which the adventurer in Americana must travel. (You can follow some of the research results thus far — in a process McSurdy calls “aesthetically polyamorous” — in the group’s blog posts at www.counterpulse.org.)

The workshop sets out to investigate American cultural mythologies using the concept of the stranger or outsider as starting point. Hosted by CounterPULSE with leadership from program director Julie Phelps, the program is part of a major cultural exchange project by CounterPULSE’s collaborator on Stranger in a Strange land, the arts-based University of Chichester in the South of England.

“All the work of the Department of Performing Arts is about making radical new work, and we have a reputation for working with exciting and challenging artists, hence our connection to Action Hero,” explained Ben Francombe, head of the department, by email. “The University of Chichester has instigated this overall project as a way to explore different interdisciplinary working methods,” he continues, “which involve the idea of exchange.” Francombe adds that the University is keen to continue having a presence in the Bay Area.

“It’s been really fun actually,” enthuses Paintin, clearly pleased with how experienced and open-minded her American counterparts have proven with collaboration. “We’re trying to just be about the process.”

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND

Mon/27, 8 p.m., $10-$20

CounterPULSE

1310 Mission, SF

www.counterpulse.org

TAKE ANOTHER BOW, LAZARUS

The fall theater season includes several worthy returns (in addition to shiny new premieres) worth keeping in déjà view:

Chinglish The new comedy about East-West miscommunication from David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly) has already been to Hong Kong but rebounds to the West Coast courtesy of Berkeley Rep. Aug. 24–Oct. 7; www.berkeleyrep.org

San Francisco Fringe Festival It’s a phoenix, really, rising each September like a sassy, gangling, 41–headed bird of play. Sept. 5–16; www.sffringe.org

Invasion! Crowded Fire delivers its own politically pointed comedy of miscommunication and cultural misconceptions in its West Coast premiere of Jonas Hassen Khemiri’s 2011 Obie-winner. Sept. 6–29; crowdedfire.dreamhosters.com

Geezer and The Real Americans The Hoyle boys — veteran clown and physical actor Geoff Hoyle and bounding son Dan, a theater sensation in his own right — return to the Marsh for re-runs of their respective, wildly popular solo shows. The Real Americans: Sept. 7–29; Geezer: Oct. 6–Nov. 18; www.themarsh.org

The Normal Heart Larry Kramer’s 1985 play returns (in the new Broadway revival directed by George C. Wolfe) at a time when the history of the AIDS crisis has become endangered by a vague “normalizing” narrative of American progress, or what Sara Schulman aptly calls “the gentrification of the mind.” Here’s an opportunity to remember lots of things, not least those who died and fought, a great play, a vital movement, a continuing health emergency, and the importance of mass resistance. Sept. 13–Oct. 7, www.act-sf.org

Roughin’ It 2: Theater. Oysters. Campfire. Booze. Again. Fresh from sold-out success with Duck Lake, PianoFight heads back up to Point Reyes for a second season of woozy waddling, shucking and jiving along the shore of Tamales Bay, featuring everything in the subtitle including brand new short plays harvested from a bed of delicious local playwrights. Sept. 15 and 22; www.pianofight.com

Assassins Shotgun Players mount the Sondheim musical about presidential recalls made and attempted from John Wilkes Booth onward, an election-year favorite directed by Susannah Martin. Sept. 26–Oct. 28; www.shotgunplayers.org

Rhinoceros Paris-based Theatre de la Ville’s production of the Ionesco play — a modernist classic on individual resistance to tyrannical conformity — is a remounting of the company’s acclaimed 2004 production, making its first US tour. Sept. 27–28, www.calperformances.org

Acid Test: The Many Incarnations of Ram Dass “Be Here Now” all over again in Lynne Kaufman’s new play — not so much a theatrical return as a serious flashback — starring the exceptional Warren David Keith as the titular giant of 1960s counterculture, a Harvard prof turned LSD advocate and spiritual teacher. Oct. 4–Nov. 24, www.themarsh.org

Einstein on the Beach Composer Philip Glass and director Robert Wilson reinvented the opera in 1976 as an enthrallingly weird-ass piece of avant-garde spectacle and the world has not been the same since. This remounting —overseen by the original team of Glass, Wilson, and choreographer Lucinda Childs — marks the first performances of the five-hour formalist extravaganza in 20 years. The international tour takes its highly anticipated Bay Area bow courtesy of co-commissioner Cal Performances. Oct. 26–28, www.calperformances.org

Rep Clock

Andrew Lam

August 21, 2012

Schedules are for Wed/22-Tue/28 except where noted. Director and year are given when available. Double and triple features marked with a •. All times pm unless otherwise specified.

ARTISTS’ TELEVISION ACCESS 992 Valencia, SF; www.atasite.org. $6. Bloodrape (Bennett, Maymon, and Shipko, 2011), Fri, 8. "Gaze: Screening #2, Labor/Memorial," local and international works by women filmmakers, Sat, 8.

CASTRO 429 Castro, SF; (415) 621-6120, www.castrotheatre.com. $8.50-11. •The Misfits (Huston, 1961), Wed, 2:30, 7, and Fat City (Huston, 1971), Wed, 4:55, 9:20. •Kansas City Confidential (Karlson, 1952), Thu, 5:30, 9, and Baby Face (Green, 1933), Thu, 7:30. •Bullitt (Yates, 1968), Fri, 7:30, and What’s Up, Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972), Fri, 9:35. Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven (Riffel, 2011), Sat, 3:30. "Showgirls: The Peaches Christ Extravaganza:" Showgirls (Verhoeven, 1995), Sat, 8. With special guest Rena Riffel; more info and advance tickets (this event, $25-50) at www.peacheschrist.com. •Crossroads (Conner, 1976), Sun, 2:30, 7, and 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968), with "A Trip to the Moon" (Méliès, 1902), Sun, 3:30, 8. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968), Mon, 5, 8. •Chinatown (Huston, 1974), Tue, 2, 7, and Prizzi’s Honor (Huston, 1985), Tue, 4:30, 9:35.

CHRISTOPHER B. SMITH RAFAEL FILM CENTER 1118 Fourth St, San Rafael; (415) 454-1222, www.cafilm.org. $6.75-$10.25. Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (Klayman, 2012), call for dates and times. Beasts of the Southern Wild (Zeitlin, 2012), call for dates and times. Bernie (Linklater, 2012), call for dates and times. The Queen of Versailles (Greenfield, 2012), call for dates and times. 2 Days in New York (Delpy, 2012), call for dates and times. La Source, performed by the Paris Opera Ballet, Sun, 10am and Tue, 6:30. Performed by the Paris Opera Ballet.

DANCE MISSION THEATER 3316 24th St, SF; www.caitlinelliottdance.com. $15-30. "Along the Way," contemporary dance for both film and stage presented by Caitlin Elliott Dance Collective and Detour Dance, Fri-Sun, 8.

"FILM NIGHT IN THE PARK" This week: Union Square, Geary and Powell, SF; www.filmnight.org. Donations accepted. After the Thin Man (Van Dyke, 1936), Sat, 8.

MECHANICS’ INSTITUTE 57 Post, SF; (415) 393-0100, rsvp@milibrary.org. $10. "CinemaLit Film Series: Fairytale Endings:" The Company of Wolves (Jordan, 1984), Fri, 6.

PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE 2575 Bancroft, Berk; (510) 642-5249, bampfa.berkeley.edu. $5.50-9.50. "Bellissima: Leading Ladies of the Italian Screen:" Oh! Sabella! (Risi, 1957), Wed, 7; The Widower (Risi, 1959), Fri, 7. "Russian Inferno: The Films of Alexei Guerman:" The Fall of Otrar (Amirkulov, 1990), Thu, 7. "Cool World/Summer Cinema on Center Street:" Pretty Poison (Black, 1968), Fri, 8:30. Free outdoor screening. "Always for Pleasure: The Films of Les Blank:" "Behind the Scenes: Les Blank on Documentary Cinematography," Sat, 5, lecture and screening with Blank in person; •Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers (Blank and Gosling, 1980), Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Blank and Gosling, 1979), and Spend It All (Blank and Gerson, 1971), Sun, 7. "Universal Pictures: Celebrating 100 Years:" Do the Right Thing (Lee, 1989), Sat, 8:30; Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (Barton, 1948), Sun, 5:15.

RANDALL MUSEUM THEATER 199 Museum Way, SF; www.artandfilm.org. Free. "Cine/Club:" Heimat I (Reitz, 1984), Fri, 5-11; Sat, 1-11. Epic 15-hour film presented over two days with meal and snack breaks.

ROXIE 3117 and 3125 16th St, SF; (415) 863-1087, www.roxie.com. $6.50-10. "A Celebration of Contemporary French Actresses:" •Ambitious (Corsini, 2006), Wed, 7, and Alias Betty (Miller, 2001), Wed, 9:15; •Didine (Dietschy, 2008), Thu, 7, and Intimate Strangers (Laconte, 2004), Thu, 9. Alps (Lanthimos, 2011), Aug 24-30, 7, 9 (also Sat-Sun, 3, 4:45).

SF FILM SOCIETY CINEMA 1746 Post, SF; sffs.org/cinema. $9-11. Love in the City (Various, 1953), Wed-Thu, 2, 4:15, 6:30, 8:45. Big River Man (Maringouin, 2009), Fri, 7:30. Benefit for the John Maringouin Surgery Fund. •Panic in the Streets (Kazan, 1950), Tue, 4, 9:15, and Contagion (Soderbergh, 2011), Tue, 6:30.

TOP OF THE MARK InterContinental Mark Hopkins, One Nob Hill, SF; www.topofthemark.com. Free. "Summer Movie Nights:" Rear Window (Hitchcock, 1954), Tue, 7:30. Wine tasting at 5:30.

VORTEX ROOM 1082 Howard, SF; Facebook: The Vortex Room. $7 donation. "Pop Goes the Vortex:" •Cult of the Damned (Thom, 1969), Thu, 9; and The Creation of the Humanoids (Barry, 1962), Thu, 11.

WEST BAY CONFERENCE CENTER 1290 Fillmore, SF; www.sfifff.com. $35-100. "San Francisco International Fashion Film Festival," fashion film screenings, Sat, 6:30.

Our Weekly Picks: August 22-28

Andrew Lam

August 21, 2012

WEDNESDAY 22

Time Stands Still

The Tony-nominated (Best Play 2010) play Time Stands Still comes to Theatreworks Mountain View, after the hugely successful Broadway run starring Laura Linney. The play, written by Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies, is the intriguing story of a couple traumatized by their work in Afghanistan — one as a photojournalist, one as a print journalist. Margulies explores how they attempt, through their professions, to bring insight into the US occupation. The central theme explored is the division between the professional and personal, and how nonexistent the line between the two can become, when a journalists’ foreign correspondent work is so emotionally taxing. While the play works on a larger political scope about the implications of US foreign policy, soldiers, and civilian deaths, the perspective is told through the couple, exploring what drives them to this dangerous profession. (Shauna C. Keddy)

8pm, $31–$51

Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts

500 Castro, Mountain View

(650)- 903- 6000

www.theatreworks.org

AM and Shawn Lee

London-based musician-producer Shawn Lee has established himself as one of the foremost retro-futurists currently in on the scene. Recalling the prolificacy of John Zorn, the aesthetic consistency of Stereolab, and the endearingly hokey escapism of a Martin Denny record, Lee has stumbled upon a winning balance between exotica and funk. Based in LA, indie-popster AM takes a similarly exotic approach, and having toured with Air and Caetano Veloso, he seems due for a Lee collaboration. So, things should get interesting when the two join forces on the Cafe Du Nord stage, cranking out space-age-bachelor-pad music with a singer-songwriter’s touch. (Taylor Kaplan)

With Nina Moschella

8pm, $12

Cafe Du Nord

2170 Market, SF

(415) 861-5016

www.cafedunord.com

THURSDAY 23

Kool A.D.

Victor Vazquez, a.k.a. Kool A.D., represents one third of Das Racist, the politico-rap genius group that brought us the viral hit “Combination KFC and Taco Bell” in 2008. Though Das Racist hails from Queens, Kool A.D. grew up in San Francisco, and lately he’s been getting back to hit roots on the best coast. 51, Kool A.D.’s brand new mixtape, was recorded in Oakland and features an impressive array of local talent, including budding rap duo Main Attraktionz and longtime artist and activist Boots Riley. The lyrics, which continue Das Racist’s tradition of quick wit and scathing sociopolitical criticism, are peppered with Bay-centric references. Victor, it’s good to have you back. (Haley Zaremba)

With Fat Tony, Main Attraktionz, Trackademics, Kech Phrase

9pm, $20

New Parish

579 18th St., Oakl.

(510) 444-7474

www.thenewparish.com

The Iguanas

Formed in New Orleans back in 1989, the Iguanas quickly started blending a host of musical and cultural influences, drawing inspiration from each of the members’ backgrounds, ranging from Latin and Mexican sounds to the deep rooted styles of Southern blues and country, all boiled together in a rockin’ gumbo befitting their adopted hometown. Their latest record, Sin To Sin, came out this past April, full of the same fiery spirit and attitude that kept them going even after having to leave the Big Easy for a time after Hurricane Katrina. (Sean McCourt)

With Beso Negro

8pm, $16

Great American Music Hall

859 O’Farrell, SF

(415) 885-0750

www.slimspresents.com

FRIDAY 24

Mica Sigourney’s Work MORE! #5

This latest iteration of the searching, always surprising drag performance event curated by VivvyAnne ForeverMORE! (drag alter ego of artist Mica Sigourney) promises to be one of the coziest, most unusual, maybe least comfortable, maybe more exciting yet. Again blurring the line between nightlife and theater realms, this weekend’s show divides the stage into quadrants, in each of which unfolds a distinct time-based performance as audiences press in and rotate through sort of haunted-house style. In addition to ForeverMORE!, the drag queens, dancers, visual artists, and designers participating include Diamanda Callas, John Foster Cartwright, Liz Tenuto, Mona G. Hawd, Tessa Wills, and Martha T. Lipton (the failed actress). (Robert Avila)

Fri/24-Sun/26, 8pm, $15–$20

CounterPULSE

1310 Mission Street, San Francisco

(415) 626-2060

www.counterpulse.org

Cannibal Corpse

Buffalo, New York’s death metal deity Cannibal Corpse is about to celebrate 25 years of brutality, and the band is gearing up for the anniversary with the Summer Slaughter tour, a national run that includes a laundry list of some of death metal’s biggest and blackest names. The tour coincides with the release of its 12th album Torture, a seamless continuation of the group’s signature pounding cacophony and ultra-violent lyrical content. Cannibal Corpse’s flair for all things horrific has lead to its music being banned in several countries throughout its career. So metal. (Zaremba)

With Between the Buried and Me, The Faceless, Periphery, Veil of Maya, Job for a Cowboy, Goatwhore, Exhumed, Cerebral Bore

2:30pm, $32.50

Fillmore

1805 Geary, SF

(415) 346-6000

www.thefillmore.com

The Very Best

The Very Best’s latest album MTMTMK represents the first time the band recorded as a duo, following the departure of original member, Parisian producer Etienne Tron. If anything, Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya and London-based producer Johan Hugo have turned up the intensity, setting an uplifting tone throughout the album. Mwamwaya alternates between English and his native Chewan, and his ascending vocals provide a sharp contrast to Hugo’s quick and bass-heavy club beats. Hugo adds in enough Afrobeat and reggae to keep listeners engaged. Renowned African musicians K’Naan, Baaba Maal and Amadou a Mariam all make supportive cameos. (Kevin Lee)

With Seye, Palner, Miles the DJ

9pm, $15

Mezzanine

444 Jessie, SF

(415) 625-8880

www.mezzaninesf.com

SATURDAY 25

Foreverland

Michael Jackson might be moonwalking around the giant amusement park in the sky, but Foreverland won’t stop ’til we get enough. This time, SF’s premiere tribute act to the King of Pop is going all out, adding a string section to its 14-piece lineup, and for good reason; this August marks not only MJ’s 54th birthday, but the 25th anniversary of Bad (1987), as well. Ever wanted to hear “Smooth Criminal,” embellished by a team of six percussionists? Or, “The Way You Make Me Feel,” with the dynamics of a live band replacing the, arguably, dated ’80s production sound? (Sorry, Quincy Jones.) Then, jump on it! (Kaplan)

9pm, $22

Bimbo’s 365 Club

1025 Columbus, SF

(415) 474-0365

www.bimbos365club.com

Rock the Bells

With an impressive list of both up-and-coming acts and long prevailing hip-hop royalty, this weekend’s Rock the Bells fest is bound to be a titillating conglomerate of endless styles and sounds. Look to A$AP Rocky chanting effortless swag while transforming the typical rhythm and rhyme in to a codeine-infused fusion of his favorite regional influences. Or J Cole to worry earnestly aloud about 21st-century problems, set to 1990s jazz beats. But at the end of the night, leave it to masters like DMX and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, who have stood the test of the Internet boom and Tumblr rap-craze, to show how certain thematic and lyrical concerns have continued to stay in focus throughout the last decade in hip-hop. (Soojin Chang)

11am, $265 for two-day tickets

Shoreline Amphitheatre

1 Amphitheatre, Mountain View

www.rockthebells.net

Slaughter By The Water

Looking for a real “heavy metal” festival? How about one that takes place on 33,000 tons of floating steel? Hosted by Testament’s Chuck Billy, Slaughter By The Water 3 features Bay Area thrash legends Exodus, along with Autopsy, Impaled, Philm, Fog of War, Severed Fifth and more, all performing on the USS Hornet, a World War II era aircraft carrier that is now a museum in Alameda. In addition to the Hornet’s legendary combat service, it is also purportedly one of the most haunted ships in the world — will a day and night of blasting metal be enough to wake and raise the dead? Find out at one of the most unique shows to come along in some time. (Sean McCourt)

Pier Stage: noon-9pm, free

Main Stage: 5:30-12:30am, $35–$45

USS Hornet

707 W. Hornet Ave., Pier 3, Alameda

www.slaughterbythewater.com

SUNDAY 26

Theophilus London

The charismatic and eclectic Theophilus London gained notoriety by splicing together a few clever bootleg compilations. The Trinidad-born, New York-based emcee rhymes over Bill Withers and Kraftwerk while slipping in some original works on 2009’s “This Charming Mixtape.” In last year’s debut LP “Timez Are Weird These Days,” (Warner Bros.) London crooned over indie pop, new wave, and electro-tinged productions. Latest mixtape “Rose Island Vol. 1” sees London switch back to rhymes, while borrowing from Wang Chung, Marvin Gaye and Big Boi. Confused yet? Outside of music, London is setting trends and foraying into fashion design. London’s recently released $360 rose-embroidered velvet slippers could describe the tastemaker himself — smooth, stylish, and perhaps just a touch showy. (Lee)

With Iamsu and Antwon

8pm, $20 Mezzanine

444 Jessie, SF

(415) 625-8880

www.mezzaninesf.com

MONDAY 27

Maurya Kerr/tiny pistol

This coming Monday at Z Space will be both depressing and exhilarating. Maurya Kerr, a 12-year Alonzo King Lines Ballet dancer whose career in 2006 prematurely ended due to injury, will present the first full evening of her own choreography. At the same time, her concert will be the curtain call for San Francisco’s long running WestWave Dance Festival, which, during its 21 years, presented 523 choreographers, 393 world premieres and 2,092 performances. Kerr, who has been choreographing around the country, made her WestWave debut last year with “Billy Tate,” a finely crafted solo whose thrust strongly communicated Kerr’s artistic intent. For this concert she and her nine tiny pistol dancers are preparing three works: “Buck” (2011), “Sick with Joy” (2011), and the world premiere of “FreakShow”, an exploration of otherness. (Rita Felciano)

8pm, $18–$23

Z Space

450 Florida, SF

www.zspace.org

www.brownpapertickets.com

Bomb the Music Industry!

New York’s Bomb the Music Industry! likes to do things its own way. Since 2004, the band has been recording its spastic ska-punk in basements and bedrooms, releasing it for free, encouraging fans to make their own T-shirts and bring their own instruments to shows, and generally just doing its best to stir things up. Beyond the DIY charm, Bomb the Music Industry! produces some of the funniest, most poignant music you’ll never hear. The songs are a little too heavy on inside jokes and the recordings a little too raw for the band to ever reach mass appeal, making it one of independent music’s best-kept secrets. Sadly, being this underground is not exactly lucrative. The band has announced that this summer likely marks its final tour. You won’t want to miss it. (Zaremba)

With Classics of Love, Street Eaters, Point of View

8:30pm, $9

Bottom of the Hill

1233 17th St., SF

(415) 626-4455

www.bottomofthehill.com

Clipd Beaks

Post-punk? Indie rock? Industrial? Like TV on the Radio, or Liars, Oakland’s Clipd Beaks like to keep us guessing, and for that reason, they’re one of the most fascinating outfits the Bay Area has to offer. Taking thorny, decidedly un-hooky hooks, and drowning them in dense layers of reverb and noise, Clipd Beaks is much more production-focused than your average five-piece rock band. (Kaplan)

With Creepers, Feral Kizzy, Disappearing People, DJ Longhairs

9pm, $5

Elbo Room

647 Valencia, SF

(415) 552-7788

www.elbo.com

Stage Listings

Andrew Lam

August 21, 2012

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

THEATER

OPENING

Daughter of the Red Tzar Thick House Theatre, 1695 18th St, SF; www.thickhouse.org. $30. Opens Fri/24, 8pm. Runs Sat-Sun and Aug 31, 8pm. Through Sept 2. ScolaVox and First Look Sonoma present the world premiere of Lisa Scola-Prosek’s chamber opera about a meeting between Churchill, Stalin, and Stalin’s teenage daughter.

BAY AREA

The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison, Berk; (510) 843-4822, www.auroratheatre.org. $32-60. Previews Fri/24-Sat/23 and Aug 29, 8pm; Sun/26, 2pm; Tue/28, 7pm. Opens Aug 30, 8pm. Runs Tue and Sun, 7pm (also Sun, 2pm); Wed-Sat, 8pm. Through Sept 30. Aurora Theatre Company opens its 21st season with Kristoffer Diaz’s comedy about pro wrestlers.

The Fisherman’s Wife La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid, Berk; www.impacttheatre.com. $10-20. Previews Thu/23-Fri/24, 8pm. Opens Sat/25, 8pm. Runs Thu-Sat, 8pm. Through Sept 29. Impact Theatre performs Steve Yockey’s tentacle-porn-inspired sex farce.

Time Stands Still TheatreWorks at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro, SF; www.theatreworks.org. $23-73. Previews Wed/22-Fri/24, 8pm. Opens Sat/25, 8pm. Runs Tue-Wed, 7:30pm; Thu-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 2pm); Sun, 2 and 7pm. Through Sept 16. TheatreWorks performs Donald Marguelis’ drama about a couple — one a photojournalist, one a war correspondent — struggling with their recent experiences covering a war.

ONGOING

Believers Stage Werx, 446 Valencia, SF; www.wilywestproductions.com. $20-25. Thu/23-Sat/25, 8pm. As a couple of research scientists and a former couple to boot, Rocky Wise (Casey Fern) and Grace Wright (Maria Giere Marquis) are simply mad about love in Wily West’s world premiere of local playwright Patricia Milton’s exuberant but patchy comedy. Employed by a small, less than scrupulous pharmaceutical firm reeling from a product recall and attendant lawsuits, reclusive Rocky toils away after a formula for a drug that will inoculate the user against love — a secret agenda of his own inspired by the broken heart Grace left him with several years earlier. His boss (a comically brassy Jon Fast) thinks he’s working on a commissioned "love activator," and to that end woos back former employee Grace to keep the fires burning in the lab. The strained reunion does the trick, if not exactly in the way intended. Meanwhile, a wacky born-again receptionist (Kate Jones) —"only recently come to the Lord" (and her Texan drawl by the sound of it) — fields calls from desperate people in a world despoiled by corporate greed and seemingly already in the throes of the end times. There are some moments worthy of a titter or two, but director Sara Staley’s cast is less than precise or compelling with dialogue that is already hit-and-miss. Despite a promising scenario, Believers remains too uneven and muddled to generate much love beyond the stage. (Avila)

Dog Sees God Boxcar Playhouse, 505 Natoma, SF; www.boxcartheatre.org. $16. Wed/22-Sat/25, 8pm. There was always a lightly subversive if not latently radical bent to Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts strip, with its implicit championing of nonconformity, its restless and half-confused longing, and its convincing blend of gentleness and cruelty. Playwright Bert V. Royal mines it all with inspired confidence and fighting spirit in his portrait of the Peanuts gang as a fractured set of contemporary fucked-up if formidable teens. First among them is a sullen but resilient CB (Andrew Humann), blockhead of the title, reeling from the death of his dog and his awakened love for broodingly gifted, deeply estranged pal Beethoven (Bobby Conte-Thornton). In Boxcar’s winning production, the boisterous, often hilarious and poignant story — which includes real-life issues of grief, abuse, abortion, homophobia, and suicide — comes animated by a talented and thoroughly persuasive young cast under beautifully calibrated direction by artistic director Nick A. Olivero. (Avila)

Les Misérables Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market, SF; www.bestofbroadway-sf.com. $83-155. Wed/22-Sat/25, 8pm (also Wed/22 and Sat/25, 2pm); Sun/26, 2pm. SHN’s Best of Broadway series brings to town the new 25th anniversary production of Cameron Mackintosh’s musical giant, based on the novel by Victor Hugo. The revival at the Orpheum does without the famous rotating stage but nevertheless spares no expense or artistry in rendering the show’s barrage of colorful Romantic scenes (with Matt Kinley’s scenic design drawing painterly inspiration from Hugo’s own oils) or its larger-than-life characters — first and foremost Jean Valjean (a slim but passionate Peter Lockyer), nemesis Javert (Andrew Varela), and rescued orphan beauty Cosette (Lauren Wiley). Chris Jahnke contributes new orchestrations to the rollicking original score by Claude-Michel Schönberg (music) and Herbert Kretzmer (lyrics) in this flagrantly sentimental, somewhat problematic but still-stirring meld of music and melodrama in dutiful overlapping service of box office treasure and powerful humanist aspirations. (Avila)

My Fair Lady SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter, SF; www.sfplayhouse.org. $30-70. Tue-Thu, 7pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 3pm). Through Sept 29. SF Playhouse and artistic director Bill English (who helms) offer a swift, agreeable production of the Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe musical, based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. The iconic class-conscious storyline revolves around a cocky linguist named Higgins (Johnny Moreno) who bets colleague Colonel Pickering (Richard Frederick) he can transform an irritable flower girl, Eliza Doolittle (Monique Hafen), into a "lady" and pass her off in high society. A battle of wills and wits ensues — interlarded with the "tragedy" of Alfred Doolittle (a shrewd and gleaming Charles Dean) and his reluctant upward fall into respectability — and love (at least in the musical version) triumphs. The songs ("Wouldn’t It Be Loverly," "I Could Have Danced All Night," "Get Me to the Church on Time," and the rest) remain evergreen in the cast’s spirited performances, supported by two offstage pianos (brought to life by David Dobrusky and musical director Greg Mason) and nimble choreography from Kimberly Richards. Hafen’s Eliza is especially admirable, projecting in dialogue and song a winning combination of childlike innocence and feminine potency. Moreno’s Higgins is also good, unusually virile yet heady too, a convincingly flawed if charming egotist. And Frederick, who adds a passing hint of homoerotic energy to his portrayal of the devoted Pickering, is gently funny and wholly sympathetic. (Avila)

The Princess Bride: Live! Dark Room Theater, 2263 Mission, SF; foulplaysf.com/princessbride. $20. Thu/23-Sat/25, 8pm. Dark Room Productions presents a live tribute to the cult fairy-tale movie.

Rights of Passage New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness, SF; www.nctcsf.org. $25-45. Previews Wed/22-Fri/24, 8pm. Opens Sat/25, 8pm. Runs Wed-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 2pm. Through Sept 16. New Conservatory Theatre Center presents the world premiere of Ed Decker and Robert Leone’s multimedia play, inspired by global human rights laws in relation to sexual orientation.

Vital Signs Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; (415) 282-3055, www.themarsh.org. $15-50. Sat/25, 8:30pm. The Marsh San Francisco presents Alison Whittaker’s behind-the-scenes look at nursing in America.

The Waiting Period MainStage, Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; (415) 282-3055, www.themarsh.org. $15-50. Fri, 8pm (starting Sept 6: also Thu, 8pm); Sat, 5pm. Extended through Sept 29. Brian Copeland (comedian, TV and radio personality, and creator-performer of the long-running solo play Not a Genuine Black Man) returns to the Marsh with a new solo, this one based on more recent and messier events` in Copeland’s life. The play concerns an episode of severe depression in which he considered suicide, going so far as to purchase a handgun — the title coming from the legally mandatory 10-day period between purchasing and picking up the weapon, which leaves time for reflections and circumstances that ultimately prevent Copeland from pulling the trigger. A grim subject, but Copeland (with co-developer and director David Ford) ensures there’s plenty of humor as well as frank sentiment along the way. The actor peoples the opening scene in the gun store with a comically if somewhat stereotypically rugged representative of the Second Amendment, for instance, as well as an equally familiar "doood" dude at the service counter. Afterward, we follow Copeland, a just barely coping dad, home to the house recently abandoned by his wife, and through the ordinary routines that become unbearable to the clinically depressed. Copeland also recreates interviews he’s made with other survivors of suicidal depression. Telling someone about such things is vital to preventing their worst outcomes, says Copeland, and telling his own story is meant to encourage others. It’s a worthy aim but only a fitfully engaging piece, since as drama it remains thin, standing at perhaps too respectful a distance from the convoluted torment and alienation at its center. (Avila)

War Horse Curran Theatre, 445 Geary, SF; www.shnsf.com. $31-300. Wed-Sat, 8pm (also Wed and Sat, 2pm); Sun, 2pm. Through Sept 9. The juggernaut from the National Theatre of Great Britain, via Broadway and the Tony Awards, has pulled into the Curran for its Bay Area bow. The life-sized puppets are indeed all they’re cracked up to be; and the story of a 16-year-old English farm boy (Andrew Veenstra) who searches for his beloved horse through the trenches of the Somme Valley during World War I, while peppered with much elementary humor too, is a good cry for those so inclined. The claim to being an antiwar play is only true to the extent that any war-is-hell backdrop and a plea for tolerance count a melodrama as "antiwar," but this is not Mother Courage and no serious attempt is made to investigate the subject. Closer to say it’s Lassie Come Home where Lassie is a horse — very ably brought to life by Handspring Puppet Company’s ingenious puppeteers and designers, and amid a transporting and generally riveting mise-en-scène (complete with pointedly stirring live and recorded music). But the simplistic storyline and its obvious, somewhat ham-fisted resolution (adapted by Nick Stafford from Michael Morpurgo’s novel) are too formulaic to be taken that seriously. And at two-and-a-half-hours, it’s a long time coming. A shorter war, the Falklands say, would have done just as well and gotten people out before the ride began to chafe. (Avila)

BAY AREA

Circle Mirror Transformation Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller, Mill Valley; www.marintheatre.org. $20-57. Wed/22, 7:30pm; Thu/23-Sat/25, 8pm (also Sat/25, 2pm); Sun/26, 2 and 7pm. Annie Baker has enjoyed a wave of Bay Area premieres this year, beginning with Aurora’s sharp staging of Body Awareness, followed by SF Playhouse’s triumph with The Aliens. Now Marin Theatre Company and co-producers Encore Theatre Company offer Baker’s other "Vermont play," set in a community center drama therapy class run by baby-boomer groovy lady Marty (Julia Brothers). She’s joined in a series of drama exercises (and ill-masked personal convolutions) by her husband James (L. Peter Callender), fretting over his estrangement from his daughter by his first marriage; Schultz (Robert Parsons), a middle-aged recent divorcé smitten with the cute girl in the class; Theresa (Arwen Anderson), said cute girl, a nubile 30-something and recent New York transplant; and Lauren (Marissa Keltie), a reluctant, cloudy teen perpetually absent her mother’s check for the class. If Boxcar Theatre’s current production, Dog Sees God, builds flesh and bone from a comic strip, Baker’s amusing, bite-sized scenes (separated by blackouts) tend to lean in the other direction. Despite elaboration of a certain dramatic metaphor flagged in the title, the play’s thematic possibilities are restrained by an easy if highly palatable humor that flirts knowingly with caricature but to only middling affect. There’s a move in the final scene that nicely expands the reach of the action, but that limited if affecting turn is two hours in the making. That said, this fine production insures it’s no great burden getting there. The cast under director Kip Fagan is uniformly enjoyable. Brothers is terrific in giving Marty a bounding personality and just enough ambiguity to make her positive vibes suspect, and Callender finds wonderful opportunities for fleshing out the character of a charming but frustrated man who has not realized his potential. Parsons’ at first foolishly giddy then bitterly imploded Schultz is wholly convincing opposite Anderson’s zany but compelling Theresa. And Keltie’s sly and sullen teen is rightly the smartest tool in the shed. (Avila)

For the Greater Good, Or The Last Election This week: Montclair Ball Field, Montclair; www.sfmt.org. Free (donations accepted). Thu/23, 7pm. Willard Park, Berk; www.sfmt.org. Free (donations accepted). Sat/25-Sun/26, 2pm. Various venues through Sept. 8. "Don’t they understand that without us they don’t have anything?" asks Gideon Bloodgood (Ed Holmes), investment banker at the top of the San Francisco Mime Troupe’s vivisection of the "real" American Dream, For the Greater Good, Or the Last Election. But surely the hero of a Mime Troupe show cannot possibly be a billionaire? Well, sort of. Though Bloodgood enriches himself dishonestly with precarious investments and outright theft in this Occupy-era melodrama, he actually does occasionally spare a sentiment for Mom and apple pie, or anyway his daughter Alida (Lisa Hori-Garcia) and cookies baked by the unsuspecting victim of his ill-gotten gains, the Widow Fairweather (Keiko Shimosato Carreiro) — now living at the last Occupy encampment standing in the city. Alida, however, displays no compunction in throwing aside his affection and her prospective seat in Congress, running off to join the occupiers for reasons that truthfully appear about as politically motivated as her father’s parasitic avarice, leaving him to join forces instead with the most unlikely of allies — the impeccable, ingenuous Lucy Fairweather (Velina Brown), heiress to a stolen legacy, and staunch patriot. Based loosely on 19th century play The Poor of New York, The Last Election attempts to turn a presumptive ode to the free market into its swan song with good-humored, if predictable, results. (Gluckstern)

Happy Hour with Kim Jong Il Cabaret at the Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston, Berk; (415) 826-5750,l www.themarsh.org. Free. Fri/24, 6pm. Comedy work-in-progress by Kenny Yun, with live music by cabaret singer Candace Roberts.

Henry V Sequoia High School, 1201 Brewster, Redwood City; www.redwoodcity.org. Free. Sat/25, 7:30pm; Sun/26, 2pm. San Francisco Shakespeare Festival presents the Bard’s history play as part of its "Free Shakespeare in the Park" series.

Keith Moon/The Real Me TheaterStage at the March Berkeley, 2120 Allston, Berk; www.themarsh.org. $15-50. Sept 13, 20, and 27, 8pm. Mike Berry workshops his new musical, featuring ten classic Who songs performed with a live band.

The Kipling Hotel: True Misadventures of the Electric Pink ’80s Marsh Berkeley, 2120 Allston, Berk; (415) 282-3055, www.themarsh.org. $20-50. Sat, 8:30pm; Sun, 7pm. Extended through Oct 14. This new autobiographical solo show by Don Reed, writer-performer of the fine and long-running East 14th, is another slice of the artist’s journey from 1970s Oakland ghetto to comedy-circuit respectability — here via a partial debate-scholarship to UCLA. The titular Los Angeles residency hotel was where Reed lived and worked for a time in the 1980s while attending university. It’s also a rich mine of memory and material for this physically protean and charismatic comic actor, who sails through two acts of often hilarious, sometimes touching vignettes loosely structured around his time on the hotel’s young wait staff, which catered to the needs of elderly patrons who might need conversation as much as breakfast. On opening night, the episodic narrative seemed to pass through several endings before settling on one whose tidy moral was delivered with too heavy a hand, but if the piece runs a little long, it’s only the last 20 minutes that noticeably meanders. And even with some awkward bumps along the way, it’s never a dull thing watching Reed work. (Avila)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Forest Meadows Amphitheater, 890 Belle, Dominican University of California, San Rafael; www.marinshakespeare.org. $20-35. Check website for schedule. Through Sept 30. Marin Shakespeare Company performs the Bard’s classic, transported to the shores of Hawaii.

Our Country’s Good Redwood Amphiteatre, Marin Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake, Ross; www.porchlight.net. $15-30. Thu-Sun, 7:30pm. Through Sept 8. Porchlight Theatre Company presents an outdoor performance of Timberlake Wertenbaker’s play about Royal Marines and prisoners in an 18th century New South Wales prison colony.

Precious Little Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby, Berk; www.shotgunplayers.org. $18-25. Wed-Thu, 7pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm (also Sept 1 and 8, 3pm); Sun, 5pm. Through Sept 16. Shotgun Players presents Madeleine George’s new play about an expectant mother who studies near-dead languages and befriends a "talking" gorilla.

PERFORMANCE/DANCE

"Along the Way" Dance Mission Theater, 3316 24th St, SF; www.caitlinelliotdance.com, www.detourdance.com. Fri/24-Sun/26, 8pm. $15-30. Caitlin Elliott Dance Collective and Detour Dance present this evening of world premieres, including performances Fancy and Imitations of Intimacy, and the dance film Pedestrian Crossing.

BATS Improv Bayfront Theater, B350 Fort Mason Center, Marina at Laguna, SF; www.improv.org. Thu-Sat, 8pm. Through Sept 8. $10-25. This week: "Original Broadway Cast and Moments of Transition" (Thu/23); "Double Feature" (Fri/24); "The Naked Stage" (Sat/25).

Circus Finelli 50 Mason Social House, 50 Mason, SF; www.circusfinelli.com. Thu/23, 7-10pm. $6. Clowns, cocktails, comedy, and klezmer rule in this performance of "Big Time and Little Something’s Big Adventure."

"Elect to Laugh" Studio Theater, Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; (415) 282-3055, www.themarsh.org. Tue, 8pm. Through Nov 6. $15-50. Veteran political comedian Will Durst emphasizes he’s watching the news and keeping track of the presidential race "so you don’t have to." No kidding, it sounds like brutal work for anyone other than a professional comedian — for whom alone it must be Willy Wonka’s edible Eden of delicious material. Durst deserves thanks for ingesting this material and converting it into funny, but between the ingesting and out-jesting there’s the risk of turning too palatable what amounts to a deeply offensive excuse for a democratic process, as we once again hurtle and are herded toward another election-year November, with its attendant massive anticlimax and hangover already so close you can touch them. Durst knows his politics and comedy backwards and forwards, and the evolving show, which pops up at the Marsh every Tuesday in the run-up to election night, offers consistent laughs born on his breezy, infectious delivery. One just wishes there were some alternative political universe that also made itself known alongside the deft two-party sportscasting. (Avila)

"Jump Into Dance! ODC School Family Day Open House" ODC Dance Commons, 351 Shotwell, SF; www.odcdance.org. Sun/26, 8:45am-3:30pm. Free. Children, teens, and their families are invited to check out the ODC School Youth and Teen Program, with sample dance classes and faculty on hand to answer questions.

Rome Kanda Main Pagoda Stage, Japantown’s Peace Plaza, Geary and Buchanan, SF; www.j-pop.com. Sat/25, 2:30pm; Sun/26, 1pm. Free. The Japanese comedian stops by the J-Pop Summit Festival for a stage appearance and signing of his new digital manga series, Samurai Spirit: The Story of Rome Kanda.

Maurya Kerr/tinypistol Z Space, 450 Florida, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. Mon/27, 8pm. $18-23. WestWave Dance presents this evening of works, including world premiere FreakShow.

"Measure for Measure" Café Royale, 800 Post, SF; sftheaterpub.wordpress.com. Mon/27, 8pm. Free ($5 suggested donation). SF Theater Pub performs the Shakespeare play.

"San Francisco Drag King Contest" DNA Lounge, 375 11th St, SF; www.sfdragkingcontest.com. Thu/23, 9pm. $20-35. The popular, raucous contest returns for its 17th annual incarnation.

"San Francisco Improv Festival" Eureka Theater, 215 Jackson, SF; www.sfimprovfestival.com. Wed/22-Sat/25. $5-35. With local improv talent including BATS Improv, Un-Scripted Theater Company, San Jose ComedySportz, and more.

"Sea Music Festival" San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, Hyde Street Pier, SF; nps.gov/safr. Sat/25, 9:30am-5pm. $5 (15 and under, free). Singers, intrumentalists, and dance troupes perform in celebration of maritime heritage to coincide with the America’s Cup races.

"Soundwave 5: Revelation Zen" San Francisco Zen Center, 300 Page, SF; www.projectsoundwave.com. Sat/25, 6-9pm. $12-25. Performances by En, Sean McCann, and Marielle V. Jakobsons.

"Work More!" CounterPULSE, 1310 Mission, SF; www.counterpulse.org. Thu/24-Sat/26, 8pm. $15-20. Theater performance meets nightlife experience in this drag installation with Mica Sigourney/VivvyAnne ForeverMORE and Ox.

Music Listings

Andrew Lam

August 21, 2012

WEDNESDAY 22

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Am & Shawn Lee, Nino Moschella Cafe Du Nord. 8pm, $12-$14.

Emperor Norton Lost Church, 65 Capp, SF; thelostchurch.com. 8pm, $10-$20.

Keith Crossan Blues Showcase with Tom Pollitzer Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $15.

Nobunny, Apache Dropout, Burnt Ones Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $10.

Ocha La Rocha, Sweet Chariot Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $8-$10.

Pine, Band Practice, Lady Stardust Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $8.

Terry Savastano Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Greg Zema vs JC Rockit Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9:30pm.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Cat’s Corner with Nathan Dias Savanna Jazz. 9pm, $10.

Barbara Cook Rrazz Room. 8pm, $55-$75.

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.

Kenny Neal Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $15; 10pm, $22.

Ricardo Scales Top of the Mark, 999 California, SF; www.topofthemark.com. 6:30pm, $5.

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.

Mary Go Round Lookout, 3600 16th St, SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 10pm, $5. Drag with Suppositori Spelling, Mercedez Munro, and Ginger Snap.

Megatallica Fiddler’s Green, 1333 Columbus, SF; www.megatallica.com. 7pm, free. Heavy metal hangout.

Shutter Elbo Room. 10pm, $5. With DJs Nako, Omar, and Justin.

THURSDAY 23

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Alex Clare Mezzanine. 8pm, $10.53.

Animal Kingdom, Atlas Genius, popscene DJs Rickshaw Stop. 9:30pm, $13.

Bayonics, Comet Empire, Edison, Beautiful Machines, Pollux, BangBang Slim’s. 7pm, free.

El Cajon, Steakhouse, Warbler Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $6.

Gunshy Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

John Lee Hooker Jr. Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $22.

Iguanas, Beso Negro Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $16.

Eleni Mandell, David Dondero, SHEL Cafe Du Nord. 8pm, $12-$14.

Two Star Symphony, Not An Airplane, Fleeting Trance Amnesia. 9pm, $10.

Matthew Stewart, Paige and the Thousand, Roem Baur Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 7pm, $10.

St. Valentinez, Handshake, Fever Charm Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $10.

Rags Tuttle vs Greg Zema Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9:30pm.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Barbara Cook Rrazz Room. 8pm, $55-$75.

Ned Boyton Trio Bottle Cap, 1707 Powell, SF; www.bottlecapsf.com. 7-10pm.

Lydia Pense & Cold Blood Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $16; 10pm, $20.

Savanna Jazz Jam with Eddy Ramirez Savanna Jazz. 7:30pm, $5.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Kentucky Twisters Atlas Cafe, 3049 20th St, SF; www.atlascafe.net. 8-10pm, free.

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. With Funk Ark, and DJ-host Pleasuremaker spins Afrobeat, Tropicália, electro, samba, and funk.

Get Low Som., 2925 16th St, SF; (415) 558-8521. 10pm, free. Jerry Nice and Ant-1 spin Hip-Hop, ’80s and Soul with weekly guests.

Thursdays at the Cat Club Cat Club. 9pm, $6 (free before 9:30pm). The best of the 80s with DJs Damon, Steve Washington, Dangerous Dan, and guests.

Tropicana Madrone Art Bar. 9pm, free. Salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, and more with DJs Don Bustamante, Apocolypto, Sr. Saen, Santero, and Mr. E.

FRIDAY 24

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Alan Evans Trio Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 10pm, $5-$13.

Albino!, Fog Dub Elbo Room. 10pm, $10.

American Steel, Reckless Kind, Ilona Staller Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $12.

Be My Baby: Hot Toddies, She’s, DJs Wham Bam Ashleyanne and the Whiz Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $10.

Easy Leaves, Alison Harris and the Barn Owl, TV Mike and the Scarecrows, Emily Bonn and the Vivants Independent. 8pm, $12.

Rick Estrin & the Nightcats Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $20.

Fast Times Red Devil Lounge. 8pm, $10.

Hank 3, Hellbilly, Attention Deficit Domination, 3 Bar Ranch Regency Ballroom. 8:30pm, $28.

Mermen, Red Meat Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $15.

“Rockabilly Boogie Pt. 1” Cafe Du Nord. 9pm, $12-$14. With Texas Steve & the Tornados, Rumble Strippers, Golden West Trio.

Slow Club Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 7:30pm, $10-$13.

Tall Shadows Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Turks, Winter Ox Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $7.

Very Best Mezzanine. 9pm, $15.

Womp, John Beaver, Frank Nitty, Switchblade Slim’s. 9pm, $18.

Greg Zema, Rome Balestrieri, Randy Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

Barbara Cook Rrazz Room. 8pm, $55-$75.

Terry Disely Bottle Cap, 1707 Powell, SF; www.bottlecapsf.com. 5:30-8:30pm.

Carol Luckenbach Savanna Jazz. 7:30pm, $8.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Baxtalo Drom Amnesia. 9pm, $7-$10. With live music, gypsy punk, belly dancing.

Rafael Mendoza Mission Cultural Center Theater, 2868 Mission, SF; www.missionculturalcenter.org. 7:30pm, $12-$15.

Taste Fridays 650 Indiana, SF; www.tastefridays.com. 8pm, $18. Salsa and bachata dance lessons, live music.

DANCE CLUBS

Anomie Belle, Blockhead, Yppah Public Works. 9:30pm, $12. Ninja Tune showcase.

Chase, Pharaohs, Jason Kendig, Ash Williams Public Works. 9pm, $5-$10.

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.

True Skool 13-Year Anniversary Mighty SF. With Sake 1, Jah Yzer, Platurn, Ren the Vinyl Archaeologist, Davey D, and more.

SATURDAY 25

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Rome Balestrieri, Greg Zema, Jason Marion Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm.

Brownout, Will Magid Trio, Senor Oz Elbo Room. 10pm, $12.

Cutthroats 9, Rock Bottom Bender’s. 9pm, $5.

Dirty Hand Family Band Riptide. 9pm, free.

Foreverland with strings Bimbo’s. 9pm, $22.

Fred Frith and friends play Gravity Slim’s. 9pm, $20.

Fusion Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Gliss, City of Women Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $8.

Hammerlock Thee Parkside. 3pm, free.

Paula Harris Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $20.

Hooks, Chris Von Sneidern, Eastern Span, InterChords Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $10.

In Rare Form, New Up, Sean Leahy Trio, Blisses B Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $10-$13.

Mantles, English Singles, New Faultlines Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $8.

Petty Theft, Minks Cafe Du Nord. 9:30pm, $15.

Roadside Bombs, Sydney Ducks, Synthetic ID Thee Parkside. 8:30pm, $10-$15.

Ronkat Spearman’s Katdelic Boom Boom Room. 9:30pm, $15.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

Barbara Cook Rrazz Room. 8pm, $55-$75.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

“Chinatown Music Festival” Portsmouth Square, Kearny Street between Clay and Washington, SF; www.c-c-c.org. 11am-5pm, free.

Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit, Tresspassers, Harmed Brothers Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $15.

“J-Pop Summit” SF Japantown, 1746 Post, SF; www.j-pop.com. 11am-6pm, free.

Craig Ventresco and Meredith Axelrod Atlas Cafe, 3049 20th St, SF; www.atlascafe.net. 4-6pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Bootie SF: Michael Jackson’s Birthday DNA Lounge. 9pm, $15. With DJs Tripp, Tyme and Nathan Scot, Dada, Smash-Up Derby.

Burner Bon Voyage Public Works. 9pm, $5-$10. With M.A.N.D.Y., Dejan.

Go BANG! Deco Lounge, 510 Larkin, SF; www.decosf.com. 9pm, $5. Atomic dancefloor disco action with Marke B. birthday set, Derek Opperman, Carlos Corcho, and more.

Icee Hot: Hieroglyphic Being, Roche Public Works Loft. 10pm.

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.

SUNDAY 26

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Col. Bruce Hampton Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 7:30pm, $3.50-$10.

Crashfaster, Minusbaby, Awkward Terrible DNA Lounge. 8pm, $16.

Kristin Hersh, Moore Brothers, Terese Taylor Cafe Du Nord. 9pm, $17-$20.

Theophilus London Mezzanine. 8pm, $18.

OK Go, Family Crest Sigmund Stern Grove, 19 Avenue and Sloat Boulevard, SF; www.sterngrove.org. 2pm, free.

Park starring Happy Mayfield & Nate Mercereau, Buttercream Gang Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, free.

Terry Savastano Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Barbara Cook Rrazz Room. 3 and 7pm, $55-$75.

Adrian Areas Latin Jazz Band Savanna Jazz. 7pm, $7.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Alex Cuba Yoshi’s SF. 7pm, $18.

Heeldraggers Amnesia. 8pm, $7-$10.

“J-Pop Summit” SF Japantown, 1746 Post, SF; www.j-pop.com. 11am-6pm, free.

Twang Sunday Thee Parkside. 4pm, free. With Alabaster, Tell River.

DANCE CLUBS

Dub Mission Elbo Room. 9pm, 6. With DJ Sep, Maneesh the Twister, Taal Mala.

Jock Lookout, 3600 16th St, SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 3pm, $2. Raise money for LGBT sports teams while enjoying DJs and drink specials.

La Pachanga Blue Macaw, 2565 Mission, SF; www.thebluemacawsf.com. 6pm, $10. Salsa dance party with live Afro-Cuban salsa bands.

MONDAY 27

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Bomb the Music Industry, Classics of Love, Street Eaters, Point of View Bottom of the Hill. 8:30pm, $9.

Brian Bergeron Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Clip’d Beaks, Creepers, Feral Kizzy, Disappearing People Elbo Room. 9pm, $5.

Turquoise Jeep Hemlock Tavern. 8pm, $15.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Bossa Nova Tunnel Top, 601 Bush, SF; (415) 722-6620. 8-11:30pm, free. Live acoustic Bossa Nova.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Earl Brothers, Water Tower Bucket Boys Amnesia. 9pm.

DANCE CLUBS

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

Krazy 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.

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 28

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Ash Reiter, Kapowski, Sugar Candy Mountain Amnesia. 9:15pm, $7.

Desaparecidos, Velvet Teen Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $25.

Beres Hammond, 9Tomorrows, DJ Inferno Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $30.

Kayo Dot, Author & Punisher, miRthkon, Atomic Bomb Audition Elbo Room. 9pm, $8.

Mallard, Cool Ghouls, Dead Ghosts Knockout. 10pm, $7.

Mean Jeans, Big Eyes, Meat Market El Rio. 7pm, $7.

Stan Erhart Band Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Windham Flat, Side Hackers, Los Broskis Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $6.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Gaucho Bottle Cap, 1707 Powell, SF; www.bottlecapsf.com. 7-10pm.

Virginia Tichenor Pier 23, Embarcadero at Filbert, SF; (415) 362-5125. 5-8pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Eclectic Company Skylark, 9pm, free. DJs Tones and Jaybee spin old school hip hop, bass, dub, glitch, and electro.

Post-Dubstep Tuesdays Som., 2925 16th St, SF; (415) 558-8521.10pm, free. DJs Dnae Beats, Epcot, Footwerks spin UK Funky, Bass Music.

Study Hall John Colins Lounge, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 9pm. Hip-hop, dancehall, and Bay slaps with DJ Left Lane.

Alerts

Andrew Lam

August 21, 2012

WEDNESDAY 22

Lockout ruling victory march Castlewood Country Club, 707 Country Club Circle, Pleasanton; www.endthelockout.org. 5-6pm, free. Castlewood Country Club workers have been out of work and replaced by low-paid, non-union workers for two years. They haven’t stopped fighting to get their jobs back, and on Aug. 17, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that the lockout is illegal and Castlewood Country Club must reinstate their jobs. Come march for victory for the workers. Also, come march for support on the road ahead, as the country club will likely appeal or delay the process.

FRIDAY 24

Heal the Streets graduation celebration Nile Hall, Preservation Park, 668 13th St., Oakl; www.ellabakercenter.org. 5-7pm, free. "If we truly want to address violence, we must engage youth impacted by it so they can heal, have positive alternatives, and take action." That’s the philosophy of the Ella Baker Center’s Heal the Streets program, where young people spend 10 months in theater workshops and conversation, coming up with practical and creative ideas. Friday, they will be graduating from the program, presenting their theater piece and their findings. Come celebrate with them.

SATURDAY 25

American Indian market and pow wow 56 Julian, SF; www.friendshiphousesf.org. 10am-6pm, free. This eighth annual street festival features a pow wow, dance, hand drum contest and dance contests (both with cash prizes), and vendor booths with arts and crafts and food. In 1953, Congress passed a resolution to seize more than a million acres of American Indian land. This resulted in massive displacement and movement of Native Americans to major cities, including the Bay Area. To provide support and a community center, Friendship House was founded in San Francisco. Now, it still provides several programs, including this annual street festival.

SUNDAY 26

National day of action for women’s rights 24th and Mission, SF; www.defendwomensright.org. 12pm, free. On this day in 1920, the 19th Amendment passed, finally giving women the right to vote. This year, attacks on women spread throughout the country. The day before the Republican and Democratic national conventions, protests will be held in several cities nationwide to show that the people will not tolerate attacks on reproductive rights. Women Organized to Resist and Defend asked dozens of women why they will be marching, and the answers, shown in photos on their website, range from "to shut down sexual assault" to "women’s health is not secondary" to "ICE and homeland security perpetuate violence against women." Will you march?

Shifts in feminism in Japan’s anti-nuke movement Omiiroo Gallery, 400 Franklin, Oakl; nonukesaction.wordpress.com. 6pm, free. After the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, a movement of Japanese parents who no longer trusted the government’s word that the nuclear industry was safe took root. Parents formed study groups on radiation and used their own Geiger counters at home and at their children’s schools. Mari Matsumoto, a Tokyo writer who was in the middle of it, focuses on feminism and reproductive labor in the context of nuclear radiation. She will be speaking at this event, along with a screening of the film "How nukes got to Japan." The event is a potluck, and seating is available, but organizers recommend you bring a pillow to sit on the floor in case it runs out.

MONDAY 27

Eyewitness from Tahrir Square Audre Lorde Room, The Women’s Building, 3543 18th St., SF; www.occupyforumsf.org. 6pm, free. Gihan Abou Zeid had years of experience working to end violence against women and coordinating with various UN efforts before she became involved in the Egyptian Revolution. She has since helped to found Mayadin Al-Tahrir (Liberation Places), an effort to bring the liberation that was found in Tahrir Square to new places all over Egypt. After the successful ousting of Hosni Mubarak, many women have continued to protest sexual assaults and other violence. Zeid will speak on women’s experiences in the revolution and the ongoing fight for gender justice.

Heads Up: 7 must-see concerts this week

Tony Robles

August 20, 2012

On one end of the spectrum, there are the exquisite singer-songwriters such as Eleni Mandell and Dana Falconberry; on the other end, there’s massive metal mayhem aboard the USS Hornet, at an event dubbed Slaughter by the Water. And then there are the Go-Going-Gone Girls, go-go dancing in between the disparate acts.

Let your mood ring guide you this week. Here are your must-see Bay Area concerts this week/end:

Dana Falconberry
Texas-based singer-songwriter Dana Falconberry just premiered a new video for the lush orchestral folk-pop track “Lake Charlevoix,” off her forthcoming Antenna Farm Records LP, Leelanau. And then there’s her pinch-your-cheeks cute ditty “Petoskey Stone.” If all the tracks are this dreamy, and wide-eyed innocent in nature, Leelanau could just be the soundtrack of fall.
With Emily Jane White, Night Hikes
Tue/21, 9pm, $8
Hemlock Tavern
1131 Polk, SF
(415) 923-0923
www.hemlocktavern.com
http://vimeo.com/46158541

Night Beats
So-called masters of the “perfect three-minute” pop song, Seattle’s Night Beats go further and fuzzier than traditional pop purists, and layer on psychedelic guitar work, a lo-fi garage aesthetic, plenty of reverb, and bluesy soul (a la former tourmates, the Black Lips) – making a sound that wouldn’t be out of place in a Hunter S. Thompson-created drug trip.
With Terry Malts
Thu/23, 9pm, $7
Thee Parkside
1600 17th St., SF
(415) 252-1330
www.theeparkside.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQwu3EmaJ3k

Eleni Mandell
Eleni Mandell is another singer-songwriter (recently described as “honey-throated) with sophisticated arrangements, though her insouciant persona is deeply rooted in the warm asphalt and beachy breezes of Los Angeles. While she’s known for a gentle and laid-back approach, she recently gained more responsibility. Her eighth and most recent album, I Can See the Future, is an ode to her experiences picking out a sperm donor and giving birth to twins, solo.
Thu/23, 8pm, $14
Café Du Nord
2170 Market, SF
(415) 861-5016
www.cafedunord.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cH_ELG2Obw

The Very Best
“The Very Best’s latest album MTMTMK represents the first time the band recorded as a duo, following the departure of original member, Parisian producer Etienne Tron. If anything, Malawian singer Esau Mwamwaya and London-based producer Johan Hugo have turned up the intensity, setting an uplifting tone throughout the album. Mwamwaya alternates between English and his native Chewan, and his ascending vocals provide a sharp contrast to Hugo’s quick and bass-heavy club beats.” — Kevin Lee
With Seye, Palner, Miles the DJ
Fri/24, 9pm, $15
Mezzanine
444 Jessie, SF
(415) 625-8880
www.mezzaninesf.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE7c0WYIAJs

Slow Club
Here’s one surefire way to get eyeballs on your music video: nab Harry Potter to star in it and to lip-sync along to your soulful harmonies. The charming (non-obnoxious) boy-girl British indie pop duo knows how to cause a stir. Side note: Slow Club is also one of two bands on this list (the other being the Very Best) that is playing the totally sold-out “Gentlemen of the Road Stopover” in Monterey this weekend. So, lucky us. We get ’em first and there are still tickets available at press time.
With Echo Twin
Fri/24, 7:30pm, $10-$13
Brick and Mortar Music Hall
1710 Mission, SF
(415) 371-1631
www.brickandmortarmusic.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0tTp25txOE

Slaughter by the Water
“Hosted by Testament’s Chuck Billy, Slaughter By The Water 3 features Bay Area thrash legends Exodus, along with Autopsy, Impaled, Philm, Fog of War, Severed Fifth and more, all performing on the USS Hornet, a World War II era aircraft carrier that is now a museum in Alameda.” — Sean McCourt
Sat/25
Pier Stage: noon-9pm, free
Main Stage: 5:30-12:30am, $35–$45
USS Hornet
707 W. Hornet Ave., Pier 3, Alameda
www.slaughterbythewater.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u95JTXzyHyA

Go-Going-Gone Girls, the Boars, and the Aquamen
It’s hard to beat a raucous 1960s-esque girl group with matching outfits, high hair, and noisy garage-punk fits (backed by guitarist Klaus Flouride of Dead Kennedys fame). But if anyone can raise the bar to threat level chaos, it’s likely primal surf rock’n’rollers, the Aquamen or ”’60s-style frat rockers” the Boars. Let this be a battle to the head-banging, hip-swiveling death.
Sat/25, 10pm, $7
El Rio
3158 Mission, SF
(415) 282-3325
www.elriosf.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFRlARZ2zfg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c4uniNLNF0

Party Radar: MK, Spilt Milk, Midnight Magic, Buzz, more

August 16, 2012

Hey, what’s better than rubbable gifs, Madonnaschewitz, and Partysaurus shorts? Another edition of Party Radar, in which you’ll find all this weekend’s insane recommendations online from someone who was too drunk to hand this in on time to make the paper — so consider the source, and be amazed! Meet me in the ladies’ room and be even more amazed!

>> SPILT MILK
Speaking of great bass (we always are) — Taylor Fife and his Mother Records crew in the East Bay have been carving a lovely and deep niche in the Upper Haight at Milk. They’re now going big (and free!) once a month on Third Thursdays, don’t sleep on this if you want to peep some super-talented up-and-coming locals. Bells and Whistles and Pixel Memory kick off the new monthly. This latest mix by Taylor is fantastic:

Thu/16, 10pm, free. Milk, 1840 Haight, SF. www.milksf.com

>>NOC’TAILS
Nocturnal creatures unite — at last the SF Zoo has joined in on the museum party phenom, with this cocktails and dancing shindig. Will it be “wild”? I bet it will be, or at least pretty damn neat. Don’t worry, no animals will be harmed by the sonic debauchery. The kick off of this monthly (I hope) affair will be hosted by our own amazing Silent Disco crew: you get headphones that transmit extremely funky and danceable sounds from the DJ booth’s Zach Moore, Brown Amy, and Carnitas.

Fri/17, 7pm-11pm, $20-$25. Lemur Cafe at SF Zoo, 1 Zoo Rd, SF. www.sfzoo.org

>>NO WAY BACK + L.I.E.S.
Deliciously acidy-haunty New York label L.I.E.S. pairs with one of our best parties, No Way Back, for a night of deep sounds and killer visuals. Bay favorite Legowelt heads up, with Xosar, Svengalighost, Ron Morelli, Solar, and Conor dryving the shadows forward. Great opportunity to hear a few new sounds of now, get out of your head a bit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v7HpQa3xqo

Fri/17, 10pm-4am, $10-$20. Public Works Odd Job lot, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com

>>BUZZ
Another dusted-off classic, DJ Ellen Ferrato — just kidding, Ellen, only fairy dust on you! — returns to the SF scene after making her name at her weekly Sugar party more than a decade ago as one of the harder, highly energetic techno DJs on the scene. This party, set for first and third Saturdays, will show whether SF is ready to push its retro obsession from the warm early ’90s into the more, er, “focussed”; later ones.

Sat/18, 9pm-4am, $10. Rebel, 1760 Market, SF. www.facebook.com/BUZZSF

>>I-BEAM REUNION
In the ’80s, the long-gone I-Beam club on Haight Street was our own version of Manchester’s Hacienda, a focal point of New Wave, Hi-NRG, and straight-up rock scenes that served to blend some of the city’s most disparate crowds together. The awesome New Wave City party is kicking off its 20th anniversary series of events with a reunion tribute to the venue where it all started, with original I-Beam DJ Brian Raffi.

Sat/18, 9pm-3am, $7 before 10pm, $12 after (former I-Beam employees free). Cat Club, 1190 Folsom, SF. www.newwavecity.com

>>MIDNIGHT MAGIC
Last year the ecstatic retro-disco rave-up “Beam Me Up” by this nine-piece NYC ensemble followed me pretty much everywhere: along with Escort and Crazy P, they’re the best party band on the sexy underground red-light circuit right now. Jeffrey and Ava of Blow Up present (and the wonderful Andy Vague co-hosts), ensuring a night of nonstop erotic dancing — including special dance performances by Siouxsie Black, Saturn jones, Reed Thomas — and out-of-body shenanigans.

Sat/18, 10pm, $10. Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell, SF. www.rickshawstop.com

>>MK
The comeback kid of the moment, whose genius dubs and remixes from the early ’90s sound fresher than ever. He moved his hometown crowd to tears at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival this year — and he’s wielding his classic sounds on new material, too. Um, he actually made me dance to Lana Del Ray? Now that’s some MK magic. Catch him with deep house smartie The Revenge atop the W Hotel at As You Like It’s second anniversary afternoon blowout.

Sat/18, 1-9pm, $20-$40. W Hotel, fourth fl., 181 Third St., SF. www.ayli-sf.com

>>DREADSQUAD

Because why wouldn’t some of the niiiiiicest dub bass come from Lodz, Poland? Check out some seriously exotic sounds at the always great Dub Mission, one of our longest running clubs, with local low-low-low geniuses Kush Arora and DJ Sep.

Sun/19, 9pm, $6-$9. Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. www.dubmission.com

As classes begin again, CCSF reconsiders its mission

August 16, 2012

Fall classes at City College of San Francisco began yesterday. Students streamed through all nine campuses, navigating their schedules.

But they are coming back to a different school than they left. On July 3, Interim Chancellor Pamila Fisher received a letter from the Accrediting Commision of Community and Junior Colleges saying that the school could lose it’s accreditiaton, leading to its closure, unless it is able to succesfully “show cause” for staying open. The letter laid out 14 “major problems” that the accreditation board says CCSF must fix.

Now, the race is on, as students, faculty, staff, administrators, trustees, and community members rush to keep the school open without compromising its unique and succesful qualities.

Welcome Weeks

At the Ocean and Mission campuses, student organizers put on rallies that thousands of passers-by saw on their way to class. Volunteers holding “welcome weeks” events hosted music and speakers, and implored students walking past to talk into the mic about what CCSF means to them. Organized by the Save CCSF coalition that formed in July, the welcome weeks activities, which may include speakers, music, litterature, film screenings, and other events will continue until August 31.

“This is a community, not just a college. And right now, our community is under attack,” said Robert Chu, a former CCSF student who was volunteering with the welcome weeks events.

For Jason Bowden, another student who spoke at the rally, yesterday was the first day of college. Bowden said he is planning to earn his EMT certification and Associate Degree in fire science. “The dream is to be a firefighter,” Bowden said at the rally.

Bowden said he is confident the school will stay open. “Initially, I was freaked out,” he said. “But with 90,000 students, from a sociological perspective it would be disastrous. But I don’t want to say its not going to happen. Stupider things have happened.”

Chu said he was assisted by the Extended Opportunities Programs and Services Program (EOPS).“I’m actually an orphan,” said Chu. “EOPS supported me graciously and helped me out.”

The EOPS office is in a building near Ram Plaza, where the Ocean Campus rally took place yesterday. The adjacent Student Union building houses other programs that aid students, such as Students Supporting Students and the Multi Cultural Resource Center. Nearby, offices of the Veterans Educational Transition Services and Guardian Scholars program, which supports students coming to CCSF from the foster care system. Some expressed concern that programs like these will be deprioritized for funding as the school tries to meet its accreditation requirements.

The rally’s backdrop was a banner reading “Keep community in community college. Accessibility and affordability are non-negotiable.”

Mission statement

The evening before classes began, at an August 14 special board of trustees meeting, the trustees were discussing their priorities for CCSF moving forward.

The first recommendation in the accreditation board’s report regards CCSF’s mission statement.

“The team recommends that the college establish a prescribed process and timeline to regularly review the mission statement and revise it as necessary,” the text of the reccommendation reads. “The college should use the mission statement as the benchmark to determine institutional priorities and goals that support and improve academic programs, student support services and student learning effectively linked to a realistic assessment of resources”

In the wake of the accreditation crisis, the school set up 15 working groups to focus on different aspects of the process. The mission statement working group, tasked with evaluating the mission statement, and potentially, changing it, presented their work August 14– a new mission statement for the board to consider.

The board approved the first version of the new mission statement, which will be revisted at an August 23 meeting.

The new version includes a few changes. The new mission statement lists four goals: “transfer to baccalaureate institutions; acheivement of Associate Degrees in Art and Science; Acquisition of certificates and career skills needed for success in the workplace;” and “Basic Skills, including learning English as a Second Language.”

The goals that have been cut out of the mission statement: “Active engagement in the civic and social fabric of the community, citizenship preparation; completion of requirements for the Adlt High School Diploma and GED; Promotion of economic development and job growth” and “lifelong leaning, life skills, and cultural enrichment.”

The mission statement already read “CCSF provides educational programs and services to meet the following needs of our diverse community”; the new version adds the phrasing “that promote succesful leaning and student achievement.” Another phrase was added: “the college offers other programs and services supplementrary to our mission, only as resources allow and whenever possible in collaboration with partnering agencies and community business organizations.”

The mission statement working group was one of the first to complete their initial work. As Chancellor Fisher explained in the board of trustees meeting, “We need to finish recommendation one as early as possible because it will affect out planning.”

The working group that wrote the mission statement was comprised of faculty, administrators, trustees, and community members. No students were involved, until two– Associated Students president Shanell Williams and Student Senator Diamond Dave Whitaker– were added to the working group last week. Today, the mission statement working group, with its two new additional members, meets to discuss the ongoing process of documenting CCSF’s priorties. Their meeting is public and will take place 1:30-2:30pm at Batmale Hall.

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