San Francisco

Alerts: September 25 – October 2, 2013

Michael Redmond
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WEDNESDAY 25

Radical archiving and cataloging as social history 518 Valencia, SF. 518valencia.org. The Shaping San Francisco public talks series continues with a discussion defining a “radical archive,” exploring the role that nontraditional archives play in the interpretation and preservation of peoples’ history, the role of ordinary people in the preservation of these archives and more. Joining the discussion will be Lincoln Cushing of Docs Populi, as well as Claude Marks and Nathaniel Moore, both of the Freedom Archives.

 

Solar Energy Panel Discussion David Brower Center, 2150 Allston, Berk. https://solarenlightenment.eventbrite.com. 6-9pm, free. Andreas Karelas, the Executive Director of Revolv, and Jackson Koeppel of Soulardarity will lead a panel discussion on the use of solar energy and how it works. They will also attempt to clear up a few common misconceptions about solar power. Doors open at 5:30pm. Those who can’t attend can tune in on Ustream.

 

THURSDAY 26

 

Press up! El Rio, 3158 Mission, SF. 6pm, donations $25 and up. tinyurl.com/sfpmccontribute. An independent press is crucial. Join Tim Redmond, former editor-publisher of the Bay Guardian, as he launches the nonprofit San Francisco Progressive Media Center, dedicated to publishing a new online news source and keeping local journalism alive and independent of corporate, non-local interests. Co-hosts include Tom Ammiano, David Campos, Alicia Garza, Giuliana Milanese and Gabriel Haaland.

Syria: Secrets and lies Unitarian Universalist Center, 1187 Franklin, SF. sanfranpda@aol.com. 7-9pm, free. Dr. Steven Zunes, a professor of politics and international studies at the University of San Francisco and Middle Eastern studies program chair, will examine whether the US is about to go to war again on unverifiable or perhaps false pretexts; why the Administration is so committed to this conflict, and how can we understand the actual facts behind the recently documented atrocities in Syria. Sponsored by the Progressive Democrats of American and Unitarian Universalists for Peace, SF.

 

SATURDAY 28 14th Annual World Veg Festival San Francisco County Fair Building, Lincoln & Ninth, Golden Gate Park, SF. http://worldvegfestival.com. 10am-6:30pm, $10 suggested donation. This festival will feature cooking demonstrations, speakers and live entertainment, including an eco-fashion show. Visitors will have the opportunity to sample and purchase vegetarian cuisine. The event is presented by the SF Vegetarian Society and sponsored by Varnashram, In Defense of Animals and Friends of Animals. An organic vegan dinner will be available each night for $26; sign up online.

SATURDAY 29 Grito De Lares Celebration Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, 2868 Mission, SF. tinyurl.com/larescelebration. 4:30-7 p.m., free. Celebrate Grito De Lares, a holiday commemorating the birth of Puerto Rico as a nation, at the MCCLA on Sunday. 145 years ago this past Sept. 23, Puerto Rican revolutionaries entered the town of Lares to proclaim the birth of the Puerto Rican nation. At the bilingual event there will be a commemoration of the revolution, a discussion panel and a poetry reading in addition to Puerto Rican food and music.

Battle of the Bulb

Michael Redmond
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Battle of the Bulb

news@sfbg.com

On a sunny September afternoon, Osha Neumann slowly walks onto the dirt path leading to the Albany Bulb, using a walking stick for balance against the pebbles. With a white beard and lanky frame, the 74-year-old artist and attorney is no stranger to this landfill turned art space turned homeless encampment that juts out of the East Bay shoreline near the Berkeley Marina and the Golden Gate Fields racetrack.

Neumann has been coming for more than a decade, with his son-in-law Jason DeAntonis to build driftwood sculptures, and as an attorney fighting for the rights of the homeless who live on the 31-acre plot. He’s witnessed its evolution from rubble-filled no man’s land to one of the last undeveloped stretches of open shoreline in the Bay Area.

“The Bulb has been a refuge, a solace, a place of inspiration,” he said. “It’s a place where I can get off the grid and live in this wonderful, successful, fruitful anarchy. I came to really love this place.”

But the Albany Bulb is now facing another transition point in its evolution, one that pits nature lovers and city officials against those who have call this strange stretch of shoreline “home.”

>>Check out a slideshow of the Albany Bulb here

 

 

TRASH TO TREASURE

The Albany Bulb is a radical space of massive debris sculptures and structures, huge concrete slabs of graffiti, tents and tree houses, and artifacts from wreckage that, incorporated into the natural landscape of acacia and eucalyptus trees, is a unique and beloved slice of land symbolizing the free spirit of the region.

It’s where sparrows and other birds come to nest, and where dog walkers take dirt paths to the water’s edge. It’s also a space that major organizations such as the East Bay Regional Parks District, the Sierra Club, Save the Bay, the state park system, and the city of Albany have all fought for decades to preserve, with the idea that humans should not be allowed to live there. And in October, due to the enforcement of a no-camping policy approved on May 6 by the Albany City Council, the people living at the Albany Bulb will have to tear down their makeshift homes and say goodbye permanently.

“This has been in the works for 40 years,” said Robert Cheasty, a former Albany mayor and the current president of Citizens for East Bay Parks.

The Bulb became a part of the Eastshore State Park, a stretch of land with a trail along the East Bay shoreline that connects Oakland to Richmond, in the mid 1980s. And with the proclamation of a park came the people. Cheasty has become one of the most outspoken critics of people occupying the Bulb.

“It cannot be allowed to be privatized by any group or person,” he said.

It’s an argument that’s been made many times over the years, but now it seems to be on the verge of coming true.

The first people living in the Bulb came to take up residence after the eviction of the homeless campers from People’s Park in Berkeley in the mid ’90s. Before that, it was used as a landfill for BART and highway construction materials.

Nature inevitably took over, and much of the debris has been moved to certain areas within the park. Some of the first residents were immortalized in the documentary film Bum’s Paradise, where they lived in harmony with four artists known as Sniff, whose paintings and sculptures came to beautify the unconventional living space. In 1999, the first major eviction took place.

“Then, as now, the city provided them no place to go,” Neumann said. “People just scattered with no place to go, into the surrounding jurisdictions primarily.”

Neumann said he worked unsuccessfully with the people living at the Bulb in fighting the 1999 eviction, telling the Guardian, “People were unorganized and it felt hopeless and despairing.”

Neumann said little has changed. The Bulb remained the same, a landfill, albeit without a regular crew of humans living on it. In 2002 the planning of the Eastshore State Park moved ahead, and Neumann, not content to let the Bulb become homogenized, formed the group Let It Be, advocating to keep the “wildness” of the space. It didn’t go over well, and plans moved forward to clear the plateau of its coyote bush, in an area directly north of the racetrack, and fill it in with dirt.

Norman Laforce, who chairs the Sierra Club’s East Bay Shoreline Park Task Force and East Bay Public Lands Committee, has been involved in the planning since its creation. He says hundreds of people worked to make the park possible. He believes that because the city of Albany did not engage in strict enforcement of illegally camping after 1999, it was ripe to be occupied again. And it was.

The city of Albany handed over the deed of the park to the state park system, and the cap and seal order from the Regional Water Board — which stated that the area was clear of any hazardous waste leaching into the bay — was lifted in 2005. Over time, the Bulb’s current 64 residents sought refuge there, about the same number of people who were forced to leave in 1999.

Of those, at least 36 residents don’t have any regular income, while those who do rely mostly on government programs such as Supplemental Security Income. Laforce and Neumann may not agree on much, but both understand the impending enforcement of the no-camping policy to be a new chapter in the Bulb’s story.

 

 

WHOSE PARK?

As Neumann makes his way to one of the resident campsites, he stops to take in the view. It’s an unrivaled panoramic portrait of the San Francisco skyline against the glittering bay. He shakes his head when I ask him about the people who oppose campers at the Bulb.

“I think there is a small group of people who are committed to kicking people out of here,” he said.

“Our position has been that the Albany Bulb is a part of the McLaughlin East Shore State Park and is not to be privatized,” Laforce said of the Sierra Club’s view. “We fully support the removal of the illegal campers that are currently out there.”

The Sierra Club and the Citizens for East Bay Parks cite safety concerns as a reason the campers need to leave.

“I was attacked by somebody’s pit bull,” Cheasty said. “It’s happening regularly out there. It’s the antithesis of open space and public land.”

The city of Albany, hesitant at first to ruffle feathers, now supports the removal of campers. “The City Council is working to achieve the Strategic Plan Goals, adopted in 2012,” said Albany City Clerk Nicole Almaguer in an email.” The goals include maximizing park and open space for all members of the community.”

Almaguer noted that the Albany City Council retained the services of Berkeley Food and Housing Project with a $60,000 contract to conduct outreach and engagement services to the city’s homeless, and voted unanimously to extend this agreement to help the campers at the Bulb.

But she made it clear that once October arrives, the people will need to leave. They will receive verbal and written warnings if they don’t. (A camping violation generally amounts to $161 in fines, according to one of the Bulb campers.) One of the major problems, both Laforce and Cheasty say, is that some of the campers don’t want BFHP’s or the city’s help.

They just want to stay on the Bulb.

Neumann introduces me to three-year resident Katherine Cody, or KC. With pink hair and a wide smile, she seems younger than her 60 years. She babies her shih tzu Eva and makes beaded jewelry. Before living in a tent at the Bulb, she lived in her van. One of the perks to living at the Bulb, she explained, is seeing dolphins swimming in the bay, and watching the 50 to 100 hummingbirds nest in the tree above her tent every year.

KC’s past isn’t so idyllic. She said she was stabbed 20 years ago and the traumatic experience of yelling for help to no avail made her grateful to find a place like the Bulb.

“I am terminally ill,” she said on a recent afternoon, “So I need a lot of help sometimes, and without my having to ask or go begging door to door, my neighbors show up.”

After losing a lot of blood from the stabbing, Cody contracted Hepatitis C from a blood transfusion. Despite its rough exterior, KC and other residents argue that their neighborhood at the Bulb is not any more conducive to drug addiction or infighting than any other neighborhood or town.

“They are not capable of doing this job,” KC said of the Berkeley Food and Housing Project’s efforts. “It’s ridiculous to expect in that time span to be able to get the job done. It’s just long enough to make it look like they were being kind and not throw us out immediately, but it’s not long enough to really do anything.”

For Neumann, who has never been homeless himself, watching his friends and people he has known for years struggle to find a place to live makes him want to resist the city’s enforcement.

“They are criminalizing the status of being homeless in Albany,” Neumann said outside of KC’s tent. “Albany doesn’t have anything. It doesn’t have a shelter, it doesn’t have transitional housing, it doesn’t have available subsided housing, doesn’t have any services. Nothing. Zero.”

Neumann and some of the Bulb campers claim that police from surrounding jurisdictions told many homeless people, forced to leave their encampments in other areas, to go to the Bulb. Albany Police deny the charge, with a spokesperson telling us, “the Albany Police Department did not/does not have a policy of instructing homeless people to relocate to the Bulb.”

Nonetheless, Neumann says, “For a long while, this was Albany’s homeless shelter.”

Amber Lynn Whitson, 32, said that she will celebrate her seventh year living at the Bulb on Oct. 31, if she is able to stay. But she is one of the few inhabitants, she said, who is actually preparing to leave.

“Me and my boyfriend have gotten rid of almost everything we own,” she said between cigarettes. Whitson said she came to stay at the Bulb after moving around a lot.

“It’s so nice here,” she laughed. “When you have been kicked around from place to place and told you don’t belong here, you don’t belong there, it’s so refreshing to be told by the local authorities you belong there.”

Whitson said she isn’t sure where she will go after the no-camping policy is enforced. She is sure though, that the fight to resist will continue.

“This won’t be over in October,” she said. “Even if we are out, it won’t be over in October.”

 

LIGHTS OUT

After we speak with some of the residents, Neumann and I part ways. Before he leaves, he encourages me to take a look around, meet people, and enjoy the art.

Along with the people residing at the Bulb, the art has become a major sticking point surrounding what the Bulb is and what it could be. Cheasty, while not wanting the people to stay, personally doesn’t see the harm in keeping the art intact. In contrast, Laforce believes that part of making the Bulb into a “usable” park requires the removal of the art.

But many people want it to stay. An activist group known as Friends of the Bulb organized a concert with Santa Cruz band Blackbird RAUM at the Bulb for Sept. 28, hoping to draw a large crowd to resist the city’s efforts to remove the campers, and discuss the future of the Bulb.

“We hope it will bring people that live on the Bulb and those that use it to enjoy it together, because who knows how much longer it’s going to be there,” said Doug Gilbert, one of the event’s organizers.

Gilbert said the group started out of the necessity to answer the question of who will control the space: “There are two fundamentally different world views. Those that use the space are the ones in control of it, and those who are truly privatizing it, by deciding who can go there, if the dogs have to be leashed, if the art will stay.”

In the coming month, Laforce said the Sierra Club will continue to support the city’s efforts to relocate the people living there.

“The Albany Bulb is not going to be the homeless solution to the East Bay,” he said. “It’s not just some wasteland.”

Neumann, for his own part, remains skeptical about what will actually take place in October, but he’s certain that, from now on, things at the Bulb will be different. “They do not want to have a repeat of what happened in ’99,” he said before he left for the day. “And that will be the end of this incredible experiment.”

The Performant: For Those Who Have Rocked, We Salute You

Sue Vaughan
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The Performant: For Those Who Have Rocked, We Salute You

Theater artists reflect on life on the road in this final dispatch from the 2013 fringe festival circuit.

One of the most interesting aspects of the North American fringe festival circuit is the way it makes touring with a piece of theater an accessible proposition to even typically penniless performers. It hearkens back to an era when dozens of theater companies sent themselves on cross-country tours in much the same manner as punk bands or circuses (the San Francisco Mime Troupe and the Independent Eye among them), a rite of literal passage that seems quite out of reach for most theater-makers today. This means that despite its traditional, lottery-based programming, a penchant for kingmaking still pervades the Fringe, and certain prolific artists can become as rock stars, circumventing the lottery odds by booking themselves into unofficial venues as in Edinburgh, capturing oddience attention from year to year.

One of the biggest “rock stars” of the Fringe is Canadian solo artist TJ Dawe, whose shows are both personal and cerebral, exploring themes such as bodily functions, the war of the genders, figures of influence, and more recently, the spiritual and medicinal implications of ayahuasca. He also directs and dramaturges for other artists, most notably perhaps for Charles Ross in his highly physical, fanboy homages One Man Star Wars Trilogy and the One Man Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

For a draw like Dawe, touring the circuit has its clear benefits. “I quit my day job in May 2001,” he explains in a recent email exchange. Still, success doesn’t come without hard work. Dawe estimates that he’s performed over 700 shows throughout the years, and due to his many collaborations with other Fringe artists, is often attached to multiple shows in one season, including a record six in 2008. But even with a modicum of off-season success (including a recent movie made of a play he co-wrote in 2003: The “F” Word), Dawe admits that Fringe stardom rarely translates to mainstream success.

“Life after the Fringe more often consists of people hanging up their Fringe capes and playing the game as actors, writers, and directors generally do: audition, submit scripts, network in the theater community, apply for grants, hope for the best.”

Artistically speaking, the circuit offers an attractive alternative. “Instead of waiting to get cast, you cast yourself. Instead of waiting to be programmed into a theater’s season, you program yourself into a tour. The tour kicks you into shape in terms of getting you coming back with something new. Pretty soon you’ve built up a body of work and developed your own voice as a writer and performer.”

For less-established artists, a way to maximize opportunity is to apply for a long-shot spot in the official CAFF touring lottery, the winners of which can build their tours around the host cities of their choice. Two of this year’s winners had San Francisco connections: clown conservatory alumnus, juggler Aji Slater and puppeteer Zeb L. West, a graduate of SF State. Both have generally positive things to say about the experience, though neither walked away with much in the way of profit (“We merely didn’t lose as much money as we could’ve,” quips Slater). But it was the artistic rewards of the Fringe that each prefers to speak to.

“One of the best things about the Fringe is being around so many creative, incredibly talented people,” Slater asserts. “I dare anyone in the arts to do a Fringe tour and not come back energized to create. Even if zero people had come to see our show, it would be incredibly successful for this jolt of excitement and passion for our craft.”

Via email, West succinctly echoes both Dawe’s passion for the independence afforded the Fringe artist as well as Slater’s enthusiasm for the energizing effects of the more communal aspects of the circuit.

“The Fringe is a great way to get your own weird and wonderful original work out to a broad audience,” he writes. “And if you have a good show, you can fund a tour doing your own stuff. That’s a unique thing at the do-it-yourself scale. The most rewarding part is easily the camaraderie that forms with other touring artists. It makes what might be a lonely job feel like a community of gypsy dream-chasing theater people!”

Put up your dukes: 40 years of SF’s Grand Ducal Council

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Put up your dukes: 40 years of SF’s Grand Ducal Council

The global gay charitable network (which started in SF) known as the Imperial Council has been in the news of late: Empress I, Jose Sarria, the Widow Norton, passed away earlier this month and was given a grand funeral at Grace Cathedral that was covered throughout the world.

Now the other major Court Council, the Grand Ducal Council of San Francisco, founded to have a bit more fun, is also getting some attention. On Sat/28 the SF Grand Ducal Council SF Grand Ducal Council will crown the newly elected monarchs for the 40th Reign. at an elaborate and festive coronation event, open to all. (Elections were held last Saturday, and we won’t know who won until the ceremony.)

The theme, chosen by outgoing monarchs Paloma Volare and Moses “Moe Jo” Garcia is “Dancing With the Czars at the Ice Castle.” I exchanged emails with Moe Jo about the theme, the Council, and the Grand Ducal mission:

SFBG Tell us a little about the Grand Ducal Council and what you do.
MOE JO The San Francisco Council of Grand Dukes and Grand Duchesses, Inc., also known as the San Francisco Ducal Council, was founded in 1972 to provide diverse areas of the San Francisco community with charitable and personal support, and has positively affected hundreds of people and groups that may be overlooked by other fundraising organizations. The Ducal Council receives no support from government resources, and depends on fundraisers such as this event (the coronation), and donations from individuals and business.

SFBG Do you feel like you and Paloma accomplished what you set out to do during your reign?
MOE JO Absolutely, when we first started this reign back in September 2012 we both wanted to reach out even more to parts of the community that previously we barely had touched. We had a plan to reach out to the Latino and Transgender communities, plus we wanted to educate the LGBT community even more on what the Grand Ducal Council of San Francisco is all about. I truly believe that we did accomplish those goals. Furthermore, we reached out to new people and as a result we have four or more new members that hold permanent titles (Royal Daddy’s Boy, Royal Baby Boy and Girl, Mr. Royal Bunny, etc.).

SFBG Can you tell me a bit about the Coronation? The theme intrigues me! What can we expect? Is there anything super-special for the 40th year?
MOE JO “Coronation XL (40): Dancing With the Czars at the Ice Castle” will be a celebration of what the Grand Ducal Council of San Francisco is all about… Diversity! We will be celebrating all cultures and different countries that we represent. The audience will be taken to a place where Royalty, fashion, and glamor will be showcased. There will be several surprises during coronation, and the only way anyone will experience them is if they attend this wondrous event!



SFBG Obviously the death of Jose, Empress I affected the Council. Will there be a special tribute?
MOE JO Most definitely, we will have a memorial at the entrance of the ballroom with an oversized picture and beautiful red roses surrounding it. We have also included a special page in our coronation book where we have placed individuals who we have lost in the past year to let them know that although they are gone, they will never be forgotten.

SFBG Will you miss wearing your crown and cape? Or do you get to keep them?
MOE JO Having a crown for the year was very nice. Although the crown was never the main point of the reign, it sure felt good to wear it from time to time. Unfortunately, we do not get to keep the crown: on the night of coronation, I will be crowning the new Grand Duke so the crown I wore this year I will be placing it on his head. I can honestly say I will not miss the crown, I did everything in my power to raise a lot of money and we raised over $53,000 for local charities. I worked hard and did all I could, and I am very proud of this great achievement… A crown? I am sure I will purchase one down the road… 🙂

Grand Ducal Coronation XL (40): Dancing With the Czars at the Ice Castle

Sat/28, 5pm, $40

Hotel Whitcomb

1231 Market, SF.

www.sfducal.org

Special thanks to volunteer of the year Colby Michaels for helping with this interview.

Brown signs bike buffer law as SF wrestles with cyclist-motorist relations

Sasha Cuttler
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It took three tries, but cycling advocates and California legislators were finally able to get Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature yesterday on a new law requiring motorists to give at least three feet of clearance when passing bicyclists.

We criticized Brown for vetoing a similar bill in 2011 when he raised concerns about slowing automobile traffic, and then he frustrated supporters of the bill last year when his veto-prompting issue was how the new bill encouraged motorists to cross a double-yellow line to pass cyclists when it was safe to do so.

This time, the compromise that won Brown over was a requirement that drivers slow down to a “reasonable and prudent” speed if they aren’t able to given cyclists a full three feet because of road conditions. That’s not ideal, but at least it’s finally becoming illegal for cars to zip closely past cyclists, a dangerous, unnerving, and unfortunately too common practice.

San Francisco has become an intriguing testing ground for cyclist-motorist relations as the number of people choosing to pedal to work, play, or on errands has exploded, based on both official stats and by simply observing Market Street at commute time, which is like a mini Critical Mass everyday, or the overflowing bike parking areas in downtown buildings.

The city is also now wrestling with anti-cyclists biases in law enforcement and among some political figures, which will be the subject of City Hall hearings next month. Certainly, there is bad behavior on the roads by both cyclists and motorists, and often times poor understanding by both about the rules of the road, particularly on those dangerous “right hook” turns when motorists cross a bike lane (motorists should signal, then pull all the way to the right when it’s their turn, and cyclists should pass on their left, taking the lane if necessary), which have resulted in at least two cyclist fatalities in SF this year.

This new law provides some much needed clarity and public awareness to an important public safety issue — and it should be just the beginning of creating new laws and public education campaigns to help promote safe cycling and raise driver awareness of the need to slow down, pay attention, and share the roads. 

UPDATE: Dave Snyder, executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition, which worked on the new law, told us he expects more benefit from publicizing the new law than from police enforcing it.

“The main benefit is educational, just getting people who drive to give people on bikes plenty of space. I don’t expect much enforcement,” he told us. “There’s a heckuva lot more that we need to do to make California bicyclists safer.”

The main need he cited is more money for bike lanes, particularly those separated from automobile traffic: We ned funding to build bike networks so we dno’t need to worry about being passed at high speed.”

Evictions and gentrification fuel widespread concern in the Mission

Sasha Cuttler And Mary Magee
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A mix of neighborhood merchants, community activists and a couple City Hall staffers met for a community forum Sept. 23 on Mission gentrification, voicing anger and frustration about rising displacement in the face of soaring rents.

Arranged by organizer Andy Blue, the forum was hosted by Rose Aguilar of Your Call Radio and held at the Eric Quezada Center for Culture and Politics on Valencia Street.

The recent controversy stemming from a bid by high-end retailer Jack Spade to move into a 16th Street storefront catalyzed the discussion, but many addressed the overarching transformation of a neighborhood that has been flooded with high-salaried residents who can afford to pay top dollar.

Gabriel Medina, policy manager of the Mission Economic Development Agency, said he’s troubled by the displacement of Latino-owned businesses. About 80 percent of Latino-owned businesses are passed onto proprietors’ children, he said, representing critical assets in a pricey city like San Francisco. “It’s getting cheaper to be able to start a business than to buy a house,” he pointed out.

Erick Arguello of Calle 24 (formerly the Lower 24th Street Merchants and Neighbors Association) said he’d seen a similar trend along his strip of the Mission, where some Latino-owned businesses have managed to hold strong since they bought their properties years ago.

Nevertheless, Arguello said, the pressure is on. “There’s been an onslaught of realtors and prospectors on 24th Street,” he said. “They ask about the neighbor next door: Do you know when their lease goes to?”

Nor are businesses the only ones impacted. “We’re seeing a lot of evictions of residents along the corridor,” he noted. “The majority of them are Latino families.”

Laura Guzman, executive director of the Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, decried a lack of funding for affordable housing and dedicated units for the homeless and impoverished.

She said many individuals living on the streets in the Mission lack options, leading them to pass the time in the BART plaza. “Support the people in the plaza. They’re human beings,” Guzman said.

Nick Pagoulatos, a legislative aid to Sup. Eric Mar who was previously involved with mid-90s anti-gentrification campaigns in the Mission, said he himself wasn’t sure if he would be able to remain in the city.

“I’m a partner to a woman who was born in the Mission,” he said, acknowledging the deep ties her family has to the neighborhood. “We know that when we lose our housing” – it is likely a question of when, not if, Pagoulatos said – “we’re not going to be able to stay in the Mission. And we’re probably not going to be able to stay in San Francisco.”

Some activist efforts have emerged. A direct action group called Eviction Free San Francisco has staged protests outside the doors of real-estate speculators. At the upcoming Dia de los Muertos 2013 celebration, curator Martina Ayala said at the meeting, “We are building altars to remember the life that we once enjoyed.” La Llorona, a Dia de los Muertos exhibit that will be held at the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, is subtitled “weeping for the life and death of the Mission District.”

A similar transformation happened 10 years ago when the first dot-com boom flooded the Mission with deep-pocketed residents, Pagoulatos noted. Back then, “there was an organized reaction,” he said. “To be honest with you, we fought the good fight, we were at it for a long time and we didn’t win.”

This time around, “Our level of disgust for what’s been going on has been numbed,” he said. But he called for reaching out to engage unlikely allies, and for tapping into collective anger about displacement to bring about change.

“Get pissed, folks,” Pagoulatos said. “Anger is a good thing, especially in the face of injustice.”

Fight to save City College grows teeth and bites back

Sasha Cuttler
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99
Fight to save City College grows teeth and bites back

Saving City College of San Francisco became a bigger battle yesterday when the California Federation of Teachers announced a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court to keep CCSF open.

The suit is directed against the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, which pronounced the college’s death sentence July 3 by promising to revoke its accreditation in a year, without which a school cannot receive state funding and its students cannot get federal loans. 

Now, the ACCJC finds itself the institution under investigation by the feds and even City Attorney Dennis Herrera, and the CFT lawsuit is the latest legal challenge to the accreditors. 

The CFT charged the accrediting commission with using unfair and illegal business practices in its efforts to abolish City College. When asked for a statement about the impending lawsuit, ACCJC representative Tom Lane declined to comment.

“The ACCJC must be held accountable for their reckless, irresponsible and illegal actions,” CFT President Joshua Pechtalt explained at the Sept. 23 press conference held on the steps of City Hall, where the suit was announced. More importantly, Pechtalt said, winning this lawsuit could potentially stop the closure of CCSF.

A group of students, faculty, and elected officials stood with Pechtalt on the stone steps. One by one, they enumerated the improper activities that will be the basis of their lawsuit against the ACCJC: failing to adhere to its own policies and bylaws, violations of state and federal laws, and sanctioning CCSF without just cause.

Assemblymember Tom Ammiano said that the illegal behavior must stop here and now.

“The blatant lack of transparency, the loose interpretation of the rules, all seen through a lens of hubris and elitism, cannot continue,” he said. “San Francisco is our backyard and the college is our treasure.”

While Ammiano admitted that CCSF is not without its flaws and areas in need of improvement, he was quick to assert that closing the college was not the solution. “Stay out of our backyard unless you have something constructive to say,” he declared.

CCSF Student Trustee Shanell Williams assured the crowd that the lawsuit would be won. “The diverse population of the San Francisco Bay Area, including working families, single parents, new immigrants and others, depends greatly on this college being here,” she said. “If we lose City, we are going to be on our way to being an indentured, working class state.”

If the ACCJC succeeds in San Francisco, it will pave the way for identical treatment of other schools across the state, Williams said. Likewise, CCSF triumphing over the commission would be a victory for every community college in California.

Sup. David Campos also recognized the vital importance of CCSF’s continued existence. “We cannot have the American dream alive in San Francisco if City College closes,” he said. “This fight is about the soul of our city. ”

The US Department of Education has cited the ACCJC for failing to follow its own rules and procedures. A month ago, the Joint Legislative Audit Committee began investigating the commission. The following day, Herrera filed a lawsuit against the ACCJC, claiming it had illegally allowed its advocacy and political bias to prejudice its evaluation of college accreditation standards.

A new report released by the city’s Budget and Legislative Analyst on Sept. 16 detailed the economic impact to San Francisco if City College were to close. The report was requested by Supervisor Eric Mar. We’ve detailed some of the report’s findings in the infographic below. 

ccsf closure infographic 

 

Is the new iPhone fingerprint reader hacked yet?

Sasha Cuttler And Mary Magee
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Apparently, the answer is yes. Wired is reporting that a German hacker with the European organization Chaos Computer Club has found a way to fake out Apple’s brand new Touch ID fingerprint reader, rolled out as a security feature.

The hacker, who goes by Starbug, demonstrated that the phones can be hacked with replicas of real fingerprints constructed with pink latex milk or woodglue. It isn’t the first time CCC set out to prove the flaws in biometric security systems – a few years ago, the hackers published the image of a fingerprint belonging to a German interior minister who was strongly advocating for new electronic passports that would be linked to individuals’ fingerprints.

A few weeks ago, we reported that San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and other law enforcement officials had banned together to call on smartphone manufacturers to implement new security features as a way to address growing theft of mobile devices. Apparently, the fingerprint ID systems don’t offer the level of security Apple was hoping for. The latest iPhones, which include fingerprint readers, were just released Sept. 20.

According to the SFPD, more than 50 percent of robberies occurring every day involve smartphones.

Grown up stuff: themes of rejection and reclamation at Portland’s TBA Festival

Sue Vaughan
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Grown up stuff: themes of rejection and reclamation at Portland’s TBA Festival

Now in its 11th year, Portland, Ore.’s Time-Based Art Festival is fall’s major performance festival to the north (almost simultaneous with REDCAT’s Radar LA, the major festival to the south). Mounted annually by the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA), TBA has become something of a pilgrimage site for Bay Area artists and audiences, judging by the number of familiar faces onstage and off both this year and last.

PICA’s artistic director, Angela Mattox, has something to do with this. As the former performing arts programmer at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Mattox (now in her second year at PICA) retains strong ties to Bay Area artists. Other likely factors include the relative proximity and general cultural appeal of Portland (an increasing refuge to artists and others pushed out of San Francisco by gentrification), not to mention the scandalous lack of any Bay Area performance festival of comparable scope.

The first week’s worth of work sampled at TBA this year (the festival ran from September 12 to 22) included a wide-ranging and astute blend of local, national, and international work. Among the higher-profile events was an evening of haute-cabaret, featuring Meow Meow and Thomas M. Lauderdale (the latter of Portland’s Pink Martini) backed by the Oregon Symphony. Set in the rococo Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, it offered a crowd-pleasing balance of the high-class and ribald, a tightrope walk that Meow Meow (stage name of celebrated Australian actress and cabaret star Melissa Madden Gray) pulled off with consummate skill and unflappable, zany charm.

But the most impressive work featured far more modest production values. There was Still Standing You, for example, by Campo (i.e., Belgian artist-dancer Pieter Ampe and Portuguese artist-dancer Guilherme Garrido), a visceral and physically punishing duet exploring the fantasies, phantasms, and limits of masculinity and their own male heterosexual relationship, which enthralled a large audience for over an hour with little more than the clothes on, and subsequently off, their backs.

Ampe and Garrido, naked for most of the piece, square off in boyish and frankly hilarious postures of potency and aggression, brazenly manipulating each other’s genitals or folding their bodies into intimately abstract geometries. The latter moments, quiet and sure, were the most beautiful and thematically promising. But while the piece charms (especially through its teasing familiarity with the audience and the strength of the artists’ palpable bond), it ultimately remains a bit too comfortably within the gendered field it proposes to explore.

Two other standout pieces of a packed week both tackled time in the broadest and most intimate of senses. Nearly simultaneous with the 40th anniversary of September 11, 1973 — the date of the US-backed military coup that overthrew the country’s elected government and ushered in 17 years of bloody dictatorship under General Augusto Pinochet — TBA premiered Lola Arias‘ The Year I Was Born. Comprised of a motley cast of 11, mostly non-professional actors who were all children in the Pinochet era, this dynamic and rousing work of documentary theater (modeled on Arias’ earlier work with the children of the dictatorship in her native Argentina in the 1970s–80s) offers perspectives and opportunities that only time can bring — a generational assessment as family history and youthful rebellion.

On a protean set that makes choice use of the drab institutional furnishings of a public school class room, the performers conflate childhood memories (several of them as the children of families in exile) and the headlines of the day into an episodic narrative that frequently becomes a good-natured clash among peers of varying class and political backgrounds, half-invested and half-critical of their individual patrimonies and deeply skeptical of their collective one.

In its combination of distance and intimacy, and in its messy familial and social relationships, The Year I Was Born resists the grim binaries of the political crisis itself and its immediate aftermath, opening up a space for dialogue, humor, complexity, and conciliatory feeling, without the need for a simple moral or compromise. History rolls on, and the show — filled with laughter, surges of passion, and cool detachment — affirms both our agency and ambivalence about it all.

TBA also offered the world premiere of ADULT, a highly kinetic and wildly imaginative duet by well known San Francisco-based choreographers and performers Laura Arrington and Jesse Hewit. This complex, at times willfully obscure piece deserves a longer treatment elsewhere, but it was without doubt one of the more original and productively difficult, divisive pieces caught all week. Setting the audience in a corner of the cavernous Con Way warehouse (the hub of the festival this year) and looking outward into a vast, dimly lit and unadorned expanse, the first half of the piece plunges us into a viscerally dynamic exploration of fears around death and dying, only to turn things around in the second half — literally so, coaxing the audience with a tray of whiskey and breakfast cereals into helping reorder the seating to face a makeshift stage against the far wall.

The piece then proceeds in a gorgeously erratic and precise play with entropy and order, in which Arrington and Hewit alternately share space and cede ground to one another amid garish lighting and costumes and blurring lines in every direction — not least in the gendered dynamics of their intense, compassionate, and multifarious relationship. Through it all, a sideways glance at history and mortality (flagged at one point by canny evocation of W.H. Auden’s Musée des Beaux Arts) dissolves in halting, unexpected ways into a serene pause, a loving regard between two unstable bodies in ecstatic motion.

Community forum planned on Mission gentrification

Sasha Cuttler And Mary Magee
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111

The recent debate about high-end retailer Jack Spade seeking to open up shop in the former location of Adobe Books has placed concerns about gentrification in San Francisco’s Mission District to the front burner yet again.

To spark a dialogue about an appropriate community response to the changing fabric of the neighborhood, community activists have organized a discussion forum scheduled for Monday, Sept. 23.

As rents soar, countless longtime businesses and residents are being priced out of the Mission. From the event description:

“How do we, as a community, feel about this? What can we learn from each other as we consider how to confront the issues of a changing neighborhood and city? Coming from our many perspectives, are there matters that some, most, or all of us can agree upon? … What urgent and long-term actions can we take to support existing local businesses and maintain the diversity and unique character of the Mission District? These are just a few of the questions we may discuss at this meeting.”

The meeting will be hosted at the Center for Political Education on Valencia Street, and participants will represent a host of local businesses and community organizations including Calle 24 SF, Eviction Free San Francisco, Encantada Gallery, the Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, PODER, Shaping San Francisco and the Valencia Corridor Merchants Association.

The discussion will be moderated by Rose Aguilar, host of Your Call on KALW.

The event will be held at 522 Valencia on Monday, Sept. 23 at 6pm and is free to attend.

SF State campus police arming themselves with Tasers (yes, before the SFPD)

Erica Hanna
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SF State campus police arming themselves with Tasers (yes, before the SFPD)

Just because the SFPD can’t get Tasers doesn’t mean all the cops in San Francisco are missing out.

The San Francisco State University Police Department will soon arm themselves with conducted electrical weapons, known by the brand name Taser, following a statewide push from the California State University Chancellor’s Office to arm all of its campus police statewide with the weapons.

The university police started training with their new weapons Sept. 12, according to university spokesperson Ellen Griffin, but haven’t armed their 28 officers with them just yet. They still have to set rules for their use and the cabinet of SF State President Leslie Wong will soon meet to advise him in Taser policy. Details on what shape that policy will take are still hazy, the university told us.

“What I can say is that Dr. Wong is deeply committed to protecting the safety and welfare of our campus community,” said Shawn Whalen, a member of the president’s cabinet.

There is no statewide campus police policy for Taser use, according to California State University’s policy documents on weapons. A CSU spokesperson told us each campus makes its own rules for their local police force. 

For the past decade the SFPD has tried at various times to have their officers armed with Tasers but have met loud opposition and are without them to this day, a topic we’ve covered before. One of the most vocal opponents of the weapons, Police Commissioner Angela Chan, is concerned that the Tasers can be fatal.

“Tasers can cause serious injury or death and have cost law enforcement that use them millions of dollars in lawsuits,” she told the Guardian. About 500 people have been killed by Tasers in the US since 2001 according to a report Amnesty International released last year.

In Cincinnati a student Tasered subsequently died. Taser advocates say deaths are prevented by Taser use, however.

Of those killed, Amnesty International said, 90 percent of the victims were unarmed.

Despite the statistics, Tasers are in widespread use around the country and in the California State University system. 

Mike Uhlenkamp, spokesperson for the CSU chancellor’s office, said that 17 campus police forces were armed with Tasers, and now all 23 will have them, including SF State.

He was unable to say how much Taser use has cost the CSU system or provide statistics on their use. The most commonly bought Taser though, the X26, costs $1,000 a piece, according to Taser’s website. 

He was also unable to cite a specific incident or incidents that prompted the need for Tasers on CSU campuses. SF State university police reported exactly eight crimes for the week of September 9-15, including petty theft, vandalism, and possession of marijuana.

Uhlenkamp did say however that “every officer gets rigorous training,” part of which is actually getting Tasered themselves. 

“Every officer will have been on the other side of a Taser at some point,” he said. 

The arguments Taser advocates make for having the weapons is that they can be used in lieu of a gun. Steve Tuttle, spokesperson for Taser, said that was the reason 17,000 law enforcement agencies use Tasers worldwide.

“I think its a loud minority that’s gotten their way in San Francisco,” Tuttle said. The idea that SFPD is the lone holdout had him saying that the “vocal minority” got their way. 

But Chan said that’s a myth. Tasers are often used as a compliance weapon when an individual is passively resisting arrest or not responding to an officer’s commands, she said.  “Unfortunately, this can lead to overuse and unnecessary use, especially on young people and people of color, as we’ve seen around the country, including on college campuses.”

She has reason to be concerned about the safety of the campus community. When activist squatters were arrested in May by SF State’s university police, allegations of excessive force streamed in. 

The activists printed a zine documenting their experience. Melissa Nahlen, 25, reportedly wound up with “cuts near her eyes, a bruised and swollen lip, a swollen left hand … and cannot bend her neck downward due to being stomped on by the police.”

A campus police officer also sustained injuries, according to news reports. 

Video of officers arresting activists in an SF State dorm. As SFSU police and SFPD were both present, it is unclear which officers are in the video.

Tasers are used to avoid just that kind of situation, Training Lieutenant Randall Gregson of the BART police department told us. Though policies differ from department to department, Gregson ran the Guardian through BART’s tactics in using Tasers to provide a glimpse in the things SFSU will need to consider. 

BART police carry their Tasers on the “support” side of the belt, meaning the non-dominant side, he said. They also have a choice of carrying it in their duty belt on a thigh holster. “It’s an officer’s individual preference,” he said.

That preference is important, and sometimes could mean the difference between life and death. 

When BART officer Johannes Mehserle reached for his Taser but mistakenly drew his gun and shot and killed Oscar Grant back in 2009, issues about where to holster officer weapons came to the fore. 

Mehserle’s lawyer made a motion to admit BART’s holster policy as evidence in the case. From the text of the motion: “The changes in BART’s training and Taser policy – removing two dominant side belt configurations and requiring officers to draw the Taser with their weak hands – constitute highly relevant evidence of an acknowledgement by BART that the prior training and policy made an accident of the sort that occurred in this case more likely, and perhaps even highly likely.”

The evidence was admitted to ask, as the lawyer wrote, “How could a trained officer mistakenly pull and fire his gun if, as he claims, he intended to deploy his Taser?”

That’s the exact kind of incident SF State President Leslie Wong’s policy will address for his officers, and the lives of the students of San Francisco State University may depend on it. 

Holy Cherry Moons! SF Album Project joins Prince’s ‘Parade’ in full, fantastical drag

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Holy Cherry Moons! SF Album Project joins Prince’s ‘Parade’ in full, fantastical drag

Things I know right now: I’m far from the only one who knows all the words to Yaz’s Upstairs at Eric’s, OK Computer is much better as a conceptual drag performance, and the 12-inch version of “Mountains” by Prince is one of the best extended jams ever committed to vinyl. 

The third thing I know from being a record nerd (it’s also impossible to prove to you, since the Purple One spends all his time on Youtube yanking down his music). But the first two revelations came courtesy of the stunning San Francisco Album Project, a talented group of drag performers, stage technicians, theatrical personages, and tasteful club kids. Every two months they take on an entire album, presenting it as a stage extravaganza, embellished with special effects and original dialogue. It’s brilliantly nuts, and not the albums you’d expect at all from a bunch of colorful queens.

After conquering Yaz and Radiohead (standing room only, btw), the SFAP is about to scale the purple peak and slide under the cherry moon: The troupe will present Prince’s “Parade” — the soundtrack to his 1986 movie Under the Cherry Moon, including the original version of my beloved “Mountains” —  in its entirety on Sun/22 at the Chapel.

I asked Nathan Rapport and Bobby Barber, “album curators” of SFAP, to give me the lowdown on the project, and what to expect this Sunday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oemJ8eVneXo

 

SFBG SFAP seems like the kind of “eureka” idea that should have happened already, especially in SF — but no one really rubbed two drag sticks together to form a drag flame. How did the project come about?

Bobby Barber The San Francisco Album Project came about after about a year’s worth of on-and-off discussion between Nathan and myself about the state of the San Francisco drag scene. He and I both love what Trannyshack’s still achieving at the DNA Lounge – there are some sublime and thoroughly entertaining performances being created there to this day – but the venue and the interests of its audience don’t lend themselves very well to concepts and ideas that Heklina & Co. used to stage back when Trannyshack was at The Stud.

Some of our favorite shows ever at Trannyshack were evenings dedicated to an entire album (Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors, David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars, Pink Floyd’s The Wall), and it always seemed an idea that had endless possibilities. It’s from that very concept created and shepherded by Heklina, Peaches Christ, and Vinsantos that Nathan and I are now attempting our variations on.
Since I work for Peaches Christ Productions, I knew I had the resources available to at least a fund a few initial shows, provided I could find an appropriate venue. As soon as we saw The Chapel, Nathan and I knew it had to be there; it’s perfect. We brought Precious Moments (Michael Soldier) on board because we knew we had to have not just a seasoned Old Guard Trannyshack performer as one of the producers, but also because Precious thought up one of the old album-centered shows at Trannyshack back when it was at The Stud (Rumors). Precious has been indispensable not just as one of the performers in the troupe, but also as a director of the shows.

http://vimeo.com/70395055

SFBG You really “go there” with these performances — special effects, drag-robot suicides, emotional resonance, all manner of stage trickery. What are you trying to achieve?

BB First and foremost Nathan and myself want to honor what we think is incredible music. We want to give it an interpretation that it’s not often given.

Secondly, Precious, Nathan and I are attempting to create a “drag show” that is structured differently than most other shows around town. One could argue that the content of the San Francisco Album Project is the same as other shows, and it is in several ways. But we believe that by framing the show as a narrative, by not having an emcee, by not having dancing before or after the show, and by having our DJs spin music that creates the vibe of a ‘listening party’ rather than a club, we’re creating a frame that makes the experience of the performances feel more theatrically holistic than a traditional drag show.

Lastly, The San Francisco Album Project is an experiment on our part in the collaborative process. Nathan and I are very interested in the idea of artistic collaboration: whether it’s possible – why it works – why it doesn’t – what it means to different people. The performers themselves come to the table with their own idea for the song they’ve chosen. It’s up to Precious, Nathan and myself to weave these together and find a story within the group’s ideas. Also, how does a medium like drag performance operate or manifest under the pressure and/or freedom of collaboration…?

An album in and of itself is already a finished and finely tuned work of art, carefully molded by the original artist(s) who created it. What happens when a group of drag queens come in and deconstructs said album, this finished work of art, only for the purpose of re-presenting it as they see fit? Ultimately this is an act of spiritual reverence.

SFAP Unlike the Tranyshack albums you mention above, which were already not your usual drag fare, the albums you’re doing are even more unexpected. How are the albums chosen?

BB Nathan and I chose the first twelve albums ourselves over two months of back-and-forth arguing. By no means are the albums chosen our favorite albums of all time, but rather ones we find strike that perfect balance between intelligence, entertainment, popularity and drag potential. They are all iconic, but for different reasons. Some are albums that carry meaning across a large part of entire generation. Some are considered canonical, seminal, “the best the artist has done,” and those facts alone have led Nathan and I to choose certain titles.

Parade was decided for a few reasons. After doing Yaz’s Upstairs at Eric’s, and Radiohead’s OK Computer, Nathan and I knew we had to do an album that we think is an artist’s best, not the most well-known. Besides, Purple Rain is already done to perfection by Peaches Christ every other year,  and the songs on 1999 are too long for drag queens. Also, the real-life story behind the creation of Parade lends itself well to what The San Francisco Album Project is trying to achieve, or rather, is experimenting with. Prince’s collaboration with Wendy and Lisa reached its fever pitch with this album. Overworking, conflicting egos, frustrating machismo, and the tour which resulted from it brought about the end of their work together, thereby ending what I believe is one of the great partnerships in modern rock and roll, and forever destroying the glorious potential of what music Prince, and Wendy and Lisa might have continued creating together.

SFBG Can you share any exciting specifics about Sunday’s performance?

BB Well the show is built around the theme/story I just referenced: the relationship between Prince, Wendy and Lisa. It’s to be used as a frame around our fantasies in regards to the collaborative process. A myth has been created about their break-up, not just between Prince fans and the music press of the time, but now also on our stage. We’ve expanded notions of the obvious troubles that arose not just due to Prince’s fame and resulting ego, but also difficulties that could come about when men and women collaborate together, as well as straights and queers.

The narrative of the show is interspersed with ‘impressions’ on these themes, as some performers have come up with numbers that deviate from the direct story told on stage, instead having come up with their own musings in regards to these ‘troubles’ I mentioned above.

I can promise that the numbers run, at least, the same gamut of emotions that the album Parade does itself. I think we have a great sense of humor about it all, and I believe it’ll come across in Sunday’s show.

SFBG Can you tell us what album’s next?

BB Well not all the way down the line, but I can tell you that the next show is based around Roxy Music’s first self-titled album from 1972. It’s scheduled for Sunday, November 10th at The Chapel.

Q&A: Blouse on the Dream Syndicate, forest life, and going synth-less

Tony Robles
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Blouse, may have ditched the synths and drum machines of its 2011 debut self-titled album with new Captured Tracks full-length, Imperium, but the sound remains as hazy and dreamy as ever. Now it’s just backed by rippling reverb and distortion.

The misty Portland, Ore. dreampop trio makes siren calls that would entice a shipwrecked sailor, floating endlessly in a gurgling oceanic abyss. See? Wistful. Check first single, “A Feeling Like This” or next track “No Shelter” for that particular mental imagery. It’s all there, the swashing of fuzz, the wide open minimalism à la xx, the delicate, teetering vocal tracks, and an uneasy feeling of isolation.

I asked Blouse frontperson Charlie Hilton about the band’s new album, the local Portland music scene, going synth-less, and the albums they bonded over:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlxjGFaQKu4

SFBG How did Blouse first come together?

CH Three years ago, I moved to Portland from LA and met Patrick in an intro design class at PSU. We became friends almost immediately and he started giving me rides home from school. We were always talking about music, about the bands we’d been involved in, about what we liked. Eventually we decided to play together in my living room a few nights a week.

I’d been writing since middle school, so I shared some of my recent work with him. We also worked on new songs, recording them on Garageband as we went, until his friend Jake heard the demos and thought we should all record together. Jake had produced some really great records, and he and Patrick had been in bands together in the past.

We felt a weird kind of urgency to do something together, so we went to a place called Jackpot Studios for two days, hung out, and worked on the songs. We decided on a band name, finished two tracks, and posted them on the Internet. It was only a couple of months later that we signed with Captured Tracks.
 
SFBG What songs or albums by other artists have you bonded over as a group?

CH The Dream Syndicate, Days of Wine and Roses. I had never met anyone who loved that record like I did, and then I saw it propped up at their house. It’s funny how that can make you trust a person.
 
SFBG Why the shift from synths to a more guitar-focused sound on new album, Imperium?

CH We like guitars a lot and it was fun to see what we sounded like without the synths, to see whether or not we could remain ourselves.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPOgGgDyNGo
 
SFBG Can you tell me about writing the song “No Shelter” off Imperium?

CH I was feeling really terrible at the time, for no reason. My husband and I had just bought a cabin in the mountains, and all I wanted to do was be there, away from everything and everybody. I was getting very addicted to this place in the forest, and I realized that I was using it to escape the dread inside me. Writing that song was just about coming to terms with that feeling, recognizing that it was there and that I couldn’t really get away from it.
 
SFBG What inspired first single “A Feeling Like This?”

CH A mushroom trip in a white room.
 
SFBG Do you feel part of a Portland music community? Who are your closest contemporaries music-wise, in Portland and beyond?

CH Yes. I have so many friends in bands that I love. Wampire, WL, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Industrial Park, Hausu, Vice Device, Concrete Floor, Litanic Mask — just to name a few.
 
SFBG What’s the most common misconception about Blouse?

CH That we all live together in the warehouse where we record music. I don’t mind if people keep thinking that. It sounds fun. But no, we don’t really. There’s no shower.
 
SFBG Anything you’re looking forward to on this West Coast tour?

CH I’m from LA so I always love going home to play Part Time Punks. Michael Stock was my favorite DJ when I lived there, so it was an absolute pleasure to meet him and do a session with KXLU last year. We’ll be doing another one this time. I’m excited.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZq1xRzlCxg
 
SFBG Is there anything else you’d like people to know about your band?

CH We’re very Polish.

Blouse
With Social Studies, Feathers
Sat/21, 9:30pm, $12
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17th St, SF
(415) 626-4455
www.bottomofthehill.com

Bill on Brown’s desk to make two-tiered system of college tuition: for the rich, and the poor

Erica Hanna
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Bill on Brown’s desk to make two-tiered system of college tuition: for the rich, and the poor

It seems that one California politician is adapting an old adage for a modern era: If at first students protest and get pepper sprayed, try, try that legislation again. 

AB 955 is a bill that would create a pilot program to raise community college tuition, allowing six allegedly overcrowded community colleges to charge the full cost of their classes during summer and winter sessions. A three-unit class would jump in cost from $138 to roughly $600, depending on the college involved. Authored by Assemblyman Das Williams (D- Santa Barbara), the bill now sits on Governor Jerry Brown’s desk awaiting his signature. 

The colleges in the pilot are College of the Canyons, Crafton Hills College, Long Beach City College, Oxnard College, Pasadena City College and Solano Community College.

Local community college advocates said the pilot program could crack open the door to a future where two-tiered access to community college is the norm: The rich will be able to get classes, and the poor will be crowded out. 

Those fears are prompting local San Francisco activists to join in the fray.

“AB 955 creates a system of haves and have nots,” said Shanell Williams, the student trustee of City College of San Francisco (no relation to Assemblyperson Williams). “Students that cannot afford to pay more will essentially be denied access,” she said.

Williams is a staunch advocate for education equality at City College, and led many of the rallies decrying the school’s loss of accreditation. She now plans to lead a rally against the bill here in San Francisco. But she’s not the only one who thinks this is a bad idea.

Santa Monica College tried to make a similar two-tiered system for tuition last year, offering classes that were previously closed due to lack of state funding by sticking the whole price of the class on students. Santa Monica College students were far from pleased.

Protests erupted, students were pepper sprayed, the incident became national news, and the idea was criticized across the board as class warfare. 

The students’ outrage doesn’t just stem from raised tuition, but from a broken promise. 

The idea of “open access” to classes is mandated by California’s educational master plan, which states that all students over the age of 18 should have access to community colleges and that tuition would be free. Part of the Donahoe Education Act of 1960, it was signed into law that year by Governor Edmund “Pat” Brown.

The Master Plan has eroded slowly since the 90s, and the once tuition-free UC and CSU systems now charge their students fees in excess of $3,000 a semester for full time enrollment — inflated prices which so far the community college system has resisted. Classes cost $46 per-unit at each of the 112 community colleges in California.

Assemblyman Williams  justified his bill in an op-ed for The Daily Californian, saying the idea of open access has failed as the California community college system has already shut over 500,000 students from its doors, according to data from the state community college chancellor’s office.

“Yes, $600 is more expensive than $138, but only in the short term,” Williams wrote. “What’s the cost to a student forced by the current lack of classes to have to face one to four more years of living expenses to complete his or her education? It’s a lot more than $600.”

But Jessica Jones, two-year student body president of Santa Rosa Junior College, fears that the pilot program may just be the beginning.

“Who’s to say it won’t go like wildfire across the state?” she said in comments to the Guardian. Unlike the UC and CSU students, she fears the community college students she sees everyday would have more to lose when the fees are hiked.  More often, she said, those students are “working many jobs, many have families, you’ll see less and less students able to take courses.”

It isn’t just activists who fear this will go statewide. The state chancellor of all 112 California Community Colleges, Brice Harris, has also publicly denounced the bill.

“The next time the budget goes in the tank they’ll tell (us), we can’t give it to you, tell your colleges to raise fees,” he said at a recent state meeting. “All of us who believe this is bad public policy for California are going to have to speak out forcefully with the (Brown) administration to make them understand what a huge policy change this is for the state of California,” he said. 

Jessica Jones works with the Student Senate of California Community Colleges, and though their opinion is not uniform, many student leaders statewide are organizing actions against the fee hike pilot program. Crafton Hills College, Modesto Junior College, Pasadena City College, Long Beach City College, Santa Rosa Junior College and De Anza College will all have demonstrations or engage in write-in campaigns by the end of next week.

Williams, the City College Student Trustee is organizing a demonstration in San Francisco as well. The protest will be at Powell Street BART station on Tuesday, Sept. 24, at 6pm. 

Is Art Torres helping PG&E, helping his son’s political career, or both?

Sasha Cuttler
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As I’ve been reporting on how CleanPowerSF is being blocked by Mayor Ed Lee and his political appointees on the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, one piece of the puzzle that I couldn’t quite figure out was why SFPUC President Art Torres took the position he did, offering little public explanation for his stance.

“His opposition to the rate vote was strange because he didn’t give clear reasons,” Eric Brooks, who has been led the grassroots campaign in support of CleanPowerSF, told us. Torres also hasn’t returned Guardian calls on the issue, and he refused a formal request from Sup. John Avalos to explain his position.

As a former state senator and longtime former chair of the California Democratic Party, Torres certainly has connections to Pacific Gas & Electric and the array of politicians that support it, include Willie Brown. But that just didn’t seem like enough for a senior statesman with a decent environmental record to sabotage San Francisco’s only plan for building renewable energy projects.

But some of my political sources have clued me into another possible motive, and it seems to make sense. Art Torres’ son is Joaquin Torres, who works in the Mayor’s Office and who Lee in February appointed to the Housing Commission, where Torres now serves as president.

And here’s the kicker: those sources also say that Joaquin Torres has already started running for the District 9 seat on the Board of Supervisors, which is now held by Sup. David Campos, who is running for Tom Ammiano’s seat in the California Assembly. And if Campos wins that race next year, Mayor Lee will get to fill it, possibly naming Torres to one of the most progressive seats in the city.

So dad gets to score political points with some powerful friends, and help launch his son’s political career in the process. These motives are beginning to add up.

Joaquin Torres is now deputy director of the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development, “where he leads Mayor Lee’s Invest In Neighborhoods Initiative to leverage City resources across city departments to maximize positive economic and social impact in low-moderate income neighborhoods and throughout San Francisco’s commercial corridors,” the Mayor’s Office wrote in February when Torres got appointed to the Housing Commission.

Sounds like the perfect job for someone being groomed for the Board of Supervisors, where he could have a serious impact on this city’s political dynamic, tipping policies in the neoliberal to moderate direction of expanding corporate welfare programs and speeding up gentrification.

Neither Torres has returned our calls, but I’ll update this post when and if they do. And while this is clearly just political speculation and conjecture, I have a feeling that I’m onto something here. So remember where you read it first.  

Due Process For All must wait another week

Sasha Cuttler And Mary Magee
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Sup. John Avalos’ Due Process for All ordinance, legislation barring San Francisco law enforcement agencies from honoring detainer requests issued by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) under the federal Secure Communities (S-Comm) program, faced obstacles at the Sept. 17 Board of Supervisors meeting and was ultimately continued to the following week.

The legislation initially had enough support for a veto-proof supermajority, but opposition has surfaced to prevent the legislation from winning approval as written.

In a recent editorial, Police Chief Greg Suhr called for it to be scaled back. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Deputy Sheriffs’ Association came out against it and Mayor Ed Lee threatened to veto the legislation in its current form.

At issue was whether to amend the legislation by including “carve-outs” — exceptions requiring law enforcement to honor ICE requests in cases where offenders are suspected of serious violent crimes, child molestation or human trafficking.

District 6 Sup. Jane Kim, an initial supporter of Avalos’ Due Process for All Ordinance, proposed an amendment that would grant the Sheriff discretion to honor ICE detainer requests in cases where the offender had been convicted of one of the aforementioned crimes in the past seven years.

Kim characterized her amendment as “thoughtful and limited,” but the proposal met with resistance from Avalos and Sup. David Campos. “I am afraid that in the process of trying to do the right thing, we’re going to end up with unintended consequences,” Campos said.

Board President David Chiu indicated that he agreed with including carve-outs in narrow circumstances.

Under S-Comm, if an arrestee shows up in a shared database as an undocumented immigrant, ICE can ask the arresting local law enforcement agency to detain the person in question, even after they would be otherwise eligible for release. Detainer requests, which police have no legal obligation to comply with, are routinely issued without warrants or a requirement to show probable cause.

Avalos’ legislation seeks to extend due process to all San Franciscans by making it illegal for local law enforcement to comply with such requests. In San Francisco, ICE detainer requests issued under S-Comm have resulted in at least 784 deportations since 2010.

The Board Chamber at City Hall was filled to capacity with supporters of Avalos’ legislation before the hearing even began. The line to get into the main chamber stretched all the way down the hallway to the first overflow room, which had standing room only just five minutes after the meeting began. When Avalos initially stood to speak, the chamber resonated with chants of “Si se puede! Si se puede!”

 

Cinthya Muñoz, Immigrant Rights Organizer with Causa Justa, remained hopeful despite the setbacks. “We’re excited that we were able to push back on the amendments being proposed because of how they would impact the vast majority of our communities,” she said. “And we’re still hopeful that we’ll be able to get our Due Process for All policy passed next week.”

Up until recently, Lee lacked veto power due to the ordinance’s supermajority approval. But when Avalos lost his supermajority support due to what he called “political pressure,” Lee regained that power. “Whether it’s relationships directly with the police chief, the mayor, the Police Officers Association,” Avalos told the Guardian, “[the pressure] kind of withered eight sponsor support for not having carve-outs.”

Not to be deterred, however, are those groups and individuals fighting for Due Process for All. Following the continuation announcement, the throngs of supporters filed out of the main chamber and down into the lobby of City Hall, where they gathered and prepared for another hearing, same time, same place.

“It’s actually really great because I think it gives us a bigger chance for the supervisors to hear from community members,” Muñoz said. “That what community wants is Due Process for All, everybody to be treated equally and to not make a differentiation between who’s worth it in our communities.”

San Francisco Homebrewers Guild Q&A: A mashing good time

Tony Robles
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For this week’s cover story, I profiled one particular homebrewer — my husband — on his quest to DIY kegerator glory. But there’s more to this story — hundreds more, in fact. And the homebrewers of San Francisco congregate in the virtual San Francisco Homebrewers Guild (cute motto: “A mashing good time!). I chatted with the friendly and knowledgeable Kevin Inglin, who is the group’s VP (Chris Cohen is the group founder and president) about rising membership, local homebrewing trends, and helping people brew better beer:

SF Bay Guardian How many active members are there in the San Francisco Homebrewers Guild?

Kevin Inglin We have about 140 dues-paying members in the SFHG ($45 annual membership gets them into monthly meetings for free — $5 for non-members — and allows them to enter our quarterly competitions for free, attend members-only events, and gets them discounts at local homebrew supply shops).

Our emailing list and Meetup group numbers are nearing 500. We have more than 130 people who are regularly “active” on our Meetup page (meaning they access the page for information at least bi-weekly), and we usually have 40-80 members who attend our monthly meetings and events.

SFBG How long has the group/guild been active? It combined with another group late last year, correct?

KI That’s correct. The current formation of the SFHG is really a combination of two groups. In October 2012 I took over as organizer of a Meetup group (of which I had been a member for about a year) called the SF Homebrew Club, which had formed online in December 2010. Chris Cohen started the SFHG in February 2012 and had held a couple of events throughout 2012. Upon taking over the Meetup group, I was pondering what type of homebrew club I thought we needed to be what my role would be as organizer and I came across what Chris was doing with SFHG.

I thought we had a lot of similar goals with regard to uniting and promoting the homebrewing community in the city, so I reached out to him and very quickly thereafter cross-promoted the November 2012 “SFHG Presidential Honey Ale Competition” — an event he already had in the works — to members of the Meetup group. In December of that same year, Chris then cross-promoted a Meetup group event — a North Bay Craft Brewery Tour I had been working on – to the members of the SFHG.

After those two very successful joint endeavors, we made it official in January 2013 when we merged the two groups, changed the Meetup group name to SFHG to ensure common branding, began having our regular monthly meetings, and proceeded to carry out numerous events throughout the year. We haven’t looked back since!

SFBG Any common homebrewing trends you’ve noticed among the group lately? Any ongoing trends or common issues that always arise among members?

KI I think the common trend in the homebrewing community is that every homebrewer at one time or another secretly desires to “go pro” — if they say they haven’t after someone has told them “that’s really great beer!” they’re probably lying!

Joking aside, I think the trend among homebrewers is creativity and reviving often “forgotten” styles or bringing a new twist to old classics. This creativity inevitably then emerges in the craft brewing scene as many craft brewers do indeed have homebrewing roots. People new to homebrewing then see what is happening in the craft brewing world and work to replicate those beers, so it’s somewhat of a circuitous path, but the two communities (homebrewing and craft brewing) tend to feed off one another.

In the past several years, we’ve seen the craft beer scene follow the homebrewing lead of running through big, high-alcohol “extreme” beers (e.g., big stouts and barleywines), and who can make the hoppiest IPA known to man. Now we see sour beers trending quite a bit in the craft brewing industry, which is at least in part due, in my opinion, to a trend of homebrewers seeking to make these challenging and very tasty beers for the past several years.

Our club is about to embark on a sour beer project with GigaYeast, a local, up-and-coming yeast provider that is gaining an increased market presence – we’re very excited about helping them gather data to tweak their sour yeasts and agents they’ll ultimately bring to market for use by other home and craft brewers.

SFBG Are most members brewing all-grain or extract? What is the experience level of most of the members?

KI We really run the gamut. We have several brewers who have been at it for a decade or more and a large group of people new to the hobby. With that mix of experience level, we have a corresponding mix of brewers who are all-grain and those using extracts. Being in an urban environment, some of our brewers are challenged with space and continue to use extracts for this reason, others have found ways to move to all-grain, but do so on a much smaller scale (1 to 3 gallon batches) than is most-often found in the hobby, where brewing 5 gallons at a time is the most common volume.

SFBG Have you noticed any uptick in membership in the past six months-few years?

KI Absolutely! Before we merged the SF Homebrew Club with SFHG, there were 287 members in the Meetup group, of which, just more than 30 were “active” members regularly using the site to gather and share information. We now have more than 460 members in the Meetup group, of which more than 130 are regularly “active” so that has definitely been very positive and consistent growth for the group over the past 11 months.

With the merger of the Meetup group into the SFHG proper, we’ve also seen a significant increase in paid memberships for SFHG (nearly double from last year), which has been essentially to the vitality of the group and allowing us to host so many events for members in the past year.

SFBG When did you personally start homebrewing?

KI I started in 1996 with an equipment and ingredient kit I bought from a display set up in the corner of a German bar. I had no group or resources to really tell me what to do, so I just read what I could and went for it. Those first batches weren’t too great, but I’d like to think now after all these years I’m able to produce beers a bit more palatable!

SFBG Anything else you would like to add about yourself or the group?

KI Running the SFHG has been a truly rewarding experience – it’s always great to help someone “get it” and see their joy when they make a beer far better than they ever thought they could based on information and tips they gathered from other club members. Having struggled somewhat on my own when I got started, it’s very enjoyable to help others avoid that isolation and be able to improve their brewing much more quickly based on the help and advice from others. That’s really the crux of our existence — help people brew better beer!

As for me personally, as an Army officer, I’ve moved around quite a bit over the years and homebrewed in Tennessee, Alabama (not realizing it wasn’t legal there at the time – thankfully it is now!), Hawaii, Virginia, Texas, Germany, and of course here in California.

It’s been a very enjoyable hobby and now that I’m set to retire from the Army in 2014, my wife and I have indeed decided to venture into the ranks of the professionals and open our own Nano Brewery here in the city. I’ll be attending a professional brewing course next year to augment my homebrewing experience and we’re in the throws of getting the business off the ground in the coming months. Wish us luck!

Geeking out on Kathleen Hanna’s the Julie Ruin at Slim’s

Tony Robles
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After explaining that the next song would be about how there are thousands of feminists, all around the world, and driving home the obvious point — there is not one sole leader of the feminist movement — Kathleen Hanna giggled, hearing yet another shout-out from the audience. She jokingly replied, “OK, OK, but I am the number one feminist.”

It was this typical audience-artist interplay that brought the excitement of Hanna’s return to the stage, via new/old project the Julie Ruin at Slim’s last night.

Wearing a darling baby smock and her standard high brunette bun, Hanna bounced out on stage like she’d never left, chugging from a jug of water and robo-dancing during rare vocal lulls. In reality, the Bikini Kill and Le Tigre frontperson has been out of the bar-light for nearly a decade, struggling with neurological Lyme disease. Early in the Julie Ruin’s set, Hanna noted, “It’s been a long time since I’ve been on this stage, and there was a time when I thought I’d never return.”

The poppy set, performed by the five-piece joined by percussionist Fredo Ortiz, switched off, one for one, between lo-fi songs off 1997 self-titled solo record Julie Ruin (thickened up with additional instrumentaion), and new bolder, more fully realized the Julie Ruin collaboration, Run Fast (Dischord). The sold-out crowd, which was packed tightly into Slim’s, cheered for each song, hollering loving refrains toward Hanna at every possible chance. It felt like long-attached Bikini Kill and Le Tigre fans came out of the woodwork, cute haircuts in tact, but also a newer, younger batch of the Julie Ruin fans were sprinkled throughout.(Don’t worry, I picked up a tote bag at the merch table.)

The avid fans cheered hard for older songs off the ’97 solo record like “Radical or Pro-Parental” and doubly for newer danceable riot grrrl rock songs such as first Run Fast single “Oh C’mon” and “Girls Like Us.” There was a “Le Tigre cover” (Hanna’s words) of “Eau d’Bedroom Dancing” off Le Tigre’s self-titled 1999 debut. At one point, Hanna began singing the emotional cover of “Stay Monkey” from the first Julie Ruin album — someone in the audience requested it — but then admitted she’d forgotten the words, perhaps a symptom of the Lyme disease? (During our interview a few weeks back, she said she would often use the wrong words for things during the recording process for this new record, and the band would go with it in a stream-of-consciousness burst.)

Together, the relatively newly assembled band members of the Julie Ruin worked liked family, smiling, dancing, winking — which makes sense, given that Kathi Wilcox, Kenny Mellman, Carmine Covelli, and Sara Landeau are all musician-pals from Hanna’s past. Wilcox, of course, also being from Bikini Kill, among other bands.

Mellman took the lead on the one track in which he wrote the lyrics, “South Coast Plaza,” explaining that the song was about friends in SF (where he lived from 1987-1997) who made a pact to kill one another if one got sick, and it actually happened. He said he placed the friendship in Orange County though (hence, South Coast Plaza, a weirdly fancy mall at which I have spent many wasted teenage afternoons).

But Hanna was up front for most songs, as well she should be. The whole night felt like a bittersweet reunion, and perhaps it was, though Hanna stressed that we should look toward the future. Because for girls like us, there’s always a place in our hearts for a female-empowerment pop anthem.

The Selector: Sept. 18-25, 2013

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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THURSDAY 19

“Dark Matters: The Films of William Friedkin”

The Pacific Film Archive’s “Dark Matters: The Films of William Friedkin” wraps up this week with a trio of movies and a pair of special events. Thus far, the series has included 1985’s To Live and Die in LA, 1971’s The French Connection, and 1970’s The Boys in the Band, but not — in an omission so obvious it’s clearly deliberate — 1973’s The Exorcist. Friedkin himself visits Berkeley tonight for a discussion with film critic Michael Guillen (following a showing of 1977 nail-biter Sorcerer); the director returns Sat/21 to sign copies of his new memoir, The Friedkin Connection, and will appear in person at screenings of 1980’s Cruising and 2011’s Killer Joe. (Cheryl Eddy)

Tonight, Sorcerer and discussion, 7pm

Sat/21, book signing, 6pm; Cruising, 6:30pm; Killer Joe, 8:50pm

$5.50–$9.50

Pacific Film Archive

2575 Bancroft, Berk.

bampfa.berkeley.edu

 

 

The Jill & Julia Show

Over a decade before Katy Perry released her vomitously bubblegum, gay-appropriating smash-hit single “I Kissed a Girl,” Jill Sobule released a single of the same name. Where Perry’s was vulgar and derivative, Sobule’s was honest, witty, and painfully poignant. Amusing and whimsical lyrics are a trademark of Sobule’s work, and her gift for words and humor are what make her a perfect match for Saturday Night Live veteran Julia Sweeney. Sweeney is most famous for her androgynous SNL character Pat and her biting one-woman monologues. Sweeney and Sobule met at a TED conference at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in 2006, and after professing their admiration for each other’s work, the women joined forces, resulting in the Jill & Julia Show, a touring production of Jill’s songs and Julia’s stories that is certain to leave you gasping for breath. (Haley Zaremba)

With Heather Combs

8pm, $20

Swedish American Hall

2170 Market, SF

(415) 861-5016

www.cafedunord.com

 

“Not Dead Yet: Movie and Music to End ALS”

The inspiring resilience of Richmond, Calif. native Jason Becker — a talented young guitarist destined for metal-god status until he was immobilized by Lou Gehrig’s Disease — was chronicled in 2012’s Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet, its cheeky title a reference to the fact that Becker, now 44, has long outlived the grim prognosis of doctors who predicted he’d be dead by 25. As the doc shows, Becker continues to communicate and even compose complex music via a remarkable system that interprets his eye movements. Head to Bimbo’s tonight for a screening of Jesse Vile’s film, plus a concert with Pearl (featuring Scott Ian of Anthrax) and Forrest Day. Becker will also attend the event, which doubles as a fundraiser for the Jason Becker Special Needs Trust and the ALS Therapy Development Institute. (Eddy)

7pm, $30-75

Bimbo’s 365 Club

1025 Columbus, SF

www.bimbos365club.com

 

Hard Skin

The person who booked this show is either a deviant mastermind or holding a great social experiment. In one corner, sits the headliner Hard Skin, a sophomoric English oi! band from the ’90s that boasts such classics as “A.C.A.C. (All Coppers are Cunts)” and “Oi Not Jobs.” In the other corner sits the second band on the bill, Replica, a nearly-all girl hardcore band from a decidedly younger generation that may agree with the anti-police sentiment but not the liberal use of the “c-word.” Though the bands may differ from each other, there’s no mistaking that Hard Skin and Replica both come from supportive underground scenes. Hard Skin’s debut release, 1998’s Hard Nuts and Hard Cunts, sold 100,000 copies and the folks from Replica have gained local support and hype for their self-titled EP released earlier this year on Prank Records. Come see the generational, gender, and genre divides intersect at Thee Parkside, and take notes.This should be a doozy. (Erin Dage)

With Replica, Glitz, Kicker

9pm, $10

Thee Parkside

1600 17th St, SF

(415) 252-1330

www.theeparkside.com

 

FRIDAY 20

Diaspora Tales #2: 1969

The late 1960s may be remembered more as a fight for freedom by African-American communities. But Asian-Americans were equally determined to demand equality. Both saxophonist-composer Francis Wong and choreographer-dancer Lenora Lee have use their artistic expression to convey the struggles that they have unearthed within their own families. Diaspora Tales #2: 1969, originally created for the 40th anniversary of UC Berkeley’s Third World Strike, is a multimedia performance work that commemorates the courage and sacrifices by those involved, Wong’s brother having been one of them. Kung Fu, both as martial arts and in its more lyrically expressive form, join jazz, funk, and rap to evoke both a period and a challenge that yet has to be completely overcome. Olivia Ting created Diaspora’s visual components. (Rita Felciano)

7:30pm, $7

Asian Improv aRts

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

2626 Bancroft, Berk.

bampfa.berkeley.edu

 

 

“The Era is Now: Films of James T. Hong”

In 2000, experimental filmmaker James T. Hong’s scorching, Golden Gate Award-winning film Behold the Asian dubbed San Francisco “the white asshole paradise.” Though he now lives in Taiwan (for reasons that should be obvious), the former Mission District dweller — a man who fears no audience reaction — makes a rare return for a San Francisco Cinematheque-hosted screening of his latest work. New films enhancing what the SF Cinematheque dubs “a confrontationally intense body of work exploring racialism, philosophy, and revisionist approaches to history” include two from 2012, installation Apologies and The Turner Film Diaries; and this year’s Cutaways of Jiang Chun Gen — Forward and Back Again. (Eddy)

7:30pm, $5–$10

Artists’ Television Access

992 Valencia, SF

www.sfcinematheque.org


SATURDAY 21

Matias Aguayo

If you know this one-time minimalist-Closer Musik member from the all a capella cut-up jam “Rollerskate” or his wild Spanglish guest appearance on math-rockers Battles’s “Ice Cream,” you know that Aguayo’s voice is impossible to pin down. On The Visitor, his latest release on South American Kompakt offshoot Cómeme, Aguayo is as hard as ever to locate geographically, blurring Latin dialects and reverse engineering English lyrics over a mix of increasingly psychedelic rhythms that cut across (and veer from) generic dance and world music boundaries. With a new live show — expect lots of percussion and off-the-wall vocals on top of tracks —Aguayo could seem to be less on tour from another country, and more like a visitor from outer space. (Ryan Prendiville)

With Ghosts on Tape, Shawn Reynaldo, Rollie Fingers

10pm-3am, $10-15

Public Works

161 Erie, SF

(415) 932-0955

www.publicsf.com

 

Blouse

Portland, Oreg. trio, Blouse, may have ditched the synths and drum machines of its 2011 debut self-titled album with new Captured Tracks full-length, Imperium, but the sound remains as hazy and dreamy as ever. Now it’s just backed by rippling reverb and distortion. The misty dreampop band makes siren calls that would entice a shipwrecked sailor, floating endlessly in a gurgling oceanic abyss. See? Wistful. Check first single, “A Feeling Like This” or next track “No Shelter” for that particular mental imagery. It’s all there, the swashing of fuzz, the wide open minimalism à la xx, the delicate, teetering vocal tracks, and an uneasy feeling of isolation. (Emily Savage)

With Social Studies, Feathers

9:30pm, $12

Bottom of the Hill

1233 17 St, SF

(415) 626-4455

www.bottomofthehill.com

 

 

Wild Moth

There’s no question about it, there’s a lot of post-punk bands popping up in the Bay right now. For many of these bands, the term post-punk has been slapped on, but they don’t actually fit into these specific distinctions. You have a band that maintains a punk edge but is noisy and decidedly experimental at times? Definitely post-punk. That being said, San Francisco sweethearts Wild Moth have this whole “post-punk” thing down to an art. The band’s record release show for its newest album Over, Again on Asian Man Records is tonight. Joining the fun will be fellow post-punk bands Permanent Collection and No Tongue, as well as riot grrrl act Tenderbuttons. And accordingly, Wild Moth isn’t the only band on the bill with new stuff out. This summer Permanent Collection came out with its No Void EP and No Tongue dropped its newest EP, Body + Mind. As cliche as it sounds, support your local scene and pick up some new tunes! (Dage)

9pm, $6

Thee Parkside

1600 17th St, SF

(415) 252-1330

www.theeparkside.com

 

SUNDAY 22

Amanda Cohen

Author of Dirtcandy: The Cookbook, Amanda Cohen will discuss her unpredictable approach to cooking with vegetables (as a main dish) and tonight. The ambitious cook pairs unexpected flavors and presents them in a surprisingly harmonious way, and her cookbook is entirely in graphic novel form. Take her mushroom appetizer, a portabello mousse on truffled toast, drizzled with pear and fennel compote; or her Rosemary Eggplant Tiramisu, with rosemary cotton candy for example. Cohen was the first vegetarian chef on Iron Chef, and has been praised in the New Yorker and the New York Times among others. At Omnivore Books, she’ll discuss her journey, building a restaurant from the ground up to an always-crowded, original alternative restaurant in New York City. Stop by the store to meet Cohen and to pick up a copy of her comic cookbook. Also to possibly meet some fellow local veg-heads. (Hillary Smith)

With Grady Hendrix

3pm, free

Omnivore Books

3885a Cesar Chavez, SF

www.omnivorebooks.com

 

 

Dirty Beaches

Alex Zhang Hungtai, the musician behind the Dirty Beaches moniker, is an old soul. An eternal stranger in a strange land with a flair for eccentricity, Hungtai seems straight out of the beat generation. Taiwan-born and Montreal-based, he has lived in a veritable laundry list of cities around the world (including a stint in San Francisco) and through his music and touring schedule, Hungtai’s wanderlust shows no signs of slowing down. This restlessness is evident in Dirty Beaches’ music, a muddy, murky mix of doo-wopesque vocals and surf-tinged guitars that never quite rises to the surface. His simple guitar- and sample-based rock is beefed up on the road with a full band and a saxophone player. This tour promises to be especially interesting, with Hungtai possibly performing sitting down or with a cane after he jumped out of a second story window to make his flight back to North America, like Neal Cassady reincarnate. (Zaremba)

With SISU, Chasms

9pm, $12

Bottom of the Hill

1233 17th St, SF

(415) 626-4455

www.bottomofthehill.com

 

MONDAY 23

The Living Jarboe

Jarboe’s music is defined by the way she uses her powerful voice, a mutable, inventive instrument that haunts, terrifies, soothes and mourns. The former member of beloved post-punk outfit Swans has been prolific since the band’s break-up in 1997, perfecting her experimental art and collaborating widely across the musical spectrum, notably with Bay Area legends Neurosis. This appearance as the Living Jarboe enlists the help of a violinist and a guitarist to bring her seething, squalling, challenging songs to life. (Ben Richardson)

With Faun Fable, Amber Asylum

8pm, $15

Cafe Du Nord

2170 Market, SF

(415) 861-5016

www.cafedunord.com

 

Music Listings: Sept. 18-24, 2013

Tony Robles
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WEDNESDAY 18
ROCK
Bottom of the Hill: 1233 17th St., San Francisco. The Features, From Indian Lakes, Great American Cities, 9 p.m., $10-$12.
S.F. Eagle: 398 12th St., San Francisco. Queen Crescent, Dead River, Cold Beat, 9 p.m., $8.
El Rio: 3158 Mission, San Francisco. The Bar Chords, The Electric Church, The Spiral Electric, 8 p.m., $5.
Hemlock Tavern: 1131 Polk, San Francisco. Kepi Ghoulie, Miss Chain & The Broken Heels, The Custom Kicks, 8:30 p.m., $7.
The Knockout: 3223 Mission, San Francisco. Tiger Honey Pot, The Starlite Wranglers, The Bastard Makers, Them Creatures, DJ Handsome Hawk, 9:30 p.m., $7.
Milk Bar: 1840 Haight, San Francisco. Joshua Cook / The Key of Now, Black Hole Oscillators, Crazy Famous, Dani Page Band, 8:30 p.m., $2.
Monarch: 101 6th St., San Francisco. The Shape, Claire on a Dare, DonCat, O Presidente, 8 p.m., $8.
Slim’s: 333 11th St., San Francisco. Stars, Trails & Ways, 8 p.m., $25.
DANCE
The Cafe: 2369 Market, San Francisco. “Sticky Wednesdays,” w/ DJ Mark Andrus, 8 p.m., free.
Cat Club: 1190 Folsom, San Francisco. “Bondage A Go Go,” w/ DJs Damon, Tomas Diablo, & guests, 9:30 p.m., $5-$10.
Club X: 715 Harrison, San Francisco. “Electro Pop Rocks,” 18+ dance party with Xilent, 9 p.m., $10-$20.
F8: 1192 Folsom St., San Francisco. “Housepitality,” w/ Boris Werner, Bells & Whistles, Mike Bee, Joel Conway, 9 p.m., $5-$10.
Harlot: 46 Minna, San Francisco. “Qoöl,” w/ Biri, Dan Sherman, Spesh, 5 p.m.
Infusion Lounge: 124 Ellis, San Francisco. “Indulgence,” 10 p.m.
Lexington Club: 3464 19th St., San Francisco. “Friends of Dorothy,” w/ DJ Sissyslap, 9 p.m., free.
Lookout: 3600 16th St., San Francisco. “What?,” w/ resident DJ Tisdale and guests, 7 p.m., free.
Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “Rock the Spot,” 9 p.m., free.
Make-Out Room: 3225 22nd St., San Francisco. “Burn Down the Disco,” w/ DJs 2shy-shy & Melt w/U, Third Wednesday of every month, 9 p.m., free.
MatrixFillmore: 3138 Fillmore, San Francisco. “Reload,” w/ DJ Big Bad Bruce, 10 p.m., free.
Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Booty Call,” w/ Juanita More, Joshua J, guests, 9 p.m., $3.
Showdown: 10 Sixth St., San Francisco. “Nokturnal,” w/ DJs Coyle & Gonya, Third Wednesday of every month, 9 p.m., free.
HIP-HOP
Brick & Mortar Music Hall: 1710 Mission, San Francisco. J. Lately & J. Good, Chuuwee, Rec-League, Dregs One, Sayknowledge, Telli Prego, DJ Okeefe, 9 p.m., $7-$10.
Double Dutch: 3192 16th St., San Francisco. “Cash IV Gold,” w/ DJs Kool Karlo, Roost Uno, and Sean G, 10 p.m., free.
Skylark Bar: 3089 16th St., San Francisco. “Mixtape Wednesday,” w/ resident DJs Strategy, Junot, Herb Digs, & guests, 9 p.m., $5.
ACOUSTIC
Cafe Divine: 1600 Stockton, San Francisco. Craig Ventresco & Meredith Axelrod, 7 p.m., free.
Club Deluxe: 1511 Haight, San Francisco. Happy Hour Bluegrass, 6:30 p.m., free.
Johnny Foley’s Irish House: 243 O’Farrell St., San Francisco. Terry Savastano, Every other Wednesday, 9 p.m., free.
JAZZ
Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. Gaucho, Eric Garland’s Jazz Session, The Amnesiacs, 7 p.m., free.
Bird & Beckett: 653 Chenery, San Francisco. Ouroboros, 8 p.m., free.
Burritt Room: 417 Stockton St., San Francisco. Terry Disley’s Rocking Jazz Trio, 6 p.m., free.
Jazz Bistro At Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Charles Unger Experience, 7:30 p.m., free.
Le Colonial: 20 Cosmo, San Francisco. The Cosmo Alleycats featuring Ms. Emily Wade Adams, 7 p.m., free.
Oz Lounge: 260 Kearny, San Francisco. Hard Bop Collective, 6 p.m., free.
Savanna Jazz Club: 2937 Mission, San Francisco. “Cat’s Corner,” 9 p.m., $10.
Top of the Mark: One Nob Hill, 999 California, San Francisco. Ricardo Scales, Wednesdays, 6:30-11:30 p.m., $5.
Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. José James, 8 p.m., $24.
Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Brenda Reed, 7:30 p.m., free.
INTERNATIONAL
BeatBox: 314 11th St., San Francisco. “Salsa-XS,” queer salsa night, 8 p.m.
Bissap Baobab: 3372 19th St., San Francisco. Timba Dance Party, w/ DJ WaltDigz, 10 p.m., $5.
Cafe Cocomo: 650 Indiana, San Francisco. “Bachatalicious,” w/ DJs Good Sho & Rodney, 7 p.m., $5-$10.
Elbo Room: 647 Valencia, San Francisco. Banda Magda, DJ Vinnie Esparza, 9 p.m., $8.
Pachamama Restaurant: 1630 Powell, San Francisco. “Cafe LatinoAmericano,” 8 p.m., $5.
BLUES
Biscuits and Blues: 401 Mason, San Francisco. Bob Malone Band, 8 & 10 p.m., $15.
The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. Leah Tysse, 9:30 p.m.
SOUL
Boom Boom Room: 1601 Fillmore, San Francisco. “Soul Train Revival,” w/ “Ziek” McCarter, Third Wednesday of every month, 9:30 p.m., $5.
The Royal Cuckoo: 3202 Mission, San Francisco Freddie Hughes & Chris Burns, 7:30 p.m., free.

THURSDAY 19
ROCK
Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. The Ferocious Few, Grand Lodge, Daring Ear, 9 p.m., $8-$10.
Bottom of the Hill: 1233 17th St., San Francisco. Body Language, Dwntwn, Pale Blue Dot, 9 p.m., $12-$14.
Brick & Mortar Music Hall: 1710 Mission, San Francisco. Rose Windows, Jeffertitti’s Nile, Seatraffic, 9 p.m., $10-$12.
Cafe Du Nord: 2170 Market, San Francisco. Return to Mono, Astral, Sit Kitty Sit, The Common Men, 8 p.m., $8.
DNA Lounge: 375 11th St., San Francisco. Yalls, Emily Reo, Cuddle Formation, Peace Arrow, 8 p.m., $8-$10.
S.F. Eagle: 398 12th St., San Francisco. Thursday Nite Live: Charmless, The Philistines, Naive Americans, 9 p.m., $8.
El Rio: 3158 Mission, San Francisco. Jesus Fucking Christ, The Cutthroats 9, Go Time, 8 p.m., $7.
Hemlock Tavern: 1131 Polk, San Francisco. Human Eye, CCR Headcleaner, Musk, 8:30 p.m., $10.
Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. Hotel Eden, Bias Tape, Chief Enablers, 9 p.m., $8.
The Knockout: 3223 Mission, San Francisco. Benefit for the Tamale Lady, With live music by Grandma’s Boyfriend, Scraper, Windham Flat, and Quite Polite., 10 p.m.
Milk Bar: 1840 Haight, San Francisco. Black City Lights, Choongum, Sunrunners, Running in the Fog, 8 p.m., $8.
Rickshaw Stop: 155 Fell, San Francisco. “Popscene,” w/ The Colourist, Ghost Loft, Aaron Axelsen, Miles the DJ, 9:30 p.m., $10-$12.
Thee Parkside: 1600 17th St., San Francisco. Hard Skin, Replica, Glitz, Kicker, 9 p.m., $10.
DANCE
Abbey Tavern: 4100 Geary, San Francisco. DJ Schrobi-Girl, 10 p.m., free.
Audio Discotech: 316 11th St., San Francisco. “Phonic,” w/ Lazy Rich, Tech Minds, Zoe Parties, 9:30 p.m.
Aunt Charlie’s Lounge: 133 Turk, San Francisco. “Tubesteak Connection,” w/ DJ Bus Station John, 9 p.m., $5-$7.
BeatBox: 314 11th St., San Francisco. “Jukebox,” w/ DJ Page Hodel, 9 p.m., $10.
The Cafe: 2369 Market, San Francisco. “¡Pan Dulce!,” 9 p.m., $5.
Cat Club: 1190 Folsom, San Francisco. “’80s Thursdays: 15-Year Anniversary,” w/ special guest DJ Daniel Ash, 9 p.m., $6-$8.
The Cellar: 685 Sutter, San Francisco. “XO,” w/ DJs Astro & Rose, 10 p.m., $5.
Club X: 715 Harrison, San Francisco. “The Crib,” 9:30 p.m., $10, 18+.
Elbo Room: 647 Valencia, San Francisco. “Afrolicious,” w/ DJs Pleasuremaker, Señor Oz, and live guests, 9:30 p.m., $5-$8.
F8: 1192 Folsom St., San Francisco. “Beat Church,” w/ Gods Robots, Bedrockk, Balance, more, 10 p.m., $5-$10.
Harlot: 46 Minna, San Francisco. Matthias Tanzmann, DJ Rooz, Alessandro Iacobelli, 9 p.m., $10 advance.
Infusion Lounge: 124 Ellis, San Francisco. “I Love Thursdays,” 10 p.m., $10.
Laszlo: 2532 Mission, San Francisco. “Werk It,” w/ DJ Kool Karlo, Third Thursday of every month, 9 p.m., free.
Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “Night Fever,” 9 p.m., $5 after 10 p.m.
Monarch: 101 6th St., San Francisco. “Code 08,” w/ Bachelors of Science, Jamal, Canadub, Emcee Child, 10 p.m., $5 before 11 p.m.
Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Throwback Thursday,” w/ DJ Jay-R, 9 p.m., free.
Raven: 1151 Folsom St., San Francisco. “1999,” w/ VJ Mark Andrus, 8 p.m., free.
Ruby Skye: 420 Mason, San Francisco. “Awakening,” w/ Myon & Shane 54, LTN, 9 p.m., $25 advance.
The Tunnel Top: 601 Bush, San Francisco. “Tunneltop,” DJs Avalon and Derek ease you into the weekend with a cool and relaxed selection of tunes spun on vinyl, 10 p.m., free.
Underground SF: 424 Haight, San Francisco. “Bubble,” 10 p.m., free.
Vessel: 85 Campton, San Francisco. “Bay Area Hearts U: A Benefit for Monique Porsandeh,” w/ DJs Jaime James, Trey Courtney, Sepehr, Trev Campbell, Star Kommand, Lisa Rose, and Nima Nouri, 10 p.m., $10.
HIP-HOP
1015 Folsom: 1015 Folsom St., San Francisco. Method Man & Redman, A-Plus, Equipto, Sellassie, Kevvy Kev, Mr. E, Mark Di Vita, DJ Leydis, 9 p.m., $35.
Eastside West: 3154 Fillmore, San Francisco. “Throwback Thursdays,” w/ DJ Madison, 9 p.m., free.
The EndUp: 401 Sixth St., San Francisco. “Cypher,” w/ resident DJ Big Von., 10 p.m., $5-$10.
Make-Out Room: 3225 22nd St., San Francisco. “Chub-E-Freez,” w/ DJ Big Nate, 10 p.m., free.
Park 77 Sports Bar: 77 Cambon, San Francisco. “Slap N Tite,” w/ resident Cali King Crab DJs Sabotage Beats & Jason Awesome, free.
Showdown: 10 Sixth St., San Francisco. “Tougher Than Ice,” w/ DJs Vin Sol, Ruby Red I, and Jeremy Castillo, Third Thursday of every month, 10 p.m.
Skylark Bar: 3089 16th St., San Francisco. “Peaches,” w/lady DJs DeeAndroid, Lady Fingaz, That Girl, Umami, Inkfat, and Andre, 10 p.m., free.
ACOUSTIC
Atlas Cafe: 3049 20th St., San Francisco. Mitch Polzak, 8 p.m., free.
Pier 23 Cafe: Pier 23, San Francisco. Todos Santos, 7 p.m., free.
Plough & Stars: 116 Clement, San Francisco. Crooked Road, 9 p.m.
Swedish American Hall: 2174 Market, San Francisco. The Jill & Julia Show (featuring Jill Sobule & Julia Sweeney), Heather Combs, 8 p.m., $20.
JAZZ
Blush! Wine Bar: 476 Castro, San Francisco. Doug Martin’s Avatar Ensemble, 7:30 p.m., free.
Bottle Cap: 1707 Powell, San Francisco. The North Beach Sound with Ned Boynton, Jordan Samuels, and Tom Vickers, 7 p.m., free.
Cafe Claude: 7 Claude, San Francisco. Mad & Eddie Duran, 7:30 p.m., free.
Cafe Royale: 800 Post, San Francisco. West Side Jazz Club, 9 p.m.
Cigar Bar & Grill: 850 Montgomery, San Francisco. Sara & Swingtime, 8 p.m.
Feinstein’s at the Nikko: 222 Mason St., San Francisco. Jack Jones, 8 p.m.
Le Colonial: 20 Cosmo, San Francisco. Steve Lucky & The Rhumba Bums, 7:30 p.m.
Savanna Jazz Club: 2937 Mission, San Francisco. Savanna Jazz Jam with Eddy Ramirez, 7:30 p.m., $5.
Top of the Mark: One Nob Hill, 999 California, San Francisco. Stompy Jones, 7:30 p.m., $10.
Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. NaJe, in Yoshi’s lounge, Third Thursday of every month, 6:30 p.m., free.
Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Barbara Ochoa, 7:30 p.m., free.
INTERNATIONAL
Bissap Baobab: 3372 19th St., San Francisco. “Pa’Lante!,” w/ Juan G, El Kool Kyle, Mr. Lucky, 10 p.m., $5.
Pachamama Restaurant: 1630 Powell, San Francisco. “Jueves Flamencos,” 8 p.m., free.
Verdi Club: 2424 Mariposa, San Francisco. The Verdi Club Milonga, w/ Christy Coté, DJ Emilio Flores, guests, 9 p.m., $10-$15.
REGGAE
Pissed Off Pete’s: 4528 Mission St., San Francisco. Reggae Thursdays, w/ resident DJ Jah Yzer, 9 p.m., free.
BLUES
50 Mason Social House: 50 Mason, San Francisco. Bill Phillippe, 5:30 p.m., free.
Biscuits and Blues: 401 Mason, San Francisco. Selwyn Birchwood with Sonny Rhodes, 8 & 10 p.m., $20.
Boom Boom Room: 1601 Fillmore, San Francisco. Eric Lindell, 9:30 p.m., $15.
Jazz Bistro At Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Bohemian Knuckleboogie, 7:30 p.m., free.
Lou’s Fish Shack: 300 Jefferson St., San Francisco. Jim Moore & The Funktional Soul Band, 8:30 p.m.
The Royal Cuckoo: 3202 Mission, San Francisco. Michael “Spiderman” Robinson, 7:30 p.m., free.
The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. Chris Ford, 4 p.m.; Wendy DeWitt, 9:30 p.m.
EXPERIMENTAL
The Luggage Store: 1007 Market, San Francisco. Improvisation Workshop Salon II, 8 p.m., $6-$10 (free with instrument).
SOUL
Make-Out Room: 3225 22nd St., San Francisco. “Sugar Snap,” w/ DJ JZA, Third Thursday of every month, 6 p.m., free.

FRIDAY 20
ROCK
Cafe Du Nord: 2170 Market, San Francisco. The Octopus Project, Paper Lions, The Campbell Apartment, 9:30 p.m., $12.
The Chapel: 777 Valencia St., San Francisco. Woods, The Fresh & Onlys, 9 p.m., $15-$17.
DNA Lounge: 375 11th St., San Francisco. Wednesday 13, King Loses Crown, Death Valley High, 8 p.m., $13-$15.
El Rio: 3158 Mission, San Francisco. Friday Live: This or That, DJ Emotions, 10 p.m., free.
Hemlock Tavern: 1131 Polk, San Francisco. Windhand, Hornss, Yidhra, Connoisseur, 8:30 p.m., $8-$10.
Milk Bar: 1840 Haight, San Francisco. Scissors for Lefty, Tremor Low, The Bruises, dudha.us, 8:30 p.m., $10.
Neck of the Woods: 406 Clement St., San Francisco. Attik Door, Bristol to Memory, Kiwi Time, RonDre., 9 p.m., $8-$10.
Rickshaw Stop: 155 Fell, San Francisco. Sun Hop Fat, Sugar Candy Mountain, Sandy’s, 9 p.m., $10.
Slim’s: 333 11th St., San Francisco. Kamelot, Delain, Eklipse, 8 p.m., $26.
DANCE
1015 Folsom: 1015 Folsom St., San Francisco. “Trap City: Set It Off,” w/ Kool Keith, TWRK, Mosca, T. Williams, UltraViolet, Napsty, Kevvy Kev, Sleazemore, more, 10 p.m., $15-$17.50 advance.
BeatBox: 314 11th St., San Francisco. “U-Haul: … And I’m Over It Edition,” w/ DJs China G & Jane Bang, 10 p.m., $5-$10.
Cafe Flore: 2298 Market, San Francisco. “Kinky Beats,” w/ DJ Sergio, 10 p.m., free.
The Cafe: 2369 Market, San Francisco. “Boy Bar,” w/ DJ Matt Consola, 9 p.m., $5.
Cat Club: 1190 Folsom, San Francisco. “The Witching Hour,” w/ DJs Sage, Lexor, Devon, Joe Radio, and Daniel Skellington, 9:30 p.m., $7 ($3 before 10 p.m.).
The Cellar: 685 Sutter, San Francisco. “F.T.S.: For the Story,” 10 p.m.
DNA Lounge: 375 11th St., San Francisco. “Trap & Bass,” w/ Rudebrat, UltraViolet, Napsty, Harris Pilton, 9 p.m., $10.
The EndUp: 401 Sixth St., San Francisco. “Fever,” 10 p.m., free before midnight.
F8: 1192 Folsom St., San Francisco. “Vintage,” w/ DJ Toph One & guests, 5 p.m., free.
The Grand Nightclub: 520 4th St., San Francisco. “We Rock Fridays,” 9:30 p.m.
Harlot: 46 Minna, San Francisco. Doc Martin, 9 p.m.
Infusion Lounge: 124 Ellis, San Francisco. “Escape Fridays,” 10 p.m., $20.
Lookout: 3600 16th St., San Francisco. “HYSL,” 9 p.m., $3.
Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “That ‘80s Show,” w/ DJs Dave Paul & Jeff Harris, Third Friday of every month, 9 p.m., $5.
Manor West: 750 Harrison, San Francisco. “Fortune Fridays,” 10 p.m., free before 11 p.m. with RSVP.
MatrixFillmore: 3138 Fillmore, San Francisco. “F-Style Fridays,” w/ DJ Jared-F, 9 p.m.
Mighty: 119 Utah, San Francisco. Trouble & Bass 7-Year Anniversary, w/ Drop the Lime, A.C. Slater, Star Eyes, 9 p.m., $15 advance.
Monarch: 101 6th St., San Francisco. “Night Moves,” w/ Jon Dadon, J-Boogie, Deejay Theory, Sharon Buck, Papa Lu, 9 p.m., $10-$20.
OMG: 43 6th St., San Francisco. “Release,” 9 p.m., free before 11 p.m.
Project One: 251 Rhode Island, San Francisco. “Strategik,” w/ Split & Jaxta, Ethan Miller, Influence, Joe Joe, Dr. Whiskers, DJ Rockit, Anthony James, 9 p.m., $5-$10.
Public Works: 161 Erie, San Francisco. “Direct to Earth: 2-Year Anniversary,” w/ Echospace, Craig Kuna, Max Gardner, Brian Knarfield (in the main room), 9 p.m., $15-$20; “Resonate,” w/ Penthouse Penthouse, Great Dane, Colta, Ruff Draft, Citizen Ten, Bdot, Mr. Muddbird, Tone (in the OddJob Loft), 9 p.m., $5-$10.
Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Pump: Worq It Out Fridays,” w/ resident DJ Christopher B, 9 p.m., $3.
Slate Bar: 2925 16th St., San Francisco. “Darling Nikki,” w/ resident DJs Dr. Sleep, Justin Credible, and Durt, Third Friday of every month, 8 p.m., $5.
Temple: 540 Howard, San Francisco. “Fresh Juice,” w/ DJ Mei-Lwun, Manic Mondays DJs, Nick Williams, Chemical Ali, David Gregory, Ethan James, DJ Raksity, 10 p.m., $15.
Underground SF: 424 Haight, San Francisco. “Acid Test,” w/ Todd Sines, Tyrel Williams, Bai-ee, Fil Latorre, Miguel Solari, 9 p.m.
Wish: 1539 Folsom, San Francisco. “Bridge the Gap,” w/ resident DJ Don Kainoa, Fridays, 6-10 p.m., free; “Depth,” w/ resident DJs Sharon Buck & Greg Yuen, Third Friday of every month, 10 p.m., free.
HIP-HOP
EZ5: 682 Commercial, San Francisco. “Decompression,” Fridays, 5-9 p.m.
John Colins: 138 Minna, San Francisco. “Juicy,” w/ DJ Ry Toast, Third Friday of every month, 10 p.m., $5 (free before 11 p.m.).
Showdown: 10 Sixth St., San Francisco. “Fresh to Def Fridays: A Tribute to Yo! MTV Raps,” w/ resident DJs Boom Bostic, Inkfat, and Hay Hay, Third Friday of every month, 10 p.m.
ACOUSTIC
Bazaar Cafe: 5927 California, San Francisco. “Sing Out of Darkness,” American Foundation for Suicide Prevention benefit featuring Scott Mickelson, Kate Kilbane, Gary Adler, Mick Shaffer, and host Julie Mayhew, 6:30 p.m.
Bottom of the Hill: 1233 17th St., San Francisco. Jonny Craig, William Beckett, Kyle Lucas, 8 p.m., $15-$40.
Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. Sonia Rao, Connie Lim, Sean Krausz, Caroline Brooks, 9 p.m., $10-$12.
Mercury Cafe: 201 Octavia, San Francisco. Toshio Hirano, Third Friday of every month, 7:30 p.m., free, all ages.
Plough & Stars: 116 Clement, San Francisco. “Bluegrass Bonanza,” w/ The Sweetwater String Band, Ventucky String Band, 9 p.m., $6-$10.
The Sports Basement: 610 Old Mason, San Francisco. “Breakfast with Enzo,” w/ Enzo Garcia, 10 a.m., $5.
Thee Parkside: 1600 17th St., San Francisco. Papa Bear & The Easy Love, The Sam Chase, The Lonesome Heroes, Tendrils, 9 p.m., $10.
JAZZ
Beach Chalet Brewery & Restaurant: 1000 Great Highway, San Francisco. Johnny Smith, 8 p.m., free.
Bird & Beckett: 653 Chenery, San Francisco. The Third Quartet, Third Friday of every month, 5:30 p.m., free.
Cafe Claude: 7 Claude, San Francisco. Lori Carsillo Trio, 7:30 p.m., free.
Feinstein’s at the Nikko: 222 Mason St., San Francisco. Jack Jones, 8 p.m.
Jazz Bistro At Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Charles Unger Experience, 7:30 p.m., free.
Pier 23 Cafe: Pier 23, San Francisco. Peter Horvath Group, 8 p.m., free.
Revolution Cafe: 3248 22nd St., San Francisco. Emily Anne’s Delights, Third Friday of every month, 8:45 p.m., free/donation.
The Royal Cuckoo: 3202 Mission, San Francisco. Jules Broussard, Danny Armstrong, and Chris Siebert, 7:30 p.m., free.
Savanna Jazz Club: 2937 Mission, San Francisco. Savanna Jazz Trio, 7 p.m., $8.
Top of the Mark: One Nob Hill, 999 California, San Francisco. Black Market Jazz Orchestra, 9 p.m., $10.
Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Joyce Grant, 8 p.m., free.
INTERNATIONAL
Bissap Baobab: 3372 19th St., San Francisco. Qumbia Qrew, Third Friday of every month, 8 p.m.
Brick & Mortar Music Hall: 1710 Mission, San Francisco. Fanfare Zambaleta, Raya Brass Band, DJ Zeljko, 9 p.m., $10-$15.
Cafe Cocomo: 650 Indiana, San Francisco. Taste Fridays, featuring local cuisine tastings, salsa bands, dance lessons, and more, 7:30 p.m., $15 (free entry to patio).
Cigar Bar & Grill: 850 Montgomery, San Francisco. Orquesta Borinquen, 8 p.m.
Little Baobab: 3388 19th St., San Francisco. “Paris-Dakar African Mix Coupe Decale,” 10 p.m.
Pachamama Restaurant: 1630 Powell, San Francisco. Cuban Night with Fito Reinoso, 7:30 & 9:15 p.m., $15-$18.
Verdi Club: 2424 Mariposa, San Francisco. “Café Flamenco,” w/ Yaelisa & Caminos Flamencos, Third Friday of every month, 8 & 9:30 p.m., $18-$22 ($10 for kids under 12).
REGGAE
Asiento: 2730 21st St., San Francisco. “Kulcha Latino,” w/ DJs Stepwise, Ras Rican, and Kool Kyle, 8 p.m., free.
Elbo Room: 647 Valencia, San Francisco. “The Social,” w/ Maoli, One A-Chord, 10 p.m., $15-$20.
Gestalt Haus: 3159 16th St., San Francisco. “Music Like Dirt,” 7:30 p.m., free.
Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. Mykal Rose with Sly & Robbie, 10:30 p.m., $35-$39.
BLUES
Biscuits and Blues: 401 Mason, San Francisco. Selwyn Birchwood with Sonny Rhodes, 8 & 10 p.m., $22.
Boom Boom Room: 1601 Fillmore, San Francisco. Bill Phillippe, 6 p.m., free.
Lou’s Fish Shack: 300 Jefferson St., San Francisco. Shad Harris, 8:30 p.m.
The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. West Coast Blues Revue, 4 p.m.; Chris Cobb, 9:30 p.m.
Sheba Piano Lounge: 1419 Fillmore, San Francisco. The O.G. Rhythm & Blues Band, 8 p.m.
Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. Roy Rogers & The Delta Rhythm Kings, 8 p.m., $23-$27.
FUNK
Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. “Hella Tight,” w/ resident DJs Vinnie Esparza, Jonny Deeper, & Asti Spumanti, Third Friday of every month, 10 p.m., $5.
Boom Boom Room: 1601 Fillmore, San Francisco. Katdelic, Soul Mechanix, DJ Fillmore Wax, 9:30 p.m., $12-$15.
Cafe Royale: 800 Post, San Francisco. The M-Tet, 9 p.m.
Make-Out Room: 3225 22nd St., San Francisco. “Loose Joints,” w/ DJs Centipede, Damon Bell, & Tom Thump, 10 p.m., $5.
SOUL
Edinburgh Castle: 950 Geary, San Francisco. “Soul Crush,” w/ DJ Serious Leisure, 10 p.m., free.
The Knockout: 3223 Mission, San Francisco. “Oldies Night,” W/ DJs Primo, Daniel, Lost Cat, and friends, Third Friday of every month, 10 p.m., $5.
The Ramp: 855 Terry Francois, San Francisco. “Soul Soirée,” w/ The Tony Saunders Band, 6 p.m.

SATURDAY 21
ROCK
Boom Boom Room: 1601 Fillmore, San Francisco. Chum, The Humidors, 9:30 p.m., $12-$15.
Bottom of the Hill: 1233 17th St., San Francisco. Blouse, Social Studies, Feathers, 9:30 p.m., $10-$12.
Brick & Mortar Music Hall: 1710 Mission, San Francisco. Yip Deceiver, Kitten Grenade, 9 p.m., $10-$12.
Cafe Du Nord: 2170 Market, San Francisco. Rain Parade, Powder, Bone Cootes, 9 p.m., $10.
The Chapel: 777 Valencia St., San Francisco. Foxygen, Gary Wilson, 9 p.m., $15-$18.
El Rio: 3158 Mission, San Francisco. Battlehooch, Tape Deck Mountain, QunQ, 9 p.m., $7.
Hemlock Tavern: 1131 Polk, San Francisco. MV & EE, Michael Beach, Herbcraft, 9:30 p.m., $10.
Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. Mission Blackout, The Midway Delta, Chris James & The Showdowns, 9 p.m., $8-$10.
Neck of the Woods: 406 Clement St., San Francisco. Daniel Ellsworth & The Great Lakes, 9 p.m., $8-$10.
Slim’s: 333 11th St., San Francisco. Zepparella, Stars Turn Me On, The Trouble with Monkeys, 9 p.m., $18.
Thee Parkside: 1600 17th St., San Francisco. Wild Moth, Permanent Collection, Tender Buttons, No Tongue, 9 p.m., $6.
DANCE
Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. “O.K. Hole: 5-Year Anniversary,” final installment with Josh Anzano, Bobby Browser & Roche, Loren Steele, C.L.A.W.S., Nay Nay, Keith Slogan, 9 p.m., $5.
Cafe Flore: 2298 Market, San Francisco. “Bistrotheque,” w/ DJ Ken Vulsion, 8 p.m., free.
Cat Club: 1190 Folsom, San Francisco. “New Wave City: Clubland,” w/ DJs Shindog, Andy T, Low-Life, and Callum McGowan, 9 p.m., $7-$12.
DNA Lounge: 375 11th St., San Francisco. “Bootie S.F.,” w/ DJ MyKill, Airsun, Meikee Magnetic, Mixtress ShiZaam, Medic, Jerry Villa, more, 9 p.m., $10-$15.
The EndUp: 401 Sixth St., San Francisco. “The Show,” w/ Luca Bacchetti, Ben Seagren, Dean Samaras, guests (starts 2 a.m. Sunday morning); “Launch,” w/ Filipe Avelar, DJ Wookie, Lenny Ruckas, J. Caldwell, 10 p.m.
Infusion Lounge: 124 Ellis, San Francisco. “Social Addiction,” Third Saturday of every month, 10 p.m., $20.
Lexington Club: 3464 19th St., San Francisco. “Hot Summer Nights,” w/ DJ Finn, 9 p.m., free.
Lookout: 3600 16th St., San Francisco. “Bounce!,” 9 p.m., $3.
Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “Fringe,” w/ DJs Blondie K & subOctave, Third Saturday of every month, 9 p.m., $5 (free before 10 p.m.).
Mezzanine: 444 Jessie, San Francisco. “Lights Down Low,” w/ Gigamesh, Cassian, Bixel Boys, Richie Panic, Sleazemore, 9 p.m., $15-$20.
Mighty: 119 Utah, San Francisco. “Mighty Real,” w/ Terry Hunter & David Harness, 10 p.m., $10-$20.
Milk Bar: 1840 Haight, San Francisco. “The Queen Is Dead: A Tribute to the Music of Morrissey & The Smiths,” w/ DJ Mario Muse & guests, Third Saturday of every month, 9 p.m.
Monarch: 101 6th St., San Francisco. Colette & DJ Heather, Elz, Dru Deep, 9 p.m., $10-$20.
Powerhouse: 1347 Folsom, San Francisco. “Beatpig,” Third Saturday of every month, 9 p.m.
Public Works: 161 Erie, San Francisco. BoomBox, Ramona, in the main room, 9:30 p.m., $15-$20; “Icee Hot,” w/ Matias Aguayo, Shawn Reynaldo, Ghosts on Tape, Rollie Fingers (in the OddJob Loft), 10 p.m.
Rickshaw Stop: 155 Fell, San Francisco. “GameBoi S.F.,” w/ resident DJ/VJ LaRock, 9:30 p.m., $8-$15.
Slate Bar: 2925 16th St., San Francisco. “Smiths Night S.F.,” w/ The Certain People Crew, Third Saturday of every month, 10 p.m., $5.
Underground SF: 424 Haight, San Francisco. “Killswitch,” w/ Mossmoss, David Javate, Milkplant, Patrick Gil, 10 p.m., $5.
HIP-HOP
111 Minna Gallery: 111 Minna St., San Francisco. “Shine,” Third Saturday of every month, 10 p.m.
DNA Lounge: 375 11th St., San Francisco. “Down & Dirty,” bboy/bgirl dance competition with DJs Quantum & Lean Rock, 1 p.m., $12-$20.
John Colins: 138 Minna, San Francisco. “The Bump,” w/ The Whooligan, Third Saturday of every month, 10 p.m., free.
The Knockout: 3223 Mission, San Francisco. “The Booty Bassment,” w/ DJs Dimitri Dickinson & Ryan Poulsen, Third Saturday of every month, 10 p.m., $5.
Showdown: 10 Sixth St., San Francisco. “Purple,” w/ resident DJs ChaunceyCC & Party Pablo, Third Saturday of every month, 10 p.m.
ACOUSTIC
Atlas Cafe: 3049 20th St., San Francisco. Craig Ventresco & Meredith Axelrod, Saturdays, 4-6 p.m., free.
Bazaar Cafe: 5927 California, San Francisco. Songwriters in the Round: Jeff Desira, Amie Penwell, Jordan Carp, 7 p.m., free.
Plough & Stars: 116 Clement, San Francisco. Paddy Keenan, 9 p.m.
JAZZ
Cafe Claude: 7 Claude, San Francisco. Belinda Blair, 7:30 p.m., free.
Feinstein’s at the Nikko: 222 Mason St., San Francisco. Jack Jones, 7 p.m.
Jazz Bistro At Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Bill “Doc” Webster & Jazz Nostalgia, 7:30 p.m., free.
The Royal Cuckoo: 3202 Mission, San Francisco. Mike Olmos & Wil Blades, 7:30 p.m., free.
Savanna Jazz Club: 2937 Mission, San Francisco. Savanna Jazz Trio, 7 p.m., $8.
Sheba Piano Lounge: 1419 Fillmore, San Francisco. The Robert Stewart Experience, 9 p.m.
Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Hubert Emerson, 8 p.m., free.
INTERNATIONAL
1015 Folsom: 1015 Folsom St., San Francisco. “Pura,” 9 p.m., $20.
Cigar Bar & Grill: 850 Montgomery, San Francisco. Orquesta La Clave, 8 p.m.
Little Baobab: 3388 19th St., San Francisco. “Paris-Dakar African Mix Coupe Decale,” 10 p.m.
Make-Out Room: 3225 22nd St., San Francisco. “El SuperRitmo,” w/ DJs Roger Mas & El Kool Kyle, 10 p.m., $5.
OMG: 43 6th St., San Francisco. “Bollywood Blast,” Third Saturday of every month, 9 p.m., $5 (free before 10:30 p.m.).
Pachamama Restaurant: 1630 Powell, San Francisco. Peña Eddy Navia & Pachamama Band, 8 p.m., free.
The Ramp: 855 Terry Francois, San Francisco. Mazacote, 5:30 p.m.
Revolution Cafe: 3248 22nd St., San Francisco. Go Van Gogh, Third Saturday of every month, 9 p.m., free/donation.
REGGAE
Pier 23 Cafe: Pier 23, San Francisco. Native Elements, 10 p.m., $10.
BLUES
Biscuits and Blues: 401 Mason, San Francisco. James Harman, 7:30 & 10 p.m., $22.
Lou’s Fish Shack: 300 Jefferson St., San Francisco. Lara Price, 8:30 p.m.
The Riptide: 3639 Taraval, San Francisco. G.G. Amos, 9:30 p.m., free.
The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. Kathy Tejcka, 4 p.m.; Nick Gravenites, 9:30 p.m.
SOUL
Elbo Room: 647 Valencia, San Francisco. “Saturday Night Soul Party,” w/ DJs Lucky, Phengren Oswald, and Paul Paul, Third Saturday of every month, 10 p.m., $10 ($5 in formal attire).
Park Chalet Garden Restaurant: 1000 Great Highway, San Francisco. Big Blu Soul Revue, 2 p.m., free.
Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. Shanice, 8 & 10 p.m., $29-$35.
SUNDAY 22
ROCK
Bottom of the Hill: 1233 17th St., San Francisco. Dirty Beaches, Sisu, Chasms, 9 p.m., $12.
Brick & Mortar Music Hall: 1710 Mission, San Francisco. Doe Eye, performing Arcade Fire’s Funeral, 8 p.m., $8-$10.
Cafe Du Nord: 2170 Market, San Francisco. Hungry Skinny, Black Cobra Vipers, Big Baby Guru, Serfs, 8 p.m., $8.
DNA Lounge: 375 11th St., San Francisco. Gorilla Music Battle of the Bands, w/ Sweet Water, Duffermen in Carrels, NorthWestClue, Ashes of Empires, Buried, Nuclear Tempest, Truth Without Fear, 5:30 p.m., $9-$10; Otep, Stolen Babies, New Years Day, 6:30 p.m., $15-$18.
El Rio: 3158 Mission, San Francisco. Steel & Camouflage, No One & The Nobodies, Raven Marcus, 8 p.m., $5.
Hemlock Tavern: 1131 Polk, San Francisco. Ragwater Revue, The Voodoo Organist, The Slow Poisoner, 8:30 p.m., $7.
DANCE
The Cellar: 685 Sutter, San Francisco. “Replay Sundays,” 9 p.m., free.
The Edge: 4149 18th St., San Francisco. “’80s at 8,” w/ DJ MC2, 8 p.m.
Elbo Room: 647 Valencia, San Francisco. “Dub Mission,” w/ Mr. Lucky, DJ Sep, J-Boogie, 9 p.m., $6 (free before 9:30 p.m.).
The EndUp: 401 Sixth St., San Francisco. “T.Dance,” 6 a.m.-6 p.m.; “Sunday Sessions,” 8 p.m.; “Local Love,” Fourth Sunday of every month, 8 p.m.
F8: 1192 Folsom St., San Francisco. “Stamina Sundays,” w/ Concord Dawn, 10 p.m., free.
Holy Cow: 1535 Folsom, San Francisco. “Honey Sundays,” w/ Honey Soundsystem & guests, 9 p.m., $5-$10.
The Independent: 628 Divisadero, San Francisco. Gold Panda, Slow Magic, Voices of Black, DJ Dials, 8 p.m., $16-$18.
The Knockout: 3223 Mission, San Francisco. “Sweater Funk,” 10 p.m., free.
Lookout: 3600 16th St., San Francisco. “Jock,” Sundays, 3-8 p.m., $2.
MatrixFillmore: 3138 Fillmore, San Francisco. “Bounce,” w/ DJ Just, 10 p.m.
Monarch: 101 6th St., San Francisco. “Reload,” w/ Bruno Pronsato, Bells & Whistles, 10 p.m., $10.
Otis: 25 Maiden, San Francisco. “What’s the Werd?,” w/ resident DJs Nick Williams, Kevin Knapp, Maxwell Dub, and guests, 9 p.m., $5 (free before 11 p.m.).
The Parlor: 2801 Leavenworth, San Francisco. DJ Marc deVasconcelos, 10 p.m., free.
Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Gigante,” 8 p.m., free.
The Stud: 399 Ninth St., San Francisco. “Cognitive Dissonance,” Fourth Sunday of every month, 6 p.m.
Temple: 540 Howard, San Francisco. “Sunset Arcade,” 18+ dance party with bar games and video arcade, 7 p.m., $5.
HIP-HOP
Boom Boom Room: 1601 Fillmore, San Francisco. “Return of the Cypher,” 9:30 p.m., free.
ACOUSTIC
Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. Lee Gallagher & The Hallelujah, Annie Girl & The Flight, Sylvie Simmons, 8 p.m., $7-$10.
Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. Alana Newman, Wolf & Crow, Emily Ritz, 8 p.m., $8.
The Lucky Horseshoe: 453 Cortland, San Francisco. Sunday Bluegrass Jam, 4 p.m., free.
Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “Spike’s Mic Night,” Sundays, 4-8 p.m., free.
Make-Out Room: 3225 22nd St., San Francisco. Justin Frahm & Jeffrey Luck Lucas, 7:30 p.m., $8.
Neck of the Woods: 406 Clement St., San Francisco. “iPlay,” open mic with featured weekly artists, 6:30 p.m., free.
Plough & Stars: 116 Clement, San Francisco. Seisiún with Crooked Road, 9 p.m.
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church: 1755 Clay, San Francisco. “Sunday Night Mic,” w/ Roem Baur, 5 p.m., free.
JAZZ
Jazz Bistro At Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Bill “Doc” Webster & Jazz Nostalgia, 7:30 p.m., free.
Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “Sunday Sessions,” 10 p.m., free.
Revolution Cafe: 3248 22nd St., San Francisco. Jazz Revolution, 4 p.m., free/donation.
The Royal Cuckoo: 3202 Mission, San Francisco. Lavay Smith & Chris Siebert, 7:30 p.m., free.
Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. Jazz in Pink, 7 p.m., $50-$100.
Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Kitt Weagant, 7:30 p.m., free.
INTERNATIONAL
Atmosphere: 447 Broadway, San Francisco. “Hot Bachata Nights,” w/ DJ El Guapo, 5:30 p.m., $10 ($15-$20 with dance lessons).
Bissap Baobab: 3372 19th St., San Francisco. “Brazil & Beyond,” 6:30 p.m., free.
El Rio: 3158 Mission, San Francisco. “Salsa Sundays,” Second and Fourth Sunday of every month, 3 p.m., $8-$10.
The Ramp: 855 Terry Francois, San Francisco. Braulio Barrera y Somos el Son, 5:30 p.m.
Thirsty Bear Brewing Company: 661 Howard, San Francisco. “The Flamenco Room,” 7:30 & 8:30 p.m.
BLUES
Biscuits and Blues: 401 Mason, San Francisco. Brad Wilson Blues Band, 7 & 9 p.m., $15.
Lou’s Fish Shack: 300 Jefferson St., San Francisco. Robert “Hollywood” Jenkins, 8:30 p.m.
Revolution Cafe: 3248 22nd St., San Francisco. HowellDevine, 8:30 p.m., free/donation.
The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. Blues Power, 4 p.m.; The Door Slammers, 9:30 p.m.
Sheba Piano Lounge: 1419 Fillmore, San Francisco. Bohemian Knuckleboogie, 9 p.m., free.
SOUL
Delirium Cocktails: 3139 16th St., San Francisco. “Heart & Soul,” w/ DJ Lovely Lesage, 10 p.m., free.

MONDAY 23
ROCK
Bottom of the Hill: 1233 17th St., San Francisco. Porcelain Raft, The Tambo Rays, Teenage Sweater, 9 p.m., $10-$12.
Cafe Du Nord: 2170 Market, San Francisco. The Living Jarboe, Faun Fables, Amber Asylum, 8 p.m., $12-$15.
Cat Club: 1190 Folsom, San Francisco. Soft Shadows, Michael & The Strange Land, 8 p.m., $3.
Elbo Room: 647 Valencia, San Francisco. Abatis, Station & The Monster, Dead Meat, 9 p.m., $6.
Slim’s: 333 11th St., San Francisco. Scorpion Child, Kadavar, Gypsyhawk, Wilson, 8 p.m., $14.
DANCE
DNA Lounge: 375 11th St., San Francisco. “Death Guild,” 18+ dance party with DJs Decay, Joe Radio, Melting Girl, & guests, 9:30 p.m., $3-$5.
Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Wanted,” w/ DJs Key&Kite and Richie Panic, 9 p.m., free.
Underground SF: 424 Haight, San Francisco. “Vienetta Discotheque,” w/ DJs Stanley Frank and Robert Jeffrey, 10 p.m., free.
ACOUSTIC
Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. The Pick Bluegrass Jam, Fourth Monday of every month, 6 p.m., free; The Earl Brothers, Fourth Monday of every month, 9 p.m., free.
Bazaar Cafe: 5927 California, San Francisco. Olivia Clayton, 7 p.m.
The Chieftain: 198 Fifth St., San Francisco. The Wrenboys, 7 p.m., free.
Fiddler’s Green: 1333 Columbus, San Francisco. Terry Savastano, 9:30 p.m., free/donation.
Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. Open mic with Brendan Getzell, 8 p.m., free.
Osteria: 3277 Sacramento, San Francisco. “Acoustic Bistro,” 7 p.m., free.
The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. Peter Lindman, 4 p.m.
JAZZ
Le Colonial: 20 Cosmo, San Francisco. Le Jazz Hot, 7 p.m., free.
Sheba Piano Lounge: 1419 Fillmore, San Francisco. City Jazz Instrumental Jam Session, 8 p.m.
The Union Room at Biscuits and Blues: 401 Mason, San Francisco. The Session: A Monday Night Jazz Series, pro jazz jam with Mike Olmos, 7:30 p.m., $12.
Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Nora Maki, 7:30 p.m., free.
REGGAE
Skylark Bar: 3089 16th St., San Francisco. “Skylarking,” w/ I&I Vibration, 10 p.m., free.
BLUES
Jazz Bistro At Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. Bohemian Knuckleboogie, 7:30 p.m., free.
The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. The Bachelors, 9:30 p.m.
SOUL
Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “M.O.M. (Motown on Mondays),” w/ DJ Gordo Cabeza & Timoteo Gigante, 8 p.m., free.

TUESDAY 24
ROCK
Amnesia: 853 Valencia, San Francisco. Nova Albion, Mitchell Gonzales, Boys & Girls, 9 p.m., free.
Brick & Mortar Music Hall: 1710 Mission, San Francisco. Tomorrows Tulips, Sam Flax, 9 p.m., $6-$8.
The Chapel: 777 Valencia St., San Francisco. Islands, Bear Mountain, 9 p.m., $15-$18.
Elbo Room: 647 Valencia, San Francisco. Oceanography, Warships, Magic Fight, 9 p.m., $5.
Hemlock Tavern: 1131 Polk, San Francisco. Diesel Dudes, Andy D, 8:30 p.m., $6.
Hotel Utah: 500 Fourth St., San Francisco. The Faithful Mendoza, Ishtar & The Epics, Andrew Duhon, 8 p.m., $8.
The Knockout: 3223 Mission, San Francisco. Roland, Innerds, Ghetto Blaster, Peace Creep, DJ Hackk, 9:30 p.m., $7.
DANCE
Aunt Charlie’s Lounge: 133 Turk, San Francisco. “High Fantasy,” w/ DJ Viv, Myles Cooper, & guests, 10 p.m., $2.
The Independent: 628 Divisadero, San Francisco. Little Boots, MNDR, 8 p.m., $20.
Monarch: 101 6th St., San Francisco. “Soundpieces,” 10 p.m., free-$10.
Q Bar: 456 Castro, San Francisco. “Switch,” w/ DJs Jenna Riot & Andre, 9 p.m., $3.
Underground SF: 424 Haight, San Francisco. “Shelter,” 10 p.m., free.
Wish: 1539 Folsom, San Francisco. “Tight,” w/ resident DJs Michael May & Lito, 8 p.m., free.
HIP-HOP
Cafe Du Nord: 2170 Market, San Francisco. Sol, Sam Lachow, 8 p.m., $12-$15.
Double Dutch: 3192 16th St., San Francisco. “Takin’ It Back Tuesdays,” w/ DJs Mr. Murdock and Roman Nunez, Fourth Tuesday of every month, 10 p.m., free.
Mezzanine: 444 Jessie, San Francisco. Wax Tailor & The Dusty Rainbow Experience, Buck 65, Sake One, 9 p.m., $18.
Skylark Bar: 3089 16th St., San Francisco. “True Skool Tuesdays,” w/ DJ Ren the Vinyl Archaeologist, 10 p.m., free.
ACOUSTIC
Bazaar Cafe: 5927 California, San Francisco. Songwriter-in-Residence: Nina Jo Smith, 7 p.m. continues through.
Plough & Stars: 116 Clement, San Francisco. Song session with Cormac Gannon, Last Tuesday of every month, 9 p.m.
The Rite Spot Cafe: 2099 Folsom, San Francisco. Toshio Hirano, 8:30 p.m., free.
JAZZ
Beach Chalet Brewery & Restaurant: 1000 Great Highway, San Francisco. Gerry Grosz Jazz Jam, 7 p.m.
Bird & Beckett: 653 Chenery, San Francisco. Prasant Radhakrishnan & George Brooks with Bishu Chatterjee, Ferhan Qureshi, and Rusty Aceves, 7 p.m., $18.91-$19.41.
Blush! Wine Bar: 476 Castro, San Francisco. Kally Price & Rob Reich, 7 p.m., free.
Burritt Room: 417 Stockton St., San Francisco. Terry Disley’s Rocking Jazz Trio, 6 p.m., free.
Cafe Divine: 1600 Stockton, San Francisco. Chris Amberger, 7 p.m.
Jazz Bistro At Les Joulins: 44 Ellis, San Francisco. M.B. Hanif & The Sound Voyagers, 7:30 p.m., free.
Le Colonial: 20 Cosmo, San Francisco. Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, 7 p.m.
Oz Lounge: 260 Kearny, San Francisco. Emily Hayes & Mark Holzinger, 6 p.m., free.
Revolution Cafe: 3248 22nd St., San Francisco. West Side Jazz Club, 5 p.m., free.
Verdi Club: 2424 Mariposa, San Francisco. “Tuesday Night Jump,” w/ Stompy Jones, 9 p.m., $10-$12.
Yoshi’s San Francisco: 1330 Fillmore, San Francisco. Tommy Igoe Big Band, 8 p.m., $22.
Zingari: 501 Post, San Francisco. Anya Malkiel, 7:30 p.m., free.
INTERNATIONAL
Cafe Cocomo: 650 Indiana, San Francisco. “Descarga S.F.,” w/ DJs Hong & Good Sho, 8 p.m., $12.
The Cosmo Bar & Lounge: 440 Broadway, San Francisco. “Conga Tuesdays,” 8 p.m., $7-$10.
F8: 1192 Folsom St., San Francisco. “Underground Nomads: Post-Symbiosis Shakedown,” w/ Mayko, Dunkelbunt, Dulce Vita, more, 9 p.m., $5 (free before 9:30 p.m.).
REGGAE
Milk Bar: 1840 Haight, San Francisco. “Bless Up,” w/ Jah Warrior Shelter Hi-Fi, 10 p.m.
BLUES
Biscuits and Blues: 401 Mason, San Francisco. Ron Thompson, 8 & 10 p.m., $15.
The Saloon: 1232 Grant, San Francisco. Powell Street Blues Band 35th Anniversary, 9:30 p.m.
EXPERIMENTAL
Center for New Music: 55 Taylor St., San Francisco. sfSoundSalonSeries, w/ The Hub, 7:49 p.m., $7-$10.
FUNK
Madrone Art Bar: 500 Divisadero, San Francisco. “Boogaloo Tuesday,” w/ Oscar Myers & Steppin’, 9:30 p.m., free.
SOUL
Boom Boom Room: 1601 Fillmore, San Francisco. Soul Mechanix, 9:30 p.m., free.
Make-Out Room: 3225 22nd St., San Francisco. “Lost & Found,” w/ DJs Primo, Lucky, and guests, 9:30 p.m., free.

The Selector: September 18 – 24, 2013

Michael Redmond
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0

THURDAY 9/19

 

“Dark Matters: The Films of William Friedkin”

The Pacific Film Archive’s “Dark Matters: The Films of William Friedkin” wraps up this week with a trio of movies and a pair of special events. Thus far, the series has included 1985’s To Live and Die in LA, 1971’s The French Connection, and 1970’s The Boys in the Band, but not — in an omission so obvious it’s clearly deliberate — 1973’s The Exorcist. Friedkin himself visits Berkeley tonight for a discussion with film critic Michael Guillen (following a showing of 1977 nail-biter Sorcerer); the director returns Sat/21 to sign copies of his new memoir, The Friedkin Connection, and will appear in person at screenings of 1980’s Cruising and 2011’s Killer Joe. (Cheryl Eddy)

Tonight, Sorcerer and discussion, 7pm

Sat/21, book signing, 6pm; Cruising, 6:30pm; Killer Joe, 8:50pm

$5.50–$9.50

Pacific Film Archive

2575 Bancroft, Berk.

bampfa.berkeley.edu

THURDAY 9/19

 

The Jill & Julia Show

Over a decade before Katy Perry released her vomitously bubblegum, gay-appropriating smash-hit single “I Kissed a Girl,” Jill Sobule released a single of the same name. Where Perry’s was vulgar and derivative, Sobule’s was honest, witty, and painfully poignant. Amusing and whimsical lyrics are a trademark of Sobule’s work, and her gift for words and humor are what make her a perfect match for Saturday Night Live veteran Julia Sweeney. Sweeney is most famous for her androgynous SNL character Pat and her biting one-woman monologues. Sweeney and Sobule met at a TED conference at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in 2006, and after professing their admiration for each other’s work, the women joined forces, resulting in the Jill & Julia Show, a touring production of Jill’s songs and Julia’s stories that is certain to leave you gasping for breath. (Haley Zaremba)

With Heather Combs

8pm, $20

Swedish American Hall

2170 Market, SF

(415) 861-5016

www.cafedunord.com

THURDAY 9/19

 

“Not Dead Yet: Movie and Music to End ALS”

The inspiring resilience of Richmond, Calif. native Jason Becker — a talented young guitarist destined for metal-god status until he was immobilized by Lou Gehrig’s Disease — was chronicled in 2012’s Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet, its cheeky title a reference to the fact that Becker, now 44, has long outlived the grim prognosis of doctors who predicted he’d be dead by 25. As the doc shows, Becker continues to communicate and even compose complex music via a remarkable system that interprets his eye movements. Head to Bimbo’s tonight for a screening of Jesse Vile’s film, plus a concert with Pearl (featuring Scott Ian of Anthrax) and Forrest Day. Becker will also attend the event, which doubles as a fundraiser for the Jason Becker Special Needs Trust and the ALS Therapy Development Institute. (Eddy)

7pm, $30-75

Bimbo’s 365 Club

1025 Columbus, SF

www.bimbos365club.com

THURDAY 9/19

 

Hard Skin

The person who booked this show is either a deviant mastermind or holding a great social experiment. In one corner, sits the headliner Hard Skin, a sophomoric English oi! band from the ’90s that boasts such classics as “A.C.A.C. (All Coppers are Cunts)” and “Oi Not Jobs.” In the other corner sits the second band on the bill, Replica, a nearly-all girl hardcore band from a decidedly younger generation that may agree with the anti-police sentiment but not the liberal use of the “c-word.” Though the bands may differ from each other, there’s no mistaking that Hard Skin and Replica both come from supportive underground scenes. Hard Skin’s debut release, 1998’s Hard Nuts and Hard Cunts, sold 100,000 copies and the folks from Replica have gained local support and hype for their self-titled EP released earlier this year on Prank Records. Come see the generational, gender, and genre divides intersect at Thee Parkside, and take notes.This should be a doozy. (Erin Dage)

With Replica, Glitz, Kicker

9pm, $10

Thee Parkside

1600 17th St, SF

(415) 252-1330

www.theeparkside.com

FRIDAY 9/20

 

Diaspora Tales #2: 1969

The late 1960s may be remembered more as a fight for freedom by African-American communities. But Asian-Americans were equally determined to demand equality. Both saxophonist-composer Francis Wong and choreographer-dancer Lenora Lee have use their artistic expression to convey the struggles that they have unearthed within their own families. Diaspora Tales #2: 1969, originally created for the 40th anniversary of UC Berkeley’s Third World Strike, is a multimedia performance work that commemorates the courage and sacrifices by those involved, Wong’s brother having been one of them. Kung Fu, both as martial arts and in its more lyrically expressive form, join jazz, funk, and rap to evoke both a period and a challenge that yet has to be completely overcome. Olivia Ting created Diaspora’s visual components. (Rita Felciano)

7:30pm, $7

Asian Improv aRts

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive

2626 Bancroft, Berk.

bampfa.berkeley.edu

FRIDAY 9/20

 

“The Era is Now: Films of James T. Hong”

In 2000, experimental filmmaker James T. Hong’s scorching, Golden Gate Award-winning film Behold the Asian dubbed San Francisco “the white asshole paradise.” Though he now lives in Taiwan (for reasons that should be obvious), the former Mission District dweller — a man who fears no audience reaction — makes a rare return for a San Francisco Cinematheque-hosted screening of his latest work. New films enhancing what the SF Cinematheque dubs “a confrontationally intense body of work exploring racialism, philosophy, and revisionist approaches to history” include two from 2012, installation Apologies and The Turner Film Diaries; and this year’s Cutaways of Jiang Chun Gen — Forward and Back Again. (Eddy)

7:30pm, $5–$10

Artists’ Television Access

992 Valencia, SF

www.sfcinematheque.org

SATURDAY 9/21

 

Matias Aguayo

If you know this one-time minimalist-Closer Musik member from the all a capella cut-up jam “Rollerskate” or his wild Spanglish guest appearance on math-rockers Battles’s “Ice Cream,” you know that Aguayo’s voice is impossible to pin down. On The Visitor, his latest release on South American Kompakt offshoot Cómeme, Aguayo is as hard as ever to locate geographically, blurring Latin dialects and reverse engineering English lyrics over a mix of increasingly psychedelic rhythms that cut across (and veer from) generic dance and world music boundaries. With a new live show — expect lots of percussion and off-the-wall vocals on top of tracks —Aguayo could seem to be less on tour from another country, and more like a visitor from outer space. (Ryan Prendiville)

With Ghosts on Tape, Shawn Reynaldo, Rollie Fingers

10pm-3am, $10-15

Public Works

161 Erie, SF

(415) 932-0955

www.publicsf.com

SATURDAY 9/21

 

Blouse

Portland, Oreg. trio, Blouse, may have ditched the synths and drum machines of its 2011 debut self-titled album with new Captured Tracks full-length, Imperium, but the sound remains as hazy and dreamy as ever. Now it’s just backed by rippling reverb and distortion. The misty dreampop band makes siren calls that would entice a shipwrecked sailor, floating endlessly in a gurgling oceanic abyss. See? Wistful. Check first single, “A Feeling Like This” or next track “No Shelter” for that particular mental imagery. It’s all there, the swashing of fuzz, the wide open minimalism à la xx, the delicate, teetering vocal tracks, and an uneasy feeling of isolation. (Emily Savage)

With Social Studies, Feathers

9:30pm, $12

Bottom of the Hill

1233 17 St, SF

(415) 626-4455

www.bottomofthehill.com

SATURDAY 9/21

 

Wild Moth

There’s no question about it, there’s a lot of post-punk bands popping up in the Bay right now. For many of these bands, the term post-punk has been slapped on, but they don’t actually fit into these specific distinctions. You have a band that maintains a punk edge but is noisy and decidedly experimental at times? Definitely post-punk. That being said, San Francisco sweethearts Wild Moth have this whole “post-punk” thing down to an art. The band’s record release show for its newest album Over, Again on Asian Man Records is tonight. Joining the fun will be fellow post-punk bands Permanent Collection and No Tongue, as well as riot grrrl act Tenderbuttons. And accordingly, Wild Moth isn’t the only band on the bill with new stuff out. This summer Permanent Collection came out with its No Void EP and No Tongue dropped its newest EP, Body + Mind. As cliche as it sounds, support your local scene and pick up some new tunes! (Dage)

9pm, $6

Thee Parkside

1600 17th St, SF

(415) 252-1330

www.theeparkside.com

SUNDAY 9/22

 

Amanda Cohen

Author of Dirtcandy: The Cookbook, Amanda Cohen will discuss her unpredictable approach to cooking with vegetables (as a main dish) and tonight. The ambitious cook pairs unexpected flavors and presents them in a surprisingly harmonious way, and her cookbook is entirely in graphic novel form. Take her mushroom appetizer, a portabello mousse on truffled toast, drizzled with pear and fennel compote; or her Rosemary Eggplant Tiramisu, with rosemary cotton candy for example. Cohen was the first vegetarian chef on Iron Chef, and has been praised in the New Yorker and the New York Times among others. At Omnivore Books, she’ll discuss her journey, building a restaurant from the ground up to an always-crowded, original alternative restaurant in New York City. Stop by the store to meet Cohen and to pick up a copy of her comic cookbook. Also to possibly meet some fellow local veg-heads. (Hillary Smith)

With Grady Hendrix

3pm, free

Omnivore Books

3885a Cesar Chavez, SF

www.omnivorebooks.com

SUNDAY 9/22

 

Dirty Beaches

Alex Zhang Hungtai, the musician behind the Dirty Beaches moniker, is an old soul. An eternal stranger in a strange land with a flair for eccentricity, Hungtai seems straight out of the beat generation. Taiwan-born and Montreal-based, he has lived in a veritable laundry list of cities around the world (including a stint in San Francisco) and through his music and touring schedule, Hungtai’s wanderlust shows no signs of slowing down. This restlessness is evident in Dirty Beaches’ music, a muddy, murky mix of doo-wopesque vocals and surf-tinged guitars that never quite rises to the surface. His simple guitar- and sample-based rock is beefed up on the road with a full band and a saxophone player. This tour promises to be especially interesting, with Hungtai possibly performing sitting down or with a cane after he jumped out of a second story window to make his flight back to North America, like Neal Cassady reincarnate. (Zaremba)

With SISU, Chasms

9pm, $12

Bottom of the Hill

1233 17th St, SF

(415) 626-4455

www.bottomofthehill.com

MONDAY 9/23

 

The Living Jarboe

Jarboe’s music is defined by the way she uses her powerful voice, a mutable, inventive instrument that haunts, terrifies, soothes and mourns. The former member of beloved post-punk outfit Swans has been prolific since the band’s break-up in 1997, perfecting her experimental art and collaborating widely across the musical spectrum, notably with Bay Area legends Neurosis. This appearance as the Living Jarboe enlists the help of a violinist and a guitarist to bring her seething, squalling, challenging songs to life. (Ben Richardson) With Faun Fable, Amber Asylum

8pm, $15

Cafe Du Nord

2170 Market, SF

(415) 861-5016

www.cafedunord.com

 

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