SoMa Archives — Page 11 of 25 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

Election turnout expected to be less than 40 percent

Sasha Cuttler

June 1, 2012

Election turnout expected to be less than 40 percent

If they held an election and nobody noticed, would it still count? Because that’s what this Tuesday’s presidential primary election is starting to feel like: the election that everyone ignored.

Okay, okay, not everyone is ignoring this election. San Francisco Elections Director John Arnst tells us that his department has received about 55,000 mail-in ballots so far out of the nearly 217,000 they sent out, a turnout of about 25 percent. And 1,110 voters have cast their ballots in person during early voting at City Hall as of this afternoon, a level lower than the 2010 or 2008 primaries “by quite a bit,” Arnst said.

That’s not really surprising given that both major political parties have already chosen their presidential candidates, there are no other offices being seriously contested, and the rest of the ballot consists of the Democratic County Central Committee (and its Green and Republican parties counterparts) races and a pair each of ho-hum statewide and local ballot measures. The most interesting one is Proposition A, which seeks to break Recology’s waste collection monopoly in San Francisco by requiring competitive bidding.

“If the garbage issue is the most exciting issue on the ballot, you know it’s the most boring election ever,” says Tony Kelly, who is leading the campaign for Prop. A.

With the exception of a press conference that Kelly and other Prop. A supporters held last week to accuse Recology of being complicit in an alleged recycling kickback scheme by some of its employees, there’s been little to indicate Prop. A has much chance of success given that almost every endorsing group (except the Guardian) opposes the measure.

“Goliath doesn’t lose very often, and we’re being outspent 100 to one,” Kelly said, expressing hopes that the measure can at least garner 35-40 percent of the vote to send a message that Recology should work with the city to allow competitive bidding on some of its contracts.

But with turnout expected to be low, Recology isn’t taking any chances. Its political consultant, Eric Potashner, says the campaign has been assembling up to a couple hundred volunteers and its SoMa headquarters each weekend and “we’re doing the full grassroots outreach.” He expressed confidence that the measure will be defeated: “Folks have been well educated on this issue.”

Arnst estimates that this will be a historically low turnout election: “Top end right now, comparing the last three presidential primaries, I’m looking at 40 percent as the top turnout possible.”

But you know what that means, right? Your vote could be more decisive than ever, particularly for the 24 members of the DCCC, the outcome of which could move the ideological center of that body before its important endorsements in the fall Board of Supervisors races. So click here to take a look at the Guardian’s endorsements and don’t forget to vote.

The Performant: Street people

Tony Robles

May 25, 2012

Midnight Mystery Ride and Marshall Weber take it to the streets

It’s quarter to midnight, Saturday night in the Tenderloin, and out front a well-known, Geary Street watering hole, a cluster of cyclists is quietly gathering. It’s the May edition of the monthly Midnight Mystery Ride, and comers are mellow, enthusiastic. Lacking the Testosterone Brigade of Critical Mass, or the themed costumery of the San Francisco Bike Party, the distinguishing factor of the MMR is definitely the “mystery” aspect. The address of the meeting location is published the day of the ride only, no route maps or pre-planned itineraries are available, and the ride leaders and locations change each month, keeping everyone on their toes, or at least their pedals.

What’s not a mystery is the departure time. “At midnight, we ride” promises the original MMR website (whose members are based in Portland, Oreg.), and at exactly 12 am we roll out en freewheel, up the Polk Street corridor which is packed with weekend revelers, who react to the sudden appearance of a spontaneous bike parade with whoops and squeals.

A pass through the Broadway tunnel and down North Beach’s strip club row, up the Embarcadero, down SOMA, and finally up to the hilltop pocket park McKinley Square in Portrero, our route, devised and led by MMR regular “Ms. Jocelyn” winds desultorily through the neon-punctuated corridors of the San Francisco night much like the sort of ride you might take on your own on a nice night when you can’t sleep and the music of the streets is serenading you.

Best of all, upon leaving the park, we all have to bomb down the terrific twists of Vermont Street (“it’s the ‘bring your own big wheel’
hill,” exclaims one of the riders excitedly), providing us with the adrenaline rush we need to pedal back to our respective homes in the wee hours of the morning.

“After about 36 hours is when the hallucinations start,” laughs Marshall Weber of Booklyn Artists’ Alliance of his previous public “endurance” readings. A decade of 24-hour plus readings to get through James Joyce’s Ulysses, 46 hours to read “The Illiad” and “The Odyssey,” 72 hours to get through the bible, has left Weber with a pretty good idea of how to prepare for his Streetopia-connected performance piece, a 72 hour-long marathon poetry reading on the streets of San Francisco (read more about Streetopia, here). Equipped with a doghouse-sized “covered wagon” full of poetry (and sweaters for the cold), Weber’s plan to wander the streets spouting poetry like a mad visionary is contextually different from some of his previous performances.

“Poetry is a little more open-ended, less structured,” he points out. “And San Francisco is an unstructured, free-form place. (This piece) is not so much about the endurance, but about the geography…as much about the place as of the literature.” Encountered streetside out front the Tenderloin National Forest, at one of his handful of scheduled stops, Weber reads Bob Kaufman, Allen Ginsberg.

The rhythm of the jazz-inflected poetry combined with the crowd’s excited discovery of eclipse-enhanced, crescent-shaped sunbeams shining through the leaves of nearby trees and off the mirrors of nearby cars, infuses Ellis Street with a sense of wonder and camaraderie that one hopes will linger long after the poetry, and the Streetopia project, are finished.

Post-everything

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

May 22, 2012

emilysavage@sfbg.com

MUSIC Long black hair and ripped jean vests in the crowd, billowy hooded capes on the stage, DJs in jersey tanks and caps, and sea of flickering blue lit cell phones; there’s something spooky happening out there in Club Land, San Francisco. It’s almost as though the dark arts kids have discovered dance music.

Roll your eyes. Of course, that’s reductive. Goths and punks have long been venturing into dance clubs. Acts like Gang of Four, Liquid Liquid, and Siouxsie and the Banshees harnessed the power of beats, shooting rhythm directly into the noise decades ago. And then there was the dance-punk revival of the early 2000s, with LCD Soundsystem and its emblematic label DFA out front, and Black Eyes and Liars leading the weirder charge.

But lately in the city, there seems to be a handful of party curators gaining more recognition for throwing darkly experimental events, lining up unexpected live acts and multifaceted DJs, haunting visuals and thought-provoking participatory art. It’s a mix of live experiments, spooky glitches, punk-rap energy, and a particularly homegrown brand of San Francisco messiness. It’s been referred to as Tumblr culture, a grand, winking, sparkling, blood-soaked mix of references and cultures.

What’s more, these parties provide a space for those previously unassociated with fundamental club culture (i.e. have spent their lives hunkered down in venues and warehouses) with an entry point. Like all scenes, it can be difficult to break out of routine, but it seems almost rudimentary: bringing unconventional live bands to club nights draws in broader crowds.

Kevin Meenan, otherwise known as epicsauce, has witnessed this introduction in the first few months of his budding new party Push the Feeling. While he’s long covered nightlife and hosted live “one foot in the punk world, one foot in the dance world” events, he described this new endeavor as a handholding experience, convincing indie-garage-shoegaze centric friends to come out to a night in the electronic realm.

Maybe the rise of such experimental parties is thanks to the endless digital back catalogue of influences now available at the fingertips; it’s hard to say. But it’s fun and challenging, regardless. So is this the critical blog culture come alive?

SLEEP ONE NIGHT, RAVE THE NEXT

Marco De La Vega, another local figure in this experimental party-thrower culture, thinks so. He uses the same language to describe a recent party he threw, Public Access.

“To a large extent it was almost like a tongue-in-cheek mix-up of that old rave culture and like, the Tumblr culture that kind of exists now,” he explains. “This idea that every single person is, in their own right, constantly exposed and famous, and also in this really creepy, amazing, 10-second flashes of animated GIFs kind of way.”

While De La Vega works on other current monthly and twice-monthly events such as 120 Minutes and Future Perfect, April marked the very first installment of Public Access, which took place at Public Works in the Mission.

It’s a concept De La Vega says he’s been mulling over for years, an eclectic, visually minded show based around people generating their own content. He counted on a crew of some 10 to 20 friends and creative types to help reel in his fantasies, and help turn concepts in realities. In conversation, he repeatedly credits the same loose circle with co-organizing all the events on which he works.

At that first Public Access night, there were video screenings, and performance art, along with “forward-thinking drag queens” Dia Dear and Boy Child. Hype Williams, Gatekeeper, Teengirl Fantasy, and Total Accomplishment performed, as did DJs including frequent collaborator Dial Up, and De La Vega himself— who goes by the name S4NtA_MU3rTE. While very well attended (sold out, in fact) the Public Access night will only happen sporadically — when the exact right lineup can be formed.

120 Minutes (First Fridays, 9pm, $10–$15. Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. www.elbo.com), De La Vega’s longest-running current party has seen darkwave, chopped and screwed hip-hop, and grave rave acts such as Pictureplane, oOoOO, Light Asylum, Cold Cave, White Ring, Salem, and Tragik come through over the past year and a half. Next up, a likely-to-sell out show with field recording wunderkind producer Balam Acab.

Future Perfect (Second and Fourth Thursdays, 10pm, $10–$15, Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com), is another consistent party of his; it’s a collaborative effort with veteran rap promoter Gary Rivera (though again, all of De La Vega’s efforts take a village), which began at Monarch but now also takes place at Public Works.

“The idea on [Future Perfect] is similar to everything I work on,” De La Vega says, sucking down a bacon Bloody Mary at Pop’s on a sunny afternoon. “It’s basically the embodiment of this idea that there is such a huge cross-section between various musical genres, and particular production styles of music, so rap, electronic, anything ‘future based,’ he air quotes, “post-dubstep, post-anything. There’s this huge intersection between all these scenes that doesn’t actually have, strangely, its own outlet.”

It’s interesting that De Le Vega even got into throwing parties in the first place, given his back-story. He grew up a self-described record nerd who never went to clubs. He says he’s still not really a fan of clubs, which is hard to believe. “My issue with a lot of club nights is this idea that everything has to be something, or have a label, or be a scene,” he says.

He was raised in both Stockton and upstate New York, went to his first show at age 6 — Beastie Boys and Run-DMC with his two older sisters — and soon fell in love with radio pop (Prince) and gangster rap (Ghetto Boys).

After high school spent mulling around shows with the punk kids, he eventually moved back out west, this time to a loft in SOMA. While he stayed in most nights, his roommate went out and brought the parties back to the loft. This is when, as the drunken masses entered his shared space, a stoned De La Vega would spin his own music.

This lead to friends asking him to DJ their events, and eventually, his first foray into throwing parties: Suicide Club, at the Cat Club in 2003. It had dark vibes, beat-driven music, and a kiddie pool full of fake blood. The point was to pull in aspects of everything De La Vega loved.

“So for me, at the time, and I guess still, it was performance: performance art, music, the hardcore shows, experimental music shows. And the thing I loved but didn’t know what was happening with it, was dance music. I fucking adore dance music.”

The night did well, but De La Vega pulled the plug after eighth months, because of a turn of context. Suddenly, half the club would be filled with “jocks standing around just to watch chicks get naked and roll around in blood.”

While De La Vega stresses that he has no specific messages with his parties, he does believe in context, and he was no longer comfortable with the context in which these parties were playing out. He went back to DJing bars, mixing post-punk and gangster rap, and spending a lot of time freaking people out in pot clubs with five-hour long sets.

120 Minutes at Milk Bar in September of 2010 was his first return to throwing his own parties. The lights-lasers-sounds party quickly outgrew Milk, moved to its more permanent home at the Elbo Room and has remained a wildly popular event there ever since, playing, as oft-noted, mixes of Salem, Waka Flocka Flame, Dragged Out, Skinny Puppy, and Nicki Minaj.

“It’s an insanely amazing time for music. The breadth of widely available, quality work is wider than it has ever been, and this has changed the market drastically in the last decade… hell, in the last few years,” he says.

Adding, “Accessibility has lead to a larger common vernacular for artists to pull from, and in turn to a blurring of genre lines and a more relaxed take on the previously stringent rules that would guide the way a lot of musicians produced music and also how fans would consume it.”

De La Vega still DJs most of his own parties as S4NtA_MU3rTE, and has a mad scientist freedom to explore. He makes video files using the Serato program and uses turntables and vinyl as MIDI controllers, but also uses a program that combines live production program Ableton with Serato. He usually spins his own remixes, including a popular Waka Flocka Flame mix — he says every time he plays someone screams “Play Waka!” That, or Gucci Mane: “Any crowd, doesn’t matter the scene, they always freak out about Gucci Mane.”

Though he also taps into the bleaker stuff. He does all graphic design for the show posters he wheatpastes around the city, most frequently slick black affairs with crystallized white skulls. He agrees he has an overall darker vibe but not necessarily gothic.

“Goth doesn’t mean anything anymore and I feel like it gives the wrong vibe. But to some extent I come from that vibe. To me it implies the wrong things — Frankenstein boots, and multi-colored extensions — and that can be pulled off, it’s just not me.”

He breaks it down in the most understandable of terms toward the end of the warm afternoon at Pop’s: “I want to be able to go and watch [stoner metal act] Sleep one night and then go to a rave the next, and definitely still get backstage for the A$AP Rocky show.”

RIPPING OFF OPTIMO

It was a combination of influences that first got Kevin Meenan, a.k.a. epicsauce, interested in having his own e-list of local shows.

First, he was learning to use open source system Drupal, but more to the point, he found New York web list Oh My Rockness, on which he discovered SF-based act Tussle playing a show when he happened to be visiting a friend in New York.

The biggest inspiration however was long-standing punk and thrash e-list The List. “I have probably looked at it once a week, every week, since eighth grade,” he says. Spare and simple, The List is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, ongoing lists of Bay Area shows. Meenan, who now lives off Divisadero in SF, grew up in the Walnut Creek area, so he’s been going to local shows for quite some time.

He began epicsauce.com in 2007, a few years after he returned to the Bay. He’d gone to college in Boston and spent a year abroad in London, where he discovered club nights he actually wanted to go to. “epicsauce.com was supposed to be like The List,” he later adds, “but a little bit more inclusive of dance music and stuff I was just starting to get into it at that point.”

Now, five years and many remixes later, Meenan throws a free dance music-oriented party, Push the Feeling (Monthly, dates vary, 9pm, free with Facebook RSVP. Underground SF, 424 Haight, SF.), with high school BFF/roommate Andrew Marcogliese, a.k.a. YR SKULL. The Lower Haight event has thus far featured Magic Touch, Shock, Chucha Santamaria y Usted, and shortcircles, among other acts.

“I can safely say that there’s this [legendary ’90s-born party] in Scotland, that I’ve never been to called Optimo, and this is 100 percent me trying to rip off Optimo,” he says with an easy laugh. “In my mind they have the coolest shit, cross genres.”

Meenan also leans heavy on newish label 100% Silk, which describes itself as making “singles of diamond-life dance & bliss-disco & basement luxury grooves by friends and lovers from all over the world.”

He says the label has been pretty central to him exploring older house music.

Push the Feeling is shiny and new, and still figuring out its place, but it’s an interesting evolution for Meenan. “This is my first attempt at trying to do more traditional nights,” he says. With that said, the shows do have still have exuberant punk-energy of live music along with exciting DJs.

A DJ now himself, using Ableton Live, he’s been enjoying playing ’70s disco songs, then ’90s house covers and watching the crowd, or spinning Peech Boys’s ’81 track “Don’t Make Me Wait” followed by the ’87 remix “Don’t Make Me Jack” by Paris Grey. With those mentioned, he sings a few strains of each. “That’s one of the things that has really attracted me to dance music, you can cover 30 years of music history within a 20 minute period.”

While Push the Feeling may be one step in a particular, bass-heavy direction, it’s not like this is entirely foreign to Meenan. While he was doing the epicsauce.com list, which led to writing band profiles on SFist and other freelance writing work, he also was throwing his own near-weekly epicsauce.com presents parties at Milk.

The first show he ever did, February of 2009, included French Miami and Silian Rail. From there he booked a Neon Indian DJ set, Boys IV Men, Baths, Yacht — nearly all acts with some sort of electronic element, synth, or just straight up DJs.

After years spent tiptoeing the line between rock and electro, Meenan is very aware of the backlash against so-called “hipster house” — this calling out of relatively new bands and producers coming out of rock scenes, hinting at not fully appreciating the decades of dance music references that came before them.

He says he hopes he’s turned the page on that, as an obsessive music collector who spends weeks at a time studying one producer then said producer’s influences, but he also calls out the backlash as the prototypical hipper-than-thou refrain.

“I think there’s some validity to it, yeah there’s a lot of cool stuff that came before this, but I think it’s no different than the old man indie argument. This has been going on forever. I think this is true with any genre, and any form of music ever.”

SYNTH AS THE COMMON THREAD

Let’s get this out of the way, C.L.A.W.S. stands for “Can’t Live Anywhere Without Sandwiches.” Brian Hock says this with a small, proud smile from a tiny table in the Dogpatch Saloon.

It’s Hock’s minimalist, synth-driven solo project he’s been making music for since 2007. He’s also currently helping produce tracks for Group Rhoda, drumming for Bronze, and booking monthly experimental dance club-meets-live music night O.K. Hole (Third Saturdays, 9pm, $5. Amnesia, 853 Valencia, SF. www.amnesiathebar.com) at Amnesia.

The roster of acts that have played O.K. Hole in the past three years — the night began in 2009 — is impressive, if not wholly representative of this modern post-everything genre blurring. Of course Bronze and C.L.A.W.S have stopped in, but also Eats Tapes, Jonas Reinhardt, Magic Touch, Coconut, Royal Baths, Late Young, Soft Metals, Silk Flowers, Water Borders, and dozens more. They book live electronics, coldwave, techno, and synth-y house, Hock says. Synths are the common thread between most of the acts, he adds.

Hock has been a part of the Bay Area music scene for some 20 years, in various forms, and agrees that O.K. Hole is something of an amalgamation of his past two decades, all funneled into one party. Well, maybe not his first band.

He played in a crappy punk band at age 14 in San Mateo, hung out at the Gillman and listened to a lot of grindcore — Man is the Bastard, Spazz. He then moved on to playing in a synth-based heavy psychedelic act, followed by a dark new wave band called the Knives.

From the ashes of the Knives, rose the goth-y metal band the Vanishing, likely his best-known band from that mid-Aughts era. He and fellow member Jessie Evans moved to Berlin and toured Europe. This is when he also began focusing on DJing. “It made me a total techno asshole,” Hock laughs.

After the Vanishing broke up after a show in Vienna, Hock moved back to the states, to a warehouse on Third Street in the Dogpatch. It was there where he threw all-night, underground jams called Gentlemen’s Techno, which he describes as similar to O.K. Hole but more dancefloor-oriented. “It was the crappiest, jankiest sound system ever, like 14 different speakers thrown together on top of these like six-foot tall motor-driven subs that used to be Def Leppard’s.”

After Gentleman’s Techno was kaput, Hock started O.K. Hole, only it was a DJ night at Argus Lounge with a friend who soon left the Bay Area. Once she moved, O.K. Hole moved to Amnesia and began as a regular monthly with the help of Rob Spector also of Bronze, and Nathan Burazer from Tussle. The night typically hosts two to three live acts, and then DJs. “We just wanted to have a place to book friends, and stuff we like,” says Hock. “It’s not a money thing.”

Hock himself DJs the nights on two turntables, usually playing mixes of house and techno. The now-Oakland based musician-promoter has also been recently discovering newer parties in the East Bay — a techno party called Direct to Earth, and the abundance of underground punk and hardcore shows. He’s been around the block and back around again.

“[The Bay Area musical landscape] is always changing,” he notes. “There have been a lot of really fun eras here that are all completely different. A movement will come together, and there will be something around it for two to four year cycles, and then that’ll dissipate.”

Perhaps it really is all just fleeting. It’s better to dance tonight, and worry tomorrow about all that heady place-in-history stuff. Or maybe it’s worth taking a second look.

“Sometimes I feel like it’s just all seems so confusing — what is this? All this stuff I’m so obsessed with?” Hock asks with a sigh when his music history is noted. “But then it coalesces and it’s like yeah, I really love this.”

Outer Mission opposition

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

May 22, 2012

steve@sfbg.com

HERBWISE Most medical marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco are clustered around the central part of the city, with the heaviest concentration in SoMa, leaving patients in many outlying parts of the city — such as the Outer Mission and Excelsior districts — with long journeys to visit a cannabis club.

That began to change in February when the Planning Commission approved permits for three new dispensaries to open in the Excelsior: venerable delivery service The Green Cross will open its first brick-and-mortar operation on the 4200 block of Mission, while Tree-Med and Mission Organics each won approval to locate on the 5200 block. All three clubs had been in development for years, delayed by a state case challenging new dispensaries that went all the way to the Supreme Court.

But Steve Currier, president of the Outer Mission Merchants and Residents Association, has appealed the building permit for the first of that trio of clubs to apply for one, Mission Organics, and he allegedly whipped up anti-pot hysteria in the neighborhood that included an April 21 protest march spanning the three dispensary sites.

David Goldman, a member of the city’s Medical Cannabis Task Force, said the Feb. 16 appeal hearing and April 21 demonstration — which he said also included supervisorial candidate Leon Chow — were marked by inaccurate statements that dispensaries attract crime and are harmful to children, even though all three dispensaries are more than 1,000 feet from schools.

“People who are ignorant assume we’re all a bunch of hoodlums or stoners looking to get high,” Goldman said. “We want them to realize that dispensaries don’t bring crime to neighborhood. If anything, it’s the opposite,” he said, citing the value of people, video cameras, and security guards on the street as a crime deterrent, particularly on blocks with vacant storefronts, as is the case with these blocks.

Neither Currier nor Chow returned Guardian calls or emails. Attorney Dorji Roberts, who represents Mission Organics owners Eugene Popok and Mike Mekk, said that he’s also had a hard time reaching project opponents to address their concerns before a Board of Permit Appeals hearing set for June 20.

“We’ve asked them for a meeting recently, but he won’t respond and he can’t articulate any real reasons why he has a problem with it,” Roberts said of Currier and his group.

Roberts said that Popok had attended meetings of the OMMRA to try to integrate into the group and address any concerns it might have, but they were surprised when the project got appealed after being approved 5-2 at the Planning Commission (Tree-Med’s vote was also 5-2, while The Green Cross won unanimous approval), where they saw their first hints of opposition.

“They’re saying it will be a density issue, even though no clubs are out there now,” Roberts said. “They say it will increase crime, which also isn’t true…It’s the same kind of fears and phobias that are offered by people who just don’t like [medical marijuana or its legality].”

Goldman, who had people monitoring the April 21 protest march, said the group would praise businesses along the way while condemning the dispensaries, as one point chanting, “Liquor stores, yes, pot stores, no,” a dichotomy he considers telling of the kind of moralism driving the appeal.

“Fundamentally,” he said, “it’s an attack on patients.”

Lee shows his pro-biz chops, but how is his balance?

Sasha Cuttler

May 22, 2012

Lee shows his pro-biz chops, but how is his balance?

Mayor Ed Lee is on the roll these days, with a string of recent pro-business successes capped off by today’s announcement that the Golden State Warriors are moving to San Francisco and building a new arena at Piers 30-32. But Lee faces a series of tricky balancing acts in the coming weeks as he tries to compensate for his strong economic development focus, which is driving up residential and commercial rents and threatening the city’s diversity and livability.

Lee has been overly enamored by tech companies since taking office, from pushing through last year’s tax breaks for Twitter and Zynga to his announcement a couple weeks ago that Yelp was expanding into a 100,000-square foot space in SoMa. “Yelp’s lease brings the total tally for technology leasing to more than two million square feet,” his office boasted in a press release. “Comparatively, this milestone was reached in the fall of 2011, indicating that the technology industry is increasing their role as a key driver in the office leasing marketplace and job creation in San Francisco.”

That’s great for residents who work in tech companies that are awash in venture capital from Ron Conway or the other billionaires who funded Lee’s mayoral campaign, or for the commercial landlords taking advantage of the latest tech bubble. But it’s not so great for the nonprofits and small businesses who are having a hard time with making rents that are being steadily driven up — or even for the cultural cache of a city being steadily overrun by boring Google-busers.

Contrary to right-wing fairy tales, policies that favor wealthy investors don’t really help the average San Franciscans much, and they need to be balanced by policies and taxes that see to the common good. That’s been crystal clear for a long time when it comes to San Francisco’s housing policy, which is why Lee today is submitting his proposal for a Housing Trust Fund to be placed on the November ballot.

Details are still being worked out even as I write this, but the Chronicle reports that it proposes to initially generate $20 million per year by slightly increasing the real estate transfer tax, diverting a bit of the city’s hotel tax, and then trying to set aside some future property taxes, with the goal of eventually reaching $50 million per year.

Unfortunately, that would barely put a dent the affordable housing needs identified in the city’s Housing Element, which says about 60 percent of all new housing construction should be affordable to prevent gentrification and its associated problems (more commuter traffic, loss of diversity, etc.), which the Board of Supervisors already exacerbated last week by greenlighting the 8 Washington project for the super-rich.

And Lee’s compromise with developers and the business community on his housing trust fund makes things even worse by diverting $15 million into a down payment assistance program for middle-class homebuyers (in a city where two-thirds of residents rent, and in a country that should have learned not to lure more families into overextending themselves to buy houses) and actually reduced the number of below-market-rate units that developers are required to build.

Granted, these are tricky problem fraught with complicated politics, particularly as we approach the deadline for submitting ballot measures for a fall election when only a simple majority is needed to pass revenue measures, a once every four year anomaly. As we reported last week, Lee is currently in the throes of final negotiations for his business tax reform measure, with labor and progressives putting the pressure on to back off his insistence that it be revenue-neutral.

That will be an important indicator of whether Mayor Lee will be content with simply catering to corporations and staying focused on his neoliberal economic development agenda – or whether he is serious about maintaining this city’s socioeconomic diversity (being a “city for the 99 percent,” as he said in his inaugural address) and taking a more balanced approach to governance.

Lee seems to understand the situation better than his predecessor, Gavin Newsom, who wasn’t willing to risk any political capital to solve the city’s most vexing problems or to make any big asks of downtown (or even to keep the 49ers in town). Whereas Newsom was willing to basically give Piers 30-32 away to Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison to secure the overhyped America’s Cup, Lee allowed that real estate deal to wither without losing the race and found what at first glance seems like a better deal for Piers 30-32: an arena built with private money.

But in the housing fund, business tax reform, CPMC’s massive hospital and housing project, and budget fights that will unfold in the coming weeks (the mayor’s budget is due June 1), Lee will demonstrate whether he has the political skills, the long-term vision, and the populist perspective to do right by all San Franciscans, or whether he’ll cling to his belief that a handful of business elites should be trusted with the future of this great city.

Our 2012 Small Business Awards

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

May 16, 2012

WOMEN IN BUSINESS

KELLY MALONE, WORKSHOP AND INDIE MART

In a tech-obsessed society, our hands navigate today’s gleaming gadgets more often than those of yesteryear: a sewing machine, say, or a manual drill. DIY goddess Kelly Malone has spent years trying to change that — and in so doing has created a business that serves as a cultural touchstone for the budding Divisadero Street corridor.

Malone’s brick-and-mortar shop is named Workshop (1798 McAllister, SF. 415-874-9186. www.workshopsf.org), and it’s a place where aspiring crafters receive hours of instruction in oft-neglected skills like sewing, knitting, and terrarium-making — all while drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon and meeting new friends. After receiving an enthusiastic response from her Indie Mart (www.indie-mart.com), a handmade craft fair she started six years ago in the backyard of her Mission digs, Malone saw a need for a hub for would-be crafters.

“I wanted to create a space that was super ‘hit it and quit it,'” she says. “Where you could come in and take a class, but you didn’t necessarily need to become some expert knitter. A place for people to sit down and get their hands dirty, learn to make something, and get inspired.”

Malone started Workshop on scant funding. Instead of relying on bank loans, she looked to her immediate community for investors. “I’ve started every business without money, which has forced me to really put myself out there and grow my businesses by meeting people and being super-passionate about what I do,” she says.

Malone says having a big budget to open her businesses would have been fun, but saving her pennies and having flea markets and garage sales to pay for sewing machines gives her more street cred, DIY all the way.

And like our favorite kind of businesspeople, Malone hardly sees her enterprises as a sterile way to make a quick buck. “I’m never going to get rich off these businesses, but if I get to the point where I can have a couple people on staff like I do now, and have enough to pay bills and go get some beers, hey, that’s good enough for me.” (Mia Sullivan)

CHAIN ALTERNATIVE

SPORTS BASEMENT

Although based locally, Sports Basement (www.sportsbasement.com) is technically a chain, as it now boasts four locations: an 80,000 square-foot building at the old commissary in the Presidio, SoMa’s brick-and-wood location, a store in Sunnyvale that once mimicked the inside of a computer (look for the remaining “ESC” keyboard sign), and another nearing Mount Diablo in Walnut Creek. But beyond the fact that it offers the only real alternative to national conglomerates when it comes to one-stop athletic and outdoor gear, the retail company is fiercely dedicated to its Bay Area community. Plus, its cozy, with hand-painted cardboard signs detailing specials, comfy couches, and super-friendly staff.

Founder Eric Prosnitz came up with the Sports Basement idea in an effort to create a more personalized experience in an off-price retail outlet, something tailored more closely to Northern California’s environment. Products change every week, discounts rule, and employees are encouraged to treat customers as individuals with a continuum of outdoor lifestyle needs. And the Basement recognizes that it’s an expansive company with the power to affect various neighborhoods. Last year, its locations hosted more than 2,000 community groups at 7,000 events, averaging around four events per store per day. Ten-15% of the retail space serves as free community space. Examples: Walnut Creek holds a fundraiser in the form of a kid apparel fashion show, Sunnyvale hosts ASHA for India, an organization dedicated to providing education for underprivileged children in India; Bryant St. houses the AIDS Lifecycle organization, and Presidio is the meeting spot for Golden Gate Mother’s Group — just to mention a few.

Aaron Schweifler, Director of Operations at Sports Basement, says the staff is encouraged to be creatively autonomous, and hopes each store will provide a shopping experience that can “wow” local residents. We are wowed! (Soojin Chang)

TENANT ADVOCATE

GREG MARKOULIS, AMERICAN INDUSTRIAL CENTER

In 1975, Greg Markoulis of American Industrial Center (2345 Third St., SF. www.aicproperties.com) was scouring San Francisco to find a new home for his family’s 25-year-old shoe manufacturing company. When American Can Company, one of the city’s oldest and busiest industrial complexes, offered an attractive deal on a vacant Third Street building, Markoulis gladly took them up. The new abode reinvigorated the company, transforming it from a street corner location to a community space housing more than 285 businesses — now including graphic designers, commercial photographers, architects, light industrial manufacturers, a winery, a yoga center, a martial arts studio, and a medley of Web-based companies and art collectives. That expansive spirit soon spread, helping to reinvigorate the entire Dogpatch area, which had suffered a lengthy period of industrial decline.

Thirty-seven years later, AIC still keeps the family ethos alive. When making executive decisions, Greg Makoulis says the company’s priorities align much more with how relatives interact with one another rather than those of a typical business. “The ideas of the oldest generation with the most experience are considered first,” says Markoulis.

As this side of town is rapidly undergoing gentrification, he could very well have sold the building to a corporation. But he sees his tenants as valuable community members, not just paychecks. Markoulis thrives on finding working solutions to accommodate his tenants, and respects the fact that people’s needs are ever-changing. Markoulis describes AIC’s priority to be “giving everyone a stable place to operate in.”

In Markoulis’ experience, one of the biggest challenges that AIC has faced over the years has to do with the cost and time for newly opening businesses to acquire permits. He hopes to see changes in San Francisco’s building and planning department, because he thinks a faster turnaround would help foster employment opportunities. (Soojin Chang)

CULTURE CHAMPION

DON ALAN, HEMLOCK TAVERN AND CASANOVA LOUNGE

“I think the challenge for San Francisco is to take care of the venues that its got,” says Don Alan of the ever-shrinking live music scene here. Alan has contributed enormously to the preservation of live rock in the City by the Bay with his raucous Hemlock Tavern space in Polk Gulch (1131 Polk, SF. 415-923-0923, www.hemlocktavernsf.com) on the site of former gay bar the Giraffe. He’s also a preservationist of dive bar ambiance, opening Mission District favorite Casanova Lounge, full to the brim of attractive indie young ‘uns on the make.

Alan got his rock start in the on community radio in Madison, WI, soon coming to SF and opening storied live bluegrass and jazz cafe Radio Valencia. “We opened the Casanova while we still had Radio Valencia and we realized that a bar format would work better for live entertainment than a cafe format,” Alan says. “We opened the Hemlock in 2001 after we closed Radio Valencia. I was really excited about having a space like this. I was very interested in having a kind of old Wisconsin tavern feel because that’s where I grew up. It was perfect for me, finding a space that had a small venue so we didn’t have to be concerned about getting 200 people in every night, so we could book the kind of music that we wanted and to have a big enough bar to support that.”

“But basically this is a subsidized entertainment operation. The money is made at the Hemlock’s bar and the culture happens in the back room with the shows. The culture wouldn’t happen without this up here.” So go buy a beer or eight, already, and then take in one of those rarer-and-rarer raging shows. (Mirissa Neff)

EMPLOYEE-OWNED BUSINESS AWARD

MANDELA FOODS COOPERATIVE

“In high school, all I wanted was there to be a place to find fruits and vegetables,” says Mandela Foods Cooperative (1430 Seventh St., Oakl. 510-452-1133, www.mandelafoods.com) worker-owner James Berk. “I never thought I’d be the one that could provide that. It’s an interesting place to be in.”

Before the store opened, Berk’s native West Oakland was a food dessert. A dependence on convenience stores for nutrition was leading to rampant bad health in his community, so when the opportunity arose to be a part of a for-profit, organic-heavy grocery store in Mandela Marketplace, he took it. Responding to the neighborhood’s request, the shop employs and is owned by community residents. These worker-owners make all the shop’s decisions in group meetings, aiming for consensus when it comes to many essential issues.

Now, nearly three years after opening its doors, Mandela Foods Cooperative is a neighborhood staple. The majority of customers live within a radius of a few blocks and come to snap up bestselling items like orange juice, coconut water, and kale (a vegetable Berk said he had never heard of before working at the store.)

Ready-made food is also popular, from full plate meals to sandwiches that neighbors drop in to buy, despite a Subway next door. Though the shop’s focus continues to be on organic, naturally-produced foods, worker-owners see a need for a greater diversity of products: cheap staples alternating with more spendy products geared towards sustainable foodies. Business is stronger than ever right now, too — Berk says the small shop is on pace to break even this year.

So how is it banding with your neighbors to bring the rest of the block ingredients for a healthy diet? About as positive as you’d imagine it to be. “There’s a unity here that I’m not accustomed to,” says Berk. (Caitlin Donohue)

ARTHUR JACKSON DIVERSITY IN SMALL BUSINESS AWARD

CHERYL BURR, PINKIE’S BAKERY AND CITIZEN’S BAND

Cheryl Burr has no idea why her first bakery boss left her 16-year old self in charge of the pastries. “I would never have let a teenager do that at my business!” she chuckles. But really, the guy was showing prescience — Burr and business partner Chris Beerman, who originally shared space in a bakery-bento retail window in Potrero Hill, opened the doors of their Pinkie’s Bakery (1196 Folsom, SF. 415-556-4900, www.pinkiesbakerysf.com) in SoMa nearly three years ago and have been tickling sweet teeth with their skills there ever since.

“I’ve always been a super-strong personality,” Burr tells us, sitting in the sunny table area of Pinkie’s. Though the Asian American breadsmith built a respectable career in high-class kitchens around the city, there came a moment when she wanted to be able to execute her own vision. “I’ve gotten to this point in my career where I didn’t want to answer to anybody.”

So she took control of her own trajectory, renting space in a commercial kitchen, starting her own hustle. Burr supplied pies to wholesale accounts, mainly friends of friends she’d met through her years in the restaurant business. Her commercial space is part of a culinary reinvigoration of the neighborhood around Seventh Street and Folsom. Pinkie’s is a stone’s throw from Bloodhound Bar, Sightglass Coffee, Radius restaurant, Terroir wine bar and more. “There is definitely a sense of community and partnership around here,” says Burr, who will sometimes refer to the strip as “Folsoma.”

Pinkie’s is also a room away from Citizen’s Band, Beerman and Burr’s freshly-sourced diner. The same customers that come for Burr’s famous levain bread and apple butter morning buns can now also order a dinner of poutine with wild mushroom gravy and crispy pork belly right next door.

“We want to continue to refine what we’re doing here,” Burr says when asked about her future business plans. Did that young woman on her first baking job envision the success of her own bread basket? She smiles. “I’m not entirely sure what I envisioned, but it’s different.” (Caitlin Donohue)

GOLDEN SURVIVOR AWARD

PHIL’S ELECTRIC

During World War II, Phil Sidari was commissioned to make artificial limbs for disabled US veterans returning home. The shortage of finished goods during wartime also prompted Sidari to begin constructing small appliances out of spare parts. Thus, 61 years ago, Phil’s Electric (2701 Lombard, SF. 415-921-3776, www.philselectric.com) was born.

Sidari passed away at the ripe old age of 103, but his friends Vicki and Bob Evans took the reins in the 1970s when Phil decided to retire. Vicki says the store has gone through quite a few changes over the years, including a relocation 28 years ago from Fillmore Street to a quiet corner near the gates of the Presidio.

The shop is intimate, homey, and entirely a family affair. Bob and Vicki’s sons Tom and Ken help their parents run the business and provide excellent customer service to their patrons. Phil’s Electric specializes in the repair of vacuums and lamps but also sells coffee makers, blenders, vacuums, razors, and a host of other small electronic items.

Yet the rise of cheap, disposable electronics has made it difficult a business that’s founded on, well, fixing things. “In the past, almost everything got repaired, but that’s changing,” says Vicki. “For example, you can buy a Cuisinart coffeemaker that, after its warranty, there are no parts for it. So you throw it out. Whereas, say 12 years ago, we would have had a part for that and fixed it for you.”

Phil’s Electric also faces stiff competition from the Internet and larger stores. But it does have some advantages. “Internet companies are working out of a warehouse somewhere, so they don’t really have any commitment to the neighborhood or the city or the community,” Vicki says. And the unique thing about San Franciscans, according to Vicki, is our interest in supporting neighborhood businesses. “If we moved this to a suburban area, I don’t know if we’d have that many loyal customers.”

Vicki’s favorite part about the business? The human aspect and her autonomy. “You can interact with your customers and really try to be flexible and meet people’s needs.” (Mia Sullivan)

SMALL BUSINESS ADVOCATE

CALIFORNIA MUSIC AND CULTURE ASSOCIATION

Two years ago, during the climax of the police and regulatory crackdown on San Francisco nightlife that we dubbed the “War of Fun,” the California Music and Culture Association (www.cmacsf.org) was formed to advocate for all the club owners, promoters, DJs, and other creatures of the night who create our urban soundtrack and culture.

Since then, CMAC has become powerful advocate on behalf of nightlife, demonstrating an influence on Mayor Ed Lee and other city leaders and promoting an understanding at City Hall of the important role played by nightlife, which a recent Controller’s Office report found accounts for $4.2 billion in annual economic activity.

“As the recent Controller’s report demonstrated, the small businesses that make up the nightlife economy have a huge impact on the overall economy, and we’re happy the city is starting to realize this,” Alix Rosenthal, co-chair of the CMAC board, told us.

Now, with the help of newly hired Executive Director Laura Hahn, CMAC hopes to move from playing defense against crackdowns and punitive legislation to playing offense by expanding its membership and developing a proactive agenda that will help nightlife and its purveyors flourish.

“Now that we don’t have our back against the wall, we’re trying to expand,” Hahn told us. “We want to bring it to even smaller business owners like individual DJs, promoters, and individual musicians — the backbone of nightlife in San Francisco.”

But not matter what new realms CMAC gets into, small business advocacy will always be at the core of its mission. As Hahn said, “We want to focus on standing up for the little guys who don’t have people fighting for them in City Hall.” CMAC will host the 2012 San Francisco Nightlife Awards, Thursday, May 31 at Mezzanine, doing even more to bring local nightlife to the fore. (Steve Jones)

GOOD NEIGHBOR

SHANNON AMITIN, FARM:TABLE

“People always ask me if I ever consider expanding,” Shannon Amitin, owner of farm:table (754 Post, SF. 415-292-7089, www.farmtablesf.com) says over the phone, although I swear I can hear his eyes twinkling. “I usually laugh and say, ‘Yes, but only if I can find a much smaller space.'”

The joke — or rather the good fortune — here is that Amitin’s bustling Tenderloin cafe and restaurant squeaks just shy of 265 square feet, with a large communal table for sharing some of the best gourmet dishes in the area. Those dishes are delectably evanescent: the three-year-old resto’s changing daily menu is Tweeted each morning for your rising and shining appetite. Featured as I write this: polenta cake + yukon potato hash + soft egg, asiago + rooftop herb frittata.

“Rooftop”? Yep, farm:table harvests most of its herbs and many greens from its roof, adding a bit of green to the neighborhood. Coming soon, another bit of green in the form of a farm:table parklet, whose funding was secured via, what else, Kickstarter. Farm:table itself has become a community hub for nightlife characters, nonprofit advocates, and office workers.

And yes, there is delicious coffee. Amitin cut his teeth dripping cups of Blue Bottle behind the original’s counter, but became disillusioned when Blue Bottle tipped from a friendly experiment into a chain-aspirational juggernaut. “I saw what I didn’t want to do,” he says. “That’s what led me to something small and personal. I have really good people working for me, in a vibrant area, with a crowd that’s open to new flavors. I want to keep that magic.” (Marke B.)

READERS’ CHOICE

PINK BUNNY

It’s been open less than a year, yet Marina luxury erotic goods boutique Pink Bunny (1772 Union, SF. 415-441-7399, www.pinkbunny.biz) has hopped into our readers’ hearts — and possibly other parts as well. Founder and CEO Serene Martinez showcases quality adult toys from the likes of Jimmyjane and gorgeous lingerie in a lovely, well-curated space. Union Street, get kinky!

Who’s running against Chris Daly?

Zelda Bronstein

May 15, 2012

I didn’t know former Sup. Chris Daly was running for state Assembly in the 19th District. Odd — I’ve been told he splits his time between Soma and Fairfield, but I had never heard anything about him moving to the West side of town.

But there he is, right on a flier produced by candidate Michael Breyer, who probably doesn’t deserve all the attention I’m giving him, but his campaign is so strange. First he’s for “old-fashioned San Francisco values” (whatever that means) — and now he’s running against Daly. Who, according to the latest data from the Department of Elections, isn’t in the race.

Breyer has a pic of Daly’s disembodied head surrounded by a happy meal, a goldfish and a Yellow Pages phonebook, three things that (other) supervisors have had issues with, mostly for very good reasons. Daly didn’t introduce the Happy Meal ban or the pet store legislation or the phone books limits; some of that happened after he left the board.

The flier compares Daly’s “Wild Antics” to “The Real San Francisco.” Which I guess is a conservative place “of old-fashioned neighborhood concerns.” (What — the west side of the city hasn’t changed in the past 40 years, since Breyer was a kid?)

Folks, please: Daly’s no longer in any public office. He was a good supervisor while he was there and willing to fight for his constituents. But now he owns a bar and works for a union. Aren’t we all getting tired of this shit?

Why the May 15 vote on 8 Washington matters

Zelda Bronstein

May 14, 2012

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Why the May 15 vote on 8 Washington matters

Brad Benson, the special projects director at the Port of San Francisco, took me on a tour of the 8 Washington project and gave me his pitch for why the city ought to allow a developer to put the most expensive condos in city history, housing for the top half of the top half of the top 1 percent, on a prime piece of waterfront land. He showed me the fence around the existing Golden Gateway Tennis and Swim Club (it’s not terribly attractive) and I watched a powerpoint presentation on the glories of the project.

His argument: The Port has no money, and no easy way to get any money, to do the roughly $2 billion worth of maintenance needed on the its piers and property. Residential development on a few seawall lots is part of the Port’s master plan and part of a waterfront plan that won approval of the Port Commission and the (mostly corrupt) Board of Supervisors in the 1990s.

The Port will eventually realize roughly $100 million from the deal. The city will get about $11 million for affordable housing. There will be new parks and open space, and a new, way fancier swimming pool and aquatic center. The tennis courts will be gone (Benson told me that tennis isn’t the best use for that valuable land) but the club will shuttle tennis players to another facility South of Market.

Just an aside: This is often deried as a private club, and it is — in the sense that you have to join and pay membership dues. It’s open to anyone who wants to pay, much as the YMCA is. It’s a bit more expensive than the Y, way more expensive than my gym (which has no tennis courts and a tiny two-lane lap pool) and a good bit less expensive than the high-end places lilke the Bay Club. It’s not a recreation facility for poor people, by any means. It has relatively middle-class users, particularly the folks who live in rent-controlled apartments at Golden Gateway, who get a discount. It’s not clear at this point if the club fees will go up when the fancy new version is unveiled, but I’d be shocked if the swim club attached to the priciest new housing in the city was affordable to the rest of us.

Now then: Back to the project. If you look at all the pretty architectural drawings and see all the amenities, like the new park and the wider sidewalks and the street-level retail and restaurants (ya think those will be a bit out of the normal person’s price range? Ya think?), it all looks lovely.

Money for the port. Money for the city’s general fund. Affordable housing money. What’s not to like?

Well, I told Benson, who used to work for Tom Ammiano is someone I’ve been friendly with for years, the same thing that I’ve told other city officials, including a few supervisors:

If this is the kind of housing we’re building, if this is the population our housing policy caters to, if this is what San Francisco is going to become, then nothing else really matters.There will be no progressive movement in this city. There will be no crazy, wild culture. To quote Calvin Welch: “Who lives here, votes here.” And the richer the city gets, the more conservative it gets.

And, frankly, the more boring it gets.

We’re seeing that already. The 20,000 new (rich) residents of District 6 voted for Jane Kim, and they may continue to vote for her as long as she supports things like the Twitter tax break, but they wouldn’t have voted for Chris Daly. And when Kim is termed out, the next D6 supervisor is likely to be a lot more conservative. The wild SOMA culture is going to vanish. How many of these condo-dwellers will go to, or even tolerate, the How Weird Street Fair? How many will want to put an end to the Folsom Street Fair?

Yeah, the rich who move into this city support same-sex marriage and like bicycle lanes on the streets. But they aren’t going to push higher taxes. They aren’t going to support politicians who have at their core a belief that narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor is the most important issue facing this city and this country today. They’d probably vote for Scott Wiener over David Campos for state Assembly. They’ll blent the city’s edge, make it just like so many other places in the world.

The city’s own policy makes clear that 60 percent of all new housing should be below market-rate. Every new project for the rich that we approve skews the balance a little further away from housing for the majority of people who work in the city. Teachers, firefighters, hotel workers — they can’t afford this stuff. So they move further out of town, taking longer commutes, using more energy … it’s all wrong.

That’s why the May 15 vote on this project matters. Not because most of us will ever swim or play tennis at the Golden Gateway club one way or the other. Not just because the new buildings are too tall. Not because 134 units of uber-rich condos at 8 Washington will gentrify the Mission. It matters because, day by day, wek by week, condo approval by condo approval, we’re losing San Francisco.

Mission Guide*

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

May 10, 2012

Pretty Pretty Collective

Pretty Pretty Collective is more than just a hair salon, embracing style and culture via beauty and hair design – cut, color, and everything in between, like art, fashion, rock and roll, tattoos, hot rods, motorcycles, coffee, food, fun, and creativity. At PPC, fashion production, event production, photography, make-up, and revolving art installations are curated by both local and global artists. Stay tuned for this fall when PPC is slated to open a second location in LA, complete with Four Barrel Coffee (for when your missing a little Mission pizzazz during your SoCal jaunts). PPC strives to enrich any community that becomes home with integrity and a vibrant culture of talent to keep you lookin’ pretty pretty.

3290 22nd St., SF | (415) 282-2002 | theprettyprettycollective.com

Gypsy Honeymoon

This très magnifique boutique on the main thoroughfare of the Mission’s shopping district moved into their newer, larger Valencia storefront two years ago, a dream come true for those who of us who wanted more of their magnificent antique finds. And let’s face it, 24th and Guerrero was just a tad off the beaten path (er, uphill) for us busy aesthetes. Like a museum where everything is for sale, Gypsy honeymoon would be overwhelming if it weren’t so expertly curated. There is an eclectic soul and authentic eye here, where vintage and antique French mingles with European, Asian, African, and American housewares, furniture, art, and jewelry. Inventory is carefully chosen and lovingly presented to create a magical shopping experience. Featured are wonderful handcrafted organic soaps made in Inverness, vintage postcards, old books, prints, photographs, linens, textiles, clothing, and more. Receive 20% off selected items when you mention the Mission page!

1266 Valencia, SF | (415) 821-1713

Luz de Luna

Take a visit to this delightful shop on 24th Street and be sure to knock off a few slots from your holiday gift list. Just recently relocated from their former smaller storefront on 25th Street, the newer digs are much larger, which means more unique and one-of-a-kind trinkets and treasures, accessories like scarves, jewelry, religious items, and more – including an impressive collection of creative salt and pepper shakers, Frida Kahlo swag, and bags made from recycled soda cans. Owner Denise has a passion and love for antiques and vintage jewelry and shares her heritage and celebration all of the Latin cultures with the Mission District. Open everyday until 7pm and 6pm on Sundays, you will find tchotchkes representing all cultures and interests all at an affordable price, which makes Luz de Luna the perfect spot to start your holiday shopping.

3182 24th Street | (415) 920-9988

The Smile Center

Few people look forward to a trip to the dentist, but it doesn’t have to be an ordeal. Dr. Debbane and his friendly staff at The Smile Center will take care of you. They have been serving the Mission District for close to thirty years now and recently re-located to swankier digs. The new office is equipped with the latest in dental technology including all digital x-rays, which provides close to a ninety-percent reduction in radiation, don’t you know. The Smile Center always use the latest procedures in order to minimize patient referrals for specialists that can be costly and inconvenient. Dr. Debbane and his staff also provide the latest in implant dentistry, cosmetic dentistry and even braces. He is the only one that will treat you from start to finish to maintain those pearly whites with the a consistently high level of treatment.

2780 Mission St. | (415) 641-1001

Rock Candy

Not your average candy store, the adorable Rock Candy Snack Shop is an emporium full of all things delicious and indulgent, including vegan and non-vegan goodies to satisfy your sweet tooth, as well as loaded nachos, fried tasty treats, and savory sandos toasted to perfection (housemade onion jam, anyone?) They also have a great selection of unique confections like brownies made with wine flour, chocolate swizzle sticks, and Eye Candy – that is, the current exhibition of dazzling and sometimes-sparkly local art for purchase or simply admiring. Mission gourmands need not travel far for a glycemic boost; Rock Candy is just a hop, skip, and a jump up Bernal – and let’s face it, you’re gonna need the extra cardio.

521 Cortland, SF | (415) 948-7497 | rockcandysnackshop.com

Ayiti: A Story of Love and Resistance at Mission Cultural Center of Latino Arts

Afoutayi Productions and MCCLA present an original performance that explores the secret power of Haitian history through story and a spectacular display of Haitian traditional dance, music and percussion. Ayiti: a Story of Love and Resistance (Ayiti being the indigenous name of the shared island) is the story of Hassen, a Haitian immigrant boy living in San Francisco. Hassen’s future is indelibly altered when his grandmothers’ stories lead him on a magical journey in which he meets the super heroes of Haitian history and discovers the love and resistance that have guided his people.

This not-to-be-missed production features an all-star cast of Haitian traditional dancers including Fabienne Denis, “Fofo” Pierre, and many others, with art direction by David Solnit. For more details and tickets, visit missionculturalcenter.org or call (415) 821-1155.

Friday, October 19 & Saturday, October 20 at 7pm @ Mission Cultural Center, 2868 Mission St. | $9-$11

Modern Times Bookstore

Since 1971, Modern Times has survived the collapse of the New Left from which it emerged, the assault of chain bookselling, the death of independent stores throughout the country, gentrification of the Mission, and the competition from online booksellers – all from the support of an ever-expanding community of friends, members, customers, authors, artists, and activists. Selling both new and used books, this San Francisco institution offers wide-ranging literature on globalization, politics and media, as well as an array of graphic novels, fiction, and criticism – not to mention their informed sexuality and gender sections, an extensive collection of writings on Latina/o history and culture with a full selection of Spanish language books, and a nice collection of children’s books. With something for everyone, Modern Times fosters a vital literary community with an exciting calendar of events at their new 24th St. location, as well as a blog with community resources online.

2919 24th St., SF | (415) 282-9246 | moderntimesbookstore.com

Free Hatha Yoga in the Dolores Park!

Purusha Yoga Studio offers a not-for profit Seva Project, a program that educates and certifies professional yoga teachers within San Francisco’s at-risk population and also provides free yoga instruction to the public. Every Sunday at 11am in Dolores Park near the tennis courts, Purusha yogis make the trek from their Outer Richmond home base to provide people of the Mission a relaxing morning flow and meditation for body, mind, and spirit and it’s totally free! All ages and all fitness levels are welcome, even your four-legged friends. All you need is a mat or a towel and a positive attitude. So come and play outdoors in nature and enjoy inverting, reverting, and melting into the ground in this inviting, low-key, and fun environment.

Sundays at 11am @ Northeast corner of Dolores Park, Dolores and 18th St., near the tennis courts | purushayoga.org

The Armory Club

Rumors that Kink.com have been tirelessly working to get the old Aces Café across the street from the SF Armory on Mission and 14th Street up and running in time for the Folsom Street Fair are, as it were, true. (They opened last weekend). Updates to the old biker bar include large windows to replace the dated stone façade of its predecessor, as well as an overall Victorian opulence to match the velvet-draped and chandeliered upper floor of the Kink.com headquarters. The drink menu is cocktail-heavy featuring homemade grenadine and bitters, fresh and locally sourced fruit for garnish, and of course a nice selection of liquors, beers, and bubbles. Quite the transformation indeed. (Jackie Andrews)

1799 Mission, SF | armoryclub.com

Iron & Gold

This two-year old La Lengua watering hole won this year’s Best of the Bay award for Best Happy Hour, and for good reason – delicious six-dollar cocktails that you won’t find anywhere else until 9pm, like the Sazerac made with Old Overholt rye, bitters, absinthe, and sugar served in a bucket; The Restaurateur made with Fernet-Branca, green chartreuse, gin, lime, and ginger beer; Pimm’s Cup made with Pimm’s (surprise!), gin, ginger ale, fresh fruit, and mint; and our personal favorite – the Dizzy Oaxacan made with delicious smoky mezcal, amaro, grapefruit, lemon, agave, and ginger beer. Iron & Gold may not be a dive bar – it’s way too nice for that label – but the warm and cozy décor along with dimmed lights will appeal to those that like to kick it low key as well as your persnickety out-of-town guests.

3187 Mission, SF | (415) 824-1447 | Find them on Facebook

SFC Motors

Owning a car in the city can be a pain. Aside from the regular street sweeper dodging, there’s the occasional break down and the bothersome biennial smog check. Luckily, the family-owned SFC motors is your one-stop shop where you can buy an affordable used car and bring it back for all the upkeep and – get this – have it be a pleasant experience. Their prices are always competitive and they offer a free re-test if your vehicle fails which actually happens about 20% of the time, even for new cars. As displaced refugees from the Vietnam War, their family has lived and worked in the Mission District for three decades, fixing up cars and making a reputation for themselves as honest and hard working. If you need any kind of automotive assistance, do yourself a favor and give these folks a holler.

398 S Van Ness | (415) 861-2002 | sfcmotors.com

La Nee Thai Massage

Traditional Thai massage – a more than two thousand year old healing art that combines meditation and yoga stretches with deep pressure massage and reflexology – is finally gaining traction here in the US, and for good reason. It combines all of the benefits of Ayurvedic therapy with traditional massage techniques to send you to straight to a state of nirvana. Let the knowledgeable and talented staff at La Nee work their magic, loosening all the little kinks and knots to leave you feeling relaxed and rejuvenated. If you’re a little more sensitive to the deep tissue, try the Thai Aroma Oil Massage with light to medium pressure or the Thai Herbal Massage. La Nee also offers prenatal massage for the all the expecting mothers out there as well as gift certificates (baby shower gift idea, anyone?) and package deals that accommodate practically any budget. (Jackie Andrews)

1453 Valencia, SF | (415) 282-2236 | laneethai.com

Makeout Room

With retro prom-themed décor, opulent vintage chandeliers, and Liberace-studded deer mounts, Makeout Room is the perfect place to add a little kitsch and nostalgia to your evenings out. As the home base for Lost and Found with DJs Lucky and Primo, spend your Tuesdays slow dancing to the sweetest 1960s soul 45s. Every other Monday you will find arguably the best karaoke night in town with sax-slinging DJ Purple, but let’s not forget the long-running cumbia night known as El SuperRitmo! on Saturdays or the monthly Writers with Drinks – a mash-up lit event with famous and not-so-famous writers and maybe a comedian thrown in for good measure. The solid calendar of events will lure in and then the strong drinks will keep you coming back – the Makeout Margarita will compel you to do just that, so beware if you have dreams of a future political career. (Jackie Andrews)

3225 22nd St., SF | (415) 647-2888 | makeoutroom.com

San Francisco Street Food Festival

Hungry? This weekend, take your appetite to the streets and chow down on some of the most delicious food from the Bay Area and beyond at the San Francisco Street Food Festival. This year, kicking off the festival is the first-ever Night Market – modeled after the night markets all over the world – to celebrate the diverse food and people that make San Francisco such an amazing place to eat and live. The whole shebang supports La Cocina, a non-profit in the Mission that helps low-income and immigrant women entrepreneurs launch food businesses. Read more about it at sffoodfest.com. (Jackie Andrews)

Night Market: August 17, 2012 from 6-9pm at Alemany Market | $25 entrance fee/$10 or less per plate | Free shuttle from 24th St. BART

Street Food Festival: August 18, 2012 from 11am-7pm @ Folsom between 20th and 26th Streets, SF | Free/Passports available online for savings on food

St. Mary’s Pub

Welcome to the best new old bar in the ‘hood. A recent well-deserved makeover has transformed this rundown, dingy dive into a stylish and comfortable neighborhood bar complete with HD TVs, pool table, pinball, and a well-curated jukebox. There’s a different drink special for each day of the week, free pool on Mondays, and a weekly line-up of guest DJs spinning everything from surf and rockabilly to dark wave and post-punk. Nurse a hangover on Sunday Bloody Sunday with their one-of-a-kind bloody mary menu. Grab a slice or a papusa from one of the neighbors and try the Florentine Mary made with sundried tomato pesto or a chipotle Southwest Mary with lots of fresh lime juice. Find them on Facebook for daily updates on drink specials and DJs. (Jackie Andrews)

3845 Mission | (415) 529-1325

Asiento

The owner at Asiento wanted to open a neighborhood bar and restaurant that solves problems we all have going out with friends – some are on time and others are late, some eat and others don’t, and some don’t mind splitting the tab while others do. Here, folks have complete freedom to come and go, and order and pay at the bar when they choose. No pressure! Problem solved! They serve tapas with a Latin flair, but their menu represents many types of cuisine from lemon hummus and fresh Thai spring rolls to queso fundido (a.k.a. cheese crack) and juicy burgers. Let’s not forget the drinks, like hand-crafted basil lemonade and the cucumber Rosemary. And with their new entertainment license, they have a whole calendar of weekly events, including Thursdays and Sundays that feature local DJs and live performances, while weekends are reserved for patrons to host parties – no minimums, just come and have fun! – and even bring their own entertainment. (Jackie Andrews)

2730 21st St | (415) 829-3375 | asientosf.com

Another Monkey Thai Restaurant

In a city that loves its long lines wrapped around the corners of tiny pop-ups and dives, it’s nice to know there are still places with well-deserved hype, but without the wait. The owners of SOMA’s Koh Samui & The Monkey scored when they swooped up this spacious location with a full bar on Valencia Street. With the help of an award-winning mixologist serving up fresh seasonal cocktails like the popular Monkey in the Middle (a ginger vodka concoction with pomegranate juice and homemade raspberry-lime foam), a chef creating clever Thai dishes for the ‘hood like Tom Yum nachos, as well as cheap lunch specials and happy hour drink deals, Another Monkey is a great place to both impress a dinner date or just grab lunch when the Thai craving calls. (Jackie Andrews)

280 Valencia Street | (415) 241-0288 | anothermonkeythai.com

Miss Phoenix Rose Tattoo

Named after the owner’s daughter, Miss Phoenix Rose Tattoo is proud of their prime Mission District location with über-talented and friendly artists like Chicago native and published comic artist Micheal Bianco and Atlanta transplant Adam Goodman who brings a southern flavor to the shop. Their newest rising star is local Thomas “Tea” Montano whose easy-going personality and contagious laugh are sure to leave you with a memorable experience (and a damn good tattoo.) Whether your desired ink is tribal or realistic, full color or gray scale, these guys can make it happen with a degree of skill that is anything short of impressive. Seriously, check out their portfolios online. Be sure to like their Facebook page for a 15% discount on your nest tattoo! (Jackie Andrews)

3340 22nd St., SF | (415) 800-7425 | missphoenixrosetattoo.com

Casanova Lounge

Strategically located one block from the 16th Street BART station and spitting-distance from multiple MUNI lines, the Casanova Lounge is a great place to either start your Mission bar hop or grab last call before stumbling home. With the exception of New Year’s Eve, there’s nary a cover and always stiff drinks at the bar with DJs spinning obscurities, oddities, and the occasional hit from nearly every genre imaginable. They keep the black velvet kitsch of the 1970s alive in this dark, red, candle and gaudy lamp-lit dive with their tacky-yet-mesmerizing paintings of nude women that adorn the walls. Go on a chill weeknight and sip a pint-sized hibiscus margarita or a carefully constructed bloody mary with all the fixins’. (Jackie Andrews)

527 Valencia | (415) 863-9328 | casanovasf.com

The Napper Tandy

This neighborhood Irish corner pub is more than just a place to slam a few post-work Smithwick’s or a certain insensitive drink on St. Patrick’s Day. A recent facelift upped this former dive to a sports maven’s haven in the heart of the Mission, boasting nine HDTVs and a huge projector screen in their back room to catch every nuance of every game under the sun, 365 days a year. Not unlike a traditional pub you would find in Ireland, owner Marissa Brown wanted to bring a piece of home to San Francisco, serving traditional Irish food like Guinness beef stew, Sheppard’s pie, and fish and chips. Their motto, “You are a stranger here but once,” about sums up the warm and friendly vibe you will find at The Napper Tandy. (Jackie Andrews)

3200 24th St., SF | (415) 550-7510

Cruz Skate Shop

Located in La Lengua – that long, skinny stretch of the Mission sandwiched between Bernal and Noe – Cruz Skate Shop is a hybrid skate shop catering to both the skateboarding and roller derby communities. Skateboard shops are no longer a rarity these days, but Cruz is one of only three roller derby shops in the country and the only one of its kind in California. Whether you’re a B.A.D. derby girl hopeful or a skate punk looking for a new board, Cruz can help you gear up. They stock up on hardware for both sports, as well as roller skates, boards, and safety gear. For the non-athletes who want to support a local and female-owned business, check out their cool apparel, books, zines, and tote bags that embrace a punk and D.I.Y. aesthetic. (Jackie Andrews)

3165 Mission, SF | (415) 285-8833 | cruzskateshop.com

Etcetera Wine Bar

Those of you who have been around the ‘hood for a minute might remember when 795 Valencia was an oxygen bar. Oh, the early aughts! The spot has changed hands a few times, but Etcetera may be the best yet, and after only six months in business have solidified their seat among the heavy wine hitters in the Bay Area. This warm and cozy wine bar offers a classy respite from the dive bar scene but without the pretension or excessive posh that your typical wine bar may offer, with monthly wine flights and tapas specials on top of the classic cheese and charcuterie plates and full dinner menu. Their flammenkueche, a French spin on pizza with a crispy crust and crème fraiche, is to die for and their two tapas with bottle of wine deal for $35 can’t be beat. (Jackie Andrews)

795 Valencia, SF | (415) 926-5477 | etceterawinebar.com

James Choi at his family owned corner market turned sandwhich hub of the Mission.

Rhea’s Deli

Recently a physicist teamed up with a bakery to formulate the perfect sandwich, which resulting in a long string of symbols seemingly lifted from the chalkboard in Good Will Hunting. Back in 2009, when Rhea’s liquor store decided they wanted to include a Deli and make delicious sandwiches, they didn’t need science, just good ingredients with perfect proportions and creative combos like Korean steak, pork katsu, and faux-BBQ chicken. Plus, their house-made aioli, jicama slaw, pickled red onions and jalapenos sandwiched between Boar’s Head cold cuts and Acme bread make the perfectly portable and un-soggy meal to take to Dolores Park or the new Mission Playground. (Jackie Andrews)

800 Valencia, SF | (415) 282-5255 | Take-out, dine-in, or delivery

Mission Cultural Center Presents: La Quebradora

The Mission Cultural Center has assembled a collection of art and performances that map Mexican cultural history through the spectacle of Lucha Libre, including an appearance by the “Mexican Hulk Hogan” himself, el luchador Mil Máscaras. On June 6 from 6:30-9:30pm, watch good battle evil in “KKK vs. EZLN,” when six burly combatants in colorful masks determine the future of mankind – or just put on a damn good show. Other events are planned for the duration of the exhibition. Call or visit the Center website for the complete schedule of programs. (Jackie Andrews)

2868 Mission, SF | (415) 821-1155 | missionculturalcenter.org

Mixcoatl

Even if you’ve never been inside Mixcoatl, chances are you have noticed the corner storefront wrapped in colorful luchador masks. How could you miss it? But step inside this museum-like tiendita and you will find a kaleidoscopic array of arts and crafts that reflect the creativity and customs of the Huichol people of western Mexico, including yarn paintings, beadwork, and embroidery in vibrant patterns and symbols — not to mention the many cases of silver, turquoise and other gemstones, feather jewelry, scarves, candles, and more. (Jackie Andrews)

3201 24th St., SF | (415) 341-4191

Co-owner Miguel Escobedo at the 24th St. location. Photo: Brant Ward/Chronicle

Papalote Mexican Grill

In a neighborhood with a taqueria (or two, or three) on every block, one must have a menu standout to beckon the hungry masses. At Papalote, their secret weapon is the salsa – elevated to cult status even before co-owner Victor Escobedo defeated Food Network celeb Bobby Flay in a Throwdown. If the fiery, roasted salsa brings you in, then their fresh, colorful ingredients and vegetarian friendly menu (tofu mole, anyone?) will keep you coming back for more. (Jackie Andrews)

3409 24th St. | 1777 Fulton St. | papalote-sf.com

Who wants to hang out with these guys? You do, that’s who!

Bender’s Bar

We’ve all lowered our standards for the sake of booze-induced late night snacking before, but the good folks at Bender’s Bar don’t think we have to. Not with all the vegetarian and vegan-friendly comfort foods made from high quality ingredients on their menu, a curious thing indeed for a Mission dive and rowdy rock music venue. Relics of ill-fated watering holes adorn the walls and fake IDs encased in lacquer play peek-a-boo from the tabletops. But more importantly, where else can you wash down seitan tacos and tater tot-topped mac and cheese with a Pliny the Elder on draft? Need we say more? (Jackie Andrews)

806 South Van Ness, SF | bendersbar.com

Mission Sunday Streets

Another year of Sunday Streets is upon us, marking the onset of beautiful San Francisco weather – knock on wood – with this ongoing free health and community event. This year, the third “Streets” of the season kicks-off the new Mission Pilot – four consecutive months of Sunday Streets in the Mission on May 6, June 3, July 1, and August 5! Bring your roller skates, unicycle, skateboard, or just a plain pair of walking shoes and enjoy the activities, performances, and vendors that line this route, closed off from automobile traffic for the whole day. (Jackie Andrews)

Mission Sunday Streets begins Sunday, May 6 from11am-4pm @ Valencia from 14th St. to 24th & 24th St. from Valencia to Hampshire, SF | www.sundaystreetssf.com

On the Cheap May 9-15, 2012

May 8, 2012

WEDNESDAY 9

They Make Us Dangerous author reading and chitchat Modern Times Bookstore Collective, 2919 24 St., SF. (415) 282-9246, www.mtbs.com, 7-10pm, free. Step onto the Cold War battlefield that was Bolivia from 1964 to 1980, as you listen to the first hand account of a Catholic nun from the US’s Midwest whose doctoral research takes her to this mesmerizing but poverty-stricken region. As revolution clashes with oppression and boils over in dictatorship, author Frances Payne closes the book to answer and discuss your thoughts and inquiries.

Local Authors Night Hayward Area Historical Society, 22380 Foothill Blvd., Hayward. (510) 581-8172, www.haywardhistory.org, 7pm, free. Prepare your have your hairs stand on end as East Bay author Alec Nevala-Lee reads part of his thriller, The Icon Thief, and buckle up for an emotional ride as David Teves, also of the East Bay, reads his novel, A Matter of Time, and takes you one man’s journey through his own personal hell.

THURSDAY 10

Plantosaurus Rex prehistoric plant exhibition and time warp Conservatory of Flowers, 100 JFKennedy Dr., SF. (415) 831-2090, www.conservatoryofflowers.org, 10am-4pm Tuesdays-Sundays, $5 general for youth, seniors, students and those with proof of SF residency. $7 general. Today, the Conservatory kicks off a five-month exhibit (ending Oct. 21) that transports you 250-65 million years back in time on a journey through the living plant life and model animals of the Mesozoic Era.

FRIDAY 11

MFA Graduate Student Art Exhibition opening reception Phoenix Hotel, 601 Eddy St., SF. www.sfai.edu. noon-10pm, free. The San Francisco Art Institute introduces you to the love-labors of 100 MFA grad students to tantalize your senses with work from across the artistic disciplines, as you meander through the open guestrooms and poolside courtyard of this funky hotel.

SFAI MFA Student Film Screening SFMOMA, Phyllis Wattis Theater, 151 3 St., SF. www.sfai.edu. 1pm-3pm, free. From an experimental documentary about the Occupy movement to an animated short starring an otter and lemur living in a submarine, these works by graduating MFA film students will introduce you to the filmmakers of the future.

SATURDAY 12

Making Mothers Visible Pop-Up Photography Arts Event San Francisco Main Public Library, Civic Center, 100 Larkin St., SF. www.imow.org. 10am-3pm, free. Just in time for Mother’s Day, the International Museum of Women invites you to celebrate moms the world around. Watch as volunteers install more than 50 large-scale photographs of mothers and midwives on the exterior of the library. This family-friendly day also features free art activities including face painting for kids and a hands-on art workshop for adults.

Paradigm Shift Pagan Festival and Parade Martin Luther King Jr., Civic Center Park, 2151 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley. www.thorncoyle.com. 10am-5:30pm, free. March amid belly dancers, storytellers, music, and merriment in the eleventh annual procession of the Pagan Festival. You and your brood could win a best costume award if you arrive decked out in your finest tribal attire.

Rocket Dog Rescue Happy Hour Benefit Bliss Bar, 4026 24 St., SF. (877) 737-3647, adopt@rocketdogrescue.org. 5pm-7:30pm, free with $10 recommended donation. Bliss out at the bar with fellow K-9 lovers as you enjoy the music of Bright Side Band. All proceeds will benefit dogs in need via Rocket

SUNDAY 13

How Weird Street Faire, Electronic Music Festival Howard and 2nd St., SoMa SF. www.HowWeird.org. 12pm-8pm, $10 donation requested. When the Dalai Lama was asked what the average person could do to promote world peace, he replied, “They can make festivals, bring people together.” So: 13 stages of music will dot 13 city blocks for this 13th annual party to celebrate peace and creativity via technical sounds, visual innovations and thousands of people.

MONDAY 14

Coit Tower celebrate historic murals at Booksmith The Booksmith, 1644 Haight St., SF. (415) 863-8688, www.booksmith.com. 7:30pm, free. On the June 5 ballot, local voters will consider Prop. B, an initiative asking the city to prioritize restoration and preservation of 27 New Deal-era murals at Coit Tower atop Telegraph Hill. This literary evening is dedicated to reading about and reliving the history of Coit Tower and its art-laden walls.

SHOUT Storytelling Grand Lake Coffee House, 440 Grand Ave., Oakl. www.theshoutstorytelling.com. 7:30pm, $5–<\d>$20, pay what you will. Listen to true but incredible 10-minute stories from the lives of local raconteurs in an informal coffee house setting that will feel like a party in your own living room (that you don’t have to clean up). Feeling the gift of gab? Throw your name into the hat in hopes of getting picked for one of the six-minute wild card slots.

TUESDAY 15

Feast of Words; A literary potluck to laugh with a funny lady SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan St, SF. Feastofwords.somarts.org, feastofwords@somarts.org. 7pm-9pm, $10 advance, $5 with potluck dish, $12 at door. Following a nationwide tour, Oakland-based funny girl writer, Cassie J. Sneider, reads from her new book Fine, Fine Music at this monthly potluck. This intimate party brings writers, foodies, and any combination of the two, together to — well — eat, write, and laugh.

Our Weekly Picks: May 9-15, 2012

May 8, 2012

WEDNESDAY 9

Lotus Plaza

Lotus Plaza soaks innocent, introspective lyrics in bright, ambient noise. Its sound is somewhat of an Animal Collective meets Real Estate phenomenon, as repetition, staccato, washed out haze, and subtle, ’60s-inspired surfy guitar riffs predominate. Lotus Plaza — the solo project of Deerhunter’s guitarist Lockett Pundt — released its sophomore LP, Spooky Action at a Distance, early last month. You’ll get lost in this album’s consuming drone and echoing vocals, which focus on escape, living with yourself, and the future. Pundt has cited influences ranging from Stereolab to My Bloody Valentine to Gary Numan, so listen up! (Mia Sullivan)

With Wymond Miles, Mirror Mode

7:30pm, $12

Rickshaw Stop

155 Fell, SF

(415) 861-2011

www.rickshawstop.com

THURSDAY 10

“Plantosaurus Rex: Prehistoric Plants at the Conservatory of Flowers”

If you thought exotic nature sightings in Golden Gate Park were limited to bison, swans, and the occasional coyote, it’s time to put on your Jeff Goldblum sunglasses and stroll over to the Conservatory of Flowers. Not only does “Plantosaurus Rex,” which opens today, host life-sized model dinosaurs — including a baby Stegosaurus chillin’ in the foliage, and a toothy Tyrannosaurus poking its head through the Conservatory roof — it also features an evolutionary journey through prehistoric plant life, some of which might look familiar (if oddly-proportioned): huge ferns, giant seed pods, etc. Good fun for pint-sized budding paleontologists and full-grown botany nerds alike. (Cheryl Eddy)

Through Oct. 21

Tue-Sun, 10am-4pm, free–$7

Conservatory of Flowers

100 John F. Kennedy, Golden Gate Park, SF

www.conservatoryofflowers.org

“Barbary Coast and Beyond”

You hear “Gold Rush” and a stream of shimmering images pan across your mind’s eye; you hear “Barbary Coast” and the raucous calls of drunken sailors and ladies of the night fill your mental ear. But what of the actual music of this period, when Caruso was carousing the City by the Bay and tinny saloon pianos were banging out civic-pride singalongs like “California, Here I Come” and “Hello, Frisco, Hello”? The SF Symphony is hopping into the sepia-toned wayback machine to bring to life the astonishingly fertile local musical milieu of the period from the Gold Rush to the Panama-Pacific Exhibition, full of tunes brought to SF by famous old-time performers like Ole Bull and Luisa Tetrazzini. The journey is narrated by beloved Beach Blanket Babylon emeritus Val Diamond. (Marke B.)

Also Fri/11 and Sat/12. 8pm, $35–$140

Davies Symphony Hall

201 Van Ness, SF

(415) 864-6000

www.sfsymphony.org

Dead Milkmen

With its humorous and unorthodox take on punk rock back when hardcore was the norm, The Dead Milkmen set itself apart in the scene when it first formed in Philadelphia in 1983, gradually earning a following with fan-favorite tunes such as “Bitchin’ Camaro,” “The Thing That Only Eats Hippies,” and what would become its biggest mainstream success, “Punk Rock Girl.” After a 13-year break up and the passing of original bassist Dave Schulthise, the band reunited in 2008, and released The King In Yellow last year, bringing back its joyously clever songs and sound for fans to dance around and sing-along with like the old days. (Sean McCourt)

With Terry Malts

9pm, $23

Slim’s

333 11th St., SF

(415) 255-0333

www.slimspresents.com

FRIDAY 11

“The Last Drive-In Presents: 16mm Movie Night”

Benefiting Lost Weekend’s Cinecave, this event was set up by a couple of former rep house projectionists, screening so-bad-they’re-good (to mock) 16mm movies complete with classic trailers and snack bar reels to recreate the drive-in experience. (Without, I guess, the car and the crappy metal speakers to hang on the window.) The UK sci-fi double for the night includes The Crawling Eye (1958), which has been described as a surprisingly good picture…until the appearance of the remarkably bad feature creature, and the illogically titled, They Came from Beyond Space (1967). (Ryan Prendiville)

7pm, $5–$10 suggested donation Alley Cat Books 3036 24th St., SF (415) 824-1761

Facebook: AlleyCatBooks

Black Moth Super Rainbow

The mysterious TOBACCO flings heavy, analog-laden funk tracks that spark parties and haunt listeners in their dreams. But the progenitor of modern psychedelic-pop brings sunniness (slightly) as the lead of Black Moth Super Rainbow. Compared to TOBACCO’s dark and stormy skies, BMSR is a tehnicolor-saturated spring day. Listeners float in fuzzy synths, retro distortions, and vocoded TOBACCO vocals, while a current of punchy beats carries them along. TOBACCO scrapped a BMSR album slated for release in 2011, but fans should be excited that a new album is in the works. (Kevin Lee)

With Lumerians, Gramatik, Flako, Zackey Force Funk, Mophone, Annalove, DJ Dials, DJ Sodapop

10pm, $20

103 Harriet, SF

(415) 932-0955

www.1015.com

Savoy

This Boulder, Colo.-based “electro dubstep rock” trio remixes hits from the likes of Chromeo, Dire Straights, and the Beastie Boys with synthesizers and a drum kit. The result is a palpable wall of bass-heavy, dance-your-ass-off-worthy electronic sound. DJs Ben Eberdt and Gray Smith and drummer Mike Kelly have been going at it since their undergrad days at the University of Colorado. Savoy’s influences range from French house music to Phish, and the group has made inroads in the festival scene this year. (It played SXSW and is on the bill for Wakarusa.) Expect a dizzying light show, a high-energy dance party, and ecstasy in all of its forms. (Sullivan)

With Redeye, Robot.Mafia, Cutterz

9pm $16

Great American Music Hall

859 O’Farrell, SF

(415) 885-0750

www.slimspresents.com

SATURDAY 12

Cyro Baptista

Cyro Baptista’s collaboration list reads like a very compelling who’s who in the music industry — Herbie Hancock, Yo-Yo Ma, Serge Gainsbourg, Paul Simon, and John Zorn are among the greats who have worked with the Brazilian composer and percussionist. Born and raised in São Paulo, Baptista floats between jazz and world music. His eye-catching Beat the Donkey project was a multicultural percussion and dance show, featuring Baptista banging on some PVC pipe and buckets. New project Banquet of the Spirits, featuring bassist Shani Blumenkrantz and fingerstyle guitarist Tim Sparks, explores some of Zorn’s previous work dedicated to the Jewish Diaspora, with twists of Brazilian and Middle Eastern styles. (Lee)

With Tim Sparks and Shanir Blumenkrantz

8pm, $25

Swedish American Hall

2174 Market, SF

(415) 861-5016

www.sfjazz.org

Eskmo

Local producer Brendan Angelides creates electronica that somehow manages to sound both tightly produced and expansive at the same time. The easy but fair comparison is to Ninja Tune labelmate Amon Tobin, and the two have collaborated under the guise Eskamon on Angelides’ own Ancestor record label. Many electronic listeners will know Angelides through his alias Eskmo and his multi-layered post-hip hop on 2010’s Eskmo EP, but new work under the moniker Welder is just as provocative. On last fall’s Florescence, classical strings and pianos intertwined with Angelides’ intricate beat production, like a symphony embarking on a mellow jazz jam session. (Lee)

With Love & Light, DJ Dials, U9Lift

9pm, $15

Mezzanine

444 Jessie, SF

(415) 625-8880

www.mezzaninesf.com

SUNDAY 13

How Weird Street Faire

How do you know the summer festival season has truly sprung? Follow the breakdancing purple fuzzy dude through the rabbithole of deepest SoMa, choose the third key (probably) and enter a musical and artistic wonderland where the spirit number is 13 — not the unlucky 13, the brilliantly Bizarro 13 signifying 13 writhing blocks of neon freakiness and 13 stages pumping ravey local sounds. This is also the thirteenth How Weird Faire (on May 13!), celebrating 13 moons with the costume theme “Time,” which may or may not have something to do with galactic tones or Mayan glyphs, but definitely with “good times” in general. Jam out to the likes of the Sunset, Forward, Pink Mammoth, and tons of other DJ crews, peruse many Vendors from Beyond the Cosmic Edge, and revel in our delightful homegrown insanity. (Marke B.)

Noon-8pm, $10 donation requested

Howard and Second Street, SF

www.howweird.org

MONDAY 14

Herman Dune

Fans of Jonathan Richman, David Berman, Stephin Merritt, or anyone else who expertly blurs the line between twee earnestness and winking sarcasm will find plenty to love about Herman Dune. Recently boiled down to its core as a two-piece, the Parisian group is touring in support of 2011’s Strange Moosic, its latest batch of quirky anti-folk and bouncy indie-pop. Nearly every song in the band’s now impressively deep catalogue contains at least one endearing or sly lyrical gem courtesy of lead singer David-Ivar Herman Dune’s charming vocal delivery. Check out single “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” and its Jon Hamm-starring music video to get a sense of the feel-good world the duo creates. (Landon Moblad)

With the Sam Chase, DJ Britt Govea

8pm, $14

Independent

628 Divisadero, SF

(415) 771-1421

www.theindependentsf.com

TUESDAY 15

“Celebrating 35 Years of Star Wars Comic Books: An Evening with Howard Chaykin and Steve Leialoha”

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… more specifically 1977 New York, representatives from LucasFilm contacted Marvel Comics about creating an adaptation of their upcoming sci-fi flick Star Wars, which of course, went on to be one of the most successful film franchises of all time, but also a beloved and long-running comic title. Artists Howard Chaykin and Steve Leialoha, who worked on those early issues, will be on hand tonight for a 35th anniversary celebration of all things Sith and Jedi in the comic realm, along with a discussion and presentation about their work hosted by comedians Michael Capozzola and Joe Klocek. (McCourt)

7-9pm, $7

Cartoon Art Museum

655 Mission, SF

(415) CAR-TOON

www.cartoonart.org

Ana Tijoux

When the title track from Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux’s 1977 played over a montage of perpetual fuckup Jesse Pinkman riding shotgun with Mike the Cleaner on the latest season of AMC’s Breaking Bad, it was the type of moment that TiVo was made for, or maybe just sent viewers to their phones, trying to figure out who was responsible for that particularly cinematic song. Tijoux — who was born in France during Pinochet’s reign — has an infectiously cool flow and a conscious, no bullshit attitude that comes across in any language. Both political and personal Tijoux now returns with the album La Bala featuring “Shock,” a response to the recent student movements in Chile. (Prendiville)

With Los Rakas, Raw G

8pm, $15

Independent

628 Divisadero, SF

(415) 771-1421

www.theindependentsf.com

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

On the Cheap Listings May 2-8, 2012

May 2, 2012

On the Cheap listings are compiled by Soojin Chang. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Picks.

WEDNESDAY 2

Thee Oh Sees Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. (415) 932-0955, www.publicsf.com. 9pm, free with RSVP. The FADER and Captain Morgan are hosting a free show tonight featuring San Francisco’s most delightfully chaotic psych-rock band.

Photobooth film basics workshop Photobooth, 1193 Valencia, SF. (415) 824-1248, www.photoboosf.com. 7pm-9pm, free. Bring that seemingly useless analog camera you scavenged at the bottom of the sales bin at a thrift store and learn just how to put Instagram to shame. Classes fill up quickly so reserve your spot by sending an email to classes@photoboothsf.com.

THURSDAY 3

Guacamole Mash-Off NextSpace SF, 28 2nd St., SF. (415) 514-0456, www.nextspace.us. 6:30pm-8:30pm, $5 to attend; free if you compete. What does the perfect guacamole taste like? We are all more than happy to be the guinea pigs for this experiment. Bring an appetite and avocado expertise — NextSpace will supply the fresh ingredients and free beer.

FRIDAY 4

Amoeba Art show 2928 Telegraph, Oakl. (510) 549-1125, www.amoeba.com. 6pm-11pm, free. Amoebites not only know every record known to humankind in exquisite detail, but also make art themselves. Check out the creative works of the music store’s staff while noshing on vegan baked goods by Fat Bottom Bakery. Live DJs will be spinning all night, and if you need to step outside for some air, Oakland Art Murmur will be outside to greet you.

“The Dick Show” visual art exhibit of penises Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission, SF. (415) 902-2071, www.sexandculture.org. 6pm-9pm, free. Which side is the penis’ best side? What makes a penis better than a dildo? What would life be like without penises? Participating artists have tackled such questions head on, and have expressed their enlightened answers in the form of a collective art show.

“First Friday Follies” burlesque and creepy puppet show Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph, Oakl. (510) 444-6174, sfburlesque.blogspot.com. 9pm, free. Sultry dancing accompanied by sinister dolls bring to mind the words “blissful terror.” Come see how sexy strange can be at Oakland Art Murmur’s most confusingly seductive after party. You won’t be able to peel your eyes away.

SATURDAY 5

Moonlight hike Sports Basement Presidio, 610 Old Mason, SF. (800) 869-6670, www.sportsbasement.com. 6:30pm-9:30pm, free. If you feel like you haven’t seen a clear night sky in a while or have started to unconsciously accept building lights as stars, it’s time to take a walk away from the city. Attendance is limited and is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Filmmaking open house and free margarita party Bay Area Video Coalition, 2727 Mariposa, SF. (415) 861-3282, www.bavc.org. 12:30pm-6pm, free. Take a workshop on DSLR cinematography, learn about the latest innovations in the world of Adobe, and talk with professionals about the nuances of the tech and film industries — all while working your way around the salt rim of your celebratory margarita.

Vagabond Indie Craft Fair Urban Bazaar, 1371 9th Ave, SF. (415) 664-4442, vagabondsf.wordpress.com. Through Sunday 6. Noon-7pm, free. Independent craftspeople are like vagabonds or gypsies in a sense, because they travel around selling their art and don’t rely on factory-made consumer culture. In Urban Bazaar’s backyard garden this weekend, you will find free sewing classes taught by local talent, bake sales benefiting high school art programs, and enough handmade gems to gift to friends for years.

Free Comic Book Day 2012 In various participating comic stores. Comic Experience, 305 Divisadero, SF; Neon Monster, 901 Castro, SF; Mission: Comics and Art, 3520 20th St., SF; Jeffrey’s Toys, 685 Market, SF; Fantastic Comics, 2026 Shattuck, Berk. www.freecomicbookday.com. All day, free. For one day a year only, participating stores give away comic books absolutely free of charge to whoever walks through their doors.

SUNDAY 6

Urban Air Market Octavia at Hayes, SF. www.urbanairmarket.com. 11am-6pm, free. Urban Air Market is a curated fashion festival featuring 150 independent designers — all of whom were carefully chosen based on their originality, quality, and method of sustainability in design. Live music will be playing all day as you mosey around the market’s impressive collection of handcrafted jewelry, one-of-a-kind clothing, and unique home décor.

MONDAY 7

SFMade Week Open Factories: Ritual Coffee Roasters Ritual Coffee, 1050 Howard, SF. (415) 641-1024, www.sfmadeweek.org.1pm-2pm, $10. SFMade Week is a weeklong touring extravaganza that celebrates San Francisco’s manufacturing sector. Learn about the crafty techniques and detailed science that precede every perfectly smooth cup of Ritual coffee from their roastery team in SOMA.

Beatles Karaoke Night Cafe Royale, 800 Post, SF. (415) 441-4099, www.caferoyale-sf.com. 8pm, free. Ditch the droning, flat audio and the creepy screen playing completely unrelated videos. It’s just you, the live pianist, and “Michelle” tonight.

TUESDAY 8

“Raise the Macallan” scotch tasting benefit event for Charity Water The Regency Ballroom, 1300 Van Ness, SF. (415) 673-5716, www.raisethemacallan.com. 8pm, $5. Drinking scotch to benefit a charity for water (www.charitywater.org) is a bit strange. But who cares? From time to time you have to revel in the beautiful contradictions that make up life — especially the ones that involve whisk

7 pretty tea parties

Andrew Lam

April 17, 2012

caitlin@sfbg.com

Unbeknownst to those whose primary haunt is dingy dive bars and the bottom of a margarita glass, there are as many kinds of tea houses in San Francisco as one-night stands.

There are the futsy Anglo types: all frill, pastel snack-treats, and delicate china. The hippie tea shacks, where you can order “half of an avocado” without going off the menu. There are borscht-and-herring Russian places, like Katia’s in the Richmond (600 Fifth Ave., SF. (415) 668-9292, www.katias.com). Of course, the real-deal knowledgeable Chinatown shops with blends to spare and free tastings like Red Blossom Tea Company (831 Grant, SF. (415) 395-0868, www.redblossomtea.com).

But none will leave you with a hangover, or linger awkwardly as you get ready for work — and most provide a slow-paced, table service setting perfect for making sober-eyes at the hottie you may be lugging home afterwards.

OM SHAN TEA

This cozy Mission room may just have the healthiest meal options in the neighborhood — salads to rice bowls and the aforementioned avo half. If you come on Mondays from 7 to 10pm you’ll find yourself in the womb of Open Heart Poetry night, a soul-searching open mic with featured poets that draws a packed house (there’s also weekly temple dancer and live music evenings.) Like the other shops on in this roundup, the menu of teas here can be a little intimidating to a newbie, but in this hand-holding environment an ask for guidance to your server will go a long way.

233 14th St., SF. (415) 747-8327, www.omshantea.com

LOVEJOY’S

Nuzzled into the bosom of Noe Valley, Lovejoy’s can at first be overwhelming — my god, the doilies! Just embrace the chintz, you’ll be glad you did. This is the most perfect pinky-up spot in town, and it stocks the traditional menu of sweets and scones in addition to heartier fare like shepard’s pies and the Ploughman’s Lunch — a platter of artichoke hummus, fruit, greens, and vinegar crisps. Suggestion: go for afternoon tea and order the tallest multi-tier tray of petit fours you can manage. And don’t mind the flocks of MILFs.

1351 Church, SF. (415) 648-5895, www.lovejoystearoom.com

TASTE

Had a rough weekend? Taste awaits to aide in your detoxification and mental clarification. A serene spot in Hayes Valley where one orders at the counter, Taste prides itself on serving tea the traditional Chinese way. That means a tableside lesson on how to drink your brew, pouring out the first cup onto the slotted platform provided before decanting and then tipping the hot liquid into your teeny-tiny cup. Side dishes to all the Zen-like ceremony include dim sum-style buns filled with red bean paste and vegetable curry. Like many tea rooms, you’re also welcome to buy your favorite blend to take home.

535 Octavia, SF. (415) 552-5668, www.tasteteasf.com

TAL Y TARA

It is testament to the misty wonder of the Richmond District that such a place as Tal Y Tara is not overrun with fashionistas seeking authentic British ridingwear and a picturesque place to Instagram themselves drinking a cup of PG Tips. Actually a clothing store hawking everything from longer-in-the-back pastel polo shirts to horse bridles, the back of Tal Y Tara houses a handful of tables with polo-patterned coverings. Snack on a Picadilly (a toasted crumpet with a slice of tomato and Dubliner cheese) while you sip your cuppa and stare at the vintage show pony photos on the walls.

6430 California, SF. (415) 751-9275, www.talytara.com

SECRET GARDEN TEA HOUSE

There are so many bric-a-brac shelves in Secret Garden that some of them are brac-less: they exist only to be shelves. Such is the décor reasoning at this parkside parlor, where pastel-colored church hats hang from the walls for insta in-house cred. Upon my visit to Secret Garden I sipped lemon chiffon tea and consumed the Sweet Surrender plate: an ungodly amount of lady fingers, French macaroons, petit fours, and powdered sugar-dusted fruit slices. I also heard the next table over in raptures over glimpsing the royal family on a recent London vacation. Bring your grandma, or a small royal-watcher: there is an ample kid’s menu here.

721 Lincoln, SF. (415) 702-0398, www.secretgardenteahouse.com

DARTEALING

You will undoubtedly be distracted by the fetching jars of pink malt balls and rooster-decorated Sriracha truffles that greet you upon entry into this hideout from the bustling tech world of SoMa. But push on past the retail space: rewards await in the form of comfy sofas be-pillowed with intricately embroidered soft things. Once settled in the space, choose a tea service (blends include cheekily named flavors like “Cabana Boy,” with a sweet tropical fruit taste) that includes options from the sandwich menu: Dartealing has a vast array of crustless wonders, the tofu-and-citrus ginger-soy glazed option being a favorite. Just make sure you leave room for dessert — the lavender-dusted scones that arrive with a ramekin of clotted cream are the dreamiest.

470 Third St., SF. (415) 644-0142, www.dartealing.com

What to Read: ‘The World of Normal Boys’ by K.M. Soehnlein

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

March 14, 2012

What to Read: ‘The World of Normal Boys’ by K.M. Soehnlein

Gay coming out novels are a dime a dozen. But The World of Normal Boys is something else. It’s a detailed, play-by-play exploration into the consciousness of a 13-year-old boy as he struggles to figure out who he is meant to be.

K.M. Soehnlein‘s book encapsulates all the pain and pleasure of growing up a little different, in a society still unsure of the benefits of diversity. Richard Labonte appreciated Soehnlein’s Lambda Award-winning literary effort for opening up the gate for a new type of coming out book – one that even though it’s set in a 1970s New Jersey suburb, it strikes a chord beyond its time and place.

Local author K.M. Soehlein is the third author invited to participate in the Magnet Book Club (we’re posting interviews with the featured authors before their appearances). This month the discussion will take place at the GLBT History Museum across the street from Magnet. The GLBT History Museum will host Soehnlein on Monday, March 26 at 7:30pm for an intimate discussion of The World of Normal Boys. To lead up to that event, we spoke to the author.

SFBG Have older gay men reacted differently to the book than younger generations?

KS Definitely. Older readers like the book for capturing the era they grew up in, younger readers find it universal. We’ve all had a crush on the wrong guy who teases you by playing with your body but still treats you like shit. Recently a younger friend said that he just didn’t understand how the parents in the book could be so upset at having a gay son. That right there proves there has been a change in our culture too. We still see hateful news on TV but there’s been progress in certain bubbles, and those bubbles are what push us forward. Though family structures are still where most homophobia exists.

SFBG Did you have any reservations about writing a coming-of-age or coming out novel?

KS I don’t really consider it a coming of age story. Robin (the protagonist) goes from 13 to 14. That’s not really of age. And he never verbalizes that he is gay at the end. It’s more universal. We all have that moment of self-awareness, discovery, that moment of “I get how the world works.”

SFBG Do you consider yourself a gay author?

KS Yes. I’ve never shied away from that. Not to say it’s not a limiting label. But it’s like saying Obama is a black President. He is, but that’s not all that he is. I’m particularly drawn to telling gay stories, I’m not sure if I can write a thriller about an arms dealer.

SFBG What do you make of this post-gay mentality, the thought that we don’t need gay books or any gay culture for that matter?

KS I had another agent – a gay agent – tell me not to write another gay book. And that was just last year. But I think the publishing industry underestimates how loyal gay readers are.

SFBG What would you say to a twenty-year-old who is not interested in reading “gay books”?

KS I would ask how many gay books have you read? People who love to read, love to read broadly. Sure, now with gay characters on TV and the internet, they may not need a gay book like some people did thirty years ago. But books get inside the consciousness of individual characters. That’s one thing that books can do artistically that will never be obsolete.

SFBG Gay teens are coming out at a younger age now and with that has come more bullying. Is this a sign of the times – that with more visibility comes more backlash?

KS Back in the 70s, there wasn’t this type of awareness. Maybe gay teen suicides were underreported back then or maybe, in some ways, it’s the cost of visibility. When I lived in the East Village in the 1990’s, I was a member of ACT UP and founded Queer Nation. Then all of the sudden there was a wave of gay bashings. That was the definition of a backlash to our activism. There’s this symbiotic relationship between visibility and sacrifice.

SFBG As an author do you feel any moral responsibility?

KS The thing the author can do best is tell a character’s story. It’s hard to go into writing a novel with a political agenda, but you can have a political and cultural effect if you do your job very well. My next book is about being in ACT UP but it’s more about the characters. The political will come out of the historical and how these characters related to one another.

SFBG The World of Normal Boys is very sexual. Have you faced criticism to this explicit depiction of gay teen sexuality?

KS That was my intent, to talk honestly about sex among young adolescent guys. Just this week, a friend emailed me saying that she had loved the book but wondered if I ever thought about toning down the sexuality. To what? The PG version? It’s come to the point where we have internalized these cultural taboos around sexuality. I did a reading in New York and my whole family was there, so I started by saying all the dirty words that were in the excerpt I wanted to read (like “rimjob”). At the end I overheard my aunt shout, “I’ve heard them all before, I’ve been to the Village!” She’s this conservative, Republican, churchgoing, 70-year-old Italian lady who now likes me on Facebook. We really need to give readers more credit.

SFBG Though considered works of fiction, previous Magnet Book Club selections We the Animals and SoMa had some semi-autobiographical aspects. I’m wondering as to how much you drew from your own experience when writing The World of Normal Boys.

KS In the 80s I read queer books by Edmund White and Andrew Holleran, and I wanted to update what they were doing. My coming out happened more in college, but I had friends that came out at a young age, and no one had written about that. The time and place are autobiographical; I grew up in a suburb in Northern New Jersey. As a novelist it’s great how you can take things in your life and twist them around but still keep the essential truth.

K.M. Soehnlein will be Magnet Book Club’s guest of honor on Monday, March 26 at 7:30pm. Book club is open to the public and copies of The World of Normal Boys are available at Books, Inc. in the Castro for 15% off. Also available, a sequel titled Robin and Ruby. The GLBT History Museum is located at 4127 18th Street (between Castro and Collingwood) in San Francisco.

Food-truck battle at the board of supes

Zelda Bronstein

March 6, 2012

The supervisors are weighing in on a state bill that would ban food truck from parking within 1500 feet of schools — and it’s really tricky.

Let’s start with a bit of reality: My kids go to public schools, my son’s in middle school, he rides Muni home — and there’s ample opportunity for him to buy some really nasty stuff. There’s a 7-Eleven a couple of blocks from his school, and kids walk over there all the time and buy those disgusting 32-ounce sugar bombs. If a truck selling chips and soda and greasy tacos showed up at 3:30 p.m., the kids would be lined up to spend the money their parents though was going for a nice healthy lunch.

And the trucks would go there, if they could, the same way the ice cream trucks used to cruise through my suburban neighborhood in the 1960s (yeah, I’m old, old, old) in the late afternoon, when they could guarantee America’s children would be hungry and ready to spoil their supper.

But they can’t, see, because San Francisco already bans food trucks from within 1,500 feet of a public middle school or high school — which is a pretty broad zone.

Now Assemblymember Bill Monning has introduced a bill that would make that ban statewide — and would include middle schools and private schools. Sounds good, and some healthy-food advocates love it. But San Francisco’s a little different than, say, Hayward or Fresno — this is such a dense city that there are schools almost everywhere. If you ban food trucks from within 1,500 feet of all schools, then you ban them from about 80 percent of the city. Burrito Justice has a great set of maps that give you the picture (burritohibition!)

The maps also suggest the problems with banning anything from within 1,500 feet of a school in San Francisco. Pot clubs, liquor stores, sex clubs … there are all sorts of places where you really don’t want your kids hanging out, but if you make those broad exclusions, you force them all into a very few small areas (including northern Soma, the waterfront and Bayview) and that’s not exactly fair, either. Should all the food trucks in the city be congregated in those crowded places that fit the 1,500 foot rule?

My 10-year-old daughter walks through the heart of the Castro, which is probably within 1,500 feet of her school, and there’s some stuff in the storefronts that isn’t exactly age appropriate, and we deal. She asked me once why people were walking around naked, and I said “because they like to,” and she shrugged and that was that.My 12-year-old son knows that people smoke pot and that it’s legal for adults to use as medicine; I don’t think the notion of him walking past a well-regulated dispensary is going to make him any more (or less, god help me) likely to try some for himself some day.

So I’m kind of with Sup. Scott Wiener, who wants the city to oppose the Monning bill — not because I want trucks selling Doritos out in front of Aptos in the afternoon, but because I think San Francisco already prevents that, and 1,500 feet is way too much for a city this size. Maybe amend the bill to allow cities to make their own rules, but have the state rules apply if they don’t. Maybe allow cities beyond a certain density to change the distance to 500 feet.

Maybe think a little more about what it really means to ban things because they’re close to schools. It doesn’t always make sense.

PS: Actually, I’m thinking maybe we should ban all multimillion-dollar condos from anywhere within 5,000 feet of a school. Exposing the impressionable minds of small children to such graphic, disgusting, ostentatious displays of wealth has to be bad for them. Worse than seeing a sex club, anyway.

On the Cheap Listings

Andrew Lam

February 28, 2012

On the Cheap listings are compiled by Soojin Chang. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Picks.

WEDNESDAY 29

Nutrition class for cyclists Sport Basement, 1881 Ygnacio Valley, Walnut Creek. (925) 941-6100, www.sportbasement.com. 7 p.m.-8 p.m., free with RSVP. It is the worst when you’re still 20 minutes away from your destination and your energy decides to crash on you. In this nutrition class, experts give perspectives on quality food choices, review specific bars and powders, and provide simple and delicious recipes for on and off the bike.

Radical Directing lecture series with Terry Zwigoff San Francisco Art Institute, 800 Chestnut, SF. (415) 771-7020, www.sfai.edu. 7:30 p.m., free. Long-time San Franciscan Terry Zwigoff makes feature films out of underground comic strips and turns down corporate project offers in favor of ‘tooning for smaller outfits. Join Zwigoff as he discusses his experience writing screenplays and making documentaries.

THURSDAY 1

“After Dark: Vinyl” interactive presentation Exploratorium, 3601 Lyon, SF. (415) 561-0360, www.exploratorium.edu. 6 p.m.-10 p.m., free with museum admission. In the heyday of vinyl, records were made of fragile materials such as wax and shellac. Experimental physicist Carl Haber recovers the sweet tunes that we once believed were gone forever.

The End of Money: Counterfeiters, Preachers, Techies, Dreamers—and the Coming Cashless Society author discussion The Booksmith, 1644 Haight, SF. (415) 863-8688, www.booksmith.com. 7:30 p.m., free. These days, you can get far without the greenbacks — as long as you’ve got dough on your plastic. In his newest book, David Wolman embarks on a paper cash-less journey around the world, encountering people and technologies whose alternatively embrace and fear the end of tangible money.

“So You Think You Can Paint?” SoMa art party Club Six, 60 Sixth St., SF. (415) 863-1221, www.clubsix1.com. 7 p.m.-11 p.m., free. Your task is to complete as many eight-foot art pieces as you possibly can. If you have any doubts to your skills or just want to learn more, there will be a free art class from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Huge walls, paint, brushes, and tunes will be provided.

Nightlife’s Darkroom photography event California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse, SF. (415) 379-8000, www.calacademy.org/nightlife. 6 p.m.-10 p.m., $12. Come meet the folks from Instagram for a night dedicated to the recent transmutations of photography. Enjoy live music and images of beautiful coral reef while checking out the innovations of Lytro’s light field camera, artist Genevieve Quick’s hand-made cameras, Lomography’s analog cameras, and aerial photographer Michael Layesfsky’s balloon camera.

FRIDAY 2

True Stories Lounge story telling performance The Make-out Room, 3225 22nd St., SF. (415) 647-2888, www.makeoutroom.com. 7:30 p.m., $10. Telling a good story is a particularly difficult art to master. Join seven professional storytellers who’ll be keeping this oral tradition alive by divulging their memoirs, essays, reportages, and narrative column writings.

SATURDAY 3

Origami club San Francisco Public Library, 500 Cortland, SF. (415) 355-2810, www.sfpl.org. 2 p.m.-4 p.m., free. Ah, the progressive addiction of origami. First you’re making a crane, and then you’re drinking out of an ornate paper teacup. Not surprising at all that there is a local club devoted to the art — now where’s the 12-step program?

“Zeke Greenwald, Potential Roommate” comedy show 222 Hyde, SF. (415) 345-8222, www.222hyde.com. 8 p.m.-10 p.m., free. Anyone who has ever searched Craigslist for housing in San Francisco know of the comedic horror that lies within each potential roommate. Five local comedians stand up to share their stories.

Dr. Seuss’s birthday celebration Playland-Not-at-the-Beach, 10979 San Pablo, El Cerrito. (510) 592-3002, www.playland-not-at-the-beach.org. Through Sunday. 10 a.m.-5 p.m., $10 children; $15 general admission. Celebrate the birthday of the guy who reminded us all that crazy is awesome and the imagination is limitless. There will be penny arcades, haunted houses, interactive exhibits, and magic sideshows. High-fives for everyone who dresses up.

Sperm Whale Soiree art and science reception Randall Museum, 199 Museum, SF. (415) 561-6622, www.randallmuseum.org. 7 p.m.-10 p.m., $15 advance tickets. Moby Dick gave sperm whales a bad rep. But the truth is they’re extremely interesting animals that nowadays, are sadly endangered (no thanks to you, Captain Ahab). Learn about their amazing diving skills and their even more intriguing sex lives.

SUNDAY 4

Actual Jazz Series with the John Schott Trio and special guests Actual Cafe, 6334 San Pablo, Oakl. (510) 653-8386, www.actualcafe.com. 5 p.m., free. Actual Cafe’s new house band plays twice a month on first and third Sundays. Its set list includes everything from standard jazz to obscure Ukrainian songs. First Sundays feature younger jazz musicians from the Bay Area, guest singers, and spoken word collaborators.

MONDAY 5

Mental Aerobics San Francisco Public Library, 100 Larkin, SF. (415) 355-2822, www.sfpl.org. 1 p.m.-3:30 p.m., free. Feeling a little brain-dead lately? You can do something about that, y’know. Come work out your cerebral organs and spark your cognitive vitality in this class designed to get your synapses firing.

TUESDAY 6

Andy Warhol: Polaroids/Matrix 240 Berkeley Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft, Berk. (510) 642-0808, bampfa.berkeley.edu. Through May 20. Gallery hours Wed.-Sun. 11 a.m.-5 p.m., $7–$10. Long before Instagram, there was Polaroid. The Prince of Pop Andy Warhol took thousands of snapshots that were never shown to the public until now. Come check out photos of O.J. Simpson, Daryl Lillie, Diane von Furstenberg, and of course, bananas.

Nightlife: Fun plus jobs

Andrew Lam

February 28, 2012

By Supervisor Scott Weiner

OPINION We all know the cultural benefits of nightlife. It’s fun. We get to meet people — friends, lovers, and all the rest. We build community. We hear great music. We dance. We spend time outside on our streets. For LGBT people, we meet other LGBTs and keep our community strong. The list goes on: Without a strong entertainment scene, including bars, clubs, live music venues, arts venues, night-time restaurants, and street fairs, our city would be a less interesting and less diverse place.

But the undisputed cultural importance of nightlife isn’t the whole story. Nightlife is a significant economic contributor to San Francisco. It creates jobs, particularly for working-class and young people. It generates tax revenue that helps fund Muni, health clinics, and parks. It allows creative entrepreneurs to start businesses. It generates tourism. It draws foot traffic into neighborhoods to the benefit of other neighborhood businesses.

This is all pretty intuitive. Yet, as a city, we’ve never actually measured the economic impact of our nightlife scene. One of my first acts a member of the Board of Supervisors was to request the city economist to conduct an economic impact study doing just that.

The study is almost done, and we already have a few preliminary results. Nightlife in San Francisco generates $4.2 billion a year in spending, with $1 billion of that amount coming from bars, clubs, performance venues, and art spaces. Some 48,000 people are employed in nightlife businesses, and these businesses contribute $55 million a year in local taxes. On March 5, we’ll announce the full results of the study at a hearing of the Land Use and Economic Development Committee.

This data will help us make smart public policy around nightlife. In the past, those decisions frequently have been driven by anecdote and over-reaction to isolated events. Trouble near a small number of nightclubs? The city responds by making it difficult for all nightclubs to operate, even those with excellent safety records and despite the dramatic improvement in the Entertainment Commission’s oversight. Or, the city goes even further and proposes requiring all clubs, even small ones, to scan ID cards of everyone who enters. (That proposal, thankfully, was roundly rejected.)

When we make these decisions, we should do so with a full understanding not just of the downsides of nightlife but of the positives, including cultural and economic benefits.

Entertainment is under pressure in San Francisco. There are neighborhoods with significant friction between housing and nightlife. Some of that friction results from a small number of problem venues. Other times, a good venue is jeopardized for simply conducting its business within the limits of San Francisco law — for example, a single neighbor got Slim’s shut down for a few weeks for noise, despite the club’s compliance with our noise ordinance.

We also continue to have bizarre Planning Code restrictions that undermine entertainment, such as the Mission Alcohol Special Use District, which makes it difficult or impossible to start creative new businesses in the Mission if alcohol is involved. This provision almost prevented a new bowling alley from locating at 17th and South Van Ness. Similarly, some are concerned that the Western SoMa Plan, as currently written, will undermine nightlife on 11th Street by surrounding clubs with new housing and by reducing the number of venues.

A thriving nightlife scene is key to our city’s cultural identity and economic future. Now that we have the data on its benefits, we can take a more balanced and thoughtful approach.

Supervisor Scott Wiener represents District 8 on the Board of Supervisors. The March 5 hearing will start with a noon rally on the steps of City Hall followed by the hearing at 1 p.m. in City Hall Room 263.

Club action!

February 28, 2012

marke@sfbg.com

This past year was pretty dang rad in the clubs (and here I must stop to thank my fantastic hairstylist, Paul at Zip Zap, for helping make it especially happen for me). Despite the recession — and the continued flight of us decadent types — the parties never stopped. In fact, they seem to have gotten even more varied and creative, with a sophisticated energy that’s welcoming and ecstatic, flinging their doors open wide for hot-footed like minds. I was inspired during a particularly riotous drag show featuring flaming dildos, pancake batter, and Shabba Ranks to put together this list of regular happenings I’m into, a kind of snapshot of our fine nightlife, and a guide to more good times, if you feel me.

That 62 recommendations for weekly and monthly parties sprang to mind immediately — bluegrass, rocksteady, gay goth, electro-cumbia, zouk, hypercrunk, Brit pop, etc — shows out the sheer vibrance of the local scene. The parties listed below are ones I wholeheartedly recommend: friendly, affordable, no dress codes or booth reservations, full of adventurous music and folks who aren’t afraid to move a little sideways when they dance, rather than just nod their heads or pump their fists (and who actually have fun, rather than act like they’re having fun in a video). Also: a good chance of getting laid.

There’s oodles more shindigs I itched to list — some are too new for me to get a proper handle on yet, others I’ve only popped in on, and I’m sure a few I forgot (I’m perma-stoned.). Also, I didn’t throw down in the East Bay as much as I’d have liked; send me your hot tips for next time.

So this list will grow and be updated — bookmark it for later use. And follow our music listings and my weekly Super Ego column for special nightlife events.

All events below are 21+ and end at 2 a.m. (except where noted). Enough blather, Barbra! Tonight, we dance.

MONDAYS
TUESDAYS
WEDNESDAYS
THURSDAYS
FRIDAYS
SATURDAYS
SUNDAYS
ROVING PARTIES

MONDAYS

Bluegrass Mondays Live bands, well-picked tunes, and a hootenanny crowd help get the new week twang on right — strumming legend Toshio Hirano appears monthly to show how it’s really done. 9 p.m., free. Amnesia, 853 Valencia, SF. www.amnesiathebar.com

Death Guild Our fair burg’s weekly 18+ goth classic, bursting with kohl-rimmed, cyber-punk joy, now going on 19 years of dark celebration. DJs Decay, Melting Girl, and more deliver chills from Cocteau Twins wormholes to bleeding edge nu-IDM. 9:30 p.m.-afterhours. $3 before 10 p.m., $5 after, 18+. DNA Lounge, 375 11th St., SF www.deathguild.com

Motown on Mondays The SF scene’s Monday go-to for some soulful comfort food, with a swinging crowd and some mighty fine Motown and more selections from DJ Gordo and guests. 6 p.m., free. Madrone, 500 Divisadero, SF. www.madronesf.com

Skylarking High-flying hazy fantasia of roots reggae and dub goodness from a host of local reggae royalty with a more-than-welcoming vibe. 10 p.m., free. 3089 16th St., SF. www.skylarkbar.com

Wanted A very sexy mixed party in the Castro for indie dance and electro rock-oriented folks who aren’t quite ready to end the weekend. Gives a downtown NYC vibe with SF (lack of) attitude. With DJs Key&Kite and Richie Panic. 9 p.m., free. QBar, 456 Castro, SF. www.sfwanted.com

Viennetta Discotheque What other intimate, kooky-lovely queer party would celebrate its recent anniversary with 40 McDonald’s cheeseburgers and a platter of fries for hungover voguers to “serve?” From over-the-top disco to tomorrow’s dub-techno to just WTF, DJs Stanley Frank and Robert Jeffrey whip it up. 10 p.m., free. UndergroundSF, 424 Haight, SF. 133 Turk, SF.

TUESDAYS

Bass Cellar An uncomplicated blast of dubstep (tending toward the brostep variety) with a crowd that mixes the mainstream with the more devoted, and never fails to deliver on the wob-wobs. 10 p.m., free. The Cellar, 685 Sutter, SF. www.thecellarsf.com

Bless Up Premier reggae, riddim, and dancehall crew Jah Warrior Shelter Hi Fi keep the Upper Haight rocksteady with live guests, smokin’ tunes, and a forest of cute dreds. This is the good stuff. 10 p.m., $5. 1840 Haight, SF. www.milksf.com

High Fantasy Apocalyptically glamorous queer rabble-rousers Alexis Bair Penney and Myles Cooper make gutter dreams come true in the Tenderloin, with artistically challenging drag performances, international surprise guests, and polymorphous perversity on tap-tap-tap. 10 p.m., $2. Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, 133 Turk, SF. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

WEDNESDAYS

Booty Call Ever-gorgeous queen Juanita More and ever-energetic promoter Joshua J host this weekly queer night bursting with forward looks and youthful cuteness. The stated draw is the fun photobooth in back, tricked out by noted artists, but the free-spirited, non-pop house tunes are tasty, too. 9 p.m., $3. QBar, 456 Castro, SF. www.botycallwednesdays.com

Housepitality Good ol’ back-to-basics, world class house dancing with a warm, family vibe and some refreshing sophistication without pretension — also, some mighty hot hoofers on the dancefloor and guests in the booth. Pretty much a perfect hump night out. 9 p.m., $5 before 11 p.m., $10 after. Icon, 1192Folsom, SF. www.housepitalitysf.com

Coo Yah DJs Green B and Daneekah up the steamy reggaeton and dancehall ante with some strong female power behind the decks, live Caribbean and UK guests, and a diverse crowd who know how to put one leg up with the jams. 9 p.m., free. SOM, 2925 16th St., SF. www.som-bar.com

Bondage a Go Go The teasing tension between what can legally go on at this polyamorous showcase (now approaching its 20th year) and what actually might go on is just one of the exquisite tortures/pleasures for its many fans. DJs Damon and Tomas Diablo keep the rock and retro atmosphere dark and hot. 9:30 p.m., $10. Cat Club, 1190 Folsom, SF. www.bondage-a-go-go.com

WEDNESDAY MONTHLIES

Shutter Goth glamour exquisitely laid over indie sensibilities: modern darkwave and ’80s synth strains form the backdrop for a monthly ball of debaucherous shivers and Romantic excess. Fourth Wednesdays, 10 p.m., $5. Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. www.facebook.com/Shutter.SF

Stay Gold Adorably spazzy neon-sweatered, asymmetrically haircutted, often pantsless sexy young queer people unite! And get down to some pretty fierce reggaeton, hip-hop, and non-ironic pop jams from DJs Pink Lightning and Rapid Fire. Last Wednesday of the month, 10 p.m., $3 before 11 p.m., $5 after. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.facebook.com/staygoldsf

Qoöl Mammoth One of our oldest funky techno crews, Qoöl, joins forces with beloved insane Burning Man camp Pink Mammoth for a monthly SF scene reunion — as a happy hour, which means we’re growing up? Oh dear. Last Wednesday of the month, 6 p.m.-11 p.m, free. The EndUp, 401 Sixth St., SF. www.qoolsf.com

THURSDAYS

Afrolicious All things awesomely funky, especially Latin and African, for a packed house, from adorable DJ brothers Pleasuremaker and Señor Oz. Live percussion and performances, international guests, and a free-spirited atmosphere keep it lively. 9:30 p.m., $5. Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. www.elbo.com

Base Upscale club Vessel dips into the scrappy underground (a little) by hosting some of the most consequential names in international techno every week for an adoring, knowledgeable, dance-ready audience. 10 p.m., $10. Vessel, 85 Campton Pl., SF. www.vesselsf.com

Future Perfect This packed party pretty much realizes its admirable aim to demolish all genre boundaries and just play “cool, contemporary music no matter what.” That makes it hard to write about, but easy to dig, especially with yummy weekly live guests that have included Light Asylum, Cold Cave, and Dubbel Dutch. 10 p.m., $10–$15. Monarch, 101 Sixth St., SF. www.monarchsf.com

The Monster Show If San Francisco has a drag sweetheart, it must be the loveable Cookie Dough, who isn’t afraid to dump buckets of blood around the stage or skewer Toddlers and Tiaras or Whitney Houston for her gently twisted, often outrageous Monster Show performance night. DJ MC2 rocks the tunes. 10 p.m., $5. Midnight Sun, 4067 18th St., SF. www.cookievision.com

NightLife Hey smart peeps (and friends), the incredible Cal Academy of Sciences puts on one of the best parties in the city, with different intelligent but fun themes, exciting DJs, and informative talks each week. Yes, there are multiple bars and dancefloors. Yes, there are penguins. 6 p.m.-10 p.m., $12. California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Dr., Golden Gate Park, SF. www.calacademy.org/nightlife

Popscene All the bright young indie pop fans converge on this long-running 18+ party to peep up-and-coming international live bands often so fresh the Internet has yet to discover them — plus some touching nods to the alternative pop styles of yore. 10 p.m., $10–$15, 18+. Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell, SF. www.popscene-sf.com

Ritual Our best dubstep party, mixing anarchic raving with some damn smart programming and top notch selections. DJs Nebakaneza, Johnny5, and the Irie Cartel keep the sound an art form, exploring its outer, moodier reaches while still punching your solar plexus good. 10 p.m.-3 a.m., free before 10 p.m., $5 after. Temple, 540 Howard, SF. www.templesf.com

The Tubesteak Connection After almost eight years of reviving rare 1970s and ’80s gay bathhouse disco in an atmosphere that encourages sleazy cruising (and bans all things digital), DJ Bus Station John’s club is still a sensation — DJs make the pilgrimage, often on their knees, from around the globe to catch up on the sex music of the past. 10 p.m., $5. Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, 133 Turk, SF. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

THURSDAY MONTHLIES

Relax Relate Release Three of the craziest mofo DJs on the scene, Vin Sol, Richie Panic, and 5kinAndBone5 indulge their deeper eclectic (yet still plenty bumpin’) sides, with schweet selections spanning classic disco to hyphy gems, bass oddities to vogue jams. 10 p.m., $5. 222 Hyde, SF.

I Heart Cochina Tonga’s Take one plainish gay bar (LookOut), dress it up like the tackiest Mexican-wannabe cabana bar ever, add in a loco drag queen (Ambrosia Salad) and two DJs picantes (Stanley Frank and Taco Tuesday) who aren’t afraid to salsa-fy some party tunes — and shazam! A primo fiesta. Fourth Thursdays, 9 p.m., free. The LookOut, 3600 16th St., SF. www.lookoutsf.com

FRIDAYS

Blow Up Fantastically glamorous and classy-yet-raging 18+ underground electro, nu-disco, and post-French Touch night, hosted by Ava Berlin and Jeffrey Paradise, now seven years old and as fashionable as ever with a slew of talented DJs, weekly guests, relatable moments, and incredible looks. 10 p.m., $10–$20, 18+. DNA Lounge, 375 11th St., SF. www.blowupsf.com

Hot Boxxx Girls Legendary gender illusionists of the Tenderloin shower you with bewitching beauty and ravishing razzle-dazzle in this must-see drag show (also on Saturday nights). Once you witness these spirited gals take on your favorite showtune, pop hit, or power ballad, you’ll never hear it the same. Bring lots of singles for tipping. 9 p.m., $5. Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, 133 Turk, SF. www.auntcharlieslounge.com

Loose Joints Awesome rare grooves, from boogie raveups and old school hip-hop to Latin jazz and post-punk gems (plus some super-current cuts) that please vinyl mavens, sure, but also serve to keep the floor packed with hotties. DJs Tom Thump, Damon Bell, and Centipede combine their diverse crate-digging styles into a quality supersound. 10 p.m., $5. Make-Out Room, 3225 22nd St., SF. www.makeoutroom.com

Paris-Dakar Coupe Decale There’s pretty much something fab going down every night at Senegalese hotspot Little Baobab, but this party (also on Saturday) really turns the sweat on, with Central and West African rhythms — plus zouk, soca, Brazilian, reggae, and a bottom-dropping global stew of others. 10 p.m., $5. Little Baobab, 3388 19th St., SF. www.bissapbaobab.com

Some Thing Taking drag (and performance) into some incredible new and WTF zones — with lots of fun dancing afterward, and a fantastic craft table courtesy of Haute Gloo — the Some Thing trio of Glamamore, VivvyAnne ForeverMore, and DJ Down-E add some theatrical, dramatic, and loopy oomph to the SF weekend. 10 p.m.-afterhours, $7. The Stud, 399 9th St., SF. www.studsf.com

FRIDAY MONTHLIES

120 Minutes Based goth, rapegaze, hypercrunk — if you’re unfamiliar with these hysterically nihilistic, through-the-looking-glass genres, don’t worry: host Marco de la Vega and crew will slay you through it. First Fridays, 9 p.m., $10–$15. Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. www.elbo.com

Braza! Seductive Brazilian-themed goodness — from live Forro bands to forward-thinking DJs from Rio — and a smokin’ crowd of regulars, full of warmth and positive energy. First Fridays, 10 p.m.-3 a.m., $10. SOM, 2925 16th St., SF. www.brazasf.com

Low End Theory The seminal LA future bass and heady glitch party has done spectacularly with its monthly outpost here, bursting with eclectic live acts and well-known woofer Picassos. First Fridays, 10 p.m.-4 a.m., $15–$20. 103 Harriet, www.1015.com

Oldies Night It’s all about the doo wop, baby. Underground ’50s and ’60s rock and soul get the no-pressure crowd fired up like Tracy Turnblad on a bender. First and Third Fridays, 9:30 p.m., $3. The Knockout, 3223 Mission, SF. www.theknockoutsf.com

Taboo Truly moving soulful house sounds in Oakland from the great David Harness and friends, in a family atmosphere with old school good Bay vibes. First and Third Fridays, 9 p.m.-3 a.m., free before 10 p.m., $5 before 11 p.m., $10 after. Bench and Bar, 510 17th St., Oakl. www.bench-and-bar.com

Baxtalo Drom Brassy Balkan folk and wild Romany (gypsy) whirls were recently ubiquitous in local nightlife — this “gypsy punk cabaret” was one of the original parties and still one of the best. Fourth Fridays, 9 p.m., $7–$10. Amnesia, 853 Valencia. www.amnesiathebar.com

Teenage Dance Craze Another ’50s and ’60s rock and soul night at the Knockout (which is chockful of old-timey neat things), but with a lot more twists — of the Chubby Checker variety. The crowd is crazed for it all, indeed. Fourth Fridays, 10 p.m., $10. The Knockout, 3223 Mission, SF. www.theknockoutsf.com

SATURDAYS

Bootie The grandpappy of mashup clubs, going on eight years of bastard pop and cheeky pirate-themed fun. The crowd may have broadened, but Bootie head DJs Adrian and Mysterious D still program mindfuck drag performances and leftfield happenings to keep merry dancers (and loud singers-a-long) on their toes. They can even turn a Katy Perry-themed night into something subversive. 9 p.m.-afterhours. $10 before 10 p.m., $15 after. DNA Lounge, 375 11th St., SF. www.bootiesf.com

El SuperRitmo! Your best weekly bet for “the finest African music of Latin America,” with a whole tropical world of other styles thrown into the mix by spunky resident DJs Roger Mas and Kool Kyle. The crowd can get a wee bit dressy (so polish your patent leather Keds), but the floor never quits. 10 p.m., $5. Make-Out Room, 3225 22nd St., SF. www.makeoutroom.com.

SATURDAY MONTHLIES

Haçeteria Acid house, early industrial, classic rave, warm Italo: A heartfelt tribute to Manchester and Chicago warehouse sounds of the ’80s and early ’90s with a few nifty musical spanners thrown into the works. First Saturdays, 9 p.m.-3 a.m., free before 10:30 p.m., $3 after. Deco Lounge, 510 Larkin, SF. www.facebook.com/rancheria

Hard French Amazing queer soul party that digs up vintage 45s from the ’50s on up and spins a patio full of jiggling personalities into a smiley lather. DJs Carnita and Brown Amy crank the ol’ Victrola. First Saturdays, 2 p.m.-8 p.m., $7. El Rio, 3158 Mission, SF. www.hardfrench.com

Kontrol For six years the top-notch Kontrol crew has brought some of the finest innovators in techno to play live sets all night at the EndUp. Don’t worry, the sometimes wonky intelligence and occasional tech crowd overload never overshadow the ecstatic dancing to be had. First Saturdays, 10 p.m.-6 a.m., $20, The EndUp, 401 Sixth St., SF. www.kontrolsf.com

Leisure 1990s Britpop and trip hop, plus mod ’60s scooter gems and bubble gum pop from DJs Omar and Aron Axelson make everything laidback, baby. First Saturdays, 10 p.m.-3 a.m., $5. Cat Club, 1150 Folsom, SF. www.sfcatclub.com

Debaser After four years of excellently reviving grunge and alternative rock for flannel-shirted, babydoll-dressed 1990s fanatics, DJs Jamie Jams and Emdee are incorporating hip-hop and taking on a huge project: dedicating a night to every year of that nutso decade, starting with 1989 on March 10. Second Saturdays, 10 p.m., free with flannel before 11 p.m., otherwise $5. The Knockout, 3223 Mission, SF. www.debaser90s.com

Love Will Fix It Those questing to slake their thirst for vinyl ’70s and ’80s funk and R&B classics (a surprisingly rare flavor on the scene these days) played in a Market Street hole-in-the-wall bursting with positivity and hot-hot gays and friends need look no further than DJ Bus Station John’s latest venture. Second Saturdays, 10 p.m., $5. The Hot Spot, 1414 Market, SF.

Non Stop Bhangra Welcoming and wild, this tribute to the contemporary Punjabi (via London) dance sound mixes in plenty of tasty bass variants and one of the most diverse crowds in the Bay. DJ Jimmy Love and the dholrhythms dancers host awesome, global-eared guests. Second Saturdays, 9 p.m.-3 a.m., $10–$15. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com

Beatpig Intensely fun and charitable gay times at the Powerhouse bar in SoMa, as DJs Juanita More and Sidekick and host W. pack the leather-lovin’ hole with nightlife personalities, pleasant dancing, and often much sex cruising. Third Saturdays, 9 p.m., $5. Powerhouse, 1347 Folsom, SF. www.beatpigsf.com

Dial Up Electronic music bears, kooky gay club kids, and serious techno lovers unite with posses of like minds and sometimes wild outfits for neat guest DJs and surprise drag performances. With DJs Doc Sleep, Dabecy, and Robert Jeffrey, hosted by lovebirds Tim and Jorge. Third Saturdays, 10 p.m., $5. 222 Hyde, SF. www.facebook.com/dialupsf

New Wave City The original ’80s retro party, going on 20 years — it was retro almost before retro began! DJs Skip, Shindog, and Low-Life pump out the angular New Wave and darker singalong jams, with all the fun theme nights you could ask for. Third Saturdays, 9 p.m.-3 a.m., $7 before 10 p.m. $12 after. Cat Club, 1190 Folsom, SF. www.newwavecity.com

Tormenta Tropical Elecro-cumbia heaven, as a hip crowd gets down to the latest dance music of the Latin American diaspora. Absolutely filthy-lovely global grooves right here, from DJs Oro11 and Shawn Reynaldo. Second Saturdays, 10 p.m., $5 before 11 p.m., $10 after. Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. www.elbo.com

Booty Bassment “Squat! Squat! Gobble! Gobble! Squat-squat! Gobble-gobble!” If shouting these words in your head makes you want to slip down your hot pants and show your silky thong for $$$, this hipstery-but-fine booty music paradise has your bottom number. Third Saturdays, 10 p.m., $5. The Knockout, 3223 Mission, SF. www.facebook.com/bootybassment

OK Hole Real risk-taking live electronic, synth, and leftfield analog music performances for enthusiastic spectators, with jaggedy dance tunes from resident DJs Nay Nay, C.L.A.W.S., and (Keep It) Keith Slogan. Third Saturdays, 9 p.m., $5. Amnesia, 853 Valencia, SF. www.amnesiathebar.com.

Icee Hot The city’s best showcase for razor’s edge developments in underground bass music and the UK sounds of now — with some classic house and techno stunner guests thrown in for mega-measure. A lifeline for those tired of hearing this good stuff via Internet. Fourth Saturdays, 10 p.m.-3 a.m., SF. $5 before 10:30, $10 after. Public Works, 161 Erie, SF. www.publicsf.com

Go Bang! DJ Steve Fabus has been spinning since the earliest days of San Fran-disco, and when teamed up with young fanatic DJ Sergio — it’s been fire. Each month brings an onslaught of disco heat, with repolished red-light classics and rare vinyl revivals stoking an eager, off-the-shoulder crowd. Fourth Saturdays, 9 p.m., $5. Deco Lounge, 510 Larkin, SF. www.gobangsf.com

Reggae Gold Don’t let the classy, sparkling crowd of gorgeously toned people throw you off — there’s plenty of friendliness here for all. Top dance hall and reggae, flavored with spicy soca and and hip-hop, yes please. Fourth Saturdays, 10 p.m.-4 a.m., $5–$10. Six, 66 Sixth St., SF. www.reggaegoldsf.com (Also second Saturdays at New Parish in Oakland).

Dark Room Campy gay goth glory, replete with shivery drag performances, industrial tunes, and plenty of upside-down crucifix earrings in only one ear. Spooky and successful. Last Saturday of the month, 10 p.m., $5, The Hot Spot, 1414 Market, SF.

SUNDAYS

Dub Mission For 15 years, DJ Sep and friends have kept the Bay flame alive for deliciously heavy dub and classic rocksteady rhythms (now with a bit of dubstep). I often feel like I’m in some underground club in Jamaica or London in the early ’80s when I’m here, which is pretty much the coolest feeling there is. 9 p.m., $6. Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. www.dubmissionsf.com

Forward AM Um, why the heck wouldn’t you “get up” at 6 a.m. to hit up this rise ‘n shine tech-house gem, putting North Beach back on the map for serious party fanatics. 6 a.m.-1 p.m., $10. Monroe, 473 Broadway, SF. www.forwards.com

Honey Soundsystem Timeless, pumping house music so well-curated, and scruffy hot queer freak dancers looking so high out of their minds on the dance floor, that I feel gross and a little violated just being there. 9 p.m., $5. Holy Cow, 1535 Folsom, SF. www.honeysoundsystem.com

Sunday Sessions One of the last bastions of soulful, family-style deep house music in San Francisco, especially during the monthly Harlum Muziq label showcase with David Harness and Chris Lum, every third Sunday of the month. 8 p.m., $10–$20. the EndUp, 401 Sixth St., SF. www.theendup.com

Sweater Funk Not sweat or funk — sweat and funk, in spades, as the tiny basement of Chinatown’s Li Po Lounge gets off on a huge dose of classic and contemporary boogie and soul from a crew of true connoisseurs. 9:30 p.m., free. Li Po Lounge, 916 Grant, SF. www.facebook.com/sweaterfunk

ROVING

These roving parties — ones that happen at irregular intervals or in different venues — are worth following for their quality productions, underground vibes, and hot attendees.

Alcoholocaust Heavy metal, indie rock, and punk concerts that feel like parties, Facebook page

As You Like It: Big-name techno with a intimate vibe, www.ayli-sf.com

Donuts: Yes, there are Donuts! And great live electronic acts + DJs, www.facebook.com/donutsparty

The ITL: Ass-wasting moombahton and global bass, Facebook page

Lights Down Low: Super-eclectic dance mania — you’ll probably hear the future here first, www.lightsdownlow.net

No Way Back: Classic and cutting-edge house, techno, and disco, Facebook page

Sunset: The Pacific Sound Crew (often in collaboration with Stompy) puts on fine, family vibe house and techno bashes, www.pacificsound.net

This Must be the Place: East Bay soulful house promoters who’ve got an excellent thing going almost every weekend, www.thismustbetheplace.net

Trannyshack: The one, the only classic trash drag explosion (and bus trip to Reno!), www.trannyshack.com

We All We Got Great occasional showcase of Bay rap talent, Facebook page

What to Read: ‘SoMa’ by Kemble Scott

February 15, 2012

“Everyone you meet here in San Francisco has some anecdote about ‘the wild night I ended up in SoMa,’” author Kemble Scott said back in 2007. Sure, the neighborhood has experienced a gentrified taming since then. The outdoor orgies of yesteryear have been replaced by outdoor patio furniture stores, but luckily the gritty South of Market spirit – a cornucopia of illicit drugs and sexcapades – has been cleverly captured by Scott, pen name of journalist provocateur Scott James, who now writes a local column for The New York Times.

SoMa follows the intertwined path of three young people struggling in San Francisco immediately after the first dot com bust. Unemployed and desensitized, they push their limits and their luck to try to regain a sense of fulfillment. SoMa is now an artifact of the oftentimes-surreal turn-of-the-century subcultures that were embedded in the neighborhood.

Kemble Scott is the second author invited to participate in the Magnet Book Club (We’ll be running a series of interviews with authors appearing at the nonprofit space.) The gay men’s health center in the Castro will host Scott on Feb. 28 at 7:30pm for an intimate, wine-induced discussion of SoMa. To lead up to that event, we spoke to the author.

SFBG What are some of the reactions the book has gotten since publication?

KS When the book first came out, we had a book club at the LGBT Center. The crowd was a mix of older gay men and younger guys, and it turned into a debate about “post-gay.” One older man said he was sickened when he read about straight people in SoMa. He thought that because I was gay and I wrote a novel that I should write exclusively about the gay experience. When I wrote it I didn’t envision it solely for gay readers.

SFBG I don’t think there’s one character in SoMa who is either completely gay or completely straight.

KS The characters fall all over the rainbow of sexuality, it’s more complicated and similar to what we really have here in San Francisco. But I understand where he was coming from. We have this older generation who literally had to fight for their rights. It was a very polarizing conversation. When you open a book for interpretation, you’re also opening it up to misinterpretation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ez_yfnuQ-0

SFBG SoMa started as a short story. Why did you decide to turn it into a full-fledged novel?

KS At that time I was writing the SoMa Literary Review, a kind of new Tales of the City, and an editor at Alyson Books approached me and asked me if I had ever thought about turning it into a book. I said, sure! So I printed out several stories, stapled them together and sent them. But they didn’t want just a print out of the website. So I had to work to tie them all together.

SFBG How did you go about connecting all the stories?

KS That’s where my journalism background came in. Reading about all these separate instances and digging to find that there are commonalities. In SoMa it’s this desensitizing, this information overload, everyone always on their phones, playing video games nonstop and applying it to sexual exploration. You hear about a 22-year-old who is into fisting and wonder, how did this happen at such a young age? This extreme push to feel anything at all.

SFBG How has SoMa changed since the time in which the book takes place?

KS I moved there in 1997. There was no ballpark then. It’s become more expensive, more residential. It was such a free-for-all, I’m talking whole alleys devoted to outdoor orgies, because there were no lights, no one cared, no one lived there. The Powerhouse [since moved to the Tenderloin] was an all-out orgy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VenXQHZsL-g

SFBG Isn’t it still?

KS I’m not saying they don’t have their racy moments, but back then it was the one reason you’d go there. Now, you’re lucky if it happens. All that stuff is now happening online. There are whole websites dedicated to setting-up an orgy.

SFBG My friend set up an orgy on Facebook. But that’s not as cool as trekking down to SoMa.

KS Some say SoMa has lost its flavor. A part of it is that it’s no longer a feasible neighborhood for young people. That was its adolescence, now SoMa is closer to middle age. We are still exporting that fantasy. They were playing hardcore porn at a bear bar I went to in Madrid, and it was set in San Francisco! One of the guys I recognized. He goes to my gym.

SFBG Why did you agree to do this book club?

Kemble Scott Book clubs bring that relationship that usually happens in the reader’s lap. You’re not there when they’re reading it, you can’t hear what they’re thinking or experience their reaction. It’s great hearing what readers have to say, and not in an anonymous way, which is what you get on Amazon.

Kemble Scott will be Magnet Book Club’s guest of honor on Tuesday, February 28 at 7:30pm. Book club is open to the public and copies of SoMa are available at Books, Inc. in the Castro for 15% off. Magnet is located at 4122 18th Street (between Castro and Collingwood) in San Francisco.

Something to celebrate: 4 local standouts from SF Beer Week’s opening pours

Andrew Lam

February 13, 2012

The first drinkers to make it into the SF Beer Week opening celebration on Friday, January 10 had the run of the taps, and with over 50 breweries pouring two to six beers apiece in this year’s more spacious Concourse Exhibition Center venue, that counted for a lot. Yet, for some reason, the two guys at the head of the line were still speed walking. Maybe it was a preemptive strike against beer gut.

Sorry gents, but it’s a losing battle. Calorie counting was a loser’s game on Friday, but for anyone interested in the best and brightest of San Francisco suds, it was a can’t-miss situation. Here were some of the standouts — all local SF brews:

Almanac: SF’s fledgling Almanac brewery poured my first beers of the Week, and subsequently walked with my heart. The gypsy brewer (so named because it still doesn’t have its own facilities) makes small batch beers with fruit from featured Northern California farms — after the batch is made, it may never come back. It was pouring three of its fruit-based beers on Friday: the Belgian golden strong blackberry, farmhouse pale ale plum, and the winter wit orange and ginger. This week, the upstart is pairing with some of the city’s foodie flocking points to create some incredible limited edition products made with its beers: Dynamo Doughnuts,Humphrey Slocombe, and Wing Wings. Plus tonight (Mon/13), the brewery will be pairing up with Speakeasy and Pacific Brewing Laboratories to provide drinks during the hog butchering lesson and feast at the Beast and the Hare for all you carnivores.

SF Beer Week at the Concourse Exhibition Center. It really was a sausage fest.

Pacific Brewing Laboratories: “It’s been so amazing,” said Pacific Brewing Laboratories‘ Patrick Horn. Horn — who Guardian readers will remember from his local snack-beer pairings in last fall’s Beer Issue — was talking about his nanobrewery’s recent transition into non-nano — a.k.a, the SoMa outfit’s appearance in stores and bars around the city. Horn says the only trouble his outfit has been having is keeping up with the demand for its Squid Ink and Nautilus saison, which as it happens were the two brews he was pouring on Friday.

Shmaltz: I was partial, as always, to the SF-born Shmaltz‘s Albino Python, with its notes of ginger, sweet orange peel, and crushed fennell. Another recent happening: the brewery’s developed a new recipe for its Genesis dry hopped session ale, which it hardly ever does. Once a cross between an amber and a pale ale, Shmaltz employee Leah Harmatz says the new recipe was created so that it would be “more crisp.” I had to agree. Shmaltz’s mega carny food beer dinner on Wed/15 is probably going to be the most decadently weird night of Beer Week — set at Elk Lodge No. 3, attendees will enjoy their comestibles with performances by sideshow wackos as a garnish.

Southern Pacific Brewing: This brand-new brewery‘s recently opened brewery-pub-restaurant in the Mission has to be one of the neighborhood’s most exciting new spaces — vast and airy, the multilevel seating is going to be a place to beat in the Indian summer months when everyone wants to kick back with their favorite uber-local microbrew. On Friday, it was pouring its extra India pale ale and black ale, only two of a wide array of beers it makes on-site in their warehouse building.

Lookin’ good

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

January 31, 2012

culture@sfbg.com

BODY If your New Year’s resolution is flagging, here are some budget boosts to kickstart your makeover (or de-stress) ambitions. Never give up! Deals are for February: call ahead for more details or restrictions information.

FITNESS

Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center 1200 Arguello, SF. (415) 681-2731, www.sfyoga.com Find your center at this Inner Sunset nonprofit that’s run by world peace-inspired volunteers. Get your first class for free, and 50 percent off the 10-class ($95-115) or monthly unlimited pass ($110). Individual classes are $10-15 each.

Planet Granite 924 Mason, SF. (415) 692-3434, www.planetgranite.com An indoor climbing gym and yoga studio in the Presidio that boasts of the best views in the Bay Area. A belay lesson for $34 comes with free gear rental and one-day pass.

START Fitness 1625 Bush, SF. (415) 225-5715, www.STARTfitness.com These Pacific Heights bootcamp workout programs are designed by an army fitness trainer. START claims to be the oldest program of its kind in the country. Four-week bootcamp $199, from regular price of $290.

Bianchi Fitness 566 Dolores, SF. (415) 218-7045, www.bianchifitness.com Year-round outdoor fitness training in the Castro that takes advantage of the Bay Area’s natural beauty, offering group and individual classes. Take as many classes as you want during a two-week period for $75.

Body Mechanix Fitness Cooperative 219 Brannan, SF. (877) 658-4757, www.body-mechanix.com An independently-owned fitness cooperative in SoMa offering innovative training programs. $49 for a $120 certificate.

ODC School and Rhythm and Motion Dance Program 351 Shotwell, SF. (415) 863-9830, www.odcschool.org This Mission District mainstay offers classes in all styles of dance, from ballet to hip hop, at every level of ability, from amateur to professional. $14 per dance class, $7 for seniors and teens.

Chestnut Pilates 1877 Chestnut, SF. (415) 673-3280, www.chestnutpilates.com Run by dancer Cathie Caraker, this Cow Hollow studio guides students to toned abs and inner peace through a better understanding of the body. $60 for $80 certificate.

Primal Health and Training 1074 Folsom, SF. (510) 432-9648, www.primalhealthsf.com At his SoMa studio, Khalid Kohgadai teaches how to overcome inertia and unwanted weight gain through the methods that worked for him. $50 for two sessions.

Caitlin Weeks Nutrition and Personal Training 2435 Polk, Suite 8, SF. (415) 624-5121, www.grassfedgirl.com In Russian Hill, Weeks teaches methods for battling obesity gathered from her personal experience of dropping 80 pounds and keeping it off. $75 for a $100 certificate.

Yoga Garden 286 Divisadero, SF. (415) 552-9644, www.yogagardensf.com This tucked-away studio is committed to teaching safe, accessible classes in Iyengar, Asthanga, Vinyasa, Hatha and pre-natal yoga in the Lower Haight. Get a four-week introductory membership for $65. First timers score an hour-long massage for $49. Get a class-a-day membership plus monthly massage for $120/month.

Jamz Trainings 292 4th Street, Oakl. (415) 857-5269, www.jamztraining.com In Oakland, James Robinson customizes personal programs specializing in weight loss, athletic performance, motivation, and strengthening. $50 for $75 certificate.

Bridges Rock Gym 5635 San Diego, El Cerrito. (510) 525-5635, www.bridgesrockgym.com This El Cerrito gym offers indoor “bouldering,” relatively short climbs full of obstacle arrangements designed to test problem-solving skills. $25 for a three-visit pass and climbing gear.

BEAUTY

The Barber Lounge 854 Folsom, SF. (415) 934-0411, www.barberlounge.com This 2012 industrial warehouse approximation of an old-fashioned barbershop caters to men and women in sunny, art-bedecked loft space. $15 brow-shapings, Mon.-Fri. 4 p.m.-8 p.m. Book a cut and color and receive $20 off a facial or massage of at least 60 minutes.

John Francis Spa Martin De Porres Medical Building, 4200 18th St., Suite 101, SF. (415) 861-3000, www.johnfrancisspa.com The staff at this Castro spa offers holistic massage, waxing and skin care, plus mineral makeup, and tension relief foot treatments. Glycolic peels are reduced from $75 to $35 when combined with a facial. Registered clients receive 20 percent off on facials on their birthdays. $20 off when combining facial and massage on the same day.

Shear Bliss Salon 275 Gough, SF. (415) 255-8761, www.shearblisssalon.com These Aveda-trained stylists use eco-friendly styling techniques and products. The salon focuses on straight perms, coloring, extensions, and curly hair. New clients receive $20 off hair coloring.

San Francisco Community Acupuncture 220 Valencia, SF. (415)675-8973, www.missionsfca.com Affordable acupuncture is offered here in a comfortable, calm group setting. Pay $25-50 per treatment, sliding scale. Yelp users can receive a $40 gift certificate for $25.

Love Your Face SF 1075 Pacific, Suite A, SF. (415)529-2368, www.loveyourfacesf.com Curious about semi-permanent eyelash curling or eyelash-eyebrow tinting and ditching the daily regimen? LYF is the place to check out. Also: Ayuvedic ear treatments for wax removal and nourishment of the ear canal and drum. Refer a friend for $5 off your next service. Purchase five services and get one free. Yelp users get $50 worth of treatments for $35.

Earth Body 534 Laguna, SF. (415) 552-7200, www.earthbody.net This organic skin care spa takes a holistic, sustainable approach that draws on ancient traditions of healing. First time clients receive $15 off any treatment Mon.-Fri. Add a supplemental foot therapy, facial massage, or heated neck therapy to your session for free.

Chez Sylva 1310 8th Ave., SF. (415) 242-1100, www.chezsylva.com Salon offers waxing, threading, and a number of signature facials, but is best known for electrolysis and permanent hair removal. New clients receive a 10 percent discount on first treatment. Mention its website and receive an additional 5 percent discount.

Flourish Skin and Wax 1905 Union, SF. (415) 370-6559, www.flourishskinandwax.com Cheerful pastel walls and mellow music here eases the usual pain of waxing. Perfectionist waxers can satisfy even the most sensitive skin types. Book a Flourish facial and receive a complimentary cleanser; book a Brazilian wax and receive a complimentary brow wax.

Rincon Chiropractic Massage and Acupuncture 101 Howard, Suite D, SF. (415) 896-2225, www.rinconchiro.com Rincon focuses on the relationship between the structure and function of your spine. It provides a wide range of services, like rehabilitation therapies, mother-to-be, and stress-relieving massages. $25 off for students who bring in a valid student ID. Yelp users can get a $90 specialty massage for $50.

Tiptoes Nail Spa 300 De Haro, Suite 336, SF. (415) 626-9637, www.tiptoesnailspa.com This swanky Potrero Hill spot uses vegan and DBP, touelene and formaldehyde-free nail polish as well as botanical-based, petrochemical-free products. Go for a relaxing ambiance, cool chairs, and free Red Vines. Early bird special: mani-pedis for $35 before 3 p.m.

Curl Up and Dye Beauty Salon 350 Alabama, SF. (415) 861-2515, www.curlupanddyesf.net Ally likes big hair and monster movies. Jerry likes cheeseburgers and tight fades. Both have trained with Vidal Sassoon, Bumble and bumble, and Kevin Murphy. Both have devoted clients who come back time and time again for bold cuts and sexy styles. Receive $20 off a cut or color with either stylist.

The Hangover: Jan. 25-29

Tony Robles

January 30, 2012

Jounce with us, if you will, through the Guardian staff’s frenzied weekend. Here’s our live reviews, hot raging, random sightings.

***Classy is, somehow, the wrong word for a quality show at Yoshi’s – but elegant is an appropriate descriptor, especially considered the dapper ladies and gentlemen assembled on Wednesday night for Red Bull Music Academy’s presention of Gary Bartz, featuring young buck R&B devils Aloe Blacc and Bilal. It takes a certain level of grace for a venerable saxophonist like Bartz to give up the spotlight, but Bilal’s tear-jerkingly masterful roar-to-whisper rendition of “Body and Soul,” and Blacc’s swaggerful performance of his hit “I Need a Dollar” were well-choreographed breaks in the venerable saxophonist’s riff and trills. (Caitlin Donohue)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZFQphn_hu0

***On Friday night I experienced an Outerlands sit-down dinner for the first time, and it was nothing short of magical. You can always expect a bit of a wait at this earthy, intimate gathering place known for its Tartine-esque bread, savory soups, and mason-jarred drinks because of the place’s popularity-to-table ratio. But ordering an opening beer from a list that will impress even the haughtiest of San Francisco beer snobs stoked my epicurean anticipation and made the slight wait (dare I say?) enjoyable. I indulged in an Aventinus (or two), the warm manilla clam and fennel salad, and the fresh cavatelli with wild mushrooms, winter squash, rapini, and parmesan. (Mia Sullivan)

***The pure indie-pop bliss of Adios Amigo drew me in Friday night at the Hemlock. Led by Il Gato drummer/Adios Amigo guitarist-vocalist Johnny Major, the quartet played upbeat ’50-evoking pop for a packed house. Performing songs off its new five-song EP, Adios Amigo occasionally dipped towards mellow Belle & Sebastian sentimentality, at other points rocking more Shins-like. After the show, spit out into the Tenderloin, I made the short trip to the Edinburgh Castle for an excellent ska night, and ended up pushing through another crowd, stoked on the spinning sounds of two-tone. (Emily Savage)

***My Saturday night was enjoyed in a house in Alamo Square with a cluster of the friendliest jungle juice sippin’ folks. A friend of the host was leaving to Jerusalem, another was celebrating her birthday, and a roommate’s brother was anticipating his birthday a couple nights ahead. Space Ghost’s ethereal synthscape was spinning our boozy heads in to a luscious sub-bassed frenzy as friends reunited and babes made out in the corner. In many ways, it was a typical house party – enthusiastic dance moves by the most unexpected people, messy hugs, messier number exchanges, and tears over lost weed. What made this night really special though is that by sunrise there was a marriage proposal, homemade cake, and a dance-off to a remix of “This Is How We Do It.” (Soojin Chang)

***I was in the mood for some mind-bending psych-rock this weekend and found it in both Feral Ohms and Carlton Melton at El Rio. Unfortunately, I arrived just after stoner-metal openers Glitter Wizard finished, a cruel defeat as I’d been hoping to catch the whole lineup for this particularly epic evening. While I missed Glitter Wizard, nearly weeping into my Tecate, I did receive a surprise treat. The gods shined down on me when a friendly stranger offered up a vegan, cheeseless version (however did they know?) of the excellent frybread that pops up at El Rio nightly thanks to Rocky’s Frybread. (Emily Savage)

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

***Somehow I ended up Sunday night at the Stud listening to true-blue classic disco hits, with a barking dog in my lap and whiskey and Coke perspiring in hand. “Dance Doggy Dance A Fundraiser for Wonder Dog Rescue” was sadly, sparsely attended, there’s no question there, but the idea has potential. Wonder Dog volunteers brought the energy and disco digs, and a few attendees brought their small pups out to the SOMA bar. Maybe it will gain momentum, perhaps next time it’ll be a daytime event, or there will be more preview press. Hopefully, you’ll see this very blurb and start prepping your dog’s glittery bow tie in anticipation of the next doggy disco. (Emily Savage)

A Bay Area kind of stand-up: Frankie Quinones of For the People Comedy

Andrew Lam

January 18, 2012

A Bay Area kind of stand-up: Frankie Quinones of For the People Comedy

Common knowledge states that if you’re serious about becoming a stand-up comedian on the West Coast, you move to Los Angeles. But Frankie Quinones created the diversity of For the People Comedy here in San Francisco and despite his rising star on the stand-up scene, he’s sticking around for the moment.

Maybe that’s because Carmelita lives here. “She’s taken on a whole thing of her own, her own career,” says the Ventura County native of his sassed-up, club-going Latina sexpot. “Carmelita’s got her own list of things to do in 2012.” You can check out Quinones — and possibly Carmelita or his popular “Cholo Whisperer” skit — at the next For the People event at Cobb’s on Thu/19.

Carmelita was created back in 1996 in Quinones’ high school improv class. She hails from Quinones’ stable of characters inspired by – well, what else – the people he sees on an everyday basis. In Carmelita’s case that’s his female family members, mixed with Quinones’ own mannerisms. “She’s really confident, but not really conceited,” he says.

Her star vehicle was “Eh-So Eh-Spicy,” in which she half-dishes, half-raps about men looking at her tits in line at the store and courts suitors in a San Francisco bar. You’re definitely laughing at her, but somehow, Quinones escapes reducing the brash Carmelita into a stereotype like so many other male comedian’s female alter egos. Carmelita shares set time with a host of Quinones’ other personas, including a hippie character named Sun Diamond whose mannerisms are culled from the patchouli-scented denizens of our fair city.

Quinones is proud of being a Latino comic, part of a tradition that also includes his personal role models Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias and Paul Rodriguez, who his parents used to watch on TV when he was young. He often performs at Latino comedy nights in Los Angeles, but in San Francisco — where successful Latino comics are well-known for relocating quickly down south when fame beckons — he’s used to being the only Hispanic name on otherwise all-black and all-white bills.

His comedy often dances along the edge of racial tensions, ultimately resolving them in a feel-good way. In “Cholo Whisperer,” a upper-middle class suburban couple hires an expert to deal with the shanking, 40-drinking gangster (played by Quinones) they’ve adopted after being charmed by their neighbor’s cholo. The cholo whisperer, who walks with a mystic’s bauble-topped scepter but dresses in everyday street wear and a blue bandana, teaches the white husband how to be “the jefe,” a role that mainly involves puffing out his chest and barking short orders.

“Some people think I’m stupid for not moving to LA already,” says Quinones, drinking a Negra Modelo in front of his combination plate on a sidewalk tables at the Valencia Street Puerto Alegre. “But I feel like I’m doing something for the San Francisco comedy scene.” You can check out For the People’s new monthly gig every last Wednesday at SoMa’s Sofa nightclub on Eighth Street and Minna. Quinones crafts the program for these nights with the newbie comedy fan in mind — usually they’ll feature stand-ups from all kinds of backgrounds, even a live DJ for musical interludes.

“I’ve always been that fool in my family, like ah, fucking Frankie,” Quinones laughs. “People in my life are not surprised that I’m a stand-up comedian.”

Maybe that’s why they’ve been so supportive. “I have a good team of homies that believe in this as much as I do,” says Quinones, who says the word of mouth hype his group of friends give him is invaluable in promoting his shows – indeed, a word from a mutual friend was how I heard about his work. “Our brand of comedy is like, this is all of us, together. It’s like, I’m no better than you because I’m on stage. I try to create a family vibe so that when people come in they feel a part of it.”

Just don’t heckle him – that positivity has its limits. “If somebody heckles me that’s the green light,” he laughs forbodingly, for a moment seeming like the snarky comedians we’re used to from network television and BET. That impression doesn’t last long before we’re back to the group experience: “But my goal is to make it funny for everyone.”

For the People Comedy

Thu/19 8 p.m., $15

Cobb’s Comedy Club

915 Columbus, SF

(415) 928-4320

www.cobbscomedyclub.com

Wall played

Andrew Lam

January 17, 2012

Also in this issue, Guardian writer Matt Sussman on who got the hype — and who earned it — in the galleries at Art Basel Miami 2011

VISUAL ART The popular face of Miami is made of aqua blue views and chrome rims, but the parts of Wynwood that haven’t been covered by murals yet look more like asphalt and the muted tones of low-cost rentals. Since the 1950s it’s been largely a Puerto Rican neighborhood. It’s also where many African Americans moved when they got priced out of the Overtown neighborhood to the south, where they were originally relegated by Jim Crow laws.

But, in a high-low art tornado last month, Wynwood is also where I learn that the popular legend labeling the Mission District the neighborhood with the most densely-packed street art in the world is total bunk.

Wynwood’s main drag Second Avenue is Clarion Alley on acid. Having come straight from Miami International Airport, my rental car barely inches down the strip, so omnipresent are the weaving, goggling packs of urban art voyeurs in oversized silk shirt-dresses and vertiginous wedge heels or where’d-you-get-’em sneakers. The only sign of the neighborhood’s year-round residents are the sporadic flaggers in self-bought orange vests waving cars into parking spots.

Angry sharks, Persian cat-women, color-washed streetcars, and owls sitting shotgun in convertibles — sometimes layered on top of each other — grace walls here. Designs pour off walls and onto the sidewalk. Here, the fairytale nymphs and walking houses of Os Gemeos on a fancy restaurant; there, a massive black-and-white photo wheatpaste by JR of bulging, watching eyes that echo the look of passers-by. I nearly break my neck on Mexico City artists Sego and Saner’s horned beetle-men, who clutch amulets and wear fanged leopard masks on the backs of their heads. Absolut Vodka has occupied a parking lot with a temporary open-air club, dotting it with human-sized aerosol cans and fencing it off with chainlink. It’s enough to make any street art fan lose their shit, or at least the rental car.

I’ve parachuted into the middle of Miami’s yearly art inferno, a.k.a. the week that the Art Basel art fair comes to town. Since 2002, this Swedish import has filled Miami Beach Convention Center with astronomically-priced works from over 260 international galleries. Umpteen ancillary art and design fairs populate deco hotel-land and its surrounds during this time — the city becomes one largely, loudly turned-out gallery opening.

Wynwood, with its surplus of 80-foot blank walls, hosts many an art collection — but it’s most visible contribution to the scene is its dense network of murals. Of these, the undisputed center is a compound of buildings grouped around a courtyard of marquee works dubbed Wynwood Walls. The properties were purchased by (in)famous neighborhood rejuvenator Tony Goldman in 2004. Many hold Goldman responsible for the gentrification of Soho, South Beach, and city center Philadelphia.

Wynwood Walls is his carefully orchestrated attempt to use the allure of street art to change the area’s economic fortune. Shortly before Art Basel 2011, Goldman produced a series of YouTube shorts dubbed “Here Comes the Neighborhood,” in which longtime graffiti photographer Martha Cooper cheerfully opines “Now we’ve got something [street art] that people are calling the biggest art movement in history of the world. And it just might be.”

The night of my arrival, the amount of in-progress murals at which the crawling traffic gives one an opportunity to gawk is striking. At least a dozen artists labor within a four-block radius, greeting fans, drinking beers and staring up at their half-finished creations contemplatively.

Such was the mood in which I find Buenos Aires street artist Ever, who along with an assistant is completing a massive wall featuring two disembodied heads emitting his signature riotously colorful cognitive mapping hives, which in the past he’s painted emerging from the brains of Mao Tse-Tung and his own younger brother. Ever was flown up by a community-based Atlanta street art festival, Living Walls, to paint a Second Avenue parking lot wall as part of the festival’s first project outside of Georgia.

It’s not his first international street art festival, but Ever is among the artists under-impressed with the Basel-time scene in Wynwood.

“It’s like the alcohol. I hate the shit — but one drink more!” We talk when the dust of Basel has long settled; Ever, fellow street and gallery artist Apex, and I perched around Apex’s studio in a Market and Sixth Street garment factory building.

Apex, who has been to Miami during Basel week four times, and twice to paint the crystallized, color-saturated “super burner” murals he is known for, explains that for him, the problem is exploitation. Street artists typically paint walls for a pittance or for free, in a neighborhood where businesses are making boatloads of money off spectators that come to marvel.

“You have, like, Tony Goldman, he gives a certain amount of money, property owners make money, but artists, a few make money,” Apex explains. “The rest, no. Artists get caught in the excitement of it. But who is getting paid off of it?”

“Who wins,” Ever adds.

“If someone is making money off of it, you should know who that is,” concludes Apex.

But the two artists agree that Art Basel week is an excellent education in the workings of the high art world for aspiring professionals, and that the camaraderie that flourishes between street artists can be important, inspirational.

And of course, the parties. Basel is known for them — 2011 featured everything from the $200-a-ticket “Fuck Me I’m Famous” David Guetta show to surprise kudos for the partykids from Pharrell onstage at Yelawolf’s Saturday night gig at a castle-shaped outdoor club in Wynwood. On my first night in town, the whole Living Walls gang — organizers, artists, errant alternative journalist from San Francisco — pile into cars and hit the Design District to check out the opening of the group show of Primary Flight, a local collective that got its start commissioning murals wall-by-wall in Wynwood.

“We started noticing we weren’t the breadwinners of the galleries,” Primary Flight founder Books Bischof tells me in a phone interview. “It was like fuck you, we’re going to take to the streets. We’re all curators in a sense, so we might as well get up and be seen.” Bischof logged time connecting with local graffiti crews and Wynwood’s homeless population to make sure he had community support for bringing the art crowd into the neighborhood during Basel week. He somewhat resents Goldman’s “just buy it” approach. “When we learned about [his Wynwood building purchases] we were like, well that’s kind of fucked.” (Though officially the two camps exist amicably, Goldman told me he upon arriving in the neighborhood he found Primary Flight’s piecemeal approach to its murals “helter-skelter.”)

But along with Wynwood’s art scene, Primary Flight has grown. In addition to its mural program — through which Apex painted his 2011 Miami wall — attendees at the collective’s gallery space could take in traditional paintings and sculptures, but also Mira Kum’s “I Pig, Therefore I Am” installation featuring the artist in the nude, living with two pigs in a small enclosure for 104 hours. “We represent artists with a street art, fuck you swagger,” comments Bischof.

Things are much more established now in Wynwood, which by most counts serves as Miami’s arts district year-round. There are expensive coffeeshops and bars, fine restaurants, precious florists, and blocks of galleries selling accessible art. (During Art Basel week, one of these is given over to an artist who specializes in kawaii food art printed onto affordable decals and posters. An entire wall is covered in swirly-topped ice cream cones in a hundred color options.)

Though professional street art certainly existed prior to his engagement, this upscaling can largely be attributed to Goldman’s speculative interest. Goldman’s PR agency sends me press materials dubbing Wynwood “the next great discovery in the Goldman Properties portfolio.” His company’s general methodology is to buy up historic buildings in socioeconomically depressed neighborhoods and fill them with upscale businesses that attract more pedestrian traffic.

There is little doubt that Goldman envisions the future of Wynwood as a place where housing units rent for far more than many of its current residents can afford. His team has spent considerable time and effort working with Miami’s city council on creating live-work zoning in Wynwood (not unsimilar to the type of zoning that loaded San Francisco’s SoMa with high cost condos). After the Basel hangover has dissipated, I get a chance to talk with him.

“When I went to Wynwood and I had boxy warehouse buildings, it was a much different challenge for me,” says Goldman during our decorous phone interview. “Now I could be free. Some people would look at ugly buildings and empty parking lots and loading zones — what I saw was an international outdoor street art museum. Huge canvas opportunities.” He bought six of those buildings in the center of the neighborhood, two of which now house spendy restaurants run by his son and daughter.

Goldman is not completely without street art cred. Since 1984, he has owned a massive wall on Manhattan’s Bowery and Houston Streets that has hosted murals from Keith Haring, Barry McGee, and Shepard Fairey. “[Street art] is freer in a lot of ways than walking in a museum, which a lot of street artists consider graveyards,” he says. “Not that I agree with them, not that I disagree with them either. I think Wynwood Walls is one place that has validated the art form as an important contribution to contemporary art.”

But Wynwood Walls also serves as the main attraction to an area in which Goldman Properties has monetarily invested. “It [is] a center place that the arts district really didn’t have, a town square, a centerpiece that was defined architecturally,” reflects Goldman. “It served its purpose.”

But perhaps this use of street art as tool of gentrification is not so incongruous. After all, most if not all professional street artists are able to create murals only by selling gallery-ready pieces. Ever tells of painting a mural for Coca-Cola with studiomate Jaz, only to use his paycheck to create three more public walls. “The reality of art is you always need a rich person,” he says.

Which is, more or less, to say that even in Wynwood, professional street art is not entirely soulless. Take for example one of Ever’s favorite Wynwood pieces, done by Spanish artist Escif. The wall was so popular, in fact, it merited a cameo in a “Here Comes the Neighborhood” episode. And not for its bright colors or revolutionary design; it’s just black capital letters on a flat white background.

But it does have a pretty direct message for good-intentioned folks in Wynwood. It says: “Remember, u’re not doing it for the money.”

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