Television

Rep Clock

Andrew Lam
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Schedules are for Wed/31-Tue/6 except where noted. Director and year are given when available. Double and triple features marked with a •. All times pm unless otherwise specified.

ARTISTS’ TELEVISION ACCESS 992 Valencia, SF; www.atasite.org. $5-10. "Openscreening," Thu, 8. Struggle (Hill, 2012), Fri, 8. "Small Press Traffic: A Reading and Conversation with Dana Ward, Julian Brolanski, and Cynthia Sailers," Sun, 5. "Other Cinema:" Informant (Meltzer, 2012), Sat, 8:30.

BALBOA 3630 Balboa, SF; www.cinemasf.com. $10. Halloween (Carpenter, 1978), Wed, 10pm. New HD transfer; screens with a short doc about the film’s impact.

CASTRO 429 Castro, SF; (415) 621-6120, www.castrotheatre.com. $8.50-11. •Broken Flowers (Jarmusch, 2005), Wed, 3, 7, and The Swimmer (Perry, 1968), Thu, 5, 9. "Midnites for Maniacs: Celebrate the End of Days:" •Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Cameron, 1991), Fri, 7; Inception (Nolan, 2010), Fri, 9:30; and Halloween 3: Season of the Witch (Wallace, 1982), Fri, 11:59. One or all three films, $13. "Scary Cow Short Film Festival," Sat, 3. This event, $10-25; advance tickets at www.scarycow.com. Escape to Witch Mountain (Hough, 1975), Sun, call for times. •Hollywood to Dollywood (Lavin, 2011), Sun, call for times, and Gayby (Lisecki, 2012), Sun, call for times.

CHRISTOPHER B. SMITH RAFAEL FILM CENTER 1118 Fourth St, San Rafael; (415) 454-1222, www.cafilm.org. $6.75-$10.25. All Together (Robelin, 2011), Wed-Thu, call for times. "World Ballet on the Big Screen:" Swan Lake, from the Royal Ballet, London, Sun, 10am and Tue, 6:30pm. This event, $15. A Liar’s Autobiography: The Untrue Story of Monty Python’s Graham Chapman (Jones, Simpson, and Timlett, 2012), Nov 2-8, call for times. The Other Son (Lévy, 2012), Nov 2-8, call for times.

COWELL THEATER Fort Mason Center, SF; www.absinthe-films.com. $10. Resonance (Hostynek, 2012), Fri, 8:30. Backcountry snowboarding documentary.

PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE 2575 Bancroft, Berk; (510) 642-5249, bampfa.berkeley.edu. $5.50-9.50. "Alternative Visions:" "Avant-Garde Masters: A Decade of Preservation," Wed, 7. "Behind the Scenes: The Art and Craft of Cinema with Editor Sam Pollard:" Mo’ Better Blues (Lee, 1990), Thu, 7; Style Wars (Silver, 1984), Sat, 8:15. "Don’t Shoot the Player Piano: The Music of Conlon Nancarrow:" Conlon Nancarrow: Virtuoso of the Player Piano (Greeson, 2012), Fri, 7. "At Jetty’s End: A Tribute to Chris Marker, 1921-2012:" Sans soleil (1982), Fri, 9:20; Music for 1,000 Fingers: Conlon Nancarrow (Uli Aumüller and Hanne Kaisik, 1993), Sun, 4. "Grand Illusions: French Cinema Classics, 1928-1960:" L’étrange Monsieur Victor (Grémillion, 1938), Sat, 6; La bête humaine (Renoir, 1938), Sun, 2.

ROXIE 3117 and 3125 16th St, SF; (415) 863-1087, www.roxie.com. $6.50-11. "Not Necessarily Noir III:" Near Dark (Bigelow, 1987), Wed, 6, 10; From Dusk Till Dawn (Rodriguez, 1996), Wed, 8. Sleepwalk With Me (Birbiglia), Wed-Thu, 7, 9. Rare, Thu, 6. More info at www.rarefilm.org. "TGIF vs. SNICK," clips from classic TV shows, Fri-Sat, 8. Miami Connection (Kim, 1996), Fri-Sat, 10:45. Ornette: Made in America (1984/2012), Sat-Tue, 6:45 (also Sat-Sun, 3, 5).

YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS 701 Mission, SF; www.ybca.org. $10. El Velador (Almada, 2011), Thu, 7:30; Sun, 2.

Our Weekly Picks: October 31-November 6

Andrew Lam
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WEDNESDAY 31

Halloween at Thee Parkside

There was a pretty sizable chunk of paper last week dedicated to the eye-popping range of spooky/trashy/candy-coated Halloween events out there for you to dig into. Though on this night, this favorite holiday of many, I throw my vote to the tribute band. It’s just fun to see local bands dressed as other bands, rocking a catalogue they likely researched on Wikipedia and/or Youtube. That’s why I doff my cat-eared hat to Thee Parkside’s linup: Glitter Wizard as the Seeds, Twin Steps and the Cramps, Meat Market as G.G. and the Jabbers, and the Parmesans as the Kinks. Plus, some monster mashups via DJ Dahmer, MOM’s spook booth, tarot card readings, and (creepy?) silent film projections. (Emily Savage)

8pm, $8

Thee Parkside

1600 17th St., SF

(415) 252-1330

www.theeparkside.com

 

THURSDAY 1

Mr. Kind

Less than a year old, Oakland foursome Mr. Kind is still in its infancy. But when the band formed in March, it hit the ground running, releasing its first EP OK just a few months in. Now, three months later, Mr. Kind is taking on another ambitious project by playing Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot in its entirety. The 2002 best-selling, alt-country masterpiece celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. When the band discussed which album they wanted to honor with a tribute show, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was the unanimous choice, described in the group’s press release as “a classic album that has played a big part in influencing the members of Mr. Kind.” To top off the celebration, Mr. Kind will be joined onstage by various Bay Area musicians, including members of Please Do Not Fight and Finish Ticket. And one more thing: be sure to keep wearing your costume, Halloween’s not over yet. (Haley Zaremba)

With River Shiver, Marquiss

9pm, $10

Bottom of the Hill

1233 17th St, SF

(415) 626-4455

www.bottomofthehill.com

 

When We Were Young and Dumb: the Stranger vs. Believer

You’re currently reading the San Francisco Bay Guardian (thanks!), but if you lived in Seattle, you would probably be scanning Dan Savage’s home paper, the Stranger. As comrades in free-thinking liberal media, we can’t help but support their appearance in a face-off with another great publication, the Believer. One of Dave Eggers many projects, the literary journal lets writers do what they do best: ramble. It started by publishing only rejects from other literary journals and now specialize in longer form interviews and original work. Writers from both publications will be speaking of their younger days, including some key cornerstones: Jesus, LSD, and virginity. (Molly Champlin)

6pm, free

Makeout Room

3225 22 St., SF

(415) 647-2888

www.makeoutroom.com

 

Kirk Von Hammett Presents: Day of the Dead Bash

That guy from Metallica? Stringy-haired lead shredder Kirk (Von) Hammett? He’s also way into horror paraphernalia, and has packed his home with a collection of monster-movie memorabilia, including Bela Lugosi’s Dracula script and original Frankenstein posters. He’s got so much stuff, that he compiled an entire 224-page coffee table book on the subject — Too Much Horror Business — and will fête said tome’s release with zombies, Day of the Dead burlesque by Hubba Hubba Revue, and live performances by veteran Concord metal band Death Angel, and local string-metal trio Judgement Day tonight at Public Works. (Savage)

9pm, $13.99

Public Works

161 Eerie, SF

(415) 932-0955

www.publicsf.com


FRIDAY 2

“Private Life Studies”

Being a soldier and an artist is not a natural fit. But think about it. For both you need dedication, discipline, a willingness to submit your ego to something bigger than yourself and, for dancers, an ability to work with others. So, perhaps, it should be no surprise that Private Freeman, one of ODC/Dance’s most generous, witty, and focused dancers, managed to successfully integrate these two, seemingly contradictory impulses. Deborah Slater’s work-in-progress Private Life Studies is exploring some of these issues as a series of “dance stories”, based on strategies from Sun Tzu’ “The Art of War.” Sun was just one of some of history’s most brilliant minds writing about war; Machiavelli and von Clausewitz were others. Odd, isn’t it? (Rita Felciano)

Also Sat/3, 8pm; Sun/4, 2pm, $15–$25

CounterPULSE

1310 Mission St. SF

(877) 297-6805

privatelife-eorg.eventbrite.com

 

Day of the Dead altars and procession

Although the changing nature of the crowd at the Mission’s annual night of remembrance for those who’ve passed has earned it the affectionate nickname “Dia de los Dead Gringos,” there’s no denying that the community-led, candle-lit procession and park full of homemade altars can be breathtakingly lovely. Arrive early at Garfield Park to tiptoe around meticulously, sometimes even extravagantly decorated tributes to dead family members and public figures. Add a note of your own to the interactive exhibits, and await the arrival of the costumed procession, whose inevitable approximations of La Catrina are a distinctly San Franciscan way of celebrating the holiday. (Caitlin Donohue)

Procession: 6-7pm, free

Starts at Bryant and 22nd St., SF

Festival of Altars: 6-11pm, free

Garfield Park

Harrison and 26th St., SF

www.dayofthedeadsf.org

 

Chilly Gonzales

It’s not hard to come up with a list of catchy things about Chilly Gonzales to entice you to go to his show. And he knows it. While his strongest talents lie in piano, he has made quite a scene on Youtube, adapting his skills to popular demand with his genuine love of rap (and bongos, hula hoops, and pink suits). He has provided compositions for Feist, Drake, and Steve Jobs and then turned the tables to rap with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Now though, like a true artist, he’s returning from his pop adventures and getting serious with his latest work, “Piano Solo II,” which is mostly short piano pieces showcasing serious skill in a still modern, easily digestible format. (Champlin)

8pm, $20

Swedish American Hall

2170 Market, SF

(415) 861-5016

www.cafedunord.com


SATURDAY 3

Informant

No documentary subject in recent memory is as infuriating as Brandon Darby — the radical activist turned FBI informant turned Tea Party chucklehead at the center of Informant, local documentary filmmaker Jamie Meltzer’s most recent work. (Prior to this, Meltzer was probably best-known for 2003’s wonderfully bizarre Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story.) Scream at the screen (you will want to) at Other Cinema tonight, Informant’s first local showing since its San Francisco International Film Festival bow earlier this year. (Cheryl Eddy)

8:30pm, $6

Artists’ Television Access

992 Valencia, SF

www.othercinema.com

 

SF Symphony Dia de los Muertos community concert

Is a skeleton a xylophone or a marimba? You can bet your sweet sugar skull there’ll be an ocean of chromatic bones, dancing akimbo, at the vibrant annual celebration of the afterlife. The family favorite boasts performances from the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra (playing Aaron Copland’s El Salón México and Jose Pablom Moncayo’s Huapango), dance company Los Lupeños de San José, Mariachi Nuevo Tecalitlán, and more, all narrated by the twinkling Luis Valdez, “father of Chicano theater.” Face painting, paper flower-making, tons of colorful art, and a pre-show by the Mixcoatl Anahuac Aztec dancers, the 30th Street Chorus, and the Solera singers boost the fun — but really they had us at cinnamon-infused Mexican hot chocolate and pan de muerto. (Marke B.)

2pm, $17.50–$68

Davies Symphony Hall

401 Van Ness, SF.

(415) 864-1000

www.sfsymphony.org

 

AU

In my younger and more vulnerable years, certain music videos left definitive scars on my brain. Faith No More’s “Epic” — seemingly an over-the-top ode by Mike Patton to drowning fish and exploding pianos — taught me the meaning of the word in a way that no amount of Greek literature could. Things have largely remained that way until listening to the latest adventurous pop album from Portland’s AU, which opens with another “Epic” — an instrumental soundscape where technical, Hella-tight drumming is joined by impossibly high rising GY!BE guitars as part of a larger Tim-Riggins-winning-the-big-game-triumphant structure. The lexographically challenging track is only the first surprise on the record, and demands a live rendition. (Ryan Prendiville)

With Zammuto

9pm, $15

Independent

628 Divisadero, SF

(415) 771-1421

 www.theindependentsf.com


SUNDAY 4

Kid Koala

It’s been a big year for Eric San, the Montreal turntablist better known as Kid Koala. Not only did he contribute to the revival of Deltron 3030 after a decade-long hiatus; he’s also managed to release 12 Bit Blues, his first solo record in six years. Conceptually inspired and determined, the album utilizes a clunky, old-school sampler, à la Public Enemy, to reconstruct blues music from the ground up, resulting in a man vs. machine sort of tension that makes for a constantly engaging listen. Luckily, for those fans hesitant to watch a dude spin records for two hours, Kid Koala’s “Vinyl Vaudeville Tour” is loaded with bells and whistles to keep things interesting: Puppets! Dancing girls! Parlor games! Robots! If only more electronic acts were bold enough to co-opt these kooky antics of the Flaming Lips variety. (Taylor Kaplan)

With Adira Amram and the Experience

9pm, $20

Independent

628 Divisadero, SF

(415) 771-1421

www.theindependentsf.com


MONDAY 5

Jens Lekman

“Hey do you want to go see a band? No I hate bands. It’s always packed with men spooning their girlfriends, clutching their hands, as if they let go their feet would lift off the ground and ascend,” Swedish pop master Jens Lekman sings on I Know What Love Isn’t, his first full-length since 2007’s classic Night Falls Over Kortedala. Gone are the enraptured recollections of romantic highs — this is the ever autobiographically charming Lekman, soberly looking at relationships from the outside. But on this “break-up” album, Lekman’s observations on past failures and limitations break through to a melancholic optimism for the future. Recreating the album’s full palette of ’80s balladry, Lekman will be performing with a full band. (Prendiville)

With Taken By Trees, Big Search

8pm, $25–$35

Fillmore

1850 Geary, SF

(415) 346-6000

 www.thefillmore.com

 

TUESDAY 6

Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band

Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band must be exhausted. Not only does the trio have to live up to its highfalutin’ damn big title, it found time this year to release its eighth full-length album while maintaining its ridiculous, awe-inspiring average of 250 shows per year. The Indiana-based Americana blues band consists of a Reverend Peyton on guitar and vocals, his wife Breezy on washboard, and Peyton’s cousin, Aaron “Cuz” Persinger on drums. For the band’s newest effort Between the Ditches, the Rev. and company slowed down enough to get into a studio and lay out the record instrument by instrument, track by track, instead of recording it live all in one big, enthusiastic rush as usual. The result is a beautifully recorded bit of nostalgia that transports the listener to a big wraparound porch in the Southern summer. And trust me, it’s exactly where you want to be. (Zaremba)

With The Gypsy Moonlight Band, Anju’s Pale Blue Eyes

9pm, $10

Bottom of the Hill

1233 17th St, SF

(415) 626-4455

www.bottomofthehill.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, 225 Bush, 17th Flr., SF, CA 94105; or e-mail (paste press release into e-mail body — no 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.

Music Listings

Andrew Lam
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Since club life is unpredictable, it’s a good idea to call ahead or check the venue’s website to confirm bookings and hours. Prices are listed when provided to us. Visit www.sfbg.com/venue-guide for venue information. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Picks.

WEDNESDAY 31

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Astrozombies Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $5.

Bob Saggeth Amnesia. 10pm, $7-$10.

Boys Like Girls, All American Rejects, Parachute Regency Ballroom. 7:30pm, $27.

Tia Carroll Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $15.

First Church of the Sacred Silversexual Boxcar Theatre, 125A Hyde, SF; www.sacredsilversexual.com. 9pm, $7.

Glitter Wizard, Twin Steps, Meat Market, Parmesans Thee Parkside. 8pm, $8.

Greensky Bluegrass, Arann Harris and the Farm Band Independent. 9pm, $17.

Liz O Halloween Show 50 Mason Social House, SF; www.50masonsocialhouse.com 8pm.

"Monster Mash Halloween Party" Rite Spot Cafe. 9pm, free. With the Barneys.

Joel Nelson vs Jason Marion Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9:30pm.

Nobunny, Shannon and the Clams, POW!, Eeries Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $7-$10.

Planet Booty, Double Duchess Cafe Du Nord. 9pm, $15.

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

Skeleton Television, Hate Crime El Rio. 9pm, $8.

Tartufi, Battlehooch Knockout. 10pm, $5.

Trainwreck Riders, Tiny Television, Rare Animals Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $10.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

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

Dink Dink Dink, Gaucho, Eric Garland’s Jazz Session Amnesia. 7pm, free.

Nguyen Le feat. Charged Particles, Vanessa Vo Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $18.

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

DANCE CLUBS

All Hallows Eve DNA Lounge. 9pm, $13, 18+. Pop, new wave, dark electronica, gothic, and industrial.

Booty Call Q-Bar, 456 Castro, SF; www.bootycallwednesdays.com. 9pm. Juanita MORE! and Joshua J host this dance party.

Coo-Yah! Slate Bar, 2925 16th St, SF; www.slate-sf.com. 10pm, free. With Vinyl Ambassador, DJ Silverback, DJs Green B and Daneekah.

Dead Celebrities Wish, 1539 Folsom, SF; www.wishsf.com. 9pm, free. With DJ Shorkut, Carey Kopp, and Fran Boogie.

Full-Step! Tunnel Top. 10pm, free. Hip-hop, reggae, soul, and funk with DJs Kung Fu Chris and Bizzi Wonda.

Icee Hot Elbo Room. 10pm, $5-$10. Halloween edition with Jackmaster, Ghosts on Tape, Shawn Reynaldo, and Rollie Fingers.

Mad Hatters Ball 103 Harriet, SF; www.1015.com. 10pm. With Flosstradamus, Pantha Du Prince, Ana Sia, and more.

Obey the Kitty vs Base: Halloween Special Vessel, 85 Campton Place, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $7-$15. With Heidi, Justin Milla.

THURSDAY 1

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP.

Bowerbirds, Strand of Oaks Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $17-$19.

Groundation, Trevor Hall Independent. 9pm, $25.

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

Mochipet Mezzanine. 9pm, $25.

Mr. Kind, River Shiver, Marqiss Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $10.

New Cassettes, Apollo Run, Amusia Amnesia. 8pm, $10.

Nova Albion, Hyena, Trims, popscene DJs Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $7-$9.

Prize, Bring the Tiger, Collective W, Comet Empire Rockit Room. 8pm, $7.

Rare Monk, Horrorscopes, Coast Jumper, Roosevelt Radio Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $5-$8.

Titan Ups, JL Stiles, Prairie Dog, Nightgown Cafe Du Nord. 7:30pm, $10-$12.

Rags Tuttle vs Jason Marion Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9:30pm.

Violent Change, Pandiscordian Necrogenesis, Love Devotion Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $6.

Wacka Flocka Flame, Wooh Da Kid Fillmore. 8pm, $29.50.

Matt Werz Swedish American Hall. 7:30pm, $18-$20.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

"A Soulful Night of Keys" Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $28. With Lonnie Liston Smith, Mark Adams, and Brian Jackson.

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

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Shareef Ali and the Radical Folksonomy Red Poppy Art House. 6:30pm, $10.

Twang! Honky Tonk Fiddler’s Green, 1330 Columbus, SF; www.twanghonkytonk.com. 5pm. Live country music.

DANCE CLUBS

Afrolicious Elbo Room. 9:30pm, $5-$7. With DJ-host Pleasuremaker, and DJ Hannick.

All 80s Thursday Cat Club. 9pm, $6 (free before 9:30pm). The best of ’80s mainstream and underground.

Supersonic Lookout, 3600 16th St., SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 9pm. Global beats paired with food from around the world by Tasty. Resident DJs Jaybee, B-Haul, amd Diagnosis.

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

FRIDAY 2

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

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

Big Mittens, Command Control, When the Broken Bow, Rural Hemlock Tavern. 9pm, $7.

Mark Eitzel, Paula Frazer, Goldring and Thomson Bottom of the Hill. 9:30pm, $15.

Chilly Gonzales Swedish American Hall. 8pm, $17-$20.

Good Gravy, Dead Winter Carpenters Amnesia. 6pm.

Heartsounds, Anchors, Jason Cruz and Howl, Backmaster Thee Parkside. 9pm, $7.

Human Animation Lab, Thieves of Malta, Scarlet Stonic, Hollowell Rockit Room. 8pm, $6.

Kinto Sol Elbo Room.10pm, $25. With Reporte Ilega, DJ Juan Data.

Nneka, Raw-G, Earth Amplified Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $12-$15.

Prok and Fitch Vessel, 85 Campton Place, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $20-$30.

Saint Etienne Fillmore. 9pm, $29.50.

Soft White Sixties, Strange Vine, Taxes Slim’s. 9pm, $13-$15.

Stone Foxes, Silent Comedy, Mahgeetah Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $15.

White Fence, Twerps, Mallard Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $10.

Woodkid, Pacific Air Bimbo’s. 9pm, $20.

X-Static Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

"A Soulful Night of Keys" Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $28; 10pm, $22. With Lonnie Liston Smith, Mark Adams, and Brian Jackson.

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

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

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Canyon Johnson Plough and Stars. 9pm, free.

Mike James St. Cyperian’s Episcopal Church, 2097 Turk, SF; www.cyperianscenter.org. 7pm, $6.

La Quilombera, Manicato, DJ Stepwise Rockit Room. 9pm, $12.

Eddy Navia, Chuchito Valdes Pena Pachamama, 1630 Powell, SF; www.penapachamama.com. 7:30 and 9pm, $20.

DANCE CLUBS

Anti-Halloween DNA Lounge. 9pm, $15. Masquerade ball with Russian Solution, DJ Wizard, Henry Pollux, and more.

DJ Harvey Public Works. 10pm, $10-$15.

Joe Lookout, 3600 16th St.,SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 9pm. Eight rotating DJs.

Nickie’s Flashback featuring Cheb i Sabbah Bissap Baobab Village, 3372 19th St, SF; (415) 826-9287. 10pm, $10-$20.

Old School JAMZ El Rio. 9pm. Fruit Stand DJs spinning old school funk, hip-hop, and R&B.

Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music with rotating DJs including Stepwise, Steve, Claude, Santero, and Elembe.

SATURDAY 3

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Big Blu Soul Revue Giordano Bros, 303 Columbus, SF; (415) 397-2767. 9pm, free.

Big Eyes, Switftumz, Bad Liar, Courtney and the Crushers Knockout. 8pm, $7.

Dance Gavin Dance, A Lot Like Birds, I, the Mighty, Orphan, Poet Fillmore. 6:30pm, $20.

Dark Dark Dark, Emily Wells, Little Teeth Bottom of the Hill. 9:30pm, $15.

Donna the Buffalo, David Gans Slim’s. 9pm, $18.

Evolution: Tribute to Journey Regency Ballroom. 9pm, $27.

Guverment, Run Amok, Rocha Thee Parkside. 3pm, free.

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

Maus Haus, Sister Crayon, Radiation City Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $10-$12.

Sex with No Hands 50 Mason Social House, SF; www.50masonsocialhouse.com. 8pm, $10.

Sila, Boca Do Rio Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9:30pm, $7-$10.

Thee Merry Widows Riptide Tavern. 9:30pm, free.

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

Walken, Asada Messiah, Fear the Fiasco Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $7.

Fred Wesley and the New JBs, Lyrics Born Mezzanine. 9pm.

Zammuto, AU Independent. 9pm, $15.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

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

Kindred the Family Soul Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $32; 10pm, $24.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Beth Custer Ensemble Red Poppy Art House. 8pm, $12-$20.

DANCE CLUBS

Bootie SF DNA Lounge. 9pm, $15. Masquerade ball with Russian Solution, DJ Wizard, Henry Pollux, and more.

Cockfight Underground SF, 424 Haight, SF; (415) 864-7386. 9pm, $7. Rowdy dance night for gay boys .

Foundation Som., 2925 16th St, SF; (415) 558-8521. 10pm, $5-$10. DJs Shortkut, Apollo, Mr. E, Fran Boogie spin Hip-Hop, Dancehall, Funk, Salsa.

Go Bang Stud. 9pm, $7; free before 10pm. Atomic dancefloor disco action with Lester Temple, Glenn Rivera, Steve Fabus, and Sergio Fedasz.

Haceteria Deco Lounge, 510 Larkin, SF; www.decosf.com. 9pm, free before 11pm, $3 after.

Mighty Real Mighty. 10pm. With Timmy Regisford and David Harness.

Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music with rotating DJs.

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

Session Victim (live) Public Works Loft. 10pm, $13-$15.

Swank Vessel, 85 Campton Place, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $20-$30. With Pheeko Dubfunk, Kada, Lorentzo, and David Paul.

West City Three-Year Anniversary Qi Ultralounge, 917 Folsom, SF; westcity3.eventbrite.com. 9pm, $15-$20. With J Paul Ghetto.

SUNDAY 4

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Butlers and Cyril Jordan, Overwhelming Colorfast, Field Trip Bottom of the Hill. 3pm, $10.

Con Bro Chill Cafe Du Nord. 8:30pm, $10.

Deiphago, Ritual Combat, Black Fucking Cancer, Old Coven, Rotten Funeral DNA Lounge. 8pm, $13, all ages.

Devil Makes Three Fillmore. 8pm, $22.50.

Fake Your Own Death, Trims, Spanish Cannons Hemlock Tavern. 6pm, 6.

Justice Warfield. 8pm, $40-$50.

Kid Koala 12 Bit Blues Vinyl Vaudeville, Adira Amram and the Experience Independent. 9pm, $20.

Lecrae, Trip Lee, Tedashii, KB, Pro, Andy Mineo Regency Ballroom. 7:30pm, $23.

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

Themes, Not To Reason Why, Survival Guide, Sim Castro Thee Parkside. 8pm, $7.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Ken Berman and Kai Eckhardt Bliss Bar, 4026 24th St, SF; www.blissbarsf.com. 4:30pm, $10.

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

Dwight Trible Yoshi’s SF. 7pm, $18.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

David Broza Kanbar Hall, JCCSF, 3200 California, SF; www.jccsf.org. 4pm, $30-$50.

"Twang Sunday" Thee Parkside. 3pm, free. With Country Casanovas.

DANCE CLUBS

Dub Mission Elbo Room. 9pm, $6. With DJ Sep, Ludichris, J. Boogie.

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

MONDAY 5

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Damir Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Dunwells Cafe Du Nord. 7:30pm, $10.

Jens Lekman, Taken By Trees Fillmore. 8pm, $25.

Metz, Tiger High, One Hundred Percent Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $12.

MV and EE, Vestals Hemlock Tavern. 7pm, $6.

Sea Wolf, Hey Marseilles, Amys Independent. 8pm, $15.

Luke Sweeney and Wet Dreams, Dry Magic, Sea Dramas, Betsy and Beau Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $7-$10.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

"Hope Uncorked: Lorca Hart Trio and Group Falso Baiano" Yoshi’s SF. 7pm, $55-$65.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Belle Monroe and Her Brewglass Boys Amnesia. 9pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Crazy Mondays Beauty Bar, 2299 Mission, SF; www.thebeautybar.com. 10pm, free. Hip-hop and other stuff.

Dub Face Elbo Room. 9pm, $12. With Sleazemore, Ryury.

Death Guild DNA Lounge. 9:30pm, $3-$5. Gothic, industrial, and synthpop.

M.O.M. Madrone Art Bar. 6pm, free. DJs Timoteo Gigante, Gordo Cabeza, and Chris Phlek playing all Motown every Monday.

Soul Cafe John Colins Lounge, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 9pm. R&B, Hip-Hop, Neosoul, reggae, dancehall, and more with DJ Jerry Ross.

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

TUESDAY 6

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Belgrado, Bellicose Minds, Ruleta Rusa, Die Hard Knockout. 9:30pm, $8.

Brother Pacific, Wilser Maker, BIrdseye Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $6.

Coles Whalen, Mental 99, Bang Bang El Rio. 7pm.

Mr. Gnome, Eighteen Individual Eyes, Bruises Thee Parkside. 8pm, $8.

Murzik, James Apollo and His Sweet Unknown Hotel Utah. 9pm, $8.

Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, Gypsy Moonlight Band, Anju’s Pale Blue Eyes Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $10.

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

Kelley Stoltz Amnesia. 9pm, $7-$10.

West Memphis free

Andrew Lam
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0
West Memphis free

arts@sfbg.com

LIT When Damien Echols stepped out of the Craighead County courtroom on August 19, 2011 a free man, he’d spent more than half of his life on death row, for a crime he insists he didn’t commit — the gruesome murders of three young boys. His trial and quest for exoneration, along with co-defendant Jason Baldwin and a third accused, Jesse Misskelley Jr., are well documented in the Paradise Lost documentaries directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, and the subject of a fourth documentary, West of Memphis, due out in December. But for a more microscopically focused, day-to-day accounting of growing up behind prison walls, Echols’ book Life After Death (Blue Rider Press, 392 pp., $26.95) delivers a highly personal account of living under a sentence of death.

The timing of the book’s release could not be better for Californians, who are facing the opportunity to overturn the death penalty in the upcoming November election by voting yes on Proposition 34. For the undecided, reading about death row from the perspective of one who lived on it may offer one of the most compelling arguments against maintaining it. Echols’ book offers a vision of life on death row as bleak as it is banal: the glacial grind of the appeals process, the dehumanizing effects of institutionalization on both the incarcerated and the incarcerating, and the unsettling reality that there have been numerous factually innocent people sent to death row for sentences that have little to do with deterrence, and much with revenge. (More information on wrongful convictions can be found via organizations such as the Innocence Project, the Death Penalty Information Center, and Amnesty International.)

Even when you strip away Echols’ penchant for overwrought hyperbole (“I cannot explain it, the way everything in my soul gibbers and shrieks for some sort of closure”), he effectively paints a portrait of an isolated sovereign state characterized by rote adherence to pointless, administrative ritual. The primary focus of Echols and his fellow inmates seems to be staving off boredom and breakdown, chronic death row maladies on which Echols provides plenty of detail. Echols learns to sit zazen, increasing his ability to silently mediate from 15 minutes to five-hour stretches. He watches television — looking forward every year to each Charlie Brown holiday special and baseball season — and offers tips on cooking chili over a light bulb plus novel uses for magazine cologne samples. In fact, at certain points his discourse (written mostly while Echols was still in jail) reads a bit like a “Hello Muddah” letter from summer camp rather than a hardcore exposé of the prison system.

Since he was sent to death row while still a teenager, Echols’ essays and letters are frequently tinged with lingering shades of adolescent angst, and confined as he was to an effectively solitary existence, he can’t help but to come off sounding somewhat self-absorbed (“I look at the people who have done horrible things to me … and I know they would never have been able to rise above the things that I have”). When not writing about prison life, he writes about his poverty-stricken childhood and his side of the criminal case that catapulted him to an uncomfortable celebrity, vacillating between emotional extremes. In one paragraph he fondly describes the way his father could make him laugh, in another he describes being “disgusted” by his “childishness.” His mother, sister, and step-father are all singled out for similar treatment, and he even takes a swipe at onetime best friend Jason Baldwin, for hesitating over the deal that allowed the West Memphis Three to walk out of prison in 2011 with time served — but not with exoneration.

But Echols the person is more than just Echols the condemned, and Echols the writer is more than a one-note diva. Strewn throughout his narrative are wryly humorous observations, such as his glowing description of a sumptuous breakfast at the mental institution where he was temporarily confined as a youth (“The insane do not count carbs”), and his tongue-in-cheek recounting of his teenage attempts to find a summer job (“I was growing desperate because potential employers didn’t seem to value the exceptional intellectual giant who was presenting himself to them”). His glowing tributes to his wife and defending angel Lorri Davis are touching and truthful, and his penchant for poetic phrasing is transcendent when it hits its mark.

“I’ve seen ghosts in the lines of a woman’s face and heard them in the jangling of keys,” Echols writes urgently. “Sometimes I even mistake myself for one.” Fortunately for his audience his writing, at least, tethers him unequivocally to the corporeal world — a man after all, not a shade. *

 

Twin stars

Andrew Lam
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0
Twin stars

arts@sfbg.com

DANCE It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it makes you wish that it could go on forever. Such was the case of a heartbreaking pas de deux toward the end of Alonzo King’s newest work, Constellation. Created by and for LINES Ballet’s senior ballerina Meredith Webster and Ricardo Zayas, and set to Handel’s plangent “Verdi prati,” the two dancers encircled each other, locked limbs, and pulled apart only to be drawn into each others’ spheres again. They struggled with each other and within themselves only to separate in the end. I kept thinking of Aristophanes’ definition of love as the attempt by the two halves of the original human, after having been split apart by a jealous God, to become one again.

Though this extraordinary duet was the high point of the evening-length work celebrating the company’s 30th anniversary, Constellation is a major achievement of King’s distinguished career of imaginative, thoughtful, and skilled dance making. The work abounds with mesmerizing small ensembles and rich imagery though the unisons for everyone are still problematic.

As is his want, King drew out of his dancers small-scale but resonating encounters that don’t necessarily add up — except in the way that a collector’s decisions impose coherence on treasures, whether they be Monets, pebbles, or martini shakers. Constellation, however, has more of a through line than I remember seeing in other King choreographies. Weaving through the piece was the figure of Webster, apparently on a search. She first appeared out of the dark, stepping through Jim Campbell’s curtain of light bulbs. Sitting on Ricardo Zayas’ foot, she valiantly tried to pull herself up on his leg; then, she broke up a duet between David Harvey and Michael Montgomery. In between she was carried and variously supported. Yet at the end, she was spent one, left on the floor. If Webster had a counterpart, it would be in the underused Keelan Whitmore, who often appeared an outside observer.

King plugged deeply into the individuality of these so different dancers who yet looked as if poured from one mold. The trio of Montgomery (who seems to have something of a comedian inside him), Zachary Tang, and Whitmore attacked a storm of staccato phrases as if they had hot coals under their feet. Though propelled by an impetus that seemed to suck Courtney Henry, Ashley Jackson, Yujin Kim, and Caroline Rocher upstage, their responses to the thrust could not have been more different.

In a hugely effective solo, Henry, dressed in a simple black leotard, stepped out of billowing fog (courtesy of lighting design Axel Morgenthaler), folding and stretching her limbs to the ends of the universe, until she gradually pulled the other dancers from the wings. In the many duets, the dancers seemed to morph into creatures sometimes outside themselves. At one point, I was pretty sure I had seen a multi-limbed something out of Hieronymus Bosch.

The first act ended with another stunner, a duet for LINES’ newest dancers, Kim and Tang. The exquisite Kim, long-limbed yet with a voracious appetite for space, slithered around Tang — muscular, yet highly expressive — and into his arms in what looked like a lover’s spat, perhaps inspired by Vivaldi’s “Sposa son disprezzata.”

Constellation is one of King’s most musically astute works. The collage of Baroque arias, Eastern chants, and original compositions worked exceptionally well. However, how Arvo Pärt’s over-exposed Für Alina made it into this distinguished selection remains something a puzzlement.

To have mezzo-soprano Maya Lahyani — in one of Colleen Quen’s theatrical concoctions and accompanied by her sensitive pianist Hadley McCarroll — perform was a special gift not just for the audience but also for the dancers, who responded with such hunger to the live music.

Constellation was inspired by Jim Campbell’s light sculpture Exploded Views, in which hundreds of flickering LED lights create a sense of stasis as well as life. Fascinating, it looked like television snow being animated by moving silhouettes. Unfortunately, Campbell’s translation of the concept to the stage didn’t quite work: black shapes, perhaps fluttering birds, behind the light curtain; rolling lit balls; light boards; and Wheelan wrapped in Joseph’s dreamcoat (of light bulbs). *

ALONZO KING LINES BALLET

Wed/24-Thu/25, 7:30pm; Fri/26-Sat/27, 8pm; Sun/28, 5pm, $30-65

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater

700 Howard, SF

www.ybca.org

 

Life-and-death decision

Andrew Lam
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7
Life-and-death decision

news@sfbg.com

Proposition 34, the initiative to end the death penalty in California, is trailing in the polls, but proponents are focusing on a surprisingly large voting block that could still put it over the top: undecided voters.

“Anything can happen on Election Day,” said Natasha Minsker, campaign manager for Yes on 34. “I think what this election comes down to is who’s able to reach the undecided voter.”

The Los Angeles Times reports the race is 38-51 against the measure, while the Field Poll survey has it at 42-45 against. Both polls report that 11-13 percent of voters were undecided, and a more recent poll conducted by SurveyUSA shows the undecided vote may have grown to 20 percent.

Those large numbers, with less than two weeks until the election, raise an interesting and troubling question: on a decision as serious as whether we allow the state to kill someone in our name — a practice that is as costly to state finances as it may be to our very souls — why have so many voters failed to form an opinion?

REACHING VOTERS

Leading the charge to win over these ambivalent voters is a coalition of justice organizations, supported by prominent individuals and groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Amnesty International.

The campaign has raised more than $6 million in less than a year, outspending the opposition 35-to-1. Minsker told us the campaign is focusing hard on undecided minority voters, devoting most of its resources to an area they believe will help them win.

“We have more of a focus on young Latino, Asian, and African American voters, specifically in LA County,” she said. “These are voters who, once they hear about the facts of the proposition, they vote for it.”

Prop. 34 would replace California’s death penalty with a maximum sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole. The proposition would also make convicted felons work to pay restitution to their victims’ families.

The Field Poll reports that of all the regions surveyed, Los Angeles County contains the highest percentage of undecided voters, at 17 percent. Once voters learn that executions don’t prevent murders (numerous studies show it doesn’t act as a deterrent to crime) or save money (life-in-prison is cheaper than housing someone on Death Row and hearing legal appeals), support for capital punishment falls.

The Field Poll reports that 15 percent of voters aged18-39 are undecided, while minority voters (Latino, Asian and African American) contain even higher rates of undecided voters, ranging from 16-19 percent, higher than undecided white voters, at 11 percent.

Unlike on many liberal-leaning campaigns, this one also has strong support from the Catholic Church.

“The energy the Catholic community has brought to the initiative has been fantastic,” Minsker said. “It is certainly one of the few issues to bring together the ACLU and the Catholic Church, but it’s just wonderful to see.”

But in order for the proposition to pass, undecided voters must decide soon.

Field Poll Director Mark Dicamillo said that at this stage in the contest, the team that is leading in the polls usually wins.

“In our experience, with [two] weeks left, undecided voters usually vote no, if they haven’t figured out where they stand yet,” he said.

But Jeanne Woodford, executive director of Death Penalty Focus, a nonprofit group dedicated to educating the public about capital punishment, says these undecided voters are taking their time to get the facts straight before they decide.

“I think that [undecided voters] are very thoughtful voters who are not going to vote on this issue from a moral perspective,” she said. “Those are voters who are going to want to know the facts.”

DECIDING ISSUES

With the election just around the corner, why are so many “thoughtful voters” still undecided about ending the death penalty?

UC Berkeley Public Policy Professor Bruce Cain attributes the undecided electorate to the state’s inconsistency toward capital punishment.

“Historically, the state of California has flipped on its [death penalty] policy,” he said. “My guess is that it is a little bit hard for voters to navigate through now.”

But at a time when California is in a fiscal crisis and federal judges have ordered the state to substantially reduce the population in its overcrowded prison system, Prop. 34 proponents have been making fiscal arguments more than moral ones.

According to the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, ending the Death Penalty would save taxpayers $130 million a year, and set aside a $100 million annual fund for law enforcement agencies to use in solving homicide and rape cases.

Prop 36, reform of the harsh Three Strikes and You’re Out law, is the other big sentencing reform initiative on the ballot. Prop 36 would save taxpayers about $100 million a year, yet it is a 3-1 favorite in the polls, a stark contrast to Prop 34.

“The death penalty has been overshadowed by the Three Strikes prop, and that’s possibly another aspect of the undecided voters,” Cain said. “But remember people that are undecided at the end are the people that only get information from their TV.”

That’s something that Yes on 34 is well aware of and about to address.

The campaign has reported spending more than $3 million since July producing television and cable ads, which are launching this week.

“You’ll be seeing TV and radio which will provide much more information to the public, and when they have that information, the facts speak for themselves,” Woodford said.

But No of 34 campaign has fear and emotional arguments on its side. Spokesperson Peter Demarco told us, “Prop 34 isn’t about saving money. It’s the centerpiece of the liberal ACLU’s agenda to weaken California’s public safety laws.”

Cain thinks Prop 34 has a chance, but the real test is yet to come.

“If indeed the no people plan to throw money into this and really land some hard-hitting emotional ads, then you could see voters being moved dramatically,” he said. “If people see these emotional ads and don’t move, then that tells you that the electorate has changed.”

LONG ROAD

Executions in California go back to its earliest settlements, and it was first authorized in the state’s penal code in 1872.

In 1972, the California Supreme Court ruled the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the state’s constitution, commuting more than 100 death sentences to life in the prison without the possibility of parole.

Cain says that during the 1970s and ’80s, when California’s rising crime rate was making big news, the public began to embrace capital punishment.

“There were more violent murders, there was crack cocaine, there was a sense that people were going way over the line, and it was very much a moral issue,” he said.

In 1977, the California Legislature re-enacted the death penalty in first-degree murders only. In 1978, California voters broadened the number of crimes eligible for the death penalty. But polls show the pendulum swinging back.

“We haven’t seen a vote like this to abolish the death penalty in about 40 years,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of Death Penalty Information Center. “Just the fact that it’s happening is indicative to the growing skepticism toward the death penalty.”

The number of countries that have abolished the death penalty has doubled to more than 120 the past 25 years. In the US, Connecticut recently became the 17th state to abolish the death penalty, not including the District of Columbia. Will California be next?

“Ten years ago, it was 70-30 against ending the death penalty in California, but that’s changed and it’s closer now. The information is going to make a difference for undecided voters,” said Dieter.

Among that information, Minsker said, is the fact that “with the death penalty, we sometimes sentence innocent people.”

The University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law reports that in the last 23 years, more than 2,000 people convicted of serious crimes were exonerated in the US.

The Innocence Project, which assists prisoners using DNA testing, found that 18 people previously sentenced to death in the US have been exonerated.

“We have learned that innocent people have been sentenced to death,” said Innocence Project Policy Director Stephen Saloom. “States are increasingly abolishing the death penalty because it’s just not worth it.” According to the Death Penalty Information Center, since 1978 California has executed 13 out of 725 death row inmates, costing California taxpayers $4 billion. “It’s not worth keeping this lengthy, costly process any longer,” Saloom said, “and I think people are more likely to see that it’s not a very good government program.”

Alerts

Andrew Lam
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0

THURSDAY 18

Culture as a weapon: poetry and storytelling SOUL School of Unity and Liberation, 1904 Franklin Suite 904, Oakl; www.schoolofunityandliberation.org, RSVP at info@schoolofunityandliberation.org. 6:30pm, $5-25. The second in a three-part series exploring how art and culture can be a form of political resistance. At this workshop, learn from poet, writer, artist and organizer Erika Vivianna Céspedes about writing that helps build movements. RSVP is required, and if you can’t get into this one, try their next event in the series, an activist printmaking workshop on Oct. 25.

Fall of the I-Hotel film screening New Nothing Cinema, 16 Sherman, SF; newnothing.wordpress.com. 8pm, free. A screening of a film depicting the historic struggle between residents and supporters of the International Hotel and the landlords that wanted it razed and turned into a parking lot. After massive neighborhood “revitalization,” the I-Hotel was one of the last remnants of the once-lively Manilatown neighborhood. See how residents fought for it at a screening presenting by Shaping San Francisco, New Nothing Cinema, and the CIIS Anthropology and Social Change Department.

FRIDAY 19

Say goodbye to condoms as evidence Jane Warner Plaza, 401 Castro, SF; www.tinyurl.com/condommarch. 6-8pm, free. As we reported this week, SFPD has decided to temporarily end the controversial practice of using possession of condoms as evidence in prostitution cases. For a three to six month trial period, condoms will not be seized or photographed if a cop thinks someone might be a sex worker. A group that was planning to march in opposition to the practice will now march in celebration of the decision, and to urge the city to make the trial period permanent.

Disobeying with great love Powell Street Bart station, Powell and Market, SF; www.tinyurl.com/disobeylove. 6pm, free. A flash mob meditation in the middle of the Disneyland-like shopping district. What better way to relax amongst the chaos?

SATURDAY 20

Op Trapwire Department of Homeland Security, 560 Golden Gate Ave, #36127, SF. WikiLeaks let loose information about Trapwire, the now-notorious company that uses surveillance and tracking to monitor people’s movements and aggregate them into patterns. It does this with a network of security cameras across the country, government and law enforcement uses its information, and the whole thing may be illegal. Some Occupy types have called for a national day of action against surveillance on Oct. 20, and San Francisco is joining in.

Picket Mi Pueblo market Mi Pueblo Mercado1630 High, Oakl; dignityandresistance@gmail.com. 1-4pm, free. Mi Pueblo Market is a successful and beloved grocery store chain. Workers were upset to learn that the company signed up to participate in E-Verify, a voluntary program that tracks the immigration status of all new hires. Managers say that the decision was made after serious pressure from ICE and the Department of Homeland Security. Workers and community supporters will picket the store in protest of the new policy.

SUNDAY 21

Amy Goodman speaks First congregational church of Oakland, 2501 Harrison, Oakl; www.kpfa.org/events. 7pm, $15 in advance. Amy Goodman co founded Democracy Now! The War and Peace Report in 1996. Since then, she has consistently brought progressive, hard hitting reporting to television screens and radios, authored a few books, and established herself as a distinctive voice in journalism. She’s also a kick ass speaker. Come hear her share her wisdom at a benefit for KPFA radio, where she’ll be speaking on “The Silenced Majority: Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope”

MONDAY 22

Tasers forum Hamilton Recreation Center, 1900 Geary, SF; www.tinyurl.com/taserforums. 5pm, free. The SFPD has called a public forum to discuss the possible introduction of tasers into the police arsenal. Come to share your thoughts on the idea. And if you want to hear more, show up a half hour early for a community-led forum. “This summer, ACLU delivered a report of 532 documented Taser related deaths in the US since 2001, but that has not stopped SF Police Chief Greg Suhr from pushing the fourth attempt to spend several million dollars to equip SFPD with these deadly weapons,” say organizers.

Happy hunting

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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0
Happy hunting

cheryl@sfbg.com

TV Stainless steel appliances. Hardwood floors. Walk-in closets. The House Hunters drinking game, which lovingly mocks the HGTV program’s predictability, will have even a seasoned lush drunk before the first commercial break. “But there’s nowhere for my man cave!” DRINK.

Brian Balthazar, who is HGTV’s Director of Programming, has a sense of humor about the drinking game (“If I ever played it, I’d be hammered, because I watch a lot of House Hunters!”), and also about some recent online muckraking that revealed that what you see on House Hunters isn’t one hundred percent real. “We’re making a television show, so we manage certain production and time constraints, while honoring the home-buying process,” he explained in a statement to Entertainment Weekly this summer. “To maximize production time, we seek out families who are pretty far along in the process. Often everything moves much more quickly than we can anticipate, so we go back and revisit some of the homes that the family has already seen and we capture their authentic reactions.”

Wait, so reality TV isn’t actually real? Shut the custom-painted front door! “Mostly I was happy that people cared that much about House Hunters,” Balthazar says of the controversy. He’s currently promoting the latest House Hunters spin-off, House Hunters Renovation, which follows buyers as they pursue remodeling projects in their just-purchased homes. The next new episode airs Oct. 21 at 11pm; it follows a couple whose “dream house” (DRINK) contains a pink-and-gold nightmare of a bathroom.

“On this show, we see them buying the homes, and then making all these changes to them. So it’s exciting to be able to show that,” Balthazar says. “But I’m always excited that people are talking about House Hunters and that it has had such longevity. It’s nearing its 1,000th episode this year. That’s more than Law and Order!”

And like Law and Order, every episode of House Hunters is basically the same. “The concept is very clear. You know what’s going to happen on the show,” Balthazar says. “They’re going to see three homes, and we’ll see which one they choose. But what is always different are the homeowners and the homes. That voyeuristic, play-along quality of the show changes every time, which I love. We have some really interesting characters that come along, and everyone has a different reaction to different aspects of a home. I think that’s what makes it such a guilty pleasure among people who love to spy on the real estate process.”

House Hunters International follows the same basic formula, with an obvious difference: instead of a new construction in Indianapolis with a three-car garage (DRINK), the buyer (or renter) is seeking an apartment in a slightly more exotic locale. Like, say, Cambodia. Or Serbia. Or the Arctic Circle.

“I’m amazed at some of the stories the production company we work with on International finds. They’ve developed relationships with real estate agencies all over the world,” Balthazar says. “For a long time we didn’t go to some countries simply because it was too complicated. In some countries, you can’t actually buy a home if you’re not a resident. In others, you have to pay cash completely up front, in full. That was really a daunting thing for us to tackle. And now that the show’s been around for so long a lot of people write in to be on the show. It’s like this grassroots effort in some regards.”

Of course, being so popular has a slight downside. “Everyone that I run into, whether I’m on an airplane or at a party, if I say I work on House Hunters or House Hunters International, inevitably there will be someone saying they want to be on,” Balthazar says. “I actually love that! Though I will admit that occasionally when someone asks me what I do, I just say I’m a writer. [Laughs.] But I’m ultimately so grateful that people want to be on the show.”

Balthazar’s main distraction from an endless parade of buyers seeking open-concept floor plans (DRINK) is his pop-culture website, popgoestheweek.com. He’ll be melding his two interests on a special he’s hosting on HGTV in December.

“It’s called I Bought a Famous House. I go around to homes in Hollywood that were once owned by celebrities,” he says. “It’s interesting see what [the non-famous new owners have] done with them since. In one case, someone kept the house exactly the same as it was when the celebrity owned it. And in another case, with Madonna’s former house in the Hollywood Hills, a guy came in and literally changed almost everything, with the exception of the kitchen. But I think when you buy a seven million dollar house, you probably aren’t as concerned about the kitchen as the rest of the house, because you aren’t doing your own cooking when you have that kind of money!”

Of course, Madonna’s kitchen probably already had granite countertops. DRINK!

www.hgtv.com

 

Local censored 2012

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0

 

BEHIND THE MIRKARIMI CASE

In early January, details from the police investigation of then-Sheriff-elect Ross Mirkarimi bruising his wife’s arm during an argument were leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle and other news outlets. The key piece of evidence was a 45-second video that Mirkarimi’s wife, Eliana Lopez, made with her neighbor, Ivory Madison, displaying the bruise and saying she wanted to document the incident in case of a child custody battle. That video convinced many of Mirkarimi’s guilt, and a majority of Ethics Commissioners say they found it to be the main evidence on which Mirkarimi should be removed from office on official misconduct charges (the Board of Supervisors was scheduled to vote on Mirkarimi’s removal on Oct. 9, after Guardian press time).

But that video was only a small part of the overwhelming and expensive case that Mayor Ed Lee brought against Mirkarimi, including the more serious charges of abuse of power, witness dissuasion, and impeding a police investigation, all of which go more directly to a sheriff’s official duties. All of those charges got lots of media coverage and they helped cement the view of many San Franciscans that Mirkarimi engaged in a pattern of inappropriate behavior, rather than making a big momentary mistake. Yet most of the media coverage during the six months of Ethics Commission proceedings ignored the fact that none of the evidence that was being gathered supported those charges. Indeed, all those charges were unanimously rejected by the commission on Aug. 16, a startling rebuke of Lee’s case but one that was not highlighted in many media reports, which focused on the one charge the commission did uphold: the initial arm grab.

 

 

THE NEXT DOT-BOMB

In the late 1990s, San Francisco was in a very similar place to where it is now. The first dot-com boom was full bloom, driving the local economy and creating countless young millionaires — but also rapidly gentrifying the city and driving commercial and residential rents through the roof (great for the landlords, bad for everyone else). And then, the bubble popped, instantly erasing billions of dollars in speculative paper wealth and leaving this a changed city. The city’s working and creative classes suffered, but the political backlash gave rise to a decade with a progressive majority on the Board of Supervisors.

The era ended in 2010 when Ed Lee was appointed mayor, and he began ambitious agenda of pumping up a new dot-com bubble using tax breaks, public subsidies, and relentless official boosterism to lure more tech companies to San Francisco. Lee has been successful in his approach, in the process driving up commercial rents and housing prices. By some estimates, about 30 percent of the city’s economy is now driven by technology companies.

Yet there have been few voices in the local media raising questions about this risky, costly, and self-serving economic development strategy. The Bay Citizen did a story about Conway’s self interested advice, the New York Times did a front page story raising these issues, and San Francisco Magazine just last month did a long cover story questioning how much tech is enough. But most local media voices have been silent on the issue, and much of the damage has already been done.

 

OLD POWERBROKERS RETURN TO CITY HALL

More than a decade ago, then-Mayor Willie Brown and Chinatown power broker Rose Pak worked together to empower big business, corrupt local politics, and clear the path for rampant development — an approach that progressives on the Board of Supervisors repudiated and slowed from 2000-2010. But Brown, Pak, and a new generation of their allies have returned in power in City Hall, and it’s as bad as it ever was.

Many San Franciscans know of their high-profile role appointing Lee to office in early 2011. But their influence and tentacles have extended far beyond what we read in the papers and watch on television, starting in 2010 when their main political operatives David Ho and Enrique Pearce ran Jane Kim’s supervisorial campaign, beating Debra Walker, a veteran of the fights against Brown’s remaking of the city.

Now, this crew has the run of City Hall, meeting regularly with Mayor Lee and twisting the arms of supervisors on key votes. Pearce and Ho persuaded longtime progressive Christina Olague to co-chair the scandal-plagued Run Ed Run campaign last year, she was rewarded this year with Lee appointing her to the Board of Supervisors. Pearce has been her close adviser, and most of her campaign cash has been raised by Brown and Pak. Even progressive Sup. Eric Mar admits that Pak in raising money for him, a troubling sign of things to come.

 

THE REAL OCCUPY STORY

The Occupy San Francisco camp that was cleared by police last week may have been mostly homeless people. And major news media outlets from the start reported that Occupy was dangerous, filthy, and a civic eyesore.

But last fall, the camps were comprised of a huge variety of people that chose to live part or full time on the streets. Students, people with 9-5 jobs, people with service jobs, and the unemployed were all represented. Wealthy people who lived in the financial districts where camps popped up mixed with working-class people who came from suburbs and small towns. Families came out, welcomed in the “child spaces” set up in many Occupy camps throughout the country. Most camps also boasted libraries, free classes, kitchens, food distribution, and medical tents.

As news media focused on gross-out stories of pee on the streets and graphic descriptions of drunk occupiers, they managed to ignore the complex systems that were built in the camps. Nor did anyone mention that homeless people have the right to protest, too.

Taiwan Film Days

Maria Poblet
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Taiwan Film Days

The San Francisco Film Society presents Taiwan Film Days. This exciting series focuses on the best of new Taiwanese cinema by showcasing bold films and eventful opportunities to engage with visionary filmmakers. From opener Din Tao: Leader of the Parade (see the trailer below)—director Fung Kai will be in attendance for the film and party, along with Nezha the Third Prince full-body puppet and troupe performance, to the feature film version of the ultra-popular television melodrama Days We Stared at the Sun. In addition to the lineup of six new films, Edward Yang’s epic 1991 film A Brighter Summer Day – recently ranked #84 in the Sight & Sound critic’s poll of the greatest films of all time – will be presented in a newly restored 35mm print. For the full program and tickets, visit this link.

To win a pair of promo codes redeemable online for a screening of your choice, email sfbgpromos@sfbg.com with “Taiwan Days” in the subject – codes will be emailed starting Thurs/11 at 2pm, while supplies last.

Friday, October 12 thru Sunday, October 14 @ New People Cinema,1746 Post, SF

 

 

Music Listings

Andrew Lam
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Since club life is unpredictable, it’s a good idea to call ahead or check the venue’s website to confirm bookings and hours. Prices are listed when provided to us. Visit www.sfbg.com/venue-guide for venue information. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Picks.

WEDNESDAY 3

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Assemblage 23, Espermachine, Demodulate DNA Lounge. 9pm, $18.

Battlehooch, Paranoids, Chaka Knockout. 9pm, $5.

“Communion in San Francisco” Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 8pm, $8-$10. With Tarnation, Prairiedog, Quinn DeVeaux.

Guido vs Jason Marion Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9:30pm, free.

Jezabels, Yukon Blinde Independent. 8pm, $16.

Keith Crossan Blues Showcase: Big Jo Manfra Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $15.

Laura Marling Swedish American Hall. 8pm, $25.

Nightwish, Kamelot Warfield. 8pm, $40-$65.

Helen Reddy Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $45.

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

“SF Acoustic Collective” Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $7. With Laura Weinbach, Ben Flanagan, Adam Dishart, and more.

Spring Standards Hotel Utah. 8pm, $8.

Strung Out, Swellers, Such Gold, Sheds Slim’s. 7:30pm, $18-$20.

Tokyo Raid, Spiral Electric, Elektrik Sunset Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $6.

Wax Tailor, Shana Halligan, DJ Tom Thump Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $15.

Z-Man, Dregs One, Toast, Rey Resurrection Elbo Room. 9pm, $10.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

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

Dink Dink Dink, Gaucho, Eric Garland’s Jazz Session Amnesia. 7pm, free.

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

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Cha-Ching Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $5.

DANCE CLUBS

Booty Call Q-Bar, 456 Castro, SF; www.bootycallwednesdays.com. 9pm.

Coo-Yah! Som., 2925 16th St, SF; (415) 558-8521. 10pm, free. DJs Daneekah and Green B spin reggae and dancehall.

Obey the Kitty: Justin Milla Vessel, 85 Campton Place, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $5.

THURSDAY 4

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP.

Alma Desnuda, Achii Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $15.

Big Tree, DRMS, Guy Fox Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 7:30pm, $5-$8.

Bisi and the Moonwalker, Black Dream, Greater Sirens 50 Mason Social House. 8pm, $13.

Dead Western, Exquisite Corpse, Blue Oaks Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $6.

Helio Sequence, Slowdance Independent. 8pm, $18.

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

Stephen Marley Fillmore. 8pm, $29.50.

Mount Eerie, Bouquet, Tortured Genius Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $12.

Niki and the Dove, Wolf Gang, popscene DJs Rickshaw Stop. 9:30pm, $13-$15.

Sheri Puorto Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $15.

Helen Reddy Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $45.

Sleeping Giants Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 10pm, $5-$8.

Street Justice, Lord Nasty and the Seekers of Perversion, Fuck You Cop, You Fucking Cop Knockout. 10pm, $7.

Rags Tuttle vs Guido Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9:30pm, free.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Home of Easy Credit Luggage Store Gallery, 1007 Market, SF; www.luggagestoregallery.org. 8pm, $5.

“Jazz Beyond Genre” Red Poppy Art House. 7pm, $12-$15. With Andrea Wolper, Hafez Modirzadeh, and more.

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

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

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Delhi 2 Dublin, Non Stop Bhangra Slim’s. 9pm, $17

Septeto Nacional JCCSF, 3200 California, SF; www.jccsf.org. 7:30pm, $27-$45.

Twang! Honky Tonk Fiddler’s Green, 1330 Columbus, SF; www.twanghonkytonk.com. 5pm. Live country music.

DANCE CLUBS

Afrolicious Elbo Room. 9:30pm, $5-$7. With DJ-host Pleasuremaker.

All 80s Thursday Cat Club. 9pm, $6 (free before 9:30pm). The best of ’80s mainstream and underground.

Base: Tim Green Vessel, 85 Campton Place, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $5-$10.

Supersonic Lookout, 3600 16th St., SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 9pm. Global beats paired with food from around the world.

Tropicana Madrone Art Bar. 9pm, free. Salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, and more.

FRIDAY 5

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Adios Amigo, Solwave, Dogcatcher Elbo Room. 9:30pm, $8.

Adoration 50 Mason Social House. 8pm, $5.

Bernadette, Shawn Virago, Castles in Spain, Lydia Popovich, DJ Salex Thee Parkside. 9pm, $10.

Brother Tyrone Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $20.

ConFunkShun Yoshi’s SF. 8 and 10pm, $30.

Dead Kennedys, Fang, Guantanamo Dogpile, 13 Scars Regency Ballroom. 9pm, $27.

Dead Winter Carpenters, Hackensaw Boys Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $15-$20.

Dry the River, Ferocious Few, Houndmouth Independent. 9pm, $15.

Roger Knox, Jon Langford and Sally Timms, Walter Salas-Humara Swedish American Hall. 7:30pm, $16.

Nick Lowe, Jesse Winchester Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $30.

Mono, Chris Brokaw, Jon Porras Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $12-14.

Reckless Kelly, Chuck Mead and His Grassy Knoll Boys, Trishas, Tiny Television Slim’s. 9pm, $17

Rebel Ship Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $15.

Laetitia Sadier, Orca Team, Pageants, DJ Dominique Leone Bottom of the Hill. 9:30pm, $14.

Sadies, John Langford and His Sadies, Misisipi Rider Cafe Du Nord. 7:30pm, $16.

Shpongle, Phutureprimitive Warfield. 10pm, $35-$40.

Sole Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Tell River, Gunsafe, Clay Hawkins Plough and the Stars. 9pm, $6.

Nathan Temby, Greg Zema, Jason Marion Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Toys That Kill, Pins of Light, Elephant Rifle Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $10.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

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

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

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Janam, Lila Sklar Red Poppy Art House. 8pm, $12-$15.

DANCE CLUBS

Braza! Som., 2925 16th St, SF; (415) 558-8521. 10pm, $5-$10. DJs Sabo, Kento, Elan spin Brazilian, and samba.

Joe Lookout, 3600 16th St.,SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 9pm.

Kenny Loi, Steele vs Whitlock Vessel, 85 Campton Place, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $20-$30.

Old School JAMZ El Rio. 9pm. Old school funk, hip-hop, and R&B.

Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music.

Strangelove: Undead Wedding Cat Club. 9:30pm, $3-$10. With DJs Tomas Diablo, Joe Radio, Daniel Skellington, and Donimo.

Womp SF DNA Lounge. 9pm, $10. With Dyloot, Liam Shy, and more.

SATURDAY 6

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Apogee Sound Club, Generacion Suicida, Permanent Ruin, Die Time, Cold Circuits Knockout. 4pm, $6.

Rome Balestrieri, Nathan Temby, Randy Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 9pm, free.

Michael Beach, Native Cats, Buttons Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $7.

Big Gigantic, GriZ Regency Ballroom. 9pm, $20.

Burning Monk, Die! Thee Parkside. 3pm, free.

ConFunkShun Yoshi’s SF. 8 and 10pm, $30.

Dead Winter Carpenters, Hackensaw Boys Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $12-$15.

Glen Hansard Fillmore. 9pm, $30.

Paula Harris and the Beasts of Blues, Big Ass Brass Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10:30pm, $20.

Inciters, Impalers, Wicked Mercies Cafe Du Nord. 9:30pm, $10.

John Wayne Bro Band Riptide. 9:30pm, free.

Jenny Lewis Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $21.

Maccabees, Mwahaha Independent. 9pm, $20.

Mantles, Swiftumz, Cocktails El Rio. 10pm, $8.

Soul Rebels, Rebel Ship Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $20.

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

Wave Array, She Beards, Warbler Bottom of the Hill. 9:30pm, $10.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

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

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

BronwChicken BrownChicken, Renegade Stringband, Mountain Men, Dull Richards Plough and Stars. 9pm, $10-$15.

Kafana Balkan, Brass Menazeri, Jill Parker and Foglove Sweethearts, DJ Zeljko Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $13.

DANCE CLUBS

“Beats for Boobs” Mezzanine. 7pm, $25-$40. With shOOey, Carol C, Emily Fox, and more.

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

Martin Buttrich Public Works. 9:30pm, $20.

Cockfight Underground SF, 424 Haight, SF; (415) 864-7386. 9pm, $7. Dance night for gay boys.

Foundation Som., 2925 16th St, SF; (415) 558-8521. 10pm, $5-$10. Hip-hop, dancehall,funk, and salsa.

Haceteria Deco Lounge, 510 Larkin, SF; www.decosf.com. 9pm, free before 11pm, $3 after.

Paris to Dakar Little Baobab, 3388 19th St, SF; (415) 643-3558. 10pm, $5. Afro and world music.

Pheeko Dubfunk, Vahid, Frenchy Le Freak, G StavVessel, 85 Campton Place, SF; www.vesselsf.com. 10pm, $20-$30.

Saturday Night Soul Party Elbo Room. 10pm, $5-$10. DJs Lucky, Paul Paul, and Phengren Oswald spinning 60s soul 45s.

SUNDAY 7

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Admiral Fallow, Young Buffalo Cafe Du Nord. 8:30pm, $12-$14.

Gregors, Piranha Party, Crazy Eyes Sub-Mission. 8pm.

Ewert and the Two Dragons, Lighthouse and the Whaler, Family Crest Bottom of the Hill. 8pm, $10.

Jason King Band Biscuits and Blues. 7 and 9pm, $15.

Michael Kiwanaka, Nathaniel Rateliff, Foy Vance Independent. 8pm, $20.

Wayne Krantz Yoshi’s SF. 7pm, $20.

Aaron Leese and the Panhandlers, Jenny and the Jerks Boom Boom Room. 8pm, $5.

Li XI, Rubedo, Mosshead, Oiler Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $7.

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

She Wants Revenge, Pyyramids Great American Music Hall. 8pm, $25.

Soulit 50 Mason Social House. 8pm.

Stepdad, Rich Aucoin, Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $10.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Jazzkwest Trio Bliss Bar, 4026 24th St, SF; www.blissbarsf.com. 4:30pm, $10.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Twang Sunday Thee Parkside. 4pm, free. With Jinx Jones and the King Tones.

DANCE CLUBS

Dub Mission Elbo Room. 9pm, $13. With Brother Culture, DJ Sep, and Dubsmashers.

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

Love and Light Public Works. 9pm, $15.

Remember the Party: We Are Family City Nights, 715 Harrison, SF; www.remembertheparty.com. 6pm-3am, $30. Disco with DJ Jerry Bonham.

MONDAY 8

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Star Anna and Kasey Anderson Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, free.

Blank Tapes, Lawlands, Cafe Cabana Cafe Du Nord. 8pm, $10.

Damir Johnny Foley’s. 9pm, free.

Gangstagrass, BPos Elbo Room. 9pm, $7.

Patti Smith Fillmore. 8pm, $39.50.

Richie Spice Independent. 9pm, $25.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

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

DANCE CLUBS

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

Crazy Mondays Beauty Bar, 2299 Mission, SF; www.thebeautybar.com. 10pm, free. Hip-hop and other stuff.

M.O.M. Madrone Art Bar. 6pm, free. DJs Timoteo Gigante, Gordo Cabeza, and Chris Phlek playing all Motown every Monday.

Soul Cafe John Colins Lounge, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 9pm.

Vibes’N’Stuff El Amigo Bar, 3355 Mission, SF; (415) 852-0092. 10pm, free. Conscious jazz and hip-hop from the ’60s-’90s.

TUESDAY 9

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Bad Books, Drowning Men, Harrison Hudson Bottom of the Hill. 8pm, $19.

“Benefit Show for Subversion Vol. 1” Knockout. 9:30pm, $6. With Secret People, No Mistake, Stares, Total Fucker.

Ben Howard Fillmore. 8pm, $25.

IO Echo, Gliss, Cruel Summer Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $10-$12.

Saint Vitus, Weedeater, Sourvein Independent. 8pm, $22.

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

Steve Vai, Beverly McClellan Regency Ballroom. 7:30pm, $40-$49.50.

Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby, John Murry Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $10.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Bombshell Betty and Her Burlesqueteers, Fromagique Elbo Room. 9pm, $10.

Bad and good news from the Guv

Zelda Bronstein
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Bad and good news from the Guv

First, the bad news: Jerry Brown has vetoed a couple of important bills by Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, showing that he’s still a strange and unpredictable guy. He rejected a measure that would have provided some basic labor protections to domestic workers and another that would have opened up state prisons to a modicum of media access. His message on domestic workers was confusing (gee, maybe it would cost more to make sure people get meal breaks); on the media access, it was just bizarre:

“Giving criminals celebrity status through repeated appearances on television will glorify their crimes and hurt victims and their families,” Brown wrote in his veto message for Assembly Bill 1270.

What? The notion that the press might be able to interview prisoners about conditions behind bars in an agency that consumes more than $10 billion a year in state funds will “glorify crimes?” Sorry, but Jerry is out of his mind.

From Ammiano’s press release:

“Press access isn’t just to sell newspapers. It’s a way for the public to know that the prisons it pays for are well-run,” Ammiano said. “The CDCR’s unwillingness to be transparent is part of what has led to court orders on prison health care and overcrowding. We should know when the California prisons aren’t being well run before it goes to court. I invite the Governor to visit the SHU [special housing unit/solitary confinement] to see for himself why media access is so important.”

Same goes for the TRUST Act, which had the support of a lot of local police chiefs, the mayor of Los Angeles and Assembly Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

On the other hand, Brown did sign a bill by Sen. Mark Leno that could turn out to be the best budget news San Francisco’s had in years. SB 1492 would allow the Board of Supervisors and the voters to reinstate, just in this city, the vehicle license fee that former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger cut, to such disastrous effect, when he first took office. If the supervisors put it on the ballot and the voters approve, a two percent hike in the car tax could raise $70 million a year for the city — more than triple the amount that the mayor has agreed to raise in his weak gross receipts tax proposal.

That law goes on the books Jan. 1 — and the supes should immediately take up the challenge and approve the VLF hike for the next even-year ballot, November 2014.

Then the Guv vetoed Leno bills protecting cell phone users from warrantless searches and alloing the state to recognize more than two people as parents of a child.

Sen. Leland Yee’s bill allowing juveniles who were sentenced to life without parole to get a second chance made it passed Brown’s desk.

So what do we make of the governor? About the usual — he’s random.

Tonight, a film that will change how you see mental illness

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What does it mean to be mentally ill? Mentally well? If a person feels debilitating rage and sadness faced with the realities of the world around them, does the problem lie with the person or with society? What exactly needs fixing?

These are some of the questions raised by Crooked Beauty, a 30-minute film that originated in San Francisco and has been translated and distributed internationally.

Filmmaker Ken Paul Rosenthal will screen Crooked Beauty tonight, along with other footage from his ongoing work exploring alternative ways of seeing mental health.The screening is part of the 10-year anniversary celebration of the Icarus Project, a network of support groups, discussion forums, writers and artists, challening the definition of mental health. In their own words, the Icarus Project “envisions a new culture and language that resonates with our actual experiences of ‘mental illness’ rather than trying to fit our lives into a conventional framework.”

It was some of that new language, lines in a book Rosenthal found lying around his Mission Distrtict apartment one day, that first inspired Crooked Beauty.

“The world seemed to hit me so much harder and fill me so much fuller than anyone else I knew,” the lines read. “Slanted sunlight could make me dizzy with its beauty and witnessing unkindness filled me with physical pain.”

The book was Navigating the Space Between Brilliance and Madness: A Reader and Roadmap of Bipolar Worlds, and the writer of the words was Jacks McNamara, one of the Icarus Project’s founders.

The lines made sense to him. “They spoke so much to my experience of the world,” Rosenthal told me in an interview. “They create such a vivid image for me of relating to the world in a skewed way, as opposed to a very bright, shiny, clear way.”

He found that McNamara lived just across the Bay in Oakland “two days later I was sitting with them, talking and proposing this film.”

Rosenthal did several interviews with McNamara that he used for the film’s narrative. McNamara’s storytelling is unscripted and strikingly poetic.  Images, all shot in San Francisco by Rosenthal, illustrate the story– fog rolling in over hills, birds flocking on power lines and trees shaking in the wind as if trying to escape.

The film, Rosenthal said, is “About using [McNamara’s] crucial and critical narrative as a touchstone for the much broader issue of madness, which is not just a biochemical knot from the neck up. That madness is also a reflection of a social condition.”

As McNamara says in the film: “Saying that it is nothing but a biological brain disorder let’s everybody off the hook. Then you don’t have to look at oppression, and you don’t have to look at poverty and injustice and abuse and trauma, and makes it this situation where it’s just the individual versus his of her inevitable biological madness”

Through getting involved in the Icarus Project, Rosenpaul said, “I’ve been radicalized. But that’s not to say that I’m out on the street burning my bra. Or, you know, burning my prescription bottles.”

Instead, he makes films that explore the complexities of mental health beyond the persciption bottle, what he calls “that idea that wellness exists in a pill.”

Rosenthal’s current project, Mad Dance: A Mental Health Film Trilogy, will use archival footage from educational mental health films, which distance the viewer from the patients that need to be “fixed.”

Tonight, Rosenthal will present some of that footage along with Crooked Beauty.

“Mad Dance film screening and Icarus Project benefit”

Thu/27, 8-10pm, $5-10 suggested donation

Artists’ Television Access

992 Valencia, SF

Facebook invite

Extra! Extra! Calling all Nebraska Cornhuskers!

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Where to watch the Nebraska Cornhuskers game with Idaho State today (Saturday, 9/22/2012)

Well, it was beginning to be a desperation   The former Jean Dibble and I couldn’t figure out how to watch Saturday’s Nebraska football game with Idaho State on television.

We had faithfully watched the first three games on national television, a real treat, as the Huskers started up a e 2-1 record.  Jean and I are both graduates of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, our grandson Nicholas Perez of Santa Barbara is a freshman mechanical engineering student at Nebraska and has season tickets, and we are now even more faithful fans.

We mentioned our predicament to Richard Boyce, a fellow Cornhusker fan aho is cheerfully addicted to college football,  at the Que Syrah Wine Bar on Thursday night. (That’s where the action is on Thursday nights, with Val

crafting excellent Barcelona-style tapas and Stephanie rolling out the flights of specialty wines from small production wineries.)

Richard had the answer: watch the game at Final Final, the neighborhood sports bar at 2990 Baker St. across from the Presidio. Meanwhile, our daughter, Katrina Perez, who has suddenly become a rabid Husker fan, checked the Nebraska alumni site and emailed us the local “watch site” for watching all Nebraska football games.  It was Final Final.  (The name comes from the days the soldiers got their final drink before heading back to their barracks in the Presidio after a night on the town.)

Amazing.  We have been in San Francisco since 1964 and we never knew there was a sports bar featuring Nebraska games.

So I called the bar to check the reports.  (I have always been leery of the alleged Herb Caen rule: never check the item, you might lose it.) The owner Arnie Prien answered his own phone, just like any good Nebraskan.  He confirmed the reports. It turns out that Arnie is the real thing.  He comes from Lyons, Nebraska, and graduated from the university in 1964. He has been running Final Final for the past 35 years loyally broadcasts Nebraska football games every Saturday.  The NU faithful, he reports, come from all over the
Bay Area to see the games and enjoy NU camaderie.  The game starts at 12:30 p.m. but he warns people to come an hour early to get a seat and first shot at the free popcorn and inexpensive  beer.

As the Nebraska song says, “There is no place like Nebraska.” Even in San Francisco. Go Big Red!

Final Final

2990 Baker St.

San Francisco 94123

415-931-7800

P,.S. The alumni site lists three other “watch sites” in the Bay Area.  Jack’s Brewing Company in Fremont.  Legends and Heroes in Concord.  And Knuckles Sports Bar in Monterey,

Watch the Huskers on these four Bay Area Watch sites: http://bayareahuskers.org/

 

Cup-of-tea diplomacy

Zelda Bronstein
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Cup-of-tea diplomacy

In the spring of 2008, I was invited to give a briefing on human rights to a Bush-appointed US ambassador scheduled to be posted to the Middle East. But the ambassador had little interest in talking about human rights.

“What I want to know is this,” he said. “Is Islam the problem here? Is Islam retarding progress—economically, socially, politically?”

I tried to steer the meeting back to human rights but the ambassador kept persisting. “I mean you’re a Muslim…so do you think Islam is standing in the way?”

I had participated in enough of these discussions to know that in agreeing to meet, both us were checking off boxes: He could say he was listening to the concerns of a human rights advocate; I was able to say I relayed the concerns of my employer, Amnesty International, to a US ambassador.

Most of the ambassadors I met were like this: They thought it neither important nor virtuous to understand—let alone to love—the people of the Middle East. The role of the ambassador, they reminded me, was not to listen to people’s ideals and hopes but rather to convey to people America’s ideals and hopes for them.

When I learned of the killing of the US Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens last week, I mourned the sad irony that a US diplomat who wore his love for the Middle East and North Africa on his sleeve would be killed serving the very people who inspired him.

In a YouTube video posted soon after his murder, Ambassador Stevens is seen standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, the cherry blossoms in full bloom behind him, introducing himself to the Libyan people.

“As-salaam alaikum,” he begins using the traditional Islamic greeting that means “Peace be upon you.” He looks happy, giddy almost.

“Growing up in California, I didn’t know much about the Arab world,” he says. “Then after graduating from the University of California at Berkeley, I traveled to North Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer.” He taught for two years in the mountains of Morocco and “grew to love this part of the world.”

Colleagues and friends who knew him spoke about his passion for listening. French writer Bernard-Henri Levy admired his “great capacity to listen and his strategy to speak last.” Elizabeth Dibble, his colleague at the State Department, spoke about Stevens’ unique diplomatic style.

“It takes a lot of tea,” she said. “You don’t rush into talking points, you develop a relationship and a personal connection, and a series of connections becomes a network.”

In a moving tribute published on CNN’s website, his friend Judith Drotar spoke about Steven’s remarkable judicious restraint. “What really made Chris exceptional to me, however, was his ability to distance himself,” she writes. “Not the aloof kind of distancing that you might expect from someone in his position, but the kind where one puts emotion and ego aside in order to truly listen, to understand, and then to find a way to build bridges.”

But in the aftermath of Stevens’ death, we are tearing down those very bridges that he worked so hard to build.

The cover of this week’s Newsweek features a close up photo of two bearded, turban clad Muslim men, clutching an Egyptian flag, shouting to the camera under a headline that reads, “Muslim Rage: How I survived it and how we can end it.”

In the article, Ayaan Hirsi Ali writes, “In the age of globalization and mass immigration, such intolerance has crossed borders and become the defining characteristic of Islam.”

Stevens would be ashamed. He worked his whole life to add nuance to our understanding of the Middle East and North Africa. To suggest that one film—or the religion of Islam—alone caused the violence that swept across 16 countries is as incomplete as suggesting that the LA riots of 1992 were sparked only by the Rodney King verdict.

But it’s easy to blame the protests that erupted in 16 Muslim majority countries as a reaction to a film. It is more difficult to examine the policies of our government that have sparked this resentment.

A week before Stevens died, the US fired two drone strikes 80 miles southeast of Sanaa, Yemen. One hit an Al Qaeda operative; the other missed its target, hitting a commuter mini-bus. Fourteen were killed, including three women and a child.

Mansoor al-Maweri was nearby when the attack happened.  “You want us to stay quiet while our wives and brothers are being killed for no reason,” he said. “This attack is the real terrorism.” Hundreds of angry people took to the street. Few cameras were there to beam these protests to television sets in America.

It is attacks like this, as well as the film, that sparked the current outcry. The tragedy is that Stevens would have understood this perhaps more than any other diplomat. Sometimes the explanations are painful; sometimes we do not know what is happening; and sometimes the best course of action for the United States is to pour a cup of tea and listen.

Zahir Janmohamed recently completed a fellowship at the San Francisco Writers’ Grotto and is writing a book about Juhapura, the largest ghetto of Muslims in India

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