Today’s Look: Lea, Civic Center
Describe your fashion philosophy: “Whatever works.”
Ariel Soto-Suver
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s look: Lea, Civic Center
Describe your fashion philosophy: “Do what works for you.”
Live Shots: Ke$ha, Fox Theater, 9/14/11
Neon lights, glitter, and balloon drops certainly made for a bedazzled set, as Ke$ha took the stage, wearing the most glitz of all.
She worked her infamous bad-girl ‘tude and got as raunchy as possible for her very own “Get $leazy Tour.” Add in her troupe of zoombie-fied dancers and the whole vibe was gritty pop, circa the end of the world. (Did you know that she co-wrote that jam for Britney? Word.).
You can tell that Ke$ha thrives in the spotlight, but she’s a new pop princess and her voice needs some time to develop and mature. But the whole “stage drama plus musical mash-up” works together to create that perfect concert concoction. And if Ke$ha is reading this … she’s probably saying “Oh please! Blah, blah blah!”
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Ophelia and Michelle, Castro and Market
Describe your style philosophy: “Black and comfort.”
Getting started with Sour Flour
Raise it up! SFBG videographer Ariel Soto-Suver drops in on a delectable bread-baking basics class with Danny Gabriner of La Victoria Bakery in the Mission.
Street Threads: Downtown Edition
Today’s Look: Natalia, O’Farrell and Powell
Describe your fashion philosophy: “Natural style.”
Live Shots: Stepology at Herbst Theater, 8/21/2011
At most performance rehearsals, there isn’t the need to do a sound-check with the drummer and the dancers. At a tap show, it’s a must. The beats are coming from both parties, so those amps better be set to pitch perfect.
This past weekend, metal-soled kicks took the stage, for a performance by the very talented Stepology, a local tap dance organization who is trying to preserve those classic tip-tappity steps through its annual Bay Area Tap Fest program. I stopped by the Stepologists’ final rehearsal to get a taste of what they were up to, and was very glad I did.
As a child, I had a large portrait of Fred Astaire in my bedroom (no joke!) and remember spending hours watching classics like Holiday Inn and Swing Time with my grandmother. They were such entertaining and silly movies. Those classics definitely had an influence on me, because I too took tap lessons and started dressing in long vintage skirts that made a perfect bell shape when I twirled.
Stepology is keeping that genuine spark of classy foot moves alive, while adding in some modern sensibility, with live contemporary music and clever originality. I’m sure anyone who sees the troupe perform will feel just a bit of nostalgia — and excitement for the future of this art form.
Fred, showing off the moves in Holiday Inn:
Street Threads: Downtown Edition
Today’s Look: Leezet, United Nations Plaza
Tell us about your look: “My best friend dresses me.”
Food cart captures: Snaps from the Street Food Festival
We still had five blocks to walk, but we could already smell the medley of exotic flavors wafting up the street. Sam Love and I were headed to the third annual SF Street Food Festival, which took over blocks and blocks of Folsom Street this past Saturday, bringing together street food vendors from La Cocina, San Francisco, and even a few from across the country to share edible wares with local foodies.
Signs lined the street, warning us to “pace yourself.” This was no joke. It was hard to decide where to start, but we chose to stick with the stars of the event: the entrepreneurial women of La Cocina. When we finally picked a vendor line to wait in, some of were snaking half way down the block.
We started with some tamales from Alicia’s Tamales Los Mayas. They were creamy and delicate, and as Alicia put it with a huge smile on her face, “stuffed with love.” We could have eaten a whole suitcase full of those babies. Yum!
Then we moved on to a more tactile eating experience, stopping at Eji’s Ethiopian Gourmet for some spongy injera topped with lentils and cabbage. Using the bread as utensil, we scooped the perfectly spiced veggies up, letting them drip satisfyingly down our chins.
After a pit stop for some agua fresca, we made one more beeline to Los Cilantos, to grab an elote (how had I never had one of these before!), which is roasted corn on the cob, smothered in mayo and parmesan cheese. So good. So good!
I have no idea how many zillions of people showed up for the festival on Saturday, but I do know that everyone at the stands was working their butts off to make sure no one went home hungry.
Street Threads: Downtown Edition
Today’s Look: Taylor and Laura, Geary and Mason
Tell us about your look:
Taylor: “Sporty yet fashionable”
Laura: “Katherine Hepburn”
Live Shots: GAPA Runway 23, 08/13/2011
Fantasy Land was out in full force on the Herbst Theater stage this past weekend, for the 23rd annual Gay Asian Pacific Alliance (GAPA) Runway show and 2011 Mr. & Miss GAPA pageant. The contestants were dressed to impress and pulled out all the stops (and pulled off a few pairs of pants too), in hopes of winning over a panel of judges that included everyone from socialites like Holy McGrail and politician Fiona Ma. Everyone was bedazzled, especially by the host Tita Aida.
Working with a cold and a pesky iPad, Tita held the whole event together with elegance and poise, and enough inappropriate jokes to keep everyone laughing and wetting their panties for the entire four hours of the show. I hope to one day call Tita a BFF. Tita is my heroine, not only for her amazing style, but also for her never ending list of Daly City jokes.
And then there were all the sexy Gaysian fantasies on the runway, dressed in fairytales of Snow White and genies, who really gave their all. One of my personal favorites was an evocative and devastating performance by Jezebel Patel of the Dying Swan, feathers spewing in every direction after each perfectly performed pirouette. She was a runner up for Miss Gapa, but the gigantic trophies at the end of the night went to two wonderful talents, Lychee Minelli and Mike Nguyen, who stole the show with their school-girl good looks and baton twirling triumphs.
I’ve been to a pretty solid sampling of drag shows in my day, but I have to say, GAPA Runway was magical in so many ways and one that I hope to make a yearly tradition.
Street Threads: Look of the day
Today’s Look: Brook, 16th Street and Lapidge
What’s your style philosophy?: “I like jewelry and objects that have magical powers.”
Behind the yuba: A trip to Hodo Soy Beanery’s factory floor
When I was fourteen, Snorkel Mom and I went to Japan to visit my Japanese “grandma” Kiyo. She lived in Tokyo and I remember one morning walking with her to a tiny, closet-sized building that had housed the neighborhood tofu shop in the very same spot for several hundred years. We took home a block of the freshest, most exquisite tofu I had ever eaten — nothing like the hard blocks of flavorless tofu found at most stores here in the States. So when I heard that there was a small company making fresh, traditional tofu in Oakland, I knew it would be worth hopping over the Bay to see what they had to offer.
On the first Wednesday of every month, Hodo Soy Beanery offers a tour to the public, giving folks a chance to sample the wide variety of soy products it creates and see first hand how it gets made. Hodo’s long list of organic, GMO-free soy delights includes fresh, creamy soymilk (nothing like that crap you can get in a box!), super-flavorful tofu in a wide range of textures, and ready-to-eat yummies like tofu salads, curry nuggets, and bricks of braised tofu with dense, potent flavors, perfect for adding to a sandwich in place of meat.
But probably the most exciting item at the beanery is its yuba. Hodo is the only place in the country making fresh yuba, a paper-thin tofu skin that comes together on the surface of heated soymilk. It’s carefully lifted off, drip-dried, and tenderly folded into small delicate rectangles. The texture is incredible and I can see this super-high protein soy food becoming a staple in home cooking on account of its versatility and delicacy.
And apart from being tasty, a visit to Hodo is fun. The staff was working hard and there’s big machines (eyes forward, people!), but there was a very human pace about the place. I got to chat with a few of the workers and they seemed to be enjoying their day.
That’s a beautiful thing, when companies are able to create an environment where their employees are having a good time and simultaneously making a product that is pure, simple, and scrumptious. There’s no longer the need to travel back to Japan to find that perfect piece of tofu, made in a centuries-old shop. Hodo’s right here.
Kind of makes me want to sing…
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Sandra (with Leon), 18th Street and San Carlos
Tell us about your look: “I got this jumpsuit from H&M.”
Street Threads: Look of the day
Today’s Look: Coco, 23rd St. and Valencia
Describe your look: “California meets Berlin.”
Street Thread: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Sarah, 24th St. and Poplar
What’s your style philosophy? “Go as classic as possible.”
Portuguese delights at the Secret Wine Shop and lenga|lenga
Up on the second floor of an industrial warehouse in SOMA, you can find a small, stylishly decorated loft filled with secret spirits. I’m not talking about a haunted house. I’m talking about the Secret Wine Shop. It’s also the home of owner Christy Bergman — and homebase for her endeavor to bring unique and delicious wines to an eager audience, in a nontraditional and extremely intimate environment.
On July 25, I went to Bergman’s Portuguese food and wine event, which was a collaboration with lenga|lenga, a new catering biz specializing in traditional Portuguese flavors. Needless to say, it was one secret that deserves to be shared.
All six-courses were perfectly paired with a wonderfully robust, small-production wine, either from Portugal or made with Portuguese grapes. According to the chefs, there are 1001 ways to cook cod, so several of the dishes used this delicate, flaky fish, including the main course of creamy codfish, cooked with potatoes and white sauce, a Portuguese twist on potatoes au gratin or Spanish brandade.
As we made our way through the long list of wines, each one better than the last, we socialized with the resident cat Diesel, examined the eclectic art on the walls, and got to know our fellow wine aficionados, in what was essentially somebody’s living room. This is truly a special wine tasting experience, and with the expert wine selection by Bergman, your palette will be pleasantly surprised by the diversity of flavors that one evening can encompass. As they say in Portuguese as they clink their glasses together … saúde!
SFBG Video: Devil’s Teeth Baking Company is sinfully delicious
Ariel Soto-Suver visits 2011 Best of the Bay winner Devil’s Teeth Baking Company (“Best Beelzebubian Beignets“) – and digs into the Sunset shop’s heavenly offerings. Powdered sugar: w00t!
Live Shots: Emily Wells and the Blank Tapes, Cafe du Nord, 7/24/11
No one seemed to mind that it was a Sunday night and that we were probably all going to be up far past our bedtime on a work night. That’s because it’s worth staying up late to hear some darn good music, truly starting the week off right. Emily Wells and The Blank Tapes were at Cafe du Nord and they kept the tunes coming late into the evening.
I always love going to a show early to find out that the opening band is awesome. The Blank Tapes, hollering from the Bay Area, have this perfectly classic sound, bringing up scents of Cream and the Youngbloods. The quirky sailor outfit was also a plus and I loved the Renaissance-man band member who played everything from bongos and mouth harp, to ukulele and the Puerto Rican guiro. What can I say, I really liked their sound and I bet you would too.
Then Emily Wells took the stage, with about a zillion instruments and a web of electrical cords twisting around her feet. A one-women band, Wells loops her voice, hits away on the drums and evens add violins into the mix. Her voice, melancholy and smoky, made the front row dance in ecstasy (or, perhaps, on ecstasy … some of the moves were a little out there, but it could just have been pure-enthusiasm … who knows).
Wells and The Blank Tapes were definitely the prefect mix for the Sunday night blues, easing us all into the work week with a pitch-perfect concert.
Emily Wells:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6e2wOt1E2Y
The Blank Tapes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Rc2unKuT6M
Post:Ballet aims to refresh dance at the Herbst
Like “okra” or “golf,” the word “ballet” can elicit a very strong reaction. Either its two syllables make you giddy, the same way a perfectly sauteed pan of okra can make you salivate, or make you instantly nod off, like the thought of 18 holes of golf. (No offense to golf lovers … I personally just don’t really get it). Fortunately for everyone on both sides of the ballet divide, there’s Post:Ballet, a relatively young dance company that is breathing new life into the dance form — and which brings something that almost anyone will find quite likable indeed.
This coming Fri/15 and Sat/16, the company is performing at Herbst Theater, to present their new program titled “Seconds.” The show incorporates video projections with eerily beautiful music, along with the dancers’ fluid and graceful movements, to create an incredibly engaging and dramatic performance. The dance company definitely has strong roots in ballet, but it is able to meld tradition with fresh ideas, making for a ballet performance that everyone, including golf-loving okra freaks, won’t want to miss. I caught the company in rehearsals for its big show.
Post:Ballet, “Seconds”
Fri/15 and Sat/16, 8pm. $20-$25
Herbst Theater
401 Van Ness, SF.
www.postballet.org