Caitlin Donohue

Good girls inhale

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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16
Good girls inhale

caitlin@sfbg.com

HERBWISE This is the image that could very well legalize weed in the United States, if not on the books then in our national subconscious: a be-curlered, white-bathrobed housewife ducking behind the backyard clothesline for a quick toke before her adolescent son comes to ask her to wash his gear for the Little League championship tomorrow.

Dee Dee Kirkwood thinks so. The playwright behind Toke places the image at the center of an opening scene in her semi-autobiographical play about a woman and her weed.

“It’s all positives, there are no negatives about marijuana,” chirped Kirkwood over the phone the day after the friends and family preview performance of Toke. “I wanted to focus my writing on making a change, helping cannabis smokers, and helping people come out of the closet.”

Out of the closet? Kirkwood does put much truck in marijuana as a libido-enhancer, and noted Bay sexologist Carol Queen is slated to step into the pointy high heels of Toke‘s pot fairy character for the second two weeks of the play. Sexuality is in the air of Ashby Theatre as much as smoke, in fact — but Kirkwood’s talking about an entirely different kind of self-realization here.

The climactic scene of Toke takes place after protagonist Wee Dee (get it!) has surfed the seas of kitchen table abortions, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder-having Vietnam vet first loves, radical European commune life, and a confining marriage to the father of her two children — happenings that Kirkwood’s script manage to make touching and madcap in turns. The character is plucky, likable, fun, so it makes sense when her second hubby encourages her to take that indomitable Wee Dee spirit and channel it towards marijuana activism.

So she organizes an event. It’s not important what the event is, because it’s at the end of an already-wacky play and if you’re not stoned by that point, it’s not clear why you at a production called Toke to begin with.

What is important is that after Wee Dee has listened to the This is Your Life-style cassette tape of various blasts from the past wishing her well, she emerges onstage with a glittering, Beach Blanket Babylon-esque cannabis headdress. She announces “I’m coming out of the closet! I’m green!”

And boy does the audience cheer. Wee Dee is a hero.

Toke is Kirkwood’s raison d’être. She doesn’t consider herself a career activist, just wants to lead people to more morality-based look at marijuana’s outlaw status, even though the unjust incarceration issue doesn’t get much play in Toke. As a wife and mother, she wants others to share in the happiness that the dro has brought to her life.

And — if it ever makes it out of Berkeley’s green hills — one could see Toke performing similar feats for weed that Eat, Pray, Love enacted on Middle America’s acceptance of yoga and women traveling solo.

“If it ever makes it out of Berkeley” being the key phrase there, of course.

TOKE

Fri/26 – Sept. 11, Thu.-Sat, 8 p.m.; Sun., 5 p.m., $25

Ashby Theatre

1901 Ashby, Berk.

www.toketheplay.com

 

Bestivals

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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0

caitlin@sfbg.com

FALL ARTS Now that even the quaintest neighborhood block parties publish music lineups in advance and big beat fests give as much shine to snack vendors as secondary stages, it’s becoming clear that the events on our fall fair and festival listings are all just part of one big movement. Leading to what, you might ask? Leading to you having a celebrate-good-times kind of autumn in the Bay Area. Seize the day, pack your sunscreen, bring cash: from film to activism to chocolate, here comes the sun.

 

NOW-SEPT. 25

Shakespeare in the Park Presidio’s Main Post Parade Ground Lawn, between Graham and Keyes, SF. (415) 558-0888, www.sfshakes.org. Times vary, free. Whilst thou be satisfied with the Bard’s hits in the open air, free for you and the clan? The line-up, from Cymbeline to Macbeth, suggests that it won’t be so hard.

 

AUG. 27

J Pop Summit Japantown Peace Plaza, SF. www.newpeopleworld.com. 11 a.m.-6 p.m., free. Enter the kaleidoscope of anime, manga, Lolita, androgynously cute boys in tuxedo jackets, keyboard theatrics, and Vocaloid (a computer program that creates complete songs, vocals and all) contests at this unique festival marathon of Japanese pop culture.

Rock The Bells Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View. www.rockthebells.net. 10:55 a.m.-10:25 p.m., $55.50-281.00. Lauryn Hill, Nas, GZA, Common, Black Star — the country’s biggest hip-hop festival hits the Bay, bigger than ever.

 

SEPT. 3

International Cannabis and Hemp Expo Telegraph from 16th to 20th sts. and Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakl. intche.eventbrite.com. Noon-8 p.m., $18-300. 120 different strains of Mary Jane should be enough to get you through eight hours of festival — if not, there will be three stages of music and educational speakers for pot pals to trip on.

 

SEPT. 3-4

Zine Fest SF County Fair Building, 1199 Ninth Ave., SF. www.sfzinefest.org. 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., free. If arbiter of Bay indie comic cute Lark Pien’s original kitty cat Zine Fest 2011 poster doesn’t hook you (how?), you’re sure to find something that tickles your cut-and-paste among the aisles at this assemblage of DIY publishers and comic heads.

Millbrae Art and Wine Festival Broadway between Victoria and Meadow Glen, Millbrae. (650) 697-7324, www.miramarevents.com. 10 a.m.- 5 p.m., free. Celebrate Labor Day at this multi-faceted celebration of artisan comestibles, classic cars, live tunes, and hundreds of crafters — it even has a kids talent show.

 

SEPT. 4

EcoFair Marin Marin County Fairgrounds, San Rafael. www.ecofairmarin.org. 10 a.m.-7 p.m., $5. The keynote speaker at this expo of all things green and cutting-edge is Temple Grandin, Ph.D., one of the world’s leading autism advocates.

 

SEPT. 7-18

Fringe Festival Various locations, times, prices. www.sffringe.org. This festival’s egalitarian method of stage assignments mean that there’s no better time of year in the city to check out first-time playwrights and original (yes, sometimes wonky) scripts.

 

SEPT. 8-11

Electronic Music Festival Brava Theater Center, 2789 24th St., SF. www.sfemf.org. The Bay’s new music artists pop off together for this long weekend of exploration of the sonic spectrum.

 

SEPT. 10

Brews on the Bay Pier 45, SF. www.sfbrewersguild.org. Noon-5 p.m., $45. The city’s biggest brewers: Magnolia, Beach Chalet, Anchor, and Speakeasy among others, pour out endless tastes at this Bay-side swigfest

 

SEPT.10-11

Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival Ghriradelli Square, North Point and Larkin sts., SF. (415) 775-5500, www.ghirardellisq.com. Noon-5 p.m., $20 for 15 samples. A benefit for chronically ill and housebound elderly folks, chocolatier demonstrations and ice cream sandwich-eating contests sprinkle over this day of chocolate tasting par excellence.

 

SEPT. 14-18

Berkeley Old Time Music Convention Times, locations, and prices vary. www.berkeleyoldtimemusic.org. Loosen up them joints — it’s time to get goofy and gangly to some banjos and flat-footin’ at this multi-day Americana celebration of film screenings, concerts, open jams, and more.

Power and Sailboat Expo Jack London Square, Broadway and First St., Oakl. (510) 536-6000, www.ncma.com. Wed.-Fri., noon — 6 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., 10 a.m.-6 p.m., $10. In the market for a rubber inflatable raft? Wanna scope haute yachts? Sail away to this family-friendly event on the Bay.

 

SEPT. 15 — DEC. 18

SF Jazz Fest Times, locations, and prices vary. (866) 920-5299, www.sfjazz.org. Esperanza Spalding, Booker T., Aaron Neville, and performances by SF’s most talented high school jazz players mark this season of innovative concerts and jazz appreciation events.

 

SEPT. 23-25

Eat Real Jack London Square, Broadway and First St., Oakl. (510) 250-7811, www.eatrealfest.com. Fri, 1-8 p.m.; Sat, 11 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sun, 11 a.m.-7 p.m., free. A celebration of all foods local and sustainable, you can enter your prize pickles in a contest at this burgeoning fest, learn how to be a backyard farmer, and of course, eat good food til you burst.

 

SEPT. 23 — OCT. 16

24 Days of Central Market Arts www.centralmarketarts.org. Most events are free. The heart of the city organizes this smorgasboard of art events — from world class dance to circus to quirky theater pieces. Take your brown bag (lunch? something else?) down to Civic Center for one of the free performances.

 

SEPT. 24

Lovevolution Oakland Coliseum, 7000 Coliseum Way, Oakl. www.sflovevolution.org. Noon- 8 p.m., $25. The days of prancing neon-ly down Market Street are over but hey, Oakland’s got better weather! This year’s massive outdoor rave stages its traditional parade around the circumference of the coliseum’s parking lot.

 

SEPT. 25

Folsom Street Fair Folsom between Seventh and 12th sts., SF. www.folsomstreetfair.org. 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., $10 suggested donation. Sure, it’s touristy, but this kink community mega-event has its heart in the right place (between its legs). The premier place to get whipped in public, hands down.

 

SEPT. 30 — OCT. 2

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Speedway Meadows, Golden Gate Park, SF. www.strictlybluegrass.com. Sure this homegrown free twangfest gets more crowded by the year — but attendance numbers are directly tied to the ever-more-badass lineup of multi-genre legends. This year: Emmylou Harris, Bright Eyes, Broken Social Scene, Robert Plant — and yes, MC Hammer.

Oktoberfest By the Bay Pier 48, SF. 1-888-746-7522, www.oktoberfestbythebay.com. Fri, 5 p.m.-midnight; Sat, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and 6 p.m.-midnight; Sun, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., $25-65. Oompah, it’s time for some bratwurst! Raise your stein to this boozy celebration of German culture.

 

OCT. 1

Wildlife Conservation Expo Mission Bay Conference Center, 1675 Owens, SF. www.wildnet.org. 10 a.m.- 6 p.m., $30-60. Save the Botswanan cheetahs and okapis! Learn from leading conservationists about innovative environmental projects around the world.

 

OCT. 1-2

World Vegetarian Day County Fair Building, 9th Ave. and Lincoln, SF. (415) 273-5481, www.worldvegfestival.com. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., $10 suggested donation, free before 10:30 a.m. The 40-year old SF Vegetarian Society sponsors this expo of veggie livin’ — expert speakers talk science and advocacy, and there’ll even be a round of vegan speed dating for those hoping to share their quinoa with a like-minded meatless mama.

Alternative Press Expo (APE) Concourse Exhibition Center, 635 Eighth St., SF. (619) 491-1029, www.comic-con.org/ape. Check website for times and prices. The indie version of Comic-Con offers a weekend designed to give budding comics a leg up: workshops, keynote talks by slammin’ scribblers, issue-based panel discussions, and tons of comics for sale.

 

OCT. 2

Castro Street Fair Castro and Market, SF. (415) 841-1824, www.castrostreetfair.org. 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., free. This is no standard block party — big name acts take the stage at our historic homo ‘hood’s neighborhood get down, and along the curbs, crafters and chefs park alike.

 

OCT. 7-15

Litquake Times, locations, and prices vary. www.litquake.org. Our very own literary festival has grown a lot — the Valencia Street LitCrawl tradition has even spread to Austin and New York — check out its schedule for a chance to see one of your favorite scribes live and reading.

 

OCT. 9

Italian Heritage Day Parade Begins at Jefferson and Stockton sts., SF. (415) 703-9888, www.sfcolumbusday.org. 12:30 p.m., free. Peroni floats and courts of teenaged “Isabellas” reign supreme at this long-running North Beach cultural day.

Decompression Indiana outside Cafe Cocomo, SF. www.burningman.com. Check website for times prices. The Burning Man after-after-after party will be slammin’ this year, what with all the playa peeps that couldn’t score a ticket in the sell-out.

 

OCT. 15

Potrero Hill Festival 20th St. between Missouri and Arkansas, SF. potrerohillfestival.eventbrite.com. 9 a.m.- 4:30 p.m., free. $12 for brunch. A New Orleans-style mimosa brunch with live music kicks off this neighborhood gathering, also featuring a petting zoo and traditional Chinese dancers.

Noe Valley Harvest Festival 24th St. between Sanchez and Castro, SF. www.noevalleyharvestfestival.com. 10 a.m.- 5 p.m., free. Your little pumpkins can get their faces painted at this neighborhood fest, while you cruise the farmer’s market and meet the neighbors.

 

OCT. 15-16

Treasure Island Music Festival Treasure Island, SF. www.treasureislandfestival.com. $69.50-219.50. Indie fever takes a hold of the island this weekend, with a varied lineup this year featuring Aloe Blacc, Death Cab for Cutie, Empire of the Sun, and Dizzee Rascal.

 

OCT. 22

CUESA Harvest Festival In front of the Ferry Building, Embarcadero and Market, SF. www.cuesa.org. 10 a.m.-1 p.m., free. Butter churning, cider pressing, weaving demonstrations, and a chance to pick the mind of Bi-Rite Market founder Sam Morgannam.

 

NOV. 12-13

Green Festival SF Concourse Exhibition Center, 635 Eighth St., SF. www.greenfestivals.org. Sat, 10 a.m.- 7 p.m.; Sun, 11 a.m.- 6 p.m. Check website for prices. What would the sustainability movement be without endless halls of hemp backpacks and urban farming lectures? Keep up with the (Van) Joneses at this marquee environmental event.

Holy manta rays! (A journey to Treasure Island with Tiny Town Productions)

Andrew Lam
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0

I’m coming to pick you up right now, we’re going to Treasure Island, and we’re gonna see manta rays. Jeff Waldman and Andrew Hartley shot this footage of the scrap of land (recently labeled a “food desert” for its low income residents by the Department of Agriculture) to practice their videography skills for the upcoming Bolivian leg of their “multi-country experiment in random acts of kindness.” What’d they find?

Definitely not grocery stores, but public housing, art collectives, condemned military structures, wineries, and a family of manta ray-anglers. “It’s a crazy weird place that’s largely abandoned but also partially inhabited by an eclectic mix of bizarre personalities. You get the sense that you can do anything there, without consequence or attention, despite being a stone’s throw from the most densely populated metropolitan area on the West Coast,” says Waldman. 

A great deal of photos from the Alamo Square Flea Market

Andrew Lam
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1

The blue-threaded, stiff safari hat and the steel-lined canteen with the shoulder strap were hanging near each other on a metal railing at the 28th annual Alamo Square Flea Market. They were separated by a heavily-distressed grey motorcycle jacket, but surely hat and canteen had been tandem-teamed at some neo-colonialist theme party? I asked the gentleman vendor if that was the case.

It wasn’t. But he had sported the hat for a party recently, and he agreed the two bits of genteel ruggedness were a great pairing. In fact, he’d throw in the canteen for free. But first I had to buy the hat.

And so went the customarily predatory-laissez-faire dance of the flea market, brought for six overcast hours into the middle of the city, where there are not enough flea markets. But this was no flash in the pan — the Alamo Square affair has been around for decades, a smattering of vendors lining the treacherous path above Hayes Street, running along the southern edge of Alamo Square Park.

The winds were whipping around the flea market vendors Saturday morning but they, being the professional creatures that they are, had comfortable chairs to sit in, easy conversation starters for browsers fingering their baskets of $2 earrings, and ridiculously expensive starting quotes for the most unlikely of items ($45 for the alligator skin daschund purse? For shame, for shame). 

Indie Mart DIY-ers were there, as was the adoption ready pups from Rocket Dog Rescue, and terrarium craft tables overseen by neighborhood art clubhouse Workshop. 

I didn’t buy the hat (sorry boyfriend), but I will happily donate my new $2 earrings to anyone who can tell me why this isn’t a monthly event. 

Bartlett Street showing shades of Clarion

Andrew Lam
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0
Bartlett Street showing shades of Clarion

We asked Jet Martinez, the mural artist, yesterday at the mural unveiling for “Amate” at the Mission Community Market:

“Soo… it’s all about loving yourself?” [Such is the title’s meaning in Spanish.]

Not really, kind of, not really. The word — depending on where you place the accent — can refer to auto-adoration, or to the brown paper on which many Mexican folk art designs are painted. Whatever the ultimate meaning of the title, Martinez’ new piece (there’s a gorgeous full shot of it here) is easily the most vividly colored wall we’ve seen in this city in a minute — it’s like those scenes in Disney movies where all the woodland forest creatures get frenzied-happy during the climax of a musical number. Make you wonder what song they’re singing.

And there’s more street art where that came from on Bartlett

“Amate” is not the only large-scale street art you should peep on the street (preferably while you’re heirloom tomato shopping with a greasily-transcendent pupusa balanced precariously in one hand). You perhaps know about Ben Woods’ recreation of a 1700s Ohlone mural from Mission Dolores — which sits directly next to Martinez’ creation. 

A few more from the block:

Roa‘s three seals (there’s another stretched out along the bottom of the building, sorry I suck at taking photos) are amazing. 

And here’s a piece which has gotta be by Ben Eine (UPDATE: aaand it is), even though it’s not included on this White Walls map of the recent pieces the British artist painted around the city. Whoever did it, it appears to have garnered the attention of some paint-throwers. 

Word on the street from the Mission Community Market is that the organization is in talks with property owners of the condo-parking lot on the southwestern side of the block to liven up that surface as well. Pretty soon, we may have a block so colorful enough to match the MCM produce stalls. 

Vigilante Vigilante: The anti-anti-tagging movie

Andrew Lam
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5
Vigilante Vigilante: The anti-anti-tagging movie

Fred Radke buffs Banksy and can’t stand public mural walls, even when they’re meant to inspire  hope in his post-Katrina NoLa. 

Joe Connolly deals with the death of his 11-year old son by zealously trucking around cans of paint and paint-removing chemicals, occasionally throwing up his own tag as a caution sign to the other, bad, graffiti artists.

Jim “Silver Buff” Sharp will even take down signs for lost dogs in his mission to purge Berkeley’s streets of DIY expression.

Meet your anti-graffiti activists, courtesy of a new film by Berkeley producers, Vigilante Vigilante.

The movie, shot over the course of 500-some days by Max Good and Nathan Wollman, gives a breathless history of people writing on walls (including a dubious reference to graff buffers back in the Paleolithic days), right up to modern day Bay Area strife – anybody remember the Warm Water Cove “clean-up”? The timeline focuses on the conflict between taggers and law-and-order types. If, in this age of JR and other highly-publicized and lauded street art, you don’t think is for real anymore, watch this video. 

Good capturing Sharp’s technique

The movie then moves onto Good and Wollman’s mission to expose the unaffiliated lone wolfs who spend their days erasing other people’s works of self-expression. They travel across the country, gaining surprising amounts of access to the three men’s routines.

But as it turns out, Vigilante isn’t down to use the middle-aged to elderly white guys they profile (add to this list a one “Silver Circle” from Portland, who is now retired) as the faces of evil. Instead, the movie couches its critique in the wack broken windows sociological theory – itself a tool used by elite populations to justify wiping clean the visible signs of any disenfranchised citizens. 

By the end of the movie, Good and Wollman are arranging meet-ups between the anti-taggers so that they can swap paint-matching and poster removal techniques. The scene is almost heartwarming: the anti-graffiti vigilantes, with their relentless schedules and dedication to their craft almost win the audience over. Even if we’re a little creeped out by them.

Coca Cola vs. Twist’s tag wall: Which is the visual pollution?

So who is the villan in all this? Vigilante Vigilante finds a plausible symbol of nefariousness: James Q. Wilson, the sociologist behind the broken window theory (the inspiration, by the way, for Rudy Giuliani’s 1990s purging of downtown Manhattan).

The producers were right to do so. For the community member upset that their neighborhood is poor, that their area’s youth are unemployed, that circumstances seem beyond their control, Wilson’s theory successfully obfuscates cause and effect, a standard conservative trick of defeating class consciousness. Graffiti doesn’t cause race riots, poorly-dealt-with natural disasters, or high unemployment rates. Writing on a wall is often the response to a society that belittles minority youth, the middle class and poorer, and anyone who is having trouble with the capitalistic treadmill. Jeff Chang‘s Can’t Stop Won’t Stop is a great place to start if you’re interested in this anti-colonialist view of street art.

The obsessive cover-ups of the vigilantes (that in more than one case have morphed into tags themselves, a fact the filmmakers highlight when they begin covering up Sharp’s silver buffs with neon pink and gold buffs, to his dismay), are ultimately their attempt at regaining control in a world that can seem really mean at times. Which doesn’t change the fact that what they’re doing is lame — can hardly blame this guy… 

Vigilante Vigilante is at the Roxie through Sat/20

 

Fist Fam’s “Drinkin” in the Cackalack backwoods

Andrew Lam
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4

There are few hip-hop crews that get so gleefully shitfaced at gigs — in fact, I think cheap domestics actually power Fist Fam’s psychedelic hip-hop pick-up truck. Or maybe the group’s mojo, underlaid with remixed crate gems from DJ Al Lover, comes from the fact the whole posse is family-close, having moved to the Bay from North Carolina pretty much en masse a few years ago. Both factors (Coors Banquet and bro love) are present in the video for the group’s new summer anthem, shot at emcee Philo’s childhood home in what the press release calls “the moonshine mountains of Asheville.” So how drunk was the Fam by the end of a day of “Drinkin”? “I think fools went out to the bars afterwards though, so maybe not drunk enough,” recalls Al Lover, somehow. 

Sweet streets: Gelatin dessert art at this weekend’s Street Food Festival

Andrew Lam
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0
Sweet streets: Gelatin dessert art at this weekend’s Street Food Festival

As the foodie masses descend on the Mission for Sat/20’s Street Food Festival, they’ll be met with a diverse representation of what San Francisco eats. In this corner, fancy brick and mortar spots: Slanted Door, 15 Romolo, and Rye are but a few representatives of the eateries that are taking grills and spatulas into the fresh air this weekend. But for sheer culinary comeliness, the big guys have a serious contender when it comes to Sweets Collection arty gelatin creations. 

Graduates of the La Cocina street food incubator program will total a solid 50 percent of the 60 vendors in attendance at the festival. The varying styles of food preparation are meant to express the breadth of eats in San Francisco, but also to reinforce the fact that the huarache you buy at your local farmer’s market has the culinary chops to stand up against many places that take Visa.

According to the website, in a perfect world the festival would “get rid of all the white tents, and just do it block party style, but that’s not so cool with the Health Department, so you will have to imagine it with us.”

Rosa Rodriguez would surely be invited if the fest turned into a block party. She lives in the Mission, and has been creating her Sweets Collection intricate gelatin creations, in which graceful flowers bloom in edible gel, for a year now. We mentioned certain circumstances under which her treats might prove particularly awesome in the paper today, and here’s more on Rodriguez from an email interview we conducted with her last week. (You can also check out food writer Virginia Miller’s adventuresome picks for the fest here.) 

Sweets Collection got its name when Rodriguez realized her treats wouldn’t look amiss in an art gallery

SFBG: Tell us a little about yourself. How did you start Sweets Collection?

RR: My name is Rosa Rodriguez, I have two children, one is 15 years old and named Dayra, and Hasam is eight years old, we are from Durango, Mexico. I’m a single mother. When we are not doing artistic desserts, my children go to school and I take English classes and work on my business. I became unemployed in 2009, and in 2010 I had the idea of starting my own business to cover household expenses and share the art of my greatest passions.

 

SFBG: Can you tell us a little about gelatin art?

RR: Arte floral en gelatina has become a centerpiece of Mexican culture. Evening parties in Cancun often have intricate gelatin dessert flowers served in glass, personalized gelatin desserts are in demand at corporate events in Mexico, and no birthday is complete without fun gelatin designs on the cake.  

 

SFBG: Most of your work I’ve seen is of flowers. Do you do any other kinds of designs?

RR: I am fascinated by flowers, but do figures, characters or any design. You can get your favorite hobby, movie, or fantasy adventure in a gelatin dessert.

 

SFBG: What are you bringing to the Street Food Festival this weekend?

RR: Sweets Collection will participate by offering fanciful jello shots at two bars that will be located on Folsom and 23rd streets. But we also have a booth on that intersection, selling designs that the entire family can enjoy. Last year was my first year, like me, many people were impressed by the art to gelatin and I hope that this year more people came by our Booth , to know and taste the art you can eat.

 

SFBG: What does it taste like?

RR: This artistic dessert is made with passion. They’re handcrafted and they taste how they look… delicious.

 

San Francisco Street Food Festival

Sat/20 11 a.m.- 7 p.m., free

Folsom between 22nd and 26th sts. and surrounding area, SF

www.sfstreetfoodfest.com

Munchies

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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0
Munchies

HERBWISE There will be things at this weekend’s Street Food Festival that you will want to eat. Oh yes, very much so. And damn if there won’t be things that you will want to look at — and then eat.

One of these things will be Rosa Rodriguez’ Sweets Collection gelatin desserts: small, sweet cups in which three dimensional flowers bloom, taunting you to stick a spoon in them. I will take them over designer cupcakes any day.

Rodriguez, who now lives in the Mission with her two daughters, is from the Mexican state of Durango. There, large gelatin molds traditionally bloom at birthdays, baby showers, and wedding parties; red roses and yellow zinnias made of condensed milk curling prettily around the faces of happy couples and beaming little girls. When I asked her via email about her San Francisco customers’ most common reaction to her wares, she said it is uncertainty. “They ask if they can eat the flower, or if it’s plastic.”

A La Cocina street food incubator program graduate, Rodriguez will be in the heart of the Mission this Saturday, along with the rest of the sweet and savory offerings of the Street Food Festival’s 60-some vendors. She’ll be selling “fanciful jellos shots” at the festival’s bars on 23rd and Folsom streets, and her more family-friendly concoctions at a stand of her own on the same intersection.

Saturday will entail a lot of eating, and a lot of gawking at fanciful jello shots, and for these reasons alone the day will go very well if you are really, really stoned.

But ingesting marijuana before the Street Food Festival is a delicate matter. After all, the third year of the event will be the biggest yet, its girth spanning eight blocks of Folsom Street, plus parts of 23rd, 25th, the Cesar Chavez Elementary School parking lot, and the Parque de los Niños Unidos.

In past years, massive crowds have marred the day for many an avid snacker — the lines, my friend, the lines. This year La Cocina is hopeful that the vast expansion of the event will stem the tide — but nonetheless it would not do to have agoraphobia derail you just as you are reaching the front of the line at the Kasa booth.

Luckily, there are plenty of San Francisco souls that geek out tailor-making THC regimens for situations like these. I placed a call to one such place humans like this congregate: the San Francisco Patient and Resource Center, winningly acronym-ed SPARC. It just received our Best of the Bay reader’s poll award for Best Cannabis Club and it’s well known for having an extensive selection of in-house strains. It seemed like a fine place to start out.

Nick Smilgys, who has served as the club’s marketing director for over a year now, had two words for me: blackberry kush. Then he had some more. The kush — which he says is traditionally cultivated in Pakistan and India, but happens to be one of SPARC’s signature strains — is a deep-green indica that’ll make you hungry as hell, ready to take on all those Indian burritos and handmade huaraches.

Smilgys says the blackberry buds create “good well being” in their ingester, and result in a nice body high. Of course, he cautions, medicines will have differing effects on different patients.

But if you’re not careful with the blackberry, it could keep you from your improbably edible jello flowers. (Smilgys employed the term “couch lock” to describe a potential blackberry kush effect.) If you’re prone to getting paranoid, he counsels medical marijuana patients to look for a sativa-indica hybrid that tilts to the indica side of things for a more tranquil, crowd-ready high.

Be brave friends, eat the flower. *

STREET FOOD FESTIVAL

Sat/20 11 a.m.-7 p.m., free

Folsom between 22nd and 26th sts. and surrounding area, SF

www.sfstreetfoodfest.com

 

Big Boi, big deal: Outside Lands 2011 pics

Andrew Lam
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2

All photos by Erik Anderson Imagery and Caitlin Donohue

I’m just going to go ahead and say it because I’ve had a few days to think about it: that was the best year of Outside Lands yet. Not just because of the weather — even though my singed epidermis is ample proof that the sun was out and about in Speedway Meadows this weekend — but because after four years of hype, the sold-out festival is finally justified in its claim that it’s among the top five biggest and best in the country.

So who cares if Big Boi didn’t show up (at least we got beach ball humor from Dave Chappelle, who seems to be showing his face more around these parts lately) — a bonus appearance from M.I.A. during Deadmau5 evens it all out in the cosmic sense of things. And who could be mad at Sir Lucious when Bay hip-hop repped as hard as it did with K. Flay and Latryx featuring Jazz Mafia? Not to mention local turns by show-stoppers tUnE-yArDs, who are not rappers but proved on Sunday afternoon that the group might have enough swagger to qualify. Oh — and yeah, the headliners. Arcade Fire, you really did deserve all the buzz. 

Like I’ve said in the past, some of the best parts of this festival took place off of any stage (and I’m not talking about the Loyd Family Players’ impromptu shows in the transition areas of the fest). The half-moon of Eco Lands stalls gave the three-day affair a little purpose beyond entertainment — everyone from Wavy Gravy’s Seva Foundation to the Wigg Party was there, the latter doling out chalkboard necklaces so that fest attendees could have a forum to share their thoughts with the guy standing behind them at Beirut. (“Free hugs” was a common refrain.)

The trippy little path from the main entrance out to the Twin Peaks Stage provided a welcome respite from the crowds, a nice improvement on the at-times-gridlocked inter-set migrations of past years. Plus, festival organizers stuffed it with sideshows — a dessert food court, a lackluster Mexican food court regrettably dubbed “the Mission,” and a phenomenal art installation by Monica Canilao and other local creatives: a fabric-parachute hinterland that fluttered soothingly in the breezes that whipped in from park’s edge Ocean Beach (bummer that a lot of it got ripped down by last-day rowdies). Coupled with a windchime swing and a wacky, remant-built castle, the OL consciousness-expanders finally had a place to breathe deep and reflect. 

Anyway, good job everyone on staying hydrated. See ya next year.

See also Emily Savage’s take on day three of the fest

Litquake welcomes Chelsea Handler to the reading list

Andrew Lam
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Litquake welcomes Chelsea Handler to the reading list

There is no better evidence of the fact that we Americans like to be put in our place than the popularity of Chelsea Handler. The comedian tears through the guests on her talk show Chelsea Lately, penalizing those who’d knee jerk-lump a beautiful blonde into the airhead category.

And hey masochists, she’s coming to Litquake on October 13.  

It’s true, our little lit fest that could — which has exported the Valencia Street LitCrawl tradition to Austin and New York — is growing like the in-process Mission Bay skyscrapers. Only it doesn’t threaten to block our offices’ view of the Bay!

Lately (check out her SFBG interview from last year here, by the way) will be sitting down for a chat with LitQuake co-founder Jane Ganahl to discuss authordom, vodka, and male groupies. Perhaps Handler seems like an odd choice for the fest given scribeful line-up mates like Jeff Chang, Karen Russell, Jefferey Eugenides, and Deepak Chopra, but the facts remain: the woman runs the best-seller lists, balances writing with a thriving TV career, and recently scored her own publishing imprint from Hachette Books. This, anemic bloggers and thoughtful bards, is what one brand of successful writing looks like.

Can’t wait for the author talks and hawking of books? Our own City Editor Steven T. Jones will be pumping his Burning Man book at tomorrow (Wed/17)’s Litquake Epicenter event at Intersection 5M. 

 

“Are You There Litquake? It’s Me, Chelsea”

October 13, 8 p.m., $40-45

Z Space

450 Florida, SF

www.litquake.org

 

An unresponsive landlord could mean the end of Sixth Street’s DA Arts

Andrew Lam
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All photos by Allison Ekevara / The Aperturist

“When I was growing up, the space was empty the whole time.” And as it stands, Sixth Street resident and photographer Reynaldo Ruetas Cayetano Jr. will be seeing the storefront gallery where his collective Inks of Truth created a community art project stand empty once again. 

“No one’s even been back in to turn off the lights,” he told the Guardian when he stopped by our offices last week. On August 6, Inks of Truth was holding a release party for its new zine – until the owner of 135 Sixth Street (which also houses the Sunshine Hotel, an SRO) stopped by to kick everyone out.

Cayetano grew up across the street from the DA Arts building, which occupies a central space on Sixth and Minna streets. It was once a liaison office for the city’s district attorney, filled with file cabinets. But the space became a creative hub in 2006 when Tenderloin Housing Clinic started leasing it to display art by local residents. 

Years of gallery shows culminated in THC turning artistic control of the space over to Ujima Artists, a group that hosted four to five shows before, THC artistic director Patrick Flanagan remembers, members began squatting in the small space, which faces onto Sixth Street and has massive windows. 

“It was a total party scene,” says Flanagan, who told the Guardian he ignored the misuse until he found crack vials in the gallery. Ujima Artists were kicked out, but the PR damage done to the gallery may have been too late to correct.

But Cayetano was ready for his crack at DA Arts. He contacted Flanagan, and within a month Inks of Truth had cleaned out the space. Mikio “Ears” Rose airbrushed galaxy designs across the walls, and on April 1 of this year, the group held a block party that attracted young artists, older Sixth Street residents, and everyone in between. On the gallery walls: black-and-white photos of the neighbors that rendered Sixth Street in all its grittiness, but also showed all the striving and community on the block.

“Not everyone can just go in there and have this community event. Knowing how my neighborhood is, I wanted [the people that live on Sixth Street] to be comfortable,” says Cayetano. 

Inks of Truth made a concerted effort to include everyone – not just artists and conventional art lovers, but the low-income elderly folk and those dealing with addiction. The gallery became a space for those who’d never shown an interest in art before, passers-by excited by their likenesses on the wall asking collective members where they could get a camera of their own.

Cayetano says his events rendered the neighborhood become a more inclusive place. “Basically, every time we had a show at DA Arts we all had a hood pass.”

But was the gallery’s owner impressed by the changes taking place on his ground floor?

Apparently not. When Flanagan, Cayetano, and Inks of Truth member Chris Beale attempted to set up a meeting with the owner of DA Arts and the Sunshine Hotel about extending THC’s lease on the place past May 28, Surajnaben Indrasinh Solanki was less than enthusiastic. In fact, he would hardly get back to them at all. 

“The guy’s not saying anything. He’s not even giving us an offer,” says Flanagan, who along with the Inks of Truth members left phone numbers and messages for Solanki at the Sunshine Hotel’s front desk to little avail. (The Guardian had a similar experience – Sunshine Hotel staff would hang up on us when we called to speak with Solanki, and leaving contact information in person at the front desk didn’t yield a call back). 

Eventually, the three managed to set up a meeting with Solanki on August 1. When the day came, he stood them up. 

“It reflects his style of overseeing that space,” says Cayetano.

Later that week Flanagan (who lives across Minna Street at the Rose Hotel and flips the lights on at DA Arts every evening to illuminate the corner and the art inside the gallery) ran into Solanki. “He told me not to go into the space, that we weren’t supposed to be in there, and that’d he call the police.”

Which Flanagan could have done – but he didn’t. “The ball’s was in his court,” he told the Guardian, frustrated that Solanki wouldn’t communicate with the Inks of Truth team about the future of the building. “So I said, let’s keep putting on shows.” 

When asked why he thought Solanki didn’t express any interest in the young people holding their events at DA Arts, Flanagan had two theories: that the owner is reluctant to get involved in any more leases because he’d like to be able to sell the building (which is in a SF Redevelopment Agency project area), or maybe because he was wary of Flanagan’s history as a tenant organizer. 

At any rate, Flanagan told Cayetano to go along with the previously-scheduled zine release party. 

So they did – and for a few hours, Inks of Truth and the rest of Sixth Street got to see their images published and bound (you can too – go here for a copy of Sixth Sense). That’s when Solanki finally showed up, yelling for everyone to get out. 

The collective grabbed everything from the gallery – framed photography, boxes of zines, the bottles of red wine that were being shared, everything but the Best of the Bay award they’d won the week before – and migrated across the street to Rancho Parnassus, a cafe that’s hosted Inks of Truth shows in the past. 

There, they rearranged the photos on the cafe tables and regrouped. Cayetano hyped the group up for October’s Sixth Street art walk, and reassured everyone that Inks of Truth would still have a presence on Sixth Street, with or without DA Arts. 

Reflecting on the tribulations the collective has undergone, Cayetano’s not ready to let go of his dream of bringing pride to his neighborhood. “We’re not here just to have a show and disappear,” he says. “Sixth Street is the heart for me.”

 

“Rollercoaster ride” for victims in the aftermath of Oakland gay-bashing

Andrew Lam
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“Rollercoaster ride” for victims in the aftermath of Oakland gay-bashing

“This was me running in to grab my friend, I didn’t think twice about it,” says Oakland assault victim Adal Castellon, who (as reported by the Bay Citizen) was attacked with bandmate Brontez Purnell outside of Club Paradiso at 2 a.m. late Wednesday night. “That’s when the guy socked me in the face.”

Hard. When the Guardian spoke with him this afternoon, Castellon had just returned from the hospital where doctors told him bones in his face had been broken in five places. Recently unemployed after seven years working in Bay Area social services, he has no health insurance. 

Two days after the ordeal, the musician has barely had time to think about what he’ll have to do to recover from the assault. “This came at the worst time,” he says. “It’s been such a rollercoaster ride.”

The two men had arrived at the club around 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday, according to Castellon. It was a slow night, and they talked about issues pertaining to their band (Younger Lovers). Castellon, in training for the New York Marathon, wasn’t drinking.

When they exited, says Castellon “these guys told us that we were in the wrong club. This is our neighborhood club! Brontez has been going there since he was 22, and he’s 29 now.”

Purnell answered back “how dare you?” and the situation escalated until, Castellon tells us, the men started punching Purnell. He ran in to grab his friend, and caught the worst of the situation; three punches to the face. Now, Castellon’s upper jaw, cheekbone, and bones around his eye socket are broken, and in some places shattered. 

“[Castellon] is not a violent, confrontational person at all,” Purnell told the Guardian. 

The police are still searching for the assailants, but according to Castellon have some good leads to work on. “I know who one of [the assailants] is,” he tells us.

But regardless, Castellon’s marathon is off now, and the Bay Area queer community and its allies have been left wondering just what the hell is going on in our cities lately. Looks like we’re suffering from the same kind of ignorant goings-on that happen everywhere else. This from Purnell: “You can meet up with knuckleheads anywhere. What’s cool is the support that we have here.”

For information on how to donate to Adal Castellon’s medical expenses, contact Melissa Merit at (415) 816-9176.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence have planned a march tomorrow in the Castro to speak out about the recent spate of homophobic beatings. 3 p.m. at Jane Warner Plaza. More information available here.

Hot sexy events: August 10-16

Andrew Lam
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Hot sexy events: August 10-16

As the world comes tumbling down around our ears, it can be difficult to think about getting it on. Just kidding. People are as freaky as ever in San Francisco, which is good ’cause pretty soon that Big One will come and we’ll all fall into the ocean, the flames, a cravasse-abyss where the San Andreas Fault used to be — naked. Hopefully it won’t be this week, though. We’ve got a lot of filthy sex events to go to.

“Bawdy Storytelling: Queer”

How hip is queer right now? From Hard French to New York’s recent triumph to Queen Latifah, all you gotta do is add a LGBT to the front of your event title and bam! Your crowd will be a. hotter and b. hotter. Perhaps, then, you should not miss this edition of Bawdy Storytelling, fresh off its triumphant receipt of our Best of the Bay award for “Best Titillating T.M.I.” The pervy share sesh is trotting out sexy dykes ‘n’ fags galore to share the more, er, colorful side of living over the rainbow. 

Wed/10 8 p.m., $10

The Blue Macaw

2565 Mission, SF

www.bawdystorytelling.com


“SSEX BBOX: It’s Complicated”

You’ve got lots to say about sex, don’t you? SSEX BBOX is counting on it – that’s why the alternative sexuality web series is hosting this dance party-fundraiser-filming (we know what you’re thinking, it’s not like that. Okay, maybe it’s kind of like that) at El Rio. They’ll be looking for your views on gender, relationships, and sexuality – all while DJs Booty Klap and Miss Pop shuck and jive. 

Thu/11 8 p.m.-1 a.m., $7

El Rio

3158 Mission, SF

www.ssexbbox.com


Lick It

This poster for this party asks “what do you have a taste for?” It’s really, really hoping the answer is go-go dancers. The menfolk will be gyrating under the black lights for this one, and you’re invited to bust your tongue out, all over them. Brush your teeth before you come, yes you. 

Fri/12 10 p.m.-1 a.m., $5

Powerhouse 

1347 Folsom, SF

(415) 552-8689

www.powerhouse-sf.com


Arty Shoe Party

“You know how picky I am about shoes, and they only go on my feet!” Ah Alicia Silverstone, how you right you were: it simply doesn’t do to be Clueless about footwear. Alas, many of us are – hell, I’m wearing waterproof boat shoes as we speak. Not so at this weekend’s Center for Sex and Culture fundraiser bash, where nude models will be strutting about in artistically accomplished heels and flats. Worship them, foot fetishers – that’s kind of the point. 

Sat/13 2-7 p.m., $20

Center for Sex and Culture 

1349 Mission, SF

(415) 552-7399

www.sexandculture.org


Burlesque and Brass 

Cafe Van Kleef’s cozy climes, crowded with mysterious tchotchkes and cocktail-wielding friendly strangers, seems ready-made for Louisianian jazz. It’s a busty sort of music, isn’t it? Perhaps that’s why Hot Pink Feathers’ floorshows seem to go so well with Blue Bone Express’ robust aural stylings at Burlesque and Brass. Of course, New Orleans has long been known as a top-notch melting pot of colorful characters – small wonder that this show features Italy’s Scarlett Martini, Germany’s Hedo Luxe, and Switzerland’s Koko La Douce. 

Sat/13 9:30 p.m.-1 a.m., $10

Cafe Van Kleef

1621 Telegraph, Oakl.

www.cafevankleef.com


“How To Have Sex With a Transguy”

A special somebody caught your eye on the dancefloor last weekend, but you backed off after the initial make-out session because you weren’t positive you’d know what to do with it once you got it? To the uninitiated, having sex with a transperson can seem very mysterious. And no one likes to look like a first-timer (unless that’s like, your thing). Enter Liam “Captain” Snowdon, poet-activist-educator. Snowdon will be giving not-super-straight talk on gender reassignment surgery and its results on getting down – strategies, and ways to communicate so that you and Mr. Lust can skip to the bedroom, sans baggage. 

Mon/15 6-8 p.m., $20-25

Good Vibrations

1620 Polk, SF

(415) 345-0500

www.goodvibes.com

 

 

 

 

Ear plugs

Andrew Lam
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Ear plugs

caitlin@sfbg.com

FESTIVAL I’m that person at the concert who is facing 90 degrees in the wrong direction when the DJ just busted everyone’s ankles or the guitarist is smashing an axe on the drummer’s head. I’m like: when did this festival relocate the bathrooms to the left of the Sunset Harmony Stage? The things we get excited over. Anyways, Outside Land producer Allen Scott of Another Planet Entertainment gave me (and now you!) some gems to hunt for and meditate on when the attention deficit takes over mid-John Fogerty.

McLaren Pass: You know that elevated pine glade up the hill from the horse corrals? During Hardly Strictly Bluegrass its luxuriously empty shade it is the perfect anti-crowd. In previous years of Outside Lands it’s been purposed as a VIP section — but this year, says Scott “it’ll be a surreal little experience.” The once-mellow path that runs along the ridge will open onto “Food Truck Forest,” a Mexican beer-and-burrito area dubbed “The Mission,” and perhaps most excitingly, “Chocolands,” where licorice lamp posts and gummi bear lanterns designed by a guy who does work for Family Guy and Tim Burton’s films will hang over stands staffed by local chocolatiers.

Some numbers: Outside Lands gives $3 million to the Recreation and Parks Department in exchange for using Speedway Meadows. The festival employs 2,500 people during the course of the weekend, including 500 security guards — some of them mounted on horses for added scariness for all those people who for sure are not sneaking into the festival. 97 percent of the festie workers are local hires.

Tighten it up: I was a serious pain in the ass about asking how people sneak into the festival (er, completely in the spirit of learning about the festival’s infrastructure — obviously I advocate paying lots of money to Outside Lands). Scott, the intelligent festival spokesperson that he is, wouldn’t give me anything juicy except that “we’re beefing up one area of the park that has been an Achilles heel.” And that he thinks that with measures like double fence layers around the festival very few people make it in without paying, so there.

Brush off: Perhaps you’ll notice a distinct lack of underbrush along the north end of the park area between the Twin Peaks and Panhandle stages. This isn’t a festival-driven pruning, Scott tells me — rather, Golden Gate Park arborists are attempting to return Speedway Meadows to its original design, which apparently involved a less bushy look.

Kitty city: I asked Scott what the biggest risk is that Outside Lands poses to Golden Gate Park’s ecosystem. He may or may not have understood what I was asking because he answered: “feral cats.” Apparently the fest has a responsibility to feed the furry devils and mitigate disturbance to their habitat. New area suggestion for next year: Tunalands.

Major lasers: Is the Polo Field feeling particularly level this year? According to Scott, the sense of equilibrium flooding your innermost soul during Phish’s mega-set on Friday will be due in part to Rec and Parks having laser-graded the grassy expanse where the main stage resides.

OUTSIDE LANDS Fri/12-Sun/14, $85-450. Speedway Meadows, Golden Gate Park. www.sfoutsidelands.com

 

So classy

Andrew Lam
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So classy

caitlin@sfbg.com

Reward the long-term relationships in your life by taking your game up a notch. Brain fitness? Bar-stocking skills? Bicyclist rights? It’ll all make for more scintillating dinner conversations, so take the pupil plunge. Most of the following classes will charge for your mental charge, but always remember that the Free University of San Francisco (www.freeuniversitysf.org) and the East Bay Free Skool (eastbayfreeskool.wikia.com) have incredible learning opportunities available gratis.

URBAN BICYCLING WORKSHOP

The streets can be a scary place for poor little meat puppets, particularly when one doesn’t know the rules of the road. Lucky for us, the SF Bike Coalition hosts regular crash courses on how not to crash on course. Its biking workshops cover everything from choosing the right bicycle for you, to traffic safety on two wheels, to getting your bike on BART, to your rights as a bicyclist. Did we mention it’s free? More power to the pedal.

Aug. 20, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., free. St. Anne’s Church, 1320 14th Ave., SF. www.sfbike.org

 

DIY LIQUEURS AND INFUSIONS

With one four-to-eight-ounce jar (err on the larger size, trust) you can take your party game up a notch. That’s because Sean Timberlake of Punk Domestics — a local site promoting fermentation and other home cooking processes — will be guiding you through the steps of creating a fantastically flavored liquor at community-food space 18 Reasons. Pluots? Cucumbers? Bananas and brandy? The world is alive and flavorful!

Aug. 23, 7-9 p.m., $40-50. 18 Reasons, 593 Guerrero, SF. www.18reasons.org

 

RIGID HEDDLE WEAVING

It’s not going to be summer forever, Gidget. Time to jump on a rigid heddle loom, which in addition to being a beach party of a phrase to say out loud is one of the easiest ways to learn how to weave a top-notch scarf for a cold season cover-up. This class requires you to bring some supplies with you, so make sure you check the website (and yarn store A Verb For Keeping Warm’s selection of chill-chasing threads) before heading over.

First class: Aug. 27, 2:30-5:30 p.m. Second class: Sept. 3, 3:30-4:30 p.m., $54-64. A Verb For Keeping Warm, 6328 San Pablo, Oakl. (510) 595-8372, www.averbforkeepingwarm.com

 

IAPP DESIGN

Those that control the iPhone applications, control the world. Seriously, we don’t care what market you’re in, your boss probably wants you to design an app for your company. On second thought, this class will definitely not improve your dinnertime banter, but if you can make your way through the course (and it does require a wee bit of prior computer knowledge), at least your talent will be popular!

Oct. 8, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., $155. San Francisco State Downtown Campus, 835 Market, SF. www.cel.sfsu.edu

 

MIND-BODY HEALTH

Okay this one for sure your friends will love. T’ai chi sessions included, this class will bestow upon you methodologies for getting physically healthier by getting mentally healthier. Clean out those mental cobwebs and untoward cognitive ruts, why don’tcha. The class is available in multiple locations — at the Mission branch of City College as well as a senior citizen home near Fort Mason.

Various City College of San Francisco class times and locations. www.ccsf.edu

 

SKILLSHARE

Once upon a time, a nationwide website took it upon itself to teach local communities how to teach themselves things. Recently, the site opened its e-doors to San Francisco, kind of. Classes haven’t started yet, but many potential listings are already up and you can sign up to be a “watcher” — someone who is interested in one of the course descriptions. Many of the courses are under $20, and will be taught by people who’ve got local cred in the topics at hand — which so far include fantasy football strategies, underground dinners, social media skills, and whiskey 101.

www.skillshare.com

A new kind of biker bar

Andrew Lam
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Rapha Cycle Club is altering my mental image of what a biker bar is. For one thing, the walls are all really white. For others, I can shop, I can order a cup of Four Barrel and a Telltale Preserve croissant, I can watch the Tour de France – but I can’t have a beer. 

That’s because it’s a clothing shop, mainly. But as manager Emily Haddad (who Rapha imported to SF from her gig at an Austin bike shop specifically to work at the new space) tells me, it’s so much more. 

“It’s a bar, but one where everyone’s drinking coffee.”

It’s also a bar where everyone’s drinking coffee that opens at six a.m. on some days – those being when the Tour de France is on TV, or Italy’s equivalent the Giro D’Italia. On those days Haddad says there can be twenty bikers in the sleek Marina storefront, sitting and standing around the long, low table in the middle of the room that’s speckled with vintage biking photos and ephemera, watching the race and chatting amongst themselves. 

Rapha is a British cycling clothes brand that debuted in 2004 with a multimedia exhibition called “Kings of Pain.” It now has an office in Portland, Ore., has opened a similar “social shop” in Tokyo, and a mobile club — a van with similar intent that is cruising Europe this summer, stopping in places like Alpe D’Huez, France. The dominant colors of the line are grey and, complexly, pink – a homage to the Maglia Rosa, the pink jersey that is wore by the standings leader in the Giro D’Italia. 

Here is a Graeme Fife – the playwright and cycling journalist – quote the company feels illustrates its ethos. It is, in fact, written on the shop’s wall:

The greatest battle is not physical but psychological. The demons telling us to give up when we push ourselves to the limit can never be silenced for good. They must always be answered by the quiet the steady dignity that simply refuses to give in. Courage. We all suffer. Keep going.

Rapha Cycle Club San Francisco is the first yearround cafe the label has opened – a four seasons timetable that was decided, one assumes, when Haddad and Rapha brass realized that SF’s “summer” is not really the height of cycling season. 

Tucked into my favorite Marina intersection (its neighbors are John Campbell’s Irish Bakery and Real Food Co. grocery store), the shop-cafe is mere blocks from the hill that separates the neighborhood from the rest of San Francisco to the south. 

One end of the long table meant for coffee-drinking and the cheering-on of jerseys holds a glass curio case dedicated to Eddy Merckx, the dashing Belgian who many consider the most accomplished cyclist of all time (five Tour de France victories, three world championships, breaker of the world hour record). The case houses two commemorative plates, and amazing retro keychains that proclaim Merckx a world record holder. There is also a small photo gallery in a loft space upstairs, with rotating exhibitions that currently feature black and white images of men grimacing in pain.

One imagines road bike ironpeople inspired by Merckx or the steady dignity on the shop’s flatscreens purchasing a pink jersey and turning bike wheels resolutely to the mountain rising up from Rapha’s front door. Even if this is not quite the case, the shop is the ideal jump-off for friends meeting up to bike to the Marin Headlands, joining the phalanxes of sharply-Lycra’d bicyclists on those hills. 

With its sleek, get-er-done ethos Rapha Cycle Club would be a really good stop for all those businesspeoples that complain about not being able to ride their workclothes on their bikes. The shop sells a very expensive (but maybe worth it? I find men’s dress clothes hard to judge) blazer made by British bespoke tailor Timothy Everest that buttons up, and together, has a sharp little pocket on its back, and is made of fabric that gives enough to encourage light physical exertion.

It also sells similarly functional gingham dress shirts. One guy was trying on a pink, short-sleeved number when I was in the shop, wondering out loud if he could pull it off. Everyone in the store encouraged him to try. Or rather: Keep going. 

 

Rapha Cycle Club 

Mon.-Fri., 7 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sat.-Sun. 7 a.m.-6 p.m.

2198 Filbert, SF

(415) 896-4671

www.rapha.cc/san-francisco

SF Giants asked to take a stand against racism UPDATED

Andrew Lam
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SF Giants asked to take a stand against racism UPDATED

Updated with response from SF Giants at bottom of post

The San Francisco Giants will host the Arizona Diamondbacks tonight (July 31), beginning a three-game series that will determine the first place slot in the National League West. A lot of eyes will be on our 2010 league champions – all the more reason, says a classic Mission District arts and culture organization, for them to take a stand against racist anti-immigration laws.

In early June, community members who had been leaders of the 1960s to ’80s group Casa Hispana de Bellas Artes sent Giants CEO Bill Newcombe a letter with a simple request. They want the baseball team to wear its popular ‘Gigantes’ jerseys while playing the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Atlanta Braves, two squads that hail from states that have recently passed laws codifing racial profiling in the fight against illegal immigration. The letter tells the team “this kind of law has created a paralyzing climate of fear among Latino families, citizen and non-citizen alike.”

San Francisco, the Casa Hispana elders insist, does not swing at discriminatory government. Reminding the Giants organization of its long-standing support of the Latino community, they’re politely encouraging the team to represent its fans by speaking out against discrimination. We caught up with Casa Hispana elder Don Santina for an email interview to explain why his group asked its team for a wardrobe change. The Guardian was unable to reach the SF Giants for comment – but any organizational response we get will be added to this post.

 

San Francisco Bay Guardian: Tell us about the mission of Casa Hispana de Bellas Artes.

Don Santina: Casa Hispana de Bellas Artes was founded in 1966 in the Mission District by a group of artists and poets to promote cultural advocacy for Latino-Chicano-Raza culture. [Our] group produced and sponsored programs year-round but focused particularly on an annual two-month long Raza/Hispanidad Festival which opened on October 12, Dia de la Raza. Among the multitude of programs, exhibits, performances, and events produced included major undertakings like the Chichen Itza exhibit at SF State, the pre-Colombian artifacts at the De Young and 24th Street BART station opening, the Cisco Kid Festival with Duncan Renaldo, and the Latin American Theatre Festival with Enrique Buenaventura, and low rider car exhibit at the US Presidio. Casa faded into history in 1983 when its major funding sources withdrew. The National Endowment for the Arts was seized by Reaganites.

In 1975 Casa Hispana executive director Amilcar Lobos Yong read a bilingual version of “Casey at the Bat” at Candlestick Park as part of a program in honor of the Giant’s support of the Latino community. Photo by Joe Ramos

SFBG: Why did you send this letter to the Giants?

DS: The elders of Casa wrote to Bill Newcomb’s Giants organization because it had produced a pre-game program in Candlestick Park with Horace Stoneham’s Giants team in 1975 honoring the Giants for their “pioneer recognition of Latin players” in the racist world of major league baseball.  At the event, Casa Poets Theatre read “Casey at the Bat” in English and Spanish before the game and gave awards to the Giants, Juan Marichal, and Tito Fuentes for his works with youth in the Mission District (editor’s note: the awards were presented by long-time Bay Area Latino news legend Luis Echegoyen). Casa people felt that the Giants should continue that anti-racist policy by making a genuine statement against SB 1070 by at least wearing Gigantes uniforms when playing Arizona and Atlanta.

 

SFBG: What’s been the response from the team? Did they get back to you?

DS: The Giants received Casa’s letter on June 9, and the business has not responded. Casa is disappointed in this lack of response and respect from a San Francisco-based team which has many Latino players.

 

SFBG: What is a professional sports team role’s in their community? Should they be speaking out on political and social issues? 

DS: A professional sports team has the same responsibilities to the community as any other business; in a word: Spike Lee’s “do the right thing.” Unfortunately, these teams are all mega-corporate businesses with morality based on profit. Dave Zirin has covered this topic very thoroughly.

 

SFBG: How much of the artists and community members involved with Casa Hispana are baseball fans?

DS: Most of the Casa people love the Giants; however, they also love fútbol, a.k.a. the international game of soccer.   

 

SFBG: Do you think they’ll be wearing the Gigantes jerseys at AT&T Park tonight?  

DS: We don’t think they’ll wear the Gigantes uniforms without public pressure or embarrassment. [But] if they do, it will be beneficial as a public stand against racial profiling laws. 

 

UPDATED WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3: The Guardian contacted Giants spokesperson Shana Daum, who said she couldn’t recall recieving Casa Hispana’s letter but that the Giants would not be wearing their Gigantes jerseys at all during this week’s Arizona series. “We try to support the community, but we don’t want to take a political stance,” she told us.

“There’s other ways for major league baseball to get involved.” Daum cited the team’s annual Fiesta Gigantes celebration during September’s Hispanic Heritage Month, HIV/AIDS awareness days, the team’s pioneering involvement in the It Gets Better campaign. She added “but we appreciate the spirit in which [Casa Hispana’s request to wear the Gigantes jersey] was asked.”

What not to M.O.O.P.

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks
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3
What not to M.O.O.P.

caitlin@sfbg.com

PLAYA PREP In Miranda Caroligne’s Mission District sewing studio, there is a dress dummy covered in used Carhartt remnants that are being reborn as an asymmetrical mini-dress. It’s a project that the designer, whose fanciful style has made her a popular check box on pre-Burning Man to-do lists, is working on for Margaret Long, a member of the Flaming Lotus Girls fire art collective. Please note: no fun fur or tribal accents are visible on the soon-to-be-dress.

These are the rush months for Caroligne and other burner designers, like SF-based Silver Lucy and Tammy Hulva of Tamo Design, prime time for helping burners to realize their sartorial fantasies. Caroligne makes form-fitting, whimsically-stitched fleece jackets that hang by the bundle throughout her bright creative space, and one-size-fits-all boot covers made from old suit sleeves. But she says that for her custom-made creations, she prefers a little vision in her clients. In other words, please don’t come to her for furry boots and glow sticks.

“I tend to speak out against that,” she says of trends towards the homogenization of playa culture. “I only design for people if they have a very clear vision of something they want to express. I consider myself the conduit to making that happen.” When people come in for the standard Mad Max raver treatment, she sits them down to clarify what about the look resonates with them.

Burning Man fashions have evolved over the last quarter-century, with the old emphasis on crazy DIY costumes eventually morphing into distinct burner fashion aesthetics, such as the feather-and-leather look popularized by the El Circo camp and the late designer Tiffa Novoa and featured in SF stores such as Five and Diamond.

It is perhaps indicative of the spread of Burning Man culture that Caroligne’s potential clients sometimes ask for the same style. It’s been popularized by a hundred wholesale websites — fun fur bikinis and (particularly popular in the Bay Area, according to the designer) the “dark leather and feather tribal look that’s mass produced in Bali.”

Stores from SoMa to San Rafael to New York advertise themselves as one-stop shopping venues for burner-fied fashion, and numerous expos make similar claims here in the Bay Area — Aug. 14’s second Prepare for the Playa street fair of the year being one of them.

Independent designers are at creative odds with the uniformity that is developing in some camps — but they’re also concerned with the sustainability of the designs, which are often imported and disposable. “That disgusts me,” Caroligne says. “A lot of that stuff is very M.O.O.P.-y.” (M.O.O.P. being the burner acronym for to-be-avoided-at-all-costs “matter out of place,” or any waste that could harm the playa’s natural ecosystem).

It wasn’t always this way. Before the turn of the 21st century, it would have been difficult to determine the Burning Man uniform. People made clothes for themselves and friends, or they wore regular clothing-redux in the hot Nevadan sun. Ironically nowadays, Caroligne says, “I’ve heard many people talk about walking into a Burning Man party and feeling judged (because of what they were wearing).”

She’s still a little unsure of the implications of working as a for-profit businessperson within a nonprofit culture. But Caroligne tries to mitigate the disconnect by doing pieces for busy artists that contribute to the Burning Man community (she was particularly excited to have costumed Burning Man board member Marian “Maid Marian” Goodell for the ritual burning of The Man one year, and be-suited Glitch Mob’s Justin Berreta for another).

In a previous incarnation, Caroligne was a physical therapist. When she began her fashion career, she did so with an eye toward her clothing’s effect on individual body dynamics. She created weighted coats that swung appealing when their owner strode across dusty Black Rock streets, sexy dresses made of cozy fabric that could be doubled around the face for warmth or privacy. At times, her clothing can even reflect the party philosophy of the wearer– she often asks customers whether they’d like the softest fabric of their new wardrobe item on the inside or outside. “Do you want to feel it or do you want other people to feel it?”

She believes what one wears at Burning Man can be empowering. “We’re finding your superhero self. What does your superhero look like?” is a common topic of discussion in initial consultations.

Judging from the length of her in-process dress’ skirt, Long’s superhero is sultry — but also here to get some work done. An intact overall strap has been left to speak for itself on the right shoulder, and below, grease-stained Carhart pieces have been left whole so that Long’s customary wrench loop will continue to ride comfortably on her right hip. Caroligne is attempting to create an outfit that expresses the wearer.

“During my 12 years at Burning Man, I’ve seen the change from self-made to high fashion,” says Hulva, whose Tamo Design clothes “originate from ideas about making my wardrobe more functional and fashionable on the playa.

Hulva makes luxe faux fur that doesn’t shed M.O.O.P. like the cheaper stuff you’ll find at many a mall store. Her popular “Baroness” jacket is late-night-early-morning playa crawl dream wear, with a hood to hide in, fabric that gives, deep pockets to store party essentials — and you don’t have to be so glum about covering up your LED tube top: it’s sexy, to boot.

When pumped about hot playa trends for 2011, Caroligne and Hulva were loathe to cite anything too specific (though Caroligne expressed her enthusiasm for “playful 1980s revival styles”), rooting instead for individuality.

Burning Man fashion is about “a platform for self-expression,” according to Caroligne. Clothes, she says, “are the primary way that people can express themselves,” accessible even to those that specialize in other forms of playa magic, like Long.

But they did note a general trend arch over the festival’s history. The past of Burning Man lay in DIY clothes, self-made everything. The present has brought professionally-made garb, and the mass accessibility of a certain playa “look.” The future? Hulva hopes it holds “a trend to be more sustainable and practical — in addition to keeping things light and fun.”

She’s working on it. On Sunday, Aug. 7, Hulva is organizing the Haute Pool Show, a gathering at the Phoenix Hotel of 20 local, independent designers selling their high quality, playa-ready belts, vests, and accessories. It’s a follow up to her last event — July’s Beyond the Fence at Mighty — and both cater to those preparing for their journey to Black Rock City.

Only these aren’t clothes you’ll be reserving for the desert. Sure, they’re whimsical, but Burning Man fashion — particularly here in the Bay Area — really is stepping beyond the playa fence. The festival’s recent sell-out of tickets and an expected crowd of around 52,000 underline the fact that its impact is growing, and style cues picked up from the playa may just be finding their way into year-round usage.

“Versatile styles are hot this year,” says Hulva. “Burning Man fashion has really migrated into the everyday self expression, so people are buying things they can wear on the playa and back home.”

HAUTE POOL SHOW

Sun/7 2-8 p.m., free

Phoenix Hotel

601 Eddy, SF

Facebook: Haute Pool Show

PREPARE FOR THE PLAYA

Aug. 14 noon-7 p.m., free

Cafe Cocomo

650 Indiana, SF

www.preparefortheplaya.com

 

 

MIRANDA CAROLIGNE’S MUST-HAVES FOR THE PLAYA

Comfortable shoes

Cotton socks

Daytime clothes in light colors

A good shade hat and/or parasol

Silk long underwear for easy layering

A warm coat (“that you’ll have fun with”)

A thrift store cashmere sweater that you can tailor to be form-fitting

Hot sexy events: July 27-August 3

Andrew Lam
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0
Hot sexy events: July 27-August 3

Ugh. There is nothing sexy about breast cancer (unless you’re Annie Sprinkle). But honestly, when life gives you tumors, you give that thing tumescence – or at least, that’s adult film performer Hollie Stevens’ view.

Stevens was diagnosed with breast cancer this year, but it’s hardly held her down. The clown porn enthusiast filmed an intense scene on societysm.com in which her head was shaved – it had to happen anyway for chemo, so why not make it someone’s fantasy? This week, you can help young Stevens out in her quest for health. On Fri/29, she’s hosting a low-lit lingerie roller disco, complete with an auction featuring Chuck Stevens pornography prints, and Girls and Corpses magazines – the site of Stevens’ recent “Playdead bunnies” feature.

“Is Leather Dead? Does it Need to Die?”

Leather leader-author Guy Baldwin, kink educator Race Bannon, lesbian activist Gayle Rubin, and Instigator magazine editor Michael Thorn take a hard look at leather’s relevance today. In the age of Internet cruising, can a community still be said to exist? Heady questions being asked mere days before the Up Your Alley street fair. 

Weds/27 7-10 p.m., free

LGBT Center

1800 Market, SF

www.folsomstreetfair.org


A Night for Hollie Stevens

The press release says bring your fat wallet, lingerie, or both. So you’ve got options. Can’t make it? Donate to Stevens here.

Fri/29 8:30 p.m.-12:30 a.m., $30

Private SoMa location, SF (buy ticket for details)

www.holliestevensxxx.com


Comfort and Joy Active Touch

Burning Man fundraising season is upon us (for those who were lucky enough to score a ticket) and one of the most venerable playa sexy camps is throwing a big, swinging bash set to jams by DJ Bus Station John

Fri/29 10 p.m.-4 a.m., $20 suggested donation

Mission Control 

www.missioncontrolsf.org


Perverts Put Out! Dore Alley edition

Our sex columnist Gina De Vries is over the moon for this recurring performance series that focuses on the gamut of sex and artistic expression – cop fantasies, “bearlesque,” even cruising the Excelsior has gotten its due on stage over the years. What will go off this year? You’ll have to attend to find out – it’s also the perfect pre-party for all those that are gonna have to work Up Your Alley tomorrow. 

Sat/30 7:30 p.m., $10-15

1349 Mission, SF

(415) 552-7399

www.sexandculture.org


Up Your Alley street fair 

In the thick of hippie summer fests comes Up Your Alley Fair, an al fresco get-together that unmasks the sexual undertones of other festivals. Why pretend it’s all about the music when you know all you’re trying to do is get that hottie back to your tent to get laid? Up Your Alley (and Folsom Street Fair, its big brother) makes no pretense – it’s all sexy sex all the time, in the DJ areas, in the women-only Venus Playground, and by your favorite pillory. 

Sun/31 11a.m.-6 p.m., $7 suggested donation

Folsom between Seventh and 12th St., SF

www.folsomstreetfair.org/alley

 

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