Caitlin Donohue Archives — Page 4 of 38 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

“It just gets different”: Ali Liebegott on her third book ‘Cha-Ching!’

Andrew Lam

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March 26, 2013

“It just gets different”: Ali Liebegott on her third book ‘Cha-Ching!’

When you’ve spent long, smelly months in a bus traveling the world sharing words with pockets of alternative community, the issue of place takes the fore. As she releases her third book Cha-Ching!, and as her decades-old Sister Spit collective embarks upon yet another tour of spoken word, queer revelry, and cramped living conditions, author Ali Liebegott is getting academic about it.

“I’m kind of obsessed with how artists can live,” she tells me in a SoMa coffeehouse. She had texted me for clarification the night before on whether it was okay to look “scummy” at our interview, but she looks pretty neat in her white tee, motorcycle helmet sitting next to her on a bench. “And how queer people can live. I always think, where would I live if I couldn’t live in San Francisco or New York?”

Liebegott teaches Sarah Schulman’s Gentrification of the Mind — a book that looks at how economic displacement changes our brain’s wiring — in her fiction class at Mills College. And in Cha-Ching!, the economy is an ever-present force, guiding protagonist Theo into shitty apartments in both NY and SF neighborhoods where there are few out gay people. (Not to mention a ludicrously depressing janitor job at a junk mail factory.) The book is Liebegott’s third after The Beautifully Worthless and The IHOP Papers.

When I ask whether they’re getting easier to write as time goes on she just laughs. “If I had been a plumber, I’d be able to fix things in my sleep. It doesn’t get easier, it just gets different.”

Liebegott reads from Cha-Ching! at City Lights in October

In an ever-more-caffeinated manner, she and I discuss how those higher rents are coinciding with an era in which publishing houses are more hesitant about what they throw their weight behind. “[Queer literature] is the first to go,” Liebegott says. “All the queer books at Barnes and Noble are behind a potted plant, there’s like four of them, and one of those is Best Lesbian Erotica 1994.”

So it’s good that, as poor queers and creatives and poor creatives and queers get kicked out of their urban homes and prime shelf space, Sister Spit is on the rise. Once restricted to queer female writers, the tour now includes a variety of genders, and different kinds of artists.

Liebegott’s book is one of the first to come out on the imprint that the group’s founder Michelle Tea was able to start through City Lights Books in the fall of 2012 — The Beautifully Worthless was also released through the imprint, as well as the amazing Sister Spit anthology from earlier this year. Tea’s fantastical young adult novel Mermaid in Chelsea Creek, set to drop this summer, is delicious. The collective’s gig at the main library on Sun/31 is in advance of yet another of its fabled tours. This time the path lies up and down the coasts, up to Canada, and into the Mid-West.

>>LISTEN TO CITY LIGHTS BOOKS’ RECENT PODCAST INTERVIEW WITH ALI LIEBEGOTT

Along the way, the Sister Spit artists will meet audience members in places where there is no queer community, places where people fundraised to get them there.

“I don’t want to say we’re a beacon of hope, but it is nice to give people this connection that they might not have,” Liebegott says.

And that connection, more and more, may not be associated with any specific urban area. San Francisco, for example, would be beyond Liebegott’s reach as a home if it weren’t for her and her girlfriend’s rent control. “I kind of feel like we’re headed towards hell,” Liebegott muses, taking in our swank, caffeinated surroundings. “I feel like we’re already there.”

Regardless, art. Cha-Ching! deals in gambling addiction, drug addiction, poverty, ennui, animal abuse, powerlessness — but nonetheless, can be laugh out loud funny even, especially, when characters hit their low points.

She’s already planning her next book, about a war vet obsessed with feeding ducks. “I feel like I’m so mired in depressing things!” Liebegott says. “My threshold for that is much higher than most people.”

Cha-Ching!‘s ending, though, leaves room to hope that queers can triumph over today’s adversities. Or does it? At any rate, you have ample chances to buy the book at this week’s readings (Liebegott is one of the featured artists at the Sister Spit reading on Sun/31 as well.)

In other news, Liebegott’s big into Sizzler. She told me to write that.

Ali Liebegott’s Cha-Ching! release party

Wed/27, 7pm, free

City Lights Bookstore

261 Columbus, SF

www.citylights.com

Sister Spit tour kick-off reading

Sun/31, 2-5pm, free

San Francisco Main Library

100 Larkin, SF

www.sfpl.org

Mr. Marina steals our hearts

Andrew Lam

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March 22, 2013

7

I couldn’t get a goddamn one of my friends to go with me to the triumphant return of the Mr. Marina pageant, held for the first time this year at that mecca of San Francisco nightlife Ruby Skye. Fools! Luckily, one of them did volunteer their preppy friend Johnny, who picked me up in a Beamer, bought my drinks for the night, wore a seersucker blazer, and after the pageantry was done brought me to an after-party at Ottimista Enoteca where multiple Mr. Marina runners-up were in attendance.

It was basically the perfect evening and my favorite contestant won the damn thing. As he said in our exclusive dressing room interview shortly before recieving his trophy and ceremonial Mr. Marina sash, “you gotta come hang out with guys like us.”

These girls were awesome. They were really hot, were wearing customized Mr. Marina tees, and as far as I’m concerned, were the most memorable part of Jason De La Del Grande’s stab at the throne.

Here’s Johnny, with our drinks from the open bar during the first hour doors were open at Ruby Skye. He’s launching his campaign for Mr. Marina 2014 and I think he’s an early frontrunner for the honor. By the way, those are the “94123” house cocktails made from Sprite and Skyy Infusions Moscato Grape, which as the Daily News will tell you, was inspired by the newfound popularity of moscato wines in the “urban community.”

But only one candidate had people carrying around cut-outs of their face on a stick and that was Ishmail “Ish” Simpson, who pretty much had already won the competition based on the viral video of him making Jay-Z SOMETHIGN. Simpson played football for Stanford, was the only person of color in the whole pageant, and is frankly adorable. Trigger warning: the following clip contains denigrating statements made towards the Mission.

Just some crowd style shots. That’s madras, for the Philistines among you.

This is NOT a cravat, Johnny told me. It is an ascot. It’s wearer is Baldwin Cunningham, who started what is basically a dating website between people who want to be sponsored and companies like Pabst Blue Ribbon who want to sponsor people. Get you some.

Did I mention Mr. Marina is all about fighting cancer? The pageant raised $91,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, to be donated through a little booster club named Slap Cancer, a moniker that embodies the charming side of the Marina. The gentleman above is wearing a tuxedo Speedo for the swimwear segment of the evening, which was by far the best segment of the evening.

In the photo above, Alex Schmitt betrays his brutal hotness with the worst talent segment I’d seen up to that point (having watched the rest of the competition, I have now seen much worse.) Mr. Marina expert Andrew Dalton’s sum-up of the contest has many of these other lowlights in his reportage on the evening. Check out Dalton’s missive on last year’s competition for a historical perspective on the event.

Thank goodness for Ish. His performance of “99 Problems (But an Ish Ain’t One)” was not as good as his video, but as you can see from the dollar bills littering the stage at his feet, who cares.

More talent segment atrocities. I was pleased, however, that this particular number rescued my perfect record of never going to a San Francisco pageant that did not include a drag queen.

Shortly after I shot this, the blow-up dolls were made out with, cruelly flung away into the audience and “Ice, Ice Baby” began to play. Obviously.

After that I was so terrified Johnny and I fled to the dressing room, where I got to hear from these two gentleman about how they had bought the exact same pair of white slim-cut H&M jeans to sport in the evening’s final challenge: the impromptu question/Marinawear segment.

Ish’s blazer apparently made my camera freak out but how goddamn adorable is he? I took this opportunity to sit down with him for a pre-victory one-on-one. He’s really good at interviews, and I found out he moved to the Marina four years ago and now works in tech in the South Bay. In an abridged version:

SFBG Why did you want to be Mr. Marina?

Ishmail Simpson I remember last year I was like, what are you people talking about? And then everyone started telling me I should run. I had all these friends be like ‘Ish, you should do it.’ I had no reason to say no — I mean if I said no that would have been lazy.

SFBG I never really get down to the Marina

IS You gotta come down! Hang with guys like us. (smiles. Swoon.)

SFBG What do you like about the Marina?

IS Number one, the people. We all like the same stuff. All the guys like sports. And the women!

SFBG Would you ever live in a different San Francisco neighborhood?

IS Of course I would. Do I want to? No.

SFBG I asked the people who are carrying your face around on sticks why you should win and they mentioned something about purple pants.

IS (laughs) I always wear colored pants! I probably have pants in a dozen colors. Purple, white, salmon. They must just be remembering the purple.

When Ish was subsequently asked, in his impromptu question spotlight, to finish the sentence “I know I’m in the Marina when…,” he responded: “I know I’m in the Marina when I hear ‘Ish!’ ‘Hey look everybody it’s Ish!” I doubt anyone in the audience doubted the sincerity of that statement. Fate = sealed.

These are all things that Mr. Marina wins but I guess for simplicity’s sake it leaves out:

Complimentary bottomless mimosas at Bin 38 Sunday Brunch for the year of his reign

A pair of Chubbies shorts for every season

Reservations for the back patio at Lightening Tavern with a $250 bar tab

An afterparty at HiFi with a $300 bar tab

$100 to Tacolicious, $100 to Brixton and $100 to Mas Sake

A Mr. Marina drink (shot + beer) of his choice on the menu at Brick Yard

12 months worth of Argoz argyle socks

$250 credit for Ski Tickets from Liftopia

$100 to Ace Wasabi + a round of sake bombs

Basically, when you win Mr. Marina, life becomes worth living.

When Ish was sashed up (sorry no photos, my camera was hopped up on testosterone and moscato vodka by evening’s end), he thanked “every single man and woman who lives in the 94123,” and shook the judges’ hands. Yes, Mr. Marina 2012, the earnest woman from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, and Ms California 2004 (fourth runner-up, please note, to Ms USA 2004.)

Afterwards, spirits were high. #MrMarina neon tanktops were donned, the photobooth got a workout, cancer was slapped.

I’ll leave you with this. ‘Til next year, Mr. Marina. I raise my Skyy moscato-and-Sprite to you.

Art: It’s like money in the bank

Andrew Lam

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March 21, 2013

3

The panic that grips you in those moments when you need to open a new checking account, but really needed a double shot of espresso are over. Yes, my moneyed mates, greetings and welcomes to the Financial District’s somewhat recently opened Capital One 360 Cafe.

Within the gleaming walls, one can perform banking transactions and caffiene transactions with well trained bank staff-baristas. You can plan ahead and reserve a workspace at which you will enjoy free WiFi thanks to corporate America’s largess. And for a limited time on those gleaming walls, you can enjoy artist Nick Mancilla‘s commentary on the transience of wealth while you bask in the endless future of your own, unfurling before you like a expensive, woven, cheerful, infinite Stars and Stripes.

Yes, Mancillas’ portraits of our nation’s money men — Lincoln and the rest of his dollar bill brothers — on recycled cardboard from his “Cardboard Currency” series will star in a Capital One 360 Cafe art show that opens on March 28. We got in touch with the Sonoma art teacher via email to chat about how weird the whole thing is.

The cafe bank art gallery art bank cafe. Photo by Yelp user Luis C.

SFBG How did this show come about? Did Capital One contact you or vice versa?

NM It was serendipitous, because a friend told me about an interesting new financial institution in downtown SF (which fit my theme) with a gallery space for artists. I’ve been Sonoma County art educator for over 19 years by day and working artist by night — who’s just completed my MFA – so I’m always looking for venues to show. I went and walked through the space and immediately loved the concept of the marriage of a show like mine about money being at a big bank. Contacted them, gave them my website, and a few months later they gave me the green light.

This is exactly my message — because I have a Capital One account, I’m involved with capitalism, I’m just like every other American … we have to believe in money to live. The pieces are meant to tell the story about the fact that although trying, we have to have faith that even though money is no longer really backed by gold and is re-printed by the government by the billions we still believe (to live our lives) that this money we have in our pockets and bank accounts will still continue to hold value. This act of faith which is so scary is part of what inspired my “Cardboard Currency” collection.

SFBG Have you spent time in the cafe?

NM Yes, before I approached them and I’ve been back several time since to both measure the space and sit for a cup of coffee to witness how folks interact with the space.

SFBG When you were making these pieces, did you have intentions for them to be shown in a bank?

NM The collection was created before the show was booked – it was inspired by the financial calamities of 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 … and on. When I saw the space in a bank I thought, “wow that would be an thought-provoking message to have the ‘Cardboard Currency’ show at a banking institution.”

SFBG Do you think that their intended message will come across in that setting?

NM Not sure. People have a variety of responses to seeing them. What’s interesting is two pieces that already sold, both to financial industry professionals.

It’s a subtle yet powerful message. The paintings are on cardboard commercial packaging — [they talk about] the ethereal, transient nature of money.

Ultimately I think the work will be appreciated. If you look closely you can see the message in the materials and work. The cardboard on which each piece is created for example still shows the bar codes, packaging instructions, and transit information that delineates the origins of the piece of cardboard.

This is a message onto itself which I’m very fond of. That these boxes come from Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico, and all across the world in the flow of global commerce. These cardboard boxes in my small town from across the world brings to light how interconnected (our) money is with the world and world-wide economy and community. The vast expansiveness of our world and yet how small a world it is. More importantly, how connected we all are on this very basic level as humans, the human race, and as financial partners. When one family loses a home in California, it’s intrinsically connected to other financial tragedies across the globe and back again. I’ve also got plans for collections depicting presidents/figure heads on other nations currency’s in the near future.

“Cardboard Currency”

Through April 4

Capital One 360 Cafe

101 Post, SF

cafes.capitalone360.com/san_francisco

www.nickmancillas.com

Hot sexy events: Getting (a?)head in the boardroom

Andrew Lam

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March 20, 2013

22

Hot sexy events: Getting (a?)head in the boardroom

I’ve been reading Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg’s new book Lean In recently, which despite its rather class-specific advice and observations is a really great look at why we don’t have enough women in power positions. (Hint, sexism.)

Sandberg is great on suggesting ways to circumvent the internalized patriarchy that we carry around with us, but a workshop that is taking place this evening (Wed/20) hosted by BDSM educators Society of Janus and instructor Beatrice Stonebanks takes another tack. In “Corporate Dominatrix Training 101,” attendees will learn how to harness sexual tension and turn it to an advantage in officeplace dealings.

Controversial? Sure! Rest assured that it is not the only happening that’ll raise eyebrows this week. Here’s the next several days in sex events. Now give me a raise.

“Corporate Dominatrix Training 101: How to Use Sex and Power to Increase Sales”

Do you lack the iron will to succeed in your current work environment? Let the Society of Janus (one of this town’s go-tos when it comes to BDSM education) teach you how to become a office dominatrix. Truly — this class focuses on the power of sex when it comes to the boardroom. Setting ground rules, negotiating, and how to do it all without compromises your professional stature will be cover in this one-off course.

Wed/20, 8-10pm, $20. Women’s Building, 3543 18th St., SF. www.soj.org

Bawdy Storytelling Slam

Another chance to be a pervy storytelling legend this week, as the open mic version of Bawdy Storytelling returns. This week’s theme is “Under the Influence,” and you will certainly be drunk off happiness if you best the field to take a spot in the Bawdy Slam finals happening later this year.

Thu/21, 8pm, $10. Cafe Royale, 800 Post, SF. www.bawdystorytelling.com

“Puss ‘n’ Boots II”

Erotic photographer Michael Rosen wrote to tell us that two of his “best photographs” are in this group show. He’s joined by a host of other artists, though we can’t vouch that they are quite as good as Rosen at working with a hard-on (a skill that he told Amber Schadewald in a 2011 Guardian profile he has mastered.)

Through April 20. Opening reception: Sat/23, 7-11pm, free. Amelia Hyde Gallery, 521 Sixth St., SF. www.ameliahyde.com

“Art of Jacks”

San Francisco’s most venerable all-male jack-off club is celebrated at this art opening, which gathers works inspired by the quick wrists and open hearts of the 30-year old group.

Through March 31. Opening reception Sun/24, 2-7pm, free. Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission, SF. www.sexandculture.org

“How Hookup Apps Change Us More Than We Know”

For those who use them, hookup apps like Grindr have changed sex in seismic ways. Jaime Woo wrote one of the first books inspecting the phenomenon, Meet Grindr: How One App Changed the Way We Connect, and he’ll be expounding on his findings at today’s talk. Dick pic slideshow not included, presumably.

Tue/26, 8-9pm, free. LGBT Center, 1800 Market, SF. www.sfcenter.org

Suicide Girls: Hard Girls, Soft Light signing

With 2403 models on seven continents, four movies under their belt, and now the publication of their third coffeetable book, the Suicide Girls have become a cultural force to be reckoned with. Pretty girls, rad ink, hot hair dye, what’s not to like. This week they come to town to sign that third glossy tome, and will be partying at one of the Mission’s favorite dive bars afterwards. Try not to drool. (And read my interview in this week’s paper with SG founder Missy Suicide.)

Tue/26, 7pm, free. Mission: Comics and Art, 3520 20th St., Suite B, SF. (415) 695-1545, www.missioncomicsandart.com; Afterparty 9pm, free. Bender’s, 806 South Van Ness, SF. www.bendersbar.com

How I Came Out

Charlie Ballard may have made his mark as a local stand-up comedian, but this night of performance will go deeper than “didja ever notice when?” Guest stars — including Joshua “Peaches Christ” Grannell share their coming-out story on stage.

Tue/26, 8pm, $10. 1772 Market, SF. facebook.com/HellaGayComedyShow

Wartime fashion

Andrew Lam

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March 19, 2013

0

caitlin@sfbg.com

STREET SEEN The St. Patrick’s Day drunk bus cruising down Howard Street last Saturday didn’t quite know what to make of the group striking martial poses on the sidewalk in front of the Cartoon Art Museum.

Maybe the red-nosed boobs were suffering outfit envy — those tiny green hats bobbing precariously between stop lights, the sparkly temporary tattoos proclaiming allegiance to various alcohol brands, even the strobing shamrocks that bobbed on semi-erect springs and rigid plastic headbands were no match for the sartorial fireworks amassed that day by the Bay Area’s very own Cobra 1st Legion (www.cobra1stlegion.com), a year-old G.I. Joe cosplay group.

“A lot of this is about being a role model.”

I had pulled aside Ciera Johnson, who was attired in army green and arrows to portray the military cartoon’s covert operations specialist Lady Jaye, in the middle of Cobra 1st Legion’s appearance at the museum.

Around her, in an appearance partially geared toward hyping this month’s new 3D G.I. Joe: Retaliation, the Legion was collecting books for its favorite charity Operation Paperback, a nonprofit that sends reading material to deployed members of the military. Operation Paperback is championed by Larry Hama, who wrote the early G.I. Joe Marvel cartoons.

Johnson says that, despite the cartoon’s martial bent, service comes first and foremost for the men and women of G.I. Joe. “Their whole thing was to go against Cobra [Commander, head bad guy, duh]. They are all about trying to protect people.”

She apologized that she wasn’t in full regalia. Some of her pins, she explained, were in the van of a fellow Legion member who hadn’t yet penetrated the St. Patty’s Day parade traffic.

Cobra 1st Legion founder Matt Holdaway’s Storm Shadow outfit was suffering no such incompleteness, right down to the white half-mask and split-toe jika-tabi boots he’d copped to properly mimic the series’ bad guy ninja.

“I understand G.I. Joe is very jingoistic,” the gentle Holdaway told me somewhat apologetically. “For me, it’s what meant the most to me when I was eight.”

A long-time skeptic when it came to nerds dressing up as their favorite characters, worlds realigned for the radio host and musician the first time he saw someone dressed up as a G.I. Joe character. Suddenly, “to see it in real life was a dream come true.” Holdaway put out a call on Facebook to find like-minded fans, and in no time was convincing staff at the U.S.S. Hornet aircraft carrier docked in Alameda to let the group shoot a photography version of a comic book on deck.

Check the group’s Facebook page for the gleeful results. “When you go to our photo shoots, it’s just exactly like kids in a playground,” Holdaway smiles, inviting me to Cobra 1st Legion’s next outing. “If you find it perfectly acceptable to be an adult and go out in public like this, you should join us.”

At first, Holdaway admits the group existed purely for the photo shoots and the glory of sporting a top-notch Destro amulet atop an entirely accurate thatch of chest hair. But then, inspiration struck him: “If we can come together for hedonism, can we come together for charity?”

They could. Holdaway tells me Cobra 1st Legion has helped build a kids’ library in Kabul and a sci-fi library in a Virginia veterans’ hospital through Operation Paperback.

But — not that there’s anything wrong with this — the clothes are what I’ll remember from my time with the Legion. Mid-interview with Holdaway, a tall personage strides into the room wearing a blue suit, matching cape lined with red satin, white belt, black leather gloves, and yellow braided aiguillette affixed to one shoulder. Cobra Commander is in the house.

“Lookin’ good!” Holdaway hoots, before returning to our talk.

Babetown, population 2403

Andrew Lam

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March 19, 2013

0

caitlin@sfbg.com

SEX Maybe Selena “Missy Suicide” Mooney’s description of the erotic media empire she’s built is a little simplistic: “We did it in a way that women could find sexy, because I started it and I’m a girl and I didn’t want it to be completely gross to me.”

But truth be told, the concept behind Suicide Girls really isn’t all that hard to digest: take fine girls that have piercings, punk hair color, tattoos, and/or all the above. Get them naked. Take pictures, pretty ones. Let us eavesdrop on their lives through blogs and message boards. Cue money dance.

And now Mooney’s girls are in a coffee table book.

“It’s actually our third coffee table book,” the founder of the soft core porn site-social network tells me during our phone interview in advance of the Suicide Girls: Hard Girls, Soft Light signing on Tue/26 at Mission: Art and Comics.

Perhaps sensing my lack of paid membership to the site, and hence my possible ignorance as to their position of power, Mooney briefs me on how world domination is going for her Girls. Originally based out of Portland, Ore., at press time the Suicide Girls numbered 2403. Every continent is represented in their legion. (Shout-out to that sultry research scientist in Alaska.) They have a weekly radio show in LA, have toured the world doing burlesque shows, opened for Guns N’ Roses, and have been immortalized in comic book form. Last year, the Girls released their fourth movie, documenting a weeklong 30-babe frolic in a converted windmill in England.

Hard Girls, Soft Light is the perfect format, however, for enjoying the Girls’ particular luminosity. There is Kemper from Los Angeles with her striking pubis mon rose tattoo, my favorite ink in the book save Arabella from London’s architectural flourishes around her breasts. “We wanted to show the girls in soft, beautiful light and make it as if you were waking up next to them, to show the softness of their beauty,” says Mooney.

Here is the Suicide Girls’ perfect conceit: you are paying for the pleasure of this porn, but it’s entirely believable that it was made not just for your enjoyment, but that of the Girls themselves. Mooney has a lot to say about showing alt forms of beauty — back in 2001 when the site was launched there was hardly the glut of tatted-up hotties in the media that there are today. Then as now, tattoos were deal-breakers for many aspiring porn stars.

Mooney says she started the site primarily as a place for people to bond over a different sense of what made beautiful. (Do note: you won’t find a ton of armpit hair or body diversity on the Girls site — we’re talking tattoos, not anti-hegemony.)

Seems like the Girls agree. “Of course the basic premise of SuicideGirls as an online community from which I’ve been able to make a lot of friends and take part in a lot of interesting creative projects [sic],” says fair-skinned Annalee from Edinburgh in one of Hard Girls, Soft Light‘s featured quotes, pulled straight from the models’ Suicide Girls blogs.

“The more women who are comfortable with their bodies the happier the world will be,” Mooney asserts. No arguments there.

Suicide Girls: Hard Girls, Soft Light signing Tue/26, 7pm, free. Mission: Comics and Art, 3520 20th St., Suite B, SF. (415) 695-1545, www.missioncomicsandart.com; Afterparty 9pm, free. Bender’s, 806 South Van Ness, SF. www.bendersbar.com

How I Came Out Tue/26, 8pm, $10. 1772 Market, SF. facebook.com/HellaGayComedyShow. Charlie Ballard may have made his mark as a local stand-up comedian, but this night of performance will go deeper than “didja ever notice when?” Guest stars — including Joshua “Peaches Christ” Grannell share their coming-out story on stage.

“Art of Jacks” Through March 31. Opening reception Sun/24, 2-7pm, free. Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission, SF. www.sexandculture.org. San Francisco’s most venerable all-male jack-off club is celebrated at this art opening, which gathers works inspired by the quick wrists and open hearts of the 30-year old group.

On the Cheap listings

Andrew Lam

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March 19, 2013

0

Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Picks.

WEDNESDAY 20

1960’s Go-Go Groove Make-out Room, 3225 22nd St., SF. www.1960sgo-go.com. 7pm, free. Bust out those white go-go boots and learn some standard ’60s dance moves like the twist, jerk, pony, watusi, hully gully — even the tighten up! If you’re in need of some liquid courage before you shake it, head over to the Make-out Room at 6pm for some sweet happy hour deals.

THURSDAY 21

“Bold Local NightLife” California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse, SF. www.calacademy.org. 6-10pm, $12. Art and science converge as the Bold Italic website takes over this week’s Nightlife at the Academy of Sciences. Meet the local merchants, designers, artists, and producers from the ‘hoods we know and love. Folks from Misdirections Magic Shop, bakery co-op Arizmendi, wine delivery service Rewinery, and more will all have tables alongside the alligators, jellyfish, and penguins.

“Growing Pains, The Business of Cannabis in San Francisco” San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, 654 Mission, second floor, SF. www.visityerbabuena.org/events 6:30-7:30pm, free. RSVP suggested. SF Appeal editor Eve Batey and writers Heather Donahue and Chris Roberts will explore the state of marijuana in SF, and possible impacts of proposed cannabis legislative reforms. If you have a specific topic or question you would like addressed, email growingpains@sfappeal.com before tonight’s talk.

FRIDAY 22

“Dance Anywhere” Various locations throughout the Bay Area. www.danceanywhere.org. Noon, free. Why wait until tonight to get your groove on? In this global event — offshoots are taking place in major cities around the globe — participants are encouraged to stop whatever they’re doing when the clock strikes 12, and bust a move. Performances by professional dancers will take place at the SFMOMA, City Hall, and Yerba Buena Center.

“PhotographsPlus” Dogpatch Café and Art Gallery, 2295 Third St., SF. www.dogpatchcafe.com. Through May 10. Opening reception 6-8pm, free. This exhibit features local artist Shawn Ray Harris includes three distinct series of works created over the last 15 years. Endowed with a whimsical charm, Harris’ work offers a look into urban landscapes and the creatures that inhabit them.

“Game On” 1AM Gallery, 1000 Howard, SF. www.1amsf.com. Through April 20. Opening reception: 6:30-9:30pm, free. We need not remind you that nerds are the new cool kids. Instead, we’ll let the new show at street art-centric 1AM Gallery lend more evidence to prove the point. Its new group show highlights videogame characters rendered in vinyl doll and canvas by graf artists like Vogue TDK, Estria, and Mike “Bam” Tyau.

SATURDAY 23

Easter egg hunt for dogs Golden Gate Park, Marx Meadow, SF. www.waghotels.com. Noon-2pm, $15. Purchase tickets online. Help your pup sniff out some of the 2,000-plus plastic eggs containing treats and prizes at dog and cat resort, Wag Hotel’s fourth annual fundraiser benefiting local animal rescue organizations. Attendees will also enjoy complimentary hor d’oeuvres and beverages, have a chance to see how their doggie bud feels about the Easter Bunny.

Art Explosion spring open studio Art Explosion Studios, 2425 17th St., SF. www.artexplosionstudios.com. 7-11pm, free. Also Sun/24, noon-5pm. One of San Francisco’s largest art collectives will be holding its 13th annual spring open studio this weekend. Check out work from over 140 artist, painters, photographers, fashion designers, jewelers, and textile designers from around the city.

SUNDAY 24

Backyard Foraging book signing Omnivore Books, 3885A Cesar Chavez, SF. www.omnivorebooks.com. 3-4pm, free. You don’t need to trek into the forest to forage edible plants. Ideal for first-time foragers, Backyard Foraging: 65 Familiar Plants You Didn’t Know You Could Eat by Ellen Zachos features 70 edible weeds, flowers, mushrooms, and ornamental plants typically found in urban or suburban neighborhoods. Head over to Omnivore Books today to meet Zachos, listen to her speak about her book, and get a signed copy.

SF Mixtape Society exchange The Make-Out Room, 3225 22nd St., SF. www.sfmixtapesociety.com. 4-6pm, free. The San Francisco Mixtape Society is dedicated to the art of making and exchanging music mixes. Attendees are invited to assemble a mix according to the theme (this month is “anchors and sails”) in cassette, CD, or USB form. Come ready for newness: a magically random raffle will send you home with someone else’s mix at the end of the night. Record yours in cassette form and score yourself a free drink.

MONDAY 25

Izzies Awards Ceremony Z Space, 450 Florida, SF. www.zspace.org. 6-8pm, free. The Oscars may be over but award season has not come to a close just yet. The 27th Annual Izzies awards will take place tonight, honoring outstanding achievements in dance across the Bay Area. Hosting the ceremony is AileyCamp director David McCauley, and CounterPULSE executive and artistic director Jessica Robinson. After the ceremony, mingle with some dance big shots over dessert and coffee.

TUESDAY 26

French cinema class Alliance Française, 1345 Bush, SF. alliance-francaise-sf.weebly.com. 6:45pm, $5. To help non-French speakers discover French cinema, the Alliance Française of San Francisco is offering this weekly Tuesday night class, which includes a French film screening followed by a discussion. The class will take place in the Alliance Française’s intimate theatre where free wine, refreshments, popcorn (and English subtitles) will be provided.

“Remnants of San Francisco: Pieces of the Bygone City” St. Philip’s Catholic Church, 725 Diamond, SF. www.sanfranciscohistory.org. 7:30pm, $5. San Francisco’s architecture is decorative, meticulous, and often begs the question of passers-by: “what is the story here?” Get that tale tonight as historian Christopher Pollock will present before and after photos of significant architecture around the city, explaining the buildings’ significance and why they were built the way they were.

Spring’s best fairs and festivals

Andrew Lam

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March 19, 2013

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caitlin@sfbg.com

Corn Dog Day (March 23, free entry with RSVP. SoMa StrEat Food Park, SF) Observe this very important holiday with savory dogs from SoMa’s superb outdoor food truck court and catch the game while you’re at it — the first weekend of March Madness will be showing on several screens around this gourmand parking lot. Sponsored by that online encyclopedia of awesome, FunCheapSF. sf.funcheap.com/corn-dog-day-funcheap

International Chocolate Salon (March 24, $25-30. Fort Mason, SF) With over 40 purveyors of dark, milk, white, bitter, etc., you will most likely be a mess of sugar high halfway through your tour of this expo’s floor. Take a break to inhale artisan perfume in the connected fragrance salon, or check out an expert talk by food critics and chocolatiers. www.sfchocolatesalon.com

Whiskies of the World (April 6, $120. Hornblower Yacht, Pier 3, SF) Thank goodness for the world’s heaviest buffet (steak and potatoes like whoa) at this world-class whiskey expo. You’ll need that tummy padding to tackle the hundreds of rare and delicious scotches, bourbons, etc. This year it’s on a boat, so you can blame your swerve on faulty sea legs. www.whiskiesoftheworld.com

DogFest (April 13, free. Duboce Park, SF) McKinley Elementary scored big when it thought up this daylong parkside dog-a-thon fundraiser for its kiddos. Daniel Handler, author of the Lemony Snicket series, hosts contests for the pup with the best tail, trick, bark, lookalike, and other superlatives. Bouncy castle and other activities to boot! www.mckinleyschool.org/dogfest

Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival (April 13-14, 20-21) Check out Japantown’s premier celebration of neighborhood culture. You can watch this year’s Cherry Blossom Queen crowned on April 13 and on April 21, the fest’s grand parade. Drop by the Sanrio kid’s corner with your little guy for sand painting and kawaii games. www.sfcherryblossom.org

Earth Day (April 20, free. Civic Center Plaza, SF) A “trashion” show by Truckee High School students, a sustainable cooking showcase, and mass yoga classes will be highlights of this year’s city celebrations for Mother Earth’s big day. www.earthdaysf.org

Maker Faire (May 18-19, early bird prices: $25 one-day, $45 weekend pass. San Mateo Event Center) DIY heads of all stripes will swoon for this mega-collection of self-made projects. Last year featured weird food, wacky wiring art, sports mania, and more. www.makerfaire.com

Bay to Breakers (May 19, race registration $58. See website for route) You need to mark this costumed wackadoo of a footrace on your calendar for one of two reasons: to prep your liver for definitely not drinking on the parade route or so you can set up cyclone fencing to prevent errant streams of urine from over-hydrated toga partiers and people in gold bodypaint. www.baytobreakers.com

North Beach Festival (June 15-16, free. North Beach neighborhood, SF) Tell us that all the neighborhood street fairs are essentially the same amalgamation of elephant ears, “quirky” accessory vendors, and pleasant live music. Untrue — North Beach’s massive edition of the tradition includes a church dispensing blessings for animals, so bring your bush python through! www.sresproductions.com

There was no rape episode on ‘Leave It To Beaver’ [UPDATED]

Andrew Lam

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March 19, 2013

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There was no rape episode on ‘Leave It To Beaver’ [UPDATED]

UPDATE: Kershner has added this addendum to the piece

Some people seem to have misunderstood my point. Mays presented himself to adults far differently than to his friends. I used a TV character many people would remember to illustrate the insincerity of his text to the victim’s father. The string of text messages linked below amply demonstrates how abominably he acted toward the victim, who deserves everyone’s support.

Unfortunately, the use of that character as reference is entirely in keeping with the rest of the media’s apparent tendency to recast the rapes as youthful indiscretions. What was Eddie Haskell’s most egregious crime? Anyway, poor choice of metaphor, blog post stands.

——-

I’ll tell you how not to start your morning: like I did. I crushed my soul catching up on the Steubenville rape case. While still in bed. Really dumb.

Seriously, do not read the text message transcripts of all the lol’s and bragging-lying flip-flopping that happened during and after the atrocity commited against the 16 year old woman before you’ve hugged your loved ones. Most definitely do not watch the video that helped kick off scrutiny of the incident when KnightSec leaked it.

And I guess, don’t go to the biggest website for daily news in town, because you’re going to get kicked in the gut there, too.

This is how the Chron’s Vlae Kershner — the news director and sometimes sportswriter (UPDATE: I guess he writes about all kinds of stuff, oh current media climate!) who has been covering the case on SFGate — starts out today’s “Hot Topics” column on yesterday’s sentencing of Trent Mays and Ma’Lik Richmond.

Fans of classic TV will remember Eddie Haskell from “Leave It To Beaver”. Making mischief, getting his friends in trouble, sucking up to their parents as if he were the nicest boy who ever lived.

As a Guardian writer I am generally required by profession to digress with what the Chronicle writes in most, if not all circumstances, but this is beyond. The fucking. Pale.

How do you make young women who have been molested look like they are the aberrations? Starting off with the most innocuous sitcom in, oh, television history is a really good stab at it. Eddie Haskell? Did Eddie Haskell rape anybody? The next line of Kershner’s column is this:

If the writers had cast Eddie as the bad guy in a crime show instead of a sitcom, he might have resembled Trent Mays.

TRENT MAYS IS THE CUTEST CRIMINAL OF ALL TIME.

It goes from there. You can read the rest if you’re interested in the pathos of retro musings that’ll embarasss their author for years to come. As yesterday’s similar debacle of the fawning CNN reporters proved, we have a serious problem here.

That serious problem is not that a bunch of football players in Steubenville, Ohio are sexual predators (they are.) Those boys didn’t build a society that is built on treating women like chattel when they’re in vulnerable situations. But they are a fucked up iteration of it and no single person should feel bad for them being sentenced to years in jail.

We should feel bad that their coach, parents, small town, media, world taught them that putting it in a girl’s ass when she’s unconscious, taking photos of it, and bragging about it is what a man does in this brave new Internet era.

The problem is that people get raped all the time. According to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, rapes happen every two minutes in this country. And 97 percent of those rapists never spend a single day in prison.

So maybe society needs a trigger warning.

Maybe it made Kershner feel better to tell himself that Mays’ and Richmond’s behavior is just boys being boys, or boys being boys in a new weird way that 1950s TV couldn’t have predicted. Duh, boys aren’t bad! Society isn’t based on oppression, men don’t need to examine their actions, and women don’t need to adjust to the fact that they live in a society where one in six of us report having been (which is different from having been) raped.

How should we be writing and talking about this stuff? How about education? How soon is too soon to start counteracting the messages that little boys and girls get every day, all around them on buses and late-night talk shows, and in presidential debates?

I think the important thing, too, is to hear less from the people who hear “Steubenville” and think “Leave It To Beaver” and more from the people who hear “Stuebenville” and it makes their world end, albeit briefly (like this hella brave blogger who came in with the Twitter screengrab on those assholes.) That feeling is not coming out in the media, and I think if the former group is going to learn a damn thing from this episode it’s going to take the latter group stating their feelings uncompromisingly.

I bet you didn’t think this was going to end in shameless self-promotion, but surprise! The Guardian (in conjuncture with Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center and Artists’ Television Access) has been planning a Women’s History Month screening on Monday, March 25 of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof’s global look at violence against females and other women’s issues. The discussion that follows the screening will be a great opportunity to talk about what to do in a post-Steubenville world — or what to do about making it a post-Steubenville world. Please come, there will be adult beverages if you’re into that kind of thing.

Women’s History Month screening: Half the Sky

Mon/25, doors at 6:30, film at 7pm, free

Artists’ Television Access

992 Valencia, SF

www.atasite.org

Facebook event

Bone, on: Here’s the week in sex events

Andrew Lam

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March 14, 2013

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Internet flame wars, naked people in Berkeley, fativism, shamrock-spangled stripper heels. Oh yep, that’s this week in sex events.

Hot and Heavy reading

I’ve made no bones about the fact that I love Virgie Tovar’s. That’s why I’m starting this week’s list with a shout-out to her reading that’s going on in, oh, 1.5 hours — I have that much faith that her anthology’s tales of fat sensuality and sexuality will rock you. Hot and Heavy’s contributors include an A-list of BBW’s, so feel free to cop a copy while you’re over there (and check out my René Magritte-inspired vibrator art, part of this month’s “Bling Your Vibe” art contest.)

Thu/14, 6:30-7:30pm, free. Good Vibrations, 1620 Polk, SF. www.goodvibes.com

“Incarnating for an Evening with the X-plicit Players”

YES we know that body freedom isn’t necessarily a sexual thing (checkout the Crocs evident at any public nudity rally in SF and ask yourself if those activists are trying to get laid.) But it is connected to sexual freedom — trust that our fear of the naked body has a lot to do with the push to keep sexuality out of the conversation. Anyway, tonight’s film screening about the ninth annual Nude and Breast Freedom Parade in Berkeley should be entertaining. It was put together by the X-Plicit Players, a performance group that does educational production in the buff.

Fri/15, 8pm, $8-15. East Bay Media Center Performance Space, 1939 Addison, Berk. www.xplicitplayers.com

“Anarchism, Pornography, and Being an Ally: Conflict and Collaboration in the Past, Present, and Future”

Perhaps you caught wind of the controversy kicked up by Native scholar and longtime feminist Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz when she pulled out of her speaking gig at this year’s Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair over concerns about the venue this year: the hangar that Kink.com rents out for events in its Armory location. Though no other presenter or vendor pulled out over BDSM, the Facebook debate that followed was acrimonious, important, and veered on disrespectful among members of both sides (really, there were about 1,000 sides) of the BDSM/Kink.com debate.

Hopefully this will be an opportunity for healing. Held off-site so as not to offend anyone uncomfortable with the Armory, the program for this discussion includes a look at the history of pornography and feminism, words from pre-selected speakers on healthy debate and sex worker support, then a moderated public discussion on same.

Sat/16, 6:30-8:30, free. California Institute for Integral Studies, Room 304, 1453 Mission, SF. bayareaanarchistbookfair.wordpress.com

“Top ‘O the Mornin” at the Gold Club

We have this fantasy that this St. Patty’s Day extravaganza at our fave SoMa strip club will be less douche-y than other green downtown festivities. Maybe it has to do with the dashing security? At any rate, there will be snacks: in addition to the famous free lunch buffet ($5 if you count the cover to get into the club) that the Gold Club usually has Monday through Friday, it will be serving up a breakfast free-for-all 8-10am, and strippers, and an Irish piping band, and riverdancers, and happy hour prices at the bar all day. May your $1 bill be plentiful, and may you tip the dancer $20.

Sun/17, 8am-2am, $5. Gold Club, 650 Howard, SF. www.goldclubsf.com

“Thinking Outside Your Box: Creative Adult Marketing”

Social networking may be the key to spreading your word about your adult business, but not if you’re shitty at it. M. Christian teaches about selling your writing and basic bondage skills, an interesting background to bring into this seminar on how sex workers can get the word out about their services.

Tues/19, 7-10pm, check website for price. Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission, SF. www.sexandculture.org

Fine Snoop, I’ll listen to your reggae album (a movie review)

Andrew Lam

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March 14, 2013

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Fine Snoop, I’ll listen to your reggae album (a movie review)

In the life of Snoop Lion (or Doggy Dogg, for those who were done with hip-hop after Chronic 2000), there have been many steps made purely for monetary return. A partial list: various malt liquor endorsements, the AOL commercial co-starring Jerry Stiller, iFizzle, a line of clothing for dogs, an anti-viral ad campaign entitled “Hack is Wack.” One is to be excused if news of Reincarnated, the rapper’s reggae album produced by Major Lazer and featuring the drumming talent of the Police’s Stewart Copeland doesn’t set fire to one’s creative synapses.

Thank Jah he and his wife Shante co-executive produced a documentary about the making of the album in Jamaica for Vice. Somewhere in those 96 minutes, I started to feel better about things.

Witness, in a scene from Reincarnated the documentary as Snoop stands astride a roof in the Tivoli Gardens neighborhood of Kingston. Was it planned for the Vice cameras, this re-enactment of his first music video in Long Beach? It could have been, right down to the adoring throngs gathered in the street below.

Snoop explains in one of his many sit-downs with the camera that he was ready to “find a new path” for his career.

Reggae seems a likely transition for one of the world’s most famous stoners, and the connection to Jamaica does seem to go deep for Snoop. He describes the downtrodden Tivoli Gardens residents — described in the film as adrift after the extradition and imprisonment of ‘hood king Christopher “Dudus” Cook by the United States government on drug trafficking charges — as spiritual kin to his neighbors back in Long Beach. One things for sure, it doesn’t matter if you’re in Jamaica or the United States, Snoop is one of those celebrities that everyone loves, no matter how many 40 ozs. he’s endorsed.

Don’t think that Reincarnated isn’t filled with glamour shots of massive branches of Jamaican weed grown in the hills by the Rastas, the camera staring lovingly as Snoop blazes from a host of homemade smoking accoutrement and blunts. Goofy herb hijinx play throughout, most often by Snoop’s cousin Daz who has the film’s most memorable line: “I’m smoking a blunt in the jungle!”

You do get the impression that Snoop is into Jamaica for more than just the marijuana. Reincarnated follows him as he makes a pilgrimage to Bunny Wailer, who is the first in the film to call him by the new moniker he has halfway adopted these days (Snoop Lion has his own Twitter account these days, but someone is still tweeting from Snoop Dogg’s handle.)

He visits Tuff Gong Studio, a school for boys from rough homes famed for creating ace reggae musicians, makes a trip to Bob Marley’s original block back in Trench Town, ceremonies with Rastafarian priests. He compares the Marley-Bunny-Peter Tosh tough knocks trinity to that of 213, his original group formed with Nate Dogg and Warren G (Lil 1/2 Dead, that group’s less-famous member, is absent from these musings to protect their symmetry.)

Feast your eyes: track offa Reincarnated the album

This is not to say that Reincarnated is a Jamaican album. Though Snoop luvs Tuff Gong, we watch the album itself be recorded in a 10-day stint at the luxe Geejam Studio, which is “also a fully functioning resort,” as Diplo describes. The team assembled is light on dread-head. “That shit do look like Scooby Doo when you add these motherfuckers in here,” Snoop laughs about his imported album team.

Snoop allows, at the beginning of the film, that he feels he’s taken hip-hop as far as he feels he can. “I know Obama wants me to go to the White House, but what the fuck can I perform?” Jamaica provides a respite from SoCal’s distractions, although tragedy does still seep into Reincarnated when a younger family member dies. Lay-back reggae beats do seem more fitting to a man who says he wants nothing more than to spend more time with his family (in one touching scene, Shante and the couple’s luminous daughter Cori B. contribute vocals to an anti-gun violence track on Reincarnated.)

It’s interesting to watch hip-hop legends get old and start dealing with legacy. Snoop has hinted that he’s the incarnation of Bob Marley, and in some ways the comparison is apt enough. One wonders what kind of hip-hop Marley would have made, had he lived to this stage in his career. Or, at the risk of heresy: what product endorsements. Tuff Gong kitchen cleaner? Buffalo soldier wings?

Reincarnated opens Fri/15 at Opera Plaza Cinema

Desi Santiago inflates Juanita More’s Pride party plans

Andrew Lam

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March 13, 2013

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Does the idea of one of SF’s best-known drag fashionistas rendered in massivem inflatable form excite you? You then, are the target audience for this item of news: Juanita More has announced that multimedia artist Desi Santiago will lend his dark, dramatic style to her yearly Pride party in 2013 as its set designer.

“Desi is someone with great vision,” More told me in an email. That vision has produced black dogs that swallowed a South Beach hotel whole, outfits that appear to be made from different garments when viewed from various vantage points, atmospheric runway sets, and extravagant works various couture happenings.

After he visited the Jones 620 rooftop where this year’s June 30th party will be held. It was only the Puerto Rican-via-New Jersey artist’s second trip to San Francisco, and my Instagram feed told me that More had celebrated with him over homemade pernil. I chatted with Santiago about what, exactly he means with this plan for balloon Juanita.

“I’m taking her body apart,” he said. “I’m exploding Juanita’s body. I don’t know how much I should give away at this point. But we’re working on an intereactive experience wehere you get to interact with her body.” One of those ways, he said, will be via a “giant” version of the drag queen — reminiscent of his work he did converting the Lords Hotel into “Black Lords,” an installation that saw the hotel morph into a red-eyed black dog.

“[Juanita] has a heart of gold, and she’s fierce,” he said as towards his motivation for accepting the gig. This isn’t the pair’s first collaboration — More’s played Santiago’s Van Dam party in New York. “I booked her because I loved her but when she spun,” he told me. “She kind of kicked my ass. She really turned it out.” Man can appreciate a good scene-setter.

But who’s to say, really, what the Pride blow-out (tickets available in June) will end up looking like.

“I’m interested in creating completely consuming environments that make you leave the norm,” the artist told me. Santiago’s resume includes work in bondage costume design, metalwork, sculpture, set design. For more on the artist, check out his March 2012 New York Times profile.

Severino (Horse Meat Disco, UK), Derek Opperman (Gemini Disco, SF), and Kim Ann Foxman (NYC) have all been announced as DJs for the afternoon party. More was also stoked to tell me about her flyer designer, De La Soul and Snoop Dogg video vet and Bay Area local visual artist Serge Gay Jr.

Mall the right moves

Andrew Lam

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March 12, 2013

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caitlin@sfbg.com

STREET SEEN The fact that that our conversation is taking place to beat of Carly Rae Jepsen’s 2012 seminal classic “Call Me Maybe” leads me to believe that T-We Tea owner Christopher Coccagna is being real when he says he’ll be holding 12:30pm dance parties for the FiDi lunch set in the darling tea shop he just opened in the neighborhood.

It also leads me to believe that Crocker Galleria may be downtown’s most fun mall — or at least, that it’s on the way.

“I was totally down on having a retail store,” Coccagna tells me as we ship cups of his “Chai Me” blend in his small shop’s kiki parlor. For years he sold at events like the Renegade Craft Fair, consterning regulars who often ran out of his cheekily-titled single origin teas (“Bicurious George,” “Sexpot,” and “Hipsters in Wonderland”) before the next sales opportunity. But the five-year lease contracts often associated with renting commercial space scared the young business owner away.

In contrast, Crocker Galleria is offering him a much more flexible agreement and he’s been presiding over his space, lovingly decorated in fuchsias and Moroccan poufs since February. “I’m going for Euro pop, eclectic, and adorable,” Coccagna says.

Does Topshelf Boutique have FiDi’s new look? Guardian photo by Caitlin Donohue

That craft-fair-over-corporate-chic aesthetic may speak to Cushman and Wakeman retail manager Sabrina Goris’ plans for Crocker. In the past few years, Versaces and Dolce and Gabbanas have been vacating the center. At the moment, Ralph Lauren’s shuttered doors make a great visual metaphor for this sea change, although not as good as the expensive tiling floor work that Versace left behind for new tenant VIP Luggage. The turnover has made way for a mix of tenants who count 85 percent local owners among them.

Goris partners with local business nonprofits like La Cocina and Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center to attract new entrepreneurs to their first brick-and-mortar location. La Luna Cupcakes, a La Cocina grad, is set to open in Crocker this spring and Tomboy Tailors, the city’s best genderqueer place for a butch dandy to get a perfectly tailored three-piece, went through the Renaissance program and also opened at Crocker this year.

The challenge with the space is figuring how to make the robust lunch crowd that comes for the mall’s top floor food court stay to shop. Every Thursday from 11am to 3pm a year-round farmer’s market sets up on the first floor, opening on Tuesdays during the summer as well. The mall even hosts a concert series to get shoppers in the glass doors.

Like the rest of the universe, Crocker is experimenting with pop-ups, too. On the first floor, a quartet of small local clothing and accessory companies opened a single storefront in February. Surf brand After Eleven and its irreverent pizza cross t-shirts, Topshelf Boutique, kids shirts and zoo-themed tees from Animal Instinct, and Embergrass Jewelry bring a fresher fashion tone to the mall. Their pop-up run’s was recently extended — it’ll now be open until the end of March.

Christina Ruiz, who opened Topshelf Boutique originally in a van that traveled about, bringing gauzy, bright dresses, studded button-downs, cat-eye sunglasses, and the occasional vintage piece to shoppers, has had a lot of luck in the pop-up space. She admits that originally, she wasn’t sure if the Topshelf’s club casual style would sell to the big-money downtown types.

“I was surprised that I sold so well,” she says. “I worked as a bartender for a long time when I didn’t have to dress up for anything.” She’s grown to appreciate the day job schedule, though. “I really like it here because [customers come through] Monday to Friday, 10am to 6pm. That’s so not traditional for retail.”

Office workers who wear studs, tea shop kikis, a mall that could be kind of cool — sounds like a different kind of commercial community is being built. Says Coccagna of this mall magic: “you can feel the shift here.”

Crocker Galleria 50 Post, SF. www.thecrockergalleria.com

Frankie says feminist pornography

Andrew Lam

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March 12, 2013

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caitlin@sfbg.com

SEX It is hard to imagine an industry as rich, yet as under-examined as that of pornography. We spend billions of dollars on porn in this country, and billions of hours trying to hide that fact, erasing search histories and wedging DVDs under the bed when our parents are coming over.

So perhaps it makes sense that The Feminist Porn Book, the first of its kind to include writings from porn-studying academics and porn performers, is designed so as to resemble nothing so much as a traffic sign. “What are you reading?” I doofily joked to myself on BART while positioning the Day-Glo paperback with its “FRANKIE SAYS RELAX” massive font in a way I hoped would avoid undue scorn-face from my fellow passengers.

It’s their loss, really. The book is a big deal, a first-time conglomeration of viewpoints from across the pro-sex feminist landscape. Its introduction alone was the most comprehensive history of feminist pornography I’ve ever seen (how appropriate that we’re in the middle of Women’s History Month 2013.) The next time anyone has a question about whether porn can really be anti-sexist, I will direct them to The Feminist Porn Book‘s neon glow.

Within its pages, professionals from a variety of nooks and crannies tackle some issues that even we, as feminists who believe porn can reflect and augment healthy sexuality, have trouble resolving. Penn State’s Ariana Cruz tackles the image of black women in porn (and the no-less-interesting reality of being a black female academic who studies black women in porn.) Am I the only one who gets giddy about heavily-footnoted academic essays on the race issues stirred up by Asian porn star Keni Styles’ participation in locker room orgy scenes?

Performers’ voices are well represented here, mainly in first-person testimonials that explain their career paths, complicated stories that don’t dodge critique of the adult industry. Transman pioneer Buck Angel talks vagina, seasoned pro Nina Hartley about being a role model. The Bay Area’s April Flores explains how she busts up the BBW stereotype. Kink.com model Dylan Ryan and director Lorelei Lee explore society’s conception of their professional lives.

In a brief phone chat, one of the book’s editors and longtime feminist pornographer herself Tristan Taormino explained to me that the book came about after a panel discussion in which she participated that featured both academics and porn stars. That fusion, the participants felt, gave birth to a conversation that had to be continued. A few panelists from that chat can now be found within the anthology’s pages, and Taormino is now organizing a day-long conference to take place on April 6 amid the hangovers from the eight-year-old Feminist Porn Awards in Toronto.

“There are feminists in mainstream porn. I’m not the only one, I swear!” Taormino says this in a jocular manner, but given those billions of dollars, her implication that porn is starting to allow more room for feminist imagery and voices is a rather big deal. For now, I resolve to worry less about what other people on BART think of my reading list.

THIS WEEK’S SEX EVENTS

Three years of Oh! Powerhouse, 1347 Folsom, SF. www.powerhouse-sf.com. Wed/13, 10pm-2am, $3. Darling DJ Robin Simmons will give you something to listen to beyond the slaps and moans at the third anniversary of this gentlemanly meet-up for dirty dappers.

BDSM panel for anarchists California Institute of Integral Studies, Room 304, 1453 Mission, SF. bayareaanarchistbookfair.wordpress.com. Sat/16, 6:30-8:30pm, free. Internet flame wars ensued when Native scholar Roxanne Dunbar Ortiz canceled her talk at the Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair upon realizing it would be held in the event rental space of Kink.com’s Armory this year. Today’s discussion looks to re-unite members of the radical community who disagreed over the issue. Pre-open floor, a history of pornography and feminism will be presented, as well as ways to support sex workers, women, and people who think differently than you do.

On the Cheap Listings

Andrew Lam

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March 12, 2013

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On the Cheap listings by Caitlin Donohue. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com. For further information on how to submit items for the listings, see Picks.

WEDNESDAY 13

Beats for Lunch Monarch 101 Sixth St., SF. www.sunsetpromotions.com. Noon-2pm, free. It has to be the best party deal in town. Not only do you get in free with pre-registration for this lunchtime disco, but upon entering Monarch’s dark haven from the harsh noon sun, attendees receive their very own organic brown bag lunch. How you’ll eat it neatly while dancing to co-founder of global fusion group Delhi to Dublin, Boogiemeister and DJ Matt Haze is your own challenge to deal with.

Crossroads Irish American Festival reading California Historical Society, 678 Mission, SF. www.irishamericancrossroads.org. 6pm, free. Readings of little-known Irish immigrant writers who lived in San Francisco are interspersed with live harp music at an event perfect for adding cultural learning to your St. Patty’s season.

THURSDAY 14

A Simple Revolution book launch Modern Times Bookstore, 2919 24th St., SF. www.mtbs.com. 6:30pm, free. Judy Grahn celebrates the release of her memoir and raps today about her life as a lesbian in the Bay Area during the 1960s and ’70s.

“Hooch, Harlots, and History: Vice in San Francisco” Old Mint, 88 Fifth St., SF. www.sfhistory.org. 6:30-9:30pm, $10. Rapscallions Broke Ass Stuart, historian Woody LaBounty, and more spin tales of vintage shenanigans, while audience members sip classic cocktails and 21st Amendment Brewery beer.

Ask a Scientist’s Pi Day puzzle party SoMa StrEat Food Park, 428 11th St., SF. www.askascientistsf.com. 7pm, free entry, food purchase suggested. A math and logic puzzle contest in which solo and team competitors (up to six on a side) are invited to bust out the pencils, erasers, and pocket protectors.

FRIDAY 15

“Shifted Perception” Fouladi Projects, 1803 Market, SF. www.fouladiprojects.com. Through May 11. Opening reception: 6-8pm, free. Will painter Marcus Payzant’s work inspire a level-jump in your gray matter? Payzant’s into animist beliefs, instilling deep meaning in relics from the natural world.

“The Art of Dr. Seuss” Dennis Rae Fine Art, 781 Beach, SF. www.dennisraefineart.com. Through March 31. Opening reception: 5-8pm, free. Curator Bill Dreyer will be on hand to introduce the Bay Area to this touring exhibition of the beloved children’s author and illustrator’s hat collection, which are displayed alongside the works of art they inspired.

SATURDAY 16

“Cloth, Clouds, and Survival: Weavers’ Tales from East Timor” de Young Museum, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, SF. www.famsf.org. 10am, $10. Cultural anthropologist Jill Forshee presents on her 12 years collecting oral histories from the textile workers who live in one of the world’s poorest countries.

Commonplace Birthday weekend Castle in the Air, 1805 Fourth St., Berk. www.castleintheair.biz. In celebration of Karima Cammel’s picture book Commonplace Birthday, an installation in the author’s Commonplace Mouse children’s series, Castle in the Air studio and art supply shop is hosting a weekend of raising support for Oakland Children’s Hospital. Drop-in crafting sessions for all ages will give visitors the chance to make decorations for sick kids’ birthdays,

St. Patrick’s Day parade and festival Parade starts at Market and Second St., SF. 11:30am, free; festival at Civic Center Plaza, SF. 10am-5pm, free. www.saintpatricksdaysf.com. High step your way downtown today for the biggest leprechaun of all: St. Patty’s Day celebrations. This week’s theme is “Celebrating the Celtic Woman” — SF Fire Department chief Joanna Hayes-White presides over the processional, and will hopefully keep the pub louts in line.

Brain Health Expo Samuel Merritt University Health Education Center, 400 Hawthorne, Oakl. www.samuelmerritt.edu. 10am-3pm, free. Care for your cranium with this day-long event, where you can dig on stress management pointers, ways to prevent hurting that noggin, and tricks for beefing up your memory.

G.I. Joe cosplay at the Cartoon Art Museum Cartoon Art Museum, 655 Mission, SF. www.cartoonart.org. 1-5pm, $7. In celebration of the new G.I. Joe: Retaliation movie, local cosplay group Cobra 1st Legion is taking over the Cartoon Art Museum, providing soldier models for live drawing sessions, and presiding over beaucoup giveaways of comic nerd manna.

“Tarot: Art of Fortune” Modern Eden Gallery, 403 Francisco, SF. www.moderneden.com. Through April 9. Opening reception: 6-10pm, free. Immerse yourself in woo this weekend at this group exhibition curated by local art website Warholian’s founder, Michael Cuffe. The creative works comprise an alternative look at the all-knowing tarot deck.

TUESDAY 19

“Feast of Words: A Literary Potluck” SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan, SF. www.somarts.org. 7-9pm, $5 with a potluck dish, $10-12 without. Every third Thursday, gourmands and writers congregate at this sit-down reading and eating event. Maggie Weber-Striplin of Pachamama provides the culinary centerpiece at this edition, with a plate inspired by the name of Quiet Lightning, the local reading series that delivers quick bolts of author greatness.

“Colors of Sao Paolo” Glama-rama Salon, 304 Valencia, SF. www.glamarama.com. The Mission salon bedecks its walls with Seren Moran’s vivid color block paintings of sights she took in teaching English in Indaiauba, Brazil.

Meat and veg

Andrew Lam

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March 12, 2013

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caitlin@sfbg.com

IRISH It’s early, even for me, to be in a pub. But cookbook author and Irish chef Larry Doyle requested that I make the trek to meet him at his Taraval and 29th Avenue Parkside Tavern at 9am so we can talk about his kitchens’ plans for St. Patrick’s Day. Sagely, he begins by proposing Americanos and telling me about latchkey kid dinners from growing up in Dublin.

“Whoever got home first in the evening would cook dinner,” he says. That was often Doyle. Starting at 11 years of age, he would work off of the food Mom prepped before leaving for work (she always made dessert first, he remembers), eventually creating the dinners from scratch. “Irish food is rustic, simple,” Doyle tells me, reminiscing about the kitchen gardens from which the family pulled each night’s veggies.

The country’s “Fourth of July,” as Doyle describes St. Patty’s Day celebrations back home, has been adopted by the world as much as its Guinness and Jameson. Dublin hosts a parade akin to the New York City Macy’s Thanksgiving processional and shamrocks and leprechauns rule the day in Eire, just as they decorate tiny hats and novelty t-shirts here in the States.

The only difference between the celebrations, Doyle says, is a slightly less fratty attitude in Ireland towards celebratory green beer bonging.

“Which I don’t have any complaints about,” the bar owner clarifies. Doyle not only owns the four-year-old Parkside, a well-appointed tavern positioned among Korean restaurants, dancewear suppliers, and single family Sunset homes, but works as chef at Johnny Foley’s in Union Square. Both spots get packed out, he says, over the holiday.

But it is at the Parkside where his smoked salmon boxty (a potato pancake topped with a dill sauce made of sour cream and shallots, and fish) “causes riots” when left off the menu and his Irish soda bread-and-butter pudding, which has been known to incorporate banana and feature a Bailey’s sauce, remains the most-ordered dessert. Should you doubt Doyle’s chops, do know that he wrote the book on Irish cooking (Irish Pub Cooking, Bristol Publishing Enterprises 2006, 139pp, $8.95).

Both boxty and pudding will be available at Parkside this weekend, as well as oysters, a stew made of simmered lamb cubes, and the traditional St. Patrick’s gut bomb of corned beef, white parsley cream sauce, and cabbage. Vegetarians can take solace in the regular menu’s wild mushroom penne, or Dubliner cheddar cheese plate.

Irish breakfast featuring black and white pudding topped with tomato and the starring role sweet, chewy imported bacon is served Friday through Sunday all year long, but Doyle pledges that brunch will be a particularly nice scene during this weekend’s festivities (he counsels coming close to the Fri.-Sat. 11am, Sun. 10am opening of the doors to ensure a spot to sit.)

So eat something in between shot-with-stout-chasers, dammit. There’s hardly an SF neighborhood — side eye, Castro — without an authentic spot that’ll be rolling out the orange-white-and-green flags.

Parkside Tavern 1940 Taraval, SF. (415) 731-8900, www.parksidetavernsf.com

LARRY DOYLE’S TOP PLACES TO REST YOUR PINT THIS WEEKEND

Johnny Foley’s 243 O’Farrell, SF. (415) 954-0777, www.johnnyfoleys.com

Irish Cultural Center 2700 45th Ave., SF. (415) 661-2700, www.irishcentersf.org

Danny Coyle’s 668 Haight, SF. (415) 558-8375, www.dannycoyles.com

Durty Nelly’s 2328 Irving, SF. (415) 664-2555

The Phoenix 811 Valencia, SF. (415) 695-1811, www.phoenixirishbar.com

Chieftain 198 Fifth Ave., SF. (415) 615-0916, www.thechieftain.com

Bieb’s collapse, predicted in literary form

Andrew Lam

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March 12, 2013

2

In the midst of Justin Bieber’s spectacular burn-out last week — in which the popthrob appears to ruined his 18th birthday sneaking minors into a club, been two hours late for a concert, collapsed at another concert, sworn at paparazzi, and generally become what we’d expect from an 18 year old whose life has been micromanaged ever since 2007 when YouTube got a hold of his DIY R&B covers — I had the distinct feeling that I’d read it all before.

And I had, kind of. The Love Song of Jonny Valentine by Teddy Wayne is a nice opportunity to tap into what Beeb’s inner monologue could sound like, should one dare.

On the phone this morning, I spoke with Wayne about whether others had picked up on the plot’s similarity to this week in Bieber. “People are starting to see the strange paralells,” he tells me.

But, Wayne says Biebs was merely a starting point for the book’s plot. “I read his own little memoir, I watched his documentary. But after that i deviated.” He read up on Jackie Coogan — one of the country’s first child stars who rose to fame in the Charlie Chaplin movie The Kid — plus Tatum O’Neil, Drew Barrymore, Michael Jackson.

But there’s no denying that the Jonny Valentine-Justin Bieber similarities are striking. The Love Song of Jonny Valentine is an entirely claustrophobic account of the titular, 11 year old (the age that Bieber’s career took off) top-tier moppet with adorably floppy bangs who sells out arenas, manages relationships via asinine interviews with schlock celeb gossip magazines, and is on, ON, onnnn unless obsessively playing video games. Valentine deals with an overbearing, flawed mother-manager and a troubling relationship with prescription drugs. He hooks up with groupies, terribly.

The book opens with this quote from a profile on the real Bieber in Interview magazine:

I want my world to be fun. No parents, no rules, no nothing. Like, no one can stop me. No one can stop me.

“I wanted to write about entrepernal narcissism,” Wayne tells me. “Meaning not just actual celebrities, but the way we all celebrate ourselves, posting about our vacations on Facebook, posting about the glamourous life we have.” The Internet is a boon to the self-absorbed, though it has had a disastrous effect on the lives of today’s child stars.

“The worst part is social media and digital photography means [young performers] can be busted for anything,” says Wayne. Although he notes that the Internet can certainly accelerate careers, “no one knew when Drew Barrymore was doing cocaine in nightclubs.”

In Wayne’s novel, Valentine eventually and not very lucidly realizes that he is being treated as a commodity. The realization, coupled with his extremely grueling schedule and horrific family situation pushes him over the edge. Perhaps it doesn’t take a genius to know that many child stars will end up this way, but The Love Song of Jonny Valentine goes beyond rubbernecking.

Its narrator is vapid (Says Valentine: “You can only control yourself, so it’s not how they act that matters, it’s how you react. The most successful celebs never lose control.”) but the story is not. The dissonance of an overly-adult situation narrated by a preteen gives the reader’s mind some time on the emotional playground. It’s also reminiscent of the way the endless barrage of “Stars: They’re Just Like Us!” features and tweets fake intimacy — with famous people, but also with our own emotions.

Oh dear, now Bieb’s gone and canceled Lisbon. Will Bieber pull through in one piece? I put the question to Wayne.

“I think he’ll probably be fine,” Wayne replies, unperturbed. “This seems like a bump in the road for him. He’s come this far, it looks like he has good management. I think Bieber will continue his world dominance.”

Maybe next year will be the best birthday ever? #takeabreakjustin

How to get hot this week: sexy events

Andrew Lam

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March 8, 2013

0

I was paging through my neon-orange-and-yellow copy of Tristan Taormino’s Feminist Porn Book and generally feeling good about International Women’s Day when I discovered that gah! I totally spaced and missed out on a really important porn happening that is sweeping the country: handsome wackjob Craig Gross’ “Porn Kills” tour!

The comely Gross has been motoring about visiting the country’s third tier cities in — yes! — a hearse, enlisting pro-Jesus spoken word poets and Christian video artists who love frosted flakes to spread the word that porn is threatening the collapse of our families. In a hip way, with skulls and stuff.

As amusing as it would have been to read about my adventures at Gross’ March 10 Bakersfield gig, he didn’t send me the press release and I missed it. Rude. Let’s attempt to heal with this week’s sex events:

“Nudes”

Guerrero Gallery’s celebrating its third birthday with a bunch of naked hotties — “Nudes” is a group exhibition of 18 artists’ depictions of the human form. Our sneak peek favorite has to be Erin Riley’s sensual handwoven tapestries which show scenes of lovers embracing, and one woman really indulging her attraction to Budweiser beer.

Through April 6. Opening reception: Sat/9, 7-11pm, free. Guerrero Gallery, 2700 19th St., SF. www.guerrerogallery.com

Fan Dancing with Balla Fire

Worry not if your closet doesn’t hide a pair of Dita Von Teese-style, body-sized feather fans — Sin Sisters Burlesque’s Balla Fire says most any flat surfaces will do for this fluttery seminar. And while trash can lids or three-ring binders may not inspire the most sultry of moods, worry not: Ms. Fire, a veteran of the burlesque scene since 2005, has curvy aplomb to spare and enviable teaching skills.

Sun/10, 7-9pm, $30. Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission, SF. www.sexandculture.org

“Titti Trifecta”

That which stokes one’s creative fire is unique to each of us. The shape that reanimates Lee Miltier and Maria Yates’ embers is that of a dildo — a handcrafted, artfully whorled dildo at that. The duo’s Fucking Sculptures are on display all month at this all-female art show in Oakland and as part of the exhibition, Yates will teach a workshop today on how to craft one’s own sex toy.

Through March 29. DIY sex toy workshop: Sun/10, 3-5pm, $5-10 donation suggested. Moco Gallery, 371 17th St., Oakl. facebook.com/mocosoart

Three years of Oh!

Watch this video:

Tell me you don’t want to be at the third annivesary (so many of those this week!) of host Danimal’s twice-monthly party. Darling DJ Robin Simmons will give you something to listen to beyond the slaps and moans, mmkay?

Wed/13, 10pm-2am, $3. Powerhouse, 1347 Folsom, SF. Facebook event

Bay Area muralists trek to Bogotá and Cape Town in the name of water rights

Andrew Lam

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March 6, 2013

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The Bay is blessed with street artists who take seriously the responsibility that comes with painting on a surface thousands of people will see every day on their way to work and school. See: the Estria Foundation, which was started by graff legend Estria Miyashiro and just released this video of the group’s latest trip to Bogotá, Colombia as part of its #WaterWrites mural program.

Stop by Bissap Baobab on Thu/7 for a dinner presentation on the group’s trip to Bogotá and recent voyage to Cape Town, where it completed another mural that examined the issue of water rights.

You can check out more photos of the project on the collective’s Flickr page. Here’s what the Estria foundation sent us about the making of the Bogotá mural:

Our Executive Director, Erin Yoshi, recently returned from working on the #WaterWrites Mural Project in Bogota, Colombia. The 2000 square foot mural was created in collaboration with the APC Crew, one of the largest graff crews in the nation. It was painted next to a community center that hosts music and arts workshops for youth.

The mural is dedicated to raising awareness about the current water conditions in Colombia. It portrays nature and humanity joining forces to evict water polluters and exploiters of natural resources. Nature is painted as a character, surrounded by trees, flowers, life, and water. Animals, insects, and people are housed in the hair and along the body. The left arm directs the attention towards a barge in the river containing the impact of resource extracting industries; mining, fishing, logging, and plantation farming. Graffiti on the sides of the ship attest to the history of resistance it has met everywhere it has traveled.

#WaterWrites mural projects dinner and reports

Thu/6, 6:30-9:30pm, regularly priced dinner menu

Bissap Baobab

3388 19th St., SF

www.bissapbaobab.com

Girl gang

Andrew Lam

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March 5, 2013

0

caitlin@sfbg.com

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH There’s all of not much planned, officially speaking, for Women’s History Month this year in San Francisco. A March 6 ceremony honored a lady from each district in the Board of Supervisor’s chamber, a reception followed with refreshments and Ed Lee’s mustache proclaimed she who is Woman of the Year. (His selection hadn’t been announced by the time we went to press, but I’m pulling for a double honoree this year: fashion babe twins Marian and recently-deceased Vivian Brown.)

Truth is, not many people seem stoked on the commemorative month, which was officially created in 1987 and annually proclaimed by the President starting in 1994. The Atlantic ran a story last week that accused Women’s History Month as a symbol of irrelevant tokenism. Honestly, throughout the course of assembling this list I was surprised at just how few explicit Women’s History Month events are taking place in the Bay.

Maybe having a month doesn’t solve the problems that plague women these days, but in my book that doesn’t mean we should scrap the thing altogether. We have a proclamation, let’s use it!

Here’s some ways to do just that. Sure, little of the happenings on this page are so backwards-looking as to fit neatly into the “History Month” rubric. But the debut exhibition of an art collective on the rise (Black Salt Collective, March 17), a demonstration that’ll morph into cross-cultural performance in honor of domestic workers’ rights (Domestic Workers Bill of Rights demonstration and performance, Fri/8), a quilting show (SF Quilters Guild biennial show and sale, Sat/9-Sun/10) — the fact is, we’re making history every day. This month we just have extra encouragement to do so.

HER GIRL FRIDAY

This group from Brooklyn holds readings that promise salient takeaways for women in the media world, and its first West Coast event should be rad: editrix par excellence (who has mad Tumblr game, folks) Ann Friedman headlines, with chronicler of Latin America Martina Castro, multimedia journalist Katy Newton, and sex trade filmmaker Mimi Chakorova. One-time Guardian art director DJ Mirissa Neff will be posted up behind a mixer to soundtrack the thing, and: cocktails.

Thu/7, doors open 6pm, readings 7pm, free. 111 Minna, SF. facebook.com/hergirlfriday

“WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN?”

A mother and Black Panther who emerged from incarceration to become a professor of sociology, Ericka Huggins seems well qualified to speak on the power of restorative justice. She teaches relaxation and resiliency workshops for schools and community groups, so this talk promises to be a feel-good look at the tough problem that is our justice system.

Thu/7, 7-9pm, $15. California Institute of Integral Studies, 1453 Mission, SF. www.ciis.edu

DOMESTIC WORKERS BILL OF RIGHTS DEMONSTRATION AND PERFORMANCE

Join the magically diverse coalition of women, people of color, and youth groups to celebrate AB 241, proposed legislation that would shore up the rights of domestic workers in the state of California. Speakers will hoist bullhorns in front of the Federal Building, then everyone is welcome to Sixth Street’s Filipino community center, where cross-cultural performances will celebrate International Women’s Day.

Fri/8, rally 5pm, SF Federal Building, 450 Golden Gate, SF. Performances 8pm, Bayanihan Community Center, 1010 Mission, SF. www.babaesf.org

OAKLAND INTERNATIONAL WOMYN’S DAY FESTIVAL

Start your day with an ashtanga yoga class at this fest, then stick around for a day of rad artists: Culture Shock’s hip-hop dance, neo-soul funkster Mama Crow, rapper-political science student Kaila Love, queer bluesperson Enajite Loicy Pela, and more. The day’s theme is raising awareness about violence against women, transfolks, people of color, everyone.

Sat/9, 11am-5pm, free. The Web, 355 12th St., Oakl. www.iwdfest.com

“SEVEN FLOWERS FOR SEVEN MURALISTS”

In honor of the original seven female muralists who created the breathtaking “MaestraPeace” work that covers the outside of this community center, the Women’s Building is inviting all comers to deck its sidewalk with chalk to create a massive bouquet of flowers.

Sat/9, 1-2pm, free. Women’s Building, 3543 18th St., SF. www.womensbuilding.org

STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN RALLY AND MARCH

From Ohio to India, we’re seeing so many attacks against women worldwide that something’s gotta be done. Anti-violence demonstrations and marches, like this one hosted by Women Organized to Resist and Defend (WORD) have seen great turnout of late, so go add your voice to its hue and cry.

Sat/9, noon, free. Dolores Park, 19th St. and Guerrero, SF. www.defendwomensrights.org

SF QUILTERS GUILD BIENNIAL SHOW AND SALE

From Gee’s Bend to knit graffiti posterchild Magda Sayeg, textile art has long been used by women trying to make a (needle)point. Not all the quilts at the SF Quilters Guild’s biennial showing will be militant, but they do speak to the mastery of what is often dismissed as “mere” folk art. Check out the impressive works of stitch, along with quilting challenges and demonstrations. Master quilt appraiser Nancy Bavor will also be on hand to evaluate any piece that you bring in, for a fee.

Sat/9, 10am-5pm; Sun/10, 10am-4pm, $9-10 two-day ticket. Concourse Exhibition Center, 635 Eighth St., SF. www.sfquiltersguild.org

WOMEN WHO CODE MEET-UP

The tech community’s ability to throw successful happy hour networking events is unrivaled. Jump into the tide for Women’s Month with this group, which is open to all female-identified people hoping to fine-tune or share their coding skills. Bring a project, or jump in on one of the tutorials providing for all skill levels. Remember to register as a meet-up member and RSVP before you head over.

Tuesdays, 6:30pm, free. March 12 location: Apportable Inc., 371 Fifth St., SF. www.meetup.com/Women-Who-Code

MAQUILAPOLIS

A documentary following women workers who refuse to take social injustice sitting down. One of the film’s stars is Carmen Durán, a maquiladora at one of Tijuana’s poverty wage-paying factories run by multinational corporations. When her company up and leaves for Indonesia’s even looser labor laws, Durán goes activista.

March 13, 7pm, $5-10 donation suggested. 2969 Mission, SF. www.answersf.org

VIVA LA VIDA

Indulge your Fridamania with this Spanish language play, which revolves around an intimate monologue delivered by Frida Kahlo herself, as the iconic Mexican artist preps a Dia de los Muertos party for Diego Rivera, Leon Trotsky, and father of surrealism André Breton.

March 16, 7pm, $16. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, 2868 Mission, SF. www.missionculturalcenter.org

BLACK SALT COLLECTIVE LAUNCH SHOW

A jewelry maker raised in Bolivia, a painter who takes inspiration from her work with disabled adults, a multimedia artist set alit by the third eye, black soul, and the natural world — this is Black Salt Collective, which officially starts its journey with today’s exhibition. Pick up some art, sip some sangria, and reflect on what it means to represent “culture” — the stated goal of this all-female group is to express contemporary identity without the baggage of Western world anthropology tropes.

March 17, 1-7pm, free. Artists’ Television Access, 992 Valencia, SF. blacksaltcollective.tumblr.com

“KNOW YOURSELF, LOVE YOURSELF: SEXUAL EMPOWERMENT FOR WOMEN”

Sex educators Jessi Fischer and Julianne Carroll want to help you untangle the mess of messages we get about what female sexuality is supposed to be. Madonna-whore, no more! After this workshop, hopefully that’ll be the case in your grey matter.

March 18, 6:30-8:30pm, $20-25. Good Vibrations, 1620 Polk, SF. www.goodvibes.com

LAS TRES MARIAS

Musicians Cynthia Alexander, Diana Gameros, and Radmilla Cody weave together their experiences as a border town Mexican, a Filipina, and a former Miss Navajo Nation to create musical works that explore migration and economic struggle.

March 22, 8pm, $20-25. La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck, Berk. www.lapena.org

HALF THE SKY

Based on a book by New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristhof, this documentary roams 10 countries (deploying the talents of Hollywood actresses like Eva Mendes, America Ferrara, and Gabrielle Union as hosts) to create a panoramic look at global women’s issues today. Full disclosure: the event is sponsored by the Guardian and Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center — and I’m hosting a post-screening discussion. Please note the cocktail half-hour before movie.

March 25, doors 6:30, screening 7pm, free. Artists’ Television Access, 992 Valencia, SF. tinyurl.com/halftheskyscreening

SISTER SPIT: THE NEXT GENERATION READING

The queer, feminist, awesome Sister Spit collective has been making some serious moves of late. Ali Liebegott just published Cha-Ching! through City Lights Sister Spit imprint (it’ll be feted at that book store on March 27) and founder Michelle Tea’s young adult novel A Mermaid in Chelsea Creek (due out this spring) is amaze-balls — and we get to hear them read for free today? Lit history, folks, before your eyes.

March 31, 2pm, free. San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin, SF. www.sfpl.org

Tagged

Andrew Lam

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March 5, 2013

0

caitlin@sfbg.com

SEX Let’s take a trip to Texas for some national news before this week’s sex events.

Clearly, strippers are the reason we have human trafficking. This, at least, appears to be a thought in the noggin of Texas assemblyperson Bill Zedler, who has proposed HB 337, a bill that would require exotic dancers to wear a license certifying that they have taken a course in sex slavery.

The bill is a not-so-subtle attempt to crack down on the number of people who become exotic dancers — the hope is that no one will want official records of their time as a sex worker. “They won’t want to get a license as a stripper from the state of Texas,” Zedler told the Star-Telegram, a newspaper that covers the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington region. “This will force everyone to clean up their act. Overall, it will be a benefit to everyone concerned.”

As a government regulation that is slut-shaming while managing to obfuscate the real culprits behind human slavery, HB 337 is a real paradigm of conservative multitasking.

Even better, part of the proposed legislation dictates that the license (which will have its wearer’s legal name on it, all the better to imperil dancers’ well being) be worn while its bearer is working.

In case you’re confused about how that would work, Zedler was happy to provide style tips. “They could wear it around the neck … or on their shoes … or attached to a head band,” he commented to the Star-Telegram. Sexy!

“NUDES”

Guerrero Gallery’s celebrating its third birthday with a bunch of naked hotties — “Nudes” is a group exhibition of 18 artists’ depictions of the human form. Our sneak peek favorite has to be Erin Riley’s sensual handwoven tapestries which show scenes of lovers embracing, and one woman really indulging her attraction to Budweiser beer.

Through April 6. Opening reception: Sat/9, 7-11pm, free. Guerrero Gallery, 2700 19th St., SF. www.guerrerogallery.com

FAN DANCING WITH BALLA FIRE

Worry not if your closet doesn’t hide a pair of Dita Von Teese-style, body-sized feather fans — Sin Sisters Burlesque’s Balla Fire says most any flat surfaces will do for this fluttery seminar. And while trash can lids or three-ring binders may not inspire the most sultry of moods, worry not: Ms. Fire, a veteran of the burlesque scene since 2005, has curvy aplomb to spare and enviable teaching skills.

Sun/10, 7-9pm, $30. Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission, SF. www.sexandculture.org

“TITTI TRIFECTA”

That which stokes one’s creative fire is unique to each of us. The shape that reanimates Lee Miltier and Maria Yates’ embers is that of a dildo — a handcrafted, artfully whorled dildo at that. The duo’s Fucking Sculptures are on display all month at this all-female art show in Oakland and as part of the exhibition, Yates will teach a workshop today on how to craft one’s own sex toy.

Through March 29. DIY sex toy workshop: Sun/10, 3-5pm, $5-10 donation suggested. Moco Gallery, 371 17th St., Oakl. facebook.com/mocosoart

Trouble down under: SF indie film banned in Australia

Andrew Lam

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March 5, 2013

21

Trouble down under: SF indie film banned in Australia

Cuddle porn, banned in Oz? The Australian Classification Board took exception with auteur Travis Mathews’ tender look at life and love among gay men in San Francisco — which included explicit sex scenes. Film fanatics at the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, Sydney’s Queer Screen, and the Brisbane Queer Film Festival will be missing out on Mathew’s work — I Want Your Love was scheduled to screen at all three this year.

Look, James Franco is sad too. “This seems really silly,” the actor says, wearing an absolutely interestingly patterned t-shirt and blonde head of hair in the video statement below. “I don’t think we’d be having this conversation if he’d made a very violent film.” Franco and Mathews recently collaborated on the film Interior. Leather Bar., inspired by the 40 minutes of S&M footage excised from the 1980 Al Pacino film Cruising:

Just as it did in 2010 with Bruce LaBruce’s gay bloodbath LA Zombie, the Classification Board deemed I Want Your Love‘s sexual content “gratuitous.” The term struck a chord with I Want Your Love‘s supporters, who may fail to see the connection between their film’s depictions of real-life gay sex and LaBruce’s necrophiliac plotline/erect zombie prosthetics.

“This is movie about gay life and relationships,” wrote the president of local gay porn company Naked Sword, Tim Valenti, in an editorial for Huffington Post that will be posted later today (we are sneaky/his press person sent us the op-ed text early-like.) Naked Sword produced I Want Your Love. “If we wanted to just sell sex, we could have made another porno,” Valenti writes. “But where’s the challenge in that?”

You can check out I Want Your Love on the Naked Sword website. Here’s Marke B.’s review of the flick from when it screened at the 2012 Frameline Fest:

I Want Your Love (Travis Mathews, US, 2011) Local director Travis Mathews’ first full-length feature — produced by porn impresario Jack Shamama and the good, pervy folks at Naked Sword — is so beautifully shot, edited, paced, and true to life for a certain young, scruffy, artsy fag demographic (not to mention brimming with explicit sex scenes) that you probably won’t notice that hardly anything happens plotwise. A cute performance artist named Jesse, played by one of our top performance artists also named Jesse, is getting ready to move back to Ohio due to those all-too-familiar San Franciscan money woes, but maybe also to forge some deeper connection to life. That’s about it. The true joy here is seeing most of the Bay Area’s gay underground arts scene nailing peripheral roles: Brontez Purnell hilariously steals the movie, cute naked gay boys abound, and the whole thing really does come off as a lovely West Coast boho version of last year’s UK indie hit Weekend, with more fog and condoms.

Sunday Streets hits the Embarcadero March 10

Andrew Lam

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March 1, 2013

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Sunday Streets hits the Embarcadero March 10

We love the ocean breezes of Sunday Streets Great Highway, the jampacked activities of Sunday Streets Mission, the general feeling of being on the main thoroughfare of a neighborhood you don’t usually hang out on with thousands of your city neighbors. Once again, the car-free family day is taking over the Embarcadero for its March 10 season opener.

More centrally located than the beach, more of a novelty than the at-times Mission version — this could be a good one, and it’s high time to re-acquaint yourself with the strip in these last days before America’s Cup swoops in, anyway. Here’s five ways to spend your SS Embarcadero:

– Chances are good that you’ll spend most of your time at the Exploratorium On the Move fest. They’ll have live music going on all day — the last set, El Radio Fantastique, goes on at 9pm — which may end up playing a supporting role to the joys of aquatic cars, motorized Mission Pony horses (see below), a mechanized Burning Man octopus, and the San Francisco Lowrider Council, among other Exploratorium offerings like cow eye and heart dissections. Eek!

“Mom, Dad, you look foolish.”

– Pay a visit to Capt’n Jack Spareribs‘ noon, 1:20pm, and 2:40pm shows at Pier 39’s “Sunday Streets Treasure Hunt” — pirate festivities like arrrr.

This =/= Johnny Depp (Capt’n Jack Spareribs!)

– Check out the yoga, hip-hop classes, rock climbing wall, roller disco, and ditch-the-training-wheels lessons that Sunday Streets is orchestrating like Michael Tilson Thomas.

– Lounge in the 60 degree weather.

– Grab dinner and stick around to check out “Bay Lights”, the Bay Bridge’s ludicrously elaborate new light installation, which will be illuminated for the first time on March 5.

Sunday Streets Embarcadero

March 10, 11am-4pm, free

Embarcadero between Fisherman’s Wharf and Pier 52, SF

www.sundaystreetssf.com

Happy Women’s History Month, dammit let’s celebrate

Andrew Lam

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March 1, 2013

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Happy Women’s History Month, dammit let’s celebrate

Officially, the city of San Francisco will celebrate Women’s History Month with a ceremony honoring a female representative from each district on March 19 at the Board of Supervisors’ legislative chambers, followed by a reception at the Public Utilities Building at which the Mayor will proclaim a Woman of the Year. If you can stand the excitement, click here for more info.

Let’s not stop there, shall we?

Obama’s proclamation of this year’s WHM directed people to a carefully curated, perfectly dull website. Are we over Women’s History Month? Does the holiday — officially created in 1987 and proclaimed by the President annually starting in 1994 — amount to mere tokenism, as the Atlantic proclaimed today?

We’re all hanging out waiting for feminism’s fourth wave at this point, and with the Republicans having been roundly shamed in the 2012 national elections, most of the activist ire in this city gravitates towards causes with more traction in 2013. (Though this may be changing. See: local author Rebecca Solnit’s teaser for her upcoming book on the global pandemic of violence against women, which will at the least get the blogosphere roiling.) Call this a positive move towards intersectionality if you will.

But I can’t help but think: they gave us a goddamn month, shouldn’t we use it?

It’d be great if March had as many exciting events as February did for Black History Month, which saw a film festival, library events, four-day food and drink extravaganzas in the Bay Area. Excuses to come together, explicitly, in the name of women are rare — though I don’t even think they have to have a History Month (or International Women’s Day, which is March 8) on them to be amazing.

Check the newspaper on Wednesday for our complete list of recommendations on places to kick for Women’s History Month, and even more XX-chromosoned culture than usually through March. I suggested printing t-shirts for your feminist gang now. For now, here’s a couple cool, not necessarily Women’s History Month-specific ways people are recognizing women’s accomplishments this year:

– Retroactive awesome: last week, the City and the NAACP joined forces to honor 93-year old swing dancer Norma Miller at Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church. She’s known as the “Queen of Swing” and now travels the world speaking about her life and jazz culture. She’s danced in everything from the Marx Brothers’ A Day at the Races (1937) to Spike Lee’s Malcolm X (1992), and shows up in the Ken Burn’s jazz documentary.

– Mirus Gallery is in the final days of “The Looking Glass: Refraction Through the Female Gaze”, in which 17 female artists interpret the female form, messing with the art world’s standard depictions of woman as vessel for whatever the hell conceit the painter/illustrator/sculptor is trying to get across. Kimberly Brooks, Rachel Walker, Mercedes Helnwein, Claire Pestaille, and Casey O’Connell all have pieces in the show.

Through Sat/2. Mirus Gallery, 540 Howard, SF. www.mirusgallery.com

– Mother and head of the SF Fire Department Joanne Hayes-White has been named grand marshall of this year’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. Hayes-White made tne news in 2005 when her husband called 911 after she raised lumps on his head with a pint glass, and then again in 2011 when her wages started being garnished for spousal support. Something about supporting her husband and raising her kids just didn’t sit right with her #badass

– Tonight is the First Friday opening of “Titti Trifecta”, an all-female group show at Moco Gallery in Oakland. Expect single mom sculptures, artisanal dildos, and a month-long program of artist talks, feminist film, and DIY sex toy workshops.

Through March 31. Opening reception Fri/1, 7pm, free. Moco Gallery, 371 17th St., Oakl. Facebook: Moco

– International Women’s Day is March 8, but the only women’s demonstration we’ve heard of so far will take place on March 9 at Dolores Park. Women Organized to Resist and Defend (WORD) is organizing this rally and march to bring attention to violence against women. From Ohio to India, this year’s been a doozy, and past anti-violence march turnouts have indicated that people are starting to turn out for their right to be safe. (On a related note, check out this Time photo essay by Sara Naomi Lewcowicz, for which Lewcowicz embedded with a couple who before her lens became the poster children for domestic abuse.)

March 9, noon, free. Dolores Park, 19th St. and Guerrero, SF. www.defendwomensrights.org

Check Wednesday’s newspaper for our full list of woman-y stuff during the month of March — and send any event you’re stoked on to caitlin@sfbg.com