Marke B. Archives — Page 39 of 55 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

Africa adopts U2

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May 6, 2008

By Todd Lavoie

Vieux Farka Touré, “Bullet the Blue Sky”

Oh, U2 — they might not have changed the world as much as they’d hoped (or, not yet, anyway), but at least they’ve made it a warmer, more hopeful place, yes? Hard to fathom a band more deserving of the tag “global phenomenon,” but there it is, slapped upon every stirring chorus and grand sweeping gesture from Bono’s anointed fingers — the sheer enormousness of it all would be mighty hard to take if the guys didn’t have the goods to back it up. But they do, and what’s more, they’ve kept the flow for longer than some listeners have even been alive — to whom else on the international airwaves could we ever say such a thing? Michael Jackson? Once upon a time, sure, but not anymore. Mariah Carey? Please. And you’d best bite that lip before suggesting Britney! But honestly: has anyone else in modern-day rock/pop ubiquity had the same level of social impact as U2? For all of the mumbles and grumbles about Bono’s perceived messiah-complex, it’s worth remembering that he and his mates have pushed far beyond the familiar celebrity-pose of half-hearted idealism in favor of honest-to-goodness optimism, championing countless causes with honest-to-goodness conviction. Take that, Ms Spears.

Further testimony can be found on the recently-released In The Name Of Love: Africa Celebrates U2 (Shout! Factory). An intriguing collection of interpretations from U2’s catalogue by some of the continent’s most notable musicians, the disc serves as more than just a reminder of the band’s utmost uber-importance — this tribute also offers fresh insight into their unimpeachable songwriting skills. Language barriers? Pshaw! How nineteenth century!

Pics: Protest at the ICE

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May 5, 2008

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Photos and text by Ariel Soto

At the San Francisco Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office an emergency protest and a call for justice was held on May 5th in a response to condemn last week’s raids where 60 immigrant workers were detained by the ICE. People gathered at the protest to call an end to these raids that tear apart families and criminalize the important work immigrants are doing in the community. Of the 60 workers who were arrested, some have been released, but must wear an electric ankle bracelet while they wait for deportation hearings. “Estamos aquí y no nos vamos” (“We are here and we’re not leaving”) was one of the many slogans chanted by the passionate and diverse group of protesters at the event.

Participating organizations included: East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, Bay Area Immigrant Right Coalition, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice, Pride at Work, and San Francisco Immigrant Legal and Education Network.

Pics: Reliving Coachella — Chromeo, Fatboy Slim, A-Trak

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May 5, 2008

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Hell yeah we’re still hungover and sunburnt. That’s why this is a week late. Fab photog Tommy Brockert captured the sites and moods of Coachella 2008. This is part one. Rawk.

Burning Man fave Big Rig Jig centered the fest

The boys of Chromeo slice the backhand

Oakland/Sacramento natives Wallpaper made their own lineup in the parking lot

SPORTS: Billy Ball, where have you gone?

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May 5, 2008

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By A.J. Hayes

Somewhere, maybe in a moldy gym locker or a clandestine liquor cabinet, a brilliant game plan for big league success has sat untouched for more than a quarter century.

Were talking about “Billy Ball,” the late Billy Martin’s blueprint for righting the ship of moribund baseball franchises. It was last used in Oakland in the early 1980s.

The A’s were the last team of dubious talent that Martin managed to meld into winners. He took an Oakland club that had lost 109 games in 1979 and led them to the American League Championship Series within two seasons with essentially the same personnel.

Martin may have been a kook of momentous proportions, a guy who drank and fought like a pirate – a real pirate, not the Pittsburgh variety. But he knew how to light a fire under a ball club and get it back on the winning track.

Billy took four major league clubs with losing records (Minnesota, Detroit, Texas and Oakland) and turned them instantly into winners. He also increased attendance by his presence alone – and what percentage of ticket sales do you think current A’s manager Bob Geren and Giants skipper Bruce Bochy are responsible for?

Employing a ramped up style that resembled sand-lot ball (some would prefer the term “bush league”) Martin led clubs would blitz opponents by using everything from double steals and hidden ball tricks to literally falling down on the job.

“My favorite was the ‘first and third play,” recalled Shooty Babitt, an infielder on Martin’s 1981 Oakland club. “Billy loved to steal home. So if he had runners on first and third would have a guy like Wayne Gross, who was probably the least athletic guy on the club, take a good lead off first and then suddenly fall down. Right, away and the pitcher would throw to first base and the guy at third would walk right in. We thought he was crazy when he told us to do that, but lo and behold we scored a few runs by doing that.”

Once a particular recipe for success has worked in professional sports – Bill Walsh’s West Coast offense, for example – other teams desperate for a winner will run it into the ground. So why it is that no one has adopted Martin’s strategies?

One word: fear.

The Cinco skinny: Drop that Corona

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May 5, 2008

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By Justin Juul

Hey! Learn some history, dude.

I don’t know exactly how you’re going to celebrate Cinco de Mayo this year (or have celebrated it already) , but odds are it’s going to involve excessive drinking, a BBQ grill, and a few of your close friends. I mean that’s what it’s all about right? Drinking Mexican beer in the sun? Well, the simple answer is yes. Cinco de Mayo is one of those holidays, like St Patrick’s Day and Easter, that most Americans use as another excuse to drink beer when they should be working. But have you ever wondered what it’s really all about? I mean, the fifth of May wasn’t just picked randomly by The Corona Corporation was it? The date must signify something.
After a long weekend of cerveza and sun, The Guardian got to feeling a little guilty about its ignorant participation in the traditional (and early) Cinco de Mayo celebration at Dolores Park and decided to ask Paul Ortiz, professor of Latino/African American History at UC Santa Cruz and author of Emancipation Betrayed, to share his insights on the holiday.

SFBG: What exactly is Cinco de Mayo a celebration of?

Paul Ortiz: Cinco de Mayo commemorates the victory of a Mexican militia force over Napoleon III’s army at The Battle of Puebla in 1862. France sought to take advantage of a nation still reeling from the impact of The Mexican-American War (1846-1848) and the resulting internal strife. The French planned to install a puppet dictatorship in Mexico and they landed their imperial army in the state of Veracruz to implement this plan. The French expected little or no opposition. Instead, the Mexican people organized a volunteer militia and met the French expeditionary force near Puebla.

The Mexican soldiers were outnumbered and faced troops with superior military training and leadership. In spite of this, these citizen soldiers prevailed over the French and defeated them on the field of battle.

The remarkable victory at Puebla provided a much-needed sense of pride to an embattled nation. The French defeat also prevented Napoleon III from intervening in the U.S. Civil War on the side of the Confederate States of America. After the end of the Civil War, the U.S. assisted Mexico in expelling the remaining French occupying forces. Thus, Cinco de Mayo is a truly American day of celebration!

SFBG: I heard they don’t really celebrate the holiday in Mexico. If that’s true, then why do we celebrate it here?

Blazin’ up for UCSC

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May 2, 2008

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Deep Thoughts by Justin Juul, in honor of Cannabis Awareness Day, Sat/3

The University of Santa Cruz has a long history of embracing pot-heads, communist philosophers, vegans, musicians, artists, and white Rastafarian dudes. That’s why it came as no surprise that The Grateful Dead recently chose the school as the new home for its entire catalogue of music, articles, photos, films, etc. But it was no small feat. UCSC actually beat out bids by Stanford and Berkeley, which, to some, suggests that maybe the world really is changing for the better. Maybe hippies actually are kind of smart. After all, UCSC, a school founded by a roving band of love children back in the early 1960’s, a school that was once featured in Rolling Stone Magazine as “The Best School for Stoners,” a school that David Horowitz singled out on Fox News as “The Most Un-American School in the Country” has become one of the harder schools in the UC system to get admitted to.

The Grateful Dead deal is just another big step in the right direction for all of hippy-kind. But wait. Is the school really that dedicated to its roots or is it just cashing in on them for publicity, hoping that accepting the Dead catalogue will convince the world that hippies are still running the show at UCSC? The truth is they’re not.

Digital killed the Polaroid star

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May 2, 2008

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By Justin Juul

Attention all aspiring American Apparel models! Stop eating this very moment and get yourself a one-way ticket to Downtown LA because your dreams are on the verge of crumbling. The rumors are true. As announced earlier this year, Polaroid, the world’s only instant film manufacturer, has officially announced that it will no longer be making instant film, which, of course, means that the low-fi, borderline racist, pseudo-amateur photographs American Apparel has built its legacy on will no longer be possible to produce and that the AA empire will soon crumble too. Yes, hipsters, the whole world is coming to an end.

But wait. Maybe I’m being too hasty. There is one niche market of highly influential people who, in all likelihood, will never let instant film die: art gallery curators. Their lives are about to become a whole lot easier. Soon, all they’ll need to do to guarantee a crowd is to find some random dude with a Polaroid collection and let him loose on their walls.

The End of Polaroid with Tod Brilliant is the first of what is surely to become a Bay Area tradition: The Polaroid Retrospective. Join Brilliant as he reminisces about instant film, talks about his photographs, and shares his vintage camera collection.

Artist’s Reception: May 9th from 6:00 – 9:00pm
Micro Gallery
602 Wilson St. Santa Rosa.

(707) 570-0128.

Neon Neon hop in the DeLorean, speed back to the future

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May 2, 2008

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By Todd Lavoie

Neon Neon, “I Lust U (featuring Cate Le Bon)”

As far as concept albums go, it couldn’t get much odder: Neon Neon’s Stainless Style (Lex Records) — the new collaboration between Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys and underground electro/hip hop producer Boom Bip — takes a body-rockin’ trundle on the time-machine back to the heady life and times of John DeLorean, and mercifully, it works and works and works. It could’ve been so completely naff — concept albums often are, frequently falling prey to their own ambition and overly-serious dedication to the subject matter concerned — but the impish Welsh singer/songwriter and L.A. beatmaster handle the conceit with humor, reverence, and more than a little insight as well. Better yet, the album just as successfully when considered merely as a collection of songs, no more, no less. Isolate any of these synth-wigglers from the concept album construct, and you’ll still end up with a solid stand-alone track worthy of your hips and ears.

A neon yellow DeLorean: ready

Stainless Style is steeped a-plenty deep in the Back to The Future era. Much like the infamous DeLorean vehicle itself, the album is slick and sleek, squeaking from a hard polish that lands midway between glitzy and tacky beyond belief — in the best possible way, mind you. Any recording which intends to faithfully, convincingly pay tribute to the 80s must speak with a fluency in the rhythmic- and synth-cheeses of the times, and Neon Neon apparently has taken a full-immersion course in the language.

Sizzle-shazam: Lazer Sword cuts loose

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May 1, 2008

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In which the breathless writer of this week’s Super Ego column in the paper, laying out the deets on the emerging lazer bass sound, cuts deeper with bass-bangin’ SF duo Lazer Sword (and gets a li’l spankin’ for slapping the “lazer bass” genre header over their sick-ass beats.) Stick it to me! Below is my e-mail interview with swordsters Lando Kal and LL …

The dynamic duo
Photo by Jordan Fraker

SFBG: So what’s the Lazer Sword backstory?
LL: I’m 26 years old and originally from Portland, OR, back when the Trailblazers were hot, but have been in SF for nearly 5 years now. Before I made the move I was heavily into making hip-hop beats in a rap group called Evil Hands, and when we started getting some shows around town I had no choice but to be the DJ (the guy who mans the CD player and does little scratches over the hook) so I was kind of forced to get used to standing on stage and learn to actually spin records a bit since I wasn’t one of the rappers.

After landing in SF I continued to work on music and started playing around with more instrumental type of shit since I had no homies who rapped in the immediate area. Lando and I had crossed paths a few times in the city before we actually got together on some music, but after an official introduction from our mutual hombre Keenan (2005?) we found many similarities in what each other were doing in our respective studios and how we were both trying to do some new experimental shit as well. For a couple months we dabbled around and got a feel for where things were going, but after some people heard what we were doing there was a bit of force put on coming up with a way to hit the streets, so insert a few more months of hard work and eventually we had a live show.

Lazer Sword rip up Rickshaw Stop, May 2007

LANDO: Well I’m 24 and though born in San Francisco, I grew up in Sacramento. I’ve been back for about 6 years now and still enjoy every bit of it. I’ve been producing/ DJing for about 8 years now, messing around with various styles throughout the years. I met Bryant about 4 years ago here in San Francisco and we’ve been labcolabin’ ever since. We met through mutual friends and through passing at Amoeba records (where I worked at the time), trading thoughts on good records for sample material and what not, and began visiting each others’ respective home studios to jam the fuck out. Noticing we had very similar tastes in music and production styles, we naturally began throwing our ideas together, creating boosty tunes and realizing it all worked well together. We’ve been performing for a little over a year now and the sets have changed quite a bit since the first show. I think we can read each other a bit more.

SFBG: What’s going on up there on stage and how do you work together to produce your sound? Especially, how do you produce your lazer bass sound?

D-Structuring the Antique Roadshow

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May 1, 2008

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By Vanessa K. Carr

First Fridays aren’t just for Oakland anymore: D-Structure now hosts art openings the first Friday of every month at their boutique in the Lower Haight.

After a successful show last month with painter Aaron Nagel, D-Structure is launching their latest exhibit, The Antique Roadshow, this Friday, 5/2. The launch party also celebrates the addition of San Francisco-based clothing line Correct Clothing to their stock.

According to Correct Clothing co-founder Thomas Lerou, “Correct Clothing is a lifestyle brand, which means we draw inspiration from the music and art that create the lifestyle. Our clothing will always be linked to music and art.”

Coming Correct

The line keeps it simple – t-shirts and hats only – that they design to be more classic than trendy.

D-Structure’s Antique Roadshow features more than 40 pieces of artwork by local artists Ian Hill, ZenTen, and TenFold, who together are known as the Swedish Milk Toast Collective. In his own way, each of these artists re-envisions the past from a futuristic perspective through the lens of urban and pop art.

Ian Hill’s “Skeptic”

To make the event “a true antique bazaar and roadshow,” says D-Structure’s Cassidy Blackwell, the store will have “antique trinkets displayed all over the gallery space.”

Tenfold takes it on the road

Music will be provided by local DJs Bogle, DJ Centipede, and Citizen Ten (a.k.a. artist TenZen).

The Antique Roadshow
Reception May 2, 8 p.m.
D-Structure
520 Haight, SF
415-252-8601

Frank Chu Speaks, Or, McCain Embezzled My Money

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April 30, 2008

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By Justin Juul

So I ran into this really interesting guy at the One Year Anniversary of The Mission Indie Mart at 12 Galaxies the other day…

SFBG: Hey, aren’t you the guy who hangs out on the corner of Market and Sixth with the sign? I pass you everyday on my way to work. What’s your name?
Frank Chu: Yeah, I protest down there. My name is Frank Chu and I was published by the San Jose Mercury news with Dan Greene and also with Tom Brokaw on NBC Nightly News. I was also filmed by some populations of The 12 Galaxies. They are guilty with Bush and Cheney, which gives you a sense of the millions of populations I’m dealing with.

SFBG: Nice! So do you hang out here at The 12 Galaxies a lot?
Chu: Yes. I was a TV Star and a movie star, so they named the nightclub after me. They call it 12 Galaxies and they give me complimentary drinks and free admission to events. So I didn’t have to pay when I met Mark Hamill from Star Wars. I also met Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry, and Dennis Kucinich. I told them about my campaign.

SFBG: What’s your campaign about?
Chu: Well, it’s about rocket societies, flying saucers, and space vacations.

SFBG: I don’t get it. How does that all tie in together?
Chu: It’s about the 12 Galaxies that are friends with the White House who are guilty of attempts of murdering the other thousand galaxies.

SFBG: Oh, I see. Your campaign is about aliens and stuff then. I always thought you were one of those God people.

Chu: Well, the 12 Galaxies are advanced populations. They are more advanced than humans and they are friends with The Bush and The Clinton.

SFBG: Are they friends with Barack Obama too?

Lazer BASSics — vids

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April 30, 2008

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In this week’s breathless Super Ego clubs column, I gush over the lazer bass sound coming out of Montreal-SF-LA and blowing my mind-woofers lately. Below are some of the sites and sounds — but first, please enjoy this frikking hilarious mashup vid that makes me feel really weird

I LOVE LAZER BASS (BEAMZ System Remix) by Snalepa

Now, on with the shower …

50 Cent, “I Get Money” (Lazer Sword remix) video remix by Lonnie Gallegos

Lunice x Lazer Sword, “Gucci Sweatshirt”

Thank you, super-fierceness

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April 30, 2008

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I needed a hero to get through this morning after, and you came from the ceiling to save me.

And thank YOU, gay mafia (Brock at SFist, via DListed, obviously via somewhere in Georgia or Alabama) for passing the above to me. Hope that tuck’s insured!

Future blaps

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April 29, 2008

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› superego@sfbg.com

>>Lazer Sword sizzles — read the interview

>>Lazer bass-ics: view the vids

SUPER EGO The Millennials have landed on the dance floors, and they come bearing lazers. Electro bangers are raving tecknotik. The blipswitch just got flicked. Hard is the new soft is the new pink is the new blog.

Stay with me, I got breakfast.

The past few years have seen the largest graduating classes in US history, and fresh, fizzy kids are flooding Clubland. They’re cranking full-tilt volume and lobe-throbbing loops, tinged with aggressive glamour. Good for them. A little hyperactive angst to soundtrack that stunned gazelle look so in vogue these days seems perfect for the new electorate. The next few Super Ego columns are gonna get wonky on the youthful nightlife sounds and styles already exploding for summer, so push up your super-flat Takahashi Murakami bifocals, slip on a virtual mindpod, and let’s get kinetic. I’m a hype machine!

First up: Canada. No shit. The Great no-longer-so-White North’s on fire right now, following its recent indie rock onslaught with a tide of dance music innovation. Somehow, dubstep’s abstract rhythmic dynamics, the paranoid wooze of crunk, and the ghosts of the unjustly smacked-down ’90s glitch and IDM scenes have outsourced to Montreal, spawning a kickass, woofer-blowing bbbrrraaa-aaappp!

That’s the sound of Turbo Crunk, the MTL’s superinfluential monthly party and underground movement, which filters hip-hop thumpers through a fuzzy pair of Korgs to spit out jittery ragga and zipper-ripping beats. Last month, New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones dubbed the cataclysmic sound "lazer bass," which fits, since the prolongated sizzle of the low-end slices through your innards like a subsonic chainsaw. Live performers and remixers Megasoid, Blingmod, and Mofomatronix are a few of the Turbo Crunk prime movers, but they took their cue from the genre-bending Bounce Le Gros party thrown by totally crushable speaker-wobbler Ghislain Poirier from 2005-07. Poirier, who blew through San Francisco on tour last September and scorched many a virgin ear, records for Ninja Tune and does to dancehall riddim what labelmate Amon Tobin did to Brazilian samba more than a decade ago — chomp and warp it inside out — and there’s your Turbo family tree.

Lazer bass has originators in the states, too, especially on the West Coast. L.A. is repped by protean producer Daddy Kev, cosmic dubster Flying Lotus, and poster-boy hip-choppers Glitch Mob, a quartet of DJs and knob-fiddlers — comprising Ooah, ediT, Boreta, and Kraddy — that’s managed to appeal to both the gangsta rap and Burning Man crowds. So yeah, the apocalypse is upon us. Grab a fruity cocktail.

The Bay seems exceptionally lazerable, even though there’s no regular party yet to slice up the glow. Glitch came of age here — howdy, Kid606 — and Club Six’s sprawling techno-ragga club Surya Dub has become the epicenter for the kind of dread bass antics that lazer bass takes to a gut level. Montreal is Canada’s Silicon Valley, so the demographics of pan-global, tech-savvy immigrants and natives matches up. And despite its mechanical logistics, the lazer bass sound has a certain grinning innocence to it. These are kids whose dads turned them on to Star Wars, probably. The low-tech skronks and squelches riding high atop that neato bass blare — and those pixellated CMYK Space Invaders graphics — aren’t ironic comments, they’re a great space coaster to the electronic womb. The recent bathhouse hi-NRG, Italo disco, and minimal techno revivals shared a similar ga-ga exploration of the synth-driven mysteries of the cosmic past.

Local duo Lazer Sword, a.k.a. LL and Lando Kal, are our gunners for the scene. (Ethereal wunderboy Ghosts on Tape and trancey duo Hours of Worship deserve mention as well). LL describes what he and Lando do when they’re bent backbreakingly low over their displays as "future-blaps." Yep. The two hit hard on the hip-hop side: their bastard detonation of 50 Cent’s "I Get Money" and live robo-raze of Lil Wayne and Birdman’s "Stuntin’ Like My Daddy" torch floors, while their own stuttery blowout "Gucci Sweatshirt" (from Oakland label Pish Posh’s 2007 comp Got Howls) is a c-c-cult classic. Lazer Sword’s got an EP dropping on the B.E.A.R. label this spring, they just headlined Turbo Crunk April 26, and you can catch them twice in May. Who’s up for sonic bikini waxes?

LAZER SWORD

With XO Skeletons and VC4

Fri/2, 9 p.m., call for price

Balazo 18

2811 Mission, SF

(415) 255-7227

www.myspace.com/lazersword

GLITCH MOB

With Lazer Sword and Flying Lotus

May 9, 9 p.m.–3 a.m., $20

Mighty

119 Utah, SF

(415) 762-0151

Migden-Leno: Did we get it right?

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April 29, 2008

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318-cover.web.jpg

We took the State Senate District 3 endorsement seriously, and agonized over it for weeks. What do you think — did we get it right?

SPORTS: The F-in’ ballgame

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April 28, 2008

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By A.J. Hayes

Carbon dioxide, deforestation, and nitrous oxide all shoulder their share of the blame for Global Warming. But what about Lee Elia?

Now, you won’t find Elia’s name mentioned in any Al Gore lecture. He’s not a greedy corporate bigwig, an eco terrorist, or a clueless oil tanker captain – just a curmudgeonly baseball lifer.

But 25 years ago this week, during a highly unsuccessful two-season stint managing the Chicago Cubs, Elia emitted the most extreme, paint-peeling meltdowns in the history of sports.

When he was done blasting away at Cubs fans with an obscenity-laced rant that included a jaw-dropping 36 F-bombs over the first three minutes, Elia surely had released enough green house gasses to liquidate massive mountain glaciers and multiply the thermal expansion of upper ocean layers from Pacifica to Antarctica. .

A quarter century later, Elia’s diatribe still ranks as the No. 1 outburst in the history of sports – eclipsing Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy (I’m a man! I’m 40!”); Indianapolis Colts coach Jim Mora (Playoffs?! Are you kidding?! Playoffs?!) and any number of profanity laced diatribes by former Dodgers skipper Tommy Lasorda.

The Legend of Elia rant has grown so much over the years, that every April 29, sports radio broadcasters from coast- to- coast gather for a moment to celebrate “Lee Elia Day” – popping multi-generational copies of the tirade into their Monrantz tape decks and laughing hysterically.

After dealing with mounds of monotone sports clichés on a daily basis, Elia’s rant allows beleaguered sound bite gathers a moment to smile. Obviously, because of Elia’s unrestrained profanity, only carefully edited versions of Elia’s adult content diatribe have ever made it to the public airwaves.

Now, thanks to the internet of course, Elia’s diatribe can be heard in all its profane glory.

The hapless Cubs were off to a typical dreary start to their ’83, settling into last place in the National League East place after a 4-3 loss to the Dodgers at Wrigley Field that afternoon.

As the Cubs exited the field and the 9,391 fans in attendance filed out of the grand stand, a couple of jerks pelted Chicago’s Keith Moreland and Larry Bowa with stadium trash.

“About 85 percent of the (f-ing) world is working,” Elia growled into the microphone of Chicago radio man Les Grobstein, one of a half dozen reporters to witness the rant first hand. “The other 15 come out here.”

He was far from finished.
Moments later, Elia’s season-long slow burn escalated into an inferno. He lit not only into the debris flinging morons, but each and every Cubs fan that had ever skipped school or work to take in a mid-week day game at the “Friendly Confines.”

Taking the Johnnie Walker Journey

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April 28, 2008

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By Jon Beckhardt

A couple Thursdays ago I went on the Johnnie Walker Journey – a traveling tasting show of Johnnie Walker’s five blended whiskies. Only now can I process this odd event.

First a quick note, I am often fairly cynical about these tasting events — whether they are put on by a liquor company, or whether they’re part of festivals that bring together a number of companies. I can think of a few at bars that have been joyous events (see: those held at Elixir), but often they take place in sterile rooms, and completely reduce the enjoyment of a liquor.

While The Johnnie Walker Journey, which took place at Fort Mason, fell into the latter category, it was so over the top it may have shot the moon. How do you turn the tasting of five liquors into something special? You build it into an overhyped multimedia event that is far bigger than it deserves to be.

The evening started off pretty lackluster. First we waited in line to “donate” five dollars to charity — which one they didn’t say. Then we waited in line to fill out a survey with one of the Johnny Walker Girls (much more wholesome than you’re picturing).

After a half hour, an announcer intoned that the time for the tasting was now. Again we waited in line, this time like we were entering Universal Studios. The email I had gotten about the event described it as a multimedia event. When I asked Travis Rexroad, the marketing guy who was helping organize this, what could be multimedia about a tasting event, he wasn’t much help with details.

After herding us together once again, we filed into the back room. Four groups of five rows of long white, soft benches faced the center, turning the normally dingy Fort Mason into something resembling a futuristic gathering of the elders.

Then came out the emcee. This guy, who looked like Richard Karn, had the job of stretching out the drinking of a total of 2 oz of liquor over an hour and a half. But his first job was to tell us where the exits were in case, in the middle of the show, we had to use the bathroom.

Hot Tubbin’ with Ashkon

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April 25, 2008

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By Justin Juul

Like perhaps everyone in the world for the past two years, I can’t stop watching certain YouTube clips. And blogging about them. There’s the Danzig vs. Shakira mideo, the Mike Tyson montage, The Mini-Mall Rapper Guy , Trapped in The Closet (duh), and now there’s Ashkon, a Bay Area rapper whose latest song/video “Hot Tubbin’”, was released to YouTube on March 24.

It unexpectedly got placed on the site’s front page the very next day, propelling the relatively unknown artist into the weird world of Interstardom. The Guardian caught up with Ashkon recently (by calling the phone number he forgot to edit out of the final cut for Hot Tubbin’) to see how it feels to be Internet-famous.

SFBG: Hello, is this Ashkon?
Ashkon: Yeah man. It’s me. Who’s this?

SFBG: It’s Justin Juul from The SF Bay Guardian. I just wanted to find out if the rumors were true, that the number you show in your Hot Tubbin’ video really connects to you.
Ashkon: Ha! Yeah. It’s me. Definitely.

SFBG: That’s pretty brave dude. Has your life changed at all since your video hit the front page on YouTube?
Ashkon:Ha ha. Yeah it has. Now I get thousands of phone calls a week from random people like you.

SFBG: Have you gotten any weird ones?
Ashkon: Oh hell yeah. I had this one stalker, some guy, who was calling me like every day. That was kind of creepy. Also, a lot of people have taken it as an opportunity to just call up and mess with me, as you could probably imagine.

Pics: Best croissants in SF?

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April 25, 2008

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Ariel Soto, our video photojournalist about town, checks out the amazing Destination Baking Company in Glen Park:

Lit: Still Broke Ass after all these years

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April 25, 2008

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By Justin Juul

Broke Ass Stuart is a travel writer, an SF cult hero, and one of the luckiest sunzabitches you will ever meet. Not only does he get paid to travel the world and write, but he also gets to do it as himself. Most travel writers have to water their stories down for those crappy airplane magazines or they just write thousands of fact-of-the-matter-reviews designed for hurried tourists. But not Stuart. He doesn’t have to do any of that shit.

His first book, Broke Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in San Francisco, which he originally published himself as a zine, helped him carve a niche as a new voice in an industry overpopulated by impersonal clones. Since releasing his first book, Stuart has gone on to write a second SF edition and he recently spent ten months in New York doing research for his newest book, Broke Ass Stuart’s Guide to Living Cheaply in New York City. Sounds like a dream come true doesn’t it? Well, apparently travel writing isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. After four years of writing Broke Ass Stuart books and doing odd jobs for Lonely Planet, Stuart’s life is in shambles. He’s homeless, disoriented, and still broke-as-fuck.

The Guardian caught up with Stuart recently to remind him that his job is awesome and that other financially challenged writers (ahem) would kill to be in his position.

SFBG: So what’s up with your New York book? Did you make tons of money off it?
Stuart: No dude. Let me tell you, writing books is not the way to wealth and fame. I blew through my New York advance pretty quick and wound up waiting tables the whole time I was there. The book’s not coming out till November so I won’t be getting any royalties for a long time. I can’t even think about that money, really. I mean, I’ve been waiting tables for nine years.

SFBG: Shit. Yeah. So have I actually.
Stuart: It’s like a fuckin’ bad habit. It’s such a weird subculture, you know? Like people in the restaurant fucking each other, tons of drugs. And then you get out at night and you’re all revved up from dealing with assholes all night…

SFBG: So you take all your tips and go blow it another bar.
Stuart: Exactly. It’s definitely, uh, special.

Pics: Goats and green at Heron’s Head Park

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April 23, 2008

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By Ariel Soto

The EcoCenter at Heron’s Head Park groundbreaking ceremony was held yesterday, April 22, in San Francisco’s Bayview/Hunters Point. The EcoCenter will be the first LEED-certified building in the southern part of the city and first building to run completely off the grid. Heron’s Head Park was opened in 1999 to provide an open and natural space for the communities nearby, and since then more than 1,200 volunteers have helped restore the area by removing invasive plants and trash and replacing them with native plants. With the continuous support and effort of the Port of San Francisco and Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ), the EcoCenter will finally open, giving students the opportunity to learn in hands-on programs about issues such as clean air and water, renewable energy, healthy foods and open space restoration. (To get involved in the Heron’s Head Park project, contact Laurie Schoeman at: lcprojectmanager@lejyouth.org) Here’s some pics from the event.

The entrance to Heron’s Head Park with the old PG&E plant in the background that’s in the process of being demolished.

Goats are used in Heron’s Head Park as a natural method of weed control.

Volunteers gather at Heron’s Head Park before the beginning of the groundbreaking ceremony.

A Scrophularia californica, or Bee Plant, is just one example of the many native California plants that will be re-introduced into Heron’s Head Park.

Beautiful Heron’s Head Park.

Milton Reynolds, a member of Literacy for Environmental Justice, started the day’s events at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new EcoCenter at Heron’s Head Park.

7 spring flings

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April 22, 2008

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San Francisco is such a gosh darn charming place, it often seems as if there are more romantic dining options than available dates. To which we say: Never! Spring has sprung and frisky hormones are back in motion after cozy hibernation. Grab the nearest eligible and hit up the following delightfully intimate (and reasonably priced) eateries, if only to test-drive the menu.

BAR BAMBINO

Mouth-watering charcuterie for your cutie, an extensive wine list to revel in, and an atmosphere that, while occasionally heavy on the decibel level, will douse any diminished conversation expectations in attractive lighting — so at least the potential partner across the table will look irresistible. Factor in a nifty little patio in back and an olive oil tasting menu to lubricate the cooing (plus a plethora of lip-smacking Italian dishes) and the mood is set for, if not love, then perhaps a memorable evening in the Mission.

2931 16th St., SF. (415) 701-8466, www.barbambino.com

CAFÉ ANDRÉE

You, of course, have absolutely no problem "closing the deal" — but it’s always good to have a secret weapon on hand, just in case. Café Andrée is mine. Every time I usher a hottie into Andrée’s intimate, well-appointed librarylike setting in the Rex Hotel downtown (bookshelves line the walls and there are globes galore), I know the rest of the evening will be silky smooth. Executive chef Evan Crandall creates incredible pan-global dishes that never fail to tickle. And his new spring menu is on fire. The best part: if your date bores you to tears, you don’t have to bring a book. Café Andrée does it all!

562 Sutter, SF. (415) 217-4001, www.jdvhotels.com/dining/sanfrancisco_cafeandree

COULEUR CAFÉ

Perfect for a leisurely luncheon prelude to any early-evening nuzzling, this Portrero Hill café’s generous outdoor patio and savory dishes may be responsible for more than a few calls into work begging for the afternoon off. The theme is laidback French with some Mediterranean kick, which is actually the description of many a dream date as well. A come-hither combo that always works for me: assiette de merguez with harissa for starters, followed up by the mussels mariniere and pommes frites. Enjoy.

300 De Haro, SF. (415) 255-1021, www.couleurcafesf.com

1550 HYDE CAFÉ AND WINE BAR

Nob Hill: the dating double-entendres are endless. So is the romance, especially if you duck into the intensely cozy 1550 Hyde for an adventurous wine flight and delectable cheese plate or main dish. (If 1550 is featuring its wondrous Provençal fish stew while you’re there, try it and thank me later). The emphasis here is on locally produced goods — the better to draw you closer — and the restaurant discourages cell phones, so your tête-à-tête is guaranteed to be restricted to sweet nothings.

1550 Hyde, SF. (415) 775-1550, www.1550hyde.com

L’ARDOISE

I can’t lie to you. I’m eating a can of Campbell’s tomato soup while I write this, but I’m dreaming of the escargots in garlic parsley sauce and almond-crusted barramundi at this brand-spanking new French delight near Duboce Park. Needless to say, I’ve already spent many a cherished hour there with my lover-of-the-moment. The space is warm and inviting, and the friendliness of the service puts any haughty stereotypes of the French to rest. "L’Ardoise" means chalkboard, so be sure to check the specials, which usually include a number of creamy cheeses as well as unique entrées that’ll have you’re your date shouting "oui, monsieur."

151 Noe, SF. (415) 437-2600, www.lardoisesf.com

TANGERINE

"Tangerine — she is all they claim / With her eyes of night and lips as bright as flame." So begins the famous jazz song, "Tangerine" — and the Castro restaurant of the same name seduces with an equal amount of yummy crepuscular abandon. Asian influences dot chef Sean Pattansuvoranun’s menu — and a recent pairing of the lemongrass lamb lollipops appetizer with a drunken duck entrée had me begging for Pattansuvoranun’s home phone number. But he knows better. Tangerine’s decor is crisp-yet-amiable, and the service is fluid, allowing you enough privacy to lick each other’s plates.

3499 16th St., SF. (415) 626-1700, www.tangerinesf.com

BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE CAFÉ

If "bittersweet" describes the tenor of your evening together so far, tune up the ol’ heartstrings with a chocolate-flavored valentine at this cute café, with locations in Upper Fillmore and Oakland. A cocoa cornucopia of tastings, pastries, and specialty drinks — hello, hot steaming cup of chocolate chai — Bittersweet stays open pretty late, and will end any evening on a sumptuous note (even if your sheets remain uncrumpled).

2123 Fillmore, SF. (415) 346-8715; 5427 College Ave, Oakl. (510) 654-7159, www.bittersweetcafe.com *

Eat these queens’ meats

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April 22, 2008

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It’s time to raise a knife and spoon to end AIDS, as restaurants throughout our fair berg are flooded on the evening of Thurs/24 for Dining Out For Life — a benefit in which 25 percent of all food and drink sales will be donated to StopAIDS. Oh yes, there will be drag queens. Perhaps even breaded and baked. Below are three choice happenings hosted by thirsty trannies aching to shove their meat in your mouth. Reservations strongly encouraged (Click here for 100 more participating restaurants!)

The Crispy Classic

Miss Juanita More dishes out her famous fried chicken with honey goo (plus carrot cake dessert!) at Mars Bar. her scrumptious (and possibly underaged) More Boys will wait on you, hostess Candi Gurl will look stunned but glamorous, and DJ James Glass –= the hottest straight boy into underground disco — will help it all go down easy.

5-9pm
Mars Bar
798 Brannan, SF
(415) 621-MARS

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The Skewered Newbie

No one skewers the reigning queens of the scene like Monistat — so appropriately she’ll be hostessing, along with Castro Shawn, at the Castro’s deliciously healthy skewered meat wonderland Asqew Grill. Don’t forget to shishkabob your hair, lady.

6pm
Asqew Grill
3583 16th St., SF
(415) 626-3040

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Just a Plain Ol’ Saucy Mess

The fiendishly fingerlickin’ Felicia Fellatio — pictured here with cutie leatherboy cohost Jorge — will hold glutton court at Memphis Minnie’s BBQ in Lower Haight. (Did you know that Memphis Minnie’s features a sake tasting menu with it’s plethora of roasted flesh? Well now you know!)

7pm
574 Haight, SF
(415) 864-7675
www.memphisminnies.com

PS: It’s rumored that Felicia can down a whole rack of ribs without swallowing. Here’s proof, at least, that she can down a whole racket:

Anyone for seconds?

Pics: Family Immigrant Day 2008

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April 22, 2008

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By Ariel Soto

On April 16, members of the thirteen immigrant community organizations that make up the San Francisco Immigrant Legal and Education Network (SFILEN) met at City Hall today in an effort to advocate for more community resources for immigrants. Immigrants represent 40 percent of San Francisco’s population and the event was an opportunity for members of SFILEN to call attention to the need for more legal and educational programs, and to speak with City Supervisors as a continuation of making San Francisco a true sanctuary for all immigrants.

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Members of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) on the steps of City Hall, supporting San Francisco’s Immigrant Family Day.

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Supporters gathered at City Hall for Immigrant Family Day, asking City leaders to continue supporting immigrant programs for their communities.

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Members of the community came out to hold signs and show their support to keep San Francisco true sanctuary for immigrant communities.

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Members of Mujeres Unidas at San Francisco’s Immigrant Family Day.

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Ben Younes Ouanane (left), an immigrant from Morocco, spoke about the help he has received from the African Immigrant and Refugee Resource Center (AIRRC), one of the cities many immigrant rights organizations involved in the Immigrant Family Day. Joe Sciarrillo, a paralegal at AIRRC, translated from French to English for Mr. Ouanane.