SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s look: Stacey, Market and 5th
Tell us about your look:“Wear what you feel comfortable in.”
sfbg
Appetite: Bar Crudo’s new digs, Bruno’s good evening, sweetbreads, pastas, and more
Every Monday, Virginia Miller of personalized itinerary service and monthly food, drink, and travel newsletter, www.theperfectspotsf.com, shares foodie news, events, and deals. View the last installment here.
Campy/classy Good Evening Thursdays
————
EVENTS
Good Evening Thursdays at Bruno’s… a sexy, weekly, speakeasy-like supper club
Take "Pussycat" in giant, Parisian ’60’s lettering, white tablecloths and waiters in vintage suits, a Rat Pack-vibe menu (reasonably priced) of Filet Mignon with bone marrow, chop salad, martinis, and Oysters Rockefeller, throw in a leering cat from the rafters, and, yes, a gold pole in the middle of the room (hmmm…?) and you have Good Evening Thursdays (at least until another name is decided upon). Up leopard-carpeted stairs in Bruno’s intimate, 35-seat private room, you’ve got yourself about the coolest non-restaurant, meal ticket in town. The genius behind this concept? A cracker-jack chef line-up of Chris Kronner (from Serpentine), Slow Club, Chez Panisse), Danny Bowien (of Bar Tartine), Sam White and Howie Correa (both front of house at Chez Panisse), and Oliver Monday (from brand new flour+water) who create and cook the meals each week. I went on debut night, May 7, and found it worth dressing up for. Sans reservations, the downstairs ’60’s-chic lounge celebrates Thursdays, too, no res. required, with old school imbibements and killer bar food, like Let’s Be Frank dogs with kimchi and bacon mayo, or pork banh mi. Read more and see photos in my latest Perfect Spot newsletter.
7pm-1:30am
Reservations: goodeveningthursday@gmail.com
2389 Mission, SF
415-643-5200
www.brunossf.com
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Interview: “The English Surgeon”
By Sean McCourt
In the medical world, there are serious risks associated with any kind of surgery. If a mistake is made during a procedure on a leg or arm, there might be some loss of movement or ease of mobility, but the patient can still generally go about their lives, perhaps with a slight physical handicap. If something goes wrong during a brain surgery, however, a person can lose their memory, their control of motor skills, even the ability to think. This is the challenge that faces British neurosurgeon Dr. Henry Marsh every time he operates on somebody, and is one of the personal revelations about his work that he shares in the film The English Surgeon, which has its San Francisco theatrical premiere at the Red Vic from May 17-20.
Director Geoffrey Smith tells the story of how Marsh has been traveling to the former Soviet republic of Ukraine since 1992, volunteering on his own time to help in a region of the world that has a medical system that lags many decades behind those in the industrialized west — and where many cases of brain tumors and other illnesses go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed for so long that what would have been easily taken care of with a routine operation or procedure at Marsh’s hospital in London have now progressed to the point that there is little doctors can do to save the patient’s life.
Street Threads: Look of the Day
SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s look: TJ, Leavenworth and McAllister
Tell us about your look: “I like the skateboard look.”
Hip babies: How can your kids be more socially responsible?
By Juliette Tang
The concept of social responsibility didn’t really sink in for me until college. I confess that as a kid, I too preoccupied with collecting beanie babies from McDonald’s to realize the effects that factory-farmed meat has on our environment. I wanted that new Esprit sweatshirt, and I didn’t even know the meaning of sweatshop labor. Luckily for the future of our planet, social responsibility starts at a much younger age now. In San Francisco, organizations like 826 Valencia tutors local kids in writing, engaging them with one another as well as their community. These is all good and well, but I say, make your kids socially responsible while they’re even younger. Get them while they’re babies.
One way to make your baby more socially responsible (and have fun while you’re at it) is to buy locally-made children’s products. There are many local, organic, and ethical makers of baby clothes, toys, and care products, right at our doorstep. In fact, because toxic chemicals like lead and melamine keep finding their way into ” target=”_blank”>baby products before they are recalled, it makes sense to be extra safe.
Speesees makes some of the most precious baby clothes I have ever seen. This kimono cut baby romper is made with 100% organic, 24 rib cotton. Called Speesees as a play on “species,” their mission is “to be fun, fair, and organic in the products we make, the way we conduct business, and the baby steps we take towards creating a more sustainable future for the animal, plant + human speesees on our children’s planet”. Speesees products are all organic, using low-impact dyes, and are available at a variety of local stores, including one of our favorite eco-boutiques, Ladita.
What? Only six days left to hire a hooker on Craigslist?
By Juliette Tang
They say you have until next Tuesday to hire a hooker on Craigslist, but everyone knows that probably won’t be the case. Craigslist is shutting down its “Erotic $ervices” section after increasing pressure from law enforcement following the arrest of Philip Markoff, the “Craigslist Killer,” but because state officials and law enforcement want a scapegoat instead of a solution, the only people who end up benefiting from this situation are… the people at Craigslist? What?
Craigslist is shutting down erotic services to start the new “adult services” listing, which their blog states: “will be opened for postings by legal adult service providers,” whatever that means. Craigslist will review each posting before it goes on the site to ensure compliance with Craigslist guidelines, whatever those are. [Where do I apply!?! — Ed.] The murky details of Craigslist’s new adult services category are confusing, vague, and actually head-scratchingly bizarre.
Street Threads: Look of the Day
SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s Look: Diana, Sixth Street and Market
Tell us about your look: “No comment.”
There’s a laptop in the orchestra!
Everybody panic. Don’t worry, electronic-symphonica mastermind Mason Bates, who I rave about in this week’s issue, isn’t gonna freak peeps out. But seriously, do not miss the premier of his orchestral suite for full orchestra and laptop, The B-Sides, which he’ll be performing for three nights with the ever-game SF Symphony, Wed/20, Fri/22, Sat/23. After Friday night’s performance (free with ticket!) you’ll get ushered into a really cool secret space by Davies Symphony Hall for an afterparty, featuring Mason’s
Here’s two views of Mason, aka DJ Masonic, at Carnegie Hall with the YouTube Symphony Orchestra in April, debuting the “Wharehouse Medicine” portion of The B-Sides.
The balcony view, complete with trippy visuals:
and here’s from right down in the fray (I’m dying to know what the tiny grand piano behind his is for! Hello, Carl Stalling?) Note the dramatic use of drum pad:
I would be totally, regrettably remiss if I didn’t also pump Bates’ co-performer on the program, the heartbreakingly talented and just all around fierce Yuja Wang, who’ll be performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto #2, which at around the seven-minute-mark will honestly start to kill you with beauty. Girl’s got skills.
Here’s her performing at Carnegie Hall. Um, hi hotness.
Also featured: the majestically haunting, almost-4AD-foretelling Fourth Symphony by Sibelius, who’s all the rage among young turk composers these days.
Mason Bates, Yuja Wang, and the SF Symphony
Wed/20, Fri/22, Sat/23
8 p.m., $35–$130
Davies Symphony Hall
201 Van Ness
(415) 552-8000
www.sfsymphony.org
Film review: “Treeless Mountain”
By Natalie Gregory
So Yong Kim’s Treeless Mountain follows two young Korean sisters, Jin and Bin, and their transient lifestyle. Their mother leaves them with their aunt to search for their father, whose absence is unexplained. What’s remarkable is how Kim captures the independence experienced by these young girls (Jin, the elder sister, is six). The film is told mainly from Jin’s perspective, following her as she mourns the absence of her mother and ponders how to protect her sister. As they are passed to their aunt, the girls’ are told that their mother will return when their piggy bank is full. They sell grasshoppers to quicken the process and begin to fill the bank in hopes of their mother’s return. Jin’s realizations of her and her sister’s reality are heartbreaking. In the end, the pair ends up in a happier home, but have grown up all too quickly. Evoking emotions without the benefit of an overbearing musical score, it is a thoughtful, melancholy picture.
Treeless Mountain opens Fri/15 in Bay Area theaters.
Live Shots: Yoshida Brothers strum up Yoshi’s
Text and photos by Ariel Soto
Walking confidently on stage and decked out in tradition Japanese garb, the Yoshida Brothers took over the stage at Yoshi’s SF in the Fillmore — they’ll be performing there until May 16th. The Yoshida brothers play the shamisen, a square shaped guitar like instrument with only three stings that twangs and resonates long after the stings have been plucked.
Artist David Wilson’s “Open Endless” swims with vintage tactics
By Johnny Ray Huston
Not every art show allows you a chance to swim in the Pacific Ocean on a Sunday afternoon and experience the bracing cold of the water and the pull of the tide. But David Wilson’s "Open Endless" isn’t your average show, even if it is characteristic of Wilson’s community explorations of art and landscape under the Ribbons Publications rubric. Last year, he instigated a sleep-over happening at Angel Island that included live music. This month, as an extension of a show of drawings, he organized a casually beautiful mapped day and night of art in the Headlands.
No two people had the same experience. Besides a dip in the Pacific, mine included a trek up the paved trails of the North Cliff to a white diamond hung on the cliff’s face by Battery Townsley, where the duo Pale Horse sang songs in a tunnel, and then a walk back down to the beach where the duo known as Coconut played music in a little cove as two, three, four, five, six surfers took on the waves during sunset. I don’t have much to say about that latter experience beyond that it was the kind of moment that makes me completely glad to be alive. I left sated and went home and slept and dreamt deeply. Those who stayed ambled on through Rodeo Canyon to another Battery, where Canyon Cinema shared some cave cinema.
Wilson’s drawings, on display at Tartine, are a shifting sequence of meditations on the landscape and coastlines of the Headlands. His deployment of color and line is understated. The brashest aspect of the show is its use of material: the largest piece, a 22-foot watercolor of the ocean and shore, uses the blank-but-aged paper of record sleeves and the cardboard insides of albums covers as a backdrop. It’s a great tactic. Earlier this year at the de Young Museum, Ajit Chauhan performed a different but similarly large-scale trick with album covers, painting over their exteriors so that only eyes peeked from the original artwork. Wilson’s use of vintage music matter hints at the merging of art and that which is codified "nature" at the core of his events. I’m already looking forward to his next one.
OPEN ENDLESS Through May 28. Mon., 8 a.m.–7 p.m. Tues.–Wed., 7:30 a.m.–7 p.m.; Thurs.–Fri., 7:30 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sat., 8 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sun., 9 a.m.-–8 p.m. (415) 487-2600. Tartine, 600 Guerrero, SF. www.ribbonspublications.blogpost.com
Aspect gallery goes there Friday night
By Juliette Tang
“All art is erotic,” Adolf Loos famously said in 1908. We say, ok maybe, but not all art is equally erotic. All you need to do in order to test that hypothesis is look at American Gothic by Grant Wood and compare it to anything Edouard-Henri Avril has ever done.
Photo by Craig Scoffone
Those who like your art on the more (i.e. blatantly) erotic side will be happy to know that, this Friday, March 15, at the Aspect Gallery (731 Polk Street), there will be a nude and erotic art show from 6:00-9:30PM. Enjoy food and refreshments (you can BYOB) while perusing a titillating selection of erotic paintings and photographs from 12 local San Francisco artists who are making the art scene sexier for us all.
Man on Bed, by Erika Meriaux.
The Aspect Gallery is injecting a much needed shot of Viagra into the San Francisco art scene.
alt.sex.column: Don’t change a Thing
By Andrea Nemerson. View more alt.sex columns here. Email your questions to Andrea: andrea@altsexcolumn.com.
Dear Andrea:
I found this on Craigslist. Please, please stop this poor girl before it’s too late! She should hear from a professional that she’d be sacrificing nerve endings to a bunch of dickweeds who are suckers for media standards. And they won’t even like her more. God help us.
advice please re labia — w4m
so im hearing mixed reviews from guys about a female’s labia. do guys prefer the labia minora to be big or small? because tons of my friends are seeking to have them made smaller (like by a lot) so they look like playboy types etc. is that what guys want? what turns men on? and why? any advice on what to do here for me??
‘Nuff said. Thank you.
Love,
A Concerned Citizen
(Seriously.)
Dear Concerned:
Oh, okay. Maybe she’ll see this and maybe she won’t, but obviously this is a thing, or a Thing, that affects a lot of young women, just as she says. "Tons" of her friends, though? I realize she’s posting from L.A., where you have to expect this sort of thing, but the image of busloads of girls she went to high school with or worked with at Hot Topic after school lining up for surgical "correction" is unsettling even me.
So, what is going on here? I’ve long assumed (this has been going on a while now) that women used to go a lifetime without seeing their own (it takes a mirror and the will to look) or anyone else’s labia in great detail unless they had chosen to be midwives or something, in which case they were busy.
Shannon is worthy, plus Clams
By Andre Torrez
Photo by Francis Chung
Enough about Thee Oh Sees already. Let’s talk about Shannon and the Clams. John Dwyer’s new outfit is great and all, but Shannon is bodacious. She’s a peroxide-haired, punk-rock pin-up who gets real mean on her Danelectro bass.
I caught the classic beauty out and about last week with an unmasked Nobunny. They were catching a glimpse of those pretty Black Lips performing at the Great American Music Hall. A few months earlier, I saw Shannon and her Clams doin’ their thing for the hometown crowd at Oakland’s Stork Club. For sure, the highlight of the night was their rendition of Del Shannon’s "Runaway." I can’t get enough of that song. Anytime I hear it, it’s embedded in my brain for days. I enjoyed the guitarist’s mimicry of whatever high-pitched instrument is used in the bridge of the original recording. Surf rock interpretation at its finest.
Shannon and the Clams, “Blood”
Shannon’s gnarly, gruff-sounding wail conveys the angst of an exhausted teenage wreck (see "Cry Aye Aye"). She’s somewhere between a woman possessed by Little Richard and the vocal huskiness of the Gossip’s Beth Ditto. Another standout track, "Blast Me To Bermuda," is pure teen-punk energy, with a slicing riff that propels the Clams’ late-1950s, early-’60s style into a more contemporary garage rock sound.
Shannon is worthy in my book. Good ol’ rock ‘n’ roll!
SHANNON AND THE CLAMS With Thee Oh Sees, Sonny and Sunsets, and the Mystery Lights. Fri/15, 9 p.m., $8. Amnesia, 853 Valencia, SF. (415) 970-0012. www.amnesiathebar.com
Street Threads: Look(s) of the Day
SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s look: George and Willy, Sixth Street and Market
Tell us about your looks:
George: “This is Urban and American Apparel.”
Willy: “I’m wearing Dior jeans and a vintage tee”
Nite Trax: Jamie Jones
By Marke B., who thinks very highly of his ears, if not his latest dance moves. But he’ll keep trying. View the previous Nite Trax here.
There are currently three Jamie Joneses in the music world. Two of them are kind of cute — but I’d never ever listen to them again. As fate would usually have it, the REALLY cute one is the one who’s turning me out lately, and has just produced what may well be the summer 09 jam, if I was lame enough to predict such things. Ladies and gentlemen and ladies, the only Jamie Jones that counts:
But I’m really only interested in his music.
The song is “You!” — an eight-plus minute slice of loveliness, what I would perhaps call subtle tech-soul, that blends a couple grin-worthy retro effects with some serious mixing-board control (loving the dribble-dabs of tinkling percussion). Everything falls into the right place and climbs above genre-tiredness into a burnished place all its own.
The Blender: What we’ve been eating
By the ravenous Guardian staff
Chicken pepita, hell yes
(1) Double-decker tacos and pintos with cheese, pre-Cinco de Mayo Taco Bell run
(2) Tacos, margaritas, and Dos Equis, Tres Agaves Cinco de Mayo fiesta
(3) Salmon with eggplant caviar and chocolate mousse, Bistro St. Germaine
(4) Chicken pepita with dandelion greens-mashed potatoes
(5) Russian tea tray, Samovar
Ask a Porn Star: Hormones and the mainstream
In Which Super Sexy Porn People Answer Questions –each week– From Bay Area Locals. View the last installment here.
By Justin Juul
Fielding your questions this month is AVN’s current “Transsexual Performer of The Year,” Wendy Williams.
Jason W: Will you have to take hormones the rest of your life?
Williams: Yes, unfortunately, if you don’t keep putting female hormones in your body, you’ll start to produce testosterone and that never goes away. It sucks because it’s extremely expensive and you’re never going to be able to finish. If you’re a transsexual you are “in transition” your entire life. Like…I’ve had many surgeries and there are many more I’d like to have. And I’ll be doing hormone replacement forever. But it’s all upkeep. All women have to pay for that and it’s totally worth it. One shitty thing is that insurance won’t cover any of it, but I’m not complaining. There are many other basic human rights issues in our society that need to be dealt with before we work on transsexual stuff.
SFBG: What advice would you give a young person thinking of transitioning?
News flash: Power Exchange is a SEX CLUB
By Marke B
Sorry, you’ll have to go back to church for that … for now
I hate to rise to the usual nauseating bait of Chronicle writer C.W. Nevius almost as much as I’d have hated to wade into the sheer time-waste of that whole Miss California gay marriage debacle-thingy, but a hilarious oopsie in his latest half-hearted diatribe — celebrating how something called the Brady Street Neighborhood Coalition “has stopped the Power Exchange, a sex club, from opening on Gough Street” — popped me a ironic one comparable to those Carrie Prejean pink-panty shots. To whit:
The neighborhood group isn’t just a bunch of prudes. The Power Exchange had been located nearby, after all, and no one had a problem with what was going on inside. It was the unruly behavior outside that was troubling.
And yet, a couple paragraphs later:
When the landlord brought a client to another property, he was picketed with one sign announcing that he “rents to a SEX CLUB.”
Wait — I thought they didn’t have a problem with that? Or was this just one rotten prune among the supposed non-prudes? It’s so hard to tell when sex is involved — which I guess could have been a slogan for the PE all along.
Power Exchange owner Mike Powers has vowed to continue his relocation efforts elsewhere — “I can’t let [the city] win now. I have to reopen … because now it’s become a battle where they’re saying Power Exchange isn’t acceptable,” Powers said to the oddly toned Mission Local blog (I wouldn’t exactly trust that bracketed insertion — the city itself had no beef with the joint.) Let’s hope his SEX CLUB can find a place in the city where people have SEX and know that part of living here means CLUBS. Let’s hope it’s soon — I’ll meet you there with some celebratory non-alcoholic bubbly and tales of my favorite adventures in the old medical room.
PS My absolute favorite part of this whole dust-up is that the main complaint of the Brady Coalition folks about the PE’s threat to the community is that people were dropping condoms out of their car windows. I’m totally anti-litter, but this calls up in my mind the wonderfully surrealistic vision of a rainbow of rubbers being flung out of Honda Civics up and down the street. Plus, I guess it’s a relief from normals going postal about “spreading disease,” at least. Safe sex = the new AIDS!
Street Threads: Look of the Day
SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.
Today’s look: Laura, Sixth Street and Market
Tell us about your look: “It’s hot so I’m wearing a skirt to catch the breeze a bit.”
Appetite: Brazilian piranha ribs, Korean tacos, schnitzel sandwiches, fancy ‘tinis, and more
Every Monday, Virginia Miller of personalized itinerary service and monthly food, drink, and travel newsletter, www.theperfectspotsf.com, shares foodie news, events, and deals. View the last installment here.
‘Tini time at SF Cocktail Week
———–
EVENTS
May 11-18: SF Cocktail Week
SF Cocktail Week is here… In honor of SF’s truly vibrant cocktail culture and supporting the fab Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans (if you’re there, go!), the mission is "to preserve the Cultural Heritage of saloons and their cocktails in San Francisco, while also celebrating California’s Culinary Philosophy and Tradition". Sounds like a great mission to me. The third year in, this just keeps getting bigger. It’s no Tales of the Cocktail but it’s certainly a stellar line-up of parties, classes, competitions and events, taught and presented by a long list of the many of SF’s bartending greats.
A few highlights include opening (at Le Colonial) and closing (at Jardinere) parties, the US Bartenders’ Guild National Competition (all day Tuesday: 11am for SF competitors; 5pm for national finalists), CUESA’s Cane Spirits & Farmer’s Market Cocktails event is Wednesday night (their Winter Cocktails event was a blast – excellent cocktails at every turn!), there’s a historical cocktail and bar crawl with Tablehopper herself on Saturday, a Saturday class with artisanal cocktail genius,Scott Beattie, and monthly Savoy night at the one-and-only Alembic on Sunday. Thursday is Bar School, a day of classes around town, ranging from $25-45, the line-up includes Distillation 101 from Hangar One’s Lance Winters, Erik Atkins’ walk through the Gentleman’s Companion, Jeff Hollinger (Absinthe) and Neyah White (NOPA) teach you how to make your own cocktail ingredients from syrups to bitters, plus more worthy classes for the budding mixologist to take it to the next level.
All around SF; events free to $45
http://sfcocktailweek.com
May 12-16: The Big 4’s Wild Game Week returns
The Big 4 Restaurant (PSF) in Nob Hill’s Huntington Hotel has been around for decades and is just the kind of atmosphere I want when craving old world elegance and cocktails by the fireplace. On the food tip, its bi-annual Wild Game Week offers a menu so unique, it’s one of the only times you’ll see dishes like Himalayan yak or Rocky Mountain wapiti (elk chop, to you). This year a first is added: Brazilian piranha “ribs” with a creamy mustard dressing ($18). That’s right, piranha. Come hungry as the deer and the antelope certainly will play.
Appetizers: $16-19
Entrees: $38-46
1075 California Street
415-771-1140
www.big4restaurant.com
Snap Sounds: Chelonis R. Jones
By Johnny Ray Huston
CHELONIS R. JONES
Chatterton
(Systematic)
The U.S. expat Mr. Jones sews up album of the year honors by track one, after jogging barefoot through hell to conclude "Stains are my nationality." As kickoffs go, it’s as dramatic as the The Queen is Dead‘s title track — apt, since he name-checks Morrissey. From there, Chatterton traverses Cure-like goth, Marley Marl-ready rap, contemporary Euro techno … and Fleetwood Mac? "The Cockpit" is a Cabaret Voltaire-meets-Giorgio Moroder minimal epic from the perspective of a plane crash’s ungrateful sole survivor. The final lines of "Pompadour" are genius.
An oldie but goodie from Mr. Jones
View the previous Snap Sound here.
Snap sounds: Groupshow
By Johnny Ray Huston
GROUPSHOW
The Martyrdom of Groupshow
(-scape)
My favorite Jan Jelinek endeavor since 2005’s Kosmischer Pitch (~scape), which inspired this 200 GB "live" collaboration. It all grows wonderfully spooky with "Great Art Where You Least Expect It" and "Anyone Care for a Drink?" Yes, Groupshow has a way with a song title. The overall conceit’s as strong as Jelinek’s discovery of Ursula Bogner, though not as labored.
View the previous Snap Sound here.
Pics: Fake furs, fishnets, flourescence — How Weird!
Text and photos by Ariel Soto
An over-abundance of fluorescent fake furs, fishnets and colorful masks dominated the scene at the How Weird Street Faire this past Sunday, May 11. On every corner of the festival a different DJ mixed and bounced the huge crowds into electronic bliss, who danced and hula hooped under makeshift dance halls and spinning disco balls. Artists painted beneath the heat of the sun while others perched on the sidewalk to wolf down hot dogs and a cold beer before heading back for more booty shaking. The assortment of strange and wonderful costumes was astonishing and showed how a few bright wigs can turn us all into the weirdest kid on the block.
