sfbg Archives — Page 37 of 59 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

Pics: Cherry Blossom Parade brings warmth and beauty

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April 20, 2009

Photos and text by Ariel Soto

Protected from the extreme heat beneath their colorful rice paper umbrellas, Japanese beauty queens (and a few drag queens too) made their way through downtown for the Cherry Blossom Festival Grand Parade this Sunday, April 19th. Although a large highlight of the parade were the Japanese beauties, there was also a posse of anime fans and a boat filled with children waving colorful handkerchiefs while dancing to Abba. And of course the parade included several groups of highly energized taiko drummers who kept the parade going all the way to Japantown.

Street Threads: Look of the Day

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April 20, 2009

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SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today’s Look: Tinker Bell, Market and Noe

Tell us about your look: “Wear whatever you want. I like vintage, but I also really love high fashion. I just try to build it all together.”

Nite Trax: Pangaea

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April 19, 2009

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By Marke B.

Pangaea, younger than the Pleistocene

I’ve already freaked out to the atmospheric dubstep track “Maybes” by Mount Kimbie, and now comes along this just as lovely underground hit by London’s Pangaea, “Memories” — as remixed by Aaron Jerome, via Shook:

Pangaea – Memories (Aaron Jerome Remix) by aaronjerome

Sampling Gladys Knight, of course, is one of the easier ways for an earworm to burrow into my frozen heart.

Alas, though it’s on every respecting dubstep DJs playlist, “Memories” probably won’t be released singularly — groove to it, and his too brief mix for Mary Anne Hobbs’ Experimental Showcase at his MySpace.

I think that along with “Tea Leaf Dancers” by Flying Lotus — was anyone else at his amazing show at Mighty last weekend? I told you FlyLo was the smilingest DJ ever — well, we’ve got the beginnings of a lovely ambient dubstep mixtape on our hands ….

Super Ego: Fun with electro-kuduro

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April 19, 2009

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By Marke B.

Burakin’

That unflappably chipper “progressive kuduro” Portuguese foursome, Buraka Som Sistema — who I write about in my latest Super Ego clubs column — may have been joking when they said they based their truly wonderful smash “Kalemba (Wegue-Wegue)” track on a misheard lyric from an old house mix of More Kante’s late 1987 classic “Yeke Yeke.” Just for fun, here’s “Kalemba,” then the Afro Acid mix of “Yeke Yeke” (whose stock has risen enormously since techno god Richie Hawtin has claimed it as a signature tune to close out his sets), and afterwards some genuine Angolan kuduro from rapper Puto Lilas.

You can see in the Puto Lilas that the original kuduro form recounts sprawling tales of street life, something Buraka truncates to focus on a more danceable takeaway. (Incidentally, Buraka’s name comes from a misspelling of Buraca — a suburb, or frequesia, of Lisbon. And “som sistema” is also a mishearing, a bastardization, this time of “soundsystem.” Buraka’s global-minded dance floor antics really are subtexted by a kind of “map of mishearing.”)

PS: If you dig the Afro Acid, the man behind it, basically the originator of acid house, DJ Pierre, will be at Vessel on Thu/23 with his Acid Afro project, 22 years after the “Yeke Yeke” mix came out, yikey yikes!

Anyway, here we go:

Buraka Som Sistema, “Kalemba (Wegue-Wegue)”

Mini-Japanther: a quick, claws-out Q&A with Ian Vanek

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April 17, 2009

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Kristy Geschwandtner caught up with the pun-happy, former-Brooklyn, art-punk duo Japanther‘s Ian Vanek after their show at the Hemlock on 4/13.

SFBG: When will Japanther perform “Dump That Body in Rikki Lake” in San Francisco?
Ian Vanek: We are keen to do JAPANTHER performance pieces the world over. DTBIRL was a giant puppet rock opera we did on 06, if you didn’t know. The puppets are in art storage so anything is possible. Know any investors?

SFBG: Did Japanther really relocate to Southern California?
Vanek: Yes, we spent the winter in sunny LA and the greater west coast. Now that the spring is here it’s back to work! Basically we went homeless to tour in 09. Paying rent in a recession is so 1990s.

SFBG: Where is your favorite place to play?
Vanek: SF is up there for sure (and the whole Bay). We also love Australia, Montreal, Toronto, Juarez and of course our hometown, BROOKLYN.

SFBG: Did you ever make it to Russia to play?
Vanek: Not yet but we got as far as the official invites… We will make there in the next year for sure!

‘Domestic Vacations’: Artist Julie Blackmon gets trippy

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April 17, 2009

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By Ari Messer

Snow Day, 2008

One of my most uninteresting college professors used to insist that negatives only exist in language, but couldn’t explain what this meant. That’s funny, I thought, because I can physically feel a complete lack of interest in your class. In fact, I think you can feel it too; it’s contagious. Nonetheless, I was never bored as a child, and I’m still never bored. The boring and the uninteresting are different concepts. Julie Blackmon’s lucid, staged photographs of childhood fantasy worlds in the twilight of America are stunning for a ton of reasons, but first and foremost they get their signature bite and sting by recognizing that everyone in each scene is interested in different things. There is no sincere panorama. From the modern intrusions into Blackmon’s protoclassical, Dutch-inspired scenes — a miniature FedEx truck, Netflix mail — to trippy little things such as the almost lurid dog eyes and discarded gloves in Snow Day (2008), every person, place, and thing appears distracted by an otherworldly mission.

Adding to this sense of confused biography, Blackmon, the oldest of nine kids and now a mother of three, uses people and things from her life in her work like a novelist trussing out character relations pictorially. She reminds me of some essays by Orhan Pamuk about his daughter, Rüya. It’s not the stories themselves that are so thrilling, but the palpable feeling of love in their narrative arcs, plus the vectors they send out into Pamuk’s novels, where characters seem to have little aspects or shimmers of Rüya (even if she wasn’t born when the story was written): her young mind, her toys and delusions, the way she gazes out the window and finds it startlingly new every day.

JULIE BLACKMON: DOMESTIC VACATIONS Through May 23. Tues.-Sat., noon-5 p.m. SF Camerawork, 657 Mission, second floor, SF. (415) 512-2020. www.sfcamerawork.org

Street Threads: Look of the Day

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April 17, 2009

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SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today’s Look: Tim, Market and Castro

Tell us about your look: “Cowboy drag”

It’s raining cats and dogs

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April 16, 2009

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By Johnny Ray Huston

Call me corny, call me crazy, call me Anne Heche, but it’s true: it’s raining cats and dogs. There’s an influx of cat- and dog-related art and events happening in the Bay Area.

Yesterday brought “Walk the Dog Electric,” a walking event at Heaven’s Dog restaurant with dog portraits by Judy North, who currently has a show of non-canine work up at Electric Works. I like what little I’ve seen of North’s dog portraits, and hope she puts on a show of them sometime.

Judy North, Benni, 60 inches by 40 inches, watercolor

Next week, Visual Aid gets into the act with an April 25 gallery walk that includes “Purrrrseus,” Charles Bierwirth‘s exhibition of feline oil paintings that use vintage studio portraits as source material.

Charles Bierwirth, Purrrrseus #2, 56 inches by 72 inches, oil painting

Lastly (unless someone mentions soemthing I’ve missed), this weekend brings DogFest 2009.

A DogFest 2008 participant makes his/her voice heard. Photo by Kira Stackhouse-Fetch Photo and Aaron Anderson

Do you look like your dog?

On the subject of DogFest, here’s what Guardian contributor Michelle Broder Van Dyke has to say in this week’s issue:

“There should be a lot of ass-sniffing at DogFest 2009. Other things to expect: dogs howling or singing, a giant bouncy castle shaped like a doggie, dogs dressed up to look like carrots and batteries, people dressed as dogs, and of course, people who simply look like their dogs (or vice-versa). All of you who’ve spent hours patrolling the Internet studying dog and owner look-alike photos — I recommend doyoulooklikeyourdog.com — will be relieved to know that a recent study from Bath Spa University has confirmed that the lady in heels is more likely to have a poodle and the big burly man does in fact own a pit bull. Instead of checking them out on the online, encounter them in real life at this benefit for SFUSD McKinley Elementary School.”

DOGFEST 2009
Sat/19, 11 a.m.–3 p.m., free ($20 for contestants)
Duboce Park
Duboce and Noe, SF
(415) 241-6300
www.mckinleyschool.org/dogfest

Snap Sounds: Dawn of the Dead

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April 16, 2009

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By Johnny Ray Huston

Various artists
Unreleased Soundtrack Music from George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead
(Trunk, 2009)

I’ll put forth a declaration. Two of the biggest influences on neo-prog, contemporary post-rock, and 21st century cosmic disco — in other words, a lot of vital music today — are a pair of film directors: John Carpenter and Dario Argento.

Carpenter’s influence is as a musician. His thrifty yet supreme scores for Halloween (1978), Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), and others have been a major inspiration for a group such as Pittsburgh’s duo Zombi, whose new album Spirit Animal again is packed with ’70s horror keyboard sounds.

Trailer for Zombi: Dawn of the Dead (feel free to add to the comments!)

Argento’s influence is as a musical curator. And the Zombi reference extends to him, since the word zombi kicks off the full title of his Italian re-cut of George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead, a version that has its own auteur charms. Major among those charms is Argento’s monumental crate-digging. According to Jonny Trunk, he “added over sixty tracks to the score utilizing not only [Music] De Wolfe’s extensive library but also its subsidiary labels Rouge and Hudson.” In the process, long before reissue and archival mania, he brings viewers and listeners loony waltz music (“The Gonk”), dissonant orchestration (“Cosmogony Part 1”; “Sinistre”), dorkily polite cock-of-the-walk rock (“Cause I’m a Man,” by Peter Reno), scary transmissions from the outer space of early electronics (“Figment’s Park”), marching band mayhem (“Ragtime Razzamatazz”), Bernard Hermmann string tension (“Barrage”), and plaintive Lucio Battisti-like Italian prog instrumental interludes. Dude. No Goblin, though.

‘Small Dances about Big Ideas’ with Liz Lerman Dance Exchange

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April 16, 2009

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By Rita Felciano

Liz Lerman is one gutsy woman. Early in her career she decided that there is more to dance than working with highly trained performers for an audience that wants to be entertained. "There was a time when people danced and the crops grew," she told a conference of arts presenters 15 years ago. "They danced, and that’s how they healed their children." For Lerman, the primary function of dance is to heal and create communities. Not only has she taken her Dance Exchange company to parks, schools, and nursing homes, she has included so-called non-dancers in her performances.

Today such efforts have become fairly commonplace, except they are usually considered ancillary outreach activities. For Lerman, making "dance of, by, and for the people" — as it has been called — is the foundation of her work. She often weaves spontaneous audience suggestions into her pieces. Older dancers (i.e., over 60) and dancers with disabilities are part of her company. And she doesn’t shrink away from big topics. In 2006 she brought Ferocious Beauty: Genome to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. A hugely ambitious collaboration between artists, scholars, and scientists, this multimedia work explored the forces that had been unleashed with the mapping of the human genome. This weekend she is returning with an equally far-reaching project. Small Dances About Big Ideas was commissioned by Harvard Law School for the 60th anniversary of the Nuremberg trials. It looks at atrocities, the law’s ability to address genocide, and our capacity to be either "bystanders" or "up-standers."

LIZ LERMAN DANCE EXCHANGE Sat/18-Sun/19, 8 p.m., $28-$36. Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California, SF. (415) 292-1233, www.jccsf.org/arts

Snap Sounds: Don Cherry with Latif Khan

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April 16, 2009

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By Johnny Ray Huston

Don Cherry with Latif Khan

Don Cherry/Latif Khan

(Heavenly Sweetness, 2009)

Who cares about cherries in the snow — Cherry is in the air. I’m talking Don Cherry, whose spirit is casting new spells via mysterious vinyl reissues, renewed interest in Alejandro Jodorowsky’s 1973 Holy Mountain — check Matt Borruso’s new art show at [2nd floor projects] — and this proto-world music collabo, a reissue from 1982 taken from a one-day recording session in 1978, with tablas great Khan.

Don Cherry in Bombay

Street Threads: Look of the Day

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April 16, 2009

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SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today’s Look: Liz, 18th Street and Noe

Tell us about your look: “My style is independent. There are certain colors and shapes I really like, so then I use them and dress accordingly.”

A Hip Girl’s Guide to UTIs

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April 16, 2009

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By Juliette “TMI?” Tang

Cranberry prevention?

I am a chronic sufferer of urinary tract infections. Luckily I have a great doctor who has my local Walgreens on speed dial for the days when I call her crying into the phone for Cipro, otherwise I’d still be wailing on the floor at the moment, rather than spreading the good word on how you can avoid my predicament.

It helps knowing, in a sick way, that no matter how much pain I’m in, I’m not alone. For women, there’s no way around it: more than 50% of us will suffer the agony of a urinary tract infection at some point. And most of the time, this loathsome incursion burrows its way up our urethrae and into our lives, without warning, when we are sexually active. Urinary tract infections are the bane of an active sex life. They are the second most common type of infection in the body, and account for 10 million hospital visits each year (plus 1.5 hospitalizations, and $1 billion in health care costs). Along with unplanned pregnancy, STDs, and shameful flashbacks to what happened last Saturday at the Knock Out, UTIs are another way the universe has of zapping some of the fun out of sex. Luckily, unlike children or other STDs (and it is questionable whether a UTI even counts as an STD), a UTI doesn’t last forever — though when confronted with what feels like someone taking broken glass to the inside of your hoo-ha, forever will feel like a relative term.

Golden Animals at Thee Parkside Thursday night

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April 15, 2009

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By L.C. Mason

The garage scene may be in vogue, but Golden Animals have delved even further into rock music’s roots: they’ve taken their sound back to the sun-soaked porch, giving their tunes the dreamy warmth of a wild afternoon breeze and a woolly charm as endless as the sky.

Golden Animals, captured on film by Victoria Smith

This Salton Sea-dwelling duo has fashioned Californian blues themes of freewheeling cumulo-surrealism with just a drumset and an electric guitar, and vocalist Tommy Eisner’s uncanny Doors-ian croon is the silver lining — imagine if Jim Morrison hadn’t gotten so obsessed with the idea of Paris and had wandered into the desert like we always thought he would.

Golden Animals, “Big Red Rose”

Golden Animals, “The Steady Roller”

GOLDEN ANIMALS
with Zodiac Death Valley, the Broads
8 p.m., $6
Thee Parkside
1600 17th St., SF
(415) 252-1330
www.theeparkside.com

Live shots: Devendra Banhart at the Independent

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April 15, 2009

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Text and photos by Ariel Soto. Devendra Banhart performs again Thu/16 at Yoshi’s SF

“You’re a sexy beast!” someone shouted from the crowd, as Devendra Banhart made his way onto the stage of the Independent to a sold out show, Tuesday, April 14th. After the openers, The Healing Curse, left the stage, Devendra started with an acoustic set and then later was joined by his band, serenading his fans with songs of about sweet little birds, wild wolves, and Latin love.

Sick pleasures: Sebastien Timberlake, I mean Tellier, returns to SF

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April 15, 2009

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By Andre Torrez

Is it just me or do the over-produced vocal stylings on A-Trak’s “Kilometer” remix resemble Justin Timberlake? Prepare for more heavy, dark, French synth pop from a stylishly hairy Parisian: Sebastien Tellier returns to SF on Friday at Mezzanine — in a precursor performance to his part in Coachella‘s blowout weekend, where he’ll be juxtaposed with the likes of Calexico, Throbbing Gristle, and Paul McCartney.

Speaking of Sir Paul, Tellier looks a bit like a cross-hybridization of John and Yoko from the hair peace-bed peace, gurus in drag phase. A white suit outfit, scraggly beard, straight long brown mane, and oh-so-Yoko wraparound shades have never looked better combined on one person.

Is Sebastien Tellier a cyborg fusion of these two?

Yoko took wraparounds to another dimension in her wack-wonderful Starpeace phase

Film review: “The Black Balloon”

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April 15, 2009

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By Natalie Gregory

Elissa Down’s The Black Balloon is an impressive little film. The Australian import follows the Mollisons, a family centered on their autistic son Charlie (an awards-worthy performance by Luke Ford). It is told mainly through the eyes of Thomas (Rhys Wakefield), Charlie’s younger brother. We see Thomas struggle with the perception of his brother by his peers and his constant regret that Charlie is not normal. His mother Maggie (played with maternal strength by Toni Collette) and father Simon (Erik Thomson) love Charlie unconditionally and take excellent care of him. And there are certainly incidents to be taken care of. Maggie and Thomas argue just after Charlie has just defecated on his bedroom floor. The reason? Thomas locked him in his room when Thomas’ love interest drops by. It is a quest for Thomas to accept his brother’s fate, and to learn by example what it means to be compassionate. A moving film.

The Black Balloon opens Fri/17 in Bay Area theaters.

Dining and dreaming in the new depression

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April 15, 2009

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By Molly Freedenberg

Ah, the economic downturn. I’m sitting at my desk, eating instant noodle soup and dreaming of more luxurious times. Times when I’d find myself somewhere like Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation, a benefit featuring more than 20 of the area’s best restaurants and bartenders — and raising funds to end childhood hunger in San Francisco. If I had $75 to spare, I could be at the tasting reception, hosted by Absinthe’s Jamie Lauren. A bit more pocket change (OK, it’s $175 more) and I’d also enjoy a multicourse dinner with premium wine pairings. A fantasy closer to my actual budget, though, is ViniPortugal’s Wine Tasting. One $35 advance ticket takes my imaginary self to the Westin St. Francis, where I’d taste every one of 250 quality wines from Portuguese vintners while noshing on appetizers and supporting WomenHeart, an organization helping women with heart disease. Or perhaps I’ll take Dream Molly on a date to Campton Place, where I’ll feast on the $45 three-course Stimulus Menu.

But times (and bank accounts) being what they are, my Cup O’ Noodle alternatives are going to be a bit less swank — though no less tasty. Find me Thursday at Paragon, where a brat sandwich, fries, sauerkraut, and a Fat Tire costs a mere $13. And next week? Tuesdays with Morty’s. The deli offers a delicious Reuben sandwich and a PBR for $7, and is now open until 8 p.m.

Taste of the Nation. April 23, 5:30pm, $75–$250. Field Club Lounge at AT&T Park, SF. taste.strength.org

Wine of Portugal Wine Tasting. Thu/16, 5:30-8pm, $35–$50. Westin St. Francis, 335 Powell, SF. www.viniportugal.pt

Late of the Pier jump askew at Popscene

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April 15, 2009

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By Danica Li

Late of the Pier is catchy while still retaining an essential core of flighty, fidgety weirdness. With its askew harmonics, squelchy synths, and wildly off-key vocals, Fantasy Black Channel (Parlophone, 2008) marks the big label debut of a band bent on peddling an oddball sound to the masses, to say nothing of a kitschy aesthetic. The album’s cover presents a haphazard assortment of drums, kits, cords, and keyboards scattered atop outcroppings of granite — an apt visual for the band’s chaotic approach. Some tracks suggest a recorder switched to on-mode at the site of a train wreck, while others rescue some order from the mayhem. Discerning musical adherents will peg the group as contemporaries of outfits like Metronomy, Hot Chip, and Klaxons. This quartet is inventive and almost extreme in how far they’re willing to take their sprawling multipart sagas, instrumental transitions and elaborate glam guitar breakdowns. Plain-jane indie rock outfits have nothing on them.

Snap Sounds: Junior Boys

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April 15, 2009

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Two quick takes on Junior Boys, who perform tomorrow with Max Tundra at Bimbo’s (Thu/16, 7 p.m., $18. Bimbo’s 365 Club, 1025 Columbus, SF. www.bimbos365club.com)

Junior Boys

Begone Dull Care

(Domino)

Johnny Ray Huston:
The knives are out at least a little for the critics’ darling duo, and to be fair, this third full-length falters a bit in following the breakthrough of 2007’s So This is Goodbye. But "Work" might be Junior Boys’ best composition, and "Sneak a Picture" is simply sweet. A reward for those who care enough to dig: the title and lyrics braid through the life and work of Canadian animator Norman McLaren.

Junior Boys, “Work” live

Street Threads: Look of the Day

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April 15, 2009

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SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today’s Look: David, Market and Castro

Tell us about your look: “I like color and offbeat items. Be true to yourself when it comes to fashion.”

Local Artist of the Week: Mike Kuchar

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April 14, 2009

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LOCAL ARTIST Mike Kuchar

TITLE Myth Men

BIO Mike Kuchar, cinematographer, painter, writer, and brother of George Kuchar, was born in New York City. He began making 8 mm movies in the 1950s, switching over to 16 mm film production in 1960, and continues now, producing short motion pictures in the video and digital formats. He has also done illustrations for various erotic publications, including Manscape, Gay Heartthrobs comics, First Hand, and Meatmen.

SHOW "Dark Americana," through May 9. Tues.-Sat., 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Baer Ridgway Exhibitions, 172 Minna, SF. (415) 777-1366.

WEB www.baerridgway.com

alt.sex.column: Parts is parts

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April 14, 2009

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By Andrea Nemerson. View more alt.sex columns here. Email your questions to Andrea: andrea@altsexcolumn.com.

Dear Readers:

These are perennial body parts questions, and I feel I would be somewhat remiss if I didn’t re-answer them every few years. Here are some that have been hanging around waiting for me.

Love,

Andrea

Dear Andrea:

I once tried for half an hour putting my index finger about two inches inside my girlfriend’s vagina, pressing with a "come hither motion" and simultaneously pressing the mound from outside. Unfortunately my partner did not experience any extra pleasure. Maybe I have to try again and again?
Love,

Willing

Dear Will:

Yes, yes, very funny. I’m not entirely sure what she was experiencing, but from your phrasing, which could have been cut and pasted from any one of a thousand how-to Web sites, I think you may have been proceeding a bit by rote there. Rather than printing out some stranger’s directions, how about following hers?

There are plenty of women who don’t have much of the spongy erectile tissue surrounding the urethra and the front of the vagina that we’ve come, for convenience’s sake, to call the G-spot. These women can lie there all day receiving simultaneous come-hither motions and external pressure and only manage to get kind of annoyed with you. If your girlfriend is one of them, I would not suggest "trying again and again" unless you want her to lean forward and swat the top of your head with the TV remote.

You can probably determine whether she is G-spot enabled by letting her guide you. Since the G-spot is, inconveniently, not actually a "hot button," but a collection of tissues sensitive to the touch under certain but not all circumstances, I cannot tell you exactly how to operate it. I’d start once she’s already well turned-on, though, and without impatience or, indeed, goal-orientation. Just kind of slip in there when things are already going well and keep your eyes on her face while you try a little deeper or a little closer in, a little harder and a little softer, a little … oh, you get the picture.

Love,

Andrea

Dear Andrea:

My penis is curved a little. Is that normal, and if not what can I do to straighten it?

Love,

Upwards

The Blender: What we’ve been eating

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April 14, 2009

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By the ravenous Guardian staff

(1) Dim sum, Ton Kiang
(2) Hunky Beau’s brisket
(3) Pizza d’Asti and Prosecco, Palio d’Asti
(4) Basil Napolean, Chapeau!
(5) Bacon-wrapped, mushroom-stuffed pork roast and Lagunitas pilsner