San Francisco Bay Guardian

Top Story

Flaming Spanish coffee, kumquat shrubs, 'infierno tincture' .... fresh delights at Comal, Copita, Grand Cafe, and Absinthe

This Week's Paper

Post-everything parties, fresh new cocktails, Israel debate, Des Voix fest, more. Online articles here, digital edition here.

Listings

From the Blogs

noise

The comeback kids: Indie-pop straight poppin'

05.24.12 - 3:38 pm | Julia B. Chan |

(0)

The Bay Area has always been a warm breeding ground for bands and thus a vibrant music scene. Indie-pop is a rock subgenre that has thrived particularly well here. Back in the 1990s, indie-pop experienced a significant heyday in the Bay - a phenomenon that may be bubbling up once again. Read more »

noise

Danzig on Doyle, his fans, Verotik, and that Metallica anniversary

05.24.12 - 2:43 pm | Sean McCourt |

(0)

Glenn Danzig has spawned a cult following with his dark and brooding voice, and the sinisterly seductive imagery of his lyrics. From the early days – some 35 years back – as front person for horror punk icons the Misfits, to metal-infused Samhain, and finally to the eponymous Danzig, where he achieved a degree of mainstream success, he has taken macabre themes, blasted them with an obsessive sheen, and come up with some of the most hauntingly memorable songs this side of hell. Read more »

pixel_vision

Vibrators! Aliens! Cops on the edge! New movies are here!

05.24.12 - 12:27 pm | Cheryl Eddy and Guardian Staff Writers |

(0)

As we all breathlessly count the days — nay, milliseconds — until the June 1 release of Piranha 3DD, there's still plenty to gnaw on this Memorial Day weekend. Chernobyl Diaries screens tonight (i.e., the night before it opens) which is usually not a great sign, but it's likely critic-proof anyway (even for me, someone who's not entirely opposed to the idea of a new genre: nuclear-meltdown-sploitation! Sit down, 1979's China Syndrome. This one's got screaming teens and spooky spooks!) Er, anyway ... check back tomorrow for my review of that one.

Meanwhile, apply your brain and/or sense of social justice while watching Michael Glawogger's final entry in his "globalization trilogy," Whores' Glory (Dennis Harvey's review here), or adjust your popcorn levels accordingly for these other recommends:

Read more »

Film

pixel_vision

Hej, creativity! 4 bonkers Stockholm art projects

05.24.12 - 8:16 am | Caitlin Donohue |

(0)

What creative forms would you expect at the near-ends of the earth? My recent trip to Stockholm, Sweden was weird in the way that travel usually is, more just-like-home moments than alien fears realized of winding up cold and frozen because I forget to transcribe the 17th letter in the name of the street I was staying on.

Honestly, I went for the close-to-the-North-Pole party (did you know you can swim just about anywhere in Stockholm? Sunrise after-afterparty dips abound), but surprise! I ran into artistic inspiration. That's really having your herring burger and eating it too. Here's four people and projects that really did it for me, Swedishly speaking.

Read more »

noise

The Beat: Eclectic events spin heads, shake butts

05.24.12 - 3:35 am | Julia B. Chan |

(0)

Having too many options can prove paralyzing, but sometimes it can be the reason you end up shaking that ass for days on end. This week, much like the wind, I found myself swirling in four different directions -- musically that is. Not able to focus on just one artist or event (and in a city like San Francisco, why should you have to?) I decided to map out all of my fancies this week. Here are four appealing acts traveling to and performing in The City this weekend -- suck on a Red Bull and see you at the show. Read more »

politics

City weighs artificial turf fields in Golden Gate Park

05.23.12 - 3:26 pm | Steven T. Jones |

(70)

The San Francisco Planning and Recreation & Park commissions will hold a special joint hearing tomorrow (Thurs/24) afternoon to consider approving the Beach Chalet Athletic Fields Renovation, a controversial city proposal to replace the natural grass fields on the west end of Golden Gate Park with artificial turf.Read more »

noise

SF duo Tidelands returns with even more flugelhorn

05.23.12 - 2:16 pm | Shauna Keddy |

(0)

We’ve Got a Map boasts the title of experimental folk band Tidelands’ upcoming sophomore album – and do they ever. You may remember seeing Tidelands’ stunning animated music video for their song “Holy Grail” last summer off debut album If....

Well Gabriel Montana Leis and Mie Araki are back this summer, with a relatively minimalistic follow-up to that orchestral introduction. And a show this week at Bottom of the Hill. Read more »

politics

A few problems with Facebook

05.23.12 - 1:04 pm | Tim Redmond |

(8)

I'm (clearly) not a stock market analyst or Wall Street Whiz (if I was that smart, how come I'm not rich?), but I have to say, some of the stuff that's coming out about the Facebook IPO makes this social media company that lives on its users' content and that's been portrayed as the company of the future look an awful lot like some rotten companies of the past. Sfist has an overview here.Read more »

noise

Localized Appreesh: Major Powers & the Lo-Fi Symphony

05.23.12 - 11:58 am | Emily Savage |

(2)

Localized Appreesh is our weekly thank-you column to the musicians that make the Bay. To be considered, contact emilysavage@sfbg.com.

Behind every San Francisco band is the shadow of the past – decades of sweeping musical scenes that came before it, haunting the Victorian venues, ghosts with ink stamped on their hands. With Major Powers & the Lo-Fi Symphony, that tap-tap-tapping is a bit more literal. Read more »

pixel_vision

Brews and Boontling: Beer fest shots from Anderson Valley

05.23.12 - 10:26 am | Allen David |

(1)

Booneville Beer Festival 2012. Photo by Allen David

Photographer Allen David sent us these snaps from the May 12 Boonville Beer Festival, good old-fashioned weekend porn if ere we've some. Check them (and his prose below) out to kickstart your next mission outside city limits, using our 2012 Summer Fairs and Festival guide for additional inspiration. Read more »

bruce

Julian Davis announces for supervisor in the key battleground district for progressives (5)

05.22.12 - 4:46 pm |

(19)

Julian Davis, a widely known progressive activist and organizer in San Francisco since 2002, declared Tuesday his intention to run for supervisor in District 5, the city's most liberal district and a battleground district for progressives seeking to regain control of the Board of Supervisors.Read more »

pixel_vision

Party like it's 1986: "Big Fun in the Big Town"

05.22.12 - 4:19 pm | Taylor Kaplan |

(0)

Toward the end of Big Fun in the Big Town (released today and available here), Dutch filmmaker Bram Van Splunteren's love letter to the birth of hip-hop in NYC, we're treated to an interview with a young LL Cool J at his Grandma's house in Queens. The newly released documentary, compiled from footage that's been collecting dust in a European warehouse since 1986, is full of these revelatory moments, painting a vivid picture of an art form in the process of defining and justifying itself.

Read more »

politics

Lee shows his pro-biz chops, but how is his balance?

05.22.12 - 3:30 pm | Steven T. Jones |

(20)

Mayor Ed Lee is on the roll these days, with a string of recent pro-business successes capped off by today's announcement that the Golden State Warriors are moving to San Francisco and building a new arena at Piers 30-32. But Lee faces a series of tricky balancing acts in the coming weeks as he tries to compensate for his strong economic development focus, which is driving up residential and commercial rents and threatening the city's diversity and livability.Read more »

sexsf

Sipping lattes with the transmale program specialist

05.22.12 - 12:36 pm | Kelly Lovemonster |

(0)

“People at sex clubs are looking to hook up. It’s usually my safe sex practices that get me turned down more and not the fact that I’m transgender”

I thought it would be cute to conduct today’s interview in a bathhouse sauna. Instead I found myself sipping a soy milk latte in one of the Mission’s many hip coffee shops -- not as intimate of an option, but probably better for my note taking. For once, I was on time, and I patiently awaited San Francisco sex educator Niko Kowell.Read more »

bruce

Editorial: The war on sunshine

05.22.12 - 12:17 pm |

(7)

EDITORIAL The Rules Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors joined the war on sunshine May 17 when it rejected four qualified candidates from three organizations who are mandated by the ordinance to choose representatives for the task force because of the organizations' special open government credentials.

The representatives served as experienced, knowledgeable members who were independent counters to the nominees of supervisors who were often promoting an anti-sunshine agenda. The committee asked the organizations to come up with more names.

That was a nasty slap at members and organizations that have served the task force well for years. And this arbitrary demand will make it virtually impossible for these organizations to come up with a "list of candidates" to run the supervisorial gauntlet. Who wants to go before the supervisors on a list for a bout of public character assassination? Read more »

Hot List

Ash Reiter - Looking for a sound to kick off that summer breeze? Ash Reiter's band is ideal listening on a sunny day at the beach, or even while braving the San Francisco fog. Lead singer and songwriter Ash Reiter is a crooner with a voice that critics compare to Cat Power, and a sound that is influenced by Grizzly Bear, the Kinks, and the Strokes. She lives in the Berkeley hills with her band's drummer (boyfriend Will Halsey). Their latest EP Heatwave is a perfect warm up for this springtime performance, to keep us tied over until their upcoming summer full-length release, Hola. Idea the Artist and Jeremy Rourke support, with their inventive opera and stop-motion art takes on performance, respectively.
9pm, $10. Cafe Du Nord, 2170 Market, SF. (415) 861-5016, www.cafedunord.com

I Break Horses - Listen to "Winter Beats" and the title song from 2011's Hearts, and you'll probably have Stockholm, Sweden's I Break Horses figured as a purely dreamy, slightly cold shoegazing act. Just listen to those mesmerizing synth arpeggios and slow, distantly winsome vocals. But as soon as the snares start cracking on "Wired" and build into a beat that a person could actually bounce around a bit too, some of the ice starts melting away, as the sun comes out a little bit. Or maybe your body is heating up, revealing an exciting range to the duo of Maria Lindén and Fredrik Balck, who opened for M83 on the most recent tour.
9:30pm, $14. Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell, SF. (415) 861-2011, www.rickshawstop.com

The Twelves - Perhaps it was destiny that Rio de Janiero duo João Miguel and Luciano Oliveira would produce music together, since they happen to share the same birth date of July 12. The Twelves have been dubbed the Brazilian Daft Punk because of an affinity for dance-electro-house music. While Daft Punk may lean toward producing original work, the Twelves are best known for their string of party remixes on tracks rooted in different genres, including MIA, Asobi Seksu, and Two Door Cinema Club. And they have a welcome unabashedness when it comes to remixing and mashing up on the fly during live sets.
9pm, $18.50. Mezzanine, 444 Jessie, SF. (415) 625-8880 www.mezzaninesf.com

Harlem's Poetic Rebellion: A Salon for the People - "The world is before you and you need not leave it as it was when you entered." Kali Boyce and Celeste Chan, founders of the lively Queer Rebels performance organization, take James Baldwin's immortal words to heart, using the legacies of the past to reinvigorate the present. Taking inspiration from the genius flurry of artistic and social developments that was the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s and '30s, they present a night of music, poetry, and stage entertainment by nine queer African American performers. Dancer and punk stalwart Brontez Purnell, filmmaker and LunaSea founder Crystal Mason, Youth Speaks champion Joshua Merchant, "Drag King of the Blues" TuffnStuff, and "big, bold and beautiful treasure" The Lady Ms. Vagina Jenkins, among others, will contribute to keeping the light of black culture flaming.
7pm, $12-$15. La Pena, 3105 Shattuck Av, Berk. www.lapena.org

San Francisco Carnaval Parade - Carnavalescos, let's go! Limber up that bodystocking and get ready to shake your all-over tailfeathers, that glorious festival of SF-style Latin-Carribean-Brazilian exuberance is at (maraca-shaking) hand. Join thousands of brightly clad revelers as they fill the Mission streets with joyful noise and colorful sites — provided by some of the Bay's favorite performance groups, like the Loco Bloco drum troupe, Ballet Folklorico Nicaragua Viva, Xiuhcoatl Danza Azteca, Grupo Samba Rio, Our Boys Steel Orchestra, and dozens more. And chow down on the cultural treats of the super-festive, possibly Cachaça-soaked Carnaval street festival, going on all weekend. SF Carnaval dates back to 1979 and featured some of the first samba schools in California, so your shimmy-and-shake and bang-on-the-drum is historical, too.
9:30am-noon, free. Street festival, 10am-6pm (festival also Sat/26). Parade begins at 24th Street and Bryant. Street festival located at 23rd Street and Harrison, SF. www.sfcarnaval.org

"Wanted Man: Johnny Cash at San Quentin - We all know there was only one Johnny Cash, but leave it to Anton Patzner (of the Bay Area string metal duo Judgement Day), Laura Weinbach (Foxtails Brigade), Joe Lewis, and Josh Pollock to tackle a reinterpretation of Johnny Cash's legendary prison performance for one night only, on Memorial Day. Patzner, Lewis, and Weinbach are going by the name the East Bay Three for this show, and one can only guess how Patzner will bring in his infamous violin skills to this inventive concept. The band challenges the audience to act like a "house full of roaring inmates" as Cash was graciously greeted with during his performance, and they ask us, "Been out of your cell lately?"
8pm, $15. Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby, Berk. (510) 841-6500, www.shotgunplayers.org

Active Child - Pat Grossi lobbied his mom to tryout for the Philadelphia's Boys Choir when he was a kid, which likely influenced the soaring sound he now projects as Los Angeles-based Active Child. AC combines his ethereal vocals and harmonious harp chords with reverbs and electronic drum samples to produce music with an almost hymnal quality to it. Think if the pastoral sensibilities of Bon Iver merged with the synth-pop of M83 or Washed Out and you'll have the general idea. 2011's You Are All I See engrosses and haunts listeners with its intimate visceral sermons on identity.
8:30pm, $15. The Independent, 628 Divisadero, SF. (415) 771-1421, www.theindependentsf.com