San Francisco is My Home

18
Dec

Edward Gorey glory

Author: kris, Category: Events, Music

Start dying your clothes black now, because next month brings us the annual Edwardian Ball Weekend. Folks show up in multi-colored Edwardian costumes, of course, but since the event features the artwork of the peerless Edward Gorey, I feel black clothes and a mopey, skeletal demeanor are appropriate.

The Ball will be held at the Great American Music Hall from January 25 - 27. The website promises that “Eight musicians [will] blend violin, two cellos, bass, guitar, harp, vibraphone, trombone, drums & lush vocal harmonies in a strangely beautiful mix of classical, jazz, chamber, tango, klezmer, sultry lounge, theatrical cabaret, and cinematic dreams.”

Beat THAT.

Photo courtesy of the Ball website. 

29
Nov

Movie preview at the Metreon

Author: kris, Category: Events, Movies

The Metreon is showing a sneak preview of The Golden Compass this Saturday, December 1, at 7:00 pm.

Now, why do we care about this? After all, we hate the Metreon, with its 10 minutes of commercials before you even get to the previews; we hate it so much that we nicknamed it The Metronome and we call it that in a mean voice even though it isn’t really a mean or even a logical nickname.

And anyway, The Golden Compass is officially being released on December 7. Is a week really so long to wait?

Well yeah, kinda, if you really liked the book even though you are maybe a grownup who should be reading Nabokov or someone. However, some of us have a trapeze show to go to. But if you cannot make it to the show in Oakland, and you cannot wait until December 7, and you cannot be affected by 10 minutes of commercials, then this preview is for you.

29
Nov

More standup at Blake’s

Author: kris, Category: Comedy, Events

Local standup crackup Sean Keane is hosting another Heuristic Squelch Comedy Experience at Blake’s in Berkeley. It’s all happening Wednesday, December5. Show starts at 8:30, and it’s 18+, $8 at the door.

Keane is also featured in this week’s East Bay Express. Check out the article here.

27
Nov

She floats through the air with the greatest of ease

Author: kris, Category: Events

Looking for something to do Saturday night? Come check out “A Night of Glamorous Flight” at Trapeze Arts in Oakland, where several different trapeze artists will dazzle you with their astounding air flipping and breathtaking bar feats. Want a small preview? Check out this YouTube video of Tracy, one of Saturday’s performers, making it all look easy.

The show will be held at Trapeze Arts at 1822 9th Street in Oakland. It’s all happening on Saturday, December 1. Show up at 7:30 to calm your nerves at the champagne reception, or just come for the show at 8:00 and be prepared to grip your seat and hold your breath in amazement.

The show is 18 and over and tickets are $15. Come support these amazing local athletes.

20
Nov

The other side of Thanksgiving

Author: kris, Category: Events, Landmarks

In 1969, thousands of Native Americans occupied Alcatraz to demand fair treatment for Native Americans from the government. Bigger than your average hippie sit-in, the 18-month long protest drew national attention to the plight of Native Americans for the first time in the 20th century, some experts say.

Though the occupation ended, the International Indian Treaty Council still returns to Alcatraz every year at sunrise on Thanksgiving, “to celebrate [their] resistance and give thanks for [their] survival.” The event features speakers and dancers from several different tribes.

Everyone is welcome to attend the celebration, though the last boat departs for the former prison at 6:00 a.m. (Boats start moving at 4:00 a.m.) Tickets are $12 per person, though kids 5 and under are free, and the event is wheelchair accessible.

This can be a good way to introduce your kids to the other side of the Thanksgiving story, as well as a small moment of zen for you before the crazy cooking and football and visits from your deaf great-aunt begin.

16
Nov

We Be at The Hemlock

Author: kris, Category: Events, Music, News

We Be The Echo, the band I wrote about that other time, are playing The Hemlock Tavern tonight, so if you’re curious about these geniuses of math rock, head on over. The show is 21+, $6 at the door, and starts at 9:30. Should be, as always, a cracking good time.

13
Nov

Smooth Sailing at The Attic

Author: kris, Category: Events, Music

Maybe you don’t have a boat, but you can still go sailing.

Or, to put it another way, maybe you don’t have any smooth rock records, but you can still attend Sailing, a celebration of rock so smooth it could have been recorded by Christopher Cross. Wait, it was. So don your thick-rimmed glasses, slap on your stick-on soul patch, stuff a hoodie in your bag and head on down to The Attic any Tuesday from 9 to midnight.

02
Nov

The end of Halloween

Author: kris, Category: Events, Seen

To my great surprise, the city succeeded in shutting down the Castro Halloween party. In m.h.o., the thing that did it was the transportation issue: after 8 pm, no public transit stopped anywhere where you could easily walk to the Castro, and cars parked in the area were towed.

There were still a few people out, some of them dressed as widows and funeral attendants at the death of the Castro Halloween, but over all it was a pretty quiet night. I didn’t even see a lot of costumes out.

“It would be great if all the tourists who show up every year without costumes and take pictures DID show up tonight, but none of the costumed people did, so they’ve got nothing to photograph,” said my fella, peering out the window.

I tend to think the moral outrage making the rounds over the party shutdown is a little overblown. In two years or five years, the locals can start coming out of the woodwork in their thousand-hour hand-crafted costumes and with any luck the Mission will be the hot place for the tourists to go by then so the rest of us can party on the sly. Of course in five years I might have bought a house on the bleak peninsula and be busy creating and raising my own spawn, but I’m happy to think the neighborhood will go on partying without me.

Speaking of domestic bliss, my fella and I carved pumpkins with my folks the weekend before Halloween, and to close out my Halloween talk for the year I leave you with this image. This is my fella’s pumpkin, on an artistic level far surpassing everyone else’s pumpkins, which is causing my dad to tell the neighbors he is hoping I marry this guy so we can keep those pumpkin carving skills in the family.

30
Oct

Baby Faces of Comedy

Author: kris, Category: Comedy, Events

Don’t miss tonight’s Baby Faces of Comedy Tour at 12 Galaxies (which I need to write a post about later, remind me).

What is Baby Faces of Comedy? In the words of my favorite baby-faced comedian, Sean Keane, “For a long time…[founder] Joe Gorman would tell anyone who would listen about his brilliant plan for a comedy showcase: a lineup made up of only comics with youthful, child-like features. Spike Lee made The Original Kings of Comedy. Patton Oswalt has The Comedians of Comedy. This would follow in their footsteps as the Baby Faces of Comedy Tour.”

The show is happening tonight at 9 pm. For a mere $8, you can enjoy the comedic stylings of six rosy-cheeked, childlike stand-up artists. And for an extra $2, Sean Keane will perform his entire routine sucking on a pacifier and fake-crying.*

*No.

26
Oct

Day of the Dead

Author: kris, Category: Events

We don’t talk about death a lot in America. I imagine most people are relived about that, but I find it a little creepy. I’d rather have some sense that our dearly departed retain a place in our lives even after they’re gone.

That’s why I like the Day of the Dead, or Dia de los Muertos if you want to say it all correct-like. SF has been throwing a DotD celebration for the past 29 years and this year is no exception. The official procession will take place on November 2 at 7:00 p.m., beginning at 24th & Bryant in the Mission. There’s also the festival of altars at Garfield Park, where everyone is encouraged to create an altar in honor of those you’ve lost. It should be a beautiful, strange, moving thing to see, and I encourage everyone to attend.