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AUGUST 17 - AUGUST 23
San Francisco has long pursued restless futurisms, but this week the city gives way to more old-timey infatuations. A full-scale retro fetish is in effect courtesy burlesque shows and cabaret performances. CGI gives way to scratchy black-and-white at the Not-So-Silent Film Screening, while the musicians Ron Carter, Charlie Hunter, and Wayne Hancock keep alive the traditions of jazz and country. Even DJs are in on the archaic act, spinning by candlelight. Revisit the days of yore, and spread it.
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Scion searches the nation for the next hottest mixtape DJ! |
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FILM
My Mother Likes Women
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| when: | Tue 8.17 (4:45, 7 & 9:15pm) |
| where: | Landmark Lumiere Theatre (1572 California St, 415.267.4893) |
| price: | $9.50 |
| links: |
Event Info |
| | If you can't wait for the next Almodóvar film, tide yourself over with My Mother Likes Women (A Mi Madre Le Gustan Las Mujeres), smartly written and directed by Spain's Daniela Fejerman and Ines Paris. Featuring several of Almodóvar's leading women (Talk to Her's Leonor Watling, All About My Mother's Rosa Maria Sarda), the picture is a madcap romantic farce in the tradition of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Divorced 60-something Sofia comes home with a girlfriend several decades her junior; her distressed daughters, uncomfortable with the new domestic partnership and suspicious of their mom's lover's motives, attempt to intervene. It's a rollicking, raucous, and only slightly raunchy good time. (PS)
Note: This film also plays Wed 8.18 & Thur 8.19.
  
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| | This must be the year of the sprint, what with Phoenix's delirious pop hit "Run Run Run," Detroit's Run Stop Restore, and now the Bay Area's own run_return. Despite the vintage digital roots of their name, there's nothing basic (or BASIC) about the group's lush, post-rock sound, which fuses the sprawling harmonics of Tortoise with a lo-fi interpretation of the Postal Service's charmed electropop. Having gone from a duo to a sextet to a trio, run_return have re-engineered themselves with every change, but the most recent update of their code promises pure GIGO: Gentleness In, Grandeur Out. (PS)
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| | If you haven't gotten enough of young upstarts and old school punk rock on the summer touring circuit, Chris Appelgren brings the music of his legendary Berkeley imprint, Lookout! — and probably that of a few other indies — to Oakland's Mile High Club for a candlelit DJ set. There's no guarantee that it's all going to be warm and fuzzy simply because of the setting, though — from Ted Leo/Pharmacists to Operation Ivy, Appelgren's diverse roster is as responsible for numbing eardrums as it is soothing souls. (KT)
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| | Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things chronicles an India on the brink of modernity, struggling with deep-rooted traditions, diverse religions, and the magical realism of everyday life. An architect, international political writer, and activist, Roy donates person, pen, and prize earnings to Indian grassroots efforts to thwart dam construction, privatization of India's power supply, and the country's increasing nuclear arsenal. A fierce and vocal opponent of the war on terrorism, Roy appears in Berkeley tonight at a benefit for local free-speech radio, presented by KPFA and Pacifica Radio. (CW)
Note: Alternative Radio producer David Barsamian, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman, and Boots Riley of the Coup also appear.
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MULTIMEDIA
Not-So-Silent Film Screening
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| when: | Thur 8.19 (8-11pm) |
| where: | Varnish Fine Art (77 Natoma St, 415.222.6131) |
| price: | $7 |
| links: |
Event Info |
| | Viewers who find today's movie stars too darned chatty can take pleasure in tonight's roundup of silent classics, where sight gags, melodramatic gestures, and terse boxes of text do the talking. There's no chance of being lulled to sleep by the whir of the projector, though: a Sonoma County ensemble of vibraphone, woodwind, brass, percussion, and bass accompanies the films — including Buster Keaton's Cops, D. W. Griffith's A Corner in Wheat, and train-robbery genre pic Loandale Operator — all with original compositions evoking an era before THX. (PS)
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MUSIC: Jazz
Ron Carter Quartet
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| when: | Thur 8.19 - Sun 8.22 (Thur-Sat: 8 & 10pm / Sun: 2 & 8pm) |
| where: | Yoshi's (510 Embarcadero W, Oakland, 510.238.9200) |
| price: | $12-24 |
| links: |
Event Info | Ron Carter |
| | Rising from the Motor City where he trained in cello and bass, Ron Carter took his upright to the Big Apple and cut his teeth with the likes of Eric Dolphy and Thelonious Monk. Since then, he has been an integral part of Miles Davis' band and the New York Jazz Quartet, collaborated with A Tribe Called Quest on their signature album, served as director of the Monk Institute of Jazz Studies and as a professor emeritus at City College. With Carter manning the low-end, this weekend's stop at Yoshi's is one long highlight. (SNS)
 On which Eric Dolphy album does Carter play cello? The first three correct answers each win a pair of tickets to the Thursday 10pm show.
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| | German-born Tim Reynolds transformed himself from a military brat constricted by a strict, religious upbringing into a highly skilled guitar picker who's earned the respect of acoustic junkies. Self-taught after years of being forced to play electric bass in his parents' church, Reynolds crisscrossed the States playing his brand of bluesy rock, eventually putting down roots in Charlottesville, VA. Aside from his talents on guitar, the Dave Matthews-collaborator also dabbles with various ethnic elements — mandolin, djembe, even sitar — providing a universalist musical doctrine for tonight's solo performance. (SNS)
Reynolds' debut recording contained a song espousing which Beastie Boys-approved human rights cause? The first three correct answers each win a pair of tickets to the show.
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PERFORMANCE
SF Drag King Contest
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| when: | Thur 8.19 (9pm) |
| where: | DNA Lounge (375 11th St, 415.626.1409) |
| price: | $25 / $20 advance |
| links: |
Event Info |
| | Some may sing "It's a man's world," but in San Francisco rigid gender hierarchies are not in our cultural lexicon. At tonight's ninth annual SF Drag King Contest, anything goes and everyone is welcome. And we mean everyone: where else would you find contestants with names like Whacked Willy Ryder and Howie Weenis? Mix with the suits, hunks, punks, bikers, dandies, and others as a star-studded panel including Miss Trannyshack 2001, Crickett Bardot, judges the entrants. If you feel like getting in on the act but don't know your Van Dyke from your Von Dutch, sign up for Arty Fishal's Fabulous Drag King Workshop, scheduled two hours before the big show. (LE)
Note: A limited number of VIP seats are available for $35.
If you were a drag king, what would your stage name be? Our two favorite answers each win a pair of tickets to the event.
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FUNDRAISER: Performance
SpeakEasily Burlesque and Vaudeville Show
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| when: | Fri 8.20 (5-8pm) |
| where: | SomArts Cultural Center (934 Brannan St, 415.552.2131) |
| price: | $5-10 donation |
| links: |
Event Info |
| | SomArts celebrates the conclusion of its 2nd Annual Café Show benefit with a night of performances from cabaret favorites including theatrical lounge ensemble Rosin Coven, sex-crazed musical comedienne Kitten on the Keys, and the fire-starting Ms. Cherry Bomb. Over the past two weeks, local musicians and artists have donated entertainment and more than 300 works of art to raise money for this worthy cause. Along with the spectacle, tonight is also your last chance to view or purchase these works and support the continuation of SomArts' experimental efforts in theatre, film, and the visual arts. (EC)
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| | Blessed to learn music in an environment open to innovation, Bay Area jazz impresario Charlie Hunter long ago custom-ordered an eight-string guitar that would shape his future. Slapping ground-shaking bass notes with his right thumb, his other digits forcefully glide through a complex terrain of widely spaced strings and frets. With solo gigs, albums with his trio, and even forays with a quartet, Charlie Hunter keeps the pulse of today's NoCal jazz movement, tantalizing crowds with his inventive rhythms while honoring his commitment to expose and teach youth the virtues of jazz and its rich history. (SNS)
As a reaction against being labeled "acid jazz," which term has Hunter occasionally used to describe his own music? The first two correct answers each win a pair of tickets to the show.
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| | Denmark's Christian Bloch was just a young'un when Tresor Records put out their genre-defining compilation Berlin-Detroit: A Techno Alliance. Nearly ten years later, Bloch followed his love for the soulful minimal techno style embodied in the release and plopped himself down in Detroit to further his own sound and record for Tresor. With his recent move to the Bay Area, it's obvious that, both musically and geographically, he's not content to stay in one place. Lucas Rodenbush has his Detroit connections too, and while he delves more into the house-y side of things — François K and Danny Tenaglia have both championed his work — his most recent 12-inch appears on Derrick May's Transmat label, grounding him firmly in techno's fertile fields. (KT)
Name three artists featured on Tresor's Berlin-Detroit: A Techno Alliance; the first two correct answers each win a pair of tickets to the show.
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| | Not to be confused with contradictorily named all-girl gang Boyskout, Boyjazz are an all-out, testosterone-fueled assault on glam rock and metal that straddles the fine line between retro irony and full-on earnestness. The band members might have names such as Supertouch and Sexmouth, but their rowdy howls and rough-hewn rawk seem as sincere as they come. On their recent album, In the City Tonight, Boyjazz boil up a hotpot of influences, from Motörhead and Sabbath to Sweet and T. Rex. In between their tributes, they pack a buzz more intense than a freezer-burned 12-pack of Stroh's. (KT)
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| | Local outfit Gama-Go have made a name for themselves by producing a series of limited edition, streetwise t-shirts and accessories that are at once artful and humorous. Popular characters like Gama Yeti, Ninja Kitty, and the Shadow reappear seasonally, but each time with new and fresh designs. Today Gama-Go holds its annual Sample Sale, where merchandise is scooped up faster than you can say "distressed robot." It's all ages, so bring the kids; DJ J Flea spins, and Gama-Go is giving away two limited edition prints to some lucky winners. (NN)
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MUSIC: Indie Rock
Pono Record Release Party
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| when: | Sat 8.21 (9pm) |
| where: | Li Po Lounge (916 Grant Ave, 415.982.0072) |
| price: | $5 |
| links: |
Event Info |
| | Local three-piece Pono celebrate the release of their third album — as well as the city that inspires them. Along with samples of San Francisco noises, Indie Rock to the Blues incorporates kazoos, live show excerpts, and political commentary. Their eclecticism mirrors the diverse artists they're compared to: the Velvet Underground and Magnetic Fields, Air and Liz Phair. With their quirky experimentation, Pono's live shows aim to surprise, and they often get gleefully out of control. Fortunately, there's no better place to pogo to Pono than in the basement of the Li Po. (CT)
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| | If you think the funk no longer hits the fan now that George and Bootsy are getting on in years, Amp Fiddler may offer you some soul salvation. Fiddler's paid his dues, performing and recording with folks like Mr. Clinton, the Brand New Heavies, Prince, and Maxwell. Lately, he's been in the mix and remix with fresh electronic talents such as fellow Detroit producers John Arnold and Moodymann, as well as UK broken beat masters Bugz in the Attic. A funkmaster for all seasons, he brings a seasoned live flow together with a discerning ear for gritty beats. (GKH)
What was the title of Amp Fiddler's 1990 album for Elektra, released under the alias Mr. Fiddler? The first three correct answers each win a pair of tickets to the show.
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| | San Francisco has long been hospitable to the hot, jazzy sounds of broken beat, so England's Quantic can expect a warm reception for himself and his crate of downtempo dubplates. Quantic (aka Will Holland) melds Brazilian rhythms, Afrobeat, classic funk, and of course plenty of j-to-the-a-to-the-double-z into a fusion that's deep and dead funky. Like his occasional collaborator Mr. Scruff, he's at his best when he leaves the edges rough, avoiding the pitfalls of noodlier nu-jazz. If you pine for the golden era of Mo' Wax, grab your dancing shoes and check your head(z). (PS)
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| | Texas' Wayne Hancock might be the first bona fide space-age hillbilly. Not that he makes any kind of country techno — but the astronauts on one flight of the space shuttle Columbia reportedly woke every morning to the bugle call of his "That's What Daddy Wants." When it's not orbiting the earth, his music hugs the dusty ground, putting down roots in western swing, rockabilly, and blues to flower like a prickly pear blossom. Hancock's honky-tonk, juke-joint jams roll like a steam engine racing to beat the sundown — no wonder they call him "Wayne the Train." (PS)
Tell us something we didn't know about Texas. Our three favorite answers each win a pair of tickets to the show.
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| | Bharati Mukherjee lives and teaches in Berkeley, but the work that has won her accolades including the National Book Critics Circle Award is far from local. In her latest book, The Tree Bride, Mukherjee returns to her Desirable Daughters character Tara Chatterjee, who explores the legends of her Bengali ancestors. The author's work is preoccupied with migration and identity, and she envelops it all in rich prose, with characters steeped in the sometimes bitter realities of the world. (GKH)
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PERFORMANCE: Burlesque
The Va Va Voom Room
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| when: | Fridays and Saturdays through 8.28 (11pm) |
| where: | Empire Plush Room (940 Sutter St, 415.885.6800) |
| price: | $25 / $20 advance |
| links: |
Va Va Voom Room |
| | Led by the eye patch wearing, chain-smoking Miss Astrid, and held in the Plush Room's stained-glass ceilinged, red-velvet banqueted cabaret space, the Va Va Voom Room is the city's most stylish burlesque and vaudeville event. Couples and girls on a night on the town create a lively participatory vibe (those celebrating a special evening get run through the spanking machine). Performances range from the sweet, retro-inspired burlesque routines of regulars Kitty Kitty Bang Bang to a geriatric magician with decidedly comedic tricks. Each weekend brings a new guest headliner — a sponge bath by Bunny Love was a recent attraction — and this time it's revolver-toting Bella Beretta from Seattle's Gun Street Girls. (EC)
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| | Part documentary, part narrative, What the #$*! Do We Know!? explores and illustrates the relationship between quantum science and spiritual consciousness. Structured like a classical Greek drama and starring the great Marlee Matlin, its central storyline is punctuated by the comments of a chorus of leading scientists and thinkers. Going straight to the questions at the core of life's mysteries, and gleefully challenging every assumption we make about the nature of reality, this movie educates, stimulates, and inspires. With wit, killer graphics, and accessible language, it stresses that we create our own reality every single second — so we better make each one count. (SND)
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| CD Review: Troubleman, Time Out of Mind |
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Far Out
Released August, 2004
$19.99 (Amazon)
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When Masters at Work's Kenny Dope hails your beats as "the phattest ever," it's a hearty endorsement indeed. Mark Pritchard, the recipient of said compliment, is widely seen as one of the UK's most talented, eclectic producers. In his Troubleman guise, he brings a handful of crispy breaks and delightfully percussive funk, soul, and bossa to the table, and authoritatively throws down aces. The subtleties and attention to detail that make this record truly special are best captured on tracks such as the Fela-esque breakdance epic "Strikehard," and the David Axelrod-inspired keys and wobbly bass groove of "The Righteous Path." (CJN)
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| EARTH AWARE: Environment California |
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Formerly part of CalPIRG, Environment California has been fighting the good fight for years, using independent research and tough-minded advocacy to protect the air, water, and open spaces of California. And they get results: in 2002, they helped pass the toughest renewable energy law in the nation. The nobility of their efforts (it is, after all, the air you breathe and the ocean you swim in) and their low administrative costs make contributing to EC a feel-good proposition of the highest order. (ABi)
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| Streams: Fabric |
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The latest installment in the fabric CD series comes from Montreal's Akufen, with a rare click-house mix well-suited to home listening. His special one-hour radio mix, included here, provides the ideal soundtrack for those last lazy summer days with standout cuts from Matthew Herbert, Mathew Jonson, and Crackhaus. Plus, stream into exclusive DJ mixes from FABRICLIVE resident Ali B, cutting up the beats and breaks, and Scratch Pervert DJ Plus One, teaming up with Dynamite MC.
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| CREDITS |
| Header Design: |
| Fountain pen | Kerry Roper | | |
| Editors: |
| Saddle shoes | Jocelyn K Glei | | Lacoste windbreaker | Paul Laster | | Horn-rims | Jane Lerner | | Fez | Doug Levy | | Fedora | Sascha Lewis | | Flat cap | Mark Mangan | | Pearls | Lisa Rosman | | Bowler hat | Philip Sherburne | | Jodhpurs | Peter D Stepek | | |
ABOUT US
flavorpill SF is a free weekly mailer covering music, arts, and cultural events in San Francisco. All listings are researched and written based on what we think has flavor. As always, feel free to send in any and all feedback — comments, questions, ideas, or rants. Spread the flavor...
EVENT SUBMISSIONS
Please send all interesting event information (press releases, links, etc.) to events. |
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| Contributors: |
| Flapper dress | Scott Benbow | | Newsboy's cap | Alex Binazir | | Mary Janes | Lisa Butterworth | | Miniskirt | Seiji Carpenter | | Elbow gloves | Erika Christiansen | | Poodle skirt | Shana N Dambrot | | Monocle | Eric Demby | | Platforms | Kevin Dick | | Pucci | Lauren Epstein | | Opera gloves | Ellisa Feinstein | | Pince nez | Reyhan Harmanci | | Polyester guayabera | Gordon K Hurd | | Peaked cap | Sebastian Koch | | Bomber jacket | Jenn Marston | | Le Tigre shirt | Nish I Nadaraja | | Smoking jacket | Colin J Nagy |
| Swimming costume | Tim Pratt | | Frock coat | Jeremy Sampson | | Skinny tie | Sam N Shah | | Pendleton shirt | Sam Smith | | Pinafore | Sarah S Sung | | Courreges sunglasses | Cheryl Taruc | | Polyester leisure suit | Ken Taylor | | Converse All-Stars | Cyrus Wadia | | Neon swirl bikini | Lisa Won | | |
| Production: |
| Top hat | Bosko Blagojevic | | Corset | Victoria Chan | | Pith helmet | David Morrow | | Parachute pants | Krista Freibaum |
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GLOBAL FASHIONS
In addition to Earplug and Boldtype, Flavorpill Productions also publishes JC Report, an inside track to fashions and trends from around the world. Issue 47 is out now.
It's free. Click to subscribe. |
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