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 Jason Middlebrook |
Cultural Stimuli in SF
Issue 272: teeth-baring flavor
With all the coyotes running loose and reports that hyphy's death was greatly exaggerated, teeth (or grills) are being bared in force this week. We're coming down to the final days for counterculture hero Chicken John and activist Josh Wolf to collect signatures to run for San Francisco mayor. With their hats in the ring, we could have a real feather-and-fur-flying season on our hands. There are plenty of other reasons this week to grin and growl. The '80s are back with Sixteen Candles and Meatballs screening at summery events, and repping for the '90s, Slint return with Spiderland live. Get your feel-good on with Tour de Fat, Femi Kuti, Kiki & Herb, and Chromeo, and then move to GiRL FeST Bay Area to hear your sisters roar. Even Tom Morello is coming around — albeit with less bark but just as much RATM bite. Show off those pearly whites, gleaming golds, or nicotine-stained canines, and spread it...
- Lisa Hix, Managing Editor
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Flavorpill SF is an email magazine covering a hand-picked selection of music, art, and cultural events — delivered each Tuesday afternoon.
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Peaches Almighty
Celebrating ten years of outrageous midnight-movie fun, camp-queen extraordinaire Peaches Christ hosts a sing-along to the Olivia Newton-John roller-skating classic Xanadu.
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| MUSIC: Singer/Songwriter |
Gary Jules w/ Jim Bianco
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Six years ago, Gary Jules ripped our hearts out with his bone-chillingly eerie cover of Tears for Fears' "Mad World," which he recorded with producer Michael Andrews. Its sense of hopelessness and melancholy was a perfect match for the bleak, obtuse, sci-fi/horror/teen angst film Donnie Darko (2001). Last year, Jules self-released an eponymous album of sweet, hushed, bluesy folk, distinguished by his fragile falsetto. As a counter to his bashful singer/songwriter persona, Jules is touring with his charismatic friend Jim Bianco, another DIY musician, who sings bossa nova, sultry jazz, and torch songs with a Waitsian rasp. (LH)
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| DISCUSSION |
James Wales, Founder of Wikipedia
| when: |
Wed 7.18 (6pm) |
| where: |
Commonwealth Club (595 Market St, 2nd Fl, 415.597.6700) map |
| price: |
$20 |
| links: |
Event Info | James Wales |
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James Wales is an enviable figure among geeks, nerds, and the lowly mortals trying to suss out the answer to last night's pub-quiz clincher. As the founder and steward of Wikipedia (and its family of reference tools), Wales oversees one of the most extensive repositories of information online, with millions of entries in hundreds of languages and a wildly faithful and diligent team of (mostly volunteer) editors, proofreaders, moderators, and fact-checkers. Tonight, Wales chats about his recent battles with another Internet giant, Google, over the next big project: a collaboratively designed search engine. (CH)
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| ART |
The Institute for Unpopular Culture presents William Noguera: The Escape Artist
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Looking at the painstakingly detailed, photo-realistic, stippled-ink drawings of San Quentin death-row inmate William Noguera, viewers are confronted with all the uneasy tensions that attend outsider art. These issues are made even thornier by the ugly realities of the American penal system that, arguably, led Noguera to make art in the first place — further underscoring why this retrospective is necessary viewing for both social-justice activists and the white-cube set. The sheer isotopic density of Noguera's renderings (which take hundreds of hours to complete) serves as a silent testament of the interminability most death-row inmates face. (MS)
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| MUSIC: Indie Pop |
The Bird and the Bee
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Looking like Faye Dunaway circa Bonnie and Clyde but sounding like Catherine Deneuve in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Inara George leads the Bird and the Bee through atmospheric dance tunes that aren't afraid to get a little dirty; listen to the band's first single, "Fucking Boyfriend," to get an idea of this naughty bird's bittersweet lyricism. This kind of brazen-but-beautiful expression has already earned George and bandmate Greg Kurstin some serious street cred: potty-mouthed rap act Peaches even remixed the track. (JH)
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| MUSIC: Cello Rock |
Rasputina w/ My Brightest Diamond
| when: |
Thur 7.19 (8pm) |
| where: |
Great American Music Hall (859 O'Farrell St, 415.885.0750) map |
| price: |
$16 |
| links: |
Event Info | Rasputina |
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Brooklyn-bred avant-garde string trio Rasputina merge alt-rock (band member Melora Creager once toured with Nirvana) with unlikely accompaniment — i.e., a cello. Though the band's early repertoire was mostly made up of covers, their latest album, Oh Perilous World!, is an original opus culled from climactic contemporary events. The group's songwriters, Melora Creager and Jonathon Tebeest, deliver an affecting soundtrack of troubled times alongside opener My Brightest Diamond (aka Shara Worden) — a goth-folk guitar prodigy with an arresting stage presence, who performs solo tonight. (JH)
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| FESTIVAL |
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
| when: |
Thu 7.19 - Mon 8.6 (schedule) |
| where: |
Various locations |
| price: |
$195 festival pass / $11 each program |
| links: |
Event Info |
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The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival's lineup of documentaries, narratives, and shorts includes opening night's Sweet Mud — which follows 12-year-old Dvir as he balances caring for his fragile mother with the demands of the kibbutz community — and documentary Making Trouble: Three Generations of Funny Jewish Women, which screens after a live performance by comedienne Judy Gold. Along with programs on music and Israeli documentaries, this year's slate includes a special focus on boxing: a sport with a history of underclass and ethnic predominance in which Jews were featured prominently in the fist half of the 20th century. (AL)
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| DJ |
Simon Bassline Smith
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Though he's been in the game for almost two decades now, Simon Bassline Smith has seen his profile rise again in recent years, as he and his label, Technique Recordings, have come into prominence with funky drum 'n bass tracks that recall the liquid funk of Grooverider while retaining the hard edge of present-day jungle. His second album on the label, entitled Street Technique, was released last year to great acclaim and support in the UK, with cuts from the record standing tall in the DJ crates of Roni Size and Andy C. (KH)
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| ALSO ON THUR |
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FESTIVAL
GiRL FeST Bay Area
Thur 7.19 - Sun 7.22 (schedule) Various locations Free-$20
Event Info
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At this year's GiRL FeST Bay Area, Joan of Arcadia's Amber Tamblyn and comedian Ali Wong, as well as several hip-hop, R&B, and spoken-word artists, tackle the tough issues of women's sexual slavery and misogyny in hip-hop. (LH)
 
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DJ
Dirt Crew
Thur 7.19 (9pm) Rx Gallery (132 Eddy St, 415.474.7973) map $8
Event Info
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German mischief-makers the Dirt Crew create live sets by sampling liberally from bleepy, acidic house records of decades past. Their eminently danceable hybrid — for all its throwback, Chicago leanings — fits hand-in-glove with populist Daft Punk admirers. (TW)
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| MUSIC: Acoustic |
The Nightwatchman
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While Tom Morello is revered for his left-wing politics and his roaring funk-metal guitar riffs, you might not know that he has a nice, husky singing voice and mad finger-picking skills. Though it's tempting to write him off as a '90s relic or question his partnership with Chris Cornell, Morello never stopped raging against the machine, so much so that he received last year's Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award for his political activism. As the Nightwatchman, Morello takes his cues from the protest-song legacy of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, and Country Joe McDonald by channeling his passionate fight for labor rights into smoldering country-folk ballads. (LH)
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| FILM |
Midnites for Maniacs presents Summer Camp-y Triple Feature
| when: |
Fri 7.20 (7:30pm / 9:45pm / midnight) |
| where: |
The Castro Theater (429 Castro St, 415.621.6120) map |
| price: |
$10 for all three movies |
| links: |
Event Info |
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Midnites for Maniacs packs virgins, food fights, Hasselhoff, sophomoric sight gags, and teen girls hopped up on Judy Blume off to summer camp in a triple threat of lost classics. Little Darlings (1980) manages to wring poignancy out of two campers' competition to be the first to lose her virginity; Meatballs (1979) offers messy hijinks galore with Bill Murray as a beleaguered counselor; and a spirit squad runs amok in the T&A-heavy Revenge of the Cheerleaders (1976), which curator Jesse Hawthorne Ficks claims features the longest food-fight sequence in film history. (MS)
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| BENEFIT |
Tour de Fat 2007
| when: |
Sat 7.21 (10am-5pm) |
| where: |
Speedway Meadow (Golden Gate Park, Fulton St & 25th Ave) map |
| price: |
$5 suggested donation |
| links: |
Event Info |
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There are roughly 100 calories in a 12-ounce can of light beer; a half-hour's worth of slow, leisurely pedaling can easily burn that. Imagine attaining that equilibrium between caloric intake and physical fitness, while contributing to the continuous improvement of safety conditions and accessibility for bicyclists in San Francisco. Infused with a festive mood akin to Bay to Breakers, Tour de Fat is just the ticket. The bike parade starts at 10am, followed by a daylong ballyhoo of customized bikes, circus antics, live music, and tasty libations. (TF)
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| MUSIC: Afrobeat |
Femi Kuti
| when: |
Sat 7.21 (9pm) |
| where: |
The Fillmore (1805 Geary Blvd, 415.346.6000) map |
| price: |
$32.50 |
| links: |
Event Info | Femi Kuti |
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With all the so-so musicians spawned from legendary musical parents, we're certain there's a support group somewhere out there. But Femi Kuti wouldn't have to join; he seems to regard the legacy of his late, great father, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, as a torch to be carried and not a shadow to be escaped. Femi has honed the propulsive Afrobeat sound that his father invented, but he's also pushed to expand its boundaries, collaborating with Mos Def and Common. Most crucial for tonight's event, though, he's mastered the power of participatory live sets. (TW)
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| MUSIC: Avant-Garde |
John Duncan
| when: |
Sat 7.21 (9pm) |
| where: |
Recombinant Labs Compound (1070 Van Dyke Ave, 415.971.4276) map |
| price: |
$10 |
| links: |
Event Info | John Duncan |
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John Duncan listens for the ghosts in the machine. His murky audio pieces have long exploited the uncanny nature of shortwave radio — with its ability to summon strange voices from the ether — across an astonishing variety of platforms: from his infamous '80s Radio Code pirate broadcasts to sonic "renderings" of Australian tidal data and soundtracks to Japanese porn films (which Duncan also directed as John See). Duncan's multilayered work suggests that messages hide beneath the medium's static hiss and white noise, though we mortals may not be the intended recipients. (MS)
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| FILM |
Peaches Christ presents Sing-Along Xanadu (1980)
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SF's own trash-culture whore Peaches Christ brings her annual summertime film series back to town for its tenth year. This week shines the spotlight on Olivia Newton-John as the singing muse Kira in the cult classic Xanadu. Often viewed as an unfortunate attempt to capitalize on the Warriors-fueled urban-musical fad, the film also features a roller-skating Gene Kelly (in his final major silver-screen role), a derby's worth of disco-clad quad-skaters, and an outlandish finale that still has Busby Berkeley rolling over in his grave. All in all, a perfect addition to Peaches' celebration of camp. (CH)
 The title of the film Xanadu is a reference to which poem? Two randomly drawn correct responses each receive a pair of tickets to this show. Entries close at 6pm on Tue 7.17.
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| ALSO ON SAT |
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FILM
Sixteen Candles (1984)
Sat 7.21 (8pm) Dolores Park (Dolores St & 18th St, 415.285.1717) map 
Event Info
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A collective "Awww!" is sure to echo during one of Hollywood's sweetest movie finales, so pack a picnic, grab a blanket, and head to Dolores Park for a screening of movie-night favorite Sixteen Candles. (TF)
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MUSIC: Live Minimal
Pop feat. the Field
Sat 7.21 (9pm) Rx Gallery (132 Eddy St, 415.474.7973) map $12-$15 / $10 advance
Event Info
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Swedish phenom the Field is touring after a string of singles and a well-received album on Kompakt. His gorgeous, deep minimal house, on which he overlays gently arpeggiated synths and samples, would tend trance-ward if it weren't so crisp. (TW)
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PARTY
Michelle Panache's Farewell Soiree feat. Aa w/ Black Fiction
Sat 7.21 (9:30pm) 12 Galaxies (2565 Mission St, 415.970.9777) map $5
Event Info
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Brooklyn quartet Aa (pronounced "Big A Little A") helm this bon voyage for local booking/magazine impreseria Michelle Panache with deliciously spastic drumming, leftfield electronics, and bursts of vocal noise. They're supported by beloved local freaks Black Fiction and a bevy of other well-wishing locals. (TW)
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| THEATRE |
SF Theatre Festival
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Once again corralling the Bay Area's diverse theatre scene into one daylong event, the San Francisco Theatre Festival celebrates its fourth year of free, public performances. Situated in Yerba Buena Gardens' verdant bosom, ten stages provide the platform for the works of over 50 theatre companies and solo artists. Highlights include Suzan-Lori Parks' "Week 36" of her captivating 365 Days/365 Plays project in which the playwright composed one play every day for a year. The roster also includes a wide array of hip-hop and spoken word, as well as Exit Theatre's Fringe Festival, solo performances from the Marsh, and recent projects from Intersection for the Arts. (IA)
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| DJ |
Dub Mission presents Bob Marley CD Release Party w/ DJ Mason
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The first official Bob Marley remix album, Roots, Rock, Remixed, arrives with contributions from some of today's hottest producers (Fort Knox Five, Jimpster, DJ Spooky) providing a 21st century vision of beloved classics like "One Love" and "Soul Shakedown Party." The album has even been given the Marley family stamp of approval, meaning these carefully crafted remixes don't dare lose Mr. Marley's authenticity. DJ Mason (Afrodisiac Sound System and DJ Haul & Mason) gets the dance party started. (JC)
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| MUSIC: Reunion Rock |
Slint
| when: |
Sun 7.22 (9pm) |
| where: |
Bimbo's (1025 Columbus Ave, 415.474.0365) map |
| price: |
$25 |
| links: |
Event Info | Slint |
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Flashback to 1991: hair metal is on the wane and grunge is about to hit the big-time. Out of almost nowhere — namely Louisville, Kentucky — come Slint with Spiderland, six tracks of sprawling, moody, droning rock displaying an irreverent punk attitude without the exuberant aggressiveness. The album's hints of pop-music inflections and lyricism but also raw experimentalism prompt many to cite this musical bomb as the first post-rock record. Tonight, Slint perform Spiderland in its entirety. (KH)
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| MUSIC: Electro-Funk |
Chromeo w/ Flosstradamus
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Chromeo's inspired electro-funk takes a page from Falco and Eddie Murphy with its spurned party-boy lyrics and squealing synths. Really it the duo's wit and talent that makes people lose their shit, though — a few clicks through YouTube is all it takes to turn up shameless proof. Take a hint, Middle East: Dave 1 and Pee Thug's latest, Fancy Footwork, totally proves Palestinians and Jews can get along. After all, everyone enjoys funny dating advice, getting down with the two-step, and making fun of momma's boys. If not, tonight you can at least act a fool during supporting act Flosstradamus' mashups. (MC)
Note: Chromeo and Flosstradamus hammed it up recently in NYC, and we took photos.
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| ART |
Ana Teresa Fernandez: Pressing Matters
| when: |
Now through Sat 7.28 (Tue-Sat: 11am-5:30pm) |
| where: |
Braunstein/Quay Gallery (430 Clementina St, 415.278.9850) map |
| price: |
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| links: |
Event Info |
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Even without knowing that Ana Teresa Fernandez's paintings are "performance documentation," her tableaux of Prada-clad, faceless hausfraus awkwardly wrapped around ironing boards turn viewers into voyeurs with their unsettling glamour. The subjects' impractically short dresses, high heels, and uncomfortable positions resonate with larger social issues, like contorted "folkloric" misrepresentations of Mexican women and glossy stylizations of domestic contentment. In other pieces, absurd, hellish chores (mopping the tide, sweeping the beach) recall the backbreaking agony of day laborers, and serve as an ominous reminder of the growing laundry list of tasks for environmental optimists. (IA)
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| CABARET/BURLESQUE |
Kiki & Herb: Alive from Broadway
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San Francisco's prodigal "daughter" and son, Justin Bond and Kenny Melmen, return to the city that birthed their washed-up, boozy cabaret alter egos Kiki and Herb, fresh from a successful run in the Big Apple. Kiki's mantra, "dare to suck," has become the wager on which the duo stakes its routine of slurred songs and bruised banter while casually dropping not only Nirvana and Kate Bush tunes but also child-abuse references. But you can't sell out in New York with damaged goods alone — prickly empathy, not cold irony, lies at the heart of Kiki & Herb's fire-sale shtick. (MS)
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| ART |
Les Autres
| when: |
Now through Sun 8.5 (Sun: 12-5pm / by appointment) |
| where: |
Ratio 3 (903 Guerrero St, 415.821.3371) map |
| price: |
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| links: |
Event Info |
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Les Autres is structured like a fugue, with themes contrapuntally composed around fixation, compliance, transcendence, and immanence. Peter Christopherson, of bands Coil and Psychic TV, presents Form Grows Rampant — a 50-minute film following the events of Thailand's GinJae Festival, during which its young participants enter trance-like states, self-mutilate, and perform other acts intended to propitiate their village's potentially wrathful spirits. Controversial photographer Araki Nobuyoshi presents Polaroids of bound women and fading blossoms — part of his decades-spanning oeuvre examining desire. Eve Fowler's photographs, meanwhile, appropriate hetero-normative aesthetics, assigning power to the socially powerless. (IA)
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| ALSO ONGOING/UPCOMING |
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ART
A Serious Paradise
Now through Sat 8.18 (Tue-Sat: 10:30am-5:30pm) Gregory Lind Gallery (49 Geary St, 5th Fl, 415.296.9661) map
Event Info
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Don't be misled, it's not a stodgy Garden of Eden. This exhibition offers a refreshingly subtle investigation of environmental harmony — equal parts imaginative daydream and serious proposal. (IA)
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| ALSO ONGOING/UPCOMING |
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ART
Wrong Number
Now through Sat 7.28 (Tue-Sat: 11am-6pm) Jack Hanley Gallery (395 & 389 Valencia St, 415.522.1623) map
Event Info
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Presenting an exhibition of eight artists, Wrong Number employs familiar strategies of photographic portraiture, investigating the theory-tangled triangulation between the maker, the audience, and the works themselves. (IA)
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INVENT YOURSELF: Exploratorium's Maker Saturdays |
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Maybe you've got a yen to charge your iPod with a Duracell, race your jigsaw with other jigsaws, or construct complex objects using common household ephemera. Ever since its first issue in January 2005, MAKE magazine has been there for you, whispering into your ears like a benevolent DIY fairy, enabling your all-too-often neglected, inner MacGyver. Introducing the Bay Area's most inspired inventors, MAKE's own publisher Dale Dougherty hosts a series of webcasts from the Exploratorium. Every Saturday, viewers/listeners can putter around with new innovations and talk to the makers themselves. You may have already missed roboticist Ken Murphy as well as Paul Cesewski, who built a man-and-gas-powered train car, but you can still catch Margaret Wertheim's decked-out crafting and Jim Newton's "Tools for Making Things." (IA)
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CD REVIEW: Prins Thomas, Cosmo Galactic Prism |
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Eskimo
Released July 2007
$20.99 (Amazon)
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Norwegian neo-disco DJ, producer, and label owner Prins Thomas makes clear straight away in the liner notes that this massive double-disc delight is in no way a continuous mix. While he massages new life into both modern and rare gems alike with new echoes and edits, Thomas merely places each song side-by-side in a pleasing and progressive manner. What makes these 36 tracks retain a strong sense of structure is the laidback strut that travels effortlessly — and surprisingly so — from techno by Soylent Green and Metal Chicks to old-school disco by Musique, and from blissed-out (Boards of Canada) to whacked-out (Holger Czukay's "Cool in the Pool"). By the time the psychedelia of Hawkwind's "City of Lagoons" ends Disc 1 and begins Disc 2, minds are all but melted in a genre-jumping, tempo-shifting cosmic collision. (MC)
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MEDIA: Fabchannel |
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A nonprofit project run in association with Amersterdam's Paradiso and Melkweg music clubs, Webby Award-winning site Fabchannel offers streaming concert footage from an archive of more than 600 shows. Each event is accompanied by a song-by-song playlist that allows you to skip that epic 20-minute extended solo if you so desire, as well as hop back and forth between performances. The shows themselves are professionally rendered — hardly a given with this type of quickly generated content — with quality sound and camera work. Plus, with hundred of hours of footage, there's something to satiate pretty much every interest. Along that line, check out energetic performances by everyone from Good Shoes and Comets on Fire to Andrew Bird, Cold War Kids, and Bebel Gilberto. (CJN)
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| Header Design: |
| Jason Middlebrook |
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| Editors: |
| Isaac Amala | | Melody Caraballo | | Eli Dvorkin | | Lisa Hix | | Kai Hsing | | Connie Hwong | | Jake Lancaster | | Doug Levy | | Sascha Lewis | | Mark Mangan | | Colin J. Nagy | | Claire Smith | | Matt Sussman | | Toby Warner |
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| ABOUT US |
| Flavorpill SF is a free weekly email magazine covering cultural happenings across art, music, film, theatre, dance, literature, and DJ events. All content is produced by a local team of writers in SF. We don't include sold-out events, and all listings are pure editorial — no money is accepted from venues, artists, or promoters. Read more about us. |
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| FEEDBACK |
| As always, feel free to send in any and all feedback — comments, questions, ideas, or rants. |
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| EVENT & DESIGN SUBMISSIONS |
To let us know about an upcoming event that you think belongs here, please email us at events at least two weeks prior to the date.
To find out more about submitting cover art to run at the top of Flavorpill publications, go to flavorpill.net/design. |
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| Contributors: |
| Jimmy Carson | | Tanya Feldman | | Julian Hooper | | Annie Lo | | Gerry Mak |
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| Production: |
| Anjuli Ayer | | Jessica Bauer-Greene | | Chelsea Bauch | | Morgan Croney | | Myla Dalbesio | | Teel Lassiter | | Sarah Steele | | Judah Wiedre | | Anna Wolfgang | | Daphne Yang |
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| Every week, Flavorpill SF presents one exclusive media partner. Click for more information about advertising opportunities on all Flavorpill publications. |
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Hi-fidelity updates
A twice-monthly email magazine highlighting the latest in electronic music — including news, reviews, and original features
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