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 Liz Hickok |
Cultural Stimuli in SF
Issue 278: jostling flavor
Though much of our population has fled to the desert, SF is still shakin', whether you're watching Liz Hickok's gelatin city shimmy or spazzing out at one of the noisy post-rock shows by They Shoot Horses Don't They or Upsilon Acrux. Challenge the culture of war by drinking Annie Sprinkle's love medicine or feeling the gravity of Darfur-conflict documentary The Devil Came on Horseback (plus read up on the film's subject, Brian Steidle, in Activate's exclusive, heartbreaking interview). After recognizing the original movers and shakers at the Summer of Love Anniversary Party, grab a seat to watch films of other artists who tipped the balance of power: R&B musicians coming together after the Watts riots, and East German filmmakers working to subvert Stalinism. And if you like your rock stars to literally destroy things, Anton Newcombe is here with his usual cloud of chaos. Back in the Bay, we don't need dust storms to stir things up. Throw your world off balance, and spread it.
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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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Devil's Playground
In the documentary The Devil Came on Horseback, a former US Marine captain visits Darfur as an unarmed observer. While he's haunted by the horrors, he's met with relentless apathy at home in the US.
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The Devil Came on Horseback
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It's a sad truth that history seems destined to repeat itself — unless we learn from our mistakes. In 2004, former US Marine captain Brian Steidle went to Darfur to serve as an unarmed observer for the African Union. Haunted by what he had seen, he became convinced that awareness of the conflict there would incite the international community. Utterly compelling, eye-opening, and heart-wrenching, this film serves as a testament to the atrocities occurring in Darfur. As the story builds with quiet gravitas, its universal resonance becomes clear and begs the question of whether global apathy might doom this African region as it did Rwanda. (AL)
Note: An exclusive interview with The Devil Came on Horseback's Brian Steidle appears in our sister pub, Activate.
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| READING |
Jeff Parker: Ovenman
| when: |
Tue 8.28 (7pm) |
| where: |
Booksmith (1644 Haight St, 415.863.8688) map |
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| links: |
Event Info |
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The protagonist of Jeff Parker's idiosyncratic but charming debut novel, Ovenman, is a skateboarding pizzeria manager named When (yes, When), who has the nasty habit of imbibing night after night until he blacks out. Fortunately for When's sanity (and the novel's plot), he covers himself with sticky notes describing what he was doing just before losing consciousness. More than a book about an alcoholic's faulty memory, though, Ovenman turns into a whodunnit after When's restaurant is robbed — but, of course, the antihero forgets to leave himself a note. (TW)
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| MUSIC: Ramshackle Rock |
They Shoot Horses Don't They w/ The Fucking Ocean
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Vancouver's They Shoot Horses Don't They are the embodiment of musical mayhem, gathering horns, guitars, keys, and dyslexic drums into a single cacophonous effort. The sheer density of their sonic attack may seem like difficult listening at first, but follow the wandering bass lines up the path of crackling snare drums and frenetic brass, top 'em with manic vocals, and you'll find that this Kill Rock Stars band has taken jazz-influenced prog-rock to new heights. Fittingly, harsh but melodic locals the Fucking Ocean act as sherpa for the first part of this journey. (KH)
Note: The band also plays 21 Grand on Wed 8.29 at 8:30pm.
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| ALSO ON TUE |
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FESTIVAL
Hairrison Street Fair's Bear Week
Now through Mon 9.3 (schedule) Various locations Free-$30
Event Info
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Pandas, polar bears, grizzlies, muscle bears, otters, chasers, and assorted other hirsute fauna converge on Harrison Street for lots of woofing, dancing, and other, less-PG forms of ursine entertainment. Grrrrr! (MS)
 
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| FILM |
NewTeeVee Pier Screenings: Citizen News
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Wed 8.29 (7pm) |
| where: |
RSVP for location map |
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Event Info |
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After an open call for citizen-news-themed footage, video blog NewTeeVee is hosting the last of its Pier Screenings series. The event showcases six works representing the best of the genre — as determined by the number of views, votes, and stars each submission receives on the vlog. With everything from shortform documentaries, news spots, interviews, and cell-phone camerawork, the site's winners truly capture the citizen-journalism phenomenon that has swept the media landscape over the past couple years. (KH)
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| ART: Opening |
Mathew Scott and Dustin Aksland
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San Francisco photographer Mathew Scott's work often explores the hypocrisies and contradictions of everyday American life — a limo parked in front of a rundown house or a dumpy bowling alley named Treasure Island. Fellow SF photographer Dustin Aksland captures the accidental beauty and grandeur of a sky perfectly complemented by man-made color fields of buildings, strip malls, and funeral parlors. Both are so adept at portraying modern-day isolation, they're appearing in The Best of Vice Photo Annual and Upper Playground's Backyard Shakedown, but you can see their work up close at this show. (LH)
Note: This exhibition runs through Thur 9.23 (Mon-Fri: 10am-9pm / Sat: 9am-8pm / Sun: 11am-7pm).
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| MUSIC: Dark Disco |
Chromatics
| when: |
Thur 8.30 (9pm) |
| where: |
Rickshaw Stop (155 Fell St, 415.861.2011) map |
| price: |
$5 before 10:30pm / $8 after |
| links: |
Event Info | Chromatics |
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Chromatics songs tend to plod — which isn't a criticism. The ever-mutating Portland group (formerly a punk-inspired hybrid), keeps its murky, crackling rock at a steady, 110 bpm pace, akin to late '70s NYC bands such as Red Transistor or Jean-Michel Basquiat's Gray. Like those arty no-wavers, Chromatics dabble in the disco, as evinced by their tracks on After Dark, the Italo revival comp for Mike "Troubleman" Simonetti's new Italians Do It Better imprint. When every guitar group seems set on aping Gang of Four, Chromatics' palette, which freely mixes grit and glitter, is refreshingly messy. (MS)
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| DJ |
Gun Club presents Prins Thomas
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The Norwegian space-disco invasion continues. Fresh on the heels of his Full Pupp labelmate Todd Terje's DJ gig last week, fellow Norseman Prins Thomas brings his record crates to Gun Club. Cosmo Galactic Prism, Thomas' double-disc, full-length debut, isn't just a string of pretty words. The phrase captures the seemingly limitless shades of Thomas' selections: a wide spectrum in which musical (and otherworldly) affinities become more apparent by their proximity to one another, making it so Joe Meek, Can's Holgar Czukay, and Boards of Canada come to form a previously hidden constellation. (MS)
 Prins Thomas is a partial owner of which record label? Two randomly drawn correct responses each receive a pair of tickets to this event. Entries close at 6pm on Wed 8.29.
 Bmph-bmph-bmph... No, that beat's not in your head, it's in Earplug — Flavorpill's bimonthly email covering electronic music.
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| ALSO ON THUR |
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CABARET/BURLESQUE
Vau De Vire Society w/ the Nekyia, Szeles the Master Hypnotist, and Chrissy Flux
Thur 8.30 (8pm) Red Devil Lounge (1695 Polk St, 415.921.1695) map $10
Event Info
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The swanky Red Devil Lounge gets turned upside down with a cabaret evening full of raucous and seductive flair: lithe aerialists, contortionists, graceful belly dancers, live music, and a séance with a hypnotist. (TF)
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DJ
EGGS feat. DMX Crew w/ Safety Scissors
Thur 8.30 (10pm) Mighty (119 Utah St, 415.762.0151) map $8
Event Info
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Mighty's monthly dance party makes its triumphant return, featuring British turntablist DMX Krew, whose work ranges from booty-shaking Miami bass and old-school hip-hop to experimental techno. (CH)
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| FILM |
Midnites for Maniacs presents Switching Schools Sucks Triple Feature
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In this triple feature at the Castro, lunchtime rebels and downtrodden heroes don't let anyone mute their voices or measure their step. Instead of shrinking under the pressures of being the new kids on campus, they fight back against their oppressors with volume, verve, and a bit of violence. Christian Slater sends hearts aflutter over radio waves, talking hard in 1990's Pump Up the Volume, Kevin Bacon pops his collar and gets his new classmates moving in 1984's Footloose, and Derrel Maury exacts cold-blooded revenge in a rare print of 1976 cult-flick Massacre at Central High. (TF)
For which movie sequel did Christian Slater replace Kevin Bacon? Three randomly drawn correct responses each receive a pair of tickets to this event. Entries close at 6pm on Wed 8.29.
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| MUSIC: Experimental |
Upsilon Acrux w/ Experimental Dental School
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Cranking out noisy, disjointed math-rock rhythms and crunchy guitar riffs, Upsilon Acrux may very well be the bastard child of early Deerhoof and current Hella, with Atari-era, 8-bit samples and a defiant resistance to cadence forming the ADD-tinged quintet's musical backbone. Experimental Dental School's noisy, acid-washed surf rock recalls a seriously addled Don Ho hula-ing his way through a twilight zone of abused keyboards and lo-fi organs. Their mind- and ear-boggling set is one of the School's last in SF before they relocate their clamor to Portland later this fall. (CH)
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| ALSO ON FRI |
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ART: Opening
Dan Nelson: 24 Illustrations for Schubert's "Winter Journey"
Fri 8.31 (6-9pm) Cricket Engine (499 Embarcadero Ave, Bldg 3, Oakland, 510.835.1920) map
Event Info
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Robert Rauschenberg's White Paintings supposedly inspired John Cage's silent 4'33". Working in reverse, and with an earlier experimental composer, Dan Nelson's sparse, cutout silhouettes perfectly illustrate Franz Schubert's final song-cycle about a wandering lover's icy reflections. (MS)
Note: This exhibition runs through Sun 9.9 (Sat & Sun: 12-4pm).
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| FESTIVAL |
Oakland Art and Soul
| when: |
Sat 9.1 - Mon 9.3 (11am-6pm) |
| where: |
Frank Ogawa Plaza (14th St and Broadway, Oakland) map |
| price: |
$10 |
| links: |
Event Info |
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Never mind Black Rock, the real party's just across the water. This weekend's Bay Bridge closure is of no concern to Oaktown's residents, who host their very own conveniently located art-and-music festival right in the heart of downtown. The three-day event features artist booths, mural creation stations, and a screening of obscure and quirky film clips curated by the notoriously East Bay-centric collective Oaklandish. Indie darlings Ted Leo and the Pharmacists headline Saturday's mainstage, joined by local electro-popsters the Lovemakers, with other stages devoted to jazz, R&B, and Latin acts. (CH)
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| ART: Opening |
Strange Weather
| when: |
Sat 9.1 (6-9pm) |
| where: |
David Cunningham Projects (1928 Folsom St, 415.341.1538) map |
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Event Info |
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In Ralph Waldo Emerson's Hamatreya, the Earth puts mankind in its place, asking: "How am I theirs / If they cannot hold me / But I hold them?" With all the abuse we put the planet through, it gets us back something fierce — hurricanes, tsunamis, volcanoes. Liz Hickok's mesmerizing and delicious San Francisco in Jell-O® reminds us just how vulnerable we are here. In Strange Weather, a show at the new David Cunningham Projects space, Hickok and seven other artists — including Eva Bovenzi, David Maisel, and Simon Reilly — explore the tension between man and nature, which is literally becoming a bit too heated. (LH)
Note: This exhibition runs through Sat 9.29 (Thur-Sun: 11am-6pm).
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| MUSIC: Possessed Post-Punk |
XBXRX w/ Old Time Relijun, Mute Socialite, and Cryptacize
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Although they are very much a part of Oakland's punk-rocking noise family, the semi-anonymous, rotating members of XBXRX originated ten years ago from the South, where the then-teenagers began improvising the loud, gritty songs that came to represent the band's sound. Olympia's rhythmically creative post-punk stompers Old Time Relijun, with their grinding upright bass, squealing sax, and yelping vocals, are just as exciting (if not more so) as XBXRX. OTR's 13 years of backwoods conceptualism recently yielded a three-CD trilogy, Lost Light, and a new full-length, Catharsis in Crisis. (KH/MC)
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| LECTURE |
Annie Sprinkle and Beth Stevens: The Love Art Laboratory Project
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No place better to get "dirty" than a laundromat. Bernal Bubbles is holding an extra-special event in its monthly lecture series. While your socks and towels go into spin mode, your unmentionables might actually become mentionables as prostitute-and-porn-star-turned-sexologist Annie Sprinkle and her life partner Beth Stephens put on their performance-art piece The Love Art Laboratory Project, a response to war, the anti-gay-marriage movement, and the culture of cynicism. They also launch a "love experiment," which surely must involve fun things like body paint, bared breasts, and audience participation. (LH)
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| ALSO ON SAT |
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FILM
Harry Potter Marathon
Sat 9.1 - Mon 9.3 (schedule) Castro Theatre (429 Castro St, 415.621.6120) map $12
Event Info
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Taking a break from grief counseling after finishing the last book in the series, Potterheads can don their wizarding hoodies and relive the nonstop adventures by watching the first four movies one after another. (TF)
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FILM
The San Francisco Underground Short Film Festival
Sat 9.1 (midnight) Bridge Theatre (3010 Geary St, 415.751.3213) map $10
Event Info
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Art films don't have to be long, dull affairs. Peaches Christ ends her ten-year jubilee with a night of local shorts, each promising outrage, sleaze, and silliness in 15 minutes or less. (MS)
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| CITY GEM |
Summer of Love 40th Anniversary Party
| when: |
Sun 9.2 (10am-6pm) |
| where: |
Speedway Meadow (Golden Gate Park, 415.861.1520) map |
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Event Info |
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Put some flowers in your hair and remember when Haight-Ashbury was the beacon of free love and expression. Forty years later, it's since become clear that hippies did more than just pave the way for warehouse artists and gutter punks, they fought for many of the civil liberties we enjoy today. It's time we give them a proper party. Join rock icons Ray Manzarek of the Doors and Gregg Allman, poet Michael McClure, and members of the Iroquois, Dakota, and Seminole tribes for "A Gathering of the Tribes" to realize your own lofty dreams of peace and understanding, as well as sexual and spiritual freedom. (LH)
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| FILM |
Wattstax (1973)
| when: |
Sun 9.2 (2, 4:20, 7:15 & 9:20pm) & Mon 9.3 (7:15 & 9:20pm) |
| where: |
Red Vic (1727 Haight St, 415.668.3994) map |
| price: |
$8.50 |
| links: |
Event Info |
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Commonly referred to as the "Black Woodstock," Wattstax was a benefit concert put on by R&B record label Stax that brought Los Angeles' African American communities together to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Watts riots. Mel Stuart's fly-on-the-wall documentary, also called Wattstax, captures the giddy firmament of possibility in amazing performances by Isaac Hayes, Rufus and Carla Thomas, the Staple Singers, and many other soul, R&B, and gospel artists, but also includes interviews with still-frustrated Watts residents and a then-unknown Richard Pryor. (MS)
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| PARTY |
Dub Mission's 11th Anniversary Party feat. Subatomic Sound System
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Eleven years strong, DJ Sep and her punky-reggae Dub Mission party are keeping things as fresh as ever with the dubwise mashup stylings of Brooklyn-based collective Subatomic Sound System. The band's sound is an amalgamation of equal parts reggae, dub, dancehall, hip-hop, drum 'n bass, and broken beat. Tonight's show is sure to be irie, with the anchor of the Subatomic sound, EMCH, holding down DJ duties while MCs Treasure Don and Jahdan Blakkamoore exhibit their smooth toasting skills. Of course, the Bay Area's crowd-pleasing DJ Sep herself also takes the controls tonight. (JC)
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| ALSO ON SUN |
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PARTY
Doin' It in the Park
Sun 9.2 (12pm-sunset) Golden Gate Park (Peacock Meadows, 415.564.9400) map
Event Info
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With all of City Hall's finger-pointing, you'd think nothing good ever went down in Golden Gate Park. Fortunately, Doin' It in the Park fills the meadows with a carnival atmosphere while DJs spin hip-hop, soul, and reggae. (TW)
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PARTY
Funk You Burning Man feat. DJ Funk
Sun 9.2 (10pm) Rickshaw Stop (155 Fell St, 415.861.2011) map Free with RSVP
Event Info
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Oddly, one of the upsides to Burning Man is the newfound ability to park easily. Some might say it's the only upside; such heads may rejoice at this decidedly un-tribal dance party with ghetto-tech honcho DJ Funk. (TW)
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| MUSIC: Evil Music |
Brian Jonestown Massacre w/ Dimmer
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Anton Newcombe, Brian Jonestown Massacre's idiosyncratic lead singer, is actively vying for the position of SF's most outlandish citizen — and that's saying quite a lot given the city's long and illustrious roster of colorful residents (including the megalomaniacal Emperor Norton and the egomaniacal Jim Jones). Newcombe's famously erratic onstage behavior and offstage antics, combined with his stubbornly prolific songwriting regimen, have contributed to his band's continually rotating lineup, including current members of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Gris Gris. Tonight, Newcombe brings his '60s-inspired garage psychedelia (currently played as a sextet) back to its hometown, neuroses and all. (CH)
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| FILM |
Rebels with a Cause: The Cinema of East Germany
| when: |
Sat 9.1 - Sat 10.27 (3pm) |
| where: |
Phyllis Wattis Theater, SFMOMA (151 3rd St, 415.357.4130) map |
| price: |
$5 per program |
| links: |
Event Info |
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Seen as the symbolic end to the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall "opened up" what many in Western Europe and the US saw as a petrified specimen of high Stalinism. However, the films in this remarkable retrospective show that GDR directors had already been bristling at Moscow's socialist-realist mandate 20 years earlier. From Gerhard Klein's 1963 Berlin Schönhauser Corner, a portrait of urban youth indebted to Elia Kazan's anti-authoritarianism, to Joachim Kunert's 1962 The Second Track, a bold look at ex-Nazis adjusting to postwar life, these films raised doubts that presaged the protests. (MS)
With or without cause, what's the most rebellious act you've performed? The two most daring responses in 50 words or less each receive a pair of tickets to this event. Entries close at 6pm on Wed 8.29.
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| ALSO ONGOING/UPCOMING |
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THEATRE
Shakespeare in the Park: A Midsummer Night's Dream
Sat 9.1 - Sun 9.23 (Sat: 7:30pm & Sun: 2:30pm) Presidio Park, (Lincoln Blvd, 415.558.0888) map
Event Info
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The Bard's comedic romp gets the alfresco treatment as Puck and Queen Titania lead a gang of asses, fairies, and hapless human lovebirds through SF's late summer evenings. (CH)
Note: Spend Labor Day in the park where all the world's a stage; performance begins at 2:30pm.
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FAST-PITCH FASHION: Pecha Kucha
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You violently swore you'd never again ask your designer friend to tell you
about his latest project — last time that happened, he PowerPointed you
into a vegetative stupor. But creative tinkerers and the people that love
them now have Pecha Kucha ("sound of conversation" in Japanese), a
recurring cross-disciplinary gathering that is short-attention-span
friendly. It's the design-world equivalent of the elevator pitch: Anyone
can sign up to present their new idea in product design, fashion,
interactive media, architecture, or film, but have only 20 slides, at 20
seconds each, to impress their audience. Architects Astrid Klein and Mark
Dytham started the event in Tokyo in 2003, but the evening get-togethers
have recently become something of a global phenomenon. More than 80 cities from
London to Ljubljana are hosting nights, and count among their presenters not
only today's new design talent, but luminaries like Tom Dixon. (SD)
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CD REVIEW: UGK, Underground Kingz |
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Jive
Released August 2007
$12.99 (Amazon)
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Sometimes it pays to wait. After UGK's Pimp C finished his jail time, he and loyal partner Bun B had to ride out label delays to finally drop Underground Kingz. Defying the law of the double LP, it's a flab-free epic that has promptly (and rightfully) hit number one on the charts. Credit is due to the timeless chemistry of the country-fried Texans, who still shine alongside guests from Middle Fingaz and Rick Ross to Dizzee Rascal and Talib Kweli. A current of wistful, game-weary wisdom cuts through the tough talk — they pay tribute to the old-school pantheon by refixing classics by Scarface and Too $hort and trading bars with Kool G Rap and Big Daddy Kane. Underground Kingz's bittersweet frosting is the majestic Outkast-assisted single "International Player's Anthem." (TW)
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STREAM: Paper Thin Walls |
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Though the Pitchfork juggernaut seems to garner the lion's share of attention, there's certainly more than one great homestead on the indie-rock media block. While Paper Thin Walls is a relative newcomer, it does come with some pedigree: headed by former Parts & Laborer and CMJ Music Editor Christopher Weingarten, the site's staff includes former and current contributors to publications like Stereogum and Pitchfork. Impressive features include conversations with Anticon's avant-beatmaker Odd Nosdam, Brooklyn's These Are Powers, and a roundup of Baltimore's best independent labels. The site also features an ongoing "Single File" feature, highlighting new music in streaming and downloadable MP3 format, where the cream rises to the top with interactive commenting and rating. Also, check back as regular guest editors handpick the best in new music. (CJN)
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| Header Design: |
| Liz Hickok |
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| Editors: |
| Anna Balkrishna | | Melody Caraballo | | Eli Dvorkin | | Todd Goldstein | | Lisa Hix | | Kai Hsing | | Connie Hwong | | Doug Levy | | Sascha Lewis | | Mark Mangan | | Colin J. Nagy | | Claire Smith | | Matt Sussman | | Toby Warner | | Zolton Zavos |
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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 increase the chances of your event being listed, read our full event submission guidelines.
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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