Tipsy-minded intern Jonathan Beckhardt pulled together some drink recipes for the season ....

For Jews, the only thing worse than getting so lost in moments of extreme immorality that you start begging Jesus for forgiveness, is drinking eggnog. I asked Rabbi Greenfield about this cultural development in the diaspora. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Jon" said the learned man. I guess, but at the Beckhardt house, there are only two things grandpa cracks out the belt for: checking out gentiles and the aforementioned eggnog sin. Fortunately, I've been cast aside from my family and can now fearlessly experiment with Christian Spiritualism. Thus, I now embark on a new era of enjoyment with these recipes to guide me.

In conjunction with an upcoming screening at San Francisco Cinematheque, Nathaniel Dorsky recently discussed his ideas and work with fellow filmmaker Michelle Silva of Canyon Cinema; Canyon is the sole distributor of Dorsky's exquisite personal films, which are not available on video.
A shorter version of this interview, with introductory notes, can be found within this week's issue of the Guardian.

Michelle Silva: First I want to ask about your recent book Devotional Cinema. I think it’s some of the most thoughtful and introspective writing on the human experience of cinema and the physical properties we share with the medium -- such as our internal visual experience, metaphor, and the art of seeing. What’s great about the book is that it’s accessible to people who aren’t well versed in cinema, but who might be interested in a deeper understanding of their own senses.
Nathaniel Dorsky: The basic ideas for the book were originally formulated because I was hired to teach a course on avant-garde film at UC Berkeley for a semester. I didn’t want to teach a survey course on avant-garde cinema; I didn’t think I could do that with real enthusiasm, I thought it would be a little flat. I decided that what was most interesting to me about avant-garde film -- or at least the avant-garde films that I found most interesting -- was a search for a language which was purely a filmic language.

Still from Nathaniel Dorsky's film Threnody
Not something limited to film, but a purely filmic language that also had human value to it. There are various filmmakers who’ve explored human cinema language, or cinema human language, which is something other than using film to replicate a written language form, whether it be the novel or the poem. I was interested in something that was actually intrinsic to the nature of cinema, expressive as cinema, and at the same time expressive of our human needs and human worth.

From the wobbly pen of Jonathan Beckhardt ...

Batten down the hatches! When it's too dreary to even think of leaving your apartment, curl up with one of these from the Bay Area's mixiest minds.

The Snovocaine
Crack out this variation on the Liquid Cocaine by bartenders Eric Zsolnay of Kuleto's Trattoria and Leon Vitakes of Holas, both in Burlingame, at your next Santa-roast (serves 2):

1 oz Bacardi 151
1 oz Goldshlager
2 oz Gin
2 oz half & half
3/4 oz Jagermeister
1 cup of ice
1/4 lemon squeezed
maraschino cherry juice
3 splashes of soda water

OK OK I know we're giving the bears a lot of play lately in the clubs section, but the whole bear nightlife thing is truly a phenomenon. There's all these bear clubs now! Too bad the music lames, in my book -- all kinda hi-nrg circuity, but I guess that's kind of run-off from the whole "we're fat but macho!" thing. (Fact: bears are big girls. That's what I love about them. They're so cute! I've slept with ever so many... )

So yes, the big (hahahaha) bear club is Bearracuda and now the extra-machowannabes of the universe -- and wonderful, at that. these are hot athletes-- SF FOG RUGBY is hosting this weekend. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!

The Fog invades Bearracuda on Saturday, December 16th @ The Deco Lounge, 510 Larkin at Turk. DJs Underdog and Polar Bear will be spinning tunes. $6 gets you in, with part of the proceeds from the door going to the SF Fog. $2.75 drafts, free massages, rugby players and bears! Festivities run from 10pm to 3am.

The word was out that Margaret Cho would be appearing at the Good Vibrations candy-themed Goodie Shoppe holiday party. It was no surprise, considering the comedian serves on the sex-toy company’s Board of Directors. But we had no idea the lengths she would go to fulfill her role.

I mean, we just thought members of the board went to meetings and complained about falling stock prices.

Here she is showing us her holiday package....

Urban wildlife sightings are always joyous things - but not if you're a rat. We spied this gorg bird from our offices on Potrero Hill and watched it tear the entrails from a humongoid rodent. Missed our deadlines, but it was much better than the Discovery Channel.

Photos by Joe Pennant.

Intern Aaron Sankin's take on the recent live SF appearance of Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter, two of the creators of the show Stella

The first time I saw Stella I was instantly enraptured. It was clever, it was funny, and, most of all, it was zany. Zany like the old Marx brothers movies (which, for my money, are the funniest things to have ever been committed to celluloid); zany like the Animaniacs cartoons that entertained me for many a Cheerio-filled Saturday morning. Zany in a way that modern comedy no longer is. Hip comedy now days is frantic and schizophrenic but zany it is not. Family Guy, the show that is currently pushing the televised comedic envelope these days, has all the elements of zaniness—the non-stop barrage of jokes, the relative minimum of importance put things like plot and character development, pratfalls—but lacks the childlike innocence that true zaniness requires.

Tom Tykwer's film version of the cult novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer hits screens this week. Sara Schieron recently talked with the director:

Peter Süskind’s 1985 novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer has inspired a lot of musical adaptations. German band Rammstein and Portugese band Moonspell have both called the book an influence, and Kurt Cobain, who named the book as his favorite, wrote the song "Scentless Apprentice" in reaction to it.

Tom Tykwer directing Perfume

The novel’s musical associations in mind, it’s not just coincidence that put Tom Tykwer in charge of the film adaptation. A composer as well as a writer/director, Tykwer is most recognized in the US for his techno-paced action drama Run Lola Run. His newest film, which takes place in 18th century France, follows a pace better suited for the Berlin Philharmonic. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a chiaroscuro painting set to music. As much about love and identity as it is about legend and fame, it inspires questions. Tykwer let me ask him a few -- beginning with one that provoked a high-pitched, giddy laugh.

One highlight of this week's 2006 Film opus is Jason Shamai's tale of DVD buying and watching in Mexico City. Here it is, sans the cuts required for it to fit into the newspaper:

When I got to Mexico City’s main ceremonial drag, where national parades and military marches are flanked by the Art Nouveau-style Palacio de Bellas Artes and the most striking Sears department store building you will ever see, it had transformed into a full-on tent city: blue tarp, camping tents, and thousands of political cartoons (ranging from the dryly satirical to the scatological) flowed east for at least half a mile and filled the Zócalo, the city’s vast central plaza where people had already been camped for weeks. Just a few days before, Mexico’s highest electoral court had confirmed National Action Party (PAN) candidate Felipe Calderon as the country’s next president. His opponent Andreas Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), who challenged the cleanliness of the election that had him losing by a little over half of a percentage point, had asked that his camped-out supporters stay right where they were until they could force a vote-by-vote recount. The recount had been denied and Calderon was now certain to replace outgoing president Vicente Fox, but AMLO’s supporters were still there in their virtual city within a city.

Now is the time to see Pan's Labyrinth -- and to read Sara Schieron's interview with the man behind the movie, Guillermo Del Toro.

Guillermo Del Toro

Gleamy-eyed as Santa Claus and every bit as generous, Guillermo del Toro recently visited SF to discuss his latest film, Pan’s Labyrinth. Already seen by droves of festivalgoers, Pan’s Labyrinth is worthy of profound praise. Both Del Toro and his movies have developed a reputation for converting skeptics to affectionate believers – perhaps this has something to do with his genuine (and apparently altruistic) interest in the world. He’s disarming in his curiosity. (Note: Had Del Toro not said, “Don’t chicken out,” the personal bits that follow would so have been cut.)

Alexis A. Tioseco, editor-in-chief of the superb site Criticine, contributed a manifesto/essay to the Guardian's 2006 film issue. He's also compiled an annotated list of favorite films from Southeast Asia, which cites a number of emerging filmmakers, including the intriguing Edwin. Here's Alexis:

With the space limited to me, I’d like to run my list a bit differently, writing strictly about Southeast Asian cinema (lord knows it gets overlooked enough), and listing a feature, a short, and an older work for each major SEA filmmaking country: Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore (I cheat with Malaysia but that’s ok).

Still from A Very Slow Breakfast, by Edwin