By Louis Peitzman

To call Michael Moore a contentious filmmaker would be something of an understatement. A stalwart champion of the left, he has managed to piss off Republicans and Democrats alike. At an appearance in San Francisco recently, I spoke to Moore about his latest film, Capitalism: A Love Story, a bipartisan look at an economic system that — according to Moore — has let this country down.

San Francisco Bay Guardian: With a topic as broad as capitalism, where do you begin?

Michael Moore: Well, I began by thinking about all the stories I’ve heard over the years of things that, to me, are the most illustrative of this economic system. So I first talked to a pilot on food stamps 13 years ago. I first heard about “dead peasants” eight or nine years ago. I’ve kept in my head a list of these stories, because a lot of people stop me on the street or in a restaurant or whatever, and they want to tell me their story. I’ve listened to a lot of stories. I get thousands of emails every week and so I hear a lot that way. It’s a culmination of 20 years of just being inundated by the misery that this economic system has created.

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Rebecca, City College, Ocean Campus

Tell us about your look: "Everything was cheap, from Target or Forever 21. I like to mix colorful and weird pieces with casual and normal ones."

By Caitlin Donohue

"Naya Bihana" (A New Dawn), a Martin Travers mural in Balmy Alley commemorating the struggle for freedom in Tibet.

Balmy Alley is awesome. In general, I am content to mosey through this painty wonderland with a loved one, preferably with a cup of coffee from Phil’z or a $1.50 24th street taco grasped firmly in my paw. But this Friday there’s a top-shelf chance to enjoy Balmy in my most favoritest form of celebration: the block party.

The alleyway gallery on Balmy Street was started in 1975 by Mujeres Muralistas, and exploded into its present glory in 1985, when three dozen muralists threw up 27 pieces on the back road’s garage doors, walls and sitting stoops. Originally a celebration of Latin American indigenous culture and refutation of our government’s malicious shenanigans south of the border, its walls now include send-ups of Mission gentrification and a commemoration of the Katrina tragedy. It has become an important focal point of the neighborhood and is a kickass place for a block party.

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Erica, City College, Ocean Campus

Tell us about your look: "I'm sad that it's foggy."

By Steven T. Jones

Like most American journalists, I reacted to the news of director Roman Polanski’s recent arrest by assuming he was finally getting what was coming to him. After all, I’m the father of two teenaged daughters and he pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977, entering into a plea deal to get more serious charges of rape and drugging his victim dropped, and then fleeing the country on the eve of his sentencing hearing.

But then yesterday I finally watched the HBO Films documentary “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” – which Netflix is featuring and allowing its customers to watch instantly online – and my opinion of the case changed completely. While Polanski did commit a crime, he has more than adequately been punished for what he did in a case where attorneys for the defense, prosecution, and victim all agree that both the judge in the case and the media behaved reprehensibly and in clear violation of basic fairness and Polanski’s rights.

Watch the film, search your heart, and then join me in saying: Free Roman Polanski!

Fashion writer Laura Palmer learns more about the Bay Area students who showed in New York. Read her account of the fashion show here.

The seven fashion design students who showed at Bryant Park this season seem to reflect the Bay Area’s diverse cultural quilt. Here we unfurl the designs of all seven students, shake out their insights and inspiration, and uncover the daily lives of our budding local designers.

Amanda Cleary

A native Californian, Amanda Cleary’s designs were inspired by packages. No, no, not that kind of package. Actual boxes. Her vinyly angular shifts have multiple armholes, square shoulders, and a dimension that does, in fact, suggest duct tape and cardboard. Interesting, surely, but as far as form meets function is concerned, the designs would perhaps better suited to a Martian runway, so all four armholes could be filled. If any of the aesthetic from Elie Tahari’s line rubs off on Cleary (since she recently interned with Tahairi), Cleary's next fashion week jaunt may be more cohesive.

When she’s not busy with bonding (one fabric to another, that is), Cleary is watching flicks at Grand Lake Theatre in Oakland.

Sawanya Jomthepmala

The geometric, origami designs that Sawanya Jomthepmala created were inspired by the stained glass in Thai Buddhist temples and the boats fashioned out of banana leaves during the Krathong Festival. (The boats are floated out to sea to bring good fortunes to those that release them.)

By Paula Connelly

One Monday night a month from 5p.m.-10:30p.m., Tommy Halvorson (executive chef of the Phoenix Supper Club) and 111 Minna team up to offer enthusiastic adventure diners a mash-up cultural experience called EAT. The idea? Order from a menu consisting of small plates (all at $10 or under), then enjoy your food and drinks at cocktail tables while surrounded by art and listening to a DJ’s digestivo tunes.

As an art gallery and lounge in SoMa, 111 Minna is no stranger to the nightlife mashup that has been gaining popularity in San Francisco. These days, most SF museums even host weekly nightlife events that cater to the 21+ crowd by combining later hours, DJs, live music, lectures, and makeshift bars to help the culture go down all the more smoothly. Maybe it’s the bad economy that’s given us a hunger (and thirst) for an inexpensive, DIY cultural experience; it has certainly prompted us to host more dinner and cocktail parties at home. Or maybe it’s because the Internet’s social networking overload has rewired our brains so that we need real life aggregators too. (Stay tuned for Google Wave. ) Whatever the reason, when San Franciscans go out to see and be seen, we want a destination that appeals to our many facets, and we want to get the most bang for our buck .

Satisfying your sense of adventure, thrift, and quality all at once, Mission Street Food has been a pioneer in this category. MSF takes over a hole- in-the-wall restaurant in the Mission on Thursdays and Saturdays and has rotating local chefs design inexpensive, gourmet weekly menus to benefit charity. The brief cocktail menu even has an ode to the musical mash-up genre called the Grey Album, a 32-ounce mix of Old English and Boddington’s, whose name nods to Danger Mouse’s combination of the Beatles’ White album with Jay-Z’s Black album. Yum.

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Clarissa, City College, Ocean Campus

Tell us about your look: "My shoes match my shirt."

Every week, Virginia Miller of personalized itinerary service and monthly food, drink, and travel newsletter, www.theperfectspotsf.com, shares foodie news, events, and deals. View the last installment here.

10/14 Wine & Spirits Top 100 Event at SF Design Center
Six years strong, I've heard that Wine & Spirits Top 100 Tasting, honoring their pick of the Top 100 Wineries of the Year from around the globe, is one of the better wine events of the year, full of tastings, food, and merriment. Yes, you can meet the winemakers while sampling their award-winning wines. Just a few wineries at this year's event include Krug, Louis Roederer, Diamond Creek, Henschke, Shafer, Williams Selyem. Never fear, foodies, the food is equally a draw. They've assembled a line-up of eats from the classic (Cliff House) to the latest and greatest, like Flour+Water, RN74, Gitane, Il Cane Rosso and Showdogs. There's even signature specialties from the likes of 4505 Meats, Candybar, Barefoot Coffee, Brix and Hog Island. Sounds way better than happy hour.
6:30-8:30pm (VIP 6pm)
General admission $95, VIP $125
The Galleria at SF Design Center
101 Henry Adams Street
www.wineandspiritsmagazine.com/top100

10/16 SF WhiskeyFest at the Marriott
Call me a lush, but knowing there will be some of the world's finest whiskeys (and whiskies - yes, there is a difference) all under the roof of the San Francisco Marriott for Whiskeyfest makes me a bit giddy. It's three hours of tasting bourbons, scotches, and ryes from around the globe. Distillers and experts will be pouring themselves, so you can ask questions, dialogue, and find new favorites. A charity whisky table features ultra-rare bottles (donations for tasting go to Meals on Wheels San Francisco), and bartenders, like the Bourbon & Branch crew, will be mixing special cocktails at their booths. There's also seminars, a food buffet, and with the price of admission, a Scottish crystal glass, and a one-year subscription to Malt Advocate. If you still want more (you greedy aficianado, you), $150 VIP passes secure access one hour before everyone else arrives, plus an additional number of rare pours.
6:30-9:30pm
Regular $110, VIP $150
San Francisco Marriott
55 4th Street
800-610-MALT
www.maltadvocate.com/docs/whiskyfest/san_francisco

By Kristen Haney

Usually the sentence “this bar is full of dogs” is a bad omen. Dive bars lend themselves famously for hiding the less-than-fortunate looking in their dim lighting, and I’m sure that more than one unlucky gentleman or woman’s been accused of “dog catching” in the wee hours of the morning.

But there are a few places that celebrate their willingness to let in dogs – that is, of the canine variety. Infinitely better than the dog park, since you can imbibe without reproach, your only worry when bringing your pooch into these drinking establishments is making sure your canine companion can lead you home as you shuffle drunkenly behind. (Side note: Does this make them service dogs?).

Here are our some of our favorite places to down a Fernet with Fido:

Stray Bar
As you may have picked up from the name, dogs are not just tolerated but welcomed. In fact, the décor of the whole place is dog-themed, with Boston terrier-adorned signs and treats available. Aside from the fact that your puppy pal is welcome, Stray Bar has other draws: The crowd is usually attractive, which
means you no longer have to solely rely on your dog for scoring a date (although a cute canine never hurts), and patrons represent all sides of the sexuality spectrum.
309 Cortland Ave, SF. (415) 821-9263

Bender’s Bar & Grill
Bender’s allows four-legged pals as long as they’re leashed, and it’s rare to not see at least one mellow pup kicking it with the regulars. Bender’s also has dog treats behind the bar, so even your pet can enjoy some relief after a long day of chasing tail. The staff just asks that you use common sense when deciding the best times to bring in your furry friend.
806 S. Van Ness, SF. (415) 824-1800

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Mijo, City College, Ocean Campus

Tell us about your look: "I got this shift from a thrift shop in the Mission."

By Johnny Ray Huston

The cover image of this week's Writers Issue and some of the photos accompanying the writing itself come courtesy of Steve Rotman, whose dedication to photographing work by local painters is evident in his amazingly vast and comprehensive Flickr contributions under the name funkandjazz. It's also on display in a pair of recent books, Bay Area Graffiti (Mark Batty, 208 pages, $29.95) and San Francisco Street Art (Prestel Publishing, 91 pages, $14.95). I recently threw some questions Rotman's way, and his answers were characteristically generous. Read up, then scope out his work.

SFBG What got you started taking graffiti and street art pics?
Steve Rotman In early 2004, I was spending a lot of time roaming around the city with my camera. At some point, I got inspired to shoot photos of all the incredible murals spread around San Francisco just because I really liked the art. I also enjoyed the process of searching for the murals -- it became a fun new way to explore the city. Eventually, I came across some stunning murals created by graffiti artists, and they blew me away. I got curious about graffiti and began to look for it more and more and I also started to research the subculture and its history. Pretty quickly I got hooked! I've been photographing graffiti and street art ever since. I totally dig the art and to me it's especially compelling because of its outlaw nature.

SFBG How did the funkandjazz moniker come about?
SR Years before Flickr, I was active on another photo-sharing site and needed a moniker. I spur-of-the-moment picked funkandjazz just because at that time I was listening to a lot of classic funk music and I've always been heavily into jazz -- I was a jazz dj for years. No deeper meaning to it than that. When I joined Flickr, I kept the name and for some reason -- inertia I suppose -- I've stuck with it.

SFBG How would you say SF street art varies from street art in other cities featured within the series?
SR I don't notice huge differences. Graffiti and street art today are worldwide forms of expression and styles are less regional than they used to be. San Francisco attracts artists from all over the world, so there's a lot of variety and experimentation here. That melting-pot quality keeps the scene fresh. There does seem to be a little more playfulness or weirdness here, and that's especially reflected in the city's rich tradition of character-based graffiti.

SFBG Within the graffiti documentation realm, who do you have a kinship with or admire?
SR There are so many fantastic graffiti photographers out there. I'm a huge fan of the groundbreaking work of Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant. Steve Grody does inspiring work covering the scene in Los Angeles. Jim and Karla Murray's documentation of New York and Miami is outstanding. And there are many others. Honestly, before I began to shoot graffiti, I was mainly into landscape photography, and I think my style and approach often reflects that, for better or worse. Many of my favorite photographers are landscape people. I tend to be influenced a lot by criticism and advice from friends and the other photographers I shoot with.

By Johnny Ray Huston

Lots to enjoy about Eric Haven's The Aviatrix (Buenaventura Press, 32 pages, $4.95): killer anteaters, male masochism, surveillance run amok, a tiny but buxom beauty named Protona, a large monster named Melgor, noxious human odors that might even make George Kuchar blush, and a truly imaginative mind taking advantage of the kind of hilarious and radical shifts in perspective that can only happen in the frames of a comic strip. In conjunction with the appearance of a Haven comic in this week's Writers Issue, I recently asked the Bay Area resident about his characters, his interesting day job, and his past connection to this rag.

SFBG You have a long-ago connection to the Guardian. Can you tell me the details?
Eric Haven Almost exactly 20 years ago, I entered the Guardian's annual cartoon contest. I won first place in the "best comic strip parody" category, and was quoted in the accompanying article as saying, "I hope to be a professional comic book artist by the time I'm 24!" or some such nonsense. I was incredibly naive and thought I could make money with my comics. Ha!

SFBG What books and artists did you like growing up, and today? What are your favorite B-movies?
EH In terms of comics, I was a Marvel zombie growing up. I would pick 'em
up for 10 cents each at a used bookstore in town. Their covers were torn off but I didn't care... I could go in with a couple bucks and come out with a stack of comics.
Nowadays I tend to read stuff by single creators... not produced by a system which divides the chores among writers, pencilers, letterers, and colorists. I've recently enjoyed reading Prison Pit by Johnny Ryan, the "Sulk" series by Jeffrey Brown, and The Red Monkey Double Happiness Book by Joe Daly.
My favorite B-movies are ones where you can see budget constraints. Attack of the Crab Monsters, It Conquered the World, The Colossus of New York, etc. If it looks like the creature was cobbled together in someone's garage, out of spare parts and supplies found in the attic, and then shot in someone's back yard, I love it.

SFBG Tales to Demolish seems to cover any range of time and place, from prehistoric eras to present-day Oakland. Are there particular settings or periods you prefer rendering or are you drawn to drawing all manner of realms?
EH I enjoy rendering weird topographies, whether it's ice-strewn glacial sheets or ancient dinosaur-infested forests or the wilds of my own kitchen. I've recently become obsessed with the history of Upstate New York, and have begun work on a comic which has many pages devoted purely to its geography and geology.

SFBG If the Aviatrix came across and read The Aviatrix, what would she think and have to say? How about Protona -- what would her view of the book be?
EH The Aviatrix is well aware what's going on, as I feel her looking over my shoulder when I draw. Who knows what she thinks? She's inscrutable, unknowable. Protona would wonder why I drew her so tiny.
She's actually not that small... close, though.

By Johnny Ray Huston

This week's Writers Issue includes a page devoted to the visual side of books and magazines, with contributions by comic book artist Eric Haven and comedy routine and joke book specialists Kasper Hauser. You'll notice some compelling ads on the page -- after admiring them, contemplate the fact that they are from Peter, a local men's magazine co-created by David Enos and Tag Savage with a little help from their friends. So, what exactly is Peter? I recently met Enos in the smoking section. When I asked him for some background, I got some priceless rugged poetry for my troubles. Man oh man. Ooh la la!

SFBG How did Peter come to be?
David Enos Well, last year Tag (Savage) found a copy of a '60s-era tabloid for men, a poverty-row Esquire or Argosy, called Man. This was from the Magazine, a great used bookstore in the Tenderloin that also sells found photographs. The voice of Man was that of a tough guy who doesn't mince words, like a Kirk Douglas, but who also has a thirst for some very questionable, morbid information. In the way that Kirk Douglas wouldn't think it odd to go into a book shop and ask the girl behind the counter for a book on Roman entertainment practices; to him it's just part of having a healthy curiosity and he should catch up on the details.
The cover was a grid of boxes, and each one was a tease for an article: "KKK On My Skin" was a headline I remember. We both independently made take-offs after reading it. It was hard to shake. Around the same time, we had been talking about recreating the covers of board games like Mastermind as a photography exercise. Peter was a result of mushing these projects together. Also borne of this was Scumbag, a crasser counterpart to Peter.

SFBG Who is the target or ideal Peter reader?
DE I was never sure who would end up seeing it. Peter is for the reader who enjoys the finer things in life. Scumbag is for a different audience, maybe in jail. I think it was more of a success. It gets right to the point.

SFBG Unlike with so many magazines, Peter's advertisements often have an appeal that matches the editorial content. What advertisers are drawn to you, what do you like about their style or their products, and what advertisers would you like to court in issues to come?
DE Peter is 80 percent ads.
I saw an ad in an issue of Popular Mechanics. They send you the black widow eggs and you build wooden homes for them. You receive blueprints of cubbies for them to get into and build webs.

By Arisa White

I'm the lady in the joint without a g-string and waxed chocha.
Winter dressed and the money in my pocket afforded me a Heineken.
I have no ones to offer to thighs that can headlock Washington.
Coins work best for parking meters and wishes.

When the next dancer arrives to stage, she brings a blanket.
The basket and wine are missing. She wipes the pole
with a moist napkin -- the abracadabra is gone.
Gestures to the wall to press start, positions her gingham
so it doesn't abandon her when she scripts her alphabet.

She takes an interest in me -- this is not ego --
she sees the wardrobe of long sleeves and pants in how I stare.
Weeks ago, I saw her forefinger in some butch's belt loop,
coupled like his and hers towels. Maybe she noticed me then.

She comes to my earring and requests, slap my ass.
Shakes it like wind went through her leaves.
My hands are on pause. She laughs
then brings her undulations to a man in woodsman flannel.

She returns her legs, fans the sweet of green
apples ripe in my nose. In doggy style, demonstrates.
Her spank is the utter of unbreakable dishware.
Again -- thud. No shatter.

She encourages me, recognizes this is my first time on a two-wheeler.
I grab the Heineken to cool the singing in my palm.
I'm ordered to give it to her, and like the kid in band
who plays cymbals, counting to cue, I make her bottom ring like Saturn.
She wanes from stage with a fête of smiles in her strut.

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Kay, Judson and Forester

Tell us about your look: "I also work at Crossroads, but the shoes are from Jeremy's."

By Caitlin Donohue

Too legit: Street artist Estria (second from right) and the Together With Style crew in 1987

Where would we be without graffiti? The debate over vandalism and aesthetics rages ad infinitum in the larger world but let’s be real- street art has made urban living what it is today. No doubt, its creators should be celebrated- not harassed by law enforcement art critics. We’ve got a unique opportunity to do just that (celebrate, not harass) coming up with the Third Annual Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle, part of the “Life Is Living” park day of the Oakland literary celebration, Living Word Festival. The battle’s creator, Estria Miyashiro, is a cause for celebration in his own right. The former street bomber has been making walls beautiful in the Bay Area for decades, and now teaches graffiti and mural classes around the country… in addition to running his own silk screening operation in San Leandro. The man is busy. Luckily, we manage to snag him for a few questions on the upcoming Invitational, women in graf and walking that tricky line between staying real and getting paid.

San Francisco Bay Guardian: You started throwing pieces up in the 80s and created some epic works before being arrested in 1994 for vandalism. Did the arrest change your mindset on “illegal” pieces?
Estria: The arrest in ’92 didn’t change my mindset on graffiti, but it made me understand and appreciate other people’s views on it. Of course I miss the thrill of bombing, but I am grateful to not be spending my days in jail. Were I a bomber now, I would not hit private property or places of worship. At this point I am interested in the creation side of graffiti, rather than the destruction. Getting up is exciting and I still love seeing it. [But] my time for that has passed and now I have found other ways for me to contribute to graffiti culture.

“Samurai Girl” (2008) mural by Estria and Bounce, two time champion of Estria’s graffiti battles

SFBG: I've seen graffiti and other street art described in academic texts as a "reverse colonization"; the act by the underprivileged in our society of taking back the institutions that try to dominate them. Do you see any truth in that idea?
E: There is an aspect of graffiti that is reverse colonization. I look at it as the people’s media. The average person cannot afford a billboard or a commercial, but we can put words on walls. It is the first and last form of free speech. For me it is critical to paint the people and cultures I see in my communities, because I do not see them much on TV or in movies. I use my murals to culturally level the media playing field.

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Anneyumang, Judson and Gennessee

Tell us about your look: "This jacket is from Forever 21."

By Louis Peitzman

Outspoken, controversial, and riotously funny: Sandra Bernhard is, in a word, loud. For her fans, that's never been a problem. Now we can enjoy Whatever It Takes, her latest album, and see her live at the Rrazz Room in an intimate new show. I spoke to Sandra about the Bay Area, her politics, and — well — what it takes.

San Francisco Bay Guardian: What brings you back to San Francisco?

Sandra Bernhard: A gig and money. (laughs) And the fact that somebody actually wants me to come back to San Francisco. How could I ever say no to San Francisco?

SFBG: Well, what’s different about performing in San Francisco as opposed to New York?

SB: You know, I can never really quite figure out what San Francisco is at this point. It’s kind of a weird hybrid of the old hippie, you know, Castro Street life, and post-Silicon Valley, you know, the money that was made off the Internet and all that. It’s sort of a weird combination of people with a lot of money and people with absolutely no money at all. But that said, I don’t know. San Francisco’s just a mellower New York, and although I get great response there, people are just not quite as harried, or on the run like they are in New York City.

Every week, Virginia Miller of personalized itinerary service and monthly food, drink, and travel newsletter, www.theperfectspotsf.com, shares foodie news, events, and deals. View the last installment here.

Whiskeyfest events and tastings all week long. Sazerac cocktail photo by Daniel Stumpf

Through 10/17 - Whiskeyfest happenings all week long
I told you about Whiskeyfest happening this Friday in last week's Appetite, but for those who either can't afford the big blowout at the Marriott on Friday, or who want to keep the celebration (and tasting) going all week, pick from a stellar line-up and range of events happening through Saturday. Whiskeyfest's Web site has a comprehensive listing, as does one of my favorite spirits' blogs, Camper English's Alcademics. There are tasting sessions from distillers and whiskey experts at restaurants and bars around town, like Elixir and 15 Romolo, roundtable tastings and a Glenfiddich & Cigars night at whiskey dive bar haven, Broken Record, Fifth Floor's always classy Whiskey Wednesdays and other special happy hours, and even a whiskey dinner at the Alembic put on by K&L Wine Merchants. So many choices, (thankfully) all of them involving whiskey.
www.maltadvocate.com

10/17 - Lower Fillmore's Cool Black Ball
Here's sexy way to drink and dine... in a night that evokes the jazz glory days of Lower Fillmore, come out in your 1920's-50's dress for Cool Black Ball, darting in and out of Fillmore's jazz clubs and restaurants, like 1300 on Fillmore, Yoshi's, Rasselas, Sheba Piano Lounge. Each will feature special menu items, jazz bands and dancing till 2am, concerts included with the price of a ticket (or a free show at Bruno's on Fillmore; note details on the website for getting half off your ticket if you dine at Yoshi's or Rasselas). In the Fillmore Center Plaza from 7:30-8:30pm, there's free swing lessons and open dancing in the plaza from 8:30-10pm. Think vintage clothing from any of those four decades, with emphasis on "cool, classy, sexy, hip and all black". Certainly non-vintage black is welcome, and watching Fillmore come alive with finely dressed partiers should be a surreal experience. Come out for a little night music... and some food.
10/17, 7pm-2am
$30 Advance; $40 at door (Fillmore Center Plaza)
Lower Fillmore Street (between Post and Eddy)
www.coolblackball.com

By Megan Gordon

I know, I know. The last thing you want to hear about is a new frozen yogurt joint. Last year, it seemed like the neon Pinkberry imposters were popping up on every street corner. It wasn’t the Jane Fonda yogurt of the 80’s—it was fresh, tart, and had a clean, healthy aftertaste. It was good while it lasted, but I’m over it. There’s only so much mochi a girl can take down.

But the other day, I was cruising down Fillmore, trying to walk off a hearty brunch when I stumbled across Fraîche, a sweet little shop with a brilliantly designed interior (i.e. no neon), and really different yogurt. Trust me. Yes, I already ate brunch—and we’re talking biscuits, grits, a crab benedict, two cups of coffee, and a few bites of a warm beignet. So it wasn’t exactly a small meal, and I was far from hungry. But I couldn’t resist. I had to try a little cup.

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Anette, 19th Street and Valencia

Tell us about your look: "I really like this coat. It's from Buffalo in the Mission.
I like big hoods, they look mystical. I'm a huge Lord of the Rings fan!"

By Arisa White

East Bay Rats are across the street from Gold Coin Car Wash

Oaksterdam is across the street from Victory Stables

Greyhound is across the street from Social Services

The woman in sequins is across the street from EBT Cards Accepted

The cross on his chest made my body the more bare. Compelled to be a blanket, fur, however he would have me, he had me. His god was something to hang on to. A chain that made return possible. My reflection sullied the gold. It dimmed above or beneath me, a way a mother's face turns off her love. She offers enough to guide you towards her but her withdrawal leaves a cold spot, hollowed earth after a stake's been pulled.

The house we couldn't build is across from the house I wouldn't build

Makes miracles happen is across from when whiskey made my tongue thirsty for hers

Blue Bird Liquor is across the street from the bathroom whose orange walls could not muffle

Hotel California is across from Broaster's Chicken coming soon

Men, when they do, cross their legs in the way of academics. Never in the way of churchwomen who keep the secret covered—there's nothing to be implored, explored, discovered. In the way of academics, the whole body thinks. To the side, he shows a chin propped by a fist, between his cheeks thought is candy, eyes turn skyward. In the way of churchwomen their eyes look down, to their breast, beneath their shirt, to the source of much anxiety, a nipple, pleasured by the touch of rayon.

City Line is a hand hennaed and scarred

Retro the Victorian's scaffolded face

Free Baby Jamaica from the bus' accordion folds

Black & White the street for a frantic Dodge, a passenger lost

I cross my t's and think men are dying. The bushes sing baritone and contralto, from someone's gut a baby's born. For every shattered platelet, men are folding into each other, bodies pressed like puzzles. There's comfort knowing his edge has a home. In a t. In a cup or covering the chest, he values sunrise, for days to speed, for the soul to let go bone. He the more aware death's a trespasser, and the heart will bark 'til a red meat turns it elsewhere—a man at the end of wait.

Rent-a-Relic is the fence that says this side, mine; this side, you stay

The rainbow an International Blvd where pussy is young and produce is wilted

The lake is the ocean whose skin is split by pirates who negotiate with corporations

The senior citizens home weeps willows in his and hers yards

Cross my heart and hope, a needle in the eye. The cross is an X, really. Is how to find a treasure. How to hug at an end of a letter. If you dig where I mark, what do you do with the gravel, the flesh that slips back into the hole? Mail it to my brother, he is the most poetic. He will blend it with oil-colors and spend nights on canvas, painting verse after verse, with the breathiest weather, a text you can prism.

By Spencer Young

"First Thursday” is, you guessed it, the first Thursday of every month, but it’s also an open house art event where 30-plus galleries, mostly concentrated in downtown SF, invite you to look and hopefully buy their art things from around 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

But, what if -- like me -- you struggle making decisions that involve seemingly endless options and finite resources (time, money, stomach space)? If at restaurants you get overwhelmed by the menu's dimensions, eventually narrow it down to the french toast and panini, but linger between the combinations tirelessly? You can choose at random, allowing chance to dictate your indecisiveness, or, you give in, exercising volition. Neither option, however, will erase the pangs of what was left out — what if the wild arugula salad would have been the one?

Oh the anguish of living in a liberal democracy! How does one make a decision and avoid the anxiety of absence? The answer: suicide. Not the act, but the drink. Filling a 64 ounce mug from every soda pop spout from Hawaiian Punch to Mountain Dew reconciles the dilemma at hand, because everything is chosen and nothing left out. Sure, the result tastes like shit, but at least you've experienced all there was to experience, albeit all at once.

This was my logic for "First Thursday." There was just one problem: given that there's over 30 participating galleries and only a two-hour window, that leaves less than four minutes per gallery, excluding commute time. Impossible.

The next best alternative? Hit the most concentrated area: 49 Geary St. With five floors and 20 galleries, two hours allow five minutes per gallery and 20 minutes in the hallways and stairs. Most galleries get boring after mere seconds anyways, so five minutes is plenty of time to drink a glass of wine, do a quick perusal, snap some photos, and jot down some impressions. In order to avoid another decision, these shotgun summaries are limited to 49 words each, constrained, like each gallery's space, by the building. In order of viewing, here are 20 extremely hasty reviews of the 49 Geary St. galleries:

1. Bekris Gallery: "Common Ground" (continues through Nov. 21) www.bekrisgallery.com

Importantly dressed buyer-types regaling each other of trips to Africa and chanting, “Oh, how do you do?” “How do you do.” Broom-like statues of African subjects, and lively colored paintings with tricky ciphers fill the room. General, by William Kentridge, is the most attractive piece in the place.

General by William Kentridge. All photos by Spencer Young.

2. George Lawson Gallery: Clem Crosby, Tad Wiley, Transfocus (continues through Oct. 3) www.rfprfp.com

Eerily empty compared to Bekris Gallery. Clem Crosby: crude, ugly, drippy oil paintings seemingly painted with fingers, fists, and libidinal angst. Tad Wiley: solemn, yet inviting graphic arts balanced-shape paintings on paper. Transfocus: haunting photos of the abstract, awash in yummy colors. Uhh… where is the wine?

Art by Tad Wiley

By Cailtin Donohue

Just when you thought you were safe... teens take over the library

Friday night at the library! Sure, when I was 17 you couldn’t have gotten me there with a sharp stick and an unmarked van, but back then I was doing more meaningful things like chugging Mike’s Hard Lemonade and straightening my hair.

Not so with the attendees of TeenQuake. This sucka-free event of which I speak is part of LitQuake’s mega lineup of all that is arty and eloquent. The west coast’s largest literary festival has somehow managed to convince the San Francisco Main Library to be peacefully taken over by the under-20 set, and dulcet tones of teen lit authors will be echoing off the walls all night. Look forward to readings by Frank PortmanFrank Portman, author of King Dork, whose title character wryly dismantles life as a baby boomer’s progeny:

“He must have read the notebook. Otherwise, how would he have reached the conclusion that my ‘relationship’ with ‘my girlfriend’ was undermining his generation’s sacred achievement of the institution of easygoing touchy-feely ouchless deodorant optional crunchy-granola Hair-soundtrack butterflies-and-unicorns sexuality?”

TeenQuake featured artist Tom Franco's story illustration from his collaboration with Mom

Also featured are teen lit writers Ying Chang Compestine, Tom Dolby and mother-son team Betsy and Tom Franco who recently collaborated on Metamorphosis, a young adult novel whose narrator recasts his high school social milieu in the form of ancient Roman mythology. In addition to all the booky folk there will be an emcee battle, a scavenger hunt whose victor wins a Wii, a live art wall and performances by teen spoken word artists, dancers and musicians.

So find the coolest, most verbose teenager you know and give them a ride. And how about just drop them off there because (a) they want to do their own thing and (b) Teenquake’s for 13-19 year olds. Don’t be that guy.

TEENQUAKE
Fri/16, 6:30-9 p.m., free
San Francisco Main Library
100 Larkin, SF
(415) 750-1497 www.litquake.org

By Ben Richardson

Tim Schafer is the San Francisco-based game designer behind Brütal Legend, an epic action-adventure title set in the world of heavy metal. (Read our cover story here.) Reached by phone in New York City, where he was preparing to tape Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Schafer dispensed some wit and wisdom.

San Francisco Bay Guardian: What was the moment in which you went from being Tim Schafer, man about town, to Tim Schafer, game designer about to go on the Jimmy Fallon show?

Tim Schafer: There was a moment when I was getting on a MUNI train, when someone yelled at me that they loved [the game]Day of the Tentacle. I was like “God, that's so awesome! My own town! They love Day of the Tentacle!”

SFBG: Do you think the rise of game designers as public personalities -- more along the lines of musicians, or movie directors or authors -- is a good thing for gaming? Do you think it will make publishers more willing to put out products that are more risky, that are more bound up, like Brütal Legend is, in the dream of one talented designer?

TS: I think it's good for games creatively, because a lot of times games can seem anonymous, they can seem like they were made by any studio or created by a committee -- like no one's really responsible for it. I would love to see games become more personal, and make you really feel like you're playing a specific person's, or a specific team's game, like “this is a Double Fine game, this is a game only Double Fine could make.” That's just something I hope for in the industry.

SFBG: What are the things that you would point to that define a Double Fine [Schafer's company] game, or a Tim Schafer game?

Bar reviewer Kristen Haney seeks to separate hipster wannabes from real-life dives in this weekly column. Check out her last installment here.

Before you all start squawking at me about how Phone Booth isn’t a dive – I know. But after reading reviews of the place that kept throwing around the term “dive” like confetti on New Year’s Eve, I figured it was my duty to check it out. (Tough life, I know.) So I threw myself on a bus and traveled over to the area in the city best known for having dives that are anything but dive-y – the Mission.

At first glance, Phone Booth looks promising. The place is tiny, cramped, and dark. Cigarette smoke floats through the air, further obscuring vision, and a chandelier comprised of naked Barbies looks like a dead baby joke waiting to happen. Furry fake spiders crawl over another light fixture, and a lone pool table hunkers in the corner, with barely enough space around it for a proper shot. The mixed drinks are poured with a heavy hand by a no-nonsense bartender who looks like she could just as easily shoot the shit with you as she could tear you a new one.

Unfortunately, while the atmosphere feels right, the touches that make Phone Booth unique are also ultimately the cause of its fall from grace (or is it an upward crawl?) away from classification as a dive bar. Kitschy décor, seasoned bartenders, and cheap drinks do not a dive bar make. However, they do attract a certain kind of crowd, especially in that area.

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: France, 24th Street and Guerrero

Tell us about your look: "I'm from Belgium. I made these clothes."

By Jana Hsu

Far from late 18th century London or Paris, and in the times of Oscar Wilde, where dandyism and quaintrellism reigned supreme, we can now look back to the 90s, when Japanese signature street fashion was accountable for those nifty, eye-catching, and not to mention effeminate, Asiatic designs that made their way over to the states and onto our concrete runways. Are we talking about a mishmash of European sentimentality with American boldness wedded with the nomadic, controversial, metro-sexual men in tights high fashion street wear? No, not exactly. We now boldly regard these street trolling, noble fops donning coke-rimmed glasses and Asiatic wear as signature en vogue, or to coin the term, “dandy boi.” These winsome beings reflect the age we live in … boldly geeky, iconic, fleeting, and instantly arresting to the naked eye. Never an anomaly, these dudes run the show in all their elevated vulgarity. But they are straight. Huh?

The late Quentin Crisp: inspiration?

By Louis Peitzman

Like the book on which it’s based, Where the Wild Things Are is open to interpretation. There are no easy answers here, and don’t expect to get any help from the enigmatic filmmakers. When I interviewed director and co-writer Spike Jonze, co-writer Dave Eggers, and actor Catherine Keener in a roundtable at the Ritz-Carlton, one reporter asked, “Do you think the Wild Things are reflections of Max’s own personality, the people around Max, or just something else entirely?

To which Eggers replied, “Yes.”

It was stressed repeatedly that afternoon: Where the Wild Things Are is intentionally open-ended. Jonze’s goal is not to confound or frustrate his audience so much as to give them space to use their imaginations, much in the same way Max — the film’s pint-sized hero — creates a world into which he can escape.

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Kirsten, 22nd Street and Valencia

tell us about your look: "This is all vintage."

By Sarah Morrison

While down-to-earth food expert and journalist Michael Pollan might not quite have offered the definitive “Omnivore’s Solution” -- to cite the title of his talk -- when he kick-started the 2009/10 Strictly Speaking series at Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall (9/30/2009), he did provide an entertaining and accessible critique of what he called America’s “unhealthy obsession with healthy eating.”

“We are lost, really lost in the supermarket,” said the author of three New York Times bestsellers, shortly after he took the stage humorously laden down with Safeway bags, and enough packets of Twinkies, Fruit Loops, Soda and Wonder Bread to make even the most gluttonous in the audience start to feel queasy. Promising to “connect the dots between diet and health in food systems as a whole,” Pollan guided the enthusiastic audience through his easy-to-follow theory of food politics – a theory that he summed up in seven words: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”

Michael Pollan

Satirising the nation’s obsession with “nutritionism,” a pseudo-science that Pollan compared to surgery in the 1650’s (“promising and fascinating to watch, but are you really ready to let them operate on your life?”), the lecture went on to critique the demonising of certain nutrients in American society (think trans fat, carbohydrates, sugars), and the intellectualising of food to the point where the regular American feels unable to eat anything without the help of an expert by their side.

By Kimberly Chun

Sighted at Divisadero and Fell.

By Molly Freedenberg. Photos by Michael Rauner.

Time is running out on the beloved (and only a bit controversial) Burning Opera: How to Survive the Apocalypse, the Mark Nichols/Erik Davis vehicle that attempts to both explain and capture the ethos of SF’s favorite (and favorite to ridicule) festival: Burning Man. The wildly popular show that opened October 5 at Teatro Zinzanni ends its three-week run (extended an extra week due to demand) tomorrow (Wed, Oct 21) night, with a limited number of tickets still available for tonight and tomorrow’s shows.

Librettist Erik Davis opens the Burning Opera by transforming from middle-aged geek to heckling dessert bunny "Bulldada," whose commentary throughout the show is not only funny, but accurately captures one element of playa culture: irreverence for everything, including Burning Man itself.

Despite some technical difficulties (sound is hit-or-miss, and some lyrics are hard to decipher) and occasionally coming off as unpolished, the show has been delighting audiences with its remarkable range, combination of history and present-day culture, inside jokes, and a surprising mix of earnestness and irony.

Of course, most of those delighted are burners – people who get the jokes. If Burning Man were a summer camp (and in many ways it is), this opera would be what the counselors do for each other at the end of the year talent show – if the counselors were trained in musical theater. Which is exactly what makes it fantastic and hilarious, but potentially off-putting to non-burners, jaded old-schoolers, and anyone who doesn’t genuinely enjoy musicals and satire. I’d also argue that the longer one has gone to Burning Man and the more one knows about it, the more you’ll get from the show. (In particular, even my veteran burner friends had questions about historical references, most of which I could answer because I’d read Brian Doherty’s fantastic book This is Burning Man.)

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Leah, 19th Street and Mission

Tell us about your look: "Wear what you like. You don't have to stick to just a certain
store's clothes."

By Nicole Gluckstern

For reasons I shall never quite fathom, the majority of the year’s horror films will inevitably be released closer to Christmas than to All Hallows Eve, thwarting my autumnal desire to have the holy bejeebus scared out of me over popcorn and stale nachos. Fortunately for my seasonal predilection, a number of Bay Area theatre companies are staging live performances of creepshow classics, serving up shock, splatter, and suspense -- though probably not nachos – for the rest of October (and beyond).

Zombie Town

Zombies run amok at the EXIT Theatre! “Zombie Town” and “Zombie: A New Musical”. SF Fringe favorites Sleepwalkers Theatre present “Zombie Town”—”a documentary play”—by Tim Bauer directly across the hall of the EXIT Theatreplex from Anthony R. Miller’s Heavy Metal Zombie musical extravaganza. How can you possible go wrong? Flip a coin, or heck, go two nights in a row. “Zombie Town” ($14-$20) plays through Nov 7, “Zombie: A New Musical” ($15) will close Halloween Night. It’s Zombieriffic! EXIT Theatre, 8 p.m., 156 Eddy, SF, www.sffringe.org.

Brain-Dead Alive

Primitive Screwheads: “Brain-Dead Alive.” Wear your oldest clothes to this performance, the Primitive Screwheads are firm believers in blood, lots and lots of blood. Buckets of it. All over the place, themselves, you. It’s a beautiful thing. This year’s adaptation of Peter Jackson’s “Dead Alive” promises blood, flying limbs, horror, hilarity, more blood, and a bonus lineup of spooky opening bands, including a rare performance by Fringe Festival favorites and “Mortified” house band LIVE EVIL who play on Halloween Night. Now that’s entertainment! Through October 31, 7:30 p.m., Great Star Theatre, 636 Jackson, SF, $20, www.primitivescrewheads.com.

The Torture Garden

Thrillpeddler’s Shocktoberfest: “The Torture Garden”. Shockingly naturalistic, turn-of-the-previous-century, Grand Guignol theatre was the great-grandparent of slasher flicks and racy peepshow farces, and San Francisco’s premiere Grand Guignol devotees, the Thrillpeddlers, have been dishing up both every Halloween for ten years strong. This year they’re presenting a brand new translation of Grand Guignol master playwright Andre de Lorde’s “The Torture Garden,” plus another modern original, “The Phantom Limb,” penned by Thrillpeddler’s regular Rob O’Keefe. An up close and all too personal intermission demonstration of their working model of an 18’th century guillotine will give you more bang for your buck than any snoozy Friday the Thirteenth marathon ever will. Thursdays and Fridays through Nov 20. 8 p.m. The Hypnodrome, 575 10th St, SF. $25, www.thrillpeddlers.com

By Spencer Young

GAFFTA marquee. All photos by Spencer Young.

I encountered a man lost in a solo dance-trance when I walked into Grey Area Foundation for the Arts on Thursday, Oct. 1. GAFFTA is a newly-opened "nonprofit organization dedicated to building social consciousness through digital culture," and this was their GAFFTAhours Preview Celebration for their inaugural exhibition, "OPEN." This guy really seemed to be enjoying the event -- he hunched and vibrated to a well-worn house track in front of the gallery's main feature, a video art projection by C.E.B Reas. I halfway understand why he was doing this: Reas's ornate visual fractals spiral, ebb and flow like magic on the screen. Using the open-source program Processing, he creates morphing crystalline structures that mimic natural processes. Walking around the rest of GAFFTA's quirky yet beautiful space-turned-temporary-nightclub, I found the rest of Reas's works: another projection, and a series of prints hanging like traditional art objects. They don't convey much, but they sure are pretty.

C.E.B. Reas video still

C.E.B. Reas print

A saunter to the cozy nook upstairs revealed Stamen Design's heavy display of information graphics that plastered the walls, hung in negative space, and covered the low slab of concrete in the middle of the room apparently used for sitting. Working with crime and cab data and Craigslist rental listings specific to the Tenderloin, Stamen's largest piece attempts to draw geographical connections between these three phenomena.

Every week, Virginia Miller of personalized itinerary service and monthly food, drink, and travel newsletter, www.theperfectspotsf.com, shares foodie news, events, and deals. View the last installment here.

11/4 Cliff House Centennial Celebration
Cliff House is one of our San Francisco classics, surviving fires and decades with seaside dining over crashing waves and sunset vistas. In 1909, the third “fire-proof” incarnation was built by Adolph Sutro's daughter, Dr. Emma Merritt, after the original two locations burnt to the ground. There have been numerous renovations, the last in 2004, two restaurants, the Bistro and more upscale Sutro's, and George Morrone came on as chef for a time, raising menu offerings commensurate with the views.

Cliff House's centennial celebration is coming up on November 4. Though it does cost a lofty $175, there's no other party quite like it. Benefiting Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, there will be an intriguing auction of period ball gowns made from recycled Cliff House menus, memorabilia and photographs, by 3D designer, Mari O’Connor. Fashion buffs, check out sketches of the gowns representing various eras throughout the century - sure to be a highlight of the night.

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Mark, 22nd Street and Valencia

Tell us about your look: "Making the old new again. Also a Russian spy."

Text and photos by Ariel Soto

For once, taking Muni was actually a pleasure. This weekend saw the San Francisco Trolley Dances dip and twirl along Muni stops, which meant riders had their noses pressed against the glass as salsa dancers shimmied along the street, chasing the J-Church as it made its way from Dolores Park to Balboa Park Pool. The annual event featured dance companies from around the Bay Area as well as the young and talented swimmers of the SF Merionettes Synchronized Swim Club. The piece "Journey through time in no time because it is time" performed by the Deep Waters Dance Theater, was especially inventive and witty, mixing theater, poetry and dance in a piece that revolved around the ideas of more time and less time, and the time in between, ending with the audience pointing to the sky, looking up towards a new time of "infinite possibilities." Oh, if only every ride on Muni could be quite as enjoyable and entertaining as this one.

Other participating dancers and companies included: Deborah Slater Dance Theater, Epiphany Productions Sonic Dance Theater, Kathleen Hermesdorf, and Rosamaria Garcia and Jorge Rodolfo De Hoyos

text and photos by Caitlin Donohue

I was off on my own adventure the day I found Cottage Industry (2326 Fillmore, SF). Drawn initially to its display window full of small wooden men with exotic potbellies, further exploration revealed that this was the kind of cavernous, glorious grab bag of a store every neighborhood should have.

Scattered throughout the cluttered aisles was an antique cabinet whose jars and drawers neatly organized a world’s worth of ceramic beads, banks of somber African idols. I lost myself fingering a starter jacket made from dashiki fabric and in the fumes from the cones of bazaar incense. International objects of flair on shelves, on the floor, on every inch of wall.

It was as though someone traveled the globe and brought back every beautiful thing they saw. Which basically, is what happened.

Owner Claudio Barone ventured from his native Napoli at age 18 to open his first store in New York City, and brought his current collection- culled from estate sales, antique stores and local markets in 47 different countries- to Pacific Heights 22 years ago. “I had to explore our territory,” he tells me. “You know, Italians discovered this place.”

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Mayra, 23rd Street and Mission

Tell us about your look: "This jacket is from Factory To You."

By Lynn Rapoport

Unending speculation surrounds the fate of aviator Amelia Earhart, who, with navigator Fred Noonan, disappeared in 1937 over the Pacific while attempting to circumnavigate the globe. However, Mira Nair’s biopic Amelia clarifies at least one fact: that Earhart (played by Hilary Swank) was a free-spirited freedom-loving lover of being free. We learn this through passages of her writing intoned in voice-over; during scenes with publisher and eventual husband George Putnam (Richard Gere); and via wildlife observations as she flies her Lockheed Electra over some 22,000 miles of the world. Not much could diminish the glory of Earhart’s achievements in aviation, particularly in helping open the field to other female pilots. And Swank creates the impression of a charming, intelligent, self-possessed woman who manages to sidestep many of fame’s pitfalls while remaining resolute in her lofty aims. She’s also slightly unknowable in her cheery, near-seamless virtue, and the film’s adoring depiction, with its broad, heavy strokes, at times inspires a different sort of restlessness than the kind that compels Earhart to take flight. Amelia is structured as a series of flashbacks in which the aviator, while circling the earth, retraces her life –- or rather, the highlights of her career in flying, her marriage to Putnam, and her affair with Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor), another champion of aviation (and the father of author Gore). And this, too, begins to feel lazily repetitive, as we return and return again to that cockpit to stare at a doomed woman as she stares emotively into the wild blue yonder.

Amelia opens today in Bay Area theaters.

Photos and text by Caitlin Donohue

The Pomo indians, original inhabitants of the land where the Sea Ranch community now stands, burned down their huts when they fell into states of disarray. No carpet shampoo. No broom. I could get into that. Make the bed? Nah, let’s just burn it down and build a new one!

Their devil-may-care attitude to home design, however, does not extend to the current residents of the coastal Sonoma County community. ‘Sea Ranch style’ was developed here, appropriately enough; natural wood architectural beauts with emphases on windows and decks. No overhanging eaves allowed. No fences. Indigenous plant landscaping only.

The 1,211 homes in the planned community are usually empty. 65% of them are vacation homes, sporadically occupied. They perch along the Ranch’s ten miles of sea bluff and sweeping Northern California tundra, which was totally deforested in the late 1800s and early 20th century by waves of European immigration, the Gold Rush and a freakin’ sawmill.

I’ve been going to Sea Ranch since I was a small thing and always loved its other-worldliness. My family went here, above all, to sit in hot tubs, play board games and gawk at deer packs. City folk, go figure.

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's look: Melanie, 23rd Street and Mission

Tell us about your look: "I'm wearing all Baby Phat. I'm trying to wear a street look."

By Marke B.

She's back, yak, yak, yak!

First, if you are in any way remotely gay, watch this now. Then everyone watch this and weep a little about what's been lost:

Just in time for Halloween, beloved, be-snappy, and bejeweled fisting bottom comedienne Madame returns to San Francisco. Seriously, this broad is pretty freakin' hilarious and puts on one hell of a show. Even though her originator Wayland Flowers passed away some years ago, Madame has a new man on her arm (Rick Skye) and still retains all that campy snap and bite many of us grew up loving on Hollywood Squares, Solid Gold, and Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In. Wait, was Madame even on the Muppet Show? I guess not, since the universe wasn't canceled out ...

Now billed as "The Diva of Decadence," her new show "Madame with an E!" promises a multimedia spectacle, and a taste of her upcoming (celebrity cooking?) show, Madame's Dish.

After the jump, my 2006 interview with the grande dame of giddyness (when Joe Kovacs was the new man on her arm), that veers from personal tragedy to new vibrators with a quick yank of the string ...

"Madame with an E!"
Oct. 29-31, 10 pm, $30-$35
The Rrazz Room
Hotel Nikko, 220 Mason St., SF
866-468-3399
www.therrazzroom.com

Every week, Virginia Miller of personalized itinerary service and monthly food, drink, and travel newsletter, www.theperfectspotsf.com, shares foodie news, events, and deals. View the last installment here.

Foreign Cinema

10/29 - Foreign Cinema's Oktoberfest German-themed dinner
Get your lederhosen on... or at least be hosted by someone wearing theirs... at Foreign Cinema this Thursday. No, it's not a German restaurant per se, but I'd trust most meals in the hands of chefs Gayle Pirie and John Clark. Their special Munich-style, three course dinner is $34.95, including one hearty beer, but is also available a la carte (along with the regular menu). Make reservations for the night, down Oktoberfest beers (a Weihenstephaner Festbier or Franziskaner Dunkelweisse) while eating beet and cucumber salad, wiener schnitzel with fried potatoes, and spiced apple cake with praline and cider sauce. Dreimal hoch (i.e. three cheers)!
Thu/29, 6-10pm
2534 Mission Street
415-648-7600
www.foreigncinema.com

10/29 - Fair Trade Month celebrated at Samovar Tea Lounge
October is Fair Trade Month and downtown's Samovar Tea Lounge commemorates with a Fair Trade Gala this Thursday. Fair trade speakers discuss the movement from all angles (that of the suppliers, certifiers, retailers, and farmers) with plenty of Q&A to answer your questions. On hand to sample as you join in the discussion are fair trade products from Alter Eco Olive, Frontier Herbs and Spices, La Yapa Quinoa, Tcho Chocolate, Swoonbeams Chocolate, and more, plus Samovar's new line of Fair Trade Teas.
Thu/29, 7-9pm, $10
730 Howard Street
415-227-9400
www.samovarlife.com

by Caitlin Donohue

Jose Posada’s classic Day of the Dead “Calavera” engraving

The sharpening chill, nights stretching longer past their summer shortness- in autumn the world as we know it begins to draw in upon itself towards winter’s temporary death. In Mexico, this moment is celebrated as Day of the Dead, a time when the lines blur between this world and the next. Families gather together to remember and treasure lost loves and try their best to tempt them back for a visit.

How do they throw down the welcome mat? This is Mexico we’re talking about, so of course their answers are art and fiesta. There are mock altars decorated with colorful tissue paper and skulls made of sugar. Playful calaveras are written, macabre epitaphs that make fun of your still-living friends. Parades and processionals fill the main streets and over at the cemetery, people are setting up tailgating parties on their dead friends’ graves. It’s a time to strut with a smile in front of death and subvert sadness.

Back to you (you like that, don’t you), because this is also San Francisco we’re talking about. Here are two incredible ways to wild on D.O.T.D:

How it went down last year at the SF Symphony’s Day of the Dead concert

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Nat, 21st Street and Mission

Tell us about your look: "I just got these clothes in the Mission. It's all fresh."

by Caitlin Donohue

“From Harriet Tubman to Susan B. Anthony to Amelia Boynton Robinson, faithful women throughout American history have shaken up the status quo, driving some of our country's most remarkable examples of broad political and social change.”

Daisy Khan touts some good ol' hope and change at her lecture tomorrow

Daisy Khan is well placed to comment on the efficacies of faith in social activism- her own name would not be too incongruous to add to the list of observing freedom fighters above. Khan’s struggle, however, is not for the Underground Railroad or universal suffrage, but rather for a Muslim religion that is fair and just for its members and has a positive relationship with the global community.

It is a tall order. But the key to a better world is identifying your allies, and Khan has identified two as the most crucial to the task at hand in her upcoming lecture “Countering Extremism in Youth and Women’s Leadership in Islam.”

By Megan Gordon

This week, I pay homage to two very different sweet shops in two very different neighborhoods: The Mission and The Marina. Wherever you live or work, I say take advantage of the next time you need a little comfort food, sneak out of the office early, and stop by one of these places for a cookie or a cream puff and a glass of milk. Maybe you can even find someone to read you a story while you take a nap.

Pacific Puffs
Don’t get me wrong. I love a good chocolate layer cake (or a slice of it, that is) after a long day. It’s rich, reliable, and won’t let you down—three elements of daily life that I can’t say I often experience. But sometimes a basic, no-frills cream puff and a glass of milk gets a girl through the afternoon like nothing else. Enter Pacific Puffs: a relatively new Cream Puffery in the Marina, serving up a little simple satisfaction each day. And really, there’s nothing more feel-good than a few homegrown brothers starting a cream puff business in the heart of the Marina using a recipe that’s been in their family for decades.

Trent and Rhys Carvolth bake the puffs in an off-site kitchen in Bernal Heights in small batches and sell them at their Union Street location. When you visit, you’ll have an important decision to make: whipped cream or custard filling? Those who may be turned off by the cloyingly sweet cream filling of an unnamed local competitor may gravitate towards the whipped cream-filled puffs. But for the true puff-aficionado, the Classic Cream Puff is the way to go. It’s made with traditional choux pastry (a light dough consisting of butter, water, flour and eggs) and filled with a mixture of vanilla custard and whipped cream, topped with a chocolate glaze.

Editors note: Bay Guardian Executive Editor and acrostic master Tim Redmond has a bad 30-year addiction to mystery/crime/thriller books. He's decided that he might as well put this terrible habit to productive use by giving these sometimes awful, sometimes entertaining and -- on rare occasion -- significant works of mass-market literature the Joe Bob Briggs treatment.

Pursuit of Honor
Vince Flynn
(Simon and Schuster, 431 pages, $27.99)

By Tim Redmond

This deeply delusional author seems to think he's the next Tom Clancy, with a counterterrorism-operative hero named Mitch Rapp, a love for all that is military and secretive, and a political agenda that leans toward Attila the Hun. He once devoted an entire book to the premise that the president of the United States should be murdered because he refused to de-fund the Rural Electrification Administration. In case you need any perspective, Glen Beck calls Pursuit of Honor "fantastic."

Rapp starts out this episode by beating up a stereotypical liberal would-be CIA reformer who -- guess what -- turns out to have a "personality disorder." In fact, Rapp discovers, "It's not uncommon for people with this disorder to hire lawyers." Then he beats up his best buddy who is too much of a wimp to kill the CIA inspector general, who isn't with the program.

It gets better. You've got bad Arabs right from Central Casting, paranoid terrorists who kill innocent federal (CIA) employees, female senators who love abortions and hate the CIA, and a nifty reference to ol' Joe McCarthy, who "may have been a drunk and an ass, but that didn't make him wrong."

Two broken Russian knees. One broken Russian nose. Glass-tube-up-the-dick-and-break-it torture. Nutty Al-Qaeda guys shooting Midwesterners from an RV. But not enough plot to even make this feel like waste-of-time fun.

Clancy's a right-wing loon, too, but at least he has a phenomenal talent for constructing a story. Poor Mr. Flynn isn't in that league.

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Ulrika, 20th Street and Mission

Tell us about your look: "These are boots from Thrift Town, which is where I'm headed right now. I made this bag from cloth that my friend brought back from Bali."

By Caitlin Donohue

Where is Cindy Sheehan these days? The 2005 Nobel Peace Prize nominee/mom was all up in the news a few years ago what with the campouts in Bush's front yard and political campaigns. Inside scoop: this Halloween she'll be kicking up her heels here in the city on behalf of a dragged-up peaceful protest to remember.

Spend your Halloween advocating for more choppers with pink bows in their propellers

Yes, the Peace Mom herself will be tramping about on stage as George W. Bush himself, at the “Make Drag Not War” benefit drag revue, hosted by Artist Malcom Drake. The event is a benefit for Dialogues Against Militarism, a group sending a delegation to Israel and Palestine to meet with peaceniks on all sides of the Gaza Strip conflict.

Stephen Funk of Iraq Veterans Against the War was an organizer of the event, which features a debut drag performance by 12 of his gung-ho veterans. Stephen says the boys are excited to rock the stage, if understandably a little nervous. “The performance will be based on stories from the military perspective. These are significant issues, and instead of sitting in a circle and talking about them, we’ll be reenacting them in a way that’s more entertaining.”


SF Boylesque: Using their good looks to noble ends. Photo by Tony Perez

Bravo, boys. Our troops will be sharing the stage with Raya Light, Suppositori Spelling and all male burlesque beauties SF Boylesque. A few of our intrepid performers leave for the Middle East tour early Sunday morning. Shall we send them off with a bad hangover and good memories?

Sat/31 7:30 p.m. (doors at 7 p.m.), $15-$20
Dance Mission Theater
3316 24th St., SF
www.againstmilitarism.org/buytickets

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Will, 22nd Street and Valencia

Tell us about your look: "Sounds good!"

Text and photos by Caitlin Donohue

Shop til you drop at your local prison... I mean- Goodwill!

“This is the best kept secret in San Francisco,” explains a gentleman who is shoving trash bags full of used clothes into his car. To his side, a bevy of homeless folk rummage through a newly dropped off pallet of purses, most of them spilling to the 11th St. sidewalk. They make it clear I am not to join them. Perhaps this place is a diamond in the rough, but there’s no way in hell I’m getting my Halloween costume here.

I’ll tell you what I don’t need; a hermetically sealed, corporately engineered, vastly overpriced sexy witch/hippie/dinosaur getup from Target. Not my bag. A good ‘stume is all about craft. I love the thrill of the hunt and on any day, for whatever reason, I love thrift stores.

But SF ain’t an easy town for used clothes- you find a lot of ‘vintage’ prices under the ‘thrift’ moniker. So I was all a-flutter to go to the Goodwill As Is store, located around the corner from their mega shop on South Van Ness. The As Is store is a “donation outlet,” a Goodwill warehouse supplying humanity’s offerings direct to you, without the unnecessary bother of employees “sorting,” “fixing,” or “cleaning” the items.

Right this way for endless haggling and questionable business motivation!

Now, I am not what you’d call a “squeamish” person. I’ve trawled places where regular shoppers wear rubber gloves and unproven urban legends swirl about of dead cats found in the clothing trolleys. But this store struck me as something between the black market and a Greyhound bus station.

Stop signs, moving automobiles, propriety be damned. If you have a bike and it's after 5 p.m. on the last Friday of the month in the city, pedal hard down to the Ferry Building 'cause it's time for some Critical Mass action. The monthly ride, meant to call attention to how tough it is to be on a bicycle in the city, has garnered its share of frustrated honks and hateration, but despite it has grown to include thousands of two wheeled participants.

The troops rally before the 6:30 start (Photo by Troy Holden)

This being the end of October, the spooookiest time of the year, Friday's ride is dubbed 'Critical Masquerade' and marked by a bigger flash mob than usual. Think lots and lots of costumes on bikes, experiencing varying degrees of mobility.

Because there's nothing like jumping a curb dressed as Delta Burke on 'Designing Woman.' Because you're trying to clear some caloric space out for all the mini-Twix and Sugar Babies. It's big and bad and the police can't shut it down because I'm fairly sure it's already illegal. So slap on some flair, throw your refreshments in your basket and start pushing pedal down to the Embarcadero.

Fri/30, 6 p.m., free
Justin Herman Plaza (in front of Ferry Building)
www.criticalmass.wikia.com

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Allison, Washington Square Park

Tell us about your look: "I got this in Denmark. My style philosophy is copy Europe."

By Sarah C. Jimenez

Back to the pizza place. It was inevitable, I know. The place that last month my novia and I had a fit in and walked out of after not getting service—not getting a simple greeting after 10 minutes. We, the brown lesbianas in the corner, watched as the perfect white couple who came in long after us sipped their Peronis contently, while we were still hoping to maybe get waters. Our usual efficient and jovial server who, in the past, has always delivered pristine service, had been replaced with…well, no server at all. We’d been crushed that our favorite pizza place had not only blatantly offended us, but shattered our much anticipated pizza fantasies we’d toyed with all day.

The return to Oz started with a middle of the day phone-call while banging away at my computer like Schroeder at his piano, trying to meet a deadline: “Dinner tonight…. Tickets to Wicked…. Call in sick to work?” my girlfriend had pleaded. Giving up a $200 bar shift was not hard. Getting glammed-up for theater was not hard. Going to dinner back at the place where we’d last left with nothing but our stubborn dignity was.

By Molly Freedenberg

In this week's issue of the Guardian, we talk about reasons to drink craft beer made locally and discuss someof the masters making noteworthy brews. But the Bay Area craft brew scene is so vibrant and varied, we could only touch on some of what makes it great. In coming weeks, we'll post longer interviews with experts at brewpubs, better beer bars, and breweries on this blog. Also keep an eye out for a story about seasonal brews in our Holiday Guide and a follow-up to this week's "Beer Here!" article, both coming out in November.

For our first installment of our online beer series, we'd like to give a nod to Magnolia Gastropub and Brewery and David Mclean, the award-winning brewmaster/owner of the Haight-Ashbury destination spot. Here's the transcript of our Q&A with him:

SFBG: How long have you been around?

DM: 12 years next month

SFBG: Why is Northern California so good for brewing beer?

DM: It's one of the birthplaces of the modern, American craft beer movement, giving it a 30-40-year head start over many other regions in the country. Not only does that mean that there are many talented brewers here but also that we have a well-educated customer base who appreciate the diversity of flavors and styles brewed in the area. The many facets of the Bay Area's artisan food and beverage culture dovetail together, impacting both the way brewers think about their craft and the way local beer drinkers embrace local beer.

SFBG: Why is it important to drink beer made locally?

DM: On one level, it's just a good idea to support local businesses in general. More specifically, when talking about craft beer, there is a sense of local identity and local pride that comes from drinking beer made in one's community. And, from both an environmental and flavor
standpoint, it's nice to not expend resources shipping beer great distances. Most beer tastes best when fresh and though that doesn't mean you can't get fresh beer from farther afield (or stale local beer), you greatly improve your odds drinking local. That's especially true if you drink beer at your local brewpub, where the beer only travels from the physically attached brewery to your glass.

By Molly Freedenberg

Airbrush work by Jessica Atreides and Andrew Jones at last year's Dia de las Muertos event at Five & Diamond. Photo courtesy of jonology.com.

With all the Halloween hullabaloo, it's easy to get distracted from that other awesome holiday that comes this time of year: Day of the Dead. In fact, many revelers prefer the Mexican holiday, with its beautiful rituals and sincere honoring of the dead, to our bastardized American one, with its inebriated masses in slutty costumes. Lucky for all of us, we don't have to choose just one or the other. So how should you celebrate on Monday, November 2?

The cornerstone of San Francisco's Dia de los Muertos celebration is, of course, the procession in the Mission that concludes at the Festival of Altars. Meet at 24th and Bryan streets at 7pm for the lively parade, or at Garfield Park (26th and Harrison) at 8:30pm for the festival. (www.dayofthedeadsf.org)

But first, we're going to stop by Dia de los Muertos with Five & Diamond, a reception celebrating the store's second anniversary, featuring airbrush makeup by SOHA Collective and altars to beloved friends, and then join a procession to the larger parade on 24th Street. (5-7pm, free. 510 Valencia, SF. www.fiveanddiamond.com)

Can't make it out on Monday night? Visit SOMArts later in the week for its 11th annual Day of the Dead Exhibition, featuring more than 50 artworks inspired by the Mexican tradition still on display through November 7. The gorgeous entries span cultures, mediums, and scale, filling the large front space with a maze of moving, reverent art. The gallery is open Tuesday-Friday, 2:00 - 7:00 pm, and Saturday, 12:00 - 5:00 pm.
(934 Brannan, SF. 415-863-1414, www.somarts.org)