San Francisco Bay Guardian - Essential Bay Area News, Politics, Arts, and Culture

Do falling jobless numbers mean we're smart and focused, or rich and exclusive?

steven — Fri, 17 May 2013 23:12:57 +0000

The unemployment rate continues to drop in San Francisco and all over California, according to new numbers released today by the California Employment Development Department, which were trumpeted by Mayor Ed Lee as vindication for his economic development policies.

“San Francisco’s steady economic recovery is the result of our continued focus on job creation, education and training residents for the demands of the 21^st century workforce. San Franciscans are getting back to work across the spectrum of job sectors – from hospitality to construction to technology to service industry jobs and we will continue to help these sectors grow in our City,” Lee said in a press release.

But are Lee’s neoliberal policies of promoting technology and other corporations with tax breaks and city-subsidized training programs and financing mechanisms really creating the rosy economic picture he’s painting? And even if it is helping to promote boom times, at what point have we essentially reached full employment, the point at which we should maybe turn our focus and resources to addressing the rising cost of living here?

After all, San Francisco’s unemployment rate of 5.4 percent is third only to Marin County (4.6 percent) and San Mateo County (5.1 percent). Those three counties also just happen to be the three counties with the highest per capita incomes in the state, a fact that explains our jobless rate more than the mid-Market payroll tax exemption and other taxpayer giveaways.

“Unemployment rates tend to be lowest in areas with high education attainment,” Ruth Kavanagh, EDD’s labor market consultant for this area, told us when we called to discuss the disparties among counties.

What about the rising cost of living in San Francisco? Clearly, this is becoming a much more difficult city for the unemployed and marginally employed to remain living in. How much are gentrification, evictions, and the exodus to the East Bay (Alameda County’s rate is 7 percent, still better than the statewide rate of 8.5 percent) and other locales a factor in our low jobless rate?

Kavanagh said the EDD doesn’t directly track that and so she couldn’t address the question. But she did say that the Bay Area was indeed experiencing the fastest job growth in the state, driven largely by the tech industry. In the last year, this three-county area has added 9,600 jobs in Professional Business Services (which includes tech) and 4,600 each in Leisure & Hospitality and Construction.

Indeed, in his State of the City speech in January, Lee touted the 23 construction cranes on the city skyline as the best gauge of the state of the city. And if counting jobs is one’s only measure of success, San Francisco is doing as well as can be expected. Kavanagh said most economists consider “full employment” within the capitalist system to be somewhere between 4-5 percent.

Yet Lee says he’s not backing off from his full-throttle focus on economic development. “San Francisco’s unemployment rate today stands at a five-year low and I will continue to pursue policies that get people back to work, support San Francisco families and invest in our City’s future,” he said. “This Summer through San Francisco Summer Jobs +, we are setting an aggressive goal of putting 6,000 youth to work in paid jobs and internships, and I will continue working hard to make sure all San Franciscans have access to good paying jobs.”

Now if only we all had access to reasonably priced housing, health care, food, entertainment, and a transportation system built to handle a growing population.

-sigh-

Now get back to work!

Forget Bay to Breakers -- it's time for a Thong Parade!

admin — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:38:19 +0000

Well, OK -- if you're a nudist you'll probably be doing Bay to Breakers on Sunday. It's one of the few sanctioned city events you're allowed to attend in your birthday suit.

On Saturday, however, in order to draw attention to the absurdity of banning nudity in the city while still keeping it legal on its most crowded and family friendly days, the organizers of "Bare as You Dare: Thong Parade" are encouraging people to don their best mankini or panties and join them at Jane Warner Plaza in the Castro, noon-2pm tomorrow, Sat/18. "Come hang out with us!" Press release after the jump:

Saturday, May 18, 2012 From Noon to 2pm
Starts at Jane Warner Plaza, San Francisco

DON'T BE LATE!

The THONG PARADE happens the day before the Bay to Breakers, so you have two great reasons to be in SF that weekend!

Some city officials claim the nudity ban was implemented to protect public safety by totally eliminating the huge crowds that gather because of the naked people. Leathermen, drag queens, tattooed persons and lots of other citizens draw attention.

WHO WILL BE BANNED NEXT?

Tell your city leaders you don't want San Francisco sanitized!

Wear a thong, a jock strap, a g-string, a cock sock, panties, briefs, boxers. Organizers have applied for a sidewalk parade permit.

Bring a sign or paint a message on your body for a group march around the Castro neighborhood, along Market Street and the City Hall/downtown area. Route maps will be provided at the event.

Be a part of the resurgence of fun and quirkiness in the Castro and beyond!

Parade group meets in JWP at noon. Parade will take place on the sidewalk and we'll be walking through the Castro and surrounding areas and then return to conclude at Harvey Milk Plaza under the Pride Flag. Come hang out with us!

Can't a guy even smoke crack in peace any more?

tim — Fri, 17 May 2013 22:24:10 +0000

Okay: Yes, it's really funny that the mayor of Toronto, who is an odd guy at best, was apparently caught on a cell-phone video sucking on a crack pipe. Insert jokes here. Go ahead.

It reminds me, since I'm very old, of the last crack-pipe mayor, Marion Barry, who in 1990 fell into an FBI sting when a former girlfriend invited him to her hotel room to have sex. Turns out she was an FBI informant, and when she suggested they get high before getting into bed, the fibbies caught Barry on a secret camera. Didn't do much to harm his career -- he served six months in jail and was soon re-elected mayor.

In Ford's case, it's hard to see how he'd even get arrested. I don't know Canadian law, but a videotape of someone smoking out of a glass pipe isn't legal evidence of cocaine posession (hey, it could have been medical marijuana). At this point, there really isn't a crime. But already, there are calls for him to resign, and it's going to be hard to put this behind him.

The interesting twist, though, is that the person who filmed him wasn't a cop at all; it was someone else in the room, quite possibly a dealer, who was looking for a big cash score. Which could be coming -- Gawker is trying to raise $200,000 to pay for the clip. (Yes, you can chip in and help crowd-fund the further embarassment of a politician!)

Now, it's pretty likely that the person with the camera wasn't a good-government crusader or an anti-drug type. What happened here, it appears, is someone who is either selling crack or smoking it with Hizzoner then gets into not-quite extortion or blackmail (though he might have called Ford before putting it out on the open market) but certainly a setup of another kind.

I'm not advocating that the mayor of Toronto (or anyone else) smoke crack. It's nasty shit. But isn't it just a tiny bit creepy that you can't even sit in a crack den without worrying that you're going to star in a Gawker video?

What if instead of smoking crack he'd been fucking a woman (or a guy) he wasn't married to? Would Gawker raise $200,000 to see a mayor having consensual sex outside of Holy Matrimony? (Eeew, I don't want to see Rob Ford having sex, but you get the point.)

I'm sorry, trolls, but I have to admit that (like pretty much everyone I know) I have done things in my life, in the privacy of my own or someone else's home, that I don't think should be public (crack smoking, for better or worse, not being one of them). Never hurt anyone, so it's my fucking business. And it's kind of creepy to think that anyone in the room could be filming me now, for all of posterity.

From now on, folks, hide the crack pipe.

To twerk at the symphony: Tipping on the tightrope with Janelle Monae

caitlin — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:44:56 +0000

"Normally the Symphony is like, stuffy!" -- woman in the bathroom stall next to me post-Monae.

PHOTO BY CAITLIN DONOHUE

There was a moment at Janelle Monae's show at the SF Symphony last night when it looked as if the diorama of world-class musicians behind the diminutive person in black-and-white striped shoes, pompadour, and endless progression of tailored tuxedo jackets was a natural growth. If the trombone-and-oboe look isn't an every day occurance for Monae, she did not let on as the final moments of Prince's "Take Me With You" surged around her. The andro-android turned her back to the audience and almost subconsciously, began waving her arms, a sudden conductor.

And then by the end of the next song the entire spangly gown crowd was on their pave-jeweled feet, twerking in the aisle. Maybe Monae can't always have a back-up symphony, but the Symphony should always have a Monae in front of it.

"I've never seen that before," said a friend whose been to "over a dozen" shows at Davies Symphony Hall. The crucial moment when floor-length dresses with complicated back straps found themselves navigating approximations of Monae's duck-footed pops and jazz hands, came about three quarters of the way through the show, after her covers of the tender "Smile" (originally an instrumental in Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times, eventually sung by Nat King Cole in 1954), the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back", "Goldfinger", and her own concotions: "Peach Tree Blues", "Sincerely, Jane".

"I did not quite feel comfortable with myself as a young woman," the famously androgynously attired Monae announced to the crowd. The song that followed, she said, was meant to assist anyone feeling similarly unhinged. "For everybody out there who has ever felt weak, this song is for you."

She launched into a one-two of her singles "Cold War" and "Tightrope", and we went there. Had the elder statespeople, the rich blonde stunners, the swath of young, well-turnt, and apparently rich (considering the ticket price for the show, which was a fundraiser gala for the Symphony's impressive public school programming), the tightly-curled man who secured his ginger locks with what I swear was a black tie scrunchie, ever felt out of place? "You better know what you're fighting for," Monae hollered, thrillingly. You could feel the crowd feeling their own, each, personal fight, even if it was just their plans to breach the VIP lounge at the post-show open bar reception across the street at City Hall.

She ran into the crowd? She dropped her new single featuring Erykah Badu in an absolutly inevitable encore? She wins the day. On Monday, Monae takes the show to Chicago's Symphony, a stand-in for an ailing Queen Aretha Franklin. I doubt the Windy City will be disappointed, and I hope it wears its dancing scrunchie.

FYI, the show was one in a series of concerts at which the Symphony is featuring guest artists from varying genres -- Rufus Wainwright is coming up June 9, will he get the crowds rolling ass in the aisles too?

Pointy ears and freaky eyebrows: this week's new movies

cheryl — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:32:28 +0000

Uhura (Zoe Saldana) and Spock (Zachary Quinto) take it to the bridge in 'Star Trek Into Darkness,' now playing.

Photo by Zade Rosenthal

In Hollywood, summer starts in May, or even earlier ... give it a few more years and there'll be an Avengers tie-in movie ringing in the season in early February. This weekend's "summer" blockbuster is Star Trek Into Darkness, directed by J. J. Abrams, who was recently tapped to helm at least the first film in the "Star Wars sequel trilogy." Lotta stars in J.J.'s eyes these days. At least he's having fun with it so far (my review of Darkness after the jump).

Also this week: he'll soon be playing the villain in Man of Steel, speaking of summer blockbusters, but Michael Shannon first appears as a based-on-truth hitman in the very fine Iceman, reviewed here by Dennis Harvey. Also of interest, the first Himalayan Film Festival is now underway in various Bay Area theaters; I take a look at the doc-heavy line-up here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ec_rPApKCA

Star Trek Into Darkness Do you remember 1982? There are more than a few echoes of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in J. J. Abrams' second film retooling the classic sci-fi property's characters and adventures. Darkness retains the 2009 cast, including standouts Zachary Quinto as Spock and Simon Pegg as comic-relief Scotty, and brings in Benedict "Sherlock" Cumberbatch to play the villain (I think you can guess which one). The plot mostly pinballs between revenge and preventing/circumventing the destruction of the USS Enterprise, with added post-9/11, post-Dark Knight (2008) terrorism connotations that are de rigueur for all superhero or fantasy-type blockbusters these days. But Darkness isn't totally, uh, dark: there's quite a bit of fan service at work here (speak Klingon? You're in luck). Abrams knows what audiences want, and he's more than happy to give it to 'em, sometimes opening up massive plot holes in the process — but never veering from his own Prime Directive: providing an enjoyable ride. (2:07) (Cheryl Eddy)

Midnight's Children Deepa Mehta (2005's Water) directs and co-adapts with Salman Rushdie the author's Booker Prize-winning 1981 novel, which mixes history (India's 1947 independence, and the subsequent division of India and Pakistan) with magical elements — suggested from its fairy-tale-esque first lines: "I was born in the city of Bombay, once upon a time." This droll voice-over (read by Rushdie) comes courtesy of Saleem Sinai, born to a poor street musician and his wife (who dies in childbirth; dad is actually an advantage-taking Brit played by Charles "Tywin Lannister" Dance) but switched (for vaguely revolutionary reasons) with Shiva, born at the same moment to rich parents who unknowingly raise the wrong son. Rich or poor, it seems all children born at the instant of India's independence have shared psychic powers; over the years, they gather for "meetings" whenever Saleem summons them. And that's just the 45 minutes or so of story. Though gorgeously shot, Midnight's Children suffers from page-to-screen-itis; the source material is complex in both plot and theme, and it's doubtful any film — even one as long as this — could translate its nuances and more fanciful elements ("I can smell feelings!," Saleem insists) into a consistently compelling narrative. Last-act sentimentality doesn't help, though it's consistent with the fairy-tale vibe, I suppose. (2:20) (Cheryl Eddy)

Something in the Air After accidentally causing a guard serious harm during a Molotov-cocktail revenge attack on high school campus police, floppy-haired Gilles (Clément Métayer) and his baby anarchist comrades have to scatter for summer vacation. He heads to Italy along with potential new girlfriend Christine (Lola Créton), the last one (Carole Combes' Laure) having tripped off to London and Ibiza with her artist parents. Gilles wants to be an artist, too. As much of a narrative arc as there is here details his gradual shift from dedication to political ideology toward decisions that might help further his career and define his aesthetic as a painter (or maybe a filmmaker). Always interesting but never involving, Olivier Assayas' somewhat autobiographical feature is a portrait-of-a-young-man exercise that's ultimately a little too much like everyone's freshman college year: Fascinating and life-changing if you were there, not so much if you're just hearing someone else's countercultural reminscences. Gilles is a petulant blank whose revolutionist convictions seem borrowed rather than felt — which may be the writer-director's intent, but it's hard to tell. Originally titled Apres Mai — a much more useful reference to the French far-left political tumult of May 1968 and its aftermath — this is one more cinematic attempt to encapsulate the "turbulent" 1960s (extending here into the mid-'70s) that at least fleetingly captures the era's fluidity of sex, love, community, and ideology. And that's far less successful at convincing us the beliefs our protagonists tout are anything more than an immature following of cultural fashion. It's an incongruously passive movie about a time in which passion reigned. (2:01) (Dennis Harvey)

Stories We Tell Actor and director Sarah Polley (2011's Take This Waltz) turns the camera on herself and her family for this poignant, moving, inventive, and expectation-upending blend of documentary and narrative. Her father, actor Michael Polley, provides the narration; our first hint that this film will take an unconventional form comes when we see Sarah directing Michael's performance in a recording-studio booth, asking him to repeat certain phrases for emphasis. On one level, Stories We Tell is about Sarah's own history, as she sets out to explore longstanding family rumors that Michael is not her biological father. The missing piece: her mother, actress Diane Polley (who died of cancer just days after Sarah's 11th birthday), a vivacious character remembered by Sarah's siblings and those who knew and loved her. Stories We Tell's deeper meaning emerges as the film becomes ever more meta, retooling the audience's understanding of what they're seeing via convincingly doc-like reenactments. To say more would lessen the power of Stories We Tell's multi-layered revelations. Just know that this is an impressively unique film — about family, memories, love, and (obviously) storytelling — and offers further proof of Polley's tremendous talent. (1:48) (Cheryl Eddy)

Sun Don't Shine Prolific indie producer and actor (Upstream Color) Amy Seimetz's debut as feature writer-director is a intriguingly ambiguous mumblecore noir about a couple on the run, à la Bonnie and Clyde. Crystal (Kate Lyn Sheil) and Leo (Kentucker Audley) are driving south through Florida — a state that seemingly always relaxes demands on intelligence and legality — with a handgun, innumerable anxieties, and something problematic hidden in the trunk. We gradually realize she's unstable, though to what extent remains unclear. Seimetz's refusal to spell out that and other basic narrative elements lends her film a compelling aura of mystery, one that heightens some striking, tense sequences but also can prove somewhat frustrating in the long run. (A little more insight would have made it easier to understand why the seemingly level-headed Leo has hitched his wagon to the increasingly off-putting Crystal.) Overall, though, it's the kind of first feature that makes you eager to see what she'll come up with next. (1:20) Roxie. (Dennis Harvey)

The Ro Khanna party

tim — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:11:07 +0000

When Ro Khanna, a young, energetic intellectual property lawyer, ran for Congress against Tom Lantos, he was the candidate of the progressives. I liked Khanna, and appreciated his willingness to take on the almost unheard-of task of challenging a longtime incumbent in a Democratic primary. At that point, in 2004, the big issues were the war and the PATRIOT Act, and Khanna was against both. Lantos, who was always hawkish on defense issues (and a die-hard supporter of Israel, no matter what the Israeli government was doing), was clearly out of touch with his district. But Khanna never got much traction, and he lost pretty badly.

Now he's back, in a new era of top-two primaries (which has its own problems), and in a different district. He's taking on Mike Honda, who, like Lantos, has been around a while, and hasn't faced serious opposition in years.

And this time around, it's not Matt Gonzalez and the left supporting Khanna -- it's Lite Guv Gavin Newsom, who beat Gonzalez for mayor of SF, along with Ron Conway and the tech industry. And instead of talking about failed US military policies, he's talking about bringing the interests of Silicon Valley to Washington:

“The premise of this campaign is quite simple,” Khanna told the crowd. “We’ve had quite brilliant people…use technology to change the world. And it’s time that we actually change politics, that Silicon Valley has the potential to do this.” “It’s not just about having a tech agenda. This is about something much deeper — our values, and our ability to use those values to change Washington and the world,” he told them.

Now: It's not as if Mike Honda has been horrible to Silicon Valley. He's been involved in all sorts of tech-related issues. But he's of a different generation, and however stereotypical it may be to say it, there's a certain level of ageism in the tech world right now. Honda is old; the wealth in the tech world is overwhelmingly young. Politico notes:

Khanna’s decision to take on Honda also reflects a long-standing frustration among many young California pols who have been patiently waiting for older members to exit the state’s congressional delegation. Last year’s induction of an independent redistricting committee and a jungle primary system in which the top two finishers in an open primary advance to the runoff regardless of party affiliation, helped push many senior members into retirement.

Oh, and Honda is very much a pro-labor guy. And tech firms are almost never unionized, and their owners and workers don't tend to have the same sympathies for labor unions as young activists did 20 years ago.

Politico doesn't give Khanna much of a shot; it's going to be a tough battle. Honda's been around the district forever, and has no apparent scandals or gaffes (and unlike poor Pete Stark, he doesn't seem to be losing his marbles).

But money talks, and Khanna's got a lot of it -- and in some ways, this will be a new-money-v.-old-Democratic Party, tech v. labor kind of battle that will say a lot about where Bay Area politics are going as the region's population, and wealth, are dramatically and rapidly changing.

The "Do Nothing" Solution to "Illegal Immigration"

JohnnyW — Fri, 17 May 2013 19:06:31 +0000

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida

www.ftlauderdale.gov/news

Both sides of the political aisle have made a major issue out of the problem of the 11 million people inside the US illegally or presently undocumented. The president has said this is a priority and Florida senator Marco Rubio has agreed. They are theoretically opposed to each other, yet Rubio's proposals entailed in the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013 don't differ a great deal from Obama's. In a nutshell, Rubio has suggested that the wholesale eviction of 11 million people is impossible and that the bill offers them an opportunity for legalization and permanent residence and citizenship. Naturally, the "jump through hoops" process begins here: Fines and background checks and no federal bennies.

Sounds completely reasonable, but you'd think Rubio had suggested that the government was handing out lollipops and bon-bons, making Spanish the new "official language" and changing the "Star Spangled Banner" to "Guantanmera" by the reaction of his "conservative" peers. A cursory Google reveals an enraged base represented by such intellectual heavweights as Townhall.com and Ann "To Hell With Palin, I Was Here First" Coulter. Any concessions to the teeming masses of south of the border is treasonous amnesty and in their hardly humble opinions, this will lead to "de-Europeanization" (ie less white).

As far as what the generally pitiful Democrats are offering, it is only marginally different than Rubio's idea. Which is also reasonable, but overlooks the crux of the issue, because no one anywhere has to unmitigated gall (until now) to say it: "Illegal Immigration reform" is a solution in search of a problem, because in reality, it isn't a problem at all!

The way I see it, a problem means an aggrieved party and in this instance, there isn't one. People want to hire help for whatever the task is, other people agree to do it for a price, end of story. The idea that "illegal immigrants are stealing American workers jobs" sounds fairly solid on its face unless you happen to live in the American Southwest and notice that wherever day laborers congregate, there aren't a whole hell of a lot of white folks. As far as "taking away jobs that union carpenters/plumbers/electricians do", isn't it the union's job to protect their own for one and for two, a skyscraper isn't built and wired with dudes from the Lowe's parking lot. It is not worth a major contractor's license to screw with E-Verify (I passed an E-Verify check myself a few months ago for my radio show!).

Assuming you "legalized" every man, woman in child in the US tomorrow, what happens? The working person's price rises. Which means that they will be replaced by new people from Central America or Asia that will remain invisible. See, we are a free country with open borders--people can come and go as they please, this isn't a gulag (yet) (The irony of the most virulent anti-USSR voices being the loudest for a border fence is astounding). Not only is there no way to stop it, there isn't even a real reason to stop it--as China and Japan might tell you, an aging and shrinking worker base is starting to hurt them and hard.

Fact is, both major political parties support and oppose it for a pair of reasons of their own. Democrats love this, as it accelerates the "Bluing" of the Southwest with millions of new voters beholding and grateful to them, making a Republican national electoral victory mathematically impossible. The other reason they love it is because it replenishes their most loyal and organized base, labor. Republicans hate it for two reasons as well--newly legal workers will have more rights, bargaining power and higher pay, which means that a new cheap labor era is gonna take a while. The other reason is the one they vehemently deny but is as obvious as the honkers on their maps--their base's great unifier isn't economics or even social issues, but race. That the Dixiecrats of the last century are now almost entirely Republican. The glue that holds them intact, whether they'd care to admit it or not, is white supremacy. And a sea of legal Americans that are a deeper shade of soul galls them to the cores of their rancid selves. Were they serious about "sending all of these people back to where they came from", they'd boycott every and any business that employs them, which means they'd pretty much have to stop eating. I've seen what the average reactionary looks like--that ain't happening.

In fact, when the "illegals" are white, they say nothing.

Obama and Rubio both cry out that the system is "broken" but it isn't. Undocumenteds pour billions into the coffers of state and federal and don't get it back and whatever their costs are to health or schools, they're balanced off by what the public saves in lower food and service costs. They're a wash. Which means that any changes to the laissez-faire system only make everyone's life harder and more complex. If there is a solution, the easiest one would be a "seven year rule"--you prove you've actually been here 7 years, no criminal record, you take a citizenship test, that's it.

We have undocumented people in this very neighborhood. They want the same things we do. That's good enough for me.

JAW

“Privacy? Screw that.”

rebecca — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:45:28 +0000

Er, Google glass?

PHOTO BY PETER KAMINSKI VIA FLICKR

At a party the other night, somebody convinced me to try out Google Glass. I let curiosity get the better of me, succumbed to peer pressure, and put the frames on my face for a few seconds.

A floating, illuminated square appeared in the top right corner of my vision, containing a few lines of text. One said, “take a picture,” and when I spoke those words out loud (it took two tries), the tiny screen filled with the face of the person I was looking at, outlined by tiny camera brackets. My reality was instantly frozen in the tiny floating screen and, I can only presume, whisked off to the servers controlled by that increasingly ubiquitous presence in our lives, Google. Just like every other time I’ve ever snapped a picture on my smartphone, only with less effort.

Even weirder than donning a pair of the geeky gear myself was going into Vesuvio last night and spotting a normal looking, middle-aged man sipping his drink and sporting Glass like it was nothing. At Vesuvio! I began to ponder. What if everyone in the bar had been donning the wearable computers, and streaming? Would bits of my conversation have floated through electronic channels and reached the ears of eager listeners? What if, halfway through my whiskey drink, I had one of those moments: I didn’t know the mic was on. I didn’t even know there was a mic!

If you are fond of gossiping and drinking in bars in San Francisco, it is possible that you will encounter this problem some day. At present, there’s little to stop anyone from walking into a bar and streaming their surroundings directly onto the Internet with a smartphone. However, Google Glass blends our machines even more intimately with our realities, and further increases the ease with which an individual's experience can be instantly disseminated to the networked world.

Apparently, several members of Congress have taken an interest in Glass, sending a letter to Google to inquire about the privacy implications of the new wearable computing device. According to CNET:

“One question the group wants answered is how Google plans to prevent Glass for unintentionally collecting data about users without their consent. They also want to know what proactive steps Google is taking to protect the privacy of non-users when Glass is in use, as well as whether Google has considered refining its privacy policy. And they're curious to find out how Glass will use facial-recognition technology and how much privacy is considered when approving new apps.”

Privacy. It’s heating up as a focal point for activists, and evidently some of them have slick graphic design skills. Witness the international demo release of Data Dealer, billed as “the gleefully sarcastic game about privacy:”

According to press materials accompanying the release:

“A small team from Austria has developed the new online game Data Dealer which addresses issues of personal data security and privacy in a completely new, highly ironic and humorous way. At first glance the game looks similar to popular Facebook hits like Mafia Wars or Farmville. But in Data Dealer players face a very different challenge: the provocative goal of the game is to collect personal information about millions of people - and ruthlessly sell it to clients of all kinds. The game is targeted at both young people and adults. Data Dealer is an online game about collecting, combining and selling personal data – and therefore a playful exploration of online privacy issues.”

New designers show their stuff at this weekend's Asian Heritage Street Celebration

caitlin — Thu, 16 May 2013 23:07:55 +0000

Fashion designer Huab Vue brings her collection to this weekend's runway.

The annual Asian Heritage Street Celebration and fashion fever may not be automatically associated in the brains of Bay Areans. But then, most Bay Areans probably are unacquainted with the work of Runway Couturier -- the group behind this year's festival finale, featuring local designers from all across the SF fashion world, on Sat/18.

The show is what Runway's executive producer Fritz Lambandrake dubs a “little fashion show that could." But in actually, this is one catwalk that'll help small-scale fashionistas to realize large-scale dreams. Presenting various Bay Area designers, Runway Couturier promotes young hopefuls free of charge -- and even supplies them with fabric, courtesy of sponsor Linda Blake of Discount Fabrics. It is Lambandrake's goal to “to use fashion as a bridge between cultures and communities”, as he told the Guardian, which explains the show's presence at this weekend's Asian Heritage Street Celebration. The fair will also feature cooking demos, live musical performances, a car show, craft market, a blessing by Thai monks, and food galore.

Although Lambandrake's heritage lies elsewhere than the Asian continent, he says he feels honored to be a part of the event. San Francisco supervisor Jane Kim was the one responsible for hooking up Lambandrake and Asian Week Foundation, who produces the yearly street fair. "You should see her stiletto heels!” says Lambandrake of his well-shod politician connection.

Making their debut at the show three new designers: Sam Shan, Tina Maier, and Huab Vue. Shan, a 21-year-old Burmese political refugee, shows a collection inspired by the folktales of his homeland. Maier, a self-educated fiber artist, is a master manipulator of materials, and her collection is sure to be high-minded yet grounded, with a mishmash of thrift store finds, unique textiles., and re-purposed upholstery. Check out the AHSC site for a full list of designers.

A preview of Tomboy Tailors' highly anticipated genderqueer debut collection will stalk the catwalk, and there will be a competition for the best designs of the day, judged by a discerning panel including drag mistress Donna Sachet and Supervisor Kim.

Runway Couturier at the Asian Heritage Street Celebration

Sat/18, 3:30pm

Larkin and Eddy, SF

www.runwaycouterier.com

Behold! Highlights of ArtPadSF and artMKT

admin — Thu, 16 May 2013 22:27:19 +0000

In this week's issue, Guardian visual arts Matt Fisher singled out some highlights of the big ArtPadSF and artMKT shows, which open tonight and run through Sun/19. Here's a slideshow that shows you what he was talking about. Artist descriptions after the jump:

ARTPADSF:

Andrew Benson, Johansson Projects

Benson's sometimes gooey, sometimes crunkly digital video/experimental software work breathes some ragged, frenetic energy into the standard trope of "relationships between the body and technology." His piece is scheduled to be projected from the Phoenix onto the six-story building next door at 8pm, Thu/16-Sat/18.

Justine Frischmann, Unspeakable Projects

Frischmann's paintings look like something that one of those spiders on Benzedrine would make. If it lived inside an Etch A Sketch. And used neon spray paint. During a dust storm. Trust me, these are compliments.

David Hevel, Marx & Zavattero

Hevel makes collaged sculptures and sharp pop abstract paintings, usually riffing on American celebrity. His work at the fair will be very MTV 1983.

Scott Hove, Spoke Art

Will Oaklander Hove be showing one of his intensely drugged up fanged wall cakes, a knotted rope work installation, or a surrealism-on-meth painting? Yeah, it all sounds good to me, too.

Jason Kalogiros, Queen's Nails Gallery

Kalogiros makes edgy, dense, cerebral, photo-based works, lately by manipulating found commercial images. I'm hoping to see a couple from his series of Cartier and Bvlgari watches.

Ed Loftus, Gregory Lind Gallery

Loftus does photorealism pretty much the right way, by marrying intense attention to detail with an obsessive and neurotic subject matter that crawls under your skin ever deeper the more time you spend with it. While you're in Gregory Lind's space, also check out Thomas Campbell and Jovi Schnell.

Matt Momchilov, Unspeakable Projects

Momchilov queers punk and rock fandom in the traditional sense of the word, meaning his paintings and sculpture snatch and redirect standard accoutrements of punk fanboys and girls to point that hardcore laser focus in new directions and at more fey subjects.

Gregg Renfrow, Toomey-Tourell

I won't blame you one bit if you try to lick Renfrow's luminous, vibrating color field abstractions. His meticulous, precise, wondrous paintings are like visual everlasting gobstoppers, and I fully expect that by the time I see 'em, they'll have a layer of saliva all over.

Jonathan Runcio, Queen's Nails Gallery

Runcio makes incisive 2 and 3D work that takes traditional hardedge abstraction in the art concrete vein, shacks it up with remnants of urban architecture, and has a post-formalist lovechild.

ARTMRKT

Johnna Arnold, Traywick Contemporary

The fair's Collector's Lounge will be showing Arnold's video created to accompany the richly saturated, haunting landscape photos that will be showing offsite at the gallery.

Carol Inez Charney, Slate Contemporary

harney's complex photographs were the single most outstanding thing I saw last year at ArtPad. That's complex like a personality, not like your taxes. A year later, I'm prepared for the brainfreeze again.

Amanda Curreri, Romer Young

Curreri's precisely conceived conceptual color and abstract works are subtle in that they tend to yield only small nibbles at first pass, but they're deceptive that way, and usually end up smacking you around by the time it's all over.

Lauren DiCioccio, Jack Fischer Gallery

DiCioccio has recently been applying her super-meticulous needlework to fastidiously x-ing out individual letters in pages of books, as an act of both scrutiny and physical redaction of the received, mediated world.

Joshua Hagler, Jack Fischer Gallery

Somewhere in the Hamptons summer home where Glenn Brown and Lucian Freud are renting with Mark Tansey and Matthew Day Jackson, Hagler is stoned on the couch making fart noises with his armpits. That is also a compliment.

Claire Rojas, Gallery Paul Anglim

Sure Gallery Paul Anglim shows Barry McGee, but I'll be looking at the Rojas paintings, whose hard edge and off-kilter abstractions of interior architectural spaces are spot-on and mesmerizing.

Diane Rosenblum, Slate Contemporary

Rosenblum switches up hyperanalytical and conceptual works that incorporate research, crowdsourced interactions, and photography. I'm hoping to see images from a series of recent photos that work Flickr comments into the image.

Dana Hart Stone, Brian Gross

I can't wait to examine Hart Stone's paintings up close, which in the past have been made by repeatedly transferring or printing antique images in rows onto canvas. Also at Brian Gross are Bay Area stalwarts Roy de Forest and Robert Arneson.

Esther Traugot, Chandra Cerrito

Traugot combines found organic objects with crochet. I know what you're thinking, but this is not a Portlandia skit. She does it the right way, promise.

Googlass: Gatecrashing Google I/O

caitlin — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:41:37 +0000

Having a good time and not afraid to show it.

GUARDIAN PHOTOS BY CAITLIN DONOHUE

It would be foolish to turn down the offer of cost-free Billy Idol on a Wednesday night, but I could have remembered that I live in San Francisco and high profile rock 'n' roll will like as not, come served with a side of goober.

This is to say, that I went to the Google I/O developer’s conference last night. The buffet’s waffle fries were not great and I heard the mini-chicken pot pies were worse, but I did get a chance to watch DJ Steve Aoki give shout-outs to “technooooology!”, allowing a techie or two who promised to get him a Google bus to clamber on stage and flop about next to his set-up.

Through a complicated and unexplained series of events, my date at Dave's with a man who owns a VW van turned into a trip to the Moscone Center for what I would later learn was a $900 opportunity to hear about Big Goog's new answer to Spotify in the yearly conference's three-hour keynote speech.

Sadly, our posse got there too late to see Idol (Rolling Stone was on time.) But we managed to catch Aoki's triumphant remixes of Kid Cudi and Kendrik Lamar, and the bitter end of the after-hours portion of the conference, which Google characterized thusly:

Google I/O After Hours will be a hyper-visual, heart pounding journey, providing hands-on interactive experiences and sophisticated recreation and featuring awe-inspiring technology and live musical performances like no other. We've teamed up with the best global visionaries to present to you their dynamic experiments, heightened realities, and magical experiences.

There was a mechanical hand that mimicked its user's motions (these largely entailed "pointing a gun" at Steve Aoki and vaguely heil-like salutes as I watched), fake living room sets you could digitally manipulate from a touchscreen, light-up lilypads, photobooths, IPA on tap, and food offerings that would have made the house cook at any college fraternity mildly proud (three bean salad!) Many people were wearing Google Glasses. At a concert?

I was not prepared for all the Burning Man in evidence (did that woman wear those chaps for the entire conference or was that special for Idol?), including this man yes, wearing Google Glasses. He also owns a glowing fur company. “It’s called Electro Fur,” he told me, handing me a card. “So, www.electrofur.com?” I asked politely. “You know it." Check out his "Elegance" collection, and don't forget a tail to top it all off. If anyone wants to buy me the $250 furkini top promising "a ridiculous amount of fun", I'm with it.

www.electrofur.com

Party raft, set sail for white guys!

Introspection abounds, as instructed. What color Google Glasses would be best for me?

Also, peep SFist's Andrew Dalton, who has a Vine of the Googlass

Is Larkin Street Youth Services using public funds to fight a union organizing drive?

steven — Thu, 16 May 2013 20:03:20 +0000

A flyer posted by LSYS management.

Larkin Street Youth Services does great and important social work with homeless youth in San Francisco, for which it receives generous support from city taxpayers, as well as federal grants. That’s why its employees and some prominent local officials are questioning the organization’s aggressive, deceptive, and anti-union resistance to the request by a majority of its 88 employees to be represented by Service Employees International Union Local 1021.

A majority of employees submitted an organizing petition on April 8, asking LSYS Executive Director Sherilyn Adams to honor the request and recognize card check neutrality, as other local city-supported nonprofits have done, such as Tenderloin Housing Clinic. But SEIU organizer Peter Masiak said Adams refused to even discuss it, leading the National Labor Relations Board to set a mail-in ballot election that begins May 21.

“That was two months she was able to buy by forcing this election,” he told us.

Adams and LSYS management have used that time to try to undermine the organizing effort with staff meetings and mailers that criticize SEIU in particular and the labor movement in general, using misleading scare tactics about the costs of organizing.

“In my view, if employees become represented by a union, our organization will be significantly impacted, and not for the better,” Adams wrote in an April 23 email to staff announcing the NLRB election. LSYS management has also posted flyers with inaccurate information on the costs of joining the union and dated information about a contentious contract impasse between Local 1021 and its workers that has [since been settled. CORRECTION: Local 1021 workers rejected that settlement, with negotiations scheduled to restart May 21].

“They have been engaged in an anti-union campaign and hired outside counsel to fight this,” Masiak told us, noting how inappropriate such actions are for an organization that gets the vast majority of its funding from government grants. “I think it’s a misuse of these funds.”

Some public officials agree, including Assembly member Tom Ammiano and Sup. John Avalos, who have written letters to LSYS criticizing the tactics and urging Adams to recognize the union.

“Their desire to have a voice on the job and develop professionally in a supportive environment should be celebrated by LSYS management,” Ammiano wrote to Adams on April 30, noting his long history of advocating for increased city funding of the organization. “Unions are an important voice for employees regarding salary, benefits, working conditions, and many other issues. I strongly encourage you to accept card check recognition, to remain neautral during your employees’ organizing efforts, and not to use public funds on anti-union attorneys or consultants, so that your employees may make their own decision on whether or not to form a union.”

Eva Kersey, who works in LSYS HIV-prevention programs and helped organize the union drive, said it was driven by concerns about low wages, poor benefits, and the belief that “we don’t have a meaningful voice in how our programs are run,” she told us.

Kersey said she was disappointed at how management has reacted to the organizing drive. “What was most surprising is the general lack of respect we’ve gotten as workers and an organizing committee,” Kersey said, citing belittling management statements about how employees were being manipulated by the desperate union. “We’ve put a lot of work into this and put ourselves out there in a lot of ways.”

But Kersey believes support for the union has only grown and that LSYS employees -- who are used to cutting through the bullshit they hear from troubled teens -- haven’t been swayed by the speeches, flyers, and emails from management.

“I don’t think they’re very effective. They’re pretty one-sided,” Kersey said.

Adams did not return our calls for comment, but had LSYS spokesperson Nicole Garroutte respond by asking for questions in writing, and we provided a list raising the issues and concerns expressed in this article. She didn’t answer the questions directly but offered this prepared statement: “Thank you for your interest in Larkin Street and, in particular, the election process that is currently underway. Out of respect for all of our employees and to help ensure a fair and independent process, we will confine our response to reaffirming the high degree to which we value our staff and the faith that we have in their ability to make informed individual decisions regarding the election. We recognize that there are expected differences of opinions regarding the preferred labor-management model, but we are confident that we all share a mutual passion for our mission and, most importantly, for assisting to our fullest potential the vulnerable clients we serve. We would be happy to talk further after the election process is concluded.”

Masiak said the ballots will be mailed out May 21, they must be returned by June 5, and they will counted June 6.

Cryin' wolf

JohnnyW — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:56:25 +0000

The oh so serious Lindsey Graham

myyesnetwork.com

This has been a wretched stretch of brutal press for Barack Obama lately. Battered over and over by revelations of IRS malfeasance, aggressive assaults on press freedom at the AP and Benghazi ad infinitum, the hits keep on coming, amplified by the dual forces of the "Conservative Entertainment Complex" (as exemplified by this great pundit) and a "liberal media" that has realized that Internet hits are their most likely saving grace and revenue stream. It has reached such fevered pitch that the media is making a chilling analogy commonplace!

Thing is, once you get out of the fever swamps of the Internet, where seething Caucasian retirees amped up on Fox n Metamucil dominate debates with wildly incoherent snatches of reactionary-babble that sound like bizarre code to the unintiated, nobody--and I do mean NOBODY--gives a rodent's anus about any of this. Be it at the laundromat, the gym, the coffee shop, kid's schools, diner---general talk in my neck of the woods is a smorgasbord of the usual celeb/weather thing. And why?

Not just because none of this impacts anyone directly (certainly not as directly as this, which affects everyone that breathes, namely everyone alive), but in reality, because the Republican Noise Machine's ceasleless elevation of every Obama falter/failure to a matter of the utmost urgency (requiring Obama's removal) has rendered the public and even a fair amount of the blogosphere numb to their unending pounding. Benghazi--a bloody mess of a tragedy that left four Americans dead has actually been called by one of the GOP's most repellant figureheads as more significant than 9/11. Another has called for impeachment. As the same level of outrage never existed during the Bush years (and similar attacks that left 60 people dead), this is transparent nonsense. Not to mention the hearings themselves over Benghazi, which deliberately leave out testimony from any key players that might deviate off script.

Of greater importance would be the IRS and AP scandals. But even these are revealed to be borderline ridiculous--the IRS didn't single out only Tea Party groups and the AP's claim of political persecution is no more than an attempt to deflect a legitmate inquiry into a serious security breach. Let's get real: Using the IRS to persecute one's opponents is serious beyond serious--but when the campaign finance laws have been upended, the IRS making legitimate inquiries into an organization's status is to be expected.

The real issue at hand here is that for over 20 years, the Republican Party has molehilled into mountains every story that they thought would sway public opinion. And it tends to crest at the same time as well--right after a Democratic incumbent shocks them by trouncing a challenger, as was also the case in 1996. Never mind that the kitchen sink was thrown at both Clinton and Obama, whose policies themselves could barely be described as genuinely progressive, the only thing that mattered was wrecking their approval ratings in time for midterms or for the next presidential election--and as the Democrats gained seats in 1998 and their dreadful candidate outpolled the Republican in the popular vote in 2000, it really doesn't work.

But they'll cry wolf forever, because at this point "conservative politics" are a lucrative racket. And by playing this bait and switch game, the public tunes out even the things that are critical to them. So, "Benghazi" and the others replace "ACORN" or "Jeremiah Wright" for a spell and then roll back into the sea of noise like so many barking seals. But as the media lock that existed 15 some years ago disappears, these stories will hopefully carry less gravity in the future and pass along with the embittered folks whose panic over cultural changes has turned them into easy marks. Can't come fast enough for me.

Why is the SF housing market "positive?"

tim — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:32:59 +0000

It's been a long, long time since anyone said that traffic is terrific. When there are too many cars on the road, it's considered bad, not healthy -- even if the boom in single-occupant auto travel is a sign of a recovering economy and lots of job creation.

So why do newspaper reports still talk about a "positive market trend" when home prices reach levels that no middle-class people can ever afford? Why does the Chronicle run a quote like this ...

Steve Berkowitz, CEO of online listing company Move Inc., said the region "is seeing a real stabilization and a really positive market trend. There is a very solid market in all the Bay Area counties."

... without any indication that soaring housing prices are bad for most people who want to live in the area, bad for businesses, particularly small businesses, that have trouble paying employees enough to afford to live near where they work, bad for the environment (when people have to move further and further from their jobs to find affordable housing) and generally bad for the region?

Yes, it's good to see that people who were underwater on their homes are getting back into the black. But for the most part, what we're seeing is the affordability of homes soar way beyond the reach of the vast majority of people who work in San Francisco. That's not "terrific." That's terrifying.

Your 2013 Nasty Pig leather fetish club-streetwear lookbook is here

marke — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:09:32 +0000

Beloved former SF club denizen, fast-forward stylist, and king of fresh Frankie Sharp -- who basically won New York in March -- has teamed up with director Lil Internet and hot-hot-heat fetishwear producer Nasty Pig to melt our screens.

Here's the IamNastyPig summer lookbook video, just dropped. We would like all of these, plz. Including the wave-splashed retro-boxing/board shorts. Also this: