KARAOKE IN THE BAY
Whether you do it in private, public, or broken Japanese, chances are that if you live in the Bay Area, you have done it—karaoke, that is. In San Francisco, karaoke is a way of (night)life. Whether you are goth or gospel, Bay Area stages have a place for you to make some music. Here is an insider’s guide to the melodious world of SF karaoke.

THE DIVE BAR: BUTTER
Every Sunday, down a brew and belt out some Journey, Garth Brooks, or Tom Petty at this trailer park–themed sing-shack. Friendly regulars from SoMa/Mission will sing along between chowing down on Frito pies and fried Twinkies.

Neighborhood: SoMa
Food: Mostly edible.
The menu includes childhood haunts like Beanie Weenies, SpaghettiOs, Twinkies, and tater tots.
Liquor: Yes, full bar. Specialty cocktails include a vodka-and–grape juice drink.
Signature Style: Beers and ballads.
Tip: Get there before 9 on Sunday. Over-requested songs have a penalty fee (yes, that means “Don’t Stop Believin’.”)

THE PRO BAR: THE MINT
Every night, karaoke pros conjure up Tina, Janice, and Whitney in front of a critical crowd that would make Simon Cowell sweat. Oh, you didn’t get through the first round of American Idol? Get off the stage.

Neighborhood: Hayes Valley
Food: None inside, but the sushi restaurant next door will deliver to your barstool.
Liquor: Yes, full bar.
Signature Style: Drinking divas.
Tip: Get there early, and listen up for your name. When you don’t hit the stage right when he calls you, the KJ doesn’t think twice about moving on to the next star.

THE LOCAL’S BAR: BOW BOW COCKTAIL LOUNGE
Any night of the week, Chinese grandmas throw dice on the bar while hipster tourists sulkily Instagram mystery cocktails; but in the end, the old and young sing together on a whiskey-soaked stage.

Neighborhood: Chinatown
Food: Peanuts, pretzels, pistachios, and sometimes popcorn.
Liquor: Yes, full bar. Momma Candy, the “mother” of the bar, takes everyone in like family and might buy you a shot. Signature
Style: Chinese whiskey and blackout duets.
Tip: Crowded on the weekends.

THE WHOLE PACKAGE: YAMASHO
Lock yourself up with a group of friends and sing like no one can hear you... because they can’t. Late-night private rooms, made-to-order sushi, excellent song selection, and plenty of sake? Welcome to karaoke luxury.

Neighborhood: Tenderloin
Food: Excellent Japanese cuisine and karaoke room/sushi combos.
Liquor: No. Beer, wine, and sake.
Signature Style: Sake and J-pop.
Tip: Book a reservation for large groups.

THE SWANKY BAR: FESTA
Dapper gents and foxy ladies pay a little extra to sing on Festa’s glitzy stage decorated with the city’s skyline. Cozy up in a booth, and watch the show. With over 80,000 songs in five languages, it never gets dull.

Neighborhood: Japantown
Food: No, but lots of Japanese food nearby.
Liquor: Yes, full bar.
Signature Style: Smooth martinis do gown easy, and suddenly everyone sound like a star.
Tip: Songs are $2 a pop.

THE TRAVELING CAPTAIN: DJ PURPLE
The karaoke DJ prides himself in loud music, seamless song transitions, and getting his crowd dancing. Also, if he sees a singer struggling, he’ll jump in with a saxophone or sing along himself.

Neighborhood: All over town
Signature Style: Sayonara, Celine Dion! DJ Purple has curated his signature “Pink Books” with club hits that will turn the crowd into your backup dancers.
Tip: DJ Purple is out at Tupelo in North Beach each Tuesday, Make-Out Room in the Mission on the second and fourth Mondays of each month, and Slate in the Mission every Thursday.

FEEL-GOOD FOOD
Dining out in the Bay Area is usually an act of indulgence. I mean, who else is benefiting from you maxing out your credit card at Nopa or guiltily pleasuring yourself with a late-night Super Burrito—extra sour cream, ya’ll!

It is a rare moment when the decision to dine out can feed your soul, your stomach, and help out a worthy cause at the same time. Old Skool Cafe, a supper club and nonprofit in Hunter’s Point, provides this special moment.

Old Skool is a youth-run restaurant and job-training center for young adults in the Bay Area. Started by former corrections officer Teresa Goines, the cafe provides formerly incarcerated and at-risk youth with a legal way to make money, develop marketable job skills, and become part of a supportive community. Also, they whip up a mean gumbo.

Goines thought up the cafe during her seven years in youth gang prevention. After seeing the un-ending cycle of repeat offenders, she knew the system wasn’t working and wanted to be part of the change. “I asked what they needed—it was jobs and families.”

Goal in mind, Goines set out to create a place that provided a variety of job skills as well as job tenure. Many job-training programs, Goines found, offered skills but no experience, which led to unemployment, which led to the solace of gangs—repeat.

Goines’s model is different; it’s sustainable. At Old Skool Cafe, celebrity chefs conduct cooking classes and volunteers help with odd tasks, but the day-to-day business falls on the youth. Everything from recruiting the paid talent to creating a seasonal menu is in the hands of the young staff to deliver an amazing dining experience, and this crew definitely delivers.

The experience is one of an elegant 1940s supper club. Red booths fill the dimly lit dining room. Servers dressed in bow ties and suspenders mill around as a jazz band plays on the stage below. At any point, talented waitresses might join the jazz band for a soulful rendition of “Fever.”

Currently, two co-chefs, Daniel Bermudez and Jordan Ramsey, head the kitchen, cooking up dependable delights like collard greens, macaroni and cheese, and sweet potato pie as well as some Old Skool Cafe originals.

Sweet potato fries are a must. Dusted with spicy Cajun seasoning and sugar, they only get better when dipped in the jalapeño ranch and chipotle aioli sauce. The same goes for Jordan’s Fried Chicken. It is buttermilk-soaked, fried crisp, and then served with garlic mashed potatoes and pickled cucumbers. Another favorite was the gumbo, a smoky bowl of andouille sausage, chicken, and shrimp piled high with sweet Dungeness crab.

One of the best dishes on the menu, the shrimp and grits, was actually a recipe submitted by long-term volunteer Jeffrey Liang. For four years, Liang has dedicated time to everything from managing the website to helping youth staff open their first bank accounts.

Liang isn’t the only smitten volunteer. One man ate at the cafe only once before volunteering his jazz band twice a month. Goines used to get warnings by mail that Old Skool Cafe would never work, but now the messages are from communities asking advice on how to start similar nonprofits. Old Skool is making changes, and people are inspired. Goines now employs 20 at-risk youths who may not have had a chance to work elsewhere. She also contracts an even larger number of youths as paid performers for the restaurant entertainment. Old Skool alumni have already moved on to other restaurants, barber schools, and, most recently, college, so the system is working.

Chances are you’ve heard of (and tasted) the deliciousness of the most incredible fried chicken sandwich on the West Coast, known to many as Bakesale Betty. If not, well, what the hell are you waiting for?

Imagine taking a bite of a freshly baked torpedo roll with a healthy serving of the most juicy breaded chicken you’ve ever had in a bed of a deliciously spicy coleslaw—a mixture of cabbage, red onions, jalapeños, olive oil, and vinaigrette. Now imagine how sweet the victory of having this sandwich on hand would feel after your jaw drops upon seeing the never-ending line of admirers, all eager to get a white baggy in exchange for $10 to eat it on the sidewalk of Temescal or on one of the clever vintage ironing boards–turned-tables alongside the restaurant. Some sandwich joints may disappoint, with hype that’s just, well, hype. Not Bakesale Betty! It’s totally worth the wait and is even good when it’s cold. There’s no fuss to the menu: you get either a chicken sandwich or a chicken sandwich with some homemade cookies and a homemade lemonade or bottled drink. There’s hot sauce, but that’s about the only alteration you can make.

Bakesale Betty recently closed its second location on Broadway to focus on its original location and ensure that the product stays up to par. But one thing is for sure: Once you’ve gotten a taste of Bakesale Betty, you’ll be back for more!

5098 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA Open daily, 10:30 a.m.–2 p.m. bakesalebetty.com

Drive through an underwater tunnel, and you’ll be transported to a town chock-full of the charms of old Americana. Welcome to Alameda! One of our finds in this installation of Yonder SF will excite the child in everyone. In this quaint island just a bridge away from San Francisco is the largest collection of vintage pinball machines dating back to 1897 on display and several from the ’30s through the ’90s that are still operational and available for you to play with for as long as your fingers can stand it. Welcome to the Pacific Pinball Museum. At $15 for an unlimited pass, you can savor in the nostalgia of simpler video games that rivals today’s mobile-phone games. Play pinball machines depicting your favorite celebrities like Dolly Parton, movies like Tron, and TV shows like Charlie’s Angels—or, if you fancy, pinup-style pinball machines like Cover Girl and more. There are 90 playable machines in total! They’ve got woodrails, wedgeheads, and clear pinball machines—what more could one ask for? Want to throw your own friendly tournament? Rent a room at this fantastic organization that helps preserve the history and the glory of pinball playing.

The Pacific Pinball Museum is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion and preservation of one of America’s great pastimes.

1510 Webster St., Alameda, CA Weekdays: Tuesday–Thursday, 2—9 p.m. | Friday, 2 p.m.–12 midnight Weekends: Saturday, 11 a.m.—12 midnight | Sunday, 11 a.m.–9 p.m. pacificpinball.org

There are many recording labels in San Francisco, but one stands out by combining their business of music into a multifaceted artist hub. Om Studios in the Dogpatch has been a source of great electronic music hits way before electronic music even broke into the mainstream with artists like Groove Armada, Blackbird Blackbird and Mushroom Jazz Mixtapes.

Spreading dance music to an eager public, Om Records is one of the U.S.’s largest independent labels. Since its inception in 1995, Om has grown with a variety of sub-labels whose genres range from deep house to hip hop. Today, Om Studios’ headquarters serves as a music venue, private events space, and art space with six electronic music imprints as well as a booking agency, and events facilitator. Their garage space has also been known to house a pop-up record shop featuring beats, eats, and coffee.

The studio itself is a bright and well-designed space perfect for gatherings. With multiple skylights, comfortable seating, and a split-level entertaining area complete with bar, Om Studios is fun for day or night. Local artist Erik Otto runs their art curation, creating a synergy between the visual and the audio.

Tre Burt first picked up a guitar when his older brother Jason, who was in music, would take him to work. Teaching himself to play along the way, Tre would initially “whisper-talk” his songs, and as he gained more self-confidence, it eventually turned into singing. He has now been performing for about seven years, busking all over the city and in the East Bay for the last two. The public, as many locals know, is a tough teacher when you are trying to command the attention of strangers to give you some money for enjoying your music.

Burt is from Sacramento and moved to San Francisco for school, but he wasn’t quite sure what he wanted out of college. He was much more interested in music, so he quit school for a job at the airport and has made music his career ever since. His band, Tre Burt and a Big Gust of Wind, has been practicing for the past few months, with Jordan Jo on guitar, Tim Aristil on drums, and Tim Viker on stand-up bass; their first show is coming up soon.

Carried by waves of dancing guitar strums, his slightly raspy voice speaks directly to the listener’s emotional core, narrating poetic stories about life and relationships. With a smile that invokes happiness, he is a San Francisco beacon shining bright when found humbly busking on BART.

The Magical Life and Mysterious Art of Michael Musika

The tremendous story of Michael Musika and his project Spells started long ago in a valley—and eventually found its way to a mountaintop.

Fourteen years ago, a young man found himself at a crossroads. Faced with a host of personal dilemmas, he decided to visit an old flame in Colorado. “I knew it was a bad idea, but I did it anyway,” he says.

When the encounter went sour, he was without a place to stay. “I wound up sleeping under a bridge with a motorcycle rally passing overhead. It was snowing, even though it was June.”

When a friend living across the state heard about his predicament, he quickly came to his aid offering him a place to stay and a moment to collect himself and decide on his next move. With a flight already booked to San Francisco from Denver, Musika decided to hitchhike from his friend’s home in Southern Colorado.

He was not having the best of luck catching a ride, so when he noticed a timber truck pull into a nearby McDonald’s lot, he climbed into the back. The ride went along smoothly. After a while, however, the truck took a junction in the opposite direction of where Musika needed to go. He decided to jump ship.

“I rolled down a steep cliff and wound up in a valley all alone, very late at night.” When he lifted himself up, he was face to face with the wild eyes of a coyote. Stunned and moved by the chance encounter, it became immediately clear to him that a moment of sea change had arrived.

“When this animal came up to me, I was filled with this warmth. I experienced an epiphany of sorts. I was ready to go on with my life.” It was this moment that provided the focal point for the earnest and magnificent undertaking of Spells—the album and the book.

The remarkable ambition involved in a concept album with a fictional-book compendium can’t be overstated. What’s especially striking is how strong both mediums stand on their own, even though the contents draw from the same well of experiences and possess the same artistic inspiration. Somehow each medium transforms the material into something entirely unique. There is also a synesthetic quality to Spells; even as the author introduces the book, he notes how a film adaptation of the work might help to clarify the literary effort: “Many passages are written from a cinematic point of view,” Musika writes. Illustrations and detailed maps are provided to further contextualize the work.

The music of Spells is stunning and unforgettable. With Musika’s trademark blend of rapid-fire lyricism and richly textured instrumentation—complete with the integration of atmospheric sounds, bells, and shakers—the songs seem to draw as much from outlaw country as they do from romantic-era lieder.

The fluidity and scope of Spells inevitably draws us back to the author of these remarkably similar, and yet remarkably different, works of art. While Musika remains precise when asked about his process, he avoids committing to a simple definition of his work.

“I was trying to meditate on dynamics in my life and my own family, and to see if I could record what I felt was beautiful in the world. So much in music and cultural in general is super-disposable. All the artwork I valued or that helped my life, people put a lot of work into. I wanted to illustrate that art is a craft. All the songs on that record are written about the same feelings or characters or memories, things that I wanted to express gratitude for or bear witness to—or rebel against.”

In the end, what is disarming—and worthy of our attention—is the man as much as it is the work itself: an individual whose art mirrors his life in the most complex and magical of ways.

A DARK AND MYSTERIOUS POWERHOUSE
Emily Jane White hails from Fort Bragg, a small coastal town just a few hours north of San Francisco. It was there, embedded in a misty marine layer and surrounded by woodland, where she started playing the piano in preschool. Her music is a combination of folk and blues that thrusts you into the dark and melancholic places in which she often finds solace herself. “Sadness, darkness, melancholy, sorrow, and pain are as much part of life as happiness and joy,” she says.

As a child, White actually wanted to become an equine veterinarian. She rode horses for nine years, studying dressage and jumping, before she finally started songwriting in her junior year of high school and became interested in psychology, women’s studies, and social work. After attending UC Santa Cruz and living in France for a while, she moved back to the Bay Area, where she still resides, to continue her music career.

White already has a large following in Europe, but she is still searching for a wider audience in the United States, one that is attracted to the blue tone of her music. Until then, her mission is to continue writing and recording songs to inspire listeners. While her work might be perceived as mournful—she certainly sings from an emotionally sad place—it’s here that her music thrives. White has an awareness of worldly impermanence that comes with a soft sadness, which is reflected in her sound and reminds of the Japanese notion of mono no aware (literally “the pathos of things”).

Her deep and full voice combined with a glass-shattering ability to project makes her a vocal powerhouse, yet she is always eager to improve her talent, taking voice lessons with Christa Pfeiffer at Community Music Center. Back when White lived in Fort Bragg, she studied under Marilyn Hagar, an art therapist, and Lynn Kiesewetter, a jazz pianist and singer. Nowadays she studies Alexander Technique with Kari Prindl—the identification and letting go of harmful body habits—and Body-Mind Centering with Sonja Riket at CMC—a very wholesome and conscious approach to movement—both of which she regards as tremendously helpful vocal tools.

White highly recommends listening to Nick Cave’s lecture on the love song to understand the source of her music’s emotional heaviness, and she blames Johnny Cash for some of her exploration of darkness and tragedy. She has taken on quite a few collaborative ventures in the past, one of which was a band called The Diamond Star Halos, for which White wrote all of the songs, with friend Brooke Lober singing backup and Gillian Gibb-Gonzales (The Master Plan, Sweat It Out, The Gibbs, Thugboat) playing drums.

Aside from a new, still-untitled record, White is also involved in an electronic project called Blue Ruin with friends Darwin Meiners and Derek Owen-Doss. While her new solo album is engulfed in a cloud of mystery, she revealed to us that where up until now her music has incorporated a lot of guitar and piano, she is currently working with a new bassist and a drummer. So look forward to more electronic sounds with a lot more percussion, as well as vocal layering, to create different textures.

Follow Emily Jane White emilyjanewhite.com

DANCE TO THE BEAT OF A SWAN
Electro-pop partners John Waters (producer/songwriter) and Ann Yu (vocals/songwriter) form a harmonious union of rhythm and words. Together they create Silver Swans, a rising star in the indie electronic genre. Their smooth, dreamy compositions and hip, swaying beats often induce a serene hysteria, and listening to any track on their latest release would have you believing you’ve reached nirvana.

Yu and Waters started collaborating via email as a casual project, exchanging music and writing materials. She would have a melody or chord structure she wanted to try out, and John would send her a track to work with. Eventually, the two had enough material to compose their first album. With positive reactions from a few of their friends, they decided to give the music industry a try, and after a listen of their sound, you’ll be thankful they did.

Describing Silver Swans’ multifaceted sound would require a mystic to decode with its ever-changing style. However, one thing is for certain: it will make you move in ways you never thought you could. That is, if you’re not already an indie-electro junkie. Silver Swans makes magic by mixing the perfect blend of pop with repetitive patterns and mild exotic synths—nothing that would annoy your ears or damper your mood. Waters and Yu make their music even more immersive with creative videos they co-create with the help of talented friends, using both sampled video reels and original material.

With two albums released already, Silver Swans is on a roll. The band’s latest, Forever, was released early in 2012 and is a gem with songs like “Let It Happen,” reminiscent of a subdued La Roux, and “Meet Me Somewhere Nice” on the new EP Secrets is a pop-dream come true. Silver Swans’s lyrics are playful, with beats that are just the right kind of dance-friendly—it would be hard not to instantly fall in love. We spoke with Ann Yu a bit about the band’s work and influences.

Tell us about your sound. “Our sound is always changing. We’ve been inspired lately by geometry, Com Truise, and analog synths, so that’s seeped into our music quite a bit. Also, we are both private people, so we tend to write for those moments when you’re alone and your energy is more intimate. Cold nights, long summer Sundays, time spent in your head, laying in bed, city walks alone.”

Who are your musical idols? “My idols have always been strong female musicians like Siouxsie, Sade, Enya, and Gwen Stefani. I don’t care what genre of music you come from; there is something to be said for a woman who can be soft yet heard, captivating as an entity, and confident and striking in her ability to touch people. I’m inspired by raw emotion, human touch, hidden feelings, perfect words, friendships, a lover’s confusion, symbols and signs, a long day, city lights, engaging photos, daily hum drums…”

Tell us about your favorite live performance. “We played in New York outside near the river against city lights as the sun was setting; that was both surreal and beautiful. People were seated, and there were cars driving by. It felt like something out of my imagination.”

Whenever you’re in the search of a light mood-enhancer or the perfect album to play for a rainy-day indoor dance party, you can’t lose with Silver Swans.

Follow Silver Swans on Facebook at facebook.com/silverswans, and listen to more of the duo’s songs on Bandcamp: http://silverswans.bandcamp.com.

THE MANY SOUNDS OF BELLS ATLAS
Here arrives a band on the scene with music in tow that is intelligent, diverse, and inspired. You can only parse out some influences—soul, R&B, samba, and the polyrhythms of West African music—but no one characteristic can define the sound in a way that does it justice. The only certainty is that, after listening to East Bay–based Bells Atlas, your ears will thank you for the experience.

Sandra Lawson-Ndu and Doug Stuart began collaborating musically in 2010. “Doug and I started working on songs together as more of a recording project,” Lawson-Ndu says, and their first performances as Bells Atlas featured only themselves: “Starting with just the two of us and a loop pedal, we were able to realize a handful of the songs on our own but were wanting to expand on that sound.”

As she explains, there is an exploratory quality to their composition and performance. By adding guitarist Derek Barber and Geneva Harrison on percussion, they were able to really explore new musical directions. Lawson-Ndu notes that Bells Atlas, as a collective, seeks out a sonic quality with its music that is difficult to pin down but unmistakable.

“As a band, we love challenging ourselves to tap into new sounds, grooves, textures, ways to inspire dance, and realms of emotion,” she says. “We dive into and fully embrace sounds that are at first unusual to the ear but ultimately beautiful.”

Nowhere is this quality more clear than in Bells Atlas’s initial three-song EP, on which each song vibrates with groove and intention. The infectiously repetitive melodies, the intricate and offbeat rhythm section, and the crafted contrast between bright, bouncy guitar riffs and the lyrical timbre of Lawson-Ndu’s vocals all combine to make music that is as danceable as it is contemplative. The songs are pulsing with energy, rich with textured builds and complex layering. The collaborative spirit evidenced in the group’s cohesive arrangements really reflects a band that is interested in drawing music out of symmetry.

Bells Atlas has quickly been embraced by the Bay Area music scene. A packed-house show at Amnesia Bar comes to mind, where a sweaty, danced-out audience was rife with whispers about the new mystery band. Lawson-Ndu notes how collaboration within the musical community, and the growing force of East Bay artistic culture, has positively effected Bells Atlas:

“As a band, just from seeking out new groups to play with, I feel as if we have only just begun to unfold some of the diverse pockets of music in the Bay. There’s a great camaraderie among the musicians making it all happen. Everyone cross-pollinates so much within the music community, and it makes the experience that much richer for everyone involved, whether you’re on the stage or in the audience, listening in. As our audience becomes more and more diverse, we get to see ourselves through the eyes of the varying communities here. There’s an infectious energy that is moving around Oakland, and we believe it’s really exciting and important to be a part of it in an active way.”

The band will be releasing a new single on Jan. 10, as well as a new album in the near future. Based on what has emerged so far, Bells Atlas promises to take us places we never knew we needed to go.

Upcoming Shows 2/8 New Parish w/ Trails and Ways 2/23 2/24 Under Cover Presents Kid A bellsatlas.com

SHIFTING FOCUS: A DECADE OF STRING METAL
The challenge in writing about Judgement Day is deciding which of the band’s incredible qualities to highlight. So let’s start with the basics. First, it’s a string metal band—yes, string metal—which means, in no uncertain terms, that the members use traditional instruments to shred you into oblivion. Second, this band is not just a chance meeting of two incredible players with shared interests. Violinist Anton and cellist Lewis are, as it turns out, brothers.

The Patzner brothers’ work was founded in the musical tradition of their family. Individually, the two players possess an astonishing list of credentials, but of equal importance is the band’s ethos. These guys have been trailblazing the self-starter independent musician ethic for over 10 years—their whole lives, one could say. While no one thing wholly qualifies them, a pattern does emerge: the Patzners are a wellspring of virtuosity. Their collaboration highlights the kind of music and skill that can truly carry a name as final and unequivocal as Judgement Day.

Although they have been performing now for over nine years, Anton and Lewis took diverging musical paths before the inception of their band in its current form.

“Lewis and I grew up in this crazy classical world of private lessons once a week, orchestra rehearsals, recitals, and lots and lots of practicing,” Anton explains. “Our parents are both classical musicians, so they made sure we took it seriously. That’s pretty much what childhood is like for anyone who ends up becoming a professional classical player. Lewis continued on in college, going to conservatory and practicing hard. He’s a pro classical guy now. I went to UC Santa Cruz and partied and played in bluegrass and hip-hop bands. It’s cool that we have that foundation in common but maybe even cooler that we had some different experiences. You can hear all of those different influences on our records.”

In 2003, Anton and Lewis began playing with drummer John Smith. They have since seen their music grow and change over time in a number of dramatic ways. In the beginning, though, they used the term “string metal” to describe their music.

“String metal is a classification we came up with way back in 2003 when we were trying to decide on a web URL,” says Anton. “JudgementDay.com was already taken, and StringMetal.com seemed like a pretty accurate description of what we were doing at the time: fast songs in minor keys with lots of distortion, loud drums, and titles like ‘Seventh Circle,’ ‘Inferno,’ and ‘Pitfires of Hell.’ Since then, I think our music has diversified quite a bit. These days we’re all about bending and blending genres.”

Their most recent album, Polar Shift, was released in July 2012 and is a signpost of the band’s evolution. “The biggest difference is that the new album is about 90 percent unplugged,” says Anton. “I love putting my violin through pedals and amps and experimenting with tones, but it was a fun challenge to try to make an album with just acoustic violin and cello and drums. It’s the first full-length we’ve made where I don’t think everyone is going to be asking us, ‘Who’s playing guitar?’

“It’s pretty crazy what happens when three dudes play music together for 10 years,” says Anton. “You start to be able to read each other’s minds, especially live. I think we are probably the only violin/cello/drums power trio that has been playing together for so long. It’s an exciting frontier to be on.” An exciting frontier, indeed, and one we hope to be following Judgement Day along for many years to come.

HOMEWORK AND HARMONY
For the last four years, beachy surf-pop outfit The She’s—an acronym for the quartet’s first names—has been San Francisco’s “high school band.” But as bassist Samantha “Sami” Perez, singer Hannah Valente, guitarist Eva Treadway, and drummer Sinclair Riley approach the final semester of their senior year, they are trying to leave behind the “high school” bit.

But, though much of their success they owe to pure pluck—doing all their own booking, approaching big bands at merch tables, and eventually opening for the likes of Morning Benders, La Sera, Tijuana Panthers, and even Girls at The Fillmore—for now, they are very much still teenagers: simultaneously sincere and sarcastic, and funny without meaning to be. We’re not exactly dealing with rebellious Joan Jett dropout-types here.

The She’s have been friends since kindergarten and put the band together in 2007 at a Jewish summer camp. Valente is the team captain of varsity badminton, enjoys painting her nails, and founded her school’s poetry club with Treadway. Riley’s favorite class is biology; she loves dying her hair, doodling, and rock climbing; and as far as long-term goals, she says, “Hannah and I are gonna open a salon in the Sunset where I’m gonna do hair and she’s gonna do nails, and then anything else anyone will pay money for, we’ll also make, like bows and cards, or maybe we can sell them poetry.”

Perez excels at math and physics and when she grows up wants to be either a music engineer or a princess. “It’s a childhood fantasy I never grew out of,” says Perez, who at a recent school talent show used the pink, flower-shaped guitar she got when she was 7. “Did everyone laugh at you?” asks Treadway, a TV lover and pop-music fan who says she’s disappointed by Taylor Swift’s new album.

To a slightly older generation, The She’s are “cool.” They shop for vintage clothes, they listen to The Beach Boys, and they dressed up like characters from Freaks & Geeks for Halloween. But their young peers don’t quite get it. Self-described as “shy, quiet, and antisocial,” they don’t have a lot of other friends at school, and while incredibly precocious, the giggly quartet could still be described as cute, adorable, and wholesome—adjectives they’d like to steer away from as they reinvent their post–high school identity.

Luckily, their (albeit older) musician friends see them as something of equals. “The word high school merely defines their current age,” says A B & The Sea frontman Koley O’Brien, for whom they’ve sung backups both on stage and at Different Fur Studios. “Singing in perfect harmony, they’re one of the tightest local bands to watch live, because they are best friends who love music, and that’s something audiences can feel.”“That’s why we like the music community so much,” Perez says. “They really don’t care what age you are or if you’re an all-girl band; you can always fit in.”“We just happen to be all girls,” Treadway says. “It wasn’t a premeditated thing.” But it was enough to catch the attention of Women’s Audio Mission, a nonprofit that advances women in the audio industry. There they made their first full-length, Then It Starts to Feel Like Summer. “Our album was one of the first albums to be written, recorded, produced, mixed, and mastered by only women the whole way through,” says Treadway. “That was a really exciting thing to be a part of.” But while their gender has garnered some good opportunities, it comes with disadvantages. Unfortunately, the You’re pretty good… for girls attitude isn’t lost on them. “People aren’t always expecting us to be good,” Valente says of the “backward compliments” that stream in after every performance.

Being in high school means that weekday shows are challenging, the girls can often be found backstage after sound-check doing their homework, and touring is out of the question. But with plans to put off college next year, greener (post–high school) pastures lie within reach. “As we grow older and get new fans, they’re not going to think about us the same way our initial ones did,” Riley says. “We’re just gonna have to rely more on our skill as the stereotypes fade away,” Valente adds. “Like being young, and, well, I guess we’re not gonna ever not be girls.”

THE GROWING POPULARITY OF VINYL RECORD STORES
Half a decade ago, record stores were going out of business fast. As digital downloads became the medium of choice, the future of physical music looked bleaker than ever. Even large-chain retailers like Tower Records went the way of the dodo, and it seemed compact discs were all but obsolete. And then, slowly but surely, sales went up again, but it wasn’t CDs that were selling—it was vinyl records. In San Francisco, several local record stores have become hubs for vinyl collectors all over the Bay Area.

Aquarius Records Neighborhood: The Mission
Specialty: Everything

Somewhat of a legacy, this Valencia Street staple originally opened in the Castro in 1970, right beside Harvey Milk’s camera shop. Current owners Andee Connors and Allan Horrocks worked at Aquarius for years before purchasing it outright in 2003. The guys loved the feel of the store and the idea of bringing fairly unknown music to the masses. “Our trademark thing here is all our reviews that you see around the shop, and all that information, it goes out in emails and it’s archived on our website.”

While vinyl is definitely abundant at Aquarius, it’s not the sole focus. Cassette tapes, for instance, have been a huge seller in recent months, which Horrocks believes boils down to buyers’ personal relationships with the music. People want to consume albums how they heard them first, or how they heard them best. “Some [customers] are buying vinyl, but some are buying CDs and cassette tapes. … People want to have this totem of this thing that they love. People can have that feeling about vinyl, but they can have the feeling about CDs.” Connors agrees: “There are pros and cons to all formats.”

Overall, Connors and Horrocks don’t view the digital age of music as a threat, but rather as just another way to consume music. “The Internet has been a great thing for our business,” says Horrocks. “And all of us here use iPods, and all of us download stuff. There’s nothing black and white about it.”

Explorist International Neighborhood: The Mission
Specialties: International, Jazz

Nestled among the countless taquerias and liquor stores on 24th Street is Explorist International, a record store started by music lover and musician Chris Dixon. Dixon moved to San Francisco in 1997 to work for an independent label distributor and continued employment in the music business for several years. “I periodically went on tour with my band, with somebody else’s band, and started a few DJ nights, as well.” He opened Explorist in October 2010, the week the Giants won the World Series.

The team at Explorist doesn’t think vinyl is making a comeback; to them, it’s always been the best way to listen to music. Store associate Chris Rolls explains it like this: “There’s nothing tactile about digital music, nothing permanent.” For Rolls, shopping for music should be fun, and it should be personal. “Our records are very curated. We have a great collection of international music and jazz, but we also have Americana and blues and some great contemporary records.” Rolls feels a strong connection to Explorist, partly because of his prior work experience in the industry and partly because of nostalgia. “I grew up coming into a store like this,” he says. “It just feels good.” And Explorist wants its customers to feel good too. It hosts a live monthly in-store music event, Free Jazz Fridays, that’s open to the public.

Rooky Ricardo’s Neighborhood: Lower Haight
Specialties: Soul, 45s

If you’re an avid vinyl collector in San Francisco, then chances are something in your collection is from Rooky’s. The shop and its owner, Dick Vivian, are well known among audiophiles in and around the Bay Area. Vivian has definitely noticed the resurgence of vinyl. “It happened about five years ago. My customers were mainly collectors before that.” Now he says it’s rare to have anyone over 30 in his shop, and he credits a lot of the popularity to some of the larger shops in the area. “Amoeba made it cool for everybody,” he says.

And it’s not just a San Francisco phenomenon. “Last year was the first year that new vinyl outsold new CDs,” says Vivian. People are getting excited about vinyl again, and with events like National Record Store Day and Black Friday Record Store Day, vinyl popularity will only continue to increase. “That last Record Store Day was the busiest day I ever had,” Dick explains. A recent remodel brought all-new listening stations to the shop, and Dick urges people to experience the store for themselves. “Come in, listen, and discover,” he says.

Move, B*tch, Get Out the Way:
The Ins and Outs of CONCERT ETIQUETTE

The San Francisco concert scene is unlike anywhere else. Combine the intimacy of smaller venues like The Independent and Great American Music Hall with a local appreciation for everything from popular music, hip-hop, and indie to your dog’s remixed recordings through a megaphone, and you’ve got Bay Area concert bonanza. But whether you’re a champion concert-goer or an amateur stoked that your very, very, very little-known favorite band is playing a venue at all, there are some things that we regulars would like for you to avoid doing. Seriously, folks. Just don’t:

Record the whole thing: We get it; you want to remember this. But your extra-tall iPhone 5 screen is blocking my view and distracting everyone from the actual show. Rule of thumb: It’s OK to take a few pictures with your smartphone; it’s not OK to film and/or photograph an entire song, let alone an entire set. The 10 views on your YouTube profile aren’t worth it.

Complain about the opener: All right, so you only got here early for a better view of the headliner. Stop whining. This is your opportunity to grow as a person. And some of us actually want to listen to the show.

Push: Yes, the musician is toward the front. No, I don’t want to let you by; that’s why I’m standing here. Do everyone (and security) a favor, and keep your hands to yourself. If a few feet is really that important to you, then skip the bathroom break.

Sing into my ear: When I know you know the lyrics, you’re doing it wrong. Stop.

Wave your drink in the air: This is not just a bad idea for me, who you’re spilling your drink on, but you, too, since you’re losing valuable alcohol when spill said drink on me. Scream song suggestions: The artist has a set list for a reason. If they want your input, they will, in actuality, ask for it.

So you’re new. That’s cool—we’ve all been there. Here are a few things to remember that will make everyone’s night easier: Get there early. You’ll want to soak up the experience... and find a good spot.

Have your drink in hand before the set. Or be prepared to lose your spot.

Don’t bring things you don’t want to coat-check. I’m not sure what’s worse—holding all your stuff for three hours or paying $5 for someone else to, so pack light.

Don’t change into the concert shirt you bought. It’s tacky, and people will know you’re new. Have fun. Concerts are rarely regrettable (unlike some attendees), so enjoy it... respectfully.

GILDED PERFECTION
Tattoos and piercings are art forms as old as mankind itself. Used as vivid visuals of expression, tattoos and piercings have been etched and attached to human skin for over 5,000 years to mark social status, convey beliefs, and even act as healing amulets. It wasn’t until a few hundred years ago that tattoos and piercings became personal and/or fashion statements more than ways to scare away enemies.

With that new purpose, it isn’t hard to see how the music world and tattoos/piercings formed a lasting bond deeper than any ink can seep or needle can pierce. Music is a form of self-expression, tattoos and piercings are forms of self-expression, so the three are often grouped together as accessories for the other, all shouting to the world, “This is who I am!”

Rose Gold’s Marie McCarthy—the lovely firecracker who also owns apparel shop Fiat Lux in the Castro—decided long ago that tattooing was a major interest for her. “I’ve always been really into the industry, and when I got back to SF … my direction in life seemed to point back toward the industry.” Her drive to share her devotion to ink led her to opening her first tattoo parlor, Soul Patch in the Haight. As time went on, however, she decided to cut ties with her investor and open Rose Gold’s on her own.

“I was two blocks down the street before I walked into our current space and signed the lease before the day was out. You never see exposed brick and a 14-foot skylight in SF! The location was also convenient for my previous clients to find me, and the neighborhood had supported me for 10-plus years.”

In SF especially, where everyone from preschool teachers to preachers has at least one tattoo or piercing, it’s easy to see why devoted locals and traveling musicians alike call on the stellar Rose Gold’s staff and artists (each with over 20 years of experience).

The Bay’s music scene in particular certainly provides a steady—and varied—client base. Music-inspired tattoos—“the most popular is musical notes, microphones, and that heart/bass/treble clef design,” says McCarthy—are a top choice at the parlor. There’s even a current bet at Rose Gold’s on who can do the best vintage microphone. But the connection is deeper than that.

“A tattoo artist recently elaborated on the creative similarities between creating music and creating tattoos,” says McCarthy. “There will always be a connection and a crossover. Almost every tattoo is a collaboration, and we tattoo all kinds of musicians, from newbies to huge stars. … Music and tattooing are both intense forms of art and creativity. You are pushing yourself to the boundaries. I really feel that, more often than not, it is the most expressive way to celebrate the moment and one’s individuality. It allows you to show the world that you’re singular and that you believe in your own ideas.”

Still, Marie wants Rose Gold’s to make tattooing and piercing accessible for people who perhaps don’t know as much about the practice but are interested. “I want the experience itself to be amazing, not just the tattoo.”

Tattoos and piercings tell your story to the world through ink and metal, just as any musician plays and sings theirs, so be sure to think carefully about what you want your message to say… and be sure to spell-check.

Visit Rose Gold’s Tattoo and Piercing 1157 Masonic San Francisco

FABRIC AFTERLIFE
There’s a magical place on Valencia Street where textiles long forgotten come to life in styles fit for today—a place where commemorative concert shirts find a place to be stars once again. That place is Afterlife Boutique.

Danielle Teller was a student and a jewelry designer who enjoyed the process of reconstruction while studying for her degree. She and her brother, Luke, a successful poker player, both armed with a passion for vintage and thrift shopping, came together and started Afterlife. In 2009 they considered opening an online store to sell loads of vintage shirts they’d collected, but as soon as they saw the potential for a storefront—and as the demand for Danielle’s jewelry line grew—Afterlife Boutique was born.

Today, the boutique thrives on the busy corridor of Valencia, selling more than just vintage concert tees: top labels, handmade jewelry, and, yes, renewed styles from vintage fabric are also available. “Part of the drive behind us wanting to own our own store was the freedom. We also loved the thrill of the hunt and, even more so, to see the enjoyment and excitement other people shared for our finds. It is very rewarding to hear from the people who know and love our shop. Our customers drive us to be better buyers, and we love them all,” says Danielle.

Afterlife’s mission is to provide people with items that are truly one of a kind: “unique and timeless,” as Danielle put it. With vintage dresses at $28, vintage heels for $22, and reconstructed cardigans at $32, the store is constantly expanding its inventory. Brands like Cheap Monday complement the look and style of the more vintage finds, comprised of brands like Filson, Pendleton, Woolrich, Red Wings, Levi’s, Lee, and countless other classics.

With the Teller siblings’ keen eye for design, the interior of the store reflects the style and substance of the wares they sell, from the use of salvaged wood and Turkish patchwork doors to the borrowed antique jukebox gracing the entrance. In the middle is a gorgeous display case holding Danielle’s jewelry line, Adoura Démodé. Her classic pieces are a thing of beauty that all started with reconstructing found objects. “I would take apart vintage costume jewelry and take a certain element and rework it with new chains and findings to make them relevant for today’s style. Each piece is more or less one of a kind. … We also started a sterling silver line: Afterlife. It is all fabricated in San Francisco by my dear friend and wonderful silver smith Amelia Large,” shared Danielle.

But beyond all the wonderful items the store has to offer, any shopper would find themselves drawn to the vintage tees hanging from old silk spools. Danielle let us in on the inspiration for the musical aspect of their clothing selection: “My brother and I have always had a strong passion for music. He had been collecting mostly music T-shirts for about seven years prior to us opening the store and always got a thrill that these shirts had a story behind them. The more it was worn, loved, idolized, and collected, the more we wanted it. Some items we have were loved and lived in so much you can see it. They are worn to perfection. At least, that is how I see it. Each item has a story to tell, a significance that links a period of time with emotions and ideals that were either personal or popular.”

PICTURED SHIRTS

1969 Woodstock perhaps the greatest concert ever put on. This rare T- shirt was a bootleg print sold at the show before selling shirts and other mechandise really took off eight years later.

Late 70’s handmade Grateful Dead T-Shirt. The process this shirt was printed is unkown but it is not silk screened and is not exactly tye dyed. the artwork on the shirt is truly amazing and intricate.

1980 Clash Sandinista Tour shirt. NYC show.Silk screened. Much rarer than the later more popular Combat Rock Tour tees from 1982 and the 1984 Out of Control Tour tee which were both printed on a much more massive scale.

AFTERLIFE BOUTIQUE 988 Valencia St., San Francisco

A NOT-SO-FOGGY NOTION
Whether it’s an old tennis racket cover snipped and sewn into a wallet or an abandoned Richmond District storefront transformed into a bastion of handmade goods, craftsman-turned-shopkeeper Alissa Anderson has a knack for making something lovely out of something nobody seems to want.

The seed for Foggy Notion, Anderson’s year-old shop and studio space in the Richmond, was planted more than a decade ago. Originally from the Boston area, Anderson made a name here selling reconstructed T-shirts at local fashion events—before the days of now-standard San Francisco craft fairs. Ten years later, it was time to turn her online Etsy store into a tangible reality. For six of the eight years she has lived in the Richmond, the storefront of a mini mall–type building across from her home had been vacant. “I was scoping it out, staring through the windows, and an elderly man who turned out to be the landlord shuffled up and jokingly asked if I wanted to rent the space,” Anderson recalls. The rent was so reasonable that she immediately signed up for a class at Workshop called “How to Open a Brick and Mortar Business” with retail consultant and Rare Device founder Rina Tom. “A lot of people in the class were saying things like, ‘I want to open a coffee shop someday,’” Anderson continues. “I said, ‘I need to open a store in three weeks.’”

One month later, Foggy Notion opened. Slightly off the beaten path of grocery store–heavy Clement Street, it still copes with the challenges of its location and context. Many customers remark that they “wouldn’t expect a shop like this to be in the Richmond.” As Anderson wonders aloud what “like this” means, one look around the 280-square-foot room reveals the shop’s mission statement: Most things here used to be something else.

Mason jar soap dispensers and Pendleton blanket iPad covers sit alongside items from Anderson’s Mitten Maker line: Pampero Rum bags–turned–change purses, antique military duffels–turned–shopping totes, even purses made from old furniture. Anderson is a deerstalker, of sorts: “I go hunting for leather couches.”

Of the eco-friendly, handmade, and wild-crafted ilk, items from beloved local lines blend seamlessly with the repurposed goods. Lining the flea market–sourced wooden boxes Anderson uses for display are lip balms by Captain Blankenship, indigo-dyed totes by Job & Boss, minimalist jewelry by Valerian, air plants by Keith Aderholdt, essential oils by Juniper Ridge, body care by Nieves, plus records from the vinyl collection of her partner, Vetiver frontman Andy Cabic.

To create a backdrop aesthetically aligned with the shop’s carefully curated selection, Anderson enlisted skilled friends to remodel it into a microcosm of San Francisco’s DIY landscape. Jordan Levantini of Last Ave Amps installed vintage pendant lights and knocked down display walls to increase window visibility. Local builder Drew Bennett (you can see his work at The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen and Goorin Bros. hat shop) used recycled wood to make the counter, cabinets, and a modular shelving system that can be moved around for display variation. Wanting to create “a natural vibe” in the bare-bones space, Anderson and Bennett replaced all the tired acoustic tiles in the ceiling with plywood.

Now filled with leather, wool, soaps, and candles, the once-empty shop’s aroma welcomes passersby into a warm, unexpected sanctuary. Many vacant spaces are still available in the building, bursting with potential. Anderson hopes to pay forward the inspiration she got from the opening of Park Life Gallery and attract more local artisans, craftsmen, curators, shop-owners, builders, and dreamers to turn this space into a Richmond District DIY-shopping mecca.

FOGGY NOTION 275 6th Ave Ste. 101, San Francisco

IN A SNAP
Photographing live performances is no easy feat. Even in the dawn of digital photography and high-res smartphone cameras, capturing an unforgettable moment can end with a split-second snap of the camera and a blurred image of the now-missed moment. Many event photographers have honed the skill of capturing these moments with years of practice, and for the past 20 years, Dan Dion, one of San Francisco’s premier performing-art photographers, has been the man behind the lens capturing world-famous musicians at the historic Fillmore.

You cannot even begin to imagine the collection of photographs Dion has in his arsenal. Thankfully, you can see it in person at Madrone Art Bar, where he has opened his library of photos from the two-decade span of his career at The Fillmore and other SF music venues.

What started as work in his girlfriend’s father’s studio as a high school senior portrait photographer turned into a career many would kill for. He’s photographed thousands musicians and comedians backstage, in dressing rooms, and during live performances.

How does one start a career as a live-event photographer? For Dion, it was simple. In 1994, when the historic Fillmore reopened after being destroyed by the ’89 quake, he approached the folks at the revived venue and offered to photograph the performers at the historic spot, where legends the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, Miles Davis, Carlos Santana, and countless others have performed. Dion always had impeccable timing, a trait you can witness in each act he’s photographed, each moment he’s captured in the blink of an eye.

One photograph stands out… a moment he captured in a beautiful blue wash of Shane MacGowan of the band The Pogues between songs, his faint image along with the ambers from his cigarette (pictured right). “Virtually everything that I am showing, I wanted the shots to be good on their own. I don’t want it to just be of a famous person. While I have plenty of shots of famous big names, I like the photos that have something more,” shares Dion. Like the Pogues photo and ones of BB King, Emmylou Harris, U2, and Depeche Mode, Dion captures what he calls a “Dionysian moment.” All display that same style, character, and moment. “It is when they stop performing at you … when it’s not part of the ‘show’ and just feeling the music—that’s the shot.”

Dan Dion also treasures backstage opportunities to shoot with the artists either before or after their performances, like in his iconic photos of great artists like Beck with his signature look, Rufus Wainwright waiting backstage, and John Lee Hooker behind the bar. One could consider Dion the luckiest man alive, having been in the presence of music’s greatest. Always professional and rarely phased by the immense personalities he shoots, Dion shares that his craft comes before fanfare. His other love, photographing stand-up comedians, illustrates how he is playing with the celebrity image. “I like it when my rock stars look like comedians and my comedians look like rock stars.”

Photos: Beck, Rufus Wainright, Shane MacGowan, and John Lee Hooker. By Dan Dion.

Learn more about Photographer Dan Dion by visiting his website: www.dandion.com

Of all the human senses, the ability to hear may be the most abstract sense we possess. From a song’s tonal qualities to its wavelengths and frequencies, music presents inexplicable emotions and feelings. This is probably the primary reason we struggle to describe our favorite songs but listen to them incessantly. Music possesses the sublime effect of catapulting a listener to a place and time, summoning both imagination and memory. The completed work of the musician-composer finds it’s way into our psyche and through our bodies to conjure up a narrative, a history, a movement, or a story.

San Francisco–based artist David Molina has the uncanny ability to make music out of anything. He draws inspiration from the urban landscape and the refuse most people discard as nonfunctional and obsolete,

breathing new life and music into them. Not only does he make music, but he also leads the listener into an alternative way of experiencing life. Through multiple and careful listens, it is easy to become entranced with the music he produces. He also believes in collaboration and has produced music with various Bay Area groups: Ghost & Strings, Transient, Impuritan, and Earthlike.

After an engaging studio visit with Molina, you’ll learn the true art of music and instrument construction. The collection of found objects and instruments create Molina’s signature eclectic style and are used to form soundtracks for everything from theatrical productions to art installations. Molina uses found materials to create sounds: motherboards, wood, metal, discarded vintage instrument pieces, plastic, strings, piping, bottles, rope, light fixtures, and wires. Essentially, if something can make a sound, Molina has probably used it in one of his instruments or music compositions.

Molina has an incredible sense of connecting with the world through finding inspiration in everyday objects, and his most recent projects showcase his other ability: drawing a diverse audience. Molina worked with instrument builder Garrett La Fever, video artist Mickey Tachibana, and curator Hanna Regev to showcase the interactive artwork “Memory Web” at the 2012 San Francisco Fine Art Fair. While the art world may be new territory for the artist, Molina’s passion and 17 years of experience in theatrical productions, sound design, and scoring original compositions for artists such as Victor Cartagena, Violeta Luna, director Roberto Varea, and filmmaker Anna Geyer Molina show his mental agility, expertise, and talent within both traditional and experimental musical formats. He has certainly proven himself to be an extremely multitalented and multifaceted musician and composer.

Another exciting work among Molina’s many projects is “Homage to the Musee Mecanique,” a collaboration with painter Susie Valdez, for which Molina took objects he found in San Francisco streets and junkyards to create dynamic, intricate music boxes and instruments. Aside from creating sound, his art practice entails a combination of creative bursts within the planning process. Allowing new things to come out of the building process itself is characteristic of Molina’s work. The construction and inevitable playing of his instruments—which double as sculptures—is one of the ways he leaves an indelible mark in the art community.

His highly impressive work doesn’t just create an ambience for the listener and participant; it is also how he uses sound to translate complex and abstract ideas, intersecting issues of identity, culture, race, and gender. Molina’s fluency in playing multiple stringed pieces such as the cello, Burmese harp, flute, autoharp, and Richard Waters instruments add to his phenomenal art and music-making practice. It is highly likely that if Molina was given red solo cups and paper clips, he could easily create the soundtrack to someone’s life.

See David Molina’s work showcased at Jan. 18-Feb. 18
ASTERISK SF GALLERY 3156 24th St. San Francisco CA
Learn more about David Molina on his website www.drmsound.com

Aperitif: French for “to open.” A light alcoholic beverage drank before meals to whet the appetite. Not to be confused with a digestif, consumed after meals to aid in digestion. Two fine-dining excuses to drink before and after your meal

Bocconcini: A delicious mouthful in Italian. Usually used to spruce up menu descriptions for bite-sized morsels like fresh mozzarella cheese.

There are myriad reasons we get lazy about what we eat—jobs, finances, convenience, social obligations, you name it. But whether you work during farmers market hours, prioritize saving money over saving the environment (yes, this is a slight guilt trip), or have simply defaulted on your New Year’s resolution to eat locally, a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box can get you back on track. When you subscribe to a pre-paid CSA box, the farm delivers, either to your home or a nearby drop-off location, whatever is freshest and in season that week, plus extra goodies like recipes. To find out more about how CSAs work and why you should use them, we caught up with a few local farmers and educators.

Who should subscribe to a CSA box? “CSAs are a good fit for folks who appreciate fresh, organic produce,” says Ryan Casey, owner of Blue House Farm in Pescadero, Calif. “Most CSAs try to provide a balanced mix of commonly used fruits and vegetables, but they also like to include the occasional unique item as an opportunity to introduce people to less common vegetables that are not seen on the supermarket shelves. The members of our CSA tell us they enjoy it because it forces them to eat better, cook more, and stretch their culinary abilities and creativity.”

How do CSAs benefit me and how do they benefit the farmer? “By taking part in a CSA, the consumer is putting their food dollars directly in the hands of the farmer,” Casey continues. “The consumer pays the farmer before the season begins, and as produce is available for harvest, it is delivered back to the consumer. The upfront cash flow provides the farmer a guaranteed sale and the ability to purchase seed, compost, and labor, distributing the economic risks behind growing food among all involved, both grower and eater. Farming is a business with high risk, high overhead, and small profit margins. By removing the middleman, the farmer increases their profit margin, develops a more stable business, and is better able to be a good caretaker of the land and provider of food.”

When Matthew DuTrumble was teaching classes like butchery and contemporary cuisine at the California Culinary Academy, he connected with people from Zynga, which had popped up across the street in an old chocolate chip company building. When he first came to Zynga, it had just released the game Café World, so Matty created a dinner event themed around foods from the game.

Originally following a path to medical school, where he wanted to study to become a surgeon, Matty soon realized that he was slightly turned off by the fact that most of what he learned had to do with prescribing medicine and treating people after they got sick. “My focus in school was always nutrition and health, not only for the people, but for the earth, for the world, for the people, and for the environment around you.”

Matty’s food mantra is constantly evolving, and he uses every chance he gets to try new and extreme techniques. “But then it always comes back to comfort foods and being really, really honest about them,” he says. And by comfort foods, he is talking about not only the heavily stigmatized fried and fatty foods like fried chicken or mac ’n’ cheese, but also honestly made foods that use techniques often forgotten about in modern-day society. His effort is to rediscover some of those techniques, keeping processed foods out of the

We have many different cultures and perspectives here in the Bay Area and everyone brings their own ideologies to the table. Combined with the fact that we are one of the world’s leading locations for tech industries, we have amazing crossovers emerging between the two. Airbnb and Zynga are two startup examples, where food ideas and practices are flourishing with contagious potential.

Fresh out of UC Santa Cruz with a degree in community studies, Sam Lippman was pretty overweight. It caused him a lot of health problems, one of which was back pain, something that sitting down to study so much had only exacerbated. Luckily, he was doing a lot of community work with kids at the time, which kept him moving. That summer, he decided to take some time off and travel, per a friend’s recommendation, to a permaculture community near Malaga in Southern Spain. One or two days after starting a raw-foods detox, his back started feeling better, he had more energy in the mornings, he felt lighter, and he immediately started losing weight.

“My food philosophy is this: Food should really be made out of food, and food that’s good for you and that’s functional. Food that your body can actually use for energy. Food that has nutrients. No fillers, no empty carbs. Not food that has been overly processed from the base ingredients. I don’t use a lot of flour and don’t cook with a lot of dairy.

I was the chubby kid who’d ask to go to a friend’s house after the ice cream truck passed so I could chase him down for another chipwich. My second-grade self would be proud of the amount of ice cream I consume on a weekly basis; my professional self is a little worried about being forced into leggings every day at work—but no one becomes an expert without some sacrifices. San Francisco is breeding ground for parlors with artisan, organic, and creative ice creams (served in compostable cups, no less!). Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous get what the citywide obsession is about—and stand up to the sugary challenge.

The Mr. and Mrs. behind the Miscellaneous are Annabelle and Ian, a husband-and-wife team that runs the ice cream shop tucked in the quiet dog patch at 22nd and 3rd Street. It could be an easy miss for those not in the know, but the line out the door suggests the secret is out, and for good reason. The flavors offered are rich, interesting combinations literally hand-churned by the duo themselves. Their offerings change daily and include combinations you won’t find anywhere else. The corn and caramel (like caramel corn, only creamier) and a Fernet (herbal liquor)-flavored scoop are so interesting, layered, and delicious that you’ll forget what day it is.

Annabelle and Ian started M&MM after they had their first baby and wanted to be more in control of their schedule. The couple is not just a part of the process from beginning to end; they are the

SF had no Jewish delis. Nothing aside from some BS “New York–style” or “Chicago-style” delis with Yiddish-sounding names that are closed… on Sundays! A shanda! That is, until Evan Bloom and Leo Beckerman, two Cal Berkeley alums with a dream and a meat smoker, brought that ethereal pastrami out of the shadows and into the light, in a little spot of heaven they call Wise Sons.

San Francisco’s pop-up culture has hosted many a great idea, and Wise Sons is no exception. The first opportunity for Bloom and Beckerman to show off their meaty meddle was in January 2011 at Off the Grid, a spot for food trucks and pop-up eateries. Even though the duo only served for a couple hours at a rented café on Saturdays, their deli fare was a hit, and digital word of mouth allowed the mobile eatery to continue seeing business throughout 2011. “It was hard to keep up with us,” Beckerman admits, and they knew from the start that they needed a permanent place to call home. As luck would have it, that place was on one of the busiest streets in the Mission: 24th, with its numerous bakeries, hair salons, taquerias, art galleries, and now a Jewish deli. Thus Wise Sons opened its doors in early 2012 to crowds of loyal followers and curious newcomers.

Why “Wise Sons”? “There were a number of names we rejected before we got to Wise Sons,” Bloom explained, one of which was “Schmearbucks.” The name Wise Sons was a play on the idea that opening a restaurant might not be such a hot idea

San Francisco doesn’t have a shortage of Thai restaurants. Almost every main street in every district has a locals’ spot designated as the next best thing for an uncomplicated dinner when you don’t feel like hopping on the Muni. What a lot of those places have in common is a very standard menu with the same flavors and dependable taste we all are used to. Lers Ros, unlike the usual spots, is worth the trip twice over.

Tom Silargom, chef and owner of Lers Ros, elevates Thai food to a different level without adding a high price tag. His sauces are as sweet as his smile and as spicy as his passion for home-style Thai. He and his wife, Sarah, run a tight ship serving quality food that Tom’s mom from Thailand would be proud of.

When he first arrived in the US, Tom started off working at Lemongrass on Polk, though his keen sense of flavor and preparation came from the lessons his mom taught him back home. Equipped with his passion for cooking and his desire to serve the best Thai food in the city, Lers Ros (translated as “Excellent Taste of Food”) was born three years ago and now has two locations to give San Franciscans the extraordinary flavors of Thailand.

When dining at Lers Ros as a newbie, you’ll find yourself with the dilemma of choosing one dish off the hefty menu of 100-plus items. It offers the traditional items we’re used to, like Pad Thai,

Locanda replaced the sagging Ramblas Tapas bar, and thank god it did. The only thing more annoying than tapas are the girls who spent a semester in Spain and then came home to talk about tapas.

Shamefully, as a devout Delfina disciple, it took me a long time to make it to Locanda, though the group’s “new” restaurant is just down the street. San Francisco has a growing number of legit Italian restaurants. Many of these play it safe, with a California twist or fancy pizza. Locanda, not unlike Noe Valley’s Incanto, takes on a bigger challenge. Locanda boasts Roman fare, which includes parts of the animal a sexy pizzeria in the Marina might shuttle out the back door so as not to disturb the straw fedora crowd.

Though we don’t lunge out of bed in the morning to feast on cockscombs and duck jewels, we do like a dining adventure that respects the use of the whole animal, and here we have to tip our hats to Locanda. It weaves these ingredients into the menu in such a way that it all makes sense; nothing is forced.

Locanda isn’t the newest restaurant on the street, though it has played a large part in bringing dining legitimacy to the Valencia corridor. This has always been a lively stretch of the Mission, but the dining options have gotten much better recently, with Locanda and its Delfina pedigree leading the charge.

When it comes to comfort food, Radius doesn’t stray far from home. In fact, it makes a point not to. Located in a cozy, refurbished SoMa bar, everything at this upscale restaurant is locally sourced within a 100-mile circle around San Francisco—hence the name Radius.

“Eat Local’ the buzz phrase of 2011—parodied in Portlandia and brandished by some as the panacea for global warming, obesity, and the faltering economy—has developed flack for being a fad. It is a fad, to some. Dabbling restaurants try to get clout without the commitment, serving California-sourced pork loin with off-season Ecuadorian pineapple and a glass of Belgian beer. Those restaurants aren’t local. Radius is local.

Produce, wine, fish, and foal, if the ingredient can’t be found within the 100-mile home circle, it won’t make it to the Radius kitchen. Beer, too. Even the tops of the tables are locally sourced, refurbished from the old dance floor that once occupied the next-door café space.

Making local a priority means that menu changes are frequent, since ingredient availability coincides with farm seasonality. When asked if sourcing the menu within a 100-mile radius poses a culinary challenge in menu planning, chef Peter Cham resounded with a hearty “Yes! But it is a challenge we should all take; it’s sustainable, cost-effective, and delivers better ingredients.” Not to mention a creative menu

We have only the fondest memories of dining at Mr. Pollo. There are perhaps dozens of reasons why this restaurant should be one of your favorite spots in the city, but on the top of that list for us are two very important factors: First, the ever-changing menu is consistently surprising and never disappointing. Second, we keep coming back, and each time, we’re left with a certain indefinable sense of satiety that transcends the meal itself.

The comfort and fulfillment experienced at this restaurant has a lot to do with the physical place. Mr. Pollo as a space possesses that magical center point between engendering an intimate and homey dining experience and oozing the electricity and dynamism of a restaurant where the ideas are as fresh as the menu. You wouldn’t know it from the front entrance: Dark curtains cover the windows and entryway below a crackling neon sign right in the guts of Mission Street. Inside is a warm, music-filled closet with room enough to seat only 12 people. The fact that Mr. Pollo in its current form cannot possibly grow is its greatest charm. If your expectation of a restaurant is fine dining in a charismatic chef’s home kitchen, then you will be supremely satisfied here. Manny Torres Gimenez, the chef and proprietor of Mr. Pollo, took over the space from what was once a Columbian fast-food restaurant specializing in arepas and fried chicken, hence the

If the saying You are what you eat is true, then San Francisco is a city of veggie-loving, bacon-drenched drunkards with incessant caffeine jitters. At least, that’s what our poll results would lead us to believe. This foodie city, though healthy in various aspects, is a land of gluttonous consumers with an adventurous palate often craving creativity within a dish while always asking the same question: Is what I’m eating sourced ethically? Green, organic, low carbon footprint, free range, farm raised… Yes, we have demands. Thankfully, the restaurateurs in the city are up to the task—and are most likely responsible for the way we choose what we eat and love.

We polled just over 100 people through our website and asked our readers what they love to eat... Here are the results.

Nearing its third year in the Mission District, Pot + Pantry has become a must-stop shop and fixture in a neighborhood known by many local and touring foodies alike for its stellar eateries and boutiques. However, those seeking that ever-elusive cooking tool or hard-to-find kitchen component know to visit this tiny shop.

Sure, shiny and fancy gadgets are always interesting, but really, what beats a well-worn, slightly dented rolling pin that leaves tiny indentations in your favorite sugar cookie dough, or a beloved cast iron skillet that’s fried more chicken than the colonel? Not much. Cooking to some is seen as a disaster waiting to happen, a panicked call to the fire department, or inedible globs of mystery concoctions. But to others, cooking is something to be savored, taken seriously and without regret, an act of pride and love to share with others on porcelain plates. This act of sharing good food created with tools both old and new is something owner Donna Suh Wageman recognized was missing from the kitchenware industry. Having worked at various retail companies in the past (including Benefit Cosmetics and Williams-Sonoma), her understanding of what the public wants is exceptional. “This is my first store. I opened it because I always liked cooking and the idea of showcasing new and used items. I noticed there wasn’t really a market for upcycled kitchen tools, so from there, the store was created.”

Shopping in any city, neighborhood, or mall for a quality store can be like sifting through rubble for a diamond in the rough. The same can be said for shopping in the Mission. You have the good and bad of retail operating side by side in hodgepodge harmony. However, when you wander into Gravel & Gold, you know you’ve hit pay dirt!

Owned and operated by a team of diverse, creative, and passionate women —Cassie McGettigan, Lisa Foti-Straus, and Nile Nash— Gravel & Gold has created an inviting space for an amazing group of artists and craft makers to showcase their wares in style. Since opening in May 2008, it has grown into not only a fantastic boutique, but also a true establishment of San Francisco that encompasses all that resonates with the Bay City’s colorful and inspired culture, especially that of the Mission. Gravel & Gold offers handmade art, gifts, jewelry, pottery, clothing, children’s toys, and much more for the shopper looking for that one-of-kind, funky, or special item.

“We began at ActivSpace in the Mission, as Lisa had a studio and closet storefront,” says Em, the store’s manager, “which offered us a place to begin selling our pieces. From there, we were able to host trunk shows and events, and after a short time, things began to really move quickly. The outpouring of support allowed us to move to our current space.”

Eating and fashion are two things that rarely go together as one usually seems to undermine the others goal- fit into the dress or devour the brownie with no regret? Decisions, decisions. However, when dining, grabbing a quick bite, or even shopping for said food stuffs, who says you can’t, and shouldn’t, look your best? For this special food issue fashion spread, fashion blogger, Adelle McElveen, creator of FashionistaLab.com, modeled some of the city’s great fall fashions from Conifer, Seedstore, Fiat Lux, and Revolver.

styling by: Dawn Hunt photographer: William David Walsh lighting: Little Giant Lighting & Grip Co. model: Adelle McElveen - fashionistalab.com Special thanks to: SOMA StreatFood | Pot and Pantry | Miette @ Ferry Building

On a cool, breezy summer evening, music emanates from the middle of the block on 18th Street, steps away from Dolores Park. The lovely voice of a woman summons, rather easily, others to a delightful space. Stepping inside, there are vibrant and colorful drawings of sweet breads and cakes adorning the walls. The music that lured people in is just as intoxicating as the wine and food served. A songstress taps at an upside-down metal bucket fashioned into a stringed instrument while singing with perfect key and timing. Looking around, the tables are filled with people and food. One of the chefs for the event walks over with sushi wrapped in nori with intricate laser-cut patterning. Sitting down on one of the benches and with possibly the freshest ceviche ever made, it was hard not to feel captivated by the warmth and uniqueness of the space—not your average closing art exhibition. Yet, this is the constant environment and ambiance found at nonprofit organization 18 Reasons.

In 2007, Bi-Rite Market took over the space formerly known as Blue Space from founders Cliff Leonardi and Dan DiPasquo. Paying homage to the iconic San Francisco 17 Reasons sign that served as a part of the Mission District skyscape, Bi-Rite decided to rename the event and gallery space to 18 Reasons after its new home on 18th Street. Despite the bustling surroundings and wide array of eateries in the area, 18 Reasons unites an undeniable combination of art, community, and food.

Technology allows us to exchange pictures of our caloric intake with the rest of the world with a few clicks, swipes, and use of a snazzy filter. Specifically, in San Francisco, a cosmopolitan place brimming with an incredibly diverse population, it’s relatively easy to experience food from a seemingly vast array of cultures. Whatever you want, San Francisco probably has a place or a person that could lead your nose and taste buds to something that will satiate you. Art offers a very similar experience. With our collective compulsive nature to share photos of things we can’t even taste or smell speaks to our collective desire to be connected. While food nourishes us, it also activates our creativity. Cooking and eating is a way to let others into the particulars of what we allow into our bodies. What happens when food is used to describe the relationships we have with ourselves, our history, culture, or our ethnicity? What happens when food becomes the medium of an artwork? Or when it goes beyond the sense of sight and envelopes you in a completely multi-sensory experience? Food provides us with a lot of information about who and what we are. Think about an ornately covered wall dusted in nothing but curry. Imagine a room filled with the aromatic smell of cinnamon. Contemplate the use of ice cream and edible inkjet prints. This makes up only a fraction of the artwork created by Bay Area installation artist, Sita Bhaumik.

As an artist, writer, and educator, Bhaumik does an extraordinary job at explaining the intricacies and constructs around weighty topics such as identity,

Querida Calle 24 | Dear 24th Street
Please join us on Tuesday, October 16, 2012 from 7-10pm for the exhibition opening and Food Issue Release Party. 10/16-11/16

Join us for a delicious night as we premiere our second annual Food Issue highlighting SF's best restaurants in conjunction with an amazing art exhibit by acclaimed local artist Sita Bhaumik entitled "Querida Calle 24 | Dear 24th Street St" Sita's amazing work will grace the gallery at Asterisk SF HQ with interactive art for your enjoyment. Enjoy drinks from our sponsors and delicious Churros by Dominguez Bakery.

RSVP Required. 21+ $5 suggested donation visit http://asterisksanfrancisco.com/hotpost/rsvp.html

Curatorial Statement
Art serves as reflection. It mirrors what has come before, what exists, and gives inspiration to what may follow. Art is also a conduit to introspection. It raises questions about the relationship between culture, tradition, and location. In the exhibition, Querida Calle 24 | Dear 24th Street, installation artist Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik takes memories and experience to pay homage and gratitude to the well known 24th Street in San Francisco. With the increasing traffic and popularization of the Mission District, Bhaumik seizes the opportunity to form of a visual and a multisensory love letter to the stretch of urban landscape.

The sweet smell of cinnamon leads the viewer to a patterned wall that will please even the most obvious retinal sense. Yet, the longer one stands and observes the walls dusted in the familiar spice and platters enrobed in gold candy wrappers, the senses will subtly shift back and forth to engage in something that can only be experienced. Observation will become delectable and crisp sensations will tickle the nose upon a deep inhale. Impressions will go beyond the gallery walls and storefront. The viewer will be greeted by a Twenty Fourth Street that refuses to be forgotten and remains ever present through its distinct scents and visuals. As a show made with a myriad of parts, it intricately meshes culture, tradition, and history into sensorial consumption. Bhaumik provides an exhibition of the past, present, and future. Our collective recollections and thoughts made into the tangible and the tasty, this artwork will waft and flirt and begs the senses to devour, digest, and reflect.

- Dorothy Santos, Arts Editor and Curator

Dining on Art in San Francisco
By Chelsea Larsson. Photos J. Joven

Upon closing the frosted glass door of Atelier Crenn, be prepared to leave San Francisco behind. You are stepping into the artist studio and epicurean wonderland of Chef Dominique Crenn, where art and food collide in plates of lime-scented clouds, comestible tide pools, painted cakes made of forest moss, and dessert trays piled high with edible gold. Sound like a dream? At Atelier Crenn, it would seem the genius kitchen staff could make anything possible, as each night they turn Crenn’s wildest food dreams into edible realities.

The aesthetic at work in the kitchen resonates through every aspect of the restaurant, from organically shaped glassware to landscape paintings on the wall by Crenn’s late artist father, for whom the restaurant is named. Even the menu, written as a free-verse poem, is a celebration of nature.

On the menu are two prix-fixe options available in six courses or 11. If you can only visit once, then opt for the Chef’s Grand menu, an 11- to 12-course dinner complete with wine pairings. As the menu changes based on season and Chef Crenn’s current muses, each showing will be different. We opted for the five-hour dining experience of 12 courses. There were too many to list, so here are a few of the delightful courses...

CHURCHES
By Chloe Roth
Most bands wouldn’t admit that they are in it for the swag: “I wanted some free jeans,” jokes Churches frontman Caleb Nichols, 29. Eternally sassy and sarcastic, Nichols has an ebullient personality that belies a tumultuous childhood; an on-again, off-again relationship with high school (he dropped out) and college (he repeatedly dropped out and re-enrolled); and his struggles with being gay in the conservative “bedroom community” of Los Osos, Calif.

“I don’t fly a rainbow flag,” says Nichols, referring to his place in the world—being neither straight nor culturally gay—as a “no-man’s land.” “I always felt outside of it, partially because I never made it to the big gay mecca.” While he doesn’t hide his sexuality, he never felt like he belonged—not just in the gay community and in his hometown, but also as an indie musician.

Which is why, over the last 10 years, Nichols has jumped around between cities, bands, and careers. It was in 2008, while selling the “come do some trust falls and everyone will be so happy” team-building experience at a summer camp in Big Bear that Nichols resolved to be a musician once and for all. (Looks like those trust falls work after all!)

After stints in local acts Grand Lake, Port O’Brien, Waters and Zach Rogue’s Release the Sunbird, Nichols finally recruited seasoned Rogue Wave members Dominic East (bass) and Patrick Spurgeon (drums) to bring his own vision to fruition. Produced by Van Pierszalowski (Waters, Port O’Brien); recorded by Ian Pellicci at Tiny Telephone, John Vanderslice’s iconic analog studio in the Mission; and mastered by Myles Boisen in Oakland, the debut Churches EP is a truly local project. Available for free (or donation-based) download at churchescalifornia.bandcamp.com, much of the album deals with the issues of alienation and belonging. We caught up with Nichols to find out more.

What was it like growing up gay in Los Osos?
It leaned toward the conservative side, so while I was confronted with some people who were relatively open and supportive, many more were openly hostile. School was tough. I was subjected to my fair share of harsh bullying and name-calling. The word “fag” was used liberally.

The Most Fabulous Bar in the Neighborhood
By Jonathan Hirsch

Sandwiched between Bánh Mì shops and SROs, a short walk from Civic Center, and right in the heart of the Tenderloin lies San Francisco’s friendliest gay bar. Some folks might find it cheesy, but the bar’s slogan is, adorably, the Cheers-y “Where friends become family.” In this regard, you could think of it as much a gay bar as it is a Tenderloin bar: unassuming and neighborhood-y. The rainbow flag jutting from the remodeled deco-era exterior is a symbol of its place as an important piece of San Francisco history.

Ginger Snap, bar manager and performer, says that the current owners of Deco Lounge have been on board for seven years. “We’ve changed things a little bit over the years,” she says. “Originally, Deco was a piano bar. But now we do more drag and dance nights.” Deco still feels a bit like a piano bar, with three floors and a burgundy interior, but it stands out in the lower Polk Street area as a holdover from a time before the partial annexation of the area by the Marina crowd. Ginger is quick to point out that Deco is not just a gay bar. “Deco is different than the Castro-type bar, because we’re more of a neighborhood bar, where everyone is welcome. We promote but also get a lot of the local neighborhood folks, which makes for a fun mix of people.”

FOLMA
By Laura Zimmerman & Jeremy Joven

You know that stretch of Folsom Street in SoMa? We’ll just call it FolMa, since SoMa holds arguably too many gems to really wrap your head around in this community feature. That’s where FolMa sprouts up to help. The area south of Market from about 13th to 6th and just a beer can’s kick away from the Mission—is a condensed version of what’s great about SoMa. When most people think of the Folsom Street area, they think of bearded men in chaps, S&M and bondage—and they wouldn’t be wrong. (In fact, even Google would agree; when you search “Folsom Street SF,” the Sextival is the first result.) Although the area might be famous for a fetish, Folsom Street Fair is only once a year, while FolMa is banging year-round.

Let’s start with Una Pizza Napoletana. One dude makes every single pizza every night, and pardon my Italian, but it’s f*cking amazing. He’s a New Yorker with a chip on his shoulder, trying to prove that SF pizza can be just as delicious as NYC’s pies. If you’ve ever walked by 210 11th St., then you might’ve thought it was the soft opening of a restaurant—with its white-washed empty walls, bare Edison bulbs, and limited seating—but the minimalist design is purposeful, as 100 percent of the focus is on the pizza. Anthony Mangieri is his own living pizza art installation: His beehive-shaped oven is in the center of the restaurant, partitioned off with iron bars like he’s set up camp in the MoMA, except his art is meant to be a feast for the mouth…

Lunch with Strangers
August 27, 2012 | By Jeremy Joven

Who doesn't love a free lunch? I know I do. Everyone also loves being a food critic. Judging what other people do has to be a favorite past time of mine. Though most of the time, I try to hold my judgements to myself (friends would disagree), when it comes to food - there are no holds barred. You can't mask crappy food/service.

For our upcoming food issue - we want to know what you think.
We'd like to have lunch with YOU! We will pick a small neighborhood restaurant; eat, chat and get to know each other.

Only requirement is - you have to be outspoken, interesting and hopefully hungry!

Your lunch will be published in our next issue "LUNCH WITH STRANGERS". Sound like fun? Okay!

Send us a little about you and we'll get pickin on 3 lucky strangers.
I'm excited already!

Fill out the form, upload a photo and we'll contact you.
LUNCH DATES WILL BE POSTED HERE

STINKY OFFICE CHAIRS
Saving $99 for a lumpy cushion on wheels will make you pay for your posture sooner or later. The stinky office chair you found on the street doesn’t have a place in your home, so don’t pick it up; you’ll end up leaving it on your sidewalk the next day. Struggling to let go? Just imagine all the random butts that sat on that before you. Yuck!

RUGS
Are you a gypsy? No? Then stop making rugs out of old quilts your grandma painstakingly stitched for you. Don’t cut them in ruffles and think you made shag carpeting. It’s just not right. Carpeting is not one of those things you should buy/reuse when it’s already a shitty mess (literally, if you found it on the street). Rugs can be expensive, but so are those $5 latte’s you love. Save up for real rugs.

ROOM DIVIDERS
Do you run a massage parlor in your house? Maybe a burlesque show? Whatever your excuse behind picking up that torn Japanese paper room divider, it’s not reason enough to junk up your house with ugly clutter. There’s no practical use for this unless you live in a co-op with a million other people. Grow up.

YOU + YOUR STUFF
Trash & Knicknacks we love

Unless you live in Pac Heights, we’ll wager that you have one or two items (or, in some cases, all of them) in your living room that you found on the street or at a thrift store. You’re either a crafty person with a flair for recycling or just a pack rat in need of an intervention by A&E’s Hoarders. Have a look at our list of home décor items to see whether your living room is full of vintage gold, smart finds, hippie hoopla or just straight-up garbage.

TYPEWRITER
Oh, you’re a writer, huh? So it’s safe to assume you have a typewriter in your house to show your friends how classical your creative process is? Sure, let’s pretend that’s true. Your BS aside, typewriters actually make great décor. It might have something to do with their metallic casing and the individual keys that brings all sorts of fun nostalgia to anyone who sees one. At least when you’re tired of it, you can sell it to a vintage shop for PBR money.

One of the unfortunate liabilities of living in a beautiful place is that everyone else wants to live here too. The sweeping vistas of the California coast, the statuesque cathe­drals and the ancient trees are all signposts of photo ops; our backyard is tacked on refrigerator postcards in homes all over the world. It’s a wonder more visitors aren’t missing their flights home and settling in to stay. No one would deny, however, the blight that McMansions and tract homes place upon our wondrous California land­scapes.

We live in an era of growing concern regarding our impact on the environment. This concern has radiated from a singular philosophy into every arena of human life, so many Californians want just as much to know about the source of the lumber used to build their homes as they do the source of their vegetables. This reaction to globally manufactured living goes a long way in explaining the current resurgence of interest in “DIY building” and home design, and why a marvelous book like Handmade Houses is now coming to press.

Author and former editor of Architectural Digest Richard Olsen provides an organized and relevant centennial look at artfully built and handcrafted homes from around the world. Olson traces the history of hand­made homes from their artisan woodwork­ing roots to the present day. His text draws sweeping but compelling parallels between the resurgence of handmade homes that be­came popularized in the 1970s and today’s sustainability-minded builders.

The Right "Stuff"
By Chase Chambers

For the past year-and-a-half, Stuff has been rolling out the red carpet for city dwellers and Valencia Street shoppers looking for a uniquely curated selection of retro, mid century and antique artworks and furniture. The vision for this expansive, 17,000-square-foot assembly of dealers and collectors comes from seasoned owners and operators James Spinello and Will Lenker, former owners of Aunt Bill’s in Rockridge.

From the beginning, the intent for Stuff was to incorporate the fun atmosphere of the Valencia Street neighborhood and create a friendly environment that was low-key and simple. Spinello and Lenker encourage the community to come and spend time, be who they are, and enjoy themselves. On the weekends, coffee and cake usher people into the doors, where they are greeted by friendly staffers who are as individual and precious as the many small sections surrounding the ambulatory pathways in the showroom.

Life in the Details
By Dawn Hunt. Photos J. Joven

Entering via a charming wooden side gate, you are immediately whisked upstairs and welcomed into an open dining space in the Kiniris’s quaint historical Rockridge home. The Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland is an old one by California standards. What was once open farmland and home to large, sporadic estates before the earthquake of 1906 is now a bustling, suburban microcosm of young families and professionals. “It’s an urban-feeling suburban neighborhood—open, liberal and one that definitely draws people who want to be outside but still within the city,” says Wendy. It’s fitting that the Kiniris’ chose such a place to plant roots, as the couple’s design personality fits perfectly with the relaxed hood. “Breezy and open, with a flow from room to room—that’s what our home is,” says Wendy. Vasilios “Vas” and Wendy Kiniris, the husband-and-wife team behind the super-hip Zinc Details store, are no strangers to San Francisco’s creative interior design world. However, when it comes to what they place within their home, they become far more critical of what hangs from their walls and what pads their floors.

They met while attending UC Berkeley, both earning a degree in environmental design / architecture, but neither ever had plans of earning a living in interior design. “We graduated during the last great recession of the early ’90s and honestly didn’t know what we were going to do, so we opened the store and learned along the way. We started collecting 20 years ago

Let there be Parklets
Feature by Chelsea Larsson. Photos by A. Winter/ J. Joven

“Don’t play in the street!” Well, the unchallenged warning of parents everywhere finally has a valid counterpoint. Streets of the world, meet a little idea called parklets.

Parklets, the term used to define parking lot–sized pedestrian spaces, are rapidly spreading across San Francisco. The growing popularity of these street-born public parks has positioned the Bay Area as an urban design darling and is gaining the city national spotlight as a leader in the Great Streets Program design initiative. Most importantly, though, the parklet movement has transformed the urban fabric of San Francisco. In our city, the streets are, in fact, for playing—as well as for dining, sunning, sipping coffee, selling vegetables, hosting family gatherings, you name it. SF streets are for inhabiting. Take that, sensibility.

The parklet movement is organized through the San Francisco Planning Department with a program called Pavement to Parks. The initiative aims to return the public right of way to the hands (and feet) of local SF communities: Many have deemed the program an urban design revolution.

The beginning was quiet, underground and brave. The movement officially started in 2005 on the corner of Mission and First Street by local design firm Rebar. The project was dubbed Park(ing) Day and consisted of a couple rolls of sod, a bench and two hours on the meter. It was an instant success. As if the park had always been there, pedestrians immediately took to the new scene, relaxing on the bench and wriggling their toes in the fresh grass. The idea of parklets was planted that day and has continued to grow ever since; seven years later, there are now 27 in San Francisco.

John Bela of Rebar thinks that parklets were a natural choice for SF, “We all realize that our car culture is killing us. Parking Day and parklets are a small step towards a more pedestrian, bike and transit friendly streetscape and public realm. Streets aren’t just to move us around, they are places to meet, to hang out, to socialize.”

Designer Feature: David Pierce
Profile by Tommy Sunderland
Tucked away on Treat just off 19th in the Mission is a workshop that shows no apparent regard for the present time period. Slabs of uncut and unfinished wood are stacked in rows on a polished concrete floor, thick rope is bundled atop an old wooden work cart, and vintage stools of various colors are huddled together. Pieces of reclaimed lumber and old theater spotlights have been disassembled into their basic components, each arranged in neat piles next to the others. In a windowed office overlooking the entire workshop is David Pierce, surveying the scene and making sense of what appears to be chaos below. From the chaos emerges his brainchild: OHIO Design.

David began his career splitting his time between a job that utilized his formal training in landscape architecture and a part-time position designing and fabricating furniture for local architect Jim Zack. After just a few months’ time, it became clear that Pierce’s furniture-making hobby was destined to become a career. His original designs earned him a loyal following, including a handful of Castro residents who were impressed with the structural integrity of one of his beds while filming some rather risqué scenes in a local production (just use your imagination).

After having successfully commissioned a few pieces, Pierce founded his own venture, OHIO Design. His first shop was exactly 20 feet, 6 inches wide, giving him the ability to work with 20-foot bar stock, crafting his creations one item at a time.

Designer Profile: Jiun Ho
Profile by Jeremy Joven
Jiun Ho is no ordinary designer. His works are rooted deeply with the influence of his cultural background and blended with the perfect balance of old and new.

Ho moved to the U.S. from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, at age 18 in pursuit of a degree in design. After his education at Chicago’s International Academy of Design, Ho began working with a firm that, ironically, led him back to Malaysia. He soon realized that sitting in a cubicle designing cubicles was not his calling, so he ventured on to new opportunities, working on hotel projects all over the world. This gave him the chance to immerse himself in countless cultures, perfect five languages, and create his own signature style of fusing the old with the new.

Ho’s love for travel, food and fine wine inspired him to create Jiun Ho de Jia, his showroom gallery that seamlessly blends art, cuisine, design and “the experience of living” from around the world. On a visit to his new showroom in SoMa, the expansive showcase of personally curated and designed furnishings by Jiun Ho floored us. From the floating garden at the entry to the rounded, hand-carved wooden sculptures at the back, each design exhibits the perfect mix of masculine and feminine accents, different cultures and varying origins depending on the craftsman he chooses from his travels...

Deliciousness Overload at La Cocina's Street Food Festival
August 9, 2012 | By Alexander Winter

On August 18th La Cocina is bringing back it's yearly San Francisco Street Food Festival with an incredibly delicious line up featuring local food makers with cuisines from all over the world.

The weekend starts on Friday, August 17th from 6pm to 9pm with a Night Market at Alemany Farmer's Market (100 Alemany Blvd, Bernal Heights). A variety of 25 chefs includingsome of Asterisk San Francisco favorites like Locanda, La Ciccia, Onigilly, Nopalito, El Huarache Loco, Ken Ken Ramen, as well as La Cocina chefs Veronica Salazar from the D.F. and Constanza Ortiz from Colombia and guests from Baja, BBQ from South Carolina, bold flavors from India, and more will be presenting their best foods. For those of you who have never been to any of the previous Street Food Festivals, we had a taste of some of the vendor's foods for you and believe us, you can get your tongue ready to dance from all the delicious flavors from Malaysia, Tijuana, Japan, to the South, and more! Unlike the admission free main event, his event has a $25 cover to raise funds, but you get a gift bag with goodies with your ticket and plates are under $10.

Then on Saturday from 11am to 7pm the Mission District will be bustling with delicious flavors and smells on Folsom Street between 20th and 26th Streets, and 21st to 25th Streets between Shotwell and Treat Streets. It's open to the public with no admission fee and all the food items are priced below $8 and half of them below $3.

La Cocina, a food centered business incubator that mainly works with low-income women and immigrant entrepreneurs, is facilitating this event and they expect more than 80,000 people to attend this year.

“The San Francisco Street Food Festival is a showcase for talented chefs who don't always get the recognition they deserve and to challenge some of those who do bring it as hard as they can." -Caleb Zigas, Executive Director of La Cocina

Designer Feature: Andrew Perkins
Profile by Jeremy Joven
The future envisioned in the early 20th century involved polyplastics and scientifically engineered materials. Far from what they envisioned, today’s San Franciscans have given renewed worth to traditional and organic materials by continually utilizing raw, sustainable materials from Mother Nature in furniture for today and tomorrow. These early visionaries might think we have devolved. However, with our new understanding of and affection for our environment, we are enabling our future generations to live longer and healthier lives, to continually evolve, create and flourish.

Andrew Perkins is one of the designers leading the industry, with creative designs enhanced by technological advancements that create provocative furnishings today with the look of tomorrow, all without utilizing man-made hazardous materials.

Perkins’s aesthetic is a result of his passion for honest materials, a reverence for traditional craft, and a fascination with new building technologies. He “strives to create objects made from a combination of natural and recyclable materials that are useful, beautiful and innovative,” he says, and his “focus is on improving life in a small urban apartment.” In fact his recent work strives “to expand the function of an object, use space in a more intelligent way, and bring a sense of nature indoors.”

Designer Feature: Robert Polacek
Profile by Jeremy Joven
Design thrives in San Francisco. With every new restaurant popping up, from Union Square to Valencia Street, you’ll easily find trends that are inspired by our love of design and sustainability. Have you ever wondered who designs those lavish, beautiful and innovative interiors?

Bob Puccini founded Puccini Group, San Francisco’s very own internationally known hospitality design firm, in 1996. Since then, the group’s talented bunch has been strategically and creatively transforming businesses in SF and around the globe with creative solutions for the modern consumer. Emotions are greatly affected by design, and judging by the Puccini roster, the mood is stylishly sexy.

As the chief creative officer, Robert Polacek pulls inspiration from everyday experiences and the five senses. “Everything around me is an inspiration,” he says. “Getting to travel so much for work, I’m constantly looking and observing what is going on, market by market. With fashion, art, food and design, it all comes together. … Sometimes looking back on the past when it comes to design helps me open my mind to new and innovative ways of achieving a certain style.”

In their latest project, Jasper’s Corner Tap in the Tenderloin, the team designed a masterful mix of art and hospitality. Tory Schenkkan, one of the designers at Puccini Group, follows many SF art

Designer Feature: Jeremiah Neilson
Profile by Jeremy Joven
Behind a grungy garage door under an overpass in SoMa, reclaimed materials and grainy walnut pieces are being turned into new furnishings, reminiscent of midcentury-modern classics and sought after by countless decorators and collectors alike. This is great news for the budget-conscious, because nirvana has been found. This modernist paradise is the workshop of local designer, woodworker, Etsy star and budding entrepreneur Jeremiah Nielson.

Early in Nielson’s career, he worked as a furniture builder in the polar opposite of San Francisco: St. George, Utah. Building southwestern furniture out of pine at age 17, he’s been working with wood ever since. This skill set allowed him to hone his craft and gave him the know-how to create stable, beautiful and artful pieces custom-tailored for San Francisco living.

You don’t have to graduate with a degree from a top design school to create inspiring designs; Nielson is proof of that. His cheerful disposition and love of the craft shine with every piece he puts together. But how exactly does a young Americana fabricator come out building mid century modern–inspired furniture? “I actually saw a coffee table that was like the box coffee table with rounded edges and angled legs and thought, Wow that’s really useful!” he says. “After seeing that, I just really wanted to make that table. So I made it, and it turned into a side table,

All that Glitters and Shines
By Dawn Hunt

“These gems have life in them: their colors speak, say what words fail of.” —George Eliot

Whether it’s plain and simple or bold and eccentric, is indeed an accessory that speaks in assorted languages and at various volumes. Loud and vibrant, soft and delicate, or dense and intricate, jewelry is used to not only adorn the body, but to also send messages and meaning to curious onlookers.

No matter what your personal taste and style may be, there’s some form of jewelry to match. San Francisco is certainly home to an exceptional variety of tastes and styles, so it’s expected that there be a plethora of talented designers to choose from. From the masses, however, these five local designers, each with a different aesthetic, are taking our Bay city by storm with their beautiful bling and baubles.

Meagan Reelitz Designs
www.meaganreelitz.com

Custom-made, eco-friendly jewelry? Yes, it can be found, and Meagan Reelitz does it best. Based in Oakland, Reelitz began creating gorgeous geometric pieces from recycled sterling silver, gold and conflict-free gems in 2011. Her bold and bright collections focus around key geometric shapes and are divided into categories: spikes, circles, triangles, spirals and angles. Adding another dimension, her materials come from entirely green sources, so the pieces are truly free from any negative feelings or evils of mining. Perhaps the best aspect of Meagan Reelitz Designs is her love for doing custom pieces. Simply come in and either work with her to create something new or redesign your own pieces by upcycling the old metals and stones.

A Star in the Mission
By Dawn Hunt

Inspired and created from fond memories of her childhood bedroom in the early ’80s, Mira Mira of San Francisco’s bohemian-centric Mission neighborhood brings back what owner Mira Pickett remembers of those fun, sun-filled days. Bright white horizontal wainscoting covers the lower half of the lovely boutique’s walls, which shimmer with a hint of peach, while natural, untreated wood floors and shelves help to anchor the space. Four perfectly organized racks add layers of color and texture along the store’s perimeter, as carefully placed accessories and displays add wonderfully vintage, feminine touches here and there. It honestly feels like you’re walking through a peaceful bedroom that just so happens to contain one fabulous closet!

Mira Mira opened in April 2011 and has since become a true local hot spot shopping destination, offering beautifully tailored and well-priced pieces from around the world. After years of working in the corporate world as a VP in technology for Wells Fargo, Mira decided she’d had enough and that is was time to follow the fantasy she’d had since she was 15. “Opening my own store has always been a longtime dream of mine. It just seemed like something I could never do, but after spending years in a career I truly came to dislike, I decided to take the plunge!” she says. “Now I own and operate Mira Mira!

On San Francisco’s bustling, highly trafficked Market Street, the organization Gray Area Foundation for the Arts (GAFFTA), is changing the face of arts and technology in a significant and dramatic way. Seeing a lack of representation in the digital arts movement accompanied by a profound interest in creating a space where such art could be seen, founder and Executive Director Josette Melchor created the nonprofit in 2009 in the midst of a financial crisis. Despite the downturn in the economy, Melchor dedicated her efforts to creating a space for both aspiring and established artists and creative technologists. From interactive artworks and data visualization to creative coding, this organization has become one of the most prominent spaces for arts and technology, fostering change and innovation not only regionally, but also internationally.

At its core, Gray Area works with established artists such as Aaron Koblin and Camille Utterback to expose the public to software-based works that are both interactive and immersive through various tools of technology, such as programming, coding and data visualization. Integrating audio- and sensory-based controls, the works you might experience at a GAFFTA exhibition or event undoubtedly showcase...

Hat Trick:
San Francisco Art Weekend
By Dorothy Santos

For the past couple years, the art fair trifecta—San Francisco Fine Art Fair (SFFAF), artMRKT and ArtPad SF—has attracted a wide array of people. From connoisseurs to art lovers to people just looking to inject a bit of art into their lives, the weekend provides quite the smorgasbord of contemporary art. Through public programming events such as artist talks, panel discussions and interactive works, the trio of fairs grows in popularity each year due to the shared objective of making art more accessible to the public. While the artwork price tags may ward off the average onlooker, the fairs serve as a fairly good barometer of what is current. Each fair this year presented a multitude of works for the seasoned art collector while providing the budding art fan with an opportunity to see contemporary artworks in one place.

We decided to start the weekend off with the youngest of the art fairs, ArtPad SF. This fair proved to be fertile ground for beginning art collectors interested in up-and-coming artists and nontraditional art spaces. The vibe was incredibly lax, as some visitors dipped their toes in the Phoenix Hotel pool after perusing the art-filled rooms. ArtPad SF also gave viewers a glimpse into what is currently trending. The majority of the artworks challenged traditional forms through concept, execution and

It’s an age-old story: Boy visits San Francisco at age 13, develops a “youthful fascination with California,” relocates from Maryland at 21, finishes art school, scoops ice cream, gets a job on the stock exchange for five years because he happens to be a math whiz, and becomes the foremost sign-painter in town.

“I wandered the Earth for half a year and came back resolved to get myself into some kind of creative work ethic,” says Damon Styer, 41, sole proprietor of New Bohemia Signs—San Francisco’s longest-established shop for hand-painted signs—founded in 1993 by Steve Karbo. In June 1999, Styer landed a $7/hour apprenticeship. By September he was manager, and in December, he bought the company. New Bohemia started on 16th and Guerrero in the dilapidated back room of Jack’s Elixir Bar, and after a series of moves, it ended up at its current home on Ninth Street in SoMa, where it employs Styer, manager Scott Thiessen and a rotating menagerie of painters.

Energy, imagination, and innovation are only a few words out of many that come to mind when thinking of the artistic talent in San Francisco. Our team conceived of a Top 20 list to reflect the incredibly diverse population of artists that grace this highly eclectic city. Yet we did not anticipate the difficult task in selecting artists to highlight, which was based on nominations received from local galleries, curators, and our contributing team. The deliberation process was particularly challenging. However, considering artworks from traditional forms such as drawing and painting to new media art such as video sculpture and soft circuitry, we wholeheartedly believe the Top 20 list will equally amaze and inspire!

Special thanks to our Gallery Partners for submitting and exhibiting SF Bay Area Artists for selections in our Top 20 Artist List of 2012. Project One | ArtHaus | Fabric8 | Whitewalls | Shooting Gallery | SoMaRTS MCCLA | Eli Ridgway | ARTPAD | ARTMRKT | ArtSpan SF Open Studios

Top 20 List is published on the website with 5 artists a day.

Johanna Poethig in Public Space
By Dorothy Santos

Imagine a bright-blue-eyed four-month-old baby girl traveling with missionaries to the Philippines. Picture her growing up and attending an alternative school in Manila filled with many friends who encourage her to engage in the vibrant art community. In her teenage years, she returns to the United States to learn as much about muralism as possible in Chicago, later venturing to the West Coast and settling in the Bay Area. Now, this is not romanticized fiction. It is the colorful and extraordinary life of artist Johanna Poethig. With over 25 years of experience spanning public art projects, murals, installation, performance and video, Poethig remains a prominent female figure in contemporary muralism.

During her early adult years spent in Chicago, she was inspired and mentored by well-known muralist William Walker. After spending time learning about the history and significance of muralism, Poethig was determined to make a career of the discipline. She thought back to her days in Manila and yearned for familiarity; her desire to reach a larger Filipino community is actually what brought her to the Bay Area. But over the years, she faced setbacks. Among these challenges, she was forced to navigate building permits and policies, changes in building ownership, and even her murals being painted over.

Cartooning Life’s Poetic Moments
By Jeremy Joven

Inspired by the most unlikely architectural accents—the backs of houses, small alleys, shadowy corners, Paul Madonna puts to paper the split-second moments we often take for granted. His work, not quite cartoons and not quite fine art, shows immense talent with every detail and each pen stroke. He draws his outlines with ink, never pencil, and with a precise, dramatic shadowing that amazes art critics and enthusiasts in its uncanny ability to capture mood. To top it off, he writes tidbits of inspirational stories that provoke something different for every viewer.

Madonna set out to study fine arts as an under grad at Carnegie Mellon and emerged a cartoonist. He was enamored by the interaction between arts and storytelling and found his interest in documenting ideas to be more profound than painting a masterful work of art, flawlessly bridging the commercialism of illustrations for publishing with artistry worthy of gallery showings.

Hella More Funner making art Hella More Fun (for All)
By Dorothy Santos

Information overload is all too common with today’s readily accessible images, text, and video. Even language reveals our dependence on the Internet, with the word google not only referring to a company but also being used as a verb in lieu of search. The Internet and social media have become ubiquitous in our daily routines. Need an image of a dog? A cat? Or how about a dog holding a cat? You will probably find what you’re looking for. As a matter of fact, you will probably find over 1 million images and more.

Ask artists Sam Fuchs and Adam Gray— commonly known by their moniker, Hella More Funner—about this deluge of images. The art duo has incorporated this constant stream of communication, imaging searching, indexing and everything we feed the Internet as fodder, inspiration and the basis for their large-scale collages. The resulting artwork looks at the current generation and how it’s inundated by data, immediacy, gratification and a voyeuristic obsession of viewing ourselves and others.

Since 2007, Hella More Funner has created works based on re-appropriated imagery of culture. When asked about their studio practice and creative process behind their artworks, they noted,

The Alchemy of Materials: Printmaker and Painter Jonathan Barcan
By Dorothy Santos

At Workspace Studios off Folsom Street, visitors can expect a breathy climb up brick-colored stairs to a maze of artist studios. One of those studios belongs to artist Jonathan Barcan, who during a studio visit shared insights on his printmaking, drawing and painting practice. In looking at his work, it is easy to see the precision that goes into his etchings and prints as well as the experimentation and the unpredictability of materials in his drawings and paintings. Organic materials such as wine, spices, sand and metal form beautifully articulated lines and figures. Although his Master of Fine Arts from the State University of New York at Buffalo afforded him opportunities to exhibit work in Philadelphia, Beijing, Montreal, Toronto, and Florence, San Francisco is home… read more

Asterisk San Francisco Magazine
DIGITAL EDITION Volume 2 Issue 5 - Art & Design Issue

ART: Energy, imagination, and innovation are only a few words out of many that come to mind when thinking of the artistic talent in San Francisco. Our team conceived of a Top 20 list to reflect the incredibly diverse population of artists that grace this highly eclectic city. We wholeheartedly believe the Top 20 list will equally amaze and inspire!

DESIGN: A fusion of wood, metal, talent and passion revitalizes San Francisco's Design Community with fresh new eco-conscious ideas to spur a stylish design revolution fit for today's San Franciscan. In this special Design Section we are exploring the works of 5 Designers in various fields of expertise creating, designing and building the next look of Sustainable Urban Living.

Check back here regularly as new articles are published on the site daily.

We are so excited for our latest issue and overwhelmed by all those interested in joining us for the release party.

Sadly, our 1,500 SqFt HQ can only have so many people. The good news is the show will be up and open to the public from Wednesday, July 11 - August 15 with the amazing works by 4 of our TOP 20 SF ARTIST list;
Paul Madonna
Jonathan Baran
Johanna Poethig
Hella More Funner.

The best part is you can order single copy issues today and get it in your mailbox this week! Shipping to U.S. & Canada included.

For $5.00 you'll receive our most exciting issue yet with a whole-lot of visual stimulation, design inspiration and of course stories about your community.

Thank you for your support!

Click the cover to purchase the new issue.

Or purchase an annual subscription to get our next 6 issues! On sale this week for $12.00/annual.

It's that time of year again, when fabulous fairies spread their wings, rainbow sightings abound and giant pink triangle adorns Twin Peaks once again... Pride week! San Francisco is set to celebrate equality in a big way with non-stop events to keep your costume changes flowing and GLBT love glowing!

So what would the Proud (and let's not forget the friends of the proud) be upto this sensational 42nd annual SF Pride? A whollatafun thats what.

Here are a few highlights of this weekend's festivities, competing for your precious time to have a bodacious night of dancing, drag, and debauchery.

THURSDAY
PRIDE NIGHTLIFE
In the Piazza of California Academy of Sciences on thursday night is the incomparable Heklina of Trannyshack, hosting a fabulous drag performance and "transpecies" costume contest! That's right, get them falsies out and come out for the official Pride Event - Pride Nightlife. The night also features "Stargayzing", two showings of the soul shaking Earthquake Exhibit and entertainment by SF's hottest DJ's - The Iconic Juanita MORE! plus DJ Pink Lightning and DJ Rapid Fire of Stay Gold... Not enough? Well, head over to the coral reef and dance to the booty shaking DJs of Hard French! Last Entry is at 7:45 so set that wig the night before!

Entry: $12.00
California Academy of Sciences |
CalAcademy.org

TRANNY SHACK VS BIG TOP
Still in the mood for some dancing and craving some skin? Head on over to Rebel after 9:30 and dance the night away with Joshua J's BIG TOP with those strippers you love so much. Perfect if you showed up for Pride Nightlife in DRAG because Trannyshack will be there to check you out with special guest WILLIAM from RuPaul's Drag Race.

Entry: $10.00
Rebel | 1760 Market St., San Francisco CA

FRIDAY
DRAG YOURSELF TO PRIDE
Disney Prom Party @ Rickshaw Stop
Come friday and you don't want to fight the crowds in the Castro as we're sure it's going to be a hot mess of sexy tourists - you'd better dust off your glass slippers and get ready to DRAG YOURSELF TO PRIDE! We all grew up loving all the Princes Disney films had to offer, well now here is your chance to get yourself one! Beware, I'm sure a few Gaston's will be out too. Stay clear of Jafar though... he's secretly having a love affair with Iago. This one-of-a kind party will be a hot mess of characters all out to do one thing... Make their fairy tails (tales) come true! Enjoy the night with DJ B.Urmanita on Beats. Richard Tamayo from Photobooth snapping Disney Prom Photos upstairs (That's going to be awesome), Go-Go Boys & Girls dancing in their best Dirty Disney costumes. Get on that carpet and fly over to the Rickshaw Stop.

Entry: $5.00
Rickshaw Stop | 155 Fell St., San Francisco CA

SATURDAY
SF MEN'S SPANKING PARTY
Saturday is going to suck if you don't like to get spanked since Pink Party has turned dry what else is there to do? We suggest you just go out there and get spanked. You've been a very bad boy. Don't deny it. You need to get spanked. The San Francisco Men's Spanking Party happens at 12pm and according to the message board its open to men ages 18 and up... Gay, Bi... and definitely Straight. Do it dudes! $20 bucks to get spanked is kind of steep but hey, it's good for you. Wouldn't you rather get spanked than eat food truck snacks when you're trying to look skinny on this very special Pride Weekend?

Entry: $20.00
Power Exchange | 220 Jones St., San Francisco CA
Message board

RANDOM HOUSE PARTIES
Saturday on Pride Weekend is best reserved to hang out with your gayboys and lezzies for a private party. I'm sure your facebook events is flooded with it. Do what I do, show face, swig and move on. Send us an email if you'd like to list your HOUSE PARTY here for added craziness.

SUNDAY SUNDAY PRIDE SUNDAY!
This is a tough one so let's make it simple. Get up early and watch the parade! Sarah Silverman will be there to give you shit about things you are guilty of. You know she will. After the parade, go over to Civic Center for the best people watching event of the year - Pride Festival! While you're there - go over to the INDIE OASIS stage on Larkin and Turk and dance until you glisten in sweat with DJ Blondie K of FRINGE.

TWO PARTIES YOU MUST ATTEND!

JUANITA MORE!'s PRIDE PARTY - benefitting the SF LGBT Center
Last year was so amazing I'm not sure how the iconic Juanita MORE! is going to top it... but if you know her you'd know she's gonna blow your mind. You are going to have so much fun you're not going to want to leave and you'd wish it was Pride Sunday everyday. Once again, the big event is held at the beautiful Phoenix Hotel's CHAMBERS and this year also at JONES all for one ticket! You can even get your sassy ass on the party bus from one place to the other!

Entry: Advanced Tickets $25.00
Tickets available at SUI GENERIS stores in Castro | 2265 Market Street
Visit Juanitamore.com for more info

What is a pride celebration without some good deed? Buy Juanita MORE!s Tote Bag, in partnership with Rickshaw Bags (25% if all sales of this limited edition bag go directly to The SF LGBT Center.)... This fantastic tote will easily be the best memorabilia you'll have of 2012's smashing pride!
For more details visit Rickshaw Bags.

HARD FRENCH HEARTS LOS HOMOS PRIDE
This year, Hard French is throwing a big bash at SOMARTS to make more room for you booty shakers! The Hard French crew has been hard at work to put together a party you'll be talking about for months. This year's lineup promises an inter-generational event with live performances by living legend soul musician Sugar Pie DeSanto, and indie elecric darling SSION and Portland Bounce Music magician BeyondaDoubt. It's going to be a hoot.Your favorite resident DJ's Brown Amy & Carnita, along with the sexy Jiggalicious Dance Babes will complete your pride celebration to perfection.

Entry: $25
SOMArts Cultural Center | 934 Brannan St. San Francisco, CA
To learn more visit http://hardfrench.com/pride-2012-faq/

That's quite the pride. You'll be sure to lose some weight with all that non-stop dancing and flirting, you'll look gorgeous! Then again, you already are.

Have a safe and happy Pride everyone!

Something is shaking at the California Academy of Sciences, starting this weekend with their new exhibit EARTHQUAKE. It's not some boring educational tour to teach you all about earthquakes, it will shake you up and entertain you too! If only real earthquakes were this entertaining!

Learn about the earth's core and mantle and the ever shifting plates causing earthquakes in one of the many installations and watch a beautifully executed educational and entertaining video about quakes all around the world in the Planetarium and finally, experience an earthquake first hand at the Shake House!

Experience first hand the intensity of the 1989 earthquake with a 15 second recreation and the stronger, longer quake of 1906. After you've had your fill of the thrill of a simulated earthquake, learn how to prepare yourself for the next big one with tips on how to secure your house and yourself from a likely catastrophe. Don't forget to visit the baby Ostriches! These adorable creatures have an interesting connection to the tremors around the world... What is it? You'll have to visit Cal Academy of Sciences and learn for yourself.

EARTHQUAKE Exhibit
Photos Courtesy of California Academy of Sciences

For more info visit:
CalAcademy.org

When people think of Art Fairs, most will think of the big ones in NYC, LA, and Miami but this year, San Francisco is poised to join their ranks to be the next art destination with three very different art events catering to all types of collectors and spectators. The question is, which one should you attend? If you are an avid art lover, you'll know exactly where your favorite artists will be showing... but for the rest of us - solely attending to view art, it all depends on the experience you seek.

If you've already seen all the permanent collections at the deYoung and SFMOMA, you'll be delighted to visit the SF FineArt Fair and ArtMrkt with its grand selection of artists displaying current works in Museum style. The SF FineArt Fair is held at Fort Mason, where galleries from San Francisco and beyond exhibit large scale pieces, from sculptures to paintings and mixed media masterpieces. If you find yourself at the SF FineArt Fair, check out ArtHaus (San Francisco) and the giant celebrity collages by Alex Guofeng Cao (New York).

The ArtMrkt, held at the Concourse Exhibition Center (another huge venue) offers an impressive array of local galleries and a sprinkling of world class galleries from LA, NY and other countries plus a great VIP lounge not to be missed. Check out Eli Ridgway (San Francisco), Dean Project (New York) and Cain Schulte Contemporary Art (San Francisco) Park Life(SF) and EverGold Gallery(SF) while browsing and prepare to be amazed.

Our favorite fair however would have to be the more intimate event - ARTPAD SF. Exhibiting at the Phoenix Hotel in the TL, large and small galleries have taken over each room displaying a diverse collection of art featuring some of our favorite locals, Project One, Unspeakable Projects, Luggage Store and the Popular Workshop.With Poolside fun, DJs, Drinks and of course all the Art rooms to explore make for a great social art event San Francisco desperately needs more of.

All the events are worth the entry prices and no doubt you will leave every single one inspired and humbled by the immense talent the world has to offer.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON EVENTS VISIT:
MAY 17-20, 2012

ARTPAD SF
http://artpadsf.com/

ARTMRKT SF
http://www.art-mrkt.com/sf

SF FINEART FAIR
http://www.sffineartfair.com/

Asian Vaginas take the stage at Castro Theater
May 16, 2012 | By Jeremy Joven

In the midst of all the Art festivities this week in San Francisco is a group of vocal, angry, asian vaginas on stage at the historic Castro Theater for the Asian Pacific American Vagina Monologues, presented by The National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum.

Whatever it is you find yourself doing thursday night, don't miss out on all the Vaginas on stage telling you what's what. They will be talking issues… hair (not the one up top)… Your Mom's vaginas, your friends vaginas, their own vaginas and VAGINA VAGINA VAGINA. Its a glorious thing. Celebrate it with an all Asian cast - never before seen in such a vagina frenzy.

Their Vaginas are angry, and to find out why, you should head over to the Castro Theater! Show starts at 7:30. Locals Julia H. Rhee and Linda Yang takes center stage along with an inspiring list of powerful women for a fiery night of Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues. The performance profiles the intimate stories of women impacted by sexual assault, war, and pain with a celebratory perspective on sexual self-discovery, empowerment and love.

The production is directed by Gabrielle Patacsil and features an all Asian Pacific American women-identified cast. Proceeds benefit the local Bay Area chapter of the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum, the nation's only multi-issue women's organization for Asian Pacific American women and girls.

www.apavaginamonologues.com
www.napawf.org
www.vday.org

WHEN:
May 17, 2012, Thursday
7:30 PM - 9:30 PM

WHERE:
Castro Theater
429 Castro Street, San Francisco
$15 - 65

tickets available online or at box office

Asterisk San Francisco Magazine
DIGITAL EDITION Volume 2 Issue 4 - Throwback 1912 Issue

San Francisco, you’ve come a long way from 1912. Just think, 100 years ago you had to take steam trains to get to the Richmond from downtown. You picked yourself up from the ashes of the 1906 earthquake and turned yourself into a metropolis envied by cities all over the world. One hundred years later, you keep proving to the world that a small city with passionate dwellers is a thing of beauty.

Your buildings speak of your history—every street a reminder of the colorful life you have lived. All the while, you modernize yourself to meet today’s needs for sustainable living. You continue to be a haven of creativity, a community of lovers, and a preserver of beauty. May you continually establish a society of critical thinkers, a bevy of inventors, and a community strengthened by its camaraderie in the next 100 years, as you reach your goal of becoming a utopian paradise to which the rest of the world aspires.

Menswear and San Francisco go together like a well stitched seam, as this bay city boasts some of the most original and fashionable mens clothing designers. That being said, it isn't a huge surprise that San Francisco's own Banana Republic flagship store on Grant Avenue decided to collaborate with the popular local tailors, Taylor Stitch, to launch a new shop-in-shop featuring their beautifully constructed ready-to-wear and custom made shirts. Founders and co-owners Michael Maher, Barrett Purdum, and Michael Armenta, are excited about the collaboration which began after Banana Republic's senior merchandiser, Tom Gerard visited their Valencia Street location last Christmas to buy a shirt. After thoroughly enjoying the experience, the two companies went back and forth, and now Talyor Stitch's gorgeous designs will be available in B.R.'s flagship store for the next 18 weeks.

The clever and vintage inspired display at Banana Republic will offer not only a fine selection of their collection but also the aide of Taylor Stitch's trained staff to assist those wanting something custom made from one of the many fabric and pattern choices available. Be sure to stop by and browse the dapper looks, and remember, many may think that there is nothing better than a man in a suit, but in reality there is nothing sexier than a man in a well-made shirt.

Check out a previous feature on Taylor Stitch in Asterisk San Francisco's MADE IN SF ISSUE. (Published 2010)

For more info visit:
Banana Republic
256 Grant Avenue San Francisco, CA 94108
(415) 788-3087

Taylor Stitch
383 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 322-8773

San Franciscan's cannot have enough of SF MADE Products - and the whole world is taking notice. Quality, passion, and community, makes for great promotional tools when it comes to SF Made stuff, but what really makes it all happen is the support of the locals.

SF MADE, established in 2010 has been inspiring local entrepreneurs; big and small to keep our city's manufacturing industry alive. They encourage innovation and job creation in a outsourcing world.

Support the SF MADE ORG by attending their Annual Fundraiser - with this year's "RAMP IT UP! - Poured, Shaken and Stirred" A speakeasy themed celebration of local artisan beverages all to promote and support local businesses.

DETAILS:
SFMade’s annual fundraiser is a celebration of local manufacturers and their products at Speakeasy Brewery, featuring: - Keynote address from Mayor Ed Lee - A unique interactive live showroom of SFMade beverage companies and their products -Artisan food and beverage pairings from SFMade companies -Networking with over 250 community members.

Specialty cocktails provided by: Distillery No.209 & SFVodka
Wine and Beer provided by: Speakeasy Brewery, Cellars 33, Bluxome Winery, The Winery SF, and Bravium.
Delicious food provided by: S & S Brand, Sinto Gourmet, Kika's Treats, Humphry Slocombe, and Whole Foods
Coffee from Ritual Coffee Roasters.

NOTE: This is a no-host, CASH ONLY bar, beer tokens are $3 each, cocktails are $6
All event proceeds go towards SFMade's programs.
Parking info: Street parking will be available, look along Fairfax Ave and Evans Ave.

Getting there on public transit:
Take the 19, 44 or the KT.

WHEN:
Thursday, May 9, 2012
5:30PM - 8:30PM

WHERE:
Speakeasy Brewery
1195 Evans Ave San Francisco, CA 94124

E-mail has spoiled you. You want instant gratification in everything you do. Why not travel back in time and send messages via Telegrams? In a sense anyway. Send a telegram to your mistress or to your adoring gentlemen callers and show them how you care!

How does it work? We imagine (because we are too lazy to research) that Telegrams were processed magnetically by FUN-gineers and sent to a hub then read by darling old ladies. They then print what is socially acceptable and hand it to a courier. A courier in case you didn't know was a form of e-mail back in the day. Balderdash, you say? Tough!

MESSAGE FROM THE ASTERISK SAN FRANCISCO TELEGRAM SERVICE.
Dear Visitor,
If it is instant gratification you seek
you have time traveled to the wrong era.
By using the magic that is known to you as the “INTERWEBS”
we bring back the art of the Telegram.

Your messages will be received
but not as instantly as you’d wish.

Savour the wait. Watch that E-mail Box.
A copy of your telegram will be sent to you and your recepient.

Enjoy!

Caption this artwork - via Facebook Comments.
Here is the second installment of our weekly "Sketchings".
Titled - Couple Dynamics

What do you think is happening? Help us caption this cartoon by commenting on the facebook comment form to the right.
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We have missed the Mission Community Market so much! This thursday, rain or shine, the mission's favorite market is back with more to love! The market, now in its third year brings in new exciting vendors to add to the regular fair of produce, musical performances, food trucks and entertainment. New vendors like Spring Hill Cheese from Petaluma, the 'whole beast buchery' of San Francisco 4505 Meats and Georgie Girl Design Jewelry along with past favorite vendors, Hapa Ramen; Emmy's Pickles and Jams; and Coast Side Farms.

MCM offers more than a traditional farmer’s market. Opening day will feature musical performance by the renowned LoCura, recently featured in the National Geographic World Music series; and ABADÁ-Capoeira dance performance.

The market is only as exciting as the people who take part. So unwrap your canvas grocery bags and join the community in celebrating one of the best Farmer's Market in San Francisco today (April 12) and every Thursday from 4-8.

WHEN:
OPENING
April 12
4-8 pm

Every Thursday!

Market Photos Courtesy of MCM
Where:
Bartlett and 22nd Street

For more info visit MCM's website
missioncommunitymarket.org

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The San Francisco LGBT Community Center will hold its 10th Anniversary celebration this weekend, March 24th - SOIREE 10 - à la mode française at the San Francisco Design Center Galleria. This amazing event will transform the space in to a decadent turn-of-the-last century Parisian salon. An era of optimism, period of invention, style, rebellion, and flamboyance.

Local comedian Marga Gomez hosts the event, kicking off with vintage tunes by blues spun on antique crank-up gramophones by blues chanteuse (turned DJ) Veronica Klaus. Also entertaining to your hearts delight at the soiree are the hottest DJs of San Francisco; Hard French, Stay Gold, Viennetta Discotheque and Some Thing.

What Soiree wouldn't be complete without a silent auction with dozens of collectibles, gift baskets and a full bar of cocktails beer and wine. Tickets are available at the door for $125, all for a good cause. Show your support for the LGBT Community and the center contributing to stronger, healthier, and more equitable world for LGBT people and our allies.

You can learn more about The SF LGBT Community Center at www.sfcenter.org

WHEN
March 24, 2012
7pm

WHERE
SFDC Galleria
101 Henry Adams Street, San Francisco, CA

What are you doing Thursday night? Sitting at home watching YouTube clips about cats? Come on now… Get off your butt and see the best of the best in mobile film making at the 5th annual Disposable Film Festival.

The festival starts March 22-25 with an exciting (usually sold out) Opening Night at the historic Castro Theater followed by an after hours party at the LOOKOUT.

To find out more: visit disposablefilmfestival.com

"The Disposable Film Festival supports and celebrates the democratization of cinema made possible by new, inexpensive video technology, offering a legitimate forum in which the work of zero-budget and non-traditional filmmakers is taken seriously and exhibited in theaters around the United States and internationally. Through workshops, competitions, panels, and other events intended to educate and inspire, the Disposable Film Festival promotes experimentation and helps build the track record needed for a new generation of filmmakers to enter and change the industry."

-The Disposable Film Festival, Mission

Solo ESAS Mujeres: Documenting the Universal | Material

Curated by iona rozeal brown and Veronica Jackson, this 25th Annual Solo Mujeres exhibition utilizes photography, watercolor, graphite, textiles, audio, video, and mixed-media to explore aspects of female empowerment through documentation. As documenters of their identity, lives, loves, losses, and related matter, these artists, as narrators, are chroniclers of the worlds around them. They are the visual story tellers interpreting their visual voices through these various mediums.

The distinguished line up of artists includes: Nina Chanel Abney, Dawn Black, Zöe Charlton, Gina M. Contreras, Lisa Cortés, Martha Diaz, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Deborah Grant, Jessica Ingram, Nicole Markoff (Nicacelly), Kelly Ording, Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz (Chuleta), Stephanie Syjuco, and Robyn Twomey.

These artists acknowledge and continue the tradition of documentation using their own language.

WHEN:
Opening Reception
March 21, 6:30-9:30pm
$5 Donation

WHERE:
2868 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA
415-821-1155

Winter Chills Lingers | Spring Blossoms Again
Merchandise Picks by Dawn Hunt

Style picks for Spring 2012 from local vendors - Seedstore, Fiat Lux, Revolver, Detox Market, Confier and more.

ART BY: Jenifer Wofford
Artist Profile by Dorothy Santos

To exist within an art community and thrive, one must be able to grow, learn, develop, and maintain an incredibly multi-faceted practice to stay relevant. To take it a step further, as an arts educator and practitioner, it is imperative to make work that is accessible to the public and be ready to engage. Jenifer Wofford is a rare gem in the arts. From artist residencies in Denmark, Italy, and most recently, Norway, she continues to make profound connections between ideas, cultures, and people through her work. Her travels and thirteen years of providing arts education in the San Francisco Bay Area public school district as well as at the university level, including California College of the Arts, UC Berkeley, and University of San Francisco have produced a unique combination of art practice and theory that illuminates as much as it entertains. Wofford thrives on collaboration and participation from her peers as a part of the creative process. Her observations, conversations, and dynamic global studio practice are not only imaginative but showcase a multitude of talent across genres… read more

On February 24th, Asterisk San Francisco opened the doors to our new HQ. Hundreds of art lovers and publishing fanatics joined the celebration in the lively 24th Street corridor of the Mission District. Honored guest artists Carissa Potter, Boris Jovanovic, Erik Otto and Trev Yoder attended the event where their new works are exhibited on the new gallery walls to meet and greet readers and followers. The group show featuring previously featured artists in the publication is open to the public wed-sat until March 24.

The opening event doubled as our new issue release - PEOPLE ISSUE to a great reception of local admirers, excited to see their local heroes highlighted in the new issue accompanied by fantastic drinks. (Compliments of King's Ginger and Black Bull Whisky from Anchor Distribution) Venga Empanadas provided us with cocktail sized empanadas to enjoy an evening of community, art and fun.

Many people have asked, why does a print and online magazine have an open office with gallery? The answer is, Why Not?
The HQ and Gallery is a manifestation of our love for the community and art. Instead of having a closed office we decided to share our space to our readers. At our HQ, you may stop by and talk with our editors about story ideas or worthwhile features about the city, submit artwork for our gallery and perhaps hold an event for your projects all in one space...

Your contribution helps us continue writing, highlighting and promoting local people, businesses and places while creating a creative place for writers, contributors, artists and photographers to hone their skills. As a special thanks for your continued readership - We are offering half-off subscriptions mailed directly to you!

NEXT ISSUES:
Throwback Issue - (March 2012)
See San Francisco Then and Now inspired by lifestyles of the people of 1912 and 2012.

Art & Design Issue - (May 2012)
From local artists to local furniture designers, read and browse an issue exposing talented people in San Francisco making, painting and designing things you use daily.

Food Issue V2 - (June 2012)
This year's top restaurant picks, budget conscious hot spots and food trends making it big in San Francisco and all over the Bay Area. Our second Food Issue that is guaranteed to satisfy your hunger!

Educational porn is ubiquitous at the new exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences: Animal Attraction. Not the kind of porn you're probably thinking but you'd be surprised just how wild animal sex can be!

What could be wilder than two lions getting it on? Well, take a Devil's Flower Mantis for example. Females eat their mate after sex! There’s also a harem of fish with one alpha male and if he dies, a female fish in the group goes through a sex change to take his place! Let’s not forget about the Banana Slugs. These beautiful creatures of the squishy variety are simultaneous hermaphrodites, meaning that each individual is male and female at the same time! You'd think they won't need to find a mate but… these horny slugs need a mate to perform the yin-and-yang position to consummate their relationship! Sometimes, they mate so hard the penis of one gets wound up so tightly the other one has to bite it off! Ouch! Ever had a man who won’t leave after a night of passion? Maybe you slept with a Triplewart Seadevil Anglerfish! The male literally latches on and won’t let go once they do the deed. After he bites the female, the two fuses permanently until the male gradually atrophies and turns into nothing more than a pair of gonads. Yuck! Perhaps this exhibit will help you spot the type miles away...

There is nothing like a little mystique to get you in the mood for romance as V-Day approaches. Start early and join ARTPOINT in what promises to be one of the most talked about events of the year - Masters of Venice: A Masked Ball. The spectacular masquerade will transport you to 15th Century Venice, surrounded by flawlessly dressed art lovers in ornate masks dancing and indulging in spirits and appetizers. Where else? The DeYoung of course.

Dynamic performances will mystify you as you revel in the anonymity of your venetian mask. After the ball, you may even roam the lower level of the museum to gaze your eyes on the masterpieces of the 15th Century.

So dust off your ball gown, and dry clean your tux because an event this exciting doesn't come but once a year. Who knows, you might find a masked mate to date!

VIP guests will enjoy priority entry an hour before the main event, tours of the stunning exhibition, and access to a private VIP lounge all evening serving Stags' Leap Winery Petit Sirah and Viogner, along with Greg Norman Sparkling Wine and heavy appetizers provided by Union Street Catering...

This weekend is your last chance to check out SexRev, a musical comedy that tells the story of gay activist and drag performer José Sarria. SexRev draws on camp, sketch comedy, opera parody, and queer confrontation to show his impact on gay entertainment and LGBT politics. Many people don't know that Sarria ran for SF Supervisor a decade and a half before Harvey Milk appeared on the scene...

“’Sex Rev:’ is a romping biography of the famous San Francisco drag queen from serving in the United States Army during World War 2 in France, to being a waiter and then a famous entertainer at the notorious “Black Cat”, to running for San Francisco supervisor (he lost but received over 6000 votes making the start of gay power in this city) to being the first to form the yearly “elections” of Emperors and Empresses (usually gay men and drag queens respectively). Today the Imperial Court is international and raises millions for AIDS patients. Jose also encouraged gay people who were caught in embarrassing situations to plead guilty and request jury trials when they were arrested on sexual offense charges. This would clog the court system with these cases that were difficult to sustain for lack of evidence. Throughout this 2-hour romp he would say “Swallow the evidence and ask for a jury trial”.

The snow flake lights on Market are up and cheer is all around - it's our favorite time of year! This year, Black Friday showed great numbers of sales compared to the last few years signaling some hope that the economy, though gloomy may just be getting better. Now, it's time we support our local economy by attending an amazing shopping event put together by the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center & Working Solutions with your favorite local merchants!…

It's that time of the year again... and no we don't mean Christmas. Halloween, silly. Everyone in the city is getting creative coming up with showstoppers, sexy costumes and crazy-out-there-wild get ups to get noticed in a sea of disguised halloween gallavanters.

We're sure we will see several Sue Sylvesters and Michelle Bachmann's this year along with a group of angry birds - so why not get a little more creative and do two costumes at once?

WORDPLAY DUO COSTUME IDEAS
Kim Jong Il Kardashian - Imagine a guy dressed as Kim Jong il with a Kim Kardashian booty and bust... If anyone found you sexy, you should definitely go home with that.

Transformerica Pyramid - This is fairly easy, all it takes are some scrap cardboard. Make the TransAmerica Pyramid with robot leggs and arms and cause havoc all around town.

Ke$hup - Since most of you look like Ke$ha already with your torn jeans, messed up hair and whiskey breath, just get one of those ketchup bottle costumes from Party City and say you're dressed as Ke$hup. Who knows, you might meet your dream man Mustard Green Lantern.

Ronald McDonald Trump - Clown Face and red wig? Doesn't take a lot to do - this one's for the lazy. Best if you make your wig with a comb over... Wear a suit and yell at people they're fired all night. Good times will be ahead...

When you empower and increase the entrepreneurial capacities of a socially and economically diverse community you create Big Impact, creating new jobs, local trade, a strengthened community, and generally a happier, more loving people. That is Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center's mission. With their help - hundreds of bay area businesses thrive, promoting financial self-sufficiency. Asterisk SF is proud to sponsor this fantastic organization and help spread the word about their wonderful contribution to our city. Join the Ren Center in celebrating local businesses, incubators and supporters for a night of fun at the Bentley Reserve. Tickets available…

Event Info...

Art as means for social change and awareness struck a chord for a group of Bay Area artists who looked towards utilizing their own skills and network in developing an event that would soon be recognized as one of the preeminent venues to help affect much needed change in services to those stricken with HIV/AIDS. Like most grassroots organizations, the impetus was the deep seeded desire to care for friends, but in a powerful way. Since its inception, Art for AIDS has garnered much attention and engaging talented artists such as Ryan Reynolds, Deborah Oropallo, Jock Sturges, Pamela Merory Derhnam, Rex Ray, and Ross Bleckner.

Although the event itself involves the auctions, the Bay Area community is able to show support and become involved with such incredible gathering. Behind the scenes, committee and jury members ensure logistics and curatorial aspect of the show to ensure a diverse and gifted program of artists is showcased. They also work closely with the sponsors, galleries, and collectors donating works of art. In addition, whether you are purchasing tickets to sponsor the event or donating services, Art for AIDS relies on the generosity of many individuals and organizations to assist in making the occasion a success. For this year’s benefit, special guest and contributing artist Franc D’Ambrosio will be performing for patrons and event supporters.

As one of the major annual art events in San Francisco, Art for AIDS benefits the UCSF AIDS Health Project (an evening when the art community comes together for an incredibly important cause). With over 150 art works for sale during the live and silent auctions, patrons will take part in bolstering the care for those affected by this epidemic and enhance AIDS prevention through education. Asterisk SF is extremely proud and honored to serve as a media sponsor for this extraordinary benefit.

For more information visit
artforaids.org...

ArtSpan's SF Open Studios is happening all month long this October with 5 weekends of art in artist studios near you. Over 800 local artists making art here in the city will open their studios to art enthusiasts for the biggest annual art event in the Bay.

ArtSpan's mission is to connect the art community with the general public. With an immense offering of both famous and emerging artists working in varying mediums here in SF - you have a lot of art to see. Meet local artists and other art lovers on your crawl while immersing yourself in art and new discoveries in districts you may not be familiar with.

SF Open Studios is a month long art crawl that starts with you. Find ArtSpan's guide in your hood and start plotting the artist studios you want to visit...

Capsule Urban Air Market is happening this Sunday with over 130 independent designers of clothing, accessories, jewelry, paper goods, glassware, and unique home décor.

This must-attend event boasts a collection of the city's best local jewelry designers from the likes of Colleen Mauer, Corey Egan Metalsmithing, Dear Mina and many more with fashion forward designs that would compliment this season's fashions and retain their timeless appeal. Aside from gorgeous rings and bracelets you'd find a variety of clothing designers, home products and more at the event.

Asterisk SF faves like... Neives offers a number of alternative therapy skin care & bath products that are handmade. Type.lites soy candles, made in their kitchen with honestly the best smelling candles you'd find crafted in the city and countless other great wares from great locals that value the importance of small batch products.

With quality over quantity in mind, Capsule picks local talent showcasing products that are truly San Francisco. Attendees would also appreciate being able to meet the makers of the goods offered at the festival and learn about their process and inspirations, adding a wonderful connection and community to a leisurely Sunday stroll at Hayes Valley Patricia's Green Park.

Find more info about Capsule and our top picks in the next issue of Asterisk SF Magazine...

Do you like to jump around, bounce, and hop? Yeah you do! This weekend the House of Air is celebrating their first year anniversary with AIRFEST! It's going to be a bouncy good time so you best come down to the Presidio!

Airfest happens this Saturday, September 17 with live music @ Crissy Fields (next to the House of Air), The fest includes entertainment like demos from aerial heroes like Olympic Gold Medalist Jonny Moseley and gang, a "Silent Disco", 50 foot slack line and live street art and local food vendors… let's not forget free jump time at the Trampoline park.

The House of Air opened its doors last year adding an exciting new place for locals and tourists alike to enjoy an afternoon in the city. Equipped with athletic and recreational facilities, the HOA became an instant SF past time with fun indoor activities such as trampoline jump, aerial and physical training, dodgeball and fitness classes...

Highlights of the amazing works exhibited include the awe-inspiring a 23-foot-tall masking tape lamp post suspended inches above the ground by a set of giant red balloons, and tintype photographs produced in the trunk of an artist's car.

The closing reception to be held this Friday, September 16 will be an art filled soiree with entertainment by local band Yesway, DJs and food for purchase from the Taco Bueno Truck. During the event, awards will be presented to the recipients of the $3,500 Fellowship tuition awards, plus an additional $3,500 Juror's Choice award, presented to all exhibiting artist.

This is your last chance to view this extraordinary exhibit -
Don't miss it… Read More

We all know what the first Saturday of the month means don't we? Time to get our groove on at Hard French @ El Rio. This special Labor Day Dance Extravaganza is happening today with the beats that get your heart pumpin' and a crowd that gets your hips swayin! Asterisk SF will be there taking pics of your sexy mugs for the STYLE ISSUE coming out this september!

Join Hard French for a dance contest of "epic proportions" with celebrity judges and prizes including $100 cash and tickets to Deviants 2011 (Hard French's official Folsom Street Block Party.) Click here for more details on Deviants...

The Independent Artists' event turns the Fillmore District into a festival of artists with live Art Shows, Performances, Music, Film Screenings and… Break Dancing! The event happens September 5-11 at various galleries in the neighborhood with pop-up art studios, industry education and networking events. To learn more about this great event visit IAW's website.
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