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Week Around the -Ists

Brock Keeling — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 12:43:55 GMT

Gothamist learned about the craziest urban nightmare come true: A huge python found in the bathroom pipes. It was also a nightmare for some Yankees fans, as manger Joe Torre declined to come back and manage the Bronx Bombers. At least the city's attempt to give some direction to subway riders was interesting, pranksters went shirtless at the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch and the I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendars came out. And just in time for Halloween, the Chocolate Jesus is back.

By the time you read this, Bostonist will either be elated or will have had its heart broken by the Cleveland Indians during the ALCS. The Red Sox has taken Bostonist on a tummy-turning roller-coaster ride. At one point, they thought Cleveland was messing with its head when the Indians hired Josh Beckett's old girlfriend to sing the National Anthem. In non-Sox-related news, Bostonist found out what an Iron Butt is and mourned the imminent closure of one of the city's finest theaters. And an astronaut is planning on taking a little bit of the Boston Symphony Orchestra with her when she flies.

SFist interviewed New Yorker scribe Alex Ross, saw Archbishop George Niederauer apologize to the Catholic Church for giving communion to the anti-Catholic Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, and had a time-honored NYC vs. SF debate. SFist also questioned the practice of "tipping" cable car drivers. The eco-y Lights Out SF ended up a dim success. Oh, and therapeutic sound healers? Are interesting. And bizarre. Just listen for yourself.

SFist Tonight watches Infamy

Mary Ladd — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 08:39:27 GMT

Tonight, learn about graffiti street artists as SF360 Film+Club returns to Mezzanine to celebrate the URB Next 100 Issue with a screening of Doug Pray’s film, Infamy. The film is an
intense journey into the dangerous lives and obsessed minds of six of America’s most prolific graffiti artists. Doug Pray (“Hype!” and “Scratch”) teamed up with writer, publisher, and graffiti guru Roger Gastman, to make a movie that takes you deep into the world of street legends Saber, Toomer, Jase, Claw, Earsnot, and Enem. After the film, the intriguingly named Chicago DJ Flosstradamus will perform, with Vin Sol opening. Doors at 7 pm, film starts at 7:30 pm, music starts at 10 pm. Damrak Gin will providing free gin drinks for the first hour. How sweet is that?. Tickets to the film are $8, but you can email info@sf360.org for $5 tickets. If you show up for the concert only, tickets will be $10. SF360 Film+Club is presented by the San Francisco Film Society, Mezzanine and Rehab. This event is sponsored by SFWeekly, 7x7 and Damrak. SF360 Film+Club is a monthly series, and past events have featured Next: A Primer on Urban Painting, Wholphin (we have it at home & it's seriously funny) and Colma: The Musical.

As for Infamy, the film is supposed to be funny and brutally honest. The artists in the film reveal why they are so willing to risk everything to spray paint their cities with "tags," “throwups,” and full-color murals. Meet Joe "The Graffiti Guerilla" Connolly, a notorious “buffer” who paints out graffiti on his neighborhood’s walls with a vengeance matched only by those who vandalized them. From the streets of the South Bronx to the solitude of a San Francisco tunnel, from high atop a Hollywood billboard to North Philadelphia for a lesson in "Philly-style tags," from the Mexican border to a Cleveland train yard, Infamy probably won't analyze or glorify graffiti, but instead bring it to life.

Mezzanine is at 444 Jessie Street @ Mint, SF. Phone: 415-625-8880

SFIFF: Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela

rita — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 11:40:33 GMT

Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela">

Faithful readers, you've probably noticed that this SFist watches the same types of movies over and over again: So we figured we'd mix it up a little bit and go watch something a little less provincial for a change -- which is how we ended up at last night's 9:00 p.m. screening of the Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela at the SFIFF.

First of all, the audience for a historical and personal documentary about South Africans in exile from 1960-1990 as apartheid was being dismantled is very different from the usual scruffians we see at our wacky movies about, say, the history of the Mission hipster told through burritos used as puppets -- there were a lot of earnest expressions on faces and internationalist people carrying Global Exchange backpacks. And in the audience, we ran into a friend who's devoted her life to public interest law and whom we've never seen at a movie screening before. Boy, we're usually pretty shallow in our movie picks, aren't we?

Filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris told the audience that the documentary itself is a eulogy to his stepfather, who fled South Africa with a group of 11 friends and helped found the African National Congress, and an attempt to tell his story and to resolve posthumously the sometimes-strained nature of their relationship. His stepfather's story is pretty amazing (he fled, mostly by foot, from South Africa to Tanzania, and then emigrated to the Bronx). We started out dubious about the historical/personal premise, and even more dubious about the dramatic "reenactments," but as the movie progressed, it all of a sudden didn't really matter. It's a great story.

We wish there'd been a little more information about modern African history (the movie presumes a fair amount of knowledge) and we also got the sense that Harris was pulling some punches about the conflicts between him and his stepfather, but that's all pretty minor stuff. 12 Disciples plays again tonight at 6:30 at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, and it'll also be airing on PBS in September.

Is it a documentary about something weird and/or in San Francisco? Gosh, who could SFist possibly get to watch that?

Freaks and Geeks -- So Chic

rita — Thu, 27 Oct 2005 09:46:30 GMT

Hey, no one told us that Gavin was giving a State of the City address last night! We totally would have gone!

It was all blah blah blah, Tony Hall, blah blah beautification, blah blah wind and solar power, but Newsom also announced that he's thinking about starting a science and technology high school over in Mission Bay. Going on the NY model, SF has one general Stuyvesant-type magnet school (Lowell) and a FAME-type arts school (School of the Arts), but we've never had a specialized Bronx Science-type geek school, or any type of magnet school on the east side of the city. (Though can someone explain to us how Galileo fits in here, then, with the whole "science and technology" thing in its name?) The proposed school's supposed to combine high school and college classes, with a focus on the biotech research going on around there.

Schoolwatchers note (page 5, .pdf) that it may be hard to launch a new school given how the SF school district's enrollment numbers keep dropping, and that a lot of other schools (Lowell, Lincoln, Wallenberg, and Galileo) have already launched biotech-oriented programs -- but, come on, there's something so appealing about putting all your geeks together in one school! Go Mathletes!

It's Opening Day!

jackson — Mon, 04 Apr 2005 15:44:49 GMT

Even so, the other teams in Major League baseball will play 162 games this year. That includes your Oakland Athletics, now Lewis Wolff's and Billy Beane's Oakland Athletics as well. (Try to share.) At 12:05 PM

SFist Jake, contributing.

SFist Meets a Hero!

jackson — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 12:25:00 GMT

If you don't know, Afrika Bambaataa basically blessed the world with hip-hop - along with fellow angels Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and the people of the South Bronx (we're so jealous you have this beat, Gothamist). SFist feels that San Francisco is at the leading edge in the rebirth of historical consciousness in hip-hop, and agree with Bambaataa when he says that the fundamentals are being found as far as Tokyo and Rome these days.

Bam was incredibly generous with his time, answering questions from Shout Magazine and Eddie Mariano of KCSF. He covered topics ranging from the current state of hip-hop to mind-bending propoganda to the latest in DJ technology. To say the man is a genius is an understatement, so you should drop by Amoeba next month for the latest issue of Shout to read or tune in to KCSF to listen to his pearls of wisdom. You can also check out the streaming audio from his performance at the DNA Lounge (he went on last and rocked until four!). For more information on Bambaataa's international organization for personal empowerment through cultural expression, check out the Zulu Nation web site.