Get SF Weekly Newsletters

Friday, May 6, 2011

Bill Clinton Backs Gay Marriage, Target Inc. Blocks Gay Reporter, Blake Shelton 'Takes It Back'

Posted By on Fri, May 6, 2011 at 6:00 PM

easytargetheader.jpg

Each week, Easy Target alerts you of potential advances or threats to gaykind from the forces of the news media, politics, and popular culture -- the front lines of the culture wars -- in San Francisco and beyond. This week, binational couples get good news from the attorney general. Bill Clinton comes out in support of gay marriage. Bevan Dufty makes a promise he can't deliver. Target does not want to talk to gay blogs. Blake Shelton wants you to know he's not a homophobe. Jake Shears is out to make you hard -- while Focus on the Family is out to make you flaccid.

Continue reading »

  • Pin It

Tags: , , , , ,

The Five Amazing Fun Times You Seek for Your S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y! Night! (and Day!)

Posted By on Fri, May 6, 2011 at 2:39 PM

With lots of help from Ruby Perez the Intern.

Earlier today, we realized there were some events we hadn't covered elsewhere in the paper that we still really wanted to tell you about. Because:


May 7 is GOIN' OFF. Five huge large events are Saturday, so you have to figure out how to clone yourself by then so you can go to all of them. This Saturday is coming after you with its fun times! Gird.

1. Mega Mega Mega
Fundraisers are so often not fun. Some good cause is out to get your money, after all, which is okay but not woo-hoo. The exception: Southern Exposure's big, silly, amusing, food-and-drink-infested annual benefit. This year the theme is winnin' the lottery.
SoEx executive director Courtney Fink tried to warn us off telling you about it, kind of. Because it's a serious art auction with serious art to buy. "It's about buying art and it costs $45 to get in at the door," she told us, all serious. After we reminded her about Winni Wintermeyer's E.T. photo booth from last year, she admitted, "There are also some fun activities. There's a money-grab booth, and the photo booth this year is all gold, like with a gold lion, and tacky goldness, and this cake an artist made -- it's really sparkly." Did she say "money grab booth" AND "sparkly artist cake!?"

Sparkly artist cake. Sparkly artist cake!
  • Sparkly artist cake. Sparkly artist cake!

Continue reading »

  • Pin It

Cinematic Titanic's J. Elvis Weinstein on Movie Riffing and the Legacy of MST3K

Posted By on Fri, May 6, 2011 at 1:30 PM

cinematic_titanic_castro.jpg

Since they hail from the upper Midwest, which is something like the fertile crescent of American niceness, the crew behind Cinematic Titanic (and its progenitor, the original Mystery Science Theater 3000) are hesitant to acknowledge their cultural significance.

In their decade of local-TV and then basic-cable TV stardom, this crew managed, in their unassuming way, to help reshape America's relationship with the pop-culture that is pretty much the element in which we're suspended. Like MAD magazine and The Simpsons, Joel Hodgson and his DIY robots reminded us not just to consume the crap all around us. They reminded us to talk back.

(Seriously, without them, I certainly wouldn't have taken to Crap Archiving.)

Tonight the Castro Theatre and SF SketchFest host Cinematic Titanic for live riffing on two promising oddities: Samson and the Seven Miracles of the World (at 7:30) and Rattlers at 9:30.

Continue reading »

  • Pin It

Tags: , , ,

New Art Space Opens in Dogpatch with Striking Exhibition from Rodney Ewing

Posted on Fri, May 6, 2011 at 10:30 AM

Baptism (2010) - RODNEY EWING
  • Rodney Ewing
  • Baptism (2010)

Saturday is the day to see some moving artwork in a new venue. Two impressive collections from Rodney Ewing dealing heavily with race, ritual, trauma, and injustice make up the inaugural exhibit in Dogpatch Cafe & Art Gallery, according to a statement from Ewing and John Warner of the cafe and gallery. Saturday night is Ewing's opening reception.

Continue reading »

  • Pin It

Tags: , , , , ,

'College Girls - If They Could Only Cook': Amazing '50s Quick Magazine Covers

Posted By on Fri, May 6, 2011 at 8:55 AM

studies_in_crap_quick_college_girls096.jpg

Each Friday, your Crap Archivist brings you the finest in forgotten and bewildering crap culled from Golden State basements, thrift stores, estate sales and flea markets.

A stack of Quick magazines

Date: early 1950s

Publisher: Cowles Magazines, Des Moines, Iowa

Discovered at: The amazing Kayo Books, 814 Post Street

The Cover Promises: Between classes, pearl-clad college girls pose for the paintings that end up on the noses of military planes.

Representative Quotes:

"Too many college girls nowadays," one Eastern educator told Quick, "want to have their cake and eat it, too - providing they don't have to bake it." (page 23)

"For Women Only: Be Quick to watch your grocery store for a new corn flakes package with pictures of Ike and Adlai." (page 45)

Continue reading »

  • Pin It

Tags: , , , , ,

Kevin Epps Captures the African-American Experience at Alcatraz in The Black Rock

Posted on Fri, May 6, 2011 at 7:30 AM


The United States is harder on crime than almost any other Western nation, yet it has an unending fascination with serial killers, mob bosses, and high-profile white-collar criminals. The story of Al Capone, for example, has reached an almost mythological level, one that rivals the Kennedy family in the public consciousness. The names "Zodiac" and "Son of Sam" are still recognizable even though the killers were active more than 30 years ago. The federal prison at Alcatraz has been the focus of this near-obsession as well. About a decade ago, filmmaker Kevin Epps (Straight Outta Hunters Point) looked into the history of the African-American population there and found that not much had been revealed. So he set out to do it himself. The result is The Black Rock, a documentary that covers conditions for black inmates and guards at Alcatraz from the 1930s to the 1960s. It screens Sunday at Red Poppy Art House. See a trailer for it above.

Continue reading »

  • Pin It

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Popular Stories

  1. Most Popular Stories
  2. Stories You Missed

Like us on Facebook

Slideshows

  • clipping at Brava Theater Sept. 11
    Sub Pop recording artists 'clipping.' brought their brand of noise-driven experimental hip hop to the closing night of 2016's San Francisco Electronic Music Fest this past Sunday. The packed Brava Theater hosted an initially seated crowd that ended the night jumping and dancing against the front of the stage. The trio performed a set focused on their recently released Sci-Fi Horror concept album, 'Splendor & Misery', then delved into their dancier and more aggressive back catalogue, and recent single 'Wriggle'. Opening performances included local experimental electronic duo 'Tujurikkuja' and computer music artist 'Madalyn Merkey.'"