When the ancient Polynesians invented surfing, they often used a paddle to help them navigate. Fast-forward a few millennia, and Stand-Up Paddleboarding, or SUP, finds itself trendy again. Part of its increasing popularity is that standing upright allows surfers to spot waves more easily and thus catch more of them, multiplying the fun factor. Paddling back to the wave becomes less of a strain as well. The ability to cruise along on flat inland water, surveying the sights, is another advantage. Finally, its a good core workout. If youre sold on the idea, schedule an intro SUP lesson, free with board and paddle rental, and you may find yourself riding the waves like a Polynesian king.More
Many of us remember coming home from our elementary schools with freshly glazed pinchpots, cups, or whatever else our young imaginations could conjure up. Saturday mornings at the Randall Museum can bring that memory back, or create a new one for the youngsters. Ceramics make great gifts — especially on Mothers' and Fathers' Day. Hop on board for the Randall's once-weekly class, and for $6 and two weeks to have your work fired and glazed, you'll have all the materials you need.More
December is almost over - the New Year is coming up and everyone is busy drying off from the rain or holiday shopping. Let's take a look at what's happened this month.
Making the less-traditional transition from brick-and-mortar to mobile pop-up, A16 is finally offering its hearty Monday meatballs and signature wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas without the inconvenience of needing to book a table.
Once upon the 1980s, Filipino emigrant Demetrio Braceros (known as Demi by friends and locals) was entrusted with the care of Cayuga Park, a seedy sump of public space that had fallen into disrepair.
December is almost over - the New Year is coming up and everyone is busy drying off from the rain or holiday shopping. Let's take a look at what's happened this month.
Art
YBCA Explores Art And Activism in Take This Hammer
PostedByEmily Wilson
on Tue, Mar 22, 2016 at 12:30 PM
click to enlarge
Courtesy of YBCA
Oree Originol Justice for Our Lives, 2014
A new exhibition at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts that showcases activism through art and media in the San Francisco Bay Area, gets its name, Take This Hammer, from a 1963 documentary about the author James Baldwin as he went around San Francisco, talking to African-Americans about what it was like for them in the city.
Guest curator Christian L. Frock likes Baldwin’s work and says she thinks with the general political climate there’s a lot of interest in what the author of Go Tell It On the Mountain and The Fire Next Time has to say. The title made her think of playwright Bertolt Brecht’s quote, “Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.” She also felt that title got across the impact of the show and that it’s a not just a passive experience.
“It has this promise of shared authorship and change,” she said. “That we’re going to do this together.”
Frock has been writing for years about art, social justice, and the Internet as a medium for social justice, and says she feels grateful for the trust YBCA’s executive director Deborah Cullinan put in her inviting her to organize this exhibition.
“The only thing she said was to look at the movement of creative work coming out of the Bay Area,” Frock said. “She didn’t have any specific artists in mind.”
Frock did. Right away she thought of 3.9 Art Collective, a group of African-American writers, curators and artists; Persia, a drag queen who used to perform at the now closed Esta Noche in the Mission; and Pitch Interactive, a data visualization studio.
click to enlarge
Courtesy of the artists
PERSIA featuring Daddie$ Pla$tik, Google Google Apps Apps, 2013
“I knew from the beginning that I wanted to complicate the narrative of what is visual art and who belongs in a museum,” she said. “Most people don’t think about music or poetry for example, and with data visualization, so much is so beautifully rendered.”
The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project, which also does data visualization as well as digital storytelling collective that documents displacement in the Bay Area is also part of the show.
Their founder, Erin McElroy, has an interesting background, Frock says.
click to enlarge
Courtesy of Dignidad Rebelde
Jesus Barraza, Viva La Mujer, 2014
“She’s a self taught coder who learned it by standing at a Barnes and Noble reading books,” she said. “Their work is really very much about visualization, and there’s an oral history in the show with 160 clips of people talking about displacement.”
Other artists in Take This Hammer include Oree Originol, known for his portraits of people killed by the police; the founder of the Black Lives Matter-Bay Area chapter, Cat Brooks; and Dignidad Rebelde, a graphic arts collaboration between Melanie Cervantes and Jesus Barraza.
The Bay Area has a legacy of social justice movements, Frock says – the Black Panthers, the Free Speech movement at the University of California, Berkeley, and LGBTQ rights among them – and she thinks it’s important to look at how what’s going on here affects the culture of resistance.
“The Bay Area is going through a particularly interesting moment with tech and new wealth coming here,” she said. “I don’t think we’re in a bubble – I think this is the way it is now. San Francisco and the Bay Area are an important breeding ground for social justice, and when that’s compromised, how does it impact the Bay Area and the country at large?”
Take This Hammer, through August 14, YBCA, 701 Mission, $8-10, 415-978-2787.
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.'"