All summer long, Tiki News Editor Otto von Stroheim has been throwing fabulous surf fetes soaked in tropical drinks and seaside reverb, but here it is, already September. Children have hung up their swimming trunks and returned to class. Teens have abandoned their surfboards for college campuses. Tropical tans have begun to fade. Summer is drawing to a close, but it's not too late to get really drunk and do the hula wearing a lampshade on your head. Otto's Aloha to Summer Surf Party will thrill and delight with the sandy sounds of the Brainwashers, featuring the legendary guitar skills of Pete Weinberger of the Surf Trio, the three-guitar onslaught of Jumbo Shrimp featuring East Bay Ray and Klaus Flouride, and the exotica instrumentalists the Inspectors. Otto's Surf Party will be held at the Hotel Utah on Friday, Sept. 4, at 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $5; call 421-8308.
And for all you wicked bastards who have been flogging me for info on "Masquerade" since reading about the Genitorturers, it's time you went back to school, too. Back to School: The Kinky Catholic Classroom is one of "Masquerade" 's most talked about fetish events, and it's the proper place for new pupils to take instruction. At midnight, the Honorable Reverend Hours presents a sermon while punishment is administered to those students who have not learned their lessons well. As at any Catholic school, uniforms are required, but they don't have to be limited to schoolgirl plaid. French maid, military man, naughty nun, corrupt cop, perverted priest, or evil taskmaster -- any of these will do nicely. Arrive early because the class seats will fill up fast at Maritime Hall on Saturday, Sept. 5, at 10 p.m. Tickets are $7 for members, $12 for well-dressed nonmembers, $25 for losers; call 339-8685.
Long before Rube Waddell were a hit on the local club circuit, they were stopping traf-fic on the corner of 22nd and Mission streets, where they held crazed musical revivals under the eaves of Leed's Shoe Store. It was worth traversing the horror of Mission bars on a Saturday night just to catch their spiel on the stumble home. Many folks stood on the corner waiting hopefully for the shuffling approach of Mahatma Boom Boom, Reverend Wupass, and Captain Feedback as they pushed their shopping carts filled with noise-making implements procured from street corners, trash bins, and junkyards. They would unload their instruments into a pile and switch on their battery-operated amps with a leer. The Cap'n would pluck the string on his guitar, Eddie One String, and the lunacy would begin as easily as that. Songs of drunks and drinks, murder, love, and wasted days emanated from washboards, spoons, harmonicas, kazoos, and old tin cans. Drunken passers-by would dance or shout obscenities or just stare in disbelief. It was a good weekend when you could catch Rube Waddell.
A few things have changed recently. Rube Waddell play in proper clubs now. They've just released their second album, Stink Bait, on Vaccination Records. And Leed's Shoes has shut down, which left the trio's first stage a dark, urine-soaked grotto. Nevertheless the boys return on a semiregular basis to play under the old sign amid piles of refuse.
The new album has grit under its nails. All the favorites are here, including "Eunice Irene," "Worm/Friends," and "Roy Smeck," which consists entirely of the lyric: "Maka miki moka miki ma!" It's almost as good as being there on the corner. You can even hear the rumble of a 1978 El Camino in the background, as well as banjo, jaw harp, a fish, and something called the Fred Sanford. All it lacks is the sound of howling Mission Street drunks. Rube Waddell celebrate their CD release at Leed's Shoes (22nd and Mission streets) on Saturday, Sept. 5, at 10 p.m. Of course, it's free.
To see the city through the eyes of Dominic Angerame is to see an organic beast of concrete that shifts and breathes in rich shades of black and white. The program "A City Symphony" gathers five films Angerame has made over the last 11 years that focus on the human cycle of destruction and construction including Continuum, Deconstruction Sight, Premonition, In the Course of Human Events, and Line of Fire. Angerame attends the screening at the Pacific Film Archive on Tuesday, Sept. 8, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $6; call (510) 642-1124.
-- Silke Tudor
