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, it’s a good core workout. If you’re 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.
Of all the pizzas made in North Beach, perhaps none are made as fondly (or with as much flair) as those of pizza maestro Tony Gemignani, owner of Tony's Pizza Napoletana and recent top dog of the World Pizza Championships in Italy.
In April of 2006, YouTube was still in its infancy and uploading videos was not nearly as commonplace as it is today. But that all changed the day that Vincent Moon, a French independent filmmaker and photographer, grabbed a handheld camera and filmed the American indie-rock group Spinto Band performing their song "Oh, Mandy" in a basement and in the corner of a restaurant in Paris. He uploaded the video to his blog, La Blogothèque, calling it a Take Away Show, and 10 years later, it has been followed by almost 400 impromptu public performances of the same style.
The mission statement for the Take Away Show is simple: convince a great band to play an acoustic session in public – the more improvised the better. The website began compiling an impressive collection of performances, including Grizzly Bear singing “The Knife” a capella while walking down a Paris street like a doo wop group, The National performing “Start a War” on a boat in the south of France, and Arcade Fire squeezing into an elevator at the Olympia in Paris to play “Neon Bible,” ripping pages out of a magazine for percussion.
As time progressed, Take Away Shows became grander and more artistic. Jack White performed in a castle. Phoenix took over Versailles and was filmed by a drone. Sigur Rós brought their haunting Kveikur record to the catacombs of Paris. The list goes on and on – from Leon Bridges to Alt-J to Courtney Barnett. If there was ever a rabbit hole for music fans to get lost in late at night, this is it.
Though the vast majority of these performances take place in Paris, there have been a dozen or so Take Away Shows filmed in San Francisco, gracing our city with the live musical whimsy that has become a staple of the franchise. I could only pick the five best of the San Francisco series, which meant that I painfully had to leave out a few including The Lumineers’ parade through the Mission, The Walkmen’s stroll down Valencia Street, and Margot and the Nuclear So & So’s’ performance at USF. Unfortunately, The Dodos’ session on BART has been scrubbed offline and is impossible to find, which explains why it didn’t make my list.
Without further ado, here they are:
5. Lykke Li and El Perro Del Mar – July 28, 2008
Before she broke out with “I Follow Rivers,” Swedish pop singer Lykke Li released her debut record Youth Novels to widespread acclaim. In support of that record, Lykke Li hit Bimbo’s 365 Club in May of 2008 on her first ever North American tour. La Blogothèque caught up with Li and her fellow tourmates El Perro Del Mar on a windy day, convincing them to perform “Somebody’s Baby” on the steps of City Hall — only to be kicked out by two police officers mid-set. “Come on, you musicians!” Lykke Li exclaimed as she skipped away from the building and the police. Using the railings lining the sides of Civic Center for percussion, the Swedes launched into “Dance Dance Dance,” featuring Lykke Li’s incredible dancing and a kazoo breakdown. Those dance moves singlehandedly forced me to include this Take Away Show in the Top 5.
4. Zoe Keating – May 21, 2012
Out of focus for the majority of the time, Zoe Keating’s Take Away Show is one of the most beautiful out of the 400 or so in La Blogothèque’s arsenal. Following the world class cellist’s trip from her Camp Meekwood cabin in the North Bay to the airport, the video is accompanied by Keating’s beautiful looping strings as she performs in the concourse of SFO. The video itself reflects Keating’s music, at times violently shaking and at others very calm. Most of La Blogothèque’s Take Away Shows are indie rock bands, but in the rare instances like this where they step out of their go-to genre, the results are astounding.
In 2010, Edward Sharpe was on top of the world. With a year for the public to digest Up from Below, the collective were one of the hottest commodities in the industry, especially as “Home” began to grace every mixtape and playlist. About an hour after the group’s sold out show at The Fillmore, they rolled pianos into the street and performed the aforementioned “Home” and “40 Day Dream” with all of the unadulterated joy that you’d expect. One of the more raucous Take Away Shows, the band was surrounded by adoring fans, screaming loud enough that it is nearly impossible to differentiate the crowd’s singing with frontman Alex Ebert’s. I dare you not to fall in love with Jade Castrinos after watching this.
2. Stars – February 4, 2011
“Sorry we bombarded your party!” exclaimed Torquil Campbell following the Canadian group’s melancholy Take Away Show. The long-running beloved Canadian indie rockers Stars invaded Specs’ Twelve Adler Museum Café on Columbus Avenue, perfectly accompanying the café’s artistic vibe. To the delight of single people everywhere, Stars’ first track was their breakup anthem “Your Ex-Lover is Dead,” stripping away the song’s strings to just a single acoustic guitar. “How Much More,” followed with just Amy Millan’s voice over bare piano chords, completely changing the upbeat synthpop song’s meaning entirely. The original article accompanying the video ended with the line, “We jumped in a cab and headed to North Beach, a beautiful part of San Francisco, filled with old beat generation artists, poets and drunks. It was fitting. It was perfect. It was Stars.” Couldn’t agree more.
“It was all winged! You ain’t need to rehearse that shit!” Delta Spirit frontman Matthew Logan Vasquez told me over the phone this week. Delta Spirit’s Take Away Show is not only my favorite session filmed in San Francisco, it’s my favorite period – and it’s easy to see why. There’s a sense of unadulterated joy that radiates from the entire band throughout the entire performance; each of Vasquez’s screams is accompanied by a smile and a dance move.
“It was such an exciting time,” Vasquez explained. “It captured the essence of a band finally getting to do their own U.S. tour with confidence. It was the day after the first time we sold out the El Rey. Having that under your belt is kind of like an untouchable, insane and crazy feeling. That is one of those glass ceilings that, when broken, you realize that, ‘Hey, I can make a go at this.’ You had a bunch of guys in their early twenties realizing that and then the next day doing a really fun Blogothèque’s thing that Cold War Kids, Dr. Dog and a lot of other bands that you respect have done before you. Getting invited to do that was also like a nod of ‘Hey, you exist.’”
That momentous feeling carried the band throughout their four songs, the first of two – “Trashcan” and "People C'mon" – were performed on a moving cable car with members of Dawes and Other Lives in attendance. The band later moved to Kabul Fine Tribal Rugs, a rug shop in North Beach, where the owner leant the group a harmonium. That performance of “Strange Vine” was completely on the fly and unplanned by La Blogothèque’s cameramen. They later finished up at Washington Square Park for an emotional take on the group’s debut album highlight “People Turn Around,” one of the more powerful performances in the blog’s cannon.
Vasquez described the performance as “Let these monkeys fall out of the barrel where they may and we’ll just try to capture it as best we can.” It’s perhaps the most spot-on description possible.
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.'"
