12 galaxies

12 Things: 12 Galaxies

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Since 2004, 12 Galaxies has meant a million things to owner Robert Levy. On the Mission nightclub's final day, it means 11 of his favorite memories, plus one just because ...

1. Frank Chu: "When we first came up with the name, we thought some people would get it and others would just think it was some random esoteric space-age name. In the end, Frank became a modern-day Emperor Norton and a good friend."

2. Steve Poltz: "He's an amazing performer, but the vision of him naked except for boxer shorts on the edge of the bar screaming 'Mama deer DEAD! Baby deer ALIVE!' is etched in my head forever."

3. John Doe: "One of our favorite movies to unwind to after work was 'Road House,' so when Doe performed here, we pretty much must've seemed like obsessed 'Road House' weirdos. But John was great and told us many great stories about 'the Swayze.' "

4. The Extra Action Marching Band: "Every EAMB show was a total spectacle, and a terrifying experience for a club owner. Dangling from the rafters or dancing naked on the bar, anything was fair game ... and pure joy for the audience."

5. Carlos Santana: "While shooting a video here, he did a 'Black Magic Woman > Riders on the Storm > Black Magic Woman' improv jam that I'll never forget."

6. Anonymous: "I'm not going to name names, but on opening night I was working the door and more than 30 people said they were on the guest list of a man who no one at the club had ever met. It was crazy at the time, funny in retrospect and he and I are now dear friends."

7. Phil Lesh, Ryan Adams: "Michael Bailey of Bill Graham Presents called me at 9:30 one night asking if it was possible. Through the power of text messaging, 500 people were lined up by midnight. I don't think a member of the Dead had played for $5 since 1969."

8. Chris Whitley: "One of the club's favorite performers, he played an amazing show here just a few weeks before his death. I remember how sad I was when I learned he had passed."

9. DMBQ: "Japanese noise band DMBQ was always a treat, but the onstage energy, antics and language barrier were hard to manage. At one point the drummer threw a piece of his kit at a concertgoer. When we told him he had to stop, all he could do was smile, bow and say 'thank you.' "

10. Wayne "the Train" Hancock: "There was a merchandise argument, words were exchanged and then we realized he had an honest-to-goodness prison-style shiv in his hand. We told him there would be no shiv-ing in the club that night and took it away from him. It's still hanging in my office."

11. Juice: "Scott Johnson, my house manager and right-hand man, started out cooking in our kitchen. On a frantically busy night, our bartender Amesia came in screaming, "Where's the juice? Where's the juice?" Scott asked her, "Are you calling me Juice?" She replied no, but that she would from now on. He's been Juice ever since."

12. Parker Gibbs: "That one time he said something funny."

12 Galaxies' final night features Big Light, StitchCraft and a few surprises. 9 tonight. $8. 2565 Mission St. (415) 970-9777. www.12galaxies.com.

- Tim Sullivan, tsullivan@sfchronicle.com

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/28/NS5012HVD4.DTL

This article appeared on page G - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle

writing

Now we are 20 | Herb Caen

Sunday, August 24, 2008

On July 5, 1938, this column first saw the dark of print in the cold light of day. It was the signal for a series of strange happenings. Shortly after its inception, Hitler decided everybody should have Anschluss without weltschmerz, Churchill assumed control in Britain, a disastrous World War rocked the world and the Atomic Age began. As thrones tumbled and crowned heads rolled, the column marched relentlessly on, like the brainless creature it is, and the conductor himself grew steadily in stature from postpubescence to preadolescence, where he remains to this day, head lolling as he attempts to sit upright in his high chair. Next stop, according to plan: the ol' rockin' chair.

Twenty years. A long time to stand in the corner of a newspaper, scrawling inanities, illiteracies and even obscenities on a paper wall. Twenty years of unflagging devotion to items, tritems, sightems, slightems and even frightems; to the highly forgettable fact, the reminiscence nobody remembers, the flash that didn't pan out, the fallen arch remark; to the flopsam and jetsam, the abjectrivial and the three-dotty ephemera of a city's day-by-daze. A long time to be coining words, turning a golden language into pure caenterfeit.

Twenty years. Almost 6,000 columns and 6 million words. Put them all together and they smell, mother. Who was dancing with whom and where, but why? Marriages recorded, births noted, divorces granted - sometimes all in the same family, for this is a family town. Tycoons observed at work, drunks observed at play - sometimes the same people, for this is the city that never sleeps (and sometimes, as Frank Norris observed bitterly, "the city that never thinks"). Two decades of decadence and destiny, of beauty and beastliness in a fog-misted dream world I like to think of as Baghdad-by-the-Bay - its pennants sometimes brave, sometimes drooping.

Twenty years - long enough to watch a city grow away from you even as you stand in the middle of it. Long enough to have memories that flash through your mind with the jerky speed of an old newsreel: The Bay Bridge reaching out across the water, its shadow lengthening gradually over the ferries it was about to doom. The last ferry to Sausalito, the crowd singing "Auld Lang Syne," whiskey bottles bobbing in the moonlit wake, the skipper crying silently. Debutantes who are now grandmothers dancing with the boys they didn't marry in the Mark's Peacock Court. Little Joe Strauss, who built the "impossible" Gate Bridge, shrugging, "The redwoods will last longer." The rickety roller coaster at the Beach, the half-trolley, half-cable car on Fillmore hill, the handsome mounted cops on the downtown streets, Harry Bridges winning the rumba contest at La Fiesta, Sally Rand presiding daintily over her all-night Blue Room at the Music Box, the last night of the fair on Treasure Island, when the moon was full and the enchanting lights went down one by one and, as we headed home with one last glance at the sudden darkness, we knew we would never be so young again.

Twenty years, at soft labor, chipping at a rock with a feather. Answering the phone: "I'm jumping off the bridge in 20 minutes. Be there if you want the story" (no jump, no story, ever); "Man, I've got the scoop of the year for you" (it isn't); "How dare you print that!" (I didn't, somebody else did).

And reading the mail: "I loved your column about ...," "I hated your column about ...," "Why don't you write more about ...," "Why do you write so much about ..."

Twenty years of trying to keep in step with the passing parade. Of reporting that Hilton will build a hotel here, of saying the city has grown too big for its bridges, of keeping a snoreboard at Opera openings, of making Berkeleyans mad by calling it Berserkeley, Oaklanders mad by calling it Brookland, Sausalitans mad by calling it Souselito.

But best of all, 20 years of holding a mirror to the city and never tiring of the sight, 20 years of being in love with the view around the corner, streets that climb to the stars, hills losing their heads in the fog, cables running from here to the day before yesterday, and history walking at your elbow down a dark alley at midnight. On any birthday - 20th or 120th - the perfect gift.

This column, excerpted here, first appeared in The Chronicle on July 6, 1958.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/24/PKLT11G6NR.DTL

This article appeared on page N - 76 of the San Francisco Chronicle

the go-going-gone girls

11 Things: The Go-Going-Gone Girls

Thursday, August 21, 2008

1. Assortment: "Backed by an all-star four-piece lineup, the Go-Going-Gone Girls deliver a distinctive blend of '60s go-go, soul, bubblegum and garage."

Sounds like: Nothing but fun.

2. Arrangement: "The band is lead singer/hotshot hoofer Carla 'Iron Lung' Lease, vocalist/dancer Debbie 'Twinkle Toes' Horn, singer-songwriter/dancer-choreographer Audrey 'Hippy-Shake' Menconi, vocal stylist/dancer Claire 'Make Mine a Double' Thuesen, saxophone/keyboard ace Adrian 'the Potentate' Gormley, guitarist Klaus 'Peace Love' Fluoride, bass player Paul 'Daddy Rocks' Bergmann and drummer Dave 'Boom Chicka Boom' Lichtenstein."

Sounds like: The band alone will pack the Hemlock Tavern.

3. Agreement: "We're the happiest band on Earth. The only point of contention so far has been getting so many people together on the same night."

Sounds like: The Bay Area.

4. Adornment: "When Audrey went out on maternity leave, we enjoyed an all-blonde stage, but now we're back to equal-opportunity hair color - as long as it's ratted, teased and hair-sprayed through the ozone layer."

Sounds like: The early '60s.

5. Advancement: "We're a very political and civic-minded band. We've go-go'd for Tom Ammiano's campaign. Saturday's show supports the veterinary cause of our mascot Bodie, a prematurely deaf yellow Lab."

Sounds like: A really good cause.

6. Ailment: "Longtime guitarist Klaus Flouride recently stopped touring with the Dead Kennedys due to a medical condition. (Fortunately, he hasn't given the slip to his concerns closer to home ... but then we've got the dirt on him, so he better not try.)"

Sounds like: A silver lining.

7. Adjustment: "Debbie once flew onstage with her dress on backwards. Ever the professional, she looked at the other girls between songs with raised eyebrows, to indicate their dresses were the ones askew."

Sounds like: Debbie won.

8. Amazement: "We've been to Hollywood, Coney Island, New Orleans, Exotic World, Tease-O-Rama and Tiki Oasis, but our home is the Bay Area. Our tippy-top rating goes to a gig with Spinal Tap, which ended with us dancing on the bar."

Sounds like: Volume 11.

9. Amusement: "First concerts include the Platters (Klaus), Neil Young (Paul - who also attended Altamont, but left because it was 'too crowded'), the Troggs (Dave), Santana (Adrian), the Split Enz (Claire), Berlin (Carla - 'Wait, does the Wagner "Ring Cycle" count?'), Rick Springfield (Audrey) and the Pointer Sisters (Debbie)."

Sounds like: Audrey should know that Saturday is Rick Springfield's birthday.

10. Announcement: "In the long term, we plan to take over the world with a backbeat and a bottle of Beaujolais."

Sounds like: A plan.

11. Appointment: "In the short term, we intend to rock the Hemlock with the Boss Martians." 9:30 p.m. Sat. $7. 1131 Polk St., San Francisco. www.gogoinggonegirls.com.

Sounds like: A party!

- Tim Sullivan, tsullivan@sfchronicle.com

butoh

11 Things: Butoh

Thursday, August 14, 2008

To celebrate Bare Bones Butoh Presents 11, we invited artistic director Robert Webb to present 11 Things about Butoh:

1. Historical: "In May, 1959, Butoh pioneer Tatsumi Hijikata (1928-1986) premiered his seminal work, 'Kinjiki' ('Forbidden Colors'). It is considered the first public Butoh performance. The more spiritually inclined Kazuo Ohno is considered the co-founder."

2. Arrival: "Butoh came to the United States with Koichi and Hiroko Tamano's arrival in Berkeley in 1978. Koichi was Hijikata's protege, and the Tamanos have maintained his legacy."

3. Conceptual: "The darkness of Butoh isn't necessarily a scary, apocalyptic or negative place (although it can be)."

4. Primal: "A viewer once said after seeing a Butoh performance that she had no idea what was going on during the show ... but that night and for several nights thereafter, she dreamed about it."

5. Communal: "Butoh is as much about the audience as what the performer is doing. One reason performers often paint their entire bodies white is to 'erase themselves,' so they can literally become a 'tabula rasa,' a blank slate on which the viewer can write anything she or he wants."

6. Transformational: "Butoh is not a prescribed set of movements in time. It is a departure from expression bounding toward transformation."

7. Spiritual: "As a living entity, Butoh is a force from below, reminding us to pay attention and homage to the dead and listen to the wind as they speak through us. It's an angelic demon seeking home."

8. Radical: "Bare Bones Butoh Presents (BBBP) thrives on change and pushes boundaries. We've presented works from Butoh-identified artists, street-type performance artists, sex-radical performance artists, ritual performers, burlesque dancers, dance-theater artists, hip-hoppers and performers that simply defy categorization."

9. Improvisational: "BBBP is a place where artists can try out ideas, redo/revisit material they wish to continue exploring, hone their improvisational chops, or even bring out a favorite piece they just enjoy doing."

10. International: "As internationally known performance styles go, Butoh is young. It's still discovering what it is. And given the foundations laid by Hijikata and Ohno, it will probably always be in a state of discovery. It started in Japan, has gone around the world, and now looks back at Japan."

11. Local: "Every BBBP show benefits someone in the Butoh community. We've been doing this every three months or so for over three years now. BBBP 11 carries on this tradition by helping to bring Butoh masters from around the world to San Francisco."

Bare Bones Butoh Presents 11, 8 p.m. Fri.- Sat. $5-$20 sliding scale. Studio 210, 3435 Cesar Chavez St., San Francisco. (415) 821-7124.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/14/NS0M128UVK.DTL

This article appeared on page G - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle

i started writing

on 8/8/88

turbonegra

11 Things: TurbonegrA

Thursday, August 7, 2008

1. Sex: "We are an all-girl tribute band to the infamous boys of Oslo (Turbonegro) who sing about deviant sex and sailors. We dress like deviant sailors who enjoy deviant sex."

2. Influences: "Punk, rockabilly, ass and Jäger."

3. Background: "Drummer Sally (Ms. Disaster) and singer Laura (Lil' Hank) were in Fabulous Disaster. Bass player Erica (Happy-E) is from MDC and Girl Band. Keyboardist and vocalist Amanda (Demanda P. Pomparius) is in Blue Rabbit. Guitarist Michelle (Rebellion) played with This Machine Kills Fascists, Hellfire Choir and Compton SF, and guitarist Shelley (Eurogirl) arrived via Hellfire Choir, Bimbo Toolshed and Girl Band."

4. History: "We've played Annie's Social Club, Bender's, DNA Lounge, the Eagle, El Rio, Fat City, the Mab, Thee Parkside, Red Devil Lounge, Rock-it Room, the Uptown, the Blank Club in San Jose and the Catalyst in Santa Cruz. Friday's our first time playing Great American Music Hall."

5. Family tree: "Earlier this year, Nick Oliveri played with us at Bender's. Shelley knows him from his days with the Dwarves."

6. Food: "Our bass player is a vegan and will do more than just spank you if she finds you eating meat."

7. Travel: "We'll be touring Germany at the beginning of October."

8. Fan club: "We started a local Turbonegro fan club (Turbojugend) called L'ass Cobras."

9. Prizes: "The person who buys us the most shots wins our singer for the night."

10. Fashion: "Keep it denim!"

11. Live: TurbonegrA opens for ArnoCorps along with Monster Squad and Count Dante & the Black Dragon Flying Society. 9 p.m. Fri. $14. Great American Music Hall, 859 O'Farrell St. (415) 885-0750, www.gamh.com or www.myspace.com/turbonegra666.

- Tim Sullivan, tsullivan@sfchronicle.com

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/07/NS3H124QUS.DTL
This article appeared on page G - 3 of the San Francisco Chronicle

i was

i was a failure at love and a success at writing
i was a success at love and a failure at writing
i was a failure at love and a success at writing