Events, Happenings & Scenes

Black Christmas: Why So Jolly?

Broteen Shakes forwarded us the video flyer for YBCA's “Noel Noir” party, noting it “might be pretty fun.”  After watching the trailer, I couldn't help but feel both confused and as if I got slapped in the fact by insanity itself.  Looking for more info, I turned to the event's about page:

On December 10, don your fanciest thrift store best for the people’s winter ball and we shall bedeck the holidays in black! Noël Noir is a celebration of the Bay Area's love of the strange and the beautiful—for art and culture geeks, decompressed burners, untenured professors, hippy futurists, the funemployed, poly gamers, queerdos and anyone who wants to take a picture. More Tim Burton than Frank Capra, Noël Noir will whisk you away into the season’s seamier (and sexier!) underbelly.

What that means in English is, “it is a costume ball / holiday un-party in which you get drunk while rocking out of a selection of bands curated by Noise Pop.”  Even if that isn't your thing, let me stress you watch their video flyer.  It's a goddamn masterpiece.

($20.  Friday Dec. 10th)

Homebrew ("original recipe") Four Loko

In the midst of all this Four Loko banning (then caffeine-removing) business, I found myself thinking again and again that Four Loko would never have existed and none of this would be happening if two years ago they'd just let us keep our original-recipe Sparks. I don't know if you all remember this as it was kind of a while ago, but in the wake of the Sparks formula change back in I think January of 2008 two girls made their own “bathtub Sparks” out of Red Bull, King Cobra and Pez candies. To recap, they blind taste-tested it in front of Pops and out of three taste testers, two thought the homebrew was real Sparks.

Well, history has repeated itself once again, and some dude went & made what he's calling homebrewed Four Loko. Here's the recipe:

Yeah, it's a few more steps than the Bathtub Sparks was, but the yield appears to be at least 3 servings so maybe it's worth it?

Also, on an only somewhat related sidenote, a friend of mine told me the other day that the European equivalent of Four Loko is this stuff,

  

Desperado Red: a delicious, wholesome mixture of beer, tequila, cachaça and guarana, all in an oh-so-classy glass bottle (which definitely would have spelled disaster had I been drinking this stuff this summer.) If the news of the Four Loko reformulation has reached France (where this stuff originates) already, they must think we Americans are colossal party rookies. Dudes, we cannot allow France of all places to believe we're party rookies. NOT OKAY.

Cheap Beer!: Still Broke As Fuck #2

During the first edition of Broke-Ass Stuart's STILL BROKE AS FUCK party, I ended up getting way to drunk while playing Connect Four (I kept losing), pinball (I kept losing), and awesomeness (I definitely lost this).    The point? It was a wicked good time.  Plus, with the addition of free toasted PB&Js, no one is going to have to spend six bucks on a veggie burrito from La Altena at 12:15am.

Tomorrow.  9:30pm.  Doc's Clock.  I'll be the drunk guy wearing a decaying panther tshirt who's spilling a PBR on the floor while trying to wrap his mind around the mental labyrinthine that is Connect Four.  Can't wait to see you there!

Freedminds Show

Thefreedminds makes some clothes I like and they are having a party this friday that should be pretty cool. Unfortunately word is that the Odd Future collective will not be in attendance which sucks since I missed them when they were at thee parkside last spring but fuck it. ten bucks at the door I believe. 

Free Black Lips & Thee Oh Sees Show Courtesy of Mediocre Booze

Sailor Jerry Rum may be embarrassingly desperate is in its attempt to spin its Jersey Shore image into a hipster/punk one, but you have to at least give them credit for bringing a rad show to the Mezzanine of the Mission.  That's right, the show isn't at the fictitious “SF Works” that the flyer mentions but rather at Public Works, the extremely fun venue on the northern end of the Mission that supposedly doubles as an art space during the day (although the surprisingly boring interior would suggest that an artist has never set foot in there).

Anyway, if you want to see this show, you have to sign up for Sailor Jerry's email list.  So, there's your catch.

(Thanks Meghan!)

200 Yards at Dirty Thieves

I Know Alyssa Jones, a blog that features more vulgarity and references to genitalia than Serg or I could ever muster, luckily was able to cover the opening of 200 Yards:

Since some people were confused about why the show was called ’200 Yards’, let me ‘splain it to ya.

Lightbox [the show promoter] chooses a center point, somewhere in the city, and you are only allowed to shoot within 200 yards of that center point. The center point for this show was the bar Dirty Thieves. There, you’ve been schooled. I wish I had taken more photos of the show, but it was dark as fuck, because bars are dark…in case you didn’t know

The show goes on until Dec 10th, so you have plenty of time to get stupid drunk off of PBR tallcans and top-shelf bourbon while looking at pictures that aren't being hotlinked from flickr.

(link)

Out: The Glenn Burke Story Opens Tonight at the Castro Theatre

 Glenn Burke 

On the heel of World Series fever here in San Francisco, a different look at the game is being screened tonight in the Castro Theatre. Out: The Glenn Burke Story is a film about a man who made two major marks on major league baseball history  way back in 1977. At the end of the season in '77, after former Giants coach and then teammate Dusty Baker hit a homerun, Burke gave Baker a high-five. Later when Burke hit his first homerun, Baker returned the high-five favor, cementing Burke as the creator of the now universal sign of recognition, triumph, and comradery— the high-five. Also in 1977 (1977 people!) Burke became the first openly gay baseball player in MLB history when he disclosed to teammates and the managerial staff at the Los Angeles Dodgers that he was a homosexual.  At the time, one of the most conservative teams in baseball, the Dodgers went so far as to offer Burke a bonus to get married to a woman to keep his homosexuality a secret, which he declined. He later dated Dodgers Manager Tony Lasorda's estranged gay son before being traded to the Oakland Athletics, despite helping the Dodgers make it to the World Series. As if we needed another reason to hate the Dodgers…

To this day, Burke is the only openly gay baseball player in MLB history. Go see his story tonight.

More Info: Movie trailer.  Order tickets.

One Day This Kid...

David Wojnarowicz (1954 — 1992), Untitled (One Day This Kid…), 1990

Before you read any of this, stop. Read the text surrounding the little boy in the image above. Great, thanks.

On October 28th, Tyler Green of Modern Art Notes wrote that the artist David Wojnarowicz seems important right now. Green authored this post about Wojnarowicz, the New York artist who gained notoriety in the East Village art scene of the 1980s, in wake of hearing about the rise of anti-gay bullying and the gay teenage suicide epidemic sweeping our nation. Wojnarowicz's work was created 20 years ago, but as we have seen so recently, his words are still very relevant. I'm also pretty sure that any person growing up LGBT or questioning can attest, anti-gay bullying is nothing new to the community. But finally, there's some major action going on to spread the word that It Get's Better.

In his post Green called for the Museums that have Wojnarowicz's Untitled (One Day This Kid…) in their permanent collection to place the piece on display immediately in order to engage the public with this honest depiction of growing up gay in America. Apparently, none of the five museums Green listed have placed this work on view yet. However, the amazing people at P.P.O.W. Gallery who represent Wojnarowicz's estate are doing their part to use the power of art to effect change in our communities. The above piece Untitled (One Day This Kid…) is now available for download through this site. As Wojnarowicz's said in his book Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration, “bottom line, if people don't say what they believe, those ideas and feelings get lost. If they are lost often enough, those ideas and feelings never return.” So read it, print it, post it, share it. Because sharing is caring, and in this case it might just help save some lives.

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