By Gene Mahoney
Send press releases to
editor@sfherald.com
(I like him as an actor but maybe he’s
losing it…)
Kyle MacLachlan, the guy who played FBI Agent Dale Cooper
on Twin Peaks and a husband to one of
the girls on Sex and the City has a website
dedicated to his dogs. It’s at http://www.mookieandsam.com/
*****
Zine World is looking for new reviewers.
To
audition, send an email to jerianne@undergroundpress.org with a note about yourself and 5 zine reviews,
following the format they use for reviews. (If
you are not familiar with their review format and style, take a look at http://www.undergroundpress.org/index.php?page_id=27.)
*****
Sub Pop bands playing in San Francisco:
Jul
17: Wolf Parade at the Fillmore,
Jul
28: No Age at the Great American Music Hall,
Aug
21: Beachwood Sparks at Bottom of the Hill,
Sep
21: Fleet Foxes at Treasure Island Music Festival.
*****
Here are some upcoming gigs for Deborah
Crooks, one of San Francisco’s best known neo-folkies…
SATURDAY, JULY 12TH, 2008
Socha
Deborah Crooks & Friends - 8pm
3235 Mission St.
San Francisco
featuring Ben Bernstein, Dianne Nola and Kwame Copeland
8pm-11pm
FRIDAY, AUGUST 8TH, 2008
Red Vic
Red Vic Sessions - 8pm
1665 Haight St.
San Francisco
7:00 - 7:40 Cara Wick
7:45 - 8:25 Bob Hillman
8:30 - 9:10 Wendy Beckerman
9:15 - 9:55 Alex Walsh
10:00 - 10:40 Deborah Crooks
FRIDAY, AUGUST 22ND, 2008
Velo Rouge Cafe
8pm
798 Arguello
San Francisco
Alex Walsh (guitar) and Yoon Ki Chai (violin) sitting in.
*****
On
Saturday, July 19th at 2pm, Folk singer Ryan Mintz (who’s been compared to Cat Stevens by
some) will take the stage at Mama Art Café in San Francisco. Mintz can
then be seen at 7pm on Sunday, July 20th at BrainWash Cafe & Laundromat, also in San Francisco. And July 12 at 8pm at Karma Coffeehouse in
Los Angeles. For more information on Ryan Mintz and these events please visit www.ryanmintz.com.
*****
Bag of Toys, an acoustic surf-rock band from San
Francisco is set to release “their highly anticipated sophomore album” titled Afternooner.
They
will be playing their OFFICIAL CD RELEASE SHOW on Saturday, July 12 at The Red
Devil Lounge [1695 Polk Street San Francisco, CA 94109] at 8:00 PM and it is a
21+ show. You can visit Bag of
Toys at www.myspace.com/bagoftoysmusic and www.bagoftoysmusic.com.
*****
people often ask:
what is there after nirvana?
this question cannot arise
because nirvana is ultimate truth
if it is ultimate...there can be nothing after it
if there is anything after nirvana
then that will be the ultimate truth and not nirvana
HAZELDEN
is the new nirvana
why?
because mary jane snow said so.

Mary Jane Snow
Truer words have never been spoken. (That
was from Hazelden’s MySpace page.)
What is Hazelden? Possibly the greatest band to come out of Los Angeles in a long
time. And let me tell you about Mary Jane Snow, their lead singer. She
could be the next big thing. Yes, I mean it. And it’s not just her looks. Her
talent is…
What’s that? She’s living with the drummer?
She’s taken?
Okay. Moving on to our next band…
Only kidding. Seriously, though, Hazelden is a good rockin’ band
that’s been getting some buzz around El Lay. I saw them perform a few months
ago at Hotel Utah in San Francisco and had a good time, and the crowd seemed to
as well. The band was tight (I was especially impressed with the drummer, even
more so now that he’s living with the singer) and Mary Jane’s vocals range from almost as melodic as Berlin’s Terri Nunn to much more melodic than Hole’s Courtney Love.
Check out www.hazeldenmusic.com.
I missed their first warm-up act, but the
second one was very good. They’re a Seattle band called Feral Children and
they’ve got this really catchy, quirky sound. No potential hits, but I can
picture them attracting a rabid cult-following like the Flaming Lips have.
Their CD, Second to the Last Frontier, lists their website as
www.feralchildrenmusic.com.
*****
The latest listings for the
always-persistent Groovy Judy…
July
2008
Friday, July 4
Groovy Judy Band Rocks!
St. James Gate Irish Pub &
Restaurant
1410 Old County Rd
Belmont, CA
650-592-5923
9:30pm - 1:30am
21+ $3.00
Thursday,
July 10
Groovy Judy Band Grooves
Hot Harvest Nights San Carlos
Laurel Park
759 Laurel Street
San Carlos, CA
4:00pm - 8:00pm
All Ages, FREE
Sunday, July 13
Groovy Judy Band Rocks!
Belmont Summer Concert Series
Twin Pines Park
1225 Ralston Ave
Belmont, CA
1:00pm - 4:00pm
All Ages,
FREE
Sunday, July 20
Groovy Judy Band Spreads Positive Vibes
San Mateo Street Fair
South B Street near 2nd Avenue
Downtown San Mateo, CA
10:00am - 5:00pm
Groovy Judy Rocks at 1:00pm
All Ages, FREE
Groovy Judy
Flower power funk-rock with a positive
groove!
"If Jimi Hendrix had a sista, it would be Groovy Judy"
http://www.groovyjudy.com
http://www.myspace.com/groovyjudy
http://www.cdbaby.com/groovyjudy3
Watch videos of me here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYv9Ga2Nq2k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5QobqQ2bCM
*****
Green
Apple Books & Music Presents Will
Durst reading & signing his latest book, The All-American Sport of
Bipartisan Bashing.
When:
Tuesday, July 15, 2008.
Where: Tosca Café, 242 Columbus Ave, San Francisco.
(I just noticed I left out the time it’s at and I deleted
the email, and I’m too lazy to look it up. Sorry.)
*****
I don’t necessarily endorse all the listings
people send me for this column, but here’s something that I will, like, SO NOT
be buying:
UNDER
THE RADAR 2008 PROTEST ISSUE:
SPARKING
DIALOGUE
R.E.M.,
Modest Mouse, Death Cab for Cutie, The Decemberists, Spoon,
OK
Go, Jarvis Cocker, The Flaming Lips, Public Enemy, Rage Against
the
Machine, Moby, Bright Eyes, and many others talk politics in
Under
the Radar’s Protest Issue.
Under
the Radar conducted photo shoots with musical artists holding protest signs of
their own making that will be auctioned for charity (the magazine provided the
materials and the artists painted a message of their own choosing on the
signs). Artists who were interviewed
for the issue and/or photographed with their signs include cover stars Stipe,
Brock, Walla, Meloy, and Daniel as well as Billy Bragg, Bright Eyes' Conor
Oberst, British Sea Power, Built to Spill, Jarvis Cocker, Death Cab for Cutie,
The Dresden Dolls, Elbow, The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne, Fleet Foxes, Foals,
Michael Franti, The Grateful Dead's Bob Weir, Sharon Jones, Talib Kweli, Jamie
Lidell, Metric, Moby, O K Go, Peter Bjorn and John's Peter Morén, Public
Enemy's Chuck D, St Vincent, My Morning Jacket, Okkervil River, Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello,
Rogue Wave, Stars, Supergrass,
System of a Down's Serj Tankian,
and more.
*****
Glad to see the artists above exercising
their constitutional rights. Here’s an email I received from an artist having a
much tougher time doing that in his country…
Dear
Editor,
We
have just been informed of the selection of our film "El Señor Presidente" for the 2008 San Francisco Frozen
Film Festival, it is for us of great importance to be able to show our film to the bay area
audience. This honor also carries the possibility to share with America's most
liberal community our cry for freedom, for human rights, for
justice, a cry that has been silenced by the Venezuelan government oil sponsored
propaganda.
After
the Chávez government made public its
unconstitutional decision to shut down RCTV (Radio Caracas Television), the 54 years old and
most popular TV
network in Venezuela, and limit the public's right to be informed by violating RCTV property rights, we decided it was
time to risk it all, and against all odds and under all sorts of menace, produce* "El Señor Presidente"* for the cinema.
The
film, based on Miguel Angel Asturia's masterpiece, a
novel that made the Guatemalan
writer a Nobel Laureate in 1967, although written in 1946, the book remains as up to date as it was when Asturias wrote it. I felt
it was a vital necessity to show the Venezuelan and Hispanic audiences what
the future may hold if society does not compromise with liberty and
democratic values. The
idea to portray a dictatorial regime in Latin America is not new, but *"El Señor Presidente"*, along with Valle Inclán´s "Tirano Banderas", certainly opened the path for Garcia Marquez ("El otoño del Patriarca"), Vargas Llosa ("La
Fiesta del Chivo"), and Roa Bastos ("Yo el Supremo") to express a common evil, suffered in all Latin American countries: the unlimited
power of those that rule over their fellow citizens. All things considered, we find that ideologies are only a covert to suppress ideals.
A
country that falls apart amidst the degradation of a shameful tyranny and the levels of decomposition of a corrupted society, both opposed
to a tragic love story that seems doomed from inception, are the key plot lines
of *"El Señor Presidente".* The story develops where irrationality rules, degradation is the law, justice is a mockery and the
political and military clique enjoy themselves amidst corruption, while abusing their fellow citizens under total impunity.
With
*"El Señor Presidente*",
my directorial debut, I wanted to share a vision of a reality only comparable to magical and surreal
nightmares. I set it in a semi-futuristic environment, where opulence is contrasted
against sordid misery, and where the past and present intertwines within an atmosphere of cruelty and hellish corruption. I
certainly do hope that our dark message may contribute to the opposite, the everlasting
importance of freedom of expression as a sole unitor of
mankind.
We
are sincerely grateful to the San Francisco community and especially to the organizers of the Frozen Festival, for this golden opportunity
to humbly share our story, our cry for freedom and our message, and to be able
tell the people of San Francisco, that we Venezuelans are not in
agreement with what is going on in Venezuela, that we believe in understanding, in
progress and specially in helping each other to eradicate poverty, violence
and misery.
We
deeply thank you all for this opportunity,
Truly
yours,
Rómulo Guardia Granier
Director
"El Señor Presidente"
romulo@angosturafilms.com
PS:
If you would like to screen the film on line, please feel free to go to www.independentfeatures.com, under "foreign", and for the
trailer, photos and information, visit www.elsrpresidente.com. or contact our Press Director Beatriz Aguilar at talent_tv@yahoo.com or me
directly if you wish.
*****
Okay, I finally broke down. Maria Ferraro
has been emailing me info about all these Heavy Metal acts for years and I’ve
just ignored them, because I hate Heavy Metal. But I’m in such a good mood
since I killed off the print edition of the Herald, so here’s the latest press
release she just sent me…
LAMB
OF GOD ANNOUNCES "WALK WITH ME IN HELL" DVD
Heavy
metal heroes LAMB OF GOD are proud to announce the release of an all-new, 2-disc
DVD on July 1, 2008. 'Walk With Me
In Hell' is a documentary chronicling every detail in the lives of the biggest
band in metal as they completed recording and toured around the world nearly
three times over in support of the biggest selling metal album of 2007, the
Grammy-nominated, Top 10 charting, Sacrament.
Fans
can check out an EXCLUSIVE trailer for 'Walk With Me In Hell' at
www.myspace.com/metal as well as the band's official MySpace page,
www.myspace.com/lambofgod.
*****
Stanford Jazz Workshop (SJW) presents the 2008 Stanford Jazz
Festival from June 27 through August 9 on the Stanford campus in Palo Alto.
More info at stanfordjazz.org.
*****
The Knight Life
Bay Area Spotlight on Keith Knight
Cartoon
Art Museum Exhibition: June 14 -
November 9, 2008
The
Cartoon Art Museum is honored to host the first comprehensive exhibition of
Harvey and Glyph Award-winning cartoonist Keith
Knight, creator of the K Chronicles, (th)ink and the new United Features syndicated daily comic
strip The Knight Life.
Keith
Knight is an award-winning cartoonist whose two self-syndicated comic strips,
his humorous, autobiographical the K Chronicles and (th)ink, which skewers
politics and current events, can be found in over 35 alternative weekly,
college and daily newspapers and websites nationwide. He's also a frequent contributor to Mad Magazine and
ESPN: The Magazine. His new daily comic strip, the Knight
Life, has recently launched, courtesy of United Features Syndicate. Cartoon Art
Museum, 655 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105.
415-CAR-TOON,
www.cartoonart.org
Hours: Tues. - Sun. 11:00 - 5:00, Closed
Monday
General
Admission: $6.00, Student/Senior: $4.00, Children 6-12: $2.00
Members &
Children under 6: Free
The
Cartoon Art Museum is a tax-exempt, non-profit, educational organization
dedicated to the collection, preservation, study and exhibition of original
cartoon art in all forms.
*****
This just in:
Singer/songwriter, Pez Wilson, evokes feelings of a bygone era when the
martinis were dry, the jokes were drier and jazz was more than just a
basketball team in Utah. Wielding a voice somewhere between a croon and a
petition, with a trumpet held at the ready, Pez is
set to bring his soulful brand of modern pop/jazz hybrid to audiences worldwide
with his newest EP, which will be available at live shows, online and on Pez's website on a “pay what you want” basis.
Listen
to the entire EP at: www.pezwilson.com
*****
*When: All Shows 8:00Pm Thursday – Saturday starting July 10
– August 23rd
*What: Improv, Comedy, Theater
*Who: The San Francisco Improv Festival
2008
*Where: (North Beach Stage): The Purple Onion: 140 Columbus Avenue,
San Francisco
*Where: (Union Square Stage) The SF Playhouse Stage 2: 533 Sutter
Street, San Francisco
*Price: $20.00 Students, Seniors and TBA
$15.00
* Public info: (415) 863-1076 and
http://www.sfimprovfestival.com
*****
I can’t keep repeating how happy I am to
have killed off the newspaper and gone exclusively online. For the past few
years I’ve been obsessed with how to keep the paper alive and profitable. When
I finally realized it was over for the newspaper business, it was liberating
to, like, “let go”, man.
I must have really been losing it a year
ago. I found this email exchange I had with several people last July. It all
began when my godmother (I’m sorry, my “friend” Patricia. She doesn’t want me
to call her my godmother for some reason) forwarded me this sappy email…
-----
Forwarded message from "Kearney, Patricia" <xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 17 Jul
2006 15:47:23 -0400
From: "Kearney,
Patricia" <xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Reply-To:
"Kearney, Patricia" <xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: The Road
Sometimes
in life, you find a special friend;
Someone
who changes your life
just by being part of it.
Someone
who makes you laugh
until you can't stop;
Someone
who makes you believe
that there really is good in the world.
Someone
who convinces you
that there really is an unlocked door
just waiting for you to open it.
This
is Forever Friendship.
This
is the sacred RED ROSE.
You
MUST pass this rose on to at least 5 people within the hour of receiving
this rose.
After
you do, make a wish.
If
you have passed it on, your wish will come true and love will come your
way shortly.
If
not your life will stay the same as it has always been.
Just
be nice & pass it on.... May we all be loved so much.
Friend
if I don't get this back I can take a hint!
How
many people actually have 8 true friends? Hardly anyone I know! But some
of us have all right friends and good friends!!!
Send
this to 8 people or more and if this is sent back to you then you know
that you are a true friend..
So I sent it to one of my columnists. I think she was in
denial over my desperate cry for help:
Subject: RE: Fwd: The Road
From: "Lana
A" <xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue,
July 18, 2006 12:07 pm
To: gmahoney@sfherald.com
Priority: Normal
Thanks
Gene,
Hey
when do you think the paper would come out?
best,
Lana
Then I sent it to another columnist who used to write for
the Herald, Opprobrious Mike. He sensed something was wrong…
Subject: Re: Fwd: The Road
From: "Mike xxxxxx" <xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue,
July 18, 2006 9:41 am
To: gmahoney@sfherald.com
Priority: Normal
Gene-
Yer goin' lavender on me there buddy?!?!?!
BTW:
Good news regarding "the boss" (and we ain't talking Bruce) as of Monday
he was 86'd from the joint.
Ankle outta here ya bum!
---Mike
---- <gmahoney@sfherald.com>
wrote:
>
Yes, I'm actually forwarding this spiritual chain email...
Actually, I don’t think Mike has returned my
emails or calls since I sent that. Then I forwarded it to Kimberlye Gold, who couldn’t conceal her concern for me…
Subject: Re: Fwd: The Road
From: "Kimberlye
Gold" <kimberlyegold@sbcglobal.net>
Date: Tue,
July 18, 2006 9:30 am
To: gmahoney@sfherald.com
Priority: Normal
Hey,
where can I find the Herald in SF?
The one person who tried to slap some sense into me was
San Francisco’s Hottest New Artist, Laurie Jacobs…
Subject: Gene have you lost your mind?
From: "Laura jacobs" <xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue,
July 18, 2006 1:25 pm
To: editor@sfherald.com
Priority: Normal
You
really have me worried now. Do I have to stop short my vacation and come
home?
Call
me when it's free. I'm in Atlantic City...
Hello,
my name is Laura and I suffer from the guilt of not forwarding 50 billion
f****** chain letters sent to me by people who actually believe that if you
send them on, a poor 6-year-old girl in Arkansas with a breast on her forehead
will be able to raise enough money to have it removed before her redneck
parents sell her to a traveling freak show. "Ooooh, looky here! If I scroll down this page and make a wish, I'll get laid by
a male model I just happen to run into the next day!"
What
a bunch of bull *** t.
Maybe
the evil chain letter leprechauns will come into my house and sodomize me in my
sleep for not continuing a chain letter that was started by Peter in 5 AD and
brought to this country by midget pilgrims on the Mayflower. F*** them. If you're going to forward something, at least send me
something mildly amusing.
I've
seen all the "send this to 10 of your closest friends, and this poor,
wretched excuse for a human being will somehow receive a nickel from some
omniscient being" forwards about 90 times. I don't f***** g care. SHOW A LITTLE INTELLIENCE AND THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE
ACTUALLY CONTRIBUTING TO BY SENDING OUT THESE CHAIN LETTERS.
Chances
are, it's YOUR own unpopularity. The point being? If you get
some chain letter that's threatening to leave you shagless or luckless for the
rest of your life, delete it. If it's funny, send it on. Don't piss people off
by making them feel guilty about a leper in Botswana with no teeth who has been
tied to the ass of a dead elephant for 27 years and whose only salvation is the
5 cents per letter he'll receive if you forward this email. Now forward this to everyone you
know. Otherwise, tomorrow morning
your underwear will turn carnivorous and will consume your genitals. Have a nice day.
I sent Laurie’s email to my godmother (uh, I mean my
friend Patricia) and she wrote back that she couldn’t believe that I actually
forwarded her email to other people.
I tell ya, they’re all out to get me.
*****
This just in:
“PHOBIAS”
ANIMATION SHORT FROM A 16 YEAR OLD DETROIT CATHOLIC CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT
IN MICHIGAN HITS THE SAN FRANCISCO’S FROZEN FILM FESTIVAL!
Who
would think that a high school student who had neither training nor experience
in the world of animation have, in his sophomore year of high school, his film
be shown in San Francisco, California at the “Frozen Film Festival”? Patrick
Bowers originally did this just as a “passion project” to try to get extra
credit in his Intro to Art class at Detroit Catholic Central High School. This
animation will be shown with the other animated films in the Frozen Film
Festival on Friday, July 11th, 2008 at 10:25 pm. Patrick’s animation is an
all hand drawn animation about all sorts of phobias that many do not know about
but could possibly be real.
Patrick
first thought about the idea when one of his classmates was talking about a
show where they put people on who are afraid of stuff like peaches and
balloons. Patrick quickly remarked after that “what if someone was afraid of
breathing?” No one really got it but he knew he was on to something. During
that homeroom he got most of all his phobia ideas written down and quickly put
in his pocket, and for the next 8 months worked on his project in his spare
time.
He
had some idea on what this was going to cost him. He really stretched the
dollar on the project since he had not originally thought of entering it in a
festival, and he did it on a budget without sacrificing the quality. He spent a
total of $35.00 dollars for the whole project (pens, color pens, paper, and a
lamp). He couldn’t afford a backlight, on which to trace, so he bought a lamp
and shined it over the paper and squeezed the paper together trying to find the
lines on the paper he was tracing. The process of doing animation like this can
be compared to cutting the grass on a baseball field with a shaving razor. He
had to eventually give in and bought a $60.00 voice recorder so that the
screams on the animation would match the drawings.
He
finished the animation around early May, 2008, and with a around 400 sheets on
paper, calmly put the project on a shelf and then went to work on his next
animation: “17 Year Old Mind Goulash”. He didn’t have the correct computer
program so he hoped that his computer savvy Aunt Lisa could help him get this
“Phobia” on DVD to submit to his art teacher. Even though no Photoshop changes
were made from this process to DVD, he had to individually scan in the drawings
one by one in a long process of converting it to the movie program.
He
finally got it done and was loaned 3 DVDs from his Aunt. He kept one for himself,
he gave one to his art teacher (who never took the time to watch it), and,
because he could easily e-mail and get the $65.00 fee waved (which I am
appreciative of), one to the San Francisco Frozen Film Festival.
*****
This from Linda Schneider at Bezerkeley…
Wednesday,
July 16, 12 noon-3 p.m.
Ice
Cream Day & Cone Sculpture Festival
12:00
noon-3:00 p.m.
Lawrence
Hall of Science, UC Berkeley
Centennial
Drive, Berkeley (ed: there is no
building number)
510-642-5132
www.lawrencehallofscience.org
Treat
yourself to a cool experience as LHS celebrates its 40th
Anniversary.
Make and eat your own ice cream as well as try a dish of
Double
Rainbow. Today the cones are
not for eating - they're for
creating your own structure or sculpture.
*****
A few months ago I was in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury and walked into
that neighborhood’s famous bookstore, Booksmith, when
I saw him. The guy I remember as a kid growing up in New York in the 1970s. The DJ who I used to listen to on 66 WNBC. Oh, I mean 66!!!
Dub-ee-you Ennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn Bee See!! (Maybe you saw the scene in the movie Private Parts with Paul Giamatti’s character instructing Howard Stern how to pronounce the station’s call
letters.)
Anyway, I got to meet and shake hands with
one of my boyhood idols, Bruce Morrow, AKA “Cousin Brucie”,
DJ extraordinaire and the MC who introduced the Beatles at Shea Stadium. And
the guy whose current office at Sirius radio is next door to Howard Stern’s.
His publicist sent me the book he was promoting, Doo Wop. I could tell you all about it, but why bother when I can just plagarize this…
From Publishers Weekly:
When it comes
to doo wop, a pop music style Morrow describes as
vocal harmony + rock 'n' roll, the legendary DJ leaves no stone unturned as he
traces the music back to its roots in early African-American slave songs. From
there, he follows doo wop from its birth and its heyday in the '50s to its
decline in the late '60s. As Morrow outlines the specific era of doo wop,
he also gives sidebars on the groups—from superstars like the Platters to
one-hit wonders like the Chords—that made it big during those years. As
would be expected from a man who made his living behind the mike, Morrow
displays a comfortable, conversational writing style that works well in this
picture-heavy format (e.g., he writes of the romantic appeal of drive-ins:
Funny how their popularity coincided with the Baby Boom, huh?). While the music
history is the driving force behind this coffee-table tome, it's the cultural
asides on topics as diverse as the era's people (Marilyn Monroe, Edward R.
Murrow), places (diners, the Automat), sports (Jackie Robinson), politics (the
red scare, JFK), kitsch (T-Birds, TV dinners) and entertainment (I Love Lucy,
The Wild Ones) that will take readers back to America's golden age. (Nov.)
Copyright
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
What the above review doesn’t mention is the
look of the book (the graphics are stunning). Hardcover, 351
pages, and only $24.95? It’s a steal! This tome about a certain age is
the perfect gift for any music lover or cultural analyst of any age. At Booksmith, Cousin Brucie enthusiastically fielded questions from the crowd asking them in New York
accents. I asked Cousin Brucie about those other,
much less famous, now forgotten, DJs I used to listen to on WNBC (Oogie
Pringle, Vernon with a V, etc.). I also asked him about the late, great
humorist Jean Shepherd on WOR and his face lit up, then he went on to praise
Shepherd’s “Theater of the Mind”.

Cousin Brucie
Oh, I never did ask him about this guy I
used to know who said he had a little argument with him in the Sixties. It was
after this guy’s band got bumped at the last minute from one of the concerts
Cousin Brucie hosted at Palisades Amusement Park in
New Jersey. The guy claims he begged Cousin Brucie if
they could play just one song because all their friends and relatives had
traveled from New York to see them play and Cousin Brucie told him to fuck off.
Hee Hee.
Okay. Go out and buy Doo Wop by Bruce Morrow.
We love ya, Cousin Brucie!
*****
San Francisco
Public Library Presents
Les Bicyclettes:
Celebrating
the 2008 Tour de France
Large Screen
Videos in Koret Auditorium
July 2008
Thursdays at
Noon
July 3
Pee Wee's Big Adventure (1985, 92 min.)
Pee-Wee sets
out to find his stolen special bike, and encounters bikers,
bums, con men and cowboys in his search. An '80s cult classic!
July 10
We Are Traffic
(1999, 50 min.)
A look at the
early years of Critical Mass (a mass movement of bicycles
that takes over the streets once a month) which
started in San Francisco
and has spread throughout the world. Plays with
short film Return of the
Scorcher
(1992, 28 min.)
July 17
Triplets of
Belleville (2002, 81 min.)
When a cyclist
is kidnapped from the Tour de France, a grandmother, her
dog and a trio of jazz-era stars set out on a
journey to rescue him.
Animated; in
French with English subtitles.
July 24
Breaking Away
(1979, 100 min.)
When top-notch
cyclist Dave learns that the world's bicycling champions
are always Italian, he attempts to turn himself
into an Italian.
Nominated for
5 Academy Awards.
July 31
Beijing
Bicycle (2000, 113 min.)
When Guei's bicycle is stolen and sold to Jian,
the two young men are
brought together on a voyage of self-discovery. In
Mandarin with
subtitles in English.
Large Screen
Videos
Thursdays at
Noon
Koret Auditorium, Lower Level
Main Library,
100 Larkin Street (at Grove)
All films are
shown with captions when possible to assist our deaf and
hard of hearing patrons.
All programs
at the Library are free. Sponsored by the Audiovisual Center
and supported by the Friends of the San
Francisco Public Library. To
receive monthly e-mail about upcoming Audiovisual
Center programs,
please send a request to: bwaterman@sfpl.org
<mailto:blainew@sfpl.org>
*****
This from Jay Gifford in San Francisco:
The
"Victorian Home Walk" tour has been showing visitors our world famous
architecture for over twelve years. The tour departs daily (year round) at 11am
from Union Square (corner of Powell & Post streets) and no reservations are
required (participants just show up). We explore Pacific Heights with its colorful row
houses, famous mansions and beautiful gardens. The tour includes a visit inside of a period "Queen
Anne" Victorian. The walk is easy, the pace leisurely, and there are no hills to
climb. The area we explore
is banned to tour buses, so we take the public bus to get there, which makes
this a "green" tour. We
have a standard policy that any travel writer can take the tour for free any
day, just give us your business card as payment. Complete information about the tour can be found
online at: http://www.victorianwalk.com.
*****
I sure won’t be there, but if you want to
go…
Founder
Sam Daley-Harris started RESULTS 28 years ago to help people realize they have
the power to build champions in Congress and in their communities to end global
poverty. There are now 100 chapters in the U.S. and chapters in six other
countries.
On
Thursday, July 10, 2008, at 7pm. Daley-Harris will come to Santa Rosa and lead
a workshop to start a RESULTS group in Sonoma County. The meeting will be at the Unitarian Universalist
Congregation, 547 Mendocino Avenue in Santa Rosa.
To
learn more about RESULTS visit http://www.results.org.
Here's another solution from the late Sam Kinison:
"You want
to stop world hunger? Stop sending these people food. Don't send these people
another bite, folks. You want to send them something? You want to help? Send
them U-Hauls. Send them U-Hauls, some luggage, send them a guy out there who
says, ‘Hey, we been driving out here every day with your food, for, like, the
last thirty or forty years, and we were driving out here today across the
desert, and it occurred to us that there wouldn't BE world hunger, if you
people would LIVE WHERE THE FOOD IS! YOU LIVE IN A DESERT! YOU LIVE IN A
FUCKING DESERT! NOTHING GROWS OUT HERE! NOTHING'S GONNA GROW OUT HERE! YOU SEE
THIS? HUH? THIS IS SAND. KNOW WHAT IT'S GONNA BE HERE A HUNDRED YEARS FROM NOW?
IT'S GONNA BE SAND! YOU LIVE IN A FUCKING DESERT! GET YOUR STUFF, GET YOUR
SHIT, WE'LL MAKE ONE TRIP, WE'LL TAKE YOU TO WHERE THE FOOD IS! WE HAVE DESERTS
IN AMERICA ?--- WE JUST DON'T LIVE IN THEM, ASSHOLES!'"
*****
Will Franken was a very popular performer in
San Francisco. Yes, I wrote “was”. No, he didn’t die. He moved to New York. I
caught up with him and got this email monologue. I mean interview…
> Okay,
Will -- It's going to be brief. A new feature in the Herald is a
> series of brief interviews. Here goes:
>
> GM: So, tell us what's happening with
you lately.
>
WF: Well, Gene, today I went to the Manhattan DMV to get my North
Carolina
license which was due to expire in a week changed over to a
NY license. I
was thrilled to find out I didn't have any outstanding
warrants on my old license. (I had a bit of a snafu
a few years ago
when the SFPD impounded my car for not having
California registration
and for not switching my license over to a
California license. I
wonder if I should even confess this publicly. .
.oh, well). So that
felt pretty good. It got me out of the house for
a few hours and I
felt like I did what I call a
"grown-up" thing. As soon as I get my
new license in the mail, I'm planning on
renting a car and taking a
road trip to god knows where. I've been pretty
depressed these past
few months and the one thing that can put a
smile on my face is the
idea of hitting the open road and heading to
random small towns,
eating biscuits and gravy and chicken and
dumplings and flirting with
simple-minded Southern girls. (I don't mean that
as an insult, I
think a simple mind is a turn-on, actually).
I've been
writing a lot of blog entries lately. I don't really
know
why I spend so much time on these other than
that I have this thing
where every time I write something, I don't feel
like it's good
enough, so I force myself to try and write
something even better.
Before you
know it, I've spent hours, days even, writing, writing,
writing. I'm starting to get really sick of my
laptop computer. I do
so much writing on it--long-form pieces
even--that the grammar and
sentence structure, placement of commas, etc. can
really make my head
spin.
Last night I
had an idea for either a recorded piece or a live piece,
I'm not sure
which. The premise was, a girl comes into her apartment
and begins to undress. Her phone rings. She
answers it and a male
voice on the other end starts singing--
"If you
look out your window, you will see a scary man.
That man is me.
I'm in the
tree."
The man
continues to sing as the girl looks out the window.
I'm not sure
where it's going to go, but I'm hoping to connect it
somehow to this other idea that I've had lingering
for awhile about a
call center for an organization called Queer
Activism. A tired gay
man answers the phone and says:
"Queer Activism. . .sorry, we're closed today. . .no, normally
we're
open at this time, but we're just really tired
today. . .maybe try us
tomorrow. . .yeah, whatever."
I don't know
what's that about, but that's how the subconscious
works, I guess.
Other than
that, I'm still kind of up in the air about how long I'd
like to stick it out here in New York. Our
country has become so
globalized lately, even a town like New York has
started to lose its
identity. Basically, I'd like to go wherever the
money for comedy is.
A town that
doesn't hold television as the be-all and end-all of arts
and entertainment. One of these days, I'd like
to end up in Britain
working for the BBC, but that may be awhile away
yet, it's hard to say.
I've got some
doctor's appointments next week which I'm kind of
looking forward to. Also, I just returned from a
gig in Portland, OR.
I really enjoy
that town. I had only been there once before at night.
I did a show
and then I was off to Seattle, so I didn't really get to
see much of the town. I was there for a couple
of days this time and
I really
enjoyed it. The weather, the way the girls look, the cheaper
cigarettes. It's an interesting town, all right.
There's no real
landmark to point to and say--hey, you've got to see
THIS while
you're in Portland (like the Golden Gate in SF or
the Space Needle in
Seattle) so I
didn't feel like I was missing anything by just walking
around the city and taking a gander at the old
buildings.
Anyway, that's
about all there is in my world at the moment. Still
trying to figure out how to make money at what I
do, happy that my
driver's license wasn't suspended, and still writing blogs. Not sure
what lies on the horizon.
God bless,
Gene.
Wm.
Thanks, Will. The rest of you check out
www.willfranken.com.
See you next month.###
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