As the heat kicks up, looks like the city will be alive with thirsty folks all day & night this weekend, from North Beach to the Mission, SOMA and beyond, there’s plenty of options…

From the North Beach festival’s entertainment lineup to, the full skinny on Parkerzalooza @ 12 Galaxies, it’s in here…

First here’s a few rock n rolling events Friday night where ya may find liveliness & libations ( even more events from between now & Sunday’s fade posted after the jump, with some additional mp3 samples & pix) …

Friday Night June 14th :

Looks like a member of the zydeco’s first family is in town, that being CJ Chenier at Biscuits & Blues supporting his latest release “The Desperate Kingdom of Love” on World Village Records, a post-Katrina followup to his acclaimed Alligator records release Step It Up. This new release is a unique exercise from the normally jubiliant southern accordian player, as he explores some more sorrowful styles including fitting covers of Hank Williams, Van Morrison and even the title track originally done by PJ Harvey.

Chenier is a well respected live act, who’s got plenty of experience performing not only as a solo act, but on tour with Paul Simon, as well as his legendary father, and before that in the late 70′s jazz funk group Hot Ice. When pop Clifton died in 1987, C.J inherited the band and accordian and has taken the rightful zydeco throne while adding some bluesy bluster. His records on the Arhoolie, Slash & Alligator labels have cemented a reputation at festivals around the world including large scale events like The Chicago Blues Festival, Austin’s SxSW, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, etc where he’s entertained many tens of thousands at a time.

If down home bayou bred danceable & desperate Acadian music ain’t yer thing, consider heading down to the Great American Music Hall for a more metalloid & bizarre affair…

The Great American Music hall will reverberate Friday with the sinister sounds of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, the Bay Area based band that isn’t afraid to take a female violinist along for the ride into a devilish thrash metal netherworld. These theatrical pros take audiences through the dramatic dungeons of twisted meter and emerge with an omnipotent math rock successor to the typically warped crown of thorny musical hellscapes…

mp3 samples of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, C.J Chenier, Parkerzalooza headliners Earthless, Hank IV and more after the jump (and the lineup this weekend at the annual North Beach Festival, info about The Prom being held at The Knockout on Saturday, etc):
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Let it be another hot day, with a hot evening! I wish there were more rooftop restaurants/bars downtown. Taken yesterday at lunch, Federal Steps on Sansome. 82 degrees right now, according to Yahoo Weather

Yesterday afternoon commuters were greeted with the sight of union picketers outside Golden Gate University on Mission St. Protesting the loss of union custodial jobs were reps from the SEIU and a smattering of students and other supporters. Calls to the University’s office number for comment went unanswered and straight to automated voicemail.

Union custodial disputes are becoming increasingly common at Bay Area educational institutions that are attempting to cut costs, UC Berkeley had it’s invited commencement speakers refuse to cross picket lines twice in the last couple years. In 2006 politician Fabian Nunez, refused to cross, and earlier this year 2007 speaker Danny Glover refused to attend the graduation.

It just takes one little fender bender in Chinatown to stack 6 buses up, at 5:10 PM.

I took this Sunday in the aftermath of the Haight Street Fair — it’s the old Gap building, and the tag is so big it wraps around the corner. A local told me it went up sometime Friday night. Anyone know anything about it, like what it says? Also, anyone know what’s going to happen with that space (corner of Haight and Ashbury)?

After a 4-6 road trip (during which the other teams in the division were winning 7 of 10, or 8 of 10), the Giants returned home in last place to face a three-game series against the A’s, who had beaten the Giants twice in Oakland in May. If the Giants were ever going to get well, this was the time. “The turning point of the season,” wrote the columnists, ominously.

Well, if you care, you better hope they’re wrong. Because the Giants were swept by the A’s in three games, and in painful, terrible ways.

Friday they were tied going into the 9th. Rookie Dan Ortmeier tripled with one out. All they needed was one lousy ball to the warning track and they would win the game.
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I’m a little late on the update, but thought I’d share this despite being about 2 months sale. Hawthorne Lane, which was always a nice wi-fi happy hour destination, has changed to Two. And, they have $2 bar snacks. I had liverwurst on brown bread. With a big Steelhead beer, it was great 5 o’clock Friday sustenance. More info here, at their site- “Just the facts”. Long and short seems that they wanted to mix it up and go back to the 70s. One issue is parking, it’s not pretty. Meters open up at 6pm, and there are some nearby lots. They have an interesting “drive-thru” lunch box phenomenon too.

I was just over at Good Vibrations chatting with their buyers, and they told me that this weekend at their Polk Street store they’ll be having a huge “sample sale” of porn and erotic books — meaning lots of adult DVDs for mere dollars. Books and DVDs will be $3 each, 2 for $5, and 5 for $10. Seriously. The details are on their blog, or you can just show up to 1620 Polk Street (at Sacramento) on Friday between 12pm – 9pm and Saturday between 11am – 9pm (store hours). Yay for cheap porn!

When I was in Queer Nation, we used to call June “hell month” because there was so much going on, it was almost oppressive. And it’s like that every year. Among the many events in the Queer Arts Festival in the next little while:

Transgender writer Julia Serrano reads at 7:00 pm tommorrow, Thursday, at A Different Light, 489 Castro St., from her book Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity.

On Saturday, Writers With Drinks features Judy Budnitz, author of Nice Big American Baby and If I’ve Told You Once; Clifford Chase, author of Winkie; Sesshu Foster, author of Atomik Aztex; Anthony McCann, poet and author of Moongarden; and Kyle Machulis. As always, MC’d by the very funny and statuesque Charlie Anders. 7:30 pm at the Make Out Room, 3225 22nd St. btw. Mission & Valencia.
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I got an informed opinion the other day- but thought I’d throw this out to the knowledgeable SF Metblogs readers.