(Famous poster by Shepard Fairey.)

Progress indeed. As of this writing, Obama is a mere twelve delegates away from the nomination, and the headline of this Associated Press story says it all. But the real surprise? Hillary has expressed interest in being his running mate. Can you say “dream ticket”? At least it would be for me: that’s the scenario I’ve been rooting for since November.

[NOTE: If you learn of any celebrations going on tonight, please provide details in a comment to this post!]

The first “San Francisco Outside lands Festival” is named for the barren wasteland of the late 1800’s previously covering the Western side of the city. Three days of music are to fill Golden Gate Park’s Polo Fields, Speedway Meadow, and Lindley Meadow from August 22 to 24, 2008.

The festival promises some choice acts, such as: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Radiohead, Primus, Jack Johnson, Ben Harper and The Innocent Criminals and many, many more. However, when tickets were first released almost a month ago, the only choice was to buy 1 ticket for the whole event, for a whopping $225.50!

Well, fear not less-than-wealthy concert-goers!

The festival announced yesterday that starting May 1st, at 10am, single day tickets will be available at their website for a less painful $85 each.

There’s a general workshop on what to do with the “triangle”- that is the parking lot that is now Parks & Rec property, bordered by Columbus, Lombard & Mason. At the North Beach Clubhouse (we have a clubhouse?) 4/30, 7pm.
official info from SFPL

San Francisco writer Stephen Elliott, the author of “Happy Baby,” “Looking Forward To It,” and “My Girlfriend Comes to the City and Beats Me Up,” is also the founder of the Progressive Reading Series, which raises money for progressive political candidates. The series’ first event this year is Saturday at 7:00 pm at the Makeout Room.

I interviewed Elliott by IM on Wednesday evening.

You founded the Progressive Reading Series as a way to raise funds for progressive political candidates. Is that still the goal?

Yes. Well, the first year, 2004, we raised money for MoveOn.org. The point was just to get authors more involved in the political process. Then, in 2006, we became more targeted, and picked individuals, like Nick Lampson, running against particularly evil incumbents, like Tom DeLay. We figured our donations were too small to really matter to a big organization like MoveOn. But for a congressional challenger, a few thousand dollars can go a long way.
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The decorations have been going up since Halloween. The commercials started two weeks ago. And the annual buying frenzy has already started.

Aren’t you already sick of Christmas?

Then participate in the annual Buy Nothing Day, in which you pledge not to choke the freeways, waste resources, go into debt and deal with a lot of screaming Christmas shoppers just so you can load your friends and family down with a lot of shiny, useless crap. Again.

Instead, participate in the Credit Card Cut-Up… the Zombie Walk… the Whirl-Mart… and other fun activities. Particpation is free.
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The celtic minstrels of the Pogues whose biggest hit was entitled Fairytale of New York, certainly have left their hearts in San Francisco, a city receptive to their wicked ways. Sunday night begins a four night stand at the Fillmore, where general admission for two will set attendees back approx $160 after all the ticketbastard nastiness and fees are accounted for.

Despite the high tabs at the box office and of course the bar, no doubt the old wooden dance floor will be packed and straining under the weight of audiences excitedly clamoring to catch the band some 20 years after their first sold out west coast shows in the same venerable venue.

Indeed that cold November night in 1987 they had Joe Strummer of The Clash along with them on guitar, and it was a very foot stompingly wild & whiskey soaked occasion. It was so uh, magically momentous actually to see the wily assemblage holding court back in the day that I’m not sure I’ll join in the fray at the Fillmore this year. I wouldn’t want to taint the foggy veils of my already perfect memories ya know?

The band came through last year as well, and they heartily held the fort down for several nights, and I heard few complaints, despite the progressively debilitated condition of lead singer Shane MacGowan. It’s just amazing to me that the fragile freak o’ habit known as Shane’s still alive, while the seemingly invincible Joe Strummer is dead…

Click to head below the fold, and download a couple mp3 tracks of rare live material. One is a celtic folk infused version of Bobby Fuller’s classic tune “I Fought The Law” ripped from some rare vinyl with Joe Strummer & Shane MacGowan trading off on raspy lead vocals…
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Months after I reported here that local blogger Jeff Webb was documenting the dangerous conditions and inept management policies at the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, Matt Smith of the SF Weekly has now jumped on the story with a long sordid accusation filled article on the THC’s “Vice Hotel”racket this week.

I first told of the existence of the scary videos I saw in early August being posted on YouTubefrom the life of a tenant under veritable siege at The 204-room Seneca on 6th Street, one of the marquee properties in the THC’s growing chain of SROs, that provide so-called “Supportive Housing”. The poster complained of loud & dangerous dealers roaming the halls, overstuffed needle exchange cans, and thuggish , incompetent and suspiciously in-cahoots behavior from some of the so-called “staff”. The blogger, Jeff Webb was then told he was in violation of the imaginary “privacy policy” of the publicly funded joint, and was advised to take down his tiny door mounted safety camera, or face retaliation.

Paid scribe Matt Smith delves into far greater detail than I had time here to do on the THC’s Mission Hotel, and apparently may have withheld some of the more juicy stuff & accusations that are flying around. Smith follows up on the long and winding saga of “activist” Randy Shaw’s many minions that are supposedly providing “supportive housing” to hundreds of tenants with millions in “Care Not Cash” funds. Some say it gets more “supportive” if you bribe a desk clerk, and are running an all night crack dealership…

As documented here previously in August, the situation had declined to the point where the THC, a politically motivated non profit that runs numerous SRO hotels, filed a restraining order against one of it’s own managers whom they accused of “extortion” and called a Norteno “gang member”. Interestingly, in typical half ass fashion, no one from the agency showed up to testify, endorse or follow through on the restraining order after it’s existence became public via Webb’s ever vigilant blogging. When the matter went to court, and no one appeared to either defend or challenge it, it was thusly thrown out by the judge.

More on the “Vice Hotel” industry, “Handshake Drugs” , Why “Matt Smith is like the President” etc after the jump:
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Today the NYT published an odd piece about taking a road trip from SF to LA with Laura Albert, the writer behind the J.T. LeRoy hoax. Along the way, the reporter suffers Albert’s “vulnerability to distraction,” “picky” behavior, and loose grasp of truthiness. The piece wraps up with a jarring “intervention” as a television writer tells her “Shut your mouth and go home” if she wants to have any prayer of writing another book. As Galleycat pointed out, it would have been a lot more fun as a long, perhaps Gonzo-style magazine piece.

The Galleycat post ended with its own strange little cavil, as poster Ron protested that the Albert party had been somehow lame in driving from SF to LA in less than six hours (”I used to be able to get from SF to LA in five hours, six if I stopped for lunch;” had they “taken the scenic route”?) Yeah, they did — they took 101, it’s right there in the article.
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I watched the tail end of the game at a pizza slice place in Fisherman’s Wharf. The guy who worked there was trying to explain to me the impact of the defeat, mentally and emotionally, in really broken English. Then he asks me, “Where are you from?” and I had that sad local shame feeling that he couldn’t somehow magically tell- and my dumb questions about the playoffs didn’t help. A muni driver kept popping his head in to check the score on the TV. How sucky would that be to be a basketball fan, on duty during the last few seconds of the game. I hope that a bus load of people weren’t hanging out on Beach while he was checking, though.

So… Jackson, please get off the court in a reasonable amount of time, next time you’re ejected, no matter how lame the call is. Watching you have these histrionics on the court while we’re waiting to wrap up the game just is not fun, and doesn’t help the underdog appeal at all.

I’m enjoying the Charles Barkley roasts going on in the Chron and elsewhere- supposedly he doesn’t like the Bay Area. My reaction to that, and the Conan uproar is: who cares? Baron Davis: still totally rules. Funniest newsbit is Jackson’s quote re: Barkley- the fave 5 will be all junk food “Chuck’s a big eater.”

So as we all know by now, Conan O’Brien is town all week at the Orpheum. So in celebration of Conan’s visit to SF, NBC 11 (WARNING! Link contains audio for those with sleeping children in the room) is hosting a Conan-themed rally in Justin Herman Plaza on Wednesay, May 2nd. It’s a free lunchtime gig (12-1PM) and will be styled after a variety show similar to “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” with guests, music, and other live performances. Currently, performances are scheduled by “Beach Blanket Babylon” and San Francisco Taiko Dojo. The Gavster has proclaimed May 2nd as “Conan O’Brien Day in San Francisco.” Mayor Newsom and Conan may make a special appearance at the event but the emphasis there is “may” so Caveat Emptor. Tickets to the show, as well as other prizes, will be given away. The tickets they are giving away are VIP tickets so you are guaranteed a seat if you win! All the other shows have been overbooked and it’s first coe first seated so if you do have tickets get there early and if you don’t then get your ass over to Justin Herman on Wednesday and win some!

Sara and No Name on Alice radio are giving away tickets during the morning show and NBC 11 News at 11 p.m. every night next week is doing “Conan Catch Phrase” to win tickets. Viewers watch the newscast, listen for the catch phrase and log on to nbc11.com to send them an email with the catch phrase when they hear it. Emailer #11 will win a pair of VIP tickets to the Friday, May 4th show.

Be sure to tune in to check out Conan tooling around our fair city with Bob Sagat in our signature GoCars. Photo credit: Andrew Weinberg/”Late Night”