Litquake continues tonight with Opium Magazine’s Literary Death Match at the Rickshaw Stop, one of San Francisco’s newest and most creative reading series. The doors open at 7:30, a scant ninety minutes from now, with the show set to begin at 9:00. Word has it there are still tickets available. Half literary reading, half elimination contest, four readers get ten minutes each to wow the crowd with their genius. A panel of three judges discuss each offering in terms of performance, literary merit, and “intangibles” — then they select two finalists. The final round is always non-literary, requiring that the writers exercise something they’re not used to using — dexterity, for instance, or people skills. The contestants tonight will be Tom Perrotta (Election), Katherine Taylor (Rules for Saying Goodbye), Steve Yarbrough (The Oxygen Man) and Eric Puchner (Music Through the Floor); the judges will be, according to Opium, “last year’s LDM Litquake champ, Daniel Handler (Adverbs), Believer managing editor Andrew Leland, and hilartiste Debi Durst.” It will be hosted by Opium Magazine’s editor Todd Zuniga, and LDM’s west coast curator, Sky Hornig.

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Annoyed with being on the West Coast and having our ballots counted after the election’s been called? You can vote early. From the SF County site

ABSENTEE BALLOTS and VOTING EARLY

* Any voter may vote early by Absentee Ballot (voting by mail), or they may vote early in person.
Mail in your Absentee Ballot to the Department of Elections:
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett
San Francisco, CA. 94102 OR
Drop it off at the Department of Elections
Room 48, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett
(Ground Floor, City Hall) OR
Drop it off at a polling location before 8 p.m. on Election Day
To vote early in person:
Go to the Department of Elections beginning January 7, 2008:
Room 48, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett (City Hall, Ground Floor),
Monday - Friday– 8:00 am. to 5:00 pm.
Saturday & Sunday, Jan 26 & 27–10:00 am. to 4:00 pm. (enter from Grove Street only)
You don’t have to give a reason for voting early.
Any ballot that arrives at the Department of Elections after 8 p.m. on Election Day will not be counted.

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If watching that clip makes you feel both like jumping on your bike and hitting the streets immediately and at the same time not want to move because everything is so perfect and calm then you should be aware that is just a promo for the full length Macaframa film that premiers this week. Wednesday night (October 8th) at the Victory Theater on 16th in the Mission you can catch a screening at 8 or 10 PM. The showing is free and if that’s not enough bike action for you there’s a race before hand from the clock tower at Embarcadero to the theater, race starts at 6. If the web clips are any judge, Colby Elrick & Colin Arlen have done an amazing job collecting footage and putting it together for this production. If you like bikes and this city, it’s pretty much the only place you should be Wednesday night.

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Think the economic meltdown can’t touch your high tech job? Valleywag announced today they are laying off three staffers, cutting writers’ “page view bonus,” and taking other steps in anticipation of lost advertising.

The layoffs affected two of my favorite bloggers, Jackson West and Melissa Gira Grant, as well as associate editor Nicholas Carlson (no offense to Carlson, but I’ve followed West’s and Grant’s posts for a long time). Here’s hoping they all find good homes.

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Litquake, the biggest literary festival in San Francisco, kicks off tonight at the Herbst Theater with Suckered: Writers Confess a Profound Lack of Judgment, and ends on Saturday the 11th in the Mission District with the famous (perhaps by now infamous) Litcrawl. In between there is a whole week of great events, most of them low-cost or free. As author and participant Kemble Scott writes in the newsletter he devoted to the festival:

Litquake couldn’t come at a better time. While recent news headlines have many of us worried about our pocketbooks, most Litquake events are absolutely free. The handful of ticketed programs helps fund the entire festival. The Bay Area’s unique egalitarian spirit fuels this massive literary machine: it’s run by volunteers, and all of the authors have donated their time. Amazing, isn’t it?

The challenge for you is figuring out which events to attend.

Scott suggests that we print out the entire festival schedule and “think of it as a restaurant menu. An appetizer of Dennis Lehane, Beth Lisick for the main course, a side of Jane Ganahl, and for dessert…”

My personal faves and highlights are after the jump. Have fun, and see you there!

Read more

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Last Saturday, Dolores Park was home to the 9th Annual Expo for Independent Arts; this Saturday, the park will be home to an event for those more interested in art-as-performance than art-as-object. It’s Improv Everywhere’s Mp3 Experiment San Francisco. Beginning at 2:00 and running no later than 2:45, a huge crowd of people will converge on the park and follow instructions given by the voice in their heads.

Best of all, you can be one of them!

See the page for detailed instructions, but here’s how it basically works: you download an mp3 to your mp3 player and sync up your watch to their page before leaving for the event. At the appointed time and place you press “play,” and follow the instructions along with everybody else. Some videos of past events can be viewed here.

Improv Everywhere has a note about cameras: This is a participatory event. We encourage participants to leave their cameras at home and have fun participating. Same goes for the media. Let’s all enjoy the moment and resist the urge to document! That makes perfect sense for the participants, but the media? Sorry folks, but knowing journalists, that’s the exact kind of request that will guarantee the presence of at least one camera crew. Of course, maybe that’s what Improv Everywhere wants. They are rather devious folks, after all!

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The New York Times today began a Road To November series of mood-testing with voters across the country, beginning their survey in San Francisco, where “It’s frustrating to live in a city where everyone assumes that because you share airspace you also share political views,” according to the quantifiably named Joel Muchmore.

Among the slightly arresting details of life in the city discovered by the Times’ reporter are the “Ferry Terminal Market” — she means the Ferry Building Marketplace — and “last Sunday’s ‘leather/fetish’ street fair,” that is, the Folsom Street Fair. She cites the city’s universal health care initiative and the ban on plastic bags, though she fails to point out the ban applies only to markets and pharmacies.

But one bit of controversial public policy she missed completely is the ban on sales of tobacco products at pharmacies, which went into effect today. I just visited a Walgreens, and the cigarette display case was as bare as a Trick-or-Treater’s bag on Election Day.

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It’s Matcha time! The Asian Art Museum hosts their Matcha event series on the first Thursday of every month, from 5 to 9 in the evening, and tomorrow, October 2nd, is that special day. The theme for tomorrow’s event is Japanese Tattoo:

There’s more to getting inked than you think. Takahiro Kitamura — aka “HORITAKA,” apprentice to the revered master Horiyoshi III — is an author, prolific tattoo artist, and owner of San Jose’s State of Grace. He will deliver a talk on the time-honored art of Japanese tattoos, a rich culture of beauty, commitment, and history.

See LIVE demonstrations of employing both traditional (no electric needles!) and modern techniques. Joining Horitaka’s diverse, talented crew of tattooists are special guests from Japan — Shige, a powerhouse tat artist who’s showcased all over the world; Mutsuo, who’s designed for Bathing Ape and Hysteric Glamour; and Kazunobu Nagashima, a client of Shige who will proudly display his backpiece, which won a 2007 Milano Tattoo Convention award.

In addition, dip into the world of Zen among ancient Samurai warriors through a guided tour of the galleries, learn about Japanese altars, sample teas by Ito En, soak up DJ Saiman’s aural offerings, enjoy a cocktail with friends, and much more.

The museum is on Larkin next door to Main Library. Admission is $5 after 5 PM, and as they imply up there, for that awesome price you get the run of the museum. Their special exhibition at the moment is Arts of the Islamic World from Turkey to Indonesia, featuring artifacts from the museum’s collection. (They’re tooling up for a big show about Afghanistan that won’t open for three weeks. But we’ll talk about that next month.)

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Omar Vizquel, the magically graceful shortstop employed by the Giants for the last four seasons, has turned his last double play for the team, General Manager Brian Sabean said in an extensive interview Monday with reporters. Asked about the future of the 41-year-old eleven-time Gold Glove winner, Sabean said the chances of Vizquel returning to the team were “zero.”

Vizquel’s last at-bat in Sunday’s final game was a satisfying slap hit, raising his career total to 2,657. The rennaissance man and well-known dandy — who also dances, sings, and paints — broke the record this year for most games ever played at the shortstop position, finishing with 2,680.

The Giants are transitioning to a more youthful team, moving from 2006, when they had the oldest lineup in the league, to this year when they had 18 rookies make their major league debut with the team, including 23-year-old Emmanuel Burriss, who is slated to take over Vizquel’s position.

Vizquel will be fondly remembered by Giants fans, who gave him a long standing ovation and curtain call Sunday when he was removed from the game after taking the field in the top of the fifth inning. He is even more revered in Cleveland, where he played eleven seasons, leading the Indians to a World Series championship. When the Giants played the Indians there this year, it was Vizquel’s first return in another uniform, and he was given a highlight tribute and several long ovations.

Vizquel has said he wants to continue playing — if not in the U.S. next year, perhaps in Japan.

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Tomorrow, October 1st, there will be a free event on the Main Library steps from noon until 1:30: the Rally for Banned Books. The event features local authors reading from their favorite banned books. I guess it’s a kind of warm up for Litquake, which starts Friday.

Readers tomorrow will include Tamim Ansary, Justin Chin, Jane Ganahl, Leah Garchik, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, Jewelle Gomez, Kemble Scott, April Sinclair (April Sinclair!), Kevin Smokler, K.M. Soehnlein, and it will be moderated by Jack Hirschman. What a lineup!

It turns out that the last week of September is Banned Book Week. (Amusingly, the press release from the library refers to it once as BBW; somebody should tell them the acronym is spoken for.) Observance of Banned Book Week, which is sponsored by every national book- and library-related organization, is meant to “remind Americans not to take this precious democratic freedom [the freedom to read] for granted,” according to the press release. It goes on: “Banned Books Week celebrates the freedom to choose or the freedom to express one’s opinion even if that opinion might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them. Intellectual freedom can exist only where these two essential conditions are met.”

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[Image via.]

Well, the 44th annual Big Book Sale hosted by the Friends of the Public Library started yesterday, but have no fear — the sale will continue today and tomorrow from 10 to 8, and on Sunday from 10 to 6. All books on Sunday will be priced down to $1 or less! The Friends contend that it’s the largest book sale on the West Coast, and I’d believe it. It’s being held, as usual, at lovely Fort Mason, in the Festival Pavillion. Just go to Fort Mason — you can’t miss it!

This sale is truly staggering, by the way. The picture above is of last year’s sale, and it nicely conveys the scope. (It comes from this great post on the anonymous blog, Tea & Cookies.) You could easily pick up a year’s reading for less than $50. Normally I’m such a restrained person in bookstores: because of the relatively high cost of new books, I almost never purchase one unless I’m certain I will benefit from it. Fifteen bucks per paperback adds up, never mind hardcovers! But at library book sales, all prudence goes out the window. Not only are the books cheap, but according to the Friends page, all the proceeds “fund education programs that promote literacy for children, teens and adults. Last year, over $250,000 was raised for San Francisco’s libraries.” How can you resist that? It’s a license to splurge. Last year my wife and I took public transportation specifically to limit the amount we could bring home, and we still ended up staggering up the big hill to our house with a huge bag stuffed with books. But it was worth it, I think. I’d be more certain of that if I could still remember what we bought.

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Earlier this afternoon I walked past 826 Valencia and saw a notice for this cool, typically whimsical event posted in the window:

Join artist Lucas Murgida as he completes a three-year traveling art project which began here in the 826 front window. This installation of The Locksmithing Institute will kick off with a reception in the Pirate Store, where refreshments and a demonstration on opening doors without keys will be enjoyed by all.

In February of 2005, The Locksmithing Institute conducted its first class at 826 Valencia. Here students were taught how to liberate themselves from their everyday shackles in a series of lock-picking courses. Since that time, the Institute has traveled all over the Western Hemisphere and has taught hundreds of students in Portland, New York, Oakland, San Francisco, Baltimore, Boston, and Uruguay a host of locksmithing skills such as how to pick locks, make keys, find keys, lose keys, and how not to pick locks. Click here for more details.

On Friday, September 26, the eleventh and final lesson of The Locksmithing Institute will begin at 826 Valencia. Incoming students will be given the opportunity to test their meddle in the Institute’s mobile locking window display classroom. Tuition is free, all ages are welcome, no experience is necessary, and keys are not required.

The event will run from 6-8 PM tomorrow night, Friday 26th. Unfortunately, I’m going to be down in Santa Cruz for most of the day, but I’m going to try really hard to be back in time for this!

[Event text taken directly from 826 Valencia; another heads-up from SF Funcheap.]

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As reported by SF Weekly, the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle’s books section, Regan McMahon, has accepted a buyout and will leave the newspaper. McMahon had been books editor only a few months. She was promoted to the post when Oscar Villalon, who had helmed the section for several years, accepted a buyout in August.

According to the report, McMahon was assured by Chronicle managers that the paper would continue the 8-page tabloid section, which is now a pullout from the slightly longer Insight section of the Sunday paper. The moves come as newspapers across the country continue to hemorrhage money, with arts coverage being particularly vulnerable.

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Former Giants All Star first baseman J.T. Snow — seen at left during 2005, his last season with the Giants — has signed a one-day contract with the team so he can retire as a Giant.

Most recently, Snow has been a part-time broadcaster, part-time coach for the Giants, for whom he played from 1997 to 2005. A free agent in 2006, he signed with the Boston Red Sox but played little and announced his retirement during the 2006 winter meetings.

Rumors that the Giants’ “major announcement regarding J.T. Snow” meant him being named as team manager, or anything else, proved false.

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Greg Dewar over at The N-Judah Chronicles has written a post that just can’t be improved, so I’m going to quote it in full:

Blast from the Past: The ORIGINAL Plan to Build a Market St. Tunnel - in 1935!

I have an RSS reader full of wonderful news and blogs, and one that never fails to provide the transit pr0n is The Overhead Wire, which reports on transity goodness from around the country.

Thanks to the good people at TOW, I caught this YouTube video of the first proposal to build a Market Street subway system. It is interesting to watch and see SF as the “City That Knows How,” a city that built things and made things happen (as opposed to now, where it’s the City That Knows How To Bitch).

It’s also interesting to see the argument for bus service (also called “trackless trolleys”) which were touted as a way to speed things up. If you’ve ever been stuck on a herky-jerky janky bus, you know that didn’t quite work out as planned.

Anyway, check out the video, and hat tip to The Overhead Wire!

The newsreel, in all its historically-rich awesomeness, can be viewed on The N-Judah Chronicles or here on YouTube. Of course, the proposition failed, as would others. BART construction under Market Street eventually began in 1970, and the Muni subway opened in 1978. Thanks, Greg!

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