San Francisco Metblogs » sf_kathryn

Has anyone heard of the Deco Ghetto?

sf_kathryn — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:28:56 +0000

I’m completely fascinated by San Francisco’s neighborhoods because it’s the only place I’ve ever lived that is so neighborhood-centric. Each neighborhood here is so distinct from the others that they take on lives of their own to the point where they become adjectives. People say things like, “well, it’s in the Mission but it’s such a Marina kind of place” and San Franciscans know exactly what that means. But what ends up happening is that the big general neighborhoods have to get further broken down into smaller neighborhoods as they get more well-defined. Thus, the Sunset and Mission have both inner and outer parts, Nob Hill has a lower part and the Tenderloin exists but only shows up on some maps and lists of the city’s neighborhoods. It’s fascinating.

And since it fascinates me, I was doing some reading about the different neighborhoods that there are in San Francisco and I came across a term that I hadn’t heard yet: The Deco Ghetto. According to the Bay Area Traveler, this term refers to the neighborhood “of Market Street from Franklin to Guerrero, and then south down Valencia to 14th”. Other sources have referred to the Deco Ghetto as being located “between the Mission and Hayes Valley” or just as being “along Market Street”.

Apparently, I’m not the only person who hadn’t yet learned the new nickname for this part of town. I’d known it as Duboce Triangle, but it is reportedly sometimes called The Hub and sometimes called Mid-Market. The latter appellation brings up the aside question - is there a Lower Market? After all, there’s an Upper Market. I can’t say that I can totally make sense of this whole neighborhood naming thing really, but I do know that there’s interesting shops and some good food and drinks spot in this Deco Ghetto so it’s a place I’ve checked out even if I didn’t call it anything at the time.

Urban Culture from Stash Magazine

sf_kathryn — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 14:21:21 +0000

I’m down in the L.A. area this weekend for the Paid Dues Festival and although I’m desperately missing San Francisco for all of the stereotypical reasons that SF kids miss the area when they head down to SoCal, I did have something good come out of this weekend trip. I discovered a new Bay Area magazine. Yup, there were folks down in San Bernardino handing out free copies of a small magazine, and I grabbed one, mostly with disinterest.

When the festival began to get monotonous, I pulled the magazine back out of my bag. The first article I read was a news piece about ghost riding. The next was an interview in which the first question was about hyphy. And that was when I did the double-take and thought, “this is no L.A. magazine”. I looked more closely and found that Stash Magazine is indeed a San Francisco publication.

If you have a love for all things hip hop or if you’ve been trying to find a good way to get more in-the-know about the Bay Area’s hyphy/ hip hop/ urban know-how, Stash Magazine is a good start. You can visit the online version to get the latest issue and to check out the extras like music and videos. I’m loving it … so if anyone has info on where to get similar info / reading material, leave a comment!

Susan Werner Praises SF Throughout her Show

sf_kathryn — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 15:26:05 +0000

There are really not too many people in the world who will say that they are in love with the city in which they live. But those who do know that feeling are lucky because they are almost always accompanied by that heady feeling of falling in love whenever they get a chance to be out and about in their daily worlds. I have that feeling about San Francisco. And because I have it, I am always appreciative of other people who have it, whether or not their feeling is for this city that I adore.

As mentioned here previously, I recently got the opportunity to attend a concert by Susan Werner at the Brava Theatre Center for Women in the Arts. Susan is from Chicago and she is clearly in love with her city, as evidenced by her as-yet-unrecorded song, “Chicago Anyday” which she performed with jazzy gusto at her recent concert. Despite her affection for her own city, Susan made no secret of the fact that she’s a fan of San Francisco. She even drew comparisons from the Chicago-centric song to application for San Francisco.

Additionall, she mentioned the highlights of SF that locals love but sometimes forget about. The thing about Susan’s live performance which really enhances her already-impressive singing is that she truly interacts with her audience and makes them feel as though she’s there just for them. As such, she shared details about her trek through Golden Gate Park’s Conservatory of Flowers and the view of the Golden Gate Bridge which she experienced over the Bay. She adapted the lyrics of “Chicago Anyday” to mention Bay Area cities which the audience joined in on, playfully adding to her rhymes.

Susan even remembered and shared the comments of a fan from her last Bay Area show (2006 at Freight and Salvage in the East Bay) who turned up in the Brava Theater audience. This kind of intimate recollection of her fans makes Susan stand out as a touching performer, giving more weight to the words behind her songs. And as a fellow lady-in-love-with-her-home, Susan’s support of San Francisco gives credence to the appreciation one can have for the loves of others.

SF Burlesque and other Sexy Shenanigans

sf_kathryn — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 21:06:48 +0000

A couple of nights ago, I traipsed my way to the Red Devil Lounge, an intimate Polk Street venue which serves as the perfect setting for a devilishly fun date. Indeed, I had a super fun date there, set against the sexy backdrop of a performance of the Glam-o-Rama Girly Show. Coming to the end of their national tour, the burlesque / cabaret gals and their comic host, Vincent Drambuie, put on a slight-silly, stunningly-sexy show in the small San Francisco venue. Featuring full-costume, short-skit, in-good-fun stripping by real-bodied women skilled in the art of tease performance, the Glam-o-Rama Girly Show was fun at its finest.

Although I nearly fell in love with Tana the Tattooed Lady for the symbols circling her thighs and the sparkle shooting out of her eyes, I have to confess that the local talent is what made me love the show. In addition to performances by San Francisco Suicide Girls, the stage was graced by the spontaneous strutting of Bay Area beauties. Only in San Francisco do you find professors of poetry from prestigious institutions, just-became-old-enough-to-drink boylesque newbies and legendary burlesque stars like Isis Star all sharing the stage for impromptu tassle-swinging competition. Cheered on by a crowd comprised of video game testers, freelance artists and business professionals, the local people gave serious attention to the art of attention-getting and proved that few people in San Francisco are afraid to show of their wilder sides.

The Girl-o-Rama Girly Show might have already left town, but of course that doesn’t mean that San Francisco has seen the last of sexy entertainment. In fact, if I didn’t already have commitments to less risqué performances tonight, I’d make it a week filled with sexy adventures by making my way to Mighty tonight to catch the performance by The Wet Spots. More musical sex comedy than tease-tainment, The Wet Spots sing satire-based sexy songs to get your humor and your heart racing in tune. Tonight’s performance is put on by the Center for Sex and Culture. The organization just signed a lease for new space so more sexy events should be making their way to the San Francisco must-attend lists soon.

Susan Werner at Brava Theater; Women in the Arts

sf_kathryn — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:16:36 +0000

I first became familiar with the singer-songwriter folk tunes of Susan Werner through a CD of hers given to me by my father. He had discovered her when she played a free performance in the park in his Ashland, OH hometown and immediately fell in love with her warm vocals and heartfelt instrumentals. However, it was her lyrics, both touching and humorous, which really won him over.

In fact, I thought for awhile that he was going to drive me crazy with his repetitive crooning of the lines of the song “Sorry About Jesus” from her Time Between Trains CD (because even though they were admittedly funny, he was wearing them out). Then, he gave me the CD, and I found that the song was so catchy that it was soon leaking from my lips as well. Multiple CDs later, she has wormed her way into my heart and my headphones.

Susan performed in the East Bay a couple of months back at Freight and Salvage and is now returning for a San Francisco show. She plays this Friday at Brava Theater, the Mission theater which specializes in showcasing the work of women across the nation, particularly women of minority. So you can go hear a super singer-songwriter touring to promote her sixth CD and you can support a good cause at the same time.

Wymond and his Spirit Children

sf_kathryn — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 22:23:04 +0000

Are you looking for something different to do with your Wednesday night this week? Something transcendent, maybe? Ethereal perhaps? You might want to turn your attention to the otherworldly musical eminence of Wymond Miles and his Spirit Children who will be gracing the stage at Café du Nord. What does the music sound like? The online description includes the information that “the songs here are feverish transcendent dreams given now as gifts”. If you head to the MySpace page, you’ll find tracks combining nature-drive instrumentals with Tibetan throat singing vocals. It’s more than just a musical performance; it’s an experience.

The show is a four-band show with the other performers being All My Pretty Ones, Silver Needles and The Parish, so if you’re leaning less towards the magical and more towards the music, you should also be able to get your fix at the performance. The twenty-one-and-up show starts at 9:30 but you can get there up to an hour early to enjoy the ambience that is Café du Nord. It should be quite the San Francisco style show.

Vote On SF Bands With The Deli SF

sf_kathryn — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 17:21:14 +0000

The Deli Magazine is one of the better sources for finding local indie musicians that you hadn’t yet heard of as well as for seeing what’s going on with the San Francisco bands that you already love. Think you know your local music? See if you know all eight bands which have been nominated for The Deli’s Artist of the Month Award.

You can vote on the site to give your input as to which of the bands is the best this month. Currently, Bear on Bear is way in the lead, with Giraffes? Giraffes! and The Morning Benders coming in next. If these bands don’t sound familiar, you can listen to them on The Deli’s site and see what you think.

Dark Folk Rock Tonight At Rickshaw

sf_kathryn — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 15:11:01 +0000

Are you a fan of Cat Power but think that the music of the New York indie chick would be enhanced if you could bottle up some San Francisco flavor and slip it into her drink? If you could manage to create that product / person, what you might come up with is Emily Jane White. She’s got the dark spice of bluesy lyrics, the soul of a folksy singer-songwriter, the spirit of a woman who has certainly seen the world and the ultimately accepting attitude of a true San Franciscan. Oh, and she has the talent to back up the rest of that good stuff.

Emily Jane White is playing tonight at The Rickshaw Stop, nestled in between sets by local singer-songwriter Indianna Hale and local-but-worldly alternative folk-rock band Karpov. The show is $8 and starts at 8 p.m. I’m not sure on the details but I believe Rickshaw is either all ages or eighteen-and-up so young’uns with a terrific sense of edgy music style can enjoy the scene along with the rest of us.

iPod Vending Machines at SFO

sf_kathryn — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 01:04:00 +0000

I haven’t seen them myself, because it’s actually been a surprisingly long time since I’ve taking a plane to leave the city, but apparently SFO has vending machines which sell iPods. The vending machines were created by Zoom Systems, a San Francisco-based company (of course) and include other pricey items in addition to the iPod. Although they have been dubbed iPod vending machines, they’re called “Zoom Shops” by the company. The idea is that you can pick up the items that you need in the modern world when you realize that you’ve forgotten them, offering the kind of instant gratification that I find easy to find in this city. However, I have to wonder, how do you get the music on to the machine to use during the flight?

YouTube footage of the SFO machines

Thankful for SF’s Fickle Weather

sf_kathryn — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 17:03:08 +0000

Just last week, I was keeping myself occupied indoors in order to avoid going out in the rain and hailstorms and fielding phone calls from my concerned out-of-state family members regarding “the landslide“. And then this weekend, I was able to go out in the evenings with only a light jacket and to wander around the city during the day soaking up the most beautiful rays of San Francisco sunshine. And I have to say, that’s one of the things that I love most about San Francisco’s weather: it may be flighty, but you always know that even in the worst of weather times, it’s about to change again soon anyway.

And thinking about San Francisco weather makes me realize that it’s already March. When I moved here in the beginning of last year and found myself met with several months straight of rain and more rain, I didn’t believe everyone who told me then that the wet weather was unusual for the area. But it turns out to be true because this year’s been entirely different. I can handle this. But I know that my chance to enjoy the warmth could be on its way out of the area, so I’m going to head out into the San Francisco streets and take advantage of the beautiful day!