My Blog

Open studios

larrybob — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 04:13:49 GMT

SF's open studios are always a great opportunity to see the places in whch people work (and often live) and also a chance to meet interesting artistic people. I stopped by a few various ones this afternoon -- some of them the studios of people I already knew, like Hadley Northrop - http//www.hadleynorthrop.com and Sean Vallely - http://www.bluefortyseven.com/ and some unfamiliar to me, like Rafael Landea -- http://www.rafael-landea.com

Nov 8 California Election -- Get Scared

larrybob — Sat, 08 Oct 2005 23:46:23 GMT

There's an election coming up in California November 8, and most people don't even seem to be aware. I did some outreach the past couple weekends at the Folsom Street Fair and the Castro Street Fair, and a lot of people didn't know about the state propositions. The scariest to me is Prop 73, which is about parental notification about abortion. It includes this definition: "Abortion" means the use of any means to terminate the pregnancy of an unemancipated minor female known to be pregnant with knowledge that the termination with those means will, with reasonable likelihood, cause the death of the unborn child, a child conceived but not yet born. For purposes of this section, "abortion" shall not include the use of any contraceptive drug or device. Come on -- is that really necessary to have in the California State Constitution? There's also a bunch of other stuff which Alliance for a Better California -- http://www.betterca.com -- is working on. Unfortuntely, they aren't doing anything as a group to oppose prop 73 -- apparently they were worried it might alienate rural or religious types and hurt the chances of defeating the other propositions. So working against prop 73 is The Campaign for Teen Safety. -- http://www.ppaction.org/campaign/NoOn73 Also, there's a bunch of stuff on the local San Francisco ballot, the wost of which is prop F, in which the fire department and firefighters union is trying to scare people into thinking their houses would burn down if people don't vote for it. It makes a setaside for the fire budget. There is too much of the SF budget tied up in setasides already -- it's a bad way to figure out how to spend money -- locked in with no flexibility. There have been repeated audits about the wastefulness of the SF Fire Department -- rather than "browning out" stations like they're doing now, they could save money by things like not sending trucks when drunks pass out on Market Street or getting rid of call boxes which only result in false alarms.

Relived, but still..

larrybob — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 04:31:43 GMT

I was relieved to find out today that my friend Bard Cole, who recently moved to New Orleans, is ok and in Nashville. I was worried because I hadn't heard from him nor had mutual friends of ours. But I today I got email back from a friend of his who had heard from him. But there is still of course so much suffering there and I don't really know what to do...

back from Los Angeles

larrybob — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 03:21:19 GMT

The gigs in Los Angeles went really well -- Little Pedro's is a really nice venue, with a stage and a great-sounding PA, and Rudy and guest DJ Roddy Bottum played great music (the other regular DJ, Jeppe aka Senior of Junior Senior was absent for the night due to having a gig opening for the B52s the next day.) The Bricktops show was amazing. The place was crowded, and there were quite a few people in 1920s outfits (I don't understand why the people wearing current "fashions" don't make a little effort -- there isn't a dress code, but they could at least dig around in their closet and find a button up shirt instead of some t-shirt.) It's really a shame that the club is closing. Vaginal Davis sang a few impromptu lyrics as I tickled the ivories before our set, and the songs we played went over really well. Also on the bill were Brian Grillo, performing solo a couple of songs he'd written for Mink Stole to perform, and Penny Arcade did one of her rants, wearing Minnie Mouse ears and impersonating a whiny gentrifying New York yuppie. The final Bricktops will be the first Friday in August, and it should be quite a blowout -- folks should head for LA and check it out!

Blood Bucket Ballyhoo

larrybob — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 20:55:41 GMT

Last night went to see "Blood Bucket Ballyhoo," the current production by the Thrillpeddlers in their new space, The Hypnodrome. This is the second production they've done in the space. Inspired by and based on plays that were performed at the Grand Guignol Theatre in Paris, France, this production is a trilogy of live horror drama and comedy. I hightly recommend checking out the production. Full information can be found at their website, http://www.hypnodrome.com/