Mission Mission

We all had a laugh at “Ecosexuality” a couple of days ago, but as it turns out, it’s a real thing and the event in question will be in the Mission at the Lab on Feb 13!

In celebration of Valentine’s Day and this new decade pregnant with possibilities for change and transformation, acclaimed performance artist and sex educator Annie Sprinkle and her partner, interdisciplinary artist and activist Elizabeth Stephens, take you on a joyous and inspiring journey as they explore, generate, and celebrate love through art. They will weave their amazing stories, share some dazzling images, and do mini-performances about their experiments in romance, artificial insemination, breast cancer, sex education, performance art weddings, and other love-inspired projects. Currently investigating “ecosexuality,” these two dynamic women are mapping a new field of research they coined “sexecology” — the place where sexology and ecology intersect. Perhaps you’ll discover that you, too, are an ecosexual.

There will also be an erotic cake contest. Go ahead and fork over the 7-10 dollarónes just so you can sit in the back, cross your arms with a smug half-smile, and act like you are sooo above this. More info at the Lab.

(Hey, if this is your bag, it’s none of my business. It’s 2010 and we are a kinder, more sensitive Mission Mission.)

Some seriously shreddin’ classical players are playing tonight at Amnesia, of all places!

First is Phyllis Chen, virtuoso classical/experimental pianist. Did I mention she plays her pieces on the TOY PIANO?

Next, German cellist (and apparent hottie) Johannes Moser. If the youtube comments on this guy are true, he’ll melt your face AND your heart:

Between this and Classical Revolution, there has been an increasingly strong presence of classical music in the mission. It seems as though a lot of those conservatory students are in need an outlet that isn’t playing Pachabel’s Canon at a wedding and are taking it to the dives.

Say here’s a tip: bring a date that you’re trying to impress with your “sensitive artiste” side. At some point during the show, gently close your eyes and mime some conducting movements with your hands. If that doesn’t seal the deal, try shaving off that goddamned beard.

Amnesia is on Valencia b/t 19th and 20th. Show starts at 9pm and costs $7-$10.

Hella bands tonight at the Lab. Contrary to the info on the flyer, the official roster is: Boyz IV Men, Date Palms, Work, Raccoons, Glass Cake. Bearded DJ Triste Tropiques will be spinning the only bands that matter: SF bands! There will also be FREE COOKIES; no word yet on what kind.

This is all in celebration of DarDarDar‘s 1-year anniversary. DarDarDar is a great site that lists bay area shows that you care about. It’s the cleanest, most bullshit-free calendar there is and I highly recommend it. It’s way better than flipping through the SF Weekly or combing through each venue’s lousy web site. The site owner is also a Dreamdate bro and tasteful photoblogger.

“Dar” is short for the last syllable in “Calendar”. That fucking word was my death blow at the 6th grade Stanislaus County Spelling Bee. I let a lot of people down that day. If only I could give back that pizza party the principal had in my honor.

You would think there would be more gay events in the Mission. Most of the rest of America would call the boys here “fags”. Statistically speaking, a lot of them probably are.

So good thing Bill of TransAm Presents tells us:

I throw a gay rock ‘n’ roll dance party called Sissy Fit every month at Sub Mission (usually 3rd Saturday but it varies sometimes)….  The Mission may be hipster central, but it’s a veritable no-man’s-land for gays.  We’re hoping to build that bridge with Sissy Fit.  Every month features two DJs spinning post-punk, punk, classic hardcore and jagged new wave, plus a live band and some Trannyshack-style drag performances.

I never thought I’d see a flyer for a gay dance club that had a pale skinny dude in lieu of some ultra-tanned hunk with an 8-pack, but hey it’s 2010! Seriously though, that shit is offensive towards men. If you don’t like working out or drinking protein shakes that’s cool with us. Love your bodies, fellas.

Oddball Films is screening two documentaries this Friday 1/15 on the original graffiti/hip hop/break dancing scene in NY in the early ’80s: Style Wars and the uber rare Electric Boogie. More info here and check out the trailer after the jump.

Guest Curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present two cult documentaries focused on the emerging Hip Hop culture in New York. “Style Wars” (1982) has reached near legendary status for its documentation of the exploding sub culture of Hip Hop, and it’s a great film to boot- winning the Grand Prize for best documentary at the 1984 Sundance Film Festival.  “Electric Boogie” (1983) is the rarely screened and virtually unavailable film about four young friends who break dance their way through the South Bronx.  Plus, the anti-vandalism short “Graffiti”, hosted by a post-Capt. James T. Kirk/pre-Sgt. T.J. Hooker William Shatner.

Ah, the ’80s: when wearing pastels and tight jeans was considered tough. When rap songs described in clear, concise english how you were supposed to dance to them. When holding a boom box over your shoulder was the iPod. What a time!

Best of all, Pete has kindly offered a pair of tickets for you and yours! How do you get them? Post a comment with your mission breakdancing name and leave a real email address. Best one takes them after an almost completely arbitrary judging process!

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It’s National Hot Toddy Day, everybodyyyy!  Per SFoodie, Humphry Slocombe will be celebrating accordingly by offering a special Hot Toddy sundae:

Two scoops of Glenlivet 12 year-old scotch ice cream get a bath of hot honey lemon clove caramel and a sprinkle of candied Meyer lemons.

Jesus.  Those folks never fail to take it to the next level.

I’m not going to sit here and tell you that Paul F. Tompkins is the funniest comedian in the world right now. You already know that. Since VH1′s cancellation of the (sadly misunderstood) Best Week Ever with Paul F. Tompkins, P.F.T. is back on the West Coast and totally killing it. His new album rules, his mastery of Twitter is beyond compare, his use of Facebook to source shows is unprecedented.

This Friday, he’s performing his variety show, the aptly titled Paul F. Tompkins show, at Eureka Theater. Tickets and details here. Joining him will be Dave Foley (Kids in the Hall), Illeana Douglas (Cape Fear, Ghost World), and singer-songwriter Grant-Lee Phillips. We talk about performing in SF, internet schemes, future plans, and the stress of organizing a variety show.

Oh, and you should join the SF Tompkins 300 group and get him back here on his own accord.

…

Mission Mission: I’ve seen you perform here in San Francisco with both good and horrible crowds. How is San Francisco as an audience?

Paul F. Tompkins: *Laughs* When did you see a horrible crowd?

MM: You performed at Cobb’s and there were at least 2 or 3 people yelling at you through the whole show…

PFT: Oh, yeah. In general I find San Francisco to be good. When I would play the Punchline, it would be me spread out over four nights and there would be probably 10 people who come to see me specifically and they were enjoying it. The rest of the people got free tickets, the room had been papered, so they were just not into it. I saw some of the rudest crowds ever at the Punchline, people with their backs to the stage just talking, as if they were at a night club. You have to work so hard to win them over because they don’t value the experience.

Doing Sketchfest where it’s a bunch of comedy fans, it’s great. People show up really pumped up for the show. They know they’re going to see something that they’re going to enjoy. They’re in a much better frame of mind.

MM: So because of that, lately you’ve been doing a lot of interesting things around how you bring in audiences. The kinds of places you play, the Tompkins 300 Facebook campaign… are you getting the results you want?

PFT: Well, so far. It’s only been the one show in Toronto, the one that started the Tompkins 300… thing… I don’t want to call it a movement, I feel like that’s very grand. Let’s call it a notion, the Tompkins 300 Notion.

That started from me being in Atlanta, trying to get people out to a show. This comedian Bob Kerr in Toronto asked, “Why don’t you come to Toronto?” I said, “Get 300 people together that say they’ll see me” because that was the size of the room I was trying to fill in Atlanta. And he did it, this Facebook group started, he got 300 people, I booked a show, and it was great!

I’m trying to make that the model, but I’ve yet to do the second show. I’m trying to nail down venues in five different cities right now. It’s proving to take longer than I had hoped. I do feel like this is something that can work and will work. Once I have the logistics down, I think it is going to be a successful thing. It makes a huge difference when everybody is there for the same reason.

MM: You’ve also announced that you’re starting a podcast.

PFT: I’m very excited about it, it’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time and it’s a form that I really enjoy. I listen to a lot of podcasts. I like that it can be whatever you want it to be and that there are so many things that you can do with it. It’s going to be a mixture of produced stuff, excerpts from my Largo show, conversations with people…

MM: Your experiences hosting Best Week Ever, and your show at Largo, have those informed what you’d like to accomplish with your podcast?

PFT: You know, I think what’s informed me the most is listening to other podcasts. I like a lot of different kinds. I really enjoy something like Comedy and Everything Else, hosted by Jimmy Dore and Stefané Zamorano. I love what Scott Aukerman is doing with Comedy Death Ray. It’s one of my absolute favorites. I listen to it every week, I think he’s a good host and the show he puts together is fantastic.

MM: Your John C. Reilly impression on Comedy Death Ray is a particular favorite of mine.

PFT: *Laughs* I think you’re being generous by calling it an “impression”. There’s another podcast called Superego which is a monthly podcast that these guys Matt Gourley, Jeremy Carter, Mark McConville and Jeff Crocker put together that’s stream-of-consciousness sketch stuff that’s very produced. I sat in on an episode that’s going to come out next month. They have sketch ideas they want to do, they riff, they edit out all the dead spaces and layer in sound effects and music so it’s really an impressive thing, I really love it. That was an influence, realizing it doesn’t have to be a couple people sitting around talking.

Then, of course, Tom Scharpling’s Best Show on WFMU.

MM: Do you want to comment on the rumors that you’re collaborating with Tom Scharpling on something new?

PFT: Yeah we’ve been talking about something for a while. It’s very difficult because we’re on opposite sides of the country, we have our own things that we’re trying to do. Now that we’re both free, as it were, we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to collaborate on something. So we’re in the very early stages of putting together an idea for a TV show.

MM: For your upcoming Sketchfest show, is there a theme to the guests?

PFT: No, it’s just people I know that have done my show before. Dave Foley and Illeana Douglas are doing sketches with me, and Grant-Lee Philips is an old friend, a musician that has done my show in Los Angeles many, many times. It’s nice to play with people that I have a relationship with. It just makes things a lot easier.

Doing a show like this is stressful enough at home; doing it on the road it becomes a whole other thing because there’s so much logistic stuff that has to be worked out. I learned a lot from doing it at Sketchfest in 2006 and the guys that run Sketchfest have been really helpful, Janet Varney and her whole team. I feel a lot less stressed out about it this time around. Now I’m actually looking forward to it! The first time I have to admit I was sort of dreading it. It was just so unknown doing it someplace else.

The biggest bitch of it was all the music stuff. All of a sudden I was putting on a rock concert, so much of it was about getting the musicians and their equipment there. Comedy is so easy because you just show up and there’s a microphone and that’s all you have to worry about. I feel like I made the right decision in not taking guitar lessons.

MM: But despite all the work it takes to get music on your show, it’s all worth it?

PFT: What it comes down to is: I hate everything that leads up to the show. Once the show is ready to start then it’s great. Once it starts, everything is just fine. It’s all the stuff that leads up to it that’s not fun. I hate being a producer, I love being a performer. It’s worth it, all the producing nightmares — *Laughs* I shouldn’t say nightmares. Headaches, maybe. Scale that back a little bit. The headaches are worth the performing dream, how do you like that?

MM: Anything else you want to mention about your show?

PFT: It’s going to be awesome.

I will say this! We have an early show and a late show and we’re going to be doing completely different material at each show. So if anybody felt like coming to both they would not be disappointed.

Tickets for the Paul F. Tompkins show can be purchased here. Two shows, one at 8pm and another at 10:30pm, $25, Eureka Theater. And totally sign up for the SF Tompkins 300 group.

The Dave Hillyard Rocksteady 7 is playing tomorrow afternoon at Bender’s. Heard of it? It’s on 19th and South Van Ness and they don’t serve fried pickles anymore. They start at 3:30pm and will play until about 6:30pm.

You may recognize the group from that Give ‘em the Boot Vol.1 Hellcat compilation that everyone had in high school. Expect some old school instrumental ska and rocksteady sounds with a heaping of jazzy improvisation.

Dave is the sax player for the Slackers, a great NYC ska/rocksteady/reggae group that everyone tried to sound like (including me!). He will be joined by percussionist Larry McDonald, a Jamaican legend who played with pretty much everybody that mattered (no big deal, just the Skatalites, Bob Marley, Toots and the Maytals, and Lee Perry to name a few). The group will be filled out with members of Hepcat and the English Beat! It’s an all-star lineup all the way.

The 19-year-old rude boy in me is losing his shit right now. Caution: you can’t hang your Vespa up on the bike racks at Bender’s.

The Knockout, a club known for a 90′s music night that you may have heard of (and for which I hold a completely neutral opinion), is having a swell show tonight.

Opening the night will be the Sarees, an all-girl psychedelic garage group driven by a goddamned electric sitar. That’s right, while you were just talking about how you “need to get a sitar because you’re down with eastern sounds and pretty good at guitar and they’ll like basically the same thing, right?” Michele actually did it and uses it in a real awesome band. On top of that, there is a Wong (drummer Jasmyn) in the group… and you can’t go Wong with a Wong.

Afterwards, stick around the spooky fever-dream folk of Marabelle Phoenix and country stylings of Tobyn Clark while sipping a tall-boy of Tecate.

Shows starts at 9:30 and costs 6 bucks.

P.S. If you’re a girl and you really have to go to the bathroom and find yourself in the men’s room, wait for a stall… trust me on this one.