Upcoming Event: The Workout at House of Shields, Thursday August 23

The Workout
with residents Johnatron and Pozibelle
9PM - 2AM
$5
House of Shields, 39 New Montgomery Street at Market

Check out my last review of The Workout in their new space.

Upcoming Event: Up in the Park, Sunday August 26

FreeTechnoBbq / Family Picnic / Birthday Extravaganja
Golden Gate Park
1pm - 8pm

Underground Techno Music by

D-SYN (spaz)
FOREST GREEN (daly city records) --filling in for Binnie with an early set - 1pm!
JAMES BASS (bassaholics anonymous)
MOSONIK (aural sects)
PAREGORIC KID (church of anexia) [LIVE]
SOLSTINGR (5lowershop)
TOMKAT (subversive soundz)

Check the calendar at www.myspace.com/audiosect after 08/23 to get the exact location

Upcoming Event: Honey Sound System with Todd Terje, Sunday, August 26

Given how many posters for this I've seen around town, along with it being featured *twice* now on Ggreg's List email, I don't know that it needs any more promotion from me, but here it is:

On Sunday August 26th, 2007 Honey Soundsystem presents Todd Terje from Olso, Norway. An evening of disco edits, spacey sounds, and summer flutter compete with drag show, honey dj's Derek B and Robot Hustle, and the dinosaur that is the old Raw Hide in Soma (280 7th sf). Early birds get in for $5 before 10pm and $10 after. Drag Starts at 8pm and Terje Closes out the night til 2am.

On Codeine

This was a weekend out of time for yours truly, as I spent most of it being laid out on our too-short-be-really-comfortable Ikea Klippan loveseat with "walking pneumonia." If you've never had the chance to experience this lovely ailment, here are some highlights:

• hacking cough that produces gobs and gobs of white lung mucilage
• weakness to the point where walking to the kitchen makes you break into a sweat
• the desire to sleep for twenty out of twenty-four hours
• no fever, so you think maybe it's all just hangover effects from your wild weekend

When my glands got swollen and sore on Wednesday I figured it was finally time to go see the doc, though I'm sure my work colleagues wished I had gone earlier just so they didn't have to listen to me wheezing and barking around the office, spreading my plague. When the doc saw me on Thursday morning he listened to my chest, felt my glands, and said "what you've got there is a little walking pneumonia." He wrote me a scrip for some antibiotics, and another for codeine cough syrup. As much fun as that might sound, let me tell you, I've never been so glad to be done with something as I am with not having to take that stuff anymore.

My tastes in intoxicants run toward the stimulating and psychedelic rather than the dissassociative - thus, while I have flirted with things white and powdery, and have indulged more heavily in things that make my eyes wobble and put hieroglyphs on my jeans, I've never really been into K, for example, or been tempted by the morphine family. When I got the codeine prescription I thought, "all right, maybe this will be kind of interesting," but what it mostly did was make me super spacey and really, really irritable. Against my doctor's advice I drove on Friday afternoon, undertaking what should have been a ten minute trip to pick up a patio table I bought on craigslist, but which turned into an hour-long excursion in the vicinity of Balboa park as I missed turns, got stuck on the freeway in the wrong direction, and generally cursed the sad state of San Francisco's street engineering (my being on a disorienting drug having nothing to do with any of this). On Saturday the boyfriend and I undertook a trip to Ikea, and when we returned around dinner time I was totally, completely exhausted, not just from the usual Ikea madness, but from having to endure it when I could barely focus on what I was doing there. I had really wanted to make it out to hear The Juan Maclean at The Transfer, but the thought of just getting there, much less hanging out, was more than I could bear.

Sunday I decided to stop taking the stuff entirely, or at least until I was ready for bed. As a result, my spirits improved noticibly. It was an intersting experience; something that makes you feel better, in a way, but which you're glad to be done with at the first opportunity. I had a similar experience last summer when I was given a prescription for Vicodin to help manage my pain after some minor (but painful, oh so painful) surgery. Sure, the pain was tolerable, just as my cough was under control, but the actual effect of the drug was such that I just wanted to be done with it.

I wonder if ther's some aspect of the drug formulations that is designed to do this; to provide the analgesic effect, on the one hand, but to also provide an effect that you are capable of recognizing as deleterious to your overall feeling of well-being, such that you are ready to be done with the drug as soon as you no longer need the analgesic effect. In any case, I can say that after these experiences I feel pretty certain that my individual neurochemistry is not particularly amenable to the disassociative effects of morphine. Given my brain's receptiveness to other molecular combinations, I suppose this is something to be grateful for.

Your Saturday Guide for August 18, 2007

The Man burns in two weeks, kids, and so that means pretty much everyone I know is spending their free time dragging out their dusty bins, washing their fur, and making all those necessary last minute arrangements. Nonetheless, there are still some fun things going on in the non-Burner world this Saturday.

Drunk and Horny
Sorta like those high school parties you'd wished you'd had. Get drunk, flirt with boys, and dance to good-time party standards. Reliable, easy-going, and a short stumble home. Check out my review of Drunk and Horny.
$5
9PMish - 2.00AM (with maybe an afterparty)
Underground SF, 424 Haight Street x Webster

Frisco Disco at The Transfer
This night just recently started up at this new location and I haven't had a chance to check it out yet, but with tunes provided by the likes of Jefrodesiac and Richie Panic, and Lady Meleksah as the cruise director, there's some great potential for a good time. This week's special techno-god guest: The Juan Maclean!
No cover listed
9.00PM - 2.00AM
The Transfer, Church at Market

Monthlies and One-Offs

Ambisonic Four-Fear Anniversary at The Retox
Celebrating four years of chilly grooves with DFTram, Mike Bee, Saturnia, MAK, Chlorophil, Trafffice, Future BD, Jump/Cut, Fuzzpod, and Submodern.
Free before 9, $5 until 11, $7 after 11
8.00 PM - 2.00AM
Retox Lounge, 628 20th Street (Take T-Third MUNI)

Kontrol Underground!
With Kontrol residents Nikola Baytalla, Craig Kuna, and Sammy D., and special guests Vadim (loft.in.space, less, NYC), Jason Short (Auralism Recordings), and Dima (58 Tehama, Mikrofon).
$5 before 11, $10 after
10.00PM - ?
58 Tehama Street, between 1st and 2nd, Howard and Folsom

More on the Castro Halloween Controversy

In today's San Francisco Chronicle there's an article about a meeting of Castro business leaders that took place last night, and it looks like nobody's very happy about The City's decision to announce "no Halloween." The idea of canceling Halloween in the Castro is dependant on getting businesses to cooperate by shutting down for the night, so that there's no flame to attract the moths (so to speak), but when you have bars like Badlands saying they're not going to do it, it demonstrates how torn the community is over this. Halloween is a big money-maker for the bars, and they've not likely to shut down for the night (perhaps setting a precedent for every successive Halloween as well), but others are clearly tired of dealing with the situation. So at this point, it looks like there will be just as many police as last year, but no porta-potties (which police chief Heather Fong admits could lead to "unpleasant situations"), no street barricades, and no sound stages. Does this mean that we'll just have throngs of people milling around, looking for something to do and a place to take a dump? It's pretty clear we can't say "We're closing down the Castro, don't come here," and you can't arrest people for just walking around. Stay tuned readers, this year I'll even closer to the action than last year and will be sure to file a report.

Your Friday Guide for August 17, 2007

Doesn't look like yours truly will be getting out much this weekend ("a little walking pneumonia" the doc told me), and everybody else seems to be biding their time before hitting the playa, but there are still a couple things going on you all might want to check out.

Cosmic Gypsy Happy Hour with DJ Mak at the W Hotel
Get your lounge groove on with DJ Mak in this swank hotel bar.
6PM - 8PM
No cover
W Hotel, 181 3rd Street x Howard

The Jaded Gay DJ Recommends: Charlie Horse at the Cinch
Best place to go out and have a cheap drink while being entertained by drag queen antics. Recently voted Best Drag Show in San Francisco by the SF Weekly! Music by DJ Dirty Knees and Bearzbub is more rock and new-wave oriented, but at least it won't interfere with your conversation. Check out my latest review of Charlie Horse at The Cinch.
9PM - close
NO COVER
1723 Polk Street (btwn Clay and Washington)

Fag Fridays at The EndUp
Reliable, not all that exciting, typical San Francisco deep house, but it's gay and you can stay until the next afternoon.
10PM - 6AM, and then Ascension starts up
$20
6th and Harrison

Monthlies and One-Offs

Glitterbox at The Cat Club
The creators of the legendary Litterbox bring it back to The Cat Club with this "funkpunk thrash electro discotheque." This month features a bar set by Hell Willpower. DJs Natureboy and Junkyard. Check out my review of Hey Willpower at The Rickshaw Stop.
9.30PM - 3AM
$10
The Cat Club, 1190 Folsom at 8th

Blow-Up at The Rickshaw Stop
Jefrodesiac (Frisco Disco) and Richie Panic mix it up with MC Jelly Donut, with special guest appearance by Le Castlevania.
9PM - 2AM
$8 before 11PM, $10 after
The Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell at Van Ness

Event Review: Queen Acres at C and S

Oh Lordy, do those Sisters know how to party. Here it is Tuesday and I'm still trying to pull it together from a weekend at C and S with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and their various friends and associates. I definitely took advantage of the full indulgence package, starting at roughly 4PM on Saturday and rolling on and on until dawn broke on Sunday morning to a scene that was probably James Dobson's worst nightmare, a half dozen naked fags in a hot tub, bottles of Maker's Mark and various Chardonneys littering the ground around us. In that period of time I made out with an Abbotess and a hot hot Burnerrific boy, had some interesting moments when the world appeared as a very flat stage set, and pondered, as I often do, the meaning of these events where everyone comes to lose themselves, or at least their mundane manifestations, for a while. As the boyfriend puts it, it was a "spiritual, playful, erotic journey into the magic heart of the hot tub," and as the sunlight came over the crest of the mountain he proclaimed it "the best time at C and S ever." I would have to agree.

I was supposed to DJ this event on Friday night, but due to a miscommunication about when the sound had to end I got turned off at midnight. That was somewhat disappointing, but I've come to learn that DJing at C and S is a bit of a crap shoot, since everything from the weather to the time dinner is actually served plays a major role in how well things go over, and there were plenty of satisfying beats from Lord Kook, Neco D, Mermaid, Jovino, and our friend Henry Halperin of LA to keep everyone in the right frame of mind. And when you have things like Sisters in full formal drag re-enacting a Dynasty bitch fight in a pond, what more entertainment do you need?

I've hung out with Sisters before, but only on an individual basis. Among those I already knew, or at least am acquainted with, were Zsa Zsa and Flora, and I got to meet Viva and Sharin' and a half-dozen other associated postulants, sisters, and general worshippers. You can tell how much these girls all love each other because of how often they call each other "whore" and "bitch." My big treat, though, was the lovely boy who came over and crouched next to me at the pond soon after our arrival in full Burner Abo drag, from faux hawk to furry loincloth to black harem boy eye make-up, who turned out to be a fire dancer and ex-bio hemistry facilities manager now turned chiropractic student. It's hard to say whether he or the boyfriend were the most lusted after skinny young things at the event, but both got plenty of attention. Let's just say that after Saturday night I have plenty of real-life porno images to fuel my fantasy life for a while.

This was the first "gay" event I've attended at C and S (there were some nominally "straight" people there, but the magical hot tub has a way of loosening up these distinctions), and it pretty much beat out every other gay party I've been to, ever. It was a small enough group that everyone had a chance to interact with pretty much everyone else, and while there was plenty of sex vibe, it was far from the usual "score or die" mentality of, say, a circuit party or even a straight-up sex party. The thing that struck me was that, every morning, I woke up to the sound of laughter, and the whole weekend was one long string of hilarity. When you've got everyone laughing and having a good time together, it sure makes all the rest a lot easier. I mean, after all, I actually got some action from somone other than my boyfriend, which is practically a fucking miracle, especially since it was action with people I *wanted* to have action with. I chalk this all up to having lots of opportunity to display my glowing personality to folks who appeciated it. Oh, and the mohawk too, guys are really hot for mohawks these days.

As usual at these sorts of events, I did have my brief moment of "unreality," that instant when you look around at the folks in all their crazy outfits doing their crazy things (none of the Sisters were in face, I should mention - it's too fucking hot for that kind of thing at C and S, and we all know that clown white kills pond life) and wonder what the hell is going on. I spend a lot of time ruminating over "the meaning of it all," sometimes to the detriment of my being able to have a good time, and this time I think I got a little closer to understanding it as something beyond simple hedonistic excess. Everyone I knew at this event, and many of the new ones I got to know, are people who have set out on very individual paths in the world - I would say that they are, in a very true sense, eccentrics (myself included). Most of us do pretty well in the real world, but none of us really likes it that much - god knows I wouldn't be sitting at this desk under these flourescent lights if I could come up with a better way of making money. Going to C and S is like entering into another world, one where you get to make up the rules for yourself for a change, and undertake little personality experiments on yourself. There can be an uncomfortable freaky element to this - we're all way too familiar with how this plays out in contexts like Landmark Seminars - but this environment is far more benign than your average cult compound, and nobody is there trying to deconstruct your personality to their own ends. Instead, everyone is there to have a good time, to let their eccentricity have its run in a space where nobody really cares that you like to wear a collar and bunny ears so long as you clean up your dishes when you're done with dinner and can avoid drowning in the pond after you've become completely shit-faced. The boyfriend once said that Burning Man was like an adult playground, in that there was no one there to tell you what to do, and if you got hurt on the monkey bars, it was your responsibility to deal with it. C and S provides a similar environment; though we might go up there to act dress up and act crazy, as though we were children, it's really a space in which I can be as much of an adult as I want to be, taking responsibility for my own actions, accidents, and interactions. This is what I think marks the eccentricity of those I have met there - they are people who seek out opportunities to be independent, to shake off the strictures of mundane, corporatized society, and make things for themselves, social and economic entrepeneurs of a sort that you rarely find outside of the Bay area. C and S is just another example of those small social incubators that are part of the social fabric of Northern California -without it, and the opportunities it provides for introspection and interaction, I don't know that this place would be as interesting and dynamic as it is.

As for this event, I can't wait until next year for the next installment, and count myself lucky to have had a weekend like this with such a swell group of people. You go, Sisters!

Selected Photos by The Boyfriend
(click the link to see more)


Neco D on the decks Friday night.














Yours truly in best DJ pose ever.












The boyfriend poolside with Sister Viva L'Amour.












A view of the idyllic lawn.













Me and the boyfriend, post hot-tub Sunday AM.