Weeklies and Bar Nights
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, but beware that it gets claustrophobically crowded. Check out my reviews of Drunk and Horny.
$5
9PMish - 2.00AM (with maybe an afterparty)
Underground SF, 424 Haight Street x Webster
Frisco Disco at The Transfer
Every Saturday night they're lined up on the street for this party; haven't made it past the sweating crowds myself yet, but this looks like one of the hottest things going right now. A couple readers weren't so crazy about a recent party there, but you should check it out yourself and let me know what you think.
No cover listed
9.00PM - 2.00AM
The Transfer, Church at Market
Hot Mess at The Stud
Gus Presents . . . . what appears to be a rip-off of Drunk and Horny, but with Castro bar music. This week they have a porn star and underwear model as their featured guest. Zzzzzz . . . .
10PM - 3AM
$5
The Stud, 9th x Harrison.
Monthlies and One Offs
The Jaded Gay DJ Recommends:Kontrol at the End Up
One name is all you need to know for this month: Alex Smoke, flying in fresh from his Friday night set at New York's Bunker. This is where I'll be spending my evening. Check out my review of Smoke's Hi-Fi Sci-Fi mix.
10PM - 6AM
FREE before 11, $20 after
The End Up, 6th x Harrison
Trans Am 1 Year Anniversary at Club Eight
With performances by Anna Conda and Hoku Mama and band Lucky Jesus, and special guest DJ Jon Ginoli of Pansy Division (remind me to tell you the story about how he molested me at a party one night - it was fun!). Check out my review of Trans Am.
10PM - 2AM
$5
Club Eight, 1151 Folsom x Eighth.
Escort Service Underground
Picked up this flyer at the Honey Sound System party on Friday night. Three DJs from New York's escort crew (Dan Balis, Eugene Cho, Darius Machen) and locals M3 (Green Gorilla), Ryan Poulson (Gun Club), Alona (Gritt, Love Noodles), TK Disko (40 Thieves, Gun Club), and Mike Bee. If you go, send me an email and let me know how it was.
10PM - 6AM
No cover listed
Hit the link above for location information
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Your Friday Guide for November 30, 2007
Uh-oh, it's a 5th Friday! All regularly scheduled events are thrown into chaos by a Friday out of time! Check your favorite club to see what's taking over from their monthlies, meanwhile, here's a couple things that I know will still be going:
Weeklies and Bar Nights
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. Music by DJ Dirty Knees and Bearzbub is more rock and new-wave oriented, but at least it won't interfere with your conversation. It's Juanita Fajita's birthday this week, with a taco bar, pinatas, and all sorts of South of the Border (tee-hee) fun. Check out my latest review of Charlie Horse at The Cinch.
9PM - close
NO COVER
The Cinch, 1723 Polk Street (between Clay and Washington)
Fag Fridays at Pink
10PM - "late"
$10
Pink, 2526 16th Street x South Van Ness
GhettoDisco at The EndUp
Lost City of Atlantis/Under the Sea theme. With guest Doc Martin and residents Nikola Baytalla and Cuervo.
11PM - 11AM (honey, don't forget the pills!)
FREE before midnight, $20 until 2AM, $30 after 2AM
The EndUp, 6th x Harrison
Monthlies and One-Offs
Paradise All Night Disco Extravaganza at Mezzanine
Okay, I've certainly made known my feelings about "disco revival," but even I have to be impressed with a performance of an 18 piece disco orchestra. With DJs Bus Station John, Robot Hustle, and Safety Scissors.
10PM - 5AM
$10 advance tix at the link above
Mezzanine, 444 Jessie Street x 5th
Ambi-Sonic Presents Subsonic at UndergroundSF
Feel like some chill for your Friday night? With Gordon Field (interchill records), Traffic feat. m.mara.ann (ambi-sonic), Fuzzpod (ambi-sonic), and Future BC (ambi-sonic).
8PM - 2AM
$5
Underground SF, 424 Haight x Webster
Weeklies and Bar Nights
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. Music by DJ Dirty Knees and Bearzbub is more rock and new-wave oriented, but at least it won't interfere with your conversation. It's Juanita Fajita's birthday this week, with a taco bar, pinatas, and all sorts of South of the Border (tee-hee) fun. Check out my latest review of Charlie Horse at The Cinch.
9PM - close
NO COVER
The Cinch, 1723 Polk Street (between Clay and Washington)
Fag Fridays at Pink
10PM - "late"
$10
Pink, 2526 16th Street x South Van Ness
GhettoDisco at The EndUp
Lost City of Atlantis/Under the Sea theme. With guest Doc Martin and residents Nikola Baytalla and Cuervo.
11PM - 11AM (honey, don't forget the pills!)
FREE before midnight, $20 until 2AM, $30 after 2AM
The EndUp, 6th x Harrison
Monthlies and One-Offs
Paradise All Night Disco Extravaganza at Mezzanine
Okay, I've certainly made known my feelings about "disco revival," but even I have to be impressed with a performance of an 18 piece disco orchestra. With DJs Bus Station John, Robot Hustle, and Safety Scissors.
10PM - 5AM
$10 advance tix at the link above
Mezzanine, 444 Jessie Street x 5th
Ambi-Sonic Presents Subsonic at UndergroundSF
Feel like some chill for your Friday night? With Gordon Field (interchill records), Traffic feat. m.mara.ann (ambi-sonic), Fuzzpod (ambi-sonic), and Future BC (ambi-sonic).
8PM - 2AM
$5
Underground SF, 424 Haight x Webster
New York Times on Female DJ Style
Funny how everything having to do with DJs seems to wind up in the Style section of the New York Times, rather than in the music section. This time it's an article on the trend-setting styles of female DJs, and while I must admit that the girls definitely have a look, it's not very clear if they actually play good music - in fact, the article seems to say that, as long as they look good behind the decks, what they play doesn't necessarily matter.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Upcoming Event: Fuck Shit Let's Dance on Myspace!
Last week I posted about a new night that the boyfriend and I are starting at Deco Lounge in January called Fuck Shit, Let's Dance! Now I'm pleased to let you know that there's an official FSLD myspace page. You can go there to check out our upcoming schedule for the next three months, and if you friend us we'll keep you up-to-date about our parties, guest DJs, and anything else of interest to us. Go, do it now!
The Long Thanksgiving Weekend
Thanksgiving is a hard holiday for all those San Francisco residents who are émigrés from elsewhere; it’s the one time of the year when you might reasonably be expected to make the expedition to see your family, however they may be defined, while, on the other hand, anybody who has experienced the long cattle drive of holiday travel might be more inclined to hunker down and wait out the whole weekend with a stock of food and booze. The pull between these two directions leaves the city seeming somewhat hollowed out over the long weekend, and the faces you see when you do go out are just as likely to belong to someone visiting their Uncle Bruce as they are to an actual resident.
I had five days off to look forward to over this holiday weekend, and I went into them thinking that I had a good idea of how they would pass; stock up on food, booze, and pot, hit a couple parties, maybe get a little crazy. Instead I found myself drawn more to the comforts of the hearth and wound up cooking a steak dinner, getting a Christmas wreath for the front door of the apartment, and, god help me, becoming a cat-owning gay resident of the Castro.
Wednesday evening the boyfriend and I were in total agreement for what we wanted: to go out anywhere. We started prowling the Castro around 9.00 PM and were drawn into The Bar by the sound of some decent club electro from DJ PB, who was warming up the crowd for Juanita More’s Booty Call party. It was a surprisingly lively crowd, though I suppose all of us who were there didn’t really have anything to do the next day. The boyfriend wound up talking to a guy from Sacramento who was visiting, and after two drinks we decided to hook up with our friend Matt and see what was happening at The Transfer. We were a bit surprised when we got there by both the sparseness of the crowd and the sound of dub step coming out of the sound system. We had a drink while we waited for Matt to arrive, but since we were feeling self-conscious about being the only guys there not wearing black hoodies, we decided to head back to The Bar. On the corner of Market and Fillmore we ran into Gary of Jeff and Gary fame, passed some time with him and other denizens of Drunk and Horny at an apartment across the street, then headed back to The Bar. After our experience at Juanita More’s Playboy I was somewhat hesitant about another of her parties, but this time the music was much better and the mixing somewhat improved; in fact, Juanita sounded tighter than both the DJ who preceded her and the one who followed, and was considerably better than when we last heard her at The End Up. We hung out for a few more drinks and then stumbled our way home. In retrospect this was the best evening of the entire weekend; the boyfriend and I had the pleasure of one another’s company, we set out looking for adventure and had spontaneous fun with our friends, and when we went home, it was with a feeling of satisfaction that we had found what we wanted for the night.
Thursday the plan had been to visit some friends in the Outer Richmond prior to dinner, come back, cook for ourselves, and head over to Gobble at Temple. Plans that require a lot of activity tend to go astray, however, after many bottles of champagne and a delayed, then sedating, dinner. At 4PM we thought we had better be going, but since “dinner is almost ready,” we decided to stick around to sample the delicacy of Tur-Duck-Hen. At 6.30 we finally sat down to eat, and after our trek at 8.00 PM to find a cab in the wilds of 45th and Geary, we decided we had had enough of socializing for the night, came home, watched an episode of Family Guy, and passed out. Lameness, thy name is mine.
Friday was the day of false anticipation; as some readers made me aware, the all night Disco Party at Mezzanine, for which we have tickets and were expecting this past Friday, is actually this coming Friday, so we went with the back-up plan of Honey Sound System at The Transfer. We arrived early and had a nice chat with Ken Vulsion about their inheritance of a record collection from one of the founders (along with Sylvester) of Magnetone records, which not only includes vinyl but actual session tapes. They will be debuting some of these finds at an upcoming part, but Friday Ken gave a little tour through disco to whet the appetite. I must admit that I still find it hard to listen to disco; hearing Rod Stewart’s “Passion” on Friday night brought back a number of unfortunate memories associated with high school and the Solid Gold TV show, but I will say that, of the various DJs in this city I’ve heard playing disco, Ken certainly is among the best for knowing how to put all those complicated, and often quite cruddily mastered, mixes together. We listened to part of Josh Cheon’s set, but nothing was really making us move, and the crowd was a little odd – I kept having the feeling that the kids there had come thinking that it was Frisco Disco, and several people we had expected to see never showed. We wound up calling the same guys we had hung out with on Wednesday night to see what they were up to – which, as it turned out, was a night of stimulated conversation. We hung out, had some drinks, got a little stimulated ourselves, but still turned it in by a respectable 1AM.
After three successive days of vacation, Saturday arrived and we didn’t really know what to do with ourselves, nor was there anything really compelling on the club schedule. The boyfriend had a cold, and after hanging out with some producer friends, eating a steak dinner, and soaking in the hot tub, he was ready to call it an evening at 10.30. I, on the other hand, had been offered some after-dinner digestive powder, and was feeling restless – I wasn’t exactly in a mood to go out and party, nor did I really have anyone to go out with, but I also didn’t feel like playing Xbox until I was ready for sleep. I compromised by taking a walk to return a video, thinking I would find something along the way. I checked into The Bar, but it was already more crowded than I was interested in dealing with; the same was true of Frisco Disco, and since my haircut didn’t match up with those of the other kids in line, I got the sense it wasn’t exactly my scene (which seems to have been proved true by a reader report of the evening). I stood on the corner of Filmore and Market for a few moments, contemplating my options, before finally turning and heading up to Drunk and Horny at Underground SF, thinking that I could at least hang out with a few people I might know there.
Unfortunately, Drunk and Horny proved to be more depressing than simply staying home. Though I am good friends with many of the folks involved with that party – Sparky had been one of the people eating dinner with us previously in the evening – I really cannot relate to that particular scene. I’ve spent a lot of time wondering why this is; it’s certainly lively, there are lots of guys who are having a good time, and on this occasion there was a go-go boy with a Mohawk, loincloth, and hot tribal tattoos that would normally make me drool – but every time I go there I feel this sense of distance between myself and everyone else. I think this may be because Drunk and Horny has been very good at crafting a high-school/collegiate vibe that, in the end, makes me feel kinda old and lame. This is largely because of the music; either it’s good-time party standards that make me remember my own high school dances, or it’s contemporary “urban flava” that is all the stuff that became popular after I left college. Thus, musically, I get caught in space that either make me feel old, or out of touch. If I had felt moved to dance, and perhaps flirt a bit, I probably could have passed a couple hours there and gone home feeling well-spent, but as it was it only added to the out-of-synch feeling that dogged me throughout the night – I was out of synch with the boyfriend, who was tired and out of sorts and wanted an early bedtime, I was out of synch with the crowd at Drunk and Horny, and I left feeling out of synch with the whole vibe of gay San Francisco on a Saturday night. I went home to the last resort of many gay men who find that their Saturday has not gone quite the way they would like; I checked out some online porn, took care of business, had a drink and a Vicodin, and passed out on the couch watching episodes of Futurama.
When Sunday dawned I was still feeling kinda geeked out from the night before, but this was the day of the kitty. On my way to feed a friend’s cat, I got a call from the boyfriend, who had gone to the gym, telling me that there was a cat rescue service with kittens down at Castro and 18th. Our plan had been to go check out the kittens at Macy’s, but after he called I knew exactly how the day would turn out. Sure enough, by 3PM we had obtained an Abyssinean kitten (now named Disco Biscuit, Disco to his friends, Mr. Biscuit to you), I had had my first experience in a Castro pet store (nothing will make you feel more bourgeois, I assure you), and our friend Kitty had come over to meet our newest family member. Up until that point I had been firmly determined to check out French Kiss at Pink that evening, but now, staying home and bonding with my new friend seemed more important, and more appealing, than another night out on my own.
I had Monday off, and it was a day of reflection. I had started the weekend with definite party agenda, but, in the end, had only really gone out to one event on it. Instead, it was the spontaneous moments of going exploring with the boyfriend, meeting up with friends to hang out in their or our apartment, and those moments of bonding around our new kitten that had seemed the most satisfying to me. When I thought about how unhappy I had been on Saturday night, I realized it wasn’t because I had gone out by myself – I’ve done that often enough, and the boyfriend even thinks that my spirit of adventure in doing so is an admirable quality – but because I had felt so sunk down within myself. I had wanted connection, and fun, and adventure, and instead I only wound up feeling alienated. It put the point to something that I’ve felt for a long time – that the only reason for going out is to have that sense of connection to others through the sharing of experience; when going out is just about “making the scene” it’s an ultimately shallow experience. You’re there, but that’s it, and in your “thereness” you realize just how alone you are (the being of being in being is awfully painful, as you Heideggerians know). If there’s good music and dancing I can feel myself in connection with something else, and with other people, but if all that I’m doing is standing around with a drink in my hand, then I might as well go home. As another long holiday approaches I hope I’ll have more opportunities for experiences that bring me closer to others, whether they’re in a club or just hanging out with the people I want to know.
I had five days off to look forward to over this holiday weekend, and I went into them thinking that I had a good idea of how they would pass; stock up on food, booze, and pot, hit a couple parties, maybe get a little crazy. Instead I found myself drawn more to the comforts of the hearth and wound up cooking a steak dinner, getting a Christmas wreath for the front door of the apartment, and, god help me, becoming a cat-owning gay resident of the Castro.
Wednesday evening the boyfriend and I were in total agreement for what we wanted: to go out anywhere. We started prowling the Castro around 9.00 PM and were drawn into The Bar by the sound of some decent club electro from DJ PB, who was warming up the crowd for Juanita More’s Booty Call party. It was a surprisingly lively crowd, though I suppose all of us who were there didn’t really have anything to do the next day. The boyfriend wound up talking to a guy from Sacramento who was visiting, and after two drinks we decided to hook up with our friend Matt and see what was happening at The Transfer. We were a bit surprised when we got there by both the sparseness of the crowd and the sound of dub step coming out of the sound system. We had a drink while we waited for Matt to arrive, but since we were feeling self-conscious about being the only guys there not wearing black hoodies, we decided to head back to The Bar. On the corner of Market and Fillmore we ran into Gary of Jeff and Gary fame, passed some time with him and other denizens of Drunk and Horny at an apartment across the street, then headed back to The Bar. After our experience at Juanita More’s Playboy I was somewhat hesitant about another of her parties, but this time the music was much better and the mixing somewhat improved; in fact, Juanita sounded tighter than both the DJ who preceded her and the one who followed, and was considerably better than when we last heard her at The End Up. We hung out for a few more drinks and then stumbled our way home. In retrospect this was the best evening of the entire weekend; the boyfriend and I had the pleasure of one another’s company, we set out looking for adventure and had spontaneous fun with our friends, and when we went home, it was with a feeling of satisfaction that we had found what we wanted for the night.
Thursday the plan had been to visit some friends in the Outer Richmond prior to dinner, come back, cook for ourselves, and head over to Gobble at Temple. Plans that require a lot of activity tend to go astray, however, after many bottles of champagne and a delayed, then sedating, dinner. At 4PM we thought we had better be going, but since “dinner is almost ready,” we decided to stick around to sample the delicacy of Tur-Duck-Hen. At 6.30 we finally sat down to eat, and after our trek at 8.00 PM to find a cab in the wilds of 45th and Geary, we decided we had had enough of socializing for the night, came home, watched an episode of Family Guy, and passed out. Lameness, thy name is mine.
Friday was the day of false anticipation; as some readers made me aware, the all night Disco Party at Mezzanine, for which we have tickets and were expecting this past Friday, is actually this coming Friday, so we went with the back-up plan of Honey Sound System at The Transfer. We arrived early and had a nice chat with Ken Vulsion about their inheritance of a record collection from one of the founders (along with Sylvester) of Magnetone records, which not only includes vinyl but actual session tapes. They will be debuting some of these finds at an upcoming part, but Friday Ken gave a little tour through disco to whet the appetite. I must admit that I still find it hard to listen to disco; hearing Rod Stewart’s “Passion” on Friday night brought back a number of unfortunate memories associated with high school and the Solid Gold TV show, but I will say that, of the various DJs in this city I’ve heard playing disco, Ken certainly is among the best for knowing how to put all those complicated, and often quite cruddily mastered, mixes together. We listened to part of Josh Cheon’s set, but nothing was really making us move, and the crowd was a little odd – I kept having the feeling that the kids there had come thinking that it was Frisco Disco, and several people we had expected to see never showed. We wound up calling the same guys we had hung out with on Wednesday night to see what they were up to – which, as it turned out, was a night of stimulated conversation. We hung out, had some drinks, got a little stimulated ourselves, but still turned it in by a respectable 1AM.
After three successive days of vacation, Saturday arrived and we didn’t really know what to do with ourselves, nor was there anything really compelling on the club schedule. The boyfriend had a cold, and after hanging out with some producer friends, eating a steak dinner, and soaking in the hot tub, he was ready to call it an evening at 10.30. I, on the other hand, had been offered some after-dinner digestive powder, and was feeling restless – I wasn’t exactly in a mood to go out and party, nor did I really have anyone to go out with, but I also didn’t feel like playing Xbox until I was ready for sleep. I compromised by taking a walk to return a video, thinking I would find something along the way. I checked into The Bar, but it was already more crowded than I was interested in dealing with; the same was true of Frisco Disco, and since my haircut didn’t match up with those of the other kids in line, I got the sense it wasn’t exactly my scene (which seems to have been proved true by a reader report of the evening). I stood on the corner of Filmore and Market for a few moments, contemplating my options, before finally turning and heading up to Drunk and Horny at Underground SF, thinking that I could at least hang out with a few people I might know there.
Unfortunately, Drunk and Horny proved to be more depressing than simply staying home. Though I am good friends with many of the folks involved with that party – Sparky had been one of the people eating dinner with us previously in the evening – I really cannot relate to that particular scene. I’ve spent a lot of time wondering why this is; it’s certainly lively, there are lots of guys who are having a good time, and on this occasion there was a go-go boy with a Mohawk, loincloth, and hot tribal tattoos that would normally make me drool – but every time I go there I feel this sense of distance between myself and everyone else. I think this may be because Drunk and Horny has been very good at crafting a high-school/collegiate vibe that, in the end, makes me feel kinda old and lame. This is largely because of the music; either it’s good-time party standards that make me remember my own high school dances, or it’s contemporary “urban flava” that is all the stuff that became popular after I left college. Thus, musically, I get caught in space that either make me feel old, or out of touch. If I had felt moved to dance, and perhaps flirt a bit, I probably could have passed a couple hours there and gone home feeling well-spent, but as it was it only added to the out-of-synch feeling that dogged me throughout the night – I was out of synch with the boyfriend, who was tired and out of sorts and wanted an early bedtime, I was out of synch with the crowd at Drunk and Horny, and I left feeling out of synch with the whole vibe of gay San Francisco on a Saturday night. I went home to the last resort of many gay men who find that their Saturday has not gone quite the way they would like; I checked out some online porn, took care of business, had a drink and a Vicodin, and passed out on the couch watching episodes of Futurama.
When Sunday dawned I was still feeling kinda geeked out from the night before, but this was the day of the kitty. On my way to feed a friend’s cat, I got a call from the boyfriend, who had gone to the gym, telling me that there was a cat rescue service with kittens down at Castro and 18th. Our plan had been to go check out the kittens at Macy’s, but after he called I knew exactly how the day would turn out. Sure enough, by 3PM we had obtained an Abyssinean kitten (now named Disco Biscuit, Disco to his friends, Mr. Biscuit to you), I had had my first experience in a Castro pet store (nothing will make you feel more bourgeois, I assure you), and our friend Kitty had come over to meet our newest family member. Up until that point I had been firmly determined to check out French Kiss at Pink that evening, but now, staying home and bonding with my new friend seemed more important, and more appealing, than another night out on my own.
I had Monday off, and it was a day of reflection. I had started the weekend with definite party agenda, but, in the end, had only really gone out to one event on it. Instead, it was the spontaneous moments of going exploring with the boyfriend, meeting up with friends to hang out in their or our apartment, and those moments of bonding around our new kitten that had seemed the most satisfying to me. When I thought about how unhappy I had been on Saturday night, I realized it wasn’t because I had gone out by myself – I’ve done that often enough, and the boyfriend even thinks that my spirit of adventure in doing so is an admirable quality – but because I had felt so sunk down within myself. I had wanted connection, and fun, and adventure, and instead I only wound up feeling alienated. It put the point to something that I’ve felt for a long time – that the only reason for going out is to have that sense of connection to others through the sharing of experience; when going out is just about “making the scene” it’s an ultimately shallow experience. You’re there, but that’s it, and in your “thereness” you realize just how alone you are (the being of being in being is awfully painful, as you Heideggerians know). If there’s good music and dancing I can feel myself in connection with something else, and with other people, but if all that I’m doing is standing around with a drink in my hand, then I might as well go home. As another long holiday approaches I hope I’ll have more opportunities for experiences that bring me closer to others, whether they’re in a club or just hanging out with the people I want to know.
Mix Dowload: The Deep End Sets from Burning Man 2007
All the sets from the Deep End at Burning Man 2007 are now online at the Deep End website. This years line-up included folks like Hoj, Syd Gris, members of the Space Cowboys, The Scumfrog, Dylan Rhymes, Lee Burridge and a whole lot of others, so check it out, I'm sure you'll find something to keep you rolling along until Burning Man 2008.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
New Year's News
Now that the turkey feast is done and we can hear the sweet sound of canned Christmas music in the cabs (I heard a great ditty called "Christmas in San Francisco" on Thursday), thoughts turn to our last big party day of the year, New Year's Eve. It's a tough night, since everbody wants to do something, but everybody wants to do something with their friends, meaning all bets are off about what will turn out to be the big parties of the night. However, little birds have told me to expect at least three big gay parties:
Afterglow - Comfort and Joy is currently planning on another New Year's Eve party in one of their traditional party locations.
Drunk and Horny - Jeff and Gary will be welcoming "500 of our most intimate friends" into an underground warehouse location (likely known to many readers of this blog) with a main dance area, a chill room, and a special "wet dream lounge." Lord Kook has also been invited to DJ the main room.
Fag Fridays New Year's Eve at Pink - with Juanita More, check out the Pink website for more info.
If you all hear of anything else that sounds like a fun way to ring in 2008 (yay, at last, a Democrat in the White House!) drop me a line and let me know about it.
Update:
Erik over at Metrowize sent me a link to their list of all the major club events that are happening. If you're looking for something a bit more "structured" (and pricey) there are some interesting options here.
Afterglow - Comfort and Joy is currently planning on another New Year's Eve party in one of their traditional party locations.
Drunk and Horny - Jeff and Gary will be welcoming "500 of our most intimate friends" into an underground warehouse location (likely known to many readers of this blog) with a main dance area, a chill room, and a special "wet dream lounge." Lord Kook has also been invited to DJ the main room.
Fag Fridays New Year's Eve at Pink - with Juanita More, check out the Pink website for more info.
If you all hear of anything else that sounds like a fun way to ring in 2008 (yay, at last, a Democrat in the White House!) drop me a line and let me know about it.
Update:
Erik over at Metrowize sent me a link to their list of all the major club events that are happening. If you're looking for something a bit more "structured" (and pricey) there are some interesting options here.
More Cabs, Bring 'em On!
According to this article in last week's Examiner, the Taxicab Commission is considering the addition of 69 new cabs to the city's fleet, bringing it up to a total of 1500. Here's an interesting quote:
Of course, a flak for a a local taxi union insists "'There are too many cabs for San Francisco residents alone. Not enough when conventions and tourists are in town, but they’re not all the time here and we need to survive all year,” said Thomas George-Williams, chairman of the United Taxi Workers, a group representing a few hundred cabdrivers."
Wow, really, how about standing on the corner of 18th and Castro at 9PM on Friday and telling me that? Right now the current system only benefits those who hold medallions (the people George-Williams represents) at the expense of the residents of San Francisco and those who would like to make some money by driving a cab but have to pay extortionary fees to medallion holders for the privilege. You want a cab on Friday night at 2AM? Then let the Taxi Commission know how you feel about it, and tell them to put more cabs on our streets.
A push to add more cabs followed the release of a recent commission report that revealed half of the people who call for a cab during the week are left stranded. On Friday evenings, those who call for a cab never see one 95 percent of the time.Hmmm, gee, finally a report that confirms what almost every person who wants a cab on a Friday or Saturday night already knows - you can't get one!
Of course, a flak for a a local taxi union insists "'There are too many cabs for San Francisco residents alone. Not enough when conventions and tourists are in town, but they’re not all the time here and we need to survive all year,” said Thomas George-Williams, chairman of the United Taxi Workers, a group representing a few hundred cabdrivers."
Wow, really, how about standing on the corner of 18th and Castro at 9PM on Friday and telling me that? Right now the current system only benefits those who hold medallions (the people George-Williams represents) at the expense of the residents of San Francisco and those who would like to make some money by driving a cab but have to pay extortionary fees to medallion holders for the privilege. You want a cab on Friday night at 2AM? Then let the Taxi Commission know how you feel about it, and tell them to put more cabs on our streets.
Event Review: Reader Comment on Frisco Disco
Found this in the old inbox this morning, a comment on Frisco Disco from another party trouper of my acquaintance:
Woah. I have a few thoughts about this party.Well, meow then. I passed up Frisco Disco on Saturday because it was looking just too crowded, and my haircut didn't go with those of the kids standing in line, but had I know that another old and cranky party guy was there, at least we could have been bitchy about it together.Ok, so the music was decent...when the DJ was spinning. Then what was up with the lame ass live music. They couldn't even get the vocals working (for the part of the show I stayed for before taking my final elbow to the kidneys) or produce any harmony AT ALL. And finally...the people...well lets call the "bratterati" - - you know those youngens in the their tight at the ankle jeans, skewed hair cuts and some black striped t-shirts. Where did they all come from? "my momma never taught me no manners", USA? Seems like it. I almost smacked this woman after she pushed her way through the crowd with a sack on her shoulder that had no less than a gallon of milk and a side of ham in it. Fucking bitch.
Sure the music was good but the crowd was insufferable. Shame on them.
Monday, November 26, 2007
The End of Trannyshack!
Wow, following upon the heels of the most recent Miss Trannyshack pageant, Heklina announces the end of Trannyshack as a weekly party! One immediate response from a passerby informed of the news was "Thank God!" The mind boggles at how this will change the dynamic of the San Francisco gay club scene - will Charlie Horse now become the dominant drag destination? Will parties now have fewer drag divas living off their Miss Trannyshack fame? Stay tuned and find out!
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Your Saturday Guide for November 24, 2007
Weeklies and Bar Nights
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, but beware that it gets claustrophobically crowded. Check out my reviews of Drunk and Horny.
9PMish - 2.00AM (with maybe an afterparty)
Underground SF, 424 Haight Street x Webster
Frisco Disco at The Transfer
Every Saturday night they're lined up on the street for this party; haven't made it past the sweating crowds myself yet, but this looks like one of the hottest things going right now.
No cover listed
9.00PM - 2.00AM
The Transfer, Church at Market
Premiere: Hot Mess at The Stud
Gus Presents . . . . what appears to be a rip-off of Drunk and Horny, but with Castro bar music. Um, yeah, next please.
10PM - 3AM
$5
The Stud, 9th x Harrison.
Monthlies and One-Offs
Viva La Basket at Club Eight
Several of my bearish friends have spoken highly of this party, where the tunes get into the electro side of dance music. This installment features Spekrfreaks and Luvsik. But really, deep-fried twinkies?
9PM - 2AM
$5 before 11, $7 after
Club Eight, 1151 Folsom between 7th and 8th
FilterSF at Anu bar
Yay, minimal techno! With guest David Last and residents Solekandi, Kontakt, and Saya.
9PM - 2AM
FREE before 11, $5 after
Anu Bar, 43 6th Street x Market
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, but beware that it gets claustrophobically crowded. Check out my reviews of Drunk and Horny.
9PMish - 2.00AM (with maybe an afterparty)
Underground SF, 424 Haight Street x Webster
Frisco Disco at The Transfer
Every Saturday night they're lined up on the street for this party; haven't made it past the sweating crowds myself yet, but this looks like one of the hottest things going right now.
No cover listed
9.00PM - 2.00AM
The Transfer, Church at Market
Premiere: Hot Mess at The Stud
Gus Presents . . . . what appears to be a rip-off of Drunk and Horny, but with Castro bar music. Um, yeah, next please.
10PM - 3AM
$5
The Stud, 9th x Harrison.
Monthlies and One-Offs
Viva La Basket at Club Eight
Several of my bearish friends have spoken highly of this party, where the tunes get into the electro side of dance music. This installment features Spekrfreaks and Luvsik. But really, deep-fried twinkies?
9PM - 2AM
$5 before 11, $7 after
Club Eight, 1151 Folsom between 7th and 8th
FilterSF at Anu bar
Yay, minimal techno! With guest David Last and residents Solekandi, Kontakt, and Saya.
9PM - 2AM
FREE before 11, $5 after
Anu Bar, 43 6th Street x Market
Your Friday Guide for November 23, 2004
Here's hoping everybody has a lazy post-Thanksgiving Friday - forget about the shopping, just lay around and reflect on the things you have to be thankful for, and then go out and celebrate them on Friday night!
Cosmic Gypsy Happy Hour with DJ Mak at the W Hotel
Get your lounge groove on with DJ Mak in this swank downtown 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. 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
The Cinch, 1723 Polk Street (between Clay and Washington)
Fag Fridays at Pink
With special guest Halo, and residents David Harness, Rolo, Neon Leon, and Manny Ward.
10PM - "late"
Cover "TBA" (okay, so what's up with that?)
Pink, 2526 16th Street x South Van Ness
GhettoDisco at The EndUp
This week it's - what else - a Thanksgiving theme. With guest Mike Cruz, and residents Pete Avila, Vince, and Parris Harris.
11PM - 11AM (honey, don't forget the pills!)
FREE before midnight, $20 until 2AM, $30 after 2AM
The EndUp, 6th x Harrison
Lights Down Low at Club 222
This installment features guests Sleazy V., Omar (Popscene), and Forever 21 with resident Richard OH?! (Big Stereo). Check out my previous reviews of Lights Down Low.
10PM - 2AM
$7
Club 222, 222 Hyde Street x Turk
Monthlies and One-Offs
Paradise All Night Disco Extravaganza at Mezzanine WHOOPS, THIS IS THE 30TH, NEXT FRIDAY, NOT THIS FRIDAY
Okay, I've certainly made known my feelings about "disco revival," but even I have to be impressed with a performance of an 18 piece disco orchestra. With DJs Bus Station John, Robot Hustle, and Safety Scissors.
10PM - "Dawn"
$10 advance tix at the link above
Mezzanine, 444 Jessie Street x 5th
Honey Sound System at The Transfer
With Ken Vulsion, guest Josh Cheon, and Jason Kendig. Midnight performances by Phatima Rude and Khadijah Salad Gold Dancer.
9PM - 2AM
FREE before 11, $5 after (tell the door guy you're on Ken Vulsion's list to get in for free all night)
The Transfer, Church x Market
Shark Attack!
Residents 0rko, Rubyacht, Starr (Bondage-a-Go-Go), Macro spinning "Electro/Progressive/Techno/Grime/Popdancecrap."
9.30PM - 2AM
FREE before 10, $5 after
Julie's Supper Club, 1123 Folsom x 7th
Cosmic Gypsy Happy Hour with DJ Mak at the W Hotel
Get your lounge groove on with DJ Mak in this swank downtown 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. 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
The Cinch, 1723 Polk Street (between Clay and Washington)
Fag Fridays at Pink
With special guest Halo, and residents David Harness, Rolo, Neon Leon, and Manny Ward.
10PM - "late"
Cover "TBA" (okay, so what's up with that?)
Pink, 2526 16th Street x South Van Ness
GhettoDisco at The EndUp
This week it's - what else - a Thanksgiving theme. With guest Mike Cruz, and residents Pete Avila, Vince, and Parris Harris.
11PM - 11AM (honey, don't forget the pills!)
FREE before midnight, $20 until 2AM, $30 after 2AM
The EndUp, 6th x Harrison
Lights Down Low at Club 222
This installment features guests Sleazy V., Omar (Popscene), and Forever 21 with resident Richard OH?! (Big Stereo). Check out my previous reviews of Lights Down Low.
10PM - 2AM
$7
Club 222, 222 Hyde Street x Turk
Monthlies and One-Offs
Paradise All Night Disco Extravaganza at Mezzanine WHOOPS, THIS IS THE 30TH, NEXT FRIDAY, NOT THIS FRIDAY
Okay, I've certainly made known my feelings about "disco revival," but even I have to be impressed with a performance of an 18 piece disco orchestra. With DJs Bus Station John, Robot Hustle, and Safety Scissors.
10PM - "Dawn"
$10 advance tix at the link above
Mezzanine, 444 Jessie Street x 5th
Honey Sound System at The Transfer
With Ken Vulsion, guest Josh Cheon, and Jason Kendig. Midnight performances by Phatima Rude and Khadijah Salad Gold Dancer.
9PM - 2AM
FREE before 11, $5 after (tell the door guy you're on Ken Vulsion's list to get in for free all night)
The Transfer, Church x Market
Shark Attack!
Residents 0rko, Rubyacht, Starr (Bondage-a-Go-Go), Macro spinning "Electro/Progressive/Techno/Grime/Popdancecrap."
9.30PM - 2AM
FREE before 10, $5 after
Julie's Supper Club, 1123 Folsom x 7th
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Upcoming Event: Gobble at Temple, Thanksgiving Evening
Full of turkey, tired of football, need to get out and do something on Thursday night to take advantage of that Friday off? How about this:
Head and the House of Herrera present:
Gobble
A Fancy Thanksgiving Social
Art and Cocktails
Photo/video/living textile installation by iii and the House
Music by Jason Kendig (Honey Sound System)
Temple
540 Howard Street (use the Natoma Street entrance)
10PM - 2AM
$5
Head and the House of Herrera present:
Gobble
A Fancy Thanksgiving Social
Art and Cocktails
Photo/video/living textile installation by iii and the House
Music by Jason Kendig (Honey Sound System)
Temple
540 Howard Street (use the Natoma Street entrance)
10PM - 2AM
$5
Monday, November 19, 2007
It's Official: Fuck Shit Let's Dance, Fourth Fridays at Deco
I hinted on Friday, and now the whole story can be told: Starting in January the boyfriend (aka Lord Kook) and I will be throwing a monthly party at Deco Lounge called Fuck Shit, Let's Dance (FSLD as you may see on flyers around town). It's "a monthly dance party for queers and their friends," and we have a confirmed line-up for the first three months:
January 24 - DJ Pup, Lord Kook, DJ6 (Bender, Lucky Pierre, Heat)
February 22 - DJ NeonBunny, Lord Kook, Baron von Luxxxury and Johnatron (Disco Workout) tag-team
March 28 - Neco D, Lord Kook, DeeJay Pee Play (Honey Sound System)
We want to offer everbody, but especially all our fellow queers, a cheap, no-frills night out that is all about the music and getting down. Everybody is welcome - boys, girls, twinks, bears, whatever - who wants to have some drinks, hang out with friendly people, and dance. We've talked enough about what we would like to see going on in the gay club scene, so now we're going to see if we can make it happen.
Here's the deets:
Fuck Shit, Let's Dance
Deco Lounge
510 Larkin at Turk
Every Fourth Friday Starting in January
9PM - 3AM
FREE before 10, $5 afterwards
The myspace page will be up this week and I'll post about it for all of you who want to be kept up-to-date. Flyers will also be out in about two weeks.
January 24 - DJ Pup, Lord Kook, DJ6 (Bender, Lucky Pierre, Heat)
February 22 - DJ NeonBunny, Lord Kook, Baron von Luxxxury and Johnatron (Disco Workout) tag-team
March 28 - Neco D, Lord Kook, DeeJay Pee Play (Honey Sound System)
We want to offer everbody, but especially all our fellow queers, a cheap, no-frills night out that is all about the music and getting down. Everybody is welcome - boys, girls, twinks, bears, whatever - who wants to have some drinks, hang out with friendly people, and dance. We've talked enough about what we would like to see going on in the gay club scene, so now we're going to see if we can make it happen.
Here's the deets:
Fuck Shit, Let's Dance
Deco Lounge
510 Larkin at Turk
Every Fourth Friday Starting in January
9PM - 3AM
FREE before 10, $5 afterwards
The myspace page will be up this week and I'll post about it for all of you who want to be kept up-to-date. Flyers will also be out in about two weeks.
The Lame-O Weekend
Grey skies, damp fog, chilly air, sniffles - all the elements came together this weekend to finally kick my hibernating instinct into gear. As the days grow shorter so too does my attention to the outside world, especially now that the boyfriend and I have the comfy apartment with the fireplace and enough room to entertain a few friends of our own with low-cost televisual entertainments.
We did make it out on Friday night to a couple birthday parties (again, what's with all the Scorpios around here?), one for Comfort and Joy impressario Kitten Calfee, the other for DJ Donimo at Heat. Kitten's party was jam-packed with burners, trannies, and alternaqueers, and after noticing that a significant percentage of the guys (and a few of the women) were sporting mohawks, I almost decided that I need to find myself a less-common coif. I spotted Juanita Fajita on her way to Raya Light's step-down party (where Juanita's performance included the consuption of a "beef liver" fashioned out of raspberry and blueberry jello) and watched a strip-tease in the living room, but the boyfriend and I left before everyone's clothes started coming off.
Heat was again a fun night of dancing, though it would have been nice to have had a few more people on the dancefloor with us. There were some great interpretations of 80s New York Studio 54 style, and performances of Grace Jones and Donna Summer that were nicely integrated into the DJ sets themselves. I spotted a photographer for a club glossy in the crowd and he certainly got some good snaps for the "seen out and about" section. His presence made me think about how few events there are in SF, a place filled with people who are into costumes and fine millinery, where there's really incentive to put on your fine flashy threads and strut around. I hope more people will get into Heat as a fun fashion scene at the December installment -it's even got me re-considering what I should do about my clubbing wardrobe.
And then, after Friday, we just pooped out. I heard that the Miss Trannyshack pageant at the Gift Center on Saturday night was actually kind of a bore - it got started almost an a hour and a half late and at 1.30 the final act had just performed. As my source told me, it was bunch of performances that had two elements out of five right - as we later decided, once you take the "shack" out of "trannyshack," it begins to lose its edge and just becomes another San Francisco institution with big wigs, like Beach Blanket Babylon. My big disappointment, though, was not making it to French Kiss at Pink on Sunday evening to hear JD Samson of Le Tigre - I had really been looking forward to a Sunday evening of drinks and electro, but the boyfriend and I spent the whole afternoon with our friend J shooting corny Christmas pix to send to our families, and by the time we had taken him out to dinner for his help, and settled down to the chores we needed to get done, I found it much more attractive to finish up a mission in Medal of Honor: Airborne and go to bed with some Nyquil for my cold than to rouse up the energy to go out. And that's how lame *I* was this weekend; how about you?
We did make it out on Friday night to a couple birthday parties (again, what's with all the Scorpios around here?), one for Comfort and Joy impressario Kitten Calfee, the other for DJ Donimo at Heat. Kitten's party was jam-packed with burners, trannies, and alternaqueers, and after noticing that a significant percentage of the guys (and a few of the women) were sporting mohawks, I almost decided that I need to find myself a less-common coif. I spotted Juanita Fajita on her way to Raya Light's step-down party (where Juanita's performance included the consuption of a "beef liver" fashioned out of raspberry and blueberry jello) and watched a strip-tease in the living room, but the boyfriend and I left before everyone's clothes started coming off.
Heat was again a fun night of dancing, though it would have been nice to have had a few more people on the dancefloor with us. There were some great interpretations of 80s New York Studio 54 style, and performances of Grace Jones and Donna Summer that were nicely integrated into the DJ sets themselves. I spotted a photographer for a club glossy in the crowd and he certainly got some good snaps for the "seen out and about" section. His presence made me think about how few events there are in SF, a place filled with people who are into costumes and fine millinery, where there's really incentive to put on your fine flashy threads and strut around. I hope more people will get into Heat as a fun fashion scene at the December installment -it's even got me re-considering what I should do about my clubbing wardrobe.
And then, after Friday, we just pooped out. I heard that the Miss Trannyshack pageant at the Gift Center on Saturday night was actually kind of a bore - it got started almost an a hour and a half late and at 1.30 the final act had just performed. As my source told me, it was bunch of performances that had two elements out of five right - as we later decided, once you take the "shack" out of "trannyshack," it begins to lose its edge and just becomes another San Francisco institution with big wigs, like Beach Blanket Babylon. My big disappointment, though, was not making it to French Kiss at Pink on Sunday evening to hear JD Samson of Le Tigre - I had really been looking forward to a Sunday evening of drinks and electro, but the boyfriend and I spent the whole afternoon with our friend J shooting corny Christmas pix to send to our families, and by the time we had taken him out to dinner for his help, and settled down to the chores we needed to get done, I found it much more attractive to finish up a mission in Medal of Honor: Airborne and go to bed with some Nyquil for my cold than to rouse up the energy to go out. And that's how lame *I* was this weekend; how about you?
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Fuck Shit, Let's Dance!
Hey kids, watch this space for what we here at SF Scene consider an exciting announcement. Hints: Fourth Fridays, Deco Lounge, Resident DJ Lord Kook, super special guests. More details when we're ready to make it official, which should be very, very soon! Wheeeee!
Upcoming Event: JD Samson from Le Tigre Spinning at French Kiss, Sunday Nov 18
I posted before about French Kiss at Pink, but haven't been able to make it there yet (school night and all that). But, this Sunday, JD Samson from Le Tigre is the guest DJ, and Mykill tells me that there are more special surprises in store too, so if this cold hasn't beaten me down I'll definitely be there. C'mon, it's a short week, go out and party on a Sunday night! $4 wells and $2PBRs! Craaaaazy!
French Kiss at Pink
10PM - "late"
$5 cover (what a bargain!)
2925 16th St. x South Van Ness
French Kiss at Pink
10PM - "late"
$5 cover (what a bargain!)
2925 16th St. x South Van Ness
Your Saturday Guide for November 17, 2007
OK, is it just me, or are Saturdays really, really dead? What's up with that? Has Friday become the new Saturday? If you all know of really great Saturday events, please send them to me cuz I'm having a hard time tracking them down (or maybe Frisco Disco and Drunk and Horny is just destroying them all).
Weeklies and Bar Nights
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, but beware that it gets claustrophobically crowded. Check out my reviews of Drunk and Horny.
9PMish - 2.00AM (with maybe an afterparty)
Underground SF, 424 Haight Street x Webster
Frisco Disco at The Transfer
Every Saturday night they're lined up on the street for this party; haven't made it past the sweating crowds myself yet, but this looks like one of the hottest things going right now.
No cover listed
9.00PM - 2.00AM
The Transfer, Church at Market
Monthlies and One-Offs
Thrust at Mighty
With Lee Coombs, Syd Gris, Felix the Dog, Alain Octavio, Hoj, and Eric Sharp.
$10 limited advance pre-sales @ leecombs.com and opelproductions.com
10PM - 4AM
Mighty, 119 Utah Street x 15th
Weeklies and Bar Nights
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, but beware that it gets claustrophobically crowded. Check out my reviews of Drunk and Horny.
9PMish - 2.00AM (with maybe an afterparty)
Underground SF, 424 Haight Street x Webster
Frisco Disco at The Transfer
Every Saturday night they're lined up on the street for this party; haven't made it past the sweating crowds myself yet, but this looks like one of the hottest things going right now.
No cover listed
9.00PM - 2.00AM
The Transfer, Church at Market
Monthlies and One-Offs
Thrust at Mighty
With Lee Coombs, Syd Gris, Felix the Dog, Alain Octavio, Hoj, and Eric Sharp.
$10 limited advance pre-sales @ leecombs.com and opelproductions.com
10PM - 4AM
Mighty, 119 Utah Street x 15th
Your Friday Guide for November 16, 2007
Urgh, this jaded gay DJ has a cold coming on, so it may be a weekend in front of the Xbox with hot tea and a cold meds, but there are some nifty things you should definitely check out:
Weeklies and Bar Nights
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. 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
The Cinch, 1723 Polk Street (between Clay and Washington)
Fag Fridays at Pink
No deets on this week's event, but at least one reader wasn't too happy with his visit there last week.
10PM - "late"
Cover "TBA" (okay, so what's up with that?)
Pink, 2526 16th Street x South Van Ness
GhettoDisco at The EndUp
It's the 1930 Prohibition/Gangster (note proper spelling)/Speakeasy theme. With guest Matt Consola and residents Hawthorne, Sean Greene and Cuervo.
11PM - 11AM (honey, don't forget the pills!)
FREE before midnight, $20 until 2AM, $30 after 2AM
The EndUp, 6th x Harrison
Monthlies and One-Offs
House of Lotus and The Deep End Fundraiser for Otto Schutt at Mighty
Give the man some love, he needs it! And some money! Party for a good cause!
9PM - 4AM
No cover listed, but I imagine it's "give what you can"
Mighty, 119 Utah Street x 15th
Stilleto at AsiaSF
Drag queen performance art film fashion dance extravaganza with beats by Baron von Luxxury and Johnatron of the Disco Workout blog. Promise of an afterparty at a secret new club location, too!
10PM - 3AM
$8
Asia SF, 201 Howard x 9th
The Jaded Gay DJ Recommends: Heat at The Stud
Warhol's Factory enters the 80s with BeBe Sweetbriar as Donna Summer, Mercedez Munro as Grace Jones, art direction by Twig, graffiti art by Matthew Bajda, visual projections and installations by Ben, and phat electro beats by DJ6 (Bender, Lucky Pierre), and Donimo (Lucky Pierre, Substance). Plus, it's Donimo's birthday! Check out my previous review of Heat.
10PM - 3AM
$5
The Stud, 9th x Harrison
Blow-Up at The Rickshaw Stop
With guests The Glass, DJs Pink Skull and Gina Turner, and resident Jefrodesiac.
10PM - 2AM
$10 for 21+, $12 for 18-21
The Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell x Van Ness
Weeklies and Bar Nights
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. 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
The Cinch, 1723 Polk Street (between Clay and Washington)
Fag Fridays at Pink
No deets on this week's event, but at least one reader wasn't too happy with his visit there last week.
10PM - "late"
Cover "TBA" (okay, so what's up with that?)
Pink, 2526 16th Street x South Van Ness
GhettoDisco at The EndUp
It's the 1930 Prohibition/Gangster (note proper spelling)/Speakeasy theme. With guest Matt Consola and residents Hawthorne, Sean Greene and Cuervo.
11PM - 11AM (honey, don't forget the pills!)
FREE before midnight, $20 until 2AM, $30 after 2AM
The EndUp, 6th x Harrison
Monthlies and One-Offs
House of Lotus and The Deep End Fundraiser for Otto Schutt at Mighty
Give the man some love, he needs it! And some money! Party for a good cause!
9PM - 4AM
No cover listed, but I imagine it's "give what you can"
Mighty, 119 Utah Street x 15th
Stilleto at AsiaSF
Drag queen performance art film fashion dance extravaganza with beats by Baron von Luxxury and Johnatron of the Disco Workout blog. Promise of an afterparty at a secret new club location, too!
10PM - 3AM
$8
Asia SF, 201 Howard x 9th
The Jaded Gay DJ Recommends: Heat at The Stud
Warhol's Factory enters the 80s with BeBe Sweetbriar as Donna Summer, Mercedez Munro as Grace Jones, art direction by Twig, graffiti art by Matthew Bajda, visual projections and installations by Ben, and phat electro beats by DJ6 (Bender, Lucky Pierre), and Donimo (Lucky Pierre, Substance). Plus, it's Donimo's birthday! Check out my previous review of Heat.
10PM - 3AM
$5
The Stud, 9th x Harrison
Blow-Up at The Rickshaw Stop
With guests The Glass, DJs Pink Skull and Gina Turner, and resident Jefrodesiac.
10PM - 2AM
$10 for 21+, $12 for 18-21
The Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell x Van Ness
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
SFWeekly Digging the Dirt on Paul Addis
You know, it's sometimes really nice to take a stand about something, and then be vindicated. In my case, it was coming out and saying that I thought Paul Addis was a narcissistic jerk playing out his Hunter S. Thompson fantasies when everybody else I knew seemed to think that he was a provocative performance artist. When he was busted for his alledged attempt to "blow up" Grace Cathedral I felt a little pang of satisfaction, and now Sucka Free City in the SFWeekly has dug up some really interesting information about this local "hero;" first the restraining order placed against him for allegedly threatening students at Grace Prepatory School, and then charges of harassment and unlawful use of a weapon when he got pissed off with a hotel clerk in Seattle after his American Express card was refused. The paper wanted to talk with Addis about these past events, but his jailers have - quelle surprise - judged him "mentally unfit" to sign the waivers necessary to talk with the media. So, Chicken John, what do you think of your hero now?
Monday, November 12, 2007
Event Review: Friday Night on Polkstrasse, Bender at The Transfer
The thing about being a socialite and man-about-town is that it's often an exhausting affair; every Friday and Saturday there is at least one command performance and one optional activity that need or should be taken in, and during this time of year, when I discover that I'm surrounded by Scorpios who all celebrate their birthdays on the same Fridays, the pace is just maddening. A case in point is this past Friday, when the boyfriend and I had to undertake a series of carefully timed surgical strikes at Kimo's, The Cinch, and the Transfer to make sure we fulfilled all our of required social duties.
First there was Kimo's, where an ex-housemate and bandmate of the boyfriend was playing with his band Smile Brigade. I don't think I've been to Kimo's before; I'm sure I would have remembered the smell of the upstairs if I had. We hung out and had a couple drinks while the boyfriend and his buddy, Jeremy, caught up on things like touring, marriages, and tales of other Seattle-ites. We had wanted to catch their set but, this being the world of indie bands, everything was running an hour late, and we still had to see Frieda Laye for her birthday at the Cinch before we could wind up our night at The Transfer. We left there around 10.30 and trooped up the Polkstrasse, only to remember that drag queen time has much in common with indie rock time; we had another drink, then the birthday girl and Juanita Fajita showed up just before we had to head out the door again. This was too bad, as it was shaping up to be yet another fun night of Charlie Horse antics - the boyfriend and I had both already been on the receiving end of some serious flirtation, including a little making out on the back patio, and there were alternaqueers and Burner boys all around.
We arrived at The Transfer around 11.30. Last month's Bender had been quite an affair, and this one was every bit as lively. Kid Hack of Electropolis was on deck spinning electro when we first arrived, there was an underwear-clad go-go boy strutting around on the benches (DJ6 later told me that their regularly scheduled go-gos had failed to show up, but this boy spontaneously volunteered to fill the gap - yep, it's that kind of party), and a very friendly and fun mixed, though predominantly queer, crowd. I think Bender is probably the best no-cover Castro monthly going right now, so you should mark your calendars for the second Friday of the month and come check it out. Lord Kook will be the guest DJ next month, on Friday December 14, bringing in a harder, more electro set than he could get away with during his old residency at Drunk and Horny.
We wound out our night with a lifesaving burger at Sparky's; somewhere between one drink at The Cinch and the two I had at The Transfer I wound up being teeteringly drunk. It was a fun evening, though, one of the few times when I can say that all three of my destinations were places I would have gladly passed the entirety of the evening.
First there was Kimo's, where an ex-housemate and bandmate of the boyfriend was playing with his band Smile Brigade. I don't think I've been to Kimo's before; I'm sure I would have remembered the smell of the upstairs if I had. We hung out and had a couple drinks while the boyfriend and his buddy, Jeremy, caught up on things like touring, marriages, and tales of other Seattle-ites. We had wanted to catch their set but, this being the world of indie bands, everything was running an hour late, and we still had to see Frieda Laye for her birthday at the Cinch before we could wind up our night at The Transfer. We left there around 10.30 and trooped up the Polkstrasse, only to remember that drag queen time has much in common with indie rock time; we had another drink, then the birthday girl and Juanita Fajita showed up just before we had to head out the door again. This was too bad, as it was shaping up to be yet another fun night of Charlie Horse antics - the boyfriend and I had both already been on the receiving end of some serious flirtation, including a little making out on the back patio, and there were alternaqueers and Burner boys all around.
We arrived at The Transfer around 11.30. Last month's Bender had been quite an affair, and this one was every bit as lively. Kid Hack of Electropolis was on deck spinning electro when we first arrived, there was an underwear-clad go-go boy strutting around on the benches (DJ6 later told me that their regularly scheduled go-gos had failed to show up, but this boy spontaneously volunteered to fill the gap - yep, it's that kind of party), and a very friendly and fun mixed, though predominantly queer, crowd. I think Bender is probably the best no-cover Castro monthly going right now, so you should mark your calendars for the second Friday of the month and come check it out. Lord Kook will be the guest DJ next month, on Friday December 14, bringing in a harder, more electro set than he could get away with during his old residency at Drunk and Horny.
We wound out our night with a lifesaving burger at Sparky's; somewhere between one drink at The Cinch and the two I had at The Transfer I wound up being teeteringly drunk. It was a fun evening, though, one of the few times when I can say that all three of my destinations were places I would have gladly passed the entirety of the evening.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Your Saturday Guide for November 10, 2007
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, but beware that it gets claustrophobically crowded. Check out my reviews of Drunk and Horny.
9PMish - 2.00AM (with maybe an afterparty)
Underground SF, 424 Haight Street x Webster
Frisco Disco at The Transfer
Every Saturday night they're lined up on the street for this party; haven't made it past the sweating crowds myself yet, but this looks like one of the hottest things going right now.
No cover listed
9.00PM - 2.00AM
The Transfer, Church at Market
Monthlies and One-Offs
Ambient Mafia 8 Year Anniversary
This is going to be the biggest party of the night for those into underground scene, and I hear that Garth is the secret surprise guest. Free water, free pancakes at 5AM. Go, go, go!
Secret Underground (SoMa) Location
9PM - "late"
$6 presale, $10 at the door
info: www.ambientmafia.com
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, but beware that it gets claustrophobically crowded. Check out my reviews of Drunk and Horny.
9PMish - 2.00AM (with maybe an afterparty)
Underground SF, 424 Haight Street x Webster
Frisco Disco at The Transfer
Every Saturday night they're lined up on the street for this party; haven't made it past the sweating crowds myself yet, but this looks like one of the hottest things going right now.
No cover listed
9.00PM - 2.00AM
The Transfer, Church at Market
Monthlies and One-Offs
Ambient Mafia 8 Year Anniversary
This is going to be the biggest party of the night for those into underground scene, and I hear that Garth is the secret surprise guest. Free water, free pancakes at 5AM. Go, go, go!
Secret Underground (SoMa) Location
9PM - "late"
$6 presale, $10 at the door
info: www.ambientmafia.com
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Upcoming Event: Solid, a Fundraiser for Otto Schutt, Thursday Nov 8
Just found out about this totally at the last minute, a superstar line-up to benefit local scenester Otto Schutt, who was recently diagnosed with colon cancer. Otto has no insurance and treatment is expected to exceed $100K, so come down and shake your butt for a good cause.
With:
Mighty, 119 Utah Street
Contributions can also be made via www.ottoschutt.com
With:
- Claude vonStroke
- Fred Everything
- M3
- Solar
- Galen
- Anthony
- Lance Desardi
- Worthy
- DJ Fluid
- Alland Byallo
- Craig Kuna
Mighty, 119 Utah Street
Contributions can also be made via www.ottoschutt.com
Your Friday Guide for November 9, 2007
Weeklies and Bar Nights
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. Special Treat: It's Frieda Laye's birthday! 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
The Cinch, 1723 Polk Street (between Clay and Washington)
Fag Fridays at Pink
David Harness celebrates his birthday. Special Guest DJ Luke Johnstone, with a performance by Juanita More, and residents Leon Neon, Rolo, and Manny Ward.
10PM - "late"
Cover "TBA" (okay, so what's up with that?)
Pink, 2526 16th Street x South Van Ness
GhettoDisco at The EndUp
It's Cowboy theme this Friday, yee-haw! With guest Jamie J Sanchez and residents Adrian and Vince.
11PM - 11AM (honey, don't forget the pills!)
FREE before midnight, $20 until 2AM, $30 after 2AM
The EndUp, 6th x Harrison
Monthlies and One-Offs
Lights Down Low at Club 222
With resident DJs Sleazemore and Rchrd OH!? and special guests. Check out my previous reviews of Lights Down Low.
10PM - 2AM
$7
Club 222, 222 Hyde Street x Turk
The Jaded Gay DJ Recommends: Bender at The Transfer
From the creators and DJs of Lucky Pierre and Heat it's Bender! With resident DJs Candy and DJ6, and special guest Kid Hack (Electropolis).
9PM - 2AM
NO COVER!
The Transfer, Church and Market
The Rod at Deco Lounge
For all the gay boys who want to pretend that it's 1979. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them. Check out my review of The Rod.
10PM - 4AM
FREE before 10PM, $5 After
Deco Lounge, 510 Larkin at Turk
Blasthaus Presents Stanton Warriors at Mighty
When I first read this flyer I thought it said "Kings of Breakfast" rather than "Kings of Breakbeat." With support from local heroes Syd Gris, DJ Laird, and Murphstar.
10PM - 4AM
$15
Mighty, 119 Utah Street
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. Special Treat: It's Frieda Laye's birthday! 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
The Cinch, 1723 Polk Street (between Clay and Washington)
Fag Fridays at Pink
David Harness celebrates his birthday. Special Guest DJ Luke Johnstone, with a performance by Juanita More, and residents Leon Neon, Rolo, and Manny Ward.
10PM - "late"
Cover "TBA" (okay, so what's up with that?)
Pink, 2526 16th Street x South Van Ness
GhettoDisco at The EndUp
It's Cowboy theme this Friday, yee-haw! With guest Jamie J Sanchez and residents Adrian and Vince.
11PM - 11AM (honey, don't forget the pills!)
FREE before midnight, $20 until 2AM, $30 after 2AM
The EndUp, 6th x Harrison
Monthlies and One-Offs
Lights Down Low at Club 222
With resident DJs Sleazemore and Rchrd OH!? and special guests. Check out my previous reviews of Lights Down Low.
10PM - 2AM
$7
Club 222, 222 Hyde Street x Turk
The Jaded Gay DJ Recommends: Bender at The Transfer
From the creators and DJs of Lucky Pierre and Heat it's Bender! With resident DJs Candy and DJ6, and special guest Kid Hack (Electropolis).
9PM - 2AM
NO COVER!
The Transfer, Church and Market
The Rod at Deco Lounge
For all the gay boys who want to pretend that it's 1979. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them. Check out my review of The Rod.
10PM - 4AM
FREE before 10PM, $5 After
Deco Lounge, 510 Larkin at Turk
Blasthaus Presents Stanton Warriors at Mighty
When I first read this flyer I thought it said "Kings of Breakfast" rather than "Kings of Breakbeat." With support from local heroes Syd Gris, DJ Laird, and Murphstar.
10PM - 4AM
$15
Mighty, 119 Utah Street
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Upcoming Event: Ambient Mafia 8 Year Anniversary, Saturday Nov 10
If it weren't for the fact that we're hosting a birthday party for the boyfriend on Saturday I would be all over this.
The Ambient Mafia 8 Year Anniversary
Smokey sounds provided by your favorite mafia artists and a surprise guest!
Secret Underground SF Location (directions posted the day of the event)
9PM - "late"
$6 presale, $10 at the door
info: www.ambientmafia.com
UPDATE:
Courtesy of reader Marta:
Lots of good shit at this event.
Not only the legendary Garth, but also:
"Featuring a virgin UG location, this event will feature two
rooms of downtempo, ambient, trip hop, glitch, atmospheric d+b,
midtempo, dub, and bossa nova! Destined to be a night to
remember, they're featuring free pancakes at 5am, free water,
pole dancers, stilt walkers, fortune tellers, circus
performers, and massage therapists. BYOB and their bartenders
will mix your drinks for you!
A portion of their profits will go to the relief effort for the
Southern California fires via The Red Cross www.redcross.org
and Direct Relief www.directrelief.org For more info call:
415.294.8535 or ambientmafia.com on Saturday."
The Ambient Mafia 8 Year Anniversary
Smokey sounds provided by your favorite mafia artists and a surprise guest!
Secret Underground SF Location (directions posted the day of the event)
9PM - "late"
$6 presale, $10 at the door
info: www.ambientmafia.com
UPDATE:
Courtesy of reader Marta:
Lots of good shit at this event.
Not only the legendary Garth, but also:
"Featuring a virgin UG location, this event will feature two
rooms of downtempo, ambient, trip hop, glitch, atmospheric d+b,
midtempo, dub, and bossa nova! Destined to be a night to
remember, they're featuring free pancakes at 5am, free water,
pole dancers, stilt walkers, fortune tellers, circus
performers, and massage therapists. BYOB and their bartenders
will mix your drinks for you!
A portion of their profits will go to the relief effort for the
Southern California fires via The Red Cross www.redcross.org
and Direct Relief www.directrelief.org For more info call:
415.294.8535 or ambientmafia.com on Saturday."
Friday, November 2, 2007
Your Saturday Guide for November 3, 2007
Weeklies and Bar Nights
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, but beware that it gets claustrophobically crowded. Check out my reviews of Drunk and Horny.
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.
No cover listed
9.00PM - 2.00AM
The Transfer, Church at Market
Playboy at The Stud
The next-to-last last installment of Juanita More's weekly party with DJs Juanita, Lady Meat, Joshua J, and Initials PB. I never made it to out to this, mainly cuz the last time I heard Juanita DJ there were more trainwrecks than in a freight yard, but I bet it will be full of gay scenester kids bidding Juanita a fond adieu.
$5 before 11.30, $8 after
9PM - 3AM
The Stud, 9th x Harrison
Monthlies and One-Offs
Kontrol at The End Up
San Francisco's reigning techno monthly, this week with guests Tadeo and Damian Schwartz fresh off their Friday night gig in New York, along with Vadim and local boy Solar.
FREE before 11, $15 afterwards
10PM - 6AM
The End Up, 401 6th x Harrison
Habit Forming at Mighty
A big night of breaks with The Space Cowboys outside, lots of local luminaries inside, and the Ambient Mafia in the side room.
FREE before 10, $10 before midnight
9PM - 4AM
Mighty, 119 Utah Street x 15th
Phantasmagoria Costume Party at The Gingerbread House
What's Halloween without a psytrance costume party? With Phoenix Family and Full Circle DJs Saturnia, Random, Rob-ot, Doctor Spook, Witchdokta, the Monks of Madness, and Mubali (responsible for one of my worst nights at an outdoor ever, you've been warned). Two rooms, all ages, with some chill and breaks and downtempo when you've had enough of the square-pushing music.
10PM - 6AM
$20
1275 Connecticut at Cesar Chavez
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, but beware that it gets claustrophobically crowded. Check out my reviews of Drunk and Horny.
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.
No cover listed
9.00PM - 2.00AM
The Transfer, Church at Market
Playboy at The Stud
The next-to-last last installment of Juanita More's weekly party with DJs Juanita, Lady Meat, Joshua J, and Initials PB. I never made it to out to this, mainly cuz the last time I heard Juanita DJ there were more trainwrecks than in a freight yard, but I bet it will be full of gay scenester kids bidding Juanita a fond adieu.
$5 before 11.30, $8 after
9PM - 3AM
The Stud, 9th x Harrison
Monthlies and One-Offs
Kontrol at The End Up
San Francisco's reigning techno monthly, this week with guests Tadeo and Damian Schwartz fresh off their Friday night gig in New York, along with Vadim and local boy Solar.
FREE before 11, $15 afterwards
10PM - 6AM
The End Up, 401 6th x Harrison
Habit Forming at Mighty
A big night of breaks with The Space Cowboys outside, lots of local luminaries inside, and the Ambient Mafia in the side room.
FREE before 10, $10 before midnight
9PM - 4AM
Mighty, 119 Utah Street x 15th
Phantasmagoria Costume Party at The Gingerbread House
What's Halloween without a psytrance costume party? With Phoenix Family and Full Circle DJs Saturnia, Random, Rob-ot, Doctor Spook, Witchdokta, the Monks of Madness, and Mubali (responsible for one of my worst nights at an outdoor ever, you've been warned). Two rooms, all ages, with some chill and breaks and downtempo when you've had enough of the square-pushing music.
10PM - 6AM
$20
1275 Connecticut at Cesar Chavez
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Upcoming Event: Imaginary Friends, Friday Nov 2 - Saturday Nov 3
This past week I got a flyer from my friend Raph, aka DJ Helios, for a party he's playing this weekend called Imaginary Friends. While it lacks the pastels and anime-eyed characters of candy rave flyers past, there's no mistaking what kind of party this is intended to be when you read the flyer:
I must admit, I'm strongly tempted by this party, as there still lives on in me the unrepentant kandy raver boi who would think nothing of a rolling weekend if I could just have a binky, a comfy pair of phat jeans, a hoody, and some cool peeps to hang out with. Though they quickly became the scape goats of the rave scene, it was the candy ravers who always knew how to party, and who, in their most delirious moments, had a sense that maybe these parties meant something more than just getting fucked up. I had great times at candy raves thrown by groups like the Happy Kids, and one of my most amazing party experiences was a free Skills party in Golden Gate Park, where I was awed by the way in which that scene could bring so many diverse kids together to be nice to each other and have a good time.
Candy raves were always amateurish and a little messy, and there were certainly sketchy elements to them as well; I will also never forget breaking up a little scene in the bathroom at a youth club where I was helping produce a party, where one kid was selling his Ritalin pills to other kids. But there was also something refreshing about their "hey kids, let's put on a show" attitude. In a day when bottle service and VIP lines, along with relentless scenester-ism, are what defines a club's offerings, it's hard to not feel a nostalgia for events in dingy warehouses with hand-painted banners and $10 covers.
I doubt that I'll make it Imaginary Friends; camping out in early November, in a location where I'll need to rent a car to get there, makes me think too much of things I'll need to prepare for, and right now life is a little more immediate than that. Still, I'm glad to have seen a flyer for something that has the marks of an old-skool rave; I hope I'll see more soon, when I have a little more energy for them.
Deep in you imagination
live imaginary friends.
Immerse yourself in a 2 day
one night dance celebration
with four rooms of music hidden
within a 2-acre maze.
Kandi Making Station
Glow Stick Vendor
$1 Water
Chill Out Area
Fully Themed
I must admit, I'm strongly tempted by this party, as there still lives on in me the unrepentant kandy raver boi who would think nothing of a rolling weekend if I could just have a binky, a comfy pair of phat jeans, a hoody, and some cool peeps to hang out with. Though they quickly became the scape goats of the rave scene, it was the candy ravers who always knew how to party, and who, in their most delirious moments, had a sense that maybe these parties meant something more than just getting fucked up. I had great times at candy raves thrown by groups like the Happy Kids, and one of my most amazing party experiences was a free Skills party in Golden Gate Park, where I was awed by the way in which that scene could bring so many diverse kids together to be nice to each other and have a good time.
Candy raves were always amateurish and a little messy, and there were certainly sketchy elements to them as well; I will also never forget breaking up a little scene in the bathroom at a youth club where I was helping produce a party, where one kid was selling his Ritalin pills to other kids. But there was also something refreshing about their "hey kids, let's put on a show" attitude. In a day when bottle service and VIP lines, along with relentless scenester-ism, are what defines a club's offerings, it's hard to not feel a nostalgia for events in dingy warehouses with hand-painted banners and $10 covers.
I doubt that I'll make it Imaginary Friends; camping out in early November, in a location where I'll need to rent a car to get there, makes me think too much of things I'll need to prepare for, and right now life is a little more immediate than that. Still, I'm glad to have seen a flyer for something that has the marks of an old-skool rave; I hope I'll see more soon, when I have a little more energy for them.
Your Friday Guide for Nov 2, 2007
Bar Nights and Weeklies
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 reviews of Charlie Horse at The Cinch.
9PM - close
NO COVER
The Cinch, 1723 Polk Street (between Clay and Washington)
Fag Fridays at Pink
David Harness celebrates his birthday. Special Guest DJ Luke Johnstone, with a performance by Juanita More, and residents Leon Neon, Rolo, and Manny Ward.
10PM - "late"
Cover "TBA" (okay, so what's up with that?)
Pink, 2526 16th Street x South Van Ness
GhettoDisco at The EndUp
Ooh, a Wizard of Oz theme. Well, I hope there are at least some Munchkins, they should look really great next to the circuit clones. With Hawthorne, Chad Jack, and Jim Hopkins DJing.
11PM - 11AM (honey, don't forget the pills!)
FREE before midnight (the only way I'd go), $20 until 2AM, $30 after 2AM
The EndUp, 6th x Harrison
Monthlies and One-Offs
Garth and Jeno Back2Back at Club222
San Francisco house legends Garth and Jeno in one of the best intimate dance spaces in the city.
10PM - 2AM
$10
Club 222, 222 Hyde Street
Club Loaded at The Rickshaw Stop
This week with a live set from Iglu and Hartly and guest DJ Koop, along with resident DJ Audrock.
10PM - 2AM
$8 before 11, $10 after
The Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell x Van Ness
The Jaded Gay DJ Recommends: Lucky Pierre at The Stud
This month's theme: Day O' the Dead/Night of the Whores! Check out my review of Lucky Pierre!
10PM - 3AM
$5
The Stud, 9th x Harrison
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 reviews of Charlie Horse at The Cinch.
9PM - close
NO COVER
The Cinch, 1723 Polk Street (between Clay and Washington)
Fag Fridays at Pink
David Harness celebrates his birthday. Special Guest DJ Luke Johnstone, with a performance by Juanita More, and residents Leon Neon, Rolo, and Manny Ward.
10PM - "late"
Cover "TBA" (okay, so what's up with that?)
Pink, 2526 16th Street x South Van Ness
GhettoDisco at The EndUp
Ooh, a Wizard of Oz theme. Well, I hope there are at least some Munchkins, they should look really great next to the circuit clones. With Hawthorne, Chad Jack, and Jim Hopkins DJing.
11PM - 11AM (honey, don't forget the pills!)
FREE before midnight (the only way I'd go), $20 until 2AM, $30 after 2AM
The EndUp, 6th x Harrison
Monthlies and One-Offs
Garth and Jeno Back2Back at Club222
San Francisco house legends Garth and Jeno in one of the best intimate dance spaces in the city.
10PM - 2AM
$10
Club 222, 222 Hyde Street
Club Loaded at The Rickshaw Stop
This week with a live set from Iglu and Hartly and guest DJ Koop, along with resident DJ Audrock.
10PM - 2AM
$8 before 11, $10 after
The Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell x Van Ness
The Jaded Gay DJ Recommends: Lucky Pierre at The Stud
This month's theme: Day O' the Dead/Night of the Whores! Check out my review of Lucky Pierre!
10PM - 3AM
$5
The Stud, 9th x Harrison
Resurrection of mr. Black in New York
Here's an interesting (if poorly written) article about the infamous mr. Black club in New York. The boyfriend and I checked it out last Thanksgiving when we took a vacation to the other coast; as we were on San Francisco party time we showed up too early, didn't think too much of the crowd or music, and wound up leaving before midnight (yes, we are sometimes that lame). My best memory of the night was all the go-go boys disappearing into bathrooms and behind stage together, and then coming out all smiley, so the news that the club got busted for drug racketeering comes as no big shock. But hey, at least these guys are trying to give people a *reason* for coming out to their parties, and understand the concept of vibe, which is much more than I can say for a lot of the promoters in this city.
Event Review: Halloween in the Castro, Much Ado About Nothing
By now you've probably read the Chronicle article about Halloween in the Castro, and what a lame fizzle it turned out to be. After dinner, around 8, the boyfriend and I got into some appropriate duds - he in a fox suit, me in an East German border guard Lieutenant's uniform (yes, the real thing). I was hoping for a chance to riff off the police state-like aspect of the Castro by asking people for their papers, but since the vast majority of people in the Castro were already dressed like cops, there wasn't much point.
We walked from our place on Diamond Street down to the Castro, up Castro to Noe, and then back down the other side of Castro. Boring, boring, boring. There were some people in costume, and a few moments of camera flash-flash, but nothing at all like in years past. At Market and Castro there was a someone dressed as a nun with a megaphone intoning "Don't vote for Gavin Newsom," but it was more evocative of a brain-dead megaphone than any real act of provocation.
We saw two bars open - Badlands, which was charging a $3 cover, and the Bar, which was dead empty - and probably would have stopped in for a drink if I hadn't been such a lame-ass and forgotten my wallet. But overall, there were far too many other things going on in the city and I think everyone just decided, meh, why deal with it when there are other things to do and places to go?
So, this turned out to be the Halloween that wasn't. On the one hand, I was thrilled to not have to deal with the goons and yabbos who regularly show up and make Halloween in the Castro a less-than-pleasant experience. On the other, I wanted my goddamn neighborhood back. I wanted to be able to get dressed up and walk around to the bars and see people I knew and enjoy the holidy, rather than feeling like I was under quarantine. The boyfriend and I had planned to go over to Oakland for a party, but when we realized that we couldn't take any public transportation back, and I was unsure about having to deal with the whole parking thing, we decided to stay in the City. If we had wanted to really go out, we would have had to have headed off to some other neighborhood, and honestly, nobody we knew seemed that enthusiastic about going out.
I really resent the way that, because some assholes are unable to figure out how to comport themselves in public situations, the rest of us have to lose out on fun. I also am very tired of the way in which the whole "controversy" around Halloween has had less to do with addressing those issues, and more to do with the political ambitions of those making the controversy. Does Alix Rosenthal really want to make Halloween in the Castro fun for those who live there, or does she just want to use it as a wedge against Beven Dufty? I didn't see much from the Citizens from Halloween that would lead me to believe that they had any better ideas about how to manage this event than the city (well, aside from portalets, portalets, portalets); rather, it seemed to me that it was more of a collection of anti-Newsom forces than people with real ideas about how to deal with a crowd as large as a third of the entire city of San Francisco in a space of about twelve square blocks. What is the city supposed to do about managing an event like that? Yes, we can handle Pink Saturday, and we can handle Folsom Street Fair, but we have to realize that those events are actually dispersed over wide areas and they attract very specific crowds who are into the event. Halloween, on the other hand, attracts a much more diverse crowd, including a lot of people who are very uncomfortable with being around gays and lesbians. And, of course, a fair number of just drunken assholes who, once they put on costume, lose many of their inhibitions around good conduct. I don't particularly like Gavin Newsom as a Mayor, but I also don't know what he and the city can do about making people not behave like assholes if that's what they want to do.
Next year Halloween falls on a Friday, and I imagine that, with the typical run of Friday night events, there will be plenty to distract people from showing up in the Castro. I hope that's the case, and, after two years of "nothing special" in the Castro, it might return to being more of a neighborhood party. And by that time, I also hope that we will have people ready to address the issues around the event in a constructive manner, rather than making it another example of the poison politics that dominates our city's cultural landscape.
We walked from our place on Diamond Street down to the Castro, up Castro to Noe, and then back down the other side of Castro. Boring, boring, boring. There were some people in costume, and a few moments of camera flash-flash, but nothing at all like in years past. At Market and Castro there was a someone dressed as a nun with a megaphone intoning "Don't vote for Gavin Newsom," but it was more evocative of a brain-dead megaphone than any real act of provocation.
We saw two bars open - Badlands, which was charging a $3 cover, and the Bar, which was dead empty - and probably would have stopped in for a drink if I hadn't been such a lame-ass and forgotten my wallet. But overall, there were far too many other things going on in the city and I think everyone just decided, meh, why deal with it when there are other things to do and places to go?
So, this turned out to be the Halloween that wasn't. On the one hand, I was thrilled to not have to deal with the goons and yabbos who regularly show up and make Halloween in the Castro a less-than-pleasant experience. On the other, I wanted my goddamn neighborhood back. I wanted to be able to get dressed up and walk around to the bars and see people I knew and enjoy the holidy, rather than feeling like I was under quarantine. The boyfriend and I had planned to go over to Oakland for a party, but when we realized that we couldn't take any public transportation back, and I was unsure about having to deal with the whole parking thing, we decided to stay in the City. If we had wanted to really go out, we would have had to have headed off to some other neighborhood, and honestly, nobody we knew seemed that enthusiastic about going out.
I really resent the way that, because some assholes are unable to figure out how to comport themselves in public situations, the rest of us have to lose out on fun. I also am very tired of the way in which the whole "controversy" around Halloween has had less to do with addressing those issues, and more to do with the political ambitions of those making the controversy. Does Alix Rosenthal really want to make Halloween in the Castro fun for those who live there, or does she just want to use it as a wedge against Beven Dufty? I didn't see much from the Citizens from Halloween that would lead me to believe that they had any better ideas about how to manage this event than the city (well, aside from portalets, portalets, portalets); rather, it seemed to me that it was more of a collection of anti-Newsom forces than people with real ideas about how to deal with a crowd as large as a third of the entire city of San Francisco in a space of about twelve square blocks. What is the city supposed to do about managing an event like that? Yes, we can handle Pink Saturday, and we can handle Folsom Street Fair, but we have to realize that those events are actually dispersed over wide areas and they attract very specific crowds who are into the event. Halloween, on the other hand, attracts a much more diverse crowd, including a lot of people who are very uncomfortable with being around gays and lesbians. And, of course, a fair number of just drunken assholes who, once they put on costume, lose many of their inhibitions around good conduct. I don't particularly like Gavin Newsom as a Mayor, but I also don't know what he and the city can do about making people not behave like assholes if that's what they want to do.
Next year Halloween falls on a Friday, and I imagine that, with the typical run of Friday night events, there will be plenty to distract people from showing up in the Castro. I hope that's the case, and, after two years of "nothing special" in the Castro, it might return to being more of a neighborhood party. And by that time, I also hope that we will have people ready to address the issues around the event in a constructive manner, rather than making it another example of the poison politics that dominates our city's cultural landscape.
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