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Support DIY Publishing at SF Zine Fest This Weekend

Andrew Dalton - Aggressive Panhandler — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 22:00:14 +0000

Love at first Xerox

Hey, would you look at that? Print media’s not dead, it’s just gone small-scale. If things like Indie Mart and Etsy can renew the public’s interest in lovingly-crafted stuffed animals and recycled jewelry, why can’t someone do the same for all those things we’d rather read on paper than on a computer screen?

This year marks SF Zinefest’s 9th year celebrating litmags, fanzines, comics and anything else that deserves to be put down on a piece of paper and xeroxed. Think about that: 9 years is longer than some magazines have managed to last. So whether you’re looking to start the next Broke-Ass publishing house or you just like to treat your reading material like some people treat rare records, then perusing the aisles this weekend at the SF County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park seems like a good way to spend an afternoon.

SF Zine Fest
Saturday & Sunday, September 4-5
11am – 6pm
SF County Fair Building (formerly Hall of Flowers)
9th Ave at Lincoln Way [Golden Gate Park]
More info at SFZineFest.com

A Broke-Ass Guide to Ball Parks

Alison Lambert - Half Price Headliner — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:30:41 +0000

Last night I scored big and got to go to the SF Giants vs. Colorado Rockies game, play with an awesome Flip Camera, and do my best not to spend a lot of money. Basically what I do every night, except with more baseball and cameras.

To make the most of a fun time, I made a little video highlight reel of my favorite moments and money saving tips. I also threw in some shots of me going down a slide and ringing a bell. You know, classic movie making stuff. Enjoy!

Photo from: pictures.funnyjunksite.com

M Noodle Shop: It’s Everywhere You Want To Be

Anna G - Caliburg Contributor — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:00:53 +0000

Take note, coffee shops and late night food spots of Williamsburg! M Noodle Shop has got it all. M Noodle Bar is an offshoot of Williamsburg mainstay M Shanghai Bistro, but much more casual- both in the type of food served and the environment in general, with amazing hours and a great vibe. Food-wise, they pretty much stick to noodles (obvs), soups, and snacks, which are all within the $6 o $8 range. I’m partial to the sesame pancake with vegetables.

First thing’s first, though- you don’t even know what an enormous relief it is to find a such a conveniently located (right by the Lorimer L stop) casual spot that’s not crowded during the day with free wifi, ever since there’s been a mysterious and seemingly interminable problem with my internet at home. They totally don’t hassle you, and the seating arrangement, which is essentially one long bar with stools encircling the perimeter of the space, plus one bar facing the open kitchen, is perfect if you’re only one or two people.

Second, their hours are absolutely perfect, almost as though they had freelancers in mind- Monday through Saturday from 12pm to 6am, and Sundays 12pm to 2am. Perfect for finishing up some last-minute work and/or grabbing a late night snack or even a drink! Dudes, the Tsingtao and Budweiser are only $3!

Even if you’re not unemployed/freelancing/working weird-ass hours, you should definitely stop by to try their tasty treats. Otherwise, they totally have delivery. Zang! (Sorry, I realize that’s a terrible reference to Cantonese by way of Wayne’s World, but it’s ALL I’VE GOT).

M Noodle Shop
549 Metropolitan Ave
Between Lorimer & Union Ave [Williamsburg]

Cruise Down Mission with Why I Ride: Low and Slow

Stephen Torres - Threadbare-Fact Finder — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:58:15 +0000

From the plate glass windows and penny arcades to the small plate restaurants and stylish swill holes, Mission Street changes her gown to accommodate her guests as often as the seasons change elsewhere.

Somewhere in between the women in the picture hats and the latest bumper crop of flannel and hair, there was a time when the action centered on chrome, gasoline, high-gloss paint, impeccable coiffure and pride.

The weekend ritual of cruising Mission Street, is documented in Why I Ride: Low and Slow, presented by the Conscious Youth Media Crew, Debra Koffler, and Vero Majano this Friday at the Koret Auditorium at the De Young as part of the Mission Muralismo Series.

It will profile lowriding in the Mission as a weekly ritual where you got to show off your ride and see old friends as well as being a form of solidarity even in the face of law enforcement and mainstream stigmatization.

Reflect again in the glow of headlights and the neon theatre marquees.

Why I Ride: Low and Slow
World Premiere
Friday, September 3, 2010
6:30 p.m.- 9:00 p.m.
Koret Auditorium
De Young Fine Art Museum
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive
[Golden Gate Park]
FREE

Weekly Drink Me Recipe: Summertime Rolls

Broke-Ass Stuart - Editor In Cheap — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:46:34 +0000

We here at BAS Headquarters are always thinking of new awesome things to bring to you, our dear (and depraved) readers. So with this in mind we’ve teamed up with the fine folks over at Drink Me Magazine to bring you a new drink recipe every Thursday. That way you can make yourself a little special sumptin-sumptin to aid you in your weekend wickedness.

This week’s recipe, brought to you by the esteemed Patrick Poelvoorde, is Summertime Rolls. Take it away Patrick!

The Weekly Drink Me Recipe: Summertime Rolls

By Patrick Poelvoorde

I was asked to make a drink for a friend’s wedding recently and came up with this little ditty that I’m sure spiced up the usual open-bar pours (I’m looking at you, lame-ass vodka tonic). Like a union of two, this week’s cocktail utilizes two ingredients that marry fantastically well: juniper and thyme. The dominant flavor here is honey infused with fresh thyme, which is great to keep on hand at all times as it is also tasty with cheese or bruschetta. Infused honey is an amazingly simple and relatively cheap component for many drink recipes. It also has a long shelf life, being that honey is a natural preservative. In this cocktail, I chose to use Bombay Sapphire gin for its smooth blend of citrus and juniper and balance of spice and nuttiness (not to mention, it won’t force you to sell plasma to afford it). But as Lil’ Wayne so existentially put it, “It’s my cup,” so if you want to use a different gin, rock on with your bad self.

Summertime Rolls $ 3.25/drink

750 ml Bombay Sapphire Gin $21
2 lt club soda $2
1 lb raw honey $ 10
1 bunch thyme $2
15 fresh limes $4

Let’s start by making the honey syrup:

Step 1- Empty contents of the jar/bottle/can of honey into a non-reactive pan (ie. not copper or aluminum). Set the heat to medium, stirring the honey occasionally until it starts to bubble.

Step 2- Allow honey to caramelize for about 5 minutes and then remove from heat.

Step 3- Add ½ bunch of thyme to honey and reserve the other ½ for garnish. Let the honey cool for about 20 minutes to allow the thyme to steep.

Step 4- Whisk in ¾ cup of water to dilute.

Step 5- Stain into clean jar or squeeze bottle and set aside to cool to room temperature.

After honey has cooled, combine in clean shaker 60 ml of gin, 45 ml of thyme-honey syrup and 45 ml of lime juice. Shake vigorously for 20 seconds and strain into Collins glass filled with fresh ice. Top with club soda and insert a thyme sprig between the glass and ice to garnish. The amounts shown will make about 12 cocktails.

*To answer the question once and for all, the name comes from a Jane’s Addiction song and is not a reference to chubby girls in bikinis.

FreeWilly First Thursdays Kicks off Tonight at CoCo66

Jill Strominger - Budget Baller — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:00:35 +0000

One unassuming day in May, a good friend sent me an album with the note “Hey, I think you’ll like this.” According to Last.fm, it now is ranked my #1 most played album. This album, my friends, is Beach Fossils’ s/t album and tonight you can hear what their favorite songs are when they DJ at the very first Free Williamsburg FreeWilly First Thursday at CoCo66.

The night will also feature performances from Apache Beat, Blood Orange (aka Dev from Lightspeed Champion, aka that dude with the coolest hair I’ve seen in recent times), and We Are All Romans, as well as DJ sets from Ilijrana and DJ Whitney Fierce in addition to Beach Fossils.

Oh, and there will be an OPEN BAR from 7PM until the booze runs out. Yep.. we’ll see you there!

Free Williamsburg’s FreeWilly First Thursday
at CoCo66
66 Greenpoint Ave [Greenpoint]

Photo Credit: Warner Brothers

Game Night Blows Up, Tomorrow Night At California Academy of Sciences

Andrew Dalton - Aggressive Panhandler — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:36:15 +0000

Vintage Nintendo in a rainforest?

We love Nightlife at the California Academy of Sciences. Not only are the tickets half the price of regular museum admission (only $12!), but it’s 21+ so there are never any snot-nosed kids kicking the back of your chair in the planetarium (which boasts the most accurate rendering of the universe ever created). Every week, on top of the usual exhibits they also bring in additional shows, exhibitors or DJs to keep things from feeling too museum-like, and this week they’re bringing the game night experts from homefrys so you can make some new friends over a couple of rounds of Jenga, Catchphrase and everyone’s favorite: Apples to Apples.

MORE IMPORTANTLY: They’ll be bringing along Wii sports and Old School Nintendo, hopefully on some sort of unnecessarily large screen, so you can relive that childhood you wasted in your friend’s basement pounding the PowerPad in Track & Field. Although, you might not want to let the penguins see you playing Duck Hunt, that just seems cruel.

And don’t forget, if you’re birthday is within 7 days of any Nightlife event, you can get FREE admission.

Homefrys game night at Nightlife
California Academy of Sciences
Thursday, September 2nd, 6pm – 10pm
55 Music Concourse Dr. [Golden Gate Park]
Tickets are $12 ($10 for members) or
FREE Admission within 7 days of your birthday and valid ID.

More info at calacademy.org
homefrys

$5 Pizza Margherita at Totale Pizza

Kiley E - Ragamuffin Researcher — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:00:53 +0000

If you’re trying to get the most square inches of pizza per dollar possible, Totino’s Party Pizzas are probably your best bet. But if you’re looking for pizza made with real cheese (and doesn’t taste like cardboard), you should head down to St. Marks Place. Totale Pizza just opened up, and they’re so new they don’t have an official Web site. While they’re sticking to about six flavors of brick oven pizzas for now, they’ve got one special that can’t be beaten. Their 12″ pizza margherita is only $5. That’s a pizza with the diameter of your tiny MacBook, made with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil, for less than you’d pay for a six pack of watery, domestic beer. No word on how long the price will stay, so get it while they gettin’s good.

Photo from nymag.com

$5 Pizza Margherita at Totale’s
36 St. Marks Place at Second Ave. [East Village, Manhattan]

Get Smarter, Stupid! 8 Free Podcasts

Ashley Friedman - Cornerstore Correspondent — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:00:21 +0000

A rare, signed, first edition copy of Chinua Achebe's post-colonial masterpiece "Things Fall Apart" drew excited shouts from the children.

I read a study last week that said that as far as our problem-solving ability and general mental plasticity, our brains finish the major parts of their development by the time we hit 25. That scared me a lot because I engaged in the willful murder of many of my brains with almost religious zeal between the ages of 20 and 25. Happily though, the article went on to say that the brain does retain the ability to absorb new information, adapt and change itself even after the sea of chemical obliteration that characterizes many of our early 20s.

Still, I was scared straight about the gradual process of dumbening that is most certainly already taking place in my head. I then began a my very own self-directed but no less rigorous, adult education program. I started by reading the New Yorkers that have been gathering dust by my bed all summer, went to a bunch of museums, ate a whole lot of salmon and tried to get more sleep . I’ve also been listening to podcasts like, a lot.

I used to only listen to music on my iPod, but once I saw how much awesome shit was out there in the podcast-o-sphere I was hooked. Not only can you enjoy the refined comfort of a fireside chat with Noam Chomsky as your hurtle over the Manhattan bridge, podcasts are a pretty good exercise in attention-directing too. Unlike music, which often facilitates daydreaming, podcasts demand you to pay attention to the whole thing. This is still hard for me, but I’m working on it.

1. Learn French by Podcast

My goal is fluency. I had a pretty good foundation thanks to middle school and high school French but I’m still not fluent. Considering the dizzying amount of money invested in my education, I think it’d be nice to speak a language beside English. The adorable Hugh Nagle (who pronounces “aitch” like “haitch”!!!) and his co-host Amelie Verdier, take you through a series of lessons that are surprisingly effective, refreshing verb rules, vocab and other little linguistic idiosyncrasies that years at the bong have erased.

2. Coffee Break Spanish

For those interested in learning a language that might actually prove to be partially useful beyond Opening Ceremony and the lobby of Film Forum. I can’t attest to its quality but the grassroots cultural think tank that is the iTunes review section seems to think it’s worth a listen.

3. Stuff You Missed in History Class

Want to pepper your dinner conversation with clever trivia about the infant king of Russia, the history of Vaudeville or the Levittown-like suburb that Henry Ford built for his workers in South America? Well then, you my friend, are what is known as An Asshole, and you will doubtlessly be mocked at any dinner party you’re lucky enough to be invited to.

As silly as useless information can be, a lot of the stuff on this podcast is legitimately interesting and they are short and sweet enough to listen to on a quickie subway ride.

4. Da Burghcast

So it’s not “academic”. So the hosts were never “offered admission to an accredited college.” So they “relentlessly taunt their homosexual intern on the air.” So what? Good fun! The Burghcast (named for Pitts- not Williams-) is actually a hilarious podcast by two NYC-based comedians/writers who impersonate Herb and Buxy, two conservative, obese-sounding Steelers fans. It’s done in the guise of a sports recap but touches on enough pop cultural stuff to be accessible to everyone. I regularly burst into loud laughter listening to this on the train.

5. MSNBC Rachel Maddow

I only listen to the wiseass news, cuz otherwise it’s boring!!

6. TED Talks

Duh. All of ‘em, mostly.

7. The Monocle Weekly

Clever, designy and interesting features, interviews and more.

8. Philosophy Bites

Noted philosophers are interviewed on such light topics as morality, humanism and what the hell our lives mean. The LOLZ don’t stop.

Return of the Awesome Divis Art Walk Thursday Night!

Christy Jovanelly - Cheapskate Commentator — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:27:38 +0000

See these guys, The California Honeydrops, at The Page on Divis from 6pm - 8pm!

Yes, neighbors, it’s time for the fall edition of the Divis Art Walk — and I’m not going to be there. I wish I was, though, because the last art walk here was described to me as “crazy, fratty drunkenness taking over the sidewalks,” and that’s definitely my kind of art walk. And this one has a couple new things in the works that make it sound extra fun (dammit).

First, Orange is offering free bang trims. I’m sorry, but as a girl, that’s pretty exciting. And guys, don’t be scurred — you know you have “bangs,” that hair that falls across your forehead, and you know it needs a trim. Tonight’s the night. Also, for those of you who were supposed to meet me at the last art walk but couldn’t find parking, Touchless Carwash is offering FREE parking (and 20% off all the items in their gift shop, which the folks at Haighteration say is AWESOME).

Also, if you haven’t gotten your cheap live music fix in the last couple weeks, first of all, shame on you, because there’s been ample opportunity. Secondly, go ahead and make it up to me and yourself tonight by seeing the California Honeydrops at The Page from 6pm-8pm while enjoying $3 pints of Sierra Nevada. As usual, there’s amazing food and drink deals at some of your favorite spots, like half off on on all classic sushi rolls & hand rolls at Tsunami from 5:30pm – 7pm and $2 beer at Cafe Abir.

There’s also gonna be a lot of art around. I guess that makes sense. One thing you should make sure to check out before you get too tipsy on Blue Jay Cafe’s $2 sangria is Workshop’s Kelly Malone’s art show at Matching Half on McAllister and Baker.

For the full list of awesomeness, head to the Divis Art Walk’s website. I hear there’s going to be lots of street food in the mix…!

Divisadero Art Walk

Thursday, September 2, 5pm – 9pm

Divisadero Corridor from Geary to Haight

FREE

Photo via bluesmagazine.nl