Head First: On "dysfunction," freaking out, and my huge, THC-fueled orgasms

September 18, 2014, 6:13 pm

≫ Next: Dave Chappelle kept me up until 5am this morning and I'm still trying to process what just happened

≪ Previous: The intern behind an epic blunder: Docs illuminate Asiana fake pilots’ names debacle

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I have very little experience with marijuana — mostly because I’m from a small, East Coast town where such a substance is referred to as “the Devil’s lettuce.”  So when Mathew Gerson, founder and inventor of the THC lube, Foria, offered me the opportunity to test out his new product, I was intrigued. 

Foria is supposed to enhance female sexual pleasure. I’ve personally never had issues with orgasms (I can hump a chair and come), but I was interested to see how some oil could make them feel even better. So I decided to try it.Read more »

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Dave Chappelle kept me up until 5am this morning and I'm still trying to process what just happened

September 18, 2014, 6:25 pm

≫ Next: Questions of the week: Who is the walrus? And who is Liam Neeson gonna take down next? New movies!

≪ Previous: Head First: On "dysfunction," freaking out, and my huge, THC-fueled orgasms

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This is Dave Chappelle on a night that was not last night, because I followed the rules and did not take photos.

The first time I saw Dave Chappelle perform live was 10 years and three months ago, in a large, echo-y gymnasium at UC San Diego. It was my 20th birthday and I was soexcited. 

This was June of 2004, and the comedian was at the absolute peak of his Chappelle's Show fame, which meant he suddenly found himself performing for sports arenas full of college kids who had neither the patience nor the decorum (nor the sobriety) to actually sit and listen to a standup comic performing material, choosing instead to holler "I'M RICK JAMES, BITCH!" or "WHAT!" and "YEAH!" in Lil Jon voices at random — in reference, of course, to their favorite Chappelle's Show impressions. Read more »

Questions of the week: Who is the walrus? And who is Liam Neeson gonna take down next? New movies!

September 19, 2014, 11:23 am

≫ Next: Lawsuit alleges Lee campaign accepted illegal donations from undercover agent

≪ Previous: Dave Chappelle kept me up until 5am this morning and I'm still trying to process what just happened

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The SF Silent Film Festival's "Silent Autumn" includes a restored version of 1920's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SF SILENT FILM FESTIVAL

If Jesse Hawthorne Ficks' ongoing Pixel Vision posts about the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival have you longing for your own festival experience, check out the San Francisco Silent Film Festival's one-day "Silent Autumn" series at the Castro Theatre, as well as Cine+Mas'San Francisco Latino Film Festival, which opens tonight at the Brava Theater and runs through Sept. 27 at various venues.

First-run picks o' the week include Liam Neeson's latest lone-wolf action movie, an ensemble movie starring Tina Fey and Jason Bateman, and Kevin Smith's new joint, in which Justin Long turns into a walrus. Yep, you read that right. Read on for reviews and trailers!

Read more »

Lawsuit alleges Lee campaign accepted illegal donations from undercover agent

September 19, 2014, 12:36 pm

≫ Next: TIFF 2014: Foreign favorites, part one

≪ Previous: Questions of the week: Who is the walrus? And who is Liam Neeson gonna take down next? New movies!

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By Max Cherney

Mayor Ed Lee has been named in a civil lawsuit that alleges he conspired to accept bribes in the form of illegal campaign contributions from an undercover FBI agent involved in the far-reaching federal corruption and racketeering probe into State Sen. Leland Yee, Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, and 26 other defendants. The lawsuit is being leveled by an attorney working on Shrimp Boy’s behalf.Read more »

TIFF 2014: Foreign favorites, part one

September 19, 2014, 2:13 pm

≫ Next: Double Duchess is back, and this time they've brought Kelly Osbourne

≪ Previous: Lawsuit alleges Lee campaign accepted illegal donations from undercover agent

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Timothy Spall in Mr. Turner

Photo courtesy of TIFF

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks reports from the recent 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. Previous installment here!

** Working steadily for over 40 years, achieving more than 20 features, Mike Leigh has stayed true to his "kitchen sink realism" aesthetic. Contemporary audiences could all too easily take him for granted. His latest, Mr. Turner (UK), is a rigorous and immensely rewarding journey that explores the life of British artist J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851). 

Spall won the award for Best Actor at this year's Cannes Film Festival, not just for emulating Turner's cartoonish and almost frightening physique, but also inhabiting and truly expressing the ghastly terror one struggles with after the death of a loved one. Recalling Jane Campion's dazzling An Angel at My Table (1990), Leigh's film places emphasis on the immense difficulties that an artists put themselves — and the others around them — through, and cinematographer Dick Pope (who has shot ten of Leigh's films since 1990, and won a special jury award at Cannes for his work on Mr. Turner) gives every frame an almost spiritual look. 

Read more »

Double Duchess is back, and this time they've brought Kelly Osbourne

September 19, 2014, 5:35 pm

≫ Next: VOTE NOW! BEST OF THE BAY 2014 READERS POLL IS HERE

≪ Previous: TIFF 2014: Foreign favorites, part one

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Double Duchess say "Happy Friday, kiddos."

PHOTO BY SHOT IN THE CITY PHOTOGRAPHY

Is the drab Friday weather outside getting you down as you gear up for a weekend full of leather- and whip-filled debauchery?

Never fear! You just need a dose of Double Duchess, the Bay's favorite queer electro duo, who invited Kelly Osbourne to do a Jem and the Holograms-style bit in this video for "Good Girl Freak Out," which also features LA's Future People.Read more »

VOTE NOW! BEST OF THE BAY 2014 READERS POLL IS HERE

August 26, 2014, 12:43 pm

≫ Next: Indian Joe suffers a tragic injury, keeps his sense of humor

≪ Previous: Double Duchess is back, and this time they've brought Kelly Osbourne

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Our 40th annual Best of the Bay issue is coming Oct. 15! This year's theme is Dia de los Muertos, in celebration of true Bay Area spirit.

Read more »

Indian Joe suffers a tragic injury, keeps his sense of humor

September 17, 2014, 1:41 pm

≫ Next: Airbnb says it will collect and pay local taxes in SF. Really.

≪ Previous: VOTE NOW! BEST OF THE BAY 2014 READERS POLL IS HERE

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We spotted Indian Joe, an iconic San Francisco character who’s famous for emulating the look of rock legend Alice Cooper, on the sidewalk outside the Bay Guardian office Monday morning. Donning his signature top hat, he beamed and said hello. But something was wrong.

Joe was sitting in a wheelchair, and the lower half of his right leg was gone.Read more »

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Airbnb says it will collect and pay local taxes in SF. Really.

September 17, 2014, 4:43 pm

≫ Next: Facebook talks delayed, drag queens plan to sass social media into the 21st century

≪ Previous: Indian Joe suffers a tragic injury, keeps his sense of humor

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In the wake of this week’s contentious hearing on legislation to legalize and regulate short-term housing rentals in San Francisco, where Airbnb was chastised for snubbing the city on collecting and paying local taxes, the company today sent an email to its hosts announcing that it would begin doing so Oct. 1.Read more »

Facebook talks delayed, drag queens plan to sass social media into the 21st century

September 17, 2014, 5:32 pm

≫ Next: Hockey! Drums! Pianos! And TRASHY MOVIES! Passions ruled TIFF 2014

≪ Previous: Airbnb says it will collect and pay local taxes in SF. Really.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF HEKLINA

A cadre of drag queens, LGBT rights supporters and politicos trekked in their glamorous best to Facebook HQ today, to negotiate the reinstatement of Facebook profiles for those who don't use their legal or birth names. 

What'd they get? Bupkiss, zip, zero, nada, nothing – for now. But in a twist of Harvey Milk's famous recant, perhaps they were given hope. Read more »

Hockey! Drums! Pianos! And TRASHY MOVIES! Passions ruled TIFF 2014

September 17, 2014, 5:55 pm

≫ Next: Folsom Special: Guerrilla Queer Bar returns as leather "Pop-Up"

≪ Previous: Facebook talks delayed, drag queens plan to sass social media into the 21st century

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Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films

Photo courtesy of TIFF

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks reports from an epic Toronto International Film Festival. Read his first installment here.

Despite notable entries like George Roy Hill's defining Slap Shot (1977) and Michael Dowse's remarkable Goon (2011), hockey films have always been a little more overlooked in the US than they should be. Gabe Polsky's blood-pumping Red Army (US/Russia) is begging to be adapted into a rip-roaring narrative, à la Catherine Hardwick's Lords of Dogtown (2005) take on Stacy Peralta's skateboarding doc Dogtown & Z-Boys (2001).

Read more »

Folsom Special: Guerrilla Queer Bar returns as leather "Pop-Up"

September 18, 2014, 11:52 am

≫ Next: Folsom Special: Zbörnak wants to rock your "Dikpix"

≪ Previous: Hockey! Drums! Pianos! And TRASHY MOVIES! Passions ruled TIFF 2014

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Guerilla days: GQB takes over the Marina in 2000.

Picture it: the Marina, 2000, a club called Trap Door playing goofy throwback hip-hop, shirty dudes and "woo" girls playing the heter-mating game with hetero-abando.

In strut a gaggle of rough and ready queers, me included, part of Guerrilla Queer Bar, to shake things up and sprinkle a little unicorn rainbow dust (and wig hair) on the proceedings. Web 1.0 was in full effect, queers were losing their spaces, and so we wanted to "take it back" by invading "straight" neighborhoods and wreaking a little lavender havoc -- you know, to even things out and have fun. It was kind of the original flashmob, spread only by the limited social media of the time (i.e. email listservs). 

Read more »

Folsom Special: Zbörnak wants to rock your "Dikpix"

September 18, 2014, 1:08 pm

≫ Next: TIFF 2014: Joshua Oppenheimer's 'The Look of Silence'

≪ Previous: Folsom Special: Guerrilla Queer Bar returns as leather "Pop-Up"

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"Expect glitter, expect Twitter (don't expect Twitter), expect foul language and talking about dicks, expect body dysmorphia, but like in the opposite direction. The greatest expectation, however, should be all-killer-no-filler face-melting community building," says Greg Der Ananian, lead singer of energetic homo-punk band Zbörnak, of the group's two appearances this week.

Opening Sat/20 for !!! and Jello Biafra in the SF Eagle's outdoor lot (5pm, $20, 12th Street and Harrison, SF; www.sf-eagle.com), and kicking things off 11am, Sun/21 on main stage of Folsom Street Fair (10th Street and Howard, SF; www.folsomstreetfair.com), the fearsome foursome will surely launch into recent, too-catchy hit "Dikpix" while letting the Golden Girls references fly.

I talked to the lively Der Ananian about Zbörnak's deal.

Read more »

TIFF 2014: Joshua Oppenheimer's 'The Look of Silence'

September 18, 2014, 1:24 pm

≫ Next: The intern behind an epic blunder: Docs illuminate Asiana fake pilots’ names debacle

≪ Previous: Folsom Special: Zbörnak wants to rock your "Dikpix"

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The Look of Silence

PHOTO COURTESY OF TIFF

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks reports from the recent 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. Previous installment here!

News broke earlier this week that Joshua Oppenheimer — the Texas-born, Copenhagen-based filmmaker who scored an Oscar nomination for 2012's harrowing The Act of Killing— received a MacArthur "Genius Grant." Not a bad follow-up to the Toronto screening of his latest Indonesia-set doc, The Look of Silence (Denmark/Indonesia/Norway/Finland/UK), which is both a direct sequel to Killing and a complete stand-alone work. Either way, it's one of the most powerful documentaries I have ever experienced. (It's due in theaters in summer 2015.)

Read more »

The intern behind an epic blunder: Docs illuminate Asiana fake pilots’ names debacle

September 18, 2014, 2:19 pm

≫ Next: Head First: On "dysfunction," freaking out, and my huge, THC-fueled orgasms

≪ Previous: TIFF 2014: Joshua Oppenheimer's 'The Look of Silence'

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The embarrassing KTVU news segment became an instant YouTube hit.

Remember when a July 2013 KTVU-TV news broadcast went viral and caused jaws to drop because the anchorwoman read out fake, offensive pilots’ names in the wake of the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash?Read more »

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Head First: On "dysfunction," freaking out, and my huge, THC-fueled orgasms

September 18, 2014, 6:13 pm

≫ Next: Dave Chappelle kept me up until 5am this morning and I'm still trying to process what just happened

≪ Previous: The intern behind an epic blunder: Docs illuminate Asiana fake pilots’ names debacle

$

0

0

I have very little experience with marijuana — mostly because I’m from a small, East Coast town where such a substance is referred to as “the Devil’s lettuce.”  So when Mathew Gerson, founder and inventor of the THC lube, Foria, offered me the opportunity to test out his new product, I was intrigued. 

Foria is supposed to enhance female sexual pleasure. I’ve personally never had issues with orgasms (I can hump a chair and come), but I was interested to see how some oil could make them feel even better. So I decided to try it.Read more »

Dave Chappelle kept me up until 5am this morning and I'm still trying to process what just happened

September 18, 2014, 6:25 pm

≫ Next: Questions of the week: Who is the walrus? And who is Liam Neeson gonna take down next? New movies!

≪ Previous: Head First: On "dysfunction," freaking out, and my huge, THC-fueled orgasms

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0

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This is Dave Chappelle on a night that was not last night, because I followed the rules and did not take photos.

The first time I saw Dave Chappelle perform live was 10 years and three months ago, in a large, echo-y gymnasium at UC San Diego. It was my 20th birthday and I was soexcited. 

This was June of 2004, and the comedian was at the absolute peak of his Chappelle's Show fame, which meant he suddenly found himself performing for sports arenas full of college kids who had neither the patience nor the decorum (nor the sobriety) to actually sit and listen to a standup comic performing material, choosing instead to holler "I'M RICK JAMES, BITCH!" or "WHAT!" and "YEAH!" in Lil Jon voices at random — in reference, of course, to their favorite Chappelle's Show impressions. Read more »

Questions of the week: Who is the walrus? And who is Liam Neeson gonna take down next? New movies!

September 19, 2014, 11:23 am

≫ Next: Lawsuit alleges Lee campaign accepted illegal donations from undercover agent

≪ Previous: Dave Chappelle kept me up until 5am this morning and I'm still trying to process what just happened

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0

The SF Silent Film Festival's "Silent Autumn" includes a restored version of 1920's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SF SILENT FILM FESTIVAL

If Jesse Hawthorne Ficks' ongoing Pixel Vision posts about the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival have you longing for your own festival experience, check out the San Francisco Silent Film Festival's one-day "Silent Autumn" series at the Castro Theatre, as well as Cine+Mas'San Francisco Latino Film Festival, which opens tonight at the Brava Theater and runs through Sept. 27 at various venues.

First-run picks o' the week include Liam Neeson's latest lone-wolf action movie, an ensemble movie starring Tina Fey and Jason Bateman, and Kevin Smith's new joint, in which Justin Long turns into a walrus. Yep, you read that right. Read on for reviews and trailers!

Read more »

Lawsuit alleges Lee campaign accepted illegal donations from undercover agent

September 19, 2014, 12:36 pm

≫ Next: TIFF 2014: Foreign favorites, part one

≪ Previous: Questions of the week: Who is the walrus? And who is Liam Neeson gonna take down next? New movies!

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By Max Cherney

Mayor Ed Lee has been named in a civil lawsuit that alleges he conspired to accept bribes in the form of illegal campaign contributions from an undercover FBI agent involved in the far-reaching federal corruption and racketeering probe into State Sen. Leland Yee, Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, and 26 other defendants. The lawsuit is being leveled by an attorney working on Shrimp Boy’s behalf.Read more »

TIFF 2014: Foreign favorites, part one

September 19, 2014, 2:13 pm

≫ Next: Double Duchess is back, and this time they've brought Kelly Osbourne

≪ Previous: Lawsuit alleges Lee campaign accepted illegal donations from undercover agent

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Timothy Spall in Mr. Turner

Photo courtesy of TIFF

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks reports from the recent 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. Previous installment here!

** Working steadily for over 40 years, achieving more than 20 features, Mike Leigh has stayed true to his "kitchen sink realism" aesthetic. Contemporary audiences could all too easily take him for granted. His latest, Mr. Turner (UK), is a rigorous and immensely rewarding journey that explores the life of British artist J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851). 

Spall won the award for Best Actor at this year's Cannes Film Festival, not just for emulating Turner's cartoonish and almost frightening physique, but also inhabiting and truly expressing the ghastly terror one struggles with after the death of a loved one. Recalling Jane Campion's dazzling An Angel at My Table (1990), Leigh's film places emphasis on the immense difficulties that an artists put themselves — and the others around them — through, and cinematographer Dick Pope (who has shot ten of Leigh's films since 1990, and won a special jury award at Cannes for his work on Mr. Turner) gives every frame an almost spiritual look. 

Read more »