 I've been waiting for this day for nearly three months ...
At least, it's time to hang up the cleats on Season 6. What better way to do that than with free food and music (you gotta buy your own drinks, you animal!) at one of my new favorite places in The City—Madrone Art Bar. Madrone and its owner, Spike, are of course the subject of the final episode of the season. Sheer coincidence, I swear (heh). Spike and I recorded back in May, which seems like approximately 17 years ago at this point. But I knew that the season would be ending in August, so I saved his podcast for now so that we could get together and celebrate all the things we love—food, music, drinks, cool places, and, last but not least, EACH OTHER! Brenda's Meat and Three will be on hand serving food out in the parklet. Get there early to be sure to get you some. Did I mention that it's free? Be sure to tip your server, though. And Aaron Hammerman of the Deep Basement Shakers will be on hand to provide the music—New Orleans-style ragtime, to be specific. That's also free of charge, but throw Aaron some bucks if you can. It's hard out there for artists. When I look back on this past season, I have so many fond memories. It's another kick-ass collection of things that make San Francisco so special. Things that fly in the face of the ever-fading "doom loop" (thank GOD). Things that make this place home. I hope you'll join me and several past guests of the podcast tonight. Come say hi to me and to them. Mingle. Let's all enjoy ourselves, yeah? Yeah! Storied: San Francisco Happy Hour Madrone Art Bar 500 Divisadero at Fell Wednesday, August 21, 2024 6–9 p.m. Food by Brenda's Meat and Three Music by Aaron Hammerman
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 Photo by Kodak Views
While everyone is wallowing in and obsessed with the presidential election and the bleakness that surrounds it, I want to turn our attention closer to home. We're voting for: mayor, district attorney, roughly half of the board of supervisors, and a whole host of ballot measures in four months' time, and shit is getting real. Last week, I joined Ange of Bitch Talk Podcast at The Battery (Bitch Talk are artists-in-residency there and I get in as a guest) for an evening of Q&A with mayoral candidate Aaron Peskin. Not sure whether I've shared this little anecdote in this space, but here goes: When I moved to San Francisco in 2000, I lived at California and Hyde, and the California Street cable car ran outside my window. I only rode it once or twice for novelty's sake. But I recall one day that fall seeing someone on the cable car campaigning for a seat on the Board of Supervisors. Nevermind that I had no idea who it was or even, at the time, what a board of supervisors was. The City was brand-spankin' new to me, and there was a romantic aspect of seeing someone in a crowded, dense city out there shaking hands, talking to people, asking for votes. Fast-forward to this spring, when Peskin threw his hat in a very crowded ring and announced his run for mayor. Right away, he became my candidate, for the very simple reason that his vision for San Francisco aligns most closely with my own. So Ange and I show up last week to a remarkably less-crowded-than-it-was-for-Daniel Lurie room at The Battery just looking to learn more. Moderator Heather Smith (Mission Local) started things off with the candidate rather typically (and I don't mean that disparagingly), with a brief introduction and some "soft" questions. Then she threw it to the audience pretty quickly, and things devolved in no time. People spouted talking-point attacks, most of which made no sense whatsoever, at Peskin. He maintained composure and did his best to parse the nonsense and actually, you know, answer questions ... if indeed there was a question buried somewhere in these rapid-fire screeds. It became apparent very quickly that these Battery members had shown up on a Tuesday during a holiday week not to listen or even truly engage with a candidate they might not know much about. No, they were there to give this scapegoat a piece of their very, very rich, land- and property-owning minds. There aren't enough gold-laced tissues in the world for these folks. I am posting this here and including it in my July newsletter because I came away from the event with the feeling that this was somehow all planned. I have no way to prove it (I'm not a journalist, y'all), but with some reflection, it really seems as though a coordinated effort was made. Some well-funded group or another (we have no shortage of them here in SF/the Bay Area) could've easily reached out to its constituency to ask any of them who also happen to be Battery members to attend and attack. I suppose the goal would simply be to dissuade others from voting for the sole progressive in the mayor's race. Conspiracy or not, the whole thing ended up being the opposite of what I'm looking for: True, honest, respectful engagement in local politics. I can only hope that things get a little more civil as we make our way to the ballots this November. San Francisco deserves better.  Photo by Angela Tabora
How are you? Are you, like me, a little exhausted by all of the everything that happened in June (and really didn't let up with last week's holiday)? I mean, I was just going to stuff, attending, not performing or organizing or producing anything other than a handful of kick-ass podcast episodes. Mad respect and admiration to those who were opening businesses, putting on film festivals, emceeing and performing in Black drag shows, organizing truly amazing, community-minded neighborhood outdoor film festivals, lighting the blades of historic theaters in world-renowned gay neighborhoods ... the list does literally go on and on. I'm a cis, straight white man. I made up my mind to go in hard on this year's Pride Month for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is the continued demonization and stripping away of the rights of my LGBTQIA+ neighbors and folks around the world, including here in what's left of the USA. I chose to use this platform, this community we've been building over the last seven years, to formally and publicly and loudly proclaim Storied an ally of this marginalized segment of the human population. Not with a fight, goddammit! Looking back on June/Pride, some of my favorite moments were at Frameline48 movies and events, North Beach Festival, and celebrating the full re-opening of the oldest known LGBTQIA+ bar in The City: The Stud. Check out our Episodes page for some of that. An amazing thing happened over Pride weekend as we headed back to San Francisco over the Bay Bridge after a heartwarming visit with some dear friends in the Oakland Hills. I had been seeing photos of the Illuminate the Arts rainbow laser beams shining from the Ferry Building all the way up to Twin Peaks, but hadn't yet witnessed the spectacle with my own eyes. After spotting SF drag icon Peaches Christ atop Salesforce Tower, we saw them: LASERS!!! I experienced a sustained feeling of "DAMN, I LOVE THIS CITY" the rest of the ride home. Let's continue to celebrate and uplift all the beauty and incredible people we share this space with! Cross-posted from my guest blog on 81 Dates ... When I first met Justin, we sat down at Red’s Java House and I asked him (in more elegant terms than this) exactly what the fuck the deal was. My friend Myla had mentioned a friend of hers who has season tickets in the Arcade section at Oracle Park (that name will never not be strange to me) and likes to take a different date to every game. He then writes about the experience on his blog. He was also looking for new recruits to join him at the yard. Sign me up!, I said. But I wanted to meet the guy first. It was on that day that I learned that I would, indeed, be going to the Giants-Rangers game in August that would be the setting for the return of Bruce Bochy.   This is a cross-post with Justin's blog, 81 Dates.
Technically, this blog post kicks off Season 6. I hope there are no statisticians or hard-asses out there, because, though we did do a bit of recording up in Club Level at Oracle Park, it will be a minute before we actually kick off our next round of podcasts. Anyway, S1 guest of our show, Myla Ablog, introduced me to her friend, a dude who "has season tickets in the Arcade section and is known as the Mayor of Section 152." Myla also let me know that Justin, as he's otherwise known, likes to take a different person to every Giants home game, and that he writes about the experience afterward on a blog called "81 Dates." This post is a cross-post with Justin's blog, because we thought it only natural to include it here because it is, technically, part of the Storied: SF experience. Enjoy, and check out 81 Dates for some highly entertaining writing. Jeff is the kind of guy who remembers specific at-bats and what they meant to a game or a series or a season; as you may recall, I am the kind of guy who remembers that we probably won some games that year, if I remember what year it was. At one point we get involved in a conversation with a guy in the 415 – he’s a Cubs fan – who talks in very specific detail about some postseason games with Jeff, and my main contribution to the discussion is to have asked where he got that hat (he got it for having tickets in the 415). I can’t say I’m actually insecure about the difference in our knowledge bases, because I can fall back on knowing which two Yankee pitchers traded lives, including wives, children, and dogs in 1973 (Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich), which Jeff probably doesn’t. He is also the kind of guy who has a pregame ritual, which involves going into the Public House to get a beer before the game. I guess mine is trying to be in my seats in time to watch the guy who hoses down the field finish hosing down the field. Jeff seems to have his ducks in a row, with a wife who sounds like maybe a bigger Giants fan than both of us; he also tells of having been a pretty successful little Leaguer, until he got to the level where pitchers start to acquire real power but haven’t developed much control, which reminds me of my own baseball career and the time I got hit by a pitch, which was probably traveling about twenty miles an hour but was still very traumatic. I’ve been hit by a lot of things since then, but none of them left quite the same impression on my psyche – possibly because about two minutes after I got taken out, I told the coach I felt okay and was ready to go back in and was told that when you come out of a game, you’re out for good, which left me feeling both slightly bruised and kind of dumb. Later in the 415, Jeff declines the opportunity to stand right behind the bullpen catcher and watch the fastballs come in. We both have our emotional scars.  As we approach the end of Season 5 of Storied: SF, we're considering a few tweaks moving forward. We've already secured a nine-week art show at Mini Bar starting in August (for a little more info on that, check out our short bonus episode below). Sometime after that, in October or November, we'll bring the podcast back, but not necessarily on a weekly basis. That's because we want to do so much more ...
More art shows, music, food, poetry ... CULTURE. Live events. Getting out of your house and being with people. We're so lucky that it's safe to do so now, and part of what's gonna bring our city back is doing just that—getting out and appreciating the richness of this place. Hell, I'm even thinking about doing a zine! I want to ride this thing we've built and explore all the ways we can keep doing what we've set out to do from Day 1. Contra all the nonsense you see about San Francisco "dying" or "Doom Loop" stories, we instead want to focus on those of us still living our lives here and thriving in the face of what is definitely a funk. Check out our bonus episode from last week, where Jeff talks about some of this stuff.  CAAMFest is the coolest film festival you've maybe never heard of. I've been intimately aware of CAAMFest since about 2016 or so. Like a lot of events requiring humans to be together in close proximity, CAAM was forced into a hiatus during the early years of COVID. The fact that the 10-day festival is back is testament to both where we are in the pandemic and the enduring spirit of this four-decade-old slate of movies showcasing AAPI filmmakers, crewmembers, actors, and writers. If you're saying "wow" right now, welcome to the club. CAAMFest 2023 did everything but disappoint, at least as far as the events I was fortunate enough to attend. I joined Erin and Producer Char back in April at CAAM's launch party (side note: it was a total trip to be inside Victory Hall, the space formerly—and by "formerly," I mean at least 20 years ago—occupied by 330 Ritch and its "Pop Scene" weekly dance parties). At the launch party, I was immediately struck that night by the enthusiasm on display, mostly from CAAM Festival and Exhibitions Director Thúy Trần (get to know Thúy over on Bitch Talk Podcast) and Programs Associate Jess Ju. Thúy and Jess presented the list of 55+ film, music, and food events that comprised this year's CAAMFest, and I was hooked. Here's a list of movies I signed up for as soon as I could: Joy Ride Benkyodo: The Last Manju Shop in J-Town Jeanette Lee vs. Fanny: The Right to Rock  Photo by Wally Gobetz
This post was included in our monthly newsletter for May 2023. Please subscribe (scroll down a little on that page)! Hi there! How are you? I'm good. I've been good. Like, really good. Let me go back a little bit ... Starting around January this year, a spark ignited somewhere in my psyche. Looking back, I think it was caused by several factors. Playing right into it was an opportunity to see so many bands I discovered in the '90s, bands that truly changed my life. I also had the chance to reconnect with folks from my life whom I hadn't seen in 20 or 30 years, people I'd lived with back in my formative days. The temptation to revel in nostalgia was strong, and we definitely acted upon it. Dwelling in the past is as natural as anything else our brains do regularly. I found myself transported back to "simpler times," in both my life and the world around me. But almost as soon as I realized what was happening, a second trigger went off—"don't get caught up in the past, Jeff," it insisted. "Take inspiration from this and use it to shape your present and your future." Damn, whatever part of me is speaking to me, you're right! "What does this have to do with San Francisco?" you might ask. Good question! Like a lot of you, I've been thinking about what our city can be in this oh-so-obvious point of inflection. I've been here nearly 23 years, and my memories of the days of my arrival are almost all fond. I remember public art everywhere ... house parties ... art parties ... $3 burritos ... more fog in the avenues ... an upstart progressive campaign that almost unseated an heir apparent to the Mayor's Office ... the list goes on and on. Today, as I ponder what I want this city to be moving forward, I am tempted to think back to those simpler times, the early aughts. But it would be a grave mistake to stay there too long. Times change, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. All this to say that these are some of the louder internal conversations I've been having lately. And it relates to something we've got in store for y'all. Starting this August, after we've wrapped up Season 5 and got some much-needed rest and travel under our belts, we're hosting an art show at Mini Bar on Divisadero. We're still working on the exact name of the show, but the theme is: Rebirth. For me, thinking about San Francisco and rebirth means tapping into the better elements of the past and applying what we've learned to help shape our vision of the future. To me, a city that uplifts all its residents, that celebrates the arts and all the diverse cultures and histories it comprises, that's a city reborn for the better. We'll have many more details about our Mini Bar show over the coming weeks and months. But we wanna know from you: What do you imagine a renaissance in San Francisco to look like? That's it for now. Thanks as always for reading and looking forward to your answers.  Actors, crew, and directors of Home Is a Hotel. Photography by Jeff Hunt
I've lived in San Francisco for 23 years and seen movies at the SFFilm Festival many times. But I've never "covered" the festival as press. At Erin's urging, this year, I applied for press credentials ... and SFFilm obliged. Amazing! The schedule for this festival, which was celebrating its 66th year, was dizzying, to say the least. I leafed through and found a handful of films that fit the following criteria:
I ended up with access to the following movies, whether by at-home screener link or tickets to a theater:
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