World Series 2014 Celebration: Castro and 18th Streets

World Series 2014 Celebration: Castro and 18th Streets

From Darkness To Light

From Darkness To Light (Philip Orem) World Premiere

From this year's Pride Concert, the world premiere of Philip Orem's tribute to Nelson Mandela, "From Darkness To Light."

Pink Saturday 2014

SFLGFBand: Pink Saturday 2014

The band makes its annual appearance at Pink Saturday in the Castro.

Dance Along Nutcracker 2013: Dress Like a Pirate

Dance Along Nutcracker 2013: Dress Like a Pirate

Band and cast members offer some costume tips for this year's Dance-Along Nutcracker.

Talk Like a Pirate: Dance-Along 2013

Dance-Along Nutcracker2013: Talk Like a Pirate

Band and cast members offer some tips for Dance-Along preparation.

Ben Ottewell Private Show

Ben Ottewell: Red Dress


Ben Ottewell: Starlings

Ben Ottewell (of Gomez) has reached his goal in a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo as of this morning.

These two videos were shot three Fridays ago on October 25, 2013, in a friend's back yard on Haight Street at a private show that kicked off the Indiegogo campaign.  Both are songs that will be included on Ben's upcoming album, which will be titled, "Rattlebag."

I've seen other videos of "Red Dress" on YouTube, but I've not found any videos of "Starlings" as yet, so that's sort of an exclusive.  Until the next video comes out.

Camera by me and Chip.  Audio recorded by Benjamin Andrews and Chip.  Audio mixed by Chip.  Video edited by me.

Domestic Squabble on the F-Market

Late Night F-Market (NSFW) 

In an interview with Ian Port in December 2010 ("John Waters Explains His Love for S.F. Muni, the Roxie Theater, and Die Antwoord"), John Waters said this about Muni (and the F-Market streetcar in particular): 

"My favorite is to come home from Zuni's after two drinks at 11 o'clock at night and get on that beautiful streetcar -- well there's two -- the J is my favorite, it's like being in Amarcord to get on it. Then you turn around, and it's full, and every person is out of their mind -- but in a nice way. It's not scary. The drivers are insane. Everyone is insane and happy, or even if they're not happy, they seem -- it's like, ship of fools. It's really a great feeling to be on a streetcar filled with desire....
 
"The J is the one that I think is the most beautiful, that goes up in the hills, that winds its way around like an inch from people's houses. But what's the old streetcar that runs along market, is that the F?...

"I love that one, too. That's the one coming home from Zuni's. It's the ship of fools, my favorite."

In May 2010, I worked late one night at my office, which was on the edge of Fishermans Wharf.  When I got on the F-Market, the conversation in front of me started to escalate pretty quickly into a full-on screaming match, with expletives and name calling.  And I happened to have a Sony Bloggie in my pocket.

Notice how she can turn on a dime: "I DON"T HAVE YOUR PHONE!  If I did, I would give it back to you.  BUT YOU LOST IT!"

The thing that you don't see here is what happened right after (because that would have required me to follow them, and I thought that would look a bit stalker-ish).  Herman moved up to the front of the car and sat behind the driver.  She did not hesitate to follow him up front and sit directly beside him -- not across the aisle, but right beside him.  And their demeanor changed entirely.  No more yelling.  Quiet conversation.  No animosity apparent.

It's all just part of the magic of city living....

Double vision

Distracting Reflection

At the F-Market stop the other day, I thought I saw (in my peripheral vision) two cars nearly collide with each other.  When I turned to look, it was just an illusion caused by the shiny glass of the Muni stop.

The Widow Norton's Pilgrimage: 1997

The Widow Norton: 1997

If you never had a chance to attend the Widow's pilgrimage to the graveside of the Emperor Norton (Emperor I of San Francisco and Protector of Mexico), this video should give you a taste of the kind of things that happened on that hill.  

Jose Sarria: San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band

Jose Sarria: San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band 

In 2003, we drove to Palm Springs and interviewed Jose for about 2 hours, getting his thoughts and memories of the band and Jon Sims.

RIP, Jose Sarria (The Widow Norton, Empress I of San Francisco)

The Widow Norton (1997)

Jose Sarria, Her Royal Majesty, Empress of San Francisco, Jose I, The Widow Norton, passed away this morning.  Read the BAR's wonderfully detailed obituary here.

And this is how I'll always remember her.

The Fairest Of the Fair

SFLGFB: Fairest Of the Fair

A montage of footage of the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band through 2003, including founder Jon Sims and conductors Jeff Foote, Wayne Love, Jay Kast, Nancy Corporon and Jadine Louie.

Events depicted include:

Concert at Davies Hall (conducted by Jon Sims)
10th Anniversary Concert (conducted by Jeff Foote)
25th Anniversary Concert (conducted by Jadine Louie)
Dance Along Nutcrackers (between 1986 and 2003)
Both Clinton inaugurations (as part of LGBA)
Gay Games
San Francisco Dyke March
Pink Saturday
The wedding of a former band member (1990s)
Community concerts at Bethany United Methodist Church
The Widow Norton's Pilgrimage 
Lesbian/Gay Day at an elementary school
Community basketball game
Concerts in Yerba Buena Gardens (with Mark Leno and Nancy Corporon)
1906 Earthquake commemoration
"The Greatest Of Ease" (LGBA concert at Davies)
 New Year's Day Outreach for Seniors (YMCA)
Playing with the Melbourne band on their US tour
Fresno Pride

Dot Punto: Telenovela

Telnovela

Several days ago, I posted a clip of me and two other band members pretending to play our instruments for a music video.  This is that video.  We're in the final cut for a few seconds around the 2:15 mark.

Pink Saturday 2013

SFLGFBand: Pink Saturday 2013

Here's the band playing in the middle of Castro Street at Pink Saturday last weekend. 

Yes, I know there a continuity thing with Mike's sunglasses and baton.  I don't care.

A Pride Celebration Moment

Mystery Music Video 

This past Sunday, the band was Unit 10 in the parade (read: "we were near the front"), so we finished a bit before noon, and so hit the band's booth at the celebration relatively early in the day.  We had also promised Cheer SF that we would play on their stage while all the  cheer groups were appearing on the main stage around 2 p.m.

As we were walking through the celebration between the band booth and the Cheer SF stage, three of us encountered a performer wearing a relatively large camera rig, with an SLR pointed at her face, lip-synching to a quiet playback.  The video director asked us to jump in behind her and pretend to play our instruments.  After a few seconds of our bobbing up and down and all around, he instructed her to start turning in circles and indicated that we should follow her and stay behind her.  So we did.

Luckily, Chip was there to capture this brief "making of the music video" clip.

Then, as we walked away, the director ran up and handed me a business card and said, "Here's where the video will be posted when it's finished in a few weeks."  For the record, the band's name is Dot Punto, and the performer's name is Katya Lopez.
 
I'll post the final video as soon as I know it's available.


Update 7/13/2013:  The video is online and can be viewed on YouTube.  We are visible briefly around 2:15.

DOMA/Prop 8 Celebration in the Castro - SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band

SFLGFBand: DOMA/Prop 8 Celebration

Here's my montage from Wednesday night in the Castro.  Yes, it's a bit Band-centric.  So sue me.

Dixieland Dykes + 3

 
Dixieland Dykes + 3 

Snippets from last year's Pride Brunch hosted by Gary Virginia and Donna Sachet, benefiting Positive Resource Center.

The Band Came Back

The Band Came Back - Twice

Here is a mash-up of two performances by the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band of the same Sousa number -- once in San Francisco at Ebeneezer Lutheran ("herchurch"), and again two days later in Pacifica at Terra Nova High School.

Plagiarized from Heidi Beeler:

The Band’s music librarian, Kevin Tam, has resurrected an unpublished humoresque from the Sousa Archives entitled The Band Came Back. The piece was never recorded and hasn’t been performed since ol’ John Philip himself waved the baton in front of his own band in the early 1900s.

Sousa is famously known as the March King, though more than half of his 320 compositions are anything but. The Band Came Back is a humoresque, which are compositions that feature musical practical jokes. Known for being a wisecracker, Sousa wrote 14 of these comic pieces decades before PDQ Bach hit the scene, but only two were ever published and only three recorded.

Premiered in 1895 by the Sousa Band, the piece opens with a solo oboe playing alone amidst a forest of empty music stands. Section by section, clarinets, flutes, trumpets, tuba join him onstage, adding solo quotations from well-known ditties like The Campbells Are Coming, Dixie and Sousa’s own Washington Post March. By the end, instruments all come together for a rousing rendition of the finale from Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture.

Union Square

Union Square December 22-24, 2012

After shopping at Macy's Cellar for a cake carrier that isn't the size of a small house (they don't sell any that aren't freakishly huge, by the way), I decided to linger in Union Square and people watch and take some photos to remind me that all the people crowding into Union Square were real people with real lives, not just faceless shoppers or sidewalk obstacles.  I mean, they are those things, too, but I thought I'd look at their human side for a few minutes.

Dance Along 2012

Dance Along 2012