Mesh Magazine

• SF Indie Fashion spreads the word on fund raising for injured artist Amy Woloszyn.
• SF Party Party gears up for Halloween.
• Curbed SF checks in from the chaos of Ritual.
• Apartment Therapy notes the opening of Rare Device in San Francisco (1845 Market Street).
• Beer and Rap celebrates MC Oroville.
• Borrowed, Bought, Stolen wants this dress for Halloween.
• Fashionist shoots Kelly in the Mission.
• Unpiano gets lost in a hay maze.
• What I’m Seeing mourns a passing.
• Tornados in Brooklyn stumbles upon somefield.
• Hamburger World spots doggies in the night.
• Hammerhead goes to Baltimore.
• Trantastic continues to fight Awww Damn.
• Awww Damn hates Bruce Willis and the Red Sox (and America).

Tonight The Hive is hosting the opening party (5- 10 pm) for a showcase of rising designers like Danielle Scarpulla Millinery and Alisha Trimble. The gallery will also be showing paintings by Rykarda Parasol and Kevin Glen Price as well as photography by Brenda McLeran.

Canadian band side-projects with terrible names continue to make their way through San Francisco, as Arcade Fire side-project Final Fantasy follows in Sunset Rubdown’s (Wolf Parade) footsteps for a show tonight at The Independent. Final Fantasy is the solo project of Arcade Fire violinist Owen Pallett, who uses pedals at his live shows to loop his violin, creating layers of melodic sound all by his-self. Yes, the band is named after the video game and Pallett has embraced his inner-nerd, telling youaintnopicasso.com that, “I’m probably more into video games and fantasy novels than most people I know.” You get a sense of this on his 2006 release, He Poos Clouds, which explores themes ripped from the game Dungeons & Dragons. You also get the sense of this from the photo above, in which Pallett is dressed as what looks like Robin Hood as a turtle.

Thanks to Fashionist for the heads up on this one.

$13/21+

KQED’s Gallery Crawl is a monthly video series that takes a look at Bay Area galleries and the art within them. In the latest episode, artist/narrator Jeannene Przyblyski examines San Francisco street art, from commissioned pieces like Claus Oldenburg’s & Coosje van Bruggen’s hideous “Cupid’s Span” by the Bay Bridge to works by Sirron Norris and Andrew Schoultz, as well as what Przbylski calls “non-permissioned” works: illegal graffiti, stencils and wheat pasted posters. Przybylski is a professor at San Francisco Art Institute, and it shows in her narration, which comes off as a freshman year “Street Art 101″ introductory lecture. Still, it is always good to see San Francisco street art get coverage, and, as an added bonus, the video features music from The Mall’s Adam Cimino.

Check out the video here.

A reveler uses a Porta-Potty as a projectile weapon at last year’s Halloween festivities in the Castro.

There may be a big showdown in the Castro this Halloween. With the City officially cancelling festivities in the neighborhood, local businesses are worried about what will happen when people show up anyway. Mayor Newsom’s office doesn’t want to put portable toilets on the streets, but many businesses and residents are worried about people pissing and crapping in the streets. The City hasn’t made a decision on the issue, but Newsom representative said, “Those standalone portable toilets can also become weapons. They can be lifted and become projectiles.”

Some Castro residents plan on taking things into their own hands by placing Porta-Pottys on private property. In addition, against Mayor Newsom’s and Supervisor Bevan Dufty’s wishes, the vast majority of businesses plan to be open on Halloween night. It also probably doesn’t help the City’s cause that the number one Google search for Halloween in the Castro is this site. Have fun!

And the award for Worst Flier Ever Made in the History of the World for Anything goes to (clickity clack): (more…)

Summer just arrived in San Francisco this week, with Rocktober coming to a close, blue skies and t-shirt weather all week long. With Mayor Newsom & Bevan Dufty cancelling Halloween (or did they?) though, your spirits might be down. Thankfully there are a bunch of good rock ‘n’ roll music shows to get you into November with a smile:

• Tomorrow night, Wednesday, October 24th, Blonde Redhead takes the stage at the Warfield for an all ages show. $25/8PM
• Also tomorrow, Mesh fave Zodiac Death Valley brings its psychedelic blues rock to the Elbo Room, opening for Th’ Moonlight Sexy. 21+/$7/9PM
• Thursday and Friday, the non-Taco Bell affiliated Ted Leo comes to Great American Music Hall with dynamic duo Quasi. All Ages/$21/9PM
• Also on Friday (and Saturday as well), local punk-folk-blues duo Two Gallants plays at The Independent in support of its new Saddle Creek released self-titled album. 21+/$16/9PM
• On Saturday at the Elbo Room gothic-Americana songstress Rykarda Parasol performs with The Hundred Days and Goodbye Gadget. 21+/$10/9PM
• And on Monday, Broken Social Scene plays at the Fillmore. All Ages/$25/8PM.

Photos by Awww Damn.

(more…)

9th Annual Clarion Alley Block Party
Clarion Alley Mural Project (CAMP).
CAMP hosts an annual Block Party (2006 was the 8th annual) that has consistently brought over 1,000 people to the celebration, which features new murals, live and DJ music, film and video projections, and more.

New artwork by:

Chris Corales
Jet Martinez
~AngelA~
Fred Alvarado + Urban Youth Arts
Rigo 23
Cuba
M. Scott Hove
Crystal Vielula
C. Collentine + Poor Magazine
Emily Glaubinger + freinds
(more…)

Opening tonight at The Salon (377 Guerrero @ 16th Street) is Seattle artist Chris Crite’s San Francisco: 1940s. This show features acrylic paintings of mugshots from the ’40s on paper bags. From Crites’s artist statement:

“Years ago I saw a book of black and white crime photographs from the past. I found it amazing. The characters and crime scenes looked like surreal glimpses into the history of human interaction. Much more intriguing for me were the mug shots. Portraits of people who had just been caught. Despair, frustration, anger – so many expressions could be read on the faces. Each one of these images has a story. Often times I have no idea what the real story is, but it’s hard not to make one up. One of the reasons I paint them is to bring out another possible story, for people to look at and think about. The majority of the images I base my paintings on are from the 1890’s through 1950’s.”

The show runs through November 27th.

This new all-ladies showcase opens at the double punch toy store tonight @ 6 pm. Featuring Tink (Jessica Whiteside), Leah Brawley, Nathalie Roland, Kelly Tunstall and Fawn Gehweiler. Star by Tink pictured below.