Entries Tagged as 'mission'

The Reaction: Halloween Show

If you don’t have plans yet for your Halloween night, you can head to The Thrillhouse and catch The Reaction. (You know them from our interview here on the site, if not from somewhere else in the city.) You can also learn more about the band from their MySpace page. The Thrillhouse is at 3422 Mission St. I’ve never been there so I can’t give you the gist about it but if you know, you should leave your comments here so everyone else can get to know about it as well!

Mission Indie Mart: Recommended Monthly Event Sunday

When I first heard about the Mission Indie Mart (through local vintage designer Dena Rose) it was a small affair held in the backyard of the founder’s Mission home. The mart is still in the Mission but it’s grown too large for backyards and has moved into its new space at 12 Galaxies.

What is it? It’s a place where you can go to check out the creative works of all different types of local San Francisco designers. Need new clothes? Fashion designers are on site with their stuff. Thinking that accessories are more along the lines of your immediate needs? Those will be there as well. You’ll also be able to find antiques and crafts and all sorts of off-the-wall stuff. And since Halloween is just days away, you might find that perfect strange thing you needed to compliment your not-yet-complete costume.

Even if you don’t find something to buy, you’ll probably have a good time. There will be local music and BBQ food and that terrific atmosphere that comes about when over forty different designers come together in one space with their creative energy. At least that’s what I’m counting on since I’m going to (fingers crossed) finally make it to this event for the first time since hearing about it months ago.

It happens on Sunday, October 28th at 12 Galaxies which is at Mission and 22nd St. It runs from noon to five. See you there?

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Recommended Event: Mission Indie Mart this Sunday

mission indie mart

Do you love supporting local artists? Does the idea of finding a great outfit from a local designer at an outdoor market in the Mission sound like the best idea for a weekend plan that you’ve heard in awhile? Can you even think of a reason that you wouldn’t want to check out this DIY event that happens every month?

It’s the Mission Indie Mart, an event that was started by local creative spirit Kelly Malone who sells vintage designs there. In addition to vintage, you can find design and craft. And you can also get your mouth around some organic hot dogs and fresh lemonade. As described by Kelly, the Mission Indie Mart is “a bbq meets a craft fair meets a trunk show meets a nice flea market”. There are experienced designers and those fresh out of college, all mingling in

The event has been growing monthly, starting off in June with just ten vendors. Last month’s event was close to twenty vendors and the one coming up should be around thirty. The event’s going to be moving locations to accomodate the increased size but this month it’s over at 25th and Guerrero. It’s this Sunday from 11 - 5.

Learn more on MySpace. Support local art!

SF Art Speaks: An Interview with Illyanna Maisonet

illyanna maisonet graf image one

The truth is that I don’t even know where to start with telling you about the art and entrepreneurship of Illyanna Maisonet. That’s because this chick (who was Mission before Mission was cool) has got so much going on and she’s doing it all well. She’s a graffiti artist, a fashion line produced, an illustrator for various projects including stuff affiliated with bands and her own upcoming ‘zine. Really, there’s not much this girl isn’t doing. And somehow, she finds the time to set goals related to using art to help latchkey kids. But I’ll let her tell you all that herself. Check out more work at her website and her MySpace page.

What’s the story behind your work?

Both of my parents are artists, if that helps. I used to be a writer, a poet … as a youth I had some of them published. Then I just needed to do something new which is bittersweet because I can’t write a poem to save my life now. I started canvas painting at 20. After I started doing exhibitions and selling paintings, I definitely knew it was something I was addicted to. The new habit had replaced the old habit.

I moved to SF in 2002 after I graduated from college, met a boy, moved in with boy, a year later boy left me. Then I decided to go to grad school, which was a total waste of time and energy. I didn’t start painting on clothes until 2006, and it’s interesting how it started. I was apprenticing as a silk screener with a guy who owned his own silk screening business. He was (is) a major flake, he’s always saying he’ll go to something, or commit to something and never come through. I mean never. He said I could print shirts of my own in the shop at no upfront cost, but when the shirt sold I’d have to give him half. Half of $10 is nothing, especially when I bought my own shirts and did all the work.

I’m giving him half of each shirt to use his equipment. I said fuck it, instead of depending on some one, I find other ways around what I need from them. I can kind of credit him for my starting the clothing “line.” I approached painting on clothing the same way as a canvas, the exact same way, but on a smaller scale. I make more money than I ever did with my paintings, and I create the exact same paintings on the clothing. It’s nuts. Maybe people are less intimidated by purchasing clothing because it’s something they have been doing almost their whole lives. I don’t know. Did I mention I was crazy?

Damn, that was a long answer.

What can you tell us about your different mediums and how they express different things for you?

My clothing line definitely expresses my vanity; if you’re not into the fashion business for money or vanity, you’re lying! I like that people are my walking billboards and they advertise for me, but it’s also immediate gratification. They can touch it, grab it, put it on and walk out the door. My easel painting however, is where my heart and soul emerges. That sounds really cheesy, but it’s so true. It’s too bad that I’m inspired by destruction and pain; that’s why most of my pieces are about heartbreak. Not just the heartbreak you get from investing intimate emotions with a person and not receiving the same in return, but also the heartbreak you get from being out in this fucked up world. Many believe artists are exceptionally sensitive to the fucked up things that happen in this world. And it’s hard for us to ignore most of those things, that’s why we create about them.

*MORE FROM ILLYANNA FOLLOWING THE PHOTOS*

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What are you working on right now?

I’m really trying to hone my “Urban Sprawl Devours Nature” series. Doing a lot of designs about debt peonage, law-mart (world jumble that one) and the disappearance of rural America. I’m starting a mural this week, nothing major, just a few walls in a new salon. Recently, I was asked by Sam Beam’s (Iron and Wine) manager to submit a few designs for consideration for their Fall tour t-shirts. I’m also working on some shirts for Mr. Beam as well.

Umm…doing some cover art for a band called Agent Ribbons. I always have at least one show a month. Oh yeah, I’m also really close to getting a zine of short stories published, “True stories of a painter’s dating experiences.” It’s not like the Bridget Jones Diary or anything, it’s all no-holds-barred shit of all the psychos I’ve dated in SF. Erotic Asphyxiation, under-cover cross dressers, guys who lost one of their balls to cancer…things like that. I also had to do the illustrations myself, which I was trying to avoid.

In my experience, graffiti art is a male-dominated community but one in which there’s not a lot of sexism. Would you agree? Or how has being a woman in that community been an issue?

Oh, of course there’s sexism. Anytime anything is male dominated, there’s a place for sexism. And I wouldn’t even really say it’s a community, to me, community means people coming together harmoniously and sharing resources. That’s not graff. It’s dog eat dog, which is why it dwells successfully in busy urban areas. Graff is like the “big” city: grimy, fast paced, temporary and always in transition. Being a woman, you are already looking up at the glass ceiling in life anyway. There are some chicks who flaunt their shit out in the yards with heels and miniskirts, while that’s all good…you can only expect to attract the wrong attention. And everyone generalizes female writers based on those exact chicks, the ones who learned from their boyfriends or whatever. I think if you can stand your own, without leaning on someone or something, you should be alright in this game.

Finish the sentence: Art should be … affordable and available to the masses

Where in the city do you spend your time? Get inspiration? Meet other creative people?

Well, I live in the Mission. I’ve lived here for five years, since before the “hipster infestation.” I rarely find a reason why I should leave the Mish. Haha. Everything I need is right here: galleries, bookstores, shoe stores, thrift stores, video stores, great food, dope bars, familiar faces and languages and most of all…cheap produce. I find inspiration, the good and the bad, right from outside my door. Meeting creative people is a little different, no one really pays attention to me because I don’t ride a fixed gear or wear my pants skin tight with a bandana wrapped around my leg. I usually meet people at my shows, because they have a better chance of “figuring” me out in my element.

Where would you like to be a year from now?

In Juxtapoz Magazine. Haha. That’s my temporary goal for the time. I’ve submitted twice and haven’t heard back anything. They don’t like me. Naw, I’m working towards opening my own after-school art program again. Only this time it’ll be on a larger scale with lots of different creative mediums: silk screening, painting, mural workshops, multi-media and culinary classes. Working with a lot of youth from financially deprived populations, I notice a lot of them are latchkey kids from single parent homes. Like me. And those parents are working two or more jobs just to sustain a barely comfortable lifestyle for their families, so the kids are eating bullshit. A lot of fast food. So, I’ve been slowly showing the youth I’ve worked with how to prepare a healthy and not so labor intensive meal, and the positive outcomes of consuming fresh fruits and veggies. And for the silk screening, painting and other classes offered, we’re not just going to teach them these skills. We’re also going to teach them how to become successful entrepreneurs off the skills they learned in the program. And their exit evaluations are will be them throwing an event that’s totally organized and coordinated by the youth. Of course they can ask the Program Leaders/Managers questions and for assistance, but the majority of the work will be done by the youth.

Name one other thing that we should know about your work.

It’s cheap. Haha. No, seriously. I’ve been in many a situation where I liked someone’s work, but they were priced way too high. That old belief about how if you price you work high, people will more likely buy it? That’s bullshit. When I see people pricing pieces between $300 and $1,000, it sits. Meanwhile, I price my paintings at under $100 and it flies out the door. I want people like me, who enjoy art the art that I create, to be able to afford it. The people who can’t afford art are the one’s who appreciate it the most, anyway.

And tell people they can buy stuff directly from me at: www.myspace.com/siyaclothing.

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San Francisco YouTube Pick of the Day

San Fran Voice trolls the online world to find video clips from and about San Francisco. Check the archives to see the ones that you’ve missed.  Posted here every morning at 9.

Explanation: Today’s YouTube pick is of the Clarion alley murals in The Mission. You may think youve seen ‘em before but the art on those walls is always changing so check ‘em out again.

Carnaval San Francisco!

Memorial Day Weekend in San Francisco means one major thing: Carnaval.  For almost thirty years now, The Mission has come to life on this May weekend with a multi-cultural, multi-event celebration.  There’s food and art, music and dance and general street fair camaraderie throughout the weekend celebrating the various Latin and Caribbean cultures for which the mardi-gras-esque carnaval celebration is known throughout the world.

Location of Carnaval SF:

It happens on Harrison Street from 16th St. – 23rd St.  There will be seven stages along this route with different kinds of entertainment.

Time and dates of Carnaval SF 2007:

May 26th and 27th, 2007 from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. both days.

The Parade:

A major event of Carnaval SF is the parade which takes place on Sunday morning, starting at 9:30 a.m. on the corner of 24th St. and Bryant St. and continuing along the length of the carnaval area.

We’re lucky to have the diversity that we have here in San Francisco and this is just one way to go out and celebrate that! 

San Francisco YouTube Pick of the Day

San Fran Voice is all about finding great things in this city from great venues for live music to lessons in love learned from the streets of San Francisco.  One of the daily finds in the Bay Area is entertainment.  There’s simply no shortage of art, oddities and experiences in San Francisco.  To reflect that, San Fran Voice has a daily YouTube pick which shows off someone or something related to San Francisco.

Today’s YouTube pick is …  in honor of Carnaval which takes place this weekend, today’s clips are from events of the celebration in past years.

 

 

 

Recommended Event: MCMF Show Tonight!

we be the echo san francisco bands 

 

There isn’t any show that’s part of the Mission Creek Music & Arts Festival that I wouldn’t recommend, so why am I drawing particular attention to this one?  Well, first of all, it’s the last San Francisco show this season for local band We Be The Echo (see their SFV Interview here).  They’re playing with another awesome local band, And A Few To Break, as well as with Bad Dudes, an L.A. band that was described by We Be The Echo as “Nintendo-spazz at its most phenomenal”.  And if that’s not reason enough to go out and catch the show, it’s also being filmed for The Bay Bridged so you can get your fifteen minutes (or a few seconds anyway) of fame by getting caught on camera. So, it’s tonight, May 19th at El Rio in The Mission.  It costs $7 and I’ve heard drinks are cheap there. Fun starts at 9 p.m. (with Bad Dudes) and goes until the bars close.  We Be The Echo is the second band performing. 

SF Bands Speak: An Interview with Mambo Street

Mambo Street is something like a cover band except that they recreate all of the songs, giving them a Latin twist, to make them sound unique.  They take the old and make it new, pouring passion into every moment to own their sound.  In this interview, we hear from Rudy Ramirez, one of the seven guys who make up the band about how it formed, how it works and what it’s all about.  Check out their website for info on upcoming gigs and other stuff you might want to know about them. 

What’s the story on how you met and decided to start playing together? David Mercado and I met way back in 1975 in a Cumbia band called Anaconda.  We became friends and would play music in other bands from time to time.  In January of 1998, he called me and asked if I wanted to start a band with him.  “What do you want to play?”  I asked.  “Whatever we want.  Dance music.”  He replied.  Then I remembered that back in 1977, I was playing with a Latin jazz band that was playing jazz standards without a drum set.  Instead, everything was “Latinized”, that is, using only Latin percussion:  guiro, timbales, maracas, congas, bongos, etc.  Emilio Castillo from Tower of Power caught our act and said that was our hook and that we should make a demo tape and send it to Fred Rubenstein from CBS Records.  Well, the band broke up before we could ever get the recording off the ground, but the idea stayed with me all that time.  I told David about my idea, he liked it and Mambo Street was formed.  We decided that Mambo Street would be an “avocation”.  That is, a hobby that pays.  No illusions about “making it” or going “big time”.  Just have some fun, make a little money and feel young again.  So far, so good!

What’s your favorite song to perform live and why? Our favorite song (now this is subjective on my part since everyone has their own pick, but I am going solely on energy and enthusiasm) is Barcelona Nights by Ottmar Leibert.  We kick it off with flute and acoustic nylon guitar and then get into a mambo groove that not only we feel it, but our audience does as well.  It is a barn-burner for sure!  On top of that, Rene, our bongo player, plays timbales on it and rips a mean-ass solo!

 Are all of your songs cover songs or are there some originals in there?  Our creative process is in arranging cover songs, thus making them our own.  No one, for some unknown reason has come up with an original tune.  It’s much easier and satisfying to take an established song and re-arranging it to meet our needs and feel good about it.

Can you describe the process of how you go about reinventing old songs to have the twist that makes it a Mambo Street song?  That task usually falls on me.  I will start with an idea of how we could approach the song and everyone puts their two cents in.  Very collaborative, democratic effort, I might add.  I then add a “montuno” or groove line in the middle to give it that salsa flavor and then we decide solos and an ending.  For example, On Broadway by the Drifters.  Tito Puente did it some years ago and did a credible job.  We just took it and ran with it.

 Do you have a favorite SF venue?  Carnaval may not be a venue per se, but it is a wonderful event to play in.  The one venue we really enjoy playing at is The Little Fox in Redwood City.

Which spots in the city can you be found in when you’re just out and about?  Mission District - upper and lower pretty much.  We’re all from there and some of us never left.

Describe the average fan of the music you play. Someone who loves to dance!  Some one who recognizes the songs and appreciates our creative efforts in reconstructing them.

If the band was a San Francisco landmark, which one would it be and why?  The fact that the Mission District gave birth to different genres of music and diverse outlooks on how to approach music.  Mambo Street is just that.  That is our niche.  We play old school music with a Latin twist and make the magic happen.  It is unmistakable!  I see it in people’s eyes, hear it in their cheers, and watch how they groove to the music.  That is power.  Awesome, wonderful, magical power.  And that power translates into pure, unadulterated joy!

What are the band’s goals?  Staying busy playing nice, big venues and festivals.

If there was anything that you could make sure your fans knew, what would it be?  Just this:  middle age is not a death sentence.  We can get down with the same intensity (and perhaps more so) as we did when we were younger because we now have a better understanding of music and life in general.  We have wisdom on our side.  We are the elders and torch bearers of the Mission District.

San Francisco YouTube Pick of the Day

San Fran Voice is all about finding great things in this city from great venues for live music to lessons in love learned from the streets of San Francisco.  One of the daily finds in the Bay Area is entertainment.  There’s simply no shortage of art, oddities and experiences in San Francisco.  To reflect that, San Fran Voice has a daily YouTube pick which shows off someone or something related to San Francisco.

Today’s YouTube pick is … all about The Mission.  Every day is a good day to give props to this neighborhood but we’ll go it today in honor of Cinco de Mayo celebrations there.  Note that you have to click on the video to get to it in YouTube but it should work fine once you’re there.