5-16-08 O-Scene Weekend

Featured Event:

Extra Action Marching Band

Those among us lucky enough, or unfortunate enough (depending on your circumstances), to have logged time in the marching band while in school have a particular view of all those after school games, concerts and weekend parades that the rest of you lucky people will never know: spending hours in a hot ass band room, practicing the same tired score over and over (Flight of the Bumble Bee? I mean come on…); trying unsuccessfully to sneak into the Color Guard and Cheerleader cabin during Band Camp; playing horn in a sweltering military gettup while sweat drips down your face and into your reed; waking up at the butt crack of dawn on those frigid fall mornings, lacing up the spats for that long parade march (if you were lucky enough to march Core Style you got some reprieve, Big 10-my heart goes out to you).
But of course, those are just the blisters talking. Because when you get right down to it, there’s really nothing like the sound of a couple hundred strong, human music machine making it’s way down Main St. And when the band is really cranking-when the corps is lucky enough to get a director that shrugs off conventional standards and dips into the real funky stuff-well, let’s just say that the reason football games like the Bayou Classic sell out every year has very little to do with touchdowns.
And that’s where the Extra Action Marching Band hits the sweet spot. For the last 10 years the 35 plus member band has been foregoing the sports arenas and bringing the psychadelic marching band funk straight to the people-with as much raunch and sweat as you can cram into their customarily crowded shows.
By combining Vaudeville like performances, Lousiana Brass Band chops and Burning Man freakishness with a commitment to create as much chaos and manic dancing as possible, Extra Action is pure Bay Area music. Led be a polysexual color guard of nearly naked flag wavers and cheerleaders, the band of horn players, drummers and barkers is known for slinking off the stage and through the crowd and will just as soon break into a rendition of Beyonce’s “Crazy in Love” as they will a Black Sabbath tune, lacing everything with a sheen of glitter, beer and sweat. Extra emphasis on the sweat.
They’re joined Saturday night at the Uptown by the “Sophisticated Country Funk” of Apple Pie Hopes and Michael Musika for what should be a packed and over the top show; with just enough sex appeal to make up for those lonely nights at band camp.-Kwan

Extra Action Marching Band
$12
5/17
9pm
The Uptown
1928 Telegraph Ave, Oakland
http://www.uptownnightclub.com/

5/15 Bestiaries reception at OAG

Image from www.davidhevel.com

Tonight is the opening reception for Bestiaries, the new exhibit over at the Oakland Art Gallery. The show brings together 9 painters, illustrators and installation artists who’s works focus on the relationship between humans and nature.

The exhibition features work by Jo Ann Biagini, Michael Hall, David Hevel, Peter Honig, Misako Inaoka, Tarra Lyons, Daniel Ross, Tara Tucker and Anna Vaughan.

5/14 Michael Chabon at Diesel Books

Berkeley author Michael Chabon (that’s “shea as in Shea Stadium, bon as in Bon Jovi”), has had pretty much the ideal writer’s life right from the word go: First novel published while still in an MFA program, second novel turned into a film starring Kirk Douglas, critical acclaim all over the place, international bestsellers up the wazoo, Pulitzer Prize firmly in his back pocket, etc. etc. etc.

But the man has earned his praise. His writing is expansive and metaphorical, wordy without being pretentious. and just damned good reading. In his newest novel, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, the fledgling state of Israel has collapsed in 1948 and the Jewish refugees settled in The Federal District of Sitka. For sixty years the refugees and their descendants have lived in this temporary Federal haven but Sitka is soon going to revert back to Alaskan control. The novel’s hero, Homicide Detective Meyer Landsman, has too much on his plate to worry about the upcoming Reversion; his neighbor has just been found murdered and he’s in love with his new supervisor.

Chabon reads tonight just as the Policeman’s Union is released in paperback and the Coen Brothers start working on the film version.

5/12 U.S Youth Chess Tryouts

Every year the U.S. Youth Games brings the best young athletes from around the country to duke it out on the playing field, on the court and on the game board. The games host thousands of youth from across the nation, participating in Olympic-style competitions including Basketball, Volleyball, Soccer, Swimming, Track and Field, Bowling, Flag Football, Chess, Double Dutch Jump Rope and just about every other sport you can shake a baton at.

From July 16 to the 19th they’re bringing the rumble to Oakland and tryouts for the games are taking place thoughout the city during the month of May. Tonight it’s time for all the young grand masters and future Bobby Fischers to test their castle control over at the F.M. Smith Recreation Center. Youth age 15 and under are invited to come out and try for a place on official the Oakland team. Check the Oakland Parks and Rec website to get more info and the full tryout schedule.

5/9 Novoscene Weekend

Friday May, 9

Oakbook Magazine Release Party

Call me biased, but hands down the best party going on anywhere tonight is ours! It’s time for the release of the 3rd edition ofOakbook , the Town’s new most favorite magazine, (as proven by our recent win at the Oakland Indie awards-applause are appreciated). We’re partying tonight over at the Uptown Body and Fender shop and you’re welcome to stop on by. There’ll be a photography exhibit from the finalists of the Novometro.com/Oakbook photo contest, lots of food, lots of music and lots of cool, cool people. Come out, meet the staff,schmooze with the locals, drink a little too much and stumble home just a little more in love with the town we call home.

Oakbook #3 Release Party
Free
7pm
Uptown Auto and Fender Shop
401 26th St, Oakland

5/8 Bay Area Rock & Roll Coalition show

Disgust of Us

The Bay Area Rock & Roll Coalition was formed with the noble mission of “reviving the excitement and ingenuity of the local rock scene.” The coalition is made up of bands that have thumbed their noses at conventional labels and musical genres while still developing a rep for delivering kick ass, blow your wig back rock shows at the drop of a hat. Or the drop of a speaker, as tonight’s show at Mama Buzz is a strictly acoustic set. So for tonight, at least, your wig should stay in place.

SuperfinosVTO

Catch SuperfinosVTO, Disgust of Us and Raised by Robots as they turn down the volume and serenade all the hip young latte drinkers with a basket of sounds that stretch all the way from Led Zepellin to Chuck Berry, Weezer to Kelly Clarkson. Yeah, that’s right-Kelly Clarkson. No labels, remember? Just some good ol’ rock & roll.

5/7 Dance Discourse Project

The San Francisco arts nonprofit Counterpulse says that the mission of it’s Dance Discourse Project is “to articulate in a cohesive and coherent way, from the participants themselves, what is happening in dance in the Bay Area and beyond.”

Tonight is the 3rd installment of the series and features a discussion between choreographer Jo Kreiter, performance and Butoh artist Ledoh (pictured), local dance legend Sara Shelton Mann and rising international choreographer Miguel Gutierrez. The panel will discuss the multiple layers of the political in their work, how bodies are politicized through movement, and how activism plays a unique role in the Bay Area dance scene.

This special installment, presented at Project Artaud Theater, is co-presented by CounterPULSE, Dancers’ Group, and ODC Theater, as part of its festival “For the Record: Dancers Debate the Body Politic.”

5/6 Great Tuba Music w/Carl Ludwig Hubsch

Tonight 21 Grand welcomes Avant Garde Tuba player Carl Ludwig Hubsch for a night of improvised play and experimentation with San Francisco’s experimental music ensemble, sfSoundgroup.

Following an improvised duo with local percussionist virtuoso Gino Robair, Mr. Hübsch will lead sfSound in two of his compositions for large ensemble.The sfSoundGroup has been presenting innovative and challenging concerts throughout the Bay Area since 1999. A true 21st century ensemble, the group has an extraordinary roster of Bay Area composers and performers whose virtuosic and “extended” instrumental abilities are equally balanced with their involvement in composition, electronic sound, performance art, computer audio programming, and experimental instrument making.

The group also frequently presents existing work in highly creative “radical transcriptions” blurring the lines between performance, composition, interpretation, and improvisation. Performing as sfSound are: Heather Frasch - flute, Kyle Bruckmann - oboe, Matt Ingalls - clarinets, Jacob Lindsay -clarinets, John Ingle - alto saxophone, Tom Dambly - trumpet, John Shiurba - guitar, Kjell Nordeson - vibraphone, Gino Robair - percussion, Alexa Beattie - viola, Jorge Boehringer - viola, Monica Scott - cello, and Richard Worn - contrabass.

5/5 Art Wrestles Pop Culture and Wins!

Still from “Head Trip”

Is Pop Culture Art? Is Art Pop Culture? Since the Andy Warhol era artists have been trying to elevate pop culture to the level of art; and since artists have uttered the words “I want to be a star” - it’s gone the other way too.

Tonight’s panel features three of the elder statesmen and leaders in San Francisco’s art and pop culture worlds as Re/Search Publication’s V.Vale, Last Gasp’s Ron Turner and “Head Trip” director John Law chew the fat on the intersection of art and pop and what happens when those lines are defined and blurred. Moderated by professional coach/social architect Michael Vav.

5/2 Novoscene Weekend

Image courtesy of Hip Hop for President

Wake yo Game up!

I don’t think there’s much debate around the significance of the upcoming presidential election. Not only do we have two candidates, a woman and a black man, that have a damned good chance of winning the top spot but we also have the chance to unseat the party responsible for the last 8 years of failed international policy, economic downturns and general Anti US sentiment worldwide. To just say we have a lot at stake here would be a big ol’ fat understatement.
But the thing is, just how much does your vote count if things really don’t change much when the next set of suits step into the White House? And is saying that you voted in a historic election really that significant if it’s the only community minded thing you do all year? What about the historically low voter turnouts in low income communities nationwide? If anything, the people who need to have the loudest voices are often the most disenfranchised. What do we do about it?
These are the kinds of questions that’ll be flying around the room at the Oakland Museum tonight during the Wake Yo Game Up panel discussion and performance presented by the Town Business Network. A panel of deep thinkers, community organizers and activists are hoping to get down to the nuts and bolts of the electoral process, focusing the discussion on how to turn the political rhetoric into practical action, the factors affecting voter participation in urban communities and where do we go after the election, no matter who wins. The panelist will be addressing the issues with a particular focus on hip hop culture and ways that artists and cultural influencers can be a part of the change. Speakers will include Alameda County Supervisor Keith Carson, writer and historian Davey D, radio personality Chuy Gomez, journalist Eric K. Arnold and Town Business Network founder Charles Johnson. -kwan
Wake Yo Game Up!
Free
7-9:30
Oakland Museum
1000 Oak Street, Oakland
510-776-4644