honored: the big jewcy list

From Jewcy.com
The Big Jewcy: Emily Savage- Covering Bay Area Jews, Vegan Food, And Music With Equal Vigor
I’m normally threatened by people that share my first name, but Emily Savage has quickly managed to prove that she deserves the name as much as I do. Readers of Jewcy may know her as the Photo Editor and columnist for San Francisco’s J. Weekly, but she also regularly contributes culture writing to SF Weekly and is the San Francisco Editor at Poor Taste Mag [...]

From J. Weekly:
J. photo editor, writer on ‘Big Jewcy’ list
Jewcy.com, a website for hip young Jews, has honored j. photo editor and columnist Emily Savage with a spot on its 2011 “Big Jewcy,” an annual list of people admired by the site’s writers. The list of 88 was revealed in sections from June 1 to 15.

In addition to her work at j., which includes authoring the Jew Tunes blog at Jweekly.com, Savage is a culture writer for S.F. Weekly and the editor of the San Francisco edition of Poor Taste magazine. A longtime vegan, she also writes a column for Poor Taste under the heading “Tofu Dearest" [...]

oran hesterman for j. the jewish news weekly

The right to eat well: Access to healthy food options is Berkeley native’s dream
Growing up in two very different spots in Northern California in the 1950s, Oran Hesterman had a dual life — city kid, country kid.

During the school year he lived in Berkeley, attended Hebrew school at Congregation Beth El and was active in Young Judea. But during every school vacation and the long stretches of summer, he worked with his father, a Jewish cattle rancher, on their family farm in Mendocino County’s Potter Valley. There he herded cattle, fixed the irrigation system and learned what it meant to be a working cowboy [...]

tofu dearest: mexican sweet potatoes for poor taste magazine

Batata! Sweet potatoes, spiced up Mexican-style
“Only a vegan!” my coworker chirped cheerfully when I told her what I was warming up for lunch: the spicy sweet potato taquitos I had made at home the night before. I instinctively thought, “you should be so lucky” as it is my first reaction whenever someone questions something so delectable on my plate. Really, what could be better than a spicy Mexican meal that incorporates such a distinctive flavor as sweet potato [...]

hazon for j. the jewish news weekly

Hazon: Summertime is right time for annual food confab
For the past three years the annual Hazon Food Conference — one on the East Coast, another in Northern California — has been held in December. The time of year was chosen to attract farmers, as it’s usually their downtime [...]

last night: gayngs for sf weekly

Gayngs at the Independent: Sexier (and Obviously Weirder) Than Your Prom
Picture a prom night in the early 1990s, in a glittering hall with a live band that plays soulful, heart-thumping music, cajoling the entirety of the room into wanting some loving.

With Gayngs, an indie supergroup from Minneapolis, that lustful concept isn't so far-fetched. The band -- which includes Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, members of Megafaun, Doomtree, Solid Gold, and occasionally Har Mar Superstar -- makes ample use of the tenor saxophone; dubbed its first concert back in 2010 "The Last Prom on Earth"; and has the most seductive stage presence I've seen. These folks would do well in any Ecstasy-soaked banquet hall affair [...]

bill graham exhibit for j. the jewish news weekly

Bill Graham’s American dream: Retrospective tells story of Holocaust refugee and rock impresario
As a Jewish child in Nazi Germany, Wolfgang Grajonza saw his family torn apart by the Holocaust.

His mother was taken to Auschwitz and gassed, his siblings were split — some were sent to an orphanage for safety, while others stayed behind and ended up in the camps.

The young boy went to a series of orphanages and on the Kindertransport to France, eventually making his way to New York City, with only a handful of photographs and a yarmulke on his person.

Grajonza would go on to become Bill Graham, perhaps the world’s most well known rock promoter and a beloved impresario. He’s best known for operating the legendary venues Fillmore West and Winterland in San Francisco and Fillmore East in New York City, but he also donated time and money organizing charity music events such as Live Aid [...]

tofu dearest: vegan brunch for poor taste magazine

Seven Vegan Brunch Dishes You Must Try Before You Die

In honor of Poor Taste’s gargantuan gathering of the best brunch spots in the U.S., I decided to focalize the task even more, to highlight the dishes themselves and pay respect to the vegan options, wherever the restaurant.

I’ve eaten at or been regaled with stories of a great many vegan brunch across the land, from decadent waffles soaked in syrup and Earth Balance pillows to healthy homemade oatmeal with soy milk and fresh strawberries. I wanted to celebrate my favorite of these options, but also open it up to you, fellow vegans of the planet, to share your own favorites [...]

apocalypse meow for sf weekly

Cat Art Exhibit 'Apocalypse Meow' Excites Feline Desires
San Francisco's beloved Kittenzilla has returned. At least, it's back in gallery form. The massive mixed-media mural is the main attraction in catcentric group show, "Apocalypse Meow," which debuted at Space Gallery in the Tenderloin on Saturday night. It's an exhibition "examining the dominance of all things feline in contemporary culture," the gallery explained [...]

juke hunt finale for sf weekly

Juke Hunt Finale: The Best Jukeboxes in San Francisco
Over the past few months, we've found treasures and trash in San Francisco bars: Old-school jukeboxes with surprisingly sincere music picks, and sad little boxes we urge you to skip. It's all come to this: The juke hunt winners distilled into a single list, the best offerings in the city that invented the very concept. So where are they [...]

sandor katz for j. the jewish news weekly

Pickling pro will talk about kraut on local tour
Growing up Jewish on New York’s Upper East Side, surrounded by stores selling sour dill pickles, Sandor Ellix Katz was almost destined to become a fermentation revivalist.

Katz is the author of two popular fermentation and food politic manifestos, “Wild Fermentation” and “The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved,” and he has spent the last two decades farming, fermenting, teaching and writing [...]

tofu dearest: vegan filipino for poor taste mag

No Worries, Vegans Eat Filipino Food Too
Chef Jay-Ar Isagani Pugao is out to change the public perception about Filipino food. The executive chef-restaurateur owns Oakland’s No Worries, an entirely animal-free vegan Filipino spot, and he wants the food world to know there’s a healthy side to the fare. It’s believed to be heavy and fatty, he said during a Dishcrawl cooking demonstration and dinner last month, but it doesn’t have to be [...]

last night: mike watt for sf weekly

Friday Night: Mike Watt Plays the Grizzled Natural at Bottom of the Hill
If such a thing were possible, I'd believe, without hyperbole or winking wit, that Mike Watt was born to play the bass. His fingers fly across the fretboard so smoothly, it's appears he isn't touching strings at all. Curved elegantly, his bulbous palms encircle the bass neck in an endless handshake [...]

poly styrene obituary for sf weekly

Oh Cancer, Up Yours: Appreciating Poly Styrene
A tiny, curly-haired creature pressed into a life-size test tube, smiling just slightly with braces and wrapped in a bright yellow coat with dark tights. Posing on the cover of the landmark X-Ray Spex album, Germ-Free Adolescents, in 1978, Poly Styrene (née Marianne Joan Elliott-Said) looked every bit the punk rock pioneer she was. In a world of high testosterone and rampant sexism, she stood out above the men, with a howling wail, instantly recognizable -- perhaps most of all on her rallying cry, "Oh Bondage, Up Yours" [...]

goy passover for j. the jewish news weekly

It was my boyfriend’s first seder — but it felt new to me, too
Despite the fact that my cohabiting boyfriend and I have been a “we” for four years — two of which spent under the same roof — we had yet to attend a Passover seder together until this year.

Perhaps even more surprising: he’d never been to a seder before in his life. You see, he’s my loving goy (aware of the negative connotations, choosing to disregard), and while we’ve fried latkes for many years and visited the Contemporary Jewish Museum more times than I can count, this was his first time observing Pesach [...]

steve ignorant interview for sf weekly

Crass' Steve Ignorant Explains the S.F. Origins of the Anarchopunk Band's Iconic Logo
The Crass logo is iconic. The songs are military-beat memorable, with lyrics about anarchy, environmentalism, and animal rights. The duo that formed the band -- vocalist Steve Ignorant and drummer Penny Rimbaud -- is somewhat legendary. And yet the English anarchopunk act existed in proper form only from 1977 to 1984. The group, which also included a host of other musicians, such as Gee Vaucher and Eve Libertine, never even performed a full U.S. tour.

This is why Ignorant (minus Rimbaud) is now traveling throughout the states singing classic songs off the Feeding of the 5000, Stations of the Crass, Penis Envy, and Christ the Album: To give American fans a chance to see those songs live, and as one last hurrah for the tracks themselves. After this jaunt, appropriately titled "Steve Ignorant presents Crass songs 1977-82, the Last Supper," the music will go back in to its recorded vaults. We recently spoke with Ignorant, who performs Wednesday at Slim's [...]