So, want to know what’s going on?  For this weekend see below, but to get a sneak ahead you can always check out the Juice Box Calendar where events in the future are posted as they are heard about.

Wishing safe travels to all of my San Francisco Family and Friends that are traveling east to New York for the 10th Anniversary of Alegria.  It should be an amazing party!  For the rest of us in San Francisco – enjoy your labor day weekend, be safe and have fun!

Friday, September 3, 2010

Bearracuda Underwear Night

Time: 9:00pm PDT to 3:00am
Where: Club 8, Folsom Street, San Franciosco map
It’s underwear night, so the optional clothes check will be open and briefs, boxers and jocks will be on display. In addition to the undies, it’s also going to be an incredible night of music with DJs dabecy (Electronic Music Bears) & resident DJ Medic
http://www.bearracuda.com/

by Joanna Parks

[The August edition of Flagging in the Park featured DJ Christopher B and benefitted New Leaf.]

We were all a little nervous Saturday night. After getting home from a really fun “Locals Night” Industry we talked about Flagging In The Park (FITP) and how we were hoping the weather would cooperate. And by cooperate I mean not freeze us to death. Last month’s FITP was a whole hell of a lot of fun and while it wasn’t sunny, it wasn’t cold. Could we possibly be blessed with temperate weather two months in a row?

As Suzan said Sunday morning “God loves Christopher B.” I didn’t think I could have had more fun than last month’s FITP but with the sun shining so bright it added another dimension to the afternoon. I know it’s impossible to plan a sunny outdoor circuit party in San Francisco but man I wish we could.

Christopher B. was throwing down music with happy uplifting vocals and a disco beat that drew flaggers, flow artists, dancers and onlookers to the National AIDS Memorial Grove in Golden Gate Park. Not one song was a misstep. By the end when he played “Free” by Ultra Nate there wasn’t a person not smiling or dancing or flagging or even speaking in tongues (Suzan Revah). It was truly magical.

Baked goods were provided free of charge with super cute Leo skipping from blanket to blanket handing them out in a basket. There was a huge rainbow flag. There were gorgeous smiling men everywhere. People sharing what they brought with others without hesitation and everyone seemed like a friend.

Watching the tourists come around on one of the paths leading to the groove and smile with delight at the sight of all these beautiful flags and shirtless men had me giggling all day. There wasn’t a group that didn’t stop, watch, tap their toe or take a picture or two.

Xavier Caylor was rewarded for 15 years of charity work through flagging by being sainted by The Sisters. It was well deserved and the sainting added to the magical quality of the day.

I realize FITP isn’t intended as a typical circuit party (though it seemed like Sundance to me) so when you have a great DJ and such a good vibe it’s hard not to treat it like a circuit party and in the end, we did. That’s what my friends and I love to do and so we gave all of our hearts and energy to the event which means; dance party!

Thank you, Xavier for all of the good you do and the absolute joy you help bring to the National AIDS Memorial Groove. I’m sure if I hadn’t had to leave before it ended (by 10 min, we pushed it as long as possible) I would be wishing for it to go on longer. But as it was, the day was perfect - Except I still haven’t found the bathrooms.

by Steven Satyricon

Once again this year, the August installment of Industry was Local Talent night. I know that there are many of us on the SF dance scene who are always saying that our city has a bumper crop of extremely talented DJs, so it’s nice that Industry gives them this showcase to shine–and shine they did.

I arrived at Mighty shortly after midnight to find the club respectably filled with people who came early to catch the opening set by DJ Russ Rich. I’d hoped to get there early enough to catch at least the tail end of his set–since I’m a great fan of his super high-energy vocals and penchant for pulling out the oldie-but-goodie house tracks–but alas, it was not in the cards this night, though I heard from others that he brought it, as usual. My companions and I made haste to the dancefloor after checking our coats, to find Jamie J already on the decks and keeping the crowd enthusiastically hopping. We quickly found the spot our Posse had claimed, shucked our shirts and started to dance. The energy on the dancefloor was exuberant and friendly; another great thing about Local Talent night is the hometown, familial vibe of the crowd. I was also introduced to a number of visitors who were clearly getting a very warm & cordial welcome to SF. Jamie was delivering his typical prime-time anthems mixed with driving bass lines. Everyone seemed to be feeling the groove, and we were well-primed by the go-go talents of Travis and Miss Miller for the performance to follow.

Shortly after 1AM (by my estimate), Suzan Revah, Joanna Parks, and Race Cooper took the stage for a very sexy and almost-Cirque-du-Soleil-athletic interpretation of Jamie J’s own remix of “Nasty Girls”–a splicing of Inaya Day’s cover of the original Vanity 6 track with the even more recent version by Jipsta. Without going into too much detail, the scenario involved the girls cruising Cooper in a bathroom and became a dominance & submission scene (with plenty of grinding choreography thrown in). Now, opinions are mixed on the topic of performances during dance parties, and I know a lot of circuit folks aren’t crazy about such “interruptions”…but there’s a big difference between performers coming onstage to enhance the impact of a particular song during the continuous mix (which is how performers generally do their thing at Industry), and stopping the music dead and then having the performance (for example, Alexis Jordan and Erika Jayne’s recent turns at Sundance). I for one cut my teeth in the circuit scene in the late 90s in Atlanta, where the weekly circuit club ALWAYS featured at least one performance every Saturday night–again, taking the stage during a continuous mix for a particular song–and I’ve often missed this complement to a night out. So personally, I love it when Industry features such shows (and all the better when it’s my besties who are onstage). I heard plenty of hooting and hollering in the crowd, so apparently I wasn’t the only one.

After the performance, Jamie seemed to crank the energy of the music up even further, and we worked up quite a sweat, glued to our spot on the floor. Eventually some of the muscle bear crowd started arriving, in anticipation of James Torres’ set. Sometime around 2:30AM Jamie handed the decks over to James, who cranked the bass and really started to hit us hard with the after-hours sound. While I did enjoy the music he was playing (and was particularly pleased to hear “Hey Hey” by Dennis Ferrer), I just didn’t seem to quite find my rhythm, dance-wise. I bounced around until a bit past 3AM, but then opted to catch a ride home with another friend who was leaving. There was definitely still a solid crowd on the dancefloor, buckled in for a long ride into the after-hours, though, and I have little doubt that James Torres gave them what they wanted.

So I managed a healthy dose of dancefloor cardio, along with a heaping helping of hometown comradery and some of the best DJ talent our city has to offer. I got home still soaked in sweat and with a smile on my face that had stayed there all night; what more can you ask for in a night out at the club? Industry reliably delivered another winning event and reminded us how lucky we are to be living in a place so ripe with Local Talent.

Burning Man brings together amazing artistry, in a size and scale that is not easily replicated anywhere else, alongside music and crazy costumes and fun people.  It is that one of a kind experience. What began over 20 years ago in San Francisco as a small gathering of people and grew to be a large beach party which eventually became an empire that moved to the Nevada desert, calls out to so many for a week of music, gathering, fun, silliness, and so much more.  Burning Man is an event billed on the leave no trace concept, which means you bring what you need (food, water, shelter, etc.) and you take it all back out with you.  The only exception being that ice, coffee and porta-potties are offered at the festival.

This entire city springs up from the desert floor with an amazing level of infrastructure of roads, structures and of course art.  At a width of about 5 miles at it’s largest point and built in concentric circles, you can walk out to the middle of this city and look back and swear you are looking at the Las Vegas strip with lights, fire and a spectacle to behold.

At the center is the lighted effigy of a man, perched on top of a structure that welcomes all home to the playa.  Every night and day from Monday through the Saturday, their are dance parties, music, workshops, yoga, massage, sharing, community and events taking place.  With warm days and cool nights, you spend most of your time awake during the darker hours taking in the spectacle of fire performances and giant sound camps that rival most city clubs.  During the day you tour the art and enjoy the company of friends.  Then come Saturday the entire city joins to watch the man burn and the final parties of the weekend carry you on until the sun rises Sunday Morning.  A somber day, Sunday is spent starting to break apart what you built and pull things down with a meeting that night at the city’s temple structure, where the hopes, dreams and prayers of the community are set ablaze, while the onlookers watch in often total silence, tears streaming and bidding farewell to the festival.  Monday a mass exodus and the clean up and journey home start.

If you have never been to this event, I only hope this paints a picture to draw your interest.  It is amazing and you should try it at least once in your life.

Check out the Burning Man web site for pictures and more information about this event.

Friday, August 20, 2010

BoyBar

Time: 9:00pm PDT to 2:00am
Where: The Cafe – 2369 Market Street, San Francisco map
http://www.guspresents.com