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Obama in San Francisco brings out protesters

One reporter jokingly said it felt like it was unpatriotic for a San Franciscan not to protest and that's exactly what it felt like last night while wandering through the protesting crowd. Just about every point on the political spectrum was covered. If you had a political agenda to push, San Francisco's Union Square was the place to be. While everyone had something to say there was no overarching message and in my opinion nothing can be accomplished when there is no coordinated effort. Instead people were just wandering around yelling and in the end, because of a lack of a audience with the president, began squabbling and bickering with each other.

Obama who was in town for the Democratic National Committee And Organizing For America fund-raiser held at The Westin St. Francis Hotel was walled off with police officers, barricades and media of all sorts.

I think everyone who was there was expecting to see him jump out of a car, wave and say a couple words, but that wasn't the case. Night fell and the crowd stayed chanting and carrying on. At one point i asked a police officer what time he was expected and he replied the president had been there for several hours.

Here's the rest @ SF Weekly.

The Pogues w/ Devotchka @ The Warfield

The Pogues and their excitable crowd.

I had never really heard the Pogues until recently, but when i started telling people i was going to the show they got all excited and and preceded to tell how excited they were for me to go to the show. The Pogues have been around long enough to where they really didn't have to do anything to whip the crowd into frenzy, a coupe words from their toothless drunken front man Shane MacGowan and everyone was moshing about. In the end it was great show an eye opening experience.

Good music in all, but i'm still a bigger fan of the melodic music of Denver based Devotchka-i guess you just can't go wring when you mix the sounds of a tuba, stand-up bass, violin, accordian, theremin and a classically trained frontman with a guitar. Check them out

Here's the full story @ SF Weekly.

Devotchka frontman Nick Urata

Spider Stacy

Frontman Shane MacGowan

The crowd is whipped into a frenzy.

The Pogues

Frontman Shane MacGowan

Guitarist Phil Chevron

Devotchka frontman Nick Urata

Elliot Brood @ Cafe Du Nord

A busy week of music in SF, Elliot Brood w/ Wooden Sky and Rosie Golan on Monday. Last night it was The Pogues w/ Devotchka at the Warfield (pics coming soon) and this weekend it's off to the Treasure Island Music Festival for more music.

Here's some pics of Elliot Brood @ Cafe du Nord, the three piece band rocked the cafe with a little extra volume, beats that you couldn't help but dance to and antics, including throwing pans and wooden spoons onto the dance floor for the crowd to bang on.

Here's the Elliot Brood Review @ SF Weekly.

3rd Annual Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle-Oakland CA

The 3rd Annual Estria Invitational Graffiti Battle was held this weekend on Saturday Oct. 10th in West Oakland's DeFremery Park. Kicking off at 11am the Battle was a daylong event featuring the aerosol art of a variety of graffiti artists. The weathered cooperated and the event brought a lot of people out to support community building efforts.

The smell of spray paint, marijuana and BBQ mingled in the air with the “oohhhss” and “ahhhss” from the break dance circle. A live DJ, live bands and the sound of rolling skateboards wheels could also be heard depending on what park of the park you were in.

The lawn of DeFremery was littered with 10ft high canvases tethered to multi-sided bamboo structures busied by artists creating their murals. Along with the graffiti battle was a full on break dancing battle that occupied the majority of the crowd as everyone crowded around a slab of linoleum to get a peek at the talented dancers spinning on their heads and hands. Not far away were tons of skateboarders strutting their moves on the ramps, half-pipes and rails in the skate park. If that wasn't enough for you there was plenty of food to be eaten, information of all sorts, and dancing to be done.

Check it out on SF Weekly

Spinning in the circle.

Areosol Art high and low.

Don't try this at home.

Some really good air.

Riding the rail.

A tagger at work.

Some more tagging.

Some more sweet moves.

Some very intricate art.

This guy had some great moves.

A low shot.

Some half pipe action.

Some serious crowd pressure.

The Cave Singers @ The Independent

The Cave Singers w/ Lightning Dust finished their US tour last night here in San Francisco. The Seattle based trio, who has been touring on their recent release Welcome Joy, put together a great show musicianship. The short set ended in a very gratuitous crowd welcoming a encore from the band. Check out SF Weekly for the whole story.