Preview of Speaking in Tongues @ K.Q.E.D.

Headed over to K.Q.E.D. (PBS affiliate in SF) today to preview a documentary on immersion and multi-lingual education. My wife Angelica has been working for two years in a pioneering Mandarin Chinese immersion program here in the City. During her first year of teaching in the program, they came in to film her in action. The film, titled Speaking in Tongues, is a thought provoking piece that focuses on 4 students from different cultural backgrounds that are learning two languages. Overall, I thought the movie was really good. My main criticism is that it was a little to focused on a liberal, left-wing audience. I think the intent is to attempt to convert those that disagree with or misunderstand bi-lingual education, but the film tended to offer shallow if any arguments against bi-lingual education. It even had several scenes that mocked people with that position portraying them as uneducated nationalists. While many of their arguments don't hold up well, I do think that there are cons to consider. Anyway, Angelica was her usual radiant self. She looked great and was well spoken. I can't wait until the show goes national for everyone to see.

Thrice and Pelican Show @ The Fillmore

Great show last night. Was really looking forward to seeing Pelican. They played a short set leaving me wanting more. Circa Survive had some interesting moments but didn't do much for me. Hadn't listened to much of the latest stuff from Thrice, but I have to say they put on a pretty amazing show. As they were playing, I was thinking back to some lyrics on a few of their albums and how I thought they were a Christian band. It struck me during the show that Thrice might stand for the Holy Trinity (i.e. father, son and holy spirit). I Googled around a little bit today but didn't find anything to validate that or that they are even Christian at all, but others have also speculated.

Crudo (Patton's New Project)

Checked out Crudo (Mike Patton's new project) the other night at the GAMH. Very similar to Peeping Tom, but not quite as good IMHO. It was their first show ever. Butterscotch was playing keys and did a sick beatbox improv. She is unreal. Overall, glad I checked out the show. It seems Patton is moving in a different direction musically. Most of his new stuff is very Hip Hop oriented.

Paul B's Visit

My buddy Paul B was in the hood last night, so we met up for a few beers and some chow. We had a beer at Bender's which is a place that I had been wanting to check out for a while. One of the bar tenders from Toronado (an excellent beer bar), owns or co-owns it. Cool place. Good beer selection and prices and cool atmosphere. Awesome jukebox. Paul B is vegetarian, so we ended up at this vegetarian Japanese place called Cha-Ya. I had the stuffed eggplant which I thought was excellent. It was kinda pricey for vegetarian food, but the quality was top notch. After that we were wandering around looking for another place to grab a beer and came across this cool little theater on Mission Street. It's called the Dark Room theater and they host stand up comedians, plays and movies. Their latest presentation is "Attack of the Killer B-Movies" (http://darkroomsf.com/killerbs/index.htm). I love B-Movies, so I was immediately intrigued. Will probably go check out The Blob in the next few weeks.

Jerm's Life in the City

A blog about my life in the San Francisco Bay Area. I plan to mainly write about show/concerts that I've gone to but will probably throw in some other night life reviews (restaurants, bars, etc) and random thoughts.

My wife and I live in the Mission District in San Francisco. We recently moved from the Sunset District where we both lived for many years. The Mission is better in most respects (weather, night life, culturally vibrant), but I do miss being close to the beach. I'm a Software Architect for a small start-up company called Vizu (www.vizu.com) in North Beach. Surfing and music are big parts of my life. I learned to surf when I moved to SF about 8 years ago. I'm a guitar player and have played in several bands over the years. The music scene in SF is amazing. I go to, on average, 1 to 2 shows per week with my best bud Matt. There are so many good shows that it's hard to make it to all of them. Anyway, that's my life in a nut shell. Now on to the blogging....