Matt Werner's Blog, page 4

Roy Zimmerman Brings His Satire to the Big Apple

Roy Zimmerman is Stephen Colbert with an acoustic guitar. The Northern California singer and songwriter is known for his biting satire on the latest political issues of the day. The left-leaning bard visited New York City on May 9, 2013 to perform his 90 minute "Wake Up Call" set at the Cornelia Street Cafe.

Descending the stairs beneath this Greenwich Village restaurant, one finds a long, narrow room with a bar and dinner tables set up. The legendary performance space is just wide enough to fit a grand piano in what looks like a forgotten subway tunnel.

Zimmerman's humor was infectious throughout his set, and he really connected with the audience in the tight space. It felt like a private show. He began his set with "This Machine drives neocon, jingoistic, war-mongering, xenophobic crypto-fascists from the room!" Just in case any mistakenly stepped into the bar, he began with this manifesto-like declaration which set the liberal/comedic/intellectual vibe for the night. By the second song, people had their drinks, and some women in their 70s at the table across from me were nearly choking they were laughing so hard.

His set featured topical songs supporting gay marriage, such as I Want a Marriage Like They Had In the Bible and Defenders of Marriage.

What struck me during his performance wasn't just his polished delivery and enjoyable stage presence--because you can gather that from watching his many videos on YouTube. But what struck me seeing him live for the first time was the quality of his song writing. There were some real gems, like the line "I am the laptop Kerouac," in I Approve this Message. In Vote Republican, he uses irony in the literary sense--saying one thing but meaning the opposite--such as with the line "John Boehner doesn't use any tanning products."

He debuted his song about fracking: "The Faucet's on Fire". He addresses many issues around fracking in a comical way--referencing that the shower's really hot because the faucet's on fire. Zimmerman's observations are whimsical, but they have a cunning to them, similar to Stephen Colbert's 2006 White House Correspondent's dinner address, where Colbert began with what sounded to many Republicans as praising G.W. Bush, but it was only when they thought more deeply, that they realized these were in fact insults--similar to how F. Scott Fitzgerald called Princeton "the pleasantest country club in America." Zimmerman's lyrics sound like compliments to the Republican establishment on the surface. But drafted with his co-writer and wife Melanie Harby, Zimmerman's lyrics have multiple layers, and can be taken as knee-slapping jokes, or as more serious meditations on the American post-war psyche, such as with Thanks for the Support.

He broke up his performance by inviting two guests onstage, who each played lighthearted songs at the piano. British satirist Daniel Cainer performed Bad Rabbi, which is about a cocaine-dealing rabbi in the UK.

In the second part of his set, Zimmerman took requests from the audience, and many called out his songs about GW Bush. He played Hope, Struggle and Change, Dick Cheney, Psychedelic Relic, and ended with a rousing rendition of one of his most popular tracks: What if the Beatles Were Irish?

If you're left-leaning, a Democrat, or just like a good live acoustic set, Roy Zimmerman is definitely worth checking out live. He's currently touring the country and is even doing house shows in the red states. Check out his website and YouTube channel for information about his latest shows.

Click here for photos of Roy Zimmerman in NYC.

California Magazine publishes interview on the future of printed books

California Magazine published an interview with me in their Spring 2013 issue on why I chose to print and hand-bind copies of Oakland in Popular Memory. In the interview, we discuss the great print vs. digital debate among other topics. Read the full interview here.

One of the Bay Area's legendary freestyle rappers drops new video

Celsius 7, one of the Bay Area's legendary freestyle rappers, just released his latest music video, which is an homage to 80s breakdancing and hip-hop culture. Filmed in Oakland and his hometown of Alameda, the video for Minds Like Me, the first track on his album Life Well Spent, features him rapping from East Bay locations like the Park Street Bridge between Alameda and Oakland.

Known for performing with rappers like Too Short, Mickey Avalon and fellow Alameda rapper Dirt Nasty, Celsius 7 has been a mainstay in the Bay Area's hip-hop scene for two decades performing with his group Psychokinetics before going solo. More recently, he's known for his alter-ego Smooth Rick "the Chosen" in the hip-hop-inspired, NSFW vaudeville lounge act Kalri$$ian. Outside of this, he's filmed innovative videos in the Bay, like Wanderlust, filmed throughout the Bay Area from the back of a moving truck--definitely worth checking out.

Why is George Watsky's Cardboard Castles #1 on iTunes?

George Watsky's album Cardboard Castles released today shot up to #1 on iTunes, as the best-selling hip-hop album. Watsky is a San Francisco hip-hop and spoken word artist who I interviewed back on my radio show on Fresh Air: The Alternative, which was included in Oakland in Popular Memory. 
Why is Watsky's album the #1 hip-hop album on iTunes, edging out Macklemore & Ryan Lewis? It has to do with the power of vulnerability. In an era of rappers boasting about their lavish lifestyles, cars, gold chains, and how many women they've been with, Watsky rejects that veneer and comes real with his spoken-word inspired tracks Tiny Glowing Screens Pt 2 and Dedicated to Christina Li. Could you imagine Rick Ross, 2 Chainz, or Gucci Mane releasing tracks like these? It's doubtful. Watsky showcases his range on Cardboard Castles, and his years of hustle have paid off--the word about his talent is out, and he debuted at #6 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Billboard charts.
You can download the album on iTunes, but I recommend purchasing the physical album which is signed by Watsky. The CD case folds out into a cardboard castle. For sample tracks from the album, check out his music video Moral of the Story and Cardboard Castles. Watsky's album Cardboard Castles makes the perfect fort for your Napoleon Dynamite figurine.
And Watksy's album is one of the top-10 bestselling albums for all genres on iTunes on March 12, 2013:

Watsky's Cardboard Castles is #1 hip-hop album on iTunes!

George Watsky's album Cardboard Castles released today shot up to #1 on iTunes, as the best-selling hip-hop album. Watsky is a San Francisco hip-hop and spoken word artist who I interviewed back on my radio show on Fresh Air: The Alternative, which was included in Oakland in Popular Memory. 
You can download the album on iTunes, but I recommend purchasing the physical album which is signed by Watsky. The CD case folds out into a cardboard castle. For sample tracks from the album, check out his music video Moral of the Story and Cardboard Castles. Watsky's CD album folds out into a cardboard castle:
And Watksy's album is one of the top-10 bestselling albums for all genres on iTunes on March 12, 2013:

Asemara’s Quest: An African immigrant tries to find work and housing in San Francisco

By Joe Sciarrillo

Asemara, an asylee from Eritrea, is sitting across from me at my desk at an immigration law clinic in San Francisco’s Mission District. Bouncing her one year old baby on her lap, she’s wearing a traditional zuria dress with a white shawl lightly draped over her braids and shoulders. Like many Eritrean and Ethiopian immigrants whom our office works with, she recounts living through two wars, persecution by Eritrean authorities, and surviving a trek of being smuggled from Brazil up through Central America to Mexico, and miraculously making it across the U.S. border with the help of coyotes. The irony of Asemara sitting there, is that despite all of the obstacles she’s faced so far, her next task seems insurmountable -- to find affordable housing in San Francisco.
A worker working on a new construction project in San Francisco’s SOMA district. African immigrants have found it especially difficult to find affordable housing in San Francisco.
Immigrants and refugees from around the world celebrate San Francisco’s leadership as a Sanctuary City, with some of the best civil rights protections and social services. However, more and more newly arriving residents have to pack up again and move to the outskirts of the city. Despite being called the #2 most-healthy housing market in the U.S., San Francisco’s rising rent prices have forced many to move to nearby cities like Oakland, Richmond, and even to towns in the far East Bay like Antioch and Hercules.

As Asemara pushes her baby in a stroller to head back to the homeless shelter, she passes several buildings along Mission Street that are home to burgeoning Internet start-ups, which are fueling a fierce competition among tenants, realtors, and landlords. Private, double-decker tech shuttles whiz past stalled MUNI busses, marking the widening gap between the haves and have-nots.

While much of the United States is slowly emerging out of the recession, the San Francisco Bay Area is in its second dot-com boom. San Francisco and the Silicon Valley experienced its first dot-com bubble in the late 90s, marked by increasing rents for apartments and offices in the Mission District and South of Market (SoMa) neighborhoods. To welcome the new wave in 2011, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced tax-cuts for Twitter. Later that year, Twitter cofounder Biz Stone appeared in a campaign video endorsing Lee, which also featured Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer. Conservative Silicon Valley investor and SF powerbroker Ron Conway was fittingly listed in the video credits as “behind the scenes,” which the SF Chronicle and SF Bay Guardian point out is also his role at City Hall. So while the millionaires and start-ups are getting tax breaks, how does the other half in San Francisco live?

“Gentrification” is the San Francisco buzzword with the increased displacement and evictions of working-class, and particularly Latino families. But how do we define this oft-thrown-around word in 2013? The term gentrification is used so often that the word has become diluted and worn down, like the word “hipster,” in that almost any new housing development could be called “gentrification.” But the complexity of the situation in San Francisco can’t readily be defined by a simple, all-encompassing word.

In San Francisco, it’s a double-edged sword, both constructing and cutting down existing neighborhoods with effects that ripple to Oakland and surrounding cities. Talent is coming into the city, with innovative green businesses, blossoming restaurants, and music venues. Median incomes are rising but so are evictions, mom-and-pop businesses shuttering, and land-grabs for condominiums. The city reached an all-time high of 227 homeless families on waiting lists for temporary housing in 2011, many of whom couldn’t find space at local shelters after recent budget cuts. More housing is being built, specifically 22,000 units in both the approval or construction phase. However, with most buildings only allotting 8-12% as affordable housing units, most studios cost above $2,000, and two-bedrooms average at $4,500. Chances of obtaining a unit are slim, given the waiting lists and people lining up with resumes, credit reports, and bank statements to get in the door.
New construction in China Basin near the ballpark. Many biotech companies and startups are raising the rent prices throughout San Francisco.
A month ago, Asemara told me that she had found an opportunity to stay in San Francisco with her baby. She had been selected by her shelter to receive one year of subsidized rent. She handed me a paper from her shelter, explaining that Salesforce will help her pay up to $800 for any apartment she can find under $1000. But after weeks of contacting landlords on Craigslist, no takers emerge, leaving her with a deadline of one more month before the shelter will require her to find her own place. She tells me, “even in the Tenderloin there is no opportunity to get an apartment so now I have to plan to go Oakland.” Many other Eritrean and Ethiopian friends have been moving to the East Bay for the past few years, where cheaper rent and bigger space can accommodate growing families and arriving relatives.

In December, 2011, tech moguls and philanthropists Marc and Lynne Benioff of Salesforce.com contributed $1.5 million to a city fund, to house San Francisco homeless families. The private-public partnership seemed like a sign that the new dot-com boom could help solve social woes while stimulating the local economy. Yet two months later, Salesforce axed plans for a $2 billion dollar company campus in Mission Bay, and city officials began second-guessing their dependence on such large tech investments.

Ellis Act evictions continue in both Oakland and San Francisco, based on a California state law permitting landlords to evict tenants. The Act permits evictions only if a landlord wants to either stop renting the unit for at least five years or sell the property as a condo or tenancy-in-common (TIC). In response, housing activists and the real estate industry in San Francisco cite their success in coming together to win voters’ approval of Proposition C. This creates a Housing Trust Fund that allots tens of millions of dollars per year over 30 years for low and middle income housing in the city. Still, the fund does not stop the high number of evictions continuing in the city. It's unclear whether or not the new super-majority of Democrats in the state capitol will touch legislation to address the Ellis Act in coming years.
In the wake of the Arab Spring uprising, Eritrean-Americans living in the Bay Area call for democratic reforms in their East African nation outside City Hall in May, 2011.
So as immigrants, refugees, and asylees continue to flee struggles in home countries, complex obstacles emerge for finding a stable home in the Bay. The Eritrean communities in the Bay Area continue to advocate for change back in the Horn of Africa while shaping and molding new lives here. Single mothers like Asemara, are hedging their bets that future job prospects amidst the dot-com boom will be enough to lead to stable housing in the city. But as her housing applications bring no response, city officials need to focus on coupling a sustainable economy with sustainable housing. Will all of our housing go to the top bidder? Or will San Francisco continue to be a place that champions diversity and welcomes with open arms those eclectic groups of people who continually re-energize its culture?

While Asemara awaits for a reply to her housing applications, she is taking English classes and is now enrolled in CalWorks job training program. She’s confident she can find a job in the coming weeks in housekeeping or senior care. Her job prospects, albeit at minimum wage, look strong. She’s additionally taking CNA training classes with her long-term future in mind, hoping to find a stable job at the future UCSF Children's hospital in Mission Bay or the future CPMC hospital on Van Ness.

Still without replies to her apartment applications, she resigns to thinking that she may have to move out of the city. Finding affordable housing in San Francisco to raise her son seems impossible, but she has not yet given up. San Francisco is the only city that she has ever called “home” in the U.S. The city’s unique urban landscape, economy, and cultures have inspired her to fight to stay. If city voters want to maintain the vibrancy that this city celebrates, they need to make sure city policies from housing to job placement allow all San Franciscans (be they low income, middle class, or upper class) to thrive.


This article is cross-posted on Oakland Local. The subject of this article’s name was changed to “Asemara” to protect her identity. Matt Werner also contributed to this article. Joe Sciarrillo is currently studying in UC Berkeley’s Masters of Social Work program and working as a paralegal/case manager for immigrant rights at the African Advocacy Network, a nonprofit he co-founded in San Francisco’s Mission District. Email him at joesciarrillo[at]berkeley.edu. Sciarrillo and Werner recently published Bay Area Underground, a new photobook featuring photos from the major protests and social movements in the Bay Area over the past five years.

March 2013 First Friday and Art Murmur Recap

By Joe Sciarrillo

The normally vibrant and rambunctious street festival that accompanies Oakland's First Friday Art Murmur was toned-down this past Friday, compared to last month’s event. Due to the fatal shooting of Kiante Campbell after February's gathering, event planners and artists set a more reflective, somber tone, hoping to bridge the arts community with the long-running movement in Oakland to stop violence in the city.

Event organizers scattered themselves along Telegraph Avenue, between West Grand and 27th Street, wearing bright green Respect Our City T-shirts. The event was scaled down in length and size, only going from 6-9pm and blocking off only five blocks. This is in contrast to the past few months when the event often went past 10pm and artist displays were interspersed near Broadway and Telegraph from Jack London Square all the way to 27th Street. Also, beer sales were restricted during the street festival, although some galleries still sold wine.
Mayor Jean Quan and District 3 City Councilwoman Lynette Gibson McElhaney made their presence known throughout the event, mingling with the crowds and oftentimes flanked by TV crews and security guards.

Most artists and vendors observed the moment of silence at 7:30pm and 9pm, and there were candlelight memorials set up for Kiante Campbell at West Grand, and at the site of his fatal shooting at 20th Street and Telegraph Ave. The First Friday street festival also featured fewer soundsystems and amplified musicians, out of respect for these calls for silence.

More police were present, but local media didn't report any major issues or altercations. The "FTP" march, including anarchist groups and residents speaking out against police brutality passed through the crowd at 9pm. Councilwoman McElhaney approached them, exclaiming, "This is not the time for that! This is a time to honor our city!" There were approximately 25 marchers. It was much smaller and more civil than the last FTP march at the August 2012 Art Murmur where some participants broke windows at an Obama campaign headquarters. However, despite these incidents, First Friday continues to be Oakland's top-reviewed cultural event on Yelp.

The over 30 galleries and mixed-use spaces that run along Telegraph Ave. were much more packed than they were a year ago, when only 23rd Street was blocked off. But compared to the Art Murmur turnout for the last few months, it appeared that half as many people came out in March as came out the previous month. Galleries which had lines extending for half a block at prior Art Murmurs, now had short or no lines most of the evening. As police ushered the crowd out of the event at 9pm, what drew a lot of attention on the street were the low-riders and classic cars parked at Giant Burgers. Crowds gathered at the parking lot at 22nd Street and Telegraph as the drivers put on "hydraulics" shows.
Even though the participant turnout was subdued, the media presence was the greatest it’s ever been for Art Murmur. A year ago, Art Murmur was covered by few local media outlets. Now, it was swarmed by dozens of journalists, from local news stations doing live reports from the event, as well as documentary film crews, and international journalists and photographers from publications such as GEO (the French equivalent of National Geographic magazine).

By 9:30pm, as artists were still closing up their stands, Jean Quan continued to socialize with event-goers, explaining to one artist why she hadn't gone home yet, "I gotta be out here - we need to outreach to the community!"


This article is cross-posted on Oakland Local. Matt Werner also contributed to this report. Joe Sciarrillo and Matt Werner are the authors of Bay Area Underground, a new photobook featuring photos from the major protests and social movements in the Bay Area over the past five years. Contact them at editor[at]thoughtpublishing.org. Check out their book release party at SoleSpace in Downtown Oakland on March 15!

Bay Area Underground book release parties

Joe Sciarrillo and I are hosting 2 book release parties in the San Francisco Bay Area for our latest book Bay Area Underground. Stop by if you're in town.

San Francisco Book Release party
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Raven Bar
1151 Folsom St  San Francisco, California
5:30-8:30pm
View more details

East Bay Book Release party
Friday, March 15, 2013
SoleSpace
1714 Telegraph Ave, Oakland, California
7pm-8pm
View more details

Learn more about the book, and check out some photos from the book.

Google hosts art exhibit on the Making of Oakland in Popular Memory

Google hosted an art exhibit in the Mountain View offices from September 2012 to January 2013 on "The Making of Oakland in Popular Memory."
The exhibit featured original artist portraits drawn by Laura Tomlinson, a linoleum block print of the cover by Dave Smallen, and photography by Joe Sciarrillo.

Oakland in Popular Memory is a book published in 2012 by Thought Publishing which features interviews with 12 innovative artists from Oakland and people who've inspired Oakland artists.

Click here for photos of the exhibit

What CDZA shares with McSweeney's Issue 42

McSweeney's Issue 42 features a telephone on the cover. This image is appropriate because inside is an elaborate game of telephone, described by the literary quarterly as "a monumental experiment in translated literature—twelve stories taken through six translators apiece, weaving into English and then back out again, gaining new twists and textures each time."

What's interesting is that shortly after Issue 42 came out, CDZA produced an equally groundbreaking piece on translation, but instead of using stories by Kafka and Kharms translated by today's leading writers, Joe Sabia used the lyrics of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song and Google Translate.
So why did both of these avant-garde media outlets choose to experiment with retranslation to reveal the curse of Babel? What is it in today's hyper-gobalized and connected society that makes us not only fascinated with the dangers of translation, but revel in the curious and humorous outcomes that can come from our imperfect communication tools, which fail to accurately port meaning from one language to another? Feel free to add your comments below.

For more on McSweeney's Issue 42, see That Other Word, and more on CDZA, see their YouTube Channel.