Linkwood roots go back to early 2000’s in Edinburgh UK when the underground dance music scene there was popping off. Eventually Nick Moore and his partner Lindsey Todd (House of Traps) put out the first Firecracker EP on their Firecracker label in 2004 featuring their now sought out masterpiece “Miles Away.”

Since then Moore and Todd have collaborated on four more praised Firecracker releases as well as many more individual projects.  Moore had a breakthrough year in 2009 after releasing System on the soulful Prime Numbers label. This is the release that has taken his sound on tour around the world.  I describe the Linkwood sound as weathered acid washed beaten down house spaceship disco reprise.  Does that do it justice? Have a listen:

If that is not enough, then bug out to one of his latest mixes:

Latest tracks by Linkwood

So, Linkwood will be performing this Friday 23rd at one of the world’s most unique and intimate party spots located around the outskirts of San Francisco, very limited capacity and by the way, it probably has the best custom sound available in the Western Hemisphere…. Not kidding. The very secret and special locale will be disclosed the day of the event. Seeing that this is Linkwood’s only West Coast appearance I would not miss this if I were you. Alongside this house-disco phenomenon and appearing for the first time in the secret locale will be Jeno, one of the pioneers of the West Coast’s party scene, a living legend; also Sammy D of Kontrol who killed at his closeout set for the Sunset Campout, Conor SF, a local rising disco star and the man behind No Way Back, and Briski, my good friend who I love and respect, plus he dons a record bag full of slick cuts and knows how to mix them.

Don’t miss this one kids.

rebody sf, Linkwood, Jeno, Sammy D, ConorSF, Briski

Pre-sale tickets start at $15 and are available via Pay Pal, rebodysf@gmail.com, or find the pay pal link at http://www.rebodysf.com/

See you there dance suckas.

Do you hate bike thiefs or any other type of criminals for that matter?  This video might make you feel better, maybe.  In this video some citizens had enough with a local bike thief and they finally decided to take matters into their own hands.  They set up an ambush scene with a hidden camera and a bait bike to catch him in the act. After a couple of nights he gets caught ‘redhanded’ stealing the bait bike then gets blasted by dozens of paintballs.  He attempts to retaliate with a knife but that only makes it worse because the vigilantes had bear spray waiting for him.  Ever been hit by a paintball?? “Ouch” doesn’t do justice to the pain produced by one hit.  Yes, there is a possibility that this video is fake but after watching it closely a few times I am pretty sure it’s real.  Living in San Francisco I have gotten my bike seat stolen two times, my front wheel taken once and my car window busted twice only to take some old CD’s.  Needless to say I have experienced much anger at this situation and have actually thought about doing this same thing but never had the balls or motivation to actually do it.

This video is a first of a kind on even on You Tube.  Controversial?  Does the thief deserve this?  He deserves something that is for sure.  I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t somewhat excited by the vigilantes who decided to take matters into their own hands.   The thief, well, I am sure he spent a week in bed watching his bruises go down.  I hope he never ever steals another bike again.  Thiefs worldwide beware.  This type of activity might become contagious.

Calling all true underground dance music connoisseurs of San Francisco.  In case you missed the last one, the one and only Mr. Dan Bell aka DBX will be playing another 9 hour set this Saturday night at the most precious of all underground locations in North America, this is a fairly common opinion shared by those who have experienced it.

Who? What? Dan Bell is an underground dance music pioneer from Detroit.  Many will argue that he invented the minimal techno sound, he definitely owns rights to the original classics like Losing Control.  Check out his Discogs page. Dan inspired an entire generation of producers to bump those beeps and blips into a bliss of smooth rhythm, very basic, very primal, very deep, sexy. These days Dan Bell usually only plays for big crowds at festivals or at some of the world’s largest clubs like Tresor, Panorama Bar, etc.  On this very special night in San Francisco however Dan will deliver another exclusive 9 hour performance for 150 people, the max capacity of the venue.  Why are we so lucky?

Dan Bell loves playing at this special underground venue.  Here is an excerpt from the official invite by our great host Mr. G. Bird who describes it oh so passionately:

In late 2008, after playing for [KONTROL] four times between 2005 and 2007, Dan Bell approached me and told me he had an idea for a long-format special event in which he was the only DJ all night. Knowing this would truly be one for the history books, we secured SF’s most amazing intimate private location, and it was on. After promising an 8 hour set in which he was the “opener, headliner, and closer”, Dan delivered what was, without a doubt, one of the most memorable nights of music I have ever been witness to in well over a decade of steady partying. Flawless long mixes, incredible unheard gems both old and new, and a deep, sophisticated vibe that has rarely (if ever) since been replicated. At 7am, when he was scheduled to end, Dan asked if he could play one more hour, as he still had some great music he’d like to get to before calling it a day. He did. And many of us stayed to the very end. And through nearly 9 hours of mixing, he never lost his focus, never even stopped to use the bathroom! To this day, when people ask me about my favorite parties ever, this one immediately jumps to mind, and I suspect I’m far from alone in feeling this way.

We will leave the name of this underground locale out of this post to protect the integrity of the spot.  However it is ‘theatre in the round’ presentation,  the artist performs in the middle, and 150 lucky people are engulfed by the perfectly tuned state of the art 360 degree 16.1 dolby surround sound system.  OH YEAH BABY!  This place is a sound engineer’s wet dream and it requires going through some dirt roads to find it. (Awesome! anyone been to underground Detroit parties in the early 90’s? It’s a lot like that:-)  Again, I’d like to give a special thanks to our host G. Bird for putting together this event on for the second time.

Besides having have had Dan Bell play my college house party for 30 of us (thank you Lucas Ortega for hooking that up), this event is as intimate as it is ever going to get to the decadent sounds of Dan Bell over a high quality system in the best city in the world, San Francisco.

Want to know how to make it to this party?  First you must be on Facebook, here is the link the invite:

Photos by Gilbert Rizzo

Thursday November 19th at 9pm, Indy Spirits Expo Afterparty

Macchu Pisco and Combier Present

‘NOW AVAILABLE’ IN CALIFORNIA PARTY

1 FREE Macchu Pisco Daisy cocktail, Come celebrate

$5 Pisco and Combier cocktails

Top Shelf Music provided by Romanowski

@ 83 Proof, 83 First Street (between Market and Mission)

NO COVER

Special thanks to our new distributor in California, Wine Warehouse.

follow @piscosf on twitter for more news and info

The Facebook Invite: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/event.php?eid=176404807157&ref=ts

Join the Macchu Pisco Facebook Group for more goodies: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=18760511406&ref=ts

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As best described in bullet points by Daniel Gritzer in his Time Out New York magazine article. “Pisco: Getting to Know Peru’s Grape Brandy”:

• Pisco comes in three main categories: puro (pure), acholado (blended) and mosto verde (green must).
• Puro piscos are made from one type of grape, and are themselves divided into aromatic and nonaromatic categories, depending on the varietal used.
• Acholados are blends of the distillates of various grapes, such as the delicate and floral La Diablada, produced by the Asher sisters.
• Mosto verde is distilled after it is only halfway fermented, resulting in a much diminished yield. It is best sipped alone.
• The most traditional grape for pisco is called quebranta, meaning “broken.” It was brought by Spanish explorers to South America from the Canary Islands, and was essentially “broken in” to survive the Peruvian climate, hence the name. Macchu Pisco is 100 percent quebranta, and it makes a less fruity and floral spirit. Other pisco grapes can be much more aromatic.
• Pisco is different from Italian grappa in that grappa is distilled from pomace (the solid remnants like skin and seed after wine has been pressed), while pisco is distilled from freshly fermented grape juice with no associated wine production.”

Absolute Power

I was walking across the Galata bridge late at night in Istanbul when I ran into a very old Turkish man wearing this hat.  It was unreal that someone that old could be wearing such a cool hat. I don’t mean to say anything agist, but I was not in San Francisco you know, I am just saying.  I went up and talked to him, his name was Salman and he spoke no English, but he could tell I liked his hat and the guy was obviously pretty cool and very young at heart where it matters most.  I told him I was originally from Peru and he gave me a hug.  If you look real close you can tell it was hand made, probably by some  local Istanbul designer.  Salman let it go to  me for 15 TL, about 10 bucks.   The best $10 I have ever spent, it’s golden like a crown.   I officially own the coolest baseball hat in the world.  If anyone has any information about the hat designer, please comment.

Accorgding to Wikipedia, Ruda, or Common Rue, is a plant with some acknowledged medicinal properties from digestive aid to arthritis relief but also used as an abortifacient to horses and humans. It is also said that cats dislike the smell of it and has been used to deter them. But no mention of any esoteric belief attached to it. Ok.

Originally I bought this soap to put on my wall menagerie (I have a menagerie? whoa) since I think its a cool little foreign trinket, but upon opening the box when I got home from Peru last night I realized this soap actually smells damn good.  So I have decided to use it and in the meantime report any blatant luck may occur during the lifetime of the soap.   To be fully fair to this experiment I will declare an open mind to the product and just report the facts.

I will post updates.

Alpaca’s experiencing post Ruda bliss?

UPDATE 4/14/09:

By some conventional definitions of getting lucky It would be fair to suggest I got lucky the first day I used the soap. Yeah, I totally got laid, but that does not mean you will and it also does not mean that this soap will give you the same result.  I will update if more blatant luck persists.

I met William at a stoplight in San Isidro as he was breakdancing for money. He was literally turning on his head to earn a living. This is an example of a great Peruvian guy earning a fair buck with his talents. Support the street arts worldwide. Give William some love at bboy257@hotmail

#giveprops to your favorite twitter personalities throughout the day by explicitly telling your followers to follow them and add ‘#giveprops’ at the end of your tweet. Presto! It’s that easy.

#giveprops will help us follow new cool twitter streams which we did not previously know about.  If someone gives you #giveprops, be honored, they enjoy your twitter company.

This is an experiement testing the love on Twitter and the following picture is the first result from googling #giveprops as of today:

I will publish who I gave props to on this post. #giveprops everyone.

This is sponsored in part by this miguel23 web log.  Oh have I neglected you due to Twitter my little blog…

—-

This is who I gave props to.

M

Here are the responses. Most names are abbreviated:

CHB at 11:25am November 4- move to Norway

NA at 11:31am November 4- move to New Zealand and shave sheep

TB at 11:34am November 4 – moving to Norway w/Cecilie.

COZ at 11:40am November 4 – Any more room in Norway? Count me in!

BS at 11:41am November 4 – loot downtown Chicago

SDK at 11:45am November 4- will too go to Norway.

JDH at 11:50am November 4-cry, then move.

EZ at 11:54am November 4- move to Slovenia and talk S@%^ about the US!

AM at 12:02pm November 4- Going to be surrounded by at least 65,000 other very angry people at his rally tonight.

DS at 12:15pm November 4- Start taking chinese lessons

LB at 12:18pm November 4- Fly to Belgium and visit my Cairo friends Melissa and Liesbet !!!!

GS at 12:23pm November 4- Try to hook up with Meghan McCain.

NF at 12:26pm November 4 -stay in South Africa

@aperobot @miguel23 be saved by ze-RO! http://flickr.com/photos/ma… 6 minutes ago from web in reply to miguel23

@itzpapalotl     @miguel23 spend 4 years in a drunken stupor 16 minutes ago from twitterrific in reply to miguel23

@dossy @miguel23 … “be disappointed, but not surprised in the least.” 10 minutes ago from Blackbird in reply to miguel23

@Spinelli666 @miguel23 If Obama does not win, I am going to riot with the brothers 13 minutes ago from Election 2008 in reply to miguel23

SHG at 12:33pm November 4- rock my zombie makeup every day in protest.

CH at 12:40pm November 4 – stop by the surplus store by my house, pick up a gas mask and a helmet and start preparing… or maybe i’ll just drink myself into a coma

DT at 12:55pm November 4- not even think about that right now since you can spend time actually working toward a win: Call Obama supporters in battleground states and make sure they’ve voted! www.my.barackobama.com/page/votercontact

magerleagues: Vote for him again in 2012

Jack- beats the hell out of me

Corey- fucking hang myself

CM: move out of the country

gordon- kick some ass

jerome – give up chocolate for one week

timmmii – obama will win, i refuse to think anything else

DH at 1:38pm November 4 – Move to Iraq.

hogpath @miguel23 sh*t myself 

Fausto  at 2:06pm November 4 -Me voy a la puta de su madre.

DH at 2:04pm November 4 -move to Mexico

ben dover Says:November 4th, 2008 at 10:02 pm- get ready for the “end of days”… find out how big a cubit is, get two of every animal, make an ark and prepare for forty days of rain!

MC at 2:23pm November 4 – Pinch myself because I’m obviously having a nightmare.

@melliefarrell @miguel23 If Obama does not win, I am going to go into a race rage for the next week 

JP at 2:40pm November 4- freak the F*&@)# out!

SB at 3:18pm November 4 – Prepare to be ashamed of my country for the duration.

Kristi Says: November 4th, 2008 at 10:47 pm  -throw myself on to the floor and pound my fists and feet into the ground…

BE at 2:11pm November 4 – gather two of every animal, make an ark, and prepare for forty days of rain.

I expect mostly hardcore disco lovers in the area who love Harvey for what he does will definitely represent that night.  I also think you haven’t seen Dj Harvey before, this would be the time to do it.  It brings together good people.  The crowd last time was diverse and flat out cool, everybody was smiling and dancing.  It is a nice relief from the bridge and tunnel weekend warrior crowds who flood San Francisco on any given Saturday night.

This event lands on the evening of the Lovefest weekend which will draw crowds from around the country. It gets ridiculous in front of City Hall.  No other city in America has an event like this in front of their public service offices.  Come nighttime, there will be plenty of cheesy afterhours parties in San Francisco but none will be as crucial as this Dj Harvey show at Club Oasis.  Good luck finding a groovier place to hang out that night.   Club Oasis is located at 135 12th Street, Oakland, CA 94607. 9pm to 4am, $10.

I look forward to meeting the crew who is throwing this party. They represented at my party last weekend.  I know this because they put their flyers up:)

See you there or beware.

All the djs had great sets. Kicked off my Chad Neiro, then Leonard, Jeno, Paul T, and capped off by Jesse.  We had some great guests show up.  David Harness and Lee Burridge from the UK just stopped by to hang out along with Gunita of Listed promotions who is putting on the Get Weird Lovefest kick off event at Mighty on Oct 3rd 2008.

The only bad thing that happened all night, and it was pretty bad I suppose, was that our sound-system broke and became 1/4th the volume.  This happened around 3am right before Paul T got on.  Unfortunately he played a quieter set than those who played before him.  People were forced to get closer to the front to catch the show.  It became very intimate.  He played tracks I have never heard before with a certain grace and groove.  His presence behind the decks is strong, he knows how to work a crowd.  He gets very involved in his sound which is infectious to a bystander.

Paul T and myself had a moment to hang out and even get a little philosophic.  The main thing I noticed was his humble approach to his djing talent.  He said more than once that, “he is not a real dj,” but I attest that he throws down like a pro.  In fact Paul is the owner of Sarcastic Clothing and also the co-head designer at Stussy.  He and Dj Harvey put on Dj Harvey Sarcastic Disco, hence his affiliation to those events and to the music.  Paul is NOT a fan of recorded mixes.  He believes that an online dj set does not lend enough justice to the actual performance and would rather not allow his sets to be recorded and distributed online.  The BeatsInSpace dj mix which has gotten so much attention was a one off experience for him. Paul has a very easygoing personality and I enjoyed speaking with him about many other topics.  If Paul T comes to your town, go see him.

I ended the night well.  I caught up with Jeno at the end and we shot the shit about old Detroit music.  He knows his business. I told him my favorite Theo Parrish story but that for another blog post.   Leonard as usual displayed his magic on decks and hung out all night which made me happy because I have known him the longest of any other local dj in San Francisco, he is a true connoisseur and has always looked out for me.  Thanks Leonard.  Albert our sound guy felt disappointed about the failure of his sound-system but I hope he knows that none of us are ‘pissed,’ S!!t happens.  He is ‘good peoples’ 

Again, thanks to all of you who represented with us on this very special night.  Look forward to more events from us in the future.

Paul Takahashi, aka Paul T, is an underground culture trendsetter whose disco djing skills have earned him high degree accolades in the avant Nu Disco scenes.  Paul T sees  Disco through different lens.  He drops drippy filtered psychedelic ’spaceship-landing’ Nu Discospheric selections mixed in an expert fashion with keen attention to vibe and programming.   He was recently featured on Tim Sweeny’s highly acclaimed Bside radio broadcast, BeatsInSpace, out of New York.  A friend of mine described this radio recording as “crucial.” Listen to it here.

Years ago Paul teamed up with the voodoo disco prince, Dj Harvey, to produce LA’s highly acclaimed Dj Harvey Sarcastic Disco events.  Paul helped mature and foster a scene of serious disco music aficionados and veteran partiers who come out of the woodwork to celebrate the Disco warehouse spirit.

This will be Paul’s first show in San Francisco (he once played a wack fashion show here, so that does not count!).  Paul has a reputation for being very selective about where he performs.  This following clip from a gig in Mexico (Mexico has a rich history of loving disco music) displays Paul’s dj headnodding groove as he pounds a disco sample through the floor:

We made sure to secure a safe underground spot to make this event go off.  Here is a very short video clip of Paul building a crescendo at a party in Mexico, we never really hear the drop but the energy is building:

Paul will be accompanied by Leonard of Tocadisco, an underground music guru (Leonard is very sought out for his limitless knowledge of rare vinyl recordings), and Jeno, our local Wicked veteran and headliner for the BackToBack parties. 

In all, Paul T is the underground dj’s DJ.  I am very excited to work with VHS to help bring Paul T to San Francisco. I personally look forward to repeating the Disco magic I experienced at a Dj Harvey show back in May. I cannot wait to feel the power of the beat through the mind of Paul T.  19 Heron St, $10 at the door, 10pm to 6am.  See you there dance suckas!

I saw Harvey once before in 2000 but I didn’t like it. On this night however, the stars were aligned and he came down with the phenomenal disco force that only a well strapped dj veteran like him can. Let’s have a reality check here. Dj Harvey is old school – I don’t know his true age but you can read his Wikipedia entry and get an idea of how far his dj career goes – He is no spring chicken – he is more like the wise owl – check out his greying beard. As a dj for 14 years myself, I was impressed by every selection he made. I recognized 2 songs all night – 4 hours.

Description: Funk-Rock with a Disco kiss on it. A deep blend of washed out guitars, funky-tribally drums rhythms, wet high hats, psychedelic drone strings, far away sounds, dance friendly rock and just the right amount of Vocals. It is one of the most eclectic sounds I have ever heard yet, under the umbrella of Disco.

The show was small, it was one of those events that drew true disco music lovers – only those who knew were there, about 100 strong which Harvey kept dancing for 5 hours straight. I myself got lucky and met a great dancer on that dance floor. We danced till sweaty – two and a half hours straight before we finally took a water break What a lucky guy her boyfriend must be – he was not there. Too bad for him, on that night Harvey made her and I connect body moves to the underground Disco Beat Check out his site and learn more about Harvey: http://www.harveysarcasticdisco.com/

With only 30 days left until the deadline of a contest that Current TV was running called, Seeds of Tolerance, I embarked on this project. The prize was 100,000 dollars – I was in for the ride of my life.

I picked this topic because I myself am an immigrant to the good ole U.S.A. and I felt it was my duty to explore this topic closely. I am so happy that I did.

I quit my job (I got it back when I returned), borrowed the equipment, secured the funding, and flew off to New Orleans with only two contacts upon arrival, a friends friend who lent me his floor to sleep on and Christian Roselund who ran Indymedia in the area and whom I met through email correspondence.

Blood, Sweat and Tears is the best way that I can explain these 30 days. Sourcing, shooting, directing, and editing. I was a one man show. I went up to scared immigrant strangers on the street, this is how I met all the subjects in my movie. My time in New Orleans was very short so every minute on the field was worth gold. I met heroes and downtrodden people. Then entire experience felt somewhat apocalyptic. Certain people will always stick out in my mind.

9 hours of footage later, I had to teach myself how to edit video. This took about 2 hours thanks to my audio editing skills. I’m not kidding. I am a natural at this. I boiled all the content down to 11 minutes to meet the contest requirements. I can easily make a 40 minute movie with the footage.

I did not win the $100,000 but out of approximately 380 entries, 8 movies were picked, 6 finalists, and 2 for television. This movie was picked for television – I got paid. Not much money, but the reward today is bigger than anything I could have possibly imagined back then.

Tomorrow, I will be giving a speech after the screening of my movie at Unity High School in Oakland, California. This website has all the details: http://www.unityhigh.org/gulfcoasttrip08

The aim of the fundraiser is to send a group of students to New Orleans and make 2 documentaries about this topic. You are all of course welcome to help out.

This is a much deeper story because it involves everything from the Detroit techno music label Underground Resistance and an old school Dj friend from back in the Ann Arbor days. However, you will have to ask me in person about this if you really want to find out more.

Here is a link to the edited TV version

Credits and thank you’s:
Eddie & Johnny & Larry for letting me crash in your places, and Kieran Walsh for hooking that up.
Alex Outhred for funding
Gregory Kellet and Ian Kellet for the Camera and the tips – good juju!
Elsa Wenzel for support and research help
“CESAR” for putting up with me in his editing suite.
Christian Roselund, Ed Holub, Eva San Martin, Luz Molina, Jorge Lopez, Damion, Claire Didier, Lamar LeBlanc, Albert at Common Ground, and the immigrants themselves who put themselves at risk to help me make this film.

Thanks to Cornelius Harris for passing it on and thanks to Daniel Zarazua for inspiring the youth to take further action.

Thank you ALL!!!

Mig

update – as I watch diggnation’s live taping. I am learning that this product now costs $399 – Now I will consider it..