people: 'please, please don't take the flowers out of the park!'

a gorilla: 'hmph, I'm gonna rip em out anyway'

[months later]

gorilla, needing to get rid of 1,400 flowers: 'hey, people, wanna buy these uprooted flowers for $350 each?'

Calvin Keys, the Oakland-based jazz guitarist who worked with giants like Ray Charles and Ahmad Jamal, and who possessed a unique style both on stage and records, died Sunday afternoon. He was 82.
kqed.org/arts/13955977/…

Local Boys Done Good, by Gabe Meline kqed.org/arts/13955312/…

Live Review: Green Day Thrills the Fillmore In an Intimate Two-Hour Show ww2.kqed.org/arts/2024/04/0…

A few words on @brothermob before he plays the The Regency Ballroom Saturday night

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Carol Doda's life was so quintessentially San Francisco: Absolute freedom and unimpeded sexuality, intermingled with grime and dark consequences. Doda above all else was a goddamn survivor though. Don't miss 'Topless at the Condor'!
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Esa-Pekka Salonen's role as music director of the SF Symphony will come to an end in 2025.

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On 'spiritual jazz' as the new Putumayo, the necessary radical roots of the music and Brandee Younger's transcendent tribute to Alice Coltrane at SFJAZZ.

kqed.org/arts/13953845/…

Thinking of Gawker

WTG Cord

If you only read bad news about Oakland, you'll miss that a queer renaissance is taking off downtown. The Town now boasts 8 LGBTQ venues, most of them walking distance from each other, and tons of new parties. I interviewed the folks making it happen: kqed.org/arts/13953497/…

Music + aromas + colors + a vaguely ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ feel: For this Scriabin fan, the SF Symphony’s ambitious ‘Prometheus’ hit all the right notes (and hues, and scents):

kqed.org/arts/13953312/…

I was worried. But Nicki's sold-out tour kickoff in Oakland last night was... phenomenal?!?!

36 songs, giving 100%, the internet is not real life, etc.

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My mom!

A 💯 letter-to-the-editor writer.

(thx Peter Hartlaub for unearthing it from the San Francisco Chronicle archives💫)

x.com/peterhartlaub/…

saw the Madonna show and thought some Madonna thoughts last night for KQED Arts & Culture

thanks Gabe Meline & Nastia Voynovskaya for patient editing, Beth LaBerge for great fan photos & Carlos Cabrera-Lomelí 🫠 for being A+ Madonna company

kqed.org/arts/13953137/…

Suzanne Ciani Turns Grace Cathedral Into an Otherworldly House of Worship ww2.kqed.org/arts/2024/02/2…

SCOOP: Artists defaced their own work last night at YBCA during a pro-Palestine protest, joining an international wave of actions at high-profile museums. I interviewed artists and museum leadership to get the full story on KQED Arts & Culture @KQED kqed.org/arts/13952460/…

I know what it's like to be in love with a city. That's what it's like for Pendarvis H. and Oakland, too. This Valentine's Day, he writes it a different kind of love letter.

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Renaissance Act III pls finally be her rap album