DECAYCAST News: Let’s Burn It Down: Mixed-Genre Benefit Show Invades Richmond District Tonight w: CCR Headcleaner and more!
There’s no secret 4/20 in San Francisco in 2019 can be a shit-show, with zombie-like blood thirsty capitalists co-opting and squeezing any profit they can out of literally anything cannabis related, and culture related for that matter, while steamrolling communities with racist and patriarchal policies which put the cities most marginalized at risk. Any and all culture in San Francisco seems to be at best, null and void for the distant future, to the lazily observing outsider, but local organizers fight back against this hypocrisy with a psych forward diverse musical event where you can support a good cause while having your brain melted with outsider sounds from some of the bay area’s stranger and more esoteric musical offerings. We spoke with the main organizer, Andre Torrez of the Brown Recluse Variety Show, a local radio program on BFF.fm. about the event and why it’s important to support organizations that help folks clear their criminal records or marijuana and other non violent low level crimes, especially now in an ever changing Bay Area landscape that seems hell bent on destroying anything that rebels against this hyper dangerous runaway capitalist model.
“With the annual crush of humanity on Golden Gate Park’s Hippie Hill reaching near mythical proportions, 4/20 in San Francisco is pretty much a stoner holiday. It seems like a no-brainer to tap into this crowd for some low-level marijuana offense criminal justice reform.
California’s recreational use marijuana law went into effect in 2018. At this point, any partakers are “barely legal”. Good times! But what about all those pot-case convictions prior to the new law kicking in? Bummer? Not so fast.
Recently Code for America, a nonprofit that helps gov’t use tech to better serve people, worked with San Francisco’s D.A. to clear more than 8,000 marijuana convictions.
Why stop there? Marijuana is just the tip of the iceberg! Expunging old, low-level convictions can help tens of millions of Americans so they can get jobs, housing and education. Algorithms helping break down these barriers? It’s already happening! But it takes time, resources and money.
Pocket your vape pen and follow the wafting haze from the park on 4/20 and step inside SF’s Neck of the Woods(406 Clement Street) for the Blown-Out, Blowout Benefit Show: Barely Legal Edition.”
We spoke briefly with organizer Andre Torrez of The Brown Recluse Variety Show, who talked about the importance of organizing a benefit show and co-opting this green day for a good cause, “This is the 4th installment, though I haven’t thrown this party in 5 years. I used to be a DJ at KUSF 90.3 FM. When they were taken off the air I started the tradition of organizing a benefit show that was 4/20 themed. It’s not so much out of weed adulation, though I’ve definitely had my own adoring moments. It was more from my own observations of how 4/20 is like a California phenomenon. It really is treated like such an event as it is. Anyhow I like puns and themes, so I would get whatever local bands and acts I could convince to play for the cause of getting KUSF back on the air. Fast forward 5 years and they kind of are back on the air as KXSF 102.5 and I’m now affiliated as a BFF.fm DJ and recreational weed is now legal, so I needed a new cause.
I work at a local TV news station and that’s where I heard about all these low-level marijuana convictions getting expunged by the SF D.A.’s office. The cause to me was clear: more of this kind of work. When I dug into it and found out it was Code for America’s Clear My Record Campaign that was behind creating this algorithm that helped expunge more than 8,000 cases, I reached out to see if they’d like to be the beneficiary. I respect what they are working towards and how this impacts people’s chances for a greater housing, education and job opportunities. Really this is a manifestation of the income disparity I see on the streets everyday in San Francisco, especially living in the Tenderloin these last 10 years. People need help and not enough of us are stepping up to do something. I don’t expect a fat billion dollar check to come out of this, but even small-scale philanthropy can help make a difference.”
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“This year’s lineup includes local, psych-heavyweights; CCR Headcleaner, bringing you riffs for days! Oakland’s Milk For The Angry is hot with their new cosmically, psychedelic-flavored album ‘Extraterrestrial Desert’. Ratskin Records’ Cyborg Eye, a dark and moody East Bay duo, will wow you with their gear. Hauras sets the experimental tone including a special screening of film work by Myleen Hollero. And if you like Glitter Wizard, then you won’t want to miss “members of” in the country-folk duo known as Honey Bucket Boys. DJ Mashi Mashi of Galaxy Radio fame will be spinning vinyl all night.
Come on out and stick it to the man. The fun starts at 8pm. $10.”
D E C A Y C A S T Magazine 