Published since 2005. San Francisco is a city that belongs to the people of the world. Hence this blog has a global focus. The name "Sam Spade's San Francisco" refers to an exciting era in the City's history, the time of Dashiell Hammett's fictional gumshoe and San Francisco character, Sam Spade. My name is Tom Dunn and I edit the blog. I'm not as exciting as Sam Spade, but I am definitely a San Francisco character.Contact or on Twitter -- Search blog below.
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Sunday, July 15, 2007
Watch Out, Home Depot - Here Comes Rev. Billy!
The folks up on Bernal Heights still think the way San Franciscans have traditionally thought for at least a hundred years: we don't like Big Box Stores, we don't like chain stores and we don't like big out-of-town money vacuums.
That's why the folks from Bernal Heights have been fighting the proposed Home Depot store. Home Depot wants to build down on the Eastern bottom of the hill where Goodman's Lumber used to be.
The struggle has been a little lop-sided. On one side are the people of Bernal Heights and a cooperative of local merchants, and, on the other side is the Home Depot Empire and their money and their lawyers and their developers and their lobbyists - and they are all formidable forces. Last year Home Depot had revenue of $90-billion and an aggressive Board of Directors who are out to suck-up as much more as they can.
Tom Ridge, George Bush's first Secretary of Homeland Security, is a member of Home Depot's Board of Directors. Richard Brown, the CEO of H&R Block, the inept tax prep people, is also a member of the Home Depot Board. Greg Brenneman, former CEO of America's grease-pit, Burger King, is a member of the Home Depot Board and so is Kenneth Langone who was made a Knight of St. Gregory by Roman Catholic Pope Benedict VXI for financially supporting conservative Catholic causes. Now that's one hell of a cast of characters.
Think about this a minute. With that bunch of bananas running Home Depot, are we sure we really want them anywhere near the City of San Francisco?
We need some help from Heaven. To whom can we turn?
Let us pray ...
Enter: REVEREND BILLY
This morning's Sunday Chronicle published a story about Reverend Billy (who moved from San Francisco to New York a decade or so ago) and that piqued my curiosity. Reverend Billy was here in San Francisco for a Bernal Heights Revival back in 2004. If you missed it, as I did, and want to come up to speed with the Rev, follow this link to the Chron's Reverend Billy story.
Reverend Billy has a wonderful web site that is an exaggerated parody of a stereotypical Southern Baptist TV pastor or Pentecostal preacher. Reverend Billy gets his message across and does it with a measure of style that even Saturday Night Live would love to have.
And what is Reverend Billy's Mission in life? Well, here is his Mission Statement:
"Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir believe that Consumerism is overwhelming our lives. The corporations want us to have experiences only through their products. Our neighborhoods, 'commons' places like stoops and parks and streets and libraries, are disappearing into the corporatized world of big boxes and chain stores. But if we 'back away from the product' - even a little bit, well then we Put The Odd Back In God! The supermodels fly away and we're left with our original sensuality. So we are singing and preaching for local economies and real - not mediated through products -- experience. We like independent shops where you know the person behind the counter or at least - you like them enough to share a story.We ask that local activists who are defending themselves against supermalls, nuke plants, gentrification -- call us and we'll come and put on our Fabulous Worship! Remember children... Love is a Gift Economy! — The Rev"
Wow!
I think San Francisco is in need of a good old time REVIVAL - and Reverend Billy is just the preacher we need!
Bill Talen is a Minnesota-born actor who moved to New York from San Francisco in the late 1990s, where he had originally created a character that was a hybrid of street preacher and televangelist called Reverend Billy. This character was performed in various San Francisco alternative theater venues, where Talen had earned a considerable reputation as both a performer and a producer (Life On The Water theater, the Solo Mio Festival, Writers Who Act, etc.).
The Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center hosted a "service" led by Reverend Billy and his Stop Shopping Choir back in 2003 as part of the No Depot campaign. He rocked the joint.
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Here's more on Rev Billy from Wikipedia:
Bill Talen is a Minnesota-born actor who moved to New York from San Francisco in the late 1990s, where he had originally created a character that was a hybrid of street preacher and televangelist called Reverend Billy. This character was performed in various San Francisco alternative theater venues, where Talen had earned a considerable reputation as both a performer and a producer (Life On The Water theater, the Solo Mio Festival, Writers Who Act, etc.).
The Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center hosted a "service" led by Reverend Billy and his Stop Shopping Choir back in 2003 as part of the No Depot campaign. He rocked the joint.
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