Photos by Kelly Sweeney-Osato & Audra.

Saturday, April 21, 2018, marked the eleventh year of what has become the greatest holiday on earth. Yes, Amoeba SF, along with hundreds of independently owned music stores across the world, celebrated Record Store Day and it was glorious. We opened at 9am this year to a line that went down Haight Street and around the corner onto Stanyan, and around the corner again onto Waller! What could possibly make music fans line up so early on a Saturday, you ask? Why, limited edition releases, of course! This year's smash hits included Phish's Billy Breathes, a reissue of Chicano Batman's debut album, Arcade Fire on translucent blue vinyl, and so many more.

Folks were also lined up to get this year's limited edition Amoeba SF RSD t-shirt (screen printed by our friends at Free Gold Watch), partake in our sales, and groove to the happening sounds of our guest DJs Bearzbub, Simon Guzman, and The B-Side Brujas. At 1pm, a whole new crop of fans showed up to see Twin Shadow perform live.

On Saturday, April 21, 2018, hundreds of independently owned music stores across the world will simultaneously unite with the purpose of celebrating our culture and the unique place that record stores occupy both in their local communities and the world.

We'll have hundreds of limited edition, exclusive releases available that day in-store only. RSD product is limited to stock on hand and available on a first come, first served basis. No holds, no phone orders. Limit one copy per title per customer. We cannot accept any store coupons on RSD releases.

WHAT'S HAPPENING AT AMOEBA SF:

-- We'll be open from 9am to 8pm! (Buy counter hours: 11am-8pm)

-- Record Store Day Gift Bags with purchase (while supplies last).

-- LIVE SILK SCREENING (9am - while supplies last)
Special Amoeba SF RSD 2018 design will be live screened onto t-shirts, brought to you by our good friends at Free Gold Watch. A portion of the proceeds from t-shirt sales will go to Taking It To The Streets SF!

-- SPECIAL SALES:

** 25% off used DVD & Blu-Ray

** 20% off turntables, posters, mugs & used books

-- TICKET GIVEAWAYS ON TWITTER
Follow @AmoebaSF on Twitter for Fillmore ticket giveaways all day long.

By Kai Wada Roath
Ambassador of Confusion Hill and host of the Super Shangri-La Show

"I never was good at learning things. I did just enough work to pass. In my opinion it would have been wrong to do more than was just sufficient, so I worked as little as possible."
~ Manfred von Richthofen
(Also me after four years of city college.)

Pre-flight check before take off...

Frozen Red Baron pepperoni pizza in the oven? - Check

Seagram's Red Baron cocktail from 1974 on crushed ice? - Check

Rewound VHS of the 1973 Japanese Tokusatsu series, Super Robot Red Baron? - Check

Well alright then, let's take off this airfield and shoot down some flying dog houses!

It was in my early 20s when I first became intrigued by Baron Manfred Von Richthofen and his colorful Flying Circus air squadron. With over 80 air-combat victories, the Red Baron was like the Miyamoto Musashi of WW1. The thought of knights jousting in the clouds with machine guns was how I wished I lived one of my past lives. Why is it a fantasy to want to face danger by yourself in the sky in a three-winged propeller plane?

I would soon play in a band named The Red Barons with my super-pals Mike "Tail Gunner" Cancilla, the Gas House Gorilla, and Sammy "Belly Gunner" (aka "The East Bay Snake," aka "Steak" Gutierrez of current Midnite Snaxxx fame and glory). Around that same time, I will never forget a night of smoking Cuban cigars and watching Los Rockin' Devils play at El Baron Rojo bar in Mexico City, one of my many adventures with Mike Lucas.

By Jon Longhi

Welcome to the second Having A Movie Moment With Jon Longhi, where I review new releases on Blu-ray and DVD. This month I review a new movie by surrealist wild man Alejandro Jodorowsky, a classic monster movie from the sixties, and the stylish new sci-fi masterpiece Blade Runner 2049. Everything reviewed in this column came out in the past four months. So here we go:

Endless Poetry, ABKCO:
Alejandro Jodorowsky is in his late eighties but he's still making movies. Cinema's arguably greatest maverick is not going quietly into that great night. In fact, this is the second film he's put out in the past five years. Both films have been biographical in nature although, like the rest of Jodorosky's films, reality is often just a launch pad for his surrealist flights of fantasy. Just like Federico Fellini, in Jodorowsky's movies it's hard to tell where reality ends and fantasy begins. In fact, this movie has some obvious nods to Fellini films such as 8 1/2 and Juliette of The Spirits. But make no mistake, this movie is pure Jodorosky and goes to places Fellini could never imagine. Just like the rest of his films, there are things in this movie you'll never be able to unsee. There is one scene that depicts a performance art piece where an armless man enlists audience participation to help him caress and make love to his wife that is one of the more disturbing things I've seen in years. Let's make a check list for this film: Random disemboweling? Check. Love triangle with a dwarf? Check. A mother whose only way to communicate is by singing opera? Check. A parade of skeletons? Check. Weird Freudian sex? Check. Strange orgies of psychedelic art? Check. In fact, this checklist could go on almost forever, because on one level this is a mere biography and on another this is a movie about life, the universe, and everything. This film and it's predecessor are the works of an artist at the end of his life trying to teach us the lessons he has learned and what it all means. On a certain level, this is one of the drawbacks of the film. Endless Poetry is not as good as The Holy Mountain, El Topo, and Santa Sangre because those films were delirious searches for the truth, whereas this film is made by a man who has his answers and wants to explain them to us. It's a calmer more controlled work. That difference in tone makes this a more, dare we say, "traditional" film than Jodorosky's early deranged masterpieces. But that is no slight against this picture; the only one Jodorosky is in competition with is the earlier version of himself. This is probably the most crazed and surreal movie that will be released this year. Jodorosky is still in a category unto himself.

On February 25th, the staff of Amoeba SF kept things very local and crossed Haight Street after closing in a group migration to Milk Bar for Amoebapalooza SF 2018! Part company party, part talent show featuring acts composed of Amoeba SF employees and friends, Amoebapalooza is a yearly tradition that is always a hoot. This year, the talent ranged from dramatic readings, to novelty rock, to electro-performance art, with lots of musical diversions and slices of pizza in between.

Thank you to our friends at SIR Studios for providing our musical back line and to Milk Bar for being the perfect venue and neighbor.

Jon Longhi

Alan's Cousin

MAGA: Make Amoebapalooza Great Again

Gaktuse

Jesus Dude Mom

Plunk 67

Toyota

Nicki Jizz