Hey lovely People! Thanks for hoppin’ over to the website and hangin out here in Haight Street Voice land! From our digital version of the Summer 2024 edition, here’s the video and full transcript of my conversation with Michael Xavier, producer of the Haight Ashbury Street Fair. Enjoy!
HSV: Wow.
MX: He also slapped food in the soup kitchen line. That first group of people that the Diggers looked after and fed, they called themselves the Wrecking Crew, which in the Haight in the ‘80s and ‘90s you’d see these older hippie guys in full rainbow. Those were the Wrecking Crew. Throughout the ‘80s and the ‘90s, all the kids who were sleeping in the park and everything, Mary from the Youth Alliance was taking care of them.
HSV: Mary Howe, we love you, thank you!
MX: Mary Howe, we love you!
The Wrecking Crew kind of looked after the kids in the bushes in Golden Gate Park, and they called themselves the SF Dogs and SFSF.
HSV: And that’s a shoutout to Rack?
MX: Rack was an old Wrecking Crew, and so was Fast Eddie, Rack’s brother.
HSV: Let’s stay on point: So when do you come in, or are you still on Pablo?
MX: I’m still on Pablo.
HSV: Okay.
MX: The one crew that’s still in this year is the SFSF. They Watch Our Bicycles. These are the kids that used to live in the bushes that are grown and they themselves have had kids, and we’re passing on to younger generations to Watching Our Bicycles. They’ve been with us for almost 30 years. So there you go. That’s the oldest group in play from the old community group, which I love, you know?
Another thing that Pablo used to do is the De Avila school there, which is now the Chinese Immersion — the neighborhood in ’78 or so was pretty rough, so Pablo had the Hell’s Angels chaperone the children from the elementary De Avila school down to Stanyan and back — and made sure all the merchants had candy! They did this for a long time. I think the last year that it was like that I think about 300 people were counted coming out for that.
HSV: So let me ask you something: So it seems like your heart — the fact that you admire, honor, whatever you want to call it about Pablo — you’re from here, so San Francisco means a lot to you. The integrity he showed really resonated for you, right?
MX: I’m a merchant here on Haight Street and I also am a native San Franciscan. The one thing that really hooked me with Pablo was — you know, working on Haight Street, you’ve got a few clicks: You’ve got the street kids that are up there packed up together; you’ve got the drug dealer packs, the group; and then sometimes you have what I call the “lone wolves”, the Misha’s — nobody wants to be around them because they’re too crazy and loud.
HSV: But we do love you Misha if you happen to be watching.
MX: Oh, I love Misha.
So at one point there was this one guy that was a lone wolf and he would sit there on the corner of Haight and Ashbury in front of the then GAP with a marijuana bowl in front of him, not speaking at all and just waiting for people to put a bud in there. I didn’t hear him speak for a year and then one evening I’m walking to the library to go to the meeting for the fair with Pablo and he’s like, “Hey, you coming to the meeting?” And the guy fuckin’ spoke! He looks at me, speaking. He’s like, “Well I’m not from here.” And Pablo is like, “Well you’ve been living in the park for what a year, year and a half?” And he’s like, “Yeah.” And Pablo is like “Well then, you’re from here. Come on, come with us. There’ll be food there and stuff.”
HSV: So inclusion, it’s about welcoming people no matter what their thing is.
MX: He came to the meeting, he worked the fair, he hung out for a little bit, disappeared for a couple years, tracked me down at my hair salon. I cut hair on the Haight Street as well for a long time.
HSV: One Up Salon, we love you!
MX: And found me and was trying to track Pablo down to thank him for his kindness. And that really stuck with me. It was like, community is not just a bumper sticker. It’s like, this is real community, where you’re dealing with real people and real issues and real shit, you know? And that’s what I try and instill back into the fair in 2024.
HSV: When did you first start at the fair, let’s go there.
MX: I don’t remember the year but one of my friends, Pablo had given her the gig of doing the backstage catering, basically all the workers and the bands. So these people are preparing fresh food for a hundred people.
HSV: A hundred cool people!
MX: Tanya Sunshine was that gal. She did it for a few years til she moved to Hawaii, where she is now.
HSV: Shoutout to Tanya!
MX: She’ll hear it — hi Tanya!
After that, I took it over. Pablo was like, “Hey you want it?” I was like, “I don’t know how to do this!” He was like, “Well, do you want it?” I was like, “Okay!” And then I, with Alex who owned the Gold Cane bar who’s passed away, he let me use his kitchen to store the food there. So we prepared fresh food, neighborhood people came in and donated tabouli and chile and all kinds of foods for the backstage.
It was like the old days, you know?! The old days was Merle Saunders who closed the Haight Street Fair Stanyan stage for the first 25 years. Everyone that worked on the fair would eat at the Saunders house on the Panhandle for breakfast to get strength to work for the whole day. Merle was a part of the neighborhood, you know. Everyone asks did you have the Grateful Dead for the fair? I say no. Merle played 25 years, everyone within the Dead played with Merle. But never has the Grateful Dead played under that name at the Haight Street Fair. They all played with Merle.
HSV: But I think Jerry’s watching! (Laughter)
MX: Hi Jerry!
HSV: We love ya, Jer!
MX: I got to meet Jerry side stage.
HSV: He’s in my book, Deadheads. Buy it, people! (Laughter)
Alright, where do you want to go from there? That you’re a native San Franciscan, do you want to go into that a little bit? What San Francisco means to you, maybe?
MX: Well that was the big one, that was the hook for me was that kid. This is your neighborhood. Yeah you don’t have a roof over your head and you’re houseless, but you’ve come here. Pablo definitely felt for 30 years that he owed it to Harvey — especially after he died — to continue on these community gathering traditions, you know what I mean? And he kind of got me hooked at that too. That’s what I think of as the fair: The best place to have a party, to community gather, to create programs for the neighborhood, things and activities.
Power to the people! I think we’re probably one of the last three fairs that is run by the people. It’s not run by an individual making a whole bunch of money off of the fair.
HSV: I’ve heard that the North Beach Fair is still pretty rad. They’re bringing in busking kids and art …
MX: I’m not comparing ourselves to them. I’m not in competition.
HSV: I’m just saying it’s about inclusion and be welcoming of the people that actually live there.
MX: Yeah, I used to know Marsha Garland. She started the North Beach Fair for the first like 18 years. The merchants association sadly didn’t want her there anymore and she was removed and the merchants association took over. This also happened on Union Street with Terry Pimsleur who started the Union Street Fair as an individual and the merchants association wanted to take it over, which they did.
HSV: Ugh, that’s just that political stuff. So let’s just stick with the Haight Ashbury Street Fair!
I do want to say something that I think is interesting is this whole thing of community. My first concert was the Sex Pistols at Winterland in 1978, and community was like, oy, fuck community! The rebellion against the norm. And now they’re going to have a punk rock photography exhibit at the Haight Street Art Center in July, and I just saw the Avengers and the Damned and I feel like punk rock is coming back. But the essence of punk rock, that fuel of punk rock from where I live and at my age at 62 and I’ve lived here a million years, is that punk rock attitude within community. As far as be really strong and know who you are within where we can bring everybody together because that’s all we’ve got left cuz there are a lot of clowns at the wheel in America.(laughter)
MX: Well, speaking of punk rock this year, we have the great Infamous Stiffs that are going to be performing on the Stanyan stage this year. Troy (Takaki) is the bass player in that and that is my friend Warner’s husband. Troy is also the bass player in another band, the Boneless Ones one of the skate rock crossover bands of the ‘80s and ‘90s. [EDIT at 12:24: Afghan Wigs remark from LK CUT!!!!]
HSV: Back in at 12:20] The Stiffs! I didn’t know!
MX: The Infamous Stiffs. And the singer Scotty (Wilkins; aka Snotty Scotty), he used to sing for Verbal Abuse during the ‘80s and ‘90s when I saw Verbal Abuse. Love Nicki Sicki, the original VA singer. But I was a Scotty fan. I grew up, you know.
HSV: Well here’s a tangent: What was your first concert here in San Francisco, being a native?
MX: Iron Maiden at the Cow Palace.
HSV: What year? (He shrugs!) Ah yeah, fuck the year. [Note: was 1985!] Well Iron Maiden, that was a while ago. Okay, so here we are.
MX: Okay. Let’s backtrack to the Halloween Walk, which is kind of where my deep involvement was.
HSV: Cool. So you got deeper and deeper, like mycelium.
MX: First off, Harvey Milk died and Pablo took over the Castro Street Fair and became the president of that. And when the De Avila school went Chinese Immersion, there was no more Halloween Walk. Pablo introduced me to Flower Frankenstein, she was on the board for the Castro Street Fair. She created what was called Sugar Valley. There was one street on the Castro Street Fair no matter what they put down there: DJs, bands, whatever — no one went down there. They gave it to Flower and see, this is the beginning — not the beginning but this is like the Heklina, Stud, Eagle era, Tranny Shack — she gave all the promoters in the now LBGTQ communities free space on this block. So now they got to promote their shows.
HSV: IBeam?
MX: This was more in the gay community, the Castro Street Fair. It got in the paper every year. All they could talk about in the paper. They were blah with the rest of the Castro Street Fair. They were all about Sugar Valley.
HSV: Sugar Valley?
MX: The block was called Sugar Valley, it was a whole environment. They couldn’t get anyone to go down there before.
HSV: Got it.
MX: Gave the whole thing for free to Flower and she got all these people involved. So Pablo introduced me to her and asked me and her to start something for the kids in the Haight. We created the Children’s Hootenanny.
HSV: Halloween Hootenanny!
MX: Which we haven’t done for a few years but we ran it for about 15 years. This was a free event for kids 3 and up: jumpers, dunking tanks, we used to turn the police station into a ghost house, and we created groups that worked with families and children that were at the lower-end of the social spectrum.
HSV: We should mention that with the Haight Ashbury Street Fair, it’s kid friendly. I have a booth there for my Haight Street Voice and there were tons of kids.
MX: It’s totally kids and family friendly.
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So we created that whole thing for that environment which was fantastic and that was the involvement with all the groups and stuff like that. We further went into programs where we wanted to include local bands cuz I have a million bands asking me to play when I only have 2 stages.
HSV: Battle of the Bands, y’all! Lennon Studios we miss you! (Laughter)
MX: I created the Battle of the Bands. I ran that for 10 years, 20 bands a year, free entry, you just had to be a band. I didn’t want to do open mic kind of stuff. And two bands got themselves up on the stage. It was incredible.
HSV: How did they get voted for? How did that work?
MX: It was me and Ace (Annese) and Huge and those guys from Reality Check TV.
HSV: Shoutout to Ace!
MX: Hi guys!
No, we did a clap count, it was more silly.
HSV: Yeah, in the moment.
MX: We did it at a few nightclubs and also with Carol Lennon and Jaycee over at Lennon Studios. We miss you guys so much!
HSV: To the camera [zoom in]
MX: We miss you guys so much!
And then at one point Robert Leon who was the executive director of the fair, he started what was on during the fair the Children’s Alley, which was once again in following what I had done with the Halloween Hootenanny, something more inclusive with the kids. It was simple to make that a little more into the street fair. I also created what we called the Haight Street Fair Art Walk with Andrea. This was to give inclusion to artists that maybe couldn’t afford a booth or whatever.
HSV: While you’re talking I’m going to show one of her pieces.
MX: Okay!
Giving inclusion to artists who maybe don’t have enough money to get a booth, so she would include them as part of it. That’s going to be something that we’re expanding this year, which I’ll go into in a few minutes.
HSV: [Holding up velvet cat doll] What do we call these?
MX: That’s a Voodoo Kitty!
HSV: So, ladies and gentlemen, get your Voodoo Kitty! I think the Voodoo Kitty should be with you, Michael, while we keep going. I think this is good! (Laughter)
MX: Drea will love that!
HSV: See! The Voodoo Kitty made us do that! She made that happen!
So bringing in local artists is what your point was.
MX: Bringing in local artists.
And then another area that I really tried to focus on and emphasize was … we call it the nonprofit row, where we give very good discounts for nonprofits coming in and a good handful we donate. 1-800-suicide, rehab counseling, you know, informational groups.
HSV: Yeah. Like Switchboard back in the day.
MX: So we’re trying to expand those areas and stuff like that.
So that’s kind of the beginnings of everything. Coming back after covid is where I have changed. I’ve tried to kind of more come back towards the origins that I just spoke to. So in 2022, right after they let us have fairs after covid was “over” or whatever …
HSV: Yeah, taking a vacation.
MX: We decided to revamp our security team. It used to just be people from the neighborhood, we decided on a different program. My friend Randy Larsen, he’s been with the fair since before it even started. He’s an old Vietnam veteran, so he and I during covid kind of plotted the whole thing together that we got people from the Swords to Ploughshares and the Veterans Commons Building to staff it, to see if they wanted the opportunity, and to put flags up on the buildings. Everyone signed up and got really excited about it and he had a crew of about 30 people that came out: men, women, and we paid them really well. And they loved it! They just had so much fun.
HSV: That’s the important part: did they have fun. That’s what Jerry would ask.
MX: Yeah, they had fun. I mean this is a group of people that are dealing with a lot of stuff.
HSV: I know but did it make their hearts … the warm and fuzzies, you know what I mean.
MX: They ask Randy every few days, “Is there anything else you got coming up we can do?” They loved it so much because all of a sudden they felt like they were part of the community.
HSV: Again, it’s inclusion. It’s about feeling a part of something. That’s the basis of people taking these drugs because they don’t feel included, they’re isolated. That’s kind of the main root of the gosh darn fair is that.
MX: We went further into the next year we got rid of our waste management program and had the Swords to Ploughshares people take it over, and also some people in the neighborhood, and we got an A+ from the City and Recology, that we separated the garbage well. We worked with Zero Waste Management and Rotation came in and helped us, taught me how to separate correctly. They were very essential to it working better these days.
HSV: Okay, now I’m looking at my notes because we’re now into 21-minutes, Michael. We’ve got to make it short and sweet because, you know, the attention span. This is not Tik-Tok, y’all!
I wanted to talk about the Hallinans. I’m going to be interviewing Neil Hallinan, Humboldt Family Farms is another one of the interviews in this edition, and I’m so excited you’re in this one because the cover artwork is done by a dude named Chris Dyer — shoutout to Chris! Peace Chris, your art is amazing! And he just came out with a book that’s coming out — it’s already out but he’s doing a book signing at the Psychedelic SF Gallery on August 3. The cover art is called “Keep Pushing Forward”.
MX: I just had two last things, actually.
HSV: Yes! The point is, I’m not closing it down I’m just saying that it’s really cool that this sort of full circle of he was a street kid skater, the Hallinan family — shoutout to Neil Hallinan whose family defended everybody from the Hell’s Angels to Ken Kesey to the Grateful Dead — that everything seems to be coming full circle.
I just love the fact that the fair this year I feel like is going to be really — I don’t know, I just feel like this one is a magical one.
MX: Yes! Another thing that we brought back coming back after covid was we teamed up with Kent who owns FTC Skateboards, and Kent has put together a skateboard competition for the last two years on Belvedere right there in front of the shop on the side street. And that has been a huge love! Everyone’s just standing there like they’re watching a band play! Made me feel like a kid again cuz we were just sitting there watching everybody do tricks for hours — if not days! And everyone did that and they were taking pictures.
HSV: And Chris Dyer is a skate guy! Skateboarding is freedom!
MX: It created a new interesting thing for the “tween-teen” dichotomy.
HSV: Right!
MX: Cuz they come to our event and maybe they like that band, maybe they DJs, maybe they like shopping …
HSV: At least they have something to DO.
MX: This is something that’s more in their pocket, you know?
HSV: Yeah!
MX: Carrie’s been running the Children’s Alley. Carrie Hamilton. She works for Homeless Prenatal. She teamed up with Shark from the Rock Project.
HSV: You mean RockMed?
MX: No, no. Rock Project for tween-teen kids and bands.
HSV: Oh!
MX: This is Children’s Alley.
HSV: Yay!
MX: Shark from Rock Project put together three competitions for 18 bands at Sunday Streets. I don’t have the dates on me, but …
HSV: That’s okay! Look it up, people!
MX: It’ll be nine bands each thing, and two bands will play on the main stages.
HSV: So we’re recording this on June 22, 2024, but the HASF is September 15, 2024, so between now and then, we’re gonna know who it is, right?
MX: Yes! And then the other new thing that we came up with was the Art Walk area that Andrea and I have been doing for about 15 years.
HSV: I’m zooming in to Drea’s Voodoo Kitty.
MX: We’re expanding the Art Walk off of the main Haight Street and going on to Ashbury towards Waller. So the south side of Ashbury, and expanding it and create more of a — not only local artists, but a gallery area for people to just be able to view and stuff. We’re doing that.
So those are our new things.
HSV: So let me ask you this: People who are coming from … I have a subscriber in … not Iceland, I think it’s Finland … so people that are coming from all over the place to come to the Haight Ashbury Street Fair — that’s pretty rad. I’m not ready to end our conversation, are you ready to close it down yet?
MX: No!
HSV: Okay! So I’m gonna ask you this, then: The fair, and you’re presenting it to the world, the essence of the Haight Ashbury, the light that lit the ‘60s — I guess what I’m saying is: Thank you, Michael!
MX: Thank you. I mean, you’re welcome!
HSV: Thank you for making the space for people. You’re keeping the thing alive!
MX: I don’t think of it as a thing, I think of it more as an ideal.
HSV: Yeah!
MX: I feel that I want to make the fair more stable, more viable in a community oriented kind of way. And eventually — I’m a steward. Eventually I’m going to walk away from this.
HSV: Right. And you endure a lot. I know it’s politics, passes, you’ve got to get all that stuff.
MX: Well, it’s not that. For me, it’s about — I come from intent more so than give me a dollar. For me personally. I know not everyone is like that. I’m trying to get a new crew and generation of people younger that are really interested in community-gathering activities. Creating a collective artistic community. That’s what I say to them.
HSV: A place to be yourself and let your freak flag fly. You wanna dance around or whatever!
MX: Yes!
HSV: And whatever you’re doin’. It’s okay!
MX: And I found out the law very clearly the last year that the naked people (laughter) have full rights to be at all the fairs. Some people have gotten mad at me about them being at the fair.
HSV: I had a photo of them on my Facebook page last year and someone complained, “Why are you showing a naked guy?!?” And I’m like, “Dude!”
MX: My mom took a picture with them in 2022! (Laughter) My mother!
HSV: Let’s not go down that road because it’s a hard thing. You’ve got a kid and it’s eye-level for them. It’s a hard thing.
MX: The law is the law.
HSV: Okay, keep going. I was ready to wrap it up but you want to say some more things. Not that I’m bored — I’m just saying!
MX: Oh I could go on for days!
Do you want to hear about some of the music this year?
HSV: Yes! We already talked about Frightwig and the Infamous Stiffs.
MX: We’ve got Sgt Splendor coming out.
HSV: Yay! That’s Eric McFadden and Kate Vargas — we love you!
MX: I love them. I just saw them play.
HSV: I used to go see Eric at the Blue Lamp 1980 … no. Well a long fuckin’ time ago. Shoutout to Eric. Blue Lamp!
MX: The Infamous Stiffs and we have another old friend’s kid’s band, The White Barons. That’s Bob Muskrat. He’s the drummer for the Alley Boys. That was before psychobilly came out. That would be the Alley Boys I guess. (Laughs) Those guys rocked, you know? Me and my friends were all in the glam rock scene — big hair and makeup and stuff. And these guys were pompadours. I think they had combs with their name Alley Boys on it.
HSV: We’re loosey goosey here. All over the place but I can edit it out if I need to!
You said Pablo saw the production that you did of Jesus Christ Superstar, right?
MX: He found out that I do musical stuff. I used to have a theater company. It used to be called LSB which is Lunar Eclipse, Sky Castle Records, and Buzz Productions.Basically it’s Buzz Productions. It was just me and my amigo, Mr. ArmandoLostaunau, my brother! We started the whole Buzz Productions together. There was a part there where we did theater productions. The first production we ever did was Jesus Christ Superstar at the DNA Lounge in 1998. That was when Rob Schneider the comedian and his family owned the DNA. And the manager, Don Webb, gave us I think 8 shows there.
HSV: Wow.
MX: And Pablo came out closing night where it was sold out, a line around the block, halfway down Harrison. And he was like, “Why didn’t you tell someone!?” I was like, “You didn’t ask!? I don’t know why I didn’t tell you!”
And then he started letting me do other things all the time.
HSV: So I’ve gotta interject: How did you learn how to organize crap?
MX: Just jump in and do it!
HSV: It wasn’t like you went to college to learn how to produce stuff? You know how to pull stuff together.
MX: A lot of people have always come up to me and they say, “How do you get people to do what you want for no money?” And I say: first off, I don’t get people to do anything. I ask them. The first line out of the gate is “I have no money. Can you help me?” (Laughter) That’s usually the first line! Nobody’s trying to hustle you, or use you, or deceive you! It’s like, “I’ve got nothing! Can you fuckin’ help me?” (Laughter)
HSV: I think maybe it’s, “Do you want to get involved?”
MX: Yeah! I mean I used to have a magazine, Churn, an art and culture magazine. It started when Hi-Fructose started, and Hi-Fructose is one of the biggest magazines in the country in the art world now. But either way, we did the Churn and they guy who started it from the neighborhood here, he’s the one who asked that question: “How do you get people to do that?” I’m like, “I don’t know! I just ask them!”
This was a person who … he was always trying to connive …nhjgfb
HSV: Alright — enough of that guy. Let’s stick to the thing …
I’m trying to direct us to what you hope for with this fair. I feel really excited about this fair, personally.
MX: I hope we have great weather. I hope everyone makes a lot of money in the merch, all the vendors. I know they’re gonna spend a lot of time, and these are real tough times. So I hope it gets a really big injection of money and energy and attention back to the corridor, you know, the Haight.
HSV: I just interviewed Scott Vasterling from Humboldt Family Farms who I met at the Haight Street Art Center. He’s going to be in this edition with you. And I said, “What do you want to say to the Haight community and communities everywhere?” And he said, “Vote with your dollar!” Support the thing that you like.
MX: Exactly.
HSV: It’s not about voting for the things in Washington, it’s about voting with your dollar. I love that! I’m getting goosebumps right now, cuz it’s true! Money is a weird thing, but if you’re digging something, throw a dollar at it. Or 50 cents — whatever you got! I think that’s really important for people to understand in this day and age. Cuz it’s getting weird out there, man.
MX: Yes.
HSV: We’ve got driverless cars everywhere. They’re writing books via machines. Michael, how do you feel about the driverless cars and the AI stuff?
MX: I know a lot of people that are working in the technology part of it. I know a few people …
HSV: I mean, how does it feel in your heart?
MX: I’m not going to put someone in there. I feel that AI will always fail. We need the human spark in there still, to whatever degree.
They’re running, they’re great, it’s really interesting. Everyone’s taking pictures of them all the time.
HSV: Have you ever been in one?
MX: No.
HSV: Will you ever go in one?
MX: I was in one of my friend’s car, he had a Tesla car where you just take your hands off the wheel and it went left for you, maneuvered away from people, and it was pretty intense! But I don’t trust it. What if all your technology has a bleep?
HSV: Like your phone dies!
MX: Yeah, I don’t feel comfortable. Good for them. I hope they continue testing. I actually wish they would do it somewhere else, like in the suburbs, you know? (Laughter) For a decade or so!
HSV: Hey, I’m from the East Bay, man, come on!
MX: I thinking about around a bunch of cows and horses. (Laughter)
HSV: Yeah, me too! I had a horse for 10 years!
MX: These young minds — they’re going for it.
HSV: You know what? These young minds are getting off their phones. A lot of the kids coming into the shop, Welcome Haight and Ashbury — shoutout to the shop! Thank you Robert Emmons. A lot of young kids from Amsterdam or America or wherever you’re from, they’re not on their phones. They’re just eating it up! They’re very excited about the art. They’re very excited about the music. They’re very excited about how weird it is, which is nice to see, you know? I think it’s like, “Thank god!” (Laughter)
MX: Keepin’ San Francisco strange!
HSV: Is that your final line?
What would you like to say to the Haight Ashbury community, or communities everywhere? From Michael Xavier, if you had a big speaker and you were talking to the world, what would you say? You ARE talking to the world!
MX: I love you San Francisco. I love you Haight Ashbury. Let’s have fun, man! As Pablo would always say, “Come out and be groovy.”
HSV: Aww. That’s perfect! Give me a peace sign! Yay!
We love you, Michael Xavier!
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