Crosscurrents

It’s a sunny Friday afternoon. Three guys riding bicycles meet on a corner in downtown San Francisco, where they disguise themselves as city employees. Sort of.

At the end of a narrow alley off of International Boulevard, through the open doorway of El ColectíVelo bike shop, I’m greeted by a young boy.

“R.B.! It’s the lady here for you!” he shouts.

“R.B.” are initials I’ll hear shouted out a lot of today. They stand for Reggie Burnett. He’s the leader here.

All week long, we've been playing this sound and asking you to guess what exactly it is and where exactly in the Bay Area we recorded it.

It’s throw back Thursday, when we go back to the Summer of Love, in 1967...

Today’s music is by the Beau Brummels.  That sounds like a group from the current invasion of British music, but one of the band’s founders studied musical composition at San Francisco State College. Another member has performed solo in North Beach.  The Beau Brummels play regularly at the Morocco Room in San Mateo. 

Today on Crosscurrents:

• How a vigilante group is using guerrilla tactics to make streets safer for bicyclists
• An afternoon with Oakland’s Scraper bike team
• The story behind this week’s Audiograph mystery sound

Death is an uncomfortable subject for many people.  The way we die is one of the most important conversations Americans are not having.  But during the last five years, a movement to break the silence has been growing.

When it came time to choose a musical to put on this summer, the team at San Francisco’s Theatre Rhinoceros knew they wanted to pull out all the stops for their 40th anniversary. And that’s how this queer theatrical institution decided on Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Today on Crosscurrents:

• How death cafes are attracting thousands of people in the Bay Area and beyond
• Reflecting on 40 years of queer theater with Theatre Rhinoceros
• Remembering one of San Francisco's forgotten monuments 

The tune you’re hearing now is being performed by Asheba. He’s a musical storyteller born in Trinidad, now living in Oakland. 

Asheba will be blending sounds of the Caribbean in a family concert at the Temescal Farmers Market in Oakland on Sunday (7/25).

Have you heard the expression “I’ll be there with bells on”?  It indicates that you’re very enthusiastic about the activity. Practitioners of the ancient art of Morris dancing are enthusiastic about their dance form. They not only wear sleeves of bells on their legs during performances; they also practice with them.

Today on Crosscurrents:

• Excerpts from NPR's podcast 'Invisibilia' 

• An ancient dance form jingles onwards in Berkeley

   

This music?  It’s by Foxtails Brigade. 

 Laura Weinbach, the group’s singer, says she’s the daughter of a horror filmmaker, whose neighbors were circus contortionists. You can ask her about that after the show when they play at Amnesia in San Francisco on Friday (6/23). 

If you had to hole up somewhere for months, or even years, what would you need?

The San Francisco Bay has long been a gateway for immigrants. Between 1910 and 1940, more than a million people from 80 different countries entered the United States through the immigration station on Angel Island. 

Even in sanctuary cities, undocumented immigrants aren’t always safe from being handed over to ICE agents. In fact, it's happened right here in the well-known sanctuary city of San Francisco.

Today on Crosscurrents:

• A Berkeley church that is prepared to shelter people facing threat of deportation.
• What happens when an undocumented immigrant ends up in ICE custody after reporting a stolen car to police.
• The secret that unlocked a new life for the historic immigration station at Angel Island.

Seventy thousand people call San Francisco’s suicide crisis line each year. If someone's making that call, it usually means they're on the verge of harming themselves, and in severe emotional distress. But San Francisco has a service that’s aimed at reaching people before they’re on the brink of crisis — the San Francisco Mental Health Peer-Run Warm Line.

Throughout the prison system men are dying from incurable diseases. Sometimes these inmates are granted freedom through a program called Compassionate Release.

When Jimmy Lam opened fire inside a UPS facility in San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood, killing three coworkers and then himself, many other employees escaped without physical harm. But the experience was traumatic.

• An update on yesterday's shooting at a UPS facility in San Francisco 
• Finding a sympathetic ear in a time of need with San Francisco's warm line
• A brother and sister fight for compassionate release prison

It’s throw back Thursday, when we go back to the Summer of Love, in 1967...

A gunman shot and killed three people and then himself in San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood. KALW's Laura Wenus and Andy Bosselman report on how the tragedy unfolded, the possible motives of the shooter, and what happens next.

You may know Lake County for the nude retreat center Harbin Hot Springs. Maybe you know it for its marijuana farmland. Or maybe your first association with the place is just fire.

Armistead Maupin is the veteran San Francisco writer known for his iconic series Tales of the City.

All week long, we've been playing this sound and asking you to guess what exactly it is and where exactly in the Bay Area we recorded it.