Always a good idea to Swing Left when kicking off
a little celebration of a well-earned national holiday, don’t you think?!

Especially this one!

Come down Friday after work to catch Rob Reich & his comrade cultural workers in the big little band called Swings Left. They’ll have your toes tappin’ and your muscles jitterbuggin’, so take a break from your labors & start the celebration!

And later that selfsame Labor Day weekend Friday night, Judy Butterfield and Mean to Me will build you a perfect cup of their intoxicating brew of love & desire. You’ll find your mojo working right away with the weekend’s first taste of washboard percussion, shaky jake trumpet, bop-o-matic piano and sultry vocals. That spirited little spiked koffee klatch kicks off at 9 pm, and it’ll keep you swooning right up to 11 pm. 

If that ain’t work, it’ll have to do, until the real thing comes along!

Stop off for a nightcap at Glen Park Station and then wander home safely to bed,
’cause it’s a big weekend ahead!

Saturday morning, you’ll need to get a gentle start, what with your big night and the three days of serious relaxation ahead. We’d suggest you wander back down to the village, grab a cup of coffee and a little something from the busy bakers at Destination, then drift back into the shop, where the ambient electronica laboratory of Andre Custodio will be experimenting with the Audible Method to cook up something strangely appetizing!

Browse the books and let the coffee kick in, then pony up a tip towards a fair wage for lab worker Andre, maybe buy a cheap paperback in a nod to the capitalism of the small shop owners, and drift over to the canyon or out to the beach to get some fresh air and laze through a proper holiday picnic. Better not linger overlong ‘midst the nature, though! You’ll want to go home, grab a quick nap, freshen up, snatch a quick bite and get back down to the shop!

Saturday night, we’ve got the exquisite jazz you’ll never tire of, courtesy of the Grant Levin Quintet — piano, guitar, vibes, bass and drums making a joyful noise the likes of which they’re pining for in every city across the land. San Francisco’s got it, and you can get it! 

Safe in the knowledge that you can sleep in Sunday morning…
…and still be up in time for the church of Jerry Ferraz just shy of noon. 

From the bookshop stage for a couple of hours starting round about 11:30 in the a.m. every Sunday morning, Jerry, with his half-pint guitar, wordlessly conveys the joys that come with taking well-earned rest from your labors and letting your thoughts eddy in strangely familiar currents of time and timelessness.

You won’t know what hit you, exactly, but you’ll know it’s worth knowing…

And with such inchoate thoughts and profound non-thoughts in your head… and with an extra day off just around the corner and some billy goat gruff and fish people stewing in the pot for a leisurely Sunday afternoon repast… why, you’ll realize you’re feeling so good that you’re just itchin’ & twitchin’ to shake it on down. 

There’s a batter-fried recipe for that, don’t you know! We’re serving a double helping Sunday afternoon at, where else?, your little village bookshop!

Make it on down once again, for a special Sunday afternoon double bill featuring old-time specialists The New Basement Shakers and JimBo Trout & the Fish People.

You’ll think you’ve just fallen into a long-lost land of rhythm & good times. And damned if you haven’t!

So, is it labor or is it poetry? We think labor is poetry, and music, and good times, and making a better future…

The poetry Monday night will be hard hitting & defiant, like a good labor day protest ought to be. Listen to the poets, just like you might find them at 16th & Mission!

Then air your grievances in the open mic!

Demand that 30-hour week!
Perfect for the overworked and the underemployed alike.

While you’re dreaming the dream, dream up some more!

A carpet square on every three-square feet of pavement. No cars! Free transit! Pot in every chicken! A guitar in every garage band! And drums! Drums, and maracas!, for everyone!

Join together, brother and sisters, to get your culture at the bookshop, and to forge a future that’s balanced, satisfying and righteous! Keep on pushin’! But have fun doing it, by all means & by any means necessary!

Relaxed and fortified with the culture and camaraderie we hope you’ll find at your village bookshop & juke joint over this Friday to Monday Labor Day weekend, you’ll be fit to battle the Tuesday morning corporate moloch. Yeah, you bet!

Get down to the factory, give ’em hell.

And do your job!