Arts+Events: May 2009 Archives

THEATER: CASA (Children’s After School Arts) is having a musical theatrical extravaganza, Adventures at Camp Itchy Scratchy, starring 85 kindergarten through fifth graders. "Looking to escape their school-year stresses, a group of kids travel to Camp Itchy Scratchy only to find themselves embroiled in a battle of power and blood." The event is a fundraiser for CASA.

THEATER: It's the closing weekend of Boleros for the Disenchanted, written by The Motorcycle Diaries screenwriter José Rivera, which is a love story set in Puerto Rico that spans several generations and is accompanied by lush, Latin love songs (boleros) by master composer Fabian Obispo.

San Francisco guitarist Johnathan Rice said as he strummed the opening to "See Fernando" to kick off the evening, "it may not be legal for all of us to marry... but it isn't illegal for all of us to be in love with Jenny Lewis!" Don't rub it in, Johnny. We know you're dating her.

FILM: Check out the original Inglorious Bastards by Italian director Enzo Castellari, which inspired the partial premise of Tarantino's upcoming version. Incidentally, Tarantino is a very bad speller. The original remains perhaps the biggest and toughest war movie in European cult film history. Action legends Fred 'The Hammer' Williamson and Bo Svenson star as the leaders of a gang of condemned criminals who escape from an Allied prison camp, only to find themselves 'volunteering' for a suicide mission deep inside Nazi occupied France.

We learned yesterday that star soprano Patricia Racette had to withdraw from singing today in the Verdi Requiem at the SF Opera house, and will be replaced by Adler fellow Heidi Melton. Racette, a recent hit in Madame Butterfly, was to sing the Requiem for the first time. No disrespect meant to the up-and-coming Heidi Melton, who will nail it, but that's a bummer. Racette and Stephanie Blythe, that was a spectacular tag team. Nonetheless, the SF Opera orchestra and choir, under the baton of departing music director Donald Runnicles, will be on the stage for once, not in the pit. That should be an exciting farewell to the maestro.

ART: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts concludes its 2008-2009 season with Nick Cave Soundsuits Collaboration, which combines the movement of New York-based choreographer Ronald K. Brown and the shimmering Soundsuits of Chicago-based sculptor Nick Cave. Tonight, Saturday, and Sunday nights, in collaboration with Brown and Evidence dancer Shani Collins, local performers will bring to life Cave’s Soundsuits—ephemeral full-body sculptures composed of recycled clothing, beads, bottle caps, toys, twigs and hair. The exhibition runs through July 5.

Before growing into the acclaimed DJ and electronic music producer that he is today, Tiga got his first exposure to music touring the Goa region of India with his DJ father in the 80s. Now based in Montreal, he's now released four albums, including 2001's acclaimed Mixed Emotions, and the popular 2006 disc Sexor. He has a new album, Ciao, which bridges the gap between IDM (intelligent dance music) and more heady, heavy electronica (hear some here).

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the peace-, love- and mud-fest known as Woodstock, and organizers of a free, commemorative concert in San Francisco are being threatened with a very un-peaceful and unloving cease and desist order from Woodstock Ventures, a New York-based organization that claims to hold the right to the Woodstock name. As SF Weekly's All Shook Down blog reports, the SF organizers do not plan to comply with the order, and are, as of now, going ahead with planning the October 25th concert, claiming that San Francisco has as much of a right to celebrate as any city -- with 18 of the groups who played at the 1969 festival hailing from San Francisco. As the Weekly puts it, "It's never a good thing when hippies fight. Especially aging hippies." We hope they work it all out, and we also hope Grace Slick will be there.

The SF Symphony kicks off its Schubert and Berg journey with a mix-and-match of the Viennese composers. Tonight, and repeating through Saturday (the last show in Cupertino), we hear Berg's Seven Early songs, and Three Pieces for Orchestra, teamed up with Schubert's Rosamunde Overture and Unfinished Symphony.

LECTURE: The Commonwealth Club hosts an enlightening discussion with Michael Eric Dyson: Can You Hear Me Now? Known as the "hip-hop" intellectual, Dyson examines issues of class, race and poverty, and political strife. There will be wine, cheese, and networking before the talk, and a book-signing aftward. Richard Thompson Ford moderates.

MUSIC: It's a night of high-energy indie. So, get up there and shake your skinny butts, hipsters. Passion Pit, Harlem Shakes, and Cale Parks will not let you down.

by Moses Namkung Exciting week ahead, yes? Yes. Our favorites? We'll be catching St. Vincent on Wednesday, Jenny Lewis on Friday and the Thermals on Sunday! See you out there. Monday, May 25 Flight of the Conchords @ Berkeley Community Theatre, $39

FILM: There's still a few remaining nights of film noir at I Wake Up Dreaming. Tonight's double feature is Women in the Night (8 p.m.), "one of the rarest of 40s B noirs, which tells the grim story of women captured by the Nazis and forced to serve as “hostesses” at the Shanghai Officer’s Club," and Under Age (6:45 and 9 p.m.), "an astonishingly frank B oddity about young wayward girls who are lured into the dangerous world of prostitution by sinister pimps and racketeers."

FILM: In celebration of Harvey Milk's birthday this past Friday, the Castro is screening both Rob Epstein’s Academy Award-winning 1984 documentary, The Times of Harvey Milk and Gus Van Zant's feature film Milk back-to-back through Thursday.

ART: Sarah Applebaum's Soft Core exhibit features her technicolor costumes, paintings, installations and fabric work, which were aptly described by SF Weekly as "visual LSD." Check out Fecal Face's recent visit to Applebaum's studio.

Due to the erection of the new Transbay Terminal, Varnish Fine Art will be smashed to smithereens. Alas. Varnish Gallery, for those of you who don't know, is fantastic. The downtown wine bar/art gallery played host to readings by "jt leroy" and Karl Soehnlein, biweekly performances by Davies Symphony Hall darling Mason Bates (DJ Masonic), SFist's very first party, and provided lots and lots of free booze to your editor.

PERFORMANCE: StageWright presents Beatboxing Beasts & Cafeteria Feasts, in which fifth graders from Starr King Elementary School have written six original plays inspired by works of visual art at the de Young Museum. The plays will be performed as staged readings by professional actors with music by The TimeOuts and DJ Brotha Sub.

We have the annual Carnaval shaking up the Mission District on Saturday and Sunday. The Festival runs both days on Harrison St between 16th & 22nd St from 10 a.m. to 6p.m. The Parade is on Sunday, starting at 9:30 a.m. at 24th & Harrison, going west along 24th St, then turning up Mission all the way to 17th St. Check out the Entertainment Line-up for both days.

FILM: As part of SFMOMA's Robert Frank Retrospective, Program 3 will be a screening of three of Frank's short films. Keep Busy is a spontaneous, improvised story of a group of people living on an island off Nova Scotia, Energy and How to Get It combines documentary and fictional ideas, and Home Improvements, which was Frank's first video project, is about the relationship between Frank's life as an artist and his personal life, and how the two are inevitably intertwined.

Yuja Wang will dazzle us this week at Davies Symphony Hall, playing the dastardly difficult Prokofiev piano concerto #2 with MTT. Here she plays the concerto's scherzo with the YouTube symphony orchestra. She is all of twenty-two, but already acclaimed as the future of classical music. She has performed with the San Francisco symphony three times already, earning accolade galore from the critics: "an artist of dazzling genius," says the SF Chronicle, surrounded by "an aura of greatness...Wang combines a practically superhuman keyboard technique with artistic eloquence that is second to none." That is some serious hyperbole to put on the shoulder of such a tiny "sparrow, (a very pretty sparrow)," drools the LA Times.

LIT: Canteen magazine, which was edited and launched in San Francisco, is celebrating their fourth issue and the new semester of canTeen, their creative writing tutoring and publishing program in Harlem. Canteen asks accomplished writers to reveal their creative process, and they pair that insight with the best new work in fiction, poetry, art, and photography—all designed to look more like a fine art book than a dusty journal.

FILM: During a time in which the military is desperate for new recruits, unless you're openly gay, Ask Not exposes the tangled political battles that led to the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy and examines the societal shifts that have occurred since its 1993 passage. Current and veteran gay soldiers reveal how the policy has affected them during their tours of duty as they struggle to maintain a double life, uncertain of whom they can trust.

by Moses Namkung Over at ipickmynose, Adrian Bischoff is consistently producing superb, original local music coverage including this garden tour today with local resident John Vanderslice; in it, the two discuss, among other things, strawberry trees, succulent plants and echium. Vanderslice will be playing an in-store tonight at Amoeba Music and will be playing tomorrow at Rickshaw Stop.

Roxie Theater has been having a film noir festival, I Wake Up Dreaming: The Haunted World of the B-Film Noir, which started last Thursday and runs through this Sunday. The best part is that all nights are double-features. Here's the line-up:

BENEFIT: The Eighth Annual Cabaret to Fight AIDS features the Company members of the San Francisco production of Wicked, including Kendra Kassebaum, Natalie Daradich, and Angel Reda. The cast will perform favorites from Broadway and off-Broadway musicals, pop songs, standards, and country tunes. Sean Ray directs, and Donna Sachet will host.

              

The weather was hot and nice and a good time was had by all -- except those in heavy gorilla suits -- new regulations be damned. (Some pics NSFW!)

DANCE: Liz Roman and Dancers, who were recently featured in SFist's Photo Du Jour, present their newest building romp At Play. Roman and her dancers/collaborators will move audiences through the halls, stairwells, fire-escapes and doorways of Dance Mission Theater for a site-specific exploration of the venue. (There are also three more showings next weekend, May 22-24.)

ART: The San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery presents On Your Mark, featuring Bay Area artist Leslie Shows, courtesy of Jack Hanley Gallery. Small bites and cocktails have been donated by local Bay Area businesses.

Today, beat-ish scribe Diane di Prima was named the fifth Poet Laureate of San Francisco. Here she is back in the day reading something she wrote. Di Prima is wearing a lovely white, lace blouse, successfully capturing a natural, casual insouciance we don't see nearly enough of these days. A west coast-Ralph Lauren-stoned on the compound look, if you will. That is to say, she looks stunning.

FILM: Guest curator Pete Gowdy and Oddball Films present Slapstick Follies (and Other Fine Messes). The line-up will features shorts and a few silent films, including the rarely seen or screened Down Memory Lane, a feature-length compilation of Mack Sennett’s comedies, one of the best Laurel & Hardy shorts, One Wet Night from the Hal Roach Studio, The Air Express, and an eye-popping, mind-blowing Busby Berkeley clip! RSVP required (call 415-558-8117 or email info@oddballfilm.com).

Seeing as how SFist almost ruined this year's Bay to Breakers race (you're welcome!) after posting this map indicating places to buy hooch along the race route -- which resulted in a more aggressive and drunken race than years prior-- we've decided against publishing this map indicating where participants can purchase beer, wine, and other spirits while jogging.

                    

Today was a great day for biking. Did you participate? How was it?

MUSIC: Portland's Pierced Arrows brings their cult, raw, scratchy, "high-desert country gunslinging" sound to Bottom of the Hill. The Sermon and Burnt House will provide '60s garage rock and maxed-out rhythm and blues.

Tomorrow's the 15th Annual Bike to Work Day! Cycling activists anticipate 150,000 participants tomorrow. If we had a bike and worked at an office, we would most certainly be participating. Also, if we lived west of Divisadero, we'd take that awesome Wiggle route. We hear it's the place to be.

FILM: Bring your bike, a cushion/blanket, and a radio for the Disposable Film Festival's first ever bike-in screening (as opposed to a drive-in). Immediately following the movie, there will be a party inside the Good Hotel, hosted by the SF Bay Guardian, which will celebrate the release of their Bike to Work issue, and there will be a bike valet by the trusty SF Bicycle Coalition.

Epic Records' epic, eight-member, chamber, folk-pop band Margot and the Nuclear So & So's will be headlining the Great American Music Hall on Saturday night, with Telekinesis and Everything Now opening. Margot has sold out most of their past SF shows, and the Great American is always such a great treat.

             

by Moses Namkung

SCIENCE: At the monthly Ask a Scientist series, Dreamworks engineers will walk the audience through the building blocks of a CG animated project, explaining the science and math behind the transformation of tiny dots of color into "fluid that flows, fur that bristles, and feathers that ruffle."

by Moses Namkung

BENEFIT: Glen Park's Bird & Beckett Books & Records are having an 11-Hour Charlie Parker Jam Session to help Bird & Beckett "beat the banks." It's going on as we speak with a whole line-up of bebop players and special guests.

Bayview business owners offered Mother's Day specials and saw visitors from other neighborhoods rolling in on bikes, skates and scooters. Watch out for the next two Sunday Streets events in the Mission on June 7th and July 17th, which will undoubtedly be rowdier affairs.

CABARET: It's the fourth anniversary of the monthly Bijou, an eclectic cabaret featuring live singers, both new and established, both drag and non-drag. Tonight's line-up features SanFranSaxCo, a saxophone sextet, special guests Summer Clearance, Dennis Sanchez and Anna Warhola, and emcee Trauma Flinstone searches for a drag daughter for Mother's Day.

You may recall Zennie from his complaints about the "outsized" proportions of the futuristic San Francisco shown in the trailer for J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek film. Well, the movie's out, and Zennie's got his tickets! (See link for a tangent about his high school bike club in the 70s.) In the video posted here, in re: the new Star Trek, Zennie asks the question, Where are all the black people?

FIREWORKS: It's another perfect night for the annual KFOG KABOOM! event. Los Lonely Boys, Susan Tedeschi, and Chuck Prophet will perform, along with continuous performances on the children's stage.

MUSIC: Get your Hammond B-3 fix with Stax legend and current Anti- artist Booker T. Jones. Fellow Anti- artist, the sassy and soulful Bettye Lavette, opens.

       

by Moses Namkung

COMEDY: The hilarious Aisha Tyler of "Talk Soup" and "Nip/Tuck" fame (and others), will have Cobb's in stitches tonight through Sunday. The "hyper and irreverent" Ant opens.

    

In celebration of Mother's Day on Sunday, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is offering free admission to the opening of their new Rooftop Sculpture Garden. The Rooftop Garden features two open-air spaces and a glass pavilion with views of both the San Francisco skyline and the museum's sculptural works.

The 16th Annual SFMOMA Artists Warehouse Sale at Fort Mason starts tonight with a special preview event for those who want first dibs on the goods.

THEATER: It's the first preview night of Dead Man's Cell Phone, a comedy about "a woman forced to confront her own assumptions about morality, redemption, and the need to connect in a technologically obsessed world." The play, which runs through June 13, was written by Sarah Ruhl, recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" Grant and Pulitzer Prize finalist for her play The Clean House.

The San Francisco International Film Festival's Closing Night event is sure to be an exciting one. We have a pair of tickets to give away to lucky entrant number 7 who emails us (sfistevents@ gmail.com) with their full name and Closing Night in the subject. You must be 21+ to enter.

CINCO DE MAYO/MUSIC: La Colectiva and Manicato will turn the party into a fiesta with their infectious, modern Latin music. La Colectiva's genres include Streetwize Salsa Dura/Cumbia and Vallenato of Colombia/Son Jarocho of Veracruz Mexico/Cuban Son/Guaracha/Afro-Peruvian Festejo/Lando rythyms, and Manicato combines samba, cumbia, timba, rock, reggae, bomba, plena, hip-hop, funk, and everything in between.

Berkeley-based writer Sara Houghteling has a debut novel on the shelves called Pictures at an Exhibition, which tells the story of Max Berenzon, son of a Jewish art dealer in Paris and his quest to recover his family's priceless art collection, looted by Nazis during World War II.

The curse of Nelly's "Hot in Herre": since that summer in 2002 when the song came out, every time somebody says, "man, it's hot in here", there's a decent chance some goon will instinctively say, "so take off all your clothes!". Shhhh! Anyways, Jenny Owens Youngs, who comes to Bottom of the Hill on Friday, also sings that cursed song kind of sweetly, acoustic-style. Yeah, acoustic covers of rap songs... here are a couple lists/threads with boatloads of them, in case you're interested: list one and list two.

San Francisco's favorite dreamy, poppy band Loquat will be hitting Cafe Du Nord every Thursday this May with a great line-up of opening acts. This Thursday's openers are Head Like a Kite (Seattle) and Greycoats (Minneapolis), with DJ Elise from Soma FM on the decks.

FILM: French film, Summer Hours, which was put out by IFC films, is appearing at the San Francisco International Film Festival this week. "The divergent paths of three forty-something siblings collide when their mother, heiress to her uncle's exceptional 19th century art collection, dies suddenly" and they are forced to "confront the end of childhood, their shared memories, background and unique vision of the future."

PERFORMANCE: Hip Hop meets the circus in Kamikaze Heart, which is a story about "a boy with a heart made of gold, the birdcage he keeps it in, a grant writer who loves him, and the war across the sea she goes to soldier." Runs Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays through May 31.

FASHION: Chillin' Productions presents 50 fashion designers, live painting by Steve Javiel, live screenprinting by San Franpsycho, music by the Rondo Brothers, DJ 7, Dead Seal, Russell Vargas, Kris X, and Irene Hernandez-Feiks. Come early for the shopping, stay late for the entertainment.

There are two remaining Live and Onstage events at this year's San Francisco International Film Festival.

       

by Moses Namkung There are bands that look like they're having a blast on stage and there are bands that turn into dried fecal matter once they hit the floorboards. We remember the first time we saw Built to Spill when we were barely out of high school. Frontman Doug Martsch, like, stood there. He looked as interested as an Excel monkey trapped in a cubicle on cold Monday.

PERFORMANCE: CounterPULSE will be celebrating their 4th anniversary all weekend during their big May Day Festival. Twenty-five Bay Area dance and theater companies, spoken-word artists, and musicians will be raising money for CounterPULSE, which provides space and resources for emerging artists and cultural innovators. The price is a bit hefty, but the proceeds will go to a good cause. 8 p.m. // CounterPULSE (1310 Mission St.) // $30-100