Arts+Events: June 2009 Archives

There is less than a day (t-minus 19 hours as of this posting) to vote for a number of San Francisco-based drag queens in the first round of web casting for the second season of Rupaul's Drag Race on Logo. If you missed the first season this past winter or its subsequent re-running on VH1, you missed some pretty good gay television -- of which there is sorrowfully little, if you don't count America's Next Top Model. The is kind of a cross between Top Model and Project Runway, with some lip sync and wigs thrown in, and Ru even gets filmed in the same soft, glowing light as Tyra at the judges' table.

MUSIC: Bill Callahan, formerly known as Smog for the past 20 years, masterfully combines lo-fi folk/rock arrangements with his signature, smooth baritone. Callahan will play his lullabies for SF audiophiles at Bimbo's tonight.

The week ahead in music is a quiet one, as if the Bay Area needed some time off to nurse it's collective post-Pride hangover. Quiet doesn't mean silent, however, and there are still plenty of offerings for those who want a little auditory stimulus for their come-down. Two shows featuring roots music are worth checking out this week: Deer Tick at The Independent on Wednesday and The Moondooggies at The Rickshaw Stop on Thursday. The B-52's make an apperance on the peninsula on Tuesday, continuing to surprise those who see them live with their durability and tight musical chops. As you plan ahead for the Fourth of July weekend, make sure to check out the Fillmore Jazz Festival, consistently one of the best street festivals in San Francisco. The fest regularly features top-notch talent from across the jazz spectrum while celebrating the musical heritage of the Western Addition neighborhood. Best of all, it's free. Highlights of this year's festival include: Spencer Day, Marcus Shelby Orchestra, Kim Nalley, Sila & the AfroFunk Experience, Norman Bautista, and many more. Check out www.fillmorejazzfestival.com for more details. If you feel the need to escape the city for the weekend, you can always head up to the Marin County Fair and join graying hot-tubbers as they sway to the retro sounds of Sha Na Na and the latin rock of Los Lobos.

FILM: Incredibly Strange Picture Show presents Wattstax, a documentary about a one-day concert put on by Stax Records in the summer of 1972 commemorating the 7th anniversary of the Watts riots in Los Angeles, featuring amazing performances by Kim Weston, The Bar-Kays, Rufus Thomas, The Staple Singers, and headliner Isaac Hayes. "The documentary's exploration into the Watts neighborhood, as well as the thoughts and expressions of the African-American community (and celebrity), are what secures this film as an important cultural time capsule."

                            

Here are our NSFW batch of images taken at this past weekend's 39th San Francisco Pride. Thousands came in from all over the world to march, party, and prance about. Best of all, we captured it for you. We've got spanking, leather, flesh, same-sex kissing and Pride Grand Marshall Cloris Leachman. Check them out. If you dare.

DANCE: Get your country-western dancing on at Sundance After-Pride Dance. Beginning lessons are from 6:00 to 7:30 pm, and open dancing is from 7:30 to close.

ART: Tyson Ayers, a Bay Area music composer, instrument builder, and multimedia installation and performance artist, presents the Sound Cave, a small room built out of piano parts. When someone crawls inside, the strings on the walls capture any sounds the person creates and echoes them back for long periods of time. "Each sound board is tuned according to various scientific and sound healing principles with the intention of positively affecting a participant's mind, body, and spirit."

We know that some of you plan to boycott this year's Pride because it's not angry enough, or whatever. We know that some of you will get blotto by noon today, not ready to come down until Tuesday. We know that some of you will visit San Francisco for the first time this weekend. We know that some of you will finally decide to have your very first same-sex sex experience. We know that some of you couldn't care less.

FILM: Gary Hustwit, the director of the hip documentary Helvetica presents his second hip documentary, Objectified, which is about "our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability." Through vérité footage and in-depth conversations, the film documents the creative processes of some of the world’s most influential product designers, and looks at how the things they make impact our lives. The screening runs through Sunday.

Yes, everyone: The LGBT Pride Fest and Parade in San Francisco is the largest and best attended thing of its kind in the U.S. (and for those who've seen the fests in NY and LA this shouldn't be a surprise). This year, in the wake of Prop 8 and the Don't Ask Don't Tell bullshit, the parade on Sunday will come with a renewed sense of urgency and protest. But of course, for most lesbians and gays about town, this weekend is primarily about partying. So without further ado, here's a guide to all that's going down, in a gay way, this weekend. (Special thanks to The Sword - NSFW)

LIT: In the newly released book Smash the Church, Smash the State: the Early Years of Gay Liberation, nearly 40 authors describe their involvement in the radical groups that took the fight for queer rights and connected it to other social justice issues. Tonight's reception for the Bay Area contributors to the book features editor Tommi Avicolli Mecca, Merle Woo and others, and celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion. Snacks will be served.

     

Last night's Lindy in the Square was a huge success. As the above photos demonstrate, folks of all ages were up there strutting their stuff. The striped-shirt fellow in the second photo, at right, gets the prize for being the most "into it." Lindy in the Square happens every fourth Wednesday of the month through September. The next one is on July 22, hosted by 9:20 Special.

              

San Francisco SPCA has been celebrating Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat Month with a few big events. They had an adoption fair on Saturday (pictured above), featuring cats, dogs, birds, rabbits, and other small mammals, and they're continuing the fun today and tomorrow. Check out their silly promotional video.

The Weekly's big undersized Summer in the City issue is out, and in it they're offering up a few suggestions of stuff to do on the cheap (under $15), including heading over to the Paramount in Oakland for their Friday classic movie series (next up, Creature from the Black Lagoon on July 10th), or going to the Academy of Sciences for their $10 nightlife events. But we were especially glad to be reminded of Audium, the "sound-space continuum" designed by electronic music composer Stan Shaff. It's a deeply 70s space tucked away in an assuming building at 1616 Bush, featuring 169 speakers and a bunch of chairs arranged in a circle. Audience members are immersed, with the lights off, in a sound sculpture in which a custom-composed piece of music seems to move around the room as it is played. The place was funded by an NEA grant in the early 70s, and is still presided over every Friday and Saturday by Shaff himself, who is 79 years old and just premiered a new composition this past October, "Audium 9."

THEATER: Based on the classic book by Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest explores "a world where sanity means conformity and following the rules is the only way to survive." Tonight through Friday are preview nights, and the play runs through September 5th.

UPDATE: We have our winners, and they are being informed. Please stop emailing us.

On Sunday night, the irreverent Lewis Black will tear into his favorite subjects, such as politics, religion, and "other American foolishness," live and uncensored in Back in Black, a conversation with former Air America Radio host and "sometime feral cat wrangler" Marc Maron. Black will also discuss his book We of Little Faith, and there will be an audience Q & A and book signing. All proceeds will benefit Litquake, which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary.

ART: GLBT Historical Society, LGBT Community Center, and Scott Richards Contemporary Art will unveil MILK, the photo mosaic of Harvey Milk, created by Robert Silvers. The event immediately follows the Rainbow Flag raising ceremony at Market and Castro and features Stoli cocktails, Hess wines, and an appetizer buffet.

Brooklyn-based quartet Grizzly Bear has had the indie music community abuzz with rave reviews of their latest album, Veckatimest, which even cracked the Billboard Top 10 a couple weeks ago, just ahead of... Taylor Swift and Rascal Flatts. Yes ladies and gents, they've hit the big time. All Shook Down certainly loved 'em last night (apparently it was better than seeing a unicorn) and they're back for more tonight. Also, the Greek Theatre in Berkeley has David Byrne and Wilco back to back nights; as for recommended local acts, A.A. Bondy and Telekinesis are hitting up Cafe Du Nord and BOTH, respectively. See you out there. Select list of shows around the city, after the jump...

FILM: Here's another depressing but much-needed film about how our oceans are headed for dire straits. Based on the book by Charles Clover, and narrated by Ted Danson, The End of the Line explores the devastating effect that overfishing is having on fish stocks and the health of our oceans. With Clover as his guide, director Rupert Murray crisscrosses the globe, examining what is causing the dilemma and what can be done to solve it.

Attention art-lovers with free time on their hands throughout July: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is looking for volunteers for their upcoming Wallworks exhibition to be launched at the end of July. Paintings, wall reliefs, and collages by Makoto Aida, Edgar Arceneaux, Chris Finley, Tillman Kaiser, Odili Donald Odita, Amanda Ross-Ho, Yehudit Sasportas, and Leslie Shows will fill the wall surfaces of YBCA's galleries and public spaces.

Local crooners My First Earthquake shot a video to their new single,"Cool in the Cool Way." More or less, it's a song about hipsters. And, appropriately enough, they filmed it in SF's Mission District, a neighborhood brimming with much-maligned hip folks. The video, it seems, is an anti-hipster ode. Or it sympathizes with them. Or it's tongue-in-cheek. Or it's a meta-hipster statement that will make the universe implode upon repeated viewing. (Notions of cool aside, lead songstress Rebecca Bortman is gorgeous. She, like most women and several men, probably looks even more amazing in high heels while throwing back vodka shots at the Razz Room.)

FILM: As part of the Frameline Festival, My Buddy Claudia documents the vibrant life of Brazilian trans girl, Claudia Wonder, the first "travesti" to star in '70s mainstream soft-core porn and to pose in a straight men's magazine. In the '80s, Claudia became a spokesperson for male, female, and trans sex workers, and she currently fronts a '80s glam-rock/electroclash band.

FILM: Enjoy a picnic and a concealed beverage while watching Goldfinger at Dolores Park, in which James Bond woos Pussy Galore and battles "a gold-hoarding, power-hungry maniac who plans to detonate a small atomic device at Fort Knox, in hopes of becoming the Richest Man Alive!"

The California Shakespeare Theater's opening production, Romeo & Juliet, is in its last three performances today and tomorrow. It's a lively and fun production directed by Jonathan Moscone, complete with contemporary music and Verona teenagers who smoke, drink Jack Daniels, and carry iPods and skateboards wherever they go. Because it's a play about teenagers in love, all these updates work to reinforce the age and temperament of the characters, and performances by Catherine Castellanos as the Nurse (pictured with the charming Sarah Nealis as Juliet) and Jud Williford as Mercutio deserve special shout-outs -- it's always the supporting characters in Shakespeare who steal the show.

Another weekend full of fun events is soon upon us. FuncheapSF and The Squid List have exhaustive lists, and here are a few highlights.

ART: Visiting "mirror" artist Daniel Rozin has created a dazzling exhibition, "Reflections," in which guests can "multiply your visage into hundreds of kaleidoscopic views, use computers and mirrors to distort your appearance, experiment with your face under different wavelengths of light, and play with perspective to capture aspects of yourself you’ve rarely witnessed. Among the exhibits on display are new interactive works highlighting Daniel Rozin’s provocative take on self-examination."

Spend your Monday lunch break at a special, free in-store performance at Amoeba with Elvis Costello in celebration of the release of his new album Secret, Profane & Sugarcane. Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Jim Lauderdale will be accompanying him.

People seem to either love opera or feel like they should love it. For the would be lovers of operas the inaccessibility of the genre (even when the lyrics are in English, deciphering them can be tough) has been lessened recently by things such as projected lyrics, and opportunities to see good productions at local movie theaters or ball parks. Perhaps the best way to become an actual opera lover is to see a world-class production of the most accessible opera for American audiences: Porgy and Bess which currently playing at the SF opera.

SING-ALONG: Join San Francisco's favorite film critic (and SFist Brock's) Jan Wahl in a Castro Theater-style sing-a-long of the world's most famous "shtetl" musical, Fiddler on the Roof. Shtetl fashion is encouraged.

Every Pride season, there are a legion of LGBT film fests accompanying the legion of regional Pride fests across the land, now that gay pride isn't just for major metropolitan areas anymore. San Francisco has the largest and best attended Pride parade in the country, and we also have one of the oldest, biggest and most respected gay film fests, Frameline, which opens its 33rd season tonight with Quentin Crisp biopic, An Englishman in New York (pictured).

DANCE: Get a free beginner salsa lesson at Salsa in the Square, a salsa music and dance festival happening every third Wednesday through October. Immediately following the lesson, test your skill to the live sounds of Anthony Blea y su Charanga.

If you're planning to purchase lawn tickets for any Shoreline Amphitheatre concerts this summer, be sure to get them via Live Nation on a select No Service Fee Wednesday, including today, for an all-in-one price of $24.99. This is an especially great deal for concerts such as Depeche Mode and Def Leppard/Poison/Cheap Trick, where regular lawn tickets start at $40, once all of the annoying service fees are factored in.

Learn all there is to know about sake and tea at the Asian Art Museum tomorrow Thursday night, which kicks of their bi-monthly Matcha series. Kirsten Shilakes, art history lecturer, will lead a tasting and multi-media presentation on the history of the culinary arts, and Miwa Wang, sake sommelier and manager of True Sake, will discuss the nuanced tastes and bouquets of sake. There will also be a Japanese tea ceremony showcasing matcha, a powdered green tea, in which attendees will whisk their own matcha and learn about warrior culture.

COMEDY: SF Sketchfest presents San Francisco-based comedy troupe Kasper Hauser for a special one-night show celebrating the release of their book, Weddings of the Times, a parody of the New York Times wedding announcements, complete with helpful wedding tips and lists, including first aid for guests who have been attacked by a shark. The group will start off the show with a live sketch performance, followed by a reading from the book. There will also be a Q&A and book signing moderated by Beth Lisick.

It's bits-and-pieces of '90s cult alterna-band week in San Francisco, with members of both Ween and Primus (Gene Ween and Les Claypool respectively) gracing the stages of Great American Music Hall and the Warfield. Meanwhile Steve Albini's noise-rock band Shellac will be making a two night stand at the Great American Music Hall and indie rock powerhouse Grizzly Bear, freah from the release of their latest album Veckatimest, will begin their two night gig at the Fillmore on Sunday.

FILM: John Cage, who was an American composer and pioneer of chance music, electronic music and non-standard use of musical instruments, is honored in this one-time only screening of The Revenge of the Dead Indians. The film is made up of footage of Cage and performances of his music, which are assembled together with 42 personalities, from well-known artists, to market vendors and street cleaners, "found" video and audio landscapes, and theatrically directed readings. The screening, which is a benefit for Other Minds, includes complimentary beverages and hors d'oeuvres.

PERFORMANCE: Help save the Rhino Theatre at The 2009 Rhino Benefit Spectacular. Performers include Leanne Borghesi, Laurie Bushman, Mike Finn, Scott Gessford, David Goodwin, Jordan LaMoore, Kim Larsen, Matthew Martin, Sara Moore, Tom Orr, Dan Sandjoet, and SF Boylesque. The ticket price includes drinks, treats, and the big party before, afterwards and during. Plus there’s a raffle!

          

Yesterday was World Naked Bike Ride, "an international demonstration in protest of our dependence on fossil fuels," and davitydave captured the San Francisco starting point at Justin Herman Plaza. Check out davitydave's Flickr page for all of the glorious NSFW photos.

ART: Greg Gossel will exhibit his new collection of appropriated pop culture imagery ranging from pulp novels, romance comics, political references, and fallen icons of the 20th century. His pieces are large-scale multimedia works involving silkscreen, experimental Xerox copy and transfers, as well as various found billboard scraps and signage. The raw nature of the collection builds upon the surfaces with rich depth, paint, print and collage. Tonight is the opening reception, and the show runs through July 7.

In case you missed last weekend's Big Idea party at Yerba Buena, or in case you still haven't made it over to see the amazing exhibit "Meet Me at the Center of the Earth" by the artist Nick Cave (not to be confused with Nick Cave the musician), we give you this quick interview with him and a look at some of his "sound suits" in motion.

Through Sunday, Wolfgang's Vault is exhibiting Bill Graham's prolific collection of San Francisco rock memorabilia in Backstage Pass: A Sweeping History of Rock 'n' Roll at the historic Old Mint Building, whose doors have been closed to the public since 1994.

The SF Symphony journey from Schubert to Berg is coming to an end this week, with a final program combining Berg's Violin Concerto with Schubert's Mass in E flat major. We believe that the whole exercise was only a pretext to make Berg more palatable to the San Francisco audience: by insisting on the roots of his music into a Viennese romanticism, Berg is much less challenging than as a twelve tone music proponent. The connection between both was elusive, but if a little fuzzy marketing is needed to spoon feed Berg's magnificent music to the audience, so be it, and enjoy!

With July 4th fast approaching, there might be no better way to express -- and examine -- your patriotism than a visit to SFMOMA to see Looking In: Robert Frank's "The Americans", the Swiss photographer's profound and path-breaking look at our fair nation.

PERFORMANCE: This weekend at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Kunst-Stoff will perform its 11th San Francisco Home Season from inside a 50 x 50 square “boxing ring” set-up with the audience seated around all four sides of the perimeter, which allows for four very different views of the action and accelerates the impact of the dancing on the viewer. Performances will feature multi-disciplinary collaborations featuring dance, theater, live music, and visual design. "Delving in across the spectrum from grief and hilarity, these works promise to offer considerable emotional scope."

No one can sell out the War Memorial Opera House faster than Anna Netrebko. Just try and get a ticket for Saturday night's La Traviata, if you want to see why for yourself. The Russian soprano is the biggest draw in opera nowadays: she's the rare bird with the transcendental voice, and, well, she has the physique you'd actually want to see in a satin negligee, as in this Roaring 20s Marta Domingo production of the Verdi masterpiece. Plus, she has an inspiring story, working her way up from scrubbing the floors of the Maryinksy Theater in St Peterbourg, to photo spreads in Vanity Fair, and receiving honors from Vladimir Putin.

      

Last Saturday night, the YBCA opened its doors for a large-scale, mixed, queer-friendly, *very* San Franciscan party called "What's the Big Idea?" featuring food from the Mission Street Food "taco" truck, galleries open until 3AM (including the Sisters' archive show, and the amazing collection of "soundsuits" created by Nick Cave, which are basically like enormous, haute couture muppet costumes from another planet -- see video of them here), a Sisters' fashion show called Project Nunway, live tattooing, performances by drag queens Anna Conda and Monistat, and music from DJ Dirty Knees and the DJ collective Honey Soundsystem. SFist was there, and fairly wasted, so all we have are these few lousy pictures (look out for a full video of the event from the SF Appeal). But trust us when we say a good time was had by all, and the food -- particularly this deep fried fennel sausage slathered in aoili and onion jam, and a pork belly "taco" that was pure grease heaven -- was fucking fantastic. The museum also may have found a few new devotees after this event, since they were offering free lifetime memberships to anyone who agreed to get the YBCA logo tattoo'd on themselves.*

The Sword recently did this interview with SF drag queen Juanita MORE!, who's been DJing and hosting at parties (like Booty Call Wednesdays at Qbar in the Castro, Shits & Giggles in L.A., and Susanne Bartsch's Vandam in NYC) more than she's been performing as of late. Juanita talks about her first performance in San Francisco at Lily's (where Martuni's is now), about how she got her drag name, and about her drag idol, Divine.

FLASH MOB: Ok, folks, it's apparently time for yet another flash mob. This one will last five minutes, and everyone will be singing the Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends" (in the key first note Ab). They suggest bringing a walkman or mp3 player to brush up on the song and to bring friends, of course.

by Moses Namkung

MUSIC: Award-winning violinist Gil Shaham will perform the Berg Concerto, "part requiem, part showpiece," which he has explored for years and has played often, and Schubert's Mass No. 6, a "glory of the choral repertory."

Internet-famous gay Jeffery Self, of the comedy duo The VGL Gay Boys (link semi-NSFW), brings his one-man show about the woes of gay dating and Craigslist hookups "My Life on the Craigslist" to San Francisco, starting this evening at the New Conservatory Theatre (25 Van Ness). The show has played Off-Broadway in New York and elsewhere, and will be at the NCTC through Pride weekend, June 27th. Self, along with comedy partner Cole Escola, will soon be starring in their own variety show on Logo called Jeffery and Cole Casserole.

by Tiffany Maleshefski

The Gershwin's Porgy and Bess opens tonight at SF Opera. It used to be dismissed, if you will, as a musical, but has now moved up to be considered one of the best American operas ever. Not that it's too crowded a category yet. In the role of Porgy, we have Eric Owens, a bass-baritone who is carving a name for himself with compelling performances in exciting productions, new and old. Also, a charmer.

FILM: This week's $7 Tuesday flick at the Red Vic is Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Come see Sean Penn at his best as the infamous Jeff Spicoli, and who can forget the titillating Judge Reinhold/Phoebe Cates dream sequence?

The Harmony Festival, coming up this weekend in Santa Rosa, will feature Michael Franti & Spearhead, India.Arie, Cake, ALO (Animal Liberation Orchestra), Balkan Beat Box and countless other musical acts over the course of the three day festival. Come join up and see that "at the Harmony Festival, it becomes obvious that we are all one." Er, yes. Go out and feel those good rhythms of humanity, brah. Select list of shows around the Bay Area after the jump...

MUSIC: Sugary yet melancholic Scottish indie-poppers Camera Obscura, lead by angelic crooner Tracyanne Campbell, will entrance the Fillmore tonight. Lovely, vintage cabaret-inspired, all-female trio Agent Ribbons opens.

THEATRE: In Stale Magnolias, presented by Foul Play, you will meet the ladies of Texas’ Last Chance Salon, inspired by the kind of women found in such ’80s films as Steel Magnolias, Crimes Of The Heart, and Come Back To The Five And Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. "High hopes, dashed dreams, betrayal, murder and... male-pattern balding."

ART: Score some gems by over 350 local artists at Pop Noir, Southern Exposure's Annual Fundraiser + Art Auction. The event features a live and silent art auction, creative projects, delicious food and beverages, and music. Artists will be creating unusual and mysterious portraits of auction attendees.

As always, funcheapSF has an exhaustive list of great stuff to do this weekend. For those who feel like staying in or getting out of town, there are street festivals and such all over the place. We've hand-picked just a few.

The SF Symphony journey from Schubert to Berg continued on Wednesday with an intimate exploration of some lieder and chamber music, as well as the Lulu suite. The directions for the voyage (which continues tonight, tomorrow and next week) go like, start from Schubert, take a turn at Brahms, another at Wagner, when you reach Bruckner, go straight until Mahler, make a sharp left there, when you see Schoenberg, you'll have reached Berg. Not exactly a straight line, and not an obvious connection.

PERFORMANCE: The Thrillpeddlers present the revival of the legendary Cockettes' 1970s crown jewel production, Pearls Over Shanghai, a comic mock-operetta about white slavery and miscegenation set in the colorful world of 1937 Shanghai, China. The event marks the Cockette's 40th anniversary. Tonight and tomorrow night's performances are preview nights, and the show opens on June 12.

The new film Away We Go, directed by Sam Mendes and with a script by local literary it-couple Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida, received a gut-punch of a review by A.O. Scott in today's NYT that sounds suspiciously like an indictment of the attitude -- nay, "smug self-regard" -- of the writers themselves. The movie stars Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski as expectant parents traveling around to visit friends and relatives in an effort to choose a place to raise their child, and inevitably passing judgment on each. Scott writes, "even though they express themselves with a measure of diffidence, it's clear that [the couple is] acutely, at times painfully, aware of their special status as uniquely sensitive, caring, smart and cool beings on a planet full of cretins and failures." Scott doesn't exempt director Mendes from criticism, saying, "To observe that they inhabit no recognizable American social reality is only to say that this is a film by Sam Mendes, a literary tourist from Britain who has missed the point every time he has crossed the ocean."

In addition to the meth cloud that hangs above Beck's Motorlodge -- we kid! sort of. but not really. -- Supervisor Bevan Dufty would like to create a pink cloud that would float over the intersection of Market and Castro streets. The idea, according to SF Chronicle, "is recycled from 2000, when artist Christian Werthmann's 'pink cloud' was one of two winning proposals for a city art piece to commemorate the late Harvey Milk, a supervisor and gay rights advocate." (Here's what it would look like.)

ART: Peruse art and enjoy food and drink specials at dozens of venues (including free dessert at Metro Kathmandu!), as part of the Divisadero Art Walk. 6 p.m. // Divisadero Street (from Haight St to Geary Blvd) // free MUSIC: Another Hole in the Head Film Festival, which starts tomorrow night, is having an arena rock-themed Launch Party extravaganza tonight. Local band Live Evil performs as Spinal Tap! Plus The Godz of Rock and live stage versions of ‘80s hair metal videos.

We've heard the new Disney/Pixar movie Up is fantastic, and we're not going to knock it or sing its praises here because we haven't seen it, and, well, we don't usually do movie reviews (trailer is after the jump).

The last Tosca here was in 2004. Considering that Tosca is The Show That Build SFOpera, with 12 runs over in the first 18 years of the company, and since only twice in history has a Tosca black-out lasted more than five years, we were so due. Last night, the umpteenth run opened, and it proved why it's such a fan favorite: when it's done competently, it's as pleasing as it gets.

In the middle of his second consecutive sellout show at Bottom of the Hill on Tuesday, Jens Lekman gave his own "gentle response to all the Prop 8 bullshit going on": his standout song, "Postcard to Nina". Between verses, the Swede explained an anecdote relating to the song: a story about the time he was in Berlin and briefly became heterosexual for his lesbian friend Nina, who introduced him to her father as her boyfriend because, of course, she didn't want her father to know about her girlfriend. Got that?

ART: It's another titillating night of the SF Sex Worker Fest. Army of Lovers presents Formerly Known As, a two day festival of performance, art and video by male sex workers. Flavorpill tells us to "expect insight into transgender issues in the sex-work community, stories of disastrous porn shoots, and nude body art."

MUSIC: Master trumpet player Herb Alpert, of the delightfully cheesy Sergio Mendes and Tijuana Brass fame, and his wife, singer Lani Hall will perform an intimate night of American and Brazilian jazz featuring Bill Cantos (piano), Michael Shapiro (drums), and Hussain Jiffrey (bass).

Litquake is celebrating their 10th anniversary tonight with a fundraiser called, "Cocktails with Canin." Author Ethan Canin, who is currently promoting the paperback release of his epic novel, America America, which was described by the late John Updike as “a complicated, many-layered epic of class, politics, sex, death, and social history,” will be sharing cocktails and conversation onstage with former San Francisco Chronicle book editor Oscar Villalon and the audience.

The endearingly batshit auteur who brought us Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks and most recently, Inland Empire, is up to something new: a web-based series of interviews that appears to be a kind of video portrait of America, maybe in a Walker Evans or Diane Arbus vein. In the 'About' video, Lynch gives little elaboration about Interview Project, and deadpans things like, "The people who were interviewed each was different." The first episode, which premiered yesterday, is an interview with Jess, a wizened old dude who was just sitting by the road in Needles, California waiting for his trailer to be repaired. We're imagining more Lynchian characters like him, straight out of a non-sequitor moment from one of his films, but this project is being helmed by Austin Lynch, David's 26-year-old son and maybe will take on bigger themes as it progresses. It was shot over 70 days and 20,000 miles as the team went across the country and back again, and there will be a new episode up on the site every three days.

       

Pictures of the Sonoma County Pride fest in Guerneville, May 31st, 2009. By Joey DeRuy

The last time we saw Jens Lekman, as his set ended he apologized that he had run out of time. The lights went on, he hopped down from the stage to mingle with the crowd, and then said, "I'd like to keep playing music. Do you know of anywhere else we can play some more music? I'm not from around here." Phew, such a nice guy. We suggested Union Square in NY, went there and waited in the cold, but he sadly never showed - he apparently "got lost in Halloween weekend traffic".

FILM: The 2009 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup Conference presents a free screening of DARE, which follows three very different teenagers through the last semester of high school. The screening will be followed by a live Q and A with screenwriter and co-producer David Brind and director Adam Salky. You must RSVP at mashup@ypulse.com with your full name and number of tickets. (Preference will be given to paying conference attendees, so RSVP asap!)