Arts+Events: July 2009 Archives

Before you head over to Dolores Park on Saturday to watch Andie, Iona, Blaine and Duckie on a big outdoor screen, be sure to pickup one of these whimsical Muni shirts. That's right, Sexpigeon will be selling his public transit fashions at Dolores Park between 12:30 to 4 p.m. They go for a mere $15 each (how cheap!) and come in four sizes (how open-minded!).

FILM: Our favorite part of the Kill Bill magnum opus? Daryl Hannah as Elle Driver. Which is surprising since she's never been good in anything, ever. (Quentin Tarantino, if we may snit, is one of the best director's for women.) And, well, Lucy Lui is also pretty jarring as O-Ren Ishii, especially when being questioned about her "half-breed" make up. You can catch both performances when Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) -- wherein Uma Thurman plays an ex-assassin/bride left for dead who gets revenge on those who betrayed her -- screens tonight.

     

The folks at SFMOMA invite the public to participate in their weekly Sketch Fridays, which is geared toward facilitating an exchange between the community and the museum in the creation of "visual guestbooks." The group meets every Friday at 2 p.m., and guests of all levels are encouraged to attend, from children to professional artists.

FILM: The SF Bike Coalition is kicking off their summer Bike-In Movie Series with the beloved BMX cult classic Rad, featuring "the amazing and infamous bike dance scene" with a young Lori Loughlin (best known for her role as Aunt Becky on Full House). There will be a complimentary bike valet and several tasty street food vendors, including the Crème Brûlée Cart, the Magic Curry Kart, Gobba Gobba Hey, Sexy Soup Cart, Amuse Bouche SF, Sweet Constructions, and Chez Spencer's "Spencer on the Go."

For the lucky ones of you who happen to have Citi Visa Signature credit cards in your wallets, you can go to this Fandango page here to get a free pass, good for two tickets, to an advance screening on August 5th of Julie & Julia starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams at Century Cinemas in the Westfield center. This is one of those credit card promotions for Citi Private Pass, but hey, if you've already got the card and can't wait to see Meryl do her best, spot-on, sing-songy impersonation of the great chef who brought French food into the homes of millions of Americans, you might as well take advantage. For the rest of you, you may watch the preview above and pay full price when it's released the 7th.

MUSIC: He might appear rather nerdy to those who haven't been fortunate enough to hear his music, but Jarvis Cocker's titillating voice and songwriting are sure to throw his fans into quite a tizzy at the Fillmore tonight.

The fine folks over at Mission Mission came across these images of painted boxes in the part of the Mission district, along the lower half of 24th Street. You like? They've been in the area for almost a year care of Precita Eyes.

Attending the SF Opera Merola concerts is like opening a box of chocolate: the artists are mostly unknown young aspiring singers, dedicating their summer to the training program, so you never know what you are going to get. Will there be another Netrebko or Hampson? Or won't we hear of them again? And to double the element of surprise, they always select some rather obscure opera for one of the two fully staged shows. Chocolate boxes within boxes, man. This year: l'amico Fritz, by Mascagni.

CLUB: The traveling Soul Clap/Dance-Off event hosted by New York City's "maximum rock and soul DJ" Mr. Jonathan Toubin is stopping in San Francisco for one epic night of soul 45s with a dance contest in-between. The line-up of judges include a long list of local celebrities, and the winner will receive $100.

              

Amdist threats of a crackdown on fun (and nudity, and lewd behavior), the fetishy gays and their fetishy friends gathered under an unseasonably warm sun on Folsom Street on Sunday for the annual Up Your Alley fair. It could be described as a dirtier, and gayer Folsom Street Fair, and this year's fair was no less dirty, and no less naked. But to the SFPD's credit, with the large crowd that gathered (estimated at 12,000), it was a lot harder to spot the exposed genitalia until it was too late. Here are a few pictures (several NSFW!), including a shot of our beloved State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano Senator Mark Leno in conversation with friends while wearing his trusty leather pants.

THEATER: Golden Thread Productions presents the world premiere of Ecstasy | a waterfable, which was Inspired by the 9th century Sufi fable, "When the Waters Were Changed," where stories are "written in water, spells are cast through washing, and to drink either creates your life or rips it from you."

A play by Noel Coward is like a great champagne: bubbly and bright, leaving you intoxicated and laughing with a layered finish. Taking up the torch from Oscar Wilde, Coward was a master of snappy, witty dialogue and his plays chronicle the sexual politics and cynicism of post-WWI Londoners. To modern audiences, a play like Private Lives (written in 1930) might seem surprisingly libertine, centering on a divorced couple who run into each other on each of their second honeymoons, only to abandon their new spouses to sneak off with each other to Paris. But the dialogue has stood the test of time, and something about the clipped, jaded nature of the main characters, Elyot and Amanda, reminds one of contemporary examples like Paul Rudd's character in Role Models -- these are people who are too smart to be fooled by love, and too clever not to be annoyed by social customs and the world around them.

MUSIC: Tonight's Kafana Balkan party, which is a benefit for Hleb i Sir Cirkus (Bread and Cheese) who provide free circus shows and workshops for refugee children in Kosovo, will feature high-energy Balkan brass band Brass Menažeri (pronounced menagerie), who combine Serbian, Macedonian, Greek & Rajasthani Roma jams, and DJ Zeljko.

While perusing Laughing Squid this morning, we came across the preview for the , which will feature the return of Jeff Bridges and light cycles. (Eeee! Ahem.) The film is scheduled for a 2010 release. And, if the sequel to the 1982 sci-fit cult classic lives up to this preview, it's sure to be a gargantuan smash.

SATURDAY 1st Annual Super Hero Street Fair anonEvents, Get YER Freak On!, and Climate Theater present "the unique superhero in you." The event includes live music, dancing, art, tasty food, and an awards ceremony for best costumes, which will benefit charities including GIRLS 2000 (Hunters Point Family), SF Food Bank, Green Mary, and more to be announced. Islais Creek Promenade (1700 Indiana St), 1 p.m. to Midnight, $10 w/costume; $20 without.

ART: Hayes Valley Art Coalition is celebrating the installation of Adaptations, a site specific sculpture created by San Francisco artist Mark Baugh-Sasaki, which is constructed of a steel skeleton filled with locally-sourced salvaged tree limbs. There will be food served by Marino Mexican and Seafood Restaurant and music by local Gypsy jazz trio Gaucho.

San Francisco Poet Laureate Diane DiPrima -- who is co-hosting the San Francisco International Poetry Festival that kicks off tonight with a party on Jack Kerouac Alley in North Beach -- provides us with our afternoon palate cleanser today. This is a bit of film taken of her reading at the Naropa Institute back in the late 70s/early80s, from a poem she wrote for her grandfather.

Calling all (for lack of a better term) foodies. Ready for a little controversy? The next Long Now Foundation lecture on Tuesday, July 28th promises to be especially interesting, as two agriculture experts make their case for why we should support the development of genetically modified plants AND organic farming techniques: "Organically Grown and Genetically Engineered: The Food of the Future."

FILM: Tonight's San Francisco Film Society's bi-monthly 360 Film+Club event is a "special edition, double-barreled mash-up program," featuring a screening of the documentary RiP: A Remix Manifesto directed by Web activist and filmmaker Brett Gaylor, followed by a live set by mash-up VJ legends Eclectic Method and DJs Adrian and Mysterious D from Bootie SF.

Attention all gays and super-fetishy others: It's Up Your Alley (a.k.a. Dore Alley) fair weekend, and despite threats of a police crackdown on nudity, we're pretty sure it's going to be as sleazy as ever. Fair organizers have promised a three-tiered disciplinary system when it comes to exposed genitalia and the like: First, a warning; second, an escort out of the fair grounds and a discount pass to Blow Buddies; third, you're handed over to the SFPD. Because of the threat of losing their license for next year's event, organizers are likely to be pretty strict with this, but if things get crowded one can imagine the rules will be difficult to enforce.

Like a comet, or a certain Venetian art fair, the San Francisco International Poetry Festival only comes around every two years, and the second biennial fest kicks off tomorrow with a party in Jack Kerouac Alley in North Beach and the gathering of poets from two dozen countries. The festival will be co-hosted by San Francisco Poet Laureate Diane DiPrima and Poet Laureate Emeritus Jack Hirschman, and a special honor will be given to another Poet Laureate Emeritus, Lawrence Ferlinghetti (who'll be reading at the main stage event on Friday at the Palace of Fine Arts). Though that's the official kickoff, there is actually a screening tonight at Koret Auditorium at USF of a documetary about Jack Hirschman directed by Matthew Furey. All the festival's events are listed here, so for all you frustrated haiku composers out there, you might want to go have a listen to some masters.

LIT: Did someone say free Scotch tasting? Enjoy a free tasting of Balvenie scotch with some light snacks, along with raffle prizes, as author Howard Miller celebrates the release of his book You’re Full of Shift, an inspiring collection of stories that show how difficult situations can be shifted to positive opportunities. Musician Shelley Kutliek will also sing from her debut release, Resolution, which combines the genres of pop, jazz, blues and bossa nova.

The first 30 attendees are promised nifty canvas book bags, courtesy of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association. And even if you don't meet anyone interesting you'll have a great book or two to curl up with that night.

Feel like getting away to Tahoe this weekend for three days of beautiful scenery and an amazing line-up of bands, including Spoon, Broken Social Scene, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Gillian Welch, Jenny Lewis, Rogue Wave, Girl Talk, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, plus many more? Here's your chance to win a pair of 3-day, weekend Wanderer passes to the Wanderlust Music and Yoga Festival, happening Friday evening through Sunday. The Wanderer gets you into all music-related events throughout the weekend, but not the yoga.

MUSIC: Chicago-based (and former San Francisco film school drop-out) Owen Ashworth, also known as Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, will bring his eclectic mix of forlorn beats-and-keys to Bottom of the Hill. Concern of Portland and SF's David and Joanna open.

by Moses Namkung

The Mission Creek Music & Arts Festival,
the two-week long extravaganza featuring an array of "local
independent concert promoters, musicians, artists, filmmakers, dancers
and multi-media performance artists",
finishes this week with shows throughout the city including tonight's
gig at Cafe Du Nord featuring singer-songwriter Miranda Lee Richards.
Her soft folky tunes can help sooth the pain of Monday, but if you're
instead in the mood to shell out $30 to hear audience members yell for
more cowbell, you can see Blue Oyster Cult at Slim's tonight, as well.


Also of potential interest later in the week, the heavily-hyped (translation: got 8.0+ on Pitchfork?) The Pains of Being Pure At Heart will return to Rickshaw Stop, while electro-pop duo La Roux heads up Cafe Du Nord on Wednesday. Over in the east bay, funky Of Montreal and Halle Berry's ex-husband will head up shows at Fox Theater on Friday and Sunday, respectively. See you out there.


Select list of shows around the city, after the jump...

Your afternoon palate cleanser today -- "Everything With You" by The Pains of Being Pure at Heart -- comes along with a GIVEAWAY!! Yes, these spunky kids with an ear for late 80s jangle pop are coming to play a sold-out show at the Rickshaw tomorrow evening. You can bet they're going to be huge by next year, so this is a haiku contest worth pondering: please compose a haiku (that's 5-7-5 syllable lines, people) using the words "pains" and "pure" and put it in the comments. A panel of SFist judges will decide on the winner of 2 tickets. We are going to limit entries to 2 PER PERSON, since a lot of you poets out there just can't help yourselves, and we will announce the winner and inform them by email by tomorrow morning (7/21) at 9AM.

GALA: Legendary Academy Award winner Patty Duke will be honored live and in-person in Sparkle, Patty, Sparkle! The event includes an interview with the zany Bruce Vilanch about Duke's stellar career, a screening of Valley of the Dolls, accompanied by a live performance by Connie Champagne as Neely O'Hara and Matthew Martin as Helen Lawson, as well as a clip reel of classic Patty Duke performances. The event will benefit New Leaf Services, NAMI Walk/S.F. Bay Area, and Mental Health Association of S.F.

              

Oh man, not some hippie Burning Man-ish art thing," you whine? Yes, another hippie Burning Man-ish art thing! Why? Because: fire. And lots of it. See, this weekend the annual Fire Arts Festival immolated on Saturday at the Crucible, gloriously. The annual festival "celebrates creativity through fire and light with a spectacular open-air exhibition of interactive fire art, performance and the largest collection of outdoor fire sculpture on the West Coast."

One of San Francisco's favorite writers in residence, Dave Eggers, was on KQED's "Forum" this morning discussing his new book Zeitoun. It's a non-fiction work, just out from McSweeney's press as of last week, about a Syrian-American man named Abdulrahman Zeitoun who stuck around with his American wife and children in his adopted hometown of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina only to be abruptly made to disappear by the U.S. government.

Well, this is some depressing news on this oddly gloomy summer day. The Beastie Boys are canceling their upcoming tour, as well as postponing their new album release, because doctors discovered a cancerous tumor in Adam Yauch's left parotid (salivary) gland. Yauch explains his treatment and the band's future in the video above.

     

Dolores Park was packed to the gills this afternoon for the free San Francisco Symphony performance. Folks were even smartly sitting on the well-shaded medians of Dolores Street, which was closed to traffic. Ice cream from the mobile vendors was selling like hotcakes, as the bells competed with the sound of the music and acted as Pavlovian stimulation to all of the overheated kids. The Bi-Rite Creamery line also predictably extended down to the corner of the 18th and Dolores intersection.

MUSIC: The 8th annual Outsound New Music Summit, which is happening all week, invites you to Touch the Gear. The event is a free, hands-on, family-friendly environment that allows audiences to roam among the artists and their sonic inventions, asking questions, making noise and learning how these often one-of-a-kind set-ups work, demystifying the technology while inspiring the creativity.

MUSIC: The Afrofunk Music Festival presents Malian singer and guitarist Vieux Farka Toure, who combines traditional instruments with a modern sound. Luke Top and DJ Jeremiah open.

Music@Menlo opens tonight. It's the local equivalent of all these famous fancy summer festivals, Marlboro, or Tanglewood, without the hassle of leaving the bay. So tonight, you can listen to darn good chamber music, with a world class cast of musicians, or you can listen to Bug's Bunny's music. M@M was created in 2003 by a married couple, pianist Wu Han and cellist David Finckel. Finckel is the steadying hand in the Emerson String Quartet (interviewed by us here), maybe the most celebrated classical music chamber ensemble. He has studied with Rostropovich, has won all the acclaim any artist could hope for. Eight grammies!

     

Cute and affordable maternity clothing options seem to be few and far-between these days, but San Francisco moms-to-be can now count on Maternity Xchange for good quality new and consignment items for a fraction of the regular price. Maternity Xchange is offered in two forms:

ART: Indie Industries is celebrating their one-year anniversary with We Are One. Art by Matt Atkins, Jason Raish, and Hella More Funner will be on exhibit, and food and beverages will be served. The first 25 guests will get a goodie bag, and $50 Gift Cards will be handed out randomly throughout the night. Buy one item in the store, get the 2nd of equal or lesser value half off... RSVP and get a $10 gift card to Indie Industries emailed directly to you after the show.

It's another weekend with lots of fun daytime events. Here are a few big ones. Bonus: all of them are free! ALL WEEKEND Renegade Craft Fair Over 200 DIY artists from across the country and abroad will be selling their handmade goods at this second annual event. From clothing and accessories, to stationary and concert posters, with everything from bath products and ceramics in between. Fort Mason, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., free.

SIDESHOW: Wrestling circus performers compete with wrestlers performing circus stunts in the When Legends Collide Tour: The Jim Rose Circus vs. Jake “The Snake” Roberts, with special guests Sinn Bohdi, Bebe the Circus Queen, and The Ferocious Few.

is the first officially published book by Lev Yilmaz, author of the underground animation and webcomic series "Tales Of Mere Existence". Lev will be doing a reading from the book, and showing animations old and new.

The trio comprising twin brothers and a Japanese girl one of them once dated known as Blonde Redhead is playing their second and last show tonight at The Independent (get tickets here), and for your afternoon palate cleanser we offer you this swell live footage of the band playing one of our favorite songs from the early aughts, "In Particular."

ART: Tonight is the start of The Crucible's 9th Annual Fire Arts Festival, an open-air exhibition of interactive fire art, performance and the largest collection of outdoor fire sculpture on the West Coast, which benefits The Crucible’s arts education programs for youth and adults. The fest is at a new venue this year, which is three times larger, and will give attendees much more "bang" for their buck. The festival runs through Saturday, and there will be a free shuttle running between the West Oakland Bart station and the Fire Arts Arena.

The ninth annual Bicycle Film Festival begins with a stellar Bikes Rock show tonight and tomorrow night at the Independent, featuring performances by Blonde Redhead and Thee Oh Sees, followed by an after-party at 330 Ritch tomorrow night. Although advance tickets to Bikes Rock are sold out, they might become available at the door. Thursday will be dedicated to art with Joyride at Ever Gold and Market Street Gallery, and an after-party at the Cellar.

MEET-UP: The creators of Shitty Kitty are moving to Morocco, and this is Shitty Kitty's last meet-up for quite some time. So come by for their Bastille Day Partay and bid them adieu.

The Weekly's All Shook Down blog has this new interview with local DJ Jeffrey Paradise (the artist formerly known as Jefrodisiac), who along with DJ Richie Panic started Frisco Disco at Arrow Bar a few years back, and who's now helming a monthly '90s party at 111 Minna called Club 1992. The general idea is more Backstreet Boys and Yo MTV Raps! than Seattle grunge, and Paradise feels like nostalgia for the '90s has finally come into its own.

Although some claim to dislike local scribe Dave Eggers -- probably because he is successful, something writers and alleged writers hate like holy hell -- you should read his new book. It's a work of nonfiction. And it's heavy-ish. It's called Zeitoun. What's it about? Well, it involves a Syrian-American man. And hurricane Katrina. And probably some super sad stuff. But why listen to us when Amazon's product description can explain it to you better.

Well, this is just downright sweet, Beyonce. You don't seem nearly as frosty as some have claimed. The former Destiny's Child frontwoman performed in Oakland this weekend, garnering astounding reviews. Above is a clip of the megagargantuansupersashanova star singing "Say My Name" directly to a delighted fan.

MUSIC: Rock veterans Tortoise, who defy categorization, are promoting the release of their first album in five years, Beacons of Ancestorship. Fellow Chicagoans and Thrill Jockey labelmates, Pit er Pat, open.

It's time for another haiku contest, dear and loyal readers! You so consistently impress us with your poetic prowess and wit, so we look forward to rewarding one of you with a pair of VIP passes to our very own MicroChella, The Treasure Island Music festival (the amazing lineup of which was just announced today). The festival promises to be a glorious and mellow time, and will feature headliners MGMT, Girl Talk, The Flaming Lips, The Decemberists, and new indie darlings Grizzly Bear.

Billed as the West Coast's "most anticipated boutique music festival," the Treasure Island Music Festival line-up was just unveiled. October's two-day concert will feature the following bands for your aural pleasure.

Apparently if you weren't at this enormous grand opening party/fundraiser at the American Steel warehouse in West Oakland on Saturday, then you missed something pretty huge and fun. We, alas, were not, and therefore we, like many of you, must live vicariously through these pictures via Laughing Squid. They had 200 tons of sand dumped into the warehouse to set up their very own Burning-Man-in-the-City, beach party extravaganza, and many a hip kid danced to DJ sets and frolicked in one of five above-ground pools. Economic hard times breed creativity, so we look forward to catching wind of future happenings at this awesome looking art collective.

FILM: Closing this weekend's Silent Film Festival is Lady of the Pavements, D.W. Griffith's last silent film -- a splendid romantic drama set in 19th century Paris. There will be piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin and a vocal recreation of the musical numbers by Joanna Seaton. There's a whole line-up of films today, so check the Castro's calendar.

SPORTS: The San Francisco ShEvil Dead duke it out with the Richmond Wrecking Belles at the B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls' Duel on the Docks, a full contact, all female, flat-track roller derby league.

     

Can't decide which Muni shirt to wear to show off your, ahem, hyper-local pride? Fret not! LA-based MikeJames Clothing offers an even better chance to boast about your favorite city with their Area Code t-shirts. See, each shirt features an area code and a graphic outline of the state of your choice. (Be the envy of all of Jenner with your very own 707 shirt!) In addition to several California area codes, the MJ has made shirts for Las Vegas, Austin, Seattle, New Orleans, Atlanta, Madison, Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston, and New York.

The 13th annual Mission Creek Music & Arts Festival starts tonight with an Opening show at the Knockout. The Fest will then be concentrated in Oakland tomorrow through Monday, and will continue it's epic line-up in San Francisco on Wednesday for the following ten days. Check the full calendar. All-ages shows are in colored boxes.

ART: Artist Dennis McNulty of Infectious Art celebrates the '80s aesthetic in his latest exhibition 1981 Pervert by reappropriating the colors, shapes, and layouts of early 1980s men's magazine design, zeroing in on the genre's own re-engagement of the pinup icons of the 1940s and 1950s.

       

by Moses Namkung

On Saturday, the first major retrospective of the photographs of Richard Avedon since his death in 2004 opens at SFMOMA. San Francisco is the only U.S. stop on the tour for this show, and Richard Avedon: Photographs 1946-2004 focuses primarily on the artist as portrait photographer, featuring some of his best-known portraits including Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Marilyn Monroe, Bjork and William S. Burroughs. We saw a preview of the show yesterday, and it's both a gorgeous collection of images as well as a moving document of the faces of the late 20th Century.

PERFORMANCE: The Lab has been celebrating their 25th anniversary this month. Tonight, composers Miya Masaoka, founder of the San Francisco Gagaku Society, and Tomas Philips will perform. Phillips' performance will consist of an extended version of his 2007 release, Drink_Deep. "Utilizing a series of low frequencies, isolated microsounds and minimal tones, the piece attempts to generate an immersive sound environment that allows space for the listener to be an active participant in the music, thus inviting a particular quality of engagement beyond the confines of conventional listening."

The annual San Francisco Frozen Film and Music Festival, which was founded in 2006 and was named after the famous (and alleged) Mark Twain quote, "The coldest winter I ever spent was my summer in San Francisco," had fallen under SFist's radar until now.

If you're anything like most people, you have a conflicted sense of how deeply to look in the mirror every morning. Portrait and documentary photographer Nicholas Nixon had the nerve to stick his mug in front of a huge 11 x 14 inch view camera and make photographs of parts of his body that are larger than life.

FILM: The Bay Area's own Craig Baldwin, master of independent, experimental cinema, presents Mock Up on Mu, a feature-length "collage-narrative" based on (mostly) true stories of California's post-War sub-cultures of rocket pioneers, alternative religions, and Beat lifestyles. Baldwin, machine artist Kal Spelletich, and author Erik Davis will be present for a Q&A after the film, and Spelletich will unveil a kinetic sculpture in front of the theater.

VARIETY: The Rumpus and Kink.com host a Sex, Music, Comedy Night with Jill Sobule, co-sponsored by The Center for Sex and Culture. The evening includes readings and performances from sex worker authors Zak Smith, Kirk Read, Michelle Tea, Lorelei Lee, and Madison Young (NSFW), comedy by Los Angeles based comedian Kyle Kinane, a short film by Wholphin, and music by Sig Hafstrom and special guest Jill Sobule.

MUSIC: Raunchy rockabilly fave Reverand Horton Heat will heat up the Great American tonight with Danish psychobilly band The Nekromantix, who describe themselves as "Elvis meets the Wolfman."

FILM: This week's feature at Bad Movie Night is Rocky IV. Filmed at the height of the cold war, the statuesque Ivan Drago uses the highest technology to train for the fight of the century against Rocky, who meanwhile runs in the cold Russian snow with an oxbow. Guess who wins?

ART: Showcasing "the various extremes of human behavior and the bizarre worlds that surround them," the one-night show, Bazooko's Circus, will feature 50 dark and experimental pieces by Bay Area artists, including photography, illustration, paintings, film, and other mixed medias, featuring short film It's a Strange World by Hassan Said and music by The Strange Orchestra.

DANCE: As part of the International Queer Tango Festival going on all weekend, the documentary Tango with a Twist interweaves stories about a group of amateur dancers -- gay, straight and "fluid," who embark on a journey of discovery to the birthplace of tango, Buenos Aires, Argentina, under the protective wing of their Sydney tango teacher, Anne-Maree Therkleson. Then there will be a dinner show at Peña Pachamama, featuring performances by Christy Cote and Darren Lees, Count Glover and Chelsea Eng, plus Christy dancing with Chelsea, with live music by Odile Lavault, bandoneon, and Marco Casasola, piano.

The 3- or 4-day weekend is upon us. FuncheapSF has a full list of 92 Bay Area July 4th celebrations that keeps growing. Here are a few hand-picked weekend events, in addition to the main fireworks extravaganza, Fourth of July Waterfront Celebration.

For those unfortunates without plans to leave town for the holiday weekend, this month's First Thursday open gallery evening should offer a less frenetic chance to enjoy complementary, slightly desiccated cheese cubes and glasses of TJ's finest wine whilst ogling some nifty new art.

ART: It's the closing night party of Trace Elements, in which Bay Area artists were posed with questions such as "Does the urban environment hold secrets or codes that would provide a greater comprehension of its systems, or of its human inhabitants?" Artists featured at the 401 Van Ness SFAC gallery location: Michelle Blade, Jason Jägel, Dan Nakamura, Ferris Plock, Clare Rojas, Deth P. Sun, Kelly Tunstall, Porous Walker, Marci Washington and the Hamburger Eyes collective. At the SFAC Gallery Window Installation Site at 155 Grove St: Chris Duncan, Maya Hayuk, Kyle Ranson, and Brion Nuda Rosch.

Do you like to eat meat? Are you one of those people who likes hearing about it, reading about it, learning about it, talking about it and ogling it? Then you might want to drop by the 18 Reasons Gallery on Thursday evening from 7-9 pm for a showing of Julio Duffoo's killer photo portraits in Meatpaper Magazine of people who work with meat.

LIT: Novella Carpenter, author of Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, will be on hand to discuss her adventures with raising chickens, geese, ducks, turkeys, a beehive, rabbits, and pigs in her Oakland garden (not all at the same time).