Arts+Events: July 2009 Archives

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.

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).