If you are concerned about people growing old around you, just keep looking for fresh faces to hang out with. We got this bit of wisdom not from Gavin Newsom (who got it from Willie anyway), but from James Schwabacher. One of Schwabacher’s initiatives was to co-found the SF Opera Merola program, now in its 50th anniversary, a training program-slash-talent-search for opera singers that lasts all summer. Schwabacher sadly passed away in the middle of......

--It's June 16, which means it's Bloomsday! Commemorate the day made famous in James Joyce's Ulysses with readings from the book, music, and a special Bloomsday feast at the Mechanics' Institute. 57 Post Street (x Market), $15, saloon opens 6:30, readings begin at 7:30. --LAist Zach is coming to town as part of the CalArtsf alumni art festival: dance, spoken word, world music, animation, paintings, and lots more artistic expression at Cowell Theater and the......

Don't forget it's still Carnaval! But you can check out the following events today too. --Free opera in Dolores Park! 2 p.m., with a number of singers singing various operatic greatest hits. (YouTube clip from last year's performance, we think.) --The youth dancers of the City Ballet School perform "Carnival of the Animals" at the Cowell Theater at Fort Mason, at 2 p.m. $23.50. --A night of free Asian-American comedy at the GlasKat. 7......

At the Roxie, (3117 16th St. between Valencia & Guerrero) it's FARMCORE, a documentary about punk rock's 1980s home in the Mission, The Farm. The screening is a benefit for San Francisco Indybay Media and Oaxaca Indymedia. The film documents the punk scene (Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains, and Black Flag played there, to name a few) and the staff’s struggles to keep the doors open while battling a greedy landlord and hostile police, until the......

These shows resist lumping....

The second show of the Merola program, Il Matrimonio Segreto, opened last night at the Cowell Theater in Fort Mason. Just to recap: the Merola program was funded in 1957 by Kurt Adler and James Schwabacher to offer a training program to young singers, with real staged performances, and a Gala in the War Memorial Opera House as a conclusion. We actually were a bit surprised that Schwabacher was not eulogized at this first Merola......