PHOTOGRAPHY: Tonight's installment of the popular 200 Yards is centered around Satellite 66, in which photographers showcase the shots they captured within — you guessed it — 200 yards of the gallery. (6 to 9 p.m., Satellite 66, 66 6th Street) more ›

White Elephant Preview Sale: Oakland Museum's huge annual White Elephant Sale is coming up on March 3rd and 4th, but this Sunday from 10 to 4 p.m., you have the chance to get first dibs on some fabulous items, including several vintage silk wedding gowns, gallery quality prints, musical instruments, books, sports memorabilia, and anything else you can imagine. Check out their gallery of stuff that will be on sale tomorrow. more ›

PHOTOGRAPHY: Rayko presents its 5th Annual Plastic Camera Show, featuring the work of local, national, and international photographers who were picked from thousands of entries, including Robert Holmgren, a past best-of-show winner. (6 to 8 p.m., Rayko Photo Center, 428 Third Street) more ›

It's been over a year since we first took a look at San Francisco's abandoned living room furniture. After local photographer Erik Wilson introduced us to the Sofa Free Flickr Pool, he and other upholstery-obsessed local photographers have been keeping busy snapping photos and gathering info for whatever the furniture version of a homeless census would be. Here are the highlights from the SFist Flickr pool in all their gritty, seated glory. more ›

MUSIC: Oakland's Metal Mother, aka Tara Tati, will bring her "fresh bath of melancholic emotion, bubbled with loud tribal drums, futuristic synth leads, and sweetly haunting Celtic-inspired vocals" to Cafe Du Nord, along with Horns of Happiness, Mortar and Pestle, and Birdseye. (7:30 p.m., Cafe Du Nord, 2170 Market Street) more ›

PHOTOGRAPHY: Legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz will be Diesel, A Bookstore in Oakland signing copies of her new book of photographs, Pilgrimage, which starts at Emily Dickinson’s house in Amherst, Massachussetts, travels to Niagara Falls, to Yosemite, to the English countryside and "even further afield." (7 p.m., Diesel, A Bookstore, 5433 College Avenue, Oakland) more ›

FILM: Head over to Public Works early for some free Drambuie at Celluloid Salon, a series which "breathes new life into the audio-visual experience, pairing obscure silent film shorts with soundtracks curated (and DJ'd live) by today's boldest musical talent." Be sure to RSVP first! (7 p.m., Public Works, 161 Eerie Street) more ›

ART: Performance artist, musician, and actress Ann Magnuson, who defined 1980s downtown New York, brings her new tribute cabaret to SFMOMA with a nod to Bowie featuring a song cycle of his early 1970s work and incorporating "dreams, Jung, human sacrifice, Aztec shamanism, and all things dark, bloody, and beautiful." Come in your most artful garb and enter SFMOMA's glam costume contest! (6 to 9:45 p.m., SFMOMA, 151 Third Street) more ›

PHOTOGRAPHY: Open Show, which organizes live events worldwide featuring the work of photographers, filmmakers, and multimedia producers in high-profile spaces, is celebrating its two-year anniversary with a special print exhibition featuring more than 60 photographers from 25 Bay Area shows. (5:30 to 7:30 p.m., Rayko Photo Center, 428 Third Street) more ›

COMEDY: There will be a few tickets available at the door to see Pam Ann aka Australian comedienne Caroline Reid, "the fashion-flying, hard-drinking, A-list hostess to the stars," who's "touching down" in San Francisco after a sell-out 25-date European tour -- just in time to kick off Fleet Week. (6:30 p.m., Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street) more ›

FILM: Homoerotic gem, Top Gun, will screen at the last Film Night in the Park of the season. Be sure to catch that delicious volleyball scene (if the inflatable screen doesn't blow away, that is)! (8 p.m., Dolores Park, Dolores and 19th) more ›

This goes out to all of you who get clammy-palmed as soon as you see your favorite F-car rolling up to your stop. Oh Milano, you come on smooth with that designy orange and classic woodtone, but you're so heavy on the rails. No matter; we love you with all our hearts and Clippercards. Blackpool, you're a topless show-off and you know it. more ›

PHOTOGRAPHY: The group exhibition, ReGeneration, will feature eight artists who occupy either side of the “generation gap.” Each of the veteran photographers from the Baby Boomer generation have been paired up with an up-and-coming twenty-something photographer to explore the potential for artistic dialogue between the two groups. (5:30 to 9 p.m., a.Muse Gallery and Meeting Place, 614 Alabama Street) more ›

PHOTOGRAPHY: The latest edition of 200 Yards, which is centered around Cafe Royale, opens tonight with a party co-hosted by The Tender. Check out all the interesting scenes that the artists captured within 200 yards of Post and Leavenworth. (As someone who used to live a stone's throw from the cafe, we imagine it will be an eyeful.) (8 to 11 p.m., Cafe Royale, 800 Post Street) more ›

DRAG: Tonight kicks off the legendary Kinsey Sicks' 13-day “GreatesTits,” show at the Rrazz Room, in which the group showcases the "harvest of their 17-year Mary-making" featuring their trademark "rich, four-part harmony, biting satire and over-the-top drag." (8 p.m., The Rrazz Room at Hotel Nikko, 222 Mason Street) more ›

Over the last year, photographer Travis Jensen and fellow All-City photographer Brad Evans worked on a remarkable photo documentary book about San Francisco's Tenderloin called Tenderloin USA. Their work takes a black-and-white look into the heart of the Tenderloin, with a sharp focus being on the characters who live, work, own businesses, hang out, and raise families in the 'loin. more ›

Most savvy photographers about town probably already know about the fabulous, decades-old Harvey Milk Photo Center (50 Scott Street), which is nestled at the top of Duboce Park and housed within the equally fabulous Harvey Milk Arts Center. The building was recently remodeled (and then unfortunately vandalized). More to the point, have you checked out all the great classes both places offer? more ›

You've seen their work featured here on a regular basis. Now see them and their images in person. On Thursday, Travis Jensen and Josh Sullivan will hold a reception for their new photo show, The Streets of San Francisco, held at Schroeder’s Restaurant. The two will showcase" a diverse mix of urban landscapes, candid street scenes, and street portraiture," according to Jensen. more ›

In what could be seen as the continued Starbucks-ification of Valencia Street, brick-and-mortar coffee purveyors Ritual Coffee Roasters recently pulled the work of photographer Varese Layzer. It was considered "too serious" for the cafe's walls. While neither visually offensive nor too harrowing at first glance, the exhibit centered around the death of a the artist's mother. Upon reading the artist's statement after the show went live, Ritual owner Eileen Hassi later stripped the walls of Layzer's art and sent her a gracious (albeit somewhat perplexing) letter of explanation, which was then posted to Layzer's Flickr account. Here's what the letter said: more ›

Tonight, get your glee on at a one-of-a-kind Pride concert, stare at the ceiling instead of the walls for a change, or admire some Dickerman Prints in their natural habitat. more ›

Amidst the battles between fans of traditional film versus digital photography, it's easy to forget there are lots of other ways to capture an image on paper. Even if they don't have quite the sprightly rhythm of Tom Lehrer's listing of the chemical elements, there's daguerreotype, chemigram, photogram, wet plate collodion, camera obscuras, pinhole cameras and many more. There are a couple of great gallery shows right now that celebrate all these OTHER ways of making a photo. more ›

Tonight, get intimate with Jonathan Richman at Thursdays at Readers 2011 Poetry Series at Fort Mason, see some Swedish bits at YBCA, or learn all about the Black Boots Ink photography collective and their work at SF Camerawork. more ›

Check out photographer Franck Avril's lovely photo exhibition, Dahlias! A Photographic Tribute to San Francisco's Official Flower, at the Helen Crocker Russell Library at the San Francisco Botanical Garden between now and August 31. There will be an opening reception on May 26. more ›

A particular highlight of this week's First Thursday open galleries at 49 Geary (and elsewhere around town) is a show of exquisite, large-scale color photo portraits by Richard Learoyd at the Fraenkel Gallery. Each unique direct-positive image is made with a giant camera that is basically two rooms with a lens mounted between them. This modern day Vermeer has had one of his portraits attracting unprecedented buzz at SFMOMA over the past few months, and now here's a chance to bask in the magnificent glow of dozens more of his masterworks, even for those of us who can't afford the tens of thousands of dollars to take one home. more ›

Hey, you know Travis Jensen? He's a regularly featured photographer on SFist. In fact, this image was today's Photo du Jour. (Psst, tag your photos with "sfist" in Flickr for consideration on the site! We love promoting the work of local photogs, especially unknown talent without access to a larger audience. Also, we're desperate to feature more female gazes on SFist. Hop to it, ladies.) Anyway, he's having a photo exhibition tomorrow, March 31, in SoMa. In addition to Jensen's fine imagery, there will be music and (best of all) booze. Behold: more ›

MUSIC/ART: Experience the Sights and Sounds of Punks in Contemporary Mexico tonight with an artist’s talk by Juan Luna-Avin, who traces the history of punk music in Mexico from the late 1970s to the present in a lecture format, accompanied by lively music samples, DIY videos and interviews of key characters from the scene, followed by a live performance by punk band Desmadre en Krisis. more ›

PHOTOGRAPHY: The ever-popular 4th Annual International Juried Plastic Camera Show showcases the ninety top photos from the contest's Bay Area, national, and international entries. Come celebrate the joy and simplicity of the latent image captured using a simple, little camera and film. The work of Michelle Bates, author of the book Plastic Cameras: Toying with Creativity, and Sam Grant will also be on display. more ›