Get your 1920s on at a speakeasy party in the Mission care of the fine scribes at Litquake. Hear excerpts of biting authors read by some of your favorite Bay Area writers, including Robin Ekiss (Tallulah Bankhead), Isaac Fitzgerald (Robert Benchley), Josh Mohr (Sinclair Lewis), Eddie Muller (Dashiell Hammett), and Sarah Fran Wisby (Dorothy Parker).

You can also look forward to jazz-era cocktails, real-life jazz stylings from pianist J. Raoul Brody and singer Laurie Amat, a Thin Man movie marathon, New Yorker-style caricaturist available to draw your portraits. And more. Tickets are $15.

Litquake Speakeasy at Public Works (161 Erie), S.F.

POETRY/FILM: Peter Coyote will be at Meridian Gallery tonight reading poetry by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, followed by a screening of Ferlinghetti, the 2009 documentary by Christopher Felver, which is "an incisive, sharply wrought portrait that reveals Ferlinghetti's true role as catalyst for numerous literary careers and for the Beat movement itself." (7 to 9 p.m., Meridian Gallery, 535 Powell Street)

COMEDY: Comedian Nato Green, who's described by critics as having "a knack for pushing boundaries” (East Bay Express) and sparing "no sacred cows” (Santa Cruz Weekly), will be performing two shows tonight at Oakland's New Parish, the recordings of which will be included in his first stand-up comedy album, the first known comedy album ever recorded live in Oakland. (7 and 9 p.m., The New Parish, 579 18th Street, Oakland)

PHOTOGRAPHY: Eric Johnson, a professor of art and design at California Polytechnic University, will discuss the photography of the great twentieth century composer Ernest Bloch (1880 - 1959), which demonstrates a sensitive composer's eye and reveals Bloch's love for nature and showcases Bloch's many self-portraits and portraits of his family and musical colleagues. (7 to 9 p.m., Jewish Community Library, 1835 Ellis Street)

While we wait for the new iPad reveal at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts today at 10 a.m., we've been looking back at rumor-mill coverage of the next generation iPad. Our favorite takeaway from the hoopla comes from Macworld, who gives us a close reading of the iPad invite text—which simply read, "We have something you really have to see. And touch."—that would make any Comparative Literature professor proud.

Touch-a, touch-a, touch-a touch me: Looking back at the invitation to the iPad event, it says: “We have something you really have to see. And touch.” The first sentence (or, for pedants, the only sentence) seemingly refers to the Retina display. But the follow-up fragment may just imply that the iPad 3 employs some sort of haptic feedback—a tactile response when you touch the screen. Of course, the “And touch” line could merely be nothing more than marketing-speak. But typing is probably the least satisfying element of using an iPad to date. Haptic feedback coupled with the on-screen keyboard might make multitouch-typing a bit easier, if you could feel some physical sensation as you “depress” the virtual keys.

Brilliant.

Stay tuned as SFist covers today's iPad release.

MUSIC: Tonight's edition of the monthly Communion club will feature The Driftwood Singers, who are in their early 20s and sing folk songs "that could have been written ages ago but were more likely written in the last few weeks," along with Birdhouse, Lauren Shera, and Infantree. (8:30 p.m., Cafe du Nord, 2170 Market Street)

LECTURE: Human and baboon expert, accomplished storyteller, and MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, Dr. Robert Sapolsky, will speak in coversation with Michael Krasny about Primate Behavior: Lessons for Life, regarding his findings surrounding stress and stress-related diseases in humans. (8 p.m., California Academy of Sciences, 55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park)

LITERARY: This month’s Quiet Lightning reading series presents Neighborhood Hereos, featuring a big line-up of writers, including special guest Miles Karp of The Suex Effect, and art by Gabrielle Wilson-Sealy. (7 to 9 p.m., Elbo Room, 647 Valencia Street)

MUSIC: Flavorpill paints an intriguing picture of the come-back of Roky Erickson, '60s psychedelic rocker whose struggles with schizophrenia stalled his music career: "Tonight, revel in Erikson's gravelly, whiskey-soaked voice mingling with Okkervil River's harmonies, and witness the return of an Austin rock legend on the road to recovery." (8 p.m., Slim's, 333 11th Street)

SCIENCE: A few tickets are still available to BarBot 2012, in which robots will be at your service: "Chat up a snarky electronic bartender. Listen to some graceful tunes being played by robotic music makers. And, after downing your sixth martini, you can finally admit that it's the geeks who shall inherit the earth." (8 p.m. to Midnight, pariSoma, 169 11th Street)

READING: SFist editor Jay Barmann will be part of tonight's line-up at Babylon Salon reading and performance series, which also features Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club and What I Didn't See, along with Victoria Patterson, Nina Schuyle, and Ryan Sloan. (7 p.m., Cantina, 580 Sutter Street)

MUSIC: Expect to get a contact high at the Warfield tonight as Snoop Dogg takes the stage with Wiz Khalifa, in support of their new soundtrack for the film, Mac & Devin Go to High School. (8 p.m., The Warfield, 982 Market Street)

FILM: Eastbound and Down’s Steve Little stars in the Catechism Cataclysm as an outlandish priest whose schtick is "retelling urban legends and his theological research appears to focus on YouTube videos." The film is director Todd Rohal's follow-up to Guatemalan Handshake. (6:00, 7:45, 9:30 p.m., SF Film Society Cinema, 1746 Post Street)

READING: Author Denise Sullivan will be at Phoenix Books reading from her new book, Keep on Pushing: Black Power Music from Blues to Hip Hop. The event also features Michelle Tea, young poets from 826 Valencia, and music from local Americana duo McCabe & Mrs. Miller. (6:30 p.m., Phoenix Books, 3957 24th Street)

FILM: This week's free Cinema Drafthouse film is Horrible Bosses, which is centered around the questionable plot point involving three people who decide to kill their bosses instead of just quitting their jobs because the economy is tough these days. (7:30 p.m., The Independent, 628 Divisadero Street)

STORYTELLING: Have a story to tell about holiday excess? Then head over to the monthly Porchlight Open Door, to tell your 5-minute anecdote for a chance to win $50. "Sex, drugs, food, love, pain, -- even OCD handwashers entirely welcome!" (7 p.m., Hemlock Tavern, 1131 Polk Street)

LITERARY: Chronicle Books presents acclaimed Swiss author Peter Stamm for a discussion about several of his novels, which have been praised for their "spare prose and their complex explorations of difficult relationships in modern Europe." (6 p.m., Chronicle Books, 680 Second Street)

MUSIC: The legendary Robyn Hitchcock will be at Slim's tonight performing his 1990 solo album in its entirety, Eye, which Hitchcock says concluded his stint on the college radio air waves. Also featuring guest Dawn Mitschele. (8 p.m., Slim's, 333 11th Street)

READING: Local writer William Taylor Jr. celebrates the release of his new collection of fiction, An Age of Monsters, featuring live musical and spoken word performances by a big line-up of local literati. Presented by Bitchez Brew SF. (7 to 10 p.m., Space Gallery SF, 1141 Polk Street)

FASHION: After six years of building a solid brand, Eco-fashion company Turk+Taylor are throwing their official launch party, featuring a fashion show, open bar, live music by Adonisaurus, food trucks, and more. (6 to 9 p.m., Steven Wolf Fine Arts, 2747 19th Street)

ART/LECTURE: Visiting artist Stephen Kaltenbach with speak about his lengthy and diverse career most notably "creating conceptual gestures, magazine advertisements, diagrammatic propositions, 'Street Works,' time capsules, and photorealistic paintings," as part of S.F. Art Institute's free Visiting Artists and Scholars Lecture Series. (7:30 p.m., San Francisco Art Institute, Lecture Hall, 800 Chestnut Street)

COMEDY: Fresh off their national tour, local comedians W. Kamau Bell, Nato Green, and Janine Brito bring their issue-oriented comedy show Laughter Against The Machine back home to Oakland's New Parish for two big shows, featuring some "very special guests." (7 p.m., The New Parish, 579 18th Street)

READING: GuyWriters and LitQuake present "Writing Down the Past: Gay Men Reveal Their Histories," which brings together Bay Area poets and prose writers from diverse backgrounds to read work inspired by their personal histories as gay men. (6 to 8 p.m., GLBT History Museum, 4127 18th Street)

FESTIVAL: The Bay Area Science Festival kicks off continues tonight with Radiolab Live in Berkeley, which explores being In the Dark with a night of "gripping stories, wonder-inducing demonstrations, and jaw-dropping illustrations." Also happening tonight as part of the festival are a science pub crawl and a book swap. (8 p.m., 101 Zellerbach Hall # 4800, Berkeley)

READING: Lawrence Ferlinghetti celebrates the debut of his new poem At Sea, with a reading, along with a conversation with fellow poet and painter Jack Hirschman, who will also be reading from his new Arcana. (7 to 9 p.m., Meridian Gallery, 535 Powell Street)

FILM: YBCA presents a special one-week engagement of Gary Hustwit’s new film Urbanized, which examines the "issues and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and thinkers." Urbanized is the final installment of Hustwit's trilogy, along with the acclaimed Helvetica and Objectified, which will both also be screening next week. (6 and 8 p.m., Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street)