Today’s Look: Erika and Drew, 18th Street and Valencia
Tell us about your look: “Vintage.”
- No categories
Pixel Vision
The Daily Blurgh: Leaf us alone
Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond
If a tree falls in San Francisco will anyone hear it? Probably. But more importantly, concerned citizens will be able to track the felled arbor online thanks to the Urban Forest Map.
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Get out your Legos: Berkeley Art Museum/PFA is looking for new architectural proposals.
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“If I could give back those last five beers, I would do it in a heartbeat. I don’t know why I let that girl look at it. That was a total disregard of our phones before hos mantra.” McSweeney’s imagines Gray Powell’s mea culpa to his Apple coworkers.
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Rent a Cable Car or an F-Market street car for your next drunken spectacle/flashmob. It’s cheaper than you think.
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First, the bad news: Gonorrhea, like Nickelback fandom, becoming more incurable, sayeth Science.
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Now, the good news: it’s hump day!
oh!
Big kids appreciating little movies — “Celestial Navigations” explores the work of Al Jarnow
It was science disguised by fun, flashy animation, and people everywhere ate that stuff up like it was a bowl of chocolate-covered bran. Filmmaker Al Jarnow is a dude who managed to make learning fun on Sesame Street and far more intersting than the overbearing bird and crabby monster in a can. Most people had no idea who was creating the incredible shorts that appeared on that show, but if you were a kid or parented one in the past 50 years, you’re bound to recognize his work. And now with an escavation of over 45 films, Celestial Navigations — playing Thurs/22 at Red Vic Movie House — brings Jarnow’s magic back for some instant reminiscing.
Colors flashed, stop motion and time-lapse techniques mystified, and simple, beautiful cartoons turned every day objects and topics into a beautiful experiment gone right. Jarnow’s films played for years and expanded minds in the wee morning hours prior to the school bell’s ring and the punch of the time card. Jarnow educated through psychadelic hypnosis, the eyes of eager audiences glazed over while the fast-paced, brightly-colored animations whizzed across the television screen. I was an ’80s tyke who rolled out of bed excited to watch Sesame Street’s “cool” movies (and Kermit, of course) and when I found them years later on You Tube, the situation is nearly identical: bowl of cereal, blanket, couch and eyes glued to the flashing screen.
Celestial Navigations is the Numero Group‘s first foray into the world of cinema and they’ve collected, color corrected and remastered a flashy bunch of classic Jarnow. The film also includes a 30-minute documentary on Jarnow’s creative process, which I’m hoping boils down his steps in a 3-2-1 Contact Style.
Celestial Navigations: The Short Films of Al Jarnow
Thurs/22, 7:15pm, 9:30pm, $6-9
Red Vic Movie House
1727 Haight, SF
How to make a bumble bee latte
So, there I was, sitting with a friend, at a table in the bay window of Farley’s coffee house, when a bumble bee started buzzing around inside the window pane, right next to us.
It was pleasantly warm and bright sitting in that window, and I could see how that bee could have swirled out of the wind and into this sheltered spot.
But when the bee started bumbling in loud bee tones, I decided it was time to spring into action.
Luckily, all the equipment that is needed to make a good bumble bee latte (an empty container, a sheet of paper, a smooth surface) lay close at hand.
Anxious to complete my task before the bee got agitated, I grabbed an empty cup from Farley’s front counter and clamped it over the bee, careful not to squish the bizzing insect as it came to a rest against the window. Next, I slid a sheet of paper between the window and the cup, then folded the sheet of paper down and around the cup to make a bee-restraining lid
Voila! my bumble bee latte was ready to go.
Outside, I set the latte cup down in a planter and removed its makeshift lid.
For a moment, the bee sat quietly in the cup. Then it lifted backwards out of the cup and into the air, rapidly shrinking to a small black dot as it swirled across the watercolor skies above Potrero Hill.
I walked back into Farley’s. Unlike the time I made a pigeon burrito in Farley’s, nobody applauded. But as a person obsessed with bees, I felt great, even if the incident didn’t give me a chance to use this handy pocket guide to identify the bee I saw.
“The Loved Ones:” the complete interview!
Pegged by some as “Misery meets Pretty in Pink,” Sean Byrne’s instant horror mini-classic is by turns poignant, funny, grotesque, alarming, and finally very, very satisfying. It’s sure to be a hit again in the San Francisco International Film Festival‘s Late Show section. Between festival travels, Byrne was back home in Melbourne when he answered my email queries.
San Francisco Bay Guardian: The movie really throws you for a loop by spending the first stretch on serious psychological drama, then springing something entirely different.
Sean Byrne: Well, I needed [to establish] a hero who was uniquely qualified to survive hell. Someone who is conditioned to pain, who feels like they deserve to suffer. He’s a cutter or self-mutilator, someone who tries to block out emotional pain with physical pain. He’s a kid with a death wish who’s forced to endure a literal hell and in the process realizes he’s got everything to live for.
SFBG: Your central female character is more interesting than the usual horror movie villainness in that she’s so spoiled she thinks she’s a victim, which then excuses her behaving monstrously. Where did that come from?
SB: I was thinking about what could make a signature, iconic, highly marketable villain and I noticed how my five-year-old niece, along with almost every little girl, is obsessed with wearing pink. It’s part of the magic and fantasy stage of childhood, where they actually believe the Disney line “someday [my] prince will come.” So then I started thinking, well, what if our villain is a teenager with raging hormones but still somehow stuck in this spoiled, childish, pre-operational stage of development. I imagined “Princess” as a teenage version of that irritating kid in the supermarket who demands lollies and won’t stop screaming until she gets them!
SFBG: I like that her favorite song is self-pity anthem “Not Pretty Enough.” Has Kasey Chambers had any reaction to the film?
SB: I tried to stay within the horror genre but at the same time subvert the conventions, and having our troubled hero listen to heavy metal (the “devil’s music”) and our villain listen to a top-of-the-pops ballad like “Not Pretty Enough” was a way of doing that. As far as I know Kasey hasn’t seen the film. I’m dying to know how she’ll react.
SFBG: Did any particular films inspire you, in general or in making this film in particular?
SB: My filmic influences were a real mash up. Structurally the film is closest to Misery (1990) but tonally there are shades of Carrie (1976), Dazed and Confused (1993), Footloose (1984), The Terminator (1984), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974 original), The Evil Dead (1981), Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986), [and the works of directors] David Lynch, Gaspar Noe, Michael Haneke, John Hughes, and even Walt Disney. The way Tarantino juxtaposes violence and comedy was a big influence. I’m also a huge David Fincher and P.T. Anderson fan. Audiences may recognize some of the influences but hopefully the film, as a whole, will be a fresh experience.
SFBG: A difference between this movie and those associated with “torture porn” is that here both victims and perps are pretty complicated characters.
SB: I hope so. I did my research and tried to get inside the heads of these characters before I started writing. Characters in horror movies are often one-dimensional cardboard cutouts. But really great ones like The Shining (1980), The Exorcist (1973), and Rosemary’s Baby (1968) delve into the psychology of the moment. They answer the question: how do ordinary people react to extraordinary situations honestly? They explore our base instincts with emotional authenticity.
I’ve made a horror movie, so I don’t want to sound hypocritical, but in my opinion movies that focus on the stalking bogeyman are actually kind of immoral because as an audience we’re almost forced to barrack for the killer. We know they won’t die (because there’s always a sequel) and we know nothing about the people being hunted and what makes them tick. So the main point of interest becomes, how much bare flesh am I going to see and how inventively gruesome is the next kill going to be? To me that’s not real horror. Real horror is having a relationship with the dark, extreme side of human nature and getting inside the cruelest of minds then genuinely caring about the people who are trapped in this terrifying web.
SFBG: The film really does dish out some horrifying abuse, though — did you ever pull back on how graphic it would be?
SB: No. Never. I’m not a fan of PG-13 horror. The middle ground is pretty boring — that’s why it’s called the middle ground. But we’re a balls-to-the wall pop-horror movie and as a fan growing up loving horror movies, I know what I like and I think I know what other true horror fans like, and we like to be pushed. Audiences go to horror movies to be scared. The brief is to freak them out so why hold back?
SFBG: Did anyone suggest you take out the whole comedy subplot involving the best friend’s dream date with the school’s goth chick? Although it works — both on its own and to provide some relief from the main action, which might be unbearable to watch without some interruption.
SB: The first draft of the screenplay was basically confined to the farmhouse, where most of the horror plays out, but it began to feel a bit suffocating. Like Misery, The Loved Ones is a kind of claustrophobic horror and also like Misery, which cuts to the sheriff and his wife for light relief, there are moments when the audience needs to take a breath, wipe their sweaty palms and maybe even have a nervous chuckle before preparing for the next white-knuckle onslaught.
SFBG: It’s a good thing your lead actress has already done some other, very different things, since otherwise she might be typecast forever as the horror-movie Girl from Hell.
SB: Yes, Robin McLeavy is an incredibly well-respected theater actress. She recently played Stella opposite Cate Blanchett’s Blanche in Liv Ullmann’s version of A Streetcar Named Desire, and won a Hayes Award for her performance, which is Washington’s answer to the Tonys.
SFBG: Upcoming projects? Have you gotten any overtures from major studios/producers?
SB: I’m writing a home invasion thriller with a unique twist, am attached to a medical thriller, which is a modern reworking of the Jekyll and Hyde story, and I’m in discussions with major studios and producers about a couple of other projects that I’d better keep quiet about for now.
The Loved Ones
San Francisco International Film Festival
May 2, 10:30 p.m., Castro, 429 Castro, SF
May 6, 3 p.m., Kabuki, 1881 Post, SF
www.sffs.org
“Pop-up is live”
Pop- Up Magazine issue #3 came out on Friday, and so did the lucky 900+ people who managed to get tickets before the box office server crashed in five minutes and the show sold out in 30. Pop-Up Magazine is a live magazine, where live-ness becomes it’s own medium and journalists, artists and innovators present short, informative, non-fiction projects from a broad range of subjects to an enthralled audience.
The projects can consist of pieces of stories, documentaries, films, interviews, facts, radio, or anything else that presenters are excited about presenting to a crowd. Pop-Up mostly consists of works in progress. Editor in Chief Douglas McGray elaborated, “we encourage people, as much as possible, to take advantage of live-ness as a medium. And in most cases, if someone is sharing work in progress, the final product is not going to be live. Basically, we ask people what they’re excited about. What they’d enjoy sharing with a crowd. This is what leads people to share work in progress. Because, as writers, or filmmakers, or photographers, or whatever, we tend to be excited about what we’re working on at the moment. But then the act of sharing it with a live crowd tends to transform it.” And it most certainly does transform the work, adding an additional dimension to each story that includes sharing the experience with the interested people around you.
Pop-Up afterparty on the Herbst theater balcony
There is no overarching theme or rehearsals and the format is open creating a rare experience for both those presenting and watching. According to McGray, the concept for Pop-Up Magazine came from pop-up books, “flat, printed things that spring up into three dimensions” and not Pop-Up retail, though he says “it creates a nice double meaning.”
Laura Brunow Miner, aka Pictory, kicked off the evening by stating that she “collects photo stories” and presented a narrated photo slide show titled, Sorry, Mom, where each portrait was accompanied by a gracious apology for the story tellers’ mother, and I think, subsequently all mothers, who tend to receive more accusations than apologies.
Jon Mooallem, the contributing writer for New York Times Magazine who wrote the Easter morning cover story about the science and politics of gay animals, took viewers on a factoid journey about the surprising frequency that lost wallets are returned to their owners, sometimes decades after being lost. Mooallem tells of wallet uncovered in vents, walls, and army barracks that have traversed time, state borders, and lost hope. Mooallem likens the experience to “being reunited with an artifact from the back pocket of your former self.” But he doesn’t discount that maybe these artifacts are more valuable for the people who discover them, who are perhaps being reminded that when they move on, a part of themselves might one day be found, and given importance to, by a stranger decades later.
Ever wonder why, in a culture that strives to mechanize as much as possible, there are sign spinners? You know, those human easels who stand on highly trafficked street corners spinning, shaking, or as the feature “Sign Spinners” footage showed, dancing? Jamie Meltzer put some faces to this elusive subculture of people, accompanied by live country twang music, with footage of the bored, creative, and sometimes whacky styles that sign spinners employ for their trade.
Viewers were even treated to some music education when the Guardian’s Art Director Mirissa Neff played audio and video samples of Fado music, a Portuguese tradition of mournful folk music, that was, as we found out, influencial in the 1974 Portuguese revolution. Aside from her day job at the Guardian, Neff is a reporter for PBS’s Sound Tracks, a series that explores world cultures through music, and also goes by the alias of DJ Felina.
Some of the presentations were so filled with suspense that audience members were holding their breath and at the edge of their seats. Joe Richman, the founder of Radio Diaries, an organization that helps people document their own lives, and Bridgette McGee-Robinson presented “The End of Willie McGee,” which told the story of the execution by electric chair of Willie McGee, Bridgette’s grandfather and a black man, who was sentenced to death in 1951 for alledgedly raping a white woman. The presenters took us on a quest to find out what really happened, which included an audio recording of the generator used to power the electric chair, the only electric chair in the state of Mississippi at the time that therefore traveled from courthouse to courthouse to dispatch death sentences, and culminated in an audio interview with the son of the prosecutor involved in the trail. During the interview, the prosecutor’s son divulges that he remembers the day of the execution well, and recounts how his father left for the jailhouse with a pint of bourbon and a resolve to find out, once and for all, if McGee did it. The segment ended when Bridgette convinces him to tell her what his father found out, which he agrees to do off the record. The tape cut out and Richman and McGee-Robinson admitted that they have not yet decided how to handle that piece of information in the upcoming documentary.
Is there anyone left who isn’t on facebook? Justine Sharrock took a look into the emergence of Guantanamo Bay guards and ex-detainees reuniting on facebook in her talk, “Add as Friend.” Both ex-guards and ex-detainees are forming online communities on Facebook and subsequently gaining closure through apologies and acceptance on this casual forum. Sharrock suggests that the casualness is what’s allowing them to see the bigger picture and move on from feelings of betrayal and guilt.
More from the Pop-Up afterparty
These are only a few examples of the array of stories and topics we heard last Friday night at the Herbst Theater. There were surprising tales of Turkey Vultures (did you know that the German government is training Turkey Vultures to scout for dead bodies?) in Doug Long and Lisa Margonelli’s hilarious interview about these misunderstood local birds. There were tales of espionage and architecture inspired by Christopher Hawthorne’s recent trip to Dubai in “A Dying Art.” Visit Pop-Up Magazine’s website to learn more about this issue’s presenters and to sign up for their email list, so that you can be one of the lucky people perched over the “buy tickets” button on your computer the hour they go on sale, reminiscent of trying to sign up for popular classes in college. And stay tuned for Pop-Up alumni Sam Green and Dave Cerf’s upcoming live documentary, Utopia in Four Movements, part of the San Francisco International Film Festival.
The promotion of the magazine is live too, being almost exclusively word of mouth. McGray doesn’t know when the next issue will come out: “We’re so grateful that people are out there telling their friends about us, or tweeting, or our favorite, rounding up groups of friends to go together. That’s what caused the box office server to crash a few minutes after tickets went on sale. It wasn’t anything we did, really.” But he’s just being modest. In fact, it’s exactly what they’re doing. Pop-Up Magazine offers savvy, information hungry people with a digestible forum for a myriad of interesting projects that are out there, when the alternative is often overload. Everyone I encountered leaving the theater was inspired from experiencing such a range of interesting stories. The stories reminded us that we need look no further than our communities to experience a whole world of information. We all have our own stories to tell, and taken as a whole, each tid bit is a “pop up,” and is relatable to someone. In keeping with their live mantra, Pop-Up Magazine doesn’t photograph or record any portion of the event. Burn the internet, anyway. At the beginning of each Pop-Up Magazine McGray says, “Pop-Up is live;” and lest we forget, so are we.
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Amber and Tony Bear, Dolores Park
Tell us about your look: “I got this dress at a thrift store years ago.”
Benefits: April 21-April 27
Ways to have fun while giving back this week – shop, get your hair done, collect art, and be entertained…for a cause.
Wednesday, April 21
Rent Party
Help support Central Works, a Berkeley non-profit theater company that aims to develop and produce new works for the theater, at this annual rent-raising fundraiser featuring dinner, wine, live and silent auctions, and entertainment.
6:30 p.m., $75
Berkeley City Club
2315 Durant, Berk.
(510) 558-1381
www.centralworks.org
Saturday, April 24
Elisa’s Green Benefit Fashion Show
This fashion show will feature a showcase of work from young Bay Area designers and a Project Runway style prom-dress makeover challenge. Proceeds to benefit Princess Project, a local non-profit that promotes self-confidence and individual beauty by providing free prom dresses and accessories to high school girls who cannot afford them.
6 p.m., $15
Rythmix Cultural Works
2513 Blanding, Alameda
(510) 864-4134
Save Wildlife from Trash
In celebration of Earth Day, the thrift store Buffalo Exchange will be donating all the proceeds from their “Dollar Day Sale” to the Humane Society of the United States’ “Don’t Trash Wildlife” campaign.
All day, free
1210 Valencia, SF
1555 Haight Street, SF
www.buffaloexchange.com
Sunday, April 25
Beat Sarcoma Fun Run
Help raise funds for sarcoma-specific research and to help support those dealing with Sarcoma at this fun run featuring a 5k and 10k run, complete with a “fun/costumed” theme category and a “pet” category.
8:30 a.m., $25
Conservatory of Flowers
Golden Gate Park
100 John F Kennedy Drive, SF
www.beatsarcoma.org
Beauty for a Cause
Stop by Moxi Salon on Sunday and pamper yourself for a cause, with $25 haircuts and $35 minifacials being offered all day. Proceeds to benefit Nature in the City, a non-profit for conserving and restoring San Francisco’s biodiversity.
1 p.m., $25-$35
Moxi Salon
1980 Union, Suite 8, SF
www.natureinthecity.org
Tuesday, April 27
Breast Cancer Fund Heroes Celebration
Attend this awards program and fundraiser to recognize people for their groundbreaking work to stop breast cancer before it starts. The evening to feature an awards ceremony, organic buffet, eco-friendly marketplace, and more. The Breast Cancer Fund advocates for the elimination of environmental and other preventable causes of breast cancer.
6 p.m., $200
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
701 Mission, SF
www.breastcancerfund.org
SF Center for the Book Spring Art Show
Attend this art show and silent auction for San Francisco Center for the Book (SFCB) featuring a showcase of traditional and experimental book art forms. SFBC is celebrating 15 years of championing book arts as an enduring medium of self-expression.
6 p.m. preview hour, $75
7 p.m., $25
San Francisco Center for the Book
300 De Haro, Suite 334, SF
(415) 565-0545 ext. 14
http://www.sfcb.org
The Daily Blurgh: Gaga pops, unsavory whiskers
Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond
Oaktown Art (via Eye on Blogs) takes us on a tour of “one of the largest rooftop gardens in the world” paid for with insurance premiums (we’re only kidding with that last bit).
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“Talk about defining deviancy down. What beige days we live in, when mentioning Rilke, Warhol, and David Bowie are proof positive of edgy intelligence. Rilke isn’t exactly obscure, and Warhol and Bowie are two of the best-known brands in pop history. Gaga isn’t all that weird, despite her revisionist accounts of growing up feeling “like a freak,” as she told Barbara Walters.” Thank you, Mark Dery, for articulating (albeit, rather longwindedly) my 99 problems with Lady GaGa.
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William T Vollmann as a lady. ‘Nuff said.
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Never trust anyone over-beardy? (h/t The Slog)
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“Performance journalism” isn’t Anderson Cooper flexing his biceps in a hurricane. In fact, it happened just this last weekend here in SF when Pop-Up Magazine presented its third, live “issue” at the Herbst Theater for a sold-out audience. Boing Boing’s Elisabeth Soep attended, and took away “five things Pop-Up does better than print.” Now, I’m all for Pop-Up’s attempts to invigorate journalism by thinking beyond the written word by reconfiguring the “publication” as an actual salon. And Soep has a point. Print media has often had difficulty putting across the qualities she admired about the event – its ephemerally, spontaneity, draftiness (a slightly awkward word choice which describes how some presenters shared works in progress or pieces that had been rejected by other publications, not the temperature in the Herbst), and its seamless, thematic segue into the after-party – relying on online content, blogs (heeeey!), coordinated parties or tie-in events, and a whole bunch of other Web 2.0 tricks to offset the time lag inherent to old school publishing. However, I would counter that the flipside to Pop-Up’s in-the-moment uniqueness is its lack of accessibility. Not everyone who is interested in “reading” Pop-Up is able to. Would recording the proceedings and putting them up on online really ruin the moment? I don’t think that the “unexpected shift from media to live” Soep recounts as being a highlight of one the presentations would lose all of its unexpectedness if I were able to watch it at a remove. Besides, most people know that watching a concert on Youtube isn’t the same as being there. But more to the point: I want to hear the stories that are being told at Pop-Up. Would I love to hear Aimee Mullins speak in person? Of course. But I’m grateful that TED made what she had to say at their fancy thinking fest available to the public. Also, regarding “draftiness,” all I will say is that sometimes all one wants for dinner is a delicious stir fry, and that, at other times, only a slow-roasted pork shoulder will do.
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And speaking of local journalism: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
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Happy day:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB6rHRpuWz4
Quick Lit: April 21-April 27
Literary readings, book tours, and talks this week – including NYT Dot Earth blogger Andrew Revkin, local activist Peter Berg, McSweeny’s Issue 34, poetry readings in honor of National Poetry month, and more.
Wednesday, April 21
Cosmic Conversation
Join KQED for a conversation with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, host of NOVA scienceNOW, and Paula Apsell, senior executive producer of NOVA and NOVA scienceNOW, for a behind-the-scenes look at the science series and a discussion about the show’s “Pluto files.”
8 p.m., $15
Palace of Fine Arts
3301 Lyon, SF
(415) 392-4400
www.cityboxoffice.com
Greenpeace’s New Rainbow Warrior
Hear from Kumi Naiboo, the new Executive Director of Greenpeace International, discuss how to lead a grassroots group at a crucial point in the international environmental movement.
6:30 p.m., $20
Commonwealth Club
595 Market, 2nd floor, SF
(415) 597-6700
Daniele Mastrogiacomo
Hear Italian journalist Daniele Mastrogiacomo discuss his new book, Days of Fear, about how the Taliban kidnapped him, his driver, and his translator, about his subsequent travel throughout a system of Taliban underground hide-outs, the televised brutal murder of his driver, and his eventual release.
6:30 p.m., free
Italian Cultural Institute
425 Washington, Suite 200, SF
(415) 788-7142
Wherever There’s a Fight
Hear authors Elaine Elinson and Stan Yogi read from and sign their new book at this installment of Betty’s List Literary Salon.
6 p.m., free
Duboce Park Café
2 Sanchez, SF
www.wherevertheresafight.com
Thursday, April 22
Reza Aslan
Hear Reza Aslan, author of How to Win a Cosmic War: Confronting religious fundamentalism, discuss her theory that in a post 9/11 world, the U.S.’s “war on terror” adopts the same religiously polarizing rhetoric and cosmic worldview as the jihadists, and is therefore fighting a war that can’t be won.
8 p.m., $10-18
Jewish Community Center of San Francisco
Kanbar Hall
3200 California, SF
(415) 292-1233
Envisioning Sustainability
Hear author and environmental activist Peter Berg discuss his new collection of essays that helped to define the bioregional movement and shape the sustainability revolution.
7 p.m., free
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia, SF
www.mtbs.com
How to Cool the Planet
Hear author Jeff Goodell discuss his new book that talks about the Earth’s possibilities for geoengineering, the idea that we can use technology to reduce global warming on Earth, which was recently made more popular by the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano.
7 p.m.,free
Books Inc.
1760 4th St., Berk.
(510) 525-7777
“Medicean Music and Francesca Caccini”
Hear a presentation from Kip Cranna, from the SF Opera, about music from the Medicean world and hear Richard Savino, from CSU Sacramento, discuss Francesca Caccini, composer of the first published opera by a woman.
6 p.m., $15
Mechanics’ Institute
57 Post, SF
(415) 393-0100
“The Natural and Unnatural History of Yerba Buena Island and What Might be Next”
Hear a panel of experts present an illustrated overview of Yerba Buena Island’s history, ecological treasures, threats, and possible plans for the future.
7:30 p.m., free
Randall Museum
199 Museum Way, SF
www.natureinthecity.org
Poetry at Pegasus
Celebrate National Poetry Month at this reading with poets Kathleen Weaver, Gretchen Stengel, Susan Elliot Jardin, Cynthia Carmichael, and Jane Downs.
7:30 p.m., free
Pegasus Books Downtown
2349 Shattuck, Berk.
www.pegasusbookstore.com
RuPaul
Attend this book signing with the world’s most famous drag queen RuPaul, celebrating her recent book, Workin’ It! RuPaul’s Guide to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Style.
7:30 p.m., free
Books Inc.
2275 Market, SF
(415) 864-6777
“Truth Emergency Interantional: Censorship, propaganda, and empire”
Attend this talk and booksigning with Peter Philips and Mickey Huff, co-editors of Project Censored 2010: The top 25 stories of 2010.
7 p.m., $5-20 sliding scale
Berkeley Unitarian Universalists
1924 Cedar, Berk.
http://www.bfuu.org
Friday, April 23
“The Contradictory Legacy of Haiti’s Revolution”
Attend this talk with Robert Fatton, Jr., author, scholar, and Professor of Government and Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia, titled, “The Contradictory Legacy of Haiti’s Revolution: History and the earthquake crisis.”
6:30 p.m., free
California Institute of Integral Studies
Social and Cultural Anthropology Department
1453 Mission, Room 308, 3rd floor, SF
(415) 575-6249
Mark Kurlansky
Hear about Mark Kurlansky’s new book, The Eastern Stars: How baseball changed the Dominican town of San Pedro de Marcoris, about one small impoverished area in the Dominican Republic that has produced a suprising number of Major League Baseball talent.
7:30 p.m., free
Booksmith
1644 Haight, SF
(415) 863-8688
WritersCorps Reading Series
Attend this “Claim the Block” reading series featuring readings by young writers.
7:30 p.m., free
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
701 Mission, SF
(415) 252-4655 to RSVP
Saturday, April 24
“America’s Muslim Roots”
Hear Bay Area Muslim journalists Hamza van Boom and Yahsmin Binti Bobo in conversation with Jonathan Curiel about his new book, Al’ America: Travels through America’s Arab and Islamic roots, which details the historic influence of Arab and Muslim culture on America from Columbus to the modern age.
6 p.m., $7
Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California
1433 Madison, Oak.
(510) 219-2431
“Outspoken: Vietnamese Poets of the Diaspora II”
Attend this event that celebrates the thriving Vietnamese community in the Bay Area with readings by poets Anh Vu Buchanan, Andrew Lam, Kim-An Lieberman, Trinh T. Minh-Ha, Dao Strom, and Lan Tran.
7 p.m., free
Fort Mason Center
Laguna at Marina, Fleet Room, SF
www.friendssfpl.org
Sunday, April 25
I Love You and I’m Leaving You Anyway
Mad Men writer Tracy McMillan tells the story about her relationship with her father, who was a convicted pimp, drug dealer, and felon, and what it has meant for her relationships with men.
3 p.m., free
Books Inc.
2251 Chestnut, SF
(415) 931-3633
Monday, April 26
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
As part of the Ask a Scientist lecture series, scientist and author Rebecca Skloot will discuss her new book about the life of a poor tobacco farmer who died of cervical cancer in 1951 but whose cells are still alive today and used for scientific research. Skloot will discuss bioethics, race issues, history, and family.
7 p.m., free
Horatius
350 Kansas, SF
(415) 252-3500
A Thousand Sisters
Hear author Lisa Shannon discuss her book which cronicles her journey to the Congo to meet the women there and share their stories.
7:30 p.m., free
Books Inc.
2251 Chestnut, SF
(415) 931-3633
Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Not Your Mother’s Book Club (NYMBC) presents John Green and David Levithan,
the authors of Will Grayson, Will Grayson, about two teens with the same name who cross paths in Chicago.
7 p.m., free
Books Inc.
601 Van Ness, SF
(415) 776-1111
Tuesday, April 27
Andrew Revkin
Hear award winning environmental journalist and author Andrew Revkin discuss his work on the New York Times’ Dot Earth blog, 25 years covering environmental and social subjects, and his previously published books, like The North Pole Was Here.
8 p.m., $20
Herbst Theater
401 Van Ness, SF
www.cityboxoffice.com
Hunting Eichmann
Hear author Neal Bascomb discuss his new book about a Nazi who escapes American POW camps and hides in the mountains in Buenos Aires before he is eventually caught and brought to trial.
7 p.m., free
Books Inc.
1760 4th St., Berk.
(510) 525-7777
McSweeny’s Issue 34
Attend this release of the highly anticipated Issue 34 of McSweeny’s presented by Nick McDonell, Tom Barbach, and Daniel Handler.
7:30 p.m., free
Books Inc.
2251 Chestnut, SF
(415) 931-3633
Noir Literary Night
Attend the 5th annual Nior Literary Night featuring Cara Black, author of Murder in the Palais Royal, David Corbett, author of Do They Know I’m Running?, and Joe Gores, author of Spade & Archer: The prequel to Dashiell Hammett’s the Maltese Falcon.
6 p.m., $12
Mechanic’s Institute
57 Post, SF
(415) 393-0100
www.milibrary.org
Karin Sanders
Attend a reading and discussion of Karin Sanders’ new book, Bodies in the Bog and the Archaeological Imagination, in conversation with Mark Sandberg.
5:30 p.m., free
University Press Books
2430 Bancroft, Berk.
(510) 548-0585
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Sarah, 18th Street and Dolores
Tell us about your look: “Cheapie store buys”
Sabar dances for Bay Area art form
When Delina Patrice Brooks got the call to audition for the new movie about the Bay area African dance community, she didn’t have to think twice. “Anything that helps to promote, preserve and expose the beauty of African dance gets an easy “yes” from me,” says the local dancer and artist. She wound up in a supporting role in Sabar, a film which screens at the Museum of the African Diaspora Fri/23, and which highlights an important cultural movement in the Bay. “The film was very reflective of our community,” says Brooks, whose been an advocate of, and participant in, the traditional artistic form for over a decade.
Sabar’s creator and director, Nigerian filmmaker Chike Nwoffiah, initially set out to make a documentary on the local dance scene that captivated him with it’s vibrant sights and sounds. Flush with dance classes and performances, the Bay’s African dance — a form which has a subgenre known as “sabar” — culture is unprecedented in the US.
“African dance is huge in the Bay area,” says Eboni Hawkins, director of see.think.dance, which promotes connections between urban communities, artists and dance productions. “Out of all dance communities in the US, we [in the Bay] are really known for traditional dance.”
After hearing of the social connotations and intense spiritual communion that many African dancers take from their art, Nwoffiah, who at one point commented “my heart was bleeding sabar,” decided that his story could be best told in a dramatic arc.
Check out Sabar‘s trailer
The film he brought forth follows Aisha (played by the talented Bunmi DeRosario, a real life regular in the Bay’s traditional dance scene), a hip hop dancer who comes to sabar, a dance that originally comes from Senegal, more or less by accident. She’s surprised to find that the rhythms of the drums awaken within her some kind of rememberance — or is it destiny? — or excitement lacking in her modern world. She’s swept into the orbit of the dance, and the pattern of her daily life is forever changed.
For advocates of African dance, its not an unbelievable awakening. “There are people that come to dancing late in life, and they find that they become a part of something larger than themselves,” says Hawkins. “This is a really tight community, and it can be very welcoming.”
Watching Sabar, which has been screening across the world since its premiere at the 2009 Pan-African Film & Television Festival in Burkina Faso, you begin to understand the draw of traditional African dance; the bright fabrics, the clacking of cowries mixing with the bottomless reverberations of the djembe drums, the communal nature of multi dancer performances. The movie Sabar was honored with the best feature film and audience choice awards at the Urban Mediamakers Film Festival in Atlanta.
Hawkins calls Sabar a great “introductory point” for those unacquainted with the dance — and Brooks is quick to make the connection for those that like what they see. When asked what she would share with people about the making of the movie, she had an invitation to extend. “For anyone who enjoys moving their body, come dance with us! It’s intimidating at first — absolutely — but it’s invigorating.” She cited the workout potential of the art form, and finished up with an affirmation. “Just like in the film, the drums are captivating and the moves just — they just feel good.”
Fri/23 5 & 7:30 p.m., free with $10 museum admission
Museum of the African Diaspora
685 Mission, SF
(415) 358-7200
www.moadsf.org
The Daily Blurgh: Tea Party Grammer
Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond
Finally, a true case of teabagging? Yes, Virginia, it IS possible to be the spokesperson for a new “right-wing TV network” while starring in “La Cage Aux Folles” on Broadway. Kelsey — he is what he is.
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“Since many San Franciscans seem to work on a freelance, contract, or they don’t work basis they have plenty of time to spend posting pithy narratives about their experiences, or pictures of things in the Mission, or pictures of things outside of the Mission that they can write funny or nonsensical captions for. Often nonsensical things are the funniest or vice versa and San Franciscans have totally picked up on this.” Does linking to this damn me as part of the punchline? I’m feeling a little meta right now. Please excuse me.
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This NY Times article does a nice job discussing the increased visibility of LGBT comic fans, as well as LGBT characters in comics, when it’s not fawning over the cosplay-themed sausage party where, “the muscle-cuddling garb often leaves little to the imagination.” Of course nothing, neither gay nor super, could possibly ever surpass this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0kUeQDPaGU
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Shocker: Pope’s lawyer is actually ex-dirty hippy, Berkeley resident (maybe he and John Yoo should do a power lunch?)
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San Francisco has a new art publication, titled in a no-nonsense fashion, The San Francisco Arts Quarterly. In addition to running a listings calendar, the Art Quarterly will also, according to the magazine’s manifesto (because what is an art publication without a manifesto?), “direct a dialogue with a highlighted neighborhood in San Francisco, rotating to different areas of the city with every issue. Each edition will consist of interviews with individuals and collectives who are showing an interest in the advancement of the San Francisco arts community and thus helping to further stimulate the city’s progressive nature.” The inaugural issue, which can be viewed online or downloaded as a pdf file, focuses on up-and-coming arts district the Tenderloin (aka San Francisco’s gritty, new tourist destination).
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All I have to say to this is no shit, SFGate:
Hidden folds at the Cherry Blossom Festival
In Japantown yesterday, pet owners walked small dogs dressed in mini kimonos to the beat of taiko drums. The festivities were on account of the 43rd annual Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival, one of the state’s largest celebrations of Japanese culture. The Sapporo beer gardens lubricated sale of T shirts and bento boxes, and Safeway had erected a pop up grocery store near the main stage.
But in the basement of the Kabuki hotel, one could follow makeshift signs to a cultural display without brand names and ID checks. Small meeting rooms held samurai swords and their aficionados, traditional paper doll creations and creators. The Cherry Blossom Festival had created this peaceful forum for an array of Japanophile collecters and crafters.
Oh, but the origami room!
Here, amidst improbably wonderful paper polar bears and geometrically complicated paper bowls, sat Jonathan Miller and Charles Knuffke. Two of the origami artists whose work was on display, they were teaching the random souls who’d stumbled upon the room of folded riches how to create simple creatures — a swimming fish, a box for secrets.
Charles Esseltine’s origami space magic. Photo by Caitlin Donohue
Next to them in a glass case on their card table, were works that the fledgling crafters they taught could only aspire to; Star Wars spaceships, weapon brandishing warriors.
Knuffke, who discovered origami when he was a mere 12 years old, held up the creature who’d pointed the way to fold and crease nirvana; the flapping bird. “This was just about as cool as it gets in middle school,” he said, the crane mimicking flight with a few deft movements of his fingers.
Watching their tired joy in the last of the day’s lessons in mountain, valley, and rabbit folds, it was easy to see why origami’s stuck with the human race since the 17th century. There’s something calming in the thought that with certain, almost mathematical techniques, one can create nearly anything in the universe.
And that, looking at the faces of young and old who’d stopped to pick up a fold from Miller and Knuffke, is cool — even beyond the teen years.
“This was just about as cool as it gets.” Photo by Caitlin Donohue
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Marissa and Brenna, Dolores Park
Tell us about your look: M:” It was all free!” B:”I got this dress from Idaho, which is where I’m from.”
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Amara, 18th Street and Guerrero
Tell us about your look: “I like accessories most about outfits and I actually made the earrings and ring that I’m wearing. I mostly like vintage and thrifting for clothes, but handmade is where it’s at. My friend Chelsea Wang made this bag and I use it almost everyday!”
The Daily Blurgh: Sugar & Sassy & Death & Taxes (Donald Duck remix)
Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond
The 53rd San Francisco International Film Festival takes place next week, but over in France preparations are being made to reset the international festival circuit clock when Cannes ’10 kicks off in May. The full-line up has been announced, and I am already curious about the new titles from Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Godard, Gregg Araki, Hong Sangsoo, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and many more. Here’s to some of these being snatched up for SFIFF 54. And yes, there were movies 54 years ago.
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Pot without THC: O’Douls for stoners or scientific breakthrough?
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Phil Bronstein pushes for journalist Fight Club: “But it’s much more lively to measure breath on the mirror of our business by its deathmatches, where our history is rich and passionate. In the 1800’s, San Francisco rivals in the newspaper world were shooting each other on the street. Charles de Young, a Chronicle founder, popped a cap in politician Isaac Kalloch. De Young’s brother, M.H., was shot by businessman Adolph Spreckels over an article in the paper. And James King, editor of the Daily Evening Bulletin, was killed right downtown on Montgomery.”
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We completely surrender to Sugar & Sassy — and will beg them to join our electroclash-revival band. Or at least lend their names.
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Did you notice the Angry Americans today in Union Square (and I’m not talking about the moms who narrowly snatched that pair of Burberry mules at Lohman’s)?
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No one told us there would be a BLOOD CANNON!!!!!
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Happy tax day from Motorhead:
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And so, courtesy of Wonkette, does “A Walt Disney Donald Duck” — guns! guns! guns!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr9qpeOjmuQ
How to run your life: today’s stand up comedians and The Believer weigh in
As far as advice columns go, I’ve always been partial to E. Jean’s bon mots in Elle, if only for her use of the term ‘whipsawed by confusion.’ But for a swift, re-motivating kick to the rear, I’ve never read anything like the gems dished out by You’re a Horrible Person, But I Like You, The Believer’s new tome of celebrity counsel.
By way of example, here’s Zach Galifianakis’ “ways to kick-start a satisfying life.”
1. Start reading Teen People
2. Rent a stretch Hummer to go see Noam Chomsky speak
3. Model your life after the movie Sideways, but instead of wine make your passion Mountain Dew
4. Ask a state trooper where the closest gay bar is
5. Have a Super Bowl party with no television
The book gives a few pages apiece to today’s fly young comedians — bro extraordinaire Judd Apatow, his minion Michael Cera, Janeane Garafolo, and Samantha Bee all pick up the pen, among others — and throws at them some standard “whatdoIdo” queries. How do I tell my girlfriend she’s got a mustache? Why did my dog die? What do I do with all these grass cuttings? The conundrums of our times.
It was surprising to me how well these film and TV types can actually write. I guess film and television comics are literate, after all.
You’re a Horrible Person scores some hits from Sarah Silverman (“You may think you’re a shut-in and that therefore you don’t wash your balls. But I’m here to tell you that you a re shut-in because you don’t wash your balls,”), and Adam McKay (“Lies and fantasy are the nectar of good lovemaking,”), and all the witty back and forth makes for a quick read for certain — far less taxing on the old noggin than the deep thinking Believer itself.
It’s kind of a one-off deal — comedy books in general have to work pretty hard to earn a spot on my bookshelf. But the book definitely gets some guffahs. You might even pick up some advice you can use. Truly, without Michael Ian Black, I might never have thought to smooth things over with an irate father in law by making him my DJ, and as Amy Sedaris (who granted, has had some practice at this in her Believer online column “Sedaratives”) helpfully points out, “It’s called a tongue bath, and it’s not just for felines anymore.”
I’ve got to admit, E. Jean’s never weighed in on the hygenic properties of saliva baths. Take notes, blondie.
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Brody, Dolores Park
Tell us about your look: “I found the feather in my hat while hiking on Mt. Tam.”
The Daily Blurgh: It lies beneath
Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond
What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise: “Years ago, when San Francisco was called Yerba Buena, a lake covered parts of the Mission. Washerwoman’s Lagoon flowed through the Marina. The Sans Souci Creek traced a path now known to bicyclists as The Wiggle.
Hayes River flowed beneath City Hall, delaying an election in the 1980s by flooding the Registrar’s Office. Arroyo de los Dolores ran down to 18th Street past Dolores Park. Mission Creek flowed to the bay, and is now only visible in brief glimpses such as a pool in the basement of the Armory.” Matt Baume guides us through SF’s buried creeks in part two of his three part series for Streetsblog SF.
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“Any person in a leadership position today has to be a hopeless optimist.” Kenneth Baker interviews Jay Xu, director of the Asian Art Museum.
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Do we live inside a wormhole’s neck?
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There is, indeed, a Dutch Cartman — and a bit of NSFW salad-tossing. Amster-DAMN!
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Perhaps the only reason to go to Coachella this weekend (pace, Specials fans) — unalloyed zef-ness.
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Take a deep breath. It’s only hump day. You won’t die.
Street Threads: Look of the Day
Today’s Look: Veronica, Polk and Jackson
Tell us about your look: “I got this dress in the Mission.”
Dogfest 2010 raises its leg on school budget cuts
Gosh, you think. Charles Barkley just looks so dapper in his doggie vest/pocket watch/monocle ensemble. I wish more people could share in the joy his beauty brings me!
First of all, thanks for considering the rest of us. Secondly, Mr. Barkley’s time to shine has come. Just bring him down to Duboce Park this Sat/17 for Dogfest 2010, McKinley elementary school’s fundraiser excellent. The Fest offers a chance to, once and for all, determine that his bark is better, his coat is shinier, and y’all are two more identical peas in a pod than that Boston terrier and her owner down the street, those bitches.
“Last year’s event raised $25,000 — more than our school had ever raised in a single year, much less fundraising event,” says Dogfest organizer and McKinley parent, Katy Wilcoxen. In this era of deep cuts to our kiddie’s educations, Wilcoxen says that McKinley found it “couldn’t tap our own families to make up the funding gap.”
Enter Dogfest, which, unlike traditional school fundraising events, involves even members of the neighborhood who are childless — or if you will, those that don‘t have any two legged children. “The success of this was that we put it in Duboce Park to touch the Duboce Triangle/Castro community,” Wilcoxen tells SFBG. The area, which is one of the most dog frequented in the city, has responded with bright eyes and wagging tails.
So what can you expect from this year’s Dogfest? Last year brought over 100 canines to such contests as Best Trick, Best Dog-Guardian Look Alike and Best Bark — a category that Wilcoxen says has been dominated by a mixed breed named Grover for the past two years.
Sounds like a challenge to me, crazy dog people! But, if you’re furry friend free, bring your human children down for bouncy castles, face painting, and craft tables. No child? You poor darling! Sit in on a performance by the Busy Bee Dogs (the cast of which includes lots of puppies and a 225 pound pony named Benji), grub on the food vendors, bid in the silent auction, and hang on the sweeping Duboce Park lawn.
See? It’s good for you and Mr. Barkley to take a break from your standard Doobie Dolores Saturdays. Especially with the holiday coming. Woof!
Sat/17 11 a.m.- 4 p.m., free
Duboce Park
Noe & Duboce, SF
(415) 710-7387
The Daily Blurgh: Whither Grindr, Kitty Boots?
Curiosities, quirks, oddites, and items from around the Bay and beyond
“Call before you come over, I need to shave my ShoCha.”
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That breathless traipse around Land’s End really is about (re)fighting the Battle of the Bulge
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All I found in my college dumpster was some stale ciabbatta and empty beer bottles: “Students at Cal State Stanislaus have discovered evidence that documents related to an upcoming speaking engagement by Sarah Palin were shredded and dumped after the university claimed that no public documents existed, a state senator said on Tuesday.” Willful destruction follows her everywhere.
Maybe part of that cool $12 million Sarah Palin has reportedly raked in since quitting her governorship is hush money from venues too embarrassed to admit they’ve booked her.
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Attention dude-seeking-dudes with iPhones: “Grindr is pretty much just for Victorian ladies now,” sayeth Rod Townsend. (Everyone’s moved on to other “games of chance.”)
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Shocker: actress actually talented at something other than acting.
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And finally, every cat looks better in boots.
Quick Lit: April 14-April 20
Literary readings, book tours, and talks this week — including Alice Walker, Men and Dogs, Marin Poetry Festival, “Adapting to Climate Change,” and more
Wednesday, April 14
Louann Brizendine
Hear Neuropsychiatrist, author, and media commentator Dr. Louann Brizendine discuss her theories on the relationship dynamics that result from the neurobiology of the male and female brains, as outlined by her bestselling books, The Male Brain, and The Female Brain.
8 p.m., $20
Herbst Theater
401 Van Ness, SF
“Let Our Words Be Heard”
Attend this queer writing workshop and open mic that will take on the empowering, interactive process of discovering the use of words for healing, sharing histories, and celebrating community. Part of CUAV’s Safetyfest.
6 p.m., free
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia, SF
The Long Man
Best known for his work on DC Comics’ Detective Comics series in the 1970’s that produced many memorable Batman stories, Steve Englehart discusses his writing career and his new novel, The Long Man, a follow up to his first novel, The Point Man.
7 p.m., $5 suggested donation
Cartoon Art Museum
655 Mission, SF
(415) CAR-TOON
Men and Dogs
Hear San Francisco resident and author Katie Crouch discuss her new book about a girl who’s father went missing on a fishing trip in Charleston and how the mystery of his disappearance tests the whole family’s concept of loyalty and faith years later.
7:30 p.m., free
The Booksmith
1644 Haight, SF
(415) 863-8688
The Montefeltro Conspiracy
Join a humanities forum to discuss Marcello Simonetta’s The Montefeltro Conspiracy, a Renaissance mystery uncovering a nefarious plot, a murder, and a coded letter. In conjuction with the upcoming Humanities West 25th anniversary program, The Florence of the Medici: Commerce, Power, and Art in Renaissance Italy, starting April 30.
5:30 p.m., free
Commonwealth Club
595 Market, 2nd floor, SF
Thursday, April 15
If You Can Read This: The philosophy of bumper stickers
At this reading of his new book, Jack Bowen explores the philosophical ideals reflected in the most popular bumper stickers and claims that every bumper sticker holds at least a kernel of truth.
7:30 p.m., free
The Booksmith
1644 Haight, SF
(415) 863-8688
Noe Valley Celebrates the Book
Celebrate the 25th anniversary of Phoenix Books, an independent bookstore in Noe Valley, at this reading by local authors Allison Hoover Bartlett, Tony DuShane, Clare Willis, Lisa Gluskin Stonestreet and with music by Ted Savarese.
6 p.m., free
Phoenix Books
3957 24th St., SF
(415) 821-3477
Friday, April 16
Offbeat Bride
Hear Ariel Meadow Stallings discuss her new book, Offbeat Bride: Creative Alternatives for Independent Brides, where she offers inspiration, encouragement, and advice for brides on a budget.
7:30 p.m., free
The Booksmith
1644 Haight, SF
(415) 863-8688
Saturday, April 17
“Adapting to Climate Change”
Attend this daylong “BioForum” about the challenges of climate change and prospective actions California could take to make a difference. Experts from UC Davis, NOAA, PG&E, and the California Academy of Sciences will be on hand to talk about impacts on local agriculture, fisheries, and energy policies. You might want to ask the PG&E representative why their company is trying to kill progressive, local Community Choice Aggregation efforts for the sake of preserving profits.
9 a.m.; $25, lunch and coffee included
Pacific Energy Center
851 Howard, SF
1-800-794-7576
Melissa Broder
Hear Broder read from her first collection of poems, When You Say One Thing But Mean Your Mother.
6 p.m., free
Elbo Room
647 Valencia, SF
(415) 552-7788
Poetry at Pegasus
Celebrate National Poetry Month at this reading with poets Stephen Ratcliffe, Erica Lewis, and Benjamin Perez.
7:30 p.m., free
Pegasus Books Downtown
2349 Shattuck, Berk.
(510) 649-1320
“The Revolution Starts at Home”
Attend this workshop on practicing community accountability in real life with Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha discussing partner abuse within queer, politicized communities. Part of CUAV’s Safetyfest.
2 p.m., free
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia, SF
2048: Humanity’s Agreement to Live Together
Hear about author Kirk Boyd’s plant to draft an enforceable international agreement that could allow the people of the world to create a social order based on human rights.
7:30 p.m., free
The Booksmith
1644 Haight, SF
(415) 863-8688
Sunday, April 18
Marin Poetry Festival
Enjoy a free afternoon of poetry and music featuring Avotcja and Pedro Rosales, Dancing Bear, C.J. Sage, Adam David Miller, Michelle Baynes, and more.
2 p.m., free
Old Mill Park Amphitheater
300 Throckmorton, Mill Valley
Later in the evening, attend readings featuring San Francisco Poet Laureate Diane di Prima, winner of the 2006 National Book Award in poetry Nathaniel Mackey, and award winning poet Branda Hillman.
7 p.m., $20
Dominican University Campus
Angelico Hall
50 Acacia, San Rafael
“Writing and Publishing the Novel”
Attend this adult writers’ seminar lead by author Jason Roberts with panelists Vendela Vida, Daniel Alarcón, Rabih Alameddine, Andrew Foster Altschul, and Danielle Svetcov discussing the writing process, and issues relating to publishing, agents, and publishing houses.
6:30 p.m., $75
826 Valencia, SF
Monday, April 19
Get Lit!
Bring your own literary contributions or those of your favorite authors to share at this candle lit, wine bar literary salon.
7 p.m., free
1550 Hyde Café and Wine Bar
1550 Hyde, SF
(415) 775-1550
Poetry at Pegasus
Celebrate National Poetry Month at this reading with poets Cheryl Dumesnil, Judy Halebsky, and Tiffany Higgins.
7:30 p.m., free
Pegasus Books Downtown
2349 Shattuck, Berk.
(510) 649-1320
Tuesday, April 20
Diane di Prima
Hear San Francisco Poet Laureate Diane di Prima discuss her career as an activist in the 1960’s, a writer of the Beat movement, author of 43 books of poetry and prose, and many more accomplishments in conversation with Alan Kaufman.
6 p.m., $12
Mechanics Institute
57 Post, SF
(415) 393-0100
For you Mom, Finally
In her latest book, food magazine editor, restaurant critic, and memoirist Ruth Reichl examines her mother’s life, giving voice to the painful truth that many women of our mothers’ generation had to sacrifice their dreams.
11 a.m., $10-18
Jewish Community Center of San Francisco
Kanbar Hall
3200 California, SF
(415) 292-1233
Alice Walker
Essayist, poet, fiction writer, and ardent social activist Alice Walker will discuss her upcoming book, Overcoming Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters “the horror” in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine/Israel, about her travels to each of those three regions, charting the aftermath of violent conflict and political upheaval. In conversation with Michael Krasny.
8 p.m., $20
Herbst Theater
401 Van Ness, SF