WEDNESDAY 7/31
Sebadoh
Attention fuzz pedal enthusiasts and indie rock fans alike: Lo-fi godfathers Sebadoh are coming to town! Formed as an offshoot of vocalist and guitarist Lou Barlow’s band, Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh takes influences from proto punk and noise bands and presents it in a tight, dissonant package. The band has two sides: Barlow’s folk-infused songs and vocalist and bass player Jason Loewenstein’s more aggressive punk tunes. Both combine for an energetic, albeit schizophrenic set. Sebadoh will be hitting the Bay Area, promoting its newest EP, Secret EP and building up hype for its first full length album in 14 years, Defend Yourself, expected to drop in September. (Erin Dage)
With Octa#grape
9pm, $15
Cafe Du Nord
2170 Market, SF
(415) 861-5016
WEDNESDAY 7/31
Guardian Community Forum
Hey, this is something put on by the paper you’re currently reading. No nepotism though, this should be an interesting panel on one very specific publication and the media as a whole. At the forum, staffers — including publisher Marke Bieschke and editor Steven T. Jones — will seek community input on the state of the paper and media in the Bay Area, engage in a dialogue with readers, and discuss the future of the Bay Guardian. This comes at a crucial time for the paper, which saw the loss of longtime editor-publisher Tim Redmond last month. Following a brief interim period, Guardian staff members reached an agreement with the parent company “ensuring full editorial autonomy and control,” meaning, there’s a reinvigorated desire to rejuvenate the paper and connect closer with the community — a community Bieschke and Jones know well, having both been with the paper for a decade. (Emily Savage)
6-8pm, free
San Francisco LGBT Community Center
1800 Market, SF
Facebook: Guardian Community Forum
THURSDAY 8/1
SF Wine History Event
Become the wine connoisseur of your circle by attending a night of unlimited wine tasting (from over 75 wineries) and some interesting presentations of its history in SF. Enjoy live music, chocolate, and even olive oil tasting at this uniquely informative event. FlipSide — part of the San Francisco Museum and Historical Society — has put together this event, among others like Historic Bar Crawls and lectures, to draw a younger generation of support for the city’s history. The Old Mint project, a big part of FlipSide’s mission, aims to create a new center with historical exhibits inside SF’s Old Mint at Fifth and Mission Streets. Listen to live music and taste unlimited amounts of wine for around 20 bucks — sounds like the right way to attract the younger generation to me. (Hillary Smith)
5:30 p.m., $21
Old Mint
88 Fifth St., SF
FRIDAY 8/2
Bookswap: Summer Blockbuster
What recession? Oh, that one. You can find some wee relief from economic woes, at least literary-wise, and a good night out with smart sexy peeps at Booksmith’s popular Bookswap party. For $25, you get dinner, drinks, special swag, and a new book, discovered in a white elephant swap at the end of the evening. August’s installment has a “Summer Blockbuster” theme — bring a book you think deserves to get the Hollywood treatment and become a movie. Bonus host: Heather Donahue, the captivating Blair Witch Project star and writer whose recent memoir Growgirl: The Blossoming of an Unlikely Outlaw shed new light on the treatment of women in the underground marijuana farming scene. It should be a movie! (Marke B.)
6:30pm, $25
Booksmith
1644 Haight, SF
(415) 863-8688
FRIDAY 8/2
ODC presents Summer Sampler
If Brenda Way, KT Nelson, and Kate Weare’s Triangulating Euclid sounds like something off-putting out of high school geometry, it isn’t. The piece, which premiered last March, is a gorgeous, lush, totally involving piece of choreography, the result of three smart, independent women choreographers putting their heads together. Programming it into ODC annual Summer Sampler affords it — and the dancers — an opportunity in a different, non-proscenium theater. Triangulating will be joined by the world premiere of Kimi Okada’s duet Two if By Sea, which among other skills asks Vanessa Thiessen — who will retire after this performance — and Jeremy Smith to dig out their tap dancing shoes. Then a trio of ODC men will take on Weare’s 2006 The Light Has Not the Arms to Carry Us, which recently was performed by Weare’s own dancers during the Walking Distance Festival in June. (Rita Felciano)
Through Sat/3, 2013, 8pm, $30–$45
ODC Theater, SF
(415) 863-9834
FRIDAY 8/2
Lady Bunny
“I’m just a tomboy in cheap makeup with poor taste in clothes.” Says who? Says hysterical drag goddess Lady Bunny — legendary clubkid, reality TV favorite, MAC makeup model, comedienne, chanteuse, outspoken activist, and sporter of the largest wigs in existence. (The higher the hair the higher the drag queen, even if, as she recently told me on the phone, “it’s like I travel with my own motel mattress on my head. Great, except for the scabies.”) When Her Royal Bunion moved to New York in the 1980s with fellow Atlantians RuPaul and DJ Larry Tee, she helped start a gay-friendlier pop culture revolution. Friday at the fantastic weekly Some Thing drag show party she’ll bring the Dynel hair overload, the dirty jokes, and her cute new single “Take Me Up.” (Marke B.)
10pm, $8
Stud
399 Ninth St. , SF.
FRIDAY 8/2
“R. Kelly Trapped in the Closet: The Interactive Sing-Along”
What’s the only thing better than watching R. Kelly’s “Trapped in the Closet”? Packing in the Castro with hundreds of like-minded hip-hopera fans and singing along to that shizz. That’s right: “R. Kelly Trapped in the Closet: The Interactive Sing-Along” brings the controversial, inimitable R&B star’s soapy extravaganza (well, the first 22 chapters of it, anyway) to the big screen for all to croon along, complete with “custom subtitles.” Prepare your pipes for “Bump ‘N Grind,” “Ignition (Remix),” and other hits — plus cliffhangers galore (“Oh my god, a rubber!”), careless gunplay, a little-person stripper named “Big Man,” a Will Oldham cameo, and further lurid, hilarious, and — at last! — participatory insanity. (Cheryl Eddy)
Through Sun/4, $12
Castro Theatre
429 Castro, SF
SATURDAY 8/3
Fruit Pie Contest
Get your sweet-tooth and literature fix all in one at this foodie favorite Fruit Pie Contest. Stop by and support local food-specializing bookshop, Omnivore Books, by sampling pies or even entering your own in the contest. Drop off your pie by 3pm to be included. The $5 door charge for non-bakers, who will be voting on the pies, will be split between the winner and Omnivore Books. Events are held at the shop on everything from growing an apartment garden, to the future of chocolate. Stop by the store for dessert, but stay for the inventive food lessons, the chance to meet new people, and to poke through vintage cookbooks. Here’s your chance to show off your award-worthy recipe to a knowledgeable food crowd. (Smith)
3pm, free
Omnivore Books on Food
3885a Cesar Chavez, SF
SATURDAY 8/3
Art + Soul Oakland
As the name implies, this 12-year-old fest features a smorgasbord of live soul (and soul-ish) music, along with colorful artwork. The two-day music lineup includes Lisa Loeb (yes that Lisa Loeb, of “Stay” fame), Los Rakas, Leela James, Vintage Trouble, buzzing local songstress Mara Hruby, Bang Data, recently Guardian profiled singer-songwriter Lia Rose, and more. There’s also a more straight-forward blues stage, and a Sunday afternoon gospel hour. One of the key elements of the art side is the Community Mural Project — a decade-plus tradition in which budding artists can participate in a group mural. And then, of course, there will be hundreds of vendors selling their wares throughout the fest. Lastly, local food trucks will be whipping up jambalaya, hush puppies, lumpias, and smoked turkey legs — all those favorable festy eats. (Savage)
Through Sun/4, noon-8pm (noon-6pm, Sun.),. $8–$15
10 blocks between Frank Ogawa Plaza and City Center, Oakl.
SATURDAY 8/3
The Princess Bride
It’s hard to pick a favorite moment, character, and line from Rob Reiner’s 1987 fantasy-comedy The Princess Bride, but here’s a go: Inigo Montoya vs. the Man in Black sword battle (moment); Fezzik (character); “Inconceivable!” (line). Or: Miracle Max crafting the miracle pill; Grandpa; “Mawwage!” Seriously, I could do this all day. Bundle up, pack a picnic (“Anybody want a peanut?”), and gather your posse for a screening of this timeless classic in Dolores Park. Future SF events in the Film Night in the Park series include 1952’s Singin’ in the Rain (Aug 17, Union Square); 2012’s Moonrise Kingdom (Sept. 7, Washington Square Park); and 2012’s Skyfall (Sept 21, back at Dolores). (Eddy)
8pm, free (donations appreciated)
Dolores Park
19th St at Dolores, SF
SATURDAY 8/3
Guy Fox
Guy Fox is a new band, only active for about a year or so. But the soulful Afro-indie group has already created a stir in the Bay Area. This year alone the band played Brick and Mortar Music Hall, the Boom Boom Room, Bottom of the Hill, Shattuck Down-Low, Rasputin, El Rio, and Café Du Nord. It also went on a month-long tour across the States this May. So it’s been busy. Frontperson Noodle Witherbee’s vocals range from the weathered scratchy sound of Cage the Elephant, to the smooth soul of the Black Keys, and everything in between. Guy Fox is easy listening, and at the rate it’s picking up gigs, it should be just as easy to catch live. (Smith)
With Ghost and the City, Fortress Social Club 9:30 p.m., $12
Bottom of the Hill
1233 17 St., SF (415) 626-4455
MONDAY 8/5
Love in the Dark
Apologies to the late, great Roger Ebert, but if she’d been born a few decades later, Pauline Kael’s Twitter account would’ve been the greatest movie-critic tweet stream of all time. The Petaluma native and UC Berkeley grad was known for her wonderfully biting, intelligent wit; she paved the way for modern film criticism (the good kind, not the poorly-punctuated, “I only know movies from the last five years” Internet-spawned kind) with her books (1965’s I Lost It At the Movies) and print-journalism gigs, most notably at the New Yorker. Presented as part of Shotgun Cabaret’s First Person Singular series, Mary Baird’s solo show Love in the Dark: Pauline Kael and the Movies draws on Kael’s own writings to bring the feisty legend, who died in 2001, back to life. (Eddy)
8pm, $15
Ashby Stage
1901 Ashby, Berk.
TUESDAY 8/6
MC Chris
MC Chris marches to the beat of his own drum machine. The pint-sized Chicago-area rapper is technically a hip-hop artist, but this is likely not the kind of hip-hop you’ve heard before. In his characteristic chipmunk chirp, MC Chris raps about Star Wars, DQ Blizzards, and lots of computer geek nerdiness. In addition to being the world’s unlikeliest rapper, he has also worked as an animator, voice actor, and songwriter for a handful of Cartoon Network Adult Swim shows, including Aqua Teen Hunger Force. In his free time (ha) MC Chris is working on a recently Kickstarted comic and acts as an advocate for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He and his hyper-dedicated fans have raised over $100,000 for the cause. (Haley Zaremba)
With Dr. Awkward, Jesse Dangerously, Tribe One
8pm, $15
Slim’s
333 11th St., SF
(415)-255-0333