Art

Parents, behind bars

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By Ross Mirkarimi

OPINION Nearly 50 percent of the 2.7 million people incarcerated in US prisons and jails are mothers and fathers. In San Francisco, about 40 percent of the prisoners are parents. For their children, the punishment does not fit the crime.

Federal and state recidivism registers at 78 percent; locally the rate is 65 percent and dropping. If we’re serious about breaking the cycle of incarceration, we must get serious about restoring the family ties of the incarcerated.

Studies support what common sense suggests — strengthening the parent-child bond reduces recidivism. It also reduces the prospect that children of the incarcerated are more likely to violate the law. While maintaining appropriate safety and legal protocols, the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department is reexamining policies that invariably damage or strain relationships between an inmate parent and child, starting with birth. In honor of Mother’s Day, on May 9, the Community Works Jail Arts Program, with our department, converted the lobby of the SF women’s jail into a temporary gallery of art created by incarcerated and formerly incarcerated mothers.

That provided a warm environment to announce a policy first in California: The Birth Justice Project, designed to affirm the reproductive rights of all incarcerated women and provide prenatal and postpartum care during the transformative experience of pregnancy, birth and parenthood. With the stewardship of Dr. Carolyn Sufrin, an OB/GYN from UCSF, along with the Department of Public Health, Zellerbach Foundation, and our volunteer doulas (professional birth assistants), we’re radically distancing ourselves from the barbaric attitude of 33 states that still shackle women during labor. Rather, we seek to nurture the inimitable bond between mother and child.

While most jails and prisons shun a lactation policy, we’ve unveiled our pro-lactation program. Breast pumps, refrigeration, and delivery are provided around the clock, facilitated by our jail health professionals. While the arcane national practice is to separate baby and mother after the third day of birth, we’re working to maintain the connection. If we can’t do it through diversion (alternatives to incarceration), then we’ll continue to assess our facility in allowing mother and baby to stay together. I look forward to promoting breast feeding in San Francisco’s jails.

For children of incarcerated parents, the absence of a mother is the loss of a primary caregiver. Ninety percent of incarcerated fathers in the US report that while away, their children live with the child’s mother. In contrast, only 28 percent of incarcerated mothers report that their children live with their father. Routinely, her children are cared for by a grandparent or relative — and about 11 percent are placed in foster care. Many children are bounced from caregiver to caregiver during their parent’s incarceration.

These disruptions to a child’s life negatively affect their social and mental development. Acknowledging the sense of disconnection experienced by children whose parents are incarcerated also means we must grapple with the emotional poverty that increases the likelihood of criminal behavior. In San Francisco, we’re taking steps to bridge this disconnection by reforming visitation policies to facilitating regular contact between children and incarcerated parents.

The people in our jails will eventually be released and will return to communities that historically have been underserved. We’re trying to intensify resources toward exit planning for newly incarcerated parents and guardians. Depending on individuals cases, that could include a regiment of parenting classes, substance abuse and mental health treatment, domestic violence counseling, reunification counseling for parent and child, reading and writing comprehension, high school completion, life skills such as financial literacy, and vocational training.

Many people don’t know what the Sheriff’s Department does or the difference between us and the SFPD; we’ve launched a monthly e-newsletter to keep the public informed. To sign up or contact us at: Ross.Mirkarimi@SFgov.org

Ross Mirkarimi is sheriff of San Francisco

Hungry for reform

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Hungry for reform

news@sfbg.com

Sitawa Jamaa is among the thousands of California inmates who, two years ago this summer, took part in the largest prison hunger strike in US history to protest harsh conditions and their invisibility to those outside prison walls.

Now, Jamaa and other prisoners are about to launch another hunger strike to highlight the system’s unfulfilled promises and the persistence of inhumane conditions.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) counted 6,000 prisoners throughout the state who refused food over several weeks in July 2011. During a follow-up strike that September, the number of prisoners missing meals swelled to 12,000, according to the federal receiver who was appointed by the courts to oversee reforms in the system. At least one inmate starved to death.

As one of four inmates who call themselves the Short Corridor Collective, Jamaa was a key organizer of the hunger strike. The group of inmates drafted a list of core demands calling for the strike when they weren’t met.

That was no easy task for Jamaa, who has spent most of the last 28 years alone in a windowless, 8-by-10 foot concrete cell in Pelican Bay State Prison, a supermax facility not far from the Oregon border, where some 1,200 men are held in similar conditions.

Inmates held in solitary confinement (in government lingo: “Segregated Housing Units”, or “SHU” for short) aren’t supposed to communicate with each other, verbally or through the mail. But they were able to organize with the help of their lawyers, who they are allowed to communicate with, and prison reform advocates outside.

Jamaa and other inmates are planning to launch a second hunger strike on July 8. The Short Corridor Collective has drafted a list of 45 demands, reflecting concerns ranging from inadequate health care to extreme solitary confinement—conditions that prison advocates characterize as cruel and unusual punishment.

The list is an extension of the five initial demands that Pelican Bay inmates presented in 2011 before initiating a hunger strike. Most of those demands were never met, or they were met only with lip service, leading prisoners back to where they started.

 

 

CONFINEMENT AS TORTURE

High on the list are concerns about conditions in the SHU, the amount of time prisoners can be made to spend in isolation, and the public’s inability to monitor the situation.

“I feel dead. It’s been 13 years since I have shaken someone’s hand and I fear I’ll forget the feel of human contact,” Pelican Bay prisoner Luis Esquivel told attorneys with the Center for Constitutional Rights in an interview.

Along with Jamaa and others, Esquivel is a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the state of California that would effectively cap the time someone can spend in solitary confinement to 10 years.

“The hunger strike is an extreme act,” says Terry Kupers, a Piedmont-based psychology professor and clinical psychiatrist who has testified before the California State Assembly on long-term solitary confinement. “It’s very dangerous, and you can die. So when a group of prisoners go on hunger strike, it means they’ve exhausted all ways of expressing themselves and having their demands considered. And that’s very much the case here—some of these guys have been in SHU for 30 or 40 years.”

Kupers believes solitary confinement in California prisons violates the 8th Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, a view echoed by activists who’ve launched a statewide effort called the Stop the Torture Campaign.

United Nations Special Rapporteur Juan Méndez, an expert on torture, has called for a ban on solitary confinement where inmates are kept in isolation for 22 hours a day or more, saying the practice should only be used in very exceptional circumstances and for short time periods.

The CDCR has made some concessions and reforms since the 2011 hunger strikes, but critical issues have gone unaddressed. In Pelican Bay’s SHU, the men are now allowed beanie caps for when it gets cold. They can now have wall calendars to track time and bring a human touch to their surroundings.

Some prisoners have received exercise equipment, such as a handball or pull-up bar. Each year, they now have permission to have one photograph of themselves taken to send to family members, and prison administrators have signaled that they are looking into extending Pelican Bay’s visitation hours.

But more pressing issues have yet to be resolved, so the prisoners who drafted the 45 demands are resorting to starvation once again, despite official statements that it will do little to improve their conditions.

“Negotiation is something the department does not do,” says Terry Thornton, a spokesperson for CDCR. But the department has met periodically with a mediation team, consisting of lawyers and prison activists, who have communicated the inmates’ concerns and gone over their demands with prison authorities.

 

 

RESISTING REFORM

In 2002, the state of California was sued, and lost, in an 8th Amendment class-action lawsuit: Plata v. Davis. The federal judge overseeing the case called the medical treatment in California prisons “horrifying,” sinking “below gross negligence to outright cruelty,” ordering improved treatment and reductions in severe prison overcrowding.

A court-appointed doctor found that out of 193 deaths over the course of one year, 34 were “probably preventable,” but medical staff gave “well below even minimal standards of care.” Eleven years later, the state is still under federal receivership, until it can show that conditions have actually improved.

Court-appointed consultant Dr. Raymond Patterson wrote his 14th annual assessment report last April, blaming high suicide rates behind bars on a lack of “adequate assessment, treatment or intervention.” After it was released, he quit the post in frustration, writing: “It has become apparent that continued repetition of these recommendations would be a further waste of time and effort.”

So inmates are taking in upon themselves to accomplish what the courts and consultants have failed to do: reform conditions in the prisons.

As happened in 2011, in spite of what is planned to be a peaceful protest, prisons housing strikers will be, according to Thornton, on “modified program” (or “lockdown,” as prisoners call it). Generally, that means inmates aren’t allowed to leave their cells, even to shower.

New regulations created after the 2011 strikes call for no visits for striking prisoners, and for their canteen food to be confiscated. In addition, “inmate(s) identified as strike leaders, instrumental in organizing, planning, and perpetuating a hunger strike, shall be isolated from non-participating inmates.”

Since March of this year, the Guantanamo Bay prisoner hunger strike has made news around the world for highlighting alleged violations of international law. There, when a striker goes below 85 percent Ideal Body Weight, regulations dictate that he or she be shackled to a chair, fitted with a mask, and have tubes inserted through their nostrils into their stomachs for up to two hours at a time.

That didn’t happen in California back during the 2011 strikes, but the Division of Correctional Health Care Services devotes five pages of its policy handbook to outlining specific instructions for dealing with hunger strikers, including transfers to prison medical facilities where they could potentially be force-fed, another practice the UN regards as torture.

Prisoners and activists believe the policy was instituted as preemptive attack on the upcoming hunger strike. “We are concerned that, under the pretext of ‘welfare’ checks, prisoners are being harassed, targeted, and deprived of sleep as the date of planned hunger strikes and work stoppages approaches,” said Isaac Ontiveros of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity group. “Whatever the case, new CDCR Secretary Jeffery Beard has an opportunity to avoid the strike and begin to undo the indescribable harm that the California prison system has caused.”

 

 

DANGEROUS ASSOCIATIONS

Problems associated with solitary confinement are closely connected to CDCR’s most commonly used tool for sending prisoners like Jamaa into the SHU: the controversial “gang validation” process.

Once an inmate is listed in prison records as a gang member, he or she loses multiple rights on the assumption that they’re a threat to the order of the prison. With no disciplinary write-ups since 1995, Jamaa would have been eligible for parole in 2004, except for the gang validation that led to his indefinite SHU sentence.

Getting pegged as a member of a gang can happen easily. Guards can write prisoners up for anything from the possession of artwork deemed to be gang-related, to information obtained from confidential informants whose claims prisoners often aren’t allowed to refute and whose identities remain unknown to the targeted prisoners.

Last year, in the wake of hunger strikes, CDCR announced a “complex retooling” of the gang validation practices. The so-called Step Down process, created in conjunction with the Department of Homeland Security, is meant to transition inmates out of gangs over the course of four years, with privileges gained over that time.

It might be the most significant of the reforms that followed the last hunger strike, but prisoners and their advocates criticize it as too lengthy of a process, subject to the arbitrary whims of the correctional officers overseeing a given prisoner. In fact, they say it may widen the definition of who counts as a gang member.

Manuel Sanchez, who is participating in the Step Down program at Corcoran State Prison, wrote in a letter that he is “seriously considering returning to SHU, where I’d be less harassed and I’d get more yard access more consistently.”

Compounding the problems in the prisons is a lack of transparency and public accountability.

“It’s like mentioning July 8 is anathema,” says San Francisco Bay View Editor Mary Ratcliff, whose African American-focused newspaper has been a CDCR censorship target.

From January to April of this year, Ratcliff said papers were being returned from Pelican Bay undelivered because they included articles about the hunger strikes, representing “material inciting participation in a mass disturbance,” and “a serious threat to the safety and security” of the prison, according to CDCR Administrator R.K. Swift.

“I think it’s remarkable that hunger strikes are considered a ‘disturbance,'” says Ratcliff. “A disturbance is supposed to mean a fight—something that threatens people. A hunger strike is a threat to no one except the people who are participating in it.”

Just as inmates can’t get news from the outside, they are also walled off from journalists who might cover them and the conditions they live in.

Since 1996, the CDCR has limited reporters to only interviewing prisoners they’ve selected. Last September, Governor Jerry Brown vetoed legislation that would have opened up media access to the prisons. “Giving criminals celebrity status through repeated appearances on television will glorify their crimes and hurt victims and their families,” he wrote, citing the media spectacle around Charles Manson.

But activists say the nearly $2 million Brown received from the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) during his successful bid for governor in 2010 had more to do with it than infamous serial killers.

Assembly member Tom Ammiano, who authored the most recent bill, stressed that “Press access isn’t just to sell newspapers. It’s a way for the public to know that the prisons it pays for are well-run. I invite the governor to visit the SHU to see for himself why media access is so important.”

 

 

DRASTIC MEASURES

Last time around, Jamaa lost 19 pounds. Deprived of sunlight, the Oakland-born man has developed melanin and vitamin D deficiencies that have lightened his normally dark brown skin. He suffers stomach problems and swollen thyroid glands that he didn’t have before prison. Starvation is a possibly lethal proposition. “Make no mistake, none of us wants to die. But we are prepared to, if that’s what it takes to force a real reform,” he and other strike leaders wrote in a statement last December. Jamaa’s sister, Marie Levin, who has organized monthly vigils for the strikers at Oakland’s monthly First Fridays/Art Murmur event, is worried about how her brother’s body will cope this time around. “It’s something that we as family members don’t want them to have to experience again,” she notes with anxiety. Yet both the prisoners and their advocates on the outside say they can’t simply let dehumanizing conditions in California’s prison system continue indefinitely. “I think things have changed, but not substantially in terms of actual conditions,” Kupers argues. “What is changed is the CDCR had to recognize the strikers, and conceded some of the things. And subsequently, the various prisoner groups have come together and made a commitment not to have violence between groups inside the prisons. This is huge advancement.” But unless all 45 demands are met, they say the strike will commence July 8. For now, Jamaa and others are readying their bodies for hunger, for a cause they believe goes far beyond prison walls. “Know this,” he wrote from SHU, words that needed to be smuggled out through unconventional means to get around an official wall of silence. “I am a … Prisoner of War, and I serve the interest of all people.”

Diversity in motion

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Diversity in motion

arts@sfbg.com

DANCE Last weekend, World Arts West’s San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival closed out four almost completely sold-out weekends of performances. It is tempting to take this 35-year-old celebration for granted. Yet despite universal accolades, excellent audiences, a steadily improving roster of artists, an increase in live music, and ever-better production values, EDF still does not receive the support it deserves.

Consider this: according to its own numbers, EDF’s budget this year was two-thirds of what it was five years ago. Foundation and corporate support is down, between 30 and 50 percent. This time around, even Grants for the Arts — a stalwart champion of the festival since the beginning — had to cut its contribution by close to 20 percent.

Add to these challenges the fact that in 2011, due to the complications of the Doyle Drive construction, EDF lost its home at the Palace of Fine Arts. The much smaller Lam Research Theater at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts cannot make up the lost ticket sales.

Of course, in these mean and lean times, all the arts suffer. But other institutions of similar size, track record, and scope have endowments that help tie them over. Not EDF. It’s paycheck to paycheck. One reason for EDF’s survival, however, is that the biggest supporters of the arts have always been the artists themselves. Most of this year’s 500 dancers and musicians performed for free. (Their companies get a small stipend.)

So perhaps it’s appropriate to give a small bouquet to these eminent artists who may have come from places most of us will never visit — 19 countries on five continents — but are bringing to both fellow dancers and audiences their perspectives on what dance can tell us about being human.

While the Palace’s loss deprived EDF of its preferred stage, spreading the dance to different venues was a successful experiment. On June 7, a free, mid-day gala opening rocked the rotunda at San Francisco City Hall; the following day, Charya Burt’s reimagining of sculptor Auguste Rodin’s 1906 encounter with classical Cambodian dance brought East and West together at the Legion of Honor Museum’s jewel box theater. Later in the festival, one could walk across the lawn at Yerba Buena Gardens, where Patrick Makuakane was teaching light-hearted contemporary hula — and then, at YBCA, watch Halau o Keikiali’i present dignified re-interpretations of sacred Hawaiian rituals, offering an inkling of the complexities of culturally-specific dance.

EDF presents cultural traditions that range from high classicism (Chinese Performing Arts of America) to folkloric community celebrations (Lowiczanie Polish Folk Ensemble). But the fest also embraces change within continuity. It gives newcomers a chance, and welcomes re-interpretations of the past.

Nine of this year’s 33 participants made their EDF debuts. Among them were Colectivo Anqari, which charmed with an urban reinterpretation of popular dance from the Andes in which the men both danced and played the pan pipes. The women’s contribution almost looked like an afterthought. Ceremonially stepping dancers, drummers, and a flute player from Ensohza Minyoushu performed Sansador from Northern Japan, its high degree of formality leavened by a leaping masked “spirit.” Antoine Hunter’s short Risk showed a fascinating mix of jazz and sign language by this deaf dancer. High fives, however, must go to the two dozen youngsters of Mona Khan Company Emerging Performers. Their rousing, Bollywood-inspired Jalsa showed them to be disciplined, tough, and exuberant.

A relatively recent phenomenon is dancers and companies who rethink their heritage and reframe it into the kind of individual expression that Western art encourages. Charya Burt is one of them. Another is La Tania Baile Flamenco, whose Tierra translated the quintessential male farruca into a women’s dance. The trio became a striking expression of female power — rigorous and utterly convincing. Solo artist Oreet incorporated modern and ballet vocabulary into her spunky belly dancing, making it a decidedly contemporary expression of womanhood.

I do find it problematic, however, that dance from Mexico — there are over two dozen folklórico groups in the Bay Area — inevitably is represented by suites that are happy, fast, and loud. Surely there are more varied ways to showcase that culture’s rich variety of traditions.

The Palace of Fine Arts is scheduled to re-open in 2015. The people at World Arts West would like the complex to become a center for art and culture from around the globe. Sounds like a good idea to me.

On the Cheap

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On the Cheap listings are compiled by Guardian staff. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com.

WEDNESDAY 3

“Fuck the Fourth Sale” AK Press Warehouse, 674-A 23rd St, Oakl; www.akpress.org. 4-8pm, free. Need a little inspiration to face tomorrow’s flag-waving masses? The publisher of anarchist and radical books opens up its warehouse for it annual summer sale: 25 percent off everything, plus a sale table of tomes going for $1-5.

“Salsa in the Square” Union Square between Post, Geary, Powell, and Stockton, SF; www.ybgf.org. 2-4pm, free. Cuban-born, Bay Area-based Fito Reinoso brings the party to Union Square in conjunction with the Yerba Buena Gardens festival and Union Square Live.

THURSDAY 4

Fourth of July at the Berkeley Marina 201 University, Berk; www.anotherbullwinkelshow.com. Noon-10pm, free. Doesn’t get more American than pony rides for kids, but Berkeley throws down the gauntlet with even more fun stuff: performances by the Blue Yonders, the John Brothers Piano Company, juggling and magic acts, and more, plus arts and crafts, dragon boats, and (obviously) fireworks.

Fourth of July at Pier 39 SF; www.pier39.com. Noon, free. If you dare to surf the crowds of tourists, turn up early in the day for kid rockers WJM (noon-2pm) and 1980s cover band Tainted Love (4-7pm). The reason for the season starts booming in the sky around 9:30pm, so get yourself situated at your favorite viewing spot and pray to the weather gods that fog doesn’t hide the whole show.

FRIDAY 5

“Oakland Art Murmur First Friday Gallery Walk” Various venues, Oakl; www.oaklandartmurmur.org. 6-9pm, free. Galleries and mixed-use art spaces in Oakland’s downtown, uptown, and Jack London Square areas open for evening hours; visit the event website for a map of venues.

SATURDAY 6

“Beast Crawl” Various uptown venues, Oakl; beastcrawl.weebly.com. 5-9pm, free. This second annual literary festival boasts the participation of over 140 writers at 26 venues (bars, galleries, cafés, etc.) Plan your crawl (and don’t miss any must-see readings) by picking up a map on “leg one” of the event (5-6pm).

SUNDAY 7

Poetry Unbound Art House Gallery and Cultural Center, 2905 Shattuck, Berk; (510) 472-3170. 5pm (sign-up; reading begins at 5:15pm), $5-10 donation (no one turned away for lack of funds). Wordsmiths John Curl, Clara Hsu, and Eanlai Cronin read, followed by a brief open mic.

TUESDAY 9

“Carol Tarlen Tribute” City Lights Books, 261 Columbus, SF; www.citylights.com. 7pm, free. Laborfest 2013 hosts this celebration of the release of Every Day Is an Act of Resistance: Selected Poems by Carol Tarlen, with Aggie Falk, Jack Hirschman, David Joseph, and others reading work by the late activist, a longtime North Beach resident.

Nina Schuyler Booksmith, 1644 Haight, SF; www.booksmith.com. 7:30pm, free. The NorCal author reads from her latest, The Translator, about a woman who forgets her native language after a head injury and can understand only Japanese.

Stage Listings

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Stage listings are compiled by Guardian staff. Performance times may change; call venues to confirm. Reviewers are Robert Avila, Rita Felciano, and Nicole Gluckstern. Submit items for the listings at listings@sfbg.com.

THEATER

OPENING

Chance: A Musical Play About Love, Risk, and Getting it Right Alcove Theater, 415 Mason, Fifth Flr, SF; www.thealcovetheater.com. $40-60. Previews Fri/5-Sat/6, 8pm. Opens Sun/7, 5pm. Runs Thu-Sat, 8pm (also Sat, 3pm); Sun, 5pm. Through July 28. New Musical Theater of San Francisco presents Richard Isen’s world premiere work inspired by the writings of Oscar Wilde.

Oil and Water This week: Dolores Park, 18th St and Dolores, SF; www.sfmt.org. Free. Thu/4, 2pm. Also Peacock Meadow, Golden Gate Park, SF; www.sfmt.org. Free. Sat/6, 2pm. Also Washington Square Park, Columbus at Union, SF; www.sfmt.org. Free. Sun/7, 2pm. Also Mitchell Park, South Field, 600 E. Meadow, Palo Alto; www.sfmt.org. Tue/9, 7pm. Free. At various NorCal venues through Sept. 2. The San Francisco Mime Troupe presents its 54th annual summer season; this year’s performance is comprised of two one-act musicals about corporations and the environment: Crude Intentions and Deal With the Devil.

ONGOING

Abigail’s Party San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Post, SF; www.sfplayhouse.org. $30-100. Wed/3-Thu/4, 7pm; Fri/5-Sat/6, 8pm (also Sat/6, 3pm). Although it’s tempting to compare Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party to Edward Albee’s rancorous Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Abigail‘s escalating nastiness skews emphatically British, giving it as much in common with televised exports such as Fawlty Towers and the Ricky Gervais version of The Office. As with these, the humor in Abigail’s Party is of the bleakest and cruelest kind, and there are moments when the five Americans onstage don’t quite convey the wit that lurks beneath the ire, but when they do the results are hysterical and uncomfortable in equal measure. Though the party we witness is not Abigail’s (she’s having a teenage house party next door, the music of which keeps throbbing through the walls of Bill English’s attractively-appointed set) the adults-only cocktail party is just as awkward as any high school mixer. Hosted by the fiercely self-absorbed Beverly (Susi Damilano) and her obnoxiously classist husband Laurence (Remi Sandri), the guest list includes the mousy Angela (Allison Jean White), her monosyllabic husband Tony (Patrick Kelley Jones), and Abigail’s ill-at-ease mum, Susan (Julia Brothers), who’s agreed to keep out of the house during her daughter’s wild soiree. The acting — as well as Brendan Aanes’ sound design, Jacqueline Scott’s props, and Tatjana Genser’s costuming — is pitch perfect, but unless you haven’t already been to enough bad parties, you might find it difficult to sit through this one. If you do, don’t be surprised if you find yourself secretly envying Laurence by the end of the play — at least he finds a way out. (Gluckstern)

Betrayal Phoenix Theatre, 414 Mason, Sixth Flr, SF; www.offbroadwaywest.org. $40. Thu-Sat, 8pm. Through July 20. Off Broadway West Theatre Company performs Harold Pinter’s out-of-sequence drama about an unfaithful married couple.

Can You Dig It? Back Down East 14th — the 60s and Beyond Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $15-50. Sat, 8:30pm; Sun, 7pm. Through Aug 25. Solo performer Don Reed returns with a prequel to his autobiographical coming-of-age hits, East 14th and The Kipling Hotel.

Dark Play, or Stories for Boys Exit Theatre, 156 Eddy, SF; www.theexit.org. $5-20. Fri-Sat, 9pm. Through July 13. Do It Live! Productions offers a steadily engrossing production of this slippery play from Chicago playwright Carlos Murillo, wherein a less-then-trusty teenage narrator, Nick (a clever, tightly wound, darkly charming Will Hand), addicted to “making shit up,” recounts his fateful internet-baiting of a fellow teen upon whom he had become fixated. As the unwitting object of Nick’s desire, sweet guy Adam (Adam Magil) gets pulled into an online love affair with Rachel (Amy Nowak), his first love, and — as fate and Nick would have it — Nick’s sister. But Rachel exists only online. And her equally fantastical evil stepdad (Nathan Tucker) soon intercedes, throwing Nick and Adam closer together. All of this disembodied desire floating around the ether leads to a physical climax even Freud might find a bit much, but the way there proves increasingly tense and interesting — if also a little frustrating itself at times in some strained plot points and, especially, its overwrought psychopathologizing of homoerotic desire. (Erik LaDue’s awkward set design also takes a little getting over.) But despite various flaws, the story intrigues, thanks to the solid performances from director Logan Ellis’s sure cast. Tucker and Kelly Rauch are dependable throughout in a varied range of sharp and often hilarious supporting roles. Nowak’s take on the vital (albeit imaginary) teen heroine is refreshingly straightforward. And Hand, while slightly slower to catch fire, ends up a persuasively complex figure at the center of it all. (Avila)

Foodies! The Musical Shelton Theater, 533 Sutter, SF; www.foodiesthemusical.com. $30-34. Fri-Sat, 8pm. Open-ended. AWAT Productions presents Morris Bobrow’s musical comedy revue all about food.

God of Carnage Shelton Theater, 533 Sutter, SF; www.sheltontheater.com. $26-38. Thu-Sat, 8pm. Through Sept 7. Shelton Theater peforms Yasmina Reza’s award-winning play about class and parenting.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch Boxcar Theatre, 505 Natoma, SF; www.boxcartheatre.org. $27-43. Thu-Sat, 8pm. Open-ended. John Cameron Mitchell’s cult musical comes to life with director Nick A. Olivero’s ever-rotating cast.

In A Daughter’s Eyes Brava Theater Center, 2781 24th St, SF; www.brava.org. $15. Thu-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 3pm. Through July 14. Brava! For Women in the Arts and Black Artists Contemporary Cultural Experience presents the West Coast premiere of A. Zell Williams’ tale of two women: the daughter of a man on death row, and the daughter of the man he’s been convicted of killing.

Sex and the City: LIVE! Rebel, 1760 Market, SF; trannyshack.com/sexandthecity. $25. Wed, 7 and 9pm. Open-ended. It seems a no-brainer. Not just the HBO series itself — that’s definitely missing some gray matter — but putting it onstage as a drag show. Mais naturellement! Why was Sex and the City not conceived of as a drag show in the first place? Making the sordid not exactly palatable but somehow, I don’t know, friendlier (and the canned a little cannier), Velvet Rage Productions mounts two verbatim episodes from the widely adored cable show, with Trannyshack’s Heklina in a smashing portrayal of SJP’s Carrie; D’Arcy Drollinger stealing much of the show as ever-randy Samantha (already more or less a gay man trapped in a woman’s body); Lady Bear as an endearingly out-to-lunch Miranda; and ever assured, quick-witted Trixxie Carr as pent-up Charlotte. There’s also a solid and enjoyable supporting cast courtesy of Cookie Dough, Jordan Wheeler, and Leigh Crow (as Mr. Big). That’s some heavyweight talent trodding the straining boards of bar Rebel’s tiny stage. The show’s still two-dimensional, even in 3D, but noticeably bigger than your 50″ plasma flat panel. Update: new episodes began May 15. (Avila)

So You Can Hear Me Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $15-50. Thu-Fri, 8pm; Sat, 5pm. Through July 20. A 23-year-old with no experience, just high spirits and big ideals, gets a job in the South Bronx teaching special ed classes and quickly finds herself in over her head. Safiya Martinez, herself a bright young woman from the projects, delivers this inspired accounting of her time not long ago in perhaps the most neglected sector of the public school system — a 60-minute solo play that makes up for its relatively slim plot with a set of deft, powerful, lovingly crafted characterizations. These complex portraits, alternately hysterical and startling, offer their own moving ruminations on a violent but also vibrant stratum of American society, deeply fractured by pervasive poverty and injustice and yet full of restive young personalities too easily dismissed, ignored, or crudely caricatured elsewhere. An effervescent, big-hearted, and very talented performer, Martinez’s own bounding personality and contagious passion for her former students (as complicated as that relationship was), makes this deeply felt tribute all the more memorable. (Avila)

Steve Seabrook: Better Than You Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $15-50. Sat, 8:30pm. Extended through August 24. Self-awareness, self-actualization, self-aggrandizement — for these things we turn to the professionals: the self-empowerment coaches, the self-help authors and motivational speakers. What’s the good of having a “self” unless someone shows you how to use it? Writer-performer Kurt Bodden’s Steve Seabrook wants to sell you on a better you, but his “Better Than You” weekend seminar (and tie-in book series, assorted CDs, and other paraphernalia) belies a certain divided loyalty in its own self-flattering title. The bitter fruit of the personal growth industry may sound overly ripe for the picking, but Bodden’s deftly executed “seminar” and its behind-the-scenes reveals, directed by Mark Kenward, explore the terrain with panache, cool wit, and shrewd characterization. As both writer and performer, Bodden keeps his Steve Seabrook just this side of overly sensational or maudlin, a believable figure, finally, whose all-too-ordinary life ends up something of a modest model of its own. (Avila)

Tinsel Tarts in a Hot Coma: The Next Cockettes Musical Hypnodrome, 575 10th St, SF; www.thrillpeddlers.com. $30-35. Thu-Sat, 8pm. Extended through July 27. Thrillpeddlers and director Russell Blackwood continue their Theatre of the Ridiculous series with this 1971 musical from San Francisco’s famed glitter-bearded acid queens, the Cockettes, revamped with a slew of new musical material by original member Scrumbly Koldewyn, and a freshly re-minted book co-written by Koldewyn and “Sweet Pam” Tent — both of whom join the large rotating cast of Thrillpeddler favorites alongside a third original Cockette, Rumi Missabu (playing diner waitress Brenda Breakfast like a deliciously unhinged scramble of Lucille Ball and Bette Davis). This is Thrillpeddlers’ third Cockettes revival, a winning streak that started with Pearls Over Shanghai. While not quite as frisky or imaginative as the production of Pearls, it easily charms with its fine songs, nifty routines, exquisite costumes, steady flashes of wit, less consistent flashes of flesh, and de rigueur irreverence. The plot may not be very easy to follow, but then, except perhaps for the bubbly accounting of the notorious New York flop of the same show 42 years ago by Tent (as poisoned-pen gossip columnist Vedda Viper), it hardly matters. (Avila)

The World’s Funniest Bubble Show Marsh San Francisco, 1062 Valencia, SF; www.themarsh.org. $8-50. Sun, 11am. Through July 21. Louis “The Amazing Bubble Man” Pearl returns after a month-long hiatus with his popular, kid-friendly bubble show.

BAY AREA

Dear Elizabeth Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison, Berk; www.berkeleyrep.org. $24-77. Wed/3 and Sun/7, 2 and 7pm; Fri/5-Sat/6, 8pm (also Sat/6, 2pm). Berkeley Rep performs Sarah Ruhl’s play written in the form of letters between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell.

George Gershwin Alone Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison, Berk; www.berkeleyrep.org. $29-77. Wed/3 and Sun/7, 2 and 7pm; Fri/5-Sat/6, 8pm (also Sat/6, 2pm). Hershey Felder stars in his celebration of the music and life of composer George Gershwin.

Sea of Reeds Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby, Berk; www.shotgunplayers.org. $20-35. Previews Wed/3-Thu/4, 8pm. Opens Fri/5, 8pm. Runs Wed-Thu, 7pm; Fri-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 5pm. Through Aug 18. Josh Kornbluth’s brand new comedy — it involves atheism, oboes, and the Book of Exodus — opens at Shotgun Players “before it goes on Torah.”

Superior Donuts Pear Avenue Theatre, 1220 Pear, Mtn View; www.thepear.org. $10-30. Wed/3 and Thu-Sat, 8pm (no show Thu/4); Sun, 2pm. Through July 14. Pear Avenue Theatre performs Tracy Letts’ comedy about the redemptive power of friendship.

This Is How It Goes Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison, Berk; www.auroratheatre.org. $32-60. Tue and Sun, 7pm (also Sun, 2pm); Wed-Sat, 8pm. Extended through July 28. An awkward love triangle between former high school classmates gets the caustic Neil LaBute treatment in Aurora Theatre Company’s production of This is How it Goes. Not content to merely skewer the familiar battles between the sexes, LaBute further prods his captive audience with the big stick of race relations, and the often unacknowledged prejudices that lurk in the hearts of men. And women. There are no innocents in this play, though each character certainly has moments where they play upon audience sympathies, only to betray them a few inflammatory lines later. As the marriage between the successful yet self-conscious African American alpha male Cody (Aldo Billingslea) and his neurotically placating Caucasian wife Belinda (Carrie Paff) erodes, the mostly affable (and former fat kid) “Man” (Gabriel Marin) insinuates himself in the middle of their troubled relationship, obviously still carrying the torch for Belinda he did 15 years ago — as well as the same wary animosity an unpopular kid carries for the star of the track team, in this case, Cody. All three actors do a very good job of shape-shifting between their middle-class Jekyll and Hyde selves, assisted in part by Marin’s amiable asides, which don’t so much lull the audience as tease them with the idea that things are about to get better, when they can only get worse. (Gluckstern)

PERFORMANCE/DANCE

Caroline Lugo and Carolé Acuña’s Ballet Flamenco Peña Pachamama, 1630 Powell, SF; www.carolinalugo.com. July 13, 21, and 27, 6:15pm. $15-19. Flamenco performance by the mother-daughter dance company, featuring live musicians.

“Comedy Returns to El Rio” El Rio, 3158 Mission, SF; www.brownpapertickets.com. Mon/8, 8pm. $7-20. With Eve Meyer, Johan Miranda, Kate Willett, Sammy Obeid, and Lisa Geduldig.

“Mission Position Live” Cinecave, 1034 Valencia, SF; www.missionpositionlive.com. Thu, 8pm. Ongoing. $10. Stand-up comedy with rotating performers.

“Performance Making Showcase” Z Space, 450 Florida, SF; www.zspace.org. Sat/6, 7:30pm. Free. Work created by participants in the University of Chichester (UK)’s Performance Making Institute.

“Queer Rebels of the Harlem Renaissance” Performances: African American Art and Culture Complex, 762 Fulton, SF; www.queerrebels.com. Fri/5-Sat/6, 8pm. $15-20. Films: New Parkway, 474 24th St, Oakl; www.queerrebels.com. Sun/7, noon. $7-10. The National Queer Arts Festival presents this showcase of queer black performers, plus films by and about the same.

“Randy Roberts: Live!” Alcove Theater, 414 Mason, Ste 502, SF; www.thealcovetheater.com. July 9, 16, and 23, 9pm. $30. The famed female impersonator takes on Cher, Better Midler, and other stars.

Red Hots Burlesque El Rio, 3158 Mission, SF; www.redhotsburlesque.com. Wed, 7:30-9pm. Ongoing. $5-10. Come for the burlesque show, stay for OMG! Karaoke starting at 8pm (no cover for karaoke).

“San Francisco Magic Parlor” Chancellor Hotel Union Square, 433 Powell, SF; www.sfmagicparlor.com. Thu-Sat, 8pm. Ongoing. $40. Magic vignettes with conjurer and storyteller Walt Anthony.

“Union Square Live” Union Square, between Post, Geary, Powell, and Stockton, SF; www.unionsquarelive.org. Through Oct 9. Free. Music, dance, circus arts, film, and more; dates and times vary, so check website for the latest.

“Yerba Buena Gardens Festival” Yerba Buena Gardens, Mission between 3rd and 4th Sts, SF; www.ybgfestival.org. Through Oct 15. Free. This week: “Accordion Daze,” Sat, noon-3. *

 

Psychic Dream Astrology: July 3-9, 2013

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July 3-9, 2013

Be patient with miscommunications and crossed wires ’cause Mercury is retrograde till the 20th, y’all.

ARIES

March 21-April 19

You need to change, Aries. Don’t change because there’s anything wrong with you — you’re perfect! Change because you want to, because it’s time that you let go of some old, outworn ways of being. You are on the verge of something greater than you are able to understand right now. Be a part of it.

TAURUS

April 20-May 20

Kindness will best pave roads in all directions before you, Taurus. No matter how nervous or upset you get, this is not the time to lash out at folks. Be tolerant and generous with yourself and others this week. If you assume the worst you’re investing your precious energy in unwanted negative outcomes.

GEMINI

May 21-June 21

Patience and perseverance alone will guide you through the anxieties that this Mercury retrograde may bring. Things are not as they appear, Twin Star, so making plans based on what you see or assuming you understand what you’re being shown is not well starred. Stay centered and simplify your life this week.

CANCER

June 22-July 22

Life is like ice cream; no matter how delicious it is, eating it too quickly or enjoying too much of it will make you sick. Jupiter just entered your sign and that means you are capable of great growth and expansion. If you try to do too much you’ll end up messing things up, though, Moonchild.

LEO

July 23-Aug. 22

You don’t need to know what’s coming, or to even understand everything that is at hand, but you do need to cope to the best of your ability. This week you are not meant to be perfect, Leo, only to try and embody all the strength and candor your sign is known for. Don’t rush the unknowable.

VIRGO

Aug. 23-Sept. 22

Making peace with crappy things is not meant to depress you. It is meant to liberate you from the belief that there is “good” or “bad” experience; there’s not. It’s all just experience, if you allow it. Don’t get so fixated on your narratives that you make this story worse than it needs to be. Be interested in how your life is developing.

LIBRA

Sept. 23-Oct. 22

Trust your instincts, Libra. This is an important time to be self–reliant because you need to assert yourself dramatically forward, and if you cant trust yourself, who can you trust? Keep your feet on the ground and your head screwed on tight as you challenge yourself beyond your comfort zone.

SCORPIO

Oct. 23-Nov. 21

You simply don’t have enough knowledge to make an informed decision, Scorpio. No matter how impatient you’re feeling you should strive to have more data to work with before you make a call. Whether that requires introspection, research, or dialogue, you should never take shortcuts in a Mercury Retrograde week.

SAGITTARIUS

Nov. 22-Dec. 21

Did you know that it was a Sagittarius that invented the fine art of putting ones’ foot in ones’ own mouth? Its true. It’s also true that you need to avoid perfecting that craft this week, no matter how motivated you feel, or how passionately you believe that you’re right. Don’t push others; let them come when they’re ready.

CAPRICORN

Dec. 22-Jan. 19

In order to win the game you have to be prepared to play, Cappy. There’s no possibility to succeed in your relationships if you don’t put yourself out there and take risks. If you never let people in, you’ll never know what could’ve been. This week is all about being present and willing, in spite of your fears.

AQUARIUS

Jan. 20-Feb. 18

No matter how much drama is around you, this is the time to stay true to yourself. It’s also time to be willing to change. The key is to transform in ways that feel creative and lead you to somewhere better instead of just running away from pain. Don’t escape hardship; carve a new path, Aquarius.

PISCES

Feb. 19-March 20

There’s no need to make any sweeping judgments this week, Pisces. You are being shown different sides of people than you’ve seen before, but that doesn’t mean that what you knew yesterday is no longer true. Integrate all you are being shown and revise your opinions as needed.

Jessica Lanyadoo has been a Psychic Dreamer for 18 years. Check out her website at www.lovelanyadoo.com to contact her for an astrology or intuitive reading.

Our Weekly Picks

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WEDNESDAY 3

PANTyRAiD

Seven years after meeting in Costa Rica, Martin Folb and Josh Mayer are still doing their thing as seductive bass collaboration PANTyRAiD, even while each has achieved solo success as the Glitch Mob’s Ooah and MartyParty respectively. New album PillowTalk has the right touch of move and groove while keeping an arm’s length from booming, bro-centric dubstep or ear-shattering electro. PANTyRAids like to jump from genre to genre, dropping some trap here and some glitch there, keeping listeners on their toes. Standout track “Just For You” showcases the duo’s slick handling of hip-hop drums, brooding basslines, and melodic synths. Call it mood music for the bass-minded. (Kevin Lee)

10pm, $20-25

1015 Folsom

(415) 431-1200

www.1015.com

Fruition

Upright bass, acoustic guitars, and mandolin (quickly strummed and finger-picked) fill out Fruition’s sound, but don’t clutter its performance. And this show will feature Bridget Law of Elephant Revival, an addition that only upgrades the night. Bluegrass itself requires a lot of emotion and passion to sound right, but Fruition harbors a certain old-back-road, last drop of sunlight through the trees kind of passion. “Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery,” sings the group in gorgeous country harmonies, in its cover of John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery.” (Hillary Smith)

7pm, free

Brick and Mortar Music Hall

1710 Mission, SF

(415) 371-1631

www.brickandmortarmusic.com

 

THURSDAY 4

Oil and Water

It just wouldn’t be summer in the Bay Area without the San Francisco Mime Troupe — so thank goodness the veteran company was able to raise enough funds (in part through crowdsourcing, a testament to its loyal supporters) for its 54th season. Though the 2013 musical will still be performed mostly for free, and comes complete with a political theme (corporations vs. environmental activists), the format is different this year. The show is broken into two musical one-acts: Crude Intentions and Deal With the Devil, both written by Pat Moran And Adolfo Mejia. Per tradition, the show opens July 4 in Dolores Park before spreading its jolly satire ’round NorCal parks through Labor Day; check website for additional shows this week in Golden Gate Park and beyond. (Cheryl Eddy)

Through Sept. 2

Thu/4, 2pm, free

Dolores Park

18th St. and Dolores, SF

www.sfmt.org

 

Giraffage

San Francisco-based futuristic dream R&B producer Charlie Yin has made some big leaps in 2013, with a performance at SXSW along with upcoming gigs at Southern California’s Lightning in a Bottle festival and SF’s Treasure Island Music Festival. His new album Needs on Los Angeles label Alpha Pup Records is a thesis in music manipulation, a comprehensive counterargument to straightforward 4/4. Vocal samples are up-shifted in tempo to lend a playful mood. Tracks are sometimes dipped in sonic mud halfway through, decelerating to a crawl before jumping back to normal time. But Needs never feels jerky, which owes to Yin’s tight transitions and harmonious melodies throughout. The sensual, infectious, shifty third track “Money” sounds like it will be played in lounges in 2050. (Lee)

With Mister Lies, Bobby Browser

9:30pm, $13–$15

Rickshaw Stop

155 Fell

(415) 861-2011

www.rickshawstop.com

 

FRIDAY 5

“Fiestas Fridas”

There’s a reason this three-day event is subtitled “celebrating the 103rd and 106th birthday of Frida Kahlo:” the iconic Mexican painter was actually born in 1907, but she liked to say she was born in 1910 — the year the Mexican revolution began. The fest kicks off with a gala dinner featuring Kahlo’s own recipes (cooked by Puerto Alegre, Gracias Madre, Mijita, and other restaurants), with proceeds going to Cine + Mas; Saturday brings film screenings and Kahlo-inspired performances. The fest wraps up Sunday with an afternoon and evening of live art, dance, DJs, and more family-friendly fun, like a costume contest with a variety of categories: Best Frida and Diego, Best “Little Frida,” and Best “FriDRAG.” (Eddy)

Opening dinner tonight, 6-11pm, $50

Mission Cultural Center

2868 Mission, SF

Film screening and performance, Sat/6, 5-11pm, $35

Victoria Theater

2961 16th St, SF

Community event, Sun/7, 2-9pm, $10 suggested donation

Women’s Building

3543 18th St, SF

www.fiestasfridassf.com

 

 

Johnny Mathis with San Francisco Symphony

Legendary crooner Johnny Mathis’ family moved to San Francisco when he was very young, and it was here in the city that he developed his love for music; while studying at San Francisco State University, he began performing at the Black Hawk nightclub and eventually garnered the attention of some high-profile promoters. In early 1956, Mathis recorded his first album, and he continues to this day. Singing hit songs such as “Chances Are,” “Wonderful! Wonderful!,” “A Certain Smile,” and many more, Mathis has been going strong for nearly 70 years now — don’t miss you chance to see a true icon this weekend, performing with the San Francisco Symphony (Sean McCourt)

Also Sat/6, 8pm, $20–$125

Davies Symphony Hall

201 Van Ness, SF

(415) 864-6000

www.sfsymphony.org

 

Accidental Bear Queer Summer Tour

What, you thought just because DOMA got overturned and same-sex couples might be getting married again this summer that our work was over? And also that we’re too hungover from Pride to start partying again? Queer mental health issues and suicide risk are still a huge concern in the community, and hyperenergetic SF gay blogger Mike Enders, a.k.a Accidental Bear, is trying to break the stigma and bring awareness — by throwing a big, fun, charitable concert and party, of course. Colorful gay novelty rappers Rica Shay and Big Dipper (let the double entendre zingers fly!), dazzlingly alien outfit Conquistador, local electro heartthrobs Darling Gunsel, and soulful tunesmith Logan Lynn fill the bill, with proceeds going to the Stonewall Project, the Ali Forney Center, and more. (Marke B.)

8pm, $15

Beatbox

314 11th St., SF.

www.accidentalbear.com

 

 

SATURDAY 6

Beast Crawl

Now in its second year, Beast Crawl is a free literary festival featuring more than 140 writers in one night. It’s probably pretty hard to go wrong with that many options. Spread out over 26 local galleries, restaurants, bars, and cafes, the annual event offers a place and performance for everyone. Beast Crawl has four legs — the first one beginning at 5pm, and the last one (the after-party) starts at 9pm. Visit the Uptown, have a drink at Telegraph Beer Garden, open your eyes at Awaken Café, all while taking in some of the best Bay Area authors, poets, and even stand-ups. You know how you always hear people say “I went to this rad little poetry reading the other night,” and then wonder where the hell they always are? Well, here’s your chance to finally check out one, or 20. (Smith)

5pm, free

Uptown, Oakland

(415) 706-9128

beastcrawl.weebly.com

 

Audiobus Mission Creek

Properly executed, music should take you on a mental voyage, a mini musical vacation, if you will. It’s not to remove all thought, but to direct your attention elsewhere momentarily, in the direction the sound dictates. The AudioBus, a mobile venue, will delete the figurative from that jaunt, and take you on a literal trip down a specific San Francisco route. For AudioBus Mission Creek — a Soundwave SonicLAB event — sound artists Jeffy Ray and Jorge Bachmann will sonically guide passengers through the old and new Mission District, narrated by Adobe Books’ Andrew Mckinley. Together, they’ll explore “profound themes of the past, from nostalgia to displacement, and the future ideas of technology and possibility.” The sound-tour will leave the temporary station twice tonight, once for a sunset tour and then again on a starry night ride. A reminder: the bus waits for no one, so don’t miss your stop. (Emily Savage)

8 and 9pm, $16

Bus station: Adobe Books

3130 24th St., SF

www.projectsoundwave.com

 

Fillmore Jazz Festival

Live jazz music, crafts, and gourmet food, all in one place (and most of it is free to check out). The Fillmore Jazz Festival is the largest of its kind on the West Coast, reportedly luring in a mind-blowing 100,000 visitors over the two-day event. Considering the history and popularity of the neighborhood — and the sheer amount of bands and musicians playing the fest — that number starts to make sense. Sultry local vocalist Kim Nalley will bring her jazzy blues blend to the stage, as will instrumentalist-composer Peter Apfelbaum, Mara Hruby, John Santos Sextet, Beth Custer Ensemble, Crystal Money Hall, Bayonics, and Afrolicious, among many others. Stroll through the 12 blocks, and you’re bound to find some acts that give you a reason to pause. (Smith)

Also Sun/7, 10am-6pm, free

Fillmore Street between Jackson and Eddy, SF (800) 310-6563

www.fillmorejazzfestival.com

 

Woolfy

I miss Kevin Meenan’s show listings at epicsauce.com. At one time it was a go-to for highlights of small shows going on in the city, filler free, and super reliable for finding a new act to see live. Meenan has since dropped the showlist (perhaps made redundant with the availability of social apps), but is still active with his regular event Push The Feeling. This edition features a DJ set by English born, LA musician, Simon “Woolfy” James, whose eclectic and spacey post-punk dance sensibility first got my attention with the caressingly Balearic “Looking Glass” and the recent James Murphy-esque snappy cut on Permanent Release, “Junior’s Throwin’ Craze.” (Ryan Prendiville)

With Bruse (Live), YR SKULL, and epicsauce DJs

9pm-2am, $6, free before 10 w/ RSVP

Underground SF

424 Haight, SF

www.undergroundsf.com

 

SUNDAY 7

Cleopatra

The backstory that looms over 1963’s Cleopatra is very nearly as glorious as the film itself, which ain’t no small feat; Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s epic take on the legendary Queen of Egypt ran famously over-budget, but damn if all those dollars aren’t one hundred percent visible, with lavish sets, costumes, and blingy whatnots filling every frame. But really, who cares about overapplied eye make-up and historical inaccuracies when you have the Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton romance playing out before your very eyes? There’s no better way to relive the drama — oh, the drama — than in this 50th anniversary restored DCP screening, a one-day-only affair at the Castro. (Eddy)

2 and 7pm, $8.50–$11

Castro Theatre

429 Castro, SF

www.castrotheatre.com

 

TUESDAY 9

Chef Hubert Keller

Hubert Keller is a culinary celebrity as a multiple James Beard Award winner and the owner and executive chef of trendy restaurants across the country, including the highly-praised San Francisco-based Fleur de Lys. But the classically trained French chef is not all expensive, showy cuisine — during the first season of Top Chef Masters, he earned the respect of broke college kids and amateur foodies everywhere when he resourcefully used a dorm room shower to cool a pot of pasta. Last year, he collaborated with co-author Penolope Wisner to publish Hubert Keller’s Souvenirs: Stories and Recipes from My Life, a memoir-cookbook featuring instructions on 120 dishes. (Lee)

In conversation with Narsai David

6pm, $25 (students, $7)

Commonwealth Club

595 Market, SF

(415) 597-6700 www.commonwealthclub.org

Before Outside Lands: Youth Lagoon on Art Garfunkel, the spiritual significance of pelicans

Tony Robles
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Youth Lagoon, the aloof youth that is Trevor Powers, has explored new land in latest album Wondrous Bughouse (Fat Possum). Revealing, yet withholding, the album proved his ability to not just create cosmic bliss, but deliver a few deep messages while doing it.

With the album, the 24-year-old Idaho native takes us through the fires of temptation in song “Mute,” dances with death on “Raspberry Cane” and paints an immensely disturbing and bloody image of love and sacrifice in “Pelican Man.”

Currently on tour in Europe, Powers will be here in SF to perform at Outside Lands this Aug. 9-11 (he plays Saturday, Aug. 10).The professional effects tinkerer and melody craftsman talked with me about his afro days, his penchant for destroy-and-create-again style of making music, and how bloody violence can really be sweet: 

San Francisco Bay Guardian Most of the songs on Wondrous Bughouse sound melancholic, pensive, or a bit glum. Would you say this was a reflection of where your mind was at when recording this album or have you simply felt more compelled to write songs of this nature?

Trevor Powers I always feel pulled different ways at different times, so what I write is always a reflection of where I am at the moment. I stay in certain obsessions for long periods of time so when I write for months at a time, usually those blocks of time show a type of consistency with whatever I’m working on.

I’ll have periods where I hate melody or how it’s portrayed, and other times where I go back to it and take the music and rip it into pieces mentally to see how I can put it back together. With this record, I wanted to go a deeper with the melancholy.

SFBG You have said before that you’re getting more into heavy expressive sounds lately and in Wondrous Bughouse,’is there something this specific style of music does for you that maybe straight rock or grunge doesn’t?

TP I guess I don’t usually think of music in styles like a lot of people. I just hear sounds being used in altered ways. Maybe I’m just desensitized to it all by now. Everybody hears sounds differently. Something I find relatable or exciting that I show to someone else could make the other person cringe, and vice versa. So it really has nothing to do with musical styles, but with speaking through sounds and noise, and that never looks the same.

SFBG What’s the best concert you have ever been to and why?

TP Art Garfunkel — it was my first concert and I was a little boy with an afro.

SFBG  Could you talk a little bit about the meaning of song “Pelican Man”?

TP Pelicans have a lot of history for spiritual significance. There are legends that say when a pelican’s babies are starving, the mother will stab her own breast with her beak to draw blood that her children can then drink. She’ll bleed out so her babies can drink her up, giving her life for theirs. A sacrifice similar to that of Jesus. Lyrically, that idea is contrasted with one of murder and serial killing. Violence out of ultimate love juxtaposed with violence out of complete hate.

SFBG Are there any artists at Outside Lands you’re looking forward to seeing?

TP I’m actually not sure who is playing so I’ll have to look up the schedule tonight and start getting my planning on. I will wear my new camouflage jumpsuit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvWDUN57Cko

HOT PINK LIST 2013: DRAG PHANTASMS

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HOT PINK LIST 2013: DRAG PHANTASMS

Hip-hop swagger meets goth-electro darkness, with the specters of legendary club disturber Leigh Bowery and e-art wunderkind Ryan Trecartin shimmering over the proceedings. But why stop there? Add in agitating performance art hijinks and a fundamental decontextualization of drag practices rooted in the shivery, negative emotions that the Internet pukes up on our screens. The new drag generation isn’t interested in conventional beauty or humor; instead it’s guided by hyperreal thrills, out-of-body chills, and post-Tumblr spills. SF’s most prominent phantasmagorian, boychild, is now hopping the globe as a fashion and video sensation, while seminal Dia Dear is blazing a performance “happening” trail in established venues, and godmother VivvyAnne ForeverMore is rising in art circles. Phantasmic supergroup Daddies Plastik and Persia produced sardonic anti-gentrification anthem “Google Google Apps Apps.” Spooky.

Phantasms: boychild, Daddies Plastik, Dick Van Dick, Rheal’Tea, Persia, Jem Jehova, VivvyAnne Forevermore, Julez Hale Mary, Amoania, Dia Dear, Craig Calderwood

Still beating

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Still beating

cheryl@sfbg.com

FILM/LIT A few weeks before our scheduled interview, Laura Albert mails me copies of 2000’s Sarah and 2001’s The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things. Inscribed on Heart‘s title page is a note: “Thanks for being available to revelation.” The volumes are signed “Yours, LA and JT” — the latter, of course, referring to JT LeRoy, the identity under which Albert penned both books.

That secret’s been out since late 2005, and has been dissected over and over. It even inspired a Law and Order episode. LeRoy, and his fantastically tragic back story (just out of his teens, he’d survived drugs, homelessness, and prostitution en route to becoming the lit world’s hottest wunderkind), were Albert’s creations. She was the true author behind the best-sellers listed above, plus 2004’s Harold’s End, dozens of magazine articles, an early script for Gus Van Sant’s Elephant (2003), and numerous other works. (Meanwhile, the androgynous “JT” that had been appearing in public was actually the half-sister of Albert’s then-partner; she wrote her own tell-all in 2008.) On Albert’s website, there are tabs marked “Who is Laura Albert?” and “Who is JT LeRoy?” Both link to Albert’s biography.

Years have passed since l’affaire LeRoy, and Albert has moved through the experience in her own way. (Her business card lists her as “literary outlaw.”) Later this summer, Sarah will be reissued as an ebook, with a fairy tale-inspired cover by artist Matt Pipes. Albert also is working on her memoirs (though she doesn’t like to use the word “memoirs”), and tells me there’s a documentary forthcoming from Jeff Feuerzeig, who made 2005’s critically-acclaimed The Devil and Daniel Johnston. This weekend, Asia Argento’s 2004 adaptation of The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things screens as part of the Clay Theatre’s midnight-movie series, with Albert and producer Chris Hanley in person, plus Argento via Skype.

Sitting in her San Francisco kitchen, Albert eyes my tape recorder and admits she’d rather focus on the film, not JT — though it’s a topic that inevitably arises. Argento, Albert says, encountered Heart the way many LeRoy readers did, via word-of-mouth recommendation.

“She read the book and she didn’t know anything about JT. At the same time, a small publisher was putting out the book [in Italy], and they wanted to bring JT over,” Albert recalls. “It was a weird coincidence. They were putting on an event, and they wanted to get someone to read. They had contacted Asia, and she already knew about the book, and she wanted not only to do this event, but to make the movie. It’s funny because I thought Sarah would be the first [to become a film], because it was already optioned by Gus [Van Sant]. But Asia moved really fast. We went over to meet her, and I had turned down a lot of people. My feeling was, it’s my baby and I’m giving it up for adoption, and I saw that this was someone I could give my baby to.”

Argento, the daughter of famed Italian horror director Dario Argento, is best-known stateside as an actor; previous to Heart, her directing experience was limited to short films and 2000’s flamboyant Scarlet Diva. Once she decided to helm the movie, her decision to star as the free-spirited, needy, sometimes-cruel single mother of the story’s young protagonist was an obvious choice.

“I had concerns about that, how much she would take on the role, how much it would become her. It’s ironic, because I had given myself over completely to Jeremy, to JT, to Jeremiah,” Albert says. She pauses. “Did you see that French film, about the guy who assumes different characters?”

“Holy Motors?”

“Yeah! It really was transformative to me. There’s a scene where someone asks [the main character], ‘Why are you still doing this?’, and he makes reference to the act of giving yourself over completely. And that was it. I gave myself over completely. I did not break character. You know how, in that movie, he’ll do anything? He’ll kill someone! He’s in it. Most people don’t know what that’s like. And that was it. I will never apologize,” she says, firmly. “We’re talking about art. Nobody was harmed in this, really. I didn’t really scribble that far outside the lines. Everything was labeled ‘fiction.'”

At her mention of an apology, I have to ask: does she feel like people demanded one?

“People like to give themselves a lot of credit for how vanguard they are. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve had tell me, ‘Warhol would have loved it!’ — including people who were close with Warhol,” she says. “I think it revealed more about other people and what they could accommodate, and what they put on the work, than it does about me. If you have a personal relationship with JT, then that’s a conversation between you and me. I put my email [in the books], and I really did have a connection with the fans because I grew up in the punk scene, and I wasn’t into hero worship. The problem was — psychologically — I wasn’t able to do that. It wasn’t like [adopts goofy voice], ‘Gee, how do I burst forth onto the literary scene? I know! I’ll create a little boy!’ No. It wasn’t like that.”

As we talk, Albert makes references to her own troubled youth: surviving abuse, living in a group home, being institutionalized. Amid the tumult of her teenage life, she would “call hotlines — I don’t know what I would talk about, but it was the only time I could feel. I would give myself over to another being, and it was always a boy. So when I hear people say, ‘I’m gonna do what you did,’ it’s like, good luck. For me it was created the way an oyster creates a pearl: out of irritation and suffering. It was an attempt to try to heal something. And it actually worked, and it did so for a lot of other people. The amazing thing is, now I can be available to people.”

We’re delving more into her work (“I didn’t do anything new — writers have always been using combinations of pseudonyms and identities,” she points out) when the doorbell rings; it’s a Comcast technician here to see about Albert’s Internet connection. We move to her office, which features a wall collaged with photos and several filing cabinets full of archives — material she’s letting Feuerzeig use in his documentary.

But it’s not a room completely given over to the past. It’s also where Albert works on her new projects (besides her memoirs, she’s writing screenplays — building off her experiences working on Deadwood with David Milch), and stashes new mementos, including a program from a recent Brazilian rock opera entitled JT, A Punk Rock Fairy Tale.

Before I leave, she gives me a copy of a New York Times article from 2010 entitled “Life, In the Way of Art;” its subjects include Joaquin Phoenix, still smarting from the backlash after his faux breakdown in I’m Still Here. The director of that film, Casey Affleck, cites a line from a Picasso quote that Albert emails to me in full the day after we speak: “We all know that art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand. The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.”

She’s just as frank over email as she is in person. “It’s OK with me if someone doesn’t like my writing. But they shouldn’t try to tell me how I’m obliged to present my work,” she writes. “When I talk about my personal background, I’m not attempting to somehow bestow legitimacy to what I’ve written — anyone should be able to do what I did. My life history doesn’t matter and isn’t being offered as any kind of excuse.”

I think back to something she said in her kitchen — a simple, powerful summation of a story that will never not be complicated. “JT was my lifeboat. You loved him? Well, I loved him more.” 

THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS

Fri/28, midnight, $10

Clay

2261 Fillmore, SF

www.landmarktheatres.com

 

What’s hot in Siberia

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What’s hot in Siberia

arts@sfbg.com

THEATER Emerald green rooftops and gold domes enliven the skyline of Omsk, a provincial city and former Soviet industrial hub of roughly one million people, located at the intersection of two Siberian rivers: the wide, island-populated Irtysh and the smaller, swifter Om. The latter gave its name to the town, which grew from a fort established at the meeting point of the rivers in 1716, back when this was the disputed frontier of the expanding Russian empire.

But now it’s the last week of May 2013. The fort is long gone. In its place stands the Lighthouse, a large white hotel-cum–shopping mall festively crowned with neon Cyrillic lettering. Rounded at one end and peaked with towers, it drolly resembles a cruise ship in port. The sun is still out at 10 p.m., and a gusty wind rolling off the plains churns the warm air pleasantly.

Sleepy though this town seems by comparison with St. Petersburg, Moscow, or even Yekaterinburg — the three other stops on a four-city tour I joined last month, in conjunction with a US-Russia theater dialogue developed by the Center for International Theatre Development — Omsk turns out to be not so remote in many ways. For one thing, it’s a hotbed of theatrical activity at the moment, with the biennial Young Theaters of Russia Festival in full swing. Nor is the Russian empire entirely a thing of the past, as tonight’s provocation by a troupe from the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia makes plain enough.

Damned be the Traitor of His Homeland! — a production of Ljubljana’s internationally renowned experimental company, Mladinsko Theatre — is a no-holds-barred attack on jingoism, xenophobia, and the false allegiances they promote, as well as on complacency in the face of recent history, government corruption, and social decay. Taking its title from the last verse of the former Yugoslav national anthem, it gleefully lobs profanity, insult, accusation, nudity, a flurry of gunshots, and lots of local dirt (dug up for the occasion) at its unsuspecting audience — who frequently find themselves unnaturally exposed and singled out under merciless house lights.

It begins quietly enough: its ten cast members onstage, reclining on the floor and clutching musical instruments, looking like a freshly slaughtered marching band — until the sound of breathing through a tuba begins a general stirring that quickly escalates into an instrumental movement titled, “Won’t Go Against My Brother.” Next, the cast introduces itself with ribald, pointed, self-effacing humor through their own imagined obituaries — each of which makes explicit reference to an imaginary production of “Hey, Slavs!” (in fact, the title of the Yugoslav anthem) directed by acclaimed Bosnian Croatian bad-boy director Oliver Frljic (in fact, the production’s own director).

Cycling through various loosely related scenes, all built from improvisations, Damned delivers its pleas and gibes with a potent combination of muscular staging, lively wit, intrepid honesty, and moments of wrenching beauty. It produced some walkouts the night we saw it — many more the night before, reportedly — but its themes were undeniably urgent and its manner both raw and sure. This was all before Edward Snowden went public with details of the NSA’s PRISM program or had arrived in Moscow from Hong Kong en route to some hoped-for political asylum abroad. But there was no denying the implications for any Americans in the audience as well.

Omsk has nine large municipally funded or federally funded theaters, leaving far behind most American cities of a comparable or even much larger size. And in short it, and the Festival, had much more to offer beyond this one highlight, even if not as explicitly provocative or political in nature. (Those curious to learn more should know that Chris White, artistic director of Mugwumpin and the other San Franciscan on the tour, has written a series of reports on HowlRound with many further details).

Highlights in Moscow included an exquisite production from leading director Dimitry Kymov (whose collaboration with Mikhail Baryshnikov, In Paris, came to Berkeley Rep last year). Based (like In Paris) on the work of famed Russian short story writer Ivan Bunin, Katya, Sonya, Polya, Galya, Vera, Olya, Tanya … is an original production crafting a series of oddball, sometimes grim love stories into a kind of high art twist on Grand Guignol.

Also utterly memorable was the best production of Hamlet I’d ever seen —staged in a ramshackle venue whose lobby was stuffed with a vaguely foul-smelling array of garage sale toys, Soviet kitsch, and other odds and ends, and whose stage was a small, low-ceilinged black box packed into the aisles with what appeared to be mainly teens. The theater and the production belong to famed Russian director and playwright Nikolay Kolyada. Somewhat infamous after his endorsement of Putin in the last elections (which points to one way in which Russian theater, offstage, can be nothing if not political), Kolyada delivers a decisive reading of Shakespeare’s play as a bald, barbaric parable of power — in an incredibly meticulous, distinct, and forceful style whose macabre wit brought to mind some weird admixture of Richard Foreman, Tim Burton, and Terry Gilliam. Whatever else it demonstrated, it showed the Bard’s play as utterly, repulsively, and compellingly contemporary — something too rarely accomplished in any language. *

Our Weekly Picks

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WEDNESDAY 26

Dita Von Teese

With a seductive and sexy nod to the past, modern pin-up and burlesque queen Dita Von Teese has been at the forefront of reviving a nearly lost art form for two decades now. Bringing back the sense of classic style and glamour of the golden days of Hollywood and meshing it with the tantalizing teasing of the old-time burlesque circuit, Von Teese returns to the city this week with her “Burlesque: Strip, Strip, Hooray!” show, a live revue featuring not only her own titillating talents, but a host of other performers as well, including Dirty Martini, Catherine D’Lish, and Lada Nikolska from the legendary “Crazy Horse Paris.”

(Sean McCourt)

Through Fri/28, 7:30pm, $40

Fillmore

1805 Geary, SF

(415) 346-6000

www.thefillmore.com


“Harvey Milk 2013”

The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, the world’s first chorus comprised of openly gay men, had its first unofficial public performance at a candlelight vigil for Harvey Milk. The group has since become known for its dazzling holiday concerts, but its historical origins mean it’s fitting that — as part of its 35th anniversary celebration — SFGMC is presenting the world premiere of I Am Harvey Milk. Starring its composer Andrew Lippa as Milk, with guest soprano Laura Benanti, this blend of theater and choral works traces the courageous life of the slain politician, with accompaniment by the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony. (Cheryl Eddy)

Wed/26-Fri/28, 8pm, $25-60

Nourse Theatre

201-299 Hayes, SF

www.sfgmc.org

 

THURSDAY 27

Clay Shirky

“I’m trying to figure out what difference communications technologies makes to society,” Clay Shirky remarked in a 2011 interview. “What is it about the Internet, what is it about mobile phones, applications built on top of them, that changes how we behave.” The New York University professor has become one of the world’s foremost authorities on gauging how technology has shifted social action. His 2010 book Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age outlined how web tools have provided new opportunities for creation in place of consumption, pointing out dynamics such as self-publication and charitable crowdfunding. Shirky has championed government transparency in recent editorials exploring the high-profile leaks of US surveillance programs. (Kevin Lee)

6:30 p.m., $20 (member, $12; students $7)

Commonwealth Club

595 Market, SF

(415) 597-6700

www.commonwealthclub.org

 

 

Tommy Davidson

Comedian Tommy Davidson might be offensive, but his keen observations about the absurdity of our daily lives and his animated delivery guarantee laughs. His ability to comment on situations that arise in all walks of life ensures everyone has something to chuckle about through his bits. Known for his roles in the ’90s hit sketch show In Living Color, films like Strictly Business (and OK, Juwanna Mann) and most recently in the spotlight for his character Cream Corn on Adult Swim’s cartoon Black Dynamite, Davidson tours pretty infrequently, so catch him while you can — likely offering fresh takes on old habits. (Hillary Smith)

8pm and 10pm, $24-26

Yoshi’s

1330 Fillmore, SF

(415) 655-5600

yoshis.com/sanfrancisco

 

FRIDAY 28

Y La Bamba

Indie-folk rocker group Y La Bamba has been steadily building a fan base over the past couple of years, earning high praise from NPR and loaning songs to television programs such as Bones. The Portland-based band’s hauntingly rich and ethereal sound is propelled by singer-songwriter Luzelena Mendoza, whose vocals float and weave tales above Latin-inspired rhythms and unique backing vocals. Its latest full-length album, last year’s Court The Stormwas produced by Los Lobos member Steve Berlin, and an excellent EP, Oh February was released this January. (McCourt)

9pm, $12–$15

Chapel

777 Valencia, SF

(415) 551-5157

www.thechapelsf.com

 

Japanther

Japanther lets everything go in its performances. Punk is its staple, and the group is known for fuzzy overtones and generally sloppy delivery. All this culminates into weird, disorienting live shows. But whether the band drops five Ramones covers on you or blasts into its own songs (likely off newest album, Eat Like Lisa Act Like Bart) with a raw, unpredictable energy, it will be fun. Keep an eye out for the duo’s signature telephone microphones and the more-often-than-not shirtless bat-shit drummer. (Smith)

With Defiance, Ohio, Psilovision

9pm, $12

Bottom of the Hill

1233 17th St., SF

(415) 626-4455

www.bottomofthehill.com

 

SATURDAY 29

San Francisco FrontRunners Pride Run

For folks who love to sweat, there’s no better way to celebrate Pride than with veteran LGBT running club the San Francisco FrontRunners, who’ve hosted this event for over three decades. Choose the 5K or the 10K by asking yourself “How many times do I want to haul ass up that hilly stretch of Golden Gate Park’s JFK Drive?” — but remember, the emphasis here is mos def on fun. Sure, some speed demons do turn out (last year’s 5K winner clocked in at just over 18 minutes), but casual joggers are also in effect, as are Pink Saturday-themed athletic ensembles. Upbeat DJs and tasty food at the finish line add to the festive atmosphere. (Eddy)

9am, $40

Golden Gate Park (near Metson and Middle Dr. West), SF

www.sffr.org

 

In A Daughter’s Eyes

Two women, two very different circumstances: the first, the daughter of a Black Panther sentenced to death for killing an Oakland cop; the second, the daughter of the slain man. Locked in a room together, how will the women negotiate their differences — and is there any chance of forgiveness and healing? Brava! For Women in the Arts and Black Artists Contemporary Cultural Experience present award-winning playwright A. Zell Williams’s In A Daughter’s Eyes in its West Coast debut; though it features just one location and only two characters, expect a powerful, intense story, guided by the sure hand of veteran director Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe. (Eddy)

Through July 14

Previews Thu/27-Fri/28, 8pm; opens Sat/29, 8pm; runs Thu-Sat, 8pm; Sun, 3pm, $15

Brava Theater Center

2781 24th St, SF

www.brava.org

 

The Juan MacLean (DJ Set)

After years of producing quality electro-disco-club music for DFA Records (home to legendary sometimes-retired LCD Soundsystem), DJ and producer the Juan MacLean (stage name for John Maclean) has leapt head first into a stripped-down, nu-house sound. With vocalist and longtime collaborator Nancy Whang, MacLean released the cool, classy “You Are My Destiny” this March, completing a shift that may have taken root as far back as 2011 with his Peach Melba side project. Transitions are standard practice for the former hardcore guitarist turned electronic music artist, who has collaborated with LCD Soundsystem, !!!, and Holy Ghost! and remixed Yoko Ono and Stevie Nicks. In the midst of a relentless international tour schedule, MacLean signaled his return to dance music prominence earlier this month with a set on BBC Radio 1’s prestigious Essential Mix program. (Lee)

With Kim Ann Foxman, Blacksheep

9pm, $10–$20

Monarch

101 Sixth St., SF

(415) 284-9774

monarchsf.com

 

SUNDAY 30

Deltron 3030

If you’ve lived in SF for at least a year, then you probably know about Stern Grove’s awesomely free and diverse ongoing music festival. But if not, this summer-long (June 16-Aug.18) series offers the community a chance to get outside and enjoy nature while picnicking with live musical accompaniment. The beautiful, towering eucalyptus trees, redwoods, and grassy meadows provide the best possible settings for a summer music festival. This Sunday’s lineup features dance hip-hip super group Deltron 3030. Rapping about evil corporate Goliaths and space battles, often alongside an orchestral band, Deltron 3030’s performance is anything but typical. The festival itself is always worth checking out, but the group makes this Sunday’s show one of the highlights of summer. (Smith)

2pm, free

Stern Grove

19th Avenue and Sloat, SF

www.sterngrove.org

 

“Science On Screen: The Science of Baseball”

Hey, batter! There are very few Bay Area residents who don’t have an opinion on which baseball team to root for (default consensus: “L.A. sucks”), but there’s more to the game than trash talk and World Series trophies. Indeed, there’s some pretty serious science behind all those curve balls and home runs, and who better to break it down than the Exploratorium’s David Barker and Linda Shore? (Check out the museum’s clever and educational “Science of Baseball” site at exploratorium.edu/baseball.) Using clips from documentaries and Hollywood films, the duo gets into the nitty-gritty of baseball’s complex biomechanics — so the next time you watch Hunter Pence step up to the plate, you’ll be able to spot the physics behind his hitting prowess. (Eddy)

7pm, $12

Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center

1118 Fourth St, San Rafael

www.cafilm.org

 

TUESDAY 2

Pure Bathing Culture

Listen to Portland, Oreg.-via-Brooklyn duo Pure Bathing Culture’s ethereal, synth-laced cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” and you’ll likely tumble into a web search hole, digging out other soundscape-y Fleetwood Mac covers to quench your newfound obsession (likely finding that PBC’s is still tops). Crawl out of the hole and face your new favorite, Pure Bathing Culture, head on by grabbing a hold of 2012’s self-titled EP, an ode to dreamy 1980s pop produced by Richard Swift. Then note influences like Talk Talk and Cocteau Twins expanding on recently released tracks off upcoming debut full-length, Moon Tides. Band members guitarist Daniel Hindman and keyboardist Sarah Versprille have contributed in the past to records by Foxygen and Damien Jurado, but together as Pure Bathing Culture, they form a loosely wound union of shimmering guitars, twinkling synths, and delicate vocals, twisting along a well-worn path. (Emily Savage)

With Cocktails, Cannons and Clouds, CoolGreg

9pm, free

Brick and Mortar Music Hall

1710 Mission, SF

(415) 800-8782

www.brickandmortarmusic.com

 

The Guardian listings deadline is two weeks prior to our Wednesday publication date. To submit an item for consideration, please include the title of the event, a brief description of the event, date and time, venue name, street address (listing cross streets only isn’t sufficient), city, telephone number readers can call for more information, telephone number for media, and admission costs. Send information to Listings, the Guardian, 225 Bush, 17th Flr., SF, CA 94105; or e-mail (paste press release into e-mail body — no attachments, please) to listings@sfbg.com. Digital photos may be submitted in jpeg format; the image must be at least 240 dpi and four inches by six inches in size. We regret we cannot accept listings over the phone.

On the cheap

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ONGOING

Shakespeare in the Park Various Bay Area venues; www.sfshakes.org. June 29-Sept. 22, free. One of the reasons you live in the Bay Area: to enjoy the works of the Bard in a peaceful park setting. This year, Kenneth Kelleher directs the suspenseful, plot-driven Macbeth.

WEDNESDAY 26

Indie Oasis Madrone Art Bar, 500 Divisadero, SF; www.madroneartbar.com. 9pm-2am, free. Join in at this fundraiser for SF Pride and get your Pride weekend started early — sans Katy Perry and top 40s pop — by dancing all night to your favorite indie music brought to you by DJs DIX, Blondie K, and subOctave, collaborating with local beat producers, musicians, MCs, and vocalists.

From Badlands to Alcatraz San Francisco Public Library, 1616 20th St., SF. www.sfpl.org. 6pm, free. This movie screening of From Badlands to Alcatraz chronicles the heroic effort of Oglala Lakota people from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota who swam to SF in an effort to reclaim their health and spiritual power. A Q&A is to follow with director and producer Nancy Iverson.

THURSDAY 27

“The Biggest Quake: New Thinking on the San Francisco AIDS Epidemic” Subterranean Art House, 2179 Bancroft, Berk; www.subterraneanarthouse.org. 8:30pm, free. Part of the National Queer Arts Festival, this performance, curated by Kirk Read, brings together artists from various backgrounds — Mark Abramson, Justin Chin, Brontez Purnell, KM Soehnlein, and Ed Wolf — to read essays and present performance works.

FRIDAY 28

Simon Van Booy Booksmith, 1644 Haight, SF; www.booksmith.com. 6:30-9:30pm, free. The award-winning author discusses his new novel, The Illusion of Separateness, about one man’s act of mercy in the fields of France during World War II.

SATURDAY 29

Bluxome Street Winery Meet Market 53 Bluxome, SF; www.bluxomewinery.com. Noon-5pm, free. This indoor farmer’s market features local produce, artisan goods, and top culinary purveyors. Returning this month: Juco Sweets’ to-die-for handmade salted caramels made in micro batches with local and organic ingredients. Come for the drinks and stay for the sweets.

Kala Raksha lecture and trunk show Krimsa Gallery, 2190 Union, SF; www.krimsa.com. 1:30-4pm, $5–<\d>$10. Meet Judy Frater, co-founder of Kala Raksha, which promotes traditional crafts and markets the work of local artisans to certify the maker’s unique collection and further the concept of intellectual property.

San Francisco Pride Various venues; www.sfpride.org. You know what’s up: tons of queer parties, exhibits, and readings celebrating the largest LGBT gathering in the nation.

Score Pop Up Swap Motley Goods, 1564 Market, SF; www.scoreswap.eventbrite.com. 1-4pm, $5. Who doesn’t love shopping and free beer? Bring your old clothes, shoes, bags, and accessories, and donate $5 to an organization at the door. Once you’re inside, you can drop off your used items and look for new-to-you goodies. Not only will you get a huge bang for your buck, but there will be live screen-printing, a photo booth, music by DJs King Most and Freddy Anzures, food, and free beer.

SUNDAY 30

“Lep-Esto: Estonian Dance Festival” Yerba Buena Garders, Mission between Third St. and Fourth St., SF. www.ybgfestival.org. 12:30pm, free. Lively, traditional Estonian folk dance presented by groups from across the US and beyond as part of the ongoing Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.

Music Listings

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WEDNESDAY 26

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

AM and Shawn Lee, Chicano Batman, Giggle Party Rickshaw Stop. 8pm, $15.

Austra, Bestial Mouth Independent. 8pm, $20.

“Blue Bear School of Music Band Showcases” Café Du Nord. 7:30pm, $12-$20.

Guido vs Greg Zema Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 10pm, free.

HowellDevine Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $15.

Rock Bottom, Jiffy Marker, Pleasure Gallows Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $7.

Terry Savastano Johnny Foley’s. 10pm, free.

Shinobu, Great Apes, Wild, Daikon Thee Parkside. 8pm, $8.

Spyrals, Deep Space, Disappearing People, Al Love, Max Pain Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 8pm, $7.

Colin Stetson, Justin Walker Chapel, 777 Valencia, SF; www.thechapelsf.com. 9pm, $13-$15.

Valleys, Weeknight, Tall Sheep Bottom of the Hill. 8:30pm, $10.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Dink Dink Dink, Gaucho, Eric Garland’s Jazz Session Amnesia. 7pm, free.

Terry Disley Burritt Room, 417 Stockton, SF; www.burrittavern.com. 6-9pm, free.

Freddie Hughes Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Darren Johnston Revolution Café. 8:30pm, free.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Dominique Banuelos-Matz Rite Spot. 9pm, free.

Timba Dance Party Bissap Baobab, 3372 19th St, SF; www.bissapbaobab.com. 10pm, $5.

Toast Inspectors Plough and Stars. 9pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Booty Call Q-Bar, 456 Castro, SF; www.bootycallwednesdays.com. 9pm. Juanita MORE! and Joshua J host this dance party.

Cash IV Gold Double Dutch, 3192 16th St, SF; www.thedoubledutch.com. 9pm, free.

CODE Drum N Bass: Submorphics, Leory Pepper, Aphonic Monarch, 101 Sixth St, SF; (415) 335-6776. 9:30pm, $5.

Coo-Yah! Slate Bar, 2925 16th St, SF; www.slate-sf.com. 10pm, free.

Full-Step! Tunnel Top. 10pm, free. Hip-hop, reggae, soul, and funk with DJs Kung Fu Chris and Bizzi Wonda.

Hardcore Humpday Happy Hour RKRL, 52 Sixth St, SF; (415) 658-5506. 6pm, $3.

Martini Lounge John Colins, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 7pm. With DJ Mark Divita.

Mark Pistel, Blk Rainbow and Crackwhore Elbo Room. 9pm, $7. BODYSHOCK night dedicated to Belgian New Beat and EBM.

THURSDAY 27

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Mykki Blanco, matrixxman, Vin Sol, Stay Gold DJs Mezzanine. 9pm, $12-$15.

Bosnian Rainbows Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $17.

Dave Moreno and Friends Johnny Foley’s. 10pm, free.

New Diplomat, popscene DJs Rickshaw Stop. 9:30pm, $10.

Old Crow Medicine Show, Dale Watson Warfield. 8pm, $38.

Papi vs Jeff V Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 10pm, free.

Paper Route, HalfNoise, Via Coma Bottom of the Hill. 9pm, $12.

Permanent Collection, Courtneys, Crabapple Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $7.

Johnny Vernazza Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $16.

Warm Soda, Midnite Snaxxx, Primitive Hearts, Wild Ones Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $8.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Musical Art Quintet Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Mission between Third and Fourth Streets, SF; www.ybgfestival.org. 12:30pm, free.

Shimmering Leaves Revolution Café. 8:30pm, free.

Chris Siebert Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Karyn White Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $39; 10pm, $29.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Gigi Amos Tupelo, 1337 Grant, SF; www.tupelosf.com. 9pm.

Jascha Hoffman Rite Spot. 9pm, free.

Pa’lante! Bissap Baobab, 3372 19th St, SF; www.bissapbaobab.com. 10pm, $5.

Tipsy House Plough and Stars. 9pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Afrolicious Elbo Room. 9:30pm, $5-$8. With DJ Martin Perna, Vibrometers, DJ Jah Karma, and more.

All 80s Thursday Cat Club. 9pm, $6 (free before 9:30pm). The best of ’80s mainstream and underground.

Mods Vs Rockers Amnesia. 9pm, $5-$7.

Ritual Temple. 10pm-3am, $5. Two rooms of dubstep, glitch, and trap music.

Tropicana Madrone Art Bar. 9pm, free. Salsa, cumbia, reggaeton, and more with DJs Don Bustamante, Apocolypto Sr. Saen, Santero, and Mr. E.

FRIDAY 28

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Back Pages Johnny Foley’s. 10pm, free.

Defiance, Ohio, Japanther, Psilovision Bottom of the Hill. 9:30pm, $10.

Delta Wires Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $20.

Iris Dement Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $30-$35.

Butch Whacks and the Glass Packs Bimbo’s. 8pm, $60.

Gram Rabbit, Steer the Stars DNA Lounge. 8:30pm, $12.

Mother Hips Independent. 9pm, $25.

Neon Neon, Seventeen Evergreen, Mohani Slim’s. 9pm, $16.

Richmond Sluts, Prima Donna, Cash for Gold Hemlock Tavern. 9:30pm, $8.

Stompin Riff Raffs from Japan Knockout. 7:30pm, $5. Teenage Dance Craze party.

Synthetic ID, Priests, Glitz, Manatee, Flesh Lights Thee Parkside. 9pm, $8.

Jeff V, Papi, Jason Marion Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 10pm, free.

Y La Bamba Chapel, 777 Valencia, SF; www.thechapelsf.com. 9pm, $12-$15.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Jonathan Butler Yoshi’s SF. 8pm, $29; 10pm, $23.

Hammond Organ Soul Jazz, Blues Party Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

Wants and Want Nots Revolution Café. 9pm, free.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Baxtalo Drom Amnesia. 9pm, $7-$10.

Frisky Frolics Rite Spot. 9pm, free.

Elaine Ryan and Sebrina Barron Brainwash, 1122 Folsom, SF; www.brainwash.com. 8pm, free.

Secret Town Plough and Stars. 9pm.

Secret William Atlas Café. 8-10pm.

Sinister Dexter Tupelo, 1337 Grant, SF; www.tupelosf.com. 9pm.

Tall Sheep Grant and Green Saloon. 9:45pm, $5.

DANCE CLUBS

Drag Yourself to Pride Rickshaw Stop. 9:30pm, $5-$10.

Hella Gay Dance Party Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $5. With GSTAR, DJ Black, Anu Jewn Ra, Balthazar.

Light House Café Du Nord. 10pm, $8. With DJs Warm Leatherette residents Justin, Jason P., Dreamweapon, and more.

Original Plumbing Elbo Room. 10pm, $10. Trans March After Party hosted by Rocco Katastrophe, Amos Mac, and more.

Paris Dakar Bissap Baobab, 3372 19th St, SF; www.bissapbaobab.com. 10pm, $5.

Trap and Bass DNA Lounge. 9pm, $20. With Alex Young, D Menis, Akuma.

SATURDAY 29

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Adios Amigo Milk Bar, 1840 Haight, SF; www.milksf.com. 8pm.

Baths, Houses, D33J Great American Music Hall. 9pm, $16-$19.

Mark Bettencourt and the Aftermath Band Johnny Foley’s. 10pm, free.

Diego’s Umbrella, Super Adventure Club, izzy*wise Chapel, 777 Valencia, SF; www.thechapelsf.com. 9pm, $20-$25.

Flo, Dakila, Funkanauts Slim’s. 8pm, $14.

David J, Adrian H and the Wounds, Spiral Electric, Black Market Sunday Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $15.

Low Riders Riptide Tavern. 9pm, free.

Mother Hips Independent. 9pm, $25.

Papi, Jason Marion, Jeff V Johnny Foley’s Dueling Pianos. 10pm, free.

Phenomenauts, Fracas, Go Time!, Bodice Rippers, Vans, Blank Spots Knockout. 5pm, $10 sliding scale. Benefit for Michael Scanland.

Royal Teeth, Colourist, Feral Fauna Bottom of the Hill. 9:30pm, $12.

Scorpios, Joey Cape, Jon Snodgrass, Travis Hayes Thee Parkside. 9pm, $8.

Juliet Strong, Mano Cherga, Fanfare Zambaleta Amnesia. 9pm, $8-$10.

Earl Thomas and the Blues Ambassadors Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $24.

Butch Whacks and the Glass Packs Bimbo’s. 8pm, $60.

White Barons, Wild Eyes SF Bender’s, 806 South Van Ness, SF; www.bendersbar.com. 9pm, $5.

Wildcat! Wildcat!, In the Valley Below, Maus Haus Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, $12.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Audium 1616 Bush, SF; www.audium.org. 8:30pm, $20. Theater of sound-sculptured space.

Jonathan Butler Yoshi’s SF. 8 and 10pm, $29.

Hammond Organ Soul Jazz, Blues Party Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

I’m Ensemble Revolution Café. 9pm, free.

North Beach Brass Band Tupelo, 1337 Grant, SF; www.tupelosf.com. 9pm.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

General Plough and Stars. 9pm.

Diana Gordon Emerald Tablet, 80 Fresno, SF; emtab.org. 7pm, $10.

“Hillbilly Hootenanny” Thee Parkside. 2pm, $8. With Rik Elswitt, Misisipi Mike, Pam Brandon, Toshio Hirano.

Mr. Lucky and the Cocktail Party Rite Spot. 9pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Bootie SF: Lady Gaga vs Madonna DNA Lounge. 9pm, $20. With A Plus D, Smash-Up Derby, Dada.

Cockblock’s Seventh Annual Dyke March After-Party Rickshaw Stop. 9pm, $12-$20.

Leroy Burgess Elbo Room. 9:30pm, $25. Sweater Funk anniversary.

EDEN Pride Signature Party Mezzanine. 9pm, $25-$35.

Paris Dakar Bissap Baobab, 3372 19th St, SF; www.bissapbaobab.com. 10pm, $5.

Pink Saturday Café Du Nord. 11:30pm, $10-$12. With Believe, DJ Heklina, Hostess Lady Bear, and more.

WE Party: Vogue Regency Center, 1300 Van Ness, SF; www.masterbeat.com. 9pm.

SUNDAY 30

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

Deltron 3030 Sigmund Stern Grove, 19th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard, SF; www.sterngrove.org. 2pm, free.

Lloyd Gregory Band Biscuits and Blues. 7 and 9pm, $15.

Bambi Lake, Carletta Sue Kay, Heidi Alexander Amnesia. 9pm, $10.

Johnette Napolitano, Benjamin Woods Chapel, 777 Valencia, SF; www.thechapelsf.com. 9pm, $22-$25.

La Luz Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $7.

Memories, Boom!, Pookie and the Poodles Thee Parkside. 8pm, $5.

Mat Mchugh and the Seperatista Soundsystem Independent. 8pm, $15.

Old Man Markley, Truckstop Honeymoon, Three Times Bad Bottom of the Hill. 4pm, $12.

Terry Savastano Johnny Foley’s. 10pm, free.

Shook Twins, Brad Brooks, Kate Kilbane Café Du Nord. 7:30pm, $10.

We Are / She Is 50 Mason Social House, SF; www.50masonsocialhouse.com. 8pm, $5.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Howell Devine Revolution Café. 8:30pm, free.

Irie Love, CRSB Yoshi’s SF. 7pm, $20.

Lavay Smith Royal Cuckoo, 3203 Mission, SF; www.royalcuckoo.com. 7:30-10:30pm, free.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Michael Beach and Friends Rite Spot. 9pm, free.

Brazil and Beyond Bissap Baobab, 3372 19th St, SF; www.bissapbaobab.com. 6:30pm, free.

John Sherry, Kyle Thayer, and friends Plough and Stars. 9pm.

Sweet Chariot, E Minor and the Dirty Diamonds Thee Parkside. 4pm, free.

DANCE CLUBS

Beats for Brunch Thee Parkside. 11am, free.

Dub Mission Elbo Room. 9pm, $6. With DJ Sep, Robert Rankin, Spliff Skankin.

Hard French Hearts Los Homos Roccapulco, 3140 Mission, SF; hardfrenchpride2013.eventbrite.com. 4-11pm, $20-$65. With THEESatisfaction, Magic Mouth.

Jock Lookout, 3600 16th St, SF; www.lookoutsf.com. 3pm, $2.

MONDAY 1

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Barren Vines Tupelo, 1337 Grant, SF; www.tupelosf.com. 9pm.

Front Country Amnesia. 9pm.

DANCE CLUBS

Bass is Great Elbo Room. 10pm, $5. With Milo, Megabusive, Gel Roc, and Open Mike Eagle.

Crazy Mondays Beauty Bar, 2299 Mission, SF; www.thebeautybar.com. 10pm, free. Hip-hop and other stuff.

Death Guild DNA Lounge. 9:30pm, $3-$5. With Decay, Joe Radio, Melting Girl.

M.O.M. Madrone Art Bar. 6pm, free. DJs Timoteo Gigante, Gordo Cabeza, and Chris Phlek playing all Motown every Monday.

Soul Cafe John Colins Lounge, 138 Minna, SF; www.johncolins.com. 9pm. R&B, Hip-Hop, Neosoul, reggae, dancehall, and more with DJ Jerry Ross.

Vibes’N’Stuff El Amigo Bar, 3355 Mission, SF; (415) 852-0092. 10pm, free. Conscious jazz and hip-hop with DJs Luce Lucy, Vinnie Esparza, and more

TUESDAY 2

ROCK/BLUES/HIP-HOP

July Talk, Grounders Bottom of the Hill. 8pm, $15.

Lloyd Family Players, Fresh Juice Party, Chaos Revolution Theory Elbo Room. 9pm, $5.

Los Headaches, Indian Wars, Gravy Drops Hemlock Tavern. 8:30pm, $7.

Los Vincent Black Shadows, Little Thin Dimes, Copper Gamins, Born Petrified Knockout. 9:30pm, $7.

Pure Bathing Culture, Cocktails, Cannons and Clouds, CoolGreg Brick and Mortar Music Hall. 9pm, free.

Kyle Rowland Biscuits and Blues. 8 and 10pm, $15.

JAZZ/NEW MUSIC

Terry Disley Burritt Room, 417 Stockton, SF; www.burrittavern.com. 6-9pm, free.

FOLK/WORLD/COUNTRY

Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino Café Du Nord. 8pm, $10.

Underground Nomas Bissap Baobab, 3372 19th St, SF; www.bissapbaobab.com. 10pm, $5.

Embarcadero Center Cinema closing (temporarily) for renovations

Sue Vaughan
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0
Embarcadero Center Cinema closing (temporarily) for renovations

Don’t panic, art-house fans: you can still get your subtitle fix at Landmark‘s other San Francisco theaters (the Clay, the Opera Plaza) or at any of the chain’s East Bay outposts (the Shattuck has the most screens, and it shows mainstream Hollywood stuff, too).

The 18-year-old Embarcadero is one of Landmark’s busiest and most-profitable theaters, according to the chain. It will close starting June 28, with a targeted return of “early November” — so it’ll be dark during much of the summer movie craze, but ready to receive any and all Oscar-type movies in the fall.

Here’s what the improvements will entail, per a press release sent out by Senior Regional Publicist Steve Indig:

 “Each of the theater’s five auditoriums will undergo a total makeover, including plush seating, new flooring, paint, and wall coverings.  The lobby will also undergo a transformation, complete with a new wine bar and lounge, as well as a remodeled concierge desk and concession stand. The stand will now feature digital signage with large LED screens showcasing the new menu with a broad array of food and beverage options.  Print-at-home ticketing and mobile ticketing will be available at the theatre when it re-opens this fall.”

Once more with feeling: WINE BAR. See you at the movies this fall, Embarcadero!

Guide to Pride 2013*

Maria Poblet
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2

WED/26

Pullin’ Pork for Pride The Bay Guardian and Hard French Present the Ninth Annual Queer Pride Happy Hour hosted by Lil Miss Hot Mess with performances by Dick Van Dick, Tara Wrist, and Rotimi Agbabiaka with DJs Carnita and Brown Amy. Celebrate LGBT culture and our progressive heroes that keep San Francisco legit with kick-ass soul jams, free comfort food, and ice cold adult beverages. Plus: bring a dark-colored t-shirt and get your Bradley Manning screen print to wear proudly during Pride. All of the Bay Area’s queer singles, marrieds, residents, visitors, boys, girls, bears, and babydykes are invited to our hottest happy hour of the year! Wed/26 from 6-9pm @ Pilsner Inn, 225 Church, SF | FREE


THU/27

Slow Knights and Bright Light Bright Light Folsom Street Events is throwing one big-ass, sordid concert to help kick off your SF Pride weekend! Slow Knights is the new side project from Del Marquis of Scissor Sisters fame. Check out his bump-and-grind debut album Cosmos now. Bright Light Bright Light is Welsh-born Rod Thomas, a singer, writer, and producer that NME has called “the boy Robyn in all but name.” His debut album Make Me Believe In Hope is a tour-de-force, drawing influences from late 80s electro-pop and early 90s classic house to help get your juices flowing. Honey Soundsystem DJs will keep the sexy vibes going long after the bands are done. This is a must for any Scissor Sisters fan (as other band members may be in attendance). Thu/27 from 9pm-2am @ Public Works, 161 Erie, SF | $25 | showfolsompride.eventbrite.com

 

FRI/28

Sissy Darlings in the Night Bay Area radical queer dance parties Ships in the Night and Sissy Strut are joined by Darling Nikki for their Fourth Annual Friday Pride party, Sissy Darlings in the Night. Each of these fabulous parties has deep community roots, throwing benefits and raising cash for various local organizations. This Pride, they bring their local style of durty, bumpin’ gay-fabulousness, where every shape, size, color, and flavor of queer and queen can come shake it till they’re sweating glitter. There will be soul music in the early evening followed by hip-hop and booty jams ‘til close, featuring DJ Durt, Pony Boy, Sissyslap, and more to make you weak in the knees. After the Trans March, celebrate all things queer the way we do in the Bay of Gay. Fri/28 from 8am-2am @ Underground, 424 Haight, SF | $5

Original Plumbing Original Plumbing, the trans guy quarterly magazine born in San Francisco (and since moved to Brooklyn) is back for their fourth year in a row to host Unofficial: OP’s Dance Party After the Trans March. After a prideful day in the park stumble over to the Elbo Room to grind, sweat, and cruise with other queerios. Join hosts Rocco Katastrophe and Amos Mac and dance all night with music by DJ Average Jo from New York, Stay Gold’s DJ Rapid Fire, and DJ Chelsea Starr from Portland. Also featuring Go-Go Trans Boy Heart Throbs and Starr Violet at the door, and a creepy colorful Troll Doll photo booth that will ensure you never forget the evening. Fri/28 from 9:30pm-2am @ Elbo Room, 647 Valencia, SF. | $6-$10 | originalplumbing.com

Bearracuda It’s the high-holy gay holiday of Bearracuda Gay Pride at Public Works where 1000 bears from all over pack it into the party and kick off Pride weekend in San Francisco. This year they have a lineup you will go gay for! On the main floor are San Francisco favorites, Craig Gaibler and Steve Sherwood, who together have played for Bearracuda all over the world, from Atlanta to Auckland. Joining them are hot go-go bears Shawn (from RuPaul’s Drag Race pit crew) and Ryan. Upstairs will be two big names from San Francisco’ legendary DJ collective, Honey Soundsystem: P. Play and Josh Cheon! Jump the line with $12 advanced tickets at Body on Castro or at bearracuda.com. Fri/28 from 9pm-3am @ Public Works, 161 Erie, SF | $12| bearracuda.com

 

SAT/29

Dark Room Dark Room and The Black Glitter Collective Present: Black Hole – The Queer Pink Saturday After Party featuring Believe live on stage with special guest DJ and drag superstar Heklina from Trannyshack along with the debut of Per Sia and Daddies Plastik’s new single “Google Google Apps Apps,” while host Lady Bear and her Dark Dolls give dark drag and sexy looks. Dark Room resident DJs Le Perv, Omar Perez, Rachel Aiello, and Daniel Toribio blend dark electro, techno, industrial, freestyle, and more to keep you dancing all night long. Add custom visuals/art, human art installations, and drink specials, and you have one of San Francisco’s most unique and sexy queer parties ever! Sat/29 from 9:30pm-2am @ Cafe Du Nord, 2170 Market, SF | $10

The House of Babes Three of San Francisco’s beloved queer dance parties – Stay Gold, Fix yr Hair, and Swagger Like Us – present The House of Babes. Walking distance from Dolores Park and the Castro, the party kicks off with drag acts, cheap happy hour drinks, and food vendors. Look forward to performances by Micahtron, Double Duchess, and Vogue & Tone, Baltimore superstar DDm, and local and guest DJs spinning the best in booty dropping jams. Get cute for the photobooth hosted by installation artist Matt Picon and photographer Shot in the City. Feel good knowing that local queer youth heroes, Lyric, are beneficiaries of the event. This promises to be an ecstatic, sweaty Pride party not to be missed. Sat/29 from 7pm-3am @ Public Works, 161 Erie, SF | $12-$15 | thehouseofbabes.eventbrite.com

 

SUN/30

Hard French Hearts los Homos Hard French is hosting an intergalactic Pride Party at the historic Roccapulco nightclub on Mission Street and will keep you on your feet with a combination of classic all vinyl soul combined with live performances by some of the hottest queer bands and DJs. Hard French has hand picked their favorite artists including Seattle-based funk-psychedelic duo THEESatisfaction, Portland post-punk darlings Magic Mouth, and SF nine-piece neo-soul band Midtown Social. Joining them will be guest DJs Olga T and Taco Tuesday. Of course, no Hard French party would be complete without DJs Brown Amy and Carnita and smoking hot moves from the Hard French Jiggalicious Drag Babes. Sun/30 from 4-11pm @ Roccapulco, 3140 Mission, SF |$20-$65 | hardfrench.com

Queerly Beloved Courtney Trouble’s Queer Pride Pink Sunday Dance Party is back, hosted by Courtney Trouble and Jenna Riot – SF’s Femme Dream Team! Featuring intergalactic space group Icy Lytes, DJs Jenna Riot, Chelsea Starr, and special guest Automaton, video booth by Ajapopfilms and QueerPorn.TV, and the Queer Porn Circus with performances by Courtney Trouble, Jade Phillips, and sexy gender fucking go-go dancers. Plus, if you’re in dire need of a spanking, a smooch, or just a damn good foot rub, the Cum and Glitter Kissing Booth has got you covered with super cheap massage, lap dance, and whatever else you’re perverted heart may desire. Sun/30 from 3-9pm @ El Rio, 3158 Mission, SF | $8 | queerlybeloved.brownpapertickets.com

Big Freedia This is going to be ridiculous. The undisputed Queen Diva of NOLA Bounce is droppin’ by this unofficial Pride after party at Public Works. Words cannot do justice to the all-out sparkle-sweat blast that is a Freedia show. Bring a towel and someone to get freaky with on the dance floor with warrior-stripper-rapper Brooke Candy, the godfather of Detroit Ghettotech DJ Assault, Lady Tragik, Dick Van Dick, Marco de la Vega, and more! This show will be legend. Do. Not. Miss. Sun/30 from 7pm-1am @ Public Works, 161 Erie, SF | $20-$30| publicsf.com

Honey Soundsystem Honey Soundsystem presents its annual Extended Pride event at the Holy Cow Nightclub featuring its line-up of residents Jason Kendig, P-Play, Josh Cheon, and Robot Hustle. In celebration of Pride they will be going after-hours until 4am with the same world class dance music you have come to expect from Honey. Sun/30 from 9pm-4am @ The Holy Cow Nightclub, 1535 Folsom, SF | $10 | honeysoundsystem.com

 

TUE/2

Switch Tuesdays: Pride Decompression Get nasty with Jenna Riot and Deejay Andre as they present this special post-Pride edition of Switch and what may be your last chance to find the Pride babe of your dreams. QBAR has been keeping the queer-girl dream alive for seven years now, making your Tuesday nights a whole lot hotter. Get wet with DJs Jenna Riot, Andre and guest Leah Mcfly and impress all the babes with your twerkin’ skills, as they spin the hottest Top 40, hip-hop, electronic, pop, and booty bouncing beats. Cruise, werq, twerk, get naughty, and dance ’till you sweat. Tue/2 from 9pm-2am @ QBAR, 456 Castro, SF | $5

 

 

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