SF Symphony

FRIDAY 22

“David Shrigley: Brain Activity”

Glasgow-based artist David Shrigley’s signature cartoons are hilariously deadpan: crude drawings and doodles; short stories filled with crossed-out corrections; a “Lost Pet” poster, taped to a tree, seeing a certain pigeon (“Normal size. A bit mangy looking.”) He’s also an animator, spoken-word performer, photographer, music-video director, occasional DJ, and taxidermist — witness the “I’m Dead” image, featuring a stiffly obedient Jack Russell, being used to promote “Brain Activity” at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (“Is this the sickest art show ever?” tut-tutted the Daily Mail). This is the only stateside stop for “Brain Activity,” so don’t miss the chance to witness, and chuckle at, the work of this offbeat art star. (Cheryl Eddy)

Through Sept. 23

Opening tonight with performance by Blasted Canyons, 8-10pm, $12–$15

Artist lecture Sat/23, 2pm, free with gallery admission ($8–$10)

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

701 Mission, SF

www.ybca.org

“Mission in the Mix”

Talk to anybody who has ever sat through an evening of hip-hop, you are likely to hear: “It was so much fun.” Talk to somebody dancing in a hip-hop group, same thing: “so much fun.” In some ways the yearly “Mission in the Mix” is a kind of preview of the big hip-hop fiesta in November, to which dancers fly in from who knows where. But, Micaya, the soul force behind that event, has always stressed her love for the local dancers who might not necessarily be ready yet for the big tent. So this is her chance to make them shine in a more intimate but no less rollicking environment. (Rita Felciano)

Through June 30; Fri-Sat, 8pm, Sun, 7pm, $17

Dance Mission Theater

3316 24th St. SF

(415) 826-4441

www.dancemission.com

Royal Headache

Musical debates can give you a…total migraine. With the US release of the self-titled album from Australia’s Royal Headache earlier this year, finding out about the band now is like coming into an argument halfway. Having built up a reputation through its live performances, the band — whose members are named Law, Joe, Shorty, and Shogun — is at the center of Sydney’s burgeoning garage rock scene, combining additional powerpop and R&B. The key element, though, is the naturally soulful voice of singer Shogun, alternately hailed as either a rock’n’roll messiah or the unwelcome return of Rod Stewart. (Ryan Prendiville)

With Yi, Synthetic ID

7pm, $8

1-2-3-4 GO! Records

423 40th St., Oakl.

www.1234gorecords.com

Death to All

Seven members of the pioneering death metal band Death are uniting to embark on a seven-stop tour beginning in San Francisco. The band’s first album Scream Bloody Gore, released 25 years ago, is widely considered to be the first true death metal album. This tour comes 11 years after the death of founding member Chuck Schuldiner due to brain cancer, and is intended to celebrate his life as well as to raise awareness and money for Sweet Relief, a nonprofit organization that helps foot medical bills for musicians. Never before has shredding, head-banging brutality been so morally sound. (Haley Zaremba)

With Gorguts

9pm, $32

Regency Ballroom

1300 Van Ness, SF

(415) 673-5716

www.theregencyballroom.com

Horse Meat Disco

Honey Soundsystem has good reason to be proud. Its parties — focused more on quality music than marketing to a stereotype — have been an energizing force for and beyond the SF gay community. Now Honey is starting off a packed Pride weekend by bringing out London’s Horse Meat Disco. Boldly called “without a doubt the most important disco club night in the world” the collective shares Honey’s expansive take on the genre, releasing borderless mixes as likely to feature edits of Talking Heads and Mungolian Jetset as Sylvester. The night also features the return of DIY synth wiz Gavin Russom, not in a DJ set, but with his live ensemble, the Crystal Ark.(Prendiville)

With Poolside (live), Honey Soundsystem DJs

9pm Doors, $17 Advance

Mezzanine

444 Jessie, SF

(415) 625-8880

www.mezzaninesf.com

SATURDAY 23

Bicycle Music Festival

Though LovEvolution may have be out-Darwined by the War on Fun, we (gosh darn) still have Bicycle Music Festival providing ambulatory audio in our city streets. The fest, split between two free outdoor locations, is completely pedal-powered — attendees morph into volunteers when they grab saddles and lend their quad muscles to the generator cause. This year, festival co-founder Shake Your Peace! makes its triumphal return, attendance may hit 1,000, and Birds & Batteries, Rupa and the April Fishes, and Major Powers and the Lo-Fi Symphony will be among those taking the stage. Catch the thrilling cross-city processional at 5pm to see members of Jazz Mafia roll through intersections without missing a beat. (Caitlin Donohue)

Noon-11pm, free

Noon-5pm: Log Cabin Meadow, Golden Gate Park, SF

6-11pm: Showplace Triangle, Irwin and 8th St., SF

www.bicyclemusicfestival.com

Mark Gardener

A mainstay of Britain’s legendary early-’90s shoegaze scene, Ride embraced the Beatles-on-drugs songbook, turned its guitars up to 11, and filtered the result through a viscous, Phil Spectorian cloud of pink noise. Now, 15 years after Ride’s disbandment, the band’s vocalist and guitarist Mark Gardener is coming stateside to honor the 20th anniversary of its sophomore effort, Going Blank Again: an album equally indebted to the Stone Roses’ jangly pop, and Kevin Shields’ shapeshifting production dynamics. Those of you jonesing for another My Bloody Valentine reunion appearance, take note: this is the show of the weekend to seize upon. (Taylor Kaplan)

With Sky Parade, Silent Pictures, DJ Dennis the Menace

9:30pm, $15

Cafe du Nord

2170 Market, SF

(415) 861-5016

www.cafedunord.com

MONDAY 25

Friends

Friends will be friends. But only the best of them will house your ass after a bedbug infestation — or so the story of Bushwick, Brooklyn’s dynamo five-piece, Friends, goes. Frontperson Samantha Urbani opened her home to future bandmates Lesley Hann (bassist) and Oliver Duncan (drummer) after the two were hit with a bout of the six-legged bloodsuckers, and jamming ensued. Tapping Matthew Molnar and Nikki Shapiro to round out the lineup, Urbani and friends instantly honed in on a funky, tropical, soul-tinged, and totally danceable kind of pop music. Friends — formerly known as Perpetual Crush — hit the ground flying in 2011, releasing much buzzed about singles “Friend Crush” and “I’m His Girl.” Debut full-length album Manifest! is out now — just in time to have a summah. (Julia B. Chan)

With Splash!, Young Digerati

9pm, $12

Bottom of the Hill

1233 17th, SF

(415) 621-4455

www.bottomofthehill.com

TUESDAY 26

“Jurassic Live: Dino Action Show”

The T.rex is coming! The velociraptors are here! All the way from Austin, Tex., Old Murder House Theatre — producers of Aliens on Ice … I highly recommend YouTubing it — brings its latest blockbuster homage to the Children’s Fairyland Theatre. This venue usually excludes grown-ups without kids in tow, but this interpretation of 1993’s Jurassic Park is “intended for mature audiences,” which I hope means plenty of stage blood during the “clever girl” scene. Also in store: cardboard-and-duct-tape reptiles, DIY contraband-toting devices disguised as shaving-cream cans, a bewigged dude playing Laura Dern, and more. Eat your heart out, Spielberg! (Eddy)

8:30pm, $20

Children’s Fairyland Theatre

699 Bellevue, Oakl.

www.oldmurderhousetheatre.com

The Hundred in the Hands

This glammed-out electro duo from Brooklyn produces dreamy pop songs with a shimmery disco tinge. Vocalist Eleanore Everdell is classically trained, her background in opera leading not to overpowering vibrato but instead to lush vocal stylings that add a warm depth to their dance-friendly tracks. Keyboardist and programmer Jason Friedman brings his art school education to the band’s online publication THITH ZINE, which highlights their favorite music, art, and design. The zine’s DIY foundation compliments the raw feel of the duo’s catchy homemade beats. Named after the Lakota Nation term for a battle resulting in the slaying of 100 members of the opposing army, the Hundred in the Hands promise to deliver a powerful, take-no-prisoners performance. (Zaremba)

With Silver Swans, Teenage Sweater

8pm, $12

Rickshaw Stop

155 Fell, SF

(415) 861-2011

www.rickshawstop.com

KWJAZ

Often associated with the “hypnagogic pop” movement that’s put the blogosphere into overdrive (think chillwave, but artier/weirder/more “washed out”) SF’s own KWJAZ has taken the cassette-fetishist subculture by storm. Churning out a gloriously hazy brand of jam-based pop, mastermind Peter Berends specializes in a more drawn-out approach than most of his peers; KWJAZ’s self-titled debut, released this year on the hipper-than-thou Not Not Fun Records, consists solely of two extended tracks, jazzily oozing from one murky, spliffed-out groove to the next. Pink Floyd for Hype Williams fans? Ariel Pink for the Soft Machine crowd? Bear witness, and decide for yourself. (Kaplan)

With Aloonaluna, Aja

9pm, $5

Hemlock

1131 Polk, SF

(415) 923-0923

www.hemlocktavern.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, 71 Stevenson Street, Second Floor, SF, CA 94105 or email (paste press release into email 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.

Our Weekly Picks: May 9-15, 2012

May 8, 2012

WEDNESDAY 9

Lotus Plaza

Lotus Plaza soaks innocent, introspective lyrics in bright, ambient noise. Its sound is somewhat of an Animal Collective meets Real Estate phenomenon, as repetition, staccato, washed out haze, and subtle, ’60s-inspired surfy guitar riffs predominate. Lotus Plaza — the solo project of Deerhunter’s guitarist Lockett Pundt — released its sophomore LP, Spooky Action at a Distance, early last month. You’ll get lost in this album’s consuming drone and echoing vocals, which focus on escape, living with yourself, and the future. Pundt has cited influences ranging from Stereolab to My Bloody Valentine to Gary Numan, so listen up! (Mia Sullivan)

With Wymond Miles, Mirror Mode

7:30pm, $12

Rickshaw Stop

155 Fell, SF

(415) 861-2011

www.rickshawstop.com

THURSDAY 10

“Plantosaurus Rex: Prehistoric Plants at the Conservatory of Flowers”

If you thought exotic nature sightings in Golden Gate Park were limited to bison, swans, and the occasional coyote, it’s time to put on your Jeff Goldblum sunglasses and stroll over to the Conservatory of Flowers. Not only does “Plantosaurus Rex,” which opens today, host life-sized model dinosaurs — including a baby Stegosaurus chillin’ in the foliage, and a toothy Tyrannosaurus poking its head through the Conservatory roof — it also features an evolutionary journey through prehistoric plant life, some of which might look familiar (if oddly-proportioned): huge ferns, giant seed pods, etc. Good fun for pint-sized budding paleontologists and full-grown botany nerds alike. (Cheryl Eddy)

Through Oct. 21

Tue-Sun, 10am-4pm, free–$7

Conservatory of Flowers

100 John F. Kennedy, Golden Gate Park, SF

www.conservatoryofflowers.org

“Barbary Coast and Beyond”

You hear “Gold Rush” and a stream of shimmering images pan across your mind’s eye; you hear “Barbary Coast” and the raucous calls of drunken sailors and ladies of the night fill your mental ear. But what of the actual music of this period, when Caruso was carousing the City by the Bay and tinny saloon pianos were banging out civic-pride singalongs like “California, Here I Come” and “Hello, Frisco, Hello”? The SF Symphony is hopping into the sepia-toned wayback machine to bring to life the astonishingly fertile local musical milieu of the period from the Gold Rush to the Panama-Pacific Exhibition, full of tunes brought to SF by famous old-time performers like Ole Bull and Luisa Tetrazzini. The journey is narrated by beloved Beach Blanket Babylon emeritus Val Diamond. (Marke B.)

Also Fri/11 and Sat/12. 8pm, $35–$140

Davies Symphony Hall

201 Van Ness, SF

(415) 864-6000

Dead Milkmen

With its humorous and unorthodox take on punk rock back when hardcore was the norm, The Dead Milkmen set itself apart in the scene when it first formed in Philadelphia in 1983, gradually earning a following with fan-favorite tunes such as “Bitchin’ Camaro,” “The Thing That Only Eats Hippies,” and what would become its biggest mainstream success, “Punk Rock Girl.” After a 13-year break up and the passing of original bassist Dave Schulthise, the band reunited in 2008, and released The King In Yellow last year, bringing back its joyously clever songs and sound for fans to dance around and sing-along with like the old days. (Sean McCourt)

With Terry Malts

9pm, $23

Slim’s

333 11th St., SF

(415) 255-0333

www.slimspresents.com

FRIDAY 11

“The Last Drive-In Presents: 16mm Movie Night”

Benefiting Lost Weekend’s Cinecave, this event was set up by a couple of former rep house projectionists, screening so-bad-they’re-good (to mock) 16mm movies complete with classic trailers and snack bar reels to recreate the drive-in experience. (Without, I guess, the car and the crappy metal speakers to hang on the window.) The UK sci-fi double for the night includes The Crawling Eye (1958), which has been described as a surprisingly good picture…until the appearance of the remarkably bad feature creature, and the illogically titled, They Came from Beyond Space (1967). (Ryan Prendiville)

7pm, $5–$10 suggested donation Alley Cat Books 3036 24th St., SF (415) 824-1761

Facebook: AlleyCatBooks

Black Moth Super Rainbow

The mysterious TOBACCO flings heavy, analog-laden funk tracks that spark parties and haunt listeners in their dreams. But the progenitor of modern psychedelic-pop brings sunniness (slightly) as the lead of Black Moth Super Rainbow. Compared to TOBACCO’s dark and stormy skies, BMSR is a tehnicolor-saturated spring day. Listeners float in fuzzy synths, retro distortions, and vocoded TOBACCO vocals, while a current of punchy beats carries them along. TOBACCO scrapped a BMSR album slated for release in 2011, but fans should be excited that a new album is in the works. (Kevin Lee)

With Lumerians, Gramatik, Flako, Zackey Force Funk, Mophone, Annalove, DJ Dials, DJ Sodapop

10pm, $20

103 Harriet, SF

(415) 932-0955

www.1015.com

Savoy

This Boulder, Colo.-based “electro dubstep rock” trio remixes hits from the likes of Chromeo, Dire Straights, and the Beastie Boys with synthesizers and a drum kit. The result is a palpable wall of bass-heavy, dance-your-ass-off-worthy electronic sound. DJs Ben Eberdt and Gray Smith and drummer Mike Kelly have been going at it since their undergrad days at the University of Colorado. Savoy’s influences range from French house music to Phish, and the group has made inroads in the festival scene this year. (It played SXSW and is on the bill for Wakarusa.) Expect a dizzying light show, a high-energy dance party, and ecstasy in all of its forms. (Sullivan)

With Redeye, Robot.Mafia, Cutterz

9pm $16

Great American Music Hall

859 O’Farrell, SF

(415) 885-0750

www.slimspresents.com

SATURDAY 12

Cyro Baptista

Cyro Baptista’s collaboration list reads like a very compelling who’s who in the music industry — Herbie Hancock, Yo-Yo Ma, Serge Gainsbourg, Paul Simon, and John Zorn are among the greats who have worked with the Brazilian composer and percussionist. Born and raised in São Paulo, Baptista floats between jazz and world music. His eye-catching Beat the Donkey project was a multicultural percussion and dance show, featuring Baptista banging on some PVC pipe and buckets. New project Banquet of the Spirits, featuring bassist Shani Blumenkrantz and fingerstyle guitarist Tim Sparks, explores some of Zorn’s previous work dedicated to the Jewish Diaspora, with twists of Brazilian and Middle Eastern styles. (Lee)

With Tim Sparks and Shanir Blumenkrantz

8pm, $25

Swedish American Hall

2174 Market, SF

(415) 861-5016

www.sfjazz.org

Eskmo

Local producer Brendan Angelides creates electronica that somehow manages to sound both tightly produced and expansive at the same time. The easy but fair comparison is to Ninja Tune labelmate Amon Tobin, and the two have collaborated under the guise Eskamon on Angelides’ own Ancestor record label. Many electronic listeners will know Angelides through his alias Eskmo and his multi-layered post-hip hop on 2010’s Eskmo EP, but new work under the moniker Welder is just as provocative. On last fall’s Florescence, classical strings and pianos intertwined with Angelides’ intricate beat production, like a symphony embarking on a mellow jazz jam session. (Lee)

With Love & Light, DJ Dials, U9Lift

9pm, $15

Mezzanine

444 Jessie, SF

(415) 625-8880

www.mezzaninesf.com

SUNDAY 13

How Weird Street Faire

How do you know the summer festival season has truly sprung? Follow the breakdancing purple fuzzy dude through the rabbithole of deepest SoMa, choose the third key (probably) and enter a musical and artistic wonderland where the spirit number is 13 — not the unlucky 13, the brilliantly Bizarro 13 signifying 13 writhing blocks of neon freakiness and 13 stages pumping ravey local sounds. This is also the thirteenth How Weird Faire (on May 13!), celebrating 13 moons with the costume theme “Time,” which may or may not have something to do with galactic tones or Mayan glyphs, but definitely with “good times” in general. Jam out to the likes of the Sunset, Forward, Pink Mammoth, and tons of other DJ crews, peruse many Vendors from Beyond the Cosmic Edge, and revel in our delightful homegrown insanity. (Marke B.)

Noon-8pm, $10 donation requested

Howard and Second Street, SF

www.howweird.org

MONDAY 14

Herman Dune

Fans of Jonathan Richman, David Berman, Stephin Merritt, or anyone else who expertly blurs the line between twee earnestness and winking sarcasm will find plenty to love about Herman Dune. Recently boiled down to its core as a two-piece, the Parisian group is touring in support of 2011’s Strange Moosic, its latest batch of quirky anti-folk and bouncy indie-pop. Nearly every song in the band’s now impressively deep catalogue contains at least one endearing or sly lyrical gem courtesy of lead singer David-Ivar Herman Dune’s charming vocal delivery. Check out single “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” and its Jon Hamm-starring music video to get a sense of the feel-good world the duo creates. (Landon Moblad)

With the Sam Chase, DJ Britt Govea

8pm, $14

Independent

628 Divisadero, SF

(415) 771-1421

TUESDAY 15

“Celebrating 35 Years of Star Wars Comic Books: An Evening with Howard Chaykin and Steve Leialoha”

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… more specifically 1977 New York, representatives from LucasFilm contacted Marvel Comics about creating an adaptation of their upcoming sci-fi flick Star Wars, which of course, went on to be one of the most successful film franchises of all time, but also a beloved and long-running comic title. Artists Howard Chaykin and Steve Leialoha, who worked on those early issues, will be on hand tonight for a 35th anniversary celebration of all things Sith and Jedi in the comic realm, along with a discussion and presentation about their work hosted by comedians Michael Capozzola and Joe Klocek. (McCourt)

7-9pm, $7

Cartoon Art Museum

655 Mission, SF

(415) CAR-TOON

www.cartoonart.org

Ana Tijoux

When the title track from Chilean rapper Ana Tijoux’s 1977 played over a montage of perpetual fuckup Jesse Pinkman riding shotgun with Mike the Cleaner on the latest season of AMC’s Breaking Bad, it was the type of moment that TiVo was made for, or maybe just sent viewers to their phones, trying to figure out who was responsible for that particularly cinematic song. Tijoux — who was born in France during Pinochet’s reign — has an infectiously cool flow and a conscious, no bullshit attitude that comes across in any language. Both political and personal Tijoux now returns with the album La Bala featuring “Shock,” a response to the recent student movements in Chile. (Prendiville)

With Los Rakas, Raw G

8pm, $15

Independent

628 Divisadero, SF

(415) 771-1421

www.theindependentsf.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 Building, 135 Mississippi St., SF, CA 94107; fax to (415) 487-2506; or e-mail (paste press release into e-mail body — no text 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.

Nite Trax: American Mavericks fest brings big organ, Bach phantasm, fruit smoothie

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

March 17, 2012

Nite Trax: American Mavericks fest brings big organ, Bach phantasm, fruit smoothie

“The best form of government … is no government at all!” announced singer Meredith Monk in the second program of the SF Symphony’s rollicking American Mavericks festival at Davies Hall on Sat., March 10, her trademark braided pigtails and Shuffling Elf gait in full effect. And while I could hear the pleated pants of several libertarians around me surely being wetted (and a few liberal feathers ruffling in the back), this was no mere Ron Paul back-pat, though it was delivered with all the empty bluster we’ve come to expect from the current campaign season.

We were in the midst of an astonishing presentation of John Cage’s epic, random Song Books from 1970, after all — revered experimental vocalist Joan La Barbara had delivered a beribboned gift of apples or cranberries to an arbitrary audience member, magnificent diva Jessye Norman (in a stunning Issey Miyake gown) had joined in a boisterous card game and typed a letter on a mic’d typewriter, and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas had chopped up various fruits and veggies and Cuisinarted them into an orange-y beverage for the pianist. Cage, our 20th Century channeler of chance, would never allow such an inflexible utterance to stand unchallenged.

Meredith Monk, Jessye Norman, and MTT with Symphony members performing John Cage.

Sure enough, the phrase began to dissolve in Monk’s mouth as she repeated it, leaning from the stage like a satiric demagogue: “The b-best f-f-f-form of-f-f-f g-g-g …. ,” and adding “And we shall have it, when we are ready for it!” All the while, three large black flags were being hoisted on neon polls, unfurling into the wind from three fans, ghastly pennants at a flourescent funeral. No, we were not just in the land (our land) of anti-government sloganeering, mouthed by Tea Partiers, Occupiers, and hedge fund profiteers alike. With Monk as our guide, we were slipping through the black flags of anarchy into a gaudier lawlessness, that of death. And like pure music death, of course, shall have no dominion.

Jessye Norman and MTT

We’ll probably not see such a lavish, loving tribute to Cage’s aleatory masterwork for a long time. The randomness-conjuring Song Books are governed, in a somewhat oxymoronic twist, by a large set of instructions — “Leave the stage by going up (flying) or by going down through a trap door. Return in the same way wearing an animal’s head,” for example — and forego traditional musical notation and expression for doodlings, drawings, charts, projections, lighting effects, electronic improvisation, bird calls, horn squonks, chess games, and a plethora of intersecting stage actions. (That’s not to say there weren’t gorgeous passages of melody — one especially near the end, a meandering duet with electronics in which Norman sang in a wistful voice about, I think, purple finches.)

That all this potential chaos not only didn’t come off as pretentious avant-gardism but actually formed something deeply touching, hilarious, human, and even quaint was a triumph for director Yuval Sharon and his cast and crew. Only one dude stormed out — perhaps to towel his pleats.

Joan La Barbara, Meredith Monk, Jessye Norman, and MTT

Bracingly, the American Mavericks festival — MTT’s tribute to the barbaric yawp of the American musical spirit — has retained most of the wonder, if not all of the risk, of its first installment a dozen years ago.

Things had kicked off in splendid form on Thu., March 8, with program one — I saw the repeat performance that Friday — including an exciting and lush presentation of quintessential American composer Aaron Copland’s “Orchestral Variations” from 1967, which delivered both ethereal, avant-garde jaggedness (the piece is composed of 20 variations on a four-note “cell,” in an atonal manner) and occasional glimpses of Copland’s generous, down-home spirit (this was the composer of “Appalachian Spring” and “Rodeo,” after all).

It also gave us a bit of dish.

In researching “Orchestral Variations,” I’d run into some trouble — I kept finding more evidence of Copland’s “Piano Variations” from 1930, a work deemed so stark and forbidding that no professional pianist would debut it. (So Copland, in a nifty show of self-confidence, played the premiere himself, to many critics’ disdain.) Here’s a version by pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin:

But what of the piano work’s expansive, full-bodied and spirited transcription for orchestra? It turns out that MTT himself had, in a visit to Copland’s home decades ago, suggested the piece be transformed from a single piano piece to an orchestral work, in order to reach more people on a different scale. “He turned to me, raised an eyebrow, and said, ‘Yes, yes, that all sounds nice — but who’s going to do all that work?'” MTT told the audience during the introduction. Then the big reveal: “And I said, ‘Well, with your permission …’ So — here’s a little thing that we do.”

Insider-y! It was a rare treat of a rare performance of a rare masterwork, from one of the major players involved.

It was also the perfect lead-in to the next piece on the program, Lou Harrison’s “Concerto for Organ with Percussion Orchestra” from 1972, in an absolutely transcendent rendition from Paul Jacobs on the enormous Davies Hall organ, with an ensemble of super-agile Symphony percussionists playing everything from Chinese crash cymbals and huge muted prayer gongs to celesta, rasp, and glockenspiel.

Organist Paul Jacobs and the SF Symphony’s percussion orchestra performing Lou Harrison.

Previously I had a slight aversion to Harrison — while I appreciate him as an out-and-proud gay man in the 1960s (he has a kind of Burl Ives meets Harry Hay aura in queer iconography), I sometimes felt his musical project suffered from the same knee-jerk Orientalism that turns me off of a lot of famous Bay Area poets, mystics, artists, and composers who attempt “East meets West.” Hairy legs jutting from a silk kimono, shudder.

My prejudices were quickly dispatched when the sprightly Jacobs immediately began coaxing the most amazingly powerful sounds from the organ, using a block-muffle tool to play whole ranges of keys at once in various rapid-fire combinations and agglomerations, accompanied by the percussionists’ clanging, hypnotically abstract tattoos. Movements ranged from crepuscular tootling to sci-fi bombast as Harrison ushered us into a kind of hallucinatory meditation full of bright oranges and shooting blues, neither East nor West but a cosmic recombinant being of both. I want to rediscover this formidable magician. Here’s a taste from another recording, although I found Jacobs’ playing to be even more spirited:

Harrisons counterpart on program two was Henry Cowell, the great popularizer of tone clusters (think of playing a whole bunch of clashing yet somehow wondrous-sounding notes at once) — Cowell’s “Piano Concerto“ of 1928, performed by Jeremy Denk with the orchestra, was a sensation to almost equal the Cage before it. You would never have thought odd cacophany could achieve such nuance. It sounded like a foray into negative beauty. Denk was using his entire forearms on the piano most of the time, with the symphony meeting him at a level of intense energy and empathy, and yet there were moments of quiet, complex reflection and runs of exhilirating virtuosity that matched the height of the redwoods in Henry Cowell state park (no relation, except metaphorically). Am I gushing? I am gushing. More Cowell everywhere, please. And as for the multi-talented Denk, check out his recent, revealing, and witty essay and podcast from the New Yorker.

Jeremy Denk performing Henry Cowell.

Preceding Cowell on program two was Lukas Foss’ fantastic 1967 Phorion, given a perfectly out-there rendition by the Symphony, which feeds ragtag bits of the famed solo violin prelude to Bach’s “Partita in E” (phorion is Greek for borrow or steal) through a phtasmagorical wood-chipper of various twists and inversions that spews forth everything from droopy jazz-surrealism to hard-driving, proto-techno minimalism. It’s a monument of sampling avant la lettre, sure to prick up any iPod-shufflers ears.

There were two slight fizzles on both nights, to my ear. Program one concluded with Charles Ives’ “A Conchord Symphony“ reconfigured, perhaps more accurately “massaged,” from other Ives works, (including his brilliant “Concord Sonata,” from around 1916) by comtemporary Canadian composer Henry Brandt. The piece — craggy, magniloquent, full of profound philosophical and unfettered musical ideas — is partly meant to invoke New England and its literary heroes, and in recordings is an excellent rush of jigging melody lines and bracing moods. Goatish, devoted, unabashedly intellectual, Ives is the spiritual godfather of American musical mavericks (and Mavericks), and MTT is one of his great champions. So I expected much. Here’s the Symphony’s recorded version:

But after the first two luminous movements the orchestra sounded a bit ragged (understandable in the face of the huge Mavericks project), the work lost some shape, and we ended up getting more a series of declarative statements than a metaphysical journey through the East Coast of the mind. (The great game of “Concord” is to see how many times Ives references those famous mortal knocks that open Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, which is kinda fun.) At the end we’re supposed to be soul-hiking under the wheeling stars with Thoreau, but it felt more like soaking in a hot tub with the Sidewalk Guru from “Doonesbury” and a glass of good champagne.

Carl Ruggles’ “Sun-treader“ of 1926-31 concluded program two, and tapped into a strident strain of deliberative machismo and sci-fi nerdiness that brought to mind none other than Newt Gingrich, of all people. Cosmic bombast is the aim of this 13-minute brass-churning blast, a fanfare to Big Idea perserverance. It came off as dude music in the extreme, which may have perked up some of the unwilling husbands in the house, but after all that came before seemed a wee bit threadbare in its unrelenting bravado. Still, it cut a bold, bronze shape in the quivering air.

Wear it out

Andrew Lam

March 14, 2012

marke@sfbg.com

SUPER EGO “It’s the post-Apocalyptic story of a cultlike group of women who are completely crazy and believe that by sacrificing ‘Paulina’ they can bring some order to the chaos in their lives,” super-stylish designer (and renowned club sweetheart) Dexter L. Flawk tells me of his debut collection. “In reality, it’s a Pan’s Labyrinth version of my last relationship.”

With a fashion show splash, including DJs Richie Panic and Sarah Delush, visuals by naughty hyperrealist merkley???, an opening show by Irukandji, and glamour surely galore, “Death to Paulina” by Dextrose launches on Fri/16 (9 p.m., $5. Project One, 251 Rhode Island, SF. www.facebook.com/projectonesf). “Spooky couture” in sexy excess? We’re ready for it, methinks.

MINGUS DYNASTY

Fellow freaks know I’m a bass fanatic — that extends to the jazz realm and the godfather of out-there analogue double bass bliss, Charles Mingus. On the avant-garde legend’s 90th birthday, excellent seven-piece ensemble Mingus Dynasty will bring the almighty heat to life, trippy bass flights included.

Wed/14, 8pm and Thu/15, 8pm and 10pm, $20–$26. Yoshi’s SF, 1330 Fillmore, SF. www.yoshis.com

WILDKATS

Cute but skinny Scottish-US DJ trio bring warm, funky 1980s-looking house sounds (a few sharp claws and a lot of meows) to the weekly Housepitality party.

Wed/14, 9 p.m., free before 11pm with RSVP at www.housepitalitysf.com/rsvp, $10 after. Icon, 1192 Folsom, SF.

PREFUSE 73

Saw this future bass dude a couple years ago at Slim’s with a live drummer and it b-l-e-w me away. On 103 Harriet’s amps — and backed by indie rap beats dropper Blockhead and super-eclectic cutie Falty DL — he should be insane. This Re:Creation party doubles as a release for Hot N Heavy Bay Area Bass Vol. 3 , so the local wobblerati will be front and center.

Fri/16, 9pm-4am, $15 advance, $20 door. 103 Harriet, SF. www.1015.com

DJ QUESTLOVE

Love me some teddy bear Philly rap Roots-lovin’ from the ?uest man. And dying to see what cuts he brings to the Independent dance floor. If he wipes the vinyl with his afro I will faint and throw my panties, in that order.

Fri/16, 8:30pm doors, 9pm show, $30. The Independent, 628 Divisadero, SF. www.theindependentsf.com

DAN BELL

The early Canadian techno ambassador and Accelerate label owner melded true electro energy to the deep Chicago Trax Records sound — and gave it a steely Detroit edge. He’ll be turning up the electrics with some of my favorite local deep techno DJs, including Rich Korach and Bells & Whistles.

Sat/17, $10 with RSVP at www.sensesf.com/show, $15 without. EndUp, 401 Sixth St., SF. www.theendup.com

NOISE NIGHT

Let’s get noisy in a “contemporary classical” way. A perfectly scrappy, leftfield complement to the huge American Mavericks festival going on at the SF Symphony, this aurally intriguing-looking night has the William Winant Percussion Ensemble playing New Mexican composer James Tenney’s “Crystal Canon” and “Wake,” plus Blood Wedding, Horaflora, Ettrick, and DJ Geeta Dayal.

Tue/20, 9:30ish, $6. Amnesia, 853 Valencia, SF. www.amnesiathebar.com

For Marke B.’s weekly and monthly party picks, see www.sfbg.com/nightlife2012. “Death to Paulina” preview photo from www.jonathansaunders.com

Against the grain

March 6, 2012

marke@sfbg.com

MUSIC It began as a burbling “Eeep!” It was June 7, 2000; we were in Davies Symphony Hall, in the middle of the second movement of Charles Ives’ super-intense Symphony No. 4 from 1910-1916. Yet despite the whirling maelstrom of that work — imagine three Fourth of Julys at once, in which a vast orchestra overlaps itself with marching band themes, spirituals, dance hall ditties, and children’s songs — I could still make out curious sounds coming from the audience behind me. Soon onlookers were shouting out nonsense; one down our row jumped up from his seat. For my part, I felt my shoulders twitch involuntarily, and my partner let out a loud hee-haw guffaw. The memory-triggering dissonance, expertly transmitted through conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, was having a spazzifying physical effect, making us active participants in Ives’ chaotic Main Street Parade.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYvWwI6YRsE

San Francisco has never lacked for excellent performances of works still often classified as “contemporary classical,” despite many being a century old. But the first American Mavericks festival, more than a decade ago, did much to elevate San Francisco’s status in the cultural world at large. We were at the very edge of the tech bubble, a maverick cultural achievement of its own, of course. Yet not much bold, native art had risen in response to all that “future now” attention and money. The much-hyped Mission School visual art movement was in its infancy, and concerned more with hermetic understatement than Bay reppin’ (a nice answer, in its way, to Web 1.0 bombast). Native dance music forms like turntablism and dirty breaks were being superseded by bland lounge house, hyphy was only hatching, Green Day was over, and literature hadn’t yet been Eggered and Chaboned.

The SF Symphony is justly famed for its impeccably polished sound and MTT’s cheeky programs pairing classical comfort food with spunky aperitifs. But American Mavericks was pretty damned ballsy for a major symphony — almost a month’s worth of edgy, attention-grabbing, well-funded gems from 20th century composers like Ruth Crawford Seeger, George Antheil, Meredith Monk, Duke Ellington, Steve Reich, Frank Zappa, Lukas Foss, and a dozen more. There was a plethora of symphonic reconfigurations and unique instrumentations: an extra brass section blared from the basement for the Ives symphony; audience members brought their own instruments to play along with Terry Riley’s ecstatic “In C.” At a very materialistic moment, American Mavericks illuminated the wild-eared, transcendentalist spirit of native music while showing the world that SF still had a huge, unfettered freak flag to fly.

American Mavericks is back Thu/8-Sun/18, this time spreading its wings to include Symphony stops in Chicago, Ann Arbor, and Carnegie Hall. And while some have bemoaned fewer and somewhat less ambitious performances on the whole (we’re in a recession, after all), there are plenty of pieces to jump up and shout about.

Ives returns, this time with astonishing masterpiece A Concord Symphony — I always hear crisp leaves crunch beneath my mental feet when this is played. Profoundly quirky enchantress Meredith Monk is back as well: in a coup of idiosyncrasy, she’ll be singing John Cage’s Song Books with magnificent diva Jessye Norman and experimental champion Joan La Barbara. Later, Hometown hero John Adams will premiere a new work, Absolute Jest, as will local techno-influenced composer Mason Bates, with “Mass Transmission.” There’s loads more packed into a mere 10 days, including pieces from Oakland instrument-inventor Harry Partch, San Francisco Tape Music Center founder Morton Subotnick, and Bay Area indigenous music devotee Lou Harrison.

Will it have the same cultural impact? Here we are back in an overconfident tech bubble — and once again our total cultural output seems a bit, well, blah. An irony of the social media onslaught is that all this personal expression seems to be quashing true individuality. So we’re having a materialist and conformist moment. A good dose of musical eccentricity from old school visionaries/crazies who turned their backs on the rat race might just do us a world of good. Here’s to more “Eeeps!” among the bleeps.

AMERCAN MAVERICKS FESTIVAL

Thu/8-Sun/18, various prices and times

Davies Symphony Hall

201 Van Ness, SF.

(415) 864-6000

www.americanmavericks.org

The organ, the laptop, and ‘Digital Loom’

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

March 2, 2012

The organ, the laptop, and ‘Digital Loom’

The SF Symphony’s awesome-looking American Mavericks festival — which will present a “wild side” of contemporary and modernist classical works not often heard on a Davies Hall scale (Meredith Monk! Jessye Norman singing John Cage!) — kicks off next week with a host of edgy aural goodies.

And this Sun/4, in a kind of pre-fest wallop, Quebecoise organist Isabelle Demers will take advantage of the enormous Davies pipes to play a number of neat pieces, including one by SF’s electronic-adventurous Mason Bates, entitled “Digital Loom,” (hear a sample here). “Digital Loom,” from 2009, embodies Bates’ signature fusion of techno-ambient effects, often laptop generated, with symphonic elements to create something not quite Sci-Fi, not quite rave, not quite Stravinsky at his most cosmic-colorful, but all quite cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bin545LXrRY

The Symphony has featured Bates before, you could spot him with his laptop in the midst of the players on one particular brain-tickling, multi-media occasion, generating drum patterns and swoops and swooshes for his major piece “The B-Sides” in 209. He also DJs around town as DJ Masonic, and hosts his occasional dancefloor-meets-classical party with young conductor Benjamin Schwarz, Mercury Soul.

It will be a total treat to hear the super-dextrous Demers take on “Digital Loom” on a Sunday afternoon (partly to see how she actually performs it), in the midst of an ambitious program that also includes Bach, Prokofiev, Henry Martin, and Rachel Laurin. Organ and electronica fanatics unite!

ORGAN RECITAL WITH ISABELLE DEMERS

Sun/4, 3 p.m., $20-$30

Davies Symphony Hall

201 Van Ness, SF

Complete event details here

Check out what our friends over at the SF Symphony are up to this week

Maria Poblet

January 11, 2012

Here is a 30-second time-lapse clip of the Davies Symphony Hall stage as it’s gussied up for the SF Symphony’s production of Debussy’s Le Martyre de Saint Sèbastien this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, January 12-14 at 8pm. Director-designer Anne Patterson’s newly created multi-media treatment, with projected visuals and staged elements, accompanies each performance of Debussy’s sweeping score to bring the pageant-like, gothic, nature of the work to life. Don’t miss your chance to see it live!

Buy tickets and get more info here or call (415) 864-6000.

Our Weekly Picks: January 11-17

Andrew Lam

January 10, 2012

WEDNESDAY 11

The Finches

The Finches are keen on the sounds of the 1960s and ’70s. While checking the band’s website recently, I found a couple of mixes that founding members Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs and Aaron Olson put together, comprised of songs by Harry Nilsson, Donovan, the Byrds, Joni Mitchell, and others. You might have been able to guess that they listened to some of those when writing their own songs. On the Finches’ most recent album, 2011’s On Golden Hill (their first in four years), there are smidgens of proto-punk, psychedelic rock, and singer-songwriter folk soaked in ’60s sheen. But while the band may quote from the past, the music is for now, distinctly their own. (James H. Miller)

With Brainstorm, and the Key Losers

9 p.m., $7

Hemlock Tavern

1131 Polk, SF

(415) 596-7777

Victims Family

With wailing guitar, gruff vocals, and jazzy bass lines, Victims Family has long crouched above the standard crusted punk pack, creating an aggressive punk-jazz-metal hybrid assault with political-circus style lyrics that satisfy the thinking-man’s pit. The long-standing hardcore act — born of Santa Rosa circa 1984 — is on Jello Biafra’s Alternative Tentacles label; AT describes Victims Family’s music in a fittingly verbose fashion: “groove/thrash/bad-acid/punk/noise/metal/samba.” All of the above. The band’s Elbo Room show this week is its first of the year, and the lineup is an Alternative Tentacles Showcase, fleshed out by the excellent Fleshies and Pins Of Light. Here’s to a pit-filled 2012. (Emily Savage)

With Fleshies, and Pins of Light

9 p.m., $10

Elbo Room

647 Valencia, SF

(415) 552-7788

www.elbo.com

THURSDAY 12

Burnt Ones

Though I’m not sure what it is about San Francisco that sparks the formation of retro garage-pop bands, I’m positive that Burnt Ones are doing it better than most. This trio laces sweet pop melodies with heavy reverb for some sweaty, good old fashioned fun. It’s been a while since Burnt Ones released its catchy debut LP Black Teeth & Golden Tongues (Roaring Colonel), yet it remains a staple in my rotation. Check out the addictive single, “Gonna Listen To T.Rex (All Night Long).” If this heavy hitter doesn’t get stuck in your head for the rest of the week, you might wanna get yourself checked out. (Frances Capell)

With the Mallard, and Koko and the Sweetmeats

9 p.m., $6

Hemlock Tavern

1131 Polk, SF

(415) 923-0925

French Cassettes

While there may not be anything explicitly French about this quartet of garage rockers from the Bay, the Baroque pop ménage they embrace along with their refined musical sensibilities suggests the French Cassettes are more quintessentially so than one might imagine. It’s a preference towards subtlety over excess, and an emphasis on the minutiae. A touch of strings here, a tinge of electric energy there, and a deep reserve of catchy hooks borrowed and reinvented from some of their forerunners in pop art. Think Kinks and Beatles, but more demure; The Shins but less morose. Their first EP Summer Darling came out last year and now the band starts the year off rocking ever-so-effortlessly at a divey venue in the Mission. (Courtney Garcia)

9 p.m., $8

Brick and Mortar Music Hall

1710 Mission, SF

(415) 800-8782

www.brickandmortarmusic.com

“Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien”

Here’s the stereotypical scandal in a nutshell: According to Roman Catholic legend, Saint Sébastien was martyred in the third century BCE during Emperor Diocletian’s persecution of Christians. First he was shot through with arrows (the homoerotic possibilities of a half-naked youth being pierced many times while in religious ecstasy has not escaped centuries of artists), then he was clubbed to death. In 1911, French composer Claude Debussy, with Italian poet Gabriele d’Annunzio, wrote a five act mystery about the saint’s life, incorporating narrative and musical accompaniment. But the star ballerina, Ida Rubinstein, was a Jewish woman, so Pope Pius X (himself later canonized) instructed Catholics to shun the performances, martyring the work. Le sigh. Now here’s the music: grounded yet unearthly, full of Debussy’s restless, swirling chords augmented with sacred-sounding chants and hypnotic figures. This multimedia interpretation by the SF Symphony, featuring narrator Frederica von Stade, should shoot to the stars.

Through Sat/14

8 p.m., $35–$140

Davies Symphony Hall

201 Van Ness, SF

(415) 864-6400

FRIDAY 13

“For Your Consideration”

Unless you have the time, coin, and stamina to globe-trot around to every festival, you’re likely missing out on quite a bit of tasty international cinema. Sure, the latest Pedro Almodóvar will always hit the local art-house joint, but more obscure (and no less worthy) films that lack big-money distribution probably will not. Fortunately, San Rafael is a lot closer than Berlin or Cannes, where “For Your Consideration: A Selection of Oscar Submissions from Around the World” unspools starting today, with Sweden’s Beyond (starring Noomi “I Had the Dragon Tattoo First” Rapace); Hungarian standout Béla Tarr’s latest, The Turin Horse; Bulgarian youth-gone-wild treatise Tilt; and several others, including a movie from the Philippines (The Woman in the Septic Tank) that spoofs awards-grubbing “message” films. (Cheryl Eddy)

Through Jan. 19, $6.35–$10.25

Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center

1118 Fourth St., San Rafael

(415) 454-1222

www.cafilm.org

Ellis Avery

“La Belle Rafaela” (1927) is a decadent, highly erotic painting by the Polish Art Deco painter Tamara de Lempicka. The model de Lempicka used for the piece was Rafaela Fano — a woman she hired off the streets of Paris, painted several times, and with whom she became romantically involved. “La Belle” depicts Rafaela as a curvaceous nude, bathed in shadows, and flinching with euphoria. It conveys such feverish sensuality that probably would have been unachievable had the artist’s desires not been utterly real. The painting inspired author Ellis Avery to write The Last Nude, a historical novel that re-imagines the love affair from the perspective of Fano. At Books Inc., Avery reads from this story that plunges into the depths of a forbidden romance set in glamorous 1920s Paris. (Miller)

7:30 p.m., Free

Books Inc.

2275 Market, SF

(415) 864-6777

www.booksinc.net

“Midnites for Maniacs: The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste”

Oh, you didn’t think Midnites for Maniacs programmer Jesse Hawthorne Ficks would program a Friday the 13th flick to coincide with today’s sinister day-and-date combo? (Well, he might, but he’d pick one of the more ridiculous entries, like the one where Jason takes outer space.) Nay, fiends, tonight’s triple-feature is face-warping enough to be themed “The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste.” It kicks off with Sam Raimi’s 1992 Army of Darkness (Bruce. Fucking. Campbell.); followed by American Psycho, which came out in 2000 but remains eerily current in all ways (fashions excepted); and Alice Cooper’s Welcome to My Nightmare, a 1975 concert film capturing the shock rocker in his prime. All this for $12! Hockey mask optional. (Eddy)

7:30 p.m., $12

Castro Theatre

429 Castro, SF

(415) 621-6120

www.castrotheatre.com

Devo

If there is any band that is a testament to the variance in public recognition, it’s Devo. To many, it is simply the band with the flowerpot hats that sang “Whip It.” Another group, however, will assert that Devo is the greatest musical act to ever come out of the Akron, Ohio area (Ha! Take that the Black Keys!) and that those “hats” are in fact Energy Domes. But while its 2010 album Something For Everybody — the first in 20 years since 1990’s Smooth Noodle Maps — was ostensibly market tested to please all camps, it largely represents a return to the formula of cynical yet mind-numbingly catchy pop that made it a quintessential cult band in the first place. (Ryan Prendiville)

Through Sat/14, 9 p.m., $50

Fillmore

1850 Geary, SF

(415) 346-6000

www.thefillmore.com

SATURDAY 14

Coast Jumper

I recently put together a list of my top 10 self-released albums of 2011, and I’m now kicking myself for not listening to Coast Jumper’s ambitious Grand Opening before I did. As far as debuts go, this Bandcamp gem is surprisingly lush and cohesive. There are a few glimpses of Vampire Weekend and Grizzly Bear, but above all Grand Opening presents a young indie rock five-piece making an exciting contribution to our local music scene. So, I’m making a late New Year’s resolution to pay close attention to Coast Jumper in 2012. (Capell)

With Dogcatcher, Briertone, and Colin Carthen

9 p.m., $10

Hotel Utah

500 Fourth St, SF

(415) 546-6300

www.hotelutah.com

SUNDAY 15

Max Cooper

With a PhD in computational biology and a tendency to name, if not organize, tracks after abstract scientific concepts (see the Serie trilogy of Harmonisch, Stochastisch, and Chaotisch) the UK’s Max Cooper could come across as a purely heady figure — a brain floating in a jar in some IDM lab. But Cooper has made a name for himself — appearing on Resident Advisor’s Top 100 DJs of 2011 — with ambient techno that manages to be moving. A delicate, light touch at work, whether a twinkle of keys or burst of static, Cooper’s evocative effects create familiar cinematic imagery: a walk in the rain, a passing car, a gasp emitted from bright red lips. (Prendiville)

With William Wardlaw, Max Jack vs. Pedro Arbulu, Max Gardner vs. Brian Knarfield

9 p.m., $15–$20

Monarch

101 Sixth St., SF

(415) 284-9774

www.monarchsf.com

Vetiver

Vetiver’s lead singer Andy Cabic proved the value of wandering when his strolls through the Richmond District led to another critically-acclaimed album for one of San Francisco’s most compelling folk bands. The band gained serious traction last spring with the release of The Errant Charm, a title hinting there may be inherent misdeed in such vagrancy; though the music, channeling ’60s-style acoustics and California daze, is meant for musing. Through the close of last year the disheveled crooners were playing what seemed like every city in the country, promoting their newest record, and spreading the love. Now they return to their roots. The oracle predicts a jam session on a sparkly night in the Bay. (Garcia)

With Magic Trick, Prairiedog, DJ Britt Govea

8 p.m., $20

Independent

628 Divisadero, SF

(415) 771-1421

www.dayofthedeadsf.org

MONDAY 16

“Martin Luther King Jr. Day Double Feature”

“All of us have something to say, but some are never heard” — Richard Pryor, Wattstax (1973). MLK Jr. Day calls into question how we remember the past. The Wattstax concert is sometimes recalled derivatively as “the black Woodstock.” But while soul music may have been the response, the event was put on by Stax Records to commemorate and come to terms with the seventh anniversary of the Watts Riots in LA, which challenged the limits of MLK Jr.’s nonviolent philosophy. As a double feature the Wattstax documentary will be shown with The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011), a revelatory look at a movement’s era that sadly took the distance of continent and a few decades to make. (Prendiville)

Wattstax 3, 7p.m.; The Black Power Mixtape 4:55, 8:55 p.m., $7.50–$10

Castro Theatre

429 Castro, SF

(415) 621-6120

www.castrotheatre.com

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Dickens and drag queens and dreidels (oh my!)

Andrew Lam

November 22, 2011

Dickens and drag queens and dreidels (oh my!)

culture@sfbg.com

HOLIDAY GUIDE 2011 You know what would be a good present to yourself this holiday season? Some ankle weights. Imagine all the almond cake and vegan eggnog you’ll have shoved into your belly by this time next month, you soon-to-be-less-svelte snowy sexpot. Not into approximating a house arrest prisoner? How about pledging to run about to as many as the Bay’s holiday hotspots as possible this year — you’ll be a Kwanzaa cutie in no time a’tall. And with such jingling gems — from costume fairs to drag queens in Union Square and free chamber orchestra performances — you’ll come out on the other side (2012) cut and cultured.

Union Square iceskating rink Good news for nervous wall-grabbers and double axel spinners alike: the holiday ice rink is back at Union Square. Cue icicle lights, grand romantic gestures, and seizing onto strangers for suddenly-needed support.

Through Jan. 16. 10 a.m.-11:30 p.m. except for when closed for private parties, $10 for 90-minute session. Union Square, SF. www.unionsquareicerink.com

Great Dickens Fair Before Harry Potter and Kate Middleton transformed young Americans into full-blown Anglophiles, a whole different conception of Britain flourished stateside: the Dickensian version, replete with scones and hot toddies. Walk off your burgeoning middle with a jaunt through the Cow Palace’s temporary lamp-lit alleys.

Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 18, 11 a.m.-7 p.m., $25. Cow Palace, 2600 Geneva, SF. www.dickensfair.com

“The Best Time of Year” SF Symphony Christmas special concert The San Francisco Symphony and Chorus exhale classical Christmas picks and carols to a fully-bedecked Davies Symphony Hall.

Nov.30-Dec.1, 8 p.m., $25–$68. Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness, SF. (451) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org

Working Solutions holiday gift fair Showcasing San Francisco businesses assisted by Working Solutions’ micro loan programs, this fair lets shoppers pick up everything from Bernal Heights-wrought knives to chunks of Mission-crafted chocolate.

Dec. 1, 5-8 p.m., free. 101 Second St., SF. (415) 655-5433, www.tmcworkingsolutions.org

The Golden Girls: The Christmas Episodes Trannyshack takes on the blue-haired wonder that was The Golden Girls in a glitzy, raucous yearly San Francisco tradition.

Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays Dec. 1-23, 8 p.m., $25–$30. Victoria Theater, 2961 16th St., SF. www.trannyshack.com

A Christmas Carol There’s no better way to get in the mistletoe mood than to watch old Ebenezer slowly thaw out his icy, pinched heart in the Deco glory of the ACT Theatre.

Dec. 1-24, 7 p.m., $20–$75. American Conservatory Theatre, 415 Geary, SF. (415) 749-2228, www.act-sf.org

Holiday tree-lighting ceremony Jack London Square becomes a Bay-side holiday crèche two hours with live reindeer, snow, wintry tunes, and a tree-lighting to launch the flurry of the holidays.

Dec. 2, 5-7 p.m., free. Jack London Square, Oakl. www.jacklondonsquare.com

Oakland-Alameda Estuary lighted yacht parade How can yachts parade, you ask? With style, we answer — East Bay boat owners trick out their vessels with festive lights visible from the shore.

Dec. 3, 5:30 p.m., free. Visible from Jack London Square, Oakl. www.lightedyachtparade.com

Fantasy of Lights celebration ‘Tis the season for brilliant night-time lights, and Union Street will not be an exception. Stately Victorians provide the glowing background for a holiday gathering featuring everything from a monkey to Santa and his elves.

Dec. 3, 3-7 p.m., free. Union between Van Ness and Steiner, Fillmore between Union and Lombard, SF. www.sresproductions.com

San Francisco Forest Choir Imagine yourself in a snowy Narnia glen, the Forbidden Forest, or roaming through the woods with Hansel and Gretel to the music of the San Francisco Forest Choir, an all-female group who sing in Japanese and English at the Western Addition library.

Dec. 3, 3-4 p.m., free. Western Addition branch library, 1550 Scott, SF. (415) 355-5727, www.sfpl.org.

Sharon Art Studio winter pottery and craft sale Thousands of gleaming pieces are up for sale by this staple of the Bay Area craft scene; lug your loot home and get your bicep curls out of the way for a week.

Dec. 4, 11 a.m., free. Sharon Art Studio, Children’s Playground, Golden Gate Park, SF. (415) 753-7005, www.sharonartstudio.org

SF Chamber Orchestra holiday family concert Circus Bella and the SF Chamber Orchestra team up for a strangely compelling holiday pairing: clownish acrobatics set to the strains of classical music.

Dec. 4, 3-4 p.m., free with RSVP. Bayview Opera House, 4705 Third St., SF. (415) 824-0386, www.bayviewoperahouse.org

Gourmet Ghetto’s snow day For those Bay citizens unfamiliar with the bliss of a true snow day, the Gourmet Ghetto’s version provides a superior version to the rest of the country’s admittedly frigid ones: real snow, yes, but also crafting, hot cocoa and cookies, a Snow Queen, and the warmth of community.

Dec. 5 10 a.m.-3 p.m., free. Andronico’s parking lot, 1550 Shattuck, Berk.; 1-4 p.m., free. M. Lowe and Co., 1519 Shattuck, Berk.; Noon-4 p.m., free. Twig and Fig, 2110 Vine, Berk. www.gourmetghetto.org

“Winter in the Wineries” Sixteen wineries will stamp your passport for a two-month period starting December 2, enabling you to enjoy unlimited tastings, tours, and meet-and-greets throughout Napa Valley.

Various locations and times, Calistoga. www.calistogavisitors.com. $50 for one passport ticket

Palestinian Craft Fair Straight from the hands of Palestinian artists and craftspeople: olive oil-based soap, embroidery, glassware, ceramics, books, honey, and Dead Sea products sold to benefit their makers an ocean away.

Dec. 4, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., free. Live Oak Park, 1301 Shattuck, Berk. (510) 548-0542, www.mecaforpeace.org

“Songs and Harps to Celebrate the Holiday Season” Harpists of the Bay, unite! The young pluckers of the Bay Area Youth Harp Ensemble join the Triskela Celtic Harp Trio to perform holiday pieces from around the world. Singing along is not only encouraged but expected.

Dec. 6, 6 p.m., free. Main Library, 100 Larkin, SF. (415) 557-4400, www.sfpl.org

“Drag Queens on Ice” Break out your very best glitz for a night spent skating next to legions of SF’s drag personalities. A 9:30 p.m. performance by the queens in question ends the evening.

Dec. 8, 8 p.m., $10 for 90-minute session. Union Square, SF. www.unionsquareicerink.com

“A Very Shut-Ins Xmas” The vanguard leaders of the “hulabilly” sound, the Shut-Ins return with a Christmas show to benefit San Francisco’s Legal Assistance to the Elderly.

Dec. 8, 5:30-8 p.m., $20. 50 Mason Social House, 50 Mason, SF. (415) 538-3333, www.laesf.org

Golden Gate Park tree lighting Golden Gate Park’s hundred-foot Monterey cypress (shouldn’t it have a name by now?) transforms into a light-bedecked behemoth for the 82 year.

Dec. 8, 5 p.m., free. McLaren Lodge, 501 Stanyan, SF.

La Cocina gift fair Its cryptic but tasty-sounding “tamale alley” should provide enough of a draw, but La Cocina’s gift fair also promises local vendors selling organic olive oils, handmade pasta, and mushrooms nourished by recycled coffee grounds. Pretty easy to stomach.

Dec. 9, 5-9 p.m., free. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, 2868 Mission, SF. www.lacocinasf.org

Winter Wunderkammer holiday art sale The most you can spend here on one item is 50 bucks, the least a dollar. Accompanied by spiced wine and tunes, small-format works from local artists are on sale. Proceeds from this walk-in curio cabinet benefit The Lab and participating artists.

Opening party Dec. 9, 6-11 p.m., free. Also Dec. 10, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., free. The Lab, 2948 16th St., SF. (415) 864-885, www.thelab.org

California Revels Ah, the revels. This year, the interactive period presentation will sit you smack down at the Round Table. Dance and sing, young knight — no one’s mocking you at this costume-heavy conclave.

Dec. 9-11, 16-18; Fri. 8 p.m., Sat. and Sun. 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., $19-52. Scottish Rite Theater, 2850 19th Ave., SF. (510) 452-8800, www.californiarevels.org

SF Ballet’s Nutcracker Even with its lampoonable name, the Nutcracker remains a incomparable date choice for its lush costumes, fantastical storyline, and ability to trigger childhood flashbacks.

Dec. 9-25, various times, $25–$285. War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness, SF. (415) 865-2000, www.sfballet.org

Misfit Toy Factory For one evening, artists cobble together sculptures, toys, and gifts under one roof to the beat of DJ Yukon Cornelius. Items are sold at the end of the evening for a fixed price of forty dollars.

Dec. 10, 7-10 p.m., free. Root Division, 3175 17th St., SF. (415) 863-7668, www.rootdivision.org

The Revolutionary Nutcracker Sweetie A radical alternative to the holiday classic, Dance Brigade’s version features Clara, an undocumented worker, a homeless Sugar Plum Fairy, and an angel of resistance.

Dec. 10, 2 p.m. and 6 p.m.; Dec. 11, 1 p.m. and 5 p.m., $15–$17. Brava Theater, 2781 24th St., SF. www.dancemission.com

Hanukah festival of light Geared towards the younger set and their handlers, the JCC East Bay’s festival of light features storytelling, menorah making, dreidel games, and a concert by Isaac Zones, a mainstay in the Bay’s Jewish music scene.

Dec. 11, 10 a.m-2 p.m., $5. JCC East Bay, 1414 Walnut, Berk. www.jcceastbay.org.

“Holidays: Christmas, Chanukah, and Other Festive Celebrations” lecture Library docents present an examination of paintings from around the world dealing with everyone’s favorite subject: the giving, feasting, and receiving endemic to the holiday season.

Dec. 14, 6:30-7:30 p.m., free. Glen Park branch library, 2825 Diamond, SF. (415) 355-2858, www.sfpl.org

Mechanics’ Institute holiday gift and poster sale The staggeringly lovely Mechanics’ Institute hosts a large sale of hard-cover and paperback books, gifts, and posters straight from its library.

Dec. 15, 4:30-6:30 p.m., free. Mechanics’ Institute, 57 Post, SF. (415) 393-0100, www.milibrary.org

Holiday youth mariachi concert Three zestful youth mariachi bands perform traditional Mexican holiday music, providing an energizing segue into a sometimes exhausting season.

Dec. 16, 7:30 p.m., $10. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts, 2868 Mission, SF. (415) 643-2785, www.missionculturalcenter.org

Holiday Memories double feature Head back to the times of toboggans and candle-lit windows with two short films recounting rural winters of yesteryear. A Child’s Christmas in Wales visualizes Dylan Thomas’ Welsh childhood; The Sweater animatedly recounts Roch Carrier’s Quebecois, hockey-centered upbringing.

Dec. 17, 2 p.m., free with $15 museum admission. The Exploratorium, 3601 Lyon, SF. (415) 561-0360, www.exploratorium.edu

Renegade Craft Fair holiday market For the third year and showcasing more than 250 makers and craftspeople, the Renegade Craft Fair’s holiday happening can be a bit overwhelming. But it’s an undeniably great answer to gifting woes: pick up jewelry, body products, paper goods, clothing, and way, way more, all DIY enough to satisfy your most loca-ttired friend.

Dec. 17-18, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., free. Concourse Exhibition Center, 635 Eighth St., SF. www.renegadecraft.com

Reclaiming Yule ritual It may be chilly outside, but Sebastapol’s midwinter celebration (led by Starhawk, a leader in Bay Area earth-based spirituality) is indoors and full of warmth-inducing activities, namely dancing in honor of the Earth and Sun.

Dec. 18, 6:30 p.m., $7. Sebastopol Community Center, 390 Morris, Sebastapol. www.reclaiming.org

Solstice Eve celebration With a bonfire and roles doled out to participants (rocks, trees and mists), celebrating the longest night of the year on Ocean Beach is actually rather toasty. Bring items to release into the transformative fire — love letters are just the starting point.

Dec. 20, 3:30 p.m., free. Ocean Beach at Taraval, SF. www.reclaiming.org

Bill Graham menorah lighting The lighting itself takes place at 5 p.m., but the hours-long run-up is by no means lacking: traditional Jewish music, arts and crafts, and menorahs for every child fill Union Square starting at 3 p.m.

Dec. 20, 5 p.m., free. Union Square, SF. www.chabadsf.org

Kujichagulia celebration Kwanzaa’s day of personal definition and expression comes to City Hall, followed by a candle-lighting ceremony and dinner at Gussie’s, known for its fried tasties, red velvet cake, and Southern sweet tea.

Dec. 27, noon, City Hall, SF., 6 p.m., Gussies Chicken and Waffles, 1521 Eddy, SF. www.kwanzaasanfrancisco.com

Ujima celebration On Ujima, the third day of the week-long Kwanzaa holiday, community members gather to celebrate a collective spirit of responsibility and work.

Dec. 28, 3-6 p.m., free. Bayview Hunters Point YMCA, 1601 Lane, SF. www.sfpl.org

Keeping Score: Ives Holiday Symphony screening Unrecognized at the time of his death, experimentalist composer Charles Ives labored over his Holiday Symphony, which now gets fitting recognition by the San Francisco Symphony in a library concert that follows an hour-long documentary on the man.

Dec. 29, noon, free. Main Library, 100 Larkin, SF. (415) 557-4400, www.sfpl.org

Kuumba celebration Fittingly, the main San Francisco celebration of Kwanzaa’s Kuumba (day of creativity) occurs in the Jazz Heritage Center, a space shared by musical hotspot Yoshi’s. Celebrate the Fillmore’s manifold musical virtuosos on the last day of the year.

Dec. 31, 1-5 p.m., free. Jazz Heritage Center, 1330 Fillmore, SF. www.jazzheritagecenter.org

Start your day off dead: Your Dia de los Muertos events guide

Andrew Lam

November 2, 2011

There is probably no more devastatingly beautiful day in San Francisco as today, Dia de los Muertos. It’s more neighborly than Burning Man Decompression, more colorful than a march on the Federal Building — and has more emphasis on colored tissue paper than even the Mission’s spectacular Carnival parade (see here for last year’s Guardian photo gallery). Peep the community altars at SOMArts Cultural Center (above) and read on for more on where you can let those skeletons out of the closet.

So who are you remembering this year? At SOMArts “Illuminations” altar exhibition (read our interview from last year with Rene and Rio Yañez, the father-son team that curates the event) this year’s artists have created homages to Martha Sanchez, deceased doyenne of the Casa Sanchez taqueria and brain behind everyone’s favorite cheap tortilla chips; friends who passed away in the San Bruno fires; victims of Hurricane Katrina; and Pablo Picasso. Rene Yañez’ 3-D art pops from one end of the maze of installations.

You still have ’til Saturday to check those out, but be sure you drop through the Mission tonight if you haven’t seen the explosion of creativity that goes into all the house parties, kids costumes, dance performances, and altars artistically lounging about Parque de los Niños Unidos this time of year.

“Illuminations” altar exhibit

Through Sat/5

Closing party: Sat/5 6-9 p.m., $6-$10 suggested donation

SOMArts Cultural Center

934 Brannan, SF

(415) 863-1414

www.somarts.org

Day of the Dead procession

Join in with your still-living loved ones — contrary to popular belief, facepaint and costumes are not required — and march to the park where all the altars are set up. In prior years, the parade has been marked by paper mache puppetry on a massive scale, dance performances, and cross-cultural celebration.

7 p.m., free

22nd St. and Bryant, SF

Day of the Dead Festival of Altars

Genuflect in front of the wall of Michael Jackson remembrances (one of last year’s efforts), or just kick back and take pleasure in a Mission District park full of happy families — and sure, partying — after dark. This is one of the neighborhood’s most special happenings of the year.

6-11 p.m., free

Garfield Park

26th St. and Harrison, SF

www.dayofthedeadsf.org

SF Symphony Dia de los Muertos family performance

Mexican tenor David Lomelí will join the symphony’s world-class cast for this family day on Van Ness Street. “Besame Mucho,” “Granada,” and works by Mexican composers will stud the program, and from 1 p.m. traditional dancers strut their stuff in the lobby, right by the tables full of pan de muerto and Mexican hot chocolate drinks.

1 p.m. procession, 2 p.m. performance, $15–$68

Davies Symphony Hall

201 Van Ness, SF

(415) 552-8338

See listings for more dead head events

Our Weekly Picks: October 26-November 1

Andrew Lam

October 25, 2011

WEDNESDAY 26

Yngwie Malmsteem

Coming to prominence in the early 1980s, master guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen blew listeners away with classically-inspired shredding and a flashy style that displayed his incredible technical prowess on the instrument. The virtuoso has released a slew of metal and rock records that show off his scorching solos, but he has also put out albums featuring classical and orchestral compositions and collaborations with groups such as the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Malmsteen, whose latest effort Relentless (Universal) came out last year, continues to hone his fancy fretwork — don’t miss out on your chance to see him “unleash the fury!” (Sean McCourt)

8 p.m., $30

Fillmore

1805 Geary, SF

(415) 346-6000

www.thefillmore.com

“Desdemona”

Determining to write a response to Othello following Peter Sellars’ controversial staging in New York in 2009, world renowned author Toni Morrison teamed up with famed theater-opera director Sellars and acclaimed West African singer Rakia Traoré to craft this unique piece of music theater, making its US premiere in Berkeley. Taking her cue from a couple of brief but suggestive lines in Shakespeare’s text, Morrison imagines a reunion beyond the grave between Desdemona and the African woman who raised her, in a song cycle combining traditional West African compositions with original ones penned by Traoré and Morrison. From this encounter come hints of a new future based on a world that was always deeply interconnected.(Robert Avila)

Through Sat/29, 8 p.m., $100

Zellerbach Playhouse

101 Zellerbach Hall, Berk.

(510) 642-9988

www.calperformances.org

THURSDAY 27

“Lumière and After”

Although Louis Lumière famously described cinema as “an invention without a future” not long after having a major hand in inventing it, the beautifully composed single shot actualities he produced with his brother Auguste still have a strong hold on the motion picture imagination. An intriguing Cinematheque program lines up several shorts directly inspired by the Lumières along with a handful of the original articles. Expect work by avant-garde materialists like Ken Jacobs and Peter Tscherkassky along with Andrew Norman Wilson’s fascinating short Workers Leaving the Googleplex. The latter drills holes in the search engine’s labor practices by way of revisiting the Lumières’ first publicly screened film (Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory). The Cinematheque screening sets the stage for Bring on the Lumière!, an original choreographic work premiering at the ODC Theater in a couple of weeks. (Max Goldberg)

7:30 p.m., $10

Artists’ Television Access

992 Valencia, SF

(415) 824-3890

www.sfcinematheque.org

FRIDAY 28

“Kevin Smith’s Halloween Extravaganza”

Do you like your spooky mixed with side-splitting hilarity? Then celebrate All Hallows Eve the “View Askewniverse” way with “Kevin Smith’s Halloween Extravaganza!” Writer and director Smith, known for his movies such as Clerks, Dogma and Chasing Amy, and actor Jason Mewes bring their “Jay and Silent Bob Get Old” live podcast show to the city tonight for what promises to be wildly funny romp through all manner of subject and story. Afterward, stick around for a screening of the horror flick Red State, Smith’s latest work, for which he will also partake in an audience Q&A. (McCourt)

7 p.m., $55

Castro Theatre

429 Castro, SF

(415) 621-6120

www.castrotheatre.com

Get Dead

San Francisco troublemakers Get Dead were forged in the furnace of rad. The punk five-piece’s interests include drinking gin out of pineapples and getting banned for life from local venues. Get Dead’s shows are rough, rowdy, and downright unforgettable. Charismatic leader Sam King is temporarily relocating to Costa Rica, so this Halloween bash is also a going away party. King returns in February, when the band will release an acoustic album featuring a slew of California collaborators. Go buy him a shot and raise some hell. (Frances Capell)

Slick’s Helloween Bash With Code 4-15, Murderland, Lazerwolf, and AxeWound

10 p.m., free

Rockit Room

406 Clement, SF

(415) 387-6343

www.rock-it-room.com

SATURDAY 29

Journey to the End of the Night

A citywide game modeled after tag, Journey to the End of the Night has become one of the most popular street games in the world since its inception in 2006; now played everywhere from Chicago to Vienna, Mexico City to Berlin. In San Francisco last year, 1,300 participants flooded the streets in play. A brief rundown of the rules: there are six check points scattered throughout the city that you must try to get to, either on foot or by public transit, without being caught by “chasers,” those that do everything in their power to stop you. If caught by a chaser, you become a chaser. The first to the last checkpoint wins. Meet at Justin Herman Plaza and include friends, certainly, but the website recommends you bring “ones you can outrun.” Tag, you’re it (James H. Miller)

7 p.m., Free

Justin Herman Plaza

End of Market at Embarcadero, SF

www.totheendofthenight.com

“Diary of a Country Priest”

Diary of a Country Priest (1951), written and directed by Robert Bresson and adapted from the novel by Georges Bernanos, is a film that is so earnest and heartrending that it doesn’t feel entirely of this world. When a sickly priest (Claude Laydu, who lived in a monastery to prepare for the role) is assigned to his first parish in a small village devoid of faith or morals, he’s met with blatant hostility and outcast as a fool (the character recalls Myshkin from Dostoevsky’s The Idiot). Using dialogue pulled directly from the novel, Country Priest has scenes of such emotional intensity and suspense that it will make you ache in the gut, or,stir your very soul. If you feel nothing watching this film, you’re missing a heart. (Miller)

Sat/29, 7:30 p.m.; Sun/30, 2 p.m.; $8

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

701 Mission, SF

(415) 978-2787

www.ybca.org

SUNDAY 30

“The Phantom of the Opera: Halloween Concert with Cameron Carpenter”

Juilliard-trained Cameron Carpenter been called “a talent of Mozartean proportions” and “the bad boy of the organ;” the bio on his slick website speaks breathlessly not only of his talents on the keys, but also his “Swarovski-encrusted performance wear and organ shoes.” He may be from Pennsylvania, but it sounds like he’ll fit in just fine in Halloween-crazed San Francisco — specifically at the SF Symphony’s annual silent-film screening. This year’s flick is the 1925 Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney; Carpenter performs a short recital and accompanies the film on Davies Symphony Hall’s insanely grand Ruffatti pipe organ. (Cheryl Eddy)

8 p.m., $20–$60

Davies Symphony Hall

201 Van Ness, SF

(415) 864-6000

Anamanaguchi

Are you a bad enough dude? A chip-rock band hailing from New York, Anamanaguchi’s music comes as much from hacked Gameboys as it does electric guitars. Following its Dawn Metropolis LP in 2009 the band was tapped to create the epic soundtrack to the epic video game based on the epic indie comic Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. Imagine Rivers Cuomo brawling through a side-scrolling beat ’em up of your youth and you’ll have some idea of what it sounds like. The live show is a frenetic, hyper affair. (Try to resist the familiar urge to pick up the person nearest to you and throw them into the crowd. They are not a crate.) (Ryan Prendiville)

With Starscream, Knife City, Crash Faster

8 p.m., $12-$14

Slim’s

333 11th St., SF

(415) 255-0333

www.slims-sf.com

MONDAY 31

“Shock It To Me Halloween Spookenany”

Calling all monster kids! Local promoter and writer August Ragone — who penned the behemoth biography Eiji Tsuburaya: Master of Monsters — has been working in his dungeon lab all year and has created a frightful fete so terrifyingly good it would make Uncle Forry and all his Famous Monsters proud! The “Shock-It-To-Me Halloween Spookenanny” will feature music from rockabilly rumbler Johnny Legend & His Naked Apes (with members of the Mummies and the Chuckleberries,) Beachkrieg, and the Undertaker & His Pals. Host Miss Misery and DJ Omar will lord over the ghoulish gathering, which will also include a “scary screaming contest” and “creepy costume contest” — hopefully security can keep the torch-wielding villagers at bay! (McCourt)

9 p.m., $13–$15

Café Du Nord

2170 Market, SF

(415) 861-5016

www.cafedunord.com

“Fog & Laser 3 — Halloween Spectacular”

In the beginning there was the void. It was really dark and God kept bumping into shit, so God said ‘Let there be lasers.” And there were. But then it was just way too bright and killed the mood, so God said, “Let there be a fog machine.” And that, children, is how the first party came to be. Today, the wise ones know that you don’t need more than that to have a great time. (Well, alcohol, some eclectic indie and electro dance music by DJs RamblinWorker & EmDee , maybe a photobooth — those things help) Oh, and costumes: Adam and Eve had the right idea with the fig leaves, but God thought the snake’s disco ball costume was fucking sweet. (Prendiville)

9 p.m., $7

Makeout Room

3225 22nd St., SF

(415) 647-2888

www.makeoutroom.com

TUESDAY 1

Shantala Shivalingappa

If you want to know why Pina Bausch was enchanted with Kuchipudi performer Shantala Shivalingappa, check out the Madras-born, Paris-raised dancer’s contemporary solo on YouTube. You can’t miss the exquisitely detailed arm and finger gestures that feel like the essence of Indian classicism. Bausch hired Shivalingappa for her “Bamboo Blues” — just about the only “authentic” Indian ingredient in that 2007 work. Last year, Shivalingappa made her San Francisco debut in what she does best, Kuchipudi — the fleet-footed, free-spirited yet ever so disciplined South Indian form. Fabulously musical — she has a first-rate live “band”— expressive and elegant, she made the Tarangam, a rhythmic bravura endeavor in which the dancer performs on the edges of a brass plate look as if she were riding the waves. (Rita Felciano)

8 p.m. $35-50

Herbst Theatre

401 Van Ness, SF

(415) 392-2545

www.sfperformances.org

Youth Lagoon

The recent release of Youth Lagoon’s debut LP The Year Of Hibernation (Fat Possum) has catapulted 22-year-old college student Trevor Powers out of the Boise, Idaho, bedroom where he recorded the album and into the hearts of countless indie kids. Powers began composing wistful, dreamy piano pop as a means of confronting his struggles with anxiety. Since posting his first track as Youth Lagoon in May, he’s emerged as one of the most buzzed about new acts of 2011. Powers is taking his tender, haunting body of work on the road for Youth Lagoon’s first national headlining tour. Don’t miss the kick-off show at Bottom of the Hill on Tuesday. (Capell)

With Young Magic and Parentz

9 p.m., $12

Bottom of the Hill

1233 17th St., SF

(415) 621-4455

www.bottomofthehill.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 Building, 135 Mississippi St., SF, CA 94107; fax to (415) 487-2506; or e-mail (paste press release into e-mail body — no text 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.

Our Weekly Picks: September 7-13

Andrew Lam

September 6, 2011

WEDNESDAY 7

MUSIC

The Jim Jones Revue

On its new album, Burning Your House Down, the Jim Jones Revue has seemingly perfected its rowdy mix of 1950s rock ‘n’ roll and MC5-esque blues-punk. The London five-piece debuted in 2004 with a ramshackle garage rock style and a series of blistering live sets that won over the likes of Liam Gallagher and Jim Sclavunos (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Grinderman) — Sclavunos produced the group’s new LP. The band’s relentless Jerry Lee Lewis-style piano twinkling, punk rock guitars, and rockabilly drumming, coupled with Jones’ intense vocal delivery (an endearing mix of Little Richard yelps and Motorhead gravitas) has earned it a reputation as one of the UK’s can’t miss live acts. (Landon Moblad)

With the Sandwitches

8 p.m., $13–$15 The Independent

628 Divisadero, SF (415) 771-1421

THURSDAY 8

MUSIC

SF Symphony Free 100th Birthday Celebration

Ghirardelli chocolate squares, an afternoon party outside City Hall, and Michael Tilson Thomas conducting the SF Symphony with superstar Chinese pianist Lang Lang — all free? Yep, it’s the centennial celebration of our own musical starship, with two can’t fail crowd-pleasers, Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major and Benjamin Britten’s The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, on the menu. The engaging Lang Lang has a way with Liszt’s Concerto No. 1 — his twinkling flourishes on both its silent-movie villain and John-and-Mary romantic passages can call to mind another flashy Liszt lover, Liberace, but Lang Lang’s technical enthusiasm is all his own. (Marke B.)

11:30 a.m., free

San Francisco City Hall

1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, SF

(415) 864-6000

FRIDAY 9

MUSIC

Christian Marclay

The mad genius-artist-composer-filmmaker who recently unleashed The Clock, an astonishingly well made 24-hour-long film collage on Los Angeles, is one of the highlights of an already awesome San Francisco Electronic Music Festival this year. Marclay, who was actually born just outside of San Francisco in San Rafael, before emigrating to Switzerland as a child, is a master of mezmerization. The sonic tapestries he creates with records were the precursors to turntablism, albeit a more avant-garde version than what has been popularized by DJs in the past several decades, and continue to transgress the boundaries of music and performance. The collage of sounds rendered by Marclay may seem cacophonous, but a hypnotizing rhythm always lurks just below the surface, ready to suck you in if you only let it. (Cooper Berkmoyer)

With Shelley Hirsch, Zachary Watkins, and Jessica Rylan

8 p.m., $16

Brava Theater

2781 24th St., SF

(415) 641-7657

www.sfemf.org

MUSIC

Iris DeMent

Sweet is the voice of Iris DeMent, whose Pentecostal parents kept her singing gospel even after they moved from Arkansas to Orange County. DeMent rolled her complex feelings towards the old time religion into one of the finest opening shots of any debut album: “Let the Mystery Be,” a Marilynne Robinson novel in the shape of a country song. She’s only recorded three albums since that first Infamous Angel (1992), but her songs still radiate hard-won wisdom and calm in concert. She kept the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass hillside hushed a few years ago, and one imagines tonight’s show at the Great American will be far more intimate. (Max Goldberg)

With Kiyoshi Foster

8 p.m., $35

Great American Music Hall

859 O’Farrell, SF

(415) 885-0750

www.gamh.com

MUSIC

Down

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, the devastation was near total. In the wake of the storm, different people coped in different ways. Down used the harrowing experience as inspiration for its most recent album, III: Over the Under, soulful slab of stoner metal that helped excise some of the emotional pain. Drawing on the talents of NOLA metal stalwarts Kirk Weinstein, Phil Anselmo, Pepper Keenan, and Jimmy Bower, the super-group has stayed on tour, shouting out its heavy, Southern Rock-influenced sound in defiance of disaster. (Ben Richardson)

With In Solitude, Ponykiller

8 p.m., $25

The Regency Ballroom

1300 Van Ness, SF

www.theregencyballroom.com

(415) 673-5716

SATURDAY 10

EVENT

Ghirardelli Chocolate Festival

With a name that is among the most synonymous in the world for delicious chocolate, Ghirardelli has been making tasty treats in San Francisco since 1852 — a long standing tradition that has been joined in recent years by the annual Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival, a two-day fete where visitors can sample a wide variety of scrumptious confections from both the famous host company, along with more than 30 other vendors and producers. A variety of cooking demonstrations and live entertainment are also on tap for this sweet event that benefits Project Open Hand. (Sean McCourt)

Through Sun/11, noon-5 p.m., $20 for 15 tastings

Ghirardelli Square

900 North Point St., SF

(415) 775-5500

www.ghirardellisq.com

MUSIC

Rancid

Now twenty years into an impressively steady career, Rancid continues to make a uniquely identifiable version of punk rock that sounds entirely uninterested in modern spins on the genre. The East Bay-born group flirted with the mainstream with hits like “Ruby Soho” and “Time Bomb,” but its catalog goes far deeper than those pop-punk radio gems. From the early skate punk of Let’s Go, to the late period Clash-aping Life Won’t Wait, to the fiery hardcore influences of its self-titled release in 2000, Rancid has cemented itself over the years as one of the essential bands to emerge from the punk revival of the 1990s.(Landon Moblad)

With H20 and DJ J & Nicki Bonner

8 p.m., $24 The Warfield 982 Market, SF (415) 354-0900 www.thewarfieldtheatre.com

MUSIC

Balkans

The swallow-hard, pleading vocals of Balkans — which invoke the Strokes’ Julian Casablancas — occasionally sounds slurred, like perhaps the singer who owns those pipes knocked back a few. And who know, maybe he did. The band is after all said to be influenced by its Atlanta-hometown compatriots the Black Lips — known for destructive antics at live shows. And in a recent interview with video platform Noisey (curated by VICE), Balkans and fans did claim the band has set off fireworks, thrown raw meat, and bled on guitars during shows. Regardless of such stories, it doesn’t get in the way of the music. The fresh-faced 20-somethings, buddies since childhood, spin fuzzy ’60s pop-infused garage rock with jangly guitars — gaining comparisons to both the Walkmen and Television. Those equivalences alone are enough to want to grab a beer. (Emily Savage)

With PS I Love You

9:30 p.m., $10

Hemlock Tavern

1131 Polk, SF

(415) 923-0923

www.theknockoutsf.com

MUSIC

Totimoshi

Totimoshi has always defied categorization. The band, led by the baleful singing and scrabbling guitar of Antonio Aguilar, relies on a rock-solid rhythm section comprised by bassist Meg Castellanos and drummer Chris Fugitt to round out its idiosyncratic hard-rock sound. New album Avenger includes guest spots by Mastodon’s Brent Hinds, the Melvin’s Dale Crover, and Neurosis’ Scott Kelly, which should give you some idea of what’s in store. Catching them in El Rio’s intimate back room will be a great opportunity to see the band putting it’s best foot forward for a hometown crowd. (Richardson)

With Hot Fog, Belligerator

9 p.m., $8

El Rio

3158 Mission, SF

415-282-3325

www.elriosf.com

SUNDAY 11

MUSIC

Slim Cessna’s Auto Club

After a week-long, whiskey-fueled bender that leaves you half dead and nearly broke in a seedy motel room just outside of New Orleans, a sudden concern for your spiritual well being drives you into the dusky sunlight in search of salvation. Bleary eyed and still drunk, you stumble across a small Pentecostal church on an empty street populated by shuttered storefronts and a lone dog. A sign outside reads: “DIVINE HEALING. LIVE MUSIC. SNAKES.” Figuring you’ve got nothing to loose, really, you open the door. The healing is neat, you guess, and hey, who doesn’t love snakes, but the music is like nothing you’ve ever heard before. It’s like Johnny Cash performing an exorcism on Spencer Moody: Slim Cessna’s Auto Club (that’s who played, you later find out) put on one of the best damn shows you’ve ever seen and leaves you grinning . . . but still damned. (Berkmoyer)

With the Ferocious Few and Tiny Televisions

9 p.m., $12

Bottom of the Hill

1233 17th Street

San Francisco, CA

(415) 621-4455

www.bottomofthehill.com

TUESDAY 13

MUSIC

Teen Daze

Ambient pop can go one of two ways; this one goes the right way. True to its name, Teen Daze, sounds as if it he creates music under the lush and youthful haze of teenage emotion. Stretched out in bed, it’s music for you to toss and turn to, giant headphones attached to your head, wrapped in heady thoughts of loves gone by, slight trickles of keyboard optimism bursting over pillowy ambient clouds and pangs of sorrow. Presented by Epicsauce.com and Yours Truly, the show marks the release of the Vancouver, British Columbia-based synth musician’s newest record, A Silent Planet on Waaga Records. Throw on an oversized sweatshirt and let your thoughts get the better of you. (Savage)

With Yalls, Speculator

8 p.m. $6

Public Works

161 Erie, SF

(415) 932-0955

www.publicsf.com

MUSIC

The Vibrators

It’s the Vibrators! The 16-year-old with a safety pin though his cheek and Clorox in his hair that lives at the center of all that is still good in your heart demands that you go see them! Formed in London in 1976, the Vibrators was one of Britain’s first punk bands and 35 years later it’s also one of the longest lasting. Although numerous line-up changes have reduced the band to only one original member, drummer John ‘Eddie’ Edwards, the current three-piece line up can still tear through classics like “Baby, Baby” and “Whips and Furs” with the energy of the good ol’ days of punk and the precision that comes with three odd decades of practice. (Berkmoyer)

With the Meat Sluts, Sassy!!! and Elected Officials

9 p.m., $8

The Knockout

3223 Mission, SF

(415) 550-6994

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 Building, 135 Mississippi St., SF, CA 94107; fax to (415) 487-2506; or e-mail (paste press release into e-mail body — no text 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.

Tango at the symphony? Take a whirl

Tony Robles

July 27, 2011

Feeling some half-priced symphony and live tango dancing? It’s a mash-up of culture this Thursday, July 28 at Davies Symphony Hall. The San Francisco Symphony will performs Antonio Vivaldi’s classic Four Seasons along with a punchier, more colorful take on the four seasons by Astor Piazzolla, Estaciones Porteñas (also known as The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires), beginning at 8 p.m.

The Four Seasons is Vivaldi’s most widely recognized work, with each of the four concertos including sounds and evoking the moods of winter, spring, summer and fall. Piazzolla’s Estaciones Porteñas is a set of four tango compositions that were originally conceived as separate pieces, not meant to be played in once cycle as Vivaldi’s. During the SF Symphony performance, Lara St. John will play The Four Seasons with interweaving movements from Estaciones Porteñas.

In addition to the symphony, there will be pre-concert and intermission tango demonstrations in the upstairs lobby, backed by the live music of Tango Revolution Orchestra. The orchestra is made up of young musicians: students and graduates from conservatories, universities, and community music schools.

Known as a “milonga,” it’s an informal social dance gathering for tango dancers. And audience members will have the opportunity to get in on the tango; Argentine tango teacher Sonja Riket will be on hand to lead informal instruction.

It’s a momentous occasion too: Riket says the event marks the first collaboration between the symphony and Tango Revolution Orchestra.

The Four Seasons and “Milonga de Symphonia”
Thurs/28, 7 p.m., $15-$70 (half off with promo code “July50off”)
Davies Symphony Hall
(415) 864-6000
www.sfsymphony.org

Our Weekly Picks: June 15-21, 2011

Maria Poblet

June 14, 2011

WEDNESDAY 15

EVENT

“Snakes and Lizards: The Summer of Slither”

“It is I; be not afraid.” Such were the comforting words, according to the Gospel of John, spoketh by Jesus C. unto his disciples after he reportedly walked across the sea. Now imagine another creature — right here, right now — capable of sprinting across the water: the neon-emerald mini-pterodactyl “green basilisk lizard,” expressing the same sentiment through its namesake stare. Need you be afraid of the 60 snakes and lizards — collectively known as “squamates” — visiting the California Academy of Sciences till September? Maybe. But these scaly species, along with their academy interpreters, have an important role this summer as live ambassadors from the reptilian realm. You just might find God, the devil, Darwin, or all three. (Kat Renz) Through Sept. 5

Mon.–Sat., 9:30 a.m.–5 p.m.;

Sun., 11 a.m.–-5 p.m., $19.95–$29.95

California Academy of Sciences

55 Music Concourse, Golden Gate Park, SF

(415) 379-8000

www.calacademy.org

THURSDAY 16

PERFORMANCE

Fresh Meat Festival

Fresh Meat, the transgender and queer performance festival, is 10 years fresh this year. And to celebrate, the festival offers its most ambitious program to date, four full nights’ worth of work, including Vogue Evolution, the New York City LGBT street dance group featured on the reality competition America’s Best Dance Crew. Also fleshing out this year’s roster: Los Angeles–based Robbie Tristan and Willem DeVries (same-sex ballroom world champions), New Mexico’s Cohdi Harrell (world-class trapeze artist), Sean Dorsey Dance, Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu (an all-male hula company), the Gay Asian Pacific Alliance Men’s Chorus, glamourpuss singer-songwriter Shawna Virago, and comedian Natasha Muse. (Robert Avila)

Thurs/16–Sat/18, 8 p.m.;

Sun/19, 7 p.m., $15–$20

Z Space at Theater Artaud

450 Florida, SF

www.freshmeatproductions.org

FRIDAY 17

DANCE

Epiphany Productions Sonic Dance Theater

Recently returned from Mexicali, Mexico, the globetrotting choreographer Kim Epifano brings her art and travels back to SF with a home season work at the ODC Theater. Solo Lo Que Fue, a dance film shot at Cantina El Norteño, a historic bar in Mexicali, features a site-specific dance with performers from the region. The program also includes Heelomali, a multimedia piece created with composer and didgeridoo master Stephen Kent and Burmese harp player Su Wai, as well as Alonesome/Twosome, a duet inspired by an airmail drawing sent to Epifano by acclaimed artist Remy Charlip with live music by Epifano and Kent. Enjoy this armchair travel from the theater. (Julie Potter)

Fri/17–Sun/19, 8 p.m.; Sun/19, 7 p.m., $16–$20

ODC Theater

3153 17th St., SF

(415) 863-9834

www.odcdance.org

MUSIC

Horrid Red

Imagine an almost ludicrously compact car of obscure design speeding through the Teutonic countryside. It’s the early to mid-1980s. Driver and passenger, both with shaved heads and dressed entirely in black, are leaving their usual neon-soaked haunts in Berlin for a weekend in the mountains. They are very much in love, and Horrid Red is the soundtrack to their affections. Featuring three-fourths of shitgaze pioneers Teenage Panzerkorps, Horrid Red eschews the aggression of this other incarnation and opts instead for a near-perfect and haunting blend of krautrock, new wave, and early minimalist punk. Split between two continents (vocalist Bunker Wolf lives in Germany while the rest of the band resides right here in San Francisco), Horrid Red is a collaborative effort that only rarely allows for live performance. In other words, don’t miss them. (Cooper Berkmoyer)

With Burial Hex and Brute Heart

9:30 p.m., $8

Hemlock

1131 Polk, SF

(415) 923-0923

SATURDAY 18

DANCE

Patricia Bulitt

Patricia Bulitt is for the birds. Literally. She has been making dances about them for more than 30 years, first in Alaska, most recently in New Zealand and Japan. To her they are harbingers of peace and beauty, qualities she finds woefully absent in our humdrum existence, and her dances honor them. One piece was dedicated to the native birds of Lake Merritt in an Oakland refuge, another to a blackbird residing in grove on the UC Berkeley campus. But her biggest love is the majestic egret. Her Egretfully, performed on the lawn below the nesting couples at the Audubon Canyon Ranch, has become an annual event. (Rita Felciano)

2–4 p.m., free (contributions requested)

Audubon Canyon Ranch

4900 Shoreline Hwy., Stinson Beach

415-868-9244

www.egret.org

MUSIC

Pete Rock

Pete Rock recently tweeted about “dat Montel Williams blender, the fucking truth. Watch ur fingers, dat shit will blend ur joints up nicely lol.” A mainstay of classic 1990s hip-hop, Pete Rock isn’t new to blending, plucking from the depths of R&B, funk, and jazz records for his signature fusion of music styles. With his kitchen blender, Rock concocted an “apple, celery, parsley drink” and declared that “man dis shit is good.” Tonight is the chance to see what he’ll cook up outside the kitchen, as the legendary producer performs a two-hour set. In the spirit of remixes, Yoshi’s offers Japanese delicacies to sample alongside the music. (David Getman)

10:30 p.m., $25

Yoshi’s San Francisco

1330 Fillmore, SF

(415) 655-5600

www.yoshis.com

EVENT

Northern California Pirate Festival

Arrr! Forget about all other expeditions ye may have plotted for this here comin’ weekend, ya lousy bilge rats! Ye best be settin’ sail for swashbuckling adventures of all manner at the fifth annual Northern California Pirate Festival, a true buccaneer’s dream come true. Costumed revelry, sword-fighting, sailing ships, canon firings, music, food, grog, wenches, treasure, and more be in store, whether ye be a seasoned deck hand or a curious landlubber. What better way to spend Father’s Day weekend than to take Dad to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean flick — be warned, ye may want to bring along a healthy ration of rum — and then make way for a festival where you may actually walk away with $5,000 in gold coins and treasure? (Sean McCourt)

10 a.m.–6 p.m., free

Vallejo Waterfront Park

Adjacent to Vallejo Ferry Terminal

298 Mare Island Way, Vallejo

1-800-921-YARR

www.norcalpiratefestival.com

MUSIC

Bill Callahan

Apocalypse, Bill Callahan’s follow-up to 2009’s beautiful Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle, is a striking left turn from the lush production and personal reflection that populated much of that album. Instead, with his deeply rich baritone always front and center in the mix, Callahan has created a song cycle more in line with the fractured folk and wry humor of Smog, the alias he worked under for nearly 20 years. Apocalypse stretches eight songs over the course of 40 minutes, each full of stark takes on American roots music and wrapped in simple, haunting arrangements. It’s another example of Callahan’s slow, steady climb to the upper echelon of modern American songwriters. (Landon Moblad)

With Michael Chapman

9 p.m., $20

Independent

628 Divisadero, SF

(415) 771-1421

www.generationtheatre.com

SUNDAY 19

MUSIC

Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings

To ring in its 74th season of free summer performances, organizers of the Stern Grove Festival enlist Motown-revivalist masters Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. With a massive voice in the lead and instruments authentic to the period, the band is tailor-made for the festival circuit and outdoor arenas. Today’s concert is the first of many to come this summer, including performances by Neko Case, Aaron Neville, and the trifecta that is the SF Symphony, Ballet, and Opera. Nothing beats listening to Sharon Jones and Co. jam — other than listening to Sharon Jones while picnicking on rolling hills.Beer and wine welcome. (Getman)

With Ben L’Oncle Soul

2 p.m., free

Sigmund Stern Grove

19th Ave. at Sloat, SF

(415) 252-6252

www.sterngrove.org

FILM

Wings of Desire

Before there was City of Angels (1998), and before there was “Stillness Is the Move,” there was 1987’s Wings of Desire. Three years after Paris, Texas, German New Wave director Wim Wenders made this art film that went on to inspire that insipid remake, as well as the Dirty Projectors’ pop song. An angel falls for a mortal trapeze artist amid the graffitied wasteland of West Berlin and sheds his wings in exchange for love, mortality, and coffee. With music from Nick Cave and Crime and the City Solution, it’s essential viewing for all the hopeless romantics hopelessly trapped in the ’80s, before being so was hip or ironic. Wenders just knows. (Ryan Lattanzio)

Sun/19–Mon/20, 7:30 p.m.

Also Sun/19, 2 and 4:45 p.m., $6–$9

Red Vic Movie House

1727 Haight, SF

(415) 668-3994

www.redvicmoviehouse.com

PERFORMANCE

“Hubba Hubba Revue: Flying Saucer Beach Party”

In the vein of classic B-movies from the 1950s and ’60s like Horror of Party Beach (1964), Hubba Hubba Revue’s Flying Saucer Beach Party promises to be a sci-fi summer kick off that will deliver a ghoulishly good time. In addition to a bevy of burlesque beauties from the Bay Area and the greater known universe, the afternoon will feature live surf rock from the Deadlies and Pollo Del Mar, special guests Balrok and the Cave Girls from Creepy KOFY Movie Time, a “Martians, Maidens, and Monsters” swimsuit and costume contest, and much more monstrous fun! (Sean McCourt)

2–8 p.m., $10–$12

DNA Lounge

375 11th St., SF

(415) 626-1409

www.dnalounge.com

TUESDAY 21

MUSIC

Martyrdod

When you describe a band as blackened crustcore from Sweden, you’re bound to raise a few eyebrows. Blackened crustcore? Why not just crustcore? Wait … what the hell is crustcore? Martyrdod has been around since 2001 and has consistently carried the banner high for heaviness in punk. What sets it apart from contemporaries, besides how utterly crushing it is, is the subtle way a black metal influence has worked itself into Martyrdod’s records; it’s punk and it’s heavy, but its also gloomy and terse. It’s filled with despair and anger and totally without hope. Think Motorhead if Lemmy was really into Crass and Darkthrone. The atmospheric considerations don’t diminish the intensity of the assault, and Martyrdod emerges on this, its West Coast tour, as a punishing force in punk. (Berkmoyer)

With No Statik and Yadokai

9:30 p.m., $7

Knockout

3223 Mission, SF

(415) 550-6994

www.theknockoutsf.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 Building, 135 Mississippi St., SF, CA 94107; fax to (415) 487-2506; or e-mail (paste press release into e-mail body — no text 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.

Summer fairs and festivals

Maria Poblet

May 17, 2011

ONGOING

Young At Art Festival de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park, SF. (415) 695-2441, www.youngatartsf.com. Through May 22, free. The creative achievements of our city’s youth are celebrated in this eight day event curated and hosted by the de Young Museum.

* Oakland Asian Cultural Center Asian Pacific Heritage Festival Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 Ninth St., Oakl. (510) 637-0462, www.oacc.cc. Through May 26. Times and prices vary. Music, lectures, performances, family-friendly events in honor of Asian and Pacific American culture and traditions.

DIVAfest Exit Theatre, 156 Eddy, SF. (415) 931-2699, www.theexit.org. Through May 28. Times and prices vary. Bastion of the alternative, EXIT Theatre showcases its 10th annual buffet of fierce women writers, performers, and directors. This year features two plays, beat poetry, musical exploration, and more.

* Yerba Buena Gardens Festival Yerba Buena Gardens, Mission and Third St., SF. (415) 543-1718, www.ybgf.org. Through Oct. 31. Times vary, free. A series of cultural events, performances, activities, music, and children and family programs to highlight the green goodness of SoMa’s landscaped oasis.

May 18-June 5

San Francisco International Arts Festival Various venues. (415) 399-9554, www.sfiaf.org. Times and prices vary. Celebrate the arts through with this mish-mash of artistic collaborations dedicated to increasing human awareness. Artists included hail from around the world and right here in the Bay Area.

May 21

* A La Carte & Art Castro St. between Church and Evelyn, Mountain View. (650) 964-3395, www.miramarevents.com. 10am-6pm, free. With vendors selling handmade crafts, microbrewed beers, fresh foods, a farmers market, and even a fun zone for kids, there’s little you won’t find at this all-in-one fun fair.• Asian Heritage Street Celebration Larkin and McAllister, SF. www.asianfairsf.com. 11am-6pm, free. This year’s at the country’s largest gathering of APA’s promises a Muay Thai kickboxing ring, DJs, and the latest in Asian pop culture fanfare — as well as tasty bites to keep your strength up.

Freestone Fermentation Festival Salmon Creek School, 1935 Bohemian Hwy, Sonoma. (707) 479-3557, www.freestonefermentationfestival.com. Noon-5pm, $12. Learn about the magical wonders of fermentation with hands-on and mouth-on demonstrations, exhibits, and tasty live food nibbles.

Uncorked! San Francisco Wine Festival Ghirardelli Square, SF. (415) 775-5500, www.ghirardellisq.com. 1-6pm, $45-50 for tasting tickets, free for other activities. Uncorked! brings you the real California wine experience with tastings, cooking demonstrations, and even a wine 101 class for those who are feeling not quite wine-refined.

May 20-29

SF Sex Worker Film and Art Festival Various venues, SF. (415) 751-1659, www.sexworkerfest.com. Times and prices vary. Webcam workshops, empowering film screenings, shared dialogues on plant healing to sex work in the age of HIV: this fest has everything to offer sex workers and the people who love ’em.

May 22

Lagunitas Beer Circus Lagunitas Brewing Co., 1280 N McDowell, Petaluma. (303) 447-0816, www.craftbeer.com. Noon-6pm, $40. All the wonders of a live circus — snake charmers, plate spinners, and sword swallowers — doing their thing inside of a brewery!

May 21-22

* Maker Faire San Mateo County Event Center, 2495 South Delaware, San Mateo. www.makerfaire.com. Sat, 10am- 8pm; Sun, 10am-6pm, $5-25. Make Magazine’s annual showcase of all things DIY is a tribute to human craftiness. This is where the making minds meet.• Castroville Artichoke Festival Castroville, Calif. (831) 633-0485, www.artichokefestival.org. Sat., 10am- 6pm; Sun., 11 am- 4:30 p.m., free. Pay homage to the only vegetable with a heart: the artichoke. This fest does just that, with music, parades, and camping.

May 28-29

San Francisco Carnaval Harrison between 16th and 22nd St., SF. 10am-6pm, free. The theme of this year’s showcase of Latin and Caribbean culture is “Live Your Fantasy” — bound to bring dreams alive on the streets of the Mission.

June 3-12

Healdsburg Jazz Festival Various venues, Healdsburg. (707) 433-463, www.healdsburgjazzfestival.org. Times and prices vary. Bask in the lounge-lit glow of all things jazz-related at this celebration in Sonoma’s wine county.

June 3-July 3

SF Ethnic Dance Festival Zellerbach Hall, Berk. and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SF. www.worldartswest.org. Times and prices vary. A powerful display of world dance and music taking to the stage over the course of five weekends.

June 4

* Berkeley World Music Festival Telegraph, Berk. www.berkeleyworldmusicfestival.org. Noon-9pm, free. Fourteen world music artists serenade the streets and stores of Telegraph Avenue and al fresco admirers in People’s Park.

Huicha Music Festival Gundlach Bundschu Winery, 2000 Denmark St., Sonoma. (707) 938-5277, www.gunbun.com/hmfevent. 2-11pm, $55. Indie music in the fields of a wine country: Fruit Bats, J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr, Sonny and the Sunsets, and more.

June 4-5

Union Street Eco-Urban Festival Union from Gough to Steiner and parts of Octavia, SF. (800) 310-6563, www.unionstreetfestival.com. 10am-6pm, free. Festival goers will have traffic-free access to Cow Hollow merchants and restaurant booths. The eco-urban theme highlights progressive, green-minded advocates and products.

The Great San Francisco Crystal Fair Fort Mason Center, Building A., SF. (415) 383-7837, home.earthlink.net/~sfxtl/index.html. Sat., 10am-6pm; Sun., 10am-4pm, $6. Gems and all they have to offer: beauty, fashion, and mysterious healing powers.

June 5

* Israel in the Gardens Yerba Buena Gardens, SF. (415) 512-6420, www.sfjcf.org. 11am-5pm, free. One full day of food, music, film, family activities, and ceremonies celebrating the Bay Area’s Jewish community and Israel’s 63rd birthday.

June 10-12

Harmony Festival Sonoma County Fairgrounds, 1350 Bennett Valley, Santa Rosa. www.harmonyfestival.com. 10am-10pm, $45 one day, $120 for three day passes. This is where your love for tea, The Flaming Lips, goddess culture, techno, eco-living, spirituality, and getting drunk with your fellow hippies come together in one wild weekend.

Queer Women of Color Film Festival Brava Theater. 2789 24th St., SF. (415) 752-0868, www.qwocmap.org. Times vary, free. A panel discussion called “Thinkers and Trouble Makers,” bisects three days of screenings from up-and-coming filmmakers with stories all their own.

June 11-12

* Live Oak Park Fair 1301 Shattuck, Berk. (510) 227-7110, www.liveoakparkfair.com. 10am-6pm, free. This festival’s 41st year brings the latest handmade treasures from Berkeley’s vibrant arts and crafts community. With food, face-paint, and entertainment, this fair is perfect for a weekend activity with the family.

June 11-19

San Mateo County Fair San Mateo County Fairgrounds. 2495 S. Delaware, San Mateo. www.sanmateocountyfair.com. June 11, 14, 18, and 19, 11am-10pm; all other days, noon-10pm, $10 for adults. It features competitive exhibits from farmers, foodies, and even technological developers — but let’s face it, we’re going to see the pig races.

June 12

* Haight Ashbury Street Fair Haight between Stanyan and Ashbury, SF. www.haightashburystreetfair.org. 11am-5:30pm, free. Make your way down to the grooviest corner in history and celebrate the long-standing diversity and color of the Haight Ashbury neighborhood, featuring the annual battle of the bands.

June 16-26

Frameline Film Festival Various venues, SF. www.frameline.org. Times and prices vary. This unique LGBT film festival comes back for its 35th year showcasing queer documentaries, shorts, and features.

June 17-19 Sierra Nevada World Music Festival Mendocino County Fairgrounds. 14400 CA-128, Boonville. (916) 777-5550, www.snwmf.com. Fri, 6pm-midnight; Sat, 11am-midnight; Sun, 11am-10pm, $60 for Friday and Sunday day pass; $70 for Saturday day pass, $150 three day pass. Featuring Rebulution, Toots and the Maytals, and Jah Love Sound System, this fest comes with a message of peace, unity, and love through music.

June 18

Summer SAILstice Encinal Yacht Club, 1251 Pacific Marina, Alameda. (415) 412-6961, www.summersailstice.com. 8am-8pm, free. Boat building, sailboat rides, sailing seminars, informational booths, music, a kid zone, and of course, wind, sun, and water.

Pinot Days Festival Pavilion, Fort Mason Center, SF. (415) 382-8663, www.pinotdays.com. 1-5pm, $50. Break out your corkscrews and head over to this unique event. With 220 artisan winemakers pouring up tastes of their one-of-a-kind vino, you better make sure you’ve got a DD for the ride home.

June 18-19

North Beach Festival Washington Square Park, SF. (800) 310-6563, www.northbeachchamber.com. Sat, 10am-6pm; Sun, 10am-6pm, free. Make your way down to the spaghetti capital of SF and enjoy food, music, arts and crafts booths, and the traditional blessing of the animals.

Marin Art Festival Marin Civic Center, San Rafael. (415) 388-0151, www.marinartfestival.com. 10am-6pm, $10. A city center designed by Frank Lloyd Wright plays host to this idyllic art festival. Strolling through pavilions, sampling wines, eating grilled oysters, and viewing the work of hundreds of creative types.

June 20-Aug 21

Stern Grove Music Festival Stern Grove. Sloat and 19th Ave., SF. (415) 252-6252, www.sterngrove.org. Sundays 2pm, free. This free outdoor concert series is a must-do for San Francisco summers. This year’s lineup includes Neko Case, the SF Symphony, Sharon Jones, and much more.

June 25-26

San Francisco Pride Celebration Civic Center Plaza, SF; Parade starts at Market and Beale. (415) 864-FREE, www.sfpride.org. Parade starts at 10:30am, free. Gays, trannies, queers, and the rest of the rainbow waits all year for this grand-scale celebration of diversity, love, and being fabulous.• San Francisco Free Folk Festival Presidio Middle School. 450 30th Ave., SF. (415) 661-2217, www.sffolkfest.org. Noon-10pm, free. Folk-y times for the whole family — not just music but crafts, dance workshops, crafts, and food vendors too.

June 29-July 3

International Queer Tango Festival La Pista. 768 Brannan, SF. www.queertango.freehosting.net. Times vary, $10-35. Spice up your Pride (and Frameline film fest) week with some queer positive tango lessons in culturally diverse, welcoming groups of same sex couples.

June 30-July 3

High Sierra Music Festival Plumas-Sierra Fairgrounds, Quincy. www.highsierramusic.com. Gates open at 8am Thursday. $205 weekend pass, $90 parking fee. Yonder Mountain String Band, My Morning Jacket, and most importantly, Ween. Bring out your sleeping bags for this four day mountaintop grassroots festival.

July 2

Vans Warped Tour Shoreline Amphitheatre, Mountain View. www.vanswarpedtour.com. 11am, $46-72. Skating, pop punk, hardcore, screamo, and a whole lot of emo fun.

July 2-3

Fillmore Jazz Festival Fillmore between Jackson and Eddy, SF, 1-800-310-6563, www.fillmorejazzfestival.com. 10am-6pm, free. Thousands of people get jazzed-up every year for this musical feast in a historically soulful neighborhood.

July 4

City of San Francisco Fourth of July waterfront celebration Pier 39, Embarcadero and Beach, SF. (415) 709-5500, www.pier39.com. Noon-9:30pm, free. Ring in the USA’s birthday on the water, with a day full of music and end up at in the city’s front row when the fireworks take to the sky.

July 9-10

Renegade Craft Fair Fort Mason Festival Pavilion. Buchanan and Marina, SF. (312) 496-3215, www.renegadecraft.com. 11am-7pm, free. Put a bird on it at this craft fair for the particularly indie at heart.

July 14-24

Midsummer Mozart Festival Various Bay Area venues. (415) 627-9141, www.midsummermozart.org. Prices vary. You won’t be hearing any Beethoven or Schubert at this midsummer series — the name of the day is Mr. Mozart alone.

July 16-17

Connoisseur’s Marketplace Santa Cruz between Camino and Johnson, Menlo Park. (650) 325-2818, www.miramarevents.com. 10am-6pm, free. Let the artisans do what they do best — you’ll polish off the fruits of their labor at this outdoor expo of artisan food, wine, and craft.

July 21-Aug 8

SF Jewish Film Festival Various Bay Area venues. www.sfjff.org. Times and prices vary. A three week smorgasbord of world premiere Jewish films at theaters in SF, Berkeley, the Peninsula, and Marin County.

July 22-Aug 13

Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival Menlo School, 50 Valparaiso, Atherton. (650) 330-2030, www.musicatmenlo.org. Classical chamber music at its best: this year’s theme “Through Brahms,” will take you on a journey through Johannes’ most notable works.

July 23-Sept 25

SF Shakespeare Festival Various Bay Area venues. www.sfshakes.org. Various times, free. Picnic with Princess Innogen and her crew with dropping a dime at this year’s production of Cymbeline. It’s by that playwriter guy… what’s his name again?

July 30

Oakland A’s Beer Festival Eastside Club at the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum, 7000 Coliseum Way, Oakl. www.oakland.athletics.mlb.com. 4:05-6:05pm, free with game ticket. Booze your way through the Oakland A’s vs. Minnesota Twins game while the coliseum is filled with brewskies from over 30 microbreweries, there for the chugging in your souvenir A’s beer mug.

July 30-31

Berkeley Kite Festival Cesar Chavez Park, 11 Spinnaker, Berk. www.highlinekites.com. 10am-5pm, free. A joyous selection of Berkeley’s coolest kites, all in one easy location.

July 31

Up Your Alley Dore between Folsom and Howard, SF. www.folsomstreetfair.com. 11am-6pm, $7-10 suggested donation. Whether you are into BDSM, leather, paddles, nipple clamps, hardcore — or don’t know what any of the above means, this Dore Alley stroll is surprisingly friendly and cute once you get past all the whips!

Aug 1-7

SF Chefs Various venues, SF. www.sfchefs2011.com. Times and prices vary. Those that love to taste test will rejoice during this foodie’s paradise of culinary stars sharing their latest bites. Best of all, the goal for 2011’s event is tons of taste with zero waste.

Aug 7

SF Theater Festival Fort Mason Center. Buchanan and Marina, SF. www.sftheaterfestival.org. 11am-5pm, free. Think you can face about 100 live theater acts in one day? Set a personal record at this indoor and outdoor celebration of thespians.

Aug 13

San Rafael Food and Wine Festival Falkirk Cultural Center, 1408 Mission, San Rafael. 1-800-310-6563, www.sresproductions.com. Noon-6pm, $25 food and wine tasting, $15 food tasting only. A sampler’s paradise, this festival features an array of tastes from the Bay’s best wineries and restaurants.

Aug 13-14

* Nihonmachi Street Fair Post and Webster, SF. www.nihonmachistreetfair.org. 11am-6pm, free. Founded by Asian Pacific American youths, this Japantown tradition is a yearly tribute to the difficult history and prevailing spirit of Asian American culture in this SF neighborhood.

Aug 20-21

Oakland Art and Soul Festival Entrances at 14th St. and Broadway, 16th St. and San Pablo, Oakl. (510) 444-CITY, www.artandsouloakland.com. $15. A musical entertainment tribute to downtown Oakland’s art and soul, this festival features nationally-known R&B, jazz, gospel, and rock artists.

Aug 20-22

* SF Street Food Festival Folsom St from Twenty Sixth to Twenty Second, SF. www.sfstreetfoodfest.com. 11am-7pm, free. All of the city’s best food, available without having to go indoors — or sit down. 2011 brings a bigger and better Street Food Fest, perfect for SF’s burgeoning addiction to pavement meals.

Aug 29-Sept 5

Burning Man Black Rock City, Nev. (415) TO-FLAME, www.burningman.com. $320. This year’s theme, “Rites of Passage,” is set to explore transitional spaces and feelings. Gather with the best of the burned-out at one of the world’s weirdest, most renowned parties.

Sep 10-11

* Autumn Moon Festival Street Fair Grant between California and Broadway, SF. (415) 982-6306, www.moonfestival.org. 11am-6pm, free. A time to celebrate the summer harvest and the end of summer full-moon, rejoice in bounty with the moon goddess.

Sept 17-18

SF International Dragon Boat Festival California and Avenue D, Treasure Island. www.sfdragonboat.com. 10am-5pm, free. The country’s largest dragon boat festival sees beautiful man-powered boats take to the water in 300 and 500 meter competitive races.

Sept 23-25

SF Greek Food Festival Annunciation Cathedral. 245 Valencia, SF. www.sfgreekfoodfestival.org. Fri.-Sat., 11am-10pm; Sun., noon-9pm, free with advance ticket. Get your baba ghanoush on during this late summer festival, complete with traditional Greek dancing, music, and wine.

Sept 25

Folsom Street Fair Folsom between 7th and 12th St., SF. www.folsomstreetfair.org. 11am-6pm, free. The urban Burning Man equivalent for leather enthusiasts, going to this expansive SoMa celebration of kink and fetish culture is the surest way to see a penis in public (you dirty dog!).

Sept 30-Oct 2

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Speedway Meadows, Golden Gate Park, SF. www.strictlybluegrass.com. 11am-7pm, free. Pack some whiskey and shoulder your banjo: this free three day festival draws record-breaking crowds — and top names in a variety of twangy genres — each year.

Items with asterisks note family-fun activities.

Luminous “Rothko Chapel” comes to SF Symphony

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

February 23, 2011

Luminous “Rothko Chapel” comes to SF Symphony

Ambient music is currently waging a sustained comeback (even the old ’80s New Age label Windham Hill has been sending me emails lately!) But if you’re looking for something that reaches for timelessness — with a lot more philosophical underpinnings than Yanni has mock turtlenecks — then the glowing symphonic sound sculpture that is Morton Feldman‘s “Rothko Chapel,” coming to the SF Symphony Wed/23-Sat/26, is just what you’re after.

Written in 1971 by the intellectually restless composer as a specific commission for the great Abstract Expressionist painter’s Houston chapel, Feldman’s meditative work for chorus, viola, percussion, and orchestra — which will surely be burnished to shining perfection by conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, he’s like that — replicates the spiritual absorption that can overwhelm when face-to-face with a Rothko canvas, let alone the 16 at once that comprise the chapel.

(I always think of Rothkos as paper towels for the soul. Feldman supposedly once said, “Do we have anything in music for example that really wipes everything out? That just cleans everything away?”)

Here’s a wonderful paragraph on Feldman’s relationship to art, especially Rothko, written by Alex Ross in 2006:

The example of the painters was crucial. Feldman’s scores were close in spirit to Rauschenberg’s all-white and all-black canvases, Barnett Newman’s gleaming lines, and, especially, Rothko’s glowing fog banks of color. His habit of presenting the same figure many times in succession invites you to hear music as a gallery visitor sees paintings; you can study the sound from various angles, stand back or move up close, go away and come back for a second look. Feldman said that New York painting led him to attempt a music “more direct, more immediate, more physical than anything that had existed heretofore.” Just as the Abstract Expressionists wanted viewers to focus on paint itself, on its texture and pigment, Feldman wanted listeners to absorb the basic facts of resonant sound. At a time when composers were frantically trying out new systems and languages, Feldman choseto follow his intuition. He had an amazing ear for harmony, for ambiguous collections of notes that tease the brain with never-to-be-fulfilled expectations. Wilfrid Mellers, in his book “Music in a New Found Land,” eloquently summed up Feldman’s early style: “Music seems to have vanished almost to the point of extinction; yet the little that is left is, like all of Feldman’s work, of exquisite musicality; and it certainly presents the American obsession with emptiness completely absolved from fear.” In other words, we are in the region of Wallace Stevens’s “American Sublime,” of the “empty spirit / In vacant space.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxSt_w2ODaQ

(Speaking of vacant spaces, I absolutely love how the lowish resolution on the Rothko paintings in the video above melt their surface scrabbles into pixellated smears.)

SF SYMPHONY PRESENTS MORTON FELDMAN’S “ROTHKO CHAPEL”

with Mozart’s “Requiem in D Minor”

Wed/23 at 8pm, Thur/24 at 2pm, Fri/25 at 8pm, Sat/26 at 8pm

$35-$140

Davies Symphony Hall

201 Van Ness, SF

www.sfsymphony.org

Live Shots: Rufus Wainwright and SF Symphony, 11/12/2010

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

November 16, 2010

Donning a huge red rose on his breast, Rufus Wainwright looked quite regal standing with the San Francisco Symphony this past weekend, performing musical renditions of five Shakespeare sonnets.

Wainwright was commissioned by the Symphony to create the pieces. Always ambitious, he wrote an entire orchestral score to accompany his magical voice. Singing in iambic pentameter is no simple feat, but to also make it sound incredibly beautiful, with hints of melancholy and pure joy, made the performance a total coup. It was also great to see such a mix of people in the audience, from classy bourgeois peeps in elegant silk dresses, to young hipsters in mix-matched plaids — but all of them giddy to see Rufus with orchestra.

Here’s a Youtube vid of part of the performance:

Zoo stories

David Talbot

September 14, 2010

superego@sfbg.com

SUPER EGO Apparently, I’ve lost Hunky Beau to Angry Birds. So while my future husband obsessively slingshot virtual squawking auks at ovokleptic pigs (via popular iPhone gaming app), I went on a massive party binge. To each one’s own, slur I!

Brief rundown: Kalisto, the rapping tranny from the TL, is the new alternadrag queen — I couldn’t toss a Susan B. Anthony without hitting her somewhere in the night. Jenö, of the classic Wicked parties, and analogue synth wiz Robot.Hustle both played genius, history-compressing sets that melted my panties into a sugary lump at Honey Soundsystem’s Labor Day party at the Stud. Cinematic techno hero Pepe Bradock sailed through a bewitching set at 222 Hyde, but everyone seemed too exhausted from the Playa to really get into it.

I did manage to pry Hunky from the auks long enough for a visit to Braza!, the excellent monthly Brazilian beats party at SOM (first Fridays, 10 p.m.–3 a.m., $10. SOM, 2925 16th St., SF. www.brazasf.com). Ladies, nothing can reorient your man’s priorities like the promise of hot Brazilian exchange students and steamy electro-samba. Later, we witnessed operatic idol Jessye Norman send the lovely SF Symphony Opening Gala crowd to the stars with her ethereal interpretation of Duke Ellington’s “Heaven.” Memo to local hairdressers, though: our society dames need your help. Desperately.

Best of all, I got to hang with hot-hot DJ duo (and total sweethearts), Catz ‘n Dogz from Szczecin, Poland (www.myspace.com/3channels). Closely associated with the new wave of soul and R&B re-editors that includes Tensnake, Soul Clap, and Wolf + Lamb, they were here to promote their new album Escape From Zoo on our own Mothership Records. They played a hard-driving, Berlinophilic live set at Mighty, sneaking in some sing-along New Edition and sampled “moos.” The night before, however, DJ Pee Play and I had blown their minds by taking them to The Tubesteak Connection (Thursdays, 10 p.m., $4. Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, 133 Turk, SF.). There, DJ Bus Station John slipped on Sybil’s stunning 1989 Soul II Soul-ish “Don’t Make Me Over,” and the Poles’ jaws dropped. We still have some magical tricks up our pixie sleeve, San Francisco.

K.FLAY

Hipster-hop: it gets no better than Stanford grad K.Flay (www.kflay.com), who flows razor-sharp rhymes over her own electronic concoctions while shredding guitar chords looking too hot. At upscale Harlot with indie dance band Le Vice, she might spell trouble. And you’ll want to be there for it.

Wed/15, 9 p.m., $5. Harlot, 46 Minna, SF. www.harlotsf.com

(((PHONIC)))

I’m a huge fan of Ladyhaus, one of the residents at this weekly throwdown, who can work tropical beats in a Bavarian dirndl like nobody’s business when she wants to. This week, soulful legend David Harness and cheeky We Love Worthy join her for a birthday bash for longtime dance-floor warmer and classic cutie DJ.

Thu/16, 10 p.m.–4 a.m., $10. EndUp, 401 Sixth St., SF. www.theendup.com

BENJI B.

From Croatian dubstep to L.A. future bass, BBC 1 radio presenter (and fly DJ in his own right) Benji B. — no relation, though he’s kind of hot, so maybe — has brought news of the underground to the British and Web-savvy masses. Like Mary Ann Hobbs and Gilles Peterson, he’s also got a great ear for quality, perfect for sifting through our era’s laptop-production overload. He’ll be hopping sonic borders at the lively, monthly Ritmos Sin Fronteras party.

Sat/18, 9 p.m.–3 a.m., $10. SOM 2925 16th St., SF. www.som-bar.com

KOSMIC POP 2010

I write a lot about global dance music, but Asia doesn’t get much play — well, spank me hard, because the club scene in Seoul is working me out. House Rulez, an electro trio that includes a fierce dude jamming on his neon alto sax, writes catchy tunes bursting with so much early ’90s rave energy (think Guru Josh with random presets) that they come off as joyfully subversive. They’ll be headlining the Kosmic Pop 2010 party — just in time for Saturday’s wonderful J-Pop Summit at Japantown’s New People mall (www.newpeopleworld.com)? With Lady Chica, Brian Salazar, Kimani Taylor, and Paul Ban.

Sat/18, 9 p.m.–late, $25. Mighty, 119 Utah, SF. www.facebook.com/soulkrush

Our Weekly Picks

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

April 20, 2010

WEDNESDAY 21

EVENT/LIT

Yann Martel: Beatrice and Virgil

Yann Martel brought us The Life of Pi, an award-winning story about an Indian boy trapped on a life raft with a Bengal tiger in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. At www.whatisstephenharperreading.ca, Martel chronicles his vow to send a book every two weeks to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to promote government arts funding. And now, Martel is back with Beatrice and Virgil, another folkloric tale. It’s about a writer working on a novel about the Holocaust, and it’s also the story of a donkey named Beatrice and a howler monkey named Virgil whose epic journey begins only after fate places them in a taxidermy shop run by an intriguing man. (Paula Connelly)

In conversation with Laura Fraser

7:30 p.m., $15 (21 and over)

Sundance Kabuki Theater

1181 Post, SF

www.booksmith.com

THURSDAY 22

MUSIC

Blank Dogs

It’s impossible to keep up with what Blank Dogs frontman Mike Sniper is up to at any given moment. In addition to being a tad shy — as evidenced by his wearing a mask or blanket to performances and publicity photo shoots — the Brooklyn native is also so prolific that he probably has another limited distribution EP or 7-inch scheduled for release by the end of this sentence. His brand of lo-fi new-wave is noisy and discordant, but ever familiar, like New Order or OMD heard through a tunnel with a blender running in the background. Sniper is emerging from his East Coast bedroom for a show at Eagle Tavern, and though his persona might not be the mystery it once was, his unique perversion of post-punk is always promisingly puzzling. (Peter Galvin)

With Bare Wires, Fresh and Onlys, Cosmetics

9 p.m., call for price

Eagle Tavern

398 12th St. , SF

(415) 626-0880

www.sfeagle.com

DINE

Wine Enthusiast’s Talk of the Town 2010

More than 500 varieties of wine and spirits — along with food from 30 great Bay Area restaurants — are on the menu for sampling at Wine Enthusiast’s Toast of the Town 2010, a classy affair taking place in the historic environs of the beautiful War Memorial Opera House. Live jazz provides the soundtrack for the evening’s indulgences, which benefit the San Francisco Food Bank, the venerable organization that needs a little help of its own right now to help people in our community. Raise a glass (or several) and know that this night of fun will also help to make someone’s day tomorrow when they sit down for a much-needed meal. (Sean McCourt)

7 p.m., $89 ($169 for 5 p.m. VIP tasting)

War Memorial Opera House

301 Van Ness, SF.

www.wineenthusiast.com

1-800-847-5949

MUSIC

Jrod Indigo

Jrod Indigo inspires comparisons to Michael Jackson, Robin Thicke, and Prince. Born in Chicago, raised in Atlanta, having spent some time in Seattle and now in the Bay Area, Jrod possesses musical versatility. He’s a polished songwriter who prefers to play with a live band. Layered harmonies, vintage synths, funky guitar riffs, and deeply-rooted soul incorporate different elements from the music of the cities where he has lived. He’s performed with Amel Larrieux, Martin Luther, Crown City Rockers, and others. Tonight he’s the headliner. (Lilan Kane)

With the Whooligan, Femi

9:30pm, $7

Coda Lounge

1710 Mission, SF

(415) 551-2632

www.codalive.com

MUSIC

Chicha Libre

Drink enough mugs of chicha, and you’ll get lifted like the ancients. The fermented corn drink has been imbibed since before the conquistadors launched their grand tour of bummer, and still plays a central role in the lives of indigenous Peruvians. Gets you all drunk and stuff. This age-old psychedelia inspires the chaps of Chicha Libre, a South American surf band that adds classic pop sounds from 1970s AM radio, sun-drenched Beach Boys guitar melodies, and a little cumbia shake to the Amazonian rhythms of their ancestors. Raise a glass. (Caitlin Donohue)

With the Cuban Cowboys, DJ Juan Data

8 p.m., $9.99

Rickshaw Stop

155 Fell, SF

(425) 861-2011

www.rickshawstop.com

FRIDAY 23

SPORTS

Harlem Globetrotters

They’re the only professional basketball team to play an entire game on ice skates (and ice, in Central Park) or go for an 8,000-game win streak: If you haven’t seen the Harlem Globetrotters do their thing, you’re missing out on the greatest American sports kitsch. From the get they’ve been showboaters — they actually got their start as a traveling team in Chicago, but dubbed themselves Harlem because it sounded more exotic. We forgive them because they can make half-court shots, have the most kick ass of theme songs, dribble like the devil, and clown on David Duchovny when he sits courtside. (Donohue)

7 p.m., $21–$109

Cow Palace

2600 Geneva, Daly City

(415) 404-4111

www.harlemglobetrotters.com

MUSIC

Around Amoeba in 180 Minutes with DJ Bearzbub

Amoeba is a colossal beast of a record store. With rows upon rows of vinyl, CDs, posters, and listening stations, it’s hard not to look for a specific record and leave with 10 other things. The infinite sound in the place can suck you in for hours. Today, however, DJ Bearzbub is your guide. He’ll show you what the store has to offer within a three-hour timespan. (Elise-Marie Brown)

6 p.m., free

Amoeba Music

1855 Haight, SF

(415) 831-1200

www.amoeba.com

DANCE

National Dance Week

National Dance Week is a kind of spring madness of lessons, mini-performances, workshop showings and rehearsal watching in SF, the North, South and East Bay. All of it is free. You won’t be able to take in all of the four hundred-plus offerings, but you can enjoy it today. Noon is kick-off time at Union Square with over a dozen showcases and — new this year — the first annual “One Dance” flash-mob event. Look out for solo dancer Fawole and musicians popping up throughout the city, and mini shows from a new generation of dancers at the Richmond District YMCA in the late afternoon. You can see Robert Moses at work. Or, in the evening, you can take a class in Afro-Cuban, Hula Hoop, Tango, Go Go Style, World Fusion or West Coast Swing. For details, go online or pick up a brochure at dance studios and selected coffee shops. (Felciano)

Noon (through May 2), free

Union Square, SF

(415)920-9181

www.bayareandw.org

MUSIC

J Rocc

In 1992, Stones Throw mainstay DH J Rocc founded the World Famous Beat Junkies with Melo-D and Rhettmatic. Since then, he’s been a dominating force in turntablism, releasing several mixtapes and producing different Stones Throw releases. He’s been a reliable force within Madlib’s live shows, and worked with Madlib again on Beat Konducta Vol. 5-6: A Tribute to J Dilla. He’s currently putting together a solo album, and this show should offer a taste. (Kane)

With DJ Apollo

10 p.m., $8–$10

Mighty

119 Utah

(415) 626-7001

www.mighty119.com

MUSIC

Bonobo

Since the success of his third album, 2006’s Days to Come, Bonobo — a.k.a. Simon Green — has refined his impressive sound. The evidence is on his latest effort, Black Sands. The combination of live instrumental arrangements and complex digital sounds in his work can be extraordinary. (A tip: if you want a taste of Bonobo’s live set but don’t have the $22 to get into Mezzanine, trek to the Haight and catch an earful at Amoeba Music at 5 p.m.) (Brown)

With Yppah and Mofnono

Mezzanine

444 Jessie, SF

(415) 625-8880

www.mezzaninesf.com

SATURDAY 24

THEATER

Tartuffe

Seems like lately, everything old is new again on the Bay Area theater scene. Current or recent local productions have updated The Diary of Anne Frank, Lysistrata, and The Seagull. San Francisco’s up-and-coming Generation Theatre isn’t aiming to alter to content of Molière’s classic comedy Tartuffe, as other productions have before (there’ve been versions that cast the main character as a televangelist, reset the action in India or during the Harlem Renaissance, and paid homage to the TV show Dallas.) Instead, Generation’s new translation by director Roland David Valayre arranges the play’s lines in alexandrine verse — which is to say, the 12-syllable format in which it was originally written. “Twelve-foot long laughter” is promised. (Cheryl Eddy)

8 p.m. (through May 16), $20–$25

Studio 205 at Off-Market Theater

965 Mission, SF

(415) 377-5882

SUNDAY 25

COMEDY

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Live

Two of the more bizarrely brilliant and hilarious shows that appear on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Squidbillies, come to life tonight. As part of a national tour, ATHF cocreator Dave Willis (voice actor for characters including Meatwad and Carl) is joined by Dana Snyder, who voices Master Shake and Granny Cuyler. Expect zany script readings, screenings of clips, music, and more at an event that should be more exciting than drinking pine cone liquor and selling a house that oozes blood to Glenn Danzig. (McCourt)

8 p.m., $25

Regency Ballroom

1290 Sutter, SF

(800) 745-3000

www.theregencyballroom.com

www.aquateenlive.com

MONDAY 26

MUSIC

Audra MacDonald with the SF Symphony

After you win four Tony awards, you can pretty much do what you want when it comes to musical theater. Audra McDonald neatly illustrates the point. One of only three actresses to accomplish the triple Tony feat, the soprano has graduated from roles in Broadway productions like A Raisin in the Sun, Carousel, and Ragtime to solo performances backed by some of the greatest musical ensembles in the country. In this SF Symphony performance, McDonald takes on her favorite show tunes, as well as a few ditties written especially for her. When you’re this good — did we mention she has two Grammies stashed away? — people will compose music in the hopes you’ll sing it. (Donohue)

8 p.m., $15–$105

Davies Symphony Hall

201 Van Ness, SF

(415) 864-6000

www.sfsymphony.org

TUESDAY 27

EVENT

A Fresh Look: Observations on Artistic and Social Practices in Urban Farming

Mmmmm. If there’s any benefit of living in San Francisco, it’s the array of delicious food sold at the multiple farmers’markets throughout the city. But selling pesticide-free produce isn’t the only way to encourage sustainable farming. The San Francisco Art Institute is working to address the proper social practices of urban farming by launching a new underground market. Along with live music and a panel discussion, delicious treats will be sold: think homemade cookies, raw chocolate, quiche, marmalades and kombucha. (Brown)

4 p.m., free

San Francisco Art Institute

800 Chestnut, SF

(415) 771-7020

www.sfai.com

MUSIC

Liars

Liars has spent the better part of a decade refining a terrifyingly bestial art-metal, and its fifth album Sisterworld is the culmination of years spent concocting an unusual formula of chant-like vocals, ambient noise and sudden outbursts of sound. Whether anyone’s listening or not, the group is immensely proud of its weirdness — they reinforce high-concept songs about murder and witchcraft with just the right amount of traditional songwriting to draw in the unsuspecting. After all, if there wasn’t a good deal of brilliance behind that eerie atmosphere and brutal bluster, it’d just be another Tuesday night goth show. (Galvin)

With Fol Chen

8:30 p.m., $15

Slim’s

333 11th St., SF

(415) 255 0333

www.slims-sf.com

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Duncan Sheik to sing with the San Francisco Symphony

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

April 6, 2010

Duncan Sheik to sing with the San Francisco Symphony

Duncan Sheik’s “Barely Breathing” was ranked #88 on VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s, but in the past decade, the singer and composer has been winning even fancier gold awards for his musical theater scores. This week Sheik’s singing with the San Francisco Symphony— Wed/7- Sat/10 at Davies Symphony Hall– and performing the world premiere of the orchestral arrangement of songs from The Whisper House.

The Whisper House is the story of a small boy, Christopher, who looses his father during World War II and must move into a lighthouse with his aunt in New England. The creepy coastal home is haunted and Christopher begins to build a rapport with the spirits. The ghosts sing all the songs during the show, exposing the subconscious secrets of the boy’s frightened mind.

Sheik, along with Kyle Jarrow, wrote the songs for the stage production of The Whisper House and the show premiered at The Old Globe in San Diego in January 2010. The SF Symphony commissioned new orchestration of the Whisper House songs, excited by Sheiks wild success with his score for the Broadway hit Spring Awakening, which won him two Tony Awards in 2007 and a Grammy in 2008.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqRu6TvosPY

Songs like “It’s Better To Be Dead” and “We’re Here To Tell You” are great examples of this new collection’s gentle nature; organic, slightly chilling and yet comforting. The songs are indeed perfect for The Whisper House’s stage setting, the soft guitar strums, purring clarinet, and padded drums inspire contrasting thoughts of cozy down blankets and cold, salty winds. The song lyrics inform young Christopher that there are in fact things in the lighthouse, and in the world, that are scary, contrary to what his aunt tells him. Fluid and serene, it’s easy to picture a bunch of ghosts whispering Sheik’s words high above the angry ocean waves, stirring around the lighthouse and taunting the child.

Sheik will be singing along with the Symphony during his string of performances in San Francisco, and although the story will not be told visually, the stage full of instruments will guide your mind in the right direction. Along with Sheik, the evening will also feature other music intended for the stage, including Poulenc’s Suite from Les Biches and Claude Vivier’s Zipangu.

Duncan Sheik w/ the San Francisco Symphony

Wed/7, 8pm

Thur/8, 8pm

Fri/9, 6:30pm

Sat/10, 8pm

$15 to $130

Davies Symphony Hall

201 Van Ness, SF

www.sfsymphony.org

SCENE: Jazz Mafia Keeps it in the family

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

March 24, 2010

SCENE: Jazz Mafia Keeps it in the family

Written by Lilan Kane. From Scene: The Guardian Guide to Bay Area Nightlife and Glamour — on stands now in the Guardian

Jazz in its most fashionable and handsome form found itself around a table at Coda recently. I had the pleasure of meeting with dapper Jazz Mafia members Adam Theis, Joe Bagale, and Dublin to gain some insight into their music and experiences as members of one of the Bay’s most youthful jazz ensembles.

The Mafia (www.jazzmafia.com), as one might expect, is a collective that incorporates several smaller groups containing dozens of members into a large and tuneful family. The first of these groups, Realistic Orchestra, was established about 10 years ago when various jazz forces of the Bay Area started to intertwine and jam together. (Other branches of the family include Brass Mafia, Spaceheater, and the Shotgun Wedding Quintet.)

Main Mafia figures Theis (trombonist, arranger, and bandleader) and Dublin (emcee, vocalist, rapper) are still at the forefront of Realistic Orchestra. They’ve held a Tuesday night residency at Coda for several years, rotating various Jazz Mafia acts. The night I interviewed them, singer and multi-instrumentalist Joe Bagale was taking the stage, with Theis manning the bass.

Before moving to the elegantly appointed Coda, the Mafia had a raucous six-year run at Bruno’s, racking up several awards and introducing jazz to a new generation of night-lifers. The sharpshooters have played with Lyrics Born, Santana, Bobby McFerrin, Sly and the Family Stone drummer Gregg Errico, and many more. A highlight: recently Joe was closing a Saturday night show with Donny Hathaway’s version of John Lennon’s song “Jealous Guy.” He was lost in the moment of it with his eyes closed and his heart pouring out into the microphone. He opened his eyes to find Stevie Wonder in front of him. Wonder got onstage and the band prompted him to revisit an old B-side cut, “All Day Sucker.” Suffice to say, the house was rocked and shocked.

But Mafia members’ interests aren’t limited to revamping standards with star power. In 2008, Theis won the prestigious Gerbode-Hewlett Foundation’s Emerging Composers Grant, which he used to fund his latest project, “Brass Bows and Beats,” a 50-minute innovative suite with strings, vocals, horns, a DJ, and even a didgeridoo. When Theis took the group to the Playboy Jazz Festival last year, host Bill Cosby called Bagale to the stage, facetiously suggested that the variety of genres in the piece would sound like skimming through all the channels of satellite radio really fast. Admittedly, this concept — infusing hip-hop, jazz, classical, soul, electronic, and more — is ambitious. But Brass Bows and Beats debuted with a sold-out performance at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco last April and was deemed an artistic success. (Theis will also be jazzing up the San Francisco Symphony’s performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony 8 in April.)

Dublin, the MC of the group, adds a hip-hop element to the mix — and a connection to younger fans. He recently paired with producer Elon to release a solo record, Ease The Pain (Jazz Mafia Recordings), featuring singers Emily Schmidt and Forrest Day. And Bagale, although able to call up the deepest soul and sharpest wit in his vocal stylings, enjoys taking a background role as head vocal arranger. “One of the coolest experiences for me is to be able to write and arrange for other singers and not be the focal point,” he said.

About those arrangements — it’s in its orchestral distribution of sounds that the Mafia really shines. Its talented members have the capacity hear and highlight a dazzling array of instrumental lines, often numbering up to 45. Then the group’s arrangers write them out instrument by instrument, voice by voice, line by line. “To do one three-minute or so tune, I usually put in 50 to 100 hours,” Theis said.

In an attempt to reach more young jazz enthusiasts, the Mafia is planning a summer tour across Canada, New York, and New England, the first major tour it has undertaken. These young men and women are trying to expand the palette of the live scene, one arrangement at a time.

JAZZ MAFIA TUESDAYS

Tuesdays, 9 p.m., $7

Coda Lounge

1710 Mission, SF

www.codalive.com

ADAM THEIS AND ALL-STAR JAZZ MAFIA ENSEMBLE WITH SF SYMPHONY

April 2, 8 p.m., $15–$130

Davies Symphony Hall

201 Van Ness, SF