Events on Thursday, February 14

Poetry Battle of (ALL) the Sexes

Special Event

Poetry Battle

Thursday 2/14 @ The Beat Museum

Whether hip-hop or free verse, all forms of spur-of-the-moment poetics and verbal sparring are welcomed at this event benefiting POOR magazine,... 

SF Cinematheque presents George Kuchar and Anne McGuire: Video Valentines

Film: Shorts

George Kuchar and Anne McGuire

Thursday 2/14 @ Artists' Television Access

It's a match made in heaven: George Kuchar and Anne McGuire, two of San Francisco's most beloved doyens of awkwardly candid... 

Popscene presents A Valentine's Day Massacre feat. the Kills

Music

The Kills

Thursday 2/14 @ Rickshaw Stop

In just two albums, the Kills' VV and Hotel have established themselves as the Bonnie and Clyde of the avant-indie scene.... 

Great San Francisco Pillow Fight

City Gems

Great San Francisco Pillow Fight

Thursday 2/14 @ Justin Herman Plaza

What better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with "a roll in the sack" with hundreds of total strangers? Whether seeking... 

Club Neon's 4th Annual Valentine's Day Underwear Party

Party

Valentine's Day Underwear Party

Thursday 2/14 @ The Make-Out Room

Calling all lingerie lovers, boxer-brief boosters, and tighty-whitey treasurers: here's your opportunity to spend Valentine's Day prancing around in your skivvies.... 

Good Vibrations' Queen of Hearts Ball

Party

Queen of Hearts Ball

Thursday 2/14 @ Mighty

The sex-positive guys and gals at Good Vibrations are holding court, and you're invited. The Queen of Hearts Ball may have... 

Von Iva w/ Carletta Sue Kay

Music

Von Iva

Thursday 2/14 @ Hemlock Tavern

Von Iva frontwoman Jillian Iva combines Joan Jett's punk-rock attitude with Tina Turner's impressive vocal cords, providing an oversupply of vampy... 

Ongoing Events

Tim Lee

Art

Tim Lee

Thursday 2/14 @ CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts

Although it's tempting to dismiss Vancouver-based artist Tim Lee's use of comedy-as-conceptual-device as lacking in depth or social concern, to mistake... 

<em>Taxi to the Dark Side</em>

Film

Taxi to the Dark Side

Thursday 2/14 @ Landmark Opera Plaza

It's not as if Taxi to the Dark Side tells us anything new about the growing use of torture in US... 

<em>Is It a Fiber Show?</em>

Art

Is It a Fiber Show?

Thursday 2/14 @ Bucheon Gallery

In the syntax of the art world, the 20th century represents a period when nearly every artistic medium and practice was... 

Zhan Wang

Art

Zhan Wang

Thursday 2/14 @ Haines Gallery

Coveted by Chinese intellectuals and nobles, scholar's rocks could once be found everywhere from university courtyards to private gardens. They existed... 

James Gobel: <em>Bear Hunting</em>

Art

James Gobel

Thursday 2/14 @ Marx & Zavattero

Between the scene-stealing bear family in John Waters' A Dirty Shame (2004), the fuzzy visage of the Scissor Sisters' Babydaddy, and... 

<em>Blackout</em>

Art

Blackout

Thursday 2/14 @ Root Division

Anyone who's gone camping or spelunking knows that our senses become heightened in pitch-black darkness. In Root Division's Blackout exhibition, more... 

Chim: <i>The Photography of David Seymour (1911-1956)</i>

Art

The Photography of David Seymour (1911-1956)

Thursday 2/14 @ de Young Museum

Until he was killed by Egyptian machine-gun fire while covering the 1956 Suez War armistice, Polish-born David Seymour (also known as... 

Douglas Gordon: <i>Pretty Much Every Film and Video Work from About 1992 until Now</i>

Art

Douglas Gordon

Thursday 2/14 @ SFMOMA

The ultimate in one-stop viewing, Scottish multimedia artist Douglas Gordon's cheekily titled installation is a veritable retrospective: the work's title serves... 

San Francisco Independent Film Festival

Festival: Performing Arts

SF Indiefest

Thursday 2/14 @ Various locations

Unlike festivals that screen "independent" films featuring well-known directors and celebrity actors, Indiefest sticks to cinema from fresh international talent. This... 

An-My L&ecirc;: <em>Small Wars</em>

Art

An-My Lê

Thursday 2/14 @ SFMOMA

An-My Lê's stunning Small Wars and 29 Palms series find the photographer capturing Vietnam War enthusiasts who recreate scenes of battle... 

<em>Bad Moon Rising</em>

Art

Bad Moon Rising

Thursday 2/14 @ Silverman Gallery

Alluding to both Creedence Clearwater Revival's 1969 protest song and Sonic Youth's dark 1985 album, the group exhibit Bad Moon Rising... 

<em>Deadpan Exchange III </em>

Art

Deadpan Exchange III

Thursday 2/14 @ The Lab

While comedians are lucky to keep their jokes alive over the course of an evening, the visual artists in Deadpan Exchange... 

<em>Drama and                    Desire</em>: <em>Japanese Paintings from the Floating World 1690&ndash;1850</em>

Art

Drama and Desire

Thursday 2/14 @ Asian Art Museum

On display for a limited time because of the delicate nature of the artwork, this collection is a treasure trove of... 

<em>Small Things End, Great Things Endure</em>

Art

Small Things End, Great Things Endure

Thursday 2/14 @ New Langton Arts

Following the Brooklyn Art Museum's retrospective Global Feminisms show and the Geffen Contemporary's historically focused Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution,... 

<em>Persepolis</em>

Film: Animation

Persepolis

Thursday 2/14 @ Various locations

Not since Art Spiegelman's Maus has a graphic novel so successfully mined its medium to render universal a fiercely specific political... 

Lucy McKenzie: <I>New Work</I>

Art

Lucy McKenzie

Thursday 2/14 @ SFMOMA

Scottish painter Lucy McKenzie is a savvy image-maker, as interested in the history of images as in creating new ones. At... 

Human Rights Watch International Film Festival

Festival: Performing Arts

Human Rights Watch International Film Festival

Thursday 2/14 @ Pacific Film Archive Theater

With all the media attention surrounding the upcoming presidential election, the war in Iraq, and Britney Spears' latest breakdown, it's easy... 

Enrique Chagoya: <em> Borderlandia </em>

Art

Enrique Chagoya

Thursday 2/14 @ Berkeley Art Museum

The first major museum retrospective of Enrique Chagoya's mixed-media work revels in thorny cultural hierarchies and identity politics. Chagoya immigrated to... 

Andrew Moore

Art

Andrew Moore

Thursday 2/14 @ Rena Bransten Gallery

Andrew Moore's new photographic exhibition contains grand images of colonial and imperial architecture from settings throughout Russia and Cuba. The peeling... 

Katsushige Nakahashi: <em>The Depth of Memory</em>

Art: Photography

Katsushige Nakahashi

Thursday 2/14 @ SF Camerawork

While reenactments and reconstructions often serve the purpose of more fully understanding an event or object, Japanese photographer Katsushige Nakahashi's pieces... 

<em>Structured Thoughts</em>

Art

Structured Thoughts

Thursday 2/14 @ Hang Annex

Hang's latest show features pieces from four Bay Area artists whose painting, sculpture, and multimedia works encourage a tactile, visceral exploration... 

RIP.MIX.BURN.BAM.PFA

Art

RIP.MIX.BURN.BAM.PFA

Thursday 2/14 @ Berkeley Art Museum

Like a new-media update on Marcel Duchamp's mustachioed Mona Lisa, the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive's latest show exhibits contemporary artists'... 

African Film Festival

Film

African Film Festival

Thursday 2/14 @ Pacific Film Archive Theater

Berkeley's Pacific Film Archive has picked the cream of the NYC-based African Film Festival's crop for this monthlong series. Opening night... 

Paul McCarthy: <em>Low Life Slow Life: Part 1</em>

Art

Paul McCarthy

Thursday 2/14 @ CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts

Paul McCarthy built his impeccable reputation from art's most basic materials: paint, food, human bodies, and criticism of cultural codes. McCarthy's... 

Jordan Kantor

Art

Jordan Kantor

Thursday 2/14 @ Ratio 3

Just as Hans Holbein the Younger's famous stretched skull in The Ambassadors functioned as a memento mori, Jordan Kantor's painting of... 

Earl Dax presents Weimar New York: A Golden Gate Affair

Performing Arts

Weimar New York

Thursday 2/14 @ Phyllis Wattis Theater

With Weimar New York, producer Earl Dax (and a circus' worth of colorful characters) channels the avant-garde spirit of 1920s Germany,... 

Jordan Eagles

Art

Jordan Eagles

Thursday 2/14 @ Mark Wolfe Contemporary Art

Jordan Eagles' work will have you seeing red, literally. His white plexiglass panels are covered in resin-coated splotches of animal blood,... 

<em>An Equal Playing Field</em>: New Work by Peter Stegall

Art

An Equal Playing Field

Thursday 2/14 @ Triple Base

Of his recent paintings, Peter Stegall has exclaimed, "Color has me on the end of a string!" It's a strange statement... 

<i>Marie-Antoinette and the Petit Trianon at Versailles</i>

Art

Marie-Antoinette and the Petit Trianon at Versailles

Thursday 2/14 @ The Legion of Honor Museum

Celebrity retreats, situated far from the gossip-hungry public, are anything but a new phenomenon. Marie-Antoinette's Petit Trianon at Versailles was just... 

Olafur Eliasson

Art

Olafur Eliasson

Thursday 2/14 @ SFMOMA

From the almost primordial rising sun he installed in the Tate Modern to walk-in kaleidoscopes, Danish/Icelandic artist Olaf Eliasson's enormous, experiential... 

<em>4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days</em>

Film

4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days

Thursday 2/14 @ Embarcadero Center Cinema

In late-80's Romania, close friends Otilia and Gabita are faced with the urgent problem of Gabita's unwanted pregnancy. Their solution is... 

Jens Haaning

Art

Jens Haaning

Thursday 2/14 @ San Francisco Art Institute - Walter and McBean Galleries

Jens Haaning's new exhibit at SFAI is a reminder as to why the Copenhagen native's work has earned critical paeans. His... 

Leonora Carrington: <em>The Talismanic Lens</em>

Art

Leonora Carrington

Thursday 2/14 @ Frey Norris Gallery

Leonora Carrington's paintings are populated by mystics, crones, demons, and damsels with wan, Byzantine faces. There is magic in the air,... 

<em> Lautrec in Leather: Chuck Arnett and the Birth of the San Francisco Scene</em>

Art

Chuck Arnett

Thursday 2/14 @ GLBT Historical Society

June 26, 1964: Life magazine proclaims San Francisco "the gay capital" in its landmark spread, "Homosexuality in America." The cover photo... 

Creativity Explored presents <em>Finders Keepers</em>

Art

Finders Keepers

Thursday 2/14 @ Creativity Explored

Following on the heels of SFMOMA's recent Joseph Cornell exhibition, Creativity Explored encourages artists to experiment with assemblage. Like the late,... 

Emory Douglas: <em>The Long Memory: Works Past and Present</em>

Art

Emory Douglas

Thursday 2/14 @ Babylon Falling

When Gil Scott-Heron proclaimed that "the revolution will not be televised," he could just as well have been referring to Emory... 

The Films of Emile de Antonio

Film: Documentary

The Films of Emile de Antonio

Thursday 2/14 @ SFMOMA

Though often given short shrift in film histories, the political documentaries of Emile de Antonio played a major hand in shaping...