Events on Thursday, May 8

SFIFF: <em>Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson</em>

Film

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

Thursday 5/ 8 @ The Castro Theatre

The father of gonzo journalism and a '60s counterculture icon, Hunter S. Thompson revolutionized American prose with his drug-fueled, first-person narrative... 

Dark Meat

Music

Dark Meat

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Hemlock Tavern

While Dark Meat generally promise a stage setup of at least 17 pieces, the Athens, Georgia, collective is known to convene... 

Film: Documentary

Hecho en Los Angeles

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Artists' Television Access

Artists' Television Access screens Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar's bilingual documentary about three Latina immigrants' fight for labor rights. The film's... 

Elbow w/ Air Traffic

Music

Elbow

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Bimbo's

After nearly 20 years and just four LPs, British indie-pop darlings Elbow might finally be getting the attention they deserve. The... 

Ongoing Events

Tim Lee

Art

Tim Lee

Thursday 5/ 8 @ 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>Graduation</em>

Film

Graduation

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Landmark Opera Plaza

Combining the mischief of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the solidarity of The Breakfast Club, and the edgy bank... 

Inkie Whang: <em>American Debut</em>

Art

Inkie Whang

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Frey Norris Gallery

Korean artist Inkie Whang's large-scale, pixelated landscapes explore the tenuous balance between his traditional heritage and the digital age. In the... 

<em>Reclaiming Materials: Four Sculptors Recycle</em>

Art

Reclaiming Materials: Four Sculptors Recycle

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Sculpturesite Gallery

One person's trash is another person's treasure — or sculpture, as is the case at Sculpturesite's current exhibition of art works... 

Robert Adler: <em>Burlesque</em>

Art: Photography

Robert Adler

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Hyde Street Gallery

Like '60s cocktail culture and swing dancing before it, burlesque is currently undergoing a revival. Photographer Robert Adler's series Burlesque focuses... 

<em>COLORS Past and Present</em>

Art

COLORS Past and Present

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Istituto Italiano di Cultura

In 1991, designers Tibor Kalman and Olivero Toscani, along with clothing label United Colors of Benetton, launched COLORS magazine — a... 

<em>Art & Artifice: 75 Years of Design at San Francisco Ballet</em>

Special Event

Art & Artifice

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Museum of Performance & Design

Emerging with a rejuvenated image and collection in March, the Museum of Performance & Design mounts an impressive exhibit chronicling the... 

<em>The Rape of the Sabine Women</em>

Art

The Rape of the Sabine Women

Thursday 5/ 8 @ SFMOMA

Eve Sussman and the Rufus Corporation's epic video-opera, The Rape of the Sabine Women, is a sprawling, beguiling exploration of classical... 

Enrique Chagoya: <em> Borderlandia </em>

Art

Enrique Chagoya

Thursday 5/ 8 @ 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... 

Gareth Moore

Art

Gareth Moore

Thursday 5/ 8 @ CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts

Vancouver artist Gareth Moore takes hold of the reins at the Wattis, presenting the ninth solo exhibition in the gallery's ongoing... 

Atmosphere

Music: Hip-Hop

Atmosphere

Thursday 5/ 8 @ The Grand Ballroom

Minneapolis' veteran duo Atmosphere (aka Slug and Ant, the backpacker's Fresh Prince and Jazzy Jeff) draw a die-hard crowd of indie... 

<em>2nd Skin: Imaginative Designs in Digital & Analog Clothing</em>

Special Event

2nd Skin

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Exploratorium

With a futuristic, tongue-in-cheek vision, the artists featured in the 2nd Skin fashion exhibit challenge the standard notions of practical clothing.... 

Victor Cartagena: <em>The Invisible Nation</em>

Art

Victor Cartagena

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Galería de la Raza

Salvadoran artist Victor Cartagena has worked in the Bay Area for nearly three decades, cataloging heartfelt narratives about cultural displacement, immigration,... 

<em>Joy Division</em>

Film: Documentary

Joy Division

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Roxie Theater

When Grant Gee's documentary portrait of the iconic Manchester post-punk band Joy Division played at Yerba Buena last January, legions of... 

Lacey Jane Roberts: <em>The Master's Tools (Decay Goes Both Ways)</em>

Art

Lacey Jane Roberts

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Little Tree Gallery

Little Tree Gallery has now been fortified, thanks to Bay Area artist Lacey Jane Roberts' handwoven barbed-wire fence. Even though every... 

<em>The Dhamma Brothers</em>

Film: Documentary

The Dhamma Brothers

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Red Vic

It's difficult to imagine a Buddhist meditation retreat in a maximum-security prison, but at Donaldson Correctional Facility in Alabama,... 

<em>Protest in Paris 1968: Photographs by Serge Hambourg</em>

Art: Photography

Protest in Paris 1968

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Berkeley Art Museum

Forty years after Paris' famous May 1968 protests, the true meaning of the uprisings is debatable — but that's not for... 

Christian Marclay:<em> Stereo</em>

Art

Christian Marclay

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Fraenkel Gallery

Christian Marclay pioneered the turntable as a musical instrument in the late '70s, scratching out experimental sounds with vinyl found in... 

<em>Uncharted: Imaginary Landscapes </em>

Art

Uncharted

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Hayes Valley Market Gallery

Like intrepid cartographers, the nine artists featured in this exhibit navigate land and space from many angles. Their interpretations range in... 

Annie Leibovitz: <em>A Photographer's Life, 1990-2005</em>

Art: Photography

Annie Leibovitz

Thursday 5/ 8 @ The Legion of Honor Museum

Working since the late '70s, photographer Annie Leibowitz has created both iconic celebrity portraits and intimate views of everyday people. She's... 

<em>The Way That We Rhyme: Women, Art & Politics</em>

Art

The Way That We Rhyme

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

American culture always seems poised to pronounce feminism down for the count, when it clearly still has plenty of fighting to... 

San Francisco International Film Festival

Festival: Performing Arts

San Francisco International Film Festival

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Various locations

While San Franciscans certainly don't lack for choices when it comes to film festivals, true cinephiles know that the San Francisco... 

<em>Friedlander</em>

Art: Photography

Friedlander

Thursday 5/ 8 @ SFMOMA

Over the last half-century, photographer Lee Friedlander has made a career of cataloging America's urban — and increasingly suburban — landscape.... 

Paul Sietsema: <em>New Work</em>

Art

Paul Sietsema

Thursday 5/ 8 @ SFMOMA

Los Angeles artist Paul Sietsema presents an exceptional body of recent drawings and films in SFMOMA's New Work series. Sietsema straddles... 

<em>The Question Is Known: (W)here Is Latin American / Latino Art</em>

Art

The Question Is Known

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts

Artist Antony Torres curates this powerful exhibition of 30 artists showing paintings, sculpture, and installations exploring Latino identity. Highlights include the... 

Veronica Graham: <em>Bonus Map</em>

Art

Veronica Graham

Thursday 5/ 8 @ CELLspace

Composed of more than 2000 hand-printed cloth swatches, Veronica Graham's sprawling installation Bonus Map takes over CELLspace's wall like cartographic kudzu.... 

<em>After the Revolution: Contemporary Photography from Tehran and California</em>

Art: Photography

After the Revolution

Thursday 5/ 8 @ San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery

Between Azar Nafisi's memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran and Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel (and now animated feature) Persepolis, post-revolutionary autobiography has... 

Curatorial Industries presents <em>Self-Storage</em>

Art

Self-Storage

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Self Storage

Duchamp had his suitcase-sized monographs. Warhol, his yearly time capsules. Taking its inspiration from Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion Chronofile — an epic... 

<em>Jellyfish</em>

Film

Jellyfish

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Landmark Lumiere Theatre

Israeli co-directors Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen have both written children's books and graphic novels, so it's only natural that their... 

<em>In Collaboration: Early Works from the Media Arts Collection</em>

Art

In Collaboration

Thursday 5/ 8 @ SFMOMA

San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art was one of the first major museums to establish a department specifically dedicated to media... 

Sarah Wagner: <em>Nuclear Family</em>

Art

Sarah Wagner

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Patricia Sweetow Gallery

Sarah Wagner turns out delicate textile sculptures that resemble tangled roots and vines. Her faux-plant shapes sprout from the gallery's cement... 

<em>Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors </em>(1964)

Film

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is Russian director Sergei Parajanov's eccentric take on the Romeo and Juliet story. Set in a Carpathian... 

<em>Quarter Century: </em>Creativity Explored's 25th Anniversary

Art

Quarter Century

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Creativity Explored

Creativity Explored has long been an outlet for local developmentally challenged adults to express their artistic visions. Now celebrating its 25th... 

Weston Teruya and Michele Carlson: <em>How I Learned to...</em>

Art

How I Learned to...

Thursday 5/ 8 @ Intersection for the Arts

It's a pretty safe bet that elementary schools won't soon be competing with downtown museums and banks for a top architect's... 

Gilbert &amp; George

Art

Gilbert & George

Thursday 5/ 8 @ de Young Museum

Gilbert & George, the art-world enfants terribles in natty bespoke suits, celebrate 40 years of having made their lives their work...