Events on Friday, September 26

Film: Documentary

Useless

Friday 9/26 @ Pacific Film Archive Theater

In the same way that Michelangelo Antonioni has been described as the quintessential modernist filmmaker of the early '60s, Sixth Generation... 

Superpitcher w/ Michael Mayer

Music: Electronic

Superpitcher w/ Michael Mayer

Friday 9/26 @ Club Mighty

Tongiht, Mighty hosts a showcase of two of Cologne's finest exports, Kompakt labelmates Superpitcher and Michael Mayer. Choosing a handily... 

San Francisco Desperate Divas Pageant

Special Event: Benefit

Desperate Divas

Friday 9/26 @ SomArts Cultural Center

Part gutter/glitter fashion show, part drag Oscars, the Desperate Divas competition pits local gender benders against one another for a worthy... 

Chicha Libre w/ DJ Organgrinder

Music: Global

Chicha Libre

Friday 9/26 @ Cafe du Nord

Chicha might have been another lost artifact of the Amazon had it not been for a boom box on the streets... 

Kim Gordon Meets Phantom Orchard

Music: Experimental

Kim Gordon Meets Phantom Orchard

Friday 9/26 @ Montalvo Arts Center

These mad scientists of sound create the most gorgeous noise since, well, any of their previous projects. A convocation of the... 

Ongoing Events

Spencer Sweeney

Art

Spencer Sweeney

Friday 9/26 @ Jack Hanley Gallery

After studying any one of Spencer Sweeney's works in his new show at Jack Hanley, it's clear that the New York... 

<em>Rock 'n' Roll</em>

Theatre

Rock 'n' Roll

Friday 9/26 @ American Conservatory Theater

Tom Stoppard's 2007 work follows hippies, idealogues, and idealistic rockers through three decades of political turmoil and personal exploration in Cambridge,... 

Mission of Burma

Music

Mission of Burma

Friday 9/26 @ The Independent

Inspiration to guitar-dads everywhere, Mission of Burma prove the rock doesn't have to stop on the other side of the hill.... 

Shen Shaomin: <em>Experimental Studio: The Thousand Hand Buddha</em> and <em>Bonsai</em>

Art

Shen Shaomin

Friday 9/26 @ Frey Norris Gallery

Chinese artist Shen Shaomin uses mismatched groups of human and animal bones (some real, some cast in plaster) to form skeletal... 

Christine Shields: <em>When Holy Were the Haunted Forest Boughs</em>

Art

Christine Shields

Friday 9/26 @ Triple Base

A musician, comic-book author, and freak-folk portraitist, Christine Shields evokes a fiercely personal vision of girlhood with pastel-colored, phantasmal paintings of... 

<em>New Heaven: Drawings by Nathaniel Russell</em>

Art

New Heaven

Friday 9/26 @ Mollusk Surf Shop

Nat Russell's hairy creatures and loping surfers have a distinctly Pacific aura; the artist's solo show at the beachside Mollusk Surf... 

Kate Durkin: <em>It's Alright</em>

Art

It's Alright

Friday 9/26 @ Future Primitive Sound Headquarters / Edo Salon-Gallery

Kate Durkin combines stitching, acrylic, and collage to create an imaginative world reminiscent of Where the Wild Things Are. It's a... 

Jason J&auml;gel:<em> </em><em>73 Funshine</em><em> </em>

Art

73 Funshine

Friday 9/26 @ Electric Works

Jason Jägel paints borderless canvasses packed with cartoon-like figures and doodles that merge and collide. Inspired by fiction, comics, and especially... 

<em> Art of Democracy: War and Empire </em>

Art

Art of Democracy

Friday 9/26 @ Meridian Gallery

Since 2006, when the Art of Democracy coalition was formed by a San Franciscan and a New Yorker, some 40 associated... 

San Francisco Blues Festival

Festival: Performing Arts

San Francisco Blues Festival

Friday 9/26 @ Great Meadow, Fort Mason

The blues may have well-documented origins in the Mississippi Delta, but the country's longest continuously running blues fest calls the Bay... 

<em>The Totoro Forest Project</em>

Art

The Totoro Forest Project

Friday 9/26 @ Cartoon Art Museum

If any two names make underground-comics fans quiver, they are Hayao Miyazaki and the Cartoon Art Museum. Miyazaki has earned global... 

Word for Word presents <em>More Stories by Tobias Wolff</em>

Theatre

More Stories by Tobias Wolff

Friday 9/26 @ Magic Theater

Inventive theatre group Word for Word produces a literal adaptation of three Tobias Wolff stories that showcases the prolific writer's ability... 

<em>The Wizard of Oz</em>

Art

The Wizard of Oz

Friday 9/26 @ CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts

Dorothy may have made it back to Kansas, but America's cultural imagination never really left Oz. Or so goes the thesis... 

<em>I feel I am free but I know I am not</em>

Art: Photography

I feel I am free but I know I am not

Friday 9/26 @ SF Camerawork

This series of participatory events, curated by Chuck Mobley, destabilizes the viewer's static relationship to the photograph-as-object — the exhibit seeks... 

<em>Banned and Recovered: Artists Respond to Censorship</em>

Art

Banned and Recovered

Friday 9/26 @ San Francisco Center for the Book

In some parts of the US, closed-minded thinking keeps the works of Mark Twain, J.D. Salinger, and J.K. Rowling out of... 

Evan Bissell: <em>somewhere in advance of nowhere: youth, imagination and transformation</em>

Art

somewhere in advance of nowhere

Friday 9/26 @ Intersection for the Arts

With Evan Bissell's effusive portraits hung like billboards across the city, it's impossible to separate somewhere in advance of nowhere from... 

<em>Hungry Planet: What the World Eats</em>

Art: Photography

Hungry Planet

Friday 9/26 @ World Affairs Center

The relationship between people and food is deeply affected by tradition, as well as by the social and political climate —... 

Rachel Kaye: <em>Under the Affluence</em>

Art

Rachel Kaye

Friday 9/26 @ Adobe Bookshop

In a world seemingly fueled by of-the-moment celebrity gossip, it's easy to forget that the public's fascination with the wealthy is... 

Cool Globes

Special Event

Cool Globes

Friday 9/26 @ Crissy Field

Though it may be hard to tell during some chilly summer nights in SF, the ten hottest years in recorded history... 

<em>Half-Life of a Dream</em><em>: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Logan Collection   </em>

Art

Half-Life of a Dream

Friday 9/26 @ SFMOMA

With China the topic du jour this summer, SFMOMA weighs in with a look at the post-Tiananmen art scene. In over... 

Mark Morris Dance Group presents <em>Romeo & Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare</em>

Dance

Romeo & Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare

Friday 9/26 @ Zellerbach Hall

Cal Performances snags the hotly anticipated West Coast premiere of Mark Morris' adaptation of Sergey Prokofiev's ballet, based on the Bard's... 

Julie Heffernan: <em>Broken Homes</em>

Art

Julie Heffernan

Friday 9/26 @ Catharine Clark Gallery

In Broken Homes, Julie Heffernan's canvases echo with whispers of the old masters — a hint of Velásquez here, Cranach and... 

buZ blurr: <em> Two Sides to Every Boxcar </em>

Art

buZ blurr

Friday 9/26 @ Babylon Falling

Trains may not have the same hold on the popular imagination as they once did, but a recent flurry of films... 

<em>Tasty</em>

Art

Tasty

Friday 9/26 @ Creativity Explored

The artists featured in this exhibit pay tribute to the food we eat with a delicious array of colors and textures,... 

David Hamill and Jeff Konigsberg: <em>Outpost</em>

Art

David Hamill and Jeff Konigsberg

Friday 9/26 @ Johansson Projects

David Hamill and Jeff Konigsberg dream up visionary architectural spaces, but their free-form renderings look nothing like the exacting models and... 

Architecture and the City Festival

Festival: Performing Arts

Architecture and the City

Friday 9/26 @ Various locations

Home to classic painted ladies, tree-lined hills, and recent prefab houses, San Francisco's landscape is distinct and ever-evolving. During the Architecture... 

<em>A Moment for Reflection: New Work by Lydia Fong</em>

Art

A Moment for Reflection

Friday 9/26 @ Ratio 3

Somewhere in this excellent installation by "Lydia Fong" (the latest alias of San Francisco artist Barry McGee) there may just be... 

<em>7 Beggars</em>

Theatre

7 Beggars

Friday 9/26 @ Climate Theater

Over 200 years ago, Rebbe Nachman said to a group of followers, "Now I am going to tell you stories." Flash... 

A Taste of Greece: San Francisco Greek Food Festival

Festival: Performing Arts

SF Greek Food Festival

Friday 9/26 @ Annunciation Cathedral

This festival of Hellenic flavor, hosted by the parish of Annunciation Cathedral, is a treat for both foodies and cultural savants.... 

Shepard Fairey: <em>Duality of Humanity</em>

Art

Duality of Humanity

Friday 9/26 @ White Walls Gallery

Shepard Fairey's red, white, and blue Obama posters flooded city walls and the public consciousness earlier this year with a burst... 

<em>Frida Kahlo</em>

Art

Frida Kahlo

Friday 9/26 @ SFMOMA

The devastating injuries Frida Kahlo suffered as a teenager during a bus accident actually may have been inspirational — they led... 

Richard T. Walker: <em>i want to want you like i wanted to want you</em>

Art

Richard T. Walker

Friday 9/26 @ David Cunningham Projects

The American West has long attracted artists, especially those who focus on the great outdoors. Richard T. Walker's new solo exhibition... 

Dale Chihuly

Art

Dale Chihuly

Friday 9/26 @ de Young Museum

Although the California Academy of Sciences is across the street, it's the de Young that's currently filled with swarms of jellyfish,... 

Gwena&euml;l Rattke: <em>Nouveau Syst&egrave;me</em>

Art

Gwenaël Rattke

Friday 9/26 @ Ping Pong Gallery

Deft with scissors, collage artist Gwenaël Rattke has been cutting things up since his teen years in Berlin, where he got... 

Ground Scores: Guided Tours of San Francisco Past and Personal

Special Event

Ground Scores

Friday 9/26 @ Various locations

Dedicated flâneurs will appreciate the YBCA's series of unconventional strolls and bus rides through San Francisco's hidden corners. Performance artist Michael... 

Tim Lee

Art

Tim Lee

Friday 9/26 @ 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>The Best Man</em>

Theatre

The Best Man

Friday 9/26 @ Aurora Theatre

It's a familiar story: two men vie for a powerful political position, and a nasty bout of mudslinging ensues as the... 

Frank Lobdell: <em> The Dance Series 1969-1972 </em>

Art

Frank Lobdell

Friday 9/26 @ Hackett-Freedman Gallery

During WWII, Picasso's Guernica set the gold standard for depictions of war in modern painting, as the young American soldier Frank... 

Geoffrey Ellis and Andrew Martin Scott: <em> Welcome All </em>

Art

Welcome All

Friday 9/26 @ Needles & Pens

From epic billboards to small squares reading "Beware of Dog," signs have long fascinated photographers; Lee Friedlander in particular found an... 

Alexander Hahn and Yves Netzhammer: <em>Room for Thought</em>

Art

Room for Thought

Friday 9/26 @ SFMOMA

In Room for Thought, Swiss video artists Alexander Hahn and Yves Netzhammer tackle Second Life's computer-generated spaces from a sympathetic angle.... 

Bay Area Now 5: <em>Inside/Outside</em>

Art

Bay Area Now 5

Friday 9/26 @ Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts' much-anticipated triennial presents a comprehensive view of the city's visual and performing art from the... 

<em>One-Man Star Wars Trilogy</em>

Comedy

One-Man Star Wars Trilogy

Friday 9/26 @ Post Street Theatre

Long ago (2001), in a galaxy far, far away (Toronto), Charles Ross turned a Star Wars obsession that started during childhood...