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Issue 296 |
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Your cultural event guide
Here's a snapshot of our favorite things to do in San Francisco this week. |
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San Francisco
Jan 2-7, 2008
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January is about making a fresh start, so this week focuses on repurposing, rethinking, and rebirths. Artist Michael Bernard Loggins turns language on its head with "laughterful" results, Meeting Resistance provides an unheard perspective on the war on terror, and '80s hair-metal icons show you that they've still got blood pumping beneath their tats. Rip it up, start again, and spread it.
- Matt Sussman, Managing Editor
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SPECIAL FEATURE
Yue Minjun
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One of the leaders of the Chinese avant-garde art movement, Yue Minjun is celebrated for his paintings, drawings, and sculptures, whose laughing characters are based on self-portraits. Using humor to comment on a variety of social issues, Yue has been most closely identified with a group of Chinese artists known as cynical realists.
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Eco-Chic
A wave of nature-nurturing fashion trends is hitting the market.
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Jahcoozi
A multi-cultural trio with ties to London, Sri Lanka, NYC, Berlin, and Tel Aviv.
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FILM
The V.I.P.s (1963)
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Wednesday Jan 2 (2:20pm)
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The Castro Theatre (429 Castro St, 415.621.6120)
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$9
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Hot off the heels of their bloated and lavish CinemaScope monument to each other, 1963's Cleopatra, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton found time to play a rich couple on the fritz in this hilariously ridiculous, soap-ish prelude to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). George and Martha these well-dressed cheaters are not, but still, we are stuck in an airport lounge with Taylor's Frances Andros and a cast of other souls in turmoil waiting for the (metaphorical) fog to lift from their lives. Despite stellar supporting turns by Orson Welles and Maggie Smith, this so-bad-it's-good bit of pastel cheesecake serves as a reminder to all Hollywood "It" couples that anyone (yes, even Brad and Angie) can lay a stinker.
- Matt Sussman
[Info Source]
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ART: Photography
Katy Grannan: The Westerns
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Thursday Jan 3 (10:30am–5:30pm)
More times»
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| where: |
Fraenkel Gallery (49 Geary St, 415.981.2661)
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FREE
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Despite the enduring mythos of the American West as a destination for escape, redemption, and reinvention, many Californians will gently remind you not to confuse their home with a Hollywood cliché. Such a Proustian disparity between the idea of a place and the reality that constitutes it is the starting point in photographer Katy Grannan's latest series of portraits, The Westerns. While Grannan may follow her subjects through familiar terrain — a harsh street curb supporting a woman's voluptuous frame, a beach on which a beshawled, wind-whipped couple romantically pose — it's her spare shots and the subjects' own unnerving intimacy with (and disregard for) their surroundings that give these images their startling power.
- Isaac Amala
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Rock/Pop
Hot Challenge w/ Ellul and Dominique Leone
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Thursday Jan 3 (9pm)
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Bottom of the Hill (1233 17th St, 415.621.4455)
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$8
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Peppered with cheesy jokes and bouncy, synth-infused pop rock, a Hot Challenge show is the ideal way to detox and re-energize from the latest round of New Year's debauchery. These young upstarts (including brothers Joe, JP, and David Rose) have a small but catchy repertoire with just enough creative edge to set them apart from other bubblegum scenesters. Balancing out the bill are Ellul's ambient, textured songs, inflected with blips, crackles, and pops, and crafted around Joel St. Julien and Joel Brown-Tarman's haunting, sparse vocals. Solo alchemist Dominique Leone, whose work spans from classically delicate ballads to eclectic sound collages, opens.
- Connie Hwong
[Info Source]
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PERFORMING ARTS: Theatre
David Mamet: Speed-the-Plow
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Friday Jan 4
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American Conservatory Theater (415 Geary St, 415.749.2228)
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Various prices
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In Speed-the-Plow, playwright David Mamet dissects the behind-the-scenes manipulations and machinations that drive Hollywood. Bobby Gould can't decide between producing a lowbrow action flick or a human-interest story; his best friend is pushing for a blockbuster, while his sexy secretary pulls in the other direction. Expect plenty of sharp, witty dialogue — shot through with Mamet's fondness for blunt expletives — in this critical examination of human loyalties and power hierarchies in Tinseltown. For hardcore Mamet fans, there's also a chance to pitch an original script to ACT's writing contest, open in conjunction with the play.
- Tanya Feldman
[Info Source]
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ART
Boomerang
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Saturday Jan 5 (11am–6pm)
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Hayes Valley Market Gallery (580 Hayes St)
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| price: |
FREE
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True to its title, Mario Lemos and Laurie O'Brien's intimate exhibit Boomerang traces a parabolic path connecting a wide swath of Bay Area artists, rebounding across generations and different media in feedback loops of influence. The work of younger names, such as installation artist Chris Cobb — who famously reorganized Adobe Books' entire stock by color in his There is Nothing Wrong in This Whole Wide World — or recent Goldie winner Colter Jacobson — whose "memory drawings" eerily double the images that inspired them — is allowed to resonate with the visions of older kindred spirits, such as experimental filmmakers Nathaniel Dorsky and Lawrence Jordan. The latter's gently surreal, cut-out animation Blue Skies Beyond the Looking Glass is especially not to be missed when it screens on Tuesday, January 8th, at 7pm.
- Matt Sussman
Note:
An opening reception and screening take place on Tue Jan 8 (6-11pm).
[Info Source]
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FILM: Documentary
The Films of Emile de Antonio
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Saturday Jan 5
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SFMOMA (151 3rd St, 415.357.4000)
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| price: |
$5 / Free w/ museum admission
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Though often given short shrift in film histories, the political documentaries of Emile de Antonio played a major hand in shaping the radical discourses that sprung up in the late '60s. In the Year of the Pig (1968), de Antonio's famous examination of the origins of the Vietnam War, was even nominated for an Academy Award — though it also earned the director a thick FBI file at J. Edgar Hoover's behest. A sensitive cultural analyst, de Antonio trained his lens on everything from failed liberalism (America Is Hard to See, 1970) to New York City's vibrant arts scene (Painters Painting, 1972) during his keenly perceptive career. SFMOMA's retrospective spans throughout, featuring ten of the director's incendiary films.
- Max Goldberg
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Rock/Pop
Skid Row w/ LA Guns, Bang Tango, and Veins of Jenna
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Sunday Jan 6 (6pm)
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Avalon Nightclub (777 Lawrence Expy, Santa Clara, 408.497.3499)
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$25 / $20 advance
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Though now sans Sebastian Bach, Skid Row are still at it, rocking out like frosted hair, ripped t-shirts, and bare midriffs on dudes never went out of style. Now fronted by Johnny Solinger, the band's sound has gotten slightly punker (probably with the influence of producer Bob Rock), eschewing the flamboyant solos and banshee wails that made hits like "18 and Life" so emblematic of '80s rock. But these boys from Jersey still have a country soul (Jersey might as well be the South, right?), and their last album, Revolutions per Minute, is still perfect for those times you wind up sipping a Coors Light in a biker bar, watching a bunch of burly, sunburned dudes air-guitaring.
- Gerry Mak
[Info Source]
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MORE FLAVOR: Benefit
Showtime and the Human Rights Campaign present The L Word Season 5 Premiere Party
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Sunday Jan 6 (8pm)
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Rickshaw Stop (155 Fell St, 415.861.2011)
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$10 suggested donation
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Since debuting in 2004, The L Word has proven that one of the benchmarks of societal acceptance is that a minority group gets its own version of Melrose Place on premium cable. These sisters have done or been through it all: battles with cancer, experiments with heterosexuality, turkey baster pregnancies, endless careering, and more perfectly tousled, baby-butch haircuts than Zac Efron could ever hope to achieve. And did we mention the mouth-to-mouth the show has given to Jennifer Beal's and Pam Grier's careers? Grab your most updated copy of the Chart and tune in for a good cause at this season-premiere party benefiting the Human Rights Campaign.
- Matt Sussman
[Info Source]
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FILM
The Savages
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Monday Jan 7 (1pm)
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Various locations
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Various prices
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Until The Savages, director Tamara Jenkins had been languishing with a real case of the what-have-you-done-for-us-latelies; her last film, the incorrigible, smart-mouthed Slums of Beverly Hills, hit theaters more than nine years ago. That said, amnesia can go both ways, and this new fable about adult siblings (Laura Linney and Philip Seymour Hoffman) forced to abandon their long estrangement in order to tend to their ailing father has already set tongues a-flapping in the festival circuit. The trick here is the scale — minute wit, gestures, and maturation — and a crumpled sincerity that renders impossible the big-scale manipulation that typically comprises silver-screen emotional reckonings.
- Lisa Rosman
[Info Source]
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FILM
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
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Wednesday Jan 2
More times»
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Various locations
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| price: |
Various prices
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Even if you don't care for the self-important saccharine of composer Stephen Sondheim; even if you claim a chemical aversion to the movie-musical genre; even if you profess disdain for the indulgences of director Tim Burton; and even if (and this is the biggest caveat of them all) you experience that rare immunity to the great beauty of Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd cannot be dismissed out of hand. The film adaptation of the now-legendary Broadway production about a barber (Depp) out to avenge his wife and child by, uh, making meat pies out of wrongdoers with his accomplice Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) is great, oddly not-guilty pleasure.
- Lisa Rosman
[Info Source]
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MORE FLAVOR: Festival
Berlin & Beyond Film Festival
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Thursday Jan 10
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| where: |
The Castro Theatre (429 Castro St, 415.621.6120)
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| price: |
$10 per film
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The Berlin & Beyond Film Festival features the best new cinema from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Showcasing narratives, documentaries, shorts, and restored silent films, this year's highlights range from a spotlight on German comedies to a tribute to actor Ulrich Mühe, whose screenings include Oscar-winner The Lives of Others and the gruesome Funny Games (of which an American remake by director Michael Haneke is set to hit theaters next year). The festival kicks off with Fatih Akin's latest, The Edge of Heaven — a complex story of intersecting lives and the search for love, home, and family.
- Annie Lo
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Electronic
Cornelius
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Friday Jan 18 (9pm)
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The Fillmore (1805 Geary Blvd, 415.346.6000)
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| price: |
$25
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Even if Cornelius' orange-cream-soda dream of an album Fantasma didn't net him the pop crossover status he so richly deserved when it first hit college airwaves ten years ago, Keigo Oyamada has still kept plenty busy reinventing the Shibuya-Kei sound — a kaleidoscopic rewriting of pop's last 40 years — he helped define. Oyamada and his clone-like backing band present the Ultimate Sensuous Synchronized Show, an audiovisual tour through his last album, Sensuous (with many welcome detours through his rich back catalog), as stunning for its stop-on-a-dime precision as it is for the playfully psychedelic interplay of lights, video, and sound.
- Matt Sussman
[Info Source]
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About Us |
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Cultural Partner
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Editors
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Flavorpill San Francisco
All events featured on Flavorpill SF are pure editorial — we never accept paid promotions or advertisements. If you know about an upcoming event that you think should be covered in Flavorpill SF, email us a press release at sf_events at least two weeks prior to the event and we'll consider it.
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