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Issue 300 |
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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 29-Feb 4, 2008
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Not to toot our own horns, but as Flavorpill San Francisco's 300th issue arrives, it seems like the city itself is getting in on the celebration. This week, YBCA's encore screening of sport doc Zidane vitalizes the cliché of "poetry in motion"; SF's own Saigon offers a bit of New Year's cheer; and Black Mountain trots out the old-school rock swagger. Now, to take care of all those candles...
- Matt Sussman, Managing Editor
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SPECIAL FEATURE
Celebration of Inspiration
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This New Year's Eve, Flavorpill teamed up with Le Méridien hotels to give four lucky readers an experience way better than drinking too much and making out with strangers. We sent our explorers to four different cities — Shanghai, Vienna, Miami, and Monaco — to take in the art, culture, cuisine, and nightlife, and report back on their adventures.
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READING
Beth Lisick
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Tuesday Jan 29 (7:30pm)
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Moe's Books (2476 Telegraph Ave, 510.849.2087)
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FREE
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With an impressive list of past and present projects — including spoken word with Sister Spit, a nightlife column on SFGate.com, and popular storytelling event Porchlight, to name a few — local polymath Beth Lisick has been a welcome part of SF's arts scene for over a decade. Lisick's autobiography, Everybody Into the Pool, earned rave reviews for its unflinching candor and humor, and in her recent tome Helping Me Help Myself, she shares her one-year immersion in the world of self-help books. Somehow, it's comforting to know that even such intimidatingly accomplished people require a little help now and then.
- Tanya Feldman
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Hip-Hop
Mr. Lif and the Perceptionists w/ Radioactive
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Tuesday Jan 29 (9pm)
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The Independent (628 Divisadero St, 415.771.1422)
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$18
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Mr. Lif and his loudmouth crew, the Perceptionists, are back in town tonight, dropping a bit of Bean-town slang on fans and haters alike. Foregoing the allegorical crypto-futurism of his past releases, 2006's Mo' Mega found Mr. Lif showing some genuine emotional vulnerability. The album was proof that there's more to this Definitive Jux crewmember than backpacker hubris and inner-circle big-upmanship. The Perceptionists are equally adept at covering the personal and the political, from enumerating relationship woes to eulogizing slain brothers. Together, they are master portraitists of indie hip-hop's fallen world.
- Matt Sussman
[Info Source]
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ART
The Art of Two Empires: Japanese Woodblock Prints and Moghul Miniature Paintings
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Wednesday Jan 30 (6–8pm)
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Masterworks Institute for Works on Paper (251 Post St, 415.362.3906)
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$30 / $25 advance
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This special exhibit organized by the USF Center for the Pacific Rim and the Japan Society of Northern California showcases the refined elegance and extravagance of two distinct Asian empires. Japanese woodblock prints, which have traditionally explored themes of nature, spirituality and honor, are exhibited alongside Moghul miniature paintings — colorful portrayals of Indian courtly life that emerged in the 16th and 17th centuries. The reception includes Indian and Japanese delicacies and drinks, and part of the proceeds benefit the sponsoring non-profits.
- Tanya Feldman
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Rock/Pop
Calling All Monsters w/ Touch Committee
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Wednesday Jan 30 (9:30pm)
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Edinburgh Castle Pub (950 Geary St, 415.885.4074)
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$5
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The Edinburgh Castle plays host to a night of local overdriven guitar pop. Calling All Monsters channel the grit of early Sebadoh without shortchanging the hooks. Whether swilling power chords on a track like "We Are Special Forces" or toning things down for a more melodic approach, the band sounds very much in touch with its garage. If Touch Committee seem a little more gussied up for their Bedhead-touched interlocking guitars, they remain a throwback to the fuzzed-out daydreams that had their heyday during the '90s — fans of the spectrum of bands running from the Pixies to Nada Surf will find plenty to love here.
- Max Goldberg
[Info Source]
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FILM
Day Is Done
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Thursday Jan 31 (7:30pm)
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Novellus Theater (701 Mission St, 415.978.2787)
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$8
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Distilling what art critic Jerry Saltz called the "clusterfuck aesthetic" of his sprawling, 2005 mixed-media installation of the same name into an epic-length pseudo-musical, Mike Kelley's Day Is Done is a deeply fractured fairy tale in which high school clichés and suburban monsters populate a looking-glass version of youth culture. The piece's 31 loosely intertwined episodes surreally reconstruct found yearbook photos depicting a variety of performance-centered activities — dress-up days, special assemblies and concerts. The resulting two-hours-plus video recalls the color-saturated occultism of Kenneth Anger's films, but Kelley's rituals seem more in the service of regression therapy (via Waiting for Guffman) than the black arts.
- Matt Sussman
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Rock/Pop
Vampire Weekend
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Thursday Jan 31 (10pm)
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330 Ritch (360 Ritch St, 415.522.9558)
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$12
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For those who avoid the typical channels of hype, the oddly named Vampire Weekend are the latest yelpy Brooklyn act to stir up the blogosphere. While the idea of a quartet of recent Columbia grads playing a deft mix of quirk, nostalgia, and Afro-pop rhythm might make you scratch your head, the band's brand-new self-titled debut is bursting with enough irresistible melodies to make good on reviewers' frequent Graceland comparisons. Add a dash of Wes Anderson deadpan and a pinch of the Shins to sweeten, and presto: it's your next indie-pop crush.
- Max Goldberg
Note:
The band also plays a free in-store at Amoeba Music in San Francisco on Fri Feb 1 at 7pm.
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Rock/Pop
Jessie Evans w/ the Judy Experience and Goo!
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Friday Feb 1 (9:30pm)
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Hemlock Tavern (1131 Polk St, 415.923.0923)
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$8
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Former dark-wave daughter Jessie Evans (of defunct goth-punks Subtonix) returns to the coast after roosting in Berlin, where she channeled the German capital's infamous cabaret and post-punk pasts into various musical projects with the help of Atari Teenage Riot's Hanin Elias and '80s cult group Malaria!'s singer, Bettina Koster. Another frequent collaborator, Toby Dammit — who has worked with everyone from Iggy Pop to Rufus Wainright — joins Evans on this tour as her percussionist, helping to bring her Sally Bowles-meets-Siouxsie Sioux brand of electronic chanson to the stage.
- Matt Sussman
Note:
Jessie Evans also plays at 12 Galaxies on Sat Feb 2, and at 924 Gilman Street on Sun Feb 3.
[Info Source]
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MORE FLAVOR: Festival
San Francisco Bluegrass & Old-Time Festival
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Friday Feb 1
More times»
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Various locations
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Various prices
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Despite being so far west of the Mississippi, San Francisco can seem like a bluegrass lover's paradise. The annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival is the flagship event, attracting tens of thousands to Golden Gate Park in October. Yet HSBF's nine-year-old cousin, the San Francisco Bluegrass & Old-Time Festival, does a better job spreading itself all over the city, spotlighting the venues that support local players throughout the year. In addition to a square dance at the Swedish American Hall, films at the Red Vic, and various music workshops, this year's fest features performances by two progenitors of California bluegrass, David Grisman and Peter Rowan.
- Max Goldberg
[Info Source]
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MORE FLAVOR: Food/Wine
Around the World in 80 Beers
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Saturday Feb 2 (4–6pm)
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O'Neill's Irish Pub (900 North Point St, Ste 104, 415.771.8560)
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$32 advance
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Those who lack Phileas Fogg's incentive to travel, but share his adventurous tastes — particularly in the area of fine malt beverages — would do well to explore the assemblage of 80 extraordinary beers from around the world at O'Neill's Irish Pub. Accompanied by appetizers to further whet your appetite, ales, lagers, lambics, and stouts of all varieties come together in a gustatory experience worthy of Oktoberfest (if Oktoberfest could be condensed to two hours on a Saturday). Take the opportunity to discover new favorite brews and raise a glass in appreciation of one of the world's oldest beverages.
- Annie Lo
[Info Source]
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READING
David Rieff: Swimming in a Sea of Death
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Saturday Feb 2 (7pm)
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Cody's on Fourth Street (1730 4th St, 510.559.9500)
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FREE
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The writer David Rieff comes from some pretty heavy intellectual stock. He is the sole child of Philip Rieff, an American sociologist known for his book Freud: The Mind of the Moralist, and Susan Sontag, who really needs no introduction. Still, even if writing and criticism were in the blood, Rieff has made his own mark with years of insightful, sometimes contentious work on foreign policy, genocide, and human rights. An interesting addendum to Sontag's own 1978 classic Illness as Metaphor, Rieff's new book, Swimming in a Sea of Death, is a memoir about his mother's multistage cancer and eventual death in 2004.
- Max Goldberg
[Info Source]
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MORE FLAVOR: Festival
The 12th Annual Vietnamese New Year’s Tet Festival of San Francisco: The Year of the Rat
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Sunday Feb 3 (9:30am–6pm)
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Tenderloin District (Larkin and Ellis St)
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FREE
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January 1st may have passed, but the Tenderloin is still abuzz with New Year's cheer. The neighborhood's 12th annual Tet Festival — Vietnam's most celebrated holiday — honors the forthcoming cycle of the lunisolar calendar with a variety of cultural attractions. Pass out "lucky money," check out ceremonies and performances by local and international artists, or simply get a taste of traditional delicacies (there's more to it than Bánh mì, after all). Tet Nguyên Dán is an opportunity to look both forward and back, commemorating the roots of San Francisco's Vietnamese population as well as the generations to come.
- Nick Earhart
[Info Source]
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FILM
The Battle of Algiers (1966)
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Sunday Feb 3 (7 & 9:30pm)
More times»
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Red Vic (1727 Haight St, 415.668.3994)
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$8.50
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Still one of the most incendiary political films ever made, Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers now seems as prescient for its brazen mix of documentary technique and dramatic effect as for its lucid rendition of occupation warfare. The film was screened for military personnel a few months into the Iraq War, a sure sign of its persistent currency. Pontecorvo plays with fire in the way he tempts us to cheer those famous scenes of Algerian guerillas bombing French cafés, but if The Battle of Algiers is provocative, it's hardly the diatribe overly sympathetic audiences have made it out to be — instead call it a strikingly cinematic ballad of the times.
- Max Goldberg
[Info Source]
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MORE FLAVOR: Lecture
Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Future Has Always Been Crazier Than We Thought
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Monday Feb 4 (7:30pm)
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Cowell Theater (Marina Blvd & Buchanan St, 415.345.7575)
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$10 suggested donation
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Referring to himself as a "skeptical empiricist," essayist and scholar Nassim Taleb eschews the universal thinking enforced by Platonic realism. Instead, he focuses on the development of forward thinking that prepares us for dealing with the unstructured randomness of the world, whether minor or catastrophic. With keen insight and a sense of humor, Taleb explores these concepts in his recent book, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, and presents them for discussion in this evening's installment of the Long Now Foundation's Seminars About Long-term Thinking.
- Tanya Feldman
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Rock/Pop
Black Mountain w/ Howlin' Rain
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Monday Feb 4 (7:30pm)
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The Independent (628 Divisadero St, 415.771.1422)
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$14
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Black Mountain's eponymous debut, a brazen amalgamation of the most classic sounds of the late '60s and the '70s, proudly brandished all the trappings of rock 'n roll confidence: touches of psychedelia, arena-ready bravado, and songwriting strong enough to make fans out of Wayne Coyne and Coldplay. Their newest release, In the Future, mines similar territory but throws a few curve balls and reveals a more eclectic palette. Openers Howlin' Rain promise freakier fare, with members of Comets on Fire and Sunburned Hand of the Man facing off in a tussle of big guitars and bigger drums.
- Nicholas Nauman
[Info Source]
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ART
Jordan Kantor
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Wednesday Jan 30 (11am–6pm)
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Ratio 3 (1447 Stevenson St, 415.821.3371)
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FREE
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Just as Hans Holbein the Younger's famous stretched skull in The Ambassadors functioned as a memento mori, Jordan Kantor's painting of three stacked skulls serves as a reminder. But rather than drawing attention to our fleeting existence, his skulls point to the artist's questioning of pictorial truth and historical narrative. While his truncated frames, lens flares, and silhouetted figures make for elusive and perplexing works, it is through the embrace of such uncertainty that Kantor leaves the question of painting's obsolescence looking well bruised.
- Isaac Amala
[Info Source]
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ART
Ribbons: Enter the Center
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Thursday Jan 31 (1–5pm)
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Eleanor Harwood Gallery (1295 Alabama St, 415.867.7770)
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FREE
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For the past couple of years, local artists Frank Lyon and David Wilson have played music together as Ship. Under the umbrella of Ribbons Publications, they've organized performances in unusual Bay Area locales, such as a eucalyptus grove in Berkeley and an old military outpost overlooking the Pacific in the Marin Headlands. Now they're setting their sights on the urban frontier, melding their artistic and musical endeavors at the Eleanor Harwood Gallery for Enter the Center. The exhibition includes billowy landscape drawings by Wilson and kaleidoscopic collages by Lyon, as well as artifacts from previous outings and a couple of celebration concerts (scheduled for Feb 2 and 9). The performances feature fellow wonder-seekers White Rainbow, Lucky Dragons, and Arp.
- Max Goldberg
Note:
There is an opening reception for the exhibition on Sat Jan 26 (6-10pm).
[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.
To learn more about our staff and policies, see the credits and about us pages. If you'd like to respond to our editors about a listing published here, or have a general inquiry, please email sf_feedback.
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Flavorpill also publishes eight other email magazines, covering ART, BOOKS, NEWS, MUSIC, and cultural events in four other cities — NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES, LONDON, and CHICAGO. Coming soon: STYLE/DESIGN and FILM. Subscribe now.
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