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Issue 331 |
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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
Sep 2-8, 2008
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This year's Democratic National Convention coincided with two landmark dates: the 88th anniversary of women's suffrage and the 45th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech. The timing couldn't have been better, or more resonant, given the historic nature of this Democratic primary race and Barack Obama's official nomination. Sadly, the convention — which boasted a record number of LGBT delegates — also coincided with the passing of a civil-rights hero: lesbian activist Del Martin. Along with her partner Phyllis Lyon, Martin co-founded the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian-rights organization in the US. (Longtime San Franciscans, Martin and Lyon were also the first legally married same-sex couple in California.) Martin once wrote, "nothing was ever accomplished by hiding in a dark corner." Thankfully, Martin chose brilliance.
- Matt Sussman, Managing Editor
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SPECIAL FEATURE
One Night Barcelona
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The two winners of Le Méridien and Flavorpill's Travel Journal contest journeyed to Barcelona to immerse themselves in the culture of the city. We invite you to meet these intrepid explorers and experience the Spanish metropolis through their personal online journals and photos. Up next: One Night Paris. Stay tuned for your chance to win!
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Wild Nights!
Joyce Carol Oates contemplates the task of authors writing at the ends of their lives.
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Flavorpill on Facebook
Explore our page, and show your devotion by becoming a Flavorpill fan.
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FILM
Mock Up on Mu
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Tuesday Sep 2 (7:30pm)
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Pacific Film Archive Theater (2575 Bancroft Way, 510.642.0808)
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| price: |
$9.50
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Craig Baldwin's conspiracy films exist in the blurry boundaries between collage, mashup, and crackpot lecture. The San Francisco State alumnus and longtime copyright-infringement rebel touches down at the Pacific Film Archive with his latest whatsit, Mock Up on Mu. Baldwin's sci-fi assemblage uncovers the secret history of California at the intersection of three legendary myth-makers: founder of Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Aleister Crowley disciple Jack Parsons; artist and occultist Marjorie Cameron; and Scientology sage L. Ron Hubbard. In Baldwin's crowded cutting room, science, religion, and history become elastic, and Mock Up on Mu is the director's opus.
- Max Goldberg
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Rock/Pop
Polvo w/ Trans Am
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Tuesday Sep 2 (8pm)
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Bimbo's (1025 Columbus Ave, 415.474.0365)
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| price: |
$16
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In the wake of a deluge of post-punk reunions (Gang of Four, Mission of Burma, etc.), descendant '80s and '90s acts are taking their turn: My Bloody Valentine are blowing out eardrums again, Built to Spill are performing Perfect From Now On in its entirety, and Chapel Hill's Polvo are back at it as well. The outfit never received the same level of adulation as the other two groups, but its serpentine, noisy tunes are one of indie rock's high-water marks. The band's interlocking riffs remain thrillingly jagged, but an affection for melody distinguishes Polvo from the math-rock pack.
- Max Goldberg
[Info Source]
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PERFORMING ARTS: Theatre
Colman Domingo: A Boy and His Soul
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Wednesday Sep 3 (8pm)
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Thick House (1695 18th St, 415.401.8081)
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$15 - 30
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Local showman Colman Domingo revives his 2005 hit, A Boy and His Soul, for Thick House's 20th-anniversary season. Domingo's tour of his Philadelphia childhood offers a generous helping of the city's musical heritage: sweet-sounding soul by the likes of the Delfonics and the O'Jays. Many music critics have lionized Philadelphia soul, but Domingo's idiosyncratic take demonstrates the way a regional sound can shape memory and personality. Domingo is fresh off a Broadway run in the Tony Award-winning Passing Strange, but A Boy and His Soul still gives the fullest view of his dynamic talent.
- Max Goldberg
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Festival
Ninth Annual San Francisco Electronic Music Festival
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Wednesday Sep 3 (8pm)
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Project Artaud Theater (450 Florida St, 415.626.4370)
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$17
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As described in David W. Bernstein's recent book, The San Francisco Tape Music Center: 1960s Counterculture and the Avant-Garde, San Francisco nurtured an experimental-music scene around the same time that Haight-Ashbury bands were turning rock music inside out. Since 2000, the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival has extended the pioneering pathways laid down by '60s mavericks such as Morton Subotnick and Terry Riley. This year's festival comes full circle with a performance by the accordion-wielding SF Tape Center alum Pauline Oliveros. Other performers of note include extended-composition guru Phill Niblock, fractured pop chanteuse Tujiko Noriko, and digital-drone programmer Akira Rabelais.
- Matt Sussman
Note:
There is an artist talk and Q&A with Phill Niblock, Pauline Oliveros, Hans Fjellestad, and Edmund Campion on Sunday, September 7, at 6pm.
[Info Source]
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ART
Art of Democracy: War and Empire
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Thursday Sep 4 (6–9pm)
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Meridian Gallery (535 Powell St, 415.398.7229)
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FREE
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Since 2006, when the Art of Democracy coalition was formed by a San Franciscan and a New Yorker, some 40 associated exhibitions have cropped up across the country. Pundits may decry American apathy, but these exhibits show that political art has thrived as a bastion of critical thinking during the Bush years. This installment features works spanning a gamut of mediums and messages: Fernando Botero's oil paintings of Abu Ghraib's horrors already stirred controversy at UC Berkeley, and local artist Enrique Chagoya's seven-foot-long print, The Ghost of Liberty, is a powerful indictment of the current administration's foreign policy. The show is also a form of activism — it runs right up to Election Day.
- Max Goldberg
[Info Source]
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MORE FLAVOR: Discussion
Slavoj Zizek
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Thursday Sep 4 (8pm)
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Herbst Theater (401 Van Ness Ave, 415.621.6600)
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$20
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Slavoj Zizek is perhaps the only philosopher and Lacanian psychoanalyst to appear in academic publications as well as the A&F Quarterly. That Zizek would agree to be interviewed for the flagrantly soft-core Abercombie & Fitch clothing catalog isn't so surprising, given that in his 30-plus books — whether discussing opera, Abu Ghraib, Heidegger, or Hitchcock — his nimble arguments have always turned on inverting assumptions. (His latest work is entitled In Defense of Lost Causes.) Those who caught the towering intellect in the documentaries Zizek! or The Pervert's Guide to Cinema know to simply hang on and enjoy the ride: the Slovenian-born professor talks a mile a minute and doesn't waste words.
- Matt Sussman
[Info Source]
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MORE FLAVOR: Festival
Lebowski Fest
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Friday Sep 5 (8pm)
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Various locations
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$20 - 30
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Just in time to celebrate the DVD's tenth anniversary, Lebowski Fest rolls into the bowling lanes of San Francisco, featuring buckets of White Russians, surreal synchronized dance sequences, and, of course, plenty of bowling. The weekend-long event kicks off with a screening of the film at Mezzanine and a thematically appropriate performance by the Extra Action Marching Band. Saturday's bowling party includes costume and trivia contests, with custom-painted bowling pins and specially packaged DVD prizes awarded to Best Dude and Best Jesus, among others. But this isn't 'Nam, Smokey. There are rules, so check the website for more info.
- Connie Hwong
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Electronic
Ellen Allien w/ Modeselektor
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Friday Sep 5 (9pm)
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Mighty (119 Utah St, 415.762.0151)
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$22.50
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The Berlin invasion rolls through town tonight, bringing doe-eyed techno doyenne Ellen Allien and party monsters Modeselektor to Club Mighty. In conjunction with her latest record, the abstruse Sool, Allien pieced together an appropriately minimal line of shirts and bags. And while Allien's live sets usually go down as chill as a glass of ice water, the Modeselektor boys (who record on Allien's BPitch Control imprint) get the club jumping with wide-ranging techno.
- Ali Gitlow
[Info Source]
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MORE FLAVOR: Party
Brazilian Independence Day Party feat. SambaDá and Bat Makumba
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Saturday Sep 6 (9pm)
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The Independent (628 Divisadero St, 415.771.1422)
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$17
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The fittingly named Independent celebrates the 186th anniversary of Brazil's declaration of independence with a raucous lineup of musicians and dancers repping their Brazilian, African, and American roots with pomp and abandon. DJ Fausto Sousa combines soca and samba beats with dance-floor hits, while Bat Makumba's eclectic repertoire mixes folk, indie, punk, and ska with traditional Brazilian forms like forró and tropicália. But save your booty-shaking energy for SambaDá, who transport Carnaval — sparkling feather headdresses, spangled bikinis, and all — straight from Rio to the Indy's floor.
- Connie Hwong
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: DJ
Blowoff
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Saturday Sep 6 (10pm)
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Slim's (333 11th St, 415.255.0333)
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$15
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Longtime fans might have had an inkling that former Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould was anxious to ditch his guitar when he released 2002's largely electronic album, Modulate. But Mould as electro-house DJ? Well, just ask the legions of happy dancers who flock to Mould and fellow spinner Richard Morel's Washington, DC party, Blowoff, where the two treat No Age and Jacques Lu Cont like second cousins. The two also frequently play cuts from their own hook-heavy recording project of the same name, which brings to mind the guitar- and keyboard-driven dance pop of Garbage.
- Matt Sussman
[Info Source]
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PERFORMING ARTS: Comedy
Sarah Silverman
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Sunday Sep 7 (7:30pm)
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Nob Hill Masonic Auditorium (1111 California St, 415.776.4702)
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$45 - 75
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Sarah Silverman goes where others fear to tread, performing take-no-prisoners standup routines that regularly make audiences split their sides (or struggle to hold down their food, depending on the subject matter). Her appearance tonight at the Masonic Auditorium with UCB's Harris Wittels is a special one, as her recent breakup with Jimmy Kimmel, the success of her Comedy Central show, and the foibles of living with a higher profile provide her sausage factory of a brain with fresh meat for the grinder.
- Shana Nys Dambrot
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Rock/Pop
Bodies of Water w/ Throw Me the Statue and Pale Hoarse
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Sunday Sep 7 (9pm)
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Bottom of the Hill (1233 17th St, 415.621.4455)
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$10
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Bodies of Water's crazy patchwork of musical touchstones shouldn't really work, but the Los Angeles group's sky-scraping enthusiasm is the glue that holds the gospel, tropicália, and glam together. The band's thunderous choruses and choir-like singing play off intimate, mysterious lyrics that wouldn't be out of place on a Daniel Johnston cassette. They're one of the better indie-rock marching bands to emerge since Arcade Fire first threw those doors open. Come early to hear Pale Hoarse, a local duo whose gothic vocal harmonies and sparse, guitar-and-tambourine arrangements evoke Leonard Cohen's early records.
- Max Goldberg
[Info Source]
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PERFORMING ARTS
Mirah and Spectratone International: Share This Place
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Monday Sep 8 (7:30pm)
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Cafe du Nord (2170 Market St, 415.861.5016)
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$15
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If most poetic interpretations of insects either hinge on horror (Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis) or wonder (the 1996 film Microcosmos), the Share This Place multimedia performance is firmly in the latter camp. The touring spectacle features entomological songs that K Records darling Mirah composed with the chamber-folk group Spectratone International to accompany Britta Johnson's twitchy stop-motion animation. Mirah is the marquee name here, though Share This Place's inquisitive spirit is something of a tribute to Jean Henri Fabre, the French scientist who made an art out of entomology and whom Darwin himself called an "inimitable observer."
- Max Goldberg
[Info Source]
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MUSIC: Rock/Pop
Built to Spill: Perfect from Now On
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Monday Sep 8 (8pm)
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Slim's (333 11th St, 415.255.0333)
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$25
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From the loping drumbeat of "Randy Described Eternity" to the climactic, watery thump of "Untrustable/Part 2 (About Someone Else)," Built to Spill's Perfect from Now On is an enormous album. While the current vogue for '80s and '90s indie-rock bands reviving classic albums is unquestionably part of the broader profit to be made from constant repackaging, Perfect from Now On is one of the handful of records singular enough to deserve the treatment. Doug Martsch has since settled for soporific guitar rock, but then, almost anything would sound a little tired after Perfect from Now On.
- Max Goldberg
[Info Source]
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ART
Alexander Hahn and Yves Netzhammer: Room for Thought
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Tuesday Sep 2 (10am–5:45pm)
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SFMOMA (151 3rd St, 415.357.4000)
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$12.50
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In Room for Thought, Swiss video artists Alexander Hahn and Yves Netzhammer tackle Second Life's computer-generated spaces from a sympathetic angle. In Luminous Point, Hahn leads his viewers through a series of digitally rendered vignettes depicting rooms in his own desolate Manhattan flat. The slow-panning "camera" reveals spaces lacking occupants but rich with textures and grime, packed to the ceiling with longing and nostalgia. Netzhammer's multidimensional installation, meanwhile, offers full immersion. A looming, Rube Goldbergian structure of tables and tubes projects a three-channel video — an animation following a series of faceless beings through a dream-like narrative — on walls painted with provocative silhouettes.
- Isaac Amala
[Info Source]
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ART
Christine Shields: When Holy Were the Haunted Forest Boughs
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Thursday Sep 4 (noon–5pm)
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Triple Base (3041 24th St, 415.643.3943)
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FREE
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A musician, comic-book author, and freak-folk portraitist, Christine Shields evokes a fiercely personal vision of girlhood with pastel-colored, phantasmal paintings of sad-eyed girls before totemic animals. The multi-talented San Francisco Art Institute alumnus draws on a rather ethereal muse ("psychic homelessness") for this site-specific installation at Triple Base, with many canvases evoking the haunting beauty of the 1973 film The Spirit of the Beehive. The 24th street gallery opens its basement — Triple Basement — to fully accommodate Shields' interest in the spirit world.
- Max Goldberg
[Info Source]
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About Us |
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Cultural Partner
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Editors
MANAGING EDITOR
Matt Sussman
DEPUTY EDITOR
Max Goldberg
PRODUCTION EDITOR
Axel Anderson
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