San Francisco Weekly — May 16, 2012
Change Language:
Night & Day
THU/5.17
[STORYTELLING]
Hearts of Darkness
As introduction for this month's InsideStory Time, a quote from Austrian writer (and frequent Wim Wenders collaborator) Peter Handke was chosen: "The storyteller is the threshold. He must therefore stop and collect himself." Handke, who wrote early of his mother's suicide, knows quite a lot about internal worlds and precarious ports of entry, as do the authors chosen for "Thresholds." One is Belo Miguel Cipriani. In 2007, at age 26, Cipriani was beaten by boyhood friends and left blind. His memoir, a chronicle of his first two years in darkness, draws us through a world of strange smells and unexpected sounds as Cipriani learns to work, walk, and trust again. Cipriani's indefatigable charm makes him a favorite in the literary community, but it takes more than that to earn a Lambda Literary Fellowship and Literary Death Match championship. He is joined by Dodie Bellamy, whose blog about a disastrous love affair with a spiritual teacher led to the publication of The Buddhist. Also appearing are Ayize Jama-Everett, a professor at a Berkeley Unitarian Universalist seminary, whose sci-fidebut The Liminal People explores a gritty world of child psychics and superhumans; and Erika Lutz, whose novel The Edge of Maybe skewers many things Californians hold dear, including feminist fathers and organic food. Yoga instructor Tim Floreen offers an amusing counterpoint.
InsideStory Time starts at 6:30 p.m. at Alley Cat Books, 3036 24th St. (at Balmy),S. F. Admission is $5; call 824-1761 or visit www.insidestorytime.com. SILKE TUDOR
FRI/5.18
[PERFORMANCE]
Cocksure
As a people, we hate our bodies. And why wouldn't we? Thanks to advertising, religion, and pop culture, we're taught to see our physical selves as either substandard and laughable or as low-grade, filthy vehicles of sin. And as body parts go, the penis is among the most reviled.Think about how it's reflected. When someone acts like a jerk, we call him a "dick." Missiles and guns (things that kill people) are said to be phallic symbols. Guys who buy sports cars or big, loud motorcycles are ridiculed as compensating for not being well-endowed.aEven some men refer to their own private parts as their "junk." What's all this about? "The Dick Show" aims to answer through performances and readings. It's a benefit for the Center for Sex and Culture, organized by Jack Davis, and it's part of an ongoing art exhibit by the same name. It not only celebrates the penis but ponders its very place in society. "Why is it essential that a man have a penis?" Davis asks. "Do you have to have a penis to be important, successful? Are penises ugly? Are penises beautiful? Are penises fun?" Dancer and performance artist Jess Curtis offers a pre-show work called Viagrabilia. Logan Knight performs A Brief History of a Dickless Man Trying to Find Underwear. A performer known as Captain asks Is It Big Enough? While Philip Huang assures us (in a video) that It Gets B***er. Cayenne, meanwhile, sings about and demonstrates drag technique in Old Queens Can Teach You How to Tuck. Kirk Read also performs, and Ed Wolf tells a story. TTBaum takes Head Shots - er, penis portraits - throughout the evening.
"The Dick Show" starts at 8 p.m. (and the art exhibit continues through May 26) at the Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission (at 10th St.), S.F. Admission is $10-$40; call 902-2071 or visit www.sexandculture.org. KEITH BOWERS
[ART EXHIBIT]
Old World, Renewed
Asian art is hot, selling at unprecedented highs and eclipsing Western art. San Francisco's Asian Art Museum, one of the largest in the world dedicated to Asian art and culture, taps into that energy with the exhibition "Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past." Last fall after the museum went through financial hard times, director Jay Xu announced it was reinventing itself to appeal to a broader audience and would start showing more contemporary work. "Our focus has shifted from presenting stunning artworks to delivering captivating art experiences centered around stunning artworks," Xu wrote on the museum's website.This experience explores Asian cosmology and spirituality; contemporary art curator Allison Harding says it's big in lots of ways - 31 artists and more than 60 new works, along with 80 from the museum's collection, and for the first time the entire museum will be used to display the exhibit. Harding says that seeing the traditional work alongside the new changes the way viewers relate to it. For example, there's Korean artist Bae Young-whan, whose installation of small ceramic mountain ranges echo the shape of graphs of his brain waves. Some people at the museum might feel uncomfortable with shaking things up. But Harding says exhibiting the work of these Asian artists for the first time in the U.S. is a gift to the city, and having living artists who can speak for themselves has brought a new energy to the museum.
"Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past" opens at 10 a.m. (and the exhibit continues through Sept. 2) at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 200 Larkin (at McAllister), S.F. Admission is free-$12; call 581- 3500 or visit www.asianart.org. EMILY WILSON
SAT/5.19
[PERFORMANCE]
Skywalkers
We don't know why stiltwalking holds such enduring fascination, but archaeologists found a vase with a Greek chorus of stiltwalkers dated as early as the sixth century B.C.E. The beginning was probably pragmatic, as in regions of France where shepherds used stilts to walk across marshland, or in California where they are still used to reach high fruit. But the possibility of wide-ranging amusement could not be contained. In countries throughout the world, festival highlights include stilt-dancers known and admired for their imagination, skill, and artistry - few more so than Bogota's Teatro Taller de Colombia and our own Carpetbag Brigade. The troupes appear today as part of this year's Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, which brings 100 free programs to the city over the course of six months. Teatro Taller channels the deeply percussive elements of their native cumbia, while the Carpetbag Brigade employs modern dance techniques, but both troupes tackle the roles of court jesters and take it seriously. Teatro Taller presents theU. S. premier of Exodo, a bird's-eye view of the struggle of refugees, after which the Carpetbag Brigade offers its elegiac response to climate change titled Callings. Stability and acrobatics promise to be as challenging as the themes.
Exodo and Callings start at 1 p.m. at the Yerba Buena Gardens, Mission at Fourth St.,S. F. Admission is free; call 543-1718 or visit www.ybgfestival.org. SILKE TUDOR
[FESTIVAL OF THE FUTURE]
Innovation Inundation
There's plenty of hype about disruptive cultural shifts in this time of billion-dollar apps that apply faux-Polaroid effects to digital photos.But in the case of the self-styled "maker revolution," the hype might be justified. It was inspired by DIY and open-source culture, the availability of futuristic innovations such as 3-D printers, and crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter. Now, tinkering with hardware and making stuff from scratch is no longer restricted to solder-wielding geeks and garage-bound dads. The Maker Faire is ground zero for the movement, where hardware hackers, robot inventors, hipster knitters, civilian scientists, foodie chemists, and enterprising kids reveal their creations, get inspired, and crib notes. True to the movement's democratic ethos, the Maker Faire isn't only for the crafty and industrious, but for anyone interested in seeing what folks with materials and moxie can create. The dizzying array of implausible creations emerging from the Maker movement - such as former NASA contractor Kristian von Bengtson's DIY spaceship project Copenhagen Suborbitals - is a wonder to behold, even for hardened cynics like ourselves. And if nothing else, the Maker Faire provides a good opportunity to keep tabs on the robot army your neighbor is building in her backyard.
Maker Faire runs May 19-20 at the San Mateo County Event Center, 1346 Saratoga (at Wayne), San Mateo. Admission is $12- $495; visit makerfaire.com. PAUL M. DAVIS
SUN/5.20
[ART SALE]
Art Splash
We're not saying someone is guaranteed to fall in the pool. We're just pointing out that a pool is there, and that people are drinking cocktails and perhaps not paying full attention to their footing. It's easy to get distracted at an art fair, after all, especially at one as full of stimuli as ArtPadSF. Set at the Phoenix Hotel, the exhibition takes place on a weekend when fellow gallery extravaganza artMRKT is also running full steam at the Concourse Exhibition Center. An art aficionado might feel wracked with indecision about which show to attend if time is at a premium, as both events feature a wealth of cutting-edge local galleries and artists.For us ArtPadSF has the slight edge based on location, location, and (well) location.Instead of having to navigate a big convention floor, patrons can concoct a more personal art experience by wandering from room to room, where exhibitors put together installations.Besides bringing together some of our fave S.F. spaces such as Steven Wolf Fine Arts, Creativity Explored, Eleanor Harwood Gallery, and The Popular Workshop, ArtPadSF also allows visitors to get a taste of the red-hot Oakland art scene in the form of Johansson Projects, Swarm Gallery, and Mercury 20 repping the sunny side of the bay. Emerging galleries from farther-flung locations (Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago) further widen the fair's scope.Just watch your step as you meander the grounds, lest you find yourself in that pool.
ArtPadSF runs May 17-20 at the Phoenix Hotel, 601 Eddy (at Larkin), S.F. Admission is $15-$35; visit www.artpadsf.com. HEIDI DE VRIES
[DIY]
Come Down off High Fashion
Vogue editor Anna Wintour says negative projections on the fashion world come from people who feel frightened or excluded by a spectacular lifestyle. Wintour might be right.High fashion is generally reserved for the wealthy and privileged. But with the rise of fashion blogs and street photographers, everyday fashionistas with excellent taste are finally being given the acknowledgment they deserve.These bloggers with DIY attitudes have not only made the fashion world a more accessible place, they offer alternatives to expensive brand name clothing.Jenni Radosevich is among those leading this movement, publishing I Spy DIY Style: Find Fashion You Love and Do It Yourself, a comprehensive guide that includes dozens of fashion projects, tips, and styling advice.The ideas in the book are clever and practical, including color-blocking boots, making bracelets from wire, and mastering the art of ombré dying. Today Radosevich brings us I Spy DIY: DIY Jewelry on a Budget, an opportunity to test some of the book's projects.The workshop includes learning how to make feathered earrings, friendship bracelets, and tribal style necklaces. Bloggers and photographers like Radosevich have set the stage; now it's time to bring the DIY movement to the catwalk, and join the fashion revolution.
I Spy DIY: DIY Jewelry on a Budget starts at 2 p.m. at Wix Lounge, 3169 22nd St. (at Mission), S.F. Admission is $30; visit www.wixloungesf.com. RUBY PEREZ
[SPORT+SPECTACLE]
Raw Power
At this year's Bay to Breakers, you can't drink alcohol. You can't bring a float. You can't pee in someone's driveway, and you can't throw up in a bush. "Borrrrring!" You might think.But there is still one way to make B2B the most scandalous thing you've ever done, and it's simple: At the starting line, take off your shirt, take off your shorts, rip off your underwear, and just run naked. Seriously. Do it naked.Take off your clothes and run seven miles. Please. As for the particulars of running naked - about any of the dangers that may (cough) arise - you need only consult the Bare to Breakers website, which has a staggeringly long guide to running this thing al fresco, full of chapters such as "Anatomy" and "Hats." If you're too delicate to run seven sweaty miles naked past news vans (you were okay peeing all over Tehama Street, weren't you?) How about going full-pale for just a few blocks? Or why don't you roll around in some body paint? Show the man that he can't keep you down! Which is not to say that men shouldn't remain, er, down.
Bay to Breakers starts at 7 a.m. at Market and Embarcadero, S.F. Admission is $52- $57; visit www.zazzlebaytobreakers.com.
MICHAEL LEAVERTON
MON/5.21
[BURLESQUE]
Denial That Satisfies
If burlesque queen, diamond aficionado, and bondage enthusiast Dita Von Teese hadn't already existed, the web's fetish-mining hive mind may have had to invent her. Though she's appeared in the vanilla pages of Playboy, it's her corset-constricted photo shoots for fetish art mags such as Bizarre that provide the grist for late-night Google Image searches and innumerable "Fetish X Fuck Yeah" Tumblrs.So it's counterintuitive that Von Teese's real claim to pin-up fame - her extravagant and decadent burlesque shows - must be experienced IRL. With elaborate performances that put the tease back into striptease, she is a field researcher of the outer limits of desire, exploring how anticipation and impulse coexist in volatile symbiosis. In her 2006 book Burlesque and the Art of the Teese/Fetish and the Art of the Teese, which surveyed the age-old burlesque traditions she helped revive, Von Teese wrote about this singular fascination: "I entice my audience, bringing their minds closer and closer to sex and then - as a good temptress must - snatching it away." The decadent cabarets of Paris and Berlin that she evokes in her burlesque shows are long gone, their alluring excess largely confined to bedrooms, private parties, and server farms. Von Teese provides audiences a rare opportunity to luxuriate in their redolent air of forestalled desire.
Dita Von Teese performs at 7 p.m. at the Fillmore, 1805 Geary (at Fillmore), S.F. Admission is $35; call 346-6000 or visit www.thefillmore.com. PAUL M. DAVIS
TUE/5.22
[HARVEY MILK DAY]
Tragedy Made Us Stronger
The 1978 assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk forever changed San Francisco. Milk, the self-proclaimed "Mayor of Castro Street," was the first openly gay person elected to a public office in the U.S. Milk was a man of community, and not just the queer community. Labor unions were the toughest bloc for Milk to sway during his campaign, but when he got Coors beer removed from every gay bar in the Castro, compelling the company to hire more gay drivers, members of the city's old blue collar guard were swayed. Milk's openness - and his assassination - inspired an entire community to stand up and be counted for who they are. Milk and Moscone maintain a presence through public places and facilities named after them, sculptures, stage productions, and films. To honor Harvey Milk Day today, Gus Van Sant's biopic Milk (2008) screens along with an appearance by LGBT activist Cleve Jones, who worked as an intern in Milk's office and later founded The Names Project and AIDS Memorial Quilt. As for the film, its success moved Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to create today's holiday. In it, Sean Penn plays Milk, moving through a closeted life and Wall Street job to San Francisco's counterculture and the camera shop on Castro he owned with Scott Smith (James Franco). We see Milk help defeat a statewide initiative - Proposition 6 - that would have turned all queer public school teachers out of their jobs. Milk reminds us that as far as we've come regarding equal rights, we still have a long way to go. (See: Prop. 8, which prohibits same-sex marriage.) In fact, a Village Voice reviewer wrote that Milk creates a feeling "so immediate that it's impossible to separate the movie's moment from this one."
Cleve Jones takes the stage before Milk screens at 8 p.m. at the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro (at Market), S.F. Admission is $15-$50; call 621-6120 or visit www.castrotheatre.com. CHRIS TORRES
[TALKS]
It's the Economy, Stupid
New York Times columnist and Princeton professor Paul Krugman has spent a couple of decades integrating old industrial economic theories into the developing international environment.In 2008, that work earned him a Nobel Prize to add to his collection of honors.He usually identifies most with liberal thinkers, but he isn't a huge fan of President Obama - he supported Hillary Clinton in '08, as did California (but not San Francisco). The sometimes cynical Krugman isn't afraid to put words such as "depression" into newsprint when talking about the world economy (but he suggests avoiding words such as "collapse").One of those words is even in the title of his new book, which he discusses tonight, End This Depression Now! Nor is he afraid to take on anyone - be they local or world leaders, senators, or other economists. He says New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has been vocal about acting responsibly in canceling a rail project between New Jersey and New York, might "actually be the least responsible governor the state has ever had." He takes the entire continent of Europe to task in another column after more fiscal austerity measures were passed in Frankfurt and Berlin, a move Krugman says is contributing to the European Union's "economic suicide." He says that, "not to mince words, [it's] just insane."
Paul Krugman appears at 6 p.m. at Hotel Nikko-Ballroom, 222 Mason (at Ellis), S.F. Admission is $10-$70; visit www.commonwealthclub. org. CHRIS TORRES
WED/5.23
[VISUAL ART]
Ethereal, Meet Earthly
If you have seen Antony & the Johnsons' video for the song "Epilepsy Is Dancing," you have already begun to glean the lush aesthetic of Mexico-born artists Tino Rodriguez and Virgo Paraiso: an opulent fantasy world filled with carnivorous flowers, dancing skeletons, shape-shifting animals, bedeviling twinkle lights, and the all-too-perceptive looking glass. And that's just their apartment. Give them canvas and paint, and their imaginations flee from the laws of physics and the rules of man. At ease in the lowbrow art world, where surrealists and symbolists seek pop metaphors, Rodriguez uses fairy tale, myth, and idolatry from Europe and the Americas as a springboard into gardens of gun-toting fairies, swan-hearted gangsters, and rocking-horse meteorites. Armed with the hand of a Dutch master and the heart of the alchemist, Paraiso explores the liberation and frustration of metamorphosis: Hummingbirds sip from the flowers of human tongues, nymphs bathe under the gaze of cats, mermaids are ravaged by octopuses, erections become crowns of glory, and babies get stuck in spider webs. Bring Paraiso and Rodriguez together and you have "Pagan Poetry," an unearthly visual romance somewhere between Frida Kahlo's diary and A Midsummer Night's Dream. While individually interesting, Rodriguez and Paraiso's collaborations are works of pure chemistry - passionate, dangerous, funny, and challenging.
"Pagan Poetry" continues through June 10 at Modern Eden, 403 Francisco (at Powell),S. F. Admission is free; call 956-3303 or visit www.moderneden.com. SILKE TUDOR
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[STORYTELLING]
Hearts of Darkness
As introduction for this month's InsideStory Time, a quote from Austrian writer (and frequent Wim Wenders collaborator) Peter Handke was chosen: "The storyteller is the threshold. He must therefore stop and collect himself." Handke, who wrote early of his mother's suicide, knows quite a lot about internal worlds and precarious ports of entry, as do the authors chosen for "Thresholds." One is Belo Miguel Cipriani. In 2007, at age 26, Cipriani was beaten by boyhood friends and left blind. His memoir, a chronicle of his first two years in darkness, draws us through a world of strange smells and unexpected sounds as Cipriani learns to work, walk, and trust again. Cipriani's indefatigable charm makes him a favorite in the literary community, but it takes more than that to earn a Lambda Literary Fellowship and Literary Death Match championship. He is joined by Dodie Bellamy, whose blog about a disastrous love affair with a spiritual teacher led to the publication of The Buddhist. Also appearing are Ayize Jama-Everett, a professor at a Berkeley Unitarian Universalist seminary, whose sci-fidebut The Liminal People explores a gritty world of child psychics and superhumans; and Erika Lutz, whose novel The Edge of Maybe skewers many things Californians hold dear, including feminist fathers and organic food. Yoga instructor Tim Floreen offers an amusing counterpoint.
InsideStory Time starts at 6:30 p.m. at Alley Cat Books, 3036 24th St. (at Balmy),S. F. Admission is $5; call 824-1761 or visit www.insidestorytime.com. SILKE TUDOR
FRI/5.18
[PERFORMANCE]
Cocksure
As a people, we hate our bodies. And why wouldn't we? Thanks to advertising, religion, and pop culture, we're taught to see our physical selves as either substandard and laughable or as low-grade, filthy vehicles of sin. And as body parts go, the penis is among the most reviled.Think about how it's reflected. When someone acts like a jerk, we call him a "dick." Missiles and guns (things that kill people) are said to be phallic symbols. Guys who buy sports cars or big, loud motorcycles are ridiculed as compensating for not being well-endowed.aEven some men refer to their own private parts as their "junk." What's all this about? "The Dick Show" aims to answer through performances and readings. It's a benefit for the Center for Sex and Culture, organized by Jack Davis, and it's part of an ongoing art exhibit by the same name. It not only celebrates the penis but ponders its very place in society. "Why is it essential that a man have a penis?" Davis asks. "Do you have to have a penis to be important, successful? Are penises ugly? Are penises beautiful? Are penises fun?" Dancer and performance artist Jess Curtis offers a pre-show work called Viagrabilia. Logan Knight performs A Brief History of a Dickless Man Trying to Find Underwear. A performer known as Captain asks Is It Big Enough? While Philip Huang assures us (in a video) that It Gets B***er. Cayenne, meanwhile, sings about and demonstrates drag technique in Old Queens Can Teach You How to Tuck. Kirk Read also performs, and Ed Wolf tells a story. TTBaum takes Head Shots - er, penis portraits - throughout the evening.
"The Dick Show" starts at 8 p.m. (and the art exhibit continues through May 26) at the Center for Sex and Culture, 1349 Mission (at 10th St.), S.F. Admission is $10-$40; call 902-2071 or visit www.sexandculture.org. KEITH BOWERS
[ART EXHIBIT]
Old World, Renewed
Asian art is hot, selling at unprecedented highs and eclipsing Western art. San Francisco's Asian Art Museum, one of the largest in the world dedicated to Asian art and culture, taps into that energy with the exhibition "Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past." Last fall after the museum went through financial hard times, director Jay Xu announced it was reinventing itself to appeal to a broader audience and would start showing more contemporary work. "Our focus has shifted from presenting stunning artworks to delivering captivating art experiences centered around stunning artworks," Xu wrote on the museum's website.This experience explores Asian cosmology and spirituality; contemporary art curator Allison Harding says it's big in lots of ways - 31 artists and more than 60 new works, along with 80 from the museum's collection, and for the first time the entire museum will be used to display the exhibit. Harding says that seeing the traditional work alongside the new changes the way viewers relate to it. For example, there's Korean artist Bae Young-whan, whose installation of small ceramic mountain ranges echo the shape of graphs of his brain waves. Some people at the museum might feel uncomfortable with shaking things up. But Harding says exhibiting the work of these Asian artists for the first time in the U.S. is a gift to the city, and having living artists who can speak for themselves has brought a new energy to the museum.
"Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past" opens at 10 a.m. (and the exhibit continues through Sept. 2) at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 200 Larkin (at McAllister), S.F. Admission is free-$12; call 581- 3500 or visit www.asianart.org. EMILY WILSON
SAT/5.19
[PERFORMANCE]
Skywalkers
We don't know why stiltwalking holds such enduring fascination, but archaeologists found a vase with a Greek chorus of stiltwalkers dated as early as the sixth century B.C.E. The beginning was probably pragmatic, as in regions of France where shepherds used stilts to walk across marshland, or in California where they are still used to reach high fruit. But the possibility of wide-ranging amusement could not be contained. In countries throughout the world, festival highlights include stilt-dancers known and admired for their imagination, skill, and artistry - few more so than Bogota's Teatro Taller de Colombia and our own Carpetbag Brigade. The troupes appear today as part of this year's Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, which brings 100 free programs to the city over the course of six months. Teatro Taller channels the deeply percussive elements of their native cumbia, while the Carpetbag Brigade employs modern dance techniques, but both troupes tackle the roles of court jesters and take it seriously. Teatro Taller presents theU. S. premier of Exodo, a bird's-eye view of the struggle of refugees, after which the Carpetbag Brigade offers its elegiac response to climate change titled Callings. Stability and acrobatics promise to be as challenging as the themes.
Exodo and Callings start at 1 p.m. at the Yerba Buena Gardens, Mission at Fourth St.,S. F. Admission is free; call 543-1718 or visit www.ybgfestival.org. SILKE TUDOR
[FESTIVAL OF THE FUTURE]
Innovation Inundation
There's plenty of hype about disruptive cultural shifts in this time of billion-dollar apps that apply faux-Polaroid effects to digital photos.But in the case of the self-styled "maker revolution," the hype might be justified. It was inspired by DIY and open-source culture, the availability of futuristic innovations such as 3-D printers, and crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter. Now, tinkering with hardware and making stuff from scratch is no longer restricted to solder-wielding geeks and garage-bound dads. The Maker Faire is ground zero for the movement, where hardware hackers, robot inventors, hipster knitters, civilian scientists, foodie chemists, and enterprising kids reveal their creations, get inspired, and crib notes. True to the movement's democratic ethos, the Maker Faire isn't only for the crafty and industrious, but for anyone interested in seeing what folks with materials and moxie can create. The dizzying array of implausible creations emerging from the Maker movement - such as former NASA contractor Kristian von Bengtson's DIY spaceship project Copenhagen Suborbitals - is a wonder to behold, even for hardened cynics like ourselves. And if nothing else, the Maker Faire provides a good opportunity to keep tabs on the robot army your neighbor is building in her backyard.
Maker Faire runs May 19-20 at the San Mateo County Event Center, 1346 Saratoga (at Wayne), San Mateo. Admission is $12- $495; visit makerfaire.com. PAUL M. DAVIS
SUN/5.20
[ART SALE]
Art Splash
We're not saying someone is guaranteed to fall in the pool. We're just pointing out that a pool is there, and that people are drinking cocktails and perhaps not paying full attention to their footing. It's easy to get distracted at an art fair, after all, especially at one as full of stimuli as ArtPadSF. Set at the Phoenix Hotel, the exhibition takes place on a weekend when fellow gallery extravaganza artMRKT is also running full steam at the Concourse Exhibition Center. An art aficionado might feel wracked with indecision about which show to attend if time is at a premium, as both events feature a wealth of cutting-edge local galleries and artists.For us ArtPadSF has the slight edge based on location, location, and (well) location.Instead of having to navigate a big convention floor, patrons can concoct a more personal art experience by wandering from room to room, where exhibitors put together installations.Besides bringing together some of our fave S.F. spaces such as Steven Wolf Fine Arts, Creativity Explored, Eleanor Harwood Gallery, and The Popular Workshop, ArtPadSF also allows visitors to get a taste of the red-hot Oakland art scene in the form of Johansson Projects, Swarm Gallery, and Mercury 20 repping the sunny side of the bay. Emerging galleries from farther-flung locations (Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago) further widen the fair's scope.Just watch your step as you meander the grounds, lest you find yourself in that pool.
ArtPadSF runs May 17-20 at the Phoenix Hotel, 601 Eddy (at Larkin), S.F. Admission is $15-$35; visit www.artpadsf.com. HEIDI DE VRIES
[DIY]
Come Down off High Fashion
Vogue editor Anna Wintour says negative projections on the fashion world come from people who feel frightened or excluded by a spectacular lifestyle. Wintour might be right.High fashion is generally reserved for the wealthy and privileged. But with the rise of fashion blogs and street photographers, everyday fashionistas with excellent taste are finally being given the acknowledgment they deserve.These bloggers with DIY attitudes have not only made the fashion world a more accessible place, they offer alternatives to expensive brand name clothing.Jenni Radosevich is among those leading this movement, publishing I Spy DIY Style: Find Fashion You Love and Do It Yourself, a comprehensive guide that includes dozens of fashion projects, tips, and styling advice.The ideas in the book are clever and practical, including color-blocking boots, making bracelets from wire, and mastering the art of ombré dying. Today Radosevich brings us I Spy DIY: DIY Jewelry on a Budget, an opportunity to test some of the book's projects.The workshop includes learning how to make feathered earrings, friendship bracelets, and tribal style necklaces. Bloggers and photographers like Radosevich have set the stage; now it's time to bring the DIY movement to the catwalk, and join the fashion revolution.
I Spy DIY: DIY Jewelry on a Budget starts at 2 p.m. at Wix Lounge, 3169 22nd St. (at Mission), S.F. Admission is $30; visit www.wixloungesf.com. RUBY PEREZ
[SPORT+SPECTACLE]
Raw Power
At this year's Bay to Breakers, you can't drink alcohol. You can't bring a float. You can't pee in someone's driveway, and you can't throw up in a bush. "Borrrrring!" You might think.But there is still one way to make B2B the most scandalous thing you've ever done, and it's simple: At the starting line, take off your shirt, take off your shorts, rip off your underwear, and just run naked. Seriously. Do it naked.Take off your clothes and run seven miles. Please. As for the particulars of running naked - about any of the dangers that may (cough) arise - you need only consult the Bare to Breakers website, which has a staggeringly long guide to running this thing al fresco, full of chapters such as "Anatomy" and "Hats." If you're too delicate to run seven sweaty miles naked past news vans (you were okay peeing all over Tehama Street, weren't you?) How about going full-pale for just a few blocks? Or why don't you roll around in some body paint? Show the man that he can't keep you down! Which is not to say that men shouldn't remain, er, down.
Bay to Breakers starts at 7 a.m. at Market and Embarcadero, S.F. Admission is $52- $57; visit www.zazzlebaytobreakers.com.
MICHAEL LEAVERTON
MON/5.21
[BURLESQUE]
Denial That Satisfies
If burlesque queen, diamond aficionado, and bondage enthusiast Dita Von Teese hadn't already existed, the web's fetish-mining hive mind may have had to invent her. Though she's appeared in the vanilla pages of Playboy, it's her corset-constricted photo shoots for fetish art mags such as Bizarre that provide the grist for late-night Google Image searches and innumerable "Fetish X Fuck Yeah" Tumblrs.So it's counterintuitive that Von Teese's real claim to pin-up fame - her extravagant and decadent burlesque shows - must be experienced IRL. With elaborate performances that put the tease back into striptease, she is a field researcher of the outer limits of desire, exploring how anticipation and impulse coexist in volatile symbiosis. In her 2006 book Burlesque and the Art of the Teese/Fetish and the Art of the Teese, which surveyed the age-old burlesque traditions she helped revive, Von Teese wrote about this singular fascination: "I entice my audience, bringing their minds closer and closer to sex and then - as a good temptress must - snatching it away." The decadent cabarets of Paris and Berlin that she evokes in her burlesque shows are long gone, their alluring excess largely confined to bedrooms, private parties, and server farms. Von Teese provides audiences a rare opportunity to luxuriate in their redolent air of forestalled desire.
Dita Von Teese performs at 7 p.m. at the Fillmore, 1805 Geary (at Fillmore), S.F. Admission is $35; call 346-6000 or visit www.thefillmore.com. PAUL M. DAVIS
TUE/5.22
[HARVEY MILK DAY]
Tragedy Made Us Stronger
The 1978 assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk forever changed San Francisco. Milk, the self-proclaimed "Mayor of Castro Street," was the first openly gay person elected to a public office in the U.S. Milk was a man of community, and not just the queer community. Labor unions were the toughest bloc for Milk to sway during his campaign, but when he got Coors beer removed from every gay bar in the Castro, compelling the company to hire more gay drivers, members of the city's old blue collar guard were swayed. Milk's openness - and his assassination - inspired an entire community to stand up and be counted for who they are. Milk and Moscone maintain a presence through public places and facilities named after them, sculptures, stage productions, and films. To honor Harvey Milk Day today, Gus Van Sant's biopic Milk (2008) screens along with an appearance by LGBT activist Cleve Jones, who worked as an intern in Milk's office and later founded The Names Project and AIDS Memorial Quilt. As for the film, its success moved Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to create today's holiday. In it, Sean Penn plays Milk, moving through a closeted life and Wall Street job to San Francisco's counterculture and the camera shop on Castro he owned with Scott Smith (James Franco). We see Milk help defeat a statewide initiative - Proposition 6 - that would have turned all queer public school teachers out of their jobs. Milk reminds us that as far as we've come regarding equal rights, we still have a long way to go. (See: Prop. 8, which prohibits same-sex marriage.) In fact, a Village Voice reviewer wrote that Milk creates a feeling "so immediate that it's impossible to separate the movie's moment from this one."
Cleve Jones takes the stage before Milk screens at 8 p.m. at the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro (at Market), S.F. Admission is $15-$50; call 621-6120 or visit www.castrotheatre.com. CHRIS TORRES
[TALKS]
It's the Economy, Stupid
New York Times columnist and Princeton professor Paul Krugman has spent a couple of decades integrating old industrial economic theories into the developing international environment.In 2008, that work earned him a Nobel Prize to add to his collection of honors.He usually identifies most with liberal thinkers, but he isn't a huge fan of President Obama - he supported Hillary Clinton in '08, as did California (but not San Francisco). The sometimes cynical Krugman isn't afraid to put words such as "depression" into newsprint when talking about the world economy (but he suggests avoiding words such as "collapse").One of those words is even in the title of his new book, which he discusses tonight, End This Depression Now! Nor is he afraid to take on anyone - be they local or world leaders, senators, or other economists. He says New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who has been vocal about acting responsibly in canceling a rail project between New Jersey and New York, might "actually be the least responsible governor the state has ever had." He takes the entire continent of Europe to task in another column after more fiscal austerity measures were passed in Frankfurt and Berlin, a move Krugman says is contributing to the European Union's "economic suicide." He says that, "not to mince words, [it's] just insane."
Paul Krugman appears at 6 p.m. at Hotel Nikko-Ballroom, 222 Mason (at Ellis), S.F. Admission is $10-$70; visit www.commonwealthclub. org. CHRIS TORRES
WED/5.23
[VISUAL ART]
Ethereal, Meet Earthly
If you have seen Antony & the Johnsons' video for the song "Epilepsy Is Dancing," you have already begun to glean the lush aesthetic of Mexico-born artists Tino Rodriguez and Virgo Paraiso: an opulent fantasy world filled with carnivorous flowers, dancing skeletons, shape-shifting animals, bedeviling twinkle lights, and the all-too-perceptive looking glass. And that's just their apartment. Give them canvas and paint, and their imaginations flee from the laws of physics and the rules of man. At ease in the lowbrow art world, where surrealists and symbolists seek pop metaphors, Rodriguez uses fairy tale, myth, and idolatry from Europe and the Americas as a springboard into gardens of gun-toting fairies, swan-hearted gangsters, and rocking-horse meteorites. Armed with the hand of a Dutch master and the heart of the alchemist, Paraiso explores the liberation and frustration of metamorphosis: Hummingbirds sip from the flowers of human tongues, nymphs bathe under the gaze of cats, mermaids are ravaged by octopuses, erections become crowns of glory, and babies get stuck in spider webs. Bring Paraiso and Rodriguez together and you have "Pagan Poetry," an unearthly visual romance somewhere between Frida Kahlo's diary and A Midsummer Night's Dream. While individually interesting, Rodriguez and Paraiso's collaborations are works of pure chemistry - passionate, dangerous, funny, and challenging.
"Pagan Poetry" continues through June 10 at Modern Eden, 403 Francisco (at Powell),S. F. Admission is free; call 956-3303 or visit www.moderneden.com. SILKE TUDOR
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