The Agenda: What to Do This Week
Plus: Local culturati divulge their weekend plans
The weekend before Labor Day is traditionally quiet, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to do. Enjoy, for instance, all the parking available across the Bay Area thanks to the Burning Man exodus. Our panel of cultural experts — S.F. Literary Death Match host M.G. Martin, a Vegansaurus founding editor and writer Laura Beck and Pixar animator Carlos Baena — certainly have things going on. What are you up to this week?
So what are these guys up to this weekend? Scroll down to find out. And here are The Bay Citizen's picks for the week:
Friday 8/27: The Two Escobars (Documentary)
At first, all that connected Colombia’s most powerful drug lord and the captain and star-player of the country’s soccer team was their name. But the lives of Pablo and Andres Escobar (not related) became fatally intertwined after Andres shot an “own goal” during the 1994 World Cup, thereby disqualifying the South American team (which had been funded by Pablo’s drug money) from the competition. Ten days later, Andres was killed. Weaving together sports, crime and the country’s escalating civil war, this fast-paced documentary—one of ESPN’s “30 for 30” film series—is a must-see. Friday and Saturday at 1:25, 4:45, 7:30 and 9:45pm at Sundance Kabuki Cinema.
Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, 1881 Post St, San Francisco, CA
Saturday 8/28: Chamber Hip-Hop Opera (Music)
JooWan Kim and Ensemble Mik Nawooj will be performing their extremely successful chamber hip-hop opera ‘Great Integration’ at the Giorgi Gallery in Berkeley on Saturday. The ‘Great Integration’, inspired partly by the Mayan prophecies of the End of Days in 2012, blends genres like never before: hip-hop, jazz, pop and classical music all share beats in this widely acclaimed opera. Pirate Cat Radio voted the ‘Great Integration’ CD as the #1 R&B/Hip-Hop album of February 2010, and the opera played two sold-out shows at ODC Commons in San Francisco in June.
Giorgi Gallery, 2911 Claremont Avenue Berkeley, CA
Sunday 8/22: Down and Derby (Reading)
Join radio host Alex Cohen—a.k.a. Axles of Evil—and devoted teammate Jennifer Barbee—a.k.a. Kasey Bomber—for a reading of Down and Derby, a sassy and informative celebration of roller derby at Amnesia. Roller derby fizzled out in the nineties, after the sport went from a kitschy TV gimmick in the eighties to a rather violent contact sport. But, as Cohen and Barbee will tell you in their book—which features a concise history of the sport, the rules of a modern bout, and how to pick an alias—roller derby is making a comeback! One of Cohen and Barbee’s students was Drew Barrymore, who invited the veteran skaters to teach the cast some moves while she was filming Whip It! (2009). Who knows, maybe you’ll be inspired to join the next generation of derby rollers!
Amnesia, 853 Valencia St, San Francisco
Tuesday 8/31: Circular Time (Performance)
Talk about conceptual art. For the SFAC Gallery's 40th anniversary show, SF artist Packard Jennings took the $3,000 he was given to contribute to the group exhibition and invited seven other artists out to dinner. Over the course of the dinner, they discussed the best way to spend the money — in the process, of course, of spending the money. As a follow-up to his part of the SFAC event, Jennings has concocted a staged interpretation of that night, with actors reading from the script. $5-$15.
Intersection for the Arts, 446 Valencia St., San Francisco
Thursday 9/2: Spin: A New Twist on Board Games (Visual Art)
At Rare Device, owner Lisa Congdon regularly showcases elegant and unexpected, playful designed objects. They usually don't take the form of actual games, although for this show, done by Jennifer Judd-McGee and Mati McDonough, it actually is fun and games. They take elements of vintage board games — the classic typography, the strong colors — and make them into modern images. Don't be surprised if you feel a round of Twister coming on; there's something undeniably powerful about the old boxes that have sat yellowing in your basement. Through September 28.
Rare Device, 1845 Market St., San Francisco
So, what are you doing this weekend?
M.G. Martin, Literary Death Match
Well my partner, Ms. ______ & I will take our dog, ___ , to Ocean Beach for
her customary Friday beach romp. After some great coffee at Trouble, it'll be time
to head off to, hands down, the best deep dish pizza place in SF: Little Star, where I sling
pie by night. After work, it's back to the Sunset for drinks at local dive Silver Spur.
On Saturday, you'll find me at the Inner Sunset Farmer's Market procuring prized
produce for a picnic in the park. I'm working on not working Saturday night so I
can head out to the other side of the bay to catch the exceptional East Bay On The Brain.
Sunday, I'll be preparing for a show I'm doing that night at Viracocha to promote my
new book of poetry, One For None, put out by Ink. Hopefully, if I don't explode, I'll
have time to put in some work on Twitter.
Laura Beck, editor of Vegansaurus
On Saturday, I'm gonna spend the morning putting the finishing touches on FAT ZINE! It's a zine about all things fat and awesome. I'm gonna sell it (read: probably beg people to please take free copies) at Zine Fest. My boyfriend, Jonas Madden-Connor, is one of the organizers and he encouraged me to put my bitching into action so, voila. After that, I'm getting lunch at Souley Vegan with some friends. We'll take our food next door to Beer Revolution and sit on the patio. Pray for sun! Then, I'm meeting up with some other folks to go over costumes and dance moves for my band performance on Sunday at The Hemlock. More details here and here. I'm writing a story on how easy/hard it is to start a band in SF. After costume and dance moves are rehearsed, I'll spend some quality time with my dog, Hazel, who just got out of surgery! We're starting physical therapy and she's got some serious moves. Also, I have recently gotten into Futurama (I know, I'm 50 years late) so I'm trying to watch as many episodes as possible very quickly.
On Sunday morning, I'm baking vegan Rocky Road cookies to give out at the Dino Bike show. Then, my friend Leanne is in town with her Vaute Couture pop-up trunk show so I'm gonna check that out. Next, I'm headed to Eat Real Festival in Jack London Square to check out the vegan eats and be part of the Porchlight Storytelling Slam from 3-5pm. In an awesome turn of events, Beth Lisick emailed me to ask me to do it and I'm a little nervous because I think it's frowned upon to bring something up to read from. Scary Larry! After that, I head into the city for one mini-rehearsal and load in for the Dino Bike show!!
Carlos Baena, animator at Pixar
This weekend, I'm going to be working. I've been making a short film for the last year and half, with alot of other people from work and we're finally finishing but I still have to do a bunch of work to do from home. I do have a dog, and I will take the dog on to this park — I live up in Twin Peaks, and this park, Douglas Playground, is really convenient, so I can actually leave the dog doing her thing for an hour or two. Unfortunately, then I go back home, just basically work. I put in 30 hours on the film last weekend.
But there things that I would love to be doing this weekend that I'm planning on doing soon. I'd love to get indoor skydiving certified. I did indoor skydiving in LA and fell in love with it. It's such a crazy feeling, especially for someone who spends so much time in front of the computer. Another place to go would be Santa Cruz, since, you know, I'm missing the wonderful weather we've been having this summer. Also, and I'm late on this because I went to Spain last month, but I missed "Inception." I'd love to be seeing that this weekend, too.
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