Welcome to our new calendar feature BIG WEEK! Each week, our expert Arts & Culture writers recommend the best things for you to do in the best city on earth: Arts, Music, Food & Drink, Stage, Film, Nightlife, and more.
ARTS
Tons more to do and support right here.
THU/15: ÉAMON MCGIVERN: A/HISTORY After building a body of work in the poets, queers, and punks, this painter has turned his gaze to the archives of the GLBT Historical Society, delivering portraits that look to bring “living memory” of LGBTQ+ community to the fore. The works will be presented alongside the Historical Society’s ephemera and photographs. GLBT Historical Society Museum, SF. More info here.
FRI/16: SHOWOFFS CCA GRADUATING STUDENT SHOWCASE Should you need affirmation of the kids, indeed, being alright, this panorama of final projects from California College of the Arts’ graduating scholars across the disciplines of architecture, art, design, and writing is open to all community members. See where creativity in the city is headed and gas up the next generation of great artistic minds. California College of the Arts, SF. More info here.
SAT/17: SF IMPRINT ZINE RELEASE AND PHOTOWALK Isabella Gordillo leads this exploration of San Francisco after the height of the COVID pandemic. “What is the imprint we leave on the City? How do we honor ourselves and fight for our humanity?” it asks—excellent questions to ponder throughout the photowalk/community reflection and the reception at one of the Mission’s most beloved art spaces to follow. Photowalk: Mission Dolores Park, SF. Zine launch reception: Galería de la Raza, SF. More info here.
SAT/17: WAYNE THIEBAUD The famed Californian painter of deliciously pastel cakescapes and other finely hued panoramas has 18 works from throughout his career showcased in this look at his 52-year career. The deal is sweetened by the fact that the show is taking place in Thiebaud’s art dealer son Paul’s gallery in North Beach. Paul Thiebaud Gallery, SF. More info here.
MUSIC
Hit up John-Paul Shiver’s Under the Stars column for great musical picks every week.
THU/15: STEREO MC’S I was in some hustling-backwards, wannabe legit nightclub with surfboards on the wall, someplace on the East Coast, the first time I heard Stereo MC’s’ “Connected” on a proper sound system. Previous to that scenario, it seemed like MTV fish food, I kinda ignored it. But on a large soundsystem, it seemed to get the non-hip-hop adjacent “folk” excited and moving with some degree of rhythm. So, KRS-ONE and EPMD fans—real heads thought it was cute, but damn sure NOT hip hop. But that heady rolling beat… and dammit, they had British accents. That shit played. Plus, it was around the time of the Brand New Heavies, so all of that was influencing the situation. According to folklore, and frontman Rob Birch, the group was vibing off the recent Rodney King verdict, the “something ain’t right” lyric swelling in the Brit buttermilk. The band—which plays at The New Parish tonight—was equally fans of Public Enemy and Sly & the Family Stone, getting in on a lot of ’70s disco and boogie music. “Although we were trying to say things about what was going on in the world,” Birch told Under The Radar last year, “it was also about putting out good feelings. I think music should still be about love. And you know, there’s a lot of love on that record.” The New Parish, Oakland. More info here.
FRI/16: CAROLINE CHUNG & CITIZENS JAZZ Oakland bassist, composer, and creative catalyst Caroline Chung and her Citizens Jazz project will light up the Joe Henderson Lab, a dance-friendly, movement-encouraged space in SF JAZZ where every performance feels like a Friday night in some quirky club you just happen to stumble upon. This will be a gathering of the most versatile and imaginative players in the Bay Area. This night celebrates the great bassists in jazz history. So forget space; bass is the place, and Caroline Chung will be giving out two doses, I mean sets. Prepare for the funk. SFJAZZ. More info here.
FRI/16: GRATEFUL DEAD NIGHT With Mayor Lurie’s announcement this week that Dead & Company are most probably playing Golden Gate Park August 1-3 as the main event for the Grateful Dead’s 60th anniversary celebration, you may want to limber up, get in some practice. We don’t want you to pull a hammie. Go check out Anna Elva & Friends at Ashkenaz’s Grateful Dead Night, revel in the live music, chat up fellow Dead fans, coordinate plans for the big show—and please, stay hydrated. You’ve got a big summer in front of you. Ashkenaz, Berkeley. More info here.
FRI/16: FRANK ZAPPA TRIBUTE WITH THE STINKFOOT ORCHESTRA With Zappa, you know it when you hear it. I dipped in on this film, Things We Lost in the Fire, in which Benicio del Toro plays a recovering heroin addict who is called to action to help his best friend’s family during a tragic time. You get these shots of Benicio’s character mopping floors, changing lights, and chain-smoking darts (Marlboro Reds) like they were nothing, all the while wearing these big headphones. You hear that Zappa freaky-bluesy, real-greasy guitar tone just ringing. Stealing scenes from the actors. Come to find out, the track was “Black Napkins” from Zoot Allures. Has not aged one tick. The Stinkfoot Orchestra is a Bay Area 15-piece ensemble paying homage to the music of Frank Zappa fronted by Zappa alumni, Napoleon Murphy Brock. You are in for a treat. The New Parish, Oakland. More info here.
SAT/17: GOLDEN GATE MEN’S CHORUS Renaissance masters to contemporary composers, this luxurious program of choral music will have you rapt. The two-night run features guest turns by the Ragazzi Boys Chorus and Cantus Vocal Ensemble, not to mention a Saunder Choi world premiere piece. Mission Dolores Basilica, SF. More info here.
FOOD AND DRINK
Tamara Palmer’s Good Taste Good Taste column tells you where to stick your fork every week.
MAMAHUHU’S MARTIN YAN MONGOLIAN BEEF TRIBUTE This AAPI Month, Chef Brandon Jew is paying homage to culinary TV star and legend Martin Yan by offering one of his classic dishes on the menu at the three locations of his Mamahuhu restaurant: Mongolian beef ($19), a stir-fry of sirloin, scallions, bell pepper, and onions, served over crispy rice noodles. See my interview with Yan and Jew in this week’s Good Taste column to hear more about this tribute—and how tariffs are threatening businesses in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
BRAID BAKERY’S FRIDAY-ONLY SANDWICHES Do get it twisted: Braid Bakery offers an array of wonderful babka flavors in roll, pie, and cake forms. But the stars of this show are the two $13 sandwiches on fresh-baked olive oil sesame challah that are only offered on Fridays: the challah bagnat, with albacore tuna, boiled eggs, pickled onions, Kalamata olives, sundried tomatoes, radish, lettuce, preserved lemon aioli, and herbs; and the challah sabich, with fried eggplant, boiled eggs, Israeli salad, radish, pickled onions, tahini, and herbs. Acquiring the sandwiches takes a little bit of planning, because they need to be ordered from this Sunset-based home bakery at least 24 hours in advance—but it’s worth the effort. Read more about Braid Bakery in the California Eating newsletter.
SUN/18: SALSA DADDY DINNER What’s not to love about a book full of epic Mexican salsas, from pipián verde to tatemada cremosa, and all manner of encurtidos and picadas? Chef Rick Martinez is in town to celebrate his second venture into rich and vibrant Mexican cuisine literature, with events at the Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market and Omnivore Books. But our thing is, why not eat with the guy. He and his salsas will be at a collaborative dinner at this West Portal restaurant—the perfect opportunity to sample the pages of Martinez’s prose. Elena’s Mexican, SF. More info here.
FRI/16: THE RADIANT TABLE Be not afraid if this sounds like sitting down to dine at laser bowling. “Combining projection mapping technology, award-winning chefs, and unforgettable storytelling, The Radiant Table transforms each evening into a unique, multi-sensory journey,” explains a statement for the series. This week’s kick-off also features the Asian comfort food of Piglet & Co’s Chef Chris Yang—we’re particularly intrigued by the menu’s prominent featuring of Monterrey seaweeds. 25 Spear, SF. More info here.
STAGE
Charles Lewis III hits up theaters and performance spaces every week for his Drama Masks column.
THROUGH SUN/18: ALONZO KING LINES BALLET It’s an apt time to take in the dance mastery of this vaunted contemporary dance troupe, which has been entrancing audiences with its multi-disciplinary productions since 1982. This season is marked by a collaboration with trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, as well as a performance of Alonzo King’s reimaging of One Thousand and One Nights, the age-old stories from Persian, Sanskritl, and Arabic cultures. Head’s up for the gala performance on Sat/17, and a Q&A after the Thu/15 and Fri/16 shows. Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, SF. More info here.
THU/15: KRUK & KUIP TRIBUTE SF Giants fans know their voices—announcers Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper a.k.a. Kruk and Kuip met as Giants teammates back in 1983, but it’s perhaps in the commentator’s booth where they’ve had their biggest hits. Tonight, SF Sketchfest gives the fabulous duo their due, in a live onstage conversation with Bullseye podcast host Jesse Thorn. Sydney Goldstein Theater, SF. More info here.
FRI/16-SUN/18: OAKLASH FESTIVAL “When Oaklash first broke out onto the Bay Area scene in 2018, it was a scrappy, six-hour intermission-less drag marathon that brought together 50 performers from across Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose,” writes Daniel Sanchez-Torres in a recent 48hills article. “Eight years after its creation, the event has evolved from a single-street festival into a fledgling nonprofit arts organization offering year-round programing, and an ambitious artist residency program.” But the organization’s centerpiece festival, which pulls from queered classical music and a deep bench of talent, takes place this weekend. Various Bay Area venues. More info here.
THROUGH MAY 25: IRONBOUND It’s not crazy to sometimes think the world is out to get us. But really, it’s the people who run it. Just take Darja (Lisa Ramirez), the Polish-born protagonist of Martyna Majok’s Ironbound. When we meet her in 2014, she’s once again standing on the streets of Elizabeth, New Jersey, arguing with on-again-off-again boyfriend Tommy (Danile Duque-Estrada). She pleads with him for $3,000 to find her son Alex, who’s known for his substance abuse problems. The money would be less of a problem when Darja worked at the now-closed paper factory on the other side of the fence. There are two real stars of this show. The first is the “empty” set design by Sam Fehr, which seats the audience in the round to imagine the cold of the streets where Darja sleeps. The other star is actor Kevin Rebultan. The young actor brings a wonderful naturalism to his one scene with Ramirez, giving nuance and depth to a role that could easily be stereotypical. In a way, that sums up Majok’s play: carefully textured in its examination of toxic and failed relationships, and how one winds up in them over and over again. FLAX art & design, Oakland. More info here.
FILM
Dennis Harvey’s long-running Screen Grabs has tons more flicks to recommend.
DOCUMENTING DYKE DESIRES: LESBIAN AND QUEER PORN, PLEASURE AND POLITICS IN 1990S SAN FRANCISCO Some of queer porn’s best and brightest—Jiz Lee, the marketing director of CrashPadSeries.com; Carol Queen, PhD, sexologist and co-founder of the Center for Sex and Culture; documentary filmmaker Karen Everett; and many more!—come together for a screening of groundbreaking 1990s feminist porn/queer sex health film Safe is Desire and a discussion of how the era laid the groundwork for today’s smut. Folsom Center, SF. More info here.
SWAMP DOGG GETS HIS POOL PAINTED The man who was already a successful R&B act as “Little Jerry Williams” in the 1950s and ’60s reinvented himself in 1970 as Swamp Dogg, an alter ego suitable for his wilder artistic impulses. A new delightfully digressive documentary gives a fair iceberg-tip view of that voluminous personal output. Its real heart isn’t really Dogg himself, but the community he’s drawn around himself, in particular the equally unclassifiable talents Larry “Moogstar” Clemons and David “Guitar Shorty” Kearny, who at one point are noted as having been permanent guests in Williams’ San Fernando Valley home for 15 years. Swamp Dogg’s neurologist daughter calls his place a “bachelor pad for aging musicians,” and it is clear that their mutually supportive relationship keeps them all going. Among its many other virtues, Gets His Pool Painted underlines how much better the world would be if more people lived in such situations, bonded by professional and personal affinity. Opens Fri/16 at the Smith Rafael Film Center.
DONN OF TIKI Alex Lamb and Max Well present a look at the legacy of self-made (and self-mythologizing) “Don the Beachcomber” aka Don Beach nee Ernest Gantt, who pretty much singlehandedly created the whole vogue for elaborate rum drinks, pseudo-island decor, and other elements of “tropical fantasy.” A natural host-with-the-most type, he parlayed his partying style into a popular Hollywood watering hole in the 1930s. The business greatly expanded, diversified, went up and down over coming decades—as did his marriages to a couple of very ambitious women. Unlike myriad imitators who followed in his wake, Beach was interested in preserving elements of authentic Polynesian culture, not just making a kitschy buck from its vulgarization. Check it out in a pair of umbrella-and-booze-equipped screenings this week. Sat/17 plays SF’s Great Star Theater, and on Sun/18 San Jose’s 3Below Theaters. More info here.
NIGHTLIFE
Marke B. often knows what’s up.
THU/15-SAT/17: PARAMETER 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY WEEKENDER The party crew celebrates a decade of wild electronic sounds with three days of absolute wow, featuring Scuba, Skee Mask, Aurora Halal, Digital Mystikz, Powder, Kode9, Objekt, Hodge, Sepehr, Kudeki, Farsight, Mozhgan… like everyone. Public Works, SF. More info here.
FRI/16: CITY BEAT CLASSIC Soul, disco, Afrobeat, and hip-hop—it’s a musical melange!—that defines the heart of the global city, with two local masters of all things banging, Tom Thump and DJ Centipede. 10pm-2am, Make-Out Room, SF. More info here.
FRI/16: DANCING GHOSTS: WORLD GOTH DAY The fiendishly dark minds behind goth shindig Dancing Ghosts fill the Cat Club with all the glorious gloom and doom they can summon from their pentagram, with DJs MizMargo, Sage, Xander, and Joe Radio fêting the high unholy day (and celebrating Siouxsie Sioux’s birthday). 9:30pm-2:30am, Cat Club, SF. More info here.
SAT/17: STARDELLA We adore Stardella, the spirit of disco who alights every once in a blue moon to bless the crowd at Great Northern with immaculate vibes. This time she’s featuring DJ legend David Harness with Carrieondisco and M3, and the D.A.D. boys will be holding down (up?) the loft. 9:30pm-3am, Great Northern, SF. More info here.
MORE
Gatherings etcetera
SUN/18: BAY TO BREAKERS A head’s up to either strap on your best furry outfit and sneakers or hightail it to a hiding spot: the venerable city footrace turned sloppy al fresco borrachera has returned, just has it has most years since 1912, when it was founded as a pick-me-up for a town still reeling from the 1906 earthquake. Find info on the “Bare to Breakers” nudist contingent here and for goodness sakes, be careful about where you urinate. Starts at Howard and Main, finish line at 1000 Great Highway, SF. More info here.
