Welcome to Big Week, our weekly guide to cool things to do, put together by our expert critics and writers. Don’t forget the SF International Arts Fest is happening in the Mission through May 10! Check out our preview here, and use discount code 202648HILLS20 for 20% off tickets at checkout here!
GENERAL ARTS
Marke B. is on it (mostly).
THROUGH SEPTEMBER 24: “THE CONTINUING STORY OF LIFE ON EARTH: 25 YEARS OF HAMBURGER EYES” The air was redolent of the phantom smell of PBR and Bones Speed Cream at the packed opening of this awesome and very nostalgic show at the SF Public Library Main Branch, celebrating the essential photography zine-turned-phenomenon, which still stands as an emblem of the golden indie age of SF. Yes, everyone from that time still dresses like a (real) Mission hipster, but more importantly, the photos on display are phenomenal, a time capsule of not just San Francisco but the post-millennial world. (The publication solicited snaps from everywhere.) Founders-brothers Ray Potes and his brother David were there, still doing their thing—Ray moved to LA but is back in the Bay—and the whole thing managed not to be “bittersweet,” but a vibrant reminder of the great art this city has produced and shepherded. Go see it! SF Public Library Main Branch, more info here.
THROUGH SUN/10: “SOLVE-ALONG-MURDER-SHE-WROTE” OK, first off, I must go to this. Second, you get to watch classic “Murder, She Wrote” episode “A Fashionable Way to Die,” in which Jessica Fletcher visits a designer friend in Paris. Of course, soon a mystery materializes that she—and you, with the help of a fabulous cast—must solve! There had better be some Devil Wears Prada 2 jokes, because this is camp. Great Star Theater, SF. More info here.
SAT/9: HIGH SIERRA MUSIC FESTIVAL BAND CONTEST July 2-5’s High Sierra fest in the mountains is a huge opportunity for bands to get some exposure, laying to tens of thousands of sky-high music-lovers. This semi-finals competition is a great showcase for locals, with Andre Cruz & The Black Diamond Rhythm Band, Oona & the Good Band, Shandri, and Strange Vine vying for a slot. MCs Hot Buttered Rum take the mics; the audience gets to decide the winner. 7pm, The Chapel, SF. More info here.
SUN/10-JUNE 14: “MOTHER OF COLLABORATION” A perfect opening for Mother’s Day. “Artist parents and their children are invited to present work made collaboratively. This project centers the play and imperfection of balancing art and parenting and creates a space for us to come together in building community as artist parents with our kids, each other, and the neighborhood. Participating artists include Carey Lin, Hannah Ireland, Hedda Hope, Ilana Crispi, Jennifer Ling Datchuk, Kathy Aoki, Laurel Roth Hope, Liz Worthy, Rhiannon MacFadyen, Sara Mann, Shirin Khalatbari, Vanessa Woods, and their kids. The Good Ship Dodo, SF. More info here.
SUN/10: SUCKA FLEA In these trying times, who doesn’t need a super-cool flea market and swap featuring featuring local artists, music, food, designers, print-makers, thrift & vintage vendors, neighborhood organizations, community resources, and more? Nobody, that’s who! 11am-6pm, City Station, SF. More info here.
MUSIC
Hit up John-Paul Shiver’s Under the Stars column for great tunes and shows every week.
SAT/9: YERBA BUENA GARDENS FESTIVAL OPENING WEEKEND A salsa dance party and a rare Bay Area performance from Hermán Olivera y Orquesta Taíno are absolutely the only way to kick off this year’s Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, which contiinues almost every weekend through August. With Oakland’s own Batey Tambó and KALW DJ Wonway Posibul on the 1s and 2s, and Juan Amador (San Francisco-based GRAMMY-nominated MC, DJ, actor, and radio host) collectively, this combo-explosion of music, art, and culture is the Saturday afternoon jump-off. Do brunch and take the party to the garden. 2pm, Yerba Buena Gardens, SF. More info here.
TUE/12: MISS GRITS Korean-American musician Margaret Sohn makes music that resembles what cyborgs would sound like if they caught conflicted feelings similar to humans. Loaded with trip-hop ideas, forward-moving electronic arrangements, and, at times, hazy and romantic electro textures, this live show promises to be a performance within a presentation. Something you must experience IRL. 7pm, Cafe Du Nord, SF. More info here.
WED/13: BUNGALOW COLLECT After going viral in a TikTok that amassed over 13M views, these Brooklyn musicians hit the road in 2021 with the mission of bringing back the true essence of disco and rap. All four members are well versed in performing freestyles, R&B, flow house, and alternative. Catchy hooks that get people to dance seem to work best; they are universal. It’s the energy the world could use right now. 8pm, The Knockout, SF. More info here.
FOOD & DRINK
Tamara Palmer’s weekly Good Taste column tells you where to stick your fork. Sign up for the Good Taste newsletter here.
BROAD STREET OYSTER CO. LAUNCHES LOCAL MENU After two years in Ghirardelli Square, the Southern California-founded and Baywatch-vibed Broad Street Oyster Co. has added several new worthwhile dishes that are exclusive to and feel more appropriate for the San Francisco location than their admittedly delicious lobster rolls. During an interview with Eater SF’s Dianne de Guzman, owner Christopher Tompkins described a somewhat bumpy road to this change to appeal to locals. Shortly after the March 23 menu launch, Broad Street invited me in to try some of these new items. The dining room has a picturesque view of Alcatraz—which, of course, is back in the news this week for ridiculous reasons. Highlights of my tasting were a yellowfin carpaccio accompanied with tomato and lemon, a toast-topped cioppino with mussels, clams, and halibut, and a gluten-free crispy whole Atlantic branzino in a verdant green salmoriglio sauce. I also got to try daily special oysters from Washington and Baja, which is really enough reason on its own to return for an after work session, and snuck in some fries with Old Bay aioli. But if I was feeling really nostalgic, I’d go back to Broad Street to try the breaded and fried halibut Milanese, and then chase it down with a Ghirardelli sundae next door. 11am to 8pm daily, 900 N. Point St., Suite K201, SF, broadstreetoyster.com
STAGE
Charles Lewis III checks out theaters and performance spaces every week in the Drama Masks column.
THROUGH MAY 30: MEAN GIRLS: THE MUSICAL With SNL alumnus Tina Fey adapting her own screenplay for the Great White Way—playing here at Ray of Light’s new Barbary Theater—little has changed from the story: US-born and Africa-raised white girl Cady Heron (Ari Toshiko Glenn) has moved back to the States with her parents. They drop her into a contemporary American high school, where she sticks out like a sore thumb. Such awkwardness immediately finds her befriending possibly queer artist Janis (Maia Campbell) and “too-gay-to-function” Damian (William Schmidt), but it isn’t long before Cady falls in with The Plastics, led by the callous Regina George (Maddy Wenig, who single-handedly owns the show). Fey does well in updating her mid-2000s hit to the age of social media. It helps that Leslie Waggoner’s cast could all reasonably pass for highschoolers, lending an air of authenticity to the works. Barbary Stage, SF. More info here.
THROUGH MAY 24: HAMNET William Shakespeare was no stranger to “the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to.” In a life that included poverty and plague times, much has been speculated about how much of the bard’s literal story is recreated in his yarns. This was, after all, the time before the autobiography. Usually, this speculation will take the whimsical tone of Shakespeare in Love, but occasionally, you’ll get the darker interpretation of Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet, adapted from her bestselling novel by Lolita Chakrabarti. ACT stages the story of the tragic death of Shakespeare’s son, the terrible effect on his wife Anne Hathaway—and how life can sometimes be transmuted into healing art. ACT’s Toni Rembe Theater, SF. More info here.
FILM
Dennis Harvey’s long-running Screen Grabs has tons more flicks to recommend.
OPENING FRI/8: BLUE HERON In Sophy Romvari’s Canadian first feature, little Sasha (Eylul Sasha) is the sole daughter and youngest member of a Hungarian emigre clan who’ve just landed in yet another new setting, this time a suburban neighborhood on Vancouver Island in the 1990s. The eldest offspring is her half-brother, teenaged Jeremy (Edik Beddoes). He’s had issues—the latest diagnosis is “oppositional defiance disorder”—since childhood, but now they are getting a tad scary. Certainly they’re more than his parents (Iringo Reti, Adam Tompa) can handle, or anyone can fully understand. This autobiographical fiction lost me a bit in the later going, when it jumps forward 20 years or so, introducing some confusingly ambiguous, rather “meta” storytelling elements. Nonetheless, her film is always interesting. To an extent, its very lack of clarity does convey the uncertainty and challenges of growing up with a mentally ill person in the household. At Roxie, SF, and Smith Rafael Film Center, Marin.
OPENING FRI/8: MISTURA Ricardo de Montreuil’s Peruvian film sees expat Parisienne Norma (Barbara Mori) as a socialite wife in 1965 Lima, introduced in tears outside a New Year’s Day party. She’s just discovered her cheating husband, a senator, has run off to Argentina with the reigning Miss Peru. That scandal is embarrassing enough, but it’s worse when she realizes the cad has left her with a mortgage and no ready cash. Embarking on a surprising partnership with with chauffeur Oscar (Pudy Ballumbrosio), she realizes they both have underappreciated skills in the kitchen that could be tapped to secure a shared future—perhaps in the form of a high-end restaurant. This mix of foodie movie and post-marital feminist awakening a la An Unmarried Woman treads familiar ground. But it tills that ground with considerable panache, merging the pleasures of nostalgic period piece, engaging character drama and more in highly enjoyable fashion. Smith Rafael Film Center, San Rafael.
NIGHTLIFE
Marke B. usually knows what’s up.
FRI/8: BEAT FREAKS I’m eager to check out Oakland collective space Tamarack that’s hosting some wicked events. Like this one, with NO BIAS label leaders DJ Daria (aka Bored Lord) and RITCHRD bringing “what should be a raucous night of East Coast club with West Coast flair.” 9pm-2am, Tamarack, Oakland. More info here.
SAT/9: OM RECORDS 30-YEAR BLAST The essential local label is bring all the big names together for a free daytime party on Embarcadero Plaza, 1pm-5pm, and of course an after-party at Great Northern, 9pm-3am. Come hear Mark Farina, Colette B2B DJ Heather, Shiny Objects, J Boogie, and more pump some classic sounds.
SAT/9: EARTHPORT Three terrific party crews—Squish, A Club Called Rhonda, and Vitamin1000—join forces for this all-day, all-night warehouse extravaganza, featuring tons of great talent including Eris Drew, Jesse Lanza, Daniel Avery, Sofia Kourtesis, DJ Having Sex, and Jennifer Loveless. 2pm-3am, Oakland. More info here.
