INSTEAD OF SHOVING beer banners in your face, the Mission Creek Music Festival finds sponsorship in art galleries, bookstores, cafés no bigger than your kitchen, and other independent businesses. Organizers Jeff Ray (Zmrzlina) and Jonathan Fellman (Gentlekin) aim to keep the nine days of music unfettered by pass sales and panels. Instead you get 12 shows booked with finesse that highlight the best of the local scene: Live Human and the Break Beat Big Band take over Club Galia (Sun/26); the vocally blessed Paula Frazer assumes her usual position at the Make-Out Room (Mon/27); Nate Denver does scary folk at the newly opened and appropriately associated Mission Creek Cafe (Wed/29); SubArachnoid Space freak your brain by somehow cramming their big psych sound into Hemlock's tiny back room (Fri/31); and original festival venue El Rio boasts Numbers, Coachwhips, and the Court and Spark (Sat/1). Fancy-pants out-of-towner and former Wilco member Jay Bennet performs with Edward Burch and Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter to open the festival at Cafe du Nord (Sat/25). If you ever wanted to know what it's like to be up Mission Creek without a paddle, here's your chance. Sat/25-Sun/2. Various San Francisco venues. Free-$10. For this week's schedule see Music listings; for a complete schedule call (415) 861-5016 or go to www.mcmf.org. (Deborah Giattina)

May 22

Wednesday

Hands-on Sure, kids need to learn about long division, static electricity, and Where the Red Fern Grows, but art education is important too. San Francisco filmmakers Valerie Soe and Ruth Asawa aim their cameras at local art-education innovators in their new film, Each One Teach One: The Alvarado School Art Program. The film, which premieres tonight, explores the history of the Noe Valley public elementary school's dedication to art, from the program's origins among enthusiastic parents in the late 1960s (Asawa, a noted sculptor, was a cofounder) to its lasting impact on its participants – many former students who are still involved in Alvarado activities are featured subjects. Over the years the program has united professional artists with countless kids, parents, and community members, with tangible results, such as Alvarado's colorful outdoor murals and mosaics. Watch and – like the many other schools that have used this program as a model – be inspired. 5-7 p.m., San Francisco State University, Cesar Chavez Student Center, Jack Adams Hall, 1600 Holloway, S.F. Free. (415) 338-6535. (Cheryl Eddy)

May 23

Thursday

Blues from the sky Rockers Indigenous could've stepped right out of Native American writer Sherman Alexie's 1995 novel Reservation Blues, a tale of three Yankton Sioux brothers and a sister growing up on a South Dakota reservation who form a band after listening to their parents' blues albums. Where fiction and fact diverge is in the major success and acclaim the real-life Indigenous siblings have achieved since their 1998 debut album, Things We Do (Pachyderm). Guitarist Mato Nanji is frequently compared to legends Carlos Santana, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Jimi Hendrix. While Indigenous do play the odd Hendrix Cover ("Red House" or "Voodoo Chile") live, their original music is a mix of strong blues licks and soulful ballads layered with funk and jazz overtones. Tonight's supporting act, Alien Lovestock are a jazz funk trio originally from Albuquerque, now based in San Francisco and featuring flashy guitarist Eric McFadden. 8:30 p.m., Great American Music Hall, 859 O'Farrell, S.F. $14. (415) 885-0750. (China Martens)

May 24

Friday

Alan Greenspan wouldn't approve Already a huge hit among the local brainsploitation crowd and garnering rave reviews in the San Francisco Chronicle, the performance series Irrational Exuberance makes its second appearance tonight. Named for Greenspan's famous comment about the (now dead) boom economy, the series is a perfect example of why cultural capital continues to dance, sing, and deliver deranged multimedia presentations even if the dollar ain't so hot. Irrational Exuberance brings together a motley group of intellectuals, musicians, writers, scholars, visual artists, and people interested in the social history of the potato. Erik Glick Rieman shows off some new music on prepared Rhodes piano, the illustrious Jenny Bitner reads poetry backed by a PowerPoint presentation, Diana Mars does stamp art, and Brent Cunningham delivers a lecture on Khlebnikov's theory of language, to name a few of the acts. Additional music is provided by the Irrational Exuberance String Band. How can you resist such a bizarre combination of bricolage and burlesque? The fact is, you can't – so get your ass on down to the show! 8 p.m., 848 Community Space, 848 Divisadero, S.F. $6-$10 (no one turned away for lack of funds). www.liminalzone.org. (Annalee Newitz)

Desert solitaire Let your thoughts wander freely during an evening of instrumental psychedelic noise and progressive rock. San Diego trio Tarantula Hawk use a direct assault of guitars, keyboards, samplers, and drums to create an immense wall of sound during their extended songs. Formed in 1998, the band take their name from the tarantula hawk wasp. The female of the species is famed for its ability to sting and paralyze fully grown tarantula spiders, providing a place for the wasp to lay its eggs. When the band first formed, the members wrote a six-song set of music to chronicle the life cycle of the aggressive and fearless insect. Enlecynder, made up of Tarantula Hawk members, and local four-piece SubArachnoid Space also play. 10 p.m., Covered Wagon Saloon, 917 Folsom, S.F. $5. (415) 974-1585. (Also Sat/25, 10 p.m., Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph, Oakl. $6. 510-444-6174.) (Martens)

May 25

Saturday

Eye-opener The cultural role of music making takes on complex new meanings in Henry Kuntz's phantasmagoric Opeye Orchestra. Seventeen stalwarts of the local creative music scene – including Dan Plonsey, Ron Heglin, Nancy Clarke, and Bob Marsh – integrate masks, costumes, paintings, and other symbolic and ritualistic artifacts into the performance. Any built-in cultural associations with such instruments as saxophone, pennywhistle, ukulele, balafon, mandolin, and gamelan percussion get broken down and reimagined through improvised expressions of the musicians' personal life experiences. It's a kind of free-floating shamanism that amasses potentially healing collective power from the experimental impulses of the otherwise autonomous participants – alternately noisy and contemplative, dense and lacy, and thoroughly exhilarating. 8 p.m., Tuva Space, 3192 Adeline, Berk. $10. (510) 655-9655. (Derk Richardson)

Bella donna blitz Grab that crushed velvet dress and chiffon shawl – it's time for the second annual 'Wild Heart Affair,' a giant party for Stevie Nicks fans that raises money for the American Heart Association. Held the day before the singer's birthday, the event – similar to New York's famed "Night of a Thousand Stevies" – was featured on the Nicks edition of VH1's documentary series FanClub, and it offers would-be gypsies, gold dust women, and white-winged doves a chance to toast one of rock's most distinctive divas. Planned events include a performance by Fleetwood Mac cover band Rumours, who'll dish out a set of classic Nicks tunes; tarot card readings; lip sync and look-alike contests; and customized cocktails (Ragin' Rhiannon, anybody?). Superfans will also have a chance to bid on an array of Stevie-abilia, including an autographed box set, rare posters, original concert photographs, Nicks-inspired clothing, CDs, and more. 8 p.m.-1 a.m., Regency Center Lodge, 1290 Sutter, S.F. $25-$35. www.wildheartaffair.com. (Eddy)

Kid power Wonder what youths these days are getting up to? Well, here's your opportunity to see young people represent, showcasing talents in break dancing, spoken word, turntablism, theater, visual art, and much more. The Youth Enterprise and Arts Coalition – a network of artists, educators, and community workers dedicated to empowering Bay Area kids and strengthening their culture and opportunities – presents its third annual interactive festival, Youth 2 K II. Throughout the day you can check out performances by Horizons DJ Project, Opera Piccola, Young Asian Women Against Violence, and Homies Organizing the Mission to Empower Youth, among others. The Mural Exchange Project will be facilitating the creation of a mixed-media mural – just grab a paintbrush and join in – and will also be video screenings and booths with information on youth opportunities. So bring the kids in your life, or borrow some for the day, and come celebrate the things that youths create. Noon-4 p.m., CELLspace, 2050 Bryant, S.F. Free. www.cellspace.org/clusters/yea.html. (Lara Shalson)

May 26

Sunday

Preemptive nostalgia Get your butt over to the Fine Arts Cinema now before it closes at the end of June for an estimated two years of renovations. Sure, when it reopens in 2004, it'll be a swanked-out new space, but how will we survive all those months without the theater's trademark genius double features? The current program is a fitting example of what we'll have to do without: Hiroshi Teshigahara's 1964 creepy, sensual Woman in the Dunes matched with Orson Welles's twisty, weird Lady from Shanghai. Bon appétit! Through Thurs/30. Woman in the Dunes, 7:15 p.m.; Lady from Shanghai, 9:40 p.m. (also Sun, 5:30 p.m.), Fine Arts Cinema, 2451 Shattuck, S.F. $4-$8. (510) 848-1143. (Eddy)

May 27

Monday

Identity crisis Long before Hollywood was minting a star every second, towering acting talents like Rachel Felix ruled the mid-19th-century stage. Felix, the Swiss-born daughter of Jewish peddlers, earned fans in every country she toured; she was the star of the Comédie Française and widely regarded as the greatest tragic actress of her generation. While some gauge her fame at the time to have been of Marilyn Monroe proportions, she's less widely known today – which makes her the perfect inspiration for Contagious, performer Anthea Fane's new work. Fane embodies four women (a murderer and the mother-in-law of her victim, a journalist, and Felix's sister Sarah) who dream of being more like the star, drawing on the Yiddish proverb "If I try to be her, who will be me?" and exploring the consequences – per Felix, there's bound to be some tragedy tucked in there – for each character. Through Tues/28. 8 p.m., Noh Space, 2840 Mariposa, S.F. $10-$15. (415) 621-7978, www.theatreofyugen.org. (Eddy)

May 28

Tuesday

Peep this Tired of sitting at home on the couch watching Law and Order reruns? Film Arts Foundation and Microcinema International offer an alternative with Independent Exposure, a new monthly series of unique and innovative film and video shorts at 111 Minna Gallery. The series, which was last seen in Seattle and has also toured 32 nations (even Antarctica!), debuts in San Francisco tonight and continues through October on the last Tuesday of each month. On the opening program are works from the United States (including San Francisco), Canada, and Australia that are sexually playful, romantic, philosophical, and humorous; one documentary's title poses the burning question, "Have You Seen Axl Rose?" The growing microcinema movement is all about exhibiting in alternative venues, and the gallery's added bonuses of a DJ and a bar should help create a relaxed and social atmosphere. 8 p.m., 111 Minna Gallery, 111 Minna, S.F. $5. (415) 864-0660, www.microcinema.com. (Summers Henderson)

May 29

Wednesday