March 26, 2003

8 Days a Week

March 26-April 2, 2003

AIN'T NO DENYING the world as we know it is a pretty bleak place these days. Fortunately, the ninth annual Radical Performance Fest is poised to bring some much needed cheer, with two days packed full of art with a conscience. The popular festival aims to spotlight performers who are outside the mainstream arts world – including youths, elders, physically challenged people, and queers – as well as socially aware artists who make it their business to sound off on current events. (One suspects Operation Iraqi Freedom will be a dominating topic this year). The impressive lineup includes San Francisco poet laureate devorah major, Nigerian-born author and teacher Uchechi Kalu, Oakland hip-hoppers Company of Prophets, Destiny Arts Youth Performance Company, a cappella trio Copper Wimmin, members of Deep Dickollective, DJ Soul Salaam, Poets for Global Justice, the San Francisco Mime Troupe, and many others. Suffice it to say, you'll learn more than you would by watching the variety-show nightmare that is the new Star Search, and no doubt be more entertained in the process. Fri/28, Black Box, 1929 Telegraph, Oakl., and Sat/29, SomArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan, S.F. $10-$15. (415) 285-9734, alli@riseup.net. (Cheryl Eddy)

March 26

Wednesday

Tune in You already read about the thriving Bay Area arts scene every week in these very pages – and now you can supplement that knowledge with 'Spark,' a brand-new weekly series highlighting local visual and performing artists and organizations. Coproduced by KQED and the Bay Area Video Coalition, "Spark" is actually a three-pronged undertaking: in addition to the television show, there's also a Web site (www.kqed.org/spark) packed with resources on the program's subjects and upcoming arts events, plus educational outreach programs aimed at California schoolkids of all ages. Tonight, catch the first episode, "Opening Nights," which offers a glimpse into the feverish preparations leading up to the opening of the San Francisco Ballet's Don Quixote, the Asian Art Museum, and Teatro Visión de San Jose's Conjunto. Next week's show, "Fame," concentrates on two local art stars (ambitious, charismatic dancer Rasta Thomas and laid-back, reluctantly famous artist Chris Johanson) who have different reactions to being in the spotlight. Future shows profile artists who work with nature, influential teachers, contemporary art collectors, and visual artists who create using unusual, nontraditional media. 7:30 p.m., KQED, channel 9, www.kqed.org/spark. (Cheryl Eddy)

March 27

Thursday

Add it up Fans of experimental theater now have even more reason to sing the praises of Exit Theatre, fearless producers of the venerable San Francisco Fringe Festival, as well as their own Absurdist Season. As part of the group's new "Resident Artist" series, the Exit Stage Left space is given over to new works in development, the first of which, in3, previews tonight. Described as "an original performance avalanche" and "chaos theory set to music," the three-part, mathematics-inspired in3 was "instigated" by j. ries and is performed by a cast of Fringe vets directed by Meredith Eldred. Best to approach this one with a free, open mind – leave the calculator at home. Through April 19. Previews tonight, 8 p.m. Opens Fri/28, 8 p.m. Runs Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m., Exit Stage Left, 156 Eddy, S.F. $10-$20. (415) 673-3847, www.theexit.org. (Eddy)

March 28

Friday

Bridge-worthy The fact that Katherine Davis is a sometime dancer and sometime choreographer doesn't mean she isn't totally in love with Terpsichore. Last year she took a look around the East Bay and realized that while lots of dancers live and work there, San Francisco seems to get all of the attention. So she got on the horn and started talking to colleagues and friends, and the result is the hugely successful East Bay Dance Festival. The event was such a triumph that Davis immediately got to work planning this year's festival, which features eight companies performing in a range of styles, including jazz, ballet, modern, postmodern, and world. Though the Julia Morgan Theater stage is not always ideal for dance, what really matters is that the venue has welcomed this little festival that could. Tonight and Sat/29, 8 p.m; Sun/30, 7 p.m., Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College, Berk. $12-$14. (925) 798-1300. (Rita Felciano)

Brotherly love Sweet-voiced, Kangol-capped, and still memorable as one of the gentlest presences in Buena Vista Social Club, Ibrahim Ferrer has his visa, his health, and the will to travel to SFJAZZ Spring Season's series of shows. He's still in fine form, singing about scraping up the last bits of a stew while a scrumptious funk of organ, electric guitar, and oddly, Chinese coronet bubbles in the background of the title track on his new World Circuit/Nonesuch album, Buenos hermanos. Elsewhere on the album, Ferrer's brothers in arms get a chance at the pot: pianist Chucho Valdes makes off with a lush, economical solo on "La musica cubana," and accordionist Flaco Jimenez follows the vocalist's lead on the smoky "Naufragio." Hope wartime restrictions don't constrict the movements of Ferrer, who is traveling with a full band including guitarist-organist Manuel Galban and double bass player Cachaito Lopez. The SFJAZZ All-Star High School Ensemble also play. Through Sat/29. 8 p.m., Masonic Auditorium, 1111 California, S.F. $25-$60. (415) 776-1999. (Kimberly Chun)

Heat wave While we're trying to figure out whether we're still in the midst of a Latino music revolution, Latino comedy has never been so sharp, vibrant, and necessary. The one-woman variety show that is Carmelita Tropicana (the alter ego of Alina Troyano), for example, has gone from being the darling of New York for her outrageous lesbian and Cuban persona, to being an international star (with Lambda and Obie awards to her name). Hear her tell the story of Elian Gonzales from a cockroach's point of view at 'Humor Latino: An Evening of Picante Comedy,' presented by Brava! for Women in the Arts. She'll be joined by comedian and cellist María Elena Gaitán (known as "Chola Con Cello"), who performs The Teta Show, which gropes around the secret history of the breast, and San Francisco's own Bill Stantiago, whose genius for semantic vertigo is on display in his Spanglish 101: A Total Immersion Comedic Excursion into Latino USA. Through Mar/29. 8 p.m., Brava Theater Center, 2789 24th St., S.F. $24-$26. (415) 647-2822. (Amir Baghdachi)

Robot love dinner Baby-faced turntablist extraordinaire Kid Koala, a.k.a. Eric San, has picked up the pen and turned out a romantic tragedy. A graphic novel with an accompanying soundtrack, Nufonia Must Fall (ECW Press) tells the sad tale of a robot's unrequited love. While guests enjoy a three-course meal, the Kid, who contributed to Gorillaz (EMI) and has toured with the Beastie Boys, re-creates scenes from the book using two electric pianos, four turntables, and a slide projector. And with the help of DJ P-Love and an opening set from DJ Jester designed to get you in the mood, this event promises to be a night of love, not war. 5:30 and 9 p.m., Butterfly, 1710 Mission, S.F. $50 (reservations required). (415) 864-5575, www.futureprimitivesound.com. (Peter Nicholson)

March 29

Saturday

Fight the power Where, at this critical time, are the much needed anarchists? Well, rest assured, they'll be in full force at the eighth annual Bay Area Anarchist Book Fair, which is the largest of its kind and dedicated to bringing into one room more subversive elements than you can shake a billy club at. In true anarchist fashion, everything happens simultaneously, with more than 60 exhibitors from across the nation in one area and nine speakers exhorting and inspiring the public in another. Featured participants include beat movement legend Diane DiPrima, writer and visual artist Eric Drooker, Critical Mass advocate Chris Carlsson, and prison activist Rita D. "Bo" Brown. Some of the other authors on hand are Kirk Read, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Max Elbaum, Ron Sakolsky, and Roy San Filippo. The event also features an exhibit of prisoners' art. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., County Fair Building, Golden Gate Park, near Ninth Ave. at Lincoln, S.F. Free. (415) 431-8355. (Baghdachi)

March 30

Sunday

Demolition derby San Francisco is the city of the street festival, and as the barbecue season begins, neighborhoods and subcultures are starting to bust out with assorted block parties. Not your usual spring bacchanalia, the Central Freeway Demolition Celebration marks the beginning of the end for the Central Freeway (a.k.a. the Highway 101 Fell Street exit ramp), which was damaged by the Loma Prieta quake and is at long last being replaced with a four-lane, tree-lined road, to be completed sometime in 2004. Many local activists – those responsible for the grassroots organizing and passing of the three ballot initiatives to effectively win the tear-down-the-freeway battle – are honored during the afternoon festivities, which also include several bands, food stands, models illustrating the planned changes to Octavia Boulevard, and a gold sledgehammer for all present to take a symbolic strike at the old structure. 1-5 p.m., Market at Octavia (beneath the freeway overpass), S.F. Free. (415) 431-8102. (Kerry Rodgers)

March 31

Monday

Jazz standards The Bay Area's Latin jazz scene is labyrinthine enough that superb practitioners can tuck themselves into corners and remain relatively unknown for far too long. Such is the case with Cuarteto Sonando, the four-piece band founded in 1999 by percussionist Patricio Angulo. Gigs at venues like the Blue Bar, Butterfly, Jupiter, Rasselas, and 850 Cigar Bar (where they've been ensconced for three years) have made the tight ensemble familiar to neighborhood and transient tourist audiences. But tonight's Jazz in Flight presentation serves as a high-profile coming-out party for Angulo, pianist Bill Friedman, bassist Saul Sierra, and drummer Phil Thompson, with guest percussionists Michael Spiro and Matt Lucas. With roots in the Pete Escovedo Orchestra, Conjunto Cespedes, and Orchestra la Moderna Tradición and a repertoire that includes "Seven Steps to Heaven," "My Favorite Things," and "Blackbird," as well as traditional and contemporary Afro-Cuban material (all on their self-produced CD, 7 Steps to 850), Cuarteto Sonando are more than ready to bring their rhythm-rich improvisations to the proverbial wider audience. 8 and 10 p.m., Yoshi's, 510 Embarcadero West, Jack London Square, Oakl. $8-$10. (510) 238-9200. (Derk Richardson)

April 1

Tuesday

Call of the Idle-mild The fresh-faced Scottish Highlanders of Idlewild are sounding more pop each passing day. Let's put it this way: U2 and the Cranberries would probably welcome these toned-down, wistful, poetry-loving rockers into their Gaelic pop scene. Just listen to their third album, The Remote Part (Capitol), especially tracks such as "American English," with that Edge-like guitar and ultra-non-edgy chorus celebrating a "song of myself." The fivesome are obviously keeping their Minor Threat, Hüsker Dü, and Nirvana inspirations well in check and choosing an anthemic pop route long charted by Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye, who handed down a few words of wisdom to the band before they recorded The Remote Part. Old fans will doubtlessly hope the group, led by the Tinker Toy-named Roddy Woomble, keep their live shows as rocking as ever, even as they explore the not-so-remote parts of an emo pop landscape. French Kicks and Natural History also play. 8 p.m., Slim's, 333 11th St., S.F. $13. (415) 255-0333. (Kimberly Chun)

April 2

Wednesday

Son of sand Sci-fi fans, gather 'round, as Brian Herbert is in town with Dreamer of Dune, the biography of his father, late Dune author Frank Herbert. Dune, first published in 1965, has sold more than 20 million copies worldwide and was followed by several successful sequels (plus one less successful David Lynch movie, but who's counting?). The younger Herbert is himself an accomplished author, having penned several original novels (including Man of Two Worlds, cowritten with Dad) as well as keeping the events of a certain desert planet alive with the Prelude to Dune series. Herbert discusses the new bio, which details the family's lean years while his father struggled to get Dune published, and offers an insider's perspective on the master who created what some call "The Lord of the Rings of science fiction." 7 p.m., Booksmith, 1644 Haight, S.F. Free. (415) 863-8688. (Eddy)