8 Days a Week

THE WORLD IS getting smaller, and people are questioning long-held notions of separateness and identity. Dancers are no different in that regard. While they prize and cultivate their heritages, they also realize that compartmentalization can lead to stagnation. The most forward-looking among them seek out ways to redefine what they do in more global terms. One example is Kathak dancer Chitresh Das. In East as Center, opening this week for a 10-day run at ODC Theater, Das collaborates with Balinese dancer Ni Ketut Arini and Kathakali master Guru Govindan Kutty. Arini is well known to Bay Area audiences for her collaborations with Gamelan Sekar Jaya. Kutty, from southern India, is a newcomer to the Bay Area but not to dance: at age 74, he has been engaged in Kathakali, a highly dramatic, very gestural form of Indian dance, for 60 years. The first half of the program showcases each artist individually, and in the second half they collaborate to present a work from their common mythology, the Ramayana. Music is performed live by members of Gamelan Sekar Jaya. Through June 7. Previews Wed/28, 8 p.m.; runs Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun/1, 2 p.m., ODC Theater, 3153 17th St., S.F. $14-$35. (415) 499-1601, www.ticketweb.com. (Rita Felciano)

May 28-June 4, 2003

May 28

Wednesday

Morning glory Shades of suede-coated psychedelia come alive when singer-songwriter Jim James puts on My Morning Jacket, his Louisville, Ky., quartet. Sounding as thin and haunted as Neil Young and backed by a pop boom box as bombastic as the Flaming Lips, James almost summons up Albert Lee and the Love mastermind's tweaked dreamscapes. Detachment Kit are still attached to this show, but not so Burning Brides, who recently dropped off the tour. 8 p.m., Slim's, 333 11th St., S.F. $15. (415) 522-0333. (Kimberly Chun)

May 29

Thursday

Search for tomorrow Cultural Odyssey closes a solid spring season by presenting 'First Contact II: A Showcase of Young Emerging Artists.' The three-day series gathers a quartet of spoken word artists – Chicago's Lisa Biggs, New Yorker Liza Jessie Peterson, Oakland's Ise Lyfe, and from San Francisco, Kamau "Pitch Black" Abayomi. The best spoken word is intelligent and challenging, built around a sometimes rapid-fire delivery that takes everyday outrages and runs them through the frustration and anger of a generation rejecting the transparent excuses used to explain the unexplainable facts of life. If the world these young artists live in wasn't grim enough, recent world events have added further menace to the future. I want to see how or if the war shapes the performances. Abayomi knows how to work a room, often delivering an electrifying mix of insight and hard-fought truth. I haven't seen the others, but if they're as good, you'll get your money's worth. Through Sat/31. 8 p.m., African American Art and Culture Complex, Buriel Clay Theater, 762 Fulton, S.F. $10-$15. (415) 292-1850, www.culturalodyssey.org. (J.H. Tompkins)

Camera action If each celluloid frame is a doorway onto a filmmaker's private alley, step right on through the innovative works by queer filmmakers of color Veronica Majano and PJ Raval. Their films screen at Artists' Television Access's 'Moving Still,' curated by filmmaker Kirthi Nath and presented by the Alliance of Emerging Creative Artists. The event's title refers to Majano and Raval's interest in examining the relationships, places, and energies that exist in various "now" moments. A girl both embodies and matter-of-factly observes her disappearing Mission District neighborhood in Majano's "Calle Chulle." In Raval's "A Boy's Mouth," words visually tell the story, appearing in sequences that mimic a young boy's thought processes as he observes another child. The evening also features the world premiere of Majano's "She Said" and a postscreening discussion with the filmmakers. 7:30 p.m., Artists' Television Access, 992 Valencia, S.F. $8. (415) 824-3890, www.thisisaeca.org. (Laurie Koh)

May 30

Friday

Grand affair Here's a great opportunity to champion local artists, benefit a key local arts space, and spiff up your crib in one smooth move: 21 Grand's third annual art sale. Some 50-odd artists donated work to the cause, and the pieces are affordably (shockingly!) priced between 5 and 75 bucks. The sale continues through the weekend, but frankly, you'd better haul ass over there tonight, 'cause the art's going to be flying out the door on a first-come, first-served basis. And not only will you be getting bang for your buck, but also all proceeds will go directly to 21 Grand, a gallery noted for helping emerging talents get exposure in the Bay Area. 7 p.m., 21 Grand, 449B 23rd St., Oakl. Free. (510) 444-7263. (Cheryl Eddy)

Fight club In Brazil, the Portuguese colonial powers interdicted the practice of one type of martial arts, capoeira; in the Philippines, the Spaniards tried the same with escrima. In both cases the authorities only succeeded in driving these arts of self-defense underground. Escrima, which is practiced with and without weapons, is credited with keeping the Philippines safe from permanent domination by foreign powers. Alleluia Panis Dance Theatre's Heroes – based on escrima grandmaster and U.S. Army veteran Leogivildo Giron's World War II memoirs and performed by 20 actors, dancers, and martial arts practitioners – pays tribute to this ancient Filipino art and the roles it has played in the culture. Through Sat/31. 8 p.m., SomArts, 934 Brannan, S.F. $12-$15. (415) 864-4126. (Rita Felciano)

May 31

Saturday

Q'd up Pride month begins tonight at the stroke of midnight – and there's no better place to welcome the annual festivities than the opening-night party of the National Queer Arts Festival, dubbed "The Q Ball." The free event is highlighted by performance excerpts from fest participants past and present, including local faves Marga Gomez, Sini Anderson, Liquid Fire Productions, and Hanifah Walidah, plus visual art exhibits by the Point Blank Photographer's Group and video artist Rudy Lemcke. The NQAF itself lasts through June and features a formidable lineup of comedians, dancers, filmmakers, interdiscipliary performers, poets, visual artists, and actors. The first week alone is jam-packed with a drag king contest, a mixed-genre show (including trapeze and sewing) by Dominique Zeltzman, an opera-in-progress, performance collective brOTHERs, and more at venues throughout the city. Opening-night party 6 p.m.-midnight, San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market, S.F. Free. (415) 3340-QCC, www.queerculturalcenter.org. (Eddy)

Plane folks Proclaimed the greatest aviator of the age, the heroic, reckless, daredevil, speed-obsessed Charles Kingsford Smith – "Smithy" to an adoring globe – took off from Oakland in 1928 with a crew of three to attempt the world's first transpacific flight to Australia. When, 83 hours and innumerable cheese sandwiches later, the men, in a battered Fokker VIIb Tri-motor nicknamed the "Southern Cross" and after having faced radio failure, storms, and blind navigation at night over a trackless ocean, at last touched down in Brisbane, the entire world, from Finland to Fiji, erupted in cheers. Today, on the 75th anniversary of the first transpacific flight, the public is invited to join aviators, experts, and relatives of the famous foursome in a celebration, complete with presentations and crowned by the departure of a new Qantas Boeing 737-800 on a historic reenactment. Noon-4 p.m. and 6:30-8:30 p.m., Western Aerospace Museum, Oakland International Airport, 8260 Boeing, Building 621, North Field, Oakl. $5-$50. (510) 638-7100, www.westernaerospacemuseum.org. (Amir Baghdachi)

Fantastic voyage Today begins the 21st annual East Bay Open Studios tour, a phenomenon whereby you can indulge, at one and the same time, a noble desire to appreciate works of art and a general probing nosiness about artists' workspaces. Produced by Pro Arts, the event invites the public to go on self-guided tours through artists' studios; and, with 500 artists in nearly 400 locations throughout 14 cities in the region, you can easily throw together an entire tour of your own from any spot in the East Bay. Begin, if you like, at the Pro Arts Gallery, which offers samplings from the multitude of geniuses participating. While there, pick up the official map and directory, listing all of the studios, and you can begin your pursuit of the sublime. Open Studios today-Sun/1 and June 7-8, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., various locations; reception Wed/28, 7-9 p.m., Pro Arts Gallery, 461 Ninth St., Oakl. Free. (510) 763-4361, www.proartsgallery.org (Baghdachi)

June 1

Sunday

Banner day In San Francisco, the rainbow flag is as ubiquitous as the ol' Stars and Stripes, festooning street lights, car bumpers, and flag poles citywide and year-round. The colorful symbol of gay pride was designed in 1978 by Gilbert Baker (who's been called "the gay Betsy Ross") and was carried by former supervisor Harvey Milk in the Pride Parade that year. Salute the 25th anniversary of the rainbow flag with a shindig cohosted by the Harvey Milk Institute and the GLBT Historical Society, featuring Baker, AIDS Memorial Quilt creator Cleve Jones, author Phyllis Burke (who reads from a new work commissioned for the event), and music by cheeky all-drag band the Woodyz. While you're at the San Francisco LGBT Center, check out the related art exhibit, Unfurling Pride: Gilbert Baker's Rainbow Flag Turns 25. 1-3 p.m., San Francisco LGBT Community Center, 1800 Market, S.F. $10-$15 sliding scale. (415) 865-5633, www.harveymilk.org. (Eddy)

June 2

Monday

Spooked For some, the most notable thing about the Swedish metal quintet the Haunted is that their lineup features two ex-members of At the Gates: lead guitarist Anders Bjorler and his brother, bassist Jonas Bjorler. Certainly for those of us who swear by the latter band's 1995 swan song, Slaughter of the Soul (Earache), one of 1990's most influential metal discs, it's easy to get hung up on that bit of trivia. Then again, the Haunted have released four albums at this point, the most recent being this year's One Kill Wonder (also on Earache), and have influenced quite a few bands in their own right with their brand of darkly melodic, Bay Area-worshipping neo-thrash. Also on tonight's bill are French Canadian death metal band Kataklysm, who've been making a comeback in recent years after hitting the rails in the late '90s, along with Shai Hulud and Bleeding Through. 7 p.m., Pound-S.F., Pier 96, 100 Cargo, S.F. $12. (415) 273-1169. (Will York)

June 3

Tuesday

Dreamboat Picking up where Stephane Grappelli and Jean-Luc Ponty left off, the classically trained Regina Carter looked back at her Detroit roots with her 2000 Verve CD, Motor City Moments, and her own interpretations of soul and R&B faves by Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and others. This year she goes back even further with Paganini: After a Dream, a jazz-classical fusion disc of Piazzolla, Morricone, and Debussy, inspired by an invitation to play Paganini's violin in Genoa. Through June 4. 8 and 10 p.m., Yoshi's, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakl. $9-18. (510) 238-9200. (Chun)

Game on Oakland's notorious Nonchalance Consortium – the cabal that revels in throwing cool and eclectic art events in unusual public spaces – has decided that one of the best ways to revivify Oakland's spirit of fun and anarchy, to exhilarate its citizens, to inspire its leaders, to establish its reputation as the veritable Pleasure Dome of the East Bay, to place the city once more in the light of public adulation and national envy, is to host a really gigantic capture the flag game downtown. A stroke of genius, but one expected from the group that invented the Liberation Drive-In pirate movie theater and is widely known for their creative approach to public art. The game is slated to happen monthly, but just show up tonight and be there for the first epic contest. 10 p.m., Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, San Pablo between International Dr. and 15th St., Oakl. Free. (510) 531-6200, www.nonchalance.org. (Baghdachi)

June 4

Wednesday

Antiestablishment What is this force moving silently through the city, stealing into derelict buildings and leaving them decorated with murals, streaking seedy alleys with the kernels of artistic genius, transforming our dirty and gray neighborhoods into still-dirty but now very colorful neighborhoods? They are San Francisco's Mission School: they reinvent and refine the arts of the streets, and they are now turning the heads of arts establishment curators. Add your voice to the buzz and sensation, as the Commonwealth Club hosts a panel discussion (where gallery owners mix with antigallery artists), along with a presentation of Concrete Canvas, a new film about the Mission School, and an exhibition including works by Sirron Norris, Andrew Scholutz, Dave Warnke, Neon, Apex, NoMe, Misk, Mars, and Damon Soule. Film 6:30 p.m., Reception and exhibition 7:45 p.m., Commonwealth Club, 595 Market, S.F. $18. (415) 597-6705. (Baghdachi)