The latest rainbow happening going down in the alley next to Shooting Gallery, 839 Larkin, SF: artist Ron English (who I once interviewed way back when for his billboard modifications throughout the southwest) recently installed this PhotoShop combo - based on an original painting - of Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama. These murals - up in LA, Seattle, and Denver as well as here - were made to coincide with the November election.

If you ask me, there's no better way to start your Toronto International Film Festival experience than with a film that contains a money shot revolving around a shredded set of intestines. Ohhh yeah, I knew the France-UK-Belgium co-production Vinyan was gonna be intense when I noted the director, Fabrice Du Welz, had also helmed 2004's Calvaire -- one of those don't-get-off-the-main-road horror flicks that rang more depraved than most. In Vinyan, we meet well-off Euro couple Paul (Rufus Sewell) and Jeanne (Emmanuelle Beart) whose Christmas vacation turned to horror when their young son was washed away in the Indian Ocean tsunami six months prior. Or was he? Semi-convinced that he may instead have been kidnapped, the pair has stayed in Thailand grasping at hope -- and in Jeanne's case, sanity. A Heart of Darkness-style excursion into the wilds of Burma (where's John Rambo when you need him?) pushes both partners into places of utter terror, both physical and psychological. Vinyan is also the best freaky-little-kids movie I've seen in awhile -- we're talking Who Can Kill a Child? (1976) territory here.

While San Francisco was having some of its nicest weather of the year, it rained in Toronto. Fortunately, my chief focus was indoors, in the dark, so it didn't matter, really -- soggy socks be damned. I made it to JCVD, Belgian director Mabrouk El Mechri's surprisingly dignified tribute to Jean-Claude Van Damme, and probably my most-anticipated movie of the 2008 festival. I'd be lying if I said I was totally satisfied with it -- there were some hilarious moments, but not many; there were a few action scenes, but also a lot of talking (including Van Damme's very own emotional monologue). I guess I was expecting something bigger, louder, and more obnoxious (yes, those are code words for "better"), but kudos are due to Van Damme for playing himself -- especially since he's not always portraying himself in a flattering way. That said, if you hunger for fun, tacky, old-school JCVD, you're better off putting your VHS copy of Hard Target (1993) through its well-worn paces.

It's over! Well, for me, anyway -- the festival rolls on through the weekend, but tomorrow I'll be jetting back to SF, watching edited-for-content episodes of The Wire on Air Canada's seatback television. I only had one spontaneous celebrity sighting (Wyclef, scampering into an SUV outside his hotel as I plodded past in search of breakfast this morning). But I did see some enjoyable movies these last two days, plus a few feh offerings.

By Rob Avila

Here are a few plays especially worth checking out at the San Francisco Fringe Festival, but premiering too late for review: For more, see "Knuckballin'."

Exit Sign: A Rock Opera
SF musician and songwriter Carrie Baum’s autobiographical flight, glimpsed over the weekend, has some sentimental aspects but is frequently inspired, tuneful, heartfelt, and good fun. Showcasing a solid band headed up by Baum and her Gibson SG, two charming backup singers, and good acting-singing performances in the lead roles of a cool couch-potato father (a winningly down-to-earth Steffanos X) and his queer daughter (a sure and impressive Jamie Ben-Azay) on a TV-mandated mission to find “It” before an untimely death makes for one of life’s inevitable detours.

The Evelyn Reese Show
If Amy Sedaris were from Toronto, the town might not be big enough for her and Susan Fischer, whose character, the irrepressible Evelyn Reese, is a pitch-perfect social monster of hilariously garish proportions. At the same time, the skillful Fischer keeps her character solidly grounded in the most realistic idiosyncrasies; it’s hyperbolic but never anything but believable. And that’s what’s so terrifying.

By Paula Connelly and Deborah Giattina

We arrived at the Clift hotel fashionably late in the hopes of fast forwarding to Gavin and Jennifer’s grand appearance. Last night was the Redwood Room’s 75th anniversary, and a staff member told us that picking the mayor and first lady to host the fete would guarantee its Social(ite) Event of the Year title.

Rolling with high society is not our usual modus operandi, but we snapped at the chance to indulge in the open bar and up-close look at 7x7 back pages fodder -- only problem was, we didn't know who's who. The place was crawling with club promoters, local restaurateurs, random hobnobbers, and partying PR reps. But we lucked out and met a few cool people to crown royalty of our own.

The Redwood Room is exactly that, supposedly made entirely from a single Redwood tree.

These vintage ornate mirrored glass cocktail tables set the stage for elegant vanity.

By Jesse Hawthorne Ficks

Having had one helluva good time at this year's festival (25 films in 6 days!), here's an overview that you can use as a nice checklist for the upcoming months.

* Wong Kar-Wai's Ashes of Time Redux amped up his 1994 classic, adding colors galore and some new cello solos by Yo-Yo Ma. Luckily Wong kept intact the complex, existential storylines, which blur characters into memories of the past, present, and future while giving his actors tear-induced melodrama that still radiates 15 years later. The original Ashes of Time needed to be viewed multiple times to recognize it as one of the best films of the 1990s.

By Robert Avila

In October, local performance company mugwumpin - a kinetic and fervidly experimental ensemble that does not shy from being highly entertaining, too - travels to the massive Cairo International Festival for Experimental Theatre.

There it will represent the US with a newer, leaner version of its 2006 deconstruction of the American hero complex, super:anti:reluctant. Those who can’t afford the trip can catch this singular piece of post-abstract expressionist theater during a special three-show run at Noh Space this weekend, before it heads east.

super:anti:reluctant
Preview Fri/19, 8 p.m., $10; gala performance and artist reception Sat/20, 8 p.m., $25; final performance Sun/21, 8 p.m., $12-$20 sliding scale
NOHspace
2840 Mariposa, SF
(415) 621-7978

By Kat Renz

I had no idea when I pitched a piece on Shepard Fairey’s “Duality of Humanity” solo show that I’d be getting an up-close preview, a public/private wheat-pasted hanging on the western wall of my room, now amounting to the best street “graffiti” (it was sanctioned by my landlord)/anti-war advert in the ‘hood.

A totally auspicious coincidence, or have I just somehow managed to know enough cool people that the degrees of separation are getting fewer by the day? I'm not sure, but hosting a giant black and beige “Peace Bomber” - yes, a peace sign made of a bomber plane – is pretty sweet.

This does not substitute for paying a long visit to Fairey’s four-room, two-story show at the Tenderloin’s adjacent art hubs, the Shooting Gallery and White Walls. Nor should the sudden ubiquity of public art Fairey and his nighttime posse have offered the city these past couple weeks - from the watchful, familiar furrow of Andre the Giant stickers to his larger visage where Highways 280 and 101 intersect to the red, blue, and black Obama poster (the one piece not for sale in his show) on the side of that squatable-looking house at 15th and Dolores streets.

By Ben Richardson

While attending the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed launch event at the Harrison Street Best Buy on Sept. 15, I got a chance to part the ranks of cosplayers in Storm Trooper armor and ask project lead Haden Blackman a few questions about his game.

He provided interesting insights into the process of game design and all its challenges, joys, and complications, especially those peculiar to a studio like Lucasarts that is just one branch of the Star Wars entertainment empire. Though he was unwilling to admit that the game’s shoddy force grip targeting was a problem for all gamers, not just the “hardcore” among us (I complained about it in my review), he spoke convincingly about his desire to make the game accessible to players of all demographics and inclinations.

SFBG: In the speech you gave earlier up on the stage, you made it sound like this was an idea that you’ve had for a long, long time. When a game first comes together, when it first germinates, is it a story idea that leads a game to be constructed around it, or are there game elements or things you want to do that in turn birth a story?

By Meghan McCloskey

I’m not the kind of girl who craves chocolate. I don’t need boxes of candy from my boyfriend to know he’s into me. Hell, I’d rather get a sweater or even a cheesy bouquet of flowers than a fatty gift that’ll up my waistband.

But since last week I’ve changed forever, thanks to Orson, a trendy restaurant in SOMA known for its forward thinking and groundbreaking use of chocolate in its main dishes. That’s right. I said chocolate. For dinner.

Since Orson’s debut in February 2008, executive chef Elizabeth Falkner and her crew have been playing with chocolate in a way that Willy Wonka couldn’t even have imagined. By some miracle, they’ve found a way to include the sweet, classic dessert ingredient in the restaurant’s savory entrées and appetizers—and have consequently created newfound chocolate-consumed barbarians like myself.

Seriously, don’t mess with me.

Photo by Cheryl Mazak at gogetyourgirlon.com.

Too Hard to Swallow!
Drawing by Justin Hall

Dip your pen in: SF-based queer comics impressario Justin Hall of All Thumbs Press and the Hard to Swallow series (and who keeps chasing down that bitch-queen Glamazonia the Uncanny Super Tranny for us) and Hard to Swallow partner Dave Davenport are popping our corks and celebrating the release of their new sticky-fingered tome Hard to Swallow #4 at Isotope Comics this Friday from 7-11pm -- raunchy comics, booze, loose men and brash women, weak-willed sexy cartoonists, and the saucy tunes of DJ Bearzbub, they promise! Not only that, but the new 72-page Hard to Swallow features "skater boy ghosts and pushy werewolves." I'm drooling already.
Hard to Swallow #4 release
Fri/26, 7pm-11pm, free
Isotope Comics
326 Fell
www.isotopecomics.com

THEN: Catch Justin, Dave, and a slew of other totally NSFW comics artists at the Folsom Street Fair's Erotic Artist's Alley on Sunday on 10th St. between Folsom and Harrison for a truly delectable selection of naughty output. Last year I totally scored this awesome print of a lacrosse team raping each other with their sticks. That was subversive on '07! What will be subversive this year? I'm guessing Moose forced-fellatio revenge.

Pushy werewolves!
From Hard to Swallow #4