SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Stephan of SF Boylesque, 5th Street and Martket

Tell us about your look: "I'm kind of a boot whore. With fashion, if people aren't shaking their heads at you, you're not doing it right."

By Laura Peach

Feed Your Soul image by Tara Hogan

Since everyone seems to be keeping a tight clamp on their cash these days, projects considered less necessary are being cast aside. Personally, I’ve always been a fan of going above and beyond spring cleaning and in favor of a full spring interior redecoration. It’s wonderful when your interior mirrors the sunny, blossomy exterior world (even if it's raining right now). Also, getting out of bed on Monday morning is a little easier when your home feels happy and new.

Feed Your Soul image by Michelle Cavigliano

Stop feeling stuck in your domestic space.

Laura Peach reports from last month's Seattle Fashion Week

Design by Blayne Walsh. All photos by NW Action Shots

Although Seattle is a city even further off the fashion map than San Francisco, where Keens and Birkenstocks swamp the sidewalks and most outfits, often comprised of hooded windbreakers and kakis, seem a little more fit for a hike in the mountains than a day in the city.

Design by Blayne Walsh

Thankfully, there is a part of Seattle’s population who does not consider Eddie Bauer the height of fashion. And they showed up strong and stylish at Seattle Fashion Week to scope out and support their talented local designers.

Design by Blayne Walsh

Project Runway star Blayne Walsh pranced his sweet self onstage and said, “If a Native American and a vampire had offspring, my line would be their children.”

Design by Blayne Walsh

I was so preoccupied with trying to figure out what that would be called, exactly, that I barely saw the beaded vests, feathered hair, and black party dresses parading past me. Until a fabulous open-necked red sweater forced my jaw to drop. It struck me as so perfect for San Francisco. Oh, and I decided that Walsh’s prodigy would have to be “Indipires.”

Each week, Virginia Miller of personalized itinerary service and monthly food, drink, and travel newsletter, www.theperfectspotsf.com, shares foodie news, events, and deals. View the last installment here.

Scottish Eggs, Chips & Pastie at Martins West. Photo by Chris Andre

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NEW RESTAURANT and BAR OPENINGS

Martins West helps you wash down fine eats
Time to trek down South (the Peninsula, that is) to Redwood City for this week's hot opening, Martins West Pub. The original Martins is in Edinburgh... this locale is an homage to that gastropub (I'll admit, an overused term) where comfort, hand-crafted beers, and hearty food meet seasonal, gourmet sensibilities. Like the beer, cocktails and scotch selections are extensive so you can wash down Michael Dotson's (of Tahoe's Plumpjack Cafe) quality "pub grub" (think Ploughman's lunch, herb-crusted marrow bones or house-made charcuterie). Pastry Chef, Kelly Fields (of Sens and some of New Orleans best restaurants) stays sweet with sticky toffee pudding, drunken raisin ice cream or hot toddy pot de creme. Inside the 1896 Alhambra building, once a theater and saloon, you'll feel the spirit of Wyatt Earp, who used to frequent the place while his wife, Josie, sang from the adjoining theater. Belly up to the 25-foot bar, boys!
831 Main Street, Redwood City
650-366-4366
www.martinswestgp.com

Sake bar at Otoro Sushi. Photo by Virgina Miller

Tiny but chic Otoro Sushi makes three in Hayes Valley
Hayes Valley already hasSebo and Domo for impeccable sushi, but why not one more? A couple blocks away from the heart of Hayes, lunch and dinner of the fresher kind can be had at tiny but chic Otoro, just opened a few days ago. I've already enjoyed a generously-portioned lunch and look forward to more. There's a snug, eight-seat sushi bar, sake bar and a handful of tables, with plenty of sashimi, udon, and rolls like the Hip Hop Roll, topped with garlic white tuna.
205 Oak Street
415-553-3986

Fly Bar debuts in Brick space with pizza and video games
Brick morphs into a Fly, or rather, into sister location to ever-popular Fly on Divisadero. Responding to the times with nothing over $12, Fly Bar will surely win some fans. A 4:30-6:30pm Happy Hour offers drink specials and half-price pizzas (like Southwestern or Jimmy the Greek), while the usual menu means apps, pizzas and sandwiches galore. Playful cocktails are only $7-8 at full price, like Island Root Beer (dark rum, Abita root beer and house-made ginger syrup), or Scrum: Boddington's with a shot of Jameson. Sneak to the back room for a four-player arcade, snazzed up with cup holders and free games! It's good to reinvent oneself from time to time.
1085 Sutter Street
415-441-4232

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Elsa, Market and Front

Tell us about your look: "Always look nice."

By Natalie Gregory

Lawyer movies can be really entertaining. Tim Disney's American Violet certainly is. I was sucked in from minute one. Based on true events, it's the story of Dee Roberts (an awesome performance by Nicole Beharie), a single mother with four little girls living in the projects of a small Texas town. In these particular projects, there are frequent drug raids. The law states that a single informant's testimony justifies an indictment — and Dee is wrongfully accused. ACLU lawyer David Cohen (a brilliant Tim Blake Nelson), believes Dee's community is being harassed because residents are black, although the theory is very difficult to prove. The district attorney Calvin Beckett (a sadistic Michael O'Keefe) is tough, and he likes plea bargains. David, Dee, and do-the-right-thing local lawyer Sam Conroy (the great Will Patton) challenge Beckett. American Violet is not only an interesting story, it's based on a true one. You can't help rooting for Dee and hoping that justice will prevail.

American Violet Trailer

AMERICAN VIOLET opens Fri/1 in Bay Area theaters.

By Lynn Rapoport. Read Lynn's report from the first SFIFF weekend here, and Natalie Gregory's review of SFIFF flick Crude here.

Parked a little ways past the midway point in the SFIFF calendar, the fest’s official centerpiece film, the romantic comedy 500 Days of Summer, packed the Sundance Kabuki’s main house on Saturday night, with most of the appreciative audience lingering for the post-screening Q&A with director Marc Webb and stars Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. (The latter set a lighter tone, or perhaps just startled audience members, by adopting a Ministry of Silly Walks stride and monster-metal voice for the pre-screening introductions.)

Eternal Summer of the spotless mind?

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Landon, Market and Grant

Tell us about your look: "I'm trying to keep it light for Spring."

By Juliette Tang

If I were to wear something in lieu of a shirt, it probably wouldn't be a breastplate cleaved onto someone else's even smaller breastplate. But looking at these photos from the Alchemy fashion show that took place earlier this month at the California Modern Art Gallery, I can't help but be intrigued.

Thown by False Profit LLC, the annual Alchemy party showcases an eye-catching fashion production by Missing Piece, a San Francisco based artist representative agency promoting some of San Francisco's most talented emerging designers. Included in the show were collections by Joshu + Vela, Montree, Miranda Caroligne, Callibug Designs, and Antiseptic Fashion and Ivana Ristic.

By Marke B.

Jeff Linder

I'm a big admirer of SF (by way of Kansas and NYC) artist Kevin P. Mosley's work. The bright, flickering patterns of his aplique-on-found-glass output somehow convey to me a feeling of camp guignol: vibrantly psychedelic yet rigidly hallucinogenic -- kind of like what I imagine pill-popping housewives from '50s movies might see when the high kicks in and the children are screaming from the solarium. On Easter. If those housewives were trapped in gay men's bodies.

Rosa Jimenez-Vasquez

Strangely, the works are also almost soothing to get lost in -- they register any changes in light impeccably; I especially like them on golden-sunny late afternoons -- and they're pretty like a little girl's hat. His latest batch of works, which Mosley calls "portraits," is receiving a monthlong showing at Magnet in the Castro.

The blogosphere and cable television got more heated than fried cheese in Paula Dean's kitchen about President Obama's and Vice-President Biden's recent trip to Ray's Hell Burger.

Peeping the footage at a corner store, I didn't give a damn about the story's culinary focus. I was thrilled to see the most famous man in the world sharing the frame with a huge poster for Mantis in Lace! Now this is the kind of juxtaposition that makes life worth living. In fact, I think I'll call it a day as soon as I finish posting this item.

Look over your shoulder, Biden. Mantis in Lace's Lila has a cleaver for you.

Psychotronic maniacs will tell you that Mantis in Lace is the tale of Lila, a loner stripper chick who doses herself with copious LSD as she seduces men back to her beatnik lair and kills them. It has a theme song, lots of mod wackiness, and one of the best movie titles ever. It's also a favorite of the artist and zine inventor G.B. Jones.

It's great to see our leader eating next to this archival treasure from Times Square's heyday. But I won't be fully satisfied until we see Obama eating a vegetarian meal next to a lobby card for Deadly Spawn.

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Shanti, Charles J. Brenham and McAllister

Tell us about your look: "I like wearing lots of color and today it was lots of gold."

By the hungry hungry Guardian staff

(1) Cabernet and oysters, Bistro St. Germain, SF

(2) Strawberry shortcake with vanilla ice cream and honey

(3) Five kinds of Pyramid Ale with beer-soaked mussels, Pyramid Brewery and Alehouse, Berk.

(4) Bacon-wrapped sausage, bacon-wrapped marshmallows, and bacon-wrapped bacon, Trout Camp, Shasta Springs

(5) Herradura chicken with red chili pesto

By Dennis Harvey

Sita Sings the Blues

A few years ago, independent animator and comic strip artist Nina Paley left San Francisco for India, where her boyfriend had found employment. A while later, during a visit home, she received a surprise, brusque communication from the bf informing her she need not return — the relationship was over. Just what the bf ultimately got out of this episode is unknown. But Paley got posterity: her first feature film, inspired by both the breakup and the ancient Sanskrit epic the Ramayana, is artistic therapy that also happens to be just about the most delightful movie in eons, cartoon or otherwise. Utilizing very different animation techniques, she cuts between a blatantly autobiographical tale of romantic woe and the mythological travails of Sita, beloved of the noble Rama. He rescues her from an amorous, abducting rival, but his chivalry dies when false accusations about her "purity" threaten to tarnish his image. Then, as now, men are pigs. Sita wriggles through her fate like a Bollywood Betty Boop, frequently crooning vintage 78 tracks by Jazz Age blues chanteuse Annette Hanshaw, and the visual wit on display is akin to Max Fleischer's antics plus intellectual gamesmanship, grotesque streaks, and eye-popping color. Paley breaks the fourth wall in umpteen ingenious ways. Sita Sings the Blues is so full of fun and invention you may start looking forward to seeing it again after it's barely started.

Sita Sings the Blues trailer

SITA SINGS THE BLUES runs Fri/8–Tues/12 at the Red Vic..

By Erik Morse

Poster for Jim Jarmusch's latest film, The Limits of Control.

San Francisco Bay Guardian: I was trying to think how to go about this interview and present something slightly different to you than the same old questions you've been asked a hundred times over. I kept going back to various anthropology texts I've been reading recently. Have you heard of James Clifford's essay “Traveling Cultures”?

Jim Jarmusch: No.

SFBG: Would you mind if I read a bit of it to you? I think it could be very relevant to our discussion.

JJ: Sure.

SFBG: “To begin, a quotation from C.L.R. James in Beyond a Boundary: 'Time would pass, old empires would fall and new ones take their place. The relations of classes had to change before I discovered that it's not quality of goods and utility that matter, but movement, not where you are or what you have, but where you come from, where you are going and the rate at which you are getting there.'”

“Or begin again with hotels: Joseph Conrad, in the pages of Victory: 'The age in which we are encamped like bewildered travelers in a garish, unrestful hotel.' In Tristes Tropiques, Levi-Strauss evokes an out-of-scale concrete cube sitting in the midst of the new Brazillian city of Goiania in 1937. It's his symbol of civilization's barbarity, 'a place of transit, not of residence.' The hotel as station, airport terminal, hospital: a place ou pass through, where the encouters are fleeting, arbitrary.”

It's a very long and incredible essay and I thought of it immediately after seeing your latest film.

By Molly Freedenberg

My Dad was one of those people who cared about money and the success he thought it implied. The doctor son of an East Coast Jewish family, he seemed to think his red BMW, sprawling SoCal house, and ski cabin timeshare in mammoth proved he was, indeed, the golden child his (almost entirely female) family always told him he was.

Me? I never cared much for the trappings (and pressure) of upper class society. I just hoped to one day earn enough income to pay for the basics -- plus a weekly spa treatment and really nice sheets. I somehow always felt that it was experiences, not stuff, that made life feel full and rich. And every experience is enhanced by a happy, healthy body. Unfortunately, at age 31, I still find myself scrambling just to pay rent. Thanks to my Mom and her indulgent Christmases, my bedclothes are awesome. But regular facials, massages, and body wraps are still painfully out of reach (and shockingly ignored by health insurance companies, though I whole-heartedly believe that if we all had more of such treatments, we'd need less trips to the doctor, dermatologist, and chiropractor later on).

However, I still find my way into a spa whenever I can: to celebrate friends' birthdays or weddings, to take advantage of sales, or, sometimes, just because I can't stand waiting anymore. Most recently, it was for an eyebrow wax at Cocoon Day Spa, which happens to be my friend on Facebook. I noticed a message advertising half off any waxing service, as a way to train a new aesthetician. I calculated quickly: I couldn't afford a leg or bikini wax, even half off, but the eyebrow wax would be $9 after the discount. And I hadn't had someone else shape my brows since 2003, so it seemed about time. I was on the phone half an hour later, and in a cab two hours after that.

By Kimberly Chun

Surprise: no theremins in earshot at the Castro Theatre on May 5 when Dengue Fever unleashed its new score for the 1925 silent adventure film, The Lost World, as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival.

Instead the seemingly sold-out audience got plenty of laughs, the compelling Wallace Beery as the seemingly mad Professor Challenger, herky-jerky yet still marvelous stop-motion dinosaurs, shameful black-face in the form of Sambo sidekick (Jules Cowles), and the fab scene of an astonishingly resilient Brontosaurus crashing through London city streets before plummeting from the famed bridge. The latter moment clearly evoked King Kong - and no wonder: the special effects were produced by Willis O'Brien, who also coaxed Kong to life.

Pal, please: You'll want your own sandwich and salads at Pal's Take Away. Photo by Kimberly Chun.

By Kimberly Chun

I love Dynamo Donut's newest neighbor - nestled in Tony's Market, at 2751 24th St. and Hampshire - 'cause he's absolutely delish.

Pal's Take Away - essentially a stand within the corner bodega across the way from DD - sources its sparkling fresh food stuffs from Acme, Marin Sun, Dirty Girl, Riverdog, Full Belly, Knoll, etc., as well as chums' fruit trees - and it keeps a concise menu, focusing on sandwiches made to order and two or three salads, tops.

Pal also likes mango on his homemade strawberry jam and almond butter offering - but I'll forgive him for that because my spring peas salad - with fresh shelling, sugar snap, and snow peas and a blissful dose of mint and champagne vinegar - kind of made my day. I don't care what some cooks say about frozen peas being a perfectly acceptable substitute for fresh: you can tell the difference, and this salad is the ideal way to relish these tiny-tailed babies.

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Oliver, McAllister and Hyde

Tell us about your look: "I'm wearing mostly hand-me-downs."

By Rita Felciano

Andrew Wass as Emperor Norton. Photo by Andrea Flores

Two years ago Catherine Galasso appeared at the WestWave Dance Festival in Gnome Trouble, based on the Grimm brothers' fairy tale Snow White and Rose Red. Freud would have loved to bite into that story of sibling rivalry. Even though Galasso's piece wasn't that successful, it somehow stayed in memory. Apparently she likes folk tales. She is back with another one, The Improbable Reign of Norton I, Emperor of the United States. In fact Norton was a 19th century San Franciscan, eccentric to say the least. He will be joined on stage by other semimythic Barbary Coast denizens, including Joaquin Murrietta, a Robin Hood type bandit. Sharing the bill with Galasso will be a kindred spirit, Seattle's Salt Horse dance-sound company, with This Was a Cliff. Taking an entirely different perspective — improvisatory and nonnarrative — they also create imagistic dance-theater works in which reality and fantasy collide and cooperate. The double bill comes courtesy of SCUBA, the national touring network created by ODC Theater, Velocity Dance Center in Seattle, and the Southern Theater in Minneapolis. This small venture by cooperating presenters was founded in 2003 in a time of plenty. It seemed a good idea then. It's an even better one today if small presenters and their artists are going to survive.

SCUBA WITH CATHERINE GALASSO AND SALT HORSE Sat/9, 8 p.m.; Sun/10, 7 p.m., $15–$18. ODC Theater, 351 Shotwell, SF. (415) 863-9834, www.odctheater.org

Barack Obama boarding an Air Force One plane for the first time. Gay calendars from the 1960s. A New York Times article on the death of a major urban newspaper. Sundays at the Alemany Flea Market. These are some of the temporal markers at play in Matt Keegan's exhibition "Postcards & Calendars." The show (reviewed in the current Guardian) could be Keegan's postcard to New York about time spent in San Francisco. It's also an exploration of the ways in which calendars and other time keepers can be used subversively to convey forms of experience or forge communities. Keegan is no stranger to the such endeavors: his 2008 book AMERICAMERICA (Printed Matter, 140 pages, $35) gathers interviews, old People magazines, memorabilia connected to the "Hands Across America" project, artifacts from his small-scale update of that endeavor, and unorthodox archival material into a journal that doubles as a portrait of the Reagan era. The artist and I recently sat at a petite lemon yellow table with pretty lemon yellow flowers in Altman Siegel Gallery to discuss his current exhibition.

View of Matt Keegan's "Postcards & Calendars." All images from "Postcards & Calendars" courtesy of Altman Siegel Gallery

SFBG Many shows repeat the same execution of a single theme, over and over. In contrast, “Postcards & Calendars” has many forms and facets.
Matt Keegan The thematic of this show is definitely influenced by my time in in San Francisco, but not relegated to being here. Lots of things at play are continuations of my preexisting engagement with photography.
In terms of local influences, the calendars from the GLBT Historical Society had a tremendous impact on this show. Before I met with Rebekah Kim, the Historical Society’s archivist, I was trying to figure out how to map the ways time is not only recorded but visually structured -- to think about such rudimentary things as a planner, or a calendar, or a newspaper, in terms of how days and months can be iterated.
When I saw their collection of calendars, part of the power of those objects comes from the way they integrate a social history into an innocuous form. Also, some of the calendars that have a clear porn element, also have a social element. For example, Fizeek from the mid-‘60s -- the back of that calendar has notations about who shot which photo and where the photographers are based, which provides it with this added level of social exchange.

Matt Keegan

SFBG In the past year I’ve amassed a stack of the 1970s SF gay magazine Vector, so it was serendipity to come across a calendar from Vector on the wall in your show. More than with microfiche of local newspapers, I get a sense of what was going on in San Francisco at the time from a publication such as that magazine, simply through the addresses in advertisements.
MK Material that might be considered insubstantial or peripheral in terms of formal archiving and recording has a historical implication. Close to the time when I met with Rebekah, I met with Gerard Koskovich, one of the founding members of the GLBT Historical Society. He told this amazing anecdote about Bois Burke placing an ad in The Hobby Directory that is significant in helping to understand a 1940s and '50s queer history of correspondence. Within this guide, people would reach out about hobbies such as nude sunbathing and physique photography. I am very interested in the various ways that such print-based and distributed publications were activated to serve unintended purposes. And, I love the way that the calendars, specifically, embed such a social history so that it becomes part of daily and monthly activities.

Barack Obama, 31 shades of white, newspapers as endangered species, the archivist's life, the art of interviewing, and more, after the jump

By Laura Peach

Shotwell, the store, is at 36 Geary off Union Square. But for a recent Guardian article, I chatted with Shotwell owners Michael and Holly Weaver in their actual Shotwell Ave. home in the Mission, a space filled with glass jars holding a rainbow of bubblegum and chandelier candle holders. The former armory storage facility has been transformed into a wonderland -- three separate concrete structures are connected by pathways where fountains trickle and faux birds roost in trees. The domestic space is fitting for this fashion-forward duo, who hope to push San Franciscan shoppers in a stylish new direction.

SFBG This place is pretty amazing.
Michael Weaver Originally, we were going to run the store out of the garage in front, but there just wasn't enough space. And this location is so tucked away that there wouldn't be much foot traffic.
Holly Weaver We love finding little hidden gems in neighborhoods, and we did want to create that in some ways.

SFBG But you chose Union Square instead.
HW Right. San Francisco has lots of shopping in neighborhoods, yet nowhere that is really a shopping destination.
MW Except Union Square.
HW We thought, if that's the case, shouldn't we be there?

More Shotwell talk after the jump

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's look: Ramona, Market and Davis

Tell us about your look: "I feel like this outfit is me in the 90's, but sunnier."

By Juliette Tang

"CHOOSE what's right -- Come What May"

Slumdog Millionaire won the coveted Academy Award for Best Picture this year, but I doubt the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had seen Come What May when they made that decision. The best sexist and preachy abortion movie you've never heard of, Come What May is a masterpiece that the Christian Pulse describes as a cinematic feast, literally. "I love movies that set the table with a Christian main course and side dishes of probing intellectual issues", writes Donald James Parker. A succulent and delicious movie about abortion, my mouth is watering.

We ladies are so silly on the topic of our own bodies that sometimes it takes a strapping young protagonist like Caleb Hogan, played by the handsome Austin Kearney [Yummy, yummy! - Ed.], to set us straight. Caleb is so upstanding, his Christian compass pits him against his own mother, a morally irresponsible Constitutional lawyer who is representing an abortion clinic against the wishes of her husband and son. Maybe she didn't get the memo that she was supposed to unconditionally obey of the men in her family? Luckily she has her son to parent her.

Baseball, abortion -- "It's all in my book"

Unfortunately, this movie wasn't released in theaters, but you can score a DVD online, and if you apply to show it at your church, they will give you a copy for free. Forget The Cider House Rules, Revolutionary Road, Vera Drake, and Citizen Ruth. Forget Dirty Dancing, even. From now on, Come What May has the monopoly on the abortion circuit.

Star Trek? Campiness (Shatner! Montalban!) aside, I was always more of a Star Wars person. That said, I've pretty much hated the last four Star Wars movies (yep, Skyguy, that's me admitting I saw 2008's pitiful cartoon Star Wars: The Clone Wars, on the big screen no less) -- but I thoroughly enjoyed JJ Abrams' Star Trek (out now). Over at io9, my former Guardian colleage Annalee Newitz's review is entitled "The Sexualization of Spock" -- so that alone should tell you that Trekkie purists might have Bones to pick (har) with Abrams' youth-gone-wild study of the USS Enterprise. But from a summer-movie standpoint, this flick has it all: explosions, witty one-liners, a fast-paced plot, entire planets in danger, rakish heroes and charismatic villains (including Eric Bana as a sarcastic Romulan), a Beastie Boys-injected car chase, and Simon Pegg. Zoe Saldana's Uhuru -- all false eyelashes and miniskirt -- is underwritten to a laughable extent. But that's pretty much my only complaint, other than I didn't get to see the movie in IMAX. Yet.

Um, and just for fun:

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Chris, Market and Montgomery

Tell us about your look: "Very greasy"

Text and photos by Ariel Soto

An over-abundance of fluorescent fake furs, fishnets and colorful masks dominated the scene at the How Weird Street Faire this past Sunday, May 11. On every corner of the festival a different DJ mixed and bounced the huge crowds into electronic bliss, who danced and hula hooped under makeshift dance halls and spinning disco balls. Artists painted beneath the heat of the sun while others perched on the sidewalk to wolf down hot dogs and a cold beer before heading back for more booty shaking. The assortment of strange and wonderful costumes was astonishing and showed how a few bright wigs can turn us all into the weirdest kid on the block.

Every Monday, Virginia Miller of personalized itinerary service and monthly food, drink, and travel newsletter, www.theperfectspotsf.com, shares foodie news, events, and deals. View the last installment here.

'Tini time at SF Cocktail Week

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EVENTS

May 11-18: SF Cocktail Week
SF Cocktail Week is here... In honor of SF's truly vibrant cocktail culture and supporting the fab Museum of the American Cocktail in New Orleans (if you're there, go!), the mission is "to preserve the Cultural Heritage of saloons and their cocktails in San Francisco, while also celebrating California’s Culinary Philosophy and Tradition". Sounds like a great mission to me. The third year in, this just keeps getting bigger. It's no Tales of the Cocktail but it's certainly a stellar line-up of parties, classes, competitions and events, taught and presented by a long list of the many of SF's bartending greats.

A few highlights include opening (at Le Colonial) and closing (at Jardinere) parties, the US Bartenders' Guild National Competition (all day Tuesday: 11am for SF competitors; 5pm for national finalists), CUESA's Cane Spirits & Farmer's Market Cocktails event is Wednesday night (their Winter Cocktails event was a blast - excellent cocktails at every turn!), there's a historical cocktail and bar crawl with Tablehopper herself on Saturday, a Saturday class with artisanal cocktail genius,Scott Beattie, and monthly Savoy night at the one-and-only Alembic on Sunday. Thursday is Bar School, a day of classes around town, ranging from $25-45, the line-up includes Distillation 101 from Hangar One's Lance Winters, Erik Atkins' walk through the Gentleman's Companion, Jeff Hollinger (Absinthe) and Neyah White (NOPA) teach you how to make your own cocktail ingredients from syrups to bitters, plus more worthy classes for the budding mixologist to take it to the next level.
All around SF; events free to $45
http://sfcocktailweek.com

May 12-16: The Big 4's Wild Game Week returns
The Big 4 Restaurant (PSF) in Nob Hill's Huntington Hotel has been around for decades and is just the kind of atmosphere I want when craving old world elegance and cocktails by the fireplace. On the food tip, its bi-annual Wild Game Week offers a menu so unique, it's one of the only times you'll see dishes like Himalayan yak or Rocky Mountain wapiti (elk chop, to you). This year a first is added: Brazilian piranha "ribs" with a creamy mustard dressing ($18). That's right, piranha. Come hungry as the deer and the antelope certainly will play.
Appetizers: $16-19
Entrees: $38-46
1075 California Street
415-771-1140
www.big4restaurant.com

By Kimberly Chun

Real Housewives of New Jersey: down-to-earth, grown-up Jersey girls - or The Sopranos with big hair, McMansions, and surgically enhanced “bubbies”? I was dying to know after getting sucked into the show’s sneak-preview special - now being aired nonstop on Bravo - so I took a peek into a conference call arranged by NBC Universal-Bravo. On the line: the tough-talking, red-headed matriarch Caroline Manzo, who comes off as softer and much less malevolent sans dramatic edits, and her dark-eyed, down-low sister-in-law Jacqueline Laurita. The Real Housewives of New Jersey premieres tonight, May 12, with a new episode every Tuesday night on Bravo.

Q: Caroline, my first question’s for you. I was just wondering if you could tell us a little bit about the early years leading up to the life you have now.

Caroline Manzo: Sure. I met my husband actually 28 years ago. We will be celebrating our 25th anniversary this July. And when we first started the Brownstone was a very, very young business in its infancy, at least for the Manzo family, and we struggled. My husband, at that time, made less than $200 a week, and we lived in a small apartment above the Brownstone, and we lived there for a couple of years, and then we had our first son, Albie.

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's look: Laura, Sixth Street and Market

Tell us about your look: "It's hot so I'm wearing a skirt to catch the breeze a bit."

By the ravenous Guardian staff

Chicken pepita, hell yes

(1) Double-decker tacos and pintos with cheese, pre-Cinco de Mayo Taco Bell run

(2) Tacos, margaritas, and Dos Equis, Tres Agaves Cinco de Mayo fiesta

(3) Salmon with eggplant caviar and chocolate mousse, Bistro St. Germaine

(4) Chicken pepita with dandelion greens-mashed potatoes

(5) Russian tea tray, Samovar

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's look: George and Willy, Sixth Street and Market

Tell us about your looks:

George: "This is Urban and American Apparel."

Willy: "I'm wearing Dior jeans and a vintage tee"

By Johnny Ray Huston

Not every art show allows you a chance to swim in the Pacific Ocean on a Sunday afternoon and experience the bracing cold of the water and the pull of the tide. But David Wilson's "Open Endless" isn't your average show, even if it is characteristic of Wilson's community explorations of art and landscape under the Ribbons Publications rubric. Last year, he instigated a sleep-over happening at Angel Island that included live music. This month, as an extension of a show of drawings, he organized a casually beautiful mapped day and night of art in the Headlands.

No two people had the same experience. Besides a dip in the Pacific, mine included a trek up the paved trails of the North Cliff to a white diamond hung on the cliff's face by Battery Townsley, where the duo Pale Horse sang songs in a tunnel, and then a walk back down to the beach where the duo known as Coconut played music in a little cove as two, three, four, five, six surfers took on the waves during sunset. I don't have much to say about that latter experience beyond that it was the kind of moment that makes me completely glad to be alive. I left sated and went home and slept and dreamt deeply. Those who stayed ambled on through Rodeo Canyon to another Battery, where Canyon Cinema shared some cave cinema.

Wilson's drawings, on display at Tartine, are a shifting sequence of meditations on the landscape and coastlines of the Headlands. His deployment of color and line is understated. The brashest aspect of the show is its use of material: the largest piece, a 22-foot watercolor of the ocean and shore, uses the blank-but-aged paper of record sleeves and the cardboard insides of albums covers as a backdrop. It's a great tactic. Earlier this year at the de Young Museum, Ajit Chauhan performed a different but similarly large-scale trick with album covers, painting over their exteriors so that only eyes peeked from the original artwork. Wilson's use of vintage music matter hints at the merging of art and that which is codified "nature" at the core of his events. I'm already looking forward to his next one.

OPEN ENDLESS Through May 28. Mon., 8 a.m.–7 p.m. Tues.–Wed., 7:30 a.m.–7 p.m.; Thurs.–Fri., 7:30 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sat., 8 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sun., 9 a.m.-–8 p.m. (415) 487-2600. Tartine, 600 Guerrero, SF. www.ribbonspublications.blogpost.com

By Natalie Gregory

So Yong Kim’s Treeless Mountain follows two young Korean sisters, Jin and Bin, and their transient lifestyle. Their mother leaves them with their aunt to search for their father, whose absence is unexplained. What’s remarkable is how Kim captures the independence experienced by these young girls (Jin, the elder sister, is six). The film is told mainly from Jin’s perspective, following her as she mourns the absence of her mother and ponders how to protect her sister. As they are passed to their aunt, the girls’ are told that their mother will return when their piggy bank is full. They sell grasshoppers to quicken the process and begin to fill the bank in hopes of their mother’s return. Jin’s realizations of her and her sister’s reality are heartbreaking. In the end, the pair ends up in a happier home, but have grown up all too quickly. Evoking emotions without the benefit of an overbearing musical score, it is a thoughtful, melancholy picture.

Treeless Mountain opens Fri/15 in Bay Area theaters.

In honor of Bike to Work week, we're featuring one aspect of bicycle art per day. Check back regularly for homages to Cyclecide, Bicycle Porn, the Bicycle Film Festival, and more. By Molly Freedenberg

de rail leur [di-rey-ler]. noun:

2. a Bay Area-based group of badass girls who dance on, with, and about bikes

The Derailleurs. Clockwise from left: Agents Contrary, Flux, Chaos (Eliza Strack), Joke Star, Agitator, Verve (Hollis Hawthorne), Take the Lane, DoubleOO, and Edge. Photo by Alicia Sangiuliano.

Perhaps my favorite development in the world of bicycle art is bike dance, the strange and beautiful hybrid between high school drill team and BMX bike crew.

It all started - in its current form, at least - with the Sprockettes, who formed almost six years ago in Portland. A group of bold, fun-loving ladies donned pink and black outfits and performed synchronized dance and bike tricks at the Multnomah Bike Fair, a one-time show that was so popular, it not only grew into a regularly-performing dance troupe, but spawned a bona fide movement.

Inspired by the Sprockettes, bike enthusiasts in other cities began to form their own troupes, each choosing their own "power colors" and establishing unique identities with their own combination of synchronized moves, bike tricks, acrobatics, and fire. (Check out a full description of the history of bike dance here.)

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Diana, Sixth Street and Market

Tell us about your look: "No comment."

By Juliette Tang

The concept of social responsibility didn't really sink in for me until college. I confess that as a kid, I too preoccupied with collecting beanie babies from McDonald's to realize the effects that factory-farmed meat has on our environment. I wanted that new Esprit sweatshirt, and I didn't even know the meaning of sweatshop labor. Luckily for the future of our planet, social responsibility starts at a much younger age now. In San Francisco, organizations like SF Kids educate children on best practices for the environment, instilling in them a respect for our planet and its natural resources. And 826 Valencia tutors local kids in writing, engaging them with one another as well as their community. These is all good and well, but I say, make your kids socially responsible while they're even younger. Get them while they're babies.

One way to make your baby more socially responsible (and have fun while you're at it) is to buy locally-made children's products. There are many local, organic, and ethical makers of baby clothes, toys, and care products, right at our doorstep. In fact, because toxic chemicals like lead and melamine keep finding their way into " target="_blank">baby products before they are recalled, it makes sense to be extra safe.

Speesees makes some of the most precious baby clothes I have ever seen. This kimono cut baby romper is made with 100% organic, 24 rib cotton. Called Speesees as a play on "species," their mission is "to be fun, fair, and organic in the products we make, the way we conduct business, and the baby steps we take towards creating a more sustainable future for the animal, plant + human speesees on our children's planet". Speesees products are all organic, using low-impact dyes, and are available at a variety of local stores, including one of our favorite eco-boutiques, Ladita.

In honor of Bike to Work week, we're featuring one aspect of bicycle art per day. Yesterday we featured the Derailleurs, a local all-female bicycle dance troupe. Today, we post Part 1 of an interview with Jarico Reesce, founder of the Cyclecide Bike Rodeo. By Molly Freedenberg

Part club, part social group, part roving band of merry misfits, has been delighting audiences - and certainly themselves - with their "Heavy Pedal Cyclecide Bike Rodeo" since 1996. Bound by a love of bikes, beer, and building stuff, the crew has grown from its humble origin as merely the idea of Jarico Reesce into what is now a cohesive, extensive network of rowdy goodness. Now, Cyclecide builds pedal-powered rides and mutant bikes, assembles mini carnivals at events nationwide, hosts contests like barrel racing and bike jousting, and even provides a musical backdrop with a mariachi-country-punk band "Los Banos."

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's look: TJ, Leavenworth and McAllister

Tell us about your look: "I like the skateboard look."

By Sean McCourt

In the medical world, there are serious risks associated with any kind of surgery. If a mistake is made during a procedure on a leg or arm, there might be some loss of movement or ease of mobility, but the patient can still generally go about their lives, perhaps with a slight physical handicap. If something goes wrong during a brain surgery, however, a person can lose their memory, their control of motor skills, even the ability to think. This is the challenge that faces British neurosurgeon Dr. Henry Marsh every time he operates on somebody, and is one of the personal revelations about his work that he shares in the film The English Surgeon, which has its San Francisco theatrical premiere at the Red Vic from May 17-20.

Director Geoffrey Smith tells the story of how Marsh has been traveling to the former Soviet republic of Ukraine since 1992, volunteering on his own time to help in a region of the world that has a medical system that lags many decades behind those in the industrialized west — and where many cases of brain tumors and other illnesses go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed for so long that what would have been easily taken care of with a routine operation or procedure at Marsh’s hospital in London have now progressed to the point that there is little doctors can do to save the patient’s life.

Every Monday, Virginia Miller of personalized itinerary service and monthly food, drink, and travel newsletter, www.theperfectspotsf.com, shares foodie news, events, and deals. View the last installment here.

Campy/classy Good Evening Thursdays

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EVENTS

Good Evening Thursdays at Bruno's... a sexy, weekly, speakeasy-like supper club
Take "Pussycat" in giant, Parisian '60's lettering, white tablecloths and waiters in vintage suits, a Rat Pack-vibe menu (reasonably priced) of Filet Mignon with bone marrow, chop salad, martinis, and Oysters Rockefeller, throw in a leering cat from the rafters, and, yes, a gold pole in the middle of the room (hmmm...?) and you have Good Evening Thursdays (at least until another name is decided upon). Up leopard-carpeted stairs in Bruno's intimate, 35-seat private room, you've got yourself about the coolest non-restaurant, meal ticket in town. The genius behind this concept? A cracker-jack chef line-up of Chris Kronner (from Serpentine), Slow Club, Chez Panisse), Danny Bowien (of Bar Tartine), Sam White and Howie Correa (both front of house at Chez Panisse), and Oliver Monday (from brand new flour+water) who create and cook the meals each week. I went on debut night, May 7, and found it worth dressing up for. Sans reservations, the downstairs '60's-chic lounge celebrates Thursdays, too, no res. required, with old school imbibements and killer bar food, like Let's Be Frank dogs with kimchi and bacon mayo, or pork banh mi. Read more and see photos in my latest Perfect Spot newsletter.
7pm-1:30am
Reservations: goodeveningthursday@gmail.com
2389 Mission, SF
415-643-5200
www.brunossf.com

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SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's look: Stacey, Market and 5th

Tell us about your look:"Wear what you feel comfortable in."

Lost girl Kate Austen (Evangeline Lilly) throws a come-hither, hey-big-boy-wanna-get-shipwrecked-on-a-desert-island look our way.

By Kimberly Chun

Spoiler alert for all those still sitting on the Lost finale that aired May 13 - because I love all those noisy Facebook friends that (plane-)wreck season closers for me on a regular basis.

The latest came from sometime-Guardian contributor Oliver Wang, weighing in on Lost's fifth season end-game. "Last night's Lost had some good aspects," he opined on Facebook. "The introduction of Jacob was interesting, as well as a new twist on John Locke, but Jack and Juliet's justifications for setting off the h-bomb were some of the stupidest things I've ever heard on the show." In the comments, he continued: "I should also add, the show would be so much better if Kate died. Ya'll know I speak the truth." One mob-rules comment: "Kill Kate!!!!"

I kind of have to agree with Wang and the Kate haters. How's that for waffling - and doesn't the Kate character deserves a flip-flop or two after five seasons of footloose and fancy-free Jack-or-Sawyer-or-Jack-or-Sawyer, stepfather-murdering-but-psycho-Ben-saving waffling on her part. For a character that can behind nearly anything in the name of rescue, loyalty to friends or lovers, and island community, Kate got strangely sanctimonious when it came to setting off the nuke (an act that meant trusting the calculations of physicist Daniel Faraday, played compellingly by Jeremy Davies (it helps), who determined that the '70s-bound returnees had to set off a long-buried hydrogen bomb in order to prevent the construction of the Swan station, which would later cause the crash of Oceanic Flight 815).

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's look: Lauren, Market and Grant

Tell us about your look:"I shop the sales racks."

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's look: Maria, 24th and Castro

Tell us about your look: "These are just some random pieces I found at thrift stores."

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's look: Nikki, 24th Street Bart Station

Tell us about your look: "I turned these overalls into a skirt and put some patches on it that my friends made."

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's look: Janice, Market and O'Farrell

Tell us about your look: "I'm a student from Macau and all these clothes came from there."

Bump 'n' shine. All photos by Kimberly Chun.

By Kimberly Chun

Yeah, we were chillin' at Carnaval Sunday, May 24 - so much so this little lady almost got a bad case of hypothermia. Overcast skies and cold winds - nothing could keep Carnaval SF's booty-jiggling, thong-busting, synchronized-dancing, capoeira-kicking crews from taking to the streets. Props to the ladies flashing cheeks and chest against the wind blowing down Balmy alley. Judging from the crowd response, it was fun, fun, fun for all (loved the spartan float carrying six-plus synchronized vibraphonists and the perky-nippled, mincing contingent of rare Xolo hounds), but two hours in, my camera finger got a wee too frosty. I warmed it up with a roasted corn cob at the free Carnaval Festival on Harrison and 20th streets where folks were shooting hoops in the NBA compound and lining up for free stuff like San Francisco Gigantes T's.

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's look: Adri from Costa Rica, Mission and 18th

Tell us about your look: "I make my own clothes."

Danny Scheie, from left, and Kasey Mahaffy appear in the world premiere of You, Nero. Photo by Henry DiRocco.

By Kimberly Chun

After its extended production of The Lieutenant of Inishmore and now You, Nero, Berkeley Rep is starting to feel like your one-stop spot for chuckle-inducing high jinks. The latest offering aims a little lower, and loftier, than Martin McDonagh’s allegorical gore fest centered on Northern Ireland’s Troubles: Pulitzer-nominated local playwright and Stanford artist-in-residence (and San Francisco Chronicle movie critic Mick LaSalle’s spouse) Amy Freed trains her focus on one of the more notorious rulers of all time, Nero, a pint-sized sociopath who occasionally threatens to overrun Berkeley Rep’s intimate Thrust Stage with his whimsical mayhem and murder.

Danny Schiele brings a crazy-eyed, strutting, tummy-first egotism to his role as Nero as theatrical patron – a perspective that brings to mind that other dictator who fancied himself an artist, Adolf Hitler. We approach the meglomaniac through the prismatic gaze of hack playwright Scribonious (Jeff McCarthy), hired by the emperor to stage a spectacle in tribute to his decadent, violent rule. The catch: politics in imperial court are hell. First Nero’s smothering mistress Poppaea (Susannah Schulman) then his lover-like mother Agrippina (Lori Larsen) must have their say, before the compromised courtiers weigh in with an agenda of their own. Gladiatorial acts of empty but deadly combat morph into an all-too-familiar form of idol worship - **American Idol** style.

Freed’s lampoon of contemporary entertainment tends toward the Borscht Belt, often coming off as broad and brassy as centurion armor, yet she succeeds in drawing cringe-edged laughs with the jokes ala Nero’s ebullient “Another ottoman from the Ottoman Empire!” It helps to have a cast as adept and likeable as this one, with players like Kasey Mahaffy standing out as the cross-dressing castrati Fabiolo.

YOU, NERO
Through June 28.
Tues., 8 p.m.; Wed., 7 p.m.; Thurs. and Sat., 2 and 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 and 7 p.m.; $13.50-$71
Berkeley Repertory Theatre
Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison, Berkeley
(510) 647-2949

By Steven T. Jones

The fabulous DJ Adrian Roberts -- of Bootie SF and Piss Clear fame -- will be headlining a pair of equally fabulous events tonight and tomorrow night, the latter in support of his new book: Burning Man Live: 13 year of Piss Clear, Black Rock City's alternative newspaper.

It's a great book, and I'm not just saying that because I contributed a few essays to it (which, like almost everything in the book, were reprinted from issues of Piss Clear). If you attend Burning Man or are curious about the event, it offers a great overview from decidedly hedonistic point-of-view. And supporting the book release party tomorrow night at Mighty will be a bevy of burner all-stars, as if they just stepped off the pages, as well as a showing of the Burning Man film Dust & Illusions.

And tonight's gig is the Guardian's Explore SF party at Temple party, where Adrian's Bootie SF will be squaring off against their Popscene nemesi. See you there.

By Ariel Soto. Check out more Guardian Carnaval pics here.

Carnaval is traditionally the last chance to get down and dirty before Lent, but in San Francisco it seems more like a major dance party running amok through the streets of the Mission District. This past Sunday, May 24th, 2009, the Grand Carnaval Parade boogied down Mission Street under a think, heavy and freezing blanket of fog that gave all the scantly clothed dancers serious goosebumps. I have to say, the best part of the parade were all the beautiful school kids, showing off their hip-hop moves and snazzy style. And then there were the Sunset Scavengers who danced and ran with their big metal trash cans. It was beyond goofy, but also impressive considering how heavy those bins were. In all, I loved all the feathers, the glitter and glam, and, of course, the awesome samba beats.

Every week, Virginia Miller of personalized itinerary service and monthly food, drink, and travel newsletter, www.theperfectspotsf.com, shares foodie news, events, and deals. View the last installment here.

Oh yes, there shall be chef: SF Chef. Food. Wine. period.

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EVENTS

August 6-9: SF Chefs.Food.Wine (calling food, wine and spirits lovers)
Start saving pennies, mark your calendar and buy your tickets now for an unparalleled event coming up in August I'm quite excited about, the first of its kind in our fair city. SF Chefs.Food.Wine is going to be a Pebble Beach/Aspen Food and Wine Classic- reminiscent event but right in an urban city center at a fraction of the price (though you'll still shell out $150 for a one-day pass). Union Square will be turned into a sea of tents housing not only Bay Area food, wine, beer, and spirits vendors offering day-long tastings (beer garden, cocktail samplings, wine tasting, food), but each day offers over 20 sessions/panels/classes appealing to food, wine and spirits cognoscenti and uninitiated appreciators alike.

An example of just a few sessions over three days:
FOOD - "Haute vs. Bistro" cooking demo from Hubert Keller (Fleur de Lys) and Roland Passot (La Folie); "Heirloom Tomatoes" with Gary Danko and Joanne Weir; interviews with cooking luminaries and authors like Martin Yan, Joyce Goldstein, Georgeanne Brennan; a cooking competition between Jamie Lauren (Top Chef/Absinthe) and Chris Cosentino (Incanto/Iron Chef America).
SPIRITS/COCKTAILS - "Green Cocktails" with Scott Beattie (author of Artisanal Cocktails), H. Joseph Ehrmann (Elixir) and Thad Vogler (Bar Agricole); "Agave Academy" with Rebecca Chapa (Tannin Management) and Julio Bermejo (Tommy's).
WINE - "Raid the Cellar" with Rajat Parr (Michael Mina restaurants) and Larry Stone MS (Rubicon Estate); "Sparkling Personality" with sparkling wine masters from Schramsberg Vineyards, Domaine Carneros and Roederer Estate.

These are just a few examples... there are sessions on chocolate, sushi, oysters, cheese, eggs, making the perfect coffee, beer brewing, trends in wine and spirits, marketing, design and service, food reviewing and everything of interest to those who love food and drink.

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today's Look: Liz, Market and Montgomery

Tell us about your look: "My boyfriend's mom got me this dress at the thrift store in Paris."