The "L@te: Friday Nights at BAM/PFA" series has brought some great programs since its inception, and this Friday's promises to be one of them. Programmed by Betty Nguyen, "Pigeon Dealers" includes a DJ set (by artist Dave Muller) as well as stand up comedy (by Chris Thayer) and Motorik sounds (by Bronze), but my chief reason for going is the rare chance to see some of David Enos's movies projected large. In the years since his time with the 2005 Goldie-winning Edinburgh Castle Film Night crew, Enos has continued to create unique and at times alchemically uncanny short video works while also making paintings and music. He's one of the best artists in the Bay Area today. Check out his spookily superb mystery Hidden Host after the jump. Read more »

“For me, you are the greatest player ever.” So said Novak Djokovic to Rafael Nadal after defeating him in the final of the BNP Paribas Open. Djokovic's compliment is sharp in a number of ways. On one hand, it can be interpreted as a diss on Roger Federer, a player often touted as the greatest ever, with whom Djokovic has at times had a testy competitive relationship. On the other hand, it can also be seen as Djokovic giving Nadal a taste of his own medicine: how many times has Nadal called Federer the “greatest” after notching another win during his dominance of their rivalry? Read more »

In San Francisco, you need an umbrella for the rain. In Palm Springs, you need an umbrella for the sun. Under a solar glare, the men's side of the BNP Paribas Open would bring a final four made up exclusively of slam-title winners. Yet its most revealing and perhaps best-contested match occurred before the final weekend, on a packed secondary court, where two representatives of the game's future – Milos Raonic and Ryan Harrison – dueled as afternoon gave way to evening.

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This review originally appeared (as "Liztrionics: Taylor blows hinges off YBCA!") in the Dec. 5-11, 2001 issue of the Bay Guardian:

"Elizabeth Taylor is my sister. You might as well know it."

So begins A Superficial Estimation, poet John Wieners's homage to the women in his life, including his aunt, Dorothy Lamour, and his mother, Bette Davis. Overtly conflating movie stars with family is A Superficial Estimation's gay masterstroke, one typical of the tiny tome's undersung author. Liz gets the first chapter; Wieners lovingly notes that she "peruses her surroundings with dignity and harmony," which leads one to believe that he's describing his sister before the era -- 1968 to 1973 -- covered in film curator Joel Shepard's current Yerba Buena Center for the Arts series "Liz: Unhinged." Beginning with a Boom! and ending with Ash Wednesday's on-screen plastic surgery, these were Liz's Divine years: the period when she treated audiences to one throttlehold after another, angrily rubbing their faces into her larger-than-larger-than-life image. Read more »