Our new view

Each day, our staff picks five (or so) things that may interest you

>>1. FAREWELL, FUDDLED FERNER True local character Henry Africa, the inventor of the fern bar, has died. Long live the fern bar!

Barhopping locals of a certain vintage would know him from the legendary, fern-filled Henry Africa's bar in the '60s Polk area, yuppies would know him as the owner of one of the storied "Bermuda Triangle" bars in the Marina, Dartmouth Social Club, in the '80s. And young bucks would recognize him as the guy in the easy chair with oxygen tubes in the window of hanging-motorcycle bar Eddie Rickenbacker's near downtown. A life planted in bars, one might say...

>>2. OSCAR IN HER MOCKET Now that the mobs stoning James Franco (if he could be any more stoned) and perma-giddy Anne Hathaway have dispersed, let's turn our attention to a bright spot in this year's Academy Award ceremony. The Bay Area's Audrey Marrs had an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature bequeathed to her by none other than the almighty force known as Oprah, and she was one of the evening's best-dressed attendees and most well-spoken winners. Marrs (whose sister Stella pioneered indie crafts long before they became a commercial juggernaut) has frequently been written about by the Bay Guardian as a member of the rock groups Mocket and Bratmobile, and she struck Oscar gold with only her second venture as a feature producer. Congrats Audrey!

>>3. PEOPLE GET READY We were already getting all futsy about the looming 2012 presidential elections (Newt? Really?) when we caught sight of this new, impending apocalypse billboard from the windows of the heathen SFBG offices. No way, May 21st, 2011 is Judgement Day? This 4/20 we can cheef like there's no tomorrow -- and mean it! P.S., proceed with caution to the website indicated by billboard 'o doom, unless you have a mind for a good old-fashioned San Francisco: Sodom screed. 

Oh, and for all you faux-Mayan maniacs (and disaster flick addicts) who though 2012 was our expiration date? Um, suck it? 

>>4. STRATEGIZE WITH ME Here's a smooth new clip from up-and-coming local rapper DaVinci:

>>5. GUSTON IN THE WIND The publication of local poet and rascal Patrick James Dunagan's first book There Are People Who Say That Writers Shouldn't Talk: A GUSTONBOOK is proving to be timely. It can function as a discursive counterpoint to University of California Press's expansive and just-issued Philip Guston: Collected Writings, Lectures, and Conversations. Also, on March 14, Dunagan is joining Guston's friends and collaborators Bill Berkson and Clark Coolidge for “Philip Guston: A Life Lived + Discussed,” a program at the Balboa Theatre that includes discussion and a screening of Michael Blackwood's 1981 documentary Philip Guston: A Life Lived, which is narrated by the artist himself. 

(Poetic trivia alert: the evening's bookstore-record store sponsor,Bird & Beckett, has a little thing in common – namely, the initials BB – with 2008 Goldie winner Berkson.)