Pixel Vision

Chinese Historical Society celebrates golden anniversary as neighborhood's memory bank

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In 1963 a publicist, an art collector, an actor, a newspaper publisher, and a dentist joined forces to form San Francisco's Chinese Historical Society of America. The group's mission was simple: to preserve and document Chinese culture in the US. Now celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, it has the same goal it always has had with one major difference: a museum to house the fruits of its labor. Read more »

Land of (nearly) 10,000 new movies

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Literally something for everyone this week: pregnant women, environmentalists, Mumia supporters, World War II buffs, Latin American history buffs, Abbas Kiarostami fan club members, German and French-film devotees, and anyone who's ever dreamed of going over the rainbow (in 3D). I hope you don't sleep much because this weekend is jammed up with new flicks.

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On the Om Front: Guys Wanted in the Yoga Room

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I teach a weekly employee yoga class at a hospital where my students are all women. Every week, a young man peers curiously into the classroom. I asked him once if he’d like to join us, and he said, “Yes, but what would my friends say? Yoga is for girls.”

This odd societal notion that yoga is an emasculating, status-reducing activity is bad enough. But to make matters worse, people like William J. Broad, the so-called New York Times science writer, have publically espoused that yoga is actually harmful to men. Why? Because, he says, men have a tendency to push themselves too hard, and their bigger muscles are more injury prone.

Wait … what?

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Chocolate, symbolism, polka dots at this weekend’s quilt show

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The San Francisco Quilters Guild’s biennial show is back and ready to prove needle arts are alive and kicking – and not just in grandma's eyes. The exhibit will cozy up the Concourse Exhibition Center this Sat/9 and Sun/10 with a display of over 400 quilts. Read more »

The Performant: Whose story?

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Sifting through the past at The SF History Expo

If history is a tale written by the victors, one wonders who San Francisco’s victors are. A chimeral concept as much as a destination, represented by a Phoenix rising from its own destruction, San Francisco has been lauded as a land of opportunity and “the city that knows how,” and detracted as “ingrown (and) self-obsessed,” a “golden handcuff,” and a “Babylon-by-the-Bay” ever since it surfaced in the national consciousness. A city where eccentrics are celebrated, “family values” extend beyond heteronormativity, and the very real threat of natural disaster colors the mundane with an idealized wash of importance. Read more »

There's at least one reason to care about the 2013 MTV Movie Awards

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Oh, gawd. Another movie awards show? Ain't we done with the tired old titles of 2012? MTV's just announced its nominees for the 2013 MTV Movie Awards, an all-style-and-no-substance annual event that, HOLD UP, may actually be worth watching this year (airdate is April 14).

Reason being: host Rebel Wilson, an inspired choice who happens to be up for Best Female Performance as well as Best Breakthrough Performance for Pitch Perfect. Tumblr agrees ... Rebel is awesome.

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Stardust tea in Japantown: Crown and Crumpet re-opens in a quicker format

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The beloved tearoom Crown and Crumpet Tea Room – which closed down its previous Ghirardelli Square location nine months ago – reopened in the first floor lobby of Japanatown's New People entertainment hub and shopping center. Read more »

Tonight at the Castro: the most beautiful/depressing movie about global warming ever

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Greedy Lying Bastards, a film about climate change, opens this Friday (look for my review in tomorrow's paper); it takes a confrontational approach to the subject. But here's the thing: you can argue with a politician or a lobbyist, but a melting iceberg will simply respond with a cold, cold stare.

Tonight and tomorrow at the Castro, check out 2012's similarly-themed but far more meditative Chasing Ice. You may have caught a glimpse of its striking glaciar photography on the Oscar telecast, since that song I didn't like in my review (below) was one of the unlucky tunes shoved into a quick "Here's Best Song nominees that weren't sung by Adele, Hugh Jackman, or Norah Jones, therefore they don't matter" montage. (Needless to say, it didn't win, but it did expose this powerful film to the billion watching, so there's that.)

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Sunday Streets hits the Embarcadero March 10

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We love the ocean breezes of Sunday Streets Great Highway, the jampacked activities of Sunday Streets Mission, the general feeling of being on the main thoroughfare of a neighborhood you don't usually hang out on with thousands of your city neighbors. Once again, the car-free family day is taking over the Embarcadero for its March 10 season opener.

More centrally located than the beach, more of a novelty than the at-times Mission version -- this could be a good one, and it's high time to re-acquaint yourself with the strip in these last days before America's Cup swoops in, anyway. Here's five ways to spend your SS Embarcadero: Read more »

The Oscars are over ... time for some new movies!

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The Oscars are over! You may now openly admit that Silver Linings Playbook offered just a slightly edgier twist on a pretty predictable rom-com, with one great lead performance (duly rewarded) and a De Niro crying scene. Time to revisit the should-have-won-everything Holy Motors (which came out on Blu-ray this week) and cheer that theaters will finally begin phasing out all the awards hopefuls and bringing in fresh new movies.

This week: Cinequest continues in San Jose, the Roxie screens both a gleefully nasty pre-Code fest (Dennis Harvey's appreciative article here) and a Jeffrey Dahmer doc (my review here). Hollywood trots out yet another fairytale-inspired CG spectacle, Jack the Giant Slayer; a submarine drama with Ed Harris and David Duchovny, Phantom; and a PG-13 horror sequel, The Last Exorcism Part II.

More reviews, including the Oscar-nominated Chilean import No and an informative doc about hunger in America, A Place at the Table, after the jump.

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