So most of our traffic this weekend will be going to the Treasure Island Music festival I assume. It's huge, has lots of good music and it's just next door on Treasure Island. http://treasureislandfestival.com/ for details. Unfortunately it's also about $65 so I thought I would throw together a list of events that are free and interesting for those travelers that have a bit of a budget.
“Let Me Have My Fun” Printmaking Event
Kathleen Burch, cofounder, The San Francisco Center for the Book
John McBride, editor, Invisible City
Paul Vangelisti, translator and poet
The San Francisco Center for the Book, 300 De Haro Street
Thursday and Friday, October 15 and 16, 2009
2:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. (drop-in hours)
As part of this open-house printing, the public may help create and
take home a free poster of Aldo Palazzeschi’s poem “Let me have my
fun” (1910), an early futurist text first published in the U.S. by
editor John McBride and poet Paul Vangelisti in a 1972 issue of their
magazine Invisible City. Recognizing the tremendous impact of Futurism
on the graphic art of the 20th century, the event also celebrates the
simultaneous centenary of the Vandercook Proofing Press, a machine
that has been crucial to the development of contemporary book arts.
During Vangelisti’s performance, the clack of the press complements
his bilingual recitation of the text in Italian and in English
Film Screening: A Life With Skulls @ The Bone Room | East Bay
A screening of the short film, ‘A Life With Skulls’, about the
illustrious Ray Bandar, by Beth Cataldo. Ray will bring many Bay Area
Marine Vertebrate skulls for show & tell, and answer questions.
Address: 1573 Solano Ave., Berkeley, CA 7 pm October 15th
Sarah Vowell reads @ The Booksmith | SF
Sarah Vowell is a contributing editor for NPR’s This American Life,
the voice of Violet Parr in Pixar’s The Incredibles, and a former
columnist for Time, Salon.com, and SF Weekly; she has contributed to
numerous publications, including Esquire, GQ, the Los Angeles Times,
The Village Voice, Spin, The New York Times, and McSweeney’s, and is
the author of Assassination Vacation, The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Take
the Cannoli, and Radio On. If that weren’t enough, she’s been called a
“Madonna of Americana” (by the Los Angeles Times Book Review).
Frankly, we think she’s simply one of the most fascinating, original,
and perceptive storytellers we have.
What set Vowell on a journey back to our Puritan forefathers was when,
in the dreadful weeks following the destruction of the World Trade
Center, she found comfort in the words of the first governor of the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop. In a sermon entitled “A Model
of Christian Charity”, Winthrop had written what Vowell calls “one of
the most beautiful sentences in the English language”: We must delight
in one another, make others’ conditions our own, rejoice together,
mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our
eyes our commission and community in the work, our community as
members of the same body.
Yet the Puritans’ most enduring bequest to the future United States,
Vowell observes in The Wordy Shipmates, is their unshakable vision of
themselves as God’s chosen people, a beacon of righteousness that all
others are to admire. With sardonic humor, awed respect, and acute
insight, Vowell examines the Puritans’ dual legacy of communitarian
love and missionary ardor, which continues to shape America nearly
four hundred years later. “Vowell likes to explode myths and reveal
hypocrisy wherever she finds it,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
once noted. “She is somehow simultaneously patriot and rebel, cynic
and dreamer, and an aching secularist in search of a higher ground.”
‡ Preferred seating vouchers for this event will be offered to those
purchasing a copy of The Wordy Shipmates at The Booksmith, beginning
October 8 and continuing until all available seat vouchers are
distributed
Pacific Brewing Company’s 21st Birthday Block Party | Oakland
Pacific Coast Brewing Company celebrates 21 years brewing beer in Old
Oakland this October. They will kick off their two day celebration
with a block party bash right outside PCB on Washington Street between
9th and 10th Streets, on Friday, October 16, 2009 from 5p to 11pm. The
festivities will include live music from Special Guest - Kevin
Cadogen, and other local bands, delicious foods paired with PCB ale,
birthday cake, and beer served by Pacific Coast Brewing Co., including
their special release 21st Anniversary Imperial IPA. The celebration
continues Saturday, October 17th inside Pacific Coast, with more live
music and roll back specials - featuring 1988 beer pricing.
Address: Washington St and 10th Street, Oakland, CA
Jazz & Henna Tatoos @ De Young Museum | SF
The De Young Museum hosts a series of events on Friday night that are
free and open to the public:
Wilsey Court
6:30 p.m.
Jazz at Intersection presents live music by Howard Wiley and the
Angola Project, featuring Faye Carol. Intersection’s resident
composer, Howard Wiley, and his 12-piece jazz, blues, and gospel
ensemble continue their musical exploration of the legacy of prison
spirituals. Howard Wiley, tenor saxophone; Geechi Taylor, trumpet;
Danny Armstrong, trombone; Sly Randolph, drums; David Ewell, bass;
Marcus Shelby, bass; Yeruda Casear, violin; Kito Gamble, piano; Lorin
Benedict, Jeannine Anderson and Faye Carol, vocals; Bicasso, emcee.
www.howardwiley.com
6:00–8:30 p.m.
Hands-on art making fun for everyone, with “art diva” Kim Erickson:
Dream painting. Paint your own miniature aboriginal dreamtime
painting.
Koret Auditorium
7:00 p.m.
“The Ancient Pigment of Beauty,” lecture by Renda Dabit. For more than
5,000 years, cultures from Africa to the Middle East and India have
embraced henna body art. Dabit, an artist, activist, and the founder
of Henna Garden Events and Entertainment, carries out her family’s
tradition of doing henna art and hopes to share her cultural
experiences through all of her professional and personal efforts.
Piazzoni Murals Room
6:00–8:30 p.m.
Henna Garden will be on site to provide henna tattoos for a nominal
fee. Drawn freehand, henna tattoos are 100-percent natural, safe,
temporary, and painless—a unique way to enhance your body,
personality, and spirit. The tattoos last one to three weeks.
www.hennagarden.com
French Hip-Hop visionary Wax Tailor live @ Amoeba | SF
Amoeba’s Mandala DJ Series presents a live performance with French
Hip-Hop visionary Wax Tailor. His latest release, In the Mood for
Life, scratches soul, Hip-Hop, funk, and jazz into an intoxicating
hybrid. Also catch him later that night at Slim’s in San Francisco.
Wax Tailor’s first album, Tales of the Forgotten Melodies, drew
comparisons to the likes of RJD2, Portishead, and DJ Shadow, while his
second, Hope & Sorrow, landed him a nomination at the prestigious
Victoires de la Musique, as well as the US Indie Awards. Wax Tailor is
currently coming off a year of relentless touring. He also recently
scored the title track for the movie Paris by Cedric Klapisch. Fueled
by the energy of touring, he has written his third and best album to
date, In the Mood for Life. Written in both Paris and New York City,
this necromancer of forgotten melodies has blended soul, funk,
Hip-Hop, and ’60s Pop Music into a 52 minute journey.
“God, Hitler, and Life-Extension” comedy by Ira Brightman | East Bay
Professional comedian Ira Brightman’s humanistic, very funny,
intriguing solo show. Sections performed to acclaim at The Marsh
Theater and Off-Market Theaters in San Francisco. God on the universe,
Hitler on the nature of evil, Ira Brightman on aging and
life-extension. See how they all fit together. Entire show presented.
Audience discussion on topics exposed follows (share your opinions or
just listen to those of others).
Address: Shattuck and Kittredge, Berkeley, CA 2-4 pm October 18th
Fiesta on the Hill 2009 | Bernal Heights
The 21st Annual Fiesta on the Hill street festival celebrates the
diversity that is part of the rich fabric of Bernal Heights and its
surrounding neighborhoods. Every year 15,000 people from Bernal
Heights, the Mission, the Excelsior and from all over the Bay Area
come to enjoy this family friendly, alcohol-free festival featuring
activities and entertainment for all ages including a pumpkin patch,
pony rides, petting zoo and the ever popular dunk tank.
Event takes place along Cortland Avenue from Bocana Avenue to Folsom
Street and starts at 11 am.
Bottoms Up: Spanking Good Stories @ Good Vibes | Berkeley
Rachel Kramer Bussel offers Bottoms Up, another delicious collection
of stories that celebrates the pleasures of an inviting bum turned
rosy red by hand, crop, whip or paddle. Whether written from the
perspective of the spanker or the spankee, those who crave discipline
or those discovering for the first time how good being bad can feel,
each vivid tale trembles with erotic pleasure.
Address: 2504 San Pablo Ave. (@ Dwight Way), Berkeley, CA 5:30 pm
For more free events check out funcheapsf.com, a great resource for fun activities while you are in San Francisco.
