SF Station presents The Guide: A list of the best events happening this week
Tuesday, August 29 - Monday, September 4

Aren't long weekends the best? You get one more day to fit in more fun. And while Labor Day Weekend signals the end of the summer season, things are just heating up in the Bay Area.

At the beginning of the week, make your way to the Great American Music Hall to check out songstress Cat Power's one of a kind live performances. Or peruse contemporary Pakistani art at the Asian Art Museum's exhibit Karkhana. If you are more in the mood for dancing, shake your groove thang at BPM Magazine's 10th Anniversary Party with Junior Sanchez at Mezzanine. The next day head back to the Great American Music Hall for the Guitar Center's kick ass turntablist competition -- The Spin Off Grand Finals.

Why go away for the weekend and get stuck in traffic when you can just BART it over to Oakland for the Art and Soul Festival at Oakland City Hall Plaza? Then swing back to the city for the Annual Float Labor Day Weekend Party at Harry Denton's Starlight Room for one of the best views in SF. And make sure to take advantage of your day off by heading to the Bottom of the Hill for college radio darlings Cloud Cult.

Giveaways

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MOVIES:
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DINNER:
ONGOING: Club Guest Lists
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
at Great American Music Hall (8pm & 10:30pm)
Chan Marshall stops time. She sits at a piano or lays her guitar across her lap, and whether it's a noisy club overflowing with drunks or a coffee house full of laptoppers, Chan Marshall draws all the attention in the room and makes the world stop spinning...
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at Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender (GLBT) Historical Society (1pm - 5pm)
From early women's softball leagues to today's surfers, Bay Area LGBT athletics have spawned social change, challenging homophobia and creating healthy communities. Sporting Life tells that story for the first time, in an engaging and entertaining multimedia exhibit...
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Wednesday, August 30, 2006
at Asian Art Museum ((10am - 5pm))
At the core of the exhibition is a series of collaboratively produced paintings initiated as a creative experiment by Muhammad Imran Qureshi in 2003. He made contact with the five other painters, all alumni of the Miniatures department at the National College of Arts in Lahore but now living in different cities around the world...
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at Castro Theatre ((12:30pm), 4pm, 7:30pm: Au hasard Balthazar; 2:20pm, 5:50pm, 9:20pm: Mouchette)
A profound masterpiece from one of the most revered filmmakers in the history of cinema, Au hasard Balthazar follows the donkey Balthazar as he is passed from owner to owner, some kind and some cruel but all with motivations beyond his understanding.
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Thursday, August 31, 2006
at Mezzanine (9pm)
Over the last decade BPM has gone through various transitions leading up to its relaunch last year as the purveyor of nightlife culture and style. To celebrate this landmark achievement They've put together six parties across the country in LA, Vegas, NYC, Chicago, Miami and San Francisco!
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at Slim's (9pm)
a winding collection, running the stylistic and historic gamut of pop music; hues of ragtime, folk, psychedelia, country, and classical music are cast liberally across the album. It recalls a time when America was under the spell of such UK imports as Donovan and Van Morrison...
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at Bucheon Gallery (Tuesday - Saturday 11am - 6pm)
There is no specific theme to the selection of paintings, drawings and photography other than it's a wonderful example of what these artists are currently focused on. it's new and a preview of work to come...
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Friday, September 1, 2006
at 1015 (Ten 15) (10pm - 4am)
From holding Radio One's coveted #1 dance hit in the UK, to being selected as album of the month in every major dance magazine, Freeform 5's debut album has landed them a place in everyone's music collection the world over.
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at The Front Gallery (7pm - 10pm) Artists' Reception
The practice of dowsing dates to the beginning of written history as a method of uncovering hidden substances, usually pertaining to minerals, gold, and water. If art making is, in essence, "dowsing" for internal buried-treasure, then the four artists in this show are intuitively digging in the right place.
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at Great American Music Hall (Doors at 7pm, Show at 8pm)
Featuring live performances by Madlib, Peanut Butterwolf, J Rocc, A-Trak and friends. Plus a J Dilla Tribute and a live art installation by Shepard Fairey. Don't miss the opening act by Merg, Craze & Machine Drum...
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Saturday, September 2, 2006
at Club Six (9pm - 4am)
Upstairs featuring Hip-Hop, R&B, Club Classics. Downstairs featuring Dancehall, Reggae, Remixes...
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at Cellar, The (10pm - 2am)
Come to the first installment of Housecleaning, the city's only danceclub event that truly offers something for everyone. This kickoff event will feature an interesting fusion of funky and progressive house DJs Vedda and Martin Aquino (in the newly renovated side room), and SF Bay Area's top hip hop/grime DJs, the B.I.G. crew, in the main room. Grab those trendy friends, AND the ones who just like to shake their booty, and head down to The Cellar for one insane night of DJs and dancing!
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at Oakland City Hall Plaza (Frank Ogawa Plaza) (11am)
Northern California's most accessible festival with direct access from BART and free parking for thousands of cars. Enjoy three sensational days of music, food, fun and art in beautiful downtown Oakland. Live rock, blues, jazz, gospel and more on five concert stages. Exciting national and local acts blended with cultural diverse art, poetry, music and food.
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at Bernal Heights Park (7pm - 10pm)
The goals of the 2006 summer season continue to be showcasing the neighborhood's wealth of filmmakers and industry-related contributors with exposure through the screenings and receptions; heightening appreciation by neighborhood and citywide film lovers and enabling neighbors to engage with local talent residing in and around the area; and simply bringing community together for the enjoyment of our parks and local resources...
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Sunday, September 3, 2006
at Supperclub (9pm - 2am)
Fabulously Fashionable Hats are requested as Donovan presents his sexy, sophisticated version of Wonderland.
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at 1015 (Ten 15) (10pm - 6am)
Celebrating the CD releases "THE SINGLES" & "RELAX 2" are the world renowned DJ duo of BLANK & JONES, as they return to 1015. Come see Blank & Jones spinning the hottest Trance set to cool you off on this Labor Day Weekend! Considered one of the best duos in the world, Blank & Jones have made a name for themselves among true Trance lovers everywhere. Don't miss this chance to see top DJs at your favorite hangout spot, 1015!
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at Harry Denton's Starlight Room (8pm - 2am)
Celebrate a guilt-free Sunday night of DJs, dancing, cocktails, and friends while enjoying the gorgeous views of San Francisco's skyline from Harry Denton's Starlight Room on the 21st floor atop Union Square.
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Monday, September 4, 2006
at SFMOMA (11am - 5:45pm, except Thu. open until 8:45pm; closed Wednesday)
The ability to catalogue objects and capture exacting details has aligned the photograph with the archive. This exhibition highlights contemporary critiques of the notion of the archive, presenting artworks that explore the documentary nature of photography as well as the human compulsion to create order.
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at Bottom of the Hill (9pm)
Despite releasing their albums in an environmentally and socially friendly manner without label support and on a shoestring budget, their radio charting has been a thorn in the side of the major labels, who typically invest millions in promoting any given album to get the kind of airplay and media attention Cloud Cult has inspired.
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This Week's Articles

Photo Credit: Amy Sherman
Go For the "Crack" Chicken, Stick Around For the Dumplings
By Amy_Sherman (Aug 24, 2006)
Does every restaurant have at least one good dish? It seems likely. But the longer and more diverse a menu is, the more difficult it can be to discern the true specialties. San Tung, however, is an easy mark. Here at SF Station, we kept hearing foodie buzz that this casual Chinese restaurant near Golden Gate Park serves chicken wings so addictive that it is often referred to as "that place with the crack chicken".
Kickin’ Out the Jams on Their Way to the UK
By lynne_angel (Aug 24, 2006)
San Francisco’s own Luxxury are causing quite a stir as of late. Their anxiously awaited album, Rock and Roll (is Evil), is due out October 10th and already they are headed to the sunny UK for a whirlwind tour before they head back to the US for their release shows. You may be wondering what this Luxxury sound like, and you are in luck: “New Order being strangled by David Bowie while Paris Hilton blows Daniel Ash at an LCD Soundsystem show”, write the band on their painfully pink Myspace page. Hmmm.
Released oin XL Recordings, 7/10/06
By Adam_Pollock (Aug 24, 2006)
Damn. It would have been so easy if Peaches, the mono-monikered volcano of ball-busting gender-bending electroclash had recycled some cast off Gnarls Barkley beats, stale guitar riffs and increasingly annoying vagina gazing for her new album as expected. So easy to put a nail in the coffin of a career, and fading musical movement, that barely deserved our attention in the first place. It would have been a cinch…if only Ms. Nisker had followed course and crapped out. If you were hoping for that, however, your dreams have been solidly dashed.
Released on Matador, 6/20/06
By lynne_angel (Aug 24, 2006)
Brightblack Morning Light make me believe in summer again. They are the heat, they are the light, and they are the way. There could be nothing as soothing as the voice of singer Nathan Shineywater and his whisper-wails, heavy with reverb, and yet somehow shallow, as if tinned for mass-market.
Released on Atlantic Records, 7/25/06
By Matt_Forsman (Aug 24, 2006)
For those looking for pastels, flamingos, and busty blondes in bikinis, Michael Mann’s film version of Miami Vice is bound to disappoint. However, for those interested in a gritty, straight up crime drama, the latest incarnation of Crockett and Tubbs would likely keep said viewer engaged.
No, It’s Not a Wrestling Movie
By Mel_Valentin (Aug 24, 2006)
Directed and co-written by Ryan Fleck, Half Nelson is the kind of independent filmmaking that deserves wider acclaim and commercial exposure. Focusing on the unlikely relationship between a junior schoolteacher with a drug problem and one his students, Half Nelson could have taken the path of least resistance toward formula and cliché (and a potentially larger budget). Instead, Fleck and his co-writer/producer, Anna Boden, take the story and the characters into unexpected directions. The often conflicted emotions they create for their characters and their circumstances never feels cheap or forced.
The Cotton Club meets Harlem Nights
By Mel_Valentin (Aug 24, 2006)
If you heard that multi-platinum and Grammy Award-winning duo OutKast (André 3000 and Big Boi) had decided to headline a feature film, chances are you’d think it was just another vanity project (e.g., Prince and Purple Rain). If you looked up the writer/director of said feature film, Bryan Barber, you’d learn that Barber, a longtime music video director, has directed several OutKast videos, further suggesting that Idlewild is indeed a vanity project. It is, but only in part. Largely because Barber has put together a straightforward but nonetheless compelling period musical, albeit one that relies heavily on OutKast’s output.
A man of many different vices
By Matt_Forsman (Aug 24, 2006)
For driven, competitive, Type-As, Factotum’s Henry Chinaski (Matt Dillon) must be nothing short of appalling. Chinaski leads a life that is comprised almost exclusively of boozing, screwing, and wandering aimlessly from one mindless job to another. Oh yeah…Chinaski also likes to write stories no one wants to read.
A Clichéd, but Still Engaging, Sports Drama
By Mel_Valentin (Aug 24, 2006)
Start with 1942’s Pride of the Yankees, skip ahead three decades to Bang the Drum Slowly, and then jump ahead another two decades to Rudy, Remember the Titans, Miracle, and Glory Road. What do they have in common? All are sports dramas, of course. All were marketed and sold as "feel good"/"based on true events" storylines. After all, sports dramas tap into the individualist ethos that are and have been a part of the American Dream. Which leads us to Invincible.
An Apt Title
By Matt_Forsman (Aug 24, 2006)
If your grasp on reality is already a bit tenuous, Lunacy may be a film best left unwatched. This mind-bending film is characterized by the director, Jan Svankmajer ( Little Otik), as a horror film inspired by both Edgar Allan Poe and the Marquis de Sade.
Bad Taste, Less Filling
By Rossiter_Drake (Aug 24, 2006)
Fans of the Broken Lizard comedy troupe, the five-man team of lowbrow pranksters responsible for chaotic comedies like Super Troopers and Club Dread, will undoubtedly celebrate the raunchy, scatological silliness that drives their latest vehicle, Beerfest. Like those earlier films, Beerfest is willing to scrape the bottom of the barrel -- or, in this case, the keg -- for a laugh, cheerfully barraging its audience with cringe-inducing gags about puking, peeing and sodomy.
Feel Better at This Northern California Getaway
By Nirmala_Nataraj (Aug 24, 2006)
As summer, with its occasional bouts of sunshine-accompanied merriment and outdoor cookouts, gives way to a lovely Bay Area fall, with its russet hues and invariably toasty weather, I’m reminded of the appeal of the impending months. These days, the prospect of September is a little more exciting, perhaps because I’m no longer a student dreading the onset of another banal school year.
It Only Hurts the First Time
By Clifton_Lemon (Aug 24, 2006)
Billed as a “send-up of 70's porn, cheerleader rivalry and high school heartbreak,” and a “silly, fun, porntastic romp,” this uneven theatrical confection has a colorful and peripatetic provenance: it’s the San Francisco premier and latest incarnation of an off-Broadway piece which started out as a 2001 New York Fringe Festival production which was a musical rendition of a 1978 blockbuster porn film that was evidently trying to break new ground by attempting to have a “real plot” and “real actors.”


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