Hats Off to Beach Blanket Babylon

Home , Berry Gordy, Di Rosa, Jack Conte, Nataly Dawn, Tobias Wolff

Hats Off to Beach Blanket Babylon By Jeanne Storck July 13, 2010 at 9:00 AM A San Francisco institution, Beach Blanket Babylon has been dishing up its comic cabaret extravaganza at the Club Fugazi (get directions) in North Beach since 1974. The show ranks as the longest running musical revue in theater history and, despite its age, still keeps things current.

Search Articles Come to the Cabaret Dreamed up by artist and director Steve Silver over 35 years ago, BBB Search coming soon! as it's fondly known, hangs on a breezy, feather-light plotline driven by Browse by Category music, word play and sight gags in which a zany Snow White sets off on Browse by Month a quest to find her prince. She whirls Photo by Larry Merkle/David Allen. through Rome and Paris and a nonstop parade of all the celebrities du jour: Oprah, Lady GaGa, Tiger Woods, Madonna in her trademark pink Gauthier corset, and the Washington crowd — Hillary, Bill, Sarah, Barack and many more. JetBlue Deals Despite the small cast of only twenty, characters and costumes change every minute or two. When you think of how the writers weave the latest news into the complicated musical lineup, Flights, cruises and vacations — oh plot turns and costume changes, the feat boggles the mind. But just wait until you see the hats. my! Find great deals on all JetBlue Travel Deals. Hat Tricks Make travel planning easy. Book a If you go for only one reason, go for the hats. Over the years, they've gotten bigger, better and JetBlue Getaways vacation package more gravity defying. At each finale, a cast member rolls out with the piece de resistance — the today. San Francisco skyline hat complete with a miniature Golden Gate, Coit Tower, gingerbread Victorians and a moving cable car that climbs the rakishly slanted brim. And (spoiler alert) Snow Check out great deals on flights White gets her prince — a pompadoured Elvis — and her own hat — a towering multi-tiered coast to coast. wedding cake.

Permalink Email this Filed under Arts & Minds, North Beach This Is What SF Sounds Like: Pomplamoose and Sonny Smith By Jeanne Storck April 28, 2010 at 10:00 AM From the Grateful Dead to Green Day, the Bay Area marches to a different beat, turning out bands with their own uniquely San Francisco sound. We've got our eye on two local indie up-and-comers worth watching.

Search Articles Covering All the Basses: Pomplamoose Search coming soon! Pomplamoose is Nataly Dawn and Jack Conte, two Stanford grads. With a name that's French for grapefruit, Browse by Category the locally-grown duo recently released Tribute to Famous People, Browse by Month a quirky album of light and zesty cover songs. Sonny Smith. Photo by Dave Fenton.

Call them a bedroom band. Showcasing their catchy renditions of everyone from Piaf to Beyonce, Dawn and Conte are JetBlue Deals making waves via their YouTube and MySpace pages, produced by Jack and recorded live in Nataly's bedroom. In the catchy, irresistible videos, Jack jumps from accordion to piano to Flights, cruises and vacations — oh xylophone while Nataly accompanies on vocals. Jack then edits, throws the results on YouTube my! Find great deals on all JetBlue — and the fans show up in droves. Without a record label, Pomplamoose manages to make a Travel Deals. living selling online and through iTunes. In geeky, San Francisco fashion, they also sell songs on USB flash drives. Make travel planning easy. Book a JetBlue Getaways vacation package The duo tackles sentimental classics like My Favorite Things, and Mr. Sandman with Nataly today. channeling Feist and Joanna Newsom. She takes the buttery voice and swelling chords of Nat Check out great deals on flights King Cole's Nature Boy and delivers a mellow, folk acoustic rendition then dials down the synth coast to coast. pop of Lady Gaga with her own melodic version of Telephone.

Homegrown and tech-savvy, Pomplamoose is classic San Francisco.

Music Man: Sonny Smith SF resident Sonny Smith can't contain his creative energy, skipping from creating films to turning out screenplays to writing for theater. The 37-year-old got his start playing Jimmy Yancey blues covers on piano and now records with his own band, Sonny and the Sunsets (he lives in the Sunset neighborhood of SF).

A riot of music and art, his latest, most ambitious project "100 Records" blends all of his talents. Sonny dreamed up 100 imaginary bands — complete with their own personalities and musical styles — then produced an album for each. There's Zig Speck and the Specktones, Petite La Fille, Bandango Fandango. There's a girl group, a metal crew, an R&B band and a Jamaican Jet Austin guy called Walter the Goat.

Jet Miami/Fort Lauderdale Smith invited 100 artists such William T. Wiley, Chris Johanson and Tucker Nichols to design 7" record covers for each album. He even built his own jukebox to play all of these hit tunes. You Jet San Francisco can catch this musical extravaganza at Gallery 16 through May 28th.

About By the Way Getting advice is easy. Getting good advice is hard. Jeanne Storck knows San Francisco better than the back of her hand. In By the Way, she shares her expertise, offering do's and don'ts Add blog to... designed to save you time and maximize your enjoyment. If you find her tips helpful, don't keep them to yourself. Share the wealth. And please email Jeanne your own tips.

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©2010 JetBlue Airways Conspiracy of Beards Covers Leonard Cohen By Jeanne Storck June 01, 2010 at 9:00 AM Canadian singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen has turned out gritty, soulful lyrics for over four decades, earning his rep as music's Beat master. No surprise then that San Francisco, birthplace of the Beats, serves as home to an odd and amazing Leonard Cohen cover band.

Search Articles Performing under the mysterious moniker, Conspiracy of Beards, this 30-member, all-male acappella choir Search coming soon! shows up in music halls, bars and bookstores with no instruments other Browse by Category than their voices to croon Cohen's melodies. Browse by Month Photo provided by Conspiracy of Beards. Choir Boys Decked out in thrift-store suits with natty ties, fedoras and caps, not all of The Beards sport beards, but they do share a knack for turning classics like "Hallelujah" and "Tower of Song" into suave four-part harmonies. JetBlue Deals The late local artist Peter Kadyk came up with the idea for the group; he figured since so many of Cohen's songs talk about men in and out of love, who better to sing Cohen than a roving Flights, cruises and vacations — oh band of sensitive gentlemen? The group played their first gig in 2003 and have shown up all my! Find great deals on all JetBlue over San Francisco since — in the echoing atriums of City Hall and SFMOMA and at City Lights Travel Deals. bookstore among others — and they've also hit the road for shows in New York and Los Make travel planning easy. Book a Angeles. Wherever they appear, with their rich hum of baritone, bass and tenors rising together, JetBlue Getaways vacation package the audience can't help but feel the music. today. Check out great deals on flights About Arts & Minds coast to coast. Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between.

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Previously in Arts & Minds Art to Dye For at the de Young Art in a Stunning Setting at the de Young Museum By Jeanne Storck May 04, 2010 at 11:00 AM Founded in 1895, the de Young Museum (get directions) ranks as the city's oldest — but this veteran institution doesn't show its age. After the de Young suffered major damage in the 1989 quake, the city demolished the old building, recruiting cutting edge architects Herzog & de Meuron to give it a very Search Articles public facelift in 2005. Locals and tourists alike now flock to Search coming soon! the museum's stunning 2.0 version. The world-class collection of 17th Browse by Category through 20th-century American art as well as art of the native Americas, Browse by Month Africa, and the Pacific shines in its Photo courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. new home.

Master Pieces One of the museum's signature works, Andy Goldsworthy's "Faultline," carves a jagged fissure JetBlue Deals through the courtyard's paving stones. Remember to look down to catch this subtle reminder to that San Francisco stands on shaky ground. Another jewel of a piece graces the main hall: German artist Gerhard Richter's monumental mosaic "Strontium" shimmers with 130 black and Flights, cruises and vacations — oh white digital photos of the atomic structure of strontium titanate, a synthetic substance used to my! Find great deals on all JetBlue create artificial diamonds. Travel Deals. Make travel planning easy. Book a Interactive Art JetBlue Getaways vacation package When you've had your fill of art, hop aboard the elevator to the 9th floor observation deck for today. stunning city views that rival the vistas of Twin Peaks. If you're there on Friday evening at 5:00, sip a drink with your Diebenkorn; the museum gets the party started, rolling out live music, Check out great deals on flights poetry, film and cocktails until 8:45 pm. And to meet some SF talent, stop by the de Young's coast to coast. Kimball Gallery and watch the artist-in-residence at work. Each month, the museum selects local creatives to participate in an open studio to share their techniques with the public.

Some of the best art happens outside the museum in the Barbro Osher Sculpture Garden. That goofy 21-foot-high blue safety pin? Claes Oldenberg's "Corridor Pin, Blue." Or those luscious looking four-foot high ceramic apples strewn across the lawn? The work of Ulla and Gustav Kraitz. For a meditative experience, step into James Turrell's Skyspace entitled "Three Gems." This circular white-walled room built into a grassy hillside changes mood as the light from outside filters through an ocular window in the ceiling.

Once you've satisfied your appetite for art, tuck into a meal at the de Young Cafe. Or, if it's a particularly sunny day and the wilds of Golden Gate Park beckon, order take away for an alfresco picnic on the lawn. Art at the Dump: San Francisco Artists Turn Trash Into Treasure By Jeanne Storck May 11, 2010 at 8:00 AM San Francisco prides itself on a host of innovative green initiatives: banning plastic bags, transforming empty lots into farms and … turning garbage into art?

Every day the city dump fills with a stream of "junk" — old typewriters, Search Articles photographs, electronics, packing material, wood, paint, jewelry — the Search coming soon! list goes on and on. Since 1990, San Francisco's disposal company, Recology, has invited artists to spend Browse by Category a four-month residency working their creative magic upon this flotsam and Browse by Month jetsam. Photo provided by Recology. Trash Talk At the end of each residency, artists give the public a peek at their work — and a chance to purchase any pieces that catch their eye JetBlue Deals — during "Art at the Dump" events held in the Recology studio, five minutes south of the city (get directions). Watch local art world glitterati sidle up to a piece, wineglass in hand, and marvel: Flights, cruises and vacations — oh "She carved that out of discarded Styrofoam?" or "Who knew people threw out so many toys?" my! Find great deals on all JetBlue Travel Deals. While the sheer volume of trash might dismay you, you'll marvel at the genius of a program that uses beautifully crafted objets d'garbage to get people thinking — and talking — about the dirty Make travel planning easy. Book a business of waste disposal. JetBlue Getaways vacation package today. Check out great deals on flights About Arts & Minds coast to coast. Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between.

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Previously in Arts & Minds Art to Dye For at the de Young Art Al Fresco at Headlands Center for the Arts 49 Geary: San Francisco's Artsy-est Address By Jeanne Storck August 02, 2010 at 8:00 AM If you're in a rush to get to everything on your San Francisco to-do list, squeeze in an SF art walk while you're in town by heading to 49 Geary Street (get directions) just off Union Square where twenty of the city's best galleries live at a single convenient address. Even better, time your visit for the first Thursday of the month when dealers stay open Search Articles late and hip crowds show up for wine, chitchat, people watching — Search coming soon! and of course, art.

Browse by Category With five floors of exhibitions to peruse, you can start at the top and Browse by Month work your way down or vice versa. Photo by Jeanne Storck. Hint: skip the elevator and clamber up and down the vintage marble and ironwork stairways that connect each floor.

JetBlue Deals One-Stop Gallery Hop For photography, the venerable Fraenkel Gallery has been showing big-name image-makers like Lee Friedlander and Diane Arbus for over forty years while Robert Koch Gallery Flights, cruises and vacations — oh emphasizes contemporary museum-quality work. And for local camera talent, take a gander at my! Find great deals on all JetBlue Stephen Wirtz. Travel Deals. Make travel planning easy. Book a For thought-provoking, experimental canvases, video and installations, stop in at Haines Gallery JetBlue Getaways vacation package (they rep environmental sculptor Andy Goldsworthy who designed a piece for the courtyard of today. the new de Young Museum) or check the latest in local up-and-coming artistes at Steven Wolf.

Check out great deals on flights And if you're hankering for more and want to keep the art parade going, stop by 14 Geary and coast to coast. 77 Geary in the same block where more galleries await.

Permalink Email this Filed under Arts & Minds, Union Square SFMOMA Is 75 and Very Much Alive By Jeanne Storck May 12, 2010 at 9:00 AM Celebrating its 75th birthday this year, SFMOMA, The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (get directions) just gets better with age. The Grande Dame of the local art world has been making history ever since opening in 1935 as the first contemporary art museum on the West Coast. Curators here have cultivated an eye for fresh talent, Search Articles collecting artists before they become big names. Search coming soon! Happy Birthday, Beautiful Browse by Category In 1995, SFMOMA changed the San Francisco landscape when it moved Browse by Month into new digs in SoMa and revitalized Photo by Richard Barnes. the neighborhood. Other arts organization followed and tourists and locals alike now enjoy this booming cultural corner of the city.

JetBlue Deals Located on Third Street, you'll recognize architect Mario Botta's now iconic design from a few blocks away. Look for the zebra-striped skylight poking its head up like a periscope through the red brick facade. Flights, cruises and vacations — oh my! Find great deals on all JetBlue Inside, the five-story atrium soars skyward and a central staircase leads visitors up through the Travel Deals. museum's four floors of galleries. At the top, stroll across the metal skywalk and look down for a Make travel planning easy. Book a vertigo-inducing view of the lobby below. While you're up there, check out the new rooftop JetBlue Getaways vacation package sculpture garden with city views and a cafe. today. The museum's current Anniversary Show runs through January 2011 and features highlights Check out great deals on flights from the collection including Jackson Pollock, Jay DeFeo, Frida Kahlo, Jeff Koons and Barry coast to coast. McGee. Before you go, download SFMOMA's constantly updated stream of podcasts for your own personal guided tour.

About By the Way Getting advice is easy. Getting good advice is hard. Jeanne Storck knows San Francisco better than the back of her hand. In By the Way, she shares her expertise, offering do's and don'ts designed to save you time and maximize your enjoyment. If you find her tips helpful, don't keep them to yourself. Share the wealth. And please email Jeanne your own tips.

Permalink Email this Impressionist Masterpieces Shimmer at the De Young By Jeanne Storck May 18, 2010 at 8:00 AM If you were thinking of jetting to Charles De Gaulle this summer, save yourself the plane fare. With a blockbuster show on French Impressionism opening in San Francisco this month, Paris just got a lot closer.

The exhibition, Birth of Search Articles Impressionism, arrives courtesy of the Musee d'Orsay, Paris's premier museum of 19th-century French art. Search coming soon! In late 2009, the Orsay closed its doors for renovation and to prevent Browse by Category all those Monets and Manets from languishing under wraps, the Browse by Month museum arranged a special Photo courtesy of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. exchange with the City by the Bay.

Mingle with Manet, Monet and More This summer, visitors to the lucky partner museums — the De Young (get directions) and Legion JetBlue Deals of Honor (get directions) — can drink their fill of The Impressionists' shimmering experimentations with light courtesy of such instantly recognizable classics as Edouard Manet's "The Fife Player" and "Whistler's Mother." Flights, cruises and vacations — oh my! Find great deals on all JetBlue For art lovers who've viewed Impressionist paintings countless times in reproduction or for those Travel Deals. who haven't made it to the City of Lights, this show offers a rare glimpse of the originals. An up- Make travel planning easy. Book a close look at gems like George Seurat's pointillist painting of the Eiffel Tower or Monet's hazy, JetBlue Getaways vacation package sun-dappled image of the Gare St. Lazare should transport viewers to Gay Paree — at least for today. a delicious moment or two. Check out great deals on flights coast to coast. About Arts & Minds Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between.

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Previously in Arts & Minds Art to Dye For at the de Young Culture in Wine Country at di Rosa By Jeanne Storck June 08, 2010 at 8:00 AM If you're headed up to wine country, stop off and see some of Northern California's best contemporary art in a natural setting at di Rosa (get directions), a gallery and sculpture park nestled in the rolling Napa hills. With over 2000 works sprinkled over 200 acres, this unique preserve makes for one of the most Search Articles sumptuous art strolls around. Art in the Park Search coming soon! Rene di Rosa, a scribe for the San Francisco Chronicle, and his wife, Browse by Category artist Veronica di Rosa, snapped up a dilapidated vineyard in 1960 and Browse by Month nursed the property's 19th century Photo courtesy of di Rosa. stone buildings back to life. Meanwhile, their burgeoning art collection began a slow creep, filling up all available wall space and spilling out of doors. In 1997, the couple opened the grounds to the public to share their amazing culture cache. JetBlue Deals Today you can tour the three gallery buildings and meander through the sculpture meadow in the company of resident peacocks. Watch the herons and egrets take off from the shimmering Flights, cruises and vacations — oh lake, visit the old olive orchard and gaze up at the graceful rows of grape vines on the hill. my! Find great deals on all JetBlue Travel Deals. Among the 650 artists on display, don't miss the riotously decorated art cars by David Best of Make travel planning easy. Book a Burning Man fame or the colorful canine canvases of Roy De Forest. Other big names on the JetBlue Getaways vacation package roster include Mark di Suvero, Robert Arneson, Enrique Chagoya, Manuel Neri, William T. today. Wiley, and Viola Frey. Check the calendar for seasonal hikes, meadow walks and evening artist talks. Summer's almost here so get out, get some air and soak up some culture, too. Check out great deals on flights coast to coast. About Arts & Minds Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between.

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Previously in Arts & Minds Art to Dye For at the de Young By Jeanne Storck August 17, 2010 at 9:00 AM Ever since the Summer of Love, San Francisco and tie-dye have gone together like peanut butter and jelly. This August, the trippy textile returns to the city by the Bay, but in a much more polished guise. The de Young Museum's (get directions) new exhibit, "To Dye For: A World Saturated in Color," reveals how this oft-maligned technique descends Search Articles from a venerable, centuries-old tradition and — judging from this Search coming soon! spring's runway shows — is making a splashy comeback. Browse by Category Everyone from Dries Van Noten to Browse by Month Gucci to Proenza Schouler to Calvin Photo courtesy of the de Young Museum. Klein rocked the runway this season with boldly patterned fabric experiments. Even Heidi Klum recently donned a Gucci variation. To illustrate the trend, the de Young pulls out its own 2005 Oscar de La Renta trench coat designed using ikat — a tie-dye weave — and a 2009 Rodarte evening gown that swirls with bursts of pink, deep blue and pale JetBlue Deals orange.

Flights, cruises and vacations — oh Fit to be Tie-Dyed my! Find great deals on all JetBlue The show features over 50 pieces from Africa, Asia and the Americas, some of them dating back Travel Deals. hundreds of years. Look for a a 15th-century muted red and ivory Mongolian felt rug, a violet Make travel planning easy. Book a mat with red sunbursts used for a 19th-century Japanese tea ceremony, or an early 20th- JetBlue Getaways vacation package century Indonesian batik sarong adrift with vermilion flowers. today. The curators keep it current with showings from contemporary fabric artists like Yoshiko Wada Check out great deals on flights and her amusing tie-dye kimono emblazoned with the Coca-Cola logo or Ana Lisa Hedstrom's coast to coast. gorgeous earth-toned abstraction on silk — proof that the hippie multicolor motif has grown up and gone big-time.

Permalink Email this Filed under Arts & Minds, Golden Gate Park Artful Living at Park Life By Jeanne Storck June 14, 2010 at 8:00 AM Most people head to Clement Street in the Inner Richmond for the amazing panoply of Asian foods or for the good reads at Green Apple Books, but next time you're in this neck of the woods, add Park Life (get directions), a gallery, bookstore and design shop, to your list.

Search Articles Opened in 2006 by Jamie Alexander and Derek Song, Park Life occupies the former Busvan Furniture space. Search coming soon! Rather than ditching the big metal sign out front, artists Andrew Browse by Category Schoultz and Jason Jaegel turned it into a splashy canvas that's visible Browse by Month from a couple of blocks away. Image by Jeanne Storck.

Arts and Letters Browse the Park Life shelves for gifts that should elicit cries of delight rather than yawns from your design friends back home. Look for rad t-shirts from local, sustainable Fluffy Co., lo-fi JetBlue Deals Diana and Lomo cameras, the whole suite of Pantone color mugs or funky USB Flash drives. Take home a bit of SF with Ork Posters' genius SF neighborhood map. If you don't want to gift Flights, cruises and vacations — oh someone with another run-of-the-mill t-shirt, Park Life carries artist-designed tees that pay ironic my! Find great deals on all JetBlue and humorous tribute to the City by the Bay. For the skater in your life, try this set of boards Travel Deals. decorated with San Francisco's iconic row of Victorians, the Painted Ladies. Make travel planning easy. Book a JetBlue Getaways vacation package The Park Life Gallery, curated by Alexander and Song, keeps its finger on the pulse of a San today. Francisco art scene that includes Tauba Auerbach and Tucker Nichols and Mission School stars like Barry McGee and Clare Rojas. Most limited edition prints by these artists are priced under Check out great deals on flights $1000. For a compelling snapshot of the SF Mission School movement check out the DVD, coast to coast. "Beautiful Losers."

Shows in the gallery change monthly. In the book department, Alexander and Song go to great pains to stock unusual small press art and design titles ranging from tributes to Louis Vuitton to Russian prison tattoos.

About Arts & Minds Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between. Let Your Eyes Go Bezerkley at The Berkeley Art Museum By Jeanne Storck August 31, 2010 at 9:00 AM Culture vultures who've exhausted the halls of SFMOMA and the de Young can head across the Bay to the Berkeley Art Museum (get directions) for even more art appreciation. Housed in a sleek, angular 1970s-era building on the south side of the UC Berkeley Search Articles campus, BAM offers a heady peek at art through the ages with everything Search coming soon! from Ming dynasty Chinese painting to twentieth-century photography.

Browse by Category Visitors wind their way up through five floors of galleries connected by Browse by Month ramps that circle round a central airy hall. At the top, if art vertigo sets in, Photo by Ariane Bicho. museum-goers can revive themselves at Cafe Muse, known for its tasty raw menu. JetBlue Deals Art House Films Flights, cruises and vacations — oh The museum also houses The Pacific Film Archive, one of the best celluloid collections in the my! Find great deals on all JetBlue U.S. with over 14,000 films. Curators roll out rare gems daily so film geeks crazy about Travel Deals. Kurosawa or Italian neorealism can indulge in a modernist movie palace.

Make travel planning easy. Book a Better L@TE Than Never JetBlue Getaways vacation package BAM stays open till 9:00pm every Friday for their L@TE night art party. Revelers climb aboard today. Thom Falder's BAMscape — a massive orange wooden sculpture in the main hall — whose Check out great deals on flights wave-shaped curves offer the perfect spot to lay back, lounge and groove to live performances coast to coast. by musicians, filmmakers and artists.

Permalink Filed under Arts & Minds, Berkeley Chomp 2!: A Blockbuster with Bite at the Conservatory of Flowers By Jeanne Storck June 21, 2010 at 8:00 AM Don't look for the creepiest summer blockbuster in local theaters. This summer, you'll find the most disturbing action of the season at Golden Gate Park's Conservatory of Flowers (get directions).

"Chomp 2! Return of the Carnivorous Search Articles Plants" — a sequel to 2007's hit exhibit "Chomp" features killer plants Search coming soon! like the world's largest Venus flytrap with the cyborg-sounding name "Dionaea B-52" or a giant two-foot Browse by Category pitcher plant with the ominous moniker (at least for bugs) Browse by Month "Abandoned Hope." Photo by Barry Rice. Garden of Deadly Delights Visitors trek through living bogs where botanists have arranged meat-eating plants in order of their home turf and preferred JetBlue Deals trapping technique. Discover the pitcher plants of New England, the white trumpet plants of the Gulf Coast or California's resident cobra plant, Darlingtonia californica — the name may sound Flights, cruises and vacations — oh darling, but bugs that fall into its yawning maw rarely make it out alive. Meet beastly buggers my! Find great deals on all JetBlue from around the globe, from points as far-flung as South Africa, Mexico and Eastern Australia. Travel Deals. Like any cinema villain worth the screen time, these plants do their victims in by employing Make travel planning easy. Book a various devious strategies: the snapping leaves of the Venus flytrap, the suction method of the JetBlue Getaways vacation package water-loving bladderwort, the sticky flypaper traps of sundews or the nectar-filled cup of the today. pitcher plant. Check out great deals on flights coast to coast. Kids can watch plants devouring insects through magnifying lenses or use the "Chomp 2!" field guide ($3) to lead them on a mission to track down killer plants. Adults and children alike who don't want to go home alone can pick up a carnivorous chomper in the gift shop to take with them.

About Arts & Minds Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between. You Say You Want a (Classical) Revolution By Jeanne Storck August 23, 2010 at 8:00 AM Every Sunday night at Revolution Cafe (get directions), a bohemian hangout in the Mission, the clatter of drinks and banter dies down and chamber music fills the air. "Hipsters listening to Haydn?" you ask incredulously. Meet Classical Revolution, an orchestra of SF musicians that stages regular meet- ups at The Rev (so called by Mission- Search Articles ites) to pump out impromptu symphonies for the benefit of Search coming soon! delighted crowds.

Browse by Category String Fling The movement got its start in 2008 Browse by Month when the manager of Revolution Cafe asked local viola player Charith Premawardhana and a couple of his fellow artists to play a few sets. The event took off and chapters have popped up in cafes around the globe — from Portland, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago to Montreal, Berlin and more. JetBlue Deals With symphonies struggling and cutting costs, the DIY spirit of Classical Revolution just makes sense. The low-key ambiance of bars and clubs offers the perfect no-risk place to experiment, Flights, cruises and vacations — oh earn a little money and turn popular audiences on to an overlooked art form. So forget your my! Find great deals on all JetBlue notions of tuxedoed violinists turning out stiff renditions of Beethoven and Bach and come down Travel Deals. to Revolution Cafe for a little string quartet improv. Make travel planning easy. Book a JetBlue Getaways vacation package Musicians whip out their bows every Sunday night at Revolution Cafe. Check their calendar for today. details. Did we mention it's free? Check out great deals on flights coast to coast. About Arts & Minds Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between.

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Previously in Arts & Minds You Say You Want a (Classical) Revolution State of the Art at the Oakland Museum of California By Jeanne Storck May 10, 2010 at 10:00 AM California's bold and checkered past is filled with Gold Rush miners, longshoremen, Beats and hippies. If you're curious about any of these, the newly renovated Oakland Museum of California (get directions) is for you.

Housed in a block-long mid-century Modern building in downtown Search Articles Oakland, the museum tells the story of California through its impressive collection of art, history and natural Search coming soon! science artifacts. Wander the galleries and you'll discover the Browse by Category creative, historic and geographic forces that put the state on the map. Browse by Month Photo by Tim Griffith. We Got the Beat In the art wing, peruse one of the best Gold Rush daguerreotype collections in the country, browse the archive of internationally- renowned Berkeley photographer Dorothea Lange, or marvel at furniture and objects designed JetBlue Deals by the founders of the California-grown Arts & Crafts design movement. The history collection displays artifacts that range over centuries — from pre-colonial California through major moments like the Gold Rush, Depression, World War II and the counter-cultural heyday of the Flights, cruises and vacations — oh 60s. my! Find great deals on all JetBlue Travel Deals. Curators have made an effort to deliver a highly interactive experience. Period-appropriate Make travel planning easy. Book a music and video plays in some galleries and interactive learning stations pop up along the way. JetBlue Getaways vacation package The "Look but don't touch" warning doesn't fly here. Visitors are encouraged to open and close today. "discovery drawers" — glass covered file drawers full of precious display objects — and orange- cushioned stools with handles dot the gallery floors, inviting users to sit a spell in front of a Check out great deals on flights favorite piece of art. coast to coast.

Permalink Email this Filed under Arts & Minds, Oakland Maira Kalman at the Contemporary Jewish Museum By Jeanne Storck July 19, 2010 at 8:00 AM If you read The New Yorker or The New York Times, you've probably run across the witty, whimsical drawings of Maira Kalman. Her current show at the Contemporary Jewish Museum (get directions) — Maira Kalman: Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World) — gathers together thirty years' worth of illustrations reflecting Search Articles her clever, colorful take on the world. Born in Tel Aviv in 1949, and raised Search coming soon! in New York from the age of four, Kalman taught herself to draw. She Browse by Category married noted designer Tibor Kalman and together they created M&Co., a Browse by Month studio that turned out groundbreaking Maira Kalman, Self-Portrait (with Pete), detail, 2004-5, graphic design, including a series of gouache on paper, 16 x 15 inches. Courtesy of the artist sly fun watches with numbers all and Julie Saul Gallery, New York. askew that now sell at MOMA.

JetBlue Deals Quick on the Draw Kalman dreams up vivid poem/pictures full of her signature handwriting and cartoonish characters. In her rich career, Kalman has created countless covers for The New Yorker and Flights, cruises and vacations — oh blogged for the New York Times — her illustrated series, "And the Pursuit of Happiness" about my! Find great deals on all JetBlue the US Presidents, ranks as one of the most pleasurable history lessons of all time. She's Travel Deals. written and illustrated a series of children's books starring Max Stravinsky the Parisian dog poet Make travel planning easy. Book a and designed fabrics for Isaac Mizrahi and accessories for Kate Spade. JetBlue Getaways vacation package today. Her current show puts all of this talent on display for the first time. In addition to her drawings, Kalman has pulled together objects from her studio — embroideries, textiles and photographs — Check out great deals on flights that reveal some of her inspirations. Lovers of design, color, typography and above all wit, won't coast to coast. want to miss this show.

Permalink Email this Filed under Arts & Minds, SoMa Good Reads and Good Company at Adobe Books By Jeanne Storck July 05, 2010 at 8:00 AM Whereas North Beach has City Lights, the Mission has Adobe Books (get directions). This used bookshop cum bohemian social club has offered tattered tomes and lively conversation to neighborhood denizens since 1989. More a big living room with bookshelves than a shop, visitors can cozy up in well- worn, overstuffed chairs to read and Search Articles linger as long as they like.

Search coming soon! Art Beat More a closet than a room when it Browse by Category launched in the back of the shop in 2001, the Adobe Books Backroom Browse by Month Gallery has packed in the wall-to-wall Photo by Daniel Morgan. hipster crowds for its openings and hosted local talent like painter Chris Johanson or musician Joanna Newsom before they went big time.

JetBlue Deals Always a haven and a safe experimenting ground for artists wanting to try new things, at one point in 2004 the Adobe even agreed to close for a day to allow artist Chris Cobb to rearrange the stores 20,000 books by color — an eye-popping installation that received widespread Flights, cruises and vacations — oh attention. my! Find great deals on all JetBlue Travel Deals. After a recent renovation, the gallery now offers a bit more room to fledgling creatives and Make travel planning easy. Book a curators have added a new “Parlor” space in the front window display where bookstore visitors JetBlue Getaways vacation package can come in and interact with the artists — have a portrait painted, chat for a bit or whatnot. today. Let Them East Cake Check out great deals on flights Sometimes when Tartine Bakery closes in the evening, they drop off a basketful of their unsold coast to coast. pastries at Adobe, so if you time it right, you can score a sweet bun along with that book.

Permalink Email this Filed under Arts & Minds, Mission Zine Scene at Needles and Pens By Jeanne Storck July 12, 2010 at 8:00 AM Inspired by a love of all things punk and DIY, Mission fixture Needles and Pens (get directions) fills its bookshop/gallery/boutique with stuff that kicks out the jams. Andrew Scott, a zine fanatic who worked at legendary underground music mag Maximum RocknRoll and published his own homegrown periodical Sob Story? teamed up with DIY diva and Search Articles Strandid Clothing designer Breezy Culbertson to open the shop in 2002. Search coming soon! They pinched the name from a punk song of course — the Ramones' Browse by Category "Needles and Pins."

Browse by Month Photocopy Cats Photo by Andrew M. Scott. The shop specializes in zines, clothing, jewelry, paper goods and music by local artists and crafters, most of it lovingly "recycled, silk screened, cut-up, re-sewn, photocopied, hand-made, and hand-published." JetBlue Deals Check out the big names in local zine talent like Cometbus, Junk Pirate and Hamburger Eyes, all cut, pasted and Photoshopped together in the Bay Area. If all of these indie mags get you Flights, cruises and vacations — oh fired up to do it yourself, buy a copy of Alex Wrekk's Stolen Sharpie #2, a manual on how to self my! Find great deals on all JetBlue publish in style. Travel Deals. Make travel planning easy. Book a Needles & Pens hosts an art show every month in its backroom gallery where Scott and guest JetBlue Getaways vacation package curators show off new talent as well as longtime favorites like Monica Canilao, Billy Childish, today. Nikki McClure and Sara Thustra. Check out great deals on flights coast to coast. About Arts & Minds Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between.

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Previously in Arts & Minds Art to Dye For at the de Young Watch Out For Wet Paint at Sketch Tuesdays By Jeanne Storck May 24, 2010 at 7:00 AM No one wants to watch the proverbial paint dry, but at Sketch Tuesdays (get directions), a monthly live drawing event at 111 Minna Gallery, wet paint on the walls makes for some of the most happening viewing in town. The folks who run this sketchapalooza invite twenty local artists — celebs and wannabes alike — to show up armed with Search Articles paintbrushes and pencils, ready to turn on their talent for an eager Search coming soon! audience.

Browse by Category Ready, Set, Sketch Curator Sasha Eckes dreamed up Browse by Month the event in 2006, inspired by a hugely successful artmaking extravaganza called Monster Drawing Rally that took place once-a-year at another local gallery. Today, four years and 44 Sketch Tuesdays later, current organizers, Brad K. Adler and Jay Howell keep the drawing fest alive once a month. JetBlue Deals The music spins, the cocktails flow and for four hours the artists sketch at two long tables in the middle of the gallery while spectators mill about watching the work unfold. Some of the recent Flights, cruises and vacations — oh talent that's graced the tables includes Marci Washington, Kelly Tunstall, Ferris Plock and Hilary my! Find great deals on all JetBlue Pecis. Travel Deals. Make travel planning easy. Book a By night's end, the finished products appear taped up on the wall with a price tag (usually never JetBlue Getaways vacation package more than $30). Onlookers can pick as they please, with the money going straight to the artist. today. So if you're on a budget but want to get that art collection started, come on down, mingle and take home some killer creations without breaking the bank. Check out great deals on flights coast to coast. About Arts & Minds Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between.

Permalink Rock Out at the Outside Lands Music Festival By Jeanne Storck August 10, 2010 at 9:00 AM The rolling meadows of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park have witnessed their fair share of righteous rock festivals, starting with the granddaddy of them all — 1967's Human Be-In during the storied Summer of Love. Today the beat goes on with big blowouts like Hardly Strictly Bluegrass and Outside Lands. Search Articles Inside Outside Outside Lands runs a two-day non- Search coming soon! stop show each August with headliners like The Strokes and Browse by Category Kings of Leon belting it out across multiple stages. Fans can wander the Browse by Month grounds located on the western Photo by Jeff Kravitz. edges of Golden Gate Park and check out the big names as well as discover smaller up-and-coming local bands. This year look for Phoenix, Social Distortion, Gogol Bordello, Cat Power, Al Green and The Levon Helm Band. JetBlue Deals Green Day Worried what thousands of grooving fans do to the environment? Outside Lands tries to walk Flights, cruises and vacations — oh my! Find great deals on all JetBlue the green talk with a solar-powered stage, a mini farmers market, a cafe with found furniture and lots of recycling bins. And as for the inevitable thrashed grass, Outside Lands donates a portion Travel Deals. of ticket sales to the city's Recreation and Parks Department. Make travel planning easy. Book a JetBlue Getaways vacation package Shiny Happy Meals today. Don't expect lame festival fare. This is SF, folks, and the food lineup stars some of the city's rocking-est street eats. Dig into fried chicken from Little Skillet, red velvet cupcakes from Mission Check out great deals on flights Minis, Korean tacos from Namu, arepas from Pica Pica or franks from Rosamunde Sausage. coast to coast. Once fueled, head back and feast on more of that delicious sound.

Permalink Email this Filed under Arts & Minds, Golden Gate Park Dreamgirls: Motown Memories at the Curran Theatre By Jeanne Storck August 30, 2010 at 8:00 AM Fans of the Motown sound can relive R&B history this month when a fresh stage production of Dreamgirls hits San Francisco's Curran Theater (get directions). The play traces a thinly veiled version of girl group The Supremes through the tumultuous music scene of the '60s and '70s — so brush up on your Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and Berry Gordy Search Articles before you go.

Search coming soon! R&B Rhythm Redux The Dreamgirls tale definitely has Browse by Category legs. First a 1981 Tony Award- winning play then a 2006 Academy Browse by Month Award winning film starring Jennifer Photo by Joan Marcus. Hudson and Beyonce, the girls' saga just keeps on giving. This third and latest incarnation comes via Harlem's Apollo Theater, and though it might not have the star power of Ms. Knowles or Ms. Hudson attached, the show still gives fans rousing renditions of JetBlue Deals signature power ballads like "Listen" and "You're Gonna Love Me." American Idol fans can catch contestant Syesha Mercado playing the Deena Jones/Diana Ross character.

Flights, cruises and vacations — oh To get a taste, take a sneak peek at some of the fab costumes, musical numbers and behind- my! Find great deals on all JetBlue the-scenes interviews. Travel Deals. Make travel planning easy. Book a JetBlue Getaways vacation package About Arts & Minds today. Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Check out great deals on flights Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, coast to coast. performing arts, and everything in between.

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Previously in Arts & Minds Dreamgirls: Motown Memories at the Curran Theatre The San Francisco Mime Troupe Says It Out Loud You Say You Want a (Classical) Revolution Art to Dye For at the de Young Show Me the Funny at the Cartoon Art Museum By Jeanne Storck June 28, 2010 at 8:00 AM Fans of Spiderman, Astro Boy, The Far Side, South Park or The Simpsons can get a crash course in the comic arts at the Cartoon Art Museum (get directions).

Funded by an endowment from "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz, the museum showcases one of the Search Articles largest cartoon collections in the West with over 6,000 pieces including everything from Saturday Search coming soon! morning cartoons to anime to Sunday newspaper funnies. Lovers of graphic Browse by Category storytelling will find plenty to tickle their fancy and their funny bone. Browse by Month Image provided by Cartoon Art Museum. Laugh Lines Recent exhibits include a look at Batman and the 1950s-era strip "Beetle Bailey" as well as a survey of the latest developments in the world of graphic novels. Don't miss the cartoonist-in-residence program in which noted funny JetBlue Deals men and women spend an afternoon talking about their craft and demonstrating their drawing techniques. Flights, cruises and vacations — oh Parents looking for a quiet afternoon in SoMa's nearby museums and galleries can sign their my! Find great deals on all JetBlue budding illustrators up for Saturday afternoon cartooning classes where they'll learn how to Travel Deals. dream up their own superheroes. And if you want your funnies for free (or close to it) stop in on Make travel planning easy. Book a the first Tuesday of each month when you can "pay what you wish." JetBlue Getaways vacation package today. About Arts & Minds Check out great deals on flights Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient coast to coast. sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between.

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Previously in Arts & Minds Art to Dye For at the de Young Art Al Fresco at Headlands Center for the Arts The Art Shines at Electric Works By Jeanne Storck June 22, 2010 at 9:00 AM Step into Electric Works (get directions), a gallery/printing press/bookstore on an industrial stretch in SoMa, and feel the hustle and bustle of the street fall away. This art space, housed in a former machine shop, mixes grunge and glamour with aplomb. Massive steel tracks and pulleys from the previous tenant hang overhead, but the frosted Search Articles windows, white walls and art light up the space. Search coming soon! Husband and wife team Richard and Browse by Category Judith Lang, both artists themselves, founded Electric Works in 2000 as a Browse by Month sort of creative playground. Local art Photo by Jeanne Storck. luminaries like Enrique Chagoya, William T. Wiley, Tucker Nichols and Jason Jagel experiment with the studio's hi-tech and traditional printing techniques and the results grace the gallery walls. JetBlue Deals Art Mart Now a family affair, son Noah manages publishing and special projects and oversees one of the Flights, cruises and vacations — oh coolest gallery shops in town with an assortment of unique books, art supplies, toys and t-shirts. my! Find great deals on all JetBlue Head straight for the oddments section where you can pick up a fuzzy black panther piggy bank Travel Deals. from Mexico, old school headphones or a steampunk watch. Make travel planning easy. Book a JetBlue Getaways vacation package The mini prints, at a highly affordable $40, offer visitors a chance to take home work by noted today. gallery artists -- like this lovely blue swimming pool image from Oakland photographer Katherine Westerhout or a hilarious cupcake tale by SF illustrator Paul Madonna. Check out great deals on flights coast to coast. About Arts & Minds Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between.

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Previously in Arts & Minds A Passion for Print at the SF Center for the Book By Jeanne Storck July 06, 2010 at 9:00 AM As more people curl up with iPads and Kindles, the languorous art of turning a book's crisp paper pages seems headed for the dustbin of history — but not if the folks at the SF Center for the Book (get directions) have their way. Drop in to their 4,500-square-foot space in Potrero Hill and learn how to print your own Search Articles little page turner. Pressing Matters Search coming soon! Gutenberg groupies can pick from thirty different letterpress workshops Browse by Category that range from three hours to weekend intensives. Produce your Browse by Month own business card or stationery, and if you want to say it in a big way, try the poster printing extravaganza. Looking for some creative camaraderie? Sign up for a collaborative session where you design and print a mini booklet with your classmates and everyone goes home with a copy. JetBlue Deals Bound for Glory Once you've got the hot type down, master the art of tying it all together. Instructors will help you Flights, cruises and vacations — oh my! Find great deals on all JetBlue fashion an accordion book, a little tome made from Chinese fortune cookie slips, pop-ups, photo albums or an artist's sketchbook. Travel Deals. Make travel planning easy. Book a If you're visiting in September, don't miss the Center's annual Road Works event, a street festival JetBlue Getaways vacation package where select artists design giant prints, and employees on a steamroller press them out. With today. artist booths, street food, music and a happy crowd, this annual party proves that books and paper still have a devoted following. Check out great deals on flights coast to coast. About Arts & Minds Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between.

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Previously in Arts & Minds Kicking up a Ruckus at the Rumpus By Jeanne Storck July 20, 2010 at 9:00 AM Once a month, SF's glitterati flock to the Rumpus (get directions), a variety show held at the Make-Out Room where — under the twinkling gaze of sequined deer head trophies and dangling threads of gold and silver Christmas tinsel — they throw back cocktails and give serious ear time to the city's freshest wordsmiths, comics Search Articles and musicians. The Rumpus is the brainchild of one Search coming soon! Stephen Elliott, a local author whose memoir, The Adderall Diaries, shot Browse by Category him to literary fame. A cultural thinker and agitator, Elliott created the online Browse by Month magazine The Rumpus as a way to Photo by Timothy Faust. carry on passionate conversations with other writers about books, music, art, film and comics. It was only a matter of time before he took the discussion offline and into a bar — and thus the monthly shindig at the Make-Out Room was born. JetBlue Deals Culture Club If you show up, expect a roller coaster ride of spoken word and theater. The night I went, the Flights, cruises and vacations — oh line-up careened from Justine Sharrock's intense reading of her newest Guantanamo expose to my! Find great deals on all JetBlue the heated rhythms of slam poet Lauren Wheeler to hilarious comedy by Janine Brito. Throw in Travel Deals. the acoustic tunes of Ember Schrag and the razor-sharp moves of expert hula hooper Richard Make travel planning easy. Book a Porter and you've got yourself a show. JetBlue Getaways vacation package today. And for culture vultures hungry for more, The Girl from Empanada usually shows up to peddle her golden-crusted pockets of yum. Check out great deals on flights coast to coast. About Arts & Minds Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between.

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Previously in Arts & Minds Catch the Divine DJs at Episcodisco By Jeanne Storck July 26, 2010 at 8:00 AM With its soaring Gothic towers and stained glass windows, San Francisco's Grace Cathedral (get directions) sits perched like a jewel box atop Nob Hill. You might hurry by thinking it's just another church — but think again. This house of worship hosts killer arts events that even the staunchest non-believers turn up for. Search Articles Grace Cathedral started out as a clapboard church for rowdy miners Search coming soon! during the California Gold Rush. And while today its digs are much more Browse by Category (pardon the pun) graceful, the parish still prides itself on being open and Browse by Month inclusive and a tad unconventional. Photo by Jeanne Storck. The parish welcomes all, actively promotes AIDS activism and gay rights — and even boasts an altar designed by '80s pop artist Keith Haring.

JetBlue Deals Disco Fever To catch the Cathedral's innovative programming, stop in for Episcodisco — a soiree of completely secular experimental music and art that puts those blessed acoustics and vaulted Flights, cruises and vacations — oh spaces to good use. Reverend Bertie Pearson — an Episcopalian priest who graduated from my! Find great deals on all JetBlue Berkeley and worked as a DJ in a previous life — gave up house music for the house of the Travel Deals. Lord. But he wanted to keep his connection with the local creative scene alive, so in early 2009 Make travel planning easy. Book a he launched Episcodisco. JetBlue Getaways vacation package today. Once a month, curatorial art duo Paradise Now lines up visual artists and Pearson scours the Bay Area for DJs and musicians to put together a night of otherworldly sights and sounds. On a Check out great deals on flights recent evening, artist Oliver DiCicco set his machine sculpture, Loose Cannons, wandering coast to coast. across the Cathedral's famous labyrinth, its legs flailing like an upturned spider while singer Chelsea Wolfe filled the lofty arches with her echoing Gothic folk tunes. Show up for this monthly divine 'Disco and it might just send some spiritual shivers down your spine.

Permalink Email this Art Al Fresco at Headlands Center for the Arts By Jeanne Storck August 16, 2010 at 8:00 AM Locals and tourists alike head to the wild rolling hills of the Marin Headlands for gorgeous city views, beaches, and hiking, but few expect to find some of the Bay Area’s best art out in the middle of nowhere.

The Headlands Center for the Arts (get directions), housed in 1907-era Search Articles buildings from old Fort Barry, offers local and international artists an isolated, natural setting where they Search coming soon! can get away from it all and practice their craft — with some pretty Browse by Category breathtaking vistas for inspiration.

Browse by Month Wild at Art Photo by Rebecca Lehrer. The public can take a peek at all the creativity going on inside the studios every third Sunday of the month or stop by the Project Space anytime Tuesday through Friday afternoon to witness works-in-progress. Look for the Center’s biggest event — the tri-annual JetBlue Deals Open Studios during which artists meet and greet and show off their work. For a unique experience, visitors can sign up for “Dinners at Headlands,” a program that Flights, cruises and vacations — oh features talks, panels and presentations preceded by a communal meal in the Mess Hall, a my! Find great deals on all JetBlue lovely space redesigned by noted artist Ann Hamilton. Check the calendar for details. Travel Deals. Make travel planning easy. Book a JetBlue Getaways vacation package About Arts & Minds today. Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Check out great deals on flights Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, coast to coast. performing arts, and everything in between.

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Previously in Arts & Minds Art to Dye For at the de Young Art Al Fresco at Headlands Center for the Arts Rock Out at the Outside Lands Music Festival Put on Your Design Mind at TechnoCRAFT Gaze at Amazing Art in SF Storefronts By Jeanne Storck August 03, 2010 at 9:00 AM When the economy went south in late 2008, empty storefronts began popping up along San Francisco streets with "for sale" and "for lease" signs. Rather than let these darkened shops sit and linger like some moody uninvited guest, the San Francisco Arts Commission and Mayor Gavin Newsom's team worked together to launch "Art in Storefronts," a program Search Articles inviting local artists to turn vacant window displays into eye-catching Search coming soon! installations.

Browse by Category Windows on the World The program launched in late 2009 Browse by Month and four San Francisco Photo by Jeanne Storck. neighborhoods have already rolled out the window dressing: the Mission, Bayview, Tenderloin and Central Market. The results are currently captivating residents and passersby. If you'd like to take a gander, download a map and head to Chinatown, the current JetBlue Deals nabe du jour. Finding each spot turns into a fun treasure hunt. On Grant Street, Cynthia Tom put together Chinatown's Childhood Memory Shop inviting Flights, cruises and vacations — oh Chinatown residents to lend her their photos and treasured objects. Lovely portraits from the my! Find great deals on all JetBlue 1930s and 1940s sit side by side with notes, journals, passports, dishes, Buddha statues and Travel Deals. lacquered boxes. Peer deep into the space for the white Chinese take-out containers hanging Make travel planning easy. Book a like ghostly fruit from the ceilings. JetBlue Getaways vacation package today. Over in Wentworth Alley, Robert Minervini has painted a mural, If These Walls Could Talk, that takes an imagined peek inside an old Chinese community center. The trompe l'oeil painting Check out great deals on flights features local figures — the owner of the Forbidden City nightclub, the Grant Avenue Follies coast to coast. ladies or a fan dancer at the Lion's Den. A speaker hidden in the doorway whispers snippets of conversation from local residents that drift into the quiet space of the alley.

And don't miss the Mission district installation Ms. Teriosa. Kelly Ording and Jet Martinez transformed an empty storefront into a fortune telling business. Passersby can drop a question about their future into the mailbox and Ording and Martinez display the answers in the window within a week.

Created in 1966 when industrialist Search Articles and art collector Avery Brundage donated his Asian art collection to the city, the museum moved into Search coming soon! stunning new digs in 2003. Prize- winning architect Gae Aulenti Browse by Category performed a miracle when she transformed the old Beaux-Art Browse by Month building that once housed the public Photo courtesy of the Asian Art Museum library into a modern, light-filled showcase for the collection.

Bright Lights, Big City JetBlue Deals The exhibit now on view — "Shanghai" — offers the perfect excuse to visit. Scheduled to coincide with the 2010 World Expo, "Shanghai" celebrates the most dynamic city in China. The megalopolis boasts the world's largest port, a bustling population of 20 million, and a shockingly Flights, cruises and vacations — oh futuristic skyline. Check out this exhibit for a closer look at the source of all this cosmopolitan my! Find great deals on all JetBlue energy. Travel Deals. Make travel planning easy. Book a The show reveals Shanghai through its art, tracing the history of a city once known as the "Paris JetBlue Getaways vacation package of the East" from its 19th century European-influenced past up to its post-modern present. Ogle today. colonial trappings like a British teapot whose handles morph into dragons or chic Deco furniture and elegant 1930s Qi Pao gowns. Pass on to the boldly colored propaganda posters with the Check out great deals on flights smiling faces of Mao Zedong and happy workers before finishing up with a selection of coast to coast. contemporary paintings and video.

Permalink Email this Filed under Arts & Minds, Civic Center Fast as You Pan: See Peter Pan in San Francisco By Jeanne Storck April 27, 2010 at 3:00 PM Theater fans, prepare for some hi- tech drama. This month, San Francisco welcomes the U.S. premiere of a CGI-enhanced production of Peter Pan.

The two-and-a-half hour spectacle is fresh off a 2009 larger-than-life London run that took over the Search Articles grounds of Kensington Gardens. For its San Francisco premiere, the Pan production makes a dramatic Search coming soon! entrance on a spot near the city's waterfront (get directions). Browse by Category Never Say Neverland Browse by Month Picture this: a crowd of 1,350 Image illustrated by Steve Rawlings and designed by Feast spectators seated under a massive Creative. Image provided by SHN San Francisco. big top tent. In the very center, a circular stage roils with 22 actors and a parade of puppets. When the lights go down, video scenery floods the walls of the dome and JetBlue Deals the audience plunges into the drama of Peter, Wendy, Captain Hook and Tinkerbell. Surrounded by a 360-degree panorama, spectators will feel like they're flying from the rooftops of 19th- century London through the fantastical landscapes of Neverland. Flights, cruises and vacations — oh my! Find great deals on all JetBlue In the tent foyer before the show, visitors can browse an exhibit about Peter Pan author J.M. Travel Deals. Barrie, discover the real-life story behind the fairytale, or peruse a history of the many stage and Make travel planning easy. Book a film productions inspired by the Peter Pan adventure. Video interviews with the creative team as JetBlue Getaways vacation package well as a mind-boggling look at the 360 degree CGI technology offer a glimpse of the show's today. theatrical magic in the making. Die-hard drama fans who just can't get enough of the Lost Boys legend can sign up for a 75-minute behind-the-scenes tour. Check out great deals on flights coast to coast. About Arts & Minds Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between.

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Previously in Arts & Minds Smile for the Camera at RayKo Photo Center By Jeanne Storck May 18, 2010 at 11:00 AM Admit it: most of us snap photos only half-knowing how our cameras work. The folks at RayKo Photo (get directions) want to get everyone clicking away like pros. Located in a vast, loft-like warehouse space in SoMa, RayKo serves as a community center for photographers who come in to print and develop their pictures. The staff also offers Search Articles classes and tutorials in both digital and manual photography. Search coming soon! Hot Shots Browse by Category If you need to brush on up your digital travel photography, try a one- Browse by Month on-one session to learn the ins-and- Image courtesy of RayKo Photo Center outs of your camera. Or if you're curious about that old manual Nikon you inherited, dive into a workshop on the now antique world of darkroom photography.

JetBlue Deals Even if you're not an aspiring shutterbug, stop by the gallery for shows by local as well as international artists, or check out the vintage photography equipment that decorates the space. If you want to take a little bit of San Francisco home with you, buy a historical photo of the city Flights, cruises and vacations — oh printed up by RayKo staff from old 19th and 20th-century negatives. my! Find great deals on all JetBlue Travel Deals. If you know a photo or design geek, you can score them one of the many toy cameras for sale Make travel planning easy. Book a in the store. And before you leave, don't forget to take a photo in the vintage photo booth or buy JetBlue Getaways vacation package a piece of miniature art from the "Artomat" — a converted cigarette vending machine that for $5 today. shoots out a cigarette pack-sized piece of art with a delightful kerplunk. Check out great deals on flights coast to coast. About Arts & Minds Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between.

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Previously in Arts & Minds Art to Dye For at the de Young The San Francisco Mime Troupe Says It Out Loud By Jeanne Storck August 24, 2010 at 9:00 AM Say the word "mime" and people snigger and think Marcel Marceau chasing invisible butterflies. Lose that image and meet the Tony-award- winning San Francisco Mime Troupe, a local institution. First off, these folks talk. They started out in 1959 with some mime elements and, while that eventually fell by the wayside, the name stuck. Today their dramas Search Articles deliver big messages loud and clear.

Search coming soon! Act Up If you like your theater with bite, you'll Browse by Category like SF Mime Troupe. They take left- leaning, rabble-rousing stances on Browse by Month political issues (welcome to San Image courtesy of San Francisco Mime Troupe. Francisco) but wrap the drama in outsize humor, over-the-top costuming and big song and dance numbers. In the horror-flick-inspired "1600 Transylvania Avenue" corporate vampires suck blood from the White House or in "Too Big To Fail" the story of JetBlue Deals evil bankers gets retold as an African folk tale. Whatever the topic — globalization, the war in Iraq, gentrification — expect the troupe to deliver Flights, cruises and vacations — oh each little history lesson with lots of passion and color. And the most radical and wonderful thing my! Find great deals on all JetBlue about the whole show? Admission is free. They perform in parks and open-air theaters around Travel Deals. the Bay Area. Check the schedule for their Dolores Park shows over Labor Day. Make travel planning easy. Book a JetBlue Getaways vacation package today. About Arts & Minds Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient Check out great deals on flights sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In coast to coast. Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between.

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Previously in Arts & Minds The San Francisco Mime Troupe Says It Out Loud You Say You Want a (Classical) Revolution Art to Dye For at the de Young Taking the Long View at Long Now Foundation By Jeanne Storck June 15, 2010 at 9:00 AM Want to learn how to think big? The folks at Long Now Foundation can help. A uniquely San Francisco project of three experimental thinkers — computer pioneer Danny Hillis, counterculture innovator Stewart Brand; and musician Brian Eno — the foundation encourages people to think creatively about the future. And when they say future, they don't Search Articles mean next year or even 2050. They mean 10,000 years from now. Attend Search coming soon! one of their lectures or events and you'll find plenty to ponder. Browse by Category Long Now argues that society lives Browse by Month for the short term, hooked on rapid Photo by Rolfe Horn courtesy of The Long Now Foundation. bits and sound bytes and ever- shrinking news and product cycles. To snap the public out of it — and into thinking about the bigger picture — Long Now decided to build a 10,000-year clock that bongs once a century and twice a millennia. JetBlue Deals Clock Watchers To provoke out-of-the-box ideas, Long Now hosts lectures giving you a chance to hear from the Flights, cruises and vacations — oh likes of food writer Michael Pollan on the future of farming, or Mayor Gavin Newsom on building my! Find great deals on all JetBlue sustainable cities. Gearheads will love checking out prototypes of the clock with all its crazy cogs Travel Deals. and wheelwork at the Long Now space at the Fort Mason Center. Make travel planning easy. Book a JetBlue Getaways vacation package today. About Arts & Minds Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient Check out great deals on flights sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In coast to coast. Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between.

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Previously in Arts & Minds Art to Dye For at the de Young Art Al Fresco at Headlands Center for the Arts Rock Out at the Outside Lands Music Festival Viva la Creatividad at Mission Cultural Center By Jeanne Storck June 29, 2010 at 9:00 AM Taking a stroll along 24th Street in the Mission offers a lively glimpse of the neighborhood's strong Latino roots — smell the pan dulce at La Victoria, down some carnitas tacos at La Palma Mexicatessen or pop into Precita Eyes for a tour of the vivid wall murals that dot the area.

Search Articles Salsa Caliente For even more Latin color, head to the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Search coming soon! Arts (get directions), a cultural space and creative neighborhood force Browse by Category since 1977. Drop in on a dance class and pick up some muy caliente Browse by Month moves. Take your pick from a parade Photo provided by Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. of styles: tango, samba, flamenco, merengue, bachata, cumbia, Puerto Rican bomba or capoiera. Instructors like Maisa Duque, former Carnaval SF queen and King Theo, a former SF Carnaval king can teach you how to salsa with the best of them. JetBlue Deals The artistically inclined can sign up for a silkscreening class taught by masters of Latino graphic arts like Jesus Barraza, Melanie Cervantes, Calixto Mejia and Juan Fuentes. The Center's Flights, cruises and vacations — oh Mission Grafica Archive has built a collection of more than 4,000 Latino and Chicano posters — my! Find great deals on all JetBlue the largest in the country. Travel Deals. Make travel planning easy. Book a Fiesta Flavor JetBlue Getaways vacation package The Center hosts a yearlong parade of fiestas. This September, the SF Latino Film Festival today. marks two landmark anniversaries: the centennial of the Mexican Revolution and the bicentennial of Mexican independence from Spain. So look for a heavyweight lineup of Mexican Check out great deals on flights movies and directors. Check for Carnaval festivities in May or Dia de los Muertos in November. coast to coast. And for one of the Center's more unusual events, drop in on the Mole to Die For contest in November for some real Mission flavor.

Permalink Email this Put on Your Design Mind at TechnoCRAFT By Jeanne Storck August 09, 2010 at 8:00 AM A new exhibit, "TechnoCRAFT: Hackers, Modders, Fabbers, Tweakers and Design in the Age of Individuality," celebrates products that engage users in the design process. San Francisco with its DIY spirit and superabundance of geek geniuses happens to be the perfect place for this show, so while you're in town check out the creativity fest at Search Articles Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (get directions). Search coming soon! Yves Behar, founder of industrial Browse by Category design firm fuseproject, curates the show — you may have heard of his Browse by Month most famous invention, an innovative Photo by Justin Korn. $100 laptop for the world's poorest schoolchildren. At Yerba Buena, he's gathered together some of the best fabs, mods and tweaks to hit the consumer market in recent years. JetBlue Deals Hacker Heaven On Ikeahacker.com, shoppers from all over the globe proudly post photos of IKEA inventions Flights, cruises and vacations — oh where they've jettisoned those cryptic instructions and come up with new uses — turning my! Find great deals on all JetBlue Nackten shower curtains into reusable lunchbags or Malm nightstands into computer Travel Deals. workstations. Make travel planning easy. Book a JetBlue Getaways vacation package Other examples include Puma's Mongolian Shoe BBQ Web site where sneaker fans can pick today. colors and shapes and build personalized kickers. At Threadless.com, budding couturiers post their t-shirt creations and vote on the ones that should be printed. And the makers of the Eames Check out great deals on flights Hack give purists a shock by turning an iconic (not to mention expensive) piece of furniture into coast to coast. a child's highchair.

So head to Yerba Buena and get in on all the DIY action. When you visit, stop off at the pop-up shop in the lobby curated by Zinc Details — one of San Francisco's leading design emporiums — where you can pick up products on display in the show. Or sign up for PlayCRAFT, an interactive game inviting you to become a hacker for a day and dream up your own killer object.

About Arts & Minds Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between. Talk Is Deep at The Commonwealth Club By Jeanne Storck June 07, 2010 at 9:00 AM Though it may sound like a stuffy old men's society complete with leather armchairs and brandy snifters, San Francisco's Commonwealth Club (get directions) is in fact one of the liveliest venues around for public debates on everything from food to politics to art to the environment.

Search Articles A sort of social club for brainiacs, The Commonwealth Club has hosted talks by big thinkers and doers since Search coming soon! 1903 with a list of famous guests that includes Teddy Roosevelt, Martin Browse by Category Luther King, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Browse by Month Image courtesy of the Commonwealth Club. Get Smart Stop by their SoMa space nowadays and you might catch legendary chef Alice Waters debating food politics with Slow Food pro Anya Fernald or Boing Boing's Mark Frauenfelder talking about how to DIY (do it yourself) with JetBlue Deals Mythbuster's Adam Savage. At the end of each panel, audience members can jump in with questions. Flights, cruises and vacations — oh If you want to see what's on the Bay Area's collective mind, try the INFORUM series (one of the my! Find great deals on all JetBlue most popular tickets on the menu). Aimed at 20- and 30-somethings, these talks touch on the Travel Deals. hot topics du jour such as the future of Facebook or conversations with young, local up-and- Make travel planning easy. Book a coming entrepreneurs. You'll walk away feeling oh-so-much-smarter. And if you can't make it to JetBlue Getaways vacation package the Club this trip, you can always take a gander at the full videos of past events on YouTube. today. Check out great deals on flights About Arts & Minds coast to coast. Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between.

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Previously in Arts & Minds Art to Dye For at the de Young Writers with Drinks: One Part Alcohol, One Part Art By Jeanne Storck July 27, 2010 at 8:00 AM Writers with Drinks operates under the notion that any literary soiree gets exponentially more interesting when you ply your writers with vodka tonics and gimlets before you hand off the mike.

Back in 2001, writer Charlie Jane Anders set out to create a new kind Search Articles of reading that jettisoned the idea of a hushed audience hanging reverentially on each carefully-crafted Search coming soon! word, replacing it with a lively cabaret night drawing writers from a Browse by Category smorgasbord of genres — poetry to sci-fi to comedy to kids books. Browse by Month Photo by Liz Henry. Think and Drink Held once a month at the Make-Out Room (get directions), a bar favored by SF's writerly set, Anders mines her voluminous address book to put together a line-up of big names and newly minted talent. As a larger-than-life MC, JetBlue Deals Anders sets each reader up with a lively intro laced with wacky humor and personal anecdotes. On a recent evening, heavyweight storyteller Tobias Wolff mixed it up with slam poet Taylor Flights, cruises and vacations — oh Mali, New York Times bestselling novelist Lev Grossman and NPR contributor Andrew Lam. my! Find great deals on all JetBlue Since San Francisco doesn't slack when it comes to local and national celeb authors, Writers Travel Deals. with Drinks often sparkles with names like Lemony Snicket, Armistead Maupin, Andrew Sean Make travel planning easy. Book a Greer, Ayelet Waldman, Vendela Vida and Michelle Tea. So stop in, listen to some fierce words, JetBlue Getaways vacation package and chase it with stiff drink. today. Check out great deals on flights About Arts & Minds coast to coast. Everyone likes some form of art. From a pop song with a memorable hook to an ancient sculpture that survived thanks to its exquisite workmanship, art appeals to the mind and soul. In Arts & Minds, we suggest upcoming events and other activities in San Francisco in the fine arts, performing arts, and everything in between.

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Previously in Arts & Minds Art to Dye For at the de Young