This week’s Curator: Annalee Newitz of Our Opinions Are Correct
If you’d like to have a color fight, watch anime on an aircraft carrier, or learn about how the San Francisco Gold Rush brought escargot to the city, you are in luck. Because you can do all of that this week, plus learn about resurrecting wooly mammoths using ancient DNA and why Emeryville is a den of corruption (at least, according to its former mayor). It’s all part of welcoming spring to the Bay Area with science, politics, and dancing.
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COMING UP THIS WEEK:
Monarchs in Crisis – Film and Talk
The Presidio Trust is hosting a screening of a new documentary about monarch butterflies, whose population has declined to almost nothing in California. These incredible creatures make a multi-generational migration, and the film focuses on the butterfly generation that flies from California to Mexico. There will be a conversation with monarch experts after the film.
THURS, MAR 21, 7-8:30PM, Presidio Officers’ Club, SF, FREE.
Tenderloin Cocktail Culture: A History and Tasting
The California Historical Society brings you an evening devoted to the unique cocktail culture of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, from the 1920s-1950s. Based on the richly-illustrated book The Match Book: Tenderloin Historical Ephemera Project, you’ll get a guided tour of an era that heavily influenced today’s cocktail culture. Shana Farrell, author of Bay Area Cocktails: A History of Culture, Community and Craft, will be on hand to offer a “guided tasting,” plus offer tips on how to recreate historic drinks for your tippling friends.
THURS, MAR 21, 7-9PM, Tenderloin Museum, SF, $10
Premiere: Genesis 2.0
Check out the premiere of Genesis 2.0, a fascinating documentary about the people who hunt for wooly mammoth carcasses on the New Siberian Islands–and what happened when they found one so well-preserved that it could bleed. Directed by Christian Frei and Maxim Arbugaev, this gorgeously-filmed story takes us to the remote islands where animals who died 15,000 years ago are still frozen in the tundra. And then we meet the geneticists who want to extract DNA from a well-preserved mammoth and clone it. What could go wrong?
FRI-MON MAR 22-25, Roxie Theater, SF; $12, seniors $9
TifFAUXny Snails — A Tale of Gold and Glass
Oakland artist Kasey Smith has put together an interactive historical adventure for you that sounds utterly bonkers and incredible. It’s about how two events in 1848–the discovery of gold in the Sierras and the birth of Tiffany art nouveau lamp-maker Louis Comfort Tiffany–shaped San Francisco’s future. Weaving together tales of the city’s nineteenth century restaurant scene (including a man who wanted to bring escargot to California), disappointed fathers, artistic creation, and failure, Smith explores how 1848 changed the geography, ecology, and psychology of San Francisco. This event includes a gallery show, light tea, and walking tour.
SAT MAR 23, 11AM-2PM 360 5th St., SF, $15. Note: walk is 2 hours on flat terrain.
Holi Festival!
Dance party experts Non Stop Banghra have been performing and teaching Punjabi folk dances to modern beats for 14 years now in the Bay Area. This weekend you can join them for a celebration of Holi, the Indian celebration of spring where everybody throws color at each other (yes, the powdered color is non-toxic, kid-friendly, and provided to you at the event). Wear clothes you don’t mind getting colorful, throw some color, learn to dance, watch a performance from the Dholrhythms Dance Company, get henna’d, and enjoy this awesome spring tradition.
SAT & SUN MAR 23 & 24: SAT 3-8PM, SUN 1-6PM, 7th West, Oakland; $20
Carrier Con
It’s the first annual pop culture convention at the USS Hornet Museum, and it promises admission to the famous ship as well as gaming, screenings of anime and films, panels, artists, cosplay, and even a haunted tour! Come enjoy your favorite geeky culture on a giant aircraft carrier.
SAT MAR 23, 10AM-5PM, USS Hornet Sea Air and Space Museum, Alameda, $25 adult, $15 youth
East Bay Nerd Nite
Nerd Nite is always a total blast, and the East Bay edition will feature: former Emeryville mayor John Bauters on how Emeryville became a den of corruption; molecular biophysicist Louise Lassalle on how to photograph the process of photosynthesis; and Watershed Witness Tours founding guide Joshua Halpern giving us a visual tour of California’s watersheds, which are currently in a major crisis. Politics, science, and nature! You can’t miss it. But if you do, you can attend San Jose’s Nerd Nite on March 26.
MON MAR 25, 7PM doors, 7:30 show; Club 21, Oakland, $8 online or $10 at the door. (Note: this show is 21+)