Born to a simple Pennsylvania Quaker farming family, John Bartram is now remembered as the father of American botany. Together with his son William Bartram, an exceptional artist and botanist, he explored the East Coast wilderness in the 18th century and gathered specimens that made him the envy of collectors worldwide. One admirer, George III, named him the king's botanist for North America. William also earned royal titles: During his four-year journey through the South, he was dubbed Puc Puggy (The Flower Hunter) by a Seminole chieftain. His work, including unparalleled accounts of the American landscape, was read by writers like Wordsworth and Coleridge. Carol Woodin, exhibitions director of the American Society of Botanical Artists, is presenting The Legacy of the Bartrams, a lecture exploring their impact on botany, horticulture, and art, in conjunction with "Following in the Bartrams' Footsteps." This is the only West Coast appearance of "Following," an exquisite exhibit of 44 original artworks based on the Bartrams' discoveries.
The Legacy begins at 10 a.m. and the exhibit runs through Feb. 15. More
For a city flooded with artists that doubles as a mecca for the queer community, San Francisco seems to sometimes have trouble letting go of the formalities of a professional art and performance world. Limited gallery time and space mean carefully selected artists are expected to put out polished work, leaving little room for taking major risks. Kolmel WithLove founded The News, a monthly evening of queer performance, providing a space at SOMArts that spotlights performance pieces, experiments, and works-in-progress. As curator, she has few requirements other than the 10-minute time limit, choosing pieces she herself might find potentially brilliant or even terrible, giving everyone room for experimentation and growth. Among this month’s featured performers is Yvonne “Fly” Onakeme Etaghene, a Nigerian poet and self-described “dyke of a different caliber” who discusses queer Africa. Joining her will be actor Anthony Julius Williams, known to explore issues of human justice and mass incarceration, a couple of acrobats, dancers, videos artists, and WithLove herself, hosting with multimedia artist/badass Kevin Seaman. WithLove discourages renditions and new arrangements of established works to fit her show, so everything is new.More
December is almost over - the New Year is coming up and everyone is busy drying off from the rain or holiday shopping. Let's take a look at what's happened this month.
At this point, MGM’s 1939 The Wizard of Oz is so inextricably tangled up with L. Frank Baum's novels that any new adaptation of his work inevitably references the visual motifs, characterizations, and music of Victor Fleming's film.
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Despite its distributor's best efforts, Christian Petzold's Barbara was not nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2013 Oscars -- and even if it had made the cut, it probably wouldn't have bested Haneke's Amour.
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At the height of McCarthyism in 1954, the independent film Salt of the Earth was suppressed due to its sympathetic dramatization of a strike by Mexican-American zinc miners.
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One thing Craig Scott Rosebraugh's documentary Greedy Lying Bastards cannot be accused of is hiding its point of view; it's right there in the title.
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Born to a simple Pennsylvania Quaker farming family, John Bartram is now remembered as the father of American botany. Together with his son William Bartram, an exceptional artist and botanist, he explored the East Coast wilderness in the 18th century and gathered specimens that made him the envy of collectors worldwide. One admirer, George III, named him the king's botanist for North America. William also earned royal titles: During his four-year journey through the South, he was dubbed Puc Puggy (The Flower Hunter) by a Seminole chieftain. His work, including unparalleled accounts of the American landscape, was read by writers like Wordsworth and Coleridge. Carol Woodin, exhibitions director of the American Society of Botanical Artists, is presenting The Legacy of the Bartrams, a lecture exploring their impact on botany, horticulture, and art, in conjunction with "Following in the Bartrams' Footsteps." This is the only West Coast appearance of "Following," an exquisite exhibit of 44 original artworks based on the Bartrams' discoveries.
The Legacy begins at 10 a.m. and the exhibit runs through Feb. 15. More
For a city flooded with artists that doubles as a mecca for the queer community, San Francisco seems to sometimes have trouble letting go of the formalities of a professional art and performance world. Limited gallery time and space mean carefully selected artists are expected to put out polished work, leaving little room for taking major risks. Kolmel WithLove founded The News, a monthly evening of queer performance, providing a space at SOMArts that spotlights performance pieces, experiments, and works-in-progress. As curator, she has few requirements other than the 10-minute time limit, choosing pieces she herself might find potentially brilliant or even terrible, giving everyone room for experimentation and growth. Among this month’s featured performers is Yvonne “Fly” Onakeme Etaghene, a Nigerian poet and self-described “dyke of a different caliber” who discusses queer Africa. Joining her will be actor Anthony Julius Williams, known to explore issues of human justice and mass incarceration, a couple of acrobats, dancers, videos artists, and WithLove herself, hosting with multimedia artist/badass Kevin Seaman. WithLove discourages renditions and new arrangements of established works to fit her show, so everything is new.More
Joyce Carol Oates has nearly written more novels than five people can count on both hands, as well as works in other genres. She's been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize three times and is a winner of the National Book Award, the Prix Femina, a couple of O. Henry Awards, and the first Stone Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement. In 2010, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama. Yet, "Despite 40 novels published, she clearly yearns to say more," says Rose Tremain, writing for the U.K. Guardian. Told in multiracial voices, The Sacrifice examines the effects of sexual violence and racism on a community wholly absorbed in the spectacle that unfolds around it. For those who have never seen Oates read, this free event at City Lights is a sure thing.More
Another San Francisco family was terrorized last night in a home invasion robbery ā the fourth in the city since Friday. According to police reports, five unidentified men busted into a home on the unit block of Ervine Street lastMore >>
BART released some new results that show not-so-new feelings among BART riders: The trains are hot and crowded, and it sucks. Specifically, the results, which landed in the laps of t BART board members last week, indicated that riders feltMore >>
There are new reports this morning saying police are looking into whether the disembered body in the suitcase was that of 58-year-old Omar Shahwan, a friend and former roommate of murder suspect Mark Andrus. The Chron is reporting this morning thatMore >>
Update: SFPD says someone found a box marked with "ammunition" on the front and called the cops. Police shut down the area while bomb squads investigated. The cops are now clearing the scene and has determined that the box foundMore >>
Itās been a year since SAFE Bikes launched a campaign to reduce bike theft in San Francisco. SAFE was created to educate people about good locking techniques and about what to do when their bike is stolen. Maybe justMore >>
[Ed. note: As promised, we've been reaching out to the local hip-hop community to hear stories about The Jacka following the MC's tragic death last night following a shooting in Oakland. Here's a note from Zumbi of the legendary BayMore >>
[Ed. note: We'll be reaching out to the Bay Area hip-hop community to hear stories about The Jacka following the MC's tragic death last night following a shooting in Oakland. Here's the Town's own jazz/hip-hop impresario, Kev Choice ā whoMore >>
The East Bay rapper known as The Jacka ā born Dominic Newton, though he converted to Islam at a fairly young age and went by Shaheed Akbar for much of his adult life ā died Monday night of a gunshotMore >>
Sam Smith Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium The Union Jack flag hung on the balcony long before the show began. A few fans speaking nearby the stage barricade were from England, but every person in attendanceMore >>
"Music was around before the music business was around." ā J. Lewis If for nothing other than the glorious adventure of opening BlueSix, his slightly underground 24th Street storefront music venue, Joe Lewis is emblematic of the folk-influenced indie rockMore >>
You can always count on the Bachelor producers to amp up the drama when things are slaggy ā toss in a slag! Jordon returned this week, rueful and sober, sorry that she let booze get the best of her wayMore >>
It's pretty unusual these days to be a single 20 or 30-something and not have (or have had at one point) a Tinder account, but thereās still a stigma surrounding going on a Tinder date. A lot of people seemMore >>
However unlikely it is that you read the news this morning from a printed page, it's even less likely that it came to you in the hands of an cheeky teenage boy. Though paperboys no longer yell from streetMore >>
Welcome to Bay of the Living Dead, a monthly column about the horror genre of the past, present and future. Last summer, in the first installment of this column, we met the young, maverick filmmaker Ansel Faraj. Only 22 yearsMore >>
Sadly, we've seen many San Francisco bookstores fold like dog-eared pages ā Cody's Books, Stacey's Bookstore, A Different Light Bookstore, Abandoned Planet Bookstore, Acorn Books, Badger Books, Elsewhere Books, Fields Book Store, San Francisco Mystery Bookstore, Valencia Street Books,More >>
The Holding Company in the ever-confusing Embarcadero Center has been Bar Rescued and become The Patriot, an "American gastropub" with trappings to match (muskets, oil paintings, old flags, light up numbers that spell out 1776 as though it's aMore >>
Welcome to our new column about everything fast food. We've ignored our relationship with this food group for too long ā now, we'll be exploring our love/hate relationship with it. With V-Day right around the corner, we are all lookingMore >>
It's American Heart Month, which means it's time to get your heart into excellent shape by doing whatever's the opposite of what I do. So get up off th at couch, put down those delicious vegan cookies and take thisMore >>
I knew that if Americans were presented with this show it would get a loyal following. My scientific thesis on this is based primarily on my Facebook feed, but it's never let me down before. Anyway, we are nearlyMore >>
While San Francisco appears to be full of football fans, the whole Super Bowl experience isn't complete without endless snacks. Earlier this week we mentioned that 1.25 billion chicken wings will be consumed this Sunday, and now Mashable has a fewMore >>
Kevin Macdonald's Black Sea is a predictable but entertaining riff on the always-reliable Treasure of the Sierra Madre formula. Having recently been fired from his lifelong career as a submarine captain, Robinson (Jude Law) hears tell of a German U-boatMore >>
Folklore is life in Tomm Moore's animated masterpiece, a stunning visual tapestry and a simple story about how any family's grief for a lost loved one can be as deep and vast as a national mythology. Not that they're gloatingMore >>
Xavier Dolan's Mommy is an endurance test even by the standards of miserablist drama, a non-supernatural monster movie whose vision of a seriously dysfunctional relationship between a mother and her child makes The Babadook look that much better. Diane (AnneMore >>
In filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako's view, the eponymous Malian city barely looks like a city at all. It's all outskirts, a metaphorical ghost town with the fresh corpse of civilization rotting somewhere just offscreen. The place is increasingly in thrall toMore >>
Critics should be allowed to admit it when they just don't know anymore. As a title, is Vulva 3.0 amusing and intriguing, or seriously creepy? The subtitle Between Taboo and Fine-Tuning, which for all I know probably is a singleMore >>
Any bar that updates its draft beer list online more or less daily wins plaudits among serious beer aficionados, and Toronado Pub routinely pours Pliny the Elder those 50 weeks out of the year when Pliny the Younger hibernates.