Night + Day

wednesday
january 24
Mr. Mouth Along with Karen Black's amazing cabaret turn, A View of the Heart (which featured a Wagner-esque cover of "Eleanor Rigby"), James Lecesne's Word of Mouth was a hit at 1995's "Solo Mio Festival." Lecesne plays seven characters in four connected stories, though Frankie Salzano -- who talks to the dead via shortwave radio -- and his beautician mother are at the show's core. A smaller character named Trevor recently became the source material for an Academy Award-winning short; currently, Lecesne is at work on a screenplay featuring another of his Word of Mouth creations. Lecesne's one-man show starts at 8 p.m. at Bayfront Theatre, Fort Mason Center, Third Floor, Bldg B, S.F. Tickets are $14-16; call 392-4400. Word of Mouth continues through Feb. 18.

Home Is Not a Place Displaced characters are the heart of The English Patient's narrative, perhaps reflecting author Michael Ondaatje's international experience: Born in Sri Lanka, he spent his childhood in England before moving to Canada, where he writes and teaches today. He stops by S.F. for a reading/talk presented by City Arts & Lectures; a benefit for the Women's Foundation, the evening begins at 8 p.m. at Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness, S.F. Tickets are $16; call 392-4400.

Louise, Part 1 Louise Bourgeois is best-known for her sculptures, huge object-metaphors for various sexual and psychological tensions. Still, the 84-year-old artist (wearing a feathery jacket, she holds a huge phallus in a famous Mapplethorpe portrait) has produced abstract and figurative sketches for more than a half-century. Often, Bourgeois' 2-D creations are groundwork for large-scale 3-D visions, but some -- her '40s-era experiments with the stillness/motion of line patterns, for example -- work on their own terms. "Louise Bourgeois: Drawings," a chronological retrospective with 130 works, is on view from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at University Art Museum, 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. Admission is $4-6; call (510) 642-5188. The exhibition continues through March 24.

thursday
january 25
Louise, Part 2 Spiders are a dominant symbol in Louise Bourgeois' recent art. In Spider, a 10-by-21-foot metal mommy longlegs stands before a glowing, brightly colored suite of arachnid-obsessed etchings. You can see the sculpture from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Gallery Paule Anglim, 14 Geary, S.F. Free; call 433-2710. Spider will be on display through March 2.

Peechee Keen Berkeley's the Peechees have a few good singles with great cover art to their credit. Now they have a great LP with great cover art: Do the Math on Kill Rock Stars, produced by Mark Trombino (who has worked with Rocket From the Crypt). The strengths of the group's earlier recordings -- Chris Appelgren's cryptopoetics; Molly (ex-Bratmobile) Neuman's staccato beats -- have gotten stronger; likewise Carlos "Guitarlos" Ca–edo's riffs are louder (which means better). And "Tired Imagery" has this verse: "You got that tattoo/ So what you gonna do with a tattoo?/ You gonna/ You're gonna get it removed." Ouch. Punk + Rock = The Peechees at a concert/release party for Do the Math; the Donnas and Citizen's Utilities open at 9:30 p.m. at the Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., S.F. Tickets are $5; call 621-4455.

Five Alive Part of a nationwide series of concerts, the S.F. "Grammy Showcase" is the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences' way of tapping into the megabucks "alternative" music industry at a grass-roots level. Five bands will play: jokesters the Clowns (who wear clown costumes, of course); Porcelain; the Silverjacks; the Sunshine (who utilize the musical saw); and the wacky, theatrical Billy Nayer Show. The "winner" moves on to a "National Showcase" concert in L.A. and a possible deal with Atlantic Records. The music starts at 8 p.m. at the Transmission Theatre, 11th St. & Folsom, S.F. Free; 861-6906.

Insane in the Brain In the rainbow-bright 1993 Pixelvision treat Joe-Joe, Cecelia Dougherty and Leslie Singer portray Joe Orton -- if he were a pair of lesbians surviving on macaroni-and-cheese in a Mission apartment. Dougherty and Singer are a great comedy team -- the former playing Peabody to the latter's Sherman -- but in 1995's My Failure to Assimilate, Dougherty goes solo. The film -- along with videos by Gary Hill and Janice Tanaka -- is part of the second installment of "Language and Disorder: Video Screenings on Madness, Deviance, and Mental Illness." The show starts at 8 p.m. at New Langton Arts, 1246 Folsom, S.F. Tickets are $5-7; call 626-5416.

Border Crossings TV talk shows, self-realization seminars, hypnotic lounge acts, and ethnic fashion shows converge in The Dangerous Border Game, a new performance conceived and directed by Guillermo Gómez-Pe–a and Roberto Sifuentes. Bay Area artists Nao Bustamente and Sara Shelton Mann collaborated on the show, which navigates the touchy terrain "between political correctness and compassion fatigue." Run for the border at 8 p.m. at Theater Artaud, 450 Florida, S.F. Tickets are $12.50-18.50; call 621-7797. The Dangerous Border Game continues through Feb. 4.

friday
january 26
Multicultural Personality Disorder In the award-winning Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992, Anna Deavere Smith portrays nearly 40 real-life individuals -- men, women, and children -- involved in the uprising that followed the verdict in the Rodney King trial. Based on interviews conducted by Smith, the show's characters include Reginald Denny, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and others. A new production of Twilight -- with video footage and music composed/performed by Joshua Redman -- previews at 8 p.m. at Marines Memorial Theatre, 609 Sutter, S.F. Tickets are $21.50-34; call 845-4700. Twilight continues through March 17.