Night+Day

wednesday
may 8
Demy Reigns A French town is recast in pastels in Jacques Demy's 1964 musical fantasy Les Parapluies de Cherbourg (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg). A work particularly notable for its firsts -- dialogue done entirely in song, the debut of Catherine Deneuve -- Umbrellas weds French New Wave to Hollywood romance, as a shop girl (Deneuve) falls for a gas station attendant (Nino Castelnuovo). The film was nominated for five Oscars and won a Palme d'Or, but was unavailable for over 20 years, until Deneuve; Demy's wife, Agnes Varda; and the French Ministry of Culture began a campaign to restore a recently found 35mm print. Michel Legrand remixed his original score into Dolby stereo for the film, which plays through May 16 at the Castro Theater, 429 Castro, S.F. $4-6.50; call 621-6120.

Drag City Arturo Galster (aka Patsy Cline, aka Chesty Baker) ushers in the big 4-0 with a fancy cocktail party, at which Minnie Pearl Necklace, the Fishstix, Connie Champagne, Midori, and others will entertain. This would be the place to break out the rhinestones and false eyelashes; fetishwear is also encouraged. The first 99 people to arrive, or guests bearing gifts, are eligible to win free makeup, show tickets, and sex toys. The party, a benefit for the S.F. Sex Info Line, is held at 9 p.m. at "DragStrip," located in the DNA Lounge, 375 11th St., S.F. Admission is $7 in drag, $11 out; call 331-9595 ext. 300.

No Escaping Destiny Writer/performer Pauline Pfandler's inner children duke it out in her one-woman show Born Guilty. Pfandler mines her experience creating a modern opera, and the voices in her head that told her she would probably fail (which became representative of the self-deprecating messages many women send themselves). These voices are manifested in the Thug ("You're fat, you're dumb, you're ugly") and Peggy ("I'm fine! I'm fine! I'm fine!"). Born Guilty opens at 8 p.m. (continuing Thursdays-Sundays through June 2) at the Bayfront Theater, Fort Mason Center, Building B, S.F. Admission is $15; call 776-8999.

thursday
may 9
Activist Exchange Hell-raisers take note: City Arts & Lectures has paired Angela Davis and Elizabeth Martinez for an onstage conversation, as part of its "On Art and Politics" series. Davis is best known for her involvement with the Black Panthers and her term as a political prisoner two decades ago, but she has remained active since her release, publishing articles and writing books; she is now researching the ways prison shakes up gender, race, and power. Martinez, no stranger to social upheaval, is a veteran of the civil rights movement and the founder of the Chicano movement paper El Grito del Norte; her new book is the bilingual pictorial history 500 Years of Chicano History. The confab, a fund-raiser for the Women's Foundation, begins at 8 p.m. in the Herbst Theater, 401 Van Ness, S.F. Tickets are $16; call 392-4400.

Galactic Groove DJ Cheb i Sabbah opens aural doors as he spins discs from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East for "1,002 Nights." The show also features live appearances by Pakistani ghazal (light classical) singers Sukhawat and Rifatt Ali Khan and the Persian-born septet Axiom of Choice, who experiment with radif, the classical Persian repertoire, to hauntingly beautiful, richly percussive effect. "1,002 Nights" takes place at 9:30 p.m. at the Sound Factory, 525 Harrison, S.F. Admission is $15; call 789-8467. Across the bay, Afrasia fuses Afro-Haitian and Cuban dance music with jazz, Hindu, and Sufi devotional music, kathak, and odissi at 8 p.m. at La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck, Berkeley. Admission is $8; call (510) 849-2568, ext. 15.

Hicks in Space Hayseeds and sci-fi meet B-movies in Hillbillies on the Moon, a musical comedy created by Elvis Herselvis (Leigh Crow) and scored by the Buck Tooth Varmints' Annie Toone. An all-woman drag king cast plays out the story of the Evil Queen of the Moon's attempt to overtake the Earth with drone men, and the hillbilly brothers and the crazy hermaphroditic sidekick who try to stop her. The show opens at 8 p.m. (continuing Wednesdays-Sundays through June 8) at Theater Rhinoceros, 2926 16th St., S.F. Admission is $12-18; call 861-5079.

We're Here, We're Queer, We're Amped Glaminatrix Pussy Tourette hosts the Gay/Lesbian American Music Awards showcase "Come Out and Play," which debuts in San Francisco and travels on to Chicago, New York, and L.A. Pansy Division's Jon Ginoli and the Hail Marys head up the rock contingent; they are joined by blues rockers Sweet Loretta and women's music artist Alix Dobkin. Doors open at 8 p.m., music begins at 9 p.m. at V/SF, 278 11th St., S.F. Admission is $7; call (800) 956-5262.

Harry Serenade Before he was an actor he was a singer, but if Harry Dean Stanton's characters have been dark and harsh, word is that his rootsy musical repertoire is nothing of the kind. The Blue Bell Wranglers and the Rhythm Lords open for a guitar-wielding Stanton at 9 p.m. at the DNA Lounge, 375 11th St., S.F. Admission is $10; call 626-1409.

My Life With the Other White Meat In her treatise on people and relationships, Women Who Run With Swine: Myths and Stories of a Lesbian Gal, Monica Grant combines monologue with musical parody. It's here that you'll hear "Co-Dependence Polka," sung in an alto that has made Grant a hot commodity on the women's music circuit. The show opens at 10 p.m. to benefit the Names Project (continuing Thursdays-Saturdays through June 1) at 450 Geary Studio Theater, 450 Geary, S.F. Admission is $12-25; call 673-1172.