Night & Day

Fire in the Sky Practice the Fourth of July drill at radio station KFOG's sixth annual Kaboom!, a waterfront shindig and over-the-top fireworks display from the Performance Pyrotechnic Associates, the folks who made sparks fly for the Super Bowl and the Rolling Stones. Late-afternoon noshing segues into live sets from roots rockers Wilco and the Boneshakers, a funk tag team who put Ofra Haza in a cold sweat and walked the dinosaur with Don Was. Fireworks will be shot from a 440-foot barge, synchronized with an 18-minute rock soundtrack from KFOG, broadcast through four huge sound towers. Bring blankies and earplugs. Activities begin at 4 p.m., followed by live music at 5 p.m. and the fireworks at 9 p.m. at Piers 30-32, Embarcadero & Brannan, S.F. Admission is free; call 995-6930.

Sunday
May 23
Mazel Tov David Broza may not be a big name here in the States, but he's a triple platinum-selling pop star in his native Israel, combining such disparate elements as Leonard Cohen's moodiness with Elizabeth Bishop's American verse, Hebrew lyrics, Bruce Springsteen's populist appeal, and the flamenco rhythms of Spain, where he lived for a time. Broza headlines "Israel in the Gardens," an afternoon festival celebrating Israel's 51st anniversary. This is a family affair, with Middle Eastern food to taste, games to play, and kids' performances by singer Craig Taubman and puppet collective Monkey Thump. The fest begins at noon at Yerba Buena Gardens, Mission & Third Street, S.F. Admission is free; call 512-6303.

Mi Vida Loco A lone Victorian in need of repair is the last remnant of a long and complicated East Bay history tale, one that is about to be told at the kickoff event for the series "Reclaiming Oakland's Birthplace." This is ostensibly a party in the park, where picnickers are treated to live music from the African Roots of Jazz and Dr. Loco's Rockin' Jalapeno Band, but it's a celebration of local history, too, with storyteller Olga Zoya re-enacting the life of Mexican settler Juana Briones, and kids led by local artists decorating the park's plaza. Historians and ethnic studies experts (perhaps even Dr. Loco himself, as his alter ego, SFSU professor Jose Cuellar) will ruminate on the area's roots, beginning at the point at which Spain ceded Mexican soldier Luis Peralta a 40,000-acre swath of land stretching from El Cerrito to San Leandro, and going on to examine how the land was divided up and parceled out through cattle ranching, the gold rush, and the subsequent population boom. That kind of information will be stored in the park's 1870 Peralta House in approximately six months, after it's been restored and turned into a living history museum with Measure 1 funding. The party begins at noon at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, Coolidge & Paxton, Oakland. Admission is free; call (510) 841-6702.

Monday
May 24
Weill See You There The spirit of Weimar Berlin's cabaret scene pervades the latest installment of music and film series "Ideas in Animation." In standard cabaret fashion, the show offers a bit of everything: song, poetry, live music, film. Nina Paley's new movie Fetch, the animated antics of a loony dog, unspools to live music from the Sprocket Ensemble, as do animated 35mm works by Beny Tchaicovsky, Meredith Root, and Rock Ross. Poet Christie Svane jumps in with some jazzy free verse to accompany Re-Orientation, a cinematic collaboration with Michael Rudnick that revisits the Potrero Hill spot where Svane's father ran a business. Prewar German films will screen as well, and mezzo-soprano Lauren Carley will sing excerpts from her show Venus Envy, a collection of lesser-known songs (some with lyrics by Ogden Nash) composed by Kurt Weill, with new arrangements by Sprocket Ensemble horn player Nik Phelps. The shows begin at 7 and 9 p.m. at the Red Vic Movie House, 1727 Haight (at Clayton), S.F. Admission is $10; call 681-3189.

Tuesday
May 25
Turn to the Left! Lumpy piecework knitwear and bare nipples dominated the runway at last year's Academy of Art College fashion show, although the exceptions -- Eastern European wedding dirndls trailing roses and ribbons, tragicomic bondage wear -- were fascinating. The annual spring show's graduates are supposed to represent fashion's future, after all, which means that Fashion '99 should offer the same mix of ridiculous and sublime that distinguishes professional collections. This year's potential high and low points include work by Christine Hafsten, a former intern with fashion bad boy du jour Alexander McQueen; I-Fang's sculptural knitwear, done in one piece on knitting machines; and multiple student creations made from donated denim. Fashion '99 runs twice, at 4 and 7 p.m. at the AAC warehouse showplace, 1835 Van Ness (at Washington), S.F. Admission is $25; call 478-2277.