What Is It Good For?

SAT 8/28

California, 1965: American soldiers are involved in a shadowy overseas mission under a presidential administration that seems determined to push a hawkish agenda on a bitterly polarized nation. Sound familiar? Even if the Oakland Museum's vast new exhibition "What's Going On?--California and the Vietnam Era" weren't timed to comment on our current political imbroglio, its artifacts would provide a fascinating time capsule.

The display is anchored by several large-scale installations, including a section of a DC-8 jet with seats rigged to play oral histories from refugees and military personnel who relate their experiences passing through California on the way to or returning home from South Asia. A storehouse of military service documentation (including induction notices, conscientious-objector forms, and welcome letters for new recruits) gives the exhibition another eye-catching element. But the most poignant pieces may be the photographs -- including an eerie depiction of an "Operation Babylift" rescue flight for Vietnamese orphans showing rows of infants strapped into cardboard boxes, and a portrait of a homesick soldier resting sadly in front of a cardboard sign with an arrow pointing to distant "Oakland, Calif. 11,000 mi." One wonders if four decades from now we'll finally be able to see images of Iraq-stationed servicemen and -women looking equally miserable.

"What's Going On?" opens at 10 a.m. today (and runs through Feb. 27, 2005) at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak (at 10th Street). Admission is free-$13; call (510) 238-2200 or visit www.museumca.org.
-- Joyce Slaton

The Record Machine

SUN 8/29

KUSF, the 3000-watt radio station that could, knows what music lovers want: rows and rows of vendors hawking slabs of vinyl. The yearly KUSF Rock 'n' Swap is just the ticket for those ravenous collectors whose hunger for more and harder-to-find stuff is never sated, even by the Bay Area's many music shops. For casual buyers, the fair also offers tapes, CDs, photos, and videos, many at bargain prices. Hard-core types can start flipping their discs at 5:30 a.m. for an extra charge; the regular swap begins at 10 a.m. in McLaren Hall, 2130 Fulton (at Cole), on the University of San Francisco campus. Admission is free-$3 (or $15 for the early birds); call 386-5873 or visit www.kusf.org.
-- Hiya Swanhuyser

Working Up an Appetite

THURS 8/26

From the sound of it, author Jameson Currier's been dividing his time between cruising for sex and writing about it one-handed. His new short-story collection, Desire, Lust, Passion, Sex, is simply dripping with smut, but what separates his work from boilerplate erotica collections is the individuality and humanity of his characters. In Currier's world even the foxiest of tricks is beset with insecurity, bedeviled by contradictory emotions, caught between desires for anonymous nooky and more troublesome yearnings for deeper emotional connection. Currier reads from Desire starting at 7 p.m. at A Different Light Bookstore, 489 Castro (at 18th Street), S.F. Admission is free; call 431-0891 or visit www.adlbooks.com.
-- Joyce Slaton

Yearbook Staff

ONGOING 8/25-10/22

Generally speaking, we'd much rather fear, patronize, or ignore teenagers than treat them respectfully, whether they're freaks or somewhat normal. But as photographer Jona Frank points out in her "High School" series, teendom is "a microcosm for society as a whole." Oh shit! That means we're probably all mutants, deep down. Frank uses the same framing and composition for each of her subjects, be they rodeo-identified or members of Sexual Minorities and Their Allies Reaching Towards Equality. The effect is, well, equalizing. See Ms. Frank's work through Oct. 22 in the lobby of 101 California, California & Davis, S.F. Admission is free; call 399-0333.
-- Hiya Swanhuyser