Visiting Vertigo

 SUN 8/21

I must pass Jimmy Stewart's Vertigo apartment on Russian Hill 20 times a month, but it's wholly rare when I'll pause and think: "Vertigo apartment." Like city dwellers everywhere, we become immune to tourist delights the moment our mail gets forwarded, which hurts us to no end when the relatives visit ("Ghirardelli Square? I think it's a chocolate factory ..."). But now's your chance to get a crash course in local cinema history from Aaron Leventhal, author of Footsteps in the Fog: Alfred Hitchcock's San Francisco, while doing something uniquely local: non-waterfront cycling. The film buff will pilot his own cruiser, leading "Vertigo Bike Tour" riders to locales such as Claude Lane and Mission Dolores. Meet at 10:30 a.m. at Mission Dolores, 3321 16th St. (at Dolores), S.F. Admission is free-$5; go to www.sfbike.org.
-- Michael Leaverton

Fire Starters

SUN 8/21

It's only fitting that the Carpetbag Brigade Physical Theater Company is telling the story of Arizona's 2002 wildfires outdoors, as part of Yerba Buena Gardens ChoreoFest 2005 -- Da_dancingfusion. What's unexpected is its manner of delivery, outfitting the players in blood-red dress and face paint, planting them on stilts, and combining theater and acrobatic dance to convey one boy's race against the rage. Also on the innovative "Elements II" card will be dancers Leigh Evans and Lizz Roman. The show starts at 1 p.m. in Yerba Buena Gardens, Fourth & Mission streets, S.F. Admission is free; call 543-1718 or visit www.ybgf.org.
-- Michael Leaverton

Clean Undies
Music for the masses

SAT 8/20

Clean socks and underwear are helpful for sanity. This is debatable, actually -- some would say socks and underwear are confining and better skipped altogether -- but let's accept the idea, just for the sake of argument. At the "Sock It to Me Concert," the goal is to gather many new pairs of the undergarments in question and give them to folks who don't have dressers stuffed full of nice clean dry ones. LUCE, Garrin Benfield, the Heather Combs Band, and a slew of other easygoing local musicians (all in rotation on KFOG and Alice) perform, and your contribution of new socks or drawers gets you in for free. The duds go to Project Homeless Connect; it all starts at noon in La Raza Park, 25th Street & Potrero, S.F. Admission is free-$5; visit www.nextarts.org.
-- Hiya Swanhuyser