This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

 Wednesday, November 2, 2005
Interestingly enough, the "i once was lost ... II" found art and rock show doesn't mention the national splash made by Found magazine awhile back, even though the idea is nearly the same: to find interesting art blowing along the street, selling for cheap at the flea market, or lingering behind your couch. But no matter. The artists, collectors, and trash-pickers at this exhibit, curated by Leanne Maxwell, are young and local and have their own particular takes on torn prom photos, blurred handwriting on notepaper, and, best of all, "lovely photographs of forlorn appliances on street corners" (as the show's Web site has it). Look for work by Presley Martin, Angela Walters, Jennifer Hattam, and more, plus live music by the Ebb & Flow, Aim Low Kid, and Leyna Noel, at 8 p.m. at the Rickshaw Stop, 155 Fell (at Van Ness), S.F. Admission is $3-6; call 861-2011 or visit www.rickshawstop.com.

Thursday, November 3, 2005
Joe Mangrum's award-winning installation Fragile, constructed at the Florence Biennale art show in Italy, is indeed a precarious piece: a 13-level pyramid sprinkled with items ranging from coffee, timber, and tobacco to drugs and oil. Astute readers will note that these items are among the world's prime commodities (the gold-leaf-wrapped bricks should clue you in). Below them, arranged in a precise mandala, are examples of the world's key foods, such as beans, rice, garlic, and oranges, which spill out from the lofty structure like blood from a wound. It's a startling work, fascinating to look at and wide open for interpretation. Tonight Mangrum unveils his latest "immersive environment," which he claims will fill the space floor to ceiling, along with photos from past mammoth projects, including Detonation Earth and Breathless. Opening night starts at 5:30 (and the exhibition continues through Nov. 25) at the Urbis Artium Gallery, 49 Geary (at Kearny), Suite 202, S.F. Admission is free; call 369-9404 or visit www.urbis-artium.com.

Friday, November 4, 2005
The movie Purple Rain featured Prince as we'd never seen him: a funny little man in odd clothes riding an impossibly large motorcycle, his posture weirdly erect. But what singing! And rapid guitarwork! Now you can watch the classic while matching notes with the man himself (and let's not forget Morris Day) at "Sing-Along Purple Rain," courtesy of Peaches Christ's "Midnight Mass." Picture yourself crooning the slow chorus with the audience -- "Pur-ple rain, pur-ple rain" -- then staggering to your feet, balling your fists until your wrists nearly snap, and unleashing, in your best Princely squeak, "I only want 2 see U, only want 2 see U," as you consider the ceiling, sobbing. Purple Rain screens at midnight tonight and tomorrow at the Bridge Theatre, 3010 Geary (at Blake), S.F. Admission is $10; call 267-4893 or visit www.peacheschrist.com.

Saturday, November 5, 2005
Using little more than a can-do attitude and a shit-eating grin, Harmon Leon has made a career of infiltrating various locales (including SF Weekly) and wildly pushing buttons to find out what makes people tick. He takes on the political right in his book Republican Like Me: Infiltrating Red-State, White-Ass, and Blue-Suit America. The cover photo, featuring Leon shirtless (perhaps pantsless?) and holding an American flag over his genitals (which are presumably quite large), ably primes you for the muckraking inside: Leon working security at an "Arnold for Governor" rally, Leon as a tattooed homebuyer in a gated community, Leon as an angry store clerk at the Knob Creek Biannual Machine Gun Shoot. Regardless of his disguise, he's always an investigative wiseass. Leon reads at 7 p.m. at the Booksmith, 1644 Haight (at Cole), S.F. Admission is free; call 863-8688 or visit www.booksmith.com.

Sunday, November 6, 2005
A book fair can usually get away with a few tables of books and a smattering of speakers, but the Jewish Community Center doesn't do things halfway (just look at its multimillion-dollar redesign). This year's San Francisco Jewish BookFest packs 26 writers into 13 panels, and covers such topics as black-Jewish relations in America, Jewish guilt, cabala, Yiddish culture, and modern poetry and fiction. Standout speakers include Rabbi Alan Lew from San Francisco's Congregation Beth Sholom; fiction writers Aimee Bender, Julie Orringer, and Todd Hasak-Lowy; Willis Barnstone, professor emeritus of comparative literature at Indiana University; and children's authors Marilyn Sachs and Roni Schotter. The BookFest starts at 10:30 a.m. at the JCC of San Francisco, 3200 California (at Presidio), S.F. Admission is free; call 292-1200 or visit www.jccsf.org.