Calendar of Events in San Francisco

Tuesday, May 21
• 
  San Francisco City Guides Walking Tours
  Multiple San Francisco Locations

  As a self-described "logical extension of a free public library," our local free walking-tour company is, like most libraries, a fascinating mash of nerdy and white-hot rad. The San Francisco City Guides walking tours happen every day (except major holidays), are free, and follow in the footsteps of hypereducated history nuts who hand out copies of secret, illuminating documents while... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Eve Ensler
  Grace Cathedral

  Eve Ensler is the activist, playwright, and author responsible for worldwide hit The Vagina Monologues as well as the New York Times best-selling book I Am an Emotional Creature, among others. A woman who has spent much of her life exploring and documenting the female body and the issues which surround it, Ensler’s memoir details her past with sexual abuse, her feelings of... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Meow Mix
  The Stud

  We like our gay bars like we like our women — rough around the edges and with as little cover as possible. With its bordello-esque atmosphere and cheap drinks, it's no surprise that The Stud, one of the city's oldest gay bars, still reigns supreme. Sure, it can be a little cramped, and there are corners so dark you need to feel your way out, but where The Stud lacks in ambience, it... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Boris: From the Past, The Present, and Through to the Future (All Time Classics)
  Rickshaw Stop

  Formed in the early '90s, when guitarist Wata, bassist/guitarist Takeshi, and drummer Atsuo met while attending a Tokyo art school, the Japanese experimentalists in Boris have traveled a bewildering path from their early roots as drone/doom merchants. Early efforts Absolute Ego and Amplifier Worship showed a deep debt to Bullhead-era Melvins, but Boris has ventured far afield since then. The... Read more about this event >>

• More Tuesday Events >>

Wednesday, May 22
• 
  The Erotic Reading Circle
  Center for Sex & Culture

  Finding your voice as a writer is hard. Finding your voice as an erotic writer is all but impossible. In one direction is "awkward and clinical." In another is "Anne Rice." And there's literally hundreds of others that result in the rough equivalent of "I have a headache." Further complicating matters, many people, even if they like Anne Rice (especially if they like Anne Rice) get weird... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Two Lines Press Launch Celebration
  Intersection for the Arts

  The Center for the Art of Translation is without question one of the most impressive literary organization in the Bay Area, and recently it has been kicking things into high gear. On Wednesdays, it celebrate the launch of a new and expanded publishing arm, called Two Lines Press, with the release of not one but two titles: All My Friends by Marie NDiaye (the youngest person ever to be... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Boris: From the Past, The Present, and Through to the Future (performing Flood)
  Rickshaw Stop

  Formed in the early '90s, when guitarist Wata, bassist/guitarist Takeshi, and drummer Atsuo met while attending a Tokyo art school, the Japanese experimentalists in Boris have traveled a bewildering path from their early roots as drone/doom merchants. Early efforts Absolute Ego and Amplifier Worship showed a deep debt to Bullhead-era Melvins, but Boris has ventured far afield since then. The... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Shaping Sound
  Palace of Fine Arts

  In 2012, the Oxygen network premiered the reality show All the Right Moves. It followed Emmy-nominated choreographer Travis Wall as he started his dance company Shaping Sound with three lifelong friends. Could they make it as upstarts in today’s competitive dance industry? Would their friendships survive the pressures of going into business? Will Taja really walk out before the critical... Read more about this event >>

• More Wednesday Events >>

Thursday, May 23
• 
  Beat Memories: The Photographs of Allen Ginsberg
  Contemporary Jewish Museum

  Just as he was finding his voice, and as The Beat Generation was swelling up around him, Allen Ginsberg began to take photographs of his friends — portraits that attempted to contain the integrity of each subject as well as an intimate moment between them. He did this for nearly a decade, and when he asked Bill Morgan to archive his work in the 1980s, many of the photos emerged. So... Read more about this event >>

• 
  China's Terracotta Warriors: The First Emperor's Legacy
  Asian Art Museum of San Francisco

  He unified China, started construction on the Great Wall, introduced innovations like chariots and swords, built roads, and had his enemies buried alive. The First Emperor, Qin Shihuang, started planning for his death when he was 13 and built himself a tomb that contained a vast underground city guarded by a life-size terracotta army with infantrymen, horses, chariots, weaponry, and warriors.... Read more about this event >>

• 
  DIVAfest 2013: You're Going to Bleed
  Exit Theatre

  If Quentin Tarantino turned his attention to the quiet unease of American suburbia, we imagine the results would be similar to You're Going to Bleed, a dark comedy by playwright Melissa Fall about modern malaise, sex, and revenge, which premiered at the S.F. Olympians Festival and won the SEBATA for Best Original Play in 2011. Central to the story are unhappily wedded Anne and John, whose... Read more about this event >>

• More Thursday Events >>

Friday, May 24
• 
  Audium 9
  Audium-Theatre of Sound-Sculptured Space

  The Audium was started in 1965 by composer Stan Shaff and equipment designer Doug McEachern. Shows are Fridays and Saturdays, and you have to be there on time — they lock the door. The room fits 50 people or so. There are chairs arranged in a semicircle. There are something like 180 speakers arranged around the room. After a short speech, they turn off all the lights and you listen... Read more about this event >>

• 
  American Tripps, Singin’ and Pingin’
  Z Space Studio

  Musical chairs, ping-pong, and a karaoke DJ walk into a theater together — no, it’s not the setup for a bad joke — it’s the hilarious event concept from American Tripps, Singin’ and Pingin’. A semi-regular occurrence, tonight’s Pingin’ will mix the Berlin style of group ping-pong tournaments with a karaoke dance party. Berlin-style ping-pong... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Live at 851
  The Squat

  A little over a year ago, Janey Smith started putting on readings in the derelict apartment above her own: Without electricity, The Squat is lit with an abundance of tea candles and authors read from a stage composed of dirt swept up from the unfinished floors, surrounded by a huddle of attendees. The first night boasted an ossified rat on the mantle; where that disappeared to is... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Raw SF
  1015 Folsom

  Sure, standing around in the stairwell of 49 Geary drinking champagne during its First Thursday gallery openings can be fun. But it's not a great way to see the best artwork this city can offer (unless you view getting trampled as a form of crowd-sourced, contemporary performance art). Switch your booze-fueled art cruise day to later in the month instead, when Raw SF hosts its huge, monthly... Read more about this event >>

• More Friday Events >>

Saturday, May 25
• 
  The Clock
  San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)

  Since the beginning, artists have yearned to stop time, or at least to examine their nagging awareness that it's unstoppable. But only San Rafael native Christian Marclay has so successfully managed to turn the anxious sport of clock-watching into a weird and highly mediated form of transcendental meditation. He calls it The Clock, and it's simple: just a day-long movie made up entirely of... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Drop-in Family Ceramics Workshop
  Randall Museum

  Many of us remember coming home from our elementary schools with freshly glazed pinchpots, cups, or whatever else our young imaginations could conjure up. Saturday mornings at the Randall Museum can bring that memory back, or create a new one for the youngsters. Ceramics make great gifts -- especially on Mothers' and Fathers' Day. Hop on board for the Randall's once-weekly class, and for $6... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Loni Love
  Cobb's Comedy Club

  Thank goodness Loni Love quit her electrical engineering job to pursue a career in comedy. Electrical engineering is cool, sure; I mean, circuits? And there’s money and probably some stability in it, but when your friend’s dad tells jokes about, say, how he’s thinking about getting one of those earrings that connects by a chain to a nose ring, you won’t laugh, except... Read more about this event >>

• More Saturday Events >>

Sunday, May 26
• 
  Carnaval S.F. 2013 Grand Parade
  24th Street & Bryant

  “You don’t cancel Christmas, and you don’t cancel Carnaval,” said organizer Roberto Hernandez back in March, when it looked like the cultural festival might not happen this year due to fiscal troubles. Since then, Hernandez and a coalition of nonprofits have been hustling overtime to bring the event’s cost down from $900,000 to a more reasonable $300,000. This... Read more about this event >>

• 
  San Francisco Comedy Explosion
  1772 Market Street

  The Hella Gay Comedy Show, one of the Bay Area’s active gay comedy groups, is getting hella straight this week in honor of its strongest comedy-world allies. Normally the Hella Gays shine the spotlight on LGBT comedians in the Bay Area, but now they’re switching it up to let their allies shine. The SF Comedy Explosion will feature a handful of straight comedians who’ve been... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Drunken Spelling Bee
  Cafe Royale

  “L-L-L-L-Lfffff.” What word is spelled like that? Nothing, but you never know how you might start spelling words when you’re drunk. That’s the idea behind the aptly-named Drunken Spelling Bee, during which competitive spellers can get all the beer they want for just $15 until they get a word wrong. There will be ESPN-style commentary just like on TV, and if spellers... Read more about this event >>

• More Sunday Events >>

Monday, May 27
• 
  Alcatraz Night Tour
  Alcatraz Island

  Alcatraz -- "The Rock" -- is one of those tours that you have to take at least once, whether you're local or just visiting. The abandoned prison sitting on an island about a mile and a half off the city's north shore was home to some of the most infamous names in crime, including Al Capone, it was the site of a Native American occupation, and it's still home to the oldest operating lighthouse... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Mark di Suvero at Crissy Field
  Crissy Field

  With Mark di Suvero at Crissy Field, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art starts off big with its plans to go beyond its walls during the museum’s expansion project. In partnership with the National Park Service and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, eight of di Suvero’s large-scale steel sculptures will be installed at Crissy Field. The museum’s director, Neal... Read more about this event >>

• 
  Stand-Up Paddleboarding Lessons
  Boardsports

  When the ancient Polynesians invented surfing, they often used a paddle to help them navigate. Fast-forward a few millennia, and Stand-Up Paddleboarding, or SUP, finds itself trendy again. Part of its increasing popularity is that standing upright allows surfers to spot waves more easily and thus catch more of them, multiplying the fun factor. Paddling back to the wave becomes less of a... Read more about this event >>

• More Monday Events >>