Calendar of Events in San Francisco

Monday, May 20

Animal Attraction

California Academy of Sciences

In ancient Rome, the god of fertility was honored in February, with ceremonial love lotteries and mock-floggings with a bloody goatskin. Even those are a pale reflection of truly bizarre courtships that unfold in the natural world. For example, the common garden snail is a hermaphrodite that carries both sets of genitals near its head. Once a week, it engages a new companion in an orgy of... Read more about this event >>
San Francisco Sex Worker Film & Arts Festival 2013

Roxie Theater

May sure is a busy time. School is ending, it’s Masturbation Month, and from May 18-26, the Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival is once again out to show San Francisco a good time. Started in 1999 as a forum for sex workers — including prostitutes, porn performers, exotic dancers, and others — who made films about sex work and the sex industry, it has since expanded to include... Read more about this event >>
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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 >>
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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 >>
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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 >>
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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 >>
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Saturday, May 25

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 >>
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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 >>
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