Friday, November 16, 2012
Weekender: This Weekend's Top Five Events
Fri, Nov 16, 2012 at 6:00 AM
Just like that — it's Friday! Here's what you should check out this weekend:
Co-Launch Party for Beeswax and Monday Night Magazines
For all the talk of print dying, 'zines, lit mags, and various other publications of the decidedly low-budget, low-gloss, underground and indie persuasion aren't just hanging on — they're thriving. To wit, on Friday, Nov. 16, not one but two new local magazines celebrate their new issues at Diesel: Monday Night, a long-running journal of poetry and prose; and Beeswax, an Oakland-based multimedia mag that employs such delightfully old-school flights of design fancy as letterpress covers and hand-stitched spines. Both will be represented by a bevy of high-profile local talent — Monday Night by writer-artist Sean Craven and poet Valerie Witte, and Beeswax by novelist Hugh Behm-Steinberg and poet Diana Aehegma — and are certain to double-handedly restore your faith in the power of ink on paper. 7 p.m., free. 510-653-9965 or DieselBookstore.com — Ellen Cushing
Late Night Little Bites
Out late? Can't face heading home hungry? Bocanova has instituted a brand-new "Late Nite Boca Bite" menu, featuring bocaditos ("little bites") at happy-hour prices served from 9 p.m. until 10:30 p.m. every Thursday through Saturday. Bocaditos include yuca-and-cheese fritters, fried plantains with cilantro aioli, Dungeness crab deviled eggs with chipotle aioli, taco-del-día with pickled cabbage, and pork ribs with guava-barbecue sauce. Specially priced cocktails, wine, and beer wash it all down. $1.50 and up. 510-444-1233 or Bocanova.com — Anneli Rufus
Yes, Bay Area
Lit events don't get much more dynamic, contemporary, or quietly subversive than this. Yes, Bay Area features not an author, but a rapper (local hero Lyrics Born), reading not a novel, but his own tweets, for a crowd that we can only assume will be not lit-event sedated but rap-show engaged. Brought to you by First Person Singular, a lit series that's basically made a mission out of being dynamic/contemporary/subversive, the event will feature 140-character nuggets of wisdom culled from the rapper's limited-edition book of the same. To which we can only say: Yes, Bay Area. At Pegasus Books Downtown on Sunday, Nov. 18. 7:30 p.m., free. 510-649-1320 or PegasusBookstore.com — E.C.
2 x 2 Solos: Cybele Lyle and Wafaa Yasin
For the second installment of its 2 x 2 Solos series, Pro Arts Gallery lends its space to Cybele Lyle and Wafaa Yasin, both of who are concerned with what could be called "shifting spaces." This is the title of Lyle's work, an installation of angular platforms protruding from the gallery wall, vaguely resembling an open book. The work is unassuming, even uninteresting, in and of itself, but an accompanying book, filled with schematic iterations of the sculpture spliced with images of natural terrain, reveals an unexpected depth in its ambitions. For Yasin, meanwhile, the shifting space is simultaneously the Israeli/Palestinian border (Yasin was born in Galilee) and her own body. In one video work, she fashions herself into a human yacht and sets sail. In another, civil engineers discuss logistics pertaining to hillside housing developments, using the artist's pregnant belly for model terrain. 2 x 2 Solos: Cybele Lyle and Wafaa Yasin run through November 30 at Pro Arts Gallery. 510-763-4361 or ProArtsGallery.org — Alex Bigman
The Joy Formidable
We get the sense that The Joy Formidable is aiming for world domination, and won't stop until it achieves it. Its trailer for its new album, Wolf's Law, is a bit of spectacular hyperbole — setting its quiet/loud title track anthem against visuals of massive global events (waterfalls, alligator births, lightning storms, volcanic eruptions). We get it; this is epic stuff. That said, we do have a soft spot for this Welsh alt-rock trio, if only because the members are so earnest in their wanting to entertain and write the best songs ever. Expect the live show to be over the top — if you can stomach it. At the newly opened Chapel (777 Valencia St., San Francisco) on Tuesday, Nov. 20. 9 p.m., $25 — Kathleen Richards
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