The illustrations that go with this week's column are merely exhibits A and B from the veritable alphabet of the International Vintage Poster Fair, which returns to SF this weekend. The fair will offer up more than 10,000 posters dating from the 1890s through the 1980s, for display and purchase. It's all happening at SF's Fort Mason Center from Fri.-Sun., Oct. 29-31, and its featured exhibit is a survey of propaganda posters, which couldn't be more timely. Isn't it interesting that these vintage posters, the Halloween one from 1938, and the Ben Shahn-designed exhortation to "Break Reaction's Grip," are still very much of the moment? All these years later, and political and religious reactionaries still threaten to drag the nation, kicking and screaming, backwards with them. You can find more info and pictures at www.posterfair.com.
Last Thursday night's ill-fated playoff game between the now pennant-winning SF Giants and the now-vanquished Philadelphia Phillies had its own perverse grip on us at the time. For Out There was impaled on the horns of a dilemma: should we stay put in our luxe room on the 11th floor of the W San Francisco, with its high-def, flat-screen TV tuned to the game, its corner windows with their sweeping, high-rise view of SF in all its glory, its king-size bed (plus one), wine and cheese plate? Or should we give all that up to attend the cocktail reception celebrating the newly renovated "Extreme WOW" suites on the hotel's 31st floor? Reader, we tell you that we gave up the game in favor of the party, and were rewarded. We grooved on the suite's new "Shanghai Glam" look, all the black lacquer, dragon busts, and designer furniture inlaid with mahjong cards. We schmoozed with W-SF's charming general manager Michael Pace and Bliss spa g.m. Tony Nicastro whilst partaking of yummy victuals and cold white wine. And lo and behold, in the suite's swank bedroom, what animated the 52-inch HD-TV but The Game? But here's the beauty part: from a Bay-facing window we had a clear view of the ballpark, klieg lights blazing, the focus of oh so much attention. See? You can have your small plates (by chef Paul Piscopo ) and batter up, too.
The hotel is having its "HalloWeen" celebration on Sat., Oct. 30, featuring DJ Solomon. The party's slogan is, "Come see how grown-ups trick-or-treat." We think we already know this, and it involves bottle service and a six-pack of prophylactics. Find more info at www.wsanfrancisco.com.
Hey, two of the 20 finalists for this year's National Book Awards, named last week, got our attention: poet and musician Patti Smith , for her 1970s NYC memoir Just Kids, and biographer Justin Spring, for Secret Historian, his account of the life of gay "Professor, Tattoo Artist and Sexual Renegade" Samuel Steward. We'd be happy unto tears if either author won; these awards will be announced on Nov. 17.
Concert corner
Last Sunday night found Out There chilling at a table in the stylish jazz club Yoshi's SF during an evening with musician/performance artist Laurie Anderson. Now, we've been following her storied career since seeing United States I-IV at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1982, but we've never seen Anderson perform in such an intimate setting - just the artist, her electronic violin, keyboards, tapes and voice filters. It was like her own private Chautauqua, and it was beautiful. In a fitted white shirt and tie, Anderson began and ended the concert with songs from her latest release Homeland, but most of the evening was spent storytelling: her trip to the North Pole, hikes with her rat terrier Lolabelle, an account of a high-diving accident that left her with a broken back as a girl. Running throughout, as always, were droll observations about contemporary American life. (On running the security gauntlet at airports: "What could have been a lot of fun, taking your clothes off in public, has become so grim!") As Anderson's tranny alter ego Fenway Bergamot laments, "Oh another day, another dollar. Another day in America."
"What are days for? To wake us up. To put between the endless nights."
Coming right up: Stanford Lively Arts will present out and proud singer/songwriter Toshi Reagon leading her five-person band, BIGLovely, at Dinkelspiel Auditorium on Oct. 29 at 8 p.m. Reagon is an OutMusic Heritage 2010 Award recipient, and the daughter of civil rights activist and gospel musician Bernice Johnson Reagon. Her music mixes traditional African American folk, blues, and gospel music with vintage rock, reggae, and contemporary pop. Tickets and information are at www.livelyarts.stanford.edu.
Congratulations go to SF-based dancer, choreographer and performance artist Keith Hennessy, who was awarded the prestigious Bessie, the NY Dance & Performance Award, for his solo show Crotch (all the Joseph Beuys references in the world cannot heal the pain, confusion, regret, cruelty, betrayal or trauma) presented at Dance Theater Workshop in 2009. B.A.R. readers may remember our arts cover story on Hennessy last winter, before he presented the piece here. The Bessies are the most widely recognized awards for contemporary dance and performance, but West Coast artists have rarely been recognized; the most recent was Joe Goode for Deeply There at Danspace way back in 1999.
Shotgun Players and Zero Performance will co-present a one-night-only performance of Crotch at Ashby Stage in Berkeley on Sun., Nov. 21, at 8 p.m. It's part of a weekend of queer performance at Ashby Stage also featuring Ladylike by Fauxnique aka Monique Jenkinson. Tickets: (510) 841-6500 x303 or www.shotgunplayers.org/shotguncabaret.htm.
Finally, since it's Halloween: The Rocky Horror Picture Show will play Landmark's Clay Theatre (2261 Fillmore St., SF) on Fri. & Sat., Oct. 29 & 30, at Midnight, featuring the Bawdy Caste. It's the longest-running Midnight film of all time (UK, 1975), starring Tim Curry as the kinky yet endearing "transsexual from Transylvania" Dr. Frank N. Furter, Susan Sarandon and Barry Bostwick as his hapless guests Brad and Janet, Meat Loaf as motorcycle-riding rough trade, and author Richard O'Brien as the hunchbacked butler Riff Raff. Do the Time Warp again!