Our picks of this week's events
Belly dancing bohemian babes, MoPA's POP night and more
NIGHTLIFE
So many bands
Although it might seem small at first glance, this weekend’s Emergenza Music Festival is actually part of the largest forum for unsigned bands in the world. Basically, it’s like your high school’s battle-of-the-bands competition on steroids and crack—but highly organized and taking place in hundreds of locations in dozens of countries. Best of all, the event gives local groups—including Apes of Wrath, A Scribe Amidst the Lions, In Every Breath and many others—a chance to make it big, eliminating bands tournament-style until several are picked up by talent scouts for national and international showcases. San Diego’s first round starts Saturday, Feb. 23, and continues on Sunday, Feb. 24, at O’Connells, 1310 Morena Blvd. in Bay Park. www.emergenza.net.
All that: Music, art, movies, booze, food and boobs—is there anything else you need for a Saturday night? From 7 to 11 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23, local musicians Crash Encore will release their newest music video in the Buzz Clothing Warehouse, 630 10th Ave., Downtown. Local artists Spencer Tiscareno and Mikaelanne Collins will be showing their work, Crash Encore will perform an acoustic set and everyone in attendance will get a limited-edition DVD of the video, two drink tickets and appetizers. A portion of the $20 ticket will go to Boobs on the Move, a three-day walk to raise money for breast-cancer research. www.myspace.com/crashencore or 619-269-3764.
FILM
Suicide is painless
Harold (Bud Cort) is young, rich and seriously into death. His main hobbies: attending funerals and killing himself over and over again. Then he meets Maude (Ruth Gordon), an almost-octogenarian who is all about life. They teach each other important lessons, rescue trees, play music and steal cars together, but Harold and Maude (1971) doesn’t get really weird until they fall for each other. Director Hal Ashby makes a life-affirming film about death, complete with a classic soundtrack from Cat Stevens. The Museum of Photographic Arts presents H&M as its latest Pop Thursday, so get all interactive with the exhibits, knock back a couple of drinks and live a little. Pop happens at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21, at MoPA in Balboa Park. Free for members, $6 otherwise. www.popthursdays.com.
DANCE
Roll out
If you haven’t been to see the refurbished Balboa Theatre yet, Sunday Feb. 24, is the day. At 3 p.m., the Bellydance Superstars will take the stage—but before you roll your eyes so far back into your head you can no longer read, you should know that these gals aren’t your average belly-rolling temptresses behind veils. There’s a bit of the traditional stuff incorporated into the show, but for the most part, the Superstars’ original production, Babelesque, is more a mishmash of tribal and postmodern moves made by dreadlocked beauties with tattoos, ballet-shoe wearing lovelies with a penchant for Arabic rap and dancers armed with finger cymbals and fairy wings. Coupled with exotic melodies and a screen backdrop of light and flame effects, Babelesque is, at the very least, terribly entertaining. www.bellydancesuperstars.com.
MUSIC
Reachin’ out
The kids these days—the only way you can get the under-40 crowd to listen to classical music is to put phat hip-hop beats, electronic samplings and freestyle lyrics underneath violin concertos. The people running UC San Diego’s ArtPower! program understand that; thus, DBR + DJ Scientific, the violinist/laptop artist duo that makes classical music about as stiff as a sponge. DBR + DJ Scientific play Porter’s Pub on the UCSD campus from 8 to 10 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21. And since the show is part of ArtPower!’s Tentacle Sessions—a blatant attempt to reach out to the younger (read: poorer) audience—tickets are just $12. 858-534-TIXS and www.artpower.ucsd.edu.
POLITICS
Check other
Maybe you’ve been so disenchanted by the usual crop of politicians that you’ve thought about running for public office yourself someday, but the idea is intimidating, isn’t it? Well, from 1 to 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22, and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23, the Political Campaign Boot Camp at San Diego State University’s Extended Studies Center (5701 Hardy Ave. in Room 210), will take you through a two-day fast-paced seminar that’ll teach you the ins and outs of running a political campaign. Speakers like Greg Cox, chair of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, and Paul Bloom, anchor at KUSI, and other official-type people will tell you how to plan your campaign, deal with the pesky media, maintain your ethics and increase your chances of actually winning. $75. Register online at www.sdchamber.org or call 619-544-1309.
Come together: To half of the country, the prospect of a man marrying a man or a woman marrying a woman will doom the human race. It’s a slippery slope, they say, that’ll eventually lead to a catfish marrying a baked potato. The other half of the country, though, thinks the people who use that kind of logic are flat-out nuts. Meet with people of the latter disposition at the LGBT Center’s Marriage Equality and Education Project’s panel, The Future of Marriage, at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 25, at The Center, 3909 Centre St. in Hillcrest. Co-sponsored by the San Diego Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society, the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Equality California, the event will feature panelists well-versed in the legal and political developments affecting the right to marry in California and the United States. 619-692-2077 x206 or kshaw@thecentersd.org.
BOOKS
No posers
San Diego author Shawn Rohrbach is serious about his bicycling. When he lived in Seattle, he rode his bike year-round—yeah, in the rain and everything. The dude’s so serious about his two-wheeled way of life that he’s gone and written a book, Open Your Heart with Bicycling: Mastering Life Through Love of the Road, an informative read that tells you what food to eat when you’re taking a long ride, shares good online bike resources, reveals the best bike paths and more. Rohrbach will read from and sign copies of his book at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23, at the Chula Vista Borders, 878 Eastlake Parkway. 619-425-7021.
Got a super cool event coming up? Write to kinseem@sdcitybeat.com.
Published: 02/19/2008
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