Our picks of this week's events
Sideways sports, PETA shenanigans and the rest of the best of this week's events
BOOKS
Playing the game
PETA can be annoying. The struggle for ethical treatment of animals is a noble cause—most can agree on that. But promoting the cause by, oh, say, taking over General Motors’ float in the Rose Parade dressed as a rabbit or impersonating a priest and sneaking into a fur fashion show in Milan and taking the stage with a banner reading “Thou Shalt Not Kill” is a bit extreme. PETA senior vice president Dan Mathews, though, is an admitted extremist who says annoying and agitating people in power is the only way to get a message heard. Hear what other tactics Mathews has used to shed light on the animal-rights cause when he stops by Borders, 1072 Camino Del Rio North in Mission Valley, to sign and talk about his book, Committed: A Rabble-Rouser’s Memoir, at 7 p.m. Monday, March 24. www.simonsays.com or 619-295-2201.
WORKSHOPS
Fat talk
If you’ve read our cover story this week, you now know that, for some people, being fat doesn’t necessarily mean being unhealthy or unhappy. For the rest of us victims of mainstream notions of social desirability, there’s Marylin Stompler, author of Fat No More: Release the Subconscious Blocks that Prevent Your Weight Loss. Stompler will host an introductory Fat No More workshop covering the mental, emotional, subconscious and spiritual—M.E.S.S., as she puts it—blocks that prevent us from losing weight and keeping if off at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, at 4455 Morena Blvd., Suite 107 (right next to Costco, just off I-5 between Clairemont and Pacific Beach). $10-$15. www.fatnomore.com.
LECTURES
Jesus freak
That’s right folks—Mark Dery, cultural critic and admitted godless leftist with a special sort of distaste for fundamentalism, was once a pimple-faced teenage Jesus freak living in San Diego. In a personal essay splashed with plenty of wider social observations, titled “In Case of Rapture, Car will be Driverless: Waiting for the End of the World in ’70s Southern California,” Dery takes you through his past and brings you to present San Diego—a San Diego he sees as still seeped in anti-intellectualism and creepy conservatism. Dery will give a lecture as part of The Sacred & The Profane, a conference at San Diego State University’s Scripps Cottage from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 20, with Dery scheduled to speak at 5 p.m. Call Nathan Leaman for more info at 619-886-8109.
FILM
The debate
Sushi Performance & Visual Art has never shied away from politics, so why shouldn’t the group end its Cinema Lounge series with immigration, the most heated political issue of our time? At 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, at Whistle Stop Bar, 2236 Fern St. in South Park, Sushi and the Cinema Lounge curatorial team, Holly Jones of Citizen Video and the UCSD Media Center, present Politics, Hip Hop & Immigration, which includes a screening of La Haine, Mathieu Kassovitz’s feature about Paris’ disaffected youth; We Speak English Just Serve, a short about playing a game of volleyball using the border fence as the net; a live session by lyrical lady MC Flow; and visual art by Ricardo Islas. Conversation and debate will follow. Pay what you can at the door. www.sushiart.org or 619-284-6784.
BALBOA PARK
The strokes
Sumi-e, East Asian black-ink brush painting, is as much about the individual brush types and strokes as it is about the final composition—critics scrutinize every line. And what makes sumi-e even more admirable is the fact that, unlike oil or other forms of paint, once a line is made, it can’t be erased or altered in any way. Proficiency in sumi-e takes years of training. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 22, and Sunday, March 23, the Taka Sumi-e Society will present an exhibition honoring the difficult, ancient art form at Casa del Prado in Balboa Park. Live art demonstrations, original works by members, a fashion show featuring wearable art and Japanese dancers and musicians will help set the scene for the society’s annual Japanese cultural celebration. 619-255-2501 or www.balboapark.org.
ART
For the ladies
March is Women’s History Month. What better place to celebrate than the female-empowering sex shop and performance space, The Rubber Rose in North Park? From 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, the lovely ladies of the Rose present Hermanas, Presente!, a showcasing of The Clothesline Project, a powerful exhibition of shirts painted with words and imagery remembering domestic violence and sexual-assault victims, artwork by Celeste Roberts and a screening of a film about the ongoing killings of women in Juárez, Mexico. The Rubber Rose is at 3812 Ray St. Donations accepted. www.therubberrose.com or 619-296-7673.
SPECIAL EVENTS
The network
Boo-hoo, San Diego is sooo boring. Nothing interesting ever happens in this God-forsaken, beach-bum town—that sentiment, dear devoted CityBeat friends, is sooo 2005. If you’ve taken the time to read our calendar section, you know that’s not exactly true. There are things to do; you just have to find them. From 6:30 to 11 p.m. Wednesday, March 26, at Hillcrest’s Bamboo Lounge, 1475 University Ave., Jon Block presents Sight and Sound: Arts & Entertainment Calendar, a live-action calendar that rounds up representatives from upcoming events like the San Diego Indie Music Fest and art exhibitions and allows you to mix and mingle, enjoy live entertainment by master puppeteer Max Daily and plan your month’s goings on. Donations accepted at the door. 619-846-7180.
NIGHTLIFE
Sideways
The Skil 100 Power Plane is the only machine Josh Hall uses to make a surfboard. The rest—right down to the wood-burning designs on the fins—is done by hand. Hall and his friends at Essentials Gear, a locally owned apparel company for the surf, snowboard and skate crowd, and Shay Vision, a local artist whose work is part of Tony Hawk’s art collection, share a love for sports that require standing on boards sideways—hence the name of their philanthropy project, Sideways Riders. The Riders will be gathering at Aubergine, 500 Fourth Ave, Downtown, from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday, March 21, for their second annual fund-raising event featuring clothing, surfboards, art and music by DJ Craig Smoove and Eek-A-Mouse. All proceeds go toward Wildcoast’s Clean Water Now! Campaign. $10 from 7 to 8:30 p.m., $20 after that. www.dtownroductions.com or 619-232-8100.
Published: 03/18/2008
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