Our picks of this week's events
A new Nintendo Wii game, art by an artist who uses a pseudonym that's a synonym for puke and the rest of this week's most interesting events
ART
Projectile persistence
First, we thought he was a she. He eventually forgave us and let us write about his 3D online-gallery experiments. Then he opened his own gallery, gave it an absurd name, Fish Out of Water Art Gallery, and he let us write about that, too. Kelly Hutchinson is our homeboy (see, we got the gender thing down), so when we heard about his 10 Years of Dark Vomit show opening from 6 to 11 p.m. Saturday, April 5, at the Art of Framing Gallery, 333 Adams Ave. in Normal Heights, we couldn’t resist giving the guy a bit more ink. Not only is he pretty sweet, but his pop disturbism—as in pop art that features things like evil three-eyed roosters—is pretty sweet, too. Paint on Mr. Vomit, paint on. www.darkvomit.com.
The wave: The folks at Syllabus Gallery in Oceanside (222 Wisconsin Ave.) would rather we not tell you about their recent reincarnation. They’d rather keep it subversive and go with the whole street-art style of popping up and doing their thing with little to no explanation. It’s appropriate since they’re kicking things off with Do Not Duplicate, a group show featuring the stencil art of local skater Scott Kelly alongside the pop-surrealism pieces of Valery Milovic, Sarah Sculley and Lucas Vidaña. Do Not Duplicate opens from 7 to 9 p.m. Saturday, April 5. 760-805-0423. www.syllabusart.com.
NIGHTLIFE
Skanky panda
The Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad is just what a good reggae/dub/Afrobeat crew should be—a big bunch of hippies who lose themselves in their music for what seems like hours on end. Seriously, tracks like “Kalifornia Dub” flow on forever, making even the most non-irie of us feel like we’re chillin’ on the sands of Jamaica with nary a care. The Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad will descend on Winston’s Beach Club, 1921 Bacon St. in (where else) Ocean Beach, at 9 p.m. Saturday, April 5. www.myspace.com/giantpandadub or 619-222-6822.
BOOKS
The perfect swing
Golfing is hard. Most golfers will attest that a fine-tuned swing is essential to improving one’s game; the problem is the majority of them have absolutely no idea what a fine-tuned swing actually feels like. One man who has some legitimate insight into the process is 93-year-old Leon Seltzer, a former aerospace engineer and longtime consultant for Callaway Golf who has, literally, broken the motion down to a science. With any luck, Seltzer’s advice should give some solace to the frustrated, divot-replacing masses. He’ll be signing his latest book Golf: The Science and the Art, at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 5, at Borders Books, 668 Sixth Ave., Downtown. Free. www.bordersstores.com or 619-702-4200.
Brain busters: Sandra Aamodt, editor-in-chief of Nature Neuroscience, says excessive alcohol intake doesn’t kill brain cells; it just causes brain shrinkage, which can be reversed over time. In fact, it has been shown that moderate alcohol intake can actually improve resistance to strokes. This is one of the potentially life-altering pearls of wisdom contained within Aamodt’s new book, Welcome to Your Brain, which she’ll sign and discuss at 7 p.m. Monday, April 7, at Book Works, 2670 Via de la Valle in Del Mar. Free. www.book-works.com or 858-755-3735
MUSIC
Swingin’
San Diego’s Trummerflora Collective is an extraordinarily difficult project to pigeonhole. This is most likely by design; the group is a loose congregation of performers and artists, most of whom play together in different projects while not being tied down to any one in particular. Call it a swingers club for experimental musicians. Although Trummerflora might pride itself on improvisation, its members are certainly not amateurs, and together they create some of the most vital music in San Diego. This weekend lets audiences sample the entire spectrum of what the collective has to offer at its seventh annual Spring Reverb Festival, which also features special guest artists, including Joe Baiza, Wadada Leo Smith, Donkey and others. The festival kicks off at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 3, at Desi N Friends, 2734 Lytton St. in Point Loma, continues at 8 p.m. Friday, April 4, at the Museum of Making Music, 5790 Armada Drive in Carlsbad, and concludes at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 5, at Kava Lounge, 2812 Kettner Blvd. in Little Italy. $10-12. www.springreverb.com.
LECTURE
Pleasing the public
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is the perfect example of the “I don’t get it” mindset that undermines public art. Its creator, artist and architect Maya Lin, designed the wall to be a subtle but striking symbol of the great losses of war. And even though the names of fallen soldiers were engraved right onto the wall, many people thought the sculpture was too abstract and conceptual. They wanted something more traditional and were eventually given “The Three Soldiers” just to keep them quiet. Over time, of course, Lin’s genius has been appreciated, and the wall is held in high regard. Meet Lin at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and the San Diego Museum of Art’s annual Axline Lecture at 7 p.m. Friday, April 4, at the MCASD’s La Jolla location, 700 Prospect St. $7 or free for members. www.sdmart.org, 619-696-1941.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Behind the wheel
If only real driving were more like playing Mario Kart. How much fun would it be to race against a cuddly, green Japanese dinosaur while dodging overgrown turtle shells and banana peels? If this sounds like the stuff of your (or your kids’) dreams, consider the Mario Kart Wii Driving School, a three-day event that introduces the “Wii Wheel,” a new accessory for Nintendo’s latest platform. Kiosks will be housed inside a 24-foot glass display, giving kids and parents the opportunity to test the as-yet-unreleased game, with each gamer being awarded an official Mario Kart driver’s license. The driving school takes place from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, April 4, at Horton Plaza, Downtown, and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, April 5, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday, April 6, at Wave House, Belmont Park in Mission Beach.
Published: 03/31/2008
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