The to-do list

Artist: Chris Elliman

MULTIMEDIA

All the rave: Approximately 42 percent trade show, 58 percent rave: that’s how curator Alana Sills and graphic designer Chris Elliman (aka Sanctuary & Xompany) are filling the 7,000-foot venue space at the Mainline Building (1676 Main St. in Barrio Logan) on Saturday, Nov. 28. If all goes according to the Out.skirts plan, five hours of independent art and fashion marketplace (5 to 10 p.m.) will be followed by seven hours of progressive house with DJs Shine, Bassmechanic, Matsu and Ubuvwill and a “massive” light show (10 p.m. to 5 a.m.). CityBeat’s 2009 Best Neighbor, Jocelyn Duke, will showcase some of her character art (be sure to ask her about “winkies”). Tickets are $5 before 10 p.m., $10 after that. www.sanctuaryandxompany.com. 

SPECIAL EVENTS

Kiss this: If you’re reading CityBeat, there’s little chance you’re actually going to the Kiss show at the Sports Arena this Friday, Nov. 27, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a second Halloween and blow off a little post-Thanksgiving steam by cruising the town painted and tatted up like a genuine member of the Kiss Army. If you’re in, head over to Brick Alley Bar & Grill (3577 Midway Drive, near the Sports Arena) between 3:30 and 9 p.m. for the KISS and Make Up pre-concert party. For somewhere between $10 and $20, depending on the degree of difficulty, the artists from Cheek2Chic.net and SkinTightBodyArt.com, will do you up right, with proceeds helping these painters compete in the American Body Painting Championship in Las Vegas. There’ll also be food and drink specials. All ages. www.skintightbodyart.com.

Hear him roar: When local crooner Rick Lyon’s signature sign was stolen from atop his piano at his weekly gig at Imperial House, well, let’s just say we haven’t seen this many scenesters on the verge of forming a angry mob since City College shut down Landlord Jim’s. But there’s no need for violence—just head to The Ruby Room (1271 University Ave. in Hillcrest) at 9 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1, for Welcome to the Jungle: A Rick Lyon Sign Benefit. The folks behind Too Cool for Karaoke will turn their weekly night into altruism by having people donate a small pittance to sing songs with animal themes or names to raise some cash to buy Lyon an exact replica of the sign that he had for more than 30 years. Singing “Eye of the Tiger” beats having to buy a pitchfork. www.toocoolforkaraoke.com. 

COMMUNITY

No place like home: You see them camped along the streets of Downtown at night, and their numbers are growing. Homelessness is indeed a crisis in San Diego. From 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1, on the sixth floor of 655 Broadway, Downtown, a panel representing political, nonprofit, business, public-health and criminal-justice interests will kick the matter around in a forum called Homelessness: A Call to Action. The agenda includes the issues of temporary and permanent shelter, mental-health services and the lack of parolee housing. Beer, wine and appetizers will be served. The event is sponsored by Humane Exposures, a project of photographer Susan Lankford. www.humaneexposures.com. Also, Father Joe’s Thanksgiving Day 5K Run/Walk, presumably helping Joe Carroll feed and shelter homeless folks, will start at 8 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 26. Registration begins at 6:30 a.m., or you can just hang out and listen to the Bill Magee Blues Band in the beer garden. www.thanksgivingrun.org.

Dog Beach dig: Want to push your altruism to the limit on Thanksgiving weekend? How about picking up dog poop (and other trash, of course) at popular Dog Beach in Ocean Beach? If you’re not a dog owner and you show up for this one—from 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 28, at the west end of Voltaire Street—you’ll never have to prove your love of San Diego beaches in any other way. If you are a dog owner and have used this beach, we had better see your butt there! To help out, all you have to do is show up in comfy clothes, closed-toe shoes and, if you have them, some work gloves. Latex gloves and trash bags will be provided; minors need to have parents sign waivers available at the Surfrider website: www.surfrider.org.

ART

Secret weapons: You often see it illegally pasted on building walls, but you don’t often catch stencil art displayed in galleries. However, North Park’s Thumbprint Gallery—in tight new digs at 2637 University Ave.—looks to change this with Weapons of Mass Production. From 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 28, some of San Diego’s best street artists will display intricately designed works using multiple mediums like spray paint and pencil. Artists include Jason Gould and Brent Takayama, but most use aliases like Grandlarsen and Apax lest the po-po find out who they really are. www.thumbprintgallery.com. 

MUSIC

Opera for the people: Composer Anthony Davis has proven that opera need not be stuffy, elitist or for old people (indeed, the average opera-goer is, reportedly, 60). Davis, a professor of music at UCSD and a Guggenheim-award winner, has penned operas about Malcolm X and Patty Hearst and points to musical influences like Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus. Lecturing at Harvard last year, he said his goal was to “disturb and disrupt” the tradition of Western European opera. Cool. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2, as part of UCSD’s Wednesdays@7 music series, Davis premieres his chamber opera, Lilith, which uses as its source material playwright Allan Havis’ take on Adam’s (of Adam-and-Eve fame) doomed first wife. If you can’t make it Dec. 2, a second performance is scheduled for 8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4. Both shows are at the Conrad Prebys Music Hall, and tickets are $25 (with discounts for UCSD students and alumni). 858-534-TIXS or musicweb.ucsd.edu/concerts.

Glitchy and cool: Electronic musician Hans Fjellestad’s compositions have been described as “aural graffiti”—apt, given that his music is subversive, not always pretty and has more going on than what’s on the surface. For the third part of Sushi’s Fresh Sound Series, at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 1, Fjellestad will be accompanied by G.E. Stinson, a longtime innovator in L.A.’s experimental / underground music scene. We’re not going to even try to describe what the show might be like and instead leave it up to Fresh Sound’s curator Bonnie Wright: “Fjellestad and Stinson create lush and pixelated textural frequencies that defy classification.” BK Bynum provides visuals at 390 11th Ave. in East Village. $15. www.freshsoundmusic.com.