Arts & Entertainment

<strong>A lion from Cambodia at the Asian Art Museum, which was acquired from a private collector and dates back to between 1150 and 1225, is one of two pieces identified as a potential stolen artifact in the leaked Pandora Papers.<ins> (Kevin N. Hume/The Examiner)</ins> </strong> <ins></ins>

Asian Art Museum reckons with Cambodian antiquities of disputed provenance

Pandora Papers revelations accelerate culture shift at museums near and far

Nick Beitcher, owner and founder of Midnite Bagel, is remaking the San Francisco bagel with sourdough. (Courtesy Midnite Bagel)

Has the San Francisco bagel arrived?

The sourdough bagel marks a disruptive moment for the 15th-century bread with a hole

  • Oct 15, 2021
Wayne Thiebaud’s 1972 “Various Pastels (Pastel Scatter)” is appropriately featured in the exhibit “Color Into Line: Pastels From the Renaissance to the Present” at the Legion of Honor.<ins> (Courtesy Artists Rights Society/Photo by Randy Dodson/Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco)</ins>

Legion of Honor exhibit a who’s who of artistic giants

‘Pastels convey the immediacy of a drawing, the appearance of a painting and the matte finish of a fresco’

Donald Ray Antoine stars in “Interlude” at New Conservatory Theatre Center’s first live show this year.<ins> (Courtesy Lois Tema)</ins>

‘Interlude’ explores lockdown frustrations

New Conservatory’s world premiere depicts a Black gay man quarantined with his red-state parents

Donald Ray Antoine stars in “Interlude” at New Conservatory Theatre Center’s first live show this year.<ins> (Courtesy Lois Tema)</ins>
Michael Gene Sullivan's comedy, “The Great Khan,” is about three Black teenagers, their teacher, a mother and, yes, the Mongolian emperor Genghis Khan. (Courtesy San Francisco Playhouse)

Mime Troupe’s Michael Gene Sullivan likes to walk and can’t be bought

A Q&A with the native playwright on the first coproduction between the Mime Troupe and SF Playhouse

Michael Gene Sullivan's comedy, “The Great Khan,” is about three Black teenagers, their teacher, a mother and, yes, the Mongolian emperor Genghis Khan. (Courtesy San Francisco Playhouse)
Junru Wang’s hand balancing is mind-blowing in “Dear San Francisco: A High-Flying Love Story.” (Courtesy Kevin Berne)

Acrobats take over Club Fugazi with strength, grace and glee

‘Dear San Francisco’ is a loving, lively successor to ‘Beach Blanket Babylon’

Junru Wang’s hand balancing is mind-blowing in “Dear San Francisco: A High-Flying Love Story.” (Courtesy Kevin Berne)
Lindsey White’s ambitious 2021 work “Pardon Me, Please/Stop Looking at Me” addresses performance anxieties. (Courtesy Casemore Kirkeby)

Faking female magicians

Lindsey White’s ‘How to Get on Cable Television’ intrigues at Minnesota Street Project

  • Oct 14, 2021
Lindsey White’s ambitious 2021 work “Pardon Me, Please/Stop Looking at Me” addresses performance anxieties. (Courtesy Casemore Kirkeby)
Britain’s campy glam-rock champions The Struts will be at the newly reopened Fillmore on Oct. 30. (Courtesy Beth Saravo)

Bleachers, Jayhawks, The Struts — indie concerts back at beloved S.F. venues

Celebrate the return of gutsy artists with your vaccine card

Britain’s campy glam-rock champions The Struts will be at the newly reopened Fillmore on Oct. 30. (Courtesy Beth Saravo)
Beethoven's audacious 1805 opera addressed tyranny in Napoleonic-occupied Vienna and was set in a prison-like fortress. Set designer Alexander V. Nichols created a multilevel, dynamically rotating cubed structure of prison cells, interrogation rooms and offices that are equipped with projected surveillance cameras. (Courtesy San Francisco Opera)

San Francisco Opera premieres ‘Fidelio’ a year late, but with the zeitgeist

Matthew Ozawa’s new production addresses tyranny in Beethoven’s time and ours

Beethoven's audacious 1805 opera addressed tyranny in Napoleonic-occupied Vienna and was set in a prison-like fortress. Set designer Alexander V. Nichols created a multilevel, dynamically rotating cubed structure of prison cells, interrogation rooms and offices that are equipped with projected surveillance cameras. (Courtesy San Francisco Opera)
<strong>“Sphere Packing: Bach” is the pinnacle piece in Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s show. It’s a series of sculptures viewers can enter; inside are 1,128 loudspeakers, each of which plays one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s compositions.<ins> (Photo by Mariana Yañe/Courtesy Rafael Lozano/Artists Rights Society)</ins>

Lozano-Hemmer’s ‘Unstable Presence’ is for multimedia and music lovers, even techies

At SFMOMA, Mexico City-born artist works with cutting-edge technology

<strong>“Sphere Packing: Bach” is the pinnacle piece in Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s show. It’s a series of sculptures viewers can enter; inside are 1,128 loudspeakers, each of which plays one of Johann Sebastian Bach’s compositions.<ins> (Photo by Mariana Yañe/Courtesy Rafael Lozano/Artists Rights Society)</ins>
Epiphany Dance Theater’s Kim Ip, left, and Lydia Clinton are participants in San Francisco Trolley Dances; this weekend marks the 18th annual event. (Courtesy Amani Photography)

Trolley and aerial dance to hit SF streets this weekend

Flyaway Productions and Epiphany Dance Theater present free public works

  • Oct 11, 2021
Epiphany Dance Theater’s Kim Ip, left, and Lydia Clinton are participants in San Francisco Trolley Dances; this weekend marks the 18th annual event. (Courtesy Amani Photography)
Joyride, like Samovar Tea, is a family business. Jesse Jacobs’ brother, Joshua Jacobs (right), is cofounder. The brothers grew up cooking pizza and pasta in Boston.<ins> (Courtesy Joyride Pizza)</ins> Far right, The Yerba Buena location of Joyride Pizza has a less than understated party vibe.<ins></ins>

Joyride Pizza schools SF in the Detroit slice

Restaurateur Jesse Jacobs gives new life to his Samovar cafes, trading chai for cheese

  • Oct 7, 2021
Joyride, like Samovar Tea, is a family business. Jesse Jacobs’ brother, Joshua Jacobs (right), is cofounder. The brothers grew up cooking pizza and pasta in Boston.<ins> (Courtesy Joyride Pizza)</ins> Far right, The Yerba Buena location of Joyride Pizza has a less than understated party vibe.<ins></ins>
“You Are Here: California Stories on the Map” is on view at the Oakland Museum through 2022. <ins>(Screenshot/Oakland Museum of California)</ins>

Exhibition explores how California’s maps shape our reality

Oakland Museum show reveals biases in cartography

“You Are Here: California Stories on the Map” is on view at the Oakland Museum through 2022. <ins>(Screenshot/Oakland Museum of California)</ins>
Video Wave of Noe Valley opened in 1983, during the days of VHS and well before the proliferation of widescreen TVs, high definition and Netflix. (Jeffrey M. Anderson/Special to The Examiner)

How SF’s last video rental store survives Netflix

Video Wave of Noe Valley is for streaming sceptics

Video Wave of Noe Valley opened in 1983, during the days of VHS and well before the proliferation of widescreen TVs, high definition and Netflix. (Jeffrey M. Anderson/Special to The Examiner)
Former Rolling Stone writer and editor Ben Fong-Torres is a longtime fan of Top 40 music and radio. (Courtesy Suzanne Joe Kai/Mill Valley Film Festival)

Ben Fong-Torres, SF’s famed music journalist, gets movie treatment

Documentary by Suzanne Joe Kai at Mill Valley Film Festival

Former Rolling Stone writer and editor Ben Fong-Torres is a longtime fan of Top 40 music and radio. (Courtesy Suzanne Joe Kai/Mill Valley Film Festival)
San Francisco's Del Sol String Quartet (pictured here) and the vocal ensemble Volti will perform “Angel Island Oratorio” by Ruo Huang in the Presidio Theatre on Oct. 22 and on Angel Island the next day. (Lenny Gonzalez, Courtesy Del Sol String Quartet)

Singing of Angel Island, the detention center

An oratorio about Chinese immigrants who were detained, interrogated and processed there

San Francisco's Del Sol String Quartet (pictured here) and the vocal ensemble Volti will perform “Angel Island Oratorio” by Ruo Huang in the Presidio Theatre on Oct. 22 and on Angel Island the next day. (Lenny Gonzalez, Courtesy Del Sol String Quartet)
San Francisco Playhouse and the San Francisco Mime Troupe have joined forces to produce “The Great Khan,” about a Black teenage boy (Leon Jones, pictured with Brian Rivera) and his struggle to find his own identity. (Courtesy Jessica Palopoli/San Francisco Playhouse)

Live theater is back with a vengeance

A haunted house on steroids, an absurdist immigration comedy

San Francisco Playhouse and the San Francisco Mime Troupe have joined forces to produce “The Great Khan,” about a Black teenage boy (Leon Jones, pictured with Brian Rivera) and his struggle to find his own identity. (Courtesy Jessica Palopoli/San Francisco Playhouse)
Pianist Adam Golka performs in the afternoon and evening on Oct. 9 in “A Portrait of Beethoven: 32 Sonatas for Piano” in The City. (Courtesy Jürgen Frank)

Beethoven celebrated in marathon sonata sessions

Pianist Adam Golka plays in a program showcasing 32 pieces chronologically

Pianist Adam Golka performs in the afternoon and evening on Oct. 9 in “A Portrait of Beethoven: 32 Sonatas for Piano” in The City. (Courtesy Jürgen Frank)
In her diptych “You Became Mammie, Mama, Mother, Then, Yes, Confident-Ha/Descending the Throne You Became Foot Soldier Cook” 1995-96, Carrie Mae Weems appropriated pictures of Black slaves from the Harvard archives. <ins>(Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery)</ins>

Don’t blink: Carrie Mae Weems’ lifetime of looking

Visionary photographer has career retrospective at the Fraenkel Gallery

  • Sep 30, 2021
In her diptych “You Became Mammie, Mama, Mother, Then, Yes, Confident-Ha/Descending the Throne You Became Foot Soldier Cook” 1995-96, Carrie Mae Weems appropriated pictures of Black slaves from the Harvard archives. <ins>(Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery)</ins>
William A. Williams, Justin Huertas and Kirsten “Kiki” deLohr Helland star in “Lizard Boy,” the contemporary comic book-infused musical hit opening TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s 51st season. <ins>(Courtesy Alabastro Photography)</ins>

Going on a first date but getting sidelined into a mythological hero journey

Justin Huertas talks about why ‘Lizard Boy’ is the musical hero he always wanted

William A. Williams, Justin Huertas and Kirsten “Kiki” deLohr Helland star in “Lizard Boy,” the contemporary comic book-infused musical hit opening TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s 51st season. <ins>(Courtesy Alabastro Photography)</ins>