This week in San Francisco, The November Monthly Rumpus, art openings at City Hall and White Walls, indie circus goodness and a musical orgy(!) at the Bohemian Carnival, and kinetic visual sculptures meet improvised electroacoustic shamanic noise jazz (don’t worry, I’m confused, too) at Artists’ Television Access.
Monday 11/8: Wake Up, It’s Late! The November Monthly Rumpus takes over the Makeout Room with authors Andrew Winer, M.G. Martin, Pam Houston, Chris Colin, and Kristen Tracy, comedy by Emily Heller, and music by Boy in the Bubble and Chris Von Sneidern. Hosted by the one and only Stephen Elliott. $10, cheap, 21+, 7pm @ 3225 22nd Street.
Tuesday 11/9: Put on your smarty pants and head down to City Hall for Balancing Aesthetics and Activism, a panel discussion in conjunction with the San Francisco Arts Commission’s latest exhibit: LUX, the art of Christina Seely. The panel includes the artist, Kim Anno and Jesse Schlesinger. Free and all ages (with RSVP), 6:30pm @ City Hall’s North Light Court.
Wednesday 11/10: Despite the controversy surrounding his infamous personal life, Roman Polanski’s films have earned him world-wide recognition as an artist. See some of his earliest works accompanied by live music by the electroacoustic duo Sza/Za at a special screening by the San Francisco Film Society. Tickets $12-15, 7:30pm @ Premiere Theatre Letterman Digital Arts Center, 1 Letterman Drive.
Thursday 11/11: Nowhere in San Francisco loves a poetry open mic like the Mission, and nowhere in the Mission loves to host them as much as Viracocha. Tonight, the antique-shop-slash-community-performance-space presents Poetry Mission, an open mic that draws both established and new names to its cozy space on Valencia. Donations accepted, all ages, 7pm @ 998 Valencia Street.
Friday 11/12: What do you get when you combine an indie circus and music orgy? (I’m not really sure what either of those are either, but they sound pretty fantastic, right?) The Bohemian Carnival sets up shop in the spacious DNA Lounge for an evening of debauchery featuring performances by Gooferman, the Vau de Vire Society, and nearly a dozen others. Tickets $20, 21+, 9pm @ 375 11th Street.
Saturday 11/13: White Walls celebrates the opening of its November show, Ernesto Yerena Montejano’s Ganas 2020, with a reception honoring the artist’s first-ever solo exhibition. Montejano’s stencils and collages are part art, part activism — fittingly, the artist will participate in a panel discussion with fellow artist/activists Melanie Cervantes, Jesus Barraza and Juan Fuentes at 3pm. The reception is free and all ages, 7pm @ 835 Larkin Street.
Sunday 11/14: Are you the sort of art lover who might describe a short film as a “kinetic visual sculpture”? If so, get yourself down to Artists’ Television Access for Cartoon Justice: Hallucinarium and other Diversions… a screening of works (and kinetic visual sculptures) acompanied by improvised electroacoustic shamanic noise jazz (say it out loud — it sounds even better)! Tickets $6, all ages, 4pm @ 922 Valencia Street.
