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sunday
october 26
Puttin' on the Dog If you can get your cat (or your chinchilla, or your goat) to walk around on a leash, you can join all the dog walkers participating in the Pet Pride Parade, which kicks off Pet Pride Day in Golden Gate Park. If you can persuade your cat, your chinchilla, or your goat to wear a funny hat and jump through a hoop, you might consider entering the Halloween Costume Contest or the Stupid Pet Tricks event, although costume contest winners will receive a year's supply of dog food, which seems sort of biased toward canine contestants. Working dogs from the U.S. Customs Service and the Police Narcotics Unit will show lounging dogs how the other half lives, and any dog can be treated to license registration or a free rabies vaccine. The event begins at 11 a.m. in Sharon Meadow, Golden Gate Park, S.F. Admission is free; call 749-4546.
Could It Be ... Satan? Clad in a homemade devil suit accessorized with wings, horns, tail, pitchfork, and an oversized penis attached with Velcro, UCLA M.F.A. candidate John Geary made his way across the United States three years ago, materializing along the sides of freeways and on rooftops, where he startled the bejeezus out of unsuspecting passers-by. Even better, Geary and videographer Christopher Smith captured the incredulous reactions of viewers on videotape, which evolved into the minidoc Devil Tour '94. The video includes the footage a news helicopter captured of Geary being arrested near a Santa Monica freeway (he was cited by police for walking on the freeway and filming in the city without a permit, but he was able to detach his male appendage and toss it into the bushes before he was hauled in, which probably saved him from an obscenity rap). Geary will discuss his little art project and speak about the enlarged color photos, the video, and related objects when the "LiveDevil" exhibit opens with a reception at 7 p.m. at Place Pigalle, 520 Hayes (at Octavia), S.F. Admission is free; call 552-2671. The show will be up through Nov. 23.
Gregg Has Some 'Splaining to Do Some of I Love Lucy's best episodes actually evolved from the San Francisco Jewish Community Center's Little Theater, where Lucy writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer did improv shtick in the '30s. Oppenheimer, whom Lucy referred to as the brains behind the show, grew up on California Street, and his family ran a furniture store on O'Farrell. In 1936, he set out for Hollywood, where he parlayed his own theatrical experiences, like the time he couldn't get out of a pair of handcuffs onstage, into Lucy material. Before his death in 1988, Oppenheimer began recounting his career in the book Laughs, Luck ... and Lucy: How I Came to Create the Most Popular Sitcom of All Time, which his son, Gregg, a Santa Monica-based lawyer-turned-writer, finished and got published last year. The younger Oppenheimer will discuss the book and the accompanying CD of Lucy's rarely heard radio comedy performances, including Lucy forerunner My Favorite Husband, at 1 p.m. where it all began, at the JCC, 3200 California (at Presidio), S.F. Admission is free; call 292-1246.
monday
october 27
But Never on a Sunday Monday and Tuesday just got more interesting with the Monday and Tuesday night performance series organized by Theater of Yugen. Tonight's show features Japanese butoh dancer Koichi Tamano, co-founder of Harupin-ha Butoh Company, performing new improv solo dance Experimental Zyme 3, accompanied by musician Keiko Takahashi. On Tuesday, Fringe Festival veteran Byron Yee performs his comic solo show Paper Son, about his family history as told through his father's immigration records, followed by butoh dancer Judith Kajiwara's own vision of personal history in Silent Blizzard, which deals with her family's internment in a detention camp. Both series shows begin at 8 p.m. at Theater of Yugen's Noh Space, 2840 Mariposa (at Alabama), S.F. Admission is $8 Monday, $10-12 Tuesday; call 621-7978.
tuesday
october 28
Hot Shots The photo collection "The Family of Man," which debuted at New York's MOMA in 1955, brought viewers face to face with people they'd never met, through photos like Alma Lavenson's San Idlefonso Indians, New Mexico (1941). Lavenson, a San Francisco-born, self-taught photographer whose work was exhibited nationally during her career, is celebrated at "Alma Lavenson (1897-1989): A Centennial Selection." Curator Susan Ehrens, who worked with the photographer and wrote a book about her, focuses on Lavenson's work during the '20s, '30s, and '40s, including shots of Mount Tam and the Oakland Estuary, soft-focus pictorialist work, and photos that sought to capture the spirit of the Southwest, including the San Idlefonso Indians portrait. The exhibit opens at 11 a.m. (and is up through Nov. 29) at Shapiro Gallery, 250 Sutter (at Grant), S.F. Admission is free; call 398-6655.
Short Cuts Gutter and glitter punks get their due in Sarah Jacobson's The Adventures of Sweet Miss: The Disco Years, and Lidia Szajko chronicles the loss of a friend to AIDS in A Constant State of Departure; what these films have in common with each other and the over a dozen short films they're showing with at the outdoor showcase and barbecue "You Never Forget Your First" is that they're the maiden efforts by local Bay Area women filmmakers. The BYO barbecue begins at 7:30 p.m., followed by the screening at 9 p.m., at No Nothing Cinema, 30 Berry (at Second Street), S.F. Admission is free; call 642-5952.
