We know things are weird right now, and you might not even be working with everything going on, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't have a chance to enjoy the weekend! Life goes on, and having a little fun and/or some relaxation is still necessary for your mental health. So check out these (safely social distanced) events you can participate in this weekend!
Click on any of the event titles for a link to the event.
Friday, August 14th
20/20: A Presidential Re-Election Play Where You Decide The Future
Online
All Times, All Ages
Free
What happens if the President is re-elected? In 20/20, a play by Theatre Makers, the answer is up to the audience. 20/20 is now available as a series of ten videos you can stream online from the comfort of your home at http://ritualart.org/2020/video.
Developed by grassroots company Theatre Makers, 20/20 combines speculative fiction and political satire in a work from co-writers Stardust Doherty and Kari Barclay. What would happen if the President were impeached? (that scenario came true!) If a corporation or the military staged a coup? If San Francisco became an independent country? A diverse cast of new talent performs roles ranging from dissident Muni drivers to frantic tech CEOs to new-age cult leaders to the President himself. With comedy and depth, the show asks how our current political situation will shake out.
"20/20 engages audience participation around the events of our day, highlighting social, political, economic, and environmental change (SPEEC) themes to fuel co creation of our collective future," said co-writer Stardust Doherty.
"The world is full of possibility," said co-writer Kari Barclay. "We've taken 20/20 to extremes of utopia and dystopia, and I'm excited to see which scenarios the audience chooses for the actors to perform."
Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco
All Day, All Ages
Free
Predicting the Past: Zohar Studios, The Lost Years is an original immersive photography installation by Los Angeles-based artist Stephen Berkman. The exhibition is a tribute to Shimmel Zohar, a nineteenth-century Jewish immigrant and photographer who founded the enigmatic Zohar Studios in New York City. The name Zohar also refers to the collection of writings that form the basis of Kabbalistic study--a historic text that is full of subtexts, obscurities, and tangents. Berkman's project, spanning more than twenty years, mirrors the complexity and density of this mystical text as he builds upon the layers of Zohar's story.
The exhibition presents over thirty uncanny photographic prints that address both Jewish life and the state of scientific understanding over 150 years ago. The images, featuring a wide range of dreamers, eccentrics, and malcontents, seek to engage with and embellish upon the conventions of nineteenth-century studio photography. The resulting photographs bear intriguing, often allusive titles such as "Victim of a Practical Joke," "The History of Dread: A Guide for the Perplexed," "Wandering Jewess," and "A Luddite Gazing into the Future." The photographs are accompanied by a cabinet of curiosities containing ephemera related to Zohar's story, various artifacts featured in the photographs, and a pair of large-scale installations featuring arcane optical viewing apparatuses.
An extraordinary artist book titled Predicting the Past: Zohar Studios, The Lost Years will accompany the exhibition. The book will contain thorough annotations for each photograph, a chapter on the studio, and a specially commissioned afterword by acclaimed writer Lawrence Weschler. The 368-page book will be available for purchase in The CJM Shop.
"Berkman's work falls into the tradition of the artist-made museum, much like the famous Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles by the artist David Wilson," says Lori Starr, Executive Director, The CJM. "It's a fascinating art practice that moves beyond binary questions of fact and fiction. We are so pleased to be presenting Stephen's first exhibition in a museum setting."
In addition to his art practice, Berkman, who was raised in the Bay Area, also creates historical photography for large-scale Hollywood films. Obsessed with Victorian culture and technology, he has perfected the rare and extremely difficult chemical photographic process known as wet collodion, which entails coating one side of a clean glass plate with ether, grain alcohol, and nitrate cellulose, and then dipping the plate in silver nitrate. The plate is exposed to light while still wet, and must be developed and fixed immediately after making the exposure. Berkman uses a large-format view camera with a Dallmeyer lens from 1864, whose glass is covered with nineteenth-century dust. The resulting albumen prints are rich with an unmistakable archaic quality: beautiful, detailed, and strangely unsettling.
"I appreciate the visual code of the nineteenth century, the formality of it, the way things looked, and the mix between art and science," says Berkman. "What intrigues me is getting inside the minds of people from another time and feeling that their time, what we now consider the past, was at one time contemporary. We are both the beneficiaries and victims of history."
Both the photographs and the various objects included in the installation create an idiosyncratic vision of Victorian life in the United States, revitalizing bygone technologies and themes within a twenty-first-century context. Through his work, Stephen Berkman shows that history is malleable and contains a multiplicity of meanings.
Predicting the Past: Zohar Studios, The Lost Years has been co-curated by Justin Limoges, Chief Preparator and Exhibition Designer, and Heidi Rabben, Senior Curator, The CJM.
Images: (first image) Stephen Berkman, A Wandering Jewess, undated. Albumen print, 11x 14 in. / (second image) Stephen Berkman, Conjoined Twins, undated. Albumen print, 11x 14 in.
Saturday, August 15th
SF Zen Center Online Meditation
Online
10:30 AM, All Ages
Free
Learn how to meditate with Dr. Lucy Xiao of the San Francisco Zen Meditation Center. This virtual session for beginners will introduce you to the benefits of meditation, which can help settle the body and mind amid the swirl of daily life. Sitting in a balanced posture creates a steady calm that, with training, can become the way you meet whatever arises. Please wear loose, comfortable clothing and find a good place to sit, or lie down, during the session.
Xiao is a Zen priest at San Francisco Zen Center and a Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. She grew up in Guangzhou, China, and has been practicing Zen for 20 years. Her deep roots in China combined with western influences have expanded the horizons of her practice and the ways she shares the dharma with others. While she is not sitting in meditation, she is connected with the wider world through teaching mindfulness and her holistic medicine practice.
The Winery, Treasure Island
12 PM, Ages: 21+
$30/per table for the 1st half hour
Reserve a table at https://www.winery-sf.com/wine-tasting-reservations-in-san-francisco
We are officially reopen and are so excited to welcome back all our wine tasters! Join us on Sat & Sun from 11am to 5pm to enjoy wine tasting, food, and socializing with your social group (up to 6 people) in a safe social distance environment on our large outdoor waterfront patio. Seating is limited, so reserve your table today!
In accordance with local and state guidelines, the Winery SF Wine Tasting Room on Treasure Island in San Francisco will be re-opening on Saturday, June 13th from 11:00am to 5:00pm and will be open on weekends going forward as usual.
To ensure your safety and convenience, we will be implementing the following rules:
Outdoor Table Service Only - with Six Feet Social Distancing: Only outdoor table service with six feet social distancing and all sanitizing routines will be allowed for the time being. Although the tasting bar will not be available for walk-ups, we do have a large number of outside tables available for groups of up to 6 people maximum (in accordance with the state guidelines).
Food Will Be Available for Purchase: We've partnered with our chef, Sarun Kao who provides food for our events, to provide a full food menu along with our wine tasting menu. This is part of the re-opening requirements by the local authorities but has been requested by wine taster for years. We are so excited to be finally serving food at The Winery SF for our guests. Click here to view this week's menu.
Face Masks are Required upon Entrance: In accordance local and state requirements, you must have a mask on upon arrival, so please bring your mask!
Reservations Highly Recommended: In accordance with the local and state regulations, advanced tasting reservations are highly suggested. Although we have a large 3000 sq. ft. outdoor courtyard, we have a limited number of tables and reservations will supersede walk-ups, so reservations are highly suggested. We've launched a new online reservation system, so make your reservation here: https://www.winery-sf.com/wine-tasting-reservations-in-san-francisco
Since we will be one of the few venues in San Francisco with a large enough outdoor area with seating to re-open under the current safe distancing guidelines, we expect to be very busy, so please book your reservation early. There is no cost for the table, but there is a minimum spend of $30 per table for the first hour. It is an additional $15 spend per table for each additional half-hour.
To reserve a table, please use our online reservation system by clicking here: https://www.winery-sf.com/wine-tasting-reservations-in-san-francisco
Please email or call us with any questions. We can't wait to serve you!
Sunday, August 16th
All Day, All Ages
Free
The Stern Grove free outdoor music festival was initially scheduled to take place on Sundays from June 14 through August 16, 2020. It is the first time in the Festival’s long history that it has been canceled.
This summer, in place of canceled performances, the Festival is creating Best of the Fest, a virtual video series featuring highlights from the Festival’s vast library of concert footage from the past 13 years.
Hosted by TV and radio personality and seasoned emcee Liam Mayclem, Sheila E. (2012), Pink Martini (2013), The Doobie Brothers (2015), and George Clinton (2016) are among the musicians to be included in the weekly concerts.
Best of the Fest will also feature artist interviews, scenic footage of the Grove, and special guests. It will be posted on the Festival’s website, YouTube channel, and Facebook page every Sunday from June 14 through Sunday, August 16.
Beginning Sunday, May 31, visit sterngrove.org for each Sunday’s lineup.
In addition to Best of the Fest, the Festival will be offering a virtual arts education program utilizing many of the teaching artists who would have participated this summer. Classes in music-making and dance will be offered online on the Festival’s YouTube and Facebook channels.
Online
9 AM, All Ages
Free
Come eat, drink, shop, play, connect and be local at the Outer Sunset Farmers Market & Mercantile, a festive open-air, year-round weekly market featuring local farmers, ranchers, food artisans, merchants, makers, artists and organizations on a closed-to-traffic 37th Avenue between Ortega and Pacheco.
Outer Sunset Farmers Market & Mercantile Every Sunday at 9 am – 3 pm 37th Avenue at Ortega, SF
The Outer Sunset Farmers Market & Mercantile is a weekly market featuring farmers, ranchers, food artisans and vendors, makers, merchants, artists, and local organizations. OSFMM is proudly presented by Sunset Mercantile in collaboration with District 4 Supervisor Gordon Mar, Office of Economic and Workforce Development, and People of Parkside Sunset.
Our open-air market will launch with a thoughtful and comprehensive COVID-19 safety plan. The plan will include guidelines, protocols, and a modified program of activities that will evolve along with this situation but will reflect at all times the goal of helping to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of the community, vendors, and staff.
Komen