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[Atlas] Shrugged
A mushroom color atlas, the kickoff of SF Music Week, and childhood cartoon nostalgia
“The purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the most.” - John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice (1851-3). But I spent my entire senior year thinking about color, so maybe I’m partial. My collegiate study of the visual world led to the following question: is there a shared understanding of what makes a color fundamental, not only as humans but across disciplines? The resulting senior thesis, “Questioning the Foundations of Universal Color Categories,” involved trips to color libraries, stacks of monochrome text, and an appreciation for how contrast impacts perception. Oh what a pre-graduation world to spend 9 months pondering red, yellow, green, and blue.
Mushrooms enter the chat on mapping out color, a literary journal kicks off its publication, and the inaugural SF Music Week kicks off tonight (Feb 20th) at the California Academy of Sciences.
*Apologies to my fellow East Bay-ers for an SF-heavy offering this week.
Book Talk: The Mushroom Color Atlas
Category: Literary
Date: Thursday, February 27th @ 6pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: San Francisco Center for the Book (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: The humble mushroom is more than a culinary delight; it’s a living work of art. Author Julie Beeler is an educator, artist, and designer who has dedicated her life to the natural world and presents a calming, endless palette of mushroom pigments in her latest book, The Mushroom Color Atlas. Graphic designer Wynne Au-Yeung will join the stage with Beeler to not only discuss the book but also walk through the behind-the-scenes process of book design and arriving to a published work.
And for avoidance of doubt, San Franciscans, this is a book about fungi, not shrooms.
Noise Pop Festival Opening Party
Category: Music
Date: Thursday, February 20th @ 6pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: California Academy of Sciences (SF)
Price Range: $25
Why I Care: Because aquatic life deserves to party too. Noise Pop is the Bay Area’s oldest local independent music and arts event promoter. With over 30 years in operation, the promoter will be inaugurating SF Music Week with this late night party at the California Academy of Sciences. The evening will include DāM-Funk, who I’m partial to because of his work on one of my favorite Christine & the Queens songs. So resist tapping the aquarium glass and grab a drink instead. If Noise Pop's 2024 Sudan Archives concert is anything to go by, things will get cranked up to 11 this Thursday night.
Release Party: San Francisco Review of Whatever
Category: Literary
Date: Friday, February 28th @ 6pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Et al. (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: Friends Christa Hartsock and Jim Fingal are behind the launch of San Francisco Review of Whatever, a literary journal showcasing (mostly) Bay Area writers. This party will celebrate their first issue, which features essays exploring “why San Francisco dresses like that” and “a problem with the rectangle.” The evening will include a discussion on fashion, design, and artist Donald Judd along with an opportunity to explore Et als.’s current exhibition with this crew of discerning readers and writers.
Artist Talk | Diana Markosian: Father
Category: Art
Date: Thursday, February 20th @ 5:30pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Leica Store San Francisco (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: In Diana Markosian’s SFMoMA's Santa Barbara exhibition, the artist narrated the sacrificial story of a mail-order bride, her children, and their journey from Moscow to California. One of those children? Markosian herself, daughter of the protagonist mail-order bride. Her most recent work, Father, reconstructs memories of the biological father left behind and their reconciliation fifteen years later. The talk will give attendees the chance to hear about that journey directly from Markosian as photographer Todd Hido facilitates a discussion around her work and artistic process.
Warmduscher
Category: Music
Date: Thursday, February 27th @ 8:30pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Bottom Of The Hill (SF)
Price Range: $20
Why I Care: This entry was a toss up between Warmduscher and the Kavinsky concert happening around the corner, but Spotify Wrapped tipped the scales. Warmduscher's “I Got Friends” ranked #4 in my 2024 musical wrap-up because damn is it badass. The Independent named the post-punk band the “UK’s most eccentric band,” which comes through in their latest album Too Cold to Hold. The band members have come a long way from accidentally becoming a band at a NYE party and getting banned from Berlin’s Berghain. But don’t worry, they still don’t think the music industry needs to take itself so seriously.
Will I try to hop between this and the Kavinsky concert before cutting it close for a redeye? The temptation is real.
Hard Hat Heroes Coloring Book Release Party
Category: Art & Literary
Date: Thursday, February 27th @ 6pm (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: Hunters Point Shipyard Artists (SF)
Price Range: Free
Why I Care: At one point nearly 80% black, Bayview-Hunters Point was (and remains) central to the black community in San Francisco. This release party celebrates that history with Hard Hat Heroes, a coloring book compiled by artists Stacey Carter and William Rhodes to preserve the area’s oral history of African American shipyard workers during WWII. Carter and Rhodes are members of the Hunters Point Shipyard Artists (HPSA) community, which has provided community for artists and locals alike for over forty years. The reception will include a live jazz performance, snacks, and a cash bar.
Can’t make it next week? Consider the artist panel discussion on Saturday, March 15th to hear more from the HPSA artists-in-residence.
Cereal Cinema
Category: Film & Culinary
Date: Saturday, March 1st @ 10:30am (Add to Google Calendar)
Location: The New Parkway Theater (East Bay)
Price Range: $16
Why I Care: Classic cartoons & all-you-can-eat cereal: need I say anything more? This Saturday morning ritual is already taking me back to Pepper Ann, Honey Nut Cheerios, and not fully appreciating a Saturday without impending Sunday Scaries. The New Parkway will screen entirely family-friendly cartoons alongside an all-you-can-eat cereal bar with up to 12 different varieties and milk ranges to meet your vegan, gluten-free, pesca-pescatarian needs.
Enjoy 95 minutes of childhood glee because you only get One Saturday Morning (a week).
Next Drop: Monday, March 3rd
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