Along with temperate weather, a surf-friendly beach, and nearby state parks for days, San Francisco is also home to a breathtaking diversity of cultural events. Between our fair city’s world-class museums, restaurants, bars, art galleries, music scene, festivals, and clubs, between all that is weird and quirky and purely San Franciscan, there’s something going down, somewhere, every single day of the year. What’s an engaged culture hound to do? First step: Check out our newly launched Flavorpill social discovery engine, where you can create and share events with friends, follow our carefully curated editors’ picks, and connect with other people who have similar interests as you. Below, you’ll find Flavorpill’s top picks for this week. Just a little bit of help as you set out into this beautiful wide world of SF’s happenings.
Tuesday, March 26
BOOKS: SuicideGirls Book Signing and After Party
Wednesday, March 27
COMEDY: The Romane Event Eight-Year Anniversary Show
Thursday, March 28
FOOD/WINE: Vegan Hacker SF Hacking, a.k.a., thinking creatively and unconventionally for yourself, is already a part of many a kitchen. If you’re interested in making the kind of food you’ve always dreamed of but haven’t quite been able to pull off yet, now is the perfect time to visit Noisebridge, where the motto is “we teach, we learn, we share.” This particular event is taco-centric and strictly vegan, and you’ll need to bring all your own ingredients. Challenge your creativity by bringing something you never thought you could pull off in a taco! No need to register, just come on by. — Joshua Wyatt
Friday, March 29
THEATRE: Zombie Christ Haunted House Easter He is risen! Well, sort of. If you’ve ever wondered what, exactly, separates the Resurrection from the Living Dead, you’ll say hallelujah to this seasonal spectacle put on by San Francisco’s own handmaidens of the Lord, the flock of cross-dressing nuns known as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Join the Sisters and their queer choir of local performing artists all weekend long, as they roll away the stone on “the horrors of Christianity” and offer up their joyful, hedonistic take on the greatest story never told. — Meg Hurtado
THEATRE: Sing-Along Jesus Christ Superstar Your favorite drag queens (or ours, anyway) are putting on one chock-full Easter Weekend, and Friday night sees The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence staging a live production (with audience participation!) of Jesus Christ Superstar. It’s not all singing, though — if you’re on the larger side and like costumes, this might be your time to shine: prior to the show there will be a Chunky Jesus Contest searching for the best… well, Chunky Jesus. As if singing and Jesus-impersonating aren’t reason enough, the whole to-do takes place in San Francisco’s oldest operating theater, the Victoria (open since 1908), so you can probably get a good history lesson in while you’re at it. — Nora Oppenheim
Saturday, March 30
GETAWAY: Trannyshack Reno Cross-State Road Show It’s a bit hard to believe that this event even exists, but it does, and this is what it’s all about: You get onto a bus. It’s bound for Reno. Your fellow passengers include Peaches Christ, a gaggle of Trannyshack drag queens and kings, some equally bemused paying guests, and a ton of booze. It’s Easter Weekend. Over the course of two days aboard this all-out party-on-wheels, you make stops in relatively conservative cities en route (because the hostess of this bus likes to provoke people), get treated to an epic drag show, let loose on a night in Reno, and may even have a religious experience (fueled by alcohol and sleep deprivation). If it all sounds too crazy, rest assured that you’re in good hands; Trannyshack has done this trip 15 times now, and everyone has always come back in one piece, generally speaking. — Bonnie Chan
CITY GEM: Treasure Island Flea In 1939, Treasure Island was built to house the World’s Fair. Among the attractions were synchronized swimmer Esther Williams’ water ballet and burlesque performer Sally Rand’s Nude Ranch, featuring women wearing cowboy hats and little else. After the exhibition ended, the island was used as a Navy outpost, and to this day suffers from the pollution left behind from that era. But these days, the little man-made structure’s party pad roots are also being revived, thanks in no small part to the celebrated Treasure Island Flea, where you can do some buyin’ with breathtaking views of the bay at this monthly flea market of epic proportion. Arrive right at 10am for first picks, though rest assured that there’s never any shortage of wares to browse or characters to meet. — Christina Richards
Sunday, March 31
CITY GEM: Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Easter Celebration The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are a self-described “22nd century order of queer nuns.” Their story: In 1978, some Roman Catholic nuns (real ones) in Iowa innocently donated habits to a local theater company for use in a production of The Sound of Music. The next year, future Founding Sister Ken Bunch took those habits to San Francisco, where they made their way onto three men (Bunch included) who wandered through the streets of SF in full nun regalia on Easter Sunday, eliciting shock and awe as they went. The Sisters have since become a more numerous, beloved SF establishment — a flock of mustachioed sisters in drag who donate their time to support social causes and uplift spirits, sporting names you’d expect to encounter at a roller derby match (e.g., Sister Vicious Power Hungry Bitch, Sister Missionary Position, and Sister Hysterectoria). Today, Easter Sunday, is their birthday, so make your way to Dolores Park for their annual birthday/Easter celebration, featuring the infamous Hunky Jesus contest, burlesque, and a full order of nuns dressed in their Sunday best. — Bonnie Chan
MUSIC: Bambu w/ Power Struggle Hailing from Los Angeles, emcee Bambu is a man about his roots. When he’s not making music, Bambu is a community activist and organizer — a fact you can easily infer from his lyrics, which tackle the litany of social injustices perpetrated by a system bent on degradation. Bambu is a breath of fresh air in a sometimes apolitical scene, whose lyricism, intellect, and, of course, beats have earned him a fan base that stretches across the globe. — Cooper Berkmoyer
Ongoing
ART: Garry Winogrand “I photograph to see what the world looks like in photographs,” Garry Winogrand has said, and he had a profoundly prolific creative life to support his curiosity. At the time of his death in 1984, he left behind 2,500 rolls of undeveloped film, and his total collection was comprised of hundreds of thousands of negatives and slides. Considered to be one of the most important photographers of the 20th century, Winogrand was primarily concerned with photographing American social issues and people of the 1960s, and did so with a street photographer’s rapid-fire panache. SFMOMA’s current Winogrand exhibit is the first comprehensive Winogrand exhibit in 25 years. On Tuesday, April 2, there’s a lecture about the photographer at noon. — Bonnie Chan