{"id":172890,"date":"2026-02-11T03:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T03:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/172890\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T03:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T03:33:10","slug":"big-week-lovers-lane-exploratorium-sexytime-problematic-bae-and-always-be-my-maybe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/172890\/","title":{"rendered":"BIG WEEK: Lover’s Lane, Exploratorium sexytime, Problematic Bae, and ‘Always Be My Maybe’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Welcome to our calendar feature BIG WEEK, wherein our\u00a0expert Arts & Culture writers<\/a>\u00a0recommend the best things do.<\/p>\n

\"\"Crowd contemplates vintage vibrators at the Exploratorium\u2019s After Dark Sexplorations.<\/p>\n

GENERAL ARTS
Caitlin Donohue<\/a> is keeping an eye on the situation.<\/p>\n

WED\/11 THROUGH FEBRUARY 28: THEY DESERVE TO PLAY In 2011, over 15,000 kids took to the beaches of Gaza to simultaneously fly kites, breaking a world record and bringing attention to their plight in Palestine. A monthlong arts program honors them, as well as the rest of their country\u2019s youth, with a Wed\/11 poetry reading and documentary screening about the high-flying protest as well as an interactive exhibition that will last through the end of February. Santa Clara County Government Center, San Jose. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

THU\/12: AFTER DARK: SEXPLORATIONS Feeling freaky, and not in a good way? Tonight\u2019s to-do at the Exploratorium offers a hundred examples of sexual shenanigans, both in the natural world and throughout the timeline of human existence. Take in an explainer of flower reproduction, or perhaps a tutorial on shark sex. You\u2019ll be feeling normal and natural by the end of this late-night learning. Exploratorium, SF. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

FRI\/13: CARNIVALE The community power of Carnaval comes to one of the city\u2019s most transcendent holy places tonight, with the explosive Sampa Samba providing beats. Come attired in your best gem tones and ready to snap your family photo and bid on a variety of community treasures (massages to an ikebana session to VIP Oakland Ballers tickets) at this fundraiser for Grace\u2019s grace. Grace Cathedral, SF. More info here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

FRI\/13: PROBLEMATIC BAE \u201cA night for those who rise above the neurochemical con job of romantic love in the modern empire!\u201d Indeed. Top-shelf DJs the likes of Robin Simmons B2B Elaine Denham and Charles Hawthorne invite one and all to this all-break-up-anthems dance party. We will survive! White Horse, Oakland. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

FRI\/13 + SAT\/14: PASTA SUPPLY CO GOTH PROM Because good goths clean their plate, the Pasta Supply Co family is offering an a l\u00e0 carte dark fest featuring black pasta, on-site makeup artist, a gates of Hell photo stage, and a \u201cgoth duck pond\u201d. Say less, come hungry. Pasta Supply Co (both locations: 3233 22nd St., SF and 236 Clement, SF). More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SAT\/14: BAAITS TWO-SPIRIT POW-WOW Couple pointers before heading into this spectacular celebration of Native communities: pay close attention to the MC for stepping\/standing\/sitting orders, ask permission before snapping photos of people (outside the dance arena only), no non-consensual touching (of course), make sure you leave many a donation on the specified blanket, leave required gendered regalia at home\u2014and save room for frybread. Fort Mason Center, SF. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sponsored link<\/p>\n

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SAT\/14: CARRY ON: JUSTIN WONG This Hong Kong political cartoonist presents his work made in the three decades since he left his home country. Ready to laugh with the anxieties of our era? Chinese Cultural Center, SF. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SAT\/14: CLIFFORD\u2019S BIRTHDAY PARTY Sure there\u2019s a lot of red going on today, but you\u2019ll agree that this big scarlet pooch (whose adventures have been entertaining fans since 1963) is far from promoting heteronormative romantic ideals. A local bookstore is throwing a free bash for Clifford the canine literary legend, where you\u2019ll be invited to read, make crafts, and meet the doggo himself! BookShop West Portal, SF. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SAT\/14: LOVER\u2019S LANE We dare you to attend this four-year-old community come-together in one of the Mission\u2019s most beloved back streets and not have your heart grow two sizes. Founded by a local muralist and now a grassroots gathering point for loved-up artists, it\u2019s a fab place to enjoy food, music, creativity, and more with your family of all ages. Balmy Alley, SF. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SAT\/14: THE LOVERS BALL What do the decks have in store for your romantic future? Club Yearn sets out to answer just that, extending an invitation to dress as your favorite tarot card at this dance party featuring a live performance from Shinji Hirako from Bleach. White Horse, Oakland. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SAT\/14: GIRL CULTURE IS SACRED: A VALENTINE\u2019S ABORTION BENEFIT SHOW Let\u2019s hear it for reproductive rights! 1001 Stevies has been around since 2017 putting on concerts in support of abortion services, and this edition with Pretty Beat will showcase the rrradicality of local groups Ouch!, Baycoin Beats, and Tracey Holland\u2019s alt-R&B-soul supergroup. Come through for the sake of an ovary you know and love. El Rio, SF. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SAT\/14: FLEETMAC WOOD You get the sense that Stevie would approve of this evening of Fleetwood Mac dance remixes, capable of delivering the complex commentary on love and loss befitting of your V-Day. In the words of organizers, \u201cthis is a tunnel-visioned, all-night journey. If you don\u2019t like Fleetwood Mac, Stand Back, Stand Back.\u201d Regency Ballroom, SF. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SUN\/15: LITTLE SAIGON LUNAR NEW YEAR TET FESTIVAL It\u2019s the Year of the Horse and Black History Month, so you know that the Oakland Black Cowboy Association will be at this family event with friendly steeds ready to be admired. Wear your \u00e1o d\u00e0i, take in traditional performances, have your fortune ready, and get ready to eat your way through some of the East Bay\u2019s most succulent Vietnamese (and beyond) food offerings. Clinton Park, Oakland. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

MUSIC
Hit up John-Paul Shiver\u2019s\u00a0Under the Stars<\/a>\u00a0column for great tunes and shows every week.<\/p>\n

SAT\/14: ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE This film remains one of my comfort watches. It works on so many levels, starting with the fact that it feels like San Francisco. Co-leads and writers Ali Wong and Randall Park look like local folks you\u2019d run into or have some beers with out in the avenues. Why? Cause they can crack jokes on anybody without breaking a sweat. I love this movie cause it\u2019s the funny, gross, weird, and realistic version of a rom-com that most people will be able to relate to. Wong and Park bring their cultural heritage to this Asian-led version of When Harry Met Sally, whose comedic beats are hella funny and hella Bay. It features cameos from Keanu Reeves and rapper-cum-gourmand Lyrics Born, and Park (a former member of the 1990s Bay Area hip-hop group Ill Again) co-wrote several songs for the movie with hip-hop producer Dan the Automator. This flick is so damn funny, with believable romance that sneaks up on you. Get your dork-love on, Son. Four Star Theater, SF. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SAT\/14: PEOPLE WATCH AT CASANOVA LOUNGE A Mission locals\u2019 bar that has this much character can absorb weekend foot traffic without changing its badass vibe. Valentine\u2019s Day can be weird, no matter what your situationship or throupling\u2014sometimes you want to go out with that special someone, and other times, you need a Greyhound paloma or that real stiff Mission Margarita to wash down all the shit-talking amongst your crew. Casanova Lounge, with the velvet paintings, has kept SF\u2019s Mission district sexy since 1997 with its rad, loud mix of tunes. Grab a drank, and go people-watch this Valentine\u2019s Day. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"Treasure\u2019s green peppers with century egg. Photo by Tamara Palmer<\/p>\n

FOOD & DRINK
Tamara Palmer\u2019s weekly\u00a0Good Taste column<\/a>\u00a0tells you where to stick your fork.\u00a0Sign up for\u00a0the new Good Taste newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

TASTE TOUR OF BELMONT Head to San Mateo County to eat your way through this diminutive peninsula town. I found out about Treasure (51 El Camino Real) from David R. Chan<\/a>, a retired tax attorney from the San Gabriel Valley who writes about Chinese American restaurants. Now, I\u2019m obsessed\u2014can\u2019t wait to come back and try more modern dishes and dim sum. We also witnessed a Peking duck carving, which must be preordered, and wished we were at that table. Your second stop might well be Blue Sky Cafe<\/a> (1625 El Camino Real), a popular Cantonese restaurant that has been open since 1994. Lines are common on weekends. It\u2019s known for homey claypot rice dishes, but the menu is huge and rife for exploration. No wrong answers, as far as I can tell. Last but not least, Jiro Cafe & Bakery (1094 Alameda de las Pulgas) is a charming takeout spot for Japanese snacks and bevs, including ceremonial-grade Uji matcha. We cleaned them out of their last desserts: premium hojicha pudding and yuzu cheesecake slices.<\/p>\n

\"\"SF Playhouse\u2019s \u2018M. Butterfly\u2019. Photo by Jessica Palopoli<\/p>\n

STAGE
You can also find astute theatrical musings with Charles Lewis III, who checks out theaters and performance spaces every week in the\u00a0Drama Masks<\/a>\u00a0column.<\/p>\n

WED\/11-SUN\/15: DEAR SAN FRANCISCO V-DAY WEEKEND Do artful, theatric historical vignettes leave you feeling full of love, lust or both at once? Club Fugazi\u2019s city-adoring spectacular is offering inspiring packages of sparkling wine, assorted snacks and romantic accessories, should you fancy treating someone to acrobats kissing on vertical poles and other sights amid a holiday mini-season that could always use an injection some levity and show. Club Fugazi, SF. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

THROUGH MARCH 1: THE NOTEBOOK Refuse to be shamed for romance fandom! True connections can be lacking these days, but not so in this stage adaptation of Mr. Ryan Gosling\u2019s \u201chottest bachelor\u201d-era cinematic showcase (JK, it\u2019s based on Nicholas Sparks\u2019 crushingly popular source novel). Rather than go with a tenuous date to this one, how about bringing that buddy in front of whom you don\u2019t mind ugly-crying. Feel something! Orpheum Theatre, SF. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

THROUGH MARCH 14: M. BUTTERFLY In Emily Wilson\u2019s upcoming 48hills interview, the star of this revival of David Henry Hwang\u2019s complex 1988 tale of gender \u201creveal\u201d Edrick Young said, \u201cI think the idea of surprising audiences with the deception is not as compelling anymore. What is more compelling to us, and hopefully to our audiences, are the ideas around hope and love and what happens when our bodies are policed by other people, when our identities are weaponized against us.\u201d Suffused with movement and deeper character work, the production twirls its polemic source material. San Francisco Playhouse. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SAT\/14 + SUN\/15: GRAHAM100 A Cal Performances weekend in celebration of the icon herself, choreographer Martha Graham, and the 100th anniversary of her seminal company. Classic Graham pieces like \u201cAppalachian Spring\u201d, \u201cNight Journey\u201d, and \u201cChronicle\u201d will stun. Escapist dance this is not: on Saturday, audiences will watch Baye & Asa\u2019s response to Graham\u2019s anti-war \u201cCortege of Eagles\u201d, while on Sunday, Jamar Roberts\u2019 \u201cWe the People\u201d takes stage. Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley. More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

FILM
Dennis Harvey\u2019s long-running\u00a0Screen Grabs<\/a>\u00a0has tons more flicks to recommend.<\/p>\n

OPENS FRI\/13: THE PRESIDENT\u2019S CAKE Probably the best movie opening this week is one that might recall the postwar Italian depictions of child poverty in movies like\u00a0The Bicycle Thief. Hasan Hadi\u2019s debut feature is set in 1990 Iraq, when U.N. sanctions have thrown citizens into considerable everyday hardship. Nonetheless, it is mandatory that the entire nation celebrate Saddam Hussein\u2019s birthday, with nine-year-old rural schoolchild Lamia (Baneen Ahmad Nayyef) \u201cwinning\u201d the dubious honor of making her classroom\u2019s honorary cake. This is in fact a terrible stroke of luck, because such basics as sugar, eggs, and flour are in extremely short supply\u2014yet the punitive consequences for failing this stupid obligation will be no joke. Compellingly performed by mostly nonprofessional actors, very well crafted on an often impressive scale, it\u2019s a depressing-sounding story that somehow sports too much warmth, color, and suspense to come off as a simple downer. It did not, alas, make it to the Oscars\u2019 final five of current Best International Feature nominees\u2014though it should have.\u00a0Opens in Bay Area theaters including SF\u2019s AMC Metreon.<\/p>\n

OPENS FRI\/13: AMERICAN PASTORAL In early 2023, a French film crew visited Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, where all five school board seats then held by moderate (as opposed to far-right) Republicans were up for election. Whipped into states of hysteria by the phantom menaces of \u201cgender ideology\u201d and supposed \u201cporn\u201d on children\u2019s bookshelves (though notably no one claiming that ever names an actual tome), voters replaced the incumbents with extremists so unified, they all belonged to the same batshit local evangelical church. Though it\u2019s taken its time getting released in the United States where it was shot, Auberi Edler\u2019s 2024 documentary remains alarmingly relevant\u2014a scrupulously neutral gaze at Americans so indoctrinated they have no idea they represent an extreme, and who are now driving national policy. Available via VOD and Digital streaming from Film Movement as of Fri\/13.<\/p>\n

SAT\/14 + SUN\/15: NIPPON VIBES This event space, whose past functions included a too-brief stint as SFFilm\u2019s year-round arthouse, appears to be at least temporarily back in the exhibition business with\u00a0a weekend of Japanese cinema co-presented by the Roxie. Its four shows span eight decades, from the original 1954\u00a0Godzilla\u00a0(quite a different movie from the drastically altered U.S. release version) and Akira Kurosawa\u2019s 1957\u00a0Throne of Blood\u00a0(an ambitious feudal-era spin on\u00a0Macbeth) to the beloved 2016 anime\u00a0your name.\u00a0and last year\u2019s\u00a0Kokuho, an epic three-hour drama set in the Kabuki theater world that\u2019s now the highest-grossing Japanese live action feature ever.<\/p>\n

\"\"Horse Meat Disco plays Fri\/13.<\/p>\n

NIGHTLIFE
Marke B.<\/a> usually knows what\u2019s up.<\/p>\n

FRI\/13: HORSE MEAT DISCO\u00a0Treat your sweetie to some horse meat! Horse Meat Disco, that is, the UK DJ outfit that helped revive disco and soul music on queer dance floors in the techno pop-drenched 2000s. They\u2019re still going strong as a global act, popping into the Stardella party at Great Northern with the ever-glorious CarrieOnDisco and DJ M3. 9:30pm-3am, Great Northern, SF.\u00a0More info here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SAT\/14: GREG WILSON\u00a0It\u2019s a V-Day weekend double dip at Great\u00a0Northern, as one of the most respected DJs of the past 50 years and my hero, Greg Wilson, comes into town for a rare appearance. Wilson was\u00a0the first person to DJ live on UK television<\/a>\u00a0and championed Black music at a time when record companies were acting really racist. His skills on the reel-to-reel are phenomenal, and he\u2019ll make you hear dance music history in an entirely new way. 9:30pm-3am, Great Northern, SF.\u00a0More info here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SAT\/14: RHONDAVOUS: SAN FRANCISCO (A LOVERS\u2019 BALL) W\/\u00a0FLOOPLAN:\u00a0Detroit techno royalty Robert Hood teamed up with his daughter Lyric a decade ago to infuse gospel house with deep techno vibes, and the payoff has been enormous. (Try not to smile watching\u00a0this<\/a>.) Floorplan\u00a0playing\u00a0SF is already big news, but headlining LA\u2019s pansexual bacchanal A Club Called Rhonda\u2019s\u00a0Rhondavous V-Day party in SF is wild. Let\u2019s go. 10pm-3am, August Hall, SF.\u00a0More info here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Welcome to our calendar feature BIG WEEK, wherein our\u00a0expert Arts & Culture writers\u00a0recommend the best things do. Crowd…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-172890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-oakland","9":"tag-oakland-headlines","10":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}