Freebie of the week: Happy Jerry Garcia Day, folks. The iconic Bay Area personality, globally known musician and founding member of the Grateful Dead was born 82 years ago Thursday. Though he and the original band have been gone for nearly two decades, the musical legacy lives on, especially with spinoff band Dead & Company performing in residency at The Sphere in Las Vegas through this weekend. With its patented sound blending rock, psychedelia, folk, jazz and other genres, and Garcia’s distinctive syncopated and melodic lead guitar runs, the Grateful Dead’s music remains among the most identifiable of any band in history. The band’s role in creating the San Francisco sound and its part in the lively, if oft-inebriated music scene add to its mystique. One aspect of Garcia not as known was that he was a prolific artist, having created paintings, drawings, etches and digital art on a steady basis beginning in the late 1980s. He was known to carry a pad and pen and frequently was seen doodling potential works and ideas. Like his music, Garcia’s art embraced several styles and themes—whatever was flowing through his mind at the time. His works were not random scribblings; they drew respectful, even favorable reviews and he staged museum and gallery exhibitions around the country beginning in the early 1990s. Some are on view now in a free exhibit at the Sausalito Center for the Arts running Aug. 1 through Sept. 1. And all will be for sale, via the Jerry Garcia Foundation (most costing $2,500) with proceeds going toward Arts Center projects to promote art, music and more in Sausalito. The center, at 750 Bridgeway, is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. Go to www.sausalitocenterforthearts.org.
10 years for Desi Fest: Did you hear the one about a pair of comedians who decided to spotlight America’s wealth of South Asian stand-up talent? The result, created and organized by Abhay Nadkarni and Samson Koletkar, was the Desi Comedy Fest, which marks its 10th anniversary this year. Both comedians are still in the lineup, but the festival has seen considerable changes. Garnering a nationwide following, it has featured some 200 different comedians over its run. Bay Area-based Koletkar bills himself as perhaps the world’s only Jewish/South Asian comedian and his material is described as cerebral, topical, free of profanity and personal attacks and “most enjoyed by those who prefer caffeine over alcohol.” He’ll be on hand for all four of the shows during Desi Fest’s Bay Area run: 8 p.m. Saturday at the Firehouse Arts Center in Pleasanton; 7 p.m. Sunday at Cobb’s Comedy Club in San Francisco; 8 p.m. Tuesday at Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley; and 8 p.m. Aug. 8 at San Jose Improv. Other members of the revolving lineup include Deeptanshu Jha, Ibhan Kulkarni, Maryam Moosavi, Maddie Kelly, Abby Govindan, Anu Bee, Marc Yaffee and more. The goal, organizers say, is “creating a space where laughter knows no borders.” Tickets are $30 per show; go to www.desicomedyfest.com.
The purrfect festival: Sure, we can all try to immerse ourselves in artistic ventures that reflect profoundly on the human condition or promote compassion and empathy among people in these tense and challenging times. Or we can say “forget it” and spend the day watching cat videos. If you choose the latter (and we are not here to judge), several Bay Area theaters are hosting that touring bundle of furry, purring awesomeness, CatVideoFest, beginning Friday. Now we understand that some of you may prefer to take in cat videos from the safety and privacy of your own home, but try thinking of it as something you’re doing not because you want to mess off when you should be working, but because you just enjoy the thrill of watching cats who look like Wilford Brimley or who adorably get themselves tangled up in a fresh load of clean laundry, and want to share this joy with like-minded fans of feline accomplishment. Plus, CatVideoFest is all about raising money and awareness for various groups that help abandoned cats find homes. Portions of the funds raised at each Bay Area CatVideoFest screening, for example, will go to a local cat rescue organization. The 75-minute, non-rated video collection comes to the Sequoia Cinema in Mill Valley, the Smith Rafael Film Center in San Rafael, the Rialto Elmwood theater in Berkeley and the Roxie Theatre in San Francisco. Most screenings cost $10-$15. Tickets, schedules and more information is at www.catvideofest.com.
A Summer with the Symphony signoff: The San Francisco Symphony winds up its monthlong series of non-subscription programming this weekend with two live performances of the Oscar-winning score to the romantic 2016 movie “La La Land,” conducted by the man who nabbed the trophy himself, composer Justin Hurwitz. Meanwhile, the film starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as an aspiring actress and a jazz piano player looking to make it big, plays out over the orchestra members’ heads on a giant movie screen. The film, which captured 14 nominations total, won six honors, including best actress for Stone and best director for Damien Chazelle, at the time the youngest person, at 32, to score a win in that category. (Those of us with long memories will recall that the ceremony was somewhat marred when presenter Faye Dunaway, reading from a duplicate card for Stone’s award, mistakenly announced that “La La Land” had also won best picture, leading to several minutes of confusion before the real winner, “Moonlight,” emerged.) Performance times are 7:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday in Davies Hall. Tickets, $225-$325, are going fast. Find them at www.sfsymphony.org/lala.
That dashing but dastardly don: Of all the operas that Mozart wrote (22!), none careens so surefootedly from the tragic to the comic and back again as his 1787 masterpiece “Don Giovanni.” The tale of the swaggering nobleman who has designs on just about every woman who has the misfortune to cross his path and his ultimate comeuppance at the hands of an imposing statue (actually, he gets dragged waaaaay down) is the choice the Merola Opera Program has made for the fully staged production of its Summer Festival season this year, taking place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday and 2 p.m. Saturday at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Caroline H. Hume Concert Hall. It’s important to note that directing this production is the illustrious soprano Patricia Racette, herself a 1988 alum of the Merola training program, who has become a sought-after director and master teacher after a decades-long career as a superb vocalist. Merola enrollees taking on the major roles include baritone Hyungjin Son as Don Giovanni, sopranos Lydia Grindatto and Viviana Aurelia Goodwin as Donna Anna and Donna Elvira and bass-baritone Donghoon Kang as the wily manservant Leporello. Bass-baritone Benjamin R. Sokol sings the role of the Commendatore, who comes to the don’s dinner table and delivers his just deserts. Stefano Sarzani, an internationally known conductor on staff at Chicago Lyric Opera, leads the orchestra. Find tickets, $10-$65, at merola.org/summerfestival or call (415) 864-3330.
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