If you’ve been passing the time debating whether or not Justin Bieber has finally done something tasteful and relevant, you can you can give it a rest for now because the weekend has arrived — and with it, our trusty guide to the best ways to spend it.
Queen Kyi See you can get in where you fit in/But you ain’t about to fit in with me/And you know I stay fly to a T/I’m international, I’ll have you think you thuggin’ when you hear this beat, rhymes Washington, DC spitter Queen Kyi on the title track of her most recent mixtape, Trilluminati. Like her regal stage name suggests, the project’s opulent club anthems brim with high-femme boast raps that position femininity as a source of power. Queen Kyi’s flow is smooth and icy, and she serves disses with nimble wordplay in her nonchalant monotone. Kyi performs on Friday, November 20, at Swagger Like Us, the Bay Area’s premiere queer hip-hop dance party, at Oasis in San Francisco. This edition of Swagger features resident DJ davO of the electro-pop duo Double Duchess and Boston DJ Leah McFly, who is a veteran of her city’s party scene. Gather your cool-girl posse and come prepared to stunt. — Nastia Voynovskaya
Fri., Nov. 20, 10 p.m. $10, $12. SFOasis.com
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Copy The Copy
For five months at the beginning of 2014, Oakland artist David Wilson occupied the Berkeley Art Museum with The Possible, an amorphous gathering of artists that reimagined the parameters of a museum by filling it with a constantly evolving array of workshops presented by more than one hundred artists. He began the project by snail-mailing invitations to all of the participating artists. For many of his projects, he indulges his affection for paper goods by making maps, invitations, or mailers — and when making these, he often uses a Xerox machine. On Saturday, November 21 at Land and Sea (5428 San Pablo Ave., Oakland), Wilson will present a project that uses the Xerox machine “as a tool towards its own ends.” Wilson plans to explore the act of copying by enlarging one of his drawings, cutting it into pieces, enlarging those pieces, cutting each of them into pieces, and repeating that process until he fills an entire wall. Wilson, who is also known for his playful walking tours, will also be leading a walk through the neighborhood around Land and Sea at some point during the reception. — Sarah Burke
Sat., Nov. 21, 2-6 p.m. Free. LandAndSeaEditions.virb.com
Gender v. Technology Performance Salon
Most people’s understanding of the ways in which gender and technology intersect stops at Facebook pronoun options. But for the Gender v. Technology performance salon taking place at B4bel4b (184 10th St., Oakland) gallery on Saturday, November 21, a group of 23 artists will be investigating the nuanced manner by which gender and technology inform each other in our everyday lives. Twelve of the artists will be giving performances throughout the night, totaling in about two hours of movement, theatrics, and experimentation. For example, two artists plan to get married over video chat and another will be using copper wiring to capture sounds created by the audience and reconfigure them in real time. Between performances, attendees can engage with installations — mostly video work, projections, and sculpture — that explore the ways in which technology can both require us to conform to gender categories and liberate us from them, specifically in the Bay Area. — S.B.
Sat., Nov. 21, 7 p.m. $5-$15 sliding-scale donation. Facebook.com/B4bel4bGallery
Water on Mars
On The Classical’s most recent album, Diptych, singer Juliet Gordon culls surrealist lyrics from word associations and dream symbolism, heightening the drama of her verses through a slow, suspenseful cadence. Previously, Gordon and drummer Britt Ciampa, her main creative collaborator, performed using pre-recorded backing tracks that featured sparse, moody keys and string instruments. But now, The Classical has a new band. The group will debut its retooled live show at its upcoming performance, Water on Mars, at Good Mother Gallery in downtown Oakland on November 21. Them Are Us Too, a local avant-garde pop two-piece, will perform alongside The Classical, as will Laughters, another duo with a similar penchant for poetic lyricism and dark, noise-addled compositions. Drea Faux Real, a DJ who works with rising Oakland rapper Tia Nomore, will spin party jams after the bands perform. — N.V.
Sat., Nov. 21, 8 p.m. $5. GoodMotherGallery.com
Chance the Rapper
Chance the Rapper’s flow is the rap equivalent of free jazz. Throughout his verses, his throaty, guttural voice bounces between different pitches and intonations, frequently breaking from clear diction into more visceral, abstract sounds. When he dropped his critically acclaimed debut mixtape, Acid Rap, in 2013, the self-released project’s popularity earned him a spot on XXL’s Freshman Class of 2014 and recognition on many major music publications’ year-end lists. But though Chance was on the cusp of widespread fame, he took time to focus on experimental projects instead of rushing toward pop stardom. For instance, he formed the jazz-hip-hop fusion band The Social Experiment with several childhood friends from Chicago, which released a jubilant, improvisatory mixtape, Surf, this past summer. He also collaborated with one of today’s most unorthodox independent rappers, Berkeley’s Lil B, on Free Based Freestyles Mixtape. Hot off the heels of his new track with Justin Bieber, “Confident,” Chance performs at The Fox Theater with D.R.A.M., Towkio, and Metro Boomin (the producer of Drake and Future’s epic mixtape, What a Time to be Alive) for his Family Matters Tour on Saturday. — N.V.
Sat., Nov. 21, 8 p.m. $39.50. TheFoxOakland.com
The ClimateMusic Project
If you could compress hundreds of thousands of years of climate change data into a few minutes — what would it sound like? That’s the challenge behind The ClimateMusic Project, a concert and data project debuting at the Chabot Space & Science Center (10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland) on November 21. In a sample of the concept on the project’s website, “America the Beautiful” is played using a trumpet, violin, and bass to represent different systems within the atmosphere — carbon dioxide levels, global temperature, and the ocean’s pH levels, respectively. The composition starts out sounding harmonious during the centuries when the climate was relatively stable, but as temperatures rise and the pH level of the ocean goes out of whack, the pitch of the instruments change. A discordant sound emerges, leaving the listener struggling to hold onto the melody of the song. The goal is to “communicate climate science in a very broad spectrum — the hearts, minds, values,” said William Collins, a science advisor for the project, in the introductory video. “I think that’s an immensely important development.” — Erin Baldassari
Sat., Nov. 21, 8-10 p.m. $15. TheClimateMusicProject.org
If your pockets are feelin’ light and you’re still yearning for more suggestions, we’ve got a ton, and these ones are all FREE! We’re Hungry: Got any East Bay news, events, video, or miscellany we should know about? Feed us at [email protected].
