Bay Area favorite K.Flay has come a long way from her star-making indie hip-hop sound in the 2000s—latest album Mono confronts her 2022 diagnosis of labyrinthitis and subsequent total deafness in her right ear, and takes a harder, rockier, more direct turn than her earlier work. For two sold out nights at the Independent, she put her all into a power-packed performance, boxing gloves included. K. Flay at the SF Independent, 3/28. Photo by D.A. Mission K. Flay at the SF Independent, 3/28. Photo by D.A. Mission K. Flay at the SF Independent, 3/28. Photo by D.A. Mission K. F ..read more

It’s funny.  Katerina McCrimmon was born a century and 1300 miles apart from Fanny Brice, whom she plays in the national touring production of Funny Girl, hitting BroadwaySF’s Orpheum Theatre for a month-long engagement, starting Tue/30. Yet, the Miami native with Cuban-American roots admits relating to the fierce determination of the Jewish comedian and singer who rose from burlesque dancer to Broadway star—a trajectory made famous in Jule Styne, Bob Merrill, and Isobel Lennart’s 1964 stage musical, Funny Girl, and subsequent 1968 fi ..read more

Reason and rationality prevailed at the Board of Supes meeting Tuesday, when the seriously flawed proposal to bailout the Treasure Island developers hit the floor. The “alternative financing” plan Mayor London Breed and Sup. Matt Dorsey sponsored would have had the city loaning the developers $115 million at a time when the city has a projected deficit of $245 million, ballooning to $555 million next year. With renewed scrutiny of the proposal’s numbers, the Board had to face up to the reality that the city and the developer are in big financial trouble. They simply don’t have the resources to ..read more

As the deluge of 40th anniversary album reviews starts to pile up on music platforms, Substacks, and newsletters hitting your inbox with increased rhythm, it’s important to ask: Why? 1984 is the inflection point where pop music listening modernized. Here are some facts. Many, no numerous, albums from that year, and the years surrounding it, just refuse to go away, even in 2024. You’ve heard and seen the tweet “old music is killing new music”. Its from this album are ever-present in Ozempic-slanging commercials, ringtones, movie trailers (slowed down so they are real creepy, or sped up for TikT ..read more

One of the screener’s great loners is Alain Delon in the title role of Le Samourai, Jean-Pierre Melville’s 1967 classic of existential neo-noir minimalism. Introduced lying stock-still on the bed in a decrepit room—he seems to live in hideouts—exhaling a cloud of smoke as evanescent as the man himself, he seems more ghost or specter than flesh and blood. Delon, then just past 30, is famously one of the most beautiful male stars. But there was also a frequent coldness to his physical perfection onscreen (and, apparently, offscreen) that few films utilized so well. “Jef” is a hitman prized ..read more

Months before Blue Door (through May 19) opened at Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre Company, playwright Tanya Barfield’s 2006 story of a Black mathematics professor disconnected from three generations of his ancestors had already rattled and rewarded its two-person cast and director Darryl V. Jones. During their early rehearsals of the play, the three men shared personal stories about being Black men in America—a complicated, contradictory performance executed like an Olympic athlete on a slim beam. “The work we did was rustic, basic,” Jones recalls in an interview with 48 Hills, “but the experiences ..read more

Welcome back to Good Taste, your weekly menu for eating well in the Bay Area. Today, some first impressions after visiting Smörgåsland, the pedigreed Scandinavian bakery inside IKEA San Francisco’s new food hall, which is called Saluhall (945 Market Street, SF). Smörgåsland  was developed by Chef Claus Meyer, who co-founded the famous Noma restaurant in Copenhagen. Sadly wasn’t able to worm my way onto the guest list for the Saluhall preview a couple weeks ago, so I had to save up a little before I could do a pastry taste test at Smörgåsland. Four pastries and a small coffee cost $33 befo ..read more

Born in Tehran in 1980, two years after Iran’s revolution and the onset of the Iran-Iraq war, Sameh Khalatbari sees sociopolitical awareness is a given. She remembers the country in positive colors, though she admits that living during a time of unrest shaped an artistic vision of her surroundings. “If I set aside the darkness of war nights during the first eight years of my life, I grew up in a country rich in history, literature, and culture,” she told 48 Hills. The significant events unfolding in those years naturally developed in her a strong concern for social and political issues which i ..read more

While reading Bridget Quinn’s marvelous new biography, Portrait of a Woman: Art, Rivalry & Revolution in the Life of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (Chronicle Books, $29.95), it’s tempting to think of the French portraitist born in 1749 as a woman ahead of her time. Don’t. Yes, Labille-Guiard defied the conventional forces of 18th century society that quashed women in multiple ways. But arguably, the story of her life proves Labille-Guiard was exactly suited to what women and the world of art needed in the late 1700s. She heralded a new era in art history, masterminded the marriage trap to her ad ..read more

The supes will consider Tuesday/23 a risky plan to bail out the developers of the Treasure Island housing development. This so-called “Alternative Financing” plan, embodied in the Disposition and Development Agreement amendment, could leave the city on the hook for more than $200 million at a time when the city is already facing a huge deficit. This should be taken seriously. Alarmingly, many in the city, led by Mayor London Breed and Supervisory Matt Dorsey, have remained conspicuously silent about the plan’s obvious deficiencies, even in the face of the board’s own budget analyst’s dire warn ..read more