- -Julie and David

SAN FRANCISCO

Sunday, 2/26, 11:00 am – 6:30 pm

SF JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER’S BOOKFEST SUNDAY

Hey SF book nerds, don’t miss BookFest Sunday, a full day of contemporary literary voices, kicked off by keynote speaker Nicole Kraus. Meet Joyce Carol Oates, Yoram Kaniuk, Philip Levine and many more. There are also several performances and readings by additional writers; check listings for current dates and times.

Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California St., SF 94118

 jccsf.org ; or call 415-292-1200;

SEATTLE

Sun. 2/26, 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.

CASCADE BIKE CLUB’S “CHILLY HILLY 2012” RIDE

With Chilly February weather and 2,675 feel of Hilly climbing, the name says it all!

Join the Cascade Bicycle Club on Sun., 2/26, for the ride Bicycling Magazine named “One of Four Classic Rides” in the nation! Chilly Hilly has been kicking off the cycling season in the Northwest for the past 39 years. The 33-mile route around Bainbridge Island starts with an early morning ride across Puget Sound from Seattle – or you can join the crowd directly on Bainbridge Island.

Course is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. If you are taking the ferry over from Seattle, the ride starts when you get off the ferry. If you are starting on Bainbridge Island, the ride starts at the top of the ferry off-ramp of Winslow Way.

http://shop.cascade.org/content/events/chilly-hilly

or call 206-522-BIKE (2453)

CHICAGO

Photo: The Bristol, Chicago

Fifth Annual Chicago Restaurant Week

Friday, 2/17- Sunday, 2/26

For ten days, more than 200 Chicago restaurants will offer special prix fixe menus starting at $22 for lunch/$33/$44 for dinner (excluding beverages, taxes & gratuity). Connect with your foodie friends on hicup and  make plans to visit some of the trendiest new spots in town – plus swing by your old favorites to see what’s new!

Reservations are not required but highly recommended; you can book through eatitupchicago.com or call the restaurant directly. All participating restaurants should provide you with the special Restaurant Week Menu; or ask for it if they don’t. Whether you want a sustainable, Midwestern farm-to-tavern food (Farmhouse Chicago), “classic Chicago’ (The Palm), sushi and robatayaki (Roka Akor Steak & Sushi), elegant French bistro (Bistro Margot), high-end Italian cuisine (Café Spiaggia), authentic Mexican (Frontera Grill/Topolobampo) “Mediterranean roots” (The Bristol) “big Chicago food” (Epic)or contemporary vegetarian experience (Green Zebra), you will not go away hungry!

Go to  eatitupchicago.com for info on more than 200 participating restaurants.

NEW YORK CITY

NEW YORK MUSEUM OF MODERN ART: Film Exhibition

Documentary Fortnight 2012: MoMA’s International Festival of Nonfiction Film and Media

Caption: Still from “Without Gorky,” 2001. Great Britain. Directed by Cosima Spender. Image courtesy of Cosima Spender.

Thurs. 2/16- Tues. 2/28

Established in 2001, MoMA’s annual two-week showcase of recent nonfiction film and media takes place each February. This international selections of films presents a wide range of creative categories that extends the idea of the documentary form, examines the relationship between contemporary art and nonfiction folmmaking, and reflects on new areas of nonfiction practice.

This year’s festival includes both feature-length and short documentary films, a retrospective of works from Paper Tiger Television’s 30 years of media activism, and a seminar on database documentary practices – an emergent form of interactive narrative and nonlinear filmmaking that employs computer and Web-based media. The majority of films in the festival are premieres, and filmmakers will be present at most screenings. Special off-site events take place at Light Industry in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and at Nitehawk Cinema in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (closing night).

Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), 11 West 53^rd St, New York 10019

 www.moma.org ; or call 212-708-9400  

LOS ANGELES

SEW MODERN in L.A.!

Where do the hip Angelenos go for amazing print fabrics and crafty classes? Sew Modern is a hip fabric and sewing haven in Los Angeles featuring the latest designer fabrics, classes for kids & adults, and a Gammil Vision 18-8 long arm quilting machine available for rent.

And you can shop online. . .for all the great fabrics in the store, as well as register for online classes like Charming Patchwork Quilt, Envelope Pillow , Kids Beginner Sewing, Improv Piercing or Flannel Baby Blanket, complete with material/supply lists. Check it out and start stitching!

Sew Modern, 10921 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064

sewmodernonline.com ; or call 310-446-4397

–Julie and David

SAN FRANCISCO

MardiGras2011 with EyeHeartSF

Sat, 2/18 – Sun. 2/19, 2012, 9PM-3AM

4^TH ANNUAL EYE HEART SF MARDI GRAS 2012

Smash Gordon, Krewella, Realboy Nisus, Zaq of Robot DeNiro, Aaron Axelsen, Team No Sleep

If you’ve always wanted to go to one of those blow-out-all-the-stops parties, we have a good one for you, in the San Francisco-Mardi Gras-anything goes tradition. While General admission is $20-$25, you can also pay $600 for the following VIP Package: 2 bottles of Ketel One Vodka, 5 Red Bulls, tix and posh seating for 5 at a large high-top cocktail table (additional Ketel One bottles can be purchased for $250 + gratuity) – woo hoo!

Public Works, 1601 Erie St., SF 94103

For more info, go to sfmardigras2012.eventbrite.com

SEATTLE

Puget Sound Sport Fishing, Edmonds, WA

PUGET SOUND SPORT FISHING

“Year round fishing at its very best”

If  you are a die-hard fisherman, participating in the sport while it’s raining or even snowing, check out this first-class sport fishing outfit with morning and afternoon departures year- round.  While many hicup members might think you’re crazy, you are the hearty outdoors type who loves to catch Blackmouth (immature King Salmon) from November through April, instead of waiting for milder summer weather. Bring those fingerless gloves, because the guys at Puget Sound Sport Fishing are never gonna cancel due to a little slushy storm!

Go to pugetsoundsportsfishing.com for more info, or call 260-546-5710 for directions to the T-Dock off of Admiral Way, Edmonds, WA

Sport Fishing Founder Murphy Pierson is a Northwest Native who has been fishing the waters of Puget Sound for more than 30 years.

© Photo Copyright  2006, Puget Sound Sports Fishing, Edmonds, Washington/USA

CHICAGO

Playwright Luigi Pirandello

2/1-3/11, 2012

SIX CHARACTERS IN SEARCH OF AN AUTHOR, by Luigi Pirandello

World Premiere Adaptation by Steve Moulds/directed by Halena Kays

Performed by The Hypocrites at the Chopin Theater

The Hypocrites, a Chicago theatrical group known for being “challenging and inspirational,” “scrappy, friendly, informal, rough around the edges, and most of all honest,” “crazy, unique, collaborative, fun and INTERESTING,” continue to wow audiences with their innovative dramatic interpretations of a range of plays.

Six Characters in Search of an Author, a satirical tragicomedy written by Sicilan-born Luigi Pirandello, was first performed in 1921 at the Teatro Valle in Rome to mixed reviews, with shouts from the audience of “Manicomio” (“Madhouse!”) through the reception.  Popular opinion evolved, however, and the play was successfully mounted the following year at the Princess Theater on Broadway in New York, and has since become recognized as a 20^th century pre-absurdist classic.

Chopin Theater Lobby, Wicker Park, Chicago

The Chopin Theater, an independent arts center in Wicker Park, is renowned for showcasing the crème de la crème of European theater (with an emphasis on Eastern European works) to Chicago.

Chopin Theater Box office: 773-278-1500   (plays Thursdays through Sundays)

For more information: chopintheater.com/events

1543 W. Division, Chicago

NEW YORK CITY

ROMEO AND JULIET,

performed by the New York City Ballet

Tuesday 2/14, Thursday 2/16, Sat. 2/18, Tues. 2/21, Wed. 2/22, 2012

Featuring The Bard’s immortal tale, Prokofiev’s score and designs by Per Kirkeby, this is an intense and powerful staging of the most famous of romantic tragedies.

The New York City Ballet, renowned as one of the foremost dance companies worldwide, is unique in U.S. artistic history:  it was the first ballet institution in the world with two permanent homes, the David H. Kich Theater at Lincoln Center and the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY.

David H. Koch Theater, Columbus Ave. and 63^rd St., New York City

Box Office: 212-870-5570; for more information go to nycballet.com

LOS ANGELES

Chess Queens by Muriel Streeter, 1944

AT THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM OF ART: 

IN WONDERLAND, THE SURREALIST ADVENTURES OF WOMEN ARTISTS IN MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES

1/29-5/6, 2012

Calling all Surrealist fans!

North America represented a place free from European traditions for women Surrealists from the United States and Mexico, as well as European émigrées. While their male counterparts usually cast women as objects for their delectation, female Surrealists delved into their own subconscious and dreams, creating extraordinary visual images. Their art was primarily about identity: portraits, double portraits, self-referential images, and masquerades that demonstrate their trials and pleasures. Iconic figures such as Louis Bourgeois, Leonora Carrington, Frida Kahlo, Lee Miller, Kay Sage, Dorothea Tanning and Remedios Varo are represented along with lesser known or newly discovered artists.

And you can see it for free on Monday, February 20, 2012, thanks to Target’s Family Free Holiday!

Resnick Pavilion, Los Angeles County Museum of Art 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, LA 90036

For more information, call 323-857-6000, or go to lacma.org/art/exhibition/in-wonderland

–Julie and David, hicup founders

SAN FRANCISCO

ONLY IN SAN FRANCISCO: INDIEFEST!

2/9-23: SF INDIEFEST AT THE ROXIE THEATER: 14^TH

ANNUAL SF INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL

Attention Film Freaks! Take your pick: from comedies, horror films and love stories to documentaries, short film programs and animation, SF IndieFest is the showcase for everything that’s awesome about filmmaking today. Catch some of the 80+ indie flicks, meet filmmakers, and revel in this festival’s many after-hour parties! Here are a few listings, just to whet your appetite; festival link with all films and parties included, below:

Disco Exorcist

Rex Romanski is a disco swinger of the late ’70′s. “His “love ‘em and leave ‘em” attitude finally gets him into real trouble when he brings his charms to bear on Rita Marie Deveaux, a voodoo priestess with a mean streak a mile wide. Rita’s curse falls most heavily on Rex’s new flame, an adult film starlet named Amoreena Jones, who is possessed by the violent spirit of a voodoo demon and causes a rampage of bloody destruction that only Rex Romanski, the Disco Exorcist, can stop!

Saturday, 2/11, 2:45 PM; -Sunday, 2/12, 7:15 PM

Casserole Club

From the director of FIRECRACKER and STUCK! comes a sexy dark comedy focusing on a group of mod 1960′s era suburban housewives. Close-knit and neighborly, they are all bent on one-upping each other in true bourgeois fashion with regular dinner parties where the women can showcase their culinary prowess. But when the gatherings become increasingly focused on boozy flirtation, and more than recipes start getting swapped, the story moves swiftly from stylized and campy to a drama about irresponsibility, selfishness, and damaged people.

Friday, 2/10, 9:30 PM; Monday, 2/13, 7:15 PM

Finisterrae

In order to find new bodies to inhabit, two Russian ghosts embark on a mystic journey to the Spanish holy city of Santiago de Compostela. Trekking through a moon-like landscape, the two meet an array of quirky characters while discerning over the meaning of life, death and their own dreams. Winner of the Tiger Award at the 2011 Rotterdam International Film Festival, Finisterrae is a humorously surreal and uncannily captivating experience. Directed by first-time filmmaker Sergio Caballero, co-director of the beloved Barcelona music and art festival, Sonar, this unorthodox film is not to be missed.

Saturday, 2/11, 12:30 PM; Sunday, 2/12, 9:30 PM

INDIEFESTat theRoxie Theater, 3117 – 16^th St. @ Valencia, San Francisco: Advance Tickets 800-838-3006; same-day tickets available at the venue only. For more information, go to sfindie.com

SEATTLE

FACEBOOK AND THE EGYPTIAN UPRISING

Wednesday, February 8, 7:30 PM

Hear former Google exec Wael Ghonim and journalist D. Parvaz speak about Egypt’s 2011 transformation at a joint presentation sponsored by Elliott Bay Book Company and Town Hall Center for Civic Life.

Wael Ghonim was a Google executive who set things in motion when he decided, via Facebook, to protest the death of a fellow Egyptian at the hand of domestic security forces during last year’s Egyptian uprising. His new book, Revolution 2.0: The Power of the People is Greater Than the People in Power: A Memoir, discusses the protest that became a revolution, which in turn has become a new era in Egypt.

Joining him onstage for the evening event will be D. Parvaz, a onetime Seattle P-I journalist now reporting for Al Jazeera out of Qatar.

Wednesday, February 8, 7:30 PM, at Town Hall Seattle, 1119 Eighth Avenue (at Seneca).  $5 tickets available at the door starting at 6:30 p.m., or in advance via Brown Paper Tickets (1-800-838-3006).  For more information, call Elliott Bay at 206- 624-6600; Town Hall at (206) 652-4255, or go to TownHallSeattle.org

LOS ANGELES 

SHOPPING WITH THE STARS @ROSE BOWL FLEA MARKET

The Rose Bowl Flea Market in Pasadena, which is held the second Sunday of every month, is one of the hippest flea markets on the circuit. Everyone from bargain hunters to Hollywood celebs come here to find hidden gems, deal steals or some objets d’art that just “speak to them.” Dress warm, get there early and bring lots of cash!

Watch this video featuring Heidi Klum at the Rose Bowl Flea Market with Michael Ostrow, who offers tips and tricks on how to bag some sweet deals at this large, sometimes overwhelming venue. Don’t forget your measuring tape, cell phone and lots of cash!

Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market, Sunday, February 12; 1001 Rose Bowl Drive,Pasadena, CA; call 626-577-3100 or go to rgcshows.com/RoseBowl  for more information.

CHICAGO

The cacao plant only grows in the tropics.

JUST IN TIME FOR V-DAY: CHOCOLATE MYSTERIES AND HISTORIES

From Bean to Bar: The Science, History & Culture of Chocolate

Get the skinny on chocolate: why it only grows in the tropics, its ancient role in Aztec and Mayan cultures, how it was discovered by European explorers,  who made that first chocolate bar, how the Industrial Revolution globalized chocolate, and where most of the world’ s cacao is grown today. Heads up to Chicagoans: Did you know that North America’s largest processor of cocoa beans and ingredient chocolate products is Blommer’s Chocolates, headquartered right here in Chicago?

Garfield Park Conservatory, Saturday, February 11,  10:00 AM-12 noon; 300 North Central Park Ave.,  Jensen Room; for information, call 773-638-1766; for tickets, register online here.

Now that you can’t stop thinking about chocolate, proceed to Rahmig’s House of Fine Chocolates, a third-generation chocolate confectioner located at 3109 Broadway Street in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood, to satisfy your cravings.

Rahmig’s House of Fine Chocolates, 3109 Broadway St./Lakeview district, Chicago; for hours and driving instructions, call 773- 525-5700; or visit houseoffinechocolates.com

NEW YORK CITY

BJORK IS THE NEW KILLER APP 

Who needs mind-altering substances when you can see Bjork live in New York? The amazing pop-diva Icelandic princess is back in town to kick off her three- year tour for her latest release, Biophilia, which is being dubbed as “the first app album” (not only is there an interactive  app to go with it, she also did some of the musical composing on the iPad).

According a press release, Biophilia is being described as “a multi-media project encompassing music, apps, internet, installations and live shows” with instruments like “a bespoke digitally-controlled pipe organ; a 30 foot pendulum that harnesses the earth’s gravitational pull to create musical patterns– creating a unique bridge between the ancient and the modern; a bespoke gamelan-celeste hybrid; and a one-off extraordinary pin barrel harp.” You can get a taste of what it’s all about by watching her performance of the song “Cosmogony,” dressed in a fabu inflatable dress and multi-yarn hair on “The Colbert Report” video, included in this review by the L.A. Times music Blog, “Pop and Hiss”

Björk performs “Biophilia Live”  February 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, and 18 at the Hall of Science, 47-01 111th St., Queens. Information: +1-718-699-0005; or go to nysci.org