In this weekly column, our staff hand picks a selection of events from our curated calendar to fill your weekend and beyond, helping you decide what to do when the options are too plentiful to pick just one. Perhaps we'll bump into you somewhere along the way.
This weekend is packed with great food, drinks and celebrations - including beer dinners! - at restaurants new and old, loads of music, and a strobe lit, Mexipop, rollerskating daytrip south of the border. Plus, our editor, Dayna, will be tending bar at Saturday’s TRIART show @ 3RDspace. Be sure to check it out and say hello!
Zoe Boekbinder; Nada Surf; TRIART; Blind Lady; Turista Libre; Wolves
ALL WEEKEND LONG
Friday: Drink along with 94.9, Progressive Casks all day. Saturday: Craft Beer Run (an actual 5-mile run, with capes! to Small Bar, Toronado, and Tiger!Tiger!), plus the very limited release of Automatic Three Speed Brown. Sunday: Family Friendly Townie Ride Through Normal Heights, Sour Sunday. If you already have tickets to Monday's sold-out anniversary dinner and beer pairing, we're jealous.
FREE; All ages
Friday 1/27/2012 - Saturday 1/28/2012, North Park
Join Wang's North Park to celebrate the two-night grand opening of this new restaurant. Friday features free appetizers, happy hour all night, signature drink samples. Saturday features red carpet photo op, restaurant blessings, ceremonial New Year dances. More surprises, and traditional Chinese New Year food & drink all weekend. Reservations recommended for dinner.
FREE; All ages
FRIDAY
Friday 1/27/2012 @ 8:00 PM, La Jolla
If you missed their giant fundraiser weekend a few weeks back, there’s still a chance to contribute to the Che! The epic return of: Wolves In The Throne Room, with Griever and Ten Thousand Leagues. Tickets available at the door only.
$10; All ages
Friday 1/27/2012 @ 8:00 PM, North Park
Critically acclaimed singer-songwriter Zoe Boekbinder, also heralded for her cabaret-style performances with her sister Kim in the famed Vermillion Lies, will be making her first major San Diego appearance at Queen Bee's. The Canada native and Bay Area resident is sharing the bill with Eliza Rickman, originally from Escondido. Rickman’s unique and haunting sound is reminiscent of popular vocalists Feist, Annie Clark, PJ Harvey and Kurt Weill.
$10; 18+
Friday 1/27/2012 @ 8:00 PM, Mission Hills
The Howls is celebrating its album release party at Casbah, with special guest Sara Watkins from Nickel Creek, as well as Jesse LaMonaca and the Dime Novels, Family Wagon and Old Tiger. This is the Howls' very first full-length album, available with some extra cool stuff only for people who attend the release!
$8 advance, $10 at door; 21+
SATURDAY
Saturday 1/28/2012 @ 7:00 PM-11:30 PM, University Heights
3RDspace presents TRIART: The Next Art Show, featuring Shay Davis, Taylor Gallegos and Cody Griffith. Musical guest Greg Gibson performs. The featured artists will perform a live art collaboration, and the piece will be auctioned off to benefit Alice Birney Elementary School, which was partially destroyed (losing over $50,000 in materials alone) when struck by an arsonist on January 16th. Urbanist’s own editor, Dayna, will bartend. You won't want to miss this creative convergence of talent! Come experience a whole new kind of art exhibit in San Diego. Partial proceeds to benefit Engineers Without Borders.
$10.00 suggested donation; 21+
Saturday 1/28/2012 @ 6:00 PM
Turista Libre ("Free Tourist") is a series of atypical international day tours in Tijuana, with a caravan that trounces around the city in search of the overlooked and underrated. No narco warfare. No strolls down hooker row. No donkey shows. No gringo stereotypes. Lo mejor del alternaturismo. On the agenda for this event: Two hours of skating to Mexipop hits, followed by a light libation cooldown downtown at La Chupiteria. The $20 ticket includes admission, skate rental (rollerblades and old-school) and transportation from the border. Expect fog machines, laser beams, strobe lights and a giant piñata hanging where the disco ball should be. Ask anyone in Tijuana over the age of 25 about the nostalgic Patines de Plata, or Silver Skates, and you'll most likely cause a big smile. Meet up on the U.S. side of turnstiles at the San Ysidro pedestrian border crossing at 6 p.m. sharp, walk across the border together and bus it to the rink from there. Questions, preguntas? Email turistalibre@gmail.com. Meeting spot map. Space is limited so prepaying is a must. TICKETS HERE. Read up on Turista Libre's last rollerskating adventura in the Washington Post, and check out Urbanist's interview with Derrik Chinn, the man behind Turista Libre.
$20; 18+
Saturday 1/28/2012 @ 8:00 PM, Gaslamp
Casbah presents Nada Surf with The Soft Pack, Cuckoo Chaos, Republic of Letters at 4th & B.
$20 adv/$30 for VIP box; 21+
INTO NEXT WEEK
Tuesday 1/31/2012 @ 6:00 PM or 7:00 PM, Hillcrest
A unique food and beer collaboration between Local Habit Chef Nick Brune and AleSmith Brewing. Five delicious courses of farm fresh food paired with five unique craft beers from one of San Diego's premier craft brewers! There will be two seatings for this dinner at 6 pm and 7 pm. Reservations are $50 per person, not including gratuity and sales tax.
$50; 21+