My 2010 top 3:
- Buenos Aires - My first trip to South America, and man did BA show me a good time. Cutting-edge art, tango, colonial architecture, ice cream, Patagonian hares, polo players, etc etc etc. Can't wait to go back.
- Zum anniversary show at 21 Grand - Fave acts KIT, High Castle, Core of the Coalman, Mincemeat or Tenspeed, and lots more celebrated my friend George's awesome label in wonderfully noisy fashion. Also just before 21 Grand got the cease-and-desist from the city of Oakland that effectively shut them down, so I will always remember this night with some poignancy.
- Swarmth dinner at the Headlands - The Headlands provided many many magical moments for me this year, but this highly creative and participatory dinner crafted by short-term artist collective L'Esprit de Corps in their 10 days on site was the most memorable of them all. It started with a taste of honey straight out of the Center walls and ended under the stars on the basketball court, with a lot of laughter and good food in between.
Also very much worthy of mention from the year that was, in no particular order (chronological or otherwise):
- Ari Marcopoulos at the Berkeley Art Museum
- Sonic Youth at the Fillmore
- Pavement at the Greek
- God's Ear at the Ashby Stage
- The Body at Terminal
- Vito Acconci's lecture at Mills
- Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Grimes at CNMAT
- Livetweeting the entire Cremaster Cycle in one sitting at the Roxie
- The Dodos accompanied by full orchestra at the SFMOMA anniversary party
- Animal Collective's Fall Be Kind EP
- Love and Summer by William Trevor
- Joseph Beuys and Richard Serra at LACMA
- tUnE-yArDs at The Echo
- Infinite Body at 21 Grand
- The Thermals on Lower Sproul
- New friends Rachel, Sabrina, Gaby
- Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
- Anais Mitchell's Hadestown album
- John Vanderslice at the Crepe Place
- The birth of Alula Editions
- Continuing impressive work from The Present Group
- Base of Bass / Sister Fucker / The Cysts at Huffin
- Virginia Kleker at MacArthur B Arthur
- Buddy Bag's three perfect shows at Stanford House, Sugar Mountain, and Stanford House again
- David Wilson's "Gatherings" at the Berkeley Art Museum
- The Flora & Fauna dinner at the Headlands
- Zaccho Dance Theatre's Sailing Away, performed along Market Street
- Artangel's The Concise Dictionary of Dress walk-through exhibit in Blythe House, the V&A's storage space
- Taqwacore in Queen Elizabeth Hall
- The World Cup, all the way up until that last unfortunate match
- Clare Rojas/Peggy Honeywell at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art
- Rojas and Barry McGee at the Bolinas Museum
- The Lending Library show at Royal Nonesuch Gallery
- Evangelista at 21 Grand
- Helping curate the Rare & Unreleased show at NIAD
- Randy Colosky at Ampersand International Arts
- Jim Campbell's public art on Market Street
- The benefit show for John Benson's bus at Revolution Cafe
- Please Love Me by Alex Ketley and Les Stuck at the Headlands
- Halcyon Digest by Deerhunter
- The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker
- A mama 'gator guarding her pile of squirming babies in the Everglades
- Shiitake mushroom steamed buns with sesame paste at Gigi