At 2:56 a.m. on Monday morning, a 4.3 magnitude earthquake rattled windows across the Bay Area, waking sensitive sleepers and sending a few crouching beneath tables.
That quake was, literally speaking, earth-shaking. But you know what else shakes the surface of our city? The Bay Area’s staggering variety of arts, music and cuisine.
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To celebrate the region’s vibrant cultural life, we present Fogcutter, SFGATE’s column of local events and happenings. Every week, our journalists put away their notebooks and hit the streets, reporting from food festivals, restaurants and parks. Our hope is to celebrate the Bay Area’s variety, and to capture the region’s pulse (seismic activity notwithstanding) one event at a time.
In this edition, we see a musical about corn, eat some Armenian food and watch a country band perform while zooted. Read on for more highlights.
An oasis for Armenian food in the Bay Area
Perhaps no cuisine is as frustratingly scarce in the Bay Area as the one I was born into — Armenian food. While San Francisco once boasted a world-famous Armenian restaurant, you can’t find so much as a food truck now with an officially Armenian menu. As if taunting me, Los Angeles with its larger diaspora population has a thriving Armenian food scene, including one restaurant in the Michelin Guide.
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The oasis amid this food desert can be found every September and October during the Bay Area’s several Armenian food festivals. I returned to the largest one, St. Gregory Church’s food festival, on a Saturday last weekend at the KZV Armenian School near Lake Merced.
A nighttime stroll around the stalls in the bustling, tented bazaar area can offer comfort or serendipity, in the form of dried fruit rolls and baklava for sale, a chance encounter with a former classmate, mint tea from a giant silver samovar or traditional coffee from a copper pot. You may even get pulled into Armenian line dancing led by a singing DJ. And where once this was a primarily Armenian community affair, I’ve enjoyed noticing a more diverse audience in recent years.
The main event is the dinner buffet in the school’s main hall, named after writer William Saroyan. The food is prepared on site, with a phalanx of grandmothers and other volunteers serving kebabs and other creations. They include boereg (handmade dough stuffed with cheese, meat and vegetables), roasted and shredded lamb, stuffed eggplant, and eech (an orange-tinged cooked bulgur with tomatoes, green onions and parsley).
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The event, in its 68th year, attracted 5,000 people from Friday through Saturday, officials said. If you weren’t one of them, you can go to the next Armenian food festival, Oct. 3 at St. Vartan Church in Oakland. — Greg Keraghosian, SFGATE senior homepage editor
‘Daddy’s home’: Country stars go into crowd to kiss fan at Bay Area show
When you go to a Midland show, two things are guaranteed: that something chaotic is going to happen, and that the three-man band is going to be high as hell.
There are few country bands who pull off the 1990s golden age vibe as credibly as Midland. And although there’s no doubt the band works hard, it’s clear from their goofball style and background in the entertainment industry — lead singer Mark Wystrach was on the soap opera “Passions” and bassist Cam Duddy directed some of Bruno Mars’ most iconic music videos — they’re not stressed about making it financially. Dressed impeccably in honky-tonk denim and occasionally forgetting their lyrics (“California weed is strong,” Wystrach bemoaned after a flub at Saratoga’s Mountain Winery on Thursday night), attending a Midland show has the joy of watching extremely talented hobbyists cosplaying their cowboy dreams.
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The Mountain Winery, a 2,500-person outdoor venue with sweeping views of the Bay Area, never felt more intimate than when Midland spotted an unforgettable fan from last year’s stop in Saratoga. During that concert, the woman brought a sign asking for a kiss for her 80th birthday. She was back Thursday night, and Wystrach excitedly told the crowd that “grandma” had returned as he stepped down into the pit to give her another kiss on the cheek.
Duddy, who was playing in front of dozens of rowdy friends from his childhood growing up in San Ramon, took it a step further.
“Daddy’s home!” he announced, landing a kiss on the fan and chastising Wystrach for his chaste smooch on the cheek. “You’re not husband material, Mark,” he said.
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Wisely, Midland focused on their biggest hits, playing a selection of classics from their debut album (“Burn Out,” “Out of Sight” and, of course, “Drinkin’ Problem”) while interspersing covers of Garth Brooks and Tom Petty songs in true honky-tonk style.
“This is such a beautiful part of the world,” Wystrach marveled as he looked around the amphitheater. “It feels like Tuscany. Especially when you’re really, really high.” — Katie Dowd, SFGATE managing editor
At new de Young exhibit, manga leaps out of the magazine
Manga is sold in convenience stores. It’s popular among teenagers. And reading it can be addictively satisfying. But just because it’s fun doesn’t mean it’s not fine art.
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That’s the premise behind “Art of Manga,” the de Young Museum’s newest exhibit, which plucks panels of Japanese comics out of the pages of magazines and hangs them on the gallery walls.
“These drawings are incredible, and they really deserve close contemplation,” professor Nicole Coolidge Rousmaniere, who curated the exhibit, said at a preview event, addressing a room of local reporters.
In a sense, “Art of Manga” invites visitors to take a slower, more appreciative look at a medium that is often read and churned out at a rapid clip. The exhibit showcases original, hand-drawn pages by 10 of the most prolific manga artists — among them, Eiichiro Oda, author of “One Piece,” Rumiko Takahashi, author of “Inuyasha” and Hirohiko Araki, author of “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.” The exhibit devotes an entire room to every artist, allowing guests the space to notice the intricacies of each mangaka’s art style. — Timothy Karoff, SFGATE culture reporter
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At the Curran Theatre, ‘Shucked’ is corny, campy and full of heart
On Wednesday night, a friend and I saw “Shucked” at the Curran Theatre, a Tony Award-winning musical that first hit Broadway in 2023. With powerhouse vocals, razor-sharp comedic timing and songs co-written by Nashville hitmakers Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, the show leans gleefully into its own ridiculousness. It’s unapologetically corny and all the more fun for it.
The self-proclaimed “farm-to-fable” follows the aptly named Maizy (Danielle Wade), whose wedding to her childhood sweetheart Beau (Jake Odmark) gets derailed when their beloved corn crops suddenly dry up. In Cobb County, where corn is their way of life and reason for being, it sparks an existential crisis for everyone in town. Determined to save her community and solve the mysterious case of the dying corn, Maizy ventures outside the county for the first time and naturally lands in Tampa.
There, amid the land of infinite retirees and dogs in strollers, she stumbles upon Gordy (Quinn Vanantwerp), a delightfully smarmy con man posing as a “corn doctor.” Mistaking him for her savior in her time of need, Maizy drags him home with her, unaware that his real goal is to pay off his mob debts. Cue chaos, rekindled flames and unlikely sparks — especially between Gordy and Maizy’s whiskey-slinging, sharp-tongued cousin Lulu (Miki Abraham). Abraham all but stole the show, bringing down the house with her powerhouse anthem “Independently Owned.”
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By the end, Shucked proved itself the kind of musical that doesn’t take itself too seriously but still delivers: big laughs, catchy songs and a little merch table temptation. I walked out with a shot glass emblazoned with the show’s cheeky motto: “Yeah, we love Jesus, but we drink a little” — the perfect kernel of a souvenir from a night of bawdy, tongue-in-cheek fun. — Olivia Hebert, SFGATE news reporter
On our radar:
– Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Golden Gate Park’s free rock and roots festival, is next weekend.
– The Mill Valley Film Festival kicks off on Thursday.
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– The Roxie is screening “Texas Chain Saw Massacre” on Tuesday.
– On Saturday, the noise rock band Model/Actriz is playing at the Independent.
– Theo Parrish is DJing at the Foundry on Saturday.
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