What’s on Your Summer Fun List?
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From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal. A jazz festival in June, a California quilt show in July, a languorous lighthouse lunch in August. The best music, museums, and memorable meals are just a few of the recommendations our KQED arts and culture team has compiled in their annual summer events guide.

They have advice for myriad tastes and budgets and fog tolerances and levels of dread about the outside world. And we want to hear what you might get up to. Tomato Festival, Pacific Crest Trail, we're all ears. It's all coming up next right after this news.

Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. Events are back! This spring it felt like the Bay Area finally hit full capacity for events again. Now every week I see a half dozen things I wish I could go to and it's only getting more intense.

So now that we've got the volume of events again, one has to be a little bit choosier. And choosy people choose KQED Summer Events Guide. We've got three of the people who put it together. Gabe Moline, Senior Editor, KQED Arts and Culture. Welcome. How's it going, Alexis? Sarah Hotchkiss, Senior Associate Editor. Welcome. Thanks, Alexis. Sarah covering visual arts. And Luke Tsai. Luke Tsai, back in the house, Food Editor with KQED Arts and Culture. Welcome. Thanks so much, Alexis.

Gabe, last summer, as everyone knows, was brat summer with that kind of neon green vibe to everything. It feels, to be honest...

There's been a vibe shift, a pretty big vibe shift. Any inkling, any intuitions on what this summer might end up being? We had Brat Girl Summer, we had Hot Girl Summer, Brat Summer. I am dubbing this summer Anti-Fascist Summer. Anti-Fascist Summer. We've had cuts to the NEA. We've had attacks on Bruce Springsteen and just human decency. Art is a foil to this. Art breaks you out of this trapped rut.

It helps you see the world with new eyes. It helps you fall in love. It fights forces of dictatorship. It heals the world. This is the most woo-woo thing I'll say before 10 a.m. in the morning. Former punk, Gabe Moline. It's anti-fascist summer with books, films, movies, music, theater, all across the board. Beautiful.

Yeah, I have been following Sarah Hotchkiss' coverage of cuts to grant funding. So I was thinking maybe it would be the Summer O Fundraisers as opposed to Summer of Fun. How about you, Sarah Hotchkiss? What are you thinking? Any ideas on the vibe this summer? I mean, we're definitely going to see a lot of pleas for funding. Personally, I'm going for a Beach Dad summer. Beach Dads love a fundraiser. I've really invested in Hawaiian shirts.

flowy fabrics and I want to be outside a lot for those who can't see her she's wearing a Hawaiian shirt yes

Yes. Over a San Francisco t-shirt. Yes. Which is great. Luke Tsai, any ideas? Yeah, I don't know about the overarching trend, but I have a tradition in my family where every summer is childless summer. How do you manage this? Is there a place you can deposit children somewhere in the Bay Area? Well, I have two lovely daughters who I love very much, but my wife and I have a tradition where every summer we deposit children

them in New Jersey with our respective parents and they spend basically the entire summer on the East Coast shuttling back and forth between grandparents' houses and

They have aunts and uncles who also love them very much. Spoil them to death. And so what that means is that my wife and I have several weeks where it's just us and we can take day trips. The jealousy coursing through the radio right now. It's just like the tower is going to explode. It's just there's so much envy. Maybe it's just here in this room just with me. That's awesome. So what is what's your first like?

thing you're going to do out kids kids get on the plane they head out what do you what do you want to do then I mean I think um

You know, maybe look at the ocean. Look at the ocean. Go up to Sea Ranch. This is one of your, Luke's one of your pieces, right, is places with a great view, places you can eat that aren't, like, the most expensive place on Earth. Yeah. You want me to just get into it? Yeah, yeah, get into it. Yeah, I mean, Sea Ranch, and I believe, Alexis, you also have a fondness for Sea Ranch. For those who don't know, it's this unincorporated community probably on, like,

probably the most beautiful stretch of the coast in Sonoma County. And there is what I wrote about. So I wrote a guide about scenic restaurants that are worth the view and that

where you don't have to pay $200 for a mediocre meal. And so one of the things out at Sea Ranch is there's Sea Ranch Lodge, which is this architectural marvel that was built- Remodeled a few years ago too. Minimalist, like blends into the terrain on the coast.

And what I love to do, it's like expensive. If you stay there, it's like six or seven hundred dollars a night. And so I've never splurged. But I love my wife and I love to drive out to there early in the morning and then you can eat at the coffee shop that they have there. You get a

beautiful cappuccino. They do this like breakfast crunch wrap imitation that they call a breakadilla. And you have that and then you sit in front of these huge panoramic picture windows or out on the deck, like on an Adirondack chair. And you just have this beautiful view of the wild sun.

coastline it's just gorgeous if you do do that too you have to go down to the bluff you should take the little bluff path down and just yeah experience the power of the Pacific Ocean it's so beautiful 100% Gabe how about you summer is also a big music festival season yeah and where do you start it off in this

Well, I guess we could start it off with this weekend. Bottle Rock is happening up in Napa. So that's like Green Day, Justin Timberlake, E-40, Sublime with the child of the singer of Sublime. The four non-blondes, speaking of San Francisco, the four non-blondes are performing. Yeah.

Stern Grove is always a very popular music festival. They changed their sort of ticketing system this year to a lottery system, which has caused a lot of contentious debate and controversy. But Sleater-Kinney is playing. Orville Peck is playing. The Pointer Sisters. Diana Ross is playing Stern Grove this year. That is just a quintessential San Francisco experience.

Mosswood Meltdown in Oakland is so fantastic. Curated by John Waters with Devo as the headliner this year, right? Exactly, yeah. Devo is on Saturday. I saw them a couple years ago. They are still great. And Bratmobile, Crescian, Shannon and the Clams. La Trim, we like the cars. The Cars That Go Boom is playing at Mosswood Meltdown.

Such a fantastic festival. And then, of course, Outside Lands out in August. They've got Doja Cat, Tyler the Creator. Dochi's playing there this year. LaRussell from Vallejo is playing there this year. Gracie Abrams. Vampire Weekend is playing very first on Saturday and very last on Saturday. And I've never seen that before. So, yeah, that takes over Golden Gate Park. And also we've got...

early summer SF Jazz Festival right and then we've got late summer San Jose Jazz Fest right there's tons of jazz I did a special jazz guide for the beach dads for the beach dads um

The San Francisco Jazz Festival is that takes over the corner of Franklin and Oak Streets. I think they've got a big outdoor tent and so many big names. Charles Lloyd, his quartet with Jason Moran and Eric Harland is always worth seeing. I'm really looking forward to Patrice Russian, who's had this wonderful renaissance lately.

Stanley Clark, Dave Holland, some local people are on there as well. That's the San Francisco Jazz Festival. Speaking of locals, Pete Escovedo, the patriarch of the Escovedo family, Coke Escovedo, Sheila E., Santana, he's turning 90, and so they're having a 90th birthday residency for him at Yoshi's in Oakland. Plenty of Escovedos, I'm sure, will be there to toast to Pete.

The San Jose Summerfest, San Jose Jazz Summerfest, takes over downtown San Jose. That's in August. Mavis Staples, Femi Cootie, Fela Cootie's son, Butcher Brown, Common. That is just a wonderful way to kind of send summer off into the distance. Yes.

We are getting recommendations from our KQED Arts and Culture team about ways to enjoy summer in the Bay. So many events going on. It's feeling so lively these days. We're joined by Gabe Moline, Senior Editor, Sarah Hodgkiss, Senior Associate Editor, and Luke Tsai, Food Editor, all of the KQED Arts and Culture team. Of course, we want to hear from you, too, Mark.

What are your places, trips you've got on the list, events that you've got circled on the calendar? You can give us a call. The number is 866-733-6786. You can write them in to forum at kqed.org. I did say a summer of fundraisers. If you have one coming up for your arts org, let me know. Blue Sky, Instagram, we're kqedforum. And, of course, there's the Discord as well.

Sarah, let's talk about a little bit of museum culture, high culture stuff going on. There's pretty exciting shows this summer. Yeah, absolutely. I just want to mention also, if you go to Sea Ranch for this cappuccino, there's another view, which is inside the lodge. These super graphics by Barbara Stauffer Garth Solomon.

So hit it up. The first thing I'm looking forward to is actually today. It's at four o'clock at Embarcadero Plaza. This organization called Docomomo, which I think is like the best acronym for a nonprofit ever. They are trying to preserve architecture and the modernist movement. And so they've brought the 95-year-old sculptor of the Viancourt Fountain, Armand Viancourt himself.

to San Francisco and they're going to have a little picnic in Embarcadero Plaza with him. He'll talk about making the art piece, what it's meant to him. I don't know. I'm going to go. It's amazing. So yeah, they encourage you to bring your own sandwich, bring your own chair, bring your skateboard.

And here why this piece is so important to the history of San Francisco's public space. Oh, that's so cool. I know. It's a really special show. What about museum shows? Just give us one here. Sure. Yeah. At BAMPFA, we've got Routed West, which is their big African-American quilt show. It's coming up on June 7th.

That is going to be amazing. I got this donation of like 3,000 quilts from a single collector and we're finally starting to see all of it. Oh, wow. And so these are from people who are part of the Great Migration and we're making these quilts here or just kind of like bringing the traditions up from the South kind of situation?

Yeah, it's from the second Great Migration. So collected mostly in the Bay Area, mostly at flea markets. This collector, Eli Leon, had relationships with all of the people that he collected from. He would often take them from one quilter and then have someone else do the top stitching. So he was very deeply invested in how these things were made. And he really saw them as pieces of art long before institutions did.

So it's really a groundbreaking show, and it's a big deal that we're going to get to see this work. And when does that open? That's in July. That is June 7th. Oh, June 7th. All right. Coming up. Coming up. Coming up. Before we go to the break, I also wanted to give just a plug for something we heard about earlier this week on the show. We had the Zizava folks on celebrating their 40th anniversary, and they do a movie night at the Roxy curated by Ingrid Rojas-Contreras, who you heard earlier.

perhaps on the show. So they've got those running through the summer as well, and those seem really fun. We are talking with our KQED Arts and Culture team about the big events and things they're looking forward to this summer. Joined by Luke Tsai, Food Editor. Sarah Hodgkiss covers Visual Arts.

Gabe Moline, senior editor. Got some Diana Ross because why wouldn't we have Diana Ross? She's also going to be at Stern Grove. Again, you can give us a call, 866-733-6786, forum at kqed.org. Back with more right after the break.

Support for Forum comes from San Francisco Opera. Amidst a terrible storm, Idomeneo promises the god Neptune that he will sacrifice the first person he sees if he and his crew survive the tempestuous waters. But as he arrives safely to shore, his relief transforms into horror when the first person he lays eyes upon is his own son.

This summer, venture into the storm with Mozart's sublime opera, Idomeneo. June 14-25. Learn more at sfopera.com. Greetings, Boomtown. The Xfinity Wi-Fi is booming! Xfinity combines the power of internet and mobile. So we've all got lightning-fast speeds at home and on the go! That's where our producers got the idea to mash our radio shows together! ♪

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Welcome back to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. We're getting recommendations from our KQED Arts and Culture team about ways to enjoy the summer in the Bay. Joined by Gabe Moline, Senior Editor, Sarah Hodgkiss covers visual art, and Luke Tsai, who is Food Editor. Another shout out for an event this weekend, San Francisco Carnival. Carnival is going to be here. You can see my daughter dance in it. It's on Sunday. It's going to be great.

let's go to a caller here who's excited about something this summer. Hey, Raina in San Francisco. Welcome. Hi, good morning. I am calling because I'm so excited about the new Valkyries team and basketball as an art form in general. And I'm jumping on the bandwagon and been to two games so far. And I just want to like,

the community for bringing so much happiness around this women's team. I heard that it was crazy in the last game. First win for the Valkyries, right? Yeah. It was.

It was really exciting. I listened on the radio, actually, and I was jumping for joy in my apartment. Yeah, it was amazing. Wow, I love that. I also want some Valkyries merch, but it's really expensive. I'm kind of stunned by the price. Anyway, Raina, amazing. Thank you. That's a great call. Valkyries and the whole kind of scene over there. I mean, I hate to say it. I think they did it in a placemaking kind of way. I'm like...

you know, they moved in. We're going to have Thrive City. We're going to have this place. And then like, it kind of works. Right. Have you been to a ballers game? Oh, I have been to a ballers game and it is very fun as well. Yeah. That is super, super fun. They just started their season. Yes. They have like, uh,

Too Short is invested in the team now and Billy Joe from Green Day is invested in the team. That's a really, really neat scene. We did. We did a show just last week, actually, on my kind of smaller sports teams and things. And I loved it because I happened to see an Instagram. This was like combining all the forum interests all at once. It's like I happened to see an Instagram of a little girl rapping at a ballers game. And then just like she happens to walk by LaRussell at the ballers game.

And I was like, wow, that's some – this is – we're knitting things tighter here in the community. Here's another listener summer plan. I love this. My summer plans include – this listener writes – trying to do that walk across San Francisco that was in the Chronicle a couple years ago, the Crosstown Trail.

You start at one corner of the city and head west until you hit the ocean, and it's about 17 miles long. But I'd love a recommendation of a lunch to pack in or a lunch spot along the way. Let me see. I'm pulling up a map of the Crosstown Trail. We'll see if we can get that to you. Luke, while you're doing that, we also, as part of this summer guide, we have the best sunset hikes in the Bay Area for you to take.

So that does include Ocean Beach, obviously, and the new Great Highway thing. You know, Tilden Park, obviously. The Albany Bulb, which if you've never been to the Albany Bulb, you've got to get there. It's just so great. Albany Bulb is also an amazing place to bring your dog to the beach. Yeah, yeah. A big open dog park. Yes. Up in my way, the Bilt, the Cordham Trail. Shout out Bill Cordham for...

preserving so much of the Sonoma Coast, including access through Sea Ranch for the public to the beach. They named a trail after him, Bill Gordon. Here would be my recommendation. I don't know, Luke. The trail runs through Glen Canyon.

So the little market in Glen Canyon is actually one of those wonderful little markets that has amazing, called Canyon Market, has great takeaway food. But I am not the food editor. I'm but a man. And I don't have that map in front of me. But one thing I will say is that for a previous summer guide, I think two years ago, I actually wrote a whole article called How to Put Together the Perfect Bagel.

Bay Area picnic. I remember. And so it had things. I mean, it was sort of all over the Bay Area. So there was stuff in San Jose. There was like Spam Musubi that you can get down in San Mateo. But in San Francisco, some of the spots I love are there's...

There's Chalos, which does empanadas out near Ocean Beach. There's Long Fong Bakery, which has my favorite barbecue pork buns. And then there is also right by the water, there's this Korean bentos that I love.

And so there's a lot of options, but you'd have to look at the map to find those intersections. I do. No, I do love it. And there's actually, there is now like an entire website dedicated to the Crosstown Trail, crosstowntrail.org. Oh, wow. And you can do, you can see all the little segments and you can also do a thing I've wanted to do, which is the double cross trail, which sort of starts in the opposite side. So you can kind of make an X with your GPS of the original Crosstown Trail. Yeah.

Let's go to JJ in San Ramon. Welcome, JJ. Hey, Alexis. This is a great topic. Thanks so much. Go Valkyries. I'm the Emeritus Poet Laureate of San Ramon, and I wanted to tell everybody about our annual Art and Win Festival that starts on Sunday and goes through Monday. It has everything your guests have been talking about, food trucks for a variety of items, 150 booths of art,

Etsy type things, some really beautiful photography. But best of all, live music on the big stage by the tennis courts in Central Park. We have four bands from noon until six on Sunday and four more bands from noon until six on Sunday.

On Monday, I'll be out there dancing like a fool. Monday morning, I'm reaching up home for Memorial Day in honor of all of our veterans' populations. And I didn't mention the parachutist who comes in on Sunday and the hot air balloons that take off on Monday at the crack of dawn. Wait, can you get in a hot air balloon? Or is it just like people bring their own? No, you get to watch the demonstrations.

It's pretty windy out here, and that's why we have the Art and Wind Festival to keep the kites up. So I think you have to be kind of a professional to go up. Got it. Got it. Anyway. I mean, now that I think about it, just getting into somebody else's hot air balloon is probably ill-advised. I saw that twinkle in your eye. I'm going to be a stowaway on a hot air balloon, and I'm going to make my own bootleg Valkyries merch. That's right. Yeah, exactly.

Gabe, let's talk a little bit about some of the other high culture things that are going on here in town. You mean high, like classical music and opera? I was actually thinking the operas, the Harvey Milk Reimagined. Yeah. So there was a Harvey Milk opera that premiered 30 years ago, I think, 96.

And it was a three-act opera, and it traveled around, and it is back. It is called Harvey Milk Reimagined.

And it is going to be at the YBCA Theater. It has been trimmed down to two acts instead of three. But the emotional core of it is still there, just to Harvey Milk's completely inspiring life, its tragic end. That starts May 31st and runs through June 7th at YBCA. Esa-Pekka Salonen is leaving San Francisco, seemingly never to come back. He is not on the San Francisco Symphony's next season at all.

So your last chance to see him conducting at Davies Symphony Hall. He's conducting Mahler's Symphony No. 2, and that's in June 12th through 14th. La Boheme is at the San Francisco Opera House. I am going to see it right before I stow away to Paris myself on a family vacation. Oh, boy.

Fittingly. Yeah. And yeah, they are also doing Bohem out-of-the-box performances. Like even going out in the community. Yeah, they've done Sausalito. They've done Oakland, I think. They're doing Hayward next. So yeah, a good chance to see La Boheme if you have not seen it. Have you ever seen it? Well, you know, Gabe, thanks for asking. I actually have seen it because when I was nine years old, I was in La Boheme. I played a street. You were in La Boheme? Exactly.

I mean, in the valley, in a community theater production, yes, I sat on stage playing dice until I said, I want a toy horse and a cart. I think that was my one line. So I should probably see it again. I want a toy horse and a cart. You were but a wee street urchin begging for money. Very good street urchin, I want to say. Just command performance. Let's bring in Sarah in San Francisco. Welcome, Sarah.

Thank you so much. I'm so excited about this conversation. Thanks for calling. So I want to promote the SF DocFest, which runs from, it's the 21st version. It's May 29th to June 8th at the Roxy Theater. And my documentary that I am the lead producer on is showing. Congratulations. What's the documentary?

Thank you. It's called Norita, and it is about a human rights activist from Argentina that not only transformed her life because of a tragedy, but her culture and her country. Wow, that sounds awesome. All right, so SF DocFest starting. I know, I want to come in and talk to you about it more, Alexa. I'm not kidding. That's awesome. All right, well, hey, thank you, Sarah. We will talk more.

Sarah Hodgkiss, let's talk about a couple more art shows. One listener writes in to say, every Bay Area person needs to get to the SF MoMA Ruth Asawa exhibit. It's just gorgeous. And I learned that Asawa was so instrumental in bringing arts to our public schools. There are free days if you check the MoMA website. Totally agree. Amazing exhibit. What did you think? Did you hate it? Oh, gosh. No, it's the best. It's an amazing show. Yes, I agree. Everyone should see it.

And there's also, if you're interested in kind of seeing her legacy across our Bay Area landscape, there's a self-guided tour that you can take. There's a map on the Ruth Asawa website, and it shows the locations of all the public artworks that

that she was part of, which often involved, you know, 80 plus members of the community making these little sculptures together, which she would then cast in bronze. Everything about it is perfect. Yeah. Especially the room in the MoMA exhibit that shows just her living room.

And you're just like, I would like to be one of Ruth Asawa's children. I would like to live here now. Yes. I would like to live here now. Exactly. Yeah. I also want to talk about one of my other sort of favorite radical groups, Ant Farm. There's a new exhibit too, right? Yeah. So that one opens on the 4th of July, which is the 75th anniversary of this very radical, very kooky performance event that Ant Farm did. So they...

created a stack of television sets at the Cow Palace and then drove a custom Cadillac into it. And the whole thing was very... It was also on fire. Yeah, there was fire. The custom Cadillac looked kind of like a sharky spaceship. There were speeches. They got all this media coverage. Then they themselves covered the media coverage. So it was this total spectacle. It was all about our dependence at the time on mass media. Little did they know. Yeah.

And so 500 Cap Street, which is right here in the Mission, is doing a bit of an anniversary show. It's going to contain a lot of the ephemera and documentation from that event and then screen the film that they made. And that show is called Still Burning, if you want to Google that. Still Burning, 500 Cap Street. They also make incredible ephemera. Yeah, the posters are just incredible. Their posters are so good. So you're going to want to see that. That's going to be amazing.

Here are some other things people have written in with. Very fun here. We have a fan of the Vine Core Fountain saying, Bill writes, while it's not classically beautiful, it's so experiential as water crashes down around you. Originally, I assumed to drain out the cars on the adjacent elevated freeway. Gina over on the Discord, karaoke lands,

Summer Competitive Karaoke League. Yes, this is a thing. It starts on June 3rd, and it's Tuesdays 7 to 9 p.m. at Parliament in Old Oakland. So campy, so joyous, such a welcoming community. We're having karaoke open to all this coming Tuesday at Parliament to kick off the season. Do you think you'd win in competitive karaoke, Gabe?

Yeah. I would slay everybody. Of course. Correct answer. Throw it my way. Absolutely correct. Pink Pony Club, here we come. That song, just over and over. Everyone's just doing it. They all do the same song. Ross in San Francisco, welcome. Hi, thanks so much for having me. I love you talking about the moment existed.

Peace and Ruth Asala. I just wanted to mention that we actually have a tree nursery just down the street from there at 415 5th Street. And we're brand new, open, doing tours with the San Francisco Department of Public Works. We grow all the street trees that are planted around San Francisco. We do tours. And please come by and check us out. If you're in the area checking out Ruth Asala, check us out, too. We'd love to have you.

Believe it or not, Ross, I have been. You have been. I was going to say, this is like right up our nerdy alley. I know. I was about to say, not a plant, but should have been. Yeah. Thank you, Ross. Really appreciate that. It is very cool because you're just like, there's the freeways and then there's all these street trees and it's amazing. And we've done, my kid loves, my other kid loves planting street trees because they have a good heart, apparently. Wow. I don't know why. Yeah.

Let's see. More things to toss at you all. We have Lynn Eve writing in to say,

And the cherry on top of an amazing summer is the free music festival, Flower Piano, in the San Francisco Botanical Garden. Opening night is September 12th and runs through the 21st. Great performers over 10 days and in between times. Anyone can sit at the keys and play any of the 12 pianos. I'm always awed by the talented locals who walk among us and definitely are not trying to become Instagram influencers by taking videos of themselves playing piano, which is what I assume is actually going on there.

I would also shout out the Golden Gate Band Shell, right between the DeYoung and Academy of Sciences. They do a free concert series over the summer as well.

and just the classic Golden Gate Park experience. That's awesome. While we're talking about getting into some of these outside places, Luke, what if I want to go to like a U-Pick? Do you have any recommendations for us there? Yeah. And Emma Silvers actually did a whole list of kid-friendly activities that's part of our summer guide and U-Pick is,

Picking your own fruit was one of the things she suggests, and I think that is just a perfect activity to do with kids. Those of us who have our children over the summer have to come up with things to do. That's right. You're outside, you're on the ground or up in the trees, you're getting a little glimpse of the hard work that you have to put in to harvest your fruits. Right now, we're right in the peak of...

of cherry season. And I think most of the best places to do a you pick cherry picking are up in Brentwood. And so the one that I go to with my family is I think it's called G&S Farms. It's one of the bigger cherry orchards out there. I think they're just starting with Rainier's this weekend. So if you're into that.

And I like to make a whole day of it. So you go out, you pick your cherries. If you're up in Brentwood, stop at the Antioch Flea Market on your way back on a Saturday. It's food heaven. One of the best quesabiria stands in the Bay Area called OG Tacos is posted up there on Saturday so you can make a whole food day of it.

If you want to pick strawberries, down in Davenport, like over by Pescadero, is Swanton Berry Farm, which if you remember from five or six years ago was sort of universally hailed as like, that's the best strawberries you can get at a Bay Area farmer's market. They don't do farmer's markets anymore. And so the

only way you can eat those strawberries is you go to their farm stand down in Davenport or you go pick it yourself. And then you're down in Pescadero and there's a million things you can do. I think Emma recommended stopping at the there's a bakery down there, Arcana

I think. I'm probably mispronouncing that. Archangelis Grocery. They're famous for their garlic artichoke bread. Couldn't recommend it highly enough. Or in Half Moon Bay, one of the places on my scenic...

food list is on barbara's barbara's fish trap which is awesome fish and chips fried artichokes right on the beach perfect place to watch a sunset that that's a good day right there that sounds a good day um one last thing on gs farms uh that i love about them you know they've been around for a while because it's gs farms.net yes you want to go to that website gs farms.net uh

All of these recs and, well, maybe not all, but many of these recs and many more can be found on the KQED Summer Event Guide. That's, of course, on the KQED website. We've got Gabe Moline. We've got Luke Tsai, food editor. We've got Sarah Hotchkiss, who covers the visual arts. And we're bringing in your recommendations, your plans, your trips. What are you doing? Are you going to walk across the Delta solo, which is one thing I want to do? Or are you going to do something more fun? Call 1-866-733-6786.

That's 866-733-6786. You can fill us in on stuff. You can also email forum at kqed.org. Find us on Blue Sky, Instagram, Discord. We're KQED Forum. Michael Franti on the way out, also Stern Grove. I'm Alexis Madrigal. Back with more right after the break.

Support for Forum comes from San Francisco Opera. Amidst a terrible storm, Idemeneo promises the god Neptune that he will sacrifice the first person he sees if he and his crew survive the tempestuous waters. But as he arrives safely to shore, his relief transforms into horror when the first person he lays eyes upon is his own son.

This summer, venture into the storm with Mozart's sublime opera, Idomeneo. June 14-25. Learn more at sfopera.com. Support for Forum comes from Broadway SF, presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story. From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and Lucille Frank, a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia.

When Leo is accused of an unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice, and devotion. The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orpheum Theatre for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th. Tickets on sale now at broadwaysf.com.

Welcome back to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. We are getting recommendations from you all, our listeners, as well as our KQED Arts and Culture team. We've got Gabe Moline, Sarah Hodgkiss, Luke Tsai here in the studio with me. We're happy to be here.

happy to hear your plans for Bay Area summer as well or events that you're really looking forward to give us a call number is 866-733-6786 you can email forum at kqed.org or you can find us on all of the different social media things one of the things I am also really excited about doing this summer especially on a

cold Bay Area fog socked in day is going out to the big drive-in movie screen in Concord. You guys ever done that? Yes. So excellent. That is so fun. And it's oftentimes 1000 degrees out there when it's freezing. So you're kind of like, Oh, this is perfect. I can just sit in the trunk of my car and watch a movie. Um, uh, big, big recommendation there.

Once again, you're a stoic. You do the thing where you get in the trunk, Alexis, so you don't have to pay $4 for a drive-in movie. There's one in San Jose also. I think they're all double features too. Yeah. Well, we saw Encanto because there was the Familia Madrigal in there. So we were very excited about that in our family. Let's talk outdoor stuff, Gabe. I hear you're a swimming hole guy.

I am a swimming hole guy. I love a lot of swimming holes, especially up on the Russian River near where I live, and I am not going to reveal their locations so as not to blow up the spot. However, our new outdoors reporter at KQED, Sarah Wright, is fully willing to blow up the spot. Many spots. She has a complete and thorough swimming guide as part of our summer guide online. That includes...

pools, especially one in Burlingame, which Bianca Taylor at KQED says is one of the nicest outdoor pools she's ever swum in. Burlingame, who knew? It's right near the Caltrain stop. It also includes swimming in the San Francisco Bay. If you've never tried it, it is safe. There is not a lifeguard, but she's got the best spots to enter the bay, which

including China Camp and McNeer's Beach in San Rafael. I will say I was inspired to try to learn how to swim for several months just watching people go in a killer beach in Point Richmond. Yeah. Literally just people walk down, they take off all their normal street clothes and they're in their bathing suits. They just walk into the bay and swim away. It's the coolest thing. It's like you don't get to do that.

That's an impassable air. That's water, but not for them. But you do. Yeah. I still can't swim, for those who are wondering. There's a lot of lakes in the Bay Area that you can't swim in, the reason being that they are reservoirs. Water. One good exception in Livermore is Lake DelVal, which is a beautiful, large lake that you can swim in out there. Sarah's also got...

Water parks. Don't forget about water parks. They're a little more expensive. They're a little more crowded and hectic. But I love me a good water park. Rest in peace, Raging Waters in San Jose. That one was the best. Rest in peace, my childhood, I feel. I like the water park at Great America, South Bay Shores. You can ride roller coasters and then in the middle of the day change into your swim trunks, go down some wild water slides and then get back into your civilian clothes.

Katie on Blue Sky says, "If this is anti-fascist summer, I'm calling out the No Kings Day protest on June 14th." I feel like it's a Bay Area thing to have a summer events guide including protests. That makes sense to me. - Protests are turning into parties, I have noticed. Like, if I can't dance, it's not my revolution, you know? Emma Goldman. Yeah, let's get more music, more dancing, more fun at protests. - Here we go, we got Thomas in San Mateo, welcome.

Hey, what's going on? I'm glad to be on the air. Yeah, great to be kind of happy. My suggestion was wine tasting. I mean, we've got the Santa Cruz Mountains right in our own backyard. There's dozens of like really incredible wineries out there. And like, I was shocked last week I was at Neely and it's like,

15 minutes off the 280. It's one of those things where I love Napa, don't get me wrong, but sometimes it's a really long drive to get up there. We often forget that we have great wineries right in our own backyard. That's a great point. Thank you, Thomas. Thanks for that. And that's kind of true in a bunch of different places in the Bay, right? I mean, there's some of the people who are trying to get things going out there, kind of near Livermore. Of course, all the Napa folks. Anyone else want to chime in on that one?

No? Anyone got a favorite place to go? I grew up in Sonoma County. Yeah. So you're a snob. Much like anyone who grew up in San Francisco has never been to Alcatraz, I've never been wine tasting. Wow. Wow.

Yeah, I know. Your next birthday, Gabe. I know. The station should take you by surprise. They're going to find out. They're going to drag me to Alcatraz when it becomes a federal prison, and I'm going to have to swim in the bay to freedom. To get home. No one's ever made it back. Didn't you know that? Yeah. No, it's just one of those things. It's all around you. It's the culture. And it can get a little stifling, I will say, as a local up there. So yeah, I've never done it. Oh, wow.

Never even been to like Scribe Winery or something, you know? You know who has a great winery is Francis Ford Coppola near Geyserville. And there is a giant pool there with cabanas that you can rent. His restaurant is really great. And at the restaurant, they bring you a bag of bread. And this bread...

is like heaven sent. This bread is, I'm, I'm going to, I'm going to blow up a spot here. Luke's secret weapon for picnics is the star bread from Ling Nam. Oh yeah. In daily city. Every time we have a get together and the arts team, he shows up with the star bread and yes, instantly a smash hit. But this, this bread at, uh, Francis Ford Coppola's winery up there is really great. Um, Luke, let's talk about some more of your secrets here. Um,

There's nothing like grabbing a late night bite. Summertime could be even warm, possibly. And you know, people oftentimes say that the Bay Area, everyone whines about how early things close here. So you have been doing this incredible illustrated series going to all these late night dining spots. So is there one you want to shout out as particularly summer friendly?

Yeah, and this is the series that I do with my friend Tim Pham, who we've also had on the show. Friend of the show. He's the one who's done the illustrations. And, you know, not to toot our horn, but we just recently got nominated for a James Beard Award for this coffee. But, yeah, there's so many places. The one that I'm excited about just at the moment, because we just published it this morning, is Four Kings.

Which everyone kind of knows. I was there last night. Amazing. No way. Yes, no way. Did you have to wait online or did you have a reservation? I got a reservation. I did get a reservation. Yeah, you have to make a reservation like three weeks in advance or else you're out of luck. But it's great as a late night place. Actually, the best time to go is around 9.30.

because that's when kind of like the first couple groups are finishing up already. So you get in line to walk in. They save a few tables for that. And I only had to wait like maybe half an hour. And we got in. And there's so much energy. They play 80s, 90s canta pop. You know, your table is just covered with like five or six dishes all at once. Everything is delicious. You got to get the fried squab.

Did you get it? We were scared. We got the fried squab. We got the fried squab. It comes out. It's got its claws still attached. It's got its head still attached. And if you're like me, the head is like you're immediately gravitating towards it. I may not be like you. But that's an exciting place. But if you're talking about the summertime...

If you go to the Midnight Diner's homepage, which has sort of our archives, there are a lot of places, for instance, where you can get a cool dessert and

late at night. Mitchell's Ice Cream probably being the most famous and most popular among them. But there's also this little Thai restaurant called Ping Yong Grill, which does amazing shaved ice. It's just this really charming little restaurant. And then there's lots of fun places where you can just kind of eat outdoors at night. You know, there's Beeps Burgers.

One of my favorite outdoor patios is the Zareen's, this Pakistani Indian restaurant. The Palo Alto location has a beautiful outdoor patio where you go there in the summertime at like 10 o'clock at night. And the vibe is just amazing. Or on the sort of other end of the spectrum, if you want to like party in a parking lot,

Um, the diamond kitchen, which is at the two star market convenience store in Oakland is serving amazing soul food out of the liquor store. And there's no tables or anything, but you just spread it out on the hood of your car. And that's, that's a great summer night. That's a vibe. Yeah. Uh, for four Kings, that scallop vermicelli was also really amazing. Really good. Um,

Sarah Hotchkiss, let's bring in a caller and then I'm going to send her your way. Kathy in Point Reyes Station. Welcome.

Hi, thanks for being on. I want to invite people out to Point Reyes this weekend to kick off their summer at Point Reyes Open Studios. We have a studio tour of 16 artists opening their studios from 11 to 5 on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday this weekend. Oh, that's awesome. What a great—that's also a fun day trip experience.

Visit some open studios, have some food. You know, the Buffalo soft serve, right? The Palace Market. The Palace Market. I was just there last weekend. I have to shout out Point Reyes Books is a great bookstore right across the street from the market. There's also Blunk Space, which is a gallery up there. So you can do a lot of art.

Yeah, that's so cool. And also, Sarah, I know that when you're not writing about art, you're also making art. So do you have recommendations for folks who might have a little bit more time over the summer and they want to kind of dip their toe into some art making? Oh, yeah. There's a ton of class. I mean, now is the time maybe if your schedule is a little bit lighter to sign up for that art making, craft making class that you've been having your eye on. I will be taking my piano lessons at the Community Music Center. Okay.

which I've talked about him for him before. But Pandarvis Harsha wrote a great guide for us about ways to essentially avoid your phone, avoid the news this summer. And they're all great hands-on suggestions. You know, sign up for DJ classes, take that ceramics class, learn how to blow glass. His list, it covers spots all over the Bay Area. No matter where you are, there's tons of offerings there.

So you can get your hands dirty, not touch your phone. Build your own, build your own scraper bike. There's a scraper bike workshop. Yeah. Oh, that's pretty good. So what about, there's, isn't there also a San Jose Museum of Art exhibit? Yes. That's really quite interesting. I might be mispronouncing this artist's name, but her name is Paohua He. She's,

from the Hmong community and it's a photo show but it's kind of different it's like a 20 year survey of her work in the galleries but then also in the city so there might be you know

illuminated photo in a restaurant in San Jose, or there's going to be yard signs that people are going to set up around town. So you'll encounter her work. It's kind of like a commentary on like diaspora, right? Yeah. It's simultaneously happening at the Kohler Art Center in Sheboygan, which has a big Hmong community. And so it's, yeah, it's kind of speaking to these different centers of, you

Yeah, the diasporic communities and how you reconstruct an image of your homeland. She does a lot of work with like fictional backdrops and real people or like real flowers in front of fake flowers. They look really amazing. I can't wait to see that show. It opens July 11th. I love that.

It being summertime, well, actually, it just being the golden age of boba, as Luke has declared it. I do want to ask you about how one, I'm asking less for a specific recommendation and more for what are my tips for when I see a boba place?

Am I going to know? How do I know it's going to be a trash boba place versus a wonderful boba place? Yeah. I mean, if you go to a boba place and all of the drinks are this sort of like neon foam

fluorescent sort of pastel colors, it's going to be trash because like these are places and this is like a lot of boba shops, you know, because since we saw this sort of explosion, right, where it's a sort of like you can open a place without a lot of overhead, you know, so it's just like a lot of these places are open and

A lot of them don't really care about the tea. People forget boba originally is a tea drink. And so the places that do good boba, I've always say, you don't actually need to get the boba. You don't actually need the little tapioca ball.

Like just get the tea. And if it's a good place, you just drink that straight up like a straight up interesting, lightly sweetened iced tea is a beautiful, refreshing thing. So if you go and it's like you don't even know if there's tea there.

then there's a problem. But at the same time, there's lots of really creative boba shops in the Bay Area where maybe it's not 100% about the tea, but they have really interesting toppings. So I'm not opposed to that. But that is the first thing that I check. That is good. And if you want the specific recommendations, we do have them on the website, of course, and you can check them out there.

In the room here, I'm going to come to you in just a second for your final recommendation. I'm going to just run through some of the listeners' recommendations here. Chris writes, shout out to Woodminster Summer Musicals in the East Bay Hills. Hike, picnic, and enjoy a beautiful Bay Area sunset while supporting local musical theater. I've always wanted to go to the place up on Mount Tam, too. Have you done that? Oh, man, I've never done it, but I've...

been running there and then like come out, you know, you're just like disgusting and just come out and there's like 400 people having a glass of wine watching your show. And you're like, uh, I'm going to go this way. Uh, thanks. Thanks. Uh, Caroline writes, one of my favorite summer activities is free concerts at the Oakland municipal band stand by like Merritt and

Another listener writes, we just discovered the Sonoma Botanical Garden, a little gem of a garden that currently has giant bird sculptures. Super cool. That sounds great. And another listener writes, I highly recommend a free tour of the world-class Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito. If you can find out when they will be releasing one or more seals, you can be at the beach that day to witness it. It's a wonderful experience.

Also an olfactory experience, I would say, that one. And Judd also wants to shout out Carnival again in the Mission this weekend. Okay, final picks that you haven't shared with someone. All right, my final pick is the San Francisco Art Book Fair. I stole Alexis's pick, I think.

It's at Minnesota Street Project. It's July 10th through 13th. It's hundreds of vendors. It is the best event of the year. It's like accessible art. You can take home with you. You get to meet all the people that make the books. It's so much fun. I'll be there. Beautiful. Me too. My final pick is the Warehouse Cafe, which is this biker bar up in Port Costa that is like just this, you know, they've got...

You know, this massive taxidermy, this massive stuffed bear. And it's a hangout place for bikers. But on Friday and Saturday nights, they do this amazing prime rib special. Like, who would think? You go up there, and it's a cash only. You get a whole prime rib plate with all the fixings.

and port costa itself if you've never been there it's just this amazing place you drive up this sort of like winding road and then you just get it in the bay and and it's nighttime and they've got all the lights strung up and it's it's it's like you've traveled to this ghost town from the 1800s old west fun fact i think it was the first draft of my book in that warehouse oh wow um yeah gabe um

There's so much theater this summer, which we didn't even touch on. CoFounders is opening at ACT with Ryan Nicole. It's a hip-hop musical about the tech industry. There's also Luigi the Musical about Luigi Mangione, which is selling out every new dates that they add. I am excited about the new Conservatory Theater Center. They are bringing back Ride the Cyclone, which is a super fun musical. It's incredibly popular on TikTok with teenagers. It's about a

class of high school students who almost die on a roller coaster and they're stuck in purgatory fighting to get back to Earth. Sounds perfect for summer. We've been joined by KQED Arts and Culture teammates Gabe Milleen, Sarah Hotchkiss, Luke Sy. Thank you so much. You can find all the recs in the KQED Summer Events Guide. The 9 o'clock hour form is produced by Grace Wan and Blanca Torres.

Our interns are Brian Vo and Jesse Fisher. Jennifer Ng is our engagement producer. Francesca Fenz is our digital community producer. Judy Campbell, lead producer. Danny Bringer, Jim Bennett, Christopher Beal are our engineers. My daughter Flora is our hype woman. Katie Springer is the operations manager of KQED Podcasts. Our VP of News is Ethan Tovin-Lindsey. And our chief content officer is Holly Kernan. I'm Alexis Madrigal. Stay tuned for another hour of Form Ahead with Mina Kinak. It's a beautiful world.

Funds for the production of Forum are provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Generosity Foundation, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Support for Forum comes from San Francisco Opera. Amidst a terrible storm, Ida Mineo promises the god Neptune that he will sacrifice the first person he sees if he and his crew survive the tempestuous waters.

But as he arrives safely to shore, his relief transforms into horror when the first person he lays eyes upon is his own son.

This summer, venture into the storm with Mozart's sublime opera, Idomeneo. June 14-25. Learn more at sfopera.com. Greetings, Boomtown. The Xfinity Wi-Fi is booming! Xfinity combines the power of internet and mobile. So we've all got lightning-fast speeds at home and on the go! That's where our producers got the idea to mash our radio shows together! ♪

Through June 23rd, new customers can get 400 megabit Xfinity internet and get one unlimited mobile line included, all for $40 a month for one year. Visit Xfinity.com to learn more. With paperless billing and auto-pay with store bank account, restrictions apply. Xfinity internet required. Texas fees extra. After one year, rate increases to $110 a month. After two years, regular rate supply. Actual speeds vary.

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