1
THE RETAIL FIX
Market growth
Watch the city start brown bagging it when Bloomingdale’s opens its doors on September 28 at the renovated Westfield San Francisco Centre. You’ll also find new flagship and concept stores from local powerhouses—like BeBe’s just-launched accessory boutique, Neda, and Gap’s upscale line, Forth & Towne. And unlike that of its neighbor, the food court here is worthy of San Francisco. The Food Emporium will house a 30,000-square-foot Bristol Farms gourmet market, a Slanted Door outpost, and Tom Colicchio’s trendy sandwich shop ’Wichcraft. 865 Market St. (at 5th St.), S.F., 415-512-6776.

2
THE PERFORMANCE
Dance not bombs
David Dorfman wanted to explore the fine line between activism and terrorism. So his new dance piece ‘underground’ riffs on the Weather Underground, the audacious ’60s and ’70s political organization responsible for race-related battles in the streets of Chicago and the bombing of the U.S. capitol. Dorfman asked his troupe’s 10 dancers to consider how far they would have gone to protest racism and the Vietnam War. The resulting 50-minute essay has his New York–based group—plus two dozen of the Bay Area’s finest postmodern dancers—floating, falling, and making fluid, graceful mayhem. SEPT. 21–24, YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS, 701 MISSION ST., s.f., 415-978-2787, WWW.YBCA.ORG.

3
THE GATHERING
Party like it’s 1929
Rearrange that finger wave and polish up the chrome on your Ford Deluxe. The Art Deco Society of California packs into antique cars and rolls up to the Dunsmuir Historic Estate in Oakland for its 22nd annual Gatsby Summer Afternoon. The Royal Society Jazz Orchestra gets the picnicgoers off their blankets to do the Charleston, and the Deco Belles Beauty Revue adds pinup pizzazz. SEPT. 10 AT THE DUNSMUIR HISTORIC Estate, 415-982-3326, WWW.ARTDECOSOCIETY.ORG.

4
THE MUST-SEE TV
Delroy as G-man
Oakland star resident Delroy Lindo plays FBI agent Latimer King in the drama Kidnapped, premiering this month. The fast-paced plot begins with the abduction of an ultrarich New York teenager. The well-organized group of thugs may be motivated by ransom money or a personal vendetta against the teenager’s father, an Upper East Side suit with skeletons in his closet. Watch the kid’s life hang in the balance while a PI and the FBI clash over how to proceed. Lindo’s creased face and charismatic, no-nonsense performance make even the formulaic moments arresting. PREMIERES SEPT. 20, 10 p.m., NBC.

5
THE SHOW
Shepard’s 9/11 wink
You think telemarketer phone calls are annoying—how about dealing with a mysterious stranger at the door, intent on selling patri­otic tchotchkes? Welcome to Sam Shepard’s subversive comedy The God of Hell at the Magic Theatre, his old stomping grounds. Turning a wicked eye on Homeland Security, the multitalented actor and playwright offers us a puzzled Midwestern couple, a shy man with a truly electrifying handshake, and the salesman who turns their quiet existence upside down in this Bay Area premiere. SEPT. 23–OCT. 22, MAGIC THEATRE, 415-441-8822, WWW.MAGICTHEATRE.ORG.

6
THE BUZZPHRASE
The new ‘tipping point’
There will never be another I Love Lucy, and the death of Lucille Ball is the least of it. The real reason is the birth of the Net. From Amazon to YouTube, we have an endless supply of entertainment choices. And now Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson’s new book is having a Gladwellesque impact on biz-school chatter by naming the phenomenon: The Long Tail. “The mass market is turning into a mass of niches,” he argues. In statistics, “a long-tail distribution” occurs when the periphery—in this case, niche markets—becomes the majority. If Anderson is right, his book may well be the last best seller. WWW.THELONGTAIL.COM.

7
THE EXHIBIT
Pattern recognition
Architects draw buildings. Artist Sarah Bostwick builds drawings. Working with traditional building materials—plaster, wood, and slate—Bostwick meticulously casts and carves low-relief urban landscapes. When you get over the stunning craftsmanship and the shock of recognition that you’re gazing at, say, a stone-perfect frieze of the housing at 23rd and Capp, you begin to appreciate Bostwick’s keen eye for the dazzling patterns and shapes of window frames and power lines that are hidden in plain sight. Nearly a dozen of Bostwick’s cast and carved drawings, some as large as 4 by 5 feet, will be presented.SEPT. 7–OCT. 14, GREGORY LIND GALLERY, 49 GEARY ST., S.F., 415-296-9661, WWW.GREGORYLINDGALLERY.COM.

8
THE FOOD FAD
Flower power
Scan any menu these days, and you’re likely to bump into something with elderflower in it. Elderflower syrup is drizzled into prosecco for the Slanted Door’s Summer on the Danube. The plant’s delicate scent is captured in two desserts at Cortez: an elderflower-strawberry sorbet and the roasted wild berries served with sour cream cheesecake. It also made the final cut as one of 17 infusions tea master Alice Cravens chose for her list at Modern Tea in Hayes Valley. Even the old guard isn’t immune: Chez Panisse kicked tired chamomile off its postmeal drink menu to make room for the new kid. For such a delicate blossom, this flower has an awful lot of pull.

9
THE REALITY CHECK
Like father, like son
For a captivating look at one of the darker sides of life in the Golden State, tune into Nuestra Familia. This harrowing documentary, produced by Berkeley’s Center for Investigative Reporting, chronicles the history of the Nuestra Familia prison gang, which controls the streets in many of California’s Latino communities. The story centers on a Salinas father who reforms himself only to see his son get 29-to-life for murder. Watching the film, it’s hard not to be reminded of the factors—grinding poverty, atrocious schools, and lawmen who sometimes act more gangsta than the gangsters—that feed the cycle of violence. SEPT. 28, 11 P.M., KQED.

10
THE HOMAGE
Bayside Big Easy
Our city is by the bay, not the bayou, but as home to the world’s oldest ongoing blues festival, we do know how to shake it to a good romp. And this year, the 34th annual San Francisco Blues Festival fetes New Orleans. Saturday’s concert at Fort Mason features the Voice of the Wetlands All-Stars—a Louisiana supergroup that includes Cyril Neville of the Neville Brothers. Classic grub, like fried catfish and crawfish étouffée, will be dished up to give the event an authentic feel. Let the good times roll. SEPT. 22–24, 415-979-5588, WWW.SFBLUES.COM.

11
THE FESTIVAL
40 ways to visit the Middle East
Pop quiz: name one Arab film star besides Omar Sharif. If you need help, check out the 10th annual Arab Film Festival, which will showcase more than 40 films. While many are ripped-from-the-headlines topical, their viewpoints aren’t the ones in your morning paper. The phantasmagoric Ahlaam, the first Iraqi feature since Saddam’s fall, tells the stories of three young Iraqis in a Baghdad mental hospital. The Cannes award-winner Bled Number One offers a meditative look at Algerian provincial life, where tradition slugs it out with modernity. Goal Dreams, a documentary about the Palestinian soccer team’s efforts to make this year’s World Cup, is a fresh take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This poignant tale of a national team without a home field, representing a people without a state, is gripping whichever side of the political divide you happen to be on. SEPT. 8–17 AT LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT THE BAY AREA, WWW.AFF.ORG.

12
THE BEAT
Weekends to rave about
With back-to-back weekends of interactive electronica celebrations this month, you may want to stock up on body glitter before the rush. More than 30 floats will parade down Market Street blasting dance music on their way to Love Fest at Civic Center. The following weekend, San Fran­cisco’s first Summer Music Conference hits town for two full days with dance events all week­end, including a daytime street festival in a parking lot on Natoma Street. LOVE FEST SEPT. 23, WWW.SFLOVEFEST.ORG, SUMMER MUSIC CON­­FERENCE SEPT. 27–OCT. 1, WWW.summer­musiccon­ference.net.