To get your tickets, visit http://trulybeautiful.eventbrite.com/.

About the festival
This year, the Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival is celebrating its 45th year, as one of California’s most prominent celebrations of Asian traditions. Each year, over 200,000 people attend this dazzling display showcasing the color and grace of the Japanese culture and the diversity of the Japanese American Community. The 2012 Festival will celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. and will also pay tribute to the 100th Infantry Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the Military Intelligence Service comprised of all Japanese American soldiers receiving the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor. The highest civilian honor bestowed by the U. S. Congress. The festival will also recognize the one year anniversary of the Tohoku Region Earthquake and Tsunami.

And tickets go on sale this Thursday!

Outside Lands 2102 is August 10-12.

Here’s a link to some photo’s from Sunday’s contest and festivities at Dolores Park.

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In San Francisco, you can do Easter brunch, attend the Union Street Easter Parade in Cow Hollow or head to Dolores Park in the Mission and check out the Hunky Jesus contest.

It starts at 3:15 p.m. You won’t want to miss this!

Happy Easter!

Enjoy spring and all that this city has to offer! 

Through April 7: Macy’s Brasil: Gardens in Paradise Flower Show
Visit Macy’s Union Square to discover a magical world of floral architecture, magnificent landscapes and specialty gardens at this year’s Brasil: Gardens of Paradise Flower Show.

For all the details, visit www.macys.com/flowershow.

April 8: Union Street’s 21st Annual Spring Celebration & Easter Parade
The 21st annual event is a celebration of spring and Easter that features a variety of children’s and family activities including large inflatable bounces, kids’ rides and games, a climbing wall, a hands-on children’s activities area, costumed characters, a petting zoo, a pony ride and entertainment from some of the Bay Area’s best musicians. The event will take place on Union Street in Cow Hollow between Fillmore and Gough from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The parade begins at 2:00 p.m.

April 14: Dogfest 2012
Calling all dog lovers! Check out Dogfest 2012 — a community dog show and family fun event that raises money for academic and are enrichment programs for SFUSD’s McKinley Elementary in the Castro.

To learn more, visit the Dogfest website.

April 19 – May 3: The 55th San Francisco International Film Festival
The longest-running film festival in the Americas, the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) is the premier spot to see films from domestic and international directors before they ever reach theatres. SFIFF features a variety of narrative feature films, live action and animated shorts, television and theatrical documentaries, experimental work and a variety of new digital media, as well as a smart lineup of industry panels and seminars.

For a list of films, locations and to get tickets, visit the SFIFF website.

April 21: Truly Beautiful: A Fashion Show and Shopping Event
Jonni Knox is a collection of artists whose vision is to educate, inspire and connect people through fashion while celebrating all that we are as individuals through nightlife. Their Truly Beautiful: A Fashion Show and Shopping Event highlights the eco-friendly and ethical alternatives available in fashion, cosmetics and design.  The show starts at 2:30 p.m. at Public Works in the Mission.

To get your tickets, visit http://trulybeautiful.eventbrite.com/.

April 25: The Modern Ball
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is hosting the biggest art bash of the year: The Modern Ball. This ultrachic Post-Modern Party will be a rockin’ night out complete with an electrifying DJ set by Chromeo, flowing cocktails and delectible gourmet bites.

For tickets, visit the SFMOMA website.

April 26: Dining Out for Life 2012
Dine out at one of more than 100 participating restaurants and help fund lifesaving HIV services in San Francisco. To find restaurants and make your reservation, visit the Dining Out for Life San Francisco website.

Through June 17: The Cult of Beauty, The Victorian Avant-Garde 1860 -1900
Visit the Legion of Honor museum now through June 17 to see an exhibit with pieces from 19th-century romantic bohemians and maverick artists such as Oscar Wilde, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Frederic Leighton, Albert Moore, William Morris, and James McNeill Whistler who sought to create a new kind of art — freed from their restrictive society.

To learn more, visit the Legion of Honor of San Francisco website.

Through July 8: Photography in Mexico
Visit the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) to experience a collection of photographs by Mexican artists such as Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Manuel Carrillo, and Graciela Iturbide that show the distinctively rich and complex photography from the 1920s to the present.

To learn more, visit the SFMOMA website.

Through Aug. 19: The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk
He brought the world blonde ambition. Enough said. Celebrate the work of Jean Paul Gaultier at the de Young Museum’s newest exhibit The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, through Aug. 19. (I’ve seen a preview and I have to say, what I saw was fabulous!)

To learn more, visit the de Young Museum website.

So, what’s a “pop-up” you ask? A pop-up is a food vendor, who may have a food truck, that is using another restaurant or shop’s space to prepare and/or sell their own eats.

Last month, Coffee Bar‘s third location in SoMa (Howard and 12th St) announced that while they are several months away from opening, they want to open up their kitchen for use by San Francisco pop-up vendors who want to sell food out of a service window on the side of the building they’ve dubbed “The Window.” 

Starting next Wednesday, Mar. 19, The Window will be hosting nine different vendors that include Soup Junkie, Good Foods Catering, Seoul Patch, Jablow’s Meats, Sweet Jo’s Chile and Biscuits and Maite Catering.

To see the March pop-up calendar, visit the Coffee Bar’s The Window webpage.

Why not add bowling to the list? And not just any bowling alley…Lucky Strike! Famous for its hip, blacklight bowling complete with plenty of music, a gastropub, ugly bowling shoes and a game room.

Opening tomorrow, Friday, Mar. 9, this bowling mecca opens right across from AT&T Park and is co-0wned by none other than “The Beard” himself, Giants closer Brian Wilson.

Grab a martini or IPA (they’ve got a few more craft beers than your average alley) and some sushi, and get ready for some 10-pin action. If you can, try to get one of the two lanes in the Green Room,  an intimate, well-appointed lair with tobacco-hued sofas, emerald velvet chairs and a century-old Italian harvest table. And if bowling isn’t enough for you, you can also go to Lucky Strike for a game of chess, pool or trivia in a game room.

Check out the complete menu:

I’ve got my bowling shoes ready! I’ll see you there!

Lucky Strike
200 King St., (at 4th St)
San Francisco, CA 94107
415-400-8260
Lucky Strike Website

The SFIAAFF kicks off tomorrow night with a showing of White Frog, starring B.D. Wong and Harry Shum (Glee) and the opening gala at the Asian Art Musuem in San Francisco. The festival continues over the next 10 days with films from the U.S., Canada, New Zealand, Tanzania, South Korea, India, Cambodia, China, France, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Japan being shown  at the following venues around the Bay Area:

• Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin Street (at Fulton), San Francisco, 415.581.3500 | www.asianart.org
• Camera 3 Cinemas, 288 South Second Street (at East San Carlos Street), San Jose, 408-998-3300 | www.cameracinemas.com/camera3
• Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St (at Market near 17th St), San Francisco 415.621.6120 | www.castrotheatre.com
• Japantown Peace Plaza Along Post and Sutter streets, between Laguna and Fillmore streets (Located between Kintetsu and Miyako malls) www.sfjapantown.org
• Mighty, 119 Utah Street (near 15th Street), San Francisco, 415.762.0151 | mighty119.com
• O3 Bistro & Lounge, 524 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, 415.934.9800 | www.o3restaurant.com
• Pacific Film Archive Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way (Between College and Telegraph streets), Berkeley, 510.642.0808 | www.bampfa.berkeley.edu
• SF Film Society, 1746 Post St (at Webster), San Francisco (Located inside the NEW PEOPLE center), 415.525.8600 | www.newpeopleworld.com/
• San Jose Museum of Art, 10 South Market Street San Jose,  408.271.6840 | www.sjmusart.org
• Som Bar, 2925 16th Street (near Mission), San Francisco, 415.558.8521 | som-bar.com
• Hotel Kabuki, 1625 Post Street (near Laguna), San Francisco, 415.922.3200 | jdvhotels.com
• Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, 1881 Post St (at Fillmore), San Francisco, 415.346.3243 | www.sundancecinemas.com
• SuperFrog Gallery, 1746 Post St (at Webster), San Francisco (Located inside the NEW PEOPLE center), 415.525.8600 | www.newpeopleworld.com

For a complete listing of films and to get your tickets, visit the CAAM website.

The show’s Broadway run has ended, but when has something like that ever stopped William Shatner. Now he’s touring the country and for one night only (Sunday, March 11), William Shatner bring “Shatner’s World” to San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre.

I’m sure the show is nothing more that William Shatner being William Shatner on stage, but here’s how the “About” section of the Shatner’s World website describes it:

Who am I, really?
I haven’t saved the universe countless times (or even once), but a part of me is Captain Kirk.
I’m not a hard-bitten, L.A. cop, but a part of me is T.J. Hooker.
I’m not an addled (well, maybe), high-powered attorney, but a part of me is Denny Crane.
I’ve had many other roles, on-screen and off…Husband, father, friend. Horseman, Singer, Philanthropist, NEGOTIATOR.
All of the parts contribute to the whole, AND IT MAKES FOR ONE HELL OF A STORY!

 To get your tickets, visit the SHN website.