Revered French bad-boy designer Jean Paul Gaultier is in town for the unveiling of a neat-looking "enfant terrible" retrospective of his work at the de Young. (Will there be anything in it as scandalous as the tribute to Naomi Campbell's famous wipeout in the Vivienne Westwood show five years ago?). He also has a busy schedule: a red-carpet appearance at the new Al Pacino movie launch tonight, a private-ish A-gayish loft party on Thursday whose redeeming feature = drag goddess DJ Juanita More, and of course a lavish opening celebration at the de Young itself on Friday. ($300 per person -- I'll be blogging all the opulence and potential fashion faux paaaaaases.) 

But us lowly club kids love you too, JPG.

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"The best form of government ... is no government at all!" announced singer Meredith Monk in the second program of the SF Symphony's rollicking American Mavericks festival at Davies Hall on Sat., March 10, her trademark braided pigtails and Shuffling Elf gait in full effect. And while I could hear the pleated pants of several libertarians around me surely being wetted (and a few liberal feathers ruffling in the back), this was no mere Ron Paul back-pat, though it was delivered with all the empty bluster we've come to expect from the current campaign season. 

We were in the midst of an astonishing presentation of John Cage's epic, random Song Books from 1970, after all -- revered experimental vocalist Joan La Barbara had delivered a beribboned gift of apples or cranberries to an arbitrary audience member, magnificent diva Jessye Norman (in a stunning Issey Miyake gown) had joined in a boisterous card game and typed a letter on a mic'd typewriter, and conductor Michael Tilson Thomas had chopped up various fruits and veggies and Cuisinarted them into an orange-y beverage for the pianist. Cage, our 20th Century channeler of chance, would never allow such an inflexible utterance to stand unchallenged.

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First, I made a wee boo-boo in this week's Super Ego clubs column in the paper (where you'll find a bunch more fun parties to attend). The awesomely footworky XXXY will appear at the Lights Down Low party at Monarch (not Public Works, as I erroneously previously erroneated.)

Second: so, yes, American Idolator Simon Cowell is launching a DJ competition version of the X-Factor, which promises to enrage just as much as it might engage (please let there actually be a category for how big DJs open their mouth when they stare at laptops!) And some big name DJs who actually aren't douchbags are already having some good, hilarious fun with it, which in fact kinda makes me want to see the trainwreck/real thing:  

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The SF Symphony's awesome-looking American Mavericks festival -- which will present a "wild side" of contemporary and modernist classical works not often heard on a Davies Hall scale (Meredith Monk! Jessye Norman singing John Cage!) -- kicks off next week with a host of edgy aural goodies. 

And this Sun/4, in a kind of pre-fest wallop, Quebecoise organist Isabelle Demers will take advantage of the enormous Davies pipes to play a number of neat pieces, including one by SF's electronic-adventurous Mason Bates, entitled "Digital Loom," (hear a sample here). "Digital Loom," from 2009, embodies Bates' signature fusion of techno-ambient effects, often laptop generated, with symphonic elements to create something not quite Sci-Fi, not quite rave, not quite Stravinsky at his most cosmic-colorful, but all quite cool.

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We're not usually ones for product placement, but Red Bull has been making some serious roads into quality nightlife. Tonight (Thu/1) the always impressive annual Red Bull Thre3style DJ competition comes to Ruby Skye, pitting several local DJs -- and two from farther up the Coast -- of various styles against each other for regional championships that could lead them to glory in Vegas later this year. (The "thre3style" refers to the requirement that DJs mix at least three different genres of music into their 15 minute sets.) 

Red Bull Music Academy Radio is a go-to for dance music lovers who want to get clued in to what some of the best techno, house, hip-hop, and global bass DJs and producers are doing. And last month, the Red Bull Music Academy itself came to San Francisco to kick off the open-to-all Academy application period, participating in an excellent series of talks and performances by some music greats. What is the Red Bull Music Academy, you ask? (Don't worry, there's no quidditch involved.) You can actually be a part of it!

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