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Don't look now, it's Pink Man! Urban Guide Listings to plan your week by 'I Wheel, The Pink Man Show' Pink Man is a Bay Area legend. He's a part time cable guy with a low rent overhead by day, and a freewheeling one-man show at night. Sometimes, when the moon is full, luck is one your side, and you say "Pink Man" three times while standing flamingo style on one foot, you'll see him, gliding down Bancroft trussed to the tee in a glossy pink leotard, arms up, doing fancy pedal work on his trusty unicycle. Martin Short has called him "Genius." Phil Hartman is reported to have gasped an understated, "Wow." For twenty-seven years, Michael Max (that's his day name) has studied the fine, lost art of unicyling, mastered it, and incorporated it into new art forms. This Thursday and Friday, he takes his Pink Man act to the stage in the innovative "I Wheel, The Pink Man Show." Witness the birth of the wheel, laugh at the antics of the Uni-Tramp, and see a lonely scientist activate her Uni-Bot companion. Marvel at the low-flying artistry of the Uni-Peze, a fusion of trapeze and unicycling that Max and ex-girlfriend Ashley Foster (who is he still in love with every time the two dance together, her a floating ballerina and him a bewitched cyclist) perform, and dub "Sacred Geometry." Bodhi MC hosts this all-age, homegrown delight. Thurs/30 and Fri/31. 7 and 9pm. Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck, Berk. $10-$15. 595-5560. (EP) "Will o' the Wisps," by Emeryville artist Marie Favorii. Showing at the Doyle Street Studios. East Bay Open Studios In recent years, many museums and gallery spaces have gone to great lengths to rid themselves of the highbrow exclusivity that has long been associated with patron-sponsored cultural institutions. But no amount of community-based art programs, or half-price first Thursdays can compare to the exhilarating, sometimes awe-inspiring, and always immediate, face-to-face interaction and hands-on experience of walking into the studio of a real-live, breathing artist. For twenty years and counting, Pro Arts has been hosting the region's longest running and largest open studio event. This year, over five hundred East Bay artists from Richmond to San Leandro will open the doors to their workplaces and studios for public viewing. So, if you haven't seen what all the hype's about, then it's time to grab a friend (and a map) and head out on your very own art safari. This is one of the few times a year that you will have the opportunity to view up-close, and actually afford, high-quality artwork from local artists - many of whose work has been shown in Bay Area museums and galleries. Who knows, you just may discover the next Rothko. Thurs/ 30. 7-9 pm. Reception for the Artists. ProArts Gallery, 461 Ninth Street, Oakl. Free. Sat-Sun/1 & 2, 8 & 9. 11 am-6pm. Open Studios Tour. Various locations. Map & Directory available at ProArts gallery and at various locations throughout the East Bay. 763-4361; http://www.proartsgallery.org. (CS) Czech filmmaker Robert Ellmann's 10-minute short, "Tenis Match" screens at the Nomad Video Film Fest. Nomad Video Film Fest From Seattle, to Portland, to San Francisco, and in Berkeley since 1992, the Nomad Video Film Festival has toured the West putting together screenings of subversive and experimental short films, videos, and videofilms. They started in Seattle screening bi-monthly at local clubs and galleries, spearheading some kind of alternative video revolution that hasn't stopped revolving yet. The upcoming festival, "The Best of Nomad Past & Present," marks Nomad's tenth anniversary, and their withdrawal from the circuit until 2004. The SF Weekly just named Nomadic founder and captain Antero Alli the "Best Cult Filmmaker of the SF Bay Area," so catch the fest now before he and others break to develop their own productions. See fifteen short films, each audacious, original, and technically sound (in that order), with a surprise mystery performer breaking the video trance at intermission. Only self-funded media makers make up the curation panel, and they tend to see through the "film school hype and Hollywood glitz" that can hypnotize up-and-comers into complacency. Berkeley-based intermedia production company Vertical Pool, devoted to "inducing riots of poetic insurrection," produces the event. And winners get, besides the approving nod of visionaries, the best prize of all: handwritten feedback from the crowd, a connection with hearts and minds from every city the tour disrupts. Fri/31, 10pm. Fine Arts Cinema. 2451 Shattuck, Berk. $7. 848.1183; www.verticalpool.com/nomad.html. (EP) Picks by Erica Pedersen (EP), and Cicely J. Sweed (CS). [ East Bay | Metroactive | Archives ]