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Ground Effects in action. Urban Guide Listings to plan your week by Free Style Fridays Part dance salon, part afterschool chill room, Free Style Fridays is a place where dancers from various tribes can come together and groove to each other's moves. The words instructors Naomi Bragin and Rashad Pridgen use to describe their own dance styles (fusion and TribalHouseHop, respectively) reflect the high-energy motion and crosscultural flows at the core of Free Style Fridays. "If you want to sit around and do nothing, then you're gonna learn nothing. And if you want to get on the floor and experiment, then you're gonna learn everything," Bragin says to describe her own teaching technique; she makes her charges move somethin' by stepping behind the turntables, not by running them through an afternoon of drills. The merits of this approach are on display Friday night, as a cavalcade of stars comes through the room in "Movement from the Underground," a dance presentation by and for the young folks and late-night bootyshake for the adults, with proceeds to benefit the program. From 9-10pm, Ground Effects Crew, Unique Diversity, Flo-ology, House of Vogue, and Pridgen's TribalHouseHop present dance ranging in style from breakin' to step to boogaloo. Then the DJs step up, with Dedan, Sake-One, Rasta Cue-Tip, Riddler?, and Bizahr on the wheels of steel. With a live samba show at midnight, and performances by Hanifah Walidah throughout the evening, the only certainty is that the roof will be on fire for a good cause. Fri/14, 8pm-2am. Mandela Arts Center, 1357 5th Street at Mandela Parkway (directly across from West Oakland BART), Oakl. 510.451.5466 ext. 316. (AS) Budd Boetticher Weekend Budd Boetticher's name is not widely known these days, but he made a series of Westerns in the 1950s that rival the finest works of John Ford, Sam Peckinpah, and Sergio Leone. Most Westerns made in that time period now seem a little too picturesque or a little too psychological or a little too melodramatic or a little too symbolic. Boetticher avoided all of these pitfalls. The PFA is screening a choice collection of Boetticher's finest Westerns as well as some of his post-WWII noir films all weekend long. Fri/14, Buchanan Rides Alone, 7:30pm; Comanche Station, 9:10pm; Sat/15, Ride Lonesome, 7pm; Escape in the Fog, 8:35pm. Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft, Berk. 642.1412.(CB) West Coast Live On Saturday morning, two seminal Bay Area exemplars of DIY eclecticism will come together for the live 2-hour weekly variety radio show West Coast Live. Sedge Thompson, radio-show originator, host, and producer, invites a hodgepodge of authors, poets, and musicians to appear at a different venue each week from which he records his show in front of a live audience for public radio broadcast. Freight & Salvage, with its intimate 80-person setting and historical mission of cultivating the "spirit of the community" is the perfect venue for Sedge's spectacular potpourri. This week Thompson will feature a typically eclectic line up. He'll first interview writers Matthew Irribane (Astronauts) and Edmond Morris (of Dutch notoriety, the controversial exploration of the life of former president Ronald Reagan). Headlining the show will be the holiday novelty musical act supreme, The Christmas Jugband, who will perform such seasonal treats as "Somebody Stole my Santa Clause Suit" and "Rhythm on the Roof." Also appearing will be jazz singer Elaine Lucia and the improvisational pulp-fiction storytelling troupe True Fiction Magazine. Sat/15, 10am. Freight & Salvage, 1111 Addison, Berk. $9-$14. 548.1761. (MY) Adrian West hits with a kid glove. Temescal Arts Folk rockers, "gueetar" lovers, fans of the local and unsigned, I have a venue for you. Somewhere between country and blues, rock and spirituals, the performers at this Friday's Singer/Songwriter Series each have their own brand of secular soul. The fourth concert in an ongoing series, three local acts will play at the lesser-known Temescal Arts Center, a woman's collective and yoga studio. It's not an unlikely place for a show, which inevitably feels like an intimate garage jam session, with audience and performer eye to eye. All the better to see that Kenni & Trisha Varley, Courtney C. Patty, and Montreal Weekend's Adrian West and Kwame Copeland are grateful for their song, and play like they're playing alone for themselves and some unnamed, benevolent force. But their very real presence shakes up any misconceptions one might have about the soft, hippier side of folk. It'll still hit you, just with a kid glove. Brian Rice's percussion for Montreal Weekend has all the praise and penitence of a Native American drumbeat and all the hip-swinging jubilance of a Calypsonian bongo. The acts range from, well, the range: harmonica howlin', feet stompin', and violin-turned-fiddle firin', to more melodic introspection. With a small space and strong, clean sound system, all those local, independent wavelengths have no escape but into your ear. Sat/15, 7:45pm. Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St., Oakl. $6-$10 donation. 531.6560. (EP) Chinese tea - experience the high. Tea 101 From the rolling hills of Darjeeling to the Frozen Summit Mountain of Taiwan, the world of tea is vast and exciting. While tea is the most popular beverage in the world, few people have knowledge of high-quality teas. There is a whole social and cultural world surrounding tea that ranges from hand-rolled Jasmine Pearls to the 40-plus years it takes to become a tea master. Therefore, when a tea aficionado comes to town, put the cellular phone on vibrate, meditate, and learn about the exquisite art of tea. Atom Con-stantino will introduce Chinese tea culture -- the cultivation, tasting, and spirituality. As a tour guide in China for the National Geographic Association and Smithsonian Institutes, Constantino works directly with tea growers. Come discover the joy of tea; it will bring the mind, body, and soul to new climaxes. Mon/17, 8-10pm. Ruby's Café, 6233 Hollis, Emeryville. $40. Register in advance. www.food-culture.com. (GS) Picks by Chris Baker (CB), Erica Pedersen (EP), Gabriel Serpa (GS), Alexi Simon (AS), Maxwell Yim (MY). [ East Bay | Metroactive | Archives ]