Academic exchange is important for conference goers, but networking, making friends, exploring the host place, and having fun are not to be forgotten. As promised, we will give you exciting details about student events in this issue. Further, with great delight, we have invited two local students to tell you must-dos and must-not-misses in this famous city. We are grateful to our guest stars for their completeness and enthusiasm. Read along, and plan your journey!

Everybody's Talking about the Student Reception
Location: Swig, 561 Geary Street
Time: Friday, May 25, 9 p.m.-1:30 a.m.

The student reception is the biggest student event at ICA now. Since its start two years ago, it has received numerous positive feedback. For San Francisco's conference goers, we have selected a modern, stylish nightclub: the Swig, located only two blocks away from the conference center. It is a great place to network, relax, make friends, and show your dancing moves. The best part is that you'll get one or two free drink tickets (first 100 guests will get two), and a taste of SF-style hors d'oeuvres served free to our student members. We look forward to seeing you!

Driving: Head east on O'Farrell St. and turn right on Mason St.; go one block to Ellis St. and turn right; one block to Taylor St. and turn right again; then go two blocks on Taylor and turn left at Geary. Swig is about 2/3 of the way down the block.

Walking: Go west on O'Farrell St. to Taylor and turn right, then go one block on Taylor and turn left at Geary.

Student Lounge
Location: The North End of the East lounge outside Continental Ballroom 6 and 7 Time: Thursday to Saturday 9-5

Besides the student reception during which you may network, we set this area so that students can sit and talk during the conference. If you want to relax between sessions, talk to a friend, discuss research work, or simply want to network with other graduate students, this is an area just for you!

New Member and Graduate Student Orientation to ICA and the Conference Location: Hilton Hotel/ Continental Ballroom 5
Time: Fri, May 25, 9-10:15 am

This session is designed for newcomers to ICA, though all members interested in learning more about the organization are welcome. The session will include: (a) a general overview of ICA as an organization; (b) an overview of the conference; and (c) opportunities for participation in ICA. Questions and discussion are encouraged throughout the session. Each year we receive positive feedback about this session; even some acquainted conference goers claimed that they regretted not attending such an orientation earlier.

Do Not Leave San Francisco with Regret
by Seeta Pena Gangadharan And John Kim, Stanford University

"San Francisco is a city of startling events." --Mark Twain (1865)

Whether a graduate student or an adventurer, travel to San Francisco can be nothing less than a treat…and sometimes a surprise. This relatively small American city which spans seven by seven miles and holds a population of roughly 750,000 charms all kinds of travelers. The city hosts the one of the country's largest and oldest Chinatowns, is the site of the countercultural "Summer of Love" (1967), prides itself on a growing Latino community and serves as home to the predominantly gay Castro District. The city is also well-known for its distinctive Victorian architecture; its role in pioneering West Coast jazz and cultivating the Beat Generation writers; and, more recently, its vibrant independent and experimental film scene

For those of you wishing to explore the city off the beaten path, here are a few tips. While you'll get far by trolling the local blogs and peer recommendation sites like Yelp.com, Laughing Squid, Flavorpill SF, SFist and even Craigslist or by listening to local radio such as KUSF (90.3), KPOO (89.5), KQED (88.5) or WestAdd Radio (93.7), the notes below give you personal insight into what you might want to check out between conference events. There are longer day trips worth taking - for example to the Marin Headlands or Point Reyes - or characteristically touristic things to do - such as visiting Alcatraz (see nps.gov/Alcatraz) - we focus, however, on the less-known treasures of San Francisco.

First off, you won't want to miss one of SF's most entertaining outdoor street festivals: Carnaval (http://www.carnavalsf.com/). Held in the Mission District, this event starts on May 26th and culminates with a grand street parade on the 27th. Local musicians, artists and performers come from all over the Bay Area to participate, and the parade draws one of the largest street crowds to San Francisco. Make sure to take public transportation, though, as the Mission will be teeming with people. The subway, otherwise known as the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), is your best choice. Check 511.org to plan your trip.

There is another, smaller outdoor event, Capsule (http://www.capsulesf.com/), which takes place in Hayes Valley on the 27th. This festival will feature innovative, independent designers from the Bay Area and beyond. The event is a good excuse to visit the neighborhood and its quaint, cosmopolitan, almost European feel. You can shop at a range of boutiques, dine at a variety of cafes and restaurants here, or just languor on the newly built Octavia promenade. The famous "Painted Ladies"  (Victorian houses) are located in the neighborhood's Alamo Square as well. Hayes Valley is adjacent to the Civic Center/Tenderloin area and can be reached in a 10- to 15-minute walk from the Hilton Hotel.

You can also indulge in one of the many well-curated walking tours of Hayes Valley or virtually any neighborhood. Walking tours are often listed in the San Francisco newspapers (weekly or daily), such as the SF Examiner or the San Francisco Bay Guardian. The San Francisco Historical Society is organizing a tour of the Civic Center area on May 26th, for example (see http://www.sfhistory.org/index.php?pageid=21). San Francisco City Guides (http://www.sfcityguides.org/schedules_may.html) offers tours of Japantown, the Tenderloin, and landmark Victorians in Alamo Square. All of these tours are for free!

Lastly, we've put together a useful web guide (http://www.stanford.edu/~johnwkim/ica/) to help you navigate the endless things to do and see around San Francisco. On it, you'll find lists of places of interest broken down into six categories: Restaurants, Bars/nightclubs, Tourism/shopping, Cafe/internet, Work-related, and Theme events. In order to make the guide manageable, we've restricted the information on it mostly to things within walking distance of the Hilton Hotel. There's an interactive Google map that'll help you locate and find directions to where ever you want to go. For those of you who want a print version of the guide, you can also download all the information as a PDF and take it along.

If you're seeking to learn about San Francisco's underground and more mainstream arts scene, including public art works, here are a few places also worth visiting:

• Clarion Alley - Tiny alley with well-known mural/graffiti art in the Mission District.
• Galería de la Raza - The place to immerse yourself in Chicano art, thought and activism.
• Galleries of Downtown Geary - You'll find a mix of galleries here, many of them featuring well-established artists as well as artists on their way to Los Angeles, New York, London or Basel.
• Jack Hanley Gallery - Undeniably Mission-esque, this gallery is home to up-and-coming and famous SF-artists.
• Luggage Store - A place for young emerging artists, the Luggage Store makes the visit to the gritty Market St. area worth it.
• New Langton Arts - Experimental and innovative contemporary art and performance.
• SF Photo Center @ Harvey Milk Recreational Arts Building - An unassuming place for a photography gallery. Curation has a politicized undercurrent but without pretense.
• The Lab - An artist-run collective, The Lab has incubated the under and overground arts scene in SF since the Sixties.

For a bit of book-diving and writerly affairs, you can try:

• 826 Valencia - Everything having to do with pirates and anything written by Dave Eggers. Also the site of a writing workshop and the occasional in-store performances by groups like the Mekons. Voted by David Byrne as a favorite place in SF.
• A Clean Well-Lighted Place for Books - Named after the Hemingway short story, this was and continues to be an outpouring of Beat-inspred literature and other literary arts titles.
• Adobe Books - Where you can see Chris Johannson art and listen to indie rockers Trackstar in one go, Adobe boasts of many a fine used books on philosophy and humanities section. They also hosts great block parties and are kept under tight surveillance by a brilliant nomad called The Pigeon Man.
• Bound Together Books ('The Anarchist Bookstore') - The best place in the city to get any anarchist inspired literature.
• City Lights Bookstore - Co-founded by beat poet, Lawrence Ferlinghetti in 1953, and made famous for its controversial publication of Allen Ginsberg's Howl & Other Poems.
• Green Apple Books - The most reliable place to find Rock My Religion by Dan Grahm and Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick, amongst other obscure collectibles.
• Modern Times Bookstore - Independent publishers with a critical bent on art, culture and politics are stacked high at this highly politicized spot.

For music, you may want to check out:

• Amoeba Music - Still alive and kicking despite the increase digitally distributed music, Amoeba is a goldmine for music-lovers. The store stocks all genres and sells both used and new cds and vinyl.
• Aquarius Records - The oldest independent record store in San Francisco, located in the Mission. Get lost in a hand-picked selection of alternative music, and let yourself discover sounds you wouldn't normally choose.
• Recombinant Media Labs - A new-ish, impressive performance space in SOMA that features a state-of-the-art immersive theater. Many avant-garde electronic music and video artists, such as Morton Subotnik and Maryanne Amacher, have performed here.
• Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church - Formerly of the Haight-Ashbury area, the Church found refuge on Gough St. Attending church is like walking into a free jam session.
• Transbay Creative Music Calendar - (http://transbaycalendar.org/) An extensive listing of experimental new music.

For film and video performances, you can try:

• Artists' Television Access - Home to the celluloid surgeon Craig Baldwin (creator of Sonic Outlaws and Spectres of the Spectrum), this experimental venue regularly screens short film and video.
• Castro Theater - Great art film house done in a 1920s-style cinema. Other main attraction is the live organist, Dave Hegarty.
• Ninth Street Independent Film Center - New home to Film Arts Foundation, Frameline, Center for Asian American Media, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, Canyon Cinema, San Francisco Cinematheque, Teaching Intermedia Literacy Tools (TILT), National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC).
• Roxie Theater - Staple theater for indie film and video.
• Yerba Buena Center for the Arts - In addition to showcasing both local and international artists working in all types of media, this contemporary arts museum has an impressive film program.

Offbeat historical landmarks:

• Museum of Conceptual Art - Established by sound artist Tom Marrioni, the Museum of Conceptual Art (1970-1984) was a specialized museum for sculpture/action (performance) and site-specific works. The building is now shadowed by the St. Regis, a luxury apartment/hotel high-rise, however you can check it out when visiting the SF MOMA, which is on 3rd Street near Mission.
• Philo Farnsworth's Green Street Lab - Where television was invented. Located at 202 Green Street.
• San Francisco Tape Music Center - Seminal electronic music composers Pauline Oliveiros and Morton Subotnik established the legendary San Francisco Tape Music Center in 1960. First located on Jones Street, the center moved to 321 Divisadero Street. This site was also the temporary headquarters of KPFA, during an internal battle at the Berkeley-based station, as well as the location of the Ann Halprin Dance Studio.

Outdoor activities, parks, beaches, and wildlife:

• Dolores Park - If it's a sunny, warm day, head to one of the most popular urban 'beaches' in San Francisco and see San Franciscans in various states of undress.
• Golden Gate Park - Not to be missed. A gigantic beautiful park with many museums and gardens, including the Japanese Tea Garden, De Young Art Museum, and Flower Conservatory.
• Land's End - The most western point of San Francisco. A glorious view of the Marin headlands and the Golden Gate Bridge. From here you can visit the Legion of Honor and Baker Beach, one of the best beaches in San Francisco.
• Marin Headlands - If you're planning a trip over the Golden Gate Bridge, try extending it to visit the Headlands. There you'll find stretches of rocky beach, an acclaimed arts center, numerous hiking and biking trails, a picturesque lighthouse, and derelict military bunkers and batteries reminiscent of earthwork sculpture.
• Telegraph Hill - Walk from the base of the hill up through windy, lush and semi-tropical slopes to reach Coit Tower where you can view socialist realist murals of the 1930s. If you're lucky, you'll see (and hear) the famous green parrots too.

For those of you who want to dance:

• Club Six - A bit run-down in comparison to clubs like DNA Lounge and Mezzanine, but this place gets down on the weekends. Recommended for those who really like to dance.
• DNA Lounge - A popular spot for deep house and hip-hop. Runs a monthly mashup night, called Bootie. Owned by celebrated hacker, Jamie Zawinski.
• Mezzanine - Close to the Hilton. This club/music venue has been brining in some of the best new acts recently. Tends to get a little crowded over the weekends, but is a great space. The music tends to be eclectic, so check their website before going.
• Mighty - A little out of the way from the Hilton, but a great spot for dancing. The DJs, acts and crowd tend to be a little more alternative.
• Ruby Skye - For the swanky and well dressed, this spot attracts international deejays and musicians. One of San Francisco's finest nightclubs.

If all else fails, EAT!

San Francisco is one of the most interesting and diverse culinary cities in the country. From organic slow food to some of the top pan-Asian restaurants to traditional foods, representing the many ethnic communities that populate the Bay Area, we couldn't begin to do justice here to the variety of restaurants from which there is to choose. For a more extensive list of recommended restaurants, please use our guide (described above), but here are just a few recommendations:

• Chez Panisse - (expensive) No list of Bay Area restaurants is complete without mention of Alice Water's groundbreaking creation. The birthplace of Californian cuisine. Worth the trek to Berkeley.
• Ferry Building - (from moderate to expensive) The Ferry Building is an upscale food court with a diverse array of local foods from which to choose: From oysters to artisanal cheeses and French Provencal cuisine. Best to go for lunch, as many of the stores are not open for dinner.
• Mangosteen - (inexpensive) Close to the Hilton. Good quality Thai and Vietnamese food at low prices.
• Slanted Door - (expensive) Some of the best pan-Asian food in the country. Emphasis is on colonial Vietnamese cuisine.

Who are Our Guest Stars?
Seeta Peña Gangadharan is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication at Stanford University. Her research concerns the role of the public in communications policymaking in the United States. Recent work includes "Public matters in communications rulemaking: An examination of public involvement in the Third Biennial Review of Broadcast Ownership Rules." John Kim is a graduate student at Stanford University and a dissertation fellow in the department of Media Studies at the University of San Francisco. He is currently completing his dissertation entitled, "Culture's Exception from Free Trade: A study of media's autonomy in World Trade Organization negotiations."

Call for Participation
We look forward to seeing you at San Francisco. Please join us in the student reception. The student lounge will run 9-5 from Thursday to Saturday. We are eager to meet and talk with you. Let us know your comments in person, or via email: qwang@villanova.edu, and rebecca@hains.net.