Culture Lust Weekend: Restaurant Week, Sonic Diasporas and 'That's What She Said'

FOOD

Put your eating hats on for another cycle of San Diego’s ever popular Restaurant Week. In case you just moved here (or in case you are just emerging out of your cultural cave), SDRW is a week long showcase (and celebration!) of food. Over 160 San Diego’s restaurants are participating, so whether your budget allows for $20, $30 or $40 you are sure to find a new favorite date night frequent (or enjoy an old favorite for less!). Go here for the list of participating restaurants.

MUSIC

With the recently released Coachella lineup still fresh in our minds, it’s no surprise that we’re having some preemptive music festival cravings. But we have a different music festival happening right here in San Diego, one that celebrates the pioneering new music UCSD is known for. Sonic Diasporas will feature UCSD alumni - composers, performers, computer musicians, scholars, and improvisers - sharing ideas and performance in the new Conrad Prebys Concert Hall on the campus of UCSD.

Hailing from Stillwater, New Jersey, Railroad Earth is the jam band we didn’t know we were missing. After only nine local gigs, the six member band debuted at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival - ten years later, they are still touting their cult following and they’re coming to Belly Up. Named after a Kerouac short story, it’s no surprise that this bluegrass rock band is known for their poignant lyrics and extemporaneous deliveries.

Treat your ears to the relaxing evening they deserve at a concert of Romanian music by Yale Strom. This Saturday Mingei International Museum is hosting From the Carpathians to the Black Sea, so head over to Balboa park and sail away to a musical land far away.

ART

"That’s What She Said" is an engaging, provocative all-girl art exhibition at Subtext. It’s fashion, it’s youth, it’s gender but most of all it’s a group of women artists sharing their work.

The Italian Cultural Center is back in action! Offering a film class alongside two upcoming movies, the ICC has made it easier than ever to add a little Italian culture to our Little Italy frequents. Tonight greed and love get mixed with chocolate in "Lezioni di cioccolato" (The Chocolate Lessons) at the Museum of Photographic Arts, and the film class starts on the 24th.

Three new solo shows are opening this Sunday at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Jennifer Steinkamp has created a digital video animation entitled "Madame Curie," Raul Cordero has combined fashion, architecture, art history, music and more in his "Hendrickje" and Joan Jonas is doing what she does best by combining video installations and performance art in "The Shape, the Scent, the Feel of Things."

Before basketball fans everywhere begin drooling over March Madness, see a different side of the B-Ball court this Friday at Joseph Bellows Gallery. Charles Johnstone and his Thirty-Four Basketball Courts aren’t action shots. There is no sweat, no swearing and no swishes, just the court - and more importantly, the community around it. The exhibition opening is tomorrow night and will be on view until February 25th.

THEATER

He avoids zombies by night and attempts to live the quintessential American Dream by day. How does he endure the stress of both the undead and a dead end job? Jeffrey Demunn is known for his role in the new hit TV show “The Walking Dead” but you can currently find him on stage at The Old Globe playing Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s masterpiece, "Death of a Salesman". Previews start this Saturday.