Free and Five Party, Writers With Drinks, Gestapo Khazi, The Babies, and No Pants BART Ride

The Babies plays Hemlock Tavern this Saturday

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There is heavy metal and ethereal ambient noise, transsexual fashion shows and fancy vintage paper, Go-Gos and Babies. It's all here this weekend, in San Francisco, for less than the cost of taking a heterosexual date to Chick-fil-A. Here's our list of 10 activities this weekend under $10:

Entamoeba @ El Rio (Fri.)
Influenced by both Bjork and Cat Power, Entamoeba's calm, ambient sound is the perfect way start to a weekend. Just like yoga for the mind. The four-piece San Francisco band employs four loop stations along with more traditional instruments like cello, upright bass, and guitar. During live performances, Entamoeba builds and crescendos, wave-like, as its looping sound builds. The band plays El Rio with folky Devon McClive and Cash Pony. ($5, 6 p.m.)

Gestapo Khazi @ El Rincon (Fri.)
Gestapo Khazi plays old school, 1980s-revival L.A. surf punk. But this isn't some new-to-the-pit, nostalgia act -- it has chops. The band is made up of legit Long Beach punk stock: front-man John Roller is formerly of thrashy act Geisha Girls. The cheapie El Rincon show is rounded out by San Francisco all-stars such as Ty Segall, Grass Widow, and Rank/Xerox. ($6, 9 p.m.)

Space Vacation @ Hemlock Tavern (Fri.)
There's something about brother acts in heavy metal bands. It's such a frequent occurrence, there's got to be something psychological to it all. Maybe all that familial angst lends itself well to the genre. Perhaps brothers who grew up together, naturally play together. Whatever the reason, it usually means a good live show. San Francisco's Space Vacation, like many of its metal peers, consists of brothers -- Jay and Scott Shapiro. The band's filled out by pal Andrew Headrick. Space Vacation plays Hemlock Tavern with Gypsyhawk and Green & Wood ($6, 9:30 p.m.)

Free and Five party @ Public Works (Fri.)
For a cheap, danceable evening, check out the Free and Five Party at Public Works. Lemonade's Alex Pasternak will spin a birthday set supported by Ghosts on Tape, C.L.A.W.S, Rollie Fingers, U9Lift, Matt Haze vs Manitous. Even the drinks will be low-priced with $2 specialty shots until midnight. (Free-$5, 10 p.m.)

Original Plumbing Fashion Party @ Elbo Room (Fri.)
Tonight Amos Mac and Rocco Kayiatos, your local purveyors of fine female-to-male transsexual culture, unleash the fifth issue of their FTM lifestyle magazine on San Francisco. Original Plumbing, a rag truly devoted to the many-splendored dreamcoat of gender experiences within our human race, explores the realm of fashion through the transsexual lens. At the Original Plumbing Fashion Party, roll in on a red carpet, get your photo taken by Original Plumbing editor-in-chief Amos Mac, then move along to dance it out with DJs Rapid Fire (Stay Gold) and the excellent 100 Spokes (B.I.G. Crew). Plan to peak at midnight with a fashion show featuring t-shirts designed by Mr. Cuevas and lots of hot trans dudes. ($5, 10 p.m.) -- Tara Jepson

Vintage Paper Fair @ San Francisco County Fair Building (Sat. and Sun.)
Official recorded history is like a kitchen strainer. It catches the big things -- elections, natural disasters, wars -- but it casts so many of the minor happenings to the drain of destiny, forever lost to the public consciousness. Smaller bits of history are created every day, but they can be hard to preserve and even harder to find over time. Imagine, for example, what you could learn from a civilization's ephemera -- say, a decades-old menu from the Tadich Grill, a schedule from the Key System that once ran trains across the Bay Bridge, or a promotional poster for a boxing match between the likes of Jess Willard and Gunboat Smith. Today you can visit such a barrage of the past at the Vintage Paper Fair. About 50 sellers deal in postcards, photographs, posters, luggage labels, brochures, and stereoscopic cards, among other things. (Free, 10 a.m.) -- Keith Bowers

"Fabrications" @ Marx & Zavattero (Sat.)
Serena Cole is one of five California women artists who keep viewers off balance in "Fabrications." Each depicts a reality that is counterweighted with imagined states of being. Cole's work pits the fantasy created by the modern-day fashion industry against its reality. Libby Black tackles the same dichotomy with gouache and graphite. Melissa Manfull uses watercolor and ink to create architectural paradoxes, Jennifer Celio renders environmental degradation in graphite, and Taravat Talepasand uses the same medium to address the contradictory elements of her Iranian and American heritage. (Free, 5 p.m. opening reception) -- Keith Bowers

Writers With Drinks @ The Make-Out Room (Sat.)
At any given Writers with Drinks, crowds gather to sip cocktails while enjoying live readings by local literary luminaries. This time, it's someone you may not immediately associate with writing --  Jane Wiedlin. The pixie-ish co-founder and lead singer of seminal 1980s girl group The Go-Gos, Wiedlin also has written two musicals, a Lady Robotika comic, and is in the midst of her screenwriting-directing debut (a short film entitled The Pyrex Tales). Also reading this time around, Ethan Watters, author of Crazy Like Us: The Globalization of the American Psyche and novelist Blake Charlton. ($5-$10, 7:30 p.m.)

The Babies @ Hemlock Tavern (Sat.)
Hailing from the quintessential epicenter of the music world (yep, still New York), The Babies manage to create a compelling lo-fi fuzzy sound in a sea of sameness. That's likely due to its pedigree -- the band is made up of members of both Woods and Vivian Girls. The Babies play Hemlock Tavern with Grass Widow, White Fence, Bad Back. ($7, 8:30 p.m.)

No Pants! Subway Ride @ BART (Sun.)
Organized by Improv Everywhere, 46 cities in 22 countries will participate in this Sunday's annual No Pants! Subway Ride. All you need to do is show up, drop your pants and keep a straight face. Do it for revelry, for debauchery, for a gleeful feeling of near-nude freedom. But keep your panties on. In San Francisco, the plan goes as follows: meet at the Powell Street Station at 2:10 p.m. If the first train is full, wait for the next one. You will not be left behind, since there will be many of the fellow pantsless to follow. (Free, 2:10 p.m.)