No need to remind anyone who Molly Ringwald is -- teenagers (and the rest of us) are still watching those movies, and it's fair to assume they will for another generation or two, at a minimum. But it might come as a surprise to some who adore her 1980s work with John Hughes that she has been a lifelong singer as well as an actress. The daughter of a professional jazz musician, Ringwald has now come full-circle, returning to her first experiences in the creative arts with the release of Except Sometimes from Concord Records, a lush, polished album of standards. She will appear at Yoshi's SF on Tuesday, performing as part of a CD release party. Ahead of the show, Ringwald spoke to us by phone about her early experiences with music and the evolution of her multifaceted career.

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Flickr/Brandon Shigeta

2 Chainz: Upstager.

Atlanta rapper 2 Chainz (aka Tauheed Epps, 35) is no one's sidekick. He sold out his first night as a solo artist at The Warfield on Dec. 15 (tickets are still available for the Dec. 16 show) and has a Gold-certified single ("No Lie" featuring Drake) and a Grammy nomination (Best Rap Album for Based on a T.R.U. Story).

But put 2 Chainz on someone else's song and he's likely to steal the show. He started upstaging people back in the mid-Aughts, when he was known as Tity Boi, and he's still at it today. Here are his Top 10 best song-stealing guest verses:

See Also:
* T.I. Previews His New Album Trouble Man in San Francisco
* Top Five Musician-Based Video Games You Can Play In Your Browser Right Now

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Considerations of more a more noble nature aside, it may be that this coming weekend, you'll simply be looking for a little culture in the wake of Halloween (or post-World Series) debauchery. Whatever the case, you'll find it at Davies Symphony Hall on Saturday, where the San Francisco Symphony will host its fifth annual Dia de los Muertos Community Concert.

Yeah, sure, it's "family friendly." Yeah, sure, it takes place during the daytime. But unlike other celebrations of this morbidly joyous Mexican/Catholic holiday, the Symphony offers a concert program of real breadth, featuring collaborations with performing arts institutions from across the Bay Area.

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Courtesy of Zion I.

Zion I's Zumbi: Only human.

In the video for "Human Being," the criminally catchy lead single off of Zion I's new ShadowBoxing album (which dropped October 2), MC Zumbi and producer AmpLive kick it on a stoop and then throw a warehouse party. For those who have followed the Oakland duo since its inception and acceptance in the party scene more than a dozen years ago, it's a reassuring vision of a group doing what it does best.

See Also:
- Watch: Zion I and the Grouch Become One with Nature in "Rockit Man" Video

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Megan Bre Camp/Collectors Weekly

Kim Gordon at Mercy Vintage Now

Ladies: Have you ever wanted to own a piece of clothing formerly worn by Sonic Youth bassist, style queen, and art-punk figurehead Kim Gordon?

Here's your chance: For the week or so, Mercy Vintage Now, a boutique on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, will be selling 146 pieces of designer and vintage clothing owned and worn by Gordon herself. There's the teal dress she wore in the 1996 video for "Incinerate." There's the purple and orange dress Gordon wore onstage at ArthurFest in 2005. There's a black leather trench jacket she may have worn in the "Kool Thing" video -- or maybe not. And there are many other items of designer and vintage clothing Gordon wants to get rid of.

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Prince and Michael Experience: Soul on wheels.

DJs Dave Paul and Jeff Harris have taken their S.F.-based Prince and Michael Experience on the road for the past few years, traveling to cities such as New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. But now they're literally giving their party some wheels. They've chartered a party bus to tour the streets of San Francisco on July 27 from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. The ride will begin and end at Madrone Art Bar, home of the club night. Naturally, Paul and Harris will spin Prince and Michael Jackson tunes all night, including rarities and custom-made remixes.

Expect the usual on-board trappings -- including lasers, a smoke machine, two giant screens and a stripper pole -- but don't expect the usual captive hell that most of us think of when it comes to a party bus.

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Flickr/Fabio Venni

The next two weekends in San Francisco feature parties in tribute to the late James Brown, who would have turned 79 on May 3. The entertainer had a long history performing for multiple generations in the Bay Area, perhaps most frequently at San Carlos' legendary (and now defunct) Circle Star Center, and his enduring legacy has continued to transcend age groups and genre boundaries.

Rapper Lyrics Born makes a surprising and rare appearance behind the DJ decks to lead a JB birthday celebration on May 5 at Mighty. The event, which begins at 10 p.m., also features DJs Motion Potion, DJ Mancub, and the team of Gordo Cabeza & Timoteo Gigante; admission is $10 at the door. This is a particularly sentimental occasion for organizer Sunset Promotions, which was the last local company to book Brown before his passing.

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slaughterbythewater.com

Witchaven headlines MetClub's 30-year celebration.

If you aren't a member of Metallica's fan club and didn't succumb to a scalper, chances are that you aren't going to catch the Bay Area metal titans' 30th Anniversary concerts at the Fillmore this week. But even if you can't make those, you can still soak up the headbanging spirit at a couple smaller Metallica-related shows in S.F. Here's a quick guide to the festivities.

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Juan Data

DJ Platurn.

Last week, we reported on Mighty's successful efforts to mobilize its patrons to oppose the threat of all its nearby parking spaces becoming tow-away at night. Now, the club has announced a free party on Dec. 2 to thank people for their support -- about 800 letters that ultimately led the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to withdraw its proposal to eliminate the parking spaces.

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In the days when beer was 5 cents: the Saloon circa 1870, with the elder Wagner in the center.

Sex sells, but in the case of S.F.'s oldest bar, sex also saves -- buildings, that is.

The way owner Myron Mu tells it, the Saloon -- a North Beach watering hole established in 1861 -- was a bar on the first floor of the building, but its single rooms on the second and third floors operated as a small whorehouse that counted the city's firemen among its frequent customers.

And as the building stood burning in the fiery aftermath of the 1906 earthquake, those firemen kept their priorities straight and "made a point of coming and saving their whorehouse" from the flames, Mu says.

He's not sure it's even a true story, but the spirit underlying the bar's 150-year history has kept the Saloon locked in the tour guides of the city and in the hearts of its regulars, most of whom come to hear the live bands that shred heavy blues every night of the week.

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