FILE: A hilly street in San Francisco.

Excuse Fogcutter’s absence last week; like half of the city, culture reporter Timothy Karoff was recovering from Burning Man. But fear not, SFGATE’s weekly column celebrating cultural highlights in the city has returned with a stellar lineup of event recaps that includes literature, lowriders and “Clueless.” Plus, one of our editors even took their mom to a musical (adorable, we know).

Read on for all of the highlights, and sign up for our Fogcutter newsletter to receive all of SFGATE’s best culture stories in your inbox.

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Two weeks ago, 100 literary-minded San Franciscans gathered in a stark all-white room in the Mission to hear about … whatever. 

Issue No. 2 of the San Francisco Review of Whatever.

It was the release party of the second issue of the San Francisco Review of Whatever, a literary magazine with an anything-goes ethos, aiming to showcase both the ephemeral and the eternal elements of life in San Francisco. Edited by Elisabeth Nicula, the pieces ranged from a philosophical treatise on skateboarding in San Francisco (“I Feel Safe in San Francisco,” Rod Roland) to an account of breast milk pumping at a tech conference (“Mama Mammalian,” Sophia Wang). A highlight from the magazine that went unread during the session was a scene report from BFF.FM’s Amanda Guest on the sense of unity currently coursing through the SF music scene. And for good measure, there’s a delicious (and actually achievable-sounding) recipe for a tomato salad with balsamic pearls. 

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Nicula picked readers at random from the roster of contributors, so that no author read their own work. The playful round robin element helped lighten the mood on the more high-brow pieces, and an icy tub of Modelos didn’t hurt either.  — Dan Gentile, SFGATE senior culture editor

When Apple Cinemas reopened the long-shuttered movie palace on SF’s Van Ness Avenue earlier this summer, it got me thinking that I had yet to check out Cinelounge, which replaced the 60-year-old Tiburon Playhouse in........

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