It's only the dawg days of August, but already the new arts season is breathing down our neck. Over the next three weeks, B.A.R. arts writers will offer previews of what's in store for the fall. This week brings surveys of art gallery offerings and Bay Area theatre. The next two weeks' reports will preview films, music, television and museum shows.

Here's Out There's own little scoop: Opening in movie theaters this autumn will be The Yes Men Fix the World, in which social activists Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno pose as corporate bogeymen and infiltrate the media landscape. Arts writer Erin Blackwell will have an interview with Yes Man Bichlbaum, who is clever, courageous and gay! Watch these pages.

Japan tales

We've always been fascinated by modern Japan, so when a new complex dedicated to Japanese pop culture, New People, opened in Japantown last weekend with a festival of J-Pop, OT was there. The new building on Post St. houses four floors of arts and design, architecture, furniture, graphics and art. The Superfrog Gallery debuted with Japanese pop artist Yoshitaka Amano's Deva Loka USA, up through Oct. 25.

Premiering downstairs in the underground Viz Cinema was the first chapter of director Yukihiko Tsutsumi's 20th Century Boys, a sci-fi action trilogy based on Naoka Urasawa's popular manga series (with English subtitles). We found trendy Jikatabi footwear (construction worker boots) at Sou Sou, and marveled at the Tokyo street fashion at Black Peace Now. The ground-floor cafŽ serves, you guessed it, Blue Bottle Coffee.

Global fare

Writer Robert Julian reports the Old Globe Theater in San Diego is extending the world premiere of the new musical The First Wives Club through Aug. 30. The play features original music and lyrics by Motown hitmakers Holland , Dozier and Holland, and a book by Tony winner Rupert Holmes (The Mystery of Edwin Drood). Leading players include Sheryl Lee Ralph (the original Deena Jones from Dreamgirls), Karen Ziemba, and the talented Sam Harris, unfortunately relegated to playing a gay stereotype. Julian says the entire cast is great, but the anticipated move to Broadway will never happen without a major overhaul of the show. Pacing is sluggish, the book is verbose, and too many of the musical numbers fall flat. Yet the indefatigable Ralph looks and sings as great as she did 27 years ago in Dreamgirls.