Engineer's Daughter

public service announcement

I'm DJing tonight!
Tuesday night/Wednesday morning:
Matokie
1-3:30am PST, Wednesday November 1
KALX Berkeley 90.7fm
Tune me in or stream me live if you happen to be coming in late from any Samhain festivities...PS Even though the on-air portion of the fundraiser is officially over, if you missed out you can still donate on the site.  We have plenty of can cozies, bumper stickers, tote bags, and angry squirrel tees!

necessary objects

While I was out shopping at lunch today I saw a hawk swoop down and grab a mouse, right in the middle of the damn city.  It made me feel ever so much better about life in general.  So here are some more spring accessories that are really just pure ridiculous eye candy.  The tricolor leather bag from Roger Vivier reminds me of a Mondrian painting, and I'd dare anyone to give me any shit if I was wearing Pierre Hardy's black-and-white leather lace-up platform heel.

Accessory Report

bunyanesque

An odd weekend, most of it called off due to illness.  I'm just grateful that I briefly felt well enough to do the things most important to me (KALX fundraising + Santa Cruz picnic + last Northminster service ever), but otherwise I skipped the shows I had tickets for and the art openings I wanted to see.  And thank goodness for my amazingly beautiful and talented and creative and loving friends, but I confess I'm still feeling pretty sick and down in the dumps.  I feel like the one made of lead compared to everyone else's gold and silver.

The scariest thing this Halloween:
Bill Amend's Sunday Foxtrot drops knowledge about problems with our electoral system, but that's not the scariest thing.

Whoever embraces a woman is Adam.  The woman is Eve.
Everything happens for the first time.
I saw something white in the sky.  They tell me it is the moon, but
What can I do with a word and a mythology.
Trees frighten me a little.  They are so beautiful.
The calm animals come closer so that I may tell them their
Names
The books in the library have no letters.  They spring forth when I
Open them.
Leafing through the atlas I project the shape of Sumatra
Whoever lights a match in the dark is inventing fire.
Inside the mirror an Other waits in ambush.
Whoever looks at the ocean sees England.
Whoever utters a line of Lillencron has entered into battle.
I have dreamed Carthage and the legions that destroyed
Carthage.
I have dreamed the sword and the scale
Praised be the love wherein there is no possessor and no
Possessed, but both surrender.
Praised be the nightmare, which reveals to us that we (have?) the power
To create hell
Whoever goes down to a river goes down to the Ganges.
Whoever looks at an hourglass sees the dissolution of an empire.
Whoever plays with a dagger foretells the death of Caesar.
Whoever dreams is a very human being.
In the desert I saw the young Sphinx, which has just been
Sculpted.
There is nothing else so ancient under the sun.
Everything happens for the first time, but in a way that is eternal.
Whoever reads my poems is inventing them.
--Jorge Luis Borges: from Selected Poems, translated by Stephen Kessler, Argentina, 1981

roscian

Charged_space

At SFMOMA - Charged Space: Jane and Louise Wilson/Fikret Atay.  Work was still very very bad this week, but all the more reason to sneak out for a quick video art fix.  And then of course I'm home sick today, but that's another story.  The Jane and Louise Wilson piece Stasi City documents their exploration of the abandoned headquarters of the East German secret police, and I kept getting chills as they moved through old interrogation rooms where the cheerful patterns on the wallpaper and curtains stood in stark contrast to the scenes you can imagine having taken place there.  To view the Wilsons' work you stand in the center of the room and try to keep up with the quadrupled images taking place on either side of you, itself a slightly dislocating experience.  I have been following the Wilsons since I first saw their work in a Turner prize exhibition many years ago, but I am less familiar with Fikret Atay, the other artist in this exhibition.  In his piece Tinica a young man carefully sets up a "drum set" constructed out of empty cooking oil tins on a hill overlooking a city, and proceeds to give one hell of a solo.  As in the Wilsons' video the location is not explicitly stated, but if you read the description you learn that the city is Atay's hometown, Batman, a Kurdish city filled with political turmoil near the border between Turkey and Iraq.  Charged space indeed.

• press images

Le Trou - Criterion Collection

Suspense French style + shades of noir + prison break! = Heidi love.

Profiles in Congressional courage:
From Working Assets, Laughing Liberally and Downtown Community Television: George W. Bush (or at least, a reasonable facsimile thereof) gives you Profile #3: Randall Cunningham. Guest appearance by Charles Rangel!

wanted!

A wee wish list of accessories from the spring shows.  Alternately titled A Girl Can Dream:

• Nicolas Ghesquière's goggles for Balenciaga
• Raf Simons' metallic clutch for Jil Sander
• Christopher Bailey's silver sandals for Burberry Prorsum

Clearly I'm currently leaning toward the cyber end of the trend spectrum.

Vogue's Top Accessories: Spring 2007 Ready-To-Wear

shtick

Sunshine1

I think calling the family in Little Miss Sunshine "dysfunctional" does them a great disservice.  Complete emotional honesty without fear of anger being too strong for relationships to hold, backed up by intense love and loyalty?  Sounds pretty damn functional to me.  I loved this movie to bits and pieces, and laughed my ass off besides.  First Wednesday night back at the Parkway after the Project Runway hiatus, and what a glorious return.  Next week: Casablanca at the new Cerrito?

Protect the ballot on Nov. 7!
Watch this PSA from Video the Vote and learn how you can help document voter supression and protect democracy.

in the face of history

Ewing372

Highlights from the Barbican exhibition aiming to "map out a century of European experience" through photography.

Adrian Searle's exhibition review

Blake Morrison on history told with photographs

making the cut

More CFDA / Vogue finalists...

09m

Devi Kroell is known for designing bags popular with Hollywood and boots popular with Sienna Miller.  So while I like her crystal-embellished evening bags, otherwise she's not really my style.  For instance, among her new items: "extravagantly dyed fur vests."  Ick.  I dream of the day when luxury is not equated with skins and furs.

Devi Kroell: 2006 CFDA / Vogue finalist

05m

Doo-Ri Chung, on the other hand, I'm very happy to see back on the list this year, especially after a fire destroyed her parents' New Jersey dry cleaning business that doubled as her workshop for her line Doo.Ri.  She's living and working in Manhattan now, and continuing to make witty clothes that make me drool.  Her response to the question about the worst fashion faux pas: "I think that faux pas are necessary, for humor's sake."  That's a fashion philosophy I can get behind for sure.

Doo.Ri: 2006 CFDA / Vogue finalist

meat loaf, bat out of hell iii

Bat Out Of Hell III

Meat Loaf

from the Guardian:

The singer the New York Times calls Mr Loaf has released eight studio albums, not counting this one, which will surprise those who thought there had been only two - Bat Out of Hell I and II. So completely has the Bat series dominated the big man's career, it's hard to name anything else he has done - a cameo as a bus driver in the Spice Girls film comes to mind - but those other six albums (including the most recent, Couldn't Have Said it Better in 2002, and Welcome to the Neighbourhood in 1995) are stubbornly unmemorable. It's not the fault of the albums themselves, but of the looming Bat shadow, which effectively cancels out everything else.

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/reviews/story/0,,1926073,00.html

schlub

Damienjurado-Parasite

Damien Jurado

Friday night, Swedish Hall:

• Damien Jurado

As brooding singer/songwriters go, you can't do much better than Damien Jurado.  He performed at the Swedish accompanied by cellist Jenna Conrad and multi-instrumentalist Eric Fisher.  Jurado declared that he's no longer interested in playing by himself, and that Jenna and Eric make him feel much more comfortable onstage: "They're like a warm blanket."  I have to say that a little bit of cello and drums is a gorgeous addition to Jurado's already-beautiful music, but he closed with a couple solo tunes that still had me sitting in the back of the hall with silent tears running down my cheeks.

1006_004

After an early morning fundraiser shift at KALX Saturday morning, and fortified by fried-eggs-and-bacon-on-a-baguette from Meal Ticket, I made my way over to Fort Mason for the fourth annual Studio Nocturne, part of Open Studios weekend 3.  The Nocturnes are a group of photographers who specialize in taking pictures at night, and I was highly impressed with the quality of work on display.  I was especially drawn to Tim Baskerville's black-and-whites of old streetcars and his full-moon photography of Death Valley, and when he mentioned that he's taking a group out to Furnace Creek, Zabriskie Point, and Rhyolite in just a few weeks I almost signed up on the spot.  But a weekend in Death Valley two weeks before Africa isn't really practical I suppose.

The Best American Comics 2006 (Best American (TM))

from the Booksmith:

"Best American Comics 2006 - the inaugural volume in the familiar 'Best American' series - collects thought-provoking, evocative stories culled from graphic novels, pamphlet comics, newspapers, magazines, mini-comics, and the web."

Editors Anne Moore and Harvey Pekar were on hand at the All Saint Church Saturday night as well as local contributors Justin Hall, John Porcellino, and Esther Pearl Watson.  Each of the writer/artists did a quick slideshow presentation showing some of their work and Moore and Pekar talked about what went into getting the book put together.  I especially loved Porcellino's tale of performing mosquito abatement inside a huge chemical plant.  Chris Ware will be editing next year's collection...I can't wait!

Yo_la_tengo_beanbag

Yo La Tengo

Saturday night, the Fillmore:

• Yo La Tengo
• WHY?

I was so happy Tammy and Todd found me before the show got started, because not only were they able to share the joy of WHY?'s performance with me (imagine They Might Be Giants crossed with Neutral Milk Hotel with some seriously rockin' xylophone thrown in for good measure) but their mere presence kept me awake if not entirely alert during some of Yo La Tengo's more drawn-out reflective/stoner musical sequences.  The show was outstanding, and Yo La played a wide range of material from their oeuvre and of course a ton of covers, including Bob Dylan and Lou Reed.  After three encores the audience finally let them leave the stage and go to bed.

Seven Days at Minimum Wage:
Every day this week join host Roseanne Barr for a new segment of interviews about life at minimum wage.

LFND04

Happy God: Ganesh enthroned.  From the 12th cen. Pala period, India.