At
SFMOMA - New Work: Sylvie Blocher. This exhibition consists of two recent video pieces French artist Blocher has added to her Living Pictures series, Je et Nous and the SFMOMA-commissioned Men in Gold. In the latter, Blocher has a number of men who have made their fortune in Silicon Valley talk to camera about their success, money, and their legacy. The interviews are fascinating in a voyeuristic sort of way, since I have very little in my life that relates to theirs. The subjects of Je et Nous are much more sympathetic, a wide range of volunteers from a marginalized neighborhood of Paris that one-by-one face the camera in T-shirts bearing words they want to say, some of them quite unexpected: "I would not like to be white but I would like to have balls"; "Often, I feel different from what my entire family sees of me"; "I cannot afford to speak of beauty because I have no money". Blocher is not interested in creating fictions with her camera, but rather in capturing the truth one moment in time can offer.
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press images-
Searching their souls - on camera: Exploring Silicon Valley's definition of success
At
Lisa Dent -
Whitewash: New Works by
Bradley McCallum and Jacqueline Tarry. Artists McCallum and Terry work together in a number of different media. For their Cut project, they use video to turn the process of cutting each other's hair into a rivetingly sensual experience, while stark photographs document the end results. Whitewash is a series of paintings taken from black-and-white photographs of racially-charged moments both familiar and unfamiliar, where transparent painted screens overlying the canvases add another layer of perception. And the Endurance project uses video and photography again, this time to capture the lives of street kids. I was impressed with the strength and beauty of their work taken as a whole.
Things have been a wee bit stressful at work since I got back from Florida, so I jumped at the opportunity yesterday afternoon to participate in Rebar and Southern Exposure's
Paraformance [06]: The Nappening, especially since it was taking place just down the street from my office. Who wouldn't want to sneak out of work for a 20-minute nap? Rebar had taken over one of the many privately-owned public spaces that are scattered around San Francisco's downtown, this time a pleasantly sunlit atrium at 55 Second Street, and had set up a calming napping area. A concierge signed me in and pointed me to the coat check, where I took off my shoes and grabbed some earplugs. Mission Pie was on hand with milk and cookies for a naptime snack, and then I headed to a bank of modern lounges along one wall, sheltered from the rest of the room by a floor-to-ceiling scrim. Blankets were provided, as well as a soothing soundtrack of running water and chirping critters. At the end of my nap shift I was roused by a peaceful bell, and headed back to the Mission Pie stand for some coffee. Rebar claims that 1 in 3 Americans would nap at work, but I would wager that number is actually much higher.
Then last night I went to a rare screening on the Berkeley campus of the 1924 silent film
Three Weeks, starring Aileen Pringle as a Balkan queen who enchants an impressionable English fellow while they are both on holiday. Even though the film was shown without a musical accompaniment and many of the titles were damaged, it was worth seeing for the scene where the queen seduces young Paul on a tiger skin alone. The film is based on the novel by Elinor Glyn, she of It fame, who apparently approved of casting Pringle because she thought they shared a resemblance.
Science Friday:
120-year-old math problem solved |
BBC |
Scientific American |
Private rocket goes up, gets lost |
New York Times |
Daily Tech |
Tomorrow night, Saturday, March 24, KALX presents Chow Nasty, The Trucks, and Jenna Riot at Thee Parkside, 1600 17th Street in San Francisco. 9pm / 21+ / $8, with DJ a.rock spinning old school hip hop, funk and soul all night. You'll find me at the bar.
How fair is that tax cut?
Responsible Wealth designed
this calculator so that you can see how the Bush tax cuts affect you. The real eye-opener comes when you compare your tax savings to those who make twice or three times your salary and those who only make half your salary.