Engineer's Daughter

apophasis

Marc Chagall, mural decoration for the State Jewish Chamber Theater, Moscow, early 1920s

See also:

• Chagall and the Artists of the Russian Jewish Theater, 1919-1949 at the Contemporary Jewish Museum
• Excerpt from Balancing Acts: A Jewish Theater in the Soviet Union

past time

Grass Widow

Currently native to: San Francisco, CA

Recent Bay Area appearance: Stork Club, Oakland; Saturday, December 4, 2010

Next gig: The Knockout, San Francisco; Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Notes: This is the year Grass Widow came busting out of the underground, with an awesome record on Kill Rock Stars that hearkens back to that label's mid-90s glory days and press coverage everywhere from Pitchfork to Nylon.  Their brand of dreamy surf-inflected rock proved highly addictive from the get-go, receiving tons of play on local college radio (my own station included), and lucky for us in the Bay Area they play out a lot when they're not touring with bands like Wild Flag and Brilliant Colors.

Buy: Past Time (Kill Rock Stars) and their self-titled EP (Captured Tracks)

See also:

stop & go rides again

I think my first exposure to stop-motion animation must have been while watching Sesame Street as a kid, and ever since then it has been an art form I love a lot.  Knowing how much time and care goes into creating even a short sequence makes me really appreciate the dedication of its practitioners.  In 2008 artist Sarah Klein curated her first Stop & Go festival, showing stop-motion work by artists and filmmakers from the Bay Area and beyond.  And now she is back with Stop & Go Rides Again, which screened at Studio Quercus Saturday night and features short films by almost two dozen individuals.  Some tell relatively linear stories like Klein's own Housecoat, a piece that depicts a woman on a journey that grows more surreal as she travels along and ends with a fantastic visual pun that explains the title, while others such as 12 Ball by Ara Peterson or Streaming Gradient by Jen Stark are more abstract explorations of color and form.  Klein does not limit the artists to stop-motion either, with Andy Vogt's Gray Area utilizing time-lapse to gorgeous effect to show how light moved across one of his wooden sculptures while it was on display at Southern Exposure, and I was also quite taken with Shadow Plays, Five by Deborah Davidovits both for its use of shadow puppets and Bonnie "Prince" Billy's devastating song "No Bad News."  Really every film has something interesting going on, but the one I watched with my jaw hanging open was A Record of Life by Owen Gatley and Luke Jinks.  Microscopic creatures cavort with dinosaur bones and sea life and scientific notation, all set to a swelling soundtrack by Gatley himself.  However long it took them to make, it is so worth it.

See also:

• Stop & Go
• Studio Quercus
• Videos by Sarah Klein
• Ara Peterson's 12 Ball
• Jen Stark's Streaming Gradient
• Andy Vogt
• Shadow Plays, Five by Deborah Davidovits
• A Record of Life by Owen Gatley and Luke Jinks

show 178

playlist

hello now from everywhere

The 21 Grand benefit record sale is wrapping up even as I type this, but I walked away today with a small treasure trove of cassette tapes, films, posters, and a book of Veronica De Jesus's amazing memorial portraits (you might have seen them at Dog Eared Books in the Mission) printed and bound by Colter Jacobsen's Publication Studio.  There were also sweet treats and coffee, George Chen making grilled cheese sandwiches on a George Foreman grill, and warmth and good vibes inside away from the passing rain showers.  If you missed it today but still want to help 21 Grand make their rent before their lease is up there's a show at First Church of the Buzzard Friday featuring a host of genre-defying local musicians (Chen Santa Maria, Moe! Staiano, lots lots more).  It will be awesome.

See also:

• 21 Grand Benefit Show at First Church of the Buzzard
• Veronica De Jesus
• Publication Studio

public service announcement

I'm DJing tomorrow:
9am - noon PST, Sunday, December 5
KALX Berkeley 90.7fm

On the docket: old blues, new indie, and scratchy 7-inches I brought back from Argentina.

1% brain activity

All that time I was sick before my trip meant I was hitting the Netflix hard, as there's nothing that heals illness like curling up with the cat and watching part of a flick before passing out cold.  A quick catch-up:

• Family Law (Daniel Burman, 2006) - Streamed this because I was trying to develop a feel for Argentinian Spanish and got a gentle and funny drama about a young Buenos Aires lawyer in the process.  Great shots of the city too; watch for a cameo by Eduardo Catalano's amazing Floralis Generica sculpture.
• The Girl on the Bridge (Patrice Leconte, 1999) - Unconventionally romantic story of a knife thrower and the girl who changes his luck for the better.  Starring Vanessa Paradis and Daniel Auteuil the film features some sharp editing and luscious cinematography in black-and-white, and the sequences soundtracked by Marianne Faithfull's "Who Will Take My Dreams Away" are downright breathtaking.  I would expect nothing less from the director of The Hairdresser's Husband and Ridicule.
• I Am Love (Luca Guadagnino, 2009) - I'm not even sure I liked this film, but I couldn't stop thinking about it for a week after I saw it.  Really beautiful camerawork, background music by John Adams, and Tilda fucking Swinton create a heady cocktail indeed.  It also made me want to don immaculate Fendi dresses and stride around Milano like I own it a la Swinton.  That woman is pure luminous magic and carries the film all on her own.
• Zoolander (Ben Stiller, 2001) - And then sometimes I just need to laugh at Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson doing their "sexy" male model faces.  In truth any movie that features David Bowie even in the smallest of roles is going to be an easy win with me too.  See also: Christopher Nolan's The Prestige. 

holy mountain

It does me so much good to travel, but it is also good to come home again and spend a cozy evening at one of my favorite (and sadly soon-to-be-defunct) local venues, hanging out with friends, sipping a tallboy, watching a little Jodorowsky, having my cards read.  I'm going to miss 21 Grand like crazy when its lease is up at the end of January.  But in the meantime you can find me there again on Saturday for the second iteration of last month's epic record sale.  Guaranteed amazing music, books, food, and more from over a dozen vendors.  Come out and show some love.

See also:

• Oakland Art Gallery, Experimental Music Space, 21 Grand Set to Close
• 21 Grand Benefit Record Sale (Dec 4th) pt 2