Engineer's Daughter

gird

Emeryville.  September 10, 2006.

go see this

Elise Ferguson

Through May 3 - Elise Ferguson: Striped Knot at Romer Young Gallery.  Ferguson's solo show at Romer Young is a revelation of color and geometry as she deliberately plays with space and perception in her two-dimensional pieces.  The fact that the Brooklyn-based artist works with pigmented plaster on MDF panels gives her art an added layer of tactility that almost brings it off the wall and into the realm of sculpture as she tests the limits of her materials.  Visually Ferguson's work is just highly pleasing too, as the experience of looking at it is similar to letting your eye travel the brain-bending contours of a Möbius strip.

 

Sarah Sze

Through May 4 - Blurring the Line at 70 South Park.  This solid group show is the third annual collaboration between the Mills College Museum Studies Workshop and SF art collectors Lenore Pereira and Rich Niles.  Pereira and Niles are notable for their commitment to the work of contemporary women artists, and their collection runs so deep that I don't remember ever seeing a repeat in these Mills-organized shows.  This year the concept of drawing serves as a starting point for the exhibition, but the idea expands outwards into sculpture, architecture, fabric arts, even stop-motion animation.  I loved the pairing of Pae White's and Nina Katchadourian's spider webs just below Sarah Sze's precariously-perched bird's nest, and there are similarly thoughtful and clever juxtapositions throughout the show.

matokie mix 04.27.14

mix

the suit

Through May 18 - The Suit at A.C.T.  The legendary Peter Brook directs this beautiful, stripped-down adaptation of a story by South African writer Can Themba, and the talented cast of three actors and three musicians literally make it sing.  Set as it is in 1950s Sophiatown, South Africa, the play has its fair share of heartbreak and horror (including one of the most affecting renditions of "Strange Fruit" I've ever heard), but the cast creates a lot of magic onstage too.  Philemon catches his wife Matilda in bed with another man and devises a creative punishment for her: she must tend to her lover's abandoned suit as if it is the couple's honored guest.  Music is integrated seamlessly into the tale, both original compositions by Franck Krawczyk and traditional songs from South Africa, Tanzania, and elsewhere.  I remained entranced throughout.

wait, let's go

Thee Oh Sees / The Mallard split (LAMC #3) (Famous Class)

I'm flashing all the way back to a 2012 release this week, when Thee Oh Sees were still a bona fide Bay Area band and before The Mallard had split up.  Relive those halcyon days with the tracks on this awesome 7-inch, with Thee Oh Sees contributing a super-catchy fuzzpop gem that will have you nodding your head along to it in no time flat.  Meanwhile The Mallard's song features reverbed-out vocals and shimmery guitars in a swirl of murky goodness.  A glorious musical time capsule.

tractable

Berkeley.  March 4, 2014.

busy being free

matokie mix 04.20.14

mix

wittenberg

Through May 4 - Wittenberg at Aurora Theatre Company.  The setting of this extremely clever play by David Davalos, performed in its Bay Area premiere at Aurora, is Prince Hamlet's senior year at Wittenberg University where he just happens to be auditing classes by Martin Luther and Dr. Faustus.  Davalos has a lot of fun with the language of Shakespeare, and he stays true to the Bard by covering topics both spiritual and decidedly earthy.  Hamlet is really a supporting character, with the real stars of the show Dan Hiatt's passionate straight man Luther and Michael Stevenson as the sly Faustus (who also just happens to dabble in pharmacological remedies and the new field of psychology).  The pair's attempts to win the young Hamlet over to their respective views set the stage for the prince's struggles within his own play, and philosophical arguments have rarely been so entertaining as they are here.  

till the end of the day

Fuzz / CCR Headcleaner split (LAMC #10) (Famous Class)

I'm continuing to work my way through these awesome Famous Class LAMC split 7-inches and still loving everything I hear.  On this one Ty Segall's heavy psych combo Fuzz delivers a thoroughly killer cover (and I don't even really like covers) of "Till the End of the Day" by the Kinks on the A-side, and then they tapped one of my fave local bands CCR Headcleaner for the B.  More trip-tastic psychedelia than you can shake a stick at.