Engineer's Daughter

mount shasta

I regain my equilibrium through travel, so the timing was ideal this last weekend to throw my trusty Lonely Planet in the car and drive 4 hours north to do some exploring in Mount Shasta.  In the middle of our first winter storm, natch.  Spoiler alert: I never saw the damn mountain.

24 hours in Mount Shasta:
-Pulling into town at Mount Shasta Pastry and picking out something savory and something sweet for the next day's breakfast: a pesto tomato tart and a generous slice of blueberry coffee cake.
-Lunch at Wassayaks: a rockin' basil tomato panini with a view of the clouds covering the mountain.
-Crystals for days at "metaphysical emporium" Soul Connections.
-Dipping my toe in local climbing culture at The Fifth Season.
-A fascinating peek at local history at the Sisson Museum (including a special exhibit on grizzlies!) before feeding a whole lot of hungry trout at the neighboring fish hatchery.
-A tromp through the rainy forest to Big Springs Creek on the Elsa Rupp Nature Trail.
-Warming back up with a black widow mocha in the snug environs of Seven Suns Coffee.
-Getting overly excited about seeing a glimpse of the snow on the base of the mountain while checking in at Mount Shasta Resort.
-Settling into my amazing Arts and Crafts-style forest chalet before running across the "street" to check out Lake Siskiyou and to take numerous restorative breaths.
-Dinner at Lily's: veggie Mediterranean pasta in an adorable clapboard house.
-Another try before sunset: Still no mountain?  Still no mountain.
-Waking up to the sound of steady rain on the chalet skylight and the scent of coffee percolating in my kitchen.
-Lazy morning reading on the couch in front of my gas fireplace.
-Lunch at the Berryvale Grocery cafe: Asian greens and tofu soup + excellent eavesdropping.
-A chai for the road and one last plaintive look at where the mountain should be.  Next time!

matokie mix 10.16.16

mix

the shipment

William Hartfield, Nican Robinson, Howard Johnson Jr., Nkechi Emeruwa, and Michael Wayne Turner III

Through October 15 - The Shipment at Crowded Fire Theater.  Those who like their theater comfortable and easy, please look elsewhere.  Young Jean Lee's 2009 play (co-directed at Crowded Fire by Mina Morita and Lisa Marie Rollins) takes no prisoners, skewering stereotypes of the black experience with wit and humor and more than a few gasp-out-loud moments.  Race is front and center in Lee's innovative script, from an opening dance routine that hearkens back to vaudeville days and right into a squirm-worthy stand-up routine and then through an extended sketch populated with characters such as Grandma from Heaven, Video Ho, Crackhead John, and Record Company Executive.  The final section of the play abruptly transitions into a Whit-Stillman-esque party scene, complete with a killer twist at the end that upends audience expectations.  The Shipment is provocative to the max but avoids cheap gimmickry thanks to solid collaborative direction and an incredible ensemble cast, including my local faves Nkechi Emeruwa and Michael Wayne Turner III.  And it's hard to imagine a more timely play right now.

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agenda 10.12.16

Apichatpong Weerasethakul at SFMOMA
Mount Shasta
13th
Fall Open House at Headlands
RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars
Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the Golden Gate

propine

Berkeley.  August 29, 2009.

censored tarps

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Through October 15 - Lawrence Ferlinghetti: Censored Tarps at Rena Bransten.  I remember fondly a weekday evening not long after I first moved to San Francisco in 1997, where I ran over to City Lights and squeezed myself into a spot on the floor to hear Lawrence Ferlinghetti read poetry to the assembled adoring horde.  The three tarps currently on display at Rena Bransten were painted by Ferlinghetti during that same general time period, in 1992, and they feature references to American iconography, to Chagall and Picasso, and to the poet's own history as called out in the gallery wall text:

"After an unstable childhood, Ferlinghetti spent several years on U.S. Navy ships and was the commander of a U.S. Navy sub chaser at the Normandy invasion during WWII.  He was also stationed in Nagasaki only six weeks after second atomic bomb was dropped, witnessing atrocities that would stay with him for life.  His later activisim, political dissidence, and 'radical pacifism' were a direct result, and have been present in his paintings ever since."

The exhibition also features one recent work, a swirling mass of black and grey paint depicting a solo figure on a boat.  We see them from the back, and look with them into the great unknown as they sail ever forward.

See also:

• Rena Bransten Gallery
• Lawrence Ferlinghetti

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matokie mix 10.09.16

mix

holding the edge

Through October 15 - Holding the Edge at The Marsh Berkeley.  Elaine Magree's deeply moving one-woman show time-travels the audience back to the height of the AIDS crisis, one of the most devastating periods in recent Bay Area history, and to one day in particular: January 28, 1986.  Space nerds like myself (and Magree) will instantly recognize that as the day of the Challenger explosion, and Magree weaves her personal experience of that tragedy into the larger narrative of the plague of AIDS.  Magree was working as a hospice nurse at the time, sometimes performing multiple "death visits" in a single night, and the mix of humor and heart she brings to Holding the Edge makes it clear she must have been amazing at her job.  Magree deals with the tough realities of her line of work head-on and makes no secret about her anger at Reagan for ignoring the deaths of thousands of people, but she artfully avoids getting too maudlin, for example lightening an account of a protest by teaching the audience some of the saucy chants launched by drag queens at the riot police.  More than just a slice of history, Holding the Edge is an essential eye-witness account from one of the Bay Area women who by helping a few people as best she could was keeping the entire world from falling apart.

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agenda 10.05.16

Cory Doctorow at SFMOMA
Ani DiFranco at the UC Theatre
RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars
The Mint
The Shipment at Thick House
Amanda Knox
Dheepan
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles at SFMOMA
Difficult People
Brad Kahlhamer at SFAI

lien

Haroon Village, Bangkok.  November 28, 2008.