the week that was

Things worth sharing:

1. I took a lovely mini road trip to Pescadero last week: Stayed at the Pescadero Creek Inn, had a picnic lunch at Arcangeli Grocery, poked around the Pigeon Point Light Station, dined at Duarte's, coffeed up at Downtown Local, visited the goats at Harley Farms. The perfect fall getaway.
2. The book I took along with me was a slim volume of Vasko Popa's potent poems, translated from the Serbo-Croatian by Charles Simic. It's hard to beat sitting in the sun by the sea and reading poetry rich with folkloric and surrealist imagery.
3. Terry Fox: Resonance is a major retrospective of the artist's work, curated by Dena Beard and Constance Lewallen, taking place right now across multiple venues around the Bay Area. It all kicked off last Friday at Grace Cathedral with Fox's 1977 piece The Labyrinth Scored for the Purrs of 11 Different Cats, and visitors were indeed invited to walk the labyrinth while the kitties rumbled away. I found a spot on the outskirts and just sank into the sound.
4. I also recommend the group show currently at the Mills College Art Museum, In Plain Sight, curated by Daniel Nevers and featuring work by Weston Teruya, Dario Robleto, castaneda/reiman, and Kathryn Andrews. The artists in the show encourage you to question your own perceptions and look more closely, mainly through objects constructed from a whole variety of materials.
5. I was chilled to the bone watching Alison Klayman's 2019 documentary The Brink, in which she closely follows (and interacts with) Steve Bannon in the time after he leaves the White House. That man is clearly evil embodied, as he stokes hate amongst Americans and meets with far-right leaders in Europe, but you also see the innate charm that makes him so dangerous.
6. Meanwhile thanks to the Criterion Channel I spent a wild week with the films of Lina Wertmüller, the first woman nominated for a Best Director Oscar. Honestly they contain way too much coercive sex/outright rape for me, but are still well worth a look if only to watch stellar actors (and regulars in her films) Mariangela Melato and Giancarlo Giannini do their thing. I'm not the first person to notice that the excellent fights in her films are actually better than the sex.
7. Photographer Jonathan Calm was at CCA Wednesday evening to give the Larry Sultan Photography Award lecture (he's also currently a resident at Headlands), and I'm fascinated by his ongoing project in which he is documenting the current state of sites listed in the Green Book. It's an epic undertaking, and as a black man traveling through the America of today he's finding all sorts of resonances with the past.
8. And a quick plug for two great new local businesses: Darling Electric Salon, where my stylist (and good friend) Lindsay will expertly minister to your coif, and Mela Bistro, where you should order the vegetarian platter.