Engineer's Daughter

night sky

Blue moons like the one we had yesterday don't come around that often, and similarly the chance to see Majel Connery perform with Matt Walsh as their duo Sky Creature is a rare occurrence on the West Coast. In fact it was their Bay Area premiere at the Berkeley Art Museum last night, and while Connery and Walsh are in town I highly recommend catching them at the Exploratorium tonight and/or the Piano Palace in Half Moon Bay on Saturday. Programmed by local musician Sarah Cahill, last night's performance was part of BAMPFA's ongoing series of events timed to coincide with the full moon, in this case offering music that was rich with connection to our natural world and celestial phenomena. Connery started off solo with her gorgeous song cycle Rivers Are Our Brothers, inspired by Chief Seattle and our kinship to nature (and which is about to be toured by Chanticleer!). For the second half of the show Walsh joined Connery for their Sky Creature tunes, melding his math rock guitar from his background with The Forms to her quasi-operatic vocals and soaring electronics. The result is utterly mesmerizing and often quite danceable, and I'm already salivating about their upcoming full-length record. Connery used to teach at Cal before she moved to New York, and it's so brilliant to have her back in the area this weekend.

Masking? A smattering. My N95 was helping filter yesterday's wildfire smoke too, added bonus.

 

notes from the weekend

• If you haven't been to the San José Museum of Art recently now is a fabulous time to visit, with wonderful solo exhibitions by certified legend Yolanda López and the Bay Area's own Sadie Barnette that I've highlighted before and now a brand new group show called Nuts and Who's: A Candy Store Sampler. The latter features work from artists allied with Adeliza McHugh’s Candy Store Gallery in Folsom, and the 1960s-era California ceramics alone are worth the journey down the peninsula.
• Then after my surprise KALX DJ shift yesterday morning I grabbed a veggie weenie from Top Dog and headed back to Walnut Creek for the second Sunday afternoon in a row, this time to see the delightful Lamplighters production of Il Ducato, which is basically The Mikado by Gilbert and Sullivan transplanted to Milan and reworked to remove the racism. They made a few other fun tweaks along the way, such as the inclusion of modern-day villains in "I've Got a Little List" that had the audience literally cheering with glee.

show 475

playlist

notes from the weekend

• Only one gallery visit this weekend but it was a fantastic one: The compelling group exhibition Rabbit Hole at the Berkeley Art Center, curated by Adrianne Ramsey. Thematically linked by perceptions of space, the work in the show from a diverse array of artists was all created within the last few years and deals head-on with the cultural issues that have been swirling in our collective ether.
• The other highlight of my weekend was Festival Opera's refreshing version of Bizet's Carmen, in a production that successfully blended 2023 Oakland with 1820 Seville complete with turf dancing instead of flamenco. All of leads were stupendous and non-binary mezzo-soprano Nikola Printz blew the roof off as Carmen, playing the character less as a femme fatale than simply as a woman who knows her own mind and heart and refuses to waver.

matokie mix 08.21.23

mix

between worlds

I was completely unaware of the life and work of Jewish lesbian author, academic, and activist Irena Klepfisz before seeing 90-something actor Naomi Newman embody her onstage at Live Oak Theatre last night, and I am so grateful to her and to the Yiddish Theatre Ensemble for their new play about Klepfisz, Between Worlds. Born in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust, her father a martyr for his resistance to the Nazis, Klepfisz emigrated with her mother to the Bronx and eventually integrated her experiences into her poetry, which merges English and Yiddish. Newman, who also wrote the play, is absolutely mesmerizing as an older Klepfisz looking back, and she doesn't shy away from either the bluntness or the sexiness of Klepfisz's writing. A small but mighty ensemble backs Newman up too, with Diana Bukowska, Aviya Hernstadt, and Ariel Luckey playing other characters in Klepfisz's life, and with musicians Barbara Borden on percussion and Susanne DiVincenzo on cello and bass providing a live soundtrack onstage. The blessing that Newman writes in the program absolutely came true for me during the performance: "May everyone who sees Between Worlds be as moved and healed by Irena Klepfisz's life and poetry as I am."

Masking? Required, and the audience complied! The dude behind me in line had to grumble about it though: "I haven't worn a mask in months!" And that, sir, is why we still have Covid.

notes from the weekend

• So much good art this weekend! Starting at Wendi Norris for Leo Marz's Modern Office show. The architecture depicted in Marz's surrealist paintings dissolves and folds in on itself as human and animal forms seem to flicker in and out. After a few years of reassessing my own relationship to interior and exterior spaces, these pieces spoke to me in a major way.
• Artist Sholeh Asgary often works with sound, and in her ongoing Audio Archive Booth in the lobby at Yerba Buena she invites members of the Iranian diaspora to commit their memories and thoughts to tape recorder. I appreciate that both Asgary and Yerba Buena are creating space during a time of continuing turmoil and protest in Iran.
• Over at SFMOMA the second floor remains free to the general public and includes the fantastic new exhibit Sitting on Chrome with work by Mario Ayala, rafa esparza, and Guadalupe Rosales that is inspired by lowrider culture in California. The trio's exuberant paintings and sculptures feel barely contained by the museum, and in one room they have collaborated on an immersive sound and light installation that brought back vivid memories of '90s SoCal parking lot parties. And if you do pay for admission head straight to the 7th floor to see the Frank Bowling retrospective. It is exquisite.
• Down at Gallery 16 Still, the Meandering Path pairs the final works by the late great Jim Melchert with contemporary ceramics artists, many of them influenced by Melchert, in a strikingly beautiful and very emotional show. It was wonderful to pay tribute to Melchert and also marvel at the new work while appreciating how the Bay Area remains the place where ceramics pushes boundaries and pushes forward.
• Finally the annual Root Division Introductions show has long been a place to spot the best up-and-coming artists in the Bay Area, and this year's iteration is chock full of amazing work indeed. The non-profit is not just a gallery; they also provide studio space for artists and classes for the community, and it makes me so happy to see them still doing their thing in the heart of SF.

matokie mix 08.14.23

mix

notes from the weekend

• The current group exhibition at Palo Alto Art Center, Earth, has a clear environmental agenda and for that I am grateful. The show features Northern California artists working in almost every conceivable medium, and whether they were directly grappling with our current climate catastrophe or simply highlighting the beauty of our home planet, I was inspired and galvanized in turn.
• While I was in Palo Alto I had planned to drop by the former Pace Gallery space to see Mitchell Johnson's colorful paintings...but I wrote the closing date of his show down wrong (oops) and found myself peering into an empty gallery. I pivoted by grabbing an iced coffee from Philz and enjoying it in the Gamble Garden, not a terrible way to spend a beautiful afternoon.
• This weekend I also visited the Bedford Gallery in Walnut Creek and had my mind blown by their Sight Unseen show, which features photography from an international array of blind artists. Some of them are using assistive technology, some are using instinct or what vision remains, but every artist has a distinctive voice.

matokie mix 08.07.23

mix