Engineer's Daughter

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.

the week that was

This and that:

1. Please approach Gaspar Noé's Climax with extreme caution because holy moly trigger warnings galore. However, I am a fan of neither Noé in particular nor horror in general and yet still found this film completely absorbing. Incredible choreography, killer soundtrack, jaw-dropping camerawork, and Noé's singular knack for using cinema to make me feel like I just dropped acid myself.
2. Hip Hop Juice Box is the type of coffee shop/juice bar that makes me feel instantly at home, and even the wifi password makes me smile. Crossing my fingers they host watch parties if the A's make the playoffs...
3. I finally watched Jane Campion's first film Sweetie this weekend and predictably loved the hell out of it, with Campion's creative vision strong right out of the gate. Dysfunction thy name is family, and Genevieve Lemon as Sweetie is indelible.
4. Days after finishing David R. Bunch's Moderan my brain is still speaking its dystopian vocabulary: warring Strongholds and arsenals of fear and new-metal people. Bunch himself said about his writing, "I'm not in this business primarily to describe or explain or entertain. I'm here to make the reader think, even if I have to bash his teeth out, break his legs, grind him up, beat him down, and totally chastise him for the terrible and tinsel and almost wholly bad world we allow."
5. September with Henry David Thoreau, an entry from September 15, 1856: "Sep. 15. Monday. Sophia says, bringing company into my sanctum, by way of apology, that I regard the dust on my furniture like the bloom on fruits, not to be swept off."
   

the week that was

This and that:

1. Alex Ross Perry and Elisabeth Moss make beautiful (rock) music together in his movie Her Smell, in which Moss stars as a musician who is equal parts genius and chaos monster. I loved all the references to '90s alt-rock (definitely stick around for the credits), and how the film firmly centers women and all the male characters kind of float around at the periphery of the action.
2. I had a lovely evening in Santa Cruz on Saturday filled with many of my favorite Santa Cruz things (veggie Mobo Sushi rolls, shopping at Sockshop and Bookshop Santa Cruz, etc) before capping it off with Santa Cruz Shakespeare's delightful production of Pride and Prejudice. Adapted from the Austen by Kate Hamill and directed by Paul Mullins, this version leans hard into physical comedy along with some well-executed anachronisms and panto influence to boot.
3. Max Boot's book The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam is a compelling biography of the man who wanted the U.S. to practice "hearts and minds" diplomacy overseas, and it also helped fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge about the run-up to the Vietnam War.
4. Thanks to the Criterion Channel I've been soaking my head in films by Athina Rachel Tsangari this week, a director associated with the Greek Weird Wave and who closely examines just how strange we humans be. Attenberg is an excellent place to start.
5. Moms and non-moms alike will find a lot to chew on in Molly Smith Metzler's play Cry It Out as it hilariously and poignantly examines the choices women have to make in this country if they want to become a parent. Just Theater's current production at Custom Made is extraordinary, directed by Molly Aaronson-Gelb and starring a trio of my favorite local actors: Martha Brigham, Lauren English, and Lauren Spencer.
6. Tickets for next Sunday's Apples & Hops Festival at the UC Botanical Garden are probably too spendy for me, but proceeds do benefit the Garden and include as many apple donuts as you can inhale.

to do list

Free Oakland UP

Holiday malaise got you down? Have I got some ideas for you!

• Tucked into an unassuming strip mall in Oakland's Dimond district, Free Oakland UP is a wondrous little "shop" where every visitor is welcome to one free item. The project is the brainchild of Jocelyn Meggait, created as a social experiment, and when I visited on Friday it felt like the perfect antidote to the rampant shopping going on elsewhere in the country. Take your time selecting your free item, check out the work in the gallery area by the current artist-in-residence, and buy an artfully-potted plant to help Maggait pay the rent. Then bop across the parking lot to get a quart of lemon chiffon at local ice cream legend Loard's...and I hear that the framer and mechanic in that same lot are awesome too.
• Meanwhile, down in Uptown, Windy Chien has a beautiful show of knots and splices at Local Language called Mutations. Grab a seasonal cocktail from the in-house tasting room to enhance your viewing experience and marvel at Chien's sculptural, textural pieces, which are deceptive in their simplicity.
• Further afield but well worth the drive, the San José Museum of Art has two unique exhibitions up right now I highly recommend. The first is the group show Other Walks, Other Lines, which begins with a quote about walking from Rebecca Solnit's Wanderlust and spirals outwards from there to explore the many ways traveling by foot can be a source of inspiration, a form of protest, or a way to inadvertently court danger. The second is an epic solo exhibition on the second floor by Dinh Q. Lê entitled True Journey Is Return, and you could easily spend a couple hours exploring the varied narratives Lê has assembled about the Vietnamese experience.
• Coming up this Thursday, author Jose Antonio Vargas stops by Yerba Buena to chat with artist Jerome Reyes about the art-billboard Reyes currently has installed at the center and probably some other things besides. Alley Cat Books will also be selling copies of Vargas's Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen if you'd like to get a copy signed.
• And last but definitely not least, all this week the Recombinant Festival will be bringing extraordinary sounds and visuals to the Mission. Pick any night to attend; you cannot go wrong.

agenda 04.19.17

Art

Through April 28 - The New Situationists at Pro Arts Gallery.  Quickly, get thee to Oakland for this amazing group show that encompasses both historical aspects of the Situationist International movement (active 1957-1972) and contemporary interpretations, including a vibrant roster of activations in Ogawa Plaza, films, podcasts, performances and more.  Guy Debord would approve.

 

Theater

Through May 21 - Leni at Aurora Theatre.  Seeing two of my favorite local actors (Martha Brigham and Stacy Ross) face off against one another as dueling Leni Riefenstahls was divine pleasure, and in the intimate space upstairs at Aurora the audience is literally drawn into their dialogue.  Playwright Sarah Greenman covers an impressive amount of ground in 80 minutes, and does a great job of highlighting Riefenstahl's genius while not letting her completely off the hook either for her role in the Nazi propaganda machine.

 

Film

Marlon Brando only directed one movie in his lifetime, the mesmerizing western One-Eyed Jacks (in which he also starred).  Gorgeously shot in locations like Death Valley and Monterey, the film is an intense depiction of one man's quest for revenge, and it features wonderful and complex performances by Karl Malden and Pina Pellicer alongside Brando himself.  Bonus true fact: Brando and Pellicer and I all have the same birthday.

 

Book

Set in mid-'90s Montego Bay and with all dialogue in authentic Jamaican patois, Nicole Dennis-Benn's novel Here Comes the Sun tells the stories of a trio of women, each with her own unique struggle.  Margot has ambitions beyond her job at the local resort, and her sister Thandi is trying to decide what to do with her life after she's done with school...and bleaching her skin to achieve a different social standing.  Meanwhile Verdene must live as an outcast in her own town due to her sexuality.  I get frustrated when a book with this depth gets the standard chick-lit cover, but I encourage readers to look past it and to dive in.

 

Music

The last time I saw Phil Elverum perform as Mount Eerie was many years ago at LoBot, when a small gaggle of us stood in a circle around him and listened as he played his beautiful music.  The scene was similarly respectful at his sold-out show at the Starline Friday night where he performed the newest Mount Eerie album "A Crow Looked At Me" in its entirety, an album on which Elverum processes the recent death of his wife Geneviève Castrée from pancreatic cancer.  For me his grief connected directly to the Ghost Ship fire and other personal tragedy, and that night Oakland stood together, with Phil, and wept.

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agenda 04.12.17

Art

Through May 14 - Henrik Olesen: The Walk at the Wattis Institute.  "Henrik Olesen adds dirt to the neatness and sexlessness of conceptual art...He queers all that is fixed and organized, replacing it with the dissolved and the disorganized, the polysexual."  Which is a great way to describe why I adored this exhibition and its refreshingly grimy take on identity and representation.  It's also very punk rock.

 

Theater

Through April 16 - Jihad Jones and the Kalashnikov Babes at the Arabian Shakespeare Company.  Yussef El Guindi does it again with this incisive look at how Muslims are portrayed in the media, made all the more poignant by current events.  Tarek Caan is fabulous as Ashraf, an actor who is being offered the chance to work with his dream film director and a mind-blowing co-star.  There's only one problem: the script is Islamophobic drivel.

 

Film

I accidentally put together a perfect double feature this week when I watched Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless and then Noah Baumbach's The Squid and the Whale back-to-back, both films I already knew I loved and had been meaning to watch again.  But I had forgotten Jeff Daniels's Bernard attempts a Breathless reference to Laura Linney in The Squid and the Whale at a fraught moment, and it falls dead flat.  Both films: dead brilliant.

 

Book

Every once in a blue moon a book comes along so deeply-researched and written with such intelligence and compassion that it could actually change the course of society.  Every single American should read Matthew Desmond's Evicted to better understand the plight of those living in poverty in our cities, and how those poor are being exploited by the rental market.  I genuinely hope Ben Carson is reading it.

 

Music

As part of the SF International Film Festival, Will Oldham (aka Bonnie "Prince" Billy) teamed up with Chicago's Bitchin Baja's and our own Cornelius Boots at the Castro Monday evening to provide a live soundtrack to a trio of avant-garde films by Jerome Hiler, and the result was nothing less than exquisite.  Oldham's music is pretty damn gorgeous all on its own too.

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agenda 04.05.17

Art

Through April 29 - Won Ju Lim: Casting at Haines Gallery.  If you saw Won Ju Lim's YBCA exhibition Raycraft Is Dead a couple years back you know not to miss this solo show at Haines, full of fragmentation and reconstruction in the form of paintings, sculptures, lightboxes, and film.  Her new work uses Proust and the multiple meanings of the verb "to cast" as jumping-off points, and the breadth of her practice is impressive (I can't wait to see more film from her!).

 

Theater

Every first Thursday - Tourettes Without Regrets at the Oakland Metro Operahouse.  I recently attended my first TWR, their "Fuck Valentine's Day" edition, and as I was standing there packed into a crowd of diverse freaks watching various vulgar and hilarious acts on stage I was just extremely grateful for this Bay Area institution.  The messier it is the better, and this month's "Awesome April" installment looks like it will be quite the beautiful mess.

 

Film

Akira Kurosawa's Dreams might have confounded some of its viewers at the time of its release in 1990, but it reads as pure prescient poetry now, especially with the director's focus on the destruction caused by human ignorance.  Each of the eight "dreams" stands on its own, though there are subtle linkages as well, and it is completely impossible for me to pick a favorite.  I love them all for different reasons.

 

Book

Hans Herbert Grimm hoped his 1928 book about a young German solider during WWI would achieve the same success as All Quiet on the Western Front, but sadly Schlump never took off in his lifetime.  Possibly it was too smart and satirical, with a main character who is relatable but decidedly less than a clear hero.  However, rarely has an author been able to capture the extremes of war as masterfully as Grimm did here, and by reissuing it now NYRB has given contemporary readers a chance to rediscover this gem.

 

Music

Mild High Club played a sold out Tuesday night show at the Starline last night...which means that will probably be the last time I'll be able to see them in a venue that small.  This video gives you a good taste of their weirdo-psych sound; please enjoy!

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agenda 03.29.17

Art

Through April 2 - From Generation to Generation: Inherited Memory and Contemporary Art at the CJM.  Co-curated by Pierre-François Galpin and Lily Siegel, this extraordinary group show does not try to be comprehensive by covering every historical trauma ever, mercifully.  There are still many heartbreaking moments to be sure (as in Chikako Yamashiro's video about the Battle of Okinawa, pictured above) as the artists respond to "postmemories," events that they did not personally experience that still have resonance for them.  But there is a lot of humor and beauty here too.

 

Theater

Through April 2 - peerless at Marin Theatre Company.  In Jiehae Park's jet-black comedy, twins M and L have their hearts set on The College, and they will let no thing and no person stand in their way.  This is Macbeth reimagined amongst overachieving high school seniors with a dash of Heathers and Beautiful Creatures thrown in for good measure, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

 

Film

Paul Thomas Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love was an instant favorite of mine when it came out in 2002, and I see something new in it every single time I watch it again.  Adam Sandler in one of the only roles I can tolerate him in, Emily Watson as luminous as could be, Jon Brion's insane score, those interstitials by Jeremy Blake, and of course the sheer perfection of Philip Seymour Hoffman.

 

Book

For those like me who never wanted Eve's Hollywood to end, NYRB is back with its latest glorious Eve Babitz reissue.  Slow Days, Fast Company is another delectable series of Babitz's autobiographical Los Angeles vignettes, but do not be fooled by her breezy party girl exterior.  Babitz slices directly to the heart of what it is to live and love in L.A., and of the complexities of being a modern woman.

 

Music

Artist Gwenaël Rattke gave an inspiring talk at the SF Public Library this weekend to celebrate the publication of his new book/folio San Francisco Reverberation, and while at the event I was thrilled to learn it was he who'd done the cover art for Muscle Up by Patrick Cowley, a favorite recent release of mine on SF's own Dark Entries label.  Which then led me to reread this great article on Cowley by Sam Lefebvre and want to share it with you.

agenda 03.15.17

Art

Through March 25 - Steuart Pittman: The Twist at Traywick Contemporary.  Pittman's gorgeous abstracted forms are inspired by the architecture of Oakland, and in his color choices you can imagine the faded paint of the warehouses on Mandela Parkway.  Don't miss the titles of his artworks either; one in particular made me laugh out loud in the gallery.

Theater

Through March 19 - Eclipsed at the Curran.  Written by Danai Gurira, who when she's not being a badass on The Walking Dead is also a seriously amazing playwright, Eclipsed takes you deep inside the lives of five women during the recent Liberian civil war.  Unforgettable performances from an all-woman cast, extraordinary production design, and history that needs to be better-known outside of Africa -- I cannot recommend this play highly enough.

Film

Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima's classic manga comes to splatterrific life in the six Lone Wolf and Cub films, recently released by Criterion and watched in quick succession by me.  Tomisaburo Wakayama is perfectly stoic as samurai-for-hire Itto Ogami, while Akihiro Tomikawa as his young son Daigoro glares down any and all opponents -- or stabs them in the stomach with a random weapon from his perambulator.  Originally released between 1972 and 1974, the movies have some aspects (ahem gender roles) that have not aged so well, but their over-the-top attitude is hard to deny.

Book

My favorite resistance tool Daily Action just started a book club, and I was beyond psyched they chose David France's How to Survive a Plague as their inaugural selection.  Living in the Bay Area the AIDS crisis still feels very close, and this is a true survivor's tale, rich with historical insight, from someone who was on the front lines.  Read the book, watch this interview with France.  And next up for the Daily Action book club: Matthew Desmond's Evicted!

Music

Last week I was shocked to find out my dead friend Glenn had passed away suddenly, and my entire community has been rocked by the news.  I can still barely type it out; it doesn't seem real.  Besides being the kindest soul, a sharp wit, and a bon vivant, Glenn was a talented and passionate musician, always popping by my Facebook page to banter with me about music or to make some obscure Blur reference that made me laugh.  Many many years ago he organized a group of two dozen geeks into making a 24-hour playlist, and the results are posted for posterity here.  He's pogo, I'm nightfall.

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agenda 02.08.17

Art

Through February 25 - Coming Clean San Francisco at Fouladi Projects.  A collaboration with awesome local nonprofit Lava Mae, this group show offers an empathetic look at homelessness and features art by Amy Wilson Faville (pictured above), Elizabeth Lo, Danielle Nelson Mourning, Ramekon O'Arwisters, Joel Daniel Phillips, Yon Sim, Kathryn Spence, and SOUND MADE PUBLIC.  The exhibition also offers a robust schedule of associated public programming, including an evening with Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, learning about their 'Empathy At Scale' project tomorrow night. 

Theater

Through February 12 - Love Sick at the Osher Studio.  I was utterly enraptured by Ofra Daniels in her adaptation of the Song of Songs, set in both modern Tel Aviv and ancient Jerusalem and rich with live music and dance.  This ain't your typical love story. 

Film

Barbara Kopple's 2015 documentary Miss Sharon Jones! about the extraordinary singer (and KALX favorite) is a wonderful tribute to one woman's strength.  It was finished before Miss Jones's cancer returned one final time, and if you're like me you will weep your way through.

Book

It's an especially timely moment to read Louise Erdrich's latest LaRose, a gorgeous, heartfelt book set among the North Dakota Ojibwe at the turn of the millennium but delving back into history as well.  It also pairs nicely with this recent article about the young Sioux who launched the Standing Rock movement.

Music

Entrance opened for Bill Callahan (who was reliably divine) at the Starline last Saturday, and he knocked me to the ground with this song.  Buy your own copy because all proceeds go to Planned Parenthood.  #resist