Engineer's Daughter

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.

cheat sheet

Pablo Helguera

See:
-Pablo Helguera: Librería Donceles at Kadist SF.  Now extended through December 20, Pablo Helguera's pop-up Spanish-language bookshop is a delight to visit and also a sly statement on the lack of other such retail opportunities in the Mission.  Fill out a survey that illuminates your innermost thoughts about books and then be guided to a specific topic by the knowledgeable shop-minder, or just browse to your heart's content.  Sales are pay-what-you-will with all proceeds going to local charities, and the only rule is that you can only buy one book per day.
-Anything on Linda Mary Montano's website.  I saw her speak/sing/perform at the Art Institute on Halloween, and her art continues to deal with all the huge topics and be profoundly healing besides.

Read:
-Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and What They Feel About What They Do by Studs Terkel.  Originally published in 1974, this book is a veritable time capsule of the jobs in the United States at that time.  Terkel allows each person to speak for themselves and adds very little commentary, though he clearly was a sympathetic listener.  As for peoples' attitudes toward work, it's no surprise they were pretty much the same 40 years ago as they are now.
-Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir by Liz Prince.  A lovely and heartfelt graphic novel about Prince's experiences growing up wanting to be more a boy than a girl.  As someone who was often mistaken for a boy during my own childhood I loved Prince's stubbornness and her refusal to conform to societal gender norms.

Listen:
-The new self-titled debut release by Ultimate Painting, featuring members of Mazes and Veronica Falls, is quite good if you haven't checked it out yet.  Excellent band name too.

Watch:
-SLC Punk! directed by James Merendino.  I hadn't seen this since it came out in 1998, but it totally holds up.  And I didn't know this until I checked IMDB just now but Merendino is releasing a sequel next year called Punk's Dead.  Eek.
-Shutter Interface by Paul Sharits.  This piece, all 24 minutes of it, closed out a recent (brilliant) program of double-projected short films at the PFA, and it was simultaneously a bit of an endurance test and an utterly rapturous experience.  I made a game of counting how many people walked out.

Eat:
-The veggie paella at Duende.  Pro tip: check with the kitchen on how long it will take if you have a play to catch after dinner.

Recent recommended theater:
-Arguendo at Z Space.  Sadly this is already gone after a very short run, because otherwise I would demand everyone run out and see it immediately.  New York's Elevator Repair Service turn a Supreme Court case about erotic dancing into a choreographed ballet of rolling office chairs and impenetrable legal language.
-Redwolf at The Flight Deck.  A wonderfully complex and original reimagining of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale by Ragged Wing Ensemble in their brand new home in downtown Oakland.  The play's got an incredibly talented cast, a story that aroused my curiosity and had me on the edge of my seat, gorgeous production design, a strong feminist bent, damn sexy moments, laugh-out-loud funny moments, and Latin.  I was definitely left with some questions at the end, but I will always prefer a play that takes risks and makes me think over one that is totally bleeding obvious.

i am always doing that which i cannot do in order that i may learn how to do it

flashes of lightning

one week

one week

stream of consciousness

the week that was

agenda 01.16.13

Thursday, January 17:

• Mission Community Market
• SJMADE Mini Mart at the San Jose Museum of Art
• Comedy Drawing School at Eli Ridgway Gallery
• Rene Hell, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma + Paul Clipson, Vallens at The Lab
• Dennis Parlante and Matt Gonzalez in Conversation at Meridian Gallery
• The Statues Walked -- What Really Happened on Easter Island, presented by Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo at the Cowell Theater
• End of the Reel: An Oddball Memoriam 2012 at Oddball Films

Friday, January 18:

• The Bensons: Jason Benson and Mark Benson at Royal NoneSuch Gallery
• Thinking Like the Universe at Hatch Gallery
• Taraneh Hemami at the Luggage Store Gallery
• Doron Fishman + Film and Video Selections at The Lab
• Pretty Blue Presents: HotTub DJ set, Unstoppable Death Machines, Laughters and Believe in Oakland
• TWO YEARS HERE: our 2nd Anniversary Group Show at Incline Gallery
• Exhibition: Remembering is Everything at Alter Space
• Artist Talk and Book Signing: Gabriele Stabile & Juliet Linderman, Refugee Hotel at Gallery Carte Blanche
• Portholes to the Past at Oddball Films
• The 13th Annual Edwardian Ball & World’s Faire presents “The Doubtful Guest” at the Regency Ballroom
• Ty Segall, White Fence, Nick Waterhouse at The Fillmore
• Tycho, Christopher Willits at The Independent

Saturday, January 19:

• Sasha Darling's and The BellJar Girls Trunk Show
• Lab Winter Benefit w/ Mike Donovan (Sic Alps), Waxy Tombs, Tainted Pussy, Rheal 'Tea + Dia Dear
• "The Witching Hour" Sequinsomnia Burlesque Show Premier
• Rednecks & Aztecs at 1:AM Gallery
• Claire Fontaine at Queen's Nails
• Punch Card at Catharine Clark Gallery
• Small Gems: Winter Group Show at Crown Point Press
• Periodic Calendar at Electric Works
• Yo La Tengo at Amoeba Records
• Pinback, Judgement Day at Bimbo's 365 Club
• Tycho, Doombird at The Independent
• Temple Saturdays featuring Revolvr

Sunday, January 20:

• Zach Watkins + A Magic Whistle + Protoghost at The Night Light

Monday, January 21:

• S.T.D.W.T.F., Straight Crimes, Surf Shit, John Brothers Piano Company & Exit Bag at RCA
• Quicksand, Title Fight at the Regency Ballroom

Tuesday, January 22:

• Slime City #16 at Radio

Wednesday, January 23:

• SIX: 2013 First Year MFA Exhibition at Worth Ryder Art Gallery
• Claire Fontaine in Conversation with Jason E. Smith at the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts
• Are We There Yet? at The Rock Bar
• Mandebrot & Skyy, Matthew Dryhurst, Brandon Nickell, Paul Clipson at The Lab

agenda 12.12.12

Thursday, December 13:

• Women, Art, and Technology: An Uneasy Access? at the Performance Art Institute
• Kala “Artists’ Annual” Exhibition and Opening
• Thrill Jockey Records 20th Anniversary Show at The Independent

Friday, December 14:

• Marine Hugonnier and Taha Belal "Disrupt" Opening Reception at Highlight Gallery
• SF Cinematheque Year End Party Fundraiser + Auction at Incline Gallery and the Roxie
• Points of Departure: Trivial Pursuit: A nomadic talk series curated by Zoë Taleporos and Pablo Guardiola at Royal Nonesuch Gallery
• The Mountain Goats at The Fillmore
• Psychic TV, Lumerians, King Dude, Youth Code at the Uptown

Saturday, December 15:

• Record Weasels Record $wap at Brownstar Studios
• Small Art Show at Warehouse 416
• Chris Ballantyne, Michael Light at Hosfelt Gallery
• Artist Talk with Colpa Press’s Luca Antonucci & Carissa Potter at Kala
• Art Hack Day: Lethal Software Exhibit & Holiday Party at GAFFTA
• Mago with Dohee Lee at Meridian Gallery
• Psychic TV, Lumerians, King Dude, Youth Code at the Uptown
• No Way Back with Optimo, Conor, and Solar at Monarch

Sunday, December 16:

• Flowers at Artists' Television Access

Monday, December 17:

• Dee Dee and Brandon play songs from Dum Dum Girls and The Crocodiles at the Rickshaw Stop
• KMEL Holiday House of Soul with The Weeknd at the Warfield

Tuesday, December 18:

• There's a Song In My Heart: a Holiday Party for Visual Aid at Varnish Fine Art
• Sunn O))) at Mezzanine

Wednesday, December 19:

• Fuzz with Ty Segall & Charlie Mootheart at the Hemlock Tavern
• Psychic Ills, Wymond Miles at Bottom of the Hill