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Design in mind

2010-03-25T15:17:00.000-07:00

Is it a statement on homophobia, or on meat-eaters, or on the Slow Food movement? Choose your own interpretation of Stephanie J. Carter's 2009 pseudo-edible sculpture "Coming Out Vegetarian to My Parents." It's fashioned from colored pound cake and a poured hard-candy shell (pictured at right).

Whatever the piece means, I smelled it before I saw it, which is always interesting in an art gallery. The work is currently part of the "Design Unassigned" exhibition on campus.

The thought I had, helped by the sickly-sweet odor and the unappetizing colors, is that whenever you sit down over a family dinner to break something gently to your parents (0r children), it rarely goes the way you want. Emotions run high, your stomach flips, and even the choicest food turns chalky in your mouth.

Or, this could represent a wary parent's idea of what his poor newly vegetarian daughter will be reduced to eating from now on.

Strolling through the exhibits regularly put on by the design students always yields unexpected results. This show, which runs through April 25, also features Danika Patrick's playing cards made from recycled soda cans and auto paint; and Paul Braun's modern, sand-cast aluminum take on the traditional Chinese hot pot.

In a dark corner, John Hollendoner's topographic map of Mount Rainier gleamed in acrylic. A silvery mountain, not something you could climb, perhaps more at home in outer space. It's amazing how kids see the world these days.

Pictured above: John Hollendoner's Mount Rainier sculpture. Behind it is Matt Freshman's 2008 "Acrylic Illuminated Object," which changes color. Photos by Rebecca Wallace.

Sondheim and Ebert

2010-03-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

No particular Palo Alto angle today. Just two great arts stories about two of the arts world's greats.

Here is a lovely New York Times write-up about the recent 80th-birthday tribute to Stephen Sondheim at Avery Fisher Hall in NYC. I would have given many, many things to have been there.

If I could have heard only one of the numbers? Ah, I'd pick Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin teaming up once more to sing "Move On" from "Sunday In the Park With George." And I love that La Stritch wore a hat when Patti LuPone sang "The Ladies Who Lunch" to her. ("Does anyone still wear a hat?")

Secondly, a rich Esquire piece about Roger Ebert living with cancer and without the ability to speak. The way Ebert has been freed to express himself on the page -- the words simply flowing -- was deeply moving. Chris Jones' article is as much a portrait of an artist evolving (and of a remarkable marriage) as it is an inspiring piece about survival. The occasional flashes of humor are startling and gutsy, like when a woman at a party writes Ebert a note, and the film critic simply points to his ears as if to say, "They still work, y'know."

Pictured: A New York Times photo of the Sondheim celebration, taken by Sara Krulwich.

Prize-winning Peninsula photos

2010-02-25T13:34:00.000-08:00

When I was in college, I bought Sierra Club engagement calendars every year, because of their remarkable photos. In between my scribbled, highly crucial appointments ("Meet Ed at flagpole," "Drop wretched statistics class") were pictures of curious birds and glinting snowscapes -- and autumn. What was autumn? I pondered this, peeling off another wool sweater in California.

When classes were dull, I flipped through the calendar pages and gazed into nature. It sure beat statistics. Funny how when you're a French minor you dream of going to Europe, and you miss the loveliness of Utah, which somehow seems so much more foreign.

The photographers who won the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District's photo contest surely don't miss what's close to home. First-place winner Randy Weber found autumn right here, in his "Fall Colors at Purisima Creek" (pictured above). Our California fall -- be it ever so subtle.

I was especially drawn to the second-place photo, "Foggy Descent" (above), because of its storybook quality. The writer's mind starts spinning: who is that person, why is he/she walking alone, where is Heathcliff. The photographer, Karl Gohl of Los Altos, also had other images get honorable mention. This one was shot at Windy Hill. Gohl says: "I was enjoying the moody light created by the fog, the pattern of the oak limbs and the lichen on them and I got that 'Oh, wow' feeling that makes me want to capture the moment in a picture."

Third place went to aeronautics/astronautics Stanford grad student Alex Stoll for "Sunset from Russian Ridge." Click here to see his pic and the whole contest photo gallery, which also includes a picture of a fetchingly pigeon-toed bluebird carrying a centipede, by photographer Jacob Osborne.

Winners of the open-space district's photo contests, past and present, also get a bonus: Their works will also be considered for the coffee-table book that the district plans to publish in 2012 for its 40th birthday. Photo submissions are no longer needed for the book, but the district is still seeking original poetry and other works of art, such as drawings and oil and acrylic paintings. Let your hikes inspire you.

Chattanooga to Cinequest

2010-02-19T15:10:00.000-08:00

Comedy that makes you cringe: Who'd have thought it would find its niche? (Hello, "Curb Your Enthusiasm.") Palo Alto filmmaker Jarrod Whaley seems to be traversing that terrain. He bills his new feature flick, "Hell Is Other People," as a "comedy of awkwardness."

Apparently some people like 75 minutes of feeling uncomfortable. Whaley's film is getting its world premiere on Feb. 27 at Cinequest. Shot in Chattanooga, from whence Whaley hails, the film follows the seriously underemployed Morty (Richard Johnson), who can't seem to get it together. Still, this isn't a story about nothing. Morty plays psychiatrist to a passenger in his Jeep, tries to shake down his friends for cash, and gets a haircut.

"The characters are aimless, maybe, but the film is not," Whaley is quoted as saying on CQ Central. "It takes aim, I hope, at all those countless recent films in which nothing happens apart from privileged middle-class kids grumbling and whining about the banality which comes with their privilege. Beyond that, 'Hell Is Other People' is funny (I hope), even as it sows discomfort."

A few other local folks are lending their visions to Cinequest this year. Palo Alto native James Franco jumps from acting ("Milk," "Spider-Man," et al.) to directing with a five-minute drama called "The Feast of Stephen." It'll be shown March 4 and 5 as part of an international series of shorts. According to New York Magazine, Franco's film is inspired by a work of gay poetry by Anthony Hecht.

Meanwhile, local residents Jason Sussberg (Stanford University) and Brian Pahl (De Anza College) have their short films represented in a Cinequest student short competition.

Local artist's scene makes the silver screen

2010-02-05T10:47:00.000-08:00

In the unlikely event that you can take your eyes off Meryl Streep when she's on screen, you might spot a product of the local art world in "It's Complicated."

Mitchell Johnson, an artist with a studio in Palo Alto, has three paintings in the film. One landscape hangs over the fireplace in Meryl Streep's character's home. (Click here to see it in the set.)

Thanks to Hollywood magic, the film is set in Santa Barbara, but the interiors were shot in New York, and the fireplace landscape depicts Meyreuil, France. No wonder Steve Martin, who's playing an architect, looks so confused in all the trailers.

Pictured: "Meyreuil," a 2003 landscape by Mitchell Johnson.

Up there on the air

2010-01-21T14:23:00.000-08:00

Hey, the California Pops Orchestra is doing a radio-style show. Perfect for the entire family -- since it's a radio format, you don't have to look up, so the kids can text the whole time!

Just kidding, Kim.

Anyway, lots of radio going around. First the L.A. Theatre Works troupe at Stanford on Jan. 27 with a radio play about Robert Kennedy and the civil-rights movement. I had an interesting interview with the producing director, who was a student finishing a paper on Kennedy and watching him on TV that fateful night in L.A. The play will have an element that typical theater doesn't: a sound-effects guy on stage with a table of equipment. When the script calls for a cocktail, sound-effects Nick drinks a drink. Loudly, one presumes.

Then, the California Pops Orchestra, under the baton of Palo Alto's Kim Venaas, presents its "Big Broadcast Show of 2010" on Feb. 21 in Los Gatos. This will be a musical variety show, 1930s radio style. Performers include the Pops' Zucchini Gulch Xylophone Trio (say that five times fast) and Bumblebee Buglers. Ann Gibson will sing and South Bay impersonator Matt Helm will pretend to be Dean Martin, Sean Connery and Jimmy Stewart. He better bring his eyebrows. I've seen them online and they're impressive.

So much rhythm

2010-01-07T15:15:00.000-08:00

The four musicians walked on stage one by one, striking pieces of wood with mallets. Each built upon the last, starting with a single bright "tong!" sound and then layering his own pitter-pats of rhythm on top.

I felt like the sounds took me in all directions at once. Kids in the audience weren't sure what to do. Were they supposed to be quiet? Was this music? My head was bobbing a la "Spring Awakening," but not at the same time as my foot tapping. Yet we all ended up in the same place. When the So Percussion members hit the last note at once, leaving a silence as satisfying as everything that came before, we all thought: "Damn. These guys are good." (Except for the kids, who thought, "Darn.")

The place was CSMA, the performance was free, and the composition was "Music for Pieces of Wood." That Steve Reich doesn't mince words. CSMA has this great arrangement with Stanford Lively Arts, wherein many artists set to give concerts at Lively Arts stop by CSMA a few days earlier to give a free, more informal show. Children welcome.

So Percussion played the school last night, and by the end, kids in the front row were bouncing up and down with the music, and running back and forth from their seats to the edge of the stage. This is high praise from a six-year-old.

Meanwhile, I was feeling better that I can't attend the group's Lively Arts show this Saturday. "Music for Pieces of Wood," a 1973 Reich-ism, is on the bill, and here I was getting a preview. From the third row. It was fascinating to get a close view of the musicians working together: a nod before a tempo changed, a sidelong glance, eyes squeezed shut. When rhythms are offset, you have to focus on what you're doing -- while listening to the guys on either side of you. "The goal is to do both," So's Jason Treuting said at the end of the evening.

We also got a preview of Reich's "Clapping Music" (1972). In this canon-rich piece, the musicians clap in one flamenco-inspired rhythm -- 3-2-1-2 -- and offset it against each other. "There's 12 different ways you can put these rhythms together," Treuting said. As a listener, you follow one thread, then another.

Then we all got to try it. The guys split the audience up into two parts: One, "the rock," plays the rhythm the same way repeatedly. The other group slowly changes it up. Music immersion, sinuous and meditative. Sometimes it's easier to keep the rhythm when you close your eyes.

For several lucky kids, the highlight was probably getting to go up on stage and play in other pieces, on African drum and vibraphone and bell. There was much bouncing and swaying and grinning. Outside, after the show, I saw a father and child clapping 3-2-1-2, over and over. Yes, this was definitely music.

So Percussion plays an all-Reich program, including a U.S. premiere of "Mallet Quartet," this Saturday at 8 p.m. in Dinkelspiel Auditorium at Stanford. Pictured: The So boys whoop it up with a typewriter, photographed by Janette Beckman.

My top arts events from 2009

2009-12-30T13:52:00.000-08:00

My top ten list is always a tease. I took in an array of incredible exhibitions, concerts, author talks and so forth in the Palo Alto area in the past 12 months. But now I'm reminded of everything I didn't get to see. Rewind!

Here's my list of the 10 favorites I did see in 2009 -- in no real order, as it would be like comparing apples to gooseberries.

New event: World Music Day, Palo Alto
The festivities kicked off beautifully, and WMD wasn't hard to find. We wandered through a balmy downtown from one free outdoor concert to another: klezmer, jazz, hip-hop, Latin and Balkan and Celtic music, and practically every other kind of tune you could think of. Bravos to Claude Ezran and the other organizers. Let's hope this becomes a tradition.

New song: "A Change is Overdue" from "Tinyard Hill," TheatreWorks
After I sat in on a rehearsal of this Tommy Newman-Mark Allen musical that premiered at TW in July, I kept playing this song on Newman's website. I love the open, hopeful feel of the line "I want to twist it, forge it, bend it into something new."

Exhibition: "From Their Studios," Cantor Arts Center
A remarkable diversity of voices characterized this show of work by Stanford faculty artists. John Edmark's kaleidoscope-like "Geometron," Robert Dawson's haunting photos, and Enrique Chagoya's satirical prints were highlights. This show is still open, through Jan. 3. (My list continues after this particularly eerie Dawson photo.)

Exhibition #2: "Treasures From the Mexican Museum," Palo Alto Art Center
It was hard to look away from a riveting lithograph of artist David Alfaro Siqueiros (those deep-set eyes), but this 150-work show had a wealth of other pieces to see, including spirited Day of the Dead papier-mache works and pre-Conquest vessels.

Metamorphosis: Tom Gough in Dragon Productions' "Greater Tuna"
Gough didn't actually hit a high C on stage, but I wouldn't have been surprised. The guy utterly transformed himself into the choir-singin', hip-bumpin', bubble-gum-pink-wearin' Bertha Bumiller for this goofy comedy. Amen, sister.

Metamorphosis #2: Kevin Kirby in Palo Alto Players' "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
This mild-mannered Weekly theater critic let the zingers fly as George in the classic marital rumble. Disclaimer: Kevin is a friend, but he doesn't know I'm writing this. Hi, Kevin. (Liza Zassenhaus was another stand-out in this production as Honey, fragile yet quirky. But I've never met her, so I don't know whether this was a true metamorphosis.)

Metaphysical music: "The Metaphysics of Notation," Mark Applebaum
This brilliantly enigmatic score hangs in the Cantor Arts Center, where every Friday afternoon a different musician interprets it in a free performance. No standard staff and notes here; the Stanford composer penned a visual work of art with symbols, designs and curves that challenge musicians to climb inside its world. Performances continue through February.

Music talk: John Adams, Cantor Arts Center
His son performed "Metaphysics" in May, but John Adams may have a few musical credits as well. The Pulitzer Prize-winning composer brought a new string quartet to Stanford Lively Arts this year, and also took part in a wonderful free-flowing talk at the Cantor with violinist David Harrington. Adams seemed friendly and candid. He even cracked a musical-theater joke. The museum and Lively Arts periodically bring in musicians for these free talks; a "jazz/tech talk" is set for Jan. 21.

Author talk: Sarah Dunant, Stanford Continuing Studies
Another delightful speaker this year was the historical-fiction author Sarah Dunant, who talked about writing her trio of books about women in the Renaissance. Her November talk was inspiring to any would-be novelist, providing lively insight into her lengthy research process.

Film: "Motherland," directed by Jennifer Steinman
This documentary about six American women grieving the loss of family members, then taking a life-changing journey to South Africa, was shown on the Peninsula to benefit Palo Alto's Kara organization. The film was compelling and highly moving without being overwrought; it told the women's stories with grace.

Pictured: Top: Mark Fiebert, front, and Alex Ran of Accidental Klezmer playing at World Music Day. Photo by Veronica Weber.
Above: Robert Dawson's 2005 photo "Outermost house, Arctic Circle, Iceland." This jet print from digitally scanned film is part of the "From Their Studios" exhibition at the Cantor Arts Center.

Calling all outdoorsy artists

2009-12-16T14:28:00.000-08:00

You could whine about turning 40, or you could celebrate by publishing a coffee-table book about yourself. Well played, Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.

The district, which those in the know call MROSD, plans to mark the big 4-0 in 2012 by putting out said book, and is calling all poets, painters and other artists to take part. The tome will feature words and images inspired by MROSD's open-space preserves. If a hike moves you to bust out the watercolors, you may be just the person.

Guidelines for submission include the statement "We are especially interested in images reflecting the wide range of habitats across District lands, including riparian, grassland, chaparral, and redwood environments." Cool. What rhymes with "riparian"?

Info here. Photography submissions are closed, but people can still submit other types of art.

Another note on art en plein air: Stanford biologists including former university president Donald Kennedy have launched a new podcast series that gives listeners a tour of the campus' plants, animals and outdoor art. Artworks will be viewed "through a science lens as examples of Science Art." I'm not sure what that means, but I'm looking forward to taking the tour once I find my mud-proof shoes.

Pictured: Wildlife in the Monte Bello Open Space Preserve, photographed by Strether Smith. Image drawn from the district's desktop wallpaper gallery at openspace.org.

Still a party in the pressroom

2009-12-09T16:45:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to my only party of the season that features fudge made by the district attorney. It was the annual holiday fete in the pressroom in the county Hall of Justice in Redwood City.

The pressroom is my old home sweet home: I was stationed there for a few years as a reporter for the San Mateo County Times. This was back in the dot-com boom, but because I worked for ANG, I had no Internet. If I wanted to look something up online, I had to go to the library. Or make nice with a Chronicle reporter across the room and use one of their snazzy machines. My computer typed only in orange.

Still, the pressroom wasn't a bad place to be. We had a creaky leather couch and a wall of shame of misspelled headlines, always good for a laugh. (Beware the "rouge ship.") There was also a nice camaraderie among the reporters when we weren't trying to scoop each other. When we set off to cover a meeting of the board of supervisors, we'd often amble down the hall together -- then sit in a clump and whisper when the debate flagged. The pressroom was convenient. If a supe or a DA ducked your calls, sometimes you could grab him or her outside in the hall or even spot the person through the window from your desk. Ha. I once bolted all the way across the courtyard to catch a quote. We were younger then. Reporting is a good job for people who can run.

At one point I think we had three Times reporters, four from the Chron, one from the Mercury News, one from Bay City News Service and one from a legal publication. It was bustling in there. We had Christmas lights year-round.

Now there are two reporters in the pressroom. Plus a lot of empty desks, a drawer of dusty coffee mugs, ANG time sheets with no one to fill them out, and even -- until recently -- a few left-behind Chron computers. In '99 I would have killed for those.

Last night, it was definitely a smaller party than in years past. Some writers, some county employees. I swapped recollections with fellow old-timers, but the younger reporters, who mostly work in other offices, didn't think we were that funny. (Come on! How can you not laugh about the Times doing a story about Merv Griffin and accidentally running a photo of Supervisor Mary Griffin?) But there was still plenty of lively talk about stories, sources and editors.

And I heard that many of my former cohorts who have left newspapers are doing pretty cool things. One works for San Mateo County, something that has interested me since my days as a poli-sci major. Another is in the foreign service and headed for India, while Michele (Marcucci) Ellson, a former Times pressroom denizen, writes and edits the Alameda online news source "The Island."

Of course, some of us soldier on as ink-stained wretches. It can be tough to feel like the last one standing, especially as an arts journalist (a particularly endangered breed). But I'm as proud as ever of what we do. Someone's got to keep an eye on the store.

Photo of a typewriter -- which would have been better than the computer I had in the pressroom -- courtesy of morgueFile.com.

A photographer's vision in oil

2009-11-18T11:56:00.000-08:00

About four years ago, Edward Burtynsky's titanic and disturbingly beautiful photos made up the most powerful exhibition I've seen at the Cantor Arts Center. Mining and refining leave scars on the Earth, but Burtynsky finds color and light inside.

Burtynsky now has an exhibition focusing on oil up at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (in case you happen to be passing through). Sprawling images of old derricks, ship-breakings and trashed cars are compelling even online.

Magazine writer and blogger Tyler Green also has an interesting snippet of Burtynsky's life story up on his blog, "Modern Art Notes."

Pictured: Edward Burtynsky's photograph "Oil Refineries #23, Oakville, Ontario, Canada, 1999." From www.edwardburtynsky.com.

More 'metaphysical' music at the Cantor

2009-11-13T17:04:00.000-08:00

Friday still means free experimental music at the Cantor Arts Center, and today I was back to watch more musicians with new takes on Mark Applebaum's wild "Metaphysics of Notation" score. (I was last there in May for Sam Adams and his laptop.)

Today featured the Weekly's A&E intern, violist Be'eri Moalem; and his cellist girlfriend, Julia Jurkiewicz. The pair originally met playing a Brahms quartet together. They took on Applebaum's score of symbols, flowers and dots with verve. I enjoyed the rich range of sound: mournful, smooth, intricately patterned, minimalist, lively.

At one point, Be'eri stomped and Julia knocked rhythmically on her cello, creating a sort of fast-paced folk dance. Later, I peered at that section of the score to see what had inspired them, and found sharp diagonals emanating out from peaceful centers, and curving lines wrapping around like ribbons.

Other moments were very familiar: I heard pieces of Bach and hints of "Avinu Malkeinu" and other Jewish songs. Be'eri said later that some of the notation's imagery reminded him of the emotions called up by other pieces of music. He has more to say about the score online.

The upstairs balcony where the score lives is a very resonant space, which players have enjoyed. It's also, of course, surrounded by visual art. In the middle of today's concert, I slipped into the neighboring Frank Lobdell figure-drawing exhibition for a moment. It was a pleasure to hear the gorgeous sounds of the strings ebbing into the gallery as I admired Lobdell's deft drawings of women. One moment the music added more grace to the women's curves; another, it contributed drama to the inky shadows drawn behind them. Each art form helped me find more to appreciate in the other.

Concerts are planned through February, with recordings of past performances up at the museum.

Pictured: Be'eri Moalem and Julia Jurkiewicz playing at the Cantor. Photo by Rebecca Wallace.

Sing me a cimbalom

2009-10-27T14:25:00.000-07:00

It wasn't your everyday orchestra moment at the Palo Alto Philharmonic on Saturday: In the middle of a concert, somebody brings out a cimbalom.

But, hey. If you're playing the folk-rich "Hary Janos" by Kodaly, you've got to have a concert hammered dulcimer from Central/Eastern Europe. The cimbalom is a particular star in the "Intermezzo" movement of the opera. "Intermezzo" leaps like a peasant dancing girl (landing, of course, on the first syllable like the Hungarian language does), and the cimbalom adds a rippling depth. At times I could picture a girl's tiny feet tripping across the strings, as though she had jumped up to dance on the instrument itself.

The concert was definitely an international experience, Hungarian-themed with works by Bartok and Dohnanyi, and people chatting in Hungarian. (For an even more international flavor, watch this YouTube video of a Japanese orchestra playing the "Intermezzo.")

Cimbalom player Roman Titcu kindly let us climb up on stage after the concert to look at the gleaming instrument. I'm now in favor of having someone walk in with a cimbalom on many occasions. Long city council meetings, maybe. Or while you're stuck in line at the bank. Imagine.

Pictured: Top: Cimbalom player Roman Titcu with his instrument on stage at the Cubberley Community Center Theatre, last Saturday after performing. Above: A close-up look at the cimbalom. Photos by Rebecca Wallace.

Variety shows

2009-10-22T15:39:00.000-07:00

Kudos to producers at our Media Center, who picked up six Western Access Video Excellence (WAVE) Awards last weekend. A good reminder of the zings of variety you can find on local TV.

Watch the award-winning shows here -- if you're like me, you might end up transfixed by a Mongolian contortionist in a shimmery costume (and apparently no skeleton). Then get pulled into a cool contemporary dance piece called "The Grape Dance" that incorporates a huge green rubber band and was inspired by the struggles of Mexican immigrants helping to build the wine industry.

The contortionist was part of a show called "The Theatre Factory," which brings in local theater groups to perform -- I'd love to see more of that. The WAVE-honored program, produced by Patricia Neme and Patty Page, focused on Velocity Circus, a multimedia/circus entertainment company in San Francisco.

Other winners include The Stephanie Herman Show (she of the Grape Dance), in which the former principal ballerina dances and talks about the creative process behind her works. More dance is to be had in the Studio Sesson on the African-dance troupe Fua Dia Congo, all whirling colors, drums and singing. (Full disclosure: My friend Karen Adams produced this program, with Muisi-Kongo Malonga and Dan Beaulieu.)

Also in the arts, a Jook Joint show (a VJ-style blues program) focusing on Etta James took home an award. It was produced by E.C. Scott and Gregg Mitchell.

Andrea Throndson from Abilities United produced a more serious piece on living with developmental or physical challenges. But the most serious program by far was a poignant PSA by Edoardo De Armas on preventing suicides at the train tracks.

Photo from the Velocity Circus website.

New M-A theater: It sure beats J Building

2009-09-23T12:56:00.000-07:00

Which is worse: sweltering in a stifling theater, or having a key moment in a play ruined because an old air-conditioning system came roaring on at the wrong moment and drowned out the dialogue?

If you build a $32 million theater, one would hope you could avoid both problems. While giving a press tour of Menlo-Atherton High School's glossy new performing-arts center yesterday, principal Matthew Zito was particularly proud of the A/C. He said it's been designed to run no louder than 17 decibels. On behalf of actors everywhere, thank you.

The new theater is quite a sight. While Zito said he thinks it blends well with M-A's low-slung '50s architecture, I am happy to disagree. The new building is swoopy and dramatic and glassy in the front, like a spaceship set down in cornfields. It sure beats the old J Building cafetorium it replaced. I like the way it stands out; you can't miss it, certainly not from Middlefield Road, and it puts M-A on the map in an entirely new way for my, shall we say, vintage-looking alma mater.

The 492-seat house is richly red in theme, with a 40-by-50-foot stage and a fly space that extends up 70 feet into the sky. The control booth is huge, in hopes that it will serve as an educational space for M-A students learning about stagecraft. The green room is actually green.

Out front is a courtyard, where Zito envisions a jazz quartet or Polynesian dancers might perform. Drama students are already using it for rehearsal. Meanwhile, jazz teacher extraordinaire Frank Moura finally has a nice new music room elsewhere in the center, with plenty of input into the acoustics. And I am envious of the big dressing rooms with their flashy lights bordering the mirrors.

The school will use the performance space most of the time, with the city of Menlo Park claiming 55 days of usage a year, mostly in the summer, Zito said. The Music@Menlo-ites are surely eager to use the space; its artistic directors will hold a special concert on Oct. 11 (already sold out) to herald its opening.

And I'm looking forward to seeing a full event schedule. Theater manager Cara Arcuni said a new website with calendar will launch soon.

Pictured: Top: Glossy windows at the front of the new performing-arts center. Above: A view from a catwalk looking down on the stage. Photos by Rebecca Wallace.

Back to my city by the beigli

2009-09-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

Ah, it's the best when the arts and food harmonize. Palo Alto Philharmonic cellist Ann Jona found out I had lived in Budapest, her hometown, and invited me to a Hungarian picnic this past weekend.

It was a terrific spread at Flood Park, put on by a Hungarian church in Redwood City. I was extremely happy to plunk down my donation and get a huge plate of stuffed cabbage, potatoes and cucumber salad, along with dios beigli. (We were too full for the langos.)

I could translate dios beigli for you as "walnut roll," but that wouldn't do it justice. This is a firm, robust pastry that isn't too sweet, isn't too dry, and just plain knows its own business. Above is the makos, or poppyseed, variety as well. I made a makos beigli for my family last Thanksgiving (very traditional) and it looked just like that, only with cracks and a crooked shape.

Koszonom szepen to Ann, and overall I must say that the Palo Alto Philharmonic has excellent taste. It's planning to kick off the 2009-2010 season with a Hungarian-themed program on Oct. 24. Fellow Magyar-philes should be pleased to see a program replete with Bartok, Kodaly and Dohnanyi. Hungarian cello soloist Csaba Onczay is even flying in to perform.

Pictured: Dios and makos beigli in a photo by Hu Totya, from Wikipedia

Instead of art openings, galleries closing

2009-08-24T17:35:00.000-07:00

The red pen is getting a workout, and not in a good way. While gathering info for the fall arts preview issue, super-intern Lauren Jow and I crossed five art galleries off the list from last year.

That's five galleries that have closed here or are about to: four in downtown Palo Alto (Aicon, Hot Mango Pickle, Kathleen Avery Fine Art and Tercera) and one in Los Altos (ZYT Gallery). Tercera shuts its doors Aug. 31 after a closing sale. Five galleries gone feels like a big number here. And even if you couldn't afford fine art anyway, we all may feel a little bereft.

In my visits to Aicon, for instance, I learned so much about Indian and Pakistani art. The miniatures tradition of Pakistan was fascinating to me, like doors opening in an array of media: human hair, tiny boxes and pins, paint applied with a traditional squirrel-hair brush. Now Aicon is just another in the line of empty storefronts on the increasingly gloomy Bryant Street.

As for Kathleen Avery, I was just thinking the other morning as I walked by that I'd never heard of public exhibitions there, and yet the lines of the figurative sculpture in the window still added something lovely to my day. That afternoon, the blinds were closed and a For Lease sign was up.

In most cases, the economy seems to be to blame, unsurprisingly. No one's alone in this. The New York Times reported in June: "Some two dozen galleries here have folded. ... The most notable among them ... are midsize galleries, where the reputations of up-and-coming artists first gain traction." Are up-and-coming artists here losing a place for their voices, too? Or do you have to be pretty settled to score good real estate in downtown P.A.? Fledgling artists can mingle with the experienced on the walls of the Pacific Art League, but the league also focuses on art classes and other community events rather than being a glossy gallery.

If you're a gallery owner, perhaps creative -- and dramatic -- marketing and moves can help you survive. In yesterday's Chicago Tribune, the happiest-sounding gallerista was David Leonardis. He shuttered one gallery location but kept the other, where to keep the cash flowing he held a buy-one-get-one-free art sale, and then started selling pieces from his private collection for 70 percent off.

Coming soon, a leaf from the federal government's book: The Tribune reports that Leonardis is "now planning a 'cash for clunkers' art sale/exchange."

Pictured: "Ghost Chair #1," a 2006 wood-panel, chair and paint piece by Garry Knox Bennett, one of Tercera Gallery's artists.

Au revoir, Arthur

2009-07-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

So saddened to hear about the passing of Arthur Krakower, the 88-year-old wunderkind Peninsula artist. A call or email from Arthur was like a small gem, bright in the palm. He had a way of combining childlike enthusiasm with timeless gentility and kindliness. Manners were never out of style when he was around. And yet he was completely in the modern world. He was even on Facebook.

Arthur's paintings, drawings and prints have wonderful titles. "The Geraniums Were There When We Fell In Love" and "What A Great Day," to name two. No irony there: just the pleasure of finding a third career after two successful ones, of going back to art and immersing himself in it. Retired from retail and real estate, Arthur went back to school and earned a master's in painting and drawing at age 80. What more can one say about dedication?

Last night, Arthur came to my mind at a Music@Menlo concert in Palo Alto. Violinist Joseph Swensen played the elegiac opening of the third movement of Schumann's Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor with such plaintive beauty. I thought of Arthur and of a dear friend who left us two years ago. There was no heaviness about the feeling of loss, though. Rather, I felt the particular warmth that sadness in music can bring, the sense that everyone who is listening to or playing the music, or who wrote it, has moved through the same emotion. Sometimes in a concert there's a feeling of shared understanding in the air. It's comforting.

Then Wu Han took the stage with fellow pianist Jeffrey Kahane to play Mendelssohn's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," arranged for four hands at the piano. She is an absolute delight to watch. From back in the audience, I thought I could see her smiling as she found the mischief in the music, and I wouldn't have been surprised to hear laughter from the stage, even in a respectful concert setting.

It wasn't intended that way, but the evening felt like a perfect tribute to Arthur's spirit.

Pictured: Arthur's Facebook profile photo.

'Art without inhibitions'

2009-07-24T14:38:00.000-07:00

To find the new home of Art For Well Beings, you have to wander a bit. The little art center is, as director Judy Gittelsohn says, "tucked in behind" a cluster of buildings off Palo Alto's Park Boulevard. You cross a small courtyard green with shrubbery, then see the spiky, cheerful cacti lining the classroom windowsill.

I liked this place right away. The room feels peaceful and hidden; I'd never seen the room or the courtyard even though I've walked California Avenue a million times. Judy says that's the whole idea: a space where everyone feels comfortable making art. You don't feel like someone's watching over your shoulder.

Judy, herself a talented painter, is known for her art classes for people with special needs; students may be developmentally disabled, or recovering from an injury. But she teaches everyone, and likes to mix different populations in a class. She had a classroom in a school before (and also teaches at the art center and the art league), but moved onto Park Boulevard earlier this year, enjoying having her own space.

"The special-needs population can teach us how to make art without inhibitions," she told me when I dropped by a few weeks ago. "We can learn freedom. My job is to create a safe place where they can create."

There wasn't a lot of art on the bright white walls (Judy says that makes the room feel more "serene"), but creations by kids and adults, both mainstream and those with special needs, filled the corners. Cut-out fish by 9-year-old Colin Huang were bright with personality; Judy says Colin plans to make a book of Palo Alto birds. Judy also held up a "paint by puzzle" work, in which each student paints a different section. She's planning various one-day exhibits, including Superman-themed paintings by Palo Alto artist Nick Golick.

Other projects in the works include "A Meal To Remember," a fund-raising dinner at East Palo Alto's Four Seasons Hotel, in which 20 girls will create paintings to illustrate a menu at the hotel. The painters will be from Girls to Wom en, an East Palo Alto youth organization.

Meanwhile, Judy and other teachers offer a range of classes at Art For Well Beings, including parent-and-child classes and sessions with collage and charcoal drawing. Some, like "Art in French," haven't taken off yet, but she's optimistic. "It's not as full as I would like," she said of the roster of students, "but I'm getting an inquiry every other day."

Pictured: Top: Fish by Colin Huang. Above: Judy Gittelsohn with a "paint by puzzle" work. Photos by Rebecca Wallace.

Puah on ice?

2009-07-19T19:04:00.000-07:00

Our show is back from Louisville, but it's not curtain down yet on "Puah's Midwife Crisis." Director/writer Cheryl Goodman-Morris has been getting queries about producing the musical in other locations, including Michigan. From Portola Valley to the South to the Midwest?

Meanwhile, back in California, several "Puah" cast members are reporting theater anxiety dreams. We didn't have time to worry before; our schedule in Louisville was what Cheryl called "exquisitely challenging." Now we can take a breath, miss each other already, and have the occasional actor's nightmare.

The Pharoah's daughter dreamed she had to make an entrance on a skateboard. Another actor imagined that the Actors Theatre people interrupted one of our performances to set up an ice-skating rink on stage. Still another dreamed about doing the entire show without remembering a single one of his lines.

Hey, if we wait until winter, I bet an ice rink will play really well in Sturgis.

Pictured: Don Gustafson, left, as Pharaoh with Susan Squires Cox and Betsy Burdick as his evil advisors. Photo from www.puahthemusical.org.

The quotable Louisville

2009-07-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

You can forget that not everywhere is California. The other day in a restaurant near the Ohio River, one of my fellow Bay Area actors asked, "Is the fish fresh?" The waitress retorted, "Louisville is a UPS hub."

Best quotes from our time in Louisville, though, are theater-related. There's a wall backstage at the Victor Jory Theatre at Actors Theatre that's covered with graffiti. As you climb the stairs next to it, you find more and more to read (if you can handle getting close to the blazing July-afternoon roof).

I jotted down a few bon mots. Judging by the last one, crew folks were probably responsible:

"I love this business! It's the only truly accepted medium to convey our spirits to this tight-ass planet. Lose theatre, we'll lose our spirits."

"Good, but it's not 'Three Sisters.'"

"When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout."

"All the world's a stage, but I wouldn't want to mop it."

Pictured: Lunchtime in downtown Louisville after a summer thunderstorm. Photo by Rebecca Wallace.

Putting it together

2009-07-14T08:05:00.000-07:00

"It's gonna go places," a woman just said in an affectionate Southern drawl to one of my fellow "Puah" actors. Hey, our show is already going places. From Actors Theatre over to the huge church convention, then back to Actors Theatre, then back to the convention, then back to Actors Theatre ... aw, grits; you get the idea. Yesterday we did a full tech rehearsal at the convention, then a matinee at the theater, then an evening show at the convention. Or was that the day before? We've been rehearsing and teching and making last-minute changes for days, and this show-on-the-road-thing can make your head spin.

But audiences are loving "Puah's Midwife Crisis." People are telling us we're going places. People are laughing and crying (The Actors Theatre space is small. I saw them.). From my point of view, it's a thrill to see how much the musical has grown and improved since we performed it back in Portola Valley in March. Its creators have been refining it: adding songs, changing staging, etc., while we actors are finding new bits, new motivation, new meaning in our words.

Puah originally started the show with a long monologue about the Biblical saga that led our story to this point. It was informative and she sold the heck out of it, but it was exposition-heavy. So the creators, Cheryl and Karen, replaced it with a new song for Puah that they penned in their spare time. Tells the story in a cheerful way, works in an "oy vey" every now and then, and gives actress Emily Greco yet another opportunity to hold the room.

My favorite change has been the end of Act I. Originally the act ended just after Puah and her fellow midwife, Shiphrah, sang a ballad called "Your God is My God, Too." Powerful, regardless of your religious preference, but some people thought the end of Act I also needed more of a suspenseful kick, to make the audience come back from intermission wondering what would happen next. After all, Pharaoah has handed down an untenable edict: P&S have been ordered to drown all the Hebrew boy babies as soon as they're born. P&S have disobeyed him, but they've been caught. We needed the feeling that this is a turning point not only for S, who discovers God, but the whole world of Jewish slaves struggling to survive.

Now we all come out on stage at the end of Act I, dressed as slaves, fearful and trying to keep our faith with our eyes turned toward the future as we sing: "Are we chosen? If we're chosen, what will be our cue? Can God lead us out of slavery? Hard to see the view..." The staging is stark and our movements slow and simple.

This afternoon is our last matinee at Actors Theatre. While performing in front of 3,000 people at the convention was a hoot (especially having our faces blown up on Jumbotron-sized screens), I'm going to miss the theater the most. There's a proper theater smell of paint and sawdust. The tech folks here are welcoming; the lighting is bold; and the angles are wonderful. The audience seats slant up toward the ceiling. Everywhere we turn on stage, there's a face following what we do, learning and feeling and living the story we're telling.

Pictured: Director Cheryl Goodman-Morris, right, working with actress Ginger Holt in the Actors Theatre. Photo by Rebecca Wallace.

Earthquakes in Kentucky?

2009-07-11T13:09:00.000-07:00

We're well into tech rehearsals at the Actors Theatre now -- it's great to be in the new space with lights and sound and the musicians who just flew in. Amazing how a drum kicks up every song and the energy of every drooping actor.

One big change is that we've moved from a proscenium stage to a three-quarter thrust. So now we have the audience on three sides. Intimate and elemental; we'll be able to better feel the energy of the crowd, breathe it in. Plus since my character is a flirty, rather clumsy chick who's not too bright, I just may have to stumble dangerously near an audience lap during the pregnant aerobics scene.

(Happy to have a director who lets us break the fourth wall in this show...)

Yesterday the theater's operations manager gave us a safety lecture, which, interestingly, included an earthquake warning. The other big announcement is that we are nearly sold out.

Apparently when one is telling an obscure story about acts of civil disobedience in the Bible, it pays to have a huge church convention nearby.

Pictured: Rehearsal in the Actors Theatre. Photo by Rebecca Wallace.

Off to the Actors Theatre

2009-07-08T13:23:00.000-07:00

Most days I write about other people having arts adventures. Now my show is going on the road. Hey, I hear Kentucky is the new Broadway.

I've been performing in a new Portola Valley musical, "Puah's Midwife Crisis," and next week we'll have the great privilege of doing the show at Actors Theatre of Louisville, a hot spot for new works. We'll also be taking the stage at a huge church gathering, which is fitting because the musical is based on an Old Testament story.

Our sets, costumes and props have already taken a road trip to Louisville, with the actors following by plane. Friday and Saturday should be a flurry of dress and tech rehearsals as we get used to our new spaces. And the heat. Later in the week, it'll be thunderstorms.

Puah (played by the magnificent Emily Greco, above) is a novice midwife trying to make her way in an Egypt ruled by a Pharaoh with untenable edicts. Her story is uplifting and dramatic, with book and music by Cheryl Goodman-Morris and Karen C. Russell. I can't imagine there are too many midwife musicals out there, so maybe we'll find an extra niche market.

My character, Neferdotti (yep, she's dotty), is part of the comic relief. Whenever the plot gets really heavy, we, the Egyptian ladies-in-waiting, come in and sing. There's a girl-group tune, a blues song, an aerobics number. We wear giant pregnant bellies, and I sing while being pushed around on a rolling chaise longue. Sometimes we fall down.

More later from the road...

Pictured: Top: Emily Greco as Puah. Above: The ladies in waiting (I'm in the center) do a girl-group number. Photos from www.puahthemusical.org.