Packed Weekend: So Many Things Self Could Have Done

Self could have attended her Stanford Alumni Homecoming.  Sabina is there with her baby son, Milo.  But self, as always, cannot seem to get organized enough to get going.

Right in her own backyard, in Redwood City, a Zoppé Italian Family Circus has opened, next to the Downtown Library.

There is also an Oktoberfest going on at Courthouse Square.

But here are the things self actually got around to doing:

• She went to the Redwood City Farmers Market, just half an hour before they closed.  She got many vegetables, including something that looked like kangkong.
• As a nod to Matt Damon’s character in “Hereafter” (Damon’s psychic idolizes Dickens, a fact which turns out to be pivotal to the plot), self borrowed Bleak House from the library.  This is such a hefty book that it is sure to put a crick in her neck.  Alas, self saw only hardcover copies on the library shelves.  On the plus side, self adores Dickens, and she hasn’t read Bleak House since the birth of son, eons ago:  self toted the copy with her to Stanford Hospital — !
• Self went to Peet’s and picked up a free copy of The Stanford Daily.  Since it is the Homecoming Weekend issue, it is packed with reviews of exhibits, movies, Stanford Lively Arts events, and so forth and so on.  Currently at the Cantor Art Museum:  “Vodoun/Vodounon:  Portraits of Initiates” (Hubby declares he has no interest in seeing this, so self will go by herself:  she really loves anything creepy and supernatural).  There are also reviews (rather insipidly written) of “It’s Kind of a Funny Story,” latest Zach Galfinakis showcase (a 7 out of 10) and “Life As We Know It,” featuring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel trying to make cute (a 6 out of 10).  There is also a review of a new pizza place in Palo Alto (as if Palo Alto needed any more pizza places), Howie’s Artisan Pizza.  The review of this pizza joint does the job with a minimum of flourish, which is commendable.  For instance, the review begins:  Pizza can mean very different things to different people. Which is so laudably straightforward.  Almost Fitzgerald-like in its directness.

Let’s not forget:  there is still the Giants/Phillies game in a couple of hours!!!  Self is all on pins and needles for that one!  She made sure there was lots of Orville Redenbacher popcorn in the house, as well as lots of organic butter (Is organic butter less fattening?  Who knows?  It certainly sounds as if it should be less fattening)

Stay tuned, dear blog readers.  Stay tuned.

This Sunday at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

October is Filipino History Month (Let us give thanks to the pioneers who made this commemoration possible, and who continue to inspire self as well as untold generations:  Carlos Bulosan, Bienvenido Santos, NVM Gonzalez, Linda Ty Casper, Al Robles, Shirley Ancheta and Virginia Cerenio, just to name a few)

As they did last year, the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco has programmed a day-long festival of activities, all centered around Filipino American culture.

Reading from 1 – 2 pm are Daniel Gonzales and Barbara Reyes, moderated by Oscar Peñaranda

Reading from 2 – 3 pm will be Karen Llagas and Aimee Suzara, moderated by the iconic Vangie Buell.

Readings will be in the education classroom/ studio on the ground floor of the Asian Art Museum (near the information desk)

This Sunday, the Museum will be open to the public free of charge (This made possibly by the generosity of Target).  There will be, as well, an exhibit:  “Filipino Journeys of American History and Art.”

Self will simply quote from the e-mail announcement by Aimee Suzara:

There will be a focus on early sea trade connections between the Philippines and California, how they formed our Filipino American communities, and how they shaped artistic production in Asia and the Americas

Excellent!  Stay tuned, dear blog readers.  Stay tuned.

Just Another Day in The Splendid City (September 2010)

Apologies, dear blog readers, if this post is somewhat disjointed.

But self has been trying to write poetry.

!!@@##

Virginia Woolf, self discovered from the book she is reading (Moments of Being:  Unpublished Autobiographical Writings of Virginia Woolf), used no punctuation.  They were put in later, by her husband (and editor, how convenient), Leonard Woolf.

Crowds are thicker than ever

Especially on Second Avenue

Now self thinks the tenor of the demonstrations is growing serious

There are more more more policemen.

At the Whitney, a pianist played with his elbows

On a Yamaha Baby Grand

Intermittently, he reached into the body of the piano and banged the strings

with a pack of cards.

Hmm, self thought.

Very “Philip Glass.”

Afterwards, a young man in the audience (wearing Bermuda shorts, probably a tourist), raised a hand to ask a question:

“What is your relationship to your music?”

The performer said:  “I don’t understand the question.”

No nasty cabbies today.

Not like yesterday:  the cabbie smoked and smoked.

And today, two cupcakes

From the Purple Elephant Cake Boutique

On 82nd and Lexington.

And self follows up the two cupcakes with a glass of ice-cold Amala Springs Chardonnay (2008).  HA HA HAAAA

Stay tuned, dear blog readers.  Stay tuned.

San Francisco Chronicle Writes About “Filipino Food’s New Wave”

Self had an excellent reason for missing the Pistahan Festival at Yerba Buena:  she was visiting son in San Luis Obispo!   Here’s what she missed:

• The San Francisco Filipino American Jazz Festival performed both days, at the Yerba Buena Gardens.
• Arkipelago Bookstore had a booth, and hosted readings by, among others, Miki Garcia, author of The Filipino Cookbook.
• There was an adobo

Collect.Give, and Ruminations on the Week Just Ended

Today, self was in perfect form: that is to say, she did nothing but agonize over life. Over its various conundrums. Over how so many artists sacrifice all for their art, and end up poor. And other similarly depressing thoughts.

Luckily, there is always the distraction of Facebook!

Today, self received a message from Stella Kalaw. Stella has chosen to think outwards rather than in-wards (which makes her saintly, at least in self’s book).

She’s participating in Kevin Miyazaki’s Collect.Give project.

Read all about it on Stella’s blog.

And, in the meantime, the weekend is here. How did it get here so fast? How does anyone get anything done during the week?

Let’s see if self can remember all the things she did in the past week:

• She spoke to son, very briefly. His life is unbelievably hectic.  He is trying to organize a) his summer job working for two professors at Cal Poly, b) moving to Claremont for grad school, c) saying good-bye to his girlfriend, who’s still at Cal Poly, and d) trying to get a student loan
• She put “End” at p. 288 of her putative novel-in-progress. Unfortunately, she read the whole thing over today (A draaag!) and decided that was a fake End. That is, she

KULARTS: 25th Anniversary Fall 2010 Season!

ANNOUNCING KULARTS 25th Anniversary Fall Season!

KulArts celebrates its 25th year through comedy, theater, dance, visual arts, workshops and more in another jam-packed season!

Kulayan Art Exhibit, Pistahan Arts Pavilion
Aug. 14- 15
Yerba Buena Gardens
FREE

HOI! Fire in the Hole! A long form improv comedy show with
Rene Gube and Eugene Cordero
Friday, Aug. 20, 8 pm
Saturday, Aug. 21, 8 pm
Bayanihan Community Center
1010 Mission Street, San Francisco
$15 General, $13 Advance, $12 Student/Senior

Reading for the Day: John Logan’s “Red”

The Rothko in the excerpt is the painter Mark Rothko, and Ken is his assistant, played by Eddie Redmayne, who garnered a Tony for his performance.

It was a very interesting performance. Self thinks Redmayne pulled it off primarily with his voice, which exhibited an endearing tendency to crack at moments of high tension (which, in this play, occurs every 10 minutes or so. It is a very intense play, dear blog readers!) And Alfred Molina as Rothko was absolutely GREAT.

Penny, self is forever grateful to you for getting the tickets and for taking her to see this play last month!  Self was one of the last two people admitted to the theater before the play started:  she had to catch the subway from Soho and practically flew, flew through Times Square! 

“The Killer Inside Me”: “Kinatay,” the American Version

Self has heard so much buzz about this movie.  Apparently, it is so horrifying, so brutal, so repulsive, that before screenings, someone has to go to the front of the theater and warn the audience that this movie is “not for the faint of heart.”

Which immediately puts self in mind of the Brillante Mendoza movie she saw at the Yerba Buena Center two weeks ago, “Kinatay.”

Self will be eternally grateful to Joel Tan and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for:  a) showing this movie (Apparently, it was considered so “strong” that copies were confiscated from UP just before a screening); and b) for inviting self to be one of the discussants for a Q & A with the members of the audience afterwards.  Yes, it was strong stuff.  But there was a message to the violence.  Yes, you can take it.  Yes, you are allowed to lower your eyes for a minute or two during the goriest sections.  No, it was not as gory as “Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Part 2.”  One Filipino male in the audience even complained that “it was not gory enough.”  Which self found even more shocking a statement than the movie itself.

Back to “The Killer Inside Me.”  According to Michael Winterbottom at “notcomingtoatheatrenearyou” (One of self’s favorite movie blogs!), it is “nauseatingly brutal.”  It’s apparently based on a 1952 Jim Thompson novel.  OK, self knows only that Jim Thompson is “noir.”  And that his novels are short.  Casey Affleck (Casey Affleck!) plays a “murderous” small-town sheriff in Texas.  There is a quote from the novel included in Winterbottom’s review.  Readers can judge for themselves whether this example of “pulp” writing at its most pulp is truly brutal (Self thinks not.  It is just —  graphic.  For true brutality, one would have to read E. L. Doctorow’s first novel, the one about the murderous cowboy.  Or how about a book self just finished reading, Virgil’s The Aeneid)

OK, OK, self will not go on and on about “The Killer Inside Me.”  Especially not when what she really wants dear blog readers to focus on is “Kinatay.”  Dear blog readers, despite the nauseating rape, this is not a snuff movie.  And it has a score of really brave actors and actresses.  And a very brave director.

Stay tuned, dear blog readers.   Stay tuned.

The Economist Books: 22 May 2010

Books self is interested in reading after perusing the Book Reviews in the 22 May 2010 issue of The Economist:

Edmund de Waal’s The Hare With the Amber Eyes:  A Hidden Inheritance

The story of a collection:  264 miniature figurines that Charles Ephrussi (on whom his “protegé,” Marcel Proust, modelled “the aesthete Charles Swann”) “bought as a job lot during the infatuation with Japonisme that swept 1870s Paris” and that, in author de Waal’s hands, become “the thread of this history of his ancestors”

Angus Trumble’s The Finger:  A Handbook

“An intriguing but verbose book” that “investigates fingers in art, from cave pictures through to Michelangelo’s Creation of Man, classical works by Anthony van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens portraying the fashion for gloves, and Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, with its anatomically correct knuckles and nails.”

Sebastian Junger’s War

“The story of a year-long tour of Afghanistan by an American army platoon, with whom Mr. Junger was embedded for several spells,” and which “is, among other things, an outstanding war report:  a precise and gripping account of some of the fiercest battles involving American soldiers in recent times.”

May 18 is International Museum Day

Self has just learned that the International Council of Museums has designated Tuesday, May 18, as International Museum Day.  Since 1977, museums all around the world have been invited to participate in this annual celebration.  The theme for 2010 is “Museums for Social Harmony.”

Here are just a few of the participating countries/museums:

Azerbaijan:    In conjunction with International Museum Day, museums throughout the country will hold special events to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the Azerbaijani composer, Uzeir Hajibekov.

Greece:    The National History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest will organize a series of events under the subtheme “Geodiversity:  The Other Aspect of Biodiversity.”

Mongolia:    The Choijin Lama Temple Museum will organize a “Tsam Dance Mask” performance.

The Philippines:    The Museo de Oro of Xavier University will be organizing “a day festival featuring indigenous dances of the Tinguians of Abra province and Matigsalug Manobo of Bukidnon.  The theme is that the indigenous people of the north (Luzon) come together with the indigenous people of Mindanao in building peace through the arts, music, dance, and culture.”

United States:    In commemoration of International Museum Day, the following museums will offer free admission on May 18 (The below is just a partial list) :

• Museums in Erie County, Ohio
• Selected Museums in Arizona (Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art; Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg; River of Time Museum in Fountain Hills; Artpace, San Antonio)
• American Folk Art Museum
• Art Institute of Chicago
• Cleveland Museum of Art
• Frick Collection
• New Orleans Museum of Art
• Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
• Philadelphia Museum of Art
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
• The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
• Walker Art Center
• Whitney Museum of American Art
• Yale University Art Gallery

(YAY!  Sole fruit of self’s loins just walked in the door!  And he is sooo skinny!)

Stay tuned, dear blog readers.  Stay tuned.