Closing night reception for I Live Here: SF

Tomorrow night is the closing reception for Julie Michelle's brilliant and lovely I Live Here: SF.

If you haven't yet seen this exhibit, make it down to SOMARTS ( 934 Brannan Street,

San Francisco) between 5 and 7 pm and take in this wonderful reminder of how great it is to live in this City.

 

Julie will be on hand, so introduce yourself and find out what it takes to be a part of this ongoing project.

 

 

Go to Hell for the Holidays: Horror in December

How is it I was not the first to know of this but heard about it from Chad last night while we were talking before the Bronfman concert?

Next month Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is having a perverse, anti-holiday, horror film festival called Go to Hell for the Holidays: Horror in December "for holiday haters, adventurous cinephiles and degenerate thrill-seekers alike." The films screen Dec 2 - 18. Every one of the programs are worth seeing for enthusiasts of the genre and I regret I'll miss the first three because I'll be seeing Lohengrin in LA. But I'll catch the rest and I am especially looking forward to seeing "The Life and Death of a Porno Gang," a notorious film frequently compared to "A Serbian Film" as an example of the extreme, transgressive cinema coming from that country.

Tickets are $8 a screening. Check out the YBCA site for dates, times, etc.

Worth noting: an irony probably found only in San Francisco- Go to Hell for the Holidays: Horror in December runs concurrently with the International Buddhist Film Festival Showcase at the same venue. Nicely done, people.

Updated 11/29 with the festival's correct name- thanks to the good people at YBCA.

Yumi Thomas sings evening songs

I've been acquainted with mezzo-soprano Yumi Thomas for some time now but before tonight I've never had the opportunity to hear her perform. Tonight's performance at the intimate Red Poppy Art House in the Mission was a terrific way to experience hearing her for the first time, as she essentially turned the room into a gathering of friends old and new, charming everyone present with her warm and open presence.

Announcing the evening was going to feature only songs about "evenings" and the love frequently found, lost and expressed during the darkened hours of night (I'm wildly paraphrasing here), she began with two Mozart songs, before moving on to three of the five poems by Baudelaire set to music by Debussy. Thomas read translations of the poems beforehand, commenting on their passion and letting the audience know why she's interested in these particular, infrequently performed songs.

Thomas then sang three Monrovian folk songs by Janacek, and this was the point where her deeply alluring mezzo really grabbed hold of me and didn't let go. There's something in her voice I can only describe as smoky, which I know is an odd adjective to use for an opera/lieder singer but there you have it. She reminds me of a chanteuse. Perhaps it was the red dress and the lighting, perhaps the feeling in the room. It's probably because she sings with a minimum of vibrato, just emitting one clean notes after another. Nice. The English translations of the Janacek songs names are "Constancy," "What is that Sound," and "Little Posy." These were simply beautiful and especially nice to hear since Janacek is on the mind of many people because of The Makropulos Case over at San Francisco Opera has been reminding us how fantastic a composer he was.

She then sang a Sephardic lament in Ladino (yes, you can start counting the languages now- this was the fourth), which was again perfectly suited to her voice, filling the room with a deeply personal interpretation that quite moving, as were the final four songs by Rachmaninoff (Russian being the fifth language she sang during the performance- and very well I might add). There was no encore, though the audience would have liked one.

She recently began splitting her time between the Bay Area and New York- keep an eye out and go hear her the next time she has a performance scheduled. I'll list future performances on the Coming Up page as I learn of them.

San Francisco Opera at the "precipice"

San Francisco Opera's General Director David Gockley has made some rather startling remarks in the program for the Makropulos Case. I didn't notice if these same comments appeared in an earlier program, Cyrano's for example, because unless it's the season announcement I usually find little interest in what Gockley has to say. However, this is different. This sounds dire and I'm surprised no one is seems to be talking about it- or at least writing about it.

In the program's "Notes from the General  Director" Gockley shares "excerpts from remarks I made at a full Company meeting several weeks ago." After noting the precarious situations many arts organizations around the country are in due to the economy, and his opinion that an end in nowhere in sight, he writes

This reality has pushed most companies towards a precipice, forcing incredibly hard decisions. San Francisco Opera is, however, already there. Exacerbating the general economic pain facing all companies are a unique set of factors that this company has languished under for many years, if not decades.

Well, at least he's not blaming everything on Pamela Rosenberg this time. Among the factors causing the pain are:

• "a beautiful but woefully inadequate facility that does not afford the technological efficiency of newer stages"
• eight separate locations of operation
• a reliance on "12 families for 50% of our contributed income and the majority of these donors are over 70 years old!" [exclamation point Gockley's]
• maxing out potential ticket sales [Gockley acknowledges the obscene amount prices have risen during his tenure]
• undercapitalization and an "inadequate endowment and facilities"
• fixed cost obligations
• a "major cash problem" which may lead to a "going concern" scenario wherein SFO "may not have the resources to meet its obligations and is typically an indication that insolvency is just around the corner"

Many people reading the program may not realize the implications if SFO becomes a "going concern." First of all, it implies SFO isn't going to get a clean audit this year. This is pretty alarming news, people- I'm not sure this has ever happened to them before- in fact I really doubt it. The timing is suspicious because the numbers for next year are due shortly. It also means the repercussions of such an event could hit the Company where it hurts the most and where the only quick-fix source of income is going to appear out of nowhere- deep-pocketed donors, who fully understand that donating large amounts of money to a "going concern" makes about as much sense as playing the lotto- and these people just don't do that.

Golly, where does one begin? How about with this comment by Gockley on last year's financial audit, posted on the company's website in February, 2010:

"These are the results we more or less expected for FY 2009, a season less impacted by the current "Great Recession" than FY 2010 or 2011 will be. We are presently forecasting a FY 2010 deficit of $2 million and are struggling mightily to balance FY 2011, the season in which we have announced three cycles of Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle. Contributing to this situation is the recession's effect on ticket sales, annual contributions and the value of our endowment. Looking ahead, only significant modifications to the company's fixed cost structure will permit us to survey the future with reasonable confidence."

Well at least he saw it coming. He did, right? So I guess the question is what have he and the Board been doing for the past year to make the situation better? I'll have to get back with you on that.

My first thought on reading this is that Gockely is about to embark on a Quixotic adventure of either trying to break the unions associated with the Opera or at least attempting major wage and benefit concessions from them. This scenario would be really interesting, but however it plays out everyone is going to be the loser. As I see it (from a very distant perspective here in the stands) one of two things will happen: the unions will balk and a season is going to be cancelled because of a strike. This would be a disaster on so many levels I won't even begin to list them. The other scenario is that somehow Gockley brings the unions to the table and extracts major concessions from them. This isn't going to play well with anyone no matter how it's handled. The press will have a field day, the union members will be bitter, and there isn't any plausible way at this stage Gockely can say with a straight face "take these cuts now and we'll make it up to you one day." If he manages this it's going to hurt, hurt deeply, and for a long time. Significant players will probably look for other opportunities elsewhere- and find them, essentially removing a lot of the cream at the top.
If his statement isn't a shot across the bow at the unions, then what does all this portend? What's Gockley hinting at?

He says they company has been considering "Five Levers" (who comes up with these names, btw?), which are:

• Recapitalization by borrowing against equity the Indiana Street property
• Reducing the season starting in 2012 to eight productions [so long, summer season?]
• Structural imbalance  [he's not very clear with details about what this means but it doesn't sound very positive- something about "reconceptualizing" and a "re-envision" of how the company operates and with what resources. Uh-oh.]
• Facilities [Okay, this looks like the easy part- so do something already- you've been talking about this for years now.]
• Grow the endowment [duh]

He then goes on to say "SFO has no preordained right to exist" and how "it will require each person in this theater to participate and recognize their part in re-thinking San Francisco Opera."

Furthermore, "It may mean personal sacrifice, it may mean a re-thinking of traditional norms and expectations, it may mean a different kind of company (italics mine)." Hold on a minute- what the fuck did he just say?

"A different kind of company"? Such as... what?

If you've read this blog for awhile you already know I'm not a fan of Gockley's vision and I dislike a lot of what he's done with the company, but I'll give the guy credit when it's due and acknowledge that when he succeeds, he tends to do so in a big way.

A check on the numbers for last year show production costs have remained mostly static or are actually lower than in previous years, which is a good thing. I don't pretend to understand how they move all that "temporarily restricted" money all around and all of that other accounting wizardry- I'm going to show these numbers to someone I know who actually does this stuff for a living to get a better understanding of it- but for me the big question is why such an alarming statement has come from the General Director with such little advance notice- and includes things that could have been addressed during the past four years (such as the eight locations) and things that really can't be addressed at all- meaning the supposed inadequacies of the War Memorial Opera House? What a mess! Who's in charge here?


However, I am a huge fan of San Francisco Opera and of what it means to the City and our community. Now in this call to collective arms (at least that's how I read it), nowhere did I see a place for the public to make its suggestions/thought/comments known and I also didn't see any suggestions from Gockley as to what we, the audience sitting in the theater, could do to help (besides of course the implied imperative to give money or buy more expensive seats- both of which really aren't viable strategies to most people in the current climate).

But you do want to hear from us, don't you Mr. Gockley? I mean we do go these shows- some of us have for many years now. We are invested in the success of SFO and don't want it to just disappear because it "has no preordained right to exist." In our minds we would have a hard time coming to grips with the idea even as a remote possibility. SFO can't just disappear because the money's not there to run it.

So here are my suggestions, completely given with the knowledge they certainly won't fix everything, perhaps even little in the overall big picture, but it I offer them in the spirit of one who is interested in seeing SFO grow and thrive, respects its history, its place in the opera world, and its relevance to the City and Bay Area:

A season of eight productions? Fine, do away with the summer season altogether. The house is too hot in the summer anyway and eight productions in the fall is a lot more exciting than 5 or 6.

Split those eight into "four and four"- four that maintain your preference for stars, warhorses and glitz and four for the audience that wants more than Butterfly every other year and would be more interested in seeing Edgar before another mediocre Tosca- the audience that is talking rabidly about The Makropulos Case and helped sell out every show of Porgy and Bess. I'm going to label it the "Janus Approach."

The Janus Approach would look like this: four operas that have the stars doing their thing in good productions of the standard rep. Gockley knows how to do this as well as anyone else. But he needs to make sure it hits every time, not just most of the time. Last season he pulled it off better than anyone could have imagined- this year not so much, too be kind.

The star-studded, standard side would feature productions like last year's Trovatore, Fille du Regiment and Elisir and this year's Cyrano. When the standard rep is done at that level everyone wants to see it. When it's not, you lose the press, the bloggers, enthusiasts, dilettantes and most people except newbies, blue-hairs, and the occasionals.

The other side of the Janus Approach has the premieres, Janacek, Britten, Berlioz, and acknowledges the audience that Rosenberg helped develop hasn't disappeared- they are just avidly awaiting what Ensemble Parallele and Urban Opera are going to do next and are not that excited about Aida, Butterfly or next year's Carmen and Turandot. It's the audience that flies down to see LA Opera's Recovered Voices programming. It's the audience that will fly into SF if there's a good reason to- meaning something they can't see anywhere else. Do these have to be super expensive productions? No- they just have to be good, thoughtful and adventurous. You want a younger audience? You'll find it here. Stage the first West Coast production of Die Soldaten, do Zemlinsky, produce niche programming which compels people into the House.

Porgy and Bess was a milestone for the company- a tremendous success on every level and this was all Gockley's doing. Do it again- this time with West Side Story, Oklahoma or even The Music Man for the holidays. Can you imagine how awesome it would be to see The Music Man in the War Memorial with Nathan Gunn and Joyce DiDonato in the leads? Okay, I know I'm on my own personal fantasy tangent here- sorry!

Granted, ticket sales aren't going to be the only way to fix this, but programming is the key to everything because that's where you develop the audience and the audience is where the money comes from. What you do with the money is the Board's decision, but if you want to re-invent the Company, let's re-invent it- and re-invent it for the next generation without alienating the current one.

Chamber operas- put Adamo's Little Women on, and the smaller Britten operas, in Herbst or YBCA. The opportunities here are endless, but  more Three Decembers in Berkeley isn't the answer. It has to happen here in the City.

Maximize sponsorships. My day job contributes a LOT of money to SFO yet hardly any of my co-workers know about the discounts available to them. There are a lot of people you aren't reaching out to in any effective way that can be lured to the house for the first time. Make sure what they see makes them want to return.

Stop dumbing it down. The Facebook page of SFO is often embarrassing. There is a middle path between "elitist" and "high-brow" and pandering to "Gleeks." This is the Western world's highest art form- work it for what it is.

Extend Bravo perks. Take a cue from the Symphony and come up with something like Davies After Hours. Stop letting Sugar and Absinthe get all the money after the show ends- leave the bars open and set up places in the house where people can talk about what they just saw and heard.

Opera in the Ball Park is a huge success. What's next? How about random, unannounced Opera Across San Francisco? Have some heavyweight tweeters letting people know SFO is broadcasting from in front of the Ferry Building, Dolores Park, Union Square or ....

These are my suggestions for now.. I'll have others as I think about it. The comments section is wide open.. have at it.

Bronfman plays Brahms

Wednesday night Chad and I caught up at Max's before heading over to Davies to hear Yefim Bronfman play the first Brahms piano concerto. It was unusually crowded (the penultimate performance of the brilliant Makropulos Case was also taking place that night across the street) and there was a blonde I knew I'd seen before at the far right of the bar and to my left a brunette I had the same issue with, who was seated with a man in a bow tie some years her senior who I'm pretty sure works for the opera to her left. Sometime between the first time I noticed her and midway through her meal the brunette had perfectly applied a very red lipstick to her mouth. The things I notice can be quite strange- I suppose the things I remember a day and a half later are even stranger. I had the black bean soup which was pretty good- Chad had a salad, two beers and a whiskey straight up. A perfectly balanced meal.

Entering Davies I was pleased to see what looked like a very well-sold house, at least from the orchestra level. Whether this was due to the program (Brahms and Berg), Bronfman's appearance or the timing of a concert before a four-day weekend for most people was hard to discern. My interest in the program was primarily Bronfman, who has become a don't-miss performer for me over the past few years, even though it seems like he just performed this piece here last year. Turns out I was wrong- he last performed Brahms' first two seasons ago- last season it was Brahms' second I think, before he returned later in the spring to turn in some amazing performances during the Schubert/Berg smackdown last spring (Berg won, by the way).

Fima Bronfman- photo by Dario Acosta

 Bronfman intrigues me- for starters, he's the most laid back-looking musician of his stature there is. As he strides onstage he almost looks out of place. He doesn't look like a musician- he looks like the postman delivering a package or a butcher bringing you a tasty cut of meat. What I mean by that is he's going to deliver the goods, but his manner is one of delivery, knowing he's only the intermediary, not the creator, and he has an air of humility inherent to being the middleman.

I also appreciate he doesn't tour with only one piece to play, as many musicians do, taking his Brahms from stage to stage around the world. I checked his schedule- he hasn't played the piece since last March- in the meantime he's been performing the Beethoven 1,2,3 & 5th (!) concertos, Lizst's 2nd, all three Bartok's, Tchaikovsky's 1st, Brahms' 2nd, Prokofiev's 2nd, numerous solo recitals and a few gigs with Pinchas Zuckerman where they played Beethoven, Mozart and Brahms sonatas. From here he's on his was to play Rachmaninoff's 3rd and Salonen's 1st, which was written for him. That's a helluva schedule.

And yet here he shows up and plays the Brahms 1st in a way that was completely unexpected. It's so easy (and typical) to hear Brahms played with blustering, forceful Romanticism. Bronfman did none of that. He performed with a deliberate, articulated approach that was never rushed, never flamboyant and brought out all of the yearning in the score without calling attention to it. Despite silently talking to himself, closing his eyes at certain passages and finishing lines with a flourish of his hands and a glance at Michael Tilson Thomas as if to say "now it's your turn, Mikey- take it away!" Bronfman's tempo was slower than one might have expected, but this allowed him to make every note count, creating drama from the music, not from his performance. This was evident from his earliest solos in the first movement, where Brahms has the piano enter with gentle music requiring the listener to focus their attention in place of the usual robust fanfare announcing the soloist is now ready to show off. When it was over, I marvelled at the almost complete silence in the room- very little coughing, throat-clearing or other obnoxious noise so commonly heard between movements. Just a kind hushed silence from the crowd, waiting to hear more.

The second movement was even lovelier, the adagio taken at a slow, almost elegiac pace but without a trace of solemnity at all. When it ended, someone in the audience sneezed and as if on cue, Bronfman turned and very quietly said "Bless you."

The third movement brought it home with a vibrant, rhythmic close during which smiles appeared on many  faces of the members of the orchestra, who were also obviously enjoying the fact that once again, Bronfman killed it. He got a hearty standing ovation and Michael Tilson Thomas looked thrilled when it was all over. Bronfman on the other hand, had a pleased, almost bemused smile on his face, but it didn't reveal more than the deep satisfaction of a job well-done.

This was the second half of the concert by the way, unusually scheduled for the guest soloist to take the stage after the intermission. The first half was Brahm's Academic Festival Overture, which came off as a lightweight piece of opening filler, followed by the first SFS performances of Three Pieces of the Lyric Suite by Berg. MTT always manages to make Berg interesting, though I'm always left with the impression he's as mystified as the audience often is with one of the 20th Century's most intriguing composers. This piece, originally written in six pieces for a quartet, had a number of compelling moments for the strings-only orchestra, especially the middle section which at times sounded to me like a million scurrying insects (not a bad thing- just an unusual one). Chad thought it too close to "film music." The audience gave it a lukewarm reception.

Afterwards, we ended up at Urban Tavern after discovering First Crush was closed for some inexplicable reason. Miss Trixie, what's going on? Even though it's part of the Hilton, the bartender at UT makes a mean Manhattan and the bar menu has some pretty tasty stuff. It also had the benefit of being a relatively quiet place where we could have a chat without having to yell- something now a rarity in all but the diviest of bars in downtown at 11:00 pm.

Bronfman and the Symphony will be performing the same program Friday and Saturday night. Get a ticket.

The return of El Niño

A few days back I began to whittle down my choices for what would appear on my "best of 2010" list and suddenly I realized I haven't yet seen/heard the one thing that could possibly top the list- the return of John Adams' El Niño to Davies Symphony Hall.

This contemporary masterpiece made its debut here in 2001 with performances conducted by Kent Nagano. To this day that evening remains on my top 10 list of the best performances I've ever seen (across all genres of music). With the possible exception of the The Tristan Project, I don't think I've ever heard anything in a concert hall that ever moved me as much that night did.Walking home from Davies that night I gave away all the money I had in my pocket to homeless people along the way. Absurd, I know- but that's how wonderful I felt afterward (and it's never happened since- I'm a horrible misanthrope on most days).

It returns December 2-4 with a fantastic line up of singers including Dawn Upshaw and Michelle De Young. This time Adams himself will be at the podium. On December 2nd there will be an informal Q & A after the performance with Upshaw, De Young and Jonathan Lemalu.

Update 12/1: Tickets for the Friday and Saturday night performances are now available on Goldstar.
Let me put it this way- if you are only going to attend one concert this year (which would be foolish!)- this is the one not to miss.

Offensive? Misogynist? Moi?

Searching on Google to determine where certain feeds to this blog were coming from, I came across a blog called Music and Politics which has a post on it called "Fat Ladies need not apply." The author, who is taking a class on the blog's name, has written a post based on one of mine, "Did the fat lady sing?."

This is kind of weird. It's also amusing because the author goes to some length to make me look like a misogynistic ass by cherry-picking some of what I wrote. I feel shamefully abused.

Below is from her post:

An interesting post on a personal blog, A Beast in a Jungle, entitled “Did the fat lady sing?” credits Voigt’s firing scandal with what he perceives as a permanent shift in opera casting. As he says, “Deborah Voigt killed the fat lady. In all but a few roles, its over for them as far as opera is concerned.” To prove his point, he posts the pictures of the leading sopranos of the San Francisco Opera’s season. He calls them, “six reasons to applaud Operavision in the balconies, or justification to buy really good seats.” He introduces them as “the hotties.”

Despite the misogynist tendencies of his posting, “John Marcher” (he acknowledges that this is a pseudonym) has some valid points. If you sift through the offensive stuff I can see his point that “Mimis, Carmens, and Violettas are much more convincing when they don’t look like the well-fed wives of the King.” At the core of his argument is this statement:

“Opera is a combination of music and drama—it doesn’t work without both and when the people onstage look and sound the part (and can act as well as sing” it is only then that the true power of the Western world’s most potent art form fully comes to life.”

This is easily the least offensive statement Marcher makes and it is one I can acknowledge the practicality of. As opera seeks to become relevant to a culture full of movie stars and sexy pop idols, producers need to utilize every tool at their disposal. Actors and actresses that look the part of their tempting characters render more believable drama and add sexual appeal to the visual fantasticism that is typical of many operas, drawing audiences.

Ms. Voigt, in fact, also agrees. A New York Times article on her stresses that, despite the controversy, “Voigt defends the right of opera companies to take appearance into account when they are casting productions” though she “insists that vocal artistry should come first.”

Hmm... where shall I start?

The author takes offence at my using the word "hotties." Okay so perhaps the class is being taught at some politically correct school where they don't have a sense of humor about such things? I don't know, but I did include the 50 year-old Karita Mattila as one of the hotties, and she is, so what's the problem baby?

Incredulously, she then created a separate post using all of the pictures I posted (except she didn't call them "hotties"- entitled "The six leading sopranos for the San Francisco Opera’s 2010 season." The nerve of you, young lady!

Honestly, what bothers me most is that the writer essentially acknowledges everything I opined about is true and seems to be calling me out only because I focused on only the female singers. Darling, that was the point of the post! And you seem to agree with me, so why are you being so unkind by labeling me so?

Sweetie, had you delved a little deeper, perhaps you would have found out what I thought about overweight male singers- like Johan Botha, for example, who strains credibility onstage because of his size, and how the experience is improved when performed by someone who looks, as well as sounds, convincing in the role- regardless of being male or female.

I don't know if the author of Music and Politics will ever see my little rebuttal, but my dear, the comments section and my email are wide open for you (she has neither available on her blog).

West Side Story redux, dinner at Credo

Twas a dark and stormy night. Really! The weather people really screwed up the forecast by missing this one. I'm home on a Saturday night, in for the weekend, really, nursing a cold to prevent it from becoming something more, watching lightning light up the San Francisco sky during a downtown downpour.

This past Thursday was my last night out for awhile, and Penelope, The Minister's Rebellious Daughter and I went to see West Side Story. Beforehand, Penelope and I had dinner at Credo and this is worth bringing up. I made a 6:00 reservation on Open Table, for which we arrived promptly. Neither of us had been before and the place was packed six deep at the bar with those fi-di/Marina types who think the louder you say something the more interesting it must be. The volume was almost too much to bear for a meal and once we were seated it only increased one decibel at a time. We were going to leave, but then a server mentioned we could sit "downstairs" if we preferred, to which we replied "Please!"

"Downstairs" is a new section for the restaurant, only opened two weeks ago, and is usually where they would have put the loud, obnoxious, private party who were destroying the upstairs this evening (who refused the space and insisted on remaining upstairs).

The good folks at Credo deserve an "A" for effort on accommodating us and others on this night. The food was slow coming (because of the crush upstairs) but it was delicious, the drinks well-made and the staff obviously wanted to make sure everyone was satisfied and made a real effort at it. Bravo.

We just made it in time to the Orpheum to meet TMRD, who for once beat me to the established place. We all agreed Kyle Harris as Tony was poorly cast, with Penelope cruelly comparing him to Howdy Doody. I was less impressed with Ali Ewoldt's Maria  the second time around, who seemed very shrill in the 2nd half, and interestingly the choreography, instead of getting tighter as the run has gone on, has noticeably broken down amongst the female dancers especially, but over-all lacked the dynamic punch of opening night. Joseph Simoene's Riff, German Santiago's Bernardo, Michelle Aravena's Anita remain impressive. The set is even more impressive seen from the orchestra instead of the balcony. The run has a week left and it's worth seeing.

Half-off tickets for Makropolus and Aida (Updated with correct link)

The last performance of Makropulos on 11/28 is almost completely sold out but tickets for Nov. 20 and 24, along will all tickets for the remaining evening performances of Aida can now be had for 1/2 off.

Yesterday the discount was only 40%. What a difference a day makes. Makropolus is easily SFO's best production this year and Aida, is a first rate, traditonal production that is well-suited to newbies and traditionalists.

UPDATE: Order online using code TZHOL50. Fees of $9 an order will be added. You need to use the link above to access the box to enter the offer- it cannot be entered through the main the purchase link on the opera's website.

Věc Makropulos - this is opera

Those of us who still miss the Rosenberg era of San Francisco Opera are getting a welcome reprieve from the "Stars! Glamour! MBA Night!" ethos of the Gockley era with one of the strongest productions the War Memorial Opera House has seen in years- a marvelous staging of Janacek's Věc Makropulos (The Makropulos Case) that has everything going for it. This co-production with Finnish National Opera, which closes out the fall season, has been the most highly anticipated event of SFO's season (the return of Placido Domingo excepted)- the kind of thing some of us have been waiting for for about four years and thank you David Gockley for delivering the goods so handsomely.

I've had the good fortune of seeing this opera before- with Penelope at the Aix-en-Provence festival in 2000. Sir Simon Rattle conducted and led a cast of featuring Anja Silja, Willard White and Graham Clark. Though the supertitles were in French and I can't understand that language (nor Czech, for that matter), thus rendering most of the plot points unintelligible beyond what I could pick up through the synopsis, it left a deep impression on me that stuck and a taste for Janacek that only grows stronger with each exposure to his work. Having now seen excellent productions of his major works, I think it time Leos Janacek is acknowledged to be the finest opera composer of the 20th Century, without peer. Jenufa, Katya Kabanova, The Cunning Little Vixen and The Makropulos Case are four masterpieces that can stand up against the best works of any other composer except for Wagner. There, I said it. It needed to be said. It's true.

Starring (and I do mean "Starring") the incomparable Karita Mattila in her first turn as Emilia Marty/Elina Makropulos/Elsa Muller/Ellian MacGregor/Eugenia Montez/Ektarina Myshkina, and featuring a super strong cast supported by fantastic conducting/musical contributions from Jiri Belohlavek in the pit and an excellent production team, this is what opera should be like all the time. Oh, were it only the case.

The plot sounds convoluted in most descriptions but it's actually not: Emilia Marty, an opera singer who is 337 years old, seeks a piece of paper containing the formula to maintain her eternal youth. She'll do anything (and anyone) to get hold of it because she realizes she's dying and needs a new fix. The rest of it- horribly convoluted family trees, legal wrangling, various seductions and spurned advances is just a bunch of white noise around her as she schemes to get what she wants.

Mattila is perfect in this. In fact, she owns this role so completely I can't imagine another singer of her caliber attempting it for years after this performance. If you've ever had the good fortune to experience Mattila in an interview conducted in person, you know this is a woman with a large personality and formidable charm. These assets, inherent to her, are utilized to their full extent on the stage. Mattila is a voracious, hungry animal in this- one whose longevity has stripped away her illusions, her willingness to play along, her patience for the petty desires and dreams of the mortal world and its self-imposed delusions and morality. With the same fearless physicality she brought to her Salome performances at the Met a few years back, she enters the stage and simply owns it before she even opens her mouth. Yet when she opens that mouth a certain magic happens. Allow me to wax hyperbolic for a moment and say that Mattila is in peak form here- she was born for this role.

When she sings of the scars inflicted upon her body after 300 years of men pawing at her and her willingness to expose those scars because she simply doesn't care and can't expect more from a man, the effect is chilling. The 50 year-old singer is a bombshell with a Zippo in one hand and Molotov cocktail in the other, but she wants to make you like it in a gentile manner as she gets ready to torch everything that stands in her way. At least as much as a woman who has "a thousand brats" can.

The supporting cast is strong, and since there really isn't a weak link among them I'm going to cite them in the order of impressiveness: Gerd Growchowski as Baron Prus; Matthew O'Neill as Sendorf; Brian Jadge as Janek; Maya Lahyani in two roles; Miro Dvorsky as Gregor; Susannah Biller as Kristina- all excellent.

The stage direction by Olivier Tambosi is flawless- he lets Mattila chew up the scenery (which she does and then some). The lighting by Duane Schuler is some of the best I've ever seen. In the first half Mattila is uber glamorous- evoking Kim Novak and other 50's cinematic icons. In the second, short half, as she brushes her hair while hearing of Janek's suicide with complete indifference she evokes Monroe at her most remote. Then with a stroke of genius, Schuler lights Mattila's face with a harsh white light- in effect creating a death mask for all to see as the denouement begins. Everything is stripped bare- the illusions, the dreams, the fallacy behind the idea that living forever could make one happy. As Marty explains how fortunate mortals are to have such easy lives, lives which have a purpose because they have an ending which gives them a meaning, the weightlessness of a life of no consequence is laid bare on the stage.

See it. This is what opera is all about. There are three more performances.

All photos by Cory Weaver.

"A Serbian Film" to be released in U.S.

Update: 03/10/11:

The release date will be  05/13/11 and it will be an edited version.

A Serbian Film will be released in the U.S. this coming February, heavily edited to get an "R" rating. I'm not into printing spoilers about this particular film- you can read them all over the net, but I have to wonder how much the of film's power will be diluted in process of making it palatable to the Bible Belt and the red states (where it will probably do its biggest business).

An un-edited version will play in art-houses (or at least in small, independent theaters lacking corporate bosses who fear the wrath of the Right) and be released on DVD. While I think the film is unsuitable for many people (if you have kids you probably shouldn't even think about watching it), but if you do choose to see it, view an unedited version in a theater with a great sound system. This is the most unsettling movie I've ever seen, and if you're going to go for it, you might as well go all in.

The red-band trailer for the film is available on my original post about the film. It is seriously not safe for work.

It will be theatrically released in the U.K. on December 10th, and DVD sales across the pond start on January 3rd.

Reeling and rocking a Saturday night

The Greek and I share certain proclivities and tastes. What better wingman for a Saturday night double-header? Add to this we were in similar mental states at the start of the evening and let's just say I'm pleased to find upon inspection I have every thing in my possession this morning that I had with me when I left my apartment last night.

The first gig was Slavic Soul Party at the Swedish American Hall, another of SFJazz's outside the box shows. SSP is a nine-piece, New York based band who take Roma music (that's the politically correct way to identify anything you might want to label gypsy, fyi) and filter it through a variety of musical influences, whipping up a pretty irresistible brew of dance music. It's Baltic funk, anchored in the rhythm section of Matt Moran on snare drum and cow bell, Chris Stromquist on bass drum and cymbal (only one!) and the tireless Ron Caswell on tuba. Who needs a bass when you have a tuba?

The rest of it is all brass and an accordion and it rocks harder than you would believe unless of course you've seen this kind of thing before. Roma music tends to start in one place before moving on to somewhere you don't expect- yeah, kind of like a pick pocket. Almost all of SSP's tunes started off in one groove and then morphed into an entirely different rhythm, sometimes subtly, sometimes not, always led by the drummers, who have an uncanny way of taking the most primitive instruments and using them in highly sophisticated ways. One of the best things about this ensemble is how they take what initially sounds like a glorious mess and turn it into something that's deceptively sophisticated. It looks easy, but it's certainly not, though the sold-out crowd dancing through it all probably didn't even care.

SFJazz has had a pretty great run for their fall festival, which is winding down this weekend with sold-out shows by Roseanne Cash and Vijay Iyer today. The remaining gigs for which tickets are available are Marcus Shelby on 11/20 and Arturo Sandoval, who'll be performing on January 8th after postponing his gig last month due to the death of his mother. I have to tip my hat to this vital non-profit for bringing a great array of artists to the City this year, as they always do- this is a very well-run organization who really make an impact on the local music scene with their fantastic programming. They are currently planning on building their own venue on Franklin and when that becomes a reality it's going to be fantastic- you can learn more about it here. Get on their mailing list to make sure you don't miss what's coming in the spring- they are putting on some of the best shows in the Bay Area.



The downside to the Swedish American Hall is there's no bar- you have to downstairs to the Cafe Du Nord to have a drink and the Greek and I found ourselves down in the hole, so to speak. Eventually we got out of there and made our way to the Red Devil to see AC/DShe.

The band was great. 5 women playing nothing but Bon Scott-era AC/DC songs. Lead singer Amy Ward sounds so much like Bon and is such a great performer I think the guys should fire Brian Johnson and hire her to replace him. How awesome would that be?

The remainder of the evening shall remain unwritten about. At least by me. Let there be rock.



Rufus sings Shakespeare and other oddities

There is  a truly odd and unusual program unfurling itself over the weekend at Davies Symphony Hall this weekend and if you have a chance to catch the last night on Saturday (though it may be sold out) this head scratcher works at every turn and ought not to be missed.

First of all, these performances were to be conducted by Jeffrey Kahane and were suppose to feature Kahane conducting the orchestra from the piano bench in Ravel's Piano Concerto  No. 2, the delayed world premiere of Rufus Wainwright's Five Sonnets and Weill's 2nd Symphony (in the first SFS performances). Exit Kahane for reasons I don't recall and the Ravel disappears, to be replaced by Darius Milhaud's La Creation Du Monde, led by super stand-in Michael Francis, who's made a name for himself world-wide by stepping in at the last moment to conduct world premieres and knocking them out of the park. Yes, it's weird already and we haven't even heard a note of music!

Milhaud was one of Les Six, who wonderfully documented in Alex Ross' The Rest is Noise. The Six were interested mainly in two things- upsetting the status quo of "Western Art Music" and jazz. Listening to what Milhaud and the program notes call his most successful score, written after a visit to the U.S. in 1922, I wanted to know where and when Milhaud and Gershwin sat down together to smoke some opium, for La Creation Du Monde contains so many elements found in Rhapsody in Blue the first thing I did was look up which one is credited with coming first. For the record, Milhaud beat Gershwin by a year, though he never quite grasped Gershwin's mastery of rhythm. Still, the piece is a fascinating intersection of jazz and classical music which has interest beyond being a museum piece. If you want to hear how classically-oriented composers confronted and incorporated jazz into classical music, Rhapsody is the place to start- and La Creation Du Monde is the place to go next. SFS heavy hitters looked like they were having a ball- Carey Bell on clarinet, William Bennett on oboe, Mark Inouye on trumpet and Robin Sutherland on the piano were obviously having a great time with this one. On opening night these same musicians turned the SFS into the world's greatest jazz band while accompanying Jessye Norman. After tonight, I think it would be a great idea if SFS starts a festival dedicated to large-ensemble jazz concerts. The talent is obviously there, as is the enthusiasm- so let's just do this, okay? It would be a great way to end the season or would be a terrific alternative during the holiday season for those of us who can't stomach The Messiah (there- I said it).

Next up was a genuine star turn if there ever was one in this hall. Rufus Wainwright left SFS in the lurch last year after they commissioned him to set some Shakespeare sonnets to music and perform them. Rufus was too busy writing an opera at the time to finish the project when it was due, so he bailed and left SFS to program Spring Awakening's composer Duncan Sheik in his absence and the result was that one could hurl a brick through the orchestra section of Davies and not injure a single soul during those concerts. Then Wainwright's mother died and the entire project became iffy, only to show up again on this year's schedule- and now drawing a full house. Rufus walked onstage looking like Elton John with taste- fancy slacks, awesome shoes and a boutonniere to die for. The only downside was the microphone. Damn. Well, that and the fact that some of the words were not clearly articulated- following them in the program helped greatly.

Setting Shake's sonnets 43, 20, 10, 129 and 87 to his own music done as a complete song cycle, Wainwright gave a thrilling performance for three of the five. 10 was a bit schmaltzy for me and 129 was nondescript, but the remaining three, especially when he sang "And so my patent back again is swerving" during 87, accompanied by music that circled back upon itself, was musical perfection. Not only should this cycle be recorded, I hope Wainwright sets more of Shake's sonnets to music. You will remember these songs. You will fall in love with what Wainwright has done with them. Give us more, Rufus. Please.

After intermission we were treated to another curiosity, Kurt Weill's Symphony No. 2 (1934), getting its first run at SFS. The score is completely accessible, in many spots sounding like film music, but everything in this three movement curiosity is repeated ad nauseum, making it easy to follow but ultimatelyey bordering the boring in a way, though the ideas contain the undeniable, catchy brilliance that Weill was so adept at. Here Francis showed why he is making a name for himself, succeeding in keeping the repetitive from becoming boring. It really is a difficult work for the orchestra to perform- this is not an easy score, especially for strings, yet Francis kept it all together, making a case for a work that in lesser hands may not have been evident.

After the performance Wainwright and Francis sat down with a local DJ from our psuedo-classical station for a 1/2 hour chat with the audience which was noteworthy on a couple of levels. First, these events usually attract less than 100 people- this one had the entire orchestra section of the hall completely full. Wainwright let loose with an amusing malapropism when he claimed "the sonnets will never get in the way of my music" and Francis revealed himself to be a thoughtful, engaged (if verbose) collaborator. Let's hope both of these artists return to this stage soon.

Exposed

After having a pretty tasty lunch at Farm:Table the Femme Fatale and I went to view the recently opened exhibit at SFMOMA called Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance, and the Camera Since 1870.

To say this is a subject which interests me tremendously would be understating the fact. Living in a small, crowded city, you have two choices as I see it: you can ignore the fact that people are watching you and choose not to acknowledge them, pretending you actually have some anonymity here (which you don't), or you can watch them and understand you too, are being watched by others. This requires tacit acceptance that there is little in the City which goes unnoticed by someone. It's creepy, but it's also a tether to reality, and perhaps a community.


Harry Callahan, Atlanta, 1984

I live in a twenty-story building which is across the street from my previous apartment. I could sit in the living room of my old place and see into about twenty of the apartments in this building. I'd guess there are about 55 apartments in this building that can easily observe what happens in my former place if the curtains aren't drawn. For the record, I live in the rear of the building and can't see into my old apartment, which I think would be very, very interesting.

One day a few months after I moved here I was explaining where I used to live to a neighbor in the building, whose apartment faces my old one. As I was telling him about my former apartment he asked some questions, and suddenly a look of embarrassment came over his face and he got very quiet. I could tell he had seen something happen in my old place. This was all the more awkward because he knew an ex-girlfriend of mine professionally, who I was dating when I lived there. The conversation quickly ended, and I no longer point out my old apartment to my neighbors, though it's now been more than three years since I moved.

I used to date a woman who lived in an apartment building similar in size to this one, but over in Pacific Heights. I often found myself seated at her window watching people as I waited for her to get ready. On more than one occasion I noticed a striking woman enter the building across the street. Lights would then come on in a flat but there was never anything to see- just the woman entering or leaving the building. I asked the one I was dating if she knew anything about the one across the street- going so far as to point her out one night. She replied she'd noticed her too, really liked her clothes, seemed a bit mysterious in an Avengers-era Diana Rigg-way, but other than that she knew nothing.

Garry Winogrand, New York, 1969

A year later I placed a personal ad in the SF Weekly. It received only one response, which really didn't surprise me so much as disappoint me. We soon made a blind date for a drink at Enrico's. Two weeks later I was amazed to find myself in the flat of the woman I used to watch come and go from an apartment across the street. From her flat we would sit in the window and spend entire evenings entertained by goings-on of her neighbors across the street. The woman from whose apartment I used to watch the woman I was now dating dated had moved by this time. I could tell because I could easily see into that apartment. I swear this is a true story and I have some others in a similar vein I could relate as well.

But enough about me- this was supposed to be about the exhibit at the MOMA. Well, it's quite good and covers a lot of ground, ranging from surveillance tapes of numerous types, including Andy Warhol's Blowjob playing high in a corner (you have to look in a place you wouldn't normally look to see it- in other words, non-voyeurs may miss it altogether), vintage nudes, upskirts, paparazzi, news photos- there is really quite an array to see and much of it disturbing to view- there are a number of very grisly photos. It will be on the 4th floor of the museum through April 17, 2001.

Sadly, the museum won't let you takes pictures inside the exhibit. Something about this greatly offends me.  It's an excellent exhibit. Don't miss the Cartier-Bresson exhibit one floor below, which makes a perfect compliment.

Stephanie's Image

I've gotten to know Janis DeLucia Allen a little bit over the last year or so, but it still came as a surprise when she told me she was a filmmaker. She didn't say much about it, in a humble kind of way, but I did go home after she told me and looked up her production company, Coffee and Language. Janis runs the company with her husband JP Allen and they've had some real success with their independent films made in the Bay Area. I rented their most recent, Stephanie's Image, from Netflix and below is the review of it I recently posted on Blogcritics. What I didn't say on that site is that the ending of the film really freaked me out because I felt like I was watching Melissa Leo portraying Madame Merle. An uncomfortable but fascinating bit of art imitating life to be sure.

Stephanie’s Image (2009) features Academy Award nominee (Best Actress for Frozen River) Melissa Leo  as a woman looking for the perfect image of herself as a way to mitigate the toll time and life are taking on her appearance and body. It’s a 21st Century update of the Narcissus myth, spun through the lens of modern technology, in this case an obsession with cameras. Produced by Bay Area independent filmmakers JP Allen (screenplay) and Janis DeLucia Allen (producer and director), who both appear in prominent roles, this is a taut meditation on identity disguised as a murder mystery.

Stephanie’s been murdered. By all appearances it looks like her boyfriend Richard (Chris Butler) killed her in some kind of jealous rage, though no one appears to understand why. DeLucia Allen plays a photographer who interviews people who knew the couple in attempt to understand what happened. She has her own motives for being involved in the project. Ostensibly these interviews will become a documentary about Stephanie. The participants think it’s going to be a “tribute” video, but DeLucia, who’s character is unnamed, delves deep, making everyone she talks with angry and uncomfortable once she relentlessly starts peeling back the layers of their superficial stories. It seems everyone has a story about Stephanie they’d rather not discuss.

These puzzle pieces are neatly laid out, keeping the viewer engaged without feeling like they're being led to a foregone conclusion, which they’re not. The film’s resolution makes perfect sense without being obvious about its intentions. When it’s over, if you’re like me, this film is going to remind you of someone you know or knew, and it’s highly likely that person won’t be in your life anymore.

The Allens have a strong cast on hand including Mara Luthane, Richard Conti, Darren Bridgett and Douglas Rowe. Leo is seen mostly through photographs and video clips until she makes a fearless, devastating appearance in a monologue toward the end of the film. Shot in and around San Francisco, this small, fiercely independent movie deserves an audience. Buy it on Amazon or rent it on Netflix, and let’s put it on the radar.


This review originally appeared in a slightly different form on Blogcritics

An Evening of Beethoven

As part of the Great Performers Series, the Mutter-Bashmet-Harrell Trio took the stage at Davies last night and gave a memorable performance of three of the five Beethoven trios. In a sense there's little I can say about the evening. It was accepted as a given that this trio, comprised of Anne-Sophie Mutter on violin, Yuri Bashmet on viola and Lynn Harrell on cello would deliver a world-class performance of this material and that's precisely what they did. The two hour concert featured the String Trio in C minor, Opus 9, No. 3; the Serenade in D major for Violin, Viola, and Cello, Opus 8 and the String Trio in E-flat major, Opus 3.

Bashmet/Mutter/Harrell

Mutter, looking ravishing as usual in black slacks and an orange top (I'd like to think that's a nod to the world series champs, though I have a difficult time seeing Anne-Sophie as a baseball fan), performed with her usual exquisite control and tone, with a willingness to give it a rough edge where it needed one. She performs with such precision it becomes a task to watch and listen to her at the same time. I actually found it easier at points to close my eyes in order to focus on her playing.

Bashmet is the opposite- sitting almost motionless in his chair throughout the evening, he made his smooth but lush style of playing look not only effortless, but he gave off an air of serenity while performing. Harrell, seated in the middle, was the genial center, at times shooting a playful glance over at Mutter, waiting for her cues, or sometimes just smiling for no reason at all, except that he too, was listening to all of this. Harrell's approach at times mirrored Mutter's aggression, especially in the scherzo of the Op. 8 trio. There was a definite playfulness between Harrell and Mutter, both in demeanor and playing, to the extent the audience tittered more than once during the performance. Charmers, indeed.

Some members of the audience were exceedingly ill-behaved as far as talking, zipping purses, unzipping those same purses and talking some more. Yes, I'm about you in orchestra row O, seat 15- peasant! Other than these annoying people, this was a splendid evening of music- as was to be expected. Now isn't nice to know that there are some things you can always count on? Come back soon Anne-Sophie.

Domingo returns as Cyrano De Bergerac

In the program notes for San Francisco Opera's current run of Cyrano De Bergerac, Placido Domingo says after hearing him perform it at the Met, SFO's David Gockley asked him to do it here. I'm just curious if this is really true, because they way I originally heard it, Gockley asked Domingo what he wanted to do (the inference of course is Domingo could sing whatever he wanted if he came back to SF) and Domingo responded with Cyrano. It doesn't really matter in a way, except other roles Domingo has been singing recently are more interesting (at least that's what I thought before this afternoon) and for his first engagement with the house since 1994, I for one would have rather seen him in Simon Bocanegra or even Iphigenie et Tauride even though SFO has produced both operas in recent seasons.

Fortunately, I've already seen Domingo twice this year so his long-awaited return wasn't that big a deal to me- especially in an opera no one really seems to have anything great to say about. I was even tempted to skip it, but now I'm glad I didn't. Besides I thought, it is Domingo after all, and if I skipped it I would never be taken as a serious opera fan ever again. People would say "What? Domingo was performing seven times just seven blocks from where you live and you didn't go hear him even once? Loser." I just couldn't bear the shame.

I now understand why Domingo likes this role. It doesn't fit him like a glove in the way Pablo Neruda in Il Postino does, and it doesn't allow him the opportunity to blow you away like he can as Siegmund in Die Walkure, but Cyrano lets Domingo do some serious acting and singing onstage and the results are very impressive. Still, I'm glad this isn't my first Domingo experience because while Franco Alfano's take on Edmond Rostand's play has two great scenes, it's not really something most would argue has been unjustly underperformed in the last 70 years and should be resurrected, like Zemlinski's Der Zwerg, to name one example.

 The production is from Theatre du Chatelet, which is good because it looks better than anything we've seen onstage at the War Memorial so far this season. In fact, the sets are wonderful, especially the bakery in Act II. The director and stage designer of this beauty is Petrika Ionesco, and when SFO has the money again to start mounting new productions of its own, they should definitely hire this obviously talented individual, or at least bring over more of her work. The costumes are of the same quality- Domingo looks quite the swashbuckler and everything you see onstage works in perfect harmony. The conducting of Patrick Fournillier was supportive and the orchestra sounded lush at key moments and never overpowered the singers, though my unfamiliarity with the score leaves me unable to say much on that count. There were moments where it felt a little underpowered, but from what I've read that's Alfano keeping the music well behind the singers.

This is as much an acting as it is a singing star turn for Domingo and he makes the most of it. The balcony scene, where Cyrano takes Roxane (the gorgeous, glorious Ainhoa Arteta) in his arms from behind, still maintaining she is being serenaded by Christian, was as beautiful to watch as it was to hear. The other magnificent moment on both counts is the final scene, where Cyrano comes to see her one last time before dying. Domingo is incredibly real in these moments- and while this is consistent throughout, it is the acting and the quality of the singing in these two scenes which will stay in one's memory long after the music has faded away.

Roxane is an underdeveloped character in that we never really understand why everyone wants her, especially someone with Cyrano's obvious depth of emotion. Still, Arteta makes the most of it, and because she's so good-looking, it would be easy to assume she's desired simply because of her beauty, but I didn't catch that as being the reason behind. But if the part were played by someone who didn't resemble an older, prettier Cameron Diaz, the whole thing may have made no sense whatsoever. Thankfully, Arteta's voice is as gorgeous as her face and this was easily the best singing I've heard from a woman on the stage this season (of course that will likely change next week when Mattila comes to town). Thiago Arancam is another very-attractive singer, and as Christian it's easy to understand the shallow Roxane falling for this hunk even before she knows a thing about him. Arancam is a fine singer, but he didn't really stand out on his own. You may think it's impossible for a tenor to do that when Domingo's onstage, but Charles Castronovo managed to pull it off in Il Postino. In all fairness, the latter presents a much better opportunity to do so, but still.

Stephen Powell's De Guiche was well-sung and suitably sleazy, but he was done a grave disservice by the make-up crew, who made him look like the Cowardly Lion with that ridiculous moustache and hair. Another singer who such lodge a complaint against the same folks is Lester Lynch, who was terrific in Porgy and Bess and would have been really impressive here as well if he didn't look like James Brown circa 1978. Timothy Mix turns in another impressive performance after last summer's Fanciulla. Current Adler fellows Austin Kness, Maya Lahyani and Leah Crocetto all stood out in their smaller roles, especially Lahyani, whose clear, rich voice is already a thing of wonder. I know next year we get Kate Aldrich as Carmen, but someone please- please cast Lahyani in that part?

There are two performances remaining. There are a few tickets available for each, and of course there is always standing room available the day of the show. If you don't travel out of town to see opera, you really shouldn't miss what may turn out to be Domingo's local swan-song.

All photos by Cory Weaver.

We do indeed live here

Julie Michelle's photography project/blog/website/experiment in cultural anthropology i live here:SF has been drawing interest since she launched it and the interest only grows as time goes on. Michelle invites San Francisco residents to write something about themselves- what brought them here, what they like about living here, their family histories, etc., and then she takes terrific photographs of these denizens in their favorite locales.

The stories and photographs come from all over the City and encompass the unique diversity found here. Young and old, beautiful and not, hipster and average Joe, she truly is capturing the essence of the City's disparate population which lives cheek by jowl in the world's largest small town.

Spots and Spotswood

Tonight there was a retrospective of her work at Somarts, a lively gallery in SOMA. It was like old home week in a way: not only were many of the subjects there, but the event had the feel of real community. All of these people came to look and read and gawk because we do indeed live here, and Michelle's project reminds us why, as if we needed a reminder- it's about the people and the places. The gallery was packed. I was pleased to see many people I knew and to meet some folks I've known of but hadn't yet gotten the pleasure of actually meeting before. It was terrific to get a chance to meet and talk with Rachel, the real persona behind the lovely blog Fog City Notes and her friends the soft-spoken Tenisha and the tall brunette who would disappear often only to return (Laura?). It was also a pleasure to meet Spots' male wingman, Brock of SFIST (but where was the lovely Melissa?), to see the fabulous Dottie again, and to run into the Tenderbloggers evarels and hiimkevin (though I'm never sure I get these identities correct), with whom I rode home on the 27 bus.

Tenderblog, btw, is greatly responsible for expanding the community of bloggers and their readers through their Tendernights events, which has another one coming up on 11/18 from 6-8 (ha ha ha- once this group starts drinking it goes all night) at KOKOs, 1060 Geary @ Van Ness. Come out and meet some folks, tell them why you should be profiled as a Tenderlocal, or show them pix of your dog or cat and get them instant fame and local love. The first Tendernight is where I met Julie Michelle (and many other great people)- and I hope to one day be one of her subjects. In the meantime, check out Somarts, which also has a fantastic Day of the Dead exhibit going on this weekend which really should be seen- poignant and personal, this is real home-grown, local, significant art. I overheard one visitor say one installation made him cry. I knew exactly which installation he meant.

 3 voyeurs

I live here: you live here- let me take a picture of you.

Thanks Julie-this was a great event and a great way to end what has been a truly remarkable week here in the City- the Giants win the World Series; we have a fantastic parade to celebrate the victory; on November 2nd we are the only state in the union that votes with anything resembling sanity; the weather has been incredible and we live here: SF!http://iliveheresf.com/. What more could one want?