Filmmaker and Webby Awards founder Tiffany Shlain’s introduction to her project in progress, “Connected,” at Ignite Bay Area | Women Innovators last week had me intrigued about the film to be released next year. Motherhood, international relations, and Internet culture all seem to be front of mind:
While the project is in production, Shlain’s thoughts on the observervations that spurred the film (burqas and beekeeper suits among them) can be found on the event’s SlideShare channel and here:
After practicing with and taking part in Vinyasa instructor Rusty Wells’ most recent yoga teacher training program, I couldn’t be more excited that he’s decided to open his own Bhakti flow studio in 2010 on Mission. Urban Flow is to be a donation-based studio for Vinyasa classes, and I’m told that the space is sunny and spacious. Rusty will be teaching at Yoga Tree leading up to a New Year’s Eve opening for Urban Flow. According to his site, “After that date, everything changes!” (It’s a good reminder for all of us.)
Local gallery space Intersection for the Arts is currently showing “One Day: A Collective Narrative of Tehran,” a set of images by eight artists living in the Iranian city along with SF-based artist Tareneh Hemami. I’m eager to see the work about a city I know about only through news mentions, and the daichtomy the exhibit hopes to create seems intriguging: “The city of Tehran itself embodies and reflects a unique combination of religion and laicism, tradition and modernism, poverty and wealth, high-tech and retro urbanism.” It will be showing until mid-January with the exception of December 20 through January 4 (expecting city flight, perhaps?).
At one of myriad planning meetings for Ignite Bay Area at Ritual Roasters on Valencia, I was struck by a recent photo exhibit featuring women working in Nepal, Bangladesh, Guatemala, and Zimbabwe. It was presented by the locally-based non-profit International Development Exchange and featured the colorful work of Jan Stürmann, Marlon Garcia and Paola Gianturco (author of Women Lighting the Dark, a book to benefit The Global Fund for Women).
The work was shown not in an effort to sell prints but to raise awareness of the organization’s work to provide long-term grants and access to resources to locally run organizations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America (including El Carmen Varituc, Guatemala, where the photo above was taken). More images can be seen on IDEX.org and at the organization’s offices at Valencia at 19th.
As if I were ever far from the Mission on a Friday night, the second Mission Holiday Block Party is a good excuse to make one’s way between Market and 24th this weekend. Businesses from the Curiosity Shoppe, Ritual Roasters and Dog-Eared Books (where I just purchased a copy of “San Francisco Panorama,” a broadsheet published by their neighbor 826 Valencia) will be providing snacks and sales from 5 to 10 PM–and they all deserve the consumer love given the recent tearing up of Valencia St. This season’s raffle beneficiary is the local economic self-sufficiency organization Tipping Point Community, and more details on the night’s plans can be found on FuncheapSF.
Tuesday’s Ignite Bay Area | Women Innovators talks are to include everything from SF Weekly’s Alexia Tsotsis’ “Why hussle is more important than talent” and Neighborgoods’ Micki Krimmel “All I Really Need to Know (About Love) I Learned Playing Roller Derby” (with coffee talk and digital book publishing observations in between). If you weren’t able to secure a seat at Berkeley’s David Brower Center but would like to see these and other talks by women in technology, entrepreneurship and media, production network Business Boomer will be hosting a Livesteam channel starting at 7 PM PST thanks to O’Reilly Conferences’ sponsorship.
It’s frigid today in SF–bad for scooting but good for introducing “Alternorthern,” a show of work by notable Canadian artists to open locally at The Lab during the Vancouver Olympics. I’m especially intrigued by the Until We Have a Helicopter cutatorial project (whose recent exhibit featured only work that could fit through a third story gallery window and was featured on the fantastic regional site Vancouver is Awesome) and Zoe Yuristy (work above). The organizers say the Canada project “was conceived in the tension that exists between nationalism, globalization, and individualism: the exhibition is a product of both cultural values and cultural hybridism.” Eh.
Chalk it up to spending the past week in yogi Rusty Wells’ Bhakti Flow teacher training, but I’m most excited about the Off the Mat, Into the World benefit that Yoga Tree Castro is hosting this Saturday night. I first heard about the organization that looks to mobilize yoga devotees to act at the Wanderlust Festival, and I’m glad to see that Kerri Kelly is joining a few other instructors for a nighttime practice to raise $40,000 for the organization’s “Global Seva Challenge” and Shanti Uganda, Building Tomorrow, YouthAIDS, and the New Hope School.
According to the organizers, “All of these organizations are working to eradicate the tremendous financial and health crises that exist in Uganda and creating sustainable solutions for communities in crisis. OTM is committed to continuing our work to support cultures and communities where basic human needs are at risk and to offering our hearts, hands and resources in joyful and practical service.” Call it what you like; sounds like can’t miss to me.
I couldn’t be more excited that he’s decided to open his own Bhakti flow studio in 2010 on Mission. 
