I’m unabashedly excited about the international premier of the Global Lives Project tonight at the Yerba Buena Center. After watching some of the early footage from the library of human life experience’s “day in the life” shoots, seeing the completed videos records of ten people from around the world who represent the diversity of the global population should be most intriguing. (Not to mention a testament to founder David Even Harris’ vision, the assistance of volunteer videographers and producers worldwide, and a fair amount of free translation software.)
In case screen printing parties and Bloody Mary mastering sessions aren’t enough, local space Workshop is planning two very different events over the next two weeks that are well worth creative types’ time and good intentions. The first, “Taking the Emo out of Chemo” on Friday at Thee Parkside, is a non-traditional fundraiser to cover founder Kelly Malone’s ovarian cancer medical bills (and local creators owe her a bill of gratitude for starting Indie Marts and a subsequent brick and mortar space). Date auctions and DIY book sales alike will be included in the effort to raise $6K+.
The following Friday, the Workshop Field Trip will bring together elements that a lesser host would balk at: roadie beverages, 20 and 30-somethings, local venue managers, and a yellow school bus. Brown paper bag screening and secret dive bar visits are being hosted in an effort to raise money to become a non-profit (seems counter-intuitive, but after even just a bit of tax ID planning on the local front, it’s a major uphill battle that would make you want to throw a drink back).
Despite traveling I’d be remiss not to mention the auditory enjoyment that Noise Pop fest is bringing San Franciscans through next Monday. And not just because it temporarily claims the stages of favorite haunts (Benders, Cafe du Nord and Rickshaw Stop among them) with shows by the likes of Zee Avi and Downtown Calling. Two films also stand out: a Roxie Theater screening of the documentary Austin, Texas: Live Music Capital of the World? about the effect that the city’s economic downturn had on working musicians and Vin Cinema’s event around Blood Into Wine about Tool’s front man’s attempt to make wine in the Arizona desert. And, for the record, I’m completely (not) over missing tonight’s happy hour “Outside the Crowd” photography show with work by the very talented Ashod Simonian at my home away from home Hotel Biron. C’est la vie, as they’d likely tell me.
Art aficionados, SOMA residents and winos alike have reason to anticipate summer–usually not San Francisco’s strongest season, but made better with the promise of the launch of the SFMOMA exhibit “How Wine Became Modern” starting in July. The series on “Design + Wine 1976 to Now” will combine artifacts from global wine culture (including bottle labels and glassware), aerial photographs of grape-growing regions, and taste and smell presentations. The museum’s Curator of Architecture and Design, Henry Urbach, created the exhibit to look “at the material and visual culture of wine over the past three decades and offers a fresh way of understanding the contemporary culture of wine and the role that architecture and design have played in its transformation.” Corks away.
The concept of content as king was a welcome one upon landing in New York late today, and the Tools of Change for Publishing conference was not a surprising source from which to hear it. Northern California companies Chronicle Books and host O’Reilly (along with Ignite co-founder Brady Forrest) were on hand to talk about e-book and digital publishing and pricing. Printing and distribution negotiations for digital works were among the main themes for the first day of TOC:
Digital Printing: Magellan Media’s Brian O’Leary and Mockingbird Publishing’s Ashley Gordon discussed print-on-demand as an opportunity to save money on limited run or archived titles. Instabooks and those printed on site and on demand may be able to be printed in under four minutes, and while the quick turn-around Espresso Book Machine preferred by university publishers in growing in popularity, I’m more intrigued by the opportunity for people who wouldn’t otherwise get a large print deal to bring their work to the market. more
As though I needed another reason to wonk out on documentaries, Maggie Gyllenhaal assuming hosting duties on the PBS series Independent Lens is enough to make the months between Sundance and South By Southwest likable. Twenty-seven independent films being broadcast this season include dramas, comic shorts, and experimental pieces shot in locations as diverse as a cramped Manhattan apartment filled with modern art and the world’s largest garbage village outside Cairo.
A feature film that local pal Alley Pezanoski-Browne associate produced about custody battles over pets rescued post-Katrina, Mine, will be part of the programming along with two films I’m especially looking forward to: Unmistaken Child about the Tibetan boys who could assume the identity of an important reincarnated monk and The Eyes of Me about the teenage challenges of students at the Texas School for the Blind. Thankfully for television-less moi, the series is available on Hulu and Netflix.
Artist and texture specialist Garth Weiser will be having his West Coast debut tonight at Altman Siegel Gallery, and what he carefully portions in color he adds with modeling paste layering. I’ll stand back and let the work speak for itself in its large-scale material glory:
An Ecofabulous creative director pal turned me onto 18th Street boutique The Mission Statement’s second birthday party this evening. The Creme Brulee Cart will be on hand along with consignment designer Metaphor Organic should you find yourself looking for a bit of soap-making along with your Charles Krug wine. The store features the wares of seven co-op clothing and jewelry makers, and a brief glance at the online store brings up everything from 70′s front pleat dresses to oxidized gold necklaces.
The awkwardness of claiming the last seat upon coming into a crowded auditorium late was very much worth it to see playwright/activist Eve Ensler’s discussion tonight about her latest work at The Commonwealth Club (and, for the sake of full disclosure, I may have read a monologue or two on the college theater stage).
Following this weekend’s 12th celebration of the anti-violence commemoration V-Day that she founded, the author discussed her latest book “I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World” and the research on the often unempowering experiences that she witnessed with teens facing sexual abuse, eating disorders, and self-mutilation from California to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (which she recounted in further detail at TED India last year, video below). When asked if the situations she’s been part of have been overwhelming (including incest victims telling her their stories unsolicited on airplanes), Ensler told the mostly female crowd that “it’s okay to be overwhelmed–in most parts of the world, it’s a daily state of existence–who told us life wouldn’t be overwhelming?” more
For the past two years I’ve been lending out (or pushing) the late Pakistani prime minster Benazir Bhutto’s autobiography “Daughter of Destiny” to every bibliophile friend who will take it. No matter your politics, it’s a fantastic reflection of a complex political life whose elements included nuclear arms, young children, and presidential imprisonment.
The new documentary “Bhutto” directed by San Franciscan Duane Baughman is similarly intriguing in its portrayal of the politician who pushed for women’s right to vote in a country where honor killings are still legal. The visual description of internal conflicts within the South Asian country since the 1930s are fantastically designed. At the packed morning screening I covered at Sundance, producer Amy Berg described how cassette tapes from the late 1980s were salvaged to narrate the film, and the result–Bhutto narrating her the film three years after her death–is haunting.
