Enter Band of the Day, a free app from lauded design and development company 955 Dreams (the creators of the eye-catching app The History of Jazz). It features a different band daily in a magazine-style format with large photos, brief stories, social ratings, and, oh, music tracks. Its tiled calendar makes for scrollable fun, and you’d be silly not to give it a whirl.

I saw the feature length “Another Earth” on a recommendation from a friend and the Times’ intriguing coverage; I left startled and, well, more intrigued. The San Francisco International Film Festival selection and Mike Cahill’s directorial debut is a vibrant look at the aftermath of a car crash caused by Rhoda (co-writer Brit Marling) and her attempts to help the grieving husband (William Mapother). Interplanetary elements are woven throughout, and well, to a haunting score. Friend and filmmaker Alley Pezanoski-Browne called it a “sci-fi film that is actually a character study.” Take her advice and see it.

“The performance was slated to occur that summer while Greenwood was in town to play the Outside Lands Festival with Radiohead, and would be his first U.S. hearing of the work,” production manager Julia Vanderham recalled. “Minna set to work putting together an ensemble of some of the finest talent at the Conservatory and, in August at a sold-out show at the Herbst Theater, the Magik*Magik Orchestra was born.”

Most of the Magik’s original members were students and it now accepts players on a word-of-mouth basis through application. The full service “orchestra-for-hire” typically works on a contractual basis with bands who want to add classical musicians to their own music, whether live or recorded. Music arrangements, sheet music preparation, coordinated rehearsals, and the opportunity to work with a bank of talented young folks are among the reasons their work is solicited for social music gatherings and a full-length album with John Vanderslice.

Magik*Magik is the house orchestra of Vanderslice’s “jewel of a studio,” Tiny Telephone, where they’ve done most of their recording work to date. Imagine curling up with a cup of the musician’s original blend of herbal tea and listening to a string quartet recording in the studio hidden under the freeway at the bottom of Potrero Hill. Tough to put yourself there, I know.

Beyond preferring a diverse—and cozy—range of locations, the group says it prefers to view paid projects as original artistic collaborations in pursuit of a new sound. And I imagine there’s a sense of creative fulfillment in succeeding at creating a unique opportunity to play. As Vanderham says, “the livelihood of young professional musicians is often necessarily dependent on income from teaching…Magik strives to provide its players with more than just a random gig here and there, but to be a project that musicians can make as much of as they like.”

]]> http://emilygoligoski.com/2010/05/14/sfmoma_dawn/feed/ 0 http://emilygoligoski.com/2010/04/26/sfiff-opens/ http://emilygoligoski.com/2010/04/26/sfiff-opens/#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:17:42 +0000 Emily Goligoski http://emilygoligoski.com/?p=3706 I’m not the biggest short film connoisseur, but at last year’s Sundance Film Festival I was struck by “The World’s Largest Shopping Mall” about a massive shopping center in south China that stands nearly empty despite housing space for hundreds of stores and a Venice-style canal system. It was shot by local filmmaker Sam Green and producer Carrie Lozano, who worked on two other projects that are well worth watching and discussing: “The Weather Underground” feature and the live documentary “Utopia in Four Movements,” which had its California premiere last night as part of this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival.

With on-stage musical accompaniment by the Brooklyn band The Quavers, Green narrated a set of four stories about utopian ideals, socialist and capitalist politics, the intended universal language Esperanto, and (of course) the merits of forensic archeology at Kabuki Cinema. The combination of audio and Keynote slides and video clips were mixed live by co-director Dave Cerf for an audience of local filmmakers and critics on the fourth day of this year’s festival. I found focusing on the stories themselves a bit challenging given the on-site production elements–cue ADD–but found it a compelling take on filmgoing following last year’s live episode of This American Life. (The undertaking isn’t a small one either, as evidenced by website FAQs that include “what is a live film?” and “what is utopia?”)  And the gathering aspect seems to have been part of the point: in the show notes, SF essayist Rebecca Solnit wrote:

Television chopped up movies with commercials and put them in the middle of domestic distraction, but that was nothing compared to this moment when films are on your iPhone and your laptop and in fuzzy tiny windows on YouTube. The worth thing about these new modes of viewing isn’t that they diminish cinema as visual and imaginative spectacle. The worst thing is that they’re watched furtively and alone. Cinema, which was once a great banquet in a dream palace is now often a snack devoured absentmindedly in isolation.

Knowing friends with varied triggers that make them melt, Panzarella sought a way to address the particularness and complexity with which many women pursue that which makes them melt. Ladywood.biz was born, and the just-launched site’s steamy video creation tool with a send-a-friend capability and array of curated news items make for entertaining reasons to return. (The eye-catching magenta and black color scheme isn’t bad, either.)

“It all started about a year ago when I was at a hotel and  decided to peruse the porn selection–just to see,” Panzarella said. “I was surprised by the variety: horny housewives, swinging soccer moms, naughty cheerleaders…All of them were cheap. Not one movie catered to ladies. This intrigued me: that we don’t have the options, and if we did, what would they be?”

You like men on motorcycles, you say? Puppies? You have local documentarian Alley Pezanoski-Browne to thank for the tasteful yet downright amusing video content, which comes with the opportunity to add pet name whispers. You can use it for good or evil (why let that mean office-mate—now “puss puss”—get you down?). Culture items, Gaga and Gyllenhaal among them, make up much of the site along with product reviews

The openness that makes Ladywood safe for work isn’t undermined by it’s provocative fun, and for every ode to rich red wines there’s a bit of celebrity voyeurism. Well-designed sex toy line Jimmyjane, Gawker, and Tina Fey are all described as Panzarella’s influences for creating the destination. It solicits ideas on things that intrigue users, and video uploads and custom pet name submissions are in the works.

Tommason and “The Little Mermaid” images by Erik Tomasson.