PCOC 2009

This weekend I am attending the Pacific Coast Origami Conference. This is my first time, & I feel very much an outsider. The conference consists primarily of classes where one learns a specific origami model in a classroom situation. There are a bit over 200 attendees, most of them from out of town. The majority are simply hobbyists, though there are several cliques of college students who keep very much to themselves.

The conference in volunteer run, & the organization in general is a bit haphazard. In the afternoon I ended up in a class for which a teacher did not show up, & the same thing happened to a group of people yesterday. I was shocked by the inefficiency of the class sign-up process, which requires everyone to assemble in a conference room & wait for their priority numbers to be called. & we have to do this all over again tomorrow morning.

What has really blown me away, though, is the model exhibition. It is full of a diverse range of models that all combine aesthetics & technical difficulty at a high level. Some of the pieces made me want to cry.


I love the organic shapes of Goran Konjevod’s obsessively pleated creations in paper & metal. I just can’t understand how they are done, even after the creator himself talked to me about his process.


Anna Taylor created a poetic tableaux of feeding hummingbirds. Hers is one of the most admired entries in the exhibit.


Steve Zheng is represented by a variety of gracefully folded animals, all of them having a sculptural volume.


My favorite is Brian Chan’s laughing chimp. The exhibition room is open to the public tomorrow from 10:30am to 5:00pm at the Holiday Inn on Van Ness & Pine.

As part the evening's entertainment, a dozen or so young origami experts participated in a real-time challenge & folded mushrooms, flowers, animals & human figures out of such unlikely papers as toilet seat covers & No. 10 envelopes.

Avedon at SFMOMA

This afternoon I was at the SFMOMA, primarily to see the extensive Richard Avedon show. The galleries were surprisingly crowded. At least 2 separate tours were going through. The images are so well-known that there are few surprises, though many of the prints are large & even wall-sized. Many of my favorite portraits are here, such as those of Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe & Truman Capote. I found the vibrant picture of Janis Joplin to be very sad, even though she is smiling in it. Also sad is a Botticelli-like portrait of Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson taken in 2003. Avedon’s most successful portraits have this feeling of fleetingness, as if the subject must have looked quite different just before & just after the picture was captured.

I also took a quick look around the other floors. I was entertained on the 2nd floor by Alex Schweder’s A Sac of Rooms All Day Long, which is a life-size house made of clear vinyl which slowly inflates & deflates. In the 3rd floor photography gallery I found Martin Parr’s hilarious British Food, a 6 x 4 matrix of garish color snapshots of cuppas, cakes, beans, mushy peas & other stuff unidentifiable to me. In the tiny 2nd floor Paul Klee gallery, there is a nicely curated selection of satiric prints by Klee, Kirchner, Beckmann & Kollwitz.

Oh, & crossing the walkway to the rooftop garden, one can find Waldo.

Love’s Labour’s Lost

Shakespeare’s Globe
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Cal Performances
Zellerbach Hall, Berekeley
Wed, Nov 4, 8 pm

This lively production of Love’s Labour’s Lost from Shakespeare’s Globe attractively recreates the look of the Elizabethan stage. There are no modern lighting effects, & the cast is in luxurious Renaissance dress. It also strives to embrace the audience, starting with an Elizabethan band playing music in the lobby. Inside the theater a life-size deer puppet roams the aisles, as if we’re at the Lion King. Actors often make their entrances through the auditorium. Unfortunately the cavernous Zellerbach Hall works against this approach by seating much of the audience far from the stage.

It’s a highly physical production, with almost as many visual jokes as verbal ones. A hunting dance for the men, of stomping & jumping, was a highlight. Indeed, much of the stage business for the teamed-up ladies & lords approaches dance. I liked just watching the way Philip Cumbus moved as the King of Navarre. Trystan Gravelle was beguiling as Berowne & hilariously frazzled when he was undone in the letter scene. Michelle Terry can’t be ignored as a firm-willed yet mad-cap Princess of France. Her sudden change of emotion when receiving Marcade’s news was stunning & moving. The diminutive Fergal McElhernon had a new set of wacky moves for each of his appearances as the randy Costard. Paul Ready’s Don Armado was unexpectedly melancholy & lethargic, & he strangely reminded me of someone I know.

Despite the virtual absence of a plot, the production had a sense of building towards climaxes, especially in the 2nd half. I loved its promising start with a series of fart jokes. The pageant of the Nine Worthies ends with an exciting brawl & food fight. The only problem I had was with the dense Elizabethan language. There were frequent stretches of rapid dialogue that I could not decode. What’s all this about a moral & its l’envoy? The audience seemed to laugh at the right places, though I wonder how many could say what was going on. The lady next to me consumed 2 bottled soft drinks during the 1st half & did not return from intermission.

SFS: Vänskä & Repin

San Francisco Symphony
Beethoven's Symphony No. 8
Wed, Oct 28, 2009 8:00pm
Davies Symphony Hall

Osmo Vänskä, conductor
Vadim Repin, violin

Aulis Sallinen: Symphony No. 1
Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Beethoven: Coriolan Overture
Beethoven: Symphony No. 8

After the great experience I had last week, I was very glad to make it to Osmo Vänskä’s 2nd program with the SF Symphony. The Sallinen Symphony No. 1 from 1970/71 starts with sustained chords overlaid by tinkling percussion. It immediately made me think it could be the soundtrack to a documentary about the Arctic Circle. I found it pretty, though I was never sure if it was supposed to be going somewhere. My favorite part was a muted viola solo, played by Yun Jie Liu, against slow-moving chords in the violas & 2nd violins.

I remember hearing Vadim Repin when he was a young, hot-shot talent in his 20s, so I was a little startled to see how mature he now looks. His approach to the Sibelius Concerto was consistently serious & inward instead of extroverted. He bowed deep into the strings, creating a continuous, thick sound. Vänskä clearly had other ideas, though, & he led the orchestra in a full-bore romantic interpretation. He certainly made the final movement sound like a dancing bear. The slight tension between the foreground & the background only added to the interest of the performance.

After intermission, Vänskä led a taut, tense & thoroughly thrilling Coriolan Overture. There was a high level of engagement down to the final, soft pizzicatos. When he came back to the podium for the 8th Symphony, he immediately stirred up the sweeping opening bars before we had a chance to stop clapping. He continued in this teasing, humorous vein for the entire symphony. He brought a touch of Rossini to the ending of the scherzo movement. He made Beethoven’s absurdly drawn out final coda exciting & buoyant. The players seemed very involved throughout as well. I enjoyed watching the good communication between the 1st stand cellists. I left feeling that this was a concert I could eagerly hear again.

I Have to Confess
During the very quiet opening of the Silbelius, I hushed a woman next to me who was with her daughter, a girl perhaps 6 years old. Both mother & daughter were quite restless during the Sallinen, whispering to each other & fidgeting. When their act started up while Repin was playing, I had to acknowledge them. I never do such things, & it embarrassed me, but it did quiet them down, until the last movement anyway. & I did say “Thank you” when it was over. I must have scared not only mother & daughter but also the elderly gentleman on my other side, for when I returned after intermission I had vacant seats on both sides.

Intermission
During the intermission I had the additional pleasure of running into some fellow bloggers, including Ced, who hinted that in his recent interview with Repin, the violinist expresses an interesting opinion about yoga.

SFPL: Marking Time

Marking Time
From September 6 through November 22, 2009
Main Library, Sixth floor, Skylight Gallery
100 Larkin Street (at Grove)

Marking Time is a nice exhibit of book arts on the top floor of the Main Branch Public Library. The books represent the work of the Guild of Book Workers & are in a wide variety of unusual formats.


Jody Alexander’s Date Due: It’s Not a Popularity Contest is a collage of due date slips from the pockets of old library books. The artist touchingly claims to feel sorry for the books that weren’t taken out as much.


Todd Pattison’s Little Library of miniature books is contained inside an old leather book with clasps.


Susan Collard’s A Short Course in Recollection is a toy book with pages made of wood. Steel balls can run along tracks in the pages when the book is set up. Unfortunately, we do not see it in operation.


Emily Martin’s Siftings demonstrates an unusual sewing technique called “Secret Belgian Binding”. Those crafty Belgians!

I always find these book exhibits both fascinating & infuriating, because one can’t handle the objects or even see the content of most of the books. But they are still very cool. On the same floor, a complimentary exhibit cleverly labeled Masking Time shows how repairs are carried out on damaged books. Warning: A text block torn from its covers is not an easy sight for squeamish book lovers.

SFO: Salome

San Francisco Opera
War Memorial Opera House
Salome
27 Oct 2009 8pm

Salome: Nadja Michael
Herodias: Irina Mishura
Herod: Kim Begley
Jokanaan: Greer Grimsley
Narraboth: Garrett Sorenson
A page: Elizabeth DeShong
First Jew: Beau Gibson
Second Jew: Robert MacNeil
Third Jew: Matthew O’Neill
Fourth Jew: Corey Bix
Fifth Jew: Jeremy Milner
First Soldier: Andrew Funk
Second Soldier: Bojan Knezevic
First Nazarene: Julien Robbins
Second Nazarene: Austin Kness
Cappodocian: Kenneth Kellogg
Slave: Renée Tatum

Conductor: Nicola Luisotti
Director: Seán Curran

As if the on-stage spectacle of Salome isn’t grisly enough, the audience at the opera house is currently greeted by a lobby display containing Jokanaan’s severed head. It’s quite suitable for Halloween, even though Daughter of the Regiment is being presented that evening instead. After having already seen the staging at the dress rehearsal, I took in this performance mostly sitting against the wall in the upstairs standing room. I don’t see anything, but I discovered that even without the staging, this opera is quite disturbing.

I am still impressed by the strong casting in all the roles. Greer Grimsley’s Jokanaan is powerful & full of conviction, whether he is singing on stage or off. Garrett Sorenson as Narraboth & Elizabeth DeShong as the Page both give solid & urgent performances. Kim Begley’s voice is clear & ringing & his Herod appropriately slimy. Irina Mishura’s every utterance as Heroidas was filled with venom, & she was quite scary at moments when she dropped into spitefully declaiming her lines or laughing in mockery. Nadja Michael’s acting is frighteningly convincing, both vocally & physically, though I still have the suspicion that she only approximates a lot of the pitches. She makes a strong sound that is even throughout her range, & I find it in no way harsh or strident.

I also enjoyed being able to focus on the playing of the orchestra. There were many fine moments from the flute, contrabassoon & trumpet. The double bass improved greatly from the dress rehearsal in those sickly harmonics that accompany the execution of Jokanaan. I liked the little slide the violins did in the Dance of the 7 Veils. Luisotti does a good job making all the discordant sections of the music into one continuous, almost impressionistic, flow. A very successful effort all around, of this most sickening of operas.

Vänskä Leads SFS

San Francisco Symphony
Thu, Oct 22, 2009 8:00pm
Davies Symphony Hall

Osmo Vänskä, conductor
Antti Siirala, piano

John Adams, Slonimsky's Earbox
Tchaikovsky, Piano Concerto No. 1
Dvořák, Symphony No. 7

I've enjoyed Osmo Vänskä's conducting before, so I was looking forward to this concert. I did not feel disappointed. John Adam's Slonimsky's Earbox is a loud, frenetic ride using the full resources of the orchestra. It begins with a rapid upward run that is a kind of leitmotif. Vänskä made sure that the orchestra kept up a tense level of energy. Mr. Adams himself was in attendance in box A for the entire evening & took a bow on stage after his piece. This was also my 1st chance to hear new principal viola Jonathan Vinocour, who has a prominent & frantic solo to play.

I'm not sure what to make of Antti Siirala, a replacement for Yundi Li in the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto. He certainly put in an exceptionally clean performance. I liked his efficient technique & the clarity of his line, even when playing extremely fast. His face remained curiously expressionless the whole time. I did not find him thrilling, & yet his playing was not uninteresting either. The rest of the audience had no doubts about him, though. They applauded after the 1st movement & gave him a standing ovation at the conclusion.

Vänskä is an intense conductor who cues everything. Sometimes one can even hear him grunting. I wonder if this doesn't actually annoy orchestras, but he seems to get results. We got a large-gestured & slightly manic Dvořák 7, with exciting, full climaxes. I especially liked the dance-like 3rd movement, which was a bit edgy & sinister. There were many excellent woodwind solos all evening. I loved the beautiful sounds produced by Timothy Day (flute) & William Bennett (oboe).

Vänskä sticks around next week for an equally splashy program of Sibelius & Beethoven.

The Ives Quartet

Chancellor's Concert Series
Millberry Union Conference Room, 500 Parnassus Avenue
22-Oct-09 12:15pm

The Ives Quartet
Mendelssohn: Quartet in E Minor, Op. 44, No. 2
Quincy Porter: Last movt. of Quartet No. 3

I showed up just a little late, meaning I missed the brief poetry reading that opens these events on the UCSF campus. The Ives Quartet gave a lively performance of Mendelssohn's precocious string quartet & sustained a genuine feeling of excitement in the last movement presto. Before playing the "Song Without Words" 3rd movement, the violist made us laugh by translating Mendelssohn's tempo marking as "Andante, but don't schlep!" ("Dieses Stück darf durchaus nicht schleppend gespielt werden.")

Immediately after the Mendelssohn, someone rushed to present each member of the quartet with a bouquet of flowers, even though they had another number to perform. I've never heard of Quincy Porter, but the group is currently recording all of his quartets. The movement we heard is energetic & has a bold viola part, played with gusto by Jodi Levitz. If this is representative, then Mr. Porter's music is tonal & attractive.

There were about 60 people in attendance, most quite elderly. During the 1st movement of the Mendelssohn, an older gentleman came in, parked his folding shopping cart at the front of the room, then sat in the front row, only to switch sides a minute later. He then periodically unfolded & refolded his program, which clearly bothered the lady sitting next to him.

Capitalism: A Love Story

On Wednesday I took in Michael Moore's over-stuffed documentary Capitalism: A Love Story. The film uses the current economic crisis to attack the morality & human cost of the capitalist system. I'm surprised that I haven't read or heard more discussion about this. I mean, here's a movie that plays a swinging version of the Internationale over the closing credits, & it's not ironic! I admired the film's easy access to emotions. It's by turns funny, outraged, despairing & joyous. In other words, it's great entertainment.

Some scenes I found unexpectedly shocking, such as footage of people being removed from their foreclosed homes or Captain Sullenberger testifying to Congress about severe pay cuts for pilots. Ohio congresswoman Marcy Kaptur gives a great forthright interview about the bailout of the financial industry. I was appalled by the unflinching behavior of the many security guards, police & hired goons who protect the faceless wealthy who are the bad guys of the movie. Shots of Lincoln Center & the interior of the Metropolitan Opera House, where I recently spent a lot of time, symbolize the remote lifestyles of the rich.

I saw this at the Century San Francisco Centre Theaters, which has a recession-busting $6 matinee. However, only 6 other people took advantage of it on Wednesday, which made me very self-conscious when I was the only person laughing out loud.

LIEDER ALIVE!

LIEDER ALIVE!
San Francisco Conservatory of Music Concert Hall
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 8 p.m.

Eleazar Rodriguez, tenor
John Parr, piano

Ludwig van Beethoven
Adelaide

Robert Schumann
Dichterliebe
-----
Heidi Melton, soprano
John Parr, piano

Johannes Brahms
Wie Melodien
Nicht mehr zu dir zu gehen
An die Nachtigall

Richard Wagner
Wesendonck-Lieder

It was nice to get a substantial hearing of Merola tenor Eleazar Rodriguez, who seemed to have been short-changed on the Merola Grand Finale program. Mr. Eleazar has a beautiful & clean sound, particularly in the middle of his range. He worked hard to sell all the emotions in his songs, though he has such an appealing, good-natured stage presence that I sometimes found it hard to believe in his anguish or anger. He was most convincing in the lighter, sweeter parts of Dichterliebe, such as Wenn ich in deine Augen seh' or Am Leuchtenden Sommergorgen. I imagine him to be quite endearing in an actual opera.

Looking at the program, I realized that this is the 3rd time I've heard Dichterliebe in the past 2 years, & each time John Parr was at the piano. This must be a favorite work of his. At least I hope it is, for his sake!

In the 2nd half of this program, out-going Adler Fellow Heidi Melton was simply marvelous. She came on stage beaming, as if she couldn't be happier to be with us. In the Brahms & Wagner songs she unleashed a full range of emotions, delivered in her rich, large voice. I'm pretty sure that certain notes caused the piano strings to vibrate sympathetically. At times I felt like I was being raised out of my seat. The next step in Ms. Melton's career is taking her to the Deutsche Oper Berlin. I will miss hearing her here.

Before the performance we were encouraged to take a glass of rather sweet wine on the landing outside the hall. Later on someone suggested that this privilege was actually reserved for VIPs, but either this person was mistaken or we were mistaken for our betters.

APE 2009

Yesterday I ended up spending more time & money than I expected at the Alternative Press Expo at the Concourse Exhibition Center, starting with the exhorbitantly high $10 entrance fee. There was a lot of very fine print & illustration work. Monsters of various sorts seems to be popular content nowadays. Many of the repeat exhibitors complained that attendance was down from last year, perhaps due to the Treasure Island Music Festival this weekend.

I was glad to get re-acquainted with Will Dinski, whose work I remembered seeing at the MoCCA Art Fest a couple of years ago. I like his subtle silk screen graphics. I hope that Nick Mullins has the concluding episodes of his macabre & theatrically-mannered Carnivale ready for next year. Paige Braddock was kind enough to draw me a Jane of my very own. A visit to APE would not be complete without a run-in with the phenomenal Justin Hall, who may have stumbled while trying to spell "pervert" but who flatters me nonetheless. His latest mini-comic about officiating at a same-sex marriage dressed as the Green Lantern is worth twice the price of admission.