11 Temmuz 2012 Çarşamba
10 Temmuz 2012 Salı
9 Temmuz 2012 Pazartesi
It's Washington's Birthday, Washington's Birthday
Well, that was some kind of fun.
After a four-month contract job in Silicon Valley ended, I was ready to embark on a new adventure, and fate happily intervened through an email from the San Francisco Opera asking if I wanted to be a supernumerary in the John Adams opera Nixon in China, followed by a rehearsal schedule that was essentially every day for the month of May. The immediate answer was "yes, yes and yes," because the music to this opera has been on my favorites list since it was first recorded 25 years ago.
There were sixteen supernumeraries, evenly divided by gender, with all four real Asians on the female side. Those four turned out to be part of the serious joy of this production, and being a unisex People's Army Soldier with them in matching overcoat, belt, combat boots, and fur hat erased any qualms about the Jonathan Pryce Miss Saigon minstrel show aspect of appearing as a Chinese dude onstage.
One of the Asian supers turned out to be a bestselling novelist out of Bernal Heights, Tess Uriza Holthe (above right with Veronique), who was researching the opera for her next novel, and lucked out in being slotted into this production as her first time onstage. Click here for her account of the experience at the San Francisco Opera Backstage blog.
Live theater, and opera is live theater at its most ambitious and extreme, has an alchemical element to it. Sometimes the combination of forces is magical and sometimes it's inert. San Francisco Opera got very lucky with its first production of Nixon in China, partly through General Director David Gockley's almost perfect casting, and partly just because everyone melded during this production in a manner that's rare, from orchestra to chorus to principals to dancers to stage crew to extras.
And of course it was also great because the The Three Ancient Supers in the photo at top (Charlie Lichtman, Michael Harvey, and yours truly) are seemingly the good luck token of just about every wonderful modern opera production over the last 18 months in the Bay Area, from Orphee at the Herbst, Four Saints in Three Acts at Yerba Buena, to Nixon in China at the San Francisco Opera. This has been quite a run, Musketeers.
Real to Real Commercial: Photographs from the Trevor Traina Collection
"So you mean I can't take photos of Trevor's photos?" I asked a de Young museum security guard, and the man got the giggles before saying, "No, I'm afraid there is no photography allowed in these four rooms, sir."
Upstairs from the Gaultier show at the de Young museum, there is a new photography installation this summer, complete with catalogue, of 110 photo prints from the collection of Trevor Traina, who just happens to be the son of Fine Arts Museums Board President Dede Wilsey.
There are ethical lines that most art museums try not to cross, including featuring shows of individual living collectors, because they can then turn around and resell the work at values inflated by their "exhibited at so-and-so museum" imprimatur. However, this is San Francisco, where ex-mayor Willie Brown, Jr. is still running a pay-for-play racket out of his legal "consulting" business while lecturing the populace in his San Francisco Chronicle column this morning, "If you're into instant gratification, go find a hooker." Both Willie and Dede treat San Francisco as if it was their own personal Sim City, and there's nothing wrong with that except they are usually doing so with millions of dollars in public funds.
The photography collection is fine, with a mixture of blue-chip vintage photographers like Diane Arbus and Lee Friedlander to newer pieces like the huge Andreas Gursky prints which would look great if you had mansion walls to hang them on. The four rooms are loosely thematic, with names such as "Excess" and "Losses," and there is plenty of absurd ArtSpeak on the wall text next to the photos explaining serious concepts for you, but it might have been more instructive to simply have the dollar amount paid for each print, its approximate worth at the present moment, and what the "art advisors" think it will be worth in twenty years. (Click here for an hour-plus symposium called Playing The Field: Photography and Collecting Today featuring Traina's art advisor, Kevin Moore.)
The arty photos in this post, by the way, are from Three Gems, the earth installation by James Turrell in the de Young sculpture garden, where we repaired for a bit of meditation after all the crass commercialism.
New Music Readings Highlight Nation's Top Young Composers Audience Choice Winner Announced
Six talented composers participated in the 21st annual Underwood New Music Readings -- ACO's roundup of the country's brightest emerging composers, June 1-2. George Manahan conducted new music by Ryan Chase, Peter Fahey, Michael-Thomas Foumai, Paul Kerekes, Pin Hsin Lin and Benjamin Taylor. Several composers blogged about their experiences. (Check below.) Next month we will announce the winner of the coveted $15,000 Underwood commission. Today we are proud to announce that Ryan Chase is the winner of the Audience Choice Award with his thrill-ride, The Light Fantastic. Every audience member who voted will receive a newly composed ringtone from the winner. Congratulations Ryan!
TwtrSymphony's Debut track The Hawk Goes Hunting Due Out Friday July 6th
TwtrSymphony will release their debut track The Hawk Goes Hunting Friday July 6th, 2012.
Hawk is the 1st movement of Chip Michael's Symphony No. 2 -Birds of a Feather, a new composition created specifically for a Social Media Symphony. TwtrSymphony, a new concept in the symphony orchestra, would only be possible in our modern era of global communications. A collection of musicians from around the world met over Twitter and conspired to form an orchestra participating in the TwtrSymphony project. This newly formed organization works to create new music in keeping with the character limit of a tweet - 140 seconds at a time.
For each symphonic movement and each chamber piece, the composer must create the score, the individual parts and click tracks which provide the necessary framework for playing together without a conductor. The musicians must then record their part in remote sessions and upload them to the web. Finally, the various tracks are put together and engineered by Garry Boyle of Civilian Project Productions in the UK to create the final product. This week, TwtrSymphony moves from concept to reality by releasing their first track.
The Hawk Goes Hunting is the first movement of a symphony and at 2'10" keeps within the 140 second time limit. The other three movements will be released over the next few weeks and the audience will be able to listen to the symphony as a whole by midsummer. All four tracks played together will come in under 9 minutes making this one of the shortest symphonies on record. Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 2 is in 3 movements with no repeats, also lasts about 9 minutes. Aaron Copland's Symphony No. 2 "Short Symphony" is approximately 16 minutes. Dr Michael Wolters of the Birmingham Conservatoire holds the record for the shortest symphony, Spring Symphony: The Joy of Life --utilizing full orchestra forces in 4 movements lasting approximately 17 seconds.
Musicians communicate with each other over Twitter, email, Skype and Google Hangouts. In addition to the Symphony, there are two chamber pieces in the works. One by Chip Michael and another by composer Alison Wrenn.
A link to listen and download a copy of The Hawk Goes Hunting will be available Friday on http://TwtrSymphony.InstantEncore.com
#MoreMusic - Why we need more new music by symphony orchestras to continue
Digital music sales surpassed physical media sales in 2011 for the first time, and music sales overall have been enjoying a steady climb for the greater part of a decade. Although physical music sales are declining, we're in an age where people want more music than ever before. How can the symphony orchestra capitalize on this trend?
However, looking at the various genres, classical music is one of the few that enjoys a growth leveraging remakes rather than original compositions. iTunes is the #1 digital classical music provider with Naxos a distant second. Amazon, Classics Online and eMusic are the next three with fairly similar market shares. More than 98% of the top two classical music digital distributor's libraries are comprised of music written more than 50 years ago, more than 90% is written over 100 years ago. Yes, the bulk of the classical music repertoire is from before the 20th century. But we have numerous living composers writing new and energetic music, music which connects with a modern audience. Looking at the genre of music sold based on decade (the decade the music was released), the older the music gets, the less popular it is to download. Simply put, people want new music.
What would happen if symphonies started recording new orchestral music? All of the major distributors allow for previews of music before purchase. New orchestral music could be exposed to a much broader audience than just those found in the concert hall the night of the performance. Symphony orchestras could find this new music has an audience they didn't know existed. Rather than competing with 50 other recordings of Beethoven's Fifth, they could be the ONLY one with a recording of insert living composer's name here.
If you look at Grammy winners, the most frequently awarded in the classical music category are Georg Solti, a conductor with more awards than the Beatles, Pierre Boulez who has awards as both a conductor and a composer, and John Williams as a composer. Only Solti got there by performing already established works.
Symphony orchestras need to reach out and start programming more new music. They need to start recording these pieces and getting them out to the public. While sales are up, the percentage of increase in sales is well behind that of other pop genre's. Why? We're playing the same old thing.
8 Temmuz 2012 Pazar
Jean Paul Gaultier at the DeYoung
An exhibit devoted to the career of French fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier has been installed at the de Young museum for the last four months. Though I am only peripherally interested in fashion and Gaultier's career in particular, the exhibit turned out to be one of the most amazing installations I have ever seen in a museum. For once, the tired, misused term "multimedia" actually applies, and is used brilliantly thoughout the huge basement space at the de Young.
The exhibit was created for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts last year by a former fashion model, Thierry-Maxime Loriot above. (Click here for an interesting interview with Loriot at the Fashion Projects site.)
The exhibit begins with a blue diorama populated by close to a dozen mannequins, all of which feature holographic projections that create moving facial features synced to various soundtracks. What looks like lighting fixtures in the top half of the above photo are actually individual projectors for each mannequin's face.
If you were ever creeped out by some of the animatronics at Disneyland, be prepared to be doubly creeped out and amused by the latest technologies in simulating human beings. The extraordinary projections were created by a theater troupe in Montreal called UBU/Compagnie de création, and they give the exhibit something of a Disney amusement park ride feeling.
In fact, you could call JPG: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk a French, gay, hypersexualized version of Disneyland's It's A Small World, since Gaultier brazenly plunders the art and fashion of the entire globe.
"That's one of the things I like about him," my host Patrick Vaz said. "And he's being generous and not hoarding by allowing photography at this exhibit, which is unusual and reflects well on him."
There are plenty of incidental delights throughout the show, such as a moving catwalk with about twenty rotating haute couture creations on mannequins just across the way from the Punk Rock display, where a very witty Latino Barrio version of Frida Kahlo's Two Fridas has been painted on the wall. (Notice the "Diego" neck tattoo.)
Various holographic Jean Paul Gaultiers also appear throughout, telling stories and explaining his philosophy.
My favorite bit of wall text was next to a photo of Gaultier as a boy of about ten with his beloved grandmother. I am paraphrasing, but the story goes something like this: "After seeing the Follies Bergere for the first time, I was enthralled and spent the next day at school drawing an elaborate design with bare breasts and lots of feathers. The teacher discovered it and made me go to the front of the class where he pinned the drawing to my back and made me parade all around the school. Instead of this being a punishment, however, it made me feel normal, like one of the boys getting into trouble, not a sissy who didn't like playing soccer. When I went home, my grandmother was very understanding. She read the tarot cards and told me that I was going to be very successful and not to worry about anything."
With a grandmother like that, no wonder he's done so well. The exhibit continues for another month and I recommend it highly.
California Classico 2012: SJ Earthquakes vs. LA Galaxy
City derby matches always produce the most intense and exciting soccer matches. The most famous ones even have their own name: think Manchester City vs. Manchester United (Manchester Derby), Liverpool vs. Everton (Merseyside Derby), Bayern Munich vs. Borussia Dortmund (Deutschland National Derby) and Real Madrid vs. FC Barcelona (El Clasico).
In California, we have a derby of our own: the California Classico, between the San Jose Earthquakes and the LA Galaxy. The Galaxy have won more Classicos in the past (10 win to the Earthquake's 5), but this season the Earthquakes have been in top form, and are currently at the top of the MLS, while the Galaxy are barely halfway up the league. So the stage was set for a match.
The match was held at Stanford Stadium, which seats 50,000, which is 5 times the capacity of Buck Shaw Stadium, where the Quakes usually play. But the California Classico is a Big Deal. The match had been heavily promoted for months before, and there were quite a few special activities aside from the game itself.
The halftime show was a tribute to the US Military, featuring members of the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard and a huge US flag lifted into the air by huge stars-and-stripes balloons. Super cool!
All the Beckhams in the world couldn't save the game for the Galaxy, though; San Jose played an incredible second half -- at the start of the half they were behind, 3-1, and by the end of the game they had won 4-3!
We even got to see some off-the-game drama, as David Beckham (no doubt frustrated by the Galaxy's poor form as well as his omission from the Team GB Olympic squad) lost his temper, threw the ball at players, started fights, and generally acted like a poor sport. Finally, we got to see fireworks of a different sort -- there was a 30-minute fireworks display right after the game. 
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What's in your backpack?
I like to travel light, but the 13-lb weight limit for Virgin Atlantic's carry-on bags in economy class really makes things challenging. I have roll-on bags that weigh almost 10-lb without anything inside! And with all the electronics (not to mention their chargers) that I like to carry with me, I really had to go with my ultralight version when figuring out what to take along for my flight to the UK. Here's what I packed with me:
Laptop
UK phone
Camera
Extra battery
Chargers for all the above
Outlet converters
Sweater
Medicines (benadryl & ibuprofen)
Toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash
Lip gloss
Water bottle (empty, of course)
Sweater
(Not in photo: my wallet, passports, and the smartphone I used to take this photo)
Is it obvious that my blogging needs trump my beauty needs?
What do you take with you on an airplane?
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American Girl Place, LA (2nd time around)
Two weeks ago The Pea and I visited the American Girl Place at the Grove Shopping Center in LA. It was my second time to visit the store (my first visit was 2 years ago), and although the main purpose of our visit was to have lunch at the Cafe, we made sure we had some extra time to walk around the store and soak in all the American Girl magic.
Being the newest historical dolls, Cecile and Marie-Grace displays dominated the Historical Dolls section.
Like all past visits to an American Girl Place, this one was filled with cute stuff and great memories. I can't wait to go back!
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Languedoc, Sud de France: Of Wine and Food
Cultivé dans le Sud de France
Sun-drenched and fertile, Languedoc region produces all kinds and colors of wine known to contemporary man Рred, white, ros̩, sparkling, mildly sparkling (cremant), dry, naturally sweet, and fortified. Sud de France brand includes over six thousand foods and wines brought to the local, national, and international markets by almost two thousand producers whose number is constantly growing. On my recent trip to Collias Gourmet
In the
Our lesson consisted of a short lecture, some taste bud prep work, and some bottle and barrel tasting, and was taught by Natalie, who came from the 
Seated outside, in a cozy patio under blossoming wisteria, we were served by an impeccably dressed team of waiters in black suits, white shirts, and salad-green ties. Our first course was also green, but mere words cannot describe the beauty of it. Let me start with the amuse bouche though. It was delivered on a doll-house cutting board and contained tiny flat bread with rosemary; a Lilliputian fritter of pork feet with tartar sauce; liquid chicken liver cream in a shot glass; mini Madeleine cake with anchovies; lollipop pizza on a toothpick, and a little purple macaroon with black olive jam. A glass of local Viognier accompanied this bacchanalia of delights. 
Our bright-green first course was made of haddock ravioli stuffed with a mixture of brandade (salt cod Рa specialty of N̨mes); chicken wings, and mussels (sounds strange, but enormously delicious) in a velvety-green watercress bouillon. The meat course (veal with foie gras sauce, wild mushrooms and summer vegetables in walnut oil) was paired with the red Vin de Pays Duch̩ from Uz̬s Рa beloved local blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Carignan. 
A traditional Floating Island dessert was served in a dough cup filled with whipped egg-whites and roasted almonds, surrounded by a lake of vanilla cream over rhubarb confit and Gariguette strawberries, and crowned with a pink caramel tangle. The screws of Saint-Gilles
The road to Saint-Gilles is an endless mosaic of green vineyards, silvery olive groves, and blossoming red poppies – “the fields of dreams.” The town is named after a saint who lived here as a hermit and whose tomb attracted thousands of pilgrims, resulting in a construction of an abbey in the Middle Ages. The ruins of the Abbey of Saint-Gilles are famous for the surviving
Standing in the spacious living room of the Château la Pompe, generously decorated with modern art (some produced by the hotel owners) I looked up from the base of a metal corkscrew staircase leading to my bedroom. There was no way both my hips and my luggage would fit into a space between the spiral railing and the pole around which it wound up. The same thoughts visibly occupied my fellow travelers who were contemplating three other “screws” in the other corners of the room. Gallantly, our host took our luggage upstairs, and brought it back down before our departure, but I still can’t imagine how he did that.
In the morning I had a chance to see the many other curiosities of the historical property – a bamboo-lined canal that runs between the two buildings, with ducks and koi; open-air swimming pools, fountains and outdoor sculptural compositions; a couple of free-roaming peacocks; and the hotel’s own Roman baths, made out of several gigantic wine vats placed next to each other, equipped with plumbing, and appropriately furnished and decorated. 
Our breakfast of freshly-baked croissants, home-made jams, coffee, and orange juice in glass amphorae was served in Mas du Versadou, filled with family heirlooms, in a narrow dining room with a long table, Romanesque chairs, and multi-colored glassware, called Roman Tavern. 
Both hotel buildings and the land around are owned and operated by husband and wife Marie and Michel Durand-Roger, who were previously engaged in winemaking. 
Some of their neighbors combine their vine-growing business with hospitality, renting out a couple of rooms during tourist season, and offering home-cooked dinners made of local specialties. 
We had a memorable wine-tasting seminar and a delicious catered dinner at Le Château La Baume (“the cave”), originally built as a guest house to accommodate the pilgrims of Saint-Gilles. The current owners of Le Château La Baume, Sandrine and Jean-François Andreoletti, produce white, red, and rosé wines with an image of an ancient Roman statue of Bacchus, the god of winemaking, on the label. 
The original Bacchus statue graces the tasting room of the property that leads to the cave – the 18th century mansion occupies a site of an excavated Gallo- Roman villa. At dinner, our gracious hostess Sandrine treated us to a succession of excellent wines with the Bacchus label, and explained the intricacies of the fermentation and blending methods employed by her husband, a fifth-generation winemaker. 
In Sandrine’s kitchen, chef Eric Hugnin prepared a traditional Saint-Gilles meal for us – mixed greens salad with blue cheese; slow-cooked beef with Camargue rice and sage; and a dessert of local strawberries and cream.Cassoulet de Languedoc Speaking of traditional dishes, cassoulet is the most notorious of them in the
The real cassoulet is prepared the night before, and involves soaking of the beans, simmering of the broth made with pork feet, shank, and rinds, various meats cooked in duck fat, and presumably preparing your own duck confit and lamb sausage several months prior. Well-aware of my limitations as a home cook, I tried to order cassoulet in almost every restaurant we visited, and loved each one of them. 
That night, we stayed at a large and well-appointed hotel Les Jardins de Saint Benoit in the