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Degas in Petaluma—Robert Flynn Johnson's impeccable collection of Degas drawings are at the Petaluma Arts Center, opening festivities Saturday evening
"Edgar Degas: The Private Impressionist, Works on Paper by the Artist and his Circle or shorthand…"Degas in Petaluma"…. is Petaluma Art Center's (PAC) biggest coup to date. Featuring 100+ works on paper, the exhibition includes 40 drawings, prints, pastels, and photographs by Degas from his early days of making studies of works at the Louvre to late in his career. Also included in the show are works on paper by artists in his circle, including Mary Cassatt, Paul Cézanne, Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. One of the reasons I'm so excited about this exhibit is that gives me another chance to meet the collector, Robert Flynn Johnson, and hear him hold court on his favorite subject, his art and his thought processes about art and collecting. I met him 20 years back when he was the curator in charge of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. He was one of their most interesting and knowledgeable curators then, always giving us the juiciest tidbits, enlivening the small victories and defeats in the artist's daily struggle and reveling in the connections between artists. His own eclectic collecting habits were revealed to us with his marvelous photography show, "Anonymous: 19th and 20th Century Photographs and Quilts by Unknown Artists from the Collection of Robert Flynn Johnson," at PAC in August 2011. (Click here to read ARThound's review of that show.) And late last year, Joe McDonald's Ice House Gallery featured some of Flynn Johnson's even more eclectic works in "Catch and Release: Works from the Robert Flynn Johnson Collection." It was there that we all had a chance to preview the chic and wonderfully informative catalog for Flynn Johnson's Degas collection that Joe had shot the images for. Flynn Johnson's writing in this catalog represents decades of scholarly research and rumination and reveals Degas as a fascinating young man, oddly rebellious and immensely talented. As Flynn Johnson explores the fine details and artistic choices in these artworks, they come to life. He wrote the wonderful wall captions for the show too, so prepare to be wowed on all fronts.
You won't want to miss the opening party or his two talks at PAC—
Saturday, June 20—Opening Reception with wine and hors d'oeuvres (5-8PM) (click here to buy $10 tickets if you are not a member of PAC; free to members)
Thursday, July 2, 2015—Chasing Degas: My Four Decades Collecting this Artist and his Circle – Lecture by Collector Robert Flynn Johnson (7:00-8:30PM). $15 General, $10 PAC members.
Thursday, July 16, 2015—Public/ Private: Collecting for the Community while Collecting Personally, a Balancing Act – Lecture by Collector Robert Flynn Johnson (7:00-8:30PM). $15 General, $10 PAC members.
Details: "Edgar Degas: The Private Impressionist, Works on Paper by the Artist and his Circle runs through July 26, 2015. The Petaluma Arts Center is located at 230 Lakeville Street, Petaluma's historic former train depot. Hours 11-5 PM Thursday through Monday, open until 8PM Saturdays. Admission for this special exhibit: $10 General. PAC members, FREE. Tickets may be purchased in advance, here.
Horse Sense—ARThound talks with San Francisco Opera's Daniel Knapp about "Patches," the equine star of "The Trojans," at War Memorial Opera House through July 1, 2015
Horses are mythic. There's none more colossal or more steeped in legend than the Trojan horse, a prize so glorious that it could not be left standing outside Troy's gates but once brought inside, would destroy all those in power. As San Francisco Opera opens its summer season with six performances of Berlioz's glorious musical epic, The Trojans, I spoke with David Knapp, the company's new production manager, about "Patches," its equine star. The 23-foot-tall Trojan horse, which is on stage for most of the 5+ hour opera, has been nicknamed "Patches" by SFO because it's literally pieced together from scraps and functions much like a mechanized puppet, with carpenters and acrobats inside it manipulating it. Back after a 47 year hiatus, it took over a decade of planning to bring the $6 million production to San Francisco Opera (SFO). It's staged by Sir David McVicar, the acclaimed Scottish director, and is a coproduction of SFO, Royal Opera House, Teatro alla Scala, and Vienna State Opera. Since the opera opened to a sold-out house on June 6, it has drawn universal praise from critics and audience alike. Long before the opera opened though, Patches was a big draw with SFO staff and special visitors who came back stage in droves to pose for photos with the humongous but intricately constructed artwork. Here is my conversation with Knapp about this horse—
What's so special about this giant horse that has travelled here from Europe.
Daniel Knapp: It's magnificent—7 meters (approximately 23 feet) tall and is not only a sculpture that is scenic art but it's also a puppet to a certain extent. It's constructed of steel and fiberglass and doesn't weigh too much because it's mainly fiberglass. It has a gaf piston in it which allows for the rocking of the head and basic movements and that's very exciting. When it's first introduced, you get the impression that it's very tall, frightening. You only see the upper part of the head and wonder where's it coming from and what does the whole thing look like and is it really a horse? There are 2 carpenters and 3 acrobats inside, moving and manipulating the horse and they've been here practicing since the rehearsal period began.
Who gets credit for artistic design of the horse?
Daniel Knapp: It's Es Devlin, a British designer who's involved with all the top rock and roll shows—U2 tour, Take That tours, Miley Cyrus—and with opera and theatre. She designed the closing ceremony for the 2012 London Olympic Games. She runs an office with a multitude of assistants and she has just opened an office in Brazil. The conception for the horse came from the workshops of the Royal Opera House and she worked with them to refine it, from the model to the life-scale sculpture we call "Patches" because it's patched together.
Has Devlin created any other animals that we might recognize?
Daniel Knapp: She's done all the set and scenic design on this opera but I'm not aware that's she done another horse. For one of the last Take That tours, she did a big man, that was more than 40 feet tall, that stood up over the course of the concert, going from crouching to standing in the middle of the audience. (Take That is a leading British pop group that formed in 1990 and currently consists of musicians Gary Barlow, Howard Donald and Mark Owen)
(Es Devlin designed the giant walking elephant for Take That's Circus Live Tour 2009. The 26 foot tall elephant had translucent skin made light-weight chain mail and was constructed by Mark Mason of Asylum Models. It was operated by 13 puppeteers inside the skins and another four at ground level who controlled the head, trunk and legs. It had rods that moved the ears and its tail was an inverted acrobat wearing a helmet with hair extensions. (To read about and see the elephant, click here.)
This version of Troyens is set, more or less, at the time of its composition, in the 1850s, Second Empire France. How did that influence the actual conception for the horse that looks like a machine horse?
Daniel Knapp: Everything that you will see that is part of the horse could have been made at that time or could predate that time. The horse is pieced together from what appear to be rifles, screwdrivers, all sorts of tools and scrap materials like keys…it's actually mostly fiberglass, a piecemeal puzzle that once put together appears as this great horse.
Carbon footprint aside, what's entailed in getting something of this magnitude to San Francisco? And then assembling it?
Daniel Knapp: We always use steam ship companies because air is too expensive. It was shipped in 16 containers (40 foot high cube containers). Your entire household could fit in 1 of these containers, or, if you've got an extensive household you might need 1.5 containers. It all arrived in pieces in a very organized matchbox system. A team form the Royal Opera House came over to help with the assembly because they are the originators. Actually, our staff went to La Scala last year and watched this process and got a feel for what it takes to put on this production. With this run, we did all of that assembly in 3.5 days; in Milan, they weren't as quick as we were. We didn't have the time or money to allow for more time to do it.
How many scenes does Patches appear in?
Daniel Knapp: He appears in a multitude of scenes but I'm not going to give away any of the excitement. He's on stage for a fair while and, when he's not hiding in the back, sometimes he's looming in the background and sometimes he's hidden by a blackout curtain.
How mobile is the horse and how does it move around the stage? I heard this entails acrobats and carpenters.
Daniel Knapp: Yes, that's exactly what it takes. We have few carpenters and acrobats around and in it, moving it. It's on wheels, on a huge A stand. If you think of a child's swing on the playground and think of it for giants, that's what the internal structure of the horse is. It moves around on wheels that are on tracks just like a train. The tracks are a part of the original design and actually travel with the production. We had to cover our stage floor with another floor and that entailed adding about 1 inch to our stage to ensure that the weight is distributed evenly so that we don't damage our rather old stage floor. We also had to re-enforce some of the stage structure underneath to make sure that we don't suddenly fall in the basement. The horse might be relatively light but the trappings—the drum trucks, the big scenery elements for Troy and Carthage—all together, those weigh 32 tons.
Anything tricky about coordinating the movement of the horse to the music and the singers? Do any of the lead singers have any direct interaction with the horse?
Daniel Knapp: As we know from the Trojan story, the horse is sort of a separate entity. The lead singers certainly react to it but they don't interact with it directly. The horse's movement on stage is cued like everything else—people execute what they have rehearsed and there's nothing complicated about that. These are professionals who are used to working to cues from the stage manager, such as "horse go upstage." We do this in rehearsal and there's always a review afterwards to make sure that we have hit our marks. Sometimes, the director might want to change the speed but it's not complicated. There's one boss and that's the director but on stage, it's the stage manager who calls out when and where.
This is a fiery horse—how is the fire created and will there be accompanying liquid nitrogen and steam, like in the Ring?
Daniel Knapp: The horse itself doesn't breathe fire but its mane burns, which is a very impressive sight. In the original version, in London, they had the horse smoke but due to restrictions over here, the director distanced himself from that when he did the revival in Milan. That's what I said about cooking the meal for the third or fourth time, you've left out the ginger but added something else. Over here, steam and liquid nitrogen are our only possibilities to create atmosphere due to the CVA restrictions we work under as collaborating artists.
Do you have much freedom in interpretation of this opera and how the horse is used here in San Francisco?
Daniel Knapp: It's like your last cooking experience when you invite people over for dinner and you remember that, three years ago, you did this fantastic meal and you want to do the same meal again. Will do it exactly the same way? No—that's exactly the same situation with a revival or co-production. We are not the conceivers, David McVicar or Ses Devlin, we are realizing their artistic vision. We had Leah Hausman, the co-director from London, here, who is a dance and movement director and coach, and other of McVicar's associates here. We could never do this just ourselves because then it's not in the original spirit. People in the house who were part of the original creation production do feel differently than people who have just joined a few years later and we needed them.
How appropriate is the War Memorial Opera House stage for a horse of this weight and magnitude? Isn't SF much smaller than the Royal Opera House or La Scala?
Daniel Knapp: It's not only the horse but it's also the enormous drum trucks which support Carthage and Troy. Carthage is an entire terracotta kingdom and you'll be blown away by it, as much as by the horse. You've also got the chorus, the singers, dancers, acrobats—over 130 on stage.
Stage wise, we are a little smaller but, auditorium wise, we are bigger than all the European houses. We compare ourselves to the size of Warsaw's Teatr Wielki, which has the biggest modern stage (together with the Opéra Bastille in Paris) in Europe. Here in the US, you have this curiosum or wonderful paradox because sometimes there are stages like ours that originally did not have a backstage or a real up stage storage area but only a stage area. Actually, up until 45 years ago, all our sets were built right on stage. Our auditorium is huge compared to all the European houses. With 3,146 seats, we are bigger than all other houses but now our stage is smaller, so over the next 20 years there will probably be some developments.
Any funny stories related to Patches so far?
Daniel Knapp: Just people excited to have their picture taken with Patches. It's like we are a part of Disney World here; even the staff is coming down to the stage to have their picture taken.
What's your favorite scene in Trojans?
Daniel Knapp: It's the whole opera, the whole thing, because once it's done because it's such a complex and huge show that I can't focus on one thing but rather all the contributing moments.
How are adjusting to your new position here? What are your responsibilities?
Daniel Knapp: I'm adjusting great; it's full of surprises in a good and interesting way. The whole scope of coming to a new country and a new working environment offers a multitude of perspectives. It's been very welcoming so far and very intense, so it feels a lot more like I've been here a year and half rather than just a few months.
I'm responsible for overseeing all the productions at SFO— all the scenic elements, costume shops, sound and technical departments and all the labor that's involved, which is all the talent on the stage plus the electricians and all the support staff…so, it's quite a scope. I've met a lot of people who have a certain sense of responsibility for this company, who identify with it and who have been here much longer than me. They've introduced me to the company culture and what necessary changes could be made and how we can achieve those as a team over the next 3, 5, 15, or however many, years to stay up with the world class opera companies.
With "Troyens" up first, followed by the world premiere of "Two Women," it's kind of a trial by fire for you. What's the most demanding part of your job right now?
Daniel Knapp: I'm a little in both fire and water trials right now. I'm from a country that has plenty of drinking water and lakes on our doorstep and coming to Northern CA, and being in the middle of a drought, is also a big trial. To be able to make use of all the technology and intellectual capital that surrounds us here and to engage the techies is another exciting challenge for our opera company. With respect to the work load, at the Bregenzer Festival in Austria, I was always overseeing two productions; last summer it was three productions, one of which was The Magic Flute on the floating stage. I was also very involved with the pre-production of Turandot that will premiere on July 22. So that's heavy experience with large-scale productions on the lake, in the open air, and it's a bit of a different scale. We had many international co-productions as well with companies in Europe and the US, so I am quite used to doing multiple wedding dances at the same time. That was exciting but the requirements of a concentrated festival versus a company that is doing performances year-round are different. What I love here is that we have an interwoven schedule so that the three monumental productions— The Trojans, the world premiere of Two Woman and the revival of the classic, Figaro, in an adapted version, Figaro, will all be able to fit on stage. That was a lot to step into.
How did you prepare for this opera? Did you do extensive reading or do you mainly execute and manage?
Daniel Knapp: My learning process is the interaction with the artists, finding out what their real concerns are and looking behind the scenes. I'm not the guy who tries to be more prepared than the director and I don't do the full research of the director or designers. However, when I have questions about why something is set-up a certain way and why something can't be done, I get very involved. I always question creative teams about why they would want to emphasize something or not. I need to understand where they are coming from so that we can get the most from their art on stage. The great thing about my job is that, if I do it correctly, you don't notice that I am there.
What are you most looking forward to in the coming fall season?
Daniel Knapp: Meistersinger of course! That's because it's another one of those monster shows with great music, a great designer, great artists…so that's very nice. I'm also excited about Usher (Fall of the House of Usher) which is so theatrical. The great thing is that my former boss, David Pountney, is the director of that show, so I get to meet him under different circumstances, to collaborate and to actually tell him "no."
Details: There are three remaining performance of The Trojans—Saturday, June 20, 2105, 6PM; Thursday, June 25, 6PM and Wednesday, July 1, 6PM. Seats are selling fast—purchase tickets here or phone the Box Office at (415) 864-3330. War Memorial Opera House is located at 301 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco. Every performance features supertitles (English translations) projected above the stage, visible from every seat. The June 25th and July 1st performance feature OperavVision, HD video projection screens in the Balcony level. For information about the SFO's Summer 2015 Season, click here.
The new Art Museum of Sonoma County's Studio 54 Party was the weekend's hottest ticket—ARThound shares pics
The 18th Sonoma International Film Festival starts Wednesday—the art line-up is wonderful
The 18th Sonoma International Film Festival (SIFF) starts Wednesday and will screen over 90 films from more than two dozen countries over 5 nights and 4 days. The big nights have been well-covered in the media. Among the treasures that you might not have yet discovered are several films, each an artwork in itself, on artists and designers, some virtually unknown, whose gift for creative expression will inspire and delight. $15 tickets are available for pre-purchase online for all of the films mentioned below. Victor Mancilla's documentary, ART and Revolutions, about Mexico's famed artist-engraver, José Guasalupe Posada, will screens Saturday at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, will have an accompanying art exhibition and a lively post-screening Q& A with the director and Jim Nikas, the collector. The opening night film, Alan Rickman's A Little Chaos, which has Kate Winslet playing an unorthodox thinking widow hired to design part of the gardens at Versailles, has also peaked my interest. I love how Winslet embodies strength on scene and I'm intrigued with garden design, which poses interesting questions, artistic and otherwise. What is nature, how do we fit into it and how should we shape it when we can both physically and visually? Some of these fascinating issues are practical and others philosophical but we can only hope that Winslet's Sabine de Barra tackles them substantively as she (predictably) snuggles up with the court's renowned landscape architect artist André Le Notre (Matthias Schoenaerts) to design one of the most exquisite gardens ever conceived.
Now, on to the art line up—
Searching for Posada: ART and Revolutions (Mexico/USA, 2014, 41 minutes) Called a "revolutionary artist of the people" and hailed as "the Goya of Mexico" and yet virtually unknown, Mexican artist and printmaker José Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913) created a vast portfolio of important work. Mexican director Victor Mancilla (201 Squadron: The Forgotten Eagles (2009) Best Historical Documentary award, Smithsonian Institution) tells Posada's story through Jim Nikas (of Marin), an obsessed American collector of Posada's works. Nikas, who has the largest collection of Posada's in the U.S., embarks on a passionate search for the truth about the artist. Traveling to the Posada's hometown of Aguascalientes, to Leon and then Mexico City, Nikas meets art historians and encounters things that would have amazed even the artist Posada himself, including Fidel Castro's pajamas and Che Guevera's backpack. Three-and-a-half years in the making, ART and Revolutions© was shot on location in Mexico and features music by pianist Natasha Marin, wife of actor and avid Chicano Art collector Cheech Marin. (Screens: Saturday, March 28, 5 PM, Sonoma Valley of Art, $15 tickets) There is a post-screening Q & A with the director and Jim Nikas and an Exhibition of Posada's original artwork from the collection of the Posada Art Foundation.
Art House—(USA, 90 min) Photographer Don Freeman's masterful documentary Art House explores the handmade homes crafted by and lived in by eleven American—Frederic Church, Russel Wright, George Nakashima, Raoul Hague, Costantino Nivola, Paolo Soleri, Henry Chapman Mercer, Wharton Esherick, Henry Varnum Poor, Byrdcliffe Arts Colony, and Eliphante. Embracing the synergy of curves, natural materials and muted light, each glorious home reflects its creator's distinctive voice and practice as it merges with architecture. An anthem to creative souls who follow their hearts, this inspirational and gorgeously shot doc makes the sleek pages of Architectural Digest and Dwell seem passé. (Screens: Thursday, March 26, 5:30 PM, Women's Club; Sunday, March 29, 7:30 PM Sonoma Valley Museum of Art. $15 tickets)
Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery (Beltracchi: Die Kunst der Falschung)—(Germany, 2014, 93 min) It's ironic that 58-year-old German Wolfgang Beltracchi looks like Alfred Durer. Beltracchi masterminded one of the most lucrative art scams in postwar European history. For decades, this self-taught painter, and self-proclaimed hippie, passed off his own paintings as newly-discovered masterpieces by Max Ernst, André Derain, Max Pechstein, Georges Braque, and other Expressionists and Surrealists from the early 20th century. His wife, Helene Beltracchi, along with two accomplices, created convincing backstories and sold the paintings for six and seven figures through auction houses in Germany and France, including Sotheby's and Christie's. One fake Max Ernst hung for months in a retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2004, Steve Martin purchased a fake Heinrich Campendonk for $860,000 through a Parisian gallery. Arne Birkenstock's Lola award winning documentary Beltracchi: The Art of Forgery ("Beltracchi: Die Kunst der Falschung," 2014), features the larger than life Beltracchi sharing his secrets; those he duped sharing their dismay; and those who caught him talking about the painting that blew it all up. (Screens: Thursday, March 26, 8 PM, Woman's Club and Sunday, March 29, 5 PM, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, $15 tickets)
Generosity of Eye—(USA, 63 min) Octogenarian William Louis-Dreyfus, the father of Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Elaine Benes on "Seinfeld) and now "Veep" ) started collecting art in the early 1960s, things that caught his eye, not investment pieces. While there are no Warhols, Freuds, or Picassos in his 3,500 piece collection, he conservatively estimates it to be worth at least $10 million and possible as much as $50 to $60 million. (from 5.26.14 Wall Street Journal article) There are pieces by Paul Gaugin, Vassily Kandinsky, Leonardo Cremonini, George Boorujy, Helen Frankenthaler, and self-taught African-American artist and former slave Bill Traylor. Louis-Dreyfus served as chairman of Louis Dreyfus Group, a global conglomerate started by his great-grandfather in 1851. Forbes estimated his net worth at $3.4 billion in 2006. Director Brad Hill, who is Julia Louis-Dreyfus' husband, has captured the very personal story of her discovering how her father's passion for art and justice led him to donate most of this collection over the next several decades to the New York-based non-profit, the Harlem Children's Zone, HCZ. This touching story of a major art collection transforming into educational opportunity that will help kids in Harlem escape the vicious cycle of poverty has the intimacy of a home movie. (Click here to view the Louis-Dreyfus Family Collection web site which includes the entire collection) (Screens: Thursday, March 26, 9:30 AM Sebastiani Theatre and Sunday, March 29, 5:30 PM Burlingame Hall. $15 tickets)
Dior and I —(France, 90 min) There are just a handful of fashion greats who have had French designer Christian Dior's enduring impact on 20th century style. Filmmaker Frédéric Tcheng (co-director Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, 2012 and Valentino: The Last Emperor, 2008) delivers another insightful exploration of this style pioneer's enduring influence through the storied world of the House of Christian Dior. Dior passed in 1957 but his name has lived on through this contemporary fashion house, now owned by Groupe Arnault. This thoughtful doc delivers a dramatic behind-the-scenes look at the new Artistic Director, Raf Simons' very first Haute Couture collection. From conception through its ultimate exhibition, the process is shown to be a nerve-racking labor of love. Stoic Simons must coax the very best from his dedicated collaborators who literally make it all happen. Tcheng's revealing homage to pressure cooker couture is fascinating. (Screens: Thursday, March 26, 2 PM Sonoma Community Center and Saturday, March 28, 8:30 PM Sonoma Valley Art Museum $15 tickets)
Art & Design Shorts Program—Fine cinematography comes in various packages. SIFF has a soft place for shorts, recognizing that, outside of the festival circuit, there is little chance to experience the synergy of a well-executed short. The festival offers three curated shorts programs and will screen dozens of individual shorts in advance of its feature-length programming. British artist David Hockney, Italian architect and interior designer Paola Navone, , 5th generation farmer and vintner Jim Bundschu, multifaceted designer Michael Vanderbyl and various Native American architects, builders and tribal members are the subjects of five Art & Design shorts that are guaranteed to stimulate your senses and fire up your imagination. Total run time is approximately one hour (Screens: Friday, March 27 12:30 PM and Sunday, March 29, 9:30 AM both at Woman's Club. $15 tickets)
ARThound's previous festival coverage:
The Sonoma International Film Festival starts Wednesday—$15 tickets online now for many of the films
Passes for the 18th Sonoma International Film Festival are on sale now and prices will increase on March 1, 2015
SIFF 18 details:
Full festival schedule by film type is available online here.
Full schedule in calendar form is available online here.
Official Full SIFF Film Guide is available online here.
Information about passes and tickets is here.
Screening Locations:
Sebastiani Theatre – 476 First St. East (seats 325)
Sonoma Community Center-Andrews Hall – 276 East Napa Street (seats 150)
Mia's Kitchen at Vintage House – 126 First Street West (seats 150)
Sonoma Woman's Club – 574 First Street. East (seats 100)
Sonoma Valley Museum of Art – 551 Broadway (seats 70)
Vintage House– 264 First Street East
La Luz Center – 17560 Gregor Street, Boyes Hot Springs (3.5 miles from town square)
CAAMFest—Asian American film, food, music and comradery kicks off Thursday, March 12, and runs for 11 days in San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland
The Center for Asian American Media's CAAMfest turns 33 this year and continues its morph from a pure film festival into a series of festive happenings that fuse cutting edge independent film with music and food—all with an Asian American twist. CAAMFest takes place over the next 11 days in venues all around the Bay Area including the Asian Art Museum and the Oakland Museum of California, which add their enticing exhibits to the mix. Formerly the San Francisco Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), CAAMFest 2015 offers more than 100 movies and videos focused on the discovery of new talents, voices and visions. It's by far the largest festival of Asian American movies in North America. Under the leadership of Masashi Niwano, now in his fifth year as festival & exhibitions director, the event has become one of the country's major platforms for conveying the richness and diversity of the Asian American multicultural experience. ARThound loves this festival because it's so excellently curated, delivering rich and unusual stories from around the globe that stay with you for years.
This year, you'll see Asian American broadly defined too. Iranian director Rakshan Banietemad's new film, Tales, which picked up the award for Best Screenplay at Venice, caught the CAAMFest programmers' eyes, not just because it's a great film but because the director, working under dior conditions in Iran, creatively stitched together a series of shorts, stories from her previous films, to create a full length film. In so doing, she managed to navigate the bureaucracy of the Iranian cultural ministry which requires a license for a feature but not for shorts. Bravo! There are also stories involving the Asian diaspora. Juan Martín Hsu's La Salada is set in Argentina's bustling discount market, La Salada, just outside of Buenos Aires, and involves an ensemble cast of Korean, Taiwanese, and Bolivian immigrants whose experiences all converge at the market. It's thus no surprise that "travel" is this year's theme. Opportunities for armchair travel abound and over 200 guests will be flying in CAAMFest.
Opening Night: The festival kicks off at the historic Castro Theatre on Thursday evening (March 12), with Benson Lee's Seoul Searching (2015), his new feature film which garnered quite a buzz when it premiered at Sundance in January. A tribute to the 1980's teen movies of John Hughes, but infused with a Korean sensibility and Lee's own experiences, this dramedy is set in a state run summer camp in Korea that brings together Korean teens from all over the globe for the purpose of teaching them about their culture. Lee uses the teen's stories, and their unexpected twists, to explore the Korean diaspora. Lee's Planet B-Boy, about break-dancers in an international competition, won best documentary and the audience award at CAAMfest in 2008. Lee and several cast members will attend.
Opening Gala: After the screening, there's an opening night gala at the Asian Art Museum, with a 1980's dance party with cocktails and fine food amidst the Seduction exhibit of Edo-period Japan. The exhibition has over 60 works of art and features Japanese artist Hishikawa Moronobu's (1618-1694) spectacular 58 foot long painted silk handscroll, A Visit to the Yoshiwara, which is shown completely unfurled for the first time. The masterpiece, on loan from the John C. Weber, depicts daily life in the entertainment district in the 17th century.
CAAMfest's Centerpiece movie: Shonali Bose's Margarita with a Straw (2014) screens at Castro on Sunday, March 15th and represents the powerful storytelling and moments of palpable intimacy that CAAMFest is famous for. Kalki Koechlin plays Laila, a young woman from Delhi who is determined not to let her cerebral palsy interfere with her life —she writes lyrics for a rock band, flirts wildly with her classmates and dreams of going to New York to participate in NYU's prestigious creative writing program to which she's been admitted. Set in Delhi and New York, the film is a brave and glorious homage to that old adage—"follow your heart."
Closing Night: The festival's closes with Bruce Seidel's Lucky Chow, a six-part PBS series which will be showcased over the course of two days—Saturday and Sunday, March 21 and 22—at Oakland's New Parkway Theater. The series features Danielle Chang (LUCKYRICE culinary festival founder) as she travel across America, taking in the Asian food landscape. Accompanying the film will be an Asian-inspired curated menu from the New Parkway kitchen. Other food-related films are Grace Lee's Off the Menu: Asian America and Edmond Wong's Supper Club exploring Bay Area restaurants.
Honoring the 40th anniversary of Cambodia's fall to the Khmer Rouge: Lest we not forget the tragic moments that also define cultures, CAAMfest is presenting a collection of powerful stories of survival and resiliency from Cambodia's tragic Khmer Rouge period. As part of the Spotlight feature on acclaimed filmmaker Arthur Dong, his new documentary, The Killing Fields of Dr. Haing S. Ngor, chronicles the years encapsulating the Khmer Rouge's tyranny through the eyes of Dr. Haing S. Ngor, who escaped to America and recreated his experience in the film The Killing Fields, for which he won an Academy Award in 1984. Dong will be in conversation with film critic and author B. Ruby Rich on Friday, March 20 at New People Cinema.
Perfectly Peachy: The festival is also honoring the Masumoto Family, fourth generation peach California peach farmers, with a CAAMFeast Award and a special evening of storytelling at the OMCA (Oakland Museum of California) on Friday, March 20, where the CAAM-produced documentary, Changing Season: On the Masumoto Family Farm, will have its world premiere. The entire family— Mas, Marcy, Nikiko and Korio Masumoto—will be in attendance. The Masumotos, who have an 80 acre farm south of Fresno, are famous for their highly-prized heirloom Sun Crest peaches and tenacious adherence to sustainable practices as well as their lyrical writing on farming and food. When was the last time you visited the Oakland Museum? CAAMFest provides a perfect opportunity to combine film with art. Fertile Ground: Art and Community in California (ends April 12) is an exciting collaboration between SFMOMA and OMCA that explores California artists, many of them Bay Area artists. Marion Gray: Within the Light (ends June 21) is a riveting exploration of San Francisco-based photographer Marion Gray's work over the past 40 years documenting Bay Area artists and art happenings. Bees: Tiny Insects, Big Impact (ends September 20) will educate and entertain the entire family.
Music: In addition to the movies, Korean musicians have a strong presence at CAAMFest with performances from Awkwafina (Chinese Korean American rapper Nora Lum from Queens) and Suboi, the Vietnamese "Queen of Hip Hop" and a host of other party rockers who will keep things lively before and after the movies.
Stay tuned to ARThound for an interview with the Masumotos about all things peachy.
CAAMFEST Details:
When/Where: CAAMfest 2015 runs March 12-22, 2014 at 8 screening venues in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Oakland and as well as select museums, bars and music halls.
Tickets: This popular festival sells outs, so advance ticket purchase is highly recommended for most films and events. Regular screenings are $14 with $1 to $2 discounts for students, seniors, disabled and current CAAM members. Special screenings, programs and social events are more. Festival 6-pack passes are also available for $75 (6 screenings for price of 5). All access passes are $450 for CAAM members and $500 for general. Click here for ticket purchases online. Tickets may also be purchased in person and various venue box offices open one hour before the first festival screening of the day. Rush Tickets: If a screening or event has sold all of its available tickets, there is still a chance to get in by waiting in the Rush line. The Rush line will form outside of the venue around 45 minutes before the screening is set to begin. Cash only and one rush ticket per person and there are no guarantees.
Unpacking the festival: Click here to see full schedule in day by day calendar format with hyperlinks for film and event descriptions and for ticket purchase. The official website— CAAMFest 2015
The 19th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival—ganz frisch German language film, starts Thursday, January 29 at the Castro
One film festival stands above most for consistently awesome programming—the annual Berlin & Beyond Film Festival, which features the best new films by German, Austrian and Swiss directors and the crème of the crop of international collaborations from directors working beyond these borders. The focus is German language cinema but it's the exceptional storytelling, intense drama and highly cinematic nature of the films, and the complete abandonment of Hollywood special effects, that make this festival a stand-out. The 19th Berlin & Beyond kicks off Thursday evening, January 29th, with a dazzling roster of tributes and special guests onstage and screenings of 20 feature length films and 4 shorts, including a healthy number of premieres. Festival director Sophoan Sorn, at the helm for his fifth year now, has collaborated with Festival president Sabine Erlenwein to select films that showcase this year's theme "In Search of Truth"—cinematic journeys that connect us with life-affirming and thought-provoking stories on life, love, loss and memory.
It all begins Thursday evening at San Francisco's historic Castro Theatre with a tribute to the legendary Bavarian actress Hannelore Elsner, Germany's Catherine Deneuve, who has delighted film, television and theater audiences for the past 50 years. I was introduced to her in 1994, when I was in Köln, and became addicted to the popular tv detective series, Die Kommissarin (The Inspector), where she played the brash and bruised by life Inspector, Lea Sommer, becoming the first female to play the role of a police inspector on German television. Berlin & Beyond 19 will present Elsner with a Lifetime Achievement Award for Acting, celebrating her extraordinary career. A special tribute program will lead the Opening Night screening of her latest film To Life! (Auf Das Leben, 2014). Following the screening, the festival kicks off with an Opening Night Party at Tank18, one of the City's finest wine bars. The festival closes at the Castro venue on Sunday with Doris Dörrie's The Whole Shebang (Alles Inklusive, 2014), with both Elsner and Dörrie in attendance.
This year, German actor Ronald Zehrfeld will be honored with the first-ever Berlin & Beyond Film Festival Spotlight Award in Acting and three of his latest films will be screened—Inbetween Worlds (Zwischen Welten, 2014), The Kings Surrender (Wir Waren Könige, 2014) and Phoenix (2014). The Spotlight Award will be presented on Friday, January 30, at the Northern California Premiere of Inbetween Worlds, at the Castro.
Berlin & Beyond continues to bring rare gems to its audiences, including the first-ever international screening of Marcus H. Rosenmüller's Best Chance (Beste Chance, 2014), and the North American premiere of the four-time Swiss Film Award winner, I Am The Keeper (Der Goalie Bin Ig, 2014) with director Sabine Boss in attendance. Also lighting up the screen are highly-anticipated works from the festival circuit: Austrian auteur Jessica Hausner's Cannes selection Amour Fou (2014); Swiss filmmaker Peter Luisi's Locarno Audience Award winner, Unlikely Heroes (Schweizer Helden, 2014); Oscar-winner Caroline Link's return to Africa with the father-and-son journey film, Exit Marrakech (2014) as the festival Centerpiece. Samuel Schneider, who plays 17 year-old-Ben will be in attendance.
In addition to the main Castro Theater venue, there are additional screenings on Feb 1-2 at the Goethe-Institut SF (530 Bush Street), Feb 2 at the Aquarius Theater, Palo Alto, and Feb 3 at the California Theatre, Berkeley.
For more information and tickets, browse the festival's official website and stay tuned to ARThound for additional coverage.
The Line-up for the 19th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival:
Thursday, January 29, 2015
6:30 pm Opening Night Film: TO LIFE!
9:15 pm STEREO
Friday, January 30, 2015
10:00 am RUN BOY RUN
1:30 pm MACONDO
4:00 pm MY SISTERS
6:30 pm INBETWEEN WORLDS
9:15 pm THE KINGS SURRENDER
Saturday, January 31, 2015
11:00 am ALPHABET
1:00 pm THIS LOVELY SHITTY LIFE
4:00 pm I AM THE KEEPER
7:00 pm EXIT MARRAKECH
10:00 pm DARK VALLEY
Sunday, February 1, 2015
11:00 am BELTRACCHI – THE ART OF FORGERY
1:00 pm UNLIKELY HEROES
3:30 pm AMOUR FOU
6:00 pm BEST CHANCE
8:30 pm THE WHOLE SHEBANG
GOETHE-INSTITUT AUDITORIUM, San Francisco
Sunday, February 1, 2015
1:00 pm MISSION SPUTNIK
3:00 pm MIND TRIPS Shorts 2015
5:30 pm VULVA 3.0
Monday, February 2, 2015
6:00 pm CONCRETE LOVE – THE BÖHM FAMILY
8:00 pm MY SISTERS
CALIFORNIA THEATRE, Berkeley
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
5:00 pm BELTRACCHI – THE ART OF FORGERY
7:00 pm BEST CHANCE
9:15 pm INBETWEEN WORLDS
Details: The 19th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival runs Thursday, Jan 29-Sunday, Feb 1 at the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street (near Market), San Francisco; Sunday; Sunday, Feb 1-2 at the Goethe-Institut, 530 Bush Street, San Francisco; Monday, Feb 2 at Aquarius Theatre, 430 Emerson St., Palo Alto and Tuesday, Feb. 3 at the (Landmark) California Theatre, 2113 Kittredge St., between Oxford and Shattuck, Berkley.
Closing soon and well worth the drive—"Roads of Arabia," exquisite and new archaeological discoveries from Saudi Arabia, at the Asian Art Museum through January 18, 2015
"Roads of Arabia: Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia" closes Sunday, January 18, at the Asian Art Museum (AAM). Present day Saudi Arabia is a distant land shrouded in mystery to most Westerners. Likewise, the history of ancient Arabia prior to the rise of Islam in the seventh century CE, is something we've heard virtually nothing about because there has been such scant evidence on which to construct a reliable narrative. Recent archaeological discoveries from the Saudi Kingdom's glorious past, combined with a desire on the part of the Saudis to share their cultural heritage with the world, has led to this stunning exhibition. Arabia marks new territory for the Asian but there's a profound connection to Asia. The Arabian Peninsula, with its unforgiving deserts, lush forests and exotic oases, is revealed as a once thriving cultural crossroads between Asia, Europe and Africa, vital in early human cultural development and bearing witness to the complex interactions of all those who travelled through.
Ranging in date from pre-historic to the present, the 200-plus artifacts in Roads of Arabia hail from remote sites all across present-day Saudi Arabia and include colossal figurative sculptures and funerary stele, dazzling gold jewelry, intricate metalwork, and elegant calligraphies in over a half dozen languages. Most of these exquisite artifacts were found along the ancient incense roads that originated in southern Arabia and were caravan routes for the transport of precious frankincense and myrrh—the oil of its day—throughout Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran, and the Mediterranean world. The advent of Islam in the seventh century CE gave rise to the development of pilgrimage roads that crossed through Arabia to Mecca. The exhibition also addresses the formation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The AAM is the exhibition's last stop on its two-year tour. Having debuted at the Louvre in 2010 to rave reviews, it started its U.S. tour at the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in 2012. This is the latest in a run of increasingly exhilarating world class exhibitions that AAM director Jay Xu, who came on board in 2008, has brought to the Asian. Just as the stunning 2008 exhibition "Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul" brought a selective and previously unseen group of 20th century archaeological finds from an Afghanistan enmeshed in Taliban rule, "Roads of Arabia" sheds light on an equally exotic land that most of us will never visit. And, aside from the visual draw of the artifacts themselves, you'll come away from "Roads" with a sense of the interconnectedness of the ancient world.
Curator talk, Friday January 16th: "Roads of Arabia: Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia"—Join exhibition curator Dany Chan for an insightful talk about recent and remarkable archaeological discoveries along the Arabian Peninsula. "Monumental" is how I would describe much of the exhibition, Roads of Arabia, with its colossal stone sculptures to the massive gilded doors of the Ka'ba, putting the small things at risk of being missed," says Chan. "I also want to draw your attention to the pint-sized artworks that, though small, testify to the Arabian Peninsula's role as a cultural crossroads over the thousands of years that this exhibition covers. Friday, January 16 at 12 PM at the Commonwealth Club: 595 Market Street, San Francisco. The Commonwealth Club is offering Asian Art Museum members a special rate of $8 per ticket (regularly $20). To purchase tickets, select "General Admission: Nonmember" and be sure to enter promo code specialchan to redeem your member discount.
Details: "Roads of Arabia" closes January 18, 2015. The Asian Art Museum is located at 200 Larkin Street at Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco. Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. NO surcharge for "Roads of Arabia," Admission: $15 adults; $10 seniors over 65, students and youth 13-17; Thursday nights $5. For more information, visit http://www.asianart.org
SoundBox—SF Symphony's new space for musical experimentation
Christmas started early for ARThound when a dear friend invited me to Saturday night's unveiling of SoundBox, MTT's (Michael Tilson Thomas') and San Francisco Symphony's (SFS) newest venture. SoundBox was designed to fill a gap in Bay Area music scene by providing an experimental space where anything musical can happen and to engage a younger, hipper audience with SFS and serious music. Judging from Saturday's thrilling reception which enthralled its sellout crowd of 450, Soundbox will do all that and more. It also seems poised to give our brilliant but nerdy MTT some street swagger, the kind of coolness cred that he's been aching for while collecting all those Grammies for classical recordings. If you haven't heard, SoundBox is a huge refurbished music space at 300 Franklin Street (in San Francisco). Formerly known as Zellerbach A, it was one of SFS's most dour on-site rehearsal spaces, ironically renowned for its dead sound.
With generous patron funding and the board's desire to revision SFS' audience outreach, the cavernous space was entirely revamped. Berkeley's Meyer Sound was engaged to install its patented multi-speaker "Constellation" system, transforming the space into a virtual sound lab. Now, with the push of touchscreen button, the venue can seamlessly tweak its acoustics (reverberation and decay times) for various pieces in a performance allowing otherworldly sounds to emerge from its tremendously talented SFS musicians and choral members. Add state-of-the-art video projection capacity, making for an incredible visual experience, sleek quilted leather ottoman and low tables (even the furnishings will be tweaked with each performance), a fully-stocked bar serving thematic cocktails and innovative cuisine—wella! SoundBox has the grit of an European art house, the verve of a sophisticated nightclub, the acoustics of a world class concert hall, and, as if it needs to be said, the world's best musicians playing tunes exquisitely curated by MTT.
On Saturday, 7:45PM, the crowd was already lining up on Franklin Street. The buzz: no one knew exactly what to expect but we were all excited by the program we'd read about online and the promise of road-testing something completely new. The pre-concert hour was dedicated to John Cage, who believed that every sound can be music, and featured a musical feast of his "Branches," featuring electronically amplified giant cacti, and "Inlets" which coaxed sounds from shells filled with water that gurgled when moved and from amplified burning pinecones. As people entered the darkened foyer of Soundbox and were confronted with Cage's music, they passed by a curious gallery space, specially curated by MTT, that included beautifully lit minimalist arrays of live cacti, a table of sea shells in a pool of water and colorful huge multi-layered projections of cacti. Wow…felt like entering one of those East European art happenings I'd covered in the 1980's. Once we passed through a closed black door, we entered the spacious main hall, which offered a hip but relaxed atmosphere—two low wooden platforms served stages and lots of low leather seating that could be easily re-arranged. People were free to amble about and get a drink or just settle in and get busy with their phones and texting.
The inaugural run, called "Extremities," kicked off dramatically with "Stella splendens in monte," a brief anonymous Spanish work (local composer Mason Bates contributed the percussion arrangements.) The SFS chorus, in flowing robes, entered from the back of the hall, and made a dramatic procession to the stage, their lyrical voices swelling to fill every corner of the space. As they passed by each of us, we got a sampling of each singer's individual voice. From there, it only got better—a very well-thought sonic and visual feast was about to unfold and we were ravenous for it. The audience snapped their fingers, clapped, yowled and tossed their exquisite locks…and the musicians beamed with pride. A glowing MTT looked like he'd dropped a decade as he engaged with the audience in a very heartfelt way, talking about musical choices and the potential of the space.
Highpoints for ARThound: Steve Reich's minimalist "Music for Pieces of Wood" featured five SFS percussionists with tuned hardwood claves creating a pulsing bed of rhythmically complex continuous sound. This reminded me of the miraculous frog concerto I am treated to in my pond in Sonoma County every time a serious storm blows through. After 8 minutes of this mesmerizing sound, which was accompanied by projections of Adam Larsen's images of a New York skyline, we were all in trance mode. When it ended, and everyone stopped playing, we were left with a very perceptible silence, a void in the acoustic atmosphere that left us all profoundly aware of the power of sound to inflate and deflate the psyche.
Ravel's exquisite "Introduction and Allegro" (1905) shimmered and glowed when played by a small ensemble of seven SFS musicians including principal harpist Douglas Rioth and concertmaster Sasha Barantschik whose beloved 1742 Guarnerius del Gesù ("The David") cast a spell over the audience, some of whom swept away tears. The chamber piece showcased the space's ability to tease out nuances in the contrasting sonorities. The velvety woodwinds, the percussive harp and the warm resonance of the strings were all so clear, so distinct, that I felt I was getting a personal introduction to the possibilities of these instruments.
One of the evening's hip visuals was the Nordic visual art pioneer, Steina's (Steina Vasulka's), seven minute video, "Voice Windows" (1986), featuring the voice of Joan La Barbara. The short engrossing film was co-presented by SFS and SFMOMA and points to the limitless possibilities for future collaboration in a space like this. Since the early 1970's, Steina, in collaboration with Woody Vasulka, has explored intricate transformations of vision, space and sound, through digital technologies, mechanical devices and natural landscape. "Voice Windows" was an exquisite and haunting example of her artistry in manipulating digital and camera-generated images and layering that with "real" and altered sound.
After two intermissions, the evening closed with Monteverdi's glorious "Magnificat" (1610) from Vespro della Beata Vergine. It is one of the eight most ancient Christian hymns and is taken directly from the Gospel of Luke where the Virgin Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth who is pregnant with the future John the Baptist. When Elizabeth praises Mary for her faith, Mary sings the "Magnificat" in response. Talk about immersive—the 19 minute piece featured soloists, the chorus and orchestra, all in rapturous splendor with gorgeous golden-hued projections of a Venetian church enhancing the mood.
Details: The next Sound Box performance, "Curiosities," is January 9 and 10th, 2015. Doors open at 8 PM and performance starts at 9 PM. Tickets on sale now: $25 for open seating. The space accommodates 450 and will sell out quickly. The SoundBox website is not working correctly. Call the SFS Box office (415) 864-6000 to purchase tickets. SoundBox is located at 300 Franklin Street, San Francisco, CA. Parking: (is hell) Performing Arts Garage (360 Grove Street) or Civic Center Garage (between Polk, Larkin, Grove and McAllister).
Not just art, Napa's Hess Collection, also has film—the "16th Annual Animation Show of Shows" screens new shorts from all over the world this Sunday, September 21, 2014
Napa Valley's Hess Collection not only offers an unparalleled collection of contemporary art amassed by Swiss wine connoisseur, Donald Hess, it also has exceptional film programing in its on-site theatre organized by collection curator, Rob Ceballos. A visit to the striking two story stone museum and grounds on Mt. Veeder, is always a treat— the art works on display are frequently rotated and there's a tasting room pouring Hess' world class wines —but when combined with a special film event that includes a knowledgeable speaker, it's even more rewarding. On Sunday, September 21, 2014, at 2 p.m., Ron Diamond founder of Acme Filmworks animation studio in Los Angeles and Animation Show of Shows curator will present the fantastic "16th Annual Animation Show of Shows" film shorts program. The 100 minute program will screen nine award-winning animated short films selected from major worldwide animation film festivals, and includes a reception before the screenings, and a Q & A session with Diamond after the viewing.
Diamond created the annual Animation Show of Shows in 1998 as a way of bringing the year's best shorts, both studio and independent films, from around the world, to industry professionals and audiences who might not otherwise have an opportunity to see them. The 16th Annual edition features both studio and independent films from the US, Canada, Norway, France, United Kingdom, Poland and Russia, some of which have not been officially released. A few of shorts screening Sunday include: Disney's FEAST (2014) from director Patrick Osborne that accompanies their full-length animated feature Big Hero Six (November 2014) and Disney-Pixar's musical short, LAVA (2014) directed by James Ford Murphy, (which will run in front of Pete Docter's full-length animated feature, Inside Out, (out June 2015)). Also featured is Greg and Myles McLeod's 365, composed of 365 one-second films chronicling a year in filmmaking, day-by-day. Other films include legendary Disney animator Glen Keane's directorial debut with DUET (2014), produced at Google's ATAP unit, along with Mikey Please's stop motion tour-de-force MARILYN MYLLER (2014), fresh from its Grand Prix win at the 2014 Hiroshima International Animation Festival. The entire program runs approximately 100 minutes.
Details: "16th Annual Animation Show of Shows" is Sunday, September 21, 2014, at 2 PM at the Hess Collection. The Hess Collection Winery is located at 4411 Redwood Road Napa. A $20 fee covers the food and wine reception as well as the film program. Patrons are invited to remain and enjoy selected tastings of interesting new release wines in the historic Hess Visitor's Center. Seats are limited. Purchase tickets here. Online ticket availability ends Friday, September 19, 2014.
"Arts of the Islamic World"―engrossing lectures by the world's experts, Friday mornings at the Asian Art Museum, through December 5, 2014
Last Friday morning, you could have heard a pin drop in the Asian Art Museum's Samsung Hall as Freer & Sackler chief curator of Islamic Art, Massumeh Farhad, gave an overview of the rare treasures from Saudi Arabia that await us in the "Roads of Arabia" exhibition opening October 24, 2014. Farhad gave an insider's profile of recent archaeological discoveries in Saudi Arabia, including news of an inscription in Nabatean Arabic, the very first stage of Arabic writing, unearthed by a French epigrapher near Narjan (near the Yemeni border) that is an important link in tracing the origins of the Arabic language. She also talked of exquisite artifacts found along the ancient incense roads that originated in southern Arabia and were caravan routes for the transport of precious frankincense and myrrh throughout Eqypt, Mesopotamia, Iran, and the Mediterranean world.
A week earlier, on August 29th, David Stronach, Professor Emeritus, Near Eastern Studies, University of California at Berkeley gave an engrossing survey of the art and architecture of Pre-Islamic Iran and Central Asia. One of the world's leading experts on ancient Iran, he told of the excavations he had participated in and illustrated his talk with stunning aerial photographs of sites and monuments taken by Swiss photographer Georg Gerster. He speculated about ancient Persian garden design and entertained us with an anecdote about Agatha Christie whom he met at an estate in Iran in the 1970's when he was the Director of the British Institute of Persian Studies in Tehran.
These distinguished speakers are part of a wonderful new 15-part fall lecture series, "Arts of the Islamic World," organized by the AAM's Society for Ancient Art, every Friday at 10:30 a.m. though December 5, 2014. The series is designed to provide a broad overview of both pre-Islamic and Islamic art and includes a roster of renowned scholars and curators, several of whom hail from Oxford and the British Museum. Their talks are substantial and run roughly two hours. The series sold-out almost immediately but a number of seats―$20 each―are made available each Friday morning for walk-ins. I have attended the last two lectures, arriving when the museum opens at 10 a.m. and have gotten a seat. Coffee, tea and assorted pastries are offered for sale before the lecture and at intermission. Here are descriptions of the remaining lectures―
September 12: Assimilation and Conquest: Byzantine Sources for Islamic Art (Study Guide), Helen Evans, Metropolitan Museum
September 19: Is there an Image Problem in Islam? Materials for the History of an Idea (Study Guide), Finbarr Barry Flood, NYU
September 26: Persian Painting: The First Golden Age (1300-1500), Robert Hillenbrand, University of Edinburgh
October 3: Seeing and Being Seen in Isfahan: Expanding Gaze for an Early Modern Capital, Renata Holod, University of Pennsylvania
October 10: Chinese Influence on Islamic Glazed Ceramics, Oliver Watson, University of Oxford
October 17: Building Types in Islamic Architecture, Santhi Kavuri-Bauer, San Francisco State University
October 24: The Visual Culture of Islam in India, Alka Patel, UC Irvine
October 31: "Ex Oriente Lux: Luxury Textiles and Oriental Carpets, Carol Bier, Textile Museum, Washington D.C.
November 7: The Art of Islamic Calligraphy: A Journey through Time, Maryam Ekhtiar, Metropolitan Museum
November 14: Seek Knowledge Even as Far as China: East-West Cultural Transmissions in Post Mongol Iran, Ladan Akbarnia, British Museum
November 21: Modernism and Islamic Art, Iftikhar Dadi, Cornell University
November 28: No Class, Thanksgiving break
December 5: Imagining Europe at the Persian Court in the Seventeenth Century (1590-1720), Amy Landau, Walters Art Museum
Details: The September 12 lecture, delivered by Dr. Helen Evans of the Metropolitan Museum, will be the fourth in the series. There is a two-hour "Arts of the Islamic World" lecture every Friday at 10:30 a.m. in Samsung Hall through December 5, 2014. (There is no lecture on November 28, 2014). Fee: $20 per lecture drop-in (purchase at the door, after Museum general admission, subject to availability). The Asian Art Museum is located at 200 Larkin Street at Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco. Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Admission: $15 adults; $10 seniors over 65, students and youth 13-17; Thursday nights $5. For more information, visit http://www.asianart.org


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Cherry Tree Inn & Suites
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Historical Traveler Reviews Cherry Tree Inn & Suites Traverse City
You've got to try this place!
The suites in this hotel are just awesome. Our 12 year old daughter didn't want to leave. This hotel is very clean, the staff is friendly and helpful. I just can't say enough good things about the Cherry Tree Inn. We will be back next year!!
Cherry Tree
Enjoyed accomodations, but was disappointed that they insisted on charging extra for my children. The receptionist checked with the manager twice, but he wouldn't change his mind. As repeat customers, we were disappointed with their attitute. If you make your reservations on-line, they don't charge the extra fee, but we decided to stay somewhere else after that experience.
Loved Cherry Tree Inn
We loved the Cherry Tree Inn, the staff was very friendly and dedicated. I called before arriving and asked about things to do in Travese City she talked to me for about 10 minutes about things I would be interested in doing and when we arrived she had a folder filled with things for us to do. She even took the time to highlight different activities. The hotel was very clean and well kept. Our suite was perfect for the romantic get a way we were looking for.
Very Clean
As a parent of a toddler I could not be more impressed with the cleanliness of this facility or the great hospitality we recieved. It was a great place to get away during the winter months I will gladly stay there again!
Peaceful place
loved the cherry tree inn. beautiful decorating, very friendly staff.
our room was tastefully decorated, large and had a very nice view of the bay. we had a suite and had 3 of our nephews stay the night one of the nights we were there. they really enjoyed the pool and game room.
breakfast each day was nicely done in a homey breakfast room setting.
would definately stay there again. have relatives in the town and so problebly will.
Fun time
This place is very nice i enjoyed my stay very much. Rooms are very nice, tv in the bathroom is a nice bonus, service is good
Very nice
We stayed at the Cherry Tree in room 309. It was a very nice hotel.
Nice breakfast. Nice pool. Nice large room. Very nice service. I would recommend it highly.
We go back year after year
As a parent of small children, we could not ask for more (okay, maybe a warmer indoor pool --but that's it), at the Cherry Tree Inn. The bay is so warm, calm and shallow, we feel very comfortable letting our 2 and 4 yr. olds venture into the water-which is not true further down the beach.. The free continental breakfast in the morning is fantastic. The rooms are very clean and decorated nicely. Having a microwave and small fridge in the room is wonderful with a family. And did I mention the views from the balcony? We always feel much further from home than we are. The staff is always very warm and helpful. It's a little drive to the end of the strip, but sooooo worth it.
cherry tree is great,the rooms are big the bathrooms have everything,could'nt ask for more.
Avoid the Cherry Tree Inn
Had a great time in Traverse City and Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes. I recommend you avoid the Cherry Tree Inn. It is overpriced and the beach is more like a mud hole. Service is terrible also.
TripAdvisor Reviews Cherry Tree Inn & Suites Traverse City
Travel Blogs from Traverse City
Back at Indigo Bluffs
... in January.
So Far this summer the weather has been wonderful days in the 80's and night's in the 60's, went to the beach yesterday and got some good pictures of the sunset over Lake Michigan which I will share with you in this blog. ...
Back from General RV in Wayland
... worked on the slide for three days and when it came time to pay the bill they did not charge me one dollar. Said they should have found the problem when they fixed it last year, great people and company.
Having a 4th of July party on our lot today about 25 people coming BBQ and booze, should be fun.
Everything is Broke
The RV Dealer called Friday to tell us that the parts are in to repair the slide on the RV. We can't drive down to get if fixed because the car decided to have problems too. I took it into the dealer last week because the door locks would not work. After three hours at the dealer they could not fix it because they needed to order parts. I went back the next day, they put in the new parts and the doors still did not work. Six hours later they ...
Traverse City Michigan to Mackinaw, Michigan
Today was to be a short day of traveling. It is a short trip to Mackinaw, Michigan from Traverse City. Traveling north, enjoying my McDonald's coffee, A moose sculpture caught my eye as I was entering a small community as well as a city park sign. I was thinking the park would be on Lake Michigan and give me the opportunity to paddle lake no 4 on this trip. The moose sculpture was on the edge of beautiful gardens full of metal art like I had ...
Settled in at Indigo
... to fix the slide for two more weeks. We should pick up the boat this weekend, but it is not warm enough to go boating. The weather has been in the low 70's during the day and the 40's at night which I guess is still better than sitting in Florida with the heat and humidity.


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Dr. Michel P. Ghastine graduated from the St Joseph's Univ, Fac of Med, Beirut, Lebanon in 1990. He works in Cincinnati, OH and 1 other location and specializes in Gastroenterology. Dr. Ghastine is affiliated with Bethesda North Hospital, Fort Hamilton Hospital and Good Samaritan Hospital.
Medical School: St Joseph's Univ, Fac of Med, Beirut, Lebanon; Graduated 1990
*This physician has multiple office locations. See Office Information for details.
10496 Montgomery Rd Ste 208
Cincinnati, OH 45242
222 Piedmont Ave
Cincinnati, OH 45219
222 Piedmont Ave
Cincinnati, OH 45219
9275 Montgomery Rd Ste 400
Cincinnati, OH 45242
6620 Clough Pike
Cincinnati, OH 45244


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Veterans For Peace UK is a voluntary ex-services organisation of men and women who have served in every war that Britain has fought since WW2.
We focus our work to:
Educate young people on the true nature of military service and war.
Resist war and militarism through non-violent action.
Stand in solidarity with people resisting militarism and war.
We hope to convince people that war is not the answer to the problems of the 21st century.


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Las Vegas Little Theatre Tickets and Upcoming Events
Oct 10Saturday October 10, 2015 / 8:00pm
Oct 11Sunday October 11, 2015 / 2:00pm
114 Las Vegas Little Theatre Tips
- Casual 2
- Parking is free 1
- Food and drinks for purchase 1
I wore trousers & nice top.star this tip starred
The weather was perfect spring weather. I wore jeans and a t-shirt.star this tip starred
Great choices of Chinese and Thai food in Chinatown.star this tip starred
Always easy parking and a cheerful, helpful staff.star this tip starred
The weather was cool. I wore a sweater, .star this tip starred
The weather was warm. I wore semi fancy slacks & top and added a decorative belt..star this tip starred
Tucked away behind Chinatown, lots of parkingstar this tip starred
Parking Near Las Vegas Little Theatre
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