Cunning Little Vixen at Long Beach Opera

For the first time ever, we purchased season tickets to a performing arts group! Long Beach Opera convinced us to sign on with their ingenious and clever productions. Even for people like us who know pretty much nothing about opera, we always enjoy such fresh performances. Plus, for a brief time they offered 50% off season tickets, so we signed up.

This past Saturday's was LBO's first (of only three) productions this year. All we knew going into the performance was the title: "The Cunning Little Vixen." We had no idea what is was about, thinking it would be fun to just be surprised. When the first performers appeared in animal costumes - a dragonfly, an owl, a mosquito - my initial thought was "An animal opera? Really?" But we were quickly swept away into the story of a charming, Chaplin-esque "vixen" (apparently a female fox) and her adventures in both the forest and the land of humans. It was so lovely and clever. The costumes were just amazing; the costume designer brought together what looked like a thrift store full of discarded clothes and somehow turned them with great effect into chickens, foxes, birds and other critters. Written in 1924 by Czech composer Leoš Janácek, "Cunning Little Vixen" is charming and colorful.

You're in luck, there's one more show, this coming Sunday, January 25. Click here for information. There was a great review of the show in the LA Times on Monday - I love how they drew a metaphor as LBO being the cunning little fox in these tough economic times. Click here to read the review.

Even in these tough times, LBO is finding a way to give back - $10 from every LBO ticket purchase for The Cunning Little Vixen will provide 5 meals for the hungry at the Long Beach Rescue Mission.

The Day is Finally Here

It's such an unusual feeling - excitement, anticipation and pride about our President! I still have to pinch myself. I'm so thankful to be alive during such an important historical moment. GOBAMA!!

I have friends from Texas who are on the National Mall today - I'm so jealous! I got a text from Kate yesterday, saying she saw Malia in a motorcade. :)

You can order a commemorative edition of this fabulous New Yorker cover, just click here. It's free!

Project Have Hope

When I was in Cambridge, my sister-in-law took me to a really great holiday boutique in a lovely old home. There were six or seven vendors there, each selling things they had hand crafted - except for one gal, who was selling gorgeous beaded jewelry on behalf of Project Have Hope.

I had never heard of this before, and now I love the concept! The beads are actually paper, and are created by a group of 100 women in the Acholi Quarter of Uganda (one of whom is our model here - aren't the beads so lovely?). Proceeds from the sales help these women feed their families, send their children to school, and to establish business opportunities to promote economic stability and sustainability.

So, you can purchase this fabulous jewelry (it became Christmas gifts for many of my girlfriends), AND help women who are working to better their lives! Their web site is terrific. You can read about hosting your own bead party, or you can purchase jewelry, photos and music directly. I love how they photograph their jewelry wrapped around fresh vegetables - like this lovely bejeweled corn!

Where's a bailout for the arts?

I recently read a commentary by Michael Kaiser, president of the JFK Cener for the Performing Arts, that perfectly summed up my feelings about what's happening financially in the art world (and what has been happening for years). This country has a terrible track record when it comes to public support for cultural aspects of our lives, and we're starting to pay the price.

Click here to read Kaiser's insightful piece. I do hope Obama's administration is able to put even a tiny bit more focus on the arts, which are as invaluable - if not more so - than all these other sectors we keep hearing about teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

Bow Street Gallery in Cambridge

Back to Cambridge we go! The weather warmed up for me to take a lengthy stroll one afternoon, and I explored areas outside the square I hadn't discovered before. I stumbled on a lovely little contemporary art gallery called the Bow Street Gallery. It's in the kind of space that I dream of owning for a gallery one day - funky old building, flooded with tons of natural light from tall windows, and high ceilings. It also happens to show the kind of art that I love - contemporary work by artists I've never heard of before (although I'm sure they're better known in the region - my knowledge is pretty limited to Southern California).

The gallery was in mid-installation when i visited, so I didn't get a good gander at the works, but I love the photo on their site of the current installation, Lumos by Stacy Parks (who is perhaps the owner of the gallery?). I could just move into that beautiful room! One day I'll have my own little funky space to fill with the art that I love!

Nasher in Dallas and ICA in Boston

Falling behind again, so here's a double entry. We did our holiday travels early, first to Dallas to visit my family then to Cambridge to visit Eric's. We had the great fortune of hitting two stellar art museums on our journeys.

In Dallas, our friends Anne and Ashley escorted us to the Nasher Sculpture Center. I first tried to visit the Nasher when it opened five years ago, but the line was so incredibly long I went to my ol' stomping grounds, the Dallas Museum of Art, instead. Anyway, this time was a success, and I'm now embarassed that it took me so long. I won't go into the history of the Nasher, you can read that here, but I do remember when Ray Nasher announced that, rather than giving his amazing collection of modern sculpture to one of the dozens of institutions worldwide that courted him for years, he would build a site dedicated to showcasing it in Dallas. What a coup for Dallas!

Back in college when I was an intern at the DMA, I would have LOVED to be able to stroll next door to the Nasher - it is so tranquil, and the sculpture is really, really stunning. Picassos and Modiglianis, Moores and Miros. I was in Modern Art Heaven. I'm always happy when I can see a Calder sculpture (above, framing Eric in the background), and although Anne is not quite as pregnant as Picasso's muse here, I'm certain she's just as inspiring!



The following weekend, Eric's brother Jack, his wife Linda and their son Nick took us to the Institute for Contemporary Art, another relatively new building that is a true gem for Boston. Located right on the Charles River, the ICA is, like the Nasher, basked in natural light and clean, simple lines. The current exhibition of works by Tara Donovan is amazing. Donovan uses common, everyday objects to create sculpture and installations that are amazingly organic looking. The ceiling installation above is made from styrofoam cups! Her other creations with plastic straws, windshield glass, paper plates and other humdrum items are equally stunning.

This shot is Jack, Linda and Nick in the ICA's Poss Family Mediatheque, a digital media center in a vertically stepped-out space suspended from the underside of the building's cantilever. You can barely see the snow drifting down on the water outside. What a week of art! Thank you to our tour guides!

Virtual Rembrandt in SoCal

Thank you to the LA Times for highlighting a really terrific resource for us Rembrandt junkies - a virtual exhibition of works by Rembrandt in the collections of Southern California museums. You might be surprised to know that outside NY and DC, Southern California has the largest number of Rembrandts in the US.

So this virtual exhibition of 14 Rembrandts from the vaults of the Getty, Hammer, LACMA, Norton Simon, and the Timken (in San Diego) is really exciting! The site offers an online exhibition guide, a printable exhibition guide, and an audio tour by Getty Curator Scott Schaefer.

Reading about this made me think of when we visited Amsterdam and went to Rembrandt's house! It's so amazing to me that, almost 400 years later, you can view where the master slept, painted, ate, fought (and now, you can have a wedding there!?). I'm excited to now check out the web site of the Rembrandt House Museum! I don't think I've ever looked at it before now. It has some amazing virtual tours, so you can check out this historic space on your own. Again, kudos to the internet for making these cultural treasures available to people around the world!r

Save Pharmaka

I've written here before about one of my favorite LA galleries, Pharmaka (click here to read my last Pharmaka entry). Not only does Pharmaka show some challenging and quality contemporary art, it is actually a non-profit institution with a mission very different from the typical commercial gallery: to "actively pursue an intellectual and verbal dialogue with painting and its place in history and today's society."

One of Pharmaka's founders, Shane Guffogg, has been very helpful to me in the past, helping me find terrific artwork for an art auction (at which we purchased this gorgeous piece - his work is amazing).

And now, this terrible economy has struck Pharmaka. Their funding has been cut by 70%, and they are in need of all our support. The good news is - it's a relatively small institution, and even a few thousand dollars will make a big difference. I know, we're all pinching pennies, but I bet you have a spare ten bucks to help keep a quality arts organization around, especially now that you're done donating to Democratic causes (for now)! Click here to help. Thank you!

"The Green Season" by Donna Hilbert

Our dear friend Donna Hilbert is an amazing poet - her work is insightful yet mirthful, defiant yet vulnerable. She has published a new collection of her work, The Green Season, which also some short fiction.

It's fun to hear Donna read her poetry. Her reading voice sounds like a ten-year-old Donna, mischievous and innocent.

Click here for information about this and all of Donna's books. This is one of my favorite poems from The Green Season, a touching and hilarious take on the crazy things we do for love. I can hear her little voice....

LIZARD BRAIN

Sorting laundry
I come across
my black sweater
still thick after two days
with the smell of you.
Though the morning
is much too hot
I put it on.
At Trader Joe’s
I talk on my cell phone
telling every juicy bit
to my best friend
while I buy your
favorite Chardonnay
and shape of pasta.
I stop at Barnes & Noble
and a buy a book
that you might like to read
while I cook for you.
We watch American Idol
because you want to
and I pretend
to care who wins.
I do this happily.
I am a girl again.
All that I once knew
of love and men has shed
like an old skin.
I operate on instinct now
my lizard brain in charge.

Blue Texas

For posterity I had to post this image of a Blue Texas on election night, when returns first started trickling in. I know one day it will be a deep sapphire blue! Thanks to DogFoodSugar for this.

Free Obama sticker

Leave it to MoveOn.org to come up with a clever and cheap way to commemorative this week's amazing Obama victory - free stickers! These commemorative stickers mark Barack Obama's historic victory and were designed by groundbreaking artist Shepard Fairey—the same artist who designed the world-famous, iconic "Hope" poster for Obama.

You can get one sticker for free, or five stickers for a $3 donation, or 50 for $20. What a deal!! Click here to get yours.

OUR NEW FIRST FAMILY

They're so beautiful, I can't stand it! I could eat those little girls up with a spoon. I must say, I didn't give this country enough credit. I truly didn't think a country that voted for Dubya twice would elect a black man with a funny name who's half Kenyan. I've never been so happy to be so wrong! I am sending every positive vibe in my body to Barack - I hope dearly that this is the beginning of real change that we have needed for so long. Thank you to Barack and Michelle for the sacrifices they're making to make this country a better place!

Jack Long on Tiny Showcase

I just had to share our most recent Tiny Showcase acquisition, a lovely little fantasyland by Jack Long, entitled "The Two Intertwined." $250 of the sale of this print benefited Center for The Working Poor. I think this one sold out in record time - 100 prints in under 25 minutes. Gina and I both secured one, lucky ducks that we are!

Terry Andrews

Back to Austin we go...we visited our friends Greg and Angie one day, and their living room walls were covered in the most gorgeous paintings. Rich and delicate, with lustrous insects in luminescent colors. I was floored when I learned they were by Angie's father! I didn't know her dad was an artist, must less such an accomplished one.

Turns out he lives in Houston as is the Preparator at the MFA. He's also represented at McMurtrey Gallery there. It was funny to discover that he's shown at Froelick Gallery in Portland - Eric and I met Charles Froelick (the gallery's owner) years ago on our honeymoon in Palm Springs, and visited him on a trip to Portland. The world continues to get smaller....

Although the images on the gallery's web site are more figurative than those at Angie's house, they're just as lovely and hypnotic, like this oil and graphite on panel piece shown above, titled "Broken" from 2007. I love discovering new work just when it's least expected!

Debbie Cook VS Asteroids

I can't help it, I must give some of the blog over to politics in these last few weeks of the campaign. I've been really involved in the campaign to elect Debbie Cook in my Congressional district. Not only is she my dream candidate, our incumbent is pretty much my worst nightmare. To wit:

More thoughts on Ike from Kate

I know I'm a little dated with this post-Hurricane Ike coverage, but you can read some really great first-hand account from my Houston friend Kate. She has such an eye for a photo and a story. This lovely shot is of some blue tape they tore off their windows (okay, they taped the windows for Hurricane Rita and are just now tearing it off, but it's still Hurricane-related!). Check out her awesome blog at dogfoodsugar.blogspot.com.

Coastal Dreams B&B: Hurricane Ike Survivor

Last Thanksgiving, we spent a couple of nights with my mom at a really fabulous B&B in Galveston called Coastal Dreams (click here to read my entry about it). During Hurricane Ike, I was so worried about that beautiful old house and its gracious hostess, Lana Lander, and her trusty sidekick Mz. Pokey, but hoped that since it survived the big 1900 hurricane, it survived Ike, as well.

Good news - the house is still standing, thanks to its location at 20 feet above sea level. But for a time Lana suddenly had oceanfront property, and is still struggling to help her devastated community repair itself (coverage of this has been completely drowned out by the election and economic meltdown, but the Galveston area has indeed been completely devastated). Lana's accounting of the storm and aftermath are so poignant and harrowing (they waited out the storm in the house!), I had to share her Sept. 28th email (cut down just a bit):

"Hello All,
I am sorry for the delay in responding to everyone's emails; electricity just came back on a couple days ago and things are still real hectic around here. My mother, my sister's three dogs, Mz. Pokie and I all stayed here at Coastal Dreams for Hurricane Ike. As crazy as the decision may have been, we all had flashbacks of the 2005 Rita evacuation (the dogs included) and decided to take our chances with this one. For the Rita evacuation, there were 2 million people evacuating the Houston area in 100+ degree heat and it took us 32 hours to make it to Waco (about 200 miles away). There also was not a lot of warning with Ike; it was only two days prior to the storm that the projected path was for Galveston.

This was a Category 2 storm in terms of wind (110 MPH), but a Cat 4 storm surge. I went outside during the eye of the storm (which lasted about two hours - really weird!) and the water was one step from my porch (my house is about 20 feet above sea level). My street is about four feet above the seawall (which is 17 feet high), and the house is three feet above that. This area of the island does not even require flood insurance, although I do have it, thank goodness. It was such a surreal scene, having oceanfront property. It was also very scary. I gathered up my Mom (snoring), the dogs (also all snoring) and we moved everything upstairs. I was sure that the second half of the storm would bring more water. The winds seemed to be much worse in the second half, but the water receded and never reached the first floor.

The adventure began the next day when there was no electricity, no gas, no water, no sewer, and a typical hot humid Gulf Coast day. We had plenty of food to grill (I ate better the first week than I have in a year!). Everything you do takes so much more thought, and three steps more than it would if you had all those amenities. Having four dogs around took a lot of work also, making sure they didn't fall in the pool (nasty, nasty!), or start chewing on things that had washed up into the yard. FEMA was here within 48 hours, handing out water, food, and ice. We also had the Salvation Army and Red Cross giving out hot meals.

We drove around the day after the storm with our mouths hanging open. Houses, trees, power lines, boats, cemeteries, fishing piers, streets.....just torn up and ripped apart. There was a boat at 43rd and Broadway, which is a good 2 miles from any marina. Driving down the Seawall, the debris from the Balinese Room, the souvenir shop, and Hooters took up all five lanes and was spread from 25th to the Hotel Galvez and probably 12 feet high. It was so strange to look down there and see nothing. Nothing is on the beach side of the Seawall anymore. The 61st street pier is gone, the big one across from the miniature golf place is all torn up and barely standing. Driving down Broadway, there were downed live oaks every block. Tombstones are knocked down or floated away. We have beautiful cemeteries here and it was heartbreaking to see this.

More heartbreaking of course, are the homes. I've watched things like this on TV many many times and of course, felt sympathy for what they were going through. But this is so... overwhelmingly heart wrenching. Personal belongings piled as high as their house, making trip after trip to the curb with soaking wet clothes and furniture and anything that was within 3-5 feet of the floor. Mold set in at my sister's house (which received 3 feet of water) within 5 days, and that was with carpet ripped out as soon as we could get over there. A lot of these people weren't allowed back on the island for 12 days after the storm.

Galveston is a wonderful city, with beautiful people, and we need our tourists to come back. Please don't think there will be nothing here for you to visit for. They didn't give up after the 1900 Storm and we won't give up either. This is just another page for the history books and something to talk about over the breakfast table at Coastal Dreams!

God Bless You,
Lana Lander"
www.coastaldreamsbnb.com

First Thursdays on SoCo

When I lived in Austin my world kind of orbited around South Congress, home of funky shops and cheap Tex Mex! While the area is certainly more snazzy now (I remember when the San Jose was overrun with prostitutes, and now it's the hippest boutique hotel in the region), it's still totally eclectic. Wandering around South Congress, doing nothing in particular, guarantees some excellent people-watching and, most likely, some excellent music-listening.

And now on First Thursdays it's even crazier down there, with musicians, artists, food vendors and other local denizens filling the sidewalks. It's like a six-block-long party. This video isn't the best representation, but at least I know when I need a quick fix of a Austin on a balmy night, with a lit-up live oak, rambling music and a piece of pizza from Home Slice in my immediate future, I can return to this scene from this month's First Thursday.

Flip Happy and Sweet Leaf in Austin

One of the things I love most about Austin is how locally-owned businesses seem to thrive. Our old friend Andrea opened Flip Happy Crepes, a creperie in an airstream trailer - you read that right - and now that are overflowing with business! I hear they even made it to the Food Network.

We went to their new location (how easy is it to move your business when you're locate in an Airstream?) on a recent Friday lunch hour, and they were totally slammed. It's definitely not for the in-a-rush diner, but if you have a little time and want an amazing, homemade crepe under a beautiful canopy of trees, this is your place. I had a crepe stuffed with chicken, taragon mushrooms, spinach and tomatoes, and it was so fabulous.

Here is Andrea. She makes all of the savory crepes with her own little hands (there are a few sweet crepes, but the menu is mostly full of savories). I caught her with her eyes closed, so thank you Piki Pimp for helping me with the blingy shades!

Crepes under a tree canopy - ain't life grand? I love all the random card tables and chairs.

Here's me, modeling another Austin business, Sweet Leaf Tea, which is very proud of its organic family recipe (real cane sugar, no hi fructose corn syrup), and their tea is so yummy.

Can I vote for Austin for President?

Austin City Limits

I think it's safe to say that I'm officially too old and crotchety to attend big music festivals, particularly ones that are really packed, on a really really hot day, in a really really really dusty field. I still love the Austin City Limits Music Festival, but unless someone gifts me a VIP pass, I doubt I'll attend again! Look at us, all happy to be there, and unaware of the dust-stormy pressure cooker that awaits us.

At any rate, the five hours that I spent there (yes, five hours and I was done!), was fun, although between fighting the crowds and texting my friends, the only band I was able to tune into was Erykah Badu, who never disappoints. But I can share highlights....

Our friend Eric from NYC discovers the thrill of riding a giant Jackalope, which runs wild throughout Austin and the Texas Hill Country. He's an honorary Austinite now for doing this. Yee Haw!

Those poor souls, clinging to the "Mister Station" like their lives depended on it (probably did). These "Mister Stations" and the water taps to refill your reusable water bottles were some very smart additions to the festival. Now if they could make some shade-providing old growth trees magically appear...

Pouring water into your hat was a brilliant idea (wearing water-soaked bandanna around your face was another).

More to come on the Austin trip...