Live music, small venue. Can’t beat that. I swear though that I almost fell on my face walking down the stairs into the speakeasy at Cafe du Nord on Wednesday night because it was so dark down there yet still sunny outside. Summer evenings get started late like the opening act. I’m an aging Gen-Xer, opting for nice yet inventive sounds in a laid back environment instead of the drunken din of a dive bar. Good thing they didn’t have two drink minimums at the bars I went to because I would’ve been ushered out long before the stage lights dimmed.
I’m here for the music. And this past week I hit the trifecta. It began on the 12th with Sara Lov at the Hotel Utah Saloon, continued with Laura Veirs at Cafe du Nord, and ended earlier this evening with Trespassers William at the Hemlock Tavern. Three of my favorite musicians with a talent for combining rich melodies with insightful lyrics. Great shows – not just from them but also from the supporting acts that rounded out each evening. Robert Gomez was great earlier tonight. Eric Anderson from Cataldo impressed me just a few days prior.
I had my BlackBerry on hand for each show, and I took this photo of Sara during her sound check:
Sara Lov at the Hotel Utah Saloon
She had joked about just doing a sound check onstage and then leaving right afterwards. Apparently the sound guy was being very precise and it took a while to get everything set up before her performance.
At Cafe du Nord, I edged my way right up to the foot of the stage because last time I got a crook in my neck from watching an entire show from the dining seats on the right hand side. Laura Veirs sang directly in front of me:
Laura Veirs at Cafe du Nord
She has a real knack for engaging the audience, sharing stories and getting everyone in the room to clap along with the music. And speaking of engaging, I finally mustered the courage to ask for a photo with Matt Brown and Anna-Lynne Williams of Trespassers William earlier this evening. A stranger took this shot:
Me with Trespassers William at the Hemlock Tavern
This was about the fourth time I’ve seen them live in the past three years. The fan geek thing was long overdue.
So eventually I’ll sleep tonight after a week of great live music. Old favorites mixed with soon to be released goodies. And when those new albums arrive I’ll be there. For the music.
That’s my rating for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which released to U.S. moviegoers earlier this week. If you haven’t yet watched the film and you don’t wish to be spoiled, then I suggest you find another blog to read because I’ve got loads to say here.
…
So, let’s clear the negatives out of the way first. Two and a half hours is enough time to tell a good story and there were plenty of scenes faithful to J.K. Rowling’s sixth installment of the (brilliantly written) book series. And yet the omission of two vital portions of the story made the film seem a bit off. I can’t believe that the movie left out the entire Gaunt-Riddle family history. Not a single mention of Marvolo and his children, Morfin and Merope! Apparently the filmmakers thought it enough to just present young Tom Riddle as a freaky paranoid orphan who likes to make “bad things happen to people”. Moviegoers not savvy with the books never learned about how he ended up in an orphanage to begin with. A shame, since I thought that part of the story was most enlightening.
Now, I understand time may have been a factor in omitting the House of Gaunt Pensieve scene, but really, they could’ve at least have Dumbledore tell Harry a bit of that family history. Right before he dives into the orphanage memory? To set up the context? Hmm???
The other glaring omission? The big fight scene at the foot of the tower between the Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix. What a shame to rob the good guys, Neville in particular, of some very exciting action! (By the way, Neville was virtually absent in this film. Never mind that he was once considered by Voldemort as a potential threat because he and Harry share a birthday) I thought it was interesting that the movie showed Aurors at Hogwarts but failed to show them actually protecting the school grounds. Death Eaters sneaking around at will, being led by Malfoy to the tower to kill Dumbledore – and not a single Auror stood in their way? Ridiculous. A very bad omission, in my opinion.
Anyway, I still gave the film a largely positive 4 out of 5. Acting played a large part in that.
Tom Felton deserves praise for adding depth to Draco Malfoy. The character was always a subtle threat in the book series, and in The Half-Blood Prince we see him emerge as a sort of wild card. Someone to keep an eye on. Felton played Draco faithfully and believably. By the way, I liked how the movie confirms suspicions that Draco was recruited to be a Death Eater. That revelation helped to explain Draco’s actions throughout the story.
Hats off to Jim Broadbent for his portrayal of Professor Slughorn. The book made much of Slughorn’s indulgence but Broadbent added a melancholy tinge to the aged professor. Watching him on screen, I couldn’t help but notice that hidden inside the proud old wizard was a man ashamed of some deep, dark secret. Perhaps that was why he surrounded himself with upstanding witches and wizards? That was never mentioned in the book, and yet Broadbent’s performance hinted so greatly at this theory. It was brilliant.
And what can I say? I’m a big fan of Helena Bonham-Carter and I was actually glad that the filmmakers tweaked the story a bit to show more of her maniacal character, Bellatrix Lestrange. Helena will always creep me out when she plays evil characters. Don’t get me started on the reasons why. I could write a treatise on how amazing this actress is when she gets a role as a sly, taunting foil.
For the rest of the young actors, Radcliffe, Watson, Grint, Bonnie Wright’s breakout performance as the headstrong Ginny Weasley, and Evanna Lynch’s adept spaciness as Luna Lovegood – I tip my hat to them all. They’ve really grown into their roles so well.
So there it is. My big write-up on the sixth Potter film. I think I’m going to watch it again in the upcoming days. The Half-Blood Prince was my favorite volume in the series and one can never indulge too much on a favorite.
I just got back from a members-only preview event at the SFMOMA. Its latest special exhibit is a collection of sculptures by African American artist, Martin Puryear. A beautiful body of work. Elegant and smooth curves and a seemingly simplistic form that belies a highly symbolic meaning. Being one of the earliest visitors, I was able to enjoy this exhibit at my own slow pace – something I couldn’t do with the melee surrounding Frida Kahlo’s exhibit earlier this year. It was nice being able to study his work up close, often times from within a few inches from each piece. I walked around many of them, taking each in at different angles, savoring the beauty of their forms.
What amazed me about his sculptures was how he constructed each of them. Many of the pieces were carefully assembled and intricately joined. Though many of the works as a whole looked delicately minimalistic, a close inspection of each piece revealed unique touches – flush and precise joinery, asymmetry (especially in the sculptures with visible interiors), juxtaposition of surfaces, knurls from the wood that added character to the overall piece, patterns that arise from the materials themselves. Wonderfully ingenious. Excellent craftsmanship. My personal favorites were Brunhilde, C.F.A.O., Old Mole, and Ladder for Booker T. Washington, which was suspended over the SFMOMA lobby:
Martin Puryear - Ladder for Booker T. Washington
This was the only work of his exhibit I was able to photograph. Although its placement in the museum lacked the effect of its original installation, I think it went well with the interior architecture.
Puryear’s exhibit runs throughout this holiday season and it is worth visiting. It’s a great way to learn more about form, simplicity and symbolism in three-dimensional art.
Filed under: Review | Tags: california academy of sciences, steinhart aquarium
The California Academy of Sciences reopened last weekend to HUGE crowds … and I didn’t get in! The line was around the building and almost out of Golden Gate Park (not surprising given that admission was free that day) and after hearing that the wait would have been four (FOUR!!) hours, I gave up.
Tried again this weekend with success. The visit left me excited and giddy. It rekindled all of the fun I had studying biology in college. SO much to see and enjoy here in this newly designed, state of the art, green building. Despite the huge crowds (again) I got to enjoy a fair amount of the exhibits, missing only the Planetarium Show because I had to be somewhere else later in the afternoon.
Hmm, where to start? Okay, the photos:
people under the water
A giant 4-story rainforest globe was the first stop. The photo above is a peek inside – from the outside. I had to capture the people under the water because underneath this giant mini-ecosystem was the Steinhart Aquarium and all of its sea life exhibits. Plus I thought it was cool that the visitors became part of the exhibit itself.
a teeny tree frog
Midway up inside the globe there were tree frogs hiding in the epiphytes on a large tree branch. This guy was no bigger than a quarter. Not kidding.
feeding time
At the canopy level there were trays of nectar and feed for the birds and butterflies living inside the globe. You could really feel the humidity at the top! Fortunately, the elevator took everyone right down to the aquarium, where all the mayhem presided.
what are these?
Okay, first clue as to what those things are above: they started out as stationary objects but now, as adults, they can move around. Second clue: none of them have “brains”. Final clue: honestly they’re not all that tasty.
Give up?
(I’ll type in the answer after the next photo)
the Philippine Reef
The biggest tank at the Aquarium was the brand new Philippine Reef. That’s a wide shot to give you an idea of just how big it is. There are hundreds of colorful coral reef fishes there, all indigenous to the Philippine Islands. While I was there, the staff fed them – and all those fish swam up to the top corner to grab the grub. It was cool.
Fortunately, they kept the jellyfish in a separate tank. Having almost met one up close and personal during my last visit to Palawan, I can truly say that was a wise choice! You wouldn’t want to be near them tentacles. Even when they’re pointed upside down.
And that was the answer to the mystery photo above. Upside-down jellyfish. Shudder!
the albino crocodile
Finally, no visit to the CAS would be complete without saying hello to the famous albino croc. Claude seemed quite at ease with the throngs of photographers surrounding his basking rock.
I’ve got so much more photos that I’ll probably end up posting them to my Flickr. But that will have to wait until later this week because I’m quite tired from all the walking and being in awe of the cool things at CAS. Methinks a 1-year membership is doable. And worth the fanfare.
Last month I caved in and bought an Asus Eee PC 900 sub-notebook, my first Microsoft-related purchase in over five years. I needed to access the company’s server to do some work “Green Living” style (that’s my new term for “telecommute”) but I just couldn’t do it on my Macs. Not even with open source software. I also knew that I really didn’t want the burden of another computer. Especially since my two Macs take care of 99.9999999% of my computing needs … barring of course that one agonizingly important detail: cross-platform incompatibility with the business software that pays all of my bills and leaves me with money to spare for superfluous purchases like a talking Clone Trooper helmet.
The Eee PC filled a niche for me and did it quite well. With its small form factor and basic setup, I could connect remotely and work virtually at a fraction of the cost of a loaded Windows PC. I was fully aware of its shortcomings before I purchased it, namely the teeny tiny keyboard (which I’m getting used to), the sparse hard drive space, and minimalist multimedia processor. But I’ve figured out some workarounds and have since been computing away in the after hours like the workaholic I have evolved into. Here are some of my tweaks:
- Inserted an 8GB SD card to store all of the files I will create
- Bought a 4GB thumb drive as a secondary file backup
- Downloaded AVG Free virus scan for added protection
- Subscribed to an extra service from my cell carrier so that I can use my CrackBerry as a broadband modem tethered to the Asus whenever I’m out of range of free public WiFi
- Video-mirrored my desktop onto an external monitor while working at home
- Dug up an old keyboard and mouse to use while working at home
- Dug up an old external DVD player so that I can run stuff from any optical disc
- Loaded all non-native programs onto the “larger” D: drive, leaving boot drive C: free to run the OS
- Periodically ran the Disk Cleanup Utility to free up hard drive space
Finally, I should emphasize that I only use this sub-notebook for two things: Internet (incluing virtual desktop access) and word processing. Those of you out there interested in doing much more tasks should look elsewhere. That’s my honest opinion.
