DIY “season pass” for the arts

“You shower, don’t you?  You eat, don’t you?  It’s just the same, feeding your creative mind and soul.  It’s just something you do.”

That’s what my dear friend (and design god!) Paul Curtin told me.   I wanted to know how he finds time to surf, go to the opera, the ballet, baseball games, Commonwealth Club talks, Nicaragua—all while nurturing a booming creative practice.

That inspired DH and I to “just do it”—find some arts and cultural events that call to us, and commit.  Just buy the tix and put them on our calendar.  An automatic opt-in for the things that matter.  We won’t worry about work or travel conflicts till later, if they crop up.  

Here’s what we’ve got so far for the first half of 2013—in case any of our friends are inspired to join us!  

FEBRUARY

Music.  Like the sound of Americana?  Join us for an evening with Mark Kozelek of Sun Kil Moon.  At Slim’s on Sun Feb 17, 8pm.  Check out his music here.  

Music.  If “Motown and 1930s torch songs” are more your thing, come listen to our friends Karina Denike and Lily Taylor.  At the Red Poppy Art House on Fri Feb 22, 7:30pm. Here’s Karina singing Musée Mécanique:

Talk.  Want to know “the hidden factors at the core of great triumphs ­– and tragic failures?” Come hear what author of “Top Dog,” Po Bronson, has to say about the science of winning and losing.  At the Commonwealth Club on Thu Feb 28, 6pm.

MARCH

Talk.  If you’re intrigued by the Big Data Revolution, you’ll want to come to this talk by Oxford Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation, Viktor Mayer-Schonberger, and the Economist Data Editor, Kenneth Cukier.  At the Commonwealth Club on Wed, March 13, 6pm.

Dance.  Prefer more movement? Come with us to see the Trisha Brown Dance Company.

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At Cal Performances in Berkeley on Fri Mar 15, 8pm.

Talk.  If you’re into design, this will be a double treat—Yves Béhar of fuseproject and Tim Brown of IDEO will tell you all about design thinking. At the Commonwealth Club on Thu Mar 21, 6:30pm.

Music.  Support our very own Dig Deeper (new band of Aaron Chaiclin, Chris Sommers and Phil Adams)—they will be playing in Alameda on Fri Mar 22.  More details to come!

APRIL

Film.  TBD—waiting for the San Francisco Film Festival (April 25 to May 9) to publish their calendar.

MAY

Dance.  We’re going to the ballet!  The U.S. premiere of Cinderella.  They say the sets, costumes and puppets will be spectacular.

At the San Francisco Ballet on May 9, 8pm.

JUNE

Theatre.  Join us for a performance of Stoppard’s masterwork, Arcadia—which the New York Times claims is “the perfect blend of brains and emotion, wit and heartache.”

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At the ACT on Fri Jun 7, 8pm.

An ambitious Chinatown flyer girl.  A musician on Mission Street.  An unfaithful wife, and a forgetful husband in their mansion by misty Golden Gate Park.  In this cinematic and musical ode to San Francisco, we meditate on the dreams, the heartache, and the love that endures in the city’s eclectic neighborhoods.

“Love in San Francisco” is a 40-minute indie film, shot entirely on a bare-bones prosumer HD camera, with no budget and a shoe-string 2.5 person crew.

MAKING “LOVE IN SAN FRANCISCO”
(Director’s Statement)

You can say it started with a dare.

Aaron, my husband, challenged me to a short film “face-off.” With today’s powerful digital film tools, who is to say a regular guy with a good idea cannot make a better movie than a film snob who went to a fancy film school, he taunted. A theme was set. Love, since the deadline would be Valentine’s Day. 14 years after I packed up my film equipment, I was inspired to make a film again.

You may call it my serenade to San Francisco. Not just any San Francisco—but the San Francisco I love. The festive sounds and dialects of Chinatown that evoke memories of home. The colorful people and places of the Mission where I hang out. The many talented musicians I meet in the bars and on the streets—dedicated to their art even in the face of uncertainty and hardship. And the fog, a constantly morphing backdrop to the city that reminds us of the fleeting nature of our lives.

At times I think of it as my crazy experiment. How could I pull a good performance out of friends with no acting experience? Don’t show them the script or tell them anything about the characters, I decided. Instead I tapped into the intimate knowledge of friends, and dredged up memories, secrets and dreams from their real lives to evoke the emotions I needed onscreen.

So really, I’d say this film is about love. A husband’s love. A passion for filmmaking. The generosity and trust of good friends. And this desire that so many of us in San Francisco share, to keep each other true to the things we love, whatever it takes.

Please visit loveinsanfrancisco.com/ for more details.