There’s a fine line between genius and madness and artist Joe Davis, the subject of Peter Sasowsky’s documentary Heaven + Earth + Joe Davis (2011), is walking it.   The film screened this weekend at the 14th Annual San Francisco Independent Film Festival (IndieFest), at San Francisco’s Roxie Theater and is an absorbing and inspiring but frustrating portrait of the artist Joe Davis whose unconventional melding of science, technology, and art have helped popularize the field of transgenic art (manipulating living things for artistic ends).   It’s very easy to get drawn into Joe Davis and his world.  Davis a peg-legged, wild-haired, scraggly-looking guy from Mississippi who is brilliant, eclectic, and radically non-conformist.  In 1982, after being expelled from several schools for counterculture activities like writing about atheism, running for student body president on a free marijuana platform, running an antiwar newspaper, and rarely completing what he started, he walked into M.I.T.’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies, where he had been denied admission to their program for artists and demanded face to face meeting with the chairman.  The secretary called the cops.  Forty-five minutes later, Davis walked out as a research fellow, an unpaid but prestigious appointment.  Since then, he has used his charisma and zany innate curiosity about the way things work to foster impressive connections at other M.I.T. departments, Harvard Medical School, UC Berkeley and to collaborate with a number of global biotechnology scientists.  And he’s literally been around the world─Amsterdam, Ljubliana, Puerto Rico─championing fascinating ideas and projects that neither the official worlds of art nor science are entirely comfortable with but have gotten him profiled in Scientific American and on ABC’s Nightline (July 6, 2001) as a pioneer of transgenic art.

Davis is a natural subject for a film.  He applies himself to esoteric artistic endeavors at the nexus of art and science, often coaxing very improbable connections.  He’s the first man to record women’s vaginal contractions and translate these into text, music, phonetic speech and reduce these into radio signals, which were beamed from M.I.T.’s Millstone radar to Epsilon Eridani, Tau Ceti and two other nearby star systems.  His million-watt Poetica Vaginal 20 minute broadcast was ultimately shut down by the U.S. Air Force but the project’s driving concept was to say hello to extraterrestrials and to convey vital information to them about how humans reproduce, putting his own stamp on the message that Carl Sagan and Frank Drake had transmitted from the giant dish in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, 26 years ago and improving upon the first sanitized visual images of humans, with no facial hair and no female sex organs, that NASA had beamed into space on the Pioneer and Voyager space probes.  Conceptually, Davis was correcting what he perceived was an act of censorship that led to misinformation about our species.

Joe Davis, the subject of Peter Sasowsky's "Heaven + Earth + Joe Davis," poses for painter Michael Costello in his Cambridge, Massachusetts studio. Production Still, courtesy Serious Motion Pictures.

Sasowsky takes us along on an unforgettable ride into Davis’ world, producing a film a notch above Danish director Kaspar Astrup Schröder’s humorous documentary, The Invention of Dr. Nakamats (2009), which I reviewed for the 53^rd San Francisco International Film Festival in 2010.  Several of Davis’ expansive art projects are introduced with very little contextualization from the filmmaker.  In the end, the viewer is left with a highly creative but dizzying portrait of Davis and some gaping holes.  How credible and unique are Davis’ ideas?  Given that the official worlds of Art and Science both essentially rejected him, and his positions at the venerable MIT and Harvard have all been long-term unpaid internships that allow him to experiment but leave him dependent on donations of equipment and expertise from fellow scientists, what is the impact of his work for science and art?   There’s no question that Davis has done extensive research in molecular biology and bio-informatics for the production of genetic databases and new biological art forms.  So far though, he’s creatively applied the existing tools of science to artistic ends which leads me to suspect that most scientists would say that they like having him around but he’s not furthering serious science.  Art is another matter, lacking the rigorous standards of science.  Given that transgenic art is a relatively new area of art, how should we evaluate it?  What is its cultural impact?  What is Davis’ legacy and who are his artist peers?  The puzzlement about how it all adds up is annoying.

“The most absurd things are connected in very absurd ways,” Davis says.  “I like to take the least connected things and try to build connections between them.”   Davis’ innate curiosity is seductive and poetic and the film captures him jumping from one immersive project to the next while navigating his chaotic daily life.  He is captured conversing with a scientist from Clondiage Industries in Jena Germany who will assist him in genetically modifying an apple that will “tempt the Devil.”  In another sequence, he and assistants slather honey over the body of a naked and quite buxom young woman and then sprinkle her with gold dust for a project that tested his audio microscope and allowed him to investigate different types of bacteria by turning their natural movements into unique audio patterns.  He’s also shown amputating and then using electrically stimulated frog legs to power an aircraft, basically applying something we’ve all seen in high school biology labs—the nervous system reacting after death–on a grander scale.   Not your cup of tea?  His Microvenusproject (1990) encoded a simple symbol—a Y and an I superimposed—that is both a Germanic rune representing life and an outline of the external female genitalia into the E. coli genome.  It promptly reproduced into billions of cells and Davis declared himself the “most successful publisher” in history.

Joe Davis returns to Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina, a trip that served as inspiration for his project, "Call Me Ishmael." Production Still: courtesy Serious Motion Pictures.

Any scientist watching the film might well say… “I could do any of that but I’m just not interested because I’m applying my time to something more important.”   Davis knows that art has no boundaries and is out there passionately probing all sorts of connections, some of which have an amazing hidden logic.  Sasowsky offers a portrait of a man who explores the outer reaches of the cosmos, picks through Cambridge’s trash for materials and constantly battles the forces of eviction from apartments, labs and part-time gigs.  The film alternates between Davis’ daily life, footage of some of his early and most famous projects, family movies from his childhood, and conversations with his mother, sister, ex-wife and adult daughter.  His sister is frustrated and keeps hoping that something he does will lead to income and a means of supporting himself.  But Davis can’t be bothered with these practical concerns—he’s got bigger and more existential fish to fry.  As Davis discusses a number of complicated ideas that he’s got his own creative spin on, the film meanders along without a clear arch—an abstract poetic portrait that ebbs and flows like a kaleidoscope.  If you want substantive details about his processes and contributions, you’ll need to do your own research.

Director, Producer, Director of Photography, Editing: Peter Sasowsky.  Co-producer: Amy Grumbling.  Additional photography: Cecile Bouchier, Andrew Neumann, Stephan Baumgardner

Details:  Heaven + Earth + Joe Davis screens Saturday, February 18, 2012, at 2:45 p.m. and Sunday, February 19, 2012 at 2:45 p.m. at Roxie Cinemas, 3117 16th Street (at Valencia) in San Francisco.  Tickets are $11.

General Information about IndieFest:  All screenings take place at the Roxie Cinemas, 3117 16th Street (at Valencia) in San Francisco.  Film tickets are $11 for each regular screening and $20 for Opening Night (includes the film plus the after-party). 5-film vouchers are $50, 10-film vouchers are $90; $160 for FilmFestPass good for all films and parties.  The parties are $10 each or free with ANY festival ticket stub. Remember, passholders are always admitted first.  To purchase tickets in advance, or for more information, call 1-800-838-3006 or click on www.sfindie.com.

Next Thursday, February 16, 2012, the museum world will jump onto the HD (high-definition) streaming bandwagon with Leonardo Live, the first HD tour of a fine art exhibition created for movie theater audiences.  Presented by NCM Fathom, BY Experience and PhilGrabskyFilms.com, Leonardo Live, will screen for one night only, Thursday, and will allow audiences to experience the old master coup of the century, The National Gallery of London’s Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan. In case you haven’t heard about the show, blockbuster fully applies.  By the time it officially opened in November, 2011, it was sold-out through January and the demand for tickets was insatiable, prompting all sorts of gray-marketing.   The museum offered extended viewing hours; let 180 people in every 30 minutes; shortened its audio guide and this frenzy continued until the show closed last weekend, February 5, 2012.   While nothing beats the experience of seeing art in real-life, taking in a show like via HD is a wonderful opportunity.

Leonardo Live was captured live in HD on November 8, 2011, just before the exhibition’s opening, and provides a virtual walk-through, with exclusive commentary from British art historian Tim Marlow, the exhibition’s curator Luke Syson, well-known media host Norwegian Mariella Frostrup, and others. 

This exhibition displayed more than 60 paintings and drawings by Leonardo, focusing on the art he created in the late 1480’s and 1490’s as court painter to Duke Lodovico Sforza in Milan and the interesting connections between his secular court art and religious art.   The real draw was being able to see the paintings, all in proximity to each other.  Leonardo produced very few, probably 20, around which some scholaraly debate still continues, and the 9 that were in the National Gallery exhibition were all from his years in Milan.   The National Gallery’s newly-restored The Virgin of the Rocks (1483-86) was a focal point as well as a later version of the same painting borrowed from the Louvre.   The two paintings have never been exhibited together in the same room before and Leonardo himself never saw them together in his lifetime.  The Louvre’s earlier version was the first painting Leonardo completed as Duke Sforza’s court painter.  It is more delicate and meticulous than the National Gallery’s much later version, which is more sculptural, monumental and much brighter due to its recent restoration.  

“Salvator Mundi” (“Savior of the World”),(1499 or after) a work recently conserved, studied and controversially attributed to Leonardo is a focal point of “Leonardo Live,” an in-depth walk-through of “Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan.”

Mary’s tender expression, the crumpled golden folds of her clothing, caught in the light, create the sense that she is alive but frozen in time by art.  The paintings are so cherished because they evoke the essence of Leonardo’s gift for expressing the delicate balance between the idealized and the imaginative, the human and the spiritual.  These paintings radiate a special inner life.

Also included, in varying states of condition, due to overrestoration and aging, are Portrait of a Musician (Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan), the Saint Jerome (Vatican, Rome), The Lady with an Ermine (Czartoryski Foundation, Cracow), the ‘Belle Ferronnière’ (Musée du Louvre, Paris) the Madonna Litta (The State Hermitage, Saint Petersburg), the newly discovered, never-exhibited painting, the Salvator Mundi, and Giampietrino’s full-scale (32 feet-wide) copy, made in 1520, of the Last Supper, on loan from The Royal Academy of Arts, London.     

While numerous exhibitions have looked at Leonardo da Vinci as an inventor, scientist or draftsman, this is the first show to be dedicated to his aims and techniques as a painter.  These pictures show how Leonardo, benefiting from his salaried position, used his artistic freedom to find new ways of perceiving and recording the natural world and how he mastered human anatomy and was able to depict the emotional life of a being like no artist before him.  Leonardo’s portraits have always been disputed but you’ll get a up close look at his signature features—moist spherical eyes, rippling curls, the obsession with the fall of light, the whiff of melancholy and, most of all, the suggestion of movement.   Before Leonardo, Renaissance

“Lady with an Ermine” (1489-90), one of Leonardo’s rare panel paintings, and one of only four female portraits painted by Leonardo, is a portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, the mistress of the Duke of Milan. Leonardo painted this, considered by many to be the first truly modern portrait, while in the Duke’s service. Photo: The National Gallery

paintings were very closely representational but static and what he imparts in that hint of movement is a sentient emotional being, taking painting to an utterly new realm. 

The hypnotic Lady with an Ermine (1489-90), one of Leonardo’s rare panel paintings, and one of only four female portraits painted by Leonardo, also makes an appearance, shown with some of Leonardo’s animal syudies.  The delicate beauty is Cecilia Gallerani, the mistress of the Duke of Milan and Leonardo painted this, considered by many to be the first truly modern portrait, while in the Duke’s service.  Cecilia is caught illusively turning towards something or someone beyond the canvas, while the ermine in her arms is completely still.  On loan from the National Museum in Krakow, this masterpiece  made a brief appearance in 2003 at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor during its Leonardo da Vinci and the Splendor of Poland exhibition. 

The exhibition also brought together more than 50 of Leonardo’s drawings, including 33 owned by the Queen that were purchased during the reign of Charles II and left in the bottom of a chest until they were rediscovered in 1778, during the reign of George III.

Details:  Leonardo Live will be screened Thursday, February 16, 2012, at 7 PM, in the Bay Area at San Rafael’s Cinemark Century Regency 6, Napa 8 (Napa), Century 9 at San Francisco Center and San Francisco Cinearts Empire 3.   Tickets are available at participating theater box offices or online at www.FathomEvents.com.  (Click here to download a PDF of participating theatres throughout the U.S.)

Francesca Woodman, Polka Dots, Providence, Rhode Island, 1976; gelatin silver print; courtesy George and Betty Woodman; © George and Betty Woodman

The art of Francesca Woodman has often been seen through the lens of the powerful and distinctive agendas of the 1970s and ’80s: feminist theory, Conceptual art, photography’s relationship to both literature and performance, Postmodernism.  It has also been seen as part of the moment in history when photography fully entered the sphere of contemporary art. SFMOMA’s exhibition of Woodman’s work — the most comprehensive to date — is a chance to reassess her work and recognize the intensity of her vision. A panel of art historians joins the Francesca Woodman exhibition curator, Corey Keller  (SFMOMA’s associate curator of photography) to discuss the impact and meaning of Woodman’s photography today.

Corey Keller, associate curator of photography, SFMOMA  

Julia Bryan-Wilson, associate professor of art history, UC Berkeley
Amy Lyford, professor of art history and the visual arts, Occidental College
Peggy Phelan, Ann O’Day Maples Chair in the Arts and professor of drama and English, Stanford University

Details:  Thursday, 7 PM, Phyllis Wattis Theater, SFMOMA.  Advanced ticket purchase highly recommended.  $10 general; $7 SFMOMA members, students, and seniors.  Buy tickets.

Paris Bordone's "Allegory of Mars, Venus and Cupid," ca. 1560 is just one of the splendid paintings in "Masters of Venice" at the de Young Museum through Sunday. Photo courtesy: FAMSF

Celebrate those sumptuous Venetian paintings one more time before there’re off to Vienna’s Gemäldegalerie!  “Masters of Venice: Renaissance Painters of Passion and Power” is closing this Sunday and at the de Young Museum and ArtPoint is throwing a fabulous masked ball on Saturday to give it a festive send off.  Revel in the anonymity afforded by your finest Venetian mask and black tie attire; transport yourself to 15th-century Venice where the use of the mask became the perfect accessory to the love of transgression.  Just what may happen is up to you but let it all transpire in the midst of some of the most celebrated paintings in the history of art.  Titian, Giorgione, Veronese, Tintoretto, Mantegna are all represented.  

Experience firsthand the mystery that for centuries has surrounded the Masquerade Ball. Revelers can expect exquisite works of art, spirited dancing, exotic cocktails provided by Solerno Blood Orange, and a few surprises. Dynamic performers and the musical stylings of San Francisco favorite DJ Solomon will set the stage for an utterly unforgettable night. Who will you be?

VIP guests will enjoy priority entry an hour before the main event, tours of the stunning exhibition, and access to a private VIP lounge all evening serving Stags’ Leap Petit Sirah and Viognier, along with Greg Norman Sparkling Wine and heavy appetizers provided by Union Street Catering.

After indulging in these worldly delights, you’ll to descend into the museum’s lower lever to view Masters of Venice. The exhibition features 50 magnificent paintings representing the height of Venetian Renaissance painting; these works are among the Kunsthistorisches Museum’s most celebrated holdings from art collections built over centuries by the emperors and archdukes of the royal house of Habsburg.  The Venetian Renaissance was one of the singular movements in the evolution of Western Art.  It forged an artistic vocabulary that took full advantage of the poetic potential of rich atmospheric effects, lustrous color, and the sensuous beauty observed in nature.  Venetian painters of the cinquecento transcended the spatial, textural, and representational realism of their predecessors to create works unsurpassed in their emotional and sensual depictions, velvety surfaces and glorious treatment of light.

Details:  Masters of Venice: A Masked Ball is Saturday, February 12 at 8 P.M.  Tickets: $95 to $250. Purchase tickets online here.  The de Young Museum is located at 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive in Golden Gate Park.  Masters of Venice: Renaissance Paintings of Passion and Power from the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, runs through February 12, 2012.at 1 p.m. For more information call (415) 750-3600 or visit www.deyoungmuseum.org. Masters of Venice: Renaissance Painters of Passion and Power runs through Feb. 12, 2012.

Family secrets are dragged out into the light of day in a remote farmhouse.  Dodge has lost control as the patriarch of the family and the mother, Halie, is in a not so secret affair with their pastor.  A heinous act, years ago, tore the family apart and killed all of the crops in the field.  It all bubbles to the surface in a heartbreaking conclusion.  San Francisco’s Boxcar Theatre opens Sam Shepard’s “Buried Child” this Wednesday as part of what might their most ambitious season yet─staging four of Pulitzer Prize-winner Sam Shepard’s best-known plays in repertory.

True West, Buried Child, A Lie of the Mind and Fool for Love will run continuously through April 26, 2012 in two Boxcar locales─the Boxcar Playhouse on Natoma Street and the new Boxcar Studios on Hyde Street, each of which offer intimate staging experiences.  What makes Boxcar’s Sam Shepard project so innovative is that the Boxcar’s Artistic Director Nick A. Olivero, whose personality and passion for theatre are legendary, has turned his creative ratchet up even further than usual.  Boxcar really grabbed ARThound’s attention last January when they ingeniously staged their play “Clue,” like the classic board game.  The audience was seated six feet above, peering down at a life-size reproduction of the game’s exact playing board, replete with 9 rooms─the Ballroom, Conservatory, Billiard Room, Library, Study, Hall, Lounge, Dining Room and Kitchen─in which the characters moved about.  And once people caught wind of the whole concept— a play based on a movie based on a board game─and the hilarious acting itself, the extended run sold out. (Read ARThound’s Clue coverage here.)   The Sam Shephard series started off with some highly creative casting.

In Boxcar Theatre’s production of Sam Shepard’s “True West,” actors Brian Trybom (left) and Boxcar’s Artistic Director, Nick Olivero (right), play brothers Austin and Lee but rotate roles frequently, giving them the chance to fully immerse themselves in Shepard’s drama. Boxcar is staging four Sam Shepard plays and several readings through April, 26, 2012. Photo: Peter Liu

In True West, which opened January 17, Olivero and actor Brian Trybom have been performing the roles of the two brothers Austin and Lee and rotating between the two roles nightly.  And once or twice a week, after briefly outlining the characters to the audience, they let the audience decide on the spot who will play what role that evening.  They change into the required clothing and are off and running.  I’ve seen the play both ways and live theatre just doesn’t get any better.  When you’re watching this unfold, it’s hard to process how they each keep their lines straight under these conditions and pull it off, night after night, with such seamless and spontaneous flow.  And the intimate Boxcar Studios, which can hold about 30, is configured perfectly for this tight drama─the audience lines the three walls, forming the border of a kitchen, some just inches from the actors.   That’s close enough to feel the toast, toasters and typewriters that are hurled whooosh by.

True West is focused around two brothers who unexpectedly come together in their mother’s suburban home while she is away on a trip.  Austin, a disciplined screenwriter pecking away at his typewriter (far too uptight and lacking the confidence to proclaim his work as pure art) has come to watch his mom’s place and finish his screenplay in solitude.  Lee, a drifter, thief and born storyteller (an artist to his core but without the discipline to harness and craft his ideas), shows up out of the blue.  

In Boxcar Theatre’s production of Sam Shepard’s “True West,” actors Brian Trybom (left) and Boxcar’s Artistic Director, Nick Olivero (right), play brothers Austin and Lee but rotate roles frequently, giving them the chance to fully immerse themselves in Shepard’s drama. Photo: Peter Liu

Initially disdaining and mistrustful, the brothers warm to the point where they are curious to taste the life the other leads.   As they embark on a project that forces them to collaborate, a cesspool of raw emotion erupts and they confront what it takes to survive in each other’s world of illusions.  Like real Western cowboys, the two are pulled into a deadly battle.  The drama taps the mythic dreams and dysfunction at the heart of most American families.  The father never appears but is referenced several times.  His alcoholic legacy is one of destruction and family abandonment, but both his sons are still enamored with him.   Mom (Adrienne Krug and Katja Rivera alternating) plays her part too─traditional, meek, passive.   When she returns from her trip early, she is astounded that her plants have died, her home is trashed and her boys are at each other throats.  When she hears that both her sons are talking about leaving for the mythic West, that same West that her husband ran off too, she turns tail and exits. This is rough and tumble drama, and, as chaos descends, Olivero and Trybom play it to the hilt, honoring Shepard’s enduring classic.

“I started reading Shepard in high school with Lie of the Mind, and it just resonated with me,” said Nick Olivero.  “I had two older brothers and one of them was really mean to me, beat the crap out of me, and that’s the way it is in a lot of families and that’s what happens in a lot of Shepard plays.  A lot of us connect with that.  In college, I directed True West and I worked on Fool for Love and, without even looking to do it, I just kept working on Shepard.  I had always wanted to work at the Magic Theatre because of Sam Shepard.  I moved up here in 2003, and within six months, I was hired at the Magic.  It was such a big thing for me to be at that company who had supported him, premiered and produced his work that I liked so much.  After Boxcar did Tennessee Williams in repertory for our 4^th season, I started thinking about Shepard.  I’ve directed his work twice and always wanted to be in it and I thought…all right, here’s my chance to do it before I get too old.”

Stay tuned to ARThound for an interview with Nick Olivero about Sam Shepard at Boxcar.

Buried Child is an epic odyssey about finding one’s way back home and finding one place’s in that home.  Neither can be achieved until all the buried secrets are unearthed.  Like in True West, Shepard uses the premise of a son’s return home for a brief visit while on his way West, to California, to explore the raw pain within the American family.   The three act play, Buried Child had its world premiere at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre in 1978 and, in 1979, Shepard won the Pulitzer prize for Best drama for Buried Child.   The play ran for more than one year Off-Broadway and has received more than 400 productions around the world. 

Sam Shepard readings: Boxcar Studios will also present several additional Shepard plays throughout March in the form of readings and enactments of selected scenes.  On the docket so far:  Cowboy Mouth, Curse of the Starving Class, 4-H Club, Action, Suicide in B Flat, and Kicking A Dead Horse.  

Sam All Day Sunday:  On consecutive Sundays, March 25 and April 1, Boxcar runs all four plays on the same day starting at noon. The ticket price of $120 includes lunch, a shot of whiskey and private transportation from theater to theater by the rep series cast and crew, giving playgoers the opportunity between shows to speak with the actors and directors who make it all happen.

Details:  Sam Shepard in Repertory runs through April 26, 2012.  Full schedule, including casting for each performance at http://www.boxcartheatre.org.  Individual plays are priced as follows:  Previews $15; Opening night, including reception $35; General Admission $25. 

“Sam Shep Rep Pass” includes one ticket to each show in the series $85.

Admission is $5 – $10 for each reading or free with the $85 “Sam Shep Rep Pass.”

The 14th Annual San Francisco Independent Film Festival  (IndieFest)  starts Thursday, February 9th, 2012 bringing two weeks of the very best of category-defying independent film on the planet to San Francisco’s Roxie Theater.  This year’s line-up includes 30 features, nine documentaries, six locally produced films, six shorts programs, and a host of special events.  And there are more inspired wild theme parties than ever before, all over San Francisco, including an opening night Spinal Tap Tribute, the (9^th Annual!) Big Lebowski Party, a Roller Disco (half-price if you show up in costume), and a special Valentine’s Day Love Bites: 80’s Power Ballad Sing-a-long.   But the program that most captured ARThound’s attention is Everything Is Terrible!, which includes the film DOGGIEWOGGIEZ! POOCHIEWOOCHIEZ! which is composed entirely of found VHS dog footage and an accompanying “live in the fur show” program.  The film promises to be a diamond in the Ruff and its creators, the Chicago –based collective Everything Is Terrible!, will be in full body mascot delivering a psychedelic show which they promise will pick up where Cirque Du Soleil and The Rock-A-Fire Explosion took off.  

But wait—there is a serious component to DOGGIEWOGGIEZ! POOCHIEWOOCHIEZ! and the zany group behind it.  Everything Is Terrible! is a collective of seven furry, lovable internet monsters who are first order archivists and artists─they take forgotten VHS tapes of all kinds and edit them down into easily digestible videos that go viral.  They trolled old VHS footage for over a year to produce this feature-length film.  

DOGGIEWOGGIEZ! POOCHIEWOOCHIEZ!  is a zany remake of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s brilliantly weird 1973 psychedelic cult classic The Holy Mountain (La Montaña Sagrada).  This epic─screened at Cannes in 1973, honored as a Cannes Classic in 2006, and released on Blue-ray last year─is the journey of a Christ-like vagabond and thief who encounters a spiritual guru who introduces him to six wealthy individuals who each symbolize a planet in the solar system.  Together, they embark on a spiritual pilgrimage to the holy mountain, to unseat the gods and become immortal themselves.  Lots of drugs were consumer in its making.   As much as The Holy Mountain was a product of its time, so is DOGGIEWOGGIEZ! POOCHIEWOOCHIEZ! 

Sergio Caballero’s feature debut Finisterrae is another film that seems destined for cult status and cleverly uses humor and absurdity to deflect from its metaphysically hefty theme.  Two Russian –speaking ghosts, in white sheets (evoking large trick-or-treaters) embark on a fantastical pilgrimage to the Spanish holy city of Santiago de Compostela in search of new bodies to inhabit.  One of them occasionally rides a dappled gray horse or a wheelchair and the other carries around a colourful wind flag as they travel through rich landscapes that are the stuff of dreams and home to some fantastical oddities.  There’s a forest of trees wearing plastic ears and whispering in Catalan, a vivid flashback to Catalan video art of the 1980’s, and a singing hippie.  All this, cased in lush and languid cinematography, is a container for a philosophical discussion on the meaning of life and dreams.  As weird as it all sounds, the film is mesmerizing and comes together as a powerful surreal odyssey.  Finisterrae grabbed the top award at the 40^th International Film Festival Rotterdam.  Finisterrae’s director, Caballero, a multidisciplinary musician and artist, is also the co-director of Bacelona’s acclaimed Sónar, the International Festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art.

Stay-tuned to ARThound for more IndieFest coverage.  And if you missed last year’s IndieFest coverage, you likely missed another doggie classic, “Worst In Show,” a riveting behind-the-scenes documentary by filmmakers Don Lewis of Petaluma and John Beck of Benecia that covered the entrants in Petaluma’s 2010 World’s Ugliest Dog Contest.  Click here to ARThound’s coverage.    

Details:  “Everything is Terrible 2012” is Friday, February 17, 2012 at 9:30 p.m. at Roxie Cinemas, 3117 16th Street (at Valencia) in San Francisco.  Tickets are $15.00; buy them here.

General Information about IndieFest:  All screenings take place at the Roxie Cinemas, 3117 16th Street (at Valencia) in San Francisco.  Film tickets are $11 for each regular screening and $20 for Opening Night (includes the film plus the after-party). 5-film vouchers are $50, 10-film vouchers are $90; $160 for FilmFestPass good for all films and parties.  The parties are $10 each or free with ANY festival ticket stub. Remember, passholders are always admitted first. For advance tickets or more information, call 1-800-838-3006 or click on www.sfindie.com.

Same day tickets are only available at the venue. The box office opens 30 minutes before the first show of the day. For all screenings, please arrive at least 15 minutes before show time to assure seating.)

Beautiful, haughty, seductive, manipulative, wearied, and indulged to excess….the iconic Daisy Buchanan is played by Soprano Susannah Biller, a former SF Opera Adler Fellow, in Ensemble Parallèle’s new chamber opera, "The Great Gatsby," at Yerba Buena's Novellus Theatre February 10-12, 2012. Photo: courtesy Rapt

Ensemble Parallèle is bringing what promises to be a very  inventive contemporary opera to Yerba Buena Center’s Novellus Theatre this coming Friday-Sunday (February 10-12, 2012):  the world premiere of Jacques Desjardins’ chamber orchestration of composer John Harbison’s “The Great Gatsby.”   Based on the beloved 1925 novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the opera was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera to celebrate James Levine’s 25^th anniversary as its musical director.  It premiered in 1999, with just one subsequent performance at the Lyric Opera in Chicago, mainly because it called for an orchestra of 120 musicians.  Aware of the need to make Harbison’s important work accessible to performing groups, Ensemble Parallèle, a professional ensemble-in-residence at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, embraced the project and commissioned its re-orchestration from 120 to 30 musicians, keeping the rich sound of Harbison’s music─ which includes 17 original vernacular pieces─tangos, Charlestons, jazz songs─not your traditional opera to begin with.   The cast includes 11 singers─some very well known in the Bay Area and some newcomers.  This is the first time in ten years that the piece, which opened to mixed reviews at the Met, will be performed on stage and it is Ensemble Parallèle’s most ambitious project to date.  Recognizing music’s power to transform and raise consciousness, this presentation of a classic, with some story enhancements, with should be an exciting event.   If you haven’t been to an opera before, the best thing to do is literally jump in─get tickets and go!  At 2.25 minutes with one intermission, and all in English, this opera—jazzy and emotionally gripping─should be a great introduction for newcomers.   And, if you haven’t been to Yerba Buena Center’s modern Novellus Theatre for a performance, you’re in for a treat.  Unlike San Francisco Opera, these seats are much more user friendly and the site lines are exceptional. 

The cast looks fabulous.  Lyric tenor Marco Panuccio, a newcomer to the Bay Area, is Jay Gatsby.  Panuccio portrayed Des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon for Lyric Opera of Chicago.  Soprano Susannah Biller, a Bay Area favorite and former SF Opera Adler Fellow, with a rich and powerful voice, who portrayed Eurydice in Ensemble Parallèle’s spring 2011 production of Philip Glass’ Orphée, is Daisy Buchanan, Gatsby’s fixation.  Baritone Jason Detwiler, who played St. Plan in Ensemble Parallèle’s summer 2011 production of Four Saints in Three Acts, is Nick Caraway, the opera’s narrator.  Casting also includes tenor Dan Snyder as Tom Buchanan, Disy’s husband; baritone Bojan Knezevic as the machanic George Wilson; mezzo soprano Erin Neff as his wife Myrtle Wilson and mezzo-soprano Julienne Walker as Jordan Baker.  All come together to present the gripping story—in music─of a very shallow lot of characters who make a tragic mess of their indulgent lives.  The setting is deco and the drama transpires against the colorful backdrop of the roaring ‘20’s, when American society enjoyed great prosperity, endured Prohibition and the dance music of the day was jazz. 

Gatsby marks the fourth major presentation of fully-staged contemporary chamber operas by Ensemble Parallèle’s duo–Artistic Director/Conductor Nicole Paiement and Stage Director and Production Designer Brian Staufenbiel.  Gatsby follows last year’s Orphée by Philip Glass, Alban Berg’s Wozzeck in 2010 and Lou Harrison’s Young Caesar in 2007–all to acclaim from audiences and critics.  Last August, in conjunction with SFMOMA’s fabulous The Steins Collect, Ensemble Parallèle presented a critically acclaimed production of the rarely performed Four Saints in Three Acts by composer Virgil Thompson and librettist Gertrude Stein. (Read ARThound’s coverage here.)

Paiement founded Ensemble Parallèle in 1994 to perform new music and to collaborate with various artists such as dancers, choreographers, and visual and multimedia artists— as the Ensemble’s name suggests, in parallel.  These collaborations have allowed Ensemble Parallèle to reach a wider-ranging and younger audience.  In 2007 Ensemble Parallèle began to focus exclusively on contemporary chamber opera, producing works with vitality, edge, and appeal, so important in world of opera.

Gatsby Insights at 7:15 PM, prior to each performance

Run-time: 2.25 hours with one intermission

Sung in English/English Supertitles

Details:  All performances are held at Novellus Theatre, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 701 Mission Street, San Francisco, 94103

Friday, February 10, 2012
 – 8:00 PM
Saturday, February 11, 2012 – 8:00 PM
Sunday, February 12, 2012 – 
2:00 PM

Tickets are $35 to $85 and are on sale at the YBCA Box Office.  Call 415-978-2787 or order online at: 
 http://tickets.ybca.org/single/psDetail.aspx?psn=14309

A Fitzgerald gem to ponder:  

I was thirty. Before me stretched the portentous, menacing road of a new decade.

It was seven o’clock when we got into the coupe with him and started for Long Island. Tom talked incessantly, exulting and laughing, but his voice was as remote from Jordan and me as the foreign clamor on the sidewalk or the tumult of the elevated overhead. Human sympathy has its limits, and we were content to let all their tragic arguments fade with the city lights behind. Thirty – the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair.  But there was Jordan beside me, who, unlike Daisy, was too wise ever to carry well-forgotten dreams from age to age.  As we passed over the dark bridge her wan face fell lazily against my coat’s shoulder and the formidable stroke of thirty died away with the reassuring pressure of her hand.

So we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight. (Nick,  The Great Gatsby, Chapter 7, pp 307-309)

Anna Trebunskaya stars in Luis Bravo’s “Forever Tango,” at Marines’ Memorial Theatre in San Francisco for six shows, February 14-19, 2012. Photo: courtesy of Luis Bravo Productions

Looking for some sizzle around Valentine’s Day?  Luis Bravo’s Forever Tango is back for a limited run of just 6 shows at San Francisco’s Marines’ Memorial Theater, February 14-19, 2012.   I saw this show in 2010 when it did a holiday stint at the same venue and was mesmerized by its intoxicating music and dance.  This run features a world-renowned cast of Argentine dancers and musicians and stars Anna Trebunskaya, who appears frequently on Dancing with the Stars (DWTS), now in its 14^th season.  Trebunskaya, a petite Russian fireball with incredible rhythm, elegance, and pizzazz, has helped create some of that show’s most memorable moments.  On Season Two, she was paired with football great Jerry Rice and the duo made it to the finals, and ultimately earned a second place finish.  Her other DWTS partners have included model Albert Reed, funnyman Steve Guttenberg, Chuck Liddell, Olympian Evan Lysacek, NFL Hall-of-Famer Kurt Warner, and Boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard. For the thirteenth season of DWTS, Anna was partnered with fashion expert and TV personality, Carson Kressley (“How to Look Good Naked” and “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”).  The two were an instant hit.  It’s reasonable to be particularly curious about how a Russian, albeit a fiery one like Trebunskaya, will interpret an art form synonymous with Argentina.  Luis Bravo has a habit of headlining DWTS stars with his Argentine cast and, in 2010, the Bay Area’s Cheryl Burke was featured.   Once the dazzling show starts, the headliner is usually outperformed by the Argentine cast who have tango in their DNA.  Nonetheless, watching this transpire is a good part of the fun.    

The Argentine cast of Forever Tango features 12 world-class tango dancers, one vocalist and an on-stage eight-piece orchestra, including several bandoneóns, the accordion-like instrument that is the mainstay of tango music.  If you’re intrigued with Argentine Tango, this is the show for you: it traces the tango’s colorful history from its beginnings in turn-of-the century Buenos Aires bordellos to its acceptance into high society.   The dances, all performed to original and traditional music, are the result of collaboration between each couple and director/creator Bravo. 

Jorge Torres and Marcela Duran, both from Argentina, dance the tango in Luis Bravo's "Forever Tango" at Marines' Memorial Theatre, February 14-19, 2012. Photo: courtesy of Luis Bravo Productions.

“The tango is a feeling that you dance,” says Bravo, “a story you tell in three minutes.  It’s passionate, it’s melancholic.  It’s tender, violent.  You dance it with somebody – but it is so internal, you dance it by yourself.  More than just a dance, the tango is music, a drama, a culture, a way of life.”

While Trebunskaya may be the headliner, it is the stunning Argentine, Marcela Durán, who frequently moves the audience to tears with her evocative dancing.  Durán, who has been with the show since 1994 and has won all the world’s top tango dancing awards many times over, embodies tango like no other.  When I saw her in 2010, with the sensational Gaspar Godoy, she literally melded into Godoy in a pure sensual embrace, her signature version of the “tango hold” which is one of the foundational characteristics of the dance.  In a flowing dress by Brazilian costume designer “Miro” (Argemira Affonso) with a sheer lace bodice that revealed her breast, Durán was mesmerizing to behold.  Connected by the upper part of their bodies, often looking into one another’s eyes, or dancing cheek to cheek to the rhythm of the music, Durán and Godoy became one.  The rhythm of the music which is often said to be based on the heartbeat, created a haunting and deeply melancholic tone that produced a surge of raw emotion I can still recall.

The performance schedule is as follows: February 15, 16, 17 at 8 p.m. February 18 at 2 & 8 p.m. and February 19 at 2 p.m.  A special Valentine’s Day (February 14, 2012) performance of Forever Tango will take place in the beautiful and elegant Commandants Room at the Marines’ Memorial Club and Hotel, just upstairs from the Marines’ Memorial Theatre.  Tickets for regular performances of Forever Tango range in price from $45 – $70.  Tickets for the special Valentine’s Day Gala are $80 and include Gala performance, post-performance dancing with the Forever Tango cast and orchestra and two beverages of your choice.  All tickets are on-sale now at the Marines’ Memorial Theatre Box Office, online at marinesmemorialtheatre.com or by phone at (415) 771-6900.

Brooch with Margaret De Patta Stones, created by artist Petra Class for “The De Patta Project” at Velvet da Vinci Gallery, San Francisco, through February 29, 2012.

This evening while The Oakland Museum of California celebrates tomorrow’s public opening of “Space-Light Structure: The Jewelry of Margaret De Patta,” the highly-anticipated retrospective of modernist jewelry pioneer Margaret De Patta’s work, San Francisco’s Velvet da Vinci Gallery will launch “The De Patta Project,” it’s own celebration of De Patta’s creative legacy from 6 to 8 p.m.

Studio jeweler Margaret De Patta (1903-1964) blended Constructivist principles with Bauhaus design to create miniature sculpture that moved with its wearer.  Based in the Bay Area, De Patta, who studied with Bauhaus sculptor Moholy-Nagy in Chicago is credited with starting the American studio jewelry movement on the West Coast.  The Oakland Museum holds the largest collection of De Patta’s work, most of which was donated by her (third) husband Eugene Bielawski after the artist’s untimely death by suicide in 1964.  “Space-Light-Structure” features more than 60 jewelry pieces as well as ceramics, flatware, photographs, pictograms, and newly released archival material. The exhibition is a collaboration with the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.

Pendant with Francis Sperisen Cut Rutilated Quartz, created by artist Dawn Nakanishi for “The De Patta Project” at Velvet da Vinci Gallery, San Francisco, through February 29, 2012.

De Patta’s nontradtional use of gemstones and non-precious pebbles as well as her use of simple lines and structure to create elegant architectural forms are key to the understanding the importance of her influence on the field of contemporary jewelry. De Patta and experimental lapidary artist Francis J. Sperisen explored the optical effects of faceting and lenses on gemstones to create wearable sculpture unlike any jewelry of the time.  

“The De Patta Project” was born when Velvet da Vinci purchased many of these unset stones from the estate of Margaret De Patta.  The lot included beautiful cut stones by Francis J. Sperisen  (mainly rutilated quartz and agate), as well as cabochon stones and beach pebbles found by De Patta.  Gallerist Mike Holmes explained that many of these stones actually came to him from Eugene Bielawski in packaging especially prepared by De Patta.  She had a practice of wrapping individual stones in paper drawings and notes explaining their intended use that were intended for her long-time collaborator and stone cutter Francis J. Sperisen.  “This was such a treasure and such a surprise that we’ve made those drawings part of the exhibition too,” explained Holmes. 

Margaret De Patta drawing and stones, some cut by Sperisen, were the inspiration for “The De Patta Project” at Velvet da Vinci Gallery, San Francisco, through February 29, 2012.

Sixteen accomplished and well-known jewelers, many from the Bay Area, have now used these select stones to create pieces for the exhibition at Velvet da Vinci which runs through February, concurrent with the Oakland Museum De Patta retrospective.  Along with these bold and unique contemporary jewelry creations, the show will also include some of  De Patta’s drawings and tools as well as a display explaining how De Patta achieved some of the special effects that made her legendary.  With the clever and studied use of aspects of illusion and tricks of perspective that she applied to transparent stones, she implemented Moholy-Nagy’s advice to “catch your stones in the air.”  She produced pendants that seemed to both float and have stones within them that also floated.  She was also a master of composition, creating pieces that amplified the elements of perspective, the use of blind areas, floating lines and reflected and double imagery through the use of crystals.  She also experimented with movement in her works and engineered pieces that had pivoting parts that could be worn in various positions, often covering or revealing stones and changing the color composition of the piece to suit the wearer’s preference.

Pendant with Margaret De Patta Pebble, created by artist Andrea Williams for “The De Patta Project” at Velvet da Vinci Gallery, San Francisco, through February 29, 2012.

The works in “The De Patta Project” make bold and beautiful use of some of De Patta’s concepts.   Many of the creations use the native qualities of stones as their focal points─the hairlike inclusions of rutilated quartz being a favorite.   Gorgeous pebble pieces too, with fine gold and silver etching, following and accentuating the natural grain of the stone, are popular. 

All of the pieces in “The De Patta Project” will be for sale.

Participating artists:
Deborah Boskin, Petra Class, Sandra Enterline, Geoffrey Giles, Joanna Gollberg, April Higashi, Tom Hill, Mike Holmes, Dave Jones, Terri Logan, Deb Lozier, Maja, Dawn Nakanishi, Brigid O’Hanrahan, Julia Turner, Andrea Williams

Discover some of the jewelry in Velvet De Vinci’s “The De Patta Project” online here.

Discover Margaret De Patta’s work online by exploring OMCA’s online collection of De Patta creations. 

Stay tuned to ARThound for coverage of “Space-Light Structure” and an interview with Julie Muñiz, OMCA Associate Curator of Craft & Decorative Art.  Muñiz co-curated the groundbreaking exhibition with Ursula Isle-Neuman, MAD (Museum of Arts and Design) Curator of Jewelry.

Details:  Velvet da Vinci Gallery is located at 2015 Polk Street (near Broadway), San Francisco, CA,  94109.   Phone: 415.441.0109.  Normal gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11 to 6, Sundays 11-4.   Special opening for “The De Patta Project” Friday, February 4, 2012 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Lorenzo Pisoni as his father Larry Pisoni, one of the founders of the Pickle Family Circus. A.C.T. presents “Humor Abuse,” Pisoni’s one man show about growing up as the youngest member of the Pickle Family Circus. Historic photo featured on set by Terry Lorant. Production photo by Chris Bennion.

Ahhh… men and their fathers….one can’t can’t help but be a reflection of the other.  What makes Lozeno Pisoni’s one man show, Humor Abuse at A.C.T. (American Conservatory Theatre) so special is that it is hilariously funny, packed with dazzling tricks, and, at its core, it’s all about growing up with a very controlling dad and making peace with it.  Lorenzo Pisoni is the youngest member of the Pickle Family Circus and the son of Pickle co-founder Larry Pisoni.  In  Humor Abuse, Pisoni not only shows off the tricks of the trade he learned from his father, he also relates the complex relationship he had on and offstage with him.  Pisoni first appeared onstage at the age of two.  He became his father’s clown partner not long after, and he continued to perform with the troupe during his teens.   A natural storyteller, Pisoni’s recollections are centered around physically demanding tricks (both newly created acts as well as and reenactments of his father’s famous Pickle performances) that show off his skills as a juggler, acrobatic, clown, and physical comedian.   This is one show where it really pays to sit as possible to the stage, to get a good glimpse of the vein-popping, sweat-drenched rigor and special protective padding involved in pulling off a clowning stunt like casually tripping down a flight of stairs or jumping off a platform into a bucket or performing a series of handstands, cartwheels and body-slamming vaults and then juggling.   

Lorenzo Pisoni with an old photo of his two-year old self. Historic photo by Terry Lorant. Production photo by Chris Bennion.

Breathtaking and funny, Pisoni’s show also contains several bittersweet moments when he reflects on his father’s perfectionism and how he was forced to practice a trick for several hours, days on end, to master it.  No matter how perfectly he performed it, he would always garner criticism, rarely praise, from his father.   Sound familiar?   The show is aptly titled—you get a good sense of the physical abuse that these daring comedic feats impart on the body and a sense of the deeper current of torment that Lorenzo experienced growing up under the thumb of such a perfectionist.  And it will come as no surprise that, aside from the circus, the father and son have little in common.   It seems that what lay at the bottom of all these physical acts Lorenzo performed to perfection was disappointment, something missing, some essential emotional territory that the relationship didn’t meet.  But it’s not a downer, at least not anymore…Pisoni, actually seems to be cherishing the opportunity to express and revision himself…because underneath it all is the quest for his own unique identity.  Larry Pisoni was one sour Pickle but Lorenzo has emerged a sweet one.      

Lorenzo Pisoni performs "Humor Abuse," his one-man show about growing up as the youngest member of the Pickle Family Circus. Historic photo featured on set by Terry Lorant. Production photo by Chris Bennion.

 Pickle Family Circus History:  Pisoni was born into the Pickle Family Circus shortly after his parents, Larry Pisoni and Peggy Snider, founded the alternative big top in 1974 with their juggling partner Cecil MacKinnon.  After Bill Irwin and Geoff Hoyle joined their ranks—creating the incomparable clown trio of Lorenzo Pickle (Pisoni), Willy the Clown (Irwin), and Mr. Sniff (Hoyle)—the Pickles became a venerable and beloved Bay Area institution.  They toured the West Coast (and beyond) through the 1980s and ’90s and led the charge in the renewal of the American circus, exchanging animal acts and pyrotechnics in the supersized three-ring format with daring acrobatics and its famous show-stopping group juggle, all presented on one intimate stage so audiences would not miss a single moment.  

Bill Irwin opened A.C.T.’s 2010 season with Scapin.  Pisoni last appeared on the A.C.T. stage in 2005′s in the hugely popular The Gamester.  He also recently performed in Broadway’s Equus alongside Daniel Radcliffe and says: “Ever since Erica (Schmidt) and I created Humor Abuse, I’ve wanted to do it in San Francisco…I know many A.C.T. audience members will have a deep, nostalgic connection to what happens in the play because the Pickles were a part of San Francisco’s culture for so long.”

Humor Abuse  runs 80 minutes with no intermission. 

Humor Abuse: Created by Lorenzo Pisoni and Erica Schmidt.  Directed by Erica Schmidt.

Creative Team:  Hannah Cohen (stage manager), Randy Craig (composer), Bart Fasbender (sound designer), Ben Stanton (lighting designer)

Featuring Lorenzo Pisoni

Related Events:  A.C.T. Family Series (NEW this season!): Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012, before the 2 p.m. performance.    Join A.C.T. at 1 p.m. for a fun preshow event!  An A.C.T. artist will lead a lively, interactive workshop on clowning and physical theater.  Visit www.act-sf.org/family for information about how to subscribe to the A.C.T. Family Series throughout the season.

Details: Humor Abuse has been extended through Sunday, February 5, 2012.  The Geary Theater is located at 415 Geary Street, San Francisco.  Tickets (starting at $10) are available by calling the A.C.T. Box Office at 415.749.2228 or at http://www.act-sf.org.  

Up Next at A.C.T:  February 1-19, 2012:  The world premiere of Carey Perloff’s Higher, directed by Mark Rucker.

In this smart and sexy new play, two American architects dive into a high-stakes competition to design a memorial in Israel. They’re also in love—but don’t know that they are vying against one another. Higher whisks us from sleek New York studios to the shores of the Sea of Galilee, as the architects confront their own pasts in a race to make their mark on history. Faith, family, desire, and design fuel this thrilling new work, featuring A.C.T. core acting company member René Augesen and A.C.T. favorite Andrew Polk (The Homecoming, November). (Learn more.)  Note:  Performances of “Higher” take place at the The Theater at Children’s Creativity Museum (formerly Zeum Theater), 221 Fourth Street, San Francisco.