May Grotto Notes

SUSAN GERHARD CURATES/MODERATES "A CRITICAL MOMENT" AT THE SF INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Susan Gerhard, who's been editing the film publication SF360.org for the past few years, is talking with an international panel of critics and authors, including John Anderson (Washington Post/NY Times), Dennis Harvey (Variety), David D'arcy (Screen International), Gerald Peary (Boston Pheonix, LA Times), Jonathan Curiel (SF Chron), Mary Pols (Time) and B. Ruby Rich (Guardian UK) about the rise, fall and transmogrification of film criticism in these newspaper-downsized times. The talk follows the 3:45 pm screening of For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism Sunday, May 3, 6:00 pm, at Sundance Kabuki Cinemas. Free admission!!

Susan also offers picks for the final week of the SF International: Friday, May 1: The Bay Area's very own Francis Ford Coppola comes to the Castro for Q&A. Saturday, May 2: James Toback comes to town with Tyson, his amazing and person docu on the troubled fighter. Sunday, May 3: Photographer Mary Ellen Mark offers up the State of Cinema address. Monday, May 4: Post 9/11 romance from New York by sometime Bay Area residents Cruz Angeles/Maria Topete's Don't Let Me Drown. Tuesday, May 5: Dengue Fever unveils its specially made score for silent film The Lost World. Wednesday, May 6: Claire Denis's gorgeous 35 Shots of Rum. Thursday, May 7: Festival closes w/ the very cool Euro-Argentinian film Unmade Beds.

More on all of it at the San Francisco International Film Festival's web site: http://fest09.sffs.org/


KATIE'S "GIRLS IN TRUCKS" MAKES THE NEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLER LIST

Grottoite Katie Crouch's debut novel, Girls In Trucks, is now a New York Times best-selling paperback. Congratulations, Katie!

Learn more about the book at Katie's website, http://www.katiecrouch.com






CHRISTOPHER'S STORIES IN THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR AND RACE, POVERTY & THE ENVIRONMENT

Grotto dweller Christopher Cook has new stories out--one in the April 9 Christian Science Monitor ("Amid Recession, is San Francisco Losing its Heart?"), and another, "A Tale of Two Zip Codes," appears in next month's Race Poverty & the Environment magazine, thanks to http://www.spot.us Chris gave talks on food politics at a conference in Washington state, and he's been expanding his Grotto seminar workshops and coaching/tutoring services. Get in touch with him through http://www.christopherdcook.com to learn more.




CHRIS WRITES ON RANDY ROBINSON AND GOLDDIGGING SALMON IN SFGATE.COM

Grottoite Chris Colin recently wrote up a story he told at Litquake, the happy and sad tale of Bay Area eccentric Randy Robinson. Essential reading if you're considering training salmon to find gold for you. Read it at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/04/15/onthejob041509.DTL






JD BLOGGING ON ART & CULTURE FOR THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE AT SFGATE.COM

Grottoite JD Beltran is now blogging several times a week on art and culture for sfgate.com, the online version of the San Francisco Chronicle. Check out her blog at http://www.sfgate.com/citybrights/







LISTEN TO MOLLY ON LAST WEEK'S THIS AMERICAN LIFE

The Grotto's Molly Antopol is on last week's This American Life! You can listen at: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=378






RELISH A CASITA LAURITA WRITERS' RETREAT THIS SUMMER

Get your writing project finished in Mexico this summer at Casita Laurita, in San Miguel del Allende, a perfect writer's retreat. (No cases of swine flu in San Miguel!) Special discount for Grotto friends. Testimonial from Katie Crouch, author of the fabulous Girls in Trucks (now out in paperback!): "Casita Laurita is such a nice place to write. If you're thinking, 'Should I fill out another one of those annoying Yadoo applications, or go to Casita Laurita, I would do the latter. I've almost finished my novel after being stuck for months. It is an amazing pad." See more information at http://www.casitalaurita.com








WRITING FOR CRAFT: COACHING BY LAURA AVAILABLE NOW!

Grottoite Laura Fraser is offering one-on-one coaching to polish your prose, whether working on individual stories, brainstorming article ideas, or structuring your book. Learn to make your writing sparkle by paring it down, making it lively, and structuring what you want to say. Contact her at laura@....

Laura has taught writing at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, Aspen Summer Words, SF State, and at the Grotto, among others.

"I couldn't have written my book without Laura. She's not only an amazing editor, but she taught me how to write." Jamie Woolf, author, Mom-in-Chief.

"Every time I write, I think, What Would Laura Do? And it makes my essay a lot better." Katherine Ozment.







ENJOY COCKTAILS WITH ETHAN CANIN ON JUNE 2

On Tuesday, June 2, Litquake will kick off its 10th anniversary year in "high" style with a fundraiser we're calling Cocktails with Canin! The much-vaunted author, Grotto co-founder, and Iowa Writers' Workshop professor Ethan Canin will be returning to his hometown to promote the paperback release of America America, praised by the late John Updike in the New Yorker as "a complicated, many-layered epic of class, politics, sex, death, and social history. Its reach is wide and its touch often masterly." But more importantly, Canin will be sharing cocktails and conversation onstage with the quick-witted former San Francisco Chronicle book editor, Oscar Villalon, and YOU.

For $55 (less than the price of a nice dinner), VIP ticket buyers will be feted, fed, and receive preferred seating for Cocktails with Canin, being held in the historic Broadway Studios in North Beach. Don't have the dosh in this recession year? That's okay too-we're also offering a cheaper ticket price of just $15 for general admission. Books will be for sale. And everyone who attends will be helping support Litquake's mission to host a vibrant forum for Bay Area authors and writing in our 10th anniversary year-and beyond.

6 - 7:30-VIP reception with Canin, Villalon, and other luminaries (includes admission and food)

7:30-Doors open to General Admission

8 pm-On-stage conversation with Ethan Canin

Following will be a book-signing. And probably more drinking.

Tuesday, June 2, Broadway Studios, 435 Broadway. 6 pm VIP Reception ($55); 8pm on-stage conversation with Ethan Canin & book-signing ($15). Get tickets at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/64169







XANDRA AND DAVID'S FULL GROWN MEN AVAILABLE ON DVD ON AUGUST 25

Grotto filmmakers David Munro and Xandra Castleton's debut feature "Full Grown Men" will be available on home video on August 25th. Liberation Entertainment has acquired the film, which premiered nationally in theaters last Summer, for wide DVD release. Check for it on Amazon, iTunes, at Blockbuster and your local video rental store, Best Buy and other retailers, and of course, Netflix. "Full Grown Men' can be saved on Netflix NOW - please add to your queue as it will drive up orders! Plenty of extras, outtakes, deleted scenes, filmmaker commentary, and other goodies. "Full Grown Men" features a stellar offbeat cast w/ Matt McGrath, Judah Friedlander, Alan Cumming, Deborah Harry, and Amy Sedaris.

FGM on Netflix: http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Full_Grown_Men/70101351?trkid=222336&lnkctr=srchrd-sr&strkid=825831737_0_0





THE GROTTO IS NOW ON TWITTER

The Grotto now has a Twitter feed! For late-breaking news about Grotto classes, the SF Bay Area lit scene, and happenings at the Grotto, follow us here:

http://twitter.com/sfgrotto


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JD'S ART PICKS


NICK CAVE AT THE YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS

This month, YBCA debuted the largest scale presentation of work by Chicago-based artist, Nick Cave, featuring forty of his "Soundsuits"--multi-layered mixed-media, wearable sculptures named for the sounds made when the sculptures are worn. As reminiscent of African and religious ceremonial costumes as they are of haute couture, Cave's work explores issues of ceremony, ritual, myth and identity. He does this through a layering of concepts, highly-skilled techniques and varied traditions, using materials such as fabrics, beads, sequins, old bottle caps, rusted iron, sticks, twigs, leaves and hair. Mad, humorous, elaborate, grotesque, glamorous and unexpected, the Soundsuits are created from scavenged ordinary materials--detritus from both nature and culture--that Cave re-contextualizes into visionary masterpieces. See more information at http://www.ybca.org/tickets/production/view.aspx?id=8191




WILLIAM KENTRIDGE AT THE SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART

William Kentridge is one of my all time favorite artists [see an example of his work at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhBDYBfwGR0&feature=related ]. His roots are in puppetry, of all things, and theater, and the SFMOMA has just debuted a grand exhibition of his work. He made his mark on the art world with his very creative technique of stop-motion animated films using painstakingly drawn, then erased charcoal drawings. There's no computer wizardry involved, just taking frame-by-frame images of each stage of the drawing as he re-animates it through this technique.

Combining the political with the poetic, William Kentridge's work has made an indelible mark on the contemporary art scene. Dealing with subjects as sobering as apartheid and colonialism, Kentridge often imbues his art with dreamy, lyrical undertones or comedic bits of self-deprecation, making his powerful messages both alluring and ambivalent. Perhaps best known for his stop-motion films of charcoal drawings, the internationally renowned South African artist also works in etching, collage, sculpture, and the performing arts, opera in particular. This exhibition explores five primary themes that have engaged Kentridge over the last three decades through a comprehensive selection of his work from the 1980s to the present. Concentrating on his most recent production and including many pieces that have not been seen in the United States, the exhibition reveals as never before the full arc of his distinguished career.

Through May 31. For more information see http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/380






AT THE MUSEUM OF CRAFT AND FOLK ART: 'Inside/Outside: Artist Environments'

For "Inside/Outside: Artist Environments," the Museum of Craft and Folk Art's show on exhibition now, curator Jennifer McCabe didn't just want to show pictures of artists trying to create immersive environments - she wanted to find an artist to make one. Luckily, the artist who inspired the show, Bolinas' Mike Shine, was willing and able to construct an installation in the museum. Shine, McCabe says, channels "surf skateboard culture and Nordic mythology" in his epically lo-fi space.

"The environment he created (in Bolinas) is a hub for all kinds of activity - music, art, theater, a central place for his own community," McCabe says. "In talking to him, he was interested in re-creating his space. It was an exciting proposal - to have a physical space that people could enter and experience. Working from there, I looked around, and asked: How does this fit with what other people have done?" What McCabe found was a rich history of ordinary citizens and untaught artists making elaborate spaces to work and play. San Francisco artist Megan Wilson's colorful apartment is featured, along with Edgar Arceneaux and the Watts House Project from Los Angeles, Jacob Sockness and Merritt Wallace. [From Reyhan Harmanci]. Through May 24. For more information, see http://www.mocfa.org/


It's better to entertain an idea than to take it home to live with you for the rest of your life.
Randall Jarrell