Recently in Grotto News

Grottofilms' whimsical road comedy "Full Grown Men" will have its home video release August 25th through Liberation Entertainment. Winner of the 2007 Undiscovered Gems Sundance Channel Audience Award, the film was written by Grotto filmmakers David Munro and Xandra Castleton, directed by David and produced by Xandra. "Full Grown Men" tells the story of a hopelessly nostalgic man who learns the hard way that the best years of his life may still lie ahead. Stars Matt McGrath, Judah Friedlander (30 Rock), Amy Sedaris (Strangers With Candy), Alan Cumming (X-Men 2, Cabaret), and Deborah Harry (Blondie). You can pre-order on Amazon or save on your Netflix queue by clicking links below. If it's not at your neighborhood video store, contact us via our website and we'll make sure it is. You can read about the "making of" in our series of Filmmaker Diaries for the SF Chronicle (see the link below), and there's a new blog about the current state of indie film distribution at Filmmaker Magazine blog. More information at http://www.fullgrownmenthemovie.com.

Amazon, Netflix, Filmmaker Diaries, Filmmaker Magazine

MELANIE’S “THE SLIPPERY YEAR” GARNERS STELLAR NEW YORK TIMES AND NEW YORKER BOOK BENCH REVIEWS – DON’T MISS THE BOOK LAUNCH ON AUGUST 12-13

We're in for a new spate of Grotto books this late summer and fall, and the accolades are already coming in. Hot off the press is Melanie’s profile in the July 30th New York Times (see link below). And Andrea Walker reviewed Melanie's book in the online New Yorker Book Bench, stating, “By the end of the book I felt like I had just spent several hours knocking back drinks with an especially funny friend. Which is some of my highest praise.” (As Grottoite Caroline Paul remarked, “I like the way the reviewer starts her review all crotchety and at the end wants to have a drink with Melanie. Wait in line, girl. We all want a drink with Melanie.”)

The Big Ugly Review is the featured journal at the upcoming Babylon Salon Winter Reading on Saturday, December 6th at 7 p.m. The performance will be held at Cantina, 580 Sutter Street. (just off Union Square). As always, this rollicking reading and performance series promises great literature and fine cocktails. Poet and essayist Lola Haskins headlines the evening, and April Sinclair will read from her work in the current issue of Big Ugly. For more information, please visit www.babylonsalon.com. Admission is free!

Grotto Nights is Back with “INTIMACY" -- a special LITQUAKE multi-media extravaganza of tight genes, body fluids, and misplaced affections. The evening will feature authors Mary Roach reading from her latest, “Bonk,” plus David Ewing Duncan, Elizabeth Bernstein, Stephen Elliott, Laura Fraser, and Jennifer Traig. Also highlighted will be the work of filmmakers Caveh Zahedi [“I Am A Sex Addict”] and Jay Rosenblatt [“I Used To Be A Filmmaker.”] The evening also features an animated film by the Forbidden Fruit Collective, an audio documentary by Jennifer Durban and art by JD Beltran, Emily Korson, and Jan Blythe. Finally, you’re in for a very special treat with an original music, sound, and video performance by an ensemble that includes composer Marc Capelle, jazz vocalist Faye Carol, and hydrogeologist Michael J. Taffet.

Come and get under the covers with us for an evening of creative hanky panky.

TIME/PLACE: SATURDAY OCTOBER 4, AT THE JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER, 3200 CALIFORNIA STREET, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94118, (415) 292-1200. EVENT STARTS AT 8:00, WITH A RECEPTION FOLLOWING THE PROGRAM.

Tickets are going fast! Doors open at 7:30. $20 for JCCSF and Litquake members, $22 for general public.

No-Host Bar/21+. After the event there will be a special party for the audience and performers.


For more information, see http://www.jccsf.org/content_main.aspx?catid=537#2550 or http://litquake.org/

About Grotto Nights

From 2001 to 2005 the eclectic evenings of literature, film, art and marching bands at Grotto Nights were a mini-San Francisco institution, as were the parties that followed them. But the footlights went out when the event outgrew its space at the Main Library and the writers of the Grotto had to move to new venues. This year, we’re back for a special Grotto Nights at Litquake, and room for everyone at the Jewish Community Center!

Gerard Jones has started a new blog about the struggles he's experiencing as he writes his new book, THE UNDRESSING OF AMERICA, for FSG. After months of wrestling alone with doubt and procrastination, he's taking a fellow Grotto member's advice and opening up about the process, hoping it will help his own work and also be useful (or at least entertaining) to other writers. As he writes in the first post, "This blog will be the story of how I got here, an exploration of what the book is, a showcase for excerpts, a platform for your comments and advice, a confession of my madness, and, in the end, the vehicle through which the book gets written." It's at http://undressingamerica.blogspot.com.

 The Grotto is pleased to host a new art reception, featuring the paintings of Shirley Hazlett. The reception will be June 5th, 6-9 p.m. The Southern Wine Group, importers of boutique and artisanal wines from Argentina and Chile, will be pouring. 

Shirley Hazlett is a contemporary painter who will be showing fluid, grid-based paintings, referencing the land, horizon, and sky. Shirley's paintings have been exhibited at the California Museum for Women, History and the Arts, the Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento, and the San Francisco ArtInstitute, where she currently is completing an MFA in Art, painting.

Join us June 5th for the art reception!

The super-informative Grotto Notes didn't go out this month because there's some stuff going on with our list server. But you can still read them here.