Alain de Botton’s “Religion for Atheists”: Zyzzyva
Atheists and agnostics often dismiss religion’s tenets and rituals as being fashioned to exploit the human need for such things. Our fear of death is assuaged by the promise of an afterlife. Our...
View Article“Without Further Ado, Pop-Up is Live!” for SF Weekly
The illustrious Pop-Up Mag staff. photo by Jonathan Snyder Can you envision a “live magazine?” How about an event that combines the best parts of your favorite magazine, like great writing, unusual and...
View ArticleCounterPULSE’s Boot Camp for Artists
Years ago, my mother told me something that has haunted me ever since. She described the attitude her alma mater, New York’s Pratt Institute, took towards artists’ hopes of professional success, or...
View ArticleTake Me Back, Please: The Art Deco Preservation Ball, SF Weekly
“Mata Hari’s Daughter” Carly Reynolds (right) and friend I could go on about what great clothing people wore to the Art Deco Society of California‘s Art Deco Preservation Ball on Saturday night, or...
View ArticleSoaring in the Air, Writhing on the Ground: Bad Unkl Sista’s “First Breath,...
Anastazia Louise. photo by F’kir Eldercake I could tell the performance I was about to witness late last month was extraordinary even before entering the auditorium, just from watching the audience...
View ArticleI interviewed Dita von Teese for The Rumpus
photo by Alert Sanchez Dita von Teese, burlesque superstar, author, actress, costume and lingerie designer, and formidable businesswoman, is idolized by many who might not otherwise fancy themselves...
View ArticleMy feet hurt so good after the Black and White Ball. SF Weekly
I previewed the great San Francisco fête here: If it’s June and after dark, and you see women tottering around Civic Center in gowns with color palettes from silent films and their dates’ tuxedo...
View ArticlePhotos from the San Francisco Modernism Show, SF Weekly
classy chachkas. A few times a year, a massive expo is held at the Concourse Exhibition Center, where you can get a hands-on, visually exhausting crash course in the near-past’s fabulousness. Last...
View ArticleMy “Best of 2012″ arts round-up, Art Practical
photo by Kylin Idora As futile as it is to try to sum up the best arts events a cosmopolitan city like San Francisco offered in a year, especially with a mere 1200 word-count, I gave it a try for Art...
View ArticleI interviewed Ira Glass for SF Weekly
Ira Glass, best known and adored as the creator and distinctive voice behind This American Life, is expanding his oeuvre. The long-running radio series now has six movies in production. The first is...
View ArticleCuration as a New Translation: Diane Arbus at Fraenkel Gallery, Huffington Post
DIANE ARBUS Two ladies at the automat, N.Y.C. 1966 © The Estate of Diane Arbus I am not cruel, only truthful— The eye of a little god, four-cornered. Mirror, Sylvia Plath Diane Arbus famously brought a...
View ArticleArnold Newman: Masterclass at the Contemporary Jewish Museum
Arnold Newman, Martha Graham, dancer, choreographer and teacher, New York, 1961, 45 1/2 x 53 1/2 in. Gelatin silver print © 1961. Arnold Newman/Getty Images. One of my favorite photography exhibits in...
View ArticleJ.M.W. Turner, the Sublime, and Me. For Hyperallergic
Joseph Mallord William Turner, “Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth” (exhibited 1842), oil on canvas, (Tate: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856) (all images courtesy...
View ArticleA Seashell Temple, A Glowflower Tree, and More Art Adventures at Burning Man,...
“Temple of Promise,” by Jazz Tigan and the Dreamers Guild The playa is never silent; you adapt quickly to the spectrum of ceaseless noise, ranging from a low, distant hum with a faint pulse to a din...
View ArticleSophie Calle at Fraenkel Gallery
Cash Machine (04-30), 1991 – 2003 In my early days as a theater student, when my teacher was tired of our careful, over-polished, actorish acting, he’d exhort us to show our “bathroom selves.” Your...
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