         
|
|
||
by Nina Beckwith FEATURED UCSF ARTIST | NINA'S ARTS NOTES 1st appeared 22 June 1998 Steve Leonoudakis -- The Outdoor Guy More than 25 years ago, Steve Leonoudakis first got involved in
Outdoors Unlimited, the UCSF campus outdoor and recreational program. "Until the
people who founded the program took me on a rafting trip, " he As a "wild reckless youth" he also went on the classic wanderings abroad, and it was in railroad stations, piazzas, and hostels that he began to play the harmonica, a nicely portable instrument that allowed him to express his love of African-American music and particularly the Blues. (He's planning another trip but this time it will be with his whole extended family to revisit the rugged and beautiful island of Crete where their grandparents came from.) Back home, he began teaching and leading trips, fostering cooperation among people on outdoor adventures, and applied those skills to managing the Campus Outdoors Unlimited program, which he still does. His idea of the Campus is a broad one, extending beyond the immediate UCSF family: "We like to think of it as a bridge between the campus and the community," he says. From there he went into studying organizational development and team building, and applied these techniques to heading development and training for the various arms of Millberry Union and the Campus Auxiliary Services. In case you wondered, Campus Auxiliary Services include the bookstore, the parking service, student housing, child care, and transportation services. Another group of Campus businesses comes under Millberry: Arts and Performances, EMPACT!, the Fitness Center, Reprographics, the mailing service, the computer center, the ITS store, and probably several more I missed. From the vantage point of his 25 years, Leonoudakis sees a remarkable change now taking place in the basic UCSF philosophy of customer service. By customers he means not only patients but everyone who, for whatever reason -- parking, buying a book -- comes into contact with any service of the University. Internal customers -- staff, faculty, researchers, students -- may also expect to see improvements in the quality of service they receive from all kinds of colleagues, starting with administration and financial services. "Coming from the Chancellor and the Vice Chancellors," Leonoudakis feels, "there is a new awareness of the importance of campus life and of what it is that enhances quality of life here. The arts are part of this, recreation, the environment. It's the concept that quality of life in the workplace is important to the University's mission." For Leonoudakis's own quality of life music is an essential. "First it was the Blues," he says, "and then I started to sing with the Gospel Choir. I wasn't much good at first but I got better. (Gospel Choir president Wilma Batiste bears this out.) I can go up this hill -- he works in one of the small houses on Third Street that's more like a pad than a formal office -- and into that classroom where we rehearse and our choirmaster will start playing and we'll start singing and in minutes the spirit fills that room. I've never come across anything that is such a quick and easy access to the experience of joy." People often associate Blues with sadness, loneliness, lost love. But for Leonoudakis "Blues can celebrate, can be swinging, jazzy, up tempo, up beat." He started a little band called Blues Disaster 15 years ago with other UC guys on guitars and bass. He was on vocals and harmonica. Another group called Blues Ride plays at weddings and parties, and was heard at the UCSF Night at the Legion of Honor and in the Library's Lange Room backing up poetry readings. "That worked well," he says, "because we were able to get the feel of the poetry: it's heart, and so is Blues. " Leonoudakis is always interested in connecting with other people who would like to play Blues. So all you wannabe BB Kings out there, call him at 502-2120. Gospel and Jazz in the Grove Sunday, June 28: Voices in Praise, with gospel legends The Blind Boys of Alabama, and local favorites Brenda Lowe and Dr. M.T. Thompson & Vision. Sunday, July 5: The great, the historic, foot-stomping New Orleans Preservation Hall Jazz Band marches in on Independence Day Weekend for its 29th annual Stern Grove Festival appearance. Stern Grove is at l9th Avenue and Sloat. Concerts are FREE, start at 2 p.m. Better to go early because even that vast natural amphitheater can get fairly full by noon. Information: 252-6252. * * * * * San Francisco Maritime For many of us, the fog swirling around Parnassus may be the most frequent reminder that we live or work in a city by the sea. To feel part of the city's maritime past, go down to the Bay and climb aboard the tall ships, listen to their flags flapping and the creaking of their mooring lines, smell the tar and caulking, let the salty breeze blow through your hair. This isn't tacky Fisherman's Wharf, this is our National Park on the Bay, the Hyde Street Pier, and the nearby Maritime Museum. Melville, Richard Henry Dana, Patrick O'Brian's novels of adventures at sea -- it all comes back when you look up at the mainmast of the Balclutha, tall as a 15-story building and much more graceful. The iron and steel sailing ship was built in Glasgow, launched in l886, sailed round the Horn 17 times before her working career ended in l930, and has just been returned to the Hyde Street Pier after a complete overhaul. Along with several historic tugboats, the C.A. Thayer is also moored there, the last commercial sailing vessel to operate from a West Coast port. On long voyages, her captain usually took his wife along and you can see their cabins as well as the crew's cramped foc'sle. No cabins on the Eureka, the white paddlewheel 1890 ferryboat which carried 3500 commuters and 120 of their vehicles from Oakland until l957, but you can see the dining saloon where, in l940 for example, a full meal was served during the 32-minute crossing, including pie and coffee, for 55 cents. * * * * * In the Maritime Museum, whose entrance is adorned with reliefs by Sargent Johnson, are some lovely ship paintings and models, several scrimshaw carvings by seamen, historic photographs, an interesting exhibit on the history of steam navigation, and carved and painted figureheads from sailing ships: Mary Queen of Scots in red, white, and green, Davy Crockett in olive drab, grasping his musket. Recent additions come from the wreck of the Frolic, a Baltimore clipper and opium trader returning from China in l850 with a cargo of silks, lacquer, 21,000 porcelain bowls, gold jewelry, and other luxury goods for booming Gold-Rush San Francisco. She struck a rock off the Mendocino coast and what became of her cargo remained a mystery until l984 when archeology students excavating Pomo Indian houses found tiny fragments of Chinese porcelain which led historians to undertake exploration of the wreck. Hours 10-5 daily. Museum is free. Hyde Street Pier: Adults $4, children $2, under 12 and seniors free. Good shop at Pier for books, cards, ship models, etc. Muni buses 19, 30, 42. Information: 556-3002. |
|||
DAYBREAK | ARCHIVES | CALENDAR
| CAMPUS NOTES Copyright ©1998 Regents of the University
of California. All rights reserved. |
|||
says, "I hadn't done anything more strenuous than
take a walk in Muir Woods. But I got excited and little by little the outdoors became my
lifestyle."