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by
Nina Beckwith
FEATURED UCSF
ARTIST| NINA'S ARTS NOTES
1st appeared 21
December 1998
FEATURED UCSF ARTIST
Attix Leaves UCSF
UCSF Arts & Performances Manager Karen Attix is leaving
Parnassus for the hills of Marin.
 For 13 years, Karen has been the creative spirit fostering such
enterprises as the prestigious UCSF Orchestra, founded in l990 by Jonathan Davis, its
first conductor; the Piano Group; the Annual UCSF Art Show, in which over 40 artists took
part this year; singing groups such as the Gospel Choir and Vocal Chords; the Shakespeare
Group; Poets on Parnassus; and the Parnassus Players ("I hope they will
re-emerge," she says, "they did some really good plays.")
Arts & Performances also runs the Cole Hall movie series as well as staging major
events like the Black and White Gala and UCSF Night at the Legion of Honor. Last year,
they merged with EMPACT! to form a staff of seven people who also put out the employee
newsletter and a raft of information and special services to benefit the campus community.
Her friends and colleagues put on a retirement party for Karen at Laurel Heights, where
the Gospel Choir, Alan Tower, and others performed. After the music and after the
speeches, it was Karen's turn. As she is something of a poet as well as a professional
dancer, Karen put her parting thoughts into verse. Here's an excerpt:
"Standing here so moved
By all your love and care
13 years -- a whole school life of change
And I have a lot to show for it -- just look at
my grey hair.
I couldn't begin to count the blessings
Nor chronicle the life lessons in catchy rhymes
Of what UCSF has given to me
Just the best and the worst and the coolest of
times.
The venues -- call them buildings
That Al (Minvielle ) said 'Well, it's a good
place to start,'
Challenged me into sleepless nights and mental
mazes
With the task of changing sheer scientific
practicality
into the magic of art..."
Karen will be very much missed but under able successors and with the participation of the
whole UCSF community -- whether as artists or audiences -- campus arts programs will
continue to flourish.
* * * * *
NINA'S ARTS NOTES
Christmas Eve at the Castro
If you missed the December SF Gay Mens Chorus concert at the Masonic, there are three more
chances to hear these enthusiastic and inspiring voices: Home for the Holidays is
the title of their program to be given on Christmas Eve, featuring holiday music of many
traditions. SF Gay Mens Chorus at the Castro Theatre, December 24 at 5, 7, and 9
p.m. Phone 863-4472.
* * * * *
Pocket Alice
For only one not-to-be-missed SF performance, Donald Pippin is bringing back his bright
and witty children's favorite, Alice in Opera Land, featuring his gifted Pocket
Opera performers. The one-hour show follows Alice through fantastic adventures in Opera
Land where she meets Rossini's Cinderella, the Gypsy Carmen, and the Barber of Seville,
among others. And after the show, Alice passes out candy canes to all her new friends.
Alice in Opera Land, Sunday, December 27, 2 p.m. at the Legion of Honor's
lovely Florence Gould Theater. Lincoln Park, entrance at 34th and Clement, free parking.
Muni Bus #18.
* * * * *
Morning, Noon and Night
After 20 years of telling us about matters political in his inimitable fashion, Spalding
Gray takes on fatherhood as the subject of his new monologue Morning, Noon and Night.
Gray describes this latest work as "an oral diary about living and longing, loving,
falling, and crawling. It's about watching and helping the children grow."
For only six performances, December 29 - January 3, A.C.T. is presenting Gray's
new show at the Geary Theatre. On December 30 there's a special New Year's gala:
tickets to Morning Noon and Night include a champagne reception in the Garret
atop the Geary Theatre; center orchestra seats for the performance, and another reception
with Spalding Gray himself for dessert and more champagne at the Grand Hyatt following the
performance. For tickets call 478-2228 or order online www.act-sfbay.org.
* * * * *
New Year's Bell
Following Japanese custom, each year should end with the dying reverberations of a temple
bell that has been struck 108 times. According to Buddhist belief, this number corresponds
to the 108 mortal desires which plague mankind. The tolling of the bell dispels these
desires so as to free one from temptations during the coming year. It's called a kind of
"spiritual preventive medicine."
The 14th annual New Year's Ringing takes place in the Gruhn Court of the Asian
Arts Museum in Golden Gate Park on December 31 at 11 a.m. The Asian opens at 9:30
so you can see the marvelous Hiroshige woodblock prints (check our report
of November 23) and then be liberated and unplagued by the bell-ringing, which is free
with Museum admission. You'll need a ticket, so call 379-8879.
* * * * *
A Night in Old Vienna
Seeing the old year out with the SF Symphony has become another kind of SF tradition
because it's a night of Viennese whipped-creamy waltzes and bubbly songs from operettas
that lift the spirits high enough to continue dancing into New Year's Day and the year
ahead.
With Peter Guth conducting and soprano soloist Izabela Laduba, the festivities start on
December 30 at 8 p.m. in Davies Hall and on New Year's Eve it's a champagne gala starting
at 9 p.m. SF Symphony box office 864-6000; e-mail: tickets@sfsymphony.org.
* * * * *
Sitting on the Edge
That's the title of a remarkable collection of 20th-century furniture put together by Bay
Area residents Michael and Gabrielle Boyd now on display at the SF Museum of Modern Art.
The hundred chairs and other pieces in this show include works by Mies van der Rohe, Frank
Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, Charles Eames, such Italian designers as Gio Ponti and Marco
Zanuso, and many others, spanning the entire modernist 20th-century period.
According to SFMOMA's curator of architecture and design, Aaron Betsky, "The chairs
that have become icons in the world of architecture are those whose designs -- while
reflecting forms found in nature -- push the materials beyond what is normally expected of
them, creating an edginess or sense of instability in an object whose function is to
support the human form."
Examples are the Steltman chair from l964 by Gerrit Rietveld, and Marshmallow Sofa
l956, by George Nelson.
Michael Boyd, a former art student at UC Berkeley, wanted his collection to exemplify the
words of Mies van der Rohe: "less is more," and "God is in the
details." With some highly amusing and eccentric pieces along with well-known ones
such as the Breuer and Eames chairs, the exhibition demonstrates, as Boyd has said,
"that a chair or a piece of functional design can suggest, even encapsulate the
architecture and sense of space of its creator."
In an adjoining small gallery are some of the most fascinating watercolors I've ever seen.
They are by architect Laura Vinciarelli and her show is called, most appropriately, Incandescence.
Rather than the customary watercolor technique, she paints in layers of color, letting
each one dry and then applying another, creating a sense of depth and density. In each
painting, above the dense dark space there is a horizon line, like that between water and
sky, glowing from an eerie light we cannot see.
Both exhibitions will be at SFMOMA through February 23. The great Richard Diebenkorn show
(see our review of November
9) is there only through January 19. You'll also find there one of the most exciting
museum shops in the country, stocked with clever, unusual, and interesting games, gifts,
useful objects, and a great selection of art books and cards.
SFMOMA is at 151 Third Street, between Mission and Howard. Easy to reach by Muni buses, or
Metro to Powell or Montgomery. Hours are 11 to 6; closed Wednesday; open Thursday
evenings 6 to 9 at half-price admission. Information 357-4000; fax 357-4037;
tickets also through BASS or www.sfmoma.org.
A San Francisco resident for 20 years, Nina
Beckwith is a longtime arts writer and music critic and a former Time magazine overseas
correspondent. She was founding editor of the UC Berkeley Library newsletter Bene Legere
and worked for six years with the late Dr. Peter Ostwald, Director of the UCSF Health
Program for Performing Artists. |
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