Local artist's scene makes the silver screen

In the unlikely event that you can take your eyes off Meryl Streep when she's on screen, you might spot a product of the local art world in "It's Complicated."

Mitchell Johnson, an artist with a studio in Palo Alto, has three paintings in the film. One landscape hangs over the fireplace in Meryl Streep's character's home. (Click here to see it in the set.)

Thanks to Hollywood magic, the film is set in Santa Barbara, but the interiors were shot in New York, and the fireplace landscape depicts Meyreuil, France. No wonder Steve Martin, who's playing an architect, looks so confused in all the trailers.

Pictured: "Meyreuil," a 2003 landscape by Mitchell Johnson.

Up there on the air

Hey, the California Pops Orchestra is doing a radio-style show. Perfect for the entire family -- since it's a radio format, you don't have to look up, so the kids can text the whole time!

Just kidding, Kim.

Anyway, lots of radio going around. First the L.A. Theatre Works troupe at Stanford on Jan. 27 with a radio play about Robert Kennedy and the civil-rights movement. I had an interesting interview with the producing director, who was a student finishing a paper on Kennedy and watching him on TV that fateful night in L.A. The play will have an element that typical theater doesn't: a sound-effects guy on stage with a table of equipment. When the script calls for a cocktail, sound-effects Nick drinks a drink. Loudly, one presumes.

Then, the California Pops Orchestra, under the baton of Palo Alto's Kim Venaas, presents its "Big Broadcast Show of 2010" on Feb. 21 in Los Gatos. This will be a musical variety show, 1930s radio style. Performers include the Pops' Zucchini Gulch Xylophone Trio (say that five times fast) and Bumblebee Buglers. Ann Gibson will sing and South Bay impersonator Matt Helm will pretend to be Dean Martin, Sean Connery and Jimmy Stewart. He better bring his eyebrows. I've seen them online and they're impressive.

So much rhythm

The four musicians walked on stage one by one, striking pieces of wood with mallets. Each built upon the last, starting with a single bright "tong!" sound and then layering his own pitter-pats of rhythm on top.

I felt like the sounds took me in all directions at once. Kids in the audience weren't sure what to do. Were they supposed to be quiet? Was this music? My head was bobbing a la "Spring Awakening," but not at the same time as my foot tapping. Yet we all ended up in the same place. When the So Percussion members hit the last note at once, leaving a silence as satisfying as everything that came before, we all thought: "Damn. These guys are good." (Except for the kids, who thought, "Darn.")

The place was CSMA, the performance was free, and the composition was "Music for Pieces of Wood." That Steve Reich doesn't mince words. CSMA has this great arrangement with Stanford Lively Arts, wherein many artists set to give concerts at Lively Arts stop by CSMA a few days earlier to give a free, more informal show. Children welcome.

So Percussion played the school last night, and by the end, kids in the front row were bouncing up and down with the music, and running back and forth from their seats to the edge of the stage. This is high praise from a six-year-old.

Meanwhile, I was feeling better that I can't attend the group's Lively Arts show this Saturday. "Music for Pieces of Wood," a 1973 Reich-ism, is on the bill, and here I was getting a preview. From the third row. It was fascinating to get a close view of the musicians working together: a nod before a tempo changed, a sidelong glance, eyes squeezed shut. When rhythms are offset, you have to focus on what you're doing -- while listening to the guys on either side of you. "The goal is to do both," So's Jason Treuting said at the end of the evening.

We also got a preview of Reich's "Clapping Music" (1972). In this canon-rich piece, the musicians clap in one flamenco-inspired rhythm -- 3-2-1-2 -- and offset it against each other. "There's 12 different ways you can put these rhythms together," Treuting said. As a listener, you follow one thread, then another.

Then we all got to try it. The guys split the audience up into two parts: One, "the rock," plays the rhythm the same way repeatedly. The other group slowly changes it up. Music immersion, sinuous and meditative. Sometimes it's easier to keep the rhythm when you close your eyes.

For several lucky kids, the highlight was probably getting to go up on stage and play in other pieces, on African drum and vibraphone and bell. There was much bouncing and swaying and grinning. Outside, after the show, I saw a father and child clapping 3-2-1-2, over and over. Yes, this was definitely music.

So Percussion plays an all-Reich program, including a U.S. premiere of "Mallet Quartet," this Saturday at 8 p.m. in Dinkelspiel Auditorium at Stanford. Pictured: The So boys whoop it up with a typewriter, photographed by Janette Beckman.

My top arts events from 2009

My top ten list is always a tease. I took in an array of incredible exhibitions, concerts, author talks and so forth in the Palo Alto area in the past 12 months. But now I'm reminded of everything I didn't get to see. Rewind!

Here's my list of the 10 favorites I did see in 2009 -- in no real order, as it would be like comparing apples to gooseberries.

New event: World Music Day, Palo Alto
The festivities kicked off beautifully, and WMD wasn't hard to find. We wandered through a balmy downtown from one free outdoor concert to another: klezmer, jazz, hip-hop, Latin and Balkan and Celtic music, and practically every other kind of tune you could think of. Bravos to Claude Ezran and the other organizers. Let's hope this becomes a tradition.

New song: "A Change is Overdue" from "Tinyard Hill," TheatreWorks
After I sat in on a rehearsal of this Tommy Newman-Mark Allen musical that premiered at TW in July, I kept playing this song on Newman's website. I love the open, hopeful feel of the line "I want to twist it, forge it, bend it into something new."

Exhibition: "From Their Studios," Cantor Arts Center
A remarkable diversity of voices characterized this show of work by Stanford faculty artists. John Edmark's kaleidoscope-like "Geometron," Robert Dawson's haunting photos, and Enrique Chagoya's satirical prints were highlights. This show is still open, through Jan. 3. (My list continues after this particularly eerie Dawson photo.)



Exhibition #2: "Treasures From the Mexican Museum," Palo Alto Art Center
It was hard to look away from a riveting lithograph of artist David Alfaro Siqueiros (those deep-set eyes), but this 150-work show had a wealth of other pieces to see, including spirited Day of the Dead papier-mache works and pre-Conquest vessels.

Metamorphosis: Tom Gough in Dragon Productions' "Greater Tuna"
Gough didn't actually hit a high C on stage, but I wouldn't have been surprised. The guy utterly transformed himself into the choir-singin', hip-bumpin', bubble-gum-pink-wearin' Bertha Bumiller for this goofy comedy. Amen, sister.

Metamorphosis #2: Kevin Kirby in Palo Alto Players' "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
This mild-mannered Weekly theater critic let the zingers fly as George in the classic marital rumble. Disclaimer: Kevin is a friend, but he doesn't know I'm writing this. Hi, Kevin. (Liza Zassenhaus was another stand-out in this production as Honey, fragile yet quirky. But I've never met her, so I don't know whether this was a true metamorphosis.)

Metaphysical music: "The Metaphysics of Notation," Mark Applebaum
This brilliantly enigmatic score hangs in the Cantor Arts Center, where every Friday afternoon a different musician interprets it in a free performance. No standard staff and notes here; the Stanford composer penned a visual work of art with symbols, designs and curves that challenge musicians to climb inside its world. Performances continue through February.

Music talk: John Adams, Cantor Arts Center
His son performed "Metaphysics" in May, but John Adams may have a few musical credits as well. The Pulitzer Prize-winning composer brought a new string quartet to Stanford Lively Arts this year, and also took part in a wonderful free-flowing talk at the Cantor with violinist David Harrington. Adams seemed friendly and candid. He even cracked a musical-theater joke. The museum and Lively Arts periodically bring in musicians for these free talks; a "jazz/tech talk" is set for Jan. 21.

Author talk: Sarah Dunant, Stanford Continuing Studies
Another delightful speaker this year was the historical-fiction author Sarah Dunant, who talked about writing her trio of books about women in the Renaissance. Her November talk was inspiring to any would-be novelist, providing lively insight into her lengthy research process.

Film: "Motherland," directed by Jennifer Steinman
This documentary about six American women grieving the loss of family members, then taking a life-changing journey to South Africa, was shown on the Peninsula to benefit Palo Alto's Kara organization. The film was compelling and highly moving without being overwrought; it told the women's stories with grace.

Pictured: Top: Mark Fiebert, front, and Alex Ran of Accidental Klezmer playing at World Music Day. Photo by Veronica Weber.
Above: Robert Dawson's 2005 photo "Outermost house, Arctic Circle, Iceland." This jet print from digitally scanned film is part of the "From Their Studios" exhibition at the Cantor Arts Center.

Calling all outdoorsy artists

You could whine about turning 40, or you could celebrate by publishing a coffee-table book about yourself. Well played, Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.

The district, which those in the know call MROSD, plans to mark the big 4-0 in 2012 by putting out said book, and is calling all poets, photographers, painters and other artists to take part. The tome will feature words and images inspired by MROSD's open-space preserves. If a hike moves you to bust out the watercolors, you may be just the person.

Guidelines for submission include the statement "We are especially interested in images reflecting the wide range of habitats across District lands, including riparian, grassland, chaparral, and redwood environments." Cool. What rhymes with "riparian"?

Info here. Hurry up; submissions "will be accepted through 2010 and tentatively into 2011."

Another note on art en plein air: Stanford biologists including former university president Donald Kennedy have launched a new podcast series that gives listeners a tour of the campus' plants, animals and outdoor art. Artworks will be viewed "through a science lens as examples of Science Art." I'm not sure what that means, but I'm looking forward to taking the tour once I find my mud-proof shoes.

Pictured: Wildlife in the Monte Bello Open Space Preserve, photographed by Strether Smith. Image drawn from the district's desktop wallpaper gallery at openspace.org.