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Design in mind

Is it a statement on homophobia, or on meat-eaters, or on the Slow Food movement? Choose your own interpretation of Stephanie J. Carter's 2009 pseudo-edible sculpture "Coming Out Vegetarian to My Parents." It's fashioned from colored pound cake and a poured hard-candy shell (pictured at right).

Whatever the piece means, I smelled it before I saw it, which is always interesting in an art gallery. The work is currently part of the "Design Unassigned" exhibition on campus.

The thought I had, helped by the sickly-sweet odor and the unappetizing colors, is that whenever you sit down over a family dinner to break something gently to your parents (0r children), it rarely goes the way you want. Emotions run high, your stomach flips, and even the choicest food turns chalky in your mouth.

Or, this could represent a wary parent's idea of what his poor newly vegetarian daughter will be reduced to eating from now on.

Strolling through the exhibits regularly put on by the design students always yields unexpected results. This show, which runs through April 25, also features Danika Patrick's playing cards made from recycled soda cans and auto paint; and Paul Braun's modern, sand-cast aluminum take on the traditional Chinese hot pot.

In a dark corner, John Hollendoner's topographic map of Mount Rainier gleamed in acrylic. A silvery mountain, not something you could climb, perhaps more at home in outer space. It's amazing how kids see the world these days.




Pictured above: John Hollendoner's Mount Rainier sculpture. Behind it is Matt Freshman's 2008 "Acrylic Illuminated Object," which changes color. Photos by Rebecca Wallace.

Sondheim and Ebert

No particular Palo Alto angle today. Just two great arts stories about two of the arts world's greats.

Here is a lovely New York Times write-up about the recent 80th-birthday tribute to Stephen Sondheim at Avery Fisher Hall in NYC. I would have given many, many things to have been there.

If I could have heard only one of the numbers? Ah, I'd pick Bernadette Peters and Mandy Patinkin teaming up once more to sing "Move On" from "Sunday In the Park With George." And I love that La Stritch wore a hat when Patti LuPone sang "The Ladies Who Lunch" to her. ("Does anyone still wear a hat?")

Secondly, a rich Esquire piece about Roger Ebert living with cancer and without the ability to speak. The way Ebert has been freed to express himself on the page -- the words simply flowing -- was deeply moving. Chris Jones' article is as much a portrait of an artist evolving (and of a remarkable marriage) as it is an inspiring piece about survival. The occasional flashes of humor are startling and gutsy, like when a woman at a party writes Ebert a note, and the film critic simply points to his ears as if to say, "They still work, y'know."

Pictured: A New York Times photo of the Sondheim celebration, taken by Sara Krulwich.

Prize-winning Peninsula photos

When I was in college, I bought Sierra Club engagement calendars every year, because of their remarkable photos. In between my scribbled, highly crucial appointments ("Meet Ed at flagpole," "Drop wretched statistics class") were pictures of curious birds and glinting snowscapes -- and autumn. What was autumn? I pondered this, peeling off another wool sweater in California.

When classes were dull, I flipped through the calendar pages and gazed into nature. It sure beat statistics. Funny how when you're a French minor you dream of going to Europe, and you miss the loveliness of Utah, which somehow seems so much more foreign.

The photographers who won the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District's photo contest surely don't miss what's close to home. First-place winner Randy Weber found autumn right here, in his "Fall Colors at Purisima Creek" (pictured above). Our California fall -- be it ever so subtle.



I was especially drawn to the second-place photo, "Foggy Descent" (above), because of its storybook quality. The writer's mind starts spinning: who is that person, why is he/she walking alone, where is Heathcliff. The photographer, Karl Gohl of Los Altos, also had other images get honorable mention. This one was shot at Windy Hill. Gohl says: "I was enjoying the moody light created by the fog, the pattern of the oak limbs and the lichen on them and I got that 'Oh, wow' feeling that makes me want to capture the moment in a picture."

Third place went to aeronautics/astronautics Stanford grad student Alex Stoll for "Sunset from Russian Ridge." Click here to see his pic and the whole contest photo gallery, which also includes a picture of a fetchingly pigeon-toed bluebird carrying a centipede, by photographer Jacob Osborne.

Winners of the open-space district's photo contests, past and present, also get a bonus: Their works will also be considered for the coffee-table book that the district plans to publish in 2012 for its 40th birthday. Photo submissions are no longer needed for the book, but the district is still seeking original poetry and other works of art, such as drawings and oil and acrylic paintings. Let your hikes inspire you.

Chattanooga to Cinequest

Comedy that makes you cringe: Who'd have thought it would find its niche? (Hello, "Curb Your Enthusiasm.") Palo Alto filmmaker Jarrod Whaley seems to be traversing that terrain. He bills his new feature flick, "Hell Is Other People," as a "comedy of awkwardness."

Apparently some people like 75 minutes of feeling uncomfortable. Whaley's film is getting its world premiere on Feb. 27 at Cinequest. Shot in Chattanooga, from whence Whaley hails, the film follows the seriously underemployed Morty (Richard Johnson), who can't seem to get it together. Still, this isn't a story about nothing. Morty plays psychiatrist to a passenger in his Jeep, tries to shake down his friends for cash, and gets a haircut.

"The characters are aimless, maybe, but the film is not," Whaley is quoted as saying on CQ Central. "It takes aim, I hope, at all those countless recent films in which nothing happens apart from privileged middle-class kids grumbling and whining about the banality which comes with their privilege. Beyond that, 'Hell Is Other People' is funny (I hope), even as it sows discomfort."

A few other local folks are lending their visions to Cinequest this year. Palo Alto native James Franco jumps from acting ("Milk," "Spider-Man," et al.) to directing with a five-minute drama called "The Feast of Stephen." It'll be shown March 4 and 5 as part of an international series of shorts. According to New York Magazine, Franco's film is inspired by a work of gay poetry by Anthony Hecht.

Meanwhile, local residents Jason Sussberg (Stanford University) and Brian Pahl (De Anza College) have their short films represented in a Cinequest student short competition.