intellectual properties

return

we are going back to SF tomorrow for a week.  i’m excited but right now i’m also very tired and so please excuse the immediate lack of enthusiasm.

i know things will be good though when straight off the plane i am going to the documentary screening and reception for the full-length performance BadUnklSista produced earlier this year, which I will forever remember as a very special occasion. and the music!! listen here:
https://soundcloud.com/badunklsista/sets/first-breath-last-breath

This event is free – here is info:

facebook link

http://firstbreathlastbreath.eventbrite.com/

Tuesday, December 18, 2012 from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM (PST)

Z Space San Francisco
450 Florida St
San Francisco, CA 94110

7p – Doors open
8p – Documentary screening
8:30p – Live performance

First Breath-Last Breath – SF World Premiere

butoh contains all of the things that i usually avoid.  group activities. games. rituals. prayerformance. contact dance with other humans.  separately, in other contexts, i do not often engage in these things.  but the philosophy, the intention, and the aesthetic of butoh makes these activities therapeutic for me, like yoga.  extreme mindfulness.  patience.  stillness. giving your all with every breath, every movement.  putting it all out there, especially the things you might not want to show.

i had no idea what this was when i first met Anastazia in 2006.  our first interactions were fashion related, as she was making and selling costumes when she first moved to SF. but time went by and she moved her focus back to her primary art, performance, and i moved with her.

and now this weekend we are in the midst of the largest production in SF to date – First Breath – Last Breath: a full theatre production, all our own, sharing the bill with no one else, 90-100 minutes on stage.

this cast is really amazing – seasoned butoh dancers, aerialists, a contortionist, an opera singer, sets by SF artist Shrine, and the live music with is incredibly unique and beautiful. i feel so lucky to be a part.

the title refers to the cycle, and cycles, of life, but it is also personally very fitting for me right now. BadUnklSista was my first real breath as a non-fashion-performance artist on a stage, and due to life shifts, this is likely going to be my last performance for a long while.

shows are tonight @ 7:00pm, tomorrow at 2:00pm and 7:00pm.

reviews so far: SF Examiner + SF Chronicle 4/26

“about the liminal spaces between the defining moments of our lives.”

video promo for lovesick5

clinically attracted
in which i go crazy in love. (possibly NSFW)

LOV3SICK5 – 2.14.12

everything is its own reward

(click for full size)

–Paul Madonna. this book is unbelievably beautiful. many thx again to Vera for the gift.

the language of words

not every emptiness is meant to be filled

(i hope i got that right, Eve LadyApples)

last night i stood shivering with a small group on the edges of the san francisco bay. first, we looked west from the industrial edge of the oakland shipyards, and then, looking east from yerba buena island, the bright lights of the new bay bridge illuminated us and the water like a permanent full moon. we listened as brave poetic souls got up and shared their previously unsharable words under a broken sky.

it was right.

.::.

(the next time transportedsf announces a literary roving literary salon, you shouldn’t miss it.)

@ Teatro ZinZanni

this was a great show.  i was a little hesitant to purchase tickets, as it is not cheap and some of the yelp reviews weren’t great. a number of people said that both the food and performances were sub-par for what you can find elsewhere in SF, which is maybe true, but the package of the 2 things together is what is important here. this show has been in SF for a long time and is leaving after the end of the year, and so despite slightly prohibitive cost and negative reviews, i got discounted tix through goldstar. plus, there were virtually no other types of theatre performances to be seen on a Mon – Wednesday in SF while Mom was visiting. i looked.

i was positively surprised at the quality of the food and service, and the performances were polished as well. yes, you might find more dangerous, avante-garde or risque cirque-type troupes in SF, but how many of them come with 5 course meals and full bar? plus, this is going for old school travelling circus vibe, not avante-garde or “cirque”, and they did that very well. so if you haven’t seen the show and have a special occasion or guest to entertain, i do recommend it. fun!

BLACK V fashion event: Saturday May 21 (or: SF Fashion vs. Danielle Steele)

“San Francisco is a great city to raise children, but I was very happy to leave it. There’s no style, nobody dresses up—you can’t be chic there. It’s all shorts and hiking books and Tevas—it’s as if everyone is dressed to go on a camping trip. I don’t think people really care how they look there; and I look like a mess when I’m there, too.” – Danielle Steele, May 7, 2011 in the WSJ

well, MZ. Steele, i think you were hanging with the wrong crowd. perhaps you should have ventured out of your Pacific Heights palace (Spreckels Mansion) and away from the Marina and bourgeoisie once in a while.

San Francisco may have its fair share of REI-worshippers and 24/7 outdoorsy types who wear active gear and/or yoga pants everywhere, all the time, but i’m certainly not one of them and neither are many of my friends. yes, it’s different than new york or paris or milan. yes, we often wear more sensible shoes, because SF ISN’T FLAT. but i digress. i think my photos speak for themselves. and besides…..Danielle Steele dresses like a drag queen. as one Chron commenter wrote:

I can absolutely promise you that in Paris, Danielle Steel (“To all you messes, Danielle bids adieu,” Leah Garchik, May 12) is not chic – rich, yes, chic, no. Chic to the Parisians is simplicity – that means you don’t wear 15 diamond bracelets in the daytime, dress in couture clothing that totally overwhelms you, own 6,000 pairs of $1,000 shoes, wear makeup more suited to your daughter’s age than your own.”

AU CONTRAIRE, this saturday evening there is a FANTASTIC fashion show happening that i encourage any of you interested in the local SF fashion scene to consider: BLACK V:  a night of fashion, dreams and darkness. this fashion show includes some of my own local favorites who design high-end couture. oh, and everything will be BLACK.  so i am very excited.

Black V Fashion Show and Masquerade features established, independent and emerging local fashion designers and boutiques. Black V Fashion Event gives the designers a platform to showcase their designs inspired by the dark side of fashion and still remain chic and stylish.

The event will be held on Saturday, May 21, 2011 at Madrone Studios, a stylish multi-media space in the SOMA district of San Francisco (1417 15th Street.) 6 PM static presentation | 730 PM fashion show.

In its second year, we are incorporating a masquerade to motivate the audience’s participation (READ: Dress in black! Masquerade masks encouraged!) and a pre-show static visual presentation at 6:00PM where guests will be able to see the garments up close on live models (instead of just flying by you on a runway).

Fashion for Fashion: All proceeds of this event ($30 tickets) will be donated to the Fashion Department at City College of San Francisco (501c3 organization). This year, the Department will celebrate the 10th year anniversary of its Fashion Show Production program. This program generates Northern California’s only student-produced fashion event.

FEATURED DESIGNERS:

JAY NICOLAS SARIO | HOMME BY DAHAE KIM | GB SHRIVE| LHC COUTURE | MENK | KEN CHEN SF | PHUONG MY | and CARI BORJA

Accessory: KAATJE DESIGN | GUZEL DESIGN | EUGENE HUANG

SPONSORS:

Hair: Le Burge’t Salon
MakeUp: San Francisco Institute of Esthetics and Cosmetology- A Paul Mitchell Partner School
Media Sponsor: Astonish Magazine

MODELS: FORD | CITY | JE | Look |

WITH SUPPORT BY:
Owen Buenaventura | Del Geronimo | Rick Calao @ Simms Ink. | Emily Sims | Gail Ballesteros-Shrive | Shane Stinar | Virginie Suos | Noor Rasheed | David Bui | Janice Bailon | Nazarena Sadati-Bowring | POWDER | Jo de Mars | Pigment Cosmetics | Ty Olson | Joe Yang | Henri Lui | Jean-Pierre Gueguen | James Reid

(facebook event)

recently

performing with BadUnklSista @ the Black Rocks Arts Foundation ARTumnal fundraiser 11/20/10

49 square miles

a local SF handbag company, 49 Square Miles (referencing the commonly stated area of the city of SF, which is also referenced by the name of the magazine “7×7“, but is actually not quite true), recently had a campaign wherein people were to submit poems of exactly 49 words about San Francisco and post them to the 49 Square Miles facebook page. the prize? a gorgeous $650 leather hobo bag.

like many a young teenage girl i wrote lots of poems in my journals when i was young, and had to write poetry for a number of my poetry literature classes in college. but i was always embarrassed by my attempts at “real” structured poetry, and so if you look back through my “not poems” category here on this blog, you’ll see that my style of “poetry” is very unstructured, free form, and does not follow any of the traditional elements of poetry (meter, rhyme, form, etc.). it’s just a style of writing i use when i want to be obscure, or am finding something difficult to express in complete sentences, or when things are more sensory than logical.  i don’t generally think of myself as a poet.

so i did the challenge not just because i have a thing for leather hobo bags but because i liked the idea of having the extremely bounded challenge to see if i could come up with anything good within the parameters. it lasted a month and you could enter as many times as you wanted. i entered 5 times. i am not going to republish the 5 poems i submitted here, because, it turns out, i am (still) a terrible poet, but all the entries are here.

so i was HUGELY SURPRISED to learn that I WON! *so excited*. you can read my winning entry here.  thx @49squaremiles!

[update:  the website no longer exists, and i don't know what i did with the poem. also, i later resold the bag for a nice chunk of change.]

Filed in bay area gems, fashion, not poems | Tagged with NaBloPoMo | Comments (2)

kreeya.com independent fashion website launch featuring miranda caroligne

me in a miranda caroligne scarf + sweater for kreeya.com, photo by warren@after5media.com

back in september, i did a photoshoot with my good friend Miranda Caroligne for the new independent fashion website, kreeya.com, which just launched TONIGHT!

a lot of small independent clothiers don’t have the time or know-how to manage an online marketplace for their goods. even with the rise of the amazing etsy.com, a lot of my friends struggle to find an easy and effective way to sell their goods online. everything must be bought in-person, sometimes at some crazy loft/garage/basement workspace in a fringe neighborhood that you can’t find. kreeya.com is hoping to become a marketplace specifically for independent fashionmakers in the SF as well as help to promote them, which i think is awesome:

“Each week, Kreeya will feature a new local fashion designer and showcase their unique collection and the story behind it.”

Miranda is currently the featured designer and there are lots of photos of me in miranda’s awesome clothes! (omg!).  definitely also check out the interview with Miranda on the blog.

you can also follow Kreeya on facebook.