Here is the latest news from David Gans, producer and host of the Grateful Dead Hour.
My letter to the editor
JUST AS the New York Times reported that Bush guru Karl Rove disclosed to a Time magazine reporter that Bush-hater Joseph C. Wilson was married to a CIA operative….Here’s what I wrote:
Editor — Debra J. Saunders led her column off by referring to “Bush-hater Joseph C. Wilson,” as if the only possible motivation for Wilson’s actions is a personal grudge against the president (“Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha,” July 14). This seems typical of the right’s behavior in recent years, and it all seems to be getting even crazier and more juvenile as time goes by. Is it not possible that Wilson’s actions bespeak a desire to do what’s right for the world? DAVID GANS Oakland
A Grand Day Out
Yesterday my wife and I drove, with two friends, to San Jose to see Avner the Eccentric performing his one-man show, Exceptions to Gravity. It was 75 minutes of pure delight – no text, no subtext, no superhuman feats, no social commentary, just sweet physical comedy that kept us laughing and grinning throughout. I’ve been writing a lot of rather fraught songs lately, addressing urgent matters, and it was nice to enjoy an afternoon of entertainment that no one at any point on the political spectrum could take issue with.
Then we drove to Palo Alto to see the new photo exhibition by Christine Florkowski. Chris is a friend from The Well. There is something more than photography going on here: the images are intimate close-ups of flowers, blown up really big and printed in a way that looks as much like a hyper-real painting as a photograph. Breathtaking.
Took a few photos as we walked along University Avenue in search of dinner. This one, titled Hommage ‡ ojoblanco, is named in honor of Lester Weiss, whose work I really admire. He does a lot of multilayered images.
Grandville
When we went to France a few years ago, one of the treasures we brought home was a set of three prints. We knew nothing about them except that we loved them. They’re a little hard to describe: each appeared to be illustrating the properties of a plant, depicting a woman who somehow personified the plant.
One, titled “Cigue,” shows a woman with a mortar and pestle; a strange rabbit-like creature is drinking something while a mouse-like creature vomits in the background and a frog lies on its side below the table.
The other two were equally weird and wonderful.
Rita got ’em framed, and they all hang in various rooms of our house.
Last night I came across the “Cigue” image in NATURAL HISTORY Magazine (my favorite!), illustrating a review of a book called The Elements of Murder: A History of Poison. I googled the artist’s name, J. J. Grandville, and found a world of wonders:
Flowers Personified
Philadelphia Print Shop
Stars personified
Caricatures
From what little I can gather from the French texts on various pages, Grandville’s work was an important precursor to the Surrealists, and an inspiration for John Tenniel’s illustrationws of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”
The prints we bought are from the “Flowers Personified” series. The philaprintshop URL describes them:
A series of delightful prints illustrating flowers personified in the form of lovely maidens and their animal retinues. Each early 19th-century female figure is richly costumed in the leaves, blossoms and garlands that designate her flower. She presides in an appropriate ‘natural’ setting, often surrounded by anthropomorphised insects and birds that pay her hommage. These poetic interpretations of nature are a fetching example of early 19th-century literary and artistic invention. Their charm, as well as their mischievousness, bespeak the Victorian fascination with an animated and psychologically fertile natural world, the world made familiar by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
They’re all just delightful. Take a look!
Grand Lake Theater marquee 6/15/05
This is the current marquee at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, California. Allen Michaan, owner of the theater, posts his political statements in this most prominent of locations, which is seen by hundreds of thousands of people passing by daily on Interstate 580.
I tend to agree with Allen’s views, and I live near the Grand Lake Theater, so I took on the task of photographing the marquee every time it is updated so the rest of the world can see and comment.