ARTS + LETTERS

It can't possibly be March already, but the next First Friday Art Tour is right around the corner.

All the usual suspects and venues will be participating in this Friday's event. You can start at the Felix Kulpa Gallery, at the south end of downtown, with a group exhibit of ceramic sculpture featuring the masterful work of Coeleen Kiebert and a selection of her students and disciples, among them Sharon Bosley, Kathleen Pouls, Bill Scoble, and Peggy Snider.


Pop into Hula's Island Grill for the witty graphic art of recent Gail Rich Award winner Steve Hosmer. (Here's one of his many cool Boardwalk images.)

 Visit Chris Miroyan's fanciful, colorful neo-folk paintings with a sophisticated twist in her "Put A Bird On It" show at Artisans Gallery. (That's her piece, "Tweet," above.) Then work your way to the north end of town to Art DuJour for an exhibit of book-inspired work by artist Mary Atkinson and famed book artist Felicia Rice, proprietor of the amazing  Moving Parts Press.

And speaking of books, plan to stop in at the Museum of Art and History between 5 and 6 pm for a "live launch" of a new literary venture. "phren-Z" is a quarterly online e-zine created as a venue for the work of local writers. The first issue is up online as we speak, featuring essays, poetry and fiction by the likes of Gary Young, Carolyn Burke, Paul Skenazy, and Wallace Baine, among others.

The e-mag is the opening salvo from the newly-minted Santa Cruz Writes. Founded by local writers Julia Chiapella, Karen Ackland, and Jory Post, the group hopes to foster a sense of community among the many and varied literary types who call Santa Cruz home.

Another way to get the word out about SCW is what they call the Floodlight Feature, a combined real and virtual "illumination" of a local writer, event or topic of interest to the writing community. At the MAH this Friday, the Floodlight will shine on the late poet Morton Marcus, his work and legacy.

As part of the phren-Z launch, local poets and readers will be reading from Marcus' poems. And get this: as an extra bonus, every single person who shows up at the event will receive a FREE copy of Mort's engrossing memoir, Striking Through the Masks, through the generosity of the Capitola Book Company and Ow Family Properties. A specially created broadside of Mort's poem, "That's What You Write About," from C&C Press, will also be given away as a door prize.

Arts, letters, and free books—what's not to love?

ARTFUL PROGNOSTICATION

Hey, I was 13 for 14 in my Oscar predictions this year!

I wish I could chalk it up to my keen analytical powers, but, really, it's not rocket science. If you follow the trends throughout the pre-Oscar awards season—and who's doing the voting—it's like a giant red arrow pointing to the likeliest winners.

Take the effervescent Jean Dujardin in The Artist. In the last month alone he's won the Best Actor prize at the Golden Globes, the British BAFTA, the SAG Awards AND the Independent Spirit Awards (which usually recognize movies Oscar has barely even heard of). Not to mention his first Best Actor award at Cannes last spring. All things considered, then, his Oscar win last night is not exactly a surprise. So what if he was up against George and Brad? Follow the momentum, says I.

Sure, it's tempting to spin elaborate scenarios about How Hollywood Works, and which actor/actress/director's "turn" it is in forecasting the Oscars. I used to do this all the time, which is why I almost always lost out at our annual Oscar party pool. Now that we don't do the pool anymore, when we watch the Oscarcast for fun, not profit, I finally get a clue. D'oh!

(I just love this photo of Dujardin from Getty Images. Any minute, he'll burst into "Singin' In the Rain"...)

RETURN of the OSCAR BARBIES

They're ba-ack!

In response to extreme public demand (okay, three people), I present the 2012 Academy Award Best Actress nominees, Barbie-style.

This was a challenging year. Among the five nominees are a middle-aged woman passing as a man (Albert Nobbs), a severely pierced and tattooed Goth (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) and Margaret Thatcher (The Iron Lady).

One of the self-imposed rules of Oscar Barbies is I never permanently alter or deface any of my dolls for their one night of glory on the Red Carpet. Another rule is, I never go out and buy clothes or accouterments; I either Frankenstein together what I have on hand, or make new stuff.

So let's start with the easy ones. Dress a Barbie to look like Marilyn Monroe; ie: Michelle Williams in My Week With Marilyn? No problem! I have plenty of blonde Barbies, the doll is anatomically correct for the part (for once), and this vintage dress and accessories from my childhood collection are exactly the right period.

(I did break down and cut her hair, however. But I do have a surplus of long-haired blonde dolls that have been donated to me over the years, so I figured I could give this one a trim. Besides, willowy, long-haired blondes rarely become Best Actress nominees.)

And dressing a doll to look like a middle-aged Southern maid, the Viola Davis character in The Help, wasn't impossible. I have a black Barbie, and I even found a blue dress with a white Peter Pan collar, and an apron, in my collection, although I had to frump it up a bit with a sweater.

Of course, the hair is ridiculous. Barbie dolls have more hair than Rapunzel, but I like this doll's long hair most of the time, so I gave her a ponytail and a Trump-worthy comb-over in front for the look of a black woman in the early '60s who has to straighten her hair into a bouffant for work. Not entirely successful, but you get the general idea.

 For Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, the hair was the easiest part.  This vintage doll comes with short, painted-on hair and three wigs, so I put her red wig on sideways to get that extreme, Thatcher-esque sweep off to the side. I also had this tweed business suit and pearls on hand. Couldn't do anything to de-glamorize her face, though.

As for Glenn Close as Albert Nobbs, I totally lucked out finding this male doll's dress suit and black jacket  stuffed in one of my doll trunks. (The character is a mature woman passing as a male waiter in an Irish hotel, ca. 1900.) I taped up the pants cuffs, made a tea towel out of an old T-shirt scrap, and gave her a pair of vintage white gloves.


 But the piece de resistance  is the bowler hat.  Kudos to Art Boy for suggesting the pliable lead sheath that covers the top of a champagne bottle for the crown. I cut off  some of the the selvage and rolled what was left up into the brim, Art Boy spray-painted it black, and voila! Of course, in "real" life, a waiter would never wear a bowler hat while serving, but in Oscar Barbie World, it's all about the props.

(I'm also fortunate to have this doll head with the short-short hair that my friend Faye Augustine found for me years ago in some hidden cranny of her assemblage art studio. Then I needed it to dress up a doll like cross-dressing Hilary Swank in Boys Don't Cry, and it's come in handy many times since then. Last year, this doll was Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right.)

At last, we come to Rooney Mara in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. For this one, I broke my "no shopping" rule & went hunting for a cheap, used doll I could mess up.  I found a large bin of discarded Barbies and Bratz dolls way in the back of that junk store on Front street, next to the New Leaf parking lot, but, typically, dark-haired dolls were in short supply. (I found one Bratz doll whose black hair was already mostly chopped off, but she wouldn't have fit in any of my Barbie clothes.)


 Finally I chose this one. Her expression is more serious, her lips are less red, and she doesn't have that mindless, toothy Barbie grin. She already had dangly faux-metal earrings, and some child had already cut severely short bangs above her forehead. All I'd have to do was give her an asymmetrical haircut (long in front on one side; boyishly short on the other), and put her in the "leather" jacket and black boots I have on hand

She is also, as you'll notice, a doll of color—not quite black, but the "silver" earrings suggest some sort of Native American. But because so much of her hair had already been lopped of, I thought it would be easier to repaint her complexion to emulate a fair-skinned Swede than buy a Caucasian doll and try to color her (almost always) blonde hair. At least her eyes are brown, not typical Barbie blue.

But once I paid my buck-sixty-two, got her home, and cut her hair, I liked her too much to alter her skin. I took an eyebrow pencil to give her the giant Goth raccoon eyes, and added a few facial "studs" and "rings" with a silver gel pen. Then I gave her neck chains and a razor blade pendant I cut out of a tea light candle holder.  The finishing touch: a black laptop under her arm,  for any hacking emergency that might arise.

Okay, so she's not strictly the right color. (Although I could argue that Lisabeth Salander would be black if she could!) But she's definitely true to the spirit of the character—and that what Oscar Barbies are all about.

(For a peek at some Oscar Barbies from years past, click here and here.)

Also, check out my Oscar predictions in this week's Good Times, or online.

COSTUME CONTENDERS

And speaking of Oscar, remember the FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising)? Its a design school in So Cal that every years hosts a gallery exhibit of the year's best movie costumes (including all five Academy Award-nominees) up close and personal. I raved about them last year around this time when I discovered their website with its great online archive of past costume exhibits.

Well, sadly, the FIDM website has recently suffered an upgrade in which the entire online archive has been wiped out. (Or at least a low-tech person such as moi can no longer find it.) What we get instead is a list of their 19 previous movie costume exhibits (this year's exhibit is their 20th annual), with a tantalizing detail of a costume image for each listing, but no more comprehensive archive. Arrrgh!  So typical of technology (or maybe it's sheer bureaucracy): something that's actually useful is created, only to be "improved" out of existence.

However, I did find this fun video about the FIDM's current costume exhibit, which takes a peek at all five of this year's Oscar costume nominees. It also features commentary by FIDM spokesperson and fashion gadfly, Nick Verreos, as well as a few remarks from Santa Cruz hometown girl, Arianne Phillips, whose period costumes for the Madonna-directed film, W.E., have earner her her second Oscar nomination. (Her first was for Walk the Line in 2006) 

W.E. hasn't opened yet in Santa Cruz, but here are a couple of Arianne's '30s-inspired costumes. It's the story of Edward VIII—older brother of Colin Firth's character in The King's Speech—who gives up the throne of England to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson. (Photo credit: Peter Winterstellar/abimages)

Arianne faces tough competition this year from Anonymous, The Artist, Hugo,  and Jane Eyre, all of which are glimpsed in this video. It's funny when Verreos mentions how surprised visitors are to find out the costumes for The Artist (above) are in color!

Check out Verreos' blog for excellent photos of the five nominees in the FIDM exhibit.

If you're headed south anytime soon, the exhibit runs through April 28, and it's free, free, free!

CRITICAL MASS

Here we go again.

For, lo, these many moons, Bruce Bratton, Wallace Baine, and I have commandeered the Nicklelodeon about this time every year to hold forth on who we like (or not) in the upcoming Academy Awards showdown. 

We'll be at it again this Sunday, February 19, at the ungodly hour of 10 am, in the newly revamped and refurbished Nickelodeon. Admission is FREE! (And while you're there don't forget to check out the new auditorium carpets and newly repainted lobby!)

The whole thing began years ago as an outgrowth of Morton Marcus' bi-monthly Saturday morning film discussion groups at the Nick. Mort attracted such a large, loyal following of passionate local movie fans that one year, he invited Bruce, Wallace, and me to participate in one of his early January discussions to talk about our favorite films of the previous year.

Turned out the audience loved having not one, but four local critics in its collective sites with whom to spar over best and worst movies of the year. Mort invited us all back in March, a week before the Academy Awards broadcast, to talk about all things Oscar, and a tradition was spawned.

Sadly, Mort is no longer here to chime in with his colorful opinions (although his wife, Donna Mekis, tells me she's pretty sure he would have loved Hugo). And now that the Oscar show comes so soon in February, instead of  mid-Spring, my fellow filmies and I have downsized to a single free-for-all— oops, I mean event—in which we duke it out over then best and worst films of the year AND the upcoming Oscar contest.

But nobody wants to listen to the critics blather on and on. The success of this event depends on you, The Public, telling us your opinion of the films of 2011. It's always audience participation that makes for a lively discussion, so come join us at the Nick this Sunday, 10 am, and let the critics know what YOU think!

(Big thanks to Maurice Peel at the Nick for mocking up the very cool flyer, above.)

PARTIES WITH OSCAR

If Art Boy and I were still throwing lavish Oscar parties, think of the fun we could have this year!  The nominated films are so atmospherically rich, there are plenty of "theme" elements to throw into the party planning.



How about bowls of black and white jelly beans to honor The Artist,  or wind-up clockwork Hugo-style table decorations (they must have some at the dollar store). Guests can come dressed in Hawaiian shirts, a la The Descendants, or '60s bouffant-chic for The Help, or even WWI-era Army fatigues in homage to War Horse.


Or invite everyone to come as their favorite Midnight In Paris '20s-era artiste; just imagine a roomful of wannabe Hemingways, Steins, flappers and Dalis, swilling champagne and exchanging bon mots!


Not that an Oscar party has to have a theme, much less a dress code. We always used to invite guests to either dress up in their Red Carpet finest, or wear jammies that would stay comfy during the endurance test of the broadcast. (Jammies were by far the most popular!)

But we did have fun working thematic elements into our invitations each year, based on the top nominated films.

That's our first invitation up top; Oscar Classic.


In time, we got more elaborate: the light blue one is an homage to Schindler's List, in 1994.

 The hot pink one is our tribute to the gender-bending The Crying Game in 1993.






In 1999, when it was a showdown between Shakespeare In Love and Saving Private Ryan, we distilled the contest to an essential Love vs War image.

And, hey, look at this lilac invite, a pre-Hugo homage to George Melies' A Trip To the Moon! Ah, we were so ahead of our time! This one isn't thematically connected to any of the year's nominees; it's based on the vintage horror horror movie posters Art Boy collects. (Notice the ploy of sensational mini-images on the side to let eager viewers know what thrills await them!)


But these are just some of our goofy ideas. With nine Best Picture nominees to choose from, let your own inner party-planner run riot!

ART SEEN

Hey, check this out!

One of Santa Cruz's most entertaining and prolific artists, Beth Allison Gripenstraw,  was interviewed a few months ago for the KQED TV arts magazine This Is Us. I missed the original air date, but now Beth's five-minute segment is up on You Tube.

Here's what happened: somebody connected with the show was in Santa Cruz last October, visiting Open Studios artists. She was so taken with Beth's "My Africa" display (from a jeep, a safari tent, and life-sized zebras in the yard, to a trading post—full of Beth's jewelery, ceramics and paintings—and "Dr. Livingston's Study" inside), that Beth was invited to be on the show on the spot. The film crew came back to shoot her segment a couple of weeks later.

Beth doesn't just make and show art, she creates entire environments for visitors to get happily lost in. if you've never visited her Open Studio before, or you're not familiar with her work, watch the clip and see what you've been missing!

Btw, if you happened to visit the new Scotts Valley Library last month, you probably saw three of Beth's life-sized papier maché cheetahs sprawling and stretching atop the bookcases, guarding the front lobby. They were such a hit with library patrons that Beth has been commissioned to make more animals for a permanent display at the library. She's come up with an endangered species theme and was last seen doing preliminary research on crocodiles, polar bears, and the Iberian Lynx. Stay tuned for further details...