CLUB MEDS

McConaughey's crusading AIDS patient powers 'Dallas Buyers Club'

It's hard to imagine a less likely crusader in the fight against AIDS than Ron Woodroof. A coke-snorting, womanizing, blue-collar Texan, Woodroof was diagnosed as HIV-positive in the mid-1980s and given 30 days to live—a death sentence he defied for years to become a pioneer in making "unapproved" drugs from out of the country available to his local AIDS community.

It's a true story that unspools as a tale of bizarre alliances and unexpected heroism in the pugnacious, yet affecting drama, Dallas Buyers Club.

Directed by French-Canadian filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée (switching gears from his best-know film, stateside, The Young Victoria), from a script by Craig Borten and Melissa Wallack, Dallas Buyers Club rests almost entirely on the frighteningly thin shoulders of star, Matthew McConaughey.

Over the last couple of years, the busy McConaughey has been rehabbing his screen image and reclaiming his career from the wasteland of action fare and light romantic comedies in challenging roles in Killer Joe and Magic Mike, among others. (He was exceptional in Mud, earlier this year.)

Playing Woodroof is the cherry on top, and McConaughey gives it everything he's got. His Woodroof is a brash, profane antihero who acquires shading, sympathy, even grace, in the process of rising to meet life's challenges. The actor lost thirty pounds for the role and it's a shock to see him so emaciated.

But he earns his (almost certain) Oscar nomination not for his diet, but for he unquenchable drive and cool chutzpah he brings to the role, and the film. And he's not the only one: co-star Jared Leto (with McConaughey, right) gives an equally bold and vivid performance as a sassy transvestite who becomes Woodroof's business partner.

Jennifer Garner is on hand as a compassionate doctor and low-key potential romantic interest. But the real love affair here is between McConaughey and the acting profession. His bravura performance keeps the movie alive. (Read more)

CAPRA CANNED

Feast your eyes on this fabulous set for the grand finale of Shakespeare Santa Cruz's 2013 season—and possibly forever, at least in its present incarnation.

For this year's holiday show, SSC and the UCSC Theater Arts Department present It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, Joe Landry's popular 1997 play in which the beloved Frank Capra Christmas movie is re-imagined as a radio drama being broadcast live, ca. 1946.

Designer Kate Edmunds does a masterful job recreating the Art Deco interior of a vintage radio studio, complete with big-city skyline outside and "Applause" signs above the "studio audience." Six hard-working actors onstage (joined by a trio of chorus girls, who also harmonize on clever jingles during commercial breaks) play all the parts, reading from scripts into stand-up microphones.

While this cast couldn't be any better, I wonder at the selection of this play. SSC has a proud tradition of robust holiday fairy tale pantomimes (Cinderella; Sleeping Beauty) and delightful animal-centric stories (Frog and Toad; The Wind In the Willows). But I fear children might be mystified by this play.

Do modern kids even know what radio is? And even if they do, children who are eager to embrace magical fairy godmothers, drag-queen step-mothers, and grown men as frogs, toads, badgers, and ugly ducklings may not understand a static line of grown-ups standing onstage pretending to be different people.

With the play's single set (as handsome as it is), and no costume changes, the choosing of this play feels like a cost-cutting measure. And that's such a shame. It's a perfectly respectable production in every way. All that's missing is the magic. (Read more)

NaNo No-No

To all you valiant NaNoWriMo scribes out their toiling away, I bring you news from the publishing front. You know that novel you plan to complete between November 1 and November 30? Literary agents do NOT want to see it. At least, not yet.

How do I know this? My own recent agent search has brought me into contact with various blogs and Tweets in which agent after agent expresses dismay over the NaNoWriMo phenomenon.

These folks are quaking in their boots, battening down the hatches, stringing virtual strands of garlic around their inboxes to ward off the annual deluge of half-baked manuscripts heading their way in December.

Trust me, everybody and his dog, Shep, and his Great Aunt Queenie, is getting ready to ship off their newly-minted masterpiece, hot off the keyboard, come December 1st. It's going to get crowded (not to mention ugly) out there in cyberspace, but there are ways to help your opus stand out from the throng. Come November 30, as you gaze in awe at what you've wrought, take a moment to consider these points:

1) What you've written is not a novel. If you've managed to cobble together 50,000 words in 30 days, congratulations! You've achieved major awesomeness, but you have not yet achieved a novel. To do that, you'll have to bump it up to the accepted length of 80,000 words or more.

So far, you've written a novella, and unless you just want it to go out on Kindle (for which you probably don't need an agent), or your name is Stephen King, chances are an agent can't sell it.

2) What you've written is a first draft. You may feel that it has sprung fully formed out of your brain, like the goddess Athena, that it couldn't possibly be any more perfect. But guess what: it can. You may think if you overwork it, you'll destroy the freshness, but there's a vast and critical gulf between "fresh" and "unripe."

The first draft is a major milestone in the writer's life, but it's only one lap, not the whole race. There's still polishing, editing, and revising (yes, work) to do, which any industry professional will realize the minute they see it, because, hey, they're funny that way. Nothing screams "Amateur!" louder to an agent than sending out a first draft masquerading as a novel.

3) What's missing? After all the blood sweat and tears, not to mention heart and soul and oceans of Denny's coffee you've already poured into your magnum opus, what more can it possibly need? The one essential ingredient: time. A finished novel takes time; it has to marinate in your brain for awhile after the first passionate flush of actual writing.

Cut the cord and put it away for at least a couple of weeks, or at best, a couple of months. When you take it out again, you'll be amazed at how much perspective you've gained, how much work there is yet to be done, and (if you're like me), how many bonehead typos there are that you missed the first time around.

NaNoWriMo is an effective way to jump-start that idea that's been germinating in your psyche forever, but it's no substitute for the plain, hard work of writing a novel. You've already come this far; now give that masterpiece the extra time and thought it deserves.

At the very least, don't send it out until after the New Year!

HOME ON THE STAGE

Diana Torres Koss and Christopher Reber

JTC stages folksy, lighthearted musical revue "Pump Boys and Dinettes'

After the intellectual acrobatics of its last offering, Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, the Jewel Theatre Company does something completely different  in Pump Boys and Dinettes, a lighthearted, country-pop musical revue. The Center Stage theatre space is transformed into a roadside diner somewhere along Highway 57 in North Carolina, where a six-man musical combo and two perky waitresses invite the audience in for two fleet hours of songs, dancing, and good times.

With book, lyrics, and music written collectively by John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel, and Jim Wann, Pump Boys and Dinettes was first produced on Broadway in 1982. JTC Artistic Director Julie James has appeared in three different out-of-town productions of the show, and had so much fun, she decided to direct this production for JTC, in which she also co-stars as one of the waitress/co-owners of the Double Cupp Diner (along with Diana Torres Koss).

James and company set the folksy, down-home tone right off. Even as patrons are still finding their seats, the musicians are milling around on stage, tuning up and joking around, while the waitresses, in their pink uniforms and paper caps rove up and down the aisles, welcoming everyone in and chatting them up. Ron Gasparinetti's cozily overstuffed set (coffee counter and stools, pink china on the shelves, black and white checkerboard floor, a neon gas pump sign on one side and a "Diner" sign on the other) deftly evokes the kind of homey place where waitresses in beehives call you "Hon."

Brent Schindele and Julie James lead the company in song

 Fans of JTC's terrific film noir musical, Gunmetal Blues, from last season, will be pleased to know that two of its stars reunite in this show. Christopher Reber (the gumshoe in Blues) stars as the guitar-strumming front man in the diner band, and Brent Schindele (beloved in Blues as lounge singer Buddy Toupee) is back at the piano keys.

With its good humor and hard-working cast, Pump Boys and Dinettes is an ideal prelude to the holiday season, a low-stress entertainment that will keep you smiling. (Read more)

NORSE LATITUDES

Despite mangled mythology, Thor: The Dark World delivers the fun

Sometimes, a critic just has to step away from the serious Oscar contenders and go have fun. Which for me this week meant slipping off to see Thor: The Dark World, a movie in little danger of snagging Academy gold, but which, after a rocky start, ratchets up the fun factor big time.

What elevates The Dark World above dozens of other noisy, overproduced comic book movies with Doomsday scenarios? For one thing, it's based on Norse mythology (very loosely based, I'll admit), so it has a more interesting pedigree than your typical guys-in-Spandex superhero movie. (At least the costumes are way more cool, so maybe I should rethink those Oscar chances.)

For another, the script rises above mere jokiness to achieve a refreshing degree of humor and wit as it goes along. Chris Hemsworth's charismatic thunder god, Thor, delivers the eye candy, and Tom Hiddleston's utterly delicious performance as Thor's ne'er-do-well brother, the trickster god, Loki, seals the deal.

Tom Hiddleston as Loki: release me and I'll save your movie

Directed by Alan Taylor, The Dark World begins with Odin (Anthony Hopkins), Father of the Gods of Asgard, explaining how the legions of Asgard defeated the evil Dark Elves centuries ago when the Elves tried to unleash a destructive force call Aether.

Thor and Odin: don't call them gods

 Now, the Aether has been reawakened in its cosmic hiding place, and surviving Dark Elf, Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), and his minions, want to use it to destroy the inhabitants of the Nine Realms (a corner of galactic real estate that includes Asgard and Earth) and rule in place of the gods.

Or something.  Who cares?

Hiddleston delivers sardonic lines with insinuating precision, while he and Hemsworth craft a credibly embattled yet compelling rapport that keeps us guessing as their prickly alliance to stop Malekith plays out.

It may be standard Marvel comics fare, plot-wise, and it's extra cheesy that they suddenly make the Asgardians not really gods. Sure, Thor flies through the stratosphere with his magic hammer, Loki shapeshifts at will (watch out for the funny sequence where he momentarily morphs in Captain America), they may live for 5000 years or so, but wait, they're really mortal.

Even worse, Asgard, the so-called fortress of the gods, (defended by stalwart Vikings with swords) is suddenly vulnerable to dogfighting stealth jets and automatic weapons. Snore.

Still, Asgard looks terrific, and in its best moments, The Dark World reminds us how cool Norse mythology can be. (Read more)

(Above: the formidable Rene Russo make her point as Frigga, Mother of the Gods. Natalie Portman as Thor's Earthling love interest? Not so much.)

THEY COULD BE CONTENDERS

Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club: coming soon!

It's early days yet, but here are the men I think most likely to succeed as Best Actor nominees in next year's Oscar race:

Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave)
Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)
Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
Robert Redford (All Is Lost)

 (As yet unseen: Bruce Dern, Nebraska; Oscar Isaac, Inside Llewyn Davis)

As to the ladies, so far there are only two sure-fire Best Actress nominees:

Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
Sandra Bullock (Gravity)

But femme-o-centric August: Osage County, should earn nominations for somebody, most likely Meryl Streep and/or Julia Roberts.

Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine

And let's not discount the impeccable Emma Thompson as the starchy author of the Mary Poppins books in the upcoming Saving Mr. Banks.

And while I wouldn't dare try to predict all 10 Best Film nominees a this early date (the Academy always likes to throw in at least a couple of weirdsmobile choices just to prove how fresh and unpredictable they are), I'll hazard a guess that the only five that matter will be 12 Years A Slave, Gravity, Captain Phillips, and most likely Alexander Payne's Nebraska, and the Coen Brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis.

(Although, given their track records, Oscar-wise, we can't overlook Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street or David O. Russell's American Hustle.)

But, hey, I could be proven wrong (and I usually am). The point is to get out and see these movies now, and in the next few weeks as they arrive, while they're up on the big screen. Remember, you read it here first!

REEL/REAL LIFE

How accurately does 12 Years a Slave portray the visual as well as the emotional texture of slave life?

Compare filmmaker Steve McQueen's imagery to the excellent online resource The Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: A Visual Record.

This is an incredible collection of period drawings, paintings, and sketches of slave life in North and South America and the Caribbean Islands compiled at the University of Virginia, through the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

In every image, the agenda of each artist cannot be discounted. Some are relatively straightforward; others are propaganda for the fiction of happy slave life, or, conversely, tinged with melodrama to promote the abolitionist cause. But all are fascinating.

These were my go-to images when I was posting my illustrated online novel set against the background of slavery in the West Indies, Runaways: A Novel of Jonkanoo.

If you're interested in learning more about the era depicted in McQueen's powerful film, this is a great place to start.

(Above left: Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 years a Slave)

(Right: A Fugitive Slave, Surinam, 1839. Image Reference BEN1, as shown on www.slaveryimages.org, sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library)

NO EXIT

 Chiwetel Eliofor in 12 Years a Slave

Nightmare of slavery depicted in fierce, mesmerizing '12 Years A Slave'

If your idea of slavery in the American South is Mammy in Gone With the Wind fiercely protecting her white "fambly" from the evil Yankees, it's time for a reality check. The blistering 12 Years a Slave, directed by London-born filmmaker Steve McQueen, offers up a fearless, unexpurgated portrait of what slavery was like in the only way that could make sense to modern viewers—by plunging a free man into the depths and degradation of the institution from which he is made to realize time and again there is no possible escape.

The film is based on a horrifying true story. Solomon Northrup was a free black New Yorker abducted and sold south into slavery in 1841; he was unable to claim his freedom again until 1853, when he wrote the memoir which inspired McQueen's film.

His was a harrowing journey, which McQueen and scriptwriter John Ridley depict in all its brutality. Those expecting an action-packed escape adventure, or an inspirational Hollywood movie about the triumph of the human spirit had best look elsewhere. 12 Years A Slave is as excruciating as it needs to be in excruciating circumstances, presenting a monstrous chapter of American history in a way you will never forget.

The wonderful Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things; Kinky Boots) gets a starring role worthy of his considerable talents as Solomon Northrup. A devoted husband and father in Saratoga, New York, he earns a handsome living playing violin at swanky society dances. Affable, accomplished, and not terribly worldly, he moves in an upscale social circle of genteel whites and free people of color.

So he thinks nothing of it when a pair of traveling performers offer him a fiddle-playing gig down in Washington City for a couple of days. The next thing Solomon knows, he wakes up in chains in a bleak cell, soon to be shipped downriver to a slave auction house in the Deep South.

Solomon's odyssey takes him into the possession of one relatively benign, but ineffectual owner (Benedict Cumberbatch), and one belligerent psycho (a bravura, willies-inducing performance by Michael Fassbender, left). Ejiofor is nuanced and electrifying as Solomon maintains a desperate grip on his identity during his long season in Hell.

But as property without rights, there is no way for these enslaved men and woman to behave with dignity, or maintain any kind of inner moral compass. McQueen shows with heartbreaking precision how this loss of common humanity, even more than chains and beatings, is the true cost of slavery. (Read more)

(Filmmaker McQueen has an unerring eye for the indelible image. In one sequence of calm, spellbinding horror, the victim of a near lynching, with the rope still around his neck, struggles to remain standing on his toes—for hours—while the other slaves go about their business until someone authorized to cut the rope arrives.)

There's already Oscar buzz for the dynamic Lupita Nyong'o (center) in 12 Years a Slave

Perhaps it requires a perspective from overseas to depict American slavery with such cold clarity. (Although a similar story could be set in any of the British, French, Spanish, or other colonized Caribbean sugar islands as well.) 12 Years A Slave is a film of rare courage that both educates and mesmerizes.

DIRE STRAITS

Redford powers through solo screen voyage in 'All Is Lost'

Actors don't get much more iconic than Robert Redford. A Hollywood superstar since the 1970s, he founded the Sundance Film Festival, Institute, and cable TV channel in support of emerging filmmakers, and has been a tireless activist for the environment. His one-man seagoing thriller, All Is Lost, is a gift to fans who want to see Redford in action.

But it also feels like a gift from a grateful industry to Redford, a harrowing physical workout of a film that shows off what his 77-year-old body is capable of, while proving that Redford can still command the screen for 100 minutes all by himself.

The movie is written and directed by J. C. Chandor (Margin Call)—although "written" is a relative term in a film that is almost completely without dialogue, except for a few sparse sentences spoken at the very beginning. There is a definite narrative shape to the story, however, and a strong emotional arc that Redford's character undergoes. 

 Like Gravity, it begins at what seems to be an ending: a lone sailor finds his craft and equipment disabled hundreds of miles from anywhere out in the middle of the ocean. It's a slightly less enthralling, more claustrophobic experience than Gravity, but All Is Lost is similarly intense in exploring the outer limits of human tenacity.

1700 nautical miles from the Sumatra Straits in the Indian Ocean, an unnamed sailor wakes up to find his 39-foot yacht taking on water. We have no idea why this obvious Yank of a sailor (his boat is called the Virginia Jean) is out here alone, and we never find out. 

All we know is that water is suddenly rushing in through a window over his desk in the cabin below, flooding his computer and radio equipment. 

To avoid spoilers, any further discussion of the plot should end here. Suffice it to say that tribulations involve a massive storm at sea, dwindling food and water supplies, desperate repairs, an inflatable life raft, sharks, and of course, fear itself.

Redford resonates with the audience as a gritty Everyman who refuses to give up. Kudos are due the veteran star in this physically and emotionally exhausting turn for keeping viewers involved—as the sailor keeps his wits together— through sheer strength of will. 

The filmmaking drifts here or there, but Redford powers the story through. (Read more)

JUKE BOX HEROES

Hitmaking funk studio celebrated in rousing music doc 'Muscle Shoals'

Musical heroes don't come much more unsung than the so-called Muscle Shoals Swampers. A handful of young, white hometown boys, session musicians at the FAME recording studio in backwoods Muscle Shoals, Alabama, they were responsible for laying down some of the funkiest R&B and soul tracks to come out of the 1960s and '70s, behind such stellar artists as Aretha Franklin, Percy Sledge, Etta James, and Wilson Pickett.

Pretty much unknown to the public, they finally get the recognition they deserve in Muscle Shoals, Greg "Freddy" Camalier's raucous musical documentary on the founding of FAME studio and the distinctive brand of funk produced there.

Aretha and the boys in the band

Muscle Shoals is a rural village on the Alabama side of the Tennessee River, which the Native American people called "the river that sings."

Bono of U2, observing there's always a river involved in musical movements, like the Tennessee or the Mersey in Liverpool, has a more visceral idea: "It's like the songs come out of the mud."

But the chief architect of the Muscle Shoals sound turns out to be Rick Hall, founder of the FAME studio, the son of a dirt-poor sawmiller, and onetime guitarist in a local rock band.

Among the first records he produced were the classic "Steal Away" by Jimmy Hughes, and the Arthur Alexander hit, "You Better Move On."

To cut these records, Hall called in the other guys from his previous band for back-up.

With guitar, bass, drums, and a vibrato-heavy electric organ, they became the in-house rhythm section behind such iconic hits as Sledge's "When A Man Loves A Woman," Aretha's blistering "I Ain't Never Loved A Man," and Pickett's "Mustang Sally." 

"All 'funky' was, we didn't know how to play it smooth," laughs one Swamper. (Read more in this week's Good Times)

HOOK IS ON THE WAY

Exciting news!

So there we were, in the middle of the last day of Open Studios, when Art Boy & I were pretty much running on fumes. During a break in the action, I snuck upstairs to check my email, and discovered that my US editor-to-be had just sent me cover art for the US edition of Alias Hook!

Of course, I can't post it here (not yet! Stay tuned!). And even though I knew there would be a US edition  coming out from Thomas Dunne Books (St. Martin's Press) in May, 2014 (in hardcover, yet!), there's nothing like feasting your eyes on the actual cover art to make it all seem suddenly real.

What's even more exciting? They're keeping the original title, to my great relief.

Could I be any more stoked? I think not!

Since then, I've spent my first day revising with my editor at TDB. 85-90% of his suggestions are right on, and for the rest, there's room to negotiate. Overall, a surprisingly painless experience!

Watch this space for further details...

INSIDE STORY

Where do creative artists get their ideas? Art Boy always used to answer, "The Idea Channel," until he realized people were rushing home to check their cable listings.

In real life, creative inspiration springs from the strangest and often least expected sources, as varied as the artists, writers, musicians and dancers who seize a phantom idea and run with it.

This occurred to me while reading through a new ebook anthology called Story Behind the Book: Volume 1 (Essays on Writing Speculative Fiction). Imagine my delight when I found out an essay I wrote earlier this year on the writing of Alias Hook is included!

The book is presented under the auspices of the fine sci-fi/fantasy book website Upcoming 4.me. Site editor Kristijan Meic edited the anthology with Ivana Steiner. It's an outgrowth of the website's regular feature, "The Story Behind..." wherein sf/f authors reveal the deep, dark secrets of their writing processes.

I’m very pleased to be included in these virtual pages with such distinguished fellow essayists as Jo Walton, Ian Whates, L. E. Modesitt, and Susan Palwick (among many others). Some 40 contributors discuss their inspiration for writing in a variety of speculative genres—epic fantasy, horror, alternative history, sword and sorcery, ghost stories, dystopian future sci-fi, absurdist zombie fiction, and what one author describes as "Hornblower in space."

 The book is up on Amazon and Amazon.uk as we speak! All proceeds will be donated to the Epilepsy Action charity in the UK.

If you want to know where writers really get their ideas, check it out!

FRIENDSHIP FEST

Summer Pasture (China/USA) at the Pacific Rim Film Festival

Pacific Rim Film Festival celebrates 25 years of cross-cultural understanding


Break out the silver confetti! One of Santa Cruz's most beloved cultural events, the Pacific Rim Film Festival, celebrates its 25th anniversary this year.

Originally inspired by the Hawaii International Film Festival around the theme, "East Meets West: When Strangers Meet," our own home-grown PRFF marks its first quarter-century with an expanded program.

Twenty films from twelve countries will unspool over seven days, October 17-23, at four venues county-wide. And as always, except for the closing-night musical fundraiser, every single film will be shown free of charge.

This year's dramas, comedies and docs come from North Korea, Cambodia, Tibet, China, the Philippines, Thailand, New Zealand/Samoa, Japan, Taiwan, India, and the United States. Participating theatres include the Theatre Del Mar, the Rio Theatre, and the Riverfront Twin in Santa Cruz, and Green Valley Cinema in Watsonville.

Q & A sessions with filmmakers will follow select screenings.

Among this year's highlights is Starry Starry Night (2011, Taiwan, 80 minutes). Tom Lin's beauteous live-action adaptation of the celebrated Jimmy Liao picture book captures all the whimsy, magic, and artfulness of Liao's paintings in a very moving story of a 13-year-old girl and boy learning to navigate life, loss, love, and growing up. (Read more)

The kids bond through art (a jigsaw puzzle of Van Gogh's eponymous painting looms large in the story), and their projects bleed into their real-life landscape in fanciful ways. Giant origami animals march over bridges and own city streets; when the kids board a train out of town, it flies through Van Gogh's painted sky.

I was unfamiliar with Liao's lovely book until I saw the film and did some research. Look how gorgeously filmmaker Lin reimagines  some of the book's painted images, with all their humor and soulfulness intact. I loved this movie so much—don't miss it!

(Starry Starry Night plays twice Friday night at the Riverfront, 7 pm, and 9:30 pm.)

TILT-A-WORLD

Santa Cruz artist Susan Else is earning a national reputation for her elaborate fiber sculptures. She makes unique conceptual and figurative pieces entirely covered in quilted, printed and painted fabric.

The onetime Open Studios artist delighted visitors for years with such signature pieces as a complete fabric chess set and board, or a five-foot in diameter rotating Ferris Wheel with her boisterous sculpted figures in every seat (created in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Santa Cruz Boardwalk).

Starting this month, Susan will be showing a collection of her work at the Peninsula Museum of Art in Burlingame (1777 California Drive, Burlingame).

Called "Tilt-A-World," the exhibit will feature Susan's marvelous, whimsical and/or sardonic figures, unexpected fiber landscapes, and large show-stoppers. That's her delightful "When Pony's Dream," above.

"Boundary" by Susan Else

In her artist's statement, Susan says, "I treat cloth not as a flat surface but as a wild flexible skin for three-dimensional objects. Life is always a complicated stew of positive, negative, and shades of grey – all at once – and I want my works to reflect that complexity and ambiguity.”

The show opens October 20 and runs through January 26, 2014, in the East Gallery.

A reception for the artist will be held this Sunday (October 20), 1-4 pm, so if you're in the neighborhood, drop in to cheer Susan on and see a fabulous show!

HIGH ANXIETY

Gripping, intense, emotional 'Gravity' will put you in orbit

It's the perfect set-up. A couple of astronauts on a routine mission outside their spacecraft for repairs suddenly find themselves adrift in space, tethered to each other, and no longer in contact with mission control. Where can they go? What can they possibly do?

The variety of answers may surprise you in Gravity, a smart, lean, elegantly composed and utterly gripping edge-of-your-seat thriller from filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón. Neither sci-fi nor space opera—and far more than simply a star vehicle for appealing headliners Sandra Bullock and George Clooney—Gravity is more like a space procedural in which ordinary people pit their own human ingenuity against ever more incredible and daunting odds.

Scripted by the director and his son, Jonas Cuarón, the story begins in space, where medical engineer Ryan Stone (Bullock), on her first space mission, is outside the craft in her bulky suit trying to repair a communications link-up to send data back to Houston.

Meanwhile, her colleague, veteran mission commander Matt Kowalski (Clooney), is on a long tether, cheerfully chugging rings around her, trying to beat a Russian cosmonaut's record for the longest space walk.

"You're the genius up here," Matt reminds her, "I only drive the bus."

But things change in a heartbeat when debris from some of the myriad international space stations sent into space and abandoned comes hurtling toward them. But that's only the beginning of a taut plot of mounting intensity.

Cuarón doesn't waste a single frame, and every one of the film's 90 minutes counts.

And as if the adrenalin-rush storyline were not enough, the movie is astonishingly beautiful to look at. It looks as if the entire film were shot at zero-gravity; nothing looks fake or CGI. But Cuarón's emphasis is always on the human element. Awesome on so many levels, Gravity will put you in orbit. (Read more)

Here's something else to ponder: George Clooney in Gravity, and Buzz Lightyear: separated at birth? It's all about the chin, and the eyebrows. Just sayin'…

HAPPY (OS) TRAILS

Another fabulous Open Studios event at the home of Beth Allison Gripenstraw!

At the sign of the burro (with his payload of fresh flowers), visitors were invited to follow the cacti/agave trail to Beth's Mexican Hacienda "installation." Beth doesn't just show art, she transforms her entire home into an irresistible fantasy environment!

A person has to snoop around thoughtfully to appreciate all the details. In the Mercado room, Beth showed colorful ceramic fish, turtle, and jellyfish platters, along with a cornucopia of ceramic earrings—cacti, palm trees, Dia de los Muertos, big cats, fruit, and on and on.

In the dining room (past the Mariachi guitarist complete with sombrero, napping in the window seat), a marvelous series of stacking tableware was on display, platters, plates, and bowls in a cactus motif in shades of terra cotta, turquoise and black.  A few steps away on the balcony was the tequila bar, where visitors were invited to sip the wares in tiny pottery shot "glasses" given away as souvenirs.

And in the sunroom stood an amazing Dia de los Muertos altar (complete with a vintage ceramic tile Virgin of Guadeloupe, sugar skulls, and doggie biscuits) dedicated to the iconic and beloved terrier Benny—whose last adventure in Mexico earlier this year is immortalized in a painting next to the altar. Of course, Beth's charming watercolor paintings decorate every room.

Beth's explosive creative energy is an inspiration to all of us! It's such a treat to have her in our community.

OPEN STUDIOS 101

The first three weekends in October are fast approaching, and we all know what that means! Time to strap on your pith helmet, grab your treasure map, and head out to Open Studios, the self-guided art tour to visit Santa Cruz County artists in their natural habitats—studio, garage, kitchen table, or whatever workspaces they call home.

Most local art lovers already know the drill. But if you're new to the Open Studios experience, here's a handy guide to getting the most out of your custom-designed art adventure.

(And because I'm a journalist, I'll stick to the facts, Ma'am.)

WHO do you really want to see? With over 300 participating artists, you can't possibly see them all (even over three weekends), and following all those giant green signs around the neighborhood can be so random.

Best have a plan for ferreting out your new favorites—which means investing $20 in an OS Art Tour Guide (above) featuring a full color image from every artist in the event, as well as maps, addresses, and contact info to show you how to reach them.  (That's the treasure map I was talking about.)

The Guide also functions as a gorgeously illustrated year-round calendar. Pick one up a bookstores, galleries and art supply stores county-wide.

WHAT does the work really look like? A 2.5-inch square image in the OS Guide is a terrific appetizer. But if you want to know how the work stacks up as a main course, if it can nourish and sustain you over the long haul in your own home, go down to the OS Preview Exhibit at the Santa Cruz Art League (526 Broadway, S C) to see the work in person.

Viewing art, up close and personal

With one life-sized piece from every OS artist on display, the show helps give you a sense of color, texture, quality, materials, and anything else you need to know about the work. The exhibit runs through October 20; hours are Wednesday-Friday, 11 am to 5 pm, and Saturday-Sunday 10 am to 5 pm. (And while you're there, pick up a free color postcard from your favorite OS artist!)

This year, there's also a sister exhibit of North County OS artists—from Davenport, Bonny Doon, San Lorenzo Valley, and Scotts Valley—at the R. Blitzer Gallery (2801 Mission Street, SC). This show is also up through October 20, Tuesday-Sunday 11 am to 5 pm.

WHEN is your designated artist 's studio open? OS is so colossal, its intrepid organizers at the Arts Council of Santa Cruz County have to divide the county in half so visitors aren't completely overwhelmed. This year, North County artists (everyone north of the yacht harbor) open their studios the first weekend, October 5-6.

Art postcards at the SC Art League

South County artists (south of the yacht harbor to Watsonville) open their doors the second weekend, October 12-13. And just to make it interesting, all North and South County artists are invited to participate in Encore Weekend, October 19-20, if they so desire.  To find out when yor artist is open to the public, and whether or not he or she will be open for Encore, refer to your handy OS Guide.

WHERE the heck are these crazy artists located, anyway? That's why you need the map! from the wilds of Ben Lomond and Boulder Creek to the back roads of Live Oak to the hidden byways of Aptos and La Selva Beach, artists tend to stray off the beaten path. It's your job to plot a course to find them. Pick your favorites, then try to find two or three other likely-looking prospects to visit in the same neighborhood, so you can spend less time in your car and more time viewing art!

WHY? Because art matters. It's not extracurricular, it's not an afterthought. It's not a privilege or a luxury. Art is essential to life. Take the tour. Plot your course. Feed your soul.

In other OS news...

Painter, ceramicist, and jewelry-maker Beth Gripenstraw doesn't just show her art. She creates entire fantasy environments. Two years ago, she turned her home into an African safari during Open Studios; last year, she delighted visitors be recreating Paris in the 1920s.

This year she's turning her home into a Mexican hacienda, complete with coordinating paintings, jewelry, and tableware (like these cool pots with a cactus motif). Last I heard, she was painting life-sized masonite burros and looking for a baby pig to borrow for the weekend!

Whatever she comes up with for this year, trust me, you won't want to miss it!  Beth is a North County artist and she will only be open this weekend, October 5-6, 11 am to 5 pm. She's on Towne Terrace in Santa Cruz, # 93 in your Artist's Guide.  I'll see you there!

MODERN FAMILIES

Romantic, parental relationships at heart of engaging 'Enough Said'

In her last two films, writer-director Nicole Holfcener's sensibility was way off the mark. The characters in Holfcener's Friends With Money and Please Give were distinguished by their fuzzy motivations, unconvincing friendships, and often baffling behavior.

But the filmmaker is back on track with Enough Said; her focus is sharper and the results far more rewarding in this wry, engaging, life-sized modern comedy about refreshingly real people. And it doesn't hurt that Holfcener had the wit to cast the late, beloved James Gandolfini in a rare romantic role.

In Enough Said, larger themes of class, money, and privilege that have been obsessing Holofcener lately are relegated to subtext. This time, she moves personal relationships to the forefront—romantic, parental, and marital, along with her trademark friendships between women.

 And as our tour guide into this milieu, she gives us protagonist Julia Louis-Dreyfus, at her most appealing and least snarky, as a long-divorced single mom unexpectedly trying to navigate the dating game at a crossroads in her life.

Eva (Louis-Dreyfus) is a mobile masseuse who schleps her massage table around to the homes of her various clients in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Cheerful and tolerant of her clients' quirks, she's also dreading the imminent departure of her teenage daughter, Ellen (an impressive Tracey Fairaway) to college.

At a party, Eva meets Marianne (Catherine Keener), a professional poet, who becomes Eva's new client. Eva is dazzled by Marianne's beautiful house, perfect furniture, and excellent taste, and they become fast friends.

Meanwhile, Eva also meets big, warm-hearted bear of a man, Albert (Gandolfini), a divorced father whose only daughter is also college-bound. They start dating and having a great time together.

The only sour note is sounded by Marianne, who keeps harping on the copious faults of her own ex-husband, and disparaging the very idea of romantic relationships. Soon enough, Eva is viewing her romance with Albert through the prism of Marianne's negativity. (Read more in this week's Good Times)