MIXED-UP MEDIA

Remember the "Myth California" protests that sprang up in opposition to the Miss California pageant once held in Santa Cruz? Protesting the objectification of women's bodies as not only damaging to female self-esteem, but an invitation to violent sexual assault, activists paraded in front of the Civic dressed in gowns made out of raw meat or dragging bathroom scales chained to their ankles, wearing sashes that identified them as "Miss Used," "Miss Informed," or "Miss Steak."

That was in the early '80s (before the Miss California pageant finally fled Santa Cruz for the simpatico complacency of San Diego). But the spirit of outrage that fueled the "Myth California" activists continues to burn in the new film Miss Representation, a documentary by Jennifer Siebel Newsom that explores the distorted images of women that persist in the mainstream media.

The film presents a broad overview of the rampant sexualization of the female image at all levels of the media, combined with the systematic disrespecting of serious women who have managed to stake out a position of power. "Patriarchy is America's default setting," notes one observer. 30 years later, we still have a long way to go, baby.

Next Monday, Cabrillo College will host a screening of Miss Representation, free and open to the public. After the 90-minute film, a panel moderated by public policy veteran Rose Filicetti will lead the audience in a discussion of the issues it raises. Panelists include Mary Ann Thyken, Executive Director of Community TV, Dr. Ekua Omosupe, poet, Cabrillo Professor, and advocate for social justice, Cynthia Mathews, former Santa Cruz City Council member and three-time Mayor, Charlotte Achen, Cabrillo student body president, and me.

Showtime is 6 pm, Monday, April 30, at the Crocker Theater, Cabrillo College. Panel discussion begins at 7:30 pm. Admission is free.

THE STOOGE GENE

Inspired by the recent unleashing of the Farrelly Brothers' The Three Stooges on an unsuspecting moviegoing public, Wallace Baine  has written this homage to the original Larry, Moe and Curly over at the Sentinel.

I personally have not seen the new faux-Stooge movie, since I value what few remaining brain cells I still possess. But in courageously outing himself as a closet fan of the original Stooges, Wallace adds fuel to a theory I've harbored for years about the dueling genetic makeup of men vs women.

Let's be very clear about this: I love men. But whatever their individual merits may be, men are a different species than women. I don't mean all that Venus and Mars claptrap; not all women are nurturing earth mothers, any more than all men are head-bashing Neanderthals. And yet there's a fundamental divide that separates male and female from a very early age.

Once, Art Boy painted a ocean-themed mural with three classes of fourth-graders, with each child contributing one creature to the mural. Girls mostly drew mermaids, or funny fish with animal heads. Boys drew gangsta starfish, killer sharks with razor teeth, or fish equipped with rocket launchers and Ninja swords. There were exceptions to prove the rule, of course, but next time your peace is shattered by neighborhood kids bombing around on those midget motorcycles with a roaring exhaust pipe the size of a Sousaphone, guess which gender is riding it?

When Art Boy himself was a kid, so he tells me, he and his buddies used to buy Aurora model kits of movie monsters, painstakingly build, glue, and paint them—and then blow them to smithereens with firecrackers.

But what separates male from female is more than just a primal urge for noise and destruction. It's a much more subtle and insidious cultural reference point, a renegade scrap of odd circuitry in even the most enlightened human males.

I call it the Stooge Gene.

Men find the weirdest things funny. When I was a kid, old Three Stooges shorts from the '30s and '40s were played constantly on TV in syndication. Entire new generations of kids were exposed to Larry, Moe, and Curly bashing each other upside the head, poking each other in the eyes, and hitting each other with hammers, two-by-fours, and bowling pins. Documenting the reaction of little kids could launch a thousand doctoral theses in behavioral psychology. In a nutshell: girls hate the Stooges, and boys love them.

The reverberations continue into our grown-up lives. I used to hate Candid Camera, a voyeuristic species of televised entrapment where ordinary people were set up in ludicrous situations to flounder helplessly for the laughing hidden camera eye. At the end, Allen Funt, or Fannie Flagg or somebody would pop out of the woodwork and let the despairing dupe off the hook, thanking them for being such "a good sport." I always thought it was an appalling act of wanton humiliation. Art Boy thought it was funny. Every time there was a Candid Camera special on TV, he had to watch.

Now that creeping Candid Cameraism has morphed into "reality" TV, there are endless opportunities for men to get in touch with their inner Stooge. On America's Funniest Home Videos, ordinary shmoes are so beguiled by the prospect of cash prizes and a trip to Hollywood that they turn the cameras on each other, urging their spouses, kids, families, even their pets, to make fools of themselves and endanger their lives for the idle amusement of millions.

We once channel-hopped across an AFHV clip in which a woman was posing beside a mountain creek for her videographer husband. She slipped on a slick rock and stumbled knee-deep into the freezing water, shrieking. Did her husband drop the videocam and run to her aid? He did not. He stood where he was, filming it all, laughing like a hyena as his wife slogged around in the drink, struggling to get a foothold. I stared at the screen as slack-jawed as the opening night audience for Springtime For Hitler. Art Boy laughed. Two marriages flirted with disaster.

What twisted demographic is keeping AFHV on the air? How can the Farrellys still have a career? Chalk it up to the Stooge Gene.

(No Aurora monster models were harmed in the writing of this blog.)

WHAT DO READERS WANT?

If you read (or write) historical fiction, check out the Historical Fiction Survey recently conducted over at  Mary Tod's A Writer of History blog.

Setting out last month to discover evolving tastes and trends among the historical fiction readership, she culled responses from 805 people, readers and writers, female and male, foreign and domestic. And she's been busy compiling her findings ever since.

From general questions about favorite genres and historical periods, reading habits, and selling points ("strong female character" and "significant historical figure" trump military stories and capital-R Romance),  Tod has been branching out into specific topics like "Reasons not to read historical fiction," "Historical fiction would be better if..." and, "Stories that sell" (historical and otherwise).

Back in 2000, when I was laboring to midwife my first novel, The Witch From the Sea, into existence, I conducted my own highly unscientific Historical Fiction Survey via the pages of the pirate fanzine No Quarter Given. Then (unlike now) historical fiction was considered a hard sell in the publishing world, and I wanted to know if anybody was still reading it, and why.

My small but vociferous group of respondents were only 45% female to 55% male (and, given the venue, most had a preference for nautical fiction). Back then, on the cusp of the digital age, respondents bought on the average 4 hardcover books a year and 12 paperbacks.

As to genre, some respondents bristled at the very idea. Citing his favorite author, Rafael Sabatini, one male respondent asked, "Would you consider him mainstream or romance or thriller? I think he has elements of all." Another participant insisted, "an author should not present a book as a work of 'historical fiction,' but rather as 'a great story.'"

What seemed overwhelmingly evident was that readers were less interested in a specific genre, locale, author, or time period, than in finding that elusive good story. As long as the story and/or characters captured their imagination, readers were willing to follow them into all sorts of unchartered waters, be it Romance or sci-fi, Shogun-era Japan or the Third Moon of Endor.

Happily, this still seems to be the case. As Tod writes of her survey respondents, "When asked about the genre they read or what detracts from historical fiction or their favourite authors – the data and comments point to a desire for great stories."

To this I would add something else I've observed lately: popular books (historical and otherwise) often create an entire alternate universe of the imagination that the reader wants to live in.

Who doesn't want to go to Hogwarts, drink Butter Beer, and hobnob with centaurs in the Forbidden Forest? And what about the Cirque de Reves in Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, with its provocative black-and-white striped tents? (Morgenstern only offers us glimpses inside some of the tents, which makes the book practically interactive: readers are free to imagine their own magical attractions lurking within the periphery of Morgenstern's tale.)

On the other hand, in her "Stories That Sell" post, Tod quotes non-fiction author James W. Hall's finding that “Three of the common features [of best selling novels] … are maverick heroes, high stakes and hot sex.” Okay, it's not exactly rocket science, but something to consider when trying to divine what readers really want—at least, if you plan to write a best-seller.

WELCOME, APARNA SEN

This year marks the 150th Anniversary of the birth of Indian Renaissance Man Rabindranath Tagore—poet, musician, philosopher, artist, and Nobel Prize-winner for literature.

In honor of this event, lucky Santa Cruzans will get two chances this weekend to meet another Indian cultural treasure, actress, feminist and filmmaker Aparna Sen, live, in person, right here in our town.

Sponsored by the Satyajit Ray Film & Study Center (Ray FASC) at UCSC, Ms. Sen will be in town for two film events Saturday and Sunday, celebrating the cultural legacy of Tagore, as well as her own stellar career in film.

On Saturday, beginning at 5 pm, at the Media Theater, UCSC, Ms. Sen will be on hand for a screening of the comedy-drama Samapti (Conclusion). This  newly restored short film was originally one episode in the 1961 anthology film Teen Kanya (Three Daughters), directed by maestro Satyajit Ray from three Tagore short stories.

In Samapti, a young law student visiting his home village is pressured by his widowed mother to get engaged to a nice, but boring girl in a neighboring village. Instead, he falls for an unconventional local tomboy—who refuses to go along with an arranged marriage unless she has a chance to choose for herself.

Samapti was also the film debut of 16-year-old Aparna Sen in the role of the reckless, yet stout-hearted tomboy who's not afraid to stand up for herself. Ms. Sen will give a talk on the Tagore heritage and answer questions after the screening. Admission is free.

On Sunday at 2 pm, Ms. Sen will be at the Nickelodeon for a screening The Japanese Wife, a feature film she directed in 2010, about an Indian man in a long-distance love affair with his Japanese pen-pal. A Q & A with Ms. Sen will follow the screening.

Actress, scriptwriter, award-winning filmmaker, magazine editor, frequent international film festival jury member, and recipient of both the Padmashree Award from India, and the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award, Aparna Sen is a one-woman cinema institution, so mark your calendar now!

CHAIN of FOOLS

Speaking of Feste, the Fool (as I was last post), have I ever mentioned the books of Alan Gordon?

This medieval mystery series began in 1999 with the appropriately-titled Thirteenth Night. And yes, it's a sequel to a certain Shakespearean play, although in this case it's the clever Fool who takes centerstage, as sleuth and crime-solver.

And he's not the only one. Gordon imagines a Fools' Guild operating across medieval Europe whose members—acrobats, jugglers, and spies—are inserted into the palaces and retinues of the wealthy and powerful in hopes of influencing world events in favor of peace, averting wars, solving hidden crimes, and dispensing justice.

In Thirteenth Night, we learn that the name "Feste" was merely an alias for the Fools' Guild veteran known privately as Theophilos. 15 years after the events of Shakespeare's play, having foiled the plans of Saladin's agent, Malvolio, Theophilos is sent back to "the Duchy of Orsino" to investigate the murder of the late Duke. A case which happily reunites Theophilos with the Duke's widow, the spirited Viola, who is destined to become apprentice, partner, wife and soulmate to Theophilos throughout the series, in their many adventures on behalf of the Guild.

 Who doesn't want the Fool to get the girl? This is by far the most delicious wrinkle in Gordon's audacious design. Subsequent books take the pair to real medieval sites—Constantinople, Jerusalem, Toulouse, the Black Forest—where they interact with known events. There are also occasional detours into other tales of other famous fools, such as Terence of York (nicknamed "Yorick"), of the court of Denmark, in An Antic Disposition.

The great charm of the series is the way Gordon skillfully imagines an entire underground society that's completely off the radar of conventional historical research—yet convincingly embedded in the history of its times.

It was my pleasure to meet Alan Gordon at a Historical Novels Society conference a few years ago. (We were both panelists, although, sadly, not on the same panel.) I'd hauled my personal hardcover copy of Thirteenth Night all the way from Santa Cruz to Albany, NY, in hopes of getting him to sign it. Which he did, although he professed himself astonished to meet someone who had actually bought it in hardcover. ("A rare book," he observed wryly.)

I haven't yet read all the Fools' Guild mysteries, but with eight books in the series (so far), looks like I've got some happy reading ahead!

THE (SWORD)PLAY'S THE THING

If you liked last year's Shakespeare Santa Cruz season as much as I did (click here to catch up), then get ready to strap on your sword and buckle your swash for SSC 2012: The Sequel.

Hot on the spurred heels of last season's rollicking combo of The Three Musketeers, the first installment of the "Henriad" trilogy, Henry IV, Part 1, and a beloved Shakespearean comedy, the company's 2012 summer season continues in the same splendid vein.  The centerpiece is, of course, Henry IV, Part 2, in which the roistering young Prince Hal must finally choose between the easy pleasures of the alehouse, the brothel, and the boon companionship of Falstaff, his mentor in vice, and the grandeur, power, and profound responsibility of his father's crown.

There is no theatrical sequel to The Three Musketeers, so SSC stalwart Scott Wentworth wrote one. His original stage adaptation of Dumas' last Musketeer novel,  The Man In the Iron Mask, will have its world premiere right here at SSC this summer. Wentworth has already distinguished himself as both actor and director (he staged Henry IV, Part 1 last summer, and will direct Part 2 this year), and I'm eager to see how this Renaissance Man segues into the role of scribe. In the story, the four Musketeers draw swords one more time to restore the corrupt young king's imprisoned twin brother to the throne of France.

The season's comedy is one of my favorites, Twelfth Night. The plot hinges on a shipwrecked woman disguised as a youth for her own protection, a lovesick Duke with whom "he" inconveniently falls in love, and  a woman dismissive of romance who falls in love with the illusion of a man. Full of swift banter, unrequited passion, even a little swordplay, it's an adroit comedy of love, gender, and identity that never goes out of style. It also features Feste,  one of Shakespeare's wittiest, most penetrating Fools.

Btw, do you love this poster?  Note the top hat, the long, duster coat, the spooky Tim Burton-style tree. Steampunk meets Sleepy Hollow? I can't wait!

The SSC 2012 season plays July 24 through August 26. Season tickets and Group tickets are on sale now. Single tickets go on sale May 15. Click here for all the details.

(Poster art by Schipper Design )

FFAT x 100, SCFF x 11

Strap on your walking shoes! Believe it or not, this Friday, April 6, is the 100th installment of the First Friday Art Tour. Yes, it's been 100 months since the first intrepid band of art lovers began the tradition of hot-footing it around town to view local art in a variety of unorthodox art spaces, ingest wine and nibblies, and discover even more excuses to get out and party on Friday nights.

A plethora of special events are lined up to celebrate this landmark occasion.  One of the coolest (and most apropos) is a $100 gift certificate toward the purchase of the local art of your choice to be awarded to some lucky art lover. To register, visit the FFAT Facebook page  and post a brief story or memory, or simply explain what you love about FFAT. The winner will be randomly chosen from registrants on April 6.

Feeling exotic? check out Mary Altier's photography exhibit, "The Body As Canvas: Tattooed, Scarred, Pierced, and Painted," showing (appropriately enough) at the Chimera Tattoo Studio & Gallery, on the Westside (1010 Fair Avenue), through May 30. (That's her photo up top. Here's a peek at more of her amazing work.) Mary has spent 25 years photographing tribal people around the world, and this retrospective exhibit documents the ornamentation of people from Ethiopia, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, and India, among others. The FFAT reception will feature West Africa drumming by Ibrahima Ibou Ngom, from Senegal, and live Henna body painting by Rica de Luz.

A more bohemian take on ornamentation is happening over at the Wallflower Boutique (103 Locust St.), where Arielle Rose will be showing her line of eclectic, one-of-a-kind dresses, hand-made from recycled, upcycled, and totally reinvented fabric, lace, and other materials. Wine and cheese accompany the fashion show.


 If you're in the mood for something a little more hands-on, fall by the free, drop-in drawing workshop 6-9 pm at the Scribbles Institute in the Sash Mill complex. Drawing coach Rob Court welcomes all ages and levels of ability; pencils, charcoal, paper, and various inspirational objets will be provided.

Then get ready to mix your media over at the Tannery, at the launch party for the upcoming Santa Cruz Film Festival. To celebrate its eleventh season, SCFF is staging an event they call "The Big Reveal" at the newly opened Tannery Digital Media and Creative Arts Center. Alongside the unveiling of this year's SCFF film lineup, festivities include a live DJ spinning platters, dance performances, art exhibitions, and a no-host bar. Revels continue from 8 pm to midnight.

(Btw, this cool take on the SCFF logo was created in the sand at Its Beach by phenomenal landscape artist Jim Denevan, whose canvas is earth, sand and ice.)

Meanwhile, across the way at the new Tannery dance studio, all regular Friday evening World Dance classes (Polynesian, Haitian, and Argentine Tango) will be free and open to the public between 4:45 and 10 pm. Live dance performances begin at 10:15 and continue til midnight. Click here for the full program.

Of course, there's way more going on than will fit into one little blog, so be sure to scope out the FFAT website and design your personal DIY art tour.

WRITE STUFF

Hey, kids, look at the nifty prize I won a couple of weeks ago, over on the Red Room literary site!

This book was one of the prizes awarded to the three winners of the Creative Challenge, "When Did You First Know You Wanted to be a Writer?" In his post-mortem on the contest, RR co-founder Huntington Sharp wrote:

"We asked Red Roomers to blog about the time they first wanted to become writers. We wanted to know if there was there a "flash" moment when they just knew, or has it always been true?

A few entries stood out:

Member Lisa Jensen has always wanted to write, and her memories of how she's always blended verbal and visual art is fascinating."

Aw, shucks! Here's the post, in toto:

It's not like I ever aspired to "be" a writer. It's not like I had a plan. I never even had an epiphany.

I've just always written. Who knows for how long? Do you remember when you first started breathing?

I loved writing assignments in grade school. I loved to read, and when I got really swept up in a book—like the Anne of Green Gables series so beloved by my mom—I'd continue the euphoria by basically re-writing my favorite scenes using characters and situations I made up. That should have given me a clue.

When I read I Capture the Castle at about age 11, I had to start a journal. At 12, I was corresponding with two European pen pals because I loved to write letters. At  16, I somehow qualified for a Press pass from Teen Set Magazine as a contributing reporter (but I was too shy to ever use it).

But here's the thing: I also loved to draw. When I was a little kid, I kept an oversize, hardcover picture book, The Big Book of Dogs, Cats, and Horses, under the sofa, with a bunch of blank sheets of typing paper and a pencil tucked inside. Whenever I was sitting there at night, watching TV with the family, I'd pull out the book and paper and start drawing.

If I had any plan it all, it was probably to "be" an artist, preferably an illustrator of books, like my favorites, the Alice in Wonderland books, the Oz books, Mary Poppins. But it's funny, I don't remember that I ever aspired to illustrate somebody else's stories; I always envisioned writing and drawing my own.

To this day, I have to draw all my characters—endlessly—before I can even begin to describe them in a book. Worse, I have sketchbooks full of characters whose stories have not yet been written. If graphic novels had been invented back in my misspent youth, maybe I would have started there, although my occasional attempts to map out a scene in comic book-style panels, while entertaining, always took way too much time away from writing the story.

For me, art was all about illustrating the story. Actually telling the story takes words—glorious, aggravating, addictive words. And that's the part I still love most.

SALSA CALIENTE

Sexy, simmering 'Chico & Rita' dances to a Latin drummer

Spanish filmmaker Fernando Trueba's buoyant, brooding Chico & Rita is a cool, spicy salsa of love, jealousy, politics, betrayal, and fame. It pulsates with glamorous images, sensual yearning, vintage cars and non-stop music in a sprawling romantic drama of sex, drugs, and Bebop jazz that stretches from pre-Revolutionary Cuba to Broadway, Hollywood, Paris, Las Vegas, and finally back again to the Cuba of Castro.

To call this exotic whirlwind of a movie animated is an understatement. But in this case, it's literally true. Nominated for Best Animated Feature at this year's Academy Awards, Chico & Rita was a surprise Spanish-language entry that went mano-a-mano against the likes of Puss In Boots and Rango.

And as much as I adored Rango (which won), for sheer visual artistry, Chico & Rita deserved to dance away with the prize.

The film is a collaboration between Trueba (an Oscar-winner for Belle Epoch, awhile ago) and Spanish artist Javier Mariscal—comic book illustrator, furniture designer, and one-man graphic arts explosion. (Read more.)

DREAM WEAVER

Pardon me while I blink my way back out into the sunlight like one of the Mole People, but I've only just emerged from the immersive experience of reading The Night Circus. This stylish debut novel by Erin Morgenstern runs on dark romance and imaginative gusto; it's a glamorous, dream-haunted fable of love, magic, sacrifice, and redemption.

The eponymous Le Cirque des Reves, is only open from sunset to sunrise. Its black-and-white striped tents and shadowy pathways house acrobats, living statues, an illusionist, a contortionist, and a fortune teller, along with many more esoteric entertainments—jars of olfactory memories, a Labyrinth of endless magical rooms, a shimmering Ice Garden, a meditative Pool of Tears.

What's also concealed within the tents, is the rivalry between a pair of long-lived magicians engaged in a fierce competition through their two youthful proteges.  Celia, bred from childhood for the "game" by her manipulative stage-magician father, called Prospero, is the circus illusionist. Marco, plucked from an orphanage by a mysterious mentor and inserted into the employment of the circus impresario, invents many of its uncanny attractions.

Both are adept at weaving the spells and enchantments that keep the circus running. (That they spend so much of their time trying to cloak their skillful sorcery in the trappings of fake stage illusions is one of the story's many witty charms.) But as Celia and Marco begin to understand what's at stake in their inescapable "game," the fate of the circus and its family of inhabitants hangs in the balance—a balance dangerously tipped when Celia and Marco fall in love.

 Most of the action occurs around the turn of the last century; clockwork machinery, bowler hats, and velvet gowns abound, but to label the story steampunk would be to miss the scope of Morgenstern's complex design. Within these dreamlike pages are echoes of Shakespeare and Arthuriana , and shimmering peals of fairy tales and folklore, delivered in evocative, sensory prose that intoxicates with the sights, sounds, scents and feel of this distinctive, enchanted world.

(The passionate followers of Le Cirque des Reves, in their black-and-white dress and red scarves, style themselves "reveurs." Small wonder that the book has spawned its own cult following—like the tie-dyed Deadheads of another era—eager to bask in its alternate reality.  Check out some of their devilishly creative homages on the book's Pinterest page.)

I admit, it took me awhile to get into the story. Time constraints had me reading the opening sections in short, staccato bits, and I had to keep re-reading to remind myself who everyone was. But once the story finally gelled for me, I devoured the rest in two long, luxurious gulps. That the narrative circles around in time and place is not a problem, but the reader is advised to pay close attention toward the end as two parallel stories play out exactly one year apart in alternate chapters. But persevere—this is a tale to get lost in.

 Of course, I loved the use of Tarot imagery. Morgenstern not only introduces symbolic Tarot figures into some scenes to suggest the direction of events, she includes many readings and interpretations of the cards by the fortune teller, Isobel. (Her card for Marco, her lover, Le Bateleur (the Magician/Juggler) keeps popping up in all the wrong readings.)

(Btw, as rich as Morgenstern's prose can be, mere words were not enough to contain her visual imagination, so she's designed her own set of Tarot cards, called Phantomwise, as a sort of companion to the novel. These are some of her images. Click here to feast your eyes on the rest. All images © 2004-2012 Erin Morgenstern, of course.)

Herself a most adroit bateleur, Morgenstern manages to keep all her delicate balls of plot, character, fate, and desire spinning in the air. Dreams are the magic of life, in her world, and The Night Circus appeals to the dreamer in all of us.

SNOW DAYS

When the going gets tough, the tough turn to — fairy tales?

Our pop culture is suddenly besotted with fairy tales. Sure, they've always been around, and always will be, as long as Disney keeps popping out new, updated, special collector's edition DVDs of its greatest hits.

But right this nanosecond, the genre is surging in popularity. The fairy tale mash-up Once Upon A Time is one of the biggest hits of the current TV season. Next week, we'll see the first of not one, but two Dueling Snow White movies due out this spring, Mirror, Mirror. The second, Snow White and the Huntsman  is due out June 1.

Why fairy tales? Why now? For one thing, they are morality tales (like Aesop's Fables, Greek mythology, and most religions) that evolved out of the collective subconscious centuries ago and deal in potent, timeless themes—love, hate, envy, oppression, betrayal, revenge.  With so much of our chaotic world and even our own lives beyond our control, we return to these comforting allegories of good vs. evil.

(Yes, I know, the original folk tales as set down by Perrault or transcribed by the Grimms are anything but comforting, but that's another blog.)

For another thing, these familiar tales we already know are in the public domain, meaning they can be endlessly tweaked, trifled with and revised to suit modern sensibilities.

Take the "It" girl of the moment, Snow White. We all remember the Disney version from 1937 (above), with her piping little soprano voice; a wet-eyed domestic dishrag, she plays mother to the dwarfs, while her song of yearning, "Some Day My Prince Will Come," launched a thousand feminist tracts decades later.

In one of the many plotlines in the tangled briar patch that is the Once Upon A Time scenario, Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin, right), banished to the forest, becomes a highway robber to survive. Which guarantees that she and her Prince Charming-to-be (Josh Dallas) will "meet cute" when she holds him up in the woods. This is meant to be a more (ahem) proactive Snow, infused with a dose of modern pluck.

(Although, in the show's parallel story, where fairy tale characters are cursed to live in a modern New England town, "Storybrook," not knowing who they are, under the thumb of the Evil Queen/Mayor  (Lana Parrilla), Snow White reverts again to good girl Mary Margaret, a schoolteacher trying to stifle her attraction to her prince, now an amnesia victim with a wife.  I enjoy this series, off and on, especially the flashbacks, but the writers depend way too much on cutesy Disney character names (Grumpy, Jiminy Cricket) in their steaming melange of fairy tale backstory.)

Similarly, in Mirror, Mirror, the story gets a grrl-power twist when Snow White (Lily Collins, below), banished to the forest, becomes the leader of the seven dwarfs, who are a gang of roistering thieves. It also stars Julia Roberts as the Evil Queen, and it's directed by Tarsem Singh, who can be a brilliant visionary (The Fall), or incredibly cheesy (Immortals). From the preview trailer, Mirror, Mirror might be both, but overall, the tone looks regrettably campy.

Snow White and the Huntsman features Kristen Stewart—in armor, yet—in a darker revisionist take on the tale. This time, the huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) sent to assassinate Snow White instead mentors her in warrior-training so she can defeat the Evil Queen (Charlize Theron). Rookie director Rupert Sanders is a completely unknown quantity (at least to me), but the visuals in the trailer look stunning.

I'm not sure if turning a goody-goody into a warrior is the best possible use of evolution.  (My ideal of a kick-ass modern heroine is still Lisbeth Salander, who outsmarts her vile opponents  with ferocious cunning and nerve.) Still, female role models have to change with the times or lose their currency, and any fairy tale heroine who does more than sit passively by her spindle, waiting for her hero, is a step in the right direction.




At least fairy tale remixes are more interesting than the cult of zombies and vampires that have monopolized pop culture for the last few years—seriously, don't we get enough of those in the GOP debates?

DEPP PERCEPTION

This image crossed my virtual desk last week, and I just had to share it.

Yes, they're making (yet another) retread of The Lone Ranger, due out in May of 2013, and this is the "first look" still sent to the press. That's Armie Hammer behind the mask, looking suitably stalwart as lawman John Reid-turned-masked avenger for justice.

And beside him his faithful Indian guide. Check out the long braids, the warrior paint, the bandana, and the entire dead crow (I think it's dead) perched on his head. Yes, it's none other than the irrepressible Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Tonto.

Rumor has it that Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, had a yen for a Lone Ranger remake. He offered the title role to his PotC star, but Depp was savvy enough to opt for the far more interesting role of Tonto—which also evidently comes with a much cooler wardrobe.

It's not that I'm expecting much from this production. The reunion of Bruckheimer with PotC director Gore Verbinski and screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio almost guarantees another bombastic triumph of slapstick over substance. On the other hand, it's pulp fiction, not Eurpides. And Johnny Depp wearing a crow may be its own reward—at least, we can hope so!

BACK TO BACKSTORY

Editing your own manuscript can be a lot like amputating a limb. But what if, through the miracle of modern technology, that limb could be restored?

It's not that the procedure isn't necessary, especially if the offending appendage has lost its usefulness. Back when my agent was still trying to find a publisher for my first novel, Blesséd Providence, the foreign rights were snapped up by a German-language publisher who brought out the first edition in hardcover with a beautiful original painting on the cover. Two years later, when the equally gorgeous German trade paperback edition came out, but I'd still had no luck stateside, I decided to do something drastic.

Namely, I got a grip and deleted some 50 manuscript pages of backstory that I perceived as cluttering up my first few chapters. These were solid, character-building scenes, but not essential to the plot; on second thought, I decided they were slowing down the action in that crucial opening story arc. So—carefully, with the proverbial scalpel, not a meat axe—I cut them out.

It must have been the right thing to do. The first publisher I sent it to bought it immediately, and published it under my new, improved title, The Witch From the Sea. I was pleased that the story got up and running so much faster this way. But I still had to mask an interior twinge once or twice when an interviewer or book critic mused that they wished there'd been more material about my heroine's backstory. D'oh!

Recently, in the process of teaching myself some (very rudimentary) web-building skills, I decided to build a new site for The Witch From the Sea. Of course, Luddite that I am, the only kind of site so idiot-proof even I can build it is a blog. I set up a home page with introductory remarks and images, and several secondary pages devoted to reviews, a sample chapter, historical background, and various links of interest. But there was still that gaping black hole in the middle of the home page waiting for blog entries.

Gee, how could I possibly fill it?

That's when I remembered my 50 pages of backstory. The book is already written in the voice of my heroine, Tory, writing down her adventures in a purloined ship's logbook while at sea, and I realized the blogspace was the perfect opportunity to leak in pages from Tory's log about her life before the action in the novel begins. These new bits, "From Tory's Log," will serve as a sort of patchwork prequel to events in the book.

Let's be honest; not all of what I cut out  the first time deserves to be resurrected. And what snippets are worth reviving can always stand a little tweaking. But rewriting  is not a problem for me, especially if it makes the story stronger, and I'm more than thrilled to have this chance to answer those questions about Tory's past life at last.

WIZARDS OF AWE

Nick/Del Mar digital upgrade brings the future of movies to Santa Cruz


You may not have noticed, but a revolution occurred in the Santa Cruz arts scene last December. While you were out Christmas shopping, the busy elves at the Nickelodeon and Del Mar theaters were taking a giant leap into the future of movie presentation.

Gone are the huge reels of 35 millimeter film, whirring away with a clattering of sprockets. In their place, the four Nickelodeon and three Del Mar auditoriums have now been converted to all-digital sound and picture projection. If you didn't notice, that was the point: they managed to make the conversion pretty seamless for the public, only canceling a few matinees here and there to get the new equipment in. 

But now that it's up and running, the folks at the Nick and Del Mar want to make sure you, the public, knows all about it. "We didn't cut any corners, we went for the top of the line," says Maurice Peel, Advertising and Publicity Coordinator for Nickelodeon Theatres.  He notes that owner Jim Schwenterley invested half a million dollars to place Santa Cruz directly into the forefront of this new technology. (Read more)

BACK TO THE '60s

They  say if you remember the '60s, you weren't there.

But most of us lucky enough to attend last year's '60s flashback event, the Cultural Council's Primavera dinner and auction up at Chaminade, have no problem remembering how much fun we had. For me, it speaks to my inner Barbie doll to go play dress-up for a few hours in my grooviest threads. And all for such a good cause:  raising funds for the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County, which oversees the SPECTRA program for art in the schools, Open Studios, and other worthy local arts-related programs.

Here's my recap of last year's event. Don't worry if you missed it; it was such a hit, the CCSCC is staging a second '60s-themed Primavera groove-fest—"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Art Goes On"— on Sunday, March 18, at Chaminade. (That's Janet Allinger's original period poster, to get you in the mood.)

Doors open at 4 pm, when attendees are invited to sip local wines, bid on items in the Silent Auction room, and admire each other's outfits. Then it's into the dining room for dinner, dancing (to the fabled White Album Ensemble), and the Live Auction hosted by Rob Slawinski.

Once again, yours truly will be on the auction block. Bid on me for a chance to find out what's it's like to be a film critic for a day. Round up three friends and join me and the lovely Art Boy at an exclusive press screening at the Nickelodeon for an upcoming film. Be the first kids on your block to see a brand new movie the week before it opens! Then join us for lunch afterwards and tell us what YOU thought.

As an extra added attraction, the Nickelodeon is providing six additional free movie passes that can be used at the Nickelodeon, the Del Mar, and/or Aptos Cinema.

Participants had a high old time last year. Tickets are only on sale through Thursday, March 15, so get yours now. Click here for all the details and prepare to get your groove on.

PARENTAL MISGUIDANCE

Platonic pals try child-rearing in entertaining 'Friends With Kids'


On the face of it, it sounds like one of those typically idiotic rom-com premises: two late-thirtysomething best friends, a man and a woman, decide to have a child together without all the messy complications that come with romantic couplehood. What distinguishes Jennifer Westfeldt's entertaining Friends With Kids is that the actors are so personable and the script so effective there are moments when they make the whole crack-brained scheme seem almost plausible.

Actress-writer Westfeldt established her unorthodox approach to the genre with the wry attempted lesbian romance Kissing Jessica Stein a decade ago. For Friends With Kids, she also steps behind the camera to direct for the first time, and the results are impressive. It's helpful that she surrounds herself with an ensemble of real-life friends and colleagues who resonate as longtime friends onscreen. And it's a big plus for local audiences that Westfeldt's co-star is Santa Cruz hometown boy Adam Scott in a smart, funny, and tender crowd-pleasing performance. (Read more)

SPLITTING HEIRS

Toxic family ties explored in JTC's engrossing 'Hello & Goodbye'


Two of Santa Cruz's best known and most dependable actors receive a gift of a play in the Jewel Theatre Company's new production of Athol Fugard's Hello & Goodbye—a gift that keeps on giving back to local audiences in this intense evening of dramatic theater. Played with both terrific brio and aching subtlety by Mike Ryan and Julie James, and directed by Bay Area theater veteran Jessica Heidt, Fugard's two-character drama emerges as an incisive, microcosmic look at family, class, and cultural dysfunction in the South Africa of the recent past.

The story is set in 1965, the year in which the play was written: Nelson Mandela had just been sent to prison, apartheid policies were in full flower, and the white Afrikaner minority was struggling  to maintain its political control over an increasingly rebellious population. But the viewer doesn't have to know anything about South African history or politics to be moved by the core tale of fractured family dynamics as a pair of adult siblings confront each other, themselves, and the twisted legacy inherited from their parents. (Read more)

ACT LIKE A TOURIST DAY

It was a gorgeous Sunday. The sun was out, the birds were singing, and Art Boy and I decided to ditch the rest of our to-do lists and inaugurate our first annual Act Like A Tourist Day.

This is similar to National Goof-Off Day, which we pioneered a couple of years ago. In fact, there really isn't any difference, except this time we decided to go out and sample some of the fun things that Santa Cruz has to offer. You know, those places where we're always sending our out-of-town guests to get the full SC experience, but we never seem to have time to get to ourselves.

Our various Swedish relatives always rave about the Swift Street and Ingalls courtyard complex out on the Westside, so when our friends, John and Marta, invited us out to Kelly's French Bakery for a light brunch, we were SO on board. The place was packed, inside and out, with happy diners, kids and dogs, lured outdoors by the unimaginably warm, summery March afternoon, but we found a shady table outside where we could hang out, feast on pressed cheese sandwiches and salmon bagels, and watch the scene.

Later, a pleasant stroll a couple of blocks down Swift Street brought us to the Equinox Champagne/Bartolo Wine tasting room. (J and M know the best way to entice Art Boy out into any adventure is to mention the words "champagne" and "tasting" in the same sentence.) Look for the black and gold diamond-pattern sign; the tasting room is down at the end of the parking lot, around the back.

Winemaker Barry Jackson was our genial barman, offering up a wealth of information and droll commentary as dry and effervescent as the bubbles he was pouring. Art Boy detected a hint of apple crispness in the formidable sparkler we sampled, then we segued into the reds of the day. Marta and I are the red drinkers, and while we enjoyed a light, dry Grenache and Cioppino Rosso, it was a rich, velvety Syrah that won our hearts.

In between brunch and wine-tasting, we stopped in at La Sirena. This fun, eclectic antiques store, a favorite haunt on Highway 1 in Davenport for the last two years, has recently relocated to the Swift/Ingalls complex.  (It's on Ingalls St., in the Bonny Doon Cellars building, next to Vero France French Linens.)

French country antiques are the specialty of proprietor Kim Kempke, who has stocked the store with wonderful artifacts culled from her many trips to  France, scouring the back roads for brocantes (junk shops) and vide greniers (village clean-out-your-attic sales). But that's only a small percentage of the goodies on view.

In addition to Old World antiques, La Sirena offers a variety of European laces and linens, international textiles, birdcages, chandeliers, paper ephemera, inlaid boxes, small furniture items, soaps, candles and bath oils, a wealth of silver and ethnic jewelry, and a mouth-watering selection of vintage and modern bohemian clothing—like this fetching black ruffled dress jacket (and beaded bag) modeled by the glamorous Marta. (We thought the Queen T-shirt was a nice touch!)

And don't miss the other specialty of the house: beads! Check out the ropes of African trade beads and other exotic, ethnic bead varieties on display behind the jewelry case. Remember the gift shop in the old Davenport Cash Store,  with its array of global beads and objets d'art? That inventory was collected from around the world by former Cash Store owners Bruce and Marcia McDougal  (Kim's unofficial silent partners), and their collection still provides much of the core stock in Kim's cool new shop.

Tasty treats, excellent wine, and irresistible antiques—take a day off sometime soon and check it out! Why should tourists have all the fun?

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"...)