Bruce Bratton hosts University Grapevine, linking local and campus issues, every Tuesday 7:30-8:30 p.m. on KZSC 88.1 fm.
|
SENTINEL VS. ROTKIN AND EVERYBODY. The Santa Cruz Sentinel has been doing an awful lot of whining and griping about widening Highway One. Gary Patton wrote a well thought out letter on Monday which should cause some thought. Why hasn't the Sentinel ever quoted one official source such as the California Highway Patrol or Cal Trans or any legitimate source from anywhere that says and proves that widening highways works? The studies Patton mentions show over and over that when a highway is widened and traffic gets faster that more and more people leave their old routes and use the newly widened highway and it locks up again. In addition to new users switching highways if the widened highway goes out to undeveloped areas, those areas get developed because the traffic is faster and again the highway becomes blocked. So write letters to the Sentinel, because this is big money and there should be some proof someplace that widening highways works beyond 2 or 3 years.
GOODBYE CHARLIE HALL. Charlie Hall was an incredibly fine fellow. He and his brother Bob were part of the early fabric of Santa Cruz, and they both are excellent examples of why community works as well as it does. Charlie was such a warm and intelligent human I was amazed to learn from his obituary that he was a Republican. He was a great support to his wife Linda Burman Hall. It was a tribute to him that Linda went on and played so brilliantly in last week's New Music Works Convergence Concert. She too is a real trooper.
SAN FRANCISCO OPERA'S ANNUAL PRESS CONFERENCE. The SFOpera held their annual press conference to announce the 2007-08 Opera season last Monday January 22 at 10:30 am. in the Grand Lobby of the Opera house. They emailed the same press releases that we got at the opera at the same time. So you probably know by now that the season will consist of and, in order....Saint-Saens "Samson and Delilah" starring Olga Borodina who was here in 2001 and Clifton Forbis who "covered" Tristan here last season. Richard Wagner's Tannhauser will be a premiere and the first brand new production of new General Director David Gockley' s term. It features Peter Seiffert singing Tannhauser, with Runnicles conducting. Philip Glass's Appomattox is a world premiere and was commissioned by the SFOpera. Glass has now written 11 operas and another 12 chamber operas!!! It plays 6 performances October 5-20. Dennis Russell Davies will be conducting but Runnicles called him Dennis Russell Davis for some reason. Then comes the Maurice Sendak (not Hockney) version of Mozart's Magic Flute with Piotar Beczala as Tamino. He sang in SFO's last Eugene Onegin and was great. One of opera's two hot babes who can sing, Angela Gheorghiu heads the cast of Puccini's La Rondine; it's her SFO debut and about time too. Verdi's Macbeth will be eye-popping Gockley stated. And he said that soprano Doina Dimitriu as Lady Macbeth is a great actress, let's hope. Long time favorite James Morris sings Nick Shadow in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress and mezzo soprano Denyce Graves who sang Carmen here in 1998 sings Baba the Turk. This time Rake's Progress is et in 20th Century Hollywood, oh boy!!! That plays 6 performances in Nov and Dec and ends the main season. Opening in June for the tourist season is Richard Wagner's' Das Rheingold with Mark Delavan as Wotan, Jennifer Larmore as Fricka, Stefan Margita is Loge, Polish contralto Ewa Podles is Erda and David Cangelosi is Mime. This is more or less the same Gold Rush- Roaring Twenties production that debuted at Placido Domingo's Washington National Opera last season. Runnicles conducts it. Then in June and July comes the San Francisco Opera's premiere of George Frederich Handel's baroque opera Ariodante. Ewa Podles, Ruth Ann Swenson and Susan Graham sing the lead roles. The production is from the Dallas Opera. Alternating in the summer are 6 performances of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor with French coloratura soprano Natalie Dessay making her company debut. CAL Performances and the SFO are co-producing the west coast premiere of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's The Little Prince. It'll play 6 performances in May at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall and is a special family attraction and Francesca Zambello's production. It was scored by British composer Rachel Portman who did the music for at least 70 films such as Joy Luck Club, Chocolat, Emma, The lake house, The(new) Manchurian Candidate, Benny and Joon and To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar. Should be quite a show!!
MORE SAN FRANCISCO OPERA NEWS. Here's some items talked about at Monday's News Conference that weren't released on their official press releases. Composer Phillip Glass and SFOpera's new artistic director Francesca Zambello were present and spoke. Glass spoke for 15 minutes about his newly commissioned opera Appomattox. Present Music director Donald Runnicles spoke at length about the casting of the entire next season and he was highly praised as being "a huge pillar in the company" by Gockley. The newest music director Nicola Luisotti' s name was never mentioned, which seemed odd. This summers Rheingold kicks off four years of separate Ring Operas with the complete new Ring Cycle happening in 2011. There will be a major announcement in 2 or 3 weeks regarding the Opera Company and radio broadcasts. They are even now installing HDTV cameras and a switching system that will allow them to record everything by this summer, and more simulcasts are being worked on. This is Gockley' s first personally selected season, with only Samson and Delilah and Macbeth operas along with Olga Borodina, Thomas Hampson, and Doina Dimitriu's contracts being inherited from previous directors. With the exception of John Adams works (Dr. Atomic, Nixon in China) that require amplification "you will not hear amplification here at the SFOpera", David Gockley. The Merola singers sang Happy Birthday to Phillip Glass who turns 70 on January 31 and we all ate cake at the close of the Press Conference.
OPERA SAN JOSE 2007-08 SEASON. Kelly Hudson Marketing and Development Director of Opera San Jose was on my Grapevine radio program last week. Without planning it we revealed to the public the Opera San Jose 2007-08 season. They still have La Traviata 2/10-2/25, and Madama Butterfly 5/21-5/6 left in this season. The next season will be Lucia Di Lammermoor (Sept.), Werther (Nov.), Rigoletto (Feb.) The Magic Flute (Apr.)
UCSC OPERA SEASON. Lou Harrison's Young Caesar will be performed once only on Tuesday April 3rd at 8p.m. in the Music Recital Hall on the campus. There will be a pre-opera talk at 7:15pm. Nicole Paiment conducts. You could go to San Francisco's Yerba Buena Arts Center and see the same Young Caesar production there on February 16 & 17 at 8p.m. but it costs more.
The Magic Flute will be performed by UCSC students, directed by Brian Staufenbiel, and conducted by Nicole Paiment . That happens Thurs., May 31 through Sunday, June 3 at the UCSC Music Recital Hall. Confidentially, it wouldn't surprise me if we heard many better voices in this production than any of the other flutes around here. More on this later.
WOLFGANG ROSENBERG COVERS THE MEMPHIS MEDIA CONFERENCE.
Wolfgang went to Memphis, as he has the other two annual Media Conferences before. He reports on who was there, (like ABC) and of course Amy Goodman, and some arch conservatives! He tells about the Free Press Organization and Bill Moyers and there may be hope for the future of honest media, don't miss it click here
EAGAN'S EFFULGENCE. Scroll downwards to see the truth about Outsourcing , only more graphic than usual.
PAUL ELERICK'S INPUT. Paul didn't think much of Prez Bush's State of the Union talk...and who did? Paul has much to say about Fred Keeley's Transportation Task Force meeting this week. He discusses the Pajaro Valley School District's recent resignation and ends up ranting about the continued widening of Highway One by the single minded RTC.
GARY PATTON'S PROGRAM. Gary talks more about saving Pleasure Point's historic Roadhouse. He talks about Historic Designations in Live Oak and Monterey's new General Plan. Learn about the Foundation for Deep Ecology and their new book on Thrillcraft (jet skis, dune buggies, dirt bikes, etc.) I talked with Jason Kiely who's working on the Thrillcraft book, he says it won't be in print until late fall. Patton ends the week by addressing UCSC's Long Range Development Plan and a group called "Stewards of The Range".
SAUL LANDAU'S PROGRESS. Click here to read Saul's article "A Fool and A Charlatan" (guess who??)
www.progresoweekly.com You can also read how Senator Christopher Dodd still supports free travel between USA and Cuba. There's an article on 20th Century Socialism too. It's all in Progreso Weekly.
THE PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC CLUB MEETS AGAIN. The PDC will have Gary Patton, Executive Director of the Planning and Conservation League (PCL) at their monthly meeting on January 25th at the LONDON-Nelson Center, 301 Center St, Santa Cruz. Gary will tell us what activities the PCL is currently working on and share some thoughts and opinions on politics and government in Sacramento. The Planning and Conservation League is a statewide, nonprofit lobbying organization, an alliance of individuals and conservation organizations united to protect California's environment through legislative and administrative action. For more than thirty years, PCL has fought to develop a body of environmental laws in California that is the best in the United States. PCL staff review virtually every environmental bill that comes before the California Legislature each year. They have testified in support or opposition of thousands of bills, working to strengthen California's environmental laws and fight off rollbacks of environmental protections. The meeting starts at 7 PM. The public is really welcome. For more information: Call 420-1133.
THE DRUM MAJOR INSTITUTE AND BUSH'S SPEECH. If you want an interesting and complete dissection of the Bush Union speech go to http://drummajorinstitute.org/sotu2007 . While you're there read all about the Drum Major Institute, and let me know what you think.
CHRISTINA WATERS WEBSITE. Christina's carries on even more about ugly civic architecture. Then she reviews "Pan's Labyrinth", and no I don't know what she says about Labyrinth, yet. She then makes a few choice wine suggestions and reveals some secrets of restaurant reviewing. This is really kind of her especially if you want a reputation like Christina's. Go here christinawaters.com
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA. As mentioned a lot, I don't think much of Clint Eastwood as a director or as a mayor for that matter. His Letters From Iwo Jima is typical Eastwood. Not a subtle or nuanced thought in the picture. It's heavy handed and his using Japanese with subtitles in Eastwood's case is only a gimmick. Suppose just for a second he told that exact same story from the American forces point of view it would be a stupid movie and you'd spot the stupidity and condescending attitude in a millisecond. Don't bother going because it's also boring. I know it's nominated for an Oscar, that's why I'm sure I'm right.
THE GOOD GERMAN. Now here's an excellent piece of cinema. It's great old style film noir and Cate Blanchett has never been better or probably never had as much fun acting as this. George Clooney is a bit modern for this WWII Berlin film but it is a marvelous and impressive motion picture. Think Third Man Theme, it's full of secrets, and foreign intrigue.
HALF OF...THE HITCHER. I liked the original with Rutger Hauer it was tense insane, and over done...so was this one. HOWEVER the film burned up about half way through, which I hadn't seen happen in maybe 3 or 4 years so I only got to see the first hour, but it looked almost as good as the earlier one.
VENUS. Peter O'Toole is almost as good here as in Lawrence of Arabia. It's a special kind of love affair between a 75 year old and a 20 year old. It never gets weird, tacky, or gross. It is a very well done British film and you should go see it.
UNIVERSITY GRAPEVINE. Every Thursday from 4 to 5 pm on KZSC 88.1 FM I host an interview program titled University Grapevine. This Thursday I'll be talking with Ivan Rosenblum pianist, piano teacher, and artistic director of the Santa Cruz Chamber Players. We'll talk about their concerts coming up on Saturday and Sunday February 3rd and 4th at Christ Lutheran Church at 10707 Soquel Dr. in Aptos. They'll be playing Brahms, Mozart, Schumann, and Harbison. The second half hour I'll talk with Sampada ("Sam" for short) Aranke about the recent action against military recruiting on the UCSC campus.
JUST PLAIN NIFTY This illustration of a Newton's Cradle is from Wikimedia Commons. They have a ton of very cool images and other media - start with their featured pictures, and you can lose yourself for hours. Just don't blame me...
QUOTES and AMUSING MUSINGS. Scott McClelland's quote goes something like this, "It's a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word." -President Andrew Jackson. The Ugly Mug in Soquel has a chalked message on a sandwich board in front of their coffee house it says, "Buy local or bye, bye local." That's a very straight way of telling it like it is.
Scott Kennedy sent some illumination... "As Air America Radio pointed out" This year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address occur on the same day. It is an ironic juxtaposition of events: one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication, while the other involves a groundhog."
Deep Cover
Bruce critiques films every Friday on KZSC-FM (88.1) on The Bushwhacker Breakfast Club at 8am.
It's free! Click here.
 |
© 2003-2010 Bruce Bratton • info@brattononline.com • HOME |  |