Mia Zapata, lead singer of The Gits

The Gits were a Seattle punk band led by the raw, blues-fueled voice of its lead singer Mia Zapata.  The band formed at Antioch College in Ohio where Zapata famously jumped on a table during a party and launched into Bessie Smith covers.  It's relayed as one of those college moments where,  if you were there, drunk or sober, you've never forgotten it. The Gits soon moved to Seattle where they found underground fame, a community of fellow punk rockers (like the girl band 7 Year Bitch) and became part of a Seattle scene garnering lots of media attention because of its burgeoning grunge scene.

The Gits found their loyal following and after two album releases and a planned North American tour, they were poised to make it big.  Atlantic Records was ready to sign them.  But on July 7, 1993, Mia Zapata left The Comet Tavern where she'd been hanging out with friends and while on her walk home, she was attacked.  Hours later, Zapata's body was found.  She'd been beaten, raped and murdered.  The tragedy struck the Seattle scene hard and mourners lined up for blocks at her wake.

A new documentary called The Gits will be screened Wednesday night at The Whistle Stop bar in South Park as a fundraiser for the San Diego Women's Film Festival.  The story is so tragic, but so much of the film charts the band's formation and rise that it doesn't feel like a downer.  There's a lot of concert footage, some rougher than others, but I kind of like the grainy, jumpy video.  It's well-matched to the grungy dive bars The Gits played in and to their punk sensibility.  Zapata is amazing to watch, if mostly because of her incredible voice.  She sounds like Lucinda Williams, if Williams left her guitar behind and just went balls out, punk-rock style.   The Gits screens at 9pm - The Whistle Stop is a good place to watch this kind of doc and all proceeds benefit the sixth year of the San Diego Women's Film Festival.  Oh, and Joan Jett and Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill are both in the film - they were big fans of The Gits.   This is one of those school night events that I like to recommend because it's unique in San Diego, the film and the venue are perfectly matched, and it's for a good cause. 

An omelet.

A bowl of grits.

Three slices of French toast.

Three chocolate chip pancakes.

Two cups of coffee.

Phelps burns 900-1100 calories per hour in a training session.

Breakfast of arts blogger:

Three cups of coffee.

Power bar.

Calories burned while blogging:  10-15, depending on topic.

Antin is a celebrated performance and installation artist, a filmmaker and a photographer.  Her extensive body of work has explored history, identity, gender, and her own Yiddish heritage.  Antin has often cast herself in various roles and narratives to explore her ideas.  She famously became Eleanora Antinova, a black ballerina in Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, writing a fictional memoir for her ballerina persona and making numerous films starring Antinova.

Eleanor Antin:  Historical Takes will be on view at the San Diego Museum of Art through November 2nd.  Make sure to watch the multiple videos at the exhibit documenting the production of these photographs.  It's fascinating to watch what went into this body of work, with the shoots operating like a film set complete with Antin yelling "action" only to have her actors freeze in a tableaux.   

There is actually a San Diego connection here.  McCarthy is a sculptor and performance artist who lives in L.A., but in 1976 he performed a transgressive piece called Class Fool at UCSD.  He is also sometimes associated with Allen Kaprow, the late Happenings founder and Professor Emeritus in the Visual Arts Department at UCSD.  

The media is having fun with this story.  Another headline:  Paul McCarthy's Art is Complex Shit on the Runs. 

Shanghai. Photo by Dan Eckstein

I've got my sights set on China right now as I watch the Olympics every night.  I can't help but marvel at the venues, especially the aquatic center, otherwise known as the water cube.  This building is incredible, costing over $200 mil to build.   I've been searching around looking for more of a visual context to the Olympic venues and the images on television.  Documentary and fine arts photographer Dan Eckstein has a photographic essay on contemporary China that really fleshes things out.  Eckstein spent eight weeks there in 2006 documenting the changes happening throughout the vast country, from the cities to the rural villages.  His site is easy to navigate, allowing you to follow his journey by region, timeline, or topics.  In addition to his pictures, Eckstein writes short descriptions about many of photo sections, like this excerpt about bang bang workers:

Many of these migrant workers end up as part of what locals call the “Bang Bang Army”. This 100,000 plus army of laborers are identified by the bamboo poles (or bang bang in Chinese) that they use to carry heavy loads around the city. Due to the hilly topography of Chongqing, the bicycles used to transport goods in other Chinese cities have been abandoned and manual labor used instead. Bang bang workers are hired by everyone from business owners to tourists to move all sorts of goods from ships at the port into town or around the city. For their efforts a bang bang man will make an average of 20 Yuan ($2.50) for working a 12 hour day.

Bang Bang worker in Chongqing, Western China. Photo by Dan Eckstein

Another episode of the 4x4 Performance Series takes place Tuesday night at Bluefoot Bar and Lounge in South Park.  The series is simple but inspired.  Artists of all kinds have ten minutes on a 4 foot by 4 foot stage to perform an original work.  I've seen dancers creatively maximize every inch of that tiny stage, but actors, musicians, poets and writers are all invited to work within its limits.  Tomorrow night's performance has a gender bent:  it's all about the ladies! 

San Diego writer and columnist Aaryn Belfer

A mix of female artists --  dancers, a performance artist, and a singer-songwriter -- will perform for what is sure to be a packed crowd.   Also slated to saunter her way onto 4x4 is local writer and columnist for San Diego City Beat, Aaryn Belfer.  Full disclosure: Aaryn is a good friend.  But even if she wasn't my friend, I'd recommend that you go see her read.  She's fearless and funny and she's going to recount for the crowd one of those experiences that rarely emerges in mixed company.  Frankly, even in a gathering of the fairer sex, a story like this usually requires a liberal cocktail injection.  Not so for Aaryn, though I highly recommend it for the rest of you.  You'll laugh and wince and laugh some more.  See you there at 8pm.

I also like this one.  Loewenberg really nails the Carrie Bradshaw narration.

Yesterday was the anniversary of Frenchman Philippe Petit's 1974 tightrope walk across a cable suspended 110 stories above the ground.  The cable went between the World Trade Center towers, which were the tallest buildings in the world at that time.  He walked it without a safety net.  He wasn't wearing a harness of any kind to save him if he slipped.  Petit spent 45 minutes on that rope, carrying a balance bar and walking back and forth, kneeling down, and, at one moment, even lying down.  He toyed with the police, who stood on the edge of the roof, trying to coax him off the rope. Onlookers gathered on the street below, amazed and terrified by what they saw. The new documentary Man on Wire tells Petit's story by taking its cues from caper films, so you feel the tension and suspense leading up to Peiti's famous walk.  By the time we see him gliding on top of the world, we've already been treated to archival footage, artful reenactments, and interviews with Petit, who is an enthusiastic storyteller, to say the least. 

I really loved this documentary.  The director, James Marsh, did a great job of pulling together the material and made one courageous and wise choice:  never once is 9/11 mentioned in the film.  Marsh could have so easily included 9/11 commentary and remembrances to up the emotional investment of viewers, but he didn't.  He let the story of Petit and his obsession serve as an homage to the towers.  I promise you'll be swept up in this movie and left telling the story of Petit and his daring feat for days to come.

To this:

To this:

 A week before Comic-Con, I was at the Shakespeare Festival at the Old Globe.  While at Comic-Con, I saw graphic novelist Adrian Tomine, who's literary sensibility is embraced by the New Yorker and who gave a very thoughtful interview recently on NPR's Fresh Air.  I also saw Predator and Batman and Wolverine.  All of this is to say, my cultural experience tends to be one that merges the high and the low on a daily basis.  I always suspected this was true for a lot of people, and that the very lines defining the two were getting blurry. Today in the L.A. Times, reporter Scott Timberg writes a great article on this very phenomenon.  He surveys his circle of friends and colleagues and learns that New Yorker music critic Alex Ross likes popcorn movies.  Writer Pico Iyer loved Nacho Libre so much he saw it twice.

Timberg also looks at how different forms of media have contributed to or imploded cultural hierarchies.  For example, the rise of the television as a common form of entertainment meant that books and literature became high art.  Reading became a morally virtuous exercise for the intellectual elite, while television rotted the brains of the masses, so the thinking went.  On the other hand, the Internet has challenged high art as an elite exercise and made it accessible.  Everyone with a computer can now watch video footage of symphonies and opera companies.  And, contemporary musicians are taking classical compositions and sampling them in their own music. 

This seems like an appropriate discussion to have on the heels of Comic-Con, a convention that celebrates and promotes the popular arts.  Is there a qualitative difference between a Bach concerto and a new HBO drama from Alan Ball (Six Feet Under) about vampires?  Are both art?  Should one be held in more esteem than the other?  These are, of course, timeless questions about aesthetics and society but they never cease to be interesting questions.

I'm trying to get an interview with Michael C. Hall, aka Dexter, and I'll be going to the Dexter panel.  I'm also planning on going to the HBO panel for Alan Ball's new drama True Blood, The Black Panel, and the steampunk gathering (fascinated!).  Jeff Soto will be signing copies of his latest Murphy designed art book on Saturday so I hope to see him as well.  I love his work.  Of course, I plan to take a lot of photos of the costumes and crowd - always a treat.  So, the dust bunnies may accumulate as I spend time working on the Comic-Con blog.  Follow me over there - you'll have a blast.

My friend Ed (thanks!) sent me this the other day... "in the spirit of Comic-Con."  It's a real Craigs List ad... hilarious!  I assume I have some proper nemeses in my readership who could use $350.

Nemesis required. 6-month project with possibilty to extend

Date: 2008-05-07, 2:49PM PDT

I've been trying to think of ways to spice up my life. I'm 35 years old, happily married with two kids and I have a good job in insurance. But somethings missing. I feel like I'm old before my time. I need to inject some excitement into my daily routine through my arm before its too late. I need a challenge, something to get the adrenaline pumping again. An addiction would be nice, but, in short, I need a nemesis. I'm willing to pay $350 up front for you services as an arch enemy over the next six months. Nothing crazy. Steal my parking space, knock my coffee over, trip me when Im running to catch the BART and occasionaly whisper in my ear, "Ahha, we meet again". That kind of thing. Just keep me on my toes. Complacency will be the death of me. You need to have an evil streak and be blessed with innate guile and cunning. You should also be adept at inconsicuous pursuit. Evil laugh preferred. Send me a photo and a brief explanation why you would be a good nemesis.

British accent preferred.

it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Compensation: $350 up front