May-December, or perhaps July

Elaine Robinson need not apply.

Next Tuesday, Fanny & Alexander in Palo Alto is hosting a Younger Man/Older Woman Party. This appears to be a pet cause of organizer Rich Gosse, who announces boldly in a press release: "The truth is that there are millions of American men who find older women attractive, and we will prove it at tonight's party!"

Several questions arise. How will people be carded at the door? How do you know if you're old or young enough?

And how will they fit all those men in F&A?

A lively lineup

I had a nice chat with the folks from Stanford Lively Arts last week, getting the scoop on their 2006-07 season. (OK, so it doesn't start until October, but I like to plan ahead.) Now there's a job: scouting out performers like a klezmer band from Buenos Aires, a German cabaret chanteuse, and a Japanese taiko ensemble. Lively Arts folks must never have a dull weekend.

Dear readers, I could have given you a sneak peek in the print Weekly. But isn't it more fun to click here and hear? Thus, some audio snippets:

Natalie MacMaster (.mp3 file, 30 sec.)
This Celtic fiddler from Cape Breton plays and step-dances at the same time. Groovy. I hear you can expect a bluegrass-pop-world music fusion when she comes to town on Oct. 20.

Klezmer En Buenos Aires (.mp3 file, 30 sec.)
Do they know from klezmer in Argentina? Musicians Cesar Lerner and Marcelo Moguilevsky certainly think so. When they come to Lively Arts on March 7, 2007, they promise to bring a melange of vibrant Eastern European music and Argentinean folk. And maybe even a little tango.

Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (.mp3 file, 30 sec.)
Let's face it: we all feel warmer about New Orleans than ever. Y'all can sample it on April 25, 2007, with help from trumpeter Mayfield wailing on the jazz, swing, blues and spirituals.

If I were to list all the other offerings at Lively Arts, I would be here all night. But here are a few other shows I just may have to catch:

Oct. 11 and Feb. 25: Conductor, radio personality, and the nicest man I've ever interviewed: Rob Kapilow returns to demystify classical music with his "What Makes It Great?" programs.

Oct. 28-29: The Diavolo Dance Company apparently does amazing things with massive wooden structures. Leaping, I hear. A lot of leaping.

Dec. 12-13: "A Chanticleer Christmas" returns for its annual show. Like singers everywhere, I can only sit with my mouth hanging open when these boys roll out the a cappella early music.

For complete info, head over to the Lively Arts site or give 'em a jingle at 650-725-ARTS.

Pictured: Natalie MacMaster. Photo by Margaret Malandruccolo.

Just don't put me in Chapter 11

So, get this: if you spend more money than any other customer in Kepler's bookstore between 9 a.m. May 26 and 9:30 p.m. June 1, you get a character named after you in author Barry Eisler's next thriller.

I'm scratching my head. Love Kepler's, support the independent booksellers...but am I the only one who's getting a strange kind of product-placement headache?

Well, I suppose if there's not a scene in which Laura Linney serves up a delicious, steaming mug of Mococoa, we should all be safe.

Following the muse

I often wonder whether it's possible as an artist to be truly original. As a writer, I sometimes find phrases flowing out so smoothly that I question whether I've heard them before and am repeating them without meaning to. We can't help but be influenced by the words, images and harmonies we absorb every day.

It's a disheartening thought for someone who tries to create something new. But maybe this unconscious influence makes our work richer, gives it context.

Young composer Beeri Moalem seems comfortable with this concept. Much of his work grows from his Jewish heritage; his first concerto, "Barchu," has its main theme derived from a prayer chant.

"Other themes," he said in a written statement, "are derived from Sabbath blessings over wine, and a melody which I cannot quite trace. I don't yet know whether it is a chant I've heard or sung at prayer, or a melody from my own imagination. The muses often play such tricks on composers."

Moalem used these melodies simply as raw material: he "presented, developed, recapitulated" them, weaving them into a full 15-minute composition.

I like this idea of a muse: a gentle starting point, not a gilt-edged finished product dropped on you from the clouds.

"Barchu" will be performed tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at the Spangenberg Theatre at 780 Arastradero Road in Palo Alto as part of a Gunn High School Orchestra concert. Moalem will play as guest viola soloist. He also happens to be an '02 Gunn graduate who also earned a degree in violin and viola performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

The program also includes Telemann's "Concerto in G Major" (with Moalem on the viola) and the first movement of "St. Paul's Suite" by Holst. Tickets are $5 for adults and $3 for seniors and students; call (650) 354-8264 for more information.

In the name of science

En plein air it's not. In fact, artist Klari Reis' studio sounds more like the labs I grew up in, where my biochemist parents let me play with Erlenmeyer flasks and mold snowmen out of Parafilm.

Hey, did you know there's a film production company in Romania named Parafilm?

But we were talking about Klari. The intrepid artist has to suit up in protective gear to paint with the synthetic (and toxic when wet) plastic she uses to paint molecular structures. Her striking images have such names as "Caffeine," "Xanax," "Ascorbic Acid," "Benazepril."

To maintain the plastic at the right thickness to paint, she keeps her studio at 70 degrees Fahrenheit. This wasn't much fun when she lived in England -- she had lots of space heaters -- but it works well in California.

Klari adds dyes and gels to create the vibrant colors she favors and "make aspects of the image pop out." In England, for whatever reason, she used a lot of red. After moving back to the Bay Area, where she grew up, she found herself using a cheery light yellow-green for the first time.

She has to wait 24 hours for each layer of plastic to dry, which means she usually works on a few paintings at once. Once the plastic is dry, there's just no cleaning her paintbrushes. So she uses disposable brushes and "a lot of plastic spoons."

Here and there, she throws in bright dots with colored glue sticks from a glue gun. That makes it more interesting when you touch the finished product, running your fingers over the smooth surfaces of the plastic and poking the bumpy dots.

And you're allowed -- actually encouraged -- to touch her paintings now hanging in the Chelsea Art Gallery in Palo Alto. Kids, she says, love it. And maybe just a few adults, too. Check it out.

(And take a look at my Weekly story on Klari while you're at it.)

Pictured: Klari Reis in her San Francisco studio. Photograph by Norbert von der Groeben.

What more do you need?

I’m swinging my feet contentedly under my desk while reading a recent Kepler's best-seller list. There’s just something so refreshingly simple about the titles.

As of May 7, “Blue Shoes and Happiness” by Alexander McCall Smith topped the hardcover fiction category. The book is really about sleuths in Botswana, but to me the title conjures up a pleasure so basic you’re embarrassed to talk about it. Like new Keds, or the perfect Skippy-on-whole-wheat sandwich.

You know, I actually refuse to be embarrassed about the joy of peanut butter. I am proud.

Then there’s the super seller in hardcover nonfiction, presenting such pure, perfect logic in its title. “Eat, Drink, & Weigh Less” by Mollie Katzen. Well, duh.

(Except for peanut butter. Eat as much as you want.)

Hey, throw some other favorite book titles my way, dear reader. You can post a comment below.

You spin me right 'round, baby

Love museums. Hate the fact that you can't touch the art. So I had quite the guilty-pleasure time at last night's reception at Gallery House in Palo Alto. Not only can you touch the paintings, but you can spin them around. Here's some video I shot:

Painter Sydell Lewis decided to give folks more perspectives by adding rotating mechanisms on the back. Do you see a different Rorschach-style view with each turn?

Her paintings are on exhibit together with Pat Oyama's masks and other ceramic objects through May 27. Too bad blues guitarist John Cowan isn't there every night.

Swinging strings

When I interviewed him earlier this week for a Weekly story, cellist Stephen Harrison from Palo Alto's Ives Quartet impressed me with his drive to get string-quartet music to the masses. Especially the masses of a more tender age. (If we could get just one kid to turn down Nickelback on his iPod for one minute, what a lovelier place the world would be.)

So I'd like to do my part by bringing the string quartet to this newfangled invention called a blog. Here's a sample of the Ives Quartet playing William Kroll's "Magyar." It's a 45-second .mp3 file.

The quartet next performs May 11 at St. Mark's church in Palo Alto, taking on a new Roger Bourland composition called "Four Poets."

Comment dit-on "blog" en francais?

A petite update on my recent story about the French film series at Stanford: the festival now has its own blog.

You can pose questions to the organizers and critics, and also fire off a few to actress Elodie Bouchez, who's set to make an appearance at Stanford on May 9. If you're lucky, she'll answer your question at Cubberley Auditorium for all to hear.

Note that some of the screening dates have been changed; all the info is on the film series site. Also note that some of the blog is in French, which I thought was pretty cool. (Since I can't find anyone around here to speak Hungarian with, I'll work on my fractured francais.)