Death by celluloid

This is so, so bad. I cannot stop snickering at the press release for a new movie called "The Descent." It's about "an all-female caving expedition that goes horribly wrong."

Quoth the press release: "On a daredevil caving holiday, six woman friends are unexpectedly trapped underground when a rock fall blocks their exit. Searching the maze of tunnels for a way out, they find themselves hunted by a race of fearless, hungry predators, once humanoid but now monstrously adapted to live in the dark."

I imagine this will make "Howard the Duck" look like "Citizen Kane."

My friends and I got even more snickers out of making up alternate titles for "The Descent." My favorites:

"Dude, Where's My Luna Bar?"
"Must Love Caves"
"Spelunkadipity"

Mine was by far the worst. The musical theater version: "Sunday in the Dark with Gorge."

Praise (or blame) goes to Ron Evans for the first alternate title, and to Mark Addleman for the other two.

It flew the coop

I feel a strange sort of melancholy now that the Chicken Ranch restaurant has left us.

It brought a frivolous color scheme and rare affordable meals to swanky University Ave. Then there was the rotisserie chicken everything (jerk chicken wrap, anyone?). But, as a Weekly reviewer once almost wrote, you could often throw a pot pie through the joint and not hit a single customer.

I never actually ate at Chicken Ranch, but just this week my companion and I had considered the rotisserie. Then we saw the butcher paper over the windows.

Darn.

Interviewing a survivor

After watching "Forgiving Dr. Mengele," a film about Holocaust survivor Eva Mozes Kor that will be shown as part of the SF Jewish Film Festival, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I interviewed Kor for a story in the July 21 Weekly. Would we have a gloomy talk about her ordeal as a Mengele twin, or would she be preachy about her decision to forgive the Nazis?

Neither. During our phone interview, she was friendly, intriguing, and candid. She praised the film, but noted, "I’d like to be shown as 20 pounds lighter and 20 years younger."

In the film, Eva is remarkably sweet when giving speeches about her life around the country. In one scene, she hugs a girl student who’s in tears over an unknown woe, when she could have easily dismissed her with the thought "Her childhood could never be as bad as mine."

Eva told me: "I was young and I was vulnerable. It would have been helpful to me if someone had come up and told me it would be all right. Even in the U.S., they (young people) have a hard time fitting into the world."

She also spoke to me about her notions of justice. "It’s a funny concept," she said. "If you hang every Nazi criminal or child molester, their crimes are not gone. Those who perpetuate crimes should be removed from society to protect society, but it’s not enough."

The next step for a victim, as Eva has repeatedly proclaimed, is learning to forgive and let go, or the sad tale will never be over. "The best revenge is forgiveness. Then those who have hurt you are no longer hurting you."

Eva grew troubled talking about the one part of the film she wished had not been included, a scene of her meeting with Palestinian teachers. She had hoped for a dialogue about a forgiveness curriculum in their schools, but the teachers would talk only about their grievances with the Israelis, telling story after story of how they had suffered. Eva said she felt attacked.

Forgiveness, she told me, can be impossible for both sides when a conflict is still raging.

"You cannot go up to somebody who’s holding a gun to your head and say, 'I forgive you.'" She laughed ruefully. "Survival and self-preservation always come first."

Then she added, "What do you do when the guns are silent?"

Pictured: Eva Mozes Kor in Auschwitz

Cooling off with lush choral music

After another sweltering day, what a relief last night to escape into the coolness of Stanford University's Memorial Church, listening to lush choral music.

The Peninsula Women's Chorus was holding a free "bon voyage" concert, gearing up for the singers' trip to Central Europe. Gigs in Prague and Budapest and at the Bela Bartok 22nd International Choir Competition in Debrecen, Hungary -- now that's a proper summer vacation.

Kudos to the singers for handling such difficult, intricate music, and to artistic director Martin Benvenuto for ensuring the sounds blended so purely, with such power and control.

My favorite part of the concert was the contrast between "Venite Exultemus Domino" by Magyar composer Levente Gyongyosi and the piece that followed, "Ave Maris Stella" by Chan Ka Nin.

First came the "Venite," sparkling and lively, ending on a high burst that made some in the large audience titter with pleasure. Then the Chan Ka Nin composition flowed in hauntingly, accompanied by a rippling piano. I thought of a river at midnight, perhaps dangerous, perhaps inviting a tempting, dark swim.

It's never too late to write

Do I dare admit I'm writing a novel? Geez. Isn't everyone?

I do not, however, have lofty dreams of fame and fortune. With my arts editor-slash-community theater actor schedule, I merely have aspirations of finishing the darn book.

Which is why I like the theme of next Tuesday's authors' panel at Kepler's Books. It's called "Women Empowered: Picking Up the Pen Later in Life." See, it's never too late to finish your great Hungarian-American novel.

Three authors are scheduled to speak starting at 7:30 p.m. Betty Auchard will talk about her book "Dancing in My Nightgown: The Rhythms of Widowhood," which she wrote after the loss of Denny, her husband of 49 years. Sounds like she's managed to find inspiration and even humor in her stories (and her website has some pretty cute greeting cards she designed).

Gilberta Guth (pictured) also turned to memoir in her "The Fighter Pilot's Wife." I can only imagine the anxiety of being on the ground waiting for your husband to land safely -- melded with the excitement of living in far-flung lands.

And in "The End of Romance: A Memoir of Love, Sex, and the Mystery of the Violin," Norma Barzman harks back to 1973, when she was a blacklisted screenwriter living in Southern France. All this in the midst of the resurgence of fascism in Italy.

Pictured: Gilberta Guth

A doodle a day

Sometimes you do strike gold down the dark mine shaft of the Internet.

The other day, I found this terrific blog called Alex Noriega Sketchblog. Alex says he's an illustrator from Barcelona "whose goal in life is to draw a doodle a day."

More than a doodle. I'm charmed by the lively drawings and the way they jump out of the bright acrylic paint in the background.

Especially nice is Alex's posting of May 21, in which he demonstrates step-by-step how he creates his paintings. He writes with a nice humorous, easygoing style as well. Check it out.

My favorite fountain

I've always liked this little water fountain, but I worry about it, the way you fuss over a skinny kitten, or wonder whether your tomato plant is getting enough water.

It has a brave, geometric flair under the overgrown ferns, but you have to stop walking along Gilman Street in downtown Palo Alto long enough to get a good look. The water fountain doesn't work any more, and its silver basin is filled with leaves and rocks. I bet the bowl on the bottom left was once for dogs (and perhaps skinny kittens), but it's also full.

Today I wiped the dirt off the small plaque on top and read "Altoan Press Fountain, April 1973." The plaque also says that the sculptor was Adrienne Duncan, the designer was Marlene Lawrence, and the artisan was Tony Ramirez.

Does anyone know the story behind my favorite fountain?