Plants on stage

If you've got a spare four minutes and you're a fan of "Little Shop of Horrors" (no to the first, yes to the second), check out this behind-the-scenes video I just got a link to. That means click here. It's a spirited look at how they make the plants work, from the inside out.

Kudos to San Mateo High School's Tech Theatre students, who made the video. The show opens tomorrow night.

Let them eat house

My previous post was about losing and finding home. So how can I pass up an event about eating your home?

Up in the city, the Contemporary Jewish Museum is hosting a Dec. 2 event called "Cake Building and Design." Participants will get to build their ideal homes in miniature out of cake. Yep, frosting, too.

Artist-baker Sarah Klein leads the class. Her other work includes drawings, videos and a performance series called "The Bread Project," in which, she says, "I bring the process of making bread to people in unexpected places." So one minute you're in your office lobby, and the next your hands are happily plunged into dough. Sounds like a great way to question the wisdom of our hectic lifestyles.

All I can say is: Bring this woman to Palo Alto!

A powerful storyteller

I finally got over to the Marilyn da Silva exhibit at the Palo Alto Art Center, after we ran a preview of it last month. She's masterful at crafting details and finding nuances of feeling in metal, a medium that in other hands might not warm so easily.

All of da Silva's pieces are powerfully narrative, many telling of her pain and confusion after being burned out of her Oakland home by a 1993 fire. The array of candle-snuffers in her "Put Out the Fire" series -- many of them like odd-shaped houses dangling from sticks -- seem to ask "Where is my home now?" Home is somewhere in these dollhouses that have the mystical power to put out small fires, but it's hard to see it through da Silva's microscopic windows and doors.

Another candle-snuffer is in the shape of a saw cutting a home in two. Like much of da Silva's work, it's both playful and plaintive. Indeed, the artist often uses whimsy to soften the stories. One tiny home is shaped like a fish; another candle-snuffer is a doll-sized hat box hanging from a fire engine ladder.

Animals are everywhere, including the birds that perch atop many sculptures. They're figures who can be curious, menacing or ambivalent. Clearly the artist wants her audiences to make up their own narratives as well. Overall, every piece is made with such intricacy and care that da Silva's deep connection to her work shines through.

I was especially drawn to one display case with three silver candle-snuffers shaped like homes. In a lovely juxtaposition, the 1999 piece "North Star Lighthouse" is behind the trio, atop a small wooden dais. While the candle-snuffers are meant to put out fires -- and we've seen the destruction that the flames can cause -- the lighthouse gleams in silver and copper and glass. It feels like a beacon of rebirth, telling us we can rebuild even after a great loss.

I kept thinking of a dear friend who passed away unexpectedly this summer. He loved lighthouses, and I think he would have been drawn to the hope and grace of this piece.

Pictured: Whimsy is clearly present in this candle-snuffer made by Marilyn da Silva: By moving the handle, you can make the rabbit pop out of the hat. (A hat that is also a house -- look closely.) Photo by Marjan Sadoughi.

Brother, can you spare an E string?

What do you picture when you think of a musician playing with a case open for change? Someone with a clever T-shirt who says "dude" a lot?

Oh, ye of limited imagination. The latest trend is to be a classical violinist-turned-busker, hip-hopping from life with the London Mozart Players and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra to a corner near you.

OK, it's actually a trend of one. Violinist David Juritz is currently traveling away on what he bills as "a 60,000-mile busk around the world." So far he's played in Stockholm, Sydney, Singapore and many other places that do not begin with S.

David says his goal is to raise money for Musequality, a London-based organization that brings music to underprivileged people. Y'all can catch a glimpse of him locally this week. He's scheduled to play outside Tresidder Union at Stanford University this Friday from noon to 1.

Pictured: David Juritz playing at Tiananmen Square. Photo courtesy of Musequality.