Learning to love the blog

One of my favorite quotes about the journalism biz comes from Jerry Seinfeld: "It's amazing that the amount of news that happens in the world every day always just exactly fits the newspaper."

If only that were true. We editors are often reluctant scythe-wielders, forced to cut perfectly good stories that just won't fit in the paper. There's a reason to learn to love the blog: we can use it to add in things from time to time that didn't make the print edition.

Case in point: I ran a blurb in this week's paper about Palo Alto artist Anthony Montanino and his exhibit of paintings at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, but I didn't have room for the pictures. Pity, because his urban and suburban landscapes have an intriguing style to them: sometimes jazzy, sometimes eerie. (Word has it Madonna owns one of his paintings.) So I've included two images here.

Montanino's exhibit runs through April 24; here are the details.


Pictured: Top: "Donut World II," a 2005 oil on paper. Above: "Allied Arts IV," a 2005 oil on canvas. Both are by Anthony Montanino.

'Tis the season

At first I thought the California Bach Society had forgotten to update its website. But the choral group really is hosting a sing-it-yourself Messiah this Saturday in Palo Alto.

Messiah in the spring? Helen Barrios, vice president of the society, says it makes sense: this is the time of year Handel always performed it. Also, the California Bach folks are focusing on the lesser-known Parts II and III of the work. Barrios says the sections' themes -- such as resurrection -- seem apropos for Easter time.

Of course, there are also practical reasons, such as not having to vie with all the other groups throwing sing-it-yourself bashes in December.

Practicality aside, I’m getting a kick out of the event because it’s unexpected. Why not a March Messiah? Kudos to this and other arts organizations who try something different. Why not mix ballet and bluegrass music, like the Smuin Ballet? Why not have artists paint your city utility boxes?

Which leads me to the coolest thing I’ve found on the Internet today. Officials in the city of Tempe, Arizona, have decided to design city library cards with original artwork, commissioning four artists. Check it out (so to speak).

The California Bach Society’s Sing-it-Yourself-Messiah takes place this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 1140 Cowper St., Palo Alto. Here's your ticket info.

A plethora of pierogies

Being the A&E editor means I'm also the Weekly's food editor. Which means I get the most hilarious swag in the mail.

Today, for example, there was a pierogy fiesta on my desk. A Pennsylvania company called Mrs. T's sent me a heap of recipes for the little dumpling delicacies (which it describes as "a delicious pairing of pasta and potatoes") along with chirpy photos that must have kept several food stylists off the streets for at least half a day.

Oh, baby. Imagine, if you will, the shrimp & pierogy skewers. The pierogy bruschetta. The Pierogy Primavera. Is this what my Polish grandmother dreamed of finding in the New World?

Then Mrs. T's gave me a slap in the face by including a map of the nation and the areas of highest pierogy consumption. Shockingly, Palo Alto is not part of the "Pierogy Pocket," which has a decidedly northeastern bent. This is an outrage. We demand to be lumped in with such exalted company as Hartford, Connecticut; Cleveland; Detroit; and Buffalo.

Betcha there's a place on the Peninsula to procure a prime pierogy. Any suggestions?



Pictured: Shrimp & pierogy skewers (top right) and pierogy minestrone soup (above). Photos courtesy of Mrs. T's.

Finding your way

You can truly appreciate how far we've come in technology when you realize that sailors once measured speed by throwing something overboard and seeing how long the ship took to pass it.

That's the first thing you learn at the "Art & Evolution of Navigation" exhibit at the Museum of American Heritage in Palo Alto. Interesting. I may try it on the freeway.

Then there's the ever-popular “navigation by echo,” illustrated by a wooden ear trumpet you listened to in the fog while letting loose a foghorn. “Elapsed time between the blast and the echo gave the approximate distance from the reflection point,” says the exhibit.

It’s a fun little exhibit, especially educational for today’s whippersnappers who think the world revolves around those newfangled Google maps, which allow you to see the roof of your favorite McDonald's in Russia. Throw them a cross-staff and see if they can find the latitude of Honolulu using only a fake North Star on the wall.

There’s plenty of more modern stuff, too, including an aircraft magnetic compass, radio-based direction finders and info about how the Mars Rover finds its way around.

Should I give you the address of the museum, or do you want to find it yourself? Awright, awright: it’s at 351 Homer Ave. Open hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday through Sunday.

Pictured above: A revolution counter that counts the number of ship propeller revolutions, allowing you to estimate the distance the ship has traveled in a given time. Below: An old globe in the exhibit. Photos by Ron Evans.

An editor's life

I never know what's going to happen when the phone rings at my desk. On a good day, it's an oboe player telling me about an upcoming Palo Alto performance of an orchestral suite. Oboes are cool. On a bad day, it's a publicist from an area code somewhere east of the Smokies.

"This is Rebe-"

"Yes this is Gretchen-Heidi LaTorte from Wheee PR calling to confirm that you got my six press releases about Two-Speed Girl the exciting new washboard-maraca combo..."

I try to derail the train. "Is the band from Palo Alto? Is it playing locally?"

"Locally? Oh, yes, yes, yes," Gretchen-Heidi assures me. "In Yuba City (she pronounces it 'Yubba'). That's near you, isn't it?"

Sometimes it's a call somewhere in the middle: a little off-topic, but sweet. The other day, an older lady wanted to know "who that doctor picked on television."

We don't write much about TV, I said, but obligingly tried to figure out what she was talking about. Turns out she was wondering whether
"The Bachelor" chose Moana, the freaky California chick, or Sarah, the nice Tennessee kindergarten teacher. I'm the A&E editor. Apparently I must follow these things.

The woman didn't have Internet, so I looked it up for her. The winner was Sarah, and the woman was tickled. "Good," she said. "He should pick a girl who has the same roots." She had a lot more to say about the show and the girl, but I didn't bother trying to find a local angle. Sometimes there's something endearing about someone's rambling. Just not on deadline.

Eight stories

So I was eavesdropping today on a man telling a story about picking a fight with another man in a wheelchair, but it's really hard to blend in when you're the only person under 60 in the room. Anyway, I was trying to pay attention to the exhibit I came to see.

I like art where you don't expect it -- a photo show in the dining hall of the Stevenson House senior complex would have to qualify. There are portraits of eight Stevenson residents, some arty, with the people's poems and stories. It's not the Louvre, but resident Vlasta Diamant did a nice job shooting the photos and pulling it all together. You get glimpses into long lives.

The stories about real winter were the most interesting to me, as I whine every year about the sunny sham season here in California. (You'd think I'd be used to it after growing up in Menlo Park, but some people never learn.)

Give me Iowa, where resident Rita Shepard is from. She tells a sweet story about taking a sleigh ride to midnight Mass in 1925 with her family. "Dad drove the horses through the stretches where the snow was not so deep. I remember the crisp night air on my face, the warmth of the blankets, and my father's loving care," she writes. Nice.

Give me Edmonton, where retired scientist Galina Kniajerd used to live. The woman is from Moscow, and even she groused. "It was like Siberia," she writes. "The cars had to be plugged into special electrical cords outside in order to keep batteries from freezing." She then tells the story of getting lost and nearly freezing to death in her car.

Now that's weather you can respect.

The exhibit, "I remember it well," is up through Feb. 28 at Stevenson House, 455 E. Charleston Road. Call (650) 493-1478.

Pictured: Four Stevenson House residents who are telling their tales in the exhibit. Photos by Vlasta Diamant.

It's all about you

Did today's preview story in the Weekly for the Palo Alto Players' production of "Our Country's Good" make you dream of being on stage? Come on -- you know you want to. Think of the lights. The drama. The mascara. The feather boas. (Um, how did a drama about Australian convicts suddenly turn into "La Cage"?)

Anyway. The players are planning auditions for their next show, "Urinetown," on Jan. 30 and 31. Really, who doesn't love a musical about pay toilets that has characters named Little Sally, Soupy Sue and Officer Lockstock?

Now go out there and break a leg, tiger.


Pictured: A photo from Palo Alto Players' production of "The Boyfriend" during the 2002-2003 season.