Today @ Electric Works
As Rust Belt belt cities lock up their architectural treasures and throw away the key, photographer Katherine Westerhout steals glimpses inside industrial spaces and former pleasure palaces declared fit for demolition. Shot in natural daylight, her lush, large-format images have the quality of rare specimens trapped in amber. In Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, paint peels and prison bars rust. Dust blankets Buffalo's grain elevators. The Motor City's Vanity Ballroom no longer lives up to its flashy name, with a bandstand that once hosted Duke Ellington standing tattered and silent, a melancholy souvenir of better times. Though the concept of "ruin porn" has drawn increasing popularity and criticism, particularly since Detroit was hard hit, Westerhout's photographs speak for themselves, in all of their decadence and decay....
Coming Up
Maira Kalman and Daniel Handler
Today @ Herbst Theater
Two of our favorite writers/illustrators, Maira Kalman and Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket), collaborate on the tale of a broken teen romance. Both Kalman and Handler have a way with words and images, creating sharply observed and disarmingly whimisical narratives that we scoop up with abandon. The two come to City Arts & Lectures to present their new illustrated novel, Why We Broke Up. Get a head start by checking out The Why We Broke Up Project online and sharing your own funny, touching, heartbreaking breakup story....
Today @ Various locations
Each year, in the midst of bitter weather conditions and mid-to-late January doldrums, 16 days arrive to tickle our souls with the comedy-feather. SF Sketchfest makes it okay to laugh again. Now, listing the performers would be a nutty undertaking, since just about every comedic luminary still breathing has graced the Sketchfest stages at one time or another, but we'll whet your palate with a sampling: this year, expect to see the likes of Kevin Pollak, Molly Shannon, Greg Proops, Paul Rudd, David Cross, Amy Poehler, Drew Carey hosting an Improv-a-Ganza, and laughs, guffaws, chortles, and other words for the exact same thing. Brace yourself and get ready to laugh. Also, these events sell out fast. As the old saying goes, "It's only funny when you have tickets."
Today @ Electric Works
As Rust Belt belt cities lock up their architectural treasures and throw away the key, photographer Katherine Westerhout steals glimpses inside industrial spaces and former pleasure palaces declared fit for demolition. Shot in natural daylight, her lush, large-format images have the quality of rare specimens trapped in amber. In Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary, paint peels and prison bars rust. Dust blankets Buffalo's grain elevators. The Motor City's Vanity Ballroom no longer lives up to its flashy name, with a bandstand that once hosted Duke Ellington standing tattered and silent, a melancholy souvenir of better times. Though the concept of "ruin porn" has drawn increasing popularity and criticism, particularly since Detroit was hard hit, Westerhout's photographs speak for themselves, in all of their decadence and decay....
Today @ Embarcadero Center Cinema
Winner of the Cinematography Award at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Pariah is a gritty and heartfelt coming-of-age drama starring talented newcomer Adepero Oduye as Alike, a bright 17-year-old African-American girl who lives with her middle-class, seemingly tight-knit family in Brooklyn. Ready to more openly explore her lesbian identity, Alike (who is "out" to her friends) finds it increasingly more difficult to conceal her sexual preference from her conservative parents. A semi-autobiographical story, Pariah is brimming with tomorrow's talent; in addition to Oduye's standout performance and Bradford Young's cinematography, filmmaker Dee Rees walked off with Breakthrough Director accolades at the 2011 Gotham Awards....
