Friday, November 22, 2013

MEXICAN MUSEUM

MEXICAN MUSEUM - This post is a snippet of a longer article take from the Chronicle, see below for the link to the full article. San Francisco’s Mexican Museum is currently located at Fort Mason Center. A new building is in the planning stages, to be located in Yerba Buena, near the SFMOMA and the Jewish Museum. Construction on the multi-million project will begin as soon as late 2014. The collection contains pre-conquest, colonial, folk, Mexican/ Chicano as well as contemporary art. The picture depicts the proposed plan for the new building.

http://www.sfgate.com/art/article/Mexican-Museum-s-new-home-closer-to-reality-4742302.php


#ChadSchimke  #SanFrancisco  #ArtGallery #SFMoma  #VisualAid  #Picasso  #Haring  #Koons  #Warhol  #Calder  #Lichtenstein  #ReclaimedRoom  #Gallery1044  #LowerPolkArtWalk  #BayBridge #CityArtGallery #Bansky #SirronNorris #Solis

Thursday, November 14, 2013

BANKSY– These pics represent outdoor paintings by Banksy in San Francisco around the time his 2010 movie came out. Enjoy!












#ChadSchimke  #SanFrancisco  #ArtGallery #SFMoma  #VisualAid  #Picasso  #Haring  #Koons  #Warhol  #Calder  #Lichtenstein  #ReclaimedRoom  #Gallery1044  #LowerPolkArtWalk  #BayBridge #CityArtGallery #Bansky

Monday, November 11, 2013

ABLE, BAKER, CHARLIE, DOG SHORT STORY REVIEW

ABLE, BAKER, CHARLIE, DOG  SHORT STORY REVIEW - This short story is part of a larger work by the author entitled Sweet Talk. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker numerous times over a twenty year period. I haven’t read any of the other stories, so this review only pertains to: Able, Barker, Charlie, Dog by Stephanie Vaughn. The story is spare and haunting, centering on the first person narrator’s perceptions of her father, as they changed over time. The title is derived from a trick to memorize the alphabet, that she learned at age twelve years, taught to her by her father, used by the military to keep the B’s separate from the V’s. Throughout the story, he (the father) teaches life lessons, he is a good man, while at the same time, that he is deeply flawed, as a human being. Thematically, this is Vaughn’s moral of the story: even at our best, we’re still capable of our worst. 



Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog by Stephanie Vaughn pic


Monday, October 21, 2013

THIS FINER SHADOW

This Finer ShadowThis Finer Shadow by Harlan Cozad McIntosh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

THIS FINER SHADOW – It’s an unusual title, often included in the cannon of gay lesbian novels as a definitive pulp classic, by texts such as Truly Pulp and Queer Pulp. Refer to my Goodreads bookshelf for further information on these non-fiction texts. The forward explicitly states that McIntosh was not a homosexual. Although that is debatable, he was frustrated by multiple rejections from agents/ publishers, suffering years of revisions when he committed suicide, in the midst of a full-blow mental breakdown. After he met his death, by plunging from the top of his apartment building, his wife posthumously published the novel. Similarly to another book that I’m reading right now (The Third Sex by Artemis Smith), This Finer Shadow by Harlan Cozad McIntosh draws upon the Freudian/ psychoanalytic theory of homosexuality as ‘inversion’, which was conventional wisdom in the 30’s. The novels (Finer Shadow and Third Sex) draw striking parallels in terms of setting (Manhattan near Washington Square), gender roles, labels: butch/ queen/ femme/ macho/ nelly and explores turmoil these characters faced. In many ways, both books describe a common experience, which feels familiar. In Finer Shadow, the protagonist is a sailor who finds himself in a big city full of confusing possibilities. While it is not a book I would normally read, I appreciate the experience. I will always wonder … what it must have been like ‘in the life’ before Stonewall?

View all my reviews

Sunday, September 15, 2013

WRITING REFERENCE #7

WRITING REFERENCE #7 - This post is the final part of a series devoted to writing reference. Click on the tag at the bottom of the blog post to pull up all the topic articles. This is a quick video on online tools for marketing and promotion. As a reminder, I have listed all of the posts in this category, see below.
1.            Beginning Writers Answer Book
2.            Selling Your Work Online
3.            70 Solutions to Common Writing Mistakes
4.            Fiction Genre Descriptions
5.            How Do I Write & Sell Short Fiction
6.            Query Letter Clinic

7.            Online Tools for Marketing and Promotion

Thursday, September 12, 2013

THE HOURS

The HoursThe Hours by Michael Cunningham
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

THE HOURS – The novel skillfully interweaves three story lines: Virginia Wolf as she writes Mrs. Dallaway, Laura Brown (a Leave it to Beaver sort of fifties housewife) and Clarissa Vaughan a Manhattanite in the midst of planning a party. The Hours by Michael Cunningham explores what it was (might have been like?) to be a lesbian within three specific historical contexts (1920, 1950 and approximately 1990). It also explores varied aspects of illness--such as the AIDS epidemic, depression, suicide and mental illness--in that the story moves from past to present and back to past again. Cunningham is the award winning author of several additional books including A Home at the End of the World as well as Flesh and Blood. For many reasons, I place Cunningham and Easton-Ellis on a similar shelf in terms of contemporary American literary criticism. Up to (and including) their progress wresting free sexual liberation from the USA’s puritanical moral code, exploration of LGBT studies and the use of stream-of-consciousness in terms of literary technique.

View all my reviews

Monday, August 5, 2013

Friday, August 2, 2013

A DIFFERENT KIND OF IMPERFECTION SHORT STORY REVIEW

A DIFFERENT KIND OF IMPERFECTION  SHORT STORY REVIEW - This short story was published in the New Yorker--but, is part of the author’s longer work titled ‘Seduction Theory’--with a college student whose father dies of cancer. In A Different Kind of Imperfection by Thomas Beller, the protagonist returns to his mother’s home for Christmas vacation from university, after recently breaking up with his girlfriend. There are inanimate objects scattered all throughout the apartment that remind him of his childhood, about his mother as she is now, as well as piles of his father’s books. In particular, he zeroes in on ‘To the Lighthouse’ by Virginia Woolf with a business card, pencil marks and paper scraps found inside the book. The imagery is somber and restrained, reminiscent of Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’, which also makes an allusion to Virginia Woolf, as she descends into hysteria and madness. Cunningham’s book titled ‘The Hours’ (also a major motion picture) famously deals with Woolf’s suicide as she filled her coat pockets with rocks and drowned herself. The short story is a comment on what we leave behind when we are gone.


Monday, July 29, 2013

artMRKT_SF - These pics represent some of the art and event happenings from artMRKT in May 2013. Enjoy!







#ChadSchimke  #SanFrancisco  #ArtGallery #SFMoma  #VisualAid  #Picasso  #Haring  #Koons  #Warhol  #Calder  #Lichtenstein  #ReclaimedRoom  #Gallery1044  #LowerPolkArtWalk  #BayBridge #CityArtGallery #Bansky #Sirron

artMRKT_SF - These pics represent some of the art and event happenings from artMRKT in May 2013. Enjoy!







#ChadSchimke  #SanFrancisco  #ArtGallery #SFMoma  #VisualAid  #Picasso  #Haring  #Koons  #Warhol  #Calder  #Lichtenstein  #ReclaimedRoom  #Gallery1044  #LowerPolkArtWalk  #BayBridge #CityArtGallery #Bansky

artMRKT_SF - These pics represent some of the art and event happenings from artMRKT in May 2013. Enjoy!







#ChadSchimke  #SanFrancisco  #ArtGallery #SFMoma  #VisualAid  #Picasso  #Haring  #Koons  #Warhol  #Calder  #Lichtenstein  #ReclaimedRoom  #Gallery1044  #LowerPolkArtWalk  #BayBridge #CityArtGallery #Bansky

artMRKT_SF - These pics represent some of the art and event happenings from artMRKT in May 2013. Enjoy!








#ChadSchimke  #SanFrancisco  #ArtGallery #SFMoma  #VisualAid  #Picasso  #Haring  #Koons  #Warhol  #Calder  #Lichtenstein  #ReclaimedRoom  #Gallery1044  #LowerPolkArtWalk  #BayBridge #CityArtGallery #Bansky #Sirron

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

SF MOMA

SF MOMA - My favorite museum in my hometown (San Francisco) is the MOMA (Museum of Modern Art). I’ve visited it more times than I can remember. In terms of art, I’ve seen some of my greatest artist inspirations, exhibited therein. A few of my favorites are Warhol, Koons, Haring, Lichtenstein, Monet, Picasso. O’Keefe, Van Gough, Calder and Miro. The SF MOMA is moving and expanding. It sounds as if the pieces will be all over the city during the renovation. Check the website periodically because travelling exhibitions will be constantly changing. When the new museum emerges in 2016 there will be a 10 story addition all along the back side on Third Street. Are you visiting San Francisco and looking for great fine art museums? If you’re sightseeing, I recommend the de Young and Legion of Honor. You’ll still be able to see some of the best art the city--or, the world for that matter--has to offer. See below for a link to exhibits and also CBS news for related info.


http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/05/29/sf-moma-breaks-ground-for-expansion-museum-to-close-until-2016/














#ChadSchimke  #SanFrancisco  #ArtGallery #SFMoma  #VisualAid  #Picasso  #Haring  #Koons  #Warhol  #Calder  #Lichtenstein  #ReclaimedRoom  #Gallery1044  #LowerPolkArtWalk  #BayBridge #CityArtGallery #Bansky #SirronNorris #Solis