Unveiling Scheherazade

Alonzo King's LINES Ballet presents a new interpretation of Scheherazade with the music of Rimsky-Korsakov interpreted by Zakir Hussein for western and Middle Eastern instruments.

http://www.sfexaminer.com/lifestyle/Unveiling-Scheherazade-104730474.html

Playing With Our Food

L. John Harris, author and illustrator of Foodoodles relishes the early day's of Berkeley's foodie revolution.

http://themonthly.com/upfront1011.html

Oh, Inverted World

Choreographer Trey McIntyre debuts his new piece for Smuin Ballet, appearing at the Palace of Fine Arts through Octobr 10th. Here's my convozine interview with him:

http://convozine.com/conversations/7370

Former Kirov soloist Yuri Zhukov presents Shared and Divided at the Cowell theater:

http://www.sfexaminer.com/lifestyle/Zhukov-Dance-Theater-offers-up-simple-gifts-102577584.html

Over the past eight years I've contributed numerous features and Shop Talk pieces to the East Bay Monthly, a literary and commerce magazine in the San Francisco Bay Area. For my work on Shop Talk I've loved getting to know the new shopkeepers in town and, hopefully giving them a little boost in traffic. By now, however, I can usually tell which ones will survive, and which won't. These two recent ones are, I believe, keepers.


Modernaire

Step into Berkeley’s Modernaire, and you’re instantly transported back to the midcentury world of Mad Men. Red, orange, turquoise, and chartreuse Murano art glass pops against Paul Frankl’s white, treated-cork tables. You can almost see a Brylcreemed Don Draper, whiskey glass in one hand, ever-present cigarette in the other, reposing on the tweed-covered Scandinavian love seat.

Photo by Spiral-A Photography

Bee Healthy Honey

Verdant valleys carpeted with wildflowers: not our Western vision of Yemen. But for Khaled Almghafi, proprietor of Bee Healthy Honey Shop in Oakland, these are vivid images from his childhood. “Yes, we do have deserts filled with acacias from which we get acacia honey,” he explains. “But we also have mountains and on the beautiful island of Socotra, off the coast, very rare plants. That honey goes for $180 a kilo in France.”

http://www.themonthly.com/shoptalk1004.html

Two for the Road

Chitresh Das and Jason Samuels Smith at the Palace of Fine Arts

What do you get when you combine classical Indian dance and American tap? A jubilant explosion of sound.
On Saturday, Indian Kathak dance master Pandit Chitresh Das and American tap dance phenom Jason Samuels Smith team up to present “India Jazz Suites,” part of the Chitresh Das Dance Company’s 30th anniversary celebration gala.
The performance heralds a collaboration that, since their first match-up in 2005, has received wildly enthusiastic response from audiences here and abroad.Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/entertainment/Two-for-the-road-87625457.html#ixzz0l1dQJ5np