Snapshots
The Broadway tunesmiths who have had revues built from their songs usually have an embarrassment of familiar riches from which to choose. Think: Cole Porter, Noel Coward, Frank Loesser, Rodgers and Hart and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, George Gershwin, and Lerner and Loewe, to cite a few of the more sterling examples.
Tuna Does Vegas
The actual tourist attractions of Tuna, the third smallest town in Texas, are probably limited to a stuffed armadillo or two in the general store, but there is something irresistible about regularly revisiting this seriously repressed burg where the Smut Snatchers have excised just about every questionable word in the dictionary.
June busts out all over
In these heady days of marriage liberation, it's great to see evidence, in the Frida Kahlo show now raging at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, that Kahlo and Diego Rivera, the great Mexican mural artist, got married (for their second time) in San Francisco City Hall. There's a photo of them filling out the necessary paperwork at City Hall, and a reproduction of their marriage license. This week, SF's Beaux Arts civic palace was the epicenter of the media universe as same-sex duos tied the knot, just like Frida & Diego!
Ariodante
So much Handel, so little time. I've been meaning to tell you how great Alan Curtis' new recording of Handel's "Tolomeo" (Archiv) is - arguably the finest work yet from his Il Complesso Barocco - when along comes a DVD of his <slug> Ariodante </slug> from last summer's Spoleto Festival (Dynamic) just in time to coincide with the work's SF Opera premiere (continuing through July 6).
Frida Kahlo
Whether they're an expression of narcissism, or represent an escape from debilitating physical pain and emotional suffering, Frida Kahlo's transfixing self-portraits - she painted at least 60 - are beguiling. They dominate <slug>Frida Kahlo</slug>, an exhibition of 42 paintings that charts the Mexican artist's career from 1926 until her death in 1954, her growing confidence as an artist and her tumultuous relationship with her on-again, off-again husband, Diego Rivera, the famous muralist whose stature and outsized reputation dwarfed Kahlo's work for many years.
New queer paradigms
Highlights from the 32nd San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival, week 1
SF Opera scores a triumph
"Ariodante"'s plot may have its giggle-inducing inanities, but its oft-florid music is glorious. Given the excellence of SFO General Director David Gockley's cast, we will be extremely fortunate to experience another equally glowing rendition of Handel's seldom-performed opera of 1735 in our lifetimes.
East Bay couples celebrate nuptials
Civil marriage is a civil right - that was the message from many activists and elected officials on Monday, June 16, as county officials began issuing licenses for the first legally-recognized same-sex marriages in the state.
Gay marriage advocates plan weddings
Not rushing to the altar this week were many of the lawyers and gay rights advocates behind the successful push to legalize same-sex marriage in California. Instead of being first in line to marry, they are planning more private ceremonies away from the media spotlight.
Mayor weds Sacramento LGBT couples
There were no bachelor or bachelorette parties for the dozens of LGBT couples participating in Sacramento's historic first day of issuing state marriage licenses Tuesday, June 17.
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