Saturday, December 28, 2013

Looking, Need for Speed, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Beauty and the Beast, Fast Food Workers

Movies/TV - Looking Season 1: Trailer #2 (HBO)


HBO'S 'LOOKING' TRAILER REMINDS US JONATHAN GROFF IS WORLD'S MOST CHARMING HUMAN



Need For Speed Movie Stuntman Speaks: Video
Aaron Paul's Need For Speed Accelerates With Brand New Poster

Screenwriters Choice Awards Nominees Include 'Blue Jasmine,' 'Her,' '12 Years a Slave'
Tax Lessons From Woody Allen's 'Blue Jasmine'

The Modern Family of the 70s: Growing Up With A Gay Dad - Writer Alysia Abbott recalls her upbringing with a single gay father in San Francisco. UPDATE: Soon to be movie from Sofia Coppola.


Not to take anything away from Need for Speed, but this little video has it all.



TheaterBest of 2013 theater: Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart lit up the stage in 'No Man's Land' at Berkeley Rep
Beauty and the Beast features Bay Area talent Jordan Aragon
Stephen Sondheim's "Road Show" to Receive Bay Area Premiere from Theatre Rhinoceros in San Francisco
Not Your Normal New Year's Eve pops again

Unions - THE LIFE OF A FAST-FOOD STRIKER - The New Yorker

Only in San Francisco - Cathy Kaplan once complained to her father, Zane, that there was nothing "cute" in their iconic army surplus and sports goods emporium on Market Street. "It's only cute if it sells," he replied. Unusual Market Street store soon to close its doors


Kink, tech converge for S.F. New Year's Eve party

Friday, December 20, 2013

Looking, Planet of the Apes, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, Godzilla, Nutcracker, Christmas Carol


Movies/TV11 Things We Know About HBO’s “Looking”
Jonathan Groff, Russell Tovey's Looking gets UK air date


The Joy of 'Looking' - San Francisco Magazine

Sofia Coppola To Co-Write ‘Fairyland’ For American Zoetrope

First Dawn of the Planet of the Apes trailer is absolutely chilling
Stop destroying San Francisco! Movies that trash our fair city

Gale Harold in "The Diary of a Teenage Girl" Film
WATCH THE TRAILER FOR PHOEBE GLOECKNER’S COMIC BOOK MEMOIR ADAPTATION

The Diary of a Teenage Girl - Teaser from Marielle Heller on Vimeo.


The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures

The story of her life


Vancouver still thinks it's San Francisco Dept.SET: GODZILLA Turns Oceanic Plaza Downtown into San Francisco BART Station

TheaterSan Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker: Classic Version Set in the City By the Bay

Big City, Big Show 'A Christmas Carol' at A.C.T. enlivens

Only in San Francisco - "It's been pretty crazy," said Rebecca Katz, director of S. F. Animal Care and Control. "They are coming into areas where we have never seen them before. It sounds like they are moving east."

S.F.'s urban coyotes could soon be shopping downtown



32Ten Christmas from 32Ten Studios on Vimeo.



Saturday, December 14, 2013

A Christmas Carol, Nutcracker, Blue Jasmine, Looking

American Conservatory Theater ushers in the holidays with ‘A Christmas Carol’

S.F. Ballet review: A sparkling 'Nutcracker'

'Newsies' musical to play Orpheum in early 2015


HBO releases synopses for episodes 1 and 2 of Jonathan Groff’s ‘Looking’
New Drama 'Looking' to Premiere January 19 on HBO


  Godzilla destroys San Francisco:



Only in San FranciscoArise, Tenderloin - It is San Francisco’s most glaring contradiction, an island of need in a sea of prosperity. Can it be helped? Does it even want to be? - San Francisco Magazine

Google Acquires Boston Dynamics, Adding To Its Fleet Of Robot-Makers

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Nutcracker, Looking, KQED News Set, Pete Hudson's Zoetrope

Theater - San Francisco Travel Association's "Magic Hour" Contest for Best San Francisco Holiday Memories
How to Enter the Contest
San Francisco Ballet Launches Nutcracker Interactive Storybook iPad Application 
How We Make It Snow Onstage - A Rare Glimpse Behind the Nutcracker Blizzard
Curtain Calls: Two 'Carols' mean more holiday cheer 


Movies/TV -  KQED News Set by built by Acme designed by Bill Swanson

Hollywood struggles to halt an exodus of film-makers

World Film Locations: San Francisco, edited by Scott Jordan Harris (Intellect Books; 128 pages; $22). The latest entry in this sharp series includes more than 40 pieces on films shot in San Francisco.
Audiences across the world, as well as many of the world’s greatest film directors – including Buster Keaton, Orson Welles, George Lucas, Francis Ford Coppola, David Fincher and Steven Soderbergh – have been seduced by San Francisco. This book is the ideal escape to the city by the bay for armchair travellers and cinephiles alike 
"Scott Jordan Harris's book made me fall even deeper in love with both movies and San Francisco. When I first arrived in The Bay Area I saw every inch as a movie location, and that has never changed. The city infects you with a cinematographers eye, shooting imaginary movies with a magnificent back drop up on every corner and hill top. Thankfully, Harris has provided us with a marvelous guided tour of the inspiration many masters and lesser-known film-makers minded from Fog City, taking our journey forward with a thoughtful analysis of the past." - Ted Hope, Exectutive Director, San Francisco Film Society
WILL HBO'S 'LOOKING' OUT-GAY 'SEX AND THE CITY'?

HBO’s “Looking” Through the Eyes and Mind of Costume Designer Danny Glicker: Watch In-Depth Interview





Affordable Care ActObamaCare Facts: Affordable Care Act, Health Insurance Marketplace

Only in San Francisco - San Francisco Sparkle: The Spinning Monkey Zoetrope
Tech's space appetite eclipses highs of dot-com boom

Friday, November 29, 2013

Book of Mormon, Looking, Need for Speed, Techies vs. Mission

Theater - Conrad Susa, versatile composer, dies at 78 Mr. Susa was the first composer to be commissioned by the late Lotfi Mansouri to write a new work for the San Francisco Opera.
The Chronicle's best bets for holiday theater
'Book of Mormon' creators have a long history of bad taste
You Can Still Get 'Book Of Mormon' Tickets Via Lottery
SF Theater Lore - ...The goat cart that carries disabled Porgy in the original version of "Porgy and Bess" is nowhere to be seen or used in "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess" showing at the Golden Gate Theatre. Porgy is still disabled, but uses a cane and has a very severe limp. 
Perhaps one reason for this change is the history of Porgy's goat in San Francisco. Garrett Graham recalls the 1954 run of "Porgy and Bess," at the Curran. Graham was then a student at Lowell High School, and prone - with a close pal - to practical joking. When the show opened here, "we cased the Curran, and every night, the goat was kept in the west side alley. The night we struck, we gave the goat a huge chunk of Ex-Lax. And right on cue, when the goat goes onstage, wonderful results occurred. They had to stop for five minutes to clean up the stage." - Leah Garchik, SF Chronicle

Movies/TV - The State of Film Production in San Francisco for 2014 - "...Things are definitely on the upswing. We are issuing more and more permits and have more and more shooting days every month," said Ms.(Susannah Greason) Robbins. Indeed, the number of shooting days in San Francisco has risen by 25% in the third quarter of this year alone, according recent San Francisco Film Commission statistics. Nine large budget productions have shot here over the past year and a half — like MTV's "The Real World," Woody Allen's "Blue Jasmine," and most recently, HBO's "Looking," and have brought a total of $2 million to the city in direct spending…." - fwd labs.com


VIDEO: Behind-the-Scenes of HBO's LOOKING, Starring Jonathan Groff - www.broadwayworld.com

  VIDEO: Watch Second Trailer for HBO's LOOKING, Starring Jonathan Groff (TV Content)


Heroines of Cinema: Reed Morano, The Next Big Thing in American Cinematography
- Cinematographer of HBO's "Looking"






Need For Speed – Trailer

  KiD CuDi To Star In Need For Speed Movie [VIDEO]


Tech - Google tries pop-up stores

Affordable Care Act/Covered CaliforniaCovered California hotline established to help consumers 

Find Help Near You You can get help in-person from certified enrollment counselors, certified agents and county service agencies.

The Artist's Health Insurance Resource Center. - Get Insured. Get Health Care. Get Creative. - Introducing The Actors Fund e-Learning Center

Only in San Francisco - Backlash by the Bay: Tech Riches Alter a City

New housing units in S.F. are filling up fast

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Lisa Devlin


Good and Welfare - Lisa Devlin breathed her last Saturday the 16th, our friends and fellow workers were with her. Paula Jean made a blog to celebrate her life,  http://lisadevlin.blogspot.com

A memorial is planned on her birthday, Sunday January 12, 2014. More details later, but plan for the afternoon.

Watch the blog for details.

She worked at the Opera, Ballet, FM Productions, and on many films. Here's her IMDB page.

Mrs. Doubtfire (Full Screen)
James and the Giant Peach
Made In America
Class Action
Getting Even With Dad
Nash Bridges - The First Season
Hemingway & Gellhorn


 That's the Rotunda Building in Oakland on Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, it was an empty shell, Lisa and the crew painted and dressed the lowest level to be a police station.

SF Chronicle Obituary

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Looking, Blue Jasmine, Need for Speed, Google Globes

Movies/TV'Looking,' new HBO show shot in S.F. - Peter Hartlaub

Q&A: HBO’s “Looking” creators Michael Lannan and Andrew Haigh

Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin in San Francisco: Making of Woody Allen's 'Blue Jasmine'

Hollywood Studios Facing Upheaval at Highest Levels
The New Need for Speed Trailer is Here
Film Society's foray into the new club scene

I found pictures of the 16th St. Oakland Train Station posted in 2013 which show some of our work on Hemingway and Gellhorn is still there. They are at this blog: http://virtuallynonexistent.blogspot.com Here's a letter from Hemingway, rediscovered in 2010, describing his rooms in the hotel: “In the fall of 1937 when I took up playwrighting, there weren’t any top floors to the hotel anymore. Nobody that was not crazy would go up there in a bombardment. But the two rooms where we lived were in what is called by artillerymen a dead angle. Any place else in the hotel could be hit and was. But unless the position of the batteries on Garabitas hill were changed; or unless they substituted howitzers for guns; rooms 112 and 113 could not be hit because of the position of three different houses across the street and across the square…"
Some more H&G links:
DTC Lighting and Grip Blog
Style in Film
Architectural Digest
Movie Insider
Tease
Trailer

Theater - A Conversation with Lucas Meachem -- San Francisco Opera's Barber of Seville
“Porgy and Bess” Adapts to Life Outside the Opera House
THE BOOK OF MORMON National Tour Announces Lottery Policy for San Francisco Run
The BEAUTIFUL Set: 3 Weeks in 2 Minutes

Art - Michael Goldman has his work "San Francisco Pictograms -sign prototypes" in the juried exhibition THIS WILL NEVER WORK at Southern Exposure 3030 20th St, San Francisco.

Tech - Giant Snow Globes by 32Ten

Google opens snow globe outlets in the Christmas season - Link to the video
Google Is Opening Interactive Holiday Pop-Up Shops That Have Huge Snow Globes You Can Play In
Google opens Winter Wonderlab pop-up shops showcasing latest gadgets

Jesse James's Snow Globe Video
Gaby's Video

PICTURES: Look Inside The New Google Showrooms That Will Challenge Apple's Stores
AMAZON'S BETAS WILL BE YOUR NEW FAVORITE SHOW TO HATEWATCH
'Betas' review: Clever tech sitcom tries too hard

More BatKid - Special Effects Contributed By 32TEN Studios Help Make-A-Wish Come True for 5-Year-Old 'BatKid'

Affordable Care Act - Americans Like Obamacare Where They Can Get It John Cassidy - NewYorker
California Encouraged by Health Plan Enrollment -NYTimes
Single-Payer Advocates: It Hurts To Say I Told You So
The U.S. Health Care System Is Terrible, In 1 Enraging Chart

Only in San Francisco - "Not since the late 19th century, when San Francisco and its environs dominated the state, has influence been so lopsidedly concentrated in just one region."
THE 'GREAT STATE' OF SAN FRANCISCO by Joel Kotkin

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Barber of Seville, Major Barbara, Newsies, Looking Trailer, Web Film Production

TheaterReview: San Francisco Opera breathes glorious new life into 'Barber of Seville' 
Holiday dance: Nutcracker and more
Rutherford-raised dancer joins the San Francisco Ballet for New York engagement
American Conservatory Theater to Present George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara
NEWSIES National Tour to Play SHN Orpheum Theatre in Early 2015
HOW PETER BECAME PAN
Review: 'The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess' a sumptuous musical treat


Movies/TVLooking Season 1: Trailer (HBO)
"I’ve been to visit (San Francisco) a couple of times but this is my first time living here, and I love it, I love it so much. It’s a beautiful city. We’re shooting on location pretty much entirely in San Francisco. The city is a whole other character in the piece and has been a beautiful backdrop for the story." - Jonathon Groff,
Here’s Everything We Know About HBO’s "Looking" From The First Trailer - Lots of beards.
Make-A-Wish Miles as Batkid By 32Ten Studios

S.F. looks to expand perks for Web film productions

Conventions - Time-lapse video shows huge tent inflated over Howard Street for Dreamforce 2013
Dreamforce 2013 set for huge S.F. turnout

Affordable Care ActAffordable Care Act - 6 things to know - Bill Sokol

Only in San Francisco - Batkid saves San Francisco as charity makes a wish come true
Holy Heartwarmer! No One Can Seem To Get Enough Of Batkid

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Nightmare Before Christmas, Looking Wraps, SF Film Rebate Program Update, Google Mystery

Movies/TV'Star Wars' London shoot irks California Film Commission chief

Get your own Nightmare Before Christmas black-light village and figurines. Nightmare Before Christmas Black Light Village Collection

Fuzzy pic of Production Designer Todd Fjelsted
HBO's "Looking" on social media - Connect HBO

First Look at Set of HBO’s New Gay Series “Looking” & Surprise Visit from Russell Tovey: Part 1


Last shot.
First Teaser For HBO's 'Looking' Arrives

City Updates Polices to Include Video Productions for the Web
From the Agenda:
Recommendations of the Budget and Finance Committee - [Administrative Code - Film Production Daily Use Fees; Film Rebate Program] Sponsor: Farrell Ordinance amending the Administrative Code to reduce the daily use fee for film productions with budgets less than $100,000 from $100 per day to $50 per day; expand the definition of film productions and low-budget film productions eligible for the Film Rebate Program to include episodes of a web series; and extend the Film Rebate Program expiration date from June 30, 2014, to June 30, 2015, and correspondingly increase the current funding cap from $2,000,000 to $3,000,000 subject to annual appropriation; and making environmental findings.

Op-Ed: Remodeled cinema re-opens in San Francisco, movie-goers rejoice!

TheaterAmerican Conservatory Theater Extends UNDERNEATH THE LINTEL thru Nov 23

TechGoogle barge revealed: Artistic structure with ‘fish fins’

Google barge mystery unfurled

Salesforce.com is gearing up for its annual Dreamforce conference, which is set to be the biggest yet, with 120,000 people expected to register.

Only in SF - In San Francisco, a forest in a cloud Nestled in a corner of Golden Gate Park is an unlikely slice of tropical rain forest. - Sacramento Bee

Saturday, November 2, 2013

SF Film Rebate Program, Moby Dick on PBS, FBI Sting

Movies/TV -  Rebate Program Boosts Filming in the City
Filmmakers train cameras on San Francisco


Supe proposes extending SF's film rebate program - "The Film Commission says the perks are working. From 2006 to October of this year, the city paid out about $1.7 million in incentives and film productions generated about $42 million in spending. The city controller is expected to issue an in-depth analysis in December."
Susannah Greason Robbins
of the San Francisco Film Commission

SF Film Commission on Twitter:
How Star Wars changed the world.


Theater'Moby-Dick' review: Opera as big on TV as on stage
Watch San Francisco Opera's Moby Dick on PBS
Moby-Dick from San Francisco Opera Composer Jake Heggie on Creating Moby-Dick
Lectrosonics Wireless Technology Gives 1776 An Audible Boost
Theater: “Underneath the Lintel” Is the Answer to Your Existential Crisis
'Underneath the Lintel' review: Librarian on quest
A Chat With Nancy Gibbs, Producer of SHN's 'Peter and the Starcatcher'
San Francisco Theater: Full cast list for ‘The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess’ announced

Film Rebate ProgramsSanta Barbara Offers California’s First Production Rebate Program
Santa Barbara's New Incentive Program Targets Unscripted TV Shows
Incentives Watch: States Vie with Foreign Countries in Luring Film Productions, Tax Credit Specialists Say
In Wake Of Sting, Sen. Ron Calderon Removed From State Film Panel
State Sen. Calderon was target of FBI sting, TV report says
Capitol Corruption: Inside an FBI sting (part one) October 30, 2013 Al Jazeera'€™s Investigative Unit reveals details of an FBI investigation into California State Senator Ronald Calderon
State Sen. Ron Calderon Yanked From California Film Commission
Calderon allegedly took bribes for pushing film bills, Al Jazeera reports

Affordable Care Act - Another Obamacare horror story debunked
Under Care Act, Millions Eligible for Free Policies

MysterySan Francisco's bay barge mystery: Floating data center or Google Glass store?

Only in San Francisco -  "We want a story that starts out with an earthquake and works its way up to a climax." - Samuel Goldwyn
Half-buried buildings a weird relic of 1906 quake
100 Graphic Designers On The Charms (And Curses) Of San Francisco

Saturday, October 26, 2013

Flying Dutchman, Under the Lintel, Stuart Blatt, San Francisco Rebate Program

Theater'Flying Dutchman' review: Rocky yet worthy tale 
Soaring Into San Francisco: Greer Grimsley as The Flying Dutchman
Photo Flash: First Look at David Strathairn in ACT's UNDERNEATH THE LINTEL
‘Underneath the Lintel’ Playwright tracks down Wandering Jew in strange comic saga
The Multiple Faces of Actor David Strathairn

'The Wizard of Oz' review: highly saturated



Movies - Stuart Blatt, production designer of "Trauma" gives an interview on blogtalkradio about Philadelphia, his home town. Here's the Blog


From the SF Film Commission Twitter feed.

'Star Wars: Episode VII': Lawrence Kasdan's big move
San Francisco Film Society in new search for new director

Photo from the filming of Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation, more here, anybody recognize anybody? Filming on Union Square outside the old City of Paris Department Store at Geary and Stockton Streets.


Conventions - salesforce.com, inc. : Salesforce.com Announces Dreamforce 2013, The World's Largest Vendor-Led Technology Gathering

Putting things in perspective dept. - Legendary stuntman Hal Needham (1931-2013) talking to Terry Gross in 2011:
"So when you turn on the TV and one of your films or TV shows is on and there you are risking your life doing a stunt, what goes through your mind?" she asked.
"I got a residual coming," he said with a laugh.

Only in San Francisco San Francisco Apartment Complex Includes Butterfly Habitat Because Of Course It Does


 Lou Reed, live in San Francisco, 1978

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Henry Selick, Looking, Auntie Claus

Movies/TVHenry Selick to Direct Live-Action ‘Tale Dark and Grimm’

Henry Selick Aims to Keep Children's Stories Creepy By Directing 'A Tale Dark and Grimm'
'Nightmare Before Christmas' Turns 20: From Shameful Spawn To Disney's Pride

HBO's 'Looking' Gets A Premiere Date, Cast Members Ride Muni





At a house on Buena Vista West, same place we did the Reese Witherspoon movie.

Looking will debut on Sunday, January 19, 2014, at 10:30 p.m. on HBO. "What’s more, it’s landed a prime time slot right after HBO’s angsty hit Girls." -Wetpaint.com


Cast and crew take over the St Francis Fountain on 24th St.

Auntie Claus the Movie, Facebook page, Official Site got its Kickstarter funding
'Breaking Bad' Finale: Did 'Captain Phillips' or 'Need for Speed' Win Movie Ad Battle?

TheaterOffenbach's THE TALES OF HOFFMANN: San Francisco Opera on WRTI, Oct. 19
Adept S.F. Opera Chorus rolls with the roles
Into a Galaxy of New Pieces, Jittery to Enigmatic - San Francisco Ballet Presents 3 New York Premieres
Making Ballet Speak in Many Languages - San Francisco Ballet in Ratmansky and Morris Works
'The Wizard of Oz' review: highly saturated
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical - Sold Out!
Armin van Buuren Announces North American Dates For 'ARMIN ONLY: INTENSE' World Tour

DesignersHockney at the de Young - art that leaps boundaries, His IMDB page.

Our Dis-functional Government and the NLRB - WILL THE SUPREME COURT HELP SHUT DOWN D.C.?

Only in San Francisco - 'When they were little, they didn't think, oh, I want to grow up and be homeless.' - Doniece Sandoval Buses retrofitted with showers to roll out for homeless people

Meanwhile - San Francisco Is The Best City In America For Trick-Or-Treating