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 California - Covered 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

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

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

Check out the #winterwonderlab by @Android at Bryant Park #NYC @asallal @ojsallal @Smafa_1 pic.twitter.com/AbAGHI26x3
— MJ Al-Sallal ★ (@MjSallal) November 19, 2013

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

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

Theater - Review: 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/TV - Looking 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 Act - Affordable 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

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

@laurenweedman normal day at work, holding a rubber bedpan. Ahhhh, memories... @LookingHBO pic.twitter.com/SfWH3Yg2To
— Danny Glicker (@DannyGlicker) November 6, 2013

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!

Theater - American Conservatory Theater Extends UNDERNEATH THE LINTEL thru Nov 23

Tech - Google 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

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:

Exec Director to go before @sfbos to discuss reduced permit fees for very low budget shoots, inclusion of web series & extension of rebate.
— SF Film Commission (@Film_SF) October 28, 2013

How Star Wars changed the world.

Hearing good things about the diversity on the new HBO show Looking! Girls has literally no diversity so they really need that.
— olivia marie (@itsoliviamarie) November 3, 2013

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 Programs - Santa 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

Mystery - San 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