Honestly, I still call it Rocktober even though I know it’s kinda cheesy..

Hi everyone! I like all the months, because godx forbid I make one of them feel bad (oof, there is an oversharing little glimpse into my brain), but October is my fave. I’m sure the fact that it is the month I was born in is a total coincidence!

I’m gonna get right into it this month, so scroll on for class and show info, a teeny ego trip, new prints, and some fave songs, videos, and reads.

M.

Shows & Classes

Saturday, October 3
Gruppo Pizzicato at Seafood Station
803 Cortland Avenue, San Francisco
7 - 8:30pm
Come hear fine Italian songs as you dine at this new-to-us neighborhood venue.
Yes, this near lifelong vegetarian is playing the seafood restaurant ; )

Saturday, October 10
Mediterranean Movement
1275 Connecticut Street, San Francisco
10:15 - 11:30am
My monthly in-person dance classes continue, and you should totally come.

Monday, November 2
Dia de los muertos / Giorno dei Morti
Last year a bunch of us sang and drummed as part of the procession in solidarity. I even made a zine! Shall we do so again? I’m behind in organizing it, but we have time. Reach out if you’re interested in joining.

Saturday, November 7
Aswat Ensemble - The Golden Era
College of San Mateo Theater

We’ll be playing the classics (and a few surprises)!

Reads and Watches and Prints and Art Art Art

I thoroughly enjoyed Martha Wells two book series Witch King and Queen Demon. I wish there were more, as they were the kind of books I could just read a little of each day and enjoy being lost in this other world, where there was right and wrong and magic and mundane. Loved them. Lots of folks love her Murderbot series, too. I tried it and couldn’t get into it, but I’m going to give it another whirl.

I really need to write about Alessia Rollo’s book Altera Italia. I pre-ordered it months before it came out as part of her fundraising for the printing, got it earlier this year, and it was so worth the wait. The book is just a beautiful art piece in itself, one that contains even more beautiful photographs, drawings, and words. This little blurb of mine does it no justice - stay tuned for a full blog piece. I’ve been putting it off mainly because I’m just enjoying sitting with the book itself, like we’re in a little relationship that I don’t want to share with anyone else yet.

I’m all about this show called The Chelsea Detective lately, and the episodes are so long it means I’m behind on the current season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (I can only watch one show a night on nights I’m home, usually).

We have new patches available! Cool chicks throwing the Horns! Two Sophias and a rad elder! Pop culture meets protezione! Whatever you call it, ch-ch-check it out. FYI my partner runs a screen printing shop here in our fine city, and if you ever need garment printing and want to keep it in the family, let me know.

We caught the Etruscans exhibit at the Legion of Honor the day before it ended and WOW. It was so lovely and inspiring. The curation and historical information, not to mention the artifacts and art and ritual items, gave such a beautiful glimpse into who these people were. Whimsical, lovers of food and life and hope for a rad afterlife, and egalitarian. Meeting them was a true balm during a bad time for humanity (and other living beings, thanks to us).

One interesting thing I hope to research more was their connection to livers and divination. I really know nothing yet except for one object and placard about it at the exhibit, but there is also a sense of the liver being where true emotion, true love, resides in Arabic poetry (people who have taken dance classes with me over th eyears have heard me talk about this!). Just a small nerdy thing I want to explore!

Grazie to my pal Bonnie Rose Weaver for gifting us tickets! I took a ton of pix, but not sure picking just one or two objects will do it justice, so here are two of me there that my sweetie snapped (and we aren’t even in the ego poriton of the email yet!).

I was glad to read this article by Tessa Brown, Disasters at the Origin of the Sense of Disaster: Ferrante on Fascism. It connects Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels and show My Brilliant Friend to what we are seeing in the world today, and connects the local to the global.

“Through the careful detail of the novel, always dramatized through the dynamics of Elena and Lila, Ferrante shows how fascism is rooted in economic exploitation backed by violence. And she taught me, more incisively than anything else I read, how political, capital-F Fascism emerges at economic inflection points when the powers of corporations and the state converge, step back, and allow local thugs to attack those who would challenge unequal socio-economic systems.”

Thank you to Samantha Blancato of The Land of Lila for sharing it in an instagram story!

Finally, I was really honored to be one of the featured artists in a project that mandolin player Connor Marks has started, Musica Popolare USA. I sometimes get asked to do things like this (features or podcasts), and usually say no, or recommend someone else, but this time I said yes, and it forced me to write up a more focused bio and think about my work and offerings. You can go there to read the whole thing, and here is an except:

“My current work explores and plays with vernacular movement and sound arts - how they develop and shift in migration, how they are used in cultural reclamation, and their ability to serve as a shared language or dialect among often far flung practitioners. Resisting the lure of codification and hubris in diaspora while being a guest in source cultures is a dance unto itself that requires a steady mix of confidence and humility.”

Thanks Connor!

Ephemera

Thanks if you made it this far! I love writing these each month as part of trying not to to put all my thoughts onto billionaire owned social media sites while still wanting to be connected to my peeps. I still put plenty on the socials, alas, but as with all things I take a harm reduction approach - we all do our best as we also hold corporations and governments, who should be regulating them and protecting us, accountable.

E tu? What are you up to?

MWAH!