NELLIE BOWLES

April 27th 2011

THE “BEACH BLANKET BABYLON” SCHOLARSHIP

Though only three Bay Area high school seniors will win “Beach Blanket Babylon’s” Scholarship for the Arts, all 250 applicants get tickets to the show.

“We’re proud of every single one,” says producer Jo Schuman Silver.

Established in 2000, the scholarship gives three students - an actor, dancer and singer - $10,000 toward college and a seal of approval from one of San Francisco’s oldest theatrical establishments.

On June 6, nine finalists will take the Club Fugazi stage to perform before an “American Idol”-style panel of judges, including Berkeley Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Tony Taccone, composer Gordon Getty, and ABC 7’s Don Sanchez.

Many of the winners end up going to Los Angeles or New York. “But,” Silver adds, “they know where home is.”

The Chronicle caught up with some of the recent winners:

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Posted at 12:00am and tagged with: beach-blanket-babylon,.

March 16th 2011

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IKEBANA FLOWER ARRANGING IS KIND OF SEXY

The ancient Japanese art of flower arranging is alive and well in San Francisco, home to the most active Ikebana International chapter in America and host to this weekend’s biennial flower show. But who is keeping it alive? Not who you might think.

Braving the rain on a recent rainy Friday afternoon, crowds began to collect in the Hall of Flowers in Golden Gate Park - well-dressed older ladies, young Japanese women and a handful of men. Among those gathering to watch an ikebana demonstration were Ron Brown, a burly winemaker with a passion for rust and flowers; Imelda Iraeta, a housekeeper from El Salvador; and Midori Inomata, the wife of Japan’s consul general. The performer, Michiko Shimoda, cued music and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” came on. The crowd of 120 settled quickly into folding chairs. They sat rapt as Shimoda danced around a table laying lilies and roses into driftwood.

Ikebana began among Buddhist priests in the 6th century. Arrangements read as messages of worship, each flower and angle with a specific meaning. As Japan opened to the West, the original and highly ritualized schools, or methods for arranging flowers and materials, evolved (see Schools of ikebana, below). Throughout its development, the basic tenets of ikebana have remained: scarcity and density; minimalism; emphasis on shape, line and form. Based upon the structural concept of an unequal triangle, ikebana looks markedly different from the spherical mass of a European arrangement.

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Posted at 12:00am and tagged with: ikebana, home and garden,.

March 4th 2011

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GEORGE PEACOCK, GUITAR REPAIRMAN

Mandolins hang from sausage hooks at San Francisco’s oldest instrument shop, a Castro district secret called Peacock Music. “Used to be the Chinatown Meat Co.,” George Peacock, the owner, says, smiling. “They left the band saw, strong enough to cut a lamb’s leg. We use it on every piece of wood we shape.”

Peacock, in worn jeans and tennis shoes, is giving a music history lesson when he reaches 1980s punk. His wife, Miriam, whispers, “It was the music we used to drive the customers out at night. Iggy Pop - just rude.”

Peacock laughs and replies, “But see, a musician’s a musician. It was a studied position, punk. It was a thought-out position. It wasn’t mindless.”

Since 1971, every musical movement that comes through San Francisco first has its heroes strung, tuned and varnished by George Peacock at his music shop. Tucked unmarked at 15th and Noe streets, Peacock Music might be missed if not for the kids with oversize cases, the dissonant sounds of tuning and the smell of cut wood.

Peacock, soft-spoken and modest, won’t list the celebrities who have stopped by over the years. But conversations with his neighbors, son, friends and even his lawyer reveal an impressive roster of clients: members of Fleetwood Mac, the Who, Foghat, Taj Mahal,Van Morrison, Chris Isaak, Metallica.

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Posted at 9:00pm and tagged with: george-peacock, profile,.