I’m curious: How’d you spend the last couple of days?
I had a quite jam-packed weekend, the evidence of some of which you’ll see popping up soon here in the blog.
Friday afternoon, my pal and brilliant photographer Sam Hodgson and I wound our way through both the downtown and La Jolla galleries for the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego’s new, gigantic “Phenomenal” show, which formally opened this weekend.
Then I stopped by a swordfighting rehearsal for Diversionary Theatre’s “Edward II” with NBC 7 San Diego; we’ll have video for that later this week.
And I attended my first concert of Camarada, the chamber music ensemble my friend Travis Maril plays viola in. The ensemble — normally comprising viola, piano and flute — featured the symphony’s amazing principal French horn player, Ben Jaber, in its candlelit concert in Bankers Hill.
Saturday, I played violin in a friend’s wedding in Point Loma and then put the pedal to the metal to get to Imperial Beach, where my band, The Tree Ring, got to play inside a beautiful sunflower maze for the inaugural Autumnal Equinox dinner at Suzie’s Farm.
But that hardly scratches the surface of all that was happening around town this weekend.
The Carlsbad Music Festival I told you about last week sounded pretty great. Jim Chute from the U-T encountered Calder Quartet violinist Jonathan Moerschel performing two pieces in between the bins at a record shop in Carlsbad. “You could go a lifetime and never hear a more expressive, certain account of either works,” Chute wrote.
Reader Dan Kleinman left us his own glowing review of Saturday night’s performance with the band My Brightest Diamond, accompanied by a few of the Calder players. I’d said last week I was wishing I could go to the show, and it sounds like my wish was well-placed. His take:
It feels like rubbing it in to say this, but the My Brightest Diamond concert was amazing. Shara was backed by nine musicians, of which two (violin + viola) were in the Calder Quartet; the others played guitar and drums, plus an assortment of classical instruments: clarinet, flute, cello, French horn and trumpet. The setlist consisted entirely of her upcoming album, which she played through song by song, endearingly giving us a little bit of background before each one. At various points, she wielded a broom (for the song “There’s A Rat”), an autoharp, and what appeared to be a homemade instrument made of two rows of metal sticks that she played like a piano.
The applause lasted long enough that she came back onstage with her drummer for two older songs, Golden Star and Inside A Boy. In one of the more charming moments of the night, she decided to play her Stratocaster standing up even though she didn’t have a strap (“I can’t play this thing sitting down!”), which ultimately caused her to knock down two microphones (one of them twice) while rocking out on stage. As always, her voice was incredible. Sorry you missed it!
The Adams Avenue Street Fair had its 30th anniversary. (U-T)
Trolley Dances kicked off its first of two weekends of dances that are created specifically for sites along the San Diego Trolley routes. (U-T)
And there were a million theater openings and closings, as The Old Globe opened its “Rocky Horror Show,” the San Diego Repertory Theatre presented “Walter Cronkite Is Dead,” Lyric Opera San Diego opened “Mame.” (U-T)
Plus, San Diego Musical Theatre debuted its “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” production, starring Eric Kunze, who grew up in Vista. (NCT)
Meanwhile, the Mo’olelo team had tech rehearsals for its upcoming production of “26 Miles,” the theater’s leader Seema Sueko dropped in to our Facebook page to say this morning.
What about you? What’d you make, cook, think of, rehearse, see or do this weekend?
Did you see any of the stuff mentioned above? What’d you think? Leave us a note below or on Facebook.
I’m Kelly Bennett, the arts editor for VOSD. You can reach me directly at kelly.bennett@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.325.0531.
And follow Behind the Scene on Facebook.