It’s challenging enough making a living as a musician in one orchestra, but the members of the so-called “Freeway Philharmonic” cobble together a living by picking up freelance jobs with multiple groups whenever and wherever they can around the S.F. Bay Area. One of the musicians plays in 8 orchestras. They also teach privately and at universities, and do educational outreach to build the next generation of performers and audience members. And in between paying gigs, most of them go to auditions seeking that coveted spot in a full-time orchestra that will give them a respite from their whirlwind schedule and long commutes. Filmmaker Tal Skloot found their nomadic lives and passion for their vocations fascinating enough to create a documentary that aired yesterday on KQED.
Martha Stewart has a blog. (I have no further comment at this time.)
Karl Lagerfeld made a grand statement at Chanel’s haute couture show in the Grand Palais with a 75-foot tall Chanel jacket. This gigantic jacket, with the iconic Chanel braid, was made out of wood and painted to look like concrete. Models made their entrance out of an opening at the bottom.
Most people I know won’t appreciate the nuances of different types of tofu, but the San Francisco Chronicle knows its readers well enough to consider it worthwhile to conduct a tofu tasting. They tasted 15 firm tofus. House tofu came out on top, with its organic tofu placing first.
In a 440 square-foot shop in Seattle, Melinda and Louis Whisler practice the dying art of custom shoemaking. Customers with foot problems and special requests come to them for shoes made to order. Then there are the customers who are just willing to pay the premium to have their feet shod in custom footwear. The Whislers do it all by hand, with the help of an Italian sewing machine and other tools of the trade. Prices start at $345 and go way up from there.
Want a green thumb? You can hire one in the form of a gardening coach.
With the Atlantic Monthly opening up its archives to all readers, I immediately went to over to catch up with food writer Corby Kummer. Very recently, he discovered that former Coffee Connection owner George Howell, who sold the chain to Starbucks in 1994, is no longer bound by a non-compete agreement and has opened up Terroir Coffee.
Blue nail polish is back in style, which means that my 3 bottle investment 10 years ago is paying off again.
Coming to a theater near me, Shrek the Musical will have its “out of town tryout” in Seattle at the end of this summer before opening on Broadway. Disney has been opening Broadway musicals from its movie archives at a rapid clip and this is Dreamworks’ first foray into the field. Director Sam Mendes pitched the idea in 2003 and is a consultant to the production which is actually being directed by Jason Moore of “Avenue Q.” Thus, the question of course is: will there be puppets? This 2006 article on Moore says Shrek will be “with puppets of course.” But, it’s sure to be more family-friendly than the raunchy “Avenue Q.”
Parents can view their childrens’ WASL test booklets and this AP writer decided to do so. The Washington Assessment of Student Learning is a standardized assessment test given to Washington State public school students in grades 3-8 and 10. Very few parents take the state up on the opportunity to see their child’s tests. In 2007 only 746 out of 1.5 million WASL test booklets were shown to parents. This parent found one scoring error, though that wasn’t her purpose in taking a look at the test. She learned more about how the test is structured and the kind of mistakes her daughter was making. The article’s sidebar has instructions on how to request to see your child’s test.