Bold and Beautiful

Just to give you an idea of Wiley's scale...

Kihinde Wiley's paintings at the DeYoung ("The Archeology of Silence", until Oct. 15) are stunning, not just for the immense size of the works (sculptures included), but for the execution. He is a master painter and sculptor, and for that, the impact of his message is even stronger. The idea behind the paintings is to pose his models in classic settings (recalling renaissance works of figures wounded, dead, or struck down in iconic paintings of mythical heroes, martyrs and saints), but to show his modern black models as they are, right down to ankle bracelets and Adidas. The DeYoung frames the show in a political light, confronting the silence about systemic violence against Black people through art. Whatever your take-away from this show, see it. The impact of his work is indescribable and
must be seen to really be appreciated. 

 Detail from picture above

If Wiley's name rings a bell, it might be because he painted the presidential portrait of Barak Obama, which was on display at the museum recently, and is now home in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington D,C,

This sculpture is nearly as tall as a two-story building.

 Detail from Sculpture above

All pictures by Joanne Orion Miller 2023

Strange and Wonderful Coincidences 2

Joanna in 1974

 

Joanna Droeger - she of the fabulous embroidered shirt found half-buried in Bernal Heights (May 16 post) - was a well-known figure in hip circles during San Francisco's 60s-80s renaissance. More than a craft artist, she holds a place in San Francisco history as one of the City's famous and unique characters. With her husband, she operated a restaurant on Pacific Avenue, a hangout for William Saroyan, Janis Joplin, Lenny Bruce, the Smothers Brothers, Imogene Cunninham, Woody Allen and Mr. San Francisco himself, Herb Caen. 

A Chronicle "Night Life" column by Grover Sales paid tribute in 1962: "Among North Beach restaurateurs, Joanna is regarded as a gifted and highly creative cook; in ready agreement are the inhabitants of the Brighton Express, an eatery in the old International Settlement on Pacific near Kearny that is truly beyond category. Owned and most feverishly operated by egg-shaped Joanna and her 6-foot-6 husband John Droeger, the Brighton Express serves as dining room, orphanage and social clinic for a strictly non-tourist clientele of entertainers, artists, writers and unclassifiables who subsist on Joanna's Daily Special, topped off with one of her unbelievable hand-crafted desserts --usually a rhapsodic coffee ice cream and fudge delicacy misleadingly titled 'Mud Pie'."

Joanna Droeger died in 2004. My daughter and I love heirlooms; we hope to send the marvelous shirt Joanna embroidered to her children, Michael Droeger, and his sister Gillian Droeger (both in San Fracisco as of 2004), if we can locate them. Any leads to their whereabouts are welcome! You can reach me directly by signing in on my contact form to the right of this column; leave a message and I'll be in touch.

Strange and Wonderful Coincidences 1

Once a month, I go to a little event called "Dance Sister Dance", held outdoors in Corte Madera Park. A bunch of women gather to dance to an excellent playlist and peruse our personal clothing swap. This Mother's Day (as in every Mother's Day), women are encouraged to bring pix of their mothers and daughters, or the real thing. I brought my daughter; we danced, we picked up treasures. My daughter Nikki found an amazing hand-embroidered men's shirt, somewhat smelly and covered with spots of mildew. Another dancer, Ann Marie, told her she found it under a tree, partially buried, in Bernal Heights in San Francisco. What a life this shirt must have had!

Nikki was interested in the style of embroidery; the work was finer than anything seen nowadays, and completely done by hand with tiny stitches. She spent an hour on the net searching, with no luck. Then I remembered a book I bought in 1974 that I kept because it reminded me so much of that time. NATIVE FUNK AND FLASH (Alexandra Jacopetti and Jerry Wainwright) celebrated the handmade, the artistic, the wild wearables of the hippie era.

There, on page 96 and 97 was The Shirt modeled by the man it was made for, Alan Stelzner, father-in-law of the artist, Joanna Droeger:   

It's easy to see where Droeger's talent was developed. As a child, she learned to embroider in a convent school, then spent time in a Japanese internment camp. She's made very few pieces over the years, and only for very special people.

What she was best known for, though, is a piece of San Francisco history....to be continued in my next blog post!

Writers Strike!

 By now, most of us have heard about the Writer's Guild of America strike in Hollywood, all about the mind-freaking profits made by the streaming services like HBO, Netflix and Paramount and the dwindling pay of those who write the scripts. The streaming services have more deviltry in the works: hiring writers to write the initial scripts of a series, then using AI to write the rest.

This isn't a new problem, just a more public one. When I first started out as a writer, I was able to make a living with my travel books for Moon because I was able to negotiate an upfront payment against residuals. Also in the contract: the right to write future editions. After 2010, publishers figured they could save money by buying my words outright and hiring in-house staff to do the rewrites. No more contracts, no more residuals, no more long-term relationship. We refer to "the good old days" as pre-2010.

I've started a petition to present to the Writers Guild. Please sign it if you wish to support fair pay for fair work: https://chng.it/SFmdKyVZqb

A GEM of a restaurant: Lados

Eat, drink and enjoy

As a travel writer, I reviewed more than 500 restaurants, all over the world. I always looked for one type of place in particular. There's plenty of good food out there (bad, too; I never wrote reviews for those), but a place that met three criteria was golden: 1. locally owned, 2. amazing food, 3. decent prices. I found one, in the south bay. And believe me, you'd never know it was there unless someone told you about it.

LADOS (115 Plaza Dr, Sunnyvale, CA 94089, Lados Restaurant (ladosfood.com)) is a small Pakistani restaurant set in a residential neighborhood in Sunnyvale that's worth finding. You won't find slick decor here, but you will find a place filled with local folks and food that is made to order (yes, you'll wait a few minutes). Two vege samosas ($6.49) are huge and delicious. and the legendary Zinger burger (with fries, $14.99, which is actually fried chicken) is huge - easily enough for two. When I first pulled up to the place, I thought it was closed; the attached business space is for lease, and the door doesn't call a lot of attention to itself. Not many tiny, non-descript eateries get 4.4 stars at Yelp (Yelp review lados, sunnyvale - Search (bing.com), but this one deserves that and more. Nice people, too.