December 2005 | Dock of the Bay
Duck Soup
October marked not one, but two SF literary landmarks — the 50th anniversary of “Howl” and the 30th anniversary of “Quack!” Back in 1975, Duck’s Breath Mystery Theatre waddled out of Iowa to make its local splash at the Mabuhay Gardens in North Beach. The DBMT’s manic five-man comic combo hatched NPR’s Dr. Science (“He knows more than you do!”), Nightline ’s Ian Sholes (“I gotta go!”), Randee of the Redwoods and other memorable mutants. Fortunately for their Quackheads, the boys of DBMT recently reconnected for a reunion tour.
Mill Valley’s 142 Throckmorton Theatre was a perfect venue for the group that Newsweek calls “The American Monty Python.” In the past 30 years, the Ducks may have gained a collective 30 pounds of middle-age biomass, but they demonstrated the agility of ballerinos as they revisited their “Classic Paintings” sketch, shifting (at the snap of a finger) from DaVinci’s “Venus” to Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase.”
Bill Turner’s spacey folksinger, Randee of the Redwoods, was more stoned than Mount Rushmore as he tried to divide the audience in half for a sing-along and wound up in a hallucinoid full-freak, spooked by a small speck of masking tape on the stage floor.
Merle Kessler and Leon Martell slipped into frilly pink dresses to perform two ditties as a couple of Transvestite Farmers representing the Drag Ag Movement, and Dan Coffey (aka Dr. Science) took questions from the audience — and hurled them back in our faces.
When the Dock asked: “What will happen when the oil runs out?” The Doc replied: “We’re screwed. Except for the fact that, far below Earth’s mantle, there is an abundant, untapped source of Crisco. Unfortunately, when the Crisco runs out… we’re screwed.”
Thunderous applause brought the Ducks back for a “One-Minute Opera” and a closing encore of their “More than a Box!” romp that collapsed into chaotic hysteria. For those who have never seen these wise-quackers live, there’s good news: they’ve been Duck-taped! A 30th Anniversary DVD with live performances, NPR radio shows, archives, commentaries, and bonuses, is available from Duck’s Breath, PO Box 2065, Nevada City, CA 95959. Ducksbreath.com — Gar Smith
Musical Séance
Ouji Board in F minor? Serenade by Seth in parallel measures? Not exactly. But the three-concert New Music Séance, held in the intimate candlelit surroundings of San Francisco’s Maybeck-designed Swedenborgian Church, promises to channel up five hours of hypnotic, spiritual, and rarely heard meditative contemporary music, including several premieres.
The December 3 séance is sponsored by Other Minds, an organization whose monthly Hemlock Tavern salons and annual multi-day New Music Festival often journey out on a musical limb. Pianist Sarah Cahill (See CG profile, June 2005), who has built part of her reputation on keying into other dimensions, will play several works written especially for her.
Other Minds founder/director Charles Amirkhanian first conceived the idea for the concerts when he entered the Swedenborgian Church’s magical setting. Named after 18th century mystic philosopher Emmanuel Swedenborg (who counted Emerson, Blake, and Coleridge among his devotees), the fireplace-warmed venue has a long history of spiritualist practice.
“The idea of the séance,” Amirkhanian told CG, “is to channel the music of the progenitors of new music — the American tradition of Henry Cowell, John Cage, Charles Ives, Dane Rudhyar, Lou Harrison, and Leo Ornstein — plus the younger generation whom they inspired. Cowell was involved in the spiritualist movement, and Ives wrote his Second Violin Sonata right after the Swedenborgian Church was built in 1895. It all fits together.”
Cahill, who will occasionally cede to the violin-piano duo of Kate Stenberg and Eva-Maria Zimmermann (and the disembodied pianist who plays the Yamaha Disklavier in the center of the church), emphasizes that a séance brings people together for a common purpose.
“This music touches our spirits very deeply,” she says. “So many people are having a difficult time with the state of the world right now. This is a really profound way for us to come together and have a communal experience listening to this very beautiful meditative music.”
Concerts are scheduled for 2pm, 5:30pm, and 8pm. For more information, call (415) 934-8134 or check out otherminds.org. — Jason Victor Serinus
Green Makeover
Is your home an energy-efficient, healthy place for your family? Well, not if you find yourself constantly fiddling with your thermostat and beset by sniffles. If your windows are foggy, your floorboards peeling and little-visited parts of your walls resemble a Petri dish, your nest may be a candidate for an eco-makeover. Insulating walls and windows and replacing old appliances with Energy Star-rated products can win you points — Green Points.
“Alameda County has been working on a Green Building Rating System for the last few years,” says Matt Golden, of Sustainable Spaces (one of SF’s first certified Green Businesses). The result is a 50-point scale that ranks homes for air quality, resource use and energy efficiency. (A Green Points Calculator can be downloaded at: stopwaste.org/greenpointsnewhome.xls) With a few relatively cheap techno-fixes, the average US home can cut its utility bills by 40 percent.
While PG&E and many municipalities offer free energy audits, Sustainable Spaces (sustainablespaces.com) looks at the total environmental picture, running more than 20 tests for problems including mold, household toxins and even electromagnetic disturbances that can trigger health problems. The company’s goal is to “provide a complete picture of how your house functions as a holistic system.” A three-hour home performance inspection ends with a list of recommendations. If you wish to make improvements, the company will offer assistance. There is no obligation.
Golden recalls how “we had one couple in Mill Valley that had to move out of their house” when one of the residents developed chemical sensitivity because of “a complex problem involving their heating system and its relationship to a mold problem in a bathroom.” They are now “back in the house and feeling well.”
Sebastopol, Cotati and Novato have all enacted Green Point ordinances that require all new single-family residential construction to be certified Green.
Additional assistance is available from the US Green Building Council (usgbc.org), the Bay Area Green Business Program (sfenvironment.com/greenbiz/where.htm), the California Home Performance Program (calhomperformance.org), the Certified Home Energy Rater (calcerts.com) and Bay Area Build It Green (build-green.org). — GS
EcoTalk at the Crossroads
EcoTalk, the country’s only environmental radio show that is broadcast nationwide on commercial mainstream radio, risks being felled. Unless additional funding comes through, the show will be forced to curtail its weekly hour-long segments on Air America (960 AM).
Betsy Rosenberg, EcoTalk’s host, founded the show in 1996 on KCBS 740 AM where it was called TrashTalk. EcoTalk continues to broadcast three different KCBS one-minute segments twice daily (M-W-F at 11:26 AM and 7:22 PM), with repeats on the weekend. While KCBS downplays political coverage, Air America gives Rosenberg free reign to address political issues, activism, and controversy.
Air America entered EcoTalk’s universe 18 months ago, offering Rosenberg an hour-long weekly segment (at a time, alas, when only trees are awake). On September 24, however, the network offered a prime weekend spot (Saturdays at noon ET, 9 AM) for $2,500/week. Assuming that Rosenberg would not come through, they immediately informed their independent affiliates that the show would cease broadcasting.
To Air America’s surprise, Rosenberg raised $45,000 in 24 hours, to secure prime airtime on 30 Air America affiliates. Betsy is currently contacting the remaining 42 Air America outlets to capitalize on her new prime-time profile, and raising the money necessary to continue broadcasts past December.
December’s Air America holiday season topics are especially juicy. Religious and spiritual groups are getting increasingly involved in ecological activism. Even some evangelical groups are waking up, preferring not to be born-again into an environmental wasteland.
While EcoTalk is not the area’s only environmental radio show — Harry O hosts Live 105’s Sunday Morning Green Hour, Jerry Kay syndicates his SF-based Environmental News Service mainly on satellite radio, NPR’s Steve Curwood airs Living on Earth Saturdays at 4 PM, and KPFA’s Pratap Chatterjee hosts Terra Verde Fridays at 1 PM — only Rosenberg issues calls to action nationwide over the commercial mainstream airways.
To hear EcoTalk’s archived broadcasts and to offer support, check out ecotalkblog.com. — JVS
Community Internet 4 All
Fed up with the rising rates and falling service of cable TV and Internet providers, a growing number of cities are adopting the public-utility model for communication technology — extending the FCC’s definition of “public airwaves” to cover cable and the Web.
When Tacoma. Washington, set up a municipal communication utility called Tacoma Click!, service immediately improved. Internet and cable rates are now 25% lower than in Seattle. Philadelphia is creating a nonprofit called Wireless Philadelphia to provide connections to rich and poor communities alike.
Something needs to be done to bridge the Digital Divide. The New York Times and Foreign Affairs magazine both recently faulted the Bush administration’s “marketplace” approach that has left the U.S. trailing far behind Japan and other nations that have managed to provide accessible and affordable broadband services to citizens, rich and poor.
Predictably, Comcast, Verizon and TimeWarner are tossing a lot of money around in an attempt to quash this grassroots movement. Lobbyists have managed to win bans against municipalization drives in at least 14 states. Meanwhile, community-access drives continue full-force in California, Arizona, Texas and Indiana.
In San Francisco, Media Alliance and a coalition of more than 60 organizations pushed the City to finance a $300,000 feasibility study for a city-owned broadband utility. It would be cheaper than Comcast and, in some “enterprise zones,” the service could even be free. To assure that SF moves “beyond universal access to universal usage,” Media Alliance is already working with partners in Chinatown, Bayview-Hunters Point and the Mission to provide free training and low-cost computers to residents.
For more information: Freepress.net, Muniwireless.com, Baller.com — GS
Triple Bottom Line
The Alameda County Green Business Program and the Sustainable Business Alliance have honored 21 local entrepreneurs as Bay Area Green Businesses for their success in conserving resources and preventing pollution. Berkeley claimed the lead with eight winners: Berkwood Hedge School, Consolidated Printers, The Deringer Group, The Mechanics Bank, Odin’s Hammer, REI, Shelterbelt Builders, Inc., and Westside Family Chiropractic.
Other winners included Emeryville’s ENVIRON International Corporation, Bay Street Emeryville, and LFR Levine Fricke, Inc.; Oakland’s Master Builders, Sinan’s Windows, Inc. and Thimmakka’s Resources for Environmental Education (See “The Goddess of Small Kitchens,” November 2004 CG ); Alameda’s Ethotec computer consultants; and Albany’s Five Little Monkeys.
The latter, named for the owner’s five children, is the first toy store to be certified “green” in the Bay Area. The store stocks doll houses made from rubberwood (a rapidly renewable resource), and staff is hired locally so everyone can walk to work. The kids at Berkwood Hedge School tend a school garden and a worm compost-bin. They munch organic food from the local Full Belly Farm; use non-toxic carpets, furnishings and arts supplies; walk, bike and bus to school; recycle trash into art projects, and the kids are working on a “waste-free lunch initiative.” Berkwood Hedge is the first school to win a Green Business certificate.
More than 560 Bay Area firms now are certified “green.” For more information or a directory of local Green Businesses, visit greenbiz.ca.gov — GS
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