Brain scans of Philly jazz musicians reveal secrets to reaching creative flow

By John Kounios, Yvette Kounios : theconversation – excerpt

Flow, or being “in the zone,” is a state of amped-up creativity, enhanced productivity and blissful consciousness that, some psychologists believe, is also the secret to happiness. It’s considered the brain’s fast track to success in business, the arts or any other field.

But in order to achieve flow, a person must first develop a strong foundation of expertise in their craft. That’s according to a new neuroimaging study from Drexel University’s Creativity Research Lab, which recruited Philly-area jazz guitarists to better understand the key brain processes that underlie flow. Once expertise is attained, the study found, this knowledge must be unleashed and not overthought in order for flow to be reached.

As a cognitive neuroscientist who is senior author of this study, and a university writing instructor, we are a husband-and-wife team who collaborated on a book about the science of creative insight. We believe that this new neuroscience research reveals practical strategies for enhancing, as well as elucidating, innovative thinking.

Jazz musicians in flow…(more)

The stolen Banksy of Fisherman’s Wharf: An art mystery

By Garrett Leahy : sfstandard – excerpt

A mysterious figure that appeared on my screen from nowhere. What could it mean?

In an evidence lockup somewhere inside a San Francisco police building is a white metal door with stenciled graffiti art on it: a rat wearing star-shaped sunglasses, holding a shovel.

The door has been sitting in police storage for over three years since it surfaced online in murky circumstances involving an auction of digital tokens known as NFTs. Who removed the door from its original home on Fisherman’s Wharf? No one knows. Who owns it? That’s a matter of ongoing dispute. How much longer will the police keep it? That’s also unclear.

But the biggest mystery of all—or at least the most consequential – revolves around who painted it. If, as many experts believe, it’s the work of the reclusive British graffiti artist known as Banksy, it could be worth millions of dollars—making all the other mysteries surrounding it that much more intriguing.

Banksy’s 2010 San Francisco visit

Banksy is believed to have visited San Francisco in May 2010, around the time his Oscar-nominated documentary, “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” played at the Sundance Film Festival. He left at least six graffiti paintings in his wake, according to media reports at the time.

A May 1, 2010, KQED story shows photos of paintings at 853 Valencia St., 2140 Mission St., 1672 Haight St., 1309 Howard St., on Commercial Street near Grant Avenue and in an empty parking lot at Erie and Mission streets…(more)

And so the art mystery series continues to play out in San Francisco. Get ready, we have some new ones coming up soon…

Glass Jaw

Chokecherry – on YouTube

On tour this spring and summer

Track written and performed by chokecherry: Izzie Clark, E. Scarlett Levinson, Maryzelle Ungo  …

CONNECT WITH CHOKECHERRY:
Instagram @chokecherry4ever
TikTok @chokecherry4ever

Scarlett and Mike: Easter singalong:

A Cultural Mission visits with the Mission’s Meklit

By Andrew Gilbert : Missionlocal – excerpt

Necessity might be the mother of invention, but impending motherhood can offer its own potent inspiration. For Meklit, the imminent arrival of her son León in the summer of 2019 fueled the songwriting sessions that led to her new EP, “Ethio-Blue.”

A creative force in the Mission since her early years as artistic director of the Red Poppy Art House in the mid-aughts, the Ethiopian-born singer, songwriter, bandleader and cultural activist celebrates the release of “Ethio-Blue” Saturday at Brava (with an opening set by LoCura Trio and special guest Tarik “Excentrik” Kazaleh on oud, percussion and beats).

Pondering how she would continue her musical life with a babe in arms, Meklit found herself returning repeatedly to “Midnight Lightning,” the Laura Veirs podcast that focuses on musicians who are mothers…(more)

Meklit is one of my neighbors in Project Artaud
Her site: https://www.meklitmusic.com/

Film about groundbreaking San Francisco topless dancer releases first trailer

By Gabe Lehman : sfgate – excerpt
“I want to be in show business and I don’t know any other way than to start showing my business,” says groundbreaking San Francisco exotic dancer Carol Doda in a trailer for an upcoming film about her life.

“Carol Doda Topless at the Condor,” directed by Marlo McKenzie and Jonathan Parker, made its Bay Area debut last October at the Mill Valley Film Festival. But with the release of the trailer on Tuesday, wider audiences will soon get to see the full-length documentary, which includes interviews of the late Doda, pinup stills and clips of San Francisco from just before the Summer of Love.

The trailer promises to tell the “extraordinary true story” of how Doda shocked audiences and lawmakers alike by performing nude and becoming a quintessential symbol of the 1960s sexual revolution. Doda became famous for baring it all at the Condor Club in North Beach, which earned San Francisco legacy business status in 2022 and is still open today. From the Condor, Doda’s fame reached such heights that filmmakers said, as San Francisco icons go, she was “second only to the Golden Gate Bridge.”…(more)

San Francisco’s buzziest band met on a dating app

By Timothy Karloff : sfgate – excerpt (includes video)

Chokecherry scored millions of Spotify streams. They’re still playing in garages.

Chokecherry’s “Glass Jaw “on Youtube.

In less than a year, San Francisco band Chokecherry has racked up twice as many Spotify streams as their city’s population. They’ve played a show in Mexico City, toured with Death Valley Girls and produced a music video polished enough to embarrass some major label outfits. They are, by all indications, a band on the verge of blowing up.

But tonight, they’re playing in a SoMa garage. 

Onstage — although the “stage” is just a square of concrete floor — drummer Abri Crocitto abruptly picks up the pace, and Chokecherry’s shoegaze track careens headlong into thrash territory. The crowd reacts in lockstep, and the mosh pit quickly dissolves into a blitzed game of Twister, with as many feet kicking the air as touching the ground. Someone tall has peeled off his sweaty shirt, which he swings over his head like a helicopter propeller. As the song reaches its climax, Izzie Clark rubs the neck of her guitar against E. Scarlett Levinson’s bass, and the pair throw their heads back…(more)

Another hot new band heading for a bigger stage in the Big Apple.

West Coast’s largest boat race draws hundreds of competitors, and it’s a ‘Fiasco’

By Warren Pederson : sfchronicle – excerpt

Yachts sail in San Francisco Bay during Saturday’s Three Bridge Fiasco, so named because skippers can choose their direction at the start and navigate course markings in any order corresponding to the Golden Gate, Bay and Richmond-San Rafael bridges.

Hundreds of sailboats of various sizes and styles took to the waters of San Francisco Bay on Saturday for the West Coast’s largest yacht race, an annual puzzle for participants and spectacle for those watching from the shore.

Almost 300 boats met the entry criteria for the Three Bridge Fiasco, so named because skippers can choose their direction at the start and navigate course markings in any order corresponding to the Golden Gate, Bay and Richmond-San Rafael bridges.

The race attracted a pool of 554 competitors — with 40 single-handed and 257 double-handed boats — though not everyone who registered showed up. The event began outside the Golden Gate Yacht Club in the Marina, with start times scattered to level the playing field…(more)

Drawing Room gallery returns to Mission at old Harrington Galleries corner

by JUNYAO YANG : missionlocal – excerpt

In the pouring rain on Saturday night, nearly 1,000 people trickled into the long-empty corner space on Valencia and 17th streets for a new exhibition, “HOME,” that features works around housing, identity and urban development.

It was the first time in four years the corner had seen a crowd that size.
“It was incredible, on a rainy night, just having that corner glowing, full of people flowing in and out of it,” said Renée DeCarlo, owner of the Drawing Room, the art gallery and studio that curated the exhibition and opened up on Jan. 13 at the former spot of Harrington Galleries, where the lights have been switched off since 2020…

The free exhibition “HOME,” which runs from until Feb. 11, features over 135 artists’ works around the theme of home, curated into smaller topics such as the architecture of homes, the disparity in having or not having a home and the ephemeral beings that make home home. All of the pieces are for sale.… (more)

Great news for local artists

Letter from Berkeley: Requiem for People’s Park

By Ali Martin, staff writer : csmonitor – excerpt

Billy Simpson can’t imagine Berkeley without People’s Park. The iconic park in this California college town was where he played growing up. As he got older, he made some of his best friends there. When he worked in food delivery, he would bring canceled orders to unhoused residents who found rest there.

“That park is like, it’s freedom. It is what Berkeley used to be,” says Mr. Simpson. “It’s just love.”

People’s Park inspired Krista McAtee to attend the University of California, Berkeley three blocks away.. The fifth-year student gets emotional recalling her first visit as a 13-year-old on a campus tour with her family. She returned home to Southern California, decorated a jean jacket with “power to the people,” and set her sights on the school.

WHY WE WROTE THIS People’s Park – Berkeley’s iconic gathering spot, founded in the 1960s – sits on valuable real estate in the heart of the university town. Plans to develop on the site raise questions about public space and what’s best for a community… (more)

Very sad to lose another gem that represents peace and love and hope for many who don’t have much.

Meet the Visionary Behind Music City, San Francisco’s ‘Star Factory’

By Julie Rigors : sfstandard – excerpt

Rudy Colombini, the frontman for a Rolling Stones cover band, is neither humble nor demure about his labor of love: San Francisco’s Music City, a complex dedicated to musicians and musicianship, at every level. It might sound straight out of Nashville, but it’s right here in the city’s Lower Nob Hill neighborhood.

“This is the most important fucking artistic project in the United States,” Colombini told The Standard.

The three-floor facility—which opened 20 new rehearsal spaces Friday—provides future stars with everything from living space to rehearsal rooms, engaged audiences and an array of refreshments. In the venture’s fundraising materials, Colombini is just as grandiose, describing the complex as “Motown Records, CBGB, the Chelsea Hotel, Abbey Road Studios, the Berklee School of Music, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, all in one building in San Francisco.”…

A consummate showman who has been playing live music in San Francisco for 51 years, Colombini is used to performing. His band, The Unauthorized Rolling Stones, once opened for Elton John, and Colombini played at the Mill Valley institution Sweetwater Music Hall years ago—and also had a sold-out show there last week…

The superlative-slinging lead singer calls Music City a “star factory,” a place where emerging musicians can practice, perform and connect. There are affordable hotel and hostel rooms where touring artists can stay, store their gear and connect with a music-loving community. The bar and restaurant of the campus-like artist incubator is slated to open within 10 days, after final approval of the city’s Department of Public Health. …(more)