Dickensian Raconteur @ Bookshop Santa Cruz – Feb. 2

Dickensian Raconteur @ Bookshop Santa Cruz – Feb. 2

john-jordan_small.jpgIf you adore the literary ingenuity of Charles Dickens, whose work marks the apogee of the English language, then you’ll be intrigued by the newest exploration of Dickens’ masterpiece, Bleak House, by celebrated scholar and UCSC professor John Jordan.

Better yet, come hear Jordan talk about Dickens, nineteenth-century English narrative fiction and his new book, Supposing Bleak House — Thursday, February 2, 7pm @ Bookshop Santa Cruz.

[Photo credit: Carolyn Lagattuta/UC Santa Cruz]

Trio of openings @ Sesnon Gallery

Trio of openings @ Sesnon Gallery

So many artworks, so little time. Make plans to visit the Mary Porter lanfranco.jpgSesnon Gallery this month.

In the main gallery, prolific alumna Katerina Lanfranco unveils a gallery-sized installation, Natural Selection.
In the adjoining gallery, a group show Clear Cuts features work by Beatrice Coron, Kota Azawa, Matt Farrar, Felicia Gilman, Lauren Scanlon, Jill Sylvia, and Kara Walker.

Across the portico, in the Porter Faculty Gallery, enjoy an exhibition of Laser Cut Relief Prints by Richard Wohlfeiler. All of these shows are free and open to the public.

For details visit the Sesnon website.

Ego vs. Id: A Dangerous Method

In his gorgeous new film, director David Cronenberg [see post below] has taken an enormous bite into the unconscious cravings of those struggling to fit into “polite society.” But he also works to unpack some of the deepest conflicts—between Freud and Jung, for example—which plagued the new field of psychoanalysis in the early 20th century.

Was the new “science” to be based upon some rational architecture of the irrational? the Oedipal desires, repressed sexual connections afflicting family hierarchy, and diagnostic answers based upon the inner logic of illicit sexual desires—as Freud insisted? Or were there even deeper channels within psychiatric patients tapping down into archetypal roles and tensions shared by all humans, archetypes such as the Wounded Warrior, and tensions uniting love and death in an eternal embrace—as Jung was beginning to suspect?

A Dangerous Method is now playing at the Nickelodeon.

Here’s what you’ll find:

1) this stunning film oozes Viennese sophistication, with ravishing costumes you would swear were designed by Gustav Klimt. (more…)

A Dangerous Method

A Dangerous Method

The formative youth of psychoanalysis, with all of its nascent uncertainty, longing, paranoia (thejungfreud.jpg field, not the patients) is transformed into a disturbingly sensual film, A Dangerous Method, by cine-maestro David Scanners Cronenberg.

If you thought you were curious about this film simply because of leading actors Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortenson, you’d only be half right. You’ll end up smitten by their characters, Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud, just as much as the mesmerizing performers. In the years just before the first World War, the intellectual life of eastern Europe was second to none. It was the time of Mahler, Wittgenstein, Hödler, Strauss, and hypnosis was being used as an experimental therapy on patients whose illness had been vaguely characterized as “hysteria.”

Freud was already the giant in this new field, (more…)

The Truck Stops Here!

The Truck Stops Here!

truckstop1.jpgFran Grayson’s mobile dining table is preparing to make some new stops – at the Live Oak Farmer’s market. Starting January 29, you’ll be able to stop by the roving silver food dispensery and order up apple fritters for breakfast, or fish tacos, arepas, rice plates and myriad kimchi possibilities.

As always, Fran’s gourmet goodies are all made fresh, fast and fully affordable. To taste is to fall in love.

Live Oak Market (Eastside,Capitola,Pleasure Point), open every Sunday, year-round from 9am to 1pm. The market is located at 15th and East Cliff in the parking lot of the East Cliff Village Shopping Center.