C'est l'amour

I am in love with the work of French artist Blexbolex. After receiving a copy of I Know How to Cook for my birthday, and finding a book called Seasons (cute promotional video here) at one of my favorite bookstores a couple days later, I knew he was my new all time favorite.

Psyched about Psycho!

Ever since we moved back to San Francisco, we've been looking for the perfect excuse to go to the Symphony. When we heard they had open rehearsals (with coffee and complimentary donuts!!) we knew we'd found it. Since that first visit we've been keeping an eye out for other fun things the Symphony has going on, and it turns out, they've got a lot going on! Next month we're going to a screening of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, with live musical accompaniment. The score is by legendary composer Bernard Herrmann who was such a bad-ass that there is a Society devoted to him. The man worked with the Best of the Best (his first score was for a little picture called Citizen Cane, his last Taxi Driver...) We can't wait!

Ideal Bookshelves by Jane Mount Opening Friday!

Please join us this Friday, May 14th to celebrate the opening of "Ideal Bookshelves" featuring paintings, prints, and postcards by the talented Jane Mount. Many of the pieces in the show represent Ideal Bookshelves submitted by friends, both from San Francisco and around the country. It's an amazing and beautiful collection, and it's been endlessly fascinating to check out all the great books people are into these days.

PLUS: We're offering a $25 gift certificate to the first person who correctly guesses which of the above "Bookshelves" belongs to Lauren and I. (click the image to enlarge) Leave your guess in the comments*.

PLUS: It's practically Lauren's birthday, so come by and wish her a good one!

WHAT: Ideal Bookshelves, works by Jane Mount

WHEN: Opening Party Friday, May 14, 6-8pm.

WHERE: The Curiosity Shoppe, 855 Valencia St.

(*Our moms and employees of the Curiosity Shoppe are not eligible).

How beautiful is this?

I left something at Leigh's house and she sent it back in this. I mean, c'mon! How beautiful is this envelope?

Southern Exposure Auction This Saturday!

A reminder to all that Southern Exposure's Annual Auction is:
THIS SATURDAY, MAY 8th!!
Click here for more information!
Click here to buy tickets!
Click here to see some of the artworks up for auction!
For those of you who can't make it, you can visit SoEx any day this week to check out the work and place absentee bids!

This is always one of the best, most exciting, most fun art events of the year! Can't wait to see you all there!

Here are a couple pieces I've got my eye on:

Jeff Canham

Scott Oliver

Marci Washington

Paul Wackers

Brion Nuda Rosch

Homesteading Hootenanny!!!

Friends!

Join us at a super fun event happening this Thursday at Southern Exposure! It's a Homesteading Hootenanny put on by the fine folks from How-To Homestead and our pals at SoEx. In addition to all sorts of Homesteading activities (food, drink, films and such), there is going to be Square Dancing!! Not sure if you're aware of this, but it is physically impossible to not have fun square dancing. We know from personal experience.

Thursday, April 29, 2010
7 pm - Midnight

$10 / FREE for SoEx Members
Or FREE with homesteaded goods and items to share (including home brews, seeds, fermented vegetables, pies and more)

**ALSO** Another great reason to JOIN as a SoEx member!!

Hootenanny Schedule:
7:30: Screening
8:30: Tasting
9:00: Square Dance with Pearsons Pork Pies
11:00: Dancing with the Goat Family

From the website:

Join the How-to Homestead Crew, led by Melinda Stone, for a down-home hootenanny of movies, tastings, song, and dance! The evening includes free tastings of home-made beer, booze, fermented vegetables, and other homestead goodies; new homesteading movie shorts, some with live accompaniment by the How-to Homestead house band: the sk8 sisters; square dancing with Pearsons Pork Pies and the night concludes with free-form dancing with the Goat Family, a nuevo-traditional jug band on the old-timey exuberance and infectious tip.

Tagged!

Word on the street in San Francisco this week is that world-famous graffiti artist Banksy is in town, and new works have been sprouting up in various neighborhoods around town. The piece above (via SFist) appeared on the side of our building on Thursday, and it's been fun watching crowds of people taking photos of it the past few days. More Banksy photos can be found on the Flickr Banksy Pool, and you can watch a fun video here.

Birdhouses available online!

People visiting our shoppe gallery over the last couple weeks have been all a-flutter over the amazing birdhouses that Jeff Canham and Luke Bartels created for their "For the Birds" show. They are now available on our website! Check them out here.

The Curiosity Shoppe + THE THING!!

Just wanted to pass along an invitation/reminder to please join us for an exciting and fun event with our pals from THE THING!

On Friday, April 30th as part of Joseph del Pesco's Society of Secrets event at the Berkeley Art Museum, The Curiosity Shoppe will be partnering with THE THING to host a secret undisclosed back-room parallel black jack tournament using Ryan Gander and Europa's Issue 9. Not sure how to play? Don't worry, it's really simple, we'll send you the rules ahead of time...or you can always purchase the cards (which come with playing instructions) from THE THING or the Curiosity Shoppe.

The games will begin at 5:00pm and go till 8:00, and admission is free for players. We are looking for 64 participants in the tournament, which is first-come, first-serve. The ranks are filling up fast, so we're not sure if there are any spots left, but if you're interested please send an email to Francois at: support (at) thethingquarterly (dot) com. The winner will receive a cash prize of $100 from THE THING and a $100 gift certificate from the Curiosity Shoppe.

Even if you can't be in the tournament, it's gong to be a great event and a great night, and we'll hope you'll come join in the fun with us!

A little decorating

One Sunday a couple months back, we set out early in the morning with our friend Paulina to do a little decorating on the side of a big empty building in our neighborhood. She had the idea to make pennants out of some colorful vinyl she had laying around her studio, as part of a larger project she has been working on, called Tu Y Yo. Tu Y Yo focuses on public art collaborations, community and positivity. We say yes to all of the above!

Unfortunately our installation didn't last more than a couple days before someone removed it, but here are a few pics for you to enjoy.

Small Stakes book launch party and signing!

Hello Friends:
Wow! Busy week! In addition to our gallery opening tomorrow evening (see post below), we are also super excited about an event we hope you will join us for on Saturday. Our friend Jason Munn—the wonderful wizard of rock posters—will be launching his brand new, utterly amazing book The Small Stakes Music Posters at our Shoppe. We are truly honored to host Jason and can't wait to celebrate his incredible work. So come on by and meet The Man, buy his book (and get a special limited-edition print!!). There will be snacks to eat, and posters for sale.

WHAT: The Small Stakes Book Signing with Jason Munn
WHEN: Saturday April 10th, 5-8pm
WHERE: The Curiosity Shoppe, 855 Valencia St. (btwn 19th & 20th)

For the Birds Opening!!

Hello Friends!
Please join us this Friday evening to celebrate the opening of our new gallery show, For the Birds! Our talented pals Jeff Canham and Luke Bartels have created an array of amazing abodes, perfect the urban bird. There will be refreshments to peck at.

WHAT: For the Birds opening
WHEN: Friday, April 9th 7-9pm
WHERE: The Curiosity Shoppe 855 Valencia St. (between 19th & 20th)

*More images and a write up on Cool Hunting right here.

Pop-Up Magazine Issue No. 3!

Hello Friends:

We wanted to give you all a heads up that tickets are going on sale TODAY (Thursday) at noon for Pop-Up Magazine Issue No. 3. For those of you not familiar with it, Pop-Up is an evening of readings, photography, documentary film, facts, art, and radio performed onstage by an amazing group of extremely talented folks. Lauren and I are the magazine's Creative Directors and it's been a wonderful experience helping to curate and organize this very special event. I encourage anyone who's interested to check out Pop-Up's website for more information and ticket information.

The show is one night only, Friday April 16th, and if you're interested in attending we recommend you check your calendar now and get tickets as soon as possible. We have done Pop-Up a couple times, and it tends to sell out very quickly. We've moved to a larger venue this time, the gorgeous Herbst Theatre downtown, so we're hoping everyone who wants to make it can get tickets. There is going to be an after party at the Herbst immediately following the event, with tons of drinks and delicious food.

We hope to see you there!

Music Lessons

We're huge music lovers. We listen to it constantly of course, but we also try to play it on a regular basis. It's relaxing and inspirational and fun. And though it's been a while since either of us actually studied it in any sort of academic sense, we've recently been loving (and learning a ton from) the dvd set of Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts.

If you've never heard of it, Leonard Bernstein gave a series of televised performances beginning in 1958 in which he filled Carnegie Hall with young kids and then taught them about music. You can find little snippets of the concerts/lectures on YouTube, but I highly recommend checking out the entire series (we got ours from the library). I love how he doesn't talk down to the children, and takes his time using numerous examples to illustrate a musical point. He even gets the kids involved, doing sing alongs and such that are so magical they'll break your heart.



On a slightly related note (oooh, a pun!) I recently had the pleasure of re-watching Amadeus. I hadn't seen it since I was a kid, but there is a genius scene in which Salieri transcribes a Reqium for Mozart (who isn't feeling so hot) that is so amazing and moving it has been permanently burned into my brain.

The Family of Man

"People! flung wide and far, born into toil, struggle, blood and dreams, among lovers, eaters, drinkers, workers, loafers, fighters, players, gamblers. Here are ironworkers, bridgemen, musicians, sandhogs, miners, builders of huts and skyscrapers, jungle hunters, landlords and the landless, the loved and the unloved, the lonely and abandoned, the brutal and the compassionate–one big family hugging close to the ball of Earth for its life and being." -Carl Sandburg

The Family of Man. "The greatest photographic exhibition of all time." 503 pictures from 68 countries–created by Edward Steichen for The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1955.

How I would have loved to see this exhibit! Someday I will have to make my way to Luxembourg where it is on permanent display.

Drawing, and drawing, and drawing...

Almost missed this article from the LA Times about our very talented pal Jason Polan. He's on a mission to draw all 8 million people in New York (amongst other things). The article also mentions the Taco Bell Drawing Club, of which we are proud card carrying members...

Jason was nice enough to create some very limited edition art sampler packs for us recently. There are still a couple left here.

Comforter at the Curiosity Shoppe!

We're very excited to invite you to the Shoppe this Friday, March 12th to celebrate the opening of Comforter, our new gallery show featuring drawings, sculptures, and a gianormous quilt by the multi-talented Emily Sevier. Emily is an amazing artist and curator whose colorful (and often cuddly) works play with notions of personal comfort zones and emotional attachment to objects. She has created a beautiful collection of pieces for our space and we're thrilled to share her show with you. Please join us Friday to check out the work, meet Emily, and have a drink and a snack. See you then!!

WHAT: Comforter, works by Emily Sevier
WHEN: Friday, March 12th, 6-8pm
WHERE: The Curiosity Shoppe (855 Valencia St. btwn. 19th & 20th)

*There's so much great art happening this Friday, why not make an evening of it? Come check out Comforter here at the Shoppe, and also make sure to hit up "It's A Sign" at Adobe Books Backroom Gallery featuring work by the amazing artists from New Bohemia Signs (the folks who made The Curiosity Shoppe sign and sandwich board thankyouverymuch!). And then of course there is an epic show at Southern Exposure called Alchemy curated by our pal Sarah Smith.

Behold!!!

Aya Brackett "Kyoto"

We finally got the chance to do something we've been wanting to do for a long, long time. Thank you so much to Suzanne Shade for inviting us to be Guest Curators at the Beholder! It was so exciting and fun and inspirational to check out all the amazing work on the site. We had to keep our choices to 10 (which was HARD!), but we managed...So go check out our little curated collection and spend the rest of the afternoon exploring all the other great artists on the Beholder.

Fabian Geyrhalter "Precision"
Lisa Bartleson "the couch, the chair, the rug, the table"

Survival Annex items online!

For the last two weeks of the show- all the items in the Survival Annex are available for purchase online!! Prepare to be amazed...

And for those of you in SF, there will be a plant exchange and all day closing party next Sunday, February 21st. C'mon by!

New Art

After watching Herb & Dorothy last night, I got to thinking about collecting art, and remembered that I haven't shared the most recent additions to our own modest collection- recently back from the framers and hanging in our dining room! On the left is a print by Wayne White, and on the right are 3 prints by Tom Bonauro. Don't they look great together?

Speaking of the dining room, we wallpapered one wall with our Lena Corwin wallpaper last Fall, and painted all the other walls in a lovely shade of blue/gray that matches the ground color. It feels sooo much better than the glossy white paint that was in there before!