Author: Edie Okamoto

  • Celebrate Mexican Independence Day with Rolando Morales at Don Pico’s on Friday September 16, 2016

    Rolando Morales at Don Pico's Bistro on Friday September 16, 2016
    Rolando Morales at Don Pico’s Bistro on Friday September 16, 2016

    Friday Sept 16, Don Pico’s Mexican Bistro, 461 El Camino Real, San Bruno, 6 to 9 pm.   Celebrate Mexican Independence Day with Rolando  as he returns on solo guitar and voice in the intimate Restaurant Room.  (650) 589-1163 and see www.donpicosbistro.com.

  • Norah Jones will release her new CD, Day Breaks, on October 7th, 2016.

    Norah Jones will release her new CD on October 7th, 2016
    Norah Jones will release her new CD on October 7th, 2016

    Norah Jones has announced the October 7 global release of Day Breaks (Blue Note Records), her stunning sixth solo album which is a kindred spirit to the singer’s breakout debut Come Away With Me and finds the 9-time GRAMMY-winner returning to the piano and her roots. The album features jazz luminaries including her Blue Note label mates saxophonist Wayne Shorter, organist Dr. Lonnie Smith, and drummer Brian Blade on a 12-song set that presents 9 new originals alongside covers of songs by Horace Silver, Duke Ellington and Neil Young.

    “This new album, Day Breaks, feels full circle because I’m going back to my early influences,” says Norah. “After the first record, I drifted away from the piano a little bit. I still played it, but was more inspired to write on guitar. I really loved playing piano on this record.”

    Born March 30, 1979, in New York City, Norah Jones, the daughter of Ravi Shankar quietly grew up in Texas with her mother. While she always found the music of Billie Holiday and Bill Evans both intriguing and comforting, she didn’t really explore jazz until attending Dallas’ Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. During high school, Jones won the Down Beat Student Music Awards for Best Jazz Vocalist and Best Original Composition in 1996, and earned a second Best Jazz Vocalist award in 1997.

    Learn more about Norah Jones at Blue Note.

  • Beverly Reiser creates new art collection: Contemplative Reflections

    Beverly Reiser - On and On the tears must fall
    Beverly Reiser – On and On the tears must fall

    Beverly Reiser has been a prolific artist who has been exhibited all around the world.  For the past year she has started in a a new medium, pastels. We hope you enjoy her latest collection.

    interactive multimedia installations using sound, video, and computer graphics:

    ARTIST / CO-DEVELOPER

    Vital Journey / Virtual Heart: a walk-in interactive multimedia installation for Exploration Place, a children’s science museum in Kansas, which takes children on a virtual journey through the human circulatory system, lungs and brain. Visitors complete the oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange using life-size video capture and interactive game technology. In collaboration with Gyroscope, Inc., and Vivid Group opened in April, 2000

     

    ARTIST

    private_loves/public_opera: A walk-in video “garden” with website which collects love stories, allows you to add your own love story. The web site is athttp://www.ylem.org/private_loves/public_opera/, San Francisco, Art Institute, Walter McBean Gallery, San Francisco, CA Dec.- Jan. 1996-1997, a collaboration with Barbara Lee

    ARTIST

    Que Viva Tu Recuerdo: Altars And Offerings for the Days of the Dead

    An altar/ installation dedicated to the memory of Remedios Varo, Oakland Museum, CA, Oct. -Nov 1995, a collaboration with Lucia Grossburger Morales

     

    Under the name of LIFE ON A SLICE:

    ( These are collaborations with Hans Reiser, Bill Fleming and Kimberley Edwards.)

    ARTIST / CO-DEVELOPER:

    VOICE GARDEN: LABYRINTH OF LOVE, LABYRINTH OF DESIRE, an interactive multimedia CD-ROM

     

    Come, Human, spin in my Web! – A ride thru an A.I.’s persona

    An A.I. sends an invitation out to Humans to visit the “web”. If they take up the invite, they adventure into either the “Cerebral Cathedral” or the ” Feral Forest”. Eventually they arrive at one of four possible endings having altered their own “data structure” or the environment.

     

    Temple of the Goddesses – A virtual sacred space.

    As the visitor moves thru the shrine complex they are engaged in various episodes (depending on the visitors response ) by goddesses Venus, Nemesis, the Psychedelic Cyber Pagan, etc. There are four possible endings with numerous episodes along the way.

     

    The Phosphorescent Samurai and the Geisha Snail A surrealistic fable

    Two inter-species mutants start on their ‘hero’s journey’ and, depending on choices made by the viewer along the way, are transformed accordingly. There is a final revelation unique to each of the eight possible endings.

    HEART THEATER, Exploration Place, Wichita, Kansas opens April, 2000

    PRIVATE_LOVES / PUBLIC_OPERA, San Francisco Art Institute, Walter McBean Gallery, San Francisco, CA

    Dec.- Jan. 1996-1997

    2DO FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE VIDEO Y ARTES ELECTRONICAS, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1996

    INTEGRATED HEMISPERES: Woman/Art /Technology, Blasthaus, San Francisco, CA, May – June 1996

    BURNING MAN FESTIVAL, South of Market Arts Center, San Francisco, Aug. 1995, 1996, 1998

    INTERACTIVE COMMUNITIES, SIGGRAPH 95 Conference , Los Angeles, 1995

    JUPITER AND THE COMETS, a program/event produced by the

    Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Astophysics, 1994

    THE UBIQUITOUS ART ZONE, the ACM’s Multimedia ’94 Conference, San Francisco, Ca, USA, Oct. 1994

    PLEASE TOUCH ! , VIDEO SCULPTURE, Regional Center for the Arts,

    Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA, Jan, 1994

    THE INTERACTIVE EXPERIENCE, INTERACT ’93, conference of ACM’s SIG Computer Human Interface and INTERACT ( European ), Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 1993

    LIFE ON A SLICE, tour of German University Art galleries, Feb.-May, 1992

    SIGGRAPH ART SHOW ’92, Chicago, July, 1992

    IMAGES DU FUTUR ’92, LA CITE DES ARTS ET NOUVELLES TECHNOLOGIES DU MONTREAL, Canada

    TOMMOROW’S REALITIES: HYPERMEDIA, SIGGRAPH, Las Vegas, 1991

    INTERACTIVE ART, Center for Extreme Ultraviolet Astrophysics, NASA, U.C. Berkeley

    AMERICAN LIGHT ART, Takashimaya, Tokyo, Japan, 1989-90

    NEO-NEON, One Market Plaza, Art Programs Inc., San Francisco, 1987

    EXPANDED VISION: NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN ART, Jack Gallery, New York City, 1985

    interviews, articles, & books:

    Art & Technology at the Mining Co. web site, featured artist in Mindscapes on 11/06/97

    LEONARDO, ( the cover of) Journal of the International Society for Arts Sciences and Technology, MIT Press, Vol. 29 #1, 1996

    Microsoft’s magazine, feature: Art on the Internet: Rare Birds in Cyberspace, by Dominic Gates, http://home.microsoft.com/reading/features.asp, Feb. 26,1997

    INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM OF ELECTRONIC ARTS ’96, CD ROM produced & distributed by MultiArtDisc, Eindhoven, Netherlands, 1996

    ARTWEEK, article on art & technology by Barbara Fisher, Jan., 1996

     SIGGRAPH ’95 MULTIMEDIA CD-ROM, a publication of the ACM ‘s SIGGRAPH, 1995

    COMPUTERS & GRAPHICS , Pergamom Press , and the IEEE’s COMPUTER GRAPHICS ,Special supplement joint issue edited by Carl Machover, “Aesthetic Considerations Unique to Interactive Multimedia” , May,1995

    NEW SCIENTIST, “Netropolis”, “An Elephant Dancing” by Claire Neesham, April,1994

    ARTISTS DATABASE CD-ROM , Project Intercommunication Center, Tokyo, 1993,1994,

    ART IN THE ELECTRONIC AGE, by Frank Popper, pub. by Harry N. Abrams,1992, Paris, France

    LEONARDO, Journal of the International Society for Arts Sciences and Technology,

    San Francisco, CA, Jan, 1994

    TECH-NATION, interview by Dr. Moira Gunn , National Public Radio, Aug, 1993

    GD3D, GRAPHIC DESIGN IN THE THIRD DIMENSION, Ken & Leigh Cato, published by Graphic Sha, Tokyo, 1992

    VERBUM, JOURNAL OF COMPUTER AESTHETICS, San Diego, CA, Dec. 1991

    LET THERE BE NEON !, Vol. II, by Rudi Stern, NY,NY, 1991

    CONTEMPORARY NEON, by Rudi Stern, NY, NY, 1992

    NEW YORK TIMES, Business Section 3, The New Hollywood, Sept. 1991

    COMPUTER GRAPHICS, Magazine of the I.E.E.E., Art in Virtual Reality, May, 1992

    CYBER ARTS, published by Harper- Freeman, ed. by Linda Jacobson, Summer ,1992

    offices & awards:

    President of Ylem/ Artists Using Science And Technology , PO box 749, Orinda, CA, 94563, 1985-1999

    Advisory Board, International Society for the Arts, Sciences, and Technology, San Francisco, CA, 1989-2000

    Currently Chair of the Advisory Board

    MicroTimes Magazine on it’s “MicroTimes 100”, their list of 100 people who’ve had a significant influence

    on the computer industry, Dec., 1995

    designer / co-founder / director (until 1999)

    Ylem’s Art on the Edge, an art gallery on the world wide web: http://www.ylem.org/

    External Advisory Panel member to Xerox PARC Artist-in Residence Program, 1993

    Honorary Distinction in Interactive Art, PRIX ARS ELECTRONICA, Linz, Austria, 1992

  • Epictetus, still the best 2000 year old wisdoms to live by

    Epictetus - Stoic Philosophies to live by
    Epictetus – Stoic Philosophies to live by

    Epictetus was one of the most revered Stoic Philosophers.  He lived 55AD and was born a slave.  It is said that his owner/master liked him very much and enjoyed his intelligence.  He allowed him to be educated alongside his own children and eventually set him free.  Epictetus started his own school in a part of Greece that today belongs to Turkey.  Even though he is known as one of the top Stoic Philosophers, he actually was exclusively interested in ethics. The most renowned books, Discourses and the Handbook concentrate almost exclusively on ethics. His philosophy is as true today as it was then.  Happiness can be increased if we expect less and look at reality for what it is.  Then we can frame it in a way that is neutral, rather than taking everything so personally.  For the most part life’s situations are rather happenstance instead of created and directed to disturb us. Dealing with it in a calm and joyful way, that is our choice.

    Sharon Lebell wrote a contemporary version of his teachings in “The Art of Living.”   Check our her book.  If your keenly interested in Philosophy you may enjoy learning about him here.    Here is a quick taste of his teaching.  Enjoy.