Yo Gabba Gabba, s'il vous plait

Don't let this one pass you by! there was a sweet little story in my SF Chronicle this morning. I read it in bed. It's Shavuot, so I don't have work and I still get the newspaper delivered to the house.

Look, Charles Rivkin one of the people who made Yo Gabba Gabba is going to be the American ambassador to France, if he gets approved.

"Charles Rivkin, president and CEO of San Francisco-based Wild Brain Inc. and co-producer of the children's program 'Yo Gabba Gabba,' was nominated as ambassador to France," writes Matthew B. Stannard, Chronicle Staff Writer. (The San Francisco Chronicle still has a staff?! @FrannyDink what's going on here?)

I think this is funninteresting because:

he's newculture and he made a lot of money and friends, I guess:

While those efforts have been hailed in the diplomatic community, they have fueled a long-running debate over the tradition of presidents using diplomatic appointments to reward fundraisers and political supporters...

...In addition to tens of thousands of dollars in personal contributions to various candidates and committees, both men were "bundlers" who raised at least $500,000 for the Obama campaign in 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The two were co-chairs of Obama's California finance committee.

he thereby immediately qualifies as "low culture"/high culture [Kirk Varnedoe R.I.P.*]

and it's his youth. he grew up in the civil service, so the whole thing's like a tribute to his dad.

Rivkin is not completely detached from the foreign policy world: He is the son of William Rivkin, who served as ambassador in Luxembourg, Senegal and Gambia in the 1960s, and who is remembered by the annual American Foreign Service Association Rivkin Award for "Constructive Dissent" given to midcareer Foreign Service officers.

aww.

(* - if the reference is too oblique, I'm talking about the watershed and maybe reviled 1990 exhibition at MoMA High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture curated by Kirk Varnedoe and Adam Gopnik)

Naomie Kremer's Ghosts

As part of the Magnes WINDOWS series , the latest installation is by Israeli-born, Berkeley-living artist Naomie Kremer . The WINDOWS series was launched to use the Magnes new facility to positive effect, namely as public art to be viewed at night: to bring more cultural content to downtown Berkeley and in the evenings when the street traffic is less -- to light up the night. Kremer's opening was this evening and we had a really nice turn out, including important local patrons of the arts, collectors etc. Here pictured are Jeff and Jane Green , Penny Cooper (one of the Bay Area's finest collections, focused primarily on women artists with her wife Rena Rosenwasser ). Here Naomie introduces her video piece on Bluebeard's Castle, by Bela Bartok .

Why Go to A Conference Anyways?

@lidja @lyndakelly61 @futureofmuseums @creativemerc @museum_flavor pLz look http://tinyurl.com/qxlja4 &here http://bit.ly/q1mhV assoc./conf. grpthink @RichardMcCoy @DanielCull very import.

Review: Macbeth

Macbeth by William Shakespeare My rating: 4 of 5 stars Four and a half stars, with one major flaw: the producers chose to do this funny little trick of overlaying Cumming's voices when he was multiple characters, namely three weird sisters when they spoke at once. The result was echo-y and distracting. Otherwise, the whole thing felt like the smartest guy in the neighborhood inviting you over to listen to him read, and you cared: knew the story and really wanted to hear how he delivered. It was intimate and rewarding. It also made me think about how it is a story of Scots and English. View all my reviews

loveitallabove

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