MAUI, Hawaii, Aug. 25 -- The intense, flickering brilliance of Mars, the Red Planet, that careens so closely by the Earth this week makes Maui, the Hawaiian Island of Valleys, even more mystical than it usually is. "Maui is amazingly spiritual," says Rod McKuen, the poet/ troubadour of the San Francisco '60s. Rod is here to perform in a musical called "Soulmates," written by the popular local composer and performer, Patricia Watson. I came here to see the show, which played this weekend at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center. ... "I went up to the mountains here for a few days to do a little writing on my book," Rod explains. "The words were just pouring out of me. There is something about this place that reaches directly to the soul." He reminds me of the Irish singer who would gather his poetic notions by walking barefoot on the ancient ground of the Old Sod. He'd feel the Muse come up through his toes. ...
It's clear to understand why Maui evokes transcendental dreams. With the magnificent clouds wrapped low around the mountains, the heavens seem to come down to visit the mortals. ... There are churches everywhere in Maui. This has everything to do with Hawaii's missionary past. "I even saw a large group of Mennonites at McDonald's," McKuen remarks, clearly amused. Ah, yes. So many Mennonites, so little time. And time moves slowly on an island so far from any main land mass. History holds fast. "Maui has a whole lot of gods that were here long before the Christians," says 16-year-old Lisa Garcia, born in Texas and raised on Maui. Lisa likes to talk about the sites where Island warriors battled and died. "All these places are sacred -- and they are haunted." Jasmine Lowcher, a striking, raven-haired 18-year-old actress who appeared in "Soulmates," also knows the ghosts of Maui. "I have heard the Night Marchers," she says, with a little pride. "Their footsteps thunder down the trail at certain nights. They are the warriors who were slaughtered in the battle in Iao (rhymes with "meow") Valley a long, long time ago." ... Black Beach is where a princess, who betrayed her king for the love of another warrior, was put to death for her faithlessness. "You can sometimes see her blood on the wall of the cave where she died," says Lisa. "We swim there to honor her." Even Maui has its own Tristan and Isolde legend. ...
Lisa and her mom, Mona Garcia, attended the performance of "Soulmates." They applauded its zeal for the Roman Catholic Church. Indeed, McKuen appeared on stage briefly, as a priest. He sang one song, a "homily," Rod says. Yes, he wrote it last week in the mountains. It stopped the show. It's called "September Comes Around (All Too Soon)." It's an instant McKuen classic. The show is performed entirely in song -- with few spoken words -- in a bouncy pop style. Sort of "Godspell" meets "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg." Broadway star Mary Jo Catlett was a big hit. It was directed by David Galligan, known to S.F. audiences for his work on the Richmond Ermet AIDS Foundation benefit galas. "Soulmates" was a big event on Maui. McKuen chuckled about how his name appeared on the marquee on the highway above Steely Dan, who are appearing at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center on Oct. 10. ...
Rod McKuen's name will inextricably be linked to San Francisco, though he's lived in Beverly Hills since 1969. "I saw Rod read his poems in Sausalito," says Kris Hinsvark, who stood at the stage door after "Soulmates" with her husband, Richard. "That was in 1965 and I still recall it well." Diane Kopperman traveled from Las Vegas to see McKuen. "I tell people I am a stalker," Diane deadpans. "Then they just get quiet." His worldwide fans embrace a religious fervor of their own. ... The Maui Weekly's Joseph W. Bean is fron San Francisco. "I kept coming back to Maui. I finally decided it was cheaper to move over here." ...
Several people murmured to me, "You'll be back here, too." No one here seems to talk about where you're going. They only ask when you are coming back. Maybe that's why "Aloha" means neither "Hello" nor "Goodbye." Coming back? To this beautifully dissolute island bordello in the middle of the Pacific? I wonder. I was skeptical about Maui's magnetism. But, after a day or two, I feel a little sweet forgetfulness about the madding world seeping in slightly. That's easy to do while typing on a Mac in the Tradewinds Poolside Cafe at the Maui Coast Hotel, the languid music drifting over me in the perfumed breezy afternoon. "We'll be together again," the pedal steel guitar seductively promises, "here in this paradise." But I need a purpose, even in this paradise. So it's time to collect Rod McKuen and our young handler, the bright and capable Ben McMillan. We're off to Kahalui to look at ukes. ... I have to squeeze in another marveling look at Mars and the constellations that hold court across the Maui sky. "Too many stars to squander," Rod gently warns in his new song, which was penned on spindrift pages in the still night on Maui soil. And then there is the topic of when I might be coming back -- back to Maui, that is. ... Aloha. ...
Monday, August 25, 2003
Monday, August 11, 2003
A Glittering City
August 11, 2003, The Examiner
RITA MORENO could not conceal her pride Thursday night at the Eleonore Austerer Gallery opening for Fernanda Fisher's jewelry design show. Fernanda is Rita's daughter. ... Mayor Willie Brown arrived at the Sutter St. gallery, proclaiming it "Fernanda Fisher Day" in San Francisco. ... Assemblyman Mark Leno offered encouraging words for the artist. Channel 7's Jessica Aguirre looked at home among beautiful things. Herv? Ernest, of the S.F. Conservation Corps, was earnestly charmed. Lovely young people wandered about wearing a few of Fernanda's dazzling pieces. Fernanda likes to combine textures and colors, such as, semi-precious stones with silver and antique beads ... "This is such a great night," said gallery owner Wendell Simmons. "We even made a few sales." That's a swell endorsement these days. ... "Swell -- that's a great word," sighed Rita. "That's the word that comes to mind when I look at my daughter." ...
Sergio & Marcia Giusti hosted a dinner for Fernanda and her husband, Daniel Fisher, after the show at the Giusti's friendly Firenze by Night restaurant on Stockton in North Beach. ... Rita Moreno ... her husband, the very funny Dr. Lenny Gordon ... KGO's Brian Copeland and his wife, Suzie. ... Wendell Simmons and his wife, Deborah. ... Judy's restaurant owner Charles Bain ... and the virtuous virtuoso of PR, Stefano Cassolato, were there. ... Rita's gig on HBO's "Oz" has ended but she remains very busy and supremely vivacious. I'm still amazed that she danced with Gene Kelly in "Singin in the Rain." ... "I had the greatest time at the opening of the new Napa Valley Opera House," she said. "Lenny and I are so glad we moved from L.A. to the Bay Area." They live in the Berkeley Hills. ... Rita opens her new show at The Plush Room, Oct. 21 through Nov. 15. "I have recently turned down Feinstein's and the Algonquin in New York. But I love the Plush Room. It's the best cabaret room in America." ... And she should know: She made "America" famous. ...
That was U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy having dinner at Florio on Fillmore Friday night. He kept company with a couple of U.S. Marshals. Justice Kennedy was in town for the convention of the American Bar Association. ... At the Matrix/Fillmore Thursday, 150 supporters of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation held a kick-off party for the 13th annual "Race for the Cure" on Sept. 7. ... The party was thrown by Julie Down ... Sari Swig ... M.K. Fippinger ... Gavin and Kimberly Newsom ... Michael Macdonald ... Maria Quiros ... Andrea Schnitzer ... the recently married and still all-a-blush Lori Puccinneli. ... Also in attendance, the ever-alert writer, Michele Caprario. ... Nancy Brinker, former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary, was there with Richard Goldman. The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation is named for Nancy's sister. ...
It is startling to walk down Polk Street near California and notice how the block has changed -- now that the marquee at the old Royal Theater is suddenly gone. As a matter of fact, the venerable house itself has been razed. Behind a plywood facade lies a pit that was once a repository for millions of matinee memories. ... 30 years ago, my brother, Paul, managed the Royal. In a unlikely scenario from a dime store novel turned into a treacly movie, Paul married Bonnie, the girl behind the candy counter. ... Bernardo Bertolucci's "Last Tango In Paris," played there for months in 1972. The bridge-and-tunnel crowd flocked to the Royal, in leisure suits and hip huggers. That's because "Last Tango ..." was the first big budget movie, "an art film," that featured fairly graphic sex scenes. It drew mainstream audiences from the 'burbs who didn't have to skulk to tawdry porn houses to take a peek at smut. This was acceptable smut. This was filmed in Paris. This was Art. ...
In those days, Polk Street or "Polkstrasse" had preceded the Castro District as a center of gay life. "Last Tango ..." was a cause celebre on the street for its notorious scene with Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider and a stick of butter. ... Across the street from the Royal was the Gramophone record shop -- now a video store. Locals would stop and chuckle at the suggestive window display that remained there for weeks: copies of the great Gato Barbieri "Last Tango ..." soundtrack amid empty boxes of Challenge butter. ...If you want to say "Only in San Francisco," now is the time to say it.
Bruce Bellingham is the author of "Bellingham by the Bay." His e-mail is bruce@brucebellingham.com
RITA MORENO could not conceal her pride Thursday night at the Eleonore Austerer Gallery opening for Fernanda Fisher's jewelry design show. Fernanda is Rita's daughter. ... Mayor Willie Brown arrived at the Sutter St. gallery, proclaiming it "Fernanda Fisher Day" in San Francisco. ... Assemblyman Mark Leno offered encouraging words for the artist. Channel 7's Jessica Aguirre looked at home among beautiful things. Herv? Ernest, of the S.F. Conservation Corps, was earnestly charmed. Lovely young people wandered about wearing a few of Fernanda's dazzling pieces. Fernanda likes to combine textures and colors, such as, semi-precious stones with silver and antique beads ... "This is such a great night," said gallery owner Wendell Simmons. "We even made a few sales." That's a swell endorsement these days. ... "Swell -- that's a great word," sighed Rita. "That's the word that comes to mind when I look at my daughter." ...
Sergio & Marcia Giusti hosted a dinner for Fernanda and her husband, Daniel Fisher, after the show at the Giusti's friendly Firenze by Night restaurant on Stockton in North Beach. ... Rita Moreno ... her husband, the very funny Dr. Lenny Gordon ... KGO's Brian Copeland and his wife, Suzie. ... Wendell Simmons and his wife, Deborah. ... Judy's restaurant owner Charles Bain ... and the virtuous virtuoso of PR, Stefano Cassolato, were there. ... Rita's gig on HBO's "Oz" has ended but she remains very busy and supremely vivacious. I'm still amazed that she danced with Gene Kelly in "Singin in the Rain." ... "I had the greatest time at the opening of the new Napa Valley Opera House," she said. "Lenny and I are so glad we moved from L.A. to the Bay Area." They live in the Berkeley Hills. ... Rita opens her new show at The Plush Room, Oct. 21 through Nov. 15. "I have recently turned down Feinstein's and the Algonquin in New York. But I love the Plush Room. It's the best cabaret room in America." ... And she should know: She made "America" famous. ...
That was U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy having dinner at Florio on Fillmore Friday night. He kept company with a couple of U.S. Marshals. Justice Kennedy was in town for the convention of the American Bar Association. ... At the Matrix/Fillmore Thursday, 150 supporters of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation held a kick-off party for the 13th annual "Race for the Cure" on Sept. 7. ... The party was thrown by Julie Down ... Sari Swig ... M.K. Fippinger ... Gavin and Kimberly Newsom ... Michael Macdonald ... Maria Quiros ... Andrea Schnitzer ... the recently married and still all-a-blush Lori Puccinneli. ... Also in attendance, the ever-alert writer, Michele Caprario. ... Nancy Brinker, former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary, was there with Richard Goldman. The Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation is named for Nancy's sister. ...
It is startling to walk down Polk Street near California and notice how the block has changed -- now that the marquee at the old Royal Theater is suddenly gone. As a matter of fact, the venerable house itself has been razed. Behind a plywood facade lies a pit that was once a repository for millions of matinee memories. ... 30 years ago, my brother, Paul, managed the Royal. In a unlikely scenario from a dime store novel turned into a treacly movie, Paul married Bonnie, the girl behind the candy counter. ... Bernardo Bertolucci's "Last Tango In Paris," played there for months in 1972. The bridge-and-tunnel crowd flocked to the Royal, in leisure suits and hip huggers. That's because "Last Tango ..." was the first big budget movie, "an art film," that featured fairly graphic sex scenes. It drew mainstream audiences from the 'burbs who didn't have to skulk to tawdry porn houses to take a peek at smut. This was acceptable smut. This was filmed in Paris. This was Art. ...
In those days, Polk Street or "Polkstrasse" had preceded the Castro District as a center of gay life. "Last Tango ..." was a cause celebre on the street for its notorious scene with Marlon Brando, Maria Schneider and a stick of butter. ... Across the street from the Royal was the Gramophone record shop -- now a video store. Locals would stop and chuckle at the suggestive window display that remained there for weeks: copies of the great Gato Barbieri "Last Tango ..." soundtrack amid empty boxes of Challenge butter. ...If you want to say "Only in San Francisco," now is the time to say it.
Bruce Bellingham is the author of "Bellingham by the Bay." His e-mail is bruce@brucebellingham.com
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