Song Reader party, new Civil Wars + Much Ado, zesty salad

I don't know about the rest of you, but most creative projects involve a strange emotional ricochet from enthusiastic beginnings to disinterest and procrastination, usually overcome with prayer and a decent stint of teeth-gritting, imperfect drafting that finally results in rediscovery of the initial delights and eventual, satisfied completion. Thus, today's profile of an award-winning ophthalmologist, "Choosing Marriage Over the Mission Field," began with an interview in November, progressed to a pitch in January and finally emerged from my laptop earlier this week after a long stint of stalling.

Once I got past the grinding start of the writing, Dr. Kietzman's story reminded me how much I enjoyed hearing it for the first time in Chicago, last fall. You don't always get to hear about someone's life at such length, but mine is the richer for having heard part of his fascinating, courageous journey. (See also my first story on him, for work, which focused more on the medical side of things.)

Lastly, I keep forgetting to mention this, but I recently updated the music-venues page on the artRecs blog. Though it's not a complete list, it provides a decent run-down of most major venues in the area, including nearest BART station (where applicable), parking, box office hours/tips for avoiding service fees and so on. Here's wishing you all a lovely weekend whatever you're up to!

:: Song Reader party June 28 ::

• It's finally happening! Eric and Shea will graciously open their home on Friday, June 28, for musicians (and a few music appreciators, like you) to come sightread through Beck's new, all-sheet-music album, Song Reader. If you want to join us as a performer, there's a Google doc for people to sign up for songs and parts. (I'm not asking for note-perfect readings, but ideally you'll run through the chosen parts a few times beforehand.) Hope to see you there! More details to come as the date gets closer.

:: your stuff ::

• Matt's documentary short on Dave Young Kim's Oakland mural, Eighth Street, debuts at the Parkway, June 22! Don't miss it.
• Laura recently made her debut on the Christianity Today website, profiling Bay Area anti-trafficking worker Betty Ann Boeving for CT's "This Is Our City" project.

:: visual art & film ::

• Joss Whedon has a new adaption of Much Ado About Nothing out and, though I'm a huge fan of the Kenneth Branagh version, initial reviews are very good. A.O. Scott called it the "most purely delightful movie I have seen so far this year." Anyone else want to see it, perhaps this weekend?
• Can murals curb graffiti? These SF business owners hope so (SFgate).
• Discovered at 64: I still need to read this, but I love stories about artists getting discovered late in life -- not because I rejoice in the delay, of course, but it's nice to be reminded that life's drama doesn't contain itself to our early years and abandon us once the wrinkles set in. And who's to say what could come of works we quietly toil at, unnoticed, for years?
• LA's Craft and Folk Art Museum gets yarn bombed (Huffington Post).

:: tunes ::

• Preview the new Civil Wars album! Hear their first single, "The One that Got Away"
• Elvis Costello and the Roots team up for an album due out in September (SFgate).
• Paul McCartney on Colbert: Presently on my to-watch list, but Paste liked it and when does Colbert ever fumble such things?
  

:: reading/food for thought ::

• A fascinating look at art/restoration in the digital age: "[W]hen a Web-based work becomes technologically obsolete, does updated software simply restore it? Or is the piece fundamentally changed?"
• This interview on comedy and faith with the RUF minister known on Twitter as Prodigal Sam provoked quite an online dust-up recently, with Patton Oswalt lashing out and so many people jumping into the plagiarism debate that Prodigal Sam later announced a break from Twitter altogether. All that notwithstanding, his comment that's it harder to be funny without vulgarity particularly resonated with me (not that I see myself as a comic writer). On a related note: this piece on plagiarism, homage and laziness reckoned thoughtfully with the larger issues raised by the controversy.

:: food ::

• New cocktail bar Novela features menu inspired by reading. Maybe I'll try to go there for my birthday....
• For several months now, I've been getting a CSA box every three weeks. For the most part it's great (you can choose the frequency of delivery and rule out fruits or veggies you hate), but they always bring me carrots, and sometimes radishes. Since I only use these in certain recipes, they often get gnarled and soft before I have a chance to use them. So last weekend I looked up recipes and discovered this easy carrot-radish salad -- super quick if you have a food processor to grate for you. With a light sprinkle of curry powder and a dab of hot sauce, it was quite delicious.