March 23, 2013, Saturday
6-8pm, doors at 5:30pm
2nd floor, no elevator, steep staircase.
Sliding scale $30-50.
All proceeds go to musicians.
Drinks and finger food will be provided free of charge.

Psoy Korolenko, Russian/Jewish multilingual poet-singer, known as a ‘wandering scholar’ and ‘singing professor’. His unique one-man show balances between folk, klezmer, rap, sound poetry and intellectual cabaret/comedy. As a writer and scholar he is known for his interest to otherness, diaspora, territory, minorities, and borderlines. The Jewish experience is to him not only a personal story, but also a metaphor of transcultural identity and ultimate otherness. He sings in English, Russian, French, and Yiddish. Two of his eight CDs are recontextualizing klezmer – ‘Un Vo Iz Der Onheyb Fun Foterland’ (Soviet Pop Classics in Yiddish translations and Klezmer arrangements, with All Stars Klezmer Band, Russia -Urkaine – Germany, 2006) and ‘The Unternationale’ (with Daniel Kahn, US/Germany and Oy Division, Israel, 2008). He was a participant, guest and lecturer at many Klezfests in Russia and took part in the program ‘East Meets West’ at Klezkanada-2006. He participated in the Festival of Jewish Culture in Krakov (2005) presenting a show together with Kharkov Klezmer Band. He often performes all over Russia, as well as in Israel and USA.

Saturday, December 29
2-4 pm
953 Valencia Street, SF, CA 94110
2nd floor, no elevator
Doors at 1:30 pm
Suggested donation: $20+
Lots of food (the Varshavsky family cooking) and drinks (of course)

Orchestar Sali performs high-energy Romani (Gypsy) music from Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, Turkey, and beyond.

Featured in the ensemble are Peter Jaques (clarinet), Dan Cantrell (Accordion and Voice) and Rumen Sali Shopov (Percussion and Voice).

Over several years of working together, performing and studying music from the Balkans, Middle East and Mediterranean countries, the group has begun innovative and exciting explorations into original compositions and cross cultural collaborations. Maintaining a sound that is stylistically fluent and traditionally respectful, Orchestar Sali is a powerhouse of musical virtuosity, and technical prowess, while also conjuring soul stirring balladry and a wide depth of emotion.

Formed three years ago in Berkeley, California, Agapi Mou is the latest musical project from the young half-Japanese duo of Aya Davidson and Gregory Masaki Jenkins. The name “Agapi Mou” translates from Greek to mean “my love” and signifies the group’s love of and dedication to the traditional music of Greece. With Aya on violin and vocals and Greg on clarinet and vocals, the group is rounded out with Greek-American percussionist/vocalist Michael Garibaldi and Alan Davidson on the Greek lute (laouto).

The regional diversity of musical styles in Greece is truly surprising for the size of the country. With respect for both the dramatic and nuanced characteristics of these styles, Agapi Mou gracefully threads together an impressive musical selection, presenting songs and dance tunes from numerous islands, including Crete, Rhodes, Amorgos, Ikaria, Mytillini, and mainland areas such as Thrace, Macedonia, Epirus, and the Peloponnese. The group also performs a number of selections from nearby countries such as Albania, Turkey, and Armenia.

Saturday, September 22
2-4pm, doors 1:30
953 Valencia St.
San Francisco
all ages
2nd Floor, no elevator
$20+, Drinks and H’ors D’Oeuvres provided

This is also the official launch for Karina Denike’s 30 day Kickstarter fundraiser to help finish her first solo record!! 100% of the proceeds go to the record being completed. Every single dollar counts. Thank you, as always, for your support!

karinadenike.com
twitter.com/KarinaDenike
karinadenike.bandcamp.com

Saturday, June 23, 12-2pm
953 Valencia St., San Francisco
2 floor, no elevator
Tickets at the door $20 and up

The Porto Franco Sunday brunch is back this month on a Saturday with our favorite Gypsy jazz group Gaucho. Featuring guitarist Dave Ricketts, accordionist Rob Reich, bassist Ari Munkres and special guest cornetist Leon Oakley. They will perform music from their upcoming album “Part-Time Sweetheart” which they just successfully funded on Kickstarter.

May 11, 2012 :: 6-9pm
953 Valencia St., San Francisco, CA 94110
No admission charge
Second floor, no elevator. No handicapped access.

On May 11th from 6pm to 9pm at Porto Franco Art Parlor (953 Valencia St., San Francisco, CA 94110, second floor, no elevator), Mikhail Lemkhin, a photographer and a writer, will present his new book «No returning anywhere». We will be also exhibiting an exquisite series of his photographs 20 Portraits. Drinks and hors d’oeuvres will be served. No admission charge.

Mikhail Lemkhin was born in Leningrad in 1949. He graduated from the Leningrad State University with a master’s degree in journalism, served in the Soviet Army, and worked for the Bureau of Propaganda of the Soviet Film Industry, the Leningrad State University, and the Graphics Department of the Soviet Artists’ Union. In 1983 Mikhail and his family immigrated to the USA and have since been living in San Francisco.
Lemkhin has hundreds of articles, a few dozen of short stories and a novel published in newspapers and magazines across America, Europe, and Russia, including Moscow’s Novyi Mir, Saint Peterburg’s Neva, Paris’ Continent, and Frankfurt’s Grani. As a photographer, Lemkhin has illustrated many publications, as well as two of his own books – Missing Frames (foreword by Olga Andreeva-Karlayl) and Joseph Brodsky, Leningrad: Fragments (foreword by Cheslav Milosh, afterword by Susan Sontag).

Over a hundred articles dedicated to his work have been published in America, Europe, and Russia. His works are part of many state and private collections, such as the Cartier-Bresson Center in Paris and the Russian State Museum in Saint Petersburg, where in 2005 Mikhail Lemkhin was honored to hold a personal exhibition.

Lemkhin is a member of the International association of art critics, as well as the Guild of film critics and experts of Russia and the Russian Film Union.

Lemkhin’s book No Returning Anywhere. Talking about film, photography, painting, and theatre – is a collection of his articles and interviews dedicated to the cornerstone events of Western and Russian cultural life in 20 some years that passed. An enticing story about movies, exhibitions, and plays combined with an unforgiving professional analysis. Dramatic interviews with amazing directors and writers. Foreword by Naum Kleyman. Published in Saint Petersburg in 2012.

The current exhibition 20 Portraits includes portraits of Joseph Brodsky, Sergei Dovlatov, Mikhail Gorbachev, Andrei Sakharov, and many other influential faces of our century.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

Михаил Лемхин родился в 1949 году в Ленинграде, окончил факультет журналистики ЛГУ, служил в армии, работал в Бюро пропаганды советского киноискусства, в Ленинградском университете, а также в Графическом комбинате Союза художников СССР. В 1983 году эмигрировал с семьей в США и с тех пор живёт в Сан-Франциско.

Лемхин опубликовал сотни статей, повесть и несколько десятков рассказов во многих американских, европейских и российских газетах и журналах: от московского «Нового мира» и петербургской «Невы» до парижского «Континента» и франкфуртских «Граней». Как фотограф, Лемхин оформил множество изданий, а также выпустил две авторские книги: «Missing Frames» (предисловие Ольги Андреевой-Карлайл) и «Joseph Brodsky, Leningrad: Fragments» (предисловие Чеслава Милоша, послесловие Сюзанны Зонтаг).

Творчеству Лемхина посвящено более сотни статей в различных американских, европейских и российских изданиях. Его работы хранятся во многих государственных и частных коллекциях: от Центра Картье-Брессона в Париже до Государственного Русского музея в Петербурге, где в 2005 году Михаил Лемхин был удостоен персональной выставки.
Михаил Лемхин – член Международной ассоциации художественных критиков, а так же Гильдии кинокритиков и киноведов России и Российского Киносоюза.

Книга М.Лемхина «Вернуться никуда нельзя. Разговоры о кино, фотографии, живописи и театре» посвящена знаковым событиям культурной жизни Запада и России за последние двадцать с лишним лет. Это увлекательный рассказ о фильмах, выставках и спектаклях в сочетании с беспощадным профессиональным анализом, а также острые, драматичные интервью с выдающимися режиссерами и писателями. (СПб, издательство «Читатель», предисловие Наума Клеймана, 2012 г.)

На выставке «Двадцать портретов» представлены фотографии Бродского, Довлатова, Горбачева, Сахарова и многих других наших выдающихся современников.

This exhibition features a series of thirty drawings created from 2006-08 and collected under the title “To Rhinoceros’ Song”. Each piece is a political poster reflecting the artist’s view of contemporary political regime in Russia. The title of the series refers to Rhinocéros, an anti-totalitarian play written in 1959 by French playwright Eugene Ionescu. At the end of the play, the population of a small provincial town joins the “masses”, transforming into a pack of aggressive, thick-skinned animals. The protagonist Bérenger and his love interest Daisy are the only remaining humans among the pack, but before long, Daisy starts hearing a melody in the roar of the rhinoceroses.

Daisy: Listen, they’re singing.
Bérenger: They’re roaring, I tell you.
Daisy: You’re mad, they’re singing.

After that moment, Daisy also becomes a rhinoceros. Bérenger is the last human left, and his final words ring out: “I’ll put up a fight against the lot of them, the whole lot of them! I’m the last man left, and I’m staying that way until the end. I’m not capitulating!” This is the pathos of Vladimir Katkov’s series. We believe it is especially relevant today, as Russia is experiencing another period of opposition between its population and political regime.

Like many artists unwilling to collaborate with the Soviet system in the early ‘80s, Katkov found employment as a boiler room operator, where he continues to work to this day. He lives in Saint Petersburg and has participated in three collective and three solo exhibitions. He sells his work rarely and reluctantly.

* * * * * *

Выставка работ и презентация альбома петербургского художника Владимира Каткова

На выставке будет представлена серия из 30 рисунков, объединенных общим названием «Под песню носорога». Рисунки были созданы в 2006-2008 годах и по содержанию являются политическими плакатами, отражающими отношение автора к политическому режиму современной России. Название серии: «Под песню носорога» непосредственно отсылает зрителя к пьесе французского драматурга Эжена Ионеско “Носорог”. В конце пьесы все население городка примыкает к “массам” и превращается в агрессивное стадо толстокожих животных. Герой пьесы по имени Беранже и его возлюбленная Дэзи – последние человеческие существа среди этого стада. Но тут Дэзи начинает слышать в отвратительном реве носорогов мелодию.

Дэзи: Они поют. Слышишь?
Беранже: Не поют, а ревут.
Дэзи: Нет. Поют.

И Дэзи тоже превращается в носорога. Беранже – последний человек и его последние слова “Один против всех! Я последний человек, и я останусь человеком до конца! Я не сдамся!”

Таков пафос данной работы Владимира Каткова, представляющейся нам особенно актуальной сейчас, когда Россия переживает очередной виток политического противостояния между народом и властью.

Как и многие творческие люди, не желавшие сотрудничать с советской системой в в начале 80-х годов, Владимир Катков пошел работать в “кочегарку” – оператором газовой котельной отопительной сети, и работает там до сих пор. Участвовал в трех коллективных выставках и трех персональных. Работы свои продает крайне редко и неохотно. Живет в Санкт-Петербурге.

Patrick Wolff, a saxophonist and composer originally hailing from New York City, is a familiar face in the San Francisco music community through his appearances with artists like Graham Connah, Marcus Shelby, Diana Gameros, Andrew Speight, Adam Shulman, and others. As a band leader and composer, he has spent years crafting music that expands on the lyricism, feeling, and freedom that characterize his saxophone playing.

Wolff’s trio operates on the simple premise that good sounds combined with good stories make good music. Consisting of three musicians long-steeped in classic jazz, the group offers open-ended takes on folk melodies, originals, and obscura from the corners of the jazz tradition. With melody and swing as the driving forces, all the other rules and dogma of what is considered straight-ahead take a back seat. As the nucleus of most of his working bands, this trio has years of experience playing together, and shows a rare cohesion and blend, even in the most adventurous improvisation.