Congrats to local filmmakers Vince Cosentino and Jessika Satori for winning awards at this weekend's Yosemite Film Festival. Vince received an official commendation for "Beaten Path." Jessika received a Silver Sierra Award in the short-film competition for "Appelation." They'll be schmoozing it up with other filmmakers this weekend. The awards ceremony is Saturday night.

Both Vince and Jessika are members of the Fresno Filmmakers Alliance. Here's a promo for "Beaten Path":

Beaten Path Trailer Redux from Vince Cosentino on Vimeo.

1. BUY AN ORIGINAL PRINT
Spectrum Art Gallery's big fund-raiser of the year, its annual print auction, is Saturday, and if you're looking for great buys on exquisite shots from professional photographers -- some of them nationally known -- this is the place to be. Below is one of the prints up for auction by John Sexton.

Some readers are going through a touch of Mike Oz withdrawal this week on the Beehive. That's because he's on vacation. We decided Mike needed a break -- last week he was seen staggering through the newsroom, foam at his mouth, muttering "Screamup Tweetup" repeatedly -- so we whisked him away to an undisclosed location for forced R&R. We can't tell you much more than that, but we do have a top-secret photo of Oakland tacos to share:

Before he left, Mike did an extra-long Post No Bills to cover his absence. Here's the link to the Oct. 22 edition.

An amount of money I'm excited about: $715 million. That's the federal grant announced today to help launch construction of California's high-speed rail program comes with the condition that it be used for one of two proposed Central Valley sections of the 800-mile system.

An amount of money I'm ticked off about: $900,000. That's how much Fresno State will have to cough up for leaving the WAC.

On balance, however, not a bad day for the Valley.

I'm guessing tickets might be hard to get for the very weird "The Godling" at the Broken Leg Stage. (Here's my review.) There are only three performances left, and the house only seats 50. If you're in the mood for a fringe-festival type experience this Halloween weekend, this is your pick. Here's another creepy photo by Joe Osejo of the production:

You've got to hand it to Mr. Paduski, one of the extremely twisted characters in Mark Borkowski's "The Godling," which is gearing up for its second weekend at the Broken Leg Stage. As portrayed by an impeccably cast Ron Blackwell, who plays the role with the refined politeness of a British butler, the mysterious Paduski has the courtesy to ask the pregnant woman he's just met if she minds if he smokes.

That's pretty considerate considering that Paduski gets a kick out of pulling the fingernails off clowns. His refinement is further illustrated by the fact that the pregnant woman, known as Lilly (and played with surly vigor by See Lee), is being forcibly detained behind bars while a hideous fetus grows inside her. But, hey, it never hurts to worry about second-hand smoke, eh?

"The Godling" accomplishes exactly what it wants: It's a brisk, brief, jolly-good exercise in in-your-face weirdness. It reminds me of a really good (and over-the-top) Rogue Festival show -- one of those word-of-mouth darlings that achieves a reputation at a fringe festival by daring to go against the grain.

UPDATE 10/29: Our winner is Candelario Luna. Congratulations!

ORIGINAL ENTRY: This sounds as if it's going to be an amazing cultural event. The energetic company known as TAIKOPROJECT comes to the Shaghoian Hall 7:30 p.m. Saturday in a show sponsored by the Lively Arts Foundation, and the performance is sure to pump up the audience. We have two tickets to give away to a lucky Beehive reader.

Just leave a comment on this post. The deadline is 3 p.m. Thursday.

We'll pick the winner at random and notify him or her via e-mail. So leave a real e-mail address, and check it, because there's a quick turnaround on this giveaway. No repeat comments please. You're ineligible if you've won something from us in the past 30 days. Full rules after the jump.

Thanks to Bee health writer Barbara Anderson, I am now officially creeped out by the whole "bedbugs are invading" meme. All this time I thought it was just New Yorkers who had to put the nasty critters on their Disadvantages of Living Here lists (which include rats the size of Volvos, $3,000-a-month barely habitable apartments, urine-scented alleyways and megalomaniacal mayors), but it turns out that bed bugs could be a growing problem here, too:

Add Fresno to the list of cities under attack by bedbugs.

The bloodsucking pests have been a growing and highly visible problem in New York City for months -- and now they're here in force, pest-control operators say.

While the New York outbreak has struck hotels and public places, bedbugs in Fresno are mostly turning up in homes, pest-control operators say.

The weirdest thing I learned about bedbugs from Barbara's story is they can go a year without a blood meal. I thought the only creature that could do that was Robert Pattinson killing time between each "Twilight" film.

UPDATED 10/26: I've received some thoughtful responses, and today I opened the discussion up to print readers in hopes that some who saw the film over the weekend could get involved in the discussion. (I personally got in several intense conversations about the film.) I added a few more thoughts after the jump. And be sure to read the comment from Tess, who describes herself as "a former student of one of Fresno's more well known charter High Schools," who points out that the student perspective is getting left out of the discussion.

ORIGINAL ENTRY 10/22: The much-hyped documentary "Waiting for Superman" opens on Friday in Fresno. From the breathless advance buzz on this film, you might be expecting a near religious-conversion experience when it comes to the subject of education reform, an expectation rigorously enhanced by a very slick marketing campaign.

My review of the film is in Friday's 7section. To me, the basic thrust of "Waiting for Superman" is this: There are too many bad teachers and no way to fire them. What we need to do, according to director Davis Guggenheim, is clip the wings of the teachers' unions, eliminate the institution of tenure, hold students more accountable and adopt the trappings of high-achieving charter schools, which include longer school days, higher expectations for students and better use of resources.

Here's my biggest beef with the film:

Guggenheim mostly ignores other significant factors when it comes to the challenges of education, including the completely inequitable (and inexcusable) system in which we finance schools on a local basis. (How can we justify in the 21st Century having "rich" school districts and "poor" ones?)

And, most oddly, he glosses over the role of parents. The only ones we meet in "Superman" are the ones who'll do anything for their children. Of course, those children are more likely to do well in school.

From FresnoFamous: Sing along tonight with "The Sound of Music" at Manchester theater. This high-definition commemoration of the musical's 45th anniversary will screen at 6:30 p.m. As Posterboy on Famous puts it: "Throw on your best outfit made out of recycled curtains."

In Sunday's Spotlight section I devoted a lot of ink to the new Dia de los Muertos exhibition at Arte Americas, and for good reason -- it's a strong show. The theme this year of this annual event is the 100th anniversary of the Mexican revolution. I write in my column:

Day of the Dead altars can be more than just personal tributes. Art institutions have discovered it's compelling to organize shows around various themes or social issues. That's the case with the current Arte Américas show, which continues through Nov. 21 ... The subjects for some of the 12 altars in the exhibition might surprise you. One is dedicated to Gen. Porfirio Díaz, the none-too-loved dictator whose excesses helped spark the revolution in the first place. Another, designed by Helen Rael, "celebrates" the American tycoons whose accumulation of Mexican land was another precipitating factor in the bloody conflict.

Obviously, in these cases the dedication of an altar to a person or organization isn't meant as an endorsement. It's along the lines of Time magazine naming Hitler as its "Man of the Year" in 1938 -- an acknowledgment not of the worth of a person but the impact he had on history.

An important note: The festivities surrounding the Day of the Dead always come around Halloween time, because both holidays are tied to All Saints' Day on Nov. 1 and All Souls' Day on Nov. 2. But Dia de los Muertos isn't just another version of Halloween. That said, the major celebratory event -- the annual procession that in Fresno goes from St. John's Cathedral in downtown Fresno to Arte Americas -- happens to take place this year on Oct. 31.

On the jump: a look at the center-spread coverage we were able to devote to this show.

1. NOCO AT FRESNO ART MUSEUM

The Fresno Dance Collective, which organizers call NOCO, will offer the second in its series of Saturday morning performances at the Fresno Art Museum. "Games You Can Dance To" is a lecture/demonstration presentation that explores dance partnering, flying and game playing. The NOCO company will be joined by members of Fresno's Blimprov, an improv theater group. Special gift bags will be handed out to all.

11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturday / Fresno Art Museum, 2233 N. First Street / (559) 441-4221 / $6

Chris Mangels' ambitious and visually charged new production of Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes" -- which continues through Saturday at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia -- is dark stuff, indeed.

So dark, in fact, that I somewhat regret that in my advance piece on the show in last week's issue of 7 I so heavily emphasized the family-friendly nature of the show. True, this show lacks the specific red flags for objectionable material that might put parents on edge (explicit violence, excessive profanity, sexual situations). But I think Mangels has missed the mark if he thinks he's made a show "that local families could see together but still maintain the type of theatricality and visceral thrill that attracts me as an artist," as he told me.

Again, I feel this way not so much due to objectionable content but because of the production's overall tone and demeanor: It gets bogged down in its overwhelmingly bleak world. Bradbury's philosophical musings about mortality, childhood fears and middle-aged angst become a morass, not a platform for crisp storytelling.

Photo: Danielle Behrens, left, James Sherrill and Jenny Bettencourt in "Something Wicked This Way Comes."

Well, not the real one. But Christopher Harrelson is pretty excited about the chance to portray an author he's been interested in since age 8. He stars in a theatrical production titled "Tales of Terror," which helps mark the Fresno County Public Library's "Big Read" event celebrating Edgar Allan Poe. The show opens Friday at the Sanctuary Theater, 2336 Calaveras St. Tickets are free and can be picked up at your local library branch.

I recap the production in Friday's issue of 7. Here's my extended interview with Harrelson:

Question: Tell us a little about "Tales of Terror."

Well, as opposed to the book 'Tales of Terror', which is three stories, we're doing dramatic interpretations of a selection of 10 of Poe's short stories and/or poems as short, one act vignettes, with Poe introducing each piece with some history, but in a sort of Rod Serling manner, a la Night Gallery.

Photo credit: J Bedford

Something tells me this ain't "Bye Bye Birdie."

The press release for "The Godling," which opens tonight at the Broken Leg Stage, describes its suggested rating this way: "Due to content and language we are NC-17, leaning towards X!"

The show, which was a hit of the 2009 San Francisco Fringe Festival, is written by New York playwright Mark Borkowski. Here's the description:

A pregnant girl, a clown and a torturer get caught up in a mad carnival owner's dream of manufacturing his own freaks ... "The Godling" is modern "Grand Guignol." Writers use it to contextualize anything that's over the top bloody, horrific, or dark. It was comes from Paris' Le Theatre du Grand Guignol (operated from 1897-1962). The theater company produced extremely graphic, macabre, and taboo plays.

The cast list: Starring Jay Parks as the ringmaster, Christina Tellifson as assistant/showgirl, Ron Blackwell as the gentleman, See Lee as the pregnant woman, and Travis Sheridan as the clown. (KP Phagnasay will guest star on Oct. 21 only). Brandey Steiner directs.

Don't forget: ArtHop isn't just something held on the first Thursday of the month. It's a regular event on the third Thursday as well, covering the northern part of the city.

Tonight's ArtHop includes a coordinated event featuring four locations in the Washington Square Center at 1091 E. Champlain Drive.

Twenty artists will be featured in shows at Campagnia, Scribbles, China Bistro and The Diamond Gallery. Receptions and live music will be held 5- 8 p.m. at each location.

At The Diamond Gallery, the featured artist is Marilyn Torchin, who will show her abstract paintings. An example of her work is above.

You can find more ArtHop listings here.

For months, I'd restlessly awaited the arrival of "Never Let Me Go," based on the superb novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, about a trio of English friends who are born with a terrible burden and have to march glumly toward their fate. When the movie slipped into Fresno last Friday, we at The Bee didn't get a chance to screen it beforehand. But I did tromp out to see it Sunday afternoon -- and I'm sure glad I did. I just learned this afternoon that it'll be closing Thursday. It's one of those "one week only" runs that often happens to smaller releases in Fresno.

It's a beautiful movie, by the way -- extremely sad and totally gripping. I'm impressed with how how closely the tone of the movie approximates Ishiguro's all-enveloping voice in the novel. "Never Let Me Go" has a sci-fi, futuristic bent and includes a terrifying revelation that in the book seeps into you like a bone-chilling fog -- I'm not even going to come close to telling you too much in case you still get a chance to see it -- and what I remember most about the book is how the world created within Ishiguro's pages seemed totally, completely plausible. (Humans are capable of some pretty callous things, as I'm sure you know.) I felt much the same way about the movie. I know that some critics picked on Alex Garland's adapted screenplay for not being subtle enough in capturing some of the book's deeper philosophical themes, but I think "Never Let Me Go" is a fine example of the compromises a screenwriter has to make in adapting a thought-provoking book -- and doing a pretty good job of it.

I know it can be hard to make attend a movie on a weeknight, but this is one I definitely recommend. Also closing this Thursday: the movie "Catfish," which I didn't see but heard good things about, too.

Good Company Players alum Audra McDonald is one of the top-billed performers in tonight's PBS broadcast of "A Broadway Celebration: In Performance at the White House." It airs 9 p.m. tonight on Channel 18.

Tony Award-winning director George C. Wolfe staged the concert, which was performed July 19 in the presence of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michele Obama.

On the jump, Playbill.com gives the lineup for the 60-minute show.

Here's big news on the Woodward Shakespeare Festival front: There's going to be a third show next summer, and that show will be the first non-Shakespeare production from the company. Production manager Laura Vogt writes:

The 2011 season will include three plays, two classic Shakespearean pieces and one American contemporary production. Brad Myers will begin the season on June 23, 2011 with his production of COMEDY OF ERRORS. The second production, ALL MY SONS by Arthur Miller, directed by Michael Oldham begins on July 28, 2011. The final production ROMEO AND JULIET directed by Daniel Moore, opens on August 25, 2011. Performances will be Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and continue to be free.

It's a big deal for the festival to nab Fresno State's Myers, one of the most sought-after directors in Fresno. And Moore directed a very fine, zany version of "The Taming of the Shrew" a few years ago. Sounds like a promising season.

Something tells me that Peter Allwine's Voice is not very happy with Peter Allwine this afternoon. Not only does the star of "Bye Bye Birdie" belt it out six times a week at Good Company Players -- requiring vocal cords strong enough to hold up a suspension bridge -- but today on Facebook, Allwine made a rather startling announcement:

This past Saturday - I got an idea... I see people post videos all the time and got to thinking - what if - for fun - people requested songs and I sing them via video? Any song - male, female, from a musical - ANYTHING - I'll give it the ol' college try... So - for a week - I will take requests and do my best to accommodate them... Let the fun begin!!

I, of course, immediately jumped on and asked Allwine if he'd extend his offer to the Beehive as well, and he gamely agreed. Just think: You can ask a genuine local theatrical star to sing anything you want (note the capital letters in the preceding paragraph), although I suspect you might run into trouble if you request, say, evening prayers in Sanskrit or, heaven forbid, "Put On a Happy Face." I'm not sure of the logistics of all this, but I'm guessing it'll have something to do with a YouTube page. My request, by the way, is "Bring Him Home" from "Les Miz," because I'm in the mood to hear some Allwine falsetto.

Let Allwine know what you want him to sing in a comment on this post, and I'll make sure that Beehive readers see the results. Now please join me in a moment of silence for his Voice.

Lots of stuff to pass along to readers:

OFF TO BRAZIL: Andreas Werz, artistic director of the Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concerts series at Fresno State, is one of nine judges at the 2010 Rio de Janeiro International Piano Competition, which will be held Oct. 21-30. He writes:

The 20 pre-selected competitors come from the US, Russia, China, Japan, Brazil, and other countries around the world. I am looking forward to hearing many high level performances and am pleased to announce that the first prize winner will appear in recital during the 2011-2012 season of the Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concerts series.

The next Keyboard Concerts performer is Barry Douglas, who performs Oct. 31.

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NOCO NEWS: Amy Querin and her Fresno Dance Collective, or NOCO, have been busy recently. The company in September performed at the i-Dance Festival in Dallas where it premiered one of Querin's new works, "Lilac Tree," a rough-draft version of which was previewed at NOCO's August event at the Fresno Art Museum. In October, Querin traveled to Cincinnati, where she set her newest work, "Intermittent Restraint," on the Mam-Luft & Co. Dance company. There will be a double premiere of this work on Nov. 6, when Mam-Luft performs at a festival in Louisville, Ky., while NOCO performs in Fresno at the Central Valley Dance Festival at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium.

The next public NOCO performance is 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Saturday at the Fresno Art Museum when it presents a lecture/demonstration titled "Games You Can Dance To." Tickets are $6.

We interrupt the Beehive for a Public Service Announcement: If you want to vote Nov. 2, this is the last day to register. One easy way to do so is go to the Secretary of State's website, where you can download the application form and print it. Then just fold, stamp and get it to the post office. As long as it's postmarked by today, you'll be voting in just a couple of weeks.

If you're at all involved in the arts and culture scene in Fresno, Cynthia Cooper has been an ubiquitous presence over the last six years. (Sometimes I'd run into her three times in one weekend!) As the executive director of FCASH (the Fresno Coalition for Art, Science and History), she was the closest thing we had to a generalist cheerleader for the arts.

But a sour economy has clipped Cooper's wings. FCASH still exists, but there isn't enough money for a paid executive director any more. Over the past year, Cooper has shifted from full-time to part-time status, and finally spent the past six months volunteering her time. Recently, she decided she'll finish one last project and then move on. We caught up with Cooper to reflect on her tenure in Fresno and the state of the arts in a precarious time.

Question: Can you give us a rundown on how your job changed and the major factors in the shrinking of FCASH over the year as the economic situation worsened?

The Coalition, like most other organizations and businesses, was not prepared for the recession. We thought we were building the foundation necessary to grow, to expand our services for the sector and the community, and we had reasons to believe we were headed in the right direction.

Here's a new Beehive feature we're trying out: We'll ask cast members from various local theater productions to carry a camera backstage during a typical performance and give us a feel for what it's like behind the scenes.

Our first documentarian is Jacquie Broach, who plays Mrs. Merkle in the Good Company Players production of "Bye Bye Birdie" currently playing at Roger Rocka's Dinner Theater. Here she is as she starts her adventure:

For her images and commentary, you can watch directly on the player embedded below, or if you'd like a larger version, click for the Picassa web album.

1. DON'T MISS '36 VIEWS'
Fresno City College delivers an intriguing and visually sumptuous theater event. Here's my review. There are only three performances left: 7:30 p.m. Friday, and 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Director Chris Mangels aims to creep us out just a little with an atmospheric production of Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes" at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia. I write about the show and include excerpts of my interview with Mangels in Friday's issue of 7. Here's the complete interview:

Question: Most people are familiar with the book. Tell me about the stage adaptation.

Answer: Bradbury is a fairly prolific dramatist and one of the best things about his playwrighting is how loyal he stays to his short-stories and novels when adapting them for the stage. I saw him speak about two years ago at a Barnes and Noble in Santa Monica and he said that he loves to write what is in his mind's eye and then trust the theatrical artists to interpret it. He is surprisingly non-possessive of his own work and really has confidence in the artistic instinct. So our production is VERY loyal to the book while streamlining some of the sequences to maintain momentum. Overall, I think it is beautifully loyal to the source material, and people who love the book will hopefully really embrace the play. Best of all, Bradbury's unique and florid prose is maintained throughout.

For more than three decades, Joy Johnson's art has closely followed events in her life, from the death of her sister from breast cancer to receiving an air compressor and nail gun from her husband. ("A gift better than diamonds," she says.)

Her new exhibition at Gallery 25, where she's sharing the space this month with Jerrie Peters, includes a 20-foot wide installation piece titled "Journey Into Light." The work consists of colorfully painted wooden shapes of various sizes incorporating mixed media adornment. Here's our interview:

Question: Tell us about the piece.

Answer: "Journey Into Light" is a spiritually abstract expression of transitory life, an ever-changing process where art and spirit meet. This has been a two year project that expresses life's adversities and shares epiphanies and hard earned wisdom on the road I call life, keeping faith and overcoming.

Rule No. 1 when writing a headline about the discovery of ancient bones: Make sure there isn't a photo of two sweet white-haired ladies directly below.

Bee reporter Chris Collins dug this one out for the News Blog.

UPDATE: Our winner is Ezequiel Gutierrez.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: I have one pair of tickets to give away to Fresno City College's current production of "36 Views," to which I gave an enthusiastic review on the Beehive. If you're the winner you can choose whether you'd like to attend the 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday or 7:30 p.m. Saturday performances.

Because the show's plot centers around the discovery of an ancient Japanese pillow book, we'll carry the Japanese theme through for the contest: To enter, tell us your favorite kind of sushi. (Or if you're not a lover of that cuisine, you can tell us that, too.) The deadline is 3 p.m. Thursday.

We'll pick the winner at random and notify him or her via e-mail. So leave a real e-mail address, and check it, because there's a quick turnaround on this giveaway. No repeat comments please. You're ineligible if you've won something from us in the past 30 days. Full rules below.

It's pretty dramatic stuff.

The New York Times has a piece up on the wall-to-wall cable coverage.

It's amazing how organized the operation is, right down to the order that the trapped miners will be rescued in. But talk about a lot of airtime to fill. If the networks stick with their round-the-clock coverage, as they're promising, they'll wind up interviewing every single person in Chile before it's over.

The 11th Century Japanese courtesan stands before us clad in a gorgeous, layered kimono. Aided by two elegant attendants, who move with Kabuki-like precision around their mistress, the courtesan slowly spins, shedding the thin top red layer of fabric. Then another. Like a Russian nesting doll, with succeeding smaller Incarnations of the outfit emerging with the removal of each layer, she finally emerges from bulky formality wearing a smartly tailored, contemporary, Asian-influenced outfit -- the kind a sophisticated woman would wear to an elegant dinner party. We've traveled forward nearly 1,000 years in the blink of an eye.

The moment is a definitive one in Charles Erven's visually sumptuous "36 Views," a drama continuing through Saturday at the college's mainstage theater. Once again, City College's production team has come together in an intensely collaborative creative process, and the results -- an elegant synthesis of moving screens, video projections, highlighted art objects and Asian-themed decor -- are impressive. This show feels as rich and luxurious as an expensive cut of fabric.

Last season City College offered the gorgeous retelling of the Greek myth "eurydice," and with "36 Views," Erven tackles a completely different time period and cultural aesthetic. I won't go so far as to say that "36 Views" is as strong of a show overall as "eurydice" -- the script and acting don't reach the same heights -- but it's still a significant accomplishment.

Beehive reader Sergio Robles writes:

I remember your blog post questioning proper "urinal etiquette" concerning cell phones. Here is a link to the new Windows Phone 7 ad that features a clip having to do with the same topic:

The pertinent part of the commercial comes at the 0:25 mark, and involves a guy actually dropping his cell phone in the urinal, then picking it up to use it. ("Really?" the guy standing next to him blurts out.) Other scenes involve similar socially awkward situations in which smartphone use wreaks some kind of havoc. The commercial is funny, but it mystifies me. After making a strong case that people are making fools of themselves every day because of their phones, then it just tries to sell us another. As one YouTube commenter writes:

It would be like a beer commercial that showed people hungover and sick all day, and then without any real transition just showed you Bud Light and said, "Buy this!"

I agree. One thing's for sure, this commercial would make it LESS likely for me to want to experience a Windows Phone 7.

Turns out that one of my favorite authors, Chris Hedges, spoke at Fresno State last week. (A prominent foreign correspondent, he wrote a tremendous book called "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning," which has forever shaped the way I look at violence.) I missed the lecture, but thanks to a solid account Friday in the Daily Collegian by Mike Boylan, I'm happy to see that Hedges hasn't lost any of his growly radicalism:

"Brand Obama is about being happy consumers," said Hedges. "We feel entertained, we feel hopeful, we like our president, we feel he is like us."

This false reality, he said, blinds Americans from acknowledging how little difference exists between the Bush and Obama administrations, because the corporate structure and celebrity ethic is still in place, and will always dominate so long as it is intact. The "Obama Brand" has diverted our attention from how he has continued the security state, corporate welfare, aggressive imperialism and human suffering at the expense of democracy and the American working class.

I don't always agree with Hedges on everything, but he has a fierce mind. I'm glad to see the Collegian devote so much space to an "ideas" story.

Photo: The Collegian

I almost hesitate to use the above tag, "Talking Points," in connection with this issue, because I'm not sure it's even possible in this age of online anonymity to have a rational discussion about the divisive subject of officer-involved shootings. (Many newspapers, including the Bee, have been forced to turn off comments on certain kinds of crime stories because of the vitriol that spews from the keyboards of interacting readers.)

But I thought I'd give the topic a shot because 1) it seems to be an insistent issue in Fresno; and 2) we all bear a measure of responsibility for state-sanctioned violence, whether legitimate or not.

The shooting I'm referring to happened last week, when a man was shot and killed after Fresno police said he pointed a rifle at officers. Eight officers fired 63 rounds at him. Now word comes today in an update that the man, Ron Fiorini, a Fresno Pacific University transfer student, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.22, far above the legal limit. Neighbors heard shots fired before police arrived.

Last week, police chief Jerry Dyer said the number of rounds and the number of officers involved raise concerns, Dyer said, because with increased rounds and several shooters comes an increased risk of hitting an unintended target.

I had a great time at two events. On Friday night, the Fresno State music department's Gala Centennial Concert was outstanding. I wrote on Facebook:

Thoroughly enjoyed the Fresno State music department's Centennial Concert last night -- the jazz band, concert choir, wind ensemble and symphony orchestra were in fine form. And it was touching to see such distinguished emeriti faculty and alumni guest artists as Gary Unruh, Arthur Huff, Larry Sutherland, Larry Honda, Mike Dana, Tom Ashworth (whose trombone is so lovely it glistens) and Timothy Zerland, along with a whopping 15-member alumni trumpet ensemble for the concluding Khachaturian symphony, wow the crowd. (With all those trumpets, no wonder conductor Thomas Loewenheim joked beforehand that the piece wasn't exactly going to be soft.) The whole evening soared. What a fine tribute to the university's rich musical legacy. Here's to the next 100 years!

On Saturday night, I caught Fresno City College's new production of the play "36 Views," for which I'll be giving tickets away to later this week. Once again, the City College theater department weaves together a sumptuous, provocative production. It's a challenging show -- the storyline involves questions about art, artifice and deception -- but well worth it for the stagecraft and introduction to Naomi Iizuka, a contemporary American playwright. I'll be posting my theater review on the Beehive tomorrow.

Then last night, on DVD, I watched "Road to Morocco" with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. What a pair of goofballs.

Did other folks have an interesting weekend? Who went to the "Jazz at the Muse" concert at the Fresno Art Museum? How about the left-hand-only concert pianist?

UPDATE 10/10: Here's my Sunday Spotlight column about Nancy Miller. Check out the comments on this Beehive post for reader memories.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: The Fresno theater community is reeling today with the news that longtime Good Company Players staff member and director Nancy Miller died last night. She directed dozens of shows at GCP over the years and lent her considerable acting talents to the local stage as well. She loved-loved-loved theater. She'll be missed.

Peter Allwine, starring in the current GCP show "Bye Bye Birdie," writes on Facebook:

The Fresno theater community has lost one of its icons... I was so lucky to have known and worked with Nancy Miller. Thank you for giving me a chance when some 20 year old kid went out for "Sugar" ... Thank you for all the guidance, support, love and friendship you gave me over the years. You will be truly, truly missed.

The photo at right of Nancy is from a 1995 show she did at 2nd Space.

As a young theater writer/reviewer newly arrived in Fresno, I learned an amazing amount from Nancy as well. (And she wasn't shy about telling me when I'd screwed something up!) I'm planning to write my Sunday Spotlight column in tribute to her. If there are any Nancy Miller memories that Beehive readers would like to share on this post, I'd like to use some in that column.

I loathed it. Could you guess by reading my review in Friday's 7 section? I wrote:

I think Fresno Filmworks is officially developing a fetish for painfully quirky French movies. Last month it was Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "Micmacs," which pretty much slammed the bell on the whimsy-o-meter about halfway through its running time with an overly sappy, too-precious storyline about a lowly former video-store worker wandering around Paris with a bullet perched precariously in his brain.

And now this month from Filmworks comes an offering from another French master, the 88-year-old Alain Resnais, who brings us the thoroughly annoying "Wild Grass." The fact that this tedious "romp" was nominated for a Palme d'Or award at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival merely is supporting evidence that at least one element of French cinema has finally crossed the line into utter and complete self-parody.

Did you see the film last night at Fresno Filmworks? Did you love it or hate it? (The New York Times adored it, by the way.) Should I be banned from reviewing whimsical French films? I'm itching to know.

Now here's an interesting double career path: Angela Kraft Cross graduated from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music in 1980 with bachelor's degrees in physics and organ performance. She then earned her medical degree at Loma Linda University and since 1989 has practiced ophthalmology in Redwood City. In 1993 she completed her master of music degree at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont -- when did she find time to sleep? -- and ever since has performed extensively on the organ across the United States and in Europe (including such venues as Notre Dame and St. Sulpice in Paris, Washington National Cathedral in Washington D.C., and Westminister Abbey in London) while continuing to practice medicine.

Fresno audiences will have a chance to hear Cross at 3 p.m. Sunday when she performs in the Organ Artist Series sponsored by the San Joaquin Valley Chapter of the American Guild of Organists. The concert will be held at the Fresno First Congregational Church, 2131 N. Van Ness.

Her performance will include works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Vierne, Franck, Decker, and some of her original compositions. She studies organ with Louis Robilliard and Marie-Louise Langlais in France and with Sandra Soderlund in Berkeley. In July Cross will be a featured performer at the Region IX American Guild of Organists convention in San Francisco.

Wow. Talk about a woman with a wide array of talents. Next time you think you got a lot done in a day, stop and ask yourself if you're a doctor AND a concert organist.

Tickets are $12, $10 seniors, $7 students. Details: (559) 227-8489, pipesonvanness.com.

Denise Norwood writes:

Last winter I had the thrill of hearing pianist Keith Snell in concert and learning his remarkable story. It is inspirational and fascinating, a story I know would be of tremendous interest to your readers. Keith was poised to have a world class career when an overuse injury struck his right hand. He subsequently researched music written for the left hand only. The artistry that this man produces with one hand is beyond belief.

His program includes Alexander Scriabin's Prelude and Nocturne, Erwin Schulhoff's Suite No. 3 and Beverley Flanagan's "Without a Trace." After his Fresno appearance, Snell travels to Bath, England, where he will perform a solo recital at the Kingswood School.

Snell performs 4 p.m. Sunday at the Fresno City College Recital Hall. Admission is free.

1. ENJOY FRESNO STATE'S CENTENNIAL CONCERT
The Fresno State Department of Music will celebrate 100 years of musical achievement 8 p.m. Friday in the Concert Hall of the Music Building. The Gala Centennial Concert will feature outstanding alumni, current students and faculty, and emeriti faculty. Here's a rundown on the program from fresnostatenews.com. Tickets are $15 general, $10 students.

In Friday's 7 section I have an interview with Charles Erven, director of the play "36 Views." It opens tonight, and it sounds as if it's going to be an interesting show. Here's the complete interview:

Question: What does the title mean?

Answer: Naomi Iizuka calls her play "36 Views" because her inspiration came from the series of Japanese woodblock prints, "36 Views of Mt. Fuji" by Hokusai. His iconic 19th century woodblocks capture Mt. Fuji from various vantage points. While Iizuka's play has little to do with Mt. Fuji, she uses 36 scenes to tell her story and each scene reveals a new layer of understanding. Iizuka's story concerns an art forgery in which an unscrupulous art dealer "discovers" an 11th century Japanese pillow book. He asks a beautiful Japanese American art historian to authenticate it for him and the relationship that develops between them is the heart of the play.

And the Beehive free-ticket onslaught continues: We've landed two pairs of tickets to tonight's "Jazz at the Muse" event at the Fresno Art Museum. The show, to be held in the museum's courtyard under the stars, features the Benjamin Boone Quartet, art, food and a no-host bar and starts at 8 p.m. (Regular ticket prices are $20.)

To enter for one of the two free pairs of tickets, add a comment to this post. We'll pick two comments at random as our winners. Deadline is 10 a.m. Friday. We'll notify you by e-mail, so leave a real address and check it. No repeat comments please. You'll be able to pick up your tickets at Will Call. You're ineligible if you've won something in the past 30 days. Complete rules are on the jump.

How to describe the sound that Sir James Galway makes doing one of his amazing long runs on his flute? Last night, during his appearance with the Fresno Philharmonic, I scribbled a few vain attempts in my notebook: "It sounds like a butterfly plunging from the top of a very tall flower." "You know the feeling you get when you're in a roller coaster and your tummy seems to fall with the car?" "If wind had a theme song, this'd be it."

And then I told myself, enough already. Just enjoy.

The thing that struck me while in Galway's presence last night was that listening to him on solo flute makes me want to close my eyes. Not because I'm sleepy, but because this already impossibly velvety, effortless sound comes across even more smoothly with no visual distractions. (Note to self: Do not play Galway's recording of Mozart's Flute Concerto No. 2 while driving on a long road trip.)

Galway, sharing his famed Irish wit and genial demeanor with the audience, had the crowd in the palm of his hand, of course, right down to his fourth sprightly encore. Did you get the privilege of listening to Sir James last night? What did you think? Let me know in a comment on this post. Here's George Warren's take at MusicCriticFresno.com.

Photo: Galway fan Michelle DenBeste gets to meet "The Man With the Golden Flute" at Wednesday's concert.

This opening-day-at-the-fair pic pretty much says it all, eh?

How many calories do you figure are in that plate of curly fries? More importantly, do you think she had a cinnamon roll afterward?

Which reminds me of my favorite fair story I ever wrote, way back in 1998, when I took two Fresno State students to the fair to see how much they could eat. (Back in 1998 dollars, The Bee spent $107 between them. Ah, the glory days of expense accounts.) It still makes me slightly green to remember both guys climbing onto a ride called the Typhoon midway through their overeating adventure. Check the story out here.

Photo: Mark Crosse/The Bee

The Cultural Arts District in downtown Fresno, anchored by the Iron Bird Lofts project, gets another boost at ArtHop tonight with the opening of a new gallery. Here's a rundown:

The gallery: The Treasury, at 1832 Van Ness Ave. just south of Divisadero.

The concept: Local entrepreneur Toby Byers describes The Treasury as an "art gallery, office space, by-appointment fashion boutique and gathering place."

The grand opening: Festivities will run from 5- 10 p.m. today for ArtHop, the monthly open house of studios and galleries in the downtown and Tower District areas. Featured artists are Josh Freeman, Alison Gish, Lawrence Garza and physical performance artist Maire Nichols. There will be an acoustic performance by Fif Grade.

Details: thetreasurydown town.com.

On the jump: more ArtHop picks.

It's all happening tonight. Sir James Galway performs 7:30 p.m. at the Saroyan Theatre with the Fresno Philharmonic in a performance that will range from beloved classics to his trademark "Danny Boy." The world-famous flutist has been in town since Monday. Here he's being interviewed on KVPR by music director Theodore Kuchar, who conducts the orchestra tonight:

By the way, here are the results of the Beehive ticket giveaway: Lucky winner is Bud Dickerson.

Captain vs. captain.

The two U.S. Army guys glaring at each other have the same rank, which puts them in a sort of awkward holding pattern when it comes to the rigid hierarchical structure of the military. Under that system, in almost every personal interaction a soldier will either command total obedience from those beneath him -- or be put in a situation of complete subservience when dealing with someone of higher rank.

But when Capt. Davenport and Capt. Taylor face off in Charles Fuller's "A Soldier's Play," now in an interesting but uneven production through Saturday at Fresno State's John Wright Theatre, neither has complete mastery over the other. Add to that the fact that Taylor is white and Davenport is black -- and that this is 1944 in a segregated armed forces -- and the dynamic is pretty frosty. Director Thomas-Whit Ellis stages this particular scene as if the two men are like equally charged magnets, neither repelling or attracting each other, in a perpetually wobbly standoff.

The James Irvine Foundation board of directors just met in Fresno, and it announced two significant grants. From my just-posted story on Fresnobee.com:

At that meeting, it announced two major grants over a three-year period: $350,000 to the Fresno Grand Opera; and $300,000 to the Fresno Philharmonic. The two local grants were among $3.8 million given to 12 arts institutions in the greater Central Valley -- from Bakersfield to Sacramento -- as part of the foundation's Arts Regional Initiative.

Nice chunk of change, eh? Thanks, Irvine.

I keep thinking about this amazing dog video I saw online a couple of weeks ago. I don't know why said video, which features the band OK Go, has stuck with me so long -- perhaps because I'm a fan of dogs AND one-take cinematography?

More details on the "making of" the video:

We had 12 trainers, two furniture movers, 12 dogs, one goat, 38 buckets, and a bunch of furniture, all of which needed to move around and be in the right place at the right time without anyone stepping in front of camera. We ended up with stuffed animals, spreadsheets, flow-charts, and recorded audio instructions, and for many hours we tried various configurations until we finally found one that worked. And then we practiced and practiced.

Via The Atlantic