San Francisco in the 1960s was the center of counterculture thinking.It was the time of the Summer of Love, the Human Be-In and Haight Street. Within this context, mild-mannered Bay Area artist Alexandra Docili began painting. Her works on paper, though clearly influenced by the times, emanate a fragility and delicacy rarely attributed to the decade. An integral member of the Visionary Art movement begun in the latter half of the 1960s in San Francisco, Docili and other artists of the movement sought to interpret the era’s counterculture ideas. Read More

"A Flowering Tree," which had its American premiere in Davies Hall this weekend, has some of John Adams’ best work — in fact, it’s a two-hour treasure house of beautiful music. Obviously a (or the) leading opera composer of our time, Adams has never given us such emotional, just plain gorgeous sound as in "Flowering Tree." It is a major, wonderful work, one which — significantly — leaves the listener wishing to hear it again, and wanting more like it. Read More

The revue "Shopping! The Musical" is about to celebrate a year running in the cozy Shelton Theater off Union Square, and it’s not a surprise. Billed as the "the show for everyone who has ever shopped," the fun, minimalist production is the perfect salve for a tourist tired after a busy day on his or her feet, or even for an office worker easing into the weekend. Read More

Here’s a winning formula: Take one stunning, petite, blonde woman, add substantial grace and charm, blend with warmth and sophistication, and you have Sandra Farris.Gentility, kindness, softness, she is also "very real" as her friend, Delia Ehrlich puts it, and effervescent, with an easy, lilting laugh and a warm, inclusive personality. An only child, daughter of Harold and Lee, Sandra was born in La Jolla, moved north to the Bay Area to attend the College of Notre Dame in Belmont, and never looked south again. Read More