Mollyblog

Roasting Former News-Press Editor Jerry Roberts

(published on SB Indie blog, March 14, 2007. Click headline below to see comments...)

Roberts Gets Roasted, Raises Thousands, and Provides Humor to Sad Situation
(Photos also by Molly Freedenberg)

Jerry Roberts (pictured)had his “Sally Field moment” on Tuesday night, March 13, when more than 167 people showed up at the swanky Field Club Lounge at AT&T Park for The Jerry Roberts Roast, an event that raised more than $30,000 for Roberts’ legal defense against the $25 million lawsuit News-Press owner Wendy McCaw has brought against him.

The event was appropriately held in the “living room of the San Francisco Giants,” as Roberts was a notorious supporter of the team while working at The Chronicle, and featured ballpark culinary fare like hot dogs, barbecued chicken breast, and potato salad. In the back of the space was an impressive silent auction featuring donated Giants’ goods (including an autographed Randy Winn jersey and autographed Matt Cain baseball), a number of photographs donated by The Chronicle and other photojournalists, a table of premium wines, gift certificates to Bay Area businesses, and two styles of McCaw-themed T-shirts: “I’ve been SUED by Wendy McCaw” and “I’ve been DISLOYAL to Wendy McCaw.”
Before the silent auction and walk-up sales, it was estimated that the event had already raised $30,000 for the Lawyers Alliance for Free Speech Rights, the fund established to defend those journalists who have become McCaw’s targets.

The highlight of the evening was the lighthearted, affectionate, and none-too-shy roast of the dashing, pinstripe-suited, and frequently laughing Roberts. It was emceed by former colleague Greg Lucas, who noted that throughout all of this trauma, Roberts has managed to keep his sense of humor — not only about his troubles at the News-Press, but also about the non-Hodgkins lymphoma he was diagnosed with in November. When asked how he’s doing, said Lucas, Roberts answers with, “Other than the cancer and the $25 million lawsuit, I’m doing all right.”

Guests and speakers included current and former employees of the San Francisco Chronicle, such as executive editor Phil Bronstein, former publisher Steve Falk, and reporters Greg Lucas, Steve Rubenstein, and Kevin Fagan. There were also former colleagues from the Santa Barbara News-Press such as Linda Strean and Josh Molina; editor and founder of Spot-on.com Chris Nolan; political consultant Gail Kaufman; former California State Senator John Burton; author, biographer and Washington Post contributor Lou Cannon; a representative from the Teamsters’ legal team; members of Roberts’ legal team; friends, family, and even a few supporters with no ties to Roberts or the media.

First up for the roast was Phil Bronstein, who was Roberts’ competitor at the San Francisco Examiner before Bronstein became his boss — and one of the main reasons Roberts left the Chronicle — when the papers merged. Despite their well-known feud, Bronstein has been vocal in supporting Roberts through this process — but that doesn’t mean he pulled any punches during his roast.

“I’m going to make this speech as brief as I can, kind of like my professional relationship with Jerry…and as painful as I can, kind of like…” he trailed off, met by laughter. He likened their working relationship as one of brotherhood, “like Cain and Abel,” and compared preparing for the roast to rectal exams, since “as a competitor and as a colleague, Jerry was so far up my ass.” He finished with a list of top 15 reasons — a nod to Roberts’ famous affection for top ten lists — he stopped working with Roberts, including a reference to the famous attack by a Komodo dragon on Bronstein at the L.A. Zoo with then-wife Sharon Stone and to a number of inside jokes about their short time together at the Chronicle.

Next up was Kaufman, who has known Roberts “and heard him complain” for 30 years. Though ribbing Roberts, her real punches were reserved for “stark-raving crazy” McCaw. “It makes me mad that a bored socialite billionaire is moving roughshod over our boy,” said Kaufman, to wild applause. “I think we’ll see Ann Coulter on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy before Wendy McCaw wins any Pulitzers.”
Former state Senator Burton took the faux optimistic approach towards the predicament facing Roberts, whom he remembers as a city hall reporter who was always “a straight shooter.” “The lawsuit…seems like a goddamned compliment to me,” said the notoriously foul-mouthed Burton. “He’s the only person I’ve ever met that’s worth $25 million when he quits a job.”

Things got a bit more serious as Cannon, wearing a powder blue suit and matching shirt, took the podium. The renowned Reagan biographer spent less time joking about Roberts and more explaining why this issue is a “way bigger deal than just some tiff in sunny Santa Barbara.” Cannon pointed out that this is a tough time for journalists, and that Roberts did what few others would have the courage to do: quit a job he loved — and led what Cannon called the “only mass resignation over journalistic ethics in the history of journalism that I know of.”

He emphasized that though Santa Barbara, unlike San Francisco, is not a union town, the vote for the union was 33 to 6, also explaining to the mainly Northern California crowd that if it weren’t for The Independent and blogs like Craig Smith’s, locals in Santa Barbara wouldn’t know anything about this issue. Furthermore, Cannon explained that though he’d be happy to be at the event purely to support Roberts, more is at stake: fighting against a woman who plans to suppress freedom of speech by bogging journalists down in expensive lawsuits. “The only answer is to raise money to fight her in court,” he said. “In doing so, we’re also striking a blow for freedom of press.”

The litany of speakers concluded with Lucas joking about Roberts’ new position as publications manager at UCSB, displaying a headline from The Daily Nexus during Roberts’ first week on the job: “Vaginas run wild at V-day festivities.”

And then the well-spoken Roberts took his chance for rebuttal and thanks. He poked good-natured fun at each of the speakers, and at his predicament, uttering a joke some heard at an event at Victoria Hall last July: “How come I spent 32 years working in journalism, and nobody noticed till I stopped?” But in true Jerry Roberts style, he capped off his speech with one of his lists, this one an explanation of top ten reasons he took the job at the News-Press five years ago:

10) C’mon dear. I’ll kick back for a while and then fly into retirement
9) Santa Barbara is so cool! Do you know Rob Lowe lives there?
8) The future of newspapers is in responsible local ownership
7) It’ll be just like working for Nan McAvoy (former owner of The Chronicle, now an olive oil maker)
6) I might even get to be publisher!
5) There sure won’t be any unions to deal with.
4) No one messes around with my newsroom.
3) It’ll be better for my health.
2) How bad can it be after Phil?
1) What’s she going to do, sue me?

Molly Freedenberg, a frequent contributor to The Independent over the years, now works as the associate culture editor at the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Many thanks to her for this report.

Q&A with Dima Hilal

(Published in SB Indie Feb 15, 2007, as part of a larger story on Women's Lit Festival .)

Dima Hilal

When WLF organizers invited Dima Hilal to speak at this year’s festival, she agreed immediately. Aside from wanting to support a festival that gives voice to female writers, she likes to work toward a deadline. “I operate a little better under pressure,” she said. “It keeps me creative, keeps me writing.” Motivation to write is especially important for the Dana Point resident, who has a full-time day job doing marketing for a medical device company. It would be easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of work, but the 30-year-old knows it’s important to nurture the poetry that’s always at the center of her life. Hilal’s writing often focuses on her experience as a Beirut-born Arab American, such as last year’s libretto Raheel, and is commonly the voice for marginalized peoples.

In what way are you an activist?

Poetry in general can be a form of activism. It’s giving voice to people who aren’t often heard or who are more invisible. If through my work I can humanize that aspect of my life or my people, in that sense I think my poetry is a form of activism.

Is that why you consider writing about your culture political?

Yes. For example, when people think of an Arab man, it’s going to be a frightening image for a lot of people. They never see the Arab doctor who cares about his family. But I grew up with such loving male figures in my life, between my uncles and my father. So writing a poem in homage to my father, for example, becomes political because it’s humanizing.

What about women writers? Do you think they’re still undervalued? Is there still a need for a festival exclusively for female writers?

Obviously, we’ve come such a tremendous way as women, but there are areas — from literature to business to politics — that are still very male-dominated. Women don’t have their own place to speak and be heard. It’s important to give a voice to people who are sometimes not given a forum to speak.

Clip: The 4-1-1 on the 10-10-10

(published SB Indie 02/01/07)

An Inside Look at SBIFF’s Student Filmmaking Contests

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is an especially exciting time for young filmmakers and screenwriters — and not just because they might hear Will Smith speak or bump into Sacha Baron Cohen at Java Jones. Thanks to the 10-10-10 Student Filmmaking and Screenwriting competitions, Santa Barbara high school and college students have a chance to actually participate in the festival and, with help from professional mentors, in the film industry. In fact, last year’s addition of the Screenwriting Competition to the four-year-old Filmmaking Competition makes the process even more of a real-thing-in-training than it originally was.

This is how it works: Santa Barbara high schools and colleges held internal competitions to select the five best screenwriters and filmmakers from their institution. From those submissions (65 writers and 30 filmmakers this year), a judging panel chose five for each contest from each school level. First, the writers were paired with industry mentors and given Grimm Brothers fairytales to adapt into 10-page scripts. Next, those scripts were passed on to filmmaker finalists, whose responsibility it was to turn them into 10-minute films on a 10-day production schedule.

And just like in the real film business, the writers and directors engaged in varying degrees of collaboration: some writers were finished when they handed their scripts over, while others worked with directors on rewrites up until the last day of shooting. Since scripts are judged separately from the films made from them, the writers don’t necessarily have to be that involved.

“My name is going to be up on the screen as the writer,” said Charles Heining, a 21-year-old Brooks Institute of Photography student who worked closely with the directing finalist, 24-year-old City College student Dylan Penev, on his adaptation of Cinderella. Some of the changes Penev requested, said Heining, were cutting down scenes for time and changing the Fairy Godfather character from a gangster to an effeminate gay man. But Heining didn’t mind. “I’m not squeamish about cutting my own stuff,” he said. “And ultimately, [the film] is [Penev’s] vision, so I figured I should be trying to make it a collaboration.”

It seems the collaborations with the most learning potential, though, are those between students and mentors. Dos Pueblos High School student Alex Dunn said Jeff Arch (who wrote Sleepless in Seattle) was a great help with his screenplay adaptation of Hansel and Gretel into a story about a media mogul, his kids, and their evil stepmother. For Levi Michaels, an 18-year-old San Marcos student (and Indy contributor), working with Robert Michael Lewis (Kung Fu, The Invisible Man) was invaluable. “I would tell him my idea and he would say, ‘Yeah, you could do this to make it better, or you could this or this,’” said Michaels, who adapted Little Red Riding Hood as a story about a high school student who sleeps with her math teacher to get into college. “That was a big help. … He filled in the gaps for me.” In fact, it’s this experience that has inspired Michaels to seek a career in the film industry.

All 10 films will be screened, and all winners announced, at 1 p.m. on Sunday, February 4 at the Marjorie Luke Theatre. The winning films in both the high school and college categories also will be screened during the festival’s closing ceremonies at the Arlington Theatre later that night.

A Tough Nut to Crack

(published in SBIndie December 20, 2006)

For dance lovers, The Nutcracker is as central to the Christmas tradition as Miracle on 34th Street or Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas.” In fact, it was seeing my hometown Nutcracker as a kid that inspired me to become a dancer. The story was mesmerizing, the costumes beautiful, the music captivating, and the dancing exquisite — so seemingly effortless, so breathtaking.

Of course, I also saw it every year for nearly two decades, so it became quite boring. I can understand Rodney Gustafson’s desire to give a new spin to this age-old — and, for many dancers, tiresome — classic. Unfortunately, State Street Ballet’s “1930s Hollywood” version of The Nutcracker didn’t quite work.

The pastel-colored, ’30s-inspired sets were creative but lacked the majesty and richness of traditional sets. The juxtaposition of jazzy movements alongside classical ballet felt more contrived than inspired. And few of the ’30s-styled costumes flattered the dancers or their movements.

The biggest problem, though, was the use of the music. Tchaikovsky’s score gives very definite cues: in the “Dance of the Dolls,” percussion indicates the dolls are being wound up, for example, while the crescendo in the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” indicates an escalation in the dancing. Gustafson’s choreography mostly ignored these cues, missing opportunities for emotional and visual impact.

But some moments were inspired. The Arabian dance was sensual and gorgeous. The maid and butler (dancing to the traditional Russian song) were fantastically funny. And Gustafson’s take on the dance of the children (replacing the giant-skirted woman with a man dressed as Mae West) was downright hilarious. It was also an interesting twist to see a woman cast as the Rat King, though the choreography didn’t make full use of her talent. Terez Dean was a sweet, graceful Clara, maintaining a sense of innocence and romance in her well-matched duets with the Nutcracker Prince (Raydel Caceres). Leila Drake nearly stole every scene she was in. And the men were especially amazing, particularly Ryan Camou (the charismatic uncle) with his turns, leaps, and scissor kicks, and Ming Chang, who seemed to float rather than dance.

The production was interesting and beautiful, but it lacked magic. Still, the dancers clearly have remarkable talent, and the children around me seemed to be delighted. I only hope someday their parents take them to a traditional version, too.

Bobby

(published SB Indie December 7, 2006)

Emilio Estevez, Laurence Fishburne, Anthony Hopkins, Helen Hunt, Ashton Kutcher, William H. Macy, Lindsay Lohan, And Demi Moore Star In A Film Written And Directed By Estevez.

Every movie has a purpose: to entertain, to give information, to persuade, or to inspire action, to name a few. And Bobby fulfills its purpose brilliantly — once you figure out what that purpose is: to give context to RFK’s assassination, what he represented, and why his death was so tragic; but even more importantly, to evoke in the viewer the emotional impact of this historic event.

In fact, the film isn’t really about Bobby Kennedy at all, except in an abstract way. (His only appearance in the film is through actual newsreels — no actor plays Bobby.) Instead, it centers on the people at the Ambassador Hotel the night Kennedy was assassinated.

At first, the film comes off as nothing more than a pastiche of characters representing 1968. Though engaging, and though each of the actors gave reputable performances, there was no clear central story, rendering the movie almost pointless.

Luckily, the characters are all engaging. What the movie lacks in clear plotting, it makes up for in building emotional investment in these characters and what Bobby Kennedy represents to them. And that’s the film’s brilliance.

Because when Bobby is shot (and I hope I’m not giving anything away here), it’s surprisingly traumatic — so much so that I sobbed for a good five minutes. And that’s when it became clear that the point of the movie was to bring me to this emotional climax. It recreated for me the way it must have felt to be my mom, my dad, my uncle in 1968, so that I could feel what they felt when Kennedy was murdered. And this, in turn, gave me a visceral, instinctive understanding of both the lingering activism and also the disillusionment that’s impacted their generation since.

There are elements in the film that clearly suggest it’s also a commentary on our current electoral system, on the war in Iraq, and on modern-day racism. But its greatest value is as the best kind of history lesson: one that skips dates and facts and takes you straight to how 
people feel.

Made In Santa Barbara: Big Dogs

(published in <a href = "http://www.independent.com"> SB Indie </a> December 7, 2006)

(excerpt from a larger, collaborative article about companies and trends started in Santa Barbara)

It all started with a group of friends, a river-rafting trip, a set of colorful, over-sized shorts, and the phrase, “Man, these puppies are big!” That’s how Big Dogs, the sportswear brand with that familiar canine logo, was born – and right here in Santa Barbara. In fact, the brand’s first store opened on State Street in October 1984. Now, over two decades later, Big Dogs has retail outlets in more than 150 locations, spreading its California-inspired style across the country.

But the company’s roots are still firmly grounded in the 805. Not only are corporate headquarters and a retail store – complete with its famous graphic T-shirt wall – still here, but Santa Barbara is also ground zero for the Big Dog Parade, the largest dog event in the country. It started as a simple block party between Big Dogs employees and some friends, and has grown into a spectacle capable of shutting down the entire city for an entire weekend.

For twelve years, Big Dogs has been attracting more than 1,200 canines and 16,000 humans to downtown Santa Barbara for contests, revelry, and good old-fashioned parade fun.
And in case you think the parade is just a clever marketing ploy to advertise the company’s parody T-shirts and multi-generational active wear, keep in mind that 100 percent of the proceeds from the parade go to the Big Dog Foundation, a nonprofit charity benefiting dogs, children, and dogs that help people.

Apparently not every story about a friend has to feel like suicide

Many many moons ago, I started working on a story about the Suicide Girls for the Santa Barbara Independent.

It was one of those stories that kicks my ass every which way and for every kind of reason: it was personal, it involved people I know and like , I respected the editors I was working with (and therefore wanted to do a good job), and I cared about the topic. Which meant I spent about a million and a half more hours on it than it probably needed - and about two million times more than I'd be getting paid for.

My main concern, though, was that what started out as a straight-forward story about Suicide Girls in Santa Barbara turned into a personal essay about my personal experience with the site - a much different undertaking and much scarier prospect.

I feared the day the story would come out.

That day was today.

I have yet to see the final draft, though the text is online here , but I'm already relieved with some of the feedback I've gotten. Most notably? A peripheral friend who called it "the most insightful, feminist article on Suicide Girls I've ever read." Most hilarious? The main subject's ex-boyfriend who called me to exclaim how weird it was to see his former flame plastered all over his hometown paper.

But the best thing is that, thanks to fantastic advice from my friend and fellow journalist Tom Schultz, I'd already shown a draft to a representative from Suicide Girls. Which meant I'd already gotten their reaction. Which meant I didn't have to wake up this morning, close my eyes, hold my breath and wait for a phone call ... naturally expecting the worst.

Nope. Not today.

Today I woke up feeling clean and prepared, curious but not the least bit afraid of how people would react.

Funny how easy that was. I'm going to pit it on my imaginary little list: Journalism Lesson Number 642 — Never let your story be a surprise to its subject. And a reminder to go back to Lesson Number 2, which I started learning in 2002 and seem to keep needing to learn every few months or so, — Don't write about your god-damned friends.

Yup, I'm Still Reviewing Movies.

Barely Cutting It
By Molly Freedenberg, November 1, 2006
Running With Scissors. Annette Bening, Joseph Fiennes, Evan Rachel Wood, Alec Baldwin, Joseph Cross, Gwyneth Paltrow Star In A Film Written And Directed By Ryan Murphy, And Based on The Book By Augusten Burroughs.

Making a movie out of a memoir that many of my friends call “the best book ever” can’t be easy, as expectations are necessarily going to run high. But adapting a beloved book well does guarantee an immediate audience. Unfortuantely, I don’t think Nip/Tuck producer Ryan Murphy is going to satisfy that audience with Running With Scissors.

Despite some memorable moments and a few remarkable performances, this movie is ultimately forgettable. It relies too much on cinematic devices that other films have used first or used better — its quirky, surreal quality, for example, made me hunger for the better executed and more original The Royal Tenenbaums. And without creating its own visual language, the film left me feeling like this story was already told the way it was supposed to be told — with words on a page.

Still, the movie’s strengths make it worth seeing. Annette Bening steals the show with her complex, sympathetic portrayal of the lead character’s wildly unstable mom, bringing to mind her equally brilliant performance in American Beauty. Evan Rachel Wood is captivating as the Lolita-like Natalie. And though few and far between, the jokes and visual gags that work in the film really work – and are sure to become part of our cultural vocabulary.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of Running With Scissors, though, is Gwyneth Paltrow as the strange and morose Hope. The film wastes Paltrow’s exceptional talent, making her a mere caricature of other characters she’s played before and played better (the dark, sullen Margot in The Royal Tenenbaums meets depressed, daddy-obsessed Catherine in Proof.)

Aside from these flaws, however, Running With Scissors is still one of the more interesting, substantial films I’ve seen in theaters this year. And its surreal, retro feel (plus the titillating material) will undoubtedly earn it some hardcore fans. But I doubt any of them will be people who read the book first.

My Country: SB Indie Redux

Whose Country?

(published SB Indie 8/23/06)

Laura Poitras, Director Of My Country, My Country, In Conversation.

Sparked by a sense of despair about the war in Iraq and inspired by an article in the New Yorker, Laura Poitras set out on a dangerous, difficult, and ultimately rewarding film project: to express the complexities of the situation in Iraq through the eyes of Iraqis. By herself. Without speaking Arabic.
The result is the engaging My Country, My Country, a documentary that follows Sunni physician and political candidate Dr. Riyadh in the months leading up to Iraq’s first democratic elections. Poitras gives viewers a firsthand look at Iraqis’ ambivalence about the occupation, the election, and even resistance fighters. Thanks to Poitras’s remarkable access to Riyadh’s home and medical clinic and to official military meetings, the film presents a perspective of the Iraqi occupation that we haven’t seen before.

Why did you film this movie alone? Wouldn’t it have been easier, and less dangerous, with a crew? Maybe, but it allows me to be certain places I never would have been if I had a crew. When I walked into military meetings, people didn’t challenge me. I just sat down and pulled out my camera, more like a tourist. It was also easier for me to travel: I could find a space on a helicopter or in a car. I could live with Dr. Riyadh.
It was incredibly dangerous. People threatened me. But I believe what protected me was working with somebody who’s respected in the community, not traveling with bodyguards and guns. It was more protection in terms of the structure of society. I didn’t necessarily feel safer when I was with people who had guns.

What about being a woman in this notoriously male-centric culture? It was actually very helpful. In the culture, there’s a pretty big division between genders. Being a woman allowed me to be with the women in the family and hang out and live there with them, which would have been inappropriate if I were a man. But being a Western woman also allowed me to hang out in very male environments.

But how did you even know what was going on if you didn’t speak the language? I wouldn’t have thought it possible. But there were scenes I was filming that, even though I didn’t speak the language, I knew would be wonderful. As a filmmaker, you just know. Like the night before the election, when they’re sitting around and the lights are out and they’re talking about the situation, it’s a poignant scene — so I film it, and it’s a wonderful surprise when I come back and get the translations.

What should we learn from the film? To understand the situation not just from an American perspective, but from an Iraqi perspective. Iraqis are just trying to sort of rescue their country. The stakes are a lot higher for them — it’s not just an ideological debate. I feel it’s important for us to confront Islamic people as human beings, to understand them and see them as not so different from us. People will disagree about the film as they do about the war, but my hope is that it challenges people no matter where they are on the political spectrum.

Burning Man's Mandala Maker

(published SB Indie 8/23/06)

Gerard Minakawa And His Starry Bamboo Mandala

When most people refer to Burning Man art projects, they usually mean a kick-ass pair of handmade boot covers or an old beater bicycle spackled with red glitter. Some of the truly dedicated may be referring to more ambitious ideas: art-cars tricked out with fire cannons, dance domes decorated with papier-mâché fish, or an Airstream trailer lined with fuzzy purple fur. But almost no one undertakes the kind of art piece that 32-year-old Gerard Minakawa — founder of Ukao, a Santa Barbara-based bamboo furniture company — plans to execute this year: the Starry Bamboo Mandala.

This 55-foot structure represents the nexus of Minakawa’s interests and talents: ecologically friendly materials, radical and complex construction, and design that actually means something. Constructed completely out of organic materials — 21 tons of bamboo poles shipped from Colombia, 5,000 feet of manila rope, and more than 500 dowels — the structure expresses Minakawa’s dedication to sustainable building practices (as does his plan to donate leftover materials to Habitat for Humanity, rather than burn them). And Minakawa, with his small crew that includes S.B. lighting designer Jeffrey Boynton, are erecting the piece in these two weeks before Burning Man starts, withstanding 100-degree-plus temperatures, dust storms, and potential rainfall.

Not content to simply create something beautiful, Minakawa’s innovative design draws on his research into the spiritual significance of different star shapes throughout history — the result will be a piece that looks like a supernova of bamboo poles from afar and a Star of David embedded within a Star of Lakshmi (from Hinduism) from inside. Those interested in the natural magic of mathematics will also be pleased to know that the structure draws on the Fibonnaci sequence.

“It’s a gift of sacred space,” said Minakawa, who was given a coveted Burning Man organization arts grant to complete the piece at this year’s festival, which runs August 28 through September 4. He expects the light, strong, flexible structure to be a performance space for Burning Man artists, as well as a climb-able vantage point from which to view the desert landscape.

But it’s also a gift of remarkable vision, excellent design, and plain-old elbow grease, all things Minakawa doles out in bucketloads. The New York native (born to a Japanese-Bolivian father and Italian-Argentine mother) started Ukao at age 26, after graduating from Rhode Island School of Design and moving to Carpinteria to work with Forms+Surfaces. His furniture was so innovative, he’s been recognized by publications such as the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Metropolis, Boston Globe, and I.D., where he was listed as one of the magazine’s 40 designers to watch in 2006. He also won first place in the 2002 International Design Resource Awards.

For his first Burning Man in 2003, Minakawa helped build a bamboo bridge. Then in 2004, he designed the 20-foot Bamboo Trapezium, which caused Burning Man’s art curators to encourage his application for this year’s grant.
With energy left to burn, Minakawa sold or packed up everything he owned and moved to Bolivia, where he set up a bamboo workshop and a retail store, consults with nonprofit Aid to Artisans, and is collaborating with an indigenous Aymaran family on pieces that will be exhibited in New York City in spring 2007.

Clearly, Minakawa has come a long way from his first bamboo piece: a pergola for the entrance to Livingreen’s retail store on Helena Avenue. But that shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows him, since he’s always on the move, traveling the world in pursuit of inspiration and innovation. So it’s fitting that his Burning Man project is called a “mandala” — defined as “container of essence” — for this project, in all its ambition and beauty, truly reflects the essence of its illustrious creator.

4•1•1
For more info visit minikawa.com, ukao.com, aidtoartisans.org, and burningman.com