Ben Fong Torres on the air again, Are you on the right path?, Gators in Tinseltown

KFRC (106.9 FM) has invited alumnus Ben Fong-Torres to do a two-hour show featuring his interviews past and a steady stream of his favorite music. “Backstage” airs from 7 to 9 a.m. (repeated 7 to 9 p.m.) Sundays. Tune in and be sure to stay up to date on other Bay Area radio happenings via his “Radio Waves” column in the San Francisco Chronicle. This week he discusses his days at SF State and a fellow alumnus:

 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/21/PKJHSNQFQ.DTL

Looking for signs that you are on the right path and living an authentic life? Professor of Philosophy Jacob Needleman and alumnus Po Bronson offer their wisdom here:

 http://wholelifetimes.com/2007/10/tunein0710.html

“Is Hollywood Giving Asian Men More Love?” This Asian Week article mentions alumnus B.D. Wong among the successful stars having a major impact in the industry:

http://www.asianweek.com/2007/10/22/is-hollywood-giving-asian-men-more-love

B.D. Wong stars as Dr. George Huang in NBC’s ”Law & Order.” Meanwhile, other alumni can be found behind the scenes:

Former student Arianne Phillips designed the duds for Russell Crowe and the Aussie’s posse in “3:10 to Yuma.” You can read more about the Oscar-nominated costume designer (“Walk the Line”) in this interview: http://www.film.com/movies/story/shesuitshollywoodaninterviewwithariannephillipspt1/17013269

In other movie news, alumnus Steve Zaillian wrote the screenplay for “American Gangster” (Nov.2). This is the same release date as alumna Corey Sienega’s “Martian Child” (she produced the film). Fellow Gator Shawn Murphy was the scoring mixer for “Lions for Lambs” (Nov.9).

And congratulations to no one re last week’s trivia question. The correct answer: Alice Fong Yu.  Ms. Yu was the first Chinese American public school teacher in San Francisco. She graduated from SF State in 1926 only to be told that Chinese Americans were not being hired. She refused to take no for an answer and became a successful bilingual teacher. Today the city’s Alice Fong Yu Chinese immersion elementary school honors her memory.

Okay, I’ll try one more Gator trivia question. Then I’m giving up on you. What does Ben Fong-Torres have in common with SF State student Price Troche Jr.?

Please direct your answers, shameless plugs, Gator sightings, etc. to me, Adrianne Bee: abee@sfsu.edu

WHEEL!OF!FORTUNE!, the latest toothpick art and lightweight guitar news

Ivy League, Schmivy League. After trouncing student contestants from Harvard and the College of Charleston, SF State's Price Troche Jr., took home $64,800 in cash and prizes on "Wheel of Fortune" last night.  You can read his contestant diary here:  http://www.wheeloffortune.com/contestantsandtickets/contestantdiaries/ 

 

And you can watch him in action here (two parts from YouTube):

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5iSQ76N66gs

http://youtube.com/watch?v=STMAbQ7knVA

 

I’m looking for anyone who has landed a great job/reunited with a good friend/had some other happy/wonderful thing happen through the InCircle social networking site. If this is you, please let me know asap: abee@sfsu.edu I may add your good news to the next issue of SF State Magazine.

 

Bassist/composer and SF State lecturer past Marcus Shelby has found his latest musical inspiration in the life of American hero Harriet Tubman. “She had a close relationship with music, work songs and particularly spirituals, which she sang to give messages to other slaves about planned escapes,” he tells the San Francisco Chronicle, explaining how Tubman’s life inspired his new oratorio for voice and jazz orchestra. Shelby’s orchestra will play parts of the two-hour piece Friday night at the Great American Music Hall.

For more on Shelby, read the Chronicle profile:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/16/DDEOSP2UV.DTL&hw=Shelby&sn=001&sc=1000

In addition to Shelby, the Chronicle article mentions another person who has an SF State connection. Who is it? You tell me! I’ll send the first correct responder an SF State decal and you will also receive the fame and fortune that comes with being listed on this blog. E-mail your answers to: abee@sfsu.edu

 

Alumnus Steven Backman is featured in “Ripley’s Believe it or Not! The Remarkable Revealed,” a new collection of “unbelievable stories, bizarre feats and amazing interviews from around the globe.” Backman is a toothpick artist. He goes through more than 10,000 of the little wooden sticks per year to create replicas of the Golden Gate Bridge, a portrait of David Letterman, ice cream cones, you name it. Steven sent me an image of one of paintings last week–quite a lovely abstract with bold blues, red and black against a yellow background. I squinted as I searched for the toothpicks, but apparently it was just acrylic paint. “I dabble in different mediums once in a while,” he told me. 

What does toothpick art look like? Visit Backman’s online gallery:

http://www.landmarksofsf.com/index.html

Design and Industry alumni Joe Luttwak and Kyle Wolfe are receiving rave reviews for their Blackbird Rider Guitar, a lightweight instrument they developed as graduate students. For more info: www.blackbirdguitar.com

 

Are your children getting enough vitamin Z?, SF State Magazine honored for excellence

This just in from alumnus Po Bronson: Today New York magazine is running a new article I wrote with Ashley Merryman, and I’d love for you to check it out. The article and its sidebar jumped immediately to #1 and #2 on their most e-mailed list, and I was on CBS The Early Show with Harry Smith this morning talking about it as well. It might not sound like the sexiest topic – it’s on the science of kids’ sleep. But I assure you, the article will surprise and shock you, whether you’re a parent or not. We spend a third of our lives in slumber, without really any sense of what our brains are up to other than dreaming. When we talked to these scholars and learned about their new research, we strongly felt, “People need to hear this.”  

Read the article: http://nymag.com/news/features/38951/

Watch The Early Show segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3PyzsQBJkY

 

Come to the cabaret: Alumna  Sharon McKnight and Erin-Kate Whitcomb have been cast in “Ruthless! The Musical.” The show opens Oct.16 and runs through mid-November at the Purple Onion.  McKnight plays Lita Encore, a supporting role.  Miss Thorn, the 3rd grade teacher, as well as the role of Emily Block are played by Erin-Kate Whitcomb. (Whitcomb was brought in to direct “West Side Story” at SF State  in spring 2006, which I’m told has broken all university box office records. ) Tickets for the dinner theatre range from $45-50. For more information: www.californiacabaret.com 

 

Do you have a future marine biologist at home? Introduce your children to the mysteries of the San Francisco Bay at the University’s Romberg Tiburon Center for Environmental Studies Discovery Day Open House on Sun., Oct. 14, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Discovery Day is a fun (and free!) educational festival that includes marine touch tanks, scientific exhibits and live music. For more information: http://rtc.sfsu.edu/discovery_day.htm

 

Good News for SF State Magazine: SF State Magazine will receive an award of excellence from the Council of Advancement and Support of Education’s (CASE) District VII at its annual conference in December. SF State Magazine is one of just three university magazines in District VII–comprising colleges and universities in California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Guam and Hawaii–selected to receive the award which is presented at a bronze, silver and gold level. No matter which one we receive, we are certain no one will take it away in the future. Yes, we manage to triumph over universities with much larger staffs and budgets (this is our fourth award for the magazine), but we do not use any performance-enhancing drugs.

In other gold/bronze/silver-related news: Wei-Min Zhang, assistant professor of cinema, will serve as a unit director and cinematographer for the official 2008 Summer Olympics documentary, produced by the Documentary Film Center of China Central Television. Zhang will focus on portions of the torch relay — including its only North American stop in San Francisco in April — and the inspiring stories of the top athletes from South America.

InCircle members: If you have landed a great job, reconnected with a good friend or had some other happy, joyful thing happen on the new SF State alumni networking site, please let me know as soon as possible. I’d love to tell our readers about it in the next issue. My e-mail for this or anything else you want to share: abee@sfsu.edu

Martian Child landing in theatres soon, SF State’s resident whale expert, note-able alumni

Just heard from alumna Corey Sienega. She produced the soon-to-be-released film “Martian Child” starring John and Joan Cusack and Amanda Peet. Am told it’s the story of a widowed science-fiction writer who adopts a little boy who claims to be from another planet.  Corey tells me, “If you liked ‘Kramer vs. Kramer,’ I think you’ll really like this movie and my partner and I are very proud of it.” Look for the film in theaters Nov. 2. Corey’s last release was “Miss Potter” starring Renee Zellweger. Her other production credits include “Frailty” and “Secondhand Lions.”

Our faculty never ceases to amaze me. I’m told that lecturer Jonathan Stern doesn’t like to brag about his whale expertise. Maybe that’s why I never heard about him until I stumbled on this compelling article: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/02/CM0CQOE35.DTL

And then there’s Vance Vredenburg’s work to save the yellow-legged frog from extinction.  This USA Today article points out that the frog plays an important role in our ecosystem:  http://www.usaweekend.com/07_issues/070930/070930science.html

Alumna Sterling James, best known for her days on the airwaves at ALICE 97.3 FM, has made a switch to KBLX 102.9 FM, where she can be heard weekday afternoons and Saturday mornings. This Saturday, Oct.6. she’s celebrating her 20 years in Bay Area radio with a benefit for Youth Speaks, a poetry and literacy arts program for young people (founded by James Kass while he was a student in the MFA program at SF State. ) One of Sterling’s earliest radio gigs: DJ and promotions manager at SF State’s campus radio station KSFS-FM .

Ruby Lopez is putting her BECA degree to good use. She is a new reporter on “49ers Total Access,” a television program co-hosted  by fellow alumna Kim Yonenaka. Ruby is also a black belt in Tae Kwon Do (She’s competed on MTV’s martial arts program, “Final Fu”), the 2003-04 Ms. Latina USA and an avid race fan and autocrosser, to name just a few Ruby factoids. Meanwhile, her fellow BECA alumna Nicole Sawaya has been named executive director of Pacifica Foundation, the network of commercial-free community radio stations including Berkeley’s KPFA-FM. Congrats to both of you!

Alumna Margo Candela’s second novel, “Life Over Easy,” was just published by Kensington Books.  She’ll be signing copies next door to campus at the Stonestown Borders on Sat., Oct. 6, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Candela also sold her next two novels to Firestone Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. For more info: www.margocandela.com

Professor of English and Forum host Michael Krasny will be reading/discussing his  new book, “Off Mike…” at Keplers in Menlo Park on Oct.15 at 7:30 p.m.  Check out the Sept. archive–I shared my thoughts on the book/an excerpt last week.

Susan Tibbon, who earned her teaching credential at SF State, was the artist-in-residence at the de Young in September. If you missed her exhibit, you can view her stunning artwork online: http://susantibbon.com/ 

Musician with a mission: At 26, alumna Denise Huang is already an accomplished violinist who has performed with the Philippine Phiharmonic Orchestra, the Manila Symphony Orchestra and PREDIS Chamber Orchestra. She recently told BusinessWorld, “How many people our age go out of their way to go to a classical concert? That’s my mission. I really want to get the younger generation to appreciate classical music and to appreciate art music by Filipinos.”

There’s a new transcription of SF State alumna/jazz artist Kitty Margolis’ scat solo on “Summertime” from her “Heart and Soul: Live in San Francisco” CD, an improvisational flight which DownBeat Magazine described as a “tour de force.”  Listen to the Mp3 while you read:
http://www.kittymargolis.com/html/teaching.htm 

In other Kitty news,  Blogcritics Magazine offers an an in-depth profile that discusses the creative process, improvisation and apparently includes anecdotes even her biggest fans have never heard until now:
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/09/24/000037.php 

 Have news to share? Questions/comments? Overheard something funny on campus? Please send me your SF State-related news: abee@sfsu.edu