S1: It's time for Midday Edition on KPBS. A book about the social lives of bees , films about banned books , and your weekend preview round out today's arts and culture show. I'm Jade Hindman with conversations that keep you informed , inspired , and make you think. A book about one of the world's most interesting insects. People are actually.
S2: Really fascinated by bees , but they don't know a lot about them. So they always have these questions for me , and that kind of helped me shape the book.
S1: Plus , our film critics suggest movies about banned books , and we'll run down all of the arts and culture events in your weekend preview. That's ahead on Midday Edition. I. Have you ever wondered what it's like to live as a honeybee ? Well , a new book shows us the inner workings of bee life , from their social lives to their biology and what it takes to keep the hive alive. Heart of the hive is written by local beekeeper Hilary Kearney , and she joins me now to talk about the book. Hilary , welcome back to midday.
S2: Thank you so much for having me.
S1: Glad to have you here. I'm so fascinated by this.
S2: But I think what really inspired me is getting so many questions from the public and from my beekeeping students. You know , people call and they're just people are actually really fascinated by bees , but they don't know a lot about them. So they always have these questions for me. And that kind of helped me shape the book.
S1:
S2: So here in San Diego we have a lot of swarming. It goes on for a long period of time because our weather is so nice here , and bees move into weird places like people's mailboxes , their owl boxes , their garbage cans , you know , the walls of their homes. I even did one that was like , uh , you know , at the outdoor Shakespeare play set. They had moved into the the stage setup for that. And people just want to know what they're doing. Why are they there ? And they're looking for a place to live. So to them , I always think of it as like they see the world as cavities , potential places to start a beehive. And so they're always looking for a protected space to live in. And it kind of freaks people out because they don't know what they're doing. But that's one of the activities that happens a lot here.
S1: That is so interesting. You know , when I first moved here , that was the engineers told me about the bee swarms , but it was killer bee swarms that they told me about , and it just scared the mess out of me. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. And that's kind of a misconception , because I think the word swarm is used in different ways in the media and by , you know , beekeepers and people who understand bees. But a swarm of bees is not actually a group of bees looking to hurt anyone. There are a group of bees looking to find a home , and sometimes when they are disturbed or agitated , or when it's usually more of a established nest has been disturbed , then all the guard bees will come out and defend that nest , and so then it gets called a swarm. And that creates a lot of confusion. Yeah.
S1: Yeah.
S2: And every three bites of food that we eat is pollinated by a bee. So they're tremendously important for our agricultural system , but they also contribute to wild plant pollination. And they're one of the most common pollinators around. And there was a survey done like worldwide of the ecosystems. And they were the biggest contributor amongst all , like basically all of the world's ecosystems , but they weren't the only you know. What's important to realize is that there's other pollinators that are very important as well. Honeybees can't do it all , but they are very , very significant in a lot of the ecosystems around the world.
S1: I mean , there's that that one saying busy as a bee.
S2: So in the book , I kind of relate it to having kids. You know , when your kids are young , you give them chores. As they get older , you give them different chores that they're more able to do , and then eventually they get a job , you know , maybe at the local grocery store close to home , and then they leave and go to a different city and kind of start a new life. And so it's kind of the same with honeybees. They start out at the center of the nest , very close to where they were born , and then they get jobs that take them outside of the hive , like protecting the entrance as a guard or becoming a forager bee , which is the ones that go to visit flowers. So they transitions through all these different jobs. And there's some really interesting ones , like one of my favorite ones is when it's really hot out , there's a bee whose job it is to just fill herself up with water and sit around the hive and dispense water like a living water cooler. Like a water cooler bee.
S1: I mean , it's this is real organized work here.
S2: And there's , you know , a bee colony is like 50,000 bees. So this is all happening at once with 50,000 bees.
S1:
S2: So other animals dance , but they're not actually communicating like information in the same way that honeybees are. So honeybees have this dance called the waggle dance , which communicates the direction and distance of certain flowers. So it's how they organize going , you know , their workforce to go to when this tree is blooming , to take advantage of that bloom before it's gone. They do a dance to give the other bees directions , so that's really cool. But they're also talking to each other with vibratory signals that they send through the comb. They have pheromones they're sending all the time. And there's probably things we don't even yet understand about communication that's happening. Right.
S1: Right. It sounds like they have a better grasp of various forms of perception that I think we as people don't even pick up on. You also have a chapter here about what bees like. So.
S2: And I don't even think like is the right word for it. But flowers is the number one thing. But a lot of people , you know , contact me and they get they're kind of frustrated because they planted a certain flower for bees , and then they never see the bees on it , and they want to know why. And so one of the things I try to explain in the book is that their foraging is based on quantity and quality , so it has to be the right kind of flower. It has to produce a lot of nectar or a lot of pollen or both. And then they want a large quantity of it. So actually most of our honey comes from flowering trees. So I always tell people the best way to help bees is to plant a flowering tree , because that is going to get bigger and produce more and more flowers every year. And that's what they want. Like one flower type in a big grouping in one place where they can really efficiently collect it. Hmm.
S1: Hmm.
S2: Um , so , you know , when when people get in trouble with wild beehives , it's often because they are , you know , mowing the lawn or cutting down a tree or something like that. And they didn't realize that there was a wild beehive nest nearby. And then the guard bees come after them and chase them and sting them. But , um , you know , what's important to think about is , from the bee's perspective , it's a very violent activity. You know , you're near their home with all their babies and their food that they're protecting , and you're destroying everything. You're ripping up the grass , or , you know , you have this loud machine that smells. And so I think , you know , what I'm trying to do with the book is to get people to see things from the bee's perspective so they can understand them better and hopefully , you know , avoid these kind of incidents.
S1: I gotta say , yard work disturbs my peace , too. Very true. Well , you also run a local beekeeping business. Girl next door.
S2: We ended up getting married , but I read the book just to make sure that it was good. And it just all the information about honeybee behavior does really fascinated me. I didn't know any of it. And , you know , I'm local. I grew up here. I grew up on the beach , you know , poking around in the tide pools and stuff. So I always kind of liked nature , but I just didn't know anything about bees. And I thought that beekeeping was like this thing that wasn't really happening anymore. I thought it happened in like the 1800s , and it was kind of over. So.
S3: So.
S2: So when I found out that people were still doing it and that you could do it in your backyard , I was like , wow , this is cool , we should do this. And then I just snowballed for me into a business. And , you know , my husband still helps out , but he has a he has a real job in health care. Now.
S1: The beekeeping is a real job too.
S3: Now it is.
S2: Yeah , but it's so fun. It feels kind of like not a real job.
S1: Yeah , yeah.
S2: If you are a local , you can come to my Intro to beekeeping class. It's a three hour class that tells you everything you need to know to get started. So just the fact that it's three hours should open your eyes to how complicated this might be. I think a lot of people think beekeeping is going to be like setting up a birdhouse , and that's not the case at all. So you have to be pretty dedicated to and get ready to learn. It takes years and years to really understand what you're doing. Is a beekeeper. Hmm.
S3: Hmm.
S1: Well , for those who might still be afraid of bees , how can they get over that fear ? I'm asking for a friend , specifically our producer , Juliana.
S3: Well , I.
S2: Think she should read my book. Um , but I really do think that education will help you overcome fear. And , you know , I share a lot on social media , and I've had people write to me and say , you know , I used to be afraid of bees , but since I started following you on Instagram , I don't feel that way anymore now. I appreciate them now that I understand them , I have this whole new level of respect for them. So I think education is the answer. Yeah.
S3: Yeah.
S1: And is that ultimately what you want people to know and take away from your book ? Yes.
S2: The point of the book is really to open people's eyes to how amazing honeybees are and how important they are and how fascinating they are. But the kind of sub message , and this is what's happened to me as a beekeeper , is that probably every creature is fascinating and deserving of respect , and we just don't know it. We just don't know anything about them. So there's so many unlikable creatures like cockroaches and rats and pigeons , and I bet all of them are fascinating if we just took the time to look into them. And so that's what I've kind of learned from becoming enamored with honeybees. It's really kind of taken away a lot of my biases towards other creatures. And I think we need to just adjust our attitudes and learn how to share this planet and make space for everything.
S1: I've been speaking with Hilary Kearney , beekeeper and author of heart of the hive. Hilary , thank you so much for joining me today.
S2: Thanks so much.
S1: Coming up , our film critics list their top movies about banned books.
S4: I love that delicious irony. I mean , it's no better place to start than with a book about banning books that gets banned itself.
S1: Hear more when KPBS Midday Edition returns. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. The American Library Association tracks attempts to ban or restrict access to books across the United States. They also inform the public about censorship efforts in our libraries and schools. Well , this week is its annual Banned Books Week that celebrates the freedom to read whatever you want for mid-day movies. We want to celebrate your freedom to watch movies based on banned books. So we have once again invited film critic Beth Accomando , our KPBS Cinema Junkie , and Yazdi of Movie Wallace Podcast. Welcome to you both. Thank you.
S4: So much.
S5: Thank you.
S1: All right. So banning book dates back thousands of years. it's been used as a means of political control to keep certain ideas , such as freedom from the general public. It has also been used to protect people from things deemed immoral or obscene. Shakespeare and the Bible have both been censored and banned at various times and places. So today we are looking at a handful of films based on banned books , and there's no better place to start than with Fahrenheit 451 , a banned book about censorship. Beth.
S4: Yes , I love that delicious irony. I mean , it's no better place to start than with a book about banning books that gets banned itself. So the 1966 film version never met with any censorship issues itself. But Ray Bradbury's 1953 novel did so. When he wrote this first novel. He decided to give us this dystopian future where the government bans books because it believes they depress and confuse people. So reading is now forbidden , and firemen are tasked with creating Bonfires of books , but one fireman , Montag , decides to question destroying all this knowledge. And here's a scene where he listens to his boss expressed disgust for books.
S6:
S7: They said to burn the books right here with everything else. Oh , burning the house is one thing. Burning the books is another , isn't it ? It's never any good. Burning everything together. Come on , Montag. All this philosophy. Let's get rid of it. It's even worse than the novels.
S4: At the end of the scene , Montag steals a book revealing his rebellion. The film was directed by Francois Truffaut , who did the opening credits as narration to make people think about what a world without written texts might be like. The title comes from the temperature that paper will burn at. And the book was banned at various points , mostly over vulgar language. But as recently as 2006 , the novel was challenged in Texas for going against religious beliefs because the Bible is banned and burned in the book. And that just goes to an issue that I see often occurring in bands like this. And it's people calling for bans who have never actually read the book. In this case , if they had read the book , I think they should understand that the context of the story is actually critical of any book burning or any book banning , and their complaint is basically groundless.
S3: Oh , how.
S1: The dystopian future slowly becomes our present. Very interesting. Yazdi , you grew up in India. Do you have any memories of book banning or books you could not read ? Yeah.
S8: So growing up in India , my sister and I would spend entire summers reading books that we got from our library that was literally just down the road. We had free rein to whatever we wanted to read , and often relatives or neighbors would be aghast at some of the books in our hands and complained that they were not age appropriate , and my mom would shrug it off , saying , well , the kids are going to find out about the real world one way or another , and if they must , I would rather that they do so from books and at home. It was only when I got much older that I realized how progressive my mom's thinking had been. And when I hear these days of yet another book being banned , I wish my mom was there to share her perspective. And I miss her so much.
S1: Oh , I bet your first banned book movie is To Kill a mockingbird. So remind us what the story is about. Yeah.
S8: Yeah. So since being published in 1960 , the story of a white lawyer defending a black man falsely accused of rape has been banned for its depiction of rape and has been accused of immorality. The book has in more recent times , also been accused of furthering the white savior trope and its use of the N-word , which may be true , but I think it tells of a time when agency had to be given to those who were inherently not granted agency by society. I also venerate the book because it is about nothing less than the germination of social conscience in a child. In this case , the lawyer's daughter and any any book which can do that is is doing its job. Here is a scene with Gregory Peck , who plays Atticus Finch , the lawyer at the center of the story.
S9: The defendant is not guilty , but somebody in this courtroom is. All gentlemen. In this country. Our courts are the great Levellers in our courts. All men are created equal. I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and of our jury system. That's no ideal. To me , that is a living , working reality.
S8: I have irrational love for this book as well as the film. It is unimpeachable as a film. You cannot criticize it from any stance. It just holds up so well. It is forthright , it's brilliantly acted , and it's unsentimental. Yes. Again , there are those who believe that this book and the film has run its course with its usefulness. But I think it's a great example of what collective bias might look like in terms of attitudes towards race not so long ago.
S1: All right. Well , Beth , your next pick is a case where the book and the film ran into censorship issues. Tell us about A Clockwork Orange. Yes.
S4: Yes. So , as with Yazdi , I was lucky to have parents who let me read anything and encourage that. But I remember reading this book in high school and my dad having to write a note to my school , and my teacher saying that he knew what I was reading. He knew what it was about , and it was okay for me to read about a bit of the ultraviolence , so Anthony Burgess's 1962 book presented a dystopian world desensitized to violence , and where young men like Alex could run wild , committing horrific crimes. The book was banned over multiple issues , including objectionable language , sexual violence , and pornography. The 1971 film received an X rating on release , and Stanley Kubrick , the director , censored less than a minute out to get a revised R rating on its rerelease , and ironically , the scene that he cut was a humorous scene of people actually enjoying sex. And cut to I think it was the William Tell Overture. And I find this interesting because frequently censors seem to be more accepting of allowing women to be raped on screen than to allow them to enjoy sex on screen. So the film was blamed for some copycat crimes , and Kubrick apparently received death threats over the movie , and he ended up pulling it from distribution in the United Kingdom until after his death. So the film is also about questioning ideas about free will and things like that. But here is a little bit of the trailer. The film stars Malcolm McDowell as Alex.
S10: There was me that is Alex and my three Droogs that is Pete , Georgie and Dim and we sat in the caravan milk bar trying to make a paradox what to do with the evening ? The caravan milk bar sold milk plus , which is what we were drinking. This would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of the old ultraviolence.
S4: So both the book and the film are something that I think are great works of art , and I know there are reasons that people can be upset about them. But , you know , I do feel that freedom of expression does not necessarily mean freedom from you being offended or shocked ? And I think there's value in both the movie and the book for you to consider what choice and freewill are really about.
S1: Well , Yazdi , your next pick , met with censorship , both here in the U.S. and abroad. And it's a graphic novel. So tell us about Persepolis. Yes.
S8: Yes. So Persepolis is Mariane Satrapi's 2000 graphic novel that is a memoir of her childhood in Tehran , growing up during the revolution in Iran that saw the Shah being overthrown. The book is seen through the eyes of a preteen trying to adapt to extreme changes in her world by way of family , culture , and the government and her own changing beliefs and love of American pop culture. As we can hear in this trailer from.
UU: The film rising up back on the street. Done since when ? The death. And I'm back on my feet. To the right. It's the eye.
S8: So the book was banned in Iran , understandably , but later on , also in the US because of its depictions of bombings and atrocities , including executions during the revolution , which were considered inappropriate for seventh grade students. But we cannot hope that history will not repeat itself by ignoring the past. The film version of the book , gorgeously rendered in beautiful black and white animation that is actually aligned with the graphic novel , is once again a startling and unsentimental look at a child's world being thrown asunder due to rapidly changing political circumstances that the child can barely understand. And I think in our current world of so much political strife , this is a message that still resonates.
S3: Well , Beth.
S1: Your final choice for that , you're going to turn to the Bible by way of Martin Scorsese for The Last Temptation of Christ. Tell me about that. Yes.
S4: Yes. So this is another instance of dual censorship , as both the 1952 novel by Nikos Kazantzakis and the 1988 film by Martin Scorsese were condemned by the Catholic and the Greek Orthodox churches as blasphemous. So in this case it was not the government or schools calling to ban them , but religious organizations. And the main objection and root of the religious controversy comes from the novels concede that presents Jesus Christ dying on the cross and imagining an alternate existence in which he was not the Son of God , but instead a mortal man living a normal life with a wife and family. In this scene , Willem Dafoe is Jesus on the cross talking to his guardian angel.
S11: He said , let him die in a dream , but let him live his life.
S9: All the pain.
S12: That was real. Yes.
S11: But there won't be any more. You've done enough.
S4: So I remember having to cross a picket line to see the movie and thinking. There are young people on dates in line to see a movie about Jesus Christ and the Bible. And shouldn't the churches be applauding this ? I mean , think. They're.
S3: They're.
S4: They're willingly going to get a lesson , you know , about the Bible. And Scorsese , who wanted to be a priest at one point in his life , is absolutely reverent with the material and eager to contemplate both the divine and the human in the most sincere manner. So all this religious outrage just seemed completely misplaced.
S1: Very interesting. Well , Yazdi , your final film is based on the book Never Let Me Go.
S8: This particular book , Never Let Me Go , tells the story of three kids , then young adults , growing up together and their coming of age before they realise that they are clones whose only purpose is to provide organs for others in a society that is going to use their organs before they will be dead , sometime in the late 20s. The book is such a marvellous feat of storytelling because on the one hand , it's a beautiful and aching coming of age story , and on the other hand , it speaks to free will and the horror of playing God and imposing forced conformity. So imagine the irony when a book based on those themes was banned because of inappropriate , mature content , including discussions of sex for young adults. Here is a trailer for the movie. Let me.
S13: Say students of Hailsham are. Special.
UU: Special. Yes , weeping family and.
S13: Keeping yourselves well , keeping yourselves healthy inside is of paramount importance at.
S8: The top , and the 2010 film based on the book , in my opinion , is an overlooked piece of cinema. It stars Keira Knightley , Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan in lead roles , and they play these childhood friends who find out too late about their fate and try , often in vain , to rectify the world around them.
S1: Heavy subjects. But but good lessons from all these films you all mentioned. I want to thank our midday movie critics , Beth Accomando and Yazdi Pathak for sharing these choices. Thanks to you both and as always , it's a joy to have you on.
S4: Thank you so much.
S8: Thank you Jade.
S1: For more about Band Books Week , you can go to the American Library Association website or visit any library. And of course , you can find that information on our website , pbs.org. Still ahead a sit down with composer tech Sue Kim.
S14: This piece expresses the excitement of having a both new home and getting into the home after a while.
S1: More on your weekend arts preview. KPBS Midday Edition returns after the break. You're listening to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. For our weekend preview , we'll talk about the return of a beloved citywide dance project along the trolley tracks and the long awaited reopening of the San Diego Symphony's indoor concert hall. Here at KPBS , we recently launched our Fall Arts Guide , where we've been profiling some of the creative individuals sharing art and performance in San Diego throughout the season. Today , we're spotlighting Texas Kim , a prolific San Diego based composer , Kim worked with the San Diego Symphony on a piece of music to commemorate the opening of their newly renovated Jacobs Music Center this weekend. The song is called Welcome Home. Kim sat down with KPBS Julia Dixon Evans last month to discuss Techsoup.
S15: I want to start with this idea of home. This new piece of music is called Welcome Home , so the listeners know it does have two exclamation marks in that title. This is a song that is to welcome the symphony back to their indoor concert space.
S14: I resettled a few times in four different states in 13 years. But , um , to me , for now , San Diego has become home quite quickly. So that's where I see as my home. And , um , the critical aspects of homecoming to me is include familiarity , a sense of belonging and comfort.
S15: And how does that that idea of home , that belonging and comfort.
S14: Home , except when we visit home after a long time or when we have a new home. So in this case , this piece express the excitement of having a both new home and getting into the home after a while.
S15:
S14: For example , I was in Seoul last week for the big premiere of another piece of mine , and I was staying with my mom , which I always do when I'm there and which I used to do in my 20s , which is very common there. And I spent a bit of time last week composing for another piece on the dining table , and my body remembered how it feels. And it's there. It's kind of the magic of returning home , just like that. Activities and memories are tied to places , and we build and season our memories when we repeat an activity at a specific location. And also these memories connect the past and future.
S15: I want to stay with Welcome Home for a little bit longer. There's this big tradition there in classical music to celebrate or christen new spaces.
S14: And I should tell you , it's a little Surprisingly more common to give this type of task to non-local artists because with bigger status. So I was humbled that they actually sought after a local composer. And it was especially meaningful because San Diego Symphony played a piece of mine in 2020 , almost two concerts before they shut down the same hall. So my pieces are kind of bookending the closure and the opening of the whole. So I feel very personally attached to this. And aside from that , it is always nerve-Racking to work with great musicians and orchestras like San Diego Symphony. And the instrumentation was given to me. So it was a little , oh , can I do this ? But you know , sometimes. Well , because I feel much more comfortable with strings and larger orchestra itself , but having it without strings , it was a little unchartered territory to me. But you have to adventure in a way , and you have to innovate yourself. And I think that goes well with the occasion of renovating and reopening and reshaping the whole. So I thought that's very meaningful to me. And of course , also I'm curious what I could do with this challenge.
S15: I want to talk a little bit about identity. You're Korean-American and you write music about modern Korea.
S14: One is I got my first bachelor's degree in chemistry. I have extra I have forgotten much of what I learned because it's 20 years ago , but still it has informed my perspectives. For instance , I often see composing as combining different genres and re synthesizing melodies that are broken down into smaller fragments , and which allowed me to build my second background as an arranger before my composition career bloomed. So I became familiar with many different genres , and then I experimented when I got commissioned to arrange things. I experimented , uh , well , how about having , like , a 30% of jazz influence and 50% of classical music and 20% of Korean music , for example. So that kind of mindset has been important in my music and in this case , I researched lots of different genres that are associated with the idea of home. In many ways.
S15: You've spoken before about how you love to write music that is fun , whether fun to write , fun to listen to. Can you talk a little bit more about that ? Especially when classical music is seen sometimes as this serious business ? Talk about why it's important to have fun.
S14: I grew up in a family of no musician. My mom was no trained musician. I should say. My mom sang in a church choir , but that's about it. I don't think she really reads music. She she follows the shape very well. But she was not trained as a musician. So it was always the question to me how I can create music that could invite those who are not really familiar with classical music , and there are multiple ways you can make it a little more enjoyable in terms of the sound itself. Or you can create music that resonates more in terms of , um , the theme. That's why that's one of the reasons why I came up with the idea of incorporating everyday experiences , because that's something that can appeal to those who are not necessarily familiar with musicians. But at the same time , I'm a little ambitious that I want to make my music also fun and enjoyable to the connoisseurs , appreciators and the players because they are my colleagues at the same time. So I believe I can still make it sophisticated , uh , in that I can use a lot of music theory. I learned because it's a different layer and I do it because that's fun for me and that's fun for no matter who may want to enjoy more deeply the piece.
S15: I know that we can't play Welcome Home yet it's going to be kept a secret until the symphony plays it at the end of September. Is there a song that you can point us to.
S14: If you're interested in more fun , but also experimental , I would recommend this piece called bounce with two exclamation points. Yeah , that's a common thread in my titles and to have two exclamation points , but that is based on basketball play , so it has lots of so-called sound effects that you can get from different instruments. That's one layer of fun to see. Wow , a cello can do that , or a piano can make that kind of sound. But also it's all about basketball , which is not something people always associate with music. So there is a plot twist and that it actually sounds quite like playing a basketball.
S1: That was composer Techsoup Kim speaking with KPBS arts reporter Julie Dixon Evans. To hear the full interview. You can check out our Fall Arts guide at pbs.org. Small Arts Guide , and Julia joins me now. Julia , welcome.
S15: Hey , Jay , thanks for having me.
S1: As always. It's great to have you. So as we heard , San Diego Symphony returns to their indoor home this weekend.
S15: Much better place to hear a concert. It's always been a really lovely space to go to , to see art and hear music. But now the acoustics are just off the charts. Incredible. They use acoustic architecture specialists and now every corner , every spot , there's no bad seat in the house and they also have installed a bunch of like adjustable technology so that you can fine tune things concert by concert or piece of music by piece of music. But a lot of the improvements are actually things that maybe only the musicians will notice and like their experience on stage , but also backstage , their musician quarters and their break rooms , their rehearsal rooms. They're all really beautiful. And so , yeah , they're opening up this Saturday with their inaugural concert. They're going to play Welcome Home and also works by Villalobos , Rossini , Tchaikovsky , Ravel , Paganini and then Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini , which we're listening to now. Mhm. It's one of those pieces of music that you've heard before. They also have a big public event on Sunday as well. They're bringing in lots of other music organizations and groups , but that is unfortunately entirely sold out. But then the following weekend , October 4th 36 , they're performing Mahler's Second Symphony. And Mahler is one of those composer names that Rafael Perry threw out when he was talking about why they really wanted to maximize the concert hall acoustics. So that would be a great one to kind of test out the sound. Absolutely.
S3: Absolutely.
S1: In addition to the big symphony event , there are a lot of dance performances to check out this weekend , so I want to start with trolly dances. What do you know about that ? Yeah.
S15: So this is the 26th year the San Diego Dance Theater has done this project that basically the way it works is you ride the trolley is a little tour , and then you stop along the way and get these site specific dance performances so you can buy a ticket. And that gets you a two hour tour where you ride the trolley with your little group. This year , it's the Green Line , and these performances along the stops are choreographed and performed by not only San Diego Dance Theater artists , but also the great Monica Barnes from New York City , BC. Sol , who's collaborating with Transcendence Youth Arts Project a bunch more , including connect Art from Tijuana. And this is their first time choreographing a piece for Trolly Dancers. We profiled Connect Artists co-founder Pamela macias , and I really loved what she said about the diversity that comes from doing site specific work like this.
S16: Every dance , I think is special and different because the space is different. So I don't think there is any choreography that it's the same. And I think we're really excited to to work with the space and also to work with the different dancers that we have , because we know that each of the answer is really different. You want We really want to work with that , like to bring the unique style of each dancer and to see the diversity of the dancers coming together.
S15: And tickets are $40 for the two hour tour , or 25 for students , seniors , military or artists. And the tours start every hour from 10 to 3 on both Saturday and Sunday. A few of those time slots are already sold out , but these are performances that are in public spaces outdoors. They don't necessarily publish a time schedule for the performances , but they do announce which trolley stops they'll be at. That's Old Town Transit Center , Gaslamp Quarter , Seaport Village , and Santa Fe Depot. So you can kind of post up at one of those stops throughout the day and then maybe stumble upon a public dance performance right there. I mean , how.
S1: Delightful is that ? It really is. Okay , one more in the visual art world here. The arts and education nonprofit revision is holding a special exhibition on Saturday. Tell me about that.
S15: Yeah , this is a nonprofit that works with artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities of all ages and revision , has been part of San Diego Design Week and the World Design Capital. They've been working on this project with workshops to build these community structures or sculptures using wicker like basket kintsugi , which is the the art of repairing something and making it more artistic , and also making scrap sculptures. I love what this means , like the idea of repairing something old or broken or destined for a landfill and making art , especially as a community. So this is at revision in la mesa from 12 to 4 on Saturday , and the exhibition is free.
S1: I like the intention behind that. All right , let's do some live music before we go.
S15: This is Sushi's latest single. It's called Common Loon.
UU: I can tell you if I'm right.
S15: And The Loft is a great venue. It's free for UCSD students or $22 for the show for anyone else. That's Thursday night and it's rising. And then one more is on Friday night. This is a local project , the monthly Songwriter Sanctuary. It's hosted by Jeff Berkley at the Normal Heights United Church , and they bring in three songwriters each month to perform a set. This time it's Lauren Ong , We the Commas , who are a group of three brothers , and then Shua and Shua is this great local singer songwriter , and he submitted a track for this year's NPR Tiny Desk Contest , which is how he got on my radar. It's a great song. It's called Aren't You Tired ? It's so beautiful. My name.
S1: Well , that is a beautiful song. You can find details on these and more weekend arts events , and sign up for Julia's weekly newsletter at pbs.org. Smarts. I've been speaking with KPBS Arts reporter Julia Dixon Evans. Julia , thanks.
S15: Thank you. Jade.
S17: Know that he used to be repeats itself , y'all.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose. Everyone.
