SPREADING THE NEWS ABOUT ARION PRESS
Amid this overwhelming era of #fakenews and Twitter tirades, it was refreshing to sip a Freedom of Choice cocktail while mingling among monotype machines and vintage lead type in the hot-metal heart of the Arion Press composing room.
Arion carries out its mission as one of the nation’s last fine-art printers in an historic Presidio building. And this annual Spring Benefit Dinner funds apprenticeships for its nonprofit Grabhorn Institute dedicated to training a new generation of craftspeople in the skill of creating museum-quality books. One of those apprentices, 31-year-old Chris
Godek, is now a full-time journeyman typecaster. Yet we couldn’t help wonder why he wasn’t somewhere else coding with the rest of his generation.
“We use a bit of technology to run our typecasting machines. But I’m fascinated by the hands-on nature of creating a book,” he explains. “We’re also creating a 3-D object: You can see the type impression and watermark on each page. It’s really a work of art.”
The spirited evening, led by Arion Press Publisher Andrew Hoyem and his wife, senior editor Diana Ketcham, honored sculptor John
Newman, whose 25 hand-drawn prints accompany Arion’s latest museum-quality edition of Elizabeth Bishop poetry.
Guests also aided the cause by buying raffle tickets to win the last remaining copy of Arion’s bicentennial edition of the United States Constitution before digging into a divine Betty Zlatchin dinner. Among bookworms: poet Dana Gioia; Grabhorn trustee Leslie Berriman and her partner, Chronicle Books CEO Nion McEvoy;
Paul Wattis; Marjorie and Barry Traub; Meridee Moore; artist Robert Bechtle and his wife, Whitney Chadwick; and coffee baron Jamie Anderson.
Grabhorn chairman Kevin King paid tribute to philanthropic belletrists Laura and Ed Littlefield, who donated a $500K matching grant to Arion’s Legacy Transition Fund.
“Roy Folger introduced us to what an amazing cultural institution Arion Press is,” enthused Ed Littlefield. “Arion is not only important to the art world, it’s the largest type foundry in the Western hemisphere. Many of us still read books, so that’s pretty cool.”
Sound byte: Though it won’t open here until 2020, the San Francisco Opera is a co-commissioner of “The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs” — the first full-length opera written by composer and DJ Mason Bates and librettist Mark Campbell about the late Apple co-founder and tech pioneer Steve Jobs.
Described as an electro-acoustic work, Bates composes with a full orchestra, guitar and expressive electronics from actual Apple gear.
“Jobs was a member of our community, so I wondered if this work was too soon,” recalled S.F. Opera General Director Matthew Shilvock. “But it’s also an opera about humanity in contemporary America; about a man at the end of his life looking back and wondering, ‘Did I make the right choices?’ ”
Music lovers enjoyed a sneak-peak at a listening party hosted by composer Gordon Getty and his wife, Ann Getty, in the resplendent music room of their Gold Coast mansion.
“Jobs fundamentally changed the way we communicate — we now all hold these very sleek, beautiful devices,” Bates said. “But you don’t have to be dumped by text to realize our cursory communications today were, once upon time, much more substantive. I think opera can tell the story of how we deal with that tension.”
Bates jokes his opera is more modern than Puccini, mixed with new elements of storytelling via a narrative that’s a nonchronological, almost pixelated, view of Jobs’ life.
“Jobs was an artist in the way he pursued his designs and products,” Bates says. “It’s interesting how he transformed from a very idealistic counterculturalist to somebody who created the world’s most viable company. That’s operatic.”
Oh, Venus: Singer Frankie Avalon still gets the gals in a swoon, including philanthropist Yvonne Sangiacomo, whom he recently serenaded during the ribbon-cutting of Piazza Angelo, a 1-acre, open-air public plaza — the final housing development by her late husband, legendary landlord Angelo Sangiacomo.
Located at Eighth Street between Market and Mission streets, Trinity Place is a four-building, 1,400-unit complex framing the plaza. Like all good Italians, Sangiacomo had a gift for flair — from his signature black circular glasses to his piazza, now crowned by a 92foot stainless steel statue of Venus de Milo.
Avalon was on hand to sing his signature tune after a program emceed by Liam Mayclem with remarks by Mayor Ed Lee and former Mayor Willie Brown. Also on hand: Yvonne and Angelo’s children, Anna, Sandro, James, Maryanne, Mia, Mark and Susan Sangiacomo with their spouses and kids, along with teeming trays of Paula LeDuc sweets.
“Angelo was truly a pioneer in the redevelopment and renaissance of the Mid-Market district,” toasted Trinity Properties CEO Walter Schmidt. “Angelo was almost 85 when we started the first building. When asked, he’d say he was just getting started and the best things were yet to come.”