Will the great quake be a TV series?
When James Dalessandro was working on what would become his 2004 novel, “1906,” there was hot-and-heavy talk about a movie telling the story of San Francisco in the year of the great quake. Director Brad Bird was interested; Warner Bros. bought rights. Pixar became involved.
Dalessandro wrote three screenplays, but the movie never came to fruition, perhaps because it’s a big story that would be costly to film. Now, in a podcast made for Variety, Bird, director of both “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” and “Incredibles 2,” has indicated he’s interested again. This time, he’s been thinking about turning it into a TV series.
Dalessandro, an author not given to understatement, is excited about the possibility.
“This is the most dramatic story in American history, outside of war,” he emailed. “The entire crazy, magical city of
San Francisco brought to life. Seventeen cable car lines, three opera houses, the battle of Donaldina Cameron to save 5,000 Chinese girls from their enslavers . ... At long last maybe the first San Francisco, not the second one we live in, will be reborn.”
“I’m still interested in it,” Bird says in the podcast, “but I want it to be done in a way that embraces all the possibilities ... so we’ll see what happens.”
*** The phone rang at home one night, says Jerry Przybylski, and when he picked it up, he heard a recorded announcement: “As Costco members, we had been selected for a $500 travel voucher.” He was told to press zero and stay on the line for further information.
He hung on for five minutes, listening to “terrible electronic music,” and then finally someone who identified herself as “Abby” came on the line. “If you’re not a fraud,” he told her, “you’ll tell me what the real name of your company is.”
“I don’t have to tell you s—,” she said, and then there was a click followed by a dial tone.
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⏩ UC Berkeley’s DeCal program is offering Started From the Bottom: The Artistic Evolution of Aubrey Drake Graham, a course about the feud-prone Canadian rapper Drake taught by undergraduates for undergraduates. “As instructors,” emails student instructor Rubina Aujla, “we cultivate a safe environment for students to discuss rap/hip-hop music, which is often nonexistent on college campuses.”
⏩ Muni rep Paul Rose said a few weeks ago that he would be in touch when the cable car bell-ringing contest, an annual event that usually takes place in July, is scheduled. Haven’t heard from him yet. It’s whispered that this is because a beef between Muni and the operators about working hours makes them less than eager to participate in this feel-good event.
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⏩ The author of the play “Finks,” at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley through July 1, is Joe Gilford, son of actor Jack Gilford. The playwright says his father’s original name was Jacob Aaron Gellman. Milton Berle (born Mendel Berlinger) persuaded him to change it to make it sound less Jewish. Most of Berle’s suggestions — Guildman, Guilford, Guifford — included a “u,” but Gilford thought the silent letter was too hypocritical. “He didn’t want a British spelling,” Joe Gilford says. “He didn’t want it to be pretentious.”
⏩ “A Walk on the Moon,” the musical at ACT through July 1, was directed by a woman, Sheryl Kaller, and written by a woman, Pamela Gray. Furthermore, it is the last show at ACT for Carey Perloff, who has been artistic director of ACT for 25 years and is to be succeeded by Pam MacKinnon. The musical “came to the theater just as one woman who has done unbelievable work in the theater is passing it on to another, a Tony Award-winning director.” The women are “really fierce artists in their own field,” says Kaller, who is inspired by “the four of us at this threshold for the theater company.”
As to sexism in the theater biz, Kaller says she hasn’t felt it on a day-to-day basis. “I gave up my career for 12 years to stay home with my kids … and came back at 41 years old. I have been working as an over-40 director for all these years, so I feel very supported in our industry.”
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The emailed bulletin of RepurposedMaterialsInc.com — a constant source of wonder — reports that the company is selling 275 gallon drums, plastic lined and framed with steel. The company, which offers castoffs from all sorts of industry, suggests that these tanks, “typically used to store and transport fluids or other bulk materials,” could serve as luminaries or carrying cases for a large tortoise (the suggestion comes with a pic of a young customer who did that).
If you’re in the market for a giant tortoisecarrier, you’ll thank me for this item.
PUBLIC EAVESDROPPING
“He claims to be a metrosexual, but he can’t figure out apps.”
Middle-aged man to middle-aged man, overheard at AT&T Park by Harvey Steiman