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Articles by David E. Moreno
David Geffen Galleries open at Los Angeles County Museum
Los Angeleno Joni Mitchell wrote Free Man in Paris for and about her close friend David Geffen, inspired by his complaints about the pressures of the music business. In it, she sings, “You can’t please them all, there’s always somebody calling you down.” And so it is, true again, about his new David Geffen Galleries at LACMA, which opened in May. The massive, amoeba-shaped concrete structure that seems to float and crosses Wilshire Blvd.
Acting Like Women (2026)
The Los Angeles Woman’s Building was born out of a void, a vision … an urgency. It became a cultural icon while remaining largely invisible to the broader public throughout much of its meteoric history.
Mere Mortals: San Francisco Ballet 2026
Zeus created the first woman out of clay, but that wasn’t enough. He gave Pandora what is often translated as a gift—a self-serving offering that, in contemporary hindsight, reads more like a method of control. Whatever you do, don’t open the box. Or: don’t bite the apple—knowing, of course, in his all-pervading masculine wisdom, that she would. Zeus had little faith in the feminine capacity for self-control.
Letter to the editor: Standing with Mike Thompson
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... I want to thank the Daily Democrat for the article about our congressman, Mike Thompson’s opponent. It motivated me to research San Francisco venture capitalist Eric Jones. Mike has a proven commitment to his district. This level of dedication isn’t something you just decide to have. It is built and proven through sustained effort, service, and a genuine connection to the community.
By This Light
Nina Wise’s By This Light is produced with a delicate touch. It floats like refined incense, filling space with a clean, crisp, contemporary interpretation of Tibetan Buddhist chants and blessings. The album invites listeners to slow down and savor its subtle flavors and soothing vibes.
ODC Dance Downtown 2026
Brenda Way’s world premiere of After the Deluge crowned ODC’s Dance Downtown season—an enticing, lyrical performance inspired by the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, reflecting the heroism and kindness that arise in the face of disaster. The magnitude of this event was amplified by the scale of the scenic projections—grainy images of frozen water, cracked clay, and porous stones pummeled by the sea—enhanced by the equally sturdy and fluid ensemble and the choreography’s sweeping momentum.
End Point | Open Time
Liss Fain’s End Point and Open Time are dances about space—exterior, interior, personal, public—and the relationships between them: between dancers, dancers and audience, audience and dancers, and audience with audience. Few site-specific dances or dance installations have managed audience inclusion with such grace, making viewers a significant but unobtrusive part of both the installation and choreography.
Pattie Gonia, “Save Her” Tour
Being: Pattie Gonia Pattie Gonia is a force of nature—created in the wilderness to defend the great queer diversity of the outdoors. She is shockingly stunning, a BIG redhead with the perfect body and makeup, who can strut a runway, ski your pants off, and rappel you with the hard truth at cliff-dropping speed.
Lines Ballet Fall 2025
When Deep River premiered in San Francisco in 2022, it was instantly hailed as a masterwork. A year later, Pointe magazine named it one of the “standout performances of 2024.” Missing the premiere became a mark of regret for Bay Area dance aficionados. Thankfully, Deep River returned this fall for Alonzo King LINES Ballet’s 2025 season—though without the live presence of Grammy-winning vocalist Lisa Fischer. Deep River is bare-bone Alonzo King perfection.
ODC Summer Sampler 2025
“Death isn’t the elephant in the room; it is the room.” Alok Vaid-Menon ODC Summer Sampler 2025 was a homecoming for three distinct choreographers: the former Co-Artistic Director, now ODC Fellow, KT Nelson; Mia J.
SFDANCEWORKS
SFDANCEWORKS’ Season 8 opened at Z Space with a world premiere by JA Collective, a Bay Area premiere by Yue Yin, and another local debut by prodigy choreographer Emma Portner. With this dynamic program, SFDW continues its streak of compelling, forward-thinking seasons—each one building on the last—making its productions a must-see event in the Bay Area dance calendar.
Alok Vaid-Menon
“Control is how power maintains itself; anyone who expresses another perspective is punished.” Alok Vaid-Menon On the same day that tanks rumbled down Constitution Avenue in Washington, DC, trans comedian, author, and performance artist-prophet Alok Vaid-Menon strutted onto the stage of the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco, wearing sensible pumps and a muumuu with a Japanese block print motif.
Alonzo King "Lines Ballet"
The spring home season of the Alonzo King Lines Ballet featured two stunning musical collaborations, including a world premiere of “The Beauty of Dissolving Portraits,” which showcased Oakland native and Grammy-nominated composer and trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire. And a revival of “Scheherazade” with longtime collaborator, tabla virtuoso, and acclaimed composer Zakir Hussain.
Wheel
“Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel As the images unwind, like the circles that you find In the windmills of your mind.” Alan Bergman Margaret Jenkins’ “Wheel” comes into existence when eight dancers silently enter the dimly lit, amoeba-shaped dance floor. In breathy, whispering voices, they call in the elements and directions one by one through gestures and sounds.
ODC Dance Downtown, April 2025
“In the dark times Will there be singing? Yes, there will also be singing About the dark times.” –Bertolt Brecht “Prepare. Resist. Imagine…The Arts must lead the way,” encouraged Brenda Way in front of a preshow curtain. Given the state of the nation and explicitly mentioning the demise of the Kennedy Center, the ODC Founder and Artistic Director is taking action by doubling down on her commitment to programming and education as ODC launches its commendable 55th season.
Frankenstein (San Francisco Ballet)
I was hesitant to review Frankenstein for several reasons, including my dislike for ballet, especially one that’s three hours long and marketed as “A Sci-fi Horror Ballet Comes to Life,” or as I prefer to think of it, “He Did the Mash, He Did the Monster Mash,” in three acts. Moreover, since its premiere eight years ago—a coproduction of the San Francisco Ballet and The Royal Ballet— it has received mixed reviews, few neutral.
MOMO
For the February 26, 2025 performance of Batsheva Dance Company, from Tel Aviv, culturevulture.net writer David e Moreno and editor Michael Wade Simpson sat next to each other, sharing notes and perspectives on their favorite dance company and choreographer, Ohad Naharin. This review is a dialogue between two dance journalists on Batsheva’s production and the political events surrounding “MOMO.” MWS: “MOMO,” the 2022 evening-length piece has “two souls,” according to program notes.
Twyla Tharp Dance--Diamond Jubilee
Twyla Tharp celebrated her 60th year of creating stunning and often provocative works at Zellerbach Hall with the West Coast premiere of SLACKTIDE—a new collaboration (2025) with composer Philip Glass, performed live by Chicago’s Grammy-winning Third Coast Percussion— Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, and David Skidmore—featuring flutist Constance Volk. The score draws inspiration from Glass’s 1993–1999 work, AQUA DE AMAZONIA.
Olivier Messiaen’s “Harawi”
“Dilate the rainbow space raucous in time,
Ionized laughter, clock’s fury to murder absent
. Cut off my head, its figure rolls in blood!
Tou, ahi! mané, mani,
Tou, ahi! mané, mani.” Harawi is the last of three song cycles that the French modernist composer, Olivier Messiaen wrote for voice and piano. The title comes from an ancient Andean tradition that combines Quechua poetry, music and ritual, that now is a point of contention among liberals and academics regarding appropriation.
State of Play 2024
State of Play wrapped up its ambitious dance festival this weekend at ODC Theater, arguably the best season of its 12 years. With its smartly curated performances, the multilayered festival is the stellar work of ODC’s Theater Creative Director Chloë L. Zimberg and resident curator Marya Kerr, together, with the support of Counterpulse and the San Francisco Ballet, which generously supported with resources and rehearsal spaces.
5-Minute Yoga Warm-Up for Your Often Overlooked Joints
Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app. Warming up your joints is an indispensable part of your yoga practice. Although some joints tend to be slightly overlooked. San Francisco Bay Area yoga teacher David Moreno teaches a series of joint exercises that can be used as part of a pre-practice stretching routine.
ENO (2024)
Sound & Vision Visionary musician and artist Brian Eno—who produced Talking Heads, Roxy Music, David Bowie, U2, and Cold Play, among others, pioneered the genre of ambient music and released over 40 solo and collaborative albums—shares his creative processes in the unique generative documentary ENO. This groundbreaking film, a collaboration between filmmaker Gary Hustwit (“Helvetica,” “Objectified”) and digital artist Brendan Dawes, is a one-of-a-kind generative software system.
Anna Karenina
A dark scrim with the words Anna Karenina projected on it disappears into projected vapors that threaten to obscure the ageless name before it reappears. Much in the way Leo Tolstoy’s overly dramatic novel of the same name has faded but always reappeared as one of the great pieces of literature, the title image commands its due as real smoke wafts from behind the scrim through the projected vapor over the orchestra pit and onto the heads of the audience.
Bark of Millions:
“What we are trying to do with this show is explore some kind of queer spirituality without heterosexuality dictating what that is.” Taylor Mac Bark of Millions is a nonbinary, nonlinear rock opera, gospel revival, an Italian opera in Beach Blanket Babylon glam, a fusion of the tribal musical Hair with the bling and stardust of Dream Girls. It invites you into a salon of Radical Faeries entertaining each other for the pleasure of it, clad in resplendent costumes by wizard genius Machine Dazzle.
Love is Music
For “Love Is Music,” a radio show on KUNM 89.9, the show’s host and producer asked me to pick a song dedicated to my love, a song that says something about our relationship, our love story. “Music is love; it brings people together. It tells our stories,” said Ann Bromberg over the phone. “This will be part of our special Valentine episode, and I’m sure it will be great.” Without hesitating, I picked Joni Mitchell’s “Night Ride Home” for my partner of six years, Bill.
HCA Healthcare to acquire 41 urgent care centers in Texas from FastMed
The parent company of HCA Houston Healthcare has agreed to purchase 41 urgent care centers in Texas from Arizona-based FastMed. Nashville-based HCA Healthcare Inc. (NYSE: HCA) will acquire 19 FastMed and 22 MedPost locations in Dallas, Austin, El Paso, Houston, San Antonio and elsewhere. The transaction, which does not include any locations outside of Texas, is set to close this summer. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Michel van deer Aa: Blank Out
The Violence of Memory Blank Out is a techno dreamscape, a chamber opera, and a clever trauma release therapy thriller, complete with 3D glasses for its audience.
JPS to begin construction on $69 million psychiatric emergency center this May
Dallas-Fort Worth Black-Owned Businesses To be eligible for this list, your company must be at least 51 percent owned by a black individual and be headquartered within one of the following counties: Collin, Cooke, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Grayson, Hill, Johnson, Kaufman, McLennan, Navarro, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant and Wise. Out of 39 businesses, 21 companies responded.
NEC Corporation of American appoints Chris Jackson to CEO
Dallas-Fort Worth Black-Owned Businesses To be eligible for this list, your company must be at least 51 percent owned by a black individual and be headquartered within one of the following counties: Collin, Cooke, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Grayson, Hill, Johnson, Kaufman, McLennan, Navarro, Parker, Rockwall, Tarrant and Wise. Out of 39 businesses, 21 companies responded.
SIBYL (US Premiere)
“You will be dreamt by a jackal.” Years ago, when I first encountered the passionate black and white, mural-sized charcoal renderings of William Kentridge–depicting slavery, lynchings, and the black struggle for freedom and justice—I assumed the South African artist was black and that he was a young political activist, probably in his 30s.
Baba: The Life & Death of Stana
A World Premiere w/Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble, San Francisco “I climbed into the world without a destiny.” Baba: The Life & Death of Stana–authored, composed and keenly directed by Karmina Šilec–is instantly smart; a cutting-edge musical theater with sophisticated staging, imagery and otherworldly vocals. Baba operatically dives into the complexities of an age-old tradition from Eastern Europe of sworn virgins who exchange their female gender for the rights and privileges of men.
The Look of Love
“Are we meant to take more than we give? Or are we meant to be kind? And if only fools are kind, Alfie Then I guess it is wise to be cruel” Hal David I can’t remember the last time a choreographer took a curtain call at the beginning of their own performance.
Dimitris PapaioannouTransverse Orientation
“Transverse Orientation: Keeping a fixed angle on a distant source of light for orientation.” –Like moths to a flame Transverse Orientation is an evening-length work on the construction and deconstruction of myth--the unpredictable meanderings of the psyche, fleeting moments of stellar archetypal beauty with its chaotic, annoying repetitiveness and absurd futility.
Och & Oy! A Considered Cabaret
Alan Cummings & Ari Shapiro “So take those blues and bounce them off the wall. Keep your humor please, ‘cause don’t you know In times like these that laughing matters most of all…” –Laughing Matters, Bette Midler “Och & Oy! A Considered Cabaret” with odd couple-turned bosom buddies Alan Cummings and Ari Shapiro is a refreshing, unexpected delight.
ODC/Dance
“There will be dancing in the streets…” ODC celebrates its “50+” Anniversary with Summer Sampler, an enjoyable evening of five works as part of a weekend-long celebration.
SFDanceworks
For five seasons, SFDanceworks, a repertory dance company, has lived up to its mission; bringing world-class choreography that includes the “past, present and future of contemporary dance.” And each season, the 13-member troupe with its stellar programing continues to grow, even though SFDanceworks began with a very high bar.
Global MovesMargaret Jenkins Dance Company
“How long have we been asking these questions? After how many trains taken?” Rinde Eckert, Michael Palmer “Global Moves” mysteriously begins outdoors in the wooded area across the street from the Presidio Theater’s outdoor courtyard. Through the breeze, the faint sound of bells and gongs drift over the audience, seated surrounding a rectangular patch of lawn. From the courtyard, composer-musician Paul Dresher begins to chant a raga, accompanied by Joel Davel on percussion.
Björk Cornucopia Tour
“…I’m here to tell you that change is coming
whether they like it or not…” The goddess is refined, emanating from the center of her universe, a universe Björk didn’t create, but IS. She is vibration, a dust storm of drifting pollen within infinite space; she is the center. She advances like an explosive display of fireworks appearing and disappearing in colors; her palette is all that is esoteric, vibrant, otherworldly.
The Mitchells: Joni & Joan
As a decades-long Joni Mitchell fan, I have attempted to explain to others the difference between Joni and Joan Mitchell numerous times. My snarky, short response is, ‘one of them is still living!’ But it’s easy to see just how deep this confusion goes beyond their names. Both women chartered their careers in art and music within male-dominated industries of the 50s-70s. Both defined their own careers, lived life on their own terms, with art at their center.
Dear San Francisco: A High-Flying Love Story
“All across the nation such a strange vibration, People in motion, There’s a whole generation with a new explanation, People in motion, people in motion…” Scott McKenzie “If you’re going to San Francisco” or if you live “high on a hill…where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars” surrounded by fog and summer-chilling winds; if you’ve lived in the Bay Area your entire life or just arrived, if you’re young or old and been indoors for the past 18 months, worried about the pandemic and the...
CultureVulture Berkeley Archives - CultureVulture
Berkeley Theatre during the Pandemic Emily S. Mendel Theater June 29, 2020 Berkeley, One of the ironies of living through a pandemic is that when we most need to be engaged, enlightened, and entertained by live theater, we can’t be. Although our local theaters are dimmed, they are nevertheless ... Culture Clash (Still) in America Emily Mendel's review of this production at Berkeley Rep Emily S.
CultureVulture Theater Archives - CultureVulture
Berkeley Theatre during the Pandemic Emily S. Mendel June 29, 2020 Berkeley, One of the ironies of living through a pandemic is that when we most need to be engaged, enlightened, and entertained by live theater, we can’t be. Although our local theaters are dimmed, they are nevertheless ... Human Error Online Theater from North Coast Repertory Theatre Lynne Friedmann June 29, 2020 San Diego, Two couples utilize the services of a fertility clinic.
THE DAY
“I remember the day…” On the surface, “THE DAY” is a multilayered performance with iconoclastic cellist Maya Beiser and retired ballerina turned dance experimentalist, Wendy Whelan. This collaborative project, done in two parts, is the inspiration of Beiser, whose riveting, jaw-dropping cello playing is truly masterful and would have been plenty on its own. In addition to fervently striking her cello, she also recorded the spoken word while performing live multitrack cello with prerecorded loops.
San Francisco Archives - CultureVulture
Levi Strauss: A History of American Style Contemporary Jewish Museum of San Francisco Renata Polt Art & Architecture March 7, 2020 San Francisco, Aw shoot! I forgot to wear my new tight-fitting black Levi’s to the Levi’s show! But then, I was so surrounded by Levi’s history, paraphernalia, photographs, pants, and all things Levi’s that it didn’t really matter. ... THE DAY Maya Beiser, Wendy Whelan, Lucinda Childs, David Lang David E.
Sting’s “The Last Ship”
When an artist has reached superstardom, it is difficult to take a new direction without being compared to who they were and what they once achieved. But their fame and name recognition will draw fans to their most recent endeavor regardless if the new project is outside the field that brought them legendary status. This is the elephant in Sting’s musical, “The Last Ship” and deserves a brief mention just like the shoulder brace he was wearing on opening night due to shoulder surgery.
Paul Taylor Dance Company
When the Paul Taylor Dance Company last appeared in San Francisco in 2017, it was just months before the dance world would lose one of its greatest choreographers—Paul Taylor. Soon, the dance maker whose innovative career set contemporary dance standards for over six decades–appearing regularly in San Francisco for three of those decades–would be gone. At the age of 88, the prolific Taylor had produced his final work, “Concertina” and managed to premiere it in NYC before his death.
A Thousand Thoughts
“A Thousand Thoughts, a thousand questions, mine, yours, ours, theirs, questions that perhaps open up things that definitive answers would only nail shut. Kronos Quartet’s long trajectory offers a series of questions that are solid and answers are elusive. How do you find the path between predictability and instability?
No Quarter
“Astrology is not about astrology. It is about what is already happening. Astrology isn’t about us, but the way we are sewn into the weave of all we belong to. Right now, you are not dead, but you will die. What kind of ancestor will you be?” Larry Arrington Larry Arrington is a streetwise Hierophant;, a two-spirit Yoda, a creative whirling dervish, and multimedia artist.
CultureVulture Music Archives - CultureVulture
Philip Plass’ Akhnaten at the Met Music: Philip Glass Libretto: Philip Glass in association with Shalom Goldman, Robert Israel, Richard Riddell, Jerome Robbins Conductor: Karen Kamensek Production Phelim McDermott Set/Production Designer: Tom Pye Costume Designer: Kevin Pollard Lighting Designer: Bruno Poet Choreographer: Sean Gandini Cast: Zachary James; Richard Bernstein; Aaron Blake; Will Liverman; Anthony Roth Costanzo; Disella Larusdottir; J'Nai Bridges; Lindsay Ohse; Karen Chia-Ling Ho;...
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