Weekend Preview: Nortec Collective, Paper Airplane Fest And Surf-Inspired Art

CAVANAUGH: Is this KPBS Midday Edition. I'm Maureen Cavanaugh. If you don't have your St. Patrick's days plans set for this weekend, you just haven't been paying attention! We have one last-minute St. Patty's day idea, and a lot more music, art, and paper planes to talk about on today's weekend preview. Kelly Bennett, arts editor at voice of San Diego. Her blog is called behind the scene. Hi, Kelly. BENNETT: Hi, Maureen. CAVANAUGH: And Enrique Limon who writes the man about town blog for San Diego City beat of welcome back. LIMON: Party time! CAVANAUGH: You said it. Now, we start off with a kind of a serious play, Kelly, for colored girls who have considered suicide, when the rainbow is enough. This is classic, and it opens Friday. BENNETT: This is a choreopoem, or 20 poems where a cast of seven women each takes a color, lady in red, lady in blue, to describe a story or a situation that would have affected African American women. So love, abandonment, rain, abortion. This piece was debuted I think in the mid-70s and now Commonground theatre is doing here in San Diego. There's a lot of pieces of it that reflect this feminist perspective or taking the stories and sort of coalescing them into a kind of feminine mystique, I suppose. There's a little bit of a cloberation there between how can you see love in the same night as abandonment, and how do those all represent different pieces of the woman experience? CAVANAUGH: The play was written by Endo zaki ShangE, and it was recently adapted to the screen by Tyler Perry. BENNETT: It was initially a little bit controversial. Even the playwright said she was worried he may portray these women as plastic. But this movie, several stars lent their talents to it, and the director of this production was saying he's glad a lot more young people have been exposed to the work through the film, but he's hoping they'll see it in the stage version and see the dynamism of this play come to life MAUREEN CAVANAUGH: And before we leave this subject, tell us about Commonground theatre. BENNETT: It's coming up on its 50th anniversary in a couple of years. It's a theatre in southeastern San Diego that involved a theatre guy from UCSD for a long time, Floyd Gaffney. He's passed away now, but his daughter, Monique Gaffney, is well known in at this time theatre scene. This theatre is known for producing plays that deal with classics as well as new works about stories from the African decent. CAVANAUGH: For colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enough opens Friday, runs through April 1st at Commonground theatre in southeastern San Diego. Bostich+Fussible are playing together. LIMON: Great pronunciation, Maureen. They are members of the Tijuana-born Nortec musical genre. They amassed quite a following since their 1999 debut, and this promises to know quite the Mexi, close-border bonanza. They're still performing quite a bit. In 2008, a couple of the founding collective members had a falling out, and they have since released their own projects. These guys specifically have become the genre's beacon, if you will. CAVANAUGH: We have a cut from Bulevar Dos Mil. Here's Radio Borderland. (Audio Recording Played) CAVANAUGH: That is Bostich+Fussible. What can we expect from a live show? Aren't they on laptops? LIMON: Yes, they are. Usually combined with typical Mexican regional musical instruments as well. It's something that must be experienced as live in order to grasp the genre's joyful style. It's all the fun and debauchery of a TJ night out. Are CAVANAUGH: It's just like it, except it's not. [ LAUGHTER ] LIMON: Sure. CAVANAUGH: Friday at fourth and B downtown. St. Patrick's day, Sunday, many events around town, including that big parade that might get a little soggy. BENNETT: Rained out. CAVANAUGH: If the forecast is right. You want to tell us about a musical event that is linked to St. Patrick's day? BENNETT: On Saturday, Camarada will be presenting a collection of Celtic music on flute, guitar and percussion. They are a local chamber music ensemble that brings different performers nearly every time. There's three core members, and the flutist who's the executive artistic director, will be performing this weekend. And they'll be doing all sorts of Irish and Celtic classic pieces with some new arrangements thrown in. CAVANAUGH: Are they known for playing Celtic music? BENNETT: They're not. But I think they're probably west known for doing tango music. They do all sorts of different collections of players and musicians for various themes. So when they, you know, can come up with this composer wrote a piece that was inspired by sort of this culture, then they sometimes cobble together a program of different-themed music. CAVANAUGH: I heard Danny boy is on the roster there. BENNETT: It is. Of I think there's a couple other favorites, maybe amazing grace. You can't really expect to have a concert on St. Patrick's day without hearing Danny boy played on the flute. It seems like some of these may be out of the box with some new arrangements, but they'll be doing the classics too. CAVANAUGH: Is there a concert representation before the music? BENNETT: There is. So if green Guinness is not your thing, there is some beer and food by haute cuisine, but it's stone tasting. So maybe higher brow for this St. Patrick's day crowd. CAVANAUGH: Saturday at Myer fine art in little Italy. Anime kanji happening this weekend in mission valley. LIMON: Anime kanji is an all-out weekend long fest celebrating all things Japanese Anime. Think of it as ComiCon but slightly nerdier. CAVANAUGH: Oh, slightly naughtier. LIMON: Nerdier! You can get naughty if you want to, Ms. Jackson! [ LAUGHTER ] CAVANAUGH: Now, how long has this event been around? LIMON: This is going to be anime kanji's different annual event in San Diego. CAVANAUGH: What are visitors going to do? LIMON: It's going to be an all-out party, trust me. There's no party like an Anime party. And the goal is to promote phantom culture. Expect them to see every other pop culture trend to emerge from the land of the rising sun CAVANAUGH: What about those parties? There are lots of them related to this Anime? LIMON: There's a bunch. Along with several panels and workshop, there's going to be a performance by renowned J-pop singer. And of course the make Kange Nomatsuri, which will feature dark dub step and more. CAVANAUGH: Happening Friday through Sunday at the town and country resort in mission valley. There's a paper airplane festival happening Saturday in Balboa Park. I hope it's not outside! BENNETT: Well, I know, that is a problem when you're dealing with paper. And there's potential for rain. Hopefully they're using some water-proof paper or something. But yes, this is a festival happening at the air and space museum, and kids will be able to learn all sorts of different patterns for actually making the paper airplanes, then there's going to be a competition for categories like the farthest flight distance, the longest air time, and the flight accuracy. I always was just content to be able to make an airplane that could just fly, but -- I don't know if I've been ever to make it any kind of distance that would win a contest. CAVANAUGH: It's part of the San Diego festival of science and engineering. BENNETT: It's happening all week. All over the county there's a few dozen different events at different places, aquariums, and science centers, and next weekend, there's a free expo day at Petco Park to culminate the whole thing. San Diego obviously is doing a lot around science and engineering, and I think this is a hope to take the generations of people who work in those professions and instill some of that energy in a family-type event. So there could be kids discovering -- I think there's going to be a parade of a DNA model through the prado on Saturday. LIMON: Wow. BENNETT: Talk about nerdy, but I think it's going to be really fun to explore science, technology, engineering, these things that are very cornerstones in San Diego's economy to make them part of both the events for the weekend as well as this festival all week. CAVANAUGH: So the paper airplane festival, Saturday at the air and space museum in Balboa Park. A new art show is opening tomorrow at subtext gallery downtown. Tell us about this LIMON: It's called you should have been here yesterday. And it celebrates something uniquely San Diegan, which is our region's surf culture. CAVANAUGH: Okay. So how do they celebrate that? LIMON: What type was works are on view? You can always count on subtext to put together a very well rounded show. Expect to see multimedia collage, painted surf boards. CAVANAUGH: I was looking at the website, and some of them look really, really interesting. These are well-known artists that are on display? LIMON: You definitely have some of surf arts power players. One of them for example is William Sager, presenting some gnarly collages on paper. And one of my favorite arts, Tocallo, known to infuse elements of his Latino heritage as well as surf and skate culture into his work. CAVANAUGH: Is there anything special happening during tomorrow night's opening night? LIMON: Well, No. 1, I'll be there. And most of the arties will be there. And there is going to be a live performance by Carlsbad basinger summer brook. CAVANAUGH: You should have been here yesterday opens tomorrow. It runs through April 13th at subtext gallery in little Italy. And since I did mention that there is a big parade downtown on Saturday, I should tell you just a little bit more about it. It's the 32nd annual St. Patrick's day parade in San Diego. And it starts with a flag-raising ceremony in Balboa Park at 9:45, and there'll be 120 entries includes including the reigning Ms. Collene, and smiling Irishmen. LIMON: Love me a good smiling Irishman. CAVANAUGH: Thank you. LIMON: Thank you, Maureen. BENNETT: Thanks very much.