Nocturne / Noir

Helen K. Garber's NoirFest Santa Monica is in full swing, starting this week (actually there was a big opening last Sat'dy night . . . well, we missed that one!) - with a full calendar of events running thru March 28, 2012. Included are a Spoken Word event tonight (!), a Film Screening of Farewell My Lovely (1975) on January 25, Wine Tasting on January 28, and our favorite: Night Photography at the Santa Monica Pier, February 4, 7, and 21, 2012 - part of a class offered by Otis College of Art & Design.

And like that . . . events throughout February and March, with a Closing Party on March 28th! All the details are at noirfestsm.com - The Inaugural Interactive Arts Festival Celebrating Noir as a Unifying Theme.

If you're in the neighborhood, you should try to make it to some part of this - it's an ambitious offering of complimentary events that Helen has delivered - all in the name of Noir!

From The [not so] Daily Nocturne

(“The, uh, stuff that dreams are made of.”)

Jaguars . . . on Mare Island?

Advance notice - this is NOT what we will be photographing at our next AlumNight on Mare Island - late February or early March!
(A while back, this was pointed out to me by some of the ‘usual suspects' of The Nocturnes. Recognize any of the locations? Is that Building 253 the cars are streaming into, at the 17 second mark? There's always someone making a film or commercial somewhere on the Island.)

From The [not so] Daily Nocturne

How ya gonna keep 'em down on the Preserve? 

Hope you all enjoy the above image, taken a few nights before Christmas down on the Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve. Some of the hardest-working, visionary voluteers on Mare Island have set the mile-long trail to the Spirit Ship aglow with festive lights of the Season. The lights will be on every evening 5-8pm, until New Year's Day - see their Web site for details!

Check out more work from this location, this Season - visit us on Facebook ("Downon the Preserve" album) - http://www.facebook.com/tim.baskerville

If you would like some music (Hey, it IS The Nocturnes!)to accompany the viewing of this image, visit The Nocturnes Blog for a special "20th" commemorative posting (just below this one!).

Enjoy this season of peace, warmth, remembrance, and kindness.

From The [not so] Daily Nocturne

For Christmas - Nocturne No. 20

As we close out 2011, our 20th Anniversary year, for our customary Chistmas Nocturne, we find it apropos to feature a Nocturne composed by Frédéric Chopin in 1830 - No. 20 in C-sharp minor, Op. posth., Lento con gran espressione.


Performed here by Wladyslaw Szpilman at home, in Warsaw in 1997. (Cameraman Jaroslaw Mazur / Copyright 1998 by Andrzej Szpilman) Wladyslaw Szpilman (Wladek) played this music in the last live broadcast for the Polish Radio on 23.9.1939 . An hour later German bombs destroyed its power supply and Warsaw Radio was closed for the next 6 years. This Nocturne is featured in the Roman Polanski film The Pianist, and in its entirety, in the soundtrack. 

It's been a busy, heartening year with all "TheNocturnes@20" events! Enjoy this season of peace, warmth, remembrance, and kindness.

From The [not so] Daily Nocturne

Yo - Hardly strictly . . .


Music video by Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile & Aoife O'Donovan performing Here and Heaven from the Goat Rodeo Sessions


From The [not so] Daily Nocturne

"It was twenty years ago today . . ."

Hard to believe, but it's been twenty years since a small band of photographers presented their best work to an unsuspecting world in an auspicious exhibit simply titled "The Nocturnes." From those humble beginnings, the mission of The Nocturnes as a group - no, make that "a gathering" - of Night Photographers has been one of education, community building, and the showcasing of evocative nocturnal photography.

This exhibit, which opens at the Harvey Milk Photo Center, in San Francisco, is part of a year-long celebration of their 20th anniversary, and features (amongst others) the work of legendary Night Photographer/Educator and mentor, Steve Harper - as well as work by Harvey Milk Center Instructor and Director of The Nocturnes, Tim Baskerville.

November 9 to December 3, with a Opening Reception for the Artists on Nov. 9 from 6:30 to 9pm; 50 Scott. St at Duboce.

(From the desk of The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man)

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog

Taken this past weekend at Studio Nocturne 2011, Fort Mason Center, in San Francisco.

(From the desk of The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man)