Out There :: Cultural Conundrums

It's time to catch you up on some of the cultural events your gay uncle Out There has been sampling this month. We've been running behind at keeping you abreast of our civil activities. Let's fill you in.

We caught the Robert Lepage vehicle "Needles and Opium" at ACT's Geary Theater just in time for the Out with ACT performance night. This unusually staged piece finds its protagonist, also named Robert, arriving in Paris while still in emotional pain from the recent breakup with his (unnamed, gender-unspecified) lover. Now, Lepage is openly gay; the French genius Jean Cocteau, who figures in the piece, was openly gay; but why the character Robert is evasive about his sexuality is not made clear. Somewhat mystified, we celebrated with our gay brethren anyway, at the Out with ACT party after the show.

We were absolutely enthralled, if a bit befuddled, by the 60th SFFILM Festival's closing-night attraction, "The Green Fog - A San Francisco Fantasia" with Kronos Quartet. This was an unusual film-fest commission in which the fabulous Bay Area string quartet Kronos performed an original score by composer Jacob Garchik (son of SF Chronicle columnist Leah Garchik ) that accompanied the screening of a film collage by the great auteur Guy Maddin, with co-directors Evan and Galen Johnson. Maddin used film footage set or filmed in San Francisco to approximate the narrative arc of Alfred Hitchcock's great SF-set thriller "Vertigo." The result was a feast for both the eyes and the ears, and a special treat for "Vertigo" lovers and SF diehards (we qualify in both categories). We chatted with filmmakers and filmgoers at the closing-night party afterwards at Mezzanine. But why was the "closing night" scheduled for April 16 when the festival played through April 19? The answer is lost in a fog of mystery.

Fog is an appropriate metaphor for our utter cluelessness this week, and fog also figured in a glamorous press lunch we enjoyed on our day off, courtesy of the kind folks at Epic Steak and Hangar 1 Vodka. We enjoyed delicious dishes prepared by Epic executive chef Parke Ulrich expertly paired with cocktails and sipping vodkas developed by Hangar 1 Vodka master distiller Caley Shoemaker.

Shoemaker guided us through the multi-course meal with an array of pairing vodkas. But the lunch's undisputed star was Epic's famous Fog Point Martini using Hangar 1 Vodka made with San Francisco fog. We also downed spirits from Hangar 1's new Distiller's Exclusive vodka series, including Pink Peppercorn and Honeycomb flavors. But here's this week's final puzzlement: How do you create vodka from the fog rolling in?

Using methods developed to capture water during drought cycles, the nonprofit FogQuest collects Bay Area fog in mesh nets set up on hills in the Presidio, near Sutro Tower and at Half Moon Bay. That's how fog, condensed, finds its way into a $43 vodka martini, which has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Jeopardy! Who in the world pays $43 for one cocktail? Answer in the form of a question, please!