On Satuday night we walked down the hill to an Art Institute event, a series of Ken Anger films. The Art Institute is a rather medieval/Spanish looking building, all broad corridors and courtyards. To our dismay, we found when we got there that we’d arrived an hour late. It was long after dark and we stood in one of its cold galleries looking out onto a courtyard, Michael negotiating with the stocky, dark-haired man running the event. We could hear the soundtrack to one of the films.

After the applause we made our way into the theater, which was dark and so packed we had to sit on the aisle steps, already dotted with people. The Anger film, Lucifer Rising, was a collection of colorful, vaguely Satanic images that managed to be interesting, even without an identifiable story-line. A lovely woman in Egyptian garb reclined on the foot of a massive sphinx. A handsome, long-haired man covered in blood bathed in a huge bathtub. The music by Bobby Beausoliel (currently serving life for a Mansonesque murder) was quite good.

After the film was over, a few people left and Michael and I were able to get a couple of seats. Unfortunately, that had been the last Anger film. (I would have liked to see Rabbit’s Moon again.) The next film had a title I don’t remember.

…but it was memorable, and deserves its own entry.

The building that housed the San Francisco Art Institute stills stands, but it’‘s currently an empty gray pile at the foot of Russian Hill, A non-profit has bought it and will presumably resurrect the place as The California Academy of Studio Arts. I am hopeful, but won’t hold my breath.