I’m not the kind of guy who jumps up after every show and explodes into a standing ovation. But that’s exactly what I did last Thursday night, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, after two friends persuaded me to check out an artistic showcase called Left Coast Leaning. The opening “act” was a work by the experimental animator Miwa Matreyek. It’s impossible to put into words the sense of wonder and transcendence I experienced while watching her piece, entitled Myth and Infrastructure. It felt like being present at one of the first recitals of a Chopin Nocturne, or at an early performance of Alexander Calder’s Circus.

Let’s cut to the chase: I was in awe. Matreyek has created an art form that is conceptually brilliant, technically magical, and utterly seductive. To see her performance—a kind of shadow dance, in the purest Indonesian wayang fashion—is to enter into a dream and lose, for a gorgeous moment, any distinction between art and life. She is both dalang and puppet, the creator and heroine of her freshly mined myth. Though I was naive enough to think the artist was relatively unknown, a quick search of her name (and there aren’t a lot of Miwa Matreyeks) revealed that everyone seemed to know about her but me.

And: The Snake Lake tour is over. It ended with a radiant love fest at the beautiful Alameda home of my great friends Mark and Laurie Wagner. Laurie, who I’ve known for 25 years, is a profound writer, teacher and muse. Mark is a brilliant artist; he painted the Wheel used in Strange Travel Suggestions. Check out his work at Hearts and Bones Studio. Sitting by the fire in their comfy living room at 27 Powers (check out the upcoming writer events), I read to an audience of fully engaged geniuses. Who’d had plenty of wine. I think a few nagas were listening from the rain-soaked yard, as well.