Sacramento Journal: Aristocracy

Sacramento was the setting for the hit film Lady Bird. The multitalented director of the film, Greta Gerwig, who’d also starred and co-authored the script for Frances Ha recently directed the adaptation of Little Women. She also happens to be the partner of Noah Baumbach, whose Marriage Story was a hit in theatres and on Netflix. They used to talk about Hollywood aristocracy and if the semi-autobiographical Baumbach character did eventually find himself being forced to move to LA in an attempt to rescue his relationship, then Gerwig’s semi-autobiographical character ended up in New York, where she and eventually Baumbach would reside. So that creates the geographical equivalent of a trilemma, Sacramento, Hollywood and New York. Lady Bird was a filmic Bildungsroman recalling iconic locations like Gunther's Ice Cream, Club Raven on J, Pasty Shack and the blue house on 44th and M--all part of the neighborhood known as East Sacramento. However, despite an abundance of local productions you might also understand why anyone with an interest in theater, attending the Catholic school portrayed in Lady Bird, would want to escape to New York--though there's no doubt that the movie itself has left its imprint on the cultural life of the city. Speaking of another aspect of the arts, Sacramento happens to be the home of the artist Wayne Thiebaud whose upcoming l00th birthday anniversary will be the subject of a retrospective at the Crocker Art Museum in October.