Arts & Events

FRIDAY, FEB. 3 -more-

Celebrating 81 years of good fellowship among magicians, the Oakland Magic Circle marks the installation of a new board of directors with a banquet and gala magic show featuring a tribute to Charles Dickens, himself a conjurer. Open to the public, the fun starts at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 7, with strolling close-up magicians, at Bjornson Hall (home of The Sons of Norway) on MacArthur Boulevard in Oakland. -more-

In the late 1800s, Berkeley was a favorite retirement spot for sea captains. A number of them built imposing Victorians overlooking the Golden Gate in the North Berkeley hills, but few people know that the Southside boasted its own enclave of sailors’ residences at the intersection of Fulton and Blake Streets. -more-

If you’re a weekday plant shopper, you have only a week to get on down to Magic Gardens on Heinz Street and grab some of those nifty Japanese red-twigged variegated willows or those ’lebenty-seven rose varieties all in a row. If you’ll stoop to rubbing elbows with the weekend crowd and want to keep the place open as a retail nursery, plan on spending time and bucks there some Saturdays. As of Feb. 11, Magic Gardens, sole location will be open for retail sales only on Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to start. -more-

Little houses have their own heating issues and so I’d like to ask those of you who own ranchos grande to bear with me for a few minutes while I focus on the heating needs of the little houses. -more-

The address of Razan’s Organic Kitchen was printed incorrectly in Tuesday’s paper. The restaurant is located at 2119 Kittredge St..t -more-

FRIDAY, FEB. 3 -more-

TUESDAY, JAN. 31 -more-

The seventh annual San Francisco Bluegrass and Old-Time Festival runs Feb. 2-12 with workshops and intimate East Bay concerts featuring living legends like Ralph Stanley and rising local talent such as the Crooked Jades. -more-

The seventh annual San Francisco Bluegrass and Old-Time Festival runs Feb. 2-12 with workshops and intimate East Bay concerts featuring living legends like Ralph Stanley and rising local talent such as the Crooked Jades. -more-

The Berkeley Opera opened its 27th season Saturday with Verdi’s final opera, Falstaff. Written when the composer was eighty, this opera breaks out of the mold of his earlier works: first, because it is a comedy (of his previous 27 operas, 26 are tragedies) and second, because he abandons his trademark style of grandiloquent vocalism, and uses the singing voices almost as orchestral accents. In Falstaff, the dynamic rhythmic pulse is punctuated by only a few lyrical moments. The singers, with the exception of the central character, sing mainly in intricate ensembles. It is partly because of Verdi’s focus on mathematical precision and brilliance, rather than on passionate melodic line, that this opera has remained out of the mainstream repertoire, and is considered by many to be overly eclectic and lacking in spontaneity. -more-

In a sort of homecoming, the Jazz House (formerly at 3192 Adeline St.) will host a CD release party for East Bay jazz artists Positive Knowledge on Sunday Feb. 5 at the Ashby Stage. -more-

Berkeley Rep Artistic Director Tony Taccone just presided over his Broadway debut with one show he directed at The Rep—Sarah Jones’ solo act Bridge & Tunnel—only to move on to prepare for the New Haven opening of another, the Maurice Sendak-Tony Kushner a daptations of Brundibar and Comedy on the Bridge. The double bill, which played Berkeley during the holidays, also opens uptown in New York this spring. -more-

When the poet William Everson (1912-1994) came to Berkeley shortly after World War II, he earned his living as a fine art printer and, at one time, as a janitor at the UC Press. He became part of the group known collectively as the Berkeley Renaissance—Ro bert Duncan, Mary Fabilli, Josephine Miles, and others. Despite local objections, critics fold the Berkeley Renaissance into the San Francisco Renaissance, which in turn is subsumed by the Beat Generation. In little more than a decade, however, he created a new identity for himself and stepped clear of such categories. -more-

At long last, there’s a worthy companionc—or successor—to Marjorie Schmidt’s indispensable Growing California Native Plants. -more-

I know: it’s another birds-of-prey column. But when the gods drop a subject into your lap, it would be an act of rank ingratitude not to use it. -more-

TUESDAY, JAN. 31 -more-