Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Friday April 21, 2006

FRIDAY, APRIL 21 -more-


Berkeley Art Museum Gets Radical with ‘Now-Time Venezuela’

By PETER SELZ Special to the Planet
Friday April 21, 2006

After too long a period of vacuous, gallery-driven shows, the MATRIX program of the Berkeley Art Museum has come back to life with a radical exhibition by its newly appointed curator Chris Gilbert: “New-Time: Media Along the Path of the Bolivarian Process.” -more-


The Surreal and Subversive World of Busby Berkeley

By JUSTIN DeFREITAS
Friday April 21, 2006

The films of Busby Berkeley are rendered in the popular imagination as naïve and silly entertainments from a simpler time, from a bygone era of innocence, frivolity and wholly unsophisticated audiences. This notion is not only false, it gives short shrift to the director and to the moviegoers who flocked to his films. -more-


Actors Ensemble Takes on ‘Devil’s Disciple’

By KEN BULLOCK Special to the Planet
Friday April 21, 2006

The Devil’s Disciple, Bernard Shaw’s comedy set during the Revolutionary War—and now onstage at Live Oak Theatre in an Actors Ensemble production—is a humorous collision between costume drama, comedy of manners and a problem play: Shaw’s peculiar formula. -more-


North Berkeley’s Epicurean Delights

By MARTA YAMAMOTOSpecial to the Planet
Friday April 21, 2006

One century ago the Bay Area was rocked off its foundations. Every year around this time we’re reminded that the next “big one” is just around the corner. For weeks we’ve heard survivor stories of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and received advice abou t how to be prepared when the ground again rattles beneath our feet. -more-


Escape to Folsom for Family Fun in a Gold Rush Town

By Carole Terwilliger Meyers
Friday April 21, 2006

Mention Folsom and most folks think of the prison. That connection has become even stronger since the Academy Award-nominated movie Walk the Line brought the town’s famous, scenically situated Folsom Prison to prominence once again. -more-


East Bay Then and Now: Hawaiian Sugar Family Made Berkeley Its Home

By Daniella Thompson
Friday April 21, 2006

In 1873, UC Berkeley’s first commencement exercises were held. It was on that occasion that California’s governor Newton Booth, who was considered one of the great public speakers of his day, called Berkeley the “Athens of the West.” The appellation stuck—not only in word but in practice. And so it came to pass that in 1914, a wealthy Norwegian-Hawaiian family brought its large brood to Berkeley to be properly educated. -more-


About the House: Using the Building Lessons from the Past

By MATT CANTOR
Friday April 21, 2006

My wife and I spent the night in Sacramento last night. Nice town, Sacramento, if a bit kitschy in parts. I guess that’s what you get with tourist towns. Some nice stuff. Some kitsch. The older part has some very beautiful older homes from the early part of the 20th century and more than a few buildings from the 19th century. One of the things that my wife, Este, and I share is a great love of old things, houses, cars, paintings, you name it. It’s part of why we live here. -more-


Garden Variety: Spring Garden Tours Around the Bay

By RON SULLIVAN
Friday April 21, 2006

Maybe we’re going to get sprung after all. Maybe we don’t have to try raising duck potatoes and cattails in all our gardens, and who knows? The sun might even come out for a few days before the summer fog rolls in. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday April 21, 2006

FRIDAY, APRIL 21 -more-


Arts Calendar

Tuesday April 18, 2006

TUESDAY, APRIL 18 -more-


Arts: Musical Tranformations in New Opera ‘Chrysalis’

By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet
Tuesday April 18, 2006

East Bay composer Clark Suprynowicz and San Francisco playwright John O’Keefe have joined forces for the new opera Chrysalis, “a hallucinatory riff on cosmetic surgery and genetic manipulation,” to be premiered by Berkeley Opera, April 22-30, at the Julia Morgan Theatre on College Avenue. -more-


City’s Reunion of Trees Includes Ancient Dawn Redwood

By Ron Sullivan Special to the Planet
Tuesday April 18, 2006

The dawn redwoods don’t mind the soggy weather; they’re leafing out more or less on schedule. I suppose they evolved with wetter weather to begin with, so no surprise there. In other ways, this tree has been full of surprises. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday April 18, 2006

TUESDAY, APRIL 18 -more-