Arts & Events

TUESDAY, AUGUST 8 -more-

The Typographer’s Dream, Encore Theatre Company’s production of Adam Bock’s play, at Ashby Stage in collaboration with the Shotgun Players (Bock’s closely associated with both troupes), opens with absence that’s sketchily filled in with some undreamlike folderol. -more-

About this time last week I was at Yuba Pass in the northern Sierra, swatting the insatiable mosquitoes and watching a family of red-breasted sapsuckers. (There is a Berkeley connection here: some of these birds spend the winter along the coast, and they’re likely to begin showing up in Tilden Park in a couple of months). -more-

TUESDAY, AUGUST 8 -more-

FRIDAY, AUGUST 4 -more-

The Criterion Collection continues to set the standard for classic film on DVD. The company recently released a three-disc set of Orson Welles’ long-neglected 1955 film Mr. Arkadin (also known as Confidential Report) that contains a wealth of material documenting the film’s murky history. Just as Criterion gave the deluxe treatment last year to Welles’ 1972 F For Fake, so this year the company has produced a respectful and informative package for Arkadin that does well to salvage the mystery and reputation of this confounding movie. -more-

While it makes sense that Orson Welles’ Mr. Arkadin would bear certain resemblances to Citizen Kane, it seems unlikely that a movie like Brothers of the Head, an independent faux documentary about conjoined twins turned rock stars, would draw on the same film for inspiration. But early on in the movie there is an homage of sorts to Kane, an allusion that sets up an interesting parallel. -more-

“You gouge out an eye for keener sight. Is blindness vision?” -more-

I can feel another rant coming on and this one has been coming for some time. I’m definitely involved in the world of real estate, for better AND for worse. Rather than simply sharing construction knowledge with people at their homes, a lot of what I end up doing involves checking over houses that are in the sale process, and this means examining the product of sales preparation, of last-minute, minimally budgeted spin and fluff. Even the term “flipping” a house sounds more like making a crepe than building a home. There’s a vernacular to these things that’s not unlike reality TV or aerobics classes and it’s become so predictable that there are genuinely days in which I can’t remember which flip I’ve been inside of for three or four hours. Yes, one had two baths and three bedrooms and the other was four baths with an in-law downstairs but the “look” of these places is often so similar, due to the vernacular of choices that there isn’t much difference beyond square footage. -more-

The Alameda Antiques Flea Market happens on the first Sunday of the month. It’s a good show for five bucks, a stroll through the surreal, and, if you’re my age, just a bit unsettling to see so many of your own childhood artifacts labeled “vintage.” -more-

What About Quake Insurance? -more-

FRIDAY, AUGUST 4 -more-