Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Tuesday October 17, 2006

TUESDAY, OCT. 17 -more-


24rd Annual San Francisco Jazz Festival Starts Thursday

By Ira Steingroot, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 17, 2006

The 24th annual SF Jazz Festival begins this Friday, Oct. 20 with tenor saxophone colossus Sonny Rollins and continues for another 31 events through the Nov. 12 concert of Latin percussion great John Santos and the Machete Ensemble. This will be the most concentrated amount of great jazz available in the Bay Area all year. -more-


One-Woman Show Explores Transracial Adoption

By Annie Kassof, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 17, 2006

Playwright and producer Lisa Marie Rollins was adopted as an infant and grew up in a white community on a three-acre organic farm in Washington state. In her new one-woman show, Ungrateful Daughter, directed by W. Kamau Bell, she stands on a bare stage, then tells us her parents are not the “hippie, pot-smoking” type of an organic farmer. They are white church-going Republicans. While the agency that placed Rollins had indicated to her parents that they were getting an “Asian-mix” baby, it is doubtful that with her kinky hair and cinnamon skin her parents got what they were expecting. Rollins thinks the agency “packaged” her without acknowledging the African American blood that clearly runs through her veins. -more-


UC Plans to Raze Senior Oaks to Make Way for Stadium

By Ron Sullivan, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 17, 2006

It will surprise no one, I’m sure, that the unofficial tree maven of the Berkeley Daily Planet is coming out against the clearcutting of a grove of senior live oaks in the city to make way for the construction of a yet another new University Sportspalast. I’ll even add that quite a few of the trees slated for destruction look sturdy enough to sit in. Oaks tend to be trustworthy to bear the weight of a human being. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday October 17, 2006

TUESDAY, OCT. 17 -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday October 13, 2006

FRIDAY, OCT. 13 -more-


Moving Pictures: ‘Schultze Gets the Blues’ Is an Overlooked Gem

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday October 13, 2006

Last year Schultze Gets the Blues, a German film, played in Berkeley theaters for just a week and to generally small audiences. After one matinee screening, a group of women walked out casting sideways glances at each other and rolling their eyes. “What did you think?” one asked another. “I don’t knowwwww…..” was the response. -more-


Arts: Johnson’s Voice Brings Together Classical, Jazz, Spiritual

By Sonia Narang, Special to the Planet
Friday October 13, 2006

Candace Johnson can belt out a Mozart opera aria with the soul of gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. A chancellor’s postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley’s music department, Johnson dazzled an audience at her debut vocal recital on campus in September. -more-


East Bay Then and Now: Some East Bay Buildings Were Inspired by Precedent

By Daniella Thompson
Friday October 13, 2006

In Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, the only architect worth his salt is the individualist who tosses all historic precedents onto the trash heap. Published in 1943, the novel was a battle cry for the revolution of modernism, which was expected to take hold from then to eternity. -more-


Garden Variety: New Native Plant Nursery Blooms in Cull Canyon

By Ron Sullivan
Friday October 13, 2006

Pete Veilleux wrote something to the California native-plant mavens’ mailing list the other day: “It’s October! Time for squirrel stomach pie—my memere’s specialty. She called it poor man’s toot cake.” -more-


About the House: The Truth About Seismic Gas Shut-Off Valves

By Matt Cantor
Friday October 13, 2006

The anniversary of the Loma Prieta is upon us once again and still so little has been done to prepare for our earthquake. That’s right. Loma Prieta wasn’t ours. It was in the mountains of Watsonville nearly 100 miles to the south. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday October 13, 2006

FRIDAY, OCT. 13 -more-