Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Friday December 01, 2006

FRIDAY, DEC. 1 -more-


Arts and Entertainment Around the East Bay

Friday December 01, 2006

THE STORY OF A HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST -more-


Arts: Anselm Kiefer Retrospective at SF MOMA

By Peter Selz, Special to the Planet
Friday December 01, 2006

Anselm Kiefer was born in Germany in 1945, a few months before the end of World War II. The horror of the Nazi regime and the divided nation in which he grew up find stronger response in his work than it has in many of his contemporaries. In fact, it is the most powerful work to come out of Germany, Kiefer delves into history and mythology—Greek, Nordic and especially the Bible and the Kabbala. He is well versed in modern poetry as well as art and its history. -more-


Moving Pictures: PFA Screens Seven Samurai Classics

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday December 01, 2006

Pacific Film Archive will present a series of seven samurai films beginning today and running through Dec. 17. -more-


Moving Pictures: Films Show Two Sides of Social Conscience

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday December 01, 2006

Two new documentaries opening today at Shattuck Cinemas depict complementary aspects of America’s social conscience. The first, Wrestling With Angels, examines the artistic side of social and political engagement in the person of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner. The second, Beyond the Call, tracks a more grounded, more blue-collar form of humanitarianism by tracking the exploits of a man named Ed Artis who, along with two comrades, stages his own missions to war-torn nations, providing food and supplies to the needy. -more-


The Theater: ‘All Wear Bowlers’ at Berkeley Rep

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday December 01, 2006

A pair of derbies sit alone in the light on stage at Berkeley Rep, visually out of line, but syncopated. After a pause, they skitter off under, it seems, their own power, and a movie projection begins on the white screen upstage from where the hats so coyly posed ... -more-


Arts Correction

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday December 01, 2006

A reader wrote in to complain about what he perceptively referred to as “crossed wires” in the Nov. 28 preview of holiday concerts. -more-


East Bay Then and Now: Hillside Club Has Left Mark on Berkeley’s Northside

By Daniella Thompson
Friday December 01, 2006

Few Berkeley landmarks are as repeatedly and unjustly maligned as the Hillside Club Street Improvements in the Daley’s Scenic Park Tract. Designated in 1983, this system of public improvements forms a continuous line that stretches over at least six blocks of Berkeley’s Northside. -more-


Garden Variety: Brooklyn Botanical Garden Book is a Good Passalong

By Ron Sullivan
Friday December 01, 2006

Joe found an interesting book over at the Mechanics’ Institute Library: a Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s “All-Region Guide,” Native Alternatives to Invasive Plants by C. Colston Burrell. The BBG puts out lots of informative short books; this one is a double-sized volume, with lots of color photographs. -more-


About the House: Choosing Among Three Contractor Bids

By Matt Cantor
Friday December 01, 2006

My friend Lisa seems to be the Maven Plus Grande de Berkeley. Everybody’s query-girl (although she’s happily married to a fella). She even gets calls about contractors, which she confesses isn’t exactly her area of greatest expertise. So we’re hanging out and she plays me a message from her friend (We’ll call her Mildred) and it goes something like this: -more-


You Write The Daily Planet

Friday December 01, 2006

It’s time to submit your essays, poems, stories and photographs for the Daily Planet’s annual holiday reader contribution issue, which will be published on Dec. 29. Send your submissions, up to 1,000 words, to holiday@berkeleydailyplanet.com. The deadline is 5 p.m. on Dec. 20. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday December 01, 2006

FRIDAY, DEC. 1 -more-


Arts Calendar

Tuesday November 28, 2006

TUESDAY, NOV. 28 -more-


Arts and Entertainment: Around the East Bay

Tuesday November 28, 2006

MUSIC FROM THREE GREAT COMPOSERS -more-


Season Begins for Holiday Concerts and Events

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday November 28, 2006

As the holidays begin, so do the special performances that feature the kinds of song associated with the season, and other musical events that accent its profundity. This coming Sunday, Dec. 3, is Advent Sunday; many concerts are scheduled, some spilling over into the following week. All are an antidote to the canned Christmas music that provides a soundtrack to the rounds of shopping. -more-


Books: PEN Oakland Awards Honor Many Voices

Tuesday November 28, 2006

PEN Oakland’s 16th Annual Josephine Miles Literary Awards and 10th Annual Literary Censorship Award will be presented this Sunday at the Oakland Public Library. -more-


Osage Orange Trees — A Transplant in Time

By Ron Sullivan, Special to the Planet
Tuesday November 28, 2006

I’m stretching the boundaries of “East Bay” because I just like this odd tree. I first encountered it a few years back, along a dirt road east of Fairfield, where we look for mountain plovers. I spotted a number of unlikely objects on the grassy shoulder: Osage oranges, hedgeballs, Indiana brains, Maclura pomifera fruit. They were strewn along the roadside for yards, under a row of little deciduous trees. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday November 28, 2006

TUESDAY, NOV. 28 -more-