Arts & Events
Arts and Entertainment Around the East Bay
BAY AREA FLUTE FEST COMES TO OAKLAND -more-
Moving Pictures: PFA Screens Two Italian Art House Classics
A fascinating pair of Italian films will screen this weekend at Pacific Film Archive. The first, Il Posto (1961), could be seen as a sequel to Francois Truffaut’s The 400 Blows, presenting another quietly observant portrait of a young man suffering through a rite of passage. It’s as though the 13-year-old Antoine Donel of the earlier film has now grown into the 18-year-old Domenico Cantoni, sent by his parents into the big city of Milan to find a job. -more-
The Theater: Ten Red Hen Takes on ‘365 Plays’ Project
“We wanted to do these plays in people’s homes. My mentor called theater-making in this day and age ‘cultural migrant labor’—that is, you load your stuff into your car and go to where you do it.” -more-
About the House: Taking Action With Photovoltaic Solar Power
The death toll in Iraq this last month was the highest so far in a war that shows no end in sight. There is little doubt that the oil in the region has played a significant role in our willingness to participate in a “War on Terror” some sources now believe has resulted in nearly 700,000 deaths in Iraq, not to mention an outright civil war. -more-
Garden Variety: Mrs. Dalloway’s is Not Just A Garden Bookstore
I can’t resist Mrs. Dalloway’s—well, I can rarely resist any bookstore, though lately I know I’m guaranteed a headache when I venture into one without my reading specs. Since I rarely remember to carry those around with me and so end up craning and squinting my way through the shelves, browsing bookstores has become a bit of an S&M exercise. No matter. Mrs. D’s pulls me in just by the lovely (and amazingly persistent) vegetal scent of its woven-grass carpet. So I’m already biased in the place’s favor; let me get that disclaimer out right here at the start. -more-
You Write the Daily Planet
It’s time to submit your essays, poems, stories and photographs for the 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. Deadline is 5 p.m. on Dec. 20. -more-
Quake Tip: The Valves Are Coming! The Valves Are Coming!
You may have noticed that Contra Costa County has passed an ordinance requiring houses that are being sold to have an automatic gas shut-off valve. This will apply to all areas that are unincorporated, which means a lot of homes. -more-
Wallace Berman and His Circle at BAM
Wallace Berman was perhaps the last true Bohemian—a denizen of the Beat counterculture, which was Bohemia’s successor. Berman constructed his life and art outside the establishment, and he and his coterie of many friends were in search of an art that confirmed their nonconformist lifestyle. Berman was a man of many talents: poet, draftsman, sculptor and, as we see throughout the exhibition, a fine, rather conventional portrait photographer. -more-
Revels Mark Holiday Season
Once again, California Revels celebrates the Winter Solstice holidays with the 21st Christmas Revels: music and song, Morris and step dance, pomp and proclamations, choruses and soloists—as well as the popular participatory sing-along and the line-dance that runs through the entire audience, now a tradition—amid a sumptuous spectacle of holiday customs from other times, other places, all to unfold over the next two weekends at the Oakland Scottish Rite Theater, by Lake Merritt. -more-
Other Minds Festival Begins This Weekend
The Other Minds Festival of New Music, now in its 12th year, presents concerts featuring the work of composers and improvisors from Norway, Australia, Canada, Germany, Holland, France—and Emeryville— this Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with composer panel discussions at 7 p.m., and on Sunday at 2 p.m. (panel at 1 p.m.) in Kanbar Hall at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center, 3200 California St. Tickets are $30 ($20 students) with three show packages at $72, through otherminds.org, (415) 292-1233, or at the SFJCC box office. -more-
Barn Owls: House Hunting in Berkeley
Editor’s note: The following article was submitted to Joe Eaton in response to his call for readers’ stories about barn owls. His column will return the Tuesday after next. -more-