Arts & Events
Arts and Entertainment Around the East Bay
CAHILL, KUBERA PLAY RILEY’S ‘WALTZ’ -more-
The Theater: Actors Ensemble Presents ‘Lysistrata’
After the audience has been seated in Live Oak Theatre to a medley of old hits arranged thematically, like “Prisoner of Love,” “It’s a Man’s World,” “These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” and “I’m Glad That You’re Sorry Now” (as well as “Please, Please, Please,” particularly poignant), there’s a drumroll, some commotion behind—and strange glances under the hem of—the draped red curtain, then the entrance of the masked chorus, two young women who toss their masks into the audience with, “Okay, we’re, like, the chorus ... 411—a very bad year to be an Athenian. It’s sucky!” -more-
Chinese-Cuban Revolutionaries Still Lead Cuba
All serious readers, whether scholarly or general interest, place a special value on first-hand accounts of historical events. Memoirs, autobiographies, interviews of “regular people” who find themselves immersed in historic times bring that history to life as no author can. This is why the new book, Our History Is Still Being Written, has such an important role to play in modern Chinese history. -more-
Wild Neighbors: En Garde! Jays Discover the Pointed Stick
I know: another corvid column. But bear with me. Every now and then I trawl the technical literature at the UC library, and this time I found a jay-and-crow story in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology that’s too good to keep. -more-
Moving Pictures: Existential Despair in Antonioni’s ‘The Passenger’
When I was 5 years old my kindergarten class, for whatever reason, took a field trip to the home of one of my classmates. Too young to have any notion of the local geography, I had no idea where the house was located. It was only when I stepped out the back door of the boy’s house into his backyard that I recognized the yellow playhouse and battered metal slide and realized that this was the house directly behind my own. I peeked through a hole in the fence and saw my own backyard: the lawn, the patio, the rusted swingset, the family dog sniffing about in the tall grass, the soccer ball under a tree where I had left it the day before. -more-
The Theater: ‘Manzi: The Adventures Of Young Cesar Chavez’
Manzi: The Adventures of Young Cesar Chavez will be performed by Active Arts Theare for Young Audiences at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, April 14, and 2 p.m. Sunday, as well as the following weekend, at the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. -more-
The Theater: Berkeley Rep Stages ‘Blue Door’
It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at oneself through the eyes of others ... One ever feels his twoness—an American, a Negro; two warring souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. -more-
Moving Pictures: ‘Black Book’ Beyond Repair
Dutch director Paul Verhoeven made his mark in 1977 with Soldier of Orange, a film about the German occupation of the Netherlands during World War II. Now, after a 20-year-stint in Hollywood making films such as RoboCop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct and Showgirls, Verhoeven has returned to Holland to make another World War II epic, Black Book. But unfortunately the director took home with him every unpalatable and hackneyed trick he’d picked up in his travels. -more-
East Bay Then and Now: Villa della Rocca, a Thousand Oaks Neighborhood Citadel
Facing Albany Hill at the extreme northwestern corner of Berkeley is the Thousand Oaks neighborhood, subdivided in 1909. Noted for its scenic beauty, Thousand Oaks is also the land of a thousand rocks. These silica-rich volcanic rocks, named Northbrae rhyolite by geologist Andrew Lawson, are scattered wherever the eye may fall. Some of the largest may be found in public parks donated to the city by the Mason-McDuffie realty company, but many more are hidden from view in private gardens or under houses. -more-
Garden Variety: On the Road with Roses
It’s a little off the gardening track, but who could resist a title like Flower Confidential? Actually, anything by Amy Stewart would be hard to resist. Her previous book, The Earth Moved, was a quirky introduction to the world of earthworms, touching on the giant worm of the Willamette Valley (three feet long and lily-scented) and Charles Darwin’s late-in-life fascination with worms (his long-suffering wife Emma played the piano for them; they were unresponsive). -more-
About the House: More on the Modern House from 1942
I don’t know about you but my eyes are often bigger than my stomach. It’s a constant problem. Well my column last week suffered for this malady and left so much unaddressed that I just have to devote another page to these worthy issues. -more-