FRIDAY, MAY 25 

Impeachment Banner Fridays at 6:45 to 8 a.m. on the Berkeley Pedestrian bridge between Seabreeze Market and the Berkeley Aquatic Park, ongoing on Fridays until impeachment is realized. www. Impeachbush-cheney.com 

Tilden Tots Join a nature adventure program for 3 and 4 year olds, each accompanied by an adult (grandparents welcome)! We’ll explore pond life, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. Cost is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Free Compost for Berkeley Residents Self-serve from 11:45 to 2:45 p.m. at the Berkeley Marina Maintenance Yard, 201 University Ave, next to Adventure Playground. 644-6566. 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Andy Stern on “Journalism” Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. for $14, speech at 12:30 p.m., at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant St. For information and reservations call 526-2925.  

“Dam Nation: Dispatches From the Water Underground” with Cleo Woelfle-Erskine, Laura Allen and July Oskar Cole on river restoration worldwide at 7:30 p.m. at AK Press, 674 23rd St., Oakland. 208-1700. www.akpress.org 

0 to 100 Watts in 4 Days: Build an FM Broadcast Transmitter A workshop sponsored by Free Radio Berkeley to teach you how to build a 40 watt FM broadcast transmitter and related items from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Free Radio Berkeley Workshop, 2311 Adeline, Unit P, Oakland. Cost is $200-$250 sliding scale. 625-0314. www.freeradio.org 

Solo Sierrans Briones Sunset Hike Meet at 6 p.m. in the first parking lot, near kiosk inside Briones Regional Park. Bring warm, layered clothing, flashlight, and optional snack to share. 601-1211. 

Circle Dancing, simple folk dancing with instruction. Potluck supper at 7 p.m., dancing at 8 p.m. at Hillside Community Church, 1422 Navellier St., El Cerrito. Donation of $5 requested. 528-4253. www.circledancing.com 

Kol Hadash Shabbat at 7:30 p.m. at the Albany Community Center, 1249 Marin Ave. Please bring finger food to share and non-perishable food for the needy. 428-1492. 

SATURDAY, MAY 26 

Walking Tour of Historic Oakland Churches and Temples Meet at 10 a.m. at the front of the First Presbyterian Church at 2619 Broadway. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Mini-Farmers in Tilden A farm exploration program, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. for ages 4-6 years, accompanied by an adult. We will explore the Little Farm, care for animals, do crafts and farm chores. Wear boots and dress to get dirty! Fee is $6-$8. Registration required. 636-1684. 

Reptile Rap Meet our resident snake and turtle friends in an interactive talk for the whole family at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

“Long Lived Blooming Perennials and Shrubs” with Gail Yelland, landscape designer, at 10 a.m. at Magic Gardens, 729 Heinz Ave. 644-2351. 

Lost Film Fest with shorts from The Yes Men, TV Sheriff, Guerrilla News Network at 8 p.m. at AK Press, 674-A 23rd St., Oakland. Suggested donation $5-$10. 208-1700.  

International Institute for the Bengal Basin Raja Ram Mohan Day Community meditation to preserve watersheds and wildlife and to further human rights at 5 p.m. at 1700 Dwight Way. Donations welcome. 841-3253. 

Berkeley Hillside Club Fundraiser for Building Maintenance at 6 p.m. at 2286 Cedar Street at Arch. Cost is $35. www.hillsideclub.org 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction at 10:30 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden Sat. and Sun. at 2 pm. Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Park. Call to confirm. 841-8732.  

Around the World Tour of Plants at 1:30 p.m., Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. 643-2755. http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu 

Car Wash Benefit for Options Recovery Services of Berkeley, held every Sat. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lutheran Church, 1744 University Ave. 666-9552. 

SUNDAY, MAY 27 

Children’s Garden Fun at People’s Park Join naturalist Terri Compost from 1 to 3 p.m. as we plant sunflowers and an heirloom bean garden, play games and go on a bug safari. Especially for children in grades K-5, but all welcome. Meet at the community garden at the west end of the park. 658-9178. 

Wild About Watersheds A 4.5 mile hike from Tilden Nature Area to Wildcat Canyon to explore the watershed. Meet at 1 p.m. For information call 525-2233.  

Silent Spring? Celebrate the 100th anniversary of Rachel Carson’s birth as we listen to bird songs in Tilden Park. From 9:30 to 11 a.m. 525-2233. 

Berkeley City Club Tour of the “Little Castle” designed by Julia Morgan at 1:15, 2:15 and 3:15 p.m. at 2315 Durant Ave. 883-9710. 

“Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West” A documentary at 1 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. Sponsored by Stand with Us. info@sfvoiceforisrael.org 

Free Garden Tours at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park Sat. and Sun. at 2 p.m. Call to confirm. 841-8732.  

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace Peace walk around the lake. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712.  

Tibetan Buddhism with Mark Henderson on “The Life of Shakyamuni Buddha” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, MAY 28  

Tilden Open House With farm songs at 11 a.m., meet a snake at noon, and games at 1 p.m. at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park. 525-2233. 

Masquers Playhouse Annual Garage Sale from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 201 Martina St . corner W. Richmond Ave. Pt. Richmond. 236-0527. 

Junktique II Garage Sale to benefit Masquers from from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at United Methodist Church, 201 Martina St. Pt. Richmond. Pancake Breakfast from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and chili lunch from noon to 3 p.m. 236-0527. 

Read Aloud Theater A free Berkeley Adult School class at 9 a.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 981-5190.  

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. 548-0425. 

TUESDAY, MAY 29 

Community Meeting on the City of Berkeley Budget at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, Hearst and MLK, Jr. Way. The budget may be downloaded from www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/budget 981-7008. 

Strawberry Tasting at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market from 2 to 7 p.m. at Derby St. at MLK,Jr. Way. 548-3333. 

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds. We will explore ponds from 3:15 to 4:15 p.m.. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 636-1684. 

Return of the Over-the-Hills Gang Hikers 55 years and older who are interested in nature study, history, fitness, and fun are invited to join us on a series of monthly excursions exploring our Regional Parks. Meet at 10 a.m. at Miller Knox. For information call 525-2233.  

Best Swimming Holes in Northern California at 7 p.m. at REI, 1338 San Pablo Ave. 527-4140. 

Solo Sierrans Hike at Lake Chabot Reservoir Meet at 6:30 p.m. at the boat house. Optional dinner follows. For information call Delores 351-6247. 

Live Oak Codornices Neighborhood Assn meeting at 7:30 p.m. at Live Oak Park, Arts & Crafts Rm. We will discuss the proposed North Shattuck Plaza. 

“Am I Ready to be a Parent?” A workshop for prosepctive LGBT parents at 6:30 p.m. at Bananas, 5232 Claremont Ave., Oakland. 415-865-5533. www.ourfamily.org 

Berkeley PC Users Group meets at 7 p.m. at 1145 Walnut St. near corner of Eunice St. MelDancing@aol.com 

Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.m. in the parking lot near the Little Farm for an hour or two walk. 215-7672, 524-9992. 

Family Storytime at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Fresh Produce Stand at San Pablo Park from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Frances Albrier Community Center. Sponsored by the Ecology Center’s Farm Fresh Choice. 848-1704. www.ecologycenter.org 

Berkeley Camera Club meets at 7:30 p.m., at the Northbrae Community Church, 941 The Alameda. Share your digital images, slides and prints and learn what other photographers are doing. 548-3991. www.berkeleycameraclub.org 

St. John’s Prime Timers meets at 9:30 a.m. at St. John’s Presbyterian Church, 2727 College Ave. We offer ongoing classes in exercise and creative arts, and always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 30 

“Beyond the Bungalow” with Paul Duchscherer, author of many books on Arts & Crafts homes, at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $20. 848-4288. 

Environmental and Political Action Films “Everything’s Cool,” “A Drop of Life” and “The Forest for the Trees” at 6 and 8:30 p.m. at Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. Cost is $10 per screening or $15 for the night. 415-255-1108. www.livingeconomies.org/events/conference07/filmfest/ 

Tilden Explorers An after-school nature adventure program for 5-7 year olds. We will explore ponds from 3:15 to 4:15 p.m.. Cost is $6-$8, registration required. 636-1684. 

National Senior Health & Fitness Day with information booths, health and fitness experts, and presentations from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Salem Lutheran Home, 2361 East 29th St., Oakland. 534-3637.  

New to DVD Screening and Discussion at 7 p.m. at JCCEB, 1414 Walnut St. Discussion follows. 848-0237. 

Walk Berkeley for Seniors meets every Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. at the Sea Breeze Market, just west of the I-80 overpass. Everyone is welcome. 548-9840. 

Berkeley Peace Walk and Vigil at the Berkeley BART Station, corner of Shattuck and Center. Sing for Peace at 6:30 p.m. followed by Peace Walk at 7 p.m. www. 

geocities.com/vigil4peace/vigil 

Stitch ‘n Bitch at 6:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

THURSDAY, MAY 31 

North Shattuck Community Meeting on Safeway Development Plans at 6:30 p.m. at the JCC.  

Congolese Music and Dance Workshops Thurs.-Sun. at Laney College. Cost per workshop is $8-$20. For information call 368-2475. www.youmustdance.blogspot.com 

“Long Train Running: The Story of the Oakland Blues” A documentary, presented by Oaklandish at 9 p.m. at the Parkway Speakeasy Theater, 1834 Park Boulevard, Oakland. Cost is $6. 962-5044.  

Lifeskills 411 Graduation Gala Dinner, with music, dinner, student speeches, at 7:30 p.m. at the Emeryville Hilton, 1800 Powell St. Tickets are $65-$75. 741-2045. www.lifeskills411.org  

Family Storytime for children ages 3-7 at 7 p.m. at the Berkeley Public Library, North Branch, 1170 The Alameda. 981-6107. 

Baby and Toddler Storytime at 10:30 a.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043.

Due to an edited error, in the May 22 story “Chronicle Newsroom Slashed, East Bay Express Goes Indie” the new ownership of the East Bay Express was incorrectly reported. 

According to editor Steve Buel, two groups of investors, each holding a 50 percent interest, are the new owners, with one group of three headed by new President Hal Brody and the second group of five investors headed by Buel.

FRIDAY, MAY 25 

THEATER 

Altarena Playhouse “The Last Five Years” Fri and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at 1409 High St., Alameda, through June 10. Tickets are $17-$20. 523-1553. www.altarena.org 

Berkeley Rep “Oliver Twist” at 8 p.m. at the Roda Theater, 2015 Addison St. through June 24. Tickets are $45-$61. 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org  

Impact Theatre “Measure for Measure” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave., through May 26.Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. 

Just Theater, “I Have Loved Strangers” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., to May 26. Tickets are $12-$25. 421-1458. www.justtheater.org 

Shotgun Players “The Cryptogram” Thurs.-Sun. at 8 p.m. at The Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through June 17. Tickets are $17-$25. For reservations call 841-6500.  

“The Striders Club” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Malonga Casquelourd Arts Center, 1421 Alice St., Oakland. Tickets are $5-$11. 450-0891. 

Subterranean Shakespeare “Macbeth” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St., near Rose in Live Oak Park, to May 26. Tickets are $12-$17. 276-3871. 

TheatreFIRST “Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Old Oakland Theatre, 481 Ninth St., Oakland. Tickets are $18-$25. 436-5085. www.theatrefirst.com 

Travelling Jewish Theater “Death of a Salesman” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave., through June 10. Tickets are $15-$44. 1-800-838-3006. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Milvia Street 2007 Readings and art showing from Berkeley City College’s art and literary journal at 7 p.m. in the 3rd flr Community Meeting Room, Berkeley Public Library, 2090 Kittredge St. 981-6107. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Jerry Kuderna Piano “From Bach to Babbitt” at 1 p.m. at 2323 Shattuck Ave. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com 

“Dance Elixir” with Leyya Tawil and Zari Le’on Fri. and Sat. at 8:30 p.m. at Temescal Arts Center, 511 48th St., Oaklakland. Tickets are $20. 435-6413. 

Jerry Kuderna, piano and Nora L. Martin, vocalist perform Hanns Eisler’s cycle of 18 songs on Poems by Bertolt Brecht at 8 p.m. at the Berkeley Arts Festival, 2323 Shattuck Ave. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com 

Sangita Sharma “Bajra Yogini Charya Dance and Nepali Folk Dance” at 7:15 p.m at Mount Everest Restaurant, 2011 Shattuck Ave.  

Nicolas Bearde and His Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Brother Resistance, Chalkdust, and the D Platinum Crew at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $TBA 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

The Dave Matthews Blues Band at 8 p.m. at The Warehouse Bar, 4th & Webster, Oakland. 451-3161. 

Katie Garibaldi and Jeremy Rourke at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Spotlight Stealerz at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Flowtilla, Judea Eden Band at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

Social Unrest, Hellbillys, Static Thought,at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

Cheeky at 9:30 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790. www.beckettsirishpub.com 

Saoco, Rico Pabon, Santero at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $7. 548-1159.  

Mingus Amungus at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Filthy Thieving Bastards, Druglords of the Avenues, The Sore Thumbs at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $10. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

SATURDAY, MAY 26 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Amazing Blooms” Floral art by Leslie Winoku. Artist reception and tea at 3 p.m. at Expressions Gallery, 2035 Ashby Ave. Exhibit runs to June 1. 644-4930. 

FILM 

Berkeley Arts Festival “Noisy People” a documentary on the artists and musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area’s improvisational music community, at 8 p.m. at 2323 Shattuck Ave. Costi si $5-$10. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com  

Lost Film Fest with shorts from The Yes Men, TV Sheriff, Guerrilla News Network at 8 p.m. at AK Press, 674-A 23rd St., Oakland. Suggested donation $5-$10. 208-1700. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Sitka Trio Medieval and Baroque music for recorder, vielle, ‘cello, harp and voice, at 8 p.m. at Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana St. Tickets are $8-$12. 549-3864. www.trinitychamberconcerts.com 

Jesus Diaz & su QBA at 8 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $15. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Ray Obiedo Group at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Baba Ken and the Afro-Groove Connexion at 7 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Mystic, Conscious Daughters, Pam the Funkstress at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $10-$15. 548-1159. www.shattuckdownlow.com 

Nate Lopez and Olivia Voss at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Ben Goldberg at 8 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

Caroline Chung Jazz Trio at 9:30 p.m. at Albatross, 1822 San Pablo Ave. Cost is $5. 843-2473. www.albatrosspub.com 

Skinlab, WillHaven, Ankla at 6:30 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146.  

Culann’s Hounds, The Mor Rigan’s Wake at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Tracorum, roots music, at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Animosity, As Blood Runs Black, The Faceless, at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $7. 525-9926. 

SUNDAY, MAY 27 

FILM 

“The Kreutzer Sonata” at 3 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Cynthia Sailors, Jeff Clark and Alfonso Alvarez read at 7 p.m. at 21 Grand, 416 25th St. at Broadway, Oakland. Cost is $4.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

“Love” a two act musical for soprano and baritone at 7:30 p.m. at The Berkeley Arts Festival, 2323 Shattuck Ave., between Durant and Bancroft. Tickets are $10 at the door. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com 

“Low-down Hoedown” with Cosio, Hardy Harr, The Parish at 1 p.m. at The Living Room Gallery, 3230 Adeline St. Barbeque facilities available. livingroomgallery@gmail.com 

Brazilian Soul! at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $9. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Trick Kernan Combo at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Americana Unplugged: Tom Huebner at 5 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Vernon Bush Group, soul, gospel, jazz, at 4:30 p.m. at the Jazzschool. Cost is $15. 845-5373. www.jazzschool.com 

MONDAY, MAY 28 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Stan Apps and Ara Shirinyan read at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Blue Monday Jam at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. 

TUESDAY, MAY 29 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Painting to Live: Art from Okinawa’s Nishimui Artist Society, 1948-1950” opens at the IEAS Gallery, 2223 Fulton St., 6th Floor. 642-2809. 

FILM 

BALLE Film Festival “Manufactured Landscapes” on China’s industrial revolution at 6 p.m. and “The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil” at 8:30 p.m. at Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. Tickets are $10-$15. www.livingeconomies.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tell on on Tuesdays Storytelling with Margery Kreitman, Zoe Sheli Sameth, Dana Chernack and Jeff Byers at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Cost is $8-$12 sliding scale. www.juiamorgan.org 

Paul Hawken discusses “Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw it Coming” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley. Suggested donation $5-$10. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Motordude Zydeco at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Singers’ Open Mic with Ellen Hoffman at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Randy Craig Trio at 7:30 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Jazzschool Tuesdays, a weekly showcase of up-and-coming ensembles from Berkeley Jazzschool at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 30 

FILM 

BALLE Film Festival “Everything’s Cool” on addressing global warming at 6 p.m. and “A Drop of Life” on clean drinking water at 8:30 p.m. at Wheeler Auditorium, UC Campus. Tickets are $10-$15. www.livingeconomies.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Paul Duchscherer, author of many books on Arts & Crafts homes, on “Beyond the Bungalow” at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Cost is $20. 848-4288. 

David Corbett reads from his new novel “Blood of Paradise” set in present-day El Salvador, at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Sherman Alexie reads from his new novel “Flight” at 7:30 p.m. at First Congregational Church of Berkeley. 559-9500. 

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Trombonga with Jeffrey Carter, Marcus Bell, Pat Mullan and Curtiss Mays at 12:15 at Berkeley Arts Festival, 2323 Shattuck Ave. www.berkeleyartsfestival.org 

Del Sol String Quartet “Umbilical Chords: Women Composers & the Creative Process” Compositions by Kui Dong, Linda Catlin Smith, Teresa Carreño, Sally Beamish, Ruth Crawford, Mark Fish at 8 p.m. at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. Tickets are $7-$20. 415-374-0074. www.delsolquartet.com  

Joe Escobar Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Kusun Ensemble at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12. Ghanian dance workshop at 7:30 p.m. for $8. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Orquestra Candela at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Salsa dance lessons at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Alexis Harte at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

The Klez-x and Davka at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761.  

THURSDAY, MAY 31 

THEATER 

Berkeley High School “Schoolgirl Figure” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. Benefits the Eating Disorders Program at the Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University.Tickets are $6-$12. 236-1620. ShiftTheatre@aol.com 

FILM 

8th Annual Berkeley High School Film Festival with music videos, animation, documentary and experimental works from students at Berkeley High School at 7 p.m. at the Florence Schwimley Little Theater, Allston between Milvia and MLK. Tickets are $5-$10. 

“Long Train Running: The Story of the Oakland Blues” A documentary, presented by Oaklandish at 9 p.m. at the Parkway Speakeasy Theater, 1834 Park Blvd. Oakland. Cost is $6. 962-5044. www.oaklandish.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Michele Simon describes “Appetite for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Arnie Passman reads from “Scherzofrenia” at 8 p.m. at The Book Zoo, 6395 Telegraph Ave, near Alcatraz, Oakland. 654-BOOK. 

J. Ruth Gendler reads from “Notes on the Need for Beauty: An Intimate Look at an Essential Quality” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500.  

“Kosher Hollywood: Jews, Food, and Film” with Alisa Braun at 6:30 p.m. at the Magnes Museum, 2911 Russell St. Tickets are $6-$8. 549-6950.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Pat Nevins and Ragged Glory, Victor Barnes at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $8. All ages show. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Congolese Dance and Drum Conference A weekend of Central African culture, music, and dance Thurs.-Sat. at Laney College, 900 Fallon Sr. Dance Studio D-100, and Sun. at MCC, 1428 Alice St., Studio A, Oakland. Cost is $15-$20 per workshop. 368-2475. www. 

youmustdance.blogspot.com 

In the Steel of the Night: Joe Goldmark and the Seducers at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $20.50-$21.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

Josh Workman Quartet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

The Wiggle Wagons, Uncle Monk, Lariats of Fire at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082 www.starryploughpub.com 

The Dilettantes, The Mania, The Countless Others at 8:30 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $5. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

Selector: DJ Riddm at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

BERKELEY ARTS FESTIVAL PRESENTS ‘LOVE’ 

‘Love’ is a two-act musical for soprano and baritone. This is a mostly sung “boomer” tale of love, sex, drugs, families, careers, divorce, loneliness and middle age. Book, music and lyrics by Richard Jennings, additional lyrics by Ted Newman. Music director and pianist, Rona Siddiqui; directorial consultant, Ellen Sebastian Chang. Featuring Eula Janeen Wyatt and Gregory Marks. Sunday, 7:30 p.m., $10, Fidelity Bank Building 2323 Shattuck Ave. For more information, 665-9493 or www.berkeley artsfestival.com 

BRECHT / EISLER ANTI-WAR SONG CYCLE 

The dynamic duo, Jerry Kuderna (piano) and Nora Lennox Martin (vocals), will preside over a program of Hanns Eisler’s cycle of 18 songs on poems by Bertolt Brecht at 8 p.m. today (Friday). $10. Fidelity Bank Building, 2323 Shattuck Ave. 665-9496. www.berkeleyartsfestival.com  

‘NOISY PEOPLE’ MUSIC FILM DOCUMENTARY 

A fun and noise-filled documentary on the artists and musicians of the Bay Area’s improvisational music community at 8.p.m. Saturday. $5-$10. 2323 Shattuck Ave. www.berkeleyarts festival.com 

MAMMOTH GARAGE SALE AT PT. RICHMOND  

The annual extravaganza, which benefits the Masquers Playhouse, features more than 100 locations in Richmond’s most charming historic neighborhood. Maps, coffee and donuts are available from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m, in front of the theater at 105 Park Place in Point Richmond, across from the town square.

Think of Japanese cinema and one of two things probably comes to mind: either the robust, action-filled, western-influenced samurai movies of Akira Kurosawa, or the more refined, restrained and elegant films of directors such as Yasujiro Ozu, Kenji Mizoguchi, or Mikio Naruse.  

Shohei Imamura, one of the primary filmmakers of Japan’s New Wave, falls into neither category. His work focuses instead on the dregs of modern Japanese society. Pacific Film Archive is hosting a retrospective of the iconoclastic director’s work through June 30. 

The New Wave refers to the generation of filmmakers that rose up through that country’s studio system in the years following World War II. Unlike the directors of the French New Wave—outsiders who began as critics and then set out to re-define their nation’s film culture—the directors of Japan’s New Wave were trained, cultivated and encouraged by the industry they would later challenge.  

Imamura began his career as an assistant to Ozu and quickly came to the conclusion that, though Ozu was undoubtedly a great director, his restrained style was not for Imamura. When he finally got his hands on his own crew and camera, he veered in the opposite direction, renouncing the refinement and formal beauty of Ozu’s work and opting instead for a cinema of cruelty, perversion and dark humor.  

Imamura thought of himself first as an anthropologist. His goal was to document the world as he saw it, not to shape, explain or judge it. And in fact, after making such classics as Pigs and Battleships (1961) and The Pornographers (1966), the director turned to documentary filmmaking in the 1970s. 

As he explains in an interview included in the Criterion Collection’s new DVD edition of Vengeance is Mine, Imamura became somewhat disenchanted with actors while making The Profound Desire of the Gods in 1968 and afterwards sought other means of expression. For the next decade, he made nothing but documentaries, until returning to narrative, commercial filmmaking in 1979 with Vengeance is Mine, in which he fashioned a sort of reality-fiction hybrid. 

The film, showing Tuesday, May 29, is based on the exploits of a real-life killer who roamed Japan for a few months in 1963. Ken Ogata plays the role of Iwao Enokizu with a steely impulsiveness, the very personification of id. He seeks only the immediate satisfaction of his desires, regardless of the human cost.  

Imamura makes no effort to explain this man’s actions; he presents them as a simple fact of Japanese life in the post-war era. We learn much of Enokizu’s youth, his upbringing and his relationships, and though these details certainly help us get to know the character, there is still no clear motive given for his crimes. As critic Michael Atkinson puts it in the DVD’s liner notes, “Vengeance Is Mine … wastes no breath on compassion, no calories on decorousness, and no time on explanations.” Atkinson places Imamura among what he calls the “Sardonic Objectivists,” directors such as Fritz Lang, Luis Buñuel and Douglas Sirk, who tried to shed light on humanity’s dark side. Imamura, Atkinson says, was “a Japanese Samuel Fuller, fascinated with working-class ruin and primal impulse.” 

In the opening scenes of Vengeance is Mine, Imamura gives us the impression that the worst is over. The killer has been arrested and is being transported to prison. But soon we are subjected to flashbacks of Enokizu’s first two killings, graphic scenes which contain none of the usual screeching violins or tawdry effects of many a serial killer film, but are instead shot at arm’s length and with no adornment. Imamura sought no attention for his camerawork or framing; he wanted his technique to remain invisible. Thus, in simple documentary terms, we see murder not as a melodramatic plot point but as an almost mundane occurrence: grisly, clumsy and primitive.  

There are no pure innocents in Imamura’s films. The killer's wife is somewhat deranged and manipulative herself. This is one of the themes that runs through much of Imamura’s work: women clawing their way through the morass of Japanese society, resorting to the baser instincts in the struggle to survive. These are not the long-suffering women of quiet dignity as found in classical Japanese cinema—“Those women don’t exist,” Imamura once said—they are bold, lusty, self-interested and at times desperate, using whatever means available to survive in a society that is structured to subdue and degrade them.  

The result is a body of work unique in Japanese cinema, one that seeks not to organize and understand the world, but to simply document it without explanation or condemnation. 

SHOHEI IMAMURA’S JAPAN 

Through June 30 at Pacific Film Archive. 2575 Bancroft Way. 642-1124. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu. 

VENGEANCE IS MINE (1979) 

Starring Ken Ogata, Mayumi Ogawa, Mitsuko Baisho, Frankie Sakai, Kazuo Kitamura, Chocho Miyako, Nijiko Kiyokawa, Rentaro Mikuni. Directed by Shohei Imamura.  

140 minutes. Playing at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Available on DVD from the Criterion Collection. $29.95. www.criterion.com.

The night fears and mania of a boy are juxtaposed with two adults’ uncomfortable discoveries of ambiguity, betrayal, abandonment and the unreliability of memory in the brilliant, tortuously overlapping dialogue that powers David Mamet’s semi-autobiographical Cryptogram at the Ashby Stage in a Shotgun Players production. 

Mamet, who made much of his stellar reputation in the ‘70s and ‘80s with hard-edged stage speech and characters representing the lonely, brutal dissociations of American public and private life (something that could be associated with the theatrical tradition of Strindberg), here shows a deceptively quieter, more domestic perspective. Like The Old Neighborhood, directed by Joy Carlin at Aurora awhile back, it’s more Chekhovian, exploring the spaces in between what’s said and thought and done. Not very much seems to get done onstage, though the background of life in all its little details becomes the foreground of this kind of play, seemingly predicated on autobiography and can open up into (for want of a better term) the spiritual, even the cosmic, as experienced in everyday language and routine, or its disruption. 

A bachelor family friend talks genially, sometimes in games and riddles, sometimes in shared references, with his friends’ son, who can’t sleep—at first waiting for his father who will take him to “the lake,” and later, after his never-glimpsed father has left the family, of his fears and near-visionary experiences, which he describes to the adults, emerging repeatedly from his bedroom. 

Del, the genderlessly-named old friend, as played a bit floridly by Kevin Clarke, refers to himself at one point as a silly old queen, and it’s his ambiguous friendship with Donny (also ambiguously named, though not played ambiguously by Zehra Berkman) and her absent husband, the boy’s father (an otherwise unambiguous Robert), that’s the dramatic fulcrum on which the matter of the play is hammered out by dialogue, tempered with the silence between lines, between thought and speech.  

In the meantime, there’s much looking at photos, trying to discern what’s what even in the documents that should jog memory, one disagreeing with the other, and interrupting them midstream, filling in what that other remembers differently, or at all.  

Like Beckett’s plays, or an older kind of theater, the very objects onstage, handled and discussed by the cast—a book, a camping knife—take on a mysterious, almost fateful quality, changing in meaning as their apparent insignificance is colored by an almost Proustian sense, touchstones to the past, or even another dimension of whatever experience is in question. 

A play like this is hard to act, hard to stage, and Shotgun approaches it with their can-do signature, their hallmark. Patrick Dooley, Shotgun’s founder, had the task of keeping his actors on the strict tether of the text (which, as an actor friend once said of Pinter, “It’s like chamber music, a string quartet, you play it right from the page in ensemble; there is no other subtext,”) while paradoxically giving them their own head. Post-show talkbacks heard the cast and director discussing all the ways they tried framing and delivering this virtuoso piece. They threw themselves into this wringer of verbal exchange, and Gideon Lazarus, as young John, deserves special mention for his handling of the boy’s end of it, more than a child’s portion. 

With exchanges that, in a more emotional moment, run like: “Am I to be accused of this? What do you mean?” “...That’s my point,” sympathies have to be on the side of the actor. There’s a little bit too much of accenting on the beat, though, which emphasizes jangles and “hot spots” in a play where what comes out of the quieter, offbeat moments and what’s unsaid constitute much of the point. 

One character talks about how we “live as if there’s no end to it, and suddenly ...” A good deal of what’s suggested in this small masterpiece is about the limits of mortality and what seems to continue, beyond our immediate apprehension, in spite of it--or in anticipation of it. Less confrontational than some of Mamet’s more famous work, this is a play that audiences need to confront and absorb. 

Cryptogram at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave. 

Thurs.-Sun. 8 p.m. 

through June 17 

Tickets $17-$25 

841-6500