TUESDAY, JUNE 26 

Tuesdays for the Birds Tranquil bird walks in local parklands, led by Bethany Facendini, from 7 to 9:30 a.m. Today we will visit the Eastshore State Park. Call for meeting place and if you need to borrow binoculars. 525-2233. 

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

Community Sing-a-Long every Tues, at 2 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 1247 Marin Ave. 524-9122.  

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

Tuesday Documentaries at 7 p.m. at the Gaia Arts Center, 2140 Dwight Way. Donation of $5 benefits the Berkeley Food and Housing Project. 665-0305. 

Berkeley PC Users Group meets at 7 p.m. at 25 Dartmouth Dr . near Claremont Hotel. Call for directions. 841-4411. 2rhs07@comcast.net 

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.  

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 always welcome new members over 50. 845-6830. 

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27 

The Unveiling of A Mural In Tribute to Maudelle Shirek from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Maudelle Shirek Building, Outside City Council Chambers, 2134 Martin Luther King Way. 

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

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around the restored 1870s business district. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of G.B. Ratto’s at 827 Washington St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. 

Green Chamber of Commerce Mixer at 5:30 p.m. at Sam’s Log Cabin, 945 San Pablo Ave., Albany. Cost is $5, members free. 219-7211. www.greenchamberofcommerce.net 

“Increasing Energy Efficiency and Renewables in our Homes and Businesses” from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst Ave. Sponsored by the Energy Commission. 981-7081. 

“The Threat to Civil Rights and Habeas Corpus” with Ann Fagan Ginger at the Berkeley Gray Panthers meeting at 1:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 548-9696. 

“The Global Gardener” With Bill Mollison on his film on sustainable agriculture around the world at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., between Telegraph and Broadway, Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

“Berkeley-Ukraine Partnership for the Environment” A roundtable discussion on ways to address the globe’s most pressing environmental challenges at 7 p.m. at Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

”Punishment Park” A pseudo-documentary about controlling mass protests set during the Vietnam War at 8 p.m. at Long Haul Infoship, 3124 Shattuck Ave. www.thelonghaul.org 

Project BUILD Kickoff Berkeley United in Literacy Development summer reading program at 11 a.m. at James Kenney Recreation Center, 1718 8th St. www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/recreation/jameskenney.html 

East Bay Traveling Travel Writers Salon at 6:30 p.m. at 515 Pomona Ave, Albany. 524-2459. 

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 

THURSDAY, JUNE 28 

Community Workshop on East Touchdown Plaza at Aquatic Park, including bicycle and pedestrian access improvements, seating, signage and landscaping, at 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 981-6715. 

Walkin’ Pride An LGBT nature walk for the whole family at 6:30 p.m. at Tilden’s Inspiration Point. Bring layered clothing and water. 525-2233. 

CSI at Your Library A hands-on crime-solving program for children 10 and older, at 2 p.m. at West Branch Library, 1125 University. Registration required. 981-6270. 

Easy Does It Board of Directors’ Meeting at 6:30 p.m. at 1636 University Ave. 845-5513. edi@easyland.org  

“Postcards from Italia: Food, Land and Culture” and the parallels and inspiration for California farms and gardens at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

Quit Smoking Class from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., with optional accupuncture, at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. For more information call 981-5330. 

Storytime for Babies and Toddlers at 10:30 a.m. at the Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave. 524-3043. 

Red Cross Mobile Blood Drive from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Oakland State Building, Training Room 1, 1515 Clay St., Oakland. To schedule an appointment call 622-3200. 

Free Skin Cancer Screening at Alta Bates Summit, Oakland. Appointments required. 869-8833, ext. 2. 

World of Plants Tours Thurs., Sat. and Sun. at 1:30 p.m. at the UC Botanical Garden, 200 Centennial Drive. Cost is $5. 643-2755. 

FRIDAY, JUNE 29 

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 

City Commons Club Noon Luncheon with Mayor Tom Bates on “State of the City” 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.  

“Indigenous Permaculture Progam in El Salvador” A slide show on rural community development and sustainable communities, and a Mayan cultural presentation, at 7 p.m. at the Ecology Center, 2530 San Pablo Ave. Donation $10-$35. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

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

Berkeley Women in Black weekly vigil from noon to 1 p.m. at Bancroft and Telegraph. Our focus is human rights in Palestine. 548-6310. 

Free Diabetes Screening Come find out if you might have diabetes with our free screening test and make sure not to eat or drink anything for 8 hours beforehand, from 9 to 11 a.m. at the South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis St. at Ashby. 981-5332. 

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.  

0 to 100 Watts in 4 Days A workshop to build an FM broadcast transmitter, sponsored by Free Radio Berkeley. With an emphasis on hands-on learning, you will learn how to solder, identify electronic components, assemble a 40 watt transmitter from a kit of parts, build and tune an antenna, properly setup and test broadcast equipment, and more. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each day, at 2311 Adeline, Unit P, Oakland. Cost is $200-$250 sliding scale. 625-0314. www.freeradio.org 

SATURDAY, JUNE 30 

Drip Irrigation A workshop on landscape watering that utilizes low-flow and conservation principles from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sponsored by the Alameda County Cleanwater Program and EBMUD. Call to register and for location. 548-2220, ext. 233. 

“Restore Wetlands in Oakland” A volunteer opportunity with Save the Bay on a wetland restoration project near the Oakland Airport. From 9 a.m. to noon. RSVP to 452-9261 ext. 109. 

Walking Tour of Oakland Chinatown Meet at 10 a.m. at the courtyard fountain in the Pacific Renaissance Plaza at 388 Ninth St. Tour lasts 90 minutes. For reservations call 238-3234.  

Full Moon Walk at John Muir National Historic Site Join a Park Ranger for a walk under a full moon to see noctunal animal life. Reservations required. Call for details. 925-228-8860. 

Canned Food Donation for the Alameda County Community Food Bank at the film showing of "Ratatouille" at Berkeley 7 Theater, 2274 Shattuck Ave. Bring 2-8 canned food from 1 to 5 p.m. 635-3663, ext. 358. 

Origami for All Ages Learn to fold five different origami shapes from 2 to 4 p.m. at 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext 17. 

Hopalong Animal Rescue Come meet your furry new best cat friend from noon to 3 p.m. at 2940 College Ave. 267-1915, ext. 500.  

Preschool Storytime for 3 to 5-year-olds at 11 a.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext. 17. 

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

SUNDAY, JULY 1 

Habitat Hunters A hike for the whole family to discover what makes a habitat, at 10:30 a.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233.  

“Open Garden” Join the Little Farm gardener for composting, planting, watering and reaping the rewards of our work, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

EcoHouse Tour Visit the the Ecology Center’s environmentally friendly demonstration home and garden from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 1305 Hopkins St., entrance on Peralta. Cost $10, sliding scale. 548-2220 ext. 242. 

Insect Hunt A capture and release program for the whole family at 2 p.m. at Tilden Nature Area, Tilden Park. 525-2233. www.ebparks.org 

Social Action Forum with Eric Mills on animal rights at 9:30 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, One Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302. 

Peach Tasting from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Kensington Farmers’ Market, 303 Arlington, behind ACE Hardware, Kensington.  

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 every Sun. Meet at 3 p.m. at the colonnade at the NE end of the lake. 763-8712. lmno4p.org 

Tibetan Buddhism with Jack Petranker on “Learning to Be” at 6 p.m. at the Tibetan Nyingma Institute, 1815 Highland Pl. 843-6812.  

MONDAY, JULY 2 

Berkeley CopWatch organizational meeting at 8 p.m. at 2022 Blake St. Join us to work on current issues around police misconduct. Volunteers needed. For information call 548-0425. 

Drop in Knitting Class at the Albany Library Work on your own project or make pet blankets and children’s hats to be donated to charity organizations. Yarn and needles provided for donated items. At 3:30 p.m. at 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720, ext. 17. 

CITY MEETINGS 

Civic Arts Commission meets Wed., June 27, at 6:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7533.  

Energy Commission meets Wed., June 27, at 6:30 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-5434.  

Planning Commission meets Wed., June 27 at 7 p.m., at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-7484.  

Police Review Commission meets Wed., June 27, at 7:30 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 981-4950.  

Mental Health Commission meets Wed., June 28, at 5 p.m. at 2640 MLK Jr. Way, at Derby. 981-5213.  

Zoning Adjustments Board meets Thurs., June 28, at 7 p.m., in City Council Chambers. Mark Rhoades, 981-7410.

Healthy Living 

As part of an ongoing effort to print stories by East Bay residents, the Daily Planet invites readers to write about their experiences and perspectives on living healthy. Please e-mail your essays, no more than 800 words, to firstperson@berkeleydailyplanet.com. We will publish the best essays in upcoming issues. 

East Bay Guide 

The Daily Planet invites readers to contribute to a guide for newcomers to the area. Please e-mail your essays, no more than 800 words, describing a favorite or little-known aspect of East Bay life, to firstperson@berkeleydailyplanet.com. We will publish the best essays in upcoming issues.

TUESDAY, JUNE 26 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Moshi Moshi! Bridging Cultures through Art” Japanese and American art inspired by cross cultural influences at the Richmond Art Center, 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond, though Aug. 10. 620-6772. www.therac.org 

THEATER 

Tell It On Tuesday Solo Performances at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $8-$12 sliding scale.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Erica Rische-Baird reads from “This Is For A World Gone Mad” at 7:30 p.m. at Spectator Books, 4163 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. 653-7300. www.spectatorbooks.com  

Ales Debeljak and Rusty Morrison, poets, at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

Katherine Taylor reads from “Rules for Saying Goodbye” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Adam Miller, folksinger and storyteller, at 7 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 

Tee Fee Swamp Boogie 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 

David Bromberg & the Angel Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $34.50-$35.50. 548-1761. www.freightandsalvage.org 

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

Bob City Pacific, hip hop, fink, at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $12-$15. 451-8100. www.uptownnightclub.com 

John Calloway at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $10. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

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

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Suddenly Summer” A group show by East Bay women artists opens at Royal Ground Gallery, 2058 Mountain Blvd., Montclair, Oakland.  

FILM 

International Latino Film Festival “Un Franco, 14 Pestas” at 7 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $5-$6. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

“Oh My God! It’s Harrod Blank!” A film on the art-car artist at 7:30 p.m. at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Donation $5.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

“Writing Teachers Write” monthly student and teacher reading series, at 5 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Berkeley Poetry Slam with host Charles Ellik and Three Blind Mice, at 8:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $5-$7. 841-2082  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

David Bromberg & the Angel Band at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $34.50-$35.50. 548-1761.  

Terrence Brewer Quintet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Fishtank Ensemble at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Eastern European dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $12. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

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

Dave Stein Bubhub at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

Poncho Sanchez at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square., through Sun. Cost is $20-$24. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, JUNE 28 

CHILDREN 

Jon Agee author of “Milo’s Hat Trick” and “Jon Agee’s Palindromania” will show and tell how he makes his fun books, at 7 p.m. at North Branch Library, 1180 The Alameda. 981-6250.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Subcutaneous Portraiture” Works by Amber Stucke and Brian Sweet. Reception at 6:30 p.m. at Transmissions Gallery, 1177 San Pablo Ave. Exhibit runs to July 28. 558-4084. www.trasmissions-gallery.com 

FILM 

“The Mind is a Liar and a Whore” by Antero Alli at 8 p.m. at 21 Grand, 416 25th St., Oakland. Tickets are $6-$10. 444-7263. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with Camille T. Dungy and Sandra Lim at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City College Auditorium, 2050 Center St. 525-5476. www.poetryflash.org 

Julia Flynn Siler describes “The House of Mondavi: The Rise and Fall of an American Wine Dynasty” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Josie Iselin shows her portraits of “Seashells” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Rhoda Curtis will read from “Rhoda: Her First Ninety Years” at 7:30 p.m. at the Jewish Community Center, 1414 Walnut St. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Delta Love, Band of Brotherz at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Dave Alvin at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $25.50-$26.50. 548-1761.  

Latitude Zero at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $8. 841-JAZZ.  

Zej at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

San Pablo Project, Ross Hammond’s Teakayo, at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $6. 841-2082. 

FRIDAY, JUNE 29 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “Bosoms and Neglect” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., SUn. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through July 22. Tickets are $38. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

Berkeley Rep “Great Men of Genius” with Mike Daisey in four different monologues at 2025 Addison St. through June 30. Tickets are $30-$75. 647-2949. 

Black Repertory Group “Love Don’t Cost A Thang” written and directed by Danesha Simon Fri. and Sat. at 7 p.m. at 3201 Adeline St. Tickets are $25. 652-2120. 

Central Works “Bird in the Hand” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 5 p.m. at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave., through July 29. Tickets are $9-$25. 558-1381. 

Contra Costa Civic Theater “Meet Me in St. Louis” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. in July at 951 Pomona Ave., at Moeser, El Cerrito, through Aug. 4. 524-9132. 

Impact Theatre “Impact Briefs 8: Sinfully Delicious” Thurs.-Sat. through July 21 at La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 464-4468. 

Masquers Playhouse “Ring Round the Moon” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through July 14. Tickets are $15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org 

“Prisons” by Shanique Scott Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Tickets are $15-$18. 849-2568. 

Virago Theatre Comapny “The Death of Ayn Rand” and “A Bed of My Own” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at Rhythmix Cultural Works, 2513 Blanding Ave., Alameda to July 7. Tickets are $10-$17. 865-6237.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Fairytales and Other Stories” Series of 21 photographs based on fairytales, classical paintings and film stills by Diania Elliott. Opens at 6 p.m. at ASUC Art Gallery, Lower Sproul Plaza, UC Campus. 642-3065. www.asucartstudio.org 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Julia Glass reads from “The Whole World Over” at 12:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

Jeremey Adam Smith & Loren Rhoads, Benjamin Perez & Matt Rohrer read at 7:30 p.m. at Pegasus Books Downtown, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Bay Area Classical Harmonies “Some Enchanted Evening” Opera arias and art songs with Andrew Chung and Kate Howell at 7:30 p.m. at Pro Arts Gallery, 550 Second St., Oakland. Tickets are $10-$15. 868-0695. 

Natasha Miller & her Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $14. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

The Vowel Movement, beat box, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

Free Peoples, jazz, at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

House Jacks at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Fred Odell and James Moore at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

That Man Fantastic, Suburban Slow Death at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Terezodu, Sad Boy Sinister at 8 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

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

Slydini at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

SATURDAY, JUNE 30 

CHILDREN  

Animal Weekend with puppet shows and activities from 11 a.m. on at Children’s Fairyland, at 699 Bellvue Ave., Oakland. 452-2259. 

THEATER 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley “A Dream Play” Sat. and Sun. at 3 p.m. on the lawn in front of Berkeley Art Center, 1275 Walnut St. at Berryman, through July 1. 841-5580.  

EXHIBITIONS 

“Unicorns Puke Rainbows and the Packing Foam Swimming Pool” works by Michael Deane at 9 p.m. at the Living Room Gallery, 3230 Adeline St. www. 

myspace.com/livingroomcollective 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Margaret Ahnert discusses “The Knock at the Door: A Journey Through the Darkness of the Armenian Genocide” at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

Naomi Guttman and Robert Lipton read their poetry at 7:30 at Pegasus Bookstore, 2349 Shattuck Ave. 649-1320.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Abhinaya Dance Company of San Jose “Poetic Splendor in Bharatanatyam” at 5 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, 2640 College Ave. Tickets are $10-$15. 408-983-0491. www.sulekha.com/bayarea  

Yancie Taylor Jazztet at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $12. 841-JAZZ. www.AnnasJazzIsland.com 

Rankin Scroo, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $TBA. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Zion-I, Pigeon John at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $12-$15. 548-1159. 

Emily Kurn and Marianne Barlow at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Married Couple at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 848-8277. 

House Jacks at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

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

The Steve Deutsch Ensemble at 8 p.m. at Spuds Pizza, 3290 Adeline St. Cost is $7. 558-0881. 

Mirthkon, Three Piece Combo, Inner Ear Bridge at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082. www.starryploughpub.com 

The Freeze at 8 p.m. at Oakland Metro, 201 Broadway. Cost is $10. 763-1146. www.oaklandmetro.org 

Giant Squid, The River Runs Black, heavy metal, at 9 p.m. at the Uptown Nightclub, 1928 Telegraph, Oakland. Cost is $7. 451-8100.  

SUNDAY, JULY 1 

CHILDREN 

Abby & The Pipsqueaks at Ashkenaz at 3 p.m. Cost is $4-$6. 525-5054.  

THEATER 

The Herstories Project “Tapestries” at 6 p.m. at the JCC, 1414 Walnut St. Tickets are $10-$25. 207-6623. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Viewpoints” plein-air landscapes by Barbara Ward, many of Tilden Park, on display at the Tilden Nature Center, Tilden Park, Tues.-Sun. from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. to Aug. 26. 525-2233. 

“Point Pinole: A Place Apart” An exhibition on the explosive and peaceful past of the Point Pinole Shoreline, at Contra Costa County Historical Society, 610 Main St., Martinez. Exhibit runs to Aug. 23. 925-229-1042. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Barbara Siesel “Flute Music from Around the World” at 2 p.m. at the Albany Library, 1247 Marin Ave. 526-3720 ext 17.  

The Lovell Sisters at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $18.50-$19.50. 548-1761.  

Falso Baiano Brasil at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Rebecca Mauleon, Jimmy Branly and Gary Brown “Piano y Ritmo” Clinic from 4 to 6 p.m., concert at 8 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $15-$25. 849-2568.  

Salvador Santana, Antioquia, new world grooves, at 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $8. 525-5054. 

MONDAY, JULY 2 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Tsunami Affected Lives: Moving Beyond Disaster” Photographs by Adrienne Miller at La Peña, through Aug. 31. 849-2568. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Actors Reading Writers “It’s a Mystery,” stories by Lee Child, Agatha Christie and Donald Westlake at 7:30 p.m. at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. 932-0214. ricaisabella@yahoo.com 

Readings from the Bootstrap Book of Poetic Journals at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Books, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

Poetry Express with Marvin Ray at 7 p.m. at Priya Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. berkeleypoetryexpress@yahoo.com 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Itals, Malika Madremana & The Greensphere Band, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $15-$18. 525-5054.  

Fito Reinoso at 8 p.m. at Yoshi’s. Cost is $10. 238-9200.  

O’KEEFE’S TAKE ON WALT WHITMAN’S ‘SONG OF MYSELF’ 

There have been plays about poets, and poetry readings that are just as much performances, but John O’Keefe’s one-man show of Whitman’s 1855 edition of “Song of Myself” is something else again, a recitation of that epic of American life, both lyric and epic, panoramic and internal, taken to the audience in the way the poet seemed to wish his screed taken to heart by his fellow countrymen. 

O’Keefe, cofounder of Berkeley’s Blake St. Hawkeyes, playwright, opera librettist, works the room as himself combined with the professedly genial Walt, after speaking with élan about the effect the poem has had on him. A bravura chamber performance, a bright way of making the audience—and each spectator—aware of being the silent partner in the unfolding of a living exhortation to be human beings. At the Marsh at 1062 Valencia St, in San Francisco through this weekend. For more information, call (415) 641-0235 or visit www.themarsh.org.

“If a working man can’t kill himself on a Sunday morning, we may as well have the Revolution at once!” Witty, barbed lines like these are almost thrown away in Jean Anouilh’s Ring Round the Moon, as brilliantly translated by Christopher Fry, and charmingly produced at the Masquers Playhouse in Point Richmond. 

But beneath the sparkling veneer is a streak of melancholy, almost Shakespearean, at the passing strange guises of rich and poor, beautiful and plain, in this modern romance of High Society tricked by its own credulity, and love mistaken for duplicity—and vice versa. 

It’s particularly like those Shakespeare comedies that rely on doubling, taken from the allegories and fantastic romances of Antiquity. Here it’s rich, handsome twin brothers, amiable Frederic and clever, cynical Hugo (both deftly played by Cin Seperi), and the very different pair of girls who love them—each loving the wrong one. Mistaken identity and indiscriminate taste—the stock-in-trade of old romance, whatever end it’s put to.  

Frederic is in love with the daughter of cunning financier Messerschmann (David L. Lee), Diana (a pouting Rachel Garcia), and spends his nights beneath her window. “The maid finds his bed uncrumpled and the rhododendron bush crumpled,” remarks Hugo to the agitated, hand-wringing butler Joshua (piquant Norman MacLeod). Yet Diana’s stuck on Hugo, and believes he’s kissed her in the park. The two brothers are identical, except in character. “Why haven’t you a heart?” Hugo is asked. “Because my brother has too much,” he answers, “I love nobody; that is why I can organize this evening’s little comedy.”  

For a ball, Hugo hires Isabelle, an itinerant dancer (Jillian O’Malior, a splendid ingenue), traveling with her semi-bohemian stage mother (madcap Dory Ehrlich), to pose as a pretty girl of quality, and woo Frederic away from Diana. Hugo is to be her Svengali, her Pygmalion—except in this case, the creation falls for the creator. Hugo, absorbed in his ruse, doesn’t notice.  

“So according to you, the truth means nothing,” Hugo’s asked. “Nothing, if no one believes it!” There’s an echo of magic in the wings, as the brothers switch off, and the snare for Frederic is played out. But there are complications. 

Madame Desmermortes (a very charming Loralee Windsor), the wheelchair-bound matriarch, might catch wind of the intended ruse, and tweak it with her considerable wit, which she reels off like a Lady Bracknell. (Berating her companion, Capulet (Sandra Bond), for leaving her alone: “I’ve gone over all my shortcomings—twice! And if you’d been longer, I’d begun to regret them!”) 

There’s also that affected, archly flamboyant Dorothy, Lady India (Anne Collins, striking pose after pose), Meserschmann’s mistress, entangled too with the clockwork doll-of-a-beau, Patrice Bombelles (Ted V. Bigornia). Their deadpan tango-with-scheming dialogue is a showstopper (choreographed by Kris Bell). And there’s Messerschmann himself, threatening Romainville (fluttery lepidopterist C. Conrad Cady) with failure of his pig-iron interests if the ruse, in which he plays Isabelle’s uncle, isn’t stopped.  

“You’re young and handsome and rich—what could make you sad?” Isabelle asks Frederic. “To be young and handsome and rich, as you call it—with nothing to be gained by it,” replies the young man—but it’s a rehearsal for the ruse, with Hugo taking his twin’s part. 

Somehow, as in true romances, true love, in this game of true-and-false, wins out, but not before a catfight of ingenues, a ripping-up of banknotes, and angry rejoinders about the rich and their social games versus the poor: “Your nurses were right to tell you not to play with the common children in the park. They don’t know how to play.” 

With John Hull’s direction and Tammy Berlin’s costuming, Ring Round the Moon comes off with appropriately gay festivity, a touch of the bizarre, and a healthy dose of world-weary wisdom: “It’s all there’s time for, before we laugh on the other side of our graves,” says Hugo. 

The Masquers, a proud community troupe, bring it off handsomely. It’s a good time to catch it, in the last two weeks of their run. 

RING ROUND THE MOON 

8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through July 14 at the Masquers Playhouse,  

105 Park Place, Point Richmond.  

$15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org.

There’s a row of owls glaring down at the audience in the theater at the Berkeley City Club. And the program for Bird in the Hand, Anne Galjour’s new play, directed by Ellen Sebastian Chang for Central Works, lists the various parts played by the four players (including Ms. Galjour), as well as the bird calls they perform during the course of the action. 

Bird in the Hand is a wry milieu play, cutting back and forth, in and out of the lives of a bunch of San Franciscans touched by the fervor for birding. The various couples and stray, uncoupled characters, as well-performed by the author, Terry Lamb (with an impressive sense of characterization), Joel Mullenix and Central Works’ co-director, Jan Zvaifler, are an eccentric, even extravagant lot, as they come together and break apart in rhythms reminiscent of bird-song, hopping or skittering. 

But Galjour has another purpose as well, one that came to the fore since the original “little experiment” of the piece as “a convergence of monologues and playwriting in the form of duets” in 2001. 

After Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Galjour notes, “It affected my writing process. Where I grew up in southeastern Louisiana the culture and landscape is literally disappearing. It has heightened my concern for what is disappearing from the urban landscape in the Bay Area.” 

The play was developed as a collaborative process  

“I’ll never forget my first quail. I got hit in the head with a golfball! When I came to, I heard it,”one character says—and the appropriate calls often follow such lines, though the dramatis personae tend to express themselves more in dialogue, with an occasional monologue to another, listening character.  

“The mockingbird goes through its repertoire, sounds like a car alarm sometimes,” says another. All the alarums and diversions of existences enriched—or distorted—by the love of—the obsession for—birds, make up the comedy, which can turn simply poignant. A man alone in a house full of empty birdcages and photographs of wildlife talks about the death of his partner, an avid birder, to the neighbor whose husband deserted her and went on the road for the migratory tour. And the bereaved survivor isn’t a bird lover himself. 

After his partner’s death, he says he “opened the cages of finches and opened the windows ... [and] heard them try to get back in, crashing against the windows.” 

Another couple is fighting to stay in their place, the neighborhood association objecting to his pigeon-keeping. Yet another acts out a tale of near-captivity, with an exercise-minded boyfriend controlling his live-in displaced Louisianan woman-friend with rewards for her not eating ... all those dresses do more than feather the nest. 

Birders and their codependencies, the unglimpsed avian lives around us in the urban scheme of things, the mating and survival rituals of humans in their own endangered habitats ... unusual stuff to make a play of, but Galjour’s humorous and perceptive lines knit together the two worlds into a contemporary Bay Area version of The Bluebird of Happiness, Maeterlinck’s fin-de-siecle fantasy play about the search for the fowl that will make all fair. 

As in her narratives and solo performances, Galjour brings something different, a touch of sensibility, to the very bones of her dramaturgy, fleshed out in the Central Works style. It’s reflected in charming ways—like the most romantic (and therefore hopeful) line spoken, “Would you like to go owling in Glen Canyon?” 

BIRD IN THE HAND 

Presented by Central Works at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and at 5 p.m. Sundays through July 29 at Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Ave. $9-$25. 

558-1381. www.centralworks.org.

Hildegarde Flanner’s Wildfire: Berkeley, 1923 is a clear-eyed description of a natural disaster seen at close quarters; and, for Berkeleyans, an unforgettable picture of nature’s fury turned against us in our own homes. After reading it, even the greenest greenhorns will understand the dreadful power of wildfire and how rapidly it can consume a neighborhood.  

On Sept. 17, 1923, Flanner and her mother were living on Euclid Avenue in North Berkeley, just above Buena Vista Way. She wrote that it “was a hot, dry day. At mid-morning the wind blew heavily from inland ... while the big tea-colored hills of Berkeley appeared to rise and float ... It was between noon and one o’clock that we became aware of the scent of smoke coming from the eucalyptus trees on the hills above us.” To the reader it seems as though she and her mother took an agonizingly long time to shake themselves free from the rhythm of their ordinary, daily routine.  

When they finally fled downhill to the relative safety of Shattuck Avenue they looked back in a state of shock at the unbelievable: “... the increasing smoke. Only smoke. No flames could as yet be seen. Up there, hidden in turmoil and destruction, our home was burning. Up there, deep in smoke and terrible heat, our home was being consumed, and only just now we had walked out the front door and in no time at all the house was burning and all our possessions were burning and the smoke rose thickly in huge malign puffs.” 

As she tells of the fire she also gives us a memorable portrait of her mother. Mary Flanner, her daughter says, was an actress, “a religious woman whose true vocation was the theater.” On stage she gave “touching and poetic performances of Deirdre and Kathleen ni Houlihan” and other heroines in the repertory of the day. But in her daughter’s eyes, none of these equalled her display of conscience-stricken grief when she was seized by the obsessive thought that she might somehow have started the fire: “It was drama, but the drama of truth uncontrived, and in it life and art met and no one could have told the difference.” 

Hildegarde Flanner’s account of the fire is self-effacing but she is firmly present in it. She says next to nothing about herself. She seems to be a young woman, twenty something, who arrived in Berkeley some time before the fire and vanished afterward. Not a word suggests she was already a well-known poet, with two books to her credit, publishing regularly in The Nation, The New Republic and Poetry. In 1923 her expatriate sister wrote that she was known in Paris “as Hildegarde Flanner’s sister.”  

Early life 

June Hildegarde Flanner Monhoff, to give her full name, was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1899, the youngest child in a prosperous upper middle-class family. At the time of her birth, her sister Janet was 7 and her sister Marie was 12. Frank Flanner, her father, was a successful businessman, and her mother gave recitals of poetry and dramatic readings at women’s clubs throughout the Midwest and the South. 

“We were not rich, and we were not poor,” Hilldegarde told Brenda Wineapple, her sister’s biographer, “and we did not lead dull lives.” The Flanners appeared to be happy and deeply rooted in their community. 

All this changed in 1912, when Frank Flanner committed suicide. The circumstances remain unexplained to this day, but he seems to have been suffering from a deep, pathological depression, a condition not understood or even recognized then. He left his mystified, desolated widow and children a fortune of more than $100,000. 

Within a few years Marie went to live in New York, where she became a piano teacher. Janet made her way to Paris and became famous writing for The New Yorker under the pseudonym “Genet.” Paris Was Yesterday: 1925-1939 is a captivating selection from her journalism. Janet’s literary fame eventually surpassed Hildegarde’s. 

As the youngest child, Hildegarde was expected to look after her mother. In 1915 they explored California together, visiting Pasadena, San Francisco and Berkeley. They liked what they saw, and Hildegarde enrolled at the University in Berkeley, studying poetry with Witter Bynner. And she met Frederick Monhoff.  

Southern California  

After the fire, she and her mother moved to Altadena, a suburb of Pasadena, in the Sierra Madre mountains. Frederick Monhoff also came south, and Hildegarde married him in 1926. An artist and an architect, he taught for more than twenty years at the Otis Art Institute, became the Principal Architect for Design for Los Angeles County, and illustrated her books. Like Berkeley, Altadena was subject to wildfires, and she has recalled how, “More than once, when wind brought the fire into the outskirts of our community and we were less than a mile from flying embers, my husband spent the night packing two cars with what he decided was most valuable among his collection of architectural designs, books, Chinese scrolls, Japanese prints and Navajo rugs. Onto this pile I always added his own etchings and paintings, which he characteristically delayed in gathering...” 

After a life-time of witnessisng wildfires Hildegarde Flanner concluded that, “People who come to California to live with the exhilarating joys of scenery and climate must learn to pay for the privilege, faithfully and painfullly.” 

During these years, according to Dana Goioa, she “became the central poet in Pasadena’s thriving artistic community, writing as a dismayed witness to urban sprawl and environmental threats.” In 1962, when her husband retired, they moved north to the Napa Valley. Part of their motivation was shared anger at the pillaging of Southern Callifornia by developers.  

Northern California 

In Napa Valley, where she lived for the next 25 years, she and her husband continued their environmental activism and she continued to write. In all, she published twelve volumes of poetry and four collections of essays. Poems: Collected and Selected is a selection of her work she made near the end of her life. The essays in Brief Cherishing tell the story of her life with Frederick Monhoff. He died in 1975, and she passed away in 1987, at 87 years of age.  

Poetry  

Hildegarde Flanner is one of the outstanding poets of the California landscape. (No doubt more than one developer called her “a tree hugger.”) Her evident love of the land has, however, promoted a narrow view of her work. She was a deeply humanistic writer who thought and felt seriously about issues of concern to all of us. Her language—always the measure of a poet—is as euphonious as Ina Coolbrith’s, but she writes with wit and humor foreign to the older poet. Flanner’s talent is fully on display in “One Dark Night” (see below). 

Prose  

Her essays provide use with wonderful pieces about the people and places she loved, as well as the ones she didn’t. “The Place of a Sequin” gives us a glimpse of her childhood in Indianapolis. “Wildfire” and “Roots and Hedges” share the early years of her life in California. 

Of “A Brief Cherishing,” Janet Lewis wrote, “It is a vivid evocation of some of the best years of a long and deeply happy marriage, the story of a great love, and a great experience of living on the loved earth ... a clear and tender and witty vision of life perceived, fortunately remembered and recalled for us.” 

Her years of widowhood are evoked unsentimentally in “The Chronicle of Zoe,” the story of a young friend of hers and their efforts to protect land in the Napa Valley.  

ONE DARK NIGHT 

Jess Dooley’s dog and Ralph’s old Duchess 

Have booed the hoodlums off our vineyard hill. 

Oppossums and raccoons and skunks have slid away 

And two fine dogs lie down upon tranquility, 

Full of the best ill-will... 

On a dark night perhaps like this 

There was a dingy shed made beautiful 

By a smack of radiance  

And silver of fresh fallen clover hay, 

But here at home, dear one, we say 

To Jess’s dog and Ralph’s old Duchess, Dogs, alas, 

The times are gnawed clean out of chance 

For a second savior to be born... 

And as we hear the tread of turmoil toward us 

We can only try to do 

Whatever it is that we do best, 

And in a dark night of the soul’s inconsequence 

Humbly to make love, 

Boldly to make sense. 

Dogs, amen.