Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Tuesday August 21, 2007

TUESDAY, AUGUST 21 -more-


A Guide to Local Classical Music Performances

By Jaime Robles
Tuesday August 21, 2007

Remember when classical musicians were called “long hairs”? Maybe not. Ever since Jim Morrison replaced Tony Bennett in the popular music world the epithet has lost its meaning. Needless to say the Bay Area is long in classical music venues and musicians, long haired or not. Here’s the short list. -more-


How to Sample the East Bay Jazz Scene

By Ira Steingroot
Tuesday August 21, 2007

For jazz fans new to the Bay Area, Berkeley is a unique jazz scene. In Manhattan, in any given week, two or three major jazz musicians will be appearing in various clubs all over the island. When I was last there in December 2005, we managed to catch avant-garde pianist Cecil Taylor uptown at the Iridium and hardbop trombonist Curtis Fuller at a downtown hotel in the same week. In the Bay Area, internationally famous jazz musicians are rarer, but the local jazz scene is vigorous. -more-


Downtown Jazz Festival Starts Wednesday

By Ira Steingroot
Tuesday August 21, 2007

Jupiter, the popular Shattuck Avenue beerhouse, presents the ambitious third annual Downtown Berkeley Jazz Festival beginning this Wednesday and running through Sunday, Aug. 25. -more-


A Guide to Museums in the East Bay and Beyond

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday August 21, 2007

Access to culture shouldn’t cost an arm and a leg, or even an ear. Many Bay Area museums follow the enlightened practice of waiving admission for one day every month—sometimes more often. And a handful are always free. -more-


Life After Cody’s for Local Booksellers and Readers

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday August 21, 2007

Yes, we still miss Cody’s on Telegraph. The whole bookstore scene remains precarious. Black Oak has retrenched, and the future of its Berkeley store appears uncertain. Even the big chains aren’t immune, as witness the fate of the Shattuck Avenue Barnes & Noble. -more-


Local Theater Ensembles Boast Varied Repetoire

By Ken Bullock
Tuesday August 21, 2007

The shoreline cities of La Contra Costa, the old East Bay, share a surprising concentration of theatrical activity, both major companies and small troupes, in a Bay Area theater scene which comprises a stunning number: over 400 companies, according to San Francisco’s Theater Bay Area (whose eponymous monthly magazine is the best overall window on that sprawling stage landscape). -more-


Where to Find Great Opera Around the Bay

By Jaime Robles
Tuesday August 21, 2007

The Bay Area seems to be teeming with singers. That may be a reflection of the presence of the San Francisco Opera, one of the largest houses in North America, and its cultivation of both singers and opera lovers, or it may be just a quirky feature of a population that loves stories, accepts artifice and applauds the wildly dramatic. Whatever the reason, in the Bay Area, Opera Rules. -more-


Live Music Venues

Tuesday August 21, 2007

Check the Arts Calendar for daily listings. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday August 21, 2007

TUESDAY, AUGUST 21 -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday August 17, 2007

FRIDAY, AUGUST 17 -more-


Goat Hall Cabaret Opera at Oakland Metro

By Jaime Robles, Special to the Planet
Friday August 17, 2007

Goat Hall Productions, normally housed in a theater on Potrero Hill (also known as Goat Hill), is presenting two premieres at Oakland Metro Theater in Jack London Square during August 23-26. -more-


Cal Poet Laureate Al Young and Barry Gifford Read at Moe’s on Monday

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday August 17, 2007

California Poet Laureate Al Young and well-known novelist and screenwriter Barry Gifford, both Berkeley residents, will read together in a felicitous doubleheader at Moe’s Books on Telegraph Ave. this coming Monday, August 20, at 7:30 p.m. as part of the Mondays at Moe’s series coordinated by Owen Hill. -more-


Two Fine Photographers on Display at Berkeley Art Museum

By Peter Selz
Friday August 17, 2007

Abbas Kiarostami is known primarily as an innovative filmmaker and the Pacific Film Archive is currently presenting a retrospective of his films. The inventive confluence of documentation and fiction has produced a new direction in cinema, prompting Werner Herzog to assert,”We are living in the era of Kiarostami but don’t know it yet.” In addition to working as a film director, the Iranian artist is also a writer, a poet, an editor, screen writer and photographer. -more-


Garden Variety: Picking Winners at the Nursery

By Ron Sullivan
Friday August 17, 2007

As it’s almost planting time (for leisurely values of “almost”) I’ll talk about how to pick your posies. Some of us are on-the-ball enough to do all our planting from seeds and/or divisions and cuttings of our own, but most of us are the sort of people who keep nurseries in business by letting them do the early stuff. -more-


About the House: No Professionals Need Apply

By Matt Cantor
Friday August 17, 2007

Every once in a while I meet someone who reinvigorates my excitement about what I do. This encounter reminds me that remodeling is not so much a business as it is a passion for a lot of people like me. -more-


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday August 17, 2007

A Week Without Your Bathroom? -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday August 17, 2007

FRIDAY, AUGUST 17 -more-