TUESDAY, AUGUST 28 

Full Moon Walk at John Muir National Historic Site Walk up Mt. Wanda to see the moon rise over Mt. Diablo. Bring water, flashlight and good walking shoes for the steep trail. Reservations required. 925-228-8860. 

“Baraka” a film of images from 24 countries showing the beauty and destruction of nature and humans at 7:30 p.m. at Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland. Donation $5. www.HumanistHall.net 

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra Auditions at 4 p.m. at the Crowden School. For information on what to prepare and to make an appointment call 849-988. www.ypsomusic.net 

End the Occupation Vigil every Tues. at noon at Oakland Federal Bldg., 1301 Clay St. www.epicalc.org 

Free Sewing Class for Youth at Sew Your Own, from 3 to 6 p.m. at Bolivar Drive, Aquatic Park. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

Community Sing-a-Long every Tues, at 2 p.m. at the Albany Senior Center, 846 Masonic Ave. 524-9122.  

Tuesday Documentaries at 7 p.m. at the Gaia Arts Center, 2120 Allston Way. Donation of $5 benefits the Berkeley Food and Housing Project. 665-0305. 

Family Storytime for preschoolers and up 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. 

Street Level Cycles Community Bike Program Tues., Thurs., and Sat. from 2 to 6 p.m. Open bicycle repair lab at Waterside Workshops, 84 Bolivar Drive, Aquatic Park. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29 

Walking Tour of Jack London Waterfront Meet at 10 a.m. at the corner of Broadway and Embarcadero. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Recording African American Stories Add your voice to the Library of Congress and the National Museum of African American History, Wed. from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., by appointment, at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland, through Sept. 12. For appointment call 228-3207. 

Red Cross Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at East Pauley Ballroom MLK Student Union, UC Campus. To schedule an appointment go to www.BeADonor.com  

Bayswater Book Club meets to discuss “Needs Assessment in Public Health” by Peterson and Alexander at 6:30 p.m. Call for location. 433-2911. 

Ice Cream Social for Seniors at 1:15 p.m. at North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst. 981-5190. 

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, AUGUST 30 

Berkeley/Albany Mental Health Services Implementation Progress Report A Public Hearing at 7 p.m. at the Mental Health Auditorium, 2640 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way at Derby. Copies of the report are availble, call 981-7698. 

Berkeley School Volunteers Orientation from 4 to 5 p.m. at 1835 Allston Way. Come learn about volunteer opportunities. 644-8833. 

Get Involved with Your Local Green Party Meeting at 7 p.m. at the Grassroots House, 2022 Blake between Shattuck & Milvia. www.berkeleygreens.org  

Young People’s Symphony Orchestra Auditions at 4 p.m. at the Crowden School. For information on what to prepare and to make an appointment call 849-988. www.ypsomusic.net 

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 8:45 to noon at the Downtown Oakland Senior Center, 200 Grand Ave. 981-5332. 

Baby and Toddler Storytime at 10:15 and 11:15 a.m. at Kensington Library, 61 Arlington Ave, Kensington. 524-3043. 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 31 

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 

Compost for Berkeley Residents from 11:45 a.m. to 2:45 p.m. at Berkeley Marina Maintenance Yard, 201 University Ave., next to Adventure Playground, Berkeley. 981-6660.  

“This is my Home” a film on the struggle of displaced public housing residents in post-Katrina New Orleans, at 7 p.m. at Revolution Books, 2425 Channing Way, under the Sather Gate Parking Garage. 848-1196. 

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. 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 1 

Walking Tour of Old Oakland around Preservation Park to see Victorian architecture. Meet at 10 a.m. in front of Preservation Park at 13th St. and MLK, Jr. Way. Tour lasts 90 minutes. Reservations can be made by calling 238-3234. www.oaklandnet.com/walkingtours 

Art & Soul Festival, with live music, children’s entertainment, arts and crafts, and food from local producers, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sat.-Mon. at Frank Ogawa Plaza, downtown Oakland. ArtandSoulOakland.com 

Politcal Affairs Reading Group will discuss “Class, Race and Women’s Equality: A Strategic View” by Sam Webb at 10 a.m. at Niebyl-Proctor Marxist Library for Social Research, 6501 Telegraph Ave. 595-7417. www.marxistlibr.org 

Fast Pitch Softball for Adults at noon on Saturdays in Oakland. For information call 204-9500. 

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. www.nativeplants.org 

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 

The Berkeley Lawn Bowling Club provides free instruction every Wed. and Sat. at 10 a.m. at 2270 Acton St. 841-2174.  

SUNDAY, SEPT. 2 

Poetry Garden Celebration from 1 to 3 p.m. on the corner of Milvia and Lincoln at Berkeley Arts Magnet School. Open mic for poetry performance and paper and pencils for on the spot poetic inspiration. Children especially welcome. 548-1707. mccoatty@hotmail.com  

Birdwatching Bicycle Tour of the Eastshore State Park Meet at 8:40 a.m. at El Cerrito Del Norte BART station. Trip ends at Aquatic Park in Berkeley. Bring bicycle lock, lunch and liquids. Kathy_Jarrett@yahoo.com 

Free Sailboat Rides from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Cal Sailing Club, Berkeley Marina. Wear warm, waterproof clothing and bring a change of clothes in case you get wet. www.cal-sailing.org 

“Evil is Not Good for You: The Dangers of Demonization” with Walter Truett Anderson at 10 a.m. at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, 1 Lawson Rd., Kensington. 525-0302, ext. 306. 

Solo Sierrans Sunset Walk in the Emeryville Marina. Meet at 5 p.m. behind Chevy’s for an hour walk on a paved trail. 234-8949. 

Kensington Farmers’ Market from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 303 Arlington Ave., Kensington. 

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

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 

MONDAY, SEPT. 3 

Free Boatbuilding Classes for Youth Mon.-Wed. 2-6pm at Berkeley Boathouse, 84 Bolivar Drive, Aquatic Park. Classes cover woodworking, boatbuilding, and boat repair. 644-2577. www.watersideworkshops.org 

Dragonboating Year round classes at the Berkeley Marina, Dock M. Meets Mon, Wed., Thurs. at 6 p.m. Sat. at 10:30 a.m. For details see www.dragonmax.org 

ONGOING 

Campaign for Earthquake Victims in Peru To find the collection site closest to you call Paco at 229-8350 or the Consulate of Peru 1-877-490-7378. 

Submit calendar listings at least ten days before the event to calendar@berkeleydaily 

planet.com 

Please include a telephone number for the public.

Due to overzealous use of the spell-checking function, the name of Pacific Film Archive house pianist Jon Mirsalis was inadvertently printed as Jon Misrules in an Aug. 24 story about avant-garde cinema. We regret the error.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 28 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Wonderland, A Fairytale of the Soviet Monolith” Black and white photographs by Jason Eskenazi on display at the Graduate School of Journalism, North Gate Hall, UC Campus.  

FILM 

Abbas Kiarostami: Image Maker “Five” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Tell on on Tuesdays Storytelling with Tim Ereneta, Maryclare McCauley, Neshama Franklin and Bruce Pachtman at 7:30 p.m. at Julia Morgan Center for the Arts. Cost is $8-$12 sliding scale. www.juiamorgan.org 

Sinan Antoon, author of “I’jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody” at 7:30 p.m. at Moe’s Bookstore, 2476 Telegraph Ave. 849-2087. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Zydeco Flames at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cajun dance lesson at 8 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054.  

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

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

Sophie Milman at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $8-$14. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

Jazzschool Tuesdays at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29 

FILM 

International Latino Film Society “O casamento de Romeu e Julieta” at 7 p.m. at La Peña. Cost is $5-$6. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

Eco-Amok: An Inconvenient Film Fest “Habitat” at 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

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 

Doug Arrington & His Trio at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

Kleptograss at 8 p.m. at Strings, 6320 San Pablo Ave., Emeryville. 

Swingthing at 8:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Swing dance lesson at 7:30 p.m. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Fred O’Dell and the Broken Arrows at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Orquestra Liberacion at 9:30 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Mo’ Fone at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Rick Di Dia & Aireene Espiritu, Blind Willies at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $17.50-$18.50. 548-1761.  

Ed Reed at 8 and 10 p.m. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $6-$12. 238-9200.  

THURSDAY, AUGUST 30 

EXHIBITIONS 

Kala Art Institute Residency Projects, Part 3 opens with a reception at 6 p.m. at 1060 Heinz Ave. Exhibition runs to Oct. 6. 549-2977. www.kala.org 

FILM 

Abbas Kiarostami: Image Maker “10 on Ten” at 7 p.m. and “The Wind Will Carry Us” at 9 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808.  

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Earl Shorris describes “The Politics of Heaven: America in Fearful Times” at 7:30 p.m. at Mrs. Dalloways, 2904 College Ave. 704-8222. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

The Meditations, reggae, at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $12-$15. 525-5054.  

Dry Branch Fire Squad at 8 p.m. at Freight and Salvage. Cost is $19.50-$20.50. 548-1761.  

Paul Perez Project featuring Frank Martin at 8 p.m. at Anna’s Jazz Island, 2120 Allston Way. Cost is $10. 841-JAZZ.  

LaWanda & Greg, modern folk, rock at 7 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave. 548-5198.  

Will Franken, Jascha Ephraim at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $10. 841-2082  

Katura, Afro-Cuban, at 7:30 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $12-$15. 849-2568.  

Allan Hodsworth at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

FRIDAY, AUGUST 31 

THEATER 

Aurora Theatre “Hysteria” Wed.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 and 7 p.m. at 2081 Addison St., through Sept. 30. Tickets are $40-$42. 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org 

California Shakespeare Theater “The Triumph of Love” at the Bruns Ampitheater, 100 Gateway Blvd., Orinda, through Sept. 2. Tickets are $15-$60. 548-9666. www.calshakes.org 

“Citizen Josh” with monologoist Josh Kornbluth, Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Berkeley Repertory Theater, 2025 Addison St., through Sept. 2. Tickets are $25-$30. 647-2949. 

Masquers Playhouse “The Shadow Box” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m. at 105 Park Place, Point Richmond, through Sept. 29. This show is not recommended for children.Tickets are $15. 232-4031. www.masquers.org  

TheaterInSearch “Epic of Gilgamesh” Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 2 p.m. at Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., through Sept. 2. Tickets are $12-$20. 262-0584. 

Viaticum “The Carnal Table” Thurs.-Sat. at 8 p.m., Sun. at 3 p.m. at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck Ave. through Sept. 2. Tickets are $10-$15. 848-3338. 

EXHIBITIONS 

“Hit the Road, Jack...” A mixed-media group show. Opening reception at 7 p.m at Eclectix Gallery, 7523 Fairmount Ave., El Cerrito. 364-7261. 

FILM 

From the Tsars to the Stars: A Journey through Russian Fantastik Cinema “The Heavens Call” at 7 p.m. and “Zero City” at 8:45 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive. Cost is $5-$8. 642-0808. www.bampfa.berkeley.edu 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Los Boleros, Havana dance party, at 9 p.m. at La Peña Cultural Center. Cost is $10-$12. 849-2568. www.lapena.org 

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

Melvin Seals & JGB, The Jolly Gibsons at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $17-$20. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Judea Eden Band at 8 p.m. at Caffe Trieste, 2500 San Pablo Ave., at Dwight. 548-5198.  

Mike Eckstein and Vanessa Lowe at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. www.nomadcafe.net 

Matthew Hansen, James Deprato, Sean Hodge at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Jeff Jernigan at 10 p.m. at Beckett’s Irish Pub, 2271 Shattuck Ave. 647-1790.  

Pacuzo, Digust of Us, alt, jazz, latin, at 9:30 p.m. at the Stork Club Oakland, 2330 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. Cost is $5. 444-6174. 

Lifesavas at 9 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $8-$10. 548-1159.  

Shim Sham Rebellion at 8 p.m. at Jupiter. 843-8277. 

Allan Hodsworth at 8 and 10 p.m., through Sun. at Yoshi’s at Jack London Square. Cost is $12-$24. 238-9200. www.yoshis.com 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 1 

CHILDREN  

“Aesop’s Fables Puppet Show” Sat. and Sun. at 11 a.m. and 2 and 4 p.m. at Children’s Fairyland, 699 Bellevue Ave. 452-2259. 

THEATER 

Shotgun Players “The Three Musketeers” Sat. and Sun. at 4 p.m. at John Hinkle Park, Southampton Ave., off The Arlington, through Sept. 9. Free. 841-6500. 

READINGS AND LECTURES 

Poetry Flash with David Alpaugh and Lynne Knight at 7 p.m. at Cody’s Books on Fourth St. 559-9500. 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

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

M’Balou Kante at 9:30 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Guinean dance workshop at 8:30 p.m. Cost is $15. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com  

Sotaque Baiano, Brazilian, at 8 p.m. at Shattuck Down Low, 2284 Shattuck Ave. Cost is $5-$10. 548-1159.  

Heaven with Your Boots On, Kevin McCarthy at 7:30 p.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344. 

Jonathan Segel, Victor Krummenacher, P.A.F. at 9:30 p.m. at The Starry Plough. Cost is $7. 841-2082.  

Allegiance, Set it Straight, SBV, Down Again, 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, SEPT. 2 

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Philips Marine Duo at 11 a.m. at Nomad Cafe, 6500 Shattuck Ave. 595-5344.  

Naked Barbies record release party at 4 p.m. at The Starry Plough. all gaes. 841-2082.  

La Kay, Haitian, at 5 p.m. at Ashkenaz. Cost is $10. 525-5054. www.ashkenaz.com 

Doomhawk, Red Herring, Pet Club at 5 p.m. at 924 Gilman St., an all-ages, member-run, no alcohol, no drugs, no violence club. Cost is $5. 525-9926. 

MONDAY, SEPT. 3 

EXHIBITIONS 

“The Face of Place” mixed media by Janet Brugos opens at L’Amyx Tea Bar, 4179 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. www.lamyx.com 

“Found Photos” An exhibition of photographs by Yvette Hoffer shot 50 years ago in Europe on exhibit at Downtown Restaurant, 2102 Shattuck, through Oct.  

MUSIC AND DANCE 

Don Coffin and Paul Ellis, Celtic, jazz, at 7 p.m. at Le Bateau Ivre, 2629 Telegraph Ave. 849-1100. www.lebateauivre.net 

‘VIATICUM’ AT LIVE OAK 

Viaticum (The Carnal Table), on stage at Live Oak Theatre Thursday through Sunday, is described as “a tasty bit of hell” and subtitled “A Tragic Farce in Ten Fits,” like Lewis Carroll’s Hunting of the Snark. Author-director Helen Pau has served up a veritable platter of scenes, vignettes and monologues of the amusingly outré, on Kim A. Tolman’s extravagant set—part Gothic crypt, part king-size chessboard—where the aptly-named Strange family cavort and extemporize, becoming pirates, nuns, secret agents. Like a De Chirico painting, the vanishing point is infinity, and the motifs crowd together, helter-skelter. Features skydiver David Usner as paratrooper/adventurer Saul Strange at his “birthday party turned Last Supper,” with Michaela Greeley excellent as his astringent wife Jean. 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday. 

ED REED SINGS LOVE STORIES AT YOSHI’S 

Ed Reed, jazz singer extraordinaire and a Richmond resident, will make his Yoshi’s debut at the Jack London Square club Wednesday evening, with shows at 8 p.m. ($12) and 10 p.m. ($6). The quartet backing him up will include the co-producers of his maiden CD, Ed Reed Sings Love Stories (samples at edreedsings.com). Berkeley High graduate and New York multi-instrumentalist Peck Allmond and radio personality-producer Bud Spangler on drums, as well as John Wiitala on bass (another album alumnus) and Matt Clark on piano.  

“It’s Bud’s debut at Yoshi’s, too,” Reed said. “He’s been behind the scenes there for records he’s produced, but never playing onstage before.”  

Reed’s CD, on his and his wife Diane’s label, has been getting airplay around the country, and Reed has been booked later this fall at the Jazz Standard in New York and for a benefit in Boston, headlined by George Benson. His standing gig has been Tuesday evenings (excepting tonight) at the Cheese Board pizza parlor on Shattuck in North Berkeley, where he and pianist Brian Cooke both bring in new material weekly, exploring the American songbook.  

The Yoshi’s show, however, puts Reed in the premiere jazz room in the Bay Area. Well-known jazzwriter-musician Lee Hildebrand wrote Reed up last week in the Chronicle and “the phone’s been ringing ever since,” Reed said. “When I went to work at Kaiser [where Reed’s a counselor], everybody applauded! I’m excited about Yoshi’s. When I was growing up in L.A., I performed in the weekly talent shows at the Lincoln Theatre, where the comic used to come out with a big black gun and shoot you, if the audience didn’t like you. And I got shot a lot! They’d really jeer you. I’m glad I had that kind of rigorous apprenticeship—but Yoshi’s ... that’s got to be a step up!”

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN 

If, in the year 2107, someone were to write a book like Richard Schwartz’s latest effort, he could well be one of its subjects. 

Eccentrics, Heroes, and Cutthroats of Old Berkeley is a guiltless pleasure, a delightful collection of tales about some of the city’s most fascinating and wrongly forgotten characters. 

A builder by trade, Schwartz is Berkeley’s resident amateur historian, the author of two previous works of community history. 

After his Berkeley 1900 account of the city at the dawn of a new century and Earthquake Exodus, 1906 with its account of Berkeley’s response to the Great Earthquake of 1906, Schwartz moves on to profile in words and contemporary images some of the folks who help the city’s justifiable reputation as home to some of the most colorful, cantankerous and fascinating folks on the nation’s Left Coast. 

Take Emperor Norton for example—that genteel and majestically delusional soul and legendary San Franciscan whose funeral in 1880 drew 30,000 mourners. 

Self-proclaimed Emperor of North America and Protector of Mexico, he was also a familiar figure in the city across the bay from the seat of his realm, conducting reviews of UC Berkeley military cadets and upstaging a real-life emperor who’d come to lecture on a university stage. 

Then there was John E. Boyd, an oft-lauded and occasionally arrested homespun essayist and sometimes city-official-cum-town-drunk—in addition to his self-anointed role as Boss Baggage Buster of Beautiful Berkeley. 

A vivid stylist whose wordsmithing some thought comparable to Twain’s, he also became a cinematic hero, a rescuer on horseback in the 1906 film A Trip to Berkeley, which still plays on the Pacific Film Archive’s silver screen. 

Courts closed when he died, the City Hall flag flew at half-mast and Odd Fellows Hall filled with mourners. 

The opening essay tells the tales of Irish immigrant Martin Murrey Dunn, who owned some of the choicest acreage in the Berkeley hills, and of Dave, the fire horse who loved him. 

In affably agreeable prose, Schwartz describes the unique role of the horse in fighting fires and of the affection that bonded the highly intelligent animals and their human trainers and partners in firefighting. 

Part of the land where Dunn raised his horses is today occupied by the Claremont Hotel, built eight years after his death. 

Land battles 

In Berkeley of late, all the serious politics have been about land use, often pitting neighbor against neighbor, and neighborhoods against developers and officialdom. 

The landmarks ordinance, the Gaia Building, UC Berkeley’s construction boom and Western Berkeley rezoning have generated endless debate, litigation (threatened and often realized) and political campaigns while consuming reams of print and barrels of ink. Even that most venerable of Berkeley battles, the contest over the fate of that plot of land dubbed People’s Park, has been heating up again. 

So it should come as no surprise that confrontations about human real estate “improvements” have deep Berkeley roots—replete with threats, a murder and a feisty homeowner who literally laid her life on the line. 

The most compelling of Schwartz’s land battle stories is the saga of Mary Townsend, a real-life pistol-packin’ momma. 

A small woman with a pleasant smile who made her living as a domestic worker, Townsend had seen her share of life’s miseries. Widowed by the Civil War and burdened with a ne’er-do-well son, she had become a highly respected figure in 1870s, and owned a home on Shattuck Avenue south of Channing Way. 

And then a man memorialized in two Berkeley streets, Frances Kittredge Shattuck, teamed with James Barker to entice the Central Pacific Railroad to run a line up Shattuck from Oakland. 

While most property owners accepted the railroad’s buyout offers, Townsend and neighbor Peter Maloney refused, since the property sought by the railroad would put the tracks right at their front doors. 

Momentarily stymied, the railroad curved the tracks to avoid the two lots, then enticed the county to launch condemnation proceedings. 

Rejecting further settlement offers which included a swap for an unusable lot and angered by the railroad’s refusal to pay for moving her house, she took legal action and a Solomonic court split the legal baby in an 1877 decision, giving the railroad an easement on the lots, while leaving legal title to the land and a $1,030 award to Townsend. 

But railroad baron Charlie Crocker refused to pay, and threatened to leave town with his tracks unless Townsend’s neighbors coughed up the cash. They did. 

It took another two decades for the battle to erupt anew, this time over the city’s move to pave between the tracks to keep down dust. Before it ended, Townsend had moved her house onto the tracks, lain across the rails and shoved a pistol into the chest of the town marshal. 

The rest of the story is for the reader to discover.  

Schwartz’s 17 chapters are like kernels of hot, buttered popcorn—crunchy and delightfully tasty, and almost impossible to devour one at a time—with the last one vanishing with regret at the feast’s end and with appreciation for the pleasure they brought. 

This reader, for one, didn’t stop until the whole volume had been consumed. 

Though “amateur” has evolved into something of a condescending slur, Richard Schwartz restores the word to some of its earlier luster. 

Only in athletics does the word retain its original meaning as a “lover,” someone whose passion for the beloved is motivated by love, not money. 

Schwartz is a passionate amateur of Berkeley history, approaching his discipline with both passion and rigor and crafting his words with affection and humor coupled with the more orthodox demands of accuracy and attribution.  

Infectious enthusiasm combined with the larger-than-life natures of many of the characters he profiles prove an irresistable combination. 

He offers us stories of folks whose names deserve their places on the city’s roster of streets—though one subject’s horse did leave its moniker, Prince, on the South Berkeley street that a certain Daily Planet writer calls home. 

Photograph of Emperor Norton.

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor 

It takes guts for a singer to do a retrospective on the work of Nina Simone. Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughn—Simone’s modern jazz contemporaries—had far more rich and melodious voices, but Nina had a presence, a duality that was both soft and mysterious and inviting as a Carolina deepwoods night and sharp and scary and sudden as a razor held aloft. The jazz and blues divas of her era lived their songs, but Nina embodied them. She was America’s practicing priestess vodoún—stately and black, simultaneously baring herself naked and frighteningly aloof—and modern singers attempt to take us down her path at their peril. 

Well, either Kim Nalley has no fear, or she is damn good at not showing it. 

In an hour-and-a-half tribute to Simone at the Berkeley BART Plaza on Sunday afternoon, pointedly taken without intermission, Nalley did not try to recreate Nina—who could, after all?—but interpreted her life and music in a way that made us appreciate both Nina’s pain and her greatness, in the way the soft, midnight moon reflects the long-departed light of a burning sun. 

The concert was part of last weekend’s Downtown Berkeley Jazz Festival. 

As remarkable as the concert itself—given with Nalley’s traditional sultry, sensual range—is that the singer was able to pull it off in the outdoor plaza while competing with passing buses, chattering children, and the occasional hip-hop beat coming from open car windows on Shattuck Avenue. That, if anything, marks the distinct difference between Nalley and Nina. Simone was the epitome of the proud diva, famous for sometimes halting her performances in mid-stanza to turn her eye on a couple conversing in low tones in the front row, fixing them with an icy stare, and remarking, coldly, “Oh, don’t mind me. I’ll wait until you’re finished.” Nalley has a different type of performance presence, drawing listeners into a special singing circle surrounding her that seems to magically mute any outside thoughts or sounds. 

Interspersed with a running commentary that was also a lesson in history—both African-American and American in the whole—Nalley took the plaza audience from Nina’s early takes on 19th century African-American folk ballads (“In the Evening by the Moonlight” by the once-popular but now long-forgotten African-American composer James Bland, better known for his minstrel standards “O Dem Golden Slippers” and “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny”), to the traditional woman’s lament “House of the Rising Sun” (Nalley reminded us that while male rock artists covered this song after Nina re-popularized it, only a woman’s touch makes you understand that this was about entrapment as a worker in a New Orleans whorehouse), to the blues standard “Trouble in Mind.” 

Nina Simone was more than a singer—she was an accomplished composer and concert pianist—and Nalley re-created one of her most famous and controversial original compositions, “Mississippi Goddamn,” conceived in those dark and bitter times following the bombing of Montgomery Alabama’s 16th Street Baptist Church and the assassination of Mississippi NAACP Field Director Medgar Evers. “Mississippi Goddamn” was in a bouncy, irreverent, defiant mode (“a show tune for which the show has not yet been created,” Nalley quotes Nina as saying), and the Carnegie Hall concert audience who heard its world premiere must have thought, at first, that Nina was kidding. “Midway through the song,” Nalley tells us, just before she breaks into the line about the bloodhounds on her trail, “you can hear the point on the recording where the audience realizes she’s serious.” 

The song, Nalley explains, turned Nina from a performer to a civil rights protester, eventually leading to her targeting by the FBI, and eventual exile from America. 

Also notable in Nalley’s rendition was Nina’s interpretation of the Screaming Jay Hawkins signature piece “I Put a Spell on You,” in which both Nina’s and Nalley’s raw sexuality and spirit-woman wickedness are given full play, and in the closing, rousing “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” gospel great, with a rolling piano accompaniment by local pianist Tammy Hall that made even the atheists in the Berkeley audience want to jump up and shout. 

A San Francisco transplant and UC Berkeley graduate, Nalley is a locally based band leader, producer, and vocalist who appears regularly at Bay Area venues. For those who missed the Berkeley BART Plaza concert, Nalley has thoughtfully provided us with a CD that compiles her musical tribute to Nina, “She Put a Spell on Me: Kim Nalley Sings Nina Simone,” that includes many of the songs performed on Sunday.