Arts & Events

FRIDAY, SEPT. 7 -more-

NADA LEWIS PLAYS -more-

Under a suspended crocodile in the parlor of a country home which resembles a ship’s salon, with walls covered in primitive masks and scimitars, a female servant (Lynne Soffer as Nurse Guinness) is sympathizing with a newly arrived, ungreeted—perhaps forgotten--guest: “Since she’s forgotten all about it, it will be a pleasant surprise for her to see you!” -more-

Cal Performances has started a rush ticket program for community members. For select performances, Cal Performances offers UC Berkeley student, faculty and staff, senior and community rush tickets. Rush tickets are announced two hours prior to a performance and are available in person only at the ticket office beginning one hour before the performance; quantities may be limited. Rush ticket sales are limited to one ticket per person; all sales are cash only. Rush ticket prices are $10 for UC Berkeley students; $15 for UC Berkeley faculty and staff (UCB ID required) and seniors age 65 or older; and $20 for all other community members. Information is available at 642-9988 (press 2 for the rush hotline) two hours prior to a performance only. -more-

A hundred years ago, a sizable population of refugees from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire made the East Bay its permanent home. Among the new arrivals were many Italian families, a good number of whom settled in West Berkeley. -more-

Watering plants in containers is both easier and harder than it seems. Everyone has a vice about this, generally a tendency to either overwater or underwater. (If your tendency either way is impossible to reform, you might consider underwater plants. Go on over to Albany Aquarium on San Pablo Avenue just north of Solano and have a look at some nicely planted tanks first.) -more-

Everybody has a little internal list of least favorite ways to die. Some of these are rational, but mostly they’re derived from some fantasy, childhood experience or errant datum we’ve chanced upon. Perhaps we were children and heard an awful story. Maybe we encountered saw someone killed in a movie—lots of those, aren’t there?! Perhaps it was simply a story related by a friend. Regardless of the source we all have these. -more-

FRIDAY, SEPT. 7 -more-

TUESDAY, SEPT. 4 -more-

At the top of the hill for the Solano Stroll, C.Z. and the Bon Vivants will be pumping out Zydeco and Cajun music for listening and dancing. It’s the third time the popular group will do the Stroll, and as fiddler Catherine Matovich said, “It’s been more fun every time—and nicer up there at the top. People can dance, then go into Andronico’s for something to drink, to keep from passing out!” -more-

The only way to beat this thing ... is to leave nothing behind, nothing unsaid, nothing undone—use it all up! (But I’m scared to death!)” -more-

Although you wouldn’t expect a book about metabolic ecology to be a page-turner, I found John Whitfield’s recent In the Beat of a Heart: Life, Energy, and the Unity of Nature engrossing. Whitfield, a British science journalist, explains how metabolism relates to size, volume, and surface area. Along the way, he looks at why bats outlive mice, whether humans are allotted a fixed number of heartbeats in their lifetime (astronaut Neil Armstrong said that if that was true, he was damned if he was going to waste any of his jogging), and the tragic fate of Tusko the elephant. -more-

TUESDAY, SEPT. 4 -more-