Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Tuesday October 30, 2007

TUESDAY, OCT. 30 -more-


The Shtetl Before the Holocaust

By Peter Selz, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 30, 2007

We know so much about the deportation and death of Polish Jews in the Holocaust, but so little about life in the shtetl before the genocide. The exhibition of his paintings, currently on view at the Magnes Museum displays 65 pictures by an artist who has documented the joys and sorrows of daily life in the shtetl. -more-


The Theater: Virago Theatre Stages ‘Mankind’s Last Hope’ In Alameda

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 30, 2007

Mankind’s Last Hope, Virago Theatre’s burlesque futuristic sitcom, through this weekend at Alameda’s Rhythmix Cultural Center near the Park Street Bridge, is the perfect antidote to the overcommercialization of Halloween. -more-


Spooky, Unusual Events in Celebration of Halloween

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Tuesday October 30, 2007

All Hallows, All Saints, All Souls, Samhain, Todos Santos, Dia de los Muertes ... by any other name, to us, Halloween and the cluster of celebrations around the old Celtic lunar new year after harvest, adopted by the Christian Church as holidays. -more-


Books: A Guide to the Bay Area’s Buildings and Architecture

By Steven Finacom, Special to the Daily Planet
Tuesday October 30, 2007

A long-awaited, much-needed, and up-to-date guide to the great and representative buildings and architectural history of the Bay Area debuts this month. -more-


Kingdom of Shadows: The Origins of the Horror Film

By Justin DeFreitas
Tuesday October 30, 2007

As long as we've had motion pictures, we've used them to scare ourselves. The medium is perfectly suited for it. Even the earliest filmmakers saw the potential, employing double exposures, trick shots, spooky sets and dramatic lighting to illuminate the darker side of the imagination, to bring to life the ethereal netherworlds and distorted figures of the collective unconscious. -more-


Wild Neighbors: Birds in Berkeley: The Owls in the Oak

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday October 30, 2007

Eighty-one years ago Joseph Grinnell, director of UC’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, sat in his corner office at the edge of Faculty Glade watching a crew of arborists at work on a venerable coast live oak. Or, as he put it in his essay “Tree Surgery and the Birds,” “ ‘tree surgeons’ … under directions of a ‘landscape architect.’ ” His contempt is evident. Over the years, Grinnell had observed 46 species of birds in that oak. And he noted the removal of bits of the tree that had attracted particular species of birds: the decaying stub where the downy woodpecker drummed, the white-breasted nuthatch’s favorite foraging ground, the flycatcher’s perch. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday October 30, 2007

TUESDAY, OCT. 30 -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday October 26, 2007

FRIDAY, OCT 26 -more-


The Theater: ‘Rosencrantz & Guildenstern’ at Live Oak

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday October 26, 2007

Among the bodies in the famous heap at the end of Hamlet, two are notably missing: the Melancholy Prince’s schoolmates (though Hamlet himself can’t seem to tell them apart), summoned by his usurper uncle to spy on him in his presumed madness, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. -more-


The Theater: Altarena Playhouse Presents ‘Morning’s at Seven’

By Ken Bullock, Special to the Planet
Friday October 26, 2007

Altarena Playhouse, Alameda’s venerable community theater, is celebrating its 70th anniversary—and 50 years at its present location on High Street—with a venerable old comedy of just about the same vintage as the troupe, Paul Osbourn’s Morning’s at Seven (1939). -more-


Harvest of Song at Berkeley Art Center

Friday October 26, 2007

The seventh annual Harvest of Song features new vo-cal and instrumental compositions by Bay Area composers headed by Ann Callaway, Allen Shearer and Peter Josheff, in collaboration with writer Jaime Robles. Composers Alexis Alrich and Laurie San Martin join this year’s mix. Performers include the Harvest Players, some of the Bay Area’s finest musicians, augmented by marimba and vibraphone. A women’s vocal ensemble adds to the festivities.Sat.Oct. 27 and Sun. Oct. 28 at 7:30 p.m. -more-


Moving Pictures: Arab Film Festival at California Theater

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday October 26, 2007

The 11th annual Arab First Festival continues this weekend at the California Theater in downtown Berkeley. -more-


Moving Pictures: A Few Days in the Life Of Jimmy Carter

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday October 26, 2007

Jimmy Carter is more active in his 80s than I was at any time during my 20s. If that’s an exaggeration it’s not much of one. The man’s zest for life is well known, but it is still awe-inspiring to see. In addition to his work with Habitat for Humanity and the Carter Center and a writing career that results in a book per year, the man somehow manages to find time to paint, preach, hike, bicycle and travel the world. -more-


Moving Pictures: Mamet's "House of Games"

By Justin DeFreitas
Friday October 26, 2007

House of Games, David Mamet's 1987 directorial debut, was and still is like no other film. -more-


Open Home in Focus: Elegant and Cozy North Berkeley House on View

By Steven Finacom
Friday October 26, 2007

Around a North Berkeley bend, quickly by-passed by those busily headed someplace else, there’s a gem of a creek side house. The architecture and setting embody much of what gives residential Berkeley a special sense of place. -more-


Garden Variety: NWF’s Connie Award Goes to Local Wildlands/Garden Patron Kathy Kramer

By Ron Sullivan
Friday October 26, 2007

One of our own is on her way to Washington DC to receive a long-deserved award. Kathy Kramer, who founded and runs the annual Bringing Back the Natives garden tour, will be honored on Nov. 1—appropriately enough, All Saints’ Day—along with Bill McKibben (The End of Nature), Al Gore, Rev. Richard Cizik (who has stirred up a hornets’ nest with the Evangelical Climate Initiative’s “Call to Action” statement, insisting on Christians’ responsibility toward stewardship of the earth), Steve Curwood (host of NPR’s Living on Earth show) and others including more dubious company like Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. -more-


Quake Tip of the Week

By Larry Guillot
Friday October 26, 2007

More Earthquake Tidbits -more-


About the House: Insurance: Knob and Tube Wiring

By Matt Cantor
Friday October 26, 2007

The other day a recent inspection client of mine called up and asked if I could help answer a few questions. She proceeded to ask if her new house had copper piping. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday October 26, 2007

FRIDAY, OCT. 26 -more-