Arts & Events

Arts Calendar

Tuesday February 26, 2008

TUESDAY, FEB. 26 -more-


Books: Eastwind Books Provides Literary Hub for Asian Community

By Anna Mindess, Special to the Planet
Tuesday February 26, 2008
Eastwind Books on University Avenue specializes in books from various Asian cultures, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, 
                  Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodian, Hmong, Hawaiian, Indian, Tibetan, Pakistani, Malaysian, Filipino, and Indonesian.

In order to keep his favorite bookstore from being turned into a beauty shop, Harvey Dong transformed himself from customer to owner of Eastwind Books in 1996. -more-


‘Wakefield, or Hello Sophia’ at Central Works

By Ken Bullock, Special to The Planet
Tuesday February 26, 2008

Dying embers of a fire on a blustery night; a pensive woman, alone in a room ... when the door opens and a rainsoaked man steps in, greets her by name, and just stands there while she gawks. It’s her husband, who left on a two-day business trip 20 years before. -more-


La Peña Celebrates Words and Life of Paul Robeson

By Deb Schneider, Special to the Planet
Tuesday February 26, 2008
Paul Robeson leads Moore Shipyard Workers in singing “The Star Spangled Banner” in Oakland in September 1942.

Paul Robeson was something of a Renaissance man. A singer, actor, lawyer, writer, civil rights advocate, all-American athlete and political activist, Robeson was a powerful and eloquent spokesman for racial justice well before Martin Luther King, Jr., or Malcolm X, yet these successors have eclipsed him in the annals of history. -more-


Wilde Irish Stages Centennial Bash for Irish National Theatre

By Ken Bullock, Special to The Planet
Tuesday February 26, 2008

Wilde Irish, Berkeley’s resident Irish theater company, will stage a centennial celebration for Ireland’s National Theatre this Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m., with two original Abbey Theatre short comedies: Lady Gregory’s The Workhouse Ward and John Synge’s In the Shadow of the Glen. -more-


Wild Neighbors: Globetrotting Rodents: The Odyssey of the Black Rat

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday February 26, 2008

It’s the Year of the Rat again‚—but which rat? For most of us “rat” signifies Rattus norwegicus, the Norway, brown, sewer, or wharf rat, progenitor of all those rats in all those labs, whose original homeland was northern China. But a case could be made for a less-well-known relative with roots in Asia: Rattus rattus, the black, roof, house, or ship rat. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Tuesday February 26, 2008

TUESDAY, FEB. 26 -more-


Arts Calendar

Friday February 22, 2008

FRIDAY, FEB. 22 -more-


The Theater: Richards’ ‘Come Home’ Comes to SF’s The Marsh

By Ken Bullock, Special to The Planet
Friday February 22, 2008

Jovelyn Richards of Oakland is a born storyteller. When she was little, her mother would have visitors by for coffee “and I heard things that weren’t said; I put language to their secrets. After they left, I told my mother their story. She knew the truth from them and would say, ‘Where did you get that?’ I was putting language to their secrets. I didn’t know how to decode that for her.” -more-


Contra Costa Civic Theatre Stages ‘The Cocoanuts’

By Ken Bullock, Special to The Planet
Friday February 22, 2008

A clerk at a Florida resort hotel during the 1920s property boom leaps out from behind his desk and joins in a lively production number. The villainess in an engagement con on a wealthy mother and daughter leads a line of dancers doing the Charleston. -more-


East Bay Then and Now: William Wharff: Architect, Civil War Vet and Mason

By Daniella Thompson
Friday February 22, 2008
The Masonic Temple at 2105 Bancroft Way was built in 1906.

Of all the architects who resided in Berkeley during the first four decades of the 20th century, the one who received the most coverage in the local press was not John Galen Howard or Bernard Maybeck but William Hatch Wharff. And only occasionally was the press coverage related to his profession. -more-


Garden Variety: Grow Local Heirlooms and Have a Good Time Too

By Ron Sullivan
Friday February 22, 2008

“Music will be an Old Time Music Jam, bring yer fiddle,” is what Terri Compost, the exquisitely named point person of the Bay Area Seed Interchange Library (acronym’ed, equally exquisitely, “BASIL”) replied to my query. I wanted to know who would be playing the music promised for BASIL’s Ninth Annual Seed Swap tomorrow, Saturday February 23, 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Ecology Center. Dang, I don’t have a fiddle. Guess I’ll just send the cat. -more-


About the House: Some Notes on Building a Fire

By Matt Cantor
Friday February 22, 2008

I was inspecting a house out beyond the Naugahyde Curtain the other day (Walnut Creek, if memory serves; landing strip for white flight). The house was unillustrious but amongst the artifacts that brought me sufficient intrigue to set the day aglow was a brand new fireplace. -more-


Berkeley This Week

Friday February 22, 2008

FRIDAY, FEB. 22 -more-