Arts & Events
Howard Wiley, ‘Bringing Jazz Back to Oakland’
Upstairs from Clancy’s Cantina, at 311 Broadway, near Jack London Square, is the Aqua Lounge, a refugee from the post-Moderne, Scandinavian design period of cocktail joints. A no-nonsense, but easygoing, comfortable kind of place, with no pretensions. -more-
‘You, Nero’ at Berkeley Rep
Nero fiddled while Rome burned.” An anachronistic line everybody’s heard; there’s no graceful way to say that he “lyred.” Amy Freed picks up on both the imperial aestheticism and the anachronistic sentiment in her play, You, Nero, now onstage at Berkeley Rep. -more-
Berkeley’s World Music Festival Begins Saturday
The Free Sixth Annual Berkeley World Music Festival, with performance venues stretching along and just off Telegraph Ave., in People’s Park and in cafes and shops from Bancroft Way, almost to Parker, will celebrate music, song and dance of a wealth of cultures, from noon to 9 p.m. this Saturday. -more-
Kenny Washington at Anna’s
Kenny [Washington] is the most thrilling singers’ singer I have heard in recent years,” said Anna De Leon of her headliner this Saturday night at Anna’s Jazz Island in downtown Berkeley. “He combines the joyful and effortless musicality of Ella and Sarah with a voice that is comfortable in a more-than-four-octave range. He can sing all across the American spectrum—jazz, show tunes, rhythm and blues, Motown ... all with great passion and great skill.” -more-
Pops Concert Closes Young People’s Symphony Orchestra Season
Young People’s Symphony Orchestra, founded in Berkeley in 1935, the oldest youth orchestra in California and second-oldest in the nation, will present its last show of the season (conductor David Ramadanoff’s 20th) this Sunday at 7 p. m. with a Pops Concert, music by Berlioz, Hindemith/von Weber, Prokofiev, Gershwin, John Williams, LeRoy Anderson and John Philip Sousa. -more-
Around the East Bay: Wilde's 'Lady Windemere's Fan'
Oscar Wilde’s wry predecessor to Earnest-ness, Lady Windemere’s Fan, is onstage now at the Masquers Playhouse, updated by director Patricia Inabnet to the status-seeking 1950s. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2:30 p.m. Sundays. 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. $18. 232-4031. www.masquers.org. -more-
Around the East Bay: 'A Streetcar Named Desire'
An unusually good production of A Streetcar Named Desire goes into its final performances at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday, at Altarena Playhouse. Director Sue Trigg and her cast stage Tennessee Williams’ masterwork in the round, and do it justice by making every detail build on the last. The final scenes are indelible. 1409 High St., Alameda. $17-20. 764-9718. www.altarena.org. -more-
About the House: Hydrostatic Pressure And Why Your Basement Leaks
It might appear to be over-reaching to attempt a discussion of something that sounds as high-handed as hydrostatic pressure in a lay essay, but if you’ll bear with me, you’ll quickly see how this is both relevant and conceptually accessible to just about everyone. -more-