Arts Listings

Around and About

By Ken Bullock
Thursday April 08, 2010 - 09:58:00 AM

Personal picks from the Bay Area arts menu:  

Rough & Tumble, who presented a spirited version of Andy Bayiotes' 43 Plays for 43 Presidents a couple years ago, commissioned the playwright for A History of Human Stupidity (is it a sequel?), the results of which will be premiered this Thursday through April 25 at LaVal's Subterranean, Northside, on Euclid. Called "an intellectual vaudeville in three acts and a roast," the show features original music by saxophonist-composer Phillip Greenlief, who'll play in situ. $16-$20; 499-0356; www.randt.org  

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Galatean Players, who've presented Rosie the Riveter on shipboard, are doing it again with Mr. Roberts, aboard the USS Red Oak Victory, ongoing--Fridays through Sundays (with matinees and evening shows) until April 18, in the old Kaiser Shipyard on the Richmond waterfront. $15-$20. (925) 676-5705; galateanplayers.com  

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Charles Hamilton, who directed the Berkeley High Jazz Program and bands for 28 years, touring the world with his students to much acclaim, will celebrate the release of his first CD, MR.. HAMUDAH, Tuesday night (April 13) at 8 at Yoshi's-Jack London Square. 

Playing the gig will be the current edition of Charles Hamilton & Beyond, a septet of alumni including members of the Hieroglyphics and Mingus Amungus: Mark Wright, trumpet; Mike Aaberg, piano; Josh Jones, drums; Joshi Marshall, sax; Miles Perkins, bass; Mosheh Milon, percussion--led by Hamilton on trombone--with special guest artsts Leah Wollenberg, electric violin and Elena Pinderhughes, flute. Several of the players are Downbeat Poll winners. 

Yoshi's, 510 Embarcadero, just north of Broadway, Oakland. 

238-9200; www.yoshis.com 

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Headlines have featured politicians faced with the jug; now there's a gubenatorial candidate playing one! 

Artist Lowell Darling, who ran for Governor in 1977, the election period Prop. 13 passed, is hitting the trail again--which includes blowing a jug with Smooth Toad, as well as (presumably) kissing babies, at a benefit for his run. Darling promises, if elected, to do nothing as Governor until the legislature reduces the 2/3 vote needed to pass new taxes to a simple majority 

7:30 p. m. Saturday, April 10, Rhythmix Cultural Center, 2513 Blanding, Alameda (near the Fruitvale Bridge). Admission: sliding scale, starting at $10. 

Smooth Toad--whom you well may have heard on Subterranean Shakespeare's Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits CD--consists of Blake Street Hawkeyes co-founder Bob Ernst (the Guinness Book recordholder in 1987 for a solo performance over 24 hours) on harmonica and vocals, fiddler Hal Hughes and poet G. P. Skratz on guitar, &c. Sitting in will be Mime Trouper Ed Holmes on toy percussion and Kevin Moore, lead guitar. Smooth Toad recently backed Ernst in his wailing staged reading of King Lear for SubShakes; the wind blew, the cheeks crack'd.