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A Berkeley resident donned a rat costume at Tuesday's City Council meeting to show her displeasure with the BRT proposal.
Riya Bhattacharjee
A Berkeley resident donned a rat costume at Tuesday's City Council meeting to show her displeasure with the BRT proposal.
 

News

Flash: Berkeley Police Apprehend Robbery Suspects

Thursday April 22, 2010 - 03:38:00 PM

At 1:00 on Thursday afternoon Officer Jamie Perkins of the Berkeley Police Department announced the arrests of three robbery suspects, all Richmond residents, who were responsible for a series of North Berkeley robberies.  

"With the arrest of these suspects, Robbery Detectives closed five North Berkeley Robberies in addition to the three committed on April 19th.We are asking anyone who has not reported being victim of robbery to come forward." she said. 

Complete details, including photos of each arrested suspect, are in the BPD's press release. Police have asked any other robbery victims to contact them.


New: Southside Lofts Residents Triumph Over Laundromat Once Again

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Wednesday April 21, 2010 - 03:55:00 PM
Southside Lofts homeowner Scott Stoller told the City Council Tuesday that the lack of an attendant at the laundromat would put his 4-year-old daughter Arunima's safety at risk when she played in the condo complex.
Riya Bhattacharjee
Southside Lofts homeowner Scott Stoller told the City Council Tuesday that the lack of an attendant at the laundromat would put his 4-year-old daughter Arunima's safety at risk when she played in the condo complex.
Southside Loft resident Molly Malone and other neighbors protest against the laundromat at the City Council meeting Tuesday. The council upheld the ZAB's decision to deny the laundromat a use permit.
Riya Bhattacharjee
Southside Loft resident Molly Malone and other neighbors protest against the laundromat at the City Council meeting Tuesday. The council upheld the ZAB's decision to deny the laundromat a use permit.

Southside Lofts residents emerged victorious once again Tuesday when the City Council voted to uphold the Zoning Adjustment Board's decision to deny a use permit for a laundromat in the building. 

The battle between condo owners at 3095 Telegraph Ave. and the PWS laundry company has been going on since 2009, when one of the neighbors discovered that the city had issued an erroneous use permit to the corporation based on the existence of a previous laundromat at the site, which had burned down several years before. 

The city issued a stop work order, but PWS threatened to sue, citing thousands of dollars already spent on construction work. As a result, a settlement was reached and the city agree to pay $42,000 to PWS to cover construction costs. 

In exchange, PWS agreed to follow the proper zoning process, but reserved the right to file a lawsuit if the city denied their permit. 

On Tuesday, property owner Sam Sorokin warned the council that the issue had not yet come to an end. He accused the council of being unfriendly to businesses. 

“In this city homeowners clearly trump retailers,” he said. “You are not reasonable to businesses. We have a right to this space. Now what are we supposed to do? There is clearly going to be another part to this story.” 

Sorokin was previously denied a use permit to open a Quizno's restaurant in the same spot because neighbors were concerned about parking and quality of life.  

The council based their decision to deny a use permit for a business the second time based on some of the same reasons. It took into account noise, vibration and health effects, as well the lack of sufficient parking and the absence of a full-time attendant to keep the place secure when it is open. 

“To see a laundromat being unattended is a cause for concern for us,” said Scott Stoller, whose 4-year-old daughter Arunima often plays within their condo complex. 

PWS's lawyer argued that Berkeley does not have any blanket requirements for laundromats to provide an attendant all the time. 

“To make it a requirement of this business without any evidence that it is necessary is making it an untenable situation,” the lawyer said. “The issue of security is self regulating … Anybody who is investing thousands of dollars will make sure the place is safe.” 

The need for an attendant received support from the majority of the council, including Susan Wengraf, who said she had been assaulted in a laundromat during the daytime in a very safe neighborhood. 

“Laundromats are essentially magnets for people loitering around looking for bad things to do,” she said. 

Wengraf suggested that the Berkeley Planning Commission look into whether it would be possible to stop laundromats from going into mixed-use buildings altogether. 

Councilmember Laurie Capitelli reminded the council that a vacant property was also a detriment to a neighborhood. 

Both Capitelli and Mayor Tom Bates stressed that it was essential the space not remain empty for a long time. 


New: Berkeley Residents Strongly Oppose BRT at Council Hearing

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Wednesday April 21, 2010 - 12:11:00 PM
Berkeley resident Alver H. Starkey holds up a "No BRT" sign with dozens of others at the City Council meeting Tuesday. "I am here to stop BRT," Starkey said. "We need cameras at bus stops, more care for A.C. Transit bus drivers as well as more trees."
Riya Bhattacharjee
Berkeley resident Alver H. Starkey holds up a "No BRT" sign with dozens of others at the City Council meeting Tuesday. "I am here to stop BRT," Starkey said. "We need cameras at bus stops, more care for A.C. Transit bus drivers as well as more trees."
A BRT opponent dressed as a rat gets up to speak during the public hearing as Berkeley resident Scott Tolmie looks on.
Riya Bhattacharjee
A BRT opponent dressed as a rat gets up to speak during the public hearing as Berkeley resident Scott Tolmie looks on.

Even as the Oakland City Council voted to support AC Transit's Bus Rapid Transit plan Tuesday evening, Berkeley residents rallied vociferously against it at their council meeting, prompting Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates to say around 10:30 p.m. he would try to glue together the best parts of BRT to address the community's concerns. 

The City Council is expected to meet at 7 p.m., Thursday, April 29, at Longfellow Middle School to vote on the possibility of forwarding a Build option to AC Transit for environmental review.  

The San Leandro City Council has postponed its decision to May 19. 

The 8 p.m. time specific April 21 meeting to present and discuss the Build option saw an overwhelming number of people opposing a two-way Telegraph and dedicated bus lanes in downtown Berkeley—proposals they said would drive customers away from businesses and harm street vendors. 

Berkeley has been discussing some version of bus rapid transit for almost 20 years. 

Part of a larger project that will link San Leandro, Oakland and Berkeley, the current BRT proposal promises to make transit faster and more reliable for its patrons than it has been on the busiest bus corridor in the East Bay. 

Bonny Nelson from Nelson/Nygaard, the transportation consultants hired by AC Transit to study the Build alternative, said that BRT seeks to increase ridership by increasing efficiency with bus-only lanes, pre-paid tickets and boarding islands. 

BRT would replace the current Rapid Bus service. Average BRT stops would be three to four bus stops apart. More than 100 existing parking spots are estimated to be lost in at least one segment of the proposed BRT. 

Although the Berkeley Planning Commission recommended that the City Council study the Bus Rapid Transit Full Build option, along with another alternative called Rapid Bus Plus--which would not have dedicated lanes or involve extensive restructuring—along with a “No Build” option, Planning Department staff proposed their own set of recommendations which they feel will mitigate some of the concerns for Telegraph and downtown.  

City staff is suggesting that both sets of recommendations be forwarded to AC Transit. 

Just as in the past, and over the course of countless Planning Commission meetings, the most vocal opposition came from the street vendors on Telegraph, the tiny but venerable arts and craft community who sell everything from ballerinas from Russia to necklaces from Madagascar, who claim that two-way traffic would lead to more gridlock, eventually forcing them to move away. 

“Parking fee increases and loss of parking have already led to businesses closing,” said Astor Silverstein, a Telegraph vendor. “If BRT is implemented, many more businesses will be forced to close. Even without BRT parking is already affected. Tourists and shoppers don't come to look at BRT—why would they come to a half-dead town and spend a fortune on parking when they can get free parking in a shopping mall?” 

Michael Katz, a member of the city's Rapid Bus Plus coalition, urged the council to work with him on the alternative plan. 

The Telegraph Business Improvement District and the Downtown Berkeley Association have opposed BRT. So have the Willard, LeConte and the Claremont-Elmwood neighborhood associations. 

A few people spoke in support of BRT, arguing that it would lead to more reliable bus service and improvements for the disability community. At least five people supported the Build option in letters, along with TransForm, a transit advocacy group. 

A number of people said they were bewildered that the city was still considering the Build option despite the amount of opposition it has received till date. 

“I hope this project is not directed by the flow of money,” said Janet Klein, who has been a street vendor on Telegraph for 30 year. “Where is the legitimacy to push this plan forward against the wishes of the community?” 

“This basically feels like an invasion,” said Twig, another Telegraph regular. “You can't really mess with Telegraph. It's very sensitive. Most people come to Telegraph because of the way it is. They like all the craziness.” 

Some called BRT a “subway on rubber wheels rather than steel wheels.” 

Others were more harsh in their criticisms. 

“How many mayors and millions of public tax dollars wasted by AC Transit on a senseless project, and paid consultants, and collusion between AC Transit and misguided city staff does it take to screw in a BRT?” asked Berkeley resident Scott Tolmie. “Where's the humor? Sorry. There is none.” 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington, whose district includes Telegraph Avenue, said he was frustrated that two decades of discussions around BRT had resulted in this, 

“BRT is a great idea if we provided free transit for the employers of every business on the corridor,” he said. “If it connects to Amtrack or the ferry. After all these meetings, where is the corridor connection?” 

Worthington called BRT something that looks good on paper but not in reality. 

“Why would I study cutting off five of my fingers?” he said. “And these fingers are the street vendors, the businesses, the residents, the disabled people and the frail and the elderly.” 

After listening to more than two hours of commentary Mayor Tom Bates said that that although a lot of people want to stop BRT “I don't know if it makes sense.” Other councilmembers expressed some reservations about the plan. 

“I'll be thinking about how I'd like to see things go,” Bates said.”We should not be afraid to look at alternatives.”  


New: State Finds Stimulus Spending Problems in Oakland

By Bay City News
Wednesday April 21, 2010 - 10:34:00 PM

A state audit has found that the city of Oakland's use of federal stimulus money includes a lack of a valid contract, inadequate review of contractors' reimbursement requests, significant accounting errors and inflated job numbers. State Inspector Laura Chick's report analyzed the use of $3.1 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money by the Oakland Workforce Investment Board, which is a city agency, and the nonprofit Oakland Private Industry Council, which received all of the stimulus funding in question.  

The Recovery Act helps provide funding for local workforce investment boards for summer youth, adult and dislocated worker programs.  

The report, which was sent to Gov. Schwarzenegger on Tuesday, said one problem is that the Private Industry Council used Recovery Act money when its regular funding wasn't available.  

Chick told Schwarzenegger, "Some of the mistakes we found can be traced directly to the fact that the city of Oakland did not receive its regular Workforce Investment dollars in a timely way. They received their Recovery dollars first and began to spend these funds on non-Recovery activities.''  

Chick said, "From this initial misstep flowed several of the other problems which included: inflated job numbers, lack of transparency, and accounting mistakes."  

The report also found that reimbursement requests were inadequately reviewed.  

In one example, it said the Spanish Speaking Citizens Foundation was reimbursed $2,806 for field trips to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Waterworld USA and Washington Park.  

The report says stimulus-funding guidelines specifically state that costs for entertainment are unallowable.  

Chick pointed out her review of San Francisco's Workforce Investment Board found no reportable issues.  

In a lengthy written response to the state audit, Earl Johnson, interim executive director of the Oakland Workforce Investment Board, said the city had already acted on many of the report's recommendations before it was released.  

Johnson also said he thinks some of the report's findings are "inaccurate."  

He said, "We take our duties to administer and monitor the use of all public funds, especially ARRA (Recovery Act) funds, very seriously. The city and our partners have and continue to engage in required oversight and monitoring to ensure public accountability and transparency."  

 

A state audit has found that the city of Oakland's use of federal  

stimulus money includes a lack of a valid contract, inadequate review of  

contractors' reimbursement requests, significant accounting errors and  

inflated job numbers. 

State Inspector Laura Chick's report analyzed the use of $3.1  

million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money by the Oakland  

Workforce Investment Board, which is a city agency, and the nonprofit Oakland  

Private Industry Council, which received all of the stimulus funding in  

question. 

The Recovery Act helps provide funding for local workforce  

investment boards for summer youth, adult and dislocated worker programs.  

The report, which was sent to Gov. Schwarzenegger on Tuesday, said  

one problem is that the Private Industry Council used Recovery Act money when  

its regular funding wasn't available. 

Chick told Schwarzenegger, "Some of the mistakes we found can be  

traced directly to the fact that the city of Oakland did not receive its  

regular Workforce Investment dollars in a timely way. They received their  

Recovery dollars first and began to spend these funds on non-Recovery  

activities.'' 

Chick said, "From this initial misstep flowed several of the other  

problems which included: inflated job numbers, lack of transparency, and  

accounting mistakes." 

The report also found that reimbursement requests were  

inadequately reviewed. 

In one example, it said the Spanish Speaking Citizens Foundation  

was reimbursed $2,806 for field trips to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk,  

Waterworld USA and Washington Park. 

The report says stimulus-funding guidelines specifically state  

that costs for entertainment are unallowable. 

Chick pointed out her review of San Francisco's Workforce  

Investment Board found no reportable issues. 

In a lengthy written response to the state audit, Earl Johnson,  

interim executive director of the Oakland Workforce Investment Board, said  

the city had already acted on many of the report's recommendations before it  

was released. 

Johnson also said he thinks some of the report's findings are  

"inaccurate." 

He said, "We take our duties to administer and monitor the use of  

all public funds, especially ARRA (Recovery Act) funds, very seriously. The  

city and our partners have and continue to engage in required oversight and  

monitoring to ensure public accountability and transparency." 


New: Bart Launches Bike Officer Patrol Progam

By Bay City News
Wednesday April 21, 2010 - 10:21:00 PM

BART today unveiled a new program that will take more than 60 of the agency's police officers out of their cars and place them on bicycles starting this summer.  

The program, announced at an event at the North Berkeley BART station this morning, will eliminate the use of 30 cars, BART spokesman Linton Johnson said.  

The average officer drives about 70 miles a day, which equates to about nine tons of pollution per year per vehicle, Johnson said.  

He said the program "will give our officers more visibility with our customers" and "enhance our efforts to get more green" in the spirit of Thursday's Earth Day celebration.  

Starting sometime over the summer, the first set of officers will use bikes to patrol BART stations and parking lots. 

Johnson said bicycle enforcement could deter theft at the stations because "a thief trying to do something won't recognize a bike cop approaching them as quickly as a police car approaching them."  

The program is spearheaded by police Lt. Bill Schultz, who joined Johnson and BART board vice president Bob Franklin, who chairs the board's sustainability/green committee, at today's unveiling.  

The program will be paid for by $92,000 in state grant money, Johnson said. Eventually, 24 community service officers and 40 sworn police officers will participate.


Victim of Saturday’s Fatal Shooting Was a 20-Year-Old Berkeley Man

By Bay City News
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 12:34:00 PM

A 20-year-old Berkeley man who was fatally shot in San Francisco's Bayview District on Saturday night has been identified by the San Francisco medical examiner's office as Stephen Powell. 

The shooting was reported at about 7 p.m. in Garlington Court, San Francisco police Officer Boaz Mariles said. Arriving officers found Powell in the street suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead there, Mariles said. 

No arrests have been made. 

 

 


NEWS ANALYSIS: Tibet Earthquake: The Deepening Divide of Identities

By Topden Tsering, Special to Berkeley Daily Planet
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 11:35:00 AM

The 6.9 magnitude earthquake that ravaged eastern Tibet’s Kyegundo on April 14 has brought to sharp relief the region’s contentious place in China’s geopolitical fold, deepening the divide between the fractured township’s predominantly-Tibetan population and the Chinese government apparatuses.  

Where government relief was slow in the coming, it was the Tibetan Buddhist monks from nearby regions who with bare hands dug out survivors from the rubbles and provided comfort to those who had lost families and friends. By the second and third day when Chinese soldiers and state workers had arrived and taken over rescue operations, elbowing out the monks lest their prominence in media spotlight was compromised, it was the monks who provided proper rites of passage for the thousands of dead, as would have befitted the Buddhist faith of their living incarnations. Xinhua, the government mouthpiece, puts the death toll at 1,400; local Tibetans contend it’s close to 10,000. 

Kyegundo, which maps of China-controlled Tibet depicts as being in Qinghai, is traditionally in Kham province of Tibet. It was one of the three towns, besides Jhomda and Chamdo, through which in 1950 Chinese army invaded Tibet. Its inhabitants, like those from the larger province, famously reputed for their fierce warrior nature, engaged Chinese military in a protracted armed resistance that lasted into the early 1970s, more than a decade after China’s occupation of Tibet in 1959 which led to the exile of the Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama. Started first as isolated underground offences that flared across Kham, the unified guerrilla resistance under “Chushi Gangdruk” of later years inflicted major losses on Chinese army; its members were responsible for securing the Tibetan leader’s unharmed flight to India. The fighting continued in exile from Mustang in Nepal with support from CIA, which was abruptly suspended in early 1970s, after Henry Kissinger’s secret Beijing visit signaled a repairing of U.S.-China relations. The betrayed Tibetan fighters, many of whom had been trained in Colorado, were forced to lay down arms only after the Dalai Lama personally intervened; many subsequently committed suicide, some by drowning, some by slitting their throats. 

In 1965, Kham, as well as Amdo, the province in which the Dalai Lama was born, were incorporated into Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan. The third Tibetan province of U-tsang was designated “Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR);” It is “TAR” which China refers to when they mention Tibet in present-day discourses. 

Ninety percent of people who died in Kyegundo were Tibetans, whose poorly-built houses had been the first to collapse. Many of these tenement-style mud-and-timber hovels had come up beginning late nineties during the Chinese government’s vehement drive to resettle the locals who, like most Kham and Amdo people, were nomads and herdsmen, sustaining on open grasslands with their livestock. The Chinese coercion was designed to enforce control over a free-roaming people whose propensity to revolt was notorious; in part it owed to the government’s extensive dam-building, mining and deforestation enterprises. Their traditional way of life disrupted, finding their rehabilitation prospects dimmed by Chinese migrant workers, these displaced Tibetans put up numerous protests, but were largely left with little resources with which to cope. 

In March 2008 when pro-independence uprising erupted in Lhasa, it swiftly spread to areas in Kham and Amdo; one such revolt in Kyegundo involved hundreds of young herdsmen on horsebacks laying siege on a Chinese police station, before raising a Tibetan flag amid bursts of their traditional war cry, Kyi hi hi! In the ensuing crackdown, hundreds of Tibetans were executed and thousands taken into custody. There were signs of international outcry building up, until a massive earthquake rocked Sichuan in May, killing more than 70,000 people. Chinese government’s image as a bloody oppressor in Tibet was softened into a quick-acting, humanitarian front, which ostensibly impeded “Free Tibet” movement’s outrage over the Beijing Olympics. 

After the April 14 earthquake in Kyegundo, for two full days, government rescue was absconding. It was the hundreds of monks from neighboring five or six unaffected monasteries who first rushed to aid, carrying blankets, tents and food supplies. Amid worries over bursting of a dam further up in the mountains, when soldiers and state workers finally arrived, they seemed to focus on government buildings, leading locals to believe they were being shortchanged for their ethnicity. Monks, who had by now in addition to their rescue efforts taken charge of caring for the dead, were discouraged. This shadow of Chinese insensitivity subsided when the government nervously afforded monks laxity: in the last couple of days, monks offered prayers as thousands of Tibetan corpses were thrown en-masse into raging funeral pyres. Traditionally, after their death, the bodies of Tibetans, particularly from this area, are cut up and fed to vultures, in what is known as “Sky Burial;” this time around, as the locals found, there just weren’t enough birds to feed on the dead. 

For those surviving, even on the fourth day, food and water was hard to come by. Malcolm Moore, a reporter for Telegraph, in his April 18 dispatch, quoted a Tibetan monk as remarking about the Chinese army, “They staged a show with the aid trucks, pretending to deliver food, but actually driving past us. Look around you, the Tibetan families here have no food, water or medicine.” In a system woefully captive to connections, the first to receive help were those belonging to state-owned enterprises or work units, the majority of which comprise Chinese immigrant workers; the erstwhile Tibetan herdsmen and nomads who could boast of no such associations were left to fend for themselves. 

To the larger population in China’s mainland, government propaganda peddles to them two polarizing images of Tibetans. One: as ungrateful rioters, as evident from the stock footage of angry Tibetan protestors from the 2008 Lhasa uprising which was repeatedly run on state television (while leaving out the scores of peaceful protests elsewhere, not to mention the brutal crackdown that followed). The other: that of grateful subjects, who are perennially shown smiling feverishly while returning handshakes of government officials, their clothes as new as the housing appliances surrounding them. A third image is now being beamed out to them in the quake’s aftermath, its censorship made impossible by the temptation to glorify the army’s humanitarian avatar: one of impoverished Tibetans whose destitution is as stark on the dead as it is on the living, a far cry from the government’s development claims.  

The Chinese President Hu Jintao was gracious enough to visit the disaster site. But judging by a letter the locals have written to the Chinese leader, available on few websites, it is the Dalai Lama they want in their midst. For the thousands of dead, their sole solace was the conferment of the customs of a religion which is otherwise banned in most parts of Tibet. As spoken by those who have survived, their souls nonetheless brutalized by losses, for them their best healing lies in their exiled leader who has not stepped foot in his country for more than last fifty years.  

The Tibetan leader has expressed his desire to visit the disaster-stricken area to extend comfort. Most likely, the Chinese leadership will not make that happen. The problem however is that it will have further alienated a people who have little left to lose. 

 

 

Topden Tsering is a Tibetan writer based in Berkeley.


Kyle Harty Strang Memorial

Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 01:22:00 PM

A Kyle Harty Strang Memorial will be held on Tuesday April 27, 2010 from 5-7pm in the BHS Little Theatre. The public is welcome. 

 

 


A Reader’s Guide to the Housing Maze

By Helen Rippier Wheeler
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 12:51:00 PM

When Conservatives’ attempts to eliminate HUD failed, they focused on Section 8. The U.S. Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments Program was established in 1974. It provides housing assistance to low-income persons who rent. It has been one of the best possible uses of federal funds because it countermands need for costly welfare-type expenditures associated with sheltering seniors with small incomes who are willing, able, and eager to live independently. 

If you and your landlord qualify under Section 8, you pay one third of your income for rent, with the balance subsidized by HUD. In most communities there are 2 approaches to getting a rent-subsidized Section 8 unit: tenant-based and project-based

In theory, it is possible for a low-income family to obtain a Section 8 voucher from the local housing authority, find a vacant apartment on the open market, a landlord who will accept both the tenant and a voucher/ subsidized rent, within a deadline.  

Senior citizens currently receiving Section 8 rent subsidies are at risk of losing their status and being evicted because landlords prefer other types of tenants and the open market. Market-rate rents are highest in the Bay Area. Many landlords prefer not to accept vouchered tenants and do not renew their Section 8 contracts with HUD because they can get larger rents and what they consider more “desirable tenants” on the open market.  

Vouchers can be of little use because: 

• Few vouchers may have been issued and voucher waiting lists are usually closed; 

• At times there are few vacancies, and those that can be discovered are exorbitantly high rents; 

• Seniors and disabled persons with small incomes, while able and wishing to live independently, may be unable to scour neighborhoods and deal with landlords; 

• A landlord-fostered myth portrays Section 8 tenants as undesirable.  

Another category of Section 8 beneficence is the project-basedSection 8 building for senior citizens and disabled persons, typically owned and or managed by a non-profit developer-corporation (e.g. Affordable Housing Associates, Satellite Housing, Inc.). Waiting lists that open and close unpredictably, ruthless property managers, and an annual rent recertification can be part of project life. [Request “Senior Housing Guide 2010 edition” from Alameda County Area Agency on Aging Senior Information and Assistance, 1 800 510 2020.] Section 8 project-based buildings consist of mostly single-room apartments, e.g. Stuart Pratt, Shattuck Senior Homes, and Redwood Gardens.  

Established in 1966, the Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA) administers approximately 1,939 subsidized rental-housing units through the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher lottery program.  

The BHA works with HUD to administer a tenant-basedSection 8 program and periodically, a voucher lottery. At times the list of voucher category-priorities has varied so frequently that it was difficult to keep up—e.g. Berkeley residents, disabled, elderly, homeless, veterans, etc. etc. have been mentioned. Once a person obtains a voucher, s/he must locate a vacant apartment whose landlord will accept a Section 8 tenant and work with the BHA, whose website reads: “The Section 8 Wait List is CLOSED. For information on the status of your application to see if you were picked for the lottery, … visit www.waitlistcheck.com... your application for this waitlist does not guarantee a spot on the waitlist. It is only after the random lottery selecting 1,500 names, that the official waitlist will be established...” 

The reconstituted BHA’s seven-member Board of Commissioners consists of individuals appointed by Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. There has been criticism of apparent conflict of interest; chair Carole Norris is identified as Vice President at ICF Consulting, San Francisco. The BHA receives a certain number of vouchers and has increasingly been sharing (transferring) those with developers and the City, i.e. some would say, giving them away. 

In addition to dispensing Section 8 vouchers, the BHA also owns and administers 75 units of public housing scattered throughout the city. The BHA has recently been attempting to divest itself of these “town houses.” Representatives of the City of Berkeley and Wells Fargo Bank’s Community Lending Division were also present at discussions with representatives of Satellite Housing, Inc., Resources for Community Development, Affordable Housing Associates, and John Stewart Co.  

The City of Berkeley created its Housing Trust Fund (HTF) in 1990. A housing trust fund is a program that pools funds for affordable housing construction from a variety of sources with different requirements, and makes them available through a single application process to local developers. Note: “Affordable housing” can differ radically from “low-income housing.” 

The property at 3132-35 Harper Street has become known as the Prince Hall Arms and as the Masons. The independent corporation formed by East Gate Lodge #44 F&AM and the MW Prince Hall Grand Lodge of California F&AM was described by them as senior citizen housing…under development for over 10 years, sponsored by the non-profit MW Prince Hall Arms, Inc. A lawsuit was filed in 2008 to kill the project.  

On April 15, 2010, the Berkeley Housing Advisory Commission (HAC) held a Special Meeting at 4 PM to review Applications for Housing Trust Fund Request[s] for Proposals (RFP) and to make its recommendations. At 7 PM the HAC held a public hearing. In the preceding weeks, applicants encouraged endorsers’ attendance. Tenants in Satellite Housing, Inc.’s 4 Berkeley buildings noted a bulletin board announcement, “Satellite Housing needs your support at the Berkeley Housing Advisory Commission Meeting!... Transportation is provided to and from the meeting. Sign up… with your resident coordinator! …Satellite Housing has a development called the ‘3135 Harper Street’ that is being considered for financial support. Attend and be a speaker who tells …how living in Satellite’s affordable senior development has been beneficial to you. Attend and let Satellite Housing, your neighbors, and fellow Satellite residents know you are there for them.”  

 

Helen RIpppier Wheeler has served on the Alameda County Advisory Commission on Aging, Berkeley Commission on Aging, Berkeley Housing Authority board, and North Berkeley Senior Center Advisory Council, and as a Save Section 8 founding member. She is the Planet’s SENIOR POWER columnist. 

 

 


Laundromat, BRT, Recycling Fees Head Back to Council

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 12:32:00 PM

The Berkeley City Council will be holding an 8 p.m. time- specific presentation and discussion on the Bus Rapid Transit Build Option at its first meeting after its spring break tonight (Tuesday.) 

Before taking up Bus Rapid Transit, the council will hold a special 5:30 p.m. meeting to vote on whether to allow a laundromat in a ground floor retail space at Southside Lofts on Telegraph Avenue. 

A group of neighbors oppose the development, which the city allowed to move forward through an erroneous use permit. 

Although BRT had originally been scheduled for March 23, it was pushed to the end of the meeting, and the council only had time to listen to a few public comments close to midnight. 

A large crowd is expected for Tuesday’s meeting, so Councilmember Kriss Worthington requested a change of venue to a Berkeley public school auditorium, but his proposal was rejected. 

The council is expected to decide on which “Build” alternative, if any, to forward to AC Transit for environmental review.  

Bus Rapid Transit has been a hotly-contested topic in Berkeley ever since AC Transit announced its plans to create a 17-mile route which would link Berkeley, Oakland and San Leandro with faster, more efficient bus services. 

AC Transit has asked for a final Locally Preferred Alternative or Build option from the three cities by April.  

A Feb. 10 Planning Commission recommendation had asked the Berkeley City Council to study the Bus Rapid Transit Full Build option, which includes making Telegraph two ways and creating dedicated downtown bus lanes, for possible endorsement, along with another alternative called Rapid Bus Plus and a “No Build” option.  

The city’s Planning Department staff proposed their own new set of recommendations at a March 10 meeting in light of new information about the decision process and continued opposition to the plans for Telegraph and downtown.  

The Downtown Berkeley Association has come out against dedicated bus lanes on the four blocks of the BRT route on Shattuck Avenue between Addison Street and Bancroft Way because of the loss of parking.  

Both sets of recommendations will be presented to the City Council Tuesday. 

 

Animal Shelter Project 

The council will vote on whether to adopt a resolution authorizing the sale of $5.5 million in bond certificates to fund the Dona Spring Animal Shelter. 

The city currently does not have funds to build the shelter and has decided to use certificates of participation to raise the required funding. 

The city has decided to hire Broward Builders, Inc. for the construction of the animal shelter and East Touchdown Plaza Project. 

 

Strategy to Deal with Berkeley’s Poacher Problem 

Councilmember Darryl Moore will ask City Manager Phil Kamlarz to develop a strategy to significantly reduce the poaching of recyclables and seek the input of the Zero Waste Commission before reporting back to Council. 

The City Manager is expected to return with recommendations before the June 1 council meeting to help the council implement a strategy to reduce lost recycling revenues before voting on a budget that may impose a recycling fee. 

The city is currently facing a $4 million deficit in its refuse fund. 

In the past, Berkeley residents have complained that poachers often steal recyclables from their garbage bins thus leading to a shortage of materials that can be recycled. 

 

 

Allowing Veterans to Use Veterans Building 

The City Council will vote on whether to adopt a resolution authorizing the City Manager to carry out a license agreement with the Disabled American Veterans Chapter and American Legion Post for veterans’ meetings, gatherings and office space at 1931 Center Street. 

In the past, the Disabled American Veterans organization has used parts of the Veteran’s Building for group activities and storage space. 

The building has relics and mementos in the building that belong to various veterans’ organizations, 

After the American Legion Post approached the city about a meeting space in the building, the city decided that the existing DAV office could be shared with other veteran groups. 

 


Cell Phone Towers – Should We Fear Them?

By Raymond Barglow www.berkeleytutors.net
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 06:41:00 PM

Is your new iphone dangerous? California State Senator Mark Leno has proposed legislation requiring all cell phones sold in the state to carry information about their radiation levels on sales boxes, usage instructions, and advertising displays in stores. San Francisco is considering similar legislation for cell phones sold in the city. 

In Berkeley, controversy about the safety of cell phones has been going on for years, centered not on the phones themselves but on the towers that broadcast to them. A year ago, Berkeley adopted an ordinance governing the installation of cell phone towers, and now the Planning Commission is about to modify zoning district regulations to conform to the ordinance’s provisions.  

But Berkeley’s ordinance does not prevent installation of the towers, and so the issue has not gone away. In a recent Planet article, “Cell Phones and the Politics of Cancer,” Harry Brill warns anew of the dangers. 

When Berkeley citizens request that cell phone towers not be installed in their neighborhoods, two different kinds of issues are raised. One is scientific: is radiation from the towers dangerous? The other is political: in what degree and manner should citizens be granted democratic control of their living environment? 

In South Berkeley, the Le Conte Neighborhood Association, including my brother and sister-in-law, fought hard to prevent real estate mogul Patrick Kennedy from installing cell phone towers at UC Storage on Shattuck Ave. Whether or not their conjectures about the towers are correct, I believe they have the right not to be exposed to radiation that they deem possibly dangerous. 

However, the evidence for the danger is weak. And I’m a little worried that someone reading about the alleged risk of living near a cell phone tower might feel frightened enough to move away from a neighborhood where one is located. The probability that someone will be harmed by exposure to radiation from one of these towers is, in my opinion, almost zero, and I’ll explain why below. 

To be sure, as Harry Brill points out, we cannot rely upon government authority to protect the public from such a potential danger. After all, as he points out, exposures to asbestos and cigarettes were very belatedly judged to be harmful. I made a similar point in an article ““Cell Phones: Hazardous to Your Health?”published in the Berkeley Daily Planet back in January: I noted as well, however, that the mainstream view among researchers in the physical and biological sciences is that cell phone radiation is too weak, by a factor of at least a million, to do any damage to a human body. My own knowledge of radiation science is not strong – it’s been decades since my undergraduate studies in physics. But I’ve discussed this matter in the past year with four scientists: physicist Richard Muller at UC Berkeley, physicist Robert Cahn at LBL, physicist Michael Vollmer from Brandenburg Germany; and biophysics graduate student Jeff Moffitt at UC Berkeley. They disbelieve the statistical "evidence" showing cell phone use to be dangerous, partly because they can think of no scientifically plausible chain of events whereby radiation from a cell phone might disrupt a biological process. In my Daily Planet piece on this subject, I outlined some of the scientific reasoning that leads them to dismiss this worry. 

Moreover, even those expert critics who warn us about the risks of cell phone technology concentrate their attention on the use of the phones themselves, not on the towers that broadcast to them. Louis Slesin, for example, a scientist who is perhaps the most well-known American doubter of cell phone safety, told me that he’s not very concerned about the towers, since even a small distance between a tower and a user greatly attenuates the signal strength. And ironically, if cell phone towers are more widely distributed in a community, then users of this technology will need phones emitting less powerful radiation to communicate with those towers, thereby reducing their risk. 

Most of the scientific research over the past decade on the hazards of this technology use has studied the safety of cell phone receivers held to the ear. But there have also been a very few studies about the dangers of living near cell phone broadcasting installations. Several of these studies seem to have been written by reputable investigators and I’ve read them fairly carefully. In each case the research appears to be fundamentally flawed.  

For instance, a scientific study that has received wide distribution via the Internet, and is often cited on websites warning us about cell phone tower radiation, was conducted by Israeli medical researchers Ronni Wolf MD and Danny Wolf MD. Their team compared cancer rates among 622 people living near a cell phone transmitter station in the town of Netanya to 1277 individuals, “with very closely matched, environment, workplace and occupational characteristics,” but not living in the vicinity of a transmitter station. In the period of one year, 8 cancer cases were diagnosed in the group of 622 experimental subjects. Only 2 cases of cancer were diagnosed in the control group of 1277. The researches concluded that “The study indicates an association between increased incidence of cancer and living in proximity to a cell-phone transmitter station.”  

Although the numbers of cases here is small, the result is a disturbing one. I wondered, though, about cell phone use among the reported 10 cancer cases. If cell phone antennas are dangerous, then the actual use of cell phones is much more so, since the receiver is held so much closer to the brain, whereas, in the Israeli study, the experimental subjects lived on average about 200 feet away from the antennas. So I assumed that the researchers would have inquired whether the experimental subjects – especially those who came down with cancer – were themselves cell phone users. Surprisingly, no information about this was presented in this study. When I spoke with one of the principal investigators on the phone, he said that he did not know whether or how much the subjects of their study used cell phones -- that cell phone use was simply not a variable in the study! I asked Dr. Wolf whether he was planning to follow up on his study, taking additional, seemingly crucial variables into account. He replied that No, he and his partner were done with this subject and were moving on. 

This major design flaw casts doubt upon the Wolf & Wolf research findings. Taking an example from a related field, it’s as if a study inquiring into the effects of environmental pollution on the incidence of lung cancer neglected to ask experimental subjects whether or not they themselves smoked. That would not be an acceptable research design. 

Harry Brill cites another study, done in the Southern German town of Naila, that found a correlation between incidence of cancer and proximity to cell phone towers. The study is of about the same size as the Israeli study discussed above, but once again, the investigators failed to ascertain cell phone use among the individuals who got cancer. 

Such studies aren’t fraudulent, I don’t think – they’re just not done in a scientifically thoughtful, careful manner. And as I mentioned in the Daily Planet article, “even when scientific research is done conscientiously, the results may reflect the prior convictions of the investigators and may turn out to be invalid. It is possible to gather ‘empirical evidence’ for many mistaken conclusions. A quick search on the Internet reveals, for example, dozens of ‘scientific’ studies that ‘disprove’ the hypothesis that global warming exists and is due largely to human activities.” 

Although epidemiology is certainly a valid enterprise that has helped us locate the causes of many illnesses, it’s also true that statistics often serve to foster illusions rather than dispel them. Consider the following study indicating that cell phone radiation is actually beneficial! A University of South Florida press release at the beginning of 2010 reported that “A surprising new study in mice provides the first evidence that long-term exposure to electromagnetic waves associated with cell phone use may actually protect against, and even reverse, Alzheimer’s disease. The study, led by University of South Florida researchers at the Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC), was published today in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.” 

This study is probably no more valid than the ones discussed above.  

There is a wider lesson here: Internet dissemination of risk information is by no means a reliable process. In the age of TV prior to the Web, a public health expert might get on the tube to warn or reassure Americans regarding an environmental hazard. With the Internet, information is no longer broadcast in the same way. Someone can post the result of a “scientific” study to the Web, and it can quickly go viral, reaching a worldwide audience with few or no validity checks. 

My sense is that, overall, the public benefits from this information free-for-all. Some NGO websites, for example, are far more trustworthy than are official government sources. But Internet misinformation flourishes as well. It’s as easy these days for an invalid research finding as for a mistaken rumor to become a wildfire. 

Raymond Barglow is the founder of Berkeley Tutors Network 


Pictures from the Planet Fundraiser at the Omni

Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 06:33:00 PM

Snapshots taken by Mary Stolten at the Planet fundraiser held in her living room last January 24th. 

 


Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 06:31:00 PM


New: Victim of Saturday’s Fatal Shooting Was a 20-Year-Old Berkeley Man

By Bay City News
Sunday April 18, 2010 - 10:27:00 PM

A 20-year-old Berkeley man who was fatally shot in San Francisco's Bayview District on Saturday night has been identified by the San Francisco medical examiner's office as Stephen Powell. 

The shooting was reported at about 7 p.m. in Garlington Court, San Francisco police Officer Boaz Mariles said. Arriving officers found Powell in the street suffering from a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead there, Mariles said. 

No arrests have been made. 

 

 


New: Laundromat, BRT, Recycling Fees Head Back to Council

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Sunday April 18, 2010 - 06:18:00 PM
A poacher flees when caught trying to take trash from the recycling bins outside the Planet office last week.
Riya Bhattacharjee
A poacher flees when caught trying to take trash from the recycling bins outside the Planet office last week.

The Berkeley City Council will be holding an 8 p.m. time- specific presentation and discussion on the Bus Rapid Transit Build Option at its first meeting after its spring break on Tuesday. 

Before taking up Bus Rapid Transit, the council will hold a special 5:30 p.m. meeting to vote on whether to allow a laundromat in a ground floor retail space at Southside Lofts on Telegraph Avenue. 

A group of neighbors oppose the development, which the city allowed to move forward through an erroneous use permit. 

Although BRT had originally been scheduled for March 23, it was pushed to the end of the meeting, and the council only had time to listen to a few public comments close to midnight. 

A large crowd is expected for Tuesday’s meeting, so Councilmember Kriss Worthington requested a change of venue to a Berkeley public school auditorium, but his proposal was rejected. 

The council is expected to decide on which “Build” alternative, if any, to forward to AC Transit for environmental review.  

Bus Rapid Transit has been a hotly-contested topic in Berkeley ever since AC Transit announced its plans to create a 17-mile route which would link Berkeley, Oakland and San Leandro with faster, more efficient bus services. 

AC Transit has asked for a final Locally Preferred Alternative or Build option from the three cities by April.  

A Feb. 10 Planning Commission recommendation had asked the Berkeley City Council to study the Bus Rapid Transit Full Build option, which includes making Telegraph two ways and creating dedicated downtown bus lanes, for possible endorsement, along with another alternative called Rapid Bus Plus and a “No Build” option.  

The city’s Planning Department staff proposed their own new set of recommendations at a March 10 meeting in light of new information about the decision process and continued opposition to the plans for Telegraph and downtown.  

The Downtown Berkeley Association has come out against dedicated bus lanes on the four blocks of the BRT route on Shattuck Avenue between Addison Street and Bancroft Way because of the loss of parking.  

Both sets of recommendations will be presented to the City Council Tuesday. 

 

Animal Shelter Project 

The council will vote on whether to adopt a resolution authorizing the sale of $5.5 million in bond certificates to fund the Dona Spring Animal Shelter. 

The city currently does not have funds to build the shelter and has decided to use certificates of participation to raise the required funding. 

The city has decided to hire Broward Builders, Inc. for the construction of the animal shelter and East Touchdown Plaza Project. 

 

Strategy to Deal with Berkeley’s Poacher Problem 

Councilmember Darryl Moore will ask City Manager Phil Kamlarz to develop a strategy to significantly reduce the poaching of recyclables and seek the input of the Zero Waste Commission before reporting back to Council. 

The City Manager is expected to return with recommendations before the June 1 council meeting to help the council implement a strategy to reduce lost recycling revenues before voting on a budget that may impose a recycling fee. 

The city is currently facing a $4 million deficit in its refuse fund. 

In the past, Berkeley residents have complained that poachers often steal recyclables from their garbage bins thus leading to a shortage of materials that can be recycled. 

 

 

Allowing Veterans to Use Veterans Building 

The City Council will vote on whether to adopt a resolution authorizing the City Manager to carry out a license agreement with the Disabled American Veterans Chapter and American Legion Post for veterans’ meetings, gatherings and office space at 1931 Center Street. 

In the past, the Disabled American Veterans organization has used parts of the Veteran’s Building for group activities and storage space. 

The building has relics and mementos in the building that belong to various veterans’ organizations, 

After the American Legion Post approached the city about a meeting space in the building, the city decided that the existing DAV office could be shared with other veteran groups. 

 


Reader Tip: Bomb Detonated on MLK in Berkeley?

By Paul Hernandez
Saturday April 17, 2010 - 02:39:00 PM

The bomb squad closed off MLK for a couple of blocks around Mr. Mopps this afternoon. Around 1:00pm in front of Mr. Mopps toy store the Berkeley Police bomb squad investigated a mysterious, unattended package.  

In this photo: the bomb robot has just been unloaded from its truck. What looks like a control unit sits on the opposite side of the street.  

UPDATE: The mysterious package, which Berkeley Police later said was a gray briefcase which had been left on a mailbox, was blown up at about 2:15. They said afterwards that it was not a bomb after all. 

 


150 Years Ago Berkeley Campus Was Dedicated to Learning

By Steven Finacom
Thursday April 15, 2010 - 11:40:00 PM
Founders’ Rock as it appears today at Hearst Avenue and Gayley Road.
Steven Finacom
Founders’ Rock as it appears today at Hearst Avenue and Gayley Road.
The “Tennessee marble” plaque, installed 114 years ago, is currently smudged with Stanford red graffiti and weathered with age.
Steven Finacom
The “Tennessee marble” plaque, installed 114 years ago, is currently smudged with Stanford red graffiti and weathered with age.
Founders’ Rock, within a few years of the plaque dedication, from the 1901 Revised Edition of Illustrated History of the University of California, William Carey Jones.
Founders’ Rock, within a few years of the plaque dedication, from the 1901 Revised Edition of Illustrated History of the University of California, William Carey Jones.
The April 22,1960 Centennial ceremony at Founders’ Rock.  Left to right, Regent Donald McLaughlin, Governor Pat Brown, University President Clark Kerr.  (Bancroft Library, UARC PIC 1900.15.  Used with permission.)
Contributed Photo
The April 22,1960 Centennial ceremony at Founders’ Rock. Left to right, Regent Donald McLaughlin, Governor Pat Brown, University President Clark Kerr. (Bancroft Library, UARC PIC 1900.15. Used with permission.)

April 16, 2010 is a poignant and significant, although now nearly forgotten, anniversary date in the history of higher education in California. Exactly 150 years earlier the campus site of what would become California’s most important educational institution—the University of California, Berkeley—was dedicated. 

Trustees of the University of California’s private predecessor institution, the College of California, gathered on the undeveloped—and unnamed—future Berkeley campus site April 16, 1860 to “consecrate” it for educational purposes.  

“There is not another such college site in America, if indeed anywhere in the world” The Pacific newspaper editorialized after the event. “It is the spot above all others we have yet seen or heard of where a man may look into the face of the nineteenth century and realize the glories that are coming on.” 

The place where the event occurred, a natural volcanic rock outcropping later named Founders’ Rock, still stands obscurely on a corner of the UC Berkeley campus shorn of its expansive Bay views, but retaining physical character and historic significance.  

I believe the 1860 event makes the Berkeley campus the oldest site continuously dedicated to public higher education in California, and one of the oldest university campuses in the West.  

(The private institution that preceded Oregon State was established in Corvallis in 1858, preceding Berkeley by about two years. In California, only the campus of the private University of Santa Clara appears to have been in continuous use as a college site longer than the Berkeley campus. Other colleges are older, but have moved locations.) 

The University of California was preceded by the private College of California, an institution originally established in Oakland.  

Although perpetually facing financial stress, the College searched with determination for a larger and more rural site, and in the mid-1850s starting buying land in the future Berkeley. On March 1, 1858, the Board of Trustees resolved to make the site they’d acquired the permanent location of the College.  

More than two years later the Trustees acted to officially mark that decision. The Reverend Samuel Willey, a prime mover in the College, later recalled the occasion in talks and in his written History of the College of California.  

“Although the understanding had come to be general that the Berkeley site had been fixed upon as the final location of the College, no action had been taken setting it apart for that purpose in a public and formal way. For the purpose of having this action a meeting of the Board of Trustees was called, to be held on the Berkeley grounds, April 16, 1860”, a Monday. 

The Trustees came over from San Francisco on the ferry to Oakland and stopped by a livery stable to rent carriages. The stable was owned by William Hillegass and Francis Kittredge Shattuck, then Oakland entrepreneurs and not yet Berkeley street names. 

It was a “clear and beautiful spring day”, Willey recalled, as the Trustees drove out the Telegraph Road into the hinterlands and made their way “past Captain Simmons’, there crossing Strawberry Creek, where we hitched our teams under the trees. The day was fine. The landscape was beautiful, and all were delighted with the location for the College home.” 

The Trustees walked about, looking at the scenery and talking over the site. The open ground allowed them to clearly see the “two ravines” formed by the north and south branches of Strawberry Creek, which framed most of the property they had purchased. (Today, the south branch wanders through the campus, largely above ground, while part of the north branch, also called Blackberry Creek, is buried in a culvert north of the Hearst Avenue edge of the campus and only resurfaces once it passes under the street). 

Between the watercourses the Trustees reached what Willey described as “a great rock, or outcropping ledge,” which later bore the name Founders’ Rock because of what was about to take place. 

Today, the slightly cone shaped outcropping doesn’t seem much of a “great rock”, hemmed in by busy Gayley Road and Hearst Avenue on two sides, over towered by eucalyptus and oak on the others, and in the shadow of Cory Hall, the massive electrical engineering building.  

One can imagine it in 1860, however, as a fairly distinctive and visible feature on the tumbling hillside, with panoramic views out over the future campus grounds and San Francisco Bay to the west. 

Willey specifically named nine Trustees who were present at that occasion. They were: the Rev. D.W.C. Anderson, President; Willey himself, Secretary; Rev. D.B. Cheney; Rev. E.S. Lacy; Rev. Henry Durant; Frederick Billings; E.B. Goddard; Edward McLean; Ira Rankin. 

Four divines amongst nine Trustees were not unusual, considering that the College of California had a religious focus. It had been founded and nurtured by leaders of the Congregational Church. This was quite typical of the era; most private colleges had a strong religious and sectarian focus in their origins and orientation. Many of their students enrolled with the intention of later going into ministerial or missionary work. 

The College of California had been formed in part because the Congregationalists were worried about leaving the field of higher education in California to the domination of other Christian denominations, particularly Methodists (who had founded, in 1851, what would become the University of the Pacific), and Roman Catholics (who had already established the future University of Santa Clara).  

(The Congregationalist role in the origins of the University did not go unremembered. In 1940, for instance, the Berkeley Daily Gazette described Plymouth Rock and Founders’ Rock as “the two greatest cornerstones of Congregationalism”, and told visitors to a church council in Berkeley that “you hundreds of Congregationalists gathered here today…may rightfully look upon the University—the largest educational institution in the world—as the creation of your church.”) 

“Three other persons who were not trustees” were also present at the rock on April 16, 1860, according to historian William Warren Ferrier, researching in the 1930s. Ferrier was able to identify only one of them, editor James H. Warren of “The Pacific”, who wrote the quotation in the beginning of this article.  

Warren further described the occasion as follows. “Before them was the Golden Gate in its broad-opening-out into the great Pacific. Ships were coming in and going out. Asia seemed near—the islands of the sea looking this way. May nations a few years hence, as their fleets with the wealth of commerce seek these golden shores, will see the University before they see the metropolis, and their first thought of our greatness and strength will be impressed upon them by the intelligence and mind shaking mind within the walls of the College more than by the frowning batteries of Alcatraz.” (Alcatraz, at that time, was a fortification, not a prison.) 

There beside the Berkeley rock the Trustees read a resolution “setting apart the grounds as the location of the College of California.” All made “brief remarks”, Willey said, and then all voted in favor of the resolution. Then came the symbolic heart of the ceremony.  

“Thereupon the President, standing upon the rock, surrounded by the members of the Board, with heads uncovered, offered prayer to God for his blessing on what we had done, imploring his favor upon the College which we proposed to build there, asking that it might be accepted of him, and ever remain a seat of Christian learning, a blessing to the youth of this State, and a center of usefulness in all this part of the world.” 

Although some today might balk at the “seat of Christian learning” reference—understandable because it was a Congregationalist college, not a state university then being established—it is hard not to read the rest of that statement, from the perspective of 150 years, with an appreciation of the earnest sensibilities and simple purpose of the Founders.  

“A blessing to the youth of this State...” “A center of usefulness in all this part of the world.” Has not the University of California—and the Berkeley campus in particular—fulfilled both those promises? 

And aren’t those sincere and appropriate purposes for the present day institution to remember and honor? California has not been, either in the immediate years following the Gold Rush, or today, entirely about the creation of personal wealth as an end in itself. There have always been some drawn to goals and missions beyond monetary enrichment. 

Note also, however, that the Trustees were appropriately humble in their expectations. They did not proclaim the future greatest university in the world. Instead, they asked for a divine benediction on the campus as a future “center of usefulness.” 

Once the simple ceremony was finished, Willey wrote, the group returned to their carriages, traveled back to Oakland, and caught the last ferry for San Francisco. 

The event was symbolic. Nothing major immediately ensued on the campus grounds. No ground was broken or major structures erected. The academic buildings of the College remained in what is now Downtown Oakland, pending the raising of funds to move the whole establishment to Berkeley.  

By the mid-1860s the College was actively planting trees upon the site. The College engaged Frederick Law Olmsted to draw up a plan for the site, as well a residential district to adjoin it on the south. Land in those districts—termed the Berkeley Property Tract, as well as the adjacent College Homestead Tract—was platted and sold in the 1860s in a combined effort to raise funds for the College and lure residents who would form a town adjacent to the campus.  

In late 1865 Willey moved his own family to a house he had built in the fields near the future intersection of Dwight and College, determined to lead by example in making what is now east Berkeley a residential township. His was the first “town house” in Berkeley; in typical Berkeley fashion it was torn down, over protest, in the 1930s and replaced with an apartment building. 

In 1866-67 Willey devoted himself to the work of developing a water system on the college grounds, the only major physical improvement the College would actually construct at the Berkeley site aside from tree planting. The waterworks was completed and celebrated with a “rural picnic”, and gushing fountains of water were displayed, on August 24, 1867. 

All these are events described in greater detail in other accounts. Let’s return to Founders’ Rock. 

The rock outcropping came into the College picture again when a Committee of the Board of Trustees walked through the site on May 24, 1866. Once again, Founders’ Rock was found to be a good location to survey the scene and while there, Trustee Frederick Billings suggested the name “Berkeley” for the campus property. The Trustees went to lunch at Willey’s nearby house, then later that day had an official board meeting in San Francisco (the Transamerica pyramid now stands where they gathered) and officially adopted “Berkeley”. Eventually the name came to apply to town and well as campus. 

In 1868 the College of California Trustees determined to go out of business after delivering to the State of California its assets, including the Berkeley campus site, to form part of the new University of California. Thus Berkeley became UC, and the actions of the College Trustees were merged into the pre-history of the state institution.  

After operating in Oakland at the old College campus site for a few years, the University moved to Berkeley in 1873 and has been here ever since. 

The rock outcropping that figured in both the dedication of the campus site and the naming of Berkeley was remembered by the new, young, institution.  

The years rolled by with enrollment growing and tradition accumulated at the Berkeley campus. In 1896, the graduating seniors began what would be called the Senior Pilgrimage, a walk through the campus following a ritualized route to various spots of meaning to that class year. A speaker—a class leader, or favored faculty member or administrator—would address the students at each point. 

The Class of 1896 also left the first and only visible memorial at Founders’ Rock. May 9, 1896, the students held an “elaborate” celebration of their Class Day reported the San Francisco Call the next day. (Numerous accounts erroneously refer to this as Charter Day, which it was not; Charter Day traditionally fell on March 23. Class Day was an occasion for the seniors to celebrate, prior to Commencement.) 

“The exercises in commemoration of the day began at 10:30 o’clock this morning at “Founders’ Rock.’ A slab of Tennessee marble has been placed in the rock by the class of ’96, and on it, engraved in gold letters, are the words, ‘Founders’ Rock, April 16, 1860. Inscribed May 9, 1896.’ The rock is one on which the trustees of the old College of California met while they dedicated the grounds chosen as a site for the State University (sic). 

“The senior class, led by the university band and followed by many visitors, gathered around the rock and listened to addresses by Galen M. Fisher ’96, Dr. E. S. Willey of San Francisco and President Kellogg. After the exercises at Founders’ Rock the class pilgrimage took place under the leadership of the U.C.Band.”  

The students visited the old Chemistry building, Bacon Library, North Hall, and then adjourned to ‘Ben Weed’s Amphitheater’ for further ceremonies. 

Of all those sites, only Founders’ Rock remains. North Hall was demolished after Doe Library was constructed next door. Bacon Library and the Chemistry Building fell to the wreckers’ ball in the 1960s. The Greek Theater soon supplanted the natural dell that formed Ben Weed’s Amphitheater. 

Willey was a favored speaker at the 1896 event. He told those assembled, “Thirty-six years ago, on the sixteenth day of April last, the trustees of the College of California, with a few other gentlemen friends of that young institution, met on and around this rock to formally set apart these grounds and dedicate them to be the permanent site of the college. Today we are met around the same rock at the call of the senior class of a great University that has grown up on these grounds within these 36 years to commemorate the setting apart of this superb location for a seat of learning, and to designate and mark this rock as a moment of the purpose and intent of that transaction.” 

Five years later Willey wrote to President Wheeler in to explain the details of the campus site selection, and he was, remarkably, again on hand to participate in 1910, 50 years after the original event, the sole survivor of those Trustees present in 1860. 

At that time the developed campus was starting to grow closer to Founders’ Rock. The magnificent Hearst Memorial Mining Building rose down the slope to the southwest, and a short walk to the southeast the Greek Theatre nestled into the hillside. 

On that occasion, April 16, 1910, University dignitaries and students gathered at Founders’ Rock and heard speeches by Willey, the Rev. John K. McLean, president of the Pacific Theological Seminary, Warring Wilkinson (retired principal of the California School for the Deaf and Blind), and Benjamin Ide Wheeler, then in triumphant mid career at UC President. 

Willey remarked on the early plans of the College. The Oakland campus, he said “was never thought to be a suitable place for its permanent location. More land was wanted, situated on higher ground, with plenty of running water. Captain Orrin Simmons with his family then lived near here, on the south side of Strawberry Creek…they were friends of Mr. Durant who was then teaching the preparatory school in Oakland, and from him they naturally became acquainted with the opinion of the Trustees of the College respecting the kind of location suitable to be chosen as the final home of the Institution. It occurred to them from their experience in living here that this might be the very place they were looking for, and Mr. Durant himself was quite inclined to that opinion. He called the attention of other Trustees to the locality, and some of us came and visited it repeatedly and studied it carefully.” 

In 1860, Willey said, “It was necessary to take possession of this property, enclose it, and begin improvements upon it. Before doing this it was deemed fitting by the Trustees that the site should be formally and publicly set apart, and in a suitable way consecrated to the purpose of education forever.” 

“It was a clear beautiful spring day and our ride was delightful. Then we wandered about, viewing the grounds…On the whole, we were all entirely satisfied with the choice of these grounds as the permanent site of the College.” 

“This rock appeared to be the only thing that met the requirement of the occasion, and so we made our way hither. From this elevated spot the grounds were all before us, covered with a crop of growing grain, and bordered with such noble trees as were nowhere else to be seen. The whole plain, indeed, was a grain field from the Bay back to the hills, and not a house that could properly be called a dwelling was in sight.” 

President Wheeler, who also spoke, was in full oratorical form, delivering a short and powerful declamation.

“The men who in April 1860 assembled at this rock were idealists. They shaped their deeds in accordance with vision. They shook themselves free from bondage to the present and beheld the image of a coming day. They laid off the garment of a real environment and robed themselves in the slender fabric of a dream. They left trodden ways of life as it was, and plunged into the open fields of imagination as to what shall be.  

 

The past is immanent in the present, and it is the historian’s task to discern it. The future too is immanent in the present, and it is the spiritually cleansed eye of the seer that alone can trace its outlines. ‘By faith Moses when he was come to years refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.’ 

 

Those men who on the April day of 1860 left behind them the secure and ordered life of the Oakland streets and struck out five miles into the wilderness of oaks and oats to the north were the leaders of a new people and a new cause which through a wilderness were to find a promised land.”

Over the years both town and campus grew up around Founders’ Rock. Donner Laboratory was added to the south of the Founders’ Rock knoll, and later grew closer with an addition. In 1950 Cory Hall was built west of the building.  

The completion of Cory Hall meant that 90 years after the dedication event and 84 years after Frederick Billings described his “Berkeley” inspiration at the Rock while gazing out over San Francisco Bay at the Golden Gate, the view to the west disappeared from sight behind building walls.  

Not long before, Gayley Road had been realigned across the top of campus and connected to Piedmont Avenue, ensuring that the Rock would stand adjacent to a major cross-town driving route. The University was also developing the Radiation Laboratory on the newly bought Wilson Tract above the campus proper, and Hearst Avenue—the other street bordering Founders’ Rock—was destined to become the major access drive to that counter campus. 

Vegetation also changed. Introduced trees—eucalyptus—were present around the Rock by the end of the 19th century and oaks have grown up since, further enclosing an expansive location. 

In 1926 the University of California was sufficiently sensible of the Founders’ Rock heritage that a 75-ton boulder was hauled to the new Westwood campus—UCLA—and dedicated there as an ersatz Southern “Founders’ Rock” on October 25, 1926. California’s governor and UC President spoke at that occasion. Period photographs show the odd artifact tilted up on end like a giant stone egg on a weedy slope; today, it lies decorously on its side in a UCLA campus lawn. 

(UCLA also borrowed and somewhat altered the school colors, mascot, and songs from the mother campus at Berkeley, much to the annoyance of Cal fans when the two rivals clash each year in football and basketball.) 

Back in Berkeley, it’s not quite clear whether there was a ceremony at the three-quarters-of-a-century mark a decade later.  

The April 16, 1936 (not 1935) Daily Californian contains a mention of the anniversary of the 1860 event in somewhat cryptic form. “With no ‘blessed event’ announcement other than the ancient Founders’ Rock plaque saying “College of California, April 16, 1860”, the University campus is today celebrating its seventy-fifth (sic) birthday.” 

But in 1960, for the Centennial of the 1860 dedication event, the University put together a small ceremony. 

UC President Clark Kerr, ever sensible of key historical events, attended on April 22, 1960 and, “while a brisk breeze off the Bay whipped at his notes”, read another account by Willey, worded slightly differently than that in his College of California history.  

“Then we looked about for some permanent landmark around which we could gather for some simple ceremonies of dedication. This rock appeared to be the only thing that met the requirement of the occasion, as so we made our way hither.” 

“Then Kerr spoke of expectations for the future as great as the visions of those eight (sic) trustees of the past”, the Daily Californian reported. “A century from now, he said, universities will be clearly the most influential institutions in all of society. ‘To maintain and to improve this University in this State is as much a sacred trust for the Regents of today as was the creation of the College of California for its trustees a century ago.’” 

Kerr was joined at the Rock by two distinguished Cal figures, Governor Pat Brown and Regent (and former Dean of Engineering) Donald McLaughlin. McLaughlin, a Class of 1914 alumnus, would have just missed in the 1910 ceremonial, presumably arriving in the fall of that year as a freshman. 

“Regents’ Chairman McLaughlin, a genial white-haired gentleman, spoke in a vein similar to Kerr’s. The University, he said, has gone beyond the greatest visions of the time of its founding. Can we, with the boldest visions, say what will happen in the equally distant future, he asked.” 

“Following McLaughlin, Governor Brown posed with clasped hands and one food on the rock and briefly gave his impressions of what the rock means.” 

After their photo opportunity, a Daily Californian reporter followed Warren and McLaughlin as they “strolled down Gayley Road to take a look at another tradition—the Greek Week Push-cart Relays. ‘I feel a speech coming on when I see all of these fellows,’ Brown quipped, strolling through the crowd. He spoke to one student, then decided he had better leave for the Regents’ meeting. ‘Well, the meeting can’t start ‘til we get there,” observed McLaughlin.” 

Interesting, a black and white photograph of the 1960 occasion appears to show very little in the way of ferny vegetation on the north face of the Rock around the plaque. Perhaps it was a dry year, perhaps the growth has accelerated in recent years, or maybe the Rock was manicured for the occasion. 

1960 appears to have been the last officially organized commemoration of the 1860 event. (This writer was on hand for an informal gathering for the 125th anniversary in 1986.) 

Founders’ Rock was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. February 25, 1991, it was designated a City of Berkeley Landmark. 

This year, there is no University ceremony scheduled to commemorate the anniversary of the campus dedication ceremony. Campus attention and publicity seems devoted to the annual Cal Day open house, taking place on Saturday the 17th.  

A search of the campus website turns up numerous and sometimes muddled mentions of Founders’ Rock, in both historical and practical contexts. Hit #4, for instance, identifies the Rock as the emergency gathering spot if Cory Hall must be evacuated.  

There are several references to the geology of the rock outcropping, and a number of mentions on Cal tradition related webpages. Some get the number of trustees present in 1860 wrong; others call the story of the dedication merely “campus lore”, although it’s precisely documented in reliable historical accounts.  

Several accounts, including the University’s official 1967 Centennial Record history, have the date of the 1896 plaque dedication wrong; it was not Charter Day of that year, but Class Day, a quite different occasion.  

Another on-line account says the Rock is where “a group of men chose the site for the College of California” although the choice had been made two years before the 1860 event and the Rock became simply the platform for recognition. 

And the University’s “Builders of Berkeley” webpage conflates and combines the 1860 event and the 1866 gathering where the name Berkeley was suggested, as well as providing an uncaptioned photograph of a group of men standing on a Berkeley hillside, not at Founders’ Rock. The same unrelated photograph has been appended, without caption, to a Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association website page about Founders’ Rock. 

In the physical, rather than virtual, world of Founders’ Rock, the “Tennessee marble” plaque remains in place, although discolored by age. There is no trace of the gilding reported at the dedication ceremony in 1896, 114 years ago. The edge of the plaque and the front of the Rock bear vivid smudges of red paint, presumably some Stanford-inspired vandalism since a block “S” in red is also apparent on the rear of the edifice. 

Spring rains this year have brought out a lush growth of moss and ferns on the north face of the Rock. For passersby—slogging uphill towards the Foothill Residence Halls, or hurrying down to classes—there is no way to determine the significance of the Rock, unless one climbs up closer to read the simple plaque. 

When the Trustees stood there in 1860, of course, there was no development nearby. Later, along upper Hearst Avenue, private homes, student rooming houses and fraternities, and then apartment buildings rose, followed by demolitions and construction of University facilities including a parking garage directly across from the Rock, and the Foothill Housing Complex to the northeast and east. 

Founders’ Rock is, of course, physically much older than 150 years. It’s part of the complex geology of the Berkeley Hills and, like the educational institution, something of a newcomer to these parts, most likely dragged as a fragment from far to the south up to Berkeley by the movement of the Hayward Fault. That’s a separate story, however. 

 

(The author knows of no plans for any official University of California event commemorating of the 150th anniversary. However, he will be going up to Founders’ Rock at the lunch hour, 12:00 noon, on Friday to remember the occasion. Readers are welcome to go to the Rock as well. There will be no ceremony, just a presence to remember the event.) 

 

A QUICK LOOK AT FOUNDERS’ ROCK 

 

A volcanic outcropping on the UC Berkeley campus, just southwest of the intersection of Hearst Avenue and Gayley Road. 

Over the past 150 years the record of dates and events associated with Founders’ Rock has become muddled. Most recently, numerous inaccurate on-line mentions have added to the confusion. Here’s a list of dates and events that I believe accurately reflects the history of Founders’ Rock. 

 

April 16, 1860. Twelve men—including nine Trustees of the private College of California—use the Rock as a site to dedicate the undeveloped campus to learning. At the time the University of California did not exist, the College of California was in Oakland, and the name “Berkeley” had not been thought of for the future campus site. 

 

May 24, 1866. Another gathering of College Trustees at the Rock leads to the suggestion, by Frederick Billings, of “Berkeley” as a name of the campus. The name is formally adopted at a meeting of the Trustees in San Francisco later that day. College operations remain in Oakland. 

 

March 23, 1868. The Governor of California signs the University of California charter into law. The College of California will then give its assets, including the Berkeley site, to the new State institution. The University moves its operations to the Berkeley site in 1873. 

 

May 9, 1896. As part of the first Senior Class Pilgrimage held on the Berkeley campus, graduating seniors sponsor a gathering at the rock and dedicate a marble plaque there. The common usage of the name “Founders’ Rock appears to date from this time. The Reverend Samuel Willey who was a participant in 1860 speaks to the Class on this occasion. 

 

April 16, 1910. A ceremony is held at the Rock on the 50th anniversary of the original gathering. Reverend Willey—the only survivor of the Trustees who met in 1860 at the Rock—once again attends and participants. 

 

October 25, 1926. With the Founders’ Rock tradition well established in UC Berkeley campus history and lore, leaders at UCLA—the second “general campus” of the UC system—bring a large boulder to the new Westwood campus and dedicate it as their founders’ rock. 

 

April 22, 1960. UC President Clark Kerr, Governor Pat Brown, and others gather at the original Founders’ Rock to mark the Centennial of the dedication. 

 

April 16, 2010. 150th anniversary of the campus dedication at the Rock. 


New: The Berkeley Downtown Plan Gets Shorter

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday April 15, 2010 - 07:58:00 PM

The Berkeley Planning Commission was presented an abbreviated version of the Downtown Area Plan Wednesday.  

The plan incorporates changes suggested by Mayor Tom Bates to the Berkeley City Council’s original downtown plan in February and will be placed on the November ballot following council approval.  

The Berkeley City Council on Feb. 23 voted unanimously to rescind its original downtown plan which was referended last year.  

It also voted 8-1—with councilmember Jesse Arreguin the only dissenting vote—to ask City Manager Phil Kamlarz to return with a set of recommendations they could vote on.  

State law requires the Planning Commission to review the plan and make a recommendation on area plans and general plan amendments.  

A public hearing has been scheduled for an April 28 Planning Commission meeting, following which council will have to take action by the end of July.  

According to the city’s Planning Director Dan Marks, the new abbreviated plan has been shrunk from the rescinded plan’s 150 pages to 20 in order to include only the key pieces on the ballot.  

Marks’ report to the Planning Commission says that the “council requested that the Downtown Area Plan” document be significantly reduced in size and focus on goals, policy and key implementation measures” to “allow voters to reasonably judge the plan.”  

Marks said that although he wasn’t present when the council discussed this, it was his “understanding that the council felt 150 pages was an excess.”  

The shorter plan consists mainly of goals and policies and leaves out the bulk of the implementation measures which were present in the original downtown plan.  

According to Marks, “it includes only those implementing provisions that the council specifically indicated it wished to see clearly articulated in the new downtown plan.”  

The new plan includes stronger requirements for all new construction—such as affordable housing and open space, a voluntary green pathway that would give developers incentives in exchange of public benefits and limits to highrises and buffer zones surrounding the downtown.  

Marks said that the implementation measures would not be entirely forgotten because “no plan is complete without implementation.”  

“Once the voters approve the plan, the implementation measures can always be brought back,” he said.  

But not everybody agreed with this explanation. Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who along with Arreguin worked on the referendum campaign, said that if a plan is “just glittering generalities, it’s not really doing anything.”  

“Most of the controversy is about details—the devil is in the details,” he said. “Nobody on the City Council said anything about chopping the plan. It’s an insult to voters’ intelligence. Berkeley voters are very smart. They can read and talk with friends to discuss things—I don’t think you have to baby Berkeley voters.”  

Arreguin said that although the referendum campaign’s members had not yet arrived at a formal position about the abbreviated version, the plan still did not address some of their main concerns: heights, public benefits and protection of neighbors.  

“The plan needs a lot more work,” he said. “It’s trying to hide the fact that it allows for buildings up to 18 stories by saying that the heights are equal to current heights downtown.”  

Worthington said he was disappointed that the new plan chose to overlook hundreds of hours of work carried out by the Downtown Area Plan Advisory Committee and the Planning Commission.  

“We can just name it ‘I love the downtown’ and put it on the ballot,” he said. “This watered down version doesn’t accomplish much. People can just referend it again.”  

 


Updated: No Final Decision on UC Berkeley Israel Divestment Bill after Marathon Meeting

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday April 15, 2010 - 04:08:00 PM
Jews for Justice member Matthew Taylor shows ASUC President Will Smelko the two-page ad his group took out in the Daily Californian Tuesday in support of the divestment bill.
              The bill's opponents also took out a full page ad in the paper the same day.
Riya Bhattacharjee
Jews for Justice member Matthew Taylor shows ASUC President Will Smelko the two-page ad his group took out in the Daily Californian Tuesday in support of the divestment bill. The bill's opponents also took out a full page ad in the paper the same day.
UC Berkeley Professor of Rhetoric Judith Butler gives a speech in support of the divestment bill Wednesday around 11:30 p.m.
Riya Bhattacharjee
UC Berkeley Professor of Rhetoric Judith Butler gives a speech in support of the divestment bill Wednesday around 11:30 p.m.
UC Berkeley students listen to public comment on the ASUC divestment bill Wednesday. The meeting started at 10:30 p.m. And went on for nine hours.
Riya Bhattacharjee
UC Berkeley students listen to public comment on the ASUC divestment bill Wednesday. The meeting started at 10:30 p.m. And went on for nine hours.
Riya Bhattacharjee
Morgan Siegel, whose father is from Israel, sported a "Another Israeli for Human Rights" sticker at the senate meeting.
              Asked why she was supporting the divestment bill, Siegel said "because wrong is wrong and right is right. You can't escape one Holocaust and create another somewhere else."
Riya Bhattacharjee
Morgan Siegel, whose father is from Israel, sported a "Another Israeli for Human Rights" sticker at the senate meeting. Asked why she was supporting the divestment bill, Siegel said "because wrong is wrong and right is right. You can't escape one Holocaust and create another somewhere else."

After almost nine hours of often contentious debate and discussion Wednesday, the fate of the UC Berkeley student senate Israel divestment bill remains undecided as of Thursday morning.  

The student senate voted at about 7 a.m. to table the bill—which was vetoed by senate President Will Smelko last month—until next Wednesday.  

Regarded as anti-Semitic by some pro-Israel groups, the bill urges UC Berkeley to divest from two American companies—General Electric and United Technologies—which produce aircraft for the Israeli Army designed to bomb and kill civilians. 

Although the bill’s supporters—including Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu and UC Berkeley professor of rhetoric Judith Butler—told the student senate they would do the right thing by overriding the veto, its staunch opponents, like Consul General of Israel for the Pacific Northwest Akiva Tor and Oscar Schindler’s niece Reverend Rosemary Schindler, said it would only lead to a divided campus and hatred among student communities. 

“Israel seeks peace with the Palestinian people,” Tor said. “We seek to end the occupation. That’s our position as a government. Your resolution demonizes Israel. It weakens our ability us a nation to make the concessions necessary to achieve peace.” 

Tor went on to say that the senate’s resolution “seeks to undermine security for each and every Jew and non-Jew living in Israel.” 

“If we lack modern air force, as your resolution seeks to make us do, we cannot take the risks,” he said. “We are not Bosnian Serbs. We are not Syria and Hamas. We fight as a NATO army fights. We are not war criminals. So why have you singled us out? If you listen to Judith Butler, also listen to Lawrence Summers, who says singling out Israel is anti-Semitism.” 

The singling out of Israel was also one of the main reasons why Smelko decided to veto the bill. 

“After 12,000 e-mails and phone calls, the complexities have only got worse,” Smelko said. “For every e-mail in support there was one against.” 

Smelko said that he was against the bill because of the complexity of the issue, the analogy made to South African Apartheid and the effect on the campus community. 

“I see two sides clashing with no groups in the middle,” Smelko said. “If we leave this room with the bill passing, Jewish students will feel hurt, prospective students will not apply. I want the ASUC to be a visionary. If we reach deep in our guts we will feel there is something wrong with [the bill].” 

Berkeley Hillel Executive Director Rabbi Adam Naftalin-Kelman warned the senate that if it overturned the veto it would lead to a dramatic decrease in Jewish students attending UC Berkeley. 

Pro and anti-Israeli groups have been flooding the senators’ mailboxes ever since the bill was passed March 18, and Wednesday’s meeting was expected to have a record attendance. 

When more than 700 people showed up for the 7 p.m. meeting at Eshelman Hall, it was moved twice to accommodate the overflow crowd, finally ending up in Pauley Ballroom and starting closer to 11 p.m. 

The bill has created tension on the UC Berkeley campus, with some senators getting hate mail and complaining about getting shoved or having beer thrown at them by their peers. 

However, students were not afraid to speak their minds Wednesday. Some even wore them on their T-shirts. 

Morgan Siegel, whose father is from Israel, sported an “Another Israeli for Human Rights” sticker at the senate meeting.  

Asked why she was supporting the divestment bill, Siegel said “because wrong is wrong and right is right. You can’t escape one Holocaust and create another somewhere else.” 

Israelis, Jews, Palestinians, Muslims, Arabs, Blacks, Asians and Americans stood up before the senate one by one to testify, often drawing from personal stories and experiences. 

Tempers flared, voices rose in anger, some people cried, but perhaps the most poignant words came from those who had lost a family member in the Holocaust or in military warfare on the Gaza Strip. 

Hadi Epstein, daughter of parents who perished in the concentration camps in Auschwitz, said: “President Smelko does not speak for me. The question now is not if, but when. So do the right thing and override this veto.” 

UC Berkeley professor of rhetoric Judith Butler’s speech— “You Will Not Be Alone” —advance copies of which were being circulated on the Internet just hours before the meeting, came to life when she took to the microphone. 

“You don’t want a lesson in rhetoric from me today,” Butler said. “By voting for this bill you say you don’t support war crimes. Israel is not being singled out, it’s the occupation that’s being singled out.” 

Richard Falk, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, testified over the phone that “never has a pattern of criminality been more well-documented than the Israeli criminal acts during the occupation of Gaza. 

“There is clear indication that Israel is unwilling to investigate these allegations in a credible manner. According to Human Rights Watch, Israel is whitewashing these allegations and will not admit that they are in violation of International law. We the citizens have the opportunity to send the signal that in these circumstances the government does not speak for the citizenry ... Divestment is a perfectly suitable way of joining a global movement of boycott that is nonvoluntarily asking Israel to uphold international law,” he said. 

There were some tense moments inside the auditorium as well, especially when a young Israeli student at the university walked up to the podium, pointed at a girl in the audience and said that she had “looked at me and said your face reminds me of a Nazi.” 

“It’s already happening,” he said referring to the claims that the bill would only work toward alienating student groups. “I wonder how many more people will call me a Nazi because I am wearing this,” he said, pointing to his kippah. 

Students criticized their senators for approving a bill without campaigning about the issue on campus, asking, “When will my student government stand up for me?” 

UC Berkeley Law School student Lena Lay reminded everyone that fighting for human rights has never been popular. 

“Having two sides on campus is something to be proud of,” said a Palestinian student. “It means our university taught us to do the right thing—think.” 

As the senators started to debate at 5 a.m., senator Emily Carlton said that although one of the “most legitimate concerns was that the bill was divisive,” she had seen this divide on campus for years. 

“Instead of being divisive, this bill has brought us together in a room for five hours to talk about something we have never talked about,” she said.  

 

 


Berkeley High Jacket Wins Columbia Scholastic Award

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday April 15, 2010 - 02:58:00 PM
Berkeley High School Jacket reporters interview State Schools Chief Jack O'Connell at a meeting on campus last year for their newspaper's online video segment.
Riya Bhattacharjee/File Photo
Berkeley High School Jacket reporters interview State Schools Chief Jack O'Connell at a meeting on campus last year for their newspaper's online video segment.

Berkeley High School’s The Jacket Online is among 10 high school newspaper websites to win the 2010 Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s Gold Crown Award.  

Regarded as the CSPA’s highest honor in high school journalism 

(cspa.columbia.edu/docs/contests-and-critiques/crown-awards/recipients/2010-scholastic-crown.html), the Gold Crowns have been awarded to middle and high school newspapers, magazines and yearbooks since 1982.  

The Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) is affiliated with Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, which “administers many professional awards in order to uphold standards of excellence in the media,” including the prestigious Pulitzer Prize which was announced Monday. 

This year’s competition drew applications from more than 1,558 publications and entries were evaluated at Columbia University in February by a panel of judges. 

Berkeley High School Communication Arts and Science teacher Dharini Rasiah guided the revamping of the Jacket website after taking over as the paper’s faculty adviser at the start of the school year in 2009. 

The new website is easier to navigate, gets updated regularly and features video segments by the paper’s first multimedia editors Danielle Escobar and Alec Mutter, who are responsible for assigning and creating video content. 

“Congratulations goes to the entire editorial board, with special kudos to the web editors Evan Cohen and Connor Nielson,” Rasiah said Tuesday. “I really want to stress that we got the award because of our video and multimedia segments. My job is making sure they are online—it’s really the kids who do all the work, I just provide support. 

Nielson said that while rebuilding the site from scratch, the web editors wanted to design something "more progressive and user friendly." 

The current Jacket website has Flash elements and uses the Drupal content management system.  

It has the same categories as the print version—news, opinion, features, sports and entertainment—but what sets it apart from other school newspaper websites is the multimedia content. 

“That’s the big thing,” Rasiah said. “It’s really useful to go to that segment to see Berkeley High School in live action.” 

Students get class credit for working at the Jacket, spending the same number of hours as they would in any other course. 

“Of course the editors are constantly working,” Rasiah said laughing. “The staff provide the writing, but the editors do all the editing.” 

Jacket editor-in-chief Charlotte Wayne said she heard about the award from her friend, the editor-in-chief of the Piedmont High School newspaper, and decided to apply. 

"It was very exciting to win because it is the first year we did a real website and the first year we did multimedia," Wayne said. "I think we were mainly judged on content and the tools we used." 

Wayne, who will be going to Stanford University in the fall, and hopes to write for The Stanford Daily, is currently in the process of training a new editorial board for next year, 

Currently there are 132 students on the Jacket staff, the biggest in the paper’s history. 

“I raised the cap several times to allow many more students to join,” Rasiah said. “We have bigger ideas for the website—we want to have writers for website-only articles in the future. We are going to use the website more.” 

The Jacket is not new to awards. In 2000, the Jacket staff received the Journalist of the Year award from the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists, making it the first non-professional winner in that category. 

The paper created headlines in the fall of 1999, when with Rasiah’s help, student reporters Megan Greenwell and Iliana Montauk broke a story about how local businessman Lakireddy Bali Reddy was bringing young women from India and exploiting them as sex slaves. 

Rasiah, who joined Berkeley High as a video teacher in 1997, had just completed her graduate thesis at UC Berkeley on indentured servitude in South Asian communities, researching how people became subject to unfair labor practices when they were flown in from foreign countries to work by their employers. 

“In my own research I was investigating the story myself,” she said. “Around here it was well known that Lakireddy was bringing women from India to sell them into the sex trade. I had sources who gave me first hand information. And I gave the reporters the information.” 

Rasiah also ran a South Asian Girls Club at Berkeley High and persuaded some of its members who were connected to the Lakireddy family to give anonymous interviews to the reporters. 

“It was [former Berkeley High teacher] Rick Ayers who tipped the reporters off about the story,” Rasiah said. “A girl of high school age died across the street from Berkeley High School and Ayers asked the students to question why she wasn’t in school. That was the question that got Lakireddy into so much trouble.” 

Ayers then sent the student reporters to Rasiah, who helped them with the research.  

Although most of the mainstream media had already reported on the death of the young woman from carbon monoxide poisoning in a Berkeley apartment complex, it was Rasiah’s research which helped to connect the dots about how Reddy and his family were importing young women from India to work as sex slaves.  

Reddy was prosecuted for his crimes. 

The Jacket, which is produced twice a month and is about 16 pages long in print, continues to report on important local stories, including city government and politics. 

In 2008, the Jacket reported that it was struggling financially, which led to a flurry of donations, including a big chunk of money— $6,000—from proceeds raised during the performance of the play Yellowjackets at the Berkeley Rep. 

Rasiah said the paper was doing fine at the moment. 

 

 


Much to See and Do on UC Campus on CAL DAY, 2010

By Steven Finacom
Thursday April 15, 2010 - 04:11:00 PM
Each year a giant inflatable Oski, the Cal spirit mascot, makes an appearance on Memorial Glade pointing out the uglier buildings of the campus such as Evans Hall.
Steven Finacom
Each year a giant inflatable Oski, the Cal spirit mascot, makes an appearance on Memorial Glade pointing out the uglier buildings of the campus such as Evans Hall.
Visitors throng the campus on Cal Day in 2009.  Scores of student groups and programs fill booths in Dwinelle Plaza.
Steven Finacom
Visitors throng the campus on Cal Day in 2009. Scores of student groups and programs fill booths in Dwinelle Plaza.

This Saturday, April 17, 2010, is Cal Day at the University of California, Berkeley. The 150-year old campus grounds are filled with activities and opportunities for the general public, most all of them free.  

Even if you’re a campus regular, Cal Day is a chance to see places and activities not typically open to the public. If you’re new to Berkeley or have a kid interested in college, there are plenty of activities scheduled to help learn about the campus and going to college, and explore. 

The best way to get oriented in advance is to visit the Cal Day website.  

You can search the website for activities, or download a pdf version (11 megabytes) of the entire printed program.  

When you enter the campus by most major routes on Saturday you’ll find information tables distributing copies of the program. Sather Gate Bridge and Dwinelle Plaza will also be filled with information tables for various student groups and campus departments. 

Motorized cable cars cruise the campus and there’s a perimeter shuttle and a separate shuttle to uphill areas in Strawberry Canyon and beyond (board every fifteen minutes at the east entrance to Evans Hall, facing Mining Circle). 

From African American Studies to Undergraduate Research, academic departments and programs have special activities for the day. Many departments appear to have planned a set of separate activities with some oriented at kids, others at prospective students, and the remainder targeting intellectually inquisitive adults. 

Here’s a sampling of highlights and activity opportunities. 

Rides up the Campanile for free from 9:00 – 3:30.  

Cal Day is an opportunity to see inside places generally not open to the public. If you haven’t been inside the Gardner Stacks and Moffitt Library (closed to the public, unless you have a UC library card), Saturday is your chance to wander through. 

Campus museums, including the Berkeley Art Museum, are free. The Museum of Vertebrate Zoology is open for its one public day of the year. Next door, behind the scenes tours are available of the University and Jepson Herbaria. 

The Seismology Laboratory in McCone Hall will be open, as will the Architecture Shop in Wurster Hall. 

Numerous tours are offered: student co-ops, Greek houses, and residence halls. Did you know the residence halls have a Global-Environmental Theme House and Green Suite? There’s a tour of that, too. 

The Recreational Sports Facility on Bancroft Way will be open for visitors. 

At 2 pm, starting at the Dwinelle Plaza steps of Dwinelle Hall there’s a one hour sustainability walking tour of the campus, led by students showing off “hot spots on campus that demonstrate and foster environmental awareness and commitment”, from permeable paving to re-use centers for school supplies. 

From 11 to noon at Alumni House the Rally Committee offers a “crash course” in Cal traditions and songs, followed by a spirit rally at noon on Sproul Plaza. 

For a more strenuous spirit activity, meet in front of Bowles Hall at 2 pm for a hike to the Big “C” on Charter Hill behind campus—also a great place for views over the Bay Area. 

Between 10 and noon undertake a mock dig looking for artifacts at the Archaeological Research Facility; 11 to 1 at the same place help paint a rock art mural. 

The ASUC Art Studio just downhill from Sather Gate is having its Spring sale, always a good place to shop for fine, inexpensive, ceramics and jewelry; pottery wheel demonstrations are also offered. 

In 255 Kroeber Hall student print makers are also having a sale of their work and tours of their shop. 

At Campbell Hall astronomers will demonstrate live radio astronomy observations, using the University’s Allen Telescope Array; at the Space Sciences Laboratory just uphill from the Lawrence Hall of Science there are 30 minute tours of the campus mission control center for satellites, and several other activities. 

Several leading members of the faculty will lecture on diverse topics. Among them: 

• At 3 pm at Le Conte Hall Professor Gibor Basri describes the search for Earth-sized planets. 

• 9 am at 2040 Valley Life Sciences Professor George Bentley talks about “Big Discoveries from Basic Research in Biology.” 

• 10 am at 60 Evans Hall Professor Alexandre Chorin from the Department of Mathematics discusses “Why Predictions Fail”, touching on subjects from the weather to economics. 

• 10 am in 209 Dwinelle Hall Professor Uldis Kruze discusses the arrival of the first Japanese embassy to the United States one hundred and fifty years ago in San Francisco and “the beginning of a Japanese-American community in California.” 

In early afternoon, structural engineers will subject steel and concrete columns to stress in Davis Hall to see when they’ll buckle; if you guess closest to their failing point, you win a prize.  

10-2 in the Student Store (lower level of Student Union), several local authors who “represent the spirit of Berkeley” will sign books; pick up a schedule of authors at the store. 

Newer buildings on campus that even long-time Berkeley residents may not have seen include Sutardja Dai Hall (north of Evans, near Northgate), and the East Asian Library can be visited. 

Hertz Hall, the campus concert hall, is packed with free musical activities during the day. At 11 am the University Symphony performs. At 12:30 the University Chorus & Orchestra takes the same stage, performing excerpts from “Porgy and Bess”. At 2 the University’s Baroque Ensemble performs. Between 1:30 and 2 the University Chamber Chorus sings outside Hertz Hall, followed by the Gospel Chorus at 3:00 and the African Music Ensemble at 3:30. 

From 10:30 to 11 the Cal Band performs at Sather Gate. The Cal Taiko student drum corps starts a Lower Sproul Plaza performance at 10 am. 

The Edith Coliver Festival of Cultures takes place at International House with “dance, drama, music, food, arts, crafts, exhibits, and kid’s activities from around the globe.” 

There are plenty of kids events from building a box city in Wurster Hall to an animal puppet show at Life Sciences. Look for bear emblems for child-friendly activities. There’s “OskiLand” in Memorial Glade, and a Kid Zone at the Student Union. An Army ROTC climbing wall appears in Memorial Glade, north of Doe Library.  

There’s a free Vinyasa yoga workshop at noon in 251 Hearst Gymnasium and free 10 minute massages at the Recreational Sports Facility. The University Police show off their various mechanical devices—from the bomb squad truck to a police bicycle—in the parking lot just uphill from Sather Gate. 

The Cal Football team engages in Spring Practice in Memorial Stadium from 9-11. There’s a 1 pm Men’s Tennis match against Stanford, and the Cal Baseball team plays Washington, also at 1, next door at Evans Diamond. All three sports events are free. 

Eat in a dining commons. The commons at Foothill Housing is open for lunch and dinner; the Crossroads facility at Bowditch and Channing and the Clark Kerr dining commons are open for brunch and dinner.  

Around campus several cafes, from Muse in the Berkeley Art Museum to the newest—QualComm Cyber Café in the recently completed Sutardja Dai Hall—will also be serving. 

And at the end of the day from 4-6 PM the band Cold War Kids plays a concert in Memorial Glade. 

Have fun! 

 


Berkeley High Starts Search for New Principal

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday April 15, 2010 - 12:09:00 PM

It’s going to be a busy summer for Berkeley High School. The school’s principal, Jim Slemp, is set to retire in June, and Berkeley Unified School District kicked off a search for his replacement this week. 

In a report to District Superintendent Bill Huyett—which is expected to come before the Berkeley Board of Education Wednesday—Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Lisa van Thillo said advertisements for the position had already been posted. 

“Berkeley High School is our only comprehensive high school and as such is the flagship of the District,” van Thillo said in her report. “The selection of a new principal is important to the district and the community. Involving faculty, staff, parents, administrators and students in the hiring process will help us be selective as well as transparent. It will also help the new principal begin his or her position on a positive note.” 

Slemp’s announcement to retire caught many people by surprise, including his staff and students.  

Most of them were sorry to see him go, especially since he had brought about a remarkable change in a public school which until his arrival seven years ago had been characterized as a place where arson, fights and other disciplinary issues were rampant. Every new principal had a difficult time staying for a long time at the administrative helm. 

Slemp’s decision was welcomed by his critics, most of whom clashed with him over a proposal to reduce instructional time for the school’s science labs. 

The district’s Human Resources department is recommending that the district conduct two panels for the interview process: technical and community. 

The technical panel will comprise of administrative, certificated and classified staff and it will be responsible for assessing specific administrative skills.  

The community panel, on the other hand, will gauge skills related to community and interpersonal relations. 

Van Thillo noted in her report that “because Berkeley has so many active parents and community groups, it may be difficult to limit the number of people serving on the interview panel.” 

She outlined a public process in the report and requested the school board to give directions about the composition of the community panel, which will not exceed a total of 10 members.  

The superintendent or his designee will conduct staff and community input sessions to receive feedback about the qualities the public want to see in a new principal. 

The panel will refer to this while interviewing candidates. 

 

School and Community Meetings 

April 19 from 8 – 9:30 a.m. 

Certificated and Classified Academic Choice, Electives, and office staff. 

April 26 from 8 – 9:30 a.m. 

Certificated and Classified from BIHS and Small Schools and other staff. 

April 27 from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. and again from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. 

Parent and Community meetings. 

This information will be posted, published and distributed over the next two weeks. 

 

Interview Panels 

The technical panel has been formed to address issues related to the supervision of instruction, learning modalities, curriculum development, budget management and employee evaluation.  

The recommendation from school district staff is to pick the ten panel members from the different unions in the district as well as the Director of Personnel Services Pasqual Scuderi. 

Assistant Superintendent Neil Smith will facilitate this panel. 

The community panel will address interpersonal relations, attitudes about students, leadership, decision making, and school safety.  

The ten-member panel will be representatives selected by various parent and community groups.  

According to the district’s recommendation, the members will be picked from Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action, the BHS Parent Teacher and Student Association, the Berkeley High School Site Governance Council, the Berkeley Development Group and the Vision 2020 citywide equity task force among others.  

There will also be a school board member present on the panel and it will be moderated by Superintendent Huyett. 

If the district doesn’t find the initial panel to be diverse enough, then it may seek new members. 

Scores from each panel and a writing test will be combined and tallied to determine the candidates for the final interview, according to van Thillo, who will oversee the process. 

 

 


UC Student Arrested for Battery after Witnessing Police Car Collision

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday April 15, 2010 - 12:07:00 PM

A UC Berkeley student present at the scene of a collision between a Berkeley police car and a car full of teenagers early Sunday morning was arrested “for challenging an officer for a fight and refusing to leave the crime scene,” a Berkeley Police Department public information officer said Monday.  

The student, however, is alleging that he was beaten up by Berkeley Police Department officers without any reason.  

In an e-mail to the Planet Monday, UC Berkeley undergraduate Evan Cox alleged that he and his friend were physically abused by Berkeley city police officers simply because they walked up to the accident scene and asked questions.  

BPD spokesperson Lt. Andrew Greenwood said the student could file a complaint with the Berkeley Police Department’s Internal Affairs bureau which handles officer misconduct.  

On Sunday, April 11, the Berkeley Police Department reported that a Berkeley police officer driving a patrol car was injured in a collision with another car full of teenagers.  

The officer was going west on Haste Street at about 1:20 a.m. when a white sedan with five teenagers driving north allegedly ran a red light at Telegraph Avenue and T-boned the officer’s car, police said.  

The sedan crashed into a power pole following the collision and the patrol car hit the corner of a building located at the northwest corner of Telegraph and Haste.  

Both cars were totaled on impact, and the officer escaped with neck and back pain. The officer, a 20-year veteran whose name was not released, was taken to a local hospital and discharged after several hours.  

The teenagers in the sedan were not hurt and police don’t believe that the car’s 17-year-old driver had been under the influence of drugs or alcohol.  

The driver was not arrested and the California Highway Patrol is currently investigating the crash, Greenwood said.  

Cox said that he did not witness the actual accident because it took place directly behind him. He said that when he turned around, he saw that the traffic light on Telegraph for pedestrians was green and switched to “yellow a couple of seconds” later.  

“Many others claimed the officer had run the red light,” he said.  

Greenwood said that anyone who saw anything related to the accident should contact the California Highway Patrol, which is the investigating agency any time a police officer is involved in a car accident.  

Cox said that as he “moved in to make sure if anyone was hurt” with his friend Gabriella Calvo, BPD Sergeant Hong, who arrived at the scene “dressed in jeans and a windbreaker began pushing Gabriella away.”  

“Unsure of who this man was, I approached him and told him there was no need to put his hands on the woman, took her by the arm and began to walk away,” Cox said. “I was then grabbed on the arm and assaulted by Hong, who twisted it in a possible attempt to subdue me.”  

Cox said that he ran briefly, then turned around to say he was not running any more and “asked why they were doing this.”  

“At this point, an officer running straight at me struck me in the face causing my nose to bleed excessively,” he said. “I was tackled by two other officers and beaten in the legs and back with a baton and arrested after not laying a finger on anyone.”  

Cox said in his e-mail that “this aspect of the story has not been mentioned yet and I feel it is necessary for the community to know about these unacceptable and deplorable actions taken by BPD.”  

Greenwood said that BPD officers arrived at the scene of the collision to find a group of people standing close to the scene, yelling obscenities at the police officers who were trying to move people away from the scene.  

He said that when officers warned the crowd to step away, most of them complied except for two people.  

“One of them (Cox) took a fighting stance against the officers and raised his arms,” he said. “As the officers took ahold of the person, he took off running. Two officers ran after him and when they caught up to him he struggled.”  

Greenwood said that Cox refused to respond to orders to stop resisting arrest and ultimately was forced into handcuffs and brought to the Berkeley police station.  

Cox, a 21-year-old Oxnard resident, was cited for resisting arrest, battery on a police officer and interference with a police officer and released.  

“The case will go to the District Attorney who may or may not decide to charge him (Cox), Greenwood said.  

Cox said that he and his friend Gabriella had been some of the first people to be at the scene of the accident.  

“I was just making sure people were OK,” he said. “Sgt. Hong had barely started telling us to comply, at which point he started pushing Gabby away.”  

Cox said that later when the police got ahold of him, he had struggled a bit. “I was really angry and kept saying ‘why are you doing this?’” he said.  

Christina Slores, a third year UC Berkeley student who lives in an apartment located at the intersection where the crash took place, called the Planet to say that she had witnessed Berkeley police harassing Cox and Calvo. 

“I heard the crash and was at the scene within five minutes of it,” she said. “I saw a guy, whom I later came to know was Evan, standing across the street. I didn’t think he was hostile towards the officers. All of a sudden I saw an officer push him and he kind of instinctively pushed the officer forward. He probably realized he had done something wrong and started running. Three or four police officers started chasing him. The thing that got me angry was that the officers pushed him for no apparent reason. That could have been me, standing there, getting treated like that.” 

Cox said he was planning to press charges against the Berkeley police officers and would try to get his charges dropped.  

 

 

 

 


Sunday April 18, 2010 - 06:52:00 PM

The Rippowam River rushed by at the foot of our dank street, or, depending on the season, gurgled its way to Long Island Sound. I would sit on the stone embankment overlooking the water, ignoring the garter snakes in the crevices. The Ferguson Public Library children’s room was another 1932 shelter. Story hour was held in a separate room with a large picture window. I played stamping books, using a piece of black crayon stuck on the end of a protractor. It slipped off, jamming crayon into my palm, still imbedded there in a tattoo effect.  

Saturday mornings, a few years later, I headed for the story hour in a corner of the Freeport Memorial Library’s crowded basement workroom. I read all the twins books, written and illustrated by Lucy Fitch Perkins. Kit and Kat began as The Dutch Twins (1911), metamorphosed into Scottish, American, Belgian, Chinese, Colonial, Eskimo, Irish, Italian, and Japanese stories. Then came Helen Dore Boylston’s Sue Barton, Nurse series –- senior nurse, staff nurse, visiting nurse. These books can be borrowed in your behalf from nearby libraries participating in the free Link system.  

Seventy-three year old Gail Sheehy’s books on life and the life cycle continue the theme of passages through life's stages. She refers to "Second Adulthood." Her 2006 book and CD, Sex and the Seasoned Woman: Pursuing the passionate life reveal a hidden cultural phenomenon: a surge of vitality in women's sex and love lives after age 50.  

I first encountered Berkeley author Dorothy Bryant via her 1972 literary landmark. Ella Price’s Journal is a novel in diary form of a woman who returns to school after 15 years of marriage and begins to see her carefully-structured world in an unexpected and unwelcome light. I asked Bryant about her current reading. Kay Ryan’s The Best of It, New and Selected Poems. She prefers lesser known books recommended by friends, e.g. Judith Freeman’s Red Water. Old movies on DVD satisfy the ‘recreational urge.’ When she knows what she wants, she requests it online and it is brought to South Branch public library. For browsing, she stops regularly at Central.  

Best-selling Berkeley author Theodore Roszak was turned down by 20 major publishers, reports Avis Worthington. When he proposed his The Making of an Elder Culture; Reflections on the Future of America’s Most Audacious Generation, they informed him, “Old people don’t read books.” It was published by New Society Publishers in 2009.  

Ever noticed that the central character in many biographies and novels is influenced by a public library or library staff-member? -- Goodbye, Columbus --. The novel and motion picture of A tree grows in Brooklyn. -- Perhaps because children are central to Dear Miss Breed :True stories of the Japanese American incarceration during World War II … , it has generally been assigned to children’s collections, but it is a book for everyone. (See July 31, 2007 BDPlanet.) 

The 1956 motion picture, Storm Center (1956, 85m, Columbia Pictures), is about a small-town library administrator who refuses to withdraw a controversial book from the shelves. She is labeled a Communist by local politicians (City Council members…), loses her job, and becomes an outcast in the community. Bette Davis plays the doomed librarian. Banned Books Week in 2010 will be September 25−October 2. The World Catalog lists a Storm Center dvd distributed by Sony Pictures Television… 

The word “FREE” in many USA libraries’ names (Free Library of Philadelphia, Mono County Free Library, Enoch Pratt Free Library of Baltimore, etc.) is not mere happenstance. They were founded for the public, not as “subscription” libraries.  

The University of California, Berkeley used to grant library circulation privileges to senior citizens. No longer. Governor Palin’s dubious public library involvement is not surprising. Patrons’ taxes contribute largely to American public libraries’ budgets. A children’s room has long been part of a public library’s building and program, dating back to inception of the Carnegie libraries; YP (young people, teenagers) collections and activities were later introduced. Now, more than ever, elders are dependent on our free public libraries.  

The Alameda County Library has created “Older Adult Services,” a brochure highlighting current programs. Special library materials that may interest older adults, caregivers and others include large-print books, audio books and videos (standard, close-captioned and descriptive). Trained volunteers bring library materials to homebound persons. Generations On Line is an easy-to-use program designed to introduce seniors to the Internet and email with step-by-step directions, available at Alameda County Library locations.  

It’s a good thing. Berkeley Public Library’s senior discount on overdue charges. So are the large-print collections of fiction (science fiction, mysteries,) nonfiction (biography, The Weekly New York Times,) and reference books (dictionaries, thesauri). They can be accessed using subject heading LARGE TYPE BOOKS. The BPL Outreach person is Colleen Fawley (510) 981-6160. I know from experience that she has magical insights into what subjects and books, magazines and nonprint media will interest someone who is briefly or indefinitely unable to get to the Library. She selects, delivers, and subsequently picks them up. Specific titles and subjects can be requested, and she will bring them to you soonest. Alas, “budgetary constraints” will likely shorten her hours.  

I am weary of the media’s representation of shush libraries, and of praise heaped on library architecture that has little to do with accessing books and information, and of bureaucrats’ appointment of acceptable personalities to serve on library boards and to liaison with them.  

For your consideration:  

Berkeley Repertory Theatre package options include special discounts on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday matinees for persons who are “at least 65”.  

 

*** 

CALL TO CONFIRM:  

When: Tuesday, April 20, 2010. 11 A.M.-noon 

What: Director’s Roundtable Discussion 

Where: North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst@ MLK 

Details: NBSC director Larry Taylor meets with seniors  

For more info: (510) 981-5190 

 

When: Wednesday, April 21, 2010. 1:30 P.M.  

What: Berkeley Commission on Aging meeting.  

Where: South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis @ Ashby  

For more info: (510) 981-5170 

 

 

Helen Rippier Wheeler can be reached at pen136@dslextreme.com 

Please, no email attachments; use “Senior Power” for subject. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Thursday April 15, 2010 - 04:00:00 PM


Opinion

Editorials

The Day Our Sixties Started

By Becky O'Malley
Thursday April 15, 2010 - 09:33:00 AM

Somehow I seem to have become an honorary member of the Free Speech Movement, on their mailing list and invited to their reunions. In all honesty, I must admit that when the FSM was making waves in 1964 I was in Ann Arbor making babies. But before that, four years before that, I was present at the creation, so to speak. I was one of the five thousand Bay Area citizens who rose in protest against the House Un-American Activities Committee (commonly known as HUAC), the trailing edge of ugly ‘50s McCarthyism which finally got its deserved comeuppance during the merry month of May in the newly minted 1960s. 

Last week I got an email which was sent to the 738 people on the Free Speech Movement Archives list, a forwarded letter from one Irving Wesley Hall addressed to “Dear Fellow Traveler”. (For those of you too young to remember, fellow travelers included anyone in the ‘50s who didn’t believe that members of the Communist Party should be summarily drawn, quartered and thrown to the wolves.)  

He reminded us that the 50th anniversary of “Black Friday”, May 13, 1960, is coming right up. He and un-named co-conspirators have set up a website www.notinkansas.us in order to “rescue ‘Black Friday"’ from historical obscurity, to proclaim its relevance today, and--above all--to celebrate its heroes and heroines” and “insure that the alternative and corporate media remember Black Friday during the coming week of May 10-16.” 

Well, I remember it. It was the second day of hearings that HUAC was holding in the supervisors’ chambers at San Francisco City Hall with the stated purpose of investigating the international Communist conspiracy and the obvious real purpose of intimidating political activists, CPUSA members among them. People subpoenaed by the committee often lost their jobs, and frequently received death threats and other forms of harassment. 

I was finishing my junior year at Cal, and like a fair number of my fellow students had learned about planned picketing of the committee from stories in the Daily Cal. I didn’t know a whole lot about politics in those days, but I had taken a look at the U.S. constitution in my government course sophomore year, and had gotten the general idea that the First Amendment was supposed to guarantee freedom of speech and association.  

My roommate for my first two years of college, at a women’s school in the East, was the daughter and sister of distinguished academics who were fired and blacklisted for refusing to testify in front of HUAC—her brother eventually went to jail for six months for relying on the First Amendment when he declined to be interrogated about his beliefs. Dimly, I perceived an inconsistency that needed to be addressed. 

So along with many other students from Berkeley I took the F bus into San Francisco on Thursday, May 12, and joined the picket line. My next door neighbor on Ellsworth Street went too. She was a cute girl who had been raised on a chicken farm in Petaluma, in what I learned much later was a hotbed of radicalism, but she looked like she belonged in a sorority. She didn’t talk much about politics. 

Did we really wear high heels, hats and gloves? I think we did, but in any event we were advised to dress respectably, and we complied.  

The turnout was pretty good, but not huge. The room where the hearings were held was much too small to hold everyone who wanted to witness the proceedings, so most of us just walked the picket line outside. Those who were lucky enough to get inside City Hall chanted “let us in”, but they weren’t admitted. 

The next day I had a mid-term, so I stayed in Berkeley. Big mistake. That was the famous Black Friday, the day that San Francisco police turned fire hoses on chanting protesters, washing them down a long flight of marble stairs, and loaded them into paddy wagons as they sang “We Shall Not Be Moved”, a tune they’d just learned from the nascent civil rights movement. 

Thanks to the miracle of the internet, you can see the whole thing on-line today, courtesy of the Media Resources Center at the Moffit Library of UC Berkeley, in Operation Abolition , a propaganda film HUAC put together from news footage that was intended to damn the protesters forever. From today’s vantage point it’s difficult to believe that they thought it would help their cause.  

There are stirring shots of defiant longshoremen (Archie Brown in particular) invoking their constitutional rights, along shots of other figures who became familiar to me later, among them KPFA’s Bill Mandel and attorney Vin Hallinan, father of our own Conn and his rowdy band of activist brothers.  

Seeing the earnest horn-rimmed young men in suits and ties and the fresh-faced young things in crinoline petticoats(demurely pulling down their skirts to cover their knees)being dragged down the marble stairway is nothing if not stirring, even today. 

And that’s the effect the film had at the time. Operation Abolition was shown on campuses everywhere (I saw it first in the basement of the old Newman Hall on Northside) and everywhere it inspired students to new frontiers of political activism. An answering film, Operation Correction, was created, but it wasn’t really needed. 

Here’s how Irving Hall tells it on his website:

“Youngsters in their teens and twenties passionately committed to the Bill of Rights dealt the committee a mortal blow. HUAC's well-funded cinematic counterattack backfired. Newly politicized students from across the nation cheered the spunky kids in Operation Abolition and flocked to Berkeley, eager to change the world.  

Much to our surprise, our spontaneous, spirited and courageous defense of civil liberties changed America forever. Our political baptism changed our lives forever….”

 

After Black Friday, opposition to HUAC was big news. Since I’d missed the main event, I resolved to get a ringside seat on Saturday, May 14. My friend Frank had a car, so we took our sleeping bags and drove into San Francisco late Friday night so we could be first in line when City Hall opened in the morning.  

This was my first lesson in never trusting the newsies. We did indeed get in line outside the door at 5 a.m., and we were interviewed by the Hearst Examiner reporter assigned to talk to the first people in the queue. I wouldn’t tell him my name or anything else, but Frank said he was a UC maintenance man (true, though also a past and future student). The story next day said that “Frank ___ , a Cal student, spent the night with his girlfriend in a parked car on Polk Street”—scandalous stuff in those days, and he wasn’t even my boyfriend. Fortunately my actual boyfriend didn’t object. 

Hall continues:

“Because of May 13, I became an activist for life. It was a blessing to have been arrested, to experience youthful righteous solidarity, to plead a just cause against mass media lies, to challenge the FBI and Congress—and win… 

Had we not skipped classes that day, protested in the City Hall rotunda against our exclusion from the hearings, and had we not spontaneously responded with non-violence when the police attacked, my life would have taken a completely different course. What if I had stayed at home? Or not participated in the empowering national writing and speaking campaign that disgraced the most powerful man in America, J. Edgar Hoover, and placed under permanent house arrest the most tyrannical committee of Congress?”

 

I myself clearly remember watching student leader Michael Rossman (may he rest in peace), the recording secretary for the Bay Area Student Committee for the Abolition of the House Un-American Activities Committee, being interviewed on televison (Sixty Minutes?) in about 1964 as I sat on the couch in Ann Arbor nursing the latest baby. The interviewer's spin was that the student movement was over, that things were soon going to get back to normal. How wrong that turned out to be. 

I’d been working in the local civil rights movement and was starting to organize against what would become the war in Vietnam. I knew that there was still a lot of work to be done, and I was confident we could do it. We did eventually accomplish many exciting things in those years, though it took a little longer than we’d expected. 

When you’re young you believe that you can do what needs to be done, and so you just do it. Seeing all the earnest young people last night who insisted on being present at the ASUC meeting, trying to shed some light from their personal perspectives on the Israel-Palestine imbroglio, reminded me of our youthful selves. Regardless of which side they were on, their passion was impressive.  

The ASUC students who insisted on bringing these problems into the public discourse are brave, whether you agree with them or not. The people who have been trying to stifle the debate about what’s wrong in the Middle East in Berkeley and elsewhere look more and more like the House Un-American Activities Committee. They’ve won a few battles—they may even win this little skirmish at UC Berkeley--but eventually truth will prevail, and they will lose their war to prevent free and open public discussion of a crucial situation that increasingly affects the whole world. 

 

******************************** 

Irving Wesley Hall emailed yesterday:

Guess where we're celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the 1960 "riot" against HUAC? At the scene of the crime! Communist Dupes will occupy San Francisco City Hall rotunda once again between noon and 1:30 on May 13. Join riot ringleader Bob Meisenbach, his co-conspirators and the survivors of the cast of thousands mobilized in San Francisco in May 1960!
For more information, check his website: notinkansas.us

 

[Error corrected from original: Brown, not Moore]  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The Editor's Back Fence

The Latest Plan

By Becky O'Malley
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 06:08:00 PM

Herein another experiment in our never-ending quest to find the right model for reporting news of Berkeley and the rest of the urban East Bay on a shoestring in our spare time: This week we’re trying to do two shorter issues instead of one humongous one.  

We’ll still put up news stories as they occur, usually daily, but the formal Tuesday and Friday issues will have all the columns and features in one place at one time as well as a roundup of all the news which has broken since the last issue. 

What this particular one does not have is a proper editorial, partly because I was too preoccupied with getting everything else in place this first time and partly because my Firefox got into a death struggle with my Gmail (can anyone shed any light on this?).  

Godwilling and the creeks don’t rise, there’ll be another issue on Friday (NOT Thursday as before) with an editorial and everything else. 

This issue was written almost 100% by our all-volunteer army of contributors. As soon as things calm down, we’re going to prepare an honor roll of the many clever Berkeleyans who have stepped up to the plate to help out—especially the pros who have been accustomed to being paid who are working for free at the moment. 

(Michael Morgan, the Oakland Symphony’s witty conductor, says that “when I say we, I mean I.” In our case, as the staff shrinks, when I say “we” I mean Becky and Mike.) 

Riya Bhattacharjee has stayed around longer than anyone else, and has done the work of six lesser mortals. She’s a perfect mix of brains and energy, and Berkeley has benefited enormously from her talents.  

Now, however, she’s decided to move to Seattle for personal reasons, and while we can’t argue with her decision we’ll miss her both personally and professionally. In true Berkeley Daily Planet tradition, she leaves to the accompaniment of a vicious unfounded attack on her work in the letters column, which only proves she must have been doing something right. 

What her departure means, in practical terms, is that we really have to find someone else to tell the public what’s happening at the major governmental meetings. We’ve had excellent volunteers for the Landmarks Preservation Commission and the School Board, but we’d very much like to find someone to report on Berkeley’s City Council, Planning Commission and Zoning Adjustment board. 

The good news is that we might finally have figured out a legal way to pay independent reporters. We’re hoping to re-establish the Fund for Local Reporting as a non-profit which will pay writers directly, bypassing the Berkeley Daily Planet LLC to avoid the IRS questions which have financially hobbled our recent operations.  

Mike and I will go on working for free as always to put up the website, but writers can be paid for their work when there’s money in the till. We might even be able to start selling online ads—the ones we’ve been running lately have been donated to worthy organizations. But until it’s all set up, we’re going to need volunteers if the news is going to be reported. 

If you’re interested in working for the Planet, either as a volunteer now or eventually as a paid independent journalist, write to me at news@berkeleydailyplanet.com. 

And keep those letters coming—let us know how two shorter issues a week works for you.  

If you send an email to subscribe@berkeleydailyplanet.com, you can be a free subscriber, which means that I’ll send you a personal reminder when there’s a new issue online. If you’re already on that list and don’t want to be, write to unsubscribe@berkeleydailyplanet.com and we’ll take you off. 

 

 

 

 

 


Updated: Worth a Look

By Becky O'Malley
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 01:07:00 PM

In this space in the next few days you'll find links to websites and articles that you might not have seen. 

Here's an Indymedia article about proposals for selling Berkeley's public housing--see Helen Rippier Wheeler's Reader's Guide in this issue 

 

Cal/OSHA has cited Alta Bates Summit Hospital for needlessly exposing workers to bacterial menningitis. Here's their press release on which many stories in various media were based this week.


Updated: Worth a Look

Thursday April 15, 2010 - 08:15:00 PM

A few interesting new links: 

Merrilie Mitchell called me to ask if I'd read this . No, I hadn't, but now I have, and you should too, if you're interested in what's fueling (biofueling?)UC's expansion fever. Synthetic biology, in Berkeley. As the man in the story says, scary as hell. 

This one's very sad. 

And for a little light refreshment, try teabonics.  

Berkeley lawyer represents the Vatican in sex scandal cases. 


Cartoons

Odd Bodkins

By Dan O'Neill
Wednesday April 14, 2010 - 05:53:00 PM
Dan O'Neill

Click on the image in order to see it magnified. 


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 04:58:00 PM

 

Pools Needed 

 

Rob Collier's commentary is an excellent rejoinder to the distortions and misinformation about the Berkeley Pools Bond measure written by Marie Bowman. It seems that only people with lots of money, many who can afford thousands of dollars to use the Claremont pool, object to a rise in their taxes by a mere $50 or so to maintain the city's three public pools and a new warm water pool, needed by disabled people as well as older citizens, people with arthritis, even infants who learn to swim there. 

It is possible that without such a warm water pool the city might be sued under the American with Disabilities Act, so we definitely need this pool. Some on Southside are concerned that the cost of maintaining that pool and the other public pools may not be sufficient to maintain the Willard pool; that would indeed be a disservice to our Southside residents who seem to be shafted more than more affluent areas of the city. Let's not have that happen! Vote YES on Measure C. 

Again, thanks to Rob Collier for his excellent analysis and the Planet for printing it. 

Estelle Jelinek 

Anti-Semitism Again  

Most Jews consider Becky O’Malley anti-Semitic not because she is critical of Israel but because she is obsessively and disproportionally critical while ignoring human rights violations in Arab states.  

Egypt is a brutal, corrupt dictatorship with a persecuted Christian minority. A harsh Islamic future seems inevitable. Syria is ruled by a family dictatorship that has killed more Arabs than has Israel in all its wars. Lebanon is between civil wars. Religious strife has been continuous since the Muslim conquest centuries ago. Saddam used poison gas on his own people and was responsible for the deaths of over a million Arabs, Kurds and Iranians. Libya is ruled by a clownish dictator who recently called for a jihad against Switzerland and its abolishment because it once arrested his son for beating his servants at a luxury Swiss hotel. Algeria is recovering from an unfinished civil war between Islamists and the military. Over 150,000 were killed. In Sudan the Saudi and Chinese financed Islamic regime is responsible for an estimated 2 million deaths in the Christian and animist South and about 200,000 Muslims in Darfur. In Morocco the government forced thousands of people living in the Western Sahara into exile when it crushed the local independence movement. Yemen is a feudal society ruled by a corrupt dictatorship and tribal chieftains. In Saudi Arabia Christianity and Judaism are prohibited, conversion and homosexuality punished by death, women barred from driving and riding bicycles on public roads. There is no pretence of democracy and no demand by Ms O’Malley for disinvestment. 

Arabs have more rights in the Occupied Territories than in many Arab countries. The Territories probably are safer than Richmond or West Oakland. Palestinians will get their state. It will be like other Arab states. There will be no Israeli Supreme Court to redress greviances. 

 

Dan Brown 

 

*** 

Trying to Find Ethiopian Relatives 

 

My name is David Ellmrich and I live in Czech Republic Europe. Through your newspaper I found that my father is dead. He died in 2002:  

”Man Mistakenly Flown to Mexico Identified “ 

OAKLAND — The body of a man mistakenly flown to Mexico for burial was that of an Ethiopian refugee.  

Hagos Gebre-Amlak, 44, died Sept. 2. Family members in Oakland, who declined to reveal his cause of death, decided to send his body to be buried in his native country where his mother still lives. But the body arrived in Mexico to the dismay of the grieving family of Roberto Castaneda.  

Castaneda’s body, which was supposed to be sent to his hometown in Mexico, ended up temporarily in Europe.  

A preliminary investigation has revealed the error occurred in a cargo warehouse at San Francisco International Airport owned by Delta Airlines but operated in part by Continental.  

The airlines have agreed to refund both families for the cost to fly the bodies.  

This man met my mother in early eighties when he studied in CR. My name was given me from my stepfather, because my father immigrated to USA in 1982 I think. I was born 1981. I am still trying to reach someone from my real family. That could be that mentioned grandmother in Ethiopia or sons or daughters of Hagos Gebreamlak in Oakland California (that’s what’s written in that article-family). And I am looking for any contact I could have with them. Please, couldn t you help me a bit somehow? 

David Ellmrich, DiS.  

 

*** 

Remembering Campbell Coe 

Just finished reading a comment in a 2005 issue that contained corrections to an obituary about Campbell Coe. I found that article after googling Campbell Coe out of curiousity, because I had met him a couple of times in Berkeley back in the latter 50's when I was a graduate student at Cal I often wondered what had become of him. We were not friends, but I remembered enjoying conversing with him at those gatherings. Years later,(1969-70) when I was living in Berlin, Germany, I was both startled and amused upon spotting a bumper sticker on a car in the center of town that read: "Campbell Coe is alive and well." I remember thinking at the time: "Could that possibly be the same Campbell Coe that I knew in Berkeley way back then?" After reading both the obituary and the correcting article,about him in your publication, I'm sure it was indeed the same Campbell Coe.  

Dr. Ray Pimentel 

San Jose  

 

*** 

Measure C Facts and Figures 

From a flyer I got in the mail the numbers don't add up. I did a quick run through of the numbers and found this: 

Measure C wants average 70 dollars from each household over 30 years. 

Berkeley has 45,000 households as of 2000 census. It's probably more since 10 years ago,so you can add even more money to the receipts. 

70x45,000 households x 30 years=~94,500,000 total receipts for the renovations. 

Renovations to all pools=~24,000,000 

94,500,000 total minus 24,000,000=~70,000,000 left over to operate 4 pools over 30 years 

Measure C says it costs 980,000 a year to operate these pools each year. that=29,400,000 to operate these pools for 30 years according to government and Measure C. 

But they get 70,000,000! 

Where does that ~40,000,000(million!) go? BOND PAYMENTS?? 

They are asking for double of what they "need" which is dubious. So each household should only pay~30-40 dollars a year in my opinion. As a tax, not a bond. Why are we paying double to borrow the money when we should just tax it over the 30 years requested? In this day and age, the system should not add un-payable debt burden. Paying Goldman Sachs or whoever to float this bond 40,000,000 bucks for pools is absurd-the age of funny money/credit is over. We are paying way too much for this loan.  

Then they market this thing as if we are depriving the kids of pools, when I would say about 10% of the population actually uses them. 

But that's OK, I'm not a scrooge. I'll pay 30 bucks a year, as I should, in TAXES.  

Justin Lee 

 

*** 

Haiku  

HATE THE PEOPLE 

WHO RULE THE WORLD  

BUT I LOVE 

ICELANDIC VOLCANO 

 

C'MON MALCOLM, 

YOU KNOW I LIVE IN FOREST TIMES, 

C'MON MALCOLM YOU. 

 

FOLKS WHO GROW WHEAT, 

NOW KNOWN AS BAD FOR US 

SHOULD HAVE  

A NASTY NICKNAME.  

Arnie Passman 

 

*** 

 

True Conservatism 

"A blind and ignorant resistance to every effort for the reform of abuses and for the readjustment of society ... represents not true conservatism, but an incitement to the wildest radicalism. " - Theodore Roosevelt, 1908. Fast forward to 2010 and enter the "Party of No', Republicans who promise to vote against any Obama proposals to reform the government and economy. 

Republicans continue to frame the debate even though their ideas are out of whack and far from the mainstream. Democrats need to step up and frame the debate, and stop playing second fiddle to GOP reactionaries, Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, and the new axis of evil, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, and Rush Limbaugh. 

Middle America will frame the debate in 2010 by saying "NO" to the poisonous and acrimonious rhetoric of the Republican Party. 

Ron Lowe 

 

*** 

Waste 

 

The mounting messes of wastes along with the massive mess coming from the Iceland volcano are going to be taxing the world's resources for humans to survive. The USA and the rest of the world have to stop wasting time looking at the stars and get humankind to take care of what their feet are standing on. Obama's calling for man on Mars indicates lunacy or too much star gazing. I urge readers to contact the Whitehouse and their elected federal officials to wake them up to the waste messes that are engulfing us.  

Dr. J. Singmaster, Fremont, CA Ph (510)797-3790 

 

*** 

 

More Anti-Semitism 

Was Ms Bhattacharjee actually at the ASUC meeting on April 14? Because if she had been, she would know that at approximately 4 a.m. April 15, the ASUC Berkeley voted to uphold the veto of a measure urging divestment from two U.S. companies supplying war materials to Israel. 

It is true that the final outcome is still somewhat undecided since about 90 minutes before the meeting adjourned at 5:37 a.m., proponents of the resolution kept the debate alive by calling for a motion to reconsider the vote on the veto. How disturbing that after such a difficult night, people still dragged the meeting on, filibustered and repeated points that made the meeting go longer, according to people in attendance, forcing the motion to be tabled for a future meeting. 

Ms Bhattacharjee's coverage of the meeting is also disturbing, yet not surprising, when she refers to the bill's supporters as Nobel Prize winners and Cal professors and its opponents as staunch opponents and making mention of an Israeli supporter of the bill who wore a sticker stating, "“Another Israeli for Human Rights”. Whatever that means. 

Except for reporting that the singling out of Israel was also one of the main reasons why Smelko decided to veto the bill, Ms Bhattacharjee's reporting was so clearly biased towards the Berkeley Planet's well known anti Israel position as to make the article clearly opinion as opposed to stating the facts. 

Am I surprised? No. Will the Planet post my letter? I hope so. Last time I wrote, the screener referred to my positions as "hate mail". Such Berkeley bullshit. Agree with the "pc" Planet or other anti Israel elements. Otherwise, you're wrong, racist, a war criminal, hateful, or God knows what. 

 

Susan Sholin  

 

Editor’s Note: God indeed knows, and god will judge us both.  

 

*** 

Divestment is “Pro-Human Rights” 

Overall a nice article article about the UC Berkeley divestment decision, but this sentence alarmed me: 

"Pro and anti-Israeli groups have been flooding the senators’ mailboxes ever since the bill was passed...." 

I don't see the appeals for the Student Senate to vote to divest as being "anti-Israeli"! I actually see it as "pro-Israeli" as well as "pro-Palestinian" and "pro-American." In fact, overall, I see it as "pro human rights" and if it's to considered "anti" anything, it would be anti war-profiteering and anti violence against civilians. 

I agree with Israeli coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions Dr. Jeff Halper that there are two sides to this conflict, but they are NOT Israeli and Palestinian. They are all the Israelis, Palestinians, Americans and other who will accept only a "zero-sum" outcome to this conflict "vs" all the Israelis, Palestinians, Americans and others who believe in a win/win/win outcome. 

The call for divestment FROM ISRAEL's OCCUPATION is pro-law, pro-human rights, pro-justice, pro-peace. I don't see it as anti-Israeli! 

Linda Frank, 

Tacoma, WA 

 

*** 

 

Classical Request  

I’ve been a faithful reader of The Daily Planet since it started, and although sad about the printed edition’s demise, I’m glad that it continues online. However, I can’t find, in the online edition, any listing for classical music performances. I and my friends used to rely on the Planet’s pages for this information – there’s no other source for the East Bay. The fault may be mine -- -now in my ninth decade, I’m not adept at the computer. However, if you have dropped the classical music listings entirely, please reconsider and start them again.  

John Spier 

 

Editor’s Note: We found some for today, just for you.  

*** 

 

 

Eat Plants  

This week marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. A day we pledge to conserve Earth's natural resources for future generations. 

We already know about recycling, changing light bulbs, adjusting the thermostat, and reducing our driving habits. This year, we can best observe Earth Day by switching to a plant-based diet. 

A recent study in WorldWatch magazine found that production of meat and dairy products may account for fully half of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, such production contrib-utes more pollutants to our water supplies than all other human activities combined. It is causing global shortages of drinking water. It is the driving force in global deforestation and wildlife habitat destruction. 

This Thursday, let’s celebrate Earth Day and every day by replacing meat and dairy products in our diet with healthful, eco-friendly foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and nuts. Those opting for a more gradual transition will find ample soy and grain-based meat and dairy analogs in your local supermarket. Additional information is available at www.greenyourdiet.org. 

 

Jeff Garner  

 

Take Trains  

As a frequent train rider and railfan, I am obviously in full support of the California High Speed Rail system. With the population growing bigger and bigger by the day, California, the most populated state in the Union, will require more and more ways to transport this ever-growing population. This being said, high speed rail is the best way to go. Rail travel is already the most environmentally-friendly way to travel, and it will become even more so with a high speed rail system that is powered entirely on overhead electrical wires. High Speed Rail has been successfully implemented throughout Europe and Asia, and it's high time that the United States catch up on the times. Our current system is no match for today's rapidly-growing, fast-paced world. Let's bring high speed rail to not just California, but the entire United States. 

Miguel Gamalinda 

*** 

Eat at Ozzie’s  

Much to the delight of long-time Berkeley residents, a new restaurant has recently opened at the site of Ozzie's Soda Fountain -- the Elmwood Cafe, 2900 College Avenue. Ozzie himself, the famed drug store philosopher, alas, is no longer there, but his spirit lives on! The new Cafe, practically an extension of Mrs. Dalloway's Book Store, is a light and airy place with ample seating, affording diners a view of the passing parade on College Avenue. A staff of attractive, enthusiastic and courteous young people take orders at the fountain and deliver to your table. 

The Cafe, which opened three weeks ago, is owned by Kara Hammond, Michael Pearce and Rachel Ericson. It offers an imaginative and fairly elegant menu, with delectable items such as Savory Bread Pudding, Hot Five Grain Porridge, Ferb chevre and arugula on toasted walnut levain, with a Rhubarb Cobbler for dessert. Equally impressive is the long list of beverages, including several tempting drinks -- Double Espresso, Macchiazto, Cappuccino, Latte, Cafe Au Lait and Double Mocha. 

Clearly the Elmwood Cafe is not your everyday Burger King or Wendy's. Indeed, it adds greatly to the Elmwood District which already boasts an amazing number of high quality fashion, art and jewelry shops. It's to be hoped that this valuable new addition to College Avenue will attract new visitors, not just in Berkeley, but shoppers, perhaps even tourists, from outside. 

Should you want to make a reservation at the Elmwood Cafe, their number is (510) 843-1300. Bon Appetit! 

Dorothy Snodgrass 

 

*** 

Hooray for Health Reform  

I know it is old news, but I am still happy that health reform is a reality. As a person who has faced unemployment, I have had periods without health insurance. But for me, the best part of the reform is that many millions more will be covered and that that unethical practices of insurance companies will now be illegal. 

 

Clayton McClintock 

 

 

 


Cell Phone Towers – Should We Fear Them?

By Raymond Barglow www.berkeleytutors.net
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 06:41:00 PM

Is your new iphone dangerous? California State Senator Mark Leno has proposed legislation requiring all cell phones sold in the state to carry information about their radiation levels on sales boxes, usage instructions, and advertising displays in stores. San Francisco is considering similar legislation for cell phones sold in the city. 

In Berkeley, controversy about the safety of cell phones has been going on for years, centered not on the phones themselves but on the towers that broadcast to them. A year ago, Berkeley adopted an ordinance governing the installation of cell phone towers, and now the Planning Commission is about to modify zoning district regulations to conform to the ordinance’s provisions.  

But Berkeley’s ordinance does not prevent installation of the towers, and so the issue has not gone away. In a recent Planet article, “Cell Phones and the Politics of Cancer,” Harry Brill warns anew of the dangers. 

When Berkeley citizens request that cell phone towers not be installed in their neighborhoods, two different kinds of issues are raised. One is scientific: is radiation from the towers dangerous? The other is political: in what degree and manner should citizens be granted democratic control of their living environment? 

In South Berkeley, the Le Conte Neighborhood Association, including my brother and sister-in-law, fought hard to prevent real estate mogul Patrick Kennedy from installing cell phone towers at UC Storage on Shattuck Ave. Whether or not their conjectures about the towers are correct, I believe they have the right not to be exposed to radiation that they deem possibly dangerous. 

However, the evidence for the danger is weak. And I’m a little worried that someone reading about the alleged risk of living near a cell phone tower might feel frightened enough to move away from a neighborhood where one is located. The probability that someone will be harmed by exposure to radiation from one of these towers is, in my opinion, almost zero, and I’ll explain why below. 

To be sure, as Harry Brill points out, we cannot rely upon government authority to protect the public from such a potential danger. After all, as he points out, exposures to asbestos and cigarettes were very belatedly judged to be harmful. I made a similar point in an article ““Cell Phones: Hazardous to Your Health?”published in the Berkeley Daily Planet back in January: I noted as well, however, that the mainstream view among researchers in the physical and biological sciences is that cell phone radiation is too weak, by a factor of at least a million, to do any damage to a human body. My own knowledge of radiation science is not strong – it’s been decades since my undergraduate studies in physics. But I’ve discussed this matter in the past year with four scientists: physicist Richard Muller at UC Berkeley, physicist Robert Cahn at LBL, physicist Michael Vollmer from Brandenburg Germany; and biophysics graduate student Jeff Moffitt at UC Berkeley. They disbelieve the statistical "evidence" showing cell phone use to be dangerous, partly because they can think of no scientifically plausible chain of events whereby radiation from a cell phone might disrupt a biological process. In my Daily Planet piece on this subject, I outlined some of the scientific reasoning that leads them to dismiss this worry. 

Moreover, even those expert critics who warn us about the risks of cell phone technology concentrate their attention on the use of the phones themselves, not on the towers that broadcast to them. Louis Slesin, for example, a scientist who is perhaps the most well-known American doubter of cell phone safety, told me that he’s not very concerned about the towers, since even a small distance between a tower and a user greatly attenuates the signal strength. And ironically, if cell phone towers are more widely distributed in a community, then users of this technology will need phones emitting less powerful radiation to communicate with those towers, thereby reducing their risk. 

Most of the scientific research over the past decade on the hazards of this technology use has studied the safety of cell phone receivers held to the ear. But there have also been a very few studies about the dangers of living near cell phone broadcasting installations. Several of these studies seem to have been written by reputable investigators and I’ve read them fairly carefully. In each case the research appears to be fundamentally flawed.  

For instance, a scientific study that has received wide distribution via the Internet, and is often cited on websites warning us about cell phone tower radiation, was conducted by Israeli medical researchers Ronni Wolf MD and Danny Wolf MD. Their team compared cancer rates among 622 people living near a cell phone transmitter station in the town of Netanya to 1277 individuals, “with very closely matched, environment, workplace and occupational characteristics,” but not living in the vicinity of a transmitter station. In the period of one year, 8 cancer cases were diagnosed in the group of 622 experimental subjects. Only 2 cases of cancer were diagnosed in the control group of 1277. The researches concluded that “The study indicates an association between increased incidence of cancer and living in proximity to a cell-phone transmitter station.”  

Although the numbers of cases here is small, the result is a disturbing one. I wondered, though, about cell phone use among the reported 10 cancer cases. If cell phone antennas are dangerous, then the actual use of cell phones is much more so, since the receiver is held so much closer to the brain, whereas, in the Israeli study, the experimental subjects lived on average about 200 feet away from the antennas. So I assumed that the researchers would have inquired whether the experimental subjects – especially those who came down with cancer – were themselves cell phone users. Surprisingly, no information about this was presented in this study. When I spoke with one of the principal investigators on the phone, he said that he did not know whether or how much the subjects of their study used cell phones -- that cell phone use was simply not a variable in the study! I asked Dr. Wolf whether he was planning to follow up on his study, taking additional, seemingly crucial variables into account. He replied that No, he and his partner were done with this subject and were moving on. 

This major design flaw casts doubt upon the Wolf & Wolf research findings. Taking an example from a related field, it’s as if a study inquiring into the effects of environmental pollution on the incidence of lung cancer neglected to ask experimental subjects whether or not they themselves smoked. That would not be an acceptable research design. 

Harry Brill cites another study, done in the Southern German town of Naila, that found a correlation between incidence of cancer and proximity to cell phone towers. The study is of about the same size as the Israeli study discussed above, but once again, the investigators failed to ascertain cell phone use among the individuals who got cancer. 

Such studies aren’t fraudulent, I don’t think – they’re just not done in a scientifically thoughtful, careful manner. And as I mentioned in the Daily Planet article, “even when scientific research is done conscientiously, the results may reflect the prior convictions of the investigators and may turn out to be invalid. It is possible to gather ‘empirical evidence’ for many mistaken conclusions. A quick search on the Internet reveals, for example, dozens of ‘scientific’ studies that ‘disprove’ the hypothesis that global warming exists and is due largely to human activities.” 

Although epidemiology is certainly a valid enterprise that has helped us locate the causes of many illnesses, it’s also true that statistics often serve to foster illusions rather than dispel them. Consider the following study indicating that cell phone radiation is actually beneficial! A University of South Florida press release at the beginning of 2010 reported that “A surprising new study in mice provides the first evidence that long-term exposure to electromagnetic waves associated with cell phone use may actually protect against, and even reverse, Alzheimer’s disease. The study, led by University of South Florida researchers at the Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (ADRC), was published today in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.” 

This study is probably no more valid than the ones discussed above.  

There is a wider lesson here: Internet dissemination of risk information is by no means a reliable process. In the age of TV prior to the Web, a public health expert might get on the tube to warn or reassure Americans regarding an environmental hazard. With the Internet, information is no longer broadcast in the same way. Someone can post the result of a “scientific” study to the Web, and it can quickly go viral, reaching a worldwide audience with few or no validity checks. 

My sense is that, overall, the public benefits from this information free-for-all. Some NGO websites, for example, are far more trustworthy than are official government sources. But Internet misinformation flourishes as well. It’s as easy these days for an invalid research finding as for a mistaken rumor to become a wildfire. 

Raymond Barglow is the founder of Berkeley Tutors Network 


Rally for Education in Sacramento Tomorrow (Wednesday)

By Cathy Campbell
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 05:14:00 PM

I'm writing to ask for your help in getting folks from Berkeley to a critical rally in Sacramento on April 21st. Below you will find specific details of the bus pickup times and locations. Everyone is welcome to come aboard one of these BFT/BCCE buses we just need to know who's coming. If you can please spread this info far and wide we would be so appreciative. 

Folks may be wondering if this trip will make a difference. The timing is, in fact, perfect. On May 15, 2010 the Governor will release a revised proposed budget and BUSD will have to use this, by law, to create their own budget. If the trend of increased state revenues continues and the Governor is pressured by folks like us to keep the promise of Prop 98, the $2.5 billion in cuts to education will go away (because Prop 98 mandates that 40% of the unexpected new revenue go to K-14 education). This would mean BUSD would NOT have to make $2.7 million in cuts next year. We can influence the Governor's revised proposal. 

Thanks very much for helping us get the word out about this important opportunity to defend our children and youth, and their educational futures. 

Join thousands of teachers, classified school employees, community members, parents, students tomorrow as we rally in Sacramento to support adequate funding for education and human services in our state.  

AFT President Randi Weingarten will address the rally, and we’ll join up with labor, business, faith-based, and community activists who are walking 365 miles from Bakersfield to Sacramento to galvanize a statewide effort to restore the promise of our state, especially for our children and youth. 

How do you get to Sacramento? It’s easy! BFT and BCCE will have 5 buses leaving at various locations and times (see below). All you need to do is to call 549-2307 or bft4tchr@lmi.net to sign up for a spot. 

Buses are leaving: 

1:00 Adult School (for folks who want to march from 3pm to 4pm to the Capitol) 

2:00 Adult School & Jefferson 

2:15 Longfellow 

2:45 King Middle School & Adult School 

 

Cathy Campbell, Berkeley Federation of Teachers  

Paula Phillips, Berkeley Council of Classified Employees


Press Release: Cornell, TP and Yoo

From Matt Cornell
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 01:15:00 PM

According to a press release from Los Angeles artist Matt Cornell, students at UC Berkeley were surprised to discover a new brand of toilet paper in the stalls of the law school building this morning. 

Cornell made a private donation of "Yoo Toilet Paper" protesting the tenure of controversial Bush lawyer, and author of the "torture memos," Professor John Yoo. 

Each roll of toilet paper contains text from the United Nations Convention Against Torture, just one of the many laws that critics say Yoo violated when authorizing the use of torture against detainees. 

Cornell says that the irreverent prank is intended to remind Berkeley's law students that Professor Yoo helped turned human rights laws into toilet paper. At the bottom of each roll is a reminder that "this toilet paper was made by possible by John Yoo, Professor of Law." 

Cornell also notes that his brand of toilet paper is softer and of higher quality than that provided by cash-strapped UC Berkeley and contains "valuable reading material" for law students. 

 

Information, photos and a video of the action can be found at yootoiletpaper.com  

 

Matt Cornell can be reached at 213-268-8401 or at matt@mattcornell.org  

 

 


Letters to the Editor

Thursday April 15, 2010 - 12:16:00 PM

Police Call for Boycott 

Today I attempted to patronize a Berkeley merchant on my way home from work (at Herrick Hospital) at 5:45. (see enclosed receipt from Stone Mountain & Daughter fabrics at 2518 Shattuck Ave Berkeley) 

The pay station dmt meter dispenser was broken, and no one in the parking island was able to get it to accept any money. It has been broken for over a week I was told. 

Officer Blackmon, who was explaining herself to a small gathering of those ticketed who had parked in the island when I finished my purchase and left the store at 6pm, acknowledged that she knew the payment devise was broken and “had been for over a week.” But she added gleefully, “it is not my job to worry about the devise, I just write the tickets” per Blackmon; everyone could write the court in lieu of paying the ticket. 

With all due respect, this seems an odd public policy on the part of the city of Berkeley; to assign public resources to harass drivers attempting to make purchases in your town for "failing" to pay money your machinery cannot accept while legally parked. 

I have never seen a tax base thrive where a boycott of the local merchants was initiated by the police. Nor can it plausibly be a good use of city resources to pay city employees to act as vigilantees to shake down those who frequent local merchants, when the city will likewise pay the salary of the person who reads this, checks the meter, voids the ticket, etc. all of which will result in no revenue. 

So, I request that you set aside this ticket. The collection machine was/is broken, and your staff knew that when she falsely and knowingly cited me for a failure to pay into the broken device. Even in Berkeley I am pretty sure you are not allowed to claim someone has broken the law for not being able to get your broken pay meter machines to work. 

Thank you in advance for your consideration, and I will certainly promise to increase my future diligence at remembering to boycott your town’s merchants. I forget from time to time, but I will try to drive straight through to Oakland before making any impulse buys from now on. I will try not to make another purchase in Berkeley in 2010. 

 

Ellen Starbird 

 

*** 

Architecture Review: “Trader Joe’s” Reconsidered 

Thanks for the review of the new downtown tenement. 

How much you want to bet the low-income apartments will be the ones with no view of sky and poor sunlight conditions?! 

It is a travesty that our city planning department and/or the city council approves so many zoning variances, typically giving things away for easily-broken promises that the real estate developers almost always seem to renege on. Why do our public servants make choices that benefit a few investors instead of making choices that take into consideration the wellbeing all the whole city? Why do we citizens allow our public SERVANTS to repeatedly override the popular will and make concessions to people who use the city to make money and then skedaddle (or, using GAIA as an example, sell the property as soon as they can)? 

Tree Fitzpatrick 

 

*** 

Just Love the Hysteria! 

The main reason I love to read The Daily Planet is because it provides a forum for all-too-typical Berkeleyites to indulge in one or another form of hysteria. Kevin Moore's confused, paranoic diatribe about U.C.'s "plan to destroy Smyth-Fernwald" is a perfect example. I lived in the Smyth-Fernwald dorms when I was a Cal student in the 1960s, and it's a very pretty location, albeit a long haul uphill from campus. But since virtually no residents of Berkeley even know it exists and certainly will never visit it, it hardly consitutes "an irreplaceable treasure." As for the ecological significance of this patch of land and the 63 trees, given that the space is directly adjacent to thousands of acres of protected parkland along the crest of the hills, I'd say it's minimal. Mr. Moore contends that "Berkeley cannot withstand yet another assault on the integrity of its natural beauty and vulnerable ecosystem." Pardon me for laughing out loud, but that is just nonsense. Perhaps a seismic installation -- if that indeed is all that UC plans, and Mr. Moore has no other suggestions -- would be a better use of the property than keeping it a private photography preserve for this sensitive soul. 

 

Michael Stephens 

*** 

One More Time Without Feeling or Wisdom  

When will it end? It's hard to say, but once again the City of Berkeley's decision-makers seem to have forgotten something basic. This time regarding raising parking fees and fines.  

My March 11th comment on the Public Works Department's decision last fall to raise refuse rates substantially and then being puzzlingly surprised when revenues actually fell as a result of the higher prices also applies to the current situation. [see http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2010-03-11/article/34809?headline=Berkeley-s-Refuse-Recycling-Budgeting-and-Fiscal-Planning-Reflects-A-Failure-in-Economic-Thinking- ] Now, due to budget problems, the City Council has (again) increased parking fees, parking fines, parking enforcement, and is even considering extending the operating hours of the meters to raise more revenues. It's not likely to happen the way the Council expects, because the city astonishingly once again has forgotten basic economics – every change in prices that people face (and parking fines are one of those) creates consequences on the demand-side not just the supply-side of the market.  

The city decision-makers seem to have forgotten that folks who chose to shop where the meters operate in Berkeley have choices beyond Berkeley. If Berkeley again raises the meter fees and more strictly enforces parking, potential customers will simply go elsewhere. The higher parking fees and fines could end up reducing city revenues (there's already some evidence to this effect), and importantly, will cause Berkeley's retail businesses also to lose revenues. Berkeley isn't an island unconnected to other places. The Operations Director of the Downtown Berkeley Association sermonized that "Many people have grown up with the suburban concept of free parking," – implying that these folks need to change their worldview and realize that paying $1.50/hr at a Berkeley meter is OK. Au contraire, these people merely have to change their location (to El Cerrito or the malls) to avoid the Berkeley parking fees, not change their minds to be at one with $1.50/hr. I truly lament the plight of Berkeley retailers trying to stay in business despite the overly-narrow, quite parochial views of City decision-makers who are making Berkeley even less friendly and supportive of commerce. Everyone in Berkeley may lose from this lack of wisdom and understanding.  

Bruce A. Smith 

*** 

Elections in Sudan  

This weekend Sudan will hold its first meaningful elections in 24 years.  

These elections are a crucial component of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which ended more than twenty years of war between north and south Sudan. A failure to legitimately see through the promises made in the CPA could be very dangerous and lead to the resumption of that war.  

As Sunday quickly approaches, we know that these elections will not be free or fair.  

The International Crisis Group (ICG) paints the electoral process as “fundamentally flawed.” The European Union has deemed it “impossible" to observe elections in a credible way and has pulled its election monitors from the Darfur region  

As Americans, many of us are concerned with our own families and communities during this tough economic time in our country.  

Nevertheless, we have a moral obligation to act when we sense danger and possibly egregious violence approaching beyond our borders. Already an unprecedented number of Americans and dedicated elected officials, including and especially Congresswoman Barbara Lee, have refused to give up on the people suffering in Sudan.  

Now, more than ever, it is important we raise our voices.  

As Americans, we must seize this moment to advocate for the survival of families and communities in Sudan. We must call on the Obama Administration not to recognize the results of Sudan’s elections since they are not free and fair.  

We cannot give up now.  

Charlotte Hill 

*** 

Response to Last Week's Editorial about Gossip 

In a recent editorial ³Spreading rumors, or why gossip counts,² you obliquely refer to a Berkeleyside.com report about the two Berkeley teenagers who died March 31 when their car crashed into a bus on the Richmond Parkway. Berkeleyside.com was the first to report that the car had reached 100 mph before the crash and was probably going 60 mph at the time of the accident, higher than the posted 50 mph speed limit. 

You suggest that this information was the ³opinion² of the Richmond police and that reporting it made you ³uncomfortable² because it was based only on eyewitness accounts, rather than actual measurements of the speed of the vehicle. You suggested that it might have ³been wiser to omit speculation which cast aspersion on a victim.² 

As the reporter who wrote that story, I take issue with your suggestion that it was based on anything other than sound information. Richmond police waited a week after the accident before they provided information about the car¹s speed, and they only did so after an investigation. You also question how police could have determined the speed of the car if they only interviewed witnesses. That¹s how police conduct an investigation: they talk to people who saw an accident and combine that with hard evidence to determine the cause of a crash. 

I have covered crime stories for more than 20 years for newsgathering operations such as the San Jose Mercury News, the New York Times, and People magazine, and I can attest how difficult it is to get information from police until they are ready to release it. 

You also suggest that Berkeleyside should not have reported the speed of the car because the news would hurt the family. The deaths of Kyle Strang and Prentice Gray, two teens who by all accounts were thoughtful and compassionate youths, was a tragedy. But it is the job of news organizations 

to report the news. I am sure that the Strang and Gray families knew about the car¹s speed before the information was released to reporters. In addition, when people die prematurely, those left behind are always seeking to understand why. If other teenagers now see there can be serious and permanent repercussions from speeding, perhaps they won¹t do it. That alone is sufficient reason for a news site like Berkeleyside.com to report the details of the accident. 

 

Frances Dinkelspiel 

Co-founder, Berkeleyside.com 

 

Editor’s Note: 

As I said in the editorial, it's a judgment call, not easy to make. I didn't mention where I saw the story that made me uncomfortable because I certainly don't think the blog should be blamed for calling it as they see it. We mentioned the speed too, in our first story, though less specifically. I did get a note from a relative thanking us for our coverage and contrasting it with coverage somewhere else, not necessarily on berkeleyside.com, which they didn't appreciate.  

And I do think there's a difference between 60 in a 50 zone and 100 anywhere. Evidence always has to be evaluated for credibility, by the police, by witnesses and by the press. Often enough eyewitnesses get facts quite wrong, as per the standard demonstrations done in every law school evidence course, including mine, where an event is staged in front of the class, students are asked what they saw, and their reports differ widely.  

For all that I complain,as the letter writer does, about how hard it is to pry information out of the Berkeley police, I think their reticence is often motivated by laudable caution about making accusations without hard evidence, and the culture of the Richmond police seems different in that respect. Perhaps if the blog had separated the accident story from the memorial story it would have sat easier with me, but I do understand that opinions about what’s appropriate can differ. 

 

*** 

Berkeley Needs Pools  

The Berkeley public pools are a vital recreational resource for our whole community. They have been fully and enthusiastically used for many years. Marie Bowman (“Pool Bond Floats Special Interest Groups,” 4/8/2010) would have us believe that the non-public pools in Berkeley could absorb the recreational needs that the Berkeley public pools have been providing for over 40 years. This is patently ridiculous.  

Willard Pool, which will be shut down if Measure C doesn’t pass, is used for P.E. classes for Willard Middle School; it is used by the afterschool programs of the elementary schools on the south side of Berkeley; it is used by summer camps and preschools on the south side of town; it is used by Berkeley youth from the entire south side of Berkeley for swimming and diving lessons and summer recreation; it offers a free shower program for the homeless; and adults use the pool for lap swimming. All these people simply cannot be accomodated by the YMCA, even if all these people could afford the membership fee. The YMCA pools are overbooked as it is, with childrens needs competing with the needs of adult swimmers.  

The reason for building a bigger pool at the existing King Pool site is not only to accommodate competitive swimmers. King Pool is the most heavily used of the three public pools, and it is too small for the numbers of people who use it. The new pool at King would provide much needed space for all of the programs that take place at King Pool (adult and youth competitive swimmers, swimming and diving lessons, adult lap swimmers, water aerobics, tiny tot time, family swim time, senior water exercise, etc.).  

Berkeley homeowners don’t tend to have pools in their backyards. Where are the children and grandchildren of Berkeleyans like Marie Bowman, who don’t want to pay any taxes for pools, going to learn to swim? 

Dove Scherr  

*** 

Health Care Reform 

I wish to state my gratitude to the members of the Senate and Congress who voted to pass health care reform. It is time that we move forward toward a rational, compassionate and fiscally responsible health care model and this is a step toward that. 

The purpose of a republic is to further the well-being of it's people. Citizens that have severe illnesses should have their care addressed. Citizens that change jobs deserve to take health care with them. Citizens who fall ill should not lose their homes to finance their care. 

To the naysayers, if they claim to be religious, I ask what would Jesus do? What would Moses do? 

What would any of the great teachers do? They would "do unto others" and vote for the compassionate care of their neighbor as we have done. It is a proud moment for a great country. 

Candace Hyde-Wang 

*** 

Health care  

I'm thankful, after so many decades, there is a beginning towards health care for all. Our children will have the protection from the insurance companies denying them health coverage if they have pre-existing conditions. I believe health care is a right not a privilege. 

Thanks to all Congressional members who voted to begin health insurance reform and hopefully push for Medicare for All creating a healthier nation. 

Jan Volz-Kelly 

 

*** 

Hooray for Health Care Reform!! 

 

 

Wow, to be an American alive in these historic times is quite a thrill ride! 

 

Many thanks to our devoted California Senators, Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer for standing firm with President Obama's health care plan, we Californians can now be assured of 'equal rights' when it comes to our health and we can watch the end (hopefully) of organized crime rings, i.e., the insurance companies, who have been extorting American citizens for decades. 

 

Personally, I find it sadly comical that Republicans and greedy right wing interests think they can delude the public with their blatant heinous divisive lies about what health care is or does or does not do for the people of America. 

 

Let's remember what the Republicans gave us before the election of Barack Obama: a country that systematically shut down our schools and built prisons; that shipped crack cocaine and guns into the inner cities to put into the hands of our young African American, Latino and other non-white American children to keep them on drugs, dead,or in prison by voting age; that shipped our jobs overseas; that stripped the EPA of all controls and protections and put in charge the very criminals who had criminally violated the environment; who allowed the banks and Wall Street to steal from everyone throwing the world into financial devastation; who started two wars, one illegally, etc., etc., etc. The list goes on and on. And all we hear from them is excuses or the blame game. 

 

Now we have a president who has actually read the Constitution, taught Constitutional Law, and really cares about ALL the American people. He can see that we no longer measure up globally to other countries; it has become clear to all of us that the wealthy self-entitled narcissists in this country only care about themselves, e.g. Bernie Madoff, et al. 

 

And here we are...Health Reform has passed! And the Republicans and right wing special interest groups are trying to spoon feed their mindless racist hatred and ignorance to American citizens by intentionally distorting the facts. And they will be the first in line for health care services if they or their children become ill. 

 

The Republicans seem to think we have all been properly and systematically dumbed down, so we should be malleable and ready to receive their distorted reality as fact. Revisionist delusions are only good for comical material on the late night shows; or for what passes as news on Fox. 

 

This victory is a victory for all Americans, whether they realize it or not. History will prove that. 

 

Lark Ashford 

 

*** 

Health Care Reform 

Thank goodness we Americans can look to getting healthier as a nation. I never understood why other countries like Canada or Australia could provide medical care for ALL their citizens but the United States could (or would not). 

Must be the insurance companies and the drug companies (the special interest groups looking out for themselves). 

Fortunately, I have good health at 63. And I'm not on any medications, and learned early on that prevention is the best medicine. Let's get our nation healthy. 

Thank you Mr. President and all of you who fought for this. 

 

Beverly Young 

American Citizen 

 

*** 

Lange Collection Online  

Thank you for publishing Dorothy Bryant's thought provoking review of the new Dorothea Lange biography. 

Reading this review reminded me of a fabulous Dorothea Lange resource that your other readers might like to know about. The Oakland Museum has a collection of nearly 25,000 Dorothea Lange negatives, plus hundreds of prints. This huge collection includes her best known work as well as her earlier San Francisco fashion portraits, photographs of the Native Americans of the Southwest and their landscape that she took while traveling with the painter Maynard Dixon -- her first husband -- in the 1920s, and also her family photos. Best of all, this entire archive is available -- free -- to anyone who has access to a computer. Just look at http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/ft3f59n5wt/ 

It is an amazing collection of the work of Berkeley's own Dorothea Lange. 

The Oakland Museum should be thanked for making it available. 

 

Roger Moss  

 

*** 

Equal Enforcement of Zoning Rules 

I live very close to the corner of McGee and Dwight, where Bengal Basin Institute has been established. While I support the aims of the Institute, I do not support their building. 

Both the building on the corner and the one next to it on McGee include additional stories that were not built with permits, nor according to Berkeley's strict construction rules. I and my neighbors have to get permits for major renovations, including in some cases, surprisingly expensive dry wall inspection. I understand those regulations, and accept them as part of living in Berkeley, but I expect everyone else to follow them as well. I watched the construction on the corner of McGee and Dwight, and saw that it mainly consists of sheets of plywood painted white -- they are still very evident. I assumed that this was done according to code, but was not surprised to find that it was not. 

In addition, I saw flyers advertising that the Institute building was available as a rental for seminars, lectures, and parties. We did not get any announcements or notices of this usage, which we would have resisted: it would have been a parking nightmare. 

Perhaps it's easier to ask for forgiveness rather than permission, but we have laws and regulations for a reason, and the owners of the Institute chose not to follow them. I'm sorry they were mistaken, but believe they should follow regulations like the rest of us. 

Gail King 

 

*** 

Israel/Palestine:The Heart of the Matter 

 

No public utterance is more likely to bring showers of vehement reaction than criticism of Israel. If the critic is a Jew he or she is immediately branded a self-hater and if the critic is a gentile he or she is immediately label an anti-Semite. This makes Israel’s position among other nations simple: they’re with us or against us.  

From where I stand, 7,400 miles from Jerusalem, Israel’s position is anything but simple.  

I am neither a Semite nor an anti-Semite but I have criticisms, not focused on Israel as a wayward nation, ego-centric and mired in exceptionalism but on its privileged relationship with my country, a relationship that resembles in simplistic terms nothing so much as the tail wagging the dog.  

In the late 1940s Ralph Bunche replaced the assassinated Count Bernadotte, and as special UN agent persuaded Arabs and Jews to accept a partition. Bunche received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1950 but there was no peace before and there’s been no peace since.  

Today Israel is by far the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid dollars; $2.3 billion in 2006, almost all for the purpose of buying armaments from us - a bonanza for our armaments industry. Israel, therefore, in addition to being our best friend in the region, acts as a kind of surrogate U.S. military force. Speaking on March 23rd to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Secretary Clinton declared that “…when we strengthen Israel security we strengthen American security.”  

The U.S. has been Israel’s sponsor, protector, arms provider and although US policy since the time of Ralph Bunche pays lip service to a two state solution, in every dispute it takes Israel’s side. Again, in her AIPAC speech Secretary Clinton assured her audience, “Our commitment to Israel and Israel’s future is rock solid, enduring and forever.”  

Every nation in the region is infected like a cancer by this growing hatred between Semitic cousins and the U.S., wedged in heart of this matter is in a position to enforce a healing two state solution but fumbles every opportunity to do so.  

The U.S. stood silent when Israel invaded Gaza a year ago and left 1400 Palestinians dead mostly women and children (and 14 Israel soldiers) and a few months later the U.S. sided with Israel in its rejection of the Goldstone Report, a report that accused both sides of crimes against humanity.  

Even though we know that Israel’s brutal behavior towards the people of Gaza and the West Bank and its recent plan to build apartments in East Jerusalem, fuel recruitment of Islamist extremists (General Patraeus) and “…undermines the security of our troops …in Iraq and Afghanistan” (Biden). 

Our blind support renders us impotent and like glue keeps us fixed and powerless at the heart of the matter.  

 

Marvin Chachere 

 

*** 

New Justice  

How tough can it be for President Obama to pick a new Supreme Court justice? If it was a sitting Republican president we know exactly what we would have on the table. Another anti-abortion, religious conservative in the mold of John Roberts. 

Obama's choice for a Supreme Court justice needs to be a person of compassion with backbone, an independent thinker and a liberal to balance John Roberts right-leaning Supreme Court. 

You don't have to be a deep thinker to know what the Supreme Court needs now. Do American's want to see any more disputed elections decided by the Supreme Court? 

 

Ron Lowe 

*** 

POOL-SALVAGE 

 

WARM-POOL ROOF TRUSSES could fairly easily and should be redeployed into a new warm-pool building roof structure to save millions, two and maybe three million dollars worth of savings, which savings could go into upgrading the design of several planned existing pools plus making the new warm-pool a little nicer, assuming that the pools-bond passes in the rapidly upcoming June election;  

…given this prospect, it would truly seem criminal of the public school district to sell them, reusable truss-work to china as scrap metal for a mere couple hundred thousand or even less.  

The very inconsequential rust layer at extreme ends of trusses can easily be blasted away and epoxy-coated to last for centuries. (Some extra beef for seismic can easily be added by welding or bolting as needed.) 

The mosaic ceramic tile lining the pool itself, recently regrouted and acid-cleaned, gleaming pure white, likewise should be redeployed, by cutting pool walls and floor into squares and transporting them and combining them with new pool walls. 

Likewise the beautiful low- to non-slip tile floors should be sawed into large squares and used in a new designed building. This type tile-work these days is enormously costly; otherwise we will be forced to grit our teeth and accept bare concrete pool and deck floors to save dollars at a new building. 

Saving the white-tiled wainscot would possibly be too expensive. 

The tilework at the warm-pool made and makes the otherwise utilitarian, industrial building bearable until the very recent cleaning and painted-walls efforts by the industrious aquatics dept chief. 

But why not just save the whole building? This would seem sensible to most thinking, educated, responsible, economy-minded souls. 

Now is the time to make sure the public school district had not already made plans to sell these elements as salvage scrap for a paltry few dollars (to their buddies?), and to begin planning a new building structure to accommodate the existing (exceedingly clever two-way truss system almost a space-frame) at the two old pools at BHS, which truss-system now provides column-free interior space of about 12000, twelve thousand square feet. 

A ton of money has already gone into plans for a new building, then comically later into site planning studies; a little more effort to make realistic the reuse of valuable existing building elements would be an investment that would reap great reward: treasured tile finishes and the most expensive portion of the building structure can find a second life here in Berkeley rather than in landfill or steel furnace. 

 

Terry Cochrell,  

DISABLED, BERKELEY, RETIRED ARCHITECT, BERKELEY RESIDENT FOR NEARLY 40 YEARS 

 

*** 

Fairness to Bankers?  

As a proud citizen and independent voter, I consider remaining informed and objective about this nation’s politics my duty. I feel further obligated to disseminate my view when I believe a public official has acted unscrupulously.  

On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell lambasted the Democrats’ proposed banking regulation bill, which aims to reinstate fairness on Wall Street by repressing consumer predation, eliminating the manipulation of fine print, and holding executives accountable for their part in generating the current recession. McConnell bluntly renounced the bill, claiming that its sole purpose is to create for future bailouts. Though the bill is still only in draft form, he also sharply threatened a future filibuster in order to prevent the passage of the legislation.  

I was taken aback by such a vehement and premature objection from the Senator, especially considering that this is a widely supported reform proposition.  

However, I began to understand his motivation when I encountered a February edition of the Wall Street Journal, which includes an article how Republicans were "stepping up their campaign to win donations from Wall Street…[by] striving to make the case that they are banks' best hope of preventing President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats from cracking down on bankers."  

Actually, McConnell and National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn recently held a private meeting with twenty-five of Wall Street’s most powerful executives. Though the details of the meeting were not publicly disclosed, the Republican duo were likely requesting pecuniary assistance from the bankers leading into November—in return for obstruction of the Democratic legislation. Since the Supreme Court has eliminated the ban on corporate campaign spending, it could be a lucrative deal for the Republican Party. 

In my opinion, opposing this legislation under the false pretense that it could hurt the American masses is simply exploitative. With millions of families struggling to make it through the recession, the least McConnell could do is be transparent about doing favors for the exorbitantly wealthy. I believe that this calls into question both McConnell’s values and that of his party.  

Robert Geoffrey Loebl 

 

WSJ Article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703575004575043612216461790.html#printMode 

 

*** 

wild parrots in Albany? 

 

Re: Wild Neighbors: In Search of the Wild Parrots of Berkeley 

By Joe Eaton 

Wednesday January 14, 2009 

Pretty sure I saw a group of maybe a dozen flying west to east, in the 500 block of Talbot, Albany, late afternoon 4/13. 

 

Bill Lanphier 

 

*** 

I was in a car accident 

After may 2 ,2003, my life changed drastically. 

I had no real medical insurance to speak of and the 89 year old woman who rear ended me at a dead stop had just enough to cover a few doctors visits. 

Here is where things get hairy.... 

I could not work. Period. 

I could not bend, lift, stand or sit for long periods. 

(I still can’t do most of this today.) 

I signed up for the medically indigent health care that was offered by the state. 

They covered my doctors’ visits and prescriptions for one year. but obviously I had a ongoing condition. 

What were my choices? Be homeless to pay for my meds, or go back to work and lose my healthcare. 

I went back to work. 

And because of this I was never eligible to get the benefits I was supposed to receive from work, because of my "PRE EXISTING" condition. 

Lame. 

Passing health-care reform, may give me a 2nd chance at the surgeries I need, and the medications to live a thriving existence. 

 

Andrew McGinness 

 


Comments on the Project Proposed for 2707 Rose

By Fred Wyle
Thursday April 15, 2010 - 05:33:00 PM

The Planet has received a copy of a letter which Fred Wyle of Greenwood Commons sent to his neighbors regarding his opposition to the very large structure proposed for 2707 Rose. With his permission, you can read it here


Climategate Controversy Update

By Ralph E. Stone
Thursday April 15, 2010 - 11:11:00 AM

Last November, 1,000 stolen e-mails from one of the world’s leading climate research centers in Britain seemed to challenge the scientific consensus that global warming is happening and that it is induced by human activity. The e-mails appeared to show researchers scolding skeptics of global warming, discussing ways to hide their data, and discussing ways to keep skeptics' research out of peer-reviewed publications. One e-mail authored by researcher Phil Jones seemed to suggest using a "trick" to "hide the decline" of temperatures. 

The publication of the e-mails just before the Copenhagen climate change summit last December created a furor, with skeptics of man-made climate change calling the e-mails “Climategate” and claiming them as proof that the science behind global warming had been exaggerated or even made up altogether.  

On March 31st, the British House of Commons’ Science and Technology Committee largely cleared the "ClimateGate" researchers involved, finding no evidence to support charges that the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit or its director, Phil Jones, had tampered with data or perverted the peer review process to exaggerate the threat of global warming. There is still an ongoing inquiry due out in this spring as to whether Jones manipulated the data. 

"ClimateGate" had its effect on U.S. public opinion. A recent Gallup poll shows that 48 percent of Americans believe the seriousness of global warming is generally exaggerated. Many Americans believe that, if there is global warming, it is cyclical and will pass over time or the scientists will discover an eleventh hour fix for the problem. ClimateGate and the public's skepticism provides cover for our politicians to avoid the difficult task of addressing global warming.  

Senator James Inhofe (R. Okl) and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R. Cal) probably represent the views of global warming skeptics. Senator Inhofe called "the threat of catastrophic global warming the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." And Rep. Rohrabacher called the science behind global warming "emotional junk science." Even that eminent scientist Sarah Palin called global warming studies "snake oil science."  

Regardless of the so-called ClimateGate controversy, it has long been known that humans impact our atmosphere severely and our unrelenting production of carbon dioxide (and other greenhouse gases) increase the effects of the naturally occurring "greenhouse effect" that keeps our planet habitable. The more CO2 we pump into our atmosphere, the warmer the atmosphere gets. This is a scientific fact based on decades of scientific study. The main cause of the increase in global average temperatures in recent history is not because of any natural cycle -- although natural cycles do exist -- it is because of man. 

Denying global warming and its causes threatens all of humanity with slow, painful, untimely deaths. Scientists overwhelmingly agree that increasing global temperatures will cause sea levels to rise and will produce more intense weather and changes in precipitation patterns, changes in crop yields, glacier melting, extinction of species and the spread of disease. Putting our heads in the sand is not going to make global warming go away. 

Global warming should be a non-partisan issue. It concerns us all whether Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal, or anything in between. There is, however, a promising first step: Senators John Kerry (D. Mass), Lindsey Graham (R.SC), and Joe Lieberman (I. Conn) reportedly are to unveil their global warming bill the week of April 19 to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. But, of course, passage is far from certain. 

 


Happy Tax Day: Are Americans getting our money's worth?

By Steven Hill
Thursday April 15, 2010 - 01:24:00 PM

Most Americans seem to regard April 15 -- the day income tax returns are due to the Internal Revenue Service -- as a recurring tragedy akin to a Biblical plague. Particularly this year, with U.S. government deficits soaring, everyone from the tea baggers to Fox News and Senate Republicans is sounding the alarm about a return to "big government." Recently former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani even stated that President Obama was moving us toward – gasp -- European socialism. 

Europe frequently plays the punching bag role during these moments because there is a perception that the poor Europeans are overtaxed serfs. But a closer look reveals that this is a myth that prevents Americans from understanding the vast shortcomings of our own system. 

A few years ago, an American acquaintance of mine who lives in Sweden told me that, quite by chance, he and his Swedish wife were in New York City and ended up sharing a limousine to the theater district with a southern U.S. senator and his wife. This senator, a conservative, anti-tax Democrat, asked my acquaintance about Sweden and swaggeringly commented about "all those taxes the Swedes pay." To which this American replied, "The problem with Americans and their taxes is that we get nothing for them." He then went on to tell the senator about the comprehensive level of services and benefits that Swedes receive. 

"If Americans knew what Swedes receive for their taxes, we would probably riot," he told the senator. The rest of the ride to the theater district was unsurprisingly quiet. 

The fact is, in return for their taxes, Europeans are receiving a generous support system for families and individuals for which Americans must pay exorbitantly, out-of-pocket, if we are to receive it at all. That includes quality health care for every single person, the average cost of which is about half of what Americans pay, even as various studies show that Europeans achieve healthier results. 

But that's not all. In return for their taxes, Europeans also are receiving affordable child care, a decent retirement pension, free or inexpensive university education, job retraining, paid sick leave, paid parental leave, ample vacations, affordable housing, senior care, efficient mass transportation and more. In order to receive the same level of benefits as 

Europeans, most Americans fork out a ton of money in out-of-pocket payments, in addition to our taxes. 

For example, while 47 million Americans don't have any health insurance at all, many who do are paying escalating premiums and deductibles. Indeed, Anthem Blue Cross announced that its premiums will increase by up to 40 percent. But all Europeans receive health care in return for a modest amount deducted from their paychecks. 

Friends have told me they are saving nearly $100,000 for their children's college education, and most young Americans graduate with tens of thousands of dollars in debt. But European children attend for free or nearly so (depending on the country). 

Child care in the United States costs more than $12,000 annually for a family with two children, but in Europe it costs about one-sixth that amount, and the quality is far superior. Millions of Americans are stuffing as much as possible into their IRAs and 401(k)s because Social Security provides only about half the retirement income needed. But the more generous European retirement system provides about 75 to 85 percent (depending on the country) of retirement income. Either way, you pay. 

Americans' private spending on old-age care is nearly three times higher per capita than in Europe because Americans must self-finance a significant share of their own senior care. Americans also tend to pay more in local and state taxes, as well as in property taxes.  

Americans also pay hidden taxes, such as $300 billion annually in federal tax breaks to businesses that provide health benefits to their employees. 

When you sum up the total balance sheet, it turns out that Americans pay out just as much as Europeans -- but we receive a lot less for our money. 

Unfortunately these sorts of complexities are not calculated into simplistic analyses like Forbes' annual Tax Misery Index, a "study" which shows 

European nations as the most miserable and the low-tax United States as happy as a clam -- right next to Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. 

In this economically competitive age, increasingly these kinds of services are necessary to ensure healthy, happy and productive families and workers. Europeans have these supports, but most Americans do not, unless you pay a ton out-of-pocket. Or unless you are a member of Congress, which of course provides European-level support for its members and their families. 

That's something to keep in mind on April 15. Happy Tax Day. 

 

Steven Hill is the author of the recently published "Europe's Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age" and director of the Political Reform Program for the New America Foundation

 


BRT, the Brown Act and the Sunshine Ordinance

By Dean Metzger
Thursday April 15, 2010 - 10:26:00 AM

The city council has said it will hold a special meeting to hear public testimony concerning the staff proposed “Locally Preferred Alternate” (LPA) for BRT in Berkeley. This meeting is to take place on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at the regular council meeting, with the final vote by the council to be taken on April 27, 2010.  

What does this have to do with the Brown Act (State law governing meetings – Code 54953(a)) and the proposed Sunshine Ordinance (Open government)?  

First, the Brown Act specifically states that meetings must be open and that“all persons shall be permitted to attend”. It also states that all members of the public shall have the right to address the council on agenda items. 

It is hoped that the City would take its obligations seriously. This would seem to mean the City must move the BRT meeting to a venue large enough to accommodate everyone who wants to attend at the same time and provide enough time for everyone to speak. It would seem like both those opposed and for the BRT project would want this to happen.The present practice when there are more people than the council chambers can hold is to shuffle people in and out of the council chambers as space becomes available. 

If the proposed Sunshine Ordinance ordinance were adopted by the city council or approved by the city voters, it would put an end to this practice and void council decisions until the laws of Berkeley and the State of California are followed. It is as simple as that. 

Alan Tobey’s commentary in the April 11, 2010 Berkeley Daily Planet titled “The Sunshine Ordinance and the People’s Republic” is an example of the existing government attitude toward change. If city staff agree with and want the proposed change, they will do anything to accomplish their goal, in this case BRT. If they think the change may lessen their chances of getting their way, they attack those proposing change and their ideas. 

During the three years it took to write the Sunshine Ordinance, Alan Tobey, the elected officials, city staff, and their friends could have participated and perhaps added valuable ideas to the ordinance. Instead they chose to sit on the sidelines and wait for the final document, then find ways to criticize it. The League of Woman Voters did participate, but found most of those citizens willing to put in the long hours required to get this done did not agree with them and slowly disengaged from the Citizen’s Sunshine Committee. 

Compare this with the City of Alameda. That city has begun the process of writing a sunshine ordinance. It is pleasant to see that the city managers, city clerks, and city attorneys’ offices are going to participate in the process of writing their ordinance – unlike Berkeley’s officials, who did not work with the Citizen’s Sunshine Committee. 

All of this is followed by Charles Siegel’s commentary in the April 8, 2010 Berkeley Daily Planet. He wants you to believe that those who approve of BRT are in the majority on the BRT project.  

Yes, both he and Alan Tobey are right, measure KK was soundly defeated by the Berkeley voters. What they fail to acknowledge is the fact that BRT was not the focus of KK. Measure KK was an attempt to be sure the democratic process would be given to the citizens of Berkeley on transportation issues that specially dedicated lanes in any part of our community. What the opponents of KK did was use special interest money (in the thousands of dollars) to convince the voters that KK was anti-environmental. Nothing is further from the truth.  

The neighborhood residents who oppose BRT are opposed because; 1). It has not proven that it will be environmentally friendly, 2). It will not serve the local residents, 3). It will cause more traffic on neighborhood streets (not good for the local environment or neighborhood safety), 4). It will not require commuters to and from UCB, or the employees of the City of Berkeley, to get out of their cars and ride the bus, and 6). It will create a hardship on our older citizens who must use the local buses. These neighborhoods have an over whelming majority who oppose BRT. 

The Brown Act requires the BRT discussion and debate to take place in a venue large enough for all to attend and be heard in the same room. The Sunshine ordinance would make that happen. 


The ‘Party of No’ Takes Aim at Berkeley’s Pools – and at the Truth

By Robert Collier
Thursday April 15, 2010 - 09:51:00 AM

In Washington DC and around the country, conservatives are hoping they can bluff their way into upset victories in this year’s elections. Health care, clean energy, financial regulation and other much-needed reforms are in their gun sights as they fire inflammatory claims and accusations. In Berkeley, the local “Party of No” seems to hope it can use the same tactics to defeat a ballot measure that would save some of our community’s most basic yet best-loved amenities – our four municipal swimming pools. 

The conservatives’ strategy is brazen – to combine one bogus factoid on top of another as fast as possible, in a barrage of bluster that is intended to overwhelm and confuse voters. A perfect example is the article by Marie Bowman in the April 10 Daily Planet, “Pools Bond Floats Special Interest Groups.” Bowman packs an astounding number of false statements into her argument against Measure C, which will be on the ballot June 8. Nearly every claim in her article is provably factually incorrect. 

Let's start with some truths that Bowman glosses over. Measure C would save two of the city’s four pools from certain extinction – Willard Pool, which is scheduled for permanent closure this July, and the Warm Pool, which will be evicted next year from its location at Berkeley High School. Measure C also would remodel West Campus Pool and expand King Pool. Overall, it would save and improve the four pools as wonderful community centers for Berkeley’s children, adults, seniors and disabled.  

But the Party of No has turned reality upside down. Here are some of the false claims in Bowman’s article: 

Claim: Measure C would raise annual pools maintenance costs to $3.5 million, to be further adjusted for inflation. Fact: Measure C provides $980,000 for pools hours, programs and maintenance, adjusted for inflation. Measure C has an authorization limit of $3.5 million by 2040, most of which is for annual repayment of the bond’s principal and interest. 

Claim: $20 million in new taxes were approved by Berkeley voters last November. Fact: Zero new taxes were approved last November. 

Claim: UC Berkeley’s program for the disabled operates a warm pool that could be used by the city. Fact: UC Berkeley has no such pool. The Cal STAR sports program for the disabled provides access to the three campus outdoor pools, none of which is warmer than 82 degrees – far too cold for most disabled people, many elderly and others who cannot generate enough body heat while in the water. 

Claim: The Warm Pool at Berkeley High School could be remodeled and not demolished. Fact: Even if many wish otherwise, the School Board has decided that BHS needs more space for classrooms and other facilities and that the Warm Pool must be evicted to make way for a new building. Demolition is scheduled for June 2011. 

Claim: The Warm Pool could be substituted by the Downtown Berkeley YMCA’s two warm pools. Fact: The YMCA has only one warm pool, which is only 3.5 feet deep and thus cannot serve the disabled and others who need full-body immersion, and its lateral dimensions are so small that wave action prevents lap swimming. YMCA administrators say their pools are near maximum user capacity and cannot handle a significant increase. 

Claim: The Aquatic Exercise Association (AEA) does not recommend the use of pools above 86 degrees except for limited uses, and the Warm Pool’s 92-degree water is dangerous. Fact: AEA official guidelines explicitly state that 92-degree water is appropriate for infants, physical therapy for all ages, and people with arthritis and Parkinson’s. 

Claim: The new Warm Pool would be Olympic size, extravagantly large. Fact: The Warm Pool would be the same as its current 2,250 square feet, which is about one-sixth the Olympic 25 meters by 50 meters, or 13,455 square feet. 

Claim: The Berkeley High School competition pool could meet the needs of middle school students and the Barracudas team. Fact: The BHS competition pool is solidly booked with BHS aquatics programs every weekday afternoon after classes. 

Claim: Rehabbing Willard as a competition pool would reduce Measure C’s cost by $2.5 million. Fact: Doing so would raise the measure’s capital cost by $1.3 million, plus extra operating expenses. 

Claim: Berkeley municipal debt is rising from $4 million in 2010 to $15 million in 2011. Fact: By law, the City must approve a balanced budget each year. Berkeley has a Standard & Poor's bond credit rating of AA+, putting Berkeley in the highest 1 percent of cities nationwide. 

Claim: Maintenance costs for Measure C have grown 380 percent. Fact: Nothing remotely resembling any such increase exists. 

So why such a reckless disregard for the truth? Perhaps because Berkeley voters have soured on Bowman’s “anti-tax” ideology. In the 2006 and 2008 Berkeley elections, Bowman and her Party of No tried to defeat ballot measures that supported the public schools, branch libraries and emergency services. But the Party of No failed each time, as Berkeley residents voted in favor of the facilities and programs that are so important for our quality of life.  

Certainly, Berkeleyans have legitimate concerns about high taxes. But support for Measure C is broad. It was approved by all nine members of the City Council and all five members of School Board. Other endorsers include former Mayor Shirley Dean, Senator Loni Hancock, Assemblymember Nancy Skinner, the Berkeley Federation of Teachers and scores of other groups and community leaders. 

In the end, Measure C boils down to one simple question – should our community invest for the future? Should we plan for a good quality of life for ourselves, our children, grandchildren and other Berkeley generations? Or should we allow Berkeley’s naysayers to shrink and eliminate our city’s most beloved assets? 

PLEASE VOTE YES ON MEASURE C – for our pools, our health, our kids and our community. 

 

Robert Collier is co-chair of the Berkeley Pools Campaign, which can be visited at www.berkeleypools.org and www.facebook.com/berkeleypools. 

 

 


Cell Phone Sites and the Politics of Cancer

By Harry Brill
Thursday April 15, 2010 - 03:00:00 PM

he French Hotel and Cafe on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley has agreed to allow the installation of ten cell phone antennas on its roof. Most of those who work there will not in the short run feel any different, and those who do, perhaps by experiencing headaches, fatigue, or poor concentration, are unlikely to attribute it to the electromagnetic emissions. The same applies to the many cafe customers for whom it is a second home. Since these rays are invisible and silent, they can be easily ignored. In the long run, however, the emissions will not ignore them. 

The combined power and influence of government and the private sector have subjected the members of the public to a major assault on their health. For a long while, the federal government claimed that exposure to asbestos and cigarettes were safe. The belated public recognition that these are carcinogenic has unnecessarily cost many lives and much human suffering. Now the mythology is that the current level of emissions are safe persists despite plenty of solid evidence to the contrary.  

The history of this official betrayal began in 1996, when the 104th Congress and President Clinton bowed to a multimillion dollar campaign by approving the notorious Telecommunications Act. Passed overwhelmingly by both the Democrats and Republicans after only 1 1/2 hour debate in each house, its purpose was to remove any serious obstacles that could frustrate the interests of business. This incredibly undemocratic law effectively eliminates the legal rights of the public to oppose the installation of cell phone sites on environmental and health grounds. Both state and local government are prohibited from adopting emission standards that would be safer for the public than the very inadequate and dangerous levels set by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). So by law, for example, presenting evidence of substantial cancer rates among those living near cell towers is prohibited. 

As the risks of exposure to electromagnetic radiation were already suspected, Congress and President Clinton should not have ignored these warnings. In fact, just a few months before the bill was passed a Senate committee held hearings about cancer among law enforcement officials who use traffic radar guns. A few years earlier a congressional committee, responding to media publicity on the cancer risk among cell phone users, also held hearings  

Had the legislation mandated the safest possible levels of emission, it would certainly not have been a death blow to the industry or its ability to earn a profit. In some countries, the level of emissions is set hundreds of times lower than in the United States. But safer standards would entail additional costs, which the industry is committed to avoiding. What the deregulatory Telecommunications Act of 1996 accomplishes most of all ,then, is to expose the public to the highest level of emissions to assure the industry the highest rate of profit. Indeed, the institutional obsession with profit maximization explains why we lack clean air, clean water, and more generally, a green environment. 

Since the Telecommunications Act passed, more evidence has emerged about the dangerous consequences of electromagnetic radiation. Yet Congress has failed to revise the legislation. Consider the following. In the German city of Naila a study found that those who reside within a radius of two-tenths of a mile from cell towers were three times more likely to develop various cancers than those living further away. Breast cancer topped the list. In a neighborhood in Tel Aviv, the incidence of cancer was quadruple for residents living near a cell tower. Children are especially vulnerable to electromagnetic radiation. Their rate of leukemia due to cell site exposure is twice the average for children living further away. Generally, the risk of cancer appears to be related to the proximity of residents to cell sites. In an apartment building in London, the rate for those living on the top floor, right below the cell site, was 10 times higher than the average for the City. 

In the U.S. the emission level is set by the FCC. The problem, however, is that FCC is regulated by the industry. Rather than protecting the public, the FCC serves to insulate the industry from public interference. This is not surprising since many of its employees are either past or future employees of the industries over which they have oversight. It is as if the FCC is a subsidiary of these corporations. 

Like the air we breathe, the hazards of electromagnetic radiation are difficult to avoid. There are almost 2 million cell sites and antennas in the U.S. and these numbers are growing rapidly. Among the reasons that we are unaware of the high density is because more than a fourth of those installed are camouflaged. As the newsletter EM Watch notes, cell phones are installed inside chimneys, church steeples, and even on trees and flagpoles. Also, some gas stations and tombstones accommodate antennas. Cell towers and antennas are also being installed on top of buildings and schools. The fees that some property owners are tempted with apparently outweigh any concerns they may have about the health risks of those who occupy these properties and who live in the neighborhood. But not only businesses are tempted by the industry. In El Cerrito, a neighborhood is battling against the installation of a 77 foot transmission tower in a boy scout camp close by. The camp would receive $2,200 a month. 

There is an upside to the prevalence of cell phone sites. The very large number of individuals and families from diverse social and economic backgrounds creates a tremendous potential for mass based organizing that addresses the assault on our health and well being. Not least, it is an issue that an alert, well organized public can prevail.  

Those of you who are interested in learning about the density of cell site radiation in your neighborhood should access the following web address: www.antennasearch.com . Then type in your address and follow through. Be prepared for an unpleasant surprise on the extent to which you and your family are being bombarded. Then share the information and your concerns with neighbors. Encourage both neighborhood and inter-neighborhood meetings to discuss how best to confront the outrage. By ignoring or making light of the problem, we have much to lose. Fortunately, there is a growing awareness of the risks of electromagnetic emissions. By acting together, we have much to gain, including our right to live a life that is not cut short by the narrow selfish interests of corporate America. 

 

 

 


KPFA Manager "Resigns:" Pacifica Democracy vs. Reactionary Politics and Contradictions in the Latest Management Transition

By Robert English
Thursday April 15, 2010 - 10:13:00 AM

From 2009 elections the KPFA Local Station Board (LSB) was reconstituted with a majority of independent listener and staff representatives and new officers; the now minority Concerned Listeners (CL) allied representatives are fiercely loyal supporters of the station management and status-quo. In a March 5 commentary from a management and "core staff" viewpoint, KPFA News Directors reported that General Manager (GM) Lemlem Rijio was forced to resign by a "faction" on the Board. When the results of LSB executive sessions are broadcast and slanted, why hold closed sessions with people who feed confidential information to News staff? If not for confidentiality rules protecting employee privacy, it would seem preferable to conduct business publicly so we could assess the accuracy or spin of such reports.  

Ms. Rijio's imminent departure had been an open secret debated a month prior to the announcement by the Pacifica Executive Director (ED). A group of KPFA staff and supporters organized a campaign to reverse the supposed GM termination vote and addressed the February LSB meeting (see summary of comments below). However, other staff and community members assured the Board that removing her was long overdue and necessary to remedy the station's deteriorating financial situation, declining listener support and restore democratic process and respect for Pacifica's bylaws and mission.  

Rijio served an extended appointment as "interim" GM through September 2008, when departing ED Nicole Sawaya arbitrarily announced her permanent appointment, even though many pro-democracy staff and community members were then petitioning and advocating for fresh leadership, partly to resolve conflict at the station following the police beating and arrest of long term volunteer staff Nadra Foster; they implicated Rijio's divisive management in converting the workplace culture from collaboration to alienation and restriction, banning Foster and calling police rather than relying on standard supervision and peaceful resolution processes (see http:/mediajusticekpfa.blogspot.com/2008/10/sawaya-scorns-kpfa-staff-appoints-rijio.html).  

Under her management regime - including former Program Director Sasha Lilly, department heads, a senior staff clique and their Concerned Listener (CL) allies on the Board - the gains of the 1990s-2000s Free Pacifica and listener democracy movements, democratic institutions and power centers at KPFA were obstructed, subverted or shut down: 1) the Program Council was reduced to advisory status, then dissolved; 2) the Unpaid Staff Organization (USPO) was de-recognized; 3) LSB meetings reduced to bi-monthly, working committees dissolved, proceedings controlled or stalemated by CL to prevent effective action or changes, and the few productive resolutions ignored by management; 4) LSB elections corrupted by management-CL symbiosis, manipulations and restriction of candidate air time and election information. The new Pacifica democratic process and boards were subjected to on air staff/guest attacks and media hit pieces, most recently a BeyondChron editorial (3/29).  

Here the talking and editorial points of GM supporters are summarized and addressed with some facts, background and observations: 

 

Claim #1: Firing the GM was fiscally irresponsible, detrimental to station stability. She maintained KPFA income, except in recent hard times, but was "forced out in a dispute over a financial transaction with the Pacifica national office…"  

In reality, bad management, excessive salaried staffing and moderate formula programming are responsible, immediately and over time, for the financial crisis. Although KPFA was nearly broke, staff were cut and fund drives more urgent, frequent and extended, Rijio inexplicably held a $375,000 foundation check, intended to earn interest income, over a year until it expired. Yet KPFA News offered no explanation: what part of what transaction is disputed? Failure to deposit a six figure foundation check is beyond incompetence, must be intentional, and clear cause for separation in any organization.  

Under the Rijio-CL management, Full Time Equivalent (FTE) paid staff increased 50% from 28 to 42 FTE, while KPFA subscribers decreased 20% from 28,000 to 22,000. In budget reviews 2004-2009, LSB Treasurers/members repeatedly advised that escalating paid staffing levels were unsustainable. The priority of "professional" staff is a continuation of the "Healthy Station" model and what the controlling staff think is normal and right for KPFA; those with a longer view know KPFA as a community radio station run primarily by volunteer staff and as many paid staff as revenues allow. While support for progressive alternative radio should have expanded under the Bush rightwing nightmare, KPFA contributors steadily declined; the potential loss of some "major donors" who favor Rijio and current programming is far outweighed by long term withdrawal of progressive listeners and management's failure to outreach and develop dynamic, community based news and programs to fulfill the needs of diverse communities.  

 

Claim #2: Most union staff supported retaining her.  

The "core staff" think they are KPFA and are used to running it as they please. A GM must be selected from their ranks or the station becomes a "management free zone": outsiders selected through the bylaws process were forced out. Historically, volunteers and paid staff were represented by one union; thanks to the Healthy Station project, paid staff breaking solidarity to join the CWA and non-recognition of UPSO, volunteer staff lack representation, benefits and budget funding for personal and production expenses. However, all staff now have voting power and in recent elections chose a majority of independent LSB representatives, indicating a split with management and CL; staff will have a special election on the proposed recall of management/CL stalwart Brian Edwards-Tiekert.  

Clearly, there was widespread staff and community disaffection with Rijio's management. 80 KPFA unpaid and union staffsigned an Open Letter on New KPFA Leadership Attributes/Priorities; 74 signed a "Statement Of No Confidence" 74 KPFA Staffers: No-Confidence for Rijio 29 Sept 2008 calling for a new GM appointment.  

 

Claim #3: The new LSB majority acted without an evaluation or careful deliberation process. 

 

This assertion ignores the relevant bylaws processes. The LSB can only recommend separation of a GM, which must be reviewed and approved by the Pacifica ED or National Board. Rijio was evaluated as GM; performance appraisals are available to LSB members, and if favorable, likely would be (but were not) credited by supporters. Her known prior experience does not appear to meet reasonably expected minimal management and radio/media qualifications for GM, yet she remained in the position for 4 years. If the confidential causes for separation were acute and required urgent action (see #1), this process can't be compared to prior extended LSB deliberations on charges against a former GM. 

 

Claim #4: This highlights a dysfunctional, expensive election system/governing structure with Boards that are unrepresentative, disruptive, factional and "micromanage" or usurp staff/managerial decisions and functions. 

 

Actually this repeated argument demonstrates the elitist, self-serving nature and reactionary politics of the management/staff group and amounts to a corporate establishment-like coded message of "democracy is too expensive and doesn't work, so let's forget it and let the professionals do their jobs." The new Pacifica bylaws and member elected boards were carefully developed from the democracy movement and court settlement in response to the autocratic, centralized, corporate culture of the old Pacifica "hijackers" regime. Staff and listener donors now have voting member status and the Boards have limited, defined powers and responsibility in collaboration with management. The old guard managers and senior staff who directed KPFA for decades have resisted and attempted to control the new governance through various means including political alliances, but as previously and currently when losing an LSB majority, they condemn and try to "dismantle" what they cannot control.  

 

Pacifica's Ranked Choice Voting is a form of proportional representation, a progressive election reform that provides for diversity and minority representation, has been adopted and proven in San Francisco and other municipal elections and countries with multi-party systems. Election expenses are not responsible for the financial crisis (see #1) and can be reduced as a worthwhile price of democratic oversight and participation in Pacifica governance and decision making. 

 

Claim #5: She improved programming by adding "Letters to Washington."  

 

Typical of much KPFA news and public affairs programming, "Letters" is uninspiring in the NPR mainstreamed style, Democrat party orientated, follows 4 hours of public affairs and initially bumped the only women's program, "Women's Magazine." Other highlights of the management regime's program policies, decisions and deficiencies include abrupt removal of the only weekend youth oriented show, "Youth Radio;" "Poor Magazine" cut from The Morning Show, a program slot for Lilly's associate Doug Henwood, ban of Labor Collective programming; selective exclusion of radical analysts, scholars, journalists, including popular local residents Michael Parenti, Peter Philips, "Taking Aim" producers Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone; lack of various labor, arts, community/cultural programs, coverage of alternative political parties and social movements.  

 

Tragically, 11 years after the 1999 KPFA community uprising, the Folio is not restored, some Transformation Proposal provisions for staff/program diversity and equity are unimplemented, while the program grid continues as a time capsule of "Pat Scott Radio."  

 

 

Bob English is a retired civil servant; long time KPFA supporter and listener democracy activist in Coalition for a democratic Pacifica and Peoples Radio, former LSB candidate; former union and labor democracy activist with Public Employees for a Democratic Union. 

 

 


Columns

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDGE:Nuclear Treaty’s Pluses & Minuses

By Conn Hallinan
Sunday April 18, 2010 - 06:32:00 PM

Amid celebrations around the signing of a new treaty between the U.S. and Russia on reducing the number of nuclear weapons, Hisham Badr, Egyptian ambassador to the United Nations conference on disarmament, played crow on the cradle: “We in the Middle East feel we have, short of a better word, been tricked into giving concessions for promises that never materialized.” 

Badr was speaking about the May 3-28 conference to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), but his remarks underlined some of the weaknesses in the new agreement between Washington and Moscow. Badr was expressing the growing impatience of the 189 countries that signed the NPT on the promise that it would lead to a nuclear weapons free world and eventual disarmament. 

On one level, the NPT has generally stopped the proliferation of nuclear weapons. When it was first signed back in 1970, several countries were on the edge of developing nuclear weapons, including Brazil, Argentina, Iran, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, Egypt, Taiwan, and South Africa. The latter, in conjunction with Taiwan and Israel, actually produced and tested a nuclear weapon over the South Atlantic in 1979. 

However, several countries have joined the former exclusive club of the U.S., Russia, China, France, and Great Britain. Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea—none current signers of the NPT—all have nuclear arsenals, although Korea’s is thought to consist of no more than five or six warheads. 

What Badr is complaining about is that, while most of the world has kept up their end of the bargain, the great nuclear powers have abrogated their pledge to institute Article VI of the NPT: “Each of the parties to the treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to a cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international controls.” 

The recent START agreement, signed in Prague on April 8, reduces warheads—not by as much as both sides claim—but, at best, it is a very modest step toward their elimination and says nothing about the issue of “general disarmament.” 

Both abolition and general disarmament are at the heart of the NPT, because non-nuclear countries only signed on under the condition that the great powers agree to abolish their nuclear weapons and conventional arsenals. As the most recent round of wars—Iraq, Afghanistan, the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and the recent war in Gaza—illustrate, modern conventional weapons are capable of inflicting stupendous damage. 

The Prague agreement does step back from the Bush Administration’s 2002 Nuclear Posture Review by reconfiguring the conditions under which the U.S. would use nuclear weapons. While the 2002 Review envisioned nuclear retaliation for chemical and biological attacks, the Obama Review moves away from that, although it does reserve the right to employ nuclear weapons against countries that have not signed or “fulfilled” their obligations under the NPT—read Iran and North Korea. 

While the White House has been applauded for narrowing the conditions under which nuclear weapons can be used, the pledge is really just a restatement of a 1978 addendum to the NPT (reaffirmed in 1995) that nuclear nations cannot threaten non-nuclear nations with nuclear weapons unless those nations are an ally of a nuclear power. In short, this is plowing old ground. 

The Obama Administration says that the new agreement will cut the number of warheads by 30 percent, but as Pavel Podvig at the Center for International Security and Cooperation told the New York Times, “It’s creative accounting.” 

For example, a B-52 armed with 14 nuclear tipped cruise missiles, plus six nuclear gravity bombs, is counted as one warhead under the Prague agreement. “On paper, the White House has been saying it’s a 30 percent cut in warheads. Well, it is on paper,” Kingston Reif, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation director told the Times. 

According to Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists, if both sides used “creative accounting,” the U.S. would only have to cut 100 strategic warheads and the Russians 190. Both countries have 4,700 deployed strategic warheads between them, and many thousands of smaller, tactical warheads. The agreement does not address this latter category of weapons, or warheads held in storage. 

The new START does set a limit of 700 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM), submarine launched missiles and strategic bombers. The limits on the first two are important because they are potential first-strike weapons. 

In order to get a treaty through the Senate the administration will need 67 votes, a major reason the document is so watered down. For instance, while the White House did pledge not to modernize its nuclear force, it agreed to pump $5 billion into upgrading the U.S. nuclear weapon’s labs.  

That decision might well return to haunt the Obama administration. The labs are fiercely protective of their nuclear weapons programs and successfully torpedoed U.S. Senate ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Robert Scheer’s 1988 “Thinking Tuna Fish, Talking Death” is a profile of how the labs operate as one of nuclear weapons most powerful—and unscrupulous—lobbies. Funding the labs also sends a signal that these nuclear establishments will be around for a long time to come. 

Rather than scaling back military spending, the White House has not only breached the $700 billion marker—the actual budget is $709 billion, but does not include almost $300 billion more in related military spending, including the cost of nuclear weapons—Obama agreed to pour extra money into “advanced conventional arms.” Some of these latter weapons replicate the destructive power of small tactical nuclear warheads that are likely to eventually be phased out. 

One of these “advanced” weapons is the Prompt Global Strike program (PGS) that uses Peacemaker III ICBMs armed with conventional warheads to strike targets worldwide within an hour of launch. PGS has generated considerable controversy because of the possibility that a conventional missile might be mistaken for a nuclear attack. 

“World states will hardly accept a situation in which nuclear weapons disappear, but weapons that are no less destabilizing emerge in the hands of certain members of the international community,” said Russian Foreign Minister Sergi Lavrol April 6.  

The Russians gave in on their demand to withdraw an anti-missile system (ABM) from Europe, in part because at this point it doesn’t pose a threat to their missiles. But the parties may come to loggerheads in the future. Republicans in the Senate are pushing hard to build ABM systems, and the Russians made it clear that if those systems eventually pose a threat to its nuclear missile force, Moscow will withdraw from the treaty. 

The new agreement also failed to take nuclear weapons off of “hair trigger” mode, although the U.S. said it would try to find a way to increase the presidents “time frame” for making a launch decision.  

A number of arms control activists have hailed the agreement, which they see as creating momentum going into the May meetings on the NPT and a Washington conference on nuclear security. “This is a huge step forward in advancing the bipartisan nuclear security agenda that the President outlined in Prague in April 2009 to reduce the dangers posed by nuclear weapons,” said John Issacs, executive director of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation. 

“This treaty will send a powerful, unambiguous message to the rest of the world that the United States and Russia are serious about reducing the nuclear threat,” said Sean Meyers of the Union of Concerned Scientists.  

Others are not so certain. Meeting in Libya, a summit of the 22-member Arab League urged reviewing the NPT “in order to create a definitive plan for eliminating nuclear weapons development” and called for holding a UN conference on making the Middle East a “nuclear-weapons free zone.” All Arab states have signed the NPT. 

The League also asked the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, to “terminate its technical assistance programs in Israel if that country does not join the NPT and allow inspections to begin.” Israel is thought to have between 100 and 200 nuclear weapons. 

The Egyptian, Badr, is also chair of the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement, and many of its members have expressed the same frustrations about what Badr calls “double standards and lack of political will.” 

The fact that the May conference will focus on the non-proliferation part of the NBT has caused growing resentment. Badr said he found it “puzzling” that the conference will target the obligations of non-nuclear states, rather than the failure of nuclear armed states to fulfill their obligations under Article VI. 

But the new agreement might create the momentum needed to tackle the hard issues of ridding the world of nuclear weapons and instituting general disarmament. The place to begin that process might be by reiterating the NPT’s preamble: “…in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, States must refrain in their international relations from threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State.” Adherence to the preamble would not only make nuclear weapons superfluous, but also lay the groundwork for reducing military spending across the board, something the world spent about $2 trillion on this past year.  


SENIOR POWER: “Old People Don’t Read Books.”

By Helen Rippier Wheeler
Sunday April 18, 2010 - 05:13:00 PM

The Rippowam River rushed by at the foot of our dank street, or, depending on the season, gurgled its way to Long Island Sound. I would sit on the stone embankment overlooking the water, ignoring the garter snakes in the crevices. The Ferguson Public Library children’s room was another 1932 shelter. Story hour was held in a separate room with a large picture window. I played stamping books, using a piece of black crayon stuck on the end of a protractor. It slipped off, jamming crayon into my palm, still imbedded there in a tattoo effect.  

Saturday mornings, a few years later, I headed for the story hour in a corner of the Freeport Memorial Library’s crowded basement workroom. I read all the twins books, written and illustrated by Lucy Fitch Perkins. Kit and Kat began as The Dutch Twins (1911), metamorphosed into Scottish, American, Belgian, Chinese, Colonial, Eskimo, Irish, Italian, and Japanese stories. Then came Helen Dore Boylston’s Sue Barton, Nurse series –- senior nurse, staff nurse, visiting nurse. These books can be borrowed in your behalf from nearby libraries participating in the free Link system.  

Seventy-three year old Gail Sheehy’s books on life and the life cycle continue the theme of passages through life's stages. She refers to "Second Adulthood." Her 2006 book and CD, Sex and the Seasoned Woman: Pursuing the passionate life reveal a hidden cultural phenomenon: a surge of vitality in women's sex and love lives after age 50.  

I first encountered Berkeley author Dorothy Bryant via her 1972 literary landmark. Ella Price’s Journal is a novel in diary form of a woman who returns to school after 15 years of marriage and begins to see her carefully-structured world in an unexpected and unwelcome light. I asked Bryant about her current reading. Kay Ryan’s The Best of It, New and Selected Poems. She prefers lesser known books recommended by friends, e.g. Judith Freeman’s Red Water. Old movies on DVD satisfy the ‘recreational urge.’ When she knows what she wants, she requests it online and it is brought to South Branch public library. For browsing, she stops regularly at Central.  

Best-selling Berkeley author Theodore Roszak was turned down by 20 major publishers, reports Avis Worthington. When he proposed his The Making of an Elder Culture; Reflections on the Future of America’s Most Audacious Generation, they informed him, “Old people don’t read books.” It was published by New Society Publishers in 2009.  

Ever noticed that the central character in many biographies and novels is influenced by a public library or library staff-member? -- Goodbye, Columbus --. The novel and motion picture of A tree grows in Brooklyn. -- Perhaps because children are central to Dear Miss Breed :True stories of the Japanese American incarceration during World War II … , it has generally been assigned to children’s collections, but it is a book for everyone. (See July 31, 2007 BDPlanet.) 

The 1956 motion picture, Storm Center (1956, 85m, Columbia Pictures), is about a small-town library administrator who refuses to withdraw a controversial book from the shelves. She is labeled a Communist by local politicians (City Council members…), loses her job, and becomes an outcast in the community. Bette Davis plays the doomed librarian. Banned Books Week in 2010 will be September 25−October 2. The World Catalog lists a Storm Center dvd distributed by Sony Pictures Television… 

The word “FREE” in many USA libraries’ names (Free Library of Philadelphia, Mono County Free Library, Enoch Pratt Free Library of Baltimore, etc.) is not mere happenstance. They were founded for the public, not as “subscription” libraries.  

The University of California, Berkeley used to grant library circulation privileges to senior citizens. No longer. Governor Palin’s dubious public library involvement is not surprising. Patrons’ taxes contribute largely to American public libraries’ budgets. A children’s room has long been part of a public library’s building and program, dating back to inception of the Carnegie libraries; YP (young people, teenagers) collections and activities were later introduced. Now, more than ever, elders are dependent on our free public libraries.  

The Alameda County Library has created “Older Adult Services,” a brochure highlighting current programs. Special library materials that may interest older adults, caregivers and others include large-print books, audio books and videos (standard, close-captioned and descriptive). Trained volunteers bring library materials to homebound persons. Generations On Line is an easy-to-use program designed to introduce seniors to the Internet and email with step-by-step directions, available at Alameda County Library locations.  

It’s a good thing. Berkeley Public Library’s senior discount on overdue charges. So are the large-print collections of fiction (science fiction, mysteries,) nonfiction (biography, The Weekly New York Times,) and reference books (dictionaries, thesauri). They can be accessed using subject heading LARGE TYPE BOOKS. The BPL Outreach person is Colleen Fawley (510) 981-6160. I know from experience that she has magical insights into what subjects and books, magazines and nonprint media will interest someone who is briefly or indefinitely unable to get to the Library. She selects, delivers, and subsequently picks them up. Specific titles and subjects can be requested, and she will bring them to you soonest. Alas, “budgetary constraints” will likely shorten her hours.  

I am weary of the media’s representation of shush libraries, and of praise heaped on library architecture that has little to do with accessing books and information, and of bureaucrats’ appointment of acceptable personalities to serve on library boards and to liaison with them.  

For your consideration:  

Berkeley Repertory Theatre package options include special discounts on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday matinees for persons who are “at least 65”.  

 

*** 

CALL TO CONFIRM:  

When: Tuesday, April 20, 2010. 11 A.M.-noon 

What: Director’s Roundtable Discussion 

Where: North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst@ MLK 

Details: NBSC director Larry Taylor meets with seniors  

For more info: (510) 981-5190 

 

When: Wednesday, April 21, 2010. 1:30 P.M.  

What: Berkeley Commission on Aging meeting.  

Where: South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis @ Ashby  

For more info: (510) 981-5170 

 

 

Helen Rippier Wheeler can be reached at pen136@dslextreme.com 

Please, no email attachments; use “Senior Power” for subject. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


WILD NEIGHBORS: Chickens in the Mist

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 01:06:00 PM
Rooster asks for political asylum, Kokee Lodge parking lot, Kaua'i.
Ron Sullivan
Rooster asks for political asylum, Kokee Lodge parking lot, Kaua'i.
One of the several roosters who patrolled the lawns and roosted in the very mixed koa/introduced species forest at YWCA's Camp Sloggett, Kokee State Park, Kaua'i.
Ron Sullivan
One of the several roosters who patrolled the lawns and roosted in the very mixed koa/introduced species forest at YWCA's Camp Sloggett, Kokee State Park, Kaua'i.
Hen who routinely walks into cafe at Kokee Lodge, Kaua'i. She's running because a staffer is shooing her out.
Ron Sullivan
Hen who routinely walks into cafe at Kokee Lodge, Kaua'i. She's running because a staffer is shooing her out.

Chickens were not high on the agenda when we went to Kaua’i. We hoped to see some of the endangered native forest birds, and the seabirds that nest on the North Shore. But chickens were inescapable. They greeted us at the airport in Lihue. They wandered around the hotel where we spent the first night. There were chickens on the beaches, chickens along the highway. (But relatively few road-killed chickens—far fewer than the dead armadillos you’d see in a comparable-sized chunk of Texas.) 

Kaua’i has two classes of chicken. Most of the urban birds are descendants of fowl who were liberated by Hurricane Iniki in 1992. They’re variable in size, shape, and pattern. Some have the lean, mean look of gamecocks. Cockfighting, although illegal, is a popular pastime in the islands. During our stay a state legislator proposed recognizing it as a cultural institution; the bill didn’t get very far. 

The island is so far, knock wood, mongoose-free. Apart from feral cats and possibly the native short-eared owl, feral chickens have no predators to keep their numbers in check. I don’t know if anyone has attempted a chicken census, but there are clearly a hell of a lot of them.  

Then there are the elite—the ali’i of chickens. They’re supposed to be direct descendants of the red junglefowl, native to South and East Asia, that were transported through the South Pacific by the Polynesians and their precursors, the Lapita people. Chickens, along with dogs, pigs, taro, sugar cane, and paper mulberry, were part of these great navigators’ basic traveling package. They probably reached Hawai’i with voyagers from the Marquesas about 1800 years ago. The word for chicken in most Polynesian languages is moa, a name they applied to the giant, flightless, and presumably tasty birds they encountered in New Zealand. PreColumbian chicken remains of South Pacific origin have even been found in South America.  

To see these ur-chickens, you have to drive the Waimea Canyon Road up to Kokee State Park. The junglefowl hang out around the restaurant—sometimes in the restaurant—and natural history museum at Kokee. You can buy bags of chickenfeed (“Feed the Wild Moa,” says the sign.) When we stopped there, a rooster tried to get into our rental PT Cruiser. He seemed to be low in the pecking order and may have been seeking asylum. 

We stayed at a YWCA facility called Camp Sloggett, down a rutted dirt road from park headquarters—highly recommended, by the way. Sloggett has its own colony of chickens: we counted four roosters and three hens. They weren’t furtive, but you couldn’t get too close to them. The roosters all looked pretty much like the red junglefowl in our South Pacific field guide, with golden-red hackles, black bellies and tails, and white rumps. The hens were small, brown, and speckled. 

Anyone interested in conducting a field study of the social behavior of the free-range chicken—and yes, I remember that Gary Larson cartoon—could do worse than spend time on Kaua’i. We watched which roosters deferred to which others, which hens spent time with which roosters. Wild junglefowl, according to one source, are sometimes monogamous, although we didn’t see any indication of that at Sloggett. 

Kaua’i roosters, both the high-country elite and the urban masses, don’t just crow at dawn. They get started sometime in the predawn darkness and keep at it off and on all day. The same source that talks about junglefowl monogamy describes the call as “very reminiscent of the cock-a-doodle-do of [the] farmyard or village chicken, though usually more shrill and with strangulated finale.” Ron thought she was hearing that, and I will defer to her generally superior ear. 

I’d like to point out that at no time did either of us personally strangulate a rooster, despite the temptation. 

The locals seem to have made their peace with the noisy birds, though. They’ve become a kind of mascot. We saw T-shirts proclaiming the chicken the real state bird of Hawai’i (officially it’s the Hawaiian goose, or nene). The gift shop at the Kaua’i Museum in Lihue offers counter-rooster earplugs; we were told they’re selling briskly. 


The Public Eye: BTW, Conservatism is Dead

By Bob Burnett
Wednesday April 14, 2010 - 05:32:00 PM

Recently there’s been a lot of speculation about why the mood on the right has turned so sour. Some observers attribute it to the lack of leadership at the top of the Republican Party, the surreal reality that Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh have more influence than do elected Republicans. Others say it’s a poisonous combination of economic angst and racial hatred. But there’s a more obvious explanation: we’re witnessing the death throes of conservatism. The right-wing ideology that ran the US for thirty years has proven to be a total failure and the passage of healthcare reform was the final nail in its coffin. 

In case you’ve forgotten, classic conservatism promised to keep us safe, reduce the size of government, lower taxes, and manage the economy. Republican broke each of these commitments.  

Keep us Safe: Conservatives/Republicans used to poll much stronger than Liberals/Democrats on national security. Then came 9/11 and the debacle of the Iraq war, where the GOP lost credibility. Despite the transition from the Bush to the Obama Administration, there has been little change in the military budget (+ 3 percent). Not surprisingly, voters now see little difference between Democrats and Republicans on this issue. 

Shrink Government: Conservative ideologue Grover Norquist famously promised, “Our goal is to shrink government to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub.” Nonetheless, the Federal bureaucracy grew during the Bush presidency. Now the Republican base – frustrated with the failure of their leaders to follow through on this promise – has turned to the futile pursuit of “state’s rights” or, as Texas Governor Rick Perry has proposed, the notion of secession from the USA. 

Lower Taxes: Beginning with the Reagan Presidency, conservatives have argued that much of the Federal government is a waste of money and, therefore, Americans shouldn’t have to pay for it. As a result, the marginal tax rates for individuals and corporations were diminished until today they are roughly half of what they were in 1980. However, while Federal revenues diminished, expenditures surged. During the Bush Administration, the Federal deficit became a serious impediment to US economic growth. Not surprisingly, voters now trust Democrats more than Republicans on economic issues such as taxes, the deficit, and the economy, in general. While voters are suspicious of taxes, in general, they are now willing to tax the rich and to enact penalties on corporations that don’t play by the rules. 

Manage the Economy: Since the Reagan Presidency, conservatives have maintained that Democrats are “social engineers” who only know how to lash together ineffective Federal social programs. In contrast, conservatives claimed that Republicans are “professional managers” who know how to run government like a business. Eight years of George W. Bush – touted as America’s first “CEP president” – proved this to be a lie.  

The promise of competent management covered a more sweeping assertion: conservatives knew best how to manage the economy. The thirty years since Reagan was inaugurated witnessed the heyday of the Chicago School of Economics that promoted deregulation by arguing that markets were inherently self-regulating and no matter how severe the setback markets would quickly return to equilibrium. This conservative theory touted “efficiency.” “productivity,” and “trickle-down equity” as the inevitable byproducts of laissez-faire capitalism. The result was a savage increase in monopoly capitalism and inequality, and the loss of eight million jobs. The performance of the Bush Administration and 2008’s financial meltdown destroyed the last pillar of conservative orthodoxy. 

But it’s not only conservative ideology that’s failed. As UC professor George Lakoff brilliantly argues in Moral Politics, conservatives have a different worldview than liberals do. Conservatives believe in the “strict father” model: the world is dangerous – there’s an angry mob at the gates of fortress America – and what’s required are strong, righteous men to lead the US.  

The conservative worldview proved a delusion. The supposedly strong, righteous Republican leaders turned out to be incompetent. Worse yet, they often favored their own interests over those of then public, they abandoned the common good for the personal good. In reality the strict father was an abuser. 

During the past few weeks, the Catholic Church has been in the news because of continuing allegations of sexual abuse. The image of the strict religious father has been compromised. So has the conservative image of the strict political father: Conservative politicians have systematically abused the public interest. 

So it’s no wonder that the mood on the right has turned sour. Everything they were taught has proven to be wrong: the pillars of conservative ideology have crumbled, as has the dominant metaphor. Republican leaders have betrayed their followers. 

As a result, right-wingers are thrashing in pain from the death of conservatism. They don’t know what to believe in so they reflexively unite in opposing whatever liberals propose. It’s understandable, but it doesn’t contribute anything to our joint challenge to make the United States safe and prosperous. 

Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer. He can be reached at bobburnett@comcast.net  


Dispatches From The Edge:Behind the Afghan Fraud

Conn Hallinan
Wednesday April 14, 2010 - 04:50:00 PM

All frauds have a purpose, mostly to relieve the unwary of their wealth, though occasionally to launch some foreign adventure: the 1965 Tonkin Gulf hoax that escalated the Vietnam War comes to mind.  

So what was the design behind “Operation Moshtarak,” or the “battle of Marjat,” in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, the largest U.S. and NATO military operation in Afghanistan since the 2003 invasion? That Moshtarak was a fraud was obvious from the start, a con job that the U.S. media enthusiastically went along with.  

Marjat was billed as a “fortress,” a “city of 80,000” and the Taliban’s “stronghold,” packed with more than 1,000 “hard core fighters.” But as Gareth Porter of the Inter Press Service revealed, Marjat is not even a city, but a district of scattered villages. As the days went by—and civilian deaths passed military casualties—the number of “hard core” fighters declined to 750, then 500, and then maybe 100. In the end, it was barely a skirmish. “Hardly a single gun was captured by NATO forces,” tribal elder and former police chief Abdul Rahman Jan told Time.  

According to Porter, Marjat is “either a few clusters of farmers’ homes or a large agricultural area covering much of the southern Helmand River Valley.” Marjat actually embraces about 125 square miles, an area big enough to simply swallow the 10,000 U.S., NATO and Afghan Army troops assigned to the offensive.  

The area was also billed as the “linchpin of the militants’ logistical and opium-smuggling network.” Marjat is indeed an area with significant poppy cultivation, but according to Julian Mercille, a Lecturer at University College Dublin and an expert on U.S. foreign policy, the Taliban get “only 4 percent of the trade.” Local farmers reap about 21 percent of the $3.4 billion yearly commerce, according to Mercille, while “75 percent of the trade is captured by government officials, the police, local and regional brokers and traffickers.” In short, our allies.  

And the word “linchpin” soon dropped off the radar screen as it became obvious that Operation Moshtarak would not touch the drug trade because it would alienate local farmers, thus sabotaging the goal of winning the “hearts and minds” of residents.  

In some ways the most interesting part of the Marjat operation was a gathering that took place shortly after the “fighting” was over: President Barak Obama called a meeting Mar. 12 in the White House to ask his senior staff and advisors if the “success” of Moshtarak would allow the U.S. to open negotiations with the Taliban. According to Porter, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates opposed talks until after a similar operation aimed at Khandahar is completed this summer. 

The Khandahar offensive is being pumped up as a “blow at the Taliban’s heartland” and the “fulcrum” of the Afghan war. Khandahar is, indeed, where the Taliban got its start and, at 600,000, is Afghanistan’s second largest city. Whether a military operation will have any more impact than the attack on Marjat is highly unlikely. While Time was predicting the Taliban would make a “bloody stand,” the insurgents have never engaged in a standup battle with the U.S. and NATO. As they did in Marjat, they will simply decamp to another area of the country or blend in with the local population. 

However, the White House gathering suggests that the administration may be searching for a way out before the 2012 elections. With the economic crisis at home continuing, and the bill for the war passing $200 billion, Afghanistan is looking more and more like a long tunnel with no light at the end. 

Certainly our allies seem to have concluded that the Americans are on an exit path.  

The Karzai government and the UN have opened talks with some of the Taliban, as well as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Islamic Party. Pakistan—correctly concluding it was being cut out of the peace talks—swept up 14 senior Taliban officials, including the organization’s number two man, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar. 

The Pakistanis claim they are simply aiding the U.S. war effort, but the former head of the UN mission to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, bitterly denounced the arrests as nothing more than effort to derail the on-going negotiations. What seems certain now is that whenever talks do open, the Pakistanis will be at the table. “You cannot achieve stability in Afghanistan without Pakistan,” the country’s Prime Minister, Yusuf Raza Gilani told the Financial Times. 

If Islamabad is in on the talks that means the Taliban will have a presence in whatever peace agreement emerges, a fact that has distressed India. Not only is it likely that India will lose much of its influence with the Karzai government—and see more than a billion dollars in aid go for naught—its traditional enemy, Pakistan, will almost certainly regain much of its former influence with Kabul. “Pakistan wants to exercise tutelage over Afghanistan,” former Indian foreign minister Kanwal Sibal told the Financial Times.  

The push by the U.S. to find a political solution is partly driven by the rapidly eroding NATO presence. The Canadians are sticking by their pledge to be out by 2011, and when the Netherlands tried to raise the possibility of Dutch troops remaining, the government fell. The British Labor Party, behind in the polls but catching up to the Tories, wants to rid itself of the Afghan albatross before upcoming elections and has been supportive of Karzai’s negotiations. 

The U.S. is also discovering that the Afghanis play a mean game of chess. 

When the Obama Administration demanded that the Karzai government reinstate an independent electoral commission, plus end corruption—in particular, dumping the President’s larcenous half brother Ahmed Wali Karzai who runs Khandahar like a feudal fiefdom—the Afghan president flew off to Teheran to embrace the President of Iran, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, and meet with Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Given that the U.S. is trying to isolate Iran in the region, Karzai’s Iran visit was not a happy moment on the Potomac. 

Yet Iran has influence over the Northern Alliance, which will need persuading to accept the Taliban into a coalition. Rather than isolating Iran, Karzai has made it central to a peace agreement that the U.S. and NATO want. 

For the past five years the U.S. has been wooing India as a bulwark against China, but because Washington needs Pakistan to broker a peace, the Americans agreed to send F-16 fighter-bombers, helicopter gun ships, and reconnaissance drones to Islamabad. A better-armed Pakistan, however, hardly goes down well in New Delhi, particularly because the Indians see their former influence in Kabul on the wane.  

So India promptly went off and met with the Russians. Ever sympathetic, Moscow offered New Delhi a bargain basement price on an aircraft carrier and a passel of MIG-29s tossed in. That dealt a blow to another aim of U.S. diplomacy: keeping Russia out of South Asia. 

The same week as Pakistan’s foreign minister was in Washington with a laundry list of goodies for “helping out” in Afghanistan, Karzai jetted off to Beijing to talk about aid and investments. So much for the plan to keep China out of Central Asia. 

This is beginning to look like checker players vs. chess masters. 

But there does seems to be a developing consensus that the war must wind down. If that is the direction, than the Karzai government’s upcoming “peace jirga,” set for late April or early May, takes on greater importance.  

While the administration appears to be divided over how, when, and with whom to negotiate, “withdrawing” doesn’t mean the U.S. won’t leave bases behind or end its efforts to penetrate Central Asia. The White House recently announced an agreement with Kyrgyzstan to set up a U.S. “counter-terrorism center” near the Chinese border. 

The danger at this juncture is seeing peace talks as a zero-sum game: if Pakistan gains, India loses; if the U.S. withdraws, the Taliban win; if Iran is helpful it will encourage nuclear proliferation. 

The bottom line in Afghanistan is the Afghans. What they want, and how they get it, is not the business of Washington, Brussels, New Delhi, Teheran, or Islamabad. The “graveyard of empires” has claimed far more Afghan lives than those of the invaders. As U.S. Afghan commander Stanley McCrystal told the New York Times, “We have shot an astounding number of people.” 

Indeed, we have. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


New: Senior Power: "Old People Don't Read Books"

By Helen Rippier Wheeler
Sunday April 18, 2010 - 06:53:00 PM

The Rippowam River rushed by at the foot of our dank street, or, depending on the season, gurgled its way to Long Island Sound. I would sit on the stone embankment overlooking the water, ignoring the garter snakes in the crevices. The Ferguson Public Library children’s room was another 1932 shelter. Story hour was held in a separate room with a large picture window. I played stamping books, using a piece of black crayon stuck on the end of a protractor. It slipped off, jamming crayon into my palm, still imbedded there in a tattoo effect.  

Saturday mornings, a few years later, I headed for the story hour in a corner of the Freeport Memorial Library’s crowded basement workroom. I read all the twins books, written and illustrated by Lucy Fitch Perkins. Kit and Kat began as The Dutch Twins (1911), metamorphosed into Scottish, American, Belgian, Chinese, Colonial, Eskimo, Irish, Italian, and Japanese stories. Then came Helen Dore Boylston’s Sue Barton, Nurse series –- senior nurse, staff nurse, visiting nurse. These books can be borrowed in your behalf from nearby libraries participating in the free Link system.  

Seventy-three year old Gail Sheehy’s books on life and the life cycle continue the theme of passages through life's stages. She refers to "Second Adulthood." Her 2006 book and CD, Sex and the Seasoned Woman: Pursuing the passionate life reveal a hidden cultural phenomenon: a surge of vitality in women's sex and love lives after age 50.  

I first encountered Berkeley author Dorothy Bryant via her 1972 literary landmark. Ella Price’s Journal is a novel in diary form of a woman who returns to school after 15 years of marriage and begins to see her carefully-structured world in an unexpected and unwelcome light. I asked Bryant about her current reading. Kay Ryan’s The Best of It, New and Selected Poems. She prefers lesser known books recommended by friends, e.g. Judith Freeman’s Red Water. Old movies on DVD satisfy the ‘recreational urge.’ When she knows what she wants, she requests it online and it is brought to South Branch public library. For browsing, she stops regularly at Central.  

Best-selling Berkeley author Theodore Roszak was turned down by 20 major publishers, reports Avis Worthington. When he proposed his The Making of an Elder Culture; Reflections on the Future of America’s Most Audacious Generation, they informed him, “Old people don’t read books.” It was published by New Society Publishers in 2009.  

Ever noticed that the central character in many biographies and novels is influenced by a public library or library staff-member? -- Goodbye, Columbus --. The novel and motion picture of A tree grows in Brooklyn. -- Perhaps because children are central to Dear Miss Breed :True stories of the Japanese American incarceration during World War II … , it has generally been assigned to children’s collections, but it is a book for everyone. (See July 31, 2007 BDPlanet.) 

The 1956 motion picture, Storm Center (1956, 85m, Columbia Pictures), is about a small-town library administrator who refuses to withdraw a controversial book from the shelves. She is labeled a Communist by local politicians (City Council members…), loses her job, and becomes an outcast in the community. Bette Davis plays the doomed librarian. Banned Books Week in 2010 will be September 25−October 2. The World Catalog lists a Storm Center dvd distributed by Sony Pictures Television… 

The word “FREE” in many USA libraries’ names (Free Library of Philadelphia, Mono County Free Library, Enoch Pratt Free Library of Baltimore, etc.) is not mere happenstance. They were founded for the public, not as “subscription” libraries.  

The University of California, Berkeley used to grant library circulation privileges to senior citizens. No longer. Governor Palin’s dubious public library involvement is not surprising. Patrons’ taxes contribute largely to American public libraries’ budgets. A children’s room has long been part of a public library’s building and program, dating back to inception of the Carnegie libraries; YP (young people, teenagers) collections and activities were later introduced. Now, more than ever, elders are dependent on our free public libraries.  

The Alameda County Library has created “Older Adult Services,” a brochure highlighting current programs. Special library materials that may interest older adults, caregivers and others include large-print books, audio books and videos (standard, close-captioned and descriptive). Trained volunteers bring library materials to homebound persons. Generations On Line is an easy-to-use program designed to introduce seniors to the Internet and email with step-by-step directions, available at Alameda County Library locations.  

It’s a good thing. Berkeley Public Library’s senior discount on overdue charges. So are the large-print collections of fiction (science fiction, mysteries,) nonfiction (biography, The Weekly New York Times,) and reference books (dictionaries, thesauri). They can be accessed using subject heading LARGE TYPE BOOKS. The BPL Outreach person is Colleen Fawley (510) 981-6160. I know from experience that she has magical insights into what subjects and books, magazines and nonprint media will interest someone who is briefly or indefinitely unable to get to the Library. She selects, delivers, and subsequently picks them up. Specific titles and subjects can be requested, and she will bring them to you soonest. Alas, “budgetary constraints” will likely shorten her hours.  

I am weary of the media’s representation of shush libraries, and of praise heaped on library architecture that has little to do with accessing books and information, and of bureaucrats’ appointment of acceptable personalities to serve on library boards and to liaison with them.  

For your consideration:  

Berkeley Repertory Theatre package options include special discounts on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday matinees for persons who are “at least 65”.  

 

*** 

CALL TO CONFIRM:  

When: Tuesday, April 20, 2010. 11 A.M.-noon 

What: Director’s Roundtable Discussion 

Where: North Berkeley Senior Center, 1901 Hearst@ MLK 

Details: NBSC director Larry Taylor meets with seniors  

For more info: (510) 981-5190 

 

When: Wednesday, April 21, 2010. 1:30 P.M.  

What: Berkeley Commission on Aging meeting.  

Where: South Berkeley Senior Center, 2939 Ellis @ Ashby  

For more info: (510) 981-5170 

 

 

Helen Rippier Wheeler can be reached at pen136@dslextreme.com  

Please, no email attachments; use “Senior Power” for subject. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Arts & Events

New: Arts In Berkeley

By the Berkeley Arts Festival
Wednesday April 21, 2010 - 11:07:00 AM

The Berkeley Arts Festival calendar tracks local performances of special interest: 

 

For all kinds of arts events this week and in the future, check berkeleyartsfestival.com


East Bay Top Tips: April 23 through May 2

By Bay City News
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 10:32:00 PM

AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM AND LIBRARY AT OAKLAND -- ongoing. The  

Oakland Public Library's museum is designed to discover, preserve, interpret  

and share the cultural and historical experiences of African Americans in  

California and the West. In addition, a three-panel mural is on permanent  

display. 

Free. Tuesday-Saturday, noon-5:30 p.m. 659 14th St., Oakland.  

(510) 637-0200, www.oaklandlibrary.org.< 

 

ALAMEDA MUSEUM -- ongoing. The museum offers permanent displays of  

Alameda history, the only rotating gallery showcasing local Alameda artists  

and student artwork, as well as souvenirs, books and videos about the rich  

history of the Island City. 

Free. Wednesday-Friday and Sunday, 1-4 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-4  

p.m. 2324 Alameda Ave., Alameda. (510) 521-1233, www.alamedamuseum.org.< 

 

BADE MUSEUM AT THE PACIFIC SCHOOL OF RELIGION -- The museum's  

collections include the Tell en-Nasbeh Collection, consisting of artifacts  

excavated from Tell en-Nasbeh in Palestine in 1926 and 1935 by William Badh,  

and the Howell Bible Collection, featuring approximately 300 rare books  

(primarily Bibles) dating from the 15th through the 18th centuries. 

"Tell en-Nasbeh,'' ongoing. This exhibit is the "heart and soul"  

of the Bade Museum. It displays a wealth of finds from the excavations at  

Tell en-Nasbeh, Palestine whose objects span from the Early Bronze Age  

(3100-2200 BC) through the Iron Age (1200-586 BC) and into the Roman and  

Hellenistic periods. Highlights of the exhibit include "Tools of the Trade"  

featuring real archaeological tools used by Badh and his team, an oil lamp  

typology, a Second Temple period (586 BC-70 AD) limestone ossuary, and a  

selection of painted Greek pottery.  

"William Frederic Bade: Theologian, Naturalist, and  

Archaeologist,'' ongoing. This exhibit highlights one of PSR's premier  

educators and innovative scholars. The collection of material on display was  

chosen with the hopes of representing the truly dynamic and multifaceted  

character of William F. Badh. He was a family man, a dedicated teacher, a  

loving friend, and an innovative and passionate archaeologist.  

Free. Tuesday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Holbrook Hall, Pacific  

School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave., Berkeley. (510) 848-0528,  

http://bade.psr.edu/bade.< 

 

BERKELEY ART MUSEUM AND PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE --  

"French Film Posters from the BAM/PFA Collection,'' through May  

31. Part of the Pacific Film Archive's collection of over eight thousand  

international film posters, these rare prints were bequeathed to BAM/PFA by  

the late Mel Novikoff, founder of San Francisco's first repertory cinema  

chain, Surf Theaters, which included the Surf, the Lumiere, and the Castro.  

Novikoff collected these posters during many trips to Europe, and for years  

they graced the lobbies of cinemas in the Surf chain. Now they can be enjoyed  

in the museum's Theater Gallery, where admission is free.  

"Thom Faulders: BAMscape,'' through Nov. 30. This commissioned  

work, a hybrid of sculpture, furniture, and stage, is the new centerpiece of  

Gallery B, BAM's expansive central atrium. It is part of a new vision of the  

gallery as a space for interaction, performance, and improvised experiences.  

"Nature into Action: Hans Hofmann,'' through June 30. This  

installation drawn from BAM's extensive Hans Hofmann collection reveals the  

relationship between nature as source and action as method in the great  

abstract painter's work.  

CLOSING -- "James Castle: A Retrospective,'' through April 25.  

Born deaf and raised in rural Idaho, James Castle was a self-taught artist of  

remarkable range, subtlety, and graphic skill. This retrospective is the  

first comprehensive museum exhibition of Castle's drawings, books, and paper  

constructions.  

"James Buckhouse: Serg Riva,'' through May 31. Welcome to the  

world of Serg Riva, self-declared "aquatic couturier,'' enfant terrible, and  

man about town"-and sly fictive creation of artist James Buckhouse.  

"Assignment Shanghai: Photographs on the Eve of Revolution,''  

through May 9. In 1946, Life magazine assigned the young photographer Jack  

Birns to Shanghai with instructions to document the ongoing Chinese civil  

war. This selection of the resulting photographs, drawn from the BAM  

collection, vividly captures a cosmopolitan city in the midst of social and  

political change.  

"Realm of Enlightenment: Masters and Teachers from the Land of  

Snows,'' through May 16. A new installation of extraordinary objects from  

Tibet explores the role of the teacher and master in the transmission of the  

Buddhist canon.  

"What's It All Mean: William T. Wiley in Retrospect,'' through  

July 18. This retrospective surveys the witty, idiosyncratic, and  

introspective work of William T. Wiley, a beloved Bay Area artist and "a  

national treasure'' (Wall Street Journal). Layered with ambiguous ideas and  

allusions, autobiographical narrative and sociopolitical commentary, Wiley's  

art is rich in self-deprecating humor and absurdist insight.  

"Perpetual and furious refrain / MATRIX 232,'' May 2 through Sept.  

12. Exhibition features works by Brent Green.  

2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. < 

 

BLACKHAWK MUSEUM -- ongoing.  

AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM -- The museum's permanent exhibition of  

internationally renowned automobiles dated from 1897 to the 1980s. The cars  

are displayed as works of art with room to walk completely around each car to  

admire the workmanship. On long-term loan from the Smithsonian Institution is  

a Long Steam Tricycle; an 1893-94 Duryea, the first Duryea built by the  

Duryea brothers; and a 1948 Tucker, number 39 of the 51 Tuckers built, which  

is a Model 48 "Torpedo'' four-door sedan.  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"International Automotive Treasures,'' ongoing. An ever-changing  

exhibit featuring over 90 automobiles.  

"A Journey on Common Ground,'' ongoing. An exhibit of moving  

photographs, video and art objects from around the world exploring the causes  

of disability and the efforts of the Wheelchair Foundation to provide a  

wheelchair for every person in need who cannot afford one.  

ONGOING EVENT --  

Free Public Tours, Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m. Docent-led guided  

tours of the museum's exhibitions. 

$5-$8; free for children ages 6 and under. Wednesday-Sunday, 10  

a.m.-5 p.m. 3700 Blackhawk Plaza Circle, Danville. (925) 736-2280, (925)  

736-2277, www.blackhawkmuseum.org.< 

 

CHABOT SPACE AND SCIENCE CENTER -- State-of-the-art facility  

unifying science education activities around astronomy. Enjoy interactive  

exhibits, hands-on activities, indoor stargazing, outdoor telescope viewing  

and films. 

"Beyond Blastoff: Surviving in Space,'' ongoing. An interactive  

exhibit that allows you to immerse yourself into the life of an astronaut to  

experience the mixture of exhilaration, adventure and confinement that is  

living and working in space.  

"Chabot Observatories: A View to the Stars,'' ongoing. Explore the  

history of the Chabot observatories and how its historic telescopes are used  

today. Daytime visitors can virtually operate a telescope, experiment with  

mirrors and lenses to understand how telescopes create images of distant  

objects and travel through more than a century of Chabot's history via  

multimedia kiosks, historical images and artifact displays.  

EVENTS -- ongoing. CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE: SEPT. 2-16.  

"Daytime Telescope Viewing,'' ongoing. Saturday and Sunday, 11  

a.m.-5 p.m. View the sun, the moon and the planets through the telescopes  

during the day. Free with general admission. 

"Galaxy Explorers Hands-On Fun,'' ongoing. Saturday, noon-4 p.m.  

The Ga day. Free with general admission. 

"Galaxy Explorers Hands-On Fun,'' ongoing. Saturday, noon-4 p.m.  

The Galaxy Explorers lead a variety of fun, hands-on activities, such as  

examining real spacesuits, creating galaxy flipbooks, learning about  

telescopes, minerals and skulls and making your own comet. Free with general  

admission. 

"Live Daytime Planetarium Show,'' ongoing. Saturdays, 2:30 p.m.  

Ride through real-time constellations, stars and planets with Chabot's  

full-dome digital projection system. 

Center Admission: $9-$13; free children under 3; Movies and  

evening planetarium shows: $6-$8. Telescope viewing only: free.  

Wednesday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sunday,  

11 a.m.-5 p.m. 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. (510) 336-7300,  

www.chabotspace.org.< 

 

HABITOT CHILDREN'S MUSEUM -- A museum especially for children ages  

7 and under. Highlights include "WaterWorks,'' an area with some unusual  

water toys, an Infant Tree for babies, a garden especially for toddlers, a  

child-scale grocery store and cafe, and a costume shop and stage for junior  

thespians. The museum also features a toy lending library.  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"Waterworks.'' A water play gallery with rivers, a pumping station  

and a water table, designed to teach about water.  

"Little Town Grocery and Cafe.'' Designed to create the ambience  

of shopping in a grocery store and eating in a restaurant.  

"Infant-Toddler Garden.'' A picket fence gated indoor area, which  

includes a carrot patch with wooden carrots to be harvested, a pretend pond  

and a butterfly mobile to introduce youngsters to the concept of food,  

gardening and agriculture.  

"Dramatic Arts Stage.'' Settings, backdrops and costumes coincide  

with seasonal events and holidays. Children can exercise their dramatic flair  

here.  

"Wiggle Wall.'' The floor-to-ceiling "underground'' tunnels give  

children a worm's eye view of the world. The tunnels are laced with net  

covered openings and giant optic lenses. 

"Architects at Play,'' ongoing. This hands-on, construction-based  

miniexhibit provides children with the opportunity to create free-form  

structures, from skyscrapers to bridges, using KEVA planks.  

SPECIAL EXHIBITS -- ongoing.  

$6-$7. Wednesday and Thursday, 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m.; Friday and  

Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Closed Sunday-Tuesday. 2065 Kittredge St.,  

Berkeley. (510) 647-1111, www.habitot.org.< 

 

HALL OF HEALTH -- ongoing. A community health-education museum and  

science center promoting wellness and individual responsibility for health.  

There are hands-on exhibits that teach about the workings of the human body,  

the value of a healthy diet and exercise, and the destructive effects of  

smoking and drug abuse. "Kids on the Block'' puppet shows, which use puppets  

from diverse cultures to teach about and promote acceptance of conditions  

such as cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, leukemia, blindness, arthritis and  

spina bifida, are available by request for community events and groups  

visiting the Hall on Saturdays.  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"This Is Your Heart!'' ongoing. An interactive exhibit on heart  

health.  

"Good Nutrition,'' ongoing. This exhibit includes models for  

making balanced meals and an Exercycle for calculating how calories are  

burned.  

"Draw Your Own Insides,'' ongoing. Human-shaped chalkboards and  

models with removable organs allow visitors to explore the inside of their  

bodies.  

"Your Cellular Self and Cancer Prevention,'' ongoing. An exhibit  

on understanding how cells become cancerous and how to detect and prevent  

cancer. 

Suggested $3 donation; free for children under age 3.  

Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 2230 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510)  

549-1564, www.hallofhealth.org.< 

 

HAYWARD AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM -- The museum is located in  

a former post office and displays memorabilia of early Hayward and southern  

Alameda County. Some of the features include a restored 1923 Seagrave fire  

engine and a hand pumper from the Hayward Fire Department, founded in 1865; a  

Hayward Police Department exhibit; information on city founder William  

Hayward; and pictures of the old Hayward Hotel. The museum also alternates  

three exhibits per year, including a Christmas Toys exhibit and a 1950s  

lifestyle exhibit. 

EVENTS -- ongoing.  

50 cents-$1. Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. 22701 Main St.,  

Hayward. (510) 581-0223, www.haywardareahistory.org.< 

 

JUDAH L. MAGNES MUSEUM -- The museum's permanent collection  

includes objects of Jewish importance including ceremonial art, film and  

video, folk art and fine art, paintings, sculptures and prints by  

contemporary and historical artists. 

"Projections,'' ongoing. Multimedia works from the museum's  

extensive collections of archival, documentary and experimental films.  

Located at 2911 Russell Street.  

SPECIAL EXHIBITS -- ongoing.  

$4-$6; free for children under age 12. Sunday-Wednesday, 10 a.m.-4  

p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. CLOSED APRIL 3-4 AND 9-10; MAY 23-24 AND 28;  

JULY 4; SEPT. 3, 13 AND 27; OCT. 4; NOV. 22; DEC. 24-25 AND 31. 2911 Russell  

St., Berkeley. (510) 549-6950, www.magnes.org.< 

 

LAWRENCE HALL OF SCIENCE --  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"NanoZone,'' ongoing. Discover the science of the super-small:  

nanotechnology. Through hands-on activities and games, explore this  

microworld and the scientific discoveries made in this area.  

"Forces That Shape the Bay,'' ongoing. A science park that shows  

and explains why the San Francisco Bay is the way it is, with information on  

water, erosion, plate tectonics and mountain building. You can ride  

earthquake simulators, set erosion in motion and look far out into the bay  

with a powerful telescope from 1,100 feet above sea level. The center of the  

exhibit is a waterfall that demonstrates how water flows from the Sierra  

Nevada Mountains to the Bay. Visitors can control where the water goes. There  

are also hands-on erosion tables, and a 40-foot-long, 6-foothigh, rock  

compression wall.  

"Real Astronomy Experience,'' ongoing. A new  

exhibit-in-development allowing visitors to use the tools that real  

astronomers use. Aim a telescope at a virtual sky and operate a  

remote-controlled telescope to measure a planet.  

"Biology Lab,'' ongoing. In the renovated Biology Lab visitors may  

hold and observe gentle animals. Saturday, Sunday and holidays, 1:30 p.m. to  

4 p.m.  

"The Idea Lab,'' ongoing. Experiment with some of the basics of  

math, science and technology through hands-on activities and demonstrations  

of magnets, spinning and flying, puzzles and nanotechnology.  

"Math Around the World,'' ongoing. Play some of the world's most  

popular math games, such as Hex, Kalah, Game Sticks and Shongo Networks.  

"Math Rules,'' ongoing. Use simple and colorful objects to  

complete interesting challenges in math through predicting, sorting,  

comparing, weighing and counting.  

 

"Science on a Sphere,'' ongoing. Catch an out-of-this-world  

experience with an animated globe. See hurricanes form, tsunamis sweep across  

the oceans and city lights glow around the planet.  

EVENTS -- ongoing.  

$5.50-$10; free children ages 2 and under. Daily, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.  

University of California, Centennial Drive, Berkeley. (510) 642-5132,  

www.lawrencehallofscience.org.< 

 

LINDSAY WILDLIFE MUSEUM -- This is the oldest and largest wildlife  

rehabilitation center in America, taking in 6,000 injured and orphaned  

animals yearly and returning 40 percent of them to the wild. The museum  

offers a wide range of educational programs using non-releasable wild animals  

to teach children and adults respect for the balance of nature. The museum  

includes a state-of-the art wildlife hospital which features a permanent  

exhibit, titled "Living with Nature,'' which houses 75 non-releasable wild  

animals in learning environments; a 5,000-square-foot Wildlife Hospital  

complete with treatment rooms, intensive care, quarantine and laboratory  

facilities; a 1-acre Nature Garden featuring the region's native landscaping  

and wildlife; and an "Especially For Children'' exhibit.  

WILDLIFE HOSPITAL -- September-March: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The  

hospital is open daily including holidays to receive injured and orphaned  

animals. There is no charge for treatment of native wild animals and there  

are no public viewing areas in the hospital. 

EXHIBITS -- ongoing.  

SPECIAL EVENTS -- ongoing.  

$5-$7; free children under age 2. Wednesdays-Sundays, 10 a.m.-5  

p.m. 1931 First Ave., Walnut Creek. (925) 935-1978, www.wildlife-museum.org.< 

 

MEYERS HOUSE AND GARDEN MUSEUM -- The Meyers House, erected in  

1897, is an example of Colonial Revival, an architectural style popular  

around the turn of the century. Designed by Henry H. Meyers,the house was  

built by his father, Jacob Meyers, at a cost of $4000.00. 

EXHIBITS -- ongoing.  

$3. Fourth Saturday of every month. 2021 Alameda Ave., Alameda.  

(510) 521-1247, www.alamedamuseum.org/meyers.html.< 

 

MUSEUM OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN TECHNOLOGY SCIENCE VILLAGE -- ongoing.  

A science museum with an African-American focus promoting science education  

and awareness for the underrepresented. The science village chronicles the  

technical achievements of people of African descent from ancient ties to  

present. There are computer classes at the Internet Cafi, science education  

activities and seminars. There is also a resource library with a collection  

of books, periodicals and videotapes. 

$4-$6. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, noon-6 p.m.;  

Sunday, 2 p.m.-6 p.m. 630 20th St., Oakland. (510) 893-6426,  

www.ncalifblackengineers.org.< 

 

MUSEUM OF CHILDREN'S ART -- A museum of art for and by children,  

with activities for children to participate in making their own art.  

ART CAMPS -- Hands-on activities and engaging curriculum for  

children of different ages, led by professional artists and staff. $60 per  

day.  

CLASSES -- A Sunday series of classes for children ages 8 to 12,  

led by Mocha artists. Sundays, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.  

OPEN STUDIOS -- Drop-in art play activities with new themes each  

week.  

"Big Studio.'' Guided art projects for children age 6 and older  

with a Mocha artist. Tuesday through Friday, 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. $5.  

"Little Studio.'' A hands-on experience that lets young artists  

age 18 months to 5 years see, touch and manipulate a variety of media.  

Children can get messy. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. $5.  

"Family Weekend Studios.'' Drop-in art activities for the whole  

family. All ages welcome. Saturday and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. $5 per child.  

FAMILY EXTRAVAGANZAS -- Special weekend workshops for the entire  

family.  

"Sunday Workshops with Illustrators,'' Sundays, 1 p.m. See the  

artwork and meet the artists who create children's book illustrations. Free. 

EVENTS -- ongoing.  

"Saturday Stories,'' ongoing. 1 p.m. For children ages 2-5. Free. 

Free gallery admission. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.;  

Saturday-Sunday, noon-5 p.m. 538 Ninth St., Oakland. (510) 465-8770,  

www.mocha.org.< 

 

MUSEUM OF THE SAN RAMON VALLEY -- The museum features local  

artifacts, pictures, flags and drawings commemorating the valley's history.  

It also houses a historical narrative frieze. In addition to a permanent  

exhibit on the valley's history, the museum sponsors revolving exhibits and  

several guided tours. The restored railroad depot that houses the museum was  

built on the San Ramon Branch Line of the Southern Pacific Railroad 108 years  

ago. 

SPECIAL EXHIBITS -- ongoing.  

Free. August: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. The Depot, West  

Prospect and Railroad avenues, Danville. (925) 837-3750, www.museumsrv.org.< 

 

MUSEUM ON MAIN STREET -- Located in a former town hall building,  

this museum is a piece of local history. It has a photo and document archive,  

collection of artifacts, local history publications for purchase, and a  

history library. It is supported by the Amador-Livermore Valley Historical  

Society. 

EXHIBITS -- ongoing.  

"The Horse, Of Course,'' through Aug. 15. Exhibit examines how the  

horse has played an important role in the life of the Amador-Livermore  

Valley.  

$2. Wednesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m.-4 p.m.;  

CLOSED DEC. 23-JAN. 8. 603 Main St., Pleasanton. (925) 462-2766,  

www.museumonmain.org.< 

 

PACIFIC PINBALL MUSEUM --  

CLOSING -- "Tire Recycling Concepts,'' through May 1. Exhibition  

features recycled art by Kimberly Piazza. $7.50-$15.  

1510 Webster St., Alameda. www.pacificpinball.org.< 

 

PARDEE HOME MUSEUM -- The historic Pardee Mansion, a three-story  

Italianate villa built in 1868, was home to three generations of the Pardee  

family who were instrumental in the civic and cultural development of  

California and Oakland. The home includes the house, grounds, water tower and  

barn. Reservations recommended. 

EVENTS -- ongoing.  

$5; free children ages 12 and under. House Tours: Monday-Saturday,  

10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sundays by appointment. 672 11th St., Oakland. (510)  

444-2187, www.pardeehome.org.< 

 

SAN LEANDRO HISTORY MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY -- ongoing. The museum  

showcases local and regional history and serves as a centerpiece for  

community cultural activity. There are exhibits on Ohlone settlements, farms  

of early settlers, and contributions of Portuguese and other immigrants.  

There will also be exhibits of the city's agricultural past and the  

industrial development of the 19th century.  

ONGOING EXHIBIT --  

"Yema/Po Archeological Site at Lake Chabot,'' ongoing. An exhibit  

highlighting artifacts uncovered from a work camp of Chinese laborers,  

featuring photomurals, cutouts and historical photographs. 

Free. Thursday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. 320 West Estudillo Ave., San  

Leandro. (510) 577-3990, http://www.ci.sanleandro.  

ca.us/sllibrarymuseum.html.< 

 

SHADELANDS RANCH HISTORICAL MUSEUM -- Built by Walnut Creek  

pioneer Hiram Penniman, this 1903 redwood-framed house is a showcase for  

numerous historical artifacts, many of which belonged to the Pennimans. It  

also houses a rich archive of Contra Costa and Walnut Creek history in its  

collections of old newspapers, photographs and government records. 

EXHIBITS -- ongoing.  

$1-$3; free-children under age 6. Wednesday and Sunday, 1 p.m.-4  

p.m.; Closed in January. 2660 Ygnacio Valley Road, Walnut Creek. (925)  

935-7871, www.ci.walnut-creek.ca.us.< 

 

SMITH MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY,  

HAYWARD -- The museum houses significant collections of archaeological and  

ethnographic specimens from Africa, Asia and North America and small  

collections from Central and South America. The museum offers opportunities  

and materials for student research and internships in archaeology and  

ethnology. 

SPECIAL EXHIBITS -- ongoing.  

Free. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Meiklejohn Hall, Fourth Floor,  

25800 Carlos Bee Blvd., Hayward. (510) 885-3104, (510) 885-7414,  

www.isis.csuhayward.edu/cesmith/acesmith.html.< 

 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY HEARST MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY  

-- ongoing.  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"Native California Cultures,'' ongoing. This is an exhibit of some  

500 artifacts from the museum's California collections, the largest and most  

comprehensive collections in the world devoted to California Indian cultures.  

The exhibit includes a section about Ishi, the famous Indian who lived and  

worked with the museum, Yana tribal baskets and a 17-foot Yurok canoe carved  

from a single redwood.  

"Recent Acquisitions,'' ongoing. The collection includes Yoruba  

masks and carvings from Africa, early-20th-century Taiwanese hand puppets,  

textiles from the Americas and 19th- and 20th-century Tibetan artifacts.  

"From the Maker's Hand: Selections from the Permanent  

Collection,'' ongoing. This exhibit explores human ingenuity in the living  

and historical cultures of China, Africa, Egypt, Peru, North America and the  

Meditteranean. 

$1-$4; free for children ages 12 and under; free to all on  

Thursdays. Wednesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Sunday, noon-4:30 p.m. 103  

Kroeber Hall, Bancroft Way and College Avenue, Berkeley. (510) 643-7648,  

http://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu.< 

Something for everyone: 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY MUSEUM OF PALEONTOLOGY --  

ongoing.  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"Tyrannosaurus Rex,'' ongoing. A 20-foot-tall, 40-foot-long  

replica of the fearsome dinosaur. The replica is made from casts of bones of  

the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana,  

the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone  

missing.  

"Pteranodon,'' ongoing. A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile  

with a wingspan of 22 to 23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as  

the dinosaurs.  

"California Fossils Exhibit,'' ongoing. An exhibit of some of the  

fossils that have been excavated in California. 

Free. During semester sessions, hours generally are:  

Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-5  

p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m.-10 p.m. Hours vary during summer and holidays. Lobby,  

1101 Valley Life Sciences Building, #4780, University of California,  

Berkeley. (510) 642-1821, www.ucmp.berkeley.edu.< 

 

USS HORNET MUSEUM -- Come aboard this World War II aircraft  

carrier that has been converted into a floating museum. The Hornet, launched  

in 1943, is 899 feet long and 27 stories high. During World War II she was  

never hit by an enemy strike or plane and holds the Navy record for number of  

enemy planes shot down in a week. In 1969 the Hornet recovered the Apollo 11  

space capsule containing the first men to walk on the moon, and later  

recovered Apollo 12. In 1991 the Hornet was designated a National Historic  

Landmark and is now docked at the same pier she sailed from in 1944. Today,  

visitors can tour the massive ship, view World War II-era warplanes and  

experience a simulated aircraft launch from the carrier's deck. Exhibits are  

being added on an ongoing basis. Allow two to three hours for a visit. Wear  

comfortable shoes and be prepared to climb steep stairs or ladders. Dress in  

layers as the ship can be cold. Arrive no later than 2 p.m. to sign up for  

the engine room and other docent-led tours. Children under age 12 are not  

allowed in the Engine Room or the Combat Information Center.  

ONGOING EVENTS --  

"Limited Access Day,'' ongoing. Due to ship maintenance, tours of  

the navigation bridge and the engine room are not available. Tuesdays.  

"Flight Deck Fun,'' ongoing. A former Landing Signal Officer will  

show children how to bring in a fighter plane for a landing on the deck then  

let them try the signals themselves. Times vary. Free with regular Museum  

admission.  

"Protestant Divine Services,'' ongoing. Hornet chaplain John  

Berger conducts church services aboard The Hornet in the Wardroom Lounge.  

Everyone is welcome and refreshments are served immediately following the  

service. Sundays, 11 a.m. 

SPECIAL EVENTS -- ongoing. Closed on New Year's Day. 

 

"Family Day,'' ongoing. Discounted admission for families of four  

with a further discount for additional family members. Access to some of the  

areas may be limited due to ship maintenance. Every Tuesday. $20 for family  

of four; $5 for each additional family member. 

"Living Ship Day,'' ongoing. Experience an aircraft carrier in  

action, with simulated flight operations as aircraft are lifted to the flight  

deck and placed in launch position. Some former crewmembers will be on hand. 

"Flashlight Tour,'' ongoing. Receive a special tour of areas  

aboard the ship that have not yet been opened to the public or that have  

limited access during the day. 

$6-$14; free children age 4 and under with a paying adult. Daily,  

10 a.m.-4 p.m. Pier 3 (enter on Atlantic Avenue), Alameda Point, Alameda.  

(510) 521-8448, www.uss-hornet.org.< 


Museums and Exhibits in the East Bay: April 23 through May 2

By Bay City News
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 10:27:00 PM

AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM AND LIBRARY AT OAKLAND -- ongoing. The  

Oakland Public Library's museum is designed to discover, preserve, interpret  

and share the cultural and historical experiences of African Americans in  

California and the West. In addition, a three-panel mural is on permanent  

display. 

Free. Tuesday-Saturday, noon-5:30 p.m. 659 14th St., Oakland.  

(510) 637-0200, www.oaklandlibrary.org.< 

 

ALAMEDA MUSEUM -- ongoing. The museum offers permanent displays of  

Alameda history, the only rotating gallery showcasing local Alameda artists  

and student artwork, as well as souvenirs, books and videos about the rich  

history of the Island City. 

Free. Wednesday-Friday and Sunday, 1-4 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-4  

p.m. 2324 Alameda Ave., Alameda. (510) 521-1233, www.alamedamuseum.org.< 

 

BADE MUSEUM AT THE PACIFIC SCHOOL OF RELIGION -- The museum's  

collections include the Tell en-Nasbeh Collection, consisting of artifacts  

excavated from Tell en-Nasbeh in Palestine in 1926 and 1935 by William Badh,  

and the Howell Bible Collection, featuring approximately 300 rare books  

(primarily Bibles) dating from the 15th through the 18th centuries. 

"Tell en-Nasbeh,'' ongoing. This exhibit is the "heart and soul"  

of the Bade Museum. It displays a wealth of finds from the excavations at  

Tell en-Nasbeh, Palestine whose objects span from the Early Bronze Age  

(3100-2200 BC) through the Iron Age (1200-586 BC) and into the Roman and  

Hellenistic periods. Highlights of the exhibit include "Tools of the Trade"  

featuring real archaeological tools used by Badh and his team, an oil lamp  

typology, a Second Temple period (586 BC-70 AD) limestone ossuary, and a  

selection of painted Greek pottery.  

"William Frederic Bade: Theologian, Naturalist, and  

Archaeologist,'' ongoing. This exhibit highlights one of PSR's premier  

educators and innovative scholars. The collection of material on display was  

chosen with the hopes of representing the truly dynamic and multifaceted  

character of William F. Badh. He was a family man, a dedicated teacher, a  

loving friend, and an innovative and passionate archaeologist.  

Free. Tuesday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Holbrook Hall, Pacific  

School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave., Berkeley. (510) 848-0528,  

http://bade.psr.edu/bade.< 

 

BERKELEY ART MUSEUM AND PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE --  

"French Film Posters from the BAM/PFA Collection,'' through May  

31. Part of the Pacific Film Archive's collection of over eight thousand  

international film posters, these rare prints were bequeathed to BAM/PFA by  

the late Mel Novikoff, founder of San Francisco's first repertory cinema  

chain, Surf Theaters, which included the Surf, the Lumiere, and the Castro.  

Novikoff collected these posters during many trips to Europe, and for years  

they graced the lobbies of cinemas in the Surf chain. Now they can be enjoyed  

in the museum's Theater Gallery, where admission is free.  

"Thom Faulders: BAMscape,'' through Nov. 30. This commissioned  

work, a hybrid of sculpture, furniture, and stage, is the new centerpiece of  

Gallery B, BAM's expansive central atrium. It is part of a new vision of the  

gallery as a space for interaction, performance, and improvised experiences.  

"Nature into Action: Hans Hofmann,'' through June 30. This  

installation drawn from BAM's extensive Hans Hofmann collection reveals the  

relationship between nature as source and action as method in the great  

abstract painter's work.  

CLOSING -- "James Castle: A Retrospective,'' through April 25.  

Born deaf and raised in rural Idaho, James Castle was a self-taught artist of  

remarkable range, subtlety, and graphic skill. This retrospective is the  

first comprehensive museum exhibition of Castle's drawings, books, and paper  

constructions.  

"James Buckhouse: Serg Riva,'' through May 31. Welcome to the  

world of Serg Riva, self-declared "aquatic couturier,'' enfant terrible, and  

man about town"-and sly fictive creation of artist James Buckhouse.  

"Assignment Shanghai: Photographs on the Eve of Revolution,''  

through May 9. In 1946, Life magazine assigned the young photographer Jack  

Birns to Shanghai with instructions to document the ongoing Chinese civil  

war. This selection of the resulting photographs, drawn from the BAM  

collection, vividly captures a cosmopolitan city in the midst of social and  

political change.  

"Realm of Enlightenment: Masters and Teachers from the Land of  

Snows,'' through May 16. A new installation of extraordinary objects from  

Tibet explores the role of the teacher and master in the transmission of the  

Buddhist canon.  

"What's It All Mean: William T. Wiley in Retrospect,'' through  

July 18. This retrospective surveys the witty, idiosyncratic, and  

introspective work of William T. Wiley, a beloved Bay Area artist and "a  

national treasure'' (Wall Street Journal). Layered with ambiguous ideas and  

allusions, autobiographical narrative and sociopolitical commentary, Wiley's  

art is rich in self-deprecating humor and absurdist insight.  

"Perpetual and furious refrain / MATRIX 232,'' May 2 through Sept.  

12. Exhibition features works by Brent Green.  

2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. < 

 

BLACKHAWK MUSEUM -- ongoing.  

AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM -- The museum's permanent exhibition of  

internationally renowned automobiles dated from 1897 to the 1980s. The cars  

are displayed as works of art with room to walk completely around each car to  

admire the workmanship. On long-term loan from the Smithsonian Institution is  

a Long Steam Tricycle; an 1893-94 Duryea, the first Duryea built by the  

Duryea brothers; and a 1948 Tucker, number 39 of the 51 Tuckers built, which  

is a Model 48 "Torpedo'' four-door sedan.  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"International Automotive Treasures,'' ongoing. An ever-changing  

exhibit featuring over 90 automobiles.  

"A Journey on Common Ground,'' ongoing. An exhibit of moving  

photographs, video and art objects from around the world exploring the causes  

of disability and the efforts of the Wheelchair Foundation to provide a  

wheelchair for every person in need who cannot afford one.  

ONGOING EVENT --  

Free Public Tours, Saturday and Sunday, 2 p.m. Docent-led guided  

tours of the museum's exhibitions. 

$5-$8; free for children ages 6 and under. Wednesday-Sunday, 10  

a.m.-5 p.m. 3700 Blackhawk Plaza Circle, Danville. (925) 736-2280, (925)  

736-2277, www.blackhawkmuseum.org.< 

 

CHABOT SPACE AND SCIENCE CENTER -- State-of-the-art facility  

unifying science education activities around astronomy. Enjoy interactive  

exhibits, hands-on activities, indoor stargazing, outdoor telescope viewing  

and films. 

"Beyond Blastoff: Surviving in Space,'' ongoing. An interactive  

exhibit that allows you to immerse yourself into the life of an astronaut to  

experience the mixture of exhilaration, adventure and confinement that is  

living and working in space.  

"Chabot Observatories: A View to the Stars,'' ongoing. Explore the  

history of the Chabot observatories and how its historic telescopes are used  

today. Daytime visitors can virtually operate a telescope, experiment with  

mirrors and lenses to understand how telescopes create images of distant  

objects and travel through more than a century of Chabot's history via  

multimedia kiosks, historical images and artifact displays.  

EVENTS -- ongoing. CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE: SEPT. 2-16.  

"Daytime Telescope Viewing,'' ongoing. Saturday and Sunday, 11  

a.m.-5 p.m. View the sun, the moon and the planets through the telescopes  

during the day. Free with general admission. 

"Galaxy Explorers Hands-On Fun,'' ongoing. Saturday, noon-4 p.m.  

The Ga day. Free with general admission. 

"Galaxy Explorers Hands-On Fun,'' ongoing. Saturday, noon-4 p.m.  

The Galaxy Explorers lead a variety of fun, hands-on activities, such as  

examining real spacesuits, creating galaxy flipbooks, learning about  

telescopes, minerals and skulls and making your own comet. Free with general  

admission. 

"Live Daytime Planetarium Show,'' ongoing. Saturdays, 2:30 p.m.  

Ride through real-time constellations, stars and planets with Chabot's  

full-dome digital projection system. 

Center Admission: $9-$13; free children under 3; Movies and  

evening planetarium shows: $6-$8. Telescope viewing only: free.  

Wednesday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sunday,  

11 a.m.-5 p.m. 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. (510) 336-7300,  

www.chabotspace.org.< 

 

HABITOT CHILDREN'S MUSEUM -- A museum especially for children ages  

7 and under. Highlights include "WaterWorks,'' an area with some unusual  

water toys, an Infant Tree for babies, a garden especially for toddlers, a  

child-scale grocery store and cafe, and a costume shop and stage for junior  

thespians. The museum also features a toy lending library.  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"Waterworks.'' A water play gallery with rivers, a pumping station  

and a water table, designed to teach about water.  

"Little Town Grocery and Cafe.'' Designed to create the ambience  

of shopping in a grocery store and eating in a restaurant.  

"Infant-Toddler Garden.'' A picket fence gated indoor area, which  

includes a carrot patch with wooden carrots to be harvested, a pretend pond  

and a butterfly mobile to introduce youngsters to the concept of food,  

gardening and agriculture.  

"Dramatic Arts Stage.'' Settings, backdrops and costumes coincide  

with seasonal events and holidays. Children can exercise their dramatic flair  

here.  

"Wiggle Wall.'' The floor-to-ceiling "underground'' tunnels give  

children a worm's eye view of the world. The tunnels are laced with net  

covered openings and giant optic lenses. 

"Architects at Play,'' ongoing. This hands-on, construction-based  

miniexhibit provides children with the opportunity to create free-form  

structures, from skyscrapers to bridges, using KEVA planks.  

SPECIAL EXHIBITS -- ongoing.  

$6-$7. Wednesday and Thursday, 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m.; Friday and  

Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Closed Sunday-Tuesday. 2065 Kittredge St.,  

Berkeley. (510) 647-1111, www.habitot.org.< 

 

HALL OF HEALTH -- ongoing. A community health-education museum and  

science center promoting wellness and individual responsibility for health.  

There are hands-on exhibits that teach about the workings of the human body,  

the value of a healthy diet and exercise, and the destructive effects of  

smoking and drug abuse. "Kids on the Block'' puppet shows, which use puppets  

from diverse cultures to teach about and promote acceptance of conditions  

such as cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, leukemia, blindness, arthritis and  

spina bifida, are available by request for community events and groups  

visiting the Hall on Saturdays.  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"This Is Your Heart!'' ongoing. An interactive exhibit on heart  

health.  

"Good Nutrition,'' ongoing. This exhibit includes models for  

making balanced meals and an Exercycle for calculating how calories are  

burned.  

"Draw Your Own Insides,'' ongoing. Human-shaped chalkboards and  

models with removable organs allow visitors to explore the inside of their  

bodies.  

"Your Cellular Self and Cancer Prevention,'' ongoing. An exhibit  

on understanding how cells become cancerous and how to detect and prevent  

cancer. 

Suggested $3 donation; free for children under age 3.  

Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 2230 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510)  

549-1564, www.hallofhealth.org.< 

 

HAYWARD AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM -- The museum is located in  

a former post office and displays memorabilia of early Hayward and southern  

Alameda County. Some of the features include a restored 1923 Seagrave fire  

engine and a hand pumper from the Hayward Fire Department, founded in 1865; a  

Hayward Police Department exhibit; information on city founder William  

Hayward; and pictures of the old Hayward Hotel. The museum also alternates  

three exhibits per year, including a Christmas Toys exhibit and a 1950s  

lifestyle exhibit. 

EVENTS -- ongoing.  

50 cents-$1. Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. 22701 Main St.,  

Hayward. (510) 581-0223, www.haywardareahistory.org.< 

 

JUDAH L. MAGNES MUSEUM -- The museum's permanent collection  

includes objects of Jewish importance including ceremonial art, film and  

video, folk art and fine art, paintings, sculptures and prints by  

contemporary and historical artists. 

"Projections,'' ongoing. Multimedia works from the museum's  

extensive collections of archival, documentary and experimental films.  

Located at 2911 Russell Street.  

SPECIAL EXHIBITS -- ongoing.  

$4-$6; free for children under age 12. Sunday-Wednesday, 10 a.m.-4  

p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. CLOSED APRIL 3-4 AND 9-10; MAY 23-24 AND 28;  

JULY 4; SEPT. 3, 13 AND 27; OCT. 4; NOV. 22; DEC. 24-25 AND 31. 2911 Russell  

St., Berkeley. (510) 549-6950, www.magnes.org.< 

 

LAWRENCE HALL OF SCIENCE --  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"NanoZone,'' ongoing. Discover the science of the super-small:  

nanotechnology. Through hands-on activities and games, explore this  

microworld and the scientific discoveries made in this area.  

"Forces That Shape the Bay,'' ongoing. A science park that shows  

and explains why the San Francisco Bay is the way it is, with information on  

water, erosion, plate tectonics and mountain building. You can ride  

earthquake simulators, set erosion in motion and look far out into the bay  

with a powerful telescope from 1,100 feet above sea level. The center of the  

exhibit is a waterfall that demonstrates how water flows from the Sierra  

Nevada Mountains to the Bay. Visitors can control where the water goes. There  

are also hands-on erosion tables, and a 40-foot-long, 6-foothigh, rock  

compression wall.  

"Real Astronomy Experience,'' ongoing. A new  

exhibit-in-development allowing visitors to use the tools that real  

astronomers use. Aim a telescope at a virtual sky and operate a  

remote-controlled telescope to measure a planet.  

"Biology Lab,'' ongoing. In the renovated Biology Lab visitors may  

hold and observe gentle animals. Saturday, Sunday and holidays, 1:30 p.m. to  

4 p.m.  

"The Idea Lab,'' ongoing. Experiment with some of the basics of  

math, science and technology through hands-on activities and demonstrations  

of magnets, spinning and flying, puzzles and nanotechnology.  

"Math Around the World,'' ongoing. Play some of the world's most  

popular math games, such as Hex, Kalah, Game Sticks and Shongo Networks.  

"Math Rules,'' ongoing. Use simple and colorful objects to  

complete interesting challenges in math through predicting, sorting,  

comparing, weighing and counting.  

 

"Science on a Sphere,'' ongoing. Catch an out-of-this-world  

experience with an animated globe. See hurricanes form, tsunamis sweep across  

the oceans and city lights glow around the planet.  

EVENTS -- ongoing.  

$5.50-$10; free children ages 2 and under. Daily, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.  

University of California, Centennial Drive, Berkeley. (510) 642-5132,  

www.lawrencehallofscience.org.< 

 

LINDSAY WILDLIFE MUSEUM -- This is the oldest and largest wildlife  

rehabilitation center in America, taking in 6,000 injured and orphaned  

animals yearly and returning 40 percent of them to the wild. The museum  

offers a wide range of educational programs using non-releasable wild animals  

to teach children and adults respect for the balance of nature. The museum  

includes a state-of-the art wildlife hospital which features a permanent  

exhibit, titled "Living with Nature,'' which houses 75 non-releasable wild  

animals in learning environments; a 5,000-square-foot Wildlife Hospital  

complete with treatment rooms, intensive care, quarantine and laboratory  

facilities; a 1-acre Nature Garden featuring the region's native landscaping  

and wildlife; and an "Especially For Children'' exhibit.  

WILDLIFE HOSPITAL -- September-March: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The  

hospital is open daily including holidays to receive injured and orphaned  

animals. There is no charge for treatment of native wild animals and there  

are no public viewing areas in the hospital. 

EXHIBITS -- ongoing.  

SPECIAL EVENTS -- ongoing.  

$5-$7; free children under age 2. Wednesdays-Sundays, 10 a.m.-5  

p.m. 1931 First Ave., Walnut Creek. (925) 935-1978, www.wildlife-museum.org.< 

 

MEYERS HOUSE AND GARDEN MUSEUM -- The Meyers House, erected in  

1897, is an example of Colonial Revival, an architectural style popular  

around the turn of the century. Designed by Henry H. Meyers,the house was  

built by his father, Jacob Meyers, at a cost of $4000.00. 

EXHIBITS -- ongoing.  

$3. Fourth Saturday of every month. 2021 Alameda Ave., Alameda.  

(510) 521-1247, www.alamedamuseum.org/meyers.html.< 

 

MUSEUM OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN TECHNOLOGY SCIENCE VILLAGE -- ongoing.  

A science museum with an African-American focus promoting science education  

and awareness for the underrepresented. The science village chronicles the  

technical achievements of people of African descent from ancient ties to  

present. There are computer classes at the Internet Cafi, science education  

activities and seminars. There is also a resource library with a collection  

of books, periodicals and videotapes. 

$4-$6. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, noon-6 p.m.;  

Sunday, 2 p.m.-6 p.m. 630 20th St., Oakland. (510) 893-6426,  

www.ncalifblackengineers.org.< 

 

MUSEUM OF CHILDREN'S ART -- A museum of art for and by children,  

with activities for children to participate in making their own art.  

ART CAMPS -- Hands-on activities and engaging curriculum for  

children of different ages, led by professional artists and staff. $60 per  

day.  

CLASSES -- A Sunday series of classes for children ages 8 to 12,  

led by Mocha artists. Sundays, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.  

OPEN STUDIOS -- Drop-in art play activities with new themes each  

week.  

"Big Studio.'' Guided art projects for children age 6 and older  

with a Mocha artist. Tuesday through Friday, 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. $5.  

"Little Studio.'' A hands-on experience that lets young artists  

age 18 months to 5 years see, touch and manipulate a variety of media.  

Children can get messy. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. $5.  

"Family Weekend Studios.'' Drop-in art activities for the whole  

family. All ages welcome. Saturday and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. $5 per child.  

FAMILY EXTRAVAGANZAS -- Special weekend workshops for the entire  

family.  

"Sunday Workshops with Illustrators,'' Sundays, 1 p.m. See the  

artwork and meet the artists who create children's book illustrations. Free. 

EVENTS -- ongoing.  

"Saturday Stories,'' ongoing. 1 p.m. For children ages 2-5. Free. 

Free gallery admission. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.;  

Saturday-Sunday, noon-5 p.m. 538 Ninth St., Oakland. (510) 465-8770,  

www.mocha.org.< 

 

MUSEUM OF THE SAN RAMON VALLEY -- The museum features local  

artifacts, pictures, flags and drawings commemorating the valley's history.  

It also houses a historical narrative frieze. In addition to a permanent  

exhibit on the valley's history, the museum sponsors revolving exhibits and  

several guided tours. The restored railroad depot that houses the museum was  

built on the San Ramon Branch Line of the Southern Pacific Railroad 108 years  

ago. 

SPECIAL EXHIBITS -- ongoing.  

Free. August: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. The Depot, West  

Prospect and Railroad avenues, Danville. (925) 837-3750, www.museumsrv.org.< 

 

MUSEUM ON MAIN STREET -- Located in a former town hall building,  

this museum is a piece of local history. It has a photo and document archive,  

collection of artifacts, local history publications for purchase, and a  

history library. It is supported by the Amador-Livermore Valley Historical  

Society. 

EXHIBITS -- ongoing.  

"The Horse, Of Course,'' through Aug. 15. Exhibit examines how the  

horse has played an important role in the life of the Amador-Livermore  

Valley.  

$2. Wednesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m.-4 p.m.;  

CLOSED DEC. 23-JAN. 8. 603 Main St., Pleasanton. (925) 462-2766,  

www.museumonmain.org.< 

 

PACIFIC PINBALL MUSEUM --  

CLOSING -- "Tire Recycling Concepts,'' through May 1. Exhibition  

features recycled art by Kimberly Piazza. $7.50-$15.  

1510 Webster St., Alameda. www.pacificpinball.org.< 

 

PARDEE HOME MUSEUM -- The historic Pardee Mansion, a three-story  

Italianate villa built in 1868, was home to three generations of the Pardee  

family who were instrumental in the civic and cultural development of  

California and Oakland. The home includes the house, grounds, water tower and  

barn. Reservations recommended. 

EVENTS -- ongoing.  

$5; free children ages 12 and under. House Tours: Monday-Saturday,  

10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sundays by appointment. 672 11th St., Oakland. (510)  

444-2187, www.pardeehome.org.< 

 

SAN LEANDRO HISTORY MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY -- ongoing. The museum  

showcases local and regional history and serves as a centerpiece for  

community cultural activity. There are exhibits on Ohlone settlements, farms  

of early settlers, and contributions of Portuguese and other immigrants.  

There will also be exhibits of the city's agricultural past and the  

industrial development of the 19th century.  

ONGOING EXHIBIT --  

"Yema/Po Archeological Site at Lake Chabot,'' ongoing. An exhibit  

highlighting artifacts uncovered from a work camp of Chinese laborers,  

featuring photomurals, cutouts and historical photographs. 

Free. Thursday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. 320 West Estudillo Ave., San  

Leandro. (510) 577-3990, http://www.ci.sanleandro.  

ca.us/sllibrarymuseum.html.< 

 

SHADELANDS RANCH HISTORICAL MUSEUM -- Built by Walnut Creek  

pioneer Hiram Penniman, this 1903 redwood-framed house is a showcase for  

numerous historical artifacts, many of which belonged to the Pennimans. It  

also houses a rich archive of Contra Costa and Walnut Creek history in its  

collections of old newspapers, photographs and government records. 

EXHIBITS -- ongoing.  

$1-$3; free-children under age 6. Wednesday and Sunday, 1 p.m.-4  

p.m.; Closed in January. 2660 Ygnacio Valley Road, Walnut Creek. (925)  

935-7871, www.ci.walnut-creek.ca.us.< 

 

SMITH MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY,  

HAYWARD -- The museum houses significant collections of archaeological and  

ethnographic specimens from Africa, Asia and North America and small  

collections from Central and South America. The museum offers opportunities  

and materials for student research and internships in archaeology and  

ethnology. 

SPECIAL EXHIBITS -- ongoing.  

Free. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Meiklejohn Hall, Fourth Floor,  

25800 Carlos Bee Blvd., Hayward. (510) 885-3104, (510) 885-7414,  

www.isis.csuhayward.edu/cesmith/acesmith.html.< 

 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY HEARST MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY  

-- ongoing.  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"Native California Cultures,'' ongoing. This is an exhibit of some  

500 artifacts from the museum's California collections, the largest and most  

comprehensive collections in the world devoted to California Indian cultures.  

The exhibit includes a section about Ishi, the famous Indian who lived and  

worked with the museum, Yana tribal baskets and a 17-foot Yurok canoe carved  

from a single redwood.  

"Recent Acquisitions,'' ongoing. The collection includes Yoruba  

masks and carvings from Africa, early-20th-century Taiwanese hand puppets,  

textiles from the Americas and 19th- and 20th-century Tibetan artifacts.  

"From the Maker's Hand: Selections from the Permanent  

Collection,'' ongoing. This exhibit explores human ingenuity in the living  

and historical cultures of China, Africa, Egypt, Peru, North America and the  

Meditteranean. 

$1-$4; free for children ages 12 and under; free to all on  

Thursdays. Wednesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Sunday, noon-4:30 p.m. 103  

Kroeber Hall, Bancroft Way and College Avenue, Berkeley. (510) 643-7648,  

http://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu.< 

 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY MUSEUM OF PALEONTOLOGY --  

ongoing.  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"Tyrannosaurus Rex,'' ongoing. A 20-foot-tall, 40-foot-long  

replica of the fearsome dinosaur. The replica is made from casts of bones of  

the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana,  

the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone  

missing.  

"Pteranodon,'' ongoing. A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile  

with a wingspan of 22 to 23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as  

the dinosaurs.  

"California Fossils Exhibit,'' ongoing. An exhibit of some of the  

fossils that have been excavated in California. 

Free. During semester sessions, hours generally are:  

Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-5  

p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m.-10 p.m. Hours vary during summer and holidays. Lobby,  

1101 Valley Life Sciences Building, #4780, University of California,  

Berkeley. (510) 642-1821, www.ucmp.berkeley.edu.< 

 

USS HORNET MUSEUM -- Come aboard this World War II aircraft  

carrier that has been converted into a floating museum. The Hornet, launched  

in 1943, is 899 feet long and 27 stories high. During World War II she was  

never hit by an enemy strike or plane and holds the Navy record for number of  

enemy planes shot down in a week. In 1969 the Hornet recovered the Apollo 11  

space capsule containing the first men to walk on the moon, and later  

recovered Apollo 12. In 1991 the Hornet was designated a National Historic  

Landmark and is now docked at the same pier she sailed from in 1944. Today,  

visitors can tour the massive ship, view World War II-era warplanes and  

experience a simulated aircraft launch from the carrier's deck. Exhibits are  

being added on an ongoing basis. Allow two to three hours for a visit. Wear  

comfortable shoes and be prepared to climb steep stairs or ladders. Dress in  

layers as the ship can be cold. Arrive no later than 2 p.m. to sign up for  

the engine room and other docent-led tours. Children under age 12 are not  

allowed in the Engine Room or the Combat Information Center.  

ONGOING EVENTS --  

"Limited Access Day,'' ongoing. Due to ship maintenance, tours of  

the navigation bridge and the engine room are not available. Tuesdays.  

"Flight Deck Fun,'' ongoing. A former Landing Signal Officer will  

show children how to bring in a fighter plane for a landing on the deck then  

let them try the signals themselves. Times vary. Free with regular Museum  

admission.  

"Protestant Divine Services,'' ongoing. Hornet chaplain John  

Berger conducts church services aboard The Hornet in the Wardroom Lounge.  

Everyone is welcome and refreshments are served immediately following the  

service. Sundays, 11 a.m. 

SPECIAL EVENTS -- ongoing. Closed on New Year's Day. 

 

"Family Day,'' ongoing. Discounted admission for families of four  

with a further discount for additional family members. Access to some of the  

areas may be limited due to ship maintenance. Every Tuesday. $20 for family  

of four; $5 for each additional family member. 

"Living Ship Day,'' ongoing. Experience an aircraft carrier in  

action, with simulated flight operations as aircraft are lifted to the flight  

deck and placed in launch position. Some former crewmembers will be on hand. 

"Flashlight Tour,'' ongoing. Receive a special tour of areas  

aboard the ship that have not yet been opened to the public or that have  

limited access during the day. 

$6-$14; free children age 4 and under with a paying adult. Daily,  

10 a.m.-4 p.m. Pier 3 (enter on Atlantic Avenue), Alameda Point, Alameda.  

(510) 521-8448, www.uss-hornet.org.< 

 

S


Folk,Jazz,Pop,Rock for the East Bay: April 23 through May 2

By Bay City News
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 10:14:00 PM

924 GILMAN ST. -- All ages welcome. 

Baader Brains, Spires, Rank Xerox, Al Quaeda, April 23, 7:30 p.m.  

$7.  

Nobunny, N/N, Younger Lovers, Dirty Marquee, Endemics, May 2, 5  

p.m.m  

$7.  

$5 unless otherwise noted. Shows start Friday and Saturday, 8  

p.m.; Sunday, 5 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 924 Gilman St., Berkeley. (510)  

525-9926, www.924gilman.org.< 

 

ALBATROSS PUB --  

Whiskey Brothers, ongoing. First and third Wednesdays, 9 p.m.  

Free.  

David Widelock Jazz Trio, May 1, 9:30 p.m. $3.  

Free unless otherwise noted. Shows begin Wednesday, 9 p.m.;  

Saturday, 9:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 1822 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley.  

(510) 843-2473, www.albatrosspub.com.< 

 

ARMANDO'S --  

George Cole Quintet, April 23, 7:30 p.m. $10.  

Houston Jones, April 24, 8 p.m. $10.  

Blues Jam, April 26, 7 p.m. $3.  

Bluegrass Jam, April 28, 7 p.m. $3.  

Joanne Weil Heald Trio, April 29, 8 p.m. $8.  

Tia Carroll and Greg Richmond, April 30, 8 p.m. $10.  

Ron Thompson, May 1, 8 p.m. $10.  

Sazil, May 2, 3-6 p.m. $10.  

707 Marina Vista Ave., Martinez. (925) 228-6985,  

www.armandosmartinez.com.< 

 

ASHKENAZ --  

Pellejo Seco, April 23, 9:30 p.m. $10-$13.  

West African Highlife Band, April 24, 9:30 p.m. $10-$13.  

Mark St. Mary Louisiana Blues & Zydeco Band, April 27, 8:30 p.m.  

$10.  

Balkan Folkdance, April 28, 8 p.m. $7.  

Eliyahu and the Qadim Ensemble, April 29, 8 p.m. $12-$15.  

Brass Menazeri, Black Sea Surf, April 30, 9 p.m. $12.  

Keith Porter of the Itals, Urbanfire, May 1, 9:30 p.m. $15.  

"Cinco de Mayo Family Fiesta,'' May 2, 3-4:30 p.m. Flamenco event  

also features a costume exhibit and flamenco items for sale.  

Hipline, May 2, 7 p.m. $12.  

1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. (510) 525-5054, www.ashkenaz.com.< 

 

BECKETT'S IRISH PUB --  

Guns for San Sebastian, April 23.  

Paul Manousos, April 24.  

Simpler Times, April 25.  

Trio of DooM, Amber-oh-Amber, April 28.  

THE DEEP, April 29.  

The P-PL, April 30.  

Free. Shows at 10 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 2271 Shattuck Ave.,  

Berkeley. (510) 647-1790, www.beckettsirishpub.com.< 

 

BLAKE'S ON TELEGRAPH --  

Los Del Kumbiaton, La Bands Skalavera, Jokes for Feelings, La  

Muneca Y Los Muertos, April 24, 9 p.m. $8-$10.  

Spiralarms, Dirt Communion, Six Weeks Sober, Defy All Odds, May 1,  

9 p.m.  

$10.  

For ages 18 and older. Music begins at 9:30 p.m. unless otherwise  

noted. 2367 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley. (510) 848-0886,  

www.blakesontelegraph.com.< 

 

CHOUINARD VINEYARDS AND WINERY -- The winery features an exhibit  

of stone craft and baskets honoring the rich culture of the Ohlone Indians.  

Palomares Canyon was a summer home to the Ohlone Indians. The exhibit also  

includes historical photos and artifacts that document more recent colorful  

inhabitants to the canyon. 

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

"Music at Chouinard,'' ongoing. 4:30-8:30 p.m. on select Sundays  

June-August. The rest of the year features live music in the tasting room on  

the second Sunday of each month. Enjoy the best of Bay Area artists at  

Chouinard. Bring your own gourmet picnic (no outside alcoholic beverages).  

Wines are available for tasting and sales. $40 per car. 

Free. Tasting Room: Saturdays-Sundays, noon-5 p.m. 33853 Palomares  

Road, Castro Valley. (510) 582-9900, www.chouinard.com.< 

 

FINNISH BROTHERHOOD HALL --  

"Sacred Harp Singing,'' April 24, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Event features a  

day of singing and a potluck lunch.  

1970 Chestnut St., Berkeley. (510) 845-5352, www.finnishhall.com.< 

 

FOX THEATER --  

Sublime with Rome, Dirty Heads, Del Mar, April 23, 8 p.m. $25.  

1807 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. (510) 452-0438.< 

 

FREIGHT AND SALVAGE --  

"Freight Open Mic,'' ongoing. Tuesdays. $4.50-$5.50.  

Cascada de Flores, April 24. $20.50-$21.50.  

Misisipi Rider, Honky Tonk Dreamers, Gayle Lynn and the Hired  

Hands, April 25. $14.50-$15.50.  

Chris Caswell, April 29. $18.50-$19.50.  

Kathy Kallick Band, April 30. $18.50-$19.50.  

Girlyman, May 1. $22.50-$23.50.  

Music starts at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 2020 Addison St.,  

Berkeley. (510) 548-1761, www.freightandsalvage.org.< 

 

JAZZSCHOOL --  

Coto Pincheira and the Sonido Moderno Project, April 23, 8 p.m.  

$15.  

Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet, April 24, 8 p.m. $10.  

Ali Akbar College of Music, April 25, 4:30 p.m.  

New Tricks, April 30, 8 p.m. $12.  

Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 4:30 p.m. unless otherwise  

noted. 2087 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 845-5373, www.jazzschool.com.< 

 

JUPITER --  

"Americana Unplugged,'' ongoing. Sundays, 5 p.m. A weekly  

bluegrass and Americana series.  

"Jazzschool Tuesdays,'' ongoing. Tuesdays, 8 p.m. Featuring the  

ensembles from the Berkeley Jazzschool. http://www.jazzschool.com. 

Loveseat, April 23, 8 p.m.  

Raya Nova, April 24, 8 p.m.  

Rebecca Griffin, April 28, 8 p.m.  

DJ fflood, Audio Angel, April 29, 8 p.m.  

Socket, April 30, 8 p.m.  

8 p.m. 2181 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 843-8277,  

www.jupiterbeer.com.< 

 

KIMBALL'S CARNIVAL --  

"Monday Blues Legends Night,'' ongoing. 8 p.m.-midnight. Enjoy  

live blues music every Monday night. Presented by the Bay Area Blues Society  

and Lothario Lotho Company. $5 donation. (510) 836-2227,  

www.bayareabluessociety.net. 

522 2nd St., Jack London Square, Oakland. < 

 

OAKLAND METRO OPERAHOUSE --  

Drew Mason, Tori Fixx, Xavier Toscano, April 23 through April 24.  

$25. www.byeentertainment.org. 

Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, May 1, 8 p.m. $37.25-$142.75.  

630 3rd Street, Oakland. (510) 763-1146, (415) 608-1116, (510)  

763-1146, http://www.oaklandmetro.org/.< 

 

ROUND TABLE PIZZA --  

East Bay Banjo Club, ongoing. Tuesdays, 7:30-9:30 p.m. Free.  

1938 Oak Park Blvd., Pleasant Hill. (925) 930-9004.< 

 

SHATTUCK DOWN LOW --  

"It's the Joint,'' ongoing. Thursdays, 9:30 p.m. Featuring DJs  

Headnodic, Raashan Ahmad and Friends. $5.  

"King of Kings,'' ongoing. Doors 10 p.m. $6-$8.  

"Live Salsa,'' ongoing. Wednesdays. An evening of dancing to the  

music of a live salsa band. Salsa dance lesson from 8:30-9:30 p.m. $5-$10.  

"Thirsty Thursdays,'' ongoing. Thursday, 9 p.m. Featuring DJ  

Vickity Slick and Franky Fresh. Free.  

Martin Luther and Kween plus DJ Sake 1, April 23, 9 p.m. $10-$15.  

Rebel Souljahz, April 24, 9 p.m. $20-$25.  

For ages 21 and older. 2284 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510)  

548-1159, www.shattuckdownlow.com.< 

 

SLEEP TRAIN PAVILION AT CONCORD --  

Sugarland, Julianne Hough and Vondaa Shepard, April 30, 7:30 p.m.  

$31.25-$107.  

2000 Kirker Pass Road, Concord. http://www.livenation.com/.< 

 

STARRY PLOUGH PUB --  

The Starry Irish Music Session led by Shay Black, ongoing.  

Sundays, 8 p.m. Sliding scale.  

For ages 21 and over unless otherwise noted. Sunday and Wednesday,  

8 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday, 9:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 3101 Shattuck  

Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-2082, www.starryploughpub.com.< 

 

UPTOWN NIGHTCLUB --  

Real Tom Thunder, April 23, 9 p.m. $10.  

The Real Tom Thunder, Pie Rats, Novelists, April 23, 9 p.m. $10.  

Or the Whale, Odawas, Ghost and the City, April 24, 9 p.m. $10.  

Tokyo Raid, April 28, 9 p.m. Free.  

Bunny Pistol, Miss Balla Fire, Honey Lawless, Juicy D. Light, Mynx  

d'Meanor, Casey Castille, Comrade Tang, Sideshow Daredevil, Matt Molotov,  

April 30, 9 p.m. $10.  

Big Dan, Los Rakas, Tragik Kiwi, Powerstruggle, May 1, 9 p.m. $10.  

 

1928 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. (510) 451-8100, www.uptownnightclub.com.< 

 

YOSHI'S --  

"In the Mood for Moody,'' through April 25, Thursday-Saturday, 8  

and 10 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7 p.m. Featuring Frank Wess, Joey DeFrancesco,  

Nnenna Freelon, Randy Brecker (April 22+23), Jon Faddis (24+25) and more.  

$16-$30.  

"A Tribute To Khalil Shaheed with an All-Star Line-up,'' April 27,  

8 p.m.  

$20.  

Ellen Robinson, April 28, 8 p.m. $15.  

Anat Cohen, April 29, 8 and 10 p.m. $12-$20.  

Hiroshima, April 30 through May 2, Friday and Saturday, 8 and 10  

p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7 p.m. $24-$28.  

Shows are Monday through Saturday, 8 and 10 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7  

p.m., unless otherwise noted. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. (510) 238-9200,  

www.yoshis.com.< 

 

ZELLERBACH HALL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY --  

Arlo Guthrie, April 23, 8 p.m. $23-$48. www.calperformances.org. 

Pat Metheney, April 24, 8 p.m. $10-$20. www.calperformances.org. 

UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley.  

(510) 642-9988.< 

 


Theater for the East Bay: APRIL 23 THROUGH MAY 2

By Bay City News
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 10:08:00 PM

AMADOR THEATER -- OPENING -- "Treasure Island,'' April 23 through May 2, Apr. 23,  

24, 30, May 1, 7:30 p.m.; Apr. 24, 11 a.m.; Apr. 25, May 1-2, 2 p.m. City of  

Pleasanton Civic Arts Stage Company presents an adaptation of Robert Louis  

Stevenson's classic. $12-$20. (925) 931-3444, www.civicartstickets.org. 

Amador Valley High School, 1155 Santa Rita Road, Pleasanton. (925)  

931-3444, www.amadortheater.org.< 

 

ASHBY STAGE --  

CLOSING -- "A Seagull in the Hamptons,'' by Emily Mann, through  

April 25, Wednesday, 7 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 5 p.m. Anton  

Chekhov's love letter to the theater is filled with suicide attempts,  

unrequited love, a crushing and disabling family structure and more. $15-$28.  

 

1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. < 

 

AURORA THEATRE COMPANY --  

"John Gabriel Borkman,'' by David Eldridge, through May 9,  

Tuesday, 7 p.m.; Wednesday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7 p.m. After  

serving eight years in prison for embezzlement, Borkman plans a comeback.  

$15-$55.  

Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 843-4822,  

www.auroratheatre.org.< 

 

BERKELEY REPERTORY THEATRE --  

"Girlfriend,'' by Todd Almond, through May 9, Tuesday, Thursday  

and Friday, 8 p.m.; Wednesday, 7 p.m.; Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and  

7 p.m. Boy meets boy in this dual-Romeo duet that's innocent -- and sweet.  

$27-$71.  

2025 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 647-2949, (888) 4BR-Ttix,  

www.berkeleyrep.org.< 

 

CALIFORNIA CONSERVATORY THEATRE OF SAN LEANDRO --  

CLOSING -- "Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged),'' by  

Adam Long, Daniel Singer, Jess Winfield, through April 25, Friday, 8 p.m.;  

Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. Three actors perform all of  

Shakespeare's plays in less than two hours. $20-$22.  

999 E. 14th St., San Leandro. (510) 632-8850, www.cct-sl.org.< 

 

CASA PERALTA -- Once the home of descendants of the 19th-century  

Spanish soldier and Alameda County landowner Don Luis Maria Peralta, the 1821  

adobe was remodeled in 1926 as a grand Spanish villa, using some of the  

original bricks. The casa features a beautiful Moorish exterior design and  

hand painted tiles imported from Spain, some of which tell the story of Don  

Quixote. The interior is furnished in 1920s decor. The house will be  

decorated for the holidays during the month of December. Call ahead to  

confirm hours. 

"Dial 'M' for Murder,'' by Frederick Knott, through May 16,  

Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. San Leandro Players present the story of an  

ex-tennis star who plots to murder his wife.  

Free but donations accepted. Friday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. 384  

Estudillo Ave., San Leandro. (510) 577-3474, (510) 577-3491,  

http://www.ci.sanleandro. ca.us/sllibrarycasaperalta.html.< 

 

CENTER REPERTORY COMPANY OF WALNUT CREEK --  

CLOSING -- "Noises Off,'' by Michael Frayn, through May 1,  

Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2:30 p.m. Follow the  

on- and offstage antics of an acting troupe as they stumble from bumbling  

dress rehearsal to disastrous closing night.  

Lesher Theatre, Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive,  

Walnut Creek. (925) 943-SHOW, www.centerrep.org.< 

 

CHABOT COLLEGE --  

CLOSING -- "Ultima,'' by Rachel LePell, through April 25,  

Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Apr. 25, 2 p.m. Chabot College Theater Arts  

presents a play based on Rudolfo Anaya's "Bless Me Ultima.''  

25555 Hesperian Blvd., Hayward. www.chabotcollege.edu.< 

 

DEL VALLE THEATRE --  

CLOSING -- "Footloose,'' April 30 through May 1, 7 p.m. Youth  

Theatre Company's Teen Theatre presents a stage adaptation of the hit  

musical. $15-$27.  

1963 Tice Valley Blvd., Walnut Creek. (925) 943-7469.< 

 

DIABLO ACTORS ENSEMBLE THEATRE --  

OPENING -- "Same Time Next Year,'' by Bernard Slade, April 30  

through May 23, Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. An accountant and a  

housewife meet at a Northern California inn once a year, despite the fact  

that they are both married to other people. $10-$25.  

1345 Locust Street, Walnut Creek. (925) 482-5110,  

www.diabloactors.com.< 

 

EAST BAY IMPROV --  

"Tired of the Same Old Song and Dance?'' ongoing. 8 p.m. East Bay  

Improv actors perform spontaneous, impulsive and hilarious comedy on the  

first Saturday of every month. $8.  

Pinole Community Playhouse, 601 Tennent Ave., Pinole. (510)  

964-0571, www.eastbayimprov.com.< 

 

JULIA MORGAN CENTER FOR THE ARTS --  

"Oliver,'' April 24 through May 16. An all-ages cast brings  

Dickens' classic to life in this musical romp. $19-$33.  

2640 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 845-8542, www.juliamorgan.org.< 

 

LA VAL'S SUBTERRANEAN THEATRE --  

CLOSING -- "A History of Human Stupidity,'' Andy Bayiates, through  

April 25, Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m. Examine world history  

through the lens of helpful beliefs gone bad. $16-$20.  

1834 Euclid Ave., Berkeley. (510) 464-4468.< 

 

LESHER CENTER FOR THE ARTS --  

CLOSING -- "Oklahoma!'' by Rodgers and Hammerstein, through April  

25, Thursday and Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m.  

Sparked by rivalry between cowhands and farmers this touching drama rides the  

bumpy road to new life in a brand-new state. $40-$45.  

1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. (925) 943-7469,  

www.lesherartscenter.com.< 

 

MASQUERS PLAYHOUSE --  

CLOSING -- "The Apple Tree,'' through May 1, Friday and Saturday,  

8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. Play is based on "The Diary of Adam and Eve'' by Mark  

Twain, "The Lady or the Tiger?'' by Frank R. Stockton and "Passionella'' by  

Jules Feiffer. $20.  

105 Park Place, Point Richmond. (510) 232-4031, www.masquers.org.< 

 

NEWARK MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL --  

"Les Miserables,'' April 23 through May 8, Friday and Saturday, 8  

p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. This epic story recounts the struggle against adversity  

in 19th century France. $10-$13.  

39375 Cedar Blvd, Newark. (510) 818-4451.< 

 

SeanManning0452a04/19/10 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright © 2010 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse 

without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited. 

 

/www/bcn/general/04/newsclip.10.04.19.04.52.21.45.txt 


Classical Music in the East Bay: APRIL 23 THROUGH MAY 2

By Bay City News
Sunday April 18, 2010 - 11:04:00 PM

BERKELEY CITY CLUB --  

Stern-Prior-Moore-Mok Quartet, April 28, 8 p.m. Piano quartet  

performs works by Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann and Brahms. $10-$25.  

2315 Durant Ave., Berkeley. (510) 848-7800,  

www.berkeleycityclub.com.< 

 

CROWDEN MUSIC CENTER --  

Kay Stern and Joan Nagano, May 2, 3 p.m. Violinist Stern and  

pianist Nagano perform works by Geminiani, Enescu, Ravel and Monti. $25.  

(510) 527-7500. 

1475 Rose St., Berkeley. (510) 559-6910,  

www.crowdenmusiccenter.org.< 

 

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF BERKELEY --  

Lauda Jerusalem, April 25, 5 p.m. Program features works by Haydn,  

Bach and others. $12-$25. (510) 547-4441. 

The Mythic Thread, April 26, 8 p.m. Program features works by  

Maryliz Smith, Samuel Barber and Tatjana Sergejewa. $20. (415) 413-4733. 

Concerto Koln, May 1, 8 p.m. Program features works by Dauvergne,  

Bach and Vivaldi. $52. www.calperformances.org. 

"Bach St. John Passion,'' May 2, 4 p.m. California Bach Society  

presents this beloved work in concert. $10-$30. (415) 262-0272. 

2345 Channing Way, Berkeley. (510) 848-3696, www.fccb.org.< 

 

GRACE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH --  

"Friday Morning Concert,'' April 30, 10:30 a.m. Program features  

works by J.S. Bach, Samuel Barber and Chopin. Free.  

2100 Tice Valley Blvd., Walnut Creek. < 

 

HERTZ HALL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY --  

"57th Annual Noon Concert Series,'' ongoing. Noon. Apr. 28:  

Midyanto conducts music from Indonesia.  

Apr. 30: University Gospel Chorus presents "Hollywood be thy  

Name.''  

Bach-Bachians, April 25, 3 p.m. Program features works by Husa,  

Ellerby, Wood, Grainger and Mackey. $5-$15.  

"A Symphony of Psalms,'' May 1, 8 p.m. Program features works by  

Stravinsky, Brotniansky, Gretchaninoff, Rachmaninoff and Part. $5-$15.  

Bancroft Way and College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 642-4864,  

http://music.berkeley.edu.< 

 

LESHER CENTER FOR THE ARTS --  

Visions and Dreams, May 2 and May 4, 4 p.m. California Symphony  

presents works by Mason Bates, Liszt, Tchaikovsky and Beethoven. $44-$64.  

1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. (925) 943-7469,  

www.lesherartscenter.com.< 

 

LIVE OAK THEATRE --  

"John Brown's Truth, a 21st Century Opera,'' April 25, 8 p.m.  

Attend the Bay Area's first full-length musically improvised opera.  

www.johnbrownstruthopera.com. 

1301 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-5580.< 

 

MUSIC SOURCES --  

Canconier, April 24, 7:30 p.m. Program features medieval German  

works. $15-$20.  

1000 The Alameda at Marin, Berkeley. (510) 528-1685,  

http://www.musicsources.org/.< 

 

REGENTS' THEATER --  

"MasterGuild Concert,'' April 25, 7 p.m. Program features works by  

Beethoven and Shostakovich. $5-$20.  

Valley Center for the Performing Arts, Holy Names University, 3500  

Mountain Blvd., Oakland. www.hnu.edu.< 

 

SAINT MARY MAGDALEN CHURCH --  

"Music for Lorenzo De' Medici and Maximilian I: Isaac's Missa 'La  

Bassadanza','' May 2, 5:30 p.m. MusicSources presents a liturgical  

reconstruction of this work with organ allternatim and plainchat for the  

Order of the Golden Fleece.  

2005 Berryman St., Berkeley. (510) 526-4811,  

www.marymagdalen.org.< 

 

ST. ALBAN'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH --  

"The Bright Maiden, the Linden Tree and the Vagabond: Music of  

Medieval Germany,'' April 24, 7:30 p.m. Program features works by Oswald von  

Wolkenstein, Conrad Paumann and others. $15-$20. (510) 528-1685. 

St. Alban's Episcopal Church,, 1501 Washington Ave., Albany. < 

 

ST. JOHN'S PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH --  

Harlem String Quartet, April 24, 2 p.m. Four Seasons Arts presents  

a W. Hazaiah Williams memorial concert.  

2727 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 845-6830,  

www.stjohns.presbychurch.net.< 

 

ST. MARK'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF BERKELEY --  

Hallifax and Jeffrey, April 23, 6 p.m. Barefoot Chamber Concerts  

presents a program that includes works by John Jenkins, Matthew Lock and  

Christopher Simpson. $10-$15. www.barefootchamberconcerts.com. 

2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. (510) 848-5107,  

http://www.stmarksberkeley.org/.< 

 

ST. MARY MAGDALENE CHURCH --  

Canconier, May 2, 5:30 p.m. Program features a liturgical  

reconstruction of Missa's "La Bassadance'' with organ alternatim and plain  

chant.  

2005 Berryman St., Berkeley. < 

 

TRINITY CHAMBER CONCERTS --  

Les Nations et une Apotheose, April 24, 8 p.m. Program features  

works by Lully, Corelli, Buxtehude, da Selma and more. $8-$12.  

$12 general; $8 seniors, disabled persons and students. Trinity  

Chapel, 2320 Dana St., Berkeley. (510) 549-3864,  

www.trinitychamberconcerts.com.< 


UC's BareStage Does Sondheim Proud

By John A. McMullen II
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 12:44:00 PM
BB Wolf (Nicholas Weinbach) gives LRR Hood (Jaclyn Friedenthal) a pre-dinner squeeze in BareStage’s INTO THE WOOD playing thru this Sunday at UC Berkeley’s Cesar Chavez Student Union.
Brandon Thomas
BB Wolf (Nicholas Weinbach) gives LRR Hood (Jaclyn Friedenthal) a pre-dinner squeeze in BareStage’s INTO THE WOOD playing thru this Sunday at UC Berkeley’s Cesar Chavez Student Union.

I went with jaundiced eye and requisite skepticism to a musical on the UC campus Friday night. The directors had no previous experience and the cast were largely not even theatre majors. Once into the Lower Level of the Cesar Chavez Student Union cati-corner to Zellerbach, I noticed the lobby was in need of a paint job and the acoustic ceiling tile were stained; short-budgeted community colleges I’ve taught at looked better than this. However, it was sold out. Friday night in April with little to do? Lots of friends and family of the cast attending? 

But once the overture began, my vision clarified and the astonishment began. They were a true ensemble and let the play—this very special play— be the star, and brought it to life.  

Imagine a world of your fairy-tale favorites in a cross-over play where Beanstalk Jack, Little Red Riding Hood, her Grandmother, the Wolf, Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, the Witch from next door, and even two Prince Charmings (who happen to be brothers) all interact. Add a Baker and his Wife, and the witty, poignant rhymes of the most excellent of lyricists. Have the characters sing grownup songs about their desires, ennui, dreams, dissatisfaction, the fleetingness of life, and all the existential fears imaginable including the penultimate one of the necessity to grow up. Draw freely from Bruno Bettelheim’s seminal psychoanalytic work “The Uses of Enchantment” about the function of fairy tales in our psychosocial growth. It is, of course, INTO THE WOODS, the most produced musical of Stephen Sondheim for which he wrote both music and lyrics, with book by James Lapine. It’s an intellectual’s musical and thus very appropriate for the University of California, Berkeley, but one whose words may resonate in your mind in the middle of the night like no other.  

Presented by BareStage Productions, a student musical group at UC Berkeley, it’s co-directed by undergrads Nick Trengove and Chelsea Unzner. The musical director is Dr. Mark Sumner who also directs the UC Choral Ensembles. It plays in the Choral Ensemble Room in the basement of the Cesar Chavez Student Center.  

This is the 23-song, non-Bowdlerized version that includes all the sexuality of the 1987 original production before producers realized that they could double attendance if they deemphasized the libidinal and cashed in on the family factor. The original brought Tony Awards for Best Actress to Joanna Gleason and for Best Score and Best Book beating out “Phantom of the Opera,” as well as the indelible performance of Bernadette Peters—that premier interpreter of Sondheim's work—as the transformative witch. The 2002 production was purified and added Three Little Pigs and some songs that were in the original done at San Diego’s Old Globe, but none of that in this production.  

By interweaving dialogue and song, Sondheim bypasses that contrived convention of the musical that goes: talk, talk, music swells, song, applause, more talk; that particular convention breaks the dramatic spell and thereby makes it difficult for some folks to endure musicals. But Sondheim keeps his works bopping seamlessly along. 

There are two acts in the play: the quest and the consequences. The First Act seems a work in itself since it comes in at 90 minutes and resolves all conflicts happy, or so we think. The First Act is about wishing and dreaming and hoping and taking the chance of going you-know-where. The Second Act is what happens after you’ve got it. The First Act is fraught with peril and the questions that come along with the questing. Freudian wish-fulfillment is rife throughout. The Second Act is what happens when Things Fall Apart through loss, reversals, uprooting, death, infidelity, disaster, disillusionment, and reaping what one has sown with the seeds—or beans—of one’s own undoing. It’s about stooping and building them up with worn out tools, about new couplings out of necessity or need, replete with maternal recriminations (blaming Mom), depression, connubial disappointment, blame, maternal recriminations (Mom blaming you), and the spectrum of realistic responses to the vagaries of “the journey” replacing the happily ever after—“which may last for a week.” It’s about us.  

It runs three hours but they pass like no time since every moment is filled with wit and story and depth. When I say run, it is probably very much like that for the actor/singers since it comes fast and furious. It’s a marathon-like performance, and they never miss a beat.  

Directors Nick Trengove and Chelsea Unzer made impeccable casting choices. The performers are close enough in talent and age to believably come from the same world, and each believably looks the part for which they are cast. The actors are impossibly fresh-faced and dauntingly talented for non-pros. The directing team employed a lot of Broadway staging choices which is not a bad way to go. They keep the traffic moving fluidly—and with 19 actors on and off and on again in a 20-odd foot wide semicircle of a stage that wasn’t all that deep, this is no mean feat.  

While the ensemble predominates, there are some performances that invite comment.  

The Witch (Marisa Conroy) is the architect of the story, and sets things into motion like a malicious Prospero. The witch rules the play as the complicated Machiavel, getting most of the good lines and a lot of center-stage songs like the villain always gets. Ms. Conroy must have grown up listening to Sondheim because she understands the nuances, her alto –with some good high notes—is tempered perfectly to the part, and her gestures are expressively witch-like yet do not seem contrived. She makes her important transition most believable, and is an extraordinary talent.  

For those of you who haven’t seen or heard it, or to remind and regale those of you who have, here is a little taste of Sondheim’s lyrics that can make you giddy but make you stifle the laugh lest you miss the next line. The following excerpt also gives you a taste of the slippery and ingenious facility with which Lapine interfolds the stories. But first, the necessary set-up: the Baker and his wife are childless. In fairy-tale fashion, the wherefore of the barrenness is revealed, and, as always, is connected to the sins of the father which, of course, leads into a quest which will, of course, lead the baker into the woods. 

[Spoken] “NARRATOR: The old enchantress told the couple she had placed a spell on their house. 

BAKER: What spell? 

WITCH: In the past, when your mother was with child, she developed an unusual appetite. She took one look at my beautiful garden and told your father that what she wanted more than anything in the world was [sung in a syncopated fashion:]‘Greens, greens and nothing but greens….’ He said, ‘All right,’ but it wasn't, quite, 'cause I caught him in the autumn in my garden one night! He was robbing me, raping me, rooting through my rutabaga, raiding my arugula and ripping up my rampion (my champion! my favorite!). I should have laid a spell on him right there, could have changed him into stone or a dog or a chair…but I let him have the rampion—I'd lots to spare. In return, however, I said, ‘Fair is fair: you can let me have the baby that your wife will bear. And we'll call it square.’ 

BAKER: [spoken] I had a brother? 

WITCH: No. But you had a sister. 

NARRATOR: But the witch refused to tell him anymore of his sister. Not even that her name was Rapunzel.” 

(The Witch’s whining always reminds me of the complaints of the Haves against the Have-Nots even after they foreclose on them.) 

The characters are exemplars of pop psychology. Cinderella’s character is “The Good Child” as her lyrics reflect: “Mother said be good, father said be nice, that was always their advice. What's the good of being good if everyone is blind and you're always left behind?” Often, the simplicity of the lyrics and immediacy of the rhymes befits the child-like flavor of the premise but from these Sondheim squeezes much angst. Since the words are so simple to digest in this form, as soon as we hear them we feel the bittersweet rush of the complications of life.  

Tinley Ireland (Cinderella) is a tad older and taller than the other ingénues, but with her young face she fits in fine. Her soprano is well-trained, and she understands the balance of irony and heartfelt emotion needed in Sondheim. She captivates us with her naturalness and we come to see the story through her eyes. She is, after all, the commoner raised to royalty, but she never loses the common touch; Princess Diana, but a survivor.  

Consider, too, Little Red Riding Hood’s self-bluffing pep-talk prep: “The way is clear, the light is good, I have no fear, nor no one should. The woods are just trees, the trees are just wood. And who can tell what's waiting on the journey? Into the woods to bring some bread to Granny who is sick in bed. Never can tell what lies ahead. For all that I know, she's already dead.” Long before there were lost children on milk cartons, in the time when the woods were right next door, children took a wrong turn and ran into the rapacious devourer.  

Jaclyn Friedenthal’s portrayal of LRR starts her out as a ditzy kid with baloney-curls in a short red skirt and heels and lots of wolf-attracting sex appeal, then, in the aftermath of her trauma down the gullet of the wolf, turns into a knife-wielding leather-wearing psychopath. Her loss of innocence is reflected in her new found cynicism and wryness. Her voice is perfectly Sondheim, much of which is speech-level singing with the expectation of finishing on a surprise high-note. 

The cow Milky White (Taylor Hickok) is adorable. Ms. Hickok and the director(s) knew that a cow isn’t really all that lovable—I mean, we eat them—so she infused it with just enough puppy-dog to make her palatable, er, lovable. She is a flexible and naturally expressive physical comedienne in her mute bovine role; then, in a surprising cameo as Cinderella’s deceased mother-in-the-tree, she knocks us out with her soprano.  

Amy Henry’s (Rapunzel) lovely blonde homage to courtly love as the lady-in-the-tower is enchanting with her high haunting trilling, and later movingly upsetting in the honesty of her Paris Hilton-like melt-down. Her relationship with her abducting, boundary-crossing mother-figure (The Witch) is intriguing and disturbing. Bring your DSM-IV.  

The Prince Charming Bros. (Nicholas Weinbach and Patrick Stelmach) are played with Buzz Lightyear insouciance and the requisite golden-boy “I am the Prince” cluelessness, They make a very nearly slapstick, funny duo in their “Agony.” Weinbach has a wrap-itself-around-you baritone and carries Stelmach in their duets, but Stelmach holds his own in the characterization and together they play well as royal sibs. Weinbach also plays the Wolf as a leather-jacketed Mohawk-wearing rapist, but seems uncomfortable with the sexual aspect, resorting to overblown hip-thrusting and behavior more suggestive of “Twilight” vampirism rather than rapacious devouring. 

Cinderella’s Stepmother (Karen Scruggs) and sisters (Sabrina Wenske & Meghan Cleary) do a great 3Stooges-like trio, with Scruggs being a ringer in looks, glamour, and attitude for Kristen Johnson’s “3rdRock” Lt. Sally. Andrew Cummings changes modes easily between the extreme characters of the Mysterious Stranger singing pleasingly and fulfilling a difficult role of an old man and Narrator who provides the through-line admirably and with proper dignity.  

The orchestra is exceptional. With a sure hand, Dr. Mark Sumner, who also leads the UC Choral Ensemble, conducts the twenty players through this complicated score that includes lots of sound effects. The orchestra never overwhelms the singing. The orchestra is located offstage right; I looked for, but didn’t see, a monitor for the singers to see the conductor, an impressive coordination.  

The lighting is done with pie-pan floods and track lighting, but convincingly isolates the action and sets the mood for each scene. Costumes fit the players and the action, and are appropriately fairy-tale without drawing attention; the stand-out is the great black witches-wear cape lined with the same green fabric as the gown underneath; the costumer pieced together a good panoply borrowing broadly from Oakwood Country School. The scenery is eight or nine cut-out very tall trees, and interestingly painted two-dimensional hut, hearth, and bakery, and a very well-placed netting of leaves as a canopy over this little world. 

There are 100 seats and all on plastic chairs. I have not much padding back there, but I was so taken with the performances that I only noticed it fleetingly. Take a pillow with you. Top price admission is $12 USD, and the evening would be well worth multiples of that. Your heart will be touched, and you’ll go home happy.  

BareStage’s mission is devoted to the cultivation of original work and new, rarely performed musicals and to the development of theatrical creativity for students who aren’t necessarily in the theatre program. This semester they are undertaking a talent show, this not-so-rarely-performed major production, and student written one-acts. They are part of the Student Musical Activities which is part of Cal Performances, which also funds Marching Band, Jazz Ensembles, and Chorale Ensembles.  

The university’s theatre department offers an open casting policy for its productions with auditions open to all students regardless of major and even to members of the community. But the reality is that the overwhelming majority of the roles go to theatre students, which seems appropriate, and there aren’t that many productions. The intellectual and socially conscious offerings of the UCB Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies (TDPS) department limit practicing the “tits and glitz” side of performing. This year their major theatrical offerings were one acts by Ionesco, Beckett, Pinter, Gertrude Stein, Maria Irene Fornes, and Suzan-Lori Parks, then Naomi Wallace’s play about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911, and a dance/music/theater mash-up by SF Choreographer Joe Goode about gender identity and privilege; plus there are a couple of small black-box departmental productions. Not exactly mainstream fare like “The Importance of Being Earnest” or “City of Angels,” which are both recent productions by BareStage.  

The BareStage group seems to pick up the slack and give a barebones venue to those students who are studying something else but still want to perform. Half the cast studies something other than theatre, about half the cast have a minor in it, and a couple of actors and one of the directors are theatre majors. 

AND WHILE WE’RE ON THE SUBJECT: I’ve often worried whether going to college to mainly study theatre as an undergrad has the potential to limit one’s education. Great actors often study other things: Jack Lemmon was president of the Hasty Pudding Club at Harvard but graduated with a degree in War Service Sciences; Edward Norton graduated in History from Yale where he acted with Paul Giamatti who was studying English there. It’s good to know history and literature if you are an actor rather than trying to ingest all the background information while you are simultaneously trying to learn your lines. At some conservatories within academia, 80% of the credits are singing, acting, and dancing with only a smattering of liberal arts. Note that the TDPS department at UCB emphasizes scholarship and communication skills viewed in particular through the lens of race, ethnicity, and multiculturalism, along with foundational stagecraft and production skills.  

It could be that a baccalaureate in acting is no indicator of success: a little research showed that of the Best Actor Oscar-winners in the last forty years, eleven never matriculated, twelve dropped out, and of the eight actors that graduated only six majored in drama! However, most all studied at an acting school like Lee Strasberg or The Neighborhood Playhouse; name schools like NYU’s Tisch and the grad schools of Yale and Juilliard help disproportionately. Musical theatre Tony winners, on the other hand, often graduate with a BA or BFA in that major, probably because very specific and diverse skills are required.  

To find out more about BareStage Productions go to barestage.berkeley.edu Once there, click on the BareStage logo to hear a spooky whispered intro and be admitted to their labyrinthine website. 

INTO THE WOODS plays this Friday & Saturday evenings 4/23 & 4/24 at 8pm, with final performance Sunday matinee 4/25 at 2 pm. Tickets at: tickets.berkeley.edu or (510) 642-3880.  

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; book by James Lapine; directed by Nick Trengove and Chelsea Unzner; music direction by Mark Sumner; sets by Brian Bostwick; lighting by Nagisa Kodama; sound design by Ryan Abrams and Jeff Samuelson; costumes by Allison Fenner; executive producer Iris Kokish; production photos by Brandon Thomas. Produced by BareStage (Sabrina Yessayan, managing director) under the aegis of Student Musical Activities, Cal Performances, University of California, Berkeley. 

WITH: Andrew Cummings (Narrator/Mysterious Man), Tinley Ireland (Cinderella), Alex Lee (Jack), Emma Newman (Jack’s Mother), Dominique Brillon (Baker’s Wife), Matt Stevens (Baker), Karen Scruggs (Cinderella’s Stepmother), Sabrina Wenske (Florinda), Meghan Cleary (Lucinda), Jaclyn Friedenthal (Little Red Riding Hood), Marisa Conroy (Witch), Taylor Hickok (Cinderella’s Mother/Milky White/Giant), Nicholas Weinbach (Wolf/Rapunzel’s Prince), Michelle McDowell (Granny, Amy Henry (Rapunzel), Patrick Stelmach (Cinderella’s Prince), Matthew Thomas (Steward). Alex Bonte (Harp/Cinderella’s Father), Vahishta Vafadari (Snow White/Cow #2).  

 

John McMullen has an MFA in directing from Carnegie Mellon and has taught and directed there and at local colleges and theatres in the Bay Area; it seems he is now a free-lance theatre critic. Comments/contact at EyeFromTheAisle@gmail.com


WILD NEIGHBORS: Chickens in the Mist

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday April 20, 2010 - 01:06:00 PM
Rooster asks for political asylum, Kokee Lodge parking lot, Kaua'i.
Ron Sullivan
Rooster asks for political asylum, Kokee Lodge parking lot, Kaua'i.
One of the several roosters who patrolled the lawns and roosted in the very mixed koa/introduced species forest at YWCA's Camp Sloggett, Kokee State Park, Kaua'i.
Ron Sullivan
One of the several roosters who patrolled the lawns and roosted in the very mixed koa/introduced species forest at YWCA's Camp Sloggett, Kokee State Park, Kaua'i.
Hen who routinely walks into cafe at Kokee Lodge, Kaua'i. She's running because a staffer is shooing her out.
Ron Sullivan
Hen who routinely walks into cafe at Kokee Lodge, Kaua'i. She's running because a staffer is shooing her out.

Chickens were not high on the agenda when we went to Kaua’i. We hoped to see some of the endangered native forest birds, and the seabirds that nest on the North Shore. But chickens were inescapable. They greeted us at the airport in Lihue. They wandered around the hotel where we spent the first night. There were chickens on the beaches, chickens along the highway. (But relatively few road-killed chickens—far fewer than the dead armadillos you’d see in a comparable-sized chunk of Texas.) 

Kaua’i has two classes of chicken. Most of the urban birds are descendants of fowl who were liberated by Hurricane Iniki in 1992. They’re variable in size, shape, and pattern. Some have the lean, mean look of gamecocks. Cockfighting, although illegal, is a popular pastime in the islands. During our stay a state legislator proposed recognizing it as a cultural institution; the bill didn’t get very far. 

The island is so far, knock wood, mongoose-free. Apart from feral cats and possibly the native short-eared owl, feral chickens have no predators to keep their numbers in check. I don’t know if anyone has attempted a chicken census, but there are clearly a hell of a lot of them.  

Then there are the elite—the ali’i of chickens. They’re supposed to be direct descendants of the red junglefowl, native to South and East Asia, that were transported through the South Pacific by the Polynesians and their precursors, the Lapita people. Chickens, along with dogs, pigs, taro, sugar cane, and paper mulberry, were part of these great navigators’ basic traveling package. They probably reached Hawai’i with voyagers from the Marquesas about 1800 years ago. The word for chicken in most Polynesian languages is moa, a name they applied to the giant, flightless, and presumably tasty birds they encountered in New Zealand. PreColumbian chicken remains of South Pacific origin have even been found in South America.  

To see these ur-chickens, you have to drive the Waimea Canyon Road up to Kokee State Park. The junglefowl hang out around the restaurant—sometimes in the restaurant—and natural history museum at Kokee. You can buy bags of chickenfeed (“Feed the Wild Moa,” says the sign.) When we stopped there, a rooster tried to get into our rental PT Cruiser. He seemed to be low in the pecking order and may have been seeking asylum. 

We stayed at a YWCA facility called Camp Sloggett, down a rutted dirt road from park headquarters—highly recommended, by the way. Sloggett has its own colony of chickens: we counted four roosters and three hens. They weren’t furtive, but you couldn’t get too close to them. The roosters all looked pretty much like the red junglefowl in our South Pacific field guide, with golden-red hackles, black bellies and tails, and white rumps. The hens were small, brown, and speckled. 

Anyone interested in conducting a field study of the social behavior of the free-range chicken—and yes, I remember that Gary Larson cartoon—could do worse than spend time on Kaua’i. We watched which roosters deferred to which others, which hens spent time with which roosters. Wild junglefowl, according to one source, are sometimes monogamous, although we didn’t see any indication of that at Sloggett. 

Kaua’i roosters, both the high-country elite and the urban masses, don’t just crow at dawn. They get started sometime in the predawn darkness and keep at it off and on all day. The same source that talks about junglefowl monogamy describes the call as “very reminiscent of the cock-a-doodle-do of [the] farmyard or village chicken, though usually more shrill and with strangulated finale.” Ron thought she was hearing that, and I will defer to her generally superior ear. 

I’d like to point out that at no time did either of us personally strangulate a rooster, despite the temptation. 

The locals seem to have made their peace with the noisy birds, though. They’ve become a kind of mascot. We saw T-shirts proclaiming the chicken the real state bird of Hawai’i (officially it’s the Hawaiian goose, or nene). The gift shop at the Kaua’i Museum in Lihue offers counter-rooster earplugs; we were told they’re selling briskly. 


Arts Calendar

Thursday April 15, 2010 - 04:37:00 PM

For all kinds of arts events this week and in the future, check berkeleyartsfestival.com


San Francisco Symphony Presents Charlie Chaplin's 'Gold Rush' In All its Glory

By Justin DeFreitas
Wednesday April 14, 2010 - 10:33:00 PM

At first glance, the silent slapstick comedy and the epic would appear to be incompatible. The latter requires a grand scale and heroism to match, while the former is essentially a chamber piece, a small, tightly framed story of a ridiculous clown.  

But two of cinema's greatest actor-directors saw a way to merge the two forms and did so nearly simultaneously. Buster Keaton released his Civil War comedy The General in 1926, while Charlie Chaplin released The Gold Rush one year earlier.  

True to form, Keaton transformed his epic into an action comedy, a kinetic, stunt-laden chase filmed on location and almost entirely outdoors. Chaplin likewise stayed true to his brand of comedy and, after setting the tone with a dramatic opening sequence shot in the snow-packed Sierras, returned his epic to the calmer, more controlled confines of the studio, the intimacy of interiors better serving his character's quieter, more personal dimensions.  

The San Francisco Symphony will present Chaplin's epic on the scale it deserves this week, accompanying the film with the comedian's own score, composed for the film's 1942 reissue.  

The Gold Rush came at something of a crossroads in Chaplin's career. After nearly a decade as the screen's most beloved figure, he was running out of steam.  

Chaplin had broken out of Mack Sennett's stable of knockabout comedians in 1914 and had gone solo with a series of films made for the East Bay's Essanay Film Manufacturing Company, in the town of Niles, near Fremont. With these films Chaplin firmly established the Little Tramp in the popular consciousness and became the famous man in the world. He then signed with Mutual and made a dozen more short films that many critics still consider his best work. After fulfilling the Mutual contract, he signed with First National, where he was able to produce films at a slower, more thoughtful rate, further developing his unique and innovative blend of slapstick and pathos, exemplified by his first feature-length masterpiece, The Kid.  

It was during this period that Chaplin joined with friends Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford and the preeminent director of the day, D.W. Griffith, to form United Artists. The filmmakers would now control the marketing and distribution of their work rather than signing away all their rights to studio bosses.  

But Chaplin still had a contract to finish for First National, and as he spent more and more time on each film, his United Artists debut was delayed and delayed again. When it finally came, it was a most unusual production for the world's best-loved comedian.  

The First National period had been a trying time, and Chaplin had grown weary of comedy and of the Little Tramp and was in search of new means of expression. The result, A Woman of Paris, is a drama; there is no slapstick comedy, and Chaplin himself does not appear, but for a heavily disguised cameo as a railroad porter. It was Chaplin's first foray into pure drama, as well as an attempt to establish his longtime co-star Edna Purviance as an independent dramatic actress. Though the film was a critical success and highly influential due to its sophistication and subtlety, audiences did not take kindly to it.  

But it gave Chaplin the respite he needed, and when he returned to comedy, he was revitalized.  

Chaplin modified his Tramp character for The Gold Rush, highlighting his innocence, virtue and humanity and shelving his more anarchic, troublemaking instincts. The film as a whole has a more melancholy tone that Chaplin's previous work, dwelling on loneliness and isolation amid a cold and unforgiving landscape.  

Yet amid these circumstances, Chaplin created some of his most enduring comic scenes, comedy which stems from the character and his circumstances. Deprivation and hunger leads to the famous scene where Chaplin expertly boils a boot and sits down to dinner with his fellow prospector, coiling shoelaces on a fork like spaghetti; and to the scene where his companion hallucinates that Charlie is a chicken, chasing him around the cabin. And the film's most stirring scene begins with the Tramp's rejection by the girl of his fancy, when he imagines the party that would have been had she and her friends not stood him up. Stabbing two forks into dinner rolls, Chaplin creates a funny and sweetly sad scene where the Tramp entertains his imaginary companions with a deft and charming dance in miniature.  

(The dance of the dinner rolls was not purely Chaplin's invention; the silent comedians often borrowed and built upon each other's gags. The first screen incarnation of the dinner rolls dance was performed by Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in his 1917 short film The Rough House, which co-starred Arbuckle's friend and collaborator, Buster Keaton. Arbuckle's version was purely comic, however, whereas Chaplin imbued the routine with poetry through his signature blend of humor and pathos.)  

Despite the somber tone of the film, The Gold Rush is one of the few Chaplin films with a happy ending. For once, the Tramp not only got the girl, but got the fortune as well. Chaplin struggled against it, but the logic of the story simply would not allow anything different. But he was more than satisfied; upon its release, he said The Gold Rush was the film for which he hoped to be remembered.  

Still, he wasn't above tinkering with it. Nearly two decades later, well into the sound era, Chaplin reissued the film, but not without some significant changes. Not only did he replace the intertitles with his own narration, he reedited the film as well, cutting one subplot and changing a few details, including the elimination of the closing kiss between the Tramp and Georgia. Perhaps it seemed too sentimental in retrospect, or maybe Chaplin wasn't quite as comfortable with the happy ending as he had been years earlier.  

Many prefer the original silent version of the film, disagreeing with Chaplin's revisions or finding his narration intrusive. But the one inarguable improvement Chaplin made to The Gold Rush was its score.  

The advent of sound in the late 1920s meant that for the first time Chaplin could have absolute control over the scoring of his films. In the silent era, most films featured scores improvised by the musicians working at each theater—sometimes a full orchestra, sometimes a single organist or pianist. The new technology allowed Chaplin to compose his own scores and oversee their recording, thus filling the only remaining gap in his auteurist resume.  

Chaplin would compose the scores for his future films, but he also composed scores for all the silent films to which he owned the rights; that is, everything he had done for First National and United Artists. The music, however, may not be quite what you’d expect from silent comedy. It has none of the clichéd bumps and whistles that pedestrian musicians so often use to accompany visual comedy. From Chaplin’s autobiography:

I tried to compose elegant and romantic music to frame my comedies in contrast to the tramp character, for elegant music gave my comedies an emotional dimension. Musical arrangers rarely understood this. They wanted the music to be funny. But I would explain that I wanted no competition, I wanted the music to be a counterpoint of grace and charm, to express sentiment, without which, as Hazlitt says, a work of art is incomplete.
Because Chaplin's films, as per his estate, must be screened with his orchestral scores, modern audiences who wish to see the Tramp on the big screen are often cheated of one of the essential pleasures of silent film: live musical accompaniment. Most theaters do not have the resources to bring in a 60-piece orchestra for every screening, and must therefore rely on Chaplin's prerecorded score.  

Thus the San Francisco Symphony's performances provide a rare opportunity to see The Gold Rush in all its glory.  

The San Francisco Symphony will accompany Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush with the comedian's original score at 2 p.m. Thursday, April 15; 8 p.m. Friday, April 16; and at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 17 at Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. (415) 864-6000. www.sfsymphony.org . 

 


Berkeley Arts Festival Will Use the New Magnes Museum Building in May

By Bonnie Hughes
Wednesday April 14, 2010 - 04:31:00 PM

Hooray! The Berkeley Arts Festival finally has a home thanks to the Judah L. Magnes Museum. They are generously letting us use the space at 2121 Allston Way where they will move from their Russell Street location in 2011. We will be there for the entire month of May. With little lead time for scheduling we ask you to check this space regularly for newly scheduled events. We will open with a concert by pianist Sarah Cahill on May 1. Among others taking part in the Festival will be John Schott, Dan Plonsey, Jerry Kuderna, Dean Santomieri, Graham Connagh, Bill Crossman and India Cooke, and many, many more.  

 

The full May schedule: 

 

1 — Opening Concert: Pianist Sarah Cahill 

2 — Dazzling Divas Pamela Connelly, Kathleen Moss and Eliza OMalley and pianist Hadley McCarroll 

5, 6 & 7 — Return of John Schott's Typical Orchestra with Steve Adams, John Hanes, and Dan Seamans 

7 — Pianist Jerry Kuderna lunch concert, noon 

9 — India Cooke-Bill Crossman Duo, improv and compositions for violin and piano 

12 — Poetry reading Peter Dale Scott, Chana Bloch, Diana O'Hehir, Sandra Gilbert, 7:30pm 

14 — Kuderna lunch concert, noon 

14 — Berkeley CO and War Resisters Film Night 

15 — Jerry Kuderna, piano and Anna Carole Dudley 

19 — Dean Santomieri, multimedia with Julie Oxendale 

21 — Kuderna lunch concert, noon 

21 — Steve Adams-John Hanes ambient duo with video projections 

25 — Graham Connah's "Ted 'Lachrymose' Brinkley's Horrnblower Cruise" big band and glee club 

26 — Sarah Wilson Quintet with John Schott, Sheldon Brown, Jordan Glenn and Lisa Mezzacappa 

27 — The D'Armous Boone Experience 

28 — Kuderna lunch concert, noon 

28 — Phillip Greenlief's Citti di vitti with John Hanes and Lisa Mezzacappa 

30 — Dan Ploney's Daniel Popsickle--Bar Mitzvah and Pekar Opera 

31 — Arnie Passman's Ghandi Tribute 

 

All at 8 pm unless otherwise noted  

 


Ibsen at the Aurora: John Gabriel Bortman

By Ken Bullock
Wednesday April 14, 2010 - 03:44:00 PM

A man, holed up in a room above the parlor of his home after a financial scandal, once so popular the whole country called him by his first name. Twin sisters who have loved him, one his bitter wife, competing for the loyalty of his gay blade son, himself led in tow by a young widow. The shamed man's last loyal ally, an awkward, would-be poet, the only one who visits him in his upstairs exile ...A man, holed up in a room above the parlor of his home after a financial scandal, once so popular the whole country called him by his first name. Twin sisters who have loved him, one his bitter wife, competing for the loyalty of his gay blade son, himself led in tow by a young widow. The shamed man's last loyal ally, an awkward, would-be poet, the only one who visits him in his upstairs exile ... 

A quick look at the dramatis personae of John Gabriel Borkman , now onstage at the Aurora, directed by Barbara Oliver, could give the impression of a soap opera, or something on the borders of burlesque melodrama, even camp, like a Douglas Sirk flick ... 

But John Gabriel is a late Ibsen piece, something which plays off melodrama, the popular theater that ran on the bigger-than-life talents of the "cabotin" (hammy, grandiose) actors of the 19th century. It milks the tangled plot in a different way, with all the poetic imagination and ear for language Ibsen had tamed to focus on everyday reality, the truth of social and personal relationships, and of individuals' sense of themselves, showing them flirting with melodrama and purple poetry in their endless avowals of high purpose to others and themselves. 

The scene which best displays this side of Ibsen's prodigious talent in Aurora's production is Wilhelm's visit to the solitary John Gabriel, by turns diffident, problematic and strangely humorous. Jack Powell—an excellent character actor, native to the Bay Area, not seen on local stages enough—shines as the loyal, puzzled poet manqué, and brings out the best in that fine actor James Carpenter as John Gabriel himself, the impenitent lone wolf. Powell appears again, just as brilliantly, near the end, after getting run over by a sleigh speeding away with his daughter, unbeknownst to him, accompanying young Erhart Borkman and his merry widow, Mrs. Wilton, to some vague picture of happiness outside the dire tale that has unfolded onstage. 

This close-knit drama of ambiguity, of what's said and unsaid, of what has happened in the past or is often acted out offstage, is too elusive yet wordy for some. Indeed, one reviewer complained that, despite a fine production, the play hadn't aged well. 

But the problem with John Gabriel at the Aurora isn't Ibsen's. Riding on anachronism, on a parallelism between Borkman's dream of power that leads to disaster and Bernie Madoff, the Aurora production may have assumed a facileness of interpretation that skirted the intricacies of what Ibsen clearly intended in his scrutiny of middle class souls in a capitalistic society with an ostensibly individualist culture. 

Despite the presence onstage of three distinguished actors—Carpenter , whose success in the Aurora's production of Ibsen's Master Builder a few years back raised expectations for John Gabriel ; Karen Grassle as Mrs. Borkman and Karen Lewis, whom theatergoers may recall as Karen Ingenthron at Berkeley Rep early on—the show ironically slides into the melodrama Ibsen merely flirted with. There's little real irony onstage here, and the acting is oddly stiff, even when it seems to get florid. A perfectly good snowstorm, one of the set-pieces of the Victorian period (The Little Matchgirl, Way Down East , among others), is wasted. There's not even a good cry for the audience. 

David Eldridge's clumsy, over-wordy adaptation doesn't help in the struggle toward theater. Besides pursuing false cognates, the overwrought attempt to preserve elaborate, antiquated forms of address misses the point of the actual, colloquial meaning—past and present—of much of the text, not to mention what's left unsaid ... again, Ibsen's famous irony. 

It doesn't help scenes like the opening one, when the Nordic diffidence of one woman's grave entry into another's parlor and the slow cat-and-mouse game they play like two over-polite strangers, before the audience realizes with a jolt midway what their true, intimate relationship is, and what they want from each other, is reduced in its gravity by overly elaborated lines, meant to convey stuffy platitudes, that have to be recited in moderate tempo like chit-chat to make it through a 25-minute scene without losing the audience completely. (If the tempo had been stepped up, maybe it could have drawn a laugh or two as a Norweigen Ionesco.) There's a difference between a play that hasn't aged well and a masterpiece that isn't translated and adapted for a very different audience's expectations over a century after its debut. 

(The stage direction of the first scene doesn't help either, with the dragging, yet distracted, quality of the dialogue overly offset by a funny centrifugal force: Borkman's eerie, solitary presence upstairs, meant to be conveyed by occasional sounds, inference and references in the women's dialogue, shown upstage on a split-level set of his room, with Carpenter, an actor with real presence, distracting from the women's scene together by doing nothing.) 

Besides Powell's personal triumph as Wilhelm, Carpenter's scene with him and occasional moments with Lewis that at least touch on pathos, only Pamela Gaye Walker as wry, sly Mrs. Wilton gets any traction with the ingenuously presented entropy Ibsen meant to anatomize. Aaron Wilton is miscast as empty and unconsciously hurtful butterfly Erhart. 

It's a difficult play, but—except in flashes—one might not even divine that from Aurora's sad production. 

 

 

A quick look at the dramatis personae of John Gabriel Borkman , now onstage at the Aurora, directed by Barbara Oliver, could give the impression of a soap opera, or something on the borders of burlesque melodrama, even camp, like a Douglas Sirk flick ... 

But John Gabriel is a late Ibsen piece, something which plays off melodrama, the popular theater that ran on the bigger-than-life talents of the "cabotin" (hammy, grandiose) actors of the 19th century. It milks the tangled plot in a different way, with all the poetic imagination and ear for language Ibsen had tamed to focus on everyday reality, the truth of social and personal relationships, and of individuals' sense of themselves, showing them flirting with melodrama and purple poetry in their endless avowals of high purpose to others and themselves. 

The scene which best displays this side of Ibsen's prodigious talent in Aurora's production is Wilhelm's visit to the solitary John Gabriel, by turns diffident, problematic and strangely humorous. Jack Powell—an excellent character actor, native to the Bay Area, not seen on local stages enough—shines as the loyal, puzzled poet manqué, and brings out the best in that fine actor James Carpenter as John Gabriel himself, the impenitent lone wolf. Powell appears again, just as brilliantly, near the end, after getting run over by a sleigh speeding away with his daughter, unbeknownst to him, accompanying young Erhart Borkman and his merry widow, Mrs. Wilton, to some vague picture of happiness outside the dire tale that has unfolded onstage. 

This close-knit drama of ambiguity, of what's said and unsaid, of what has happened in the past or is often acted out offstage, is too elusive yet wordy for some. Indeed, one reviewer complained that, despite a fine production, the play hadn't aged well. 

But the problem with John Gabriel at the Aurora isn't Ibsen's. Riding on anachronism, on a parallelism between Borkman's dream of power that leads to disaster and Bernie Madoff, the Aurora production may have assumed a facileness of interpretation that skirted the intricacies of what Ibsen clearly intended in his scrutiny of middle class souls in a capitalistic society with an ostensibly individualist culture. 

Despite the presence onstage of three distinguished actors—Carpenter , whose success in the Aurora's production of Ibsen's Master Builder a few years back raised expectations for John Gabriel ; Karen Grassle as Mrs. Borkman and Karen Lewis, whom theatergoers may recall as Karen Ingenthron at Berkeley Rep early on—the show ironically slides into the melodrama Ibsen merely flirted with. There's little real irony onstage here, and the acting is oddly stiff, even when it seems to get florid. A perfectly good snowstorm, one of the set-pieces of the Victorian period (The Little Matchgirl, Way Down East , among others), is wasted. There's not even a good cry for the audience. 

David Eldridge's clumsy, over-wordy adaptation doesn't help in the struggle toward theater. Besides pursuing false cognates, the overwrought attempt to preserve elaborate, antiquated forms of address misses the point of the actual, colloquial meaning—past and present—of much of the text, not to mention what's left unsaid ... again, Ibsen's famous irony. 

It doesn't help scenes like the opening one, when the Nordic diffidence of one woman's grave entry into another's parlor and the slow cat-and-mouse game they play like two over-polite strangers, before the audience realizes with a jolt midway what their true, intimate relationship is, and what they want from each other, is reduced in its gravity by overly elaborated lines, meant to convey stuffy platitudes, that have to be recited in moderate tempo like chit-chat to make it through a 25-minute scene without losing the audience completely. (If the tempo had been stepped up, maybe it could have drawn a laugh or two as a Norweigen Ionesco.) There's a difference between a play that hasn't aged well and a masterpiece that isn't translated and adapted for a very different audience's expectations over a century after its debut. 

(The stage direction of the first scene doesn't help either, with the dragging, yet distracted, quality of the dialogue overly offset by a funny centrifugal force: Borkman's eerie, solitary presence upstairs, meant to be conveyed by occasional sounds, inference and references in the women's dialogue, shown upstage on a split-level set of his room, with Carpenter, an actor with real presence, distracting from the women's scene together--by doing nothing.) 

Besides Powell's personal triumph as Wilhelm, Carpenter's scene with him and occasional moments with Lewis that at least touch on pathos, only Pamela Gaye Walker as wry, sly Mrs. Wilton gets any traction with the ingenuously presented entropy Ibsen meant to anatomize. Aaron Wilton is miscast as empty and unconsciously hurtful butterfly Erhart. 

It's a difficult play, but--except in flashes--one might not even divine that from Aurora's sad production. 

 


The Poor Players at the City Club Next Week

By Ken Bullock
Wednesday April 14, 2010 - 04:52:00 PM

"A comedy about a missing dog ... a delayed dinner ... an elderly teenager ... the young at heart ... domestic chaos ..." 

Poor Players, a local company that unfortunately makes good on its name, giving us too little—and that, too briefly—of a very good thing, is at last mounting another production at the Berkeley City Club, 8 p. m. Wednesday April 21st through Sunday the 25th only (though with matinees at 2 as well as evening shows on the weekend), with the debut of James Keller's "Comedy of Bad Manners," Good Housekeeping—which has the delicious twist of not only featuring Berkeley actress Martha Luhrmanm in the part inspired by herself (inspired's the word; she doesn't play herself), but also the playwright—who directs, as well—onstage in a recognizable role: a playwright, invited to dinner, who has just cast his hostess. 

Keller, an excellent and prolific playwright (about 50 originals and adaptations), was once featured at theaters like the Magic in San Francisco and elsewhere around the country. These days, to our good fortune, he mostly produces and directs his own, highly enjoyable shows, in short runs at intimate venues like the City Club. It'll be gone before you know it; don't miss it! $15-$20. (925) 473-1363; www.poorplayers.org  


Nordic Mysteries: The Millenium Trilogy

By Ralph Stone
Thursday April 15, 2010 - 11:25:00 AM

I recently saw "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," based on Swedish mystery writer Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy. The other two books are "The Girl Who Played with Fire" and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest." The movie and the book introduce Lisbeth Salander, played by Swedish actress Noomi Rapace. She is a unique figure in fiction. She is Goth-like in appearance, autistic and bisexual with a distrust of authority, an amazing ability with a computer, a photographic memory and astonishing physical courage, and while not physically attractive, is sexually appealing to both men and women. And yes, she has a large tattoo of a dragon on her back. She is a rare example of a feminist heroine who doesn't hate men, just men who hate women. Throughout the Trilogy, Larsson weaves in her background of childhood abuse and violence. My minor quibble with Ms. Rapace is that she is too pretty. But otherwise, Ms. Rapace and Michael Nyqvist, who plays Mikael Blomkvist, the other main character, are well cast.  

 

The book has two main story lines: a missing person mystery and a complicated corporate corruption case. The movie dwells primarily on the missing person story line while giving short shrift to the latter story line. This is understandable given the 2-1/2 hour length of the movie. It would have made a terrific TV series to cover both story lines completely. 

 

The second and third books of the Trilogy were shot back-to-back for television and will be released separately as movies. Rumor has it that Hollywood will remake the movies, possibly starring George Clooney as Blomkvist and "Twilight" star Kristen Stewart as Salander.  

 

What is compelling about the Trilogy is the complex characters, the fast-paced story telling with interesting plots and sub-plots. The books are long and very political. With a background as an investigative reporter, Larsson brings a knowledge of the inner workings of the Swedish police, its intelligence service, and private security companies. Larsson has been called a revolutionary socialist. 

 

Larsson delivered the three books to his publisher, envisioning a series of books. Supposedly, he had started on a fourth book and wrote outlines for six more. Will someone finish the fourth book? Unfortunately, just as they were editing and translating the books, he died of an apparent heart attack in November 2004. he never knew that his Trilogy would become a worldwide publishing phenomenon. The first two books are best sellers in the United States. The third book will be published here next month. I couldn't wait to read the third book so I ordered it from Amazon UK. So far the books have sold more than 27 million copies in 42 countries with sales of almost $43 million, not including income from the television and movie versions.  

 

Unfortunately, Eva Gabrielsson, his partner of 32 years, is not benefitting from the success. Because they were not married and he died without a will, Larsson's estate was divided between Erland and Joakim Larsson, his father and brother. Ms. Gabrielsson receives no income from the sales of Larsson's books. She refused $2.27 million to settle her claim. Rather, she is seeking one percent of the proceeds. There is some question as to what role, if any, Ms. Gabrielsson played in the writing of the books. Did she write them, help write them, or edit them? She is not saying. We will have to wait for the publication of her tell-all book. 

 

If you are a mystery buff, I highly recommend reading the Trilogy. They are terrific reads. Nordic crime fiction has become enormously successful the last several years. They are characterized by plain, direct writing, devoid of metaphor. They expose the underside of the cradle-to-grave Scandinavian welfare system. Besides Larsson, I have enjoyed Henning Mankell (Sweden) and Jo Nesbo (Norway) and, of course, Per Wahloo and Maj Sjowall, a Swedish couple, whose ten-volume Martin Beck series (1965-1975) were a great influence on rising Scandinavian mystery writers.  

 

And many of the Nordic mysteries have been made into movies and television series. I've watched dramatizations on MHz Worldwide Presents (KCSM Channel 43) of "Varg Veum" based on the series of crime novels by Norwegian mystery writer Gunnar Staalesen and Mankell's books. In 2008 BBC adapted a few of Mankell's books starring Kenneth Branagh as Kurt Wallander. 

 

See the movie and read the Millennium Trilogy. You won't be disappointed. 

 


Pedro Costa's Fontainhas

By Justin DeFreitas
Thursday April 15, 2010 - 08:17:00 AM

Pedro Costa's Ossos marked a turning point in the his career, the moment when the Portuguese director found his subject matter if not his voice. 

In the impoverished Fontainhas district of Lisbon, Costa found a captivating world, an abandoned neighborhood full of nearly forgotten people leading lives of deprivation and desperation. With its narrow passageways, jagged concrete walls and piles of rubble and debris, it was a grim but highly cinematic environment. 

Costa sought a spare, minimalist approach and employed nonprofessional actors, actual residents of Fontainhas, in an elliptical tale of desperate youth. A young, suicidal mother turns her newborn child over to its highly untrustworthy father. Not only is he incapable of caring for it, he is willing to sell it. Costa keeps his camera quiet and watchful, often still, and insists that his actors remain just as quiet. The approach results in moments of poignancy, its spare but strong imagery of enigmatic faces at times packing a solid emotional punch. But though this fiercely enforced structure has the capacity for affecting, even haunting scenes, it teeters on the brink of monotony, its rigid rules and design verging on a caricature of minimalist arthouse cinema.  

Costa had his own problems with the production. He felt that the trappings of standard moviemaking techniques were inappropriate for the Fontainhas district, and that his team of cameramen, crew and assistants overwhelmed the neighborhood and the film itself. He had run up against the limits film as an industry and found that its artifice obstructed his art. So Costa self-corrected, and for his next two Fontainhas films, In Vanda's Room and Colossal Youth, he stripped the operation down to the bone — just Costa, his camera and his actors. He unleashed the actors as well; this time they not only spoke in complete sentences, but he allowed them — real-life residents of Fontainhas — to show him how life was lived in their world.  

In these films, his camera is less obtrusive, the performances less mannered, producing a more engaging and complete portrait of the since-leveled slum. The result is a unique cinematic vision that is spare and unsparing, that tempers its minimalism with naturalism, its verité with poetry. 

 

Letters from Fontainhas: Three Films by Pedro Costa 

Ossos, (1997), 97 minutes. 

In Vanda's Room (2000), 171 minutes. 

Colossal Youth (2006), 156 minutes. 

Plus 200 minutes of supplemental materials, including interviews with Costa, commentaries by Costa and Jean-Pierre Gorin, documentaries and short films. $79.95. www.criterion.com.


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Wednesday April 14, 2010 - 04:30:00 PM