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Raymond Barglow
 

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48-Day March Culminates in Sacramento Rally Against Budget Cuts

Raymond Barglow
Friday April 23, 2010 - 12:06:00 PM
Raymond Barglow
Raymond Barglow

Thousands of protestors, including a group of marchers who had walked through California’s Central Valley, held a rally in front of the state Capitol on Wednesday afternoon, calling for government and a tax system that serves all Californians. The march had lasted 48 days, during which the marchers covered 365 miles, bringing the message to Californians up and down the state that government in Sacramento ought to be reformed. 

Whereas the public focus of protest against state policies in March was public education, on this occasion the issues were broadened to include health care and other public services. 

The diversity of protest participants was broad as well, ranging from school staff and students to homecare workers, other public service employees, and religious leaders.  

In Northern California, the protestors streamed into Sacramento beginning in the early afternoon, via carpools, buses, and Amtrak. From Berkeley alone, five filled buses drove to the Capitol. 

I happened to be taking the train to Sacramento from Emeryville, joining teachers, administrators, and students from San Francisco City College. The situation at the college that they describe is a dire one. Professor Galina Gerasimova spoke with me about her own work with special needs students – students who have learning or physical disabilities, and/or need extra help in math, science, or English. The Disabled Students Program at the college, she said, has been cut over the past two years by over 50 percent. 

Leslie Smith, an administrator at the college, spoke of the importance of the Sacramento action, “Many of the students in community colleges are from disenfranchised communities, so getting on a train today in a rain storm to go march and rally on behalf of education, entering the bastions of power, listening and telling their own stories, all of this provides a deep educational experience.” 

Alisa Messer is an English teacher at the college and a candidate for president of local union AFT 2121: “I’m excited to be joining up with the last leg of the march. What the marchers have managed to organize and represent is the importance of protecting education, explaining how education is integral to the future of our state.”  

She added that education “is not only about job-training, it’s about how we want to live in our society, what we want to happen in our state.” Leslie Smith concurred, “We want a thinking society – democracy requires that.” 

What remedies is this protest movement proposing in order to fund quality public education, affordable health care, and other public services? Speakers at the rally focused first of all on the need for a progressive tax system, including the closing of corporate tax loopholes. Second, the requirement of a two-thirds vote to raise taxes or pass a budget ought to be rejected. Campaign financing is also at issue; a flyer distributed at the rally said that over a billion dollars has gone into state political campaigns since 2000, “buying access for special interests and shutting out the rest of us.” Proposition 15, on the June Ballot, will provide a pilot program for public financing of state political campaigns. 

Several speakers at the rally noted that California’s fiscal crisis is bound up with national priorities. Randy Silverman, marching and attending the rally from Berkeley, said that more federal funding should be used to support the public sector in California. 


Flash: Three More Awards for the Planet

Friday April 23, 2010 - 11:10:00 AM

The Berkeley Daily Planet won three awards in the California Newspaper Publishers Association's 2009 Better Newspapers Contest.  

Riya Bhattacharjee took second place in the Local Breaking News category for her March 5, 2009 story about the death of a LeConte kindergarten student.  

Justin DeFreitas, a frequent winner, won a second place award in the Editorial Cartoon category for his July 3, 2008 cartoon , "The George W. Bush Presidential Library."  

DeFreitas' May 29, 2008 cartoon, "Upon Further Reflection," was named as a blue-ribbon finalist.  

The contest period spanned 18 months, covering much of 2008 and 2009. The association received nearly 4,000 entries and gave out 480 awards in 28 categories and nine circulation divisions. The Daily Planet competed in the weekly newspaper division.


Southside Lofts Residents Triumph Over Laundromat Once Again

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 09:15:00 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. 


Berkeley Residents Strongly Oppose BRT at Council Hearing

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 09:12:00 PM
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.
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."

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.”  


UC Student Senate Still Deliberating on Israel Divestment Bill

By Riya Bhattacharjee
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 06:36:00 PM

The UC Berkeley student senate did not take any action Wednesday on the contentious Israel divestment bill which was vetoed by their president last month. 

At an April 14 meeting, a motion to override the veto did not pass and was consequently tabled by the senate. 

Hundreds of people showed up to speak for and against the bill during the public comment section of that meeting which lasted until nearly 5 a.m. Supporters of Israel criticized the bill, which urges the university to stop investing in General Electric and United Technologies, two American companies which provide weapons to the Israeli Army. They said it was unfair to single out Israel when war crimes were being committed in other parts of the world, but the bill's backers argued that it would send a pointed message to the government of the Jewish state. 

Associated Students of the University of California Senator Christina Oatfield said that “technically the senate could still vote to override the bill next week.” 

A motion to add a new bill on the topic to next week's agenda fell short of the two-thirds vote required . Oatfield said that the new bill was similar to the old one, but it had more clauses condemning Hamas, the militant group in Palestine. “It also includes that the senate felt like Palestinians had a right to live peacefully,” she said. Oatfield said that the new bill will be considered eventually, but was delayed by a week, 

The new bill was written by the original bill's authors with input from other senators, Oatfield said. 

However Sandra Cohen, an ASUC senator who voted against the original bill, said that the new bill did not address any of her concerns, or “the concerns of other people.” 

“That is why it did not get the required number of votes to be included in the agenda for next week,” she said. “My main concern was singling out this one situation, and I don;t think the new bill addresses it at all.” 

Most of Wednesday's senate discussion was in closed session and senators are not allowed to discuss details of that meeting with the public, Oatfield said. 

She said that the senators were still receiving e-mails and letters from supporters and opponents of the bill, but “just not as many as before.” 


Berkeley Police Apprehend Robbery Suspects

Thursday April 22, 2010 - 03:29:00 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.


Support for Animal Testing Ban Fails at Humane Commission

By David Blake
Friday April 23, 2010 - 10:17:00 AM

The Humane Commission failed Wednesday night to pass a resolution expressing support for a prohibition against animal testing in the new West Berkeley Plan. Chair Anne Wagley (Arreguin, Dist. 4), who has also been a temporary appointee to the Planning Commission, explained that the rewrite of the West Berkeley Plan now in its last stages is designed to encourage large-scale research and development projects with as few restrictions as possible. She reported that she had introduced the idea of a ban on animal testing and received broad support from other planning commissioners. Wagley suggested that an endorsement of a ban by the Humane Commission would be compelling in the coming weeks as the Planning Commission debates their final recommendations. 

Commissioner Jill Posener made a motion to express the Humane Commission's support for the ban. Commissioner Jane Townley (Anderson, Dist. 3) objected that banning animal testing would eliminate testing of new surgical procedures. Commissioner Alan Shriro (Capitelli, Dist. 5) (a veterinarian) agreed, but opined that it was a small price to pay to make a clear statement. Commissioner Betty Olds (Bates, Mayor) explained that because she considered animal testing so repugnant, she couldn't support a ban unless it encompassed the entire city. Commissioner Betsy Raymond (Moore, Dist. 2) said that wasn't a relevant consideration because laboratories weren't permitted anywhere in the city except in West Berkeley, but Posener changed her motion to specifically prohibit the use in all zoning districts. Commissioner Olds explained that she needed time to consider the matter, and the motion failed, 4 ayes: Wagley, Posener, Shriro, and Raymond; 4 abstentions: Townley, Olds, Anna Avellar (Wozniak, Dist. 8), and Henk Boverhuis (Wengraf, Dist. 6). Commissioner Dianne Sequoia (Maio, Dist. 1) was absent. 

A suggestion by Chair Wagley that the Commission instead adopt a resolution supporting a partial ban with strict city oversight of any approved animal testing operations was never taken up by the Commission. 

 

The Planning Commission will hold a workshop on the West Berkeley Plan changes Wednesday, April 28 from 6 to 7 p.m. at the North Berkeley Senior Center. 


Defendant’s Character Examined in Cal Student Stabbing Case

By Bay City News
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 10:35:00 PM

Prosecutors in the trial of a man accused of fatally stabbing University of California at Berkeley student Christopher Wootton to death two years ago said in court today the defendant has a history of angry outbursts.  

Deputy District Attorney Connie Campbell said she wants to call as witnesses Berkeley High School officials, who she said will testify that Andrew Hoeft-Edenfield, who is standing trial on charges that he murdered Wootton on May 4, 2008, had anger management problems. 

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Horner said Hoeft-Edenfield's reputation "is entirely relevant to this case because he's placed at issue in front of this jury his character trait for violence or lack of violence." 

Hoeft-Edenfield's lawyer, Yolanda Huang, told jurors in her opening statement last month that Hoeft-Edenfield, 22, "doesn't have a malicious bone in his body" and acted in self-defense after he was outnumbered and surrounded by Wootton and a large group of Wootton's friends. 

But prosecutor Campbell said Hoeft-Edenfield should be convicted of first-degree murder, alleging he escalated a drunken shouting match on the street between his group of friends and Wootton's group of friends by pulling out a knife and yelling, "Who wants to die tonight?" 

Wootton, 21, who was from Bellflower in Southern California and was a member of the Sigma Pi fraternity house, was only a few weeks away from graduating with honors in nuclear engineering when he was killed. 

Huang said she wanted to call as a witness today a member of another fraternity house who she said will testify that Wootton "was not a peaceful person and liked to get in fights." 

She said the witness will say that he had to kick Wootton out of his fraternity house three times for starting fights. 

Campbell alleged that the witness' potential testimony is "a desperate lie" by the defense, and asked for more time to research the witness' background. 

Horner cautioned Campbell that she was using "strong words" to castigate the defense but agreed to postpone the witness' testimony until Monday. 

Hoeft-Edenfield's trial then continued with Huang's investigator on the witness stand. Huang hasn't disclosed whether Hoeft-Edenfield will testify.  


Science Labs Controversy and Other Governance Issues at Berkeley High

Raymond Barglow www.berkeleytutors.net
Friday April 23, 2010 - 11:32:00 AM

Following a tumultuous time in March and the beginning of April, Berkeley High School’s science lab controversy seems headed toward resolution. 

Back in December, the school administration planned to eliminate before- and after-school laboratory classes from the list of courses available to students in the fall of 2010. When student families joined some science teachers in protesting this decision, a debate began between Principal Slemp and supporters of this decision on the one hand, and those attesting to the value of the labs on the other. Advocates of cutting the labs argued that this would free up funds to help close the achievement gap between high- and low-performing students. 

In February, district superintendant Bill Huyett intervened to help resolve the impasse. In meetings with the principal, science teachers, and other school community members, he worked out a compromise plan which would cut some but not all of the labs and the teacher time needed to staff them. 

The school community’s impasse in the science labs matter was made all the more difficult to resolve because of an overlapping issue. Berkeley High School is divided into six programs, so-called “small learning communities.” This division began back in 2003, with the intention of making education more personalized and effective for all students. But the six programs are not of equal size. Two of them have about ¾ of the school’s students, while the other ¼ is divided among the remaining four programs. The governance problem is this: how to give each of the six schools equitable representation in shaping school policy. 

The retirement of Principal Slemp is raising this issue anew. As outlined to date, the procedure for selecting a new principal calls for teacher representation on a “technical panel” to interview and evaluate candidates. But some teachers at the school are asking how the teacher panelists will be chosen in a fair way from the six small learning communities. 

This matter is relevant as well to the district’s deliberations regarding the implementation of a statewide requirement that public schools be governed by a “school site council.” Peggy Scott, a parent representative on the BHS School Governance Council who also sits in on policy committee meetings, said that the committee is working diligently and effectively to draft a governance structure for a high school site council. 


Bart Fires Second Officer in Grant Killing

By Bay City News
Friday April 23, 2010 - 09:47:00 AM

BART has fired a second police officer, Tony Pirone, who was present when Oscar Grant III was shot and killed in Oakland early on New Year's Day 2009, interim Police Chief Daschel Butler said today.  

"I have announced to my staff that Officer Pirone is no longer employed by the district," Butler said. "Mr. Pirone's last day of employment was today."  

Grant was shot in the back by former BART police Officer Johannes Mehserle shortly after 2 a.m. on the platform of the Fruitvale station.  

The shooting happened as many New Year's Eve revelers were returning home from a night in San Francisco, and police had been called to the station in response to a report of a fight on a train.  

Pirone and Officer Marysol Domenici were the first officers to arrive at the station. Domenici was fired last month. Butler said he could not discuss the reasons for Pirone's termination.  

Earlier this month, on April 8, a group of protesters gathered at the Embarcadero BART station in San Francisco to demand that Pirone be fired.  

Mehserle resigned a week after the shooting and is now charged with murder for Grant's death. The trial has been moved to Los Angeles County.  

John Burris, an Oakland civil rights attorney who filed a $50 million wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit against BART on March 2, 2009, on behalf of Grant's family against called Pirone's firing "terrific" and said, "It's about time." The lawsuit named BART, Mehserle, Pirone, Domenici and other officers.  

Burris said Pirone "was the major instigator" in the New Year's Day incident.  

"But for (Pirone's) conduct, Oscar Grant would not be dead," Burris said.  

Burris said Pirone made "racial taunts" toward Grant and others and exaggerated certain details when he testified at Mehserle's preliminary hearing last year.  

Burris said Grant's family "is quite pleased" that Pirone has been dismissed.  

Pirone's attorney, William Rapoport, couldn't be reached for comment today.


The People’s Life Fund Awards: A Night to Feel Good about Taxes

Gar Smith
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 10:01:00 PM

On Tax Day, April 15, the Northern California War Tax Resistance (NCWTR) and People’s Life Fund (PLF) handed out nearly $20,000 in grants to local nonprofit organizations. What made this especially newsworthy is that the prize money came from tax resisters who had chosen to give the taxes claimed by the US Treasury to the PLF instead. For pacifists, the PLF offers a way to “positively protest” one’s unwillingness to write checks to a government that currently spends 54 cents of every dollar on the Pentagon’s current costs and past debts. 

War tax resistance really took off during the Vietnam War. Today, there are more than 50 alternative funds established to repurpose money that would otherwise be in paid as tribute to the Pentagon’s lock on the Federal budget. Instead, a portion of this rechanneled wealth is given away to support positive, life-affirming purposes. “By creating alternative funds, we move a step beyond resistance,” the NCWTR explains. “We determine the priorities for the use of our tax dollars. And by this determination, we not only empower ourselves, but we also provide critical funds for human services that the government is not adequately supplying.” 

The People’s Life Fund was formed by Bay Area war resisters in 1971. Now, every April 15, the PLF makes grants to community organizations working for peace and justice. Grants are made to Northern California groups whose work falls within one of three priority areas. First: Provision of essential, day-to-day human services (food, health, child care, housing, etc.) combined with educational work aimed at changing the root causes of the problems. Second: Provision of essential human services without an explicit, conscious attempt to provide an analysis or eradicate the problem. Third: Education or action, in a spirit of non-violence, aimed at social, economic, or political change. People’s Life Fund grants are drawn from interest earned on a pool of income tax dollars that have been withheld by people who cannot, in good conscience, support the military by paying these taxes. Instead, they choose to re-direct their taxes through the People’s Life Fund.  

Last week’s event in Berkeley began with a screening of the 30-minute film, “Death and Taxes,” which featured interviews with 28 local and national tax resisters including Julia Butterfly Hill whose refusal to pay more than $150,000 still stands as the largest act of war-tax resistance in US history. The film goes on to answer such questions as: “What are the consequences” and “How does war tax resistance fit into one’s life?” 

And, what are the risks? Well, according to the War Resisters League, "Since the modern war tax resistance movement began during World War II, only one person (in the 1940s) has been jailed for resisting his war taxes. Only about 30 out of tens of thousands of people in the U.S. who have resisted war taxes have even been brought to federal court and convicted." As one PLF representative observed: “Tax resistance is easy because you don’t have to get beaten up by a cop. And the best part (if you’re an activist) is: no meetings!” And the worst thing that can happen is the government will put a lien on your earnings and “take away the same money you would have given them in the first place if you were a regular taxpayer.” 

War resistance continues to grow because, as Code Pink notes, “instead of less money, we now have MORE of our tax money going annually to war-profiteers under Obama and the Democrat majority than ever under Bush and the Republican majority.” 

At the Berkeley ceremony, the checks (ranging from $750 to $1250) were handed out by local activists who first shared brief personal stories about their experience as war-tax resisters. Here are a few of those stories: Martha, a Berkeley High School teacher, began resisting taxes in 1980s after she visited Japan and made a walking pilgrimage to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Alex grew up in Seattle and has been a non-filer since 1987. Kathy explained how she started to write a check to the government in 1973 but just couldn’t do it: It took 10 years before the IRS got around to garnishing her wages. John had gone to Nicaragua during the “low-intensity warfare” days of the Reagan Administration and has been sending his refused taxes to the PLF for the past 23 years. Jay recalled having to deal with a $500 “frivolous filing” fine that was assessed for including an explanatory anti-war letter with his return. (This “frivolous filing” suits, designed to discourage tax resistance, were subsequently ruled an illegal attack on First Amendment rights.) Jim, a Kaiser employee, who has been a resister for 25 years, said that the IRS would be seizing around $2500 in unpaid taxes from him this year. He then produced a check for $2500 and announced that he was donating it to the PLF. 

 

Here Are the 2010 Peoples Life Fund Winners: 

 

Asian Pacific Islander Youth Promoting Advocacy and Leadership 

AYPAL’s mission is “building the power of low-income youth to fight social inequities and to advance an agenda for progressive social change.” A schoolgirl named Honey (who had earlier addressed an Oakland rally demanding support for schools-not-war) accepted a $1,000 check and marveled that a fund existed to support organizations like hers. “How do you DO that?” she smiled. She promised that she was going to learn more about tax redirection. 

Babae 

Babae works with Gabriella, an activist group resisting military occupation in the Philippines. Although US military bases were closed down after the People Power revolution swept dictator Ferdinand Marcos from power, the Pentagon has returned to the country under a Visiting Forces Agreement. On accepting the grant, a Babae representative explained that the US now spends “$1 billion on the fascist government” at the same time that more than 1,100 people have been “disappeared” by government security forces. 

Bay Area Community Land Trust 

In a depressed economy, dragged down by a collapsed housing market, the importance of “resident-controlled affordable housing” has never been more important. BACLT exists to provide cooperative housing opportunities “that will benefit workers, families, students, seniors, disabled, and other low and middle income folks from widely diverse backgrounds, now and into the future.” 

Courage to Resist 

This organization provides legal defense to soldiers who dare to defy the military. Courage to Resist has aided Lt. Ehren Watada, military mom Alexis Hutchinson and Mark Hall, a soldier who was ordered back for a third tour of duty in Iraq under the Pentagon’s controversial “stop loss” program — even though Hall had suffered traumatic brain injury from an explosive device and was at the end of his enlistment. When Hall recorded an anti-war rap song protesting the Stop-loss program, the Pentagon arrested him as a threat to military and transferred him to a US prison in Kuwait. His trial was set to take place in Iraq this month (ironically, at the US base called “Camp Liberty”) but, at the last minute, the Pentagon decided to usher Hall out of the service with an “other-than-honorable” discharge.  

Destiny Arts Center 

The goal of this Oakland-based arts center is to end violence in kids’ lives by using both martial arts and performing arts to teach “a culture of peace.” 

Ecumenical Peace Institute 

Berkeley’s Ecumenical Peace Institute was born during the days of the Vietnam War when clergy and lay people mounted counter-recruitment actions at the Oakland Armed Forces Induction Center. EPI hosts an ongoing Thursday noon vigil in front of the Oakland Federal Building and stages a “Living Graveyard” protest every third Thursday. 

Faithful Fools Street Ministry 

This group works with the poor and homeless of the Bay Area. In order to express solidarity with the poor and to provide some “reality training” for volunteers, the ministry invites the non-homeless to participate in 6-hour Street Retreats and an annual weeklong experience in living and sleeping on the streets. The Ministry, which runs a “safe space” for the homeless on Hyde Street, also boasts its own Fool’s Band. 

Full Picture 

The Pentagon has a $5 billion budget to send military recruiters to high schools. Full Picture is a coalition of groups working under the umbrella of the American Friends Service Committee that provides “counter-recruitment” education to students who are targeted by military recruiters. 

Haiti Action Committee 

HAC works to support the freedom of the Haitian people and to keep alive the spirit of the revolution begun by President Aristide. An inspiring booklet listing the social justice achievements of the Aristide government (which had devoted 20% of the national budget to education) provides a powerful indictment for the forces behind the US-backed coup that toppled Aristide’s popularly elected government. 

The Mosaic Project 

The Project develops cross-cultural comraderie by sending kids from different backgrounds to share the bonding experience of living and surviving in the wild — even more important today since schools are now “more segregated than they were in 1968.” The nonprofit reaches children in elementary school “before prejudice can become entrenched” and unites students through a “unique human-relations outdoor school.” 

Nevada Desert Experience 

Members of this group maintain a vigil at the US military’s weapons testing range located on Native American land in the Nevada desert. They also mount protests against nearby Creech Air Force Base, the site of the command center used by soldiers guiding the remote-controlled drones that are used to kill from Afghanistan to Somalia in a cold-blooded form of “video arcade war.” 

National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee 

NWTRCC is a national coalition formed in 1982 to provide information and support to people involved in war tax resistance. NWTRCC’s goal is to maintain and build a national movement of conscientious objectors to military taxes by supporting war tax resistance, protest, and refusal and the redirection of military taxes to meet human needs. 

Out of Control 

Out of Control is a committee of ten Bay Area women formed in 1986 to organize resistance to the Lexington Control Unit for women — a subterranean, high-security prison in Kentucky that used sensory deprivation, mind control methods, and group isolation to "break the spirit" of the women prisoners. Out of Control publishes the “Out of Time” newsletter. 

Peace Crane Project 

An anti-nuclear education project based in the Bay Area, this group promotes a “Remembrance Day” to commemorate the US atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the installation of “peace pole” as a constant reminder of the horror of war. 

Phat Beets Produce 

Honored for its work providing “Eat Right” programs and introducing kids to urban gardens, this Oakland-based group provides equal, affordable access to organic fresh fruits and vegetables, grains and legumes to North Oakland families through wholesale pricing. 

Piedmont Yoga Community 

Provides yoga services expressly designed for the disabled and cancer survivors. The PYC will soon be relocating to Berkeley’s new Ed Roberts Center across from the Ashby BART station. 

Prison Activist Resource Center 

The Center provides a nationwide list of resources to aid prisoners, “some of the least-served members of our society.” PARC is a prison abolitionist group committed to “exposing and challenging all forms of institutionalized racism, sexism, able-ism, heterosexism, and classism, specifically within the Prison Industrial Complex.” 

Prisoners Literature Project 

The Center sends donated books to prisons around the country. The project started in the early 1980’s in the back of Bound Together Books, the anarchist bookstore on Haight Street. The grant was presented by David Gross, a local tax resister who recalled how his jail stint was relieved by the discovery of a battered copy of “The Great Gatesby” in a run-down prison library.  

Somos Familia 

This all-volunteer organization offers support to LGBT Latino families. In addition to hosting “family gatherings,” Somos Familia will be organizing the first Latino Family contingent in San Francisco’s Gay Pride Parade. 

Sparks Fly 

This group stands up for incarcerated women political prisoners, including poet Marilyn Buck who has spent 25 years in jail for supporting the Black Panthers. Now dealing with cancer, Buck is looking forward to being released from a Dublin prison later this year. 

Tri Valley CAREs 

This longtime watchdog organization monitors the health hazards at the government’s Lawrence Livermore National Labs, offers critiques of military spending (particularly on the $7 billion the Obama Administration wants to spend on new nuclear weapons by 2011), and hosts the annual Hiroshima Day vigil at the gates of the LLNL. 

As the evening drew to a close, Bay Area WTRCC activist Susan Quinlan reminded the audience that tax resistance is “a form of direct action we can do everyday.” Addressing the PLF grantees in the audience, Quinlan noted that, by redirecting taxes to escrow accounts like the PLF, “we are not just saying no to war, we are saying yes to all the wonderful things you people are doing in this community.” 

 

For more information, contact: Northern California War Tax Resistance/People’s Life Fund 510-842-6124, nowartax@riseup.nethttp://www.nowartax.org 


NEWS ANALYSIS: “We are going to actually start amputating.”

By Helen Rippier Wheeler
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 09:59:00 PM

A “Director’s Roundtable Discussion” was held on Tuesday morning, April 20, 2010 at the North Berkeley Senior Center (NBSC), corner of MLK and Hearst, in the dining room section of the multipurpose room. NBSC director Larry Taylor spoke for about 35 minutes.  

Of the approximately 35-40 seniors present, most were waiting for the lunch process to begin. Tickets are purchased earlier in the morning and seats self-selected/reserved using numbered cards. The published menu for the day: “Tuscan bean salad, Cheese ravioli with tomato-basil-meat (turkey) sauce, Green beans, Seasonal fresh fruit.” 

Director Taylor opened with “Once in a while we do have misunderstandings, and we do try to be sensitive to the diverse cultures.” Reference was made to family orientations.  

On to “the bad news… The budget situation here in the City and how it’s manifested on the future of the Center… We have already made cuts. A plan is being considered to make further cuts.” Turning to his notes, Taylor alluded to the City Manager, and “We will be seeing some additional cuts in staffing. We are going to actually start amputating.”  

That things may worsen was also attributed to the state budget, which has a history of not being passed on time. A senior interjected a comment, which elicited sarcasm: “I am glad we have the mathematician here to calculate for you.”  

Lenora Waters (84) focused on communication as she queried what is to be done as we contribute to the sense of community. “The health of all residents is being considered... We have case managers that can assist you in directing you and by providing referrals… The Center van (seats approximately 10 persons) is among the things that provide reductions in seniors’ daily expenses…The City has a web site you can go to. You are able to read the monthly schedule. We have an Advisory Council…” 

Another woman declared: “There is no connection between the administration of the city of Berkeley and the people of this facility.” Taylor responded: “Well I am sorry you feel that way. Today ‘s meeting was put up on the wall at the front so you can be here.” (In point of fact, it was not listed there; the latest monthly posting of NBSC classes, events and menus on the web site is for the month of December 2009; April 20 NBSC events listed in the April newsletter -- i.e. “Tri-Center Nugget” -- consists of “Blood pressure w/Alice Meyers, R.N.” 

The Berkeley Adult School is also facing a budget crisis. There is no final word from them. Volunteer instructors will continue to provide classes. 

“Now to share the good news:” “The contractor has been selected” for NBSC capital improvements in the exterior and disabled access to the stage. It will be proposed at the Council meeting tonight. (Council agenda lists total construction at $355,968. Bids were opened on November 5, 2009 for the NBSC siding replacement and Americans with Disabilities Act improvements project.)  

Following the director’s remarks, I strolled among the tables, where seniors waited noon lunch trays distribution. Little time was provided for comments or contributions from the seniors who were there for the round table. Responding to Allen Stross’s question regarding whether the “Senior Resource Directory was available yet. “No, it is not.” (The last “Older Adult Resource Guide for Berkeley” was dated 2007.) 

A few couples were present, mostly women and men at separate tables. I greeted one couple, alone at a table, who responded with gestures that they know no English; their language is Turkish. Roxana Halvonik (age 72) approached me about having attended a class I had taught at NBSC for the Berkeley Adult School (BAS); as to any activist response to the ‘message’ that director Taylor was delivering, she replied that “ostrich” is her philosophy. (My class was “Strong Women”!) I pushed on to a “men’s table”: Bouce Bodell (80) described it as “Salami tactics” – explaining “it’s one slice at a time.” Larry Phillips, a member of the NBSC Advisory Council, responded: “Keep hope alive. The problem is political.” Others, including a former NBSC Advisory Council president, uniformly responded “I just got here” or “I can’t hear…”  


Bart Launches Bike Officer Patrol Progam

By Bay City News
Wednesday April 21, 2010 - 10:12:00 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.


New: Reaching Out at the Berkeley Public Library

By Phila Rogers
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 05:19:00 PM
Computer access at the North Branch Library.
Sayre Van Young
Computer access at the North Branch Library.
Colleen Fawley, an outreach specialist, getting into her car for her deliveries.
Sayre Van Young
Colleen Fawley, an outreach specialist, getting into her car for her deliveries.

For twenty years now, Colleen Fawley, the outreach specialist at the Berkeley Public Library, has been packing up her sturdy canvas bags full of books and other library materials taking them to Berkeley residents who can’t get to the library. Laughing, Colleen refers to herself as the library ‘bag lady.’ 

“Some days, I may make as many as eight stops,” she says, “but I also have to make time to research and locate books and do the inevitable paper works,” she adds. 

“I visit people in Senior Apartments, in Assisted Living Facilities and Nursing Care places,” she says. “For a person who likes to be on the go, this is a perfect job. Sometimes I make deliveries to a social activities person, but most often I’m filling individual request that usually come by phone ,” she adds. 

This day, she’s filling one bag with books and another with audiobooks which she will deliver to Redwood Gardens. For one resident, this is her first visit. A middle-aged disabled woman, the recipient is a long-time resident of the attractive housing that shares the Clark Kerr Campus with the UC student population. She requested mysteries, especially those featuring cats. (You notice cat dishes on her floor), or ones with women protagonists. The sunny apartment is filled with the savory odors of a hearty ox-tail soup being prepared by her helper who comes in twice a week to cook, clean, and do laundry. 

To an upstairs apartment, Colleen wheels a dozen CDs, also mysteries. The mostly bed-ridden patron listens to her books. A poster of California birds on her door announces the home of a bird lover. Inside the apartment, her pet cockateel is perched on top of its cage. 

From Redwood Gardens, Colleen continues downtown to Strawberry Lodge where she will make more deliveries. 

Colleen also visits a number of patrons still in their own homes and apartments. She observes that she is seeing more elders and disabled people remaining in their own places. Programs like the library outreach and “Meals on Wheels,” who we passed in the hallway at Redwood Gardens, are helping make staying put possible. 

For other people with physical challenges who can still make it to the library, there are plenty of services to help. 

Alan Bern, in charge of community relations for the Library describes some of them. “We’re committed to ‘reasonable accommodation’ to help people, disabled or not, get access to what they want and need,” he says. 

“That, of course, includes the 10 minutes we can spend reading the labels of audiobooks for blind or low vision patrons and reaching hard-to-reach materials,” he adds. (I, for one, not as agile as I once was, recently asked for assistance at the information desk at the Central Branch to bring up to eye level several audiobooks from the bottom shelf). 

And then there are all the technical devices to help (referred to as adaptive technology) such as an enlarger for Low Vision patrons and a Reading Edge for blind patrons along with various adaptive software and various Braille labels. 

Upstairs on the second floor, several features help with computer use such as Trackballs which you use to position the cursor. 

Some of these services require that you register for Extended Services. My partner who is now a slow reader because of his Parkinson’s disease recently registered so he can borrow his large print books for six-week periods. 

The library, not only packed with knowledge and information, also serves the community in many generous and innovative ways. 

 

To reach Colleen Fawley call 510.981.6160 or email her at cof1@ci.berkeley.ca.us . Alan can be reached at 510.981.6107. For general information on the variety services offered, check out the Berkeley Public Library home page and click on Disability Resources. 

 

Phila Rogers  


CAL DAY 2010 - Photo Essay

By Steven Finacom
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 07:28:00 PM
The Victory Cannon, fired when the football team scores at Memorial Stadium, was a popular attraction at Cal Day on Memorial Glade, staffed by Rally Committee members.
Steven Finacom
The Victory Cannon, fired when the football team scores at Memorial Stadium, was a popular attraction at Cal Day on Memorial Glade, staffed by Rally Committee members.
A single relaxed visitor inadvertently assumes the pose of a nearby sculpture.
Steven Finacom
A single relaxed visitor inadvertently assumes the pose of a nearby sculpture.
The University Chamber Chorus performed in the breezeway between Morrison Hall and Hertz Hall.
Steven Finacom
The University Chamber Chorus performed in the breezeway between Morrison Hall and Hertz Hall.

The UC Berkeley campus was a busy kaleidoscope of people and activities on Saturday, April 17, 2010.  

Cal Day festivities brought thousands to the campus to enjoy activities from rock climbing to rock art to a rock band. 

Much of the annual open house is aimed at prospective and incoming students, but there was plenty for all to do. Current students, faculty, and staff populated the campus with hundreds of activities, programs, and services to accommodate the streams of visitors who started arriving before 9:00 am. 


Kyle Harty Strang Memorial On Tuesday

Friday April 23, 2010 - 09:46:00 AM

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. 

 

 


Monday April 26, 2010 - 08:39:00 PM

How do we remember a social protest movement? Often by words that have been left behind: founding documents, manifestos, flyers, and the like. But visual artifacts can be powerful too: sometimes a movement’s images reveal its deepest character and commitments. 

That’s the case for an exhibition of posters that is being shown at a café/coffee house called “Local 123” (www.local123gallery.com), named after a Painters’ Local union hall that previously occupied the space. The posters, all of which were created here in the Bay Area, will be on display through June 1. 

The posters gathered for this exhibition come from various local collections, including Michael Rossman's "All Of Us Or None" archive. Rossman, who was a leader of the Free Speech Movement in 1964, a social activist, teacher, and historian, assembled this archive, which now consists of 24,000 posters. The entire collection is being donated to the Oakland Museum. 

Made during the so-called “Second Wave” of feminism that began in the 1960s, these images express a Women’s Movement that aimed to shake the very foundations of society and culture, and still does. The posters represent a wide range of causes and experiences. They show women in diverse walks of life – as industrial workers and labor union organizers, as mothers, nurses, and guerilla fighters. This art subjects all of these roles to critical scrutiny: at issue are all the gender positions and relationships that shape the identities of men and women, influencing the ways in which we view ourselves and one another. 

The Women’s Movement, here in the Bay Area and worldwide, developed in close relation with other movements of the time, including the anti-war and labor movements (hence the appropriateness of holding the exhibition at what used to be a union headquarters). In many cases we do not know the identities of the artists themselves; their posters were typically designed and created anonymously. Although the artists were often called upon to work quickly, under the pressure of the moment, they created works of beauty and meaning that remain compelling today. 

I had already seen some of these posters in books, but what surprised me, upon viewing the original images in full-size, attractively displayed on the walls of this labor-oriented cafe, was how much more powerful they are in their original form than in reproductions. Hence I encourage Daily Planet readers to see the exhibition for themselves. It recreates a world of the past, but one whose issues and messages are quite contemporary.  

A free lecture and slideshow about the exhibition will be given on May Day (Saturday, May 1) at 5 PM at the coffee house. The presenter will be archivist Lincoln Cushing, who together with Emma Spertus assembled the exhibition. Cushing, formerly a librarian at U.C. Berkeley's Bancroft Library and at the Institute of Industrial Relations, is a poster maker himself and has published four books about poster art. Spertus, too, is an artist. 

 

Café Local 123 is located at 2049 San Pablo in Berkeley, a half a block South of University Ave., and is open Monday to Friday 6:30 am to 7:00 pm, Saturday and Sunday 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. As of May 1, the café will be open until 10:30 PM on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. 

 

See below eight of the exhibition posters. 


Flash: Great news for Richard Goldstone and his family....Mazel Tov!

By Betty Medsger
Friday April 23, 2010 - 02:26:00 PM

Finally, there is good news. We just got a call from Noleen Goldstone telling us that the leadership of rabbis of South Africa, previously quite condemning of Richard and suggesting that threatening conditions might exist if he attended his grandson’s bar mitzvah in Johannesburg in early May, have relented. They have told him that he is free to participate in the event and that there will be no demonstrations against him inside or outside the synagogue.  

As you can imagine, the Goldstones are delighted at this turn of events. Most importantly, the bar mitzvah will be held in a peaceful atmosphere. Given the great hostility visited upon Richard, perhaps this change in attitude can also be the beginning of a reasonable discussion about the meaning of his report on the war in Gaza – a discussion that will rely on finding solutions for the problems described in the report rather than on rejecting it out of hand. We can hope. 

Two interesting developments took place before the South African rabbis announced their new stance: 

First, this open letter to Judge Goldstone signed by many rabbis, most of them from the U.S. and Israel. 

And this cartoon from today’s Mail & Guardian, a newspaper and news website in South Africa.  

 

Betty Medsger is a former Berkeley resident who has taught journalism at San Franciso State and New York University. 

 

 


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


Opinion

Editorials

How Much Government is Too Much?

By Becky O'Malley
Friday April 23, 2010 - 09:04:00 AM

The current discussion about what Americans now think of government, to which NPR has devoted this whole week, can be summed up in one very old Borscht Belt joke:

Two ladies discuss a Catskills hotel: “How did you like it?”

“It was awful. The food was terrible, and there wasn’t enough of it.”

That’s roughly what the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press reported in “Distrust, Discontent, Anger and Partisan Rancor: The People and Their Government” about the principal findings from a series of surveys designed to provide a detailed picture of the public’s opinions about government.

The bottom line? The government’s terrible, and there isn’t enough of it. 

Without getting into exact percentages, it’s safe to say that the perennial American undercurrent of distrust of government has always been coupled with complaints that government isn’t doing enough for some Americans. Numbers come and go, but the attitude festers in the body politic, sometimes dormant, sometimes active. 

Here’s a telling excerpt from the study, headlined: “The Regulation Paradox”. 

Despite the public’s negative attitudes toward large corporations, most Americans (58%) say that “the government has gone too far in regulating business and interfering with the free enterprise system.” This is about the same percentage that agreed with this statement in October 1997 (56%). 

Along these lines, the public opposes government exerting more control over the economy than it has in recent years. Just 40% say this is a good idea, while 51% say it is not. Last March, the balance of opinion was just the opposite. By 54% to 37%, more people said it was a good idea for the government to exert greater control over the economy. 

While the public is wary of too much government involvement with the economy, it suspends that concern when it comes to stricter regulation of major financial companies. A clear majority (61%) says it is a good idea for the government to more strictly regulate the way major financial companies do business, which is virtually unchanged from last April (60%).

 

What does this tell us about our fellow citizens? Well, for one thing, they seem to be a fickle bunch. And for another, they don’t seem to have a very clear idea of what they’re talking about. Of course, this phenomenon could be an artifact of what the questions were—they sound confusing. 

Here’s another sample: 

As in the past, poor performance is the most persistent criticism of the federal government. Fully 74% think that the federal government does only a fair or poor job of running its programs, which is on par with opinions in the late 1990s. 

But another strain of criticism is that the federal government’s priorities are misguided and that government policies do too little for average Americans. More than six-in-ten (62%) say it is a major problem that government policies unfairly benefit some groups while nearly as many (56%) say that government does not do enough to help average Americans. 

Since 1997, there has been a substantial increase in the percentage saying that middle-class people get less attention from the federal government than they should; 66% say that currently, up from 54% thirteen years ago. In contrast with many opinions about government, this view is shared by comparable percentages of Republicans (68%), Democrats (67%) and independents (65%). Conversely, about half of Republicans (52%), Democrats (52%) and independents (47%) say that Wall Street gets more attention than it should from the federal government.

 

How should this be interpreted? The central fact here is that if asked the vast majority of Americans would describe themselves as middle class—incomes from $30,00 to $250,000 all lumped in together by most people.  

So when “average” Americans (is this median or mean, anyway?) complain that “middle-class people get less attention from the federal government than they should”, they are really saying that “I’m personally feeling neglected.” As well they might, since a lot of things aren’t working out for a lot of people right about now. 

And of course, governments—all governments—often get it wrong . In a recent book about Britain in the 50s, as quoted by Nicholas Spice in the London Review of Books, historian David Kynaston describes a “profound cultural mismatch between progressive activators and the millions acted upon.” In the book’s account, says Spice, “ ‘ordinary people’ in the 1940s and 1950s were persistently spoken for and over the top of, their views often ignored, their voices shouted down.”  

Case in point: Britain in the ‘50s, when slum clearance was the order of the day. Spice paraphrases Kynaston: “In nothing were these ‘top-down’ assumptions more evident or more insensitive than in the matter of housing and town planning…Time and again…architects and planners simply ignored the wishes of the people whose world they were re-building. All the surveys showed a clear preference for houses over flats, but it was flats that were mostly built, those ‘streets in the sky’ that the modernist ideologues knew for certain were the way to promote community…” 

Does any of this sound familiar? Think San Francisco’s destruction of the Western Addition, or the push to redevelop West Berkeley. And any one who’s been to any of the innumerable public discussions of the Downtown Plan or Bus Rapid Transit in Berkeley should recognize the syndrome. 

A Planet reader wrote a recent commentary about how the proposed Berkeley Sunshine Ordinance (BSO) might illuminate discussions of such topics. He got these emailed comments from a critic (forwarded to us with the writer’s permission): “Do BSO supporters genuinely think that commissions and the council should vote on an issue based on the majority of spoken opinions at meetings?...any physical meeting attendance cannot, for multiple reasons, be considered 'representative'…the voice of a self-selected mob is not the same as the voice of representative democracy.”  

Spiro T. Agnew’s old Silent Majority once again rears its ugly head. The real voice of the people, in this view, is the one that doesn’t speak up when the opportunity is offered at a public hearing. 

Is this an endorsement therefore of the vociferous Teabaggers? No, of course not. But the reason they’ve gotten as much traction as they have so far is that they’re voicing genuine problems, even though their solutions leave a lot to be desired.  

Berkeley’s perennial tax and bond ballot measure opponents, almost all of whom would describe themselves as good liberals, are expressing some of the same sentiments. When they see the government doing a poor job, the strong temptation is to want to abolish or at least de-fund government. When planners come up with obviously flawed schemes again and again, Do Nothing is easy to view as the preferred alternative. 

And yet, we need housing for low-income Berkeleyans, and we need buses. But elected decision-makers and hired planners need to listen to the voices of ordinary people--yes, even at public hearings--and not substitute heir own limited and often flawed judgments.  

The people of Berkeley are saying, loud and clear, that they don’t want their sky filled with massive looming luxury condos just to get a few affordable apartments with views of blank walls in the package. Listen to them.  

They’re saying that if buses were free, comfortable, close to home and frequent, they’d use them more often, and that they don’t need those speedier trips to Bayfair Mall. Listen to them. 

They’re saying that they want a Sunshine Ordinance because they think that even with the Brown Act on their side, the city government continues to ignore them. Listen, just listen. 

 


The Editor's Back Fence

Worth a Look

Thursday April 22, 2010 - 05:15:00 PM

The San Francisco Bay Guardian reports that the San Francisco Democratic Central Committee, chaired by Berkeley High's own Aaron Peskin, passed a resolution opposing Mayor Gavin Newsom's proposal to make it illegal to sit or lie on the sidewalk in that city. Funny, we've had such a law for years--could it be that Berkeley's not as progressive as it thinks it is?


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.


Cartoons

Odd Bodkins -- Opening Day

By Dan O'Neill
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 08:56:00 PM
Opening Day
Dan O'Neill
Opening Day


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Thursday April 22, 2010 - 08:08:00 PM

More Nonsense From Israeli Apologists  

Except for Egypt the US does not give money to any ofthe Arab states that Dan Brown lists. And the only reason we give closely supervised money to Egypt is because they sold the Palestinians down the river at Camp David in 1979.It gave Israel a free hand for subsequent invasions of Lebanon. As far as the Occupied Territories goes the inhabitants have no rights as such because that is the very definition of a military occupation. Inside Israel the Arab citizens have some rights but they are still very much second class citizens. Maybe it would be helpful if Brown met some actual Palestinians who have lived under the Israeli Occupation instead of regurgitating the old AIPAC cliches.I remember Rhodesians and South Africans who sought to justify apartheid by referring to Idi Amin or some other African despot. All true and all totally irrelevant. Since we in the US foot the bill for Israel we have blood on our hands and need to take action to stop supporting such a state. I think we should cut off all our client states like Israel, Egypt, Colombia, ad nauseum. Now. 

 

Michael P. Hardesty 

 

*** 

What's the AARP Doing? 

Can you believe that AARP which supported the health overhaul effort without knowing its impact on medicare advantage, said it's too early to assess the potential impact of the law because too many details are not known? Nora Super, AARP's chief health care lobbyist said, "There may be a few bumps along the road as we transition into this new period." 

About half the funds to pay for the $940 billion health law will come from reduced federal government spending on the new Medicare program and she thinks we should sit tight and see what happens! I hope all seniors who are on the edge over this insurance care overhaul would drop their AARP membership. 

 

Tori Thompson 

*** 

KPFA Meeting a Pleasant Surprise 

We were blessedly bored on April 10th, and went home at the end of the afternoon, thankful for an undramatic and productive (LSB) meeting. 

That was not at all what I expected. After the multiple dramatic scenes of the previous KPFA board meeting (held on March 7th), I personally dreaded the absolute worst--more filibustering, yelling and screaming. Instead, to my surprise and relief, it went almost amicably. 

The CL'ers ("Concerned Listeners") had been pushing for a re-election of board officers, and, the ICR ("Independents for Community Radio") agreed to it. While board members are elected by KPFA listeners and staff, the officers of the board are chosen by members of the board itself. The CL'ers had boycotted the election of officers on December 5th and refused to recognize the results. They had been asking for at least one office, and at this meeting they got it, and, in return, gracefully accepted the three other officers proposed by the ICR. 

Anthony Fest (ICR) is the new chair, and Pam Drake (CL) the new vice chair. Akio Tanaka and Simon Pius remain secretary and treasurer. It did seem fair to many people (including myself) that the minority should have one of the four officer positions. 

The station has a new interim General Manager, Ahmed Anderson. He attended the meeting to give a report on the state of the station. He has been the Pacifica Human Resources Director and expects to return full time to his HR job within three months, by which time a permanent General Manager should be found. 

After that, committees were finally set up and peopled with board members. A GM hire committee was also launched. 

A lot got done that day, and writing this summary, I was about to express my hope that more meetings would be like this one--but ?! Glancing at my notes, I'm reminded of bad news from the treasurer's report. KPFA is extremely low on funds, even lower than we thought. So if your KPFA membership has lapsed, or if you haven't been a member, this would be an excellent time to renew or join. 

 

Daniel Borgström 

*** 

Teens Turning Green  

I am an eighth grader attending Marin Country Day School but I live in Berkeley. At my school we do service learning projects to learn about how, why, and where we can do community service. I have been volunteering with some of my classmates with an organization called Teens Turning Green. TTG is also known as Teens for Safe Cosmetics. It is a organizations of teens across America that is working toward eliminating toxins in our daily lives. That means cosmetics, cleaning supplies, clothes, and anything else you come in contact with on a regular basis. We generally try to make the world a cleaner and healthier place for everyone. Our latest project is passing a ban eliminating single-use plastic bags and possibly taxing paper bags in Marin County. Did you know that the US uses about 380 billion plastic sacks, bags, and wraps annually? These end up mostly in landfills, urban and rural neighborhoods, and the ocean. Also, paper bags can be just as harmful to the environment as plastic bags because of the enormous amount of energy it takes to create and distribute them. It all needs to end. My goal with this letter is to inspire anyone who reads it to start a similar movement in their area. Who knows, maybe Berkeley will beat Marin to banning single use bags, I certainly wouldn't be surprised, or all that upset. 

 

Zoe Morgan-Weinman 


New: When Will the University of California Stop Funding War Crimes Against Palestinian Civilians?

By Matthew A. Taylor
Monday April 26, 2010 - 01:31:00 PM

When will the University of California stop funding war crimes against Palestinian civilians? How much longer will grieving mothers have to wait for justice? 

Zinad Samouni is still waiting. She is a 35-year-old Palestinian mother of eight who lost 48 of her family members in Israel’s assault on Gaza in January 2009, including her four-year-old son Ahmed. 

“The soldiers came early on the morning of Sunday January 4th. [My husband] Atiyeh went to the door with his hands raised holding his ID but they shot him in the doorway,” said Zinad. “I shouted ‘children, children’ in Hebrew but they started shooting,” said Zinad’s nephew Faraj. 

After the massacre, Israeli soldiers left messages for the dead Samouni family members on the walls of a neighbor’s house. The graffiti read: “Arabs need 2 die,” “Arabs are pieces of shit,” and “1 is DOWN 999,999 TO GO.” 

Israel’s attack on civilians was a “deliberate policy” designed to inflict “humiliation and dehumanization of the Palestinian population,” according to a United Nations report. 

The minority of UC Berkeley student senators who did not vote in favor of Senate Bill 118, “A Bill in support of UC Divestment from War Crimes,” expressed uncertainty about whether Israel committed war crimes in Gaza. Why is it that every independent organization that has investigated has asserted that Israel committed war crimes? Is it credible to believe that Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the U.N. are all lying? Why did numerous Rabbis endorse the Goldstone Report's findings? 

What is the ASUC’s responsibility: to protect the human lives that are stolen by UC-funded war crimes, or to insulate Israel’s defenders from the uncomfortable feelings that arise when the truth is told? 

Why did the Israeli Prime Minister’s sister-in-law, Ofra Ben-Artzi, join numerous prominent Jews and Israelis in endorsing the divestment bill? Is it credible to believe she would have done so if the bill somehow undermined Israeli identity or criticized Israel unfairly? 

Some of the student senators who didn’t vote yes have expressed that if today were 1960, they would support a divestment bill related to Jim Crow segregation, because it was clearly a situation of oppression. How many more Palestinian civilians must die at the hands of UC bombs before student senators see this oppression? Or will senators forever sit on their hands because of the tears and emotional outbursts of the defenders of Israel, who cry about their supposed feelings of marginalization even as the UC-backed Israeli military deals out death and destruction to four-year-olds? 

The divestment bill only targets corporations with clear ties to Israel’s war crimes and illegal occupation. It does not call for divestment from Israel, as Israel’s defenders have falsely claimed. It sensibly does not take any stance on the final status issues in the Israel/Palestine conflict, such as negotiations over borders. The only thing it does is to send a message to UC to stop funding illegal activities that harm Palestinian civilians, and establish a committee to investigate other possible examples of UC-funded war crimes. 

The Palestinian militant group Hamas also committed war crimes, albeit on a smaller scale than Israel’s. Fortunately, U.S. law prohibits investments that support Hamas. Thus it is unnecessary to include Hamas in the divestment call. 

Israel’s defenders point out that the divestment bill does not mention any other human rights violations. But no one said that Berkeley’s South Africa Apartheid divestment bill must include Columbia’s human rights violations, for example. Each human rights violation is unique, and those who want to target other violations should write and promote such a bill. They will need to establish how UC funding contributes to those violations, which requires months of careful research. 

Senators, how do you think it feels for us students to know that our tuition dollars are paying to kill our friends, family members, and colleagues in Gaza? Israel should not be entitled to special treament and a free pass to commit war crimes just because it promotes itself as a Jewish state and certain defenders of Israel can’t bring themselves to see the reality of war crimes. 

A vote in favor of the divestment bill is a small cry for common sense and ethics in UC investments, and removes the current UC bias toward funding Israel’s military. Any other vote will continue the status quo of this University funding yet more war crimes against Palestinian civilians. 

The UC Berkeley student senate will cast a final vote on the divestment bill on April 28th, with 14 votes needed to override the student president’s veto of the bill. Last time, 13 voted yes. One more yes vote will finally begin the process of justice for Zinad Samouni’s 48 dead family members. 

Matthew A. Taylor is a UC Berkeley Peace and Conflict Studies student on leave. He is a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine, and author of a published paper entitled “The Road to Nonviolent Coexistence in Israel/Palestine.” 

 


New: Dangers of Cell Towers Continued

By Harry Brill
Saturday April 24, 2010 - 10:10:00 AM

I am responding to Ray Barglow's disagreement with my Berkeley Planet commentary, which asserts that electromagnetic emissions from cell towers are dangerous to our health and longevity. Ray challenges the studies which claim that these emissions are a public hazard. He believes that they suffer major methodological flaws. Actually, no research on the issue is more flawed than a study that is currently being sponsored by the wireless industry. Incredibly, the industry study excludes certain types of tumors. It even eliminates from the sample those who died or were too sick to answer questions. Ray does note that those whose research he criticizes are not coming to the wrong conclusions because they harbo ulterior motives. But I don't think we could be as generous about those researchers who completely dismiss the issue. 

There have been a substantial and growing number of studies, far more than I mentioned in the Planet article, that document the intolerable assault on the health of those who live near cell towers. As a result, over 100 physicians and scientists at Harvard and Boston University Schools of Public Health have agreed that cell towers pose serious risks, whether cell phone users or not. Keep in mind that these scientists are not wild eyed radicals seeking to prey on the business community. 

The U.S. standard of radiation exposure from cell sites is among the least protective in the world. The exposure allowed in the U.S. is 580-1,000 microwatts per sq. centimeter, which is 100 to 1,000 times higher than in many countries. Only 10 microwatts are allowed in Russia and Italy, 6 microwatts in China, and only 4 microwatts in Switzerland. I doubt that the widespread fear in Europe and elsewhere that cell site emissions are very dangerous is due to neurotic anxiety. 

Obviously, we can have our cell phones without sacrificing our lives for the sake of convenience. But the higher financial costs to business to make these cell sites safer would reduce the rate of profit. Indeed, profit maximization has already given us polluted air and water, food sprayed with poisonous pesticides, and many products that present safety and health hazards. Now for a growing number of people electromagnetic emissions are inescapable. It should not be a surprise that life expectancy in 47 countries is higher than in the United States.  

Ray and I have a disagreement about the impact of cell towers, but we agree on a fundamental political principle. Ray is, as always, committed to democracy. I am pleased, but not surprised, that he believes that a community has a right to decide about whether cell sites should be allowed, and if so, under what conditions I couldn't ask for a more worthy opponent. 

 

Harry Brill 


An Open Letter to the Mayor and Councilmembers: What’s the Real Intended Usage of the 2707 Rose Street Structure?

By John English
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 09:23:00 PM

I strongly urge you to either hold your own full public hearing on the 2707 Rose Street project or remand the matter to the Zoning Adjustments Board. The ZAB's glaringly flawed January decision to approve the project needs reconsidering for multiple reasons--one of which this letter discusses. 

The following intriguingly pertinent statement appeared in reporter Chris Carrassi's article about the project in the February 23 issue of the Daily Californian: "[Mitchell] Kapor said in an e-mail that a substantial part of the home would be used to raise funds for community and campus groups, including scholarship programs for low-income and under-represented students enrolled at UC Berkeley." 

Gee, that sounds nice--but wait a minute! Would such "substantial" usage jibe with the property's R-1 zoning? 

The fund-raising mentioned by Kapor's e-mail sounds like what's done by the Mitchell Kapor Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization whose directors evidently are Kapor and his wife. That foundation and/or others closely linked to it have several staff members who presently work in offices at 543 Howard Street in Downtown San Francisco. 

What would the fund-raising at 2707 Rose Street involve--and who would be doing it? 

Would it be just a sort of hobby pursued only by the house's residents, Mitchell Kapor and his wife? 

Would using a substantial part of the proposed very large house for fund-raising constitute, and qualify as, a "home occupation"? The Zoning Ordinance prescribes maximum square footage for such occupations. And its very definition of "home occupation" includes the relevant key words "operated only by the inhabitants of the subject residence." 

In reality, would non-resident staff members of the Kapors' foundations regularly or frequently work at 2707 Rose? This well may explain why the building would be so big--and why there'd be 10 or 12 parking spaces! 

If the fund-raising would qualify neither as a purely residential hobby nor as a home occupation, how would it be classified? Arguably it would be an "office use," which the Zoning Ordinance defines as "A building or portion of a building used for conducting the business or affairs of a profession, business service, non-profit organization, agency, public utility and/or government entity." It might also be called a "charitable use," which the Zoning Ordinance defines as "A use which is conducted by a charitable institution, organization or association organized for charitable purposes and conducted for charitable purposes only, as defined under state or federal tax laws." 

But now look at the Zoning Ordinance's Section 23D.16.030, which lists the specific uses allowable in the R-1 District. This mentions some non-profit-type uses such as "clubs" and "community centers," both of which would require a Use Permit--but it doesn't list general "office use" or "charitable use." 

The project application failed to disclose anything at all about using part of the building for fund-raising. The staff report said nothing about such use and whether or not it would be allowable in R-1. 

For this and other compelling reasons the whole project should be thoroughly--and even-handedly--reconsidered. 


The Blight Meg Will Bring to Calfornia

By Jack Bragen
Friday April 23, 2010 - 10:52:00 AM

Meg Whitman’s misleading campaign for Governor in which she magically claims to be able to fix California’s ills is another example of the bait and switch tactic that many politicians are using these days. Her campaign states that she will “Create Jobs, Cut Government Spending, and Fix Education.” And so far, we only have a few clues as to how she plans to pull off these violations of the laws of physics. 

It seems that her plan for the creation of jobs includes “targeted tax cuts.” This is doublespeak and the true meaning of this is tax cuts on the rich. This dates back to Reaganomics in which padding the wallets of the rich was supposed to create a “trickle down,” for the middle class and poor. It is a well known fact that when rich people get more money, they tend to hang onto it. Therefore, these “targeted tax cuts,” will do nothing more than help out the destitute rich people with their economic hardships. No one else will see this money. And this tactic also deprives the state of valuable revenue, a funding gap that must be replaced with higher taxes on the poor and middle class. So, now that we’ve blown up the Meg’s mythical plan for how she intends to create jobs, lets look at the next one: 

Meg Whitman’s second campaign promise is to “cut government spending.” She intends to do this partly by raiding the state’s pension system. So, let’s say you’ve worked hard for the State of California for thirty years and you’ve settled down into retirement; get ready to start your new job at Wal-Mart. 

In earlier advertisements, Meg was targeting the “welfare cases,” that must be “eliminated.” Sounds like she wants to cut people’s SSI benefits, in that case, on top of cutting pensions. Disabled people, get ready for your new job digging ditches. Governor Arnold has already cut spending to the bone, has reduced SSI, has reduced welfare, has cut every program that can be cut, and more. There is no cutting left to do. Rather than more cuts in spending, Meg needs to raise taxes on the rich. Of course, she won’t do this. 

Meg’s website says that in times past when the state’s revenues dropped, taxes were raised to compensate for this--and this has to stop. So if you are in a canoe that’s sinking and you think you ought to dump out some water, also known as “bailing,” you shouldn’t do that; it’s contrary to the Whitman Republican philosophy. You should just let your canoe sink. 

Lastly, Meg wants to “Fix Education.” How is she planning to do that, by making teachers more accountable? Teachers are already dedicated to doing a good job, despite being underpaid and overworked. Teachers are already accountable. Education the wealthy areas is still top notch because those towns have chosen to tax themselves so that they will have good schools for their kids. This is a source of educational discrimination that I have not seen a politician address. The real solution is to fix our schools by providing the funding needed. Meg’s idea is likely to be more like taking a bullwhip to the teachers. 

We have had rich, celebrity governors wreck the state of California already, including both Reagan and Schwarzenegger. These are actors turned politicians who have made the state friendlier to the rich, but who have been disastrous for everyone else. Whitman seems to be another politician of this vein. 

Do the poor and destitute, the seniors and the disabled, and anyone else who is not a member of the rich people’s club all need a kick in the pants in the name of fixing the state? Or can we do without Meg Whitman as our governor? 


Moments of Tragedy & Test for Beijing

By Chime Tenzing ( Dharamsala - India )
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 08:33:00 PM

It’s time for Beijing to show the world how far they are ready to translate their concern for the Tibetans into action through a well-planned speedy relief works & requisite aids for the victims of the Kyigudo earthquake 

As I begin to write this piece, the death toll from the Kyigudo earthquake has crossed above thousand and still body count is on the rise as the survival prospect of the victims trapped under the rubbles becomes difficult as days elapses by. Pictures of hundred of dead bodies scattered around, what looks like a make-shift morgue, appear before my eyes and the sight of the corpses piled up on top of one another keeps me haunted and disturbed for day in and out.. It is difficult to imagine how such tragic moments are being faced by our brothers and sisters in Kyegudu.For now, praying for the return of normalcy and peace to the region is the only option for many of us who have been distanced and exiled from our homeland due to political reasons. 

The tragedy that struck Tibet last week left the Tibetans and its sympathizers throughout the world with one common and nagging question: How would foreign aids from outside Tibet , or China for that matter, will make it to the victims, knowing the security restrictions put up by the communist government of China and the PLA forces throughout Tibet. Unlike other Han-Tibetan mixed neighborhood, Kyegudu is an area exclusively populated by Tibetan farmers, herdsmen, monks and tradesmen where the ruling government sees the potential of mass uprising as an upshot from the March 2008 riot in Lhasa.The tragic quake suddenly brought the Tibetans back to the limelight despite strict media restrictions and ban due to its political sensitiveness.  

Beijing had managed to make a good impression during the Sichuan earthquake in May 2008 showing the world how efficient the Chinese government and the People’s Liberation Army could be. But that, in contrast to the present tragedy, can be seen from a different political light because Sichuan is not exclusively Tibetan inhabited area and it is but natural to receive the unconditional support and sympathy from the mainland China because most of the lives and properties lost in that tragedy were of ethnic Han Chinese origin. 

Going by the recent development taking place at Kyigudo, it looks good for some of us to learn that President Hu visited Kyegudu, cutting short an official trip to South America, to deal with the disaster and met with the victims and their families. Whether it was a ‘scripted trip’ or otherwise, this would definitely help rebuilding the image of Beijing. At this hour of tragedy it is in the best interest of Beijing to act swiftly leaving aside all the political issues. It is the most opportune time for Beijing to act and engage in relief works for the maimed, injured and the families of the dead. This is how the world would weigh Beijing’s response to the tragedy and it would be nice for them to see Beijing in a kind of a role-reversal avatar. 

Against all odds and hope, Tibetans in Kyigudo have reportedly appealed to the President Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao to allow the Dalai Lama to visit the area and pray for the victims in a letter written by the Tibetans of Kyigudo. They would be most fortunate if a visit by His Holiness becomes reality! Unfortunately, this is most unlikely because Beijing reviles His Holiness as ‘separatist’ and ‘splittist ’.And , also this would mean exposing China’s lies to the outside world! 

Therefore, right now, keeping all the political differences at the back-burner, Beijing should focus completely on providing necessary life support to the families of the dead and those who were injured and rendered homeless. They should allow freedom of media and accept all the international aids coming to the region without any restrictions. By doing so, Beijing would have easily had the balls in their court. If it keep pressing the panic button and remain hyper conscious of its image at this hour, they would have to surely face the censures from the global communities and human rights watch dogs. Therefore, it is in the best interest of Beijing to show the better side of its politics and engage in rescue work without any strings of conditionality attached. This tragedy could be Beijing’s test to the rest of the world. With this I leave with prayers for the victims and bereaved families of Kyigudo. OM MANE PADME HUNG! ( Buddhist Mantra for Peace). 


Climate Equity: A Lost Cause?

By Craig Collins, Ph.D.
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 07:31:00 PM

The message delivered by the poor nations and climate activists gathered in Bolivia this week is undeniably just: The world desperately needs an effective climate agreement. Rich countries are primarily responsible for causing this problem and have reaped most of benefits of two centuries of fossil-fueled industrialization. Therefore, they must bear most of the costs of responding to climate change and overcoming the world’s addiction to fossil fuels. Only the callous or ethically challenged would dispute this position on moral grounds. 

Who can doubt that the carbon emissions disrupting Earth’s climate are the gaseous refuse of a modernization process that has enriched a handful of nations? The South’s demand for equity, of course, can also be leveled at the fast lane, energy-guzzling, jet-setters in every country whose opulent life styles clog the atmosphere with climate-altering carbon. If justice requires polluters to shoulder the cost of clean up and compensate victims for their losses, then rich elites and wealthy nations must take the primary responsibility for halting climate chaos and rectifying the damages it causes. 

But even though the South’s case for climate justice is ethically sound, it may be politically doomed. The call for atmospheric equity emanating from Cochabamba will be either ignored or distorted by Washington and the Western press. It’s best to plug your ears and turn a blind eye if you don’t have a leg to stand on. 

But indifference and denial are not the main reasons the quest for climate justice has scant hope of success. Power, not morality, is the currency of international politics. In the corridors of power, the moral high ground is nearly worthless without real leverage to back it up. And, when it comes to climate change, the South has very little leverage to wrest justice from the North. 

There are those who believe the South has substantial bargaining leverage because--without the participation of developing nations like China, India, South Africa and Brazil--no effective climate agreement is possible. Twenty years ago, the South’s successful hold-out strategy compelled wealthy nations to assume responsibility for protecting the ozone layer by phasing out CFCs and funding the South’s adoption of ozone-friendly alternatives. But, even though the South’s participation is as essential to the success of climate negotiations as it was to protecting the ozone layer, the threat of boycotting inequitable climate negotiations is no longer an ineffective strategy for winning climate justice. 

There are a few major reasons why this strategy has lost its bargaining power. First, unlike ozone negotiations, the hold-out strategy is not credible because the South will suffer more from climate change than the North. Back in 1990, the North was more desperate for an ozone agreement than the South. They needed to protect their lighter skinned, cancer-prone populations from the UV rays bombarding them through the ozone holes spreading out from the poles. This situation gave the South bargaining power because they were less threatened by ozone depletion than the North and needed CFCs to preserve food through refrigeration. Thus, the South’s threat to boycott negotiations, unless the North helped defray the cost of adopting CFC alternatives, was quite credible and potent. 

For climate negotiations, the situation is reversed. Compared to rich nations, poor countries already suffer more from climate change and have less capacity to adapt. Rising sea levels and increased tropical storms already threaten the existence of small island nations and low-lying countries, while desertification, drought and shrinking glaciers in the Himalayas and the Andes endanger the water and food supplies of Asia, Africa and Latin America. 

Thus, the South needs to halt climate chaos even more than the North. Even though this strengthens their ethical case, it severely undermines the credibility of their threat to walk out on any agreement that doesn’t meet their equity demands. Even the European countries that are more enthusiastic about cutting their carbon emissions than the United States are not convinced that they’ll need to make any significant equity concessions to garner Southern participation. 

Finally, compared to the assistance needed to help the South replace CFCs, the price tag for any major effort to fund the South’s transition to a carbon-free energy infrastructure would be astronomical. Wealthy countries are hard-pressed to finance alternative energy development within their own borders. Foreign assistance to promote these efforts abroad will face monumental resistance, fomented and financed by the fossil fuel industry. 

Once again a comparison with ozone negotiations is instructive. Because major CFC producers like DuPont were also the inventors of CFC replacements, they became downright enthusiastic about an ozone fund to help poor nations adopt these alternatives. But for climate change the economic calculus is reversed. The powerful fossil fuel lobby in the North steadfastly oppose any fund to help the South afford carbon-free alternatives. It has no interest in encouraging countries to adopt wind and solar even if it has made some marginal investments in them. Petroleum is far more profitable and heavily subsidized than renewables and any fund designed to help the South adopt carbon-free alternatives could undermine the fossil fuel industry’s hegemony over the global energy market. 

Therefore, unless the North becomes: 1) unified around the urgency of preventing climate disruption; 2) convinced that it must make significant equity concessions to garner Southern participation; and 3) willing to absorb the costs of assisting their transition to carbon-free development, the South will remain in a weak bargaining position, despite the strong ethical argument behind their equity demands. Unlike ozone negotiations, time does not favor the South’s hold-out strategy because the ravages of climate disruption will be felt more in the South than the North. This means the South may have to settle for considerably less equity compensation than justice would demand in an ideal world. 

Craig Collins, Ph.D. is an environmental policy instructor at CSU East Bay, and author of the recently released book Toxic Loopholes (Cambridge University Press) 

 


The Scandal of PG&E's New Meters

By Steve Martinot
Friday April 23, 2010 - 10:48:00 AM

PG&E has been installing what they call "Smartmeters", which broadcast readings of a residence's power usage to PG&E, so that they won't need meter-readers any more. This will give them hourly information on private electric power usage. PG&E has not said why they need this kind of information, except to suggest it is for its customers own good (self-monitoring). But these new meters are a total scandal.  

The scandal first emerged in the form of billing increases. Some people's bills came back double, triple, even quadruple their normal charges after the meters were installed. This has been so upsetting that, to date, four cities have instituted or are formulating moratoriums on the installation of these meters until their many problems can be resolved. What are these problems?  

These meters have never been tested for accuracy.  

They have not been tested for accuracy by either PG&E and the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC). Both simply took the manufacturer's word for it. Because of the uproar, the PUC has actually contracted with the "Structure Group" (a utility consultant in Houston, Texas) to test the meters. Though this should have halted their installation, it didn't. It is the variability in the inaccuracies that points to the problem. If the inaccuracy had been uniform, it could have been corrected centrally by PG&E. But some report usage that is double or triple a house's average, resulting in grossly elevated billing charges, while others report usage that accords with former averages. It signifies that the problem is in the manufacture of the meters.  

Funding for these meters is coming from federal economic recovery moneys.  

One of the benefits that PG&E will receive from these meters is that they can then dispense with all their meter-readers. They are receiving subsidies from the federal government for this meter replacement program as part of its economic recovery program. But recovery means giving people jobs so that they can earn an income, not laying more people off. PG&E is receiving recovery funds and using them against recovery.  

There is a health issue from the meter's broadcast radiation. . 

These meters broadcast on the microwave band, which is the same band your kitchen microwave ovens use. Along with cell phones and other devices, there is growing evidence that the increasing mass of electromagnetic radiation contributes to serious health problems for people. Some people pooh-pooh this idea, and assure us that PG&E's broadcast radiation is well below FCC standards. It is the FCC standard that is scandalous. The FCC standard for microwave radiation safety is set at the level above which the radiation (close to its source) starts to heat up human tissue. That is, the only health risk the FCC recognizes is the cooking of flesh. All the possible health risks from lower level radiation are discounted (though they are clearly recognized by most European countries, who set the safe maximum for radiation energy much lower).  

The other scandal is that the installation of every new radiating device is done without concern for the cumulative effect of adding another source to a physical environment filled with sources of electromagnetic radiation. These new meters do not stand alone; they add themselves to an already massive public exposure: radio, TV, high-tension power lines, wifi, cell phones, microwave ovens, other appliances, each adding its small amount to the others. And these meters will add a network of radiation sources from all the houses of a neighborhood.  

Despite all the disclaimers about the safety of these meters, two women in SF have had those meters removed because of illness directly attributable to their broadcast radiation. The symptoms one of these women experienced was headache, depression, dehydration, anxiety, and tingling in the extremities.  

PG&E does not give its customers an option. .  

PG&E has said that eventually, those who do not accept these new meters will have their power shut off. It won't matter that they have paid their bills. A number of people have made public offers to PG&E to read the meter and phone in the reading to PG&E. That way, they will not need a meter-reader (though they should retain those readers as part of the crisis recovery process). If PG&E wants us to trust them to be above board, honest, without corporate malfeasance or price-gouging, then they should reciprocate and trust us, their clientelle. (A friend of mine suggests that, because these meters will use electrical energy for their broadcasts, which they will take from the individual's account, PG&E should give all its customers a discount for its use of the customer's power.) But ultimately, we should all have an option (a "vote") to opt out of the new meter's installation (PG&E trumpets the idea of a vote in its Prop 16 propaganda).  

These meters are hackable, creating a vulnerability for the household. .  

What it means that they are hackable is that someone with a computer and wifi can not only read these meters from the street nearby, but change their readings (as reported in the SF Chronicle, 3/27/2010). By reading a house's hourly usage, a person can discover when people are home and when they are likely not home. This is a vulnerability, leaving the house or apartment possibly available for pillage. PG&E has done nothing to render these meters unhackable, since they want to be able to control the meters themselves, possibly to shut off power for a customer, if for no other reason.  

There are a number of petitions going around in Berkeley requesting that city and county government impose a moratorium on the installation of these meters pending resolution of these issues, that is, of the meter's inaccuracy, its cumulative health risks, its vulnerability to hacking, its contribution to the ongoing economic crisis, and the question of its necessity for the customers of PG&E.  

Ultimately, the real scandal is not just PG&E, but the fact that a public service, such as a utility, is given to be performed by a corporation, where corporations are constituted precisely to eliminate any liability for their personel. They are thus structures devoid of social responsibility in all but their self-serving hype. The fact that PG&E intends on spending around $35 million to pass Proposition 16, which will effectively prevent public power in California, is an example. Their propaganda about that proposition is untrue. They claim that we do not have a vote on whether we want public power or not. But we do have to vote on it if we want it. Prop 16 would establish the necessity of a two-thirds vote instead of the simple majority it is now. It would make it effectively impossible, given that corporations can spend unlimited moneys in a campaign, to vote in public power.  

 


Updated: Judge Richard Goldstone, Invited to Move Bar Mitzvah To San Francisco,to be Honored Instead

By Rabbi Michael Lerner
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 06:29:00 PM

Update: Judge Goldstone will now attend his grandson's Bar Mitzvah after all,according to an email from Rabbi Lerner.  

 

Judge Richard Goldstone has been reviled in some sections of the Jewish world for his UN report which found prima facie reason to believe that Israel (and Hamas) had committed war crimes during Israel's invasion of Gaza December 2008 - January 2009.  

Judge Goldstone recommended that Israel do its own investigation and answer the specific allegations. Instead (like Hamas) it did no such thing, but rather high level officials of the Israeli government suggested that Goldstone (a long time supporter of Israel and a member of the board of the Hebrew University, and a universally respected jurist who had conducted similar investigations for the UN of the human rights violations in South Africa, in other African countries, and in Bosnia) was actually anti-Semitic or a self-hating Jew. Meanwhile, the US Congress passed a resolution urging the UN to ignore the Goldstone report, and the Obama Administration similarly dismissed it as "flawed" but did not specify any of its alleged flaws. 

For those of us in the Jewish community who recognize that Israel's treatment of Palestinians and its overt violations of human rights are not only a rejection of traditional Jewish values, but are also dangerous both to the survival of the State of Israel and to the future safety of the Jewish people living all around the world, the pressure put by Judge Goldstone on Israel to clear its name was a welcome breath of fresh air. Goldstone made clear that his charges were not substantiated, that had Israel been willing to cooperate with his UN sponsored investigation they might well have helped him eliminate elements of the report that were not true according to Israeli information, which was not supplied to him, and that in any event his call for the UN to bring these matters before the International Court at the Hague was only to occur if Israel did not publicly appoint an independent judiciary of its own to investigate the charges in public hearings. As many of us in the peace community noted, the charges could easily have been responded to by Israel taking the stance that these acts were not part of its policy, that they regretted them and intended to take steps to make sure that things of this sort would never happen again, and that it would hold accountable and punish those engaged in or giving orders for or collaborating with human rights violations.  

We in the peace community both in Israel and around the world see Justice Goldstone as upholding the best ethical values of the Jewish community, so we are outraged at the treatment he has received. The most recent, the banning of him from his own grandson's Bar Mitzvah in South Africa, led us at Tikkun to invite him to do his grandson's Bar Mitzvah here in the United States where many Jews would honor him. He was delighted with the invite, but said it was too late. So we have decided to award Judge Goldstone the annual Tikkun Award at the celebration of our 25th Anniversary in the Spring of 2011. Other recipients who appeared at previous conferences include Abba Eban, Allen Ginsberg, Irving Howe, Alred Kazin, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Marion Wright Edelman, Yehuda Amichai, Senator Paul Wellstone, and James Hillman. 


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  

 

 


Columns

THE PUBLIC EYE: Big Liars and the Voters Who Love Them

By Bob Burnett
Friday April 23, 2010 - 08:41:00 AM

It’s not surprising that Republicans oppose the Obama Administration – they want to suck up to the rich by maintaining the status quo. And it’s not surprising that they lie – this is, after all, the Party that created the fictional Iraqi atomic bomb threat so they would have a winning issue in the 2002 mid-term elections. What is surprising is that they’ve been so successful. Why are Republican supporters so enthusiastic when they’ve been force-fed a diet of BS? 

The Republican master plan is hauntingly reminiscent of Hitler’s Big Lie philosophy: “Never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.” It’s based on the immoral stance: “the ends justify the means.” 

During the 2009 Presidential campaign, the GOP big lie program started rumors that Obama had not been born in the US, was a Muslim, and palled around with terrorists. It worked! A recent Louis Harris poll of Republicans found that 67 percent “believe that Obama is a socialist.” 57 percent “believe that Obama is a Muslim.” 45 percent believe that Obama “was not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president." 

Once Obama became President, the Republican propaganda machine claimed Democrats were responsible for the financial collapse – that stemmed from Bush era mismanagement – and favored bailouts for Wall Street because Obama was a liberal elitist. 

During the yearlong healthcare debate, the GOP lie machine generated a series of nasty falsehoods: “death panels,” Washington bureaucrats interfering with the doctor-patient relationship, seniors losing Medicare coverage, and so forth. Meanwhile, Republican Senators feigned cooperation, dragging on deliberations with the intent of killing the healthcare bill by attrition. 

Now Republicans – guided by conservative pollster Frank Luntz – are opposing financial reform with another big lie assault: the Democratic plan would produce future bailouts, create a massive government bureaucracy, and stifle small businesses. 

During the past fifteen months, the Tea Party developed, a faux movement bankrolled by archconservatives such as the Koch brothers, in order to mobilize resentment among hard-core Republicans who’d been turned off by the McCain campaign. They serve the same function for the GOP in the US that the Basij volunteers do for Ahmadinejad in Iran. They hassle the opposition, pal around with militias, and serve as a conduit for relentless negativism. Tea Party activists swallow the Republican lies, hook, line, and sinker. 

There are five reasons for their energy and gullibility: First, none of them voted for Obama, so it’s easy for them to believe he won by cheating and to blame him for everything that’s gone wrong since – including The Great Recession that had its roots in the Bush Administration. A recent NEW YORK TIMES Tea Party poll found that 57 percent of Tea Party adherents – most of whom are Republicans – had a favorable opinion of former President Bush. Only 7 percent had a favorable opinion of President Obama. 

Second, it’s easier to attack public policy than it is to propose practical solutions. Republicans malign the Democratic financial reform plan because they don’t have any alternatives. Meanwhile, Tea Party adherents are angry about the way things are going in Washington and want to reduce the size of government; 90 percent believe “the country is headed in the wrong direction.” 

Third, Republicans have historically played to the myth of “rot at the top,” and it’s convenient to do this again. Tea Party adherents hate the bailouts, see the economy as “very bad,” and blame Congress, Wall Street, and the Obama Administration. They oppose financial reform because they don’t trust the Federal government. 

Fourth, in his classic political study What’s the Matter with Kansas Tom Frank noted that fiscal conservatives – favoring deregulation and lower taxes – constantly bamboozle social conservatives – favoring social issues such as abortion and gay rights – by using the theme of victimization. They blame America’s problems on the “’liberal elite,’ … they eschew economic reasons in favor of accusing this elite of simply hating America, or having a desire to harm ‘average’ Americans.” The big liars are using victimization again: 77 percent of Tea Party adherents see Obama as “very liberal,” 89 percent feel he has expanded the power of government “too much,” and 92 percent believe he is moving the country towards socialism. 

Finally, there’s the role of race. Barack Obama is America’s first African-American President and the Tea Party movement has become a haven for racists. 89 percent of Tea Party adherents are white; 52 percent believe “too much has been made of the problems facing black people,” and 25 percent believe Obama “favors blacks over whites.” 

The Republican big lie campaign is immoral. It’s fomenting class and racial conflict. It’s created a Washington environment where GOP politicians have abandoned America’s long-term interests for short-term political gain. 

It’s time to call out the Republican big lie strategy. It’s un-American. 

 

Bob Burnett is a Berkeley writer. He can be reached at bobburnett@comcast.net.< 


East Bay Then and Now:The Goddards and Julia Morgan

by Daniella Thompson
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 06:18:00 PM
2615, 2617, 2619 Parker St., designed by Julia Morgan for Louise Goddard in 1905.
Daniella Thompson
2615, 2617, 2619 Parker St., designed by Julia Morgan for Louise Goddard in 1905.
The Goddard houses at 2531 and 2535 Etna St. are two of three originally built on this site.
Daniella Thompson
The Goddard houses at 2531 and 2535 Etna St. are two of three originally built on this site.
Julia Morgan designed 2733 Ashby Place for the Goddards after completion of the Parker and Etna St. houses. This house will be open on the BAHA Julia Morgan House Tour on May 2.
Daniella Thompson
Julia Morgan designed 2733 Ashby Place for the Goddards after completion of the Parker and Etna St. houses. This house will be open on the BAHA Julia Morgan House Tour on May 2.
Julia Morgan designed 2816 Derby St. in 1908 as a rental income property for herself and Ira Hoover. The layout echoes that of 2733 Ashby Place. This house will be open on BAHA's House Tour, May 2.
Daniella Thompson
Julia Morgan designed 2816 Derby St. in 1908 as a rental income property for herself and Ira Hoover. The layout echoes that of 2733 Ashby Place. This house will be open on BAHA's House Tour, May 2.
2814 Derby St., a mirror-image twin of its next-door neighbor, will be open on BAHA's House Tour, May 2.
Daniella Thompson
2814 Derby St., a mirror-image twin of its next-door neighbor, will be open on BAHA's House Tour, May 2.
Malcolm Goddard, D.D.S. in a passport photo on the eve of his move to France, March 1920.
Malcolm Goddard, D.D.S. in a passport photo on the eve of his move to France, March 1920.

Around the turn of the last century, it was common practice for middle-class or well-to-do families with adolescent children to move their residence to Berkeley in order to secure good education for their young. Among those was the household of Clark and Louise Goddard. 

Clark La Motte Goddard, A.B., D.D.S., A.M., born 1849 in Beloit, Wisconsin, was Emeritus Professor of Orthodontia and former dean of the University of California’s College of Dentistry. His scholarship, analytical turn of mind, great mechanical ingenuity, and superior manipulative skill combined to make him one of the West Coast’s preeminent dentists. 

In 1881, Dr. Goddard married Emily Louise Bunker, born 1857 in Barnard, Maine. Their union produced two children, Malcolm (b. 1883) and Florence (b. 1886). Great travelers, the Goddards took their children to Europe and kept a motorcar for trips around California. Dr. Goddard was an accomplished amateur photographer; his collection of over 1,100 prints and negatives is housed at the Bancroft Library on the UC campus. 

About 1902, the Goddards moved from Oakland to Berkeley, where Malcolm enrolled at the University of California and Florence entered Miss Head’s School. 

For a couple of years, the family lived in a rented house on Hillside Avenue near Dwight Way. In 1904, they built their own house at 2647 Dwight Way. The architect was Oakland-based D. Franklin Oliver, who was building the First Congregational Church of Alameda at the same time. Two years later, Oliver would design the six-story Breuner Furniture Company building at 13th and Franklin, now part of the Oakland Tribune Tower. 

The Goddard house survived into the mid-1950s, converted into seven apartments before being razed to make way for UC’s Unit 2 student residence halls. 

On March 30, 1905, Dr. Goddard dropped dead on the sidewalk in front of the San Francisco ferry building while waiting for the boat to Berkeley. He was 55 years old. Goddard left an estate valued at $122,000, of which about $80,000 were out on loan to many individuals. 

Almost immediately after her husband’s death, Louise Goddard began investing in real estate. In May 1905, she acquired lots on Parker and Etna streets and proceeded to build three shingled two-story houses at each location. Julia Morgan designed at least five and possibly all six of these houses. 

The architect was then at the beginning of her long and prolific career. The first woman to study architecture at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Julia Morgan returned to the Bay Area in 1902. Almost immediately, she opened her own practice out of her parents’ home, taking on private clients even as she assisted John Galen Howard with major UC projects such as the Hearst Greek Theatre and the Hearst Memorial Mining Building. 

Morgan obtained her state architect’s license in March 1904 and opened an office in San Francisco. By then, she had already designed El Campanil on the Mills College campus, and within two years she would take charge of reconstructing the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill. During her 45-year career, Julia Morgan would design over 700 private and public buildings, most of them completed. 

How Louise Goddard came to know Julia Morgan is not clear, but the connection was likely to have come about through the vast women’s network - including clubs and sororities — through which many of the architect’s commissions were funneled. 

In December 1905, while the houses on Parker and Etna streets were under construction, Louise, Malcolm, and Florence Goddard purchased three lots on Elmwood Avenue (now Ashby Place). In 1907, Mrs. Goddard commissioned Julia Morgan to design a speculative house on the westernmost lot. 

The first five or six houses Morgan designed for the Goddards were relatively modest and clad in redwood. The new house was more substantial, costlier ($4,500 vs. $2,900), and the only one clad in stucco, a material just coming into popular use in Berkeley. 

The first tenant at 2733 Ashby Place was George G. Towle, the son of lumber baron Allen Towle, who owned the town of Towle near Dutch Flat in Placer County and had diverse business interests, including lumber, logging, sawmills, crate manufacturing, mining, pulp mills, narrow-gauge railroads, and vast landholdings. 

George managed the Towle Estate Company. His daughter, Katherine, who grew up to become the University of California’s Dean of Women, reminisced about those days: “I’m quite certain the family’s decision to move [from Oakland] was because of the schools, and Berkeley was then a very attractive place to live. We rented a house on what was then called Elmwood Avenue. It’s now Ashby Place. You know, it’s down there off College Avenue. Those were just nothing but fields, you know. There were a few houses, ours among them.” 

On narrow lots, Julia Morgan liked to position the entrance halfway down the side of the house, so the hall and stairwell were centrally located for easy access to all rooms. The Goddard house at 2733 Ashby Place is a good example of this design principle. The architect would recreate its floor plans on a slightly smaller scale in two shingled rental houses she and her partner, Ira Hoover, built at 2814 and 2816 Derby Street in 1909. All three houses will be open on Sunday, May 2, during the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association’s annual Spring House Tour, devoted this year to Julia Morgan’s early residential work in the Claremont and Elmwood districts. 

The Goddards continued to live at 2647 Dwight Way until Florence married Justin Warren McKibben in late 1910 and set up housekeeping at 15 Alvarado Road. Louise and Malcolm, the latter now a dentist, let the Dwight Way house and took up temporary residence in the Hotel Carlton on Telegraph Avenue. 

In 1914, when the McKibbens built a new house at 2522 Piedmont Avenue, they called Harris C. Allen, not Julia Morgan, to design it. Malcolm Goddard also looked elsewhere for his proposed residence in Walnut Creek. The first architectural presentation for that house was made in 1914 by Irving F. Morrow. For some reason, Morrow’s design was not executed, and Julia Morgan ended up working on the same project a year later. 

Engaged to a young society woman since 1912, Malcolm mysteriously remained single, his much publicized and long-awaited 1913 nuptials having fallen through without so much as a murmur in the press. He maintained a private practice in San Francisco, taught Comparative Anatomy and Odontology at the UC College of Dentistry, and was active in the Association of Allied Dental Societies. While waiting for his Walnut Creek house to be completed, he resided at one of his mother’s Parker Street houses.  

An enthusiastic mountain climber, Malcolm utilized his expeditions for scientific exploration. In 1903, he participated in a paleontological expedition to Southern Idaho and later published the paper “Fish Remains from the Marine Lower Triassic of Aspen Ridge, Idaho” in the University of California’s Bulletin of the Department of Geology. In July 1912, he was the first person to ascend and survey several mountains around Lake Chilko in British Columbia. He named one of those peaks Mount Merriam, after Professor John C. Merriam, the UC paleontologist. Another peak was later named Mount Goddard in his honor. 

In 1917, after the United States entered World War I, Malcolm enlisted in the Army’s Dental Corps and was shipped to France, where he served as a dental surgeon in base and field hospitals in the Auvergne and in Paris. Promoted to the rank of Captain, he was mustered out in September 1919. 

Meanwhile, Louise Goddard had established residence in one of her Julia Morgan-designed houses on Etna Street. After returning from Europe, Malcolm lived with her for a few months, but in early 1920 he surprised his friends by announcing that he would be returning to Paris to make his home there. He was by no means the only UC Dental College graduate practicing abroad. In 1931, the Oakland Tribune named 45 men trained in this school who were practicing in other countries, including three in Paris. 

Paris in the 1920s was the world’s most dazzling metropolis, enticing thousands of American musicians, artists, and writers. Malcolm Goddard had for society an illustrious circle of expatriates and visitors. In 1927, he was a guest at the Paris wedding of a Berkeley couple: Samuel J. Hume, notable theatrical director and scholar, and Portia Bell, then studying sculpture and later a well-known psychiatrist. Also present at the wedding were Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gordon Sproul, who were traveling through Europe. 

In the spring of 1921, Louise Goddard sailed to France for a prolonged visit with her son. She died on Dec. 29, 1921, two months after her return to Berkeley. 

While Florence Goddard McKibben lived on Piedmont Avenue and raised four children, her brother Malcolm persisted in his peripatetic life. In 1925, he went on safari in the French Cameroons, followed by a 1929–30 safari in French Sudan. In 1931, he retired from dentistry and moved to Buea, British Cameroons, establishing a ranch where he crossed the native Nigerian cattle with European stock. 

Malcolm continued his scientific expeditions, sailing to the Gulf of Guinea and exploring the mouth of the Niger River. When the Straus West African Expedition of the Chicago Natural History Museum spent a month in the summer of 1934 collecting birds on Mount Cameroon, Dr. Goddard, now married, donated three specimens. 

In the summer of 1938, Malcolm Goddard placed his 24-foot motor sail boat on board a banana boat for Hamburg and sailed alone through the Kiel Canal and along the fjords to Oslo. He had planned to continue sailing to the North Cape, but a heart attack felled him on August 24. Like his father, Malcolm was 55 at the time of his death. He was buried alongside the Goddards and the McKibbens in Plot 15 of Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland. 

Of all the Goddards, Florence was the longest-lived. She passed away in 1958, a year after Julia Morgan’s death. 

 

BAHA’s Julia Morgan House Tour will take place on Sunday, May 2, from 1 to 5 pm. For further information and tickets, visit http://berkeleyheritage.com. 

 

Daniella Thompson publishes berkeleyheritage.com for the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA).


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. 


Arts & Events

Folk,Jazz,Pop,Rock for the East Bay: April 23 through May 2

By Bay City News
Friday April 23, 2010 - 11:30:00 AM

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/.< 

 

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 --  

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
Friday April 23, 2010 - 10:55:00 AM

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.< 


Classical Music in the East Bay: APRIL 23 THROUGH MAY 2

By Bay City News
Friday April 23, 2010 - 09:53:00 AM

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) 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,CORRECTION: 4 p.m. Attend the Bay Area's first full-length musically improvised opera. www.johnbrownstruthopera.com. Community Music Center 544 Capp St., San Francisco, CA 94709)  

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.< 

 


Opening Choices This Week Around and About East Bay Theater

By Ken Bullock
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 06:36:00 PM

Three openings this week: seasoned local playwright James Keller directs--and performs as a playwright--in his dire domestic comedy, Good Housekeeping, with local actress Martha Luhrmann playing a role based on herself, the show in a wacky family setting based on Martha's household.  

Wednesday through Sunday only, 8 p. m. Wednesday to Saturday at 8, 2 p. m. Saturday-Sunday, at the Berkeley City Club, 2315 Durant Avenue. $20. (925) 473-1363; www.poorplayers.com 

 

Actors Ensemble of Berkeley opens Sam Shepard's Curse of the Starving Class, directed by Robert Estes,Friday at 8 p. m., weekends through May 22 at Live Oak Theater, 1301 Shattuck, near Rose. $12-$15. 649-5999; www.aeofberkeley.org 

 

For the family: Berkeley Playhouse will open their production of OLIVER!, directed by Molly Aaronson-Gelb, musical direction by Phil Gorman and choreography by Juliana Morin, this Friday at 7, running through May 16, at the Julia Morgan Center, 2640 College Avenue. $19-$33. 665-5565; www.berkeleyplayhouse.org 


Girlfriend is All About Love, Love, Love

By John A. McMullen II
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 10:25:00 PM
(l to r) Ryder Bach and Jason Hite star in the world premiere of Girlfriend, a new musical at Berkeley Rep wound around the tender love songs of Matthew Sweet’s landmark album, playing thru May 9.
Photo courtesy of kevinberne.com
(l to r) Ryder Bach and Jason Hite star in the world premiere of Girlfriend, a new musical at Berkeley Rep wound around the tender love songs of Matthew Sweet’s landmark album, playing thru May 9.
(l to r) Jason Hite and Ryder Bach star in the world premiere of Girlfriend, a new musical at Berkeley Rep wound around the tender love songs of Matthew Sweet’s landmark album, playing thru May 9.
Photo courtesy of kevinberne.com
(l to r) Jason Hite and Ryder Bach star in the world premiere of Girlfriend, a new musical at Berkeley Rep wound around the tender love songs of Matthew Sweet’s landmark album, playing thru May 9.

Remember when you were 17 and it was a very good year? Remember when school was out for summer, school was out forever? I went to the B-Rep on Wednesday, and—well, just feel lucky you live in Berkeley, ‘cause this is the place it’s all coming from these days.  

Hot off the Broadway opening of “American Idiot,” I think that Taccone & Company may have just launched the next Broadway hit with GIRLFRIEND.  

It is the antidote to the last trace of any lingering homophobia. True Love, First Love, Queer Love, it’s all the Same Love. And playwright Todd Almond uses Matthew Sweet’s Emo* music in this perfectly conversational fashion with the songs interwoven with the dialogue to tell this touching story Just a little story about two American kids growin’ up in the heartland—with a love that dare not….  

(*Emo is short for Emotional, a style of rock music typically characterized by melodic musicianship and expressive, often confessional lyrics). 

Back in grad school at SFSU the late, great professor Chris Hampton always asked us to express what our emotional reaction was to the plays we were reading—not whether we liked it, but how it made us feel—in addition to the symbolism, action, character, theme, and all the rest of the Aristotlean checklist. So a lot of this critique is going to be about my emotional reaction to this very emotional musical.  

Now I’m a hetero, a couple-three years away from Medicare, who grew up on Rock’n’Roll, and this just touched my soul. Admittedly, forty years in the theatre with so many gay friends and twenty years working for Theatre Rhino, I’m partial. I speculate that the enlightened Rep audience is the opposite of homophobic, but middle-aged straight guys generally avoid thinking about gay men’s courtship and how gay youth would meet as teenagers in a small Midwestern town. This play provides a special insight into others’ lives that isn’t generally available, which is a darn good reason for theatre. 

This play has no hate crimes, no AIDS. It’s a normal teenaged love story about how kids get together, and, with a little, bitty twist, is dauntingly familiar. The monologues describe a world I forgot, and their words took me back to a chaste, awkward, First Love, when you fell in love with the person—beside and apart from how desperately you wanted to touch their flesh—and how funny, geeky, lovely to behold and charming they were. Their imagery made me smell the summer grass again, and remember back when being in love made even the crass, gray unlit buildings glow at night, and every day seemed like it was the first day of a brand new year; I was transported to my small-town hometown and my first love, admittedly female, but this play makes gender just not matter.  

Professor Hampton also clued us in to always pay special attention to the Title of the Play as a clue to what it’s about and where it’s going, and it’s no different here.  

Mike is the Golden Boy going to college on a sports scholarship and Will is the shy, mousy guy with the round owl glasses who the high school bullies held down and wrote “homo” across his forehead in indelible Magic Marker 

The interminable pauses and fits and starts of our young lovers’ conversations are painfully realistic and reminiscent of the first time with our own adolescent love-object/enemy/stranger. When they do finally talk, Mike (Jason Hite) yaks compulsively about his girlfriend in the next town, baseball, about his dad who’s a doctor and is always on his case, and reflects upon his super-straight life of sports, homework, and television (more sports). Will (Ryder Bach) talks about, well, loopy and funny stuff, with commentary on the world as he sees with the incisively funny observations from the gay perspective that have titillated us from Oscar Wilde, Noel Coward, down to present-day Will and Grace, only this Will is more “grunge” and geekier, and thereby more genuine and charming—which makes Mike fall in love with this queer duckling.  

Both are home-grown actors from the prolific Bay Area; Ryder Bach has been seen in TheatreWorks’ workshop of GIRLFRIEND, and is a Center Rep vet, as is Jason Hite who played there and at El Cerrito’s CCCT, and who trained at the Young REP workshop in Walnut Creek. 

Both have really lovely falsettos to accompany their rock and roll tenors; Mike’s goes higher, which was a little bit o’ fireworks. Both Mike and Will’s voices blend gorgeously. Nice to have a wide pitch range; too much speech-level singing can get tedious.  

They are backed up by this terrific Dreadlock-Mohawk-Women-Rock band with Julie Wolf, Shelley Doty, Jean DuSablon, and ieela Grant (small i).  

The first act bursts with the manic, sleep-disrupting, anticipation-filled anxiety, joy and despair of any teenager in love. The second act, like most second acts in life and theatre, is the down-side to the build-up of the first act, and slows to let you feel the inevitable doom of any Romeo and Juliet faced with separation. But this is a romantic comedy, so, while the path of true love never does run smooth, amor vincit omnia. (And that’s the final cliché of the day.) 

This is a simple play, infused with simplicity from the set, to the music, to the story, to the lighting.  

The simple set pulls you in with its familiarity. Pre-show I went down to inspect the intricate collection of props the designer puts on display on the edge of the stage. They are the remnants of boyhood mixed with artifacts of early 90’s late adolescence, including the all-present boom-box—remember mixing tapes and giving them to your s. o.? In the middle of the stage is a worn pull-out sleeper convertible couch on casters covered in white fabric which is the only piece of furniture and is used for everything. The flats are white clapboard with two doors that easily disappear when things change. It’s white, it’s Nebraska, it’s perfect. Upstage is a sunken, paneled, basement with six or so guitars on the wall, a drum set, synthesizer, etc., and string of Christmas lights. It’s a set right out of “Wayne’s World,” and a perfect place for the band to play from. I heard a couple of audience members say, “Hey, I think I used to live in that apartment!’ 

The lighting is masterfully simple and expressive with good coverage so their smooth, handsome young faces are always well lit. Tiny Christmas lights are used realistically to decorate the walls year-round in the Music Room; they later morph to a starry night moment that serves as background to their young, awkward innocent, guitar-playing, getting-to-know-you wooing. Linear neon lights paint the stage and are used functionally and symbolically: red and blues insinuate the snack-bar lights of the Drive-In Theatre where Mike and Will’s courtship takes place; greens and yellows to take us to the baseball field where Will watches Mike exercise his masculine sports glory; then, all the colors of the Rainbow Flag to symbolize their Coming-Out. It’s subtle, hardly noticeable, but effective, but that’s the touchstone of “subliminal”; hitting you just below the level of consciousness is the key to effective theatre.  

The music of Matthew Sweet used in this musical is truly sweet; other, darker music of his (“Someone to Pull the Trigger”) is not much used in this play. I found it disturbingly ironic that Matthew Sweet’s name is just a few letters difference from Matthew Shepard, and the state of Nebraska is just one borderline away the state of Wyoming where the latter was murdered and martyred for being gay. That story is the coin’s reverse of this love story, and one that runs in the background of our thoughts and fears throughout the play and even afterwards. 

I hate it when reviewers tell you the story; it should come with a Spoiler Alert. But this moment in the play may give you some insight into the subliminal, symbolic workings of this simple work. There is a moment in their Getting-To-Know-You dance, where they are freeing themselves up with singing. Will playfully directs Mike to sing the rock song like he’s Tosca jumping off the wall to her death, then like she’s not quite yet dead, and on and on. It’s a freeing, fun-filled moment. Afterwards, they sit on the curb laughing with the ice finally broken, and the Coming Out getting near. A car full of teenagers drives by, and they holler, ”Faggots!” Immediately, in the background, a freight train roars by, echoing that moment with the symbolism of a Freight-Train-Through-the-Heart from the idiot insult of the passing car that has just destroyed their moment. Mike describes it as a train that carries no passengers, and just shuttles back and forth within the bounds of the flat state of Nebraska with no escape. 

Les Waters’ direction is invisible, which is always the best kind and the mark of a subtle and wise director. He understood the nature of the play and helped it to remain, as he deftly characterized it, “touchingly genuine and utterly lacking in cynicism…[and] impossible to resist.” 

Joe Goode’s choreography is genius in its realism which preserves all the clumsy expressiveness of two kids emulating the rock-band choreography they were raised up on, whether sitting in the car or air-guitar-ing it all over the stage.  

While the ticket-holders really seemed to enjoy it and many gave a standing ovation, I only counted about twenty “unseasoned” audience members(“unseasoned” is my girlfriend’s term for “unwrinkled’). In the bathroom at intermission, I asked a fellow even older than I what he thought, and his only comment was, “Too loud!” I saw some folks with their fingers in their ears during the performance. Maybe I sat too near the amps during the ‘60’s, but I didn’t find the music to be all that decibel-filled. How did this audience deal with “American Idiot”? The idea of reaching out for new forms—which is what art is all about—and for new audiences (or who will come to theatre in 20 years?) is especially important, but this musical should be flooded with straight, queer, and bi-curious twenty-some-year olds. On second thought, maybe it’s perfectly suited to move the audience it has. 

 

Girlfriend plays at Tue-Sun through May 9. Berkeley Repertory Theatre Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St. 

Tickets at www.berkeleyrep.org or (510) 647-2949. Run time, about 2hr 10 min which includes one intermission.  

 

Music and Lyrics by Matthew Sweet, Book by Todd Almond. Direction by Les Waters. Choreography by Joe Goode. Scenic and costume design David Zinn. Lighting design by Japhy Weideman. Sound Design by Jake Rodriguez. 

 

WITH: Ryder Bach (Will) and Jason Hite (Mike).  

Live Music by Julie Wolf (music director, rhythm guitarist, and keyboard player), Shelley Doty (lead guitarist), Jean DuSablon, (bassist), and ieela Grant (drummer). 

 

This is the third review in as many weeks by John A. McMullen II. He has taught theatre and directed in the Bay Area for two decades. 

Comments/contact/complaints to EyeFromTheAisle@gmail.com  

 

 


The Second Annual Bay Area Musicians' Self-Help Healthcare Fundraiser is Tonight (Friday)

By Ken Bullock
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 07:24:00 PM

Featuring some of the finest Jazz players in the Bay Area--and the nation--with names like saxophonist John Handy, trumpeter Eddie Gale, trumpeter Clifford Brown III, Donald "Duck" Bailey, E. W. Wainwright & the Roots of Jazz, saxohonists Michael James and Louis Jordan, David Hardiman, bassist Marcus Shelby, Will Nichols and guitarist Calvin Keys (many from the East Bay), The Second Annual Bay Area Musicians' Self-Help Healthcare Fundraiser will be going on from Friday night, April 23, at 7:30, throughout Saturday, into the evening, at Velma's, 2246 Jerrold Ave.. (near Bayshore, just south of Cesar Chavez) in San Francisco. An exceptional deal: donations $5-$10; (415) 824-7646 or brownpapertickets.com


Islamic Culture Panel at Oakland Library

By Ken Bullock
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 07:59:00 PM

Jonathan Curiel, San Francisco journalist and author of the American Book Award-winning Al' America: Travels Through America's Arab and Islamic Roots, detailing historic influence of Arab and Muslim culture on many things American, from the influence of Persian poetry on the thought and verse of Ralph Waldo Emerson through Arabic music and The Doors, will talk onstage with Yahsmin Mayaan Binti Bobo and Hamsa Van Boom this Saturday at 6 p. m. at the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, 1433 Madison, near the Main Library on 14th Street in Downtown Oakland. $5-$7. 832-7600; www.iccnc.org


East Bay Then and Now:The Goddards and Julia Morgan

by Daniella Thompson
Thursday April 22, 2010 - 06:18:00 PM
2615, 2617, 2619 Parker St., designed by Julia Morgan for Louise Goddard in 1905.
Daniella Thompson
2615, 2617, 2619 Parker St., designed by Julia Morgan for Louise Goddard in 1905.
The Goddard houses at 2531 and 2535 Etna St. are two of three originally built on this site.
Daniella Thompson
The Goddard houses at 2531 and 2535 Etna St. are two of three originally built on this site.
Julia Morgan designed 2733 Ashby Place for the Goddards after completion of the Parker and Etna St. houses. This house will be open on the BAHA Julia Morgan House Tour on May 2.
Daniella Thompson
Julia Morgan designed 2733 Ashby Place for the Goddards after completion of the Parker and Etna St. houses. This house will be open on the BAHA Julia Morgan House Tour on May 2.
Julia Morgan designed 2816 Derby St. in 1908 as a rental income property for herself and Ira Hoover. The layout echoes that of 2733 Ashby Place. This house will be open on BAHA's House Tour, May 2.
Daniella Thompson
Julia Morgan designed 2816 Derby St. in 1908 as a rental income property for herself and Ira Hoover. The layout echoes that of 2733 Ashby Place. This house will be open on BAHA's House Tour, May 2.
2814 Derby St., a mirror-image twin of its next-door neighbor, will be open on BAHA's House Tour, May 2.
Daniella Thompson
2814 Derby St., a mirror-image twin of its next-door neighbor, will be open on BAHA's House Tour, May 2.
Malcolm Goddard, D.D.S. in a passport photo on the eve of his move to France, March 1920.
Malcolm Goddard, D.D.S. in a passport photo on the eve of his move to France, March 1920.

Around the turn of the last century, it was common practice for middle-class or well-to-do families with adolescent children to move their residence to Berkeley in order to secure good education for their young. Among those was the household of Clark and Louise Goddard. 

Clark La Motte Goddard, A.B., D.D.S., A.M., born 1849 in Beloit, Wisconsin, was Emeritus Professor of Orthodontia and former dean of the University of California’s College of Dentistry. His scholarship, analytical turn of mind, great mechanical ingenuity, and superior manipulative skill combined to make him one of the West Coast’s preeminent dentists. 

In 1881, Dr. Goddard married Emily Louise Bunker, born 1857 in Barnard, Maine. Their union produced two children, Malcolm (b. 1883) and Florence (b. 1886). Great travelers, the Goddards took their children to Europe and kept a motorcar for trips around California. Dr. Goddard was an accomplished amateur photographer; his collection of over 1,100 prints and negatives is housed at the Bancroft Library on the UC campus. 

About 1902, the Goddards moved from Oakland to Berkeley, where Malcolm enrolled at the University of California and Florence entered Miss Head’s School. 

For a couple of years, the family lived in a rented house on Hillside Avenue near Dwight Way. In 1904, they built their own house at 2647 Dwight Way. The architect was Oakland-based D. Franklin Oliver, who was building the First Congregational Church of Alameda at the same time. Two years later, Oliver would design the six-story Breuner Furniture Company building at 13th and Franklin, now part of the Oakland Tribune Tower. 

The Goddard house survived into the mid-1950s, converted into seven apartments before being razed to make way for UC’s Unit 2 student residence halls. 

On March 30, 1905, Dr. Goddard dropped dead on the sidewalk in front of the San Francisco ferry building while waiting for the boat to Berkeley. He was 55 years old. Goddard left an estate valued at $122,000, of which about $80,000 were out on loan to many individuals. 

Almost immediately after her husband’s death, Louise Goddard began investing in real estate. In May 1905, she acquired lots on Parker and Etna streets and proceeded to build three shingled two-story houses at each location. Julia Morgan designed at least five and possibly all six of these houses. 

The architect was then at the beginning of her long and prolific career. The first woman to study architecture at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, Julia Morgan returned to the Bay Area in 1902. Almost immediately, she opened her own practice out of her parents’ home, taking on private clients even as she assisted John Galen Howard with major UC projects such as the Hearst Greek Theatre and the Hearst Memorial Mining Building. 

Morgan obtained her state architect’s license in March 1904 and opened an office in San Francisco. By then, she had already designed El Campanil on the Mills College campus, and within two years she would take charge of reconstructing the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill. During her 45-year career, Julia Morgan would design over 700 private and public buildings, most of them completed. 

How Louise Goddard came to know Julia Morgan is not clear, but the connection was likely to have come about through the vast women’s network - including clubs and sororities — through which many of the architect’s commissions were funneled. 

In December 1905, while the houses on Parker and Etna streets were under construction, Louise, Malcolm, and Florence Goddard purchased three lots on Elmwood Avenue (now Ashby Place). In 1907, Mrs. Goddard commissioned Julia Morgan to design a speculative house on the westernmost lot. 

The first five or six houses Morgan designed for the Goddards were relatively modest and clad in redwood. The new house was more substantial, costlier ($4,500 vs. $2,900), and the only one clad in stucco, a material just coming into popular use in Berkeley. 

The first tenant at 2733 Ashby Place was George G. Towle, the son of lumber baron Allen Towle, who owned the town of Towle near Dutch Flat in Placer County and had diverse business interests, including lumber, logging, sawmills, crate manufacturing, mining, pulp mills, narrow-gauge railroads, and vast landholdings. 

George managed the Towle Estate Company. His daughter, Katherine, who grew up to become the University of California’s Dean of Women, reminisced about those days: “I’m quite certain the family’s decision to move [from Oakland] was because of the schools, and Berkeley was then a very attractive place to live. We rented a house on what was then called Elmwood Avenue. It’s now Ashby Place. You know, it’s down there off College Avenue. Those were just nothing but fields, you know. There were a few houses, ours among them.” 

On narrow lots, Julia Morgan liked to position the entrance halfway down the side of the house, so the hall and stairwell were centrally located for easy access to all rooms. The Goddard house at 2733 Ashby Place is a good example of this design principle. The architect would recreate its floor plans on a slightly smaller scale in two shingled rental houses she and her partner, Ira Hoover, built at 2814 and 2816 Derby Street in 1909. All three houses will be open on Sunday, May 2, during the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association’s annual Spring House Tour, devoted this year to Julia Morgan’s early residential work in the Claremont and Elmwood districts. 

The Goddards continued to live at 2647 Dwight Way until Florence married Justin Warren McKibben in late 1910 and set up housekeeping at 15 Alvarado Road. Louise and Malcolm, the latter now a dentist, let the Dwight Way house and took up temporary residence in the Hotel Carlton on Telegraph Avenue. 

In 1914, when the McKibbens built a new house at 2522 Piedmont Avenue, they called Harris C. Allen, not Julia Morgan, to design it. Malcolm Goddard also looked elsewhere for his proposed residence in Walnut Creek. The first architectural presentation for that house was made in 1914 by Irving F. Morrow. For some reason, Morrow’s design was not executed, and Julia Morgan ended up working on the same project a year later. 

Engaged to a young society woman since 1912, Malcolm mysteriously remained single, his much publicized and long-awaited 1913 nuptials having fallen through without so much as a murmur in the press. He maintained a private practice in San Francisco, taught Comparative Anatomy and Odontology at the UC College of Dentistry, and was active in the Association of Allied Dental Societies. While waiting for his Walnut Creek house to be completed, he resided at one of his mother’s Parker Street houses.  

An enthusiastic mountain climber, Malcolm utilized his expeditions for scientific exploration. In 1903, he participated in a paleontological expedition to Southern Idaho and later published the paper “Fish Remains from the Marine Lower Triassic of Aspen Ridge, Idaho” in the University of California’s Bulletin of the Department of Geology. In July 1912, he was the first person to ascend and survey several mountains around Lake Chilko in British Columbia. He named one of those peaks Mount Merriam, after Professor John C. Merriam, the UC paleontologist. Another peak was later named Mount Goddard in his honor. 

In 1917, after the United States entered World War I, Malcolm enlisted in the Army’s Dental Corps and was shipped to France, where he served as a dental surgeon in base and field hospitals in the Auvergne and in Paris. Promoted to the rank of Captain, he was mustered out in September 1919. 

Meanwhile, Louise Goddard had established residence in one of her Julia Morgan-designed houses on Etna Street. After returning from Europe, Malcolm lived with her for a few months, but in early 1920 he surprised his friends by announcing that he would be returning to Paris to make his home there. He was by no means the only UC Dental College graduate practicing abroad. In 1931, the Oakland Tribune named 45 men trained in this school who were practicing in other countries, including three in Paris. 

Paris in the 1920s was the world’s most dazzling metropolis, enticing thousands of American musicians, artists, and writers. Malcolm Goddard had for society an illustrious circle of expatriates and visitors. In 1927, he was a guest at the Paris wedding of a Berkeley couple: Samuel J. Hume, notable theatrical director and scholar, and Portia Bell, then studying sculpture and later a well-known psychiatrist. Also present at the wedding were Mr. and Mrs. Robert Gordon Sproul, who were traveling through Europe. 

In the spring of 1921, Louise Goddard sailed to France for a prolonged visit with her son. She died on Dec. 29, 1921, two months after her return to Berkeley. 

While Florence Goddard McKibben lived on Piedmont Avenue and raised four children, her brother Malcolm persisted in his peripatetic life. In 1925, he went on safari in the French Cameroons, followed by a 1929–30 safari in French Sudan. In 1931, he retired from dentistry and moved to Buea, British Cameroons, establishing a ranch where he crossed the native Nigerian cattle with European stock. 

Malcolm continued his scientific expeditions, sailing to the Gulf of Guinea and exploring the mouth of the Niger River. When the Straus West African Expedition of the Chicago Natural History Museum spent a month in the summer of 1934 collecting birds on Mount Cameroon, Dr. Goddard, now married, donated three specimens. 

In the summer of 1938, Malcolm Goddard placed his 24-foot motor sail boat on board a banana boat for Hamburg and sailed alone through the Kiel Canal and along the fjords to Oslo. He had planned to continue sailing to the North Cape, but a heart attack felled him on August 24. Like his father, Malcolm was 55 at the time of his death. He was buried alongside the Goddards and the McKibbens in Plot 15 of Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland. 

Of all the Goddards, Florence was the longest-lived. She passed away in 1958, a year after Julia Morgan’s death. 

 

BAHA’s Julia Morgan House Tour will take place on Sunday, May 2, from 1 to 5 pm. For further information and tickets, visit http://berkeleyheritage.com. 

 

Daniella Thompson publishes berkeleyheritage.com for the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA).


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 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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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.