Full Text

 

News

Flash: Appeals Court: Same-Sex Marriages on Hold Until Dec. 6 Hearing

By Bay City News
Monday August 16, 2010 - 07:48:00 PM

A federal appeals court in San Francisco has granted a stay that will block gay and lesbian couples from getting married until at least December while a case that challenges California's ban on same-sex marriage moves forward.  

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a motion filed by proponents of Proposition 8 to block gay and lesbian marriages for the time being. 

The court also set a timeline that calls for a hearing on the case the week of Dec. 6.  

In a statement released this afternoon, plaintiffs in the case said they are "gratified" by the expedited hearing schedule despite the fact that same-sex couples won't yet be able to marry. 

"As Chief Judge Walker found, Proposition 8 harms gay and lesbian citizens each day it remains on the books," Attorney Theodore Olson said. "We look forward to moving to the next stage of this case." 

Last Thursday, U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled against granting a long-term stay in the case but issued a temporary stay to allow Proposition 8 supporters to appeal the decision.  

The temporary stay was set to be in place until 5 p.m. on Wednesday. If the appeals court hadn't granted the indefinite stay, gay and lesbian couples could have begun obtaining marriage licenses after that time.  

The case stems from a federal lawsuit filed by two same-sex couples who claim Proposition 8 violates their rights under the U.S. Constitution.  

On Aug. 4, Walker overturned Proposition 8, issuing a 136-page ruling in which he found that the initiative violated the Constitution's guarantees of due process and equal treatment.  

Dozens of same-sex couples had lined up at the county clerk's office at San Francisco City Hall on Thursday in anticipation of Walker's ruling on the stay.  

They had cheered when told that Walker planned to let same-sex marriages proceed, but cheers turned to sadness as they learned of the temporary stay. 

 


Cal’s Genetic Testing of Freshmen: Retreat and Declare Victory

By Thomas Lord
Thursday August 12, 2010 - 10:33:00 PM

The University of California at Berkeley has been forced, by the California Department of Public Health, to abandon significant portions of its “Bring Your Genes to Cal” orientation program for incoming freshmen. The Department of Health informed UC Berkeley that major aspects of the orientation program – described as an “experiment” by the university – are unlawful. Today the university announced significant changes to the program to comply with the state’s demands – although questions remain concerning the program.  

At today’s press conference, the Berkeley Daily Planet was able to inquire into three issues: First, the university’s retreat raises new questions about the ethics of continuing the exercise at all: whether or not students are now dragged into an experiment to which they did not agree. Second, the scientific value of the project is newly in doubt. Third, possible conflicts of interest behind the project (and the forces that create them) are coming into sharper view. 

 

The Situation 

 

“Bring Your Genes to Cal” is a novel freshmen orientation exercise in which incoming freshmen are invited to volunteer for a limited form of genetic testing. Students who sign a consent form (and underage students whose parents sign) may submit saliva samples. Three genes from those samples will be tested. The genes tested pertain to one’s ability to metabolize alcohol, lactose, and folic acid.  

To date, approximately 700 incoming freshmen have returned samples and UC Berkeley researchers are predicting approximately 1000 submissions total. Students making submissions have been informed that, in exchange, they will have anonymous access to their individual results. Meanwhile, UC Berkeley will own the aggregated (anonymous) data of all participants. Consistently, throughout the project, representatives of UC Berkeley have indicated that individual test results may suggest that, for better health, students should adjust their diet.  

The California Department of Health called UC Berkeley on to the carpet. In their view, the test and accompanying dietary advice comprise a clinical trial – experimental medicine. Under California state law, human subjects may participate in such experimental testing only if the testing is recommended by a licensed physician to each individual patient, and if the lab work is conducted by a certified testing laboratory. In the case of “Bring your Genes to Cal”, neither is the case: no individualized physician recommendation is required and the lab work will be done in a UC Berkeley lab rather than a certified clinical lab. Consequently, as advertised, the “Bring Your Genes to Cal” program is arguably illegal.  

In a press conference today Professor Jasper Rine and Dean Mark Schlissel–the 

lead scientist of the project and the dean of his department–announced that while they disagree with the Department of Health’s interpretation, they will cede to it and make “significant changes” to the program, midstream.  

In particular, students who volunteer for testing will no longer be permitted access to their individual results. Their results will still be measured by the university and the university will still own the aggregate results–but students will not be permitted to see their individual results. This change, according to UC Berkeley, will satisfy the law.  

In addition, Schlissel and Rine announced that there would be additional seminars on the “ethical, social, and political implications” of this form of genetic testing.  

In a press conference today, the Berkeley Daily Planet posed some questions to Schlissel and Rine. Our main concerns were whether it is ethical to proceed with the program at all, whether there is any actual scientific value to the exercise, and whether (as some have charged) Rine’s role in the program presents a significant conflict of interest. 

 

On the Ethics of Continuing the Exercise at All: 

 

As of this writing approximately 700 students are known to have submitted samples for testing under the understanding that they would anonymously see their individual results, while UC Berkeley would own the aggregate data. Approximately 1000 students are expected to provide samples with that understanding in coming days.  

Today’s change to the program means that while UC Berkeley will still own the aggregate data, students will not see their individual results. The ethical question then arises: should the exercise be continued at all—or should the university simply destroy the samples and cancel the exercise.  

The Berkeley Daily Planet asked about this and Schlissel replied “Several of us discussed that at great length. We decided we would do what we told the students we would [insofar far as] testing the genes and presenting as much data as allowed. [If there are students upset at not receiving their individual results] we would refer them to the Department of Health. We would be happy to give them as much as we are permitted to.” 

 

On the Science

 

Schlissel and Rine have repeatedly described the orientation exercise as a scientific experiment. We asked what hypothesis the experiment was designed to test.  

Schlissel replied that the hypothesis being tested is whether or not programs such as “Bring Your Genes to Cal” are an effective way to engage students, particularly students not majoring in biology, in the complex issues that surround genetic testing. He added that the methodology would involve the taking of attitudinal surveys.  

In effect, what appears on the surface to be a biological experiment now turns out to be a sociological experiment designed primarily by biologists (in extensive consultation with colleagues of many disciplines). 

 

Questions of Conflicts of Interest

 

Schlissel and Rine have consistently described the program as testing genes of no medically actionable significance and, as Schlissel put it today, and as concerning “non-commercially important genes”.  

These claims are somewhat surprising. In 2008, Rine published research that studied one of the genes in question (concerning folic acid metabolism), examining the genetic variations that exist and their possible medical consequences. One of the questions posed by this research is whether or not dietary adjustments are medically appropriate in response to the results of such a genetic test.  

Rine is additionally a founder of Vitapath, a start-up firm that, initially, is “intended to help prevent Spina Bifida by identifying women who carry genetic risk factors that can be overcome with high dose folic acid”. One of the genes tested in “Bring Your Genes to Cal” falls into that category.  

During the press conference, Rine remarked “I’d like to give thanks to the press for their enthusiasm to cover this story. You couldn’t buy publicity like that.” Subsequently, Berkeley Daily Planet asked Rine to address the conflict of interest questions directly.  

He remarked: “Five years ago, my colleagues and I [formulated a promising genetic hypothesis] about Neural Tube Defects [such as Spina Bifida]. We applied for federal grants sufficient to test our hypothesis and were funded at 1/3 that level. It was not enough money to test our hypothesis. So, four of us established a company with venture funding to fully fund the research.”  

Rine suggested that such a funding pattern was the rule more than the exception, these days.  


Press Release: UC Berkeley Changes DNA Testing Plan

By Robert Sanders
Thursday August 12, 2010 - 12:58:00 PM

The California Department of Public Health has instructed the University of California, Berkeley, not to proceed with a portion of its ground-breaking program to educate students about genetic testing and personalized medicine. 

The program, called “Bring Your Genes to Cal,” allowed incoming students, on a voluntary and anonymous basis, to submit DNA samples, with the promise that they would receive their personal results of tests for three common genetic variants. Some 600 of more than 5,000 incoming freshmen and transfers students have already volunteered their saliva samples and signed consent forms allowing these tests. 

While the university still plans to analyze the DNA samples in a campus research lab, students who voluntarily returned samples will not be allowed to see their personal results. Instead, the test results will be presented in aggregate to students during lectures and panel discussions planned for the fall 2010 semester. 

The change in the program comes despite the fact that the California State Senate Education Committee yesterday defeated an Assembly bill, AB 70, sponsored by Assemblyman Chris Norby (R-Fullerton), that would have restricted the university's right to ask students for DNA for educational purposes. 

The change to UC Berkeley's program was necessitated because the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) insisted that since students would have been given access to their own test results, the academic exercise was not exempt from laws designed to assure the accuracy and quality of diagnostic tests used in providing medical care to patients. 

The state public health department is interpreting the federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) and the California Business and Professions Code, which mandate that medical diagnostic laboratories and the genetic tests they use be certified for accuracy and reliability. 

"We've had discussions with the California Department of Public Health, and they have indicated that we should not give individual results to the students. Once we receive that formal direction, we will comply,” said Mark Schlissel, dean of biological sciences at UC Berkeley’s College of Letters & Science and a professor of molecular and cell biology. “It's a shame that we were not allowed to provide students with their personalized results, which would have made this a one-of-a-kind experience for incoming students and an example of the cutting-edge type of education offered at UC Berkeley.” 

The University of California has asked the CDPH to provide legal authority for its interpretation of the requirements applicable to research and teaching projects. 

An Aug. 2 letter sent to the CDPH by the university emphasized that the California Business and Professions Code (CA B&P Code) exempts laboratories that perform tests for research and teaching purposes only and that do not report results to patients as part of a medical or health assessment. 

Because the UC Berkeley program is an educational experiment, the students are not patients, and the three specific genetic variants are not disease related, CLIA rules and the California statute do not apply, the letter stated. 

“We have taken every precaution and are committed to following the letter of the law with regard to any issue, but we believe this is a flawed reading of the statute that raises questions about who has control over teaching at the university, and in the broader sense, who has control over information about our own genes,” said Schlissel. 

Although UC Berkeley will no longer provide students with information about three of their genes, the campus-wide discussion of personalized medicine will continue come September. As a result of questions raised in the last few months, the program will focus prominently on the politics of genetic testing and whether individuals, rather than physicians and public agencies, ultimately control their own genetic information, said Schlissel. He plans to invite California Department of Public Health director Dr. Mark Horton to join one of this fall's panel discussions on personalized medicine. 

“We hope that everyone will engage in our discussion,” said campus genetics professor Jasper Rine, who will deliver the keynote lecture on this topic on Sept. 13. “Berkeley has always been on the forefront of critical debates in this country, and as an academic institution, we are pleased to provide a platform for discussing such an important topic to everyone now, and certainly, in the future as this science continues to evolve.” 

The DNA testing was offered by the College of Letters & Science as part of its yearly program, On the Same Page (OTSP), which typically sends incoming freshmen and transfer students a topical book or DVD in the summer to be discussed on campus in the fall. This year, Schlissel suggested a discussion of personalized medicine, which promises to revolutionize health care by using information about a person's unique genome to tailor medical interventions, and Rine offered to test three innocuous genes as a way to draw the interest of students. 

"We decided to bring this topic to life by offering students the opportunity to voluntarily and anonymously send in a sample of their own DNA," Schlissel said. "We thought that the novelty and ease of this exercise, when coupled with the important questions that such an exercise brings to the fore, would make for an unprecedented learning experience." 

In July, incoming students received a packet of information about the DNA testing program, a saliva kit, an anonymous bar code to attach to the sample, and a consent form authorizing the campus to test for three gene variants that would reveal aspects of how an individual metabolizes milk, alcohol and vitamin B9 (folic acid). The campus has scheduled a series of lectures, panel discussions and class sessions – which will go on as planned – around the subject of genetic testing. 

"Of the three million genetic differences that distinguish any two people, we are testing only three common differences to give students a sense of what kind of information they might learn from their genome sequence," Rine said. "The potential of personalized medicine will depend upon people having some level of understanding of genetic variation. Our goal is to help Berkeley students develop the skills and understanding to be thought leaders on this topic as our society comes to grips with the many fascinating dimensions to our genome sequence." 

A campus laboratory that routinely conducts genotyping was chosen to perform the DNA tests. As a research laboratory, it is exempt from CLIA rules under California statute. 

"The UC Berkeley Committee for Protection of Human Subjects reviewed the proposal and approved the research protocol as a minimal-risk project for students," Schlissel said. "The attention this program has received points out why we need such a program to discuss genetic testing and personalized medicine." 

The University of California is also concerned that the CDPH's interpretation of CLIA and CBPC regulations could limit other educational and research projects within the 10-campus system, as well as by other colleges and universities in California. 

"Because of the rapid advances in technology, CLIA labs now focus on either large-scale genome-wide analyses or gene variants responsible for clinically important disease states. The ruling of the state Department of Public Health would, in effect, disallow even those educational activities that involve only limited numbers of genes that do not have a clinical market," Rine said. "In effect, that would put most of the human genome off-limits for meaningful educational projects." 

As originally planned, all DNA samples will be destroyed after this limited testing to further safeguard students' privacy. 


Press Release: University of California Postdoctoral Researchers Ratify Contract

From UC Office of the President
Thursday August 12, 2010 - 09:46:00 AM

The United Auto Workers (UAW) and the University of California today jointly announced that UC postdoctoral scholars voted to ratify their first union contract. The Union announced that postdocs approved the contract by an overwhelming vote of 2588 to 121, or 96 percent in favor, in balloting that concluded Aug. 11. The postdocs’ union, Postdoctoral Researchers Organize/UAW, and UC reached a tentative agreement on July 31, 2010. 

“We are very proud of this contract,” said Xiaoqing Cao, a cancer researcher from UCLA who served on the PRO/UAW bargaining committee. “Not only will postdoc compensation at UC be among the best in the U.S., but UC postdocs will also have unprecedented rights and protections while carrying out the important work that makes UC the top academic research institution in the world.” 

“Postdoctoral scholars are vitally important to the University of California and to our research enterprise, and we are very pleased that they have ratified the agreement,” said Dwaine Duckett, vice president for UC systemwide human resources. “We look forward to a swift implementation of the contract and our postdoctoral scholars continuing to work with our faculty and researchers on the great scientific and technological challenges facing our nation.” 

The agreement includes a balanced compensation structure that will include both experience-based and general annual increases based on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) pay scale. Other highlights of the agreement include new provisions for time off, stronger mechanisms for postdocs to enforce health and safety standards, “just cause” protections for discipline or dismissal and improved access to professional mentoring. 

“Our members contribute significantly to the cutting-edge research that makes UC great and helps move society forward,” said Jim Wells, director of UAW Region 5. “We are pleased to see that this contract recognizes the important work they do and their many contributions.” 

Postdoctoral researchers provide valuable research on cancer, stem cells, climate change, alternative fuels, and many other cutting-edge fields in science and engineering. Postdoctoral scholars at UC represent roughly 10 percent of postdoctoral scholars in the United States. 

“We look forward to a productive and cooperative collective bargaining relationship between Postdoctoral Scholars in UAW Local 5810 and the University of California, much like the relationship between UC and UAW Local 2865, which represents academic student employees at UC,” said UAW President Bob King. 

From Steve Montiel 

Media Relations Representative 

University of California Office of the President


Candidates File for Berkeley's November Elections

By Becky O'Malley with Charlotte Perry-Houts
Monday August 09, 2010 - 07:15:00 PM

Friday was the last day for candidates for Berkeley city offices to file the requisite paperwork to appear on the November ballot. 

In District 1, long-time incumbent Linda Maio will be challenged by Jasper Kingeter, Anthony Di Donato and Merrilie Mitchell. 

In District 4, Councilmember Jesse Arreguin, who was elected two years ago after Dona Spring’s death, will be running for a full four year term this time. Challengers include Eric Panzer, Jim Novosel and Bernt Wahl. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington will have a third rematch in District 7 with perennial candidate George Beier, this time joined by newcomer Ces Rosales. 

In District 8, two-term incumbent Gordon Wozniak will face Stewart Emmington Jones and Jacquelyn McCormick. 

Candidates for Rent Board Commissioner include a tenant-backed slate of incumbents: Dave Blake, Lisa Anne Stephens, Pam Webster, Jesse Townley , Katherine Harr and first-timer Asa Dodsworth. Other candidates are Marcia Levenson , Tamar Larsen and George Perezvelez. 

In the Berkeley Unified School district race, Karen Hemphill is running for a second term. New candidates are Joshua R. Daniels, Norma J.F. Harrison, Julie Holcomb, Priscilla Myrick and Leah T. Wilson. 

School board candidates have until Wednesday to file, because incumbents Nancy Riddle and Shirley Issel are not running again, which automatically extends the filing period. 

Incumbent City Auditor Ann-Marie Hogan is running unopposed for City Auditor. 

Several candidates, present at the City Clerk's office to make sure all went as planned, took the opportunity to make statements for a Planet reporter.  

Rent Board member Dave Blake commented that "I'm sure if we all win, the Rent Board will do the best job it's ever done."

Asa Dodsworth said that he hopes to be the first Berkeley born and raised elected official.

District 8 Councilmember candidate Stewart Jones hopes to get a chance to fix what he thinks is wrong with the current state of the city: "Unfortunately, city governance is moving in the wrong direction and I believe it is time for new leadership."

 


Assemblymember Skinner and Officials Celebrate Launch of Fourth Bore Construction

By Bay City News Service
Monday August 09, 2010 - 11:01:00 PM

Public officials switched on a 50-foot long, 130-ton tunnel-boring machine today and made the first grinding cuts into a retaining wall that will eventually become the fourth bore of the Caldecott Tunnel, project spokesman Jeff Weiss said today. 

During a commencement of drilling event held on the east side of the tunnel this morning, Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez and Caltrans Director Cindy McKim were the first to climb up a ladder and switch on the giant machine, known as a road header. 

State Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, state Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, Metropolitan Transportation Commission Commissioner Amy Worth, Contra Costa Transportation Authority Chair Robert Taylor and Oakland City Councilman Larry Reid also attended the event, Weiss said. 

Crews plan to grind about two-thirds of the way through the mountain from the east side and then, early this fall, they will bring in two smaller boring machines and begin drilling through the mountain from the west side as well.  

Because the rock is relatively soft, crews will have to stop about every three feet to build support, Weiss said. They expect to be able to drill only about 10 feet a day. 

The four-year, $420 million project will alleviate traffic congestion on state Highway 24 between Oakland and Contra Costa County and create more than 5,000 construction jobs. The project is expected to be complete in late 2013 or early 2014. 

Nearly half the project, $197.5 million of it, is being funded by money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.


Landmarks Commission Recognizes Dwight Way Victorian

By Steven Finacom
Monday August 09, 2010 - 10:20:00 PM
The newly landmarked Fish-Clark House stands on the north side of Dwight
              Way, west of California Street.
Steven Finacom
The newly landmarked Fish-Clark House stands on the north side of Dwight Way, west of California Street.
Steven Finacom

Berkeley has one new historic landmark—a 127 year old Victorian house familiar to those who travel through the central part of town—as the result of efforts of a neighborhood history group and favorable action at the August 5, 2010, regular meeting of the Landmarks Preservation Commission. 

After taking public hearing testimony the Commission, unanimously voted to designate 1545 Dwight Way as a City Landmark. The large yellow painted wooden house sits on a wide lot with a Canary Island date palm in the front yard, and is a well-known sight on the north side of Dwight between Spaulding Avenue and California Street. 

The building was formally identified in the landmark application as the “Fish-Clark” house. It’s a standard historical usage to call a property by the name of its earliest owner(s) or resident(s). In this case, San Franciscan A.C. Fish, said to be a retired sea captain, commissioned the house in 1883.  

The house was constructed by A.H. Broad, who was also one of Berkeley’s first elected Town Trustees. Several other Broad-designed buildings, including the childhood home of David Brower and Broad’s own house on Kittredge Street, are City of Berkeley landmarks. 

The Fish-Clark house stands near the southeast corner of the Spaulding Tract, a central Berkeley subdivision originally laid out in the 1870s.  

The landmark application was prepared by members of the McGee / Spaulding / Hardy Historic Interest Group, a volunteer organization that has researched the history of the neighborhood west of Downtown Berkeley, led walking tours, developed historic plaques, and written historical summaries of the neighborhood.  

Two members of the group, Pat Edwards and Lynne Davis, are the authors of record of the landmark application. 

Mr. Fish only lived at 1545 Dwight for a short period, and then sold the house to William and Lillie Clark, the former a mattress and furniture manufacturer. The house remained a single-family home through 1919, when it was converted to six apartments.  

In the 1960s a series of associations began that connected the house to emerging cultural and social movements in Berkeley. 

It successively housed: a group that promoted alternative energy; one of the founders of the Community Memory Project (which, in 1973, developed the first “public-access bulletin board” on a computer system); an ecumenical religious group residence called “The Ark”; and a transitional residence for “ ‘addicts/alcoholics’ in recovery.” 

There were four speakers at the Commission’s public hearing regarding the property. 

J. Michael (Mike) Edwards noted that although the nomination was submitted in the name of two individuals it was a “collective application” representing the work of several people.  

The fact that the house was built 127 years ago “makes it pretty old by Berkeley standards” he said, adding that the prominent residence had both historic and educational value. 

“This house really helps to define the character of the neighborhood. It would not be the same without it.” The history of the house embodies “the history of land use in the Spaulding Tract”, Edwards said.  

The property began as a four-acre, Victorian “mini-farm” carved out of a subdivision, then was further subdivided and built up as development intensified in central Berkeley. It once stood alone on the street frontage of Dwight between California and Spaulding.  

John English also spoke in favor of the landmark nomination, noting there were additional designated City landmarks—including the Brower family houses on Haste Street—built by A.H. Broad. 

This author also spoke in favor of the nomination, noting that Berkeley has lost most of its large, 19th century, Victorian-era homes and 1545 Dwight is both a rare survivor and a visual landmark already along Dwight Way. 

The fourth speaker, a Mr. Davis, introduced himself to the Commission by saying “I am the agent representing the property owners.” He said “they acquired the property through foreclosure in September of 2009,” and the owner’s intent “is to sell the real estate.”  

(There is currently a large “For Sale” signboard in the front yard of the house, and a “No Trespassing” sign mounted on the front gate.) 

Davis said that the owners would support having the first 40 foot depth designated a landmark, but asked that the portion of the building further back than 40 feet be only “selectively landmarked”.  

(Note: it was unclear to this writer whether the request was for the first 40 feet of the house itself, or the first 40 feet of the property, which includes the front of the house). 

“The house now consists of approximately 25 rooms”, Davis said, including 17 bedrooms. “This property has been difficult to market.” “The intent is to sell it to a party that would work with adaptive reuse.”  

“Landmarking the back of the building is going to make it extremely difficult to get a prospective buyer in there,” Davis said. “The owners are ready to submit blueprints to make the third floor habitable.” 

His comments about landmarking only the front portion of the house led to a dialogue with members of the Commission.  

Commissioner Robert Johnson said, “It’s not our procedure to landmark part of a building. What we do to accommodate changes is we call out features to be preserved.” 

“A landmarking is a parcel”, said Commissioner Carrie Olson. “But on that parcel there are things you want to preserve and things that shouldn’t be preserved.” She noted, as an example, a garage door that had been inserted into the front façade of the house at the basement level.  

“In general, what we care about a lot is what can be seen from the public right of way”, she added.  

“It’s not the case that the building gets landmarked and then it’s cast in stone,” Commission Chair Gary Parsons said. “There’s a lot of expertise in this Commission and we try to help you.” 

Davis said he was worried that landmarking would reduce the possible resale price of the house. He said in today’s market prospective buyers “are looking for anything that will drop the price, and landmarking can.”  

Olson replied, “I can tell you without a doubt that landmarking does not decrease value, it increases value.” 

Edwards, who spoke after Davis, said, “We have no disagreement with what Mr. Davis is saying” about emphasizing preservation of the front of the house. “We’d be happy to see the house standing with its elegant façade intact.” 

It appeared from initial comments that there was no serious opposition to landmarking the house among the eight Commissioners present (Commissioner Antoinette Peitras was absent from the meeting).  

“I walk in Berkeley a lot, and when I come around the corner and see this building, it’s ‘Wow’!” said Commissioner Robert Johnson. “It’s a very striking building. It’s very worthy.” 

Discussion focused on the elements of the building to call out in the designation language.  

Commissioners initially discussed postponing action for a month while a detailed written list was refined, but then found sufficient material among their handouts to craft a designation motion that was introduced by Commissioner Olson and seconded by Commissioner Anne Wagley. 

The motion noted the significance of the building as the first known Berkeley structure built by A.H. Broad, as an example of the stick era of Victorian-style construction, and because of the various people and cultural movements associated with the structure. 

The motion passed with no dissent. “The owners are ready to work with you”, Mr. Davis said, before leaving the meeting. 

The Fish-Clark House will become City of Berkeley Landmark # 310. Berkeley has an estimated 40,000 buildings. 

The Fish-Clark House is only the second building landmarked in Berkeley in 2010. Five structures were designated Landmarks in 2009, two in 2008, and three in 2007, for a total of 12 Landmark designations in the last three and a half years.  

The remainder of the Commission agenda was relatively brief.  

A second public hearing had been scheduled at the meeting to discuss alterations to the landmark building at 2134 Allston Way, which houses Cancun Restaurant on the ground floor.  

However, when only one comment card was submitted—by a speaker on behalf of the applicant—the Commission decided, at Olson’s suggestion, to move the non-controversial item to the Consent Calendar and approve the alterations without further discussion. 

Comments were also made by individual Commissioners about subcommittee meetings they had attended. LPC subcommittees generally focus on a single landmark building or project.  

Three Commissioners had participated in a subcommittee discussion of changes to the North Branch Berkeley Public Library. In their comments they alternated praise for some of the redesign and renovation plans with concerns about certain other elements. 

They said they had suggested that the original light fixture in the library lobby not be encircled by a new modern hanging fixture, asked that a proposed exterior garbage storage area be moved under the building and away from the large chimney on the façade, opposed making the main entrance door asymmetrical on the façade, and asked that any newly created functional artwork be incorporated in the new addition to the building, rather than attached to the older structure. 

Commissioner Wagley said that her understanding was that the City had mistakenly not included the City’s requirement that 1.5 % of project budget be spent on public art in the ballot wording for the bond issue that funded the branch library renovations.  

As a result the City is now rushing to incorporate some public art into the North Branch Library, but also requiring that the art be functional.  

Subcommittee Commissioners said they were skeptical of a suggestion that an ornamental railing on front of the old building be created, and suggested instead that a trellis or other features on the rear addition be targeted for the art funding. 

Commissioners Parsons and Olson reported their subcommittee had a positive impact working with a contractor at the landmark Grace North Church.  

“We’ve taken some builders who were not preservationist by inclination and made them more sensitive to what’s there”, Olson said. The subcommittee had met with the contractors to discuss proposed window replacements, repairs to deteriorated exterior beams, and other alternations. 

Commissioner Robert Johnson requested that staff look into asking the owners of the landmark Tupper & Reed building on Shattuck Avenue to trim back an overgrowth of ivy on the ornate façade. 

In Commission member comments, Commissioner Olson expressed concern that the Cheese Board on Shattuck Avenue had begun an extensive façade renovation without any City staff reviewing that project sending any information to the LPC. The Cheese Board itself is not in a landmark building, but the structure immediately adjacent to the north is a landmark.  

Commission Secretary Jay Claiborne reported that the proposed demolition of the historic West Branch Library is undergoing environmental review.  

He discussed having the Commission establish a subcommittee to review public infrastructure projects. This issue arose in recent months when City staff began a repair project on the deteriorated and historic Bancroft Steps southeast of International House. Specifics of a subcommittee will be discussed by the Commission at a later meeting.  

Claiborne said he was working to develop a one-time training session for the Commission, probably in September, with a focus on the process of creating and defining historic districts.  

He also noted that he receives calls from members of the public asking for advice on renovating historic houses, or asking if the City can regulate people making changes—such as unusual paint colors—on other historic structures that are not necessarily landmarked.  

Claiborne said, “Ideally we’d have guidelines, we’d have a ‘Rehab Right’ sort of program,” that could help respond to questions of that sort.  

He was referring to a popular 1970s publication written by two Berkeley residents, architect Blair Prentice and landscape architect and historic preservation planner Helaine Kaplan Prentice.  

The book provides practical dos and don’ts for the renovation and restoration of older homes in Oakland and is still in use (in fact, this author gave a copy of it just this weekend to a friend with an Oakland house). 

“Rehab Right” did not focus on designated landmark properties but more broadly addressed sensitive treatment of specific types of older homes. 

Following some other small items of business the Commission adjourned until its September meeting, scheduled for Thursday, September 2. The LPC generally meets at the North Berkeley Senior Center on the first Thursday evening of the month. 

The City of Berkeley has a web site for the Landmarks Preservation Commission, with agenda and minutes. 

A pdf of the Fish-Clark House landmark nomination is here. 

A pdf history of the McGee-Spaulding neighborhood can be found here. 

 


Solar Waste Recycling: Can The Industry Stay Green?

By Erica Gies
Monday August 09, 2010 - 06:53:00 PM
Solar waste recycling industry starts up. Clean-tech firms seek to reuse a variety of rare, potentially toxic materials. New businesses emerge as manufacturers prepare for modules’ end of life.
© Foto-Bšhme Frauenstein / Detlev MŸller.
Solar waste recycling industry starts up. Clean-tech firms seek to reuse a variety of rare, potentially toxic materials. New businesses emerge as manufacturers prepare for modules’ end of life.
Belgische Module Solar World.
© Foto-Bšhme Frauenstein / Detlev MŸller.
Belgische Module Solar World.

Clean-tech firms seek to reuse a variety of rare, potentially toxic materials. New businesses emerge as manufacturers prepare for modules' end of life. 

In recent years the electronics industry has gained notoriety for creating an endless stream of disposable products that make their way at life’s end to developing countries, where poor people without safety gear cut and burn out valuable materials, spilling contaminants into their water, air and lungs. 

Solar modules contain some of the same potentially dangerous materials as electronics, including silicon tetrachloride, cadmium, selenium and sulfur hexafluoride, a potent greenhouse gas. So as solar moves from the fringe to the mainstream, insiders and watchdog groups are beginning to talk about producer responsibility and recycling in an attempt to sidestep the pitfalls of electronic waste and retain the industry’s green credibility. 

Solar modules have an expected lifespan of at least 20 years so most have not yet reached the end of their useful lives. But now, before a significant number of dead panels pile up, is the perfect time to implement a responsible program, said Sheila Davis, executive director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition

The nonprofit environmental group has been a leader in recognizing the problems of e-waste, including hazardous disposal sites in the Bay Area left by the semiconductor industry. Now it is focused on the solar boom in Silicon Valley. Last year the group published a report calling for a “just and sustainable” solar industry, and this year it issued a scorecard of solar companies. The scorecard evaluates recycling and extended producer responsibility for the product’s end of life, called takeback; supply chain and green jobs; chemical use and lifecycle analysis; and disclosure. 

Vastly expanding industry 

Solar energy is the most widely available resource we have. Every hour, enough solar energy strikes Earth to meet human energy needs for more than a year, according to NASA. Now the solar industry is poised for huge growth in the United States, thanks to policy changes, incentives, technological improvements and economies of scale. Solar photovoltaics have recently become less expensive than nuclear energy on a per-kilowatt-hour basis, according to a new report from Duke University. Also, solar is widely expected to reach cost parity with fossil fuels in most markets by 2013. 

In 2009, Greentech Media estimated that U.S. solar demand will continue to increase about 50 percent annually through 2012. The report said the U.S. capacity installed during 2008 was about 320 megawatts, and it predicted that about 2,000 megawatts would be installed during 2012. Such growth would put U.S. capacity ahead of solar leader Spain and potentially Germany as well. 

While most of the new modules will likely have a long, productive life, factory scrap, transport breakages and field failures are ready for recycling now. Jennifer Woolwich is collecting these broken solar modules in a warehouse near Phoenix. 

She founded her company PV Recycling in February 2009 after estimating that she could harvest 500 panels a week from these sources. She is not yet collecting at that capacity, nor does she have enough panels to begin recycling them, but she is talking with solar manufacturers in an effort to win their recycling business. 

“Of those we interviewed, 100 percent want recycling,” she said. “Eighty percent want an independent third-party doing the recycling.” 

Woolwich said she has seen a quick evolution in solar manufacturers’ attitudes toward recycling: “Last year, there was kind of a ‘wait and see, we’re not sure how this is going to work’ attitude. Over the past 12 months, I’ve seen a 180. I’ve seen companies who are hiring consultants to research their whole value chain to identify waste, including the end of life of modules. We’ve received calls from consumers asking us which companies have takeback programs in place.” 

Solar companies tend to be secretive about their product recipes, making some manufacturers cautious about, yet conceptually open to, third-party recycling. 

“We guarantee that intellectual property will not be put at risk,” Woolwich said. “We’re not interested in reverse engineering or selling company secrets. We have certificates of destruction that we [will] provide.” 

For now, though, some companies are doing their own recycling. 

SolarWorld, which received an 88 out of 100 on the toxics coalition’s scorecard, has been recycling its own panels since 2003 at its main factory in Freiberg, Germany. That factory now receives broken panels from its U.S. plants in Cabrillo, Calif., Hillsboro, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash. 

“The fact is, there isn’t much to recycle,” said Ben Santarris, a spokesman for SolarWorld. “In the future we might expand recycling to our U.S. plants or contract with a third-party recycler.” 

 

First Solar earned a rating of 67 on the scorecard. Headquartered in Tempe, Ariz., it has recycling facilities at its manufacturing sites in Perrysburg, Ohio; Frankfurt (Oder), Germany; and Kulim, Malaysia. Lisa Krueger, vice president of sustainable development, said that so far the company is primarily recycling manufacturing scrap. 

“It’s our intention that there would be other recycling facilities worldwide as you get into those volumes,” she said. 

Materials of interest 

Solar modules employ a variety of technologies, and even models within the same technology can have different ingredients. These materials may or may not be classified as toxic depending on who is regulating them.
 

Dustin Mulvaney is a scientist who works on solar issues at the University of California, Berkeley, and serves as a consultant to the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. He has analyzed solar modules currently on the market and has outlined for each its key ingredients, including potentially toxic elements and materials that would be valuable to recover in recycling. 

Used in SolarWorld modules, crystalline photovoltaic is the oldest and most widespread solar technology in the United States, holding 57 percent market share in 2009, according to Greentech Media. “As far as hazardous materials go, you’re primarily talking about lead,” Mulvaney said. 

A thin film technology called cadmium telluride makes up about 21 percent of the U.S. market. First Solar panels use this technology. 

Cadmium may be carcinogenic. Exposure affects the lungs and kidneys and can be fatal. “It’s gene toxic and a mutagen, so it has the ability to affect DNA, meaning it could affect reproduction and future generations’ DNA,” Mulvaney said. 

Cadmium is technically banned by the European Union’s Restriction on Hazardous Substances directive, although the policy currently allows an exemption for its use in solar modules. 

Still, there’s not a lot of data about whether cadmium is toxic in the alloy form in which it’s used in thin film. And cadmium isn’t likely to go away anytime soon, as it is uniquely efficient at absorbing light. 

Another thin film material, copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), also has a cadmium layer. Indium is a potentially hazardous substance, too, particularly in the form of indium tin oxide, Mulvaney said. Studies have linked it to pulmonary disease in flat-screen TV recycling facilities. And selenium has been documented to be a hazardous material. 

While CIGS currently has a market share of just 6 percent, amorphous silicon, which also has an indium tin oxide layer, holds 16 percent. 

California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control has taken note of the European Union’s concern about cadmium and is researching the chemical and physical makeup of various types of modules. 

“We think some solar panels, probably the cadmium thin film type, might be hazardous waste when shredded or disposed of in a landfill,” said Charles Corcoran, a hazardous substances scientist at the department. 

Only panels classified as hazardous would fall under the jurisdiction of the department. It is considering regulatory options to try to steer end users toward recycling rather than disposal. 

“That gets a little complicated because California and U.S. regulations aren’t necessarily in sync,” Corcoran said. “An option might be to transport it out of state where disposal is legal.” 

Today California has no solar module recycling facilities. But recycling locally is an important tenet of an ethical, sustainable industry, said the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition’s Davis. Recycling locally reduces the process’ carbon footprint. 

“It would also make people more conscious about what goes into the products,” Davis said. “And it would create local jobs.” 

Designing with recycling in mind 

Extended producer responsibility, including module recycling, is currently an expense rather than a source of profit for companies, including Solar World and First Solar. 

“As we get to scale, we hope those costs will come down,” Krueger said.

A dedicated recycler like Woolwich is counting on economies of scale. Her business plan also includes various revenue streams, including reclaiming and selling materials and providing a service of managing manufacturers’ collection and recycling systems. 

Davis said recycling costs could be reduced if manufacturers would take the notion of extended producer responsibility to the next level: the design phase. 

“If you don’t look at the recycling when you’re designing the product, then it’s really, really difficult to recycle,” Davis said. “But if you know you’re going to have to pay for the recycling at the end of life, you might make the necessary design changes in your product now to reduce that cost.” 

Mulvaney said that if the government were to set a price on carbon emissions, that would also help make solar recycling more affordable. Because turning sand into crystals takes 70 to 80 percent of the energy used to make crystalline photovoltaics, he said recycling silicon would “save so much energy in production, it could become a money saver.” 

Still, most companies that are beginning recycling programs today are proceeding under the assumption that recycling will be a cost. They are preparing for that expense by creating a variety of funding mechanisms based on the principle of producer responsibility. 

Via her surveys, Woolwich has found that solar companies are using an annuity program, escrow, maturity bonds, annual fixed contracts, and pay as you go. 

Krueger said First Solar uses a trust: “First Solar doesn’t have access to those funds except for collection and recycling,” she said. “It’s designed that way because of the long product life. If something happens to First Solar, the industry won’t have to deal with orphan waste.” 

Some materials in solar modules such as silicon and rare metals could be more valuable in the future, providing an additional incentive to recycle. Material price spikes have caused industry turmoil in recent years. For example, polysilicon shot to $400 per kilogram between 2006 and 2008. It is now down around $55. 

Krueger said First Solar currently harvests cadmium and tellurium from its recycling program to use in new modules, even though buying it from a supplier is currently less expensive. She said she expects harvesting costs to come down as recycling scales up. 
 

Mulvaney said that the industry would do well to plan now for the recovery of rare metals such as indium and tellurium. 

Of course, materials recovery has an environmental benefit as well. “We’ll be able to reduce impact from mining and other environmental hazards by collecting a lot of the metals and other valuable minerals that are being used in panels,” Davis said. 

Being truly sustainable — and maintaining that green credibility — is a powerful motivator for renewable energy companies. 

Santarris said the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition’s scorecard was an “important step” toward figuring out which manufacturers are the most environmentally benign. 

“There’s not a lot of sophistication in the marketplace to differentiate among products and manufacturers of varying environmental performance,” Santarris said. “Are solar modules all the same? They’re not.” 

Solar Waste Recycling: Can the industry stay green? 

Picture_1_medium 

This piece is made possible by the reporter Erica Gies, the editing of the SF Public Press and funding from Spot.Us. This piece is free to be republished but must give credit to all parties. 

Clean-tech firms seek to reuse a variety of rare, potentially toxic materials. New businesses emerge as manufacturers prepare for modules' end of life. 

In recent years the electronics industry has gained notoriety for creating an endless stream of disposable products that make their way at life’s end to developing countries, where poor people without safety gear cut and burn out valuable materials, spilling contaminants into their water, air and lungs. 

Solar modules contain some of the same potentially dangerous materials as electronics, including silicon tetrachloride, cadmium, selenium and sulfur hexafluoride, a potent greenhouse gas. So as solar moves from the fringe to the mainstream, insiders and watchdog groups are beginning to talk about producer responsibility and recycling in an attempt to sidestep the pitfalls of electronic waste and retain the industry’s green credibility. 

Solar World - Solar Recycling 

Solar modules have an expected lifespan of at least 20 years so most have not yet reached the end of their useful lives. But now, before a significant number of dead panels pile up, is the perfect time to implement a responsible program, said Sheila Davis, executive director of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. 

The nonprofit environmental group has been a leader in recognizing the problems of e-waste, including hazardous disposal sites in the Bay Area left by the semiconductor industry. Now it is focused on the solar boom in Silicon Valley. Last year the group published a report calling for a “just and sustainable” solar industry, and this year it issued a scorecard of solar companies. The scorecard evaluates recycling and extended producer responsibility for the product’s end of life, called takeback; supply chain and green jobs; chemical use and lifecycle analysis; and disclosure. 

Solar World - Solar Recycling- Belgische Module 

Vastly expanding industry 

Solar energy is the most widely available resource we have. Every hour, enough solar energy strikes Earth to meet human energy needs for more than a year, according to NASA. Now the solar industry is poised for huge growth in the United States, thanks to policy changes, incentives, technological improvements and economies of scale. Solar photovoltaics have recently become less expensive than nuclear energy on a per-kilowatt-hour basis, according to a new report from Duke University. Also, solar is widely expected to reach cost parity with fossil fuels in most markets by 2013. 

In 2009, Greentech Media estimated that U.S. solar demand will continue to increase about 50 percent annually through 2012. The report said the U.S. capacity installed during 2008 was about 320 megawatts, and it predicted that about 2,000 megawatts would be installed during 2012. Such growth would put U.S. capacity ahead of solar leader Spain and potentially Germany as well. 

While most of the new modules will likely have a long, productive life, factory scrap, transport breakages and field failures are ready for recycling now. Jennifer Woolwich is collecting these broken solar modules in a warehouse near Phoenix. 

She founded her company PV Recycling in February 2009 after estimating that she could harvest 500 panels a week from these sources. She is not yet collecting at that capacity, nor does she have enough panels to begin recycling them, but she is talking with solar manufacturers in an effort to win their recycling business. 

“Of those we interviewed, 100 percent want recycling,” she said. “Eighty percent want an independent third-party doing the recycling.” 

Woolwich said she has seen a quick evolution in solar manufacturers’ attitudes toward recycling: “Last year, there was kind of a ‘wait and see, we’re not sure how this is going to work’ attitude. Over the past 12 months, I’ve seen a 180. I’ve seen companies who are hiring consultants to research their whole value chain to identify waste, including the end of life of modules. We’ve received calls from consumers asking us which companies have takeback programs in place.” 

Solar companies tend to be secretive about their product recipes, making some manufacturers cautious about, yet conceptually open to, third-party recycling. 

“We guarantee that intellectual property will not be put at risk,” Woolwich said. “We’re not interested in reverse engineering or selling company secrets. We have certificates of destruction that we [will] provide.” 

For now, though, some companies are doing their own recycling. 

SolarWorld, which received an 88 out of 100 on the toxics coalition’s scorecard, has been recycling its own panels since 2003 at its main factory in Freiberg, Germany. That factory now receives broken panels from its U.S. plants in Cabrillo, Calif., Hillsboro, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash. 

“The fact is, there isn’t much to recycle,” said Ben Santarris, a spokesman for SolarWorld. “In the future we might expand recycling to our U.S. plants or contract with a third-party recycler.” 

SolarWorld - Recylcing 

First Solar earned a rating of 67 on the scorecard. Headquartered in Tempe, Ariz., it has recycling facilities at its manufacturing sites in Perrysburg, Ohio; Frankfurt (Oder), Germany; and Kulim, Malaysia. Lisa Krueger, vice president of sustainable development, said that so far the company is primarily recycling manufacturing scrap. 

“It’s our intention that there would be other recycling facilities worldwide as you get into those volumes,” she said. 

Materials of interest 

Solar modules employ a variety of technologies, and even models within the same technology can have different ingredients. These materials may or may not be classified as toxic depending on who is regulating them.
 

Dustin Mulvaney is a scientist who works on solar issues at the University of California, Berkeley, and serves as a consultant to the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. He has analyzed solar modules currently on the market and has outlined for each its key ingredients, including potentially toxic elements and materials that would be valuable to recover in recycling. 

Used in SolarWorld modules, crystalline photovoltaic is the oldest and most widespread solar technology in the United States, holding 57 percent market share in 2009, according to Greentech Media. “As far as hazardous materials go, you’re primarily talking about lead,” Mulvaney said. 

A thin film technology called cadmium telluride makes up about 21 percent of the U.S. market. First Solar panels use this technology. 

Cadmium may be carcinogenic. Exposure affects the lungs and kidneys and can be fatal. “It’s gene toxic and a mutagen, so it has the ability to affect DNA, meaning it could affect reproduction and future generations’ DNA,” Mulvaney said. 

Cadmium is technically banned by the European Union’s Restriction on Hazardous Substances directive, although the policy currently allows an exemption for its use in solar modules. 

Still, there’s not a lot of data about whether cadmium is toxic in the alloy form in which it’s used in thin film. And cadmium isn’t likely to go away anytime soon, as it is uniquely efficient at absorbing light. 

SolarWorld - Recycling 

Another thin film material, copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), also has a cadmium layer. Indium is a potentially hazardous substance, too, particularly in the form of indium tin oxide, Mulvaney said. Studies have linked it to pulmonary disease in flat-screen TV recycling facilities. And selenium has been documented to be a hazardous material. 

While CIGS currently has a market share of just 6 percent, amorphous silicon, which also has an indium tin oxide layer, holds 16 percent. 

California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control has taken note of the European Union’s concern about cadmium and is researching the chemical and physical makeup of various types of modules. 

“We think some solar panels, probably the cadmium thin film type, might be hazardous waste when shredded or disposed of in a landfill,” said Charles Corcoran, a hazardous substances scientist at the department. 

Only panels classified as hazardous would fall under the jurisdiction of the department. It is considering regulatory options to try to steer end users toward recycling rather than disposal. 

“That gets a little complicated because California and U.S. regulations aren’t necessarily in sync,” Corcoran said. “An option might be to transport it out of state where disposal is legal.” 

Today California has no solar module recycling facilities. But recycling locally is an important tenet of an ethical, sustainable industry, said the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition’s Davis. Recycling locally reduces the process’ carbon footprint. 

“It would also make people more conscious about what goes into the products,” Davis said. “And it would create local jobs.” 

Designing with recycling in mind 

Extended producer responsibility, including module recycling, is currently an expense rather than a source of profit for companies, including Solar World and First Solar. 

“As we get to scale, we hope those costs will come down,” Krueger said. 

 

A dedicated recycler like Woolwich is counting on economies of scale. Her business plan also includes various revenue streams, including reclaiming and selling materials and providing a service of managing manufacturers’ collection and recycling systems. 

Davis said recycling costs could be reduced if manufacturers would take the notion of extended producer responsibility to the next level: the design phase. 

“If you don’t look at the recycling when you’re designing the product, then it’s really, really difficult to recycle,” Davis said. “But if you know you’re going to have to pay for the recycling at the end of life, you might make the necessary design changes in your product now to reduce that cost.” 

Mulvaney said that if the government were to set a price on carbon emissions, that would also help make solar recycling more affordable. Because turning sand into crystals takes 70 to 80 percent of the energy used to make crystalline photovoltaics, he said recycling silicon would “save so much energy in production, it could become a money saver.” 

Still, most companies that are beginning recycling programs today are proceeding under the assumption that recycling will be a cost. They are preparing for that expense by creating a variety of funding mechanisms based on the principle of producer responsibility. 

Via her surveys, Woolwich has found that solar companies are using an annuity program, escrow, maturity bonds, annual fixed contracts, and pay as you go. 

Krueger said First Solar uses a trust: “First Solar doesn’t have access to those funds except for collection and recycling,” she said. “It’s designed that way because of the long product life. If something happens to First Solar, the industry won’t have to deal with orphan waste.” 

Some materials in solar modules such as silicon and rare metals could be more valuable in the future, providing an additional incentive to recycle. Material price spikes have caused industry turmoil in recent years. For example, polysilicon shot to $400 per kilogram between 2006 and 2008. It is now down around $55. 

Krueger said First Solar currently harvests cadmium and tellurium from its recycling program to use in new modules, even though buying it from a supplier is currently less expensive. She said she expects harvesting costs to come down as recycling scales up. 
 

Mulvaney said that the industry would do well to plan now for the recovery of rare metals such as indium and tellurium. 

Of course, materials recovery has an environmental benefit as well. “We’ll be able to reduce impact from mining and other environmental hazards by collecting a lot of the metals and other valuable minerals that are being used in panels,” Davis said. 

Being truly sustainable — and maintaining that green credibility — is a powerful motivator for renewable energy companies. 

Santarris said the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition’s scorecard was an “important step” toward figuring out which manufacturers are the most environmentally benign. 

“There’s not a lot of sophistication in the marketplace to differentiate among products and manufacturers of varying environmental performance,” Santarris said. “Are solar modules all the same? They’re not.” 

This piece is made possible by the reporter, the editing of the SF Public Press and funding from Spot.Us. This piece is free to be republished but must give credit to all parties.


The Other Change of Hobbit is Living in South Berkeley

By Ken Bullock
Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:08:00 PM

Other Change of Hobbit, Berkeley's pioneering science fiction-fantasy bookstore, now in spacious new digs at 3264 Adeline Street, between Harmon and Alcatraz, near popular destinations like The Vault and Sweet Adeline's, has been forced to contemplate the future—the near future—and survival in a gloomy economy. 

Dave Nee, co-founder of the store—which goes back as a book service to 1975, with the three original partners "book-running" to local organizations—recounted the saga of its establishment, and its three Berkeley locations.  

"We were supplying books to groups like the San Francisco chapter of The Elves, Gnomes & Little Men's Chowder & Marching Society, founded in 1949, by Anthony Boucher, among others. Three of us shared the organizational duties of supplying and mail order—Tom Whitmore, an old friend since high school in Palo Alto; Debbie Notkin and me. We've always been in Fantastic Fiction—Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror ..." 

Nee went on: "At the WesterCon—West Coast Convention of Science Fiction and Fantasy fans—in LA,1976, Sherry Gottlieb of A Change of Hobbit, the Santa Monica bookstore (founded in 1972) came up to our book table and asked if we'd like to open a storefront operation in Berkeley. She kicked us over the edge with the suggestion, and lent us the name, as long as it was a little bit different, 'So the bills won't get confused.' 

"We tried 'Son of Change of Hobbit,'" Nee joked, "Even 'Bride of ...'—but finally settled on Other Change of Hobbit, which preserves the pun." 

The partners looked at different potential locations—"a whole lot of spaces"—finally finding "a little hole-in-the-wall under the garage in Sather Gate plaza, where Friends of the Berkeley Library is now. The City was the landlord, looking to fill spaces ..." 

The time, Nee recalled, seemed ripe. "We stumbled into good timing. Everybody seemed interested in reading Science Fiction." Star Wars opened in theaters the last week of May that spring, and the partners treated themselves to opening night. 

"We supplied space for club meetings," Nee said. "Authors came in. The three of us were known in Science Fiction fandom, so word spread. A community started to form." 

Business slowed in the early 90s. "The first big recession was in the winter of '92. That killed A Change of Hobbit in Santa Monica. It certainly was killing us. We tried to renew the lease, but the guy at the City who got us in had died—and the City wasn't taking care of the property. It was dark in the Mall. And we were tired of it. There were drug deaths in the building. And the City wanted double the rent. We figured for that kind of price, we could get something out on the street." 

Other Change of Hobbit moved in at 2020 Shattuck, near Addison. "It was a step up—longer, deeper, more shelves ... Business went up as much as the linear footage." 

Nee looked back on the long tenancy downtown. "We had a good run for 17 years. Then there were more ups and downs economically. We saw Berkeley's economy hit the skids again. And had the first of three floods in the building. We've been plagued with the curse of water. The landlady tried to plug the leaks, but it never really got resolved. The air conditioner broke down. We tried to change the terms of the lease—and were offered a one year lease with a one year option by the agent! We continued on a month-to-month basis at the same rent, on a hand-shake with the landlady." For seven years, the agent tried to find a new lessee.  

Business kept shrinking for the store. "It was any number of factors overall," Nee said. "More and more people were turning to online reading and downloading over the last three-plus years. In 2000, all bookstores were hit when the Bush people shut down Alameda Air Station. A 10% hit in sales. The military bases closing, Silicon Valley collapsing ... People were scared, what was expendable income dried up; the arts community, retail were hit ..." 

Debbie Notkin had dropped out of the partnership in 1994, the year after the move to Shattuck. Jan Murphy, an investor, came into the corporation and has been working in the store. "Tom and I blew off two inheritances trying to keep afloat," Nee said. "How do you make a fortune running a bookstore?" Last year was slow; the store fell behind in rent. "The end of the year was slack; Christmas didn't happen." 

A new tenant was found, a developer with plans for a restaurant. The store got an eviction notice in February. Scouting around, looking for a place "near public transportation, with a certain amount of square footage," Nee first came into his present location for a meeting of the Adeline-Alcatraz Merchants Association, while considering a place around the corner. "It was a very vibrant, energetic meeting. I sensed things were happening—and about to happen—down here. I liked the feel of the space, but wasn't sure we could afford it. I may yet be proved right!" 

He also liked Rebecca's Books next door. "Nothing better than two bookstores; they create a synergy...” Rebecca's Books closed at the end of July. 

Nee looks back on the problems of business downtown, even as he hears about problems in his new neighborhood, which he feels are often exaggerated—or reflect the past, not the present. 

"There's parking here. Downtown, we had the feeling nobody in City government wanted to hear about anything. And when the Downtown Business Association cited a book, they didn't tell people to go to Pegasus, they directed them to Amazon!" 

Other Change of Hobbit celebrated its 33rd anniversary in Berkeley May 27th at the new location. "We commissioned cupcakes from Sweet Adeline's." Nee likes the new neighborhood.” There’s a real feeling of community here," he said, "which we never felt up on Shattuck. Bookstores should be community centers, but how can they survive? Downtown, it was mostly students, business people, transients. Here, families come in. I see parents and grandparents coming in with children" (The front of the store has a section for young readers.) "Up Shattuck, our clientele was getting older—and no new readers came in. And our regular customers from the campus—not just students, but faculty and staff—have been hit by Schwarzenegger's payroll cuts and furloughs. I went to The Vault for brunch, and looked around. A lot of their customers were our customers. And our old ones, some of them who stopped coming downtown due to parking, have seen us driving by, and are very supportive." 

With 30,000 new titles—and much more in used book—Other Change of Hobbit's a landmark by any bookstore—any retail—standard. But times have changed. "In 1977, Berkeley had the heaviest density of booksellers in the world—except maybe London! In those days—within three miles of campus. We've watched it all disappear." Nee's featuring a new special accounts service; for a sum in advance, all titles are 20% off, with open special ordering for members.  

But "I know people's budgets are tight. I feel something's happening here. How long to hang on is the big question. If each person who buys a book bought a second one—or sent in a friend—we'd be fine." 

 

Other Change of Hobbit 3264 Adeline Street , 843-0413 otherchangeofhobbit.com /hours: noon to 7, Monday-Friday; Saturday, 10-6; Sunday, 11-5.


Press Release: Jesse Arreguin Announces Council Candidacy

From Councilmember Jesse Arreguin
Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 04:16:00 PM

Dear Friends-

Over the past year and a half as your Councilmember, I have been an independent voice on the Berkeley City Council, fighting for District 4 and continuing Dona Spring’s legacy of progressive leadership. 

I have authored legislation on a wide range of issues from expanding tenants rights, promoting a just immigration policy to calling for UC accountability and promoting the humane treatment of animals. 

I have also worked hard over the past five years to develop a plan for our Downtown and have opposed proposals to allow out of scale development that compromise our historic resources and our neighborhoods. I believe that we should create more housing in our Downtown but at a more human scale and that new development should address the environmental impacts they create on our community and contribute to Downtown improvements. 

I have stood up for my constituents and with community members have written a consensus plan which allows for new development Downtown while respecting our historic character and our neighborhoods. This plan presents a progressive vision for our Downtown and will create new housing and jobs, stimulate economic growth, improve the pedestrian experience by creating safer streets with trees and other amenities and new public open space, as well as ensure that Downtown is a diverse neighborhood through real policies and real requirements to create new affordable housing. As a longtime supporter of a pedestrian plaza on Center Street, I also authored legislation to approve Walter Hood’s design plan for Center Street, including a daylighted Strawberry Creek. 

I have used my office as a platform in advocating for social change, and I have been out in the streets organizing and speaking out, including getting arrested recently with UC workers speaking against the privatization of the UC system. (It was my first time being arrested for civil disobedience and I don’t think anyone has ever been happier being arrested) As a longtime activist, I have been an outspoken voice for progressive values and I have never been afraid to stand up for what I know to be right. 

Because of my strong advocacy on behalf of my constituents and for progressive values, powerful interests have targeted me for removal. I will face three opponents, who of which have already been endorsed by Mayor Tom Bates and will likely have considerable financial resources. We face the real threat of losing progressive leadership for District 4 and for Berkeley. I need your support now more than ever! 

Please join me on Thursday, August 12th to support my progressive leadership on the Berkeley City Council. 

What: Re-Elect Jesse Arreguín for City Council Reception 

Where: PiQ (Pane Italiano Qualita), 91 Shattuck Sq. at Addison Avenue 

When: Thursday, August 12 6:30pm-8:30pm 

PiQ (Pane Italiano Qualita) is a soon-to-be-open cafe in the downtown that will provide fresh pastries and breads baked on site in a beautiful venue that features custom Italian decor. PiQ is located at 91 Shattuck Sq. (across the street from Half Price Books and the BART station). 

Contribution sliding scale $20 - $250 (NO ONE WILL BE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS) 

Contribute online here. 

 

Contributions sent by mail may be sent to: 

 

Jesse Arreguin for City Council 2010 

PO Box 9153 

Berkeley, CA 94709 

 

The maximum contribution limit is $250 per person. Please be sure to include your occupation and employer on the check. 

 

Hasta La Victoria Siempre! 

Jesse Arreguin Signature 

Jesse Arreguín 

To sponsor or volunteer, please e-mail Anthony Sanchez (anthonysanchez07@gmail.com)


Press Release: Bates, Hancock, Skinner Endorse Josh Daniels for School Board

From Josh Daniels
Thursday August 12, 2010 - 10:17:00 AM

State Senator Loni Hancock, Assemblymember Nancy Skinner and Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates have all joined in endorsing Josh Daniels as a consensus choice in the Berkeley School Board race. 

“I am honored to have the endorsements of three of Berkeley’s finest and most experienced elected officials. I look forward to working alongside them to ensure that our schools work successfully for all students,” said Daniels. 

Senator Hancock, Assemblymember Skinner and Mayor Bates now headline a long list of endorsers, including the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, a majority of the Berkeley City Council, past and present Berkeley School Board members, and hundreds of Berkeley teachers, staff and parents. 

Yesterday was the candidate filing deadline for the Nov. 2 election for the three open School Board seats. 

“I’m supporting Josh for the financial expertise and insight he will bring to the School Board, something that is particularly important given the current economic and budget crisis,” said Senator Hancock. “And he is a graduate of our Berkeley Schools.” 

Daniels, a school finance attorney and a former school district financial advisor, grew up in Berkeley and attended Washington Elementary School, Willard Middle School and Berkeley High School. 

In endorsing Daniels, Assemblymember Skinner said, “I enthusiastically support Josh Daniels for Berkeley School Board. Josh brings expertise in school finance and a commitment to educational success for each and every one of our children. As a former member of the City Council and parent of a Berkeley High graduate, I can tell you that Josh is just the person we need now on the School Board.” 

“I am proud to support Josh Daniels for School Board. He’s a graduate of the Berkeley public schools and a strong advocate for our kids,” said Mayor Bates. “Josh understands school finance and, as the co-founder of the Student Court at BHS, he has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the health and well-being of Berkeley’s students.” In 2005, while in law school at UC Berkeley, Daniels started the Berkeley High Student Court, a successful alternative discipline program that empowers, engages and serves students of all backgrounds and abilities. 

As a School Board member, Daniels will build on the remarkable strengths of Berkeley schools: award-winning schools, a supportive community, dedicated and hard-working teachers and staff, the 2020 Vision, and a diverse student body that enriches the experience of all students. He will also develop solutions to resolve the equally significant challenges that the District faces: ongoing budget deficits and persistent racial, linguistic and socioeconomic inequities. 

 

Daniels’ official campaign kickoff will take place on Sunday, Sep. 18, from 3:00-5:00 p.m. at 2210 Grant St. in Berkeley. For more information: www.electJoshDaniels.com ### 

 

Josh Daniels for School Board | Box 3997 Berkeley, CA 94703 | 510-213-VOTE | info@electjoshdaniels.com | electjoshdaniels.com


Opinion

Editorials

Creating the Jobs We All Need Now

By Becky O'Malley
Monday August 09, 2010 - 11:01:00 PM
Congressman Barney Frank and San Lorenzo Valley School District high school government teacher Cindy Martinez, a big fan who asked him to pose with her in the halls of Congress last month. (Full disclosure: She's my niece.}
Congressman Barney Frank and San Lorenzo Valley School District high school government teacher Cindy Martinez, a big fan who asked him to pose with her in the halls of Congress last month. (Full disclosure: She's my niece.}

Last week I was having lunch in my favorite corner store/café in Berkeley when a mother came in with two tiny boys, one about four, the other in a stroller. She herself was a compact person, probably under five feet tall, with big brown eyes and long black hair—she looked like she came from one of the indigenous populations of Mexico or Central America. Altogether, they were a handsome and cheerful family group. 

After a bit of consultation in Spanish, the older boy selected a very small bag of pretzels from a rack, paid for them himself with coins his mother provided, and shared them with his baby brother. As an experienced grandmother, I know that pretzels are the wholesome choice—inexpensive, no high-fructose corn sweetener, no transfats, but just crunchy and salty enough to make kids feel like they’re having a treat. Clearly, an adept parent, with goodhumored and well-brought-up boys. 

After they left the proprietor rolled his eyes. “Refugees,” he said. “From Arizona. It’s awful.” 

He’s an immigrant himself, from the Middle East, and not just from a single country or from one ethnic group, but with family ties and friends among several. He has strong opinions about right and wrong on the political scene, and has followed with interest and often disgust the Planet’s interactions with those who have tried to suppress points of view on Israel with which they disagree. And as a proud naturalized American citizen, he’s shocked to see refugees in his adopted country. 

As a proud native-born American and a long-time Californian, I too am ashamed of Arizona. I’m especially ashamed of California’s Harpy Twins, Meg and Carly, who are eagerly talking out of both sides of their mouths, saying one thing in Spanish-language ads and another in English about the Arizona law which attempts to legalize hunting down anyone suspected of being an immigrant without documentation,. Meg was recently caught in the act by a noxious Southern California talk radio show. 

This is not an easy problem to solve. As things get worse to the south of us, desperate people will continue to migrate north, despite international borders and perilous journeys. Predictions about the effect of climate change suggest that as the world gets warmer South-North movement will inevitably increase, regardless of legal barriers. 

Making intelligent plans for what can be done to handle the situation is much impeded by what appears to be the built-in human tendency to xenophobia, the fear of strangers. Somewhere on my bookshelves is a rudely printed and bound book from the mid-nineteenth century, a compendium of the theory and practice of the Know-Nothings. They were the intellectual ancestors of the kind of people who now call up talk radio to express their fears and prejudices against immigrants, documented or undocumented, Spanish-speaking or otherwise. The designated villains in this scurrilous piece were some of my family’s ancestors, German and Irish, who were then settling legally in the United States. The tune is familiar, only the words have changed. 

It’s disheartening to see Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who can sometimes pass for a civilized person, calling for repeal of the constitutional provision which grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States. He’s suggesting that we follow the policies of the notorious Prussian-German principle of Jus sanguinis, or law of blood, under which people acquire citizenship only if a parent is a citizen, regardless of where they were born. 

In modern Germany this has now been somewhat modified, but there’s still a way to go. In Germany Turkish migrants still do much of the hard work without being voters. It’s no accident that the 9/11 plot was hatched in among the disenfranchised in Hamburg’s Islamic neighborhoods. 

Americans too have expected the most recently arrived to do jobs they themselves shun. Harriet Martineau, an English visitor to the United States in 1834, noted that the British embassy at the time was forced to hire foreigners to do their domestic work wearing livery, the traditional servants’ uniform: 

“One laughable peculiarity at the British legation was the confusion of tongues among the servants, who ask you to take fish, flesh, and fowl in Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch, Irish, or French. No American will wear livery, and there is no reason why any American should. But the British ambassador must have livery servants….[so] he is obliged to pick up his domestics from among foreigners …” 

Americans today, including those of us descended from the kind of people who waited on table at the British legation in 1834, still depend on “foreigners” to do our dirty work. This is partly because employers are looking for people who will work cheaply, of course. 

A letter writer in this very issue suggests that African Americans, whose people have been in this country as long as most European Americans or longer, are being passed over for desirable construction jobs in favor of recent immigrants, and that does happen. But the migrants among us are also expected to do a huge number of jobs which native-born Americans consider undesirable. 

I’m not a member of the “What Has He Done for Me Lately” crowd of Obama observers, but I do think dealing with migration is one of the big unsolved problems which his administration has yet to tackle in any meaningful way. It’s linked, as our letter writer suggests, to the problem usually discussed under the rubric of “jobs”, which is not about just jobs per se, not just any old kind of jobs, but about the lack of solid working-class jobs that can be the basis for family life. 

William Gross, a prominent spokesperson for the bond-selling industry, was reported in Sunday’s New York Times as believing that “it’s time for the government to spend tens of billions on new infrastructure projects to put people to work and stimulate demand.” His firm is heavily into municipal bonds at the moment, so it’s not surprising he would say that, since bonds are used to fund infrastructure building projects, with profit to the bond-sellers. 

But the ecological consequences of adding oceans of new concrete and forests of steel to our environment are serious, and the construction industry’s increasing reliance on imported workers, as our letter writer notes, is another problem. Meanwhile, our schools are laying off teachers and classroom aides at an appalling rate, as well as valuable service workers like police officers and home health aides. 

Wouldn’t it be better, instead of paying to build more hard-wired stuff that we really don’t need, to expand people-based jobs that we do need? Instead of building more and more government-funded construction boondoggles like concrete islands for Bus Rapid Transit, a fourth automobile tunnel through the East Bay hills and environmentally wasteful ferries (which uses more energy per passenger mile than cars) how about just training and hiring more bus drivers so that our transit system will actually work? 

How about hiring willing immigrants, people like the mother I saw at my corner store, to help out in class rooms and assist our disabled citizens, who are losing the state subsidy which has paid for their attendants? 

In one of the most juvenile and vapid stories I’ve ever heard on the increasingly marginal National Public Radio (“Interrupted Recess Brings Bickering Back To House”), Andrea Seabrook reported that the house is back in session to reconcile a bill passed by the Senate which will fund public service pay by closing some high-end tax loopholes. Or rather, I figured out what’s happening by reading the comments, since as the headline indicates, Seabrook focused on the he-said-she-said stuff as if she were reporting a tennis match instead of on government taking care of business. 

It appears that House Democrats, led by often-dissed but frequently effective Speaker Pelosi, are on the right track. Fortunately, I was able to find a relatively intelligent report of what’s actually going on at TheHill.com website

 

“House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) on Tuesday disputed the rumor that lawmakers were upset by having to return to Washington during their August break to vote on a $26.1 billion state-aid bill. “ ‘When we heard that the Senate had passed the bill, people were delighted,’ he said Tuesday. ‘It means you're gonna get funds for states. You're going to have firefighters, teachers, public works employees back.’ 

“The bill provides $10 billion to education funding and $16 billion to Medicaid. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) contends the legislation will save or create 319,000 jobs, which includes teachers, police officers and firefighters.” 

 

One bill won’t do it all, but at least it looks like a step in the right direction. We’ll see if it passes. 

P.S. Ms. Martinez, the teacher pictured above with Barney Frank, has informed me that it did indeed pass this afternoon!


The Editor's Back Fence

Subscription Note

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 05:33:00 PM

Some subscribers have discovered that their personal letters from the Planet editor sometimes end up in Spam. To prevent this from happening to you, put my email address in your contact list right away. If you aren't a subsciber but would like to be, write to subscribe@berkeleydailyplanet.com. It's free, though all it gets you is notification when new or special issues are posted.


Cartoons

Odd Bodkins: The 21st Century

Dan O'Neill
Monday August 09, 2010 - 10:37:00 PM
Dan O'Neill

In Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari, if you click on this image, it will be magnified. This no longer works in the latest Internet Explorer.


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:22:00 PM

Where Are the Black American Men? Ex-H-P CEO Mark Hurd;Libraries and the Proposed Changes;RPP Renewals; Truth Will Out;“Most Americans seem to view those who are mentally ill as a bit less than real human beings”; Jack Bragen on Schizophrenia  

Where Are the Black American Men

I wonder if anyone else has noticed, especially in Berkeley of all of the road construction and property construction going on within the past year, the workers have not been the men of the Berkeley community, specifically Black American men, but foreigners, specifically Mexican men. Why is this? 

Sure, economically, things are bad for people, but why in your own city a Black man who is more than qualified can't work on the same roads they drive and walk on and work in the buildings that they pass everyday? 

Just recently, I was watching several viable, experienced, unemployed Black men standing on Sacramento St and Ashby Ave watching an outside contractor (white) with his foreign (non-English speaking) construction workers repaving Sacramento Street. 

Why? 

WAKE-UP MY PEOPLE, WAKE UP! 

Robbynn Ways 

*** 

Ex-H-P CEO Mark Hurd 


Wow, a $28 million severance package for ex-Hewlett-Packard CEO Mark Hurd, who was ousted for sexual harassment and falsifying expense accounts and other documents. Who says bad conduct doesn't pay and pay big? I wonder if the H-P stockholders feel outrage? 

 

Ralph E. Stone 

*** 

Libraries and the Proposed Changes  

There have been several commentaries raising questions about changes to the branch libraries. So far the questions posed by Peter Warfield and BAHA are unanswered. There is a fundamental problem in reducing book space for computer space. Unless we change the definition of libraries, they exist for making books available to would-be readers. If they are going to also be computer centers, then the public needs to get into this conversation and consider where the funding for that addition will come from. Books and computers can enhance the nature of each "technology", but not if one has to be diminished. My next question is, if two library branches really have to demolished where does the money come from to do that? Not Library Bond measure FF. 

Elise White 

*** 

RPP Renewals  

I don’t understand why, every single year, the Department of Finance is caught unawares that RPP renewals have to be processed, and extensions are granted. (Becky, sorry about your ticket.) Are they surprised? Does no one know that RPPs come up for renewal every year at the same time?  

A couple of decades ago, California automobile registration was due on every car in the state on the same date – I think it was November 1. Then, the DMV smartened up (!!) and instituted the monthly renewal system we have now, so that there was no longer the huge wave of renewals. Maybe, just maybe, Berkeley could do the same. “A” could be renewed in January, “B” in February, etc. Why not? Maybe, just maybe, some folks in the Finance Department have to work a lot of overtime to process all of the renewals. Maybe, just maybe, they like the extra money from the overtime.  

Peter Shelton 

*** 

Truth Will Out  

I was quite dismayed when I read in the July 20 article about the Berkeley City Council District 7 race a statement made by George Beier that is quite simply not true. This is the quote: "There was a murder in the Ana Head parking lot, no mention of that" at the July City Council meeting. 

If one watches the video of that meeting one can clearly observe Councilmember Kriss Worthington mentioning this in quite a bit of detail. He asked for the meeting to be adjourned in memory of Nicholas Bailey, the victim, a Sacramento State student and athlete. Worthington also spoke of his efforts to ensure that the Berkeley Police Department would put extra effort into investigating this case, along with the UC Police, who are the primary contacts since the body was found on UC property. 

Councilmember Worthington also mentioned attending the funeral and his being touched by the overflow crowd at the cemetery and by the deep feelings expressed by Nick's friends. Furthermore, Worthington talked of his conversation with the family of the victim about working together to ensure true justice for Nicholas Bailey. He also stated that he has received assurances from the Berkeley City Manager that the city government will stay on top of this investigation. 

This a far cry, to say the least, from Beier's claiming "no mention" of the murder. I am appalled that this tragedy could be politicized in this way and that anything other than the truth is being stated regarding it. As a 32 year resident of District 7, I urge all candidates to maintain a dignified campaign, and to speak only the truth about issues and about each other 

David Joseph 

*** 

Most Americans seem to view those who are mentally ill as a bit less than real human beings.”  

Well now... 

It is difficult to speak for most Americans, but I think you err. Most of us are pretty darn nice folk. I will agree with you to this degree: We tend to find some language and stick to it well past its actual lifetime. Your article was actually not about "us," " the " mentally ill, it was about a picture of "us" that remains very entertaining. I do not know your age, but you might want to visit one of the Marx Brothers' movies, where you will see an illustration of "the" Blacks that is equally "entertaining." Well, no, it is not. Not any longer. 

No I am not offended by the "picture" you presented, I accept that it is your view, but I was not offended by the one the Marx Brothers presented in their movie. Late in life I learned how false it was, how much harm it had done. Then I was offended. Don't wait that long. 

Those of us who have a mental illness ("have" is accurate), are a varied as those of you who do not. I am sure you know that, your words simply do not accurately reflect your knowledge. 

Harold A. Maio, retired Mental Health Editor 

Ft Myers, Florida 

*** 

Jack Bragen on Schizophrenia  

Jack Bragen on schizophrenia is one of the invaluable voices that are a gift to us from the BDP. We all squirm with discomfort and sometimes irrational fear when we see and hear a mentally ill street person, or when we read that one result of de-institutionalization has been the in-and-out occupancy of jail cells by sick people. Good liberals all, we don't want to lock sick people up or force mind-numbing "treatment" on them, but we don't want to witness or think about an illness that exhibits itself as unattractive behavior. In some cases, we blame alcoholism, when it may just be that many ill people find self-medicating with alcohol preferable to the ghastly side effects and deeper numbing of prescription drugs.  

Throughout human history (according to what little I've read) about one percent of human beings world wide (and that's a lot of people) have suffered from mental illness that is labeled (and the labels change all the time: dementia praecox becomes schizophrenia; manic depressives becomes bi-polar disorder) but not diagnosed--as if we were labeling a disease “spots all over" instead of diagnosing measles, chicken-pox, or an allergy.  

Occasionally a drug, or a period of talk therapy, or a stay in a hospital, or a change of diet or job or surroundings, or something else, may alleviate or end symptoms, but we don't really know much about cause or cure. Mr. Bragen probably represents the majority of the chronically mentally ill, who get by, and carefully hide out during occasional flare-ups. For good reasons, both social and economic, these people rarely have the courage to speak out so clearly and rationally and honestly about their episodes of delusion. (If you're like me, you always checked the NO box on the job application, never mentioning the occasional three a.m. insomniac thoughts about whether life was worth the trouble. And if you ever spent a week in a psychiatric facility, you'd keep that as secret from your employer as you would a criminal conviction.)  

Of course, we will tolerate the occasional brain storms of Virginia Woolfe or Van Gogh--even accept them as part of their genius. But you shouldn’t have to be a genius to be accepted despite a chronic illness. Mr. Bragen educates us by writing clearly, cogently, and very well indeed about a health problem he suffers from, now and then, yet, like many people, evidently manages to cope with pretty well in a world where few "normal" people enjoy clear sailing.  

Dorothy Bryant


The Factious and Insular Nature of the Muslim World

By Rizwan Rahmani
Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 11:53:00 AM

There are roughly one and a half billion Muslims living on this planet, and it is a very heterogeneous group. It is fragmented and disparate, communal and even tribal in some parts of the Middle East, Pakistan, Africa, and Afghanistan. I know of no other community of this proportion that is politically so disorganized, and communally this incoherent.  

The most glaring chasm in this community is that of the Shiites and the Sunnis, which I will address in detail later. For a community as large as this, it is disquietingly silent against its slanderers who are harming its image. It has been made to cower in a crouch by its detractors, and it has little or no commanding platform on the world stage. There are some oil-rich countries with a modicum of control over the petroleum spigot empowered by OPEC, but the cartel can also be rather ingratiating. This complete lack of cultural cohesiveness and a tendency to puerile political babbling has resulted in a loss of the public relations war around the globe, and subsequently its goodwill. As a cultural bloc, this group has not been able to further any secular agenda for its community: they have allowed fringe groups to set the tenor of their cultural ideology. This passivity has let the media – who swim the waters of news like ravenous sharks ready to feed on any item Muslim and negative – define them through crude extrapolations and brazen hearsay. The media has caricatured this group, and portrayed their religion and culture as synonymous with terrorism. While the percentage of Muslims who align themselves with terrorists is probably a fraction of one percent, the larger Muslim community has not provided an alternative portrait. 

Some of this lack of unity arises from the fact that it is a huge group both geographically and culturally, stretching from the Philippines to Northwest Africa and northward to the central Asia (not taking into account the recent migrations). The differences between Muslims aren’t just skin deep: they are quite stark—even between the Muslims of India and Pakistan. These differences are economical, cultural, and sociological. Yet invariably all Muslims look to the Middle East with awe for their spiritual and cultural inspiration: the Middle East, which is now, and has been for some time, devoid of any exemplary nation, intellectual figure, philosopher, or political stalwart. The last political figure of some caliber in the region was Gamal Abdel Nasser, and even he wasn’t selected democratically the first time. But he was an anti-royalist, anti-colonialist, and a secularist who had some insight into what it took to build a modern state. He founded the short-lived United Arab Republic, and was an avid advocate of Pan-Arabism. He defied the British, French, and Israelis by blockading them in Suez Canal: eventually they had to cede control of the Canal. Nasser brought Egypt out of its colonial shackles, and changed much of its old laissez-faire economic practices, educational institutions, and archaic justice system. He changed Al-Azhar University’s age old policy of Sunni only enrollment. Despite his foibles, he certainly had more fortitude than the current assortment of tyrants and royalists, who are of the invertebrate ilk, busily leeching riches off their countries or exploiting their immigrant populations: their vision of the Muslim world is myopic and effectively confined within their own borders. 

A lack of oversight and hierarchy in Islamic religious structure leaves the Ulamas (religious scholars) and Imams free to spout their own ideologies. Sharia (Islamic Laws) and Hadith (a collection of instructive anecdotes of the prophet’s life) get reinterpreted frequently and are often regional, but always within the confines of its original text, leaving little or no consideration for the modern culture or sensibilities which are evolving at breakneck speed in an increasingly shrinking world. There are six accepted versions of the Hadith (incidentally the Shiites have four books of their own), each claiming to be the most definitive, which are interpreted by religious scholars, who are often culturally isolated older men completely out of touch with the concept of ‘greater Muslim community’ (Ummah). The imams usually regurgitate these interpretations, sometimes adulterated, from their high ‘Manbars’ (the sermon pulpit of the mosque) unscathed. These imams cannot even decide when to commence or end the month of Ramadan because by an archaic religious ‘law’ the new moon must be sighted by the naked eye—a practice which may have been the best option fourteen hundred years ago but is largely moot since an Arab astronomer and mathematician (Al Battani, after whom the moon crater Albategnius is named) calculated the solar year to the accuracy of a few seconds over nine hundred years ago! As a result of this often arbitrary but more fallible decision by humans (while a higher truth in the heavens exists) when there is no sighting possible (cloudy skies, e.g.), the most important lunar month for the Muslim world (Ramadan) doesn’t commence or end on the same date globally: this hardly fosters greater unity among Muslim people around the world. 

While Catholics have the Vatican, Protestants have Synod, Anglicans have Canterbury, and eastern orthodoxies have their patriarch, Muslims really don’t have any such central institution that oversees their smaller local chapters: the chief imam of the grand mosque in Mecca isn’t followed universally among the Muslims. Islam is somewhat akin to Quakers or Presbyterians (though even they have elders) in this regard, and Quakers have a system of quasi-democratic debate before any action is undertaken: even a single dissenter can veto a decision. Local mosques are the only institutions that faintly resemble a community center, but their scope is provincial, dogmatic, and limited. The mosque is not a community-based chapter of a greater organization, but rather an independent entity, managed mostly by community-appointed imams who run their own show under a religious mandate: their decisions are seldom challenged. They are not answerable to any sort of district center or higher organizational head that overseas the local chapters. This lack of hierarchical organization by its very nature leads to a general state of chaos and disunity, and subsequently renders the Muslim community weak and less coalesced. 

The tribal gestalt of pre-Islamic early Meccan society pervades the Arabian Peninsula. This mindset also permeates other parts of the Muslim world as well: Afghanistan is a prime example, where inter-tribe enmities are widespread and inter-generational. I am leery about giving any credence to David Lean and his writing team for insight into the Arab psyche, but when Omar Sharif’s character kills T.E. Lawrence’s guide, and upon protest Sharif Ali says, “He was nothing, the well is everything; the Hazimi may not drink at our well, he knew that”, it is not too far fetched judging from the rural Arabia I saw in and around Oman thirty five years ago. The Arabia of today is indeed more modernized, but much of the modernization is superficial. Islam tried to do away with tribalism by advocating the concept of Ummah (the greater Muslim community as one): unfortunately this concept never really took deep root. The failure of this became apparent after the third Caliph, Uthman Bin Affan, took the reigns: after a decent run, towards the end of his caliphate he faced a rebellion which ended him and his reign because of his questionable management style and nepotism. His death caused further problems to follow. 

Disunity worsened into civil war during the reign of the fourth Caliph, Ali Bin Abu Talib. Today, the tribal makeup of Arabia manifests in a different form: the smaller sheikhdoms, emirates, and monarchies of Arabia are feudalistic and self-serving despite all the riches they have acquired from petroleum – at least it is true of the peninsular nations (Yemen being the poorest nation among these). They treat other Muslims, from poorer countries, disdainfully while proffering reverential treatment on their colonial masters: yet the very people they discriminate against are culturally and religiously much more like them. A white western citizen with the same qualification as a Muslim from the subcontinent or North Africa stands to earn twice or thrice the salary, and in some cases several times more. Hypocritically, Arab nations bewail the plight of the Palestinians but they do politically and financially (lip service and token monies are paid) little to ameliorate their anguish; Palestinians are not treated very well in some of these nations and are often treated as second class citizens. While Jordan has integrated its Palestinian population quite well, after sixty years Lebanon still treats its Palestinian refugees as just that: refugees. 

Despite these atrocities perpetrated against Muslims by rich Arab countries, there exists an inexplicable fascination with these Arabian nations among Muslim communities around the globe due simply to the custodial role of Arabia as the geographic location of some holy Muslim sites. The reason for this misplaced obsequiousness to the Arabian Peninsula is obvious: the prophet was from there, and the four holiest sites for Muslims are in Middle East (including Karbala, one of the holiest sites for Shiites). 

Notable historical events have fragmented Islam in its infancy—most damaging among them, the friction over the right to the caliphate which ensued after the death of the prophet. By not designating a clear successor—at least in writing or by a call for a committee to appoint one—the prophet left the door wide open for Machiavellian maneuvering and political infighting in the future: an extreme political obtuseness that sabotaged Muslim unity forever after, in my humble opinion. Shiites disagree with the assertion that a successor wasn’t named, as they believe the prophet did name Ali Bin Abu Talib, if not explicitly, to be his successor. This different interpretation of his intent is the main cause for the great rift between the two factions (Shia & Sunni). Shias only believe in Caliphs from the prophet’s true blood lineage or ‘sang real’ (and in Arabic, Ahl Al-Bayt): they prefer to call these leaders imams. Abu Bakr Al-Siddiq, who was the prophet’s father-in-law, managed to corral enough support from the prophet’s closest cohorts to be chosen the next caliph: these cohorts (Majlis Al-Shura) didn’t even consider Ali Bin Abu Talib’s candidacy. Ali Bin Abu Talib was the cousin of the Prophet, grew up in the same household, was his confidante, son-in-law, and was alongside him in almost all the campaigns: naturally he should have been one of the candidates for caliph in spite of the final choice, and he himself believed that to be the case. After this event, there was a marked estrangement of Ali Bin Abu Talib from the greater Islamic cause: inglorious treatment at the hands of the new caliphate didn’t help to mend the bridges. Ali Bin Abu Talib withdrew from political life and devoted much of his time to his family and social work, digging wells around Medina. He would eventually relent and return to the Islamic cause after the death of his wife Fatima Bint Muhammad (Prophet’s daughter), and pledge his allegiance. 

Despite these contentions, Muslims did garner a huge empire in a very short time. But by the time Ali Bin Abu Talib finally became caliph (fourth in succession after Abu Bakr, Omar, and Uthman), the damage was done. There were already disagreements over the legitimacy of his caliph status by the Bani Umayya branch of Quraish clan—a different branch than that of Ali and the prophet. But the most notable opposition came from the prophet’s widow Aisha Bint Abu Bakr and her supporters, whose coalition army was defeated by the caliph Ali. She was put under a sort of a house arrest: she was escorted back to Medina by her own brother. His most fierce fight was against Mu’awiyah Bin Abu Sufiyan and his allies (one of the caliphs most despised by Shiites) who was the governor of Syria with a sizable army. He used the death of his cousin (the 3rd caliph) to launch an attack of his own aspirations: the fight ended up in a stalemate with neither side a clear winner. Mu'awiyah Ibn Abu Sufiyan was a staunch enemy of early Islamic groups: he was dealt a defeat at the Battle of Badr, and Mecca fell to the Muslims. He later converted to Islam, and became part of this early Islamic movement (a conversion Shias question). 

He was later appointed the governor of Syria by caliph Umar Bin Khattab. The third Caliph Uthman Bin Affan allotted more territories under his control: they were from the same tribe and related. He became quite powerful during his governorship in true Julian fashion by fighting the Byzantines, and as a result he came to command a huge army. His power and his army became a threat to Ali’s caliphate. He wanted to contain Mu’awiyah’s power and force his allegiance when he assumed the caliphate. After the long Battle of Siffin interestingly across the Euphrates River, some of Ali bin Abu Talib’s army were tricked with a deceptive prop and refused to take up the fight against Mu’awiyah who was on the verge of defeat. Ali Bin Abu Talib agreed to arbitration by independently appointed persons, but this caused more problems for him as some of his followers were angered. They abandoned him for this compromise and deemed him unfit to rule. He now had a new rebellion at hand, and had to quell them as well: this small group of people (the Kharijites) later plotted against him and others, but succeeded in assassinated him. His son Hasan Bin Ali took over the caliphate but was also opposed by Mu’awiyah. They were a few inconclusive skirmishes, and finally Hasan Ibn Ali agreed to a peace treaty whereby he would give up the caliphate for the greater good of the Ummah, and Mu’awiyah would relinquish his caliphate back to the Ummah, and Hasan would regain the caliphate in the event that Mu’awiyah died. Mu’awiyah Ibn Abu Sufiyan gained the caliphate by military might against the prophet’s grandson, and he also appointed his own son as his successor by breaking a treaty he had forged with Hasan Bin Ali. After the death of Hasan Bin Ali by poison (something by most accounts Mu’awiyah had a hand in, seeing Hasan Bin Ali as an obstacle to his caliphate), the Sunni/Shia divide became more deeply furrowed. But it fractured completely after the killing of Ali’s second son Hussein Ibn Ali at the Battle of Karbala by the army of Yazid bin Mu’awiyah (Mu’awiyah’s son). The bifurcation of these groups will be non-convergent from here on, with no love lost between them. 

The Shiites have a quasi hierarchical religious structure which culminates in the Ayatollah (literally ‘the sign of god’) who is supposed to be an authority on religious matter and jurisprudence. These Ayatollahs have lower ranking leaders who are allowed to talk on religious matters to the general public. There are a few sub-factions of Islam that do have community centers that serve both a sacred and secular role. The Ismailis have Jama’at Khana, and the Baha’i’s have their religious temples which are very active in their community at both religious and secular level, with a system of financial support and scholarship programs. Muslim community has no entities like the B’nai B’rith International, which is a cultural and political entity for the promulgation of Jewish cause. They have no watchdog agency like the Anti Defamation League, which is quick to push back vociferously at anything anti-Semitic or perceived to be so. They also don’t have powerful lobbying PAC (MPAC hardly has any meaningful weight) or any strong representation at the United Nations. Though it is quite unrealistic to expect any Muslim nation to be part of the permanent member of the Security Council, there have been two minor changes since its inception (China 1971: Russia 1991). But not one Muslim nation has the slightest idea on to how to curry favor with the most powerful member of this elite group. 

The Muslim community, despite being so haplessly disorganized, does have a critical mass of religiosity that doesn’t allow safe harbor (laissez-passer) for moderates or secularists. Unlike in other religious institutions which often play a ‘community center’ role, hosting events, lectures, performances, and activities from all parts of the community, secularists in the Muslim community have no similar alternative: all social activities in and around mosques are strictly non-secular (the much maligned Mosque proposed in New York is a step in the right direction). Everything conducted in or organized by the mosque has an overt religious theme or is adulterated with religion in some form. There are no secular activities promoted or undertaken by the mosque except charitable outreach funded by tithing. Unless you attend the mosque for Friday prayers or other daily prayer calls, there isn’t another local venue for the Muslim community to come together, such as at a social center or club, to share or promote other aspects of their identity, whether cultural, artistic, literary, philosophical, or musical: and thus the voice of moderation—if there is any—is drowned under a voluminous religious chorus. 

Diversity in the Muslim world is not something I am against: diversity can be the source of immense potential strength, if it avoids the trap of factious tribalism and instead uses it as a great reservoir of resources. As W.H. Auden said, “Civilizations should be measured by the degree of diversity attained and the degree of unity retained”. The acceptance of diversity during its inception was one of the main reasons Islam gained widespread acceptance in a very short time. It was Umar Bin Khattab who allowed the Jews to come back to Jerusalem to practice their faith in peace after being banished from the city for centuries. He also signed a treaty with Christians to protect their churches and let them practice their faith under Arab rule. After the conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders, the Muslim and Jewish populations were massacred en masse, and they fled the city. When Salahuddin Ayyubi defeated the Crusaders and took back Jerusalem, the Jewish population was allowed back to the city along with the Muslims. 

But with diversity pulling today’s Muslim community in opposing directions like some medieval public capital punishment spectacle, the community is weakened, each part of its whole left lifelessly isolated. Ummah (‘greater Muslim community’) is more than an idealized vision: it is incumbent on the community to strive towards this greater goal for its survival. Without some sort of non-sectarian politically organized and stratified global body to oversee the affairs of this large community, it will never better its status in a diverse world that must, with a rainbow of religions, interact secularly.


Unconscious racism? "Revitalizing Bart Plaza to welcome bigger and more diverse groups of people??"

By Anamaria Sanchez Romero
Monday August 09, 2010 - 08:06:00 PM

In the online BERKELEYSIDE, Aug. 4th, 2010, Frances Dinkelspiel writes of a $2.25 million budget for the city to make over the downtown “Bart Plaza to become an inviting spot.”. A City planner has the audacity to say the Plaza is worn and outdated, and "It is really exciting to think we will have a space people will feel really good about being in and using.… The goal is to create a space that is more welcoming to bigger and more diverse groups of people”. 

To deconstruct the framework: is there a racial animus behind the statements of business leaders and white planners who feel the area is uninviting? Is DIVERSITY of “bigger groups” of people now used to recast development projects as race-neutral? 

Which groups of people are they talking about? The tone of the article and the writer's selection of quotes implies people do not feel good at the Plaza, thus they claim that few people go there as if it is uninviting. and dismisses the vibrancy of people using the space--most of us are people of color. For years my relatives and friends and many locals feel welcome to be with people of our communities at the mellow Plaza--and to be entertained at no cost! 

The principle of EQUITY to more fairly allocate resources for minority groups and to involve ethnic and class minorities to advise decision makers is missing here. In this planner “visioning” of bigger groups, “diversity” is fronted to cover over the years of human rights struggles for equity, inclusion and now, social justice. 

Is not the Bart Plaza a friendly public space already shared by DIVERSE groups of people? No mention of the locals (most are people of color) who congregate there in good weather filling up the seating or the vendors who sell jewelry, crafts, incense, the break dancers, skaters, musical groups from classical violins to rap to jazz, etc. 

Some people say in tearing it up for months of construction, displacing users is part of a strategy of domination by upscale groups. An obvious discriminatory intent lurks behind—avoiding avoiding any acknowledgment of the current Plaza groups as community member stakeholders who deserve to be asked how they would redesign the Plaza. Instead, planners blot out their existence to be replaced by “more diverse groups of people.” Diversity sounds race-neutral? 

Some folks deconstruct this segment of city “planning” of the downtown as heralding a new era of segregation where differences in economic class and income function as a stand-in for race, recasting the framework to be “race-neutral”. Thus, by “profiling”—using class, a class bias can stand out front and race profiling can become subtle lurking beneath unconscious racism. 

It follows that newcomers with higher incomes who can afford to buy food and drinks at outdoor tables where the proprietors extend their commercial space outside into a newly landscaped PUBLIC space, may indeed, cumulatively “improve” and “revitalize” the Bart Plaza. The presumption is that this little area (hardly the size of a European plaza) will help draw more business, thus will not be considered "dead" for the landlords, with too many nearby empty business sites. 

Yet, people-wise, when the sun is out, the Plaza is alive! For years, it has been a local gathering place for hundreds of community people; of late most all are African-American, still others are Latinos, Asians, and whites. Few are homeless; some are veterans of wars. Some are poor, some are mentally challenged, but not all. And, the high school and language school youths congregate at lunch and after school in the Plaza space. Often, some Mexicans play and sing folk music; break dancers perform, other times we hear Mozart, a jazz group plays or a blues singer. When the sun falls, and the cold rises from the ground, less people congregate—similar to the crowds on Fourth Street. On foggy days, less people congregate there. 

Gentrifying (cleaning up the plaza) for more and more upscale business use pushes out small businesses and the community folks who congregate there. We know it is the high rents that are responsible for any neglect in keeping up the maintenance, not our children and relatives who go downtown to hang out in the Bart Plaza. New business tenants pay exorbitantly high rents which is why so much of downtown commercial sites are vacant. 

Most of the people sitting and talking in the Plaza today will NOT be able to afford cafe table seating where one has to buy a minimum order. Lest we forget, this is PUBLIC SPACE for all of us; not to be privatized to benefit a few businesses and, a number of planners and consultants. 

Is this small Plaza to be a front yard for high rise tenants who will soon move in? Will the tables lining the public sidewalk be fenced in for private businesses? Where will the others of the uninvited public—the present locals—go ? Where will the entertainers go to? We will lose some of our local artistic culture. 

Is there any effort in the Planning Division to listen to people of color—to listen to people of lower incomes? Do we have to start again—workshops for unlearning racism so our city officials can confront and become conscious of the sophisticated versions of race/class discrimination that show up over and over in planners' visions? Some descision makers use planners to advocate for dispersal, displacement and removal of groups to “ETHNICALLY CLEANSE” public spaces claimed by the more affluent and powerful. Is this a trend here? 

Again, how can we confront and overcome such race/class discrimination so the human environment is sustainable for all of us in Berkeley? 

 


What the Express Left Out of the West Berkeley Story

By John Curl and Rick Auerbach
Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 11:01:00 AM

Several weeks ago the Express published a front page article ("Factories for the Future...momentum shifts toward preservation of land suitable for light manufacturing" ) describing how Oakland and other East Bay cities are now realizing the value of maintaining their industrial production lands for the important goods, services, and jobs the companies that occupy these lands provide. 

In previous Express articles, another writer unfairly attacked WEBAIC and its efforts to do just exactly what this more recent article lauds. We say "unfairly" because for both of the two articles in which WEBAIC was singled out, the writer never made any effort to contact us to get our positions straight, and subsequently portrayed our positions 180 degrees from what they are. Even though the recent article didn't mention what is happening with the City's West Berkeley Project and WEBAIC's efforts, which are the most important industrial retention efforts currently taking place in the East Bay (and likely the entire Bay), WEBAIC appreciates the Express' acknowledgement of the enlightened direction this important issue is moving. 

Attached is WEBAIC's letter to the Express editor that was published in response to the latest article. WEBAIC understands the need to edit letters for clarity and brevity in print newspapers, but we found it interesting that the sections edited out of this letter (in italics in the attached document) and the sections edited out of a previously published WEBAIC steering committee member's letter were almost all the references pertaining to the environmentally beneficial effects of maintaining a production economy and the negative environmental consequences of forcing this economy out of the area. 

The Express is widely read by the local populace, and thus an important venue of information. Feel free to write them, help them to get the story right, and join in the dialogue on this important topic. 

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

 

 

Letter to East Bay Express 

7/21/2010 

The West Berkeley Artisans & Industrial Companies (WEBAIC) was gratified to see the Express front page article, "Factories for the Future", acknowledging the value of manufacturing in today's society. While other cities are now energized to reinvigorate their manufacturing base, Berkeley's farsighted, community driven, West Berkeley Plan implemented industrial protection policies in the 90's that have assured the present, successful mixed-use economy and culture in West Berkeley. By providing an adequate and affordable land base for the industrial production, distribution, and repair (PDR) sectors, the industrial protection policies addressed the three components of true sustainability -economy, environment, and equity -through: 1.) Contributing mightily to local economies through taxes and the deeply interconnected network supply chains, 2.) Providing the bulk of family-wage jobs to those without a college education (23% of all jobs in East Bayshore cities), and 3.) Providing valuable goods and services (bakeries, recycling, food & produce distribution, building and solar contractors, printers, auto repair, machine shops, cabinet makers, engravers, scientific glass blowers, caterers, etc., etc.,) to the local and regional populace. With about half of West Berkeley employment in the industrial and arts sectors and the other half in scientific, technical, professional, service, and retail, the success of this envisioned mixed-use policy is revealed. 

Not mentioned in the Express article, but highly relevant to the topic, is the ongoing multi-year community effort in Berkeley, initiated by WEBAIC, to maintain West Berkeley's successful industrial protection zoning policies in the face of forces seeking their dismantling. 

Hausrath Economics' 2008 report commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, Goods Movement/Land Use Project For The San Francisco Bay Area, quantified in detail the projected growth of these industrial production, distribution, and repair (PDR) activities, the growing demand for these "goods movement" lands, and the serious, negative consequences to the economy, environment, and equity of the region resulting from East Bay shore cities not preserving this land.  

The study's central conclusion is: Due to local municipalities allowing their industrial "goods movement" PDR lands to be converted to more highly capitalized housing, office, retail, and R&D uses, the industrial companies that depend on these lands are either being forced out of business or pushed over the passes into the Central Valley, resulting in: "87,100 fewer goods movement industry jobs in East Bay shore cities by 2035; fewer good-paying blue/green collar jobs in proximity to the urban workforce residing in the central Bay Area, particularly jobs for workers with less than college educations; an additional 347,900 truck vehicle miles traveled per day on regional highways in 2035; higher emissions of greenhouse gases and criteria pollutants, including VOCs, CO, NOx, SO2, PM2.5, and PM10; greater auto-truck interactions; increased health risks in the I-580 corridor; higher costs of goods and higher cost of living overall in Bay Area; greater pressures on agricultural lands; and fewer opportunities to work near places of residence." The Report concludes with a request for "initiatives to support industry’s role in more balanced smart growth" due to "a dispersed goods movement/industrial land use pattern being contrary to the region’s Smart Growth Vision." 

As even in this downturn Berkeley has the second lowest aggregate vacancy rate for manufacturing and warehouse space (lower than office) among the seven cities from Richmond to Fremont, and as we still have over 320 PDR companies providing close to 7000 family-wage jobs in West Berkeley, the effort here is centered on expanding and keeping what we have while at the same time assuring adequate space for new, clean tech R&D, particularly Lawrence Berkeley Lab spin-offs. 

To accommodate these hoped-for uses, WEBAIC has proposed opening up protections on at least 28 acres to provide millions of square feet for R&D, while keeping protections on land outside these large sites where most companies with green and blue collar jobs now live. This balanced proposal facilitates both green tech and green collar, fulfilling the mission of the Green Corridor and assuring space for the "cradle to scale" strategy described by Green Corridor director Carla Din in the Express article. 

Forces within Berkeley City government together with developers seek to limit this capacity by opening up not just large sites, but all West Berkeley industrially-protected land to uses able to pay much more for space than protected uses. This radical proposal that would displace long-contributing companies and important jobs, particularly for those who've taken the brunt of regressive federal economic policies over the last several decades, would strike a blow against our City's and region's economic and ethnic diversity and would set back efforts to create a truly sustainable, local serving economy. 

WEBAIC believes that ultimately the citizenry and decision-makers will see the folly of this approach and take the hopeful path forward laid out in the Express article -"Factories for the Future...momentum shifts towards preservation of land suitable for light manufacturing". 

 

John Curl, WEBAIC chair 

Rick Auerbach, WEBAIC staff 

 


Weak Links Heighten Loss in Berkeley

By Ted Friedman
Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 04:15:00 PM

Weak links in a chain often break and that's just what happened in the loss of the U.C. theater a decade ago and now Reel Video, both killed off by their parents. 

These were both going concerns, although Landmark cited falling receipts at the U.C. And Barnes & Noble may also have succumbed to the corporate bottom line. 

So where does that leave us now? And when will the second, third, or fourth shoes fall? Is Berkeley having the future rubbed in its face? Where is Stewart Brand when we need him? 

We still have video stores somewhere,(but not in south Berkeley which also has lost Vidiots in the Elmwood). 

Blockbusters, despite its jumbo name, is far from a jumbo video store. Although comparing Blockbusters to Reel may be applying too high a standard, it would be fair to say that it is barely sufficient. Is this a trend—for Berkeley to lose its good stuff and be left some bare minimum? 

We have excellent boutique bookstores, off-beat clothing stores, etc.; we just don't have Reel, U.C Theater's jumbo screen, Cody's, Black Oaks Northside, (Black Oaks] new location far from the Northside is a work in progress) a major department store, or even a minor one like Ross, which has departed. 

The loss of authors’talks is still haunting us as we have to turn to "educational" T.V. for this. It's true that smaller stores than Cody's or the previous Black Oaks have poetry and fiction readings by authors, but the days of a weekly stream of well-known non-fiction writers at Cody's or Black Oaks are kaput. 

Our stuff keeps slip-sliding away. Can we dudes abide? 

Who knows? But when the going gets rough, the rough find rough alternatives. 

Netflix has its advantages, but being able to stumble on a rarity on VHS is not one of them. The Pacific Film Archive screens two films daily( art-house, exploitation, even mainstream). This is an enormous undertaking requiring multiple programmers. The PFA is concluding a three month Kurosawa centennial retrospective, while concurrently covering the works of Francesco Rosi. This is perhaps enough to console if not distract from the erosion of our reel worlds. Amoeba and Rasputin's offer a deep collection of DVDs which can be "rented." It is some kind of a secret that the Berkeley Public Library and its branches have quietly assembled an important DVD collection over the years.  

Sometimes you get lucky and can cop a glance at text on Amazon, or read public domain classics on your computer. But glancing at shelves, leafing through books, is generally only available for used or remainders. 

Cody's magazine section as well as Dave's International, and Barnes and Nobles magazines cannot be replaced. But if you don't mind openly reading magazines at BPL central without that warm feeling of ignoring a "no browsing" sign, you will find highly specialized mags. 

Here is a partial list of what we still have. Enough restaurants, coffee houses, pizza stands, and farmer's markets to plotz over. 

Clothing and shoes you won't find at the mall, specialty book stores, led by Moe's the vast emporium of used (and some new) books, followed by the amazing University Press Books ( mostly academic press books); Mrs.Dalloway’s has added a section of "new" books. 

What more could we ask? A thin voice replies, "turn back the clock" even if only a little. 

If this were a Coen Brothers Film, you might see visions of floating shoes waiting to fall, but until that time, be guided by those Rolling Stones gurus: "You can't always get what you want, but if you try real hard, you may get what you need. 

The trying just got really harder. 

 

Ted Friedman is a forty-year resident of Berkeley


Columns

Blogbeat: Are Student Gene Tests Science or Market Research?

By Thomas Lord
Monday August 09, 2010 - 05:53:00 PM

This week’s theme: UC Berkeley asked incoming freshmen to volunteer for genetic tests this year. The program was met with accusations that it is bad science. Some have also charged that the program is the corrupt product of commercial and personal conflicts of interest. We examine the arguments for these accusations by examining source materials found on the Internet. 

 

Welcome Freshmen: May We Have Some Skin from Inside Your Mouth?

 

UC Berkeley will be performing genetic tests on some incoming freshmen this year. Freshmen have been invited to volunteer for the testing as part of the “On the Same Page: Bring Your Genes to Cal” orientation program. 

The project, led by Professor Jasper Rine, “[explores] the theme of Personalized Medicine – the set of emerging technologies that promises to transform our ability to predict, diagnose, and treat human disease.”  

In the experiment, volunteer students will submit mouth swabs which the university itself will then test for three particular genetic variations. One variation is present in the approximately 80 to 90% of people who, in adult life, become lactose intolerant. Another test reveals the presence or absence of a low ability to metabolize alcohol without certain side effects. The third test looks for variations which reduce the body’s ability to metabolize the vitamin folic acid. 

Cal offers some health advice: (1) Make sure you get enough calcium and vitamin D even if you are lactose intolerant; (2) Most freshmen are under 21 and so you shouldn’t be drinking anyway; (3) If you have trouble processing folic acid, consider eating lots of leafy greens or taking a supplement. 

Controversy: Is This Bad Science?

The specific kinds of advice that Cal is offering is what is know, these days, as “nutritional genomics”. That field explores the hypothesis that by looking at genetic variations like the three Cal will be examined, customized dietary advice can be offered which, if followed, leads to better longer term health. 

The three genetic variations tested in this experiment are not controversial. One really does indicate lactose intolerance, the other problems in metabolizing alcohol, the third problems in metabolizing folic acid. There is no controversy over the interpretation of the tests to that extent. Where controversy arises in the leap from those observations to detailed dietary advice. 

Nutritional genomics is not without its critics. At this point, the notion of devising a diet for better long term health based on a few genetic tests is, in the view of critics, an interesting but unproved hypothesis – nothing more. They are concerned that the rapid push to commercialize nutritional genomics is just another form of snake-oil quackery, as likely to do harm as good. Here is how Pantelis Konstantoulakis (University of Westminster) and Andreas Zourdos sum it up after surveying the literature: “In the name of genetics from now on, nutritional advice has a whole new different meaning, since it carries the potential to manipulate one’s genes! How can one not stand in awe? Time now for a reality check: the evidence for the effectiveness of ‘nutritional genomics’ is non-existent, just like the regulation and laws on these matters. It is pretty fair to say that this story is more science fiction than science based. Pompous scientific terminology is not evidence. The truth is that ‘nutritional genomics’ is the answer to an irrelevant question.” 

The discussion resulting from that scathing review spread over to another blog called Nutritional Blogma. In the comments that follow the post “Does nutrition need a new research paradigm” Zourdos dukes it out with some of the researchers that he’s criticized. He defends his case well.  

Controversy: Is This Bad Science, Part 2?

 

On July 14, 2010, UC Berkeley’s Dr. Mark Shlissel (Dean of Biological Sciences, College of Letters and Science at Berkeley) spoke briefly with National Public Radio’s program All Things Considered. He remarked: “[W]e purposefully chose three genes that are not disease associated.” 

On August 5, Livescience.com reported

“His statements puzzled Dr. David Goldman, section chief of the human neurogenetics lab at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. (NIAAA) 

“’He said it [the genetic testing] just has interesting social complications, but in fact he's completely wrong,’ Goldman said. ‘There are two important medical implications for the test.’” 

Of the test related to alcohol metabolism Goldman remarked that one possible outcome of the test indicates a significant risk for esophageal cancer, compounded by greater capacity for alcohol abuse. 

Another of the tests – the test folic acid metabolization – drew a comment from Eva Mergen on the NPR story: 

“I am a obstetric medical transcriptionist and I type consultation reports on pregnant women who have the MTHFR mutation. The fact that folic acid is not properly metabolized can cause severe birth defects in the fetus if the mother does not take extra folic acid supplementation from very early in the pregnancy. Additionally, if you have a certain combination of copies of this mutation it can lead to a higher homocystine level, which can lead to a slightly higher risk for blood clots. Some women even take prophylactic anticoagulation during pregnancy, becuase pregnant women are already at increased risk for blood clots. “ 

Her particular observation about folic acid health risks is particularly interesting in light of the controversy over possible conflicts of interest: 

Controversy: Is the Experiment the Result of Conflicts of Interest?

The web site for the “Bring Your Genes to Cal” program contains an FAQ (a list of frequently asked questions provided with their answers). It contains a curious question: 

Does Professor Rine have any potential conflicts of interest between his role as the main speaker in this program and his involvement with biotechnology companies?” 

The answer begins: 

“No. Professor Rine and the other organizers of this program do not have any conflicts of interest with regard to this project. The genes we are testing are different from the genes Professor Rine studies in his lab, his lab will not be performing the genetic tests, and neither he nor the other organizers will personally profit from this program in any way.” 

The answer goes on to point out that Rine is one of the founders of Vitapath Genetics and describes that firm as “trying to find the genetic basis of neural tube defects (NTDs), a common and often severe type of birth defect, which his lab is also studying.” 

If your eyes glaze up at that description of Vitapath, perhaps that’s the point: 

An example of an NTD is Spina Bifida, a birth defect that can be largely prevented by appropriate doses of folic acid during pregnancy. As Mergen remarked in her comment to NPR, one of the three genetic tests being given by Cal is very relevant to that folic acid preventative. 

That may seem a tangential connection to Vitapath’s work but for another recent announcement. On the 30th of July, Vitapath Genetics issued a joint press release, with the Spina Bifida Association and the National Council on Folic Acid. VitaPath was releasing a new (free) iPhone application – the VitaTrack Folate Tracker. 

The program “allows women to track their daily intake of folate and folic acid.” 

Of course, presumably a genetic test – such as the one offered to incoming Cal students – would arguably make such a program more useful by (hypothetically) helping to establish what level of folate and folic acid intake is ideal. Vitapath says of their science: 

“At VitaPath Genetics, our research programs were established to broadly investigate how vitamin and cofactor utilization is influenced by genetics. In developing our Technology Platforms, we assembled best-in-class technology components from modern molecular biology, model system genetics and statistical analysis. 

“Our mission is to focus only on genetic mutations that are shown to be biologically functional and that can be remediated with minimal risk. In doing so, we can improve the quality of life for our customers and reduce the overall cost of healthcare.” 

In no small part, that means they look at your genes and suggest what you ought to be eating, according to their theories. 

Whether by intent or not, the Cal experiment on freshmen will certainly lead to (confirmatory) quantitative data about the presence of the folic acid mutation. Since the experiment is often presented as an example of nutritional genomics, it will effectively advertise for the VitaTrack iPhone application. And while it is certainly true that VitaPath charges no money for that application, the application does create enhanced awareness of VitaPath’s brand and likely eventual products – all in the context of creating a population of experiment subjects with heightened anxiety about their genetic make-up. 

Head in the Sand?

 

On July 13, Rine made his “first blog entry ever” on the official blog for the “Bring Your Genes to Cal” program. He begins: “To the 2010 entering class of the College of Letters and Science, welcome [....] By now you certainly are aware that the topic of this year’s program is Personalized Medicine. [....]” 

After explaining the scientific and technical context he says: “You may have noticed in the press that our project has gained a lot of attention and stimulated some controversy. Indeed, one could never expect any advances with the potential of personalized medicine and personal genetic information to not be surrounded by controversy. The year-long events associated with the On the Same Page program are designed to explore these controversies.” 

He moves on to name two aspects to the controversy: concerns about privacy and concerns about discrimination. There is no mention made about the quality of the science and the health recommendations, nor about the perceived conflicts of interest. 

Those omissions seem like gaps Rine will eventually have to fill more directly. 

Until next week, do be in touch: lord@emf.net


Dispatches From The Edge: Behind The Colombia/Venezuela Tension

By Conn Hallinan
Monday August 09, 2010 - 06:06:00 PM

If you want to understand what’s behind the recent tension between Colombia and Venezuela, think “smokescreen,” and then go back several months to some sick children in the Department of Meta, just south of Bogota. The children fell ill after drinking from a local stream, a stream contaminated by the bodies of more than 2,000 people, secretly buried by the Colombian military.  

According to the Colombian high command, the mass grave just outside the army base at La Macarena contains the bodies of guerilla fighters killed between 2002 and 2009 in that country’s long-running civil war. But given the army’s involvement in the so-called “false positive” scandal, human rights groups are highly skeptical that the dead are members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the National Liberation Army, the two insurgent groups fighting the central government.  

“False positive” is the name given to the Colombian armed forces operation that murdered civilians and then dressed them up in insurgent uniforms in order to demonstrate the success of the army’s counterinsurgency strategy, thus winning more aid from the U.S. According to the human rights organizations Comision de Derechos Homanos del Bajo Ariari and Colectivo Orlando Fals Borda, some 2,000 civilians have been murdered under the program.  

The bodies at La Macarena have not been identified yet, but suspicion is that they represent victims of the “false-positive” program, as well as rural activists and trade unionists. The incoming Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, was defense secretary when the murders were talking place. Santos also oversaw a brief invasion of Ecuador in 2008 that reportedly killed a number of insurgents. The invasion was widely condemned throughout Latin America.  

Diverting attention is what outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is all about. While his foreign minister, Luis Alfonso Hoyos, was laying out photos and intelligence claiming that Venezuela was hosting upwards of 1500 Colombian insurgents, a group of Latin American NGOs were uncovering a vast scheme by Uribe’s Department of Administrative Security (DAS) to sabotage the activities of journalists, judges, NGOs, international organizations and political opponents. Some of these “dirty tricks” included death threats.  

Because the U.S.—which has pumped more than $7 billion in military aid to Colombia—supplies the DAS with sophisticated surveillance technology, Washington may end up implicated in the scandal.  

The U.S. may also be tarred with the murder of Colombian trade unionists. According to Kelly Nichollas of the U.S. Office on Colombia, testimony at the trial of former DAS director Jorge Noguera indicated that the U.S. trained a special Colombian intelligence unit that tracked trade unionists.  

Colombia is currently the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists. According to the International Trade Unionist Confederation’s (ITUC) Annual Survey of Trade Union Rights, out of the 101 unionists murdered in 2009, 48 were in Colombia. So far, 20 more Colombian trade unionists have been murdered in 2010. In the case of Hernan Abdiel Ordonez, treasurer of the prison worker’s union, who had complained about corruption, the government refused to provide him security in spite of receiving numerous death threats. He was gunned down by assassins on a motorcycle.  

“Colombia was once again the country where standing up for fundamental rights of workers is more likely than anywhere else to mean a death sentence, despite the Colombian government’s public relations campaign,” said ITCU General Secretary Guy Ryder. “The Colombian authorities must take urgent and effective measures to guarantee the physical integrality of Colombian trade unionists.”  

Uribe certainly has reason to shift the attention away from Colombia and toward Venezuela. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is pressing its investigation of the “false-positives” murders, and Uribe’s brother has been accused of working with death squads. Santiago Canton, an Argentinean and former head of the rights commission, said “If you put all this together, the extrajudicial executions, the espionage of human rights defenders, it’s all really consistent over the years.”  

And where was the Obama Administration in all this? Firmly supporting Uribe, railing against Venezuela’s suspension of diplomacy with Bogota, and, according to an investigation by the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), secretly funneling money to the media operations of Chavez’s right-wing opponents. Right-wingers in Bolivia and Nicaragua are also receiving money.  

“Between 2007 and 2009, the State Department’s little known Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor channeled at least $4 million to journalists in Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela through the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF),” says NACLA’s Jeremy Bigwood. In doing this, the State Department violated its own rules requiring that “all publications” receiving money “acknowledge that support.” According to Bigwood, the U.S. waived that requirement for PADF.  

Colombia is Washington’s closest ally in the region, so it hardly surprising that Uribe’s right-wing government and Washington’s visceral hatred of Chavez should find common ground. But the attack on Chavez is also a proxy assault on the newly formed, 32-member Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the first regional organization not to include the U.S., Canada, or European countries.  

Meeting in Caracas this past July, CELAC selected Chavez and the newly elected conservative president of Chile, Sabastian Pinera, as co-chairs of the forum that will draft statutes for the organization. While it seems like an odd pairing, the U.S. media’s cartoonish characterization of Chavez is not shared widely in Latin America. “Chavez…has shown himself adaptable to making major compromises in order to further Latin American and regional integration,” says Alexander Main of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C.  

And while Pinera is very conservative, according to Main, “his toned down approach to international relations indicates that he too is prepared to act pragmatically.”  

The Caracas meeting called for “political, economic, social and cultural integration” and affirmed the right of “each state to constitute its own political system free of threats, aggressions and unilateral coercive measures.” Tellingly, there was no mention of “free trade” or “open markets,” the so-called “Washington consensus” that characterized U.S. economic doctrine in the region over the past several decades.  

As Latin America grows in economic strength and political independence, U.S. policy seems locked into a previous century when it was the major power in the region. Rather than retooling its diplomatic approach to fit the new reality in Latin America, Washington is expanding its military footprint.  

It is will soon be operating out of seven military bases in Colombia and has reactivated its 4th Fleet, both highly unpopular moves in Latin America. Rather than taking the advice of countries in the region to demilitarize its war on drugs, the U.S. recently announced it is deploying 46 warships and 7,000 soldiers to Costa Rica to “interdict” drug traffic and money laundering. From 2000 to 2009, less than 40 percent of U.S. aid to the region went to Latin America’s militaries and police. The Obama Administration has raised that figure to 47 percent.  

Washington and Bogota may try to demonize Venezuela, but they are playing to a very small audience, and one that grows smaller—and more irrelevant—by the day.  

Conn Hallinan’s essays can be read at:  

http://www.dispatchesfromtheedgeblog.wordpress.com  


 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The Public Eye: Obama’s Failure to Communicate

By Bob Burnett
Friday August 06, 2010 - 04:29:00 PM

Three months before the mid-term elections, Americans are angry. As a result, it’s likely that Democrats will lose control of either the House or Senate. While the negative political trends can be attributed to the stagnant economy or ruthless Republican negativism, the primary culprit is the White House: Barack Obama has failed to communicate the accomplishments of his Administration. 

 

While some of the political anger is unavoidable – the economy has structural problems because of the excesses of the Bush Administration – much of it could have been avoided if the Obama White House had done a better job communicating the positive steps they have taken to protect working Americans. 

 

A prime example is the economic stimulus package. Enacted in February of 2009, the $787 Billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act received no Republican votes in the House and only 3 in the Senate (Collins, Snowe, and Specter). Out of the gates, the GOP condemned it – they favored tax cuts for the wealthy, supporting the discredited “rising tide lifts all boats” economic policies that have (mis)guided Republican Presidents since Reagan. For eighteen months, Republicans have dogmatically attacked the stimulus claiming either that it hasn’t worked – they seize on high unemployment as evidence – or that the funds have been misallocated – GOP Senators Coburn and McCainreleased a flawed report supposedly specifying waste. 

 

The truth is the stimulus package has been a huge success. On July 27th, economists Alan Blinder and Mark Zandi reported the government’s intervention “helped avert a second Depression.” (Blinder is a Princeton professor and former Fed vice chairman; Zandi is chief economist at Moody’s and former McCain adviser.) They stated that without the Obama stimulus package and related policies US “GDP in 2010 would be about 6 1/2% lower, payroll employment would be less by some 8 1/2 million jobs, and the nation would now be experiencing deflation.” 

 

Nonetheless, public perception of the stimulus package is negative. According to a Pew Research poll Americans believe the stimulus did NOT help “keep unemployment from getting even worse” or help “state and local governments avoid layoffs and budget cuts,” even though there is ample evidence to the contrary. 66 percent of poll respondents felt the primary impact of the stimulus package was to increase the budget deficit. 

 

2008’s Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has faired even worse in terms of public opinion. Widely decried as a half-witted “bailout” program that benefited behemoth banks and financial institutions at the expense of working folks, having voted for TARP has become a congressional badge of dishonor. Public opinion quickly turned against TARP. 

 

Once again, the reality is the TARP program worked. According to economists Blinder and Zandi, “the real GDP is almost $800 billion (6 percent) higher because of [TARP-related] policies, and the unemployment rate is almost 3 percentage points lower.” Early in June, to almost no political acknowledgement, the Treasury Department announced that the TARP loans had been repaid. 

 

Now the Obama Administration is locked into a deadly economic debate with Republicans. The White House wisely advocates policies that create jobs, even if this means temporarily increasing the Federal deficit and (gasp) increasing taxes for millionaires. Republicans evidently don’t care about real job creation as they emphasize both deficit reduction and continuing the Bush-era tax cuts for millionaires – the fact that these are contradictory objectives makes no difference to GOP politicians (consistency has never been their strong suit). 

 

As might be expected, given the recent swings of labile public opinion, Americans are confused. Nonetheless, in the most recent CNN poll Americans favored “stimulating the economy” over “reducing the deficit” by a 57 to 42 percent margin and “create more jobs” over “reduce the deficit” by a whopping 74 to 25 percent margin. Writing for the Center For American Progress, veteran analystRuy Teixeira argues that the political tide is turning against the GOP. He cites the most recent Kaiser Health tracking poll the shows public approval of Obama’s healthcare reform has increased to 50 percent versus 35 percent disapproval. Teixeira further notes a Pew Research poll indicating that 58 percent of respondents favor repeal of some or all of the Bush-era tax cuts. 

 

While Barack Obama’s presidential approval ratings have fallen – although he’s retained his personal popularity – they’re dwarfed by negative congressional ratings. Voters are angry but they’re also confused about the battle over economic policy. There’s still time for Democrats to turn the tide. 

 

What’s required is a return of Barack Obama the master communicator, resurrection of the guy who touched so many voters during the 2008 Presidential campaign. That Obama needs to defend his economic policy decisions, which for the most part have been correct. That Obama needs to convince the electorate America needs a Democratically controlled Congress; that it’s unthinkable for us to return to disastrous Bush-era economic policies. 

 

Talk to us, Barack. Bring back the hope. 

 

 

 

 

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


Odd Couples: The Salamander and the Alga

Joe Eaton
Monday August 09, 2010 - 11:46:00 PM
A double handful of spotted salamander.
Jared Benedict
A double handful of spotted salamander.

This is not a Bay Area story, at least not yet. But I couldn’t resist writing about one of the coolest pieces of research I’m read about in a very long time. 

It’s about the spotted sandpiper salamander (Ambystoma maculatum), a terrestrial amphibian that’s fairly common in eastern North America. Females lay their clusters of gelatinous eggs in water. The salamander was known to have a symbiotic relationship with a single-called alga called Oophila (“egg-lover”) amblystomatis that lives in the egg jelly wherein the algae provide oxygen to the salamander embryos and the embryos reciprocate with nitrogen-rich waste that the algae feed on. 

But the symbiosis turns out to be much more intimate than that. Ryan Kerney at Nova Scotia’s Dalhousie University has discovered that the alga is not just present in the jelly. He also found it in the embryonic salamanders’ cells. Algae, like true plants, generate oxygen and carbohydrates through photosynthesis, building food from sunlight. Oophila appears to be photosynthesizing inside its host, and may be passing along some of the resulting nutrients. 

Kerney’s evidence for some kind of internal nutrient transfer involves the mitochondria, structures found in all animal cells that use oxygen and a glucose product to manufacture ATP, which stores chemical energy. He found that the mitochondria in the salamander cells were clustered around the algal cells, possibly absorbing the carbohydrates and oxygen the alga bring in. 

The idea of a vertebrate partially powered by sunlight is pretty extraordinary. Similar kinds of relationships between animals and single-celled algae have been documented for coral and for a handful of flatworm and clam species—much simpler organisms than salamanders. Vertebrate immune systems are vigilant about keeping foreign biological material out of cells. Is the alga somehow bypassing the sentries, or has the salamander turned its immune system off? In either case, how would that work? 

Kerney is now trying to figure out when and how the algae enter the salamander cells. Work by Roger Hangarter at Indiana University suggests that this occurs as the embryos’ nervous systems start to form. It’s not clear from what I’ve read so far, but the inference is that the symbiosis is limited to the salamander embryo’s time in the egg. Adult female spotted sandpipers salamanders have been found to have algae in their oviducts, likely where the eggs pick them up, but apparently not in the rest of their bodies. 

This system seems a step beyond the common relationship between, say, termites and their gut flora. It reminds me a bit of the sharpshooters—the group containing the vineyard-pest glassy-winged sharpshooter—and their symbiotic bacteria, which are housed in special organs in the insect’s body and passed on from mother to offspring. 

The research prompted an interesting response from UC emeritus professor David Wake, a salamander authority. “I wonder if algae could be getting into the germ cells,” Wake told a reporter for Nature. “That would really challenge the dogma. But why not?” Germ cells are sex cells—gametes. Would this mean that algal genes have become part of the salamander’s genome? That would suggest horizontal gene transfer, a rare process in multicellular organisms, had been at work. 

Horizontal gene transfer is a matter of genes being exchanged between two different biological species. Bacteria are notorious for this; people who work with bacteria like to say that the iconic Tree of Life is beginning to look more like a net, or a web, with all kinds of cross-connections between evolutionary lineages. The process is also believed to have occurred between unrelated species of plants; also between a fungus and the order of plants that includes beets and cacti, a fungus and a species of aphid, and an alga and a sea slug. Viruses, which are good at freighting bits of genetic material around, may be involved in the process. 

Even if the spotted salamander hasn’t taken algal genes on board, the phenomenon Kerney describes is remarkable enough. You have to wonder how old this partnership is, and whether it involves other salamander species related to the eastern spotted, including our local western tiger and long-toed salamanders. I assume someone is looking into it.


Senior Power: Women and Aging

By Helen Rippier Wheeler
Monday August 09, 2010 - 09:56:00 PM

Age discrimination is a real and growing problem. ... Age discrimination attacks a person’s sense of self-worth in much the same fashion as race or sex discrimination.” (August 3, 1998 letter) --Dion Louise Aroner ( 1944 - ) 

August 26th is designated as Women's Equality Day to commemorate passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provided American women with full voting rights. Women’s Equality Day was instituted by Congressional Representative Bella Abzug when she was 60 years old. (She died of breast cancer and heart disease in 1998.) Fifty years after all American men were enabled to vote, women finally got a piece of the action in 1920. 

Women’s Equality Day is officially proclaimed in some locales. A “celebration of woman suffrage and a protest of Meg Whitman whose voting record dishonors that tradition” will be held on Thursday, August 26th on the Capitol West Steps, Sacramento, from 4-6 P.M. (For more information contact Bonnie Castillo, RN (916)-446-5019.) 

There will be no international Women’s Equality Day celebration. Not this year or next. As of May 2010, the CEDAW Women’s Rights Treaty, formally known as the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, has been ratified by 185 nations, including all industrialized nations except the United States. Adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, it has been described as an international bill of rights for women.  

CEDAW was signed by President Carter. Thirty years later, the Senate continues to drag its feet. Apparently, they actually believe that CEDAW would impose policies on the U.S. that would legalize prostitution, force abortions, harm families. President Obama supports CEDAW but has not thrown the weight of his presidency behind it. Many cities, including San Francisco, have adopted resolutions calling on the Senate to ratify CEDAW. A coalition of over 190 U.S. religious, civic, and community organizations remains committed to supporting ratification. They include AARP, American Nurses Association, National Education Association, National Coalition of Catholic Nuns, the American Bar Association, the United Methodist Church, YWCA, and Amnesty International. 

xxxx 

What’s all this got to do with senior citizens and senior power? An amendment is defined as a change for the better; improvement. A correction. A revision or change. Former National Institute on Aging director Robert N. Butler, M.D. believes that “the problems of old age in America are largely the problems of women.” Most senior citizens are women. Most low-income seniors are women. Females are perceived by society to age at a differential rate than men.  

We are all aging, all of the time. I am on the defensive about this euphemistic older woman business. To the “older than what?” question, Ti-Grace Atkinson (1938- ) responded “The older woman is all of us.” Why not healthily and forthrightly refer to an “old woman” and to an “old man” and to “old people?”  

When I was young, assumptive students referred to Miss Wheeler; when I became middle-aged, they shifted to Mrs. Wheeler. Throughout, they referred to and addressed men faculty as Professor (an academic rank) or Doctor (an academic degree), regardless of vintage. 

The double double standard requires that a woman should be (1) young, and (2) younger than a man. My favorite reading on the subject is Susan Sontag’s classic "The Double Standard of Aging." (September 23, 1972 Saturday Review.) Sontag, who died of cancer at the age of 71, declared that "Getting older is less profoundly wounding for a man, for in addition to the propaganda for youth that puts both men and women on the defensive as they age, there is a double standard about aging that denounces women with special severity." 

xxxx 

The 2005 White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA) was the fifth in history. It takes place each decade to make aging policy recommendations to the President, who did not attend the 2005 Conference, and Congress and to assist the public and private sectors in promoting dignity, health, independence and economic security of current and future generations of older persons. The next one may take place in 2015; its theme is “The Shape of Things to Come.” 

Consideration of women in plans for the 1981 WHCoA had been rejected, which led to a White House Mini-Conference on Older Women, attended by 400 delegates. Two hundred stayed on to form the Older Women’s League (OWL). “Growing Numbers, Growing Force: A Report from the White House Mini-Conference on Older Women” was published by the OWL Educational Fund and the Western Gerontological Society, coordinated by Tish Sommers (1914-1985), with cartoons by Bulbul. It is in the library collections of San Jose and San Diego State Universities and can be borrowed without charge by your public library for you through the LINK system. 

Sommers and Laurie Shields (1922-1989) recognized and defined the need for older women to organize nationally and become advocates for change in public policy. Their 1987 book, “Women take care; The consequences of caregiving in today’s society,” was published with the OWL Task Force on Caregivers. Sommers, who had regularized the disabled housewife term, and Shields spent their final years together in the grand old Oakland house which they regarded as OWL headquarters. Both died of cancer.  

The national office of OWL - The Voice of Midlife and Older Women is located in Washington, D.C., and the state office is in Sacramento. California chapters include Ohlone/East Bay. OWL’s Gray Paper series and Mother’s Day Reports have been notable. 

Do you enjoy fiction that relies on humor at women’s expense and unnecessary references to “old”? Two fictional, seventy-year old nuns attend an “Older Women’s League convention” and attempt to solve the mystery of an old friend’s disappearance. The San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle avoided critiquing “The missing madonna (1988) by resorting to cuteness – it’s about “a nun with an unusual habit of solving murders.” Chuckle chuckle. Carol Anne O’Marie’s mysteries are in the collection of the Berkeley Public library in standard and large print versions.  

 

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: 

The California Alliance for Retired Americans (CARA) is holding its 7th Annual Convention, “Taking Back the State in 2010”, October 12-13, in Oakland. 

 

###  

 

!SINGLE PAYER, UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE IN CALIFORNIA! 

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

No email attachments; use “Senior Power” for subject.


Restoration Comedy: Perhaps They Should Change the Name To HAMPer

By Jane Powell
Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 10:43:00 AM

After my trip to Washington DC, and the promise that there might be a reply from Fannie Mae regarding my loan modification in as little as a week, what have I heard? Nothing. Well, not entirely nothing. A letter arrived from GMAC requesting letters from all my tenants detailing how much they pay me and how often. I guess the signed rental agreements that contain this exact same information were not sufficient. So they all wrote the letters, and I faxed them to every fax number I had- the one in the letter, the one I had for the representative I talked to in DC, as well as to NACA. No doubt they will have claimed to have never received them. Probably I should FEDEX them so someone will actually have to sign. Not that they wouldn’t “lose” them after that. 

There had been two e-mails from the representative, saying she needed to talk to me. I called and left a voicemail. I called her cell, but that mailbox was full. She never called back, nor did she respond to my email. So much for the advantage of having an actual person. 

In the meantime I’ve been reading more of the HAMP fine print. It’s astounding how it was written to help the banks and not the homeowner. For instance, if by some miracle you actually get a permanent modification, it will come with an escrow account for taxes and insurance, because you are obviously a deadbeat who can’t be trusted with money. 

In the same way that withholding taxes from your paycheck (assuming you are one of the lucky ones who still has a paycheck) allows the government the use of your money all year until you maybe get some of it back after April 15, an escrow account requires you to pay monthly for things which are only due once or twice a year, so the bank gets the use of that money in the meantime. This might even be okay if they only collected the actual amount of the taxes and insurance, but no, they collect more. Escrow accounts are a profit center for the banks. 

Furthermore, although the lender collects the money and is supposed to pay the taxes and insurance when they come due, it remains your responsibility to pay them, and unless you keep on top of the lender, they often fail to do so or pay them late, and who pays the penalty for that? Yup, the homeowner. 

Meanwhile, I decided to rent out another room- the spare bedroom where I store my tools and equipment, since I don’t have a garage, and only a partial basement. So the tools and supplies are now in the basement, on shelves which have to be raised up on bricks since the basement gets wet in the winter. To say I’m a little cranky about this would be rather an understatement. 

There’s a rumor going around via Reuters that the White House will order Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to forgive part of the principal on millions of the mortgages they hold. Supposedly there’s a meeting at Treasury on August 17th regarding Fannie and Freddie- Treasury has basically promised them unlimited money. It would be lovely if this turned out to be true, but then, we were promised other things- you know, a public option, closing of Guantanamo, suspension of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, re-regulation of the financial system… and none of that has come to pass. Let’s just say I’ll believe in the “Principal Forgiveness Sparkle Pony” when it waltzes into my living room in all its rainbow-haired glory. And a signed and notarized document in my hand. 

Jane Powell writes for the Planet whenever she feels like it, and perhaps someday will go back to writing about old houses and such. She can be reached at hsedressng@aol.com, and catch her in person next weekend at the SF Arts and Crafts Show at the Concourse (8th and Brannan).


Berkeley's Historic Thorsen House, Now A Fraternity, Open To View on Saturday

By Steven Finacom
Monday August 09, 2010 - 10:55:00 PM
The Thorsen House main façade faces Piedmont Avenue.
Steven Finacom
The Thorsen House main façade faces Piedmont Avenue.
The main entrance features intricately crafted wood and art class windows.
Steven Finacom
The main entrance features intricately crafted wood and art class windows.
The original front facade of the Wall House, today at 2234 Piedmont, which
              was built around the same time as the Thorsen House and just two lots to the north.
Steven Finacom
The original front facade of the Wall House, today at 2234 Piedmont, which was built around the same time as the Thorsen House and just two lots to the north.

Though far apart geographically, Berkeley and Pasadena have some interesting commonalities. Both are home to gigantic early 20th century football stadiums where UC teams play, both have a long history of distinguished community theater, and are known for the quality of their residential neighborhoods. 

In addition, each town has a lavish Arts & Crafts home, a so-called “ultimate bungalow”, designed by the Greene Brothers in the early 20th century. Although Pasadena’s bungalow, the Gamble House, is better known, Berkeley’s counterpart, the Thorsen House, is pretty darn nice on its own and is also the larger of the two. 

The brown shingle Thorsen House stands at 2307 Piedmont Avenue at Bancroft Way, right across the street from International House.  

This coming Saturday, August 14, 2010, from 5 to 9 pm, a fundraising event gives the public the opportunity to see the inside of this remarkable structure and hear two leading Arts & Crafts scholars speak about the history and context. There will be wine and food and the opportunity to look around the house.  

The event is coordinated with the 16th Annual San Francisco Arts & Crafts Exposition, taking place the same weekend. 

The Thorsen House was designed and built in 1908 by Henry Mather Greene and Charles Summer Greene who had a Southern California design firm famous for its lavish interpretation and execution of the Arts & Crafts aesthetic.  

The clients, wealthy lumberman William Thorsen and his wife, selected a site on Piedmont Way (now Avenue) in what was then a fashionable district of large private homes interspersed with privately operated student residences. When the Thorsen House was built, the neighborhood was a relatively quiet upscale enclave. 

Piedmont ended a block north of the house—Gayley Road did not yet directly extend across the UC campus to Northside—the campus itself was a block to the northwest, and Memorial Stadium and International House had not yet been built. There were no UC residence halls, and the fraternities and sororities which now densely populate the neighborhood were, in that era, more dispersed and intermixed with family homes on both north and south sides of the campus. 

For years the Thorsens were prominent in local civic and social affairs. Their home was a setting for receptions, weddings, and club meetings, and the Society pages of the local papers were full of the memberships, activities, affiliations, and doings of the Thorsens. 

The Thorsen House still exudes a single-family residential feel, with a manicured landscape, two iron entry arches, and curved brick staircases ascending through the front garden to a wide front porch and what may be the most magnificent door ensemble in Berkeley, an intricate mix of art glass and glowing wood. 

The interior of the house also gleams with beautiful woodwork, built with the skill and detail usually devoted to a fine piece of hand-made furniture. There are Japanesque overtones in both the style and execution of the woodwork. The large rooms spill into each other and out into a rear garden enfolded by the “L” shaped structure.  

It is one of the most beautiful and impressive residential interiors in Berkeley. 

The Sigma Phi fraternity—originally located a half block down Bancroft Way, where the Law School complex now stands—bought the Thorsen House in 1942 and has used the house ever since. The fraternity chapter is closely attached to the building; members regularly work on restoration projects, and the building is kept in immaculate condition inside and out. 

Many upgrades have been accomplished in recent years. There are, however, major renovations still needed, including seismic strengthening.  

The event this Saturday—described as an “open house and evening social”—will raise some immediate funds for those future projects and also launch what Sigma Phi hopes will be a successful “Save The Thorsen House” restoration campaign. 

The event features two speakers, who will start their remarks around 6:00 PM.  

Robert Judson Clark is a gem of an architectural scholar. Retired from the faculty at Princeton University and a long time resident of the Bay Area, he’s a font of information on art as well as California architectural movements and an expert at relating our local trends—from Berkeley brown shingle to Beaux Arts UC campus buildings--to broader traditions. 

Edward “Ted” Bosley is the Director of the Gamble House in Pasadena, and thus one of the more experienced and knowledgeable experts on Greene & Greene. He’s also closely connected to the Thorsen House. He discovered the Greenes when he was a student at Cal and lived in the building.  

In 1996 he organized a summer exhibit at the Thorsen House that temporarily brought back some of the original, custom-designed furnishings, now owned by USC, and displayed them in situ for visitors. 

There are a limited number of tickets available for this Saturday’s event. The minimum donation requested is $30 per person. View the invitation and the instructions for purchasing a ticket here . The Thorsen House also has a general website .  

As of Monday, spaces were still available but James Dong, one of the organizers, tells me that people should sign up soon. You can do so through the website. 

If you are driving, Sunday parking is free at street meters and curbside in the vicinity, but the streets are usually parked up. The closest parking in UC lots is two blocks down Bancroft Way beneath tennis courts across from the Art Museum, or further uphill, behind the Law School.  

Access the latter by driving to the north end of Piedmont Avenue adjacent to Memorial Stadium, making a “U” turn around the median island then a sharp right turn into the campus, and another immediate left turn into a downhill roadway past a cylindrical building (Calvin Laboratory).  

In both UC lots make sure to watch for special parking signs and restrictions and purchase a parking pass at one of the pedestal ticket vending machines. 

If you come to the event on Saturday and park in that lot behind the Law School, you’ll probably walk by a nearby brown shingle house—now 2234 Piedmont—that has a curious relationship to the Thorsen House. 

About the same time the Thorsen House was being designed and built, William C. Hays, a member of the Architecture faculty at Cal, was designing a shingle-style home for Dr. Benjamin P. Wall just two doors north of it on the same side of Piedmont Avenue.  

The Wall House stood where the front steps and lobby of International House are located today, just a stone’s throw north of the corner where the Thorsen House stands. While I-House now occupies the site, the Wall House itself survives, half a block north and on the other side of the street on what is now the central campus of the University.  

When the University bought the I-House site for development in the late 1920s Dr. Wall apparently negotiated an intriguing solution to the pending loss of his home. His house was not demolished but, instead, moved up the street and onto a vacant lot at the 2234 address; he seems to have continued living there until his death. 

Perhaps because it was a long narrow structure being moved along a curved street, or maybe to spare the cost of building a large new basement under the ‘wrong’ end of the house on the sloping site, the Wall House was not turned around when it reached its new lot but inserted “backwards”. That is, the west façade that once faced Piedmont Avenue and the magnificent view down Bancroft Way now faces downhill into the UC campus. The old dining room and kitchen, once at the rear of the house, now adjoin the street. 

After Dr. Wall died, the house served as the home and studio of Mrs. Florida Parrish Moyle, a noted music teacher. After she died, her daughter moved to the house with her husband, William Denny, a Cal music professor. They lived there with their family, renting from the University, until 1958 until they were asked to leave and the building was converted to office uses; it remains University offices today. 

The Thorsen House and Wall House have several similarities: both two stories but still largely horizontal / linear in character, both intricately shingled and with extensive interior woodwork, both resolutely Arts & Crafts in style, and both with distinctive second floor bedroom balconies perched on top of first floor window bays. 

Did Hays and the Greene Brothers have any interaction during the design process for the two houses? Or were they simply talented designers working coincidently near each other in a then-popular style? Did the Thorsens know Dr. Wall, their neighbor on Piedmont? Intriguing questions that add some texture to the already rich story of the Thorsen House. 

 

For more information on Greene & Greene, see the Greene & Greene virtual archive

 


Arts & Events

Classical Music-East Bay Through August 22

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:33:00 PM

JOHN HINKEL PARK  

Mozart's "Don Giovanni,'' through Aug. 8 and Aug. 14 through Aug. 8, 3 p.m. Open Opera present's Mozart's classic opera work. Free.  

2 Southampton Ave., John Hinkel Park, Berkeley. < 

 

LESHER CENTER FOR THE ARTS  

"Diablo Symphony, 20th Anniversary of the Lesher Center," Aug. 14, 8 p.m. Joyce Johnson Hamilton conducts the orchestra and performers from the Diablo Theatre Company in a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Lesher Center for the Arts. The concert will include music from five top Broadway shows, including "Les Miserables,'' and tributes to Steven Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber. $25-$37. (925) 943-7469, www.diablosymphony.org. 

1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. (925) 943-7469, www.lesherartscenter.com.<


Galleries-East Bay Through August 22

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:30:00 PM

"BAY AREA HEART GALLERY," -- Exhibit consists of photographs of children, youth and families, accompanied by their compelling stories. The joint exhibit opens in the Alameda County Administration Building, 1221 Oak Street, Oakland and at the Eden Area Multi-Service Center, 24100 Amador Way, Hayward. 

Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.< 

 

BEDFORD GALLERY  

"Unbound: A National Exhibition of Book Art," through Sept. 19. Works by Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, Sas Colby, Lisa Kokin, Francesca Patine, Maria Porges, Nancy Selvin, Richard Shaw and others.  

$3 general; $2 youth ages 12 through 17; free children ages 12 and under; free Tuesdays. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Sunday, noon-5 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. (925) 295-1417, www.bedfordgallery.org.

 

COMPOUND GALLERY  

"Habitual Homesteaders," Aug. 14 through Sept. 19. Works by Gina Tuzzi and Tyler Bewley. Opening reception: August 14, 6-9 p.m.  

1167 65th St., Oakland. (510) 817-4042.< 

 

CRAFT AND CULTURAL ARTS GALLERY  

"Celebration of Life," through Aug. 27. Works by Michael Grbich.  

Free. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. State of California Office Building, 1515 Clay St., Oakland. (510) 622-8190, www.oaklandculturalarts.org.

 

FLOAT  

"Jabberwocky," through Sept. 18. Works by Cheryl Finfrock and Liz Mamorsky. Opening reception, August 14, 6-9 p.m.  

Free. Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.; by appointment. 1091 Calcot Place, Unit 116, Oakland. (510) 535-1702, www.thefloatcenter.com.

 

GALLERY CONCORD  

"Summertime Hues," through Sept. 25. Works by Irene Brydon and Susan Helmer.  

1765 Galindo St., Concord. (925) 691-6140.< 

 

HALL OF PIONEERS GALLERY  

"Oakland Chinatown Pioneers," Twelve showcases, each focusing on historic leaders and personalities of the community.  

Free. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Chinese Garden Building, 275 Seventh St., Oakland. (510) 530-4590.< 

 

HEARST ART GALLERY AT SAINT MARY'S COLLEGE OF CALIFORNIA  

"Superbly Independent," through Sept. 19. Works by Annie Harmon, Mary DeNeale Morgan and Marion Kavanagh Wachtel.  

$3. Wednesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. 1928 Saint Mary's Road, Moraga. (925) 631-4379, www.gallery.stmarys-ca.edu.< 

 

MERCURY 20 GALLERY --  

OPENING -- "Cycles of the City," through Aug. 28. Works by Jill McLennan.  

25 Grand Ave., Oakland. (510) 701-4620, www.mercurytwenty.com.

 

OLIVE HYDE ART GALLERY  

"Domicile," through Aug. 21. Works by Carol Lawton, Sally Sellers, Mary White.  

Free. Thursday-Sunday, noon-5 p.m. 123 Washington Blvd., Fremont. (510) 791-4357, www.olivehydeartguild.org/.< 

 

ROWAN MORRISON GALLERY  

OPENING -- "Everything is Everything: New Work by Michael Louis Young," through Aug. 28. Works by Michael Louis Young.  

330 40th St., Oakland. (510) 384-5344, www.rowanmorrison.com.

 

SUN GALLERY  

"High Art," through Sept. 25. Works by local high school students and high school homeschoolers.  

OPENING -- "Not So Still Life," through Aug. 28. Works by Richard Bolingbroke.  

1015 E. St., Hayward. (510) 581-4050, www.sungallery.org.

 

TRAYWICK CONTEMPORARY  

"2-D/3-D," through Sept. 18. Works by Mari Andrews, Jessica Martin, David McDonald, Aurora Robson and Lucrecia Troncoso.  

895 Colusa Ave., Berkeley. (510) 527-1214.<


Readings-East Bay Through August 22

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:24:00 PM

A GREAT GOOD PLACE FOR BOOKS  

Mary Roach, Aug. 13, 7 p.m. The author discusses "Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void.''  

Shawna Yang Ryan, Aug. 16, 7 p.m. The author discusses "Water Ghosts.''  

Jack Boulware, Aug. 18, 7 p.m. The author discusses "Gimme Something Better: The Profound, Progressive, and Occasionally Pointless History of Bay Area Punk from Dead Kennedys to Green Day.''  

6120 LaSalle Ave., Oakland. (510) 339-8210, www.ggpbooks.com.

 

BOOKS INC., BERKELEY  

Mark Elkin, Aug. 19, 4 p.m. The author discusses "Samuel's Baby.''  

 

1760 4th Street, Berkeley. (510) 525-7777, www.booksinc.net.

 

DANVILLE LIBRARY  

Linda Riebel, Aug. 19, 7 p.m. The author discusses "The Earth-Friendly Food Chain.'' Event takes place in the Mt. Diablo Room.  

400 Front Street, Danville. (925) 837-4889.< 

 

MOE'S BOOKS  

Neal Pollack, Aug. 20, 7:30 p.m. The author discusses his memoir "Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude.''  

10 a.m.-11 p.m. daily. 2476 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley. (510) 849-2087, www.moesbooks.com.

 

MRS. DALLOWAY'S  

Laura Glen Louis, Aug. 19, 7:30 p.m. The author reads from her poetry volume "Some, Like Elephants.''  

Mary Roach, Aug. 20, 7:30 p.m. The author discusses "Packing For Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void.''  

2904 College Avenue, Berkeley. (510) 704-8222.<


Professional Dance-San Francisco Through August 22

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:24:00 PM

ODC DANCE COMMONS PERFORMANCE ART COMPLEX  

"Triple Bill of World Premieres," Aug. 21, 8 p.m. New works from Tania Santiago, Jesselito Bie and Pearl Ubungen. $15.  

351 Shotwell St. (between 17th and 18th streets), San Francisco. (415) 863-6606, www.odctheater.org.

 

PENA PACHAMAMA  

"Flamenco Thursdays" with Carola Zertuche, Thursdays, 8:30 p.m. Music and dance with performers of traditional flamenco. $10.  

Georges Lammam Ensemble, Sundays, 8:30 p.m. Event features music and dancing from the Middle East. $10.  

For ages 21 and older. 1630 Powell St., San Francisco. (415) 646-0018, www.penapachamama.com.<


Stage-East Bay Through August 22

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:22:00 PM

ASHBY STAGE  

"The Norman Conquests," by Alan Ayckbourn, through Sept. 5. Shotgun Players present the hit comic trilogy of plays, "Table Manners,'' "Living Together,'' and "Round and Round the Garden.'' Times and days vary, check website for complete details. $20-$50. www.shotgunplayers.org. 

1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. < 

 

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. 

"Earth vs. Altair, Queen of Outer Space! Episode II, the Deadly Ray," by Daniel Dickinson, through Aug. 22, Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. San Leandro Players Theatre Company presents the saga of Pilot Craig Domer. $10-$15. www.sanleandroplayers.org. 

Free but donations accepted. Friday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. 384 Estudillo Ave., San Leandro. (510) 577-3474, (510) 577-3491, www.ci.sanleandro. ca.us/sllibrarycasaperalta.html.< 

 

JULIA MORGAN CENTER FOR THE ARTS  

"Disney's Aladdin," through Sept. 5, Saturday, 2 and 6:30 p.m.; Sunday, Noon and 5 p.m. Berkeley Playhouse presents the tale of Disney's beloved "Aladdin.'' $15-$33. www.berkeleyplayhouse.org. 

2640 College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 845-8542, www.juliamorgan.org.

 

LIVE OAK THEATRE  

"Blithe Spirit," by Noel Coward, through Aug. 21, 8 p.m. A medium and his two wives vie for his attention. $12-$15.  

1301 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-5580.< 

 

PERFORMING ARTS THEATER, EL CERRITO HIGH SCHOOL  

"Bye Bye Birdie," Aug. 13 through Aug. 15, Aug. 13-15 at 7:30 p.m.; Aug. 15 at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Stage Door Conservatory presents "Bye Bye Birdie.'' $15-$50.  

540 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito. <


Stage-San Francisco Through August 22

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 10:25:00 AM

ACTORS THEATRE OF SAN FRANCISCO  

"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," through Sept. 4, Wednesday-Saturday, 8 p.m. A wealthy Southern family deals with a shocking revelation. $26-$38.  

855 Bush St., San Francisco. (415) 345-1287, (866) 468-3399, www.actorstheatresf.org or www.ticketweb.com.

 

BEACH BLANKET BABYLON This long-running musical follows Snow White as she sings and dances her way around the world in search of her prince. Along the way she encounters many of the personalities in today's headlines, including Nancy Pelosi, Condoleezza Rice, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harry Potter, Tiger Woods, Oprah Winfrey, Britney Spears, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Hillary Clinton, George and Laura Bush, Michael Jackson, Martha Stewart, Tom Cruise, Angelina, characters from Brokeback Mountain and Paris Hilton. Persons under 21 are not admitted to evening performances, but are welcome to Sunday matinees. 

"Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon," Wednesday and Thursday, 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.  

$25-$78. Club Fugazi, 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd. (formerly Green Street), San Francisco. (415) 421-4222, www.beachblanketbabylon.com.

 

CHANCELLOR HOTEL UNION SQUARE  

"Eccentrics of San Francisco's Barbary Coast," Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m. Audiences gather for a 90-minute show abounding with local anecdotes and lore presented by captivating and consummate conjurers and tale-tellers. $30.  

433 Powell St., San Francisco. (877) 784-6835, www.chancellorhotel.com.

 

CLIMATE THEATRE  

"The Clown Cabaret at the Climate," First Monday of the month, 7 and 9 p.m. Hailed as San Francisco's hottest ticket in clowning, this show blends rising stars with seasoned professionals on the Climate Theater's intimate stage. $10-$15.  

285 Ninth St., Second Floor, San Francisco. www.climatetheater.com.

 

COUNTERPULSE  

"Skin Tight," through Aug. 28, Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m. Rapid Descent Physical Performance Company presents their debut production of a New Zealand play, featuring three performers, two actor/dancers, and a trumpeter. $20-$35.  

1310 Mission St., San Francisco. (415) 626-2060, www.counterpulse.org.

 

EXIT THEATRE  

"Obscura -- A Magic Show," through Aug. 14, Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m. Featuring illusionist Christian Cagigal. $15-$25.  

"Agnes the Barbarian," by Jason Harding, through Aug. 14, Thursday-Sunday, 8 p.m. Thunderbird Theatre Company presents an original play that is part homage, part lampoon of the sword and sorcery genre. $20-$25.  

156 Eddy St., San Francisco. (415) 673-3847, www.theexit.org.

 

KIMO'S BAR  

"Fauxgirls," Every third Saturday, 10 p.m. Drag cabaret revue features San Francisco's finest female impersonators. Free. (415) 695-1239, www.fauxgirls.com. 

1351 Polk St., San Francisco. (415) 885-4535, www.denkitiger. com/.< 

 

THE MARSH  

"The Mock Cafe," Stand-up comedy performances. Saturday, 10 p.m. $7.  

"The Monday Night Marsh," An ongoing series of works-in-progress. Monday, 8 p.m. $7.  

EXTENDED -- "The Real Americans," by Dan Hoyle, through Sept. 25, Thursday and Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 5 p.m.; Sunday, 3 p.m. Hoyle connects liberal city life with small-town America. $20-$50.  

1062 Valencia St., San Francisco. (415) 826-5750, www.themarsh.org.

 

OFF-MARKET THEATER  

"City Solo," through Aug. 22, Sunday, 7 p.m. Aug. 15 show features "Soft Tissue: Secret Agent Bucket,'' by Coke Nakamoto, "Earthquake'' by Jawad Ali, "Love, Humiliation, and Karaoke,'' by Enzo Lombard, and "Lady Parts,'' by Martha Rynberg.  

Aug. 22 show features "The Girl From California,'' by Michael McCarrin, "Earthquake,'' by Jawad Ali, "Theme Park,'' by David Jacobson, and "Fortunate Daughter,'' by Thao P. Nguyen. $15-$20.  

965 Mission St., San Francisco. < 

 

OUR LITTLE THEATER  

"What Mama Said About Down There," through Aug. 28, Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m. An "educational show'' for ages 18 and up. $15.  

287 Ellis St., San Francisco. (415) 928-4060.< 

 

PHOENIX THEATRE  

"This World is Good," by J.C. Lee, through Aug. 28, Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m. Sleepwalkers Theatre presents part one of their three-part apocalypse series. $18-$24.  

414 Mason St., Sixth Floor, San Francisco. (800) 838-3006, www.offbroadwaywest.org.

 

SHELTON THEATER  

"Shopping! The Musical," by Morris Bobrow, A quick-paced musical about those obsessed with buying things. Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m. $27-$29. www.shoppingthemusical.com. 

Big City Improv, Friday, 10 p.m. $20. (510) 595-5597, www.bigcityimprov.com. 

533 Sutter St., San Francisco. (415) 433-1227, www.sheltontheater.com or www.sheltontheater.com.

 

STAGE WERX THEATRE  

"Nymph O' Mania," by Morgan Ludlow, through Aug. 15, Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m. Willy West Productions presents a modern twist on "A Midsummer Night's Dream.'' $12-$24.  

"Disoriented," Aug. 19, 8 p.m. Three women-- one Iranian, one Vietnamese, and one Japanese-- aim to dis-orient themselves from external stereotypes and internal expectations. $20.  

533 Sutter Street, San Francisco. < 

 

VICTORIA THEATRE  

OPENING -- "Sex Tapes for Seniors," by Mario Cossa, through Aug. 22, August and September: Friday, 8 p.m., Saturday, 7 p.m. A group of retirees produces educational sex videos for seniors despite protests from their families and the community.  

2961 16th St., San Francisco. www.victoriatheatre.org.<


Classical Music-San Francisco Through August 22

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:32:00 PM

COMMUNITY MUSIC CENTER  

"Victory, My Heart!" Aug. 15, 4 p.m. Bay Area tenor Andrew Morgan performs with pianist Charles Calhoun for a program of works of passion by composers spanning four centuries.  

544 Capp St., San Francisco. (415) 647-6015, www.sfcmc.org.

 

GOLDEN GATE PARK  

Golden Gate Park Band, Aug. 15, 1 p.m. A concert featuring the music of the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak. Concert takes place at the Music Concourse, located at 9th Avenue and Lincoln Way. Free. (510) 530-0814. 

Golden Gate Park Band, Aug. 22, 1 p.m. The concert will be a celebration of St. Stephen's Day, with Hungarian music, dance, singing, costumes and more. Free. www.goldengateparkband.org. 

Fulton at 36th Avenue, Lincoln at 41st Avenue, San Francisco. < 

 

LEGION OF HONOR MUSEUM DOCENT TOUR PROGRAMS -- Tours of the permanent collections and special exhibitions are offered Tuesday through Sunday. Non-English language tours (Italian, French, Spanish and Russian) are available on different Saturdays of the month at 11:30 a.m. Free with regular museum admission. (415) 750-3638.  

ONGOING CHILDREN'S PROGRAM --  

"Doing and Viewing Art," For ages 7 to 12. Docent-led tours of current exhibitions are followed by studio workshops taught by professional artists/teachers. Students learn about art by seeing and making it. Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to noon; call to confirm class. Free with museum admission. (415) 750-3658. 

ORGAN CONCERTS -- 4 p.m. A weekly concert of organ music on the Legion's restored 1924 Skinner organ. Saturday and Sunday in the Rodin Gallery. Free with museum admission. (415) 750-3624. 

$6-$10; free for children ages 12 and under; free for all visitors on Tuesdays. Tuesday-Sunday, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Lincoln Park, 34th Avenue and Clement Street, San Francisco. (415) 750-3600, (415) 750-3636, www.legionofhonor.org.

 

OLD FIRST CHURCH  

EUOUAE, Aug. 13, 8 p.m. Steven Sven Olbash presents sacred music from 12th-14th century France.  

sfSound, Aug. 20, 8 p.m. World premiere of "Oceanothers'' by Erik Ulman, and works by Ferneyhough, Wolff, Schlomowitz and Spahlinger.  

1751 Sacramento Street, San Francisco. (415) 474-1608.< 

 

SAN FRANCISCO CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC  

"Musical Textual: Where Music and Text Combine" Aug. 21 and Aug. 22, 7:30 p.m. Concert featuring the Betons, The Hot Air Chamber Ensemble and the Hot Air Vocal Ensemble. $10-$15.  

$15 to $20 unless otherwise noted. Hellman Hall, 50 Oak St., San Francisco. (415) 864-7326, www.sfcm.edu.<


Galleries-San Francisco Through August 22

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:29:00 PM

A440 GALLERY --  

"Experience Painting," through Aug. 30. Works by Peter Onstad.  

49 Geary St., San Francisco. www.AA40gallery.com.

 

ANDREA SCHWARTZ GALLERY  

"What?" through Aug. 27. Works by Daniel Anhorn, Seamus Conley, Eric Michael Corrigan and others.  

Free. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, 1-5 p.m. 525 2nd St., San Francisco. (415) 495-2090, www.asgallery.com.

 

ARTHAUS  

"The Back Yard," through Sept. 30. Works by Chris Schiavo.  

Free. Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 411 Brannan St., San Francisco. (415) 977-0223, www.arthaus-sf.com.< 

 

ARTZONE 461 --  

Keith Gaspari, Heidi McDowell, Brian Tepper, through Aug. 22. New works by the artists.  

461 Valencia Street, San Francisco. (415) 441-8680, www.artzone461.com.

 

BRAUNSTEIN-QUAY GALLERY  

OPENING -- "Introductions: Where They Are Now," through Aug. 28.  

Free. Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m. 430 Clementina St., San Francisco. (415) 278-9850, www.bquayartgallery.com.

 

BRIAN GROSS FINE ART  

"Airborne," through Sept. 10. Works by Ed Moses.  

"Gesture," through Aug. 27. Group exhibition explores various uses of gesture in abstract painting.  

Free. Tuesday through Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 49 Geary St., San Francisco. (415) 788-1050, www.briangrossfineart.com.

 

CHINESE CULTURE CENTER GALLERY  

"Stella Zhang," through Sept. 5. Five large scale installation pieces in the artist's first major Bay Area solo exhibition.  

Free. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Hilton Hotel, Third Floor, 750 Kearny St., San Francisco. (415) 986-1822.< 

 

CITY ART GALLERY  

OPENING -- "San Francisco," through Aug. 28. 25 artists interpret the city in their own ways.  

Free. Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 9 p.m. 828 Valencia St., San Francisco. (415) 970-9900, www.cityartgallery.org.

 

DOLBY CHADWICK GALLERY  

"Renaissance," through Aug. 28. Works by Bill Armstrong.  

"The Long Year, New Paintings," through Aug. 28. Works by Gary Edward Blum.  

Free. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. 210 Post St., Suite 205, San Francisco. (415) 956-3560, www.dolbychadwickgallery.com.

 

GALLERY PAULE ANGLIM  

Gary Lapow, through Aug. 14. Works by the artist.  

James Drake, through Aug. 14. New works by the artist.  

Free. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 14 Geary St., San Francisco. (415) 433-2710, www.gallerypauleanglim.com.

 

GEORGE KREVSKY GALLERY  

"Summer Reading," through Oct. 2. Works by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Helen Berggruen, Ken Kalman, Rockewell Kent, Clifford Odets, Man Ray, Raymond Saunders, Ben Shahn and others.  

Free. Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 77 Geary St., San Francisco. (415) 397-9748, www.georgekrevkygallery.com.

 

GREGORY LIND GALLERY  

"Cooler Heads Prevail," through Aug. 21. Works by Thomas Campbell, Jim Gaylord, Chris Gentile, Jake Longstreth and others.  

49 Geary Street, Fifth Floor, San Francisco. www.gregorylindgallery.com.

 

HAINES GALLERY  

"Wildfires," through Aug. 21. Works by Youngsuk Suh.  

49 Geary St., Suite 540, San Francisco. www.hainesgallery.com.

 

HOSFELT GALLERY  

"Seascapes and Surf Works," through Aug. 14. Works by Russell Crotty.  

430 Clementina St., San Francisco. (415) 495-5454, www.hosfeltgallery.com.

 

JENKINS JOHNSON GALLERY  

"Summertime," through Sept. 3. Works by Nicolas Africano, Ben Aronson, Katherine Chang Liu and many others.  

Free. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 464 Sutter St., San Francisco. (415) 677-0770, www.jenkinsjohnsongallery.com.

 

LOST ART SALON  

OPENING -- "Adine Stix: A Retrospective," through Oct. 31. An extensive survey of paintings from the 1960s.  

245 S. Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. (415) 861-1530, www.lostartsalon.com.

 

MARX & ZAVATTERO --  

"Tilt," through Aug. 21. Works by Timothy Nolan.  

Tuesday-Friday, 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. 77 Geary Street at Grant Avenue, 2nd Floor, San Francisco. (415) 627-9111, www.marxzav.com/index.php.< 

 

MICAELA GALLERY  

"Cold and Hot 2010," through Aug. 28. Works by Peter Bremers, Kathleen Elliot, Michael Janis, Michelle Knox, Weston Lambert and others.  

Free. Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sunday, noon-5 p.m. 333 Hayes St., San Francisco. (415) 551-8118, www.micaela.com.

 

MODERNISM  

"Asymmetrical Chromachords," through Aug. 28. Works by James Hayward.  

"Paradise Lost," through Aug. 28. Works by Michael Dweck.  

"Photographs," through Aug. 28. Works by Michael Dweck.  

Free. Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. 685 Market St., San Francisco. (415) 541-0461, www.modernisminc.com.

 

PAUL THIEBAUD GALLERY  

"Cigar Box Paintings," through Aug. 21. Works by Ed Musante.  

"Recent Paintings," through Aug. 21. Works by Eileen David.  

Free. Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 718 Columbus Ave., San Francisco. (415) 434-3055, www.paulthiebaudgallery.com.

 

ROBERT KOCH GALLERY  

"Photographs," through Aug. 21. Works by Miroslav Tichy.  

Free. Tuesday-Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. 49 Geary St., Fifth Floor, San Francisco. (415) 421-0122, www.kochgallery.com.

 

SANDRA LEE GALLERY  

OPENING -- "Recent Works," through Aug. 28. Works by Jeffrey Palladini.  

251 Post St., Suite 310, San Francisco. (415) 291-8000, www.sandraleegallery.com.

 

TRIANGLE GALLERY  

"49th Anniversary Show -- The Past," through Sept. 11. Works by gallery artists.  

47 Kearny St., San Francisco. (415) 392-1686, www.triangle-sf.com.<


Museums-East Bay Through August 22

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:27:00 PM

AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM AND LIBRARY AT OAKLAND 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 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," 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," 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, www.bade.psr.edu/bade.< 

 

BERKELEY ART MUSEUM AND PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE  

"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.  

"Perpetual and furious refrain / MATRIX 232," through Sept. 12. Exhibition features works by Brent Green.  

"Marisa Olson: Double Bind," through Aug. 31. With a pair of provocative YouTube videos, Olson unravels the promise and pitfalls of online participatory culture.  

"Himalayan Pilgrimage," through Dec. 19. Exhibition features sculpture and painting dating from the ninth to the eighteenth centuries and drawn from a private collection on long-term loan to the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.  

"Hauntology," through Dec. 5. Drawn primarily from the museum's recent acquisitions of contemporary art, this exhibition explores a wide range of art through the lens of the concept of "hauntology,'' a term coined by the French philosopher Jacques Derrida in 1993 to refer to the study of social, psychological, and cultural conditions in the post-Communist period.  

2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. < 

 

BLACKHAWK MUSEUM  

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," An ever-changing exhibit featuring over 90 automobiles.  

"A Journey on Common Ground," 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.

 

CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY  

HISTORY WALKABOUTS -- A series of walking tours that explore the history, lore and architecture of California with veteran tour guide Gary Holloway. Walks are given on specific weekends. There is a different meeting place for each weekend and walks take place rain or shine so dress for the weather. Reservations and prepayment required. Meeting place will be given with confirmation of tour reservation. Call for details.  

678 Mission St., San Francisco. (415) 357-1848, www.californiahistoricalsociety.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," 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," 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 --  

"Daytime Telescope Viewing," 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," 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," Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Ride through real-time constellations, stars and planets with Chabot's full-dome digital projection system. 

Center Admission: $14.95; $10.95 children 3-12; free children under 3; $3 discount for seniors and students. 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.; Also open on Tuesdays 10 a.m.-5 p.m. after June 29. 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," 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 --  

$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 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!" An interactive exhibit on heart health.  

"Good Nutrition," This exhibit includes models for making balanced meals and an Exercycle for calculating how calories are burned.  

"Draw Your Own Insides," Human-shaped chalkboards and models with removable organs allow visitors to explore the inside of their bodies.  

"Your Cellular Self and Cancer Prevention," 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 --  

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," Multimedia works from the museum's extensive collections of archival, documentary and experimental films. Located at 2911 Russell Street.  

SPECIAL EXHIBITS --  

$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," 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," 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," 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," 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," 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," Play some of the world's most popular math games, such as Hex, Kalah, Game Sticks and Shongo Networks.  

"Math Rules," Use simple and colorful objects to complete interesting challenges in math through predicting, sorting, comparing, weighing and counting.  

 

"Animal Discovery Room,,' 1:30-4 p.m. Visitors of all ages can hold and touch gentle animals, learn about their behavior and habitats and play with self-guided activities and specimen models.  

"Forces That Shape the Bay," This science park shows and explains why the San Francisco Bay is the way it is, with information on water, erosion, plate tectonics and mountain building.  

"Ingenuity in Action," Summer 2010. Enjoy the best of the Ingenuity Lab. Engage your creative brain and use a variety of materials to design, build and test your own innovations.  

"Kapla," Play with simple, versatile building blocks that can be used to build very large, high and stable structures.  

"KidsLab," This multisensory play area includes larger-than-life blocks, a crawl-through kaleidoscope, the Gravity wall, a puppet theater and a reading area.  

"NanoZone," Discover the science of nanotechnology through handson activities and games.  

"Planetarium," Explore the skies in this interactive planetarium.  

"Science on a Sphere," 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 --  

"Scream Machines -- The Science of Roller Coasters, through Jan. 2. This head-spinning, stomach-churning exhibition for thrill-seekers features interactive exhibits, artifacts and images to explore.  

"Summer Fun Days," through Aug. 18. Become a raptor expert, learn the science of the trapeze, engineer the perfect boat or test the ice cream that you yourself make.  

$6-$12; 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 --  

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

$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 --  

$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 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 --  

"Saturday Stories," 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 --  

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 --  

"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.

 

OAKLAND MUSEUM OF CALIFORNIA  

ONGOING EVENTS --  

"Art a la Carte," Wednesdays, 12:30 p.m. Art docents offer a variety of specialized tours focusing on one aspect of the museum's permanent collection. Free with museum admission.  

"Online Museum," Thursdays, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Explore the museum's collection on videodisks in the History Department Library.  

Docent Gallery Tours, Saturday and Sunday, 1:30 p.m. 

"Explore our New Gallery," through Dec. 2. The new Gallery of California Art showcases more than 800 works from OMCA's collection-one of the largest and most comprehensive holdings of California art in the world.  

"Gallery of California History," through Dec. 2. This new gallery is based on the theme of Coming to California.  

OPENING -- "Pixar: 25 Years of Animation," through Jan. 9. Exhibition presents an unprecedented look at the Emeryville-based animation company.  

$5-$8; free for children ages 5 and under; free to all on the second Sunday of the month. Special events are free with museum admission unless noted otherwise. Wednesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, noon-5 p.m.; first Friday of the month, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. 1000 Oak St., Oakland. (510) 238-2200, www.museumca.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 --  

$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 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," 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, 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 --  

$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 --  

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 EXHIBITS --  

"Native California Cultures," 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," 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," 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, www.hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu.

 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY MUSEUM OF PALEONTOLOGY  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"Tyrannosaurus Rex," 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," 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," 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," Due to ship maintenance, tours of the navigation bridge and the engine room are not available. Tuesdays.  

"Flight Deck Fun," 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," 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 -- Closed on New Year's Day.  

"Family Day," 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," 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," 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. 

"Living Ship: 65th Anniversary of the end of World War II," Aug. 14. Commemorate the end of the second world war and learn about the USS Hornet's contribution's to the Pacific Theater and VJ 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-San Francisco Through August 22

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:26:00 PM

ASIAN ART MUSEUM OF SAN FRANCISCO The Asian Art Museum-Chon-Moon Lee Center for Asian Art and Culture recently unveiled its new building in San Francisco's Civic Center. The building, the former San Francisco Public Library, has been completely retrofitted and rebuilt to house San Francisco's significant collection of Asian treasures. The museum offers complimentary audio tours of the museum's collection galleries.  

ONGOING EXHIBIT --  

"In a New Light," There are some 2,500 works displayed in the museum's new galleries. They cover all the major cultures of Asia and include Indian stone sculptures, intricately carved Chinese jades, Korean paintings, Tibetan thanksgas, Cambodian Buddhas, Islamic manuscripts and Japanese basketry and kimonos.  

ONGOING FAMILY PROGRAMS --  

Storytelling, Sundays and the first Saturday of every month, 1 p.m. This event is for children of all ages to enjoy a re-telling of Asian myths and folktales in the galleries. Meet at the Information Desk on the Ground Floor. Free with general admission.  

"Target Tuesday Family Program," first Tuesday of every month. Free with general admission.  

"Family Art Encounter," first Saturday of every month, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Drop in to make art related to the museum's collection. Children must be accompanied by an adult. In the Education Studios. Free with admission.  

DOCENT-LED ART TOURS -- The museum's docents offer two types of tours: a general introduction to the museum's collection and a highlight tour of specific areas of the collection. Free with museum admission.  

ARCHITECTURAL GUIDES -- Tuesday through Sunday at noon and 2:30 p.m., Thursday at 6:30 p.m. Learn about the former Main Library's transformation into the Asian Art Museum on this 40-minute tour. Free with museum admission.  

RESOURCE CENTER -- Tuesday through Sunday, 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Watch a video, or learn more about Asian art with slide packets, activity kits and books. Free with museum admission. 

SPECIAL EVENTS -- Free with general admission unless otherwise noted.  

"Shanghai," through Sept. 5. Exhibition features more than 130 artworks including oil paintings, Shanghai Deco furniture, revolutionary posters, works of fashion and more.  

"Japan's Early Ambassadors to San Francisco, 1860-1927," through Nov. 21. Timed to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the ship Kanrin Maru and the first Japanese embassy to the United States, this thematic exhibit focuses on some of the first Japanese diplomats and cultural emissaries in San Francisco, and how they responded to the experience of being in America.  

$7-$12; free children under age 12; $5 Thursday after 5 p.m.; free to all first Sunday of each month. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. 200 Larkin St., San Francisco. (415) 581-3500, www.asianart.org.

 

BEAT MUSEUM Formerly located on the California coast in Monterey, the Beat Museum now sits in historic North Beach. The Museum uses letters, magazines, pictures, first editions and more to explore the lives of leading beat figures such as Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady and many others. A gift shop and bookstore are open to the public free of charge. 

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

"North Beach Walking Tour,", A 90-minute walking tour of North Beach with Beat Museum curator Jerry Cimimo. See the bars, coffeehouses, homes, and other Beat-related highlights of North Beach. Call for info. $15. 

SPECIAL EXHIBITS --  

$4-$5. Monday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. CLOSED MONDAY. 540 Broadway, San Francisco. (800) KER-OUAC, www.kerouac.com.

 

CABLE CAR MUSEUM The museum is located in the historic Cable Car Barn and Powerhouse. Visitors can see the actual cable winding machinery, grips, track, cable and brakes, as well as three historic cable cars, photo displays and mechanical artifacts. The best way to get to this museum is by cable car; street parking is practically non-existent. 

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

Free. April 1-Sept. 30: daily, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Oct. 1-March 31, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 1201 Mason St., San Francisco. (415) 474-1887, www.cablecarmuseum.org.

 

CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES  

"Nightlife," Thursdays, 6 p.m. Every Thursday night, the Academy transforms into a lively venue filled with provocative science, music, mingling and cocktails, as visitors get a chance to explore the museum.  

"Where the Land Meets the Sea," Exhibition features sculpture by Maya Lin.  

BENJAMIN DEAN LECTURE SERIES --  

"Extreme Mammals," through Sept. 12. Exhibition features a far-reaching survey of members of the mammal family.  

$14.95-$24.95. Daily, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. (415) 379-8000, www.calacademy.org.

 

CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY  

MUSEUM -- The museum's permanent collection is made up of the Fine Arts Collection, consisting of 5,000 works of art that represent the history of California from pre-Gold Rush days to the early decade of the 20th century; and The Photography Collection, containing nearly a halfmillion images in an array of photographic formats documenting the history of California in both the 19th and 20th centuries. The Library and Research Collection contain material relating to the history of California and the West from early exploration time to the present including texts, maps, and manuscripts.  

"Landscape and Vision: Early California Painters from the Collections of the California Historical Society," open-ended. An exhibit of oil paintings including a large number of early landscapes of California, from the museum's collection.  

"Think California," through Feb. 5. Exhibition features artworks, artifacts and ephemera exploring California's colorful history.  

$1-$3; free children under age 5. Wednesday-Saturday, noon-4:30 p.m. 678 Mission St., San Francisco. (415) 357-1848 X229, www.californiahistoricalsociety.org.

 

CARTOON ART MUSEUM  

ONGOING EXHIBIT --  

"An Exploration of Cartoon Art," This exhibit explores the history of cartoon art including works from the most renowned and creative cartoonists of the last century. The exhibit traces the evolution of cartooning through its many forms including animation, comic strips, comic books, editorial cartoons and underground cartoons.  

CARTOONING CLASSES FOR KIDS -- Saturday, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. For children ages 6 to 14. Call for schedule. Free with admission. 

"60 Years of Beetle Bailey," through Sept. 19. Exhibition showcases the comics of Mort Walker.  

$2-$6; free children ages 5 and under; the first Tuesday of the month is paywhat-you-wish day. Tuesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. 655 Mission St., San Francisco. (415) 227-8666, www.cartoonart.org.

 

CHINESE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA The CHSA Museum and Learning Center features a permanent exhibition, "The Chinese of America: Toward a More Perfect Union'' in its Main Gallery, and works by Chinese-American visual artists in its Rotating Galleries.  

ONGOING EXHIBIT --  

"Leaders of the Band," An exhibition of the history and development of the Cathay Club Marching Band, the first Chinese American band formed in 1911. 

SPECIAL EXHIBITS --  

$1-$3; free children ages 5 and under; free for all visitors first Thursday of every month. Tuesday-Friday, noon-5 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, noon-4 p.m. 965 Clay St., San Francisco. (415) 391-1188, www.chsa.org.

 

CONTEMPORARY JEWISH MUSEUM The museum, formerly known as the Jewish Museum San Francisco, has a new addition designed by Daniel Libeskind and is dedicated to exploring the richness and diversity of Jewish thought and culture.  

GALLERY TOURS -- Sunday and Wednesday, 12:30 p.m. Free. 

"Jews on Vinyl," through Aug. 22. Exhibition showcases the history of Jewish recorded music from the 1940s to the 1980s.  

"As It Is Written: Project 304,805," through Oct. 3. Exhibition centers around a soferet (a professionally trained female scribe) who writes out the entire text of the Torah, at the Museum, over the course of a full year. She will be one of the few known women to complete an entire Torah scroll, an accomplishment traditionally exclusive to men.  

"Reinventing Ritual: Contemporary Art and Design for Jewish Life," through Oct. 3. The first major international exhibition to examine the reinvention of Jewish ritual in art and design.  

"Maira Kalman: Various Illuminations (of a Crazy World)," through Oct. 26. The first major museum survey of the award-winning illustrator, author and designer.  

$4-$5; free for children under age 12; free third Monday of every month. Sunday -Thursday, noon-6 p.m. DEC. 25, NOON TO 4 P.M.; CLOSED JAN. 1. 736 Mission St., San Francisco. (415) 655-7800, www.thecjm.org.

 

DE YOUNG MUSEUM The art museum has now reopened in a new facility designed by Swiss architecture firm Herzog and de Meuron and Fong and Chan Architects in San Francisco. It features significant collections of American art from the 17th through the 20th centuries; modern and contemporary art; art from Central and South America, the Pacific and Africa; and an important and diverse collection of textiles. 

ARTIST STUDIO PROGRAM -- Wednesday-Sunday, 1-5 p.m. A monthly interactive program during which the public can meet and work with a featured artist. Demonstrations take place in the Kimball Education Gallery, which does not require paid admission. (415) 750-7634. 

CHILDREN'S ACTIVITIES --  

"Children's Workshops: Doing and Viewing Art and Big Kids-Little Kids," Saturdays, 10:30 a.m.-noon and 1:30-3 p.m. Family tour and art activity for ages 4-12. 

LECTURES AND SYMPOSIA --  

LECTURES BY DOCENTS -- These lectures are free and are held in the Koret Auditorium unless otherwise noted.  

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

"Poetry Series," 7-8:30 p.m. $8-$12. (415) 750-7634. 

"Friday Nights at the de Young: Cultural Encounters," 5-8:45 p.m. The de Young stays open until 8:45 p.m. each Friday night and hosts special events including live music, dance, film, lectures and artist demonstrations.  

Aug. 22: "Cultural Encounters presents Hot Brazilian Nights.''  

Event features music by Forro for All and art-making for the entire family.  

Aug. 29: "Cultural Encounters.''  

Event features live music by the Scott Amendola Trio. Free with admission. 

"Photo/Synthesis," through Oct. 3. Exhibition highlights the dynamic trend in the field of contemporary photography, collages, assemblages, and other multi-part or composite photo-based projects.  

"Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musee d'Orsay," through Sept. 6. Exhibition puts forth nearly 100 works by the famous masters who called France their home during the mid-19th century and from whose midst arose one of the most original and recognizable of all artistic styles, Impressionism.  

"Pat Steir: After Hokusai, after Hiroshige," through Jan. 30. Exhibition shows the continued influence of the Japanese print on Western artists into the late twentieth century.  

OPENING -- "To Dye For: A World Saturated in Color," through Jan. 9. Exhibition features over 50 textiles and costumes from the Fine Arts Museums' comprehensive collection of textiles from Africa, Asia and the Americas.  

$6-$10; free for children ages 12 and under; free for all visitors the first Tuesday of every month. Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday-Sunday, 9:30 a.m.-5:15 p.m.; Friday, 9:30 a.m.-8:45 p.m. Golden Gate Park, 50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco. (415) 863-3330, www.deyoungmuseum.org.

 

EXPLORATORIUM A hands-on museum of science, art and human perception.  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"Tactile Dome," ongoing installation. The dome is composed of many chambers, which are pitch black inside and full of different tactile sensations. The only way to find one's way through is by using the sense of touch. Reservations required. $12 includes museum admission.  

"Distorted Room," Watch your friends inside the room grow to twice their size by walking left to right or shrink to half their size by walking in the opposite direction. A series of geometric tricks and optical illusions in the room makes the brain think that people shrink and grow before one's eyes.  

"Play Lab," An area for children ages 4 and under, designed to help them develop their motor skills and exercise their imaginations and social skills.  

"Listen: Making Sense of Sound," This "ears-on'' exhibit helps visitors focus on subtle and profound aspects of hearing, experiment with new ways of listen deeply and carefully, and think about how others hear the world. 

"Geometry Playground," through Sept. 6. Explore giant 3d shapes, curved mirrors and more.  

"Geometric Threads," through Aug. 22. Experience geometry as found in traditional handicrafts and contemporar design as artisans demonstrate the mathematics in crafts across the globe.  

$9-$14; free children ages 4 and under. Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Dec. 24, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; CLOSED DEC. 25. 3601 Lyon St., San Francisco. (415) EXP-LORE, (415) 563-7337, (415) 561-0360, www.exploratorium.edu.

 

GLBT HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND MUSEUM The museum is a project of the GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender) Historical Society. 

EVENTS --  

EXHIBITS --  

$2-$4. Tuesday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. 657 Mission St., Suite 300, San Francisco. (415) 777-5455, www.glbthistory.org.

 

INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN  

EVENTS --  

101 Howard Street, Suite 480, San Francisco. (415) 543-4669, www.imow.org/home/index.< 

 

LEGION OF HONOR MUSEUM DOCENT TOUR PROGRAMS -- Tours of the permanent collections and special exhibitions are offered Tuesday through Sunday. Non-English language tours (Italian, French, Spanish and Russian) are available on different Saturdays of the month at 11:30 a.m. Free with regular museum admission. (415) 750-3638.  

ONGOING CHILDREN'S PROGRAM --  

"Doing and Viewing Art," For ages 7 to 12. Docent-led tours of current exhibitions are followed by studio workshops taught by professional artists/teachers. Students learn about art by seeing and making it. Saturday, 10:30 a.m. to noon; call to confirm class. Free with museum admission. (415) 750-3658. 

ORGAN CONCERTS -- 4 p.m. A weekly concert of organ music on the Legion's restored 1924 Skinner organ. Saturday and Sunday in the Rodin Gallery. Free with museum admission. (415) 750-3624. 

SPECIAL EVENTS -- In the Gould Theater unless otherwise noted. $4 after museum admission unless otherwise noted. (415) 682-2481. 

"Sunday Jazz Brunch," 11 a.m.-3 p.m. $21-$53. 

"Very Postmortem: Mummies and Medicine," Oct. 31. Exhibition explores the modern scientific examination of mummies providing new insights into the conditions under which the Egyptians lived, bringing us closer to understanding who they were.  

"Impressionist Paris: City of Light," through Sept. 26. Exhibition explores various aspects of life in and around the city in which artists came of age. Visitors to the exhibition are transported to Impressionist Paris as represented in over 150 prints, drawings, photographs, paintings, and illustrated books from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and several distinguished private collections.  

$6-$10; free for children ages 12 and under; free for all visitors on Tuesdays. Tuesday-Sunday, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Lincoln Park, 34th Avenue and Clement Street, San Francisco. (415) 750-3600, (415) 750-3636, www.legionofhonor.org.

 

MARKET STREET RAILWAY MUSEUM The museum will permanently display a variety of artifacts telling the story of San Francisco's transportation history, including dash signs, fare boxes, a famed Wiley "birdcage'' traffic signal and more. 

Free. Wednesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. 77 Steuart St., San Francisco. (415) 956-0472, www.streetcar.org.

 

MEXICAN MUSEUM  

THE MEXICAN MUSEUM GALLERIES AT FORT MASON CENTER ARE CURRENTLY CLOSED --  

The Mexican Museum holds a unique collection of 12,000 objects representing thousands of years of Mexican history and culture within the Americas. The permanent collection, the Museum's most important asset and resource, includes five collecting areas: Pre-Conquest, Colonial, Popular, Modern and Contemporary Mexican and Latino, and Chicano Art. The Museum also has a collection of rare books and a growing collection of Latin American art. 

Fort Mason Center, Building D, Buchanan Street and Marina Boulevard, San Francisco. (415) 202-9700, www.mexicanmuseum.org.

 

MUSEO ITALOAMERICANO The museum, dedicated to the exhibition of art works by Italian and Italian-American artists, has a small permanent collection of paintings, sculptures, photographs and works on paper by such renowned artists as Beniamino Buffano, Sandro Chia, Giorgio de Chirico and Arnaldo Pomodoro.  

DOCENT TOURS -- Wednesdays, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Free. 

$2-$3; free children under age 12; free to all first Wednesday of the month. Wednesday-Sunday, noon -4 p.m.; first Wednesday of the month, noon-7 p.m. Fort Mason Center, Building C, Buchanan Street and Marina Boulevard, San Francisco. (415) 673-2200, www.museoitaloamericano.org.

 

MUSEUM OF ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS AT SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY  

EXHIBITS --  

Free. Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Humanities Building, Room 510, SFSU, Font Boulevard and Tapia Drive, San Francisco. (415) 405-0599, www.sfsu.edu/~museumst/.< 

 

MUSEUM OF CRAFT AND FOLK ART The museum, now open at a new downtown location, features craft and folk art from various cultures, both past and present, and includes styles ranging from utilitarian objects to contemporary art. 

"Clare Rojas: We They, We They," through Aug. 22. Where neo-folk meets contemporary art, artists operate as "authors'' of the collective voice. The new exhibition showcases the first solo exhibition of the Bay Area artist who identifies and inserts herself in the folk art continuum. MOCFA is proud to present new work that has yet to be seen by the public.  

$4-$5; free for youths under age 18. Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. 51 Yerba Buena Lane, Mission Street between Third and Fourth streets, San Francisco. (415) 227-4888, www.mocfa.org.

 

MUSEUM OF PERFORMANCE AND DESIGN  

EXHIBITS --  

Free. Wednesday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Veterans Building, 401 Van Ness Avenue at McAllister, 4th Floor, San Francisco. (415) 255-4800, www.mpdsf.org.

 

MUSEUM OF THE AFRICAN DIASPORA A new museum exploring and celebrating the influence of the African Diaspora on global art and culture through interactive, permanent and changing exhibits and special programs. The museum occupies the first three floors of the new St. Regis Hotel at Third and Mission streets.  

PERMANENT EXHIBITS --  

"Celebrations: Rituals and Ceremonies," "Music of the Diaspora,'' "Culinary Traditions,'' 'Adornment,'' "Slavery Passages,'' and "The Freedom Theater.'' 

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

"Urban Kidz Film Series," Noon-3 p.m. An offshoot of the San Francisco Black Film Festival, featuring a striking assemblage of short and feature films designed to spark the imaginations of the 5-to-12-year-old set. $10 adults; children free. (415) 771-9271. 

SPECIAL EXHIBITS --  

$5-$8; free children age 12 and under. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sunday, noon-5 p.m.; CLOSED MARCH 13 THROUGH MARCH 21. 685 Mission St., San Francisco. (415) 358-7200, www.moadsf.org.

 

NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM LIBRARY (THE J. PORTER SHAW MARITIME LIBRARY) Closed on federal holidays. The library, part of the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park, focuses on sail and steam ships on the West Coast and the Pacific Basin from 1520 to the present. The museum library holdings include a premiere collection of maritime history: books, magazines, oral histories, ships' plans and the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park's 250,000 photographs. 

Free. By appointment only, Monday-Friday, 1-4 p.m., and the third Saturday of each month 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fort Mason Center, Building E, Third Floor, Buchanan Street and Marina Boulevard, San Francisco. (415) 560-7080, (415) 560-7030, www.nps.gov/safr.< 

 

PACIFIC HERITAGE MUSEUM The museum presents rotating exhibits highlighting historical, artistic, cultural and economic achievements from both sides of the Pacific Rim. The museum features a permanent display documenting the history and significance of the Branch Mint and Subtreasury buildings. 

Free. Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 608 Commercial St., San Francisco. (415) 399-1124.< 

 

RANDALL MUSEUM  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"Earthquake Exhibit," Learn about plate tectonics. Make a small quake by jumping on the floor to make a "floor quake'' that registers on the seismometer in the lobby. See the basement seismometer that registers quakes around the world. Walk through a full-size earthquake refugee shack that was used to house San Franciscans after the 1906 earthquake that destroyed so many homes.  

"Creativity and Discovery Hand in Hand," A photography exhibit that gives visitors a look into the wide variety of programs the Museum offers in the way of classes, workshops, school field trips, and special interest clubs.  

"Toddler Treehouse," Toddlers may comfortably climb the carpeted "treehouse'' and make a myriad of discoveries, from the roots to the limbs.  

"Live Animal Exhibit," Visit with more than 100 creatures including small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, raptors and small birds, insects, spiders and tide pool creatures.  

ONGOING EVENTS --  

"Saturdays Are Special at the Museum," Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. A series of drop-in ceramics and art and science workshops. All ages are welcome, though an adult must accompany children under age 8. $3 per child, $5 per parent-child combination.  

"Bufano Sculpture Tours," first and third Saturdays of the month, 10:15 a.m. A tour of the giant animal sculptures of Beniamino Bufano. The sculptures were carved out of stone in the 1930s and include a giant cat and a mother bear nursing her cubs.  

"Animal Room," Visit some of the animals that live at the museum, including reptiles, raptors, tide pool creatures and small mammals.  

"Meet the Animals" Saturdays, 11:15 a.m. to noon. See the Randall's animals close-up and in person.  

"Animal Feeding," Saturdays, noon. Watch the animals take their meals.  

"Golden Gate Model Railroad Exhibit," Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

DROP-IN ART AND SCIENCE WORKSHOPS -- 1-4 p.m. $3-$5.  

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

"Meet the Animals," Saturdays, 11:15 a.m. Learn about the animals that live at the Randall Museum. 

"Drop-in Family Ceramics Workshop," Saturday, 10:15-11:15 a.m. $5. 

"Golden Gate Model Railroad Exhibit," Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. 

"Film Series for Teenagers," Fridays, 7 p.m. 

"Drop-in Family Ceramics Workshop," Saturday, 1:15-2:15 p.m. 

"Animal Feeding," Saturday, noon. 

"Meet the Animals," 11:15 a.m.-noon. 

"Third Friday Birders," 8 a.m. The hike through Corona Heights Park allows participants to enjoy the early morning views and learn more about the feathered inhabitants of the area. Children aged 10 and older if accompanied by adult. 

Free. All ages welcome; an adult must accompany children under age 8. Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; CLOSED ON CHRISTMAS. 199 Museum Way, San Francisco. (415) 554-9600, www.randallmuseum.org.

 

SAN FRANCISCO CABLE CAR MUSEUM The museum is located in the historic Cable Car Barn and Powerhouse. Visitors can see the actual cable winding machinery, grips, track, cable and brakes, as well as three historic cable cars, photo displays and mechanical artifacts. The best way to get to this museum is by cable car; street parking is practically non-existent. 

Free. October 1-March 31: Daily, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; April 1-September 3-: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Closed on New Year's Day, Easter Sunday, Thanksgiving and Christmas. 1201 Mason St., San Francisco. (415) 474-1887, www.cablecarmuseum.com.

 

SAN FRANCISCO MARITIME NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK One of only a few "floating'' national parks, the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park includes four national landmark ships, a maritime museum, a maritime library and a World-War-II submarine named the USS Pampanito.  

HYDE STREET PIER -- Demonstrations, ship tours, programs, music and special events offered throughout the day. Check ticket booth for schedule. At the foot of Hyde Street, Hyde and Jefferson streets.  

Entering the Pier is free but there is a fee to board the ships.  

HISTORIC SHIPS AT THE HYDE STREET PIER -- The historic ships at the Pier are the 1886 square-rigger "Balclutha,'' the 1890 steam ferryboat "Eureka,'' the 1895 schooner "C.A. Thayer'' (not available at this time due to restoration), the 1891 scow schooner "Alma,'' the 1907 steam tug "Hercules,'' and the 1914 "Eppleton Hall,'' a paddlewheel tug.  

"Balclutha." This historic ship, a three-mast square-rigger, has undergone extensive repairs and preservation work. She now contains more original materials and fittings than any other historic merchant square-rigger in the United States. The Balclutha is a designated National Historic Landmark. At Hyde Street Pier.  

"Eureka." Explore this 1890 ferryboat with a 40-foot walking-beam engine. The boat once carried passengers and autos across the San Francisco Bay. At Hyde Street Pier. Daily, call for times of boat tour.  

"C.A. Thayer." A three-mast schooner used in the lumber and cod fishing trades. At Hyde Street Pier.  

"Alma." Between 1850 and the early 1900s, the best highways around the San Francisco Bay area were the waterways and the delivery trucks and tractortrailer rigs of the time were the flat-bottomed scow schooners. Able to navigate the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta region's shallow creeks, sloughs and channels, the scows' sturdy hulls could rest safely and securely on the bottom providing a flat, stable platform for loading and unloading. Made of inexpensive Douglas fir, scow's designs were so simple they could be built by eye or without plans.  

"Hercules." Tugs in the early part of the 20th century towed barges, sailing ships and log rafts between Pacific ports. Because prevailing north/west winds generally made travel up the coast by sail both difficult and circuitous, tugs often towed large sailing vessels to points north of San Francisco. In 1916 Hercules towed the C.A. Thayer to Port Townsend, Wash., taking six days to make the trip. At the end of the sail era, the Hercules was acquired by the Western Pacific Railroad Company and shuttled railroad car barges back and forth across San Francisco Bay until 1962.  

"Eppleton Hall." Built in England, the steam side-wheeler plied the Wear and Tyne rivers of Northeast England. Designed to tow ocean-going colliers (coal-carrying sail vessels) the tugs saved transit time getting the sail vessels upriver to load. The side-wheelers were also used to tow newly built ships out to sea. From 1969 to 1979, the Eppleton Hall served as a private yacht. She was modified for an epic steam via the Panama Canal to San Francisco, passing through the Golden Gate in March of 1970.  

HISTORIC SHIP AT FISHERMAN'S WHARF --  

"USS Pampanito." This World-War-II-era submarine is berthed at Fisherman's Wharf. The submarine celebrated her 50th anniversary in November of 1993 and is perhaps best known for her participation in a "wolf pack'' attack on a convoy of enemy ships during World War II. The entrance fee includes a taped audio tour that describes what life on this submarine was like. At Pier 45, near foot of Taylor Street. Monday through Thursday, Sunday and holidays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. $9 general; $5 seniors, $4 active duty military, $4 youth ages 6 to 12; free children under age 6. (415) 775-1943.  

ONGOING EVENTS --  

"Historic Ship Volunteer Work Party," Saturday, 9 a.m. Become part of an effort to preserve four of the park's nautical treasures. Work on a different ship each Saturday. Bring work clothes, work shoes and lunch. Call for meeting place. (415) 332-8409.  

Unless noted otherwise, events take place on the Hyde Street Pier, located at the foot of Hyde Street on Jefferson Street. 

EXHIBITS -- Current Exhibits at the Visitor Center:  

"What's Your Pleasure? Recreational Boats of California's Past," openended. This exhibit includes 1940s Sacramento Hydroplanes, a Russian River launch from the 19th century, classic wooden motor launches and motor boats, and other smaller crafts.  

"Hydroplanes and Racing Boats," open-ended. A small exhibit showcasing 1930s racing engines and hydroplane boats.  

"Frisco Bound," an exhibition about immigration to San Francisco, clipper ships, and the Gold Rush era.  

"Hyde Street Ship Models," an exhibit of models of the historic ships at the Hyde Street Pier.  

"Discovery Room," a preview of the Maritime Library where visitors can look up documents and photographs.  

(415) 447-5000. 

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

"Adventures at Sea: Life Aboard a 19th century Sailing Ship," Daily, 2:15 p.m.-3 p.m. Take a guided tour of the sailing ship Balclutha and learn about the hardships and awards of the sailors show fought for survival during the treacherous Cape Horn passage. Vessel admission. 

VISITOR CENTER -- Daily, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m.  

Entering the Pier is free but there iships. The fee allows access to all ships and is good for seven days. $5; free children under age 16. May 28-Sept. 30: daily, 9:30 a.m.-7 p.m.; Oct. 1-May 27: Daily, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Foot of Hyde Street, San Francisco. (415) 561-7100, www.nps.gov.

 

SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF CRAFT AND DESIGN A museum celebrating and promoting the art of contemporary craft and design. The museum showcases diverse exhibitions from regional, national and international artists, working in mediums such as wood, clay, fiber, metal and glass. 

EVENTS --  

"FourSite: 4 Artists, 4 Materials, 4 Sites," through Sept. 18. Artists Tanya Aguiniga, Paul Hayes, Tom Hill and Christine Lee transform the museum space with four distinct, large-scale installations of fiber, paper, metal and wood.  

$2-$4; free youths under age 18. Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 550 Sutter St., San Francisco. (415) 773-0303, www.sfmcd.org.

 

SAN FRANCISCO MUSEUM OF MODERN ART  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"Matisse and Beyond: The Painting and Sculpture Collection," This newly reconceived exhibition of SFMOMA's modern art collection features paintings, sculptures and works on paper from the first 60 years of the 20th century. Featured artists include: Joseph Cornell, Ellsworth Kelly, Yves Klein, Salvador Dali, Frida Kahlo, Piet Mondrian, Pablo Picasso, Diego Rivera, Andy Warhol and Paul Klee.  

"Between Art and Life: The Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Collection," This new presentation of the SFMOMA collection features works from the past five decades by Louise Bourgeois, Robert Gober, Eva Hesse, Anish Kapoor, Sherrie Levine, Brice Marden, Gordon Matta-Clark, Barry McGee, Bruce Nauman, Robert Rauschenberg and Kara Walker.  

"The Art of Design: Selections from the Permanent Collection of Architecture and Design," The exhibit will feature 100 selections from their architecture, graphic design and industrial design collections on a rotating basis. It features classic works plus new designs by up-andcoming artists.  

"Picturing Modernity: Photographs from the Permanent Collection," Photography is possibly the quintessential modern art medium because its 160-year history corresponds almost exactly with Modernism's duration as a cultural movement. This exhibit looks at the photograph's unique pictorial ability and its ever-growing pervasiveness in modern culture, putting the medium in dialogue with paintings and other kinds of art.  

KORET VISITOR EDUCATION CENTER -- This facility includes multimedia display technology, "Pick Up and Go'' guides for adults and children, art videos, and a community art gallery created by participants in school, teen and family programs. Thursday, 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

"Tony Labat's I Want You," The latest installment in the newly launched program series "Live Art at SFMOMA.'' The artist invites denizens of the Bay Area to make their own demands of the public which riffs on the iconic "I Want You'' army recruitment campaigns of World Wars I and II, he asks you what you would do if you had only one minute to seize the voice of authority, to be the finger-pointing Uncle Sam. 

"Calder to Warhol," through Sept. 19. Exhibition showcases the quality of the Fisher Collection, much of which has never been seen by the public.  

Jesse Hazelip, through Nov. 13. Artists Gallery showcases the work of the Oakland-based artist.  

$7-$12.50; half price on Thursdays after 6 p.m.; free for all visitors on the first Tuesday of every month. Monday, Tuesday and Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m.-5:45 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m.-8:45 p.m. 151 Third St., San Francisco. (415) 357-4000, www.sfmoma.org.

 

SAN FRANCISCO PERFORMING ARTS LIBRARY AND MUSEUM  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"Dance in California: 150 Years of Innovation," This permanent exhibit traces the history and artistic range of modern dance in California, with photographs and documents highlighting the achievements of Lola Montez, Isadora Duncan, Ruth St. Denis, Martha Graham, the Christensen brothers, the Peters Wright School, the company of Lester Horton, Anna Halprin and Lucas Hoving.  

"Maestro! Photographic Portraits by Tom Zimberoff," This permanent exhibit is a comprehensive study of a generation of national and international conductors. In Gallery 5.  

"San Francisco 1900: On Stage," In Gallery 4.  

"San Francisco in Song," In Gallery 3. 

Free. Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, 1-5 p.m. San Francisco War Memorial Veteran's Building, 401 Van Ness Ave., Fourth Floor, San Francisco. (415) 255-4800, www.sfpalm.org.

 

SEYMOUR PIONEER MUSEUM The museum, owned by The Society of California Pioneers, houses a permanent research library, art gallery and history museum. Exhibits include a photography collection documenting California history. 

$1-$3. Wednesday-Friday and the first Saturday of the month, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Society of California Pioneers, 300 Fourth St., San Francisco. (415) 957-1859, www.californiapioneers.org.

 

TREGANZA ANTHROPOLOGY MUSEUM AT SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY The museum, founded in 1968, houses collections of archaeological and ethnographic specimens from Africa, Oceania, Asia, and North America as well as small collections from Central and South America. There are also collections of photographs, tapes and phonograph records from Africa and Europe. In addition, there is an archive of field notes and other materials associated with the collections. The museum also houses the Hohenthal Gallery that is used for traveling exhibits as well as exhibits mounted by students and faculty. 

Free. Museum office: Monday-Friday, 8 a.m.-noon and 1 p.m.-4 p.m.; Hohenthal Gallery, SCI 388: Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Science Building, SFSU, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco. (415) 338-2467, www.sfsu.edu/~treganza/.< 

 

ZEUM Zeum is a technology and arts museum for children and families featuring exhibits and workshops that cover a variety of fascinating subjects. 

EVENTS --  

$6-$8. 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Wednesday-Sunday. 221 Fourth St., San Francisco. (415) 820-3220, www.zeum.org.<


Popmusic-East Bay Through August 22

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:25:00 PM

"DOWNTOWN BERKELEY MUSICFEST," -- Aug. 20 through Aug. 29. More than 50 performances will take place at 11 different venues across Berkeley's Downtown Arts District, with bands and artists such as The Blasters, Terence Brewer Trio, Dawn Drake, Turtle Island Quartet, Mark Hummel and more. Visit website for complete lineup and locations. 

www.downtownberkeleymusicfest.org.

 

924 GILMAN ST. -- All ages welcome. 

Fang, Oppressed Logic, Sex Offenders, Hewhocannotbenamed, Gutwrench, Aug. 13, 7:30 p.m. $10.  

Ceremony, Punch, Nails, Cardboard Funeral, Aug. 22, 5 p.m. $8.  

$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, First and third Wednesdays, 9 p.m. Free.  

Kurt Ribal Jazz Quartet, Aug. 21, 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  

Tippy Canoe and Mikie Lee Prasad, Aug. 13, 8-11 p.m. $10; 21+  

The Steve Freund Duo, Aug. 14, 8-11 p.m. $10; 21+  

The Lowell Trio, Aug. 15, 3-6 p.m. $10; 21+  

Jazz Jam, Aug. 16, 7-10 p.m. $3.  

The California Honeydrops, Aug. 19, 8-10 p.m. $10.  

Peter Anastos and Iter, Aug. 20, 8-11 p.m. $10.  

Caroompas Room, Aug. 21, 8-11 p.m. $10.  

Derek Rolando, Ray Obeido and Friends, Aug. 22, 3-6 p.m. $10.  

707 Marina Vista Ave., Martinez. (925) 228-6985, www.armandosmartinez.com.

 

ASHKENAZ  

Swingthing, Aug. 13, 9 p.m. Show at 9 p.m.; Swing dance lesson at 8 p.m. $10-$13.  

Don Carlos and The Reggae Angels, Aug. 14. $20-$25.  

Aux Cajunals, Aug. 17, 8:30 p.m. $10.  

The Blues Defenders, Aug. 19, 8:30 p.m. $10.  

Trevor Hall, The B Foundation and Zutra, Aug. 19, 9 p.m. $10-$15.  

Afrofunk Experience, Aug. 20, 9:30 p.m. $10-$13.  

Rachid Halihal and Friends, Aug. 22, 8 p.m. $10.  

1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. (510) 525-5054, www.ashkenaz.com.

 

BECKETT'S IRISH PUB  

SpearCracker, Aug. 8 and Aug. 22.  

Justin Anchetta, Aug. 13, 10 p.m. Free.  

Feelosophy, Aug. 14, 10 p.m. Free.  

Calafia, Aug. 19.  

Shark Alley Hobos, Aug. 20.  

D'Giin, Aug. 21.  

Free. Shows at 10 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 2271 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 647-1790, www.beckettsirishpub.com.

 

BLAKE'S ON TELEGRAPH  

Shake Me!, Punk Funk Mob, Mama Hagglin', Dan Eagan, Aug. 14, 9 p.m. $8-$10; 18+  

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.

 

FREIGHT AND SALVAGE  

"Freight Open Mic," Tuesdays. $4.50-$5.50.  

Livingston Taylor, Aug. 13, 8 p.m. $22.50-$23.50.  

New Directions, Jody Stecher, Aug. 14, 8 p.m. Indian classical double bill: ensemble exploring acoustic ecstatic edge. $18.50-$19.50.  

The Klez-X, Aug. 15. $18.50-$19.50.  

Joy Kills Sorrow, Aug. 18. $18.50-$19.50.  

Alex de Grassi, Bob Brozman, Walter Strauss, Aug. 19. $22.50-$23.50.  

Phil Marsh, Aug. 20. $18.50-$19.50.  

"First Annual West Coast Jug Band Jubilee," Aug. 21, 12:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.  

$18.50-$19.50.  

Music starts at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 2020 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 548-1761, www.freightandsalvage.org.

 

JACK LONDON SQUARE  

"Lunchtime Live," through Aug. 27, Noon. August 6: Pulama  

August 10: Midlife Crisis  

August 13: Girl Talk  

 

August 17: Gary Flores Trio  

August 20: Ben Oni  

 

free. Foot of Broadway, Oakland. (866) 295-9853, www.jacklondonsquare.com.

 

JUPITER  

"Americana Unplugged," Sundays, 5 p.m. A weekly bluegrass and Americana series.  

"Jazzschool Tuesdays," Tuesdays, 8 p.m. Featuring the ensembles from the Berkeley Jazzschool. www.jazzschool.com. 

8 p.m. 2181 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 843-8277, www.jupiterbeer.com.

 

KIMBALL'S CARNIVAL  

"Monday Blues Legends Night," 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. < 

 

LA PENA CULTURAL CENTER  

"Annette A. Aguilar & StringBeans, " Aug. 13, 8 p.m. $15-$20.  

Copywrite, The Understudies, Aug. 14, 8 p.m. $7; $5 with RSVP on Facebook.  

Go Ohana!, Aug. 19, 7:30 p.m. A showcase of Asian American musicians, spoken word artists, dancers, video/multidisciplinary artists and visual artists hosted by Ryan Takemiya. $10; No one turned away for lack of funds.  

Pellejo Seco, Aug. 20, 9:30 p.m. $12.  

Maria Lando, Aug. 21, 8 p.m. $15-$18.  

Mexican Tardeada, Aug. 22, 3-6 p.m. Free.  

free. 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 849-2568, www.lapena.org.

 

LOS CENZONTLES MEXICAN ARTS CENTER  

Laurie Lewis and Tom Rozum, Aug. 14, 7 p.m. Third concert in Roots music series. $5.  

13108 San Pablo Ave., San Pablo. (510) 233-8015, www.loscenzontles.com.

 

OAKLAND PUBLIC LIBRARY, GOLDEN GATE BRANCH  

Terry Hilliard Quartet, Aug. 15. Free; donations welcome.  

Julius Courtney Big Band, Aug. 22. Concert takes places in Temescal Creek Park, 47th Street between Adeline and San Pablo Avenue.  

Free. Tuesday, 12:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.; Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Friday, noon to 5:30 p.m. 5606 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. (510) 597-5023, www.oaklandlibrary.org.

 

SHATTUCK DOWN LOW  

"Live Salsa," 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," Thursday, 9 p.m. Featuring DJ Vickity Slick and Franky Fresh. Free.  

DJ Smoke One, DJ Serg, DJ Jah Kno, Aug. 14, 9 p.m. Only the classics from the 80's and 90's. $5.  

DJ Smoke One, Element, Aug. 15, 9 p.m. Roots, Rock, Reggae. $5-$10.  

For ages 21 and older. 2284 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 548-1159, www.shattuckdownlow.com.

 

SLEEP TRAIN PAVILION AT CONCORD  

"Mount Diablo Jazz Festival," Aug. 14, 4 p.m. Festival features Tower of Power, George Benson, Natalie Cole, Brian Culbertson, Lucy Woodward and more.  

2000 Kirker Pass Road, Concord. www.livenation.com/.< 

 

STARRY PLOUGH PUB  

The Starry Irish Music Session led by Shay Black, 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  

House of Usher, Aug. 13 and Aug. 14, 8 p.m. $10-$15.  

Your Cannons, Kathleen Dunbar, Kyro, Aug. 18, 9 p.m. Free.  

Jucifer, Tornado Rider, Aug. 20, 9 p.m. $10.  

1928 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. (510) 451-8100, www.uptownnightclub.com.

 

YOSHI'S  

Toumani Diabate and the Symmetric Orchestra, Aug. 13 through Aug. 15, Friday and Saturday, 8 and 10 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7 p.m. $5-$30.  

Alfredo De La Fe, Aug. 18 and Aug. 19, 8 and 10 p.m. $10-$20.  

Patrice Rushen and Friends, Aug. 20 and Aug. 21, Friday and Saturday, 8 and 10 p.m. $30.  

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  

Orquesta Aragon, Aug. 13, 8 p.m. $35-$65.  

UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley. (510) 642-9988.<


Exhibit: Echoes and Fragments by Rene Powell

By Peter Selz
Monday August 09, 2010 - 07:23:00 PM

A small group of innovators in the 1950s in California--Peter Voulkos, John Mason, Paul Soldner, Kenneth Price, Robert Arneson and Stephen de Staebler--began using clay no longer for its utilitarian function, but as a medium to create abstract or figurative sculpture. Called the Clay Revolution. it did not extend to ceramic tiles, which remained in the purely decorative realm. Rene Powell has done pioneering work in a narrative use of clay tiles in a show currently on view at the Doug Adams Gallery in the Bade Museum on the campus of the Graduate Theological Union. Called ECHOES AND FRAGMENTS, they deal with the Holocaust as personal experience. 

Powell's tiles tell the stories of her father, who was rescued from Germany in a British childrens' transport during the War, while her grandparents were last seen in the Jewish ghetto of Lodz, Poland. Searching for more documents in Washington's Holocaust Museum, Rene learned that they were killed. Where, we don't know. 

Using both stoneware clay and paper clay which were fired in wood, raku or gas-fired kilns, she produced compelling tiles which show demolished torah scrolls, Jewish prayer shawls, Stars of David in broken glass. The artist fired the clay at very high temperature, causing it to warp and crack, shards creating metaphors for the literal brokenness, the destruction of the Jews. We see a tile of fractured glass with the caption "Judenrein" ( free of Jews). Another tile, called Grandpa's Treasure shows the menorah which her father carefully packed when boarding the last train leaving Germany after the Kristallnacht. A large ceramic, of a railroad track stands for the cattle cars in which Jews were transported to--or ejected from-the trip to the death camps. A length of actual barbed wire is part of the work which includes clay predatory birds, swastikas, stars of David, and dismembered parts of bodies which were as sculpted, fired, and then welded together, creating a painful work. These are ceramic tiles of deep sorrow, commemorating the Shoah, which the artist made with innovative skill. 


Press Release: Mountain Music Berkeley Style at the 8th Annual Berkeley Old Time Music Convention

From Suzy Thompson
Monday August 09, 2010 - 06:09:00 PM

Fiddles, banjos, ancient ballads and square dancing will take over Berkeley this September, at the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention, with headliners including West Virginia fiddler Jimmy Triplett (former drummer with jam band Donna the Buffalo); 86-year-old mandolin player Kenny Hall in a one-time-only reunion with the Sweets Mill String Band; award-winning North Carolina ballad singer and storyteller Bobby McMillon; resonator guitar goddess Del Rey; and many others. The centerpiece of the festival is the Farmers Market String Band Contest, a free event in Civic Center Park featuring more than 20 different string bands. 

 

Now in its eighth year, the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention has blossomed into a 5-day festival with activities all over Berkeley, including square dances, concerts, films, workshops and other activities, some geared especially towards kids and their families. Pickers, singers and fans of old-time music travel from all over the U.S. for this small, homegrown urban get-together; some have come from as far away as Japan and New Zealand! 

 

This year the convention opens on Weds, Sept. 8 with a square dance at the Niebyl-Proctor Marxist library. Thursday and Friday nights feature concerts at the Freight & Salvage; musicians are invited to show up early for jamming in the lobby. Thursday’s show features West Virginia musicians Jimmy Triplett, Scott Prouty and Andy FitzGibbon; Northwest duet singers Laurel Bliss and Cliff Perry; and festival founder Suzy Thompson exploring the bluesy side of old time music with Seattle’s resonator guitar and ukulele whiz Del Rey. On Friday evening at the Freight, the BOTMC presents the Central Valley’s musical treasure, mandolin master Kenny Hall, accompanied by the musicians who played on his classic early recordings, the Sweets Mill String Band; ballad singing and storytelling by North Carolina’s Bobby McMillon, in his California debut; and the Macrae Sisters, three young women from Portland, Oregon who are expert singers and pickers. On Friday afternoon, a panel discussion at U.C. Berkeley’s Music Building will include three generations of old-time musicians. 

 

On Saturday, free daytime activities include a family concert at the Berkeley Main Branch Library, followed by the youth showcase and string band contest in nearby Civic Center Park. This contest is a low-stress affair—the only real rule is that bands must have at least two members and at least one fiddle or banjo —that’s sponsored by and set up adjacent to the Berkeley Farmer's Market in Civic Center Park. Winners get handfuls of “wooden nickels” redeemable for fresh organic peaches and heirloom tomatoes. The tunes are traditional, but can come from any place on the globe. A multitude of fiddle-banjo bands crank out the purest of hoedowns, but entrants have also played swing, Greek rembetika, Tex-Mex polka, bluegrass, and pan-ethnic political satire – all including at least one fiddle or banjo, of course! The Youth Showcase for the under-18 set gives awards to all the participants, and there are plenty of jam sessions around Civic Center Park where the contest takes place. At 4:00 P.M., the action moves to Pacific Film Archive, with a double feature: the Berkeley premiere of “I Hear What You See”, a documentary film about Kenny Hall by Chris Simon (with live music by Kenny and his band) and “Sprout Wings and Fly”, Les Blank’s 1983 film about the legendary Appalachian musician Tommy Jarrell. In the evening, there's a rollicking square dance party at Ashkenaz, with a welcoming wood-floored hall for all ages, and three bands; all the dances are taught from scratch.  

 

Sunday features master classes taught by the convention’s performers at the Jazzschool, a family dance at Ashkenaz and another free event, the sign-yourself-up “cabaret” at Jupiter, a terraced beer garden and pizzeria. 

 

The 2010 Berkeley Old Time Music Convention runs Wednesday September 8 though Sunday, September 12. For more information, including details on entering the contest and signing up for the cabaret, go to www.berkeleyoldtimemusic.org.  

 

 


Theatre Review: Giddy Trilogy in Summer Rep at Shotgun: Table Manners, (Part One of The Norman Conquests)

by John A. McMullen II
Friday August 06, 2010 - 04:28:00 PM
Richard Reinholdt as Norman, surrounded by the
              ladies who portray his Conquests: Sarah Mitchell,
              Zehra Berkman, and Kendra Lee Oberhauser
Pak Han
Richard Reinholdt as Norman, surrounded by the ladies who portray his Conquests: Sarah Mitchell, Zehra Berkman, and Kendra Lee Oberhauser

Alan Ayckbourn wrote 1970’s British domestic comedy in the midst of the Sexual (pronounce it seks-yoo-all) Revolution, the UK having gone in a decade from “No Sex Please, We’re British,” to a middle-class revisiting of Restoration bawdiness—just like in America. His plays must have been outrageous when first produced. That this form should have recaptured the Tony for best revival of a play last year is odd to me but attests to its durability 

TABLE MANNERS is the first episode of his notable trilogy NORMAN CONQUESTS now playing in rep at SHOTGUN PLAYERS. It is a family weekend (pronounce it week-END) with three siblings, two spouses, and a diffident boyfriend dining on scant victuals and attacking one another’s habits and character.  

Where does the Norman in THE NORMAN CONQUESTS come in? Richard Reinholdt as Norman is an impish rapscallion in leopard print pyjamas who is the kept husband of one sister and seducer past and future of the other women.  

Norman is a Don Juan ala Alan Alda, a touchy-feely expressive fellow, concerned about “your emotional state” in a world of stiff-upper lips, a role he plays to get laid—which was one of the greatest hits and stratagems of the 70’s, as all you then-bearded lotharios and willing damsels will recall.  

It is funny in situation with an occasional funny line, but the comedy comes from character and from recognizable situations—like the hysterical dust-up over a bossy sister-in-law telling everyone where to sit at the dinner table, which could be droll in lesser hands, but these accomplished actors’ execution of it brought belly-laughs. The players are first class, and have believable Received dialects which they inhabit rather than allowing the pronunciation to become the character. At the end of the first act, I thought better comedians were needed, but by the end of the play, the cast had found their rhythms and personae and disabused me of this criticism.  

They work as an ensemble as is the custom of Shotgun productions. They attend to one another, clean up one another’s spills, address one another in profile, and act upon one another without that self-consciousness that interferes with good acting. Notable are Zehra Berkman as Annie, the put-on spinster sister who stays behind to take care of her ailing mum; her pretty yet funny face and expressions reveal pathos and comedy simultaneously implying nuances far beyond the dialogue. Sarah Mitchell (Ruth) effectively plays her sister and Norman’s wife as a nasal-intoning, blasé castrator with a quick tongue and Siamese cat eyes. Josiah Polhemus (Tom) plays the local vet and Annie’s ineffectual and reluctant beau, convincing us of his clueless boyishness in a creative and quirky solo scene of dumb-show in which he toys with the breakfast leftovers. Mick Mize as brother Reg is the good bloke if put-upon husband and is well-cast since he has the same curly hair and rounded features as Annie. Kendra Lee Oberhauser as high-strung and officious sister-in-law Sarah includes every high-pitched Type A personality characteristic of your real life counterpart but with the snottiness that the British have a corner on, which makes her turn-about so delicious. Mr. Reinholdt rises to the acting challenge of carrying an extended monologue of well over five minutes when the others refuse to speak to him at breakfast.  

The set by Nina Ball is appropriately middle-class shabby as a family home assumedly decorated by mum decades before, replete with mahogany wainscoting, yellow wallpaper, 20 framed prints featuring a Georgian horseshow, a china closet full of willow pattern. Stage center is a window overlooking and unseen garden (the next installment is “Round and Round the Garden”) from which see which a gray English sky. The window and window seat are surrounded by well-worn sheer draperies. The centerpiece is the dining table around which the consternation occurs. Details like unmatched wine glasses resonate realistically. 

The costumes by Valera Coble are very 70’s with double breasted jackets and wide ties with tie tacks, plaid pants, baggy sweaters, old military uniforms, corals and blue prints and chiffons for the ladies; the hairdos alone will transport you in time. 

The expository first scene is bit static in its staging, thus slow to jumpstart the comedy. Once out of the starting block, the play is astonishingly well directed by Joy Carlin. A lifelong actress, Ms. Carlin is able to get exceptional acting from these exceptional actors. Every beat and intention is clear, there is moment-to-moment real interaction, the tempos of the scenes are distinct and apt. The director has led the actors to grand discoveries in the difficult terrain of putting an super-realistic spin on the foibles of domesticity and thereby making it funnier than the usual enacting. Details such as having the table set in fits and starts throughout the first act rather than as one action are inspired. My compliments to her funny twist on the scene change: my hackles arose when a young blonde woman in black tech-wear and head-set entered in low light to change the set; however, her antics in changing the set brought laughter and applause.  

All three chapters of this trilogy are being played in repertory through September 5 with the same cast. It’s a worthwhile venture that leaves you a little giddy and wanting to know what happens next. 

THE NORMAN CONQUESTS: Table Manners 

Presented by Shotgun Players, Patrick Dooley, artistic director 

At Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley (at Martin Luther King Jr. Way) across from Ashby BART station.  

 

TABLE MANNERS plays Aug 21 @ 4pm, Aug 25 @ 8pm, Aug 28 @ 4pm, Aug 29 @ 1pm, 

Sep 1 @ 8pm, Sep 4 @ 4pm, and Sep 5 @ 1pm. Entire trilogy in repertory through September 5. 

Tickets/info www.shotgunplayers.org or 510-841-6500 ext. 303. 

n by Alan Ayckbourn, directed by Joy Carlin, set by Nina Ball, costumes by Valera Coble, sound by Madeline Oldham, and lighting by Masha Tsimring.  

With: Zehra Berkman (Annie), Sarah Mitchell (Ruth), Mick Mize (Reg), 

Kendra Lee Oberhauser (Sarah), Josiah Polhemus (Tom), and Richard Reinholdt (Norman).


Theater Review: Broadway Bound at Chanticleers Theatre

By Ken Bullock
Monday August 09, 2010 - 08:11:00 PM

"God, tell me an idea that makes you laugh ... "--Patrick Baresi as Stanley Jerome, is down on his knees, praying for a joke, a funny idea for a sketch that may propel him and his brother Eugene (Brady Woolery) out of the family home at Brighton Beach to Manhattan, a few miles away, and success in that new fount of entertainment, television. Or radio, at least ... 

But it's at home where the brothers pick up the comedy, from their straight-faced extended family—mother Kate (Sue Trigg), seldom-seen father Jack (Chris Chapman) and grandfather Ben (Kip Wixson)—and the family's on the verge of scattering, too, in Neil Simon's semi-autobiographical play, Broadway Bound, going into its final weekend at Chanticleers Theatre in Castro Valley, just a few miles away, over the hill.. The Chanticleers production's been selling out, and it's easy to see why. 

Director Marty Nemko of Oakland, UC Berkeley grad and former faculty member, has declared Broadway Bound his favorite play. Nemko played the father in a San Francisco production just a few years back. Concentrating on the life of the family as expressed by each of the five family members—as well as Kate's sister, Ben's other daughter Blanche (Karol Stremke)—the show reveals their different perspectives—and different humors—moving from comedy to seriousness, and back to amusement briskly. 

The Jeromes are coming apart at the seams. Grandfather Ben, an old socialist, lives apart from his wife, preferring to be alone in his room, contemplating Trotsky. Blanche, who's married up to Park Avenue, tries to reunite her parents—in retirement in Florida. And Kate and Ben hardly speak, Kate suspecting Ben of having an affair. 

Meanwhile, Stanley and Eugene plot their success—and their escape—while reacting archly to family life, mining it for its idiosyncratic, unintentional humor all the while.  

‘Chris Chapman and Sue Trigg (who directed several of Altarena Playhouse’s—and the Bay Area's—best shows in the past few years) are, in real life, husband and wife. Their scenes together are close studies of connubial understanding and misunderstanding, tension and directness. Alone with other family members, the tension and the directness take on a different character. A high point's Kate's umpty-umph recital, this time acted out in full, of her great triumph, having danced one night with George Raft. Eugene, who narrates the play straight across to the audience, is her instigator and accomplice, revealing a touching moment amid the war of attrition. 

Kip Wixson puts in a great turn as old Ben, playing the curmudgeon, but still the heart and soul of the family's humanity, its ethical arbiter. 

Marty Nemko's direction brings out the tenderness as well as the domestic madness of these real characters, in the vernacular sense of the word. He also regales the audience before the show with a set on piano: "My Funny Valentine," "The A Train," even a Joan Castle tribute. Marty's even got a mean pitch—but enough of that ... 

This is top notch community theater, a bargain ($15-$18) for an evening out, with a production featuring a fine ensemble, good production values (costumes by Lisa Danz, lighting design by Rob Ramsey and Kayvon Haghighi, set and theatrical consultation by John McMullen, who also reviews for the Planet), and a homey atmosphere, a delightful break from business—even show business—as usual. 

 

Chanticleers Theatre: 3983 Quail Ave., in Castro Valley Community Park, off Lake Chabot Drive, Castro Valley, 

(510) 733-5483; www.chanticleers.org 


Don't Miss This: The Rap Scene Squared

By Dorothy Snodgrass
Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 10:56:00 AM

As a living personification of the term "Square", I'm understandably not a devotee of rap music. Nonetheless, I'm endlessly fascinated by the highly imaginative and fanciful names of these musical groups. Most of my scholarly research on this academic subject is derived from the East Bay Express, which I pick up every Wednesday from a nearby news rack that stands next to the empty, greatly lamented Berkeley Daily Planet news rack. 

Leafing through the Express, I catch up on such groups as the Mighty Underdogs, The Gift of Gab, The Memphis Murdermen and the Oakland Faders. To my disappointment I discover that the above musicians, sponsored by Amoebe Music, performed this past weekend at Jack London Square Waterfront. Likewise, I missed the Stripmall Architechture (no, that's not a misspelling) and the Heavenly States at the Uptown on Telegraph Avenue 

Not to worry -- I can still catch The Grouch on August 12th at Shattuck Down Low in downtown Berkeley. And, happily, there's the 10th Anniversary Oakland Showcase on August 21 and 22, featuring the very popular musicians John Handy and Pete Escovedo. For this you have to pay admission: $10 for adults, $5 for seniors/youths. Money well spent 

Not forgetting the LGBTQ Oakland Pride program on September 5th, there'll be all kinds of hip-hop, R&B, Jazz, Electronic and more. This Diversity in Action show will take place on Labor Day Weekend at the Uptown, 19th and Franklin Streets. 

Another treat for Rap and R&B fans is the Outside Lands Program in Golden Gate Park this Saturday and Sunday, August 14-15, which will be reigned over by Kings of Leon and other groups such as Stoopid, Social Distortion and The Temper Trap. These programs will be shown on four different stages: Lands End, Sutro, Panhandle Solar and Twin Peaks. Public transportation is advised; take Muni #28 to 19th Avenue at the Park. 

With such a wealth of Rap music opportunities, it's obvious that summer in the Bay Area is going out with a bang!


Restoration Comedy: Perhaps They Should Change the Name To HAMPer

By Jane Powell
Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 10:43:00 AM

After my trip to Washington DC, and the promise that there might be a reply from Fannie Mae regarding my loan modification in as little as a week, what have I heard? Nothing. Well, not entirely nothing. A letter arrived from GMAC requesting letters from all my tenants detailing how much they pay me and how often. I guess the signed rental agreements that contain this exact same information were not sufficient. So they all wrote the letters, and I faxed them to every fax number I had- the one in the letter, the one I had for the representative I talked to in DC, as well as to NACA. No doubt they will have claimed to have never received them. Probably I should FEDEX them so someone will actually have to sign. Not that they wouldn’t “lose” them after that. 

There had been two e-mails from the representative, saying she needed to talk to me. I called and left a voicemail. I called her cell, but that mailbox was full. She never called back, nor did she respond to my email. So much for the advantage of having an actual person. 

In the meantime I’ve been reading more of the HAMP fine print. It’s astounding how it was written to help the banks and not the homeowner. For instance, if by some miracle you actually get a permanent modification, it will come with an escrow account for taxes and insurance, because you are obviously a deadbeat who can’t be trusted with money. 

In the same way that withholding taxes from your paycheck (assuming you are one of the lucky ones who still has a paycheck) allows the government the use of your money all year until you maybe get some of it back after April 15, an escrow account requires you to pay monthly for things which are only due once or twice a year, so the bank gets the use of that money in the meantime. This might even be okay if they only collected the actual amount of the taxes and insurance, but no, they collect more. Escrow accounts are a profit center for the banks. 

Furthermore, although the lender collects the money and is supposed to pay the taxes and insurance when they come due, it remains your responsibility to pay them, and unless you keep on top of the lender, they often fail to do so or pay them late, and who pays the penalty for that? Yup, the homeowner. 

Meanwhile, I decided to rent out another room- the spare bedroom where I store my tools and equipment, since I don’t have a garage, and only a partial basement. So the tools and supplies are now in the basement, on shelves which have to be raised up on bricks since the basement gets wet in the winter. To say I’m a little cranky about this would be rather an understatement. 

There’s a rumor going around via Reuters that the White House will order Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to forgive part of the principal on millions of the mortgages they hold. Supposedly there’s a meeting at Treasury on August 17th regarding Fannie and Freddie- Treasury has basically promised them unlimited money. It would be lovely if this turned out to be true, but then, we were promised other things- you know, a public option, closing of Guantanamo, suspension of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, re-regulation of the financial system… and none of that has come to pass. Let’s just say I’ll believe in the “Principal Forgiveness Sparkle Pony” when it waltzes into my living room in all its rainbow-haired glory. And a signed and notarized document in my hand. 

Jane Powell writes for the Planet whenever she feels like it, and perhaps someday will go back to writing about old houses and such. She can be reached at hsedressng@aol.com, and catch her in person next weekend at the SF Arts and Crafts Show at the Concourse (8th and Brannan).


Berkeley's Historic Thorsen House, Now A Fraternity, Open To View on Saturday

By Steven Finacom
Monday August 09, 2010 - 10:55:00 PM
The Thorsen House main façade faces Piedmont Avenue.
Steven Finacom
The Thorsen House main façade faces Piedmont Avenue.
The main entrance features intricately crafted wood and art class windows.
Steven Finacom
The main entrance features intricately crafted wood and art class windows.
The original front facade of the Wall House, today at 2234 Piedmont, which
              was built around the same time as the Thorsen House and just two lots to the north.
Steven Finacom
The original front facade of the Wall House, today at 2234 Piedmont, which was built around the same time as the Thorsen House and just two lots to the north.

Though far apart geographically, Berkeley and Pasadena have some interesting commonalities. Both are home to gigantic early 20th century football stadiums where UC teams play, both have a long history of distinguished community theater, and are known for the quality of their residential neighborhoods. 

In addition, each town has a lavish Arts & Crafts home, a so-called “ultimate bungalow”, designed by the Greene Brothers in the early 20th century. Although Pasadena’s bungalow, the Gamble House, is better known, Berkeley’s counterpart, the Thorsen House, is pretty darn nice on its own and is also the larger of the two. 

The brown shingle Thorsen House stands at 2307 Piedmont Avenue at Bancroft Way, right across the street from International House.  

This coming Saturday, August 14, 2010, from 5 to 9 pm, a fundraising event gives the public the opportunity to see the inside of this remarkable structure and hear two leading Arts & Crafts scholars speak about the history and context. There will be wine and food and the opportunity to look around the house.  

The event is coordinated with the 16th Annual San Francisco Arts & Crafts Exposition, taking place the same weekend. 

The Thorsen House was designed and built in 1908 by Henry Mather Greene and Charles Summer Greene who had a Southern California design firm famous for its lavish interpretation and execution of the Arts & Crafts aesthetic.  

The clients, wealthy lumberman William Thorsen and his wife, selected a site on Piedmont Way (now Avenue) in what was then a fashionable district of large private homes interspersed with privately operated student residences. When the Thorsen House was built, the neighborhood was a relatively quiet upscale enclave. 

Piedmont ended a block north of the house—Gayley Road did not yet directly extend across the UC campus to Northside—the campus itself was a block to the northwest, and Memorial Stadium and International House had not yet been built. There were no UC residence halls, and the fraternities and sororities which now densely populate the neighborhood were, in that era, more dispersed and intermixed with family homes on both north and south sides of the campus. 

For years the Thorsens were prominent in local civic and social affairs. Their home was a setting for receptions, weddings, and club meetings, and the Society pages of the local papers were full of the memberships, activities, affiliations, and doings of the Thorsens. 

The Thorsen House still exudes a single-family residential feel, with a manicured landscape, two iron entry arches, and curved brick staircases ascending through the front garden to a wide front porch and what may be the most magnificent door ensemble in Berkeley, an intricate mix of art glass and glowing wood. 

The interior of the house also gleams with beautiful woodwork, built with the skill and detail usually devoted to a fine piece of hand-made furniture. There are Japanesque overtones in both the style and execution of the woodwork. The large rooms spill into each other and out into a rear garden enfolded by the “L” shaped structure.  

It is one of the most beautiful and impressive residential interiors in Berkeley. 

The Sigma Phi fraternity—originally located a half block down Bancroft Way, where the Law School complex now stands—bought the Thorsen House in 1942 and has used the house ever since. The fraternity chapter is closely attached to the building; members regularly work on restoration projects, and the building is kept in immaculate condition inside and out. 

Many upgrades have been accomplished in recent years. There are, however, major renovations still needed, including seismic strengthening.  

The event this Saturday—described as an “open house and evening social”—will raise some immediate funds for those future projects and also launch what Sigma Phi hopes will be a successful “Save The Thorsen House” restoration campaign. 

The event features two speakers, who will start their remarks around 6:00 PM.  

Robert Judson Clark is a gem of an architectural scholar. Retired from the faculty at Princeton University and a long time resident of the Bay Area, he’s a font of information on art as well as California architectural movements and an expert at relating our local trends—from Berkeley brown shingle to Beaux Arts UC campus buildings--to broader traditions. 

Edward “Ted” Bosley is the Director of the Gamble House in Pasadena, and thus one of the more experienced and knowledgeable experts on Greene & Greene. He’s also closely connected to the Thorsen House. He discovered the Greenes when he was a student at Cal and lived in the building.  

In 1996 he organized a summer exhibit at the Thorsen House that temporarily brought back some of the original, custom-designed furnishings, now owned by USC, and displayed them in situ for visitors. 

There are a limited number of tickets available for this Saturday’s event. The minimum donation requested is $30 per person. View the invitation and the instructions for purchasing a ticket here . The Thorsen House also has a general website .  

As of Monday, spaces were still available but James Dong, one of the organizers, tells me that people should sign up soon. You can do so through the website. 

If you are driving, Sunday parking is free at street meters and curbside in the vicinity, but the streets are usually parked up. The closest parking in UC lots is two blocks down Bancroft Way beneath tennis courts across from the Art Museum, or further uphill, behind the Law School.  

Access the latter by driving to the north end of Piedmont Avenue adjacent to Memorial Stadium, making a “U” turn around the median island then a sharp right turn into the campus, and another immediate left turn into a downhill roadway past a cylindrical building (Calvin Laboratory).  

In both UC lots make sure to watch for special parking signs and restrictions and purchase a parking pass at one of the pedestal ticket vending machines. 

If you come to the event on Saturday and park in that lot behind the Law School, you’ll probably walk by a nearby brown shingle house—now 2234 Piedmont—that has a curious relationship to the Thorsen House. 

About the same time the Thorsen House was being designed and built, William C. Hays, a member of the Architecture faculty at Cal, was designing a shingle-style home for Dr. Benjamin P. Wall just two doors north of it on the same side of Piedmont Avenue.  

The Wall House stood where the front steps and lobby of International House are located today, just a stone’s throw north of the corner where the Thorsen House stands. While I-House now occupies the site, the Wall House itself survives, half a block north and on the other side of the street on what is now the central campus of the University.  

When the University bought the I-House site for development in the late 1920s Dr. Wall apparently negotiated an intriguing solution to the pending loss of his home. His house was not demolished but, instead, moved up the street and onto a vacant lot at the 2234 address; he seems to have continued living there until his death. 

Perhaps because it was a long narrow structure being moved along a curved street, or maybe to spare the cost of building a large new basement under the ‘wrong’ end of the house on the sloping site, the Wall House was not turned around when it reached its new lot but inserted “backwards”. That is, the west façade that once faced Piedmont Avenue and the magnificent view down Bancroft Way now faces downhill into the UC campus. The old dining room and kitchen, once at the rear of the house, now adjoin the street. 

After Dr. Wall died, the house served as the home and studio of Mrs. Florida Parrish Moyle, a noted music teacher. After she died, her daughter moved to the house with her husband, William Denny, a Cal music professor. They lived there with their family, renting from the University, until 1958 until they were asked to leave and the building was converted to office uses; it remains University offices today. 

The Thorsen House and Wall House have several similarities: both two stories but still largely horizontal / linear in character, both intricately shingled and with extensive interior woodwork, both resolutely Arts & Crafts in style, and both with distinctive second floor bedroom balconies perched on top of first floor window bays. 

Did Hays and the Greene Brothers have any interaction during the design process for the two houses? Or were they simply talented designers working coincidently near each other in a then-popular style? Did the Thorsens know Dr. Wall, their neighbor on Piedmont? Intriguing questions that add some texture to the already rich story of the Thorsen House. 

 

For more information on Greene & Greene, see the Greene & Greene virtual archive

 


Exhibits-San Francisco Through August 22

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:31:00 PM

"SUN SPHERES," -- "Sun Spheres'' is a trio of mosaic sculptures by artist Laurel True at the intersection of Ocean and Granada Avenues in the OMI District of San Francisco. 

(415) 252-2551, www.sfartscommission.org/pubart.< 

 

AIA SAN FRANCISCO  

OPENING -- "Water for a Sustainable City," through Oct. 29. Exhibit explores the development of San Francisco's water system through the lens of architecture and design.  

Free. Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. 130 Sutter St., # 600, San Francisco. (415) 362-7397, www.aiasf.org.

 

CONSERVATORY OF FLOWERS The Victorian landmark has 1,500 species including rare and beautiful tropical plants from 50 countries. Exhibits include Highland Tropics, the Aquatic Plants, Lowland Tropics, Potted Plants and the new Special Exhibits gallery. Opened in 1879, the wood and glass greenhouse is the oldest existing conservatory in the Western Hemisphere. 

"Chomp 2! Return of the Carnivorous Plants," through Oct. 31. Special exhibition of carnivorous plants features living plants and activities for families.  

$5 general; $3 seniors, students and youth ages 12-17; $1.50 children ages 5-11; free for ages 4 and under; free first Tuesdays. Tuesday-Sunday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. John F. Kennedy Drive, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. (415) 666-7001, www.conservatoryofflowers.org.

 

EVENING GALLERY WALKS These monthly evening gallery walks or "crawls'' are a way to learn about art for the casual viewer without the intimidation of visiting a gallery with no one else around. Generally the galleries are filled on the "walk'' evenings with people drinking wine and talking. Gallery owners are happy to answer questions about the art on view. The important thing to remember is that it is free to gaze and drink. 

"First Thursday," 5:30-8 p.m. Generally some 20 galleries participate in this monthly evening of open galleries. Many are located around Union Square. Some of the galleries that participate on a regular basis are Pasquale Iannetti Gallery, Caldwell Snyder Gallery, and Hackett-Freedman Gallery, all on Sutter Street; Meyerovich Gallery and Dolby Chadwick Gallery on Post Street; and Rena Bransten Gallery and Stephen Wirtz Gallery on Geary Street. Sponsored by the San Francisco Art Dealers Association. First Thursday of the month. Free.  

San Francisco. < 

 

GIANT ROBOT  

OPENING-- "Hot Pink Fuzz," Aug. 14 through Sept. 8. Featuring works from artists Monyomonyo, Miss Muju, and Snaggs, this show is focused on all felt and sewn art pieces. Opening reception, August 14, 6:30 p.m.  

618 Schrader St., San Francisco. (415) 876-4773, www.gr-sf.com.< 

 

HOTEL DES ARTS The boutique 51-room art hotel in Union Square features an art gallery by Start SOMA. 

"Painted Rooms," An exhibit of painted rooms in the hotel by emerging artists.  

Free. Daily, 8 a.m.-11 p.m. 447 Bush St., San Francisco. (415) 956-4322, www.sfhoteldesarts.com.

 

JAZZ HERITAGE CENTER  

"The Art of Michael Rios," through Aug. 22. Features a Rios retrospective and a tribute to Miles Davis and Carlos Santana.  

1320 Fillmore Street, San Francisco. < 

 

JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF SAN FRANCISCO  

"The Digital Liberation of G-d," A permanent interactive media installation created by New York-based artist Helene Aylon, which examines the influences of patriarchal attitudes upon Jewish traditions and sacred texts.  

Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m.; Saturday, 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. 3200 California St., San Francisco. (415) 292-1200, Box Office: (415) 292-1233, www.jccsf.org.

 

MILTON MARKS CONFERENCE CENTER  

"Local Color," through Oct. 10. Works by 27 artists from the Peninsula Chapter of the Women's Caucus for Art.  

455 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco. < 

 

RAYKO PHOTO CENTER  

"(Por)trait Revealed," through Sept. 10. Works by Hiroyo Kaneko, Mark Menjivar, Fritz Liedtke and others.  

Free. Tuesday-Thursday, noon-10 p.m.; Friday-Sunday, noon to 8 p.m. 428 Third St., San Francisco. (415) 495-3773, www.raykophoto.com.

 

SAN FRANCISCO ART INSTITUTE  

"Pure Consciousness at 19 Kindergartens," through Sept. 18. Works by On Kawara.  

Free unless noted otherwise. Lecture Hall, 800 Chestnut St., San Francisco. (415) 771-7020, www.sfai.edu/.< 

 

SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY, BAYVIEW-ANNA E. WADEN BRANCH  

"Bayview's Historical Footprints," A permanent photographic exhibition celebrating the diverse history of Bayview Hunters Point featuring multimedia oral histories from community elders.  

Free. Monday, Tuesday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Wednesday, 1 p.m.-8 p.m.; Thursday, 1 p.m.-7 p.m.; Friday, 1 p.m.-6 p.m. 5075 Third St., San Francisco. (415) 355-5757, www.sfpl.org.

 

SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY, MAIN BRANCH  

"Digging Deep: Underneath San Francisco Public Library," Exhibition collects archaeological remains from the Gold Rush-era cemetery and the ruins of old City Hall destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.  

"Hand Bookbinders of California 38th Anniversary Exhibition," through Aug. 15. Exhibition features work of professional bookbinders, as well as amateurs and students of the art and craft of hand bookbinding.  

Free. Monday and Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Tuesday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-8 p.m.; Friday, noon-6 p.m.; Sunday, noon-5 p.m. 100 Larkin St., San Francisco. (415) 557-4400, www.sfpl.org.

 

YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS The center's visual arts exhibitions feature contemporary art and popular culture by local, national and international artists. There are four rounds of exhibitions in the galleries each year. 

"The Bowls Project: Secrets of the Apocalyptic Intimate," through Aug. 22. An interactive sound sculpture/immersive performance installation by Jewlia Eisenberg and Charming Hostess.  

"PlayCRAFT: A Game of Your Design," through Oct. 3. Create your own design object as you explore the "TechnoCRAFT'' exhibition.  

"Something from Nothing: Films on Design and Architecture," through Sept. 5. Jul. 25, 2 p.m.: "Wow and Flutter.''  

Aug. 1, 2 p.m.: "The Greening of Southie.''  

Aug. 15, 2 p.m.: "Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner.''  

Aug. 22, 2 p.m.: "Rem Koolhaas: A Kind of Architect.''  

Aug. 29, 2 p.m.: "The Visual Language of Herbert Matter.''  

Sept. 5, 2 p.m.: "Handmade Nation.''  

$3-$6; free the first Tuesday of every month. Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday, noon-5 p.m.; Thursday-Saturday, noon-8 p.m. 701 Mission St., San Francisco. (415) 978-2787, www.ybca.org.<


Exhibits-East Bay Through August 22

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:30:00 PM

CARMEN FLORES RECREATION CENTER  

"El Corazon de la Communidad: The Heart of the Community", Painted by Joaquin Alejandro Newman, this mural installation consists of four 11-foot panels that mix ancient Meso-American and contemporary imagery to pay homage to local activists Carmen Flores and Josie de la Cruz.  

Free unless otherwise noted. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. 1637 Fruitvale Ave., Oakland. (510) 535-5631.< 

 

DAVID BROWER CENTER  

"Water, Rivers and People/ Agua, Rios y Pueblos," through Aug. 31. Exhibition depicts those who are fighting to defend rivers and the people who depend on them.  

2150 Allston Way, Berkeley. < 

 

FRANK BETTE CENTER FOR THE ARTS  

OPENING -- "2010 Alameda Plein Air Painout Exhibit," through Aug. 28. Plein air artists display their work.  

Free. Wednesday and Friday-Sunday, 10:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; Thursday, 10:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m. 1601 Paru St., Alameda. (510) 523-6957, www.frankbettecenter.org.

 

JOHANSSON PROJECTS  

OPENING -- "Between Currencies," through Sept. 11. Works by Erik Parra.  

OPENING -- "Some Math," through Sept. 11. Works by Jana Flynn and Jill Gallenstein.  

Free. Thursday-Saturday, noon-6 p.m. 2300 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. (510) 444-9140, www.johanssonprojects.com.

 

LAWRENCE HALL OF SCIENCE  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"NanoZone," 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," 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," 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," 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," 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," Play some of the world's most popular math games, such as Hex, Kalah, Game Sticks and Shongo Networks.  

"Math Rules," Use simple and colorful objects to complete interesting challenges in math through predicting, sorting, comparing, weighing and counting.  

"Kapla," The hands-on exhibit features thousands of versatile building blocks that can be used to build very large, high and stable structures and models of bridges, buildings, animals or anything else your mind can conceive.  

$6-$12; 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 --  

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

$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.< 

 

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ART AND DISABILITIES  

"Word Play," through Aug. 20. NIAD artists manipulate and repeat letters to create their own language, transform words into hybrid forms, utilize captions to tell a story, or their autograph can become a focal point of their work.  

551 23rd St., Richmond. (510) 620-0290, www.niadart.org.

 

OAKLAND ASIAN CULTURAL CENTER  

"Oakland's 19th-Century San Pablo Avenue Chinatown," A permanent exhibit of new findings about the rediscovered Chinatown on San Pablo Avenue. The exhibit aims to inform visitors about the upcoming archaeological work planned to explore the lives of early Chinese pioneers in the 1860s.  

Free. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Pacific Renaissance Plaza, 388 Ninth St., Suite 290, Oakland. (510) 637-0455, www.oacc.cc.

 

OAKLAND INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT  

"Going Away, Coming Home," A 160-foot public art installation by Mills College art professor Hung Liu. Liu hand painted 80 red-crowned cranes onto 65 panels of glass that were then fired, tempered and paired with background panes that depict views of a satellite photograph, ranging from the western United States to the Asia Pacific Area. Terminal 2.  

Free. Daily, 24 hours, unless otherwise noted. Oakland International Airport, 1 Airport Drive, Oakland. (510) 563-3300, www.flyoakland.com.

 

ORINDA LIBRARY  

OPENING -- "Its Own Nothingness," through Aug. 31. Works by Wenda Pyman.  

24 Orinda Way, Orinda. (925) 254-2184.< 

 

RICHMOND ART CENTER  

"Innovations in Contemporary Crafts," through Aug. 21. Juried exhibition features works by 30 San Francisco Bay Area artists.  

Free. Tuesday-Sunday, noon-5 p.m. 2540 Barrett Ave., Richmond. (510) 620-6772, www.therichmondartcenter.org.

 

WOMEN'S CANCER RESOURCE CENTER  

"Benny's Garden," through Sept. 3. Works by Benny Alba, Jen Downey, Anna Edwards, Jeremy Qwan and L. Hickox Robinson.  

5471 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. <


Highlights-East Bay Through August 22

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:28:00 PM

"BRAINWASH MOVIE FESTIVAL," -- through Aug. 14. A festival showcasing unique, independent movies from around the world, 22 shorts and one feature. Festival takes place at Mandela Village Arts Center, 1357 5th St., Oakland. 

$10, $40 for a festival pass.Aug. 7, 13, and 14, 9 p.m.www.brainwashm.com .< 

"DOWNTOWN BERKELEY MUSICFEST," -- Aug. 20 through Aug. 29. More than 50 performances will take place at 11 different venues across Berkeley's Downtown Arts District, with bands and artists such as The Blasters, Terence Brewer Trio, Dawn Drake, Turtle Island Quartet, Mark Hummel and more. Visit website for complete lineup and locations. 

www.downtownberkeleymusicfest.org.

 

924 GILMAN ST. -- All ages welcome. 

Fang, Oppressed Logic, Sex Offenders, Hewhocannotbenamed, Gutwrench, Aug. 13, 7:30 p.m. $10.  

$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.

 

A GREAT GOOD PLACE FOR BOOKS  

Jack Boulware, Aug. 18, 7 p.m. The author discusses "Gimme Something Better: The Profound, Progressive, and Occasionally Pointless History of Bay Area Punk from Dead Kennedys to Green Day.''  

6120 LaSalle Ave., Oakland. (510) 339-8210, www.ggpbooks.com.

 

ARDENWOOD HISTORIC FARM Ardenwood farm is a working farm that dates back to the time of the Patterson Ranch, a 19th-century estate with a mansion and Victorian Gardens. Today, the farm still practices farming techniques from the 1870s. Unless otherwise noted, programs are free with regular admission.  

ONGOING PROGRAMS --  

"Blacksmithing," Thursday, Friday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Watch a blacksmith turn iron into useful tools.  

"Horse-Drawn Train," Thursday, Friday and Sunday. A 20-minute ride departs from Ardenwood Station and Deer Park.  

"Animal Feeding," Thursday-Sunday, 3-4 p.m. Help slop the hogs, check the henhouse for eggs and bring hay to the livestock.  

"Victorian Flower Arranging," Thursday, 10:15-11:30 a.m. Watch as Ardenwood docents create floral works of art for display in the Patterson House.  

"Cajun Zydeco Festival," Aug. 21, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Enjoy the best in Cajun/Zydeco music, dancing, and delicious food. Visit with farm animals, take a train, and listen to live music from the Pine Leaf Boys. $2-$20.  

$1-$5; free children under age 4. Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 34600 Ardenwood Blvd., Fremont. (510) 796-0199, (510) 796-0663, www.ebparks.org.

 

FRANK OGAWA PLAZA  

"Art and Soul Oakland Festival," Aug. 21 and Aug. 22, Noon-6 p.m. Enjoy the finest art and food that the Bay Area has to offer while listening to the sounds of artists such as CAKE, MC Hammer, En Vogue, Pete Escovedo and more. $5-$10, children 12 and under are free. www.artandsouloakland.com. 

14th Street and Broadway, Oakland. < 

 

LESHER CENTER FOR THE ARTS  

"Diablo Symphony, 20th Anniversary of the Lesher Center," Aug. 14, 8 p.m. Joyce Johnson Hamilton conducts the orchestra and performers from the Diablo Theatre Company in a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Lesher Center for the Arts. The concert will include music from five top Broadway shows, including "Les Miserables,'' and tributes to Steven Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber. $25-$37. (925) 943-7469, www.diablosymphony.org. 

1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. (925) 943-7469, www.lesherartscenter.com.

 

MARTINEZ REGIONAL SHORELINE  

"Scene On The Straight 2010," Aug. 14, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. A unique festival that combines fine art with helping young people and saving the environment. Visitors will be able to watch as artists set up along the waterfront and paint the landscapes. Art auctions will be held, fine food will be available and a jazz trio will provide live music. Free. (510) 787-9772, www.sceneonthestraight.org. 

Daily, 5 a.m.-10 p.m. unless otherwise posted or permitted. North end of Ferry Street, Martinez. (510) 562-PARK.< 

 

MOE'S BOOKS  

Neal Pollack, Aug. 20, 7:30 p.m. The author discusses his memoir "Stretch: The Unlikely Making of a Yoga Dude.''  

10 a.m.-11 p.m. daily. 2476 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley. (510) 849-2087, www.moesbooks.com.

 

MRS. DALLOWAY'S  

Mary Roach, Aug. 20, 7:30 p.m. The author discusses "Packing For Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void.''  

2904 College Avenue, Berkeley. (510) 704-8222.< 

 

SLEEP TRAIN PAVILION AT CONCORD  

"Mount Diablo Jazz Festival," Aug. 14, 4 p.m. Festival features Tower of Power, George Benson, Natalie Cole, Brian Culbertson, Lucy Woodward and more.  

2000 Kirker Pass Road, Concord. www.livenation.com/.< 

 

YOSHI'S  

Patrice Rushen and Friends, Aug. 20 and Aug. 21, Friday and Saturday, 8 and 10 p.m. $30.  

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  

Orquesta Aragon, Aug. 13, 8 p.m. $35-$65.  

UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley. (510) 642-9988.<


Dance-East Bay Through August 22

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:31:00 PM

ASHKENAZ  

"Danceversity World Dance Camp 2010," through Aug. 20, Monday-Friday, Aug.2-6, Aug. 9-13, Aug. 16-20, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. A series of week-long dance camps designed to give children the unique opportunity to explore how people around the world express themselves through dance. $170-$340. www.danceversity.com. 

1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. (510) 525-5054, www.ashkenaz.com.

 

ELKS LODGE, ALAMEDA  

"All You Can Dance Sunday Socials," Sunday, 4-6 p.m. Marilyn Bowe and Robert Henneg presents monthly socials with ballroom, swing, Latin and rock & roll themes. www.dancewithme.info. 

2255 Santa Clara Ave., Alameda. (510) 864-2256.< 

 

LA PENA CULTURAL CENTER  

"Ballroom Dancing," through Aug. 16, Jul. 26, Aug. 9 and 16. Free ballroom dances classes are held during the afternoons.  

"Domingos de Rumba," Aug. 1 and Aug. 15, 3:30 p.m. Community participatory event features drums, dancing and the songs of rumba.  

free. 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 849-2568, www.lapena.org.

 

SHATTUCK DOWN LOW  

"Live Salsa," 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.  

For ages 21 and older. 2284 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 548-1159, www.shattuckdownlow.com.

 

SOLAD DANCE CENTER  

"Persian Dance," Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:30 and 10 p.m. Rosa Rojas offers traditional dance classes. $10.  

Citrus Marketplace, 2260 Oak Grove Rd., Walnut Creek. (925) 938-3300.< 

 

STARRY PLOUGH PUB  

"Ceili and Dance," Traditional Irish music and dance. The evening begins with a dance lesson at 7 p.m. followed by music at 9 p.m. Mondays, 7 p.m. Free.  

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.<


General-East Bay Through August 22

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:28:00 PM

"BRAINWASH MOVIE FESTIVAL," -- through Aug. 14. A festival showcasing unique, independent movies from around the world, 22 shorts and one feature. Festival takes place at Mandela Village Arts Center, 1357 5th St., Oakland. 

$10, $40 for a festival pass.Aug. 7, 13, and 14, 9 p.m.www.brainwashm.com .< 

 

ARDENWOOD HISTORIC FARM Ardenwood farm is a working farm that dates back to the time of the Patterson Ranch, a 19th-century estate with a mansion and Victorian Gardens. Today, the farm still practices farming techniques from the 1870s. Unless otherwise noted, programs are free with regular admission.  

ONGOING PROGRAMS --  

"Blacksmithing," Thursday, Friday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Watch a blacksmith turn iron into useful tools.  

"Horse-Drawn Train," Thursday, Friday and Sunday. A 20-minute ride departs from Ardenwood Station and Deer Park.  

"Animal Feeding," Thursday-Sunday, 3-4 p.m. Help slop the hogs, check the henhouse for eggs and bring hay to the livestock.  

"Victorian Flower Arranging," Thursday, 10:15-11:30 a.m. Watch as Ardenwood docents create floral works of art for display in the Patterson House.  

"Cajun Zydeco Festival," Aug. 21, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Enjoy the best in Cajun/Zydeco music, dancing, and delicious food. Visit with farm animals, take a train, and listen to live music from the Pine Leaf Boys. $2-$20.  

$1-$5; free children under age 4. Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 34600 Ardenwood Blvd., Fremont. (510) 796-0199, (510) 796-0663, www.ebparks.org.

 

ASHKENAZ  

"I Like My Bike Night," First Friday of the month, 9 p.m. This monthly series brings bicycle innovators, enthusiasts, artists and organizations together under one roof, as well as encourages regular Ashkenaz show-goers to leave their cars in the driveway and arrive at the venue by bicycle instead. $8-$25.  

1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. (510) 525-5054, www.ashkenaz.com.

 

AUCTIONS BY THE BAY  

"ArtiFacts: A Lecture Series for Collectors," The first Sunday of every month at 3 p.m. Guest curators, scholars and conservation experts from throughout the Bay Area discuss the art of collecting. First Sunday of every month, 3 p.m. $7; includes a preview of the monthly estate auction which takes place the following day at 10am.  

Auctions by the Bay Theater-Auction House, 2700 Saratoga St., Alameda. (510) 835-6187, www.auctionsbythebay.com.

 

BAY AREA FREE BOOK EXCHANGE  

"Free Books," Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Donate your unwanted books and receive new titles for free.  

10520 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. (510) 526-1941, www.bayareafreebookexchange.com.

 

BAYFAIR CENTER  

"Harvest Festival," Aug. 14, 11 a.m. Children are invited to taste and learn about seasonal fruits and vegetables, as well as enjoy a free lunch. RSVP by Aug. 11. Free. (510) 357-6000. 

15555 14th St., San Leandro. www.shopbayfair.com.

 

CALIFORNIA GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY AND LIBRARY  

"California Genealogical Society and Library Free First Saturday," 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Event takes place on the first Saturday of every month, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Trace and compile your family history at this month's open house event. Free. www.calgensoc.org. 

2201 Broadway, Suite LL2, Oakland. (510) 663-1358.< 

 

CALIFORNIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY  

HISTORY WALKABOUTS -- A series of walking tours that explore the history, lore and architecture of California with veteran tour guide Gary Holloway. Walks are given on specific weekends. There is a different meeting place for each weekend and walks take place rain or shine so dress for the weather. Reservations and prepayment required. Meeting place will be given with confirmation of tour reservation. Call for details.  

678 Mission St., San Francisco. (415) 357-1848, www.californiahistoricalsociety.org.

 

CALIFORNIA MAGIC THEATER  

"Dinner Theater Magic Show," Friday-Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Enter the joyous and bewildering world of illusion while chowing down on a home cooked meal. Each weekend features different professional magicians. Recommended for ages 13 and older. $54-$64 includes meal.  

729 Castro St., Martinez. (925) 374-0056, www.calmagic.com.

 

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. 

ASK JEEVES PLANETARIUM -- The planetarium features one of the most advanced star projectors in the world. A daily planetarium show is included with general admission. Call for current show schedule.  

"Tales Of The Maya Skies," "Tales of the Maya Skies'' is a new full-dome planetarium show that explores the cosmology of the ancient Maya, along with their culture and their contributions to astronomy. Starts November 21. 

"Astronaut," What does it take to be part of the exploration of space? Experience a rocket launch from inside the body of an astronaut. Explore the amazing worlds of inner and outer space, from floating around the International Space Station to maneuvering through microscopic regions of the human body. Narrated by Ewan McGregor. 25 min. 

"Space NOW!", Each week, this real-time ride through constellations, stars, and planets will reflect current happenings in our sky. Space NOW! will also tie in activities going on throughout the center. This is Chabot's first daytime guided tour of the universe. 

"Black Holes: The Other Side of Infinity," Take a ride to the inside of a massive black hole and learn about the latest scientific evidence, which suggests that black holes are real. Narrated by Liam Neeson. Suitable for age 12 and older. Free with General Admission ticket. 

"Immersive Space: Fly Through the Cosmos," Fridays, 8 p.m. Experience the "digital universe'' in a new full-dome system. Travel to the nearest star and beyond in seconds. 

"Sunshine," A 15-minute planetarium show for children ages 5 and under. In the show, Sunshine, a lovable animated cartoon of the Sun, urges children to sing and play along with his tricks. In the process, he introduces the colors of the day sky and the other suns of the night sky. Free with regular general admission. 

"Secret of the Cardboard Rocket," Take a journey through the solar system with two young adventurers who turn an old cardboard box into a rocket. Recommended for ages 5-10. 

"The Search for Life: Are We Alone?" A voyage from the ocean deep to the outer reaches of the cosmos in search of life, narrated by Harrison Ford. 

"The Sky Tonight," Saturdays, 8 p.m. Take a live tour of the starry sky overhead on the night of your visit. The show includes a look at constellations, planets and special celestial objects. 

"Sonic Vision," Friday-Saturday, 9:15 p.m. This show uses the latest digital technology to illuminate the planetarium with colorful computer-generated imagery set to today's popular music, including Radiohead, U2, David Bowie, Coldplay, Moby and more. 

CHALLENGER LEARNING CENTER -- "Escape from the Red Planet," a cooperative venture for families and groups of up to 14 people, age 8 and up. The scenario on this one hour mission: You are the crew of a shuttle to Mars that has been severely damaged in a crash landing. Your replacement crew is gone, the worst dust storm ever recorded on Mars approaches, and air, food, and water are extremely low. The mission: get the shuttle working again and into orbit before the dust storm hits. Reservations required. Children age 8-12 must be accompanied by an adult; not appropriate for children under age 8. $12-$15; Does not include general admission to the Center. Reservations: (510) 336-7421. 

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

"Planet Hike," Aug. 13, 6:30 p.m.-9 p.m. Take a simulated walk through the solar system on Redwood Park trails. $7. 

"Kids Go Green," Aug. 14, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Join Chabot for its monthly handson environmentally related demonstrations and activities. Free with general admission. 

"10000: A Skyline Party," Aug. 20, 7 p.m. Come for music, celestial beverages, provocative science, films and more. $8-$20. (510) 336-7373. 

SPECIAL EXHIBITS --  

"Chabot Observatories: A View to the Stars," This new permanent exhibit honors the 123-year history of Chabot and its telescopes. The observatory is one of the oldest public observatories in the United States. The exhibit covers the three different sites of the observatory over its history as well as how its historic telescopes continue to be operated today. Included are informative graphic panels, multimedia kiosks, interactive computer programs, hands-on stations, and historic artifacts. 

TIEN MEGADOME SCIENCE THEATER -- A 70-foot dome-screen auditorium. Show times subject to change. Call for current show schedule. Price with paid general admission is $6-$7. Theater only: $7-$8. (510) 336-7373, www.ticketweb.com. 

"Forces of Nature," This film showcases the awesome spectacle of earthquakes, volcanoes, and severe storms as scientists continue their quests to understand how these natural disasters are triggered. 

"Dinosaurs Alive," A global adventure of science and discovery, featuring the earliest dinosaurs of the Triassic Period to the monsters of the Cretaceous, "reincarnated" life-sized for the giant screen. Audiences will journey with some of the world's preeminent paleontologists as they uncover evidence that the descendents of dinosaurs still walk (or fly) among us. From the exotic, trackless expanses and sand dunes of Mongolia's Gobi Desert to the dramatic sandstone buttes of New Mexico, the film will follow American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) paleontologists as they explore some of the greatest dinosaur finds in history. 

"The Living Sea," The film celebrates the beauty, power and importance of the ocean. Produced in association with The National Maritime Center, the Ocean Film Network and Dr. Robert Ballard. 

"The Human Body," This show explores the daily biological processes that go on in the human body without our control and often without our notice. This amazing story is revealed in detail on the giant screen. 

"Cosmic Voyage," A breathtaking journey through time and space. Zoom from the surface of the Earth to the largest observable structures of the Universe and back down to the sub-nuclear realm, a guided tour across some 42 orders of magnitude. Explore some of the greatest scientific theories, many of which have never before been visualized on film. 

Center Admission: $14.95; $10.95 children 3-12; free children under 3; $3 discount for seniors and students. 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.; Also open on Tuesdays 10 a.m.-5 p.m. after June 29. 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. (510) 336-7300, www.chabotspace.org.

 

CIVIC PARK, WALNUT CREEK  

"Summer Contra Costa Crystal Fair," Aug. 14 and Aug. 15, Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. An array of crystals, minerals, beads, gems, jewelry and metaphysical healing tools will be on display at this summer's festival. $6. www.crystalfair.com. 

1375 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek. < 

 

DUNSMUIR HOUSE AND GARDENS HISTORIC ESTATE Nestled in the Oakland hills, the 50-acre Dunsmuir House and Gardens estate includes the 37-room Neoclassical Revival Dunsmuir Mansion, built by coal and lumber baron Alexander Dunsmuir for his bride. Restored outbuildings set amid landscaped gardens surround the mansion.  

ESTATE GROUNDS -- Self-Guided Grounds Tours are available yearround. The 50 acres of gardens and grounds at the mansion are open to the public for walking Tuesday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Booklets and maps of the grounds are available at the Dinkelspiel House. Free.  

GUIDED TOURS -- Docent-led tours are available on the first Sunday of each month at 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. (except for July) and Wednesdays at 11 a.m. $5 adults, $4 seniors and juniors (11-16), children 11 and under free. 

Dunsmuir House and Gardens, 2960 Peralta Oaks Court, Oakland. (510) 615-5555, www.dunsmuir.org.

 

FRANK OGAWA PLAZA  

"Oakland Artisan Marketplace," Fridays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. The City of Oakland and Cultural Arts & Marketing Department presents a weekly market featuring fine arts and crafts of local artists. Free. (510) 238-4948, www.oaklandartisanmarketplace.org. 

"Art and Soul Oakland Festival," Aug. 21 and Aug. 22, Noon-6 p.m. Enjoy the finest art and food that the Bay Area has to offer while listening to the sounds of artists such as CAKE, MC Hammer, En Vogue, Pete Escovedo and more. $5-$10, children 12 and under are free. www.artandsouloakland.com. 

14th Street and Broadway, Oakland. < 

 

JACK LONDON AQUATIC CENTER  

"Oakland Artisan Marketplace,"' Saturdays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sundays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. The City of Oakland and Cultural Arts & Marketing Department presents a weekly market featuring fine arts and crafts of local artists. Free. (510) 238-4948, www.oaklandartisanmarketplace.org. 

115 Embarcadero, Oakland. < 

 

LA PENA CULTURAL CENTER  

"Domingos de Rumba," Aug. 1 and Aug. 15, 3:30 p.m. Community participatory event features drums, dancing and the songs of rumba.  

free. 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 849-2568, www.lapena.org.

 

LAWRENCE HALL OF SCIENCE  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"NanoZone," 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," 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," 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," 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," 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," Play some of the world's most popular math games, such as Hex, Kalah, Game Sticks and Shongo Networks.  

"Math Rules," Use simple and colorful objects to complete interesting challenges in math through predicting, sorting, comparing, weighing and counting.  

 

HOLT PLANETARIUM Shows on Saturdays and Sundays. Programs recommended for ages 6 and up unless otherwise noted. $2.50-$3 in addition to general admission.  

$6-$12; 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.

 

MARTINEZ REGIONAL SHORELINE  

"Scene On The Straight 2010," Aug. 14, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. A unique festival that combines fine art with helping young people and saving the environment. Visitors will be able to watch as artists set up along the waterfront and paint the landscapes. Art auctions will be held, fine food will be available and a jazz trio will provide live music. Free. (510) 787-9772, www.sceneonthestraight.org. 

Daily, 5 a.m.-10 p.m. unless otherwise posted or permitted. North end of Ferry Street, Martinez. (510) 562-PARK.< 

 

ORACLE ARENA  

"Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey Present Barnum's Funundrum," through Aug. 15, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m., 3 p.m., 7 p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m., 5 p.m. Watch more than 150 performers from six continents around the world as they take part in a spectacle celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of the legendary showman P.T. Barnum. $15-$105. (800) 745-3000, www.ringling.com. 

Hegenberger Road and Interstate 880, Oakland. (510) 625-8497, (925) 685-8497, (415) 421-8497, www.ticketmaster.com or www.theoaklandarena.com.

 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE Exploring cinema from the Bay Area and cultures around the world, the Pacific Film Archive offers daily film screenings, including rare and rediscovered prints of movie classics; new and historic works by world famous directors; restored silent films with live musical accompaniment; retrospectives; and new and experimental works. Check Web site for a full schedule of films.  

"First Impressions: Free First Thursdays," first Thursday of every month. Special tours and movie presentations. Admission is free. 

Single feature: $5-$8; Double feature: $9-$12 general. PFA Theater, 2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. (510) 642-5249, www.bampfa.berkeley.edu.

 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, MORRISON LIBRARY  

"Lunch Poems," First Thursday of the month, 12:10-12:50 p.m.  

2600 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. (510) 642-3671.< 

 

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," Due to ship maintenance, tours of the navigation bridge and the engine room are not available. Tuesdays.  

"Flight Deck Fun," 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," 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 -- Closed on New Year's Day 

"Flashlight Tour," 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. 

"Living Ship Day," 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. 

"Family Day," 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: 65th Anniversary of the end of World War II," Aug. 14. Commemorate the end of the second world war and learn about the USS Hornet's contribution's to the Pacific Theater and VJ 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.<


Kids-East Bay Through August 22

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:27:00 PM

ARDENWOOD HISTORIC FARM Ardenwood farm is a working farm that dates back to the time of the Patterson Ranch, a 19th-century estate with a mansion and Victorian Gardens. Today, the farm still practices farming techniques from the 1870s. Unless otherwise noted, programs are free with regular admission.  

ONGOING PROGRAMS --  

"Blacksmithing," Thursday, Friday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Watch a blacksmith turn iron into useful tools.  

"Horse-Drawn Train," Thursday, Friday and Sunday. A 20-minute ride departs from Ardenwood Station and Deer Park.  

"Animal Feeding," Thursday-Sunday, 3-4 p.m. Help slop the hogs, check the henhouse for eggs and bring hay to the livestock.  

"Victorian Flower Arranging," Thursday, 10:15-11:30 a.m. Watch as Ardenwood docents create floral works of art for display in the Patterson House.  

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

"Toddler Time," Tuesdays, 11-11:30 a.m. Bring the tiny tots out for an exciting morning at the farm. Meet and learn all about a new animal friend through stories, chores and fun.  

"Country Kitchen Cookin'," Sundays, 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Enjoy the flavor of the past with treats cooked on Ardenwood's wood burning stove. Sample food grown on the farm and discover the history of your favorite oldtime snacks. 

"Horse-Drawn Train Rides," Thursday, Friday and Sunday, 10:15 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Meet Jigs or Tucker the Belgian Draft horses that pull Ardenwood's train. Check the daily schedule and meet the train at Ardenwood Station or Deer Park. 

"Potato Harvesting," Learn the spectacular history of this New World native as you dig with your spade and help find the spuds. 

"Animal Feeding," Thursday-Sunday, 3 p.m. Feed the pigs, check for eggs and bring hay to the livestock. 

"Lovely Ladies Croquet," July 25 and Aug. 22, 1-3 p.m. Participate in a very Victorian game. 

"Bunny Love," Aug. 1 and Aug. 15, 2-3 p.m. Pet the farm rabbits and learn about them. 

"Cajun Zydeco Festival," Aug. 21, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Enjoy the best in Cajun/Zydeco music, dancing, and delicious food. Visit with farm animals, take a train, and listen to live music from the Pine Leaf Boys. $2-$20.  

$1-$5; free children under age 4. Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 34600 Ardenwood Blvd., Fremont. (510) 796-0199, (510) 796-0663, www.ebparks.org.

 

BLACKHAWK MUSEUM  

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," An ever-changing exhibit featuring over 90 automobiles.  

"A Journey on Common Ground," 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.

 

BOOKS INC., BERKELEY  

Mark Elkin, Aug. 19, 4 p.m. The author discusses "Samuel's Baby.''  

 

1760 4th Street, Berkeley. (510) 525-7777, www.booksinc.net.

 

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. 

Center Admission: $14.95; $10.95 children 3-12; free children under 3; $3 discount for seniors and students. 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.; Also open on Tuesdays 10 a.m.-5 p.m. after June 29. 10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. (510) 336-7300, www.chabotspace.org.

 

CHILDREN'S FAIRYLAND A fairy tale theme park featuring more than 30 colorful fantasy sets. Designed especially for children ages 10 and under, there are gentle rides, a train, the "Peter Rabbit Village,'' puppet shows, story-telling and lots of slides and animals. Admission price includes unlimited rides, special shows, guest entertainers and puppet shows.  

OLD WEST JUNCTION -- Children's Fairyland's newest attraction is a Wild West-themed town sized just for children, with a livery stable, bank, jail and a water tower slide.  

PUPPET SHOWS -- Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. All shows are at the Open Storybook Theatre. Free with regular Fairyland admission.  

ARTS AND CRAFTS CENTER -- Activities on Saturday and Sunday, noon to 3 p.m.  

ANIMAL OF THE DAY -- Saturday and Sunday, 1-1:20 p.m. at the Humpty Dumpty Wall. Learn about one of Fairyland's animal friends. 

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

"Animal of the Day!" Saturdays and Sundays, 1-1:20 p.m. Come up close and learn about Fairyland's creatures. 

"Arts and Crafts," Noon-3 p.m. Event features arts and crafts projects for children and their families. $6. 

$6; free for children under age 1; $2 for a Magic Key. No adult admitted without a child and no child admitted without an adult. Summer (June through Labor Day): Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Fall and Spring: Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Winter: Friday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. CLOSED DEC. 25-JAN. 4. 699 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. (510) 452-2259, www.fairyland.org.

 

CRAB COVE VISITOR CENTER At Crab Cove, you can see live underwater creatures and go into the San Francisco Bay from land. You can also travel back in time to Alameda's part. The goal is to increase understanding of the environmental importance of San Francisco Bay and the ocean ecosystem. Crab Cove's Indoor Aquarium and Exhibit Lab is one of the largest indoor aquariums in the East Bay. 

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

"Sea Siblings," Tuesdays, 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Explore the natural world and take part in a theme related craft. Designed for the 3-5 year old learner. Registration is required. $4. (888) 327-2757. 

"Catch of the Day," Sundays, 2-3 p.m. Drop by to find out more about the Bay and its wildlife through guided exploration and hands-on fun. 

"Sea Squirts," 10-11:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Discover the wonders of nature with your little one. Registration is required. $6-$8. 

Free unless otherwise noted; parking fee may be charged. 1252 McKay Ave., Alameda. (510) 521-6887, www.ebparks.org.

 

DUNSMUIR HOUSE AND GARDENS HISTORIC ESTATE Nestled in the Oakland hills, the 50-acre Dunsmuir House and Gardens estate includes the 37-room Neoclassical Revival Dunsmuir Mansion, built by coal and lumber baron Alexander Dunsmuir for his bride. Restored outbuildings set amid landscaped gardens surround the mansion.  

ESTATE GROUNDS -- Self-Guided Grounds Tours are available yearround. The 50 acres of gardens and grounds at the mansion are open to the public for walking Tuesday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Booklets and maps of the grounds are available at the Dinkelspiel House. Free.  

GUIDED TOURS -- Docent-led tours are available on the first Sunday of each month at 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. (except for July) and Wednesdays at 11 a.m. $5 adults, $4 seniors and juniors (11-16), children 11 and under free. 

Dunsmuir House and Gardens, 2960 Peralta Oaks Court, Oakland. (510) 615-5555, www.dunsmuir.org.

 

FOREST HOME FARMS The 16-acre former farm of the Boone family is now a municipal historic park in San Ramon. It is located at the base of the East Bay Hills and is divided into two parts by Oak Creek. The Boone House is a 22-room Dutch colonial that has been remodeled several times since it was built in 1900. Also on the property are a barn built in the period from 1850 to 1860; the Victorian-style David Glass House, dating from the late 1860s to early 1870s; a storage structure for farm equipment and automobiles; and a walnut processing plant. 

Free unless otherwise noted. Public tours available by appointment. 19953 San Ramon Valley Blvd., San Ramon. (925) 973-3281, www.ci.sanramon. ca.us/parks/boone.htm.< 

 

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. 

SPECIAL EXHIBITS --  

$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 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!" An interactive exhibit on heart health.  

"Good Nutrition," This exhibit includes models for making balanced meals and an Exercycle for calculating how calories are burned.  

"Draw Your Own Insides," Human-shaped chalkboards and models with removable organs allow visitors to explore the inside of their bodies.  

"Your Cellular Self and Cancer Prevention," 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 SHORELINE INTERPRETIVE CENTER Perched on stilts above a salt marsh, the Center offers an introduction to the San Francisco Bay-Estuary. It features exhibits, programs and activities designed to inspire a sense of appreciation, respect and stewardship for the Bay, its inhabitants and the services they provide. The Habitat Room offers a preview of what may be seen outside. The 80-gallon Bay Tank contains some of the fish that live in the Bay's open waters, and the Channel Tank represents habitats formed by the maze of sloughs and creeks that snake through the marsh. The main room of the Center features rotating exhibits about area history, plants and wildlife. Part of the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District.  

ONGOING EXHIBIT --  

"Exploring Nature," An exhibit of Shawn Gould's illustrations featuring images of the natural world. 

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

"Nature Detectives," 11 a.m.-noon. An introduction and exploration of the world of Black-Crowned Night-Herons. Ages 3-5 and their caregivers. Registration required. 

"Waterfowl of the Freshwater Marsh," 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Join an expert birder to go "behind the gates'' to areas of the marsh that are not open to the public. 

"Weekend Weed Warriors," 1-4 p.m. Help the shoreline to eliminate the non-native plants that threaten its diversity. Ages 12 and older. Registration required. 

Free. Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 4901 Breakwater Ave., Hayward. (510) 670-7270, www.hard.dst.ca.us/hayshore.html.< 

 

JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF THE EAST BAY  

"Shabbat Celebration for Young Children," Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-noon. Join other families with young children to sharethis weekly Jewish holiday of joy and renewal.  

1414 Walnut St., Berkeley. (510) 848-0237, www.jcceastbay.org/.< 

 

JUNIOR CENTER OF ART AND SCIENCE A center dedicated to encouraging children's active wonder and creative response through artistic and scientific exploration of their natural urban environment. The center's classes, workshops, exhibits and events integrate art and science.  

EXHIBITS -- Three educational exhibits are mounted in the "Children's Gallery'' each year. A docent-led tour, demonstrations, hands-on activities and art projects are available to school groups throughout the year.  

"Jake's Discovery Garden," Jake's Discovery Garden is a new interactive studio exhibit designed for preschool-aged children and their adult caregivers that teaches young visitors about the natural environments found in their backyards, playgrounds and neighborhoods. 

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

Free; programs and special exhibits have a fee. September through May: Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. June through August: Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. 558 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. (510) 839-5777, www.juniorcenter.org.

 

LAKE CHABOT REGIONAL PARK The 315-acre lake offers year-round recreation. Services include canoe and boat rental, horseshoe pits, hiking, bicycling, picnicking and seasonal tours aboard the Chabot Queen. For boat rentals, call (510) 247-2526. 

Free unless noted otherwise; $5 parking; $2 per dog except guide/service dogs. Daily, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. 17930 Lake Chabot Road, Castro Valley. (510) 562-PARK, www.ebparks.org.

 

LAWRENCE HALL OF SCIENCE  

ONGOING EXHIBITS --  

"NanoZone," 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," 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," 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," 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," 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," Play some of the world's most popular math games, such as Hex, Kalah, Game Sticks and Shongo Networks.  

"Math Rules," Use simple and colorful objects to complete interesting challenges in math through predicting, sorting, comparing, weighing and counting.  

 

HOLT PLANETARIUM Shows on Saturdays and Sundays. Programs recommended for ages 6 and up unless otherwise noted. $2.50-$3 in addition to general admission.  

$6-$12; 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. 

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

$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.< 

 

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 --  

"Saturday Stories," 1 p.m. For children ages 2-5. Free. 

SPECIAL EVENT --  

"Saturday Stories," 1 p.m. For 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.

 

ORACLE ARENA  

"Ringling Bros. And Barnum & Bailey Present Barnum's Funundrum," through Aug. 15, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m., 3 p.m., 7 p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m., 5 p.m. Watch more than 150 performers from six continents around the world as they take part in a spectacle celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of the legendary showman P.T. Barnum. $15-$105. (800) 745-3000, www.ringling.com. 

Hegenberger Road and Interstate 880, Oakland. (510) 625-8497, (925) 685-8497, (415) 421-8497, www.ticketmaster.com or www.theoaklandarena.com.

 

POINT PINOLE REGIONAL SHORELINE The 2,315-acre parkland bordering Pinole, Richmond and San Pablo offers views of Mount Tamalpais, the Marin shoreline and San Pablo Bay. There are trails through meadows and woods, and along the bluffs and beaches of San Pablo Bay. Visitors can hike, ride bikes or take the park's shuttle bus to reach the 1,250-foot fishing pier at Point Pinole. 

$5 per vehicle; $4 per trailered vehicle; $2 per dog (guide/service dogs free). Daily, 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., unless otherwise posted. Giant Highway, Richmond. (510) 562-PARK, www.ebparks.org.

 

ROBERT SIBLEY VOLCANIC REGIONAL PRESERVE East Bay residents have several volcanoes in their backyard. This park contains Round Top, one of the highest peaks in the Oakland Hills. 

Free. Daily, 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. 6800 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. (510) 562-PARK, www.ebparks.org.

 

SHADOW CLIFFS REGIONAL RECREATION AREA The 296-acre park includes an 80-acre lake and a four-flume waterslide, with picnic grounds and a swimming beach. Water slide fees and hours: (925) 829-6230. 

$6 per vehicle; $2 per dog except guide and service dogs. May 1 through Labor Day: daily, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.; shortened hours for fall and winter. Stanley Boulevard, one mile from downtown, Pleasanton. (510) 562-PARK, www.ebparks.org.

 

SULPHUR CREEK NATURE CENTER A wildlife rehabilitation and education facility where injured and orphaned local wild creatures are rehabilitated and released when possible. There is also a lending library of animals such as guinea pigs, rats, mice and more. The lending fee is $8 per week.  

ONGOING EVENTS --  

"Toddler Time," Learn about animals by listening to stories and exploring. Themes vary by month. Call for schedule. $7 per family.  

"Day on the Green Animal Presentations," Meet an assortment of wild and domestic animals. Wildlife volunteers will present a different animal each day from possums to snakes, tortoises to hawks. Saturday and Sunday, 2:30 p.m. 

CHILDREN'S EVENTS --  

Free. Park: Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Discovery Center: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Animal Lending Library: Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; Wildlife Rehabilitation Center: daily, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. 1801 D St., Hayward. (510) 881-6747, www.haywardrec.org/sulphur_creek.html.< 

 

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," Due to ship maintenance, tours of the navigation bridge and the engine room are not available. Tuesdays.  

"Flight Deck Fun," 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," 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 -- Closed on New Year's Day.  

"Family Day," 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," 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," 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. 

"Living Ship: 65th Anniversary of the end of World War II," Aug. 14. Commemorate the end of the second world war and learn about the USS Hornet's contribution's to the Pacific Theater and VJ 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.< 

 

WATERWORLD CALIFORNA A family water theme park with many water adventures including the Tornado, an extreme thrill ride designed for four people that begins 75 feet in the air and culminates in a waterfall splashdown. Other rides include the Kaanapali Kooler, a meandering 1,000-foot circular river; a wave pool for swimming; the "Big Kahuna Family Raft Ride,'' the Dragon's Tail slides for children; eight other water slides, including two that drop six stories; a water-themed kid's island with a number of water slides; two shotgun slides, free inner tubes and a family oriented area with cargo nets, family slides and other family friendly water sports. In addition there is the Honolulu Halfpipe, a four-and-a-half story, sidewinder inner tube slide that up three people at a time can ride. There are lawn and sand areas for sunning plus shaded eating areas, but the park does not allow food to be brought in. There is a small picnic area outside the park gates. There are height restrictions on all water slides. 

$19.95-$31.95 General Admission; Season pass: $39.99-$59.99. July-August: Open daily, 10:30 a.m.-6 p.m., closed Aug. 23-27, 30-31. 1950 Waterworld Parkway,, Concord. (925) 609-1364, www.waterworldcalifornia.com.<


Outdoors-East Bay Through August 22

Tuesday August 10, 2010 - 12:26:00 PM

ARDENWOOD HISTORIC FARM Ardenwood farm is a working farm that dates back to the time of the Patterson Ranch, a 19th-century estate with a mansion and Victorian Gardens. Today, the farm still practices farming techniques from the 1870s. Unless otherwise noted, programs are free with regular admission.  

ONGOING PROGRAMS --  

"Blacksmithing," Thursday, Friday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Watch a blacksmith turn iron into useful tools.  

"Horse-Drawn Train," Thursday, Friday and Sunday. A 20-minute ride departs from Ardenwood Station and Deer Park.  

"Animal Feeding," Thursday-Sunday, 3-4 p.m. Help slop the hogs, check the henhouse for eggs and bring hay to the livestock.  

"Victorian Flower Arranging," Thursday, 10:15-11:30 a.m. Watch as Ardenwood docents create floral works of art for display in the Patterson House.  

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

"Potato Harvesting," Learn the spectacular history of this New World native as you dig with your spade and help find the spuds. 

"Horse-Drawn Train Rides," Thursday, Friday and Sunday, 10:15 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Meet Jigs or Tucker the Belgian Draft horses that pull Ardenwood's train. Check the daily schedule and meet the train at Ardenwood Station or Deer Park. 

"Country Kitchen Cookin'," Sundays, 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Enjoy the flavor of the past with treats cooked on Ardenwood's wood burning stove. Sample food grown on the farm and discover the history of your favorite oldtime snacks. 

"Animal Feeding," Thursday-Sunday, 3 p.m. Feed the pigs, check for eggs and bring hay to the livestock. 

"Toddler Time," Tuesdays, 11-11:30 a.m. Bring the tiny tots out for an exciting morning at the farm. Meet and learn all about a new animal friend through stories, chores and fun.  

"Lovely Ladies Croquet," July 25 and Aug. 22, 1-3 p.m. Participate in a very Victorian game. 

"Bunny Love," Aug. 1 and Aug. 15, 2-3 p.m. Pet the farm rabbits and learn about them. 

$1-$5; free children under age 4. Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 34600 Ardenwood Blvd., Fremont. (510) 796-0199, (510) 796-0663, www.ebparks.org.

 

BAY AREA RAIL TRAILS A network of trails converted from unused railway corridors and developed by the Rails to Trails Conservancy.  

BLACK DIAMOND MINES REGIONAL PRESERVE RAILROAD BED TRAIL -- This easy one mile long rail trail on Mount Diablo leads to many historic sites within the preserve. Suitable for walking, horseback riding, and mountain biking. Accessible year round but may be muddy during the rainy season. Enter from the Park Entrance Station parking lot on the East side of Somersville Road, Antioch.  

IRON HORSE REGIONAL TRAIL -- The paved trail has grown into a 23 mile path between Concord and San Ramon with a link into Dublin. The trail runs from the north end of Monument Boulevard at Mohr Lane, east to Interstate 680, in Concord through Walnut Creek to just south of Village Green Park in San Ramon. It will eventually extend from Suisun Bay to Pleasanton and has been nominated as a Community Millennium Trail under the U.S. Millennium Trails program. A smooth shaded trail suitable for walkers, cyclists, skaters and strollers. It is also wheelchair accessible. Difficulty: easy to moderate in small chunks; hard if taken as a whole.  

LAFAYETTE/MORAGA REGIONAL TRAIL -- A 7.65 mile paved trail converted from the Sacramento Northern Rail line. This 20-year old trail goes along Las Trampas Creek and parallels St. Mary's Road. Suitable for walkers, equestrians, and cyclists. Runs from Olympic Boulevard and Pleasant Hill Road in Lafayette to Moraga. The trail can be used year round.  

OHLONE GREENWAY -- A 3.75-mile paved trail converted from the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway. Suitable for walkers, strollers and skaters. It is also wheelchair accessible. The trail runs under elevated BART tracks from Conlon and Key Streets in El Cerrito to Virginia and Acton Streets in Berkeley.  

SHEPHERD CANYON TRAIL -- An easy 3-mile paved trail converted from the Sacramento Northern Rail Line. The tree-lined trail is gently sloping and generally follows Shepherd Canyon Road. Suitable for walkers and cyclists. It is also wheelchair accessible. Begins in Montclair Village behind McCaulou's Department Store on Medau Place and ends at Paso Robles Drive, Oakland. Useable year round. 

Free. (415) 397-2220, www.traillink.com.

 

BAY AREA RIDGE TRAIL The Bay Area Ridge Trail, when completed, will be a 400-mile regional trail system that will form a loop around the entire San Francisco Bay region, linking 75 public parks and open spaces to thousands of people and hundreds of communities. Hikes on portions of the trail are available through the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council. Call for meeting sites.  

ONGOING EVENTS --  

ALAMEDA COUNTY -- "Lake Chabot Bike Rides." These rides are for strong beginners and intermediates to build skill, strength and endurance at a non hammerhead pace. No one will be dropped. Reservations required. Distance: 14 miles. Elevation gain: 1,000 feet. Difficulty: beginner to intermediate. Pace: moderate. Meeting place: Lake Chabot Road at the main entrance to the park. Thursday, 6:15 a.m. (510) 468-3582.  

ALAMEDA-CONTRA COSTA COUNTY -- "Tilden and Wildcat Bike Rides." A vigorous ride through Tilden and Wildcat Canyon regional parks. Reservations required. Distance: 15 miles. Elevation gain: 2,000 feet. Difficulty: intermediate. Pace: fast. Meeting place: in front of the North Berkeley BART Station. Wednesday, 5:30 p.m. (510) 849-9650. 

Free. (415) 561-2595, www.ridgetrail.org.

 

BICYCLE TRAILS COUNCIL OF THE EAST BAY The Council sponsors trail work days, Youth Bike Adventure Rides, and Group Rides as well as Mountain Bike Basics classes which cover training and handling skills.  

ONGOING EVENTS --  

"Weekly Wednesday Ride at Lake Chabot," Wednesdays, 6:30 p.m. A 13- to 20-mile ride exploring the trails around Lake Chabot, with 1,500 to 2,000 feet of climbing. Meet at 6:15 p.m. in the parking lot across from the public safety offices at Lake Chabot in Castro Valley. Reservations requested. (510) 727-0613.  

"Weekly Wednesday 'Outer' East Bay Ride," Wednesdays, 5:30 p.m. Ride some of the outer East Bay parks each week, such as Wild Cat Canyon, Briones, Mount Diablo, Tilden and Joaquin Miller-Redwood. Meeting place and ride location vary. Reservations required. (510) 888-9757. 

Free. (510) 466-5123, www.btceb.org.

 

BOTANIC GARDEN  

EVENTS --  

Intersection of Wildcat Canyon Road and South Park Drive, Tilden Regional Park, Berkeley. www.ebparks.org.

 

CRAB COVE VISITOR CENTER At Crab Cove, you can see live underwater creatures and go into the San Francisco Bay from land. You can also travel back in time to Alameda's part. The goal is to increase understanding of the environmental importance of San Francisco Bay and the ocean ecosystem. Crab Cove's Indoor Aquarium and Exhibit Lab is one of the largest indoor aquariums in the East Bay. 

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

"Catch of the Day," Sundays, 2-3 p.m. Drop by to find out more about the Bay and its wildlife through guided exploration and hands-on fun. 

"Sea Siblings," Tuesdays, 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Explore the natural world and take part in a theme related craft. Designed for the 3-5 year old learner. Registration is required. $4. (888) 327-2757. 

"Sea Squirts," 10-11:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Discover the wonders of nature with your little one. Registration is required. $6-$8. 

Free unless otherwise noted; parking fee may be charged. 1252 McKay Ave., Alameda. (510) 521-6887, www.ebparks.org.

 

DUNSMUIR HOUSE AND GARDENS HISTORIC ESTATE Nestled in the Oakland hills, the 50-acre Dunsmuir House and Gardens estate includes the 37-room Neoclassical Revival Dunsmuir Mansion, built by coal and lumber baron Alexander Dunsmuir for his bride. Restored outbuildings set amid landscaped gardens surround the mansion.  

ESTATE GROUNDS -- Self-Guided Grounds Tours are available yearround. The 50 acres of gardens and grounds at the mansion are open to the public for walking Tuesday-Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Booklets and maps of the grounds are available at the Dinkelspiel House. Free.  

GUIDED TOURS -- Docent-led tours are available on the first Sunday of each month at 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. (except for July) and Wednesdays at 11 a.m. $5 adults, $4 seniors and juniors (11-16), children 11 and under free. 

Dunsmuir House and Gardens, 2960 Peralta Oaks Court, Oakland. (510) 615-5555, www.dunsmuir.org.

 

FIFTY-PLUS ADVENTURE WALKS AND RUNS The walks and runs are 3-mile round-trips, lasting about one hour on the trail. All levels of ability are welcome. The walks are brisk, however, and may include some uphill terrain. Events are held rain or shine and on all holidays except Christmas and the Fifty-Plus Annual Fitness Weekend. Call for dates, times and details. 

Free. (650) 323-6160, www.50plus.org.

 

FOREST HOME FARMS The 16-acre former farm of the Boone family is now a municipal historic park in San Ramon. It is located at the base of the East Bay Hills and is divided into two parts by Oak Creek. The Boone House is a 22-room Dutch colonial that has been remodeled several times since it was built in 1900. Also on the property are a barn built in the period from 1850 to 1860; the Victorian-style David Glass House, dating from the late 1860s to early 1870s; a storage structure for farm equipment and automobiles; and a walnut processing plant. 

Free unless otherwise noted. Public tours available by appointment. 19953 San Ramon Valley Blvd., San Ramon. (925) 973-3281, www.ci.sanramon. ca.us/parks/boone.htm.< 

 

GARIN AND DRY CREEK PIONEER REGIONAL PARKS Independent nature study is encouraged here, and guided interpretive programs are available through the Coyote Hills Regional Park Visitor Center in Fremont. The Garin Barn Visitor Center is open Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. In late summer, the Garin Apple Festival celebrates Garin's apple orchards. The parks also allow picnicking, hiking, horseback riding and fishing. 

Free; $5 parking fee per vehicle; $2 per dog. Daily, 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. 1320 Garin Ave., Hayward. (510) 562-PARK, (510) 795-9385, www.ebparks.org/parks/garin.htm.< 

 

GREENBELT ALLIANCE OUTINGS A series of hikes, bike rides and events sponsored by Greenbelt Alliance, the Bay Area's non-profit land conservation and urban planning organization. Call for meeting places. Reservations required for all trips.  

ALAMEDA COUNTY --  

"Self-Guided Urban Outing: Berkeley," This interactive smart growth walking tour of central Berkeley examines some of the exciting projects that help alleviate the housing shortage in the city as well as amenities important to making a livable community. The walk, which includes the GAIA Cultural Center, Allston Oak Court, The Berkeley Bike Station, University Terrace and Strawberry Creek Park, takes between an hour-and-ahalf to two hours at a leisurely pace. Download the itinerary which gives specific directions by entering www.greeenbelt.org and clicking on "get involved'' and then "urban outings.'' Drop down and click on Berkeley. Free. 

Free unless otherwise noted. (415) 255-3233, www.greenbelt.org.

 

HAYWARD REGIONAL SHORELINE With 1,682 acres of salt, fresh and brackish water marshes, seasonal wetlands and the approximately three-mile San Lorenzo Trail, the Hayward Shoreline restoration project is one of the largest of its kind on the West Coast, comprising 400 acres of marshland. Part of the East Bay Regional Park District. 

EVENTS --  

Free. Daily, 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. 3010 W. Winton Ave., Hayward. (510) 562-PARK, www.ebparks.org/parks/hayward.htm.< 

 

HAYWARD SHORELINE INTERPRETIVE CENTER Perched on stilts above a salt marsh, the Center offers an introduction to the San Francisco Bay-Estuary. It features exhibits, programs and activities designed to inspire a sense of appreciation, respect and stewardship for the Bay, its inhabitants and the services they provide. The Habitat Room offers a preview of what may be seen outside. The 80-gallon Bay Tank contains some of the fish that live in the Bay's open waters, and the Channel Tank represents habitats formed by the maze of sloughs and creeks that snake through the marsh. The main room of the Center features rotating exhibits about area history, plants and wildlife. Part of the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District.  

ONGOING EXHIBIT --  

"Exploring Nature," An exhibit of Shawn Gould's illustrations featuring images of the natural world. 

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

"Nature Detectives," 11 a.m.-noon. An introduction and exploration of the world of Black-Crowned Night-Herons. Ages 3-5 and their caregivers. Registration required. 

"Weekend Weed Warriors," 1-4 p.m. Help the shoreline to eliminate the non-native plants that threaten its diversity. Ages 12 and older. Registration required. 

"Waterfowl of the Freshwater Marsh," 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Join an expert birder to go "behind the gates'' to areas of the marsh that are not open to the public. 

Free. Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. 4901 Breakwater Ave., Hayward. (510) 670-7270, www.hard.dst.ca.us/hayshore.html.< 

 

JOHN MUIR NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE The site preserves the 1882 Muir House, a 17-room Victorian mansion where naturalist John Muir lived from 1890 to his death in 1914. It was here that Muir wrote about preserving America's wilderness and helped create the national parks idea for the United States. The house is situated on a hill overlooking the City of Martinez and surrounded by nine acres of vineyards and orchards. Take a self-guided tour of this well-known Scottish naturalist's home. Also part of the site is the historic Martinez Adobe and Mount Wanda.  

ONGOING EVENT --  

Public Tours of the John Muir House, Begin with an eight-minute park film and then take the tour. The film runs every 15 minutes throughout the day. Wednesday through Friday, 2 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.  

MOUNT WANDA -- The mountain consists of 325 acres of grass and oak woodland historically owned by the Muir family. It offers a nature trail and several fire trails for hiking. Open daily, sunrise to sunset. 

JOHN MUIR HOUSE, Tours of this well-known Scottish naturalist's home are available. The house, built in 1882, is a 14-room Victorian home situated on a hill overlooking the city of Martinez and surrounded by nine acres of vineyards and orchards. It was here that Muir wrote about preserving America's wilderness and helped create the national parks idea for the United States. The park also includes the historic Vicente Martinez Adobe, built in 1849. An eight-minute film about Muir and the site is shown every 15 minutes throughout the day at the Visitor Center. Self guided tours of the Muir home, the surrounding orchards, and the Martinez Adobe: Wednesday-Sunday, 1 a.m.-5 p.m. Public tours or the first floor of the Muir home: Wednesday-Friday, 2 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. Reservations not required except for large groups.  

$3 general; free children ages 16 and under. Wednesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 4202 Alhambra Ave., Martinez. (925) 228-8860, www.nps.gov/jomu.< 

 

KENNEDY GROVE REGIONAL RECREATION AREA The 95-acre park contains picnic areas, horseshoe pits and volleyball courts among its grove of aromatic eucalyptus trees.  

$5 parking; $2 per dog except guide/service dogs Through September: daily, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. San Pablo Dam Road, El Sobrante. (510) 223-7840, www.ebparks.org.

 

LAKE CHABOT REGIONAL PARK The 315-acre lake offers year-round recreation. Services include canoe and boat rental, horseshoe pits, hiking, bicycling, picnicking and seasonal tours aboard the Chabot Queen. For boat rentals, call (510) 247-2526. 

Free unless noted otherwise; $5 parking; $2 per dog except guide/service dogs. Daily, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. 17930 Lake Chabot Road, Castro Valley. (510) 562-PARK, www.ebparks.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 --  

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

$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.< 

 

LIVERMORE AREA RECREATION AND PARK DISTRICT  

4444 East Ave., Livermore. (925) 373-5700, www.larpd.dst.ca.us/.< 

 

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. SHORELINE This 1,200-acre park situated near Oakland International Airport offers picnic areas with barbecues and a boat launch ramp. Swimming is not allowed. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Grove, a group of trees surrounding a grassy glade, is at the intersection of Doolittle Drive and Swan Way. The area also includes the 50-acre Arrowhead Marsh (part of the Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network) and a Roger Berry sculpture titled "Duplex Cone,'' which traces the summer and winter solstice paths of the sun through the sky. 

Free. Daily, 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., unless otherwise posted Doolittle Drive and Swan Way, Oakland. (510) 562-PARK, Picnic reservations: (510) 636-1684, www.ebayparks.org.

 

MILLER-KNOX REGIONAL SHORELINE A 295-acre shoreline picnic area with a secluded cove and swimming beach, and a hilltop offering panoramic views of the north Bay Area. 

Free. Daily, 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., unless otherwise posted. 900 Dornan Dr., Richmond. (510) 562-PARK, Picnic Reservations: (510) 636-1684, www.ebparks.org.

 

MOUNT DIABLO STATE PARK The 3,849-foot summit of Mount Diablo offers great views of the Bay Area and an extensive trail system. Visitors to the park can hike, bike, ride on horseback and camp. Notable park attractions include: The Fire Interpretive Trail, Rock City, Boy Scout Rocks and Sentinel Rock, Fossil Ridge, Deer Flat, Mitchell Canyon Staging Area, Diablo Valley Overlook, the Summit Visitor Center (open Wednesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.), the Art Gallery, the Observation Deck and the Mitchell Canyon Interpretive Center. 

Free. $6 per vehicle park-entrance fee; $5 for seniors. Daily, 8 a.m. to sunset. Mount Diablo Scenic Boulevard, from the Diablo Road exit off Interstate Highway 680, Danville. (925) 837-2525, www.mdia.org or www.parks.ca.gov.

 

PLEASANTON RIDGE REGIONAL PARK This 3,163-acre parkland is on the oak-covered ridge overlooking Pleasanton and the Livermore Valley from the west. A multi-purpose trail system accommodates hikers, equestrians and bicyclists. 

Free. Daily, 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. Foothill Road, Pleasanton. (510) 562-PARK, www.ebparks.org.

 

POINT PINOLE REGIONAL SHORELINE The 2,315-acre parkland bordering Pinole, Richmond and San Pablo offers views of Mount Tamalpais, the Marin shoreline and San Pablo Bay. There are trails through meadows and woods, and along the bluffs and beaches of San Pablo Bay. Visitors can hike, ride bikes or take the park's shuttle bus to reach the 1,250-foot fishing pier at Point Pinole. 

$5 per vehicle; $4 per trailered vehicle; $2 per dog (guide/service dogs free). Daily, 5 a.m. to 10 p.m., unless otherwise posted. Giant Highway, Richmond. (510) 562-PARK, www.ebparks.org.

 

PREWETT FAMILY WATERPARK There are pools and water slides for all ages, from the Tad Pool for toddlers to Boulder cove for older swimmers. In addition to fun pools and slides there are fitness pools for lessons and exercise, lawns for relaxing, locker rooms, community room and kitchen. Lap lanes are open year round. Food and beverages are not permitted in the park. Picnic tables are available outside the park. 

$4-$11. Sunday through Friday: 11 a.m.-7 p.m.; Saturdays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; closed Aug.23-27, 30-31. 4701 Lone Tree Way, Antioch. (925) 776-3070, www.ci.antioch.ca.us/CitySvcs/Prewett.< 

 

QUARRY LAKES REGIONAL RECREATION AREA The park includes three lakes sculpted from former quarry ponds. The largest, Horseshoe Lake, offers boating and fishing, with a swim beach that will open in the spring. Rainbow Lake is for fishing only, and the third lake, Lago Los Osos, is set aside for wildlife habitat. In addition, there are hiking and bicycling trails that connect to the Alameda Creek Regional Trail. The park includes three lakes sculpted from former quarry ponds. The largest, Horseshoe Lake, offers boating and fishing, with a swim beach that will open in the spring. Rainbow Lake is for fishing only, and the third lake, Lago Los Osos, is set aside for wildlife habitat. In addition there are hiking and bicycling trails that connect to the Alameda Creek Regional Trail. 

$5 parking; $2 per dog except guide/service dogs; boat launch fees; Park District fishing access permit fee of $3. Through Labor Day: daily, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sept. 6 through Sept. 30, 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. 2100 Isherwood Way,, between Paseo Padre Parkway and Osprey Drive,, Fremont. (510) 795-4883, Picnic reservations:: (510) 562-2267, www.ebparks.org.

 

REI CONCORD A series of lectures on hikes and outdoor equipment. 

"Climbing the Indoor Wall," Saturdays, noon-4 p.m.; Wednesdays, 6-8:30 p.m. $5.  

"Free Bicycle Classes," Sundays, 2:30-3 p.m. Learn how to remove a wheel, fix a flat and more.  

Events are free and begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 1975 Diamond Blvd., Concord. (925) 825-9400.< 

 

REI FREMONT A series of lectures on hikes and outdoor equipment. 

"Climb the Indoor Pinnacle," Saturdays, 1-6 p.m. $5.  

Events are free and begin at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 43962 Fremont Blvd., Fremont. (510) 651-0305.< 

 

ROBERT SIBLEY VOLCANIC REGIONAL PRESERVE East Bay residents have several volcanoes in their backyard. This park contains Round Top, one of the highest peaks in the Oakland Hills. 

Free. Daily, 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. 6800 Skyline Blvd., Oakland. (510) 562-PARK, www.ebparks.org.

 

RUTH BANCROFT GARDEN One of America's finest private gardens, the Ruth Bancroft Garden displays 2,000 specimens from around the world that thrive in an arid climate. Included are African and Mexican succulents, New World cacti, Australian and Chilean trees, and shrubs from California. 

DOCENT TOUR SCHEDULE -- Saturdays, 10 a.m. Docent-led tours last approximately an hour and a half. Plant sales follow the tour. By reservation only. $7; free children under age 12.  

SELF-GUIDED TOURS -- Monday-Thursday, 9:30 a.m.-noon; Friday, 9:30 a.m.; Saturday, 9:30 a.m. and 5 p.m.; Sunday, 5 p.m. Self-guided tours last two hours. No reservations required for weekday tours; reservations required for Friday and Saturday tours. Plant sales follow the tours. $7; free children under age 12.  

Gardens open only for tours and special events listed on the garden's telephone information line. 1500 Bancroft Road, Walnut Creek. (925) 210-9663, www.ruthbancroftgarden.org.

 

SHADOW CLIFFS REGIONAL RECREATION AREA The 296-acre park includes an 80-acre lake and a four-flume waterslide, with picnic grounds and a swimming beach. Water slide fees and hours: (925) 829-6230. 

$6 per vehicle; $2 per dog except guide and service dogs. May 1 through Labor Day: daily, 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.; shortened hours for fall and winter. Stanley Boulevard, one mile from downtown, Pleasanton. (510) 562-PARK, www.ebparks.org.

 

SULPHUR CREEK NATURE CENTER A wildlife rehabilitation and education facility where injured and orphaned local wild creatures are rehabilitated and released when possible. There is also a lending library of animals such as guinea pigs, rats, mice and more. The lending fee is $8 per week.  

ONGOING EVENTS --  

"Toddler Time," Learn about animals by listening to stories and exploring. Themes vary by month. Call for schedule. $7 per family.  

"Day on the Green Animal Presentations," Meet an assortment of wild and domestic animals. Wildlife volunteers will present a different animal each day from possums to snakes, tortoises to hawks. Saturday and Sunday, 2:30 p.m. 

CHILDREN'S EVENTS --  

Free. Park: Tuesday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Discovery Center: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Animal Lending Library: Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; Wildlife Rehabilitation Center: daily, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. 1801 D St., Hayward. (510) 881-6747, www.haywardrec.org/sulphur_creek.html.< 

 

SUNOL REGIONAL WILDERNESS This park is full of scenic and natural wonders. You can hike the Ohlone Wilderness trail or Little Yosemite. There are bedrock mortars that were used by Native Americans, who were Sunol's first inhabitants. 

SPECIAL EVENTS --  

"Sunol Sunday Hike," Sundays, 1:30-3 p.m. A natural history walk in Sunol Regional Wilderness. 

"Sunol Sunday Hike," Sundays, 1:30-3 p.m. A natural history walk in the wilderness. 

Free unless otherwise noted; $5 parking; $2 dog fee. Geary Road off Calaveras Road, six miles south of Interstate Highway 680, Sunol. (510) 652-PARK, www.ebparks.org.<