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A giant rolling frog loomed above all at Berkeley's Mardi Gras Frog Parade.
Steven Finacom
A giant rolling frog loomed above all at Berkeley's Mardi Gras Frog Parade.
 

News

Berkeley Commission Honors Women

By Carole Kennerly
Monday March 14, 2011 - 03:48:00 PM
Dr. Vicki Alexander
Dr. Vicki Alexander

To commemorate National Women’s History Month, the City of Berkeley Commission on the Status of Women (COSOW) recognizes and honors the efforts of extraordinary women who live, work or learn in Berkeley, and who have done outstanding work in the Berkeley community. The Commission seeks to honor and recognize the contributions of a wide spectrum of women, especially those who may be under-recognized for their work or are unconventionally successful. Awardees were selected through a competitive nomination process and represent a wide range of achievements and contributions. 

The event will be held on Monday, March 14, 2011 at 5:30PM, in the Central Library Community Meeting Room, 3rd Floor, on Kittredge Street in Berkeley. 

The event is open to the public and the commission encourages all Berkeley community members to join in celebration of the achievements of this outstanding group of women. 

This year the COSOW will present awards to the following women for outstanding contributions to our community: Vicki Alexander, Jennifer Burke, Suzoni Camp, Hope McDonnell, Ginger Ogle, Linda Schacht Gage and Nancy Schimmel. 

One of the honorees, nominated by Hon. Carole Kennerly, is Dr.Vicki Alexander, M.D., MPH. Ms. Kennerly submitted the following nomination information for Dr. Alexander: 

 

Currently, Dr. Alexander is chair of the Advisory Board for the Berkeley Black Infant Health Program (BIH). A non-paid volunteer position. She is a Board Certified Preventative Medicine Physician. Prior to her retirement in 2006 with the City of Berkeley, Dr. Alexander served as the interim Health Officer for the city of Berkeley. She also served as Berkeley's Director of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Program as well as Director of Adolescent Health Program. In this dual capacity, she oversaw the following programs: Maternal Child Health, Immunization, Lead poisoning Prevention, Berkeley High School Health Center, WIC, Domestic Violence Prevention, Family Planning, Injury Prevention, Black Infant Health and Community Capacity Building. Since retirement, Dr. Alexander continues to volunteer in areas of social justice and health inequity; prominent among which is her volunteer work with Berkeley's Black Infant Health Program and her work with the African America/Black Professional and Community Network in Berkeley. Dr. Alexander is Berkeley's unsung heroine. She has worked in private practice, clinics, prevention and public health doing whatever was needed to make for effective and successful programs and services toward the goal of happy, healthy women, children and families. 

Social activism is the most important thread through Dr. Alexander's life. In addition to the aforementioned Berkeley volunteer activities since her retirement, she has participated in organizations and movements to improve the living conditions of women and children. These include the Rainbow Coalition (she was chair of the Women's Commission), The Alliance Against Women's Oppression, Children's Defense Fund, National Abortion Rights Action League, U.N. Conference on Women (Mexico and Kenya) and MADRE. 

Due to Dr. Alexander's deep interest in the health and well being of women and children, she has also volunteered on the following Boards: Alameda County Medical Center (on which she was president from 1997 to 1998); Perinatal Network of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties (board and executive committee); Center for Constitutional Rights (on which she was president for eight (8) years); in 1997, she was elected to the City Match Board of Directors and in 1998 she served on the executive committee. In 2005, Dr. Alexander was elected to the Council of Elders for Bay Area Black United Fund which was instrumental in the formation of the Harriett Tubman inspired African American Health Conductors Program. 

Tucked away in South Berkeley is a house that blends into the rest of the residential neighborhood, distinguished only by the sign over the front door marking it as the site of the city's Black Infant Health Program (BIH). The program has been working to reduce the rate of low birth weight in black infants through education and support since its creation in 2001. All services are free, culturally competent, and address the needs of pregnant African American women 18 years and older. Many of the program beneficiaries later return as volunteers. In September, 2009, BIH funding was cut. BIH program costs incurred since April 2009 would not be paid by the State Department of Health Services due to its own budget cuts. For Berkeley the cuts were devastating. However, Dr. Alexander worked behind the scenes as well as in her public leadership role as Chairperson of BIH Advisory Committee to organize a public awareness campaign targeted toward the community as well as toward the appointed and elected Berkeley City officials. As people became increasingly aware of and knowledgeable about the Berkeley Black Infant Health Program, its goals, challenges and successes, support for the program grew. Under Dr. Alexander's leadership, grass root community members mobilized and interacted with various media, spoke one on one to groups, held rallies and produced written information, etc. As a result, in Jan/Feb., 2010, the Berkeley City Council made a commitment of $72,000 to the Black Infant Health Program to make up the $100,000 deficit. The BIH advisory committee continues to seek additional funds. BIH has been restructured and program costs have been reduced being careful to identify the most critical services and programs to maintain and to develop. Dr. Alexander is quoted in the local newspapers as being very optimistic, over the “long haul”, that all funding cuts will be restored. BIH funding is matched at the federal level, so the city must raise about $175,000 which will be matched for a total of $350,000 for the program to maintain its current services. 

In 1999, Dr. Alexander saw a need for the BIH program when federal data revealed that black infants in Berkeley had the worst disparity of low birth weight in the nation, at four times the rate of underweight births of white infants. The rate has now shrunk to three times. Today BIH serves 400 women each year. Despite the recent financial difficulties, BIH's goal is to grow. The talent, commitment, and leadership of Dr. Alexander gives BIH an above average chance of reaching its long-term goal. 

Why is Dr. Alexander's work with BIH and the work of others so important to Berkeley? According to 2007 Berkeley Health Status Report: 

 

  • African Americans, in Berkeley, continue to have far higher rates of low birth weight infants and premature births as compared to all other race/ethnic groups.
  • Low birth weight (LBW) is defined as a birth weight less than 5.5 pounds. The smallest babies have an increased risk of infant death and of developmental disabilities.
  • Although African Americans comprise 13% of the Berkeley population, they account for 39% of the years of potential life lost. (For those who die before age 75, the years not lived is a measure of life lost.). The highest concentration of years of potential life lost are in southwest Berkeley which is BIH's target population.
I have known Dr. Alexander for approximately 20 yrs—socially, professionally as well as a community activist. I am a former Berkeley City Councilperson and Vice Mayor; the first woman of African American descent to be elected to the council. I am also a 2006 recipient of the Outstanding Berkeley Woman award. Dr. Alexander is an author, international traveler, national consultant, lecturer, mentor who is also a loving mother and grandmother who works hard, enthusiastically, lovingly and respectfully with all no matter their background, class, race, ethnicity etc. She is a person of bi-racial background with African American heritage who is fluent in Spanish. She cares deeply about cultural competency/sensitivity and works hard to be a catalyst for these values in all that she does in her life. “Perseverance” should be her middle name; as the daughter of a shoemaker and union organizer, Dr. Alexander overcame many obstacles to become a physician of impeccable credentials with a stellar professional reputation. She is powerful yet gentle and authentic. A brilliant multi-talented skilled leader that is a gift to Berkeley and the world. It is my pleasure to nominate Dr. Alexander for this award.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To commemorate National Women’s History Month, the City of Berkeley Commission on the Status of Women (COSOW) recognizes and honors the efforts of extraordinary women who live, work or learn in Berkeley, and who have done outstanding work in the Berkeley community. The Commission seeks to honor and recognize the contributions of a wide spectrum of women, especially those who may be under-recognized for their work or are unconventionally successful. Awardees were selected through a competitive nomination process and represent a wide range of achievements and contributions. 

The event will be held on Monday, March 14, 2011 at 5:30PM, in the Central Library Community Meeting Room, 3rd Floor, att 090 Kittredge Street in Berkeley. 

The event is open to the public and the commission encourages all Berkeley community members to join in celebration of the achievements of this outstanding group of women. 

This year the COSOW will present awards to the following women for outstanding contributions to our community: Vicki Alexander, Jennifer Burke, Suzoni Camp, Hope McDonnell, Ginger Ogle, Linda Schacht Gage and Nancy Schimmel. 

One of the honorees, nominated by Hon. Carole Kennerly, is Dr.Vicki Alexander, M.D., MPH.Ms. Kennerly submitted the following nomination information for Dr. Alexander: 

Currently, Dr. Alexander is chair of the Advisory Board for the Berkeley Black Infant Health Program (BIH). A non-paid volunteer position. She is a Board Certified Preventative Medicine Physician. Prior to her retirement in 2006 with the City of Berkeley, Dr. Alexander served as the interim Health Officer for the city of Berkeley. She also served as Berkeley's Director of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Program as well as Director of Adolescent Health Program. In this dual capacity, she oversaw the following programs: Maternal Child Health, Immunization, Lead poisoning Prevention, Berkeley High School Health Center, WIC, Domestic Violence Prevention, Family Planning, Injury Prevention, Black Infant Health and Community Capacity Building. Since retirement, Dr. Alexander continues to volunteer in areas of social justice and health inequity; prominent among which is her volunteer work with Berkeley's Black Infant Health Program and her work with the African America/Black Professional and Community Network in Berkeley. 

Dr. Alexander is Berkeley's unsung heroine. She has worked in private practice, clinics, prevention and public health doing whatever was needed to make for effective and successful programs and services toward the goal of happy, healthy women, children and families. 

Social activism is the most important thread through Dr. Alexander's life. In addition to the aforementioned Berkeley volunteer activities since her retirement, she has participated in organizations and movements to improve the living conditions of women and children. These include the Rainbow Coalition (she was chair of the Women's Commission), The Alliance Against Women's Oppression, Children's Defense Fund, National Abortion Rights Action League, U.N. Conference on Women (Mexico and Kenya) and MADRE. 

Due to Dr. Alexander's deep interest in the health and well being of women and children, she has also volunteered on the following Boards: Alameda County Medical Center (on which she was president from 1997 to 1998); Perinatal Network of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties (board and executive committee); Center for Constitutional Rights (on which she was president for eight (8) years); in 1997, she was elected to the City Match Board of Directors and in 1998 she served on the executive committee. In 2005, Dr. Alexander was elected to the Council of Elders for Bay Area Black United Fund which was instrumental in the formation of the Harriett Tubman inspired African American Health Conductors Program. 

Tucked away in South Berkeley is a house that blends into the rest of the residential neighborhood, distinguished only by the sign over the front door marking it as the site of the city's Black Infant Health Program (BIH). The program has been working to reduce the rate of low birth weight in black infants through education and support since its creation in 2001. All services are free, culturally competent, and address the needs of pregnant African American women 18 years and older. Many of the program beneficiaries later return as volunteers. In September, 2009, BIH funding was cut. BIH program costs 

incurred since April 2009 would not be paid by the State Department of Health Services due to its own budget cuts. For Berkeley the cuts were devastating. However, Dr. Alexander worked behind the scenes as well as in her public leadership role as Chairperson of BIH Advisory Committee to organize a 

public awareness campaign targeted toward the community as well as toward the appointed and elected Berkeley City officials. As people became increasingly aware of and knowledgeable about the Berkeley Black Infant Health Program, its goals, challenges and successes, support for the program grew. Under Dr. Alexander's leadership, grass root community members mobilized and interacted with various media, spoke one on one to groups, held rallies and produced written information, etc. As a result, in Jan/Feb., 2010, the Berkeley City Council made a commitment of $72,000 to the Black Infant Health Program to make up the $100,000 deficit. The BIH advisory committee continues to seek additional funds. BIH has been restructured and program costs have been reduced being careful to identify the most critical services and programs to maintain and to develop. Dr. Alexander is quoted in the local newspapers as being very optimistic, over the “long haul”, that all funding cuts will be restored. BIH funding is matched at the federal level, so the city must raise about $175,000 which will be matched for a total of $350,000 for the program to maintain its current services. 

In 1999, Dr. Alexander saw a need for the BIH program when federal data revealed that black infants in Berkeley had the worst disparity of low birth weight in the nation, at four times the rate of underweight births of white infants. The rate has now shrunk to three times. Today BIH serves 400 women each year. Despite the recent financial difficulties, BIH's goal is to grow. The talent, commitment, and leadership of Dr. Alexander gives BIH an above average chance of reaching its long-term goal. 

Why is Dr. Alexander's work with BIH and the work of others so important to Berkeley? According to 2007 Berkeley Health Status Report: 

 

  • African Americans, in Berkeley, continue to have far higher rates of low birth weight infants and premature births as compared to all other race/ethnic groups.
  • Low birth weight (LBW) is defined as a birth weight less than 5.5 pounds. The smallest babies have an increased risk of infant death and of developmental disabilities.
  • Although African Americans comprise 13% of the Berkeley population, they account for 39% of the years of potential life lost. (For those who die before age 75, the years not lived is a measure of life lost.). The highest concentration of years of potential life lost are in southwest Berkeley which is BIH's target population.
I have known Dr. Alexander for approximately 20 yrs—socially, professionally as well as a community activist. I am a former Berkeley City Councilperson and Vice Mayor; the first woman of African American descent to be elected to the council. I am also a 2006 recipient of the Outstanding Berkeley Woman award. Dr. Alexander is an author, international traveler, national consultant, lecturer, mentor who is also a loving mother and grandmother who works hard, enthusiastically, lovingly and respectfully with all no matter their background, class, race, ethnicity etc. She is a person of bi-racial background with African American heritage who is fluent in Spanish. She cares deeply about cultural competency/sensitivity and works hard to be a catalyst for these values in all that she does in her life. “Perseverance” should be her middle name; as the daughter of a shoemaker and union organizer, Dr. Alexander overcame many obstacles to become a physician of impeccable credentials with a stellar professional reputation. She is powerful yet gentle and authentic. A brilliant multi-talented skilled leader that is a gift to Berkeley and the world. It is my pleasure to nominate Dr. Alexander for this award. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To commemorate National Women’s History Month, the City of Berkeley Commission on the Status of Women (COSOW) recognizes and honors the efforts of extraordinary women who live, work or learn in Berkeley, and who have done outstanding work in the Berkeley community. The Commission seeks to honor and recognize the contributions of a wide spectrum of women, especially those who may be under-recognized for their work or are unconventionally successful. Awardees were selected through a competitive nomination process and represent a wide range of achievements and contributions. 

The event will be held on Monday, March 14, 2011 at 5:30PM, in the Central Library Community Meeting Room, 3rd Floor, att 090 Kittredge Street in Berkeley. 

The event is open to the public and the commission encourages all Berkeley community members to join in celebration of the achievements of this outstanding group of women. 

This year the COSOW will present awards to the following women for outstanding contributions to our community: Vicki Alexander, Jennifer Burke, Suzoni Camp, Hope McDonnell, Ginger Ogle, Linda Schacht Gage and Nancy Schimmel. 

One of the honorees, nominated by Hon. Carole Kennerly, is Dr.Vicki Alexander, M.D., MPH.Ms. Kennerly submitted the following nomination information for Dr. Alexander: 

Currently, Dr. Alexander is chair of the Advisory Board for the Berkeley Black Infant Health Program (BIH). A non-paid volunteer position. She is a Board Certified Preventative Medicine Physician. Prior to her retirement in 2006 with the City of Berkeley, Dr. Alexander served as the interim Health Officer for the city of Berkeley. She also served as Berkeley's Director of Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health Program as well as Director of Adolescent Health Program. In this dual capacity, she oversaw the following programs: Maternal Child Health, Immunization, Lead poisoning Prevention, Berkeley High School Health Center, WIC, Domestic Violence Prevention, Family Planning, Injury Prevention, Black Infant Health and Community Capacity Building. Since retirement, Dr. Alexander continues to volunteer in areas of social justice and health inequity; prominent among which is her volunteer work with Berkeley's Black Infant Health Program and her work with the African America/Black Professional and Community Network in Berkeley. 

Dr. Alexander is Berkeley's unsung heroine. She has worked in private practice, clinics, prevention and public health doing whatever was needed to make for effective and successful programs and services toward the goal of happy, healthy women, children and families. 

Social activism is the most important thread through Dr. Alexander's life. In addition to the aforementioned Berkeley volunteer activities since her retirement, she has participated in organizations and movements to improve the living conditions of women and children. These include the Rainbow Coalition (she was chair of the Women's Commission), The Alliance Against Women's Oppression, Children's Defense Fund, National Abortion Rights Action League, U.N. Conference on Women (Mexico and Kenya) and MADRE. 

Due to Dr. Alexander's deep interest in the health and well being of women and children, she has also volunteered on the following Boards: Alameda County Medical Center (on which she was president from 1997 to 1998); Perinatal Network of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties (board and executive committee); Center for Constitutional Rights (on which she was president for eight (8) years); in 1997, she was elected to the City Match Board of Directors and in 1998 she served on the executive committee. In 2005, Dr. Alexander was elected to the Council of Elders for Bay Area Black United Fund which was instrumental in the formation of the Harriett Tubman inspired African American Health Conductors Program. 

Tucked away in South Berkeley is a house that blends into the rest of the residential neighborhood, distinguished only by the sign over the front door marking it as the site of the city's Black Infant Health Program (BIH). The program has been working to reduce the rate of low birth weight in black infants through education and support since its creation in 2001. All services are free, culturally competent, and address the needs of pregnant African American women 18 years and older. Many of the program beneficiaries later return as volunteers. In September, 2009, BIH funding was cut. BIH program costs 

incurred since April 2009 would not be paid by the State Department of Health Services due to its own budget cuts. For Berkeley the cuts were devastating. However, Dr. Alexander worked behind the scenes as well as in her public leadership role as Chairperson of BIH Advisory Committee to organize a 

public awareness campaign targeted toward the community as well as toward the appointed and elected Berkeley City officials. As people became increasingly aware of and knowledgeable about the Berkeley Black Infant Health Program, its goals, challenges and successes, support for the program grew. Under Dr. Alexander's leadership, grass root community members mobilized and interacted with various media, spoke one on one to groups, held rallies and produced written information, etc. As a result, in Jan/Feb., 2010, the Berkeley City Council made a commitment of $72,000 to the Black Infant Health Program to make up the $100,000 deficit. The BIH advisory committee continues to seek additional funds. BIH has been restructured and program costs have been reduced being careful to identify the most critical services and programs to maintain and to develop. Dr. Alexander is quoted in the local newspapers as being very optimistic, over the “long haul”, that all funding cuts will be restored. BIH funding is matched at the federal level, so the city must raise about $175,000 which will be matched for a total of $350,000 for the program to maintain its current services. 

In 1999, Dr. Alexander saw a need for the BIH program when federal data revealed that black infants in Berkeley had the worst disparity of low birth weight in the nation, at four times the rate of underweight births of white infants. The rate has now shrunk to three times. Today BIH serves 400 women each year. Despite the recent financial difficulties, BIH's goal is to grow. The talent, commitment, and leadership of Dr. Alexander gives BIH an above average chance of reaching its long-term goal. 

Why is Dr. Alexander's work with BIH and the work of others so important to Berkeley? According to 2007 Berkeley Health Status Report: 

 

  • African Americans, in Berkeley, continue to have far higher rates of low birth weight infants and premature births as compared to all other race/ethnic groups.
  • Low birth weight (LBW) is defined as a birth weight less than 5.5 pounds. The smallest babies have an increased risk of infant death and of developmental disabilities.
  • Although African Americans comprise 13% of the Berkeley population, they account for 39% of the years of potential life lost. (For those who die before age 75, the years not lived is a measure of life lost.). The highest concentration of years of potential life lost are in southwest Berkeley which is BIH's target population.
I have known Dr. Alexander for approximately 20 yrs—socially, professionally as well as a community activist. I am a former Berkeley City Councilperson and Vice Mayor; the first woman of African American descent to be elected to the council. I am also a 2006 recipient of the Outstanding Berkeley Woman award. Dr. Alexander is an author, international traveler, national consultant, lecturer, mentor who is also a loving mother and grandmother who works hard, enthusiastically, lovingly and respectfully with all no matter their background, class, race, ethnicity etc. She is a person of bi-racial background with African American heritage who is fluent in Spanish. She cares deeply about cultural competency/sensitivity and works hard to be a catalyst for these values in all that she does in her life. “Perseverance” should be her middle name; as the daughter of a shoemaker and union organizer, Dr. Alexander overcame many obstacles to become a physician of impeccable credentials with a stellar professional reputation. She is powerful yet gentle and authentic. A brilliant multi-talented skilled leader that is a gift to Berkeley and the world. It is my pleasure to nominate Dr. Alexander for this award. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Missing Grandmother Found--
Berkeley Police Cancel Search

By Erika Heidecker (BCN)
Saturday March 12, 2011 - 10:21:00 AM

Berkeley police called off a search late Friday night when a grandmother and granddaughter, who had been missing for over six hours, were found hungry but safe, police said. 

The grandmother, a 59-year-old Chinese woman, was in Berkeley visiting her daughter, an engineer with a high-tech company, and her 3-month-old granddaughter. 

She came to her daughter's workplace, 510 Systems at 2201 Dwight Way, on Friday to take her granddaughter for a walk at around 4:30 p.m. 

The grandmother, who doesn't speak English, planned to take the baby for a walk around the block in her stroller, acting Lieutenant Mike Dougherty said. 

When she didn't return in a timely manner, the baby's mother grew concerned and a search began. 

The woman's coworkers began the search, canvassing the area, making posters, and going door-to-door, said Suzanna Musick, CEO of 510 Systems. 

"Everyone banded together, it was quite an effort," Musick said. 

The Berkeley police were contacted at around 6 p.m. to help with the search, Dougherty said. 

The police set up a command post at 510 Systems, brought in a tracking dog, and sent out alerts to local hospitals, public transportation officials, and law enforcement, Dougherty said. 

The man who eventually found the missing pair hours later was lost as well. 

Steve Rose, a news photographer with North Bay TV News, was driving around Berkeley at around 11:45 p.m., trying to find the police command post set up at 510 Systems to report on the missing grandmother and baby. 

"I was trying to find the command post, which I failed at miserably," Rose said. 

He was circling the area when he saw a tired-looking woman pushing a stroller, which he thought was odd for that time of night, he said. 

Rose contacted the police who quickly arrived at the area near Ashby Avenue and Seventh Street where Rose had spotted the woman and baby. 

It appeared the woman got lost and just kept walking hoping to find her way back, Dougherty said. 

The grandmother and baby were reunited with the their family. 

"The baby was hungry, of course, but she smiled when she saw her mom," Musick said. 

 

 

 


Berkeley Historical Society Spring Walks
Start April 2

By Steven Finacom
Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 11:14:00 PM
Senior Hall, the campus “log cabin” was built in 1906 as a gathering space for men of the Senior Class.  It’s the oldest surviving student facility on the UC Berkeley campus.  The April 16 Berkeley Historical Society walking tour will describe its history, and a century of other student activity buildings on the campus
Steven Finacom
Senior Hall, the campus “log cabin” was built in 1906 as a gathering space for men of the Senior Class. It’s the oldest surviving student facility on the UC Berkeley campus. The April 16 Berkeley Historical Society walking tour will describe its history, and a century of other student activity buildings on the campus

A new season of five Berkeley Historical Society walking tours starting April 2 and running through early June delves into the local history of tennis, art, the UC Berkeley campus, and two north Berkeley neighborhoods.

All the walks take place on Saturday mornings from 10 – 12 and are led by knowledgeable volunteer guides from the Berkeley community. Proceeds benefit the non-profit Berkeley Historical Society. 

Tours cost $8 each for BHS members, $10 for non-members. Membership costs $20 per individual, $25 per family. For this tour season there’s a special offer for new members only, of a $40 package that includes membership and tickets for all five walks, for $40. 

The first, on Saturday, April 2, is led by early leader and good friend of the Historical Society, Burl Willes. Author of three books—two of them about Berkeley, particularly his own Elmwood neighborhood—Willes will lead a tour of the historic Berkeley Tennis Club where he was a junior member in the 1950s, followed by a walk through the nearby neighborhood where artists including Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff and David Park all lived. Willes will relate stories about their life in Berkeley. 

Two weeks later, on Saturday April 16, the author will lead a tour he’s entitled “A Century of UC Student Life.” The early University of California did not provide special non-academic facilities so the students made do with their own innovations, including separate social halls for men and women and, finally, full-fledged student union structures in 1923, then again in the late 1950s.  

1911 is the centennial of the construction of one of those facilities, Senior Women’s Hall, the only building Julia Morgan fully designed on the campus. We’ll pass it and Senior Men’s Hall, the 1923 Stephens Union, two buildings (including the whimsical Pelican Building) built just for student publications, and finish up at the California Student Center, a five building complex that is presently slated for a major series of renovations. 

Saturday, April 30, the walks go to the North Cragmont neighborhood where long-time Berkeley expert and BHS docent John Underhill will lead a wander through public parks, private gardens, and neighborhood history, including tales of spying.  

Saturday, May 21, the KALA Art Institute, founded in 1974 and now located in West Berkeley, will be the featured tour destination. Executive Director Archana Horsting, a KALA co-founder, will guide the tour through the extensive facility where printmaking, printing, and photography are practiced and taught. There’s also an art gallery at KALA. 

The walkseason winds up Saturday, June 4, with a tour of Selby Trail / Summit Road Loop in the North Berkeley Hills, led by Paul Grunland. He’ll take in a Tilden Park trail and some of Berkeley’s lesser-known pathways, and well as the early history of subdivisions around the Shasta Road firehouse. The tour will reach the highest point in the Berkeley City limits, with 360-degree views. 

The first two walks are wheelchair accessible; the Cragmont and Selby Trail walks are not, and the KALA Institute tour includes two interior staircases. 

If you are interested in going on the tours, send a note to BHS, PO Box 1190, Berkeley California, 94701, or call 510-848-0181.  

Include your name, address, the tours you’d like to go on, the number in your party, and payment (checks to Berkeley Historical Society), as well as your phone number and e-mail, if available. You’ll be notified of the starting point. 

You can also drop by the Berkeley History Center, 1931 Center Street, on Thursdays through Saturdays, 1-4 pm, to sign up. 

There’s a limit on the number of attendees per walk, so make your reservation soon. Many of the tours do sell out. 

The Berkeley Historical Society also has a new website at the address below, where the tour flyer, with further descriptive details, is posted. 

http://www.berkeleyhistoricalsociety.org/ 

(The author is the First Vice President of the Berkeley Historical Society and will be leading the April 16, 2011 walk.) 


As Accused People's Park Stabber Faces Another Court Hearing
His Supporters Are Encouraged by Recent Developments in the Case

By Ted Friedman
Saturday March 12, 2011 - 09:30:00 AM

Accused People's Park stabber, Matthew Dodt, 53, aka Midnight Matt, appeared Thursday from behind the glass prisoner's wall, which had previously blocked spectators' view to once more plead not guilty to assault with a deadly weapon in Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse, Oakland. 

His appearance cheered a loyal, if small, band of supporters in the audience. 

A last-minute additional charge of possessing a police helmet, although carrying a 1-3 year sentence, was met with derision by Dodt's supporters, who have attended two previous hearings and believe the prosecution is grasping at straws. 

Although Dodt returns to Santa Rita County Jail, Dublin, to await a preliminary hearing at 9 a.m. Mar. 16, in courtroom 112, his prospects may be brightening, even though he has served half as much time at Santa Rita as he spent in the tree protesting perceived encroachments by the university in the park. 

His attorney met with an Alameda County prosecutor Friday to discuss a possible "agreement," which could lead to his release. 

According to sources close to Dodt's case, the claimed victim of the alleged knifing will not testify, and a key witness to the incident has told sources in the park he will not testify either. 

Although this goodwill gesture from the two park regulars, who taunted Dodt for hours before the alleged attack, may end hard feelings in the park, it may not deter prosecutors, who continue to view the incident as "serious." 

The University police operation which led to Dodt's removal from atop a tree in People's Park, Jan. 28 at 3:30 a.m. involved many officers, some on overtime, according to the command officer at the scene, Lt. Andrew Tucker. 

Before the six hour stand-off was over, there was a cordoning off of the Northwest corner of the park, and a police build-up that at times involved ten officers, two support vehicles, a utility truck, a fire engine, an ambulance, and as many as six squad cars. 

The on-the-ground police investigation in the park, Jan. 28, involved meticulously marking multiple blood sites with what appeared to this reporter as scores of white one inch folded cards throughout the park, leading him to wonder whether he had walked into a flashback of the O.J. Simpson case. 

All that blood--droplets or not--may not be so easily overcome. 

Should the case go to trial, Dodt's attorney C. Zadik Shapiro has said that "there are errors in the police report" and that he expects the facts to eventually prove that Mr.Dodt was acting in self defense." 

Meanwhile, as the wheels of justice turn slowly, Dodt's loyal supporters continue to keep the faith. 


Ted Friedman has covered the People's Park Tree-Sit Protest for the Planet from its inception; his previous stories are cached on-line. 

 

 


UC Berkeley Police Looking for Campus Groper

By Rachel Purdy (BCN)
Thursday March 10, 2011 - 04:57:00 PM

Police are still trying to identify a man who groped a University of California at Berkeley student on campus Tuesday night. 

The 17-year-old girl was walking on the Grinnell Pathway near the Life Sciences Addition building at about 10:45 p.m. when she noticed a man following her, UC Berkley police spokesman Lt. Alex Yao said. 

After crossing the west Grinnell Bridge, the girl saw the man exposing himself, Yao said. 

She tried to run away but the man grabbed her shoulder and began touching her inappropriately, according to police. 

When the victim screamed, several people came to her aid and she was able to run away, Yao said. 

The victim called UC Berkeley police from a nearby phone, but police were unable to locate the suspect, Yao said. 

The student was not injured, Yao said. 

"These criminal acts are serious and dangerous," Yao said. 

The suspect is described as a black man in his early 20s who is about 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighs 165 pounds, with a skinny to medium build, police said. 

He was last seen wearing a red wide-brimmed baseball cap with a white emblem, a black puffy jacket and jeans, according to police. 

Campus police are working with Berkeley police to investigate the attack and determine whether it is connected to other recent attacks, Yao said. 

Anyone with information about this attack is asked to contact UC Berkley police (510) 642-0472. 


Press Release: Victim Identified and Reward Offered in Berkeley’s First 2011 Homicide

From Sgt. M. Kusmiss, BPD
Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 03:55:00 PM

The City of Berkeley is offering a $15,000 reward, and Bay Area Crime Stoppers (BACS) is offering an additional $2,000 reward, for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect or suspects responsible for the City of Berkeley’s first homicide of 2011.

On Tuesday, March 8, 2011, at about 1:00 p.m., the City of Berkeley Police Department (BPD) got a call of possible gunshots in the area of the 1600 block of Blake Street. Officers found Tobias Pemadorji Eagle, 30 years old of Berkeley, the victim of a shooting. Eagle was lying in the rear yard of a home on the 1600 block of Blake Street. City of Berkeley Fire Department (BFD) Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene.  

BPD Homicide detectives and a compliment of other BPD personnel began the investigation immediately. The incident is being investigated as a homicide. Thus far, BPD has not made any arrests or confirmed a possible motive in the case. BPD does not believe that this was a random shooting.  

BPD is urging anyone who may know anything about this homicide to call the BPD Homicide detail at (510) 981-5741 or the 24 hour BPD non emergency number of (510)981-5900. If a community member wishes to remain anonymous, he/she is encouraged to call the Bay Area Crimes Stoppers (BACS) at (800)-222-TIPS (8477). Any information may be critical to solving this crime. Sometimes the smallest or seemingly insignificant detail can be the key to arresting the suspect or suspects in any crime.


The New Berkeley Census Data--and What You Can Learn From It

By Thomas Lord
Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 03:44:00 PM

Editor’s Note: We’d like to see what our readers can do with this information. We’ve revived our old Berkeley Free Press blog site, which we started before we took over the Planet. We hope to give writers the chance to inform readers and express their opinions more spontaneously there than the Planet’s inherited newspaper format permits. To comment or see comments, click here.

The very earliest results of the 2010 Census are starting to be published. The Census Bureau has created a handy-dandy web site to help citizens explore the data. We're only getting the first trickle of data so far but here is a kind of "citizen's users guide" to help people get started, along with some basic facts that might be of interest. 

Here's where you'll find the Census web site  

At the end of this article are some hints about how to use that somewhat confusing web site. 

Here's a very basic fact: in 2010 the Census Bureau figures the population of Berkeley at 112,580 persons. Now we know. 

The data published so far gives us some idea how to break that down into what the Census Bureau recognizes as "races" (White, Black or African American, Asian, and so forth). 

Separately from the "race" question, the census data breaks things down by "ethnicity" into Hispanic or Latino and everyone else. 

For those who think about racial, ethnic, or identity politics the strange lines that the census draws may seem problematic. They are! Never mind, though, they are of legal significance. Various laws rely on how the census measures "race" and "ethnicity". For background on the topic, here is an article from Wikipedia

The data published so far also gives us a tiny bit of insight into Berkeley's housing stock. 

The number of vacant housing units in Berkeley has increased 78% since the year 2000. What does that mean in terms of local politics? It's hard to say for sure. Really, it's up to readers to decide. 

Here is a "getting started" guide to using the information

We don't promise that this is perfect but we hope it is helpful: 

1) Go ahead and open up that link in a separate window. If you only use one browser window at a time, print out this article first and then just go to that link. 

2) Note what a messy and confusing design it is! Don't worry, though. It's not so bad and it is trying to work with a messy and confusing set of data. 

3) See kind of in the middle there, where it says "Quick Start"? There is a box about "topic or table name" and another about "geography (optional)". In that geography box, type, no kidding and yes this is odd: "Berkeley city, California". 

4) Hit that "Go" button next to it. 

5) What shows up next is a huge list of all census publications for Berkeley from this year and previous years. Ignore that, for now, if you aren't comfortable with it. Instead...... 

6) On the left side of the web page is a box labled "Topics". Look at that. Don't click anything yet. 

7) In that box is a line that says "Year". That line should be between "Housing" and "Product Type". 

8) Go ahead and click on "Year". 

9) See where it says (under that) "2010"? Click on that! 

10) Now the main part of the window lists the (currently) seven different bits of data published so far. You can click on those titles to see the data. Try clicking on "OCCUPANCY STATUS" and you should see that we have 46,029 occupied housing units and 3,425 vacant, according to the 2010 census. The housing unit vacancy rate is about 7% in Berkeley! 

11) DO NOT HIT THE BACK BUTTON. You were done looking at that housing table, right? And you wanted to hit the browser's "back button"? Don't do it. Instead, click that little "BACK TO SEARCH" button on the web page. 

12) Second to Last Hint: Maybe you want to compare housing to 2000? Why not? Could be interesting! In that "Topics" box, click once more on the "Year" line. This time, pick "2000". 

Now the window should show a list of both the 2010 AND the 2000 data. If you search through that, you can see the "General Housing Characteristics: 2000" and similar tables. If you look at those items, you'll see that in 2000, the vacancy rate was barely over 4%. 

If you get stuck or confused, just start over. Go back to the very first main page and in the upper left hand corner, if the box "Your Selections" is not "empty" then click "clear all selections" and start again. The site is fancier than just the bare minimum functionality we've described here -- but we hope that that guide will help even some novices get started.


Press Release: Berkeley Police Release Information on Blake Street Homicide

From Lt. Andrew Greenwood, BPD
Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 11:13:00 AM

[Sent at 5:17 p.m. Tuesday] On March 8, 2011, just after 1:00 pm, the Berkeley Police Department received a call of “loud reports” in the area of the 1600 block of Blake St.

Officers investigating the call ultimately located an unresponsive adult male, apparently shot, in the rear yard of a house on the 1600 block of Blake St. Berkeley Fire Department paramedics confirmed the victim’s death at the scene.

Berkeley Police Homicide detectives are investigating the matter as a homicide. We are not releasing the identity of the deceased at this time. 

The investigation is in its earliest stages. We have no suspect information to share at this time. There have been no arrests in this case. 

Anyone who may have any information regarding this crime is urged to call the BPD Homicide Detail at (510) 981-5741 (office) or (510) 981-5900. 

We do not anticipate releasing any further information regarding this incident today. Sgt. Kusmiss will likely be back at work tomorrow, Wednesday, March 9.


Hundreds Attend Berkeley Council Workshop on Controversial Recycling Proposal

By Steven Finacom
Tuesday March 08, 2011 - 10:49:00 PM
After Fire and Police Department employees closed the doors to the crowded
              Council Chambers, scores of late arriving audience members packed the downstairs
              hall, watching a TV monitor showing the Council workshop.
Steven Finacom
After Fire and Police Department employees closed the doors to the crowded Council Chambers, scores of late arriving audience members packed the downstairs hall, watching a TV monitor showing the Council workshop.
The Ecology Center logo would disappear from curbside containers and recycling
              trucks if the City switches recycling operations to City staff.
Steven Finacom
The Ecology Center logo would disappear from curbside containers and recycling trucks if the City switches recycling operations to City staff.

Presentation of a report to the Berkeley City Council on city recycling services sparked a vigorous protest and turnout of hundreds at a special 5:30 pm workshop yesterday.

The core issue was whether, as the consultants recommended, the City of Berkeley should shift curbside pick-up recycling services from the non-profit Ecology Center to an expanded City Solid Waste Division. 

Contingents of union workers—both from the City’s sanitation services, and from the Ecology Center’s curbside recycling program—occupied opposite corners of the Council chambers while an overflow crowd packed the chambers and spilled into the downstairs hallway.  

Scores watched the proceedings on television monitors in the halls, many holding green “Save Ecology Center Recycling” signs. 

From the tenor of audience reaction and individual comments to the Council, the edge was clearly with the Ecology Center, as speaker after speaker blasted the consultant report as flawed and incomplete, and praised the Berkeley non-profit for its services, including the recycling program. 

The Ecology Center currently holds a contract to operate the City of Berkeley’s curbside recycling program for metals, glass, paper, and similar items. The Center’s white trucks patrol Berkeley streets emptying the new baby blue and brown rolling bins on the same days City sanitation workers are picking up green waste and general garbage from other containers. 

The study, “Sloan Vazquez Final Report on Assessment of the City’s Solid Waste Management Division” was summarized for the Council by Andrew Clough, the Acting Director of Public Works, and Joe Sloan, from the consulting group. 

The purpose of the study was to “review the operations” said Clough. It “was not tasked to develop or propose a new and revised rate structure at this point” for refuse and recycling services, although rates are at issue in debates over funding for recycling and solid waste programs.  

“Complete a comprehensive study” was the scope of work, said Joe Sloan, speaking for the consultant team. “We set out to look at everything the Solid Waste Division has purview over.”  

“We have not recommended terminating Berkeley’s recycling program”, he emphasized. “We haven’t recommended privatizing it.” “We have not recommended single source recycling.” 

“Our task was to say is there a way for the City to do this for less money.” “We were not in any way, at any time, directed to conclusions or outcomes by City staff, Sloan added. 

He quickly summarized key issues. The full report is available online (see below). Residential recycling in Berkeley collects about 25-30 tons a day with “semi-automated side-loading trucks” with two staff per truck, operated by the Ecology Center, Sloan said. 

“Our recommendation is that this service be integrated into the Solid Waste Division”, and that the City operate mostly “one person trucks,” not trucks staffed by two workers. 

“We recognize the entire City cannot be serviced with automated trucks”, he said. “We recognize there are some areas in Berkeley that need to have a two person truck.”  

But having a core of six to eight one-operator, trucks “will be faster and safer.” “Automated trucks are the system of choice for high density residential area.” 

Sloan said a single solid waste worker costs the City an average of $113,000 a year in salary, benefits, and related personnel costs. The report recommendations, he said, would reduce labor costs about $1.2 million each year. The City “would save a little over one million annually” by converting to one person trucks “wherever possible.” 

He then discussed franchise fees—which private operators pay to the City for permission to collect some waste, particularly from commercial and institutional clients—and other aspects of the report, concluding “if you undertake all of the recommendations we’re showing the City would be able to have an annual savings” of $5,261,000. The City would need to invest $7.1 million initially to achieve those savings, including costs of buying the existing trucks from the Ecology Center. 

A short presentation from Nashua Kalil, Susan Wengraf’s appointee on Berkeley’s Zero Waste Commission, followed Sloan.  

She conveyed Commission concern about the Sloan Vazquez report, along with a unanimous resolution from the Commission. 

“This report we see as a draft” she said. “There are many items that are not included.” “Replacing all the Ecology Center does for us is not illuminated in this report sufficiently for our purposes.” 

“We have for many years called for a strategic plan” on handling solid waste and meeting the City’s zero waste by 2020 goal, she emphasized. “What you have in front of you are recommendations but they are not a plan.” In addition to reforms in the Solid Waste Division, Berkeley “needs a rate policy that is sustainable.” 

The Commission questioned the fact that the consultant study “did not include interviews with a number of critical people” and “much of the data you have is already changed” because the study was done just as the Ecology Center was rolling out the new system of divided carts for recyclable materials. 

“If you don’t have all the numbers…you will not have what you need to make the decision”, Kalil said. “We perceive this report as a draft.” “We do believe it needs more cost benefit analysis and we also believe the process was slightly lacking.” 

“We are extremely disappointed to have to be here tonight in this way”, Kalil concluded. “We need to take the time to do this completely and thoroughly.” 

“I am sad to tell you that the former Public Works director [Claudette Ford] did not necessarily find the Commission helpful”, although it contains many experts offering their volunteer services to the City. “We’re asking you to utilize us properly.” 

The next set of speakers represented various stakeholders affected by the report, starting with Ecology Center staff. They raised a number of questions about the accuracy of numbers in the Sloan Vazquez report, noting differences between their numbers and the report numbers on the number of tons recycled annually and other statistical data. 

One speaker noted that the report suggests that cost savings would be achieved by replacing Ecology Center workers who cost, in salary and benefits, about ½ of the $113,000 on average the City spends on its sanitation workers in salary and benefits. 

“If we’re seeking lower costs, we don’t understand the recommendations,” he concluded. 

“What we’re really talking about are people, jobs, and their families”, Martin Bourque, Executive Director of the Ecology Center, told the Council. 

Ending the Ecology Center contract would “cost 35 union jobs” he said. “We’re exceptionally surprised to find ourselves on the chopping block.” 

Bourque said the study “dramatically underestimates the cost of a City run operation”, including the number of employees and trucks the City would actually need to provide adequate service, and the 26% that is “City management overhead”. 

“The Ecology Center now takes all financial risks”, he emphasized. “The Ecology Center provides excellent customer service. For 40 years the Ecology Center has run an excellent program.” 

“It would be a tremendous loss to civic life and leadership to lose this program.” “The rate payers want the Ecology Center to continue to run the program” he concluded to applause from much of the audience. 

The main voice of support for the report came from a contingent of City staff affiliated with the SEIU Union, who praised the report and its recommendation that the City take over providing all recycling services, a move which could swell the number of SEIU-affiliated union workers on the City’s payroll. 

Ricky Jackson, shop steward for SEIU Local 1020, told the Council “we had our own evaluator go out and create a proposal” for reform of the Solid Waste program. “Within our proposal we had some of the same ideas as the Vazquez report.” 

He noted City staff already do green waste and food waste recycling, and said the Council should cancel franchise agreements with private operators who provide services to some local businesses, and pick up those waste disposal services. 

“Although we find some of the information incomplete, we agree with the foundation of the report,” he concluded. 

A different union perspective came from Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) representatives of the unionized Ecology Center workers who would lose their jobs if the contract were cancelled. 

“We are sort of new to this process,” Bruce Valde said. “During the beginning of this process we were never contacted in any way, shape, or form.” 

“We would prefer to be stakeholders, not gate crashers.” 

“We are not in agreement with most of the conclusions of the report”, he said. Another IWW representative added, to applause and laughter, “It wasn’t done slow, and it wasn’t done fast…it was done ‘half-fast’.” 

Stakeholder and other public comment continued for some time (summarized below). 

At the end of the workshop—all nine Council members made brief remarks, most of them raising some degree of concern about the report. 

A primary feature of Council skepticism was the recommendation that Berkeley try to save money by largely switching from curbside recycling trucks staffed by two workers to semi-automated trucks with only one employee apiece.  

Councilmember Kriss Worthington was most critical of the consultant report, saying, “The [public] testimony this evening is very compelling and impressive.” He emphasized that while “the single biggest money saver in all the recommendations has to do with the one person truck”, “there are operational questions.” 

“In the cities that have that [one staff trucks] they have to go down both sides of the street”, rather than bringing recycling bins from both sides at once, as they do with two staff. 

“It’s unclear what the greenhouse gas impact is, and that it’s saving us money,” Worthington concluded. 

“My district would require two people on the truck”, said Councilmember Susan Wengraf, who represents most of the northeast Berkeley Hills where steep and winding streets predominate. “Most of the streets are narrow, many do not have sidewalks.” She said she had watched a recycling truck this week make its way in and out of a cul de sac; “you can’t do that with just one man on a truck.” 

“I may be the only one on this body who has ever been a sanitation worker” said Councilmember Max Anderson, noting he had worked at that occupation for four years in Philadelphia. “I kind of look a little askance at one-person trucks”, he said. He worried that a single worker per vehicle could create safety risks, if that individual was injured while processing pick-ups. 

“There is a lot of information that needs to be sorted out,” said Wengraf. She wondered “why this 3.7 million dollar contract is not bid competitively?” picking up on one of the main points of the SEIU speakers. “I would like an answer to that.” 

“Maybe we have to ask for competitive bids from both sides”, said Councilmember Gordon Wozniak.  

Wengraf also took a swipe at city staff, saying, “We have to change the culture in the (Public Works) department about the Zero Waste Commission”. She praised the expertise and commitment of Commission volunteers. 

“We’ve got a complex jumble of things in front of us”, said Councilmember Max Anderson. “There’s going to be much more to be said about this.” 

He noted the Council had received “competing data” and said he wanted a process with “all the stakeholders at the table”, but warned, “Whatever solution we arrive at is not going to be winner take all.” 

Councilmembers Wozniak and Laurie Capitelli sounded the most supportive of the consultant report. “I think the report was a success”, said the former, noting that it had stimulated several parties, including the Ecology Center and unions to come forward with proposals for cutting costs. “You may quibble about the details, but it was a success.” 

He also said that city workers currently do more recycling than the Ecology Center, since the city handles green debris pick-up. 

However, he added, “it’s important we get the numbers that we can agree on.” 

“Our main job is to balance the budget and that’s what we have to do all the time”, said Councilmember Linda Maio. The city’s goal is zero waste, she said. “Our goal isn’t to have anyone laid off from their job.” 

“I have to say I heard a lot of interesting approaches tonight.” 

“I applaud the community” for coming and testifying, Councilmember Jesse Arreguin said. He was one of the councilmembers who thanked the SEIU union for recommendations.  

But “I am troubled by the lack of consultation with the stakeholders in developing this report”, he added. “Not connecting here really put us at a disadvantage.” 

Several councilmembers emphasized a point made by public speakers, that some of the numbers and data in the study are incomplete, outdated, or otherwise suspect. 

“Mr. Sloan and his staff did a job with the info available”, countered City Manager Phil Kamlarz who nonetheless added, “We’ll reconcile these numbers.” 

“We have to figure out what the costs are,” he emphasized, and “what are the best ways to assign those costs to the various rate payers.” 

“We need to reconcile the numbers, no doubt about that,” said Mayor Tom Bates. He emphasized that the Council would discuss the issue again on March 22, then would have a long hiatus when information could be researched and analyzed before further discussion in May. “We don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.” 

Kamlarz cautioned that the March 22 discussion would deal with the whole budget, not just the recycling contact and solid waste issues. 

Bates said, “I do think the report has opened up a whole panoply of problems and opportunities.” “It’s going to help us drill deep down.” 

“We’re much better off. We have time”, said Bates. “I have great confidence in the City manager, I have great confidence in the staff . . . In May we’ll get some solid proposals,” he concluded. 

Capitelli suggested that a Council subcommittee might look at the issues before May. Kamlarz said, “the idea of a subcommittee is not a bad idea.” “There are not easy solutions.” 

Capitelli added that he thought the City “should take an entrepreneurial attitude towards this”, and it was strange that “we had a business plan that if we actually achieve zero waste, it would bankrupt us.” 

“Thanks for coming, stay tuned”, Bates told the audience as the workshop ended. The Council took no formal action. 

During their comments some councilmembers tried to soothe over the impression of opposing union groups. “I don’t like, either, pitting one set of workers against each other”, said Anderson. “I really don’t want to sit here pitting one group of workers against each other”, Capitelli echoed. 

However, the two union contingents—IWW and SEIU—applauded different speakers and approaches. Several times during the evening the City workers broke into raucous chants of “SEIU! SEIU! SEIU!” following speakers they favored, prompting Bates at one point to remark, “We know you’re here.” 

SEIU member Dan Walker initially sounded a conciliatory note during his public comments, saying “We would like to be in partnership with everyone in the room, we’re not here to put anyone out of work.” But then he added that “someone has been bamboozled” if the Ecology Center was receiving $3.7 million a year for the contract but saying that costs could be reduced. 

A more strident tone came from SEIU city worker Andrea Lewis who said “no one has mentioned the Ecology Center [contract] as it stands right now is a 3.7 million item—that’s not peanuts.” “This contract has got to go to bid!”, she proclaimed, asking “Why is this contract so different?” 

“Had we [the City] done this [put the contract out to bid] we probably wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in now”, she concluded. The SEIU worker contingent cheered. 

Observing the audience from the downstairs hall where many Ecology Center supporters had congregated, I was struck by the stony silence of the watchers as the SEIU workers chanted in the room over their heads. In contrast, the downstairs crowd broke into applause several times for other speakers. 

The Ecology Center mustered several speakers from other organizations as supporters. Rich Auerbach of WEBAIC [West Berkeley Artisans and Industrial Companies] said he would “urge the City to reject the Sloan-Vazquez report”.  

Andy Katz, representing the local Sierra Club chapter, drew applause when he related a “resolution urging the Berkeley City Council to reject the Sloan-Vazquez report as an incomplete report.” 

“Nearly 40 years ago the Ecology Center pioneered curbside recycling, originally a radical idea”, he said. “We believe that the report is flawed in several ways” and “much new information needs to be gathered.” 

“It’s important to be pursuing efficiencies,” Katz said, and “just terminating the [Ecology Center] contract based on the study wouldn’t do that.” 

“The Sloan Vazquez report is really a red herring for the problem the City faces”, speaker Monica Wilson said. 

“The Ecology Center became an iconic solution”, said Armando Nieto, Executive Director of the California Food and Justice Coalition. He criticized the study for recommending ending the Ecology Center contract and transferring jobs to the City. “Someone has to take responsibility for pitting workers against each other” he said. 

Arthur Boone of the Northern California Recycling Association drew laughter when he criticized the report for noting that one-worker automated pick-up works well in Emeryville, Albany, and Oakland and could be applied to Berkeley.  

“I haven’t seem a steep hill in Emeryville”, he observed. “I’m not sure I’ve seen a narrow street in Albany.” 

“I urge you to proceed very, very cautiously”, he concluded. 

“The Ecology Center picks up recycling with ethics”, said Marcus, a former employee there. “They fought for the ideology of zero waste…The Ecology Center has the specialized knowledge and the specialized ethics.” 

“It’s important to remember that the Ecology Center is a non-profit,” Sally Greenberg told the Council. 

Gwen Loeb, who identified herself to the Council as “one of your newest residents”, said Berkeley wasn’t the prettiest, nicest, or least expensive place to buy a house, but “we chose to invest here because of your eco-system.”  

“When you look at problems you look at them more than just cost and revenue”, she said. “The Ecology Center is extremely important to the town.” [A Gwen Loeb is also the development director of the Ecology Center.] 

Other speakers urged the City to use the controversy as an opportunity to revisit some of its assumptions about waste disposal and recycling. 

“This is your perfect opportune moment to establish a resource development department”, Dr. Dan Knapp of Urban Ore said. “You should think of getting out of the garbage business. You’re in the resource management business . . . Recycling develops more resources now than the garbage you pick up.” 

“We are a good deal for the City of Berkeley,” he said. Urban Ore has a contract to extract some saleable items from the waste stream: “Last year we saved the City of Berkeley 71 thousand dollars.”  

An Urban Ore employee added that the City should keep its transfer station open later and market itself as a place for private parties looking for quick disposal to take their debris after all other recycling and refuse operations have closed for the day. “Stay open late at night, keep your assets busy”, he urged. “You could increase your cash flow hundreds of thousands per year.” 

The meeting was often passionate but generally not acrimonious, except for a brief exchange at the beginning where Councilmember Kriss Worthington tried to ensure that representatives of several affected groups, including Urban Ore, would have an opportunity to make comments to the Council.  

A temporarily testy Bates tried to cut off Worthington’s speaker proposal, complaining, “we’re going to spend all of our time debating this nonsense”, but ultimately the testimony ended up largely as Worthington had suggested, with representatives of the Ecology Center, Urban Ore, unions, and other organizations speaking.  

Bates rotated speaker order among the advocates of the different groups, finishing up with members of the public who identified themselves as not speaking formally for any of the organizations. 

For more information:

The Sloan-Vazquez report and Council item can be found here

The Ecology Center posted arguments against the report and its recommendations here

Video of the Council workshop can be found here. Note that the workshop was the “special” meeting on March 8, 2011, not the immediately adjacent regular meeting. 


Woman Struck by UC Berkeley Bus in Stable Condition

By Bay City News
Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 08:32:00 AM

A woman who was struck by a University of California shuttle bus Monday was in serious, but stable condition after surgery, a Berkeley police official said.

The 54-year-old woman was one of two female pedestrians who were injured Monday afternoon in Berkeley when one of the women was struck in a crosswalk by a University of California shuttle bus and the other injured herself trying to gain the bus driver's attention, police spokeswoman Sgt. Mary Kusmiss said. 

The women, who knew one another, were walking together in a crosswalk at the intersection of Center Street and Shattuck Avenue when one of the women was struck and run over by the bus, Kusmiss said. 

The other woman injured herself when she then banged on the bus with her hands to gain the driver's attention, Kusmiss said. 

The bus, which is operated by the University of California and runs between the campus and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, had been traveling westbound on Center Street and was making a right turn onto northbound Shattuck Avenue, Kusmiss said. 

She said the women were walking west in the north crosswalk at the intersection. 

Calls began pouring into Berkeley police at about 4:30 p.m. reporting the crash, Kusmiss said. 

A large crowd formed around the collision site as Berkeley firefighters worked to extricate the woman from beneath the bus, Kusmiss said. 

Once freed, the woman who had been struck was transported to a local trauma center with serious injuries to her lower extremities. She underwent some surgeries and was communicative as of Tuesday night, Kusmiss said. 

The other woman was treated on the scene and released. 

Berkeley police are still investigating the incident, Kusmiss said. 

Campus police declined to comment on the incident citing the Berkeley Police Department's lead role in the ongoing investigation. 

 


Devil Dog: The Amazing True Story of the Man Who Saved America By David Talbot (Simon & Schuster, 2010)

Reviewed by Gar Smith
Monday March 07, 2011 - 10:01:00 AM
Butler Reviewing Troops
Shanghai in 1927
Shanghai in 1927
Ethel and Smedley
Ethel and Smedley

‘Pulp History’ Reveals a Corporate Plot to Overthrow American Democracy

It was more than 25 years ago, while researching a story in a dark alcove of UC Berkeley’s little-visited newspaper library, that I chanced upon some transcripts from the first hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). What I discovered was shocking beyond belief. The records revealed an organized conspiracy to overthrow the US government but it was not one hatched by a secretive Moscow-directed Communist cell. HUAC’s initial alarm was focused on a plot bankrolled by the owners of major US corporations — including Goodyear, US Steel, JP Morgan, Heinz, and Maxwell House. 

Up to that point, I had associated HUAC with the anti-Communist witch-hunts of the 1950s and the Bay Area anti-HUAC demonstrations that pitted congressional fear-mongers against the righteous wrath of Berkeley’s indomitable Bill Mandel. It was Mandel who introduced his refusal to cooperate by addressing the Congressmen as: “Honorable beaters of children.” (Just outside the hearing room, protesters were being beaten in the San Francisco City Hall Rotunda while high-powered water hoses sent others flying down the hard marble staircase. See the documentaries: “Operation Abolition” and “Berkeley in the Sixties.”) 

To my amazement, the transcripts of those first hearings revealed how, in its original inception, HUAC was convened, not to hunt down “Com-symps,” but to investigate a fascist plot to topple President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a patrician Democrat derided by the country’s financial Upper Crust as “a traitor to his class.” 

My heart was in my throat as I read about the plan for a corporate-backed military coup planned for 1933. How could we not have heard of this? Why was there no mention of this in our schoolroom history books? Why was it that, in the official transcripts of the McCormak-Dickstein HUAC hearings, the names of the corporate conspirators had been blacked out? 

I asked a colleague at Mother Jones magazine about this remarkable page that had apparently been torn from of our national history and shredded. “I’ve only seen one reference to this,” he replied. “It was in a 1987 book by Ralph Nader called The Big Boys.” (Another book that dates from the same year is Maverick Marine: General Smedley D. Butler and the Contradictions of American Military History by Hans Schmidt.) 

In the nearly eight decades since the plot was hatched (and a quarter-century since the publication of Nader’s tome), only two books have dared to tackle this dark chapter in our country’s long-festering secret war between its citizenry and the superrich. In 2007, Jules Archer published his exposé, The Plot to Seize the White House: The Shocking True Story of the Conspiracy to Overthrow FDR (Skyhorse Publishing) and now, a plucky team of Bay Area writers and artists, is mainstreaming this long-suppressed story in a stunner of a book that combines the visual panache of graphic novel with the visceral punch of a nonfiction bombshell. 

Devil Dog, the first book in David Talbot’s “Pulp History” series from Simon & Schuster, celebrates the life of Smedley Darlington Butler, a unique American hero who single-handedly prevented the overthrow of representative government in the USA. A combination of historical narrative interspaced with copious sidebars and a “found history” grab bag of archival photos and mid-20th-Century memorabilia, Devil Dog also springs to life as an illustrated comic, courtesy of a slew of vivid pages rendered by local treasure Spain Rodriguez. 

“Devil Dog” was one of many colorful nicknames bestowed on Smedley Butler. While best known as the author of the extended essay “War Is a Racket,” Butler rightly deserves to be known as “The Man Who Saved America.” He was a war hero many times over and, in his day, the most decorated Marine in US history. His feats of soldiery were so notable — and the loyalty that he inspired among the enlisted ranks was so heartfelt — that the would-be coup plotters believed Butler was the only man who could raise a popular army to topple FDR in a military coup. 

These men did not know Smedley. 

Smedley Butler Exposes Fascist Coup Plot in HUAC Testimony 

From “The Corporation” (2:53 minutes) 

 

A Red-blooded Blueblood:  

Smedley Butler’s Amazing Life 

Butler was raised a Quaker in a wealthy Philadelphia family. His father, Congressman Thomas Butler, presided over the Naval Affairs Committee in Washington. Despite his blueblood heritage and political connections, Smedley enlisted to join the Marines to fight the Spaniards in Cuba — at the age of 16. 

By August 1900, 18-year-old Marine Lieutenant Butler was leading a squad of 45 enlistees through Hubei Province to lay siege to the Chinese capital of Peking — as part of a coalition of 16,000 men from eight Western nations. Butler defined just how tough a Marine could be. He lead the march despite having been shot through the leg and, while storming the walls outside the Forbidden City, Butler was knocked to the ground from a bullet to the chest. To the amazement of his fellow soldiers, he struggled back to his feet, saved by a metal button on his shirt that had deflected the bullet. With an aching chest and coughing blood, Butler picked up his weapons and plunged back into the assault. In the course of his 33-year military career, Butler came under fire 121 times. 

In Spain Rodriguez’ full-page illustration of Butler’s brush with death, a fellow soldier tells Butler: “We thought they got you in the heart.” In the next panel, Butler pulls open his bloodied shirt to show his chest, which is covered by a huge tattoo of the Marine Corps emblem — an eagle and anchor backing a globe of the Western Hemisphere. Pointing at the bloodstained tattoo, Butler cracks: “No, not in the heart. Just a piece of South America.” 

Devil Dogrecaps Butler’s astonishing run of military exploits — Cuba, China, Haiti, France, Nicaragua and the Philippines — with machinegun-bursts of purple prose: “The Chinese capital looked like Dante’s Inferno.” “Chinese girls threw themselves down wells rather than fall into the hands of the foreign devils.” “Butler and his comrades sang raucous songs, smashed Buddha statues and drank themselves into oblivion.” 

Butler Pauses Briefly for Marriage  

At the age of 23, Captain Butler had survived three wars and had been singled out by President Theodore Roosevelt as the example of “the ideal American soldier.” But not even the “Devil Dog” was immune to Cupid’s ammunition. To his amazement, Butler fell suddenly and totally in love with Ethel Peters, a fellow Philadelphia blueblood. In lurid Pulp History prose, Talbot writes how Butler would take Ethel and their children, Snooks and Smedley Jr., “to the sun-scorched outposts of he American Empire. She would kiss him farewell time after time, never knowing whether she would ever feel his lips again.” 

During the Taft Administration, Butler commanded the marines overseeing the construction of the Panama Canal. In a cheeky personal note, he recalled a visit from President Taft, at 300-pounds, the heaviest man ever to sit in the Oval Office. “The President held my two babies, Snooks and Smedley, on his lap — what there was of it,” Butler wrote. 

Butler Busts a Revolution in Nicaragua 

By August 1912, Butler was in Nicaragua “riding shotgun” on a locomotive filled with armed marines intent on breaking through a rebel blockade that threatened the US-backed regime. Braving bullets, bombs and broken rails, Butler plowed ahead. 

Rodriquez commemorates a classic “Butler moment” with a full-page illustration that shows an unarmed Butler standing on the tracks facing rebel leader who has a gun aimed at Butler’s chest. “If the train moves,” the rebel announces, “I shoot.” In response, Butler snatches the pistol from the rebel’s hand. “Then, for a theatrical flourish,” Talbot writes, “the marine emptied the cartridges onto the ground. There was a stunned silence. And, suddenly, hundreds of men — Nicaraguans and Americans — all burst into wild laughter.” 

Ordered to Haiti, Butler Winds up Running the Country 

In 1915, Butler was deployed to Haiti where a popular rebellion against the corrupt and murderous President Sam had erupted into “a carnival of gore.” After an angry mob stormed the palace and literally tore the US puppet to pieces, the Marines were entrusted with the chore of destroying a force of armed insurgents headed by a charismatic rebel named Caco. Butler found these “hunt and kill” missions (the forerunners of modern counterinsurgency warfare) distasteful but he soon won his second Medal of Honor for a succession of “suicide missions” that involved storming two rebel-held forts with small bands of 27 and 300 Marines. 

Haiti’s new, reform-minded government was in the midst of writing a new constitution that would have reduced the control of US-owned companies and banks. Butler was dispatched to intervene. He persuaded the new US puppet, President Dartiguenave, to disband the National Assembly. “The house of Haiti’s people, the final remnant of the nation’s democracy, was about to disappear,” Talbot writes. “Grumbling and fuming, Haiti’s legislators were then herded into the street by the gendarmes, who bolted the doors behind them.” 

In the European War, Butler Shines as a Can-do Administrator 

Serving as the de facto ruler of Haiti was a role that did not sit well on Butler’s shoulders. “He was no potentate, he was a fighting man.” With the storm clouds of World War I gathering over Europe, Butler lobbied Washington to send him to serve in the front lines of a “real war.” 

Politicians who refer to it as the “Great War,” did not witless the conflict through the eyes of the participants. In Butler’s case, the horror began even before the soldiers reached foreign shores. Butler was one of 4,000 soldiers aboard the USS Henderson when Spanish influenza swept the ship in mid-Atlantic. More than 1,200 (including Butler) were stricken and 100 died. 

To his dismay, Butler was not sent into combat. Instead, he was put in charge of Camp Pontanezen, a hellhole of a military encampment that Talbot paints as “a vast sprawl of khaki-colored tents, which seemed to be sinking in a sea of ooze.” The camp, built to accommodate 1,500, now held 65,000. More than 12,000 were feverish with influenza and hundreds were dying on a daily basis. 

Butler went to work, transforming the camp from a “national scandal” into something closer to a “big hotel” — with dry paths, clean rooms, warmth, hearty food and even an ice-cream factory. But Butler was unprepared for a problem he could not have anticipated. The specter of shell-shocked soldiers returning from the front tore at Butler’s soul. “They had been swept into the jaws of an industrial killing machine…. [and] mangled in breath-taking ways — shorn-off noses and chins, melted faces. But the ones whose wounds were inside seemed even more deeply broken.” In a two-page illustration titled “Belleau Wood,” Spain Rodriguez captures the utter horror of “modern,” mechanized warfare. 

Butler Tackles the Gangs of Philadelphia 

After the war, Butler returned to the US and a new position as commander of the Marine base at Quantico. In 1924, however, Butler took a break from his military duties at the behest of W. Freeland Kendrick, the new Mayor of Philadelphia. Kendrick wanted an incorruptible ally to rid the city of the crime and corruption spawned by the Bootleg Era. He got his man. One of Butler’s first acts as the city’s new Director of Public Safety was to shut down 973 saloons. But when Butler attempted to apply the same law to wealthy scofflaws in their hotels and private clubs (and drew unwanted attention to the bankers who were profiting from laundering bootleg profits), Kendrick suddenly got cold feet. Butler refused the mayor’s invitation to resign and Kendrick was forced to side with the gangsters and “bootleg kings.” He fired the war hero. 

By 1931, Butler was back in uniform and back at Quantico. At the age of 50, Butler was the country’s most highly decorated soldier and the Pentagon’s youngest major general. It was the year Butler would also make history of a darker kind — as the first officer since the Civil War to be arrested and stripped of his command “by the direct personal order of the president of the United States,” Herbert Hoover. 

Butler’s crime: he had made “unwarranted utterances” regarding Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. During a private speech, Butler had passed on a report that Mussolini had shrugged off his responsibility for the hit-and-run death of an Italian child with the callous comment: “Never look back.” 

The pillorying of Major General Butler may seem incomprehensible today but, back in the 1930s, Italy’s Mussolini and Germany’s Adolph Hitler were highly (and publicly) admired by America’s unapologetically right-wing corporate class. A page in Devil Dog is adorned with a reproduction of the October 18, 1935 issue of Time, with a flattering photo of Mussolini on the cover. Talbot quotes Henry Luce (the force behind both Time and Fortune) as looking forward to the day when “the moral force of Fascism may be the inspiration for the next general march of mankind.” 

It turns out there was a personal reason for the enmity between Butler and President Herbert Hover that stemmed from a shocking wartime encounter. The details of this story are another example of the many jaw-dropping examples of hidden history illuminated by Talbot’s Pulp History torchlight. In the end, Mussolini’s hit-and-run incident was confirmed and Butler was exonerated and reinstated, with full apologies. 

The Bonus Army and ‘America’s Mussolini’ 

It is around page 116 that Devil Dog begins to resonate with disturbing echoes of our own times. Millions of Americans had lost their jobs and homes because of the Depression. Around the country, families have been forced into squatter’s camps dubbed “Hoovervilles.” In July 1932, Washington became home to a protest encampment organized by the “Bonus Army,” a community of veterans demanding payment for wages lost during their years of service in the so-called Great War. 

Faced with the spectacle of “a ragged force, more than 15,000 strong — weather-beaten men and women in tattered clothes crowded between tents and shacks, and scrawny kids playing in the mud holes left over from the summer rain,” Hoover rejected a proposed “Bonus Bill,” arguing that Federal aid would not be a “stimulus” to the economy since the veterans would only “waste” any payments. 

Butler had resigned from military service in 1931 so that he would be free to speak out about the abuse of veterans and criticize wealthy “war racketeers” like industrialist Pierre DuPont. Butler delivered a speech, “War Is A Racket,” that remains perhaps the most truthful and savage exposé of the military-corporate complex on record — a stunning 30-page denunciation of the role of big business in fomenting war and controlling foreign and domestic policy. It deserves to share space in US history books alongside Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and Rev. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. [See the “War Is A Racket” sidebar.] 

War is a Racket by Smedley Butler 

A Reenactment of Smedley Butler’s Speech before the National VFW Convention performed by Graham Frye 

 

The Routing of the Bonus Army: America’s Tahrir Square 

Butler agreed to address the Bonus Army. He rallied the vast crowd, insisting that they should stand firm until they won passage of a Bonus Bill. “You have as much right to lobby here as the US Steel Corporation!” he thundered. But it all ended in a nightmarish assault of clubs, bullets and tear-gas when government troops under the command of Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur charged across the Anacostia River and scattered the protest camp, toppling its tents and setting fire to the rubble. It was a scene reminiscent of the recent assaults in Bahrain and Egypt. MacArthur justified the attack by claiming the hapless veterans in Washington’s “Tahrir Square” were Communist “revolutionaries” who planned to take over the government and hang the politicians. 

The shocking assault on America’s veterans turned the political tide against Hoover and toward the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Roosevelt clearly recognized the danger posed by MacArthur’s form of politicized militarism. “There’s a potential Mussolini for you,” FDR frowned. “Right here at home.” 

Butlerswitched parties and began campaigning for Roosevelt. He explained that he could not abide a government that “used gas and bayonets on unarmed human beings.” 

The Fascist Plot to Seize the White House 

When Roosevelt won the election, the super-rich escalated their efforts to promote their anti-worker interests by pouring their vast wealth into the creation of front groups and public propaganda campaigns. One of their greatest achievements was the creation of the American Legion. As Talbot explains: “Founded by conservative millionaires, the Legion was used by employers to break strikes and advance a reactionary agenda.” 

One of the major plotters was Colonel Grayson Mallet-Prevost Murphy, a Wall Street banker and director of the J. P. Morgan-owned Guaranty Trust. The plotters also included top officials from Bethlehem Steel and Goodyear Tire and Rubber. 

These business leaders were outspoken admirers of Germany’s Adolf Hitler and Italy’s Benito Mussolini — Europe’s paramount practitioners of state fascism. Hitler was such an admirer of US automaker Henry Ford’s self-published anti-Semitic tract, “The Eternal Jew,” that he honored Ford with the Grand Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle. Other admirers of Germany’s “anti-communist” regime included top officials at General Motors, General Electric, Standard Oil, Texaco, ITT, IBM and International Harvester. (ITT even had the chutzpah to bill US taxpayers $27 million for the damage wrought by US bombers that targeted its factories inside Nazi Germany.) 

One prominent member of the conspiracy to overthrow FDR was Senator Prescott Bush (father and grandfather of George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush). As the London Guardian reported on September 25, 2004: “newly discovered files in the US National Archives [reveal] that a firm of which Prescott Bush was a director was involved with the financial architects of Nazism. 

“His business dealings, which continued until his company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act, has led more than 60 years later to a civil action for damages being brought in Germany against the Bush family by two former slave laborers at Auschwitz. The evidence has also prompted one former US Nazi war crimes prosecutor to argue that the late senator's action should have been grounds for prosecution for giving aid and comfort to the enemy.” 

The means of FDR’s overthrow were far from subtle: The corporate conspirators planned a military coup that would remove Roosevelt from the Oval Office and install a business-friendly replacement. The idea was to enlist Butler to raise and command an army of US veterans to march on Washington with weapons supplied by Remington Arms, a company controlled by DuPont. After the take-over, “Secretary of General Affairs” Smedley Butler would run the government — with the close assistance of a shadow cabinet of Wall Street operators. 

Talbot managed to find the following quote from one of the plotters, Wall Street bond salesman Gerald MacGuire: “The American people will swallow that. We have got the newspapers. We will start a campaign that the president’s health is failing… and the dumb American people will fall for it in a second.” 

ButlerSpills the Beans to HUAC 

Butler played along with the plotters, hoping to determine whether they were serious and, in the meantime, gathering detailed information on their financing and networks. Finally, in November 1934, Butler sat down before the House Un-American Activities Committee and, under oath, spelled out the plot in painstaking detail. He began by stating: “I have one interest in all of this, and that is to try to do my best to see that a democracy is maintained in this country.” 

But the HUAC investigators failed to follow up on Butler’s charges. They balked at issuing subpoenas to compel the alleged plotters to testify. This left the business leaders free to claim that the plot was “a fantasy” concocted by Butler. The former war hero was left to “twist in the wind.” 

In his new book, War Is a Crime, David Swanson reports that the investigation stalled because Roosevelt offered the plotters a deal: In exchange for a promise to waive arrest and prosecution, the conspirators would agree to no longer stand in the way of FDR’s New Deal reforms. 

Butlerhad put his life and reputation on the line and felt betrayed — by the committee, by the press, by the Roosevelt Administration. Under fierce attack by the corporate-controlled press, Butler returned fire by mounting an unprecedented counter-attack. He became the fiery voice of America’s first radio talk show. Butler inked a deal with a local station to host a series of 15-minute radio broadcasts. The commentaries were soon picked up by CBS and broadcast nationally to a growing audience of avid listeners. 

Butlerwas not only a thorn in the side of the military-industrial complex, he was also a passionate visionary who proposed alternatives to the peculiar form of capitalism whose profits are wedded to war. As the liner notes on the 1935 edition of “War Is a Racket” put it: “He does more than expose and denounce the racket of war. He outlines a program for the control of wars in the future — a simple, hardheaded program, based on his own experience, his knowledge, and his patriotism. Here is a man who knows, writing of things he knows about.” 

After collapsing from exhaustion in the middle of strenuous speaking tour, Butler died on June 21, 1940 at the age of 58. His obituaries focused on his military exploits and largely avoided mention of the Big Business plot to destroy the country’s representative government. As a final insult, Talbot reports, the Hearst newspaper chain turned Butler into a pro-American, war-loving cartoon character in a strip called “Heroes of Democracy.” The strip never mentioned how Butler stood up to Wall Street’s plot against democracy. 

The legacy of Butler’s amazing life has been effectively whitewashed from American history but Pulp History’s Devil Dog has handed readers the tools they need to amend mainstream history’s whitewashed wall with a vigorous graffiti makeover. Butler’s struggle against the moneyed classes and corporate fascism is a struggle that we are facing today. The power of private corporations, of wealthy oil barons like the Koch brothers, of manufactured “gasroots” groups like the Tea Party, is growing stronger by the day. We may not have Smedley Darlington Butler with us any more but, thanks to David Talbot’s crackling opus, we still have old Devil Dog’s words and passion to stir us. 

Postscript:Insiders at the Talbot Players office in San Francisco confirm that a film based on the life of Smedley “Devil Dog” Butler is “under discussion.” 

‘War Is a Racket’: Rep. Ron Paul Picks up Butler’s Banner / MoxNews.com 

 


War Is A Racket

By Major General Smedley Butler
Tuesday March 08, 2011 - 09:59:00 PM
Major General Smedley Butler
Major General Smedley Butler

War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes. 

I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. 

I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. 

I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927, I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. 

Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents…. 

Yes, we have had disarmament conferences and limitations of arms conferences. They don't mean a thing. One has just failed; the results of another have been nullified. We send our professional soldiers and our sailors and our politicians and our diplomats to these conferences. And what happens? 

The professional soldiers and sailors don't want to disarm. No admiral wants to be without a ship. No general wants to be without a command. Both mean men without jobs. They are not for disarmament. They cannot be for limitations of arms. And at all these conferences, lurking in the background but all-powerful, just the same, are the sinister agents of those who profit by war. They see to it that these conferences do not disarm or seriously limit armaments. 

The chief aim of any power at any of these conferences has not been to achieve disarmament to prevent war but rather to get more armament for itself and less for any potential foe. 

There is only one way to disarm with any semblance of practicability. That is for all nations to get together and scrap every ship, every gun, every rifle, every tank, every warplane. Even this, if it were possible, would not be enough. 

Secretly each nation is studying and perfecting newer and ghastlier means of annihilating its foes wholesale. Yes, ships will continue to be built, for the shipbuilders must make their profits. And guns still will be manufactured and powder and rifles will be made, for the munitions makers must make their huge profits. And the soldiers, of course, must wear uniforms, for the manufacturer must make their war profits too. 

But victory or defeat will be determined by the skill and ingenuity of our scientists. If we put them to work making poison gas and more and more fiendish mechanical and explosive instruments of destruction, they will have no time for the constructive job of building greater prosperity for all peoples. By putting them to this useful job, we can all make more money out of peace than we can out of war -- even the munitions makers. 

So...I say, TO HELL WITH WAR! 

To read the complete version of Butler’s 33-page booklet, go to: 

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/CAH/warisaracket.html 


Berkeley Council Honors Local Suffrage Pioneers

By Steven Finacom
Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 10:18:00 AM
The two women on the current City Council, Susan Wengraf and Linda Maio, took turns reading the proclamation.
Steven Finacom
The two women on the current City Council, Susan Wengraf and Linda Maio, took turns reading the proclamation.
From left to right, John Aronovici of the Berkeley Historical Society, Nancy Bickel of the League of Women Voters of Berkeley-Albany and Emeryville chapter, and Phyllis Housel Gale, associated with both the Historical Society and the local chapter of the American Association of University Women.
Steven Finacom
From left to right, John Aronovici of the Berkeley Historical Society, Nancy Bickel of the League of Women Voters of Berkeley-Albany and Emeryville chapter, and Phyllis Housel Gale, associated with both the Historical Society and the local chapter of the American Association of University Women.

The City Council honored the Centennial of Women's Suffrage in California with a proclamation at the March 8, 2011, Council meeting. Local celebrations and commemorations will concentrate in the Fall, around the October 10 one-hundredth anniversary of the election in which women won the vote in California. 

Berkeley women and their male allies were among the leaders in the statewide campaign, and Berkeley was the only municipality in the Bay Area where male voters in 1911 supported voting rights for women. Statewide, the margin of victory came from rural voters, not urban areas. 

The two women on the current City Council, Susan Wengraf and Linda Maio, took turns reading the proclamation, which was then ceremonially handed to three individuals representing the groups organizing the local commemorations. 

From left to right, John Aronovici of the Berkeley Historical Society, Nancy Bickel of the League of Women Voters of Berkeley-Albany and Emeryville chapter, and Phyllis Housel Gale, associated with both the Historical Society and the local chapter of the American Association of University Women. Gale has been the leader in the local effort. 

Gale noted to the Council that April, 1912, was the first time Berkeley women were actually able to vote. A municipal election took place that month, some six months following the approval of suffrage. California was the sixth state where women won the right to vote. Nationally, the Constitution was not amended to require voting rights for women throughout the country until 1920. 

A more detailed account of the Berkeley Women's Suffrage movement was in the March 2, 2011, Planet.


Berkeley Mardi Gras Frog Parade Celebrates "High Hoppy Holiday"

By Steven Finacom
Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 09:32:00 AM
Costumed participants gathered under the banner of the “Hoppy Mardi Gras”
                              celebration for lunch in People’s Park.
Steven Finacom
Costumed participants gathered under the banner of the “Hoppy Mardi Gras” celebration for lunch in People’s Park.
A giant rolling frog loomed above all at Berkeley's Mardi Gras Frog Parade.
Steven Finacom
A giant rolling frog loomed above all at Berkeley's Mardi Gras Frog Parade.
The sun came out as revelers arrived at People’s Park.
Steven Finacom
The sun came out as revelers arrived at People’s Park.
The free-form procession made its way down Bowditch Street with music.
Steven Finacom
The free-form procession made its way down Bowditch Street with music.

With a whimsical, free form, spirit of celebration, several dozen partiers took to the streets and parks of Berkeley Tuesday, March 8, 2011. Loosely organized around “The Church of the Great Green Frog”, the annual event coincides with Mardi Gras “Fat Tuesday”.  

Participants took a leisurely wander through the streets of south and southeast Berkeley handing out Mardi Gras beads, and inviting friends and strangers to share food and fun. 

This year it included visits to several schools, outdoor breakfast at Willard Park, and a stop in People’s Park, before a final procession down to the vicinity of the Ashby BART Station. 

“Has anyone seen a Jesus around here?” asked one reveler as the crowd paused in People’s Park for additional food and camaraderie.  

No obvious conventional saviors were in evidence but there was a medieval lady in diaphanous green, a piper in gold tights, a man in vivid yellow cape and red (really red) hair, another in a top hat and tiger striped jumpsuit, and a wide variety of other costumed revelers, all circulating under the benevolent gaze of “Reverend Jim”, himself in a vivid, sequined, coat that proclaimed “Amphibian Suffrage” on the back, above an inverted purple heart. 

I asked him about the event. His answers were both stately and oracular. How long has this event been going on? “Since this morning”, he answered after a considered pause. 

“The celebration has been going on in one form or another way before civilization” he amended. 

Daniel Miller, local community garden organizer and another regular participant, provided a little more conventional context. The event is a couple of decades old. The focus on the frog relates, in part, to the fact that amphibians are often the first creatures to show signs of stress when environments are altered. 

Miller said the parade doesn’t have a formal route, but generally tries to stay within the watershed of Derby Creek. A branch of the creek flows under People’s Park.  

The Reverend Jim said that when he came to Berkeley from New Orleans he saw stencils of frogs along the curbs, part of an effort by Urban Ecology to mark the underground route of Berkeley’s original creeks. Each creek had its own iconic animal figure; Derby Creek got the frog. 

Miller believes the frog sculpture itself is about 17 years old, refurbished every few years by participants. This year it sported a new, astroturfed, rolling pedestal. 

“The frogs were around when the dinosaurs were”, said Reverend Jim. “The dinosaurs didn’t worship the frogs, and they died out. We want to stave off extinction through worshiping the frog.”  

It’s our “High Hoppy Holy Holiday” he added. A banner proclaiming “The One True Church of the Giant Green Frog” preceded the small procession as it glided along the street, fringed with musicians and bicyclists.  

In addition to the frog, revelers, festooned with Mardi Gras beads, pushed along another rolling structure that looked like a cross between an outhouse and a giant banana.  

“It’s a frogtilla instead of a flotilla” Miller said. “We do it in solidarity with New Orleans and the World”, added another participant. 

 


Berkeley Barricade Suicide Victim Identified

By the Berkeley Daily Planet
Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 01:01:00 PM

The Alameda County Coroner's office has identified the man who shot himself while barricaded in his home in the 1800 block of Marin Avenue in Berkeley as Owen Davis. 

In a press release, the Berkeley Police Department reported that about 7:36 PM on March 7, they received a single report of a “loud report” in the 1800 block of Marin. 

The release continued: 

"A few minutes later, the first officer on scene reported hearing two shots fired nearby. Shortly afterwards, a resident called in, reporting that a shot had struck their home on the 1800 block of Marin. 

Responding officers determined a person inside a residence had apparently fired the shots. Officers contained the scene, evacuating some nearby residents for their safety. 

The Berkeley Police Department Barricaded Subject/Hostage Negotiation Team was activated, and responded to the scene. 

Over the course of the next several hours, team members attempted to negotiate with a person inside a residence on the 1800 block of Marin. 

Ultimately, officers on containment outside the residence heard a single gunshot. Officers subsequently entered the premises and located a person inside, deceased from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound." 

 


Opinion

Editorials

Can NPR Be Saved? Once Again, Board Caves to Critics

By Becky O'Malley
Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 10:27:00 AM

This morning the news on NPR, which at our house is turned on right after the alarm goes off, was vigorous backpedaling on the part of management. This followed an earlier story of how a bigtime fundraising guy for the organization had been trapped in a sting by far right activists, and had admitted to the faux donors sent to ensnare him that he was contemptuous of the tea baggers and wished NPR didn’t have to depend on federal funding. The shills even caught the exchange on video, it seems.

For a change, let’s just quote Fox News:

“Embattled NPR CEO Vivian Schiller resigned Wednesday after a hidden-camera video was released showing a fellow executive criticizing Republicans as ‘anti-intellectual’ and calling the Tea Party ‘racist.’ “

Well, whoop-de-do! The guy seems to have said that the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes—and heads have rolled because of it. 

This just in: Republicans ARE anti-intellectual, and that’s a mild way of putting it. Shtoopid, is what he should have said. And here I quote the late father of a friend, who is reported to have said “the Shtoopids, they’re everywhere!” They’re certainly in the Republican Party and especially in its Tea Party wing. And two NPR execs have now been forced out because one of them mentioned it?  

Not only that, many Tea Baggers are indeed racists. Everybody Holler Surprise! 

NPR’s national news operation is supported mainly by outside contributions, not by federal funds, but a recent congressional threat to cut funding for public broadcasting would have considerable impact on many local station who rely on this source for the majority of their revenue. And NPR’s national board is dominated by representatives of local stations, which might explain its kneejerk reaction in what most sources call dumping Vivian Schiller. Evidently her mistake was hiring the fundraiser (also confusingly named Schiller, though he’s no relation to Vivian) who was a bit too candid with the sting people. 

What’s problematic in this story is that many high up at NPR, liberals though they might be, are also lily-livered cowards. (Some in Berkeley might call that an oxymoronic statement, but not me.) The tenor of this discussion is all too reminiscent of the bad old days of Senator McCarthy (from Wisconsin!) and the House Un-American Activities committee. Just suggest that someone has heterodox leanings, and out the door with him or her. 

The whole hidden camera thing is disgusting. If it were journalism, which it’s not, it would be considered unethical by many, especially because producers have been caught doctoring their products in order to deceive the viewer. I’m even a bit uncomfortable with Michael Moore’s well-known technique of ambushing his subjects, even though he usually discloses his identity, but I laugh along with everyone else in the theater. 

In California, what the stingers did would be illegal. Here, one party to a conversation where there’s a reasonable expectation of privacy may not record without the consent of the other party—it’s a felony, and also exposes the recording party to a civil lawsuit. 

(I learned this myself the hard way as a novice reporter for the San Francisco Bay Guardian when I surreptitiously taped a salesman’s bait-and-switch pitch and told the story in the paper. The next day we got an outraged call from the Guardian’s legal advisor: “Not only did you commit a felony, you boasted about it in print!” Fortunately the statute of limitations ran before I was prosecuted. That was pre-lawschool…now I know better.) 

It’s a shame that the NPR board saw fit to cave in to Tea Party pressure—and so fast. A certain sensitivity already existed there because of the brouhaha over firing Juan Williams. I’ve always thought the guy’s a jerk, but even jerks deserve more due process than he got for confessing on Fox News that he’s afraid of people in funny clothes on planes. But firing (can’t remember the euphemism they used) the woman who fired Williams only compounded the error. 

Would it be possible for whoever’s still standing at NPR to sit down, take a deep breath, and establish some clear and fair policies here? It’s not usual in most workplaces for employees to be let go because of what they say when they’re off duty, and it’s even more unusual for their supervisors to be axed into the bargain. And when the undesirable opinions have been uttered in what was supposed to be a private conversation….come on! It’s just not fair to blame the entrapped victim if the offending words are later publicized by unscrupulous parties. 

One could certainly argue, and some have, that judgment is important in a fundraising executive. If Mr. Schiller didn’t know that it was foolish to spill his brains to his potential marks, even if he thought he was sucking up to people who agreed with him and would give more because they did, perhaps he should be replaced—but discretely, not with all this hoopla. And NPR (whoever’s in charge) didn’t even take the bait—they turned down the proferred $5 million, which came with strings attached. 

This is very serious business, because increasing numbers of people get most of their news from radio. Among those I know, most get their basic information about how the world is turning from NPR news broadcasts, not from print papers either local or national, and not from television. (A diehard minority listens to Pacifica outlets, especially KPFA, but those stations have their own problems too complex to discuss today.) 

Is there anything listeners can do to help NPR grow some backbone? A good percentage of NPR reporters understand what’s up—several of them are old colleagues of mine from previous lives who recognize the appropriate standards in these situations. But the working journalists don’t have much clout there, and they don’t have much that’s complimentary to say about their management. 

One contaminating factor is the way non-profit “public” media are increasingly reliant on big corporate advertisers, known as “underwriters” in the trade. If Archer Daniels Midlands is buttering your bread with its corn oil margarine, it’s harder to report objectively on the environmental risks of corn-derived biofuels.  

If local individuals gave more financial support to local news stations, perhaps they wouldn’t have to rely so much on either the federal government or corporate sponsors. And it’s possible to figure out which local stations are supported predominantly by listeners instead of by corporations. Strengthening local NPR outlets (and KPFA too) is the news consumer’s best antidote to NPR’s weak-kneed national management at the moment. 

 


Cartoons

Cartoon Page: Odd Bodkins, BOUNCE

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 09:21:00 AM

 

Dan O'Neill

 

 

Joseph Young

 


Public Comment

Letters to the Editor

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 12:38:00 PM

What is Kaiser Permanente Doing? Repeal McCarron-Ferguson to Control Insurance Costs;The Founders on War;The White Elephant Sale; Vote For the Balanced Budget; Berkeley Library Funds;Who Are the Anti-Abortionists; Get Rid of Guns 

What is Kaiser Permanente Doing? 

Kaiser has made the decision of remove their Nurse Practitioners from seeing long-term, ongoing patients and throw them into short relationship rolls without actual patient contact, such as perioperative telephone assessments. 

Why is it important to have the choice of seeing a Nurse Practitioner over a doctor? Let me explain it this way: we all wax nostalgic for the almost mythical old family doctor who knew us, knew our family and history. A doctor who developed a genuine relationship with us as more than a set of symptoms who just walked in the door. People think that service has gone the way of high-button shoes, but it hasn’t. There are people still practicing medicine that same humanitarian way, and they are called Nurse Practitioners. 

Eliminating NP’s as an option for patients leads Kaiser farther into what I think of as conveyer-belt medicine – in one door with a symptom, head down the line with nameless people treating you and exit at the end. Efficient yes, but not the best of what healthcare can offer. 

Kaiser advertises that they want us to “Thrive”, well let us thrive by giving us the choice of seeing Nurse Practitioners. 

Dianne Strong 

*** 

Repeal McCarron-Ferguson to Control Insurance Costs 

Recently Blue Shield, Anthem, Blue Cross, Aetna, and PacifiCare announced extravagant health insurance increases here in California and in other parts of the country. Why? Because they can. When referring to health insurance companies, politicians and commentators have used terms such as "cartel," "secret pricing and consolidation," "exorbitant price increases." and "confidential agreements among hospitals, physician groups, insurers and device makers." All these allegations raise antitrust concerns. Unfortunately, the McCarran-Ferguson Act exempts Insurance from the federal antitrust laws. Therefore, antitrust enforcement, if any, is left to the 50 states. The Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2009" (S.1681), would have repealed this exemption for health insurance companies, but the legislation died in the last Congress. Similar legislation should be introduced again. Repealing the McCarran-Ferguson Act coupled with increased antitrust enforcement is a relatively simple first step if the ultimate goals are to rein in health care costs and provide health care to the largest number of consumers. 

Ralph E. Stone 

*** 

The Founders on War 

James Madison's often quoted dictum, "No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare," reflected a view that was widely shared by the Founders. That concept was a basis for our Constitution's provision that only Congress can declare war. Yet, today, America's presidents start wars as if they were kings in old Europe. (Those wars, it should be noted, were a major reason our forefathers risked all to leave Europe.) 

United States produces 9.0% the world total oil. In 2009, the U.S. imported about 52% of the crude oil and refined petroleum products that it used. In other words, America could have saved that much oil simply by being more conservative in their consumption rather than having to go to war to try to get back. But they'd rather go to war & lose tens of thousands of lives, & all the billions of dollars a war will cost, & God only knows what else! 

We take a stand for the principle inThomas Jefferson's first inaugural address: "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations - entangling alliances with none.Imagine how much this war is costing them! If they would double the price of gasoline for years & years, that still will only be a minute drop in the bucket to what this war is costing them. 

Ted Rudow III, MA 

The White Elephant Sale 

If things appeared unnaturally quiet in your neighborhood this past weekend (March 5th-6th), chalk it up to the Oakland Museum's White Elephant Sale, the most enjoyable rummage sale in Northern California. Housed in a 96,000 square-foot warehouse at 333 Lancaster Street, with 17 departments offering everything from art, linens, furniture, etc., etc., this was Paradise for bargain seeks. And they come -- boy, did they come! 

Shoppers were encouraged to take the Fruitvale Bart, then board a shuttle for a ride to the Warehouse. Not so simple. I waited in line for more than a hour to get on the shuttle. Then, once at the Warehouse, I stood in line another hour just to get inside. Believe me, friends -- it was worth the wait. Only where to begin? Once inside this giant building, handed a map showing the various departments, I felt like a child in a candy store, overcome by so much quality merchandise at such reasonable prices. This being the "free" weekend sale, the Warehouse was understandably jammed and one had to stand in line another hour to have their purchases priced and written up. Again, there was another hour wait for the shuttle back to Fruitvale Bart. Clutching my several purchases, I watched the block-long lines of people hoping to get in before the 4 p.m. closing time. I was one of the lucky ones. 

I understand that last year's White Elephant Sale brought in well over $1-million. I suspect that figure will be surpassed this year, the proceeds supporting many of the Museum's splendid exhibits and educational programs. How fortunate we are to have this wonderful Oakland Museum in our Bay Area. 

Dorothy Snodgrass 

* * * 

Vote For the Balanced Budget 

Legislators will soon have the opportunity to vote on a balanced budget, based on an even mix of cuts and revenue, including a proposal for a special election on tax extensions. The community and faith leaders of PICO California, representing 450,000 families statewide, believe this proposal must move forward. Berkeley Organizing Congregations for Action (BOCA) is a non-profit, faith based organization of 18 member congregations representing over 10,000 Berkeley families. We provide training in community organizing in order to empower our leaders to become activists for positive change in the areas of parent engagement in the public schools, health insurance for all Berkeley and California residents, fair and affordable housing for our families, just immigration policies, and community safety. BOCA is a member of the PICO NATIONAL NETWORK of faith based community organizations, representing over one million families in 150 cities and 16 states. 

California needs thoughtful and courageous leaders. We need leaders who are open to bipartisan solutions to get the state back on track. We need leaders willing to move beyond partisanship towards a brighter future. And we need leaders with faith in their constituents and in Democracy. 

We are heartened by news of legislators forging a compromise that puts California first. The alternative – devastating cuts to education and health and human services are not an option. 

For our communities and for our state: Have courage. Have faith. Let us vote 

Berkeley Boca 

* * * 

Berkeley Library Funds 

I see today, that the Berkeley Public Library is spending Berkeley tax money to advertise in the East Bay Express? Why? there's no reason for our library to advertise in a regional paper. It seems to me that our library is well used enough, and does not need to be spending funding on advertising. Buy more books instead, or have longer hours instead. It clearly seems like an inappropriate use of funds, and should stop immediately. 

yolanda huang 

* * * 

Corporate Taxes 

Well, corporate income taxes in this country are one-third lower than they were in 2000—even though corporate profits are up 60 percent and corporations have almost $2 trillion in cash. They’re approaching $7,000 of cash for every man, woman and child in the United States. They’re not investing this money. They’re not creating jobs. They are hoarding this money that they have pulled out of the economy. It’s one of the reasons we’re in so much trouble. 

Now, as to the argument that our tax rate is too high, it is because of all these special favors. The reason the tax code has grown and grown and grown and grown and grown isn’t because of people like you and me and the audience; it’s because of all these favors being bought from politicians. How we could raise a trillion dollars a year—that would double the revenue we get, it’s equal to the revenue we get from the individual income tax—by shutting down loopholes and favors for businesses, particularly the oil and gas and pharmaceutical industries. The fact is, the very largest corporations, the ones who are the vast majority of wealth in America, they pay an effective tax rate of about 15 percent of their profits. 

Ted Rudow III, MA 

* * * 

Who Are the Anti-Abortionists? 

Anti-abortionists have been crafting their art for three decades. 

Anti-abortion activists have started out the new year by conducting hidden-camera stings at clinics, putting up a billboard declaring abortion the No. 1 threat to blacks, and performing ultrasounds on pregnant women in front of Ohio legislators. 

So who are these people? The bulk of the anti-abortion movement are fundamentalist and evangelical fringe. They are the Taliban in Afghanistan oppressing women and are fundamentalists who have co-opted religions around the world. The fundamentalist movement preach and seek to control woman's reproductive rights and behavior. 

In America, fundamentalist and evangelical anti-abortionists are trying to deny women of their basic freedom, God-given freedom of choice. Woman's bodies are under attack by a bunch of religious fanatics. 

Fundamentalist men and the women who support them have adopted a narrow, literal interpretation of religious scripture and they seek to impose it on women and America. 

It's not just abortion rights at stake, it's also access to real sex education, birth control, and medical privacy. 

Ron Lowe 

* * * 

Get Rid of Guns 

Why ruin Spring - let's clear up the crazy gun logic that keeps being perpetrated by NRA and gun lobbies. Foreign newspapers, The Times, London, The Dominion Post, New Zealand, Arabic Times, Kuwait, The Express Tribune, Karachi, Pakistan, The Japanese Times, Japan, are not filled with gun violence stories. Why? They don't have the gun culture that America has 

Guns are lethal weapons - they kill animals, people, kill a lot of people in America. More than 100,000 people in America are shot in murders, assaults, suicides, accidents each year. Time magazine breaks down this100,00 figure in its January 24, 2011 issue. 31,224 people died from gun violence; 17,352 people killed themselves with guns; 12,632 people were murdered with guns; 3067 children and teens died from gun violence; 2,161 children and teens were murdered with guns; 683 children and teens killed themselves with guns, and, 66,768 people survived gun injuries. 

If this isn't insane enough the Texas and Arizona legislatures have bills that would allow guns on college campuses. Can't you see it, a kid pulls out a Glock from his backpack and sprays the hall with bullets because he sees his girl in the arms of another guy. Or, a student doesn't get the grade he thinks he deserves; remember he's got that Glock in his backpack. 

Some people seem to think they can solve a problem with a gun; a broken romantic relationship, family disputes, work related arguments. The easy availability of guns let's people turn their thoughts and emotions into actions. 

Ron Lowe 

* * * 

KPFA 

Thanks for identifying the March 2 KPFA item on Page One as a “press release,” but isn’t your policy to put KPFA-related material on the opinion page? The source of this “press release” is “SaveKPFA.” Readers should understand that the “SaveKPFA” website is the slick propaganda arm of a small but powerful group of station insiders. Propaganda operates through an ends-justify-means model, not a duty to report events accurately and truthfully model. One of the primary tools of propaganda is the use of deception to shape perceptions of reality. It’s sad and confounding how easy it is for “SaveKPFA” to use relationships with progressive luminaries and various media outlets to lend credibility to and provide a platform for their self-serving narrative. 

Former Morning Show host Brian Edwards-Tiekert was not “reinstated” by Pacifica; he merely exercised his bumping rights per the CWA union contract, bumping someone, John Hamilton in this case, with less seniority and equivalent skill set. Edwards-Tiekert could have done this at any point after he was laid off over three months ago but waited until now. Why didn’t he hold out for what he wanted, reinstatement as Morning Show host? Because there was no way he would have won; the layoffs followed the seniority provisions of the union contract. (Mitch Jeserich, the only other host with less seniority, was deemed irreplaceable because of his “inside the Beltway” contacts and knowledge and since his program is carried by several Pacifica stations.) And why was BET given 3 months’ back pay? Because this was thousands of dollars less than it would have cost Pacifica to contest the issue, and Pacifica, like KPFA, is fighting for its financial life. So when “union activists at KPFA allege that Hamilton's layoff is retaliatory” they are simply propagandizing; again, Hamilton was not laid off but bumped by Brian Edwards-Tiekert. 

I would hope that audiences for the Planet and KPFA would approach communications from “SaveKPFA,” KPFA Worker (which represents only a portion of paid staff and does not speak for unpaid staff), and the on-air hosts associated with the Concerned Listener/”SaveKPFA” faction with a huge amount of skepticism. If the Planet chooses to run a front page "press release" from a faction that regularly propagandizes over KPFA’s air and calls it news, it should at least try, in the interest of fairness, to solicit an alternative point of view to run alongside it. 

Steve Gilmartin 

 


City Council Rolls Over on Point Molate EIR

By Tom Butt, Richmond City Councilmember
Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 10:56:00 AM

Intimidated by both Upstream, which has threatened to sue, and its own City Attorney’s Office, the Richmond City Council’s wimped out majority exposed their jellied backbones last night and certified a final EIR (FEIR) for the Point Molate casino project that almost everyone agreed was substantially flawed, including other credible public agencies like the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) Bay Trail Project, the East Bay Regional Parks District and the West Contra Costa Transportation Advisory Committee. 

This was stunningly similar to the events that led to the certification of the Chevron EIR in 2008 that was eventually challenged and thrown out in court. 

Richmond’s award-winning Trails for Richmond Action Committee (TRAC) made a valiant effort to include the Bay Trail connection across I-580 as a mitigation and provided expert testimony supporting a fair and rational funding formula. The City Council majority blew them off. 

Despite the fact that several U.S. Government agencies, including the Center for Disease Control, the Surgeon General and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) have all published reports that find that secondhand smoke in casinos is harmful to health, the City Council backed off a proposed mitigation that would have either banned smoking or required that employees not be exposed to smokers. This was particularly shocking given Richmond’s recognized leadership in the movement to protect people from unwanted secondhand tobacco smoke. I guess if someone is desperate enough to take a casino job, they deserve to die of lung cancer. 

The California Native Plant Society was the lone environmental organization to point out serious errors in both the FEIR and the process by which it was fast tracked to approval at the 11th hour. Most other environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club, had long since been bought off by Upstream for a reported $45 million. 

Only Mayor McLaughlin and I did not vote for the certification. Nat Bates was out of town. I was so disgusted when I saw the way things were going south, I just went home. 

The FEIR was prepared by Analytical Environmental Services (AES) of Sacramento, a consulting firm that is substantially supported by Indian tribes seeking casino approvals, and they were paid directly by the Guidiville Band for their work. Although the City had signed a secret agreement with the Bureau of Indian Affairs in 2005 making the City an equal partner in the EIR process, City staff did little more than rubber stamp the document that had all the appearances of being ghost written by Upstream. 

All in all, it was one of the most disappointing performances by both staff and the City Council that I have ever endured. At the end of the day, it was all about money. I thought we were on a roll towards a new era for Richmond, but it was déjà vu all over again in Richmond last night. 


The Hidden Costs of Library Demolitions

By Lori Kossowsky
Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 11:12:00 AM

As a disabled person and a South Berkeley resident, I wouldn’t have voted for Measure FF if it had said that my branch library would be demolished. Did I miss something in the fine print? 

I thought that Dr. Judith Epstein’s commentary about the libraries was excellent. She explained that, once the City changed plans and decided to demolish the South and West Branch Libraries, Measure FF bond funds would no longer be able to cover all of the projects’ expenses. The City Attorney said that Measure FF funds could not be used for the demolitions, and according to the Director of Library Services, the General Fund would pay for the demolitions. Some much-needed programs will probably face significant cuts in order to pay for the South and West Branch Library demolitions. 

I really appreciate the work that Concerned Library Users (CLU) has done, especially in the light of the defamation campaign waged against them in an effort to get them to drop their lawsuit. Since I have met many CLU members, I want to ask you to please not to drop your lawsuit no matter how hard it may get, because a lot of people, including myself, are counting on you to do the right thing. 

Like most disabled people (and on a fixed income), I depend on city services that are always in danger of being cut when money is short. Each year, almost all of the City’s General Fund is committed to staff pensions and salaries before it even reaches the City Council’s budget process. The people who truly need City services fight for a tiny portion of funds that are open to discretion. The process of dividing this small pot of money between many deserving constituencies is often capricious and politically motivated. 

For example, last summer, there wasn’t enough money in the General Fund to keep Willard Pool open for a mere three months after Measure C failed. Council members Worthington and Wozniak presented a plan to delay re-paving two District 7 and 8 streets to keep Willard Pool open for the summer, but the motion failed. Disabled people have a variety of needs, and some disabled people, such as those with Multiple Sclerosis, needed the Willard Pool, because it was local and the warm pool was too hot for them. When the Willard Pool was closed, it left South Berkeley without any public recreation facilities. 

In voting against the motion, Mayor Bates and Council member Capitelli discussed the importance of maintaining the street-paving schedule. One Council member said that there wasn’t enough money to extend hours for the Women’s Drop-In Center, so she reasoned that she couldn’t vote to keep Willard Pool open. Council Member Anderson responded that just because one program couldn’t be saved, it didn’t mean that no programs should be saved. In the months after Willard Pool closed, there was considerable discussion about whether the pool closure was politically motivated in order to deny Council member Worthington a public victory in the months leading up to the election. 

We can expect much the same kind of behavior when the Council considers the City’s next budget, which will have an added expense due to the demolitions of the South and West Branch Libraries. Because the City has decided to violate Measure FF, these costs will have to come out of the General Fund. Tax revenues are down, and we know that pensions and salaries won’t be cut, so who will pay the price for the demolitions? Only the most needy. 


Columns

Dispatches From The Edge: The CIA, Pakistan & Tangled Webs

By Conn Hallinan
Monday March 07, 2011 - 09:59:00 AM

Was American CIA agent Raymond Davis secretly working with the Taliban and al-Qaeda to destabilize Pakistan and lay the groundwork for a U.S. seizure of that country’s nuclear weapons? Was he photographing sensitive military installations and marking them with a global positioning device? Did he gun down two men in cold blood to prevent them from revealing what he was up to? These are just a few of the rumors ricocheting around Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar in the aftermath of Davis’s arrest Jan. 27, and sorting through them is a little like stepping through Alice’s looking glass. 

But one thing is certain: the U.S. has hundreds of intelligence agents working in Pakistan, most of them private contractors, and many of them so deep in the shadows that Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), doesn’t know who they are or what they are up to. “How many more Raymond Davises are out there?” one ISI official asked Associated Press

Lots, it would appear. Five months ago, the Pakistani government directed its embassies in the U.S. to issue visas without letting the ISI or Pakistan’s Interior Ministry vet them. According to the Associated Press, this opened a “floodgate” that saw 3,555 visas for diplomats, military officials and employees issued in 2010. 

Many of those visas were for non-governmental organizations and the staff for the huge, $1 billion fortress embassy Washington is building in Islamabad, but thousands of others covered consular agents and workers in Lahore (where Davis was arrested), Karachi and other cities. Some of those with visas work for Xe Services (formally Blackwater), others for low-profile agencies like Blackbird Technologies, Glevum Associates, and K2 Solutions. Many of the “employees” of these groups are former U.S. military personnel—Davis was in the Special Forces for 10 years—and former CIA agents. And the fact that these are private companies allows them to fly under the radar of congressional oversight, as frail a reed as that may be. 

How one views the incident that touched off the current diplomatic crisis is an example of how deep the differences between Pakistan and the U.S. have become. 

The Americans claim Davis was carrying out surveillance on radical insurgent groups, and was simply defending himself from two armed robbers. But Davis’s story has problems. It does appear that the two men on the motorbike were armed, but neither fired their weapon and, according to the police report, one did not even have a shell in his pistol’s firing chamber. Davis apparently fired through the window of his armored SUV, then stepped out of the car and shot the two men in the back, one while attempting to flee. He then calmly took photos, called for backup, climbed into his car, and drove off. He was arrested shortly afterwards at an intersection. 

The Pakistanis have a different view of the incident. According to Pakistani press reports, the two men were working for the ISI and were trailing Davis because the intelligence agency suspected that the CIA agent was in contact with the Tehrik-e-Taliban, a Pakistani group based in North Waziristan that is currently warring with Islamabad. As an illustration of how bizarre things are these days in Pakistan, one widespread rumor is that the U.S. is behind the Tehtik-e-Taliban bombings as part of a strategy to destabilize Pakistan and lay the groundwork for an American seizure of Islamabad’s nuclear arsenal. 

The ISI maintains close ties with the Afghan Taliban based in Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province, as well as its allies, the Hizb-e-Islami and the Haqqani Group. All three groups are careful to keep a distance from Pakistan’s Taliban 

Yet another rumor claims that Davis was spying on Lashkar-e-Taiba, a group with close ties to the ISI that is accused of organizing the 2008 massacre in Mumbai, India. The Americans claim the organization is working with al-Qaeda, a charge the Pakistanis reject. 

When Davis’s car was searched, police turned up not only the Glock semi-automatic he used to shoot the men, but four loaded clips, a GPS device, and a camera. The latter, according to the police report, had photos of “sensitive” border sites. “This is not the work of a diplomat,” Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah told the Guardian (UK), “he was doing espionage and surveillance activities.” 

The shooting also had the feel of an execution. One of the men was shot twice in the back and his body was more than 30 feet from the motorbike, an indication he was attempting to flee. “It went way beyond what we define as self-defense, “ a senior police official told the Guardian (UK), “It was not commensurate with the threat.” The Lahore Chief of Police called it a “cold-blooded murder.” 

The U.S. claims that Davis is protected by diplomatic immunity, but the matter might not be as open and shut as the U.S. is making it. According to the Pakistani Express Tribune, Davis’s name was not on a list of diplomats submitted to Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry on Jan. 25. The day after the shooting the embassy submitted a revised list that listed Davis as a diplomat. 

Washingtonclearly considered Davis to be important. When he asked for backup on the day of the shooting, another SUV was dispatched to support him, apparently manned by agents living at the same safe house as Davis. The rescue mission went wrong when it ran over a motorcyclist while going the wrong direction down a one-way street. When the Pakistani authorities wanted to question the agents, they found that both had been whisked out of the country. 

Almost immediately the Obama administration sent Sen. John Kerry, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to Islamabad to apologize and pressure Pakistan to release Davis. But the incident has stirred up a hornet’s nest in Pakistan, where the CIA’s drone war has deeply alienated most Pakistanis. Opposition parties are demanding that the CIA agent be tried for murder. A hearing on the issue of whether Davis has diplomatic immunity will be heard Mar. 14. 

In the meantime, Davis is being held under rather extraordinary security because of rumors that the Americans will try to spring him, or even poison him. Davis is being shielded from any direct contact with U.S. officials, and a box of chocolates sent to Davis by the Embassy was confiscated. 

The backdrop for the crisis is a growing estrangement between the two countries over their respective strategies in Afghanistan. 

The U.S. has stepped up its attacks on the Afghan insurgents, launched a drone war in Pakistan, and is demanding that Islamabad take a much more aggressive stance toward the Taliban’s allies based in the Afghan border region. While Washington still talks about a “diplomatic resolution” to the Afghan war, it is busy blowing up the very people it will eventually need to negotiate with.  

This approach makes no sense to Pakistan. From Islamabad’s point of view, increasing attacks on the Taliban and their allies will only further destabilize Pakistan, and substitutes military victory for a diplomatic settlement. Since virtually every single independent observer think the former is impossible, the current U.S. strategy is, as terror expert Anatol Lieven puts it, “lunatic reasoning.”  

Pakistanwants to insure that any Afghan government that emerges from the war is not a close ally of India, a country with which it has already fought three wars. A pro-Indian government in Kabul would essentially surround Pakistan with hostile forces. Yet the Americans have pointedly refused to address the issue of Indian-Pakistan tension over Kashmir, in large part because Washington very much wants an alliance with India. 

In short, the U.S. and Pakistan don’t see eye to eye on Afghanistan, and Islamabad is suspicious that Americans like Davis are undermining Pakistan’s interests in what Islamabad views as an area central to its national security. “They [the U.S.] needs to come clean and tell us who they [agents] are, what they are doing,” one ISI official told the Guardian (UK). “They need to stop doing things behind our back.” 

There are a lot of unanswered questions about the matter. Was the ISI onto Davis, and was he really in contact with groups the Pakistani army didn’t want him talking to? What did Washington know about Davis’ mission, and when did it know it? Did Davis think he was being held up, or was it a cold-blooded execution of two troublesome tails? 

Rumor has it that the CIA and the ISI are in direct negotiations to find an acceptable solution, but there are constraints on all sides. The Pakistani public is enraged with the U.S. and resents that it has been pulled into the Afghan quagmire. On the other hand, there are many in Washington—particularly in Congress—who are openly talking about cutting off the $1.5 billion of yearly U.S. aid to Pakistan. 

What the incident has served to illuminate is the fact that U.S. intelligence operations are increasingly being contracted out to private companies with little apparent oversight from Congress. At last count, the U.S. Defense Department had almost 225,000 private contractors working for them. 

The privatization of intelligence adds yet another layer of opacity to an endeavor that is already well hidden by a blanket of “national security,” and funded by black budgets most Americans never see. The result of all this is a major diplomatic crisis in what is unarguably the most dangerous piece of ground on the planet.


The Public Eye: Pirates Threaten Washington

By Bob Burnett
Tuesday March 08, 2011 - 10:34:00 PM

As US warships approached, on February 22nd four American hostages were killed by Somali pirates. It was an ominous harbinger of the crisis in Washington, where Republican pirates are holding hostage the legislative process and threatening to kill the American dream unless their ransom demands are met. 

The root cause of Somali piracy is the collapse of that impoverished nation’s central government. The genesis of Republican piracy is more complex but can be traced to the rise of a predatory ethic that preaches winning is worth any price; that it’s permissible to say and do anything to ensure political victory – because of the billions of dollars involved. As a consequence, Republicans care more about wealth and power than they do the health of the US economy or the viability of democracy. 

Republican pirates are holding the Federal Budget hostage until the Obama Administration agrees to egregious cuts in Federal programs. On March 2nd Congress approved a stop-gap spending bill that would fund the government until March 18. Few expect the next round of negotiations to be easy and it’s increasingly likely that Federal government will shut down and millions of Americans will suffer. 

Somali piracy is a business that offers employment to thousands of Somalis and hundreds of millions in profits. Currently 51 vessels and at least 819 people are held hostage – the average tab to ransom a ship is $5 million. 

Republican piracy employs thousands of GOP politicians, political operatives, and lobbyists, not to mention the media personnel at the Fox “News” Channel and conservative radio programs. But just as the main recipients of Somali piracy are shadowy financiers – many rumored to be part of International organized crime – so the primary beneficiaries of Republican piracy are America’s uber-rich, those in the top one tenth of one percent who each year control more of America’s wealth. These individuals – such as the notorious Koch brothers or Wall Street hedge fund managers – don’t care about the plight of American workers or the size of the deficit; their entire focus is to keep the government off their backs so they can make even more billions. 

It’s far easier to understand the motivation of Somali pirates than it is to prevent their attacks. Their East African piracy operation has become increasingly sophisticated and now covers more than one million squares miles of the Indian Ocean – from Somalia to Oman to India to the Maldives to Madagascar. 

Since the 1971 Powell Manifesto Republican pirates have also broadened their reach. They elected Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush and, more recently, sponsored the Tea “Party” insurrection. More to the point, they shifted the Federal tax burden from the rich onto working Americans, as economist Richard Wolff pointed out in a recent article

The Somali pirates have a broad base of support because the Somali economy is in shambles and they’re the only game in town. It’s harder to understand the appeal of Republican piracy. In his classic political analysis, What’s the Matter With Kansas? journalist Thomas Frank analyzed politics in his native state and concluded that Republican (pirates) had successfully diverted working-class Americans from populist anger by throwing them red-meat cultural issues (abortion) or blatant lies (Obama caused the recession). Republicans have waged a decades-long propaganda campaign that’s blinded most Americans to the astonishing increase in inequality, the fact that over the past thirty years average worker income has increased by a paltry $280 while the income of the uber-rich has tripled. 

Republican pirates now control the House of Representatives. They’ve convinced many Americans that “pirates are your friends” and launched an attack on “law enforcement” at all levels: Federal regulators, IRS agents, not to mention public safety officials. Republicans control the dominant narrative, arguing that “government is the problem.” Pirates want to enact savage budget cuts, insisting that the best way to a healthy economy is to let the market do whatever it feels like. And now Republicans want to eliminate labor unions, make it impossible for American workers to stand up to their corporate bosses. 

It’s clear that there’s a two-fold solution to Somali piracy: come down hard on the pirates while simultaneously rebuilding civil society, giving average Somalis viable economic alternatives. 

It’s also clear what to do about Republican pirates. The long-term solution is to rebuild populism and place the interests of average Americans over those of the uber-Rich. That means taxing wealthy Americans and corporations; increasing Federal expenditures to help educate and employ Americans; protecting the rights of workers to organize; and ensuring the requirements for effective democracy override those of a “free” market. 

But what needs to be done first is to call Republicans by their true name: pirates. The American people must deal with Republicans as we do the Somali pirates: refuse to buckle to their hostage demands – even if that means shutting down the Federal government. After all, freedom is worth fighting for. 


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


Eclectic Rant: GOP Says No To Distressed Homeowners and Consumers

By Ralph E. Stone
Tuesday March 08, 2011 - 10:26:00 PM

Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives are trying to terminate funds for foreclosure-prevention programs that help families fend off foreclosure and trying to strip the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of its funding before it even opens its doors.  

The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) has helped about half a million homeowners remain in their homes, while another eight million families are at risk of losing their homes. HAMP's aim is to reduce borrowers' monthly payments to affordable levels. When it was launched in March 2009, the administration projected that it would prevent 3 million to 4 million foreclosures before it expired in December 2012.  

The program has permanently modified about 521,000 mortgages as of December. But Republican lawmakers say the results are not worth the costs. 

As of February, the program had disbursed $1.04 billion in incentive payments to mortgage servicers that permanently modified loans. The Treasury Department had initially set aside $75 billion for the initiative. 

Some of that money was allocated to other housing programs that are also targeted for termination. About $8.1 billion was set aside to enable certain borrowers who are current on their mortgage to refinance into Federal Housing Administration loans if their homes are worth less than what is owed on the mortgage. About 44 loans have been closed under that program. Another $7.6 billion was reallocated to emergency mortgage relief payments to unemployed workers in some states. The other targeted program helps communities buy and redevelop foreclosed properties. 

The Obama administration and consumer advocates argue that ending the program's funding would destabilize a fragile housing market as foreclosures continue to mount. On March 1, Timothy G. Massad, the Treasury Department's acting assistant secretary for financial stability, said, "Ending HAMP now, without a meaningful alternative in place, would mean that struggling homeowners would have far fewer ways of coping with the worst housing crisis in generations."  

If something is wrong with the programs, fix them, don't just throw them out. 

The legislation to kill these programs is likely to pass the House, but its fate in the Senate is uncertain. 

House members are also trying to strip the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) of its funding before it even opens its doors. The independent CFPB is within the Federal Reserve and was created to prevent the kind of unsafe, predatory lending practices that gave rise to the subprime crisis and resulted in millions of Americans losing their homes to foreclosure. The central mission of the CFPB is to make markets for consumer financial products and services work for Americans—whether they are applying for a mortgage, choosing among credit cards, or using any number of other consumer financial products. The CFPB won't officially start exercising its rule-making power until July 21. 

The CFPB will provide financial education to inform consumers about abusive practices. It will supervise banks, credit unions, and financial companies, and it will enforce Federal consumer financial laws. The CFPB will also gather and analyze available information to better understand consumers, financial services providers, and consumer financial markets. 

What the House Republicans plan to do is strip federal salaries from Elizabeth Warren -- expected to be nominated CFPB director -- and 24 other top administration officials from drawing a salary. That would technically render them unable to continue working for the government.  

The House GOP budget plan already includes language that would cut the CFPB's current funding nearly in half, to $80 million. In a failed effort to restore the CFPB funding, Rep. Rush Holt (D-N.J.) argued, "[The Republican plan] handcuffs the CFPB to protect big banks that hurt American consumer interests."  

The public, including homeowners, helped bailout the banks in their time of need even though they helped create the financial crisis that caused mass foreclosures. Now a handful of House Republicans are turning their backs on American families. We need more, not less, regulation and oversight of financial institutions and the financial marketplace. 

We can make a difference by contacting our U.S. Senators urging them to preserve help for struggling homeowners and a strong, independent CFPB.


Senior Power: Alzheimer’s and Dementia

By Helen Rippier Wheeler
Tuesday March 08, 2011 - 12:41:00 PM

Ron Reagan suggests in his new book, My Father at 100; A Memoir (Viking/Penguin,) that his father suffered from the beginning stages of Alzheimer's disease while he was still in the White House. President Ronald Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1994, five years after leaving office. He died in 2004 at age 93. Reagan's son (born 1958) writes that he believes his father would have left office before his second term ended in 1989 had the disease been diagnosed then. "I've seen no evidence that my father (or anyone else) was aware of his medical condition while he was in office," Reagan writes. "Had the diagnosis been made in, say 1987, would he have stepped down? I believe he would have." 

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia. It is also called Alzheimer disease, senile dementia of the Alzheimer type, primary degenerative dementia of the Alzheimer's type, or simply Alzheimer's. This incurable, degenerative, and terminal disease was first described by German psychiatrist and neuropathologist Alois Alzheimer in 1906. It is most often diagnosed in people over 65 years of age, although the less-prevalent, early-onset Alzheimer's can occur much earlier. In 2006, there were 26.6 million sufferers worldwide. AD is predicted to affect 1 in 85 people globally by 2050. 

Late news: Research suggests alcohol consumption helps stave off dementia, and an Alzheimer's vaccine in a nasal spray (American Association for the Advancement of Science, March 2 and February 28, 2011); Alzheimer's risk looks higher if mom had the disease, (Jenifer Goodwin, HealthDay, February 28, 2011. 

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Dementia is on the increase. According to Alzheimer's Research UK, in 2005, nearly 700,000 people in the United Kingdom had dementia. By 2015 this number will have almost trebled. The disease, which is caused by the gradual death of brain cells, leads to the loss of memory, understanding, judgment, language and thinking. 

Dementia Diaries, a new play by poet Maria Jastrzebska (born 1953), looks at how the illness affects those who have it, as well as (and mainly) their family and carers. A review by John O'Donoghue of this drama appeared in the Feb. 22, 2011 Guardian [London]. Carer is British, caregiver is American -- someone who provides care. In the U.S., the caregiver is usually a family member who presumably cares, or an employee.  

 

Dementia Diaries has just finished its first run in Southampton and is headed to London as part of its tour around the country, playing to audiences of medical professionals, carers and the general public, on tour throughout 2011. What is it really like to experience dementia – or to care for and or provide care for someone with this disease? Jastrzebska hopes that her play will help to explain the impact on sufferers, carers and families. "I wanted to find a metaphor for the way this illness affects not only the sufferers but also those around them. So I came up with the idea of inter-woven monologues," says Jastrzebska. 

 

There are five characters: Tata and Mama, who both have dementia; their son, Edzio; an unnamed daughter; and Mrs Alicja, their Polish carer. (Jastrzebska was a refugee from Poland.) Each has monologues. They speak to the audience, but never to one another. “This represents the way family members can sometimes speak without listening when a situation like this happens." Jastrzebska also wants this device to show what it is like for carers too. "Families come under immense strain when a loved one has dementia," she says. "And agreeing what to do, getting help, can sometimes be very difficult." 

Mama and Tata demonstrate this in a particularly affecting moment. Tata, played by Tim Barlow (born 1936), suddenly stalls. He can't find the word he is looking for. Until this point, he has been very fluent, if at times a little forgetful, but suddenly his helplessness becomes glaringly apparent. Mama, played by Anna Korwin: “My daughter came today. She's a nice girl, a good girl, it's such a pity she's a prostitute,” which, the Guardian reports, “brings the house down.” I don’t think that’s so funny. In a Q and A session following the performance, the subject of laughter provoked heated discussion. Is dementia a subject we should be laughing at, asked an audience member. Of course there should be laughter, responded a health worker. Jastrzebska explained that she wants the audience to laugh with the characters, not at them. An old-cop out. 

In the Q&A session, the director asked how many audience members had a connection with dementia. Eighty per cent raised their hands. A good question. A social worker volunteered to reporter O'Donoghue that Edzio, the son -- with “his constant letters of complaint, phone calls and harangues” -- is a character they know only too well. Clearly, Dementia Diaries’ audience feels more for those around the demented than for victims of the disease.  

The play has been put on with the help of Wellcome Trust, a charity dedicated to improvements in health. The cast have also worked with the Memory Assessment and Research Centre (MARC), based at Moorgreen Hospital in Southampton and a leading center in Europe for dementia research, which has helped to make the depiction more realistic, e.g. how characters should speak and move. 

xxxx 

Alzheimer’s and dementia are in the news worldwide: 

“Speaking a second language can delay dementia onset for years," by Steve Connor (Independent [London], Feb. 19, 2011). 

"Alzheimer Cafe in Nova Scotia town first of its kind in Canada," by Oliver Moore (Globe and Mail [Toronto, Ontario], Feb. 22, 2011). 

 

"More legal guardians needed [in Japan]/ Training sought for handling of affairs of elderly with dementia" (Yomiuri Shimbun [Tokyo], Feb. 22, 2011). 

 

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Use of subject headings and keywords in libraries’ catalogs provides leads to numerous media, e.g. "The Alzheimer’s Project," a presentation of HBO Documentary Films and the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health (hbo.com/alzheimers). The Berkeley, California Public Library’s BIN identifies supportive organizations, agencies and resources. In Alameda County, California, contact:  

Alzheimer’s Association Helpline 1 80 272-3900 

Alzheimer’s Services of the East Bay, Berkeley 510 644-8292 

Ethnic Elders Care www.ethnicelderscare.net 

Family Caregiver Alliance, San Francisco 1 800445 8106 

UC, Davis Alzheimer’s Disease Center, Martinez 1 925-372-2485. 

REMINDER: 

Saturday, March 19 at 2 PM and Tuesday, March 22 at 6 P.M., both at Central library, 

2090 Kittredge St., Berkeley, CA 94704: freepublic training on usingAncestry.com data base. Confirm date and time (510) 981-6100. 

Generations United is “Improving the lives of children, youth and older adults through intergenerational collaboration, public policies, and programs.” Generations United seeks nominations for individuals and organizations that make significant contributions towards rethinking and revitalizing intergenerational connections. Awards will be presented during the 16th International Conference Award Banquet on July 28, 2011. Applications should be received by March 31, 2011. Contacts: www.gu.org. 1331 H Street NW, Suite 900 Washington, D.C. 20005. 202-289-3979. 

 

IN THE NEWS: 

The IRS in partnership with AARP sponsors the Tax Aide program, which assists elderly tax filers in communities around the country. In addition, the military coordinates VITA services. Many VITA or Tax Aide sites offer e-filing, which allows families to receive their refunds even faster. Most free tax preparation sites are open and running. To locate a VITA or Tax-Aide site in your area, call (800) 906-9887. Many sites are appointment-only or have specified drop-in hours, so check with each one for their schedules. Beware of scams! Do not to give out Social Security Numbers or bank information over the phone, or to individuals who come to your home claiming to be IRS representatives, or in response to e-mails.  

 

The 704-member ELDER JUSTICE COALITION, a national advocacy voice for elder justice in the U.S. (elderjustice@verizon.net) in a March 2, 2011 press release, comments on a GAO report on Adult Protective Services released at a hearing held by the Senate Special Committee on Aging. “The report paints an alarming picture of APS which operate in all 50 states… They are the front line in the fight against elder abuse and the lead force in elder abuse prevention yet they are increasingly losing ground in the fight through the failure of state and federal funding to keep pace with increased demand for their services.” The Coalition noted that President Obama’s FY 2012 budget includes just under $22 million for the Elder Justice Act, mostly to assist the long-term care ombudsman program. In California in fiscal year 2009: 76,340 reports of alleged elder abuse were received; 58,338 were investigated; 21,300 cases substantiated. The complete report is available online. 

 

More than 90 percent of nursing homes employ one or more people who have been convicted of at least one crime, federal investigators reported [March 2, 2011.] Five percent of all nursing home employees have at least one criminal conviction. The report was issued by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, who obtained the names of more than 35,000 nursing home employees and then checked with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to see if they had criminal records.  

The New York City Department for the Aging has released its list of senior centers that would close if the state cuts 25 million dollars from its Title XX. The list of centers is long, and will impact eight to 10,000 senior citizens city wide. Senior citizens are the fastest growing population in New York City, and they could lose these centers by April.  

Helen Rippier Wheeler can be reached at pen136@dslextreme.com. No email attachments; use “Senior Power” for subject. 

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On Mental Illness: Delusions of Grandeur

Jack Bragen
Tuesday March 08, 2011 - 10:49:00 PM

I remember from better than twenty years ago, an encounter with a counselor in a psychiatric hospital who said: “Hi Jack. Have you written any Pulitzer Prize winning novels lately?” A few years later, another counselor commented that I have a better chance of trying out for a professional basketball team than I have at becoming a professional writer. (I am five foot six.) 

While I have not yet reached a commercially successful point in my writing endeavors; that isn’t the point--I am being told by people (who are paid to help) that I don’t have the ability to succeed. They can not safely assume this. 

Another counselor, in the mid- 1980‘s, when I was nineteen years old, wrote in my “progress log” that I had not yet realized I am unable to work. Within a year and a half of that I became an apprentice TV repair technician, and was later assistant manager of the same TV repair shop. I went on to do numerous odd jobs including pizza delivery, recycling clerk, stock clerk, and data processor. I am able to work some of the time if the environment isn‘t hostile and when the work tasks aren‘t overwhelming. 

I am angry, long-term, because many counselors seem to gain something from ridiculing our efforts. Delusions of Grandeur go away when you give up on the idea, or else, when the goal is achieved and it can no longer be called a delusion. 

Even as recently as a year ago, a mental health professional who I usually trust, claimed I have delusions of grandeur concerning my writing. He thought I ought to attend their partial hospital program so that I could give up on these unrealistic ideas. I tried his suggestion, and in the process realized I wasn’t going to give up my dreams for the sake of making a mental health professional happy. 

While most counselors whom I have met have been fairly supportive of my efforts in life, a few bad apples find it necessary to plant seeds of doubt. My wife, who has a bachelor’s degree, was sent to training to become a motel maid by a counselor at a government agency, Department of Rehabilitation. The same agency tried to foist on me working as a laborer, even though I have done electronic repair in the past, and was good at it. 

Delusions of grandeur? Sometimes a person with mental illness says they would like to become a doctor and help other people who are like themselves. Usually, when such a thing is said, it isn’t taken seriously, and the psychiatric professional will presume that it is fictitious talk generated by symptoms. Yet, there are some persons with psychiatric or other disabilities who do become doctors. They aren’t taken seriously until there is a likelihood of getting all the way through medical school. I have met more than one persons who have a psychiatric illness who became a doctor. Often it is hard for them to work in their field, partly because of the pressures of the job, and also because of discrimination. 

I have also met persons with mental illness who have become PhD psychologists, civil engineers, stock brokers, small business owners and practitioners of other professions. Patrick J. Kennedy is a member of the US House of Representatives who suffers from bipolar illness. Abe Lincoln was said to have had some type of mental breakdown prior to becoming President. 

Certainly, some ideas that people have are going to be unrealistic. To know if an idea is achievable, one must look at a goal in terms of what is required to achieve it, and compare this to what resources, aptitudes and abilities one has. In the modern world, certain goals have become more achievable than they once were with the advent of online universities. There is a percentage of students who might not be able to deal with the physical environment of college but who can deal with the material being presented. 

People should not automatically be considered incapable because they have a mental health diagnosis. Delusions of grandeur are nothing more than a heckler saying, “You can’t do it.” It would be better if unproven aspirations weren’t treated as a symptom. If only more people would focus on their own success rather than expending their energy on putting someone else down…


Wild Neighbors: Communards in the Oak Trees

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday March 08, 2011 - 10:19:00 PM
Nature's file clerk, the acorn woodpecker.
Kevin Cole (via Wikimedia Commons)
Nature's file clerk, the acorn woodpecker.

I’ve been watching acorn woodpeckers in the Bay Area for years, from the Stanford campus to Point Reyes, and have always found these noisy, conspicuous birds engaging. “This sociable woodpecker impresses one as an exceptionally jolly bird”, writes ornithologist Alexander Skutch, “and certainly it is one of the most amusing to watch.” 

Native groups, particularly in the Klamath region, valued acorn woodpecker scalps—along with those of the larger pileated woodpecker—as wealth objects. Among the Shastan peoples, a bride price typically included 20-30 woodpecker scalps, along with deerskins and dentalia shells. The scalps were also used as personal adornment, in feather capes and headbands, and to represent the eyes and ears of the albino deerskins displayed in the White Deerskin Dance. Spanish explorers encountered the bird in Chiapas in the 16th century, dubbing it the carpintero. Father Pedro Font, 200 years later, appears to have been the first to describe its acorn-storing habits in what is now California. 

More is known about its behavior than that of other woodpecker species. In addition to studies in Arizona by Pepper Trail, Peter Stacey and others, Walter Koenig has monitored the birds at the University of California’s Hastings Reservation in the Carmel Valley for more than 30 years. Remarkable findings have emerged from this research. 

An acorn woodpecker’s world revolves around its granary: usually a tree, sometimes a series of fence posts, a telephone pole, or a building. One group even used the radiator of a car. Pines, or sycamores where they occur, are preferred to oaks as storage trees. (Sycamores are also favored for nesting; their smoother trunks deter gopher snakes, which can be significant nest predators.) The quantity of storage space can be mind-boggling: W. Leon Dawson counted 50,000 acorns in one ponderosa pine near Santa Barbara. At the Hastings site, Koenig calculated an average storage rate of 325 acorns per bird per year. 

Few of the stored acorns go to waste. They constitute more than half the woodpecker’s diet for most of the year, supplemented by flying insects, ants, and tree sap. Hatchlings are fed a mix of insects and broken-up acorns, with older chicks receiving proportionately more acorns. 

Each granary is controlled by a breeding group. At its most complex, the family unit may include up to 7 co-breeding males, either brothers or a father and his sons; up to 3 joint-nesting females, sisters or mother and daughters; and up to 10 non-breeding helpers, hatched in previous years, who incubate the eggs, feed the nestlings, and aid in territorial defense. A group may contain as many as 13 individuals. Group nesting is not uncommon in woodpeckers, recorded in the red-cockaded woodpecker of the Southeast and a number of tropical American species. But the acorn’s combination of polygynandrous mating with nest helpers has been seen in only a few other species, including a New Zealand rail, the African wild dog, and, oddly, a cichlid fish from Lake Tanganyika. 

Helping rear your close relatives’ offspring makes evolutionary sense in kin-selection terms. But it’s not just one big happy family. Breeding males compete for mating opportunities, and females vie to have their own eggs incubated in the nest they share. The first egg laid may be tossed out or eaten by a sibling; perhaps as a result, females often begin with a nonviable “runt” egg. DNA fingerprinting studies suggest inbreeding is extremely rare. If a group loses all its breeders of one sex, their place is taken by a coalition of siblings who had been non-breeding helpers in another family, usually after a prolonged “power struggle” among candidates for the vacancy. 

The origins of this system are not fully understood. Although group size would be advantageous in defending the granary, acorn woodpeckers in Central and South America live in groups but—perhaps because resources are more dependable—do not store food. 

The full spectrum of group-nesting behavior may emerge only in the most densely populated parts of the acorn woodpecker’s range. 

The woodpeckers occur only where two or more oak species grow; in the Klamath-Siskiyou region, they approach their northern boundary. Koenig’s California study site has 5 common and 2 less common oaks, while Trail’s Arizona site had 3. The more species of oaks in an area, the more stable the woodpecker population from year to year. There’s a kind of insurance at work here: acorn production, in a one- or two-year cycle depending on the species, is synchronous over a wide area. If canyon live oaks have a bad year, California black oaks may take up the slack. 

A general failure of the acorn crop can have devastating effects. As last season’s food stores dwindle, conflict increases within the group and the birds begin to disperse, the least dominant leaving first. In the worst years, the granary and its surrounding territory may be abandoned. When I interviewed Koenig a few years ago, he told me that the woodpeckers could be seriously impacted if Sudden Oak Death Syndrome wiped out coast live oaks, black oaks, and tanbark oaks. 

The acorn woodpeckers, of course, are only one of the hundred-plus bird species (not to mention other vertebrates) that nest or forage in oaks. But it would be a particular tragedy if the new scourge put an end to the ancient and intimate association of oaks and woodpeckers. 


Arts & Events

Stage-San Francisco Through March 20

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 07:01:00 PM

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," ongoing. 8 p.m. Wed. - Thurs.; 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. Fri. - Sat.; 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Sun.  

$25-$134. 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," ongoing. 8 p.m. Fri. -Sat. Audiences gather for a 90-minute show abounding with local anecdotes and lore presented by captivating and consummate conjurers and taletellers. $30.  

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

 

CLIMATE THEATRE  

"The Clown Cabaret at the Climate," ongoing. 7 and 9 p.m. First Monday of the month. 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.

 

KIMO'S BAR  

"Fauxgirls," ongoing. 10 p.m. Every third Saturday. 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.kimosbarsf.com.

 

THE MARSH  

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

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

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

 

PIER 39 A pier filled with shops, restaurants, theaters and entertainment of all sorts from sea lions to street performers.  

"SAN FRANCISCO CAROUSEL" -- The Pier's two-tiered, San Francisco-themed carousel with hand-crafted ponies that rock and move up and down and tubs that spin. In addition, carousel has hand-painted pictures of San Francisco scenes like the Golden Gate Bridge, Chinatown and Coit Tower. $3 per ride. "FREQUENT FLYERS'' -- A bungee trampoline where people can safely jump and flip over 20 feet in the air thanks to the help of bungee cords and a harness. Jumpers must weigh at least 30 pounds and not more than 230 pounds. $10 per session. (415) 981-6300.  

"RIPTIDE ARCADE" -- A 6,000-square-foot, surfer-themed arcade offering the Bay area's only 10-gun, Old West-style shooting gallery and 100 cuttingedge video games, virtual reality units and popular novelty games. Included are the "Dance Dance Revolution'' game, driving and roller coaster simulators, the "Global VR Vortex'' virtual reality machine, "Star Wars Trilogy,'' "Jurassic Park,'' "Rush 2049,'' and classics such as "Pac Man'' and "Galaga.'' Games are operated by 25-cent tokens and range in price from 25 cents to $1.50. Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.; through Feb. 26: Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (415) 981-6300.  

"TURBO RIDE" -- Three simulated rides where the hydraulic seats move in synchronization with events on a giant screen are available at the Turbo Ride complex. The 12-minute-long rides in 3-D and 4-D are: "Dino Island II''; "Haunted Mine Ride,'' and "Extreme Log Ride.'' $12 general for one ride; $8 seniors and children ages 3 to 12 for one ride; $15 general for two rides; $11 seniors and children ages 3 to 12 for two rides; $18 general for multi-rides; $14 seniors and children ages 3 to 12 for multi-rides. (415) 392-8872.  

STUDIO 39 MAGIC CARPET RIDES -- A comedy action adventure utilizing special effects to created a personalized movie with visitors as the "stars'' flying above San Francisco. The Magic Carpet Ride is free. No reservations required. Ride is approximately five minutes. Personalized videos will be available for $30 for one: $10 for each additional tape. (415) 397-3939. SEA LIONS -- California sea lions, nicknamed "Sea Lebrities,'' "hauled out'' on Pier 39's K-Dock shortly after the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake and by January of 1990 had taken over the docks. Due to a plentiful supply of herring and a protected environment, the population has grown and now reaches as many as 900 during the winter months. Weather permitting, free educational talks are provided by Marine Mammal Center volunteers on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Free. (415) 705-5500. 

"Tony n' Tina's Wedding," ongoing. The original interactive comedy hit where audience members play the roles of "invited guests'' at a fun-filled wedding ceremony. The popular dinner comedy performs at Swiss Louis Italian Restaurant. Thursday-Saturday, 7 p.m.; Matinees: Thursday and Saturday, noon. $88.50-$115.50. (888) 775-6777, www.pier39shows.com. 

Free. 10 a.m.-10 p.m.; certain attractions and shops have differing hours. The Embarcadero and Beach Street, San Francisco. (415) 623-5300, (800) SEADIVE, www.pier39.com.

 

SHELTON THEATER  

"Shopping! The Musical," by Morris Bobrow, ongoing. A quick-paced musical about those obsessed with buying things. Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m. $27-$29. (800) 838-3006, www.shoppingthemusical.com. 

Big City Improv, ongoing. 10 p.m. Fridays.  

$20. (510) 595-5597, www.bigcityimprov.com. 

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

 

THE STUD  

"Trannyshack," ongoing. A drag cabaret show that incorporates popular music, dance, props and outrageous humor into a stage show. Hosted by Heklina. Tuesday, midnight. $7. (415) 252-7883, www.heklina.com/. 

399 Ninth St., San Francisco. < 

 

THRILLPEDDLERS HYPNODROME  

"Pearls Over Shanghai," ongoing. 8 p.m. Thurs.-Sat.; 7 p.m. Sun. See San Francisco's longest running Cockettes musical, running through Dec. 19. $30-$35.  

575 10th Street, San Francisco. www.thrillpeddlers.com/.<


Professional Dance Through March 20

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 07:00:00 PM

ZELLERBACH HALL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY  

Nederlands Dans Theater, March 18 through March 19, 8 p.m. Choreography by Paul Lightfoot and Sol Leon. $22-$44.  

UC Berkeley campus, Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley. (510) 642-9988.< 

 

COUNTERPULSE  

"2nd Sundays," ongoing. 2-4 p.m. Sun. Sept. 12: Philein Wang, ZiRu Tiger Productions, Tammy Cheney, Lenora Lee. Free.  

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

 

PENA PACHAMAMA  

Brisas de Espana Ballet Flamenco, ongoing. 6:15 and 7:15 p.m. Sun.  

$10-$15. 

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

 

YERBA BUENA CENTER FOR THE ARTS THEATER  

ODC/Dance, March 11 through March 27, Times vary; see website. A variety of programs celebrating ODC/Dance's 40th anniversary. Choreography by Brenda Way, KT Nelson and Kimi Okada. $10-$60.  

700 Howard St., San Francisco. (415) 978-2787, www.ybca.org.<


Readings-East Bay Through March 20

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 07:00:00 PM

BOOKS INC., ALAMEDA  

Brenda Knight, March 17, 7:30 p.m. "Happiness Habits.''  

Free. Readings at 7:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 1344 Park St., Alameda. (510) 522-2226, www.booksinc.net.

 

BOOKS INC., BERKELEY  

Jennifer Lauck, March 14, 7 p.m. "Found: A Memoir.''  

Scott Korb, March 15, 7 p.m. "Life In Year One.''  

Colin Thubron, March 16, 7 p.m. "To A Mountain In Tibet.''  

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

 

MRS. DALLOWAY'S  

Alan Paul, March 12, 4 p.m. "Big In China.''  

Bill Turner, March 18, 7:30 p.m. "Figures of Speech.''  

Betsy Davis, March 20, 4 p.m. "Handmade Books.''  

2904 College Avenue, Berkeley. (510) 704-8222, www.mrsdalloways.com.

 

UNIVERSITY PRESS BOOKS  

Mark Hertsgaard, March 17, 6 p.m. "Hot: Living Through The Next Fifty Years On Earth.''  

2430 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. (510) 548-0585, www.universitypressbooks.com.<


Popmusic-East Bay Through March 20

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 06:59:00 PM

924 GILMAN ST. All ages welcome. 

Violation, The Blanks, The Caps, Rats On Wheels, The Nite Shades, March 11, 7 p.m. $8. 

The Funeral Pyre, The Secret, Skin Like Iron, At Our Heels, Negative Standards, March 12, 7:30 p.m. $8. 

Heartsounds, Until Your Heart Stops, All Teeth, Whirl, March 13, 5 p.m. $8. 

The Rocketz, Joint Venture, Moonshine, Cold Blue Rebels, Spawn Automic, Automic Machines, March 18, 7 p.m.  

Free.  

Obszon Geschopf, Slave Unit, My Bloodshed Kills, Malicious, Buried At Birth, March 19, 7 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.

 

ALBATROSS PUB  

Whiskey Brothers, ongoing. 9 p.m. First and third Wed.  

Free.  

Blind Duck, March 17, 8 p.m. $3. 

Derek Smith, March 19, 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  

Doug MacLeod, March 11, 8 p.m. $10. 

Sin Silver, March 11, 4:30-6 p.m.  

Free.  

Peter Anastos & Iter, March 12, 8 p.m. $10. 

Melody Walker & Jacob Groopman, The T-Sisters, March 17, 8 p.m. $10. 

"Michael Lamacchia's Organic Jive Collective," March 18, 8 p.m. $10. 

Roger Glen, March 19, 8 p.m. $15. 

707 Marina Vista Ave., Martinez. (925) 228-6985, www.armandosmartinez.com.

 

ASHKENAZ  

Yellow Wall Dub Squad, March 11, 9:30 p.m.  

Baba Ken, Afro-Groove Connexion, Motordude Zydeco, March 12, 7 p.m. Cajun/Zydeco dance lesson at 6:30 p.m. $15-$30.  

"My AMP Showcase," March 13, 6:30 p.m. $5. 

UC Berkeley Folkdancers Reunion, March 13, 1:30 p.m. $7. 

Soul Power, March 16, 8:30 p.m. $10-$12. 

Sister Carol, Yellow Wall Dub Squad, March 17, 9 p.m. $15. 

Trio Garufa, March 18, 9 p.m. $15. 

Phenomenauts, Arnocorps, Sharp Objects, Bobby Joe Ebola & The Children Macnuggits, March 19, 8 p.m. $10. 

Sambada, Ya*Rock, DJ Weird Beard, DJ Gitsi, March 20, 6:30 p.m. $20. 

1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. (510) 525-5054, www.ashkenaz.com.

 

FOX THEATER  

Simian Mobile Disco, Fake Blood, March 11, 7 p.m. $27.50. 

Girl Talk, Max Tundra, March 18, 9 p.m. $29.50. 

Flogging Molly, Moneybrother, The Drowning Men, March 19, 7:30 p.m. $29.50. 

1807 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. (510) 452-0438, www.thefoxoakland.com.

 

FREIGHT AND SALVAGE  

Robin & Linda Williams, March 11, 8 p.m. $22.50-$24.50. 

Melanie O'Reilly, March 12, 8 p.m. $20.50-$22.50. 

The Byron Berline Band, March 13, 8 p.m. $20.50-$22.50. 

Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen, March 15, 8 p.m. $20.50-$22.50. 

Michelle Shocked, March 16, 8 p.m. $26.50-$28.50. 

Black Brothers, Colin and Marika Cotter, March 17, 8 p.m. $22.50-$24.50. 

Catie Curtis, Wendy Beckerman, March 18, 8 p.m. $20.50-$22.50. 

Vasen, March 19, 8 p.m. $22.50-$24.50. 

Greg Brown, March 20, 8 p.m. $34.50-$37.50. 

Music starts at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 2020 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 548-1761, www.freightandsalvage.org.

 

JAZZSCHOOL  

Deuce, March 11, 8 p.m. $10-$15. 

Kathleen Grace, March 12, 8 p.m. $12. 

Karen Crangle, March 18, 8 p.m. $15. 

Lena Sunday, March 19, 8 p.m. $15. 

Friday and Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 4:30 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 2087 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 845-5373, www.jazzschool.com.

 

THE NEW PARISH  

Meshell Ndegeocello, Martin Luther, March 11 through March 12, 9:30 p.m. $25. 

Movement, Kenny Bobien, March 13, 8 p.m. $10-$20. 

Anthony B, March 17, 10 p.m. $25. 

579 18th St., Oakland. (510) 444-7474, www.thenewparish.com.

 

SHATTUCK DOWN LOW For ages 21 and older. 

Holly Saucy & The Invalid Truth, Punk Funk Mob, DJ Pam The Funkstress, March 11, 9 p.m.  

"The Feel Good: Love Below," March 12, 9 p.m.  

Rockstar Karaoke!, March 15, 8 p.m.  

Orquestra Borinquen, March 16, 8 p.m. $5.-$10. 

"Damn Gina," March 17, 9 p.m.  

Free.  

2284 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 548-1159, www.shattuckdownlow.com.

 

STARRY PLOUGH PUB  

Brian Kenny Fresno, MoeTar, InnerEar Brigade, March 11, 9 p.m. $8. 

Beatbeat Whisper, Big Eagle, Yearling, March 12, 3-6 p.m. $5. 

Montana Slim String Band, Old Stock, Spill The Wine, March 12, 9 p.m. $8. 

The Starry Irish Session led by Shay Black, March 13, 8 p.m.  

Sliding scale cover charge.  

Starry Plough Irish Dance and Ceili Session, March 14, 7 p.m. $5. 

Starry Plough Youth Open Mic, March 15, 5 p.m.  

Free.  

Starry Plough's 37th Annual St. Patrick's Day Celebration, March 17, 5:30 p.m. $10. 

Starry Plough Open Mic, March 18, 7:30 p.m.  

Free.  

The pickPocket Ensemble, Strangled Darlings, Dan Cantrell, March 18, 9 p.m. $8. 

Jonathan Mann, All My Pretty Ones, Sparky Grinstead, March 19, 9 p.m. $8. 

The Starry Irish Session led by Shay Black, March 20, 8 p.m.  

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  

Banana Hamilton, Saything, Trainwreck Riders, Manatee Pants, DJ Zachariah, March 11, 9 p.m.  

Free.  

Fake Your Own Death, Tigercat, The Wrong Words, March 12, 8 p.m. $10. 

Here Come The Saviours, Spacefuck, Gentlemen, March 16, 9 p.m.  

Free.  

"Hot Attack! 80's Dance Pary," March 17, 9 p.m.  

Free.  

A Decent Animal, Team Mascot, March 18, 9 p.m. $10. 

"Hella Gay Dance Party with DJ GStar and DJ Astro," March 19, 9 p.m. $7. 

1928 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. (510) 451-8100, www.uptownnightclub.com.

 

YOSHI'S  

Albita, March 11 through March 12, 8 and 10 p.m. $30. 

Vienna Teng & Alex Wong, March 13, 5 and 7 p.m. $30. 

CSU East Bay Jazz Ensembles, March 14, 8 and 10 p.m. $10.-$30. 

Dan Zemelman, March 15, 8 p.m. $12. 

Jubu, Legally Blynd, March 16, 8 and 10 p.m. $10. 

Steve Colman, March 17, 8 and 10 p.m. $10-$22. 

Paulito FG Y Su Elite, March 18 through March 20, 8 and 10 p.m. Fri-Sat; 7 and 9 p.m. Sun. $20-$28. 

Shows are Monday through Saturday, 8 and 10 p.m.; Sunday, 2 and 7 p.m., unless otherwise noted. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. (510) 238-9200, www.yoshis.com.<


Galleries-San Francisco Through March 20

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 06:55:00 PM

ANDREA SCHWARTZ GALLERY ongoing.  

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 ongoing.  

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

 

BRAUNSTEIN-QUAY GALLERY ongoing.  

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 ongoing.  

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.

 

CALDWELL SNYDER GALLERY ongoing.  

Free. Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. 341 Sutter St., San Francisco. (415) 296-7896, www.caldwellsnyder.com.

 

CREATIVITY EXPLORED GALLERY ongoing.  

Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; Thursday, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Saturday, 1-6 p.m. 3245 16th St., San Francisco. (415) 863-2108, www.creativelyexplored.org.

 

DON SOKER CONTEMPORARY ART ongoing.  

100 Montogomery St., Suite 1430, San Francisco. (415) 291-0966.< 

 

FEMINA POTENS GALLERY ongoing.  

Free unless otherwise noted. Thursday through Sunday, noon to 6 p.m. 2199 Market Street at Sanchez, San Francisco. (415) 217-9340, www.feminapotens.org.

 

MODERNISM ongoing.  

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

 

PAUL THIEBAUD GALLERY ongoing.  

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 ongoing.  

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


Galleries-East Bay Through March 20

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 06:54:00 PM

ALBANY ARTS GALLERY ongoing.  

1251 Solano Ave., Albany. (510) 526-9558.< 

 

BEDFORD GALLERY ongoing.  

$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.

 

EXPRESSIONS GALLERY ongoing.  

Free. Wednesday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m.; Sunday, noon-3 p.m. 2035 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 644-4930, www.expressionsgallery.org/.< 

 

HALL OF PIONEERS GALLERY  

"Oakland Chinatown Pioneers," ongoing. 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 ongoing.  

$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 ongoing.  

475 25th St., Oakland. (510) 701-4620, www.mercurytwenty.com.

 

OLIVE HYDE ART GALLERY  

"Domicile," ongoing.  

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

 

PHOTOLAB ongoing.  

2235 5th St., Berkeley. (510) 644-1400, www.photolabratory.com.

 

ROWAN MORRISON GALLERY ongoing.  

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


Classical Music-San Francisco Through March 20

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 06:52:00 PM

AUDIUM  

"Audium 9," ongoing. 8:30 p.m. Fri.-Sat. An exploration of the spatial dimension of music in a unique environment of 176 speakers. $15.  

$15. 8:30 p.m. 1616 Bush St., San Francisco. (415) 771-1616, www.audium.com.

 

DAVIES SYMPHONY HALL  

San Francisco Symphony, through March 12, 8 p.m. Works by Mendelssohn. Conducted by Kurt Masur. $35-$140.  

San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, March 13, 2 p.m. Works by Honegger, Haydn, Webern and Britten. Conducted by Donato Cabrera. $12-$45.  

Yefim Bronfman, March 13, 7 p.m. Works by Haydn, Rachmaninoff and Chopin, performed on piano. $15-$83.  

San Francisco Symphony, March 16 through March 20, 8 p.m. Wed., Fri.-Sat.; 2 p.m. Sun. Works by Bach. Conducted by Ragnar Bohlin. $15-$140.  

201 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. (415) 864-6000, www.sfsymphony.org.

 

HERBST THEATRE  

Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, March 13, 8 p.m. Works by Rebel, Handel, Gluck, Stookey and Rameau. Musical direction by Nicholas McGegan. $30-$90. (415) 392-4400, www.cityboxoffice.com. 

Duo Melis, Susana Prieto and Alexis Muzurakis, March 19, 8 p.m. Works by de Falla, Granados, Kapustin, Balbastre, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Ginastera. $20-$45.  

401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. (415) 392-4400, www.cityboxoffice.com.

 

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," ongoing. 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 -- Ongoing. 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  

ZOFO Duet, March 11, 8 p.m. Works by Tanaka Arthur, Honegger, Honma, Amman, Sakamoto. $14-$17.  

Eos Ensemble, March 13, 4 p.m. Works by Wolf, Von Weber and Brahms. $14-$17.  

Di Wu, March 18, 8 p.m. Works by Debussy, Ravel and Gounod-Liszt for the piano. $14-$17.  

The Odessa Trio, March 20, 4 p.m. Works by Hersh, Eshima, Gandolfi, Reynolds, Meckler and Cage. $14-$17.  

$14-$17; children 12 and under free. 1751 Sacramento Street, San Francisco. (415) 474-1608, www.oldfirstconcerts.org.

 

OLD ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL  

Livia Sohn, Robert Howard, Daniel Del Pino, March 15, 12:30 p.m. Works by Mendelssohn and Piazzolla for piano, cello and violin. $5.  

$5 donation requested. 660 California St., San Francisco. www.oldsaintmarys.org/.< 

 

SAN FRANCISCO CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC  

Adaiha MacAdam-Somer, March 11, 8 p.m. Works by Mohammed Fairouz for the cello. Free.  

Blueprint, March 12, 8 p.m. Works by Manly Romero, Luciano Berio and Hi Kyung Kim. Conducted by Nicole Paiement. $15-$20.  

Lower Strings Concerto Competition Finals, March 15, 7:30 p.m. A performance by viola, cello and double bass students. Free.  

Guitar Department Recital, March 16, 8 p.m.  

Free.  

Kate Van Orden, March 16, 7:30 p.m. Baroque master works will be performed. Free.  

Voice/Composition Department Recital, March 16, 8 p.m. Vocal students premiere new works by composition students. Free.  

Corey Jamason and Elisabeth Reed, March 17, 8 p.m. Baroque masterpieces will be performed. $15-$20.  

Piano Department Recital, March 17, 8 p.m.  

Free.  

Percussion Department Recital, March 18, 8 p.m.  

Free.  

Violin Studio Recital, March 19, 8 p.m.  

Free.  

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

 

ST. MARK'S LUTHERAN CHURCH  

Hallifax & Jeffrey, March 13, 4 p.m. Works by Simpson, Locke and Jenkins. $10-$28.  

1111 O'Farrell St., San Francisco. (415) 928-7770, www.stmarks-sf.org.< 

 

ST. MARY'S CATHEDRAL  

Christoph Tietze, March 20, 3:30 p.m. Works by Bach for the organ.  

$5 suggested donation. 1111 Gough St., San Francisco. (415) 567-2020, www.stmarycathedralsf.org.<


Classical Music-East Bay Through March 20

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 06:34:00 PM

EL CERRITO PERFORMING ARTS THEATER  

Berkeley West Edge Opera: The Carmen Fixation, March 11 through March 13, 8 p.m. Fri.; 2 p.m. Sun. Conducted by Robert Ashens. Directed by Mark Streshinsky. (510) 841-1903, www.berkeleyopera.org. 

540 Ashbury Ave., El Cerrito. < 

 

HERTZ HALL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY  

University Symphony Orchestra, March 11 through March 12, 8 p.m. Works by Leroux. $5-$15.  

"Les Percussions de Strasbourg," March 13, 3 p.m. Works by Varese, Manoury, Cendo, Campion, Taira. $42. www.calperformances.org. 

Jonas Kaufmann and Helmut Deutsch, March 13, 7 p.m. The tenor and pianist will perform a program to be determined. $40-$100. www.caloperformances.org Les Percussions de Strasbourg, March 13, 3 p.m. Works by Varese, Manoury, Cendo and Taira. Conducted by Jean-Paul Bernard. $42. www.calperformances.org. 

Bancroft Way and College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 642-4864, www.music.berkeley.edu.

 

PARAMOUNT THEATRE  

Oakland East Bay Symphony, March 18, 8 p.m. Works by Persian artists. $20-$65. www.oebs.org. 

2025 Broadway, Oakland. (510) 465-6400, (415) 421-8497, www.paramounttheatre.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

 

ST. MARK'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF BERKELEY  

Agave Baroque, March 18, 6 p.m. Works by Purcell. $10-$15. (510) 220-1195, www.barefootchamberconcerts.com. 

2300 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. (510) 848-5107, www.stmarksberkeley.org/.<


Theater Review: "I Dream of Chang and Eng" at Zellerbach

By Ken Bullock
Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 06:15:00 PM

"I've been trying to write this play for 25 years," said famed Asian-American playwright Philip Kan Gotanda. "Finally I let go of everything--fact, fiction, documentation, history--and wrote. this is what came out." 

Gotanda's I Dream of Chang and Eng "came to life" when it received a staged reading last year, while the playwright was guest artist with the University of California's Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies Department. Directed in spectacular fashion by incoming department chair Peter Glazer--whose Woody Guthrie's America has been a hit around the Bay Area and elsewhere--Chang and Eng follow the conjoined brothers, the original Siamese Twins, mostly Chinese by descent, from Siam across the ocean to America, where they prove good businessmen, taking charge of their own affairs and touring Europe with P. T. Barnum, where they're introduced to the pleasures of the West--cognac, cigarettes, "the green fairy" (absinthe)--and those of the flesh--by a diplomat's wife, who also explains to Chang (as his brother "goes away," sequestering himself hypnotically) what a secret is, something neither brother knows ... 

Other meetings--on board ship with sailor Learned Jack, born of a freed African American slave in Liberia, who warns them that, though not black, they're not white, either; with crowds gawking at them (cleverly seen through their unbelieving eyes, not the spectators'); with picnickers who become a lynch mob, thinking the touring brethren are renegade Indians;with two sisters on a farm neighboring the one they buy, who become their wives and mothers to 21 children--set the story in a world preceding--and partly informing our own ... 

Much use of anachronism, mixing contemporary slang and style with older,more formal forms of behavior--or at least our sense now of what they were like--both adds humor and perspective, and occasionally confuses, detracts from trying to relate one epoch to another. 

The play sprawls, both across the stage, and in time. at three hours' length, Chang and Eng fascinates, but loses focus, which is crystallized by the brothers themselves. The last line of the play, a confession of a secret, is beautiful, and perfectly complements the epigraph, found in the program, from Elias Canetti: "All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams." 

(A special symposium, "Conjoined Histories: Race, Gender, Disability and Popular Performance in the 19th Century," including playwright and director, free, Friday from 1:30-6 at Zellerbach Playhouse) 

Friday, Saturday at 8, Sunday at 2, Zellerbach Playhouse (UC campus); Tickets: $10-$15. 642-8827; tdps.berkeley.edu 

p>


Berkeley Symphony on Thursday Features Russians

By Ken Bullock
Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 05:17:00 PM

Two notable masterpieces of the modern orchestral repertoire, Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1919; a tribute to Debussy) and Shostakovich's Chamber Symphony in C Minor (1960; "dedicated to the victims of fascism and war," but considered an autobiographical work) share the Berkeley Symphony program, under the baton of Joana Carneiro, at 8 tomorrow night (Thursday, March 11) with Scottish composer James MacMullen's Seven Last Words from the Cross (1994), featuring the Symphony's first collaboration with the UC Chamber Chorus and Alumni, Marika Kuzma, director. 

Carneiro's engaging programming becomes more so with each concert, revealing more about orchestral dynamics with each new, sometimes surprising, combination of pieces chosen. "Landscapes of Sound" on January 20, with Shanghai native Du Yun's brilliant Mantichora for strings--a premiere--as well as Messaien's Oiseaux exotiques with pianist Natasha Parenski and Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, did what the concert's title promised--and covered a lot of ground doing it. And the orchestra has never sounded better, section by section. 

Zellerbach Auditorium, UC campus. Tickets: $20-$60. 841-2800; berkeleysymphony.org


Book Review: LASTINGNESS: The Art of Old Age
By Nicholas Delbanco
Grand Central Publishing, 2011 (261 pages; $25)

Reviewed by Dorothy Bryant (dorothybryant.com)
Tuesday March 08, 2011 - 10:26:00 PM

At seventy, Nicholas Delbanco has racked up forty years of teaching and two dozen books of fiction and non-fiction. He has served as director of creative writing programs and prestigious literary panels and has himself been awarded several grants and honors. 

In other words, he seems to exemplify the title of his latest book, LASTINGNESS. Don’t be misled by the subtitle, The Art of Old Age. This is not one of those how-to books on the “art” of staying active while getting through the inevitable decrepitude in our move toward death. By “The Art of Old Age,” he means literally the art created (or, in some cases, abandoned) by artists in their later years, how the work changed in subject matter, in vigor, and in rate of productivity. His wide and deep knowledge of art and artists, and, no doubt, his years of teaching and lecturing, enable him to take the reader on a seemingly casual, almost breezy trip through Western art, touching on writers from Shakespeare to Lampadusa, composers from Bach to Liszt, graphic artists from Goya to O’Keefe. 

He barely mentions performance art. Musicians like Casals get a nod simply to remind us of how lucky creative artists—writers, painters, composers—are, compared to performers—singers, musicians, dancers, actors—whose bodies tend to give out at the point where expressive intelligence may be at its height. 

He takes a neutral, even kindly view of the lastingness of one artist and the quick burnout and/or early death of another. “Lady Luck has much to do with this. There’s the luck of robust health or available medical treatment,” which might have kept Mozart and Schubert alive past 30, or the luck which might have helped Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen dodge the bullets that killed them in World War I. Similarly, what if the poet Holderlin and Virginia Woolfe and Vincent Van Gogh could have been treated with anti-depressants without dulling their muses? Beethoven was no burn-out, but would his late work have been different if he could have obtained a good hearing aid? 

Before the 20th century, few artists had the good luck of a healthy old age, like Thomas Hardy, who stopped writing novels in his seventies, went back to his first love, poetry, and managed to write a body of work that pointed the way for the next generation of poets. Would more years have added anything to the youthful bursts of genius of Keats or Mozart? Were the late paintings of long-lived Titian better than the early ones? The verdict is still out—if we have any business reaching a verdict on any of them. 

After denying anyone’s authority in these matters, least of all his, Delbanco comments on how some artists, handed a lemon, as the old saying goes, made lemonade. 

He points out that Monet painted his famous “Waterlilies,” (which you’ve seen reproduced on about a million greeting cards) after his eyes began to fail; outlines of shapes blurred, but colors became bright explosions. He gives us a fuller portrait of Clara Schumann, not just the wife of Robert, but a first-rate composer in her own right, living in a culture determined to crush such inappropriate aspirations in women. (Brahms adored her, but never went to bat for her.) So she supported mad Robert and their seven children by concertizing (for about 60 years), acknowledged as the greatest pianist of the century in Europe, her playing, as one contemporary critic wrote, “characterized by an entire absence of personal display, a keen perception of the composer’s meaning, and an unfailing power of setting it forth in perfectly intelligible form.” 

Delbanco makes no general judgments about longevity, only gives examples to illustrate how impossible it is to make such judgments. Verdi got better and better with age, his final opera “Falstaff,” a masterpiece. Rossini composed only long enough to make his fortune, then quit and lived high on the money for the rest of his life. Yeats wrote his best poems after he got the Nobel prize. Tolstoy spent his last years in crazy attempts to go “holy,” repudiating his great novels and adopting his version of peasant garb. (I’ve often thought his final years resembled a novel by Dostoevsky, whose work he disliked.) 

Toward the end of the book Delbanco tentatively offers some “lessons to be learned” about the way many artists respond to the longer old age that we (of the more industrialized, safer countries) can expect. As a writer who has been at it for fifty years, long past the life span I expected, my experience supports what he says: 

1. “The hunger for applause” diminishes. From other writers and artists I hear echoes of my own feelings: setting up a gallery show is tedious and boring; doing a bookstore reading to promote your book no longer boosts the ego; I’ve given up expecting to learn anything from reviews; as for doing the once-prized interview on TV—worst of all, since the interviewer probably never heard of you or your latest book. 

2. “The process is rewarding no matter the result.” Or, as I say to friends during their or my times of personal tribulations, the work never fails you, the habit of just sitting down every day and struggling through it, like an athlete doing her workout. The work itself puts everything in perspective, takes you back to your center. 

3. Delbanco’s final lesson surprised me; I had thought it was just my own guilty secret. It is his coolness toward the assertion that healthy-minded old people must seek out social opportunities, stay healthy with organized group activities, adapted to their needs: dancing, travel, etc. I’m not anti-social. I like meeting new people and seeing old friends. In small doses: after I’ve taken notes on a possible story, or written a review of a book I liked, or started a rewrite of something I thought was finished, or taken courage and attempt a poem (who, me?) or even the long novel I doubt my memory cells can handle anymore. 

Yes, I confess, and Delbanco confirms—approvingly—artists are less people-centered than work-centered, and, he says, old age is served well by the habit of working. “The old painter, musician and writer have a shared distaste for every interruption. The art of old age is discourteous; it has less time to lose.” 


Eye from the Aisle: RUINED at BRep—Soft on Plot, Action, for Gruesome Subject

By John A. McMullen II
Tuesday March 08, 2011 - 10:14:00 PM
kevinberne.com

Lynn Nottage won the Pulitzer Prize for RUINED. I almost ended that sentence with a question mark. Hard to believe it won, since it is short on plot, action, and language. 

It opened last Wednesday at the Berkeley Rep as a multiple theatre production with La Jolla Playhouse and Huntingdon Theatre, and in association with Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. It is directed by South African native Liesl Tommy. 

The audience was full on a rainy Sunday night, and they gave it a rousing, standing ovation at the curtain. Most every critic loves it. 

Though it is a cause célèbre, so terrible as to enrage decent people, and while I have great sympathy for those sufferers of this ongoing war terror, it is the art of this drama that, to my eye, falls short. 

“Ruined” refers to genital mutilation of womenby soldiers through multiple rapes and mayhem in the never-ending civil wars in the Heart of Darkness. It takes place in the sanctuary of a whorehouse/bar. The situation and resolution has overtones of Rick’s Café Americain in Casablanca: the redemption of the hardened, money-driven proprietor turning out to be a good person after all. 

The actors are AEA and the acting is moving, but they don’t have much to work with. Their horror stories remind you of “The Vagina Monologues” in their spot-lit straight-on delivery to the audience, but seem stagey within this interactive play. The accents seem accurate, but they extend the vowels so much that it slows the delivery down to tedious pace which makes the play longer andmakes the rhythms the same. The dialogue has little poetry in it to sustain us. 

The first act is tame: Christian the Supplier visits Big Mama Radi, the Madam of the Brothel, and implores and negotiates to have her take on two new girls, one of whom, Sophie, is beautiful, educated, a singing talent, but ruined. She helps Mama, and her singing—by lovely-voiced Carla Duren— provides entertaining interludes of African music. She spirits money away to pay for a restorative operation. Periodically, soldiers come in and out and threaten and abuse the women. The other girl, Salima,is married and wants to return to her family. At the end of the first act, two soldiers come to the brothel looking for her—one is her husband. Will they be reunited? Will Sophie get the operation? The applause at the end of act one was spotty and scarce. 

The second act offers more depth and heartbreak, self-mutilation and missing the boat, and the repetitiveness of first one army then another cycling through the bar leveling threats and abuse. 

It ends with a happy resolution which I found disturbing for a tragic and ongoing situation. 

In the first act, there is only a bit of wrestling to suggest the gut-wrenching spectacle of forcing an unwilling new prostitute to cooperate with the customer’s sexual advances. In the second act, the reaction of ruined Sophie to the general’s forced advances effective conveys the panic of reliving the trauma. Living in a bordello, where the assumption is that sex is available, make the situation as an ironic and bitter situation; as ironicas the sign on the floor in front of the bar: “Campagne pour l’elimination de VIH/SIDA pediatrique” (Campaign for the elimination of childhood AIDS). And not a condom in sight. 

 

The highlight of the play begins the second act in the dancing of Zainab Jah as Josephine. As she dances provocatively for the soldiers, they paw at her, and the prospect of the ruination of a gang-rape is palpable—which impels Josephine to dance more frenetically while eluding their grasp. It had all the archetypal overtones of the Rite of Spring (i.e., making a virgin dance till she dies of exhaustion thus expiating the sins of the village). Ms. Jah’s dancing is beyond talented and combined with the dramatic situation, it hits the desperate tone that we wish the rest of the play had mustered. 

Nottage also penned Intimate Apparel, the nation’s most produced play in 2005-06. 

The set and lighting are lush and warm, and this milieu softens the bleakness of the story and the characters’ plight. Perhaps they were too far away in the RODA? Though I sat in the orchestra, I seemed to be watching it from a distance that broke the empathy; distance in art, painting or drama or any other, is always a factor. 

The critics of the Pulitzer Prize have accused the organization of favoring those who support liberal causes or oppose conservative causes. My ATCA colleague Christopher Rawson wrote an informative and scathing article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette about the controversial Pulitzer and the politics of it, that begins, “…For this year's Pulitzer Prize in Drama, the 17-member Pulitzer board rejected the three finalists selected by its own five-member Drama jury.” (More at http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/onstage/archive/2010/04/16/the-pulitzer-for-drama-usually-means-controversy.aspx


RUINED by Lynn Nottage 

Playing Tue-Sun at the Berkeley Rep through April 10 

Tickets / Info: (510) 647–2949 or http://www.berkeleyrep.org/season/1011/4526.asp 

Lynn Nottage, Playwright / Liesl Tommy, Director / Randy Duncan, Choreographer /Clint Ramos, Scenic Design / Kathleen Geldard, Costume Design / Lap Chi Chu, Lighting Design / Broken Chord, Sound Design & Original Music / Shirley Fishman, Dramaturg / Steve Rankin, Fight Director / Anjee Nero *, Stage Manager / Alaine Alldaffer, Casting / Amy Potozkin, West Coast Casting / 

With: Oberon K.A. Adjepong, Christian / Pascale Armand, Salima / Jason Bowen, Fortune / Carla Duren, Sophie / Wendell B. Franklin, Jerome Kisembe / Zainab Jah, Josephine / Joseph Kamal, Mr. Harari / Adesoji Odukogbe, Musician 2 / Kola Ogundiran, Laurent / Okieriete Onaodowan, Simon / Tonye Patano, Mama Nadi / Adrian Roberts, Commander Osembenga / Alvin Terry, Musician 1 


John A. McMullen II just returned from the American Theatre Critics Conference in NYC.  

Watch for his preview of shows to see if your travels take you there in the spring.  

Comments to eyefromtheaisle@gmail.com 

E J Dunne edits.


Eye from the Aisle: ROMEO & JULIET at IMPACT THEATRE--Rough, Bold, Alive

By John A. McMullen II
Tuesday March 08, 2011 - 10:04:00 PM
Juliet (Luisa Frasconi) ponders her new love from her balcony in the Russian Mafia-themed R&J.
Cheshire Isaacs
Juliet (Luisa Frasconi) ponders her new love from her balcony in the Russian Mafia-themed R&J.

Since it’s about teenagers and ever since West Side Story, the text most taught and known is ROMEO AND JULIET. I have a personal relationship with the play. When I was a junior in high school, I cried when I finished it, and it hooked me on that fellow’s blank verse. I’ve directed it, and taught it, acted in it, and so I came with a critical eye to the performance at IMPACT THEATRE at La Val’s Pizza on Hearst. 

And then they wowed me. 

It ain’t your parents’ R&J, but a rough, bold, alive and “unholy” version--which is how this play has been evolving in film from Zefferelli to Baz Luhrman/Leonardo DiCaprio and on stage everywhere. 

I’ve seen much of the Bard that Impact has done over the last decade, even been in one, and in this production, Melissa Hillman seems to truly realize what I feel she’s always been striving for: a visceral story with real people that takes us past the poetry via the poetry. 

They begin in Russian and Russian accents and, by turns, turn into American English dialect. 

The Russian Rap music sounds particularly menacing and bodes misfortune. 

Dr. Hillman has cut the beginning “bite my thumb” clown play which was a blessing. Three stooges’ antics at the beginning of tragedy always bothered me; I guess it was to get the groundlings to shut-up and pay attention. Instead, it begins with a tableau of grotesque violence that reveals their Russian Mafiosi world. 

She truncates the extended dueling scenes, and makes the violence real: quick and messy. And with lots of “Manchester gore” (for you civilians, that’s stage blood). Not quite Grand Guignol, but they actually have a position of “blood captain” in the tech crew. Sometimes it gets out of hand with blood on the back of the shirt from a dagger stab in the front, but by and large it’s very effective, even eliciting an, “Oh, gross!” from a front-row subscriber. Dave Maier’s expert hand at blood-chillingly realistic stage violence is evident. 

A touch of naturalistic, ingénue nudity in the “the lark, the herald of the morn,” scene summons up the blood and propels us from a moment of erotic hopefulness down the dark avenue to the tomb. 

Anywhere that there is humor or bawdiness, it is brought to the fore. Mike Delaney as Peter, et. al., and his droll delivery in a Russian accent cracks up the audience and we anticipate his reappearing. Jordan Winer brings a wry Friar Laurence with engaging realism. Hillman encourages improvised commentary, e.g., at the end of an early scene wherein Romeo bemoans his obsession with fair Rosaline, Benvolio tosses off his exit line as, “Remember back when you had a dick?” It’s the wise-cracking put-downs of extended adolescence, and it offers relief through the mayhem and heartbreak. The after-party revelry of Mercutio, Benvolio, (Seth Thygesen), and the gang calling out to find Romeo is a drunk-scene right off the streets of Berkeley or Penn State on a football Saturday night. 

When reading the program before curtain, I raised my eyebrow at a female Mercutio, but Marilet Martinez plays Mercutio as a punk, pink-haired bi and bawdy suicide girl with the verve and crazinessthe role requires. Ms. Martinez has this dulcet, raspy alto that drives her verse. In this here-and-now setting, this cross-gender casting works particularly well. 

Ms. Hillman leaves untouched the extensive Nurse’s monologue since she has the talent of Bernadette Quattrone to interpret the nuances. Hillman comically short-hands the wedding, and effectively discards the pro- & epilogues, being bold enough to know that we’ve heard “star-cross’d” lovers enough so that it doesn’t have to spoken. 

Our title hero and heroine Luisa Frasconi & Michael Garrett McDonald are masterfully cast. This lovely young and real-looking fresh-faced duo steals your heart; in addition to their personal beauty, they are just so cute—and the quality of “cute” touches one ever more so than beauty. 

Luisa Frasconi looks all of fourteen and her acting has the quicksilver of teenage girls everywhere. Most every moment of her speaking is quick-paced yet wholly understandable and full of emotion. She is the perfect maiden in the flush of first-love, my all-time favorite Juliet, and I’ve seen a lot of ‘em. Watch this one—she may have a career. Her compulsion to kiss her Romeo is unstoppable and the chemistry twixt the two makes us believe in this teenage love story. Her only fault is attempting to speak through crying for long stanzas which clouds our understanding of the verse. 

Romeo arrives in a fashionable green hoodie and is young and unpracticed enough in his gestures to make us believe he is a kid, but has all the chops of an experienced verse actor. 

Both Ms. Frasconi and Mr. McDonald did their scansion and brought out the important syllables, which is the key to acting with verse. (When I asked Director Hillman how she worked it, she said that she eschews and fears scansion, but just talked to the actors about the text, connecting with the characters and making them real. When I talked with Michael McDonald and asked him where he studied, he replied that he took some course at Ohlone College and read a book on acting Shakespeare and scansion--which speaks volumes about studying acting.) 

Assembling a large cast that is somewhat equal in talent and able to speak the speech convincingly is a feat worth noting; moving them around efficiently on a 14 x 12 stage with a low hanging ceiling, the audience on two adjacent sides and no levels is a feat worth our admiration. 

It’s not perfect—some stage clustering and scene change stuttering—but the director paints effective pictures in simple strokes. Occasionally there is a moment when the emotional timbre is out of kilter: a Capulet that beats his women without showing rage, a much too cool Tybalt, or when the Friar who becomes as practical as an EMT when confronted with the slaughter in the tomb. There are many scenes played on the floor and out of sight of all but the front row, but that’s problematic in a tragedy where a lot of people fall down dead. But it holds the attention and moves the heart, the bodies in space are lovely and fearful, and the well-worn words are spoken afresh and natural and still take the breath away. 

It is—as are most of her company’s offerings—worth double the paltry sum of admission. And you can drink beer and eat pizza while watching, a benefit of which I imagine WS would have truly approved.
 


Impact Theatre presents Romeo and Juliet 

by William Shakespeare 

La Val’s Subterranean, 1834 Euclid Ave, Berkeley, CA 94709 

Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays through March 26 

www.impacttheatre.com 


Directed by Melissa Hillman, costume design Miyuki Bierlein, scenic design Anne Kendall, blood technician Tunuviel Luv, fight direction Dave Maier, Russian consultant Helen Nesteruk, lighting design Jacqueline Steager, stage manager Diana Strachan, sound design Colin Trevor 

WITH: David Abad, Miyuki Bierlein, Mike Delaney, Luisa Frasconi, Ara Glenn-Johanson, Marilet Martinez, Joseph Mason, Jonah McClellan, Michael Garrett McDonald, Jon Nagel, Alexander Prather, Bernadette Quattrone, Seth Thygesen, David Toda, Reggie D. White, and Jordan Winer


Outdoors-East Bay Through March 20

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 06:59:00 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. "Horse-Drawn Train Rides," ongoing. 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'," ongoing. 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," ongoing. Thursday-Sunday, 3 p.m. Feed the pigs, check for eggs and bring hay to the livestock. 

"Toddler Time," ongoing. 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.  

"Potato Harvesting," ongoing. Learn the spectacular history of this New World native as you dig with your spade and help find the spuds. 

$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 ongoing. 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 -- Ongoing. 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 -- Ongoing. 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 -- Ongoing. 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 -- Ongoing. 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 -- Ongoing. 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.

 

BICYCLE TRAILS COUNCIL OF THE EAST BAY ongoing. 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. "Weekly Wednesday Ride at Lake Chabot," ongoing. 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," ongoing. 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 Ongoing.  

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."Sea Siblings," ongoing. 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," ongoing. 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," ongoing. 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 ongoing. 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 -- Ongoing. 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 ongoing. 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 ongoing. 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 ongoing. 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," ongoing. 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. 

CONTRA COSTA COUNTY --  

"Waterfalls and Wildflowers," March 13, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Enjoy early season wildflowers and late season waterfalls on this nature trek up Mt. Diablo's rugged north side. This is a challenging hike of six miles on some rugged trails. 

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.Ongoing.  

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. "Exploring Nature," ongoing. An exhibit of Shawn Gould's illustrations featuring images of the natural world.Ongoing.  

"Weekend Weed Warriors," ongoing. 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," ongoing. 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. 

"Nature Detectives," ongoing. 11 a.m.-noon. An introduction and exploration of the world of Black-Crowned Night-Herons. Ages 3-5 and their caregivers. 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.< 

 

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. Public Tours of the John Muir House, ongoing. 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."Mt. Wanda Wildflower Walk," March 12 and March 26, 9 a.m.-11 a.m. Join a National Park Service ranger for an early morning wildflower walk. More than 82 species of native plants have been found on Mt. Wanda. Free. 

$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 ongoing. 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 ongoing. 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.Ongoing.  

SPECIAL EVENTS Ongoing.  

$5-$7; free children under age 2. June 16-Sept. 15: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sun.; Sept. 16-June 15: noon.-5 p.m. Wed.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat.-Sun. 1931 First Ave., Walnut Creek. (925) 935-1978, www.wildlife-museum.org.< 

 

LIVERMORE AREA RECREATION AND PARK DISTRICT ongoing.  

4444 East Ave., Livermore. (925) 373-5700, www.larpd.dst.ca.us/.< 

 

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. SHORELINE ongoing. 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 ongoing. 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 ongoing. 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 ongoing. 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 ongoing. 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 ongoing. 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 ongoing. 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," ongoing. Saturdays, noon-4 p.m.; Wednesdays, 6-8:30 p.m. $5.  

"Free Bicycle Classes," ongoing. 2:30-3 p.m. Sundays. 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," ongoing. 1-6 p.m. Saturdays. $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 ongoing. 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 ongoing. 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.

 

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."Sunol Sunday Hike," ongoing. Sundays, 1:30-3 p.m. A natural history walk in the wilderness. 

"Sunol Sunday Hike," ongoing. Sundays, 1:30-3 p.m. A natural history walk in Sunol Regional 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.<


Museums-East Bay Through March 20

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 06:58:00 PM

AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM AND LIBRARY AT OAKLAND ongoing. The Oakland Public Library's museum is designed to discover, preserve, interpret and share the cultural and historical experiences of African Americans in California and the West. In addition, a three-panel mural is on permanent display. 

Free. Tuesday-Saturday, noon-5:30 p.m. 659 14th St., Oakland. (510) 637-0200, www.oaklandlibrary.org.

 

ALAMEDA MUSEUM ongoing. The museum offers permanent displays of Alameda history, the only rotating gallery showcasing local Alameda artists and student artwork, as well as souvenirs, books and videos about the rich history of the Island City. 

Free. Wednesday-Friday and Sunday, 1-4 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. 2324 Alameda Ave., Alameda. (510) 521-1233, www.alamedamuseum.org.

 

BADE MUSEUM AT THE PACIFIC SCHOOL OF RELIGION The museum's collections include the Tell en-Nasbeh Collection, consisting of artifacts excavated from Tell en-Nasbeh in Palestine in 1926 and 1935 by William Badh, and the Howell Bible Collection, featuring approximately 300 rare books (primarily Bibles) dating from the 15th through the 18th centuries. 

"Tell en-Nasbeh," ongoing. This exhibit is the "heart and soul" of the Bade Museum. It displays a wealth of finds from the excavations at Tell en-Nasbeh, Palestine whose objects span from the Early Bronze Age (3100-2200 BC) through the Iron Age (1200-586 BC) and into the Roman and Hellenistic periods. Highlights of the exhibit include "Tools of the Trade" featuring real archaeological tools used by Badh and his team, an oil lamp typology, a Second Temple period (586 BC-70 AD) limestone ossuary, and a selection of painted Greek pottery.  

"William Frederic Bade: Theologian, Naturalist, and Archaeologist," ongoing. This exhibit highlights one of PSR's premier educators and innovative scholars. The collection of material on display was chosen with the hopes of representing the truly dynamic and multifaceted character of William F. Badh. He was a family man, a dedicated teacher, a loving friend, and an innovative and passionate archaeologist.  

Free. Tuesday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Holbrook Hall, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave., Berkeley. (510) 848-0528, 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.  

2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley. < 

 

BLACKHAWK MUSEUM ongoing.  

AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM -- The museum's permanent exhibition of internationally renowned automobiles dated from 1897 to the 1980s. The cars are displayed as works of art with room to walk completely around each car to admire the workmanship. On long-term loan from the Smithsonian Institution is a Long Steam Tricycle; an 1893-94 Duryea, the first Duryea built by the Duryea brothers; and a 1948 Tucker, number 39 of the 51 Tuckers built, which is a Model 48 "Torpedo'' four-door sedan. "International Automotive Treasures," ongoing. An ever-changing exhibit featuring over 90 automobiles.  

"A Journey on Common Ground," ongoing. An exhibit of moving photographs, video and art objects from around the world exploring the causes of disability and the efforts of the Wheelchair Foundation to provide a wheelchair for every person in need who cannot afford one. 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.

 

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. "Waterworks." A water play gallery with rivers, a pumping station and a water table, designed to teach about water.  

"Little Town Grocery and Cafe." Designed to create the ambience of shopping in a grocery store and eating in a restaurant.  

"Infant-Toddler Garden." A picket fence gated indoor area, which includes a carrot patch with wooden carrots to be harvested, a pretend pond and a butterfly mobile to introduce youngsters to the concept of food, gardening and agriculture.  

"Dramatic Arts Stage." Settings, backdrops and costumes coincide with seasonal events and holidays. Children can exercise their dramatic flair here.  

"Wiggle Wall." The floor-to-ceiling "underground'' tunnels give children a worm's eye view of the world. The tunnels are laced with net covered openings and giant optic lenses. 

"Architects at Play," ongoing. This hands-on, construction-based miniexhibit provides children with the opportunity to create free-form structures, from skyscrapers to bridges, using KEVA planks. Ongoing.  

$6-$7. Wednesday and Thursday, 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Closed Sunday-Tuesday. 2065 Kittredge St., Berkeley. (510) 647-1111, www.habitot.org.

 

HALL OF HEALTH ongoing. A community health-education museum and science center promoting wellness and individual responsibility for health. There are hands-on exhibits that teach about the workings of the human body, the value of a healthy diet and exercise, and the destructive effects of smoking and drug abuse. "Kids on the Block'' puppet shows, which use puppets from diverse cultures to teach about and promote acceptance of conditions such as cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, leukemia, blindness, arthritis and spina bifida, are available by request for community events and groups visiting the Hall on Saturdays. "This Is Your Heart!" ongoing. An interactive exhibit on heart health.  

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

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

"Your Cellular Self and Cancer Prevention," ongoing. An exhibit on understanding how cells become cancerous and how to detect and prevent cancer. 

Suggested $3 donation; free for children under age 3. Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 2230 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 549-1564, www.hallofhealth.org.

 

HAYWARD AREA HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM The museum is located in a former post office and displays memorabilia of early Hayward and southern Alameda County. Some of the features include a restored 1923 Seagrave fire engine and a hand pumper from the Hayward Fire Department, founded in 1865; a Hayward Police Department exhibit; information on city founder William Hayward; and pictures of the old Hayward Hotel. The museum also alternates three exhibits per year, including a Christmas Toys exhibit and a 1950s lifestyle exhibit.Ongoing.  

50 cents-$1. Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. 22701 Main St., Hayward. (510) 581-0223, www.haywardareahistory.org.

 

JUDAH L. MAGNES MUSEUM The museum's permanent collection includes objects of Jewish importance including ceremonial art, film and video, folk art and fine art, paintings, sculptures and prints by contemporary and historical artists. 

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

$4-$6; free for children under age 12. Sunday-Wednesday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m.-8 p.m. CLOSED APRIL 3-4 AND 9-10; MAY 23-24 AND 28; JULY 4; SEPT. 3, 13 AND 27; OCT. 4; NOV. 22; DEC. 24-25 AND 31. 2911 Russell St., Berkeley. (510) 549-6950, www.magnes.org.

 

LAWRENCE HALL OF SCIENCE "NanoZone," ongoing. Discover the science of the super-small: nanotechnology. Through hands-on activities and games, explore this microworld and the scientific discoveries made in this area.  

"Forces That Shape the Bay," ongoing. A science park that shows and explains why the San Francisco Bay is the way it is, with information on water, erosion, plate tectonics and mountain building. You can ride earthquake simulators, set erosion in motion and look far out into the bay with a powerful telescope from 1,100 feet above sea level. The center of the exhibit is a waterfall that demonstrates how water flows from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Bay. Visitors can control where the water goes. There are also hands-on erosion tables, and a 40-foot-long, 6-foothigh, rock compression wall.  

"Real Astronomy Experience," ongoing. A new exhibit-in-development allowing visitors to use the tools that real astronomers use. Aim a telescope at a virtual sky and operate a remote-controlled telescope to measure a planet.  

"Biology Lab," ongoing. In the renovated Biology Lab visitors may hold and observe gentle animals. Saturday, Sunday and holidays, 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.  

"The Idea Lab," ongoing. Experiment with some of the basics of math, science and technology through hands-on activities and demonstrations of magnets, spinning and flying, puzzles and nanotechnology.  

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

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

"Animal Discovery Room,,' ongoing. 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," ongoing. 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," ongoing. 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," ongoing. Play with simple, versatile building blocks that can be used to build very large, high and stable structures.  

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

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

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

"Science on a Sphere," ongoing. Catch an out-of-this-world experience with an animated globe. See hurricanes form, tsunamis sweep across the oceans and city lights glow around the planet. Ongoing.  

$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.Ongoing.  

SPECIAL EVENTS Ongoing.  

$5-$7; free children under age 2. June 16-Sept. 15: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sun.; Sept. 16-June 15: noon.-5 p.m. Wed.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat.-Sun. 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.Ongoing.  

$3. Fourth Saturday of every month. 2021 Alameda Ave., Alameda. (510) 521-1247, www.alamedamuseum.org/meyers.html.< 

 

MUSEUM OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN TECHNOLOGY SCIENCE VILLAGE ongoing. A science museum with an African-American focus promoting science education and awareness for the underrepresented. The science village chronicles the technical achievements of people of African descent from ancient ties to present. There are computer classes at the Internet Cafi, science education activities and seminars. There is also a resource library with a collection of books, periodicals and videotapes. 

$4-$6. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, noon-6 p.m.; Sunday, 2 p.m.-6 p.m. 630 20th St., Oakland. (510) 893-6426, www.ncalifblackengineers.org.

 

MUSEUM OF CHILDREN'S ART A museum of art for and by children, with activities for children to participate in making their own art.  

ART CAMPS -- Hands-on activities and engaging curriculum for children of different ages, led by professional artists and staff. $60 per day.  

CLASSES -- A Sunday series of classes for children ages 8 to 12, led by Mocha artists. Sundays, 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.  

OPEN STUDIOS -- Drop-in art play activities with new themes each week.  

"Big Studio." Guided art projects for children age 6 and older with a Mocha artist. Tuesday through Friday, 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. $5.  

"Little Studio." A hands-on experience that lets young artists age 18 months to 5 years see, touch and manipulate a variety of media. Children can get messy. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. $5.  

"Family Weekend Studios." Drop-in art activities for the whole family. All ages welcome. Saturday and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m. $5 per child.  

FAMILY EXTRAVAGANZAS -- Special weekend workshops for the entire family.  

"Sunday Workshops with Illustrators," Sundays, 1 p.m. See the artwork and meet the artists who create children's book illustrations. Free.Ongoing.  

"Saturday Stories," ongoing. 1 p.m. For children ages 2-5. Free. 

Free gallery admission. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, noon-5 p.m. 538 Ninth St., Oakland. (510) 465-8770, www.mocha.org.

 

MUSEUM OF THE SAN RAMON VALLEY The museum features local artifacts, pictures, flags and drawings commemorating the valley's history. It also houses a historical narrative frieze. In addition to a permanent exhibit on the valley's history, the museum sponsors revolving exhibits and several guided tours. The restored railroad depot that houses the museum was built on the San Ramon Branch Line of the Southern Pacific Railroad 108 years ago.Ongoing.  

Free. August: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. The Depot, West Prospect and Railroad avenues, Danville. (925) 837-3750, www.museumsrv.org.

 

MUSEUM ON MAIN STREET Located in a former town hall building, this museum is a piece of local history. It has a photo and document archive, collection of artifacts, local history publications for purchase, and a history library. It is supported by the Amador-Livermore Valley Historical Society.Ongoing.  

$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 "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.  

$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 ongoing. 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. Group tours may be arranged between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Tues.-Sun.  

Private Tours and Teas: Take a private tour followed by tea in the Pardee family dining room (available for 4-12 persons).  

Tour with light tea: $12 per person  

Tour with high tea: $25 per person.  

High tea without tour: $20 per person. 

$5-$25; free children ages 12 and under. House Tours: 10:30 a.m. every Wednesday and second Saturday of each month; 2 p.m. the second Sunday or each month. 672 11th St., Oakland. (510) 444-2187, www.pardeehome.org.

 

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.Ongoing.  

$1-$3; free-children under age 6. Wednesday and Sunday, 1 p.m.-4 p.m.; Closed in January. 2660 Ygnacio Valley Road, Walnut Creek. (925) 935-7871, www.ci.walnut-creek.ca.us.< 

 

SMITH MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY AT CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, HAYWARD The museum houses significant collections of archaeological and ethnographic specimens from Africa, Asia and North America and small collections from Central and South America. The museum offers opportunities and materials for student research and internships in archaeology and ethnology.Ongoing.  

Free. Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Meiklejohn Hall, Fourth Floor, 25800 Carlos Bee Blvd., Hayward. (510) 885-3104, (510) 885-7414, www.isis.csuhayward.edu/cesmith/acesmith.html.< 

 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY HEARST MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY ongoing. "Native California Cultures," ongoing. This is an exhibit of some 500 artifacts from the museum's California collections, the largest and most comprehensive collections in the world devoted to California Indian cultures. The exhibit includes a section about Ishi, the famous Indian who lived and worked with the museum, Yana tribal baskets and a 17-foot Yurok canoe carved from a single redwood.  

"Recent Acquisitions," ongoing. The collection includes Yoruba masks and carvings from Africa, early-20th-century Taiwanese hand puppets, textiles from the Americas and 19th- and 20th-century Tibetan artifacts.  

"From the Maker's Hand: Selections from the Permanent Collection," ongoing. This exhibit explores human ingenuity in the living and historical cultures of China, Africa, Egypt, Peru, North America and the Meditteranean. 

$1-$4; free for children ages 12 and under; free to all on Thursdays. Wednesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Sunday, noon-4:30 p.m. 103 Kroeber Hall, Bancroft Way and College Avenue, Berkeley. (510) 643-7648, www.hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu.

 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY MUSEUM OF PALEONTOLOGY ongoing. "Tyrannosaurus Rex," ongoing. A 20-foot-tall, 40-foot-long replica of the fearsome dinosaur. The replica is made from casts of bones of the most complete T. Rex skeleton yet excavated. When unearthed in Montana, the bones were all lying in place with only a small piece of the tailbone missing.  

"Pteranodon," ongoing. A suspended skeleton of a flying reptile with a wingspan of 22 to 23 feet. The Pteranodon lived at the same time as the dinosaurs.  

"California Fossils Exhibit," ongoing. An exhibit of some of the fossils that have been excavated in California. 

Free. During semester sessions, hours generally are: Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-10 p.m.; Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m.-10 p.m. Hours vary during summer and holidays. Lobby, 1101 Valley Life Sciences Building, #4780, University of California, Berkeley. (510) 642-1821, www.ucmp.berkeley.edu.<


Museums-San Francisco Through March 20

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 06:58:00 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. "In a New Light," ongoing. 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.Ongoing. Free with general admission unless otherwise noted.  

$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."North Beach Walking Tour,", ongoing. 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.Ongoing.  

$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.Ongoing.  

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," ongoing. 6 p.m. Thursdays. 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," ongoing. Exhibition features sculpture by Maya Lin.  

BENJAMIN DEAN LECTURE SERIES -- Ongoing.  

$14.95-$24.95. Daily, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. (415) 379-8000, www.calacademy.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. "Leaders of the Band," ongoing. An exhibition of the history and development of the Cathay Club Marching Band, the first Chinese American band formed in 1911.Ongoing.  

$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.

 

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. 

"Van Gough, Gauguin, Cezanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musee d'Orsay," ongoing. Exhibit open through Jan. 18, 2011.  

LECTURES AND SYMPOSIA -- Ongoing.  

"Olmec: Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico," March 12, 1 p.m. An art lecture with docent Maureen O'Brien. Free.  

$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.

 

GLBT HISTORICAL SOCIETY AND MUSEUM The museum is a project of the GLBT (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender) Historical Society.Ongoing.  

EXHIBITS Ongoing.  

$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 Ongoing.  

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," ongoing. 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 -- Ongoing. 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.

 

MARKET STREET RAILWAY MUSEUM ongoing. 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 ongoing.  

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 ongoing. 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 Ongoing.  

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 PERFORMANCE AND DESIGN Ongoing.  

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.''Ongoing.  

"Urban Kidz Film Series," ongoing. 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.Ongoing.  

$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) ongoing. 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 ongoing. 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 "Earthquake Exhibit," ongoing. 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," ongoing. 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," ongoing. Toddlers may comfortably climb the carpeted "treehouse'' and make a myriad of discoveries, from the roots to the limbs.  

"Live Animal Exhibit," ongoing. Visit with more than 100 creatures including small mammals, amphibians, reptiles, raptors and small birds, insects, spiders and tide pool creatures. "Saturdays Are Special at the Museum," ongoing. 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," ongoing. 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 -- Ongoing. 1-4 p.m.  

$3-$5. "Third Friday Birders," ongoing. 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. 

"Meet the Animals," ongoing. 11:15 a.m.-noon. 

"Meet the Animals," ongoing. Saturdays, 11:15 a.m. Learn about the animals that live at the Randall Museum. 

"Animal Feeding," ongoing. Saturday, noon. 

"Drop-in Family Ceramics Workshop," ongoing. Saturday, 1:15-2:15 p.m. 

"Golden Gate Model Railroad Exhibit," ongoing. Saturday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. 

"Film Series for Teenagers," ongoing. Fridays, 7 p.m. 

"Drop-in Family Ceramics Workshop," ongoing. Saturday, 10:15-11:15 a.m. $5. 

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 ongoing. 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: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Daily; 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. "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.Ongoing. 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.Ongoing.  

"Crafts for Kids," ongoing. Every third Saturday of the month; 3-4 p.m. Learn a little about sea life and make a maritime craft. $5 vessel admission; free for children under 15. 

"Adventures at Sea: Life Aboard a 19th century Sailing Ship," ongoing. 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. 

"Historic Waterfront Walking Tour," ongoing. 10:30-11:30 a.m. Park Rangerled, hour long tour of San Francisco's northern waterfront. Tour takes place on various days throughout December; see website for full details. Free. 

"Chantey Sing," ongoing. 8 p.m.-12 a.m. Monthly sing-a-long aboard a historic ship. Bring a mug for hot apple cider served from the ship's galley. Free; reservations required. Reservation line: (415) 561-7171. 

Entering the Pier is free but there is a fee to board the ships. 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.Ongoing. TEMPORARILY CLOSED.  

$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 PERFORMING ARTS LIBRARY AND MUSEUM ongoing. "Dance in California: 150 Years of Innovation," ongoing. 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," ongoing. This permanent exhibit is a comprehensive study of a generation of national and international conductors. In Gallery 5.  

"San Francisco 1900: On Stage," ongoing. In Gallery 4.  

"San Francisco in Song," ongoing. 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 ongoing. 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 ongoing. 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.Ongoing.  

$8-$10. 11 a.m.-5 p.m., Wednesday-Sunday. 221 Fourth St., San Francisco. (415) 820-3220, www.zeum.org.<


Kids-East Bay Through March 20

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 06:57:00 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. "Horse-Drawn Train Rides," ongoing. 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'," ongoing. 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," ongoing. Thursday-Sunday, 3 p.m. Feed the pigs, check for eggs and bring hay to the livestock. 

"Toddler Time," ongoing. 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.  

"Potato Harvesting," ongoing. Learn the spectacular history of this New World native as you dig with your spade and help find the spuds. 

$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 POINT LIBRARY  

"Monthly Craft Night," ongoing. 4-5 p.m. Last Friday of every month. Each month features a different themed craft.  

Riverview Middle School, 205 Pacifica Ave., Pittsburg. (925) 458-9597.< 

 

BLACKHAWK MUSEUM ongoing.  

AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM -- The museum's permanent exhibition of internationally renowned automobiles dated from 1897 to the 1980s. The cars are displayed as works of art with room to walk completely around each car to admire the workmanship. On long-term loan from the Smithsonian Institution is a Long Steam Tricycle; an 1893-94 Duryea, the first Duryea built by the Duryea brothers; and a 1948 Tucker, number 39 of the 51 Tuckers built, which is a Model 48 "Torpedo'' four-door sedan. "International Automotive Treasures," ongoing. An ever-changing exhibit featuring over 90 automobiles.  

"A Journey on Common Ground," ongoing. An exhibit of moving photographs, video and art objects from around the world exploring the causes of disability and the efforts of the Wheelchair Foundation to provide a wheelchair for every person in need who cannot afford one. 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.

 

BUILD-A-BEAR WORKSHOP ongoing. An interactive place where children, and adults, can learn how a stuffed animal is made, then choose an animal pattern from the offering of bears, elephants, dogs and rabbits; stuff the chosen animal; dress it; and create a birth certificate. Closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas. 

$10-$25; clothing and accessories extra. Mondays-Fridays, 10 a.m.-9 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Sundays, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Broadway Plaza, 1248 Broadway, Walnut Creek. (925) 946-4697, www.buildabear.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.Ongoing.  

"Beyond Blastoff," ongoing. Get a glimpse into the life of an astronaut and experience the mixture of exhilaration, adventure, and confinement that is living and working in space. 

"Chabot Observatories: A View to the Stars," ongoing. 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. 

"Tales of the Maya Skies," ongoing. A companion exhibit for the planetarium show which features the scientific achievements and cosmology of the Maya. All content is bilingual in English and Spanish. 

"Bill Nye's climate lab," ongoing. Features Emmy-award-winning Bill Nye the Climate Guy as commander of the Clean Energy Space Station, and invites visitors on an urgent mission to thwart climate change. 

"Destination Universe," ongoing. Take a journey from our Sun to the farthest reaches of the cosmos. 

"One giant leap: a moon odyssey," ongoing. For all astronaut wannabees -take a simulated Moon-walk, try on a space helmet, climb into a Mercury capsule and land a lunar module in this hands-on exhibit that explores the legends and science fiction about the Moon. 

TIEN MEGADOME SCIENCE THEATER -- Ongoing. 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. 

"SolarMax," ongoing. Featuring live images of the Sun and footage from around the world of solar observatories of the past, present, and future, this show tells of humankind's struggle to understand the Sun. 

"Mysteries of Egypt," ongoing. Experience the magic and majesty of Egypt as never before. Soar over the great pyramids of Giza, cross the Valley of the Kings, and descend into the shadowy chambers of the sacred tomb of King Tutankhamen. Suitable for families. 

"To be an astronaut," ongoing. Venture inside the gates of NASA to experience the rigors of astronaut training. 

"Dinosaurs Alive," ongoing. 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. 

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."Arts and Crafts," ongoing. Noon-3 p.m. Event features arts and crafts projects for children and their families. $6. 

"Animal of the Day!" ongoing. Saturdays and Sundays, 1-1:20 p.m. Come up close and learn about Fairyland's creatures. 

$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."Catch of the Day," ongoing. 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," ongoing. 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," ongoing. 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.

 

FOREST HOME FARMS ongoing. 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. "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.Ongoing.  

$6-$7. Wednesday and Thursday, 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Closed Sunday-Tuesday. 2065 Kittredge St., Berkeley. (510) 647-1111, www.habitot.org.

 

HALL OF HEALTH ongoing. A community health-education museum and science center promoting wellness and individual responsibility for health. There are hands-on exhibits that teach about the workings of the human body, the value of a healthy diet and exercise, and the destructive effects of smoking and drug abuse. "Kids on the Block'' puppet shows, which use puppets from diverse cultures to teach about and promote acceptance of conditions such as cerebral palsy, Down Syndrome, leukemia, blindness, arthritis and spina bifida, are available by request for community events and groups visiting the Hall on Saturdays. "This Is Your Heart!" ongoing. An interactive exhibit on heart health.  

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

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

"Your Cellular Self and Cancer Prevention," ongoing. An exhibit on understanding how cells become cancerous and how to detect and prevent cancer. 

Suggested $3 donation; free for children under age 3. Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. 2230 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. (510) 549-1564, www.hallofhealth.org.

 

HAYWARD 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. "Exploring Nature," ongoing. An exhibit of Shawn Gould's illustrations featuring images of the natural world.Ongoing.  

"Weekend Weed Warriors," ongoing. 1-4 p.m. Help the shoreline to eliminate the non-native plants that threaten its diversity. Ages 12 and older. Registration required. 

"Nature Detectives," ongoing. 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," ongoing. 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.< 

 

JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF THE EAST BAY  

"Shabbat Celebration for Young Children," ongoing. 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 ongoing. 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. 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," ongoing. 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.Ongoing.  

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 ongoing. 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 "NanoZone," ongoing. Discover the science of the super-small: nanotechnology. Through hands-on activities and games, explore this microworld and the scientific discoveries made in this area.  

"Forces That Shape the Bay," ongoing. A science park that shows and explains why the San Francisco Bay is the way it is, with information on water, erosion, plate tectonics and mountain building. You can ride earthquake simulators, set erosion in motion and look far out into the bay with a powerful telescope from 1,100 feet above sea level. The center of the exhibit is a waterfall that demonstrates how water flows from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Bay. Visitors can control where the water goes. There are also hands-on erosion tables, and a 40-foot-long, 6-foothigh, rock compression wall.  

"Real Astronomy Experience," ongoing. A new exhibit-in-development allowing visitors to use the tools that real astronomers use. Aim a telescope at a virtual sky and operate a remote-controlled telescope to measure a planet.  

"Biology Lab," ongoing. In the renovated Biology Lab visitors may hold and observe gentle animals. Saturday, Sunday and holidays, 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.  

"The Idea Lab," ongoing. Experiment with some of the basics of math, science and technology through hands-on activities and demonstrations of magnets, spinning and flying, puzzles and nanotechnology.  

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

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

HOLT PLANETARIUM Ongoing. 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.Ongoing.  

$5-$7; free children under age 2. June 16-Sept. 15: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sun.; Sept. 16-June 15: noon.-5 p.m. Wed.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat.-Sun. 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.Ongoing.  

"Saturday Stories," ongoing. 1 p.m. For children ages 2-5. Free."Saturday Stories," ongoing. 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.

 

PIXIELAND AMUSEMENT PARK ongoing. This amusement park for children features pixie-sized rides such as a dragon roller coaster, swirling tea cups, a carousel, red baron airplanes, an antique car ride and a miniature train among other attractions sure to please the little ones. Classic carnival-style food and souvenirs round out the experience. Admission to the park is free; ride tickets are $1.25 each or 10 tickets for $10; Day wrist band for unlimited rides, $25. Specials and season passes are also available. 

Dec. 1-12 2010: 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Closed Dec. 13-Jan. 8. 2740 E. Olivera Road, Concord. (925) 689-8841, www.pixieland.com.

 

POINT PINOLE REGIONAL SHORELINE ongoing. 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 ongoing. 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.< 

 

ROBERT SIBLEY VOLCANIC REGIONAL PRESERVE ongoing. 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 ongoing. 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.

 

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. "Limited Access Day," ongoing. Due to ship maintenance, tours of the navigation bridge and the engine room are not available. Tuesdays.  

"Flight Deck Fun," ongoing. A former Landing Signal Officer will show children how to bring in a fighter plane for a landing on the deck then let them try the signals themselves. Times vary. Free with regular Museum admission.  

"Protestant Divine Services," ongoing. Hornet chaplain John Berger conducts church services aboard The Hornet in the Wardroom Lounge. Everyone is welcome and refreshments are served immediately following the service. Sundays, 11 a.m.Ongoing. Closed on New Year's Day. 

"Family Day," ongoing. Discounted admission for families of four with a further discount for additional family members. Access to some of the areas may be limited due to ship maintenance. Every Tuesday. $20 for family of four; $5 for each additional family member. 

"History Mystery After Hours Tour," ongoing. 7 p.m.-10 p.m. Explore the USS Hornet after hours and learn the history of this ship while it is illuminated in red lights used for "night ops." Also, hear stories about the ships' legendary haunts. Reservations required. (510) 521-8448 X282. 

"Flashlight Tour," ongoing. 8:30 a.m. 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. $30-$35 per person. 

"Living Ship Day: Women's History Month," March 19. Experience an aircraft carrier in action. Witness simulated flight operations as aircraft are lifted to the flight deck and placed into launch position. Participate in mission briefings, meet former crew, and sit in the cockpit of a fighter jet. 

$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 ongoing. ` 

$19.95-$31.95 General Admission; Season pass: $39.99-$59.99. Park closes in October and reopens in May. 1950 Waterworld Parkway,, Concord. (925) 609-1364, www.waterworldcalifornia.com.<


General-East Bay Through March 20

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 06:56:00 PM

"DAY OF WINE AND POODLES," -- March 12. An afternoon for dog lovers to bring their friends to frolic, taste wine, food, and more, all to benefit Bay Area Poodle Rescue. Event takes place at Red Feather Winery, 5700 Greenville Rd., Livermore. 

$10-$35.1-4 p.m.(510) 286-7630, www.bayareapoodlerescue.org.

 

ALAMEDA COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS  

Gem Fair, March 11 through March 13, Noon-6 p.m. Fri.; 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat.; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Gems, jewelry, crystals, beads and more. $7; children under 12 free with adult. (503) 252-8300, www.gemfaire.com. 

"2011 Scrapbook Expo," March 18 through March 19, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Fri.-Sat. $7-$9. 

4501 Pleasanton Ave., Pleasanton. (925) 426-7600, www.alamedacountyfair.com.

 

ASHKENAZ  

"I Like My Bike Night," ongoing. 9 p.m. First Fridays of the month. 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," ongoing. 3 p.m. First Sundays of the month 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," ongoing. 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Sat. - Sun. Donate your unwanted books and receive new titles for free.  

10520 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. (510) 526-1941, www.bayareafreebookexchange.com.

 

CALIFORNIA GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY AND LIBRARY  

"California Genealogical Society and Library Free First Saturday," ongoing. 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 MAGIC THEATER  

"Dinner Theater Magic Show," ongoing. 7:30 p.m. Fri - Sat. 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.Ongoing.  

"One giant leap: a moon odyssey," ongoing. For all astronaut wannabees -take a simulated Moon-walk, try on a space helmet, climb into a Mercury capsule and land a lunar module in this hands-on exhibit that explores the legends and science fiction about the Moon. 

"Chabot Observatories: A View to the Stars," ongoing. 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. 

"Tales of the Maya Skies," ongoing. A companion exhibit for the planetarium show which features the scientific achievements and cosmology of the Maya. All content is bilingual in English and Spanish. 

"Beyond Blastoff," ongoing. Get a glimpse into the life of an astronaut and experience the mixture of exhilaration, adventure, and confinement that is living and working in space. 

"Destination Universe," ongoing. Take a journey from our Sun to the farthest reaches of the cosmos. 

"Bill Nye's climate lab," ongoing. Features Emmy-award-winning Bill Nye the Climate Guy as commander of the Clean Energy Space Station, and invites visitors on an urgent mission to thwart climate change. 

TIEN MEGADOME SCIENCE THEATER -- Ongoing. 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. 

"Dinosaurs Alive," ongoing. 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. 

"To be an astronaut," ongoing. Venture inside the gates of NASA to experience the rigors of astronaut training. 

"SolarMax," ongoing. Featuring live images of the Sun and footage from around the world of solar observatories of the past, present, and future, this show tells of humankind's struggle to understand the Sun. 

"Mysteries of Egypt," ongoing. Experience the magic and majesty of Egypt as never before. Soar over the great pyramids of Giza, cross the Valley of the Kings, and descend into the shadowy chambers of the sacred tomb of King Tutankhamen. Suitable for families. 

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.

 

LAWRENCE HALL OF SCIENCE "NanoZone," ongoing. Discover the science of the super-small: nanotechnology. Through hands-on activities and games, explore this microworld and the scientific discoveries made in this area.  

"Forces That Shape the Bay," ongoing. A science park that shows and explains why the San Francisco Bay is the way it is, with information on water, erosion, plate tectonics and mountain building. You can ride earthquake simulators, set erosion in motion and look far out into the bay with a powerful telescope from 1,100 feet above sea level. The center of the exhibit is a waterfall that demonstrates how water flows from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Bay. Visitors can control where the water goes. There are also hands-on erosion tables, and a 40-foot-long, 6-foothigh, rock compression wall.  

"Real Astronomy Experience," ongoing. A new exhibit-in-development allowing visitors to use the tools that real astronomers use. Aim a telescope at a virtual sky and operate a remote-controlled telescope to measure a planet.  

"Biology Lab," ongoing. In the renovated Biology Lab visitors may hold and observe gentle animals. Saturday, Sunday and holidays, 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.  

"The Idea Lab," ongoing. Experiment with some of the basics of math, science and technology through hands-on activities and demonstrations of magnets, spinning and flying, puzzles and nanotechnology.  

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

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

HOLT PLANETARIUM Ongoing. 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.

 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE ongoing. 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," ongoing. 12:10-12:50 p.m. First Thursdays of each month  

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. "Limited Access Day," ongoing. Due to ship maintenance, tours of the navigation bridge and the engine room are not available. Tuesdays.  

"Flight Deck Fun," ongoing. A former Landing Signal Officer will show children how to bring in a fighter plane for a landing on the deck then let them try the signals themselves. Times vary. Free with regular Museum admission.  

"Protestant Divine Services," ongoing. Hornet chaplain John Berger conducts church services aboard The Hornet in the Wardroom Lounge. Everyone is welcome and refreshments are served immediately following the service. Sundays, 11 a.m.Ongoing. Closed on New Year's Day. 

"Family Day," ongoing. Discounted admission for families of four with a further discount for additional family members. Access to some of the areas may be limited due to ship maintenance. Every Tuesday. $20 for family of four; $5 for each additional family member. 

"History Mystery After Hours Tour," ongoing. 7 p.m.-10 p.m. Explore the USS Hornet after hours and learn the history of this ship while it is illuminated in red lights used for "night ops." Also, hear stories about the ships' legendary haunts. Reservations required. (510) 521-8448 X282. 

"Flashlight Tour," ongoing. 8:30 a.m. 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. $30-$35 per person. 

"Living Ship Day: Women's History Month," March 19. Experience an aircraft carrier in action. Witness simulated flight operations as aircraft are lifted to the flight deck and placed into launch position. Participate in mission briefings, meet former crew, and sit in the cockpit of a fighter jet. 

$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.<


Highlights-East Bay Through March 20

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 06:56:00 PM

"DAY OF WINE AND POODLES," -- March 12. An afternoon for dog lovers to bring their friends to frolic, taste wine, food, and more, all to benefit Bay Area Poodle Rescue. Event takes place at Red Feather Winery, 5700 Greenville Rd., Livermore. 

$10-$35.1-4 p.m.(510) 286-7630, www.bayareapoodlerescue.org.

 

FREIGHT AND SALVAGE  

Black Brothers, Colin and Marika Cotter, March 17, 8 p.m. $22.50-$24.50. 

Music starts at 8 p.m. unless otherwise noted. 2020 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 548-1761, www.freightandsalvage.org.

 

HERTZ HALL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY  

University Symphony Orchestra, March 11 through March 12, 8 p.m. Works by Leroux. $5-$15.  

"Les Percussions de Strasbourg," March 13, 3 p.m. Works by Varese, Manoury, Cendo, Campion, Taira. $42. www.calperformances.org. 

Bancroft Way and College Ave., Berkeley. (510) 642-4864, www.music.berkeley.edu.

 

PARAMOUNT THEATRE  

Oakland East Bay Symphony, March 18, 8 p.m. Works by Persian artists. $20-$65. www.oebs.org. 

2025 Broadway, Oakland. (510) 465-6400, (415) 421-8497, www.paramounttheatre.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

 

STARRY PLOUGH PUB  

Brian Kenny Fresno, MoeTar, InnerEar Brigade, March 11, 9 p.m. $8. 

Starry Plough's 37th Annual St. Patrick's Day Celebration, March 17, 5:30 p.m. $10. 

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.

 

YOSHI'S  

Vienna Teng & Alex Wong, March 13, 5 and 7 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.<


Exhibits-San Francisco Through March 20

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 06:54:00 PM

"SUN SPHERES," -- ongoing. "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.< 

 

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," ongoing. 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. < 

 

HOTEL DES ARTS The boutique 51-room art hotel in Union Square features an art gallery by Start SOMA. 

"Painted Rooms," ongoing. 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.

 

JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF SAN FRANCISCO  

"The Digital Liberation of G-d," ongoing. 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.

 

SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC LIBRARY, BAYVIEW-ANNA E. WADEN BRANCH  

"Bayview's Historical Footprints," ongoing. 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," ongoing. Exhibition collects archaeological remains from the Gold Rush-era cemetery and the ruins of old City Hall destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.  

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.<


Exhibits-East Bay Through March 20

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 06:53:00 PM

CARMEN FLORES RECREATION CENTER  

"El Corazon de la Communidad: The Heart of the Community", ongoing. 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.< 

 

LAWRENCE HALL OF SCIENCE "NanoZone," ongoing. Discover the science of the super-small: nanotechnology. Through hands-on activities and games, explore this microworld and the scientific discoveries made in this area.  

"Forces That Shape the Bay," ongoing. A science park that shows and explains why the San Francisco Bay is the way it is, with information on water, erosion, plate tectonics and mountain building. You can ride earthquake simulators, set erosion in motion and look far out into the bay with a powerful telescope from 1,100 feet above sea level. The center of the exhibit is a waterfall that demonstrates how water flows from the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Bay. Visitors can control where the water goes. There are also hands-on erosion tables, and a 40-foot-long, 6-foothigh, rock compression wall.  

"Real Astronomy Experience," ongoing. A new exhibit-in-development allowing visitors to use the tools that real astronomers use. Aim a telescope at a virtual sky and operate a remote-controlled telescope to measure a planet.  

"Biology Lab," ongoing. In the renovated Biology Lab visitors may hold and observe gentle animals. Saturday, Sunday and holidays, 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.  

"The Idea Lab," ongoing. Experiment with some of the basics of math, science and technology through hands-on activities and demonstrations of magnets, spinning and flying, puzzles and nanotechnology.  

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

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

"Kapla," ongoing. 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.Ongoing.  

SPECIAL EVENTS Ongoing.  

$5-$7; free children under age 2. June 16-Sept. 15: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wed.-Sun.; Sept. 16-June 15: noon.-5 p.m. Wed.-Fri., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sat.-Sun. 1931 First Ave., Walnut Creek. (925) 935-1978, www.wildlife-museum.org.< 

 

OAKLAND ASIAN CULTURAL CENTER  

"Oakland's 19th-Century San Pablo Avenue Chinatown," ongoing. 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," ongoing. 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.<


Dance-East Bay Through March 20

Wednesday March 09, 2011 - 06:53:00 PM

ASHKENAZ  

Baba Ken, Afro-Groove Connexion, Motordude Zydeco, March 12, 7 p.m. Cajun/Zydeco dance lesson at 6:30 p.m. $15-$30.  

UC Berkeley Folkdancers Reunion, March 13, 1:30 p.m. $7. 

1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. (510) 525-5054, www.ashkenaz.com.

 

ELKS LODGE, ALAMEDA  

"All You Can Dance Sunday Socials," ongoing. 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.< 

 

SOLAD DANCE CENTER  

"Persian Dance," ongoing. 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," ongoing. 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.  

Starry Plough Irish Dance and Ceili Session, March 14, 7 p.m. $5. 

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.<