The Week

 

News

Two more arrests in Berkeley murder

Sara Gaiser/Jeff Shuttleworth (BCN)
Friday February 27, 2015 - 09:31:00 AM

Berkeley police today announced the arrest of two suspects in the fatal shooting in December of a wheelchair-bound man. -more-


Measles victim dines at Berkeley's La Mediterranee; may have exposed others

Keith Burbank (BCN)
Friday February 27, 2015 - 05:30:00 PM

Patrons of La Mediterranee restaurant in Berkeley may have been exposed to measles last Friday evening, Berkeley health officials said. -more-


Berkeley pedestrian struck by van still hospitalized

Bay City News
Thursday February 26, 2015 - 05:33:00 PM

A 63-year-old pedestrian who was struck by a van in West Berkeley early Wednesday afternoon is still hospitalized with injuries but is able to talk to traffic investigators today, police said. -more-


Opinion

Editorials

Berkeley and beyond: Take Two

Becky O'Malley
Friday February 27, 2015 - 04:41:00 PM

Today’s issue contains two free-will-offerings from local writers which relate to a couple of topics which have been on my mind lately.

First, there’s Judy Shelton’s piece on discrepancies she’s uncovered between what promoters of the “Residences at Berkeley Plaza” 18-story monstrosity have told Berkeley’s Zoning Adjustment Board about the intentions of Landmark Cinemas and observable reality.

Members of the Committee to Save the Landmark Shattuck Cinemas contacted me a while back with their suspicion that something was amiss in the presentations which had been made to ZAB about the fate of the 10-screen movie palace now in the building which would have to be demolished. They asked if I could assign an investigative reporter to figure it out.

Alas, those days are over. You can find out what happened in Berkeley’s arcane planning process in the past in the Planet archives (mostly under Richard Brenneman’s illustrious byline) but there are no longer any staff reporters: No one home over here but us chickens, and I’m not getting any younger.

What I told them is what I told my kids as they grew up: if something needs to be done, but no one seems to be in charge, you are. I suggested that they just ask Landmark’s management what’s up, and guess what?

They did, and quelle surprise! Landmark Cinemas is alive and well, thriving in Berkeley. -more-


Public Comment

New: Another Translation

Christopher Adams
Sunday March 01, 2015 - 10:33:00 PM

Here is the exact quote of Mark Rhoades' statement about the future of Landmark Shattuck Cinemas at the ZAB meeting on Feb 8 which I attended: “We’re confident that there will be a theater space for some amount of time.” You’re free to translate that one too. -more-


Truthiness and the Landmark Cinemas: No, They Don’t Want to Go

Judy Shelton
Friday February 27, 2015 - 12:04:00 AM

Consultant Mark Rhoades knew from the start that Berkeley citizens, who have a sentimental attachment to intelligent films, would object to his destroying the Landmark Shattuck Cinemas so he could build an 18 story high-rise there. To pre-empt our unreasonable outrage about this project, he asserted early on that the theaters aren’t doing well and that Landmark thinks they are “outmoded”; in fact, he assured everyone, Landmark wants to leave when their lease expires in 2018, so they’re just fine with demolishing their cinema complex. Right?

Wrong. Landmark’s President of Real Estate Michael Fant has twice told Don Goldmacher, from the Committee to Save the Landmark Shattuck Cinemas, that their Berkeley operation is quite successful and that they are happy here – so successful and happy that a few years ago they negotiated an extension of their lease, from 2018 to 2023.

In addition, Landmark’s CEO himself, Ted Mundorff, wrote in a February 4th email to me, “We have no plans to leave the City of Berkeley in 2018 or earlier”. And, understandably insulted, he added: “You are the first to tell me that the city believes that independent theatres are passé. Who in the city told you this?”

Well, some of the ZAB commissioners, actually. Last November, having heard our strong opposition to taking down the Landmark, Rhoades said okay, okay, he’d put a few movie theaters into the hi-rise (as though that promise made it okay to destroy an ongoing business). But then a few ZAB officials began saying that maybe what Berkeley really needs is yet another multi-use venue, could Rhoades look into that possibility instead? Because movie theaters are struggling, people don’t go to movies anymore, they’re over.

This is simply not true. The problem here is that mainstream and independent film are being lumped together. While the former is, indeed, losing customers, independent film is growing. Landmark specializes in independent films, attracting cinephiles in big numbers. You’ve probably seen the long lines that trail from their ticket booth on Friday and Saturday nights, and we all know that long lines usually signify a thriving business.

The discrepancy between what Rhoades says and what we see prompted several questions: Why would an apparently thriving business want to leave? Or if Rhoades is correct and they’re not thriving, where is the proof of that? Can ZAB please invite Landmark to one of their meetings, where the public can hear for itself what the company wants? Not that we would doubt the word of a man like Rhoades just because he stands to make a ton of money on this project, but still.

Now, having obtained answers directly from the source, we find ourselves at an interesting juncture. And when we add to this information another important finding – that the Landmark also contributes significantly to the success of many other downtown businesses, as has been previously reported in the Planet – the question becomes, what will Rhoades and City officials do with these facts? Will they continue to advocate for Landmark’s demise? If so, how will they justify that?

I think they all have some explaining to do. -more-


The Spy Cables

Jagjit Singh
Thursday February 26, 2015 - 03:48:00 PM

In what has been widely described as the largest intelligence leak since Edward Snowden, Al Jazeera has begun releasing a series of spy cables from the world’s top intelligence agencies.

In one cable, which is eerily similar to the CIA/Bush administration fabricated reasons for going to war in Iraq, the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, contradicts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s own dire warnings about Iran’s ability to produce a nuclear bomb.

Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan publicly stated that a war with Iran would be a bad idea, a very bad idea. Other Israeli security officials have expressed frustration by Netanyahu’s rhetoric on the Iranian nuclear threat, accusing him of "messianic" political leadership pushing for military action. -more-


Columns

DISPATCHES FROM THE EDGE:Europe’s Debt: Lies & Myths

Conn Hallinan
Friday February 27, 2015 - 05:03:00 PM

“Debt, n. An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slave driver,”—Ambrose Bierce,journalist & writer

“The history of an oppressed people is hidden in the lies and agreed myth of its conquerers”—Meridel Le Sueur, author & activist


Myths are dangerous precisely because they rely more on cultural memory and prejudice than facts, and behind the current crisis between Greece and the European Union (EU) lays a fable that bears little relationship to why Athens and a number of other countries in the 28-member organization find themselves in deep distress.

The tale is a variation of Aesop’s allegory of the industrious ant and the lazy, fun-loving grasshopper, with the “northern countries”—Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Finland—playing the role of the ant, and Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland the part of the grasshopper.

The ants are sober and virtuous—led by the frugal Swabian hausfrau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel—the grasshoppers are spendthrift, corrupt layabouts who have spent themselves into trouble and now must pay the piper.

The problem is that this myth bears almost no relationship to the actual roots of the crisis or what the solutions might be. And it perpetuates a fable that the debt is the fault of individual countries rather than a serious crisis at the very heart of the EU. -more-


THE PUBLIC EYE: Good Obama, Bad Obama

Bob Burnett
Friday February 27, 2015 - 12:19:00 AM

During the last two years of a President’s second term pundits begin discussing his “legacy.” How will historians judge Barack Obama? Conservatives believe he will be loathed. Liberals tend to be more generous, however many of us believe Obama will be remembered as a mixed bag, a mixture of good and bad policies. -more-


ON MENTAL ILLNESS: Relationships

Jack Bragen
Thursday February 26, 2015 - 03:58:00 PM

If you are a heterosexual man with mental illness and want to go out on a date, it is likely that you will be dating a woman with mental illness. In general, most women in mainstream society would not want to have a relationship with a disabled mentally ill man. (I do not know enough about the dating customs of LGBT people to give an opinion.) If you are female with a mental illness and are attractive, you have a better chance of dating a nondisabled man compared to the other way around. (This doesn't always hold true.) -more-


Arts & Events

Movie Review: GETT: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem

Reviewed by Gar Smith
Thursday February 26, 2015 - 03:51:00 PM

More often than not, religion is not a woman's best friend.

In Iran, women must dress in robes and not venture out. In Saudi Arabia women are not allowed to drive. And, in Israel, married women are not allowed to seek relief from a broken marriage. In Israel's rabbinical courts, only the man can grant a divorce.

This is the reality that drives Gett (the Hebrew word for divorce). The Amsalem's are barely on speaking terms. Viviane (Ronit Elkabetz) has moved out of the home she once shared with Elisha. Despite the rift, she continues to cook meals for her son and has them delivered by a friend who makes the ten-minute trek between homes. YHVH knows, she tries.

But not only is Viviane at odds with her distant, controlling spouse, she also has to deal with a trio of patriarchal rabbis who preside over a seemingly endless separation trial. -more-


AROUND AND ABOUT THEATER: Last Two Weeks of 'We Are Proud to Present ... ' at Ashby Stage

Ken Bullock
Friday February 27, 2015 - 05:00:00 PM

Berkeley's Just Theater, in collaboration with the Shotgun Players, is in the midst of a critically acclaimed run of a new play, 'We Are Proud to Present ... A Presentation About the Herero of Namibia Formerly Known as South West Africa from the German Showestafrika Between the Years 1884-1815,' by Jackie Sibbles Dreury, directed by Molly Aaronson-Gelb, 7 p. m. Wednesday-Thursday, 8 on Fridays & Saturdays, 5 on Sunday, through March 7 at Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby at MLK. $20-$25 general, $5-$15 students & under 25 years old (by reservation). justtheater.org; shotgunplayers.org -more-


Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking Performed by Opera Parallèle

Reviewed by James Roy MacBean
Thursday February 26, 2015 - 03:42:00 PM

Fifteen years after its première at San Francisco Opera, Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking returned to the city in a scaled-down production launched by Opera Parallèle, an organization that specializes in offering new or infrequently performed operas in small-scale productions that are more affordable than the grandiose stagings often encountered in major opera houses here and abroad. Opera Par-allèle’s Artistic Director, Nicole Paiment, who conducted the three performances at Yerba Buena Center on Friday-Sunday, February 20-22, worked closely with composer Jake Heggie to re-orchestrate Dead Man Walking for a smaller orchestra than when it was first performed. -more-


Jordi Savall & Hespèrion XXI Perform Ottoman, Greek, Armenian, & Sephardic Music

Reviewed by James Roy MacBean
Friday February 27, 2015 - 09:10:00 AM

On Friday, February 20, Jordi Savall returned to Berkeley’s First Congreg-ational Church with his Hespèrion XXI Ensemble to perform music from diverse Balkan, Iberian and Middle Eastern traditions. For some fifteen years, Jordi Savall has immersed himself in researching the music of the Ottoman Empire based in Istanbul. Of great importance in this research was The Book of the Science of Music by Dimitrie Cantemir (1693-1723), a Moldovan composer and music theorist who compiled in this work the most important collection of 16th and 17th century Ottoman instrumental music to have survived to the present day. -more-