Arts & Events

FRIDAY, AUGUST 31 -more-

I’m dying! Bring in the gravediggers. Let the mourners come.” On a set out of a Gothic fairytale (designed by Kim A. Tolman)—a crypt with a crazy rose window above, a hovering eye and the Mona Lisa with her face half covered by a hand as she gazes out over the audience, a chessboard below as flooring—Saul Strange (David Usner, himself a skydiver) writhes on his seeming deathbed, rigged with parachute lines, in an upbeat final agony, attended by his family with painted faces (and occasionally a fantastic creature, a kind of celestial butoh drag queen, played by Kinji Hayashi). -more-

Time is running out to see a superb and fascinating photography exhibit at San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art. “Think While You Shoot!” a career-spanning retrospective of the tremendously varied body of work by Hungarian-born photographer Martin Munkacsi, runs through Sept. 16. -more-

The address 2411-31 Russell St. in southeast Berkeley is a small cluster of mid-century townhouses on the edge of a fashionable neighborhood where stately brown shingle and period revival houses claim most of the curb appeal and attention. -more-

Containers for planting are limited only by your imagination—and a few realities, what plants need. -more-

The Europeans have had it all over us for some decades when it comes to energy efficiency. This might have something to do with a political attitude toward wasting energy or sheer economy. In any event, our European brothers and sisters are more inclined to pinch a BTU (that a British Thermal Unit for those of you new to the energy game). -more-

FRIDAY, AUGUST 31 -more-

TUESDAY, AUGUST 28 -more-

‘VIATICUM’ AT LIVE OAK -more-

By RICHARD BRENNEMAN -more-

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor -more-

A birch is about as exotic as a banana here, and maybe they’re both ubiquitous in people’s front yards for similar nostalgic reasons—or maybe instead because they’re so outrageous when you know where you are. -more-

TUESDAY, AUGUST 28 -more-

Due to overzealous use of the spell-checking function, the name of Pacific Film Archive house pianist Jon Mirsalis was inadvertently printed as Jon Misrules in an Aug. 24 story about avant-garde cinema. We regret the error. -more-