Arts & Events

FRIDAY, JAN. 18 -more-

AFTERMATH OF WAR—IN THEIR OWN WORDS -more-

ReOrient, the annual festival of short plays about the Middle East, a production of Golden Thread, founded by Torange Yeghiazarian of Oakland, this year features performances by Berkeley favorite Julian Lopez-Morillas and Danielle Levin of Oakland. -more-

Jack Tucker of Richmond—theater critic, retired columnist for the Contra Costa Times, who the Guinness Book of Records named “Oldest Known Living Newspaper Columnist” in 2005—died Dec. 27, 93 years of age. -more-

For many years the Bay Area-based Sunset Magazine, self-described “magazine of Western living,” has been sponsoring “idea houses” in partnership with builders and manufacturers. -more-

My Quake Resolutions... -more-

A few years ago, Joe and I got a tour of Garvan Woodland Gardens, a newish botanical garden in Hot Springs, Arkansas, courtesy of Uncle Leonard and Aunt Evelyn. We were all toted around in a golf cart, and a docent told us about the origins and current state of the garden, about the plants and other features we were seeing. -more-

FRIDAY, JAN. 18 -more-

TUESDAY, JAN. 15 -more-

Theater’s just starting up after a hiatus that featured mainly holiday shows in December. After increasingly vigorous seasons over the past two years, it will be intriguing to see what Berkeley area stage companies have come up with to follow the wealth of productions in the immediate past. -more-

In December 2005, a group of women met to form Grandmothers Against the War, planning their first action—a Valentine’s Day 2006 rally and attempt to enlist at the Oakland Induction Center. -more-

At a lively press conference at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center in Chinatown Friday, Oakland East Bay Symphony music director and conductor Michael Morgan introduced San Francisco jazz composer, pianist and educator John Jang, whose piece “Chinese American Symphony” was commissioned by the symphony and will premiere at the symphony’s Sounds of China: Celebrating Chinese New Year concert Friday, Feb. 22, at the Paramount Theatre, along with music by Academy Award-winning Chinese composer Tan Dun, John Adams and Igor Stravinsky. -more-

I was interested to note that Kathleen Wong, who was (briefly) my editor at the late California Wild, has an article in the current Bay Nature about the California ground squirrel. It’s a nice summary of several decades’ work of research by Donald Owings and Richard Coss at UC Davis, who have discovered remarkable things about the relationship between ground squirrels and rattlesnakes. -more-

TUESDAY, JAN. 15 -more-