Arts & Events
Arts and Entertainment: Around the East Bay
MATINEE SCREENINGS TO BENEFIT SCHOOLS -more-
The Theater: Berkeley Native Eisa Davis Returns Home
Eisa Davis—actor, playwright, singer and songwriter—has returned to her hometown, performing at Berkeley Rep as The Mother in rock singer Stew’s play, Passing Strange. Her own play, Bulrushers, about a visitor from Montgomery, Ala., to the Mendocino County town of Boonville on the eve of the Civil Rights Movement, will be produced next year by the Shotgun Players. -more-
The Theater: Two East Bay Troupes Join ‘365 days / 365 Plays’
As part of an extraordinary daily regimen for the theatrical palate, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Suzan-Lori Parks’ 365 Days/365 Plays national theater project, which will run the 365 plays Parks wrote in 2002 over the coming year all around the country, was inaugurated in San Francisco last week—and will be continued throughout the year in the Bay Area, Weeks Two and Four produced by East Bay companies Woman’s Will and Ten Red Hen. -more-
Do Woodpeckers Get Headaches? If Not, Why Not?
You may have noticed last month that the Ig Nobel laureates for 2006 included Ivan Schwab, a professor of ophthalmology at UC Davis, recognized for his explanation of why woodpeckers don’t get headaches. -more-
Arts and Entertainment: Around the East Bay
PHOTOGRAPHING THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT -more-
Arts: SF Symphony Takes a Lighter Approach
The San Francisco Symphony is taking a lighter turn for the Thanksgiving holiday, presenting guest conductor David Robertson leading the orchestra in a performance of Charlie Chaplin’s score to his 1931 film City Lights. -more-
Arts: Ackerman’s ‘Ice Glen’ at Aurora Theatre
In Ice Glen, Joan Ackerman’s play in its West Coast premiere at Aurora Theatre, the eccentric inhabitants of a country estate in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, circa 1919, are disturbed in the pursuit of their various autumnal tasks by the unannounced visit of a Boston editor, seeking to publish the poems of one of the denizens—who doesn’t want her poems published, or even memorized, by a stranger. -more-
Moving Pictures: Examining the Most Notorious Expletive
Steve Anderson’s new documentary Fuck takes a thorough look at the most multi-faceted of expletives—at its murky, myth-laden origins, its many conjugations, its cathartic, emotive power as well as its power to offend. -more-
Moving Pictures: PFA Screens a New Wave Classic
The films of Agnes Varda and her husband Jacques Demy could not be more different. -more-
East Bay Then and Now: This West Berkeley Landmark Is a Proud Survivor
The Church of the Good Shepherd, situated on the corner of Ninth Street and Hearst Avenue, was one of the first nine structures designated City of Berkeley Landmarks on Dec. 15, 1975. It is the oldest church building standing in Berkeley, as well as the oldest in continuous use by its founding congregation in the entire East Bay. -more-
Garden Variety: Attack of The Mildew Kingdom
I thrashed myself but good last weekend, just doing a little lightweight gardening. -more-
About the House: Soft Stories, Line-Wire Stucco and Seismic Retrofitting
Before I ever look for a single foundation bolt there are a always a few other questions I always have about the building I’m looking at. Of course, I’m talking about earthquake readiness or seismic stability or whatever term-du-jour we’re currently using. -more-