Arts & Events

MONDAY, JUNE 16 -more-

Through a great arch of blasted oak shambles a mysterious figure, shrouded in a mantle disguising his face. Once unveiled, the rambler looks Moorish, or like some tattooed Tuareg tribesman. He is Gower (played by Shawn Hamilton), a pre-Tudor English poet, transposed to a Mediterranean identity, as he narrates the CalShakes’ production of the Bard’s Pericles, Prince of Tyre. -more-

My goal is to reach the audience, to evoke and provoke,” said Berkeley composer Sheli Nan of the multi-faceted program, for both modern and Baroque instruments and voice, of her music, “The Berkeley Baroque & Beyond Experience,” Friday at Giorgi Gallery. There will be a possible second performance on Saturday. -more-

Happy is the man who hears/The helicopter beat its wings/The sky goes black with flying things/For him it sings,/It’s only music, music.” So sings the Iraqi insurgent cabbie (tenor Mark Hernandez as Omar), as he sets out an Improvised Explosive Device in Lisa Scola Prosek’s one act opera, Trap Door, playing tonight, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. in The Lab, 16th St. near Mission in San Francisco. -more-

Walking into Book Zoo feels like stepping into someone’s living room. It’s a funky little used bookstore in North Oakland, with hardwood floors, an abundance of plants, posters, and artwork, a children’s play area, and hanging in the back, an American flag with the peace symbol. Erik Lyngen and Nick Raymond are co-owners of Book Zoo, mavericks who don’t use a cash register or sell books online and are trusting souls who leave a cart with sale books out overnight with a slot in the door for payment. -more-

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Clothes dryers seem innocuous enough but actually, it turns out that they’re killers. More accurately, I should say, they’re arsonists, because they cause about 15,000 fires a year. -more-

MONDAY, JUNE 16 -more-