Arts & Events

THURSDAY, MARCH 5 -more-

It’s little wonder that E.T.A. Hoffmann was one of the Romantic era’s favorite and most influential writers—parts of his long fantastic stories can be found in many of the operas and ballets of the time from Delibes to Tchaikovsky to Offenbach. Recognizing a cultural force when he saw one, Papa Freud used Hoffmann’s work as the basis for his essay on the uncanny, “Das Unheimliche.” -more-

The band in the loft at Altarena Playhouse strikes up the overture with the head for “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” The curtain is ready to rise on Gypsy, opening with the auditions for a kiddie show in Seattle. This musical is all about being onstage and backstage, featuring the most relentless stage mother of them all. -more-

David Bacon, Berkeley-based labor journalist, photographer, KPFA radio commentator and Daily Planet contributor, will speak on his book, Illegal People—How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants (Beacon, 2008), followed by a discussion and book signing, at the first Berkeley Daily Planet Book Forum, at 7 p.m. Sunday, March 8 at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Admission is free. The event is co-sponsored by the Hillside Club and Black Oak Books, along with the Planet. -more-

The New Century Chamber Orchestra will present The Glory of Russia, a program of Prokofiev’s Visions Fugitives, Op. 22, featuring pianist Anne-Marie McDermott; Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in C minor, Op. 35, featuring McDermott and trumpeter Adam Luftman; and Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence, Friday at Berkeley’s First Congregational Church. -more-

Other Minds—the 14th New Music festival founded by former KPFA programmer Charles Amirkhanian—presents three evenings of diversity and depth in contemporary music, beginning tonight (Thursday) at 8 p.m. through Saturday at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco’s Kanbar Hall, 3200 California St., with such legends of New Music as Ben Johnston, John Schneider, Chinary Ung and other composers and musicians from Brazil, Canada, Poland, Argentina, Estonia, including Michael Harrison, collaborator with Terry Riley and La Monte Young. Panels with the artists start at 7 p.m. Tickets: $25; festival passes: $60-150 (415) 292-1233 or otherminds.org -more-

David Bacon, Berkeley-based labor journalist, photographer, KPFA radio commentator and Daily Planet contributor, will speak on his book, Illegal People—How Globalization Creates Migration and Criminalizes Immigrants (Beacon, 2008), followed by a discussion and book signing, at the first Berkeley Daily Planet Book Forum, at 7 p.m. Sunday, March 8 at the Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. Admission is free. The event is co-sponsored by the Hillside Club and Black Oak Books, along with the Planet. -more-

Golden Thread Productions, the Bay Area’s specialists in theater and other performances exploring Middle Eastern identity, will co-present, with Sunbula: Arab Feminists for Change, and ASWAT Bay Area Arab Music Ensemble, “What the Women Say” their annual evening of poetry and performance for International Women’s Day on Sunday, dedicated this year to the women of Gaza, featuring poetry by Deema Shehabi and Dina Omar, a staged reading of the blog writings of Majeda Al Saqqa from Gaza and a performance by Al-Juthoor dance company at La Pena Cultural Center. -more-

Just an hour up the road in Sonoma County, the Sebastopol Center for the Arts presents the second annual Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival this weekend, March 6-8. -more-

Other Minds—the 14th New Music festival founded by former KPFA programmer Charles Amirkhanian—presents three evenings of diversity and depth in contemporary music, beginning tonight (Thursday) at 8 p.m. through Saturday at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco’s Kanbar Hall, 3200 California St., with such legends of New Music as Ben Johnston, John Schneider, Chinary Ung and other composers and musicians from Brazil, Canada, Poland, Argentina, Estonia, including Michael Harrison, collaborator with Terry Riley and La Monte Young. Panels with the artists start at 7 p.m. Tickets: $25; festival passes: $60-150 (415) 292-1233 or otherminds.org -more-

At the heart of Berkeley’s downtown, behind the commercial facades of University Avenue, stands a cluster of four century-old residential buildings. Shoppers at Berkeley Hardware who park next to these relics may pause and wonder about them occasionally. -more-

I could be handy mending a fuse -more-

THURSDAY, MARCH 5 -more-