Arts & Events

—Raul Ruiz's films, such as 'Three Crowns of the Sailor,' 'On Top of the Whale,' 'Time Regained' (from Proust's last novel) made big splashes during the 80s & 90s at the San Francisco International Film Festival & the Pacific Film Archive. The filmmaker himself appeared at the PFA & at the 1997 SF Film Festival. -more-

Before shooting his new crops-and-robbers film, At Any Price, Director Ramin Bahrani (a good ol' boy born and raised in North Carolina) spent six months living with farm families in the Midwest Corn Belt. As Bahrani will readily tell you, the two catch-phrases he heard most often from America's farmers were: "Expand or Die" and "Get Big or Get Out." -more-

If you've had it up to here with the overblown description of the Boston Marathon Attack, cheer up. Fortunately for those of us living in the bay area, there are some fabulous events and activities running now through summer and fall -- ballet, concerts, art exhibits, comedians, all designed to wipe out grim memories of that Attack.

Let's start with our own Oakland East Bay Symphony, with Michael Morgan, Music Director. On May 3, at 8 p.m. there will be a program of Beethoven and Cesar Franck at the Paramount Theatre (510)444-0801. Then on Saturday, June 1, 8 p.m., a program celebrating the music of Dave Brubeck will liven things up. 1-800-745-3000. -more-

"You build up & up till you scrape the sky with your cutting edge ..."

("A view of the edge, the outer limits, the place where the city stops ... ")

"He just wanted to see the ground."

(A mogul, afraid of heights, in the penthouse of the tallest building, riding the fastest elevator down, while a daredevil elevator engineer skydives instead ... An aging watchmaker & his collection of clocks tended by The Kid, a mechanical man ... Shiny monks hefting blocks of ice, chanting a liturgy about Time ... The scams of a street couple ... An up-&-coming manager, hoping to pre-plan her family down to the nanosecond of her daily schedule ... )

All of the above, in their own separate vignettes, tableaux, finally converge when The Crack opens up to reveal the Dark Heart of the World ...

Ragged Wing Ensemble's new original, 'Time Sensitive,' written & directed by co-founder & artistic director Amy Sass, folds together the ingredients into a theatrical souffle that rises & rises ... Building on movement theater styles—& the ensemble movements are among the best this plucky little outfit has ever performed—the show seems to be a watershed for both the company—who'll move into their new home, Flight Deck, this Fall, at Telegraph & Broadway, the edge of Uptown. (Oakland, the only city without a Midtown!) —Not, as erroneously mentioned here before, the location of this show, an old Pentecostal church on the corner of Telegraph & 38th, fit stage for 'Time Sensitive,' literally in the sanctuary. -more-