Notes on our city
Event honors high-achieving middle and high school students [Daily Cal]
UC Berkeley to use waitlists in admissions process [UC Berkeley]
Berkeley one of least safe places for cyclists and pedestrians [Daily Planet]
Berkeley hosts Empowering Women of Color conference [Oakland Tribune]
UC engineers head to Chile to document quake’s impact [UC Berkeley]
Photo: Floral gate in Berkeley by Szymek S./Berkeleyside Flickr pool.
Frank Portman, author of King Dork and Andromeda Klein
Michael Chabon’s collection of essays, Manhood for Amateurs, is up for a non-fiction award from the Northern California Book Reviewers, as well as the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association.
Chabon is one of a handful of Berkeley authors whose books have been singled out for praise.
Berkeley poet Kim Addonozio’s Lucifer at the Starlite is a nominee in the poetry category for the Northern California Book Awards, which are handed out by the book reviewers. Brenda Hillman’s Practical Water is also a nominee in the poetry category.
Marissa Moss’s Pharaoh’s Ghost is a nominee in the children’s book category in the NCIBA competition. Punk rocker turned author Frank Portman’s Andromeda Klein is a nominee in the teen lit category.
The Northern California Book Awards, organized by a group of freelance book critics, will be handed out at the San Francisco Public Library on April 18.
Local booksellers around northern California will be voting for their favorite candidates via mail.
For a complete listing of the nominees for the Northern California Book Award, look here. The NCIBA only has a link to its home page, but then click on 2010 Book of the Year Finalist Ballot.
If Berkeley wasn’t already blushing from its dominance in scientific nomenclature* it looks like another local name may be immortalized. In a refereed article in Environmental Research Letters, a group of scientists propose that a unit of electricity savings be named the Rosenfeld, after Arthur Rosenfeld, “the godfather of energy efficiency” (photo right).
The proposed Rosenfeld is defined as savings of 3 billion kilowatt-hours per year, the amount necessary to replace the generation of a 500 megawatt coal-fired power plant:
In this letter we propose standard characteristics for an avoided power plant that have physical meaning and intuitive plausibility, for use in back-of-the-envelope calculations and characterizing energy savings results. We also propose naming the annual energy savings of such a plant as a new unit in Art Rosenfeld’s honor (the Rosenfeld) because Dr Rosenfeld continues to be the most prominent advocate of characterizing efficiency savings in terms of avoided power plants.
Rosenfeld started his work on energy efficiency at Lawrence Berkeley Lab in 1974. He is best known for the so-called Rosenfeld effect, which explains how energy efficiency standards meant that California’s per capita electricity use remained flat while use in the rest of the US climbed steadily.
Rosenfeld has just completed the second of two five-year terms on the California Energy Commission and is returning to Berkeley Lab this spring.
* Four elements, Berkelium, Californium, Lawrencium and Seaborgium, were discovered by Berkeley researchers and have local names.
Today, we are delighted to welcome Romney Steele into the Berkeleyside fold. Romney will be writing a regular report for us all on what’s fresh, in season, and available at our local farmers’ markets and grocers — she will also throw in some suggestions on what we might want to do with it.
Early March teases with the heralds of spring — artichokes, mâche, and rhubarb, some of my favorites — and yet remains a notoriously in-between month, keeping us chomping at the bit for the vibrant colors and tastes of what’s to come.
Just last week, lovely Murcott tangerines and other late blooming citrus were at the forefront of the stalls, keeping me ensconced in a winter mood with marmalade making on my to-do list (June Taylor is offering classes through April).
This week, along with piles of gorgeous greens, and the mise en place of any good cook — onions, potatoes, leeks, carrots and celery — California artichokes were the produce du jour, arriving just in time for their place in the holiday line-up. Think green for St. Patty’s day, accompanying lamb at Easter, or as part of an equinox feast.
What to look for: When buying artichokes, look for dark green, heavy globes that have tight (not open) leaves — the bigger the globe, the larger the interior heart. Excellent for steaming or blanching, served with a dipping sauce, or deep-fried whole “alla giudia,” as celebrated by the Romans.
Baby artichokes take minimal preparation; after peeling the outermost leaves, you can eat the whole thing. Try shaved raw as a salad, sautéed, or braised in olive oil.
Romney Steele is a freelance writer, cook, and artist and the author of My Nepenthe. She grew up at her family’s home in beautiful Big Sur, which also doubled as a restaurant and community gathering place. Her favorite foods include good toast and orange marmalade, and anything from the farmers market or plucked off a tree. She lives in the East Bay with two children and a curious cat. Watch this video, produced by John Ray at Kepler’s bookstore, as an introduction to Romney.
Berkeley Farmers Markets take place on Tuesdays, 2-6pm, at Derby Street @ MLK Jr. Way; Thursdays, 2-6pm, at Shattuck @ Rose Street; and on Saturdays, 10am-3pm, at Center Street @ MLK Jr. Way.
Photo: Romney Steele.
Berkeley’s Earth Island Institute, the group behind the Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove, is hoping the Oscar will draw increased attention to the slaughter of dolphins in Japan.
The Cove, will open in Japan next month, tells the story of a cove in Taijicho, a town in southeastern Japan where thousands of dolphins are herded each year and stabbed to death.
“People are calling in from around the world saying we hope this sends a signal to the Japanese government,” Earth Island Executive Director Dave Phillips told KGO reporter Don Sanchez.
The Earth Island Institute is planning to send 1,000 people to the cove village on September 1, the opening day of dolphin fishing season. The Japanese kill approximately 19,000 dolphins a year. They consume them as food. Residents of Taijicho have complained that the film is insensitive to their cultural heritage.
“This Oscar award will be one of the most meaningful things to the fate of wildlife and oceans on this planet,” Phillips told KGO.
But the group lost a chance to speak directly to billions of people during the Oscar ceremonies. When Matt Damon announced that The Cove had won, the producer of the film, actor Fisher Stevens, and the director, Louis Psihoyas, went to the podium, with a well-rehearsed 45-second speech about saving the world’s oceans. They were cut off prematurely, however. Fisher got to talk for 26 seconds, but then the music came up, effectively silencing Psihoyas. That may have happened because Ric O’Barry, the activist at the center of the film unrolled a banner at the Oscar ceremonies, angering the producers, according to the New York Times.
For more information about the campaign to stop the killing of dolphins, look here.
Deann Borshay in 1966
The 28th San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival gets under way this Thursday, March 11, with a gala opening at the Castro Theatre. Though the focus of this year’s festival is on Filipino cinema, it also features an impressive selection of films from other Asian countries, while the Asian diaspora is well represented by productions from Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.
And, as in years past, East Bay residents will be able to enjoy many Festival highlights in the comfort of our very own Pacific Film Archive.
For those who enjoy documentaries, Berkeley resident Deann Borshay Liem’s deeply personal In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee comes highly recommended. Adopted by the Borshay family when she was eight-years old, Liem was a Korean orphan who switched places with another child before moving to her new home in California in 1966. The Borshays had been in correspondence with a girl named Cha Jung Hee, but when Cha was returned to her birth father the Sun Duck Orphanage simply replaced her with another child who was given instructions not to tell her new family of the subterfuge.
Re-named Deann, the youngster quickly adapted to American culture but always knew she wasn’t who she was supposed to be. Many years later, Liem decided it was time to come to terms with her past and returned to Korea in search of the real Cha Jung Hee. The film depicts her dogged efforts — including reviewing orphanage records and plowing through all 80-plus Cha Jung Hees in the Korean phone directory — to find the girl whose place she took forty years ago.
Though this is very much a tale of personal experience, the film also casts light on a dirty little secret: the annual export of thousands of Korean children to the west. Though this practice has slowed some in recent years, it remains a going concern, and children born out of wedlock continue to be sent to orphanages just like the one Deann Borshay Liem lived in during the 1960s. In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee screens at PFA at 3:30pm on Saturday March 13.
If you prefer rockumentaries to documentaries, the Elmwood Rialto is currently screening Until the Light Takes Us, an eye-opening and ear-deafening examination of Norwegian black metal. This doomy sub-genre of hard rock is renowned for adherents who devote themselves to the worship of tremolo picking, misanthropy, and Satan, but in reality enjoy knitting, puppy dogs, long walks on the beach, and burning down churches. Or so they say. Made by two San Franciscans who moved to Norway with the express purpose of traveling into black metal’s heart of darkness, Until the Light Takes Us probably won’t be at the Elmwood for very long, so don’t delay — see it today. And bring earplugs.
John Seal writes a weekly film recommendation column at Box Office Prophets, as well as a column in The Phantom of the Movie’s Videoscope.
Quick! Which one of the following people is not an alumnus of Berkeley High?
Of course, it’s George W. Bush. There is no way he grew up in Berkeley. But the rest of the people on the list did attend Berkeley High and have distinguished themselves in American arts, letters, and sports. (For more accomplished alumni, look here).
Thornton Wilder, BHS alumnus
On Sunday, March 14, the Berkeley High School Development Group will honor the school’s distinguished alumni at their second annual fundraiser, Berkeley High Live! John Sasaki, a reporter for KTVU, will emcee the event, which will take place from 5 to 8:30 at Berkeley Honda on Shattuck Avenue.
The evening will showcase all things Berkeley. The nationally recognized Berkeley High Jazz Combo will play. Restaurants like Picante, Chaat Café, Bette’s Ocean View Diner, La Note, Poulet, Peet’s Coffee, and Kermit Lynch wines will provide food and drink.
The evening is the Berkeley High Development Group’s major fundraiser, and its organizers hope to bring in $80,000 – double what it netted in 2009 – to augment many of the school’s programs.
Phil Lesh, BHS alum
Every year, the development group hands out around $450,000 to teachers, students, and student groups to enhance the educational experience at the school.
Some of the grants are bricks and mortars, like projectors for the math program or graphing calculators that can be loaned to students. The group has also purchased equipment for the football team, cameras for photography classes, and CD players for students with learning disabilities.
Every year, the development group gives small discretionary grants to every teacher so he or she can buy anything they want for their classrooms. It also has given funds to students to help them pay for standardized tests, has subsidized some students’ college tours and college application fees, and paid for after school tutoring.
The development group also brings in artists, dancers, and writers into the classroom and has helped school clubs and teams travel around the country for various conferences and contests.
With looming budget cuts, the work of the development committee will be more crucial than ever.
If you can’t make the event but would still like to support the school, you can bid online for items in the silent auction or donate here.
Michael Chabon to speak in Jewish lecture series [UC Berkeley]
Cities must define core services [San Francisco Chronicle]
Opinion: If you can afford Stanford why pay less for Berkeley? [CNN]
Berkeley’s Jerome Randle named basketball player of the year [Pac 10]
Photo of Berkeley wall by Szymek S./Berkeleyside Flickr pool.
Krishnapriyan, Hand-Bender Clark and Weisburd.
Six students at UC Berkeley Law department helped to convert a potential death sentence into a life sentence for a mentally ill Virginia man who faced capital murder charges for his role in the deaths of his ex-girlfriend and brother. Justin Slater, 24, will now be eligible for parole at age 60.
Working within the Death Penalty Clinic under staff attorney Kate Weisburd, students Tess Hand-Bender, Stephanie Clark, Raghav Krishnapriyan, Joe Goldstein-Breyer, Ellen Rheaume and Sarah Ihn reviewed hundreds of pages of documents, identified witnesses who could describe and explain Slater’s history of mental illness. They also interviewed dozens of witnesses — many of whom shed light on his longstanding mental condition and mental state at the time of the crimes.
Read the full story here.
Photo: UC Berkeley Law.
This Friday, March 12th, sees the official opening of the “Marc Riboud Photographs” exhibition at the Graduate School of Journalism Center for Photography at UC Berkeley.
Marc Riboud is considered one of the great photojournalists of the 20th century. He joined the Magnum photo agency in Paris in the early 1950s and traveled extensively, working with Magnum founders Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa.
His skill in capturing fleeting moments in life through powerful compositions, already apparent, was to serve him well for decades to come.
Riboud’s photographs will be on exhibition at North Gate Hall through May 1. See more events associated with the Photojournalism department of the J-School here.
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