Daily Archives: June 2, 2011
The Berkeley Wire: 06.02.11
Royal Danish Ballet review: Cal Performances’ “Superb” Sylphide [Chronicle]
Cal graduate fulfills Middle School goal set nine years ago [Oakland Tribune]
Berkeley’s Center for Ecoliteracy approves of Mrs Obama’s MyPlate [Chronicle]
First year Cal student found dead at Bennington College [Bennington Banner]
Photo: Chalk is fun, by kershlock/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.
A brotherly business: Bookstore Fantastic Comics
When chatting with Paul Kilduff in The Monthly’s June issue about the changing face of downtown Berkeley, San Francisco Chronicle writer and Berkeleyan John King mentioned in passing the demise of Shattuck Avenue’s Comic Relief.
“…I guess the comic bookstore closed because the guy who had it forever has just run out of steam,” King said.
Far be it for us to correct the estimable Mr King, for whom we have the utmost respect, but in this case … Continue reading »
Anna Deavere Smith astonishes in ‘Let Me Down Easy’
Anna Deavere Smith’s latest one-woman play “Let Me Down Easy” is like a novella of stories – the individual vignettes are bold and interesting, but are only loosely linked.
From her spot-on impersonation of Lance Armstrong, whose body is so kinetic it can’t stay still, to pretending to be the bed-ridden, cancer-stricken film critic Joel Siegel, to her poignant portrayal of Kiersta Kurtz-Burke, an intern who was shocked by the way her superiors at Charity Hospital in New Orleans treated Katrina victims, Smith is mesmerizing in her ability to channel the words and quirks of her characters.
The 105-minute play is based on interviews with more than 320 people on three continents over a ten-year period. Smith focuses on 20 of those characters and uses their verbatim interviews to create a heart-wrenching portrait of our attitudes toward our bodies, their strengths and weaknesses, and our feelings about death.
On a stage sparsely decorated with a white couch, a dining table with chairs, and huge hanging mirrors, Smith changes lightening-fast from one person to another. She dons a piece of clothing or picks up a prop like a bottle of beer or coffee mug to delineate each character, and then discards those items on the stage as the play progresses. It’s almost a metaphor for her overarching theme: that life is ethereal and short. We are here and then we are not. The props are of use and then they are not, but traces of them remain. … Continue reading »
A natural approach: Berkeley’s Donkey and Goat winery
The exterior of Berkeley’s Donkey and Goat Winery is urban in the extreme. Its entrance sits behind steel doors in a concrete tilt-up building on Fourth Street, and the front door looks out on a parking lot. Interstate 80 is less than 1,000 feet away.
But inside, the eight-year old winery is a throwback to another era. There is not a stainless steel or plastic fermentation tank in sight. Instead, stacks of old wooden French barrels rise 15 feet into the air. Two massive 1,600-gallon tanks made from Hungarian wood dominate a corner of the winery.
“We ferment all of our wine in wood — white, red, rosé,” explains Jared Brandt, 40, who started Donkey and Goat in 2003 with his wife, Tracey, 41. “I like the way wood breathes during fermentation. It is a natural insulator.”
The Brandts’ emphasis on natural extends to their wine making. They are part of a new breed of vintners who tinker with their wine as little as possible, preferring that grapes and terroir, rather than designer yeasts and processing, determine a wine’s flavor.
“For us we are interested in letting the wine speak for itself with as little intervention as possible,” said Brandt.
The Brandts’ emphasis on natural wine making — which even has its own manifesto — is drawing attention. In January, the San Francisco Chronicle’s wine writer, Jon Bonne, named the Brandts as one of his top five winemakers to watch in 2011, writing they were “starting to redefine the standards of California wine.” … Continue reading »
That truck ate my sofa: The aftermath of student exodus
One visible sign of the end of the academic year in Berkeley is the plethora of abandoned furniture that appears streetside as students clear out their digs and head out of town for a summer of fun.
What happens to the sofa beds, mattresses and coffee tables that litter our sidewalks? Some may get picked up by local residents eager for a change of decor; others, as this video shot by Berkeleyside regular photographer TheRealMichaelMoore all too clearly shows, are consumed by hungry trash trucks.
UPDATE: Cal and Berkeley work together in the Cal Move-Out Program to create ways students can get rid of their unwanted furniture and other items. In addition to setting up dumpsters around town, Cal Move-Out holds a large sale of discarded items. This year the “Bear-ly Used Bazaar” will be Saturday June 4 at Civic Center Park during the hours of the Berkeley Farmers Market.
Out in Berkeley: Grupo Falso Baiano’s infectious grooves
By Andrew Gilbert
If the unseasonable weather has you longing for a tropical respite, the quickest route from Berkeley to Brazil runs right through Casa de Cultura on San Pablo Avenue.
For the past few months the stellar choro ensemble Grupo Falso Baiano has hosted an informal jam session, or ”roda de choro” from 3-5 pm every first and third Sunday of the month. A convivial scene with food and drink, the roda offers an opportunity to soak up the infectious grooves and alluring melodies that have kept choro vibrant for more than a century.
The seeds for Falso Baiano were sown about eight years ago when reed player Zach Pitt-Smith introduced seven-string guitarist Brian Moran to choro, a virtuosic instrumental style often compared to bluegrass. They were playing in a jazz sextet, but the challenge of mastering choro’s intricacies seized their imagination, and, with the addition of percussionist Ami Molinelli, they launched Falso Baiano as a trio (taking their name from Geraldo Pereira’s classic song “Falsa Baiana” or False Bahian, playing on the fact that none of the musicians hail from Brazil). … Continue reading »
Crowds turn out for Berkeley’s inaugural Off The Grid
[Update, 8:50 pm: Watch a video of Off The Grid, at foot of story.]
Organizer Matt Cohen needn’t have worried about the weather being a dampener — he estimated that anywhere between 1,000 and 2,000 people showed up last night to Off The Grid’s inaugural Berkeley street food event in the Gourmet Ghetto.
Such was the enthusiasm among locals to sample pockets of falafel, Filipino treats, dripping pulled pork sandwiches and crunchy fish tacos that several of the food trucks ran dry early in the evening.
Cupkates sold out at 6.30 pm, just one and half hours after the start time. By the time Berkeleyside turned up at about 7.15 pm, 510 Burger had shut up shop and neither Skylite Snowballs nor The Taco Guys were anywhere to be seen. (At 8.27 pm, tweeter ak3700 posted a photo of a disappointed young customer who had no doubt been looking forward a Red Velvet treat.) The prospect of rain had been enough to deter some, it seems.
Hapa SF, Liba Falafel, and Brass Knuckle were going strong however. … Continue reading »
