Daily Archives: February 23, 2012
The Berkeley Wire: 02.23.12
Backyard brunch in Berkeley: Rogue Café [East Bay Express]
UC Berkeley professor denies link between HIV and AIDS [Daily Cal]
One man Berkeley band Yalls creates a wall of sound [SFAppeal]
Berkeley congregation publishes Torah commentaries [JWeekly]
UC Berkeley administrators create new protest response plan [Daily Cal]
Photo: West Berkeley California, by TheRealMichaelMoore/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.
Out in Berkeley: Jazz quintet, Irish music and more
One of the pleasures of living in Berkeley is that the world beats a path to our doorstep. Over the next week the city hosts a deliriously diverse array of musicians, from a virtuosic traditional Irish duo and a beloved Chilean cantadora to a new Brazilian dance band and a Near Eastern electro-acoustic ensemble.
But let’s start with the most exotic combo, Canada Day, a capaciously inventive jazz quintet led by Toronto-born drummer Harris Eisenstadt that makes its Bay Area debut Wednesday at the Subterranean Art House.
The Brooklyn-based bandleader and composer is associated with jazz’s exploratory left field. Over the past decade he’s collaborated with some of music’s most insistently creative artists, including Bobby Bradford, Butch Morris, Yusef Lateef, Wadada Leo Smith, and the recently departed Sam Rivers. He’s also soaked up far-flung rhythmic traditions through work with ensembles exploring the music of Bali, Gambia, Ghana, Morocco, Iran and Senegal. But it’s as the leader of Canada Day that Eisenstadt has truly found his voice as a composer. … Continue reading »
Breaking: Berkeley High student shot in Oakland
Update, 2:20 pm: The BHS student who was shot this morning in Oakland is out of surgery and is stable and resting, according to an email from BHS Principal Pasquale Scuderi to the BHS community.
He writes: “While we are not posting the student’s name his individual teachers will be notified. We are cautiously optimistic about the outcome of this particular situation, but we are again deeply saddened by the reminder of how often and how brutally gun violence continues to impact young people in our community and in many communities across the country.
“While we have no indication of any further threat to the BHS campus or community in connection with this incident, our partners at the Berkeley Police Department have coordinated additional police presence with our safety staff for the duration of the afternoon and through dismissal purely as a precautionary measure while Oakland P.D. continues their investigation. … Continue reading »
Startup Berkeley: does the past guide a city’s future?
For several decades, Berkeley — and the East Bay more generally — has looked longingly at the vibrant enterprise and job creation on the Peninsula and in the South Bay. Why can’t Silicon Valley spread its secret sauce across the Bay?
After all, Berkeley has two great research institutions — UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab — churning out innovations and the young scientists and technologists that spawn them. All too often, however, those ideas and people go elsewhere to commercialize their activities. Part of the discussion on March 5, at the Berkeleyside Local Business Forum on “Startup Berkeley” will examine whether that dynamic can change.
A recent comment by “Vbkly” on Berkeleyside provided a case in point: “Ah yes how do we overcome the Great Wall of Berkeley? You know the Wall that has stopped Sun, Linux, Medical Radioisotopes, the Manhattan Project, Andy Grove and most of the key people in Silicon Valley, Genentech, Intel, Apple, Inktomi, Google and not to mention RAVE (which overcame a major barrier to Moore’s Law). All of these companies started in Berkeley or were founded/run by Berkeley people.” … Continue reading »
Khodorkovsky: Where money meets power meets jail
Mikhail Khodorkovsky was once the richest man in Russia, an oligarch who worked hand in glove with the Kremlin while filling his pockets with rubles in the heady post-Soviet Union days of the late 20th century. Khodorkovsky, however, fell out of favor when his thirst for wealth began to impinge on the nationalist policies of President Vladimir Putin.
The strange but true story of this multi-billionaire is told in Khodorkovsky, a new documentary from German director Cyril Tuschi. (The film, originally booked to open this Friday, February 24th at Landmark’s Shattuck Cinemas, will now only be playing at San Francisco’s Opera Plaza).
Born in 1963, Khodorkovsky was a chemistry student and eager Komsomol (Communist Youth League) member during the early 1980s. His favorite novel was a piece of agit-prop entitled How the Steel Was Tempered; his dorm room prominently featured a portrait of Lenin. His future as an apparatchik seemed all but assured. … Continue reading »
Murder suspect was looking for fictional girlfriend
The mentally ill 23-year old man who is accused of killing Peter Cukor Saturday night entered into the 57-year old’s home in search of a fictional girlfriend.
Daniel Jordon DeWitt walked through a gate toward Cukor’s front door and said “he was a psychic and was told to go through the front gate to find Zoey,” according to court documents.
Zoey is DeWitt’s fictional girlfriend and does not exist, according to a family friend who asked not to be named.
DeWitt, who lives in Oakland, will return to Alameda County Court today to enter a plea. The District Attorney’s office alleges that Dewitt killed Cukor with a ceramic planter around 9 pm on February 18. … Continue reading »
