Daily Archives: July 26, 2012
The Berkeley Wire: 07.26.12
Photo: Berkeley one and only, by Anh Le-Tuan Pham
Berkeley-Oakland dance camp teaches discipline, esteem (BANG)
Government will increase recovery rates for Cal research projects (Daily Cal)
Snapp Shots: Berkeley Jazzschool camp coming up (BANG)
Michael Pollan’s “In defense of Food” a good summer read (Press Banner)
Cal Performances’ AileyCamp gives dancer freedom to learn (Mercury News)
New hippie-themed cafe wins loyal Berkeley customers (BANG)
Look up: Berkeley Kite Festival returns July 28-29 (Coco Times)
Rejuvenation Lighting comes to Berkeley (Chronicle)
Noam Lemish: Swinging in Shangri-La
Noam Lemish had been in Bhutan for a few months when he discovered that his efforts to bring new musical currents to the Himalayan kingdom had won a powerful ally. Hired in 2009 to launch a music school in the capital, Thimphu, the Israeli-American jazz pianist dedicated some of his spare time to spinning discs at a radio station, focusing on jazz, Western classical and international music from beyond the borders of the long isolated Buddhist nation.
“One day I got a text message saying that the king really likes your show,” Lemish says, still sounding a little stunned. For a country that banned television until 1999, the tech-savvy communication caught him off guard. But Lemish was far more astonished when The Royal Office of Media commissioned him to compose a new piece for the celebration of King Wangchuck’s 30th birthday. Lemish performs the 30-minute suite, “The People’s King,” Saturday at the Jazzschool with his quartet featuring saxophonist Matthew Rothstein, bassist Jason Carr and drummer Alex Aspinall (along with a multimedia presentation on the music and culture of Bhutan). … Continue reading »
Podcast: Ain’t nobody here but us chickens
Berkeleyside contributor John Rieger wanted to know what’s up with all the chickens in Berkeley. So he set out with Berkeleyside contributing photographer Nancy Rubin to find out what’s clucking.
You can find all of Rieger and Rubin’s podcasts in our new podcast collection. We will be reprising all the Rieger-Rubin oeuvre over the next couple of weeks to mark the launch of our podcast channel and as a treat for Berkeleyside readers.
If you would like to subscribe to the Berkeleyside … Continue reading »
300 Japanese students at Cal for leadership program
Three hundred Japanese high school students walked through Sather Gate on Tuesday, snapping pictures of the UC Berkeley campus on their iPads and preparing for a three-week experience in community development, entrepreneurship, and cultural exchange.
The teenagers are all from the earthquake-devastated Tohoku region, and were selected from a pool of 2,000 applicants to participate in the Tomodachi SoftBank Leadership Program. The program, funded by telecommunication company SoftBank and organized by global exchange organization Ayusa, is part of a larger effort by the US embassy in Japan and the US-Japan Council to strengthen cultural and economic ties between the two countries after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami.
“The Tomodachi Initiative, broadly speaking, is to invest in the younger people of Japan and to connect them with the younger generation in the US,” said John Roos, US ambassador to Japan. … Continue reading »
ABGSL Sting 12U team wins final summer season tourney
By Kate Campbell
The Albany-Berkeley Girls Softball League’s 12U travel team, Sting, won the final 2012 summer season tournament. You may remember the team from the article Michael Lewis wrote for Berkeleyside last year. We’ve been following their progress. Here’s the latest installment:
Facing a field of eight other teams, none of whom they had yet played this season, the Sting team had strong pitching, was on fire with their hitting and solid in their fielding. Their batting lineup started slow on Saturday, narrowly losing their first game on Saturday to the San Bruno Storm 8-7. Despite 14-3 and 7-2 wins in their other games, they were seeded a dark horse fifth on Sunday. Ironically, in single elimination Sunday they again matched up against the San Bruno Storm, and this time they shut them out 2-0 in seven innings, with Robyn Wampler pitching a perfect game.
Sting was definitely one of the teams to beat on the B team softball circuit this summer. This was their third tournament win out of the five tournaments they played for the season. Beyond the wins, though, the team was known for the teamwork, camaraderie and positive attitude that characterized both practices and tournament competition. … Continue reading »
