“Eccentric Artist in Residence” warns a sign outside of Mark Olivier’s house. Usually known simply as “the house on Colusa”, Olivier’s home is something of a legend in Berkeley because it is covered in art made from debris washed up on beaches. Many Berkeley residents know the house, but the owner himself is mostly anonymous, [...]
Posts under ‘Art’
Where’s My DVD? The forgotten Alraune
This week, Berkeleyside’s film writer John Seal looks at a movie he recommends you check out on DVD. Think of Erich von Stroheim, and you’ll probably visualize two memorable characters: stiff-collared Captain von Rauffenstein, the aristocratic Prussian officer of Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion (1937), and Max von Mayerling, Gloria Swanson’s taciturn personal assistant in Billy [...]
Grafitti tour of west Berkeley
Daniel Timothy Wood, who is in digital advertising, had a few moments Thursday between his lunch at Vik’s Chaat Corner on Fourth Street (which he says is the best Indian place on the planet) and an appointment with a client in San Jose. So the Portland, Oregon resident and a few friends walked along the [...]
Traywick Contemporary showcases art and owner
By Alice Ranahan Not every gallery lends itself well to exhibiting three- dimensional work along side two-dimensional paintings and drawings, but Traywick Contemporary does it with ease. It must have something to do with the sculptural space itself, a creative remodel of a defunct Masonic temple in North Berkeley. Designed like a loft with open [...]
Yarn bombers decorate Elmwood district
The yarn bombers descended into the Elmwood district on Monday and left behind some colorful decorations. They also put yarn wraps around the Rose Garden last week. For more photos, look here. The artist who calls herself Streetcolor said these yarn sculptures were inspired by the work of a glass artist named Klaus Moje. “I [...]
Big Screen Berkeley: High and Low
March 23rd marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, who died in 1998 at the age of 88. The birthday celebrations have been suitably impressive: almost every feature film he ever made screened on Turner Classic Movies in March, and Pacific Film Archive has matched TCM’s fervor with an Akira [...]
Berkeleyan wins New Yorker cartoon caption contest
“Throw us a doughnut!” That was William Rodarmor’s winning entry in the New Yorker’s June 28th cartoon caption contest. Rodarmor, a Berkeley resident, is an award-winning French literary translator and a former editor at PC World magazine. The other contenders for the caption were: “Abandon cup!” “We’ll never get to sleep tonight.” Hat tip to [...]
Big Screen Berkeley: Breathless
What more is there to be said about Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (À bout de souffle)? Probably not a great deal, but there is this: recently restored and re-subtitled, Godard’s loving tribute to Monogram Pictures is getting a theatrical re-release to mark its 50th anniversary. A new print of Breathless is currently playing at the Rialto [...]
Berkeley’s newest mural unveiled in Gourmet Ghetto
Berkeleysider Michael Moore has the photographic scoop on the newly unveiled mural in the Gourmet Ghetto (above). The mural is on the south-facing wall of Virginia Bakery at 1690 Shattuck Avenue. Read about its creation as Berkeleyside reported it on our mural stories.
Big Screen Berkeley: [Rec] 2… terrible things happen
Though horror has always been one of my favorite genres, 2007’s well-reviewed Spanish chiller [Rec] passed me by, probably because it went straight to DVD in the US. A huge hit in its native land, [Rec] was remade in 2008 for subtitle-shy Anglophones as Quarantine (and no, I haven’t seen that one, either), and has [...]
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