Category Archives: Arts
Dates set for reopening of North and Claremont branches
The renovated North Branch of the Berkeley Public Library will reopen on April 7, and the remodeled Claremont Branch will open shortly thereafter, on May 5, library officials announced Saturday night.
The re-opening of the two branches comes less than a year after they were shut for remodeling. It means that construction on Berkeley’s other two branches can start soon.
As a first step towards tearing down and rebuilding the South Branch, the Tool Lending Library at 1901 Russell Street will relocate. The Tool Lending Library will close Friday, February 17 and reopen March 20 in the Sawtooth Building at 2547 8th Street. Patrons are asked to return all tools by Friday this week. The South Branch will close on March 17 and the West Branch is scheduled to close at the end of April, according to Donna Corbeil, the library’s executive director. … Continue reading »
Friends set out to help renovator save her historic home
Jane Powell is the bungalow queen. A master restorer, she has helped dozens of East Bay homeowners bring their vintage homes back to life with wit and style.
Now Powell, who bought her first bungalow in Berkeley in 1987 and has renovated and lived in many more since then, faces the possibility of losing her current home — her beloved “Bunga-Mansion,” the historic Jesse Matteson House in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood.
A group of Powell’s friends is determined to prevent this happening and is holding a fundraising party on Sunday February 12th, 2:00-5:00 pm, at the landmarked house to help out. The Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association is supporting the effort and helping to promote it. … Continue reading »
Berkeley 20-year old advances to Jeopardy! quarterfinals
Anyone who watched Berkeley native Matt Olson on Jeopardy’s College Championship Tuesday night was amazed at the 20-year old’s performance. He raked up $40,000 in winnings (Jeopardy! dollars, unfortunately) answering questions ranging from fashion design to literature to what looked like a very difficult math problem.
Olson, shown above in an interview with KGO, now moves on to the quarterfinals. The winner of the College Championship will take home $100,000 (real dollars). Jeopardy! airs weeknights at 7 pm on KGO Channel 7. … Continue reading »
20-year old Berkeley native competes on Jeopardy!
In 2004, when Matt Olson was 12, he was captivated by Ken Jennings, the 30-year old man who won 74 Jeopardy! Games in a row. It was the longest-winning streak ever on the popular game show and Jennings’ success catapulted him into national celebrity.
Ever since then, Olson, now 20, has wanted to compete on Jeopardy! When he was a student at Berkeley High, he took the online test to get on the show, but didn’t make it. In 2010, when he was a freshman at Stanford, he took the test another time. Again he failed.
But in 2012, Olson beat 12,000 other college students to win a spot on the Jeopardy! College Championship, which runs through February 14. If Olson triumphs (and he is contractually required not to reveal the outcome of the contest) he will win $100,000. His first appearance on the show is Tuesday Feb. 7. The show airs at 7 pm on KGO, channel 7.
“I’ve watched Jeopardy! Since I was a kid,” said Olson, now a sophomore at Stanford majoring in Symbolic Systems. “I’ve wanted to be on the show for a really long time. It’s pretty cool. I got my dream.” … Continue reading »
Unexpected sighting: Basket weaving on Claremont Creek
Sandy Friedland, who walks all around Berkeley, spotted an unusual sight Saturday on her early morning stroll.
Claremont Creek south of John Muir School is usually fenced off to keep children away from the water. But Rachel Harris, who teaches gardening and science at John Muir Elementary School had opened the fence to teach basket weaving to a class of 15 fourth and fifth grade girls. Harris was showing her students how to soften the tule reeds in water and … Continue reading »
Rare works from Serendipity Books to be auctioned
The collection the late Peter Howard amassed for Serendipity Books was so vast that it will take Bonhams six different auctions to sell it off.
Once stuffed into an old winery on University Avenue, the collection, estimated at one million volumes, has now been sorted – and resorted and resorted – for sale.
“The bookstore on University … is a warren of rooms filled to the roof with titles from the mundane and popular to the erudite and obscure,” Catherine Williamson, Bonhams’ director of fine books & manuscripts explained in the auction catalogue. “Peter wanted people to search for their books, looking carefully and hopefully finding not only what they were looking for, but far more.
“While working to clear the store in advance of this first sale (and the others scheduled throughout this year) we have found ourselves going over shelves once, twice, three times and on the fourth time finding something else worth pulling out and putting in the catalog. I‘m sure that is as Peter would have wished it,” said Williamson. … Continue reading »
Thousands expected at Tedx conference on Saturday
More than 1,500 people are expected to go to Zellerbach Auditorium on the UC campus on Saturday for the third annual Tedx/Berkeley.
“Inspiring innovation,” is the theme for the daylong conference, which is organized independently from the main TED conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design) held every year around the world.
Speakers include Carl Bass, the CEO of Autodesk, Charles Holt, an actor and singer who has appeared in numerous Broadway musicals, Connie K. Duckworth, the founder of ARZU, a nonprofit … Continue reading »
Love books? Help give away 1 million of them
Book lovers around the world are planning to give away millions of books on April 23 – and they are looking for Berkeley readers to help them.
The event is called World Book Night and its inaugural event in Great Britain in March of 2011 was phenomenally successful. Tens of thousands of people handed out a million free books to those who might not necessarily have ready access to them. The idea was for people to share their love of reading and ignite a similar passion in others.
Now World Book Night has expanded around the world to Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and the United States. The goal is for one million books to be distributed in each country. … Continue reading »
Cal frat boy Kyle Crews a hit with Jennifer Lopez & co
American Idol fans know that when a judge says “you’re going to Hollywood”, that’s very good news. These words were spoken by former Aerosmith rocker Steven Tyler to UC Berkeley undergraduate Kyle Crews recently when he auditioned for the show in San Diego, which also happens to be his hometown.
Crews, who dedicated his rendition of Monica’s “Angel of Mine” to Tyler’s fellow judge Jennifer Lopez (telling host Ryan Seacrest beforehand that he couldn’t stop thinking of her “voluptuous lips”), made an impression despite his loud plaid shirt (“you’re going to have to lose that shirt,” said Tyler). Third judge Randy Jackson simply whooped and declared: “That’s crazy. You sound nothing like you look.”
The 19-year-old, whois an enthusiastic member of Cal’s Kappa Alpha fraternity, will now go through to the next rounds in Hollywood. … Continue reading »
In Berkeley: Cuban pianist sensation Alfredo Rodríguez
As Cuba’s latest piano sensation, Alfredo Rodríguez knows he’s walking in exalted company. A graduate of the Manuel Saumell Conservatory, the same Havana institution that launched Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Manuel Valera, Rodriguez found out early on that prodigious talent could be a passport to an illustrious musical career.
“Knowing that Gonzalo had gone there, it’s a very big deal,” says Rodríguez, 26, from his home in Los Angeles. “In the school, they just teach classical music. It’s on the street that you play popular music and discover jazz. In my case, I love classical music and jazz too. Improvisation is the most important thing to me in the music. It’s my passion.”
Rodríguez makes his Berkeley debut Sunday when Cal Performances presents his solo recital at Hertz Hall. While he often tours with a trio the pianist is completely at home alone at the keyboard, a setting that allows him to fully explore his virtuosic technique and boundless imagination. … Continue reading »
