Category Archives: Downtown
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 »
Bartlett’s Coffee closes its doors
Bartlett’s Coffee, a small café in the Library Gardens on Kittredge near Milvia, has shut its doors.
The café, which served as a social hub for many Berkeley High students, is not going completely out of business, however, according to Benjamin Bartlett, who owned the place with his family. It is looking to move to a new location.
“Yes, we had to close the café,” Bartlett wrote in an email. “We thought long and hard about it, but an … Continue reading »
Berkeley poets take to the stage Saturday at festival
This year, the Berkeley Poetry Festival, which takes place Saturday at Berkeley City College, will fuse words and art. Poets will read from their work and local artists will display their digital images around the festival.
“It’s going to be a rainbow cornucopia of images and words,” said Louis Cuneo, a haiku poet and a co-founder (with city councilmember Kriss Worthington) of the festival “This isn’t just a poetry festival. It’s a festival of the muses – the creative muse, the poetry muse.”
On Saturday, the festival will present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Adam David Miller, the 88-year old Berkeley poet who has published five books of poetry and an acclaimed memoir, Ticket to Exile.
Friends of Berkeley library resurrect beloved book sale
The last time the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library held a huge used book sale, hundreds of people lined up early in the morning to get first crack at rare and unusual books.
That was back in 1999.
In the ensuing 12 years, the Friends have sold used books at their two bookstores, one located on the first floor of the main library and the other at 2433 Channing near Telegraph. But the two stores don’t move inventory quite like a big sale, so the Friends of the Berkeley Public Library have decided to resurrect their once-much-beloved book sale.
It will take place Saturday May 14 from 10 to 4 pm in the community room on the third floor of the Main Library.
“In the past year, more book donations than ever have poured in, and it was these surplus donations that convinced the Friends to re-institute an annual sale — not yet as big as the “old” sale and with three big changes: everything will sell for 50 cents, the sale will be held inside the Library, and more than books will be sold — videos, phonograph records, maps, pamphlets, DVDs, CDs, and so on,” the Friends announced in a press release. “There’ll even be a whole section for vampire books!” … Continue reading »
Burgers with a twist: new restaurant to open in downtown
Hugh Groman loves his dad. That much is clear when you learn he is naming his new restaurant after his pop. “My dad is someone who has always cared so much about how people feel, and that’s why I wanted to name my new venture after him,” he said.
Groman describes Phil’s Sliders — which will open next month in the old New China Express space at 2024 Shattuck, next door to the former Comic Relief — as “more organic than In-N-Out, with a twist”.
The menu will consist of $2.00 sliders (mini-burgers to the uninitiated), all made with Marin Sun Farms grass-fed beef and organic lettuce; potato tots (“crispy nuggets of goodness”); poppyseed coleslaw; and a smorgasbord of “delicious” baked goods, including s’mores bars, and not forgetting the house-made shakes and sodas.
“It will be a limited menu — simple and quick. People have so many decisions to make these days. Here the decisions are easy,” Groman said. … Continue reading »
Crime prevention top of mind for a Berkeley community
[This story has been updated -- see end of the article.]
Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan expressed frustration at the Berkeley Unified School District last night, and in particular its lack of communication with the BPD, following a rash of crimes in a central Berkeley neighborhood, some of which were committed by students at Berkeley High School.
“We don’t get good information from the school district right now,” Chief Meehan said. “We asked them: if there was a robbery you knew about, would you call us? And they said, ‘we would not’.”
Chief Meehan added that the school district had not responded yet to a series of recommendations on security measures compiled by the BPD in the wake of a number of gun incidents on the Berkeley High campus.
Calls to BUSD Superintendent Bill Huyett were not returned at the time of going to press.
Since January there have been three strong-arm robberies, one armed robbery, one attempted burglary and one case of an arrest for prowling/possession of burglary tools in the area west of Martin Luther King Junior Way, according to police records. Four of the six cases involved juveniles. … Continue reading »
Uncertain times for Berkeley City College literary journal
The current issue of Milvia Street, the literary magazine of Berkeley City College, features an eclectic mix of artists and writers.
There is a story by Hoa Tran, who fled with his family from Vietnam after the war and went on to get a PhD in forestry, one from Amy Rich, who used poetry to recover from drug addiction, and one from Cassandra Dallet, a former high-school dropout who has gone on to publish her work in numerous local journals.
The diversity of contributors to the journal is a reflection of the varied student body at the two-year college on Center Street.
“Most of it is student work, which doesn’t mean they are 18 to 20 years old,” said Sharon Coleman, a poet and the faculty advisor for the journal. “Students range from 16 years to 75 years old. Some have advanced degrees. Some have GEDs. But they are all very good writers.”
People will have a chance to hear excerpts from Milvia Street on Tuesday night when contributors read from their work at 7:30 pm at Moe’s Books on Telegraph. … Continue reading »
Anti sit-lie campaigners take protest to City Hall
A group of about 70 people marched to the City Council Chambers Tuesday evening, after meeting on Telegraph Avenue, to protest a possible sit-lie ordinance in the city.
Although the item was not on last night’s City Council agenda, the protest’s organizer, Michael Diehl, told the Daily Cal that the group wanted to let the council know what they thought before it came to before council members. Diehl distributed fliers and organized the protest, which was attended by several UC Berkeley … Continue reading »
For Earth Day, a new e-waste recycling center in Berkeley
A new business will open tomorrow in downtown Berkeley, and it’s a fitting one for Earth Day: GreenCitizen is the latest outpost of a small chain of e-waste centers which aim to tackle the shameful statistic that 80% of electronic waste in the U.S. is dumped in the landfill or off-loaded to developing countries.
GreenCitizen, at 1971 Shattuck Avenue, will offer electronics recycling — be it computers, printers, televisions, cell phones, or batteries. It will also take styrofoam.
“We’re very excited to be opening in Berkeley,” said James Kao, GreenCitizen’s founder and CEO. The company launched on Earth Day 2005 in Palo Alto and also has two outlets in San Francisco. “We have developed a holistic approach to e-waste based on repair, recycling and re-use. Our aim is to reduce everyone’s carbon footprint.”
The process is straightforward, said Kao. There is ample parking outside the new store for customers to drop-off their electronics, and carts will be available for moving items. A global tracking system devised by GreenCitizen allows the company to monitor where each item is shipped. All the equipment is sent to two facilities in California and either recycled or re-used. … Continue reading »
Two Berkeley polls aim to boost business conditions
Two ongoing surveys in Berkeley are looking to gauge the views of the merchants and residents who live and work in Berkeley — with a long-term goal of improving business conditions for all involved.
Councilmember Gordon Wozniak has launched a survey to determine whether Elmwood locals are in favor of continuing one of the city’s strictest business quota systems, among other things. Another key issue up for discussion is parking — is there enough of it and should meters be extended from one to two hours? The survey also sets out to get a picture of how people get to and use the Elmwood stores.
“Generally the Elmwood works, “said Wozniak. “There’s a special vibrancy there because a significant number of the people that come there do so on foot and retail vacancies are filled more quickly than in other areas. But the tough economic times have hit everyone and we want to find out if people’s feelings are the same or different from when we did a survey four years ago.” … Continue reading »
