Category Archives: News
At Berkeley European car meet, the ambience is laid-back
By Linda Hemmila
On a recent Saturday afternoon, the normally quiet parking lot at Hs Lordships at the Berkeley Marina was transformed into an arena for specialty cars, teeming with enthusiasts and interested passersby who probably didn’t expect to see a dazzling array of custom vehicles on their way to brunch.
Billed as the Berkeley Marina Meet, European car hobbyists who have connected through online forums gather at prearranged spots to share stories and take in each other’s rides. Some come from as far away as San Jose and Sacramento, and many come in caravans attracting curious looks on the freeway. Others are Berkeley locals with familiar looking cars who enjoy the opportunity to show off their work and socialize.
Many of the cars in evidence on January 21st were Volkswagens, as online forum VWvortex had been a conduit to orchestrating the gathering. Also featured were Audis, BMWs as well as a smattering of European models. … Continue reading »
The Berkeley Wire: 02.02.12
The new agtivist: Adam Berman, faith-based urban farmer [Grist]
Dying dad, ex Pacific Steel, denied kidney transplant [ABC]
Energy Secretary joins groundbreaking for new LBNL facility [UCB]
Remembering Jane Imamura, 91, longtime Berkeley resident [Coco Times]
Long on the move, Bishop Berkeley finds a home on Cal campus [UCB]
Photo: Magnolia bud, by Sisterfish8/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.
Ex Berkeley teacher Marie Schumacher plays hometown
Back in the mid-1990s when Marie Schumacher was teaching at Berkeley’s King Middle School, her students didn’t know she was living a double life. By day she elucidated math and science for sixth graders, and by night she performed at venues like Albany’s Club Muse and Berkeley’s Rose Street House of Music. While honing her craft with bands like the retro-pop combo Agent 99, she started to develop her own book of tunes as a singer/songwriter.
Based in Portland, OR since 2000, the vocalist, guitarist, pianist and vocal arranger has maintained close creative ties to the East Bay through her long-running faculty position at Cazadero Music Camp. She plays her annual Berkeley concert Saturday February 4th at the Subterranean Arthouse with bassist John Foster, drummer Jon Arkin and guitarist Steve Gibson, co-founder and co-director of Berkeley’s innovative music program BandWorks.
Her latest album, “Island Set Aflame,” is the result of her revived collaboration with Gibson, with whom she often performed back in the 90s. While developing the new music in the fall of 2008, she received a jolt of inspiration from a spectacular brush fire that swept across Angel Island, with flames visible from her rehearsal. Crystallizing themes of destruction and creation, life and death, she wrote a series of thematically linked songs that Gibson set to beautifully latticed arrangements. … Continue reading »
Actual Café launches Bicycle Bingo fundraising parties
Actual Café has had a novel idea for groundhog day — which, as it happens is today — and for every week after today. The whole point of groundhog day, after all, is that it repeats itself.
The San Pablo Avenue café is launching “Bicycle Bingo”, a weekly fundraising bingo game and party that will benefit several nonprofits active in Berkeley and Oakland.
The event will feature the area’s only bicycle-driven bingo ball machine, and will be MC’ed by Berkeley’s Steffy Sue on the Uke.
“We like games and parties, and we like to support organizations who do good work in our own backyard, so this event is a no-brainer,” says Sal Bednarz, owner of Actual Café, which is known for its love of all things bike-related. “We want to help these organizations find a wider audience, and make it easy and fun for folks to give them some support (and maybe win a prize!).” … Continue reading »
Family and friends hold vigil for Berkeley skateboarder
Family and friends of 18-year-old Tyler De Martini congregated on a corner of Marin Avenue in Berkeley last night to remember the El Cerrito High student who died Wednesday after colliding with a car while skateboarding down Marin at about 7 p.m. Monday evening.
De Martini’s mother, Kim De Martini, as well as his girlfriend and other close friends, remembered a boy who was passionate about skateboarding, and had “a heart of gold”. Concerns over the safety of the intersection where the accident took place, at Marin and Tulare, were also raised.
A memorial service for De Martini is scheduled for 10:45 a.m. Friday at El Cerrito High School. Email teamtylertribute@gmail.com for more information.
See more photographs of last night’s vigil in Berkeleyside’s Flickr pool. Read full coverage of the vigil at Albany Patch.
New addition to North Branch library almost complete
While the reopening of the north branch of the Berkeley Public Library is still three to four months away, its new contours are apparent. Construction crews have completed the building and painting of two-story addition to the building, which will house a new multipurpose room, a teen reading area, and a staff room. … Continue reading »
The Berkeley Wire: 02.01.12
UC Berkeley lecturer, former governor hosts political talk show [Daily Cal]
Pappy’s sports bar and grill opens in old Blake’s space on Telegraph [BANG]
Berkeley man found guilty of making criminal threats [Oakland Tribune]
Cal pledge sues UC sorority over hazing [SF Weekly]
Berkeley moves toward tougher plastic bag ban [Daily Cal]
Defections take toll on UC’s incoming football team [Mercury News]
Friends and family saying goodbye to skateboarder De Martini [Patch]
Photo: Mossy, by cdsessums/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.
Berkeley to reassess Wells Fargo, open account to bids
Last night Berkeley’s City Council voted unanimously to review its banking arrangements with Wells Fargo when the current contract expires at the end of 2012.
This followed a recommendation by councilmembers Jesse Arreguín and Darryl Moore to consider alternatives to the 160-year-old San Francisco bank which, they said, “was a key part of the subprime lending crisis which led to our overall economic collapse”. (View the responsible banking policy Council item.)
Berkeley’s FY11 city budget is about $324 million, and bank deposits are around $10 million, according to a local banking executive. Berkeley has banked with Wells Fargo since 2004 and the contract was last renewed in 2009. … Continue reading »
Big Screen Berkeley: Red Tails
War may be Hell, but it’s hard to imagine anything more hellish than watching Cuba Gooding Jr. girn his way through his embarrassing performance in Red Tails, a WWII blockbuster currently on wide release and screening at United Artists Berkeley 7.
As he chomps maniacally on a pipe, Cuba seems to be channeling the spirit of Popeye through his character: fictional Tuskegee Airman Emanuelle Stance. Happily, the rest of Red Tails’ cast does a better job — but the film itself is closer in spirit to a cartoon than it is to a serious portrayal of the wartime accomplishments of the Army Air Corps’ 332nd Fighter Group.
Produced by George Lucas, apparently still doing penance for bringing Jar Jar Binks into the world, Red Tails begins where it probably should have ended — over the skies of Italy in 1944. There’s little effort to put the story of the Tuskegee Airmen into context: they appear as a fully formed military unit and (bar one stereotypical brass hat) little is seen of the War Department’s efforts to sidetrack the Congressionally mandated Tuskegee program. The film forgoes this rich vein of backstory and suffers as a result. … Continue reading »
The Berkeley Wire: 01.31.12
Cal’s writing requirement? Bold vision, endless revision [UCB]
Berkeley artist Deborah Oropallo digitally reinterprets [Daily Cal]
How Berkeley students made Lower Sproul happen [UCB]
Cal scientists decode brain waves to eavesdrop what we hear [UCB]
Photo: Rain!, by A Ess Bee/Berkeleyside Flickr pool.
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