“We were devastated when we found out. It was a big loss and we moved very quickly ... to address the procedures in place so that it wouldn’t happen again,” said Lawrence Hall Deputy Director Susan Gregory.
The Lawrence Hall of Science is asking the community for help to restore its “Big Whale,” the life-size replica of a fin whale that is located on the museum’s plaza. It hopes to raise a total of $65,000 for restoration work. The much-loved mammal is appreciated by many, and has been climbed on by several generations of children, ever since it was installed in the 1970s (see photo below of the whale being carried by helicopter to its Berkeley home).
SPIRITUALS AS SACRED MUSIC The Second Annual Black History Month Celebration on Sat. Feb. 28 will be a lively affair, with a program emphasizing the history of African-American spirituals as sacred music. The program at the Florence Schwimley Little Theater, 1936 Allston Way, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., will feature musical performances by some of the region’s most accomplished performers. Linda Tillery and the Cultural Heritage Tour, a “Grammy-nominated, percussion-driven, vocal ensemble whose mission is to preserve and share the rich musical traditions of African-American roots music,” is the headliner. Othello Jefferson, Diamano Coura West African Dance Company, Berkeley High African American Dance Troupe, Sister’s Keeper, and James Daley will also be there. There will be a “Black Invention” display featuring 20 artifacts. There will be booths with food. (more…)
UNCHARTED Wake up tomorrow morning and mingle with some of the most prominent and captivating thinkers across the disciplines. Berkeleyside presents the second annual Uncharted, a two-day festival jam-packed with stimulating discussion and debate. On Friday, Oct. 24 and Saturday, Oct. 25, festival speakers and participants will gather at Berkeley Rep and Freight & Salvage to engage with big, daring, and dangerous ideas. This year’s exciting program includes musings on robotics, new energy, stereotyping, marriage equality, and 3D printing. A few one and two-day passes are still available for the extravaganza, which lasts 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, with workshops, coffee breaks, and a party on Friday evening. Find out more. (more…)
This week, the New York Times turned its attention to Berkeley for its regular “36 Hours in…” series. It’s not the first time the city has been viewed through this lens. It was also featured in 2003.
THE POSSIBLE CLOSING CEREMONY The closing ceremony for ‘The Possible,’ an exhibition at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, will begin this Friday, May 23, at 7:30 p.m. ‘The Possible’ re-imagines the museum as the locus of an ever-evolving artistic projects that connects the artists with the community. This final celebration of creative spirit will draw together artists from around the Bay Area. There will be music, dancing, and ceremonies honoring those who made the whole exhibition, well, possible. Tickets are $7. It should be noted that there will also be a free garden bazaar on Sunday, May 25, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., where the gallery will be ceremonially emptied. Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, 2626 Bancroft Way. (Read our review of ‘The Possible.’)
JOAN LA BARBARA Some say Berkeley is still stuck in the ’70s. Music fans who wish that were the case should head to the L@TE event this Friday, March 14. It’s been 38 years since experimental musician Joan La Barbara performed her “Circular Song” at BAM/PFA in 1976, and she’s back for round two. The piece is a presentation of the award-winning artist’s expansive repertoire of vocal techniques, including circular singing, glottal clicks, and split-tone multiphonics. The $7 show starts at 7:30 p.m. at 2626 Bancroft Way. (more…)
FINAL COUNTDOWN Classical music concerts often have some programmatic idea: works that influenced each other, or pieces that provide an interesting tonal contrast. But The Opus Project has a particularly audacious notion: its Saturday night concert features 21 Opus 5 pieces by composers ranging from Stravinsky to Cage to Britten (it’s the centennial of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring — an Opus 5!). The multi-media Opus 5 follows on, unsurprisingly, from Opera 1 through 4 (pedantic, moi?). The earliest work on Saturday will be a movement from Schoenberg’s Peleas und Melisande; the most recent Rabbits Frolicking Through the Meadow by 20-year old Anthony Ragus, composed this year. Opus 5 is at 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 25, at Berkeley Arts Festival, 2133 University Avenue. Tickets are from $10. (more…)
Authorities handed out fliers and made multiple visits to neighbors near the scene of a shooting on Tuesday that sent an 8-year-old girl to the hospital with an arrow through her leg.
Update, 4:30 p.m. Authorities said the arrow recovered in Tuesday morning’s shooting incident appears to be a type that would have been used with a crossbow. “It’s shorter than the typical arrow would be that’s used with a bow,” said Lt. Marc DeCoulode of UCPD. “I’m not an expert, but that’s what I’m being told.” Decoulode said police don’t yet know if Tuesday’s shooting is connected with an incident in late October, in which a doe appeared to have been shot with an arrow and was wandering in the Berkeley hills. “I don’t know if somebody is hunting, or if it was somebody just out indiscriminately taking target practice,” he said. Police are planning to return to the neighborhood Tuesday to speak with residents who may have been working during the morning’s investigation.
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” George Bernard Shaw
© Berkeleyside. All Rights Reserved.
