Oakland Tribune Outtakes

MOS DEF >>>IN CONCERT 9 pm tonight. The rapper/actor is raising money for  the California Public Education Foundation at the Shattuck Down Low lounge in Berkeley. I think this is like the fourth time he has been in the Bay Area in less than a year, New Parish being the last.

I returned to Berkeley later Saturday night to see Where the Wild Things Are (a tear jerker of the highest magnitude in my opinion) and noticed a little sliver of an art house tucked away between two storefronts on Bancroft. Turned out to be the Subterranean Art House, which is hard to spot because there is no permament sign affixed to the 2179 Bancroft Way address. I did not have time to go in (it was cold and my daughters were with us — thus the movie) for “night of music in honor of Hafiz.” Not that I knew what was going on inside anyway from a distance. I could only see paintings on the walls but online they describe the gallery as a place for visual and performance art – including songwriting and dance salons and the 50th anniversary celebration of Butoh dance, which is something that doesn’t happen too often around here. It’s not your average dance style.

July 9 was the grand opening of the Shattuck Hotel’s restaurant/bar, FIVE in downtown Berkeley. It looks grand.
I once read the hotel had a smoking bar but never got there. Regrets! I also wanted to try the Afghan restaurant that occupied the downstairs, too. I assume they are both gone now.

Arianna Huffington at UC Berkeley Saturday afternoon for the “Craigslist Foundation Boot Camp (I had to work today). The millionaire Huffington Post chief, political pundit, publisher and former candidate for governor of California got the point about corporate greed and the need for people to do good to rescue this country from crisis. Her speech may be up on craigslistfoundation.org/bootcamp later. This is just a short clip taken after.

Cinco de Mayo kick-off and double CD-release party April 30 at the Starry Plough, Berkeley

Singer-songwriter-guitarist Steve Taylor-Ramírez takes his critically acclaimed Latin-infused neo-folk back to Berkeley’s Starry Plough Pub Thursday, April 30.  He brings with him Latin-inspired soul singer Pamela Parker and folk duo Misner & Smith (winners of Best Song of the Year in the 2007 West Coast Songwriters’ Competition).

Pamela Parker and Misner & Smith will each release new, highly praised CDs. Taylor-Ramírez will introduce his new musical genre, Blues Ranchera, in which the sound of the Mississippi Delta meets the mariachi spirit of Jalisco, Mex.

The details:

Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 9:00 PM

Starry Plough Pub     

3101 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley

Cost: $7

Info: 510.841.2082 Read the rest of this entry »

An Evening of Stand-Up Comedy and Improv with Queer On Their Feet will be at Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley 1 Lawson Road in Kensington at 1:00 PM &  7:00 PM on April 19. Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.  College student discount $10 at the door night of the show with valid college id.  Advance tickets available through Brown Paper Tickets at www.brownpapertickets.com or by calling 1-877-278-4842.   Buy in advance to get the discounted price! Remaining tickets will be available at the door, the night of the show. Read the rest of this entry »

2050 University Avenue
Berkeley, California 94704(510) 705-1450   

Open Wednesday – Sunday 11am-11pm

Whatever protests, demonstrations or civil unrest happens in Berkeley these days, it will never compare to Berkeley’s 1960s scene. Photographer Elio De Pisa was there and he took thousands of photographs of happenings in and around  Telegraph Avenue’s Caffe Mediterraneum.

De Pisa, a native of Rome, managed Telegraph Avenue’s Caffe Mediterraneum between 1960 and 1972 and  again from 1978-1990. He was seldom without his Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera. At that time the owners  had a strictly enforced policy of no photography inside the cafe, with De Pisa being the only exception.
De Pisa, died in 2002 at age 68 but his pictures live on. Between 7 and 9 p.m. Wednesday, March 18, his wife Diane De Pisa, will discuss some of the photographs that will be on display through June 18. A book, De Pisa’s “photo diary” of the times, is being compiled by his wife with the help of designer Lucien Delia and photographer Nick Cedar.
For more information contact ddepisa@att.net. Caffe Mediterraneum is at 2475 Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley.

The Oakland-East Bay Gay Men’s Chorus presents their spring concert, “The Best of Ten Years: A Dick Kramer Dedication,” on Saturday, April 4th, 7:30 pm, at Lakeshore Avenue Baptist Church in Oakland, and Sunday, April 5th, 5 pm, at First Congregational Church in Berkeley. Visit oebgmc.org or call 800.706.2389 for details

Reserved tickets cost $20; general admission $15; seniors/students (with ID)/children 12 and younger) $12 

Jeff from Fellini restaurant and coffee bar in Berkeley just released a new LP “Your Star was Shining” by his band L’Avventura (Italian of course!) It’s free  www.lavventuramusic.com   until April 30th (“Fine with us…” he says), or, if the recession hasn’t hit you too hard, you can purchase a copy at iTunes.com, emusic.com, amazon.com or cdbaby.com. To mark the CD release, the band is kicking off “The Living Room Sessions”, a series of 10 live shows, starting February 17th.   Each week, L’Avventura will be joined by a different musical guest, for an evening of “melodic retro/futurist pop music” (NME), in an intimate, atmospheric setting.  “The Living Room Sessions” offers FREE admission, early start times (running 7-9pm), easy parking, and absurdly hip vibes.  It’s an  all-ages venue too, so bring the juvenile delinquents… The location: 33 Revolutions, a cafe/wine-bar/vinyl record shop in El Cerrito (10086 San Pablo Ave.)
The dates are: Tuesday, February 24, 7-9 pm and… Read the rest of this entry »