Esther’s Orbit Room, the last holdout from the days when Seventh Street was THE place to go in the Bay Area to catch well-known or up-and-coming jazz and blues artists such as Ike and Tina Turner, Ray Charles and Etta James, has finally closed its doors. And with Esther Mabry’s declining health, the club’s future is very much in doubt. Stay tuned for the story later this week in the Tribune.
Last month, crews used Cragmont School in Berkeley as a set for filming NBC’s pilot program, “Parenthood.’ “Parenthood,” from the creators of ”Friday Night Lights” revolves around adult siblings, the Bravermans. The project is based on the 1989 movie by the same name.
Berkeley school district spokesman Mark Coplan said the view of the Golden Gate Bridge and City of San Francisco were primary reasons for crews picking the school for filming.
The filming of ”Parenthood,” with Peter Krause and Maura Tierney, has wrapped up in Berkeley, but not without a tragedy. Nora O’Brien, the executive in charge of drama programming, died April 29 after collapsing in Sausalito, according to the Associated Press.
There were reports on the Internet that the 44-year-old O’Brien actually collapsed while filming on a set in Berkeley. Coplan said that isn’t true. O’Brien had worked for six years at NBC Universal as an executive at the Sci Fi Channel and, most recently, as vice president of drama programming for the company’s studio division, according to the AP. Reports said she suffered a brain anyeurism.
Some may same that UC Berkeley basketball forward Jamal Boykin’s moves on the court are a work of art.
But another true work of art are the 44 portraits he drew of President Barack Obama and his family. It was Boykin’s New Year’s resolution to renew his passion for drawing, which he’s been doing since he was a youngster.
After drawing one picture of President Obama in an airport on a Cal basketball road trip, he decided to make it his goal to draw 44 pictures of the 44th president.
It’s his ultimate goal to one day be able to present the drawings to the president. But for now he will show of the color drawings, which also include Michelle Obama and the couple’s children, on Saturday, May 9 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. at the Alphonse Berber Gallery, 2546 Bancroft Way in Berkeley. Boykin plans to speak at 7 p.m. Refreshments will be served. The art includes photography by Cal guard Nican Robinson.
An ABC story on Boykin is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-fbyEZbaCk
Cal basket guard Patrick Christopher will recite poetry at the event, a fundraiser for art supplies at Malcolm X Elementary School in Berkeley. Boykin’s drawings will also be shown at galleries in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. in the future.
Boykin is a 6-7, 230-pound forward who was the California state player of the year as a high school senior. He transferred to UC Berkeley from Duke University in 2007.
Things are heating up: “Speak Out Against the Surface Parking Lot in Uptown!” on Tuesday, 7:00pm May 5 at the council chambers of Oakland City Hall. (This the parking lot between the Fox and the Uptown apartments that sits in front of an otherwise charming park.) Read about the parking lot proposal in Tuesday’s Tribune.
They just wanna…Hey alll you swingin’ Democrats, here’s one for you: East Bay Young Dems’ Awards gala and fundraiser 6 pm to 9 pm Thursday, May 7 at Swarm Studios & Gallery. (Let’s get political, political. Lemme hear your ballot talk…)
Oakland Local - A daily-updated Web site and mobile service will be created to cover Oakland, Calif., with a focus on environment, climate, transportation, housing, local government and community activism in Downtown, Uptown, North Oakland, West Oakland, Fruitvale, Lake Merritt, and the Dimond District. An editor, publisher and three paid part-time reporters will produce content, as will citizen contributors. The site will geotag content to an XML data map, encourage users to interact via cell phones and employ a range of social networking tools.
University of California, Berkeley art students are putting on a unique art show Tuesday night. The exhibit is called “Sex and Sustainability” with each piece representing one of the United Nations millennium development goals. Accompanying text will explain why that goal is a “unachievable without considering the population growth factor,’’ organizers said.
The free exhibit will also feature information about health consequences women in developing countries face because of a lack of access to family planning services.
Organizers are holding the event to highlight the connection between population, poverty and women’s empowerment. Globally there is a tremendous unmet need for family planning methods due to numerous barriers that prevent access in the developing world. Giving women access to family planning methods allows her the right to choose her family size - a fundamental human right, organizers said.
“We want to raise awareness about the huge unmet need for family planning and contraceptives in developing countries and highlight its relationship with poverty alleviation,’’ said Kiki Kalkstein, a senior majoring in public health and minoring in global poverty and practice, the fastest growing minor at Cal with more than 150 UC Berkeley undergraduate sin the programs. The inaugural class of 2007-08 had seven students in the minor, UC officials said.
The event, which is from 6 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Alphonse Berber Gallery, 2546 Bancroft Way, will include wine and cheese. Donations are welcome. The event will include speeches from professor Malcolm Potts and visiting student activist Alberto Lopez Castro of Mexico.
Eve Chaurand-Fraser is about the farthest thing from a NASCAR racecar driver.
She’s an attorney.
But this Saturday at the Phoenix International Raceway, Chaurand-Fraser, associate general counsel at the Oakland-based search engine Ask.com, will have her name plastered on the front of the Ask.com NASCAR racecar hood driven by Bobby Labonte, the 44-year-old Texas native who drives the No. 96 car. Millions are expected to watch the race.
Chaurand-Fraser, an Oakland woman who has been with the company for three years, gets the honor because of her “superior work” at the company, said a company spokesman.
“Eve keeps the Ask legal engine finely tuned, revved up, and race-ready. Whether it’s focusing on syndication deals, privacy policies, or partner contracts, Eve is always poised and focused on doing whatever she can to help her company and community,’’ said a statement from the company. “Eve is known to go way more than the extra mile for her team, pulling many all-nighters to work out the details on some of the trickiest and most complex deals vital to one of Oakland’s major employers.”
Wow, maybe she should drive the car after all?
Labonte, a driver in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, comes from a racing family. His older Terry Labonte was a NASCAR driver until he retired at the end of the 2006 season. The duo are the only brothers to have both won the championship in NASCAR’s top series. Bobby Labonte is also the uncle of former Nationwide Series winner Justin Labonte.
- Oakland Tribune Outtakes