We’ve written about dumpster diving in Berkeley before, but that was for someone’s pigs. In I Love Trash, an independent documentary which came out last year, David Brown and Greg Mann try a three-month experiment. Can they live in Berkeley purely on trash?
It’s more than a stunt. The film is a powerful polemic against waste in our society. Worth a look. (Thanks for the tip, Catherine.)
InBerkeley correspondent Mark Haas beamed in these photos of the walkouts happening today on campus.
He says a UCBPD cop estimated there were about 2,000-2,500 protesters. The demonstrations were concentrated at Sproul Plaza. “The rest of the campus looked completely normal. Students told me most classes were in session today,” Haas reports.
Cynthia Gorney captures the dilemma of being a journalist embedded on campus in the midst of the UC walkout today in a post for Oakland North:
As journalists who are also UC students and teachers, we wrestled with the appropriate reaction to today’s events. Some wanted to join the walkout. Some did not. As our publication is supported by UC Berkeley, along with a grant from the Ford Foundation, we all agreed that it would be odd for our site to pretend nothing unusual is underway today at the campus that plays such a major role in East Bay life–but that we have a direct conflict of interest in trying to report on the walkout in any conventional way.
It looks like there will be updates throughout the day on the hyperlocal site, which is run by students and teachers at Berkeley’s Journalism School. So worth checking back in.
There is a young man in my neighborhood (East Cedar Street) who is severely disabled by Lyme disease. He can barely walk, has virtually no control over his hands, his symptoms are similar to Parkinsons: very stiff body and frozen muscles, staring eyes and frozen facial muscles, significant shaking, lack of control of his hands and fingers, constant pins-and-needles, and difficult or non-existent speech.
Over the months, I have seen him shuffle up and down our street, and have tried to engage him in conversation with varying levels of success. Right now, he is unable to speak at all.
He is living on state and federal benefits, I think has visiting caregivers and is receiving no medical treatment for the disease. He badly needs a device to enable him to communicate using either his head or eye movements.
It seems that whatever social services he is in touch with have been either unable or have not tried to get such a device.
So, I have decided to see if I could help him get such a machine, and gather the community to support him with visits errands etc. I have no experience in working with the disabled, but he is someone in my North Berkeley community and I care.
The first thing I did was to go to my two local banks (Bank of the West and Bank of America on Shattuck) to ask about setting up an account where local people can contribute money of any amount by just mailing a check. I have seen and contributed to such accounts myself in the past, and I figured that either of these two banks would be eager to help a good local cause. Wrong. Minimum deposits, account charges, and other complications have meant that I am now looking for a bank that will step up to the plate, waive charges, and make it possible for anonymous people to mail in or bring deposits to any branch, to contribute to the fund.
I am prepared to handle whatever tax implications this might entail, but do not want to set up a 501 (c) 3 for the purpose. I want simply to collect money for a severely handicapped person in our community. Does anyone know of a bank that would do this?
Also, I have not yet reached out to social services and local charities for help, but if you know of resources for such situations, I would be glad to hear. Please email me at johnfeld@thegraphicsreport.com
At this time of year, when the veil between the living and dead is thought to be at its most diaphanous, the North Shattuck Association is holding a Dia de los Muertos mask contest to see who can make the most beautiful giant papier mâché skull. The skulls will be worn by their creators in a candlelight procession on Friday October 1. The first prize winner will take home $300. Runners-up will receive gift certificates from local merchants.
Giant papier mâché skulls are a traditional way to celebrate Dia de los Muertos in Mexico and they usually represent different types of people and professions. Often a dark sheet is worn below so as not to distract from the head itself. Papier mâché hands are also sometimes part of the costume.
Those who would like to enter a head are asked to wear it to Grace North Church, 2138 Cedar Street at Vine at 6pm on October 30. The judging will take place outside on the church steps. The judges are Suzanne Tan from Berkeley Art Center; Lisah Horner from ACCI Gallery; Heather Hensley from the North Shattuck Association.; and Lisa Bullwinkel from Another Bullwinkel Show.
As well as the procession, local restaurants will create special Dia de los Muertos dishes for the evening, so all are encouraged to stay in the district for dinner. For more information contact Another Bullwinkel Show at 510.548.5335 or msmoose1@anotherbullwinkelshow.com.
[Photo: www.statesman.com]
Kermit Lynch is a Berkeley institution and a national treasure, as anyone who has visited his wine store, or read his wine-related newsletters or book knows. He’s been around town for a long time, seen it all and amassed an impressive knowledge of the hallowed grape along the way. (One consequence is that he now spends half the year enjoying la belle vie in Provence.)
The thing is, just when you think you’ve got him pegged, along comes the revelation that he’s not a wine buff at all — or at least that isn’t his first love. Lynch started out as a musician, back in the drug-hazed Berkeley of the late 1960s, when he sang in a band and dreamed of one day getting a record contract.
Well that day has arrived, as some 40 years later Lynch is celebrating the release of his first album – a blend of soft rock, folk and blues — called Man’s Temptation. As he told Jancis Robinson recently in the Financial Times: “It was quite a thrill to get a record contract at 67. When I read it I thought, ‘Wow, I’m really something.”
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