InBerkeley

Berkeley Arts & Letters has only been around for a year, and if this fall’s line up is any indication, it has already moved into the top echelon of Bay Area speaking series. Twelve months to becoming a major cultural force.  Wow.

I attended my first Berkeley Arts & Letters talk this spring, when I went to hear Michael Pollan talk food and farms with Novella Carpenter. The event was held in the First Congregational Church in Berkeley, on Channing and Dana, which is an extremely pleasant place to be. The nave is airy and light and there is ample seating with good sight lines.

The event truly felt like a Berkeley community shindig. In the hallway, I recognized and chatted with lots of people. Michael Pollan stood by the front door for a bit, which meant people could approach him informally to ask questions. (He was also available during the book signing.) Anne Leyhe, a co-owner of Mrs. Dalloway’s on College, was selling books. The producers of Berkeley Arts & Letters, Melissa Mytinger, the former events manager at Cody’s Books,  and Praveen Maden, the owner of the Booksmith in San Francisco, have made the lecture series inclusive by inviting a rotating roster of booksellers to sell books at the events. In addition to Mrs. Dalloways, Moe’s Books on Telepgraph, University Press Books on Bancroft Avenue, and Pegasus and Pendragon Books  participate in the series.

This fall’s line-up is exciting. More than a dozen instantly recognizable public figures will be talking, including 2006 Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk, God-doubter Richard Dawkins, Rebecca Solnit, who has a new book out on the human reaction to natural disasters,  Diane Ackerman, the nature writer, Po Bronson, who has a book out on the dos and don’t and unexpected perils of praising children, Depak Chopra, Terry Tempest Williams, Sherman Alexie, Stewart Brand, the creator of the Whole Earth Catalog, and Mary Karr, to name a few.

Other interesting authors include Peter Richardson and Robert Scheer, who will discuss Richardson’s new history of Ramparts Magazine, called A Bomb in Every Issue. Max Blumenthal, whose new book deals with the Republican Party and the religious right, will talk, as will Gary Vaynerchuk, a wine writer who has created a huge following through the innovative use of social media, (at one point he had 17,000 pending friend requests on Facebook), Irene Kahn, the International Secretary General of Amnesty International, and more.

(Mary Karr)

You can see some previous talks on Fora.TV.

Arts, Books

Bill McKibben, the prolific author and activist who has started an organization in Berkeley to stop global warming, got a chance to make his case on Stephen Colbert’s show on Aug. 18.

McKibben explained to Colbert that the name of his organization, 350.org. represents the safe upper limit of parts per million of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Unfortunately, the globe already has 390 ppm, and McKibben is advocating strong measures to bring those level down. 350.org, which is located in the new David Brower Center in Berkeley, is organizing a global day of action on October 24.

Environment, General, Green

A hacker probing the website of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism may have made off with the social security numbers and other sensitive information of almost 500 applicants to the school, according to the Daily Californian.

The hacker breached the school’s website in July, but there is no indication that he or she has done anything with any information. Her or she accessed information from people who had applied to the school between September 2007 and May 2009.

Hackers are consantly trying to break into the university’s computer system, according to Shelton Waggoner, associate vice chancellor for information technology and chief information officer. The network is deluged with 3 million attacks a day, although most do not breach the security systems. In April, the personal data of 16,000 students and alumni was stolen, Waggoner told the Daily Californian.

“It’s certainly something that we deeply regret,” said Neil Henry, the dean of the journalism school. “But we’re going to be very open and transparent about what we have done and what we’re going to do going forward.”

Crime, Education, UC Berkeley

Who says you need a plane ticket and wad of cash to have an international vacation. Just check out the new Berkeley Bowl on 9th Street in Berkeley to get a taste of far away worlds.  You can get food from Britain, Mexico, Israel, Japan, the Middle East, even the Himalayas.

A shelf of British food at Berkeley Bowl

A shelf of kosher food/ food from Israel

Crackers and cookies from Mexico

General

There are 47 veterinarians in Berkeley, 59 landscape architects, but only 1 funeral parlor. There are 3 medical marijuana dispensaries, 85 places with liquor licenses, 10 private schools, and 9 garment manufacturers. Last year, there were 995 car thefts.

In Oakland, there are 80 veterinarians, 72 landscape architects, and 19 funeral parlors. There are 5 medical marijuana dispensaries, 327 places with liquor licenses, 38 private schools, and 41 garment manufacturers.  Last year, there were 9,968 car thefts in Oakland.

These statistics come out of a fabulous new initiative called CityLab put together by the UC Berkeley Journalism School. Professor Susan Rasky, web designer Josh Williams,  and graduate student Kim Geiger created an easy-to-read, easy-to-use database that lets people see demographic, political and lifestyle data on 65 Northern California cities. All of the statistics are sourced. CityLab also makes it easy compare one city to another.

Rasky is hoping that journalism outlets use the data to write interesting news stories, according to an announcement she posted on the site. There is already one story up at the site about property taxes in Antioch, and others may soon follow.

There is also a “Did You Know?” box on the site with rotating data, such as the news that San Leandro has 2 gun ranges, Berkeley has the highest poverty rate in the Bay Area, and 53% of Daly City’s population is foreign-born. Did you know that?

Business, Crime, Internet, UC Berkeley

Art Car in 2008 "How Berkeley Can You Be?" parade

The Berkeley fair that has become famous for making fun of all things Berkeley – political correctness, vegetarianism, NIMBY-ism,  pot smoking and naked people  – won’t be held this year.

Organizers of the “How Berkeley Can You Be?” parade and fair have decided to postpone the event because of increased regulations, rising security costs, and declining revenue, according to the East Bay Express. But they hope to bring the whacky spectacle back in 2010.

In its heyday, the parade featured naked people, a grand procession of art cars, beer drinking on the streets, and lots of good cheer as those driving by on floats threw candy into the crowd. More than 15,000 people would crowd the sidewalks and cram into Civic Center Park to celebrate all that was fun, odd, frustrating and endearing about the city.

But alcohol revenues dropped sharply in 2008 when the city required people to drink beer in a contained area instead of taking it to the sidewalk to watch floats go by, said John Solomon, the fair’s founder. The city also started charging for security — $8,000 in 2008 – instead of donating that. Those changes and other factors have made it more difficult to raise the $25,000 to $30,000 it costs to put on the fair.

“The things that were really fun and exciting and drew to the event years ago have been whittled away,” Solomon told the Daily Californian.

Events, Recreation

Book lovers rejoice!

Books, Inc. an independent bookstore chain with roots stretching back to the Gold Rush, is going to open a new store in Berkeley’s Fourth Street shopping district.

The new store, the chain’s twelfth outlet, will open in mid- October, according to a press release issued by CEO Michael Tucker, who grew up in Berkeley. It will be a general interest bookstore with a large collection of cookbooks and children’s titles as well. The store will also host author events.

Tucker credited the “right location, the right lease and the right landlord for allowing expansion in this challenging economic climate.”

It will be interesting to see if Books, Inc can be successful on a street that was not profitable for the venerable Cody’s Books, which shuttered its Fourth Street outlet in early 2008. The press release did not state where Books, Inc would open, but at 4,000 square feet it will be smaller (and with much lower rent) than Cody’s massive store. Tucker did say Books, Inc. will hire 12 new employees.

The bookstore landscape in Berkeley has changed in the past year. Black Oak Books on Shattuck closed down, removing one of the best venues for authors to speak. Mrs. Dalloway’s on College Avenue is expanding and a café will open next door, which will create a leisurely ambiance conducive to browsing. Moe’s celebrated its 50^th birthday in July.

Melissa Mytinger, the former events coordinator at Cody’s, started Berkeley Arts & Letters, which showcases premier authors in venues around town. Some of the authors coming to their fall series include Mary Karr, Sherman Alexie, Rebecca Solnit, Deepak Chopra, Diane Ackerman and Po Bronson.

The good news about Books, Inc comes on the heels of the bad news that Christopher Lee, the owner of Eccolo, will be shuttering his Fourth Street restaurant on August 22.

Books, Business, General Fourth Street

Passersby look at the day's news

Each day, UC Berkeley puts up large-format prints of the front pages of newspapers from around the world right outside the Free Speech Cafe at Moffitt Library. On Friday, the news caught at least two people’s attention.

UC Berkeley

In a major coup, the Berkeley-based Center for Investigative Reporting has hired Lance Williams, the San Francisco Chronicle’s top investigative journalist, to join its new California Watch Project.
Williams, who has been a reporter for 34 years and who attended UC Berkeley, will be covering money and politics for the new initiative, which is backed by $2.4 million in grants from major foundations. He will join Louis Freedberg, the director of California Watch and a former editorial writer for the Chronicle and Mark Katches, a California native who previously worked the Orange County Register and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
California Watch is a multimedia investigative project started in May to fill the reporting gaps left as the state’s major newspapers cut deeply into their staffs. California Watch is a joint project of CIR and the California Media Collective based out of the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco.
“California is a state facing immense challenges,” said Katches. “It has never been more important for a strong watchdog team to hold those in power accountable and to shine a light on important issues facing citizens of the state.
Williams won numerous awards at the Chronicle for uncovering the BALCO steroid scandal of major league baseball.  He and Mark Fainaru-Wada wrote Game of Shadows: Barry Bonds, BALCO and the Steroids Scandal that Rocked Professional Sports, and the book prompted major league baseball to open a formal investigation into doping.
The Center for Investigative Reporting, founded in 1977, is the nation’s oldest non-profit investigative reporting news organization. Its staff reporters and associated freelancers have produced stories on a range of topics, which have aired on many of the major networks and appeared in many of the nation’s top newspapers or magazines.

The Center  is located near Ashby and Shattuck Avenues.

Business, Education, Environment, Politics Journalism

Vintage Berkeley on College Avenue

If you stop into Vintage Berkeley, the new wine shop on College Avenue near Ashby, and pick up some wine, say from Spain, you can use your receipt to get a discount on that movie you rent from Videots down the street.

In August, that same purchase will get you a cut rate price on a ticket to see the new movie Julie & Julia. A few months ago, it was a discount at Mrs. Dalloway’s bookstore.

It’s all part of an effort among Elmwood merchants to encourage their customers to shop in the neighborhood. “There is a lot of new energy in the Elmwood,” said Ann Leyhe, a co-owner of Mrs. Dalloways. “There are lots of new vendors and we’ve said “Let’s cross-promote.”

The bookstore has taken to displaying books that are linked to the movies being show at the Elmwood Theater. Right now, Food, Inc. is on the marquee and in the window.

On August 7, there will be a neighborhood merchant party to celebrate the opening of Julie & Julia, a new film about Julia Child and Julie Powell,  a New York blogger who cooked her way through Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

The movie will play at the Elmwood Theater. Vintage Berkeley will be serving wine and cheese at a 5 pm reception. And Mrs. Dalloway’s will be at the reception, selling Child’s biography, My Life in France, Powell’s book, Julie & Julia, and the memoir by the editor who first published Childs, The Tenth Muse by Judith Jones.  Child’s cookbooks will be for sale as well.

Liam Reilly and Matt Stevenson sell wine at Vintage Berkeley

Books, Business, Food, The Elmwood

Man browses UC Press books at annual sidewalk sale

As university presses around the country struggle in this declining economy, UC Press has raised more than $5 million to expand its digital outreach, both into the world of the Internet and into the role of becoming a major provider of digital research books.

“Over the next five years, we will launch a program of comprehensive digital reference resources, which will be developed in collaboration with research centers, institutes and libraries both within and outside UC,” Anna Weidman, chief financial officer for UC Press, told the Daily Californian.

UC Press saw its sales drop 22 percent in 2008, a year in which book sales in general went up 10 percent.

The press has already started to increase its online presence. It recently started a blog, where it details news about authors and publications, and is sending out e-mail newsletters tailored to subscribers’ particular interest. The press is also stepping up its presence on Facebook and Twitter. (@UCPress)

“The notion that ties a book to a printed object has been blown to bits,” Dan Greenstein, vice provost for academic planning for the UC system, told the Daily Californian. “A book is now a body of information that can be presented many different ways.”

But the digital initiatives don’t mean that UC Press will abandon its traditional publishing. Last year, it published more than 200 books. In fact, the press just scored $722,000 from the Andrew Mellon Foundation to enhance its California-related material. That initiative will start a new academic journal focused on California, and an online spot where scholars can post papers in progress.

General

REI store on San Pablo Avenue

Four people were sent to local hospitals this afternoon after complaining of nausea, headaches, and shortness of breath while at the REI store on San Pablo Avenue.

Customers and employees were forced to evacuate while the Berkeley Fire Department’s hazardous materials team investigated, according to the Oakland Tribune.

“Police were searching for a man who employees say may have left a container inside a backpack in the store,” according to the newspaper.

UPDATE: The store reopened around 4 pm.

“Berkeley fire Duty Chief Malcolm Greene said the substance, possibly pepper spray or bear spray, may have been inside a customer’s backpack that was checked in at the front counter,” according to the newspaper.

“One of the employees may have thrown the bag against the wall, and it gave out a little squirt,” Greene said.

After people began coughing, the man who owned the bag wrestled it away from an employee and left, Greene said. The man shops there often and has bought bear spray from the store in the past, Greene said.

Berkeley police searched for the man but did not find him.

Emergencies, General

Brandy Collazo stars as Peter Pan

The stage of the Ashby Theater at the corner of Ashby and Martin Luther King has been transformed into a magical Neverland complete with pirate ship, gangplank, and aerial swings that loft those familiar characters, Wendy and Peter Pan, high up into the air.

For the past few weeks, a new theater company, Berkeley Playhouse, has been selling out its shows of the story penned by J.M. Barrie.  With its high production values, snazzy sets, and a versatile and talented cast, Berkeley Playhouse’s production of Peter Pan is suddenly a hot ticket.

It’s only the fledgling theater company’s fourth show, but its success shows that the East Bay was ready to embrace a professional theatrical group that produces plays for children,

The mastermind behind Berkeley Playhouse is Elizabeth McKoy, 45, who moved to Berkeley from Seattle five years ago with her husband Tim Choate and their children. McKoy, a longtime performer and a teacher at the Seattle Children’s Theater, came to the East Bay with a dream to create a vibrant children’s theater program.

But even before she made the move, McKoy found herself immersed in the tribulations of local theater.

McKoy and Choate held some conversations with developer Patrick Kennedy about building a new theater in his Gaia building on Allston Way. But McKoy soon discovered that the venerable Julia Morgan Theater on College Avenue was just four weeks away from foreclosure. Suddenly the couple was faced with the dilemma of saving an historic theater or pursuing the dream of a new facility.

The pair opted to step in and make a large contribution that enabled the Julia Morgan theater to pay off its debts. Choate joined the board and helped upgrade and restore the building.

In the meantime, McKoy started the Imagination Players, a children’s theater company. In the beginning, when the core of the company was her two children and their close friends, McKoy staged classes and performances in the living room of her Berkeley house. The company soon grew, however, and McKoy moved productions to the Ashby Stage, home of the Shotgun Players. Kimberly Dooley, the wife of Shotgun’s artistic director Patrick Dooley, started to teach and direct plays for the Imagination Players, along with McKoy and other teachers.

Within a few years, McKoy had put the pieces in place to start Berkeley Playhouse, which stages professional productions for children, holds numerous classes ranging from acting to dancing to audition rehearsal for children, and also teaches musical theater to adults. The organization also goes performs in the Berkeley public schools.

The Julia Morgan Theater and Berkeley Playhouse officially merged in July, and will put on its first official production in the late fall,  when it presents the Wizard of Oz. The new organization recently extended the stage to bring performers closer to the audience and have plans to put in a new sound and lighting system.

Captain Hook (Gabriel Grilli) and pirates

Peter Pan will be performed at the Ashby Stage until August 23.

Art

Sam Kruger stands in front of loaves of fresh bread

When I went to get fresh bread today at the Bread Garden, I was greeted by some distressing news: the longtime owner of the bakery has posted a sign saying he may be moving his operation out of town.

David Morris has been running the Bread Garden on Domingo near Ashby for 33 years, and it is a beloved anchor in the small row of shops that face the Claremont Hotel. When he opened in 1976, the Bread Garden was the only bakery in a 2 mile radius. Since then, bakeries have sprouted all over, supermarkets stock fresh bread, and even Peet’s next door has started to carry its own pastries. The result is a continued dip in sales, and Morris only sees the trend getting worse.

Morris has set a sign on the bakery counter explaining his declining sales and asking for help in finding a new community in which to  relocate. The requirements? That it be a coastal community in California without a bakery.

The move is not definite. If sales pick up, he may not move. Morris is asking his customers to buy pastries at the Bread Garden rather than Peet’s and their bread there rather than the supermarket, he might not move. Morris has set a December deadline for deciding.

Since Berkeley is filled with delicious places to eat and buy food, it’s easy to take those places for granted. While I shop regularly at the Bread Garden – my family particularly loves the cinnamon swirl and 19th century baguettes – I have just assumed that it will always be there.

Now I am not so sure.

Business, Food

Michael Lewis

Berkeley author Michael Lewis must have a smile on his face.

In addition to having his memoir on fatherhood, Home Game, on the New York Times bestseller list, it looks like the movie version of Moneyball, another one of his bestsellers, is on again.

Sony Pictures co-boss Amy Pascal green-lighted the movie on July 9 – after having canceled it on June 22. She did an about face because Steven Soderberg is no longer attached as director. He had done a rewrite of the script that Pascal didn’t like.

Now Aaron Sorkin of West Wing fame will rewrite the script.  He may have been tapped because his script for  The Social Network, about the founding of Facebook, is getting accolades. There is no word yet on the new director for Moneyball.

Brad Pitt will star in Moneyball

Brad Pitt is still scheduled to star as Billy Bean, the Oakland A’s manager.

Just one question: will they film the movie in the aging Oakland Coliseum?

Maybe Alameda County can charge a fee to use the stadium and recover a fraction of the millions it lost in luring the team here from Los Angeles.

Other Berkeley writers who have movies based on their books coming out include Ayelet Waldman and Michael Pollan. Natalie Portman stars in a film based on Waldman’s Love and Other Impossible Pursuits. It wrapped up shooting last year but no release date has yet been scheduled..

PBS will screen a film on October 28 based on Pollan’s Botany of Desire.  Of course, Pollan fans already know he shows up as a commentator in two current films, Food Inc, and Fresh.

Arts, Books, Movies

The Bancroft Library has just received a spiffy $64 million makeover, creating a gorgeous two-story light filled atrium with marble floors and a winding staircase. Its new reading room, perched on the fourth floor, offers views of the campanile and grass-covered esplanade.

But the heart of the Bancroft is not visible, and is usually off-limits to visitors. I am referring to the climate-controlled archives on the bottom floor, where the library stores a portion of its massive manuscript collection. The room is lined with 30-foot long bookcases of compact storage, essentially shelves on wheels.

I got a glimpse of this inner sanctum this week from Charles Faulhaber, the director of the Bancroft.  Getting to the ground floor storage area requires many magnetic badges and security clearances, all part of the library’s new state of the art anti-theft system. This is where the library stores many of its treasures, including artifacts and documents from the Donner Party, the original gold nugget discovered by James Marshall in 1848, and other rare manuscripts.

Charles Faulhaber stands near one of Bancroft's moveable shelves

The Bancroft will celebrate its 150th birthday in 2010. The date commemorates the time when Hubert Howe Bancroft began to assemble his collection of Californiana and western Americana. After accumulating more than 50,000 volumes, Bancroft sold his collection to the University of California in 1905 for $200,000. The library was still in San Francisco at the time of the 1906 earthquake and fire, but survived the calamity, the only major library to do so.

If you can’t visit the Bancroft, you can see some of its collections on line. Here are some images of the 1906 earthquake, 100 years of physics at Berkeley, and Italian- Americans.

General

Where are the best dumpsters in Berkeley?

According to Novella Carpenter, whose new memoir Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, is getting rave reviews, the award goes hands down to Eccolo, the upscale restaurant on Fourth Street. Carpenter is in a position to know as she scavenged through East Bay dumpsters a few years ago to find food to feed her ravenous pigs. She recounted those adventures Thursday night at a Berkeley Arts and Letters lecture with author Michael Pollan.

Michael Pollan and Novella Carpenter at Berkeley Arts & Letters

Carpenter, whose urban farm is on 28th and Martin Luther King streets in Oakland, at first fed her pigs fish guts found from dumpsters in Chinatown. But the pigs rebelled, and refused to eat the fish carcasses, forcing Carpenter and her boyfriend, Bill, to travel to more rarified eateries.

They started going to the dumpster behind Semifreddi’s in Berkeley. That dumpster was locked, but Carpenter soon figured out that the combination was the same as the store’s address. One time she crawled in and was joined by a young man. He kept tossing out entire baguettes. When Carpenter asked him why those loaves weren’t good enough, the man replied that he was looking for Semifreddi’s famous cinnamon bread, which was wrapped in plastic. Sure enough, he found a few loaves.

Carpenter then trolled other dumpsters where she found huge chunks of gourmet cheeses, including brie, slightly-over-cooked pizza from one restaurant’s wood-burning oven, and whole containers of Spanish rice and beans. Her pigs loved the food.

But then Carpenter heard rumors of the fabulous food in Eccolo’s dumpster. She and Bill went there late one night. When she opened the lid, the smell of roasted chicken wafted through the air. It smelled so good that Carpenter was tempted to eat it. She climbed up into the dumpster and loaded two whole chickens, some roasted fennel, and other greens into her bucket. Suddenly a voice rose up: “Please explain what you are doing?” Carpenter turned around to see a man in a blue suit on the ground below her.

Interestingly enough, when Carpenter explained she was looking for food to feed her pigs, the man suggested she directly contact Chris Lee, the owner of Eccolo, as he might be willing to help her. Carpenter did that, and the two developed a close relationship. Lee gave Carpenter food for her pigs. When the time came to kill them, Lee helped arrange their slaughter, and then assisted Carpenter in making salami and prosciutto from the meat. (Apparently, the prosciutto is delicious. Pollan attested to that.) Lee hosted Carpenter’s book release party at Eccolo as well.

Pollan has had his own adventures killing chickens as part of his research for The Omnivore’s Dilemma. He read a short segment about slicing chicken arteries and his inability to eat chicken for days afterward. Pollan also confessed he had raise a pig as a child. The pig’s name? Kosher.

The lecture with Carpenter and Pollan was the last of the spring season for Berkeley Arts and Letters. The speakers series was started in the fall of 2008 by Melissa Mytinger, who booked the author events at Cody’s for 26 years. After Cody’s closed in June 2008, Mytinger teamed up with Praveen Madan,  the co-owner of the Booksmith in San Francisco, to start the series.

Melissa Mytinger, founder of Berkeley Arts & Letters

While Berkeley Arts and Letters might seem like it was patterned after San Francisco’s well-regarded City Arts and Lectures, Mytinger said is it not. The artists and authors who come are a bit edgier than those in the city, reflecting Berkeley’s less mainstream views. The fall line up already looks promising: Sherman Alexie, Orman Pamuk, Rebecca Solnit, Mary Karr, and Peter Richardson and Robert Scheer, who will talk about Richardson’s new book on Ramparts Magazine.

Arts, Events, Food