InBerkeley

The Cal Recreational Sports Development Fund is the fundraising program for Cal Recreational Sports that helps provide camp scholarships to children of families living in the East Bay who face economic challenges.

The department receives only limited state and campus funding — we suspect more limited than ever this year — and relies on donors and fundraising to fund its Camp Scholarship Program.

On Sunday, October 11, Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto’s 9th annual Crabby Chef Seafood Festival takes place at its restaurant on Fourth Street, and a portion of the proceeds are being donated to the Cal Recreational Sports Development Fund. The program features an “Iron Chef” style culinary competition between local restaurants to choose the “Crabby Chef” champion, outdoor food booths selling cooked crab, crab cakes, clam chowder and other seafood and musical entertainment provided by Freight & Salvage.

The festival runs from 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.  Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto is located at 1919 Fourth Street in Berkeley, just off of I-80 and University Ave.

Events, Sports, UC Berkeley, restaurants Fundraising

Overheard today on the Twitterstream:

alleciav: I didn’t know a grocery store could offer me emotional (and literal) fulfillment. Then I met Berkeley Bowl West.

KellyGDunbar: More from Michael Pollan’s lecture in Berkeley: New rule, avoid any “food” you’ve seen advertised on TV.

jeffdenby: There’s a wierd lookin dude plastering “Arrest John Yoo” posters all over downtown Berkeley. Who’s John Yoo? Did I miss something?

Berkeley Tweets

Overheard today on the Twitterstream:

TheKatzer: Last day at Lawrence Berkeley Labs, with the best transmission electron microscope in the world, but the most terrible office coffee ever.

ccmarshall: http://twitpic.com/j5n5w – Great drawing I found on the ground when I was on campus (UC Berkeley) today.

Berkeley Tweets

A coffee insurgency may be in the making as startup coffee impresario Phil Jaber readies his first foray into the East Bay with a new Philz Coffee store to be located at 1600 Shattuck Ave. at the corner of Cedar, site of a former Starbucks Coffee Cafe de la Paz, and just a stone’s throw from the original Peet’s outlet.

I have never tasted Philz coffee, but their web site emphasizes the “special customized blends” used to make every “hand-crafted to your liking” coffee drink, and describes their drinks this way: “The amount of beans we put into each cup is equivalent to 3 cups of your normal coffee so you will be as high as a plane!” The web site sells T-shirts and other swag, and even features a cartooned Quentin Tarantino quote about their mocha drink.

Since opening his first store in 2003, Jaber has expanded to six outlets in San Francisco and down the peninsula in Palo Alto and San Jose, and Philz has generally gotten good reviews, so they must be doing something right. And all their shops feature free Wi-Fi.

Watch out Peet’s. Here comes Philz.

General

Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion created a storm of controversy over the question of God’s existence. Now, in The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution, Dawkins presents a stunning counterattack against advocates of “Intelligent Design” that explains the evidence for evolution while keeping an eye trained on the absurdities of the creationist argument.

Berkeley Arts & Letters presents Richard Dawkins on Wednesday, October 7, 7:30 p.m., at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley, 2345 Channing Way at Dana St. Tickets are $12 in advance ($6 for students with ID) at Brown Paper Tickets or 800-838-3006, or $15 at the door.

Update Melissa Mytinger from Berkeley Arts & Letters reports that the Dawkins talk will sell out in the next few days. If you want to attend, order tickets online. There will be nothing left at the door.

General

Sylvan Mishima Brackett runs Peko-Peko, a Japanese catering company in Oakland that specializes in the robust, tapas-style food of the izakaya (Japanese tavern). On Thursday, October 1, for one night only, Peko-Peko will transform the Guerrilla Cafe on Shattuck Ave. into a “pop-up” izakaya, serving tasty food, sake and beer.

Brackett worked at Chez Panisse for six years as Alice Waters’ assistant, and then as the restaurant’s first creative director, in charge of special dinners and events. He then left for Japan to eat and cook, and worked at a locally famous soba restaurant in the countryside north of Tokyo. Brackett’s izakaya-style menus combine local seafood, meats and other seasonal, sustainable ingredients.

When I spoke to Sylvan this afternoon, he told me he hopes to someday open a real izakaya, and thinks that opening this pop-up izakaya will be a fun way to try out some things he’s been thinking about.  Sylvan is still developing the menu for this event, but he said there will definitely be sardines simmered with some dashi, soy sauce, mirin and ginger.  Other possibilities include karoke (potato croquettes), gyoza (pot stickers), tsukemono (Japanese pickles), kakuni (braised pork belly with hot mustard and daikon) and dashimaki tamago (classic rolled omelet).

The pop-up izakaya will be open from 5:00 p.m. until late on October 1.  Izakaya crowds can sometimes be large and boisterous, but because seating at the Guerilla Cafe is limited, small parties are definitely encouraged.  Onaka peko-peko is Japanese for “I’m starving,” so bring your appetite.

(Photo: Aya Brackett)

Events, Food, restaurants

The Daily Clog has posted Your Guide to Walkout Festivities to help you navigate the various budget protest and walkout events taking place on campus over the next  24 hours or so.   They warn you should expect to encounter a lot of picket lines and rallies if you’re planning on being anywhere in the vicinity of campus tomorrow.

Events kick off tonight at 7 p.m. at Wheeler Auditorium for a Save the University teach-in, where several big-name faculty members, including Robert Reich and Ananya Roy, will explain the situation and the reasons for all the fuss.

You’ll also find several links to other Daily Californian articles on the walkout.

Education, Events, Government, Issues, Politics, UC Berkeley

The Twitterstream is buzzing about Ellen DeGeneres being in Berkeley.  Tomorrow?  Soon?  Who knows?  It all started around 6:41 p.m. this evening with this tweet from TheEllenShow:

Are you in Berkeley, California? Are you near Berkeley? Can you get to Berkeley by tomorrow? Then keep following my Tweets.

No other explanation.  But the Twitterstream quickly lit up like a Christmas tree with retweets and responses from all over the world, some excited, some dejected because they can’t make it to Berkeley. Even Oakland-based Ask.com has offered their assistance, tweeting:

The Ask.com office is near Berkeley! We’ll rally the office if need be!

If anyone out there know more than this, let us know.  In the meantime, we’ll be following her tweets.

UPDATE: At 11:30 this morning (Wednesday), TheEllenShow tweeted:

Tweet to UC Berkeley: Students, faculty, honored guests, keep studying my Tweets. There’s gonna be a test today.

General

A clue to the evolution of modern human culture, an ancient battle that led to the rise of Germany and an examination of media coverage of the war in Iraq are just a few of the topics in this fall’s “Enduring Value of Humanities” Lecture Series, offered by UC Berkeley Extension.

Starting tomorrow at 6:30 p.m., this series of four evening lectures by distinguished academics offers new insights from the past across a range of subjects. Lectures cost $10 each. From human evolution and ancient Roman history to the changing face of journalism and the future of California, these lectures offer new perspectives on the economic, political, and cultural challenges the world faces today.

Tomorrow’s lecture, “How a Battle 2,000 Years Ago Changed Your Life,” explores how by halting Roman expansion into Northern Europe in AD 9 Germany permanently divided Europe into a Roman south and a German north, and the repercussions of that event in our daily life now.

For more information or to sign up for these events, please visit the UC Berkeley Extension web site.

Education, Events, UC Berkeley

Despite today’s fog and cold, the weather report for the next several days is hot, hot, hot.  Cool off with this 2-for-1 special on iced drinks at your local Berkeley (or other) Peet’s.

Just download and print this coupon, bring it with you when you buy yourself an iced drink and get a second one of equal of lesser value free.  I happen to like their mocha freddo.  Good through Tuesday, September 22, only one coupon per visit and only at Peet’s retail locations.

(Photo: OakleyOriginals via Flickr.)

Food, Retail

Overheard today on the Twitterstream:

connortmcdonald: Walking by Berkeley High this morning – Guys prepped out in sweater vests – Girls in cuffed jean shorts. John Hughes is smiling.

kibird: Flushed and disoriented from 1st trip to the new Berkeley Bowl. Maybe this organic elderflower soda and a pluot will calm me down.

nitin: Just passed a girl sitting in a tree by Euclid and Hearst in Berkeley talking on a cell phone. Voice from on high a little disconcerting.

peterberen: Just saw an exhibit of protest posters from the 60’s and early ’70s at the Berkeley Historical Society called “Up Against the Wall.”

General

In conjunction with its revised and expanded edition of the popular 41 Walking Tours of Berkeley, the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association will be leading a series of five walking tours in select Berkeley neighborhoods over the next five weeks. All tours take place on a Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon starting tomorrow with a tour of the Dwight Way Station area.

Nineteenth-century business boosters tried unsuccessfully to shift the center of Berkeley’s Downtown several blocks south to Dwight Way Station. They failed, and instead the area became today’s district of fascinating Victorian homes, small-scale commercial buildings, and nearly forgotten historic sites at the intersection of Downtown, the Southside, the Le Conte neighborhood, and the areas west of Shattuck Avenue.

Steven Finacom will lead the Dwight Way Station walking tour. Other tours on subsequent Saturdays include West Berkeley, North-Central Berkeley, Claremont Creekside and Berkeley Villa Tract.

All tours are limited to 25 people. Tickets cost $10 per tour for association members, $15 for the general public, with discounts available for the whole series. For more information visit the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association web site.

General

Overheard today on the Twitterstream:

adrianmcintyre: Inspired by what UC Berkeley undergrads in the Global Poverty & Practice minor are out there doing in the world. Such passion & commitment!

CraigFaulk: Is in Berkeley @ work. Working on my farmer tan and the “racoon/ski goggle” look that the ladies go wild for

jacquelinegu: Heard the loveliest love story today from a French lady at Berkeley Bowl, while picking tomatoes.

Berkeley Tweets

Ashkenaz Music & Dance Community Center, a nationally recognized nonprofit music and culture venue that specializes in presenting live world and roots music, is once again holding its Dance-A-Thon fundraiser event next week at its Berkeley venue on San Pablo Ave., just south of Gilman St.  This is the first Dance-A-Thon since the 1998-2002 annual series, which helped raise funds toward the purchase of the current Ashkenaz building from the late founder David Nadel’s estate.

This year’s Dance-A-Thon will be held on Saturday, September 26, 2009 from 2:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m., and will feature 12 hours of live music from around the world. It’s an event for the whole family, and will feature activities for the kids, great raffle prizes and good food in the Back Studio.

There are two ways you can attend the event: You can pay a $20 door price the day of the event, or for $10 you can preregister as a sponsored dancer. Anyone who gets sponsorships totaling $100 or more gets their Dance Card number entered into a drawing for one year admission to Ashkenaz. All the proceeds are tax-deductible and will go toward Ashkenaz operating expenses.

Ashkenaz was founded in 1973 by David Nadel, a dedicated human rights activist and folk dancer who pioneered the presentation of world music long before the genre had a name. For 24 years he led Ashkenaz to become a community watering hole presenting music as diverse as Balkan, Cajun, Zydeco, African Highlife, Brazilian Samba, Afrobeat, Calypso, Soca, Blues, Contra Dance, Eastern European Folk Music, Flamenco, Reggae, Salsa, Ska, Soukous, Bluegrass, East & West Coast Swing and more. In 1996 David was murdered by a drunk he refused to let back into the building.

Visit the Ashkenaz web site for more information about the Dance-A-Thon event, or about being a sponsored dancer, volunteering or donating prizes or cash.

Events, Music, West Berkeley

Being raised first by parents with drug abuse and mental illness problems in a house filled with homeless people, prostitutes and drug dealers and then from the age of 12 in some truly Dickensian homes in the foster care system doesn’t usually result in a childhood with much potential for success. Oh, and by the way, add dyslexia to the mix.

But don’t tell that to Lily Dorman-Colby, a Berkeley High School graduate who was just named by Glamour magazine as one of the top 10 college women of 2009.

Despite the fact that only 2 percent of foster children graduate from college, Lily is now in her senior year at Yale, has been an advocate for foster care reform, and intends to go to law school.

You can read more about Lily’s inspiring story in this article by Martin Snapp in the El Cerrito Journal, and on page 240 of the October 2009 issue of Glamour with Gwen Stefani on the cover.

Education, People

Overheard today on the Twitterstream:

tseng_tseng: Sitting at a cafe in Downtown Berkeley sipping my Pumpkin Spice Latte & listening to Train- Hey Soul Sister. It cant get better than this

Catharsis: sake tasting at the takara sake factory in berkeley for the first time. i’m epicurioliciously psyched.

kaottic97: Wow, looks like the WB Zephyr is late, but having it rush by at 70 mph at Berkeley station is pretty exciting!

MyOwnVelouria: Walking the pier at the Berkeley marina, more than a mile out into the open bay, San Francisco and Marin across the water. Awe. Some.

Berkeley Tweets

Bayer Healthcare has apparently decided to continue processing its Kogenate hemophilia drug at its West Berkeley plant, according to this article in the San Francisco Business Times. As a result, the company said it is investing $100 million in its West Berkeley facility — its largest single investment in the site — to increase production of the drug, but there is no indication as to whether this will result in more jobs at the site or not.

(Photo: Rupert Ganzer via Flickr)

Business, West Berkeley