Week 5 April, 2010
This week’s highlighted local treasure is the The Edible Schoolyard at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, CA. From the ESY website: The Edible Schoolyard (ESY), a program of the Chez Panisse Foundation, is a one-acre organic garden and kitchen classroom for urban public school students at Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkeley, California. At ESY, students participate in all aspects of growing, harvesting, and preparing nutritious, seasonal produce. Classroom teachers and Edible Schoolyard educators integrate food systems concepts into the core curriculum. Students’ hands-on experience in the kitchen and garden fosters a deeper appreciation of how the natural world sustains us and promotes the environmental and social well-being of our school community. View Video.
From Henry David Thoreau’s Walden: By the words, “necessary of life”, I mean whatever, of all that man obtains by his own exertions, has been from the first, or from long use has become, so important to human life that few, if any, whether from savageness, or poverty, or philosophy, ever attempt to do without it. To many creatures there is in this sense but one necessary of life, Food. It just seemed appropriate to mention this perspective from Mr. Thoreau when considering what of earthly life is most important to teach to children. Indeed, while there are many things that qualify perhaps it is nature’s cycle of life-sustenance that should be taught first. If you seek religion you will find a pathway to its essence in the garden. And for children, to learn how the earth provides for them may give them more comfort than any amusement anyone can offer. Weekend Wanderings salutes The Edible Schoolyard for teaching children what’s “necessary of life.”
Let’s find some fun ’round here…
Totally Intense Fractal Mind Gaze Hut: I just couldn’t resist after seeing the name of this place. From what I’ve found so far, this is apparently a warehouse in downtown Oakland (where people live, by the way) that puts on quite interesting concerts. Their MySpace page says it’s by invitation only, but other listings show that at least this Saturday’s show— Dominique Leone and Ash Reiter— is open to all guests. I don’t know much more. It’s an adventure. Check it out at LoudFarm.com.
Oakland Museum Grand Re-Opening: From the website: Celebrate with OMCA! The newly transformed Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) opens Saturday, May 1, with 31 hours of continuous, round-the-clock free programs and events until we close at 6 p.m. Sunday. The festivities begin at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 1, on the street in front of the new Oak Street entrance with a Native American Ohlone blessing, a marching band, Project Bandaloop performing a spectacular aerial dance, and more. And the non-stop celebration continues through 6 p.m. Sunday, May 2.
3-D Film Festival at the Grand Lake Theatre: Friday thru Thursday, April 30- May 6, featuring “Up”, ”Avatar”, and “Coraline” for $5. From their website: The Grand Lake Theatre is pleased to present a special one week festival of Digital 3D films to celebrate the installation of a powerful new 3D projection system in the main auditorium which is now the largest non-IMAX 3D screen in the Bay Area. Looks awesome, and for a great price!
Pic of the Week:
Our garden’s first artichoke!
Vid of the Week:
3D mapping onto the side of a 1000-year-old castle… with some rockin’ too!
ACDC Vs Iron Man 2 – Architectural Projection Mapping on Rochester Castle from seeper on Vimeo.
From the Contra Costa Times:
OAKLAND — Claiming they are still in the game when it comes to keeping the A’s in Oakland, city officials and others trying to keep the team in town released results of a study today claiming a new waterfront baseball park is worth millions to the city’s coffers and billions to the local economy.
The study, commissioned by the nonprofit group Let’s Go Oakland, claims that building a new 36,000-seat, $500 million baseball-only stadium in the city’s Jack London Square area immediately would create 1,661 new construction jobs in Oakland while also generating about $2.6 billion in total economic activity for the city over the next 30 years.
“We really need and want the A’s to stay in Oakland,” said City Council President Jane Brunner. “The real reason we need to have the Oakland A’s is for economic development.” Link to article…
From mcclatchydc.com:
NABLUS, West Bank — When Palestinian teenager Aseel Abu Leil looked around her hometown of Nablus for inspiration for the world’s largest science fair, she couldn’t help but note the obvious.
“We are not known for peaceful science here,” the 14-year-old said.
Nablus, which was a flash point for violence during the first and second Palestinian uprisings, was later identified by Israel as the hub for the production of rockets and suicide bomber vests.
“I didn’t look outside, I looked home,” Aseel said. That’s where she noticed some of the logistical problems that her blind aunt faced.
Along with classmates Aseel Sha’ar and Nour El Arda, she invented an obstacle-detecting walking stick. They entered the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair alongside 6 million global contestants, and were chosen to be among 1,500 finalists to attend the world’s largest science fair next month in San Jose, Calif. Link to article…
Week 4 April, 2010
This week’s highlighted local treasure is the Department of Energy Joint BioEnergy Institute. From the DOE website: The DOE Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) is a six institution partnership led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). It is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is fast becoming a hub of renewable energy research and development, and is headquartered in a new facility in Emeryville, close to its partner institutions. JBEI researchers are engineering microbes and enzymes to process the complex sugars of lignocellulosic biomass into biofuels that can directly replace gasoline. Among the strategies they employ to produce these next-generation biofuels are the tools of synthetic biology. By developing new bioenergy crops, JBEI researchers will improve the fermentable content of biomass and transform lignin into a source of valuable new products. One of three “Energy Innovation Hubs” chosen by the Department of Energy to share $366M over the next five years, this local laboratory (and your neighbors who work there) just may develop the methods we’ll successfully implement to wean our nation from the scourge of a fossil-fuel driven economy. If you’re ready to enter the post-petroluem era in history you might want to drop by and show these folks some love.
Let’s find some fun ’round here…
Berkeley Earth Day: From the East Bay Express: Berkeley is always at the vanguard of earth-friendly innovations. People here were among the first to drive bio-diesel cars, resist fast food, compost kitchen scraps, ride bikes to work, and install grey-water systems. Berkeley residents knew about lowering carbon emissions before “carbon” became part of mainstream argot, and they helped popularize the terms “vegan,” “green-living,” and “locavore.” No surprise, then, that Earth Day is always a proud, self-congratulatory occasion in this town. This year’s celebration at Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic CenterPark.
Poem for Mother Earth: From the SF Bay Guardian: Take part in this indigenous healing day for Earth Day featuring poets, artists, musicians, and story-tellers of all ages presenting an afternoon of Bi-lingual performance and action. In conjunction with POOR magazine, a poor and indigenous people led, non-profit grassroots arts organization. Sunday, April 25 at Galeria de la Raza, 2857 24th St., SF; (415) 826-8009. 4pm, $5.
Private Collections Spring Art Tour: From the SF Chronicle: The Private Collections spring art tour offers a rare glimpse into the homes of some of San Francisco’s most notable art collectors. Among the 10 participating in this year’s event – which takes place Thursday night – are Sabrina Buell, Orlando Diaz-Azcuy and Chara Schreyer. They will be opening their residences to the public for an hour and providing guided tours of their collections. Link to Chronicle article.
Pic of the Week:
Straight up at Beauregard Vineyards in Bonny Doon
Vid of the week:
From KTVU.com:
DALY CITY, CA — The Salvation Army
is looking for recruits to help pack a million meals for earthquake survivors in Haiti.
On Saturday they are inviting teams of 12 to sign up for four hour shifts. The “Million Meals for Haiti” is part of an ongoing relief effort. The volunteers will be packing meals consisting of rice and beans that the Salvation Army says are nutritious enough to keep people in good health until they are able to fend for themselves.
The event is Saturday from 8 am to 11 pm at the Cow Palace in Daly City. DALY CITY, CA — The Salvation Army
On Saturday they are inviting teams of 12 to sign up for four hour shifts. The “Million Meals for Haiti” is part of an ongoing relief effort. The volunteers will be packing meals consisting of rice and beans that the Salvation Army says are nutritious enough to keep people in good health until they are able to fend for themselves.
The event is Saturday from 8 am to 11 pm at the Cow Palace in Daly City. Link to article…
From ABC7News.com:
OAKLAND, CA (KGO) — An 11-year-old boy, Charles Mack, has won a prestigious honor in representing Oakland in the “America Scores Poetry Slam” contest.
Charles is a student at Futures Elementary.
All the contest winners are student athletes; Charles plays soccer.
His poem is about love and says his mother is his inspiration.
“Love is a thing that you can’t forget, and when you find love, you can’t regret. Love is here and love is there and when you don’t feel it, just know it really is there. Love is sweet, love is kind, like sugar and honey, and everything fine. Like fruity and chewy, the heart is soft. There’s all kinds of love, like love in your heart,” said Charles as he recited lines from his poem.
Charles and the other winners will recite their poems at the New York Stock Exchange next week.
Charles says he is not nervous at all. Link to article with video of Charles…
Week 3, April 2010
This week’s highlighted local treasure is North Beach Citizens. “I’m alive because of that group,” said Brandon Boivin in this article from the San Francisco Chronicle describing both an art show exhibiting skateboard deck paintings in North Beach and this organization benefitting from the show this year: North Beach Citizens. In 1996, NBC grew out of concerns from merchants and neighbors in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood over the plight of the homeless in the area. Famed film director Francis Ford Coppola— who is said to have written the screenplay for the film The Godfather at Cafe Trieste in North Beach while he lived in the neighborhood— convened the first meeting of NBC. Within three months of opening their first office, NBC was assisting fifty homeless North Beach citizens to get back on their feet. And today, the SEEDS Program assists “those who demonstrate an interest in reclaiming their lives” with a 4-step process that includes providing a place to eat lunch and breakfast, access to NBC’s showers and wash rooms, and a voice mailbox in step one. Remaining steps include enabling clients to partake as volunteers in the office duties and in local events, and finally it offers help with transitioning to self-sufficiency. I applaud North Beach Citizens because I know most do not become homeless by choice. It’s a downward spiral that few who haven’t experienced it can really understand. All those who help to lift up others are treasures— the Crown of Creation, if you will— and Weekend Wanderings thanks NBC for its efforts in San Francisco.
And on a side note, those of you who appreciate the magic of the personal computer may wish to honor the life and work of this recently deceased scientist.
New Feature below Pic o’ the Week
Let’s find some fun ’round here…
Earth Day at The Oakland Zoo: from their website: The Oakland Zoo will celebrate Earth Day from 10:00am to 3:00pm, with the theme, “Wildlife in Your World.” Dozens of Bay Area environmental organizations will join with the Oakland Zoo to offer Earth Stations, animal presentations, live entertainment featuring the kid’s band Orange Sherbet, face painting, crafts, and educational activities. The day-long event will be centered on hands-on environmental activities for families. Our goal is to educate our community about wildlife and inspire through our unique Earth Day Celebration! Educational entertainment will also take place in the Zoo’s Clorox Wildlife Theater throughout the day. Plus, Earth Day is a great opportunity to learn about your favorite animal at the Zoo!
The Queen Symphony performed by the Contra Costa Wind Symphony: From San Francisco Classical Voice: The CCWS, which he’s been leading since 1981, will present the U.S. premiere of Tolga Kashif’s Queen Symphony at the Walnut Creek Presbyterian Church on April 17. The conductor describes the piece as “a stunningly beautiful work, just gorgeous” and “not a mere medley of Queen tunes. Their melodies are there, but they’ve been explored and developed beyond.”
Meditation Retreat in Berkeley: from the East Bay Express: Sometimes it takes a whole day to empty the mind, loosen the body, and shake off the accumulated stresses of modern urban life. An all-day meditation retreat at the Berkeley Buddhist Priory (1358 Marin Ave., Albany) on Saturday, Apr. 17, includes classes, spiritual counseling, services, and various modes of meditation, allowing participants to focus on serenity and spirituality without interruption.
Pic o’ the Week:
A view from my amigo’s office last Thursday.
New Feature Below:
Vid of the Week:
“And, man, the poets down here don’t write nothing at all…”
From the SF Chronicle:
That coveted toy and mode of transport for adolescents – the skateboard – has been turned into high art for a new gallery show in San Francisco.
Nearly 170 “decks,” as the boards without wheels are called, are on display at a North Beach gallery, and the contributing artists range in age from 6 to 91, with prices starting at $50 and reaching $1,000.
“We want to show that art is not limited to people who consider themselves artists, and it’s not limited to a canvas or a certain shape,” said Anna-Lisa Stardust Van der Valk, the curator and producer of “Skate This Art.” “We have decks from professional artists, from children, from the elderly, from the disabled.” Link to article…
From the Berkeley Daily Planet:
“Of course the new management will need to take input from the neighbors about what’s right and what’s not,” he said. “If you look at the reviews for their theater on Yelp, it looks good.”
Gordon said that Great Indian Entertainment would like to offer beer, wine and food inside the theater to attract more people.
“That’s what a lot of theaters are doing these days,” he said. “If it makes a difference, why not?”
“For instance look at Viks,” Gordon said, referring to the Indian chaat and grocery store in West Berkeley that recently moved to a new location on Fourth Street. “It started out as a simple warehouse and has transformed itself so much. We need to have something that gets people excited. Neighbors were not supporting the old theater that was there. Perhaps if we do something different, then more people will come.” Link to article…
Also from the SF Bay Guardian:
See a wall, paint it; It’s a common enough story in SF — until you look at one small variable; Barneclo’s wall is 600 feet long and 40 feet tall. And he intends to cover the whole thing. That’s 24,000 square feet, making Barneclo’s “Systems” the largest mural yet in a town filled with them. “That was recently pointed out to me,” he told me in a recent interview. “It’s an interesting thing because, yeah, its going to be helpful [for fundraising], people like to hear that stuff, ‘it’s the loudest, it’s the biggest.’ But it really has no… [the size] is such a byproduct.” Link to article…
Been out of pocket for a few days fighting off a cold. Feeling on the mend for the most part now.
Here is a great local story from the SF Bay Guardian:
“Poetry’s made a big difference in my life. It’s allowed me to express myself in ways that I never would have been able to,” says Erica McMath Sheppard, 17, one the winners of Sat/3’s Youth Speaks Teen Poetry Slam at the Warfield Theater.
Her victory was the culmination of many years of hard work. Erica started participating in the Youth Speaks program when she was 13, and competing in the yearly slam competition at 14 years old. On Saturday, before a sold out crowd at the Warfield, she spoke with a light borne of a difficult adolescence, one spent in the cold bureaucracy of Child Protective Services, but through which she has nonetheless thrived academically.
“You look at America in the 21st century, who is the voice? What does it look like?” Youth Speaks executive director James Kass founded the non-profit in 1996 to provide public school kids with access to arts education in a state where such programs are rapidly being downsized into nonexistence. He says that, although professional artists have emerged from Youth Speaks’ programs, what the YS assemblies, after school workshops, and guest speakers really want to accomplish is the development of teens’ creativity, and by extension, their ability to think critically about the problems of the day. “Some kids go into teaching, go into non profit work,” he says. “This is about developing leaders.” Link to article…
Week 2, April 2010
A change in both format and mission has begun with WeekendWanderings.com. Read why here.
This week’s highlighted local treasure is The Berkeley Free Clinic. For over forty years, the BFC has provided healthcare for this local community enabling especially those who have lost their jobs and their insurance and their ability to pay for these services a chance they probably otherwise would not have. Let’s start with this proclamation from their website: Fees have never been charged for any services, materials, medications or supplies provided at the Berkeley Free Clinic. Income has been generated solely via individual or organizational donations and government programs. I’m choosing this place and this subject as my first to highlight in the Weekend Wanderings new format because we all surely know instinctively that our community’s health is the foundation of all of its successes. And as a nation, I believe our healthcare is both a symbol of our inequitable system and a shining example of what’s so desperately in need of improvement. Healthcare is a basic right and should not be linked to profit, so says the Our Philosophy page of the BFC. The recently-passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act beginning in 2011 will allocate $11 billion to community health centers. While still just a fraction of what was spent to bail out AIG ($182 billion), this is a massive step towards helping our communities to lift up from within, and to hopefully also begin to change our very system from that of a disease-management system to one of disease-prevention system. So, most of all today I want to applaud the Berkeley Free Clinic for its commitment and its impact on this community over the past 40+ years, and I hope for those of you reading this you will see this as a perfect example of what I call a Treasure in Your Town and Beyond.
Let’s Find Some Fun ‘Round Here…
Yuri’s Night at Ames NASA Research Center in Mountain View: From their website: MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. – Yuri’s Night Bay Area 2010 will bring together scientists, engineers, artists, musicians and an estimated 10,000 guests to NASA’s Ames Research Center on Saturday, April 10, 2010 for a multimedia celebration of space exploration. The 12-hour action-packed event will feature top musical acts, an aerial show, 120 exhibits, large-scale art installations and speakers to commemorate the anniversary of the first human space launch (Yuri Gargarin, April 12, 1961) and the first space shuttle mission (John Young and Bob Crippen, April 12, 1981). Yuri’s Night Bay Area coincides with hundreds of other celebrations around the world.
Client Appreciation Show at The Warehouse Gallery in Oakland: From their website: The Warehouse Gallery is a contemporary arts space founded in 2009 to host emerging artists alongside established artists. Utilizing our 3,000 square foot warehouse space, we created a large gallery and multimedia room. We are genre un-conformists, instead focusing on themes and special events. At The Warehouse Gallery, a variety of artwork will be exhibited: classical, experimental, performance, video, installation, and anything that can be experienced. The gallery is as diverse as the talents which show. In other words, we are the peoples’ gallery. The Warehouse Gallery is located in the San Antonio district of Oakland. We are by appointment only, with events about every two months.
Any Old Time String Band at the Freight and Salvage in Berkeley: From their website: Original members Kate Brislin, Suzy Thompson, Valerie Mindel, Sue Draheim and Genny Haley will revive their signature mix of rousing fiddle tunes and old-time songs, humorous novelty numbers, Cajun waltzes, haunting ballads, and hip-shaking classic blues songs for two nights at Berkeley’s Freight & Salvage Sunday night. Besides revisiting the old favorites, the quintet is working up some new material for the occasion!
Pic ‘o the Week:
A Carmel Evening Begins
From the Contra Costa Times:
Living in the fast lane in the land of colas, fries, doughnuts and hormone-ridden meat is hard enough on our bodies. But when spring shows up with its showy flush of beautiful buds and blooms, many of us must also cope with not-so-beautiful reactions to pollens, fresh grasses, ragweed and a host of other allergens that descend upon us each year as we ring in the new season. And make no mistake, despite the cold weather, spring has arrived in full force here in the Bay Area. My daffodils are at their height, my magnolia tree is displaying beautiful pink blossoms and even the late-bearing fig tree is sporting some ripe buds.
But if you’re among the 40 million Americans for whom a walk in the park is no walk in the park, it means that your immune system is going hypervigilant on you. Rest assured there are steps you can take to help tame your macho immune system and the good news is that they don’t need to involve a trip to the drugstore. Link to article…
From the East Bay Express:
Facing a $30 million budget shortfall for the upcoming fiscal year, the Oakland City Council will likely make some tough choices this week during its midcycle budget review process. One of the most severe is a proposed 50 percent reduction to the city’s Cultural Funding Program.
The Cultural Funding Program provides about $1 million in grants annually to arts organizations and artists, funding operations, individual art projects, and arts education in the schools. Some of the city’s biggest arts and cultural institutions receive grants through the program, which is funded by the general fund.
And if the proposed cuts are approved, it will undoubtedly put a strain on an already-strained arts community. “I don’t know what they’re thinking,” said Margo Dunlap, chair and co-founder of the Oakland Cultural Trust, an association of Oakland art organizations and artists, and executive director of Pro Arts, which receives funding through the program. “This is a time for trimming the budget, not for eliminating infrastructure. A 50-percent cut is one stroke from eliminating the entire program.” Link to article…
From ABC7news.com:
Whole Foods Market is starting a wine cork recycling program to make it easy for wine enthusiasts to properly dispose of corks. The company said it will accept natural wine corks at all of its 292 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Link to article…