Week 4 May, 2010

This week’s highlighted local treasure is the International Bird Rescue Research Center in Fairfield, CA.  We’ve all seen the horrific reports of the BP/Transocean oil rig disaster blasting daily thousands of gallons of crude oil and toxic gases into the Gulf of Mexico.  It’s an unimaginable tragedy, and one we’re recently familiar with here in the Bay Area as our own coast was soiled by oil spilling from the crash of the Cosco Busan tanker into the Bay Bridge in 2007.  I remember quite well having feelings of outrage when I saw what that spill did to some of my favorite coastal areas around here.  I remember watching the daily reports of volunteers racing to get trained to safely work on oil spill clean-up details, and of all the nasty gook washing ashore for miles and miles, and of all the birds and sea creatures either killed or soaked in that toxic gook.  It is not a sight to see without hoping we as a culture may somehow find the proper expiation for such a crime against nature.  And well, considering all of that, the continuing spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico has been reported by NPR to be as much (or even more) as four times the Cosco Busan spill PER DAY FOR OVER A MONTH!  It’s a tragedy whose consequences are hard to even conceive, but on the frontlines we can be proud and thankful for this group of naturalists and veterinarians and disaster relief crew at the IBRRC who today choose not to expend the bulk of their energy on blame and politics, opting for an alternative mission instead: saving however many affected birds as they possibly can.  In fact, that’s been their mission since 1971 and they’ve been at over 200 oil spills saving birds since then.  While it’s without question that we have a colossal disaster in the Gulf, it’s those men and women whose hands are soiled with muck working on the solutions— rather than those who are attempting to wash their hands of responsibility— who deserve this week’s utmost admiration from WeekendWanderings.com.  Thanks so much to those of you working on THE SOLUTIONS in the Gulf of Mexico. 

So, let’s find some fun ’round the bay…

BAMscape at the Berkeley Art Museum:  From the East Bay Express:  Art meets life meets free-Wi-Fi study hall in BAMscape, the BerkeleyArt Museum’s new interactive sculpture: undulant, Cheeto-hued, and wired. The eminent Berkeley architect and artist Thom Faulders executed the design, employing digital and traditional vellum technology to encourage “dynamic relationships between users and environments … active and opportunistic.” A hard foam framework supports a skin of painted 3/8″-thick furniture-grade plywood. At nearly 1,600 square feet spread over 150 connected modules, this gigantic Op art environment invites gentle, shoeless mountaineering as well as hammock-style socializing. Festively inaugurated during the January L@TE: Friday night (with singing by Anne McGuire; projections by Steven Dye, Peter Conheim, and Owen O’Toole; DJing by Wobbly and Jon Leidecker; and a no-host bar, this is not your father’s BAM), the recyclable BAMscape runs through November 30, 2011.  

San Francisco Carnaval 2010:  From their website:  The Festival draws hundreds of thousands of people for two days of dancing Salsa, Samba, Reggae, Tango, Hip- Hop, Merengue, Calypso, Cha Cha Cha, Cumbia, and Mambo into the evening. Food vendors offer traditional delicacies, while others sell crafts native to the Carnaval countries of their heritage. Giant stages sparkle with continuous entertainment. The 2010 Festival will take place on Saturday, May 29, and Sunday, May 30, 2010.  Festival Location: Harrison Street between 23rd Street & 16th Street in the Mission District, accessible by BART and Muni.

Acrosports and City Circus Presents “Echo’s Reach”:  From the Chronicle:   This spring City Circus premieres ECHO’S REACH, an imaginative new production by Tim Barsky that reunites him with circus performers from City Circus/Acrosports and a top-notch group of collaborators in urban music, hip-hop dance, and aerial acrobats. The production employs a new, thrilling hybrid performance style called Urban Circus Arts – a genre unique to City Circus – which crosses traditional circus arts (acrobatics, aerial acts, and contortion) with contemporary city-born forms (breakdancing, parkour, beat boxing, and hip-hop theatre).  

Pic of the Week:

First fruits of the season.