John Fante’s 100 Birthday

Zocalo will host an event at the Hammer Museum this Tuesday to celebrate Los Angeles novelist and screenwriter John Fante’s 100th birthday. David Kipen will moderate a panel that includes Fante biographer Stephen Cooper. Fanatical readers of this blog will recall how highly I regard Steve and his work.

Fante was a close friend of Carey McWilliams, who claimed that he kept his companion “reasonably sober, away from the race tracks, draw poker sessions, opium dens and other low dives, properly confined to home and hearth and study and in regular attendance at mass.”

 

Announcing CSA Conference 2009: Debugging the Silicon Dream

 

San Francisco CounterPulse Talks on the City and May Day Celebration March 25; April 8; April 29; May 1

TALKS! Toxic San Francisco: Presidio to Hunter’s Point

Wed. March 25, 7:30pm, Free A Nature in the City co-production

Where are the unremediated superfund sites in the city? What are the known toxins in the city’s ground and what is the city or its residents doing to ameliorate these timebombs? We’ll focus on the former military bases at the Presidio and Hunter’s Point (Doug Kern, and Sol Bloom, ARC)

TALKS! Anti-War Then and Now

Wed. April 8, 7:30pm, Free

We’ll take a look back at military resistance to the Vietnam War, including the mutiny of sailors on the Coral Sea, infantry refusal to follow orders on the battlefield etc., and hear from Iraq vets about the state of anti-war activities in the current conflict.

Transition City: Permacultural Transformation

Wed. April 29, 7:30pm, Free A Nature in the City co-production

Redesigning urban life off the grid. How can urban dwellers begin immediately to move towards self-sufficiency? We’ll have several permaculture practitioners presenting step-by-step recommendations for the next six months, a 1-year and a 3-5 year transition…K. Ruby (Inst. Of Urban Homesteading), Novella Carpenter (Ghost Town Farm), Kevin Bayuk (SF Permaculture Guild), Laura Allen (Greywater Guerrillas)

May Day Festival CounterPULSE’s 4th Anniversary

Fri.-Sun., May 1-3, 8pm
$30-100 sliding scale, $150 VIP table for two with free drinks

Twenty-five of the Bay Area’s hottest dance companies, theater companies, spoken-word artists and musicians unite over three days to raise money for CounterPULSE— it’s our BIGGEST birthday ever! Post-show dancing ’till 12am on Fri. & Sat. with DJ’s Durt & Bunnystyle.

 

Court settlement on Route 50 expansion environmental review includes transit improvements

The Sacramento Bee reports today (Jan. 22) that a Sacramento judge gave his OK Friday to what’s being called a landmark agreement between state officials and environmentalists to allow carpool lanes on Highway 50 in Rancho Cordova.

According to the article, based on comments from legislative leaders, the  lawsuit settlement clears a major sticking point in state budget negotiations, legislative leaders said.

Caltrans planners say the freeway widening will smooth traffic on what has been a troublesome corridor, where congestion occurs in both directions, morning and evening, as some commuters head to downtown Sacramento, others to Rancho Cordova’s office parks.

In exchange, Caltrans has agreed to finance $7 million in improvements to the Sacramento Regional Transit light-rail line that parallels the freeway.

Caltrans also agreed to pay to make a pedestrian and bike crossing from an old railroad bridge over Highway 50 near Mather Field Road and a light-rail station.

For the complete story, click here.

 

“It Came from Berkeley” – Author event at Books Inc. in Opera Plaza store (San Francisco)

Local author Dave Weinstein promises to take readers on a magical (and historical) tour of Berkeley with a discussion of his book It Came From Berkeley. Books Inc. in Opera Plaza.

Time: Friday, December 12, 2008 7:00 p.m.

Location: Books Inc. in Opera Plaza, 601 Van Ness, San Francisco, CA 94102

For more information click here.

 

David Stark Wilson author event at the Marin Book Passage Bookstore on California’s highest peaks

At the Marin branch of the Book Passage Bookstore, on Dec. 6, at 7:00 p.m., David Stark Wilson will talk about Above All: Mount Whitney and California’s Highest Peaks ($35.00). Photographer and mountaineer David Stark Wilson captures the treacherous beauty of these summits and the surrounding panorama, evoking a broad range of emotion—from excitement and allure to a quieter sense of peace, reverence, and awe. Steve Roper, a well-known climber and historian, provides accompanying text.

Sat., Dec. 6, 7:00 pm.

Book Passage Bookstore, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera, CA 94925, Phone: (415) 927-0960.

 

Men of a Different Nature: John Muir and Wallace Stegner; Lecture and book signing at the Autry Museum

As one of the Autry National Center’s new Nadine Carson Forum series of programs, the Autry will host a program on Saturday, December 13, 2008, 3–4:30 pm, about John Muir and Wallace Stegner, entitled: “Men of a Different Nature: John Muir and Wallace Stegner.”

Donald E. Worster, author of A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir, and Philip L. Fradkin, author of Wallace Stegner and the American West, discuss their respective new books about these pioneering Western environmentalist. A brief reception and book signing follow.

For more formation, see the Autry’s calendar.

 

“A Mulholland Christmas Carol” – 5th run of L.A. Christmas Tradition

From Julia Stein:

Los Angeles now has its own holiday play tradition with this 5th run of Bill Robens’ musical A Mulholland Christmas Carol. The play is at A Sacred Fool theater, 660 No. Heliotrope, for a pre-Christmas run and is presented by two fine small theaters–Sacred Fools and Theater of Note. The play, the best written about Los Angeles since Luis Valdez’s Zoot Suit, shows the choice between greed or generosity and is particularly appropriate for the 2008 holiday season in the new recession.

Robens rewrites Dickens class tale “A Christmas Carol” about greed, poverty, and justice making Ebenezer Scrooge, the mean spirited wealthy man, into William Mulholland, the man who built Los Angeles Department of Water and Power at the beginning of the 20th century. A small band with violin, keyboards, guitar, bass, and drummer played the score while the excellent cast sings the wonderful musical numbers. The show also has fine choreography including the Owens Valley farmers dancing traditional country dances while they sing “Our Owens Valley Song,” a song of praise to rural California.

The story begins the day before Christmas when Mulholland at his DWP office won’t give the drought-struck Owens Valley farmers any water and threatens to lay off his clerk Van Norman. That night Mulholland is visited by four ghosts. The first is Fred Eaton, ex-mayor of Los Angeles who helped Mulholland steal Owens Valley water, now a ghost in chains. The next ghost is explorer John Wesley Powell as Ghost of Christmas past who shows Mulholland scenes of his youth when he first came to Los Angeles as a poor idealistic young man who sings “Los Angeles River,” a lovely song to L.A.’s very own river.

The play delightfully satirizes water politics and corruption in the song “Land Grab” with Harrison Gray Otis, builder of the Los Angeles Times newspaper; Moses Sherman, developer of the city’s first electric car system; and rest of the cast singing and dancing out how a few Los Angeles wealthy men led a land grab to get all of Owen’s Valley Water leading to a twenty years water war.

The next Ghost of Christmas present is Teddy Roosevelt who along with Mulholland sing Roosevelt’s mantra “Bully” about forging ahead to get what you want before the Ghost shows Mulholland the suffering of Owens Valley farmers in the drought-stricken region as well as the poor Christmas of his clerk Van Norman and his family.

The Ghost of Christmas Future, a black robbed figure, points out to old Mulholland two alternative futures. He can continue to build the Saint Francis Dam which will then burst–it really did spectacularly burst onstage–to drown hundreds or he can stop building the dam and share his water with the Owens Valley farmers and his wealth with his clerk Van Norman and his family helping them have a better Christmas. The alternative futures in December, 2008, are California alternative futures.

So rush to this show if you want to have a real Los Angeles holiday play. Also, hopefully the play will be videotaped as well as a recording made of the score and songs. The play is the most wonderful way to teach history, so a videotape as well as CD should be in Los Angeles’ libraries as well as its schools.

For more information:
Sacred Fools Theater Company
660 No. Heliotrope, Los Angeles Ca 90004
310-281-8337
www.SacredFools.org

 

Getty Center hosts exhibit on Carleton Watkins and the “Rise of Photography in California”

The Getty Center in Los Angeles opened an exhibit Oct. 14 about the role of Carleton Watkins in the development of photography in California.  Entitled “Dialogue among Giants: Carleton Watkins and the Rise of Photography in California,” the show will continue at the Getty until March 1, 2009.  For more information, go to the Getty’s website.

 

Ishmael Reed to Speak in Berkeley

Critically acclaimed author, MacArthur fellow, and Oakland resident Ishmael Reed will speak Oct. 22, 2008, at the First Congregational Church in Berkeley in a talk sponsored by Berkeley Arts and Letters.

From the Berkeley Arts and Letters website: Reed “takes on the mainstream media for its misrepresentation of African Americans, calling out new outlets as diverse as CNN, the New Republic, the New York Times, and Imus in the Morning. At once Reed’s response to his critics and an attempt to open a candid public dialogue on African American issues, MIXING IT UP paints a complex portrait of the landscape of American journalism and exposes the often-overlooked prejudices of even the most respected news organizations as Reed looks at Katrina coverage as well as media portrayals of Kobe Bryant, Michael Jackson, and Barack Obama. ‘One of the tasks of this book is to challenge media bullies and encourage members of the underclass to do the same. If a high school and college dropout who spent years living in the projects can do it, so can they,’ notes Reed.”

7:30 PM at First Congregational Church of Berkeley (2345 Channing Way at Dana, Berkeley) Tickets $10 at the door., no one turned away for lack of funds.

 

L.A. Public Library Exhibits Historic Maps of California

The downtown main Los Angeles Public Library opened an exhibit October 15, “L.A. Unfolded: Maps from the Los Angeles Public Library” that focuses on Los Angeles and California and features topographic surveys, tourist guides, real estate maps, pictorials, illustrations and more.

Highlights include a 1791 Spanish explorers’ California coast map; a 1975 Goetz Guide to the Murals of East Los Angeles; and Artist-Historian Jo Mora’s masterly illustrated 1942 city map. The exhibition draws exclusively from the Los Angeles Public Library’s own map collection, one of the largest collections owned by a public library in the U.S.

The exhibition closes Jan. 22, 2009.  The library’s website has more information.

The L.A. Times reported on the exhibit Oct. 16, 2008.

 

Oakland Museum of Art exhibits art from Southern California

The Oakland Museum of California presents a selective look at the vast and vibrant Southern California art scene via 11 influential artists, in L.A. PAINT. The exhibition opens October 4, 2008 and continues through March 8, 2009.

Curated by Chief Curator of Art Philip Linhares, L.A. PAINT highlights The Date Farmers (Armando Lerma and Carlos Ramirez), Brian Fahlstrom, Steve Galloway, Loren Holland, Hyesook Park, Steve Roden, Linda Stark, Don Suggs, Esther Pearl Watson, and Robert Williams.

For more information, go to the website.

 

NEWS: May Day in California: A Snapshot

Louis Sahagun and Ronald D. White reported in the LA Times on the International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s (ILWU) West coast work stoppage yesterday in protest of the Iraq war.

Watch and listen to Democracy Now’s report on the ILWU’s West coast shutdown.

Mike Rhodes’ reported and took photographs for IndyBay on a march in Fresno.

Swati Pandey commented on the last two May Days in LA in the LA Times.

Swati Pandey reviewed LA Times editorials from May Days past.

Joel Rubin and Anna Gorman reported for the LA Times on LAPD’s preparation training for May Day protests.

LA Times blog tracked the hour by hour protests and gatherings: many reports remark on the small turnout this year in LA.

Truthout’s report on the May Day violence and staff shakeup in the LAPD last year, 2007. Wikipedia has a report and a large newspaper bibliography of LA’s May Day last year.

David Swanson reported for the California Chronicle on the ILWU’s May Day work stoppage and the history of the May Day’s origins from 1886 Haymarket Revolt: “Watch this video. Clarence Thomas, National Co-Chair of the Million Worker March Movement and Executive Board member of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10, spoke on April 24th, 2008, at the Iraq Town Hall meeting, in the Grand Lake Theater, Oakland, CA. The ILWU has committed to blocking ports on May 1st in opposition to the occupation of Iraq.”

Chronicle staff writers reported on May Day in the Bay Area. The big story is the ILWU’s work stoppage in protest of the war in Iraq.

 

EVENT: SFPL celebrates publication of Philip Whalen’s collected poems

Philip Whalen was one of the most creatively radical poets of the San Francisco Renaissance of the 1950s and beyond. To celebrate the “Collected Poems of Philip Whalen,” the public is invited to join editor Michael Rothenberg with Whalen’s poet friends Bill Berkson, Clark Coolidge, Diane di Prima, Norman Fischer, Dave Haselwood, Alastair Johnston, Joanne Kyger, Michael McClure and others for an all star tribute. Sponsored by the Poetry Center and American Poetry Archives.

Location: Main Library Koret Auditorium
Address: 100 Larkin St. (at Grove)
Library Sponsored Public Program

Date: Sat., May 3, 2008

Event Time: 2 p.m. – 4 p.m.