Y&T play metal’s long game

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Oakland hard rockers Y&T have been a durable fixture on the rock scene for more than 50 years. And while the metal masters racked up more than four million units in sales, when it comes to recognition via awards, they’ve arguably never received their due. That’s about to change: Y&T will be presented with the Icon Award at this year’s Poppy Jasper International Film Festival based in Morgan Hill, April 8-15.

An embryonic lineup of the group came together in 1972 as a quartet playing covers; for their first gig they thought up the name Yesterday & Today as a nod to the 1966 Beatles album that originally sported the notorious “butcher” cover. By 1974, the group had changed in two significant ways: Dave Meniketti had joined on lead guitar, and the band began to write its own material.

Yesterday & Today’s early albums earned positive reviews, but minimal support and tepid promotion by their label kept them from breaking out. In retrospect, it was a good thing when London Records dropped the band after 1978’s presciently-titled Struck Down. Signing with A&M Records and shortening their name to the snappier Y&T, the band’s classic era began.

The foursome—Meniketti plus rhythm guitarist Joey Alves, drummer Leonard Haze and bassist Phil Kennemore—recorded and released five studio LPs and a live set between 1976 and ’86. Three of those albums appeared on the Billboard 200; 1984’s In Rock We Trust peaked at No. 45. Notably, Y&T landed four songs on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock singles chart: 1983’s “Mean Streak” (No. 25), 1984’s “Don’t Stop Running” (No. 33), 1985’s “All American Boy” (No. 48) and “Summertime Girls” (No. 16).

Meniketti—longtime leader of the band and today the sole surviving member from that classic era—looks back fondly on that lineup. He notes that the interaction among the players defined Y&T’s sound.

By the late 1980s Y&T entered a period in which the lineup underwent multiple changes. Three of the classic four still remained for 1990’s Ten and Yesterday & Today Live (1991), but the group went inactive in ’92. Within three years, the lineup that made Ten had reunited, going on to craft 1995’s Musically Incorrect and Endangered Species in 1998. The group continued, but didn’t release another studio record until 2010’s Facemelter.

With drummer Mike Vanderhule on board, Meniketti says that Y&T came “full circle,” as his style is closer to that of original drummer Leonard Haze. The band has since settled into a powerful foursome.

An EP featuring acoustic arrangements—Acoustic Classix Vol. 1—appeared in 2018, but releasing new music isn’t the priority it once was. “Album releases don’t mean what they used to mean,” Meniketti said. “Today, hardcore fans might enjoy hearing a new tune. But will that sell more tickets? And will it make us any money? No, not really.”

Yet Meniketti doesn’t categorically rule out new material. “It’s not as simple as saying, ‘Hey, let’s go to a rehearsal studio,’” he said. “But it’s absolutely a possibility.” Instead, Y&T focuses its energies on live performance.

Meniketti believes the current lineup is true to the band’s original spirit. “I’d like to think that we haven’t really changed from the standpoint of how we put the songs across,” he said. “It’s about all of us working together to maintain the integrity of the songs.”

Y&T’s enduring appeal was underscored by the 2019 documentary, Y&T: On With the Show. Narrated by Eddie Trunk, the film charts the group’s history and connections with AC/DC and Ozzy Osbourne.

Along the way, Y&T earned praise from some of the biggest names in hard rock and metal. Ronnie James Dio described Meniketti as “one of the most underrated singers on the face of the Earth.” Meniketti recalled, “I was turning red, because he’s the god of this style of music.”

Now, a half-century after its debut, Y&T is receiving more recognition. At this year’s Poppy Jasper International Film Festival, the band will be presented with the Icon Award, honoring its “pioneering influence on American rock music and their enduring five-decade legacy.”

For his part, Meniketti appears equally appreciative and nonplussed. “When I first heard about it, I thought, ‘Well, that’s … interesting,’” he said. “Here’s a band from the Bay Area that’s been consistently popular for 52 years, so it’s nice to get recognition for that. And it’ll be fun.”

Joyce Kim reopens Jungdon Katsu

At Joyce Kim’s Jungdon Katsu, the fresh breading makes all the difference in her crispy katsu. The chef’s daughter, Nicole, explained that some Asian markets and restaurants use dried panko. Kim uses milk bread then shreds it into long strips. “We’d been wanting to eat that kind of katsu, and then she was able to find a Korean bread distributor,” she said.

Panko-crusted katsu is often pre-breaded and pre-fried. “It’s been out for a really long time, and that’s why it gets this cardboardy exterior,” Nicole said. And the meat itself can get overcooked. “That’s why curry katsu is really popular—the curry re-softens the katsu so people can’t really tell,” Nicole said. “But my mom makes everything separately and then she cuts the meat throughout the entire day.” As the orders come in, chef Kim tenderizes each cutlet à la minute so none of the dishes are made in advance.

“She’s just constantly working,” Nicole said. “I mean her hands look like she’s been through a lot, but that’s what she does every day.” After a fire last year in Danville closed the first iteration of Jungdon Katsu, Kim signed a lease at the new location in Emeryville. Both of Kim’s daughters help out. “I have a full-time job, but after I’m done I walk over to the restaurant,” Nicole said. The family lives just a few blocks away. “She’s worked so hard so I don’t want anything getting tarnished by something stupid like bad service,” she added.  

Nicole told me that her mother has always been a really good cook. “I thought everyone’s mom cooked like that, but I was just really spoiled,” she said. Chef Kim’s first restaurant in California was Taru Sushi in Danville. After 10 years in business, she wanted to step away from making sushi. “She just wanted to do something she actually likes more, that’s not just trendy,” Nicole said. 

Kim felt there weren’t any restaurants that really focused on making katsu. To perfect the recipe, the chef decided to work out of a ghost kitchen on Adeline Street. She experimented with the breading so the skin wouldn’t fall off the meat. “I think that really adds to why ours is really good,” Nicole said.

Nicole said she wasn’t an expert on the origin story of katsu. “But from what I know, Japan got the idea from German schnitzels,” she said. The Kim family is Korean. “We’ve been invaded by Japan so many times our cuisines mix,” she said. Korean katsu is slightly different, but Kim’s version is a best-of-both-worlds situation.

“It has some of the aesthetics of Japanese katsu, but it’s not as thick or as rare because they undercook it,” Nicole said. Korean people, she added, are sensitive to the specific smell that pork has. “That’s why my mom tenderizes it. She wants them [the cutlets] to be cooked well, but still moist, and then not have that pork smell at all.”

Post-Covid was the perfect time for Kim to take a break from her Danville customers and devote herself to her new venture. Once word got out about the ghost kitchen’s golden fried chicken katsu, the business got “crazy busy.” Nicole said, “We had to upgrade all of our equipment for all the orders that were coming in, and that’s when I started helping out more.” 

Kim’s approach to the vegetable sides is just as rigorous. The chef shreds the cabbage every day to make sure it’s thin enough to hold its shape and texture. She pickles all of the radishes and cucumbers as well as making all of the dipping sauces, such as tonkatsu and tartar, and the sweet creamy salad dressings. When the restaurant runs out of cabbage—the portions are voluminous—Nicole sometimes picks up supplemental cases at Berkeley Bowl.

Jungdon Katsu’s menu also includes udon and soba. “The udon’s really good,” Nicole said. “If I could eat it every day, I would.”

Kim, though, does not make the noodles in-house. “No, that would be insane, but my mom only tries to outsource stuff that she would personally eat—she cares about quality,” Nicole added.

Jungdon Katsu, 6485 Hollis St., Emeryville. Open every day 11:30am to 9pm. jungdonkatsu.com. Jungdon Katsu will be closed for a family vacation through April 21.

Free Will Astrology: Week of April 8

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): Unexpected deliverance? Lucky rides? Beginner’s grace? Dreamy, gleaming replacements? To the untrained eye, it may look like you are bending cosmic law in your favor. In truth, you’re simply redeeming the backlog of blessings you earned in the past—acts of quiet generosity and unselfish hardship that never got their proper reward. Serendipitous leaps? Divine detours? Shortcuts to victory? Welcome the uncanny gifts, Aries, even if they’re not what you expected.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The current phase of your destiny could disturb you if you’re not super patient. Life seems to be teasing you with promises that then go into hiding. You’ve been having to master the art of living on the edge between the BIG RED YES and the GREY MURKY NO. My advice: Imagine your predicament as an intriguing riddle, not a frustrating ambiguity. See if you can figure out how to grow wiser and stronger in response to the evasive mysteriousness. My prediction: You will grow wiser and stronger.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Why it’s always triple-great to be a Gemini, drawing on an abundance of mercurial wisdom: 1. You excel at the art of translation and are skilled at finding common ground between different realms. You can oscillate and flow between the lyrical and the pragmatic, the insightful and the comic, the detailed focus and the big picture. 2. You know that consistency is overrated. Your capacity to harbor multiple perspectives is a superpower. 3. You get to be both the question and the answer, proving that wholeness includes all the fragments. All the aptitudes I just named should be your featured approaches in the coming weeks.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): The saga of Troy is one of the most renowned tales from ancient Greece. Yet the fabled setting of Homer’s epic tale, the Iliad, was a settlement of just seven acres. Let that detail resound for you in the coming weeks. It’s an apt metaphor for what’s taking shape in your life. A seemingly modest situation could become the stage for a mythic turning point. An experience that starts small may grow into a story of immense and lasting significance.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Many people have a favorite number they regard as lucky. Some choose it because it showed up at a major turning point in their life. Others derive it from their birthday or from the numerology of their name. Plenty are drawn to “master numbers” like 33, 77 or 99. Personally, I give three numbers my special love: 555, the square root of -2, and 1.61803, also known as the golden ratio in Fibonacci-related patterns. I hope this nudges your imagination, Leo. Your fortunes are shifting now in the direction of an unusual kind of luck, so it’s a potent moment to select a new lucky number. I suggest that you also choose a new guiding animal, a fresh initiation name and a charged symbol to serve as your personal emblem.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Do you know what ignorance is causing you to suffer? Is there a teacher or teaching that could provide an antidote? I suspect you are very close to attracting or stumbling upon the guidance you need to escape the fog: maybe a therapist who can help you undo a hurtful pattern, a mentor to inspire your quest to do work you long to do or a spiritual friend who reminds you that you’re not merely your latest drama. Your task in the coming weeks is not to obsess on fixing everything at once, but to seek one or two sources of wisdom that illuminate your blind spots and educate your heart.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): I’m an honorary Libra, with three planets and my lunar north node in your sign. So I speak with authority when I declare that fostering harmony, which is a Libran gift, is only superficially about smoothing away friction and asymmetry. More importantly, it’s about rearranging reality so that beauty is a central feature. The goal is to accomplish practical wonders by stimulating grace and fluency. When I’m best expressing my Libra qualities, I don’t ask how I can please everyone, but rather, how I can serve maximum goodness and intelligence. Here’s another tip to being a potent Libra: Know that your enchanting charm is a lubricant for the truth, not mere decoration. Here’s your homework: Beautify one system you use every day so it serves you with less friction and more pleasure.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You are potentially an expert in creative destruction. You have a knack for eliminating what’s unnecessary and even obstructive. What has outlived its usefulness? You’re prone to home in on energy drains and unleash transformative energy. And yes, this intensity of yours may unnerve people who prefer comfortable numbness—but not me. I love you to exult in your talent for locating beauty and truth that are too complicated for others. I applaud you when you descend into the darkness to retrieve dicey treasures. PS: You’re not shadowy or negative. You’re a specialist in the authentic love that refuses to enable delusion or sanction decay.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): My Sagittarian friend Artemisia bemoans “the scarcity of collective delight.” She wishes there were more public acclaim for stories about breakthrough joys, miraculous marvels and surprising healings. Why are we so riveted by reports of misery, malaise and muck, yet so loath to recognize and celebrate everything that’s working really well? She also mourns the odd habit among some educated folks to mistake cynicism for brilliance. If you don’t mind, Sagittarius, I’m assigning you to be an antidote in the coming weeks. Your task is to gather an overflowing harvest of lavish pleasure, fun epiphanies and richly meaningful plot twists. Don’t hoard any of it. Spread it around to everyone you encounter.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “Id” is a psychoanalytic term. It’s the part of the psyche where basic instincts, needs and drives reside. On the one hand, the id supplies a huge charge of psychic energy. On the other hand, it mostly operates outside conscious awareness. Consider the implications: The fierce, pulsing center of your life force is largely hidden from you. Most of the time, that veil is protective. Encountering the id directly can be overwhelming or unsettling. But in the coming weeks, you Capricorns are poised to cultivate a more interesting and righteous relationship with your high‑voltage core. Do you dare? Treat your id as a brilliant but untamed creature. Extend a careful, curious invitation for it to show you more about itself.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In architecture, a “clerestory” is a high window that brings light into a space without compromising privacy. It illuminates without exposing. I suggest that you find metaphorical equivalents for clerestories, Aquarius. Look for ways to let spaciousness and brightness into your world without disturbing your boundaries. Your assignment is to avoid swinging between total lockdown and overexposure. The best option: strategic vulnerability and selective transparency. Allow people to see selected parts of you without giving them access to everything. Be both open and discriminating.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In 1903, the Wright brothers flew a primitive model of the first airplane. How did they prepare the way for their spectacular milestone? Their workshop was a bicycle shop, not a high-tech, state-of-the-art lab. By building and fixing bikes, they learned key insights about flying machines. The lesson for you, Pisces, is that mastery in one area may be transferable to breakthroughs in another. With this in mind, I invite you to evaluate how your current skills, including those you take for granted, might be repurposed. Methods you developed in one context could solve problems in another. You shouldn’t underestimate the value of what you already know.

Homework: Even if you don’t send it, write a letter to the person you admire most. Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com

UC Berkeley grads question whether to stay or struggle

Spring is about to release another wave of UC Berkeley graduates into the world. While some will follow the money—chasing AI startups and tech salaries across the Bay—many artists will stay closer to home, drawn to the East Bay’s creative legacy and slightly more forgiving rents.

But as commencement nears, a harder question sets in: Is the East Bay still a launchpad for a creative life, or just a holding pattern until something better comes along? For young artists, the region’s reputation as a cultural incubator now collides with rising costs, shifting scenes and the constant pressure to survive.

In a place that once promised freedom to make something new, today’s graduates are left to wonder what, exactly, is still possible—and at what cost.

Senior anthropology major Elliot Kempf, a virtuoso of psychedelic rock guitar and one-handed cigarette rolling, is a serious student of the scene. According to him, an underground war is raging between the veterans of jazz and blues and a new-wave transplant of high-ticket electronic music. 

“You can charge more at the door to these EDM-loving crowds, which is good for a broke artist,” Kempf says. “But these are still the same guys jacking up rent and gentrifying the place.”

His own journey is committedly retro. He plans to weed his way through the grassroots legacy of a fading psychedelic scene, giving one last distorted war cry against the “yuppie-DJ boom.” Lately, however, his band practice has been sidelined by the bummer of apartment-hunting.

“Man, the rent here is no joke,” he says. “I’ll need some coffee-squirting day job and at least three roommates to ever hope to strum my guitar out here professionally.” 

Despite the rising costs, Kempf remains loyal to the East Bay’s network of venues.

“They have some of the best music and art venues I’ve ever seen,” he said. And with space to plug in and play, of course, comes opportunity and pay. The sheer number of venues and local music lovers ardent to rock out sweetens the idea of East Bay migration for many Berkeley musicians. These are the establishments where connections are made and careers are born over a handshake and a cigarette. However, this comes with a risk.

“You have to be daring, with this overhead and shifting techno-tastes,” Kempf said. “This can be very hard for a young artist, trying to stay true to one’s expression, as outdated as mine might be.” However Kempf and his band, the Used Salesmen, will jam in the East Bay for as long as they can.

RETRO SCENE Senior anthropology major Elliot Kempf is a virtuoso of psychedelic rock guitar. (Photo courtesy of Elliot Kempf)

The advent of EDM in the Bay doesn’t feel dystopian to all UC Berkeley artists. In fact, it’s deeply bled into the body of student culture. Everyone’s affected, especially the posers. The cliché of the guy loitering around the party with an acoustic guitar has evolved: Instead of a twangy Yamaha, now he wields a DJ controller and a MacBook.

Madison Rodriguez, a fourth-year English major who rents out her DJing services to UC Berkeley fraternities and philanthropic functions, is excited to explore this brand of music locally. In Oakland, she prophesizes a lucrative future for her and her turntables. 

“The BPM of the Bay is picking up,” she said, miming the classic DJ vinyl-scrubbing move. “People want to dance more than ever, and people in the East Bay happen to be really good at it. You know how compatible hyphy music is with EDM? Very.”

Recently, Rodriguez tested the waters at an Oakland house show. Her goal was a bold Bay pastiche: remixing Mac Dre with Skrillex. A technical tightrope walk, the crowd’s reaction proved more volatile than anything she’d ever faced.

According to her, through the alchemy of EDM, what started as a red-cup house party boiled over into an all-out street festival.

“The Mac Dre started it out of course, and everyone was bumping,” Rodriguez said. “Then, to their surprise, I started sneaking in blips of Skrillex. Everyone seemed pissed up until the beat dropped. It all came together, and people went crazy. The crowd multiplied, strangers came up from the street and hopped in until there wasn’t any more room. God, what a scene out there. Wild, evocative, charged. I want to live around those vibes.”

Rodriguez has already rented an apartment in Oakland with some friends. She’s very optimistic about the viability of her DJ career blossoming in this soil.

TURNTABLE PROPHET Madison Rodriguez, a fourth-year English major, rents out her DJing services in the East Bay. (Photo courtesy of Madison Rodriguez)

The exodus isn’t confined to musicians. Fine-art specialists also nervously weigh the East Bay’s potential as a workshop. Bella Veale, a talented painter preparing to toss her academic cap, sits in her makeshift apartment-gallery surrounded by eerily accurate self-portraits. To her, the livelihood of a local material artist can feel bleak.

“Some of my friends who graduated last year are stuck doing commissions,” she says. “They’re exquisite talents, but they have to pay the bills. They’re mostly painting pictures of people’s dogs and dead uncles.” To Veale, this is the death of the “artist’s thesis,” executed by the fiscal reality of the Bay.

The alternative is the artist residency, particularly in Oakland. These programs provide the holy trinity for a blossoming creator: time, space and a stipend. Yet, even residencies have limits. Veale notes that the art world requires a social stamina that doesn’t always come naturally to introverted creators.

Gregarious by nature, Veale recently hosted several local galleries. She observed a “collective thirst” for homegrown, nascent artwork. “We need more, more like this!” attendees told her. Though this gives her hope, she plans to try her luck in L.A. first.

Freedom of expression is baked into the East Bay’s identity, but for a new generation of artists, it comes with a price tag that’s getting harder to ignore. The venues are still here. The crowds are still hungry. The ambition hasn’t gone anywhere.

What’s changed is the margin for survival.

For the class of 2026, staying means improvising—cobbling together rent, work and art in whatever way possible. Leaving means risking the loss of the very scene that drew them here in the first place. The East Bay may still be a place where creative lives begin, but increasingly it’s a question of who can afford to see them through.

[Ed. note: At her request post-print publication, Madison Rojas’ surname has been changed to Rodriguez in this online article.]

History is no joke … or is it?

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In some places in Berkeley, it’s April Fool’s Day every day. This is because an unknown someone—or someones—has been placing plaques honoring nonexistent events in sites around the city for years.

Most people have seen historical plaques on buildings or sidewalks in various cities, designed to call attention to places where famous people lived or momentous occurrences occurred. London, for example, has its well-known blue plaques, more than 1,000 of them, paying tribute to figures such as Florence Nightingale and Oscar Wilde.

Berkeley can celebrate its Non-Historical Plaque Project. For example, at 1250 Addison St., a plaque honoring the Berkeley Copywriters Guild reads: “On this site birthed in 1963 lays lain layed lies the location original whereabouts around here of the Berkeley Copywriter’s Guild, A place where word geeks were often found with their smug understanding of grammar and their tiny worn-down blue pencils marking up all the fun words for boring ones. So boring! founded in 1958.”

Or, how about this one at the intersection of Bancroft Way and Ellsworth Street: “On this spot, in part due to protest fatigue, Berkeley residents protested against the constant protesting. The irony was not lost, causing a particularly low turnout by many activists who decided as an act of protest to counter-protest the demonstration by not showing up at all. No one was arrested.”

Brita Dorfman maintains the unofficial website for the plaques. She has no direct connection with the plaque creators, she said, and finds the plaques herself or has their locations sent to her by other devoted plaque-seekers. “I stumbled across a couple of them in 2022,” she said in a phone interview. Her first sighting, she thinks, was of “Bow Wow,” a plaque located directly next to an official city plaque at 1800 Hearst Ave. Its inscription consists entirely of dog sounds. This one remains one of Dorfman’s favorites.

“If you aren’t on the lookout, you might completely miss it,” she said.

She makes no attempt to find out who is creating and placing the plaques. “It’s more fun if it’s a mystery,” she said.

As far as she knows there are currently around 60 plaques. Some have gone missing over the years, perhaps “collected” by an admirer. The plaques, she stated firmly, are not a hoax. “They 100% exist,” she said.

Besides “Bow Wow,” her other favorites include “The West Berkeley Train Horn Plaque” on West St., which reads: “On this spot, if you listen closely, you can hear the long horn blasts of passing trains in the distance. They sound their horn not out of safety or being required by law but because they deliberately want to keep everyone awake at night. It is their cruel joke on the neighborhood as they continue to their destination. Noisy buggers.”

She also particularly likes the “Museum Temporis” plaque at 2071 Addison St., which reads: “On this spot, the future location for the time machine historical museum. A shining exhibition of antique apparatus, ranging from the initial experimental chrononaut hobbyists, through iola-scutter bridging devices, and into the golden age of mass super-relativity. Plan your upcoming visit to the past today!”

Author’s note: Cal space scientists, looking at you on this one.

Dorfman enjoys the wacky community spirit of the plaques. “They bring delight to people’s day,” she said. She welcomes new contributions, and anyone finding a new one can send her a photo and description at ad***@*************es.net.

Which might be a great project for an April Fool’s Day expedition.

To see a full list of the plaques that have been discovered up till now, visit berkeleyplaques.net.

LEFT ‘The West Berkeley Train Horn Plaque on West St.; RIGHT The ‘Museum Temporis’ plaque at 2071 Addison St. (Photos by Brita Dorfman)

Music inspired by divine evolution

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Jenny Gillespie Mason, who records as Sis and the Lower Wisdom, started writing songs when she was still a teenager. She said attending the Young Writers Workshop at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville was a turning point. She enrolled in UVA, fell into the local folk scene and began performing.  

“Growing up [in Springfield, Illinois] I took classical piano lessons for seven years, then naturally drifted to guitar,” Mason said. “After college I moved around the country a bit and started making albums.”

She moved to Berkeley with her family a few years back and began making albums as Sis and the Lower Wisdom. “I was moving away from folk and going for something in the realm of experimental R&B,” Mason said.

“The Lower Wisdom comes from the Gnostic concept of Sophia, the embodiment of divine feminine wisdom, falling from the higher realms to the earthly plane,” she continued. “It speaks to the heart of this project because the music, and the subject matter, is very earthy—even messy at times. But it’s reaching for higher states of bliss, joy and truth in the lyrics and melodies.”

The first incarnation of the band put out two albums, Gas Station Roses and Euphorbia. Just before the pandemic shutdown, most of the musicians relocated to Los Angeles.

“That forced me to work by myself,” Mason said. “I gained confidence as a producer and became braver, more playful and experimental, working at home in my own studio. Dougie Stu, who played bass and keys in Sis, kept in touch and we’ve kept working together. We co-produced the new album, Saints and Aliens. Through him I had access to amazing musicians.”

Saints and Aliens continues down the spiritual path Mason began to explore while recording her last effort, Vibhuti.

“As I was making Vibhuti, I discovered Sri Aurobindo and The Mother,” Mason said. Sri Aurobindo is an Indian mystic and philosopher, one of the primary figures in the creation of Integral Yoga. “Their work influenced my spiritual outlook, as life being a field for us to grow in as souls and to evolve into more divine beings.”

That mindset also informs the music on Saints and Aliens. “The title, which is also the name of one of the songs, comes from the idea that some of us on Earth desire or hope for some intergalactic or divine intervention at this time, when things seem so dark,” Mason said. “The twist in the song is that even if these beings came to Earth, they most likely would tell us we have free will. The key to set ourselves free is within our own hearts.”

Mason created the basic tracks in her home studio, then sent them to Stu, who fleshed them out with the players he knew in L.A. They collaborated on the arrangements.

“Dougie has a natural ability to create musical beauty, coherence, playfulness and soulfulness,” Mason said. “His jazz training shines through the impeccability of his choices and the arrangements.”

With the help of Stu’s musician friends, Mason created cinematic soundtracks for the songs. “Wolf Child,” a tender ballad, describes her son’s coming-of-age struggles. Mason sings softly as quiet piano chords and a sprinkling of chimes introduce a lyric describing her love for him. The band comes in for a funky, uplifting chorus that urges her son to keep himself open to all possibilities, even when no one seems to understand him.

“Big Bend (Jai Ma),” a mantra-like chant, describes the joys and apprehensions of giving birth. Mason’s vocals are supported by ambient keys and a muted bassline that slowly gives way to an up tempo, celebratory coda.

“Since I’m in my 40s, and a mother, I don’t have the inclination to write love songs like I once did. Not that I have anything against that,” Mason said. “I’ve become more interested in how God and the soul are working to shape our lives.

“I like to write songs about human relationships, longtime love, friendships and family, but in the light of a spiritual, soul-based perspective,” she continued. “I still want to use intimate details of everyday life, while reaching for something higher that speaks to the inner being of the listener.”

Listen to Mason’s work as Sis and the Lower Wisdom at: sisandthelowerwisdom.bandcamp.com/music. Mason also writes essays and poems which can be found at: jennygillespiemason.com.

Social Eyes: Week of April 2-8

THURSDAY, APRIL 2

POP 

ELISE TROUW

Sometimes the best ideas start off as a joke. Just ask drummer, singer and pop artist Elise Trouw. Her new album, The Diary of Elon Lust, released in February. It began as satire but grew into a collaboration of songs she says felt like the only “real” ones she was writing at the time. The album itself is a beautifully poppy, light and playfully chaotic collection of songs that dissects modern masculinity through the eyes of Trouw’s male alter ego, Elon Lust. Each track exists as a different diary entry in a concept album that’s ahead of its time. It’s not only easily digestible, but truly addictive. — MAT WEIR

INFO: Thu, 8pm, Cornerstone, 2367 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. $30-$94. 510.214.8600.

FRIDAY, APRIL 3

JAZZ

ALLISON, CARDENAS & NASH

Allison, Cardenas & Nash features double-bassist Ben Allison, electric guitarist Steve Cardenas and saxophonist Ted Nash. Allison has recorded prolifically and led a series of acclaimed ensembles since the early 1990s, and like Nash was deeply involved in the Herbie Nichols Project, a collective devoted to the cult pianist/composer who died in obscurity at 44 in 1963. All three musicians have played on each other’s albums for decades, and in recent years have recorded several albums as a trio, including 2022’s Healing Power: The Music of Carla Bley and 2024’s Tell the Birds I Said Hello: The Music of Herbie Nichols. The group transforms every tune into an intriguing, surprise-filled soundscape. — ANDREW GILBERT 

INFO: Fri,  5:30pm, Piedmont Piano Company, 1728 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. $35-$40. 510.547.8188.

FRIDAY, APRIL 3

COMEDY

VERKA SERDUCHKA

Real name: Andriy Mykhailovych Danylko. Drag name: Verka Serduchka. Country of origin: Ukraine. Known for: Being runner-up in the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest with a rendition of “Dancing Lasha Tumbai” and for overall fabulousness. Backstory: In 1990, Danylko created Verka—or did she emerge?—an outrageous female railroad sleeping car attendant. Verka has gone on to wow or outrage millions of Europeans, and now it’s Berkeley’s turn. Serious note: Danylko/Verka continues to work for their country’s freedom from invasion, including donating income from the sale of a Rolls-Royce once owned by Freddie Mercury to support the construction of a rehabilitation and prosthesis center in Ukraine. Gurrrl. — JANIS HASHE

INFO: Fri,  9pm, UC Theatre, 2036 University Ave., Berkeley. $161. 510.356.4000.

FRIDAY, APRIL 3

JAZZ

MARY HALVORSON

Composer, guitarist and bandleader Mary Halvorson released About Ghosts in 2025, her 16th album and most recent foray into the mystical, layered, sonic world she inhabits. In Berkeley, her fellow travelers formulate into a stellar new band, Canis Major, featuring Dave Adewumi (trumpet), Henry Fraser (bass) and Tomas Fujiwara (drums). To describe her sound as iconoclastic denies its deep roots in traditional and contemporary jazz. A good analogy might be the drastic extremes between microclimates in California—hot, then cool; windy, then dead calm; dry, then drowning. There’s no way to predict where Halvorson might go next. — LOU FANCHER

INFO: Fri,  8pm, The Freight, 2020 Addison St., Berkeley. $39-$44. 510.644.2020.

SATURDAY, APRIL 4

LATIN-JAZZ

EL TREN

A talent-laden, Latin-jazz sextet featuring some of the region’s essential musicians, El Tren reimagines instantly recognizable pop songs via a brilliant array of Afro-Caribbean grooves, including tunes by Stevie Wonder, Sade, John Legend and the Beatles. With bass maestro Saúl Sierra, an expert arranger, El Tren also features pianist/trumpeter Marco Diaz, his bandmate in celebrated ensembles led by John Santos and Bobi Cespedes. Peruvian-born Laura Bravo handles vocals with style and the three-piece Latin percussion session with Julio Pérez, Ahkeel Mestayer and Emilio Davalos brings a dynamic flow of clave. Many bands Latinize jazz standards, but applying the concept to the world of pop music offers many creative, audience-pleasing opportunities. — AG

INFO: Sat,  7:30pm, Sound Room, 3022 Broadway, Oakland. $35. 510.708.9691.

SATURDAY, APRIL 4

FILM

‘FREAKY TALES’

Check this cast list: Pedro Pascal, Tom Hanks, Too Short, Marshawn Lynch and Angus Cloud. They all star in action/comedy film Freaky Tales, released a year ago. Writer/director Ryan Fleck’s father has a long-term connection with La Peña Cultural Center, so he’s celebrating the anniversary at the center with a fundraising screening. The film is set in Oakland in 1987, and follows “an NBA star, a corrupt cop, a female rap duo, teenage punks, neo-Nazis and a debt collector embarking on a collision course” in four separate tales. Fleck and unnamed cast members will attend the screening and post-movie discussion. They had us at Pedro Pascal. — JH

INFO: 7pm, La Peña Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley. $15-$100. 510.849,2568.

SATURDAY, APRIL 4

ROCK

SATCHVAI

Formed in 2024, SatchVai Band finds longtime friends and guitar icons Joe Satriani and Steve Vai finally sharing a full-stage canvas. Both players built their reputation on technical precision and melodic ambition. Here, Satriani’s soaring, instrumental rock anthems and Vai’s more theatrical, shapeshifting compositions collide and stretch. Backed by a tight, high-caliber rhythm section—Kenny Aronoff on drums, Marco Mendoza on bass and Pete Thorn on guitar—the project leans into interplay: twin leads spiraling, solos passed back and forth, and moments of near-telepathic synchronization. — SONYA BENNETT-BRANDT

INFO: Sat, 8pm, Fox Theater, 1807 Telegraph Ave., Oakland. $66-$266. 510.302.2250.

TUESDAY, APRIL 7

ROCK

RICHARD THOMPSON

Richard Thompson needs no introduction. As a co-founder of Fairport Convention, Thompson helped define the British folk-rock sound. But after he left the group at the age of 21, Thompson set out on his own illustrious career. He has contributed to Grammy-nominated soundtracks, has made numerous “Best of” lists from Rolling Stone to Time and Billboard. The Los Angeles Times called him “the finest rock songwriter after Dylan and the best electric guitarist since Hendrix.” THose are mighty big shoes that the man himself may or may not agree he has filled, but whose body of work with albums like Mirror Blue and Rumor and Sigh speaks for itself. — MW

INFO: Tue, 8pm, The Freight, 2020 Addison St., Berkeley. $69-$79. 510.644.2020. 

TUESDAY, APRIL 7

PUNK

HIRS

Philadelphia-based queer punk collective HIRS is a constantly mutating organism, with dozens of collaborators cycling through its recordings and performances and always spitting out something volatile. Rooted in grindcore’s blistering speed and abrasion, their songs come in grenade form: compressed, explosive bursts of blast beats, serrated riffs, roars, shrieks. On releases like Friends. Lovers. Favorites. and We’re Still Here, the noise carries a clear, cathartic charge, folding trans liberation, mutual aid, and resistance into its circuitry with both fury and care. — SBB 

INFO: Tue, 7:30pm, 924 Gilman St., Berkeley. $12-$15. 520.524.8180.

TUESDAY, APRIL 7 – SUNDAY, APRIL 12

DANCE

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER

The renowned dance company founded by Alvin Ailey changed the American dance scene forever. Arriving for its annual residency at Cal Performances under Alicia Graf Mack, four programs offer Bay Area premieres, new or reimagined works, and the return of Ailey’s all-time classic dance choreographed in 1960, the beloved “Revelations.” In addition to evening and weekend matinee performances, daytime shows for public school children are residency staples. The dancers have always been lauded and applauded for their physical prowess and modeling of Black beauty, grace, resilience and power. In 2026, their achievements will expand beyond physical excellence to include subtle artistry, courageous risk-taking and masterful storytelling. Performances go until April 12. — LF

INFO: Tue–Thu, 7:30pm; Fri, 8pm; Sat, 2pm & 8pm; Sun, 3pm; Cal Performances at Zellerbach Hall, 101 Zellerbach Hall, #4800, Berkeley. $38-$94. 510.642.9988.

FOB West moves into Prescott Market

Just in time for Prescott Market’s first anniversary, FOB West has joined the lineup of food vendors. Janice Dulce’s FOB Kitchen started as a pop-up in 2015, three years before opening in Temescal. Although Dulce wasn’t looking for another location, a friend of theirs who lives in West Oakland told them they should check the place out. “So then I go, and I fell in love with the space,” they said.

Dulce told me the new menu is more playful at the second location. “The FOB Kitchen menu is 100% Filipino,” they said. “FOB West is an homage to the places I grew up.” Nods to Guam include red rice, chicken kelaguen and dipping sauces like finadene, which is made with soy sauce and hot chili peppers.

“I also grew up in San Jose, in the 408,” Dulce said. “This past weekend we just put tacos on the menu.” The chef now makes vegan jackfruit adobo tacos and beef cheeks adobo, which come with Oaxacan cheese and a birria-inspired consommé.   

Shanghai lumpia—with pork, carrots and water chestnuts—has graced the menu since the pop-up started. “It’s crunchy. It’s fried. It’s delicious. It’s portable,” the chef said. “It’s the first thing at a ‘handaan’ buffet table, which is a Filipino party. You can grab a lumpia and take a bite of it while you’re filling your plate, right?”

The recipe is, word for word, Dulce’s grandmother’s. The chef, who’d been serving tables at Bar Crudo and Out the Door, decided to take a trip to the Philippines in 2015 to really pay attention to their grandmother’s cooking. “I’m having a grand opening on April 1, and my grandma’s going to be there. She’s 96,” Dulce said. “It’s really exciting that she’ll be able to see the second location, because she taught me how to roll lumpia.”

Pancit, a bowl of glass noodles with carrots, cabbage and green beans, is another dish Dulce’s been making since the pop-up. I tried it at Prescott and ate the entire bowl. Usually the dish is made with chicken or pork broth, but the chef makes a version of the dish that’s 100% vegan.

“A lot of people that would come in to try my food, vegans or vegetarians, they’re like, ‘Oh, I can’t eat Filipino food because there aren’t many options,’” Dulce said. The chef makes FOB’s pancit with roasted vegetables, kombu and a homemade vegetable stock. Carnivores, Dulce said, like it too and haven’t asked why there’s no meat in it.

Dulce’s fiesta plate is another “playful” dish on FOB West’s menu. “It’s a play on a holiday party plate if you were to go to my family’s house,” they said. “There’s dipping sauce, rice, a mixed-green salad, a protein and a potato or macaroni salad.” Serving food at the Prescott is also less formal than at FOB Kitchen. “It’s gotta be one plate.”

When Dulce first started to cook professionally, Filipino restaurants were harder to find than they are now. The chef said the food was primarily available at family parties, pop-ups and at restaurants with turo-turo steam tables. “Turo-turo means ‘pick-pick’ or ‘choose-choose’—there wasn’t much besides those places,” they said.

“When I opened my restaurant, I wanted to do something different,” Dulce said. At the time there were “cool” Thai and Italian restaurants but not Filipino ones. “Like a place where you can bring your friends and they’re playing cool music and there’s a really cool ambiance and decor.” At FOB Kitchen, Dulce wanted Filipinos and Filipino Americans to feel proud about bringing themselves and their friends in to introduce them to the food.

Filipino restaurants such as The Sarap Shop, Abacá and Tropa have since opened throughout the Bay Area. “I have a bunch of friends in the Filipino restaurant world,” Dulce said. “I’m proud of all of them, and I’m happy to be a part of the whole community. And I still haven’t tried Tropa yet, and I need to.”

FOB West, Prescott Market, 1620 18th St., Oakland. Open Tue-Sat, 10am to 9pm; Sun until 8pm. fobkitchen.com

Free Will Astrology: Week of April 1

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ARIES (March 21-April 19): Now is an excellent time to decide your favorite color is amaranth (a vivid red-violet) or sinopia (earthy red-orange) or viridian (cool blue-green, darker than jade). You might also conclude that your favorite aroma is agarwood (deep, smoky, resin-soaked wood) or heliotrope (cherry-almond vanilla) or petrichor (wet soil after a rain). I’m trying to tell you, Aries, that you’re primed to deeply enhance your detailed delight in smells, colors, tastes, feelings, physical sensations, types of wind, tones of voice, qualities of light—and everything else. Indulge in sensory and sensual pleasures!

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): My Taurus friend Elena keeps a “gratitude garden” in her backyard. When she feels grateful for a specific joy in her life, she writes it on biodegradable paper and buries it among her flowers, herbs and vegetables. “I feed the earth with appreciation,” she says. “Returning the gift.” She feels this practice ensures that her garden and her life flourish. Her devoted attention to recognizing blessings attracts even more blessings. Her cultivated appreciation for beauty and abundance leads her to discover more beauty and abundance. Elena’s approach is pure Taurean genius. I invite you to create your own rituals for expressing your thankful love. Not just paying dutiful homage in your thoughts, but giving your appreciation weight, texture and presence in the actual world.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Many of us periodically slip into the daydream that everything would finally feel right if only our lives were somehow different. If we’re single, maybe we imagine we ought to be partnered; if we’re partnered, we wish our beloved would change, or we secretly wonder about someone else entirely. That’s the snag. The blessing is this: In the days ahead, you’re likely to discover a surprising ease with your life exactly as it is and feel a genuine, grounded peace. Congratulations in advance!

CANCER (June 21-July 22): A cautious voice in your head murmurs: “Proceed carefully. Don’t be overly impressed with your own beauty. Stick with dependable methods. Live up to expectations and avoid explorations into the unknown.” Your bold genius interrupts: “Tell that fussy, boring voice to shut up. The truth is that you have earned the right to be an inquisitive wanderer, an ingenious lover, a fanciful storyteller and a laughing experimenter.”

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In medieval European gardens, there was a tradition of creating “pleasure labyrinths.” They were walking meditations that spiraled inward to a center, then back out again. There were no decisions and no wrong turns, just the relaxing, meditative journey itself. I think you need and deserve a metaphorical pleasure labyrinth right now, Leo. You’ve been treating every choice as a high-stakes dilemma and every path as potentially problematic. But what if the current phase isn’t about making the perfect decision? Maybe it’s about trusting that the path you’re on will take you where you need to go, even if it meanders. By cosmic decree, you are excused from second-guessing every turn.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Your eye for imperfection is a gift until it becomes the lens through which you see everything. The critical faculty that drives you to refine and enhance may also shunt you into a dead end of never-being-good-enough, where impossible standards immobilize you. In the coming weeks, dear Virgo, I beg you to use your vaunted discernment primarily in the service of growth and pleasure rather than constraint. Be excited by buoyant analysis that empowers constructive change. Homework: For every flaw you identify, identify two things that are working well. You won’t ignore what needs attention, but instead will compensate for the excessive criticism that sometimes grips your inner critic.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): You Libras shouldn’t expend excessive effort trying to force the external world to be more tranquil. That’s mostly a futile task that distracts from your more essential work. The secret to your happiness is to cultivate serenity within. How do you do that? One reliable way to shed tension is to continually place yourself in the presence of beauty. Nothing makes you relax better than being surrounded by elegance, grace and loveliness. Now is a good time to recommit yourself to this key practice.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In computer science, there’s a concept called “graceful degradation.” When a system encounters an error, it doesn’t crash completely. It loses some functionality but keeps running with what remains. According to my reading of the astrological omens, Scorpio, you’d be wise to acknowledge a graceful degradation like that. Something isn’t working as you had hoped and planned. A relationship? Project? Adventure? In classic Scorpio fashion, you’re tempted to burn it all down. But I encourage you to practice graceful degradation instead. Keep what still works and release only what’s actually broken. Not everything has to be all-or-nothing. You can lose some functionality and still run. You can be partially out of whack and still be valuable. PS: The awkwardness is temporary.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): At your best and brightest, you are a hunter—though not the kind who stalks prey with weapons and trophies in mind. Your hunt is noble: the fervent pursuit of adventures that nourish your curiosity and the brave forays you make into unfamiliar territories where intriguing new truths shimmer. And now, as the world drifts deeper into chaos, you are called to respond with even more exploratory audacity. I invite you to further refine your hunter’s craft. Lift it up to an even higher, more luminous form of seeking.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn meditation teacher Wes Nisker guided his students to relax the relentless mental static that muddled their awareness. But he also understood that excessive striving can sabotage the peace we’re seeking. I invoke his influence now to help you release some of the jittery goal-obsession you’ve been gripped by. Nisker and I offer you permission to temporarily suspend the potentially exhausting drive to constantly be better and more accomplished. Instead, just for now, simply be your authentic self. Loosen your high-strung grip on self-improvement and allow yourself the radical luxury of purposelessness.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Here’s a danger you Aquarians are sometimes prey to: spending so much energy fixing the big picture that you neglect what’s up close and personal. You may get so involved in rearranging systems that immediate concerns get less than your best attention. I hope you won’t do that in the coming weeks. Your aptitude for overarching objectivity is a gift because it enables you to recognize patterns others can’t detect. But it may also divert you from the messy, intricate intimacy that gritty transformation requires. Your assignment: Eagerly attend to the details, which I bet will be more interesting than you imagine.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In horticulture, “hardening off” is the process of gradually exposing seedlings started indoors to outdoor conditions before transplanting them. Too much exposure too fast will shock them; no exposure at all will leave them unprepared. Let’s invoke this as a useful metaphor for you. I believe you are being hardened off, Pisces. Life is making small, increasing demands on your tender self. Though this may sometimes feel uncomfortable, I assure you it’s preparation, not cruelty. You’re being readied for a shift from protected space to open ground. My advice is twofold: 1. Don’t retreat back into the ultra-safe greenhouse. 2. Don’t let yourself be thrown into full exposure all at once.

Homework: My book ‘Astrology is Real’ is available at online bookstores. Read free excerpts here: tinyurl.com/BraveBliss.

Doll Fest puts femme to the front

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At a basic level, “diversity, equity and inclusion” should be hard to argue against. No ecosystem, natural or cultural, can sustain itself without diversity; equity implies a fair distribution of resources; inclusion means more voices at the table. And yet, the terms now carry a kind of fatigue, even suspicion.

Part of that backlash stems from bad-faith political attacks. But there’s another issue: In a late-capitalist context, DEI has too often become branding—more about saying the right things than doing them.

That gap between language and action is exactly what led Maria Chaos to start Doll Fest.

Chaos is a consummate concert-goer. She attends shows locally, regionally and internationally with a regularity that one might consider fanatical. She also is a concert promoter and producer, having been involved in everything from DIY booking to regional festivals. Through the years of attendance and organization, one thing always stood out as especially frustrating. 

“I would go to shows and consistently see line-ups of predominantly white and male acts,” Chaos said. “Some of them would be onstage making statements about promoting diversity, but it never seemed like there was any follow through.”

By follow-through, she means there was rarely a change in the demographics on show bills; as such, these statements felt hollow at best and tokenizing at worst. From this frustration, Chaos put her money where her mouth was and founded Doll Fest.

Doll Fest is an East Bay-based music festival on the cusp of its second annual three-day event, with a Friday night opening party and two full-day weekend shows, that features a lineup of all femme-fronted bands. The show draws in local, national and international acts including Descartes A Kant from Guadalajara and 18 Fevers from South Korea.

Headlining acts will be Minneapolis-based punk outfit, Vial, and Warped Tour alums, Bad Cop/Bad Cop. A portion of the proceeds for the festival will be donated to the Transgender Law Center. Additionally, Doll Fest has been leading up to its big show with a series of smaller events, including a comedy show, a fundraising event for Lyon-Martin Community Health and even an international event in Mexico City.

Providing a concrete definition for “femme” can be a little tricky. The boundaries of identity, being a social construct, becomes hazier the more granular one gets in examining it. Doll Fest opts to take on an attitude of inclusion rather than exclusion when tracking this moving target. Freya Yamamoto, Doll Fest’s general manager, art director and self-appointed black cat, thinks the ethos works best when inhabiting a state of elasticity.

“We approach the subject with an open mind and constant curiosity,” she said.

Functionally, someone who is femme is a person who embraces femininity and externally expresses their identity through a lens of this embrace. What that means within the context of the festival has been consistently reexamined and renegotiated since its inception, always with the goal of bringing more people into the fold rather than shutting the door. Yamamoto sums up the most definitive boundaries for Doll Fest as such—“Do your ideals align with us, do you put on a good show, are you a good person?”

Along with showcasing femme-fronted bands, Doll Fest is also femme-owned and femme-operated. Ever-aware of token gestures, Chaos is intent on upholding the ideals of inclusivity and representation through every component of the festival.

“As much as it’s an issue onstage, there is a big lack of representation backstage as well,” said Harley Evans.

Evans, an East Bay native, works with the fest as an assistant stage hand, merch booth attendant and member of the street team. “I’m the Swiss Army volunteer,” she said with a laugh. Evans works professionally as a “merch-girl,” and can be found at the tables in the Fillmore, The Chapel SF and across the country with touring bands. She also volunteered for eight years at the legendary DIY venue, 924 Gilman.

Evans believes that having an all-femme operations crew is incredibly important. “I didn’t know I could work professionally in the music scene until I saw my friends doing it,” she said. The hope for Doll Fest, one that Chaos echoes full-throatedly, is that anyone who comes to the event will not only see a great concert, but will walk away from it reconsidering what is possible to achieve.

Running alongside the threads of representation and integrity is Chaos’ obsession with throwing a great show. “The ultimate goal is to create a space where people feel safe, like they can be themselves and see some incredible music,” she said. Doll Fest’s argument is that the issue has never been a lack of femme talent in the music scene, but a lack of platform. “Since starting this I can’t tell you how many truly incredible bands I have come across.” 

Yamamoto added, “We haven’t even begun to scratch the surface in regards to talent.” It’s an interesting reframing of the dominant narrative. There has always been a glut of diverse voices and identities with talent and passion. The point of Doll Fest is not to create an entirely new narrative, but to tell the one that has been with us but overshadowed and pushed to the side from the start. 

Ann Gilly is a musician and graphic designer based in Louisville, Kentucky. One day, while scrolling Instagram, she came across a post from Doll Fest searching for femme-identified designers. She reached out, participated in an interview that evolved into an hour-and-a-half conversation, and that was that—she was brought aboard to design the graphics for this year’s festival. Gilly reports that the experience of working with the festival has been overwhelmingly gratifying. 

“There’s no bullshit,” she said. “We say what we mean and say what we need. In a very positive way.”

“One of my main focuses is building community,” Chaos said. “I want show attendees to feel a part of something larger, and I want the people working it to be able to build connections and find future opportunities.”

The hope is that Doll Fest serves as an example to others of what is achievable through effective organization and philosophical integrity. Inspired by Doll Fest, Gilly started an Instagram account called “Femmes to the Front, Louisville,” which posts features on femme-identified musicians in Louisville.

“I realized there weren’t a lot of opportunities for femmes to connect out here,” she said, “and was inspired by Doll Fest to make something to change that.” What could be a better proof of concept than that?

Doll Fest Volume II, Saturday-Sunday, March 28-29, 2-10:30pm at Oakstop California Ballroom, dollfest.net. Pre-party on Friday, March 27, 7pm at the Ivy Room, Albany; ivyroom.com.

Y&T play metal’s long game

Y&T play metal’s long game
Oakland hard rockers Y&T have been a durable fixture on the rock scene for more than 50 years. And while the metal masters racked up more than four million units in sales, when it comes to recognition via awards, they’ve arguably never received their due. That’s about to change: Y&T will be presented with the Icon Award at this...

Joyce Kim reopens Jungdon Katsu

Joyce Kim reopens Jungdon Katsu
At Joyce Kim’s Jungdon Katsu, the fresh breading makes all the difference in her crispy katsu. The chef’s daughter, Nicole, explained that some Asian markets and restaurants use dried panko. Kim uses milk bread then shreds it into long strips. “We’d been wanting to eat that kind of katsu, and then she was able to find a Korean bread...

Free Will Astrology: Week of April 8

Free Will Astrology: Week of April 8
Yep, we're still in Aries season!

UC Berkeley grads question whether to stay or struggle

UC Berkeley grads question whether to stay or struggle
Spring is about to release another wave of UC Berkeley graduates into the world. While some will follow the money—chasing AI startups and tech salaries across the Bay—many artists will stay closer to home, drawn to the East Bay’s creative legacy and slightly more forgiving rents. But as commencement nears, a harder question sets in: Is the East Bay still...

History is no joke … or is it?

History is no joke … or is it?
In some places in Berkeley, it’s April Fool’s Day every day. This is because an unknown someone—or someones—has been placing plaques honoring nonexistent events in sites around the city for years. Most people have seen historical plaques on buildings or sidewalks in various cities, designed to call attention to places where famous people lived or momentous occurrences occurred. London, for...

Music inspired by divine evolution

Music inspired by divine evolution
Jenny Gillespie Mason, who records as Sis and the Lower Wisdom, started writing songs when she was still a teenager. She said attending the Young Writers Workshop at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville was a turning point. She enrolled in UVA, fell into the local folk scene and began performing.   “Growing up I took classical piano lessons for...

Social Eyes: Week of April 2-8

Social Eyes: Week of April 2-8
This week's calendar picks (aka Social Eyes: Week of April 2-8) feature Elise Trouw, Allison, Cardenas & Nash, Verka Serduchka, Mary Halvorson, El Tren, 'Freaky Tales,' SatchVai Band, Richard Thompson, HIRS, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

FOB West moves into Prescott Market

FOB West moves into Prescott Market
Just in time for Prescott Market’s first anniversary, FOB West has joined the lineup of food vendors. Janice Dulce’s FOB Kitchen started as a pop-up in 2015, three years before opening in Temescal. Although Dulce wasn’t looking for another location, a friend of theirs who lives in West Oakland told them they should check the place out. “So then...

Free Will Astrology: Week of April 1

Free Will Astrology: Week of April 8
Welcome to Aries season!

Doll Fest puts femme to the front

Doll Fest puts femme to the front
At a basic level, “diversity, equity and inclusion” should be hard to argue against. No ecosystem, natural or cultural, can sustain itself without diversity; equity implies a fair distribution of resources; inclusion means more voices at the table. And yet, the terms now carry a kind of fatigue, even suspicion. Part of that backlash stems from bad-faith political attacks. But...
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