Over Super Bowl weekend, downtown Oakland will likely look a little different. The folks over at Our City hope to include everyone in that transformation, even those not necessarily interested in sports. The design nonprofit puts together projects that invite viewers to reimagine the look of their cities, and from February 4–6, they will take over Frank Ogawa Plaza with a free design fair featuring twelve participatory installations. The works include “Block by Block,” a large-scale building block kit; “Jelly Fish,” a smartphone accessible website that will allow people to play music together in real time through speakers in the plaza; and a multi-player pedal-powered pump organ. Each installation is presented by a local artist, design team, or organization such as the West Oakland Youth Center. The fair’s theme is “play,” as Our City hopes the installations will activate the plaza’s potential as an urban playscape.
A tale not so much about death as it is about what follows in its wake, Little Erik is the latest adaptation by acclaimed writer and director Mark Jackson. Showing through February 28 at Aurora Theatre (2081 Addison St., Berkeley), the play is based on Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s Little Eyolf. This version is set in a mountain home just north of San Francisco and follows a couple as they reckon with their guilt — and each other — in the aftermath of the untimely death of their youngest son. Jackson, who the Express has twice named “Best Director” in the East Bay, is sure to bring all of his directorial might to the adaptation, which serves as this season’s mainstage production for Global Age Project 2.0, Aurora Theatre Company’s recently revamped new works initiative. More than one hundred years have passed since Little Eyolf was first performed, but Jackson seems to have transformed Ibsen’s classic play into one worth the contemplation of contemporary audiences.
Local rapper Chhoti Maa teamed up with fellow MC Madlines to start the music collective BrujaLyfe last year. Its first endeavor? A concert with a diverse lineup of female performers titled The Brujas You Couldn’t Kill. The provocative title helped the event gain traction on social media, resonating with a wave of self-identifying witches who tap into pagan spiritual practices to reconnect with traditions that colonialism had previously stamped out. In recent years, the term bruja, or witch, has become a potent vehicle of resistance for some Latinas and for women of other diasporas, as well. Chhoti Maa, who often rhymes in Spanish, invokes her Mexican roots in her work regularly. Outside of making music, she’s an activist and educator, and her lyrics frequently touch upon themes of resilience. She performs on February 6 at Venus Rising Collective’s showcase at The Legionnaire Saloon in Oakland.
In the music video for her breakout single, “Unstoppable,” English singer Lianne La Havas twirls around an empty room, showing off her poised, ballerina-like dance moves and rich, soulful voice, while bouncing her mane of curls. Though La Havas sings about romantic love — We are unstoppable — in the video, she is the embodiment of self-contained happiness, the kind that doesn’t rely on others for validation. In addition to being a talented vocalist, La Havas is also a multi-instrumentalist, and her album Blood, on which “Unstoppable” appears, is currently up for a Grammy. It’s a light, breezy pop record that La Havas began to write after an inspiring trip to Jamaica, where part of her family is from, and her songwriting contains palpable strains of island charm in its acoustic instrumentation. Catch her at The New Parish on February 9 with DJ Nina Sol.
It doesn’t matter that Hail, Caesar! barely hangs together. It’s too much fun to watch. Joel and Ethan Coen have given us more than their share of bone-chilling noir and ink-black comedy; they’ve made films that deal with morality and mortality and the divine absurdity of existence. With Hail, Caesar!, they’ve forgone the brow furrowing and decided to revel in their favorite topic of all — movies. In what amounts to little more than an extended string of cameos and hilarious set pieces, Hail, Caesar! is a firm, feature-length pinch on Hollywood’s swollen, self-absorbed posterior.
A thin sliver of plot runs through Hail, Caesar! — movie star Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) is abducted by a cabal of communist screenwriters — but it’s primarily a chance for the Coens to dabble in the filmmaking styles of Hollywood circa 1951. Studio head Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) saunters the vast backlots of Capitol Pictures, surveying his domain and making sure the picture-making is running smoothly.
George Clooney stars in Hail, Caesar!
George Clooney stars in Hail, Caesar!
He wanders through a Busby Berkeley-esque aquatic dance scene and a turgid Bible epic in the style of Ben-Hur; there’s Channing Tatum as a sailor in a Gene Kelly-style dance production and a rootin’-tootin’ western laden with acrobatic stunts. The movie’s best scene is when the drawling, lasso-spinning Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich) is asked to take over the leading role in a stiff, brittle melodrama directed by Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes, in full Grand Budapest mode). It doesn’t go smoothly.
Altogether, Hail, Caesar! doesn’t add up to much. Actually, it doesn’t add up to anything at all. But even if it occasionally feels like the Coens are dinking around in a sandbox, there are more than enough ridiculous moments to make you giggle. They’ve made a remarkably silly valentine to movies, in all of their ludicrous, laughable glory.
Last Spring, the Bay Area lost a beloved creative force when Susan O’Malley died suddenly. O’Malley’s medium was positivity, which she expressed through public pep talks and other performances and bright, large-scale prints with earnest, inspirational phrases. Up until her death, she had been working on a project called Advice from My 80-Year-Old Self, for which she asked pedestrians of all ages “What advice would your eighty-year-old self give to the you of today?” O’Malley received phrases such as “Be you” and “Nothing will be what you expected,” and turned them into a collection of bold, colorful posters. Now, Chronicle Books has published the series as a beautifully printed art book that shares the project’s title. On February 10, there will be a release event for the book in the new San Francisco Arts Commission Galleries (401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco), where many of O’Malley’s pieces are currently on view.
The last Max Savage Show packed the Starline Social Club, with people on stage battling over which Bay Area city is the best and Express weed expert David Downs answering marijuana questions while sharing a joint with audience members. The live talk show series that places local journalists, musicians, and chefs in absurd situations is back for another round on February 4 at 8 p.m., once again at Starline (2236 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland). This time, the lineup includes Re/code founder and popular tech journalist Kara Swisher as well as Will Bundy and Max Gibson of Oakland’s favorite online culture magazine, Wine & Bowties. Oakland rapper Queens D.Light, local folk act Foxtails Brigade, and singer-songwriter John Vanderslice will be the musical guests, while the cooks from Abura-ya will be there, presumably to talk about their Japanese fried chicken. It’s not exactly clear what else will occur, but it will likely be ridiculous and it definitely won’t be streamed online.
Nancy Skinner.
Former Assemblymember Nancy Skinner of Berkeley reported that she has nearly $1.1 million in cash reserves in her state Senate campaign account, which is more than ten times what her main opponent Sandré Swanson, has in total cash on hand, according to campaign finance reports released today. To further Swanson’s woes, Piedmont political upstart Katherine Welch, who announced her campaign in late September, also outraised the former Oakland Assemblymember during the last six months of 2015.
In addition, Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley’s re-election campaign is languishing in debt, while his challenger for the East Oakland and Tri-Valley seat, former Oakland mayoral candidate Bryan Parker, is brimming with political contributions, according to campaign finance data.
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Although a large amount of Skinner’s fundraising advantage came by way of funds transferred last year from her former Assembly warchest, she nonetheless topped the field with $277,034 in contributions since July 1 for $1,095,336 in available cash as of December 31. Welch, who is the daughter of former General Electric chairman Jack Welch, raised $104,307 in just three months and reported $64,273 in cash on hand at the end of 2015. Swanson, despite being backed by nearly every big-name Democrat in the East Bay, received just $87,796 and banked $104,773 in cash. San Pablo Councilmember Rich Kinney, a Republican, reported raising $6,170 for the year with $2,954 cash in the bank. Both Skinner and Swanson have nearly identical unpaid bills of around, $24,000, while Welch has none, according to the reports.
Yet despite the large difference in campaign funds, the race between Skinner and Swanson, two well-known East Bay progressives, appears to be close. Over the weekend, Alameda County Democrats decided against offering either candidate the statewide party’s valuable endorsement for the June primary. At the pre-endorsement caucus in Oakland on Saturday afternoon, Swanson received the most votes of any candidate, barely beating Skinner, 45-41, but failed to win the required majority of delegates to be considered for the endorsement at the California Democratic Party Convention in San Jose at the end of the month. In addition, the statewide Service Employees International Union, one of the most powerful labor unions in California, offered last week to split its endorsement between Skinner and Swanson.
Meanwhile, the possibility of a hotly contested race for the Alameda County Board of Supervisors is becoming a very real following Monday’s fundraising reports. Miley, who has represented District Four since 2000, raised $41,191 during the second half of last year, but spent $56,470, while reporting just $5,421 in available cash. The low amount of cash reserves is worsened by $20,813 in campaign debt, according to his finance report.
Parker’s ability to raise large sums of campaign contributions was evident during his run for Oakland mayor in 2014 and appears to be continuing in his bid to unseat Miley. Parker received $117,828 in contributions since opening his campaign account in September. He spent $47,752 during the same period for a total of $76,660 in remaining cash. The campaign also reported $6,585 in debts.
The possibility of facing a large fundraising deficit to Parker may be a reason why Miley’s campaign enlisted the fundraising help of Don Perata, the well-connected former state Senate pro tem. Last Saturday, both campaigns staged large fundraisers — Miley with a black-tie affair at the Claremont Country Club and Parker with a kick-off at Oakland’s Castlemont High School featuring the school’s pep squad and a bouncy house.
1. PG&E says it lost twelve years of natural gas pipeline records for portions of the South Bay, the Chron reports. PG&E’s shoddy recordkeeping is at the heart of the state investigation of the utility, which stems from the 2010 deadly pipeline blast in San Bruno. The missing records involved underground pipelines in an area that includes Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Sunnyvale, Campbell, Cupertino, and Monte Sereno.
Alex Padilla.
2. The massive methane gas leak near Porter Ranch in Southern California has forced Secretary of State Alex Padilla to evacuate his family, NBC Los Angeles reports (h/t Rough & Tumble). Padilla’s wife and three young children are now living in a Burbank hotel. Southern California Gas has said that it likely will take months to fix the leak, which has been spewing huge amounts of greenhouse gases and has prompted thousands of people to flee their homes.
3. The federal government has agreed to stop approving new fracking operations off the California coast until it has determined whether the oil and gas extraction method is safe for marine life and water quality, the AP reports (h/t Rough & Tumble). The Department of Interior’s decision stems from a lawsuit filed by environmental organizations.
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4. The state’s almond industry is taking a major hit because of plummeting prices worldwide, the SacBee$ reports. The massive almond boom in the state, which has depleted California’s water supplies, was originally prompted by high prices.
6. San Francisco prosecutors may file criminal charges against two Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies who pursued a man into the city and then beat him relentlessly — in an incident that was caught on video, the Chron$ reports. Investigators are also looking into three other Alameda County deputies.
Benjamin Scott.
Credits: Advent Properties.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf is recommending that the city council approve thirteen different appointments to the city’s various boards and commissions at the council’s meeting scheduled for Tuesday night. The council will also finalize a $450,000 settlement with the family of a man who died in police custody.
Alternate landlord seat: Schaaf is recommending that Benjamin Scott be reappointed to the Rent Board, which is responsible for mediating disputes between landlords and tenants. Scott is an Oakland landlord and real estate broker with Advent Properties, and if approved by the council, Scott would take an alternate landlord seat on the rent board. But according to state records, Scott has a history of mishandling real estate trust funds, and his company broke state law when it advertised for, and obtained advanced fees from, landlords to run an “eviction service” without getting prior approval from the state Bureau of Real Estate. The violations occurred between 2011 and 2013, while Scott was a member of Oakland’s Rent Board, and were discovered when the state conducted an audit of Advent Properties in January 2014. The Bureau of Real Estate found that Scott “failed to take reasonable steps, including but not limited to, the handling of trust funds, supervision of employees, and the implementation of policies, rules, and systems to ensure the compliance of [his] business with the Real Estate Law and the Regulations.” Scott settled the violations with the Bureau of Real Estate in October of 2014 by agreeing to pay fines adding up to $6,000, plus fees of $12,672. His real estate license was also suspended for thirty days. Scott was originally appointed to the Rent Board in 2009 by then-Mayor Jean Quan.
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Neutral rent board seat: Schaaf is also recommending that Edward Lai, an attorney with the Bishop Barry law firm, be reappointed to a neutral seat on the rent board for a term ending in February 2017. According to the Bishop Barry law firm’s website, Lai specializes in representing and defending small businesses, and he is an experienced “landlord rights” attorney. Lai was also originally appointed to the Rent Board by Quan in 2011.
Port Commission: Schaaf has nominated labor union leader Andreas Ferreira Cluver and the Spanish Speaking Unity Council’s former CEO Arabella Martinez to fill two seats on the Oakland Port Commission. Cluver is the secretary treasurer of the Alameda County Building and Construction Trades Council, the umbrella organization for 28 different craft and trade unions. Martinez led the Unity Council, an influential East Oakland nonprofit, between 1969 and 1974, and again from 1989 to 2005. She is currently the interim CEO of the Latino Community Foundation of San Francisco.
Police Review Board: Schaaf’s nominees to the Citizens Police Review Board are Sharon Ball, a certified fraud examiner who until October of last year worked in the city auditor’s office, and Mauricio Wilson, rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Oakland.
Settling police lawsuits: In 2015, the City of Oakland paid out $175,154 to settle nine lawsuits against the police, most of them for collisions involving police vehicles. This week the city will pay out more than double this amount to settle one lawsuit against OPD. Oakland will pay $450,000 to the family of Hernan Jarmillos, who was killed by several Oakland police officers in 2013. Last week, video captured by a police officer’s body camera surfaced, which showed an officer pinning Jarmillos to the ground with his knee, while Jarmillos yelled “I can’t breath.” Jarmillos yelled “they’re killing me,” and “I can’t breath” over and over before dying.
Over Super Bowl weekend, downtown Oakland will likely look a little different. The folks over at Our City hope to include everyone in that transformation, even those not necessarily interested in sports. The design nonprofit puts together projects that invite viewers to reimagine the look of their cities, and from February 4–6, they will take over Frank Ogawa Plaza...
A tale not so much about death as it is about what follows in its wake, Little Erik is the latest adaptation by acclaimed writer and director Mark Jackson. Showing through February 28 at Aurora Theatre (2081 Addison St., Berkeley), the play is based on Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen’s Little Eyolf. This version is set in a mountain home...
Local rapper Chhoti Maa teamed up with fellow MC Madlines to start the music collective BrujaLyfe last year. Its first endeavor? A concert with a diverse lineup of female performers titled The Brujas You Couldn’t Kill. The provocative title helped the event gain traction on social media, resonating with a wave of self-identifying witches who tap into pagan spiritual...
In the music video for her breakout single, “Unstoppable,” English singer Lianne La Havas twirls around an empty room, showing off her poised, ballerina-like dance moves and rich, soulful voice, while bouncing her mane of curls. Though La Havas sings about romantic love — We are unstoppable — in the video, she is the embodiment of self-contained happiness, the...
It doesn't matter that Hail, Caesar! barely hangs together. It’s too much fun to watch. Joel and Ethan Coen have given us more than their share of bone-chilling noir and ink-black comedy; they’ve made films that deal with morality and mortality and the divine absurdity of existence. With Hail, Caesar!, they've forgone the brow furrowing and decided to revel...
Last Spring, the Bay Area lost a beloved creative force when Susan O’Malley died suddenly. O’Malley’s medium was positivity, which she expressed through public pep talks and other performances and bright, large-scale prints with earnest, inspirational phrases. Up until her death, she had been working on a project called Advice from My 80-Year-Old Self, for which she asked pedestrians...
The last Max Savage Show packed the Starline Social Club, with people on stage battling over which Bay Area city is the best and Express weed expert David Downs answering marijuana questions while sharing a joint with audience members. The live talk show series that places local journalists, musicians, and chefs in absurd situations is back for another round...
Former Assemblymember Nancy Skinner of Berkeley reported that she has nearly $1.1 million in cash reserves in her state Senate campaign account, which is more than ten times what her main opponent Sandré Swanson, has in total cash on hand, according to campaign finance reports released today. To further Swanson’s woes, Piedmont political upstart Katherine Welch, who announced her...
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. PG&E says it lost twelve years of natural gas pipeline records for portions of the South Bay, the Chron reports. PG&E’s shoddy recordkeeping is at the heart of the state investigation of the utility, which stems from the 2010 deadly pipeline blast in San Bruno. The missing records involved underground pipelines in an area that includes...
Benjamin Scott.
Credits: Advent Properties.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf is recommending that the city council approve thirteen different appointments to the city's various boards and commissions at the council’s meeting scheduled for Tuesday night. The council will also finalize a $450,000 settlement with the family of a man who died in police custody.
Alternate landlord seat: Schaaf is...
