During this time of year, holiday craft fairs abound — ranging in size from huge warehouses to small galleries. On December 6, shoppers can make the Temescal Alley Holiday Artisan Fair their next destination for gathering gifts. The fair, which will take place in the charming Temescal Alley (right off 49th Street, just East of Telegraph) with enough locally made goods to fill, well, an alley. Rather than quantity, the focus at this fair will be quality. Offerings will include the custom ceramics of Atelier Dion, the wooden home furnishings of Melanie Abrantes, and the hand-painted and dyed lingerie of Serpent and Bow, among many others. Shops in the alley will also hold special events, including a holiday print sale at Interface gallery featuring local artists. For sustenance, Dona Tomas will be serving loaded nachos, and Rose’s Taproom — which is slated to open in the alley in 2016 — will be pouring freshly crafted beer.
Since the release of his debut mixtape, House of Balloons, Canadian singer The Weeknd has had an immeasurable impact on R&B and hip-hop. Suffice it to say that, along with that of Drake and Kanye West, his work has ushered in a new era of vulnerable, melancholic lyricism that was largely absent on the radio before House of Balloons came out in 2011. Over the past four years, The Weeknd has enjoyed a meteoric rise from noteworthy indie artist to chart-topper. His latest album, Beauty Behind the Madness, examines the dark underbelly of fame and the excess that comes with it. With lyrics such as I only love it when you touch me, not feel me/When I’m fucked up that’s the real me, The Weeknd isn’t trying to be a role model: He’s writing songs for the brokenhearted and reckless. As part of his The Madness Fall Tour, he performs at Oracle Arena with “Antidote” rapper Travis Scott and singer Halsey.
Few things are off limits for singer, songwriter, and performance artist San Cha, whose onstage persona is something like a glamorous, high-femme Sid Vicious. The interdisciplinary musician made a name for herself in Oakland as a member of the queer electro-pop group Daddie$ Pla$tik, which combined a punk ethos with a loud, gender-bending club kid aesthetic that the band developed in the Bay Area’s drag scene. San Cha performs solo as well, and at one of her last shows before she left the Bay Area for an extended stay in Mexico and LA, she played a set wearing a white wedding dress before stripping down to sequined hot pants to sing a darkwave Madonna cover. A provocateur and exhibitionist, she joins The Lovemakers, The Trims, Irising, and Vainheim on stage at 924 Gilman on December 4.
While electronic music might seem like a young person’s game, Giorgio Moroder, one of its pioneers, is still active in the genre. The Italian musician is considered a founder of disco and made a name for himself in the European club scene before producing scores of hit songs for pop icons such as Donna Summer, Blondie, Janet Jackson, and Kylie Minogue in the Seventies and Eighties. For the past five decades, Moroder has been prolific as a solo artist, as well — though after putting out his fourteenth album in 1992, he took a hiatus from performing and focused on producing videogame soundtracks. However, he returned to pop after his features on Daft Punk’s 2013 album Random Access Memories sparked renewed interest in his work. Now, Moroder primarily performs as a DJ. He comes to 1015 Folsom on December 4.
Oakland’s downtown will be welcoming its newest gallery into the 15th Street Corridor family on Friday, December 4. The Know Lodge (375 15th St.) is the brain child of local curator Joseph Lucas and street artist Julia Davis aka Bud Snow. Lucas heads The Know Collective, which began as an Oakland-based micro radio station in 2004, and has been producing local art shows and performances for the past ten years. The first show he has curated for Know will open with the gallery. Entitled Hundred Dollar $tore, it will feature affordable art (all $100 or less) from celebrated local illustrator J. Otto Seibold, respected street artist Deadeyes, oil painter Alan Grizzell, and a handful of others. While the show is, in part, meant to encourage holiday shoppers to invest in the local artistic community, it’s also intended to be enjoyed by people who aren’t looking to buy art. As the venue’s name indicates, The Know Lodge hopes to be not only a gallery, but a place for artists and art appreciators to congregate.
Correction: The original version of this story misstated Julia Davis’ last name.
Billy X Jennings, a de-facto historian for the Black Panther Party, was a member of the Oakland chapter from 1968 to 1974, when he worked at the party’s national headquarters. He served as an aid to Huey P. Newton and ran Bobby Seale’s campaign office in East Oakland, when Seale ran for mayor in 1972 and 1973. Since then, Jennings, who also regularly gives Black Panther tours of Oakland, has amassed an impressive collection of underground newspapers from the height of the Civil Rights era. The historic ephemera is on display at the Laney College Library (900 Fallon St., Oakland) in its Underground/Alternative Newspapers of the 1960s and 1970s exhibit, on view through December 11. While the show contains clippings from The Berkeley Barb, The Berkeley Tribe, The San Francisco Express Times, Good Times, The Chicago Seed, and many other papers, Jennings said the heart of the collection focuses on The Black Panther, the party’s own newspaper. It also includes five display cases filled with Black Panther buttons and other materials from the 1960s. At noon on December 3, Jennings will be speaking about the history of the Peace Movement and the development of underground newspapers in relationship to the show. He’ll also share some personal experiences as a Panther selling and working on The Black Panther.
1. The Oakland Police Department is still disproportionately stopping and searching Black residents who have done nothing wrong, the Chron$ reports, citing OPD stop data. Police often cite “reasonable suspicion,’’ which is an extremely vague legal standard, for stopping and searching Black people in Oakland. Of those stopped by OPD for reasonable suspicion from September 2014 to September 2015, 70 percent were Black, even though African Americans make up 26.5 percent of the city’s population. In addition, the vast majority of those stops did not result in an arrest or the discovery of contraband.
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3. California homeowners who have installed rooftop solar panels are increasingly angry about a provision in a new law signed by Governor Brown that excludes home solar owners from receiving subsidies for going green, the LA Times$ reports. The law states that only large utilities, like PG&E, can receive the subsidies when they build giant solar or wind farms.
5. And the gun that was used to kill Oakland muralist Antonio Ramos was stolen from the car of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, the Mercury News$ reports. It was the latest in a series of high-profile murder cases in the Bay Area in which the weapon used had been stolen from a law enforcement officer.
Now that you’ve eaten your own weight in mashed potatoes and worked it all off fighting people for Black Friday deals at Best Buy, it’s time to enjoy the weekend. Here’s how:
Antwon.Feels IV
Now in its fourth incarnation, Feels has grown large enough to be considered a festival, though the homegrown event still carries the scrappy ethos of its DIY, warehouse party beginnings. Wine & Bowties — a music and culture blog and promotional outfit that longtime friends Max Gibson and Will Bundy operate together — is throwing the music and art event at American Steel Studios in West Oakland. This time around, the sought-after Canadian producer and DJ Ryan Hemsworth tops the bill. Also headlining is Antwon, an LA-based rapper with a booming voice who got his start in Oakland’s music scene. Antwon’s sound is steeped in Nineties nostalgia and his energetic live shows hark back to his punk roots. Oakland band Meat Market, which is known for its distorted yet hooky pop tracks with a noticeable punk influence, will also perform, as will Shruggs and Rayana Jay, a new, local singer-producer duo. A plethora of local artists will fill American Steel with their artwork, zines, and collectibles, as well. DJs Neto 187, Namaste Shawty, the MoreVibes crew, and others will keep the dance party going all night. — Nastia Voynovskaya Sat., Nov. 28, 6 p.m. $25-$75. WineAndBowties.com
“100 Suns.”Synesthesia
For her piece entitled “100 Suns,” Mills College Book Art & Creative Writing MFA student Keri Miki-Lani Schroeder made one hundred snow globes, each featuring an identical image of an atomic bomb pluming over Japan. When you pick one up and give it a shake, little, white flecks float around the explosion in swirls — turning what typically depicts charming snowfall into a representation of smoke and mass destruction. The piece sharply critiques the aestheticization of the atomic bomb in American cultural memory and the ways in which old nuclear testing sites in Nevada have become tourist destinations. Schroeder’s piece is one of many in Synesthesia, this year’s Mills College Book Art & Creative Writing MFA Thesis Exhibition, currently on view at Aggregate Space Gallery (801 West Grand Ave., Oakland). And it’s an apt representation of the range of sculptural works that come out of Mill’s acclaimed book arts program — despite its seemingly narrow title. The last day to view the show will be this Saturday, November 28. For the closing, there will be an artist talk at 6 p.m. — Sarah Burke Sat., Nov. 28, 6 p.m. Free. AggregateSpace.com
Leftöver Crack.Leftöver Crack, Theories, Rats in The Wall, Heartless Folk
Though the storied New York punk band Leftöver Crack never signed to a major label, the group developed a cult following after it debuted in the late Nineties with its self-released demo, Shoot the Kids at School. Like the project’s title suggests, the group’s peppy-yet-gritty ska-punk discography is snarky and contrarian. Lead singer Scott Sturgeon, aka Stza, has used his lyrics to call out capitalism, police brutality, racism, and homophobia, and his social criticisms are as relevant today as they were more than ten years ago when Leftöver Crack released most of its material. On the track “Gay Rude Boys Unite” from its 2001 album, Mediocre Generica, for instance, he criticizes people who purport to be anti-racist but have homophobic beliefs. The track was definitely ahead of its time, as the concept of intersectionality — or seeing the overlap between different kinds of marginalized people’s struggles — has only entered into mainstream feminist discourse recently. So come on, leave the closet, and on your way out grab a bat/’Cause there’s a battle to be fought, and the prize is fucking fat, he growls. Leftöver Crack performs at 924 Gilman on November 28 with Theories, Rats in the Wall, and Heartless Folk. — N.V.
Sat., Nov. 28, 7 p.m. $15. 924Gilman.org
Techie Blood
There’s little available information about Techie Blood, the new hardcore band that features members of Stressors and Cudgel, other than its abrasive, seven-minute mixtape, Neighborhood Watch #12 aka Millions of Dead Techies. The short recording was uploaded to a mysterious YouTube channel called Guy Fieri Official in August, though the account does not appear to belong to the bleach blond, hedgehog-haired celebrity chef. Techie Blood’s music is punchy, fast, and violent, with distorted, steely instrumentation that culminates in a barrage of noise. Though Neighborhood Watch #12 sounds mechanized and industrial, it ends with a washed-out, distorted beat that strangely evokes R&B. Techie Blood’s extreme name and aesthetic resonates with the anti-gentrification current in the Bay Area’s rock scene, with many bands reacting to the region’s skyrocketing cost of living with aggressive, angry music that departs from the garage-pop of years past. The group performs with Seattle band Lysol and Oakland band The Light on November 28 at 1-2-3-4 Go! Records. — N.V.
Sat., Nov. 28, 7 p.m. $7. Facebook.com/1234GoRecords
Disgraced.
Credits: Liz LaurenDisgraced
Ayad Akhtar’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Disgraced, has made its way from Broadway to the Berkeley Repertory Theatre (2015 Addison St., Berkeley), bringing shrewd director Kimberly Senior with it. The West Coast debut makes Disgraced the most produced play in the country this year, and for good reason: The explosive story about a Muslim-American man grappling with his both sides of his identity has never felt more prescient. Amir (Bernard White) hosts an upper-class dinner party with the hope of getting ahead at his law firm, but when sociopolitical conversations snarl the affair, it becomes clear that unspoken prejudices mar even the most progressive social circles. As Amir watches his American Dream crumble, he realizes that assimilation in a post 9/11 America may be futile after all. Riveting performances and even better writing render Disgraced worthy of the acclaim the play has received nationwide. It might just be the best, most poignant play you see this year. — Gillian Edevane
Through Dec. 20. $29-$89. BerkeleyRep.comBerkeleyRep.com
If your pockets are feelin’ light and you’re still yearning for more suggestions, we’ve got a ton, and these ones are all FREE! We’re Hungry: Got any East Bay news, events, video, or miscellany we should know about? Feed us at Sa*********@************ss.com.
A fundraising letter from the Deputy Sheriff’s Association of Alameda County.
In a recently mailed fundraising letter for the Alameda County deputy sheriff’s union, Deputy Sheriff Tom Matheny claimed that police officers are being threatened by an “unprecedented wave” of violence and assassinations. Matheny also wrote that two recent California laws aimed at reducing mass incarceration and decriminalizing nonviolent crimes have been a “double punch” against police and public safety.
Neither claim is supported by facts. Official statistics show that police are safer on the job now than they have ever been. And experts studying the impacts of Prop 47 and AB 109 say it’s too early to tell if they have caused noticeable increases in crime. The new laws have, however, reduced the prison population.
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Here’s an excerpt from Matheny’s letter:
“Today as I ask for your continued support of our community mission, we are mindful of the unprecedented wave of violence against our fellow officers in Ferguson, Baltimore, New York and especially the execution omurder of a Texs Sheriff’s deputy. Combined with the double punch of Caliofrnia’s AB 109 (early release of some prisoners) and Prop 47 (making most property crimes, theft and non-violent drug crimes a misdemeanor) your future support is more critical than ever.”
According to official law enforcement data collected by the FBI, the number of officers killed on the job has been dramatically dropping almost every year since the mid-1970s. Furthermore, the number of officers murdered while on the job is in fact at a historical low point. Even the most recent numbers collected by law enforcement groups like the Alameda County Depurty Sheriff’s Association show that few cops are being killed in the line of duty.
“According to data available from the ‘Officer Down Memorial Page’ on the annual number of non-accidental, firearm-related police fatalities, 2015 is on track to be the safest year for law enforcement in the US since 1887 (except for a slightly safer year in 2013), more than 125 years ago (see top chart above). And adjusted for the country’s growing population, the years 2013 and 2015 will be the two safest years for police in US history (see bottom chart above), measured by the annual number of firearm-related police fatalities per 1 million people.”
According to the Officer Down Memorial Page for the Alameda County Sheriff, the last ACSO deputy killed in the line of duty was Deputy Sheriff John Paul Monego. Monego was shot and killed in 1998. Since 1898, nine Alameda County sheriff’s deputies have been killed.
As for the impact of AB 109 and Prop 47, most experts say it’s too early to tell if either law is causing an uptick in crime.
For example, as Sam Levin wrote in a recent issue of the Express, many of the people claiming that Prop 47 is causing a crime spike have failed to include any credible evidence or data linking the ballot measure to crime trends. UC Berkeley criminologist Barry Krisberg told Levin that police departments simply don’t have enough data yet to determine whether or not the policy correlates to crime patterns.
Representatives from the Alameda County Deputy Sheriff’s Association did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment on the unsubstantiated claims in Matheny’s fundraising letter.
Autumn 2015 has been a ripe season for no-holds-barred psychopathic gangsters at the movies. Black Mass set the mark high, but now Brian Helgeland’s Legend gleefully leaps over it in a shower of spittle and knuckle dusters. If Johnny Depp was full-on insane as Boston crime boss Whitey Bulger, then Tom Hardy must be at least twice as crazy portraying both of the mercurial Kray brothers, Reggie and Ronnie, the scourge of Swinging London in the 1960s.
If you like your blood by the quart and your pubs dark and woody, one or another of the Kray twins will scratch that itch. But you’ll probably end up choosing one of Hardy’s show-stopping impersonations over the other. Reggie and Ronnie together are just too much, whether shredding a bar full of rivals or stopping in for tea at their mum’s. Hardy’s dual role, compulsively showy and impossible to soft-pedal, destroys the middle ground.
Reggie, the more charming of the pair, seems satisfied running a string of nightclubs and casinos and romancing his East End neighborhood squeeze, tender-hearted Frances Shea (Australian actress Emily Browning), who forever tries and fails to cure her man of his wicked ways. Reggie can take his lumps and dish them out — his prison-guard beating scene may send squeamish viewers scrambling for the exits — but he’s the comparative diplomat of the firm, the right guy to negotiate with such visiting American hoods as Angelo Bruno (Chazz Palminteri).
Thomas Hardy stars as Reggie and Ronnie Kray in Legend.
Thomas Hardy stars as Reggie and Ronnie Kray in Legend.
Ronnie, meanwhile, is an animal, a stammering but cunning former mental patient with an unpredictable temper and the thickest cockney accent in captivity, a gob full of mashed potatoes. He’s also flamboyantly gay, with one or two young boyfriends constantly at his elbow and a fondness for hosting orgies at his home for influential houseguests. Unaccountably, Ronnie’s dream is to finance a charity development project in Nigeria. For that and other odd character quirks, Ronnie is hands down the more entertaining of the two. But in the tradition of the best mobster flicks, we’d rather watch him on screen than meet him in a dark alley (the real Ronnie died in 1995; Reggie in 2000).
London-born character actor Hardy, of course, has been playing variations on Reggie and Ronnie Kray for much of his film career, notably in Bronson (2008) and the 2014 TV series Peaky Blinders. But he has also ventured out into deep character in such dramas as The Drop (as a luckless gofer, opposite James Gandolfini); the tense one-man show Locke; sci-fi epics The Dark Knight Rises and Inception; as a fine Bill Sikes in BBC’s Oliver Twist; and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, in the role of MI5 asset Ricki Tarr of Penang. Like many English actors, he portrays Americans with ease. In the leading-muscle-man sweepstakes versus, for instance, Channing Tatum, Hardy clearly has the upper hand — perfectly happy to not only play against type, but to convincingly portray human weakness. For all their blunt brutality, the Kray twins are emotional weaklings. Hardy capitalizes on their failings.
For all its spectacular violence, the tone of Legend — screenplay by director Helgeland (42, Mystic River, L.A. Confidential), adapted from John Pearson’s book, The Profession of Violence — revels in a peculiar East London hominess, sentimentality with broken noses. David Thewlis, always well cast as a cad, plays the fixer Leslie Payne. The flavor extends to such Kray henchmen as goofball Jack the Hat (Sam Spruell), Big Pat the bouncer (Adam Fogerty), Albie Donoghue (Paul Anderson), and Ronnie’s paramour Teddy Smith (Taron Egerton).
And let’s not forget Nipper Read the Scotland Yard copper (Christopher Eccleston), a face that would stop a clock. If we squint the right way at their antics, Legend plays like a nasty comedy. Some audiences might have trouble laughing along with a movie that depicts such vicious mayhem, but if that’s no deterrent, Legend weighs in officially as too much of a good thing. Unapologetic rough stuff, with testosterone seeping out of every frame.
During this time of year, holiday craft fairs abound — ranging in size from huge warehouses to small galleries. On December 6, shoppers can make the Temescal Alley Holiday Artisan Fair their next destination for gathering gifts. The fair, which will take place in the charming Temescal Alley (right off 49th Street, just East of Telegraph) with enough locally...
Since the release of his debut mixtape, House of Balloons, Canadian singer The Weeknd has had an immeasurable impact on R&B and hip-hop. Suffice it to say that, along with that of Drake and Kanye West, his work has ushered in a new era of vulnerable, melancholic lyricism that was largely absent on the radio before House of Balloons...
Few things are off limits for singer, songwriter, and performance artist San Cha, whose onstage persona is something like a glamorous, high-femme Sid Vicious. The interdisciplinary musician made a name for herself in Oakland as a member of the queer electro-pop group Daddie$ Pla$tik, which combined a punk ethos with a loud, gender-bending club kid aesthetic that the band...
While electronic music might seem like a young person’s game, Giorgio Moroder, one of its pioneers, is still active in the genre. The Italian musician is considered a founder of disco and made a name for himself in the European club scene before producing scores of hit songs for pop icons such as Donna Summer, Blondie, Janet Jackson, and...
Oakland’s downtown will be welcoming its newest gallery into the 15th Street Corridor family on Friday, December 4. The Know Lodge (375 15th St.) is the brain child of local curator Joseph Lucas and street artist Julia Davis aka Bud Snow. Lucas heads The Know Collective, which began as an Oakland-based micro radio station in 2004, and has been...
Billy X Jennings, a de-facto historian for the Black Panther Party, was a member of the Oakland chapter from 1968 to 1974, when he worked at the party’s national headquarters. He served as an aid to Huey P. Newton and ran Bobby Seale’s campaign office in East Oakland, when Seale ran for mayor in 1972 and 1973. Since then,...
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
1. The Oakland Police Department is still disproportionately stopping and searching Black residents who have done nothing wrong, the Chron$ reports, citing OPD stop data. Police often cite “reasonable suspicion,’’ which is an extremely vague legal standard, for stopping and searching Black people in Oakland. Of those stopped by OPD for reasonable suspicion from September 2014 to...
Now that you've eaten your own weight in mashed potatoes and worked it all off fighting people for Black Friday deals at Best Buy, it's time to enjoy the weekend. Here's how:
Feels IV
Now in its fourth incarnation, Feels has grown large enough to be considered a festival, though the homegrown event still carries the scrappy ethos...
In a recently mailed fundraising letter for the Alameda County deputy sheriff's union, Deputy Sheriff Tom Matheny claimed that police officers are being threatened by an "unprecedented wave" of violence and assassinations. Matheny also wrote that two recent California laws aimed at reducing mass incarceration and decriminalizing nonviolent crimes have been a "double punch" against police and public...
Autumn 2015 has been a ripe season for no-holds-barred psychopathic gangsters at the movies. Black Mass set the mark high, but now Brian Helgeland’s Legend gleefully leaps over it in a shower of spittle and knuckle dusters. If Johnny Depp was full-on insane as Boston crime boss Whitey Bulger, then Tom Hardy must be at least twice as crazy...
