One of the most captivating movies of 2008, Herb & Dorothy, was a documentary profile of Herb and Dorothy Vogel, a New York City married couple whose lives were completely devoted to contemporary art. Every inch of their modest Manhattan apartment was decorated with their astounding collection of paintings, sculpture, installations, and drawings, diligently and lovingly acquired from the artists themselves. The Vogels were far from rich. Herb (who died in 2012) was a postal clerk, Dorothy a librarian. But they carefully budgeted their incomes to be able to acquire the artworks they admired, and counted the artists as their friends.
Compare and contrast the Vogels with the life of Peggy Guggenheim, subject of Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s thought-provoking documentary, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict. A member of the same extended family that founded the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC native Peggy (1898–1979) was the self-described black sheep of a branch of the family that lost its fortune sometime in the early 1920s.
That did not, however, prevent her from moving to Paris at age 23, opening an art gallery, and hooking up with a truly mind-boggling roster of creative types just as “off their rockers” as she was. Make your own list of groundbreaking 20th-century visual and literary artists of the “Lost Generation”: Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Ezra Pound, André Breton, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, Giorgio de Chirico, René Magritte, Constantin Brâncuşi, Joan Miró, Alberto Giacometti, et al. Ms. Guggenheim either represented them, partied with them, slept with them (she joyfully labeled herself a nymphomaniac), or bought their work. When she fled Europe ahead of the Nazis she moved one of the world’s greatest modern art collections to New York, and eventually to Venice. Her New York pals included Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, and the wife-husband artists Virginia Admiral and Robert De Niro, whose son, the movie star, is one of the film’s talking heads.
There’s too much of a “society chitchat” gossipy tone in Vreeland’s archived questions to Guggenheim, but the sheer weight and prestige of Peggy’s connections are something to behold. What she did, no one can do any more.
Most people’s understanding of the ways in which gender and technology intersect stops at Facebook pronoun options. But for the Gender v. Technology performance salon taking place at B4bel4b (184 10th St., Oakland) gallery on Saturday, November 21, a group of 23 artists will be investigating the nuanced manner by which gender and technology inform each other in our everyday lives. Twelve of the artists will be giving performances throughout the night, totaling in about two hours of movement, theatrics, and experimentation. For example, two artists plan to get married over video chat and another will be using copper wiring to capture sounds created by the audience and reconfigure them in real time. Between performances, attendees can engage with installations — mostly video work, projections, and sculpture — that explore the ways in which technology can both require us to conform to gender categories and liberate us from them, specifically in the Bay Area.
Rania is a young, Palestinian mother and the only female police detective in the northern West Bank. Chloe is a Jewish-American peace worker and documentarian who traveled to Palestine after being laid off from her Silicon Valley tech job. In Kate Raphael’s debut novel, Murder Under the Bridge: A Palestine Mystery, these two protagonists must overcome their cultural differences to solve a murder — a dangerous investigation that brings them inside refugee camps and the inner-workings of the sex-trafficking trade. Raphael is an Oakland-based feminist and queer activist and KPFA radio host who lived in Palestine for eighteen months documenting human rights violations against Palestinians with the International Women’s Peace Service. While there, she was imprisoned by Israeli authorities for more than a month due to her activist work. Raphael will be presenting her new novel at La Peña Cultural Center (3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley) on Thursday, November 19. The $5 event is a benefit for the Middle East Children’s Alliance.
If you could compress hundreds of thousands of years of climate change data into a few minutes — what would it sound like? That’s the challenge behind The ClimateMusic Project, a concert and data project debuting at the Chabot Space & Science Center (10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland) on November 21. In a sample of the concept on the project’s website, “America the Beautiful” is played using a trumpet, violin, and bass to represent different systems within the atmosphere — carbon dioxide levels, global temperature, and the ocean’s pH levels, respectively. The composition starts out sounding harmonious during the centuries when the climate was relatively stable, but as temperatures rise and the pH level of the ocean goes out of whack, the pitch of the instruments change. A discordant sound emerges, leaving the listener struggling to hold onto the melody of the song. The goal is to “communicate climate science in a very broad spectrum — the hearts, minds, values,” said William Collins, a science advisor for the project, in the introductory video. “I think that’s an immensely important development.”
On The Classical’s most recent album, Diptych, singer Juliet Gordon culls surrealist lyrics from word associations and dream symbolism, heightening the drama of her verses through a slow, suspenseful cadence. Previously, Gordon and drummer Britt Ciampa, her main creative collaborator, performed using pre-recorded backing tracks that featured sparse, moody keys and string instruments. But now, The Classical has a new band. The group will debut its retooled live show at its upcoming performance, Water on Mars, at Good Mother Gallery in downtown Oakland on November 21. Them Are Us Too, a local avant-garde pop two-piece, will perform alongside The Classical, as will Laughters, another duo with a similar penchant for poetic lyricism and dark, noise-addled compositions. Drea Faux Real, a DJ who works with rising Oakland rapper Tia Nomore, will spin party jams after the bands perform.
Chance the Rapper’s flow is the rap equivalent of free jazz. Throughout his verses, his throaty, guttural voice bounces between different pitches and intonations, frequently breaking from clear diction into more visceral, abstract sounds. When he dropped his critically acclaimed debut mixtape, Acid Rap, in 2013, the self-released project’s popularity earned him a spot on XXL’s Freshman Class of 2014 and recognition on many major music publications’ year-end lists. But though Chance was on the cusp of widespread fame, he took time to focus on experimental projects instead of rushing toward pop stardom. For instance, he formed the jazz-hip-hop fusion band The Social Experiment with several childhood friends from Chicago, which released a jubilant, improvisatory mixtape, Surf, this past summer. He also collaborated with one of today’s most unorthodox independent rappers, Berkeley’s Lil B, on Free Based Freestyles Mixtape. Hot off the heels of his new track with Justin Bieber, “Confident,” Chance performs at The Fox Theater with D.R.A.M., Towkio, and Metro Boomin (the producer of Drake and Future’s epic mixtape, What a Time to be Alive) for his Family Matters Tour on Saturday.
Oakland police blockade International Boulevard at 54th Avenue on Sunday night to disrupt a sideshow that involved 150 vehicles.
Credits: Darwin BondGraham
Several massive sideshows took over Oakland’s streets this weekend, and Oakland police officers shot and killed a man on Sunday evening at an East Oakland gas station. Details about the shooting and the sideshows are just beginning to emerge.
At a press conference this morning, Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent said officers had “developed information” about a group of motorcyclists who planned to gather in the city on Sunday. Officers tracked the motorcyclists as they rode through city streets. Police eventually cornered some of the bikers at a gas station at 90th and Bancroft avenues. While attempting to confiscate motorcycles from the riders, four Oakland police officers fatally shot a 39 year-old man. But Whent said the man did not appear to be associated with the motorcyclists. Police produced a picture of a “replica” airsoft gun they said the man pointed in the direction of the officers before the shooting. Several people who said they witnessed the shooting told me they heard between ten and fifteen shots.
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An Oakland police officer stands near the body of a man shot and killed by the police on Sunday night.
Credits: Darwin BondGraham
Among the officers who shot the man were three rookies with between six and eighteen months on the force, along with a sergeant with seven years of experience. Whent said none of the officers had their body cameras activated, because they were in the process of writing police reports and impounding the vehicles. It’s unclear if there is any video of the shooting, but the gas station where it occurred has its own video surveillance system, and Whent said the police collected camera footage from businesses and houses in the area.
The shooting sapped resources from OPD at the same moment a sideshow converged on International Boulevard and 54th Avenue. About 150 cars took over the intersection. Drivers cut donuts in the street and shots were fired, according to witnesses. The sideshow on Sunday night followed a takeover of Interstate 880 on Saturday night and early Sunday morning when about 700 cars stopped traffic to perform stunts. At one point, OPD officers retreated from the scene and participants in the sideshow climbed aboard an empty police car and stomped its hood and windows. Police said the sideshows included car clubs from Fresno and Los Angeles, and motorcyclists from San Jose.
“The city will not tolerate sideshow activities,” said Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf during the press conference this morning. “The residents of East Oakland deserve peace and quiet.”
Oakland police chief Sean Whent displaying a photo of the “replica” gun allegedly brandished by a man who was shot and killed on Sunday.
Credits: Darwin BondGraham
Schaaf said the sideshows were causing “unacceptable levels of destruction and harm.”
According to Schaaf and Whent, the California Highway Patrol has been coordinating with the Oakland Police Department for several months now to crack down on sideshows. A team of CHP officers has been helping OPD locate and break up the events, mostly on Saturday nights.
Schaaf thanked Governor Jerry Brown for dedicating resources to the city’s traffic enforcement efforts. “We need state support in combating sideshow activity,” said Schaaf. “These cars are not just coming from Oakland, they’re from all over the state. Oakland has been selected as a playground.”
Whent said it is difficult to break up sideshows. “Social media drives a lot of this,” said Whent about how the sideshows are organized. “So it doesn’t take a lot of advanced planning.” Whent said OPD is actively monitoring social media to gain intelligence on when and where car clubs and motorcyclists might gather in Oakland.
OPD fatally shot a man at 90th and Bancroft avenues.
Credits: Darwin BondGraham
1. Oakland police officers last night shot and killed a man whom police said pointed a handgun at officers towing cars from a massive sideshow, the Bay Area News Group$ reports. Police later said the handgun turned out to be a replica. The huge sideshow on the streets of East Oakland on Saturday night drew some seven hundred cars, police said.
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4. Kaiser mental health care professionals reached a tentative agreement with management and have called off a one-day strike scheduled for today, the Mercury News$ reports.
5. State officials might make some of the current mandatory water cutbacks permanent, including water-saving rules that prohibit residents from watering their lawns after rainstorms and ban restaurants from providing drinking water without request, the Mercury News$ reports.
7. And President Obama said today that United States should continue to accept refugees from war-torn Syria in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks on Friday night that killed 130 people, the Washington Post$ reports. “Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values,” the president said. “Our nations can welcome refugees who are desperately seeking safety and ensure our own security. We can and must do both.” Some GOP presidential candidates and governors have called for halting the acceptance of Syrian refugees out of fears of terrorism.
In a lengthy statement released Friday afternoon, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf pushed back against a news report suggesting that she is reversing a long-standing position against using taxpayer money to build a new stadium for the Raiders.
The San Francisco Chroniclereported on Friday that Schaaf’s presentation earlier this week to National Football League owners included a proposal for the city examine the possibility of using lease revenue bonds to help pay for a stadium. The news report also noted that Schaaf is considering the use of tax increment proceeds as a stadium financing tool.
In the past, Schaaf has consistently ruled out helping the Raiders build a new stadium on the public’s dime, although she has pledged up to $120 million for improving the infrastructure surrounding the future stadium.
“Since I took office I have been nothing but clear about how I believe Oakland can responsibly keep its sports teams without publicly subsidizing stadium construction. My position is unchanged. The San Francisco Chronicle’s suggestion that I would be willing to put public money at risk is simply not true,” said Schaaf in a 685-word statement.
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“I am focused on responsibly keeping our teams in Oakland, which is why I am also open to exploring the use of dollars that could be created by a new project — money that the City would not otherwise have. I think that it would be appropriate to pledge money that is created by the Raiders for the Raiders so long as it can be done without ever putting the taxpayers at risk. But that’s it. I will not recreate the mistakes of the past in Oakland.”
Much of Schaaf’s statement, however, does not actually contradict to the Chronicle’s report, which noted that she believes that various funding mechanisms could be crafted without jeopardizing public money. Instead, the mayor’s strong reaction may have more to do with the story’s online headline: “Oakland Mayor Schaaf toots a new tune: a publicly funded stadium.” A sports economist in the article also asserts that bonding for the project puts the city’s treasury at risk.
Numerous media reports described Schaaf’s presentation in New York City on Wednesday as effective. NFL owners are expected to decide by early next year whether the Raiders, the San Diego Chargers, and/or the St. Louis Rams will be allowed to move to Los Angeles.
Oakland, though, was the only city of the three that did not present a detailed public financing proposal to the league this week. Instead, Schaaf portrayed the East Bay market as a growing economic engine and one that could prosper in a region that the Raiders no longer share with the San Francisco 49ers, because of that team’s move to the South Bay last season.
There was also movement this week on a possible new facility for the Oakland A’s. While in New York City, Schaaf reportedly met with Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred to discuss a new ballpark for the team in Oakland. Also, on Friday, the Oakland Tribunereported that A’s ownership is eyeing locations in Oakland other than the Coliseum complex. The news will likely reignite hopes for bringing the team downtown or possibly to waterfront property just north of Jack London Square known as the Howard Terminal. Schaaf supports a move downtown and it has been the city’s preferred location going back to former Mayor Jean Quan.
Here are six ways to have a based weekend in the East Bay.
Maya Songbird.
Credits: Silence Dem AllYoko O.K., Maya Songbird, and Jon Jon Cassagnol
To celebrate painter Laurie Shapiro’s latest solo show at Grease Diner, the North Oakland art gallery and print shop is hosting an opening reception that features three musical guests: Yoko O.K., Maya Songbird, and Jon Jon Cassagnol. Maya Songbird is a San Francisco native who creates danceable, disco-inspired tracks that evoke post-riot grrrl electro pop artists, such as Le Tigre. While Yoko O.K.’s left-field folk music departs from Songbird’s sonically, both artists champion a similar ethos of self-acceptance and quirkiness. O.K.’s album, Menahan Tree, is a collection of mumblecore, bedroom acoustic songs with a slightly off-beat sense of humor. Jon Jon Cassagnol, co-owner of Grease Diner, creates music in a similar vein, except with a rougher sound that has a noticeable punk influence. This show, which takes place on November 13, will be the first time Cassagnol performs his new, electronic material. — Nastia Voynovskaya
Fri., Nov. 13, 6-10 p.m.TheGreaseDiner.com.
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Oakland Art Market
Next up in East Bay alternative holiday shopping experiences: The Museum of Children’s Arts (1625 Clay St., Suite 100, Oakland) will be hosting an Oakland Art Market pop-up on Friday, November 13 (5–8 p.m.) and Saturday, November 14 (noon–5 p.m.). Spearheaded by MOCHA “Teaching Artist” Kaya Fortune, the fair will offer a sampling of gifts made by more than 25 local artists and artisans. Many of the artists will be MOCHA’s own Teaching Artists — those who lead the museum’s many youth art classes. MOCHA has been offering hands-on programming intended to inspire children’s creativity in Oakland for more than 27 years. Now, you can buy photography, clothing, jewelry, and paintings from the community of artists that facilitate that education. — Sarah Burke
Fri., Nov. 13, 5-9 p.m. and Sat., Nov. 14, 12-5 p.m. 510.987.8560. Free. Mocha.org
Pure One.Arrows
San Francisco producer Pure One (Alexandra Crotta) utilizes her voice as an instrument in her experimental electronic compositions. On many of her tracks, she manipulates her soft, cooing vocals beyond recognition, chopping them up and layering them until they take on fuzzy textures and warped shapes. Throughout “Melchedezek, My Love,” one of her latest tracks, she murmurs lyrics that evoke spontaneous word associations: Let’s go on/Let’s go to war/Let’s go to her. Her repetitive, whispered verses become a haunting mantra that washes over a slow, ambient beat, foregrounding the warbled, ebbing and flowing of her synth. Pure One’s tracks are subtle and atmospheric, and while many of them use hip-hop and trip-hop beat structures as a starting point, they often unravel into avant-garde, electronic sound collages. Pure One is a relatively new music project, and she is releasing her debut EP later this month. She performs at Stork Club on November 14 with producer LoWGritt and indie band Arrows, both from Santa Cruz, as well as Oakland noise rockers Knowles Hand. — N.V. Sat., Nov. 14, 9 p.m. $TBA. StorkClubOakland.com
Tom Manning
Welcome to Range, a small Washington town you can never leave. It’s a land inhabited by talking animals, a cute floating ghost thing, an undead lunatic, a pirate (of course), and a whole cast of other characters that are both familiar and strange. It’s also the setting of Oaklander Tom Manning’s comic, Runoff, an epic three-part tale that is finally being published as one collection after eight years of production and self-publishing. Manning will be at Umami Mart (815 Broadway, Oakland) on Friday, November 13 — appropriately timed for this spooky storyline — to officially release the compilation and sign copies. The series, which Manning started in 1999 and completed in 2007, reportedly caught the eye of Guillermo Del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, etc.) who had set his sights on turning the part mystery, part drama, part comedy into a movie. Whatever came of that isn’t clear, but it is certain that this comic offers more than a dystopian view of humanity with a few laughs. The characters are vivid, poignant, and compelling. — Erin Baldassari
Fri., Nov. 13, 6-9 p.m. Free. Umamimart.com
Krystle Ahmadyar.
Credits: Bert Johnson/FileKrystle Ahmadyar
Oakland singer-songwriter Krystle Ahmadyar is known for her vocal-driven solo project, Ruby Mountain, which pairs her soulful singing with ukulele and, occasionally, guitar and minimal electronic production. Since August, Ahmadyar has been the artist-in-residence at Studio Grand, where she has been developing new songs that fuse elements of her background in composing experimental electronic music at Mills College and playing Afghan folk songs with her father. Earlier this year, Ahmadyar visited Afghanistan for the first time, where she spent the majority of her visit with her extended family, listening to elders’ stories, singing traditional music, and taking field recordings. The next performance of her residency, Crescent Moon, pays homage to her heritage with a night of Afghan music and storytelling with an experimental bend. Her father, Fazal Ahmadyar, who is a singer and harmonium player, and percussionist Said Hashemi will join Ahmadyar on stage. — N.V.
Sun., Nov. 15, 6-8 p.m. $7-$15. StudioGrandOakland.org
Ayodele Nzinga.
Credits: Bert Johnson/FileZara’s Faith: Somebody Has Got to Stand Up
Zara’s Faith follows a woman whose two sons were stopped by police. One was murdered and the other wounded. As Zara attempts to work through her anger and grief, she receives advice from her ancestors that leads her to explore her own conception of faith and community amid the plot’s unraveling social conspiracy. The play, which was originally written by Marc Sapir before the Black Lives Matter movement arose, was performed as a staged reading at the Flight Deck by The Lower Bottom Playaz back in June. Now, the Lower Bottom Playaz, led by Ayodele Nzinga, will be presenting a newly revised and fully produced version of the play starring Black Lives Matter organizer Cat Brooks as Zara and Reginald Wilkins as supporting lead, Pastor Simms. The performance will take place at La Peña Cultural Center (3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley) on November 13 at 8 p.m. — S. B.
Fri., Nov. 13, 8-10 p.m. $8, $12. LaPena.org
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.
One of the most captivating movies of 2008, Herb & Dorothy, was a documentary profile of Herb and Dorothy Vogel, a New York City married couple whose lives were completely devoted to contemporary art. Every inch of their modest Manhattan apartment was decorated with their astounding collection of paintings, sculpture, installations, and drawings, diligently and lovingly acquired from the...
Most people’s understanding of the ways in which gender and technology intersect stops at Facebook pronoun options. But for the Gender v. Technology performance salon taking place at B4bel4b (184 10th St., Oakland) gallery on Saturday, November 21, a group of 23 artists will be investigating the nuanced manner by which gender and technology inform each other in our...
Rania is a young, Palestinian mother and the only female police detective in the northern West Bank. Chloe is a Jewish-American peace worker and documentarian who traveled to Palestine after being laid off from her Silicon Valley tech job. In Kate Raphael’s debut novel, Murder Under the Bridge: A Palestine Mystery, these two protagonists must overcome their cultural differences...
If you could compress hundreds of thousands of years of climate change data into a few minutes — what would it sound like? That’s the challenge behind The ClimateMusic Project, a concert and data project debuting at the Chabot Space & Science Center (10000 Skyline Blvd., Oakland) on November 21. In a sample of the concept on the project’s...
On The Classical’s most recent album, Diptych, singer Juliet Gordon culls surrealist lyrics from word associations and dream symbolism, heightening the drama of her verses through a slow, suspenseful cadence. Previously, Gordon and drummer Britt Ciampa, her main creative collaborator, performed using pre-recorded backing tracks that featured sparse, moody keys and string instruments. But now, The Classical has a...
Chance the Rapper’s flow is the rap equivalent of free jazz. Throughout his verses, his throaty, guttural voice bounces between different pitches and intonations, frequently breaking from clear diction into more visceral, abstract sounds. When he dropped his critically acclaimed debut mixtape, Acid Rap, in 2013, the self-released project’s popularity earned him a spot on XXL’s Freshman Class of...
Oakland police blockade International Boulevard at 54th Avenue on Sunday night to disrupt a sideshow that involved 150 vehicles.
Credits: Darwin BondGraham
Several massive sideshows took over Oakland's streets this weekend, and Oakland police officers shot and killed a man on Sunday evening at an East Oakland gas station. Details about the shooting and the sideshows are just beginning to emerge....
Stories you shouldn’t miss:
OPD fatally shot a man at 90th and Bancroft avenues.
Credits: Darwin BondGraham
1. Oakland police officers last night shot and killed a man whom police said pointed a handgun at officers towing cars from a massive sideshow, the Bay Area News Group$ reports. Police later said the handgun turned out to be a replica. The huge sideshow on...
In a lengthy statement released Friday afternoon, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf pushed back against a news report suggesting that she is reversing a long-standing position against using taxpayer money to build a new stadium for the Raiders.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Friday that Schaaf’s presentation earlier this week to National Football League owners included a proposal for the...
Thank Based God it's Friday!
Here are six ways to have a based weekend in the East Bay.
Maya Songbird.
Credits: Silence Dem All
Yoko O.K., Maya Songbird, and Jon Jon Cassagnol
To celebrate painter Laurie Shapiro’s latest solo show at Grease Diner, the North Oakland art gallery and print shop is hosting...
