.Weekender: The Top Five Things to Do Over the Next Three Days in the East Bay

Hopefully you’ve all recovered from the massive hangovers you undoubtedly incurred on Bloomsday and are ready to rage once again. Herewith, our critics’ picks for weekend entertainment:

The Oakland Standard: Felt
If you grew up far from a farm and feel a little sheepish around livestock, say baaah-bye to your misgivings at Felt, the first event in The Oakland Standard‘s Seed Circus series, organized by the Oakland Museum of California. The four-part program aims to acquaint urbanites with nature through discussions and hands-on demonstrations, and this first installment focuses exclusively on man’s fleecy friend the sheep. The event features sheep-shearing demonstrations by a real live farmer, the construction of a giant felt rug, bicycle-powered wool carding, and more, followed by a screening of the documentary Sweetgrass (you can probably guess what it’s about). At the Oakland Museum (1000 Oak St., Oakland) on Sunday, June 19. 1 p.m., free with museum admission. 510-238-2200 or MuseumCA.org/TheOaklandStandard. — Cassie Harwood

Bestiae Mundi
Los Angeles sculptor Ron Pippin has a longstanding interest in integrating human culture, past and present, into the natural world, so combining animal skeletons with scientific/mechanical apparatuses seems a natural evolution of his personal mythology. Bestiae Mundi (Animals of Earth) simulates an old-school natural history museum with its bottles, vitrines, and labeled specimens, but its mechanized-looking skeletal bobcats, rats, turtles, snakes, warthogs, wallabies, goats, and storks, some inscribed with the names of endangered species, are decidedly contemporary (though perhaps not for all contemporaries); they’re assemblages of “dark materials” that serve as “visual prayers.” Don’t miss the small, suspended “Icarus,” a skeletal bird posed as if falling, reminiscent of a splayed Archaeopteryx fossil atop its limestone bed, sporting leather wings. Book signing for Noah Charney’sTracks and Signs of Insects on June 16; bone-cleaning workshop by Ron Cauble on June 30. Bestiae Mundi runs through August 3 at Bone Room (1573 Solano Ave., Berkeley). 510-526-5252 or BoneRoomPresents.com. — DeWitt Cheng

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

East Bay Express E-edition East Bay Express E-edition
19,045FansLike
14,611FollowersFollow
61,790FollowersFollow
spot_img