We cannot think of anything more lame than still being located on Bancroft Way. Honestly, you might as well just kill yourself (cough, Alphonse Berber ….). If you didn’t already know about the Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive’s impending move to where it’s at (Center and Oxford streets): duh. And, what with everyone being poor now and all, they’re working on a new building design to save some money. Get on with it!

In 1999, BAM/PFA was deemed seismically unsafe. Hence, the PFA’s on-campus relocation and BAM’s 2001 temporary retrofitting. In 2006, Toyo Ito (same dude that did the concrete beauty on Bacroft Way) was set to design a new home near the burgeoning downtown arts district. His plan would cost a cool 200 mil, almost all of which was to come from private investors.

Bam. Recession, and back to the drawing boards! The new plan will be unveiled early next year.

Image Source: mrgarin under Creative Commons.
UC Berkeley Modifying Museum Building Project; Alternate Plan Due Early Next Year [BAM/PFA]

The beauty of one act plays is: there’s one act not followed by another. The playwright says what she intends to say, real brief and no one bored. PLUS: sampler plate opportunities. Hit up Dwinelle next week for a one-act trio: three acts, three plays by 20th century writers including Eugene Ionesco, Suzan Lori-Parks, Samuel Becket, Harold Pinter, Maria Irene Fornes and, yes, Gertrude motherf*ckin Stein.

The event is called “Silences and Situations: Seven One Act Plays.” You’ve got three combo choices and they all look real poignant. They take place Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of next week in the afternoon and evening in the Durham Studio Theater (somewhere) in Dwinelle Hall. It is sponsored by the Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies. Check out the full schedule here!

Image Source: /Sizemore/ under Creative Commons
Silences and Situations: Seven One Act Plays [UCB Events Calendar]
The Sounds of Silence [Daily Cal]

Republicans have brainwashed us to dislike taxes, says UC Berkeley cognitive scientist/linguistics professor George Lakoff, and it’s time Democrats fought back with some brainwashing of their own (George Lakoff is on Bill O’Reilly’s “enemies list,” right between Anthony Romero, the executive director of the ACLU and Howard Dean.) Lakoff intends to get a proposition on the November 2010 ballot that would restore democracy in California. It employs hardcore brainwashing a subtle cognitive phenomenon that made him famous, called “reframing.”

His proposition is called “The California Democracy Act.” Clever. It is 14 words long. They are “All legislative actions on revenue and budget must be determined by a majority vote.”

In 1978, Prop 13 sneaked a clause in there and made it so: you need a 2/3 vote to raise taxes or change the budget. According to Lakoff, people swallowed this with the Republican anti-tax mentality, which had been prominently framed up in their brains. Now we’re paying for it in the form of … well, we’re sure you know.

Lakoff expects the wording of his new proposition to evade the “taxes = government taking your money” frame and call to the “democracy = simple majority rule, come on, like we learned in elementary school” frame, or something like that.

Slight refund adjustment anyone?

Image Source: Pop!Tech under Creative Commons.
How to solve California’s fiscal crisis? First, don’t think of an elephant [News Center]

“American Idiot” (the play), we remember when you were just a wee idea, scrounging for funding amidst a world of skeptics and naysayers. Now look at you: an extended run at the Rep, a critical response ranging from mediocre to pretty good, and you’re ready to leave the nest, off to Broadway – the big time. We promised ourselves we wouldn’t cry.

Apparently a casting notice went public this week, although no theater or dates have been released. “American Idiot” is the highest grossing play in the Berkeley Repertory Theater’s forty-odd year history. How it does on the other coast we will eagerly await to see.

Image Source: Dunechaser under Creative Commons
Green Day Musical Going From Berkeley to Broadway [twentyfourbit]
‘American Idiot’: Broadway Bound! [Daily Cal Arts Blog]

That tree sitter thing, squeezing out one more headline: and just when we thought it had finally been laid to rest (minus this guy.) Barbara J. Miller, the presiding judge in the 2008 case, has died at age 58. It was her highest profile case. Barbara J. Miller sided with the university, ending the 21 month standoff/media clusterf*ck. Those trees are gone.

Image Source: Shirly Buxton under Creative Commons.
Judge in U.C Berkeley tree-sitting case dies [Chronicle]

BAM/PFA is a kool thing. Those of you who, 19 years after the unofficial “k” shift, are still spelling “cool” like your parents, well, you might as well just stop reading now. Not only was the Bancroft museum purposely built to house tall, well-dressed people who thrive amidst the color gray, but apparently music sounds sounds good there too. Hence, the launch of Friday L@te Nights at BAM, which will include booze, music, artsy guests and kultural stimulation of all sorts. The events below:

Beforehand, beer/wine/DJ will be served from 5 to 7 p.m.

Oh, but first: Zine Mart, a 2-week exhibit on East Bay DIY stuff, hits the museum on Nov. 13.

On Nov. 13, a book signing by Ari Marcopoulos, Ken Miller and Paul Schiek. The book is “SHOOT: Photography of the Moment.”

On Nov. 20, Jacquelyn Bass (an art historian,) Walter Hood (a landscape architecture professor) and Lawrence Rinder (BAM/PFA director) will read from their book, “Learning Mind: Experience Into Art.” We seriously dig the title.

On Dec. 4, Ellen Fullman will play the Long String Instrument (which she invented). It will stretch acrooooooooooss the room.

In the O ‘10, you can look forward to:

Noise bands, courtesy of Franklin Melendez, and “experiences” rooted in literature and film provided by Anne Colvin on Feb. 19.

Beginning Jan. 29, on the last Friday of each month there will be multi-screen projections accompanied by live music and spoken word.

WOW!!

Image Source: cactusbones under Creative Commons.
BAM/PFA kicks off edgy Friday night series [News Center]

A weird foursome: could it be that teenagers prone to depression sleep less and use the internet more, resulting in worse depression and tossing them into a real nasty sleep minimizing, internet and depression maximizing situation? Of course we, sound and sturdy early twenty-somethings that we are, are far beyond silly adolescent things like all-nighters, depression and the internet. But hey, how ’bout our soft minded kid brothers and sisters? Yet another psych study gets underway:

Thirteen- to 19-year-olds are being recruited by UC Berkeley’s Sleep and Psychological Disorders Laboratory, which, in conjunction with Kaiser Permanente, Oregon, will study their sleep and psychological disorders. A connection between a good night’s rest and mental soundness has been established in adults, but this has yet to be confirmed in adolescents. Of course, we’d be slightly surprised if the reverse turned out to be.

In 1988, a survey of 10th and 12th graders revealed that about 45 percent of them regularly went to bed after midnight on school nights. The UC Berkeley study will provide modern numbers on this account, the expectation being that the internet has stretched kids’ waking hours more than a little. All remains to be seen …

Image Source: angeluzzo under Creative Commons.
Study to explore if more sleep will help teens shake off depression [News Center]

As we all know, graduate school and money go together well with sobbing and devastation. Ahem. In the spirit of other means of expression working out a whole lot better than the verbal variety, the Dorothea Lange photo fellowship offers a $4,000 prize and wild notoriety. For the photographically inclined, keep in mind the Nov. 30 due date and Nov. 3 workshop! See if you meet the criteria:

The fellowship awards the use of photography within the scholarly work of any discipline at Berkeley. The contest is open to faculty, graduate students and seniors who have been accepted for graduate work here at Berkeley.

Image Source: morbuto under Creative Commons.
Dorothea Lange photo fellowship seeks applicants [News Center]

When you’re shattering a bottle of Mickey’s against the far wall of Cloyne Court’s courtyard this weekend (or any weekend!) keep in mind that this wall is shared by a now 5 million dollars more prestigious Goldman School of Public Policy. Richard and Rhoda, your names will remain in letters.

The extra funds will allow the Goldman School to grow and develop a more extensive international outreach as well as incorporate more science and information technology into the curriculum. And that’s how you keep up with the Joneses, or, in this case the John F. Kennedies and Woodrow Wilson’s over on the other coast.

Got to say, Goldman’s in good shape. With roughly half of its full time staff advising the president and applications up by 30 percent, this donation stands to elevate the G-school to a new level of prestige.

Image Source: Florence Chan under Creative Commons.
Goldman School to have greater impact, thanks to $5 million gift [News Centre]

V(w)hat, so you think this is a profession now? It seems somebody has taken the life pursuit of so many Brooklyn-raised bubbies and established it with this name: deli researcher. And the best one is coming to Berkeley’s own Saul’s Deli! Get your pastrami on this Saturday. Details below:

David Sax, Canadian-raised researcher of delicatessens, will hit Saul’s at 4 p.m. as part of his book signing tour. Saul’s is known for its eco-friendly beef practices and real quality sh*t, generally. A “tasting plate” will be in circulation.

Need we say more?

Saul’s is located at 1475 Shattuck Avenue, across from the Safeway.

Image Source: PlaysWithFood under Creative Commons.
What’ll Happen This Saturday When The Lower East Side Meets the East Bay at Saul’s Deli? [SF Weekly]