We’re currently in the lead of a little (non-meathead) neighborly competition to get Michael Cera and Portia Doubleday to come watch a free screening of their new movie “Youth in Revolt” with us on our campus. Seems fitting, seeing as Berkeley is mentioned by name in the theatrical trailer. Well, in the context of Michael Cera burning it down in the name of hapless, unrequited hipsterlust.

Regardless, we’ve seen Michael Cera through some pretty endearing awkward stages, and even though he got a lil’ too indie for L.A. and hightailed it to Portland, we  still want to show our puppy love by winning this thing big. Your last chance to participate is Nov. 29, 2009 at 11:59 p.m. PST, so get those votes in! C’mon, we can’t be the only ones who want to get a sneak preview of George Michael as a mustachioed cocksman with a penchant for the arson of UC Berkeley!!

Image Source: wvs under Creative Commons
“Youth In Revolt” competition [eventful]

We watched them a lot in our formative years, usually back-to-back and during times we should have been doing homework. We loved the elaborate set ups, the poor, abused crash test dummies and that hat that Jamie always seemed to be wearing.

As it turns out, one of the Mythbusters has a bit of an obsession of his own and is coming to our fair city tomorrow to give a free lecture on it.

Adam Savage (the one without the hat) has a quite a fondness for dodo birds and built an accurate model of one of their skeletons from scratch. He will be giving a talk entitled “My Dodo, History and Personal Reflections.” The event will take place tomorrow (Nov. 19) from 7-9 p.m. at the Bone Room, located at 1573 Solano Ave. in North Berkeley (try taking the 18 bus, it’s a bit of a trek from campus).

Who doesn’t love dodo birds, right?

Image Source: heath_bar under Creative Commons
The Bone Room Presents [via FuncheapSF]

Last night, concert-goers at Zellerbach Hall got a rare taste of Kazakh culture that they will likely never forget, even if they can’t quite fight the urge to make a lot of Borat jokes in the process of remembering. (Cough. Cough.) The Symphony Orchestra of the Kurmangazy Kazakh National Conservatory was in town for the second performance on their “USA Tour 2009.” And trust us when we say that they were here to charm the shit out of America–because they did.

First, the full symphony played a rousing rendition of Tchaikovsky’s “Overture to Romeo and Juliet,” a piece composed by a Russian, but much beloved by the West. It was lovely. The sounds wafted up to the mezzanine like the scent of a dozen roses floating on a spring breeze. Or, err, something.

Next, soloist Jania Aubakirova performed Rachmaninoff’s (another Russkie, incidentally) “Piano Concerto No. 2.” It was cool, but damn, it was long. Those Kazakhs don’t mess around. Also, Aubakirova was rocking this black dress with possibly the most epic neck ruff we’ve ever seen. It was tulle. It had black sequins embedded deep within its folds.

Her collar was, however, overshadowed by the costumes that came after intermission. The “Kazakh Traditional Music Ensemble,” Turan were easily the most interesting part of the performance. Sasha Baron Cohen’s thong unitard had nothin’ on these musicians. We totally mean that in the best way imaginable. Seriously.

The above video will give you a rough idea of the dombra, kyl kobyz jamming that went down, but it will by no means substitute for the magic and wonder of the in-person experience. And when they joined the rest of the symphony to play the “World Premiere” of composer Aktoty Raimkulova’s “Symphonic Poem, Jamilya” it was actually a very exciting melange of the ancient and the new. In conclusion: Throat singing equals complete badassery and we are definitely playing this ish at our next dance party. Very nice!

Ensemble “Turan” [YouTube]
Kazakhstan Conservatory Orch [Zellerbach]

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]

Put on your listening ears and use your indoor voices, because a symphony is coming to Berkeley. Not just any symphony, either: the Shanghai Symphony.

The Shanghai Symphony has succeeded in raising its international profile and is now kicking off a 12 city tour of North America, including a stop at our very own Zellerbach Hall. So pat yourselves on the back, Berkeley high-culture fiends. Yet another feather in your illustrious cap.

The symphony’s shaking things up a little with a new conductor named Long Yu (ominously described as “imperious”). In point of fact, “his conducting style is so energetic that some weeks ago he accidentally threw his baton into the orchestra. (He continued conducting by waving a finger.)” That is too awesome for words.

Tickets are $28-60. The event is Sunday, Nov. 22 at 3 p.m. in Zellerbach. Yuja Wang will be on piano. We suggest picking a seat in the back to avoid any further baton incidents.

Image source: danchitnis under Creative Commons
Shanghai Symphony to perform in Berkeley [NY Times] via San Jose Mercury News

At the corner of Alcatraz Street and Telegraph Avenue sits a magical book vault called Book Zoo. At the risk of gushing, we’ll just say this: their dollar section is seriously psychic.

We’ve also seen some pretty innovative (and free) music acts at this place, including Sacramento’s Agent Ribbons and an improvised four-piece symphony played from the four cardinal points.

This Friday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. Stefan Pope (who hails all the way from Manchester, England) will play an acoustic set with songs “about being drunk, devious women, subversions, perversions and manipulations.”

Other upcoming Book Zoo events worth checking out:

Friday, Nov. 20. at 7 p.m. – Benefit Concert for Book Zoo: “Chuck Johnson, as well as the powerdove trio of Annie Lewandowski, Alex Vittum, and Jason Hoopes are generously going to play their hearts out to help Book Zoo make rent.”

Sunday, Nov. 29 at 3 p.m.  - Berkeley’s John Curl will read from his new book “For All the People.”

Saturday, Dec. 5 at 7 p.m. – Acoustic Night: Featuring James and Evander, Silian Rail, JEPH and others.

Saturday, Dec. 12  at 6 p.m. – Book Zoo’s 6th Birthday Party: Featuring Paper Crocodiles, door prizes, *ahem* beverages, eulogizing, free air, free tap water. Yippee!

Image Source: Dan Swindel, Courtesy
Book Zoo [site]

Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago, a Berkeley legend was born: beat poet Gary Snyder. This man is so much more than Jack Kerouac’s zen sidekick in Dharma Bums. He is a sailor. He is a logger. He is a former Berkeley grad student in the Oriental languages department. He’s got a mind like compost. And he’s a literary badass.

Snyder will read selections from Riprap at the Morrison Library this Friday, Nov. 13 from 4-6:30 p.m to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his groundbreaking work.

Be there, or be hay for the horses.

Image Source: Tom Spaulding under Creative Commons
UC Berkeley Events Calender [site]

“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]

West Berkeley’s Nina Wanat makes the kind of chewy candy coating that pays your dentist’s electric bill, without high-fructose corn syrup. At the recent Foodbuzz Blogger Festival across the bay, her organic BonbonBar candy bars were a major hit.

We sort of wish we’d attended. It’s no secret that the Clog lives for free samples, especially of Nina’s “single-malt-Scotch ganache—made with Talisker 1992 Distillers Edition Scotch from the Isle of Skye, topped with Maldon sea salt—and spunky pumpkin-pie caramallows, whose chewy-smooth coating contains butternut squash bought at farmers’ markets.” Almost worth a diabetic coma.

After great chapters in the Berkeley Foodie Chronicles such as this, we realize with horror that there will be a day after we graduate when we are forced out of the East Bay and into a cubicle in a boring city where “candy bars” are called “candy bars” and not “artisan confections.”

Image Source: SusieFoodie under Creative Commons
Berkeley-Made Marshmallows a FoodBuzz-Fest Fave [East Bay Express]

Every girl you know with a septum piercing and a thing for Jews hightailed her androgynous-footwear to the Multicultural Center Friday night with a single hope: to get extremely loud and incredibly close with bestselling author Jonathan Safran Foer. And his glasses. After a reading from his new non-fiction book, “Eating Animals,” Foer engaged in an hour-long dialogue with Berkeley meat eaters and others alike.

While some think the book is nothing more than a glorified PETA pamphlet with cutesy cover art, we did learn some neat stuff:

-Ninety-nine percent of factory chicken pens are about the size of Mariah Carey’s engagement ring.
-Factory farming is the leading cause to global warming.
-Swine flu has been traced back to a factory farm in North Carolina. But we blame Mexico. Because they beat us in the Guac-off and we’re still bitter about it.
-Muckraking is the new magical realism.
-Michael Pollan has his Bay Area foodie head in the clouds but so do we.
-It’s hard to turn down Stewed Dog in the Philippines, especially Wedding Style.
-By the time your turkey reaches the Thanksgiving table this year, the bird will most likely have undergone enough genetic mutations to render it physically incapable of reproduction.

The Clog admits that this little spoiler may not be the perfect dinner topic at Thanksgiving dinner. Foer does pose an interesting question, though: Why turkey? What is it about a sterile dead bird that says to us “bounty and harvest?”

The irony isn’t wasted on us. It’s sort of like putting a donkey in charge of an in vitro fertilization lab.

What can we say? Uh-MER-kuh rules?

Now excuse us while we tear down Telegraph Avenue yelling Natalie Portman’s favorite swear word.

Image Source: allyaubry under Creative Commons
Earlier: More Vegetarian Propaganda: Jonathan Safran Foer To Visit Berkeley