Archive for January, 2015

U.C. Berkeley’s Bold New Moves

Posted in The Berkeley Scene on January 29th, 2015 by admin – Be the first to comment

by Steed Dropout
Jan. 27, 2015

Two new U.C. buildings hit Berkeley streets. Photo by Ted Friedman.

Even the best developments have their inevitable downsides.

The inevitable down-side to U.C. Berkeley’s Lower Sproul Development appears to force the new Eshelman Hall out into the street, give or take a few feet. The former Eshelman Hall (1965-2013) was set well back from the street–discreetly.
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Berkeley Sunset Boulevard Sequel

Posted in Film Reviews, The Berkeley Scene on January 16th, 2015 by admin – Be the first to comment

Prelude to a sequel

Berkeley Sunset Boulevard Sequel

by Steed Dropout
Jan. 16, 2015

WILDER PFA FEST WOWS BERKELEY

[Editor’s note: in keeping with a Berkeley Reporter tradition, we are celebrating Berkeley’s latest PFA Wilder film festival with our sequel to Wilder-Brackett’s Sunset Boulevard.]

***

JOE GILLIS RETURNS FOR HIS CLOSEUP

Joe Gillis is not dead. It’s not that he survived swimming in Norma’s pool while full of lead from her gun; In the sequel, he gets off Sunset before she can plug him–“back to that copydesk in Dayton.”

He tells Betty to write him at the Dayton Noodle, or whatever, and hitchhikes out of Hollywood, just in time. “This place can kill your soul,” he mutters. He describes his Hollywood career to the truck driver, who drives Gillis as far as Denver.
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Do You Know Berkeley Cafe Owner Who Mugged Teley Mural in ’92?

Posted in People's Park, Telegraph Avenue, The Berkeley Scene on January 12th, 2015 by admin – Be the first to comment

by Steed Dropout
Jan. 12, 2015

BERKELEY REPORTER APPEALS TO READERS

Do you know this man? Sketch by Martin Schwartz. Photo by Ted Friedman.

If you recognize this man, who opened a short-lived cafe at what is now Amoeba, in 1992–please let us know.

Berkeley Reporter’s previous piece reported an attack on Berkeley’s Peoples Park iconic mural on Amoeba’s North wall, at Haste and Telegraph. Now we seek more info on an attack on the mural in 1992.

Tentative info from knowledgeable sources has provided this much background:

In 1992, a quarrelsome South side character (Saladin?) opened a restaurant (Marrakech?) in what is now Amoeba, an independent music and video emporium. The would-be restaurateur was known as a South side trouble-maker even before he donned his chef’s outfit.
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Peoples Park Mural Mugged

Posted in People's Park, The Berkeley Scene on January 5th, 2015 by admin – Be the first to comment

by Steed Dropout
Jan. 5, 2015

SPRAY-PAINT VANDALS VICTIMIZE THE PEOPLES

After the attack. Photo by Ted Friedman.

Say it ain’t so, Joe.

It stood for forty years on the North wall of Berkeley’s Amoeba Music, Telegraph and Haste. It was as reliable as grandfather’s clock–a tribute to the founding of Berkeley’s Peoples Park, 1969, and those who founded it, blisters and all.

The “Peoples” in People’s Park became an intentional editors’ nightmare when park founder’s left out the possessive in Peoples, “because no one owns it,” I was told. The mural depicting all that had seemed an aging sacred cow of Berkeley.
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