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Video installation: Omer Fast / MATRIX 230
October 25 – December 17, 2009 every Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday with exceptions | 11 a.m.-5 p.m. | Berkeley Art Museum

Omer Fast: Production still from Nostalgia, 2009; courtesy of the artist; Arratia, Beer, Berlin; gb agency, Paris; and Postmasters, New York. Photo: Thierry Bal.Omar Fast’s new commission for MATRIX comprises two films that work together to break open the uncanny relationship among internal imagination, external reality, and the images we consume through media and popular culture. Fast again uses a metafilmic construction to tie together multiple narratives and comment on the mediation of images. In one film, the filmmaker interviews a Nigerian refugee seeking asylum in London about his experiences as a child soldier. The other adapts fragments of this story as stylized science fiction, the asylum-seeking process imagined as a bizarre dystopian system of processing and competition.



Photography: Jackrabbit Homestead: Tracing the Small Tract Act in the Southern California Landscape
October 22, 2009 – January 8, 2010 every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday with exceptions | 8 a.m.-5 p.m. | Library North Gate Hall

Beyond the proliferation of big box chains, car dealerships, fast food joints, and the nameless sprawl located along California State Highway 62 the desert opens up and after signs of familiar habitation seem to fade from view, new signs of habitation appear: small, dusty cabins—mostly abandoned—scatter across the landscape. The majority of the existing shacks, historically found throughout the larger region known as the Morongo Basin, lie east of Twentynine Palms in outlying Wonder Valley. Kim Stringfellow's photographs depict the remaining derelict structures along the highway once inhabited by people who paid Uncle Sam a nominal fee for land in 1938.



Exhibit: Development of written language in the ancient Near East
October 13, 2009 – February 26, 2010 every Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday with exceptions | Bernice Layne Brown Gallery Doe Library

The wedges of the cuneiform script carved over the relief sculpture from a 9th century BC palace at Kalhu ("Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East,"  page 10-11)Scholars speculate that ancient civilizations developed witing systems to keep track of their livestock and wealth. But as societal structures became more sophisticated over many centuries, writing systems also grew in sophistication to accommodate and record ancient peoples’ mythologies, history, beliefs, poetry, laws and administrative records. This exhibit explores the development of writing systems in the ancient Near East beginning with Sumerian cuneiform, Egyptian hieroglyphics, and Proto-Sinaitic through the Medieval Islamic period. On display are books, manuscripts, and artifacts.



Beer: Global brewing traditions, 2500 BC - the present
October 3, 2009 – September 30, 2010 every Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday | 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. | Hearst Museum of Anthropology

Corn beer tumbler, gold. Peru, Ica Valley; Late Intermediate Period (1000-1476)Drawing from a collection of over a thousand beer-related items, this exhibit of about 130 items focuses on the material aspects of beer production and consumption: objects for brewing, storing, transporting, serving, and drinking. This rich display reveals the striking unities and diversities of human cultures as they come together to celebrate the fruit of the grain.


FridayBack to top

Planetarium: Red Planet Mars
Friday, November 27 | 2:45-3:30 p.m. | Planetarium Lawrence Hall of Science

The "Red Planet" has always held mysteries for us, even from the most ancient of times. To unravel some of these secrets, learn how to spot Mars in the night sky inLawrence Hall of Science's interactive planetarium. Study Mars through a telescope before learning how space probes have updated—and changed—what we know about our planetary neighbor. With missions operating on and around Mars right now—and more to come—there is a lot to discover! (Recommended for ages 8 to adult) Programs are approximately 40 minutes, and are presented live with activities. Questions are encouraged!

 $4
Tickets are sold at the Front Information Desk on a first-come, first-served basis. Everyone must have their own ticket. Planetarium Passes must be exchanged at the Front Information Desk for tickets.


Film: Fallen Angel
Friday, November 27 | 8:50 p.m. | Pacific Film Archive Theater

In this drizzly darko, Eric Stanton (Dana Andrews), a down-and-out hustler, disembarks from a bus in Walton, near penniless and far from his intended destination. In the local spoon, he meets Stella (Linda Darnell), a curvaceous oasis in a dried-up town, who pushes hash and java to her desperate admirers. Hoping to score with Stella by scoring a bundle, Stanton turns his attention to June Mills (Alice Faye in a rare dramatic role), wooing this wealthy but unwise spinster.

Part of the PFA series Otto Preminger: Anatomy of a Movie.


SaturdayBack to top

Film: Mon oncle d’Amérique
Saturday, November 28 | 8:30 p.m. | Pacific Film Archive Theater

Mon oncle d’Amérique is a wickedly intelligent character study from childhood to adulthood of three individuals whose lives will intersect in love and business, and incidentally illustrate theories of behavioral psychology cheerfully presented by one Professor Henri Laborit and his existential lab rats. (“A being’s reason for being is being.”) The three are Gérard Depardieu as a farm boy turned factory factotum, and Nicole Garcia and Roger-Pierre as a failed actress and self-centered intellectual, respectively.

Part of the PFA series In Time: The Films of Alain Resnais.


SundayBack to top

Film: Daisy Kenyon
Sunday, November 29 | 5:30 p.m. | Pacific Film Archive Theater

Daisy Kenyon is a delirious melodrama, tipping toward noir. Joan Crawford—with Mildred Pierce just behind her—takes on determined Daisy, a successful illustrator living solo in New York who has grown weary of her affair with Dan O’Mara (Dana Andrews), an arrogant Park Avenue attorney. Henry Fonda’s damaged war vet, Peter Lapham, soon appears and whisks her away to wifery. From this stock-sounding threesome, Preminger builds an off-kilter “women’s film” that stumbles like a broken high heel.

Part of the PFA series Otto Preminger: Anatomy of a Movie.


MondayBack to top

Author talk: Roger Thurow on ENOUGH: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty
Monday, November 30 | 6-7:30 p.m. | Library North Gate Hall

For more than forty years, humankind has had the knowledge, tools, and resources to end chronic hunger worldwide. Yet at the start of the twenty-first century, 25,000 people a day -- and nearly six million children a year -- die of hunger, malnutrition, and related diseases. Malnutrition kills more Africans than AIDS and malaria combined. We in the West tend to think of famine as a natural disaster, brought about by drought; or as the legacy of war and corrupt leaders. In this compelling investigative narrative, co-authors Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman, explain through vivid human stories how the agricultural revolutions that transformed Asia and Latin America stopped short in Africa.

Roger Thurow has been a Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent for twenty years and has reported from more than sixty countries, including two dozen in Africa.



Social welfare: Impact of budget cuts on social services in California
Monday, November 30 | 4-6 p.m. | School of Social Welfare Library, Second Floor Haviland Hall

California’s fiscal crisis is already having a negative impact on the most vulnerable populations in the state (and their caregivers), from homebound elders to low-income children. This event will explore how the social work field is responding to these challenges by doing more with less, advocating to maintain the level and quality of the state’s services to the poor, and thus protecting the very fabric of our society’s safety net during these tough economic times. Panelists include: Janlee Wong, executive director, National Association of Social Workers, California Chapter; Neely McElroy, division manager, Children and Family Services, Contra Costa County; John Cullen, former county administrative officer and county social service director, Contra Costa County; Leslie Preston, mental health administrador, La Clinica de la Raza, Oakland. The discussion will be moderated by Lorraine Midanik, dean of the School of Social Welfare.


TuesdayBack to top

Panel discussion: Business and ethics—lessons from the global economic crisis
Tuesday, December 1 | 12:30-2 p.m. | 105 Boalt Hall, School of Law

A clear lesson from the global economic meltdown is that corporate governance and ethics matter. Less clear are the steps to improving how financial firms operate. This panel will explore and respond to questions such as: How should executives incorporate potential global and long term impacts into their business decisions? Are the recent announcements of bonuses to financial executives a sign of economic recovery or continued ethical lapses? Panelists include: Richard Buxbaum, professor of international law, Boalt Law School; Ernesto Dalbo, associate professor, Haas Business School; Christopher Kutz, professor of law; director, Kadish Center for Morality, Law, and Public Affairs, Boalt Law School; David Vogel, chair in business ethics, Haas Business School. The discussion will be moderated by John Quigley, professor of economics, Goldman School of Public Policy.



Internet art: Joe McKay's Big Time
December 1, 2009 – February 28, 2010 every day | netart.bampfa.berkeley.edu Berkeley Art Museum

Big Time is an Internet artwork and downloadable iPhone app that uses GPS to measure your precise distance from the prime meridian and tell you what time it is—for you. The time may be different for someone across town. The tongue-in-cheek Big Time critiques the techno-positivism that emanates from Silicon Valley, where micro-payments, targeted marketing, myThisorThat, and iEverything reduce the world to a series of bite-sized “personalized” experiences.


WednesdayBack to top

History: Colonial hotels in the Asian city
Wednesday, December 2 | 4-6 p.m. | 6F Conference Room Institute of East Asian Studies (2223 Fulton) | Note change in date and time

Strand Hotel RangoonAt the turn of the last century, when imperialism oriented the axes of European expansion and hence the geography of international travel, a new building type made its appearance in the cities of South and Southeast Asia: the "European hotel." Such hotels represented not only a qualitative improvement over earlier travel lodgings, but also prominent sites for the naturalization of modernity in the colonial urban milieu. Maurizio Peleggi, author and associate professor of history at the National University of Singapore, will discuss the rise and decline of colonial hotels and how they stand today in Asia's postcolonial cityscapes as monuments to an otherwise deprecated past.


ThursdayBack to top

Listening forum: UC Commission on the Future
Thursday, December 3 | 9 a.m.-12 p.m. | Pauley Ballroom Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union

This meeting will consist of a presentation by members of the UC Commission on the Future's five working groups, followed by formal presentations from representatives of the Academic Senate, student government, and staff organizations. The forum will then be open for public comment.

Staff who are interested in attending the meeting should consult with their supervisor in advance.



Lunch Poems: Richard Moore
Thursday, December 3 | 12:10-12:50 p.m. | Morrison Library, 101 Doe Library

Richard Moore is the last of his generation of the legendary San Francisco Renaissance poets. Arriving in 1934, he was among the many émigrés to California during the Great Depression. His debut collection, Writing the Silences marks his reemergence into today's literary world after an important career as a filmmaker and producer in public radio and television. . Brenda Hillman says the writing “illustrates Moore's commitment to freedom of form, his interest in language, and his dedication to issues of social justice and ecology.”


FridayBack to top

Lecture: Richard Sennett on the decline of the skills society
Friday, December 4 | 4 p.m. | Maude Fife Room, 315 Wheeler Wheeler Hall

A renowned social critic known best for his studies of class and urban society, Richard Sennett is a professor of sociology at the London School of Economics, and MIT, and professor of the humanities at New York University. His scholarship focuses on social inequality, the effects of urban growth on the individual, and the interconnection between authority, modernism and public life. His books include: The Culture of the New Capitalism; Flesh and Stone: The Body and the City in Western Civilization; The Conscience of the Eye: The Design and Social Life of Cities; and The Fall of Public Man, among many others. In his most recent work, The Craftsman, Sennett considers skilled manual labor—from ancient Roman brick makers to contemporary computer programmers—arguing for the value of good craftsmanship even in industrial society.



Staff: Ombuds services—a resource in difficult times
Friday, December 4 | 12:10-1 p.m. | 24 University Hall

The Staff Ombuds Office is a confidential, informal, impartial, neutral, and non-adversarial alternative for the resolution of work-related problems and concerns. In this information session, Sara Thacker, ombudsperson and acting director of the Staff Ombuds Office, and Michele Bernal, assistant staff ombudsperson, will talk about services offered through their office.


SaturdayBack to top

Symposium: The Future of the Forum
Saturday, December 5 | 8:30 a.m.-7 p.m. | Main Auditorium Sutardja Dai Hall

Public forums are evolving rapidly, producing dramatic changes in politics and social behavior. How will innovations such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google Wave expand participatory democracy and enhance public interest nationally and internationally? This symposium brings together pioneers of social media for a day of discussion about the future of the forum. Participants include: Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia; Jim Buckmaster, CEO of craigslist; Mitch Kapor, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation; Judith Donath, Fellow, Harvard's Berkman Center; Howard Rheingold, critic and author of Smart Mobs; Dick Costolo, COO of Twitter; Reid Hoffman, founder of Linkedin; Seth Goldstein, CEO of SocialMedia Networks; Hubert Dreyfus, professor of philosophy; Jane McGonigal, director of Game Research, Institute of the Future; Laura Sydell, National Public Radio; Marc Davis, chief scientist and co-founder of Invention Arts.

 Varies
$295 thru Nov 23; $345 after Nov. 23. Register online, or by calling Susan Miller at 510-495-3505, or by emailing Susan Miller at info.bcnm@berkeley.edu.

SundayBack to top

Concert: Guillaume de Machaut’s Le lai de la fonteinne
Sunday, December 6 | 3 p.m. | Gallery B Berkeley Art Museum

The women of the University Chamber Chorus, directed by Marika Kuzma, will perform Guillaume de Machaut’s Le lai de la fonteinne, a series of short intricate rounds in praise of the Virgin Mary, and Hildegard of Bingen’s O tu illustrata, along with other a cappella chants. Machaut (1300–1377) and Hildegard (1098–1179) were two of the greatest poet-composers of the medieval era. Hear their timeless music in the magnificent acoustic splendor of the museum’s atrium.



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