WED 23
Wednesdays are always a fine time to get mad — that way you can spend the rest of the work week in the booby hatch, or at least prep your hangover for the weekend. So Katherine Peck presents Midweek Music Madness at 8 p.m. at Epic Arts Studios, a fine little salon featuring purveyors of rootsy alterna-folk. Peck is an aggressive guitarist and soulful singer, influenced by Michael Hedges and Mike Craghead. Tonight she’ll be joined by A Boy in the Machine, from Puget Sound, and Cathy Rivers, a sort of tattooed, Southwestern Lucinda Williams. $7-$10 suggested donation. Epic Arts can be found at 1923 Ashby Ave. 510-644-2204. — Stefanie Kalem
THU 24
Though many of us are all too familiar with what the plastic fantastic times of the dot-com joyride were like, Mike Daisey has a way with the wit — “No one does tai chi at 10 a.m. in front of their co-workers around a coffee kettle unless they want to be hated” — and an unbridled exuberance at finally waiting out his nondisclosure agreement. His one-man off-Broadway hit, 21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com, started a special off-season engagement on the Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., on June 10, and runs till July 2. Tonight’s show is at 7:30 p.m. Oh, and the book the stage show is based on? You can get it at Amazon, you betcha. Tickets cost $25-$35. Call 510-647-2949 or visit BerkeleyRep.org for info and reservations. — Stefanie Kalem
FRI 25
As Eric K. Arnold pointed out in his Express cover story of June 9 (“Generation Vexed”), hip-hop music and urban culture in general is becoming more politicized in this election year. Naturally, the East Bay leads the way. Case in point: A Night of Ferocious Joy, this evening at the Humanist Hall in Oakland (390 27th St., 7 p.m.). Subtitled “The Conscious Hip-Hop Underground Takes on George Bush and the War,” the event features spoken word (how many times will “Bush” be rhymed with “tush”?) and a film of a hip-hop concert set against the war in Iraq starring Mystic, Blackalicious, Saul Williams, Ozomatli, Dilated Peoples, and more. It’s a benefit for Refuse and Resist! and Not in Our Name, raising money to send activists and concerned youth to protest at the Republican National Convention in New York. Want to know more? Phone 415-717-2425. — Kelly Vance
SAT 26
Man, have you seen post-pregnancy Kate Hudson? Well, let’s not waste time speculating on lunges or lipo, carb-free or cardio, shall we? Let’s just get our nonmovie-star selves down to a Baby Boot Camp class, held in Oakland on Saturdays (and in Berkeley, Pleasanton, Lafayette, Walnut Creek, and San Ramon throughout the week) for some indoor and outdoor exercise for mom and baby (pregnant mothers, dads, and nannies welcome). The small, 75-minute-long classes focus on building strength, improving posture, and increasing core strength and flexibility. Prices range from $15 for a single class to $180 for an eighteen-class series, and your first one is free. Baby Boot Camp is nationwide, but it’s organized in these parts by Anna Gunn. Give her a call at 925-285-5869 or e-mail [email protected]. — Stefanie Kalem
SUN 27
A tenor, a pianist/accordionist, and some castanets — any decent fiction writer could make magic with those elements. But this is the Billboard page, folks, and we’re just here to tell you what’s going on when, and where. F’rinstance: Today only, Oakland Lyric Opera presents A Latin Potpourri, starring Chilean tenor Jorge Orlando Gomez, David Miotke on the squeezebox and ivories, and Celia Masinos on castanets. The three will perform tango, zarzuela, classical Latin American art songs, folk music, and popular hits at 2 p.m. at the Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave. Suggested donation is $18-$20, and that includes a post-show reception with the artists. Call 510-836-6772, and don’t let us catch you looking to this page for writing-group fodder again, ya hear?! — Stefanie Kalem
MON 28
As part of his “Creole Project,” jazz saxophonist David Murray (late of the World Saxophone Quartet) has scoured the Western Hemisphere searching for music of the African diaspora. His travels took him to the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and ka drum master Klod Kiavue, whose rhythms echo the rituals of Africa. Murray and Kiavue are still on the road. As part of a six-city summer tour, they pull in to Yoshi’s tonight for a three-night stay with a powerhouse seven-piece band that spins mad improvisation on top of Creole roots: Murray on tenor sax and bass clarinet, Kiavue on ka drum and vocals, legendary tenor sax blower Pharoah Sanders, and Herve Samb on guitar, plus Jaribu Shahid on double bass, Benjamin Sanz on drums, and François Ladrezeau on ka drum. Murray’s 8 p.m. sets at Yoshi’s are $20; 10 p.m. shows are only $10. 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland. Yoshis.com or 510-238-9200. — Kelly Vance
TUE 29
As we (the camera) walk across the seedy lawn and up and down the deserted halls of the old hotel, with its peeling paint and palpable dust, we hear snatches of conversation, perhaps a line or two of movie dialogue or a phone message. But there’s no one there. Filmmaker Pat O’Neill’s mediated documentary The Decay of Fiction is a leisurely, spooky tour of the abandoned Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles (since razed) with a layered soundtrack meant to evoke the ghosts of the place, among them Robert F. Kennedy, who was assassinated in the hotel kitchen. O’Neill’s 2002 film, accompanied by Maya Deren’s avant-garde short Meshes of the Afternoon, is a fitting finale for “Los Angeles Plays Itself,” a series on the “true identity” of the city. 7:30 p.m. at the Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft Way on the UCB campus. BAMPFA.Berkeley.edu — Kelly Vance
