Friday, June 7, 2013
Weekender: This Weekend's Top Five Events
Fri, Jun 7, 2013 at 6:00 AM
In honor of our annual PETS issue, watch this video of a hedgehog — one of the ~*ALT PETS*~ mentioned in this week's story on weird pets — taking a bath:
Then, partake in any or all of the following five fun activities taking place right here in your neighborhood this weekend:
Retro Pop-Up Restaurant
One of the East Bay's most historic hotels honors its long history in the best possible way: with food. While its bar is closed during renovations, FIVE (2086 Allston Way, Berkeley) is offering a pop-up restaurant in its Crystal Dining Room throughout the first week of June, with dishes and decor themed around the year 1910, when the hotel first opened. In addition to a la carte service, a Friday-only four-course prix-fixe dinner includes such retro dishes as Waldorf salad, filet of sole Oscar, Delta asparagus, and creamy Pavlova. Fri., June 7, 5-10 p.m. Five-Berkeley.com — Anneli Rufus
Oaklavía
This free-form event is based off of the idea that taking cars off the streets has the power to transform the way you see — and use — the space around you. Oaklavía first happened in 2010, shutting down the Broadway corridor, but this time around, it'll be a joint venture between Oaklavía and Love Our Lake Day, a celebration of the Lake Merritt beautification effort funded through Measure DD. Both Lakeshore Avenue and Lakeside Drive will be almost totally closed to traffic circling the lake, with just a smattering of food trucks, booths, and various dance and music performances along the way. The rest is up to you. 11-4 p.m., Lake Merritt redesign dedication ceremony at 2 p.m.; free. 510-654-6346 or Oaklavia.org — Azeen Ghorayshi
Urban Farm Tours
How do you begin tackling your own ambitious urban-farm project without knowing what's possible for your site in the first place? If you are curious, or if you fall into the category of the slightly daunted, join the Institute of Urban Homesteading for a day of urban-farm tours in homes throughout Albany, El Cerrito, Richmond, and El Sobrante. You'll get a chance to see the fruit and vegetable gardens, chickens, goats, bees, earthen buildings, and greywater systems that others just like you have managed to tend to on properties of all shapes and sizes. With guided tours, tastings, Q&A's led by the farmers every hour, and a special raffle of various goods grown on the farms themselves. Sat., June 8, $5. IUHOakland.com — A.G.
Noothgrush
Going to a concert these days (metal ones included) is like attending a smartphone convention: Every moment is experienced through and captured by a screen and then simultaneously uploaded to the web. But before this era of connectivity (or disconnectivity, depending on your point of view), live band footage was harder to come by. Daniel Hague, aka Dan Hashthrash, has made it his mission to document (or find another person's documentation of) underground metal and punk bands on both video and audio, and make his finds available for everyone's viewing and listening pleasure on his site KillThatCat.com. To celebrate Hague's recent victory over cancer, a benefit show featuring many of the bands Hague has documented — including Noothgrush (South Bay doom), Brainoil (West Oakland sludge), Connoisseur ("Oaksterdam stonerviolence"), and Fema Coffin (former members of Stormcrow), plus Columbus, Ohio's Before the Eyewall (heavy psych) — will play a show at Eli's Mile High Club, preceded by a potluck. Sat., June 8, 8 p.m. — Kathleen Richards
Live Oak Park Fair
A cornerstone of the vibrant North Berkeley art & crafts community, the Live Oak Park Fair showcases affordable contemporary art, fine crafts, handcrafted jewelry & accessories, couture adult and kids’ clothing, handmade quilts and baskets, plus sculptural and functional objects in clay, fiber, glass, metal and wood. With plenty of stuff to keep the kids busy as well — live music, magic shows, puppets, and face painting — great food, and more. At Live Oak Park. June 8 & 9, 10am-6pm, free.
Plus...
Get your cheapskate on:
This is how much we love you guys: Here are our searchable listings of every single free event happening in the East Bay this weekend.
Feed Us: Got any East Bay news, events, video, or miscellany we should know about? Holler at us at Azeen.Ghorayshi@EastBayExpress.com.
