Past list view

We've organized a double header evening of cultural contrasts, and members are of course free to attend both or one or the other.

The first gathering is an author's talk that occurs at the California Historical Society. California is often seen as the land of freeways and bumper-to-bumper traffic, but the story of the state's long, enthusiastic involvement with the car has not been told. In Wheels of Change, historian Kevin Nelson tells the story of the personalities that have helped shape this story, from engineering wizards to rebels without a cause to gearheads and dry lake racers, and traces the narrative of a car culture unlike any other.

Nelson will begin his presentation with the car's initial glory days in California: the glamour Barney Oldfield brought to the early days of racing, the adventure and romance that Hollywood piled on, and the hot rods, drag racers, and custom cars that defined the postwar years. Designers like Harley Earl, the distinctive automobile stylist and designer of the Corvette, and the innovations developed by the design studios that dot Southern California today played key roles. And he documents the influence of the aircraft industry and and the early embrace of European sports cars and other imports changed the automobile in America forever.

Nelson devoted three years to researching and writing Wheels of Change, driving thousands of miles around California on road trips to car shows, car museums, car clubs, racetracks, the El Mirage dry lakes area, and other significant spots in the state’s automotive history. Read more at http://kevinnelsonwriter.com/knw-wheelsofchange.html

Cost: free

Then we'll grab some eats on the run at A.G. FERRARI FOODS and head across the street to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for the opening of its new show When Lives Become Form: Contemporary Brazilian Art, 1960s to the Present which celebrates Brazil’s creative vitality through the works of artists, fashion designers and architects.

The exhibit, organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, highlights artists and creators who were part of, or inspired by, “Tropicália,” an artistic movement which arose in Brazil during the 1960s around the “originality of the culture of people who live in the tropics.” Its central figure, Helio Oiticica, took inspiration from Brazilian favelas, “a product of fantastic improvisation in creating a ‘vital place’ for communicating not form so much as joy.”

Music for this opening night party features Brazilian jazz pianist Marcos Silva Ensemble, in a musical fusion of Tropicália with contemporary Brazilian jazz, and Grupo Falso Baiano, an ensemble that blends joyous Brazilian choro with modern influences such as jazz and samba. (Choro is one of Brazil's earliest popular musics, dating back to the late 1800s, and, similar to jazz, it reflects the melding of African rhythms with a melodic and harmonic structure closely resembling Baroque Classical music.)

Cost: $12 online, $15 at the door. Could sell out.
http://www.ybca.org/tickets/production/view.aspx?id=9821

This is a little short notice, but I thought this would be a fun trip to the Mission.

Clarion Alley is a small alley in the Mission District covered end to end with dozens of homegrown murals, painted by some of the Bay's best local artists. Celebrate with this yearly block party with bands playing all day while artists create new murals and put the "art" back into party. Between Mission and Valencia/16th, 17th St. The event runs from noon-9pm.

Closest BART station: 16th St. Mission.

We can meet at the 16th street BART station and walk together as a group to the Alley.
My #510-938-2925 .

Philosophy Talk is taking its show on the road at The Marsh. Philosophy Talk, a weekly, one-hour radio series led by two philosophy profs from Stanford is "The program that questions everything...except your intelligence." The hosts' down-to-earth and no-nonsense approach brings the richness of philosophic thought to everyday subjects. Topics are lofty (Truth, Beauty, Justice), arresting (Terrorism, Intelligent Design, Suicide), and engaging (Baseball, Love, Happiness).

This is not a lecture or a college course, it's philosophy in action! Philosophy Talk is a fun opportunity to explore issues of importance to your audience in a thoughtful, friendly fashion, where thinking is encouraged.

The second of two programs being recorded at The Marsh will focus on "Nihilism and Meaning" The ancients believed in an enchanted universe -- a universe suffused with meaning and purpose. But with the dawn of modernity, philosophy and science conspired together to disenchant the universe, to reveal it as entirely devoid of meaning and purpose. Must any rational and reflective person living in the 21st century accept such nihilism? Or is there a way to re-infuse the disenchanted universe with meaning and purpose? Hubert Dreyfus, author of the forthcoming Luring Back the Gods is the guest.

Hubert Dreyfus has a following beyond Berkeley where he has taught for 40 years> Check out: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~hdreyfus/pdf/Los%20Angeles%20Times_%20The%20iPod%20lecture%20circuit.pdf
http://www.findingmywaymovie.com/hubertdreyfus.html

We'll go next door after to discuss our impressions.

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at the theater or here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/81156.

Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?

[We'll walk down the street afterward to a cafe to discuss the presentation. Please don't sign up if you can't do this meetup part of the evening]

Michael J. Sandel’s legendary Justice course is one of the most popular at Harvard University. Up to a thousand students pack the campus theater to hear Sandel relate the big questions of political philosophy to the most vexing issues of the day. At the same time public television premiers the new series Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? we’re thrilled to bring Professor Sandel to Berkeley.

What are our obligations to others as people in a free society? Should government tax the rich to help the poor? Is the free market fair? Is it sometimes wrong to tell the truth? Is killing sometimes morally required? Is it possible, or desirable, to legislate morality? Do individual rights and the common good conflict? These questions are at the core of our public life today – and at the heart of Justice in which Michael Sandel shows how a surer grasp of philosophy can help us to make sense of politics, morality, and our own convictions. He offers the same exhilarating journey that captivates Harvard students, the challenges of thinking our way through the hard moral challenges we confront as citizens, in a searching, lyrical exploration that invites all political persuasions to consider familiar controversies in fresh and illuminating ways. Affirmative action, same-sex marriage, physician-assisted suicide, abortion, national service, the moral limits of markets, patriotism and dissent: Sandel shows how even the most hotly contested issues can be illuminated by reasoned moral argument.

Michael Sandel is the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard, where he has taught since 1980, and the author of many books.

Check out- http://philosophybites.com/sandel/

Tickets $12 in advance http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/77402

Join the Classical Music Meetup for arias al fresco on the lawn during a free concert preview of the upcoming San Francisco Opera season. With fall season stars, including Sondra Radvanovsky, Ewa Podleś, Marco Berti, Brandon Jovanovich, Quinn Kelsey and Andrea Silvestrelli, and the San Francisco Opera Orchestra conducted by new Music Director Nicola Luisotti.

Here's how it works:

1.Your tireless CEO ["Chief Epicurean Outfitter"] travels down early from Napa and stakes out ground in the Park by putting out a various ground covers and some low back chairs.

2. A few members volunteer to arrive by 11 a.m. to help hold down the spot. This has the advantage of letting you hear some additional tunes by the singers during their impromtu "rehearsal".

3. We should be about 10 blankets back in the middle alongside the central walkway. Our faithful red and magenta striped chair meaning small umbrella, has been augmented by a blue and white umbrella and will be placed out on the chairs to locate our spot.

4. Everyone else arrives by noon but no later 12:30 lest they lose their spot as staff start insisting that blankets and tarps be taken in to allow others a place (there is also no place to park after this time if you are driving). Performance begins @ 1:30 p.m. Remember, we are not a seat reservation service.

5. Each attendee brings an item to share for four and a beverage of their choice. Also bring a hat and a low back beach chair, NOT one of those folding campsite canvas chairs that obscures views of people behind you. Sitting on your haunches gets tiring over four hours.

This promises to be a very special afternoon.