The Hillside Club

On Wednesday March 21 at 7:30, the Hillside Club will host a fund-raiser for final editing costs of Ann Hershey’s documentary-in-process A Heart in Action about San Francisco writer Tillie Olsen. Best known for Tell Me a Riddle and Silences, Tillie Olsen wrote stories and essays and was an activist all her life—one of her last battles being the effort to stop the San Francisco library from throwing away books when they moved into their new building. From fighting racism to exposing worker exploitation, Tillie used her beautiful words to tell truth to power. Ann Hershey began filming in 2000. She will attend and speak after screening. Contributions from $5 to $500 or more will be welcome.

AUTHOR SERIES: Cecile Andrews is the author of Slow Is Beautiful: New Visions
of Community, Leisure and Joie de Vivre. Free.

A SIERRA CLUB FORUM

Thursday, March 22 at 7:30 p.m.

Speakers include:
Professor Paul Ludden, Dean of the UCB College of Natural Resources
Professor Chris Somerville, Biological Sciences, Stanford
Professor John Harte, Energy Resources Group, Ecosystem Sciences Division, UCB
Associate Professor Ignacio Chapela, Microbial Ecology, Dept. of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, UCB
Helen Burke, Berkeley Planning Commission member and former EBMUD board member, Moderator

Environmental issues will include:

• Whether development of biofuels to sustain our present lifestyle is a responsible goal,

• Whether it is environmentally and ethically responsible to develop GMOs
(genetically modified organisms) for the purpose of harnessing the energy-producing
capabilities of plants.

Berkeley, Her Land and Her Gift of Early Neighborhoods. To understand Berkeley and its neighborhoods, we must start by seeing the natural landscape before development. Richard Schwartz, a local author and historian, who wrote Berkeley 1900 and Earthquake Exodus 1906, will give an illustrated talk on what the land of Berkeley looked like before its neighborhoods appeared, the flowering of neighborhoods that arose from this remote place, and the context of culture within which they sprang up until the post-1906 period.

“Life After TV” will be moderated by Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur.

Additional panelists include executives from Dabble, Brightcove, Fiber-to-the-Home Council, and MobiTV. $10 at the door.

Berkeley Cybersalon, March 4, 5-7 p.m.

“Every Engineer’s Nightmare: Dreaming in Code,” or why software engineering is not a perfect science. We will have Scott Rosenberg, author of “Dreaming in Code;” Hillside Club member Eric Allman, email pioneer and founder of Sendmail; Chad Dickerson, manager of the Yahoo Developer Network; Lisa Dusseault, fellow at Commercenet and former standards architect at OSAF; and Jaron Lanier, computer scientist and virtual reality pioneer.

Update: A recording of the discussion can be downloaded from
http://www.hillsideclub.org/DreamingInCode.MP3.

A free public forum on transportation in Berkeley

Why are there more cars on Berkeley streets? Why don’t the buses run more often? What works to reduce gridlock - more parking, stopping new development, or better transit? Come to learn about and discuss strategies and solutions with professionals and neighbors.

Doors open at 7:15, Thursday, February 8.

Presentations by:
* Chris Peebles, AC Transit Board
* Prof. Betty Deakin, Transportation Consultant and Director of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Transportation Studies
* Matt Nichols, Senior Transportation Planner, City of Berkeley

Moderated by Club members Charlene Woodcock and Betsy Morris, Ph.D.
Question? contact 510/549-8790

Berkeley Cybersalon, Sunday, January 21, 5-7 p.m., Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St. in Berkeley. $10 admission ($5 for Hillside Club members) includes pizza and drinks.

Games People Play: Digital Designers and Game Creators Redefine Play

Come join our discussion with panelists:

Chris Allen, founder of Skotos games and digital philosopher
Ty Carriere, professor of game design at Ex’pression College of Design
Barrett Fox, founder, Brainstorm Project, a brain stimulation game
Nicole Lazzaro, founder, Xeo Design

For more information on the Hillside Club, see www.hillsideclub.org. We are wheelchair accessible, child friendly, and welcome everyone in our doors to contribute and share ideas, music, and the arts.

Dangerous Rhythm - Friday, 19 January at 8:00 pm
Admission $15 ($10 for HSC members and Seniors)
Info: (510) 845-1350

The Berkeley Hillside Club is proud to present DANGEROUS RHYTHM in concert. This group of virtuoso players is a marvelous musical experiment performed to answer an intriguing “what if” question. Join us in the acoustically- wonderful Hillside Club for this evening of musical mischief.

What would swing have become had it not turned into bop? This is the musical premise behind guitarist Tim Fox’s group, DANGEROUS RHYTHM. Playing mostly original compositions and the occasional not-so-moldy oldie, this group will get your toes tapping, your heart pumping, and your mind racing. Veteran bassist and vocalist Steven Strauss (Penelope Houston, the Hot Club of San Francisco, Old Puppy), vibraphonist and aspiring ukulelist, Gerry Grosz, accordionist extraordinary, Dan Cantrell (The Toids, Peoples Bizarre, Tom Waits), and percussionist Brian Rice (the Paul Winter Consort, Mike Marshall’s Chôro Famoso, Wake the Dead, the pickPocket Ensemble) complete the group.

It’s Twenty-First Century Swing, folks. Accept no substitutes.

Alan Deutschman, senior editor for Fast Company magazine, will read from his new book, Change or Die, at 7.30 PM.