Inmates in Nazi concentration camps sometimes managed to perform music. That same spirited determination in the face of extreme hardship animates the Gaza Music School. It was established in 2008 thanks to a grant from the London-based Qattan Foundation. At the end of its first year, Israeli bombers — made in the U.S.A. — destroyed …
The wandering minstrels of Occupella, or some of them, gathered this afternoon at a Wells Fargo branch in the Fillmore District of San Francisco. With the help of several sweet-voiced volunteers, we serenaded the bank’s employees, customers, and passers-by with old standards like Take Me Out of the Big Banks, Pay Up Your Corporate Tax, …
The Tax the Rich demonstration on upper Solano Avenue in Berkeley celebrated its first birthday this afternoon, and Occupella was there. The demonstration, at the old Oaks Theatre across the street from a Private Client (read: loaded) branch of Chase, features signs urging higher tax rates on corporations and wealthy individuals, among other causes. Numerous …
Take photos for food? An email forwarded by the Berkeley Camera Club offered a free meal at the Hippie Gypsy Cafe in exchange for capturing the evening’s musical talent on camera. How could I resist? The H.G. Cafe is on a rather toney block of Shattuck Avenue, a street with a dozen coffee houses, and …
Makana’s performance of “We Are the Many” is one of the great moments of courage in the history of music. Last November, the 33-year old Hawaiian singer and slack-key guitar virtuoso was invited to play dinner music at the Asia-Pacific Economic Summit in Honolulu. With President Obama and other heads of state feeding their faces, …
