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[whitespace] The b-Sides

A+ music geeks.

Urban Guide

Listings to plan your week by

The b-Sides

The b-Sides' new album Indeed, The b-Sides, Quite, demonstrates the accomplished sounds of scholarly musicians. It reflects immaturity in a manner that also highlights potential. Successful attempts at innovative concepts and stylings obscure a well-defined direction; instead the listener experiences several directions and some tasty layers. The b-Sides draw from a number of rock genres, mingling the light pluck of surf guitar with enchanting piano, then introducing crunch-ing and raucous melodies reminiscent of Weezer. Their pleading vocals offer truth to their stories and instruments match the emotion. The spectrum of sounds provides a rare glimpse at versatile young musicians having serious fun on stage. The b-Sides have been described as geek rock and power pop, but regardless of record store classifications, they display bold artistry and refined palates in compositions that promise to influence East Bay music. This refreshing blend of talent plays with SNMNMNM and the Tabloids.

Sat/23, 10pm. The Stork Club, 2330 Telegraph, Oakl. $10. 444.6174. (JPS)


Kevin Epps

Epps brings the inside out.


Straight Outta Hunters Point

Hunters Point has been plagued with national and local media misrepresentation; in response, filmmaker Kevin Epps set out to create his own story. As a resident of Hunters Point, Epps is able to capture an insider's vision of the under-ground hip-hop scene, history of toxic dumping, and the community's daily struggle in his new documentary Straight Outta Hunters Point. The film places its audience right on the streets where groups West Mob, Big Block, and 3rd and Newcomb stake claim to their turf. Known to residents as HP, the neighborhood gained national coverage when West Mob Records and Big Block Records got into a heated argu-ment that ended with 20 people shot and four dead. Check this movie out to get a deeper, more concrete view into the heartless violence that is blanketing these peoples lives. The Prescott-Joseph Center for Community Enhancement will hold a community meeting Friday at 7:30pm to address the many issues brought up by the film. Call 208.1912 to register.

Wed/20, 6pm. UCS Community Learning Center, 2141 Broadway, Oakl. $5-$10. 208.1912.
Sat/23-Sun/24, 2:30pm. Fine Arts Cinema, 2451 Shattuck, Berk. $8. 848.1143. (GS)


The Whole World's Watching

Taking a vision and turning it into history is just what The Whole World's Watching: Peace and Social Justice Movements of the 1960s and 1970s, a new compilation of documentary photographs, accomplishes. The Berkeley Art Center has published an exhibit catalogue featuring 50 duotone photos and a collection of essays. The book's themes range from the Black Panthers to Free Speech to disability rights to United Farm Workers to the cultural destruction of an era. Friday night, Cody's will feature a panel discussion presented by the exhibit's curator and photographer Harold Adler. The discussion will include Pulitzer Prize-winning author Leon F. Litwack; author and scholar Charles Wollenberg; photographer, writer, and activist Hollynn D'Lil; chief Tribune photographer Ronald J. Riesterer; and photographer/ activist Cathy Cade. This is a great opportunity to learn some of the history created in your own backyard.

Fri/22, 7:30pm. Cody's Bookstore, 2454 Telegraph, Berk. www.codysbooks.com. (GS)


African American Museum and Library at Oakland

Badly damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the historic Charles Greene building on the corner of 14th Street and MLK, Jr. Way will once again contribute to the Oakland community. The grand opening celebration for the African American Museum and Library at Oakland (AAMLO) represents the conclusion of an $11.2 million project to renovate and seismically retrofit the building. Formerly Oakland's main library, AAMLO's new home will proudly display and preserve Oakland's rich African-American heritage. Additionally, the new museum and library gladly accepts the challenge to become the premier institution of its kind on the West Coast. Marcus Books is opening a satellite store within the library and will co-sponsor a special author reading on Friday evening featuring Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due. A formal celebration will commence at noon the following day showcasing the Blackhouse School Performers, the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California Workshops, childrens storytelling with Opal Palmer Adisa, and photographer Anthony Gleaton discus-sing his opening exhibit, Tengo Casi 500 Años.

Fri/22-Sat/23, 10am-5:30pm. AAMLO, 659 14th St, Oakl. 637.0200. (JPS)


Marilyn Chambers

Marilyn Chambers does more than black-tie.


Behind the Green Door

A landmark in the history of movie erotica and a dubious achievement in the annals of Bay Area filmmaking, this 1972 bit of porno chic stars Marilyn Chambers as an anonymous young beauty kidnapped and whisked away to a theater to serve as the main attraction in a black-tie sex show. Directed by the notorious Mitchell Brothers (and featuring a legitimizing cameo by clothed Raiders lineman Ben Davidson), it plays like the icky outtakes from the orgy sequence in Eyes Wide Shut. The benumbed Chambers gives as good as she gets, including a scenario in which she tangles with a studly trapeze team in crotchless tights. This gross-out Cirque du Soleil act climaxes in a five-minute "money shot" montage comprised of slow-motion extreme close-ups and colorized negative footage over an ominous electronic drone. Despite some choppy editing and occasionally shaky zooms, Behind the Green Door is rendered artfully, with skin and style to spare. But make no mistake -- this is hardcore porn masquerading as an arty odyssey of sexual self-discovery. If you're not in it for the arousal, academic or other-wise, it comes off as an unleavened, gratuitous bore. Introduced by Linda Williams, author of Hard Core: Power, Pleasure and the Frenzy of the Visible.

Mon/25, 7pm. Pacific Film Archive, 2575 Bancroft, Berk. 642.1412; www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa/filmseries. (JM)


Picks by Jim Magary (JM), John Paul Sekulich (JPS), and Gabriel Serpa (GS).

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From the February 20-26, 2002 issue of Oakland's Urbanview.

Copyright 1994-2025 Weeklys. This page is part of Metro Silicon Valley's historical archive and is no longer updated. It may contain outdated information or links. For currently information, please go to MetroSiliconValley.com home pagee-edition or events calendar.

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