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Any large college town worth its salt features a constant variety of things to see, hear and do. Mix in the particular multicultural soup that is Berkeley, and you have a world-class entertainment scene, both on campus and off. Failing all else, of course, San Francisco's right across the Bay. But trust us, the traffic is a killer on Saturday night.
Sports
A founding member of the Pac 10 Conference, Cal fronts teams in every major sport played at the American collegiate level, or at least those sports not requiring the presence of ice or snow.
The California Golden Bears, as its teams are known, play football at Memorial Stadium and basketball at the Haas Pavilion. Pac 10 competition includes big names like UCLA, Washington, Arizona, USC and, of course, hated rival Stanford. Further information about sports at Cal is available at http://calbears.fansonly.com.
During Cal's long history, just about every team has won an NCAA championship at one time or another (or in the case of the football Bears, the Rose Bowl). There is one sport, however, in which Cal has always been dominant: water polo.
The East Bay is also home to several professional sports teams, including the Oakland Raiders football team, the Golden State Warriors for basketball, and the Oakland Athletics for baseball. All three teams play in the same sports complex, where you will find the McAffee Colisseum as well as the Oracle Arena.
Music
The Berkeley Symphony Orchestra is one of the best-kept musical secrets in the country. Conducted by rising star Kent Nagano, the Berkeley Symphony puts on an adventurous program of works by contemporary composers like John Adams, leavened with Brahms, Beethoven and Bruckner. Nagano's reputation attracts the highest echelon of soloists. The Berkeley Symphony performs at Zellerbach Auditorium and Hertz Halls on the U.C. campus, as well as in San Francisco. Further information can be found at www.berkeleysymphony.org/.
In Oakland, the Oakland East Bay Symphony is drawing very favorable notices under Maestro Michael Morgan. OEBS concert-goers' risk/reward ratio is sweetened considerably by the venue: the completely renovated Paramount Theater is an art deco temple—a feast for the eyes, inside and out. The OEBS’ schedule is available, along with other information, at www.oebs.org. The Berkeley-based Chamber Symphony of the West performs a classical and baroque repertoire, often in conjunction with the San Francisco Choral Society and other area choruses, at the First Congregational Church on Channing Way. The First Congregational Church also regularly plays host to other top-notch regional ensembles, like San Francisco's noted Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (+1 415 252 1288, www.philharmonia.org/) and the Sonos Handbell Ensemble (+1 510 531 4780, www.sonos.org/).
The place for jazz in the East Bay (and, in fact in the Bay Area) is Yoshi's, located in Oakland's Jack London Square. The one club to consistently book top-drawer East Coast talent like Joshua Redman, McCoy Tyner and Arturo Sandoval, Yoshi's may also be the only jazz club in the country where you can have sushi served at your table.
The spring and fall San Francisco Jazz Festival has discovered Oakland's Paramount Theater, the perfect Jazz Age venue for larger ensembles with flashier staging. The SFJF draws jazz luminaries from across the country and around the world. Emeryville's Kimball's East features soul-jazz, R&B and blues legends like Jimmy McGriff and Nancy Wilson. Grittier Oakland blues can be dug at Eli's Mile High Club. The Ivy Room (in Albany, just to the north of Berkeley) also books great local blues talent. Downtown Berkeley jazz clubs Jazzschool and Jupiter pack 'em in on weekends. Jupiter, with its garden court, is particularly popular on summer and late autumn evenings.
Berkeley has long been a mecca for folkies. In West Berkeley, The Starry Plough and the Freight and Salvage clubs feature acoustic talent from around the country. Nearby on San Pablo Avenue, Ashkenaz goes a bit more in the folk-rock direction, while Blake's On Telegraph offers the full range of rock, jazz-rock and folk-rock. La Pena Cultural Center books an eclectic mix of Latin rhythms, blues, and uncategorizable but always danceable sounds from all over the world.
Rock headliners play the Berkeley Community Theatre or the Greek Theater. Acts on the scale of the Rolling Stones play the Oakland Coliseum.
Theater
Many critics consider the award-winning Berkeley Repertory Theatre (or Berkeley Rep, as it is commonly known) to be the finest theater company in the Bay Area (some feel it is the best outside of New York). Since 1968, the Rep has been rewarding audiences with challenging, contemporary drama, and has become possibly the largest performing arts organization in Northern California.
Other, smaller ensembles round out the Berkeley theater scene: in North Berkeley, the Actors Ensemble Theater plays at the Live Oak Park Theater. The Aurora Theater's polished productions regularly sell out the Aurora Theater in the dowdy Berkeley City Club—the Aurora plans to move to a new theater of their own at 2071 Addison, near the Berkeley Rep, for the 2001-2002 season; newcomer TheaterFirst's recent stagings of Death and the Maiden and The Ladies of the Camellias have drawn good notices at the Julia Morgan Theater in the Elmwood; and the scrappy Shotgun Players have moved their high-energy repertoire out of cramped LaVal's Pizza and into new digs at Adeline and Alcatraz. U.C. Berkeley's Dramatic Arts Department stages student productions every year, as well. For more information, call +1 510 601 8932.
Film
The Pacific Film Archive at the Berkeley Art Museum on Bancroft puts together often obscure but consistently riveting programs at their 234-seat theater, and has a great little cafe.
Berkeley is one city where downtown movie houses are thriving. The Fine Arts, the Landmark's Act One and Two, the California, the Shattuck, and the UA Berkeley form a four-block, 25-screen phalanx, but it's still not enough to keep shows from selling out. Quick and fun downtown eateries make it a great scene for a cheap date.
The Oaks Theatre and the Landmark Albany Twin are reliable old favorites for North Berkeleyites. The Elmwood Cinema has slightly cheaper tickets for last month's best movies and is located within a stone's throw of a dozen restaurants. The Dolbyized neo-Deco Emery Bay Stadium 10 , right off the freeway in nearby Emeryville, provides movie-goers with a mulitplex of dinner choices in the Emery Bay Market's international food court.
For a more unique cinema-going experience, the Parkway Speakeasy Theater in Oakland, and its sister theater, the Cerrito Speakeasy Theater offer up a selection of pizzas, salads and sandwiches along with draft beer as well as comfortable couches to watch your movie from, not to mention ticket prices being half what they are anywhere else. However, don't try to bring the kids along, these theaters are for ages 21+ (except certain showtimes, check website for details).
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