When I co-founded Harborside Health Center in 2006 in Oakland, the popularity of the 4/20 holiday was just beginning to seriously rev up. At that time the medical cannabis framework in California had been in place for 10 years. By 2006 enough legal patients existed to make 4/20 a safe day for hordes of celebrating stoners to come out. The movement was spreading its wings and making itself known to the media nationally and internationally. Hippie Hill in San Francisco had become a spontaneous gathering place for stoners. Dispensaries like Harborside and Berkeley Patients Group began to pioneer ..read more

The pizza recipes at North Berkeley’s three.one four pizzeria belong to a chef who lives in and runs a catering business in Los Angeles. Mario Vollera, along with a silent business partner and hospitality expert Brandon Wilson, have reimagined the former Lalime’s space as a “swanky pizza lounge.” Wilson previously helped Restoration Hardware open restaurants across the country, most recently in Marin. While working at Restoration in Corte Madera, his soon-to-be business partner suggested that Wilson take a trip to Los Angeles to try Vollera’s sourdough pizza. “I was just blown away,” he said ..read more

THURSDAY INDIE LATE NIGHT DRIVE HOME  Late Night Drive Home’s music sounds like rainy nights, lonely cities and lowercase letters. Formed in 2019 in a rural town outside of El Paso, the four-piece indie-rock band found surprise success when their SoundCloud single, “Stress Relief,” went viral in 2021. In that hit song, lead singer Andres Julian Portillo channels the sound of aughts rock (the Killers, the Strokes, etc.) to deliver a performance that’s somehow both moody and deadpan. Now signed to Epitaph Records, the band has released the excellent EP “i’ll remember you for the same feeli ..read more

Writer-director Alex Garland faces a tricky dilemma in shaping his new dystopian actioner, Civil War. Just how true to real life does it need to be? Civil War is the ripped-from-the-collective-nightmare story of a small group of sympathetic characters caught up in a large-scale internal armed conflict in the United States, in the near future. Just how near is the main—but not only—unanswered question in Garland’s narrative, which strives to shock casual movie audiences with ultra-realistic violence of the upscale-disaster-flick variety. Just who is this “casual audience”? When it comes to the ..read more

ARIES (March 21-April 19): I suspect two notable phenomena will coalesce in your sphere sometime soon. The first is a surplus supply of luck. I’m not sure why, but the fates will be sending surges of good karma your way. The second phenomenon is this: You might not be entirely alert for the potential luck flowing in your direction, and it may not leap out and grab you. That could be a problem. Fortunately, you are reading this oracle, which means you are getting a heads-up about the looming opportunity. Now that you realize you must be vigilant for the serendipitous blessings, I’m confident y ..read more

THURSDAY THEATER DRUM TAO Drum Tao is a mixture of traditional taiko drumming and high drama performed by 40 performers with acrobatic pedigree. The drums, which come in every size, emanate rhythms and timbres reminiscent of not only the human heartbeat but tumbling rocks, crashing thunder, a giant’s footsteps—even the lightest spring rain falling on fresh grass. Played with incredible skill, finesse and full-body gestures, these men—and a few women—in skirts never sounded or looked so good. – LOU FANCHER INFO: 7:30pm, UC Berkeley, Zellerbach Hall, 101 Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley. $43 – $106. 5 ..read more

The following article was written after I interviewed Cash Caris on April 3. At the time, the chef sounded optimistic about Delirama’s reincarnation as Elsie’s on Solano. On Sunday night, Caris posted on Instagram that he would close Elsie’s until April 17 to reassess their business plan.  By Monday morning, Caris added an update, “It is with a heavy heart that I share the news of the Solano location’s closure after more than two years of serving our wonderful community.” He cited “high rent, utilities, labor costs and the uncompromising need for quality ingredients” as the reasons behin ..read more

The late, lamented video store culture and its fanatics always make good copy for whimsical news coverage. Even the most hidebound, no-nonsense media outlet seemingly harbors a contributor who once upon a time toiled—like Quentin Tarantino—in a grubby urban hole-in-the-wall stuffed to the rafters with the most arcane film offerings in existence, usually in outmoded home-video formats. One such temple of obscure thrills was Kim’s Video, a New York City mini-chain of shops that grew out of proprietor Yongman Kim’s obsession with classic motion pictures. In Kim’s case, “classic” didn’t connote o ..read more

In its nearly 40-year history, Brava for Women in the Arts has never before met a more perfect match than with Larry the Musical. The San Francisco-based arts organization is devoted to amplifying the stories and voices of women, LGBTQIA and underrepresented people of color.  Their latest staged production is based on the children’s picture book, Journey for Justice: The Life of Larry Itliong, written by the late historian Dawn Mabalon and author/playwright Gayle Romasanta, and illustrated by Andre Sibayan. The musical tells the story of Itliong, the oft-overlooked labor organizer who le ..read more

The beautiful Beaux Arts building that opened on Oakland’s 10th Street in 1915 was originally called the Oakland Civic Auditorium. During its time under that name, it served as an infirmary during the 1918 flu epidemic, hosted a classic Christmas pageant for decades and reverberated to the voice of Martin Luther King Jr. as he spoke in 1962, marking the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Over the years, the Grateful Dead played the facility 57 times. Time, however, began to take its toll. A mid-’80s renovation saw the building renamed the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center in ..read more