Beast Blog

Chocolate tasting and culture at UC Berkeley

Sunday, October 9, at 1pm sees "The Culture of Chocolate: Tracing the Mystique and Worldwide Journey of Cacao", and event put on at the Hearst Museum of Anthropology.

We Get Press Releases - A Taste of Albany

The Beast Blog knows it's reached the big time when Chambers of Commerce send in stuff. We don't print everything we get, but this seemed of quality and interest:

A Taste of Albany, Sunday, June 5th   Set yourself free! at the fourth annual "A Taste of Albany -- a Small-Town Walkabout," Sunday, June 5th, from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Solano and San Pablo Avenues. Tickets available at www.albanychamber.org. Price: $20 in advance, $25 day of event (if available). Price includes tastes from 18 of Albany's finest restaurants, including Fonda, the Solano Grill and Bar, Albany Bistro, and Ruen Pair, to name a few, and special promotions from over a dozen other businesses in town. The festival features 12 live bands, featuring ORIXA and Otis Goodnight, an arts-and-crafts show, two free cable car shuttles, a "Kiddyland," jugglers, magicians, and more. "A Taste of Albany" is a "green" event.    (Note to editor: Twenty percent of any profits will be donated to the Oakland Center for the Blind and victims of the south Asian tsunami. Additional donations made to support music, art, theater, and sports in local schools.)

Ashby Arts District

There is a fabulous movement afoot in South Berkeley!

It's called The Ashby Arts District, and its a cooperative effort spearheaded by Epic Arts (which serves as its fulcrum). The partnership includes La Peña Cultural Center, The Shotgun Players, Epic Arts Studios, The Black Repertory Group, Nomad Café, Northern California Land Trust and the Triptych Gallery. This district is unique in that it has been organized by artists and arts organizations from the grassroots up, and is now supported by the local business community, neighborhood associations, and was officially recognized by the Berkeley Mayor's office in the summer of 2003.

The recent emergence of this affiliation of arts venues in the South Berkeley/North Oakland neighborhoods surrounding Ashby BART station has finally given a name to an area long known for its proliferation of artists, writers, musicians, dancers, actors and other performers, as well as residents who appreciate community-based arts.

Through collaborative events and programs, the District’s members are working to bridge gaps between neighboring organizations, increase public awareness of the arts, and unify the communities they serve. Undertakings include:

* Publishing a monthly arts calendar that reflects events and performances throughout the Ashby Arts District

* Compiling and sharing a database of nearly one thousand local artists, musicians and other performers in order to allow broad saturation of favorite acts within the district

* Working with city officials to move new arts organizations into the area.

* Planning our first annual street festival for the summer of 2005, during which a section of the Arts District will be shut down to celebrate the 30th anniversary of La Peña and the Northern California Land Trust.

* Partnering with local businesses, organizations, and community groups to expand the reach of and base of support for the arts as an integrated part of community

* Continuing to develop public art projects such as the 2003 Ashby/MLK mural project that involve local residents as designers and architects of thier own creative environment.

The main goal is the continued development of the Ashby Arts District and the creation of a better world through art, one thriving community at a time.

A return to the Supper Club

What could be more fun than an evening out- seeing fabulous performers in all genres while enjoying a gourmet meal?

The Ghetto Gourmet does just that, several times a month in various locations.

Check them out to make a reservation!

Join me as we proceed to... THE FUTURE

Currently on display in UC Berkeley's Doe Library is "Transportation Futuristics", a small exhibit of materials detailing a variety of approaches to improving transportation. It's filled with monorails, super sonic aircraft, hovercars, and the like. The accompanying website showcases all the items, but not at a resolution equal to the original materials, so it's worth a stop there.

It's accessible any time that Doe Library is open, and is open to the public. Doe is open between 8am and 9pm during the week.

Fun Stuff in the Beast: Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory

This is the first in what I hope is a series of Fun Stuff in the Beast posts, activities to get you out of the house and enjoying what the area has to offer.

Yesterday, a bunch of friends went to the Scharffen Berger Chocolate Factory for a tasting and a tour. Tours are everyday at 10:30, 2:30, and 3:30.

The entrance. Which also lets you know the address.

The tasting room.

The bulk of the tour takes place in the tasting room, where our guide taught us about the harvesting and production of cacao, and then the manufacture of chocolate at the factory. This was interspersed with free handouts of their milk, semi-sweet, and bittersweet bars, as well as a dip of their chocolate sauce. All very tasty.

We then walked through the factory.

First you see the roaster:

In front of the roaster was this charmingly non-modern desk set-up:

No laptop. No ethernet. Not even a phone!

Everything in the roasting room is covered in fine brown powder.
(Ibex is the animal in the Scharffen Berger logo:

Then you move to the next room, where the chocolate is actually made.

Everyone's favorite machine is the melangeur:

Chocolate goo!

Ever wonder what's in a big tub of cocoa butter? Now you know:

The tour ends in the gift shop (naturally), where everyone is quite primed to spend obscene amounts of money of all manner of confection. I neglected to photograph the gift shop, though.