- Just when you thought it was safe to go in the water. Bay Area journalist, filmmaker and activist Steve Zeltzer and local environmental activist Nina Beety will talk 7pm this Friday at Seaside’s Peace and Justice Center about the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and its impact on our shores, on marine life, and, potentially, on us. It’s free. 655-9902.
- “Come enjoy Tony Albano as he tells short stories about his life.” His bio say he’s been a waiter at Il Fornaio in Carmel for over 20 years. It goes on: “He’s also been a New York hippie, a musician, a deli owner, a Mets lover, and a lover of women. He loves animals, too, especially dogs.” He also lost a leg. Maybe by now you’re thinking to yourself, “This I gotta hear.” If so, 1pm Saturday at Old Capitol Books is the time and place. 649-8964.
- Matt Damon thinks the lack of diversity in this year’s (and last year’s) Oscar nominations is embarrassing. Saturday Night Live skewered the Academy for leapfrogging over people of color. Chris Rock is rewriting his opening monologue to get at it all. The Oscars, like the Superbowl, is more spectacle than anything, but as such, both are symbolic and meaningful. Locally, the Monterey County branches of the National Coalition Building Institute and NAACP are fighting back. Their Recommitting to End Racism workshop this weekend – a free workshop revolving around race, class, gender, identity, religion, age, etc. – is an encore of the successful presentation they did last November. And, unfortunately for those who want to attend, but fortunately for us all, it is full. 373-4606.
- The 6th Annual Carmel Jewish Film Festival isn’t until March, but Congregation Beth Israel is spooling up a preview 5pm this Sunday with Dancing In Jaffa, about a renowned ballroom dancer who teaches Israeli and Palestinian kids to dance together.
- The Monterey Public Library hosts the monthly Storyteller’s Studio 6:30-7:30pm Monday for “serious storytellers” to come and practice the art and craft of the oral tradition. You know who you are.
- Next week, opening Feb. 4, PacRep is doing Heathers the Musical, one of the most acidic, perverse, well-written and funny teen cult movies of the ‘80s.
- At 7:30pm this Wednesday at the Carmel High School Performing Arts Center, the Carmel Public Library’s Film Night with the Library screens, for free, Antarctic Edge: 70 Degrees South, a documentary that follows a team of scientists studying climate change. Director, Dena Seidel, will speak before the program on “The Art of Science Filmmaking.”
ARTIFACTS 01.28.16