Night School

Quite a weekend feast of nocturnal education/entertainment events coming up - one that's sure to, how shall we say it, ". . . put a smile on that face!"

First of all, as many who frequent the Photog-Blog-o-sphere surely know, the opening reception for the Nocturnes . . . in Berkeley? exhibit of NPy at The LightRoom, on Fifth Street in Berkeley, is this Saturday, July 19, from 2-6pm, with plenty of Nocturnes in attendance. So, why not venture out and see the faces behind the images?

Hearst Memorial Gymnasium, West Study by Tim Baskerville

The show features NightWork by some of the "usual suspects" - Tim Baskerville, Denise Fuson, Sherry Glassman, Mark Jaremko, Joe Reifer, Charity Vargas, and John Vias - all artists living, working, teaching, or photographing (or all of the above!) around Berkeley and nearby East Bay communities. It marks a shift in focus for The Nocturnes group (formerly San Francisco-based) to East Bay and North Bay locales.

The title of the exhibit, of course comes from that clever (and long running!) ad campaign from the late ‘60s by the Berkeley Farms Corporation. The tagline ran: “Farms in Berkeley?” to which one hears a cow respond - “Mooooo.” And, as incongruous as it might seem to find farms in present-day Berkeley (although the Ocean View district was once an agricultural area!), it should come as no surprise that The Nocturnes have found beauty, mystery, and transformation amid the darkened streets of Berkeley.

For directions, etc. and to read more about this fascinating and fun exhibit see the exhibit page on The Nocturnes site. And, you can preview some of the images in the show online.

While you're in town, why not visit the Berkeley Art Museum, across from the campus (where the Hearst Memorial Gymnasium image above was taken) to catch the exhibit, "The Other Night Sky" featuring photography by Trevor Paglen, in which he investigates, documents some alarming governmental facets of movement in the night sky, which we, as NPrs, might not ordinarily associate with the coming of nightfall.

See the BAM/PFA site for more info.

And, if that's not enuf nocturnal stimulus for you, "The Dark Knight," the new Batman movie, opens on Friday, July 18, and it looks to be a stunner, with a haunting performance by the late Heath Ledger as the Joker.

See the trailer here, or on the Warner Bros. site for the release of the movie.

Let's see now, mysterious night images of Berkeley (the campus and the city); clandestine spying by OUR Government, seen in the night sky; and Gotham's darkest hour - that should do it!

So when in Gotham (or Berkeley), ". . . let's be careful out there."

("Why so serious . . ." )