The Bay Area Hip-Hop Theater Festival kicks off its two-week run of politically-inspired and racially-conscious dramatic and spoken word arts at Berkeley's La Pena Cultural Center at an event featuring the teen poets of Youth Speaks and their Brave New Voices College Tour. $10, 8 p.m., 3105 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley (between Ashby and Alcatraz Aves.) more ›

It is kind of silly to assign politics to restaurants or diets. But Cha-Ya, a relatively new Japanese restaurant serving only vegan food, struck us as a magnet for people left of the Kucinic wing of the Democrat party. Maybe Green party supporters or unrepentant Chomskyists. Or just basic wanna-be commune-living combi-driving Berkeleyans, as Cha-Ya is the sister restaurant of the similarly named Shattuck Ave eatery. Of course, this being SF, the place is packed. more ›

magazine kept us sane through a red state adolescence and early adulthood, and we ripped off opinions from editor Victor S. Navasky on a pathetically pathological basis. more ›

Though we do tire, at times, of the alpha-male genre, few comic books or movies do it with more relish and gusto than Frank Miller's . So unless you're some kind of sobbing tree-kisser who doesn't like cartoonish violence and macho grandstanding, you'll be glad to hear that Frank Miller is hosting a screening of the film this Sunday at the Act 1&2 in Berkeley. The whole shebang benefits the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; and audience-members and CBLDF-members get free invites to a post-screening chat with Mr. Miller at Comic Relief, a nifty Berkeley comix store. more ›

Hey -- it's winter; the flu is running rampant, colds abound -- why not give the gift of health? more ›