Alex Turney/Staff

Despite the cooling October air and looming midterms, hundreds of Berkeley students in warm sweaters, beanies and tie-dye clothing crowded Sproul Plaza early Friday evening in eager anticipation of the arrival of the celebrated Zion I hip-hop crew. About 5 p.m., local trap artists DRIPMOB took to the stage, warming up the crowd with their edgy reworks of popular hip-hop tracks. The throbbing bass took hold of the audience, triggering cult dance moves such as “the stanky leg” within a large breakdance circle near the stage. While the focus during the opening act appeared to be on the exaggerated dancing, attention shifted to the stage when the sky grew dark and Zion I arrived.

The Zion I crew, consisting of Oakland natives MC Zumbi and producer AmpLive, has toured worldwide but always returns to its Bay Area roots. The artists’ performance was intimate but energizing, drawing the crowd closer with their powerful lyrics and spacey tracks such as “Float,” a collaboration with electronic music producer Minnesota. Zumbi kept the crowd engaged with his improvised lyrics, which he explained after the show were “how (Zion I) learned to do music … through freestyling.”

Zion I has been on the rise in the melding genres of hip-hop and electronic, releasing tracks with electronic gurus like SBTRKT and Bassnectar. Recently, Zion I toured with reggae rock group Rebelution and reggae artist Matisyahu, experiences that allowed for further development of Zion I’s evolving sound.

“I remember the guys from Rebelution came up to me,” Zumbi said of an experience partying in Tahoe. “They were ultra encouraging … it was so cool to hear other musicians encouraging me from an authentic place.”

Zion I’s performance on campus, presented by ASUC SUPERB, was a free event open to all. “I feel like … every time I leave and come back I love (the Bay Area) even more, because I realize how unique and special it is,” Zumbi said after the performance.

On Oakland’s influence on Zion I’s sound, Zumbi said, “(Oakland) is so diverse. I feed on all that energy … I pull from all the good and the bad.” As we talked, fans scuttled behind the stage to wait to take pictures with Zumbi, who humbly obliged. He seemed unfazed by the interruptions, pleased to meet and hear from students. His down-to-earth outlook is definitely reflected through Zion I’s lyrics, as Zumbi explained that he’s frustrated by the superficiality of most rap music.

“(There are) things in hip-hop that I feel are not being addressed that are important,” he said. “I want to fill in the gaps, (but) not be too cerebral that it’s too static.”

It quickly becomes clear that Zion I, which has been a part of the hip-hop and rap scene since the late 1990s, is both conscious of and concerned about the expansion of rap music. Zumbi noted, “These days, the culture is watered down … it’s not a sub-culture anymore.”

He advises aspiring artists in the genre to “get in tune with what you believe in.” The future of hip-hop looks brighter, though. Zumbi believes there has been a resurgence in recent years of younger artists trying to reclaim something of the older era. “I pray that it evolves beyond that (too),” he said.

On future collaborations, Zion I hopes to work with rapper Andre 3000, Yasiin Bey, the hip-hop recording artist formerly known as Mos Def, or the Swedish electronic group Little Dragon’s vocalist Yukimi Nagano.

The campus crowd was thrilled by Zion I’s performance and proximity — many students lingered after the show to chat and take pictures with the hip-hop duo. It seems Zion I’s success is due to its ability to be incredibly inventive yet accessible — something unprecedented in the realm of spoken music of the present.

Contact Kate Irwin at kirwin@dailycal.org.

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Oxingale Records/Courtesy

It’s Sunday night, and Hertz Hall’s theater is dark but packed full of people. No one dares to move or speak as a chilling trill cuts through the silent air. More strings chime in, and the stage is illuminated to reveal a small orchestra of cellos. Their sound is crisp, loud and unified, the classical harmonies stirringly beautiful. A mandolin joins the chorus, its lighter, sweeter notes adding another layer to the stringed symphony.

The music is what makes and consumes “Angel Heart,” the musical storybook in which these ornate harmonies play an integral part. Cal Performances organized the show’s opening night on Oct 6, and hundreds of parents and young children clad in semiformal attire were in attendance.

The show is marketed as a live storybook, but this title is somewhat misleading. Although the live narration, performed by acclaimed “A Clockwork Orange” star Malcolm McDowell, progressed at an adequate pace, the simultaneous bellowing of the cellos occasionally overpowered the story’s voice. The musical accompaniment made the experience more intense but also made it difficult to hear the narration.

“Angel Heart” follows a depressed young woman, Luna, who finds solace in nature with the help of the Angel of Love and Compassion. The angel explains that he must turn back time to make Luna a child again, as he says, “We know best who we are when we are very young.” The play portrays childhood innocence as an important component of one’s identity and speaks to the overarching theme of the healing power of solitude and nature. Luna’s sadness functions as the crux of the story, but the cause of her woes is never explained, leaving the audience confused as the protagonist’s melancholy grows deeper for an unknown reason.

The girl travels in all directions to all cardinal points on the compass rose. Each direction — North, West, South and East — offers her a degree of healing as she slowly begins to recover from her once seemingly inescapable sorrow. Costumed opera singers personify the four cardinal points, each vocalist crooning about what makes his area of the world unique. Although the concept of moving on through traveling is portrayed in an innovative way, one could also read the story as encouraging youth to run away from their problems.

Regardless of its themes and their interpretations, “Angel Heart” brings something new and fresh to the table — an opera accessible to children. The song lyrics are relatable, as both parents and children can appreciate the messages behind scores such as “Mother Nature’s Son.” The incorporation of other languages such as French cultivates a more global appeal. While there were only four opera singers onstage, a cluster of Oakland schoolchildren formed a chanting chorus. One young girl stood apart from the crowd, miming the role of Luna and her heartache center stage. The juxtaposition between the children onstage in their white T-shirts and jeans and the opera singers in their feather cloaks and jewel-toned embroidery melded the ethereal with reality and made the fictional symbolic, establishing a parallelism between the conflicts of the story and those of the real world.

Overall, the production has a certain folktale charm about it that deeply resonated with the audience. At the end of the story, Luna heals from her sorrow and the crowd gave a standing ovation. While many enjoyed the experience, one young boy explained to his mother after the show that he was hoping for “more of a story(line).” It seems that although “Angel Heart” wins the adult audience with its classical operatic scores, the plotline takes a bit of a hit as the musical notes envelop the characters. Nevertheless, if you’re looking for a fairy-tale opera with relevant contemporary connotations, “Angel Heart” will leave you humming to its saccharine melodies of tragedy and love. 

Contact Kate Irwin at kirwin@dailycal.org.

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XYZ Films/Courtesy

The fifth annual Oakland Underground Film Festival brought local and international films to Bay Area audiences. From documentaries to shorts to full-length features, OakUFF demonstrated what it means to be truly underground in an age when that title is so loosely applied. The festival provided local beer from Drake’s Brewing Company in San Leandro and a selection of free barbecued treats between showings to keep festival-goers happy and engaged, though the movies themselves were enough to do just that.

“The Dirties”

Written and directed by rising filmmaker Matt Johnson, who also stars, “The Dirties” is an endearing, striking and ultimately heartbreaking portrayal of bullying in a Toronto public high school. The movie traces the lives of “uncool” kids Matt and Owen who make a film in which they kill off the members of the ruling high school crew, The Dirties, for making their lives a living hell. This pipe dream slowly transforms into a looming horror as we watch Matt slip into the delusion of mistaking the fake for the real, finally becoming a character in his own tragic plot.

Backed by iconic indie filmmaker Kevin Smith, who claims, “You’ve never seen it done the way Matt Johnson has pulled it all together,” “The Dirties” moves quickly from being a film depicting the brutal effects of bullying to being one that asks questions about what it means to be normal and where to draw the line between fantasy and reality. Johnson essentially plays himself throughout the film — a charismatic and lovable jokester whose comic originality has the audience waiting to see what he comes up with next. But when his next idea is a Columbine-inspired mass killing, the audience comes to the tragic realization that their hero is en route to becoming the bad guy in the film. In a climactic moment of Matt’s loss of self-control, he stares into the camera and asks: “Do you think I’m crazy?” Either answer is too difficult to consider.

“The Dirties” seems to unintentionally shed light on everything controversial and interesting in the life of an adolescent high school kid trying to be cool, get girls and have friends. With this film, Johnson has made his mark not only as a pioneer in the world of DIY alternative filmmaking but also as a unique and brilliant voice in the lengthy discourse on bullying, mental illness and practically everything else that matters to youth growing up in this country.

“Le Bonheur: Terre Promise”

If you haven’t really suffered, you can’t be good at happiness.” This maxim speaks to the overarching significance of the humble documentary “Le Bonheur: Terre Promise.” The film chronicles the 82-day journey of the film’s director, Laurent Hasse, as he treks across France in search of an answer to the question, “What is happiness?”

Hasse interviews a range of French citizens, from suburban teens to elderly couples living in isolation, and portrays the lower classes and peasantry as struggling but surviving. Emmanuel, a young man who lives in solitude, sees happiness as “a quest for peace within you.” Elsewhere, a young housewife manages a smile as she clutches her child. “What keeps me happy? Being in love,” she says. Her husband, Stephane, seems to have a different idea. “Happiness is self-sufficiency,” he says. English subtitles flash across the screen.

The fleeting nature of happiness becomes apparent over the course of Hasse’s pilgrimage as he finds that, during an interview with a German expatriate, “(people) tend to go after happiness that pops like soap bubbles.”

The film’s dialogue of solemn, pensive conversations is broken up with instrumental music accompanying scenes of dreary winter roads, empty fields and scenic forests. Locals warn Hasse of the “French Bermuda Triangle,” a lifeless region through which he must travel. A melancholy tone throughout the film maintains a sense of grounded realism.

“Le Bonheur” presents a strong connection between the French people and their landscape. Some find that it nourishes them, while others find it depressing.

“(My land is) my little acre of happiness,” a farmer says.

“Living here is no longer worth living,” another inhabitant explains.

“Look at the landscape,” a baker says. “That’s what happiness is.”

The screen cuts to fog rolling through a silent meadow.

When Hasse reaches the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean, he completes his journey and heals a part of his aching soul. The film proves itself to be incredibly relevant, touching and artfully composed. We learn not only about the meaning of nationality but also about the meaning of life.

Filmmaker mingle

Midway down San Pablo Avenue, my cab driver glanced back at me in his rearview mirror.

“Let me tell you something about Oakland. There are druggies on these corners. And a lot of hookers.” He stopped at a light. “This is real life, honey.”

Unexpectedly — albeit pleasantly — the films shown at the Oakland Underground Film Festival’s filmmaker barbecue resonated with a similar frankness. Somewhere between grimy and sexy, Thursday’s audience gathered for a screening of five local shorts in the only illuminated building on the block. The event was followed by a post-show schmooze with producers. As an organization with growing notoriety for “keeping it real,” the Oakland Underground Film Festival strives to unite local filmmakers who highlight issues pertaining to the Bay Area. When programmer Shawn Taylor spoke about the event’s selection process, he emphasized that he sought material that rang true to a meaningful objective.

“So nothing overly artsy?” I asked.

Taylor grinned. “Not even if Jesus made it.”

Generally, the films were true to their intent and accented the je ne sais quoi that makes the Bay Area so unique. Most remarkable was Melinda James’ “16 Seeds.” A short, the documentary comments on contemporary food inequality by following three black farmers in Oakland’s inner city.

“Where there’s more alcohol than fresh fruit, there’s a … need for intervention,” said Gail Myers of Farms to Grow, who was featured in the film.

Myers’ identification of societal disconnect as a leading obstacle to food justice resonated with the objective of the festival; each film explored the penetrating issue of how to instill change in any community, demonstrating the central idea that collaboration is integral to a revolution’s success.

Indeed, the entire event seemed like a sort of meeting of mutineers — angst-ridden yuppies seeking company in their efforts to rebuild the decaying world. Although the festival was well intentioned, it might benefit from narrowing the scope of its zeal. Taylor said it best: The Oakland Underground Film Festival doesn’t pose.

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Moanalani Jeffrey Photography/Courtesy

Crystal beaded curtains, psychedelic lights and thrumming electronic music filled the third floor of the Macy’s men’s store Thursday night in San Francisco. Between sips of green apple sangria and nibbles of sushi hors d’oeuvres, guests played blackjack and browsed through the racks of the latest collections of fall and winter designer menswear.

Labels such as Armani, Hugo Boss, Theory, Tallia Orange and Calvin Klein fluttered across a stage in a miniature runway show situated at one end of the bustling dance floor, where SF-based Bootie Mashup DJs threw down energetic tracks fresh from the SoMa district. A select but diverse array of male models posed in everything from outerwear to underwear, all styled by Carlton Spence, who has been perfecting his creative talent in the industry for the past 12 years.

Spence explained that his job as Macy’s stylist is to put together looks that are creative but also wearable. According to Spence, men’s top fashion trends for fall are camouflage prints and anything burgundy or berry-colored. Pops of jewel tones, structured jackets and military-inspired looks were consistent themes throughout the show. In his position in the fashion industry, Spence sees all sides of the design and sales processes. Not only does he have a great deal of freedom in the creative process, but he also keeps note of the trends that male customers actually end up buying into.

“My niche is in menswear,” Spence said. “I am always people-watching … the average man is afraid to wear color.” Consequently, looks are formulated with his customer in mind. According to Spence, customers often buy entire looks he compiles for events because the typical male is often unsure of how to pull everything together without seeming overdone.

The night’s event was orchestrated to support a number of causes and groups, such as the Human Rights Campaign, which supports LGBT equality, and Project Inform, which seeks to advocate for a cure to and educate individuals about HIV, AIDS and hepatitis C. Additionally, donations made at the event sponsored The Trevor Project, a toll-free 24-hour hotline dedicated to helping gay and questioning youth, and the San Francisco LGBT Community Center. Between jiving it up on the dance floor and taking note of fall’s trends for menswear, guests attending Macy’s Men’s Designer Fashion Event found a fashionable and charitable way to spend a Thursday evening in the city.

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Christopher Van/Staff

The Oakland Music Festival came into fruition for the first time Saturday. When a city acquires a music event of its own, the region becomes a birthplace of music. This has a great deal of significance for areas with growing art and music scenes, as the festivals become representative of the area and its culture a symbol of the local community.

Oakland’s incredibly diverse musical talent has long sought such an outlet, and the first annual OMF achieved precisely that.

Perhaps what was most unique about the OMF was the block-party-style setting. Located at 19th Street and San Pablo Avenue, the festival consumed a little more than a square block and was fenced in so attendees could roam freely throughout the streets, shops and bars within that area.

OMF created a concentrated microcosm of Oakland’s arts and culture. Local cuisine, brews and vendors selling Oakland-based art and apparel lined the streets. The site offered plenty of delicious unconventional festival eats, ranging from Jamaican jerk chicken on a raw kale salad to tacos and Argentine grub.

Despite the morning downpour, the show went on, and the sky was bright blue and sunny by the time the afternoon sets came on.

On the main stage, groups such as the Kev Choice Ensemble displayed incredible versatility, performing everything from rap tracks to indie jazz and R&B.

Each song added a new layer to the experience and a new story to the group’s numerous sounds — each piece was a narrative about relevant issues facing Oakland and its people. Kev Choice’s songs spoke of his childhood growing up in Oakland, where he lost a close friend in a shooting, and always staying strong no matter what challenges one must face.

While the music on the outdoor uptown stage utilized solely live instruments and spanned the genres of rap, R&B, rock n’ roll, indie jazz, Afro-American fusion and Latin American music, the two other stages at the festival had an electronic edge.

The Rocksteady DJ patio, a small wood-paneled room opening to an outdoor patio tucked within a bar, offered a fresh blend of moombahton and retro electronic music hand-spun on vinyl 45s. The little room and patio became quickly packed as tracks such as Diplo’s “Butters Theme” were dropped amid a clutter of Pabst Blue Ribbon cans and knit cardigans.

On the third stage, in a larger, loftier space, dark lighting set a mood for a more intimate concert. I caught up with James & Evander after their performance to get an inside look at Oakland’s influence on their music.

The duo, whose real names are Adam Myatt and Glenn Jackson, started making music together in 2007, when they had their first gigs “at Mama Buzz, which is this old cafe at Telegraph and Grant that used to let anyone play,” Jackson said.

When asked to define their sound, Myatt described it as “Oakland stoner pop,” and Jackson agreed. “We went through a few phases,” he said. “(Now it’s) kind of stony and slow with a heavy melody.” Jackson’s favorite song by the band is one of the tracks on the album Bummer Pop titled “Living the Dream,” which is about becoming successful and the surrealism involved in the experience.

Most attended with particular artists in mind, and closing act the Coup was one of the highly anticipated. Due to a slightly late start time, they were cut to finish about 8 p.m., and the crowd was outraged, yelling “unfair!” as the evening drew to a brisk close.

Apparently, the event had to end by a certain time because of to noise permits, and thus the Coup’s set could not have been further prolonged.

Every aspect of the festival reflected the unity of so many different cultures and creeds, from the wide range of food and drink available to the diverse crowd of all ages, races and incomes.

Each artist at the OMF was different from the next and contributed something unique to the composite identity of what it means to be a musician in Oakland.

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