Moore, a 41-year-old transgender Berkeley resident, died of an accidental drug overdose while in police custody in February, but the details of her death did not come to light until the release of the report on May 3 — nearly 3 months after her death.

A death in police custody is inherently an extremely sensitive situation — one which the department needed to communicate with the public about quickly and extensively.

Instead, not only was an autopsy report not released in a timely manner, but the police failed to provide a meaningful reason for the delay to the public.

Furthermore, before the death occurred in police custody, the autopsy should have been done by an outside agency other than the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office Coroner’s Bureau to ensure its validity and rid the police department of unnecessary suspicion.

Employing an outside organization to complete an internal investigation is not unheard of. Following the events of Occupy Cal in November 2011, an independent review of police actions were ordered to make certain that no bias was involved.

Although department spokesperson Jennifer Coats apologized for the lengthy delay and noted that the department wanted to ensure a “proper and thorough investigation for Moore,” an apology is not enough.

If Berkeley Police Department expects to be valued and trusted by the people it aims to protect and serve, it needs to be prompt and accountable regarding its own conduct.

The department should learn from this incident and create a better procedure for the future — one in which it moves forward with transparency as a fundamental value.

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Beat-boxing cellist Cello Joe opened up the show with a funky unconventional take on genre mash-ups using onstage looping techniques, while rapper, poet and female MC Aima the Dreamer followed up with a strong performance over head-bopping rhythms.

Headlining was Ensemble Mik Nawooj, which performed its latest hip-hop chamber opera “Death, Love & Life.” Arriving that night and quite frankly not knowing what to expect, I was treated with an unforgettable and altogether invigorating musical experience. EMN, which consists of a flutist, drummer, bassist, clarinet player, violinist and cellist, as well as MCs from The Attik, a soprano and a pianist, filled the stage and commanded full attention with a stroke of the keyboard.

With each piece that was performed, everyone in the room was brought along with EMN as they traversed through an emotional journey that went from startling death to tumultuous love to newfound life. The ups and downs of life played out as a harmonious balance was found between the lively music and arresting vocals. Although the musicians were classically trained, the music was anything but classical. It was as if all these layers of pop, rock and jazz instrumentals were injected with a classical flair that gave each portion its own quirks and lasting characteristics. “Hope Springs Eternal” brought delightfully upbeat, energetic notes while “Morning Light” built up to a powerful crescendo led by pianist and composer JooWan Kim and opera singer Lauren Woody. Rappers Do D.A.T., Sandman and RyanNicole were impressive as they exercised a lyrical prowess that put into words exactly how the music felt. Whether it was Kim, with his hair flying and fingers pounding away at the keyboard, the MCs, with their vibrant voices ringing out across the room, or the orchestra as they waxed sweet harmonies, the result was captivating, authentic and indicative of the very ways in which EMN is revolutionizing hybrid music.

        EMN will be joining the line-up at this year’s free Hip Hop in the Park festival, held at People’s Park on May 4. Head out and indulge in a real hip-hop opera — the kind that might have R. Kelly reconsidering what to call the next installments of his “Trapped in the Closet.”

Check out the music video for “WGFYU!” below.

Contact Ashley Chen at achen@dailycal.org.

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Daily Cal: “Death, Love & Life” stems mainly from three of your previous singles — “Without Goodbyes,” “This Is Why” and “The First Song.” Can you tell us what it’s about?

JooWan Kim: This one is basically about the different things you experience in life. For instance, “Without Goodbyes” is about death. I wrote that piece a while ago, when my friend died. I’m not really emotional, and I can be really stoic about things. I felt tremendously about that incident, and I needed to write something to express myself. So, I wrote that, and afterwards it was really depressing, so I decided to write about love. “This Is Why” is about a love that doesn’t happen because it’s about breakups. Then I wrote “The First Song,” which is a song of resolution. There could be a narrative in the sense that it starts with death, and you experience terrible loss, and you go through different stages of emotions and incidents that are related to death, because death is the biggest issue that we have as human beings so far. In between, we have “Hope Springs Eternal,” which is about humans’ aspiration to achieve completeness or happiness. There is another piece that I am working on called “We Will Conquer,” which is about struggle. The newest piece I just finished for the opera is called “Morning Light,” which is about the transformation that happens after all this struggle, and you have a revelation that things aren’t too bad, and you actually feel great.

DC: In a sense, is this piece less of an opera and more of a journey?

JWK: Yes. There’s a musical drama that will be very clear. You will be very tense and will then be rewarded with satisfaction and resolution. It’s going to be pop music, not classical.
My personal experience triggered everything in this opera. Think of it this way — say you go see “Django Unchained” or “Kill Bill,” and you really like it. I’m sure Tarantino thought a lot to put together certain scenes, but you don’t know that. Or when you buy an iPhone. You just want to listen to music or look at how pretty it is. That’s what I want you do. When you hear this, you’ll see a bunch of MCs who are really lyrically dope. I have an excellent lyric soprano that just came back from Lincoln Center who’s going to hit high C during “Morning Light.” We also have a really tight classical ensemble and a great drummer. And I’m, of course, Asian and have long hair and monk-type clothes. So yeah, that’s what you’re going to see. And it’s going to be really amazing.

DC: How did the collaboration with the Bay Area underground hip-hop group, the Attik, come about?

JWK: I was doing pieces with (rapper Kirby Dominant, who collaborated with EMN on “Without Goodbyes”), and it was he who suggested that I find more MCs to work with. I knew a friend who owned a restaurant in the city and one night, one of the members of The Attik came in to eat. (The Attik and my friend) had done an album together and (my friend) actually introduced me … After that, we did a show, and (one of the members,) Do D.A.T., came. He was super impressed, and after that, we started doing pieces together.

DC: Can you talk about your process and how you combine the lyrical rap and instrumental compositions?

JWK: First, I write out a detailed synopsis of the concept of the music, and then it’s basically a lot of going back and forth — me giving (the MCs) the detailed markup and where to go in and out, and then they write a portion and give it back to me in a week. I also employ the method of jazz in some ways because each MC who covers the same story is going to convey it differently. The music stays the same, and the rhyming changes based on the personality of the MC.

DC: What kind of experience do you want to leave your audience with?

JWK: I want my audience to feel really happy. Also relieved. This piece, for me, I mean — my friend committed suicide. That was a big deal for me. I ended with “The First Song” because it’s about resolution and your very first experiences. Your first kiss, the time you graduate from high school … it’s about life continuing. So, I want you to start with death and feel shitty but at the end feel completely transformed and kind of realize that this is shitty — but it’s okay. We can do this.

DC: The essence of the human experience!

JWK: Yes, and optimism. Even though sometimes we can’t find meaning or it doesn’t reveal itself to us, we still live. And I want people to live, sort of, happier. That’s my message.

Contact Ashley Chen at achen@dailycal.org.

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Lim’s death was ruled a suicide by the Alameda County Coroner’s Office, but the exact cause is being withheld out of respect for the family.

As an undergraduate student, Lim had a strong interest in acting and performed in a number of plays put on by the UC Berkeley BareStage Productions theater company.

Elena Wagoner, who directed Lim in a production of “The Territory,” remembers her as someone who always brought a positive attitude and energy to rehearsals for the play.

“She was always a joy to work with,” Wagoner said. “She brought great thoughts and great contribution to rehearsals. She always had a positive attitude and was down to try new things.”

Lim was dedicated to acting and the company, attending all of her rehearsals and showing up for every BareStage performance, according Erik Johnson, who directed Lim in a production of “The Comedy of Errors.”

“She was a big part of the BareStage community,” Johnson said. “She loved being on stage and loved to act — she felt really alive when she was acting.”

In addition to acting, Lim was heavily interested in writing, having written for several publications, including UC Berkeley’s fashion-based BARE Magazine. Miraya Berke, who wrote with Lim for the magazine’s blog, recalled the time they reviewed thrift shops in the area and went to the American Cancer Society Discover Shop in Oakland, where they dressed up in various outfits and had their own “mini photoshoot in the shop.”

News of Lim’s death came as a shock to the people who knew her.

“I was very surprised,” Johnson said, “She didn’t give off warning signs or anything like that. She was very, truly happy when she was with us and her friends.”

Before coming to UC Berkeley, Lim attended Casa Roble High School in Orangevale, Calif., and graduated with the class of 2008.

A memorial service was held on Wednesday night in Lim’s memory at the Daiso Japan on Telegraph Avenue, where she worked after graduating.

“I really want to stress that Xiaoqian was just not this smiley face and positive energy — she was a lot more than that” Wagoner said. “She had a lot of substantive character — she was very kind, attentive and thoughtful … I think the world has lost something important.”

Contact Andy Nguyen at anguyen@dailycal.org.

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As a center for innovation, renewable energy solutions, art and communal education, Oakland seems like the perfect home base for nonprofit organization Kinetic Steam Works. Since 2005, it has worked to preserve steam power heritage, presenting art and performance pieces to the public, highlighting the merits of this technology. This Saturday, KSW will be hosting its annual festival, Roll Out, from noon to 10 p.m. at their shop in Oakland. There will be restored steam artifacts on display, live music, food and more.

In addition to celebrating the American heritage of steam power, head to Oakland Museum of California on Saturday afternoon to talk post-election politics and expectations for our next president. The event, “After the Election: The First 90 Days,” is a part of OMCA’s “In-the-Mix” conversation series delving into topics brought up by “The 1968 Exhibit,” which is currently on view.

— Anna Carey

FILM

Every day this week the American Indian Film Institute will be screening an eclectic range of films by Native Americans as part of its annual showcase. One film that promises to be particularly unique, “Dancing Salmon Home,” will screen on Tuesday. The film follows 28 tribal leaders as they journey to New Zealand to “speak” to their salmon relatives. The films will screen at various theatres in SF.

The Italian International Students Association will screen “The Big Dream” by Michele Placido in 159 Mulford Hall this Thursday. The film follows the illicit affair of an undercover policeman who falls in love with his charge, the leader of a student protest group. Set against the backdrop of the 1968 student riots, the film evokes Pier Paolo Pasolini’s famous “Poem to the Young Communist Students,” in which he expressed sympathy for the police as the “sons of the poor against sons of bourgeois families.”

— Thomas Coughlan

LITERATURE

Literary Death Match,” the show that is described as three-way marriage between “Def Poetry Jam,” “American Idol” and “Double Dare,” is coming back for its 49th San Francisco show on Thursday at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. 

With four judges, four author/readers/performers and creator of the series Adrian Zuniga hosting, the show will be hilarious and also remind us that writing and reading can be still be cool.

On Friday, Bill McKibben, activist and author of climate change books “The End of Nature” and “Eaarth,” will be at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School. McKibben is most known for writing the first book about climate change for the public in 1989. With a supporting group of other activists and thinkers, McKibben describes his talk as one that will be like a TED talk, but “more dangerous.”

— A.J. Kiyoizumi

MUSIC

Unlike in the past couple of weeks, there are some noteworthy album releases coming out this Tuesday. Rock legends Aerosmith will be releasing their 15th studio album, Music From Another Dimension! On a less intergalactically themed album, punk group Streetlight Manifesto round out our album releases this week with The Hands That Thieve.

There’s also a wide variety of shows to go see this week. Starting off the week, indie band Sea Wolf will be playing tonight at the Independent in San Francisco. Tuesday will bring the now-blues-influenced Cat Power to the Fox Theater in Oakland, in support of her latest album, Sun. The Fox Theater will also play host to Die Antwoord and many other innovative EDM artists this Friday as part of Sonar on Tour. Lastly, rapper Wiz Khalifa will be playing the San Jose Event Center this Saturday.

— Ian Birnam

THEATER

Berkeley has always been a bastion of creativity, and this week you need not look further than our very own campus for unique, theatrical works. Beginning Nov. 9, you can catch BareStage Productions’ premiere of the original musical “Death, and Other Hobbies.” Written by Jake Tully and UC Berkeley student Weston Scott, the show follows Manhattan socialite Corbin Vickers as he throws the party to end all parties — one to celebrate his forthcoming suicide.

On that same Friday, if you walk just around the corner to the Durham Studio Theater, you will catch the premiere of theater, dance and performance studies’ department chair Peter Glazer’s original musical “Woody Guthrie’s American Song.” Glazer’s musical offers topical themes of economic hardship, class conflict and equality all set to the soothing sounds of this American folk legend.

— Jessica Pena

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Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Thomas Cain ruled the case — a fight between Kinkade’s girlfriend of 18 months Amy Pinto-Walsh and legally estranged widow Nanette Kinkade — will stay in the open probate court and be moved to August 13 due to the limited information provided by both parties, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

“We’re pleased that (the judge) is going to keep this matter in the probate court,” said Sonia Agee, Pinto-Walsh’s attorney, told KGO-TV outside court according to the Associated Press. “We think it’s the right place for it not only for Ms. Pinto, but also for the public interest.”

Kinkade, a campus alumnus and Daily Californian cartoonist, died on April 6 in his home in Monte Sereno, Calif. from an accidental overdose on alcohol and Valium after an alleged relapse into alcoholism, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Pinto-Walsh has produced two handwritten wills leaving her Kinkade’s home and $10 million to start a museum honoring his art. Meanwhile, Nanette Kinkade — who was absent from court on Monday — claims full control of Thomas Kinkade’s $66 million estate, contests the validity of the handwritten wills and wishes the case to be moved behind closed doors, according to the Associated Press.

Kinkade’s official website states his love for his widow, saying, “Numerous paintings contain hidden “N’s” representing Thom’s lovely wife Nanette and many other paintings include the numbers 5282 as tribute to their wedding date May 2, 1982.”

Pinto-Walsh, however, filed papers to the court stating she and Kinkade had looked at engagement rings and were planning to wed in Fiji, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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A little after 9 p.m. last Sunday, UCPD found the deceased UC Berkeley male graduate student at Manville Apartments at 2100 Channing Way after receiving reports from friends that evening that he had gone missing, according to UCPD spokesperson Lt. Eric Tejada.

“At this point, it does not appear to be any signs of foul play,” Tejada said.

Tejada confirmed Monday that the student was Arthur Qi, a graduate student in the Haas School of Business, who the business school reported had died that weekend also.

In October, another male graduate student was found dead at Manville Apartments after the student’s brother contacted UCPD to perform a welfare check after he could not contact him for a few days. The cause of death in last year’s case was a medical condition, Tejada said.

Tejada said the department is investigating last week’s incident, including the similarities between the two cases.

“In the face of it it, doesn’t look like there’s any connection at all,” Tejada said.

Soumya Karlamangla is the city news editor.

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Played by newcomer Henry Hopper, he is a young man without purpose. He has lost both his parents in an automobile accident and has dropped out of high school. It seems Enoch has seen “Harold and Maude” too many times because he attends funerals of people he never knew. Enter Annabel (Mia Wasikowska), the requisite Manic Pixie Dream Girl of the proceedings, who shares his morbid fascination with strange cadavers. She must be a free-spirit because she loves droopy hats and funky prints. All too early, “Restless” reeks of kitsch, the stuff of a rotting funereal bouquet.

Enoch not only sees dead people in coffins, he really sees dead people. The ghost of a Japanese kamikaze fighter pilot brings board games and platitudes to Enoch in his lonesome. But Enoch is freed from his self-loathing shell when he falls in love with Annabel, who has terminal brain cancer. So together she and Enoch go about living life as it should be lived: laying in the road, dressing in vintage garb, undressing each other in a backwoods cabin, etc.

Enoch and Annabel are both restless (!!!) spirits who haunt places of death. While most budding young couples might catch dinner and a movie, these two date in wakes, morgues and cemeteries.

Considering Van Sant’s breadth of bold films about young people and their ontological queries — “Gerry,” “Elephant,” “My Own Private Idaho” — it’s a shame that “Restless” has so little going for it.

Van Sant loves a gelid, northwestern landscape, so visually the film gets the gauzy treatment of a corpse. It has that fuzzy, out-of-focus look seen in a Polaroid (R.I.P.). But here it recalls those iPhone Instagram pictures, reminiscent of another epoch but still affected. The soundtrack is incessant. Expect the warbles of Iron and Wine and its ilk of dejected strummers made fashionable by “Garden State.” This movie just won’t lie still.

Surely, the young actors are competent and capable. We know Wasikowska as the whippersnapper who transcends time, from “Jane Eyre” (2011) to “The Kids Are All Right” (2010). As Annabel, she is charming and emotive. With a boy’s haircut and cloudy skin, she is a dead ringer for Rosemary Woodhouse at her worst. Her opposite Hopper is a pallid dreamboat, with the tousled hair and boudoir eyes. Fit him some fangs and you’ve got a bloodsucking heartthrob du jour. Hence “Restless” seems nothing more than sickly-looking, malnourished people in love — but that’s supposed to be beautiful, right?

The film has a solid but brutally underused supporting cast: Jane Adams as Enoch’s panicky aunt, Schulyer Fisk as Annabel’s devoted sister and Chin Han as a calm oncology doctor. But that bubblegum love, a soppy blend of hormones and mixed emotions, is center stage in “Restless.” The ensemble is sent to the wings.

Three years ago, Van Sant was the toast of the town, riding on the heels of “Milk” and “Paranoid Park,” two expertly crafted films that displayed his enormous range and dealt with quintessential Van Santian themes like alienation and otherness. “Restless” does not achieve that profundity of vision nor does it want to. In truth, Van Sant excels in portraying brooding men in love rather than pale teenagers in love. We look to him for him the former because we can get the latter anywhere else. But let’s forgive the man. A few years down the line, we’ll all forget “Restless” ever happened.

Ryan Lattanzio is the lead film critic.

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