What’s Happening in Oakland!
Posted by Dave | Filed under Culture, Oakland
Check out Cool Hunting’s nice video of some of our favorite people and places in Oakland.
SubRosa Café – The Place to See and Be Seen!
Posted by Dave | Filed under Culture, Music, Oakland
My new favorite café is SubRosa located near our neighborhood on Oakland’s 40th Ave between Telegraph and Broadway. This little vibrant spot also sports the excellent Manifesto Bicycles and indie-collectible record shop, 123 Records.
While getting my daily cup today, my bleary eyes noticed this interesting looking guy with spiky gray hair poking out of the bike shop with a folding bike. He looked like he was seeing if it was safe to go outside as he looked up and down the street. As I was thinking this guy looked familiar a woman walking down the sidewalk exclaimed, “are you who I think you are!”, it was then I realized it was David Byrne!
He told me he was waiting for a cab, and I explained that they are pretty pokey here in Oakland. He ended up hanging out where I was sitting the sidewalk benches. He went in a got some coffee and the ladies inside were super happy. Mr. Byrne was gracious and let me take a couple of snapshots with the shop owner’s iPhone.
Tags: 40th st., david byrne, Oakland, sub rosa
David Byrne Designs Bicycle Solutions
Posted by Dave | Filed under Culture, Music, NYC, Oakland
After running into David Byrne yesterday while getting my morning coffee, I was curious to see he was getting a folding bike from Manifesto Bicycles next door. Turns out, he’s an avid cyclist and loves to cycle around his native New York City as well as the cities he visits while he is on tour. He has turned his creative attention toward advocacy of urban cycling as well as urban design.
He’s been designing some urban bike racks as well!
Funny Look At Oakland
Posted by Dave | Filed under Culture, Humor, Oakland, Politics, Tech
Oakland can be a great place to live – but it’s true, jaywalkers are everywhere and are real, real slow.
Improv Everywhere – The Mp3 Experiment
Posted by Dave | Filed under Culture, NYC, Tech
Improv Everywhere which brought us Underwear on the Subway and other flash mob participation events, now brings the Mp3 Experiment. Participants started on NYC’s Roosevelt Island, then started listening to programmed set of steps from a Mp3 file on their iPods. The creepy voice and its series of events reminds me of Negativland’s A Big 10-8 Place.
25 Things I Hate About Facebook
Posted by Dave | Filed under Culture, Humor
Funny vid by Julian Smith. I somehow avoided the 25 Things Meme on Facebook as the colossal waste of time to do it would be better spent doing some other inward realization exercise somewhere else.
It’s the beautiful mom’s in their Yoga clothes… A Tribute to Trader Joe’s!
Posted by Dave | Filed under Culture, Humor, Music
Video from Carls Fine Films
What are your favorite things from Trader Joe’s? I hate when I get caught singing along to the 80s songs in the Rockridge store.
Art on the Q Train
Posted by Dave | Filed under Culture, NYC
Video by Kevin Serra | www.kevchino.com
When Dru and I visited NYC last month, our friend Kevin show us this Zoetrope style art installation from the Q Train while riding between DeKalb and Canal St. He shot this with his G10 through the subway car window.
How the Bush Street Was Renamed Obama Street in SF
Posted by Dave | Filed under Culture, Humor, San Francisco
This is a great little video from the team behind the transformation of Bush St. to Obama St. in San Francisco on Inauguration Eve.
Begin Obama!
Posted by Dave | Filed under Culture, Humor, San Francisco
Photo by Jef Poskanzer
All the street signs on San Franciso’a Bush Street were renamed Obama Street by some Pranksters Monday night – just in time for the Inauguration!
Obama on “Check Please…”!!
Posted by Dave | Filed under Culture, Food, Politics, San Francisco
I just discovered that Barack Obama, then a little known Illinois State Senator, was on a pilot episode of the Chicago [original] version of Check Please… The San Francisco version on KQED is one of my favorite shows. The show features three regular people that share their favorite restaurants and the other two guests check it out and share their opinions.
Bob Wilkins – Thanks for the Memories
Posted by Dave | Filed under Culture, Oakland
Creature Features host Bob Wilkins passed away last week. I finally got around to finding some clips from Creature Features and Captain Cosmic, two of his shows on KTVU Channel 2 here in Oakland.
Bob was quite unique in the horror show host genre. A droll guy with glasses and a big cigar. I saw the very first preview of Star Wars on his Creature Feature show. It was quite a moment and created so much anticipation of the film. They showed that clip over and over in the Spring of ‘77. Wilkins sometimes would come down to Santa Cruz and do a meet ‘n greet at the local comics store, Atlantis, then on Pacific Avenue.
Another great memory was when he would feature Williard and show preview clips with all the rats.
No Pants on the Subway a Success!
Posted by Dave | Filed under Culture, Humor, Oakland, San Francisco, Uncategorized
I was wondering if this was going to happen in SF. A lot of Gaza protesters were riding BART to SF on Saturday morning. Seeing the two groups together would have been interesting. I was taking BART from Oakland to SF on this morning so Dru could pick me up at the Balboa station so we could get the heck out of town. Everyone had pants.
Crazy Nights in Oakland
Posted by Dave | Filed under Culture, Oakland, Tech
Helicopter over Oakland - Photo by Thomas Hawk
It has been noisy with helicopters constantly in the air. The downtown streets started filling up with protesters two nights ago. After a grocery trip, I followed one of the helicopters towards Lake Merritt. I turned down Madison and then at the intersection with 14th St., I saw a dozen police cars, and scores of OPD. Smoke was in the air. A dozen or so bystanders were on the sidewalk. I parked and started to check out the scene. I talked to a street journalist guy with pro Sony headphones and a microphone who was interviewing people to see what was going on. He told me it was that this is where the Fruitvale BART protest ended up and that there was rioting.
I went back to my car and sent out a couple Twitter messages. A bottle crashed to the pavement a few feet from my car. Time to get out!
Helicopters circled the city all night. I checked tv to see if there was any coverage. The local Oakland station? Nope. The only station doing some live coverage before 10PM was KRON. The most news I got was from doing searches for ‘riot’ and ‘Oakland’ on Twitter’s summize.com.
Though there are reasons for the community to be upset about the tragic New Year’s Eve BART shooting, trashing the struggling business of downtown Oakland doesn’t seem to be the answer. The businesses and citizens of Oakland had nothing to do with this incident. There seemed to be an anarchist element that came from out of town that helped create the violence, arson and property damage that happened that night.
Smashed dreams? Photo by Thomas Hawk
It was only two months ago these streets were full of joy and hope after Obama was elected. Now there are boarded windows and burnt cars in the streets.
RIP Ron Asheton of the Stooges
Posted by Dave | Filed under Culture, Music, Oakland, San Francisco
From Rolling Stone Magazine today:
“Ron Asheton, guitarist and founding member of the Stooges, was reportedly found dead at his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan this morning. He was 60.”
“As the guitarist for the Stooges, Asheton crafted some of rock’s most memorable riffs, including “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” “No Fun” and “TV Eye.” Guitarist Asheton, along with his brother Scott, Iggy Pop and original bassist Dave Alexander formed the Stooges in Detroit in 1967. The original lineup released two albums, The Stooges and Fun House, before Ron Asheton shifted over to bass guitar for 1973’s Raw Power. All three LPs made Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, ranking at Number 185, 191 and 125 respectively. Asheton was also Number 29 on Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”
In the late 80s, when I played guitar with friends, my favorite songs to play were frequently Stooges longs. The Stooges were also probably the biggest influence of one of my all time fave bands, The Ramones.
Farewell Manny
Posted by -dB | Filed under Culture
Manuel Santana passed away last week. He was a vibrant Santa Cruz renaissance man that was a voracious painter, helped create the Cabrillo Music Festival a political activist and founded Manuel’s restaurant in Seacliff. I only met him a couple times. Sometimes I saw him during lunch time at his Manuel’s restaurant. The waitress would tell me that Manny is serving up some special soup he just concocted and if I would like some – like an oversized amuse bouche as only the big guy could make it. Over the years I came to realize that Manuel’s was not only my all time favorite restaurant, but the one I’ve dined at more than often any other in my lifetime.
My early remembrances are going there in the early Seventies. Then, the tab for my family of four with a couple of beers for mom and dad, came under twenty bucks. Through out time, they eventually came about to accepting credit cards and were open to midnight on most nights!
The Food? Still, in my opinion probably still the best Mexican American style food I can find. The refried beans are still the bar that all others are measured. The Chile Relleno is sublime, fluffy batter surrounding a large chile liberally stuffed with cheese. The chips? Still the best served with a zippy salsa that I can’t stop eating!
A toast to Manny and his everlasting imprint on Santa Cruz life!
The Humans!
Posted by -dB | Filed under Culture, Music, Tech, Uncategorized
Going to high school in late seventies Santa Cruz, my favorite local band was The Humans. They were a mix of the then emerging New Wave scene with a mix of surf, punk and avant garde theatrics. The first time I saw them was after Devo played a show at the Santa Cruz Civic in 1979. I hung out after the show and got to meetup with Devo so I could show them some pics from their previous Santa Cruz show earlier that year. While talking to them they got an invite note from a local band called The Humans that said they were inspired by Devo and that they should come check out their show later that night at JJ’s Pizza over in the East Cliff neighborhood. The guys from Devo and their brother/manager said come on let’s all go!.
So me and my younger brother booked out to JJ’s in my Datsun 510 to go hang with Devo and finally get see The Humans which were getting some considerable buzz at the time. Half hour later, I’m sitting at a little table with a couple guys from Devo, their manager and a pitcher of beer! I guess those times were a little different.
The Humans came on stage and did a blistering set of punk/new wave music with great surfy guitar licks. I became a big fan of them that night and went to almost every performance they did around the Monterey Bay area. The band was always so cool and friendly to this dorky teenager with his ever present camera around his neck.
Recently I’ve been going through and digitizing some of my favorite old cassette tapes and I found this aircheck tape of Eric Gies and Sterling Storm of The Humans being interviewed on KLRB – the ‘alternative’ progressive FM rock station that broadcast from the Barnyard in Carmel Valley. Because of this station I was exposed to the Punk revolution, New Wave as well as artists like Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa and anything else weird the DJs felt like playing.
Here’s the cassette tape from November 1980.
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Photo Finishing?
Posted by -dB | Filed under Culture, Tech
What do you know – just as I upgrade my Flickr photo account to ‘Pro‘, it’s come to my attention that they are censoring users photos.
Blogger, Violet Blue, had her pics ’snowed over’ to the regular viewer of her account page. What’s strange is there seems to be no rhyme or reason to what gets snowed. The sexytime pictures of her on the floor that my friend Seventeenstars composed? Or maybe the pics of her with some SRL machinery Worldess Workshop Style?
This is all adding up to some bad publicity for Flickr. Maybe theres some room for an edgier, freer (more in the spirit of the Internet) photo sharing site?
Buzz Buzz
Posted by -dB | Filed under Culture, Music, Oakland
Being a Java Junkie always in pursuit of quality coffee has led me to a few places to mention. One that is very good and closest to home is Mama Buzz on Telegraph and 23rd. An adjoing room has a gallery and 50s style kitchen furniture to kick back. Free Wifi is available and the coffee is dark and rich! They also have some quality beers including Boont Ale. If you order a snack you will be surprised at the quality. Tomatoes on your sandwich are fresh ripe and tasty. An extra bonus is that they usually play a lot of old school spooky music (Virgin Prunes, Bauahus, Joy Division).
Mama Buzz is in an emerging little boho Booze, Art and Coffee zone. Being neighbors to The Stork Club and Rock, Paper, Scissors art collective. FYI, there’s still plenty of crack activity on the corner and nearby Valley St.
Dark Sparkle
Posted by -dB | Filed under Culture, Music, San Francisco
Michelle, Dave & Dru
I miss going to Dark Sparkle. This is my favorite Darkwave/Goth club event since I’ve moved up to the SF Bay Area. It’s usually held at either the elegantl Café Du Nord or the DNA Lounge. Lately they’ve been moving around other SOMA locations. It’s the spooky music with out the VNV synth gop that’s permeated the goth scene the last five or so years.
