Beast Blog

Temescal Street Fair - Saturday June 18th

This weekend offers up the Temescal Street Fair (Poster PDF), a celebration of North Oakland. Food, performances, art, and more. I'll be there with my camera.

Celebrate the Ashby Arts District - June 12

This came in the inbox:

Sunday, June 12th 1-6pm

7 venues in the South Berkeley/North Oakland Area will be opening up to the public with live performances and food to celebrate the rapidly developing Ashby Arts District (AAD).

What is the Ashby Arts District?  It is a partnership between seven non-profit organizations and performance venues in the South Berkeley/North Oakland/Lorin District area including La Peña Cultural Center, Epic Arts, The Shotgun Players at The Ashby Stage, The Black Repertory Group, Nomad Café, Northern California Land Trust and the Triptych Gallery.  

We are working together to increase awareness of the arts in our neighborhood and to unify the communities we serve.  Thriving arts organizations will bring more people to our area for shopping and dining.  Come out and support your local non profits.

Drop by any one of the above on Sunday, June 12th to join in the festivities.  

SF's >Mexican Party Bus will be cruising around the district from venue to venue all day.

So hop on the bus and come party with us!

Posted by peterme at 11:52 PM | Comments (21)

Bay Area Storytelling Festival - May 21-22

A little bit outside the typical Beast Blog geography, but seemed cool enough to pass along:

Bay Area Storytelling Festival: the longest running solo performance/spoken word event in the East Bay

20 Years of Storytellers and Spellbound Listeners

When was the last time you heard a really scary ghost story? Or had someone tell you a folk tale from a land you've never been to-but told it so well you pictured every detail in your mind? Your chance is coming up as the East Bay Regional Park District and the Storytelling Association of Alta California present the 20th Bay Area Storytelling Festival, May 21-22, 2005, at Kennedy Grove Regional Recreation Area in El Sobrante.

From its humble beginnings in a classroom at Fort Mason Center, the Festival now draws hundreds of listeners from around the state to the East Bay's Kennedy Grove, where three stages and an amphitheatre feature the best of entertainers who can captivate an audience with just their voices.
 
Fans from Santa Cruz to Sacramento bring lawn chairs and blankets to gather for a weekend of fables, ballads, legends, and ghost stories. Nationally renowned storytellers bring the storytelling traditions of Africa, Asia, the Pacific islands, Europe, and America to the stage. This year, the invited storytellers include these favorites from the past 19 years:

Diane Ferlatte, Oakland, CA

Internationally renowned storyteller and recipient of the National Storytelling Network's Circle of Excellence Award, Diane Ferlatte has wowed people the world over. With a repertoire of hundreds of African, African-American, multi-cultural stories and songs, Ferlatte has thrilled and touched audiences with her tales of inspiration, struggle, values and character.
www.dianeferlatte.com

Willy Claflin, San Francisco, CA

Willy Claflin brings an extensive repertoire of Scottish ballads and a love for rubber squeaky toys to performances that range from personal experience to personal nonsense. Willy will be joined by his long time associate Maynard Moose, teller of ancient tales.
www.willyclaflin.com

Donald Davis, Ocracoke Island, NC

Raised in the Southern Appalachians, Donald Davis kept company with stories next door, over the hill, and in the fabric of daily life. Now he brings family stories to audiences worldwide. From the comforts and challenges of small town Southern life, Donald creates a timeless world of decent folk doing the best they can, and then invites us to come in and stay awhile. Donald is a much honored and celebrated artist whose following spans geography and generations.

Eth-Noh-Tec, San Francisco, CA

Eth-Noh-Tec combines the performance chemistry of Nancy Wang and Robert Kikuchi Yngojo. Robert and Nancy weave music, dance and rhythm with the spoken word as they layer Asian myth, folklore and urban legends with Asian American sensibilities to create a new blend of storytelling and kinetic theater. Imagine an artistic conversation among Robin Williams, Ginger Rogers and a Chinese village teller, against a backdrop of Japanese martial arts and music.
www.eth-noh-tec.org

Dovie Thomason Sickles, Waldorf, MD
Dovie Thomason first heard the voices of the Animal People in the stories of her Lakota and Kiowa Apache relatives. With understanding and sly humor, she has joined those voices to share wise, boisterous teaching tales. When she adds stories from her own life and from her people's experience, the result is a contemporary vision of the rich cultures of the First Nations of North America told with elegance, wit and passion.

Also featured are special guests: storytellers from the previous 19 years of Festivals will be dropping by to share a tale or two.

The Festival is recommended for ages 9 and up.

The Bay Area Storytelling Festival is part of ArtSFest 2005 (http://www.artsfestsf.org) and is co-sponsored by the Storytelling Association of Alta California (SAAC) and the East Bay Regional Park District. SAAC is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to promoting and preserving the ancient art of storytelling.

The Festival, hosted by the East Bay Regional Parks District since 1991, reflects the District's commitment to diverse programming highlighting the cultural and natural resources of the Bay Area. EBRPD manages over 95,000 acres of parkland in Alameda and Contra Costa County, 65 regional parks and recreation areas, and sponsors hundreds of educational and interpretive events each year.
http://www.ebparks.org

Saturday, May 21, performances are scheduled from 10:00 AM to 7:30 PM.

Sunday, May 22, performances run from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

Local students from El Sobrante, Pinole, and Richmond will attend a student concert on Friday, May 20.

A complete schedule is available at http://www.bayareastorytelling.org.

Tickets: $11 (single event) to $55 (entire weekend). Discounts for seniors, families, kids.

More information:
(510) 869-4946
http://www.bayareastorytelling.org

We Get Press Releases - A Taste of Albany

The Beast Blog knows it's reached the big time when Chambers of Commerce send in stuff. We don't print everything we get, but this seemed of quality and interest:

A Taste of Albany, Sunday, June 5th   Set yourself free! at the fourth annual "A Taste of Albany -- a Small-Town Walkabout," Sunday, June 5th, from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Solano and San Pablo Avenues. Tickets available at www.albanychamber.org. Price: $20 in advance, $25 day of event (if available). Price includes tastes from 18 of Albany's finest restaurants, including Fonda, the Solano Grill and Bar, Albany Bistro, and Ruen Pair, to name a few, and special promotions from over a dozen other businesses in town. The festival features 12 live bands, featuring ORIXA and Otis Goodnight, an arts-and-crafts show, two free cable car shuttles, a "Kiddyland," jugglers, magicians, and more. "A Taste of Albany" is a "green" event.    (Note to editor: Twenty percent of any profits will be donated to the Oakland Center for the Blind and victims of the south Asian tsunami. Additional donations made to support music, art, theater, and sports in local schools.)

Ashby Arts District

There is a fabulous movement afoot in South Berkeley!

It's called The Ashby Arts District, and its a cooperative effort spearheaded by Epic Arts (which serves as its fulcrum). The partnership includes La Peña Cultural Center, The Shotgun Players, Epic Arts Studios, The Black Repertory Group, Nomad Café, Northern California Land Trust and the Triptych Gallery. This district is unique in that it has been organized by artists and arts organizations from the grassroots up, and is now supported by the local business community, neighborhood associations, and was officially recognized by the Berkeley Mayor's office in the summer of 2003.

The recent emergence of this affiliation of arts venues in the South Berkeley/North Oakland neighborhoods surrounding Ashby BART station has finally given a name to an area long known for its proliferation of artists, writers, musicians, dancers, actors and other performers, as well as residents who appreciate community-based arts.

Through collaborative events and programs, the District’s members are working to bridge gaps between neighboring organizations, increase public awareness of the arts, and unify the communities they serve. Undertakings include:

* Publishing a monthly arts calendar that reflects events and performances throughout the Ashby Arts District

* Compiling and sharing a database of nearly one thousand local artists, musicians and other performers in order to allow broad saturation of favorite acts within the district

* Working with city officials to move new arts organizations into the area.

* Planning our first annual street festival for the summer of 2005, during which a section of the Arts District will be shut down to celebrate the 30th anniversary of La Peña and the Northern California Land Trust.

* Partnering with local businesses, organizations, and community groups to expand the reach of and base of support for the arts as an integrated part of community

* Continuing to develop public art projects such as the 2003 Ashby/MLK mural project that involve local residents as designers and architects of thier own creative environment.

The main goal is the continued development of the Ashby Arts District and the creation of a better world through art, one thriving community at a time.

A return to the Supper Club

What could be more fun than an evening out- seeing fabulous performers in all genres while enjoying a gourmet meal?

The Ghetto Gourmet does just that, several times a month in various locations.

Check them out to make a reservation!

A fountain pours in Oakland...

This sounds really great, and I'm happy to pass it along.

From my inbox:

Here's a cool happening thing in the East Bay that I wanted you folks to know about:

Right on the north east shore of Lake Merritt, Cleveland Cascade is a park that climbs steeply up the hill to Cleveland Street in the Haddon Hill and China Hill neighborhoods. In the 1920s, a noted landscape architect created an Italian-inspired water feature that cascaded down the hill, giving the park its "Cascade" name. Over the years, its maintenance was neglected, the water stopped flowing, and the Cascade was ultimately buried so that few knew what lay beneath the surface.

This May a neighborhood group launched a campaign to restore the Cleveland Cascade to its original state. We've already fully excavated the Cascade. We're working closely with a landscape architecture firm (PGA Design) that's donated tons of their time to develop a landscaping plan. And we're working with the City of Oakland, with an ultimate goal of combining some Measure DD money with privately raised money to fund the full restoration.

You can find out more about the Cascade and what the neighbors are up to at the web site:

http://clevelandcascade.org

You can see the photograph (from a 1931 landscape architecture journal) of the original Cascade that got us all inspired at

http://clevelandcascade.org/Photo.Cascade.1931.Gilkey.html

You can also read the 1923 SF Chron article written soon after the Cascade was built at

http://clevelandcascade.org/cited.1923.03.11.SFChronicle.html

You can find a map of exactly where the Cascade is at

http://clevelandcascade.org/where.html

If you have any questions, I'm a good person to ask!

Thanks!
Jim

--
Jim Ratliff
Friends of the Cleveland Cascade
jim [AT] clevelandcascade.org
http://clevelandcascade.org

Temescal Street Fair - Saturday, August 21

The Temescal Merchants are putting together the Temescal Street Fair. From the flyer:

TEMESCAL STREET FAIR
SATURDAY, AUGUST 21ST, 2004 12PM-6PM
Telegraph Avenue between 51st and 48th, North Oakland
ACTIVITIES
•Kid art making with Studio One and East Bay Depot
•Craft and community booths
•Martial arts demonstrations
•Italian wine and beer garden
•Delicious food from local restaurants

CULTURAL PERFORMERS
•Montuno Groove (salsa)
•Otis Goodnight (hip-hop, funk)
•Crooked Jades (old-time string music)
•East Bay Church of Religious Science International Choir
•Colibri (South American kid’s music)
•Asheba (Caribbean kid’s music)

Chocolate and Chalk Art Festival - May 29

It's chocolate week on Beast Blog!

From my inbox:

CHOCOLATE & CHALK ART ON SOLANO The sidewalks along the entire length of Solano Avenue in Berkeley and Albany are the target of artists young and old, professional and greenhorn during the 8th annual CHOCOLATE & CHALK ART ON SOLANO on Saturday, May 29.

With no fees to artists, areas of sidewalk will be assigned to participants to create their own fanciful chalk paintings. Registration takes place 9-5 in three locations on Solano: 1561 @ Peralta Park; 1850 @ Andronico's Market.; and 1216 @ YMCA Kid's Club. Artist's chalk and a Polaroid of their finished work are available for a fee. To encourage early registration, a raffle for merchandise donated by local businesses will be drawn at noon from the names of registered artists.

Buy a packet of $1 tickets for $10 at any of the registration sites for CHOCOLATE SAMPLING. The menu features delectable brownies, yummy rich chocolate cake, Brooklyn'€™s "My-T-Fine" chocolate pudding, and spicy chocolate mole burritos as well as the stranger chocolate fried wontons, chocolate raspberry body paint for adults, and chocolate covered ants! Spend your tickets on these
delights in the Solano Avenue businesses flying festival banners. Music & balloons fill the air, street poets slam on the corners, there are pet adoptions at Peralta Park, and there are many more surprises as you stroll along the sidewalks viewing the artwork which remains in place for the next two weeks.

Unfurling of the SPRING ART STREET BANNERS which have been individually painted by 150 members of the community will complete the cycle of art above and below!
Sponsored by the Solano Avenue Association
510/527-5358
www.solanoave.org.

CHOCOLATE & CHALK ART FESTIVAL
SATURDAY, MAY 29, 2004

All along Solano Avenue from The Alameda in Berkeley to San Pablo Ave. in
Albany
9AM-5PM Chalk Artists draw on sidewalks
9AM-5PM or from store openings to closings
Look for the stores with brown festival pennants to redeem your
tickets for items listed on the Chocolate Menu

Peralta Park, 1561 Solano Ave., Berkeley
9AM-5PM Registration of Chalk Artists
Information, Chocolate Menus, Chocolate Tickets (10 for $10)
SAA Headquarters booth, First Aid
12 Noon Artist's raffle at SAA HQ booth
12-4 PM Berkeley Animal Care Pet Adoptions

Andronico's Market, 1850 Solano Ave., Berkeley
9AM-5PM Registration of Chalk Artists
Information, Chocolate Menus, Chocolate Tickets

YMCA Kid's Club, 1216 Solano Ave., Albany
9AM-5PM Registration of Chalk Artists
Information, Chocolate Menus, Chocolate Tickets

ENTERTAINMENT
Papel Picado demonstrations 11-3 1564 Solano @ Gathering Tribes
Poet - Chokwadi 1-2 1580 Solano @ Solano Cellars
Mike Glendinning - Guitarist 1-3 1115 Solano @ Albany Theatre
Carol Denney & Jim Nelson 1-3 1850 Solano @ Andronico'€™s
Pat Ryan'€™s Celtic Junket 11-1 1744 Solano @ Pharmaca
Featherlight the Clown 11-3 1224 Solano @ Sweet Potatoes
Poet - Tony Caine 2-3 1561 Solano @ Peralta Park
Poet - Selene Steese 12-1 1497 Solano @ High Tech Burrito
Poet - Louis Cuneo 3-4 1745 Solano @ Sue Johnson'€™s
Poet - Jim Williams 3-4 1561 Solano @ Peralta Park
Dana Smith &
His Performing Dog Lacey 3-5 1275 Solano @ Key Route
Gassy Bones 3-5 1423 Solano @ Gordo'€™s

CHOCOLATE MENU

Artbeat Salon 1887 Solano Cacao Eye Liner by Aveda $11
Noah'€™s New York Bagels 1883 Solano Chocolate Chip Mini Bagels 3/$2
KNA Copy Centre 1865 Solano Chocolate Colored Note Pad 1/Free
Andronico'€™s Market 1850 Solano Adult Thick Chocolate Brownie $5
A.G. Ferrari Foods 1843 Solano Gianduja Chocolate Brownie $1
Peet'€™s Coffee & Tea 1825 Solano Chocolate Covered Blueberries $6
Ideas 4 Elements 1774 Solano Real Swiss Chocolate 'Clogs' $1
Pharmaca Pharmacy 1744 Solano Chocolate Raspberry Body Paint $10
Pharmaca Pharmacy 1744 Solano Organic Milk or Dark Chocolate Bar $2
Pharmaca Pharmacy 1744 Solano Milk Chocolate Calcium Chews $8
Pharmaca Pharmacy 1744 Solano European Chocolate Orange Soap $4
Pharmaca Pharmacy 1744 Solano Mexican Cocoa Votive Candle $2
Tangerine Food Bar 1707 Solano Dutch Cocoa Hot or Cold $2
King Tsin Restaurant 1699 Solano Chocolate Fried Wontons $3
Bone Room 1569 Solano Chocolate Covered Ants $2
Frishman'€™s NY Deli & Bakery 1561 Solano Ortman'€™s Chocolate Ice Cream $2
Frishman'€™s NY Deli & Bakery 1561 Solano Brooklyn'€™s '€˜My-T-Fine'€™ Chocolate Pudding $2
Frishman'€™s NY Deli & Bakery 1561 Solano Rich Chocolate Homemade Brownie $2
Seven-Eleven Food Store 1540 Solano King Size Hershey Bar $1
High Tech Burrito 1497 Solano Spicy Chocolate Mole Chicken Burrito $6
Sophia Cafe 1247 Solano Chocolate Covered Marzipan Fingers $2
Celadon Fine Teas 1111 Solano Yummy Rich Chocolate Cake $3
Max'€™s Liquor 865 San Pablo Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwich $2

Celebrate Black History

From my inbox:

The Young Adult Project will be hosting its annual Black History Celebration on Thursday February 26, 2004 from 6:30pm to 9:00pm at the Martin Luther King Youth Services Center, 1730 Oregon St.

You are all invited to attend this event. the Youth in the program will be performing poetry, dance, karate demonstrations and displaying their art work.

There will be a light refreshment. We hope that you can attend and I look forward to seeing you there..

Discussion on the future of libraries, 11/16 at the Hillside Club

Cybersalon: Libraries and the Future
Sunday, November 16, 6:00 - 8:30 P.M.
Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., Berkeley

Libraries have never been better equipped to provide universal access to all human knowledge. While technical advances promise to change the way libraries serve the public, librarians are now at the center of a number of contentious issues ranging from copyright, censorship and content filtering to enforcement of the Patriot Act. We'll hear about the future of libraries and discuss these issues with an all-star panel that includes:

- Daniel Greenstein, president, the California Digital Libraries Initiative
- Anne Lipow, director of the Library Solutions Institute
- Brewster Kahle, founder of The Internet Archive

Doors open at 6:00; discussion starts at 7. A $10 donation is suggested to help fund the Hillside Club and cover food and drink. RSVP to w h o i s y l v i a @ a o l . c o m if you're coming!

Directions: From the Bay Bridge or Oakland and points south, take the University St. exit off 880, bear right and go straight (north) along the frontage road for about half a mile. Make a right onto Cedar Street and continue 2.3 miles. The Hillside Club is three blocks east (up the hill) of Shattuck Ave, between Spruce and Arch Streets, and there is parking in the neighborhood.

Cohousing in the Beast

A Craigslist post alerts us that East Bay Cohousing is meeting this Sunday, November 9.

It probably makes sense that this kind of intentional community has a special place in the East Bay. The first American cohousing company, imaginatively named The CoHousing Company, is located in West Berkeley. One of the first American cohousing communities is Doyle Street Cohousing, in Emeryville. Oakland has three active communities (no American city has more), with a potential fourth coming from East Bay Cohousing (that community is still forming, and still looking for a site).

Telegraph Avenue Walking Tour - Saturday

Learn the history of the school's main drag. Begins at 10am, at Sather Gate, on Saturday the 8th.

Disaster Preparedness Supplies!

This just came into my inbox:
------
Dear Neighbors,
Here's an easy way to pick up those emergency supplies you've been meaning
to get, and learn more about how to prepare and make you, your family, and
your neighborhood safer in the event of emergency or disaster.
This Saturday, October 25, Truitt and White Lumber Company and the City of
Berkeley are joining together to put on a large, multi-media emergency
supply exposition. Individual emergency supplies, and supplies for whole
neighborhoods, businesses and community agencies will be available for
buying and ordering - at favorable prices. Demonstrations and hands-on
exhibits will give you an opportunity to familiarize yourself with emergency
equipment and techniques.
EMERGENCY SUPPLY EXPO / BUY AND LEARN
TRUIIT AND WHITE LUMBER COMPANY
642 HEARST STREET, BERKELEY
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25TH
1PM - 4PM
Demonstrations, exhibits, fire hoses, hard hats, generators, music, medical
supplies. drawing prizes, giveaways, firefighters, building contractors -
lots of knowledge, and lots of supplies - and fun mixed in!
This is a wonderful opportunity for getting prepared,
-----

The Prole, the Bourgeois, Capital and GOOOOOOAAAALLLLL!

Dear God. Only in Berkeley. Anarchist vs. Communist soccer. Sunday the 26th, 5:30pm, at Harrison Park. I suspect they don't play by FIFA rules.

Save The Shipyard: Final Use Permit Hearing

Heads count in many situations, and this-here is one of them.
Do your part to keep Berkeley a place where art can thrive! (Free tacos, too!)

On Thursday, October 23rd, get yerself on down to:
City of Berkeley Council Chambers
2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, 2nd Floor
People's Republic of Berkeley

Taco truck catering starts at 6PM. Hearing starts at 7PM.

The Shipyard is a shipping container artist community in Berkeley. The Shipyard is yet another amazing Bay Area artist resource and venue that has been struggling for survival the last couple of years and could really use your help.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This report from Jim, tireless leader of The Shipyard:

The hour of reckoning has arrived for the Shipyard.

Two years and $12,000 after we started the Battle of the Papers and
Processes with the City of Berkeley, the Final Use Permit hearing for
The Shipyard is scheduled and guaranteed to happen October 23rd at 7pm.

This is the hearing where they decide whether we get to continue to
exist or we rent a truck and haul away all the containers.

We have submitted all the required drawings, environmental studies,
statements of intent, paid the fees, talked and retalked, redid the
drawings 4 times, brought in high end architectural consulting and
services, and all the rest of the stuff that always happens in these
messes.

And now the whole thing is on the line a! nd we need a big showing to
convince Berkeley that people care about the place and want to see it
continue to exist. Exist not just to collect large machine tools and
build unlikely edifices to misguided hubris, but also to have events,
workshops, gatherings, and shows- all those things we haven't been able
to do for two years while we were under the thumb.

WE NEED 200 PEOPLE IN THE ROOM FOR THIS HEARING.

200 people cannot be said no to.

Our neighbors are happy with us so I don't expect them out in force
against us, but who knows what will happen. These hearings are
arbitrary and you stand there helpless as decisions are made over the
foundation upon which you and many, many other people create, play,
live and generally do the things that matter most to them. Everything
could be fine, (as it was at the last hearing for design review, which
we passed), or everything could suddenly be all wrong. That is why we
ALL need to be there- to make sure it will all be OK, and not yet
another art space gets axed in the Bay Area, as has been the recent
trend.

So, with humility, concern, deep gratitude and all the other soft
things, I ask, actually plead, that you consider joining us for this
hearing.

The hearing starts at 7pm. You have to submit a speakers card by
7:15pm to speak. Speaking in favor of the project is good, especially
if you are a Berkeley resident, or even if you are not.

There will be a taco truck catering the event (at the curb) out front
from 6-8pm. Free tacos and horchata for all who show.

Again, the meeting is at:

Council Chambers, Berkeley
2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, 2nd Floor
Thursday, Oct 23rd, 7:00 p.m.

There will be a party (celebrating our success) afterwards at the
yard. More details on the after party will emerge soon.

Thank you in advance for helping to bring all this silliness to an end.

- Jim Mason

directions for west bay folk:
-off 80 at University, go east for about a mile.
-turn right on Martin Luther King Jr Way.
-go three blocks and find taco truck and venue on your right.

The Shipyard website

Panel on Election 2004 at the Hillside Club, Sunday, 10/19

Cybersalon: Digital Democracy in 2004?
6:00-8:30 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 19
Hillside Club, 2286 Cedar St., Berkeley

Will the Internet encourage more people, including political candidates, to participate in the next Presidential elections? Joan Blades, cofounder of moveon.org, will relate how moveon.org has moved hundreds of thousands of citizens to take direct action; Garrett Gruener, former gubernatorial candidate and founder of search engine Ask Jeeves, will describe the implications of the Internet for candidates; and Tyler Ziemann, 23-year-old founder of Affinity Engines, will talk about why a major Presidential candidate is using Affinity's software platform to mobilize and monitor voter support.

Also on our panel is Lauren Gelman, assistant director, Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society, and Zane Vella, executive director, Campaign Video Project.

Notice: We're starting later and ending earlier, serving light refreshments (not dinner!), and lowering our donation request to $10. RSVP to whoisylvia@aol.com and feel free to bring friends and family.

Directions: From the Bay Bridge or Oakland and points south, take the
University St. exit off 880, bear right and go straight (north) along
the frontage road for about half a mile. Make a right onto Cedar Street
and continue 2.3 miles. The Hillside Club is three blocks east (up the
hill) of Shattuck Ave, between Spruce and Arch Streets, and there is
parking in the neighborhood. For BART travelers, get off at the Central Berkeley BART, and take any bus going along Shattuck and get off at Cedar.

Brick Day!

This and every October 15th is Brickday!
A "national drinking holiday" with hazy origins, some say Brickday was started by East Bay (now-defunct) cult fave band, The Gazillions, some say it is an ancient holiday with proletarian European roots.

Brickday is celebrated by calling in sick to work, going to a bar, and drinking all day. The catch is, you HAVE TO bring a brick with you! Here's how it works: When ordering your first drink, place your brick on the bar. When the bartender asks you why you have a brick, tell him/her "It's Brickday, and you should have one too". It's just that simple!

You can celebrate this holiday at any bar (and I encourage you to do so), but my friends (former Gazillionaires & their friends) and I have always celebrated Brickday at the Stork Club in Oakland.

We'll be meeting there around 1 PM, please join us!

Because Mickey, owner of the Stork Club, loves Brickday so much she has offered to make this into a BBQ. She said that she'll provide hotdogs and hamburgers, but asked people to bring sides to share.

If you want to know more about Brickday, Katy St. Clair (East Bay Express) wrote a very nice origins piece a few years ago that can be read at the following link:

Brick Day!

The Stork club is located at 2330 Telegraph Avenue (at 23rd St.) in Oakland and is readily accessible by bus (the 40, 43, and 51 lines) and by BART (19th Street station). Hope to see you there, don't forget your brick!

Friendster Meets Your Free Weekly's Listings Page

Gwen writes in to tell us about Upcoming.org, an events-listing website generated all by it's users. And you can link yourself to friends and venues so that you always know what's going on.

The East Bay is currently represted by San Francisco Bay Area and Oakland, and I've just added Berkeley.

So start posting!

Discussion at the Hillside Club, 9/21

Cybersalon: Matchmaking for Love and Money, Online and Off

September 21, 2003
5.30 - 9.00 PM
The Hillside Club
2286 Cedar Street
Berkeley, CA 94709

Some social interactions can't be automated (yet), but the pursuit of them certainly can.

The founders of online and offline career and dating services will explain how new technology and new social norms are changing the way people find love and money at the Hillside Club in Berkeley, on Sunday, September 21.

Speakers include:

* danah boyd, UC Berkeley
* Courtney Johnson, eMode
* Julie Paiva, President, Table for Six
* Mark Pincus, CEO, Tribe
* Cynthia Typaldos, Founder and President, Software Product Marketing eGroup & ProfGuilds
* Ned Engelke, Managing Director, North America, SmartFlirts

Doors open at 5.30; discussion starts at 7. A $15 donation is suggested to help fund the Hillside Club and cover food and drink. Table for Six is offering a door prize: a ticket to one of their events. RSVP to whoisylvia@aol.com if you plan to attend.

5.30 - 9.00 PM
The Hillside Club
2286 Cedar Street
Berkeley, CA 94709

Directions: From the Bay Bridge or Oakland and points south, take the University St. exit off 880, bear right and go straight (north) along the frontage road for about half a mile. Make a right onto Cedar Street and continue 2.3 miles. The Hillside Club is three blocks east (up the hill) of Shattuck Ave, between Spruce and Arch Streets, and there is parking in the neighborhood.

Shine On You Crazy South Berkeley

Today at the corner of MLK and Ashby, South Berkeleyans celebrated the completion of the "South Berkeley Shines!" mural on the side of Grove Liquor. It's a lovely addition to the neighborhood, depicting a variety of local sights -- the Thai Temple, the Black Repertory Theater, BART and the flea market, the Tool Lending Library, etc.

I took some photos.

Colorful, ain't it?

A neighbor contributes his vision

Indiana made his impression

Children are our future!

Preparing for National Night Out

I was forwarded the following email. It was sent by a neighborhood-active southwest Berkeley woman to a reporter at the Berkeley Daily Planet:

Hi Angela,
I wanted to let you know about what we hope will be a big event for National Night Out on Tuesday, August 5th in Southwest Berkeley. You can get some info on NNO from the Berk PD website. With many of the recent shootings, violence, drug arrests, etc. in the neighborhoods of SW Berkeley we recognized California Street as a common denominator for a lot of the crimes and problems. Some of us got together to discuss this and called our group "California Corridor". Our desire is to have healthy neighborhoods to benefit all. We include members of the Alcatraz Neighbors Assn, the Lorin District Neighborhood Assn, Lorin Safe, 63rd and 62nd St neighbors. Our plan is to have events for NNO at three locations, 62nd and 63rd St at California St, on Alcatraz at California St, and a staging area on California St from Woolsey to Fairview. We hope to have food, music, socializing and strolling among the locations.

We communicated with members of ROC (Russell, Oregon and California). They are having a potluck in Grove Park 1730 Oregon at 6:30. At 7pm they will have a stroll, encouraging members to bring flashlights, singing voices, signs and walk to California St joining us at Woolsey. Our hope is that at Woolsey and California we will have news media to give us some coverage for the neighborhood participation. Can you help us? We have appreciated your excellent coverage of the "border wars" so much.

For the mild of manner and sweet of heart

Ladies (and Gents) Who Lunch (Or: A Much-Needed Excuse To Leave The House) is a delightful little get together. Especially with the lovely weather we've been having this summer. Once or twice a month. For lunch or happy hour. I'd tell you more of what happened yesterday but Gwen, the First Lady, blogs the befores and afters. Always an intriguing group of people, they spun off from a weblogger meetup that never seemed to be at a convenient time. If you've been locked at your desk or with your kids all day, this is the balmy break you crave.

"I'm Going to College!"

Walking around campus today I noticed an excess of blue and gold as the place gears up for tomorrow's Cal Day (that's Saturday, April 12th). While the University of California, Berkeley is never shy about promoting itself, Cal Day is when they really go all-out to attract new students, impress visiting families, and entertain the neighbours. I'll be doing my part for the Archaeological Research Facility programs by supervising some undergrads' outreach projects and answering questions about historical archaeology in 55 Kroeber Hall, between 10am and 4pm. We may not have a cyclotron, but we've got heart - and a lot of dirty old stuff.

(As for the title of this post, this is the slogan you can see emblazoned on chests of young aspirants visiting Cal.)

Report Your Local Liquor Store

I'm on the mailing list of my local neighborhood organization (The Russell, Oregon, and California Streets Neighborhood Organization). I recently received this email from the president:

Paul can you send an e-mail out to your group telling them that on April 26
citizens are being asked to work with Alcohol Beverage Control to visit the
99 liquor outlets in Berkeley and do an investigation regarding the
advertisement on windows. The law requires that only 1/3 of the window can
be covered. The persons who volunteer will receive a 30 minute training on
what to do.
From this information ABC will send to store owners a letter if they are in
violation. They will then be given a certain amount of time to clear up
the violation. If they have not complied the ABC investigators will go out
to the stores and issues a citation as they also investigate the store in
general.
The Lorin Safe group have already signed up and will be participating. We
hope we can get some folks from your area. Can you put the word out?
Thanks

Taj Johns,
Assistant to the City Manager
981-2491

One of the things I've learned in my ever-so-brief exposure to neighborhood politics and concerns is that liquor stores seem to be the banes of neighborhood happiness, acting as little more than magnets for loitering and drug dealing.

The discombobulation caused by liquor stores is quite surprising, because, well, hey, every once in a while I need a candy bar, and they're the best place to get them. Hell, since I was 5 or so, I did spot grocery shopping at our neighborhood liquor store (picking up milk, say).

Anyway, I won't be able to volunteer in this endeavor as I'll be out of town. But if I were around, I'd definitely consider it, just to see what such a thing is a like.

Also, note the mention of the "Lorin Safe Group." As I found out reading the history of Berkeley, Lorin was its own city before the 1900s, nestled between Berkeley and Oakland, before it became a part of Berkeley. It turns out that the name lives in in the neighborhood, through things like Lorin Station Apartments, and the Lorin District Neighborhood Association.

Me, I think "Lorin" sounds like something out of a Tolkien novel.

Berkeley turns 125

On April 1, the city of Berkeley turns 125 years old. Since folks are unable to pass up acknowledging arbitrary intervals of time, the city has a number of celebrations planned.

Perhaps the niftiest is the "group photo" that will be shot on April 1, 4:30, at 2134 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way. All members of the Berkeley community (i.e., residents) are invited.

Meet Mayor Bates!

The Russell, Oregon, & California Neighborhood Organization is hosting a meeting with Mayor Tom Bates.

Wednesday, March 26. 7:00-9:00pm
MLK Community Center, 1730 Oregon Street

All South Berkeley residents should attend!

Berkeley Partners for Parks meeting on parks budget

Friends of Berkeley's Parks are invited to come to an important Berkeley Partners for Parks meeting on Monday, March 17, about upcoming parks division priorities and work plan, and planning for the FY04, FY05 parks budgets and beyond. Budget cuts are coming and an informed citizenry is needed to help staff and City Council prioritize. Lisa Caronna, Director of Parks, Recreation and Waterfront, will give the presentation. There will be time for questions and answers and discussion, as well as adopt-a-park news.

3/17/2003, 7:30-9:00PM, City Corp. Yard Public Meeting Room, 1326 Allston Way.

More info at Berkeley Partners for Parks website