Beast Blog

Foodie Trip Report

On Chowhound, a poster provides a lengthy report of her eating over 8 days in the Bay Area, much of it in the East Bay.

the saga for a decent breakfast, part 251

One of the few things I don't like about the Bay Area is the lack of cheap, hearty breakfasts. Bacon & eggs manage to be under $5 everywhere else in the country! And frankly, for the typical $7-$8 Bay Area breakfast doesn't give you much more than a $5 breakfast elsewhere.

So my quest for good breakfasts has led me far & wide. Here is my current fave:

1. Montclair Egg Shop
(6126 Medau Pl, Oakland)
510.339.9554

This place is GREAT! while it can be a schlep to get up to Montclair (for us flatlanders), I find it's well worth it. Quirky decor (old timey nickel amusements), friendly servers, reasonable prices, and good food.

The potato pancakes have lots of scallions, the eggs blackstone (weekends only) is awesome, the coffee is nice and strong!

I also like:
Bette's Diner (4th Street, Berkeley)

Homemade Cafe (San Pablo & Dwight, Berkeley)

Broombush Cafe (San Pablo, Berkeley)

Meal Ticket (San Pablo & Gilman, Berkeley)

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!

Oakland Museum Bike Tours

From the inbox:

Two tours will be led hy Oakland Museum docents on the third Sunday of each month from June through October. There are four separate tours that are offered: Downtown Oakland, Port of Oakland and West Oakland, Fruitvale District and East Oakland, and the Brooklyn District east of Lake Merritt.

All tours begin at the Oakland Museum, 10th and Oak St. at 10:00 on Sunday. The tours last about two hours - with the Port and Fruitvale tours often a little longer.

If you'd like to join in these tours, which are leisurely and include the history, art, architecture, and natural history of the areas. please call the Oakland Museum of California Docent Office, 510-238-3514, to reserve a space. There is no cost.

This sounds like a blast. We just must the first one (June 20), but I'm looking forward to catching one of these before the summer is out.

word up

I’m fascinated about books about place. I even teach a class called “Creating a Sense of History and Place in Your Fiction and Nonfiction." My favorite East Bay bookstores include Diesel, Cody’s (my very fave), and Walden Pond. I like the view from the B&N at Jack London Square, too. My own book takes place in Oakland. So does Nichelle Tramble’s. Jess Mowry’s Way Past Cool is great, and takes place in the East Bay, also. But I do like to get out and about. A Collection of Beauties at the Height of Their Popularity is a collection of interwoven short stories—they all take place in 1980s San Francisco. I love Whitney Otto’s work. If you haven’t read Joan Didion on California or on Miami, you should. You have to go to Paris with Hemingway. And to Cuba with Cristina Garcia. And for the great open spaces in the middle of our country, do try Russell Rowland’s book. He’s working on another, too. If you want to come to New York, read Jon Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn. And for another, more unsung NYC borough, try Victor LaValle’s The Ecstatic. This day has been extra fun. I’m waving to Oakland from Brooklyn. Click and see an amazing photo essay of my adopted home. There’s a lot of Oakland in Brooklyn. It’s why I’ve been able to stay so long.

See you soon.

a little background

When I lived in Oakland as a young adult I thought the Bay Area was as big as it got. I never even left California until I was 27, and that was for my honeymoon (divorced now, and swell friends with my ex, photographer Carl Posey, who is Berkeley High class of ‘83). I was at Cal for a while, then freelanced at The East Bay Express, the Bay Guardian, and was music editor at SF Weekly. It all seems a very long time ago. I used to party at Geoffrey’s in Jack London Square. I favored LaVal's pizza over Blondie's. Ate often at Lois'. I dealt with the gruff staff at Flint’s for the tangy barbeque ribs and bright yellow potato salad. Had brunch (when I had some money) at Rick & Ann’s up by the Claremont Hotel. I used to live at the Vulcan Foundry Studios at San Leandro Boulevard and High Street), and bought dollar burritos from the catering trucks over near there. I hung out at Yogurt Park in Berkeley. I worked at Saks Fifth Avenue for years (and was a good saleschick, too!). I used to go to Slim's in San Francisco, and to the DNA Lounge and to the Kennel Club (it’s no longer there? Or is it?) for hip hop shows. I listened to KALX as well as KMEL (which I know has changed a lot). Screamed through Cal basketball games when Kevin Johnson was at guard. I swore by Peet's (and still do). They serve it at a place here in Brooklyn called Boerum Hill Food Company, and please believe I go there often. I started writing for NY magazines like Spin and Rolling Stone (I still write for them sometimes). And finally ended up at Billboard, then at Vibe, then at Time Inc. Wrote More Like Wrestling while on a journalism fellowship at Northwestern University. Got some good reviews here and here and here, as well as a bad one (you thought I’d post it?!? Not). Started teaching at places like NYC’s Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center and The New School University and St. Mary’s College of California. As of today I haven’t had a day job in almost three years, and I like it. I write as much as I can, mostly fiction, and after fourteen years in journalism (Deadline! Deadline! Deadline), sometimes I feel like I’m not writing enough. It’s funny how life works out. I’m going back to school in the fall (after dropping out of Cal a thousand years ago) for my MFA (ask me how, with my no-BA-having self; it’s a good story).

More later.

Old School Oakland

First of all, I can’t believe the Kwik Way by the Grand Lake is in danger of becoming a McDonald’s. Yikes. Things change. I left the Bay Area in 1993, and have been living in New York City since then. Writing, living, teaching, editing—the stuff I do. I miss Oakland in a big way, though. I’m moving home next year.

I was raised in Oakland (though I went to high school in Los Angeles). Born right at Providence Hospital (it's no longer called that, right?), which is also where my great-grandfather died. More Like Wrestling is about Paige and Pinch—two sisters growing up in Oakland during the 1980s. Places like the Grand Lake figure prominently in my book. The city of Oakland is as much a character in MLW as Paige and Pinch and Maynard and Oscar and Jess and all the people who fill out my first novel. I think the SF Bay Guardian (where I used to work) said MLW is a “love letter” to my hometown, and I hope it is. I made every effort, though, to include the good, the bad, and the ugly. Like every long-distance love affair, mine with Oakland is intense. There are short, spirited, melancholy visits, and I’ve got high hopes for coming back to my love and watching the sun set over the Bay Bridge during my wise and wrinkled winter years. The longing is deep because I’m Oakland old school. Not Black Panther-era, but I remember when BART didn’t exist. I remember Swan’s Market, and I remember Rhode’s department store. I’ll be thirty-nine in June. All this said, I’m not a complete romantic. I see my town for what it was and what it is:

From Pinch's prologue to More Like Wrestling:

"But we’re from Oakland. And Oakland builds quality. Folks who creep but don’t crawl. Melt down, but don’t vaporize. I move around — Oakland, anyway. So I know the Bay Area creates righteous people who deal with splendor and sting, sham and certainty, gray velvet fog and lemon–glass sunshine — all while just getting from Point A to Point B.

I know this because I can see. I watch. And this place — with its indigo–green jewel of a lake and its underdog nature and dead downtown and Southern Negro mores and shiny liberal whiteness and slow–motion port and fifty–cent tacos and fern–cloaked hills and baby tunnels and beckoning bridges and Victorian crack–houses and modern manors from which you can see San Francisco twinkling and Marin sleeping and after that straight to God’s cool pacific pond — it had to be Oakland that pasted Paige and I together. It would be Oakland that pulled us apart.

Life, though, had a lot to do with it. And death, too."

***

The Kwik Way/Mickey D’s drama makes me think of my days around the Lake. I went to Lakeview Elementary, right there across the street from the theater. Is that closet-sized cigar shop still next door? It was when I was kid, and we’d go there to stock up on candy before the movie started. My sister and I saw a bunch of stuff at the Grand Lake: Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Apple Dumpling Gang, Pippi Longstocking, Sinbad and the Seven Seas. This was back when my sis and I would take the AC Transit No. 57—same bus, whether we were going to school, or to the movies. I also went to Luther Burbank Elementary (or it was called Luther Burbank back then) in East Oakland, where we lived. I spent a lot of time at Eastmont Mall (when it was new!)—going to Kress (I think it was Kress) and JC Penny with my great-grandmother. Going to Otis Spunkmeyer’s for hot chocolate chip cookies, going to H. Salt Fish & Chips (more vinegar, please) or Pizza Hut. There was a mini-branch of the public library in the mall back then, so I spent lots of time there. I read a thick, thick book about the Jim Jones cult/massacre/mass suicide from that branch when I was about twelve. My mom thought I was crazy, but she let me read it, and liked my verbal summaries and odd facts about the cult. I got my first library card from the Fruitvale Branch when I was about eight. When I was home just this past January, I noticed that the Fruitvale Branch (or was it called the Diamond Branch?) is no longer there, or is no longer where it was when I was a kid. I took bowling lessons at Diamond Bowl, which I guess is gone, too. I can still keep score by hand, which is a neat trick these days when bowling scores are done automatically and electronically. I had a K/Casper’s dog when I was home last, too. My mom got her hotdogs there when she was in high school (Fremont class of ’62). No tomatoes for me, just pickles and kraut and mustard. I like stuff sour, just like the Pixie Stix I used to get at the cigar shop by the Grand Lake.

Man, I miss Oakland. New York pizza is fine, but I could have a quarter chicken and fries from Kwik Way right now. Or at least a sloppy handful of meat and bread with grilled onions from Giant Burger.

I’m moving home next year. I know I’ve been saying that since 1993, but this time, I mean it.

I swear.

More later.

Whistle Stop on the Virtual Book Tour - Danyel Smith

Tomorrow, the Beast Blog will have a guest poster. Danyel Smith will be by as part of a Virtual Book Tour, promoting her novel More Like Wrestling, just released in paperback.

I've just begun the book, and am quite enjoying it. The short version (so far): a coming-of-age story of two sisters, Paige and Pinch, growing up in Oakland in the late 70s and into the 80s. Lots of good local flavor. I look forward to Danyel's contributions tomorrow!

Cheap Airfare, OAK to BOS or JFK

JetBlue currently has some enticing promotions taking place right now, including $79 one-way fares between Oakland and Boston (a new route) and Oakland and New York City. Purchase by February 10, fly by April 14.

Ishmael Reed Speaks His Mind

Last night, Ishmael Reed read from his new book, Blues City: A Walk In Oakland at the University Press Bookstore.

It was a good time. Ishmael presentation style is basically his train of thought. At times erratic, usually entertaining. He began the reading by complaining about how initial reviews labelled his book a "rant." He insisted that it's filled with facts, that it's not at all a rant.

He then proceeded to read, and, well, actually, yes, the book is a rant. Very much a rant against Jerry Brown's attempts at gentrifying downtown and West Oakland. Not that his rant is misplaced.

He also addressed Oakland's multicultural stew -- whites, blacks, asians, latinos, even native americans, living and working side by side. Kwanzaa festivals lead by white women. Traditional native american rituals lead by african americans. Etc.

He also touches on a fair amount of Black Panther history, and positions them, to some extent, as unsung heroes.

There was a whiff of conspiratoriality in Reed's dogma, though, again, not without foundation.

The one disappointment is that Reed was terrible in the question and answer session -- I don't think I heard him actually address a single question, instead rambling into some tangential polemic.

Oh, and he lives somewhere near Market and 55th.

And look for more readings at University Press Books.

Telegraph Avenue Bike Lanes - Stand and Be Counted!

This just in from the East Bay Bicycling Coalition:

Telegraph Ave. (and vicinity) cyclists:

Please plan to attend Oakland's community meeting about the plan for bike lanes on Telegraph Ave. on December 4 (not December 3 as originally thought). Telegraph's bike lanes are by no means a foregone conclusion and supportive bicyclists need to show up. The opposition is strong, organized, and influential.

Time: Thursday, 12/4/03, 7-9pm

Location: Faith United Presbyterian Church, 430 49th Street at Webster

Please, pencil the Dec. 4 meeting into your calendar. If you have any questions, let me know. This matter will also be discussed further at the next EBBC meeting at the Rockridge Library on Tuesday, November 25.

Oakland Pointers

Enjoy this lovely set of Oakland Web links.

Shake, Rattle, and Roll

Oakland was the epicenter of an earthquake.

At 6:39pm, a 4.1 magnitude earthquake rumbled the Bay Area.

Here's some more info.

And a good time to point to this: USGS Earthquake Hazards Program, Northern California

Orbiting Planet Oakland

UC Berkeley lecturer and noted writer Ishmael Reed contributed a brief taste of a forthcoming travel guide on Oakland to the New York Times a few days ago, "Welcome to Planet Oakland." (Thanks, Ellen!)

Oakland - Up the Creek?

Using Oakland's largely-unknown Berlin Creek as the central metaphor, writer John Fall provides a meandering and quirky look at his city of residence (or should I say city of citizenry?), contrasting the low-key needs of his community with high-profile incidents such as sideshows and senseless murders. An essay that benefits and suffers from its author's heartfelt approach.

Historic East Bay Panoramic Photos

Got some time at work? Browse the Library of Congress' "Taking the Long View", an exhibition of panoramic photos.

Beast-ers will likely be interested in Berkeley and
Oakland. (They don't seem to have much else from the Beast.)

Recidivism Happens

The Oakland Tribune may be a pathetic rag, but at least one newspaper is writing worthwhile stories about the city. The L.A. Times Magazine's cover story Listening to Oakland discusses how the hard-on-crime, lock-em-up stance California began in earnest in the 80s and has escalated through the present day has lead to disastrous long-term effects on the community.

It's probably the most important thing you'll read today.

Secret Service Questions Students

Three weeks ago, an Oakland High teacher ratted out two students to the U.S. Secret Service for classroom conversation. It's a great drama. Civil liberties and the right to counsel vs. homeland security. Academic freedom vs. safety. Agents telling kids "we own you, you don't have any legal rights." In the crucible that gave us the Black Panthers and the Free Speech Movement.

KRON reported this story (terse, appropriate for the evening news), as did Alex Katz of the Oakland Tribune (more detail and interviews with the Secret Service), and JR at San Francisco Bay View (Long, with pointed commentary as you might expect from the National Black Newspaper of the Year).

The Street Formerly Known as Grove

This morning's Chronicle offers up a story on Oakland's Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. It's not the sunniest picture -- the street named after the civil rights leader demonstrates just how far we are from achieving his dream.

Dr. I Don't Feel So Good

While waiting to be picked up at the Oakland Airport, I realized I was standing next to Vince Neil, Motley Crue's frontman and more recently a member of "The Surreal Life", in all his paunchy unkempt glory.

A photo of Vince Neil with whom I think is his girlfriend or fiance or something:

She was there, too, and boy is she a frightening sight. Tightened skin, inflated breasts and lips, remarkably vacant. She ended up looking more like a post-op than anything else.

Oakland Delivery?

I live in Oakland. If I lived in Berkeley, I would order pizza delivered from Little Chicago - end of story. Best deep dish, dareisaybetter than Zachary's. But Berkeley only.

And this is not a Chicago pizza standoff. This is a quest for tasty food to be delivered to the Oakland-Glenview-Dimond-Fruitvale area. I don't care about cuisine type - I just don't want to leave my PlayStation2. Any ideas?

Throwin' it down for peace

On Saturday, April 5, Oakland will have a peace march, starting at 10:30am at Mosswood Park (Broadway and MacArthur), and marching downtown to Frank Ogawa Plaza at 11:30am.

Brought to you by the People's NonViolent Response Coalition.

Oaklandish

A deco tree with big branches and big roots both - "Oaklandish." I first saw i t on a sticker in the window of Walden Pond books on Grand Avenue. There's a web site, Oaklandish, run by Nonchalance.org. There's good browsing there: Oakland history from Native American "Temescal" sweat lodges to hip-hop. East Bay grafitti coverage. Pictures of memorable Oakland signs. And tales of other misadventures: slide projecting hometown heroes onto freeway underpasses. And things to buy: Oakland smart-art-boostering posters and buttons, a local history reading list.

All sorts of pride rendered in media that's not ironic or too spare, but rather luscious, rich and local. This group seems to be fighting the sad side of Oakland's underclass identification by commending urban beauty. I admire their agitprop style and perseverance. Read SF Chronicle coverage of the Nonchalance Collective. And if all that wasn't enough, there's an affiliated OakTownUnderground online event listings service.

Speaking of Kitchen Sink magazine...

The last post mentioned Kitchen Sink magazine, and then I went online to read the Chronicle, and there's a big long article about the new rag.