Replay 8/17/07: Geese Crossing

I’m reading Blues City: A Walk in Oakland, by Ishmael Reed, and in it, he does an interview with Malcolm Margolin, author of The Ohlone Way. Here’s part of what Malcolm has to say about why birds keep coming back to Lake Merritt:
Along the northern Pacific coast the watersheds that supported migrating geese have been [...]

Replay 8/13/07: Community in Motion

Photo courtesy of actransit.org
One of the things I love about riding the bus is the sense of community. I know many of the bus drivers on my line by now, and at night, when there are few riders on the bus and I’ve had a couple drinks at Radio, I usually chat with the [...]

Replay 8/5/07: Broadway & 14th

Several months ago, I took a class at the Writing Salon in Berkeley, and one of the in-class exercises was to write about a place, with both a positive spin and a negative spin.
I chose to write about Broadway & 14th, in downtown Oakland, where I exit and return to the 1 or 1R bus [...]

Replay 7/28/07: Listenin’ to the Banjo

The other night, I was sitting in my apartment with my girlfriend and a friend, sipping a glass of Chardonnay. As we sat talking, we noticed the faint sound of a string instrument. I turned around and opened the window. It was a banjo.
Somebody, in a neighboring house, was playing the banjo. Exhausted, I stayed [...]

Replay 9/5/07: Crude Awakening

Over the past couple weeks, several people have found my blog by searching for Crude Awakening or for its creator, Dan Das Mann, so I thought I’d finally give everyone what they’re looking for. And I promise, this will be my last Burning Man related post for a little while.
You might ask, how does this [...]

Replay 8/10/07: Oakland’s a lot like Black Rock City

It’s that time of year when I just can’t get Burning Man off of my mind, but lately I’ve been realizing that Oakland’s a lot like Black Rock City. Sure, a good chunk of burners are from the Bay Area so it makes sense that the Bay would be similar to the third largest city [...]

Replay 7/22/07: Fire Arts Festival

Every year, the Crucible’s Fire Arts Festival in West Oakland brings the Bay Area a preview of the best part of Burning Man: lots of great art, tons of fire, a mixture of people, and man-made beauty in an unexpected place.

Photo by Dave Wright, courtesy of thecrucible.org
This year was no exception. I went on Friday [...]

Off to Black Rock City, be back in a week

I’m on my way to Burning Man this week so I decided to steal an idea from The Overhead Wire and replay some old posts for you throughout the week. During the first half of the week, I’ll make you jealous that you’re not at Burning Man by showcasing some of the arts and culture [...]

We need more of these…

I was in downtown Berkeley the other day and saw this at Center and Shattuck:

Sorry for the poor picture quality, but if you can’t read it, the screen lists several bus lines that stop at Center and Shattuck and their upcoming arrival times. It then scrolls through the rest of the lines.
Generally, the much smaller [...]

Enjoying Breakfast in the East Bay

I’ve been meaning for a while to write a comprehensive post about breakfast spots in the East Bay, but now I’m wondering if I still need to since I stumbled onto Breafast in the Bay. Though it covers spots around the Bay Area, it seems to be pretty heavily Oakland focused.
I really love breakfast so [...]