Baggy’s by the Lake is going all out tomorrow night for Halloween. Mike the owner is already busy decorating and planning the annual party complete with a door prize for the costumed and a grand prize (perhaps a bar tab, dear drinkers) for the best costume.  No fair giving hints what last year’s costume prize winner was dressed as. But the address is 288 East 18th St. (East side of Lake Merritt near the Parkway) Doors open 4 p.m.  As Mike put it: “It’s always pretty lively down here.”

I was looking for some art-world gossip a couple weeks ago so I stopped by SWARM Gallery to find a sleep-deprived Svea in the midst of several new ventures. She is moving the gallery around the corner to a much larger space on Third and Jefferson. The artist studios, however, will stay behind. Hopefully whoever takes over the Second Street space will keep the studios going. She’s also launching a consulting business for new commercial buildings that need art to hang on the corporate walls. And she was preparing for the Art Basel in Miama, an annual art exhibition on a scale the Bay Area could only dream of. That’s the cool thing about Los Angeles and Miami Beach and other brash new-money kind of cities: Adventurous buyers and fearless exhibitionism. Who should stop by but Metrovation developer Merritt Sher, who helped start SWARM and is opening a wine bar on 3rd and Jackson (hopefully I got the location right this time). I think it’s going in the ground level of the condos on the corner there. But I’m not sure and can’t remember the name (sorry!). It struck me how many restaurants are being built into condos. The arrangement makes sense but I’m getting nostalgic for the eclectic free-standing establishments that fill every available crack in New York.   Maybe it’s this weather.

Opening Reception at the Mercury 20 Gallery (25 Grand Ave.) Friday, November 7 from 6:00–9:00pm (in conjunction with First Friday/Oakland Art Murmur). Meet the artists at the Art Murmur’s new Afternoon After reception, Saturday Nov. 8th from 12-4pm. The meditative and visionary work of East Bay artists Tarra Lyons and Anna Vaughan comes together in a joint exhibition of new work titled Reverie… Read the rest of this entry »

 the Angry Tired Teachers, a band made up of Bay Area educators playing their latest “hit” single for Barack Obama entitled, “Get Up Stand Up for Barack” as heard on KPFA radio and Youtube.WHAT:           MOMS for OBAMA NATIONAL RALLY DAY ~ SF Bay Area


WHERE:          Dolores Park, San Francisco 

WHEN:           Saturday November 1 at 12:00 - 2PM

I don’t travel to the tip of Piedmont Avenue often but I was passing by on the way to the Mountain View Cemetary for a story (for Halloween of course. So original!) when I spotted a sign for Scopa, what I guess will be a new restaurant in the ground floor of Il Piemonte “Tuscan-inspired” condos. How appropriate. Someone was just talking about a new restaurant opening up there, across from the tiki lounge where the old Kings X used to be.  We were trying to recall the name. Jojo, Dopo, Xyclo…(Okay, there’s also Bay Wolf, Cesar, etc. I hope the condos have a gym.) 
Scopa is the name of an Italian card game. I thought the restaurant might be an offshoot of the Scopa in Healdsburg, but they said no. Nothing is listed on the Web site.

Feel the love at the “Dub Culture sessions”  described as a new experience in modern roots reggae. Every first Sunday 9 p.m. at Ashkenaz, 1317 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. All ages welcome for $5 a pop.

“This Halloween: Trick-or-Vote for Democracy:” Young and old dressed in costumes will be knocking on doors in Oakland as part of the nation’s largest non-partisan get-out-the-vote canvass.
WHEN: October 31. The event starts at 4:30pm at East Side Arts Alliance, 2277 International Boulevard in Oakland.  DOORKNOCKING will go from 5:00-7:00pm.  Youth and volunteers will be passing out voter guides on Propositions 4, 6, 8 and 9.  SPOOKY HALLOWEEN PARTY will go from 7:00-9:00pm at East Side Arts Alliance to debrief the experience and celebrate.

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I am not so sure how I feel about the beheamoth going in near my place, but thankfully far enough away that the contstruction is only mildly annoying. Anyway, here’s a strip tease as they dust flies in the shadow of downtown O. http://www.601cityc enter.com/ pdf/retail_ floorplate. pdf

VIOLENCE PREVENTION CAMPAIGN TAKES ITS MESSAGE OF PEACE TO ONE OF OAKLAND’S HARDEST HIT NEIGHBORHOODS
WHAT: Silence The Violence on Seminary: Youth Speaks Forum
WHEN: Oct. 29 4-7 PM
WHERE: YMCA  (5908  Foothill Blvd)
WHO: Silence The Violence, 106 KMEL Read the rest of this entry »

JOEY GILBERT IN BALTIMORE FOR RETURN BOUT

THURSDAY NIGHT CHARITY BOUT KICKS OFF HUGE PLANS
Super middleweight Joey Gilbert has landed in Baltimore, Maryland to return to the ring tomorrow night, October 30th against Michigan’s “FLAWLESS” Dan Wallace in a six round bout at the Jonathan Ogden Foundation Charity Boxing Event at Martin Valley Mansion in Cockeysville, MD.
 The Gilbert/Wallace bout highlights a six bout card for the foundation which raises money to benefit inner-city schools in Baltimore . The co-feature will be a four-round female junior lightweight bout between former amateur standout Katy Klinefelter of Iowa City , IA (1-0, one KO) and the debuting Jasica Rojo.