The monthly two-for-one at Oakland’s Breads of India on Clay Street begins August 25.
A little mughlai biryani or fish tikka, maybe a cocktail from the bar and a light comedy flick from India? This month’s four-course menu features old Delhi dishes and the movie Cheeni Kum (“Less Sugar”). $40 per person. 7 p.m.
A second-hand email landed on my desk about the plan by Highland Hospital to cut down about three dozen trees on 14th Ave as part of the construction on the campus. There’s a meeting tonight 7 p.m. in the Highland cafeteria. The trees are not endangered and do not house any endangered species. But you can judge for yourself how much of a “wooded transition” they offer. “Wooded transition” are words the Oakland Heritage Alliance used to describe their value. I just wanted to at least put out notice of the meeting, albeit late.
So it took a little digging, but I finally got the scoop on the Oakland wineries that provided bottles of wine for Oakland Mayor Jean Quan to take along on her trade mission to China.
She’s been handing out some bottles as gifts to dignitaries and business people, but the majority of the Oakland bottles will be uncorked for tasting Thursday at new California Vintage wine bar on Wyndham Street in Hong Kong. California Vintage is a business launched by a group of California wineries, including a couple from Alameda, but none from Oakland.
Quan is hoping that will change when she and Port of Oakland officials visit the business on the last day of the three-city trade mission to promote trade and business with China.
China is the largest client for U.S. agriculture, and the Port of Oakland handles about 90 percent of the California wine exports to China, which is a growing market for red wines. Quan said her group has been able to order California red wines in restaurants in Beijing, but there is fierce competition from Australia, Chile and France.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan wasted no time reaching out to Chinese officials in Beijing when she landed there Saturday to embark on a three-city trade mission with Oakland City Council President Larry Reid, Port of Oakland Executive Director Omar Benjamin and other of the Port’s seaport and airport officials.
Quan met with the chairman of the HNA Group, which owns Hainan Airlines, hotels and other businesses. She wants to try and bring the airline to Oakland, and perhaps convince the company to build hotels and use Oakland as its hub for for foreign tourism to Northern California.
For months it was hard to tell what the incremental signs of activity meant for the old Metro Underworld Operahouse on Broadway and Second. Then the sign “Duke’s R&B” went up in the summer. But not much else happened while the dust gathered on the windows of the 200-person, two-floor “dinner club.” Finally, the new operators filed a cabaret permit today. Actually, they applied again. The original owner, Sam Conti, passed away in November after the first application was filed in May. The new operators are listed as Pacific Brokerage Inc., which is Mohammed, Nazem and Nader Ahmadi as well as Clinton Motta, all of Walnut Creek. Their hearing is Feb. 18.
Speaking of cabaret permits, you might have noticed the article today in the East Bay Express. I have been writing about this (cabaret laws, ordinances, entertainment commission) for at least a year but it appears to have taken a cockeyed Wall Street Journal article to get the buzz going even though there isn’t really a lot of buzz to buzz about — yet. There will be though, knowing Oakland.
Contrary to the Journal’s article, the changes to the way Oakland does entertainment business has nothing to do with crime and everything to do with the fact that we have enough entertainment to regulate for the first time in decades. So I’ll toast to that while City Hall and the party police tinker. It’s about time.
Considering the address — Old Oakland — Chris Klein could have picked a better name than Oaksterdam Tattoo. If he had put the tattoo parlor in Oaksterdam territory there might not have been much fuss. But putting it on Washington Street next to Ratto’s guaranteed neighbors would raise an eyebrow. And they did, according to Klein. That is to be expected when you slap the name Oaksterdam on anything, especially on a tattoo parlor. He said he still gets stray calls by people looking for the green stuff, and I don’t mean ink. But the critics have eased off.
Klein opened Dec. 18, a couple weeks after the bitchy chatter on Internet sites (“First a tattoo parlor. What’s next? A brothel?” and “Are we that desperate for businesses?”) died down. You could easily mistake the parlor for a gallery except for the sign on the window written in the A’s signature green and white swish, which does not really reflect what is behind the storefront. A Victorian-era ceiling soars above tattoo stations where “Priest” sat steadily transforming a man’s back into a riot of multicolored flora and fauna. Paintings by the tattoo artists hang on the startk white walls. There are no drunken sailors or brazen hussies, at least not this afternoon. The sidewalk was filled instead Caffe 817 patrons soaking up the wan winter sun.
Klein, a musician and artist, has kept the front area open for people waiting to turn their skin into a human canvas, as well as for entertainment on Frist Fridays. Nothing big. At least nothing like in New Orleans, which is where he moved from. Further on but not far are two more new (and evidently less controversial ) additions to the neighborhood. The white-walled Collect gallery on Broadway opened Jan. 2 with a screening of film shorts (Oh thank you great culture muse in the sky). Next up is Jan. 12. Collect is the second storefront being filled by Leila Banijamali and Lauren Geremia. The duo’s other gallery around the corner on Ninth bears the latter’s name, Geremia Design. Together with pioneer FIVEten Studio (oh please don’t go!) the galleries and parlor create a sort of four-cornered Old Oakland art scene. Banijamali and Geremia call themselves San Francisco designers and entrepreneurs. Perhaps. But even if that is their pedigree why do they named the Web site CollectArtSF if both of their “well-appointed galleries” are in Oakland. Was CollectArtOakland taken? You might say I’m being unfair because it is the URL we’re talking about. But: Oaksterdam might be a poor choice of names for the neighborhood but at least the name reflects the city it’s in.
A video illustrating the Cal Bears garage tailgaiting tradition taken Saturday on the north side of campus during the last game of the season.
It’s hard to see but the garage on the north side was full of Bears fans with their indoor tailgate parties set up . It was close to kickoff which might be why this guy decided he had enough of his mimosa and turned his champagne glass upside down over the bushes. CheersThe guy dressed head to toe in blue and gold stripes passing by that morning was the tip off that I had unsuspectedly wandered into Cal game territory on the wrong day. Not that game day would normally concern me but I happened to be looking for parking that morning and the garages were off limits to non-football fans. The video explains why.
I thought I was just going to watch a funny movie Saturday night: “Big Fan,” by Robert Siegel of “The Wrestler” fame. It was neither a funny movie nor just film, as I found out. But in neither case was I disappointed. For one, “Big Fan” is poignant, disturbing and funny in a “Taxi Driver” meets “Mall Cop” kind of way. Paul “from Staten Island” Aufiero, played by comedian Patton Oswald, is a fanatical 35-year-old NY Giants fan whose loyalty is limitless — and creepy. ”Big Fan” is, in the words of associate director Nick Gallo (of The Onion), a dark, dark, dark comedy, which I heard hits pretty close to home with some sports fans who recognize the absurdity and pathos in the story. And that brings me to the second surprise of the evening: an unannounced appearance by Gallo and actor Gino Cafarelli, who manages to combine in the character of Paul’s brother a New York knuckle head with the scruples of a personal-injury lawyer and heart of a big brother. The duo showed up at the Shattuck Cinema’s small chamber Saturday night to promote the film. So much for a relaxing flick. Anyway, rumor has it, several Raiders are expected to be part of an audience on Monday. I am really curious to hear what they will have to say about it.
Lately I have been enjoying the dissonance at Jack London Square between watching tanned boaters aboard their crafts at the water’s edge and pop music from the temporary ice rink under the palms at the end of Broadway. Most Sundays I walk from near downtown to the square and back again, a return journey that deflates my mood because the highway overpass at Fifth Street, which pedestrians and motorists can’t avoid (in most directions). The walkway is ugly, dirty and noisy. It doesn’t really do anything to lure people to the waterfront, either. I have often thought how great it would be to at least have a shuttle, especially at night. I even thought about launching a Mexican Bus style of transportation. Now comes good news that Oakland is launching a free shuttle that will run about 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays between the Uptown District and Jack London Square. The route: Amtrak station along Broadway to West Grand loop around the Uptown via Telegraph Avenue. The days and hours might expand later if there is more money. The shuttle is geared toward getting downtown workers to other neighborhoods and encouraging people to use the ferry. I guess that’s how they got the $1 million grant to fund it. But restaurants and bars are going to be disappointed to hear that it’s not a nighttime service. I know I am even though I am glad for even limited service. I don’t want to sound ungrateful. But Read the rest of this entry »
The Tragic Kingdom of Gwen Stafani lasted until her death in the mid-21st Century, according to Kathy Aoki, who walked an audience through the reign of the pop pharaoh at SWARM gallery Thursday night. Pharaoh Gwen took the reigns of pop power after the death of Michael Jackson, Cher and “The King.” (Cher, Aoki tells us, never actually conceded power.)
You can see the show, Museum of Historical Makeovers,” for yourself. Aoki went to pains to create a future universe in which cute culture consumerism triumphed and ultimately led to Pharaoh Stefani’s demise. Maybe the universe is not so distant future. Aoki makes her point about gender, beauty and our own worship of pop through consumerism in several ways besides the Stefani “burial artifacts” (stellae, burial objects etc.). She also tweaks 19th century medical illustrations and art to comment on our pursuit of beauty. But my favorite, the one piece that stopped me in my tracks, was her picture of data painstakingly “recovered” by historians of the future from a USB pin drive: a picture of a cutsie doll figure with some insipid inscription. I will let you draw the conclusions and read better accounts than I can provide about Aoki’s show that is subtle and funny but packs a punch. The show runs until Oct. 25.
- Oakland Tribune Outtakes
Collect is the second storefront being filled by Leila Banijamali and Lauren Geremia. The duo’s other gallery around the corner on Ninth bears the latter’s name, Geremia Design. Together with pioneer FIVEten Studio (oh please don’t go!) the galleries and parlor create a sort of four-cornered Old Oakland art scene. Banijamali and Geremia call themselves San Francisco designers and entrepreneurs. Perhaps. But even if that is their pedigree why do they named the Web site CollectArtSF if both of their “well-appointed galleries” are in Oakland. Was CollectArtOakland taken? You might say I’m being unfair because it is the URL we’re talking about. But: Oaksterdam might be a poor choice of names for the neighborhood but at least the name reflects the city it’s in.