Category Archives: uptown

The Layover – a hip new spot

So my friend invited me to The Layover the other night. Have you been there?

It’s a pretty new joint in downtown Oakland… they opened a little over 3 months ago on October 9th in the old spot occupied by Pat’s, Franklin Street between 15th and 17th. Look for the neon green martini glass…

downtown oakland, the layover, layover bar in oakland

We went on a Tuesday night, which is comedy night… live stand-up comedy, followed by live music… no cover charge. Did you catch that? No cover charge. How cool is that?!

the layover, layover bar, layover bar in oakland

We saw 5 comedians, each with about a 15 minute set, and I can honestly say that four of them were quite hilarious. The emcee for the evening mentioned that the comedians are all students, and that The Layover is their training ground to try out new material.

The room was packed, which doesn’t take much, as this little club only holds 49 peeps. It’s an intimate vibe, further accentuated by the plush living room decor. Beautifully re-upholstered vintage pieces in warm velvety colors… one of the owners, RaeAnne Turner, is responsible for the fabulous seamstress-ing.

And what’s even cooler is that all of these gorgeous pieces are for sale! It’s a neat concept. They stock the house with sweet vintagey finds… including not only tables, chairs, & couches, but also light fixtures, pillows, and more… you take ’em home (if inspired and the price is right). That way they’re consistently restocking the venue with new interesting pieces. Keepin’ it fresh ya’ll!

In addition to the furniture for sale, the space functions as an art gallery too… with an associated gallery next door. They had a pretty eclectic mix of stuff up… one of a kind artist-modified light fixtures, small scale paintings, mixed media pieces, and the gorgeous collaged canvases of Daniel Healey featured in blankspace’s This Is Not My Beautiful Life show.

tuesday night comedy night, comedy at the layover, the layover bar

The last shot below was taken after the comedians wrapped up and the musicians were gearing up to get started with the live music. Don’t let the empty chairs fool you… everyone was just at the bar refilling their glasses!

I wish we could have stayed to see the band… Tuesday nights feature something of a “house” band with a rotating cast from Rogue Wave, Crown City Rockers, Persephone’s Bees, Bright Eyes, & more. Man, that sounds awesome! But it was a school night and I needed to get to bed…. waaahh.

RaeAnne’s husband, Zachary (aka Prozack) Turner, is in charge of the musical program at The Layover… selecting DJ’s and live bands, and it looks like he’s got a pretty astounding line-up. Even the house music playing Tuesday night while the band was setting up was super groovy. Can’t wait to check out the Friday night Sure Shot Soul Review (featuring DJ MTM spinning soul, funk, disco, and afrobeat)… again, no cover.

There’s a great article in the East Bay Express: Oakland’s New Layover that highlights more of Zachary’s musical background, as well as the contributions of his other business partners, Tim Martinez & wife Christie Vaughn, in the creation of The Layover.

layover bar in oakland, the layover, interior of the layover

The Layover is located just two blocks from the 19th Street BArt station, the Fox & Paramount Theaters, and a nice little collection of local restaurants: Pho 84, Spice Monkey Cafe, Awaken Cafe‎, and a whole lot more… do check it out!

Dig Cooperative at the Oakland Youth Center

Well… you wouldn’t know it by the late hour of this Monday post, but I worked ALL weekend.  Yes indeed…  I’ve been a busy little bee and I’m excited about a lot of the upcoming posts.  So please stay tuned…

As I mentioned last week, folks are gearing up over at the Oakland Green Youth Media & Arts Center for their big grand opening this week… Thursday, January 14th.  It’s been a whirlwind of activity over there, and even though I’m late jumping on the bandwagon (they’ve been working for literally years to achieve the realization of this center), I won’t be shy about singing their praises.

Thursday of last week was a big day.  Not only did the mural project I’m documenting get underway (Spoiler Alert:  I’m making my first movie!), but a large crew of volunteers, headed up by Tondre of Oakland organization DIG Cooperative, worked furiously to install a community garden behind the Center.

urban garden, oakland youth center garden

The focus of DIG Cooperative is all about water… water-smart homes and water-smart gardens. While speaking to a completely engrossed audience of Oakland youth, Tondre discussed the need for water-wise behavior moving into the future, given that we live in a region whose population is expected to double before then end of the next century.

“The number of people are going to double. But the amount of water is going to stay the same.”

He discussed the healing benefits of green space… the need for a place of peace and quiet, a respite from the onslaught of sensory noise we are subjected to every day in our urban environment. The garden will also contain a sacred altar space to commemorate all of the fallen youth of Oakland, victims of violence.

urban garden, oakland youth center garden

What’s amazing about this garden is how much they are accomplishing in an exceedingly small space. In fact, the entire garden is installed on top of concrete/asphalt in what was once, presumably, a small parking area. I love this. I had to resort to the same sort of creativity in creating a sidewalk garden in my concrete surrounded home in West Oakland… I used recycled wood crates and boxes from Urban Ore as large planters on top of the sidewalk. The Youth Center has set things up similarly with raised beds built out of wood, and even simpler “instant” pop-up planter beds made out of re-purposed plastic bamboo root barrier systems. Genius.

Additionally the garden makes use of aquaponic gardening (a union of aquaculture and hydroponics) through the assistance of Kijiji Grows, a collaborative group of farmers, artists, engineers, builders and educators working to change Bay Area lives through urban sustainable growing systems in schools, homes and businesses. Aquaponics is especially effective in areas with little space or access to healthy soil… the plants are grown without soil, utilizing the organic fertilizer produced by the fish (fish poop!), with minimal water usage, and absolutely no pesticides.  Kijiji’s aquaponic kits make great classroom laboratories, useful for demonstrating principles of math, science, technology, and critical thinking.  They believe their greatest impact can be made in teaching the next generation to be good stewards of the Earth.

The garden installed last week is considered Phase I, and there are extensive plans for Phase II to be accomplished throughout 2010. These include rain catchment and gray water recycling systems, removing the asphalt/concrete and establishing plants in the ground that will repair the health of the soil.

Oakland Green Youth Arts & Media Center

Check out this building…

art in action, green media arts center

Doesn’t look like much… yet.

But in just a couple weeks, we’ll witness the grand opening of the new Oakland Green Youth Arts & Media Center, an outgrowth of the hugely successful Turf Unity Music project operating out of this same space, previously a youth homeless center (Covenant House California).

Turf Unity is a joint project of Cov Records, Art in Action, and Silence the Violence (one of the Ella Baker Center’s campaigns), and initially, the Ella Baker Center offices were transformed into a music studio one weekend each year to house the project. (See my previous post on the Ella Baker Center.) Now Turf Unity has its own year-round location, as do a number of other programs.

The Chronicle featured a short story about the new center earlier this week, titled “Oakland studio tries to put youth on right track“.  It includes a story of one young man, his life affected by gang violence and later transformed through his involvement with Silence the Violence… he’s now the music production manager at the center, “his first real job.” That’s the kind of positive change I’ve been talkin’ about.

The Center has a number of funders, the most prominent being the superstar hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas, through their non-profit initiative the Peapod Foundation. Offering entrepreneurial, vocational, and green job readiness training for youth from historically disadvantaged communities, activities will include leadership development, new media, arts training, music production, community organizing skills, and green job education to Oakland youth between the ages of 18 to 25.

art in action, silence the violence, oakland green youth arts & media center

Five organizations will run out of the new Center:

  • Grind for the Green – committed to moving youth of color from the margins to the epicenter of the environmental movement.
  • Turf Unity Music Project – brings together turf rappers from neighborhoods throughout the Bay Area to promote unity through music, business partnerships, and community action.
  • Colored Ink – a Bay Area Based Hip-Hop Theater Group that uses the Urban Arts to inspire urban communites for social change.
  • Art in Action – committed to building youth leadership for social justice.
  • Community Rejuvenation Project – transforms blighted areas of the community through murals, community clean-up, landscaping & gardening, and community celebrations.

If that last one rings a bell, it’s because I’ve already featured a number of their murals on this site:

You Choose…
Chaos Without ~ Peace Within
May all the beings in all the worlds become Happy…

They’re producing their next mural project on the exterior of the new center, planning to finish for the grand opening party on January 14th.  My plan is to cover this process and highlight a bit more info about CRP, so stay tuned for future posts…

Farley’s East

So coffee is the new buzz in the East Bay… have you seen the cover story in this week’s East Bay Express:  Surfing Coffee’s “Third Wave” by Luke Tsai?  It focuses on the profusion of new coffee connoisseurs setting up shop in the East Bay… Local 123, Sub Rosa, Remedy, and Awaken Café.  To date I’ve been to Sub Rosa (fantastic tiny shop with gorgeous expresso drinks, located next door to Manifesto bike shop and 1234 Go Records on 40th Street) and the Remedy coffee cart serving Ritual Coffee on Telegraph near 44th, run by Todd Spitzer (I went before the cafe was open…it’s open now and is getting rave reviews on Yelp). More on these in future posts…

But today I went to a great spot, sadly not mentioned in the article… Farley’s East.

farley's, farley's east, farley's on grand

I’ve been a big fan of the original Farley‘s since back in the 90’s when I worked full time on Potrero Hill in San Francisco.  Farley’s had fantastic coffee and espresso drinks, an incredible magazine rack featuring unusual art and culture rags, rotating art exhibits, and wonderful eats including just about the best banana bread I’ve ever had.  It was my daily morning ritual.  Luckily, they’ve maintained the quality and the vibe in their East Bay transplant.

art magazines, farley's magazine rack

They’ve got the same great magazine selection, rotating art each month, wonderful food and drinks (today I had a brie/pear/cranberry/walnut panini on the most incredible bread… yum!), and a real spirit of community involvement (their motto is “community in a cup“). They feature a different non-profit each month… this month highlighting the good works of Oaklandish, including a fundraiser held for them in early December.

Please check them out… you won’t be sorry.