Tag Archives: california

stay punk

So I’ve been wed to my bike these last few days because it just so happens that someone made off with my car in the wee hours of the night Sunday night (yes, Oakland does have some problems… but I prefer to focus on the positive).  It hasn’t yet turned up, and may not (sorry Mom!) so in the meantime, I continue to ride.  Which to be honest, when appropriate, is a far superior way to travel.  It’s healthy, non-polluting, low-cost, and helps connect residents with their communities by getting them out of the cars that separate them from the world around them.  Remember Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? I do.

It’s kind of ironic because I was just blathering on and on about all the bicyclists and cycle commuting in Amsterdam and how fantastic it is, and then I come home and someone makes off with my car.  Hmmm.  I said that the universe provides (see Magic Bus post)… what I forgot to say, is be careful what you ask for.

In any case, the City of Oakland is taking great strides to make our city more bicycle friendly, and it is all happening now.  In the past ten years the city has added over 900 bike racks and 87 miles of bicycle lanes and routes.  What’s the difference between a lane and a route you ask? Or a bicycle “path” for that matter (which is another unique designation).  Check out Oakland Public Works’ website where you can read all about them.

And there’s a great little newsletter that comes out quarterly called “I [bicycle] Oakland” which provides the latest information about all things bike related, and how the city is doing with respect to implementing the objectives of its Bicycle Master Plan (2007), which include more than doubling the total current mileage of bicycle friendly byways within the city.

According to this document, 85% of all Oakland residents live within two miles of downtown or a major transit station… which basically equates to a relatively short trip on the bike.  The thing that holds most people back is the lack of safe bikeways…. so that’s where Oakland is putting most of its focus.

As I was riding yesterday, I spotted this piece…  I never would have seen it if I was in my car.

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I recognized the work because this artist had done a similar piece on a building in my neighborhood. The owner promptly painted over it, but not before I got the pic below…
Kind of creepy, but kind of cool. And definitely punk.

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What is Art?

I taught a high school photography class last year at a charter school in Richmond… though most of the kids had cell phones with cameras and were fond of taking quick snaps of each other striking poses, few had been exposed to the idea of photography as art, or even the idea of Art itself.

I put together a handout for them that they begrudgingly plodded their way through, then promptly discarded as they raced out the door at the sound of the bell.  What I realize now is that it was way over their heads.  The idea of Art is a heady one indeed.

The definition I came up with after consulting various sources was this:

“Art is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions.”

There was more to it than that, but that’s it in a nutshell.  And if you agree with that definition, which I personally do, then all kinds of things can be considered Art.  The “elements” one is arranging can be paint, paper, fabric, metal, concrete, words, one’s own body parts, the ingredients of a pie, a pocketful of pennies, plants in a garden, the list is really endless…

And what I’d like to focus on for the next couple of days are the gardens, specifically The Gardens at Lake Merritt. As I mentioned the other day, I truly feel that these are a little known secret that need to be exposed to the world. They’re fantastic and my pictures do not do them justice, as I was there during the not-so-pretty light of the middle of the day and was too lazy to go back and get better pictures later. Sorry.

The Gardens are a seven-acre collection of themed gardens… today we’ll look at the Asian gardens: Bonsai, Torii Gate, and Japanese.

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The Bonsai Garden is Northern California’s only public bonsai collection and is home to over 200 amazing specimens, though they are rotated frequently, so generally around 50 are on display at any given time. This demonstration garden has some rather historic (and artistic) features including the oldest documented bonsai in the United States, as well as many viewing stones (suiseki), a dry waterfall and stream-bed, and an authentic Japanese garden gate (no nails or screws). The garden was developed and continues to be supported exclusively by volunteers and donations, so don’t forget to throw a few bucks in the basket, or better yet, donate some time (contact bonsailakemerritt@gmail.com).

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Just west of the Bonsai Garden is the Torii Gate, a traditional Japanese gate commonly found at the entrance to Shinto shrines; it marks the entrance into a sacred space. The original Torii gate was a gift to the City of Oakland in 1969 from our sister city Fukuoka, Japan. Did you know we had a sister city there?? I didn’t. Fukuoka has many features similar to Oakland… it’s a port city, has a similar moderate climate, experiences occasional earthquakes, and is praised for its green spaces in a modern metropolitan setting.

The gate was rebuilt in 2002 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the sister city relationship by the Oakland Fukuoka Sister City Association (OFSCA), which is dedicated to fostering and promoting cultural awareness, understanding, and friendship between the peoples and cities of Oakland and Fukuoka. For more information, please visit http://www.oakland-fukuoka.org.

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Ok… you still with me?! There’s one more. It’s actually called The Japanese Garden, and is not immediately adjacent to these other two, so you’ll have to do a bit of exploring, but then again, that’s half the fun! The garden was built back in 1959 by members of the Japanese-American community under the direction of designer Hisaichi Tsugawa, and recently received some necessary improvements to the aging gate at the hands of local wood-working artist Jay van Arsdale and many of his students from Laney College. It’s quite lovely… please check it out.

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Grand Lake Love.

So I spent a good chunk of my Saturday meandering around Lake Merritt and the Grand/Lake area… I started at the Farmers Market which is simply awesome and definitely one of my favorite things about Oakland.  It’s a wonderful combination of fresh farm produce & flowers, prepared foods, artisan goods, live music, and more.  They even have a stand with massage therapists & tables ready to ease any remaining work-week stress right out of you!  I made my way to the food court where a great lo-fi funk band was playing… I think they were called Sprocket (not sure about this though).  Check out these little tykes… they were totally groovin’!

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Then I pedaled around the lake… and at 11:45am sharp, the bell tower of The Lady of the Lourdes church (featured last week) started chiming what I believe is a portion of one of Beethoven’s symphonies… it played for several minutes, which I honestly had never heard before. Pretty cool.

As I rounded the next corner, I came upon a group of about 50 people on a lawn section adjacent to the lake, doing the Thriller dance.  Yes, Michael Jackson’s Thriller.  They were doing it without the music, but anyone who knows the video (is there anyone who doesn’t?) knows this dance!  A group of random passerbys (myself included) stopped to gawk and laugh.  It was quite hilarious.

What I’ve since learned, is that this group (and others) are preparing for an attempt at the Guinness World Record for the largest simultaneous worldwide dance to Thriller on October 24th (called Thrill the World).  It’s just a week away folks, so if you want to get in on this ridiculous fun and dress up like a zombie and get down with the funky grooves, there’s one last rehearsal scheduled for this Thursday, October 22nd.  Click here for full rehearsal schedule as well as a link to practice the dance at home.  How can you not love this???

After leaving the zombies-in-training, I parked my bike and spent a lovely time strolling through The Gardens at Lake Merritt. It’s amazing how many people cruise the lake every day – bicycling, pushing their strollers, running their dogs – but how few people know of this gem. Located on the north side of the lake within Lakeside Park, the gardens are comprised of a seven-acre collection of themed gardens. I’ll have more info on this in the next couple of days, and will be focused most of this week on all the cool things that are happening around Lake Merritt. It’s really the heart of our city.

Loma Prieta Earthquake – 20 years later

If you live in the Bay Area, it’s hard to not be aware of the fact that tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake. It was the biggest earthquake in the Bay Area since the “big one” of 1906, and at the time, was the nation’s most expensive natural disaster (now grossly surpassed by Katrina).

I didn’t yet live here in ’89, but I was not far away, living in another earthquake-prone region, Southern California. I remember watching the images on tv… the fires raging through the marina, the collapsed upper deck panel of the Bay Bridge and the car that careened off where its support had once been, and of course, the images of the collapsed Cypress Freeway, built before the 1950’s and the use of modern seismic safety standards. This is where the highest number of fatalities occurred… 42 people on the lower deck were literally crushed to death.

The freeway was rebuilt years later in a different location, further west to provide access to the Port of Oakland, and what now remains where that portion of freeway once was, is the recently redeveloped Mandela Parkway, which I have featured in several other posts. Between 13th and 14th Streets is located Oakland Memorial Park, which is a beautifully rendered tribute to the events of that day.

Here is the actual seismograph from those 15 seconds…

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Designed by April Philips Design Works and artists Gilman and Keefer, the landscape work conveys the waves that moved through the earth that day, with undulating sections of native grasses, and plantings arranged in concentric arcs emanating from the “epicenter,” Story Plaza at the corner of 14th and Mandela. Here, three curved ladders represent both the literal ladders thrown up against the damaged structure that day by local residents to save those trapped within, and the symbolic hope of community spirit rising skyward from the dust of destruction. Excerpts from stories offered by local residents are imprinted into the concrete, such as “When the quake stopped, a rain of concrete dust obscured everything.”

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On this anniversary, it seems fitting to remember that we do live in an earthquake prone region, and it is extremely likely that we will see another earthquake of similar magnitude in our lifetimes. In fact, there is a 62% probability of at least one quake of this size within the next 20 years. This statistic and an incredible wealth of information on the science of earthquakes and what we can do to prepare for them is located at the U.S. Geological Survey’s site “Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country.” Please check it out. Strap those waterheaters. Get your disaster kits together. These things really do make a difference.

And by all means, go visit the Oakland Memorial Park… it’s a lovely spot to sit and remember.