Community
North Oaklanders came out Saturday, Feb 21, for the first ever 40th Street corridor Art Quest. There were raffle prizes, great art, and a fun night exploring the neighborhood for everyone who came out.
The patient, a gray-haired grandmother of 75, is unabashedly hitting on her twenty-something male nurse. “What are you going to do to me today?” she says coquettishly. “I’m going to start by taking your vitals, ” he says, trying to quash the flirtation. She cocks her head and flutters her eyelashes. “I think I’m going to need a bath.”
Eric Lyngen, co-owner of The Book Zoo, knows why some people let books take over their lives.
Tamara Arroyo, a young woman with her hair in a ponytail, pulled up the corners of the two cards she’d been dealt, an ace and a jack, and then looked at her dwindling pile of chips. With a gleam in her eyes and a slight smile, she obviously did not know the meaning of a poker face. On the table lay two jacks, a queen, and a king. The dealer dealt the final card-an ace. She cleaned up.
Sunrise Bookshop, an oasis of crystals and sutras in troubled times.
Eric Lyngen, the owner of Book Zoo on Telegraph Avenue, talks about the mania and the business of book collecting.
Last Friday, I went to an awesome Zydeco show at The Just Dance Ballroom. They welcomed Cedryl Ballou and Corey Ledet for a really great show that got everyone’s feet movin’. This was one show in a weekly series of live Zydeco shows at The Just Dance studio. It is just one of the many styles of dance they offer lessons in to cater to anyone’s style and speed. (http://www.justdanceballroom.com/) Special thanks to Louisiana Sue who has the best…
Public art works in Oakland live the good life. While city-commissioned sculptures and murals in San Jose and San Francisco have been targets of graffiti and vandalism, curators working in Oakland’s public arts program say that here, people are mostly content to admire public art without adding their own editorial flair. But even though passersby aren’t a problem, there is another threat lurking the streets.
By Huda Ahmed/Oakland North When I knocked on the door of an apartment building in East Oakland, a woman’s voice nervously asked who I was. The voice belonged to a 45-year-old woman who wishes to be identified only as S. Mohamad because she fears prosecution in her native Iraq; she is a former radiologist who came here as a refugee three months ago along with her husband and their three children. She hid behind the door because she was without…