Culture

There’s something about waiting rooms; all that time and nothing to do but listen to the radio love songs and read trashy magazines. It leads to speculation—about men, life, student loans and bunny-killing felines. Or at least that was the scene in the waiting room of the VCA Animal Hospital, which is on 45th and Shattuck, at 9 am. “Do you guys treat chickens?” said a woman in a bright pink sweater and black body warmer. “No, we don’t here,”…

It was 9 a.m. on a November day in 2009, but Golden Gate Donuts seemed to be stuck in a 1970’s time warp. The orange tiled floor, the faux-wood wall paneling, and the brown Formica benches felt like a set from the sitcom Happy Days, and less like a modern-day donut shop in North Oakland. The steam from a glass coffee pot swirled upward as it slowly evaporated, and a tall glass case filled with every kind of donut imaginable…

We met Wednesday at 9:08 AM in the Office of the Mayor’s greeting room, just beyond the iron and glass Art Deco-like divide separating the mayoral cluster of offices and conference rooms from the rest of City Hall’s third floor. One of the bulbs was out in the hexagonal light fixture that looked like beeswax forty feet above the room’s lone cherry wood desk. Below, the office manager pounded on her stapler about once a minute. The room was quiet…

Neither the pies nor the woman upon whom a royal appellation was bestowed for making them is in evidence at Lois the Pie Queen at 9 a.m. this Wednesday morning. That’s no surprise—Lois died many years ago, and everybody knows her granddaughter Margot now makes the pies. Her dad Chris, Lois’ son, runs the joint at the confluence of 60th, Adeline and Genoa streets on the dilapidated fringe of northern/western Oakland near the Emeryville and Berkeley borders. Tempting as the…

When I walk into the North Oakland branch Post Office at 8:56, I immediately take stock of my surroundings and stake out a post from which I might best accomplish my mission. I choose a blond-colored wooden bench alongside the main entrance where there’s a good view of the lobby. My not-so-covert objective is to observe and record the scene here in the Post Office this fine Wednesday morning. The beige-colored Post Office takes up the corner at the Shattuck…

The tall, courteous bartender leaned over to listen as two young costumers unburdened their love troubles. By the look of them, you’d guess they had been drinking all night. The one with shorter hair and glassier eyes complained about a woman who had just moved in with him. “She’s straight out of Utah,” he slurred, meaningfully. His drinking companion nodded. “She’s having issues with it.” “She wants to marry you?” the bartender asked. The other man laughed, poking fun at…

Tuesday was Kiko Hernandez’s 36th birthday. For the occasion, loved ones gathered at his place, showering him with gifts, flowers and balloons. Like many with a late fall/early winter birthday, his birthday celebration coincided with the approach of Christmas, and so a Christmas tree was placed thoughtfully at the center of the collection of gifts. By all indications, Hernadez’s friends and family threw him a wonderful party—and if Hernandez had been alive to see it, he might have told them…