Culture

video by CLARE MAJOR Oct. 14 — Scary was fun at Children’s Hospital Oakland this afternoon. At a costume party, sponsored by national retailer Spirit Halloween, the kids decorated pumpkins and played games. Donations collected at Spirit Halloween stores will be presented to hospitals around the country, including Children’s Hospital Oakland, in early December.

Video by MARTIN RICARD Every week, young adults and the young at heart gather at the Rockridge BART station to play one of the most hallowed of playground games: four-square. With cars and trains zooming by above, the group — known as 4 Square of the East Bay — takes over a row of parking spaces, sharing the lot with medieval sword fighters and bike polo players, to compete for fun and for camaraderie.

story and audio slides by KRISTINE WONG and BAGASSI KOURA Thousands of fans packed Oracle Arena to cheer on six church choirs vying for a spot in the finals of “How Sweet the Sound,” a competition for the best church choir in the country. As the choirs sung, shimmied, and swayed their way through the evening, the groundswell of music moved the multigenerational crowd to clap, dance, and raise their hands in devotion.

Story and audio slides by MARTIN RICARD It was a little after 7 p.m. on a recent Monday night at Eli’s Mile High Club, and a slow, celestial song by the British space rock group The Telescopes was blasting over the speakers to an empty room. Jason Herbers, the assistant to Eli’s owner, who manages the day-to-day operations of the club, was visibly frustrated by the lack of customers as he strolled back and forth throughout the place.

by MAGGIE FAZELI FARD Oct. 12–If crab legs and butter sauce are a match made in heaven, consider the annual Crabby Chef competition the ultimate home-wrecker. Hosted every year by Spenger’s Fresh Fish Grotto in Berkeley, the Iron Chef-style fundraiser has paired King Crab’s sweet, succulent legs with surprising mistresses like papaya and pumpkin for the past eight years. This year was no different, as Spenger’s drew a large crowd today, eager to ring in the start of California’s crab…

By SAMSON REINY BERKELEY, Oct. 14 –- With the financial markets in ruin and the economy at a near stand-still, people are looking for a break.  And perhaps, more than ever, they need a good laugh. So when Sony, who owns the syndication rights to the hit TV sitcom “Seinfeld,” teamed up with a New York-based volunteer-recruitment organization to bring its Seinfeld Campus Tour to universities and malls across the country, the partnership seemed complimentary.

After a $10 million renovation, North Oakland’s reopened Studio One is still waiting for the community to come back at full strength. Click here for the story and a historic timeline of the century-old building.

On Sept. 28, the annual “Out and About” street fair turned central Rockridge into one giant fashion show, food fair, and babystrollers convention. Video by CHRISTINA SALERNO and HENRY JONES.

story, photos and video by KRISTINE WONG At the Piedmont Pumpkin Patch, Halloween is serious business.  Patch owner Jon Goldstein has stocked his grounds,  near the corner of Piedmont and Pleasant Valley Avenues, with 15 types of pumpkins and an eclectic assortment of decorations and paraphernalia — and created a haunted house to boot.