Video

Nieves Cinco de Mayo serves up corn, cactus and rose petal ice cream

Tucked away inside a little market in Fruitvale Village is a small counter-service-only ice cream shop called Nieves Cinco de Mayo. Draped on the wall is a Mexican flag and strings of colorful tissue paper cut into intricate patterns hang from the ceiling. A big chalkboard displays which ice cream flavors are on the menu for the day: corn, spearmint, lemon cream, eggnog, rose petal, cheese and more.

Children of all ages attend annual Old Fashioned Easter Egg Hunt

Though Saturday ended with rainfall, the early afternoon hours were sunny and the perfect weather for this year’s annual Old Fashioned Egg Hunt & Games at Dunsmuir Hellman Historic Estate. Children of all ages roamed the meadow in search of Easter eggs (which they later traded in for Pixy Stix and chocolate), had their face painted, and took a ride on the ponies.

Oakland energy company to sell locally-made biodiesel

Beginning on Earth Day, April 22, Bay Area truck drivers will have a new place to buy locally-made biodiesel. Sirona Fuels, an Oakland-based energy company, has been selling diesel made from recycled cooking oil to retailers and distributors for the past two years. Now it has opened its doors to the public.

Habitat build-a-thon hammers out new homes

Volunteers from all over the Bay Area kicked off Earth Day weekend by participating in a Habitat for Humanity East Bay Build-a-thon. By the end of the four-day event, eight new homes in the Tassafaronga Village on 81st Avenue in East Oakland will be framed.

Earth Day starts early in Oakland with murals, gardens and weeding

This past weekend, Oakland celebrated Earth Day a bit early with 79 volunteer sites set up all around the city. We were out gathering photos, but we couldn’t be everywhere, so send your Earth Day pictures to lillian.mongeau@oaklandnorth.net and we’ll publish them in our second annual community photo slideshow on the “official” Earth Day, Friday, April 22.

Artists find inspiration in lingerie-clad models at Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School

Burlesque dancers in Oakland now have a new way of showing off their fishnet stockings and sexy lingerie—as models for Dr. Sketchy’s Anti-Art School, an international alternative drawing movement. The East Bay branch of Dr. Sketchy’s had its premiere event Saturday afternoon at Layover Lounge, where more than a dozen artists—and even those who were a bit artistically-challenged—gathered to sketch three members of the local dance troupe, the Can-Cannibals.