Life in Oakland

Friend or Food?

Coming up roses - The original sign had been placed on the lawn before the vote in November 2008, Prop 8 was struck down in court on August 4 of this year.

Now THIS is perverse...sign in the window of Weight Watchers (KFC may have topped them by jumping on the pink ribbon bandwagon a few months back, apparently the Colonel Cares).

Vienna in Oakland...

This post is for Nature's Whispers Sharing Treasures (although possibly these are oddities rather than treasures).

Journeying cards

More cards have been placed. I need to upload the set on TinyTheatre and link, will do so later. This one was placed outside of Trader Joe's, a nearby store. I experimented with cutting and then folding up the face cards after collaging them. Inside Trader Joe's recently:

A 4-year-old coolly informing his mother she was "not his friend". After I had purchased my groceries I observed him swinging, giddy with joy, around a pole while waiting for this same mother to finish her purchases. Today, a sales clerk adding up groceries while incorporating a bit of song and a dance move.

Still hoping to get more people to participate in the Valentine's Day prompt - just leave Valentine's Day wishes for a stranger, as a collage, card, or poem in a place where someone will find it, take a photo of your placement, and I'll link to you February 14. Let me know here or in the comments for the original post if you have done so.

Isn't she lovely, people?

Shortly after I took this photo, the day's sunlight, in the words of James Branch Cabell, "took the last cloud going West" here on the left coast. Above is a photo of a local treasure, built in 1926. The owner, Alan Michaan, has traditionally used one of the four faces of the marquee for advocacy over the years, most recently for the abandonment of electronic voting and the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. On Saturdays, Women in Black (an organization protesting the Occupation of Palestine) faces a Zionist organization on the opposite corner. It's a good time to recall Rodney King's "Can't we all just get along?"

If you like, you can read into the conjunction of words in the photo.

Local Designer

Here you see Cynthia Lloyd in the doorway of her store,Cyzuki Indus-tries, at 4020 Broadway in Oakland. The dress you see in the window has images of Obama silkscreened onto it.Cynthia takes recycled clothes and manufacturer's samples and reworks them into funky but strictly tailored wear for clubbing or just strutting around town. She told me she likes her seams on the outside, because they are harsh. She's just a few doors down from Mama's Royal Cafe, an Oakland institution, and is mostly just open on Saturdays. You can check some of her work out on etsy if you aren't in the neighborhood.  

Edit: Blog title changed due to spam

Grand Avenue Saloon

Here's an image in keeping with the season - black cats on a sign from my neighborhood in Oakland. The Alley is a well-known local watering spot with the piano bar equivalent of Seinfeld's soup Nazi.