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The majestic Fox Oakland Theater reopened with a bang as a lavish gala was held February 5th. The event featured "everything 40s": people dressed in vintage wear. It was Oakland's coming out party.

bbb_0279 , originally uploaded by Mike Rosati Photography . This photo by Mike Rosati Photography captures both the beauty and the size of the main room of the Fox Oakland Theater on Gala Opening Night.

smokers , originally uploaded by chuchi carmelo .

deco belle , originally uploaded by chuchi carmelo .

Fox Theater , originally uploaded by Lucky † 13 .

Pat Dedekian's "Thank You, We Did It" Speech , originally uploaded by kwikway .

Tagami's Fox Project Team Takes a Bow , originally uploaded by kwikway . This was but one of the many great scenes at this terrific event!  The Oakland Fox construction team is on the stage of the building they brought back to life with Phil Tagami of California Commercial Investments introducing them.  Congrats to all including Tagami, Jeff Chew of the Community and Economic Development Agency, The Friends of The Oakand Fox Theater, and our videos -- lots of material -- will start here on Sunday.    The Gala was a complete blast. 

I wrote a blog post over at Zennie62 that I urge you to read.  You can understand the real nature of the compromise bill that's passing the Senate.  Click: Zennie62 on Economic Recovery Act  .

More at SF Gate : “(02-06) 16:48 PST DUBLIN -- Johannes Mehserle, the former BART police officer accused of murder in the Jan. 1 shooting death of an unarmed man on the Fruitvale Station platform in Oakland, was released this afternoon on $3 million bail, authorities said. Mehserle, 27, posted bail at 3:45 p.m. and was released from Santa Rita Jail without incident, the Alameda County Sheriff's Department said.”

More at Oakland Tribune : “Oakland's Fox Theater, the 81-year-old grand dame of a movie palace, born at the start of Hollywood's Golden Age, is back in business. The downtown theater, closed since 1970, will host a $250-a-ticket reopening gala at 7 tonight (the show is sold out). Then on Friday, the venue will swing open its doors to the general public as it presents legendary SoCal punk band Social Distortion in concert. Thirteen other shows already have been booked for the Fox, including Michael Franti and Spearhead on Saturday, Modest Mouse on Feb. 22 and B.B. King on April 16. The musical acts will be only part of the draw for concertgoers. Some will come out of curiosity, for the chance to finally see the result of the $75 million restoration project. What they'll see should surpass all expectations, a theater that arguably is as grand and gorgeous as any in the nation. "Everyone who has put their blood, sweat and tears into this project can feel so proud in what

Rachel (Sears) Casanta is a Professional Triathlete and Coach based in Richmond, California. Rachel's also my friend and someone my company Sports Business Simulations has sponsored since 2003. She's available for fitness / triathlete coaching via the website http://www.hypercatracing.com

This is right out of the small world file. I happened by accident to be sitting next to a friend of Renetto, one of the first "big" vloggers, or vloggers who got big, at Gaylord's Cafe in Oakland today. But we were talking about how small the world is, so I put it on video! What we talked about as well was the small world of video-bloggers and how much enormous potential the industry -- I can call it that -- has. We also talked about the ways vloggers were trying to improve the way community is developed among vloggers online and offline.

In this video I share what the day of the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of The United States means to me, set to music - a piece called "ritual".

At the press conference explaining the settlement between the City of Oakland and the Oakland Housing Authority I talked with District 2 Councilmember Pat Kernighan about Oakland's Economic Crisis. In our talk, she explained that $38 million was cut from the budget, but that she expects to see a shortfall of about $50 million by the spring of 2009. She explains there was "no choice" in the cutting decisions that were made. Either layoff people or everyone takes a paycut. They opted for the latter. On a happy note, we talked about how Lakeshore had revived, the Grand Lake Market on Saturdays as well as Trader Joe's and the number of new restaurants opening in downtown Oakland. This talk was before the BART shooting, as a note.

I talked with Oakland District 3 Councilmember Nancy Nadel at the BART Shooting Community meeting held January 8th 2009. Here, Nadel expresses her concern about the use of police "deadly force" on people of color.

Comcast Cable has enjoyed a long standing franchise agreement in Oakland, which is why it seems every apartment has the service at the exclusion of any alternative.  That monopolistic setup has led to some very bad behavior on the part of the cable giant.   For example, Comcast has a system where if one is late for a payment, then pays it to get current, they still count a penalty charge for the number of days the payment was late, which is charged on top of what is owed but does not show up until months later.   In other words, you could late pay, think your bill is current, then three months later be informed that you still owe them for past months, even if you thought and they told you that you were current. It's a very weird billing system that does not serve customers well and could cause customers to think Comcast was scamming them.   That's why I stopped Comcast and went to satellite service.  I'm of the view that I should not have to pay to get a communication

This story below reminds me -- in a remote way -- of a small but disturbing matter that happened at Cafe Van Kleef and to me. I was talking to a couple of fellow Cal grad friends who were both white and female when I made a motion that accidentally bumped into this person as he walked by. No big deal, to me. But this guy said "That was intentional" and after I said it wasn't and he was reacting weirdly, then said "It's reverse discrimination in Oakland" -- he was White. I told him to go away as that was sick. This matter r eported in the Sf Chronicle is worse: (02-01) 18:40 PST -- Brandon Manning says he never saw it coming. One minute he was hanging out with seven seemingly friendly guys in a park, the next he said he was on the ground, the blows coming from all sides, a fist or foot landing hard enough to fracture six bones in his face. But it was the words accompanying the blows that made Manning, 24, think he was about to die. &q

The iReport at CNN team wants to know what my do-over-day would be. Well, the one I was thinking of, when I -- as Chairman -- wrote an email to the board of the Oakland Super Bowl Bidding Committee.

My friend Michael McGuire passed away of a sudden heart attack Saturday night January 24th. The Berkeley High and U.C. Berkeley grad was just 46 years old and lived in Berkeley. The funeral services for Michael McGuire on Wednesday February 4, 2009. Here's the full schedule of events. Public Viewing Fouche's Hudson Funeral Home 3665 Telegraph Avenue Oakland, CA. 94609 510 654 8558 Tuesday - 2/3/09 12noon - 5:00pm Funeral Services for Michael McGuire on Wednesday February 4, 2009 The Church By the Side of the Road 2108 Russell Street Berkeley, CA. 94705 510- 644-0954 Viewing/Visitation 11am - 12pm Service 12noon - 1:00pm Repast 1pm - 2pm Directions: The church is near Shattuck and Ashby Avenues. The most recognizable Street is Ashby Avenue. Russell Street is one block North of Ashby Avenue, and the church is one block east of Shattuck Avenue. If you need additional information feel free to call 510 326 0093 or

This Channel 5 Video shows the report of the out come of the BART Shooting bail hearing for Johannes Mesherle and the reaction of protestors. I understand there's another protest planned for Friday of this week, but that's not certain. It's just rumor.