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Will Viharo of Parkway Theater fame has a new effort to have the Mai Tai named the official drink of Oakland . So far he reportedly has At Large Oakland Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan on board. Why? Because it's true! Vic Bergeron invented the original Mai Tai recipe at his Oakland restaurant (Trader Vic's, formerly Hinky Dink's) in 1944, as he plainly states here. Now it's a grassroots movement, spearheaded by Mano Thanos, co-owner of The Conga Lounge in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland (for which I do freelance PR, along with Forbidden Island of Alameda.)   Ok. I'm in support of this; why not?

This is from chefunk on YouTube posted today and it's classic. Local Laker fans singing "We are the champions!" at George and Walts on College Avenue Sunday.

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! YouTube , Yahoo , MySpace , Metacafe , Blip.tv , Sclipo and Viddler Iran held its national election process to select its next president on Friday, June 12th. With all the televised demonstrations and Internet buzz it was logical to believe Iran's current leader, the not-well-liked President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , would be beaten by his progressive challenger Mr. Hossein Mousavi. Indeed, late on Friday in America, some reports were that Mousavi was on pace to upset Ahmadinejad considering the vote count. But by Saturday that was not to be; the Iranian Elections Commission annouced that Ahmadinejad was the winner with 62.6 percent of the popular vote compared to 33.75 percent for Mousavi.   Did he really win?    The outcome upset many who believed it was rigged and caused violent street protests that are still going on as of this writing on Sunday ( Twitter is the best place to keep up with the devel

From yellowpages on YouTube - 701 Clay St Oakland, CA 94607 (510) 451-2450 - Hungry for some carne asada? Craving a margarita? Satisfy your palate and your hunger at the original Mexicali Rose Restaurant in Oakland, California. Serving authentic Mexican dishes and drinks since 1927, this family-owned restaurant makes a great place for family and friends to gather and celebrate a special day. Call for catering.

From linuxguru1968 on YouTube - http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/0... Investigators confirmed Tuesday that a body a prominent software engineer led them to is, in fact, that of the estranged wife he was about to be sentenced for killing, pulling closer together the final pieces of a murder mystery. Hans Reiser was convicted in April of first-degree murder even though Nina Reiser's body had not been found. Reiser, 44, showed police the body in exchange for the possibility of a lighter sentence, prosecutor Paul Hora said. The deal would allow Reiser to plead guilty to second-degree murder, providing for a lighter sentence, but deny him the right to appeal. It still must be approved by a judge and was made with the support of Nina Reiser's relatives, Hora said. "Now the family gets to pick the burial site, not the defendant," Hora said. Dental records, jewelry and clothing helped confirm the woman's identity, police said. The cause of her death is still being inv

By BlackKingMusic on YouTube.com

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! Who's minding the Guv's tweets? California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the target of comedian Ellen DeGeneres Twitter and email-based campaign to stop his proposal to reduce the time animals are kept in shelters from six days to three days, answered DeGeneres on Twitter today: @ TheEllenShow We are eliminating funding but shelters determine time before euthanization. about 12 hours ago from web       @ TheEllenShow We can only spend money we have and can't afford many programs, for example, health care for children. about 12 hours ago from web       Basically the Guv's claim is shelters themselves make the timing decision, but that's passing the buck, really. The bottom line is the reduced funding would almost certainly cause such a lowering of time, which is what outrages Ellen and many who've been informed of Schwarzenegger's proposal. But what's got me really tw

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! In just less than an hour ago, comedian Ellen DeGeneres has started a Twitter / email campaign informing her 1.9 million Twitter followers to email California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger en masse in an effort to stop him from reducing the time animals are kept in shelters from six days to three days. Important: Tell Gov. Arnold not to limit time animals are kept in shelters from 6 days to 3. Email him: http://www.gov.ca.gov Pass it on.   In other words, what the Governor's proposing is that an animal that currently has just six days time in an animal shelter before it is sentenced to death by euthanasia would have only three days time if the Guv gets his reported wish, which, as Franny Syufy informs us on her blog is ... barely time for owners to discover their cat missing, track him down to a local shelter, then arrange for his release. Why the Governors' people decided to pick on defenseless a

In today's SF Chronicle, Chip Johnson explains that the City of Oakland is considering a number of solutions to the estimated $100 million budget shortfall, just not the ones Mayor Ron Dellums has suggested, like borrowing $24 million from the city's reserves. I'm surprised the Oakland Redevelopment Agency Budget's not a target for borrowing. Hmmm..

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! The "Save The Parkway Theater" movement, once a seemingly happy collection of like-minded Oaklanders, has rapidly degenerated into the same kind of feckless factionalization that's doomed the effort to keep the Athletics baseball team in Oakland. Yes, once again, we have groups that don't talk to each other and with different agendas and a common problem: a lack of leadership from the elected officials involved. In the case of the Athletics , it was Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums (until he began to really insert himself into the process and call for meetings) and now it's Oakland's District Two Councilmember Pat Kernighan. (A bit of housecleaning: I like Pat; I really do. Always have. But I don't like the way she handles community controversy and this is an example.) Four Factions When the Parkway Speakeasy Theater closed after its last show on March 22nd 2009, a rag-tag group of

From amkniss1 on YouTube - Fight breaks out at an Oakland beauty salon.

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! Ok. As of this writing I have over 3,500 Twitter followers . Normally one follows those with more Twitter followers, unless the Twitter account has quality Twitterers following them; that's true for me. I've learned that such a position attracts the larger Twitterers, like Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger , who has over 200,000 Twitter followers himself. Now, he's following me! What? You've got issues with him? Hey, it's Ahhhold, baby! Yah know? Of course I followed him back, which means we're Twitter friends. Very cool. A pipeline to California's governor who has a pipeline to this blogger - nothing to sneeze at. It's prized. It doesn't mean I voted for his initiatives in the last election; I didn't. But truth be told I voted for him twice in the California gubenatorial races starting in 2002. Why? Because as a Dem, I felt the California Democrats needed a shakeup,

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! Tuesday morning's funeral for the late Oakland Tribune columnist Peggy Stinnett was sad as one could understand just how much a part of the soul of Oakland she was by listening to the words spoken about her. As if to underscore that, a number of Oakland's long-time journalists were there, especially people from the Tribune staff both former and current, like sportswriter Dave Newhouse and Oakland Historic Preservation expert Annalee Allen. Oakland Post Editor Paul Cobb, a friend of the Stinnett family for 45 years, gave an excellent speech worthy of posting here when I can get a copy of it. (I asked) And there were a good share of politicos there, lead by Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates and former Oakland City Manager Henry Gardner. As one can imagine with this assembly of people there was more than the usual talk about what's happening in Oakland. A few people I kibitzed with at the reception following

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! On YouTube.com This morning, I'm attending a funeral for my friend Oakland Tribune Columnist Peggy Stinnett at Our Lady of The Lourdes Church at 2809 Lakeshore here in Oakland. I think I'll walk and remember Peggy as I do. This is hard as it's the fifth funeral of a friend or family member this year and it's just June. Too much for me. At any rate, I met Peggy in late 1993 at the Lakeside Park Garden Center on 666 Bellevue Avenue next to Lake Merritt. I kid you not; that's the address. The Oakland City Council meetings were there because the City Hall was being rebuilt after considerable damage due to the Loma Piereta Earthquake in 1989. But the Garden Center, with its small size litterally brought everyone close together and made for a kind of government / community togetherness not seen since. Peggy was at the center of it. The dean of Oakland Columnists. We'd get together

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! On the first Saturday of each month, Cafe Van Kleef, a great and funky hangout at 1621 Telegraph in downtown Oakland, features a dance group called The Hot Pink Feathers. It's a San Francisco-based group of women who claim to be the world's premiere samba burlesque dance troupe. I'm not arguing with them. These San Francisco-based dancers are... "spreading the glitter gospel across the globe with their exuberant extravangzas.  From family friendly to all-out risque revues, the Feathers entertainment themes range from Brazilian Carnaval, New Orleans Mardi Gras, French Can Can, Gypsy Cabaret, Tropical Sambafest, to Bawdy Bollywood and beyond." They dance to the music of an Oakland-based band called "Blue Bone Express" and in the hottest outfits anyone's ever seen.  Peter Van Kleef himself raves about them to anyone who will listen; I should know.  They do pack the h

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! Susan Boyle , who's set to perform for President Barack Obama , has been released from Priory Clinic in London , where she was treated for emotional exhaustion, and has been offered $30,000 to sing at Demi Moore's wedding anniversary event in Los Angeles (hey, I thought hubby Ashton Kutcher was supposed to plan this?). At any rate the American offers are starting to pop up for Boyle. Meanwhile, Britain's Got Talent judge Amanda Holden said on Larry King Live on Tuesday of this week, that the show was not at fault for Boyle's problems stating that the contestants are all "extraordinarily well looked after." Are you kidding me? Really, Amanda? So why did this happen if that's so? Moreover, I don't think Holden would have come on King's show were it not to do damage control regarding Boyle's horrible treatment. I still think she should have quit early and I said so h

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! On Sunday, I was headed to the Parkway Theater Community Meeting when I noticed this group of 40 people Salsa dancing in the Splash Pad Park in front of the Grand Lake Theater and near Lake Merritt here in Oakland. So I talked to Imogine of Oaklandish who was one of the producers of the event called "Salsa By The Lake". She said they normally they normally hold the event under the greek columns at the Lake, but construction prevented them from holding their normal dance gathering so they moved to the park in front of the Grand Lake Theater. The result was a blast of a gathering! I have to say it was just plain fun and by 5 PM the gathering grew to about 400 people dancing and in some cases just watching. And I was one of them. Truth be told, my Salsa skills need work, but I can move my hips all day and guide my partner to a fair degree. A friend saw me, came over from behind, and said "You'

I attended the Sunday Community meeting held at Rooz Cafe on Park Avenue by the "I Love The Parkway Theater" group of concerned citizens and by all accounts it was successful. Even Oakland Councilmember and mayoral candidate Jean Quan, who's in District One, not District Two, which is Pat Kernighan's and where the Parkway Theater is located, was there and talking (she didn't mention she was running for mayor to her credit). But there's a little weirdness going on I've got to address. I'm editing the video from the event so I'm not going to spill the beans on the event here in its entirety, but I'm taking time this night - as movie mogul Peter Gurber in a conversation with Cameron Diaz on his cool talk-show "Storymakers" with Variety's Peter Bart says "privacy is gone" to her regarding the Internet and celebrity - to write that there are no secrets in community issues, so why do some people act like there are in the

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! YouTube , Yahoo , MySpace , DailyMotion , Blip.tv , StupidVideos , Sclipo and Viddler Widgets are identified as the next hot "app" by many in the digital media industry, and from an upcoming video episode of "The Blog Report With Zennie62" created by Producer Sierra Choi, widgets were the talk of the Digital Hollywood conference in Santa Monica. But what are widgets? Why are they important? I recently had the pleasure of visting San Francisco-based Widgetbox.com . There, I talked with Ryan Spoon, the Vice President of Marketing for the company, a visit faciliated by my friend Steve Kloft, a Widgetbox consultant whom I call "The Legendary Steve Kloft" for his Internet marketing exploits. Our interview, captured in full in the video that accompanies this blog, was aimed for those who've never heard of "widgets" and don't know what they do. And after our tal