Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

  More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! Have you ever walked by a group doing something interesting and yet never stopped to, or perhaps feared to, inquire what they were doing?  If so, this video-blog is for you .  I'm in Georgia as I write this and visiting my Mom, but two Saturdays ago I saw a YouTube video of people playing drums under the "Columns" at Lake Merritt in Oakland, where I live for those of you reading this in, er, Japan.  I said to myself, and wrote on the Oakland Focus Blog , that if I ever encountered that group I was going to have my camera at the ready and interview them (if they let me of course). Well that's what I did on that Saturday morning.  The group is called "Emeryville Taiko" at www.etaiko.org , and as Sensei Susan Horn informs us in the video, they were located in Emeryville, but are now at 27th and Harrison St, near the Whole Foods Market and near Lake Merritt.   But on Saturday's they have this Taiko...

The 55,000 square-foot Whole Foods Market has just opened today at 27th and Harrison and brings good news and the promise of reviatalization to an area that has been waiting for both for too long. I was given a tour of the new place one day before its opening by Jolyn Bibb, Marketing Specialist of Store Openings for Whole Foods. While the video shows the store and what Jolyn said, I can tell you its quite a place to be in. A breath of fresh air. There's an official opening today which begins with a "Bread and Baking" ceremony at 8:45 am before the doors open at 9 AM. Through the day there will be music, food samples, and a guest appearance by famous local chef Paul Bertolli. Plus, reusable Whole Foods Market Green Bags will be given to the first 5,000 customers with a purchase of $15 or more, and a raffle for a giant gift basket filled with a variety of products. There's a lot of food stations in this facility as well. There's something called a dine-i...