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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...