Skip to main content

Posts

Mayor Dellums gossip at the Peggy Stinnett Reception

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

Remembering Peggy Stinnett

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

"Hot Pink Feathers" Dance Troupe Comes to Oakland

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

Susan Boyle Released From Hospital; Will Sing For Demi Moore

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

Oaklandish Hosts Salsa By The Lake

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'

The Parkway Theater, Community, Politicians, and Passive Aggression

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

Widgetbox.com - On Widgets and The Web

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

Michael Eric Dyson vs President Obama

Author & commentator Michael Eric Dyson swung through the Bay Area the other day to do a book reading at Oakland's Eastbay Science Church. He came by Hard Knock Radio on KPFA and blew up the spot by talking about his friend President Barack Obam a.. He took him to task on the issue of race and his response to Black folks. Here's what Dyson had to say.

"Save The Parkway Theater" Community Meeting Sunday, May 31st

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! The Parkway Theater's last day of operation was March 22, 2009, and while it seemed this Oakland institution would be a thing of the past, the undying sprit of a group of Oaklanders and the participation of thousands of members of the community (and the World, with former-Oaklanders and current Parkway fans overseas too) have kept the dream of reopening the unique theater alive. In case,you missed the lastest news, Carolyn Jones of The SF Chronicle broke the story of a "midwestern group of investors" called the Motion Picture Heritage Company (MPHC) and their plan to buy the Parkway Theater building from the landlords and revive the movie business that was within it. Patsy Eagan's blog OaklanderOnline tells us the group came to discover the Parkway via the efforts of Parkway Programming Director Will “The Thrill” Viharo, who presented the I Like the Parkway site to Bill Dever, the representati

Sotomayor's Life Experience Is To Be Celebrated - By William Wong

William Wong With President Obama’s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the U.S. Supreme Court, we are hearing from certain quarters (Republicans, conservatives, some white guys) complaints about the judge’s invocation of her Puerto Rican cultural heritage as an important part of who she is and why she might make a good Supreme Court Justice. Moreover, President Obama made a big deal of Judge Sotomayor’s personal story, along with her stellar legal credentials, when he announced her nomination to the nation’s highest court. This matter of her cultural heritage and background – as well as the fact that she is a woman – re-animates a continuing debate in America about power and equal opportunity. It’s often labeled “identity politics,” which is a battering ram in the quarters that are whining about Judge Sotomayor’s invocation of her cultural heritage to pummel those of us from the historic margins of American life – women, and non-white ethnic minorities. Frankly, I’ve wearied

For the Love of Marriage and the Hatred of Gays

// For the Love of Marriage and the Hatred of Gays By Davey D I am always amazed at the type of excuses one makes and the type of reverting to hate that one takes when it comes to the issue of homosexuality and in recent days Gay Marriage. Over the past year since Prop 8 was introduced on the California ballot, outlawing Gay Marriage, but worded in such a way as to let people think they were 'protecting marriage' I have had more than my fair share of spirited discussions that have resulted in one too many people screaming and shouting and really getting bent out of shape. The usual argument that's put forth is one steeped in religion. People wanna quote Leviticus , Mark, Romans and every other book as if a few quotes from the Bible should suddenly be the final word when they themselves have ignored the demands of those quotesthat apply specifically to them and their own behavior before and after the passages that referred to man sleeping with man. I tell you its

The California Supreme Court's Illogical Prop 8 Decision

  More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! On YouTube Tuesday, May 26, 2009 will go down as an eventful San Francisco day, sunny, and yet dark, and one that saw a lot of people marginalized who didn’t want to be. But then, who does. Before I turn to who said what, and who got arrested, I stick my head right into the belly of the beast, the California Supreme Court’s decision. Today, in first upholding Proposition 8, the voter-approved initiative to make same-sex marriage illegal that passed in November 2008, and yet protecting the 18,000 same-sex marriages that were done before the passage of the initiative, the California Supreme Court successfully stood logic on its head. I’ve just read the Court’s entire 167-page decision, and while I understand the reasons given by the majority of justices (six supporting the decision, one against it and even then the six judges that agreed were not perfect in their union) I’m concerned with the logic behind t

Happy Memorial Day! Thank A Soldier Today

  More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! YouTube , Yahoo , MySpace , Metacafe , DailyMotion , Blip.tv , StupidVideos , Sclipo and Viddler I went to my stepfather's burial place today. Even though I was really ill, I forced myself to go and place flowers at his grave site as I've made it a habit to visit him on Memorial Day each year. He fought in World War II. But this time, I took my biological father's burial flag with me. Both my father and stepfather died in 2005. To some who are anti-war, the title of this video-blog will upset them. It should not. I'm against war and always have been, but the reality of my life is that both my late father and stepfather fought in World War II, and in my father's case, Zenophon Abraham of is his name (he lives in Chicago), I am the proud owner of his neatly folded burial flag and two bullets wrapped in them. I've never unraveled it. Chester Harding Yerger III of Oakland is my

Rosie Rios May Be U.S. Treasurer; Former Oakland Economic Development Head

  More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget!   Rosie Rios, who was one famously known as the economic development division head sacked by then-Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown in 2003 as part of a "great purge" of Oakland economic development officials friendly to then-City Manager Robert Bobb's support of a downtown Oakland baseball stadium, has resurfaced in an excellent way this year as the person selected by President Barack Obama to be the United States Treasurer, subject to Senate confirmation. The U.S. Treasurer reports to the Secretary of The Treasury Tim Geithner on matters of coinage, currency circulation, and related issues, but her signature also will appear on U.S. currency. In 2001, Rios was appointed Director of the Oakland Economic Development and Redevelopment Divisions   by then-Oakland Redevelopment Agency head Bill Claggett.  Before her stint with Oakland, Rios served as an excellent and well-regarded economic development direc