Love the Bay v.2

Bay Station has sail from Alameda on our second Love the Bay multi-day sailing trip/tour of the San Francisco Bay.  Follow along on Facebook and/ Instagram this  Memorial Day Weekend for live broadcasts from our various ports of call.

Memorial Day Weekend  May 25-28 Bay Station Loves the Bay Aboard Espresso, San Francisco Bay SF x Sausalito x Richmond x Alameda

Songwriters in the Round at The Octopus Literary Salon March 16, 2016 with Annie Bacon, Maurice Tani, Matt Langlois and Deborah Crooks

The second of a new series featuring Bay Area and touring music artists. This month features:
Annie Bacon
www.anniebacon.me/
Matt Langlois
http://welcomemattsf.com/
Maurice Tani
www.mauricetani.com/
host Deborah Crooks
www.deborahcrooks.com

The Octopus is a literary salon,* re-interpreted in the 21st Century to engage and entertain readers, writers, musicians, artists of all ages in Uptown Oakland, California. The Octopus Literary Salon includes a most excellent café with delicious food, beer & wine, a small-scale specialty used and new bookstore (we sell used records too!), and a space for public readings and discussions as well as other literary spontaneity and, of course music performance.

Sailstice for the Solstice

Saturday afternoon, we're returning to the big sailing/summer solstice party at Encinal Yacht Club, Sailstice. There's a whole day of  activities planned, including plein air artists, boat building, sailing lessons, and a music stage —which we take to at 3 — at the Encinal Yacht Club.

Saturday, June 21st, 2014

 Summer Sailstice - 10am-6pm

Encinal Yacht Club  

1251 Pacific Marina,  Alameda, CA

About Summer Sailstice
 The Summer Sailstice San Francisco Festival is part of the global holiday of Summer Sailstice. Guided by an organizing committee of sailing organizations and businesses, the Festival intends to be Northern California's largest on-the-water celebration for everyone who loves harnessing wind, water, sun and sails to power their fun. See the feature story on Summer Sailstice SF Festival in Bay Crossings Summer Sailstice was founded in February 2001 by John Arndt, as the global, annual celebration of sailing held on the summer solstice. The annual Summer Sailstice sailing event is free to all participants and has grown from 200 boats signed up in 2001 to well over 4,600 boats today. Since many sailors join in the fun on boats signed up at http://www.summersailstice.com//, the actual number of Summer Sailstice sailors participating is estimated at almost 17,000 annually. 
 "The first rule of sustainability is to align with natural forces, or at least not try to defy them." – Paul Hawken - See more at: http://www.summersailstice.com/sf

BioBlitz! Golden Gate National Parks, CA Friday-Saturday, March 28-29, 2014

LOTS of great events happening this weekend in the Bay Area. On the natural history and biodiversity front, Golden Gate National Parks is holding BioBlitz Festival, March 28-29, a 24-hour species count of the many inhabitants of GGNP. Birds and snakes and who knows what else (oh my!). 
Check it out at Crissy Field, Hawk Hill, Muir Beach and beyond....
"The three national park units that make up the Golden Gate National Parks encompass more than 80,000 acres and 91 miles of shoreline along the northern California coast. These parks are home to an amazing array of biodiversity, including over half of the bird species of North America and nearly one-third of California’s plant species!

To better understand, appreciate, and protect this natural treasure, the National Park Service, National Geographic, Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, and Presidio Trust are teaming up to host a 24-hour BioBlitz species count and two-day Biodiversity Festival, Friday-Saturday, March 28-29, 2014.

BioBlitz 2014 will take place in several national parks, including Muir Woods National Monument, Fort Point National Historic Site, and locations in Golden Gate National Recreation Area including the Giacomini wetlands, Muir Beach, the Marin Headlands, Crissy Field, the Presidio, Mori Point, and Rancho Corral de Tierra.

Part scientific endeavor, part festival, and part outdoor classroom, BioBlitz will bring together more than 300 leading scientists and naturalists from around the country, thousands of local community members of all ages, and more than 2,000 students from across the Bay Area."

Hear more about the Blitz, and how scientists are working year-round to catalog and conserve local biodiversity on KQED's Forum, as host Dave Iverson talked with guests John Francis, biologist and vice president of research, conservation and exploration at National Geographic, and Allen Fish, director of the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy:

Hawk Hill during fall migration 

Spring Forward: The Birds are Back in Town

Driving into Alameda last week, we were pleased to see the local pair of peregrine falcons had resumed their posts at their bridge nest-site.  The annual falcon watch has heated up all over the Bay in recent weeks, as evidenced by the activity on  the WebCams the Santa Cruz Predatory Bird Research Group has installed to keep tabs on the activity of breeding pairs of the once-endangered birds in San Francisco and San Jose.  If you're interested in falcon courtship, breeding and fledging behavior, look no further.  Both SF and SJ pairs produced their first eggs during the past week, with more expected.
"The peregrine falcon is an important indicator species. Its carefully recorded population trends can be instructive about ecosystem health. We closely monitor the occupancy and productivity of peregrine falcons at approximately twenty-five nests in our Greater San Francisco Bay study area, and we band nestlings at a sample of those sites to learn more about the longevity, nest site tenacity, and juvenile dispersal patterns of Central California peregrine falcons. Citizen scientists around the bay report sightings of banded falcons."

Sparing the Air

I've been enjoying a lovely year-end spate of writing, rest and relaxation punctuated by social gatherings and good cheer. Over the weekend, we got out on the boat on a nearly wind-free day to drift more than sail around the Bay. It was gorgeous and quiet and relatively warm. Only thing was a thin layer of smog visible on the horizon. Amid all the year-end revelry and hopeful prognostications for 2014, I've a creeping awareness of how dry its been. While it's been a personally satisfying year, it's also been California's Driest Year on Record. Ouch!
What to do? While your making New Year's resolutions and lists, give some thought to the environment as well.
The Spare the Air site has many resources for how to spare the air every day. Take a look:

• Commute Tips
• At Home
• Garden

Save Our H20is also a good resource for husbanding our precious water resources.

Watch Neil Young - Mother Earth

All the best: Christmas lights

I love Christmas lights of all kinds. Luminarias in New Mexico, small LEDs for wreaths and trees, the lights on the Embarcadero. While large city displays are impressive,  you really can't beat homegrown kitsch which is abounding in the East Bay. If San Francisco loves a parade, Alameda loves a reason to decorate its homes.  And the December holiday season has brought out great profusions of Christmas lights in place of off-the-hook haunted houses and ghoul-bedecked yards. Blinking strands of red, purple and blue lights edge window frames, twinkle from shrubs, swirl over rooftops and generally create a psychedelic experience for night-time drivers traveling certain streets. And then there's the variety of, umm, Christmas-themed statuary. Large inflated Santas, mechanical 'deer' contraptions (that move), Snowman, both painted plastic and constructed of choice round rocks. You can pretty much go anywhere on the island right now and find some interesting light display — there's a lot of small quirky displays that make night-time strolls in our neighborhood that much more rewarding —the place to go (along with a lot of other light lovers) is 'Christmas Tree Lane,' residents of Thompson Ave off of High St have created a true wonderland.

John Prine "All the Best"

Maurice Tani/77 El Deora @ The Freight & Salvage Sunday 8/18/13

If you're wondering what to do with your upcoming Sunday night, do as I am and get yourself, and any self-respecting music-loving friends you have, tickets to Maurice Tani & 77 El Deora at The Freight & Salvage. Maurice is one of those Bay Area treasures who the whole world should really know about (and probably will soon). He writes great songs, he has a killer voice and he knows how to wield a guitar to best effect, whether the song is a rocking honky-tonk number or sensitive ballad. He also is a rare combination of great artist and nice person. Yes, I'm a big fan (Click here to read the interview I did with him three year ago.)

This year, he released not only one, but two, new excellent CDs, Blue Line and Two Stroke. Sunday's show at The Freight (the optimal place in the East Bay to hear this music) is the official release party for those projects. Be there if you can.

From the Press Release:

Wry-to-Romantic American Songwriter Maurice Tani Releases Two New CDs and Plays Freight & Salvage Sunday August 18 @ 8:00 p.m.

DOUBLE CD RELEASE SHOWSan Francisco veteran singer-songwriter Maurice Tani and Freight & Salvage in Berkeley announce a double CD release show on SUNDAY AUGUST 18 at 8:00pm. This show celebrates the simultaneous release of Tani's fourth and fifth albums: a new studio album, “Blue Line”, and “Two Stroke”, an album of acoustic duos and trios with bassist Mike Anderson and a variety of others. 
Sunday, August 18 

Doors 7:00. Concert 8:00.

Freight & Salvage 2020 Addison Street, Berkeley, CA 510 644 2020 

$16.50 advance/ $18.50 door. 

Advance tickets available online or from the Freight & Salvage Box OfficeOr online from ticketfly http://www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/323347

Dinner & a Show, May 13 @ KC Turner's Acoustic Bistro

What is Acoustic Bistro, you ask? Well...Acoustic Bistro is a cool weekly songwriter showcase curated by presenter KC Turner at the lovely Osteria Restaurant in San Francisco. I'm excited to be among three artists performing Monday, May 13, 2013, when I'll alternate the Osteria floor with two other troubadours, San Francisco's Andrew St. James and Pismo Beach artist Spanky.
I'd really love to see you at this gig and raise a glass between sets.
KC Turner Presents Acoustic Bistro @ Osteria
3277 Sacramento St San Francisco, CA
Reservations, call: (415) 771-5030 No Cover. All Ages.

Andrew St James * Deborah Crooks   * Spanky 

Please join us! To guarantee seating please make a reservation today by calling (415) 771-5030. 

3/23 Live @ The Plough & Stars: Secret Town and Deborah Crooks

Last minute-ish add to the March calendar, we'll be playing in support of our friends in Secret Town at SF's favorite Irish pub, The Plough and Stars. Sure it's a week after St. Patrick's day but why let that stop you? Come lift a glass and enjoy live Americana music. Cheers!