I ♥ The East Bay Postcard

photo by Howard Ignatius

The more I get to know it and live here, I really do ♥ The East Bay. AOakland is having a renaissance, with new venues downtown, new restaurants, and a general sense of 'yeah!'  

Out and about last weekend, we happened on some new favorites:

 

Easy Creole: We noticed Easy, a Creole food place on Alcatraz near MLK, after a vintage shopping expedition to Empress Vintage. Easy boasts a NOLA inspired menu of soups, stews and chiles, catering equally to vegans, vegetarians and meat eaters. Everything comes with rice, the cornbread is GF and the row of community tables amply supplied with hot sauces of every stripe. Good grub, big portions, affordable, hip vibe...easy. Empress Vintage is  small but carefully curated collection of 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s dresses, skirts, shirts and pants for men and women. Plus jewelry a few fun items from Homestead Apothecary, an oasis of herbal medicine, botanical inspired art, class and more in the uber hip Temescal Alley.
And if you feel like celebrating the East Bay, you might check out the Eastlake Music Festival this weekend at the revamped Lake Merritt Blvd Ampitheater. All day, all ages, free. Check out the lineup HERE.

il Moderato

I'm not a clotheshorse. Shopping in large stores induces overwhelm and even if it looks good, if I don't feel comfortable in it, the item will soon gets relegated to the Goodwill or clothing-swap bag. Still, when I find items of clothing I like, I wear it until I can't be worn anymore: the favorite jeans that finally wear out in the butt, the green coat with threadbare buttons, the worn-down heels that can't be repaired. And then there's the limiter of living in a small house. I don't like clutter. Sometimes, I'm sad to realize I've donated something prematurely (When did I toss out the vintage clack cape with the green lining or my dad's old buckskin jacket?). But some things have persisted. Saturday I was happy to reach deep in the depths of the closet and find an old favorite jacket, that I can't justifiably wear everywhere anymore, but I that I can't part with either.

 "It's made entirely of recycled or repurposed materials," said the young New Zealander about the one-of-a-kind short coat I was trying on in the middle of her store. The gold-and-cream brocade jacket's material was as well suited for a couch as it was a body, but I immediately knew it was mine...even if it hadn't occurred to me to buy a jacket.  

I'd wandered into the eco clothing boutique not far from the Wellington ferry terminal, with no clear shopping objective. Past the initial reporting work, which had brought me to Auckland a few days, earlier, spontaneity and intuition were the themes of my third trip to New Zealand. It was the first time I'd traveled here as a freelance writer, and it was the first long trip I'd taken after a long relationship crashed and burned. After months of feeling blue, the trip to New Zealand offered some needed perspective on starting over. So as soon as I finished filing my report, I rented a car and decided I wouldn't follow a set itinerary for the next 10 days of vacation. I'd wake up each day and then decide where to go and what to do. 

Reading the paper at breakfast that day, I learned Wellington was hosting The New Zealand International Festival of Arts and off I went, catching the ferry across Cook Straight, between the North and South Island. With some time before the evening's performance, I window-shopped. And while I didn't know what I was looking for when I walked in the store, I gravitated toward the rack of jackets made from upholstery against the wall as if the garment were calling me. It was a bold jacket. Complete with black faux leather collar and zipper lining and slash zippered pockets that were roomy but not bulky, the jacket hugged me just enough at the waist to confirm curves without being tight. Durable, but stylish, ready for anything, rich but not ostentatious, it had a character I aspired to.  

I wore the jacket to the show that night, Mark Morris's L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, and I wore it for the plane ride home to San Francisco, still sandy, and now blissed out from my few days on the beaches of Golden Bay.  After 12 unplugged days of traveling by myself, soaking in hot springs on the Coramandel Peninsula, watching whales in Kaikoura, kayaking on the bay and eating mussels and thick toast with my feet in the sand, I was starting to feel a part of the living again.

I may have looked too happy. The security guard held me back, asking me to remove the jacket. I watched as he ran his fingers along and around the black collar, checking for contraband. But he stopped short of cutting into it when I protested, and, muttering, returned the jacket to me.

For several years, I wore the NZ coat everywhere. It went well with jeans and it worked over dresses.  The pockets could hold a few Cds, keys, lipstick, a cell phone and money. It made sense to wear in all but the hottest of weather. Always, someone would remark upon its specialness. In Paris, a woman stopped me on the Ile St Louis to finger the sleeves, circling me, appraising its cut, approvingly. It was slightly weird, she opined, maybe a little too heavy, but it worked. 

And like the well-loved sofa it would have become, it became faded and worn in places over the years. When the elbows began to go threadbare, it became something I only wore with jeans.  Today, more than 15 years after I bought it, it very seldom leaves its hanger, but I keep it as a reminder of the possibility I remembered when I bought it, as much as of the places I've been.

Cold Moon Meander

"December's Full Moon is called the Full Cold Moon. It is the month when the winter cold fastens its grip and the nights become long and dark. This full Moon is also called the Long Nights Moon by some Native American tribes." — Farmer's Almanac

I was driving home from a yoga class last night,  the full moon rising, the temperature dipping toward low, and this Over the Rhine song came on "Favorite Time of Light" and again, I was knocked out by this Ohio-based band.  They've been of my favorite bands to listen to this year, despite the fact that I've yet to see them live. Heartfelt music by deep listeners, authentic, and connected to the earth is music to aspire to. In any event, I've shared their stuff here before and I'm doing it again. Here's a live video of the song that got me last night:

What else? If you're an antsy sort, which I am, staying home for a few weeks can feel challenging. If I have an addiction, it's go taking off some place. Fortunately, I live in a great place and the Bay Area has been hopping with its own brand of holiday cheer, beauty (aka that moon. Over water. Mmm) and creativity. I stopped by The Crucible in Oakland yesterday to see a friend's wares (that would be jeweler Tricia Weiner) during the art center's Holiday Gifty Art Sale and Open House and was reawakened to the fact of the Crucible's awesomeness. If you're into fire, this is the place to be. Glassblowing, neon, blacksmithing anybody?

Telegraph Ave Holiday Street Fair 12/14-24

I'm playing a set amid Lisa Graciano's round-up of artists at the Telegraph Ave Holiday Street Fair. Come get your Berkeley art and music on!

"Located between Dwight Way and Bancroft Way near the U.C. Campus in Berkeley CA.Holiday shoppers to the Telegraph business district will be treated to an abundance of good cheer, great music, fine food, and unique and unusual handcrafts by some of Northern California's finest artists.This fair offers the rare opportunity to buy fine art originals and inexpensive gift items in the same place. Shoppers can choose from a tremendous diversity of arts and crafts, including jewelry, beadwork, wirework, hats, candles, leather work, silk-screened and tie-dyed clothing, pottery, wood crafts, metal crafts, paintings, henna-art, gift boxes, photography and sculptures"

TELEGRAPH STREET FAIR 2012 Performers Line-Up

Friday Dec. 14, 2012: 12pm-4pm Lisa Graciano

Saturday Dec. 15, 2012: 11am-12pm Lisa Graciano, 12pm-1pm Fly Right Sisters, 1pm-3pm Lisa Graciano, 3pm-5pm Jeff Rolka

Sunday Dec. 16, 2012: 11am-1pm Deborah Crooks, 1pm-3pm Lisa Graciano, 3pm-5pm Paul Anderson

Saturday Dec. 22, 2012: 11am-12pm Lisa Graciano, 12pm-1pm Paul Anderson, 1pm-3pm Lisa Graciano, 3pm-5pm Paul Anderson

Sunday Dec. 23, 2012: 11am-1pm Hali Hammer & Randy Berge, 1pm-5pm Lisa Graciano

Monday Dec. 24, 2012: 11am-12pm Lisa Graciano, 12pm-1pm Paul Anderson, 1pm-3pm Lisa Graciano, 3pm-5pm Paul Anderson

Mysore: Bangles, bindis, bling

Another of the contradictions of India is how so much wealth and poverty dust and ...so much bling, can co-exist.  Beggars with monkeys on their shoulders lead painted oxen on rope and try to block your way until you give them a rupee on a street that is lined with  brand-new multi-story houses. American and Japan made cars attempt to pass cyclists and hand-drawn carts on narrow streets. Even if you're floors are marble, scrubbing one's feet clean is a recommended daily, if not twice-daily, practice.
As a tourist, really, wielding a dollar, I'm automatically a privileged class. A bumpy dusty rickshaw ride brought me near city center and a luxe store full of pashmina, silk, weaves and wall hangings, Kashmir carpets, and silver jewelry. Salesmen served me cinnamon tea in a china cup while I looked a wool and silk pashmina in a rainbow of colors, prints and embroider. Mysore is known for its silk, the fabric made in the factory here according to high standards and turned into colorful sarees and shawls. The selection is amazing.
"All colors," the clerk tells me, pulling out handfuls of carefully folded fabric and unfurling it before me. The drill isn't new to me: the tea, the fabric, the bargaining I remember from other visits— but the selection still boggles. A half hour later, arrangements are made to mail my purchases home.

More tea is offered but I'm on a mission for gifts for the children of Operation Shanti as well as friends and family, and bangles top the list for the girls. Bangles (the colorful bracelets not the band) are hugely popular here and the range of colors, sizes and sparkles matches that of the silk. Stores selling bangles and bindis are as common as tea stalls. Ten bangles per wrist, pashmina over the shoulder,  and a bindi on the forehead and you're ready to go. Bling!

a note on writing longhand & the perfect notebook

Once upon a time, I filled notebook after notebook with writing. It was the writing on the way to the writing as I called it. But then came Web 2.0, smart phones, texting, et. al. My stacks of notebooks dwindled. I wrote less and less. Or differently (the jury is out on better or worse). But on a recent shop at Indie Mart I happened upon Peperina Girl, maker of eco-conscious products and found a notebook of my dreams. Made from recycled album covers and 'up-cycled' (unlined) paper, my longhand, pen-and-ink writing habit is finding new life. Hooray for the handmade, and handwritten.