Week 4 June, 2010
This week’s highlighted local treasure is Children’s Fairyland at Oakland’s Lake Merritt. From their website: Just imagine: a ten-acre park on the shores of Oakland’s Lake Merritt where children’s literature comes to life and kids can be kids. Since 1950, Children’s Fairyland has been delighting children and their parents with whimsical storybook sets, gentle rides, friendly animals, wonder-filled puppet shows, and inspired live entertainment. One modest admission fee covers a whole day of imaginative fun. And we’re available for birthday parties, summer sleepovers, summer camp, field trips, and special events as well.
I’ve had the unique pleasure of dropping-off and picking-up a seven-year-old who has been attending the summer camp at Fairyland this week. And considering the little girl’s mother, aunt and grandmother all visited Fairyland as children themselves, it seemed to me that the depth of this treasure trove was actually extraordinarily deep. And evidently, in addition to inspiring legions of young boys and girls for sixty years, this park is one that was visited by the one and only Walt Disney when he was developing his idea for the Magic Kingdom in Anaheim. In fact, Mr. Disney hired Fairyland’s first executive director, Dorothy Manes, to help launch the Magic Kingdom. Pretty awesome stuff! Right here in Oakland! Check it out!
So, let’s find some fun ’round the bay…
Free Swabacher Summer Concert in Yerba Buena Gardens: Sunday in San Francisco. From the Chronicle: Is there anything better than great opera performed outdoors in the sunshine? What about if it was FREE! Bring a picnic and your sunscreen to experience this free community presentation on Sunday, July 25th, at Yerba Buena Gardens. The Schwabacher Summer Concert is perfect for the seasoned opera lover or the novice, so invite your friends and family to join you!
Four Paws Society Paw-A-Thon: Saturday at San Leandro Marina Park. Fundraiser for San Leandro Dog Park includes talent show for best dog trick, dog costume contest, petting zoo, pets available for adoption, low cost vaccinations, animal licensing in San Leandro, free pet spaying and neutering for qualified applicants, learn pet cpr and first aid, and more!
Hapa: Academy of Hawaiian Arts: Free concert at Stern Grove San Francisco. From the website: Hapa is one of Hawaii’s most popular recording groups, incorporating oli, or traditional chant, with virtuoso slack key guitar and modern sounds. The Academy of Hawaiian Arts, based in Oakland, keeps the culture of the Islands alive with beautiful hula performances. Check out the beautiful Stern Grove for this free show of Hawaiian music!
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Pic of the Week:
A sun-seeking Peruvian Lily in the back yard
Week 3 June, 2010
This week’s highlighted local treasure is CUESA: the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture The Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture is dedicated to promoting a sustainable food system through the operation of the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and its educational programs. We are a tax-exempt 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation organized in 1994 to educate urban consumers about sustainable agriculture and to create links between urban dwellers and local farmers. We have managed the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market since 1999. A food system is the inter-relationship of agricultural systems, their economic, social, cultural, and technological support systems, and systems of food distribution and consumption. A sustainable food system uses practices that are environmentally sound, humane, economically viable, and socially just. Learn more about sustainable food systems here >
Weekend Wanderings salutes CUESA for their innovations and commitment to advancing sustainable agriculture… and for making the Ferry Plaza such an awesome destination!
So, let’s find some fun ’round the bay…
Vertical Challenge 2010: At the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos. From their website: “Vertical Challenge” Helicopter Air Show is a unique event that allows visitors to see first hand helicopter operations. The show is devoted to demonstrating to the public of how helicopters affect our daily lives from traffic and news reports to its unique life saving ability, to the National Defense of our Country. Good fun for kids and aviation buffs alike.
Marin Art Festival: At Lagoon Park in San Rafael. From their website: Art, Dance, Music and Wine. Over 250 fine artists in a spectacular setting by the Lagoon in the Marin Civic Center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, fifteen minutes North of the Golden Gate Bridge. Directions here.Festival foods range from Louisiana gumbo and crawfish, Greek salads, South Western chicken breast sandwiches, fresh crabcake, grilled oysters and French pasteries.
North Beach Festival: From their website: The event is situated in the historic North Beach District, known to locals and visitors alike as San Francisco’s Little Italy and the home of the famed beat generation. The Festival site includes numerous quaint streets and the beautiful Washington Square park in the heart of the district.The 2010 event will feature over 125 arts and crafts booths, 20 gourmet food booths, three stages of live entertainment, Italian street painting, beverage gardens, children’s activities and the blessing of the animals.
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Pic of the Week:
Welcoming Sammy to the crew of nutties.
Week 2 June, 2010
This week’s highlighted local treasure is the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley. From the East Bay Express regarding an exhibition there currently:
It seems like just yesterday that our free-market fundamentalists were drunkenly bellowing “Drill, baby, drill!” How time flies! Now that we’ve all entered a new phase of environmental consciousness — call it BPCE, the BP Common Era — the Kala Gallery‘s Groundswell show, curated by Betti-Sue Hertz of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, bears a timely and incontrovertible message: It’s time to stop fouling our nest. The artists here would undoubtedly agree, yet their artwork is anything but polemical. Elliot Anderson, Mitra Fabian, Nathan Hodges, Suzanne Husky, Joan Margolies Kiernan, Rebecca Najdowski, Emily Payne, and sonicSENSE (Jennifer Parker and Barney Hayes) combine, in Hertz’s view, a “poetic … acknowledgment of the unsteadiness of the culture/nature split” with an exploration of our relationship to “water, air, mineral, and plant life” through scientific data and methods. Anderson has created a hydroponic garden, “Nonsite: Alamitos Creek,” that cleanses mining-polluted waters; with glass-housed plants irrigated via plastic tubes, ventilated by an oscillating fan, and illuminated by garish yellow light, it suggests both science lab and Biosphere — an apt metaphor for our polluted planet. Link to article…
As one who appreciates how art reflects our times I’m pleased to see this local gallery take on this vital subject connecting both art and science. Many other unique installations in the exhibit as well.
So, let’s find some fun ’round the bay…
Renee Green: Endless and Time-Based Streams: From the Chronicle: Renée Green: Endless Dreams and Time-Based Dreams is a solo exhibition featuring the work of internationally renowned artist Renée Green. For more than 20 years Green has been creating works of art that critically assess the intersection of ideas, processes and creativities around a range of topics including cultural history, transnational travel, feminism and biography. At the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
World Cup Opening Party: Friday night at Butterfly on the Embarcadero in San Francisco. From their website: An exclusive international World Cup set by DJ Aykut Trevor Simpson, Samba Dancers, Leblon Caipirinhas, and our fabulous drummer ‘Mirza”. Come Join us on Friday June 11 at ‘Butterfly’ Pier 33 and wear the colors of your favorite world cup team in soccer jerseys, hats, make up, flags.
Marcus Miller, Tutu Revisited: the Music of Miles Davis featuring Christian Scott: From their website: Miller’s 2008 release, Marcus, finds him mastering keyboards, guitar, percussion and bass clarinet, while holding everything together with his uniquely funky bass foundation. For this SFJAZZ appearance, Miller delves into the vast repertoire of his own compositions including work from Tutu — the immortal 1986 Davis album he produced. Special guest Christian Scott is one of the leading young trumpeters on today’s music scene. His fourth CD for Concord Records, Yesterday You Said Tomorrow, will be released in March.
Pic of the Week:
A Spring Sunday in the Dry Creek Valley
Week 1 June, 2010
This week’s highlighted local treasure is the lending and savings Opportunity Fund in San Jose and San Francisco. I recently went on a mission with a friend to buy something from an ad on Craigslist and the journey took us through a part of the east bay that some might call a “bad neighborhood”. I mention it because I noticed there were two things conspicuously missing from that neighborhood for blocks and blocks: there was no grocery store and no bank. We were looking for a bank, any bank, so we could stop and use the ATM. But there were no banks to be found. These were so obviously absent and it seemed plainly ridiculous that someone who lived in the area would apparently have to ride a bus to reach either of these types of businesses. But at least on the banking front we can thank Opportunity Fund for making a concerted effort for this financially under-served demographic of America. As a lending and savings entity “Opportunity Fund advances the economic well-being of working people by helping them earn, save, and invest in their future. We help our clients get a foothold and get ahead. We help them join the financial mainstream. We achieve this by lending a helping hand, through our award-winning approach that includes financial education, microfinance loans, matched savings accounts, and affordable housing financing.” In other words, with an innovative approach they are stepping in where our “Too Big To Fail” institutions are not. If America is rebuilding its entire financial system perhaps it’s innovations like these that truly may help us live up to the ideals we inscribe on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty. WeekendWanderings.com salutes the Opportunity Fund for developing innovative financial solutions for the under-served communities of the Bay Area.
So, let’s find some fun ’round the bay…
7th Annual Berkeley World Music Festival: From their website: The Festival showcases the Bay Area region’s vibrant world music scene. In People’s Park, Zydeco Flames headlines with rising stars Khi Darag! and Sekhou Senegal. Zydeco Flames is recognized as the West Coast’s premier Zydeco band, with one of the tightest rhythm sections in the business. Khi Darag! mixes Persian, Klezmer & Psychedelic Rock in a riveting array of instrumentation with female vocals. The Kouyate Twins lead Seyhou Senegal in moving African melodies and high-impact dance grooves. The twins continue a long family line of “Griot” storytellers who carry on the oral history and arts of West Africa.
Bluegrass for the Greenbelt Benefit at Dunsmuir Historic Estate: featuring Chris Hillman & Herb Pedersen, Crooked Still, Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands, the Wronglers, Nell Robsinson & more. From their website: For 50 years, we have worked with local communities and partner groups to help secure long-term protection for more than 1.1 million acres of open space, establish urban growth boundaries around 26 cities and five counties, and endorse the creation of 60,000 homes within existing urban areas.
San Francisco’s Union Street Eco-Urban Festival: From the Chronicle: In its 33rd year, The Union Street Festival is one of San Francisco’s largest free annual events. In 2008 we added an eco-zone to the event where we reserved two blocks of the six block Festival for green exhibitors. This year the east entrance of the Festival, will again feature arts and crafts created with recycled and sustainable materials and eco-friendly exhibits. The Festival showcases 150 arts & crafts booths, 25 gourmet food two stages of live entertainment and bistro style cafes.
Pic of the Week:
A Dedicated Worker