Myrtle Street Review

Open Letter to the Ladies of Oakland City Council

2011-12-21T13:05:00.000-08:00

It's been too long since anyone in Oakland wrote an open letter, don't you think? I watched the City Council meeting last night - it was better than almost anything on television - and was inspired to write to you, Councilwomen. I'm leaving the guys out of this, because I have little faith that they will listen at all. I do have faith that you will, and did last night, even if you didn't quite hear. And I am here to tell you that I listened to you as well.

Councilmembers Brooks, Brunner, Kaplan, Kernighan, Nadel and Schaaf: I hear that you are frustrated with Occupy Oakland. Trust me, I hear you. I consider myself a PART of Occupy Oakland, and I am frustrated with it. We spend almost all our time arguing! We are trying to create a future while living in a messy, globalized, hyper-interconnected, and massively technological present. We argue all day! We are trying to find a way to create new, more flexible, organic, porous structures. We are trying to GROW a society from our very cells instead of making a blueprint and building one. It's frustrating, and exhilarating, and intense. We enjoy each other's passion. It's a love affair, or like parenting. It's a loving argument.

Some of you keep reminding us that yes, yes, you once had a love affair with a movement too. And that was great, but now we need to work TOGETHER. And you're hurt when we say no. You agree with us about so much! What is wrong with us? Why can't we just talk?

If you were alive in the sixties or even if you just read about them, you remember "Don't trust anyone over 30." I wonder if you're wondering if that's what's going on here. That would hurt anyone's feelings!

But that is not what this is about. As you know, the Occupy movement has people of all ages. This is not about the sixties, this is not about whether you were in a sit-in or are a nice person who wants to do good things. I wholeheartedly believe that you are, and were, and you do.

But your negotiating position at the moment is such that I don't have a choice.

I don't need to tell you what has happened with wealth and power in this country and globally in the last 40 years. I don't have to tell you about executive salaries, the environment, banks, how nobody has been held truly accountable. I don't need to tell you about the powerful interests influencing politicians - in fact, last night you kept telling me. (Thank you, Councilmember Nadel.)

Your position in all this as a politician is clear: different interests try to sway you, and you try to get what you need in return. You need money and votes, the rest of us need influence. You're not a victim, you are a player. You are an influence saleswoman. And so am I.

When you say you're frustrated, and you want what I want, and you too protested, you are negotiating. You are trying to convince me that if I enter into a negotiation with you, you will make it worth my time. Unfortunately we are now at such a juncture in history that I can't believe you - not because I think you are dishonest, but because of the nature of the game we are playing.

I am sorry if it hurts your feelings, but entering into the negotiation would ratify the process. The process is not acceptable to me. You are a professional negotiator, so you know that the way to change the process is to refuse to enter the negotiation, and continue being difficult. I am certain you've done it many times yourself.

It's not personal. It's all in the game.

Right now, it's time to change the rules of the game - before we start a new round.

Occupy Myrtle Street Block Party!

2011-12-09T19:50:00.001-08:00

How I woke up one day and discovered I was a radical

2011-12-05T13:41:00.001-08:00

I am a pretty average Finn. All Finns are social democrats, no matter what party they tell you they belong to, because even the right wing in Finland believes in free education, national healthcare, and not letting anyone get too rich lest they think they're better than other people.

My mother's side of my family represents a fairly typical Nordic success story, having gone from starving poverty to comfortable middle class in three generations. It wasn't a free ride on government handouts. My great-grandfather starved to death in a concentration camp after taking part in the 1917 attempt at Communist revolution in Finland. My great-grandmother served two years in prison after killing a baby she couldn't support, and went on to raise five children to productive adulthood, one of them my incredibly hardworking grandmother. Grandma was widowed early, when my war veteran grandfather died after a drunk driving incident, and raised her two surviving kids (one died by drowning at age 7) on her salary as a mail carrier. She brought my mother up to believe in beauty, and made sure there was real art on her walls. My parents both had fulfilling careers without a college education, and are now safely retired. Their health care is taken care of. I count my blessings every day for the free education that made me the first university graduate in my family, and for the freedom I enjoy because I don't have the huge financial burden of elder care and loans that Americans are shouldered with. My stepson has access to a free university degree in Europe. How can anybody say that all this is not worth a 40% tax rate?

What I want for everyone is what my family had: a fighting chance. What I want is for children to be born like me: into countries where labor and the left have selflessly fought the battles that make fairness a fact of life - not sold out to lobbyists and corporate interests. This should be a piece of cake in the industrialized west. We should now be working on how to make equality of opportunity a global right in a globalized world. Not bickering over whether it's fair that a billionaire "job creator" may have to give up on a slightly larger yacht this year.

I am a lucky immigrant for having come to America from a "socialist" country. If I end up destitute after an illness that my insurance won't cover, all I need is to scrounge up enough money for a ticket back to Finland. They'll take care of me there.

With the "mainstream" now pushed so far right in the American political discourse that we have the Democrats passing a watered-down version of a Republican health plan and helping bankers get enormous bonuses for nearly destroying the entire world economy, where the hell do you think that leaves me? With the so-called social democrats "working within" the liberal industrial complex that's been bought by Wall Street, while the Democrats fall all over themselves pretending they don't exist?

By simply acknowledging what I believe - and what apparently a majority of Americans believe, if you don't tell them it's called "socialism" - I have fallen off the political map.

I want to be associated with people who actually give a shit, and aren't looking to use me for something in some campaign that is mainly about their own career or some other interest that's not being mentioned out loud.

And like so many others, I feel like the Occupy movement, started by anarchists, is where I suddenly have space to express my - still, I think, pretty mainstream - opinions, without being branded a loony and a dangerous person.

(It's not the first time I find myself breaking bread with anarchists when I'm trying to express some really very non-extreme opinion. When the G.W. Bush administration was threatening to attack Iraq for having imaginary WMD, I found myself at a protest in Helsinki, marching to the American embassy side by side with anarchists under the red and the black. Laughing at the anarchist jokes - "Come on guys, don't stop in front of other people! Didn't anybody here go to the Army?" - and finding mad respect in my heart for the two guys carrying the nearly passed-out fellow with "Junkies for peace" scrawled in marker on his forehead.)

You don't leave me a choice, oh Political Map of America. I don't necessarily believe that abolishing repressive systems will end repression (I tend to believe that humans secrete repressive systems like spiders poop webs), but I'm starting to think that since our systems are so completely broken and corrupt, and immune to the actual will of the people, hell, maybe we need to smash the whole thing and start over. Maybe the conversation needs to be had entirely outside the existing paradigm, which has been entirely co-opted and is no longer useful. Otherwise all we have left is manufactured consent fueled by emotional masturbation, masking a massive clusterfuck of injustice and greed.

Memorial Service at St. Andrew's Plaza

2011-11-29T10:01:00.001-08:00

You might have noticed that at St. Andrew’s Plaza there is a memorial in the center of the stage we built for National Night Out. This was put together by some of the park patrons who knew Taj-Mall, a young single mother, pregnant with her second child. While sitting at St. Andrew’s Plaza she began to hemorrhage and hours later was declared dead at highland Hospital. These are all the details that we have. Out of respect we didn’t clean the Plaza as scheduled last Saturday.

This Friday, December 2nd, 5pm, Neighbors, Spc2 members, and our Pastors Lankford, Lowery and Martin help us say goodbye in a dignified manner to Taj-Mall. After the memorial service her family and friends will remove the park memorial.

Our hope is that this will help bring closure to Taj-Mall’s friends and family who miss her and will continue to love her.

Please come join us. St. Andrew's Plaza is located at the corner of Filbert St. and San Pablo Avenue.

Last but not least community meeting of the year!

2011-11-29T09:50:00.001-08:00

McClymonds High School
6:00pm Second Floor Library
Meeting Agenda:
• California Hotel Developer’s Update and Window Displays
• Alliance Recycling Presentation and Community Q&A
• Cass Recycling Presentation and Community Q&A (not confirmed)
• SPc2 Committee Reports
• San Pablo Corridor Commercial Redevelopment Efforts
• St. Andrew’s Plaza renovation plans, Jobs, Community Outreach

Tell metal recyclers how their business affects our community life. Hear all about the new developments at the California Hotel. And more!

SAN PABLO CORRIDOR COALITION
Bring something to share • Bring a smile • Bring a warm hug

Calling all Active and Lovely People in West Oakland

2011-09-02T07:07:00.000-07:00

The next San Pablo Corridor Coalition Neighborhood Meeting is coming up! Come join your neighbors and various City representatives for fruitful discussion, find out about how you can be active in your neighborhood, buy a house, find a job, protect the environment, or just check out if anyone brought cookies.

West Oakland is an active, exciting, powerful neighborhood. We can all work together to make sure we are heard and that our voice counts.

The meeting is on Thursday September 8th, at 6:30PM at the Library of the historic McClymonds High School, 2607 Myrtle Street, Oakland.

The agenda is packed with great stuff:

Guest Speaker:

• Mayor’s Office
-Update on Parcel Tax, City Budget and Small Business Month

• Redevelopment Agency Staff, (West Oakland Specific Plan Steering Committee)
West Oakland is undergoing a thorough study that will chance the way we live and work
Come ask your questions - be part of the process

• Lily Smith, (Alliance Metals and West Oakland Alliance Foundation)
Special presentation followed by Q&A
Learn about Alliance Recycling & their efforts to work within our neighborhood

• Tom McCoy, WOGI, Director
West Oakland Green Initiative
-Do you want a free tree? It’s FREE!
351 Trees to be planted in West Oakland before the end of the year.

St. Andrew’s Plaza:
• Alex Miller-Cole, Beautification and Sustainability Committee chair
-Unveiling of “first draft” plans, renderings and general idea behind renovations

Financing and home ownership opportunities:
• Alex Miller-Cole, San Pablo Corridor Coalition Chair
-West Oakland has unique opportunities and we need to know about them

West Oakland Voter Registration Effort:
• Ron Muhammad, West Oakland Network, Director
We need to show that West Oakland counts! It is up to all of us. We must make our

voice heard.

Like the San Pablo Corridor Neighborhood Coalition on Facebook!

Market Street Waterworld

2011-09-02T06:59:00.000-07:00

The 2500 block of Market Street is afloat with water, due to the flocking of mermaids into their underground caves for winter hibernation.

Beware that the street may be dangerous to drive on. Should you find any lost mermaids, please call the City of Oakland Mythology Patrol. Any stray mermaids and sirens will be returned to the wild, so that they can attempt re-flocking.

The mermaid caves are under the San Pablo Avenue - Market Street crossroads. This accounts for many uncanny phenomena seen in that area.

Society Pages

2011-05-22T22:32:00.000-07:00

A fabulous soirée was had at the lovely Alex and Chris Miller-Cole residence this Friday, with many of West Oakland's movers and shakers in attendance. Discussion topics ranged from gang injunctions to Greek tragedy and Moroccan lamps. Just a bunch of neighbors, taking a quick cocktail break from changing the world.

Why you should come to St. Andrew's Plaza on Saturday the 14th at 10AM

2011-05-08T23:19:00.000-07:00

- because the park is very small, so cleanup takes no time at all

- because everyone who shows up for these park cleanups is extremely sexy

- because there is a $75 000 grant to renovate the park and you can get to be part of deciding what goes there and bring awesome modern innovative city planning ideas

- because parks have trees in them and trees have spiritual beings in them

- because there's usually coffee and snacks

- because you can bring more snacks so it's even more awesome

- because you'll feel all virtuous and good about yourself afterwards

- because you have an excuse to reward yourself and have lunch at Mama Mae's Southern Cafe which is literally two blocks away and it's very cool and you've probably heard about it because all the trendy people go there now

- because you'll dine out on your stories about your amusing interactions with the cleanup crew and park patrons for weeks

- because who knows who you'll meet?

St. Andrew's Plaza is on San Pablo Avenue and 32nd Street. 10 AM. This Saturday. Come join us! I promise it's fun.

Jobs, trees, murals, anti-dumping action, and crudités

2011-05-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

The West Oakland Neighborhood Fair was a resounding success! The new development and beautification projects will bring jobs to the neighborhood, to union tradespeople as well as local youth. If you are interested in finding out more, email the Myrtle Street Review and we will direct you to the right people!

And if you are interested in volunteering, planting trees, socializing with your neighbors and generally being an awesome citizen, there's lots to do. In the next few days we'll be posting more information about different opportunities.

Here are some photos from today's lovely event, which was held at St. Vincent de Paul Community Center and catered by their Kitchen of Champions program with delicious food and treats.

The energy was great and warm and neighborliness abounded. Thanks so much to Alex and everyone else who organized!

Are Finnish people Asian?

2011-05-06T13:45:00.000-07:00

Every week, at least two people land on this blog with some combination of the keywords "Are Finnish people Asian." The Finnish-Mongolian connection is a common misconception that lives on to this day. When I was living in England, people often commented on how interesting it is that Finnish people originate from Mongolia and how "Finnish is not related to any other language." (Hah!) More than one Englishman claimed to easily see that I have "Asian eyes." And yellow skin.

The desire to see Finns as "different" persists in the media: in his analysis of Finland's first school shooting, in Tuusula in 2007, London Times correspondent Roger Boyes points to paganism and friendless Finns' desolate lives, mostly in darkness, as the uniquely Finnish conditions leading to the shooting deaths of nine people. He describes most people as living on isolated farmsteads, having apparently neglected to Google for the statistics that reveal that 77% of Finns live in cities, towns and surrounding metropolitan areas.

It's hard to assert "I am white" without seeming a little aspirational, and seeming to embrace the idea that being white is better. The whole discussion happens in a context where "non-whiteness" is first assigned to Finns and quickly followed by a list of characteristics that define Finns as "less than". One is then left, as a Finn, to defend the idea that someone can be white and still be uncivilized, alcoholic, violent, and have strange customs like the sauna. The only explanation for these behaviors need not be found in the un-Europeanness of one's DNA.

Early racial theories pegged Finns as "Mongoloid", primitive, animalistic, the usual non-white descriptives. Mostly, these ideas were based on the since-discredited Uralic-Altaic racial theory which, in turn, was based on somewhat primitive linguistics. There was also considerable curiosity about the origins of the Sami, the last indigenous people of Europe. Finland, like other Nordic countries and Russia, has a small Sami population. There was anxiety over the dangers of racial mixing that this represented. This, in turn, led to discriminatory racial policies towards the Sami.

Our language family used to dominate what is today known as Russia and Eastern Europe, all across Siberia but - ironically - not Mongolia. Slavic expansion gradually displaced Ugric peoples and languages, but millions of us still inhabit Finland, Hungary, Estonia, five autonomous republics of Russia, as well as other areas. Some of the indigenous Ugric speakers still practice traditional shamanistic religions. We all share some version of the sauna, and a propensity for drinking copious amounts of alcohol.

In the U.S. in the early 20th century, there were attempts to deport Finns (especially socialist labor organizers) under the Asian Exclusion Act, due to our "Mongolian" origin. Later on, the Finns and the Hungarians were considerd to be the only civilized representatives of our race. Finnish anthropologists and Finns themselves have struggled to be seen as white for close to 200 years. We're still debating what it means to be Finnish, what is considered "foreign" and who gets to decide. It sometimes feels like the only acceptable topic for artistic and cultural production in Finland is "what does it mean to be a Finn?" Some Finns embrace the exotic, Ugric, pagan view of Finnishness and identify strongly with our Finno-Ugric relatives. The panic to be seen as white and civilized is a neurosis that has never really left Finnish culture, and may to some extent tinge the Finns' own racist impulses and defensiveness.

Genetic studies have shown that we may not share special Mongolian genes, but our Ugric language carries a lot of culture and world view in them. Finnish language carries shamanistic terms for soul and spirit, for example, that we now use for "nature" and "breath".

So to clarify for anyone who has absorbed the view of the 1920's Encyclopaedia Britannica that Finns are a strong, hardy race, of low stature, with almost round head, low forehead, flat features, prominent cheek bones, eyes mostly grey and oblique, short and flat nose, protruding mouth, thick lips, neck very full and strong; - complexion also somewhat brown. Us ethnic Finns, we are mostly not brown. Some of us have Sami genes, but many do not, and Sami people are not brown either. Many ethnic Sami, in fact, look completely white to a casual observer. Many of us don't feel that defensive about being thought about as exotic, though, and embrace the wild and woolly stereotype that gets attached to us. I hear it's terrific for getting laid, or launching an artistic career in Sweden. It's not that traumatizing to be thought of as exotic when it comes with all the privileges that go along with being, in fact, white.

Further reading for anyone who's interested in this subject:

Battling to be European: Myth and the Finnish Race by Edward Dutton - a paper critiquing Finnish researchers who claim that Finns are white. Another interesting specimen is an article angrily renouncing Nokia for having too much sauna culture. It's interesting to me that the blame for failures by Finns is assigned to being "too Finnish" - meaning, primitive, backwards, culturally un-European. When Finns attempt to define their own race and assert that they are European, they are accused of being nationalistic, myopic, backwards, and unaccepting of objective truth. The Finnish genome is combed for evidence that we are not white. One chromosome that some Finnish men share with the Chinese, but not with other Europeans is considered "proof" - but of what? Why is it so vitally important to find this proof? Any discussion of race as a cultural construct is left aside from these "scientific" debates, where white English men are objective observers who get to assign race to others and determine what problems and incorrect modes of behavior follow from having that "othered" ethnicity.

Illustration: The Swedish Nation, "Folk and Race-Types" (Nordic, mixed-race, Finnish, Lapp, Lappic mixed-race, Walloon), 1921

Freedom and Crime

2011-05-05T12:57:00.000-07:00

Street art spotted in Berkeley today.

If you miss this, you're crazy

2011-05-01T18:40:00.000-07:00

The West Oakland Neighborhood Fair is on Saturday May 7th from 1 to 4 PM at St. Vincent de Paul Community Center, San Pablo Avenue at West Grand Avenue.

Why you need to be there: our amazing, enterprising, creative, rocking neighbors have sought and received over $350 000 for revitalization and beautification projects for our neighborhood, and you can learn all about them and how you can become involved!

• $73,000. West Oakland Green Initiative will plant trees along San Pablo

Avenue and in the surrounding areas.

• $75,000. The San Pablo Corridor Coalition will renovate St. Andrew’s Plaza.

• $75,000. Oakland Public Works will install motion activated devices with

24/7 monitoring against illegal dumping.

• $75,000. Attitudinal Healing will paint beautiful murals along the I-580

underpass between San Pablo Avenue and Martin Luther King, Junior Way

• $5,000. Keep Oakland Beautiful will enhance San Pablo Avenue.

• $50,000. The Crucible will get a new entry and facade improvements

• EBALDC’s progress in the revitalization of California Hotel.

Did you see that?! They are going to start monitoring the trash dumping in our neighborhood! Those idiots are finally going to be getting in trouble, without our neighbor Randy having to drive around after them to scare them!

So really: if you ever thought about becoming more active about neighborhood stuff and wondered who the people are who are doing all the moving and shaking, this is your time! You can become one of them! And you may start getting invited to those fabulous secret cocktail parties you may have been hearing about!

Most importantly, if you come to the Neighborhood Fair you will see what beautiful, fun, caring, sweet, fantastic people you share a neighborhood with.

...aaand we're back!

2011-05-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

After some contemplation (and being completely submerged under the renovation of the awesome West Oakland fixer-upper we bought in November) The Myrtle Street Review is back!

We're no longer on Myrtle Street physically, but our hearts still are. Our Myrtle Street neighbors are the reason we fell in love with West Oakland and decided to put down roots here. So the blog name is going to stay the same. We're only three blocks away in any case, and can still see the roof deck of our old loft from here.

The focus of the Review is going to shift a little more towards being about things that are happening and being done in the neighborhood... though I expect the occasional fictional story and other whimsical crap will still seep in because magic is magic, and what can you do.

Welcome back!

Myrtle Street Review is Molting

2010-12-29T13:18:00.001-08:00

Dear Readers, the Myrtle Street Review Headquarters has moved. We are no longer on Myrtle Street, and presently the Review is inside our thinking hat. We are working out what shape and form the Review should take next. Thank you for reading, and we'll see you in the New Year!

Celebrating Nordic Family Values: The Woolen Penis Movie

2010-09-08T10:30:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since we celebrated my Nordic heritage here on Myrtle Street Review. It's time to watch some Swedish art, I feel, since I am practically part Swedish, being a descendant of Vikings who settled in Western Finland. Wait, does that make me part Norwegian? Never mind. Almost any reason would be reason enough to pay homage to the Flying Woolen Penises of Sweden. The rest of the baffling, fabulous output of Amauta Labs can be found here.

Top Five Reasons Why West Oakland's image is More Dangerous than the Reality

2010-09-01T20:38:00.000-07:00

5. Teenagers who are actually not gang members get to act like big, dangerous thugs for being from there. Or even from near there. Or even from El Cerrito.

4. There are several Whitey Castles, ie. loft compounds with locking gates whose inhabitants never leave the confines of their castles on foot, believe their San Francisco friends about the terrifying things that happen "out in the ghetto" (direct quote from inside castle walls), and then repeat it as if it's the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And thank God for those gates. Except OH MY GOD THE GHETTO PEOPLE CAN CLIMB OVER THE WALLS! As we speak, the building of a moat and the installation of vats for boiling oil is being discussed on at least one Whitey Castle email list.

3. It's vital to the self-identity of the Burner Art Geek Man-Boys that they live in an Extremely Dangerous Urban Mad Max Wasteland, and the Self-Identity Protection Shield they have built from steampunk recycled metal parts prevents them from seeing the working class and middle class families and schools and churches.

2. It's vital to the self-identity of the Other Burner Art Geek Man-Boys who don't live in Oakland that their monthly trip to the Crucible is a Big, Dangerous Deal.

1. It's vital to the petit bourgeois sensibility of people who spend 75% of their income on crappy real estate in San Francisco that all of Oakland, but especially West Oakland where their much cooler Burner Art Geek Man-Boy software company colleagues live for about 25% of the cost, is a dangerous, ugly, scary hellhole where only idiots and criminals can possibly live. It's NOT cool! No way! It can't be cool because they are paying SO MUCH MORE to live in The Mission.

Portal Development

2010-08-25T11:48:00.001-07:00

Here are the pothole portals and temporary graffiti on day 3 since they appeared. Sands of time, shells of souls.

Calling all Blowjob Fans

2010-08-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

Our block is a popular blowjob destination, possibly an unfortunate side effect of our lovely, shade-providing trees. I'm no prude, and I can appreciate that a professionally administered blowjob can be a wonderful stress reliever and provide many other benefits that science will shortly discover.

But can y'all go somewhere else to do it? I'm tired of seeing it! Once you've seen six or seven blowjobs taking place in a different vehicles, you pretty much don't need more variation than that. It's not that special.

Almost every house on this block has kids, too. And a lot of our windows are high enough up that your lunch hour blowjobs are very VERY much visible to our kids, should they happen to glance out the window. I don't think it necessarily causes irreversible damage to them, but I'd still rather not have commercial sex be something they are actually watching happen at, like, age eight. You know what I mean?

If you think this kind of thing is fine for kids to see, do it in front of your own kids. And if you don't think it's annoying to have it happen in front of your house, do it in front of your own house!

And since that is probably not a realistic option, would you please just pick a block in West Oakland that's industrial, as opposed to residential? It's not like it's hard to find, you know. It's not any harder than finding a prostitute.

All blowjob aficionados that we see on our block are photographed, and from now on the photographs will be published here and license plate numbers will be provided upon request.

Thank you.

Portals in the Night

2010-08-22T22:46:00.000-07:00

Myrtle Street pothole portals glowing in the night.

Temporary Graffiti

2010-08-22T16:01:00.001-07:00

Another message from the netherworld?

The Pothole as Portal

2010-08-22T15:51:00.000-07:00

Some potholes near the Myrtle Street Review Headquarters have turned into magical portals, with messages from the Netherworld.

Extreme caution is advised around the portals, as the vortex may still be functioning and may suck unsuspecting bystanders into magical realms. Or push otherworldly entities into ours.

The Myrtle Street Review strongly advises that everyone just do as we are told by the netherworld people.

Shoes in the Revolution

2010-08-20T22:10:00.001-07:00

Melissa and Bobo had left behind these shoes for Brandon. They will be extremely useful in the Revolution, being Adidas and therefore of good quality.

The Revolution will start on Wood Street, near 26th.

Block Party Strawberry Dessert Recipe

2010-08-05T08:27:00.001-07:00

Several people asked for the recipe for the strawberry dessert I made for the block party, so here goes. It's based on a lavender honey recipe I learned from my dad, and on an Italian-style dessert my mom makes every summer.

Ingredients:

honey

dried or fresh lavender flowers

2-3 pints strawberries

1 pint heavy whipping cream

2-3 tbsp sugar

1 drop vanilla essence

5 oz meringues (Size and shape is irrelevant, as these will be crumbled. I used a package of Spaan's vanilla meringue cookies from Whole Foods this time, but I prefer to use the amazing meringues geantes made by Siew-Chinn Chin for the Pop Up General Store - they are magnificent.)

Method:

Start in the morning or the day before by infusing your honey with lavender. I usually buy a squeeze bottle of good, runny honey and add 2-3 tbsp dried lavender flowers to it and just let it sit. I don't strain the flowers out, they add a fun bitter note if some end up in the dessert. I infuse a whole bottle at a time, because lavender honey is good to have around for various applications, like making salad dressings and putting on ice cream. But you could just do a smaller amount.

When it's time to make the dessert, cut your strawberries into halves or quarters, depending on size, and discard the greenery. Leave 5-6 strawberries whole, for decoration. Beat the cream in a mixer or by hand into a nice, fluffy, reasonably solid whipped cream, adding the sugar and vanilla essence to it towards the end.

Put about 1/4 of your total strawberries in the bottom of a large serving bowl. Drizzle with 2-3 tbsp lavender honey. Crumble about 1/4 of your total meringue on top of this. Then ladle in about 1/4 of your total whipped cream. Keep layering like this until you finish with whipped cream. Garnish with whole strawberries and drizzle a little bit more honey on top.

The lavender honey may feel like a cumbersome extra step, but it really adds something special to the dish. An unexpected and refined kind of note.

Serve with good, strong coffee.

Winners of this year's People's Award

2010-08-04T13:23:00.001-07:00

Winners of this year's People's Award, given for general awesomeness by John and Sussu, People, are here: Alex and Christopher.

They are our neighbors and this is why we love them:

They planted trees and other plants up and down our block, making our urban environment healthier and more beautiful. They water and care for the trees and plants, making sure they get a great start.

They make sure our block is cleaner and more secure.

They have beautiful smiles and they are generous with them.

They have made two houses beautiful on our block.

They offer friendship, support and advise to all who ask and need it.

They build relationships with the Oakland Police Officers who come to our block and make them feel welcome.

They brought us new lovely neighbors.

They have great style.

They are the kind of neighbors anyone would be extremely lucky to have and WE GET TO HAVE THEM.

Thank you Alex and Christopher for everything beautiful you do, and for the neighborly friendship, energy, creativity and positivity you so generously share.

National Night Out

2010-08-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

This year's National Night Out Block Party on our block was insanely cool. It was rather like the unbelievable ending of a cheesy Hollywood movie where all the neighbors show up and start singing and dancing, and somehow they are all ridiculously talented and put on a world class show and you're watching the movie and you think, yeah. Like that would ever happen in reality.

Except last night IT DID. All I had to do was step outside my door and there was a stage, and sound system, and pretty soon really unbelievable things were happening on that stage! Singing by massively talented ladies. MC:ing by massively talented gentlemen. Spoken word poetry that was real and powerful and moving. Prayers that were heartfelt and uplifting. Praise dancing that was moving and beautiful. Jessi and Eddie showed up again to do their fabulous fire hooping and fire spinning. It was electrifying all around.

There was lots of great food, too, and the requisite bouncy house and cotton candy and popcorn, and lots of smiling friendly people spreading positive vibrations.

I've lived in lots of places, but this is the first time in my life that I feel that I have real neighbors.

Thank you Tony, Alex, Christopher, John, and David, for doing the heavy lifting this year and producing an event that was even cooler than last year's! I think we are on a roll. I think we are changing the world: one corner of it at a time.

Love is in the air.

Specimen is Missing

2010-07-24T14:47:00.000-07:00

The specimen from this biohazard bag I found in front of my door has escaped. If you find a lost specimen wandering around, contact the Myrtle Street Review and we will put it back in the bag.

Parking Lot Art

2010-07-18T17:54:00.001-07:00

This intricate map on the Myrtle Street Review Headquarters parking lot depicts the location of the underworld lion.

Call for Artists: Come to Sugar Mama!

2010-05-14T11:12:00.000-07:00

Artist, Writers, Musicians, Performers: Need a way to bankroll your great idea?

Come to Sugar Mama!

We provide wholesome, hearty, home-baked, all-natural microfinancing for artists, and we put the fun back in funding.

What it is

Sugar Mama is a fun-hearted, unpretentious microfinancing event for visual and performing artists.

How it works

We host a cool party at the Myrtle Street Review Headquarters in West Oakland. We sell the tickets. You − and 5 other finalists − give a 10-minute proposal to show the audience your project. The party guests eat soup, drink beer, and vote on which project to fund. The winner takes the proceeds to fund a project. (Tickets sell for $25-35, and we expect to sell 40-50 tickets.)

What you get (if you’re a finalist)

If you win the vote, you’ll receive the evening’s proceeds to fund your project.

If you don't win, you'll still get to meet 40-50 really cool people who want to support artists, may be artists themselves, and are interested in getting to know you and your work.

How to enter

Send a brief proposal to sugarmamaparty at gmail dot com. Please cover all these bases:

Your name
Your contact info
Tell us what you’ll do with your Sugar Mama grant (Include a general description of the project you’d like to fund and a list of items/supplies/services you’ll spend the money on and their estimated costs.)
Give us a little background information about what you’ve been working on that led you to this project and how your idea unfolded.
Include images, audio, video or a url that will give us a good sense of your general style and/or a project you’ve completed in the recent past.
Paste or attach your artist’s resume/bio. (Your resume will not weigh heavily in the selection process. We’ll use it mainly to cull a few highlights so we can better introduce you to our guests.)

Entry deadline: June 3

Act now! The first 10 submissions will enjoy slightly higher priority.

What we’ll ask for later

We’ll ask the grand-prize winner to keep us posted with news and photos/video/web site of your project in progress and upon completion.

What’s the deal?

We’re not a public agency. We’re not a non-profit organization. We’re two well-connected individuals, Sussu Laaksonen and Kris Vagner, combining our resources. We heard about Sloup on NPR and promptly decided to copy the excellent concept.

Sugar Mama's mission is to make being an arts patron fun, easy and accessible to everyone and to fund cool projects quickly, easily, directly and democratically.

Sussu Laaksonen is a script writer with hundreds of hours of Finnish television programming and two screenplays to her credit. Currently she’s working on a Finnish feature film called “Like There's No Tomorrow” (Kuin viimeistä päivää) for Helsinki-Filmi, a TV series concept, and a feature project that's still a secret. Sussu’s IMDB credits are listed under Susanna Laaksonen, her legal name. You can reach her at sussubot at gmail dot com.

Kris Vagner is the former Co-owner and Programs Director of Fireplace Gallery in Reno. She specializes in connecting artists with new audiences and illuminating the inner-workings of artists, exhibits and arts institutions for a general readership. She covers San Francisco art and culture for the SF Examiner and has written for Oats Park Art Center, Johansson Projects Gallery, East Bay Express, The Oakbook, Reno News & Review, Neon, Ceramics Monthly and other publications. For links to recent articles, please visit www.krisvagner.blogspot.com. You can reach her at kris at vagner dot net.

Why do we do it?

Brooklyn has FEAST. Portland has Stock. St. Louis has Sloup. We heard about Sloup on NPR’s Marketplace, drank some wine on Sussu’s roof and cooked up our own version of the party-as-arts-funding plan. Now Oakland has Sugar Mama.

We've been in the position of needing just a little funding to do something we believe in. We've also been patrons of the arts when we can afford it. We believe in supporting other artists and creating enthusiastic community. Sugar Mama is a way of bringing together the things we love to do, and some of the cool people we like to do them with.

Questions?

We’d love to hear from you. Contact us at sugarmamaparty at gmail dot com.

Guerrilla Garden Fruit

2010-04-18T21:54:00.000-07:00

Well what do you know, now the tree in the middle of the Myrtle Street Review Guerrilla Garden is bearing fruit of poetry. Here's the current poem (which originated from Stephanie Stolorow's yoga class at Square One). If you'd like to pick the fruit, find this tree and just take it. I bet a new one will pop up!

One day the sun admitted:
I am just a shadow.
I wish I could show you
the infinite incandescence
that has cast my brilliant image.
I wish I could show you,
when you are lonely or in darkness,
the astonishing light
of your own being.

- Hafiz, a 14th century Persian poet

Inventor of Trampoline Dead

2010-04-09T19:26:00.000-07:00

George Nissen, builder of the world's first trampoline, died today at age 96. He lived to such a high age, no doubt, due to the exhilarating and fitness-enhancing powers of the trampoline. It's a good thing we have a trampoline on our roof to jump on.

George Nissen was trampolining (or tumbling, as the official sport is called) almost to the end of his life.

In 2008, he said "I feel that I should have never left the sport. I should have remained as a coach or something involved in the sport as a profession. I love this sport, and it is the single most exciting thing that I have ever done in my life. When I was active in the sport I woke up every day with a smile on my face, a goal in my head, and a positive attitude on how the day was going to go."

He thought that giving up on the most fun thing in his life, and following others' advise to have a sensible professional career, was his biggest mistake. That's something to think about.

Very Mobile Homes

2010-04-09T13:01:00.000-07:00

This guy called Paul made a bike trailer house for Burning Man. It has wind turbine power, a solar cooker and solar water heating. You can read about it and see pictures here.

Since a lot of people liked it, he had a design challenge on his blog for people to create a mobile home for homeless people, that you could use as a pushcart for recycling collection by day, and as a shelter for sleeping and living for night. It has a toilet, cooler, cooker, and everything. Incredible. I'd still prefer that homeless people have homes, but I guess this could be like a band-aid until then.

West Oakland Historic Bike Ride

2010-04-06T10:45:00.000-07:00

The awesome local bike shop, Bikes4Life, organized this bike ride on March 27. Did you know that the DeFremery Park is Oakland's first park? You'll learn that and many other interesting facts on the video. Hopefully there will be more rides soon! Check the Bikes4Life website for future dates, and stop by to check out their bikes or work on your own bike in their work space.

I miss those scraper bike guys, too, I wish they'd ride around the neighborhood again!

Cool graffiti

2010-04-03T20:38:00.001-07:00

A wall full of space aliens near their secret landing site at 26th and Peralta.

Birthday post

2010-04-02T16:40:00.000-07:00

It's my birthday and Good Friday, and here's another note from the Analog Myrtle Street Review notebook.

Is it a craze yet?

2010-04-01T14:14:00.000-07:00

Another pothole gardener! And he blogs about it!

Community, evolution, and business

2010-03-31T14:15:00.000-07:00

I don't usually blog about businesses - there are lots of great Oakland blogs featuring our local small businesses and their offerings, and I love to read those and try to always support local when I can. Since that area is covered by so many talented, enthusiastic bloggers I don't feel like there is a need for me to be in that niche.

The reason I'm going to make an exception and write a little bit about Square One Yoga Collective (in Emeryville, a mere 2 miles from my house) is that for me, they are such a great representation of a trend I believe in and see as the way of the future. Square One looks to me like a business that is a strong, authentic expression of a person's beliefs and mission. The business is oddly stripped of "appearances" and that vaguely annoying and fake feeling that comes when yoga studios and other businesses are trying to be something that they think they should be to get my attention. You know that feeling you get when a yoga teacher is giving you "spiritual" teaching despite clearly being an ego-driven mess themselves? Or when a restaurant is so enthusiastic about its superiority you know that they don't actually buy their own hype? That awful saccharine taste of Marketing? It's so last decade. Last century, even.

I have been reading the blog by Square One's owner, Katy, and reveling in the naked realness of it. This is near-complete transparency. I have never before been a customer of anyone who so frankly shared the annoyances, triumphs, insecurities, and daily grind of being a business owner. She's not trying to make it pretty for fear that her customers can't handle real.

It's powerful. It's not why I've chosen this yoga studio - I like the studio and the teachers and think that they offer excellent value for my money - but it's incredibly liberating for me as a customer and student. It builds trust, because I feel like I am not paying for a fake image, I am just paying for a service that I appreciate. The lack of frills and the startling honesty may be why I commit to this yoga studio.

In a world full of people trying too hard, it's truly refreshing to engage with people who are just honestly trying.

Reaction to Balls

2010-03-30T12:46:00.000-07:00

A brief message stating "Suck ma balls" elicited this fantastic response from a random poet in the Myrtle Street Review Live Notebook:

Long day running
that sharp cactus
over there
so calm and
patient compared
to me
But exitable
is good too.
My balls
debate.
Gotta go!

Myrtle Street Harvest

2010-03-29T17:54:00.000-07:00

For the next few days, I will be posting some of the delightful harvest from the Live Myrtle Street Review Notebook. The first one is from our friend Gene at the great Our Oakland. Hi, Gene!

New Garden

2010-03-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

A few pics from the Official Myrtle Street Review Guerrilla Garden.

Spring in the Parking Lot

2010-03-28T19:12:00.000-07:00

The earth beneath our parking lot is particularly fertile. Aloe, small trees, and other plant life are constantly forcing their way to the surface and asserting their photosynthetical needs.

This is due to weather and other conditions in the netherworld - as I wrote earlier, everything there is upside down to us, so their water pressure and stomping herds of dead livestock push things out on our side of reality.

Give feedback to Oakland Police!

2010-03-11T18:06:00.001-08:00

The OPD is working on their Strategic Plan Framework, and asking for feedback from the community. Go answer this brief survey, and be a part of making a difference.

My feedback includes suggesting they just call it a Strategic Plan. The word "framework" is totally unnecessary.

Pothole Gardens

2010-03-10T10:49:00.000-08:00

Pothole gardening is the way of the future. I've guerrilla gardened the square of dirt around the tree in the sidewalk in front of our door, and this is where I'll take my efforts next. Join me in a silent, and really pretty, demonstration!

Gardens spotted on Apartment Therapy.

Arctic Psychedelia

2010-03-01T13:29:00.000-08:00

Oh what the heck. Call it Finnish Psychedelia Week on Myrtle Street Review. Hertta Lussu Ässä can be found on MySpace and Last FM. The trio consists of the artists Lau Nau, Kuupuu and Islaja.

Pretty Music from Finland

2010-03-01T11:38:00.000-08:00

It's still snowing in Finland. Here is a pretty music video that sounds like February light.

Easter Island Project - The Seeds

2010-02-28T20:29:00.001-08:00

In April last year, the beautiful and talented Tiffany Lee Brown held a participatory art event here at the Myrtle Street Review headquarters. She shared a video of all the seeds created at her various events, some created here on Myrtle Street:

seeds of easter island feb 2010 from tiffany lee brown on Vimeo.

We hope to welcome People's Grocery!

2010-01-13T19:14:00.000-08:00

This week's Grub Box newsletter had very exciting news!

"...we are working on (...) the corner of Filbert St. and 30th St. in West Oakland. It is a 1/3 acre property that has tremendous potential to become an urban farm and training center. People’s Grocery is working with the owner of the property, the Northern California Community Loan Fund (NCCLF), to develop site plans, secure a conditional use permit and establish a lease with NCCLF. We are grateful to NCCLF for presenting this opportunity to People’s Grocery and providing us with funding in support of the planning and development of the site."

I can't imagine more exciting news to kick off 2010! Our own, very cool, excellent, neighborhood urban farm, just one block over! Back when I asked Myrtle Street Review readers to wish us well on our hopes for a community garden – this is even better. If you wished us well, thank you very much.

I look forward to supporting the People's Grocery in any way we can, and can't wait to see them at our next block party!

Specimens of Bafflement

2010-01-05T23:57:00.000-08:00

Objects to bury around West Oakland to confuse future archaeologists: (all these can be found at our house)

- Kikkerland head massager

- Glowing Orb

- Toy rooster with real feathers

- Plastic skull, real size, economy model from The Bone Room

- Robot pencil sharpener

- 15-foot chain of rubber bands

- plastic jar with vertebrae, probably from a fox

- Yoga Toes toe stretchers

- star-shaped ice cube mold, silicone

Archaeological Responsibilities

2010-01-05T17:14:00.000-08:00

I have been reading the absolutely fascinating report from the Cypress Archaeology Project, and marveling about the rich history of West Oakland. In case you didn't know, when Caltrans reconstructed the part of Freeway 880 that collapsed in the 1989 earthquake, they contracted the Anthropological Studies Center at Sonoma State University to examine the area, in compliance with section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

So between 1994 and 1996, the archaeologists dug up artifacts all the way back to the Victorian era: tea sets, cutlery, dolls, tools, bottles, witch balls, decorative objects, religious objects. They wrote really interesting reports that reveal a vibrant, diverse, cosmopolitan community. They examined gender politics, race relations, and social class distinctions. From what they wrote, it looks like West Oakland used to be an urban planner's dream: a socially and racially diverse, "walkable" community with easy access to shopping and services.

When we toss stuff in West Oakland now, we are leaving a picture of our lives for future archaeologists. I am thinking about burying some weird stuff just to provide a bit of a head-scratcher.

How the U.S. will break up this year

2010-01-04T10:53:00.001-08:00

Igor Panarin from the FSB (formerly known as the KGB) has been predicting the “moral and economic collapse” of the US for ten years. According to Igor, it will all fall apart in 2010.

The break-up predicted by Panarin would be the result of mass immigration, economic decline and moral degradation, all of which would trigger a second American civil war, and the collapse of the dollar. This would then lead to the break-up of the United States, by mid-2010, into half a dozen regional sub-entities. These would be dominated or absorbed outright by foreign powers.

Alaska would revert to Russia, and Hawaii would become Chinese or Japanese.
The West Coast (the three Pacific states, joined with Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Arizona in a Californian Republic), would fall to China or at least be under Chinese influence.
A Texas Republic, which would also include New Mexico, Oklahoma and all the other traditionally southern states (except the Carolinas, the Virginias, Kentucky and Tennessee), would similarly be either directly or indirectly under the sway of Mexico.
The aforementioned southern exceptions would join the northeastern states in forming a bloc that might join the European Union.
The rest – all midwestern and western states – would be at Canada’s mercy.

I wonder what "moral degradation" looks like from a KGB perspective?

Item spotted on Strange Maps.

How to get rid of neo-nazis and other right wing loonies

2010-01-03T14:20:00.000-08:00

The Auschwitz Arbeit Mach Frei sign theft was organized by Swedish Neo-nazis, on commission from a wealthy British collector. The Neo-nazis were going to fund terrorism attacks in Sweden with the proceeds.

Which gives me some ideas. Since right wing loonies are hungry for terrorism cash and largely not in the top intellectual percentile, let's all start pretending to be wealthy evil masterminds and sending them on wild goose chases after crazy shit that will get them caught!

Go steal the Hope Diamond! Donald Trump's hairpiece! Dick Cheney's rifle! Go smuggle Barbies into North Korea! I'll pay you ten million as soon as you're done, I promise.

Speaking of Cheney, for being completely irrelevant these people sure manage to get press.

Photo from Mean Streets.

Happy Christmas!

2009-12-24T17:17:00.000-08:00

We built this gingerbread draft house from plans provided by HouMinn Practice on Hometta.

It came out quite a bit more irregular than the model provided, but then we're pretty irregular people so it's understandable.

HouMinn's istructions included everything from eggnog breaks to candy tasting, which was extremely helpful.

Here's wishing Happy Christmas, and if you don't celebrate Christmas, a Wonderful New Year!

House on fire on Myrtle Street

2009-12-22T16:06:00.001-08:00

Right now on our corner:

Champagne Glögg

2009-12-18T11:03:00.000-08:00

This glögg, untypically, is served cold.

1 bottle champagne or sparkling wine (dry or semi-dry)

1 cup apple or grape juice

3 tbsp sugar

1 tsp grated orange zest

1-inch chunk of fresh ginger

1 bay leaf

3 cardamom seed pods

1 star anise

Heat juice, sugar and spices. Let steep for an hour or two. Strain. Let cool. Pour a half bar measure of spiced juice in the bottom of champagne glasses, fill with champagne or sparkling wine. (You can adjust juice ratio to taste.) Garnish with a little bit of gold sprinkle or a seasonal flower.

Non-alcoholic Blueberry Glögg

2009-12-17T10:13:00.000-08:00

1 quart blueberry juice

3 cinnamon sticks

1 chunk of fresh ginger

dash of vanilla essence

2 cardamom pods

1/2 cup of blackcurrant juice concentrate

1 cup water

Heat juices, water and spices, let steep for an hour or so. Strain. Reheat whenever you want to serve glögg. Garnish with dried blueberries.

Rum Glögg

2009-12-16T16:24:00.000-08:00

1 bottle of white wine

1/2 cup rum

a chunk of fresh ginger

1 star anise

3 cinnamon sticks

raisins and almonds

Gently heat wine and spices, let sit for an hour or two. Strain. Re-heat, add rum, serve garnished with raisins and almonds.

Reindeer Meat on Myrtle Street

2009-12-15T13:46:00.000-08:00

Reindeer meat is now available in the Bi-Rite in the Mission in San Francisco. Here at the Myrtle Street Review headquarters, reindeer stew is definitely going on the Christmas menu! Here's how to make authentic Finnish reindeer stew, or Poronkäristys. You can also read an article about it here.

800 gr sliced reindeer (poronkäristysliha)
50 gr butter
3 dl beer*
2 small onions
1 ½ tsp salt
3 tbs flour
½ tsp ground black or white pepper

*Instead of beer, you can use cream or water to prepare the Sautéed Reindeer Sauce.

Brown the sliced reindeer meat and chopped onions in butter, preferably in a cast iron casserole pot. Season the meat with salt and pepper and add the flour, stir. Add the beer and stir again.
Place the lid on top of the pot and allow to simmer at a low heat for approximately one hour.

Serve the Sautéed Reindeer Sauce hot together with mashed potatoes, lingonberry jam, pickled beetroots and pickled cucumbers.

(From Finnguide.)

Blonde Glögg with Extra Spices

2009-12-15T13:31:00.000-08:00

1 quart cider

1 cinnamon stick

1 chunk fresh ginger

1 star anise

4 whole cloves

2 cardamom seed pods

1 big chunk clementine peel

1 tsp vanilla essence

1/2 quart white wine

vodka to taste

Heat juice and spices, let steep for a half an hour. Strain. Reheat, add wine and booze, serve garnished with raisins and chopped almonds.

Apricot Glögg

2009-12-14T13:10:00.001-08:00

1 quart apple juice

4-5 whole cloves

a small chunk of fresh ginger

5-6 cardamom seed pods

1 cinnamon stick

apricot liqueur

dried apricots

toasted almond flakes

Heat the juice and spices, let simmer for 10 minutes. You can let the spices and juice sit until you need them.

Strain spices from juice, heat. Pour into serving glasses and add liqueur to taste. Garnish with sliced dried apricots and almond flakes.

If you can't find apricot liqueur, here is how to make your own.

Blonde Glögg with Cognac

2009-12-12T11:11:00.000-08:00

1 large chunk candied ginger
3 cinnamon sticks

8 cardamom seed pods
5-6 whole cloves
1 cup cognac
1 quart apple juice or grape juice
brown sugar

Put the spices and the cognac in a glass jar with a tight lid, and let sit for at least two days. Heat the juice, pour into serving glasses, and add as much spiced cognac and sugar as you like.

Garnish with gold leaf.

Syrup-based White Wine Glögg

2009-12-09T21:37:00.000-08:00

1 bottle white wine
1 lemon

Syrup:
1 cup pale syrup
12 cardamom seed pods
2 star anis pods
1 cinnamon stick
3-4 cloves

Blend syrup ingredients and bring to a boil. Keep on medium heat for 5 minutes, keep mixing. Cool the syrup and let sit up to several hours, to infuse the flavors.

Heat white wine gently. Put a tablespoon of the syrup in each glass, fill with heated white wine. Garnish with a lemon slice. Serve.

Holiday Sangria

2009-12-09T05:22:00.000-08:00

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 cup water
1 bottle red wine
(3 tbsp orange liqueur)
lemon slices
orange slices
3 whole cloves
1 piece of cinnamon bark

Heat the sugar, orange juice and water. Add spices and fruit slices, steep on low heat for 10 minutes. And wine (and liqueur, if you're using it.) Strain. Serve garnished with fresh fruit slices.

Calvados Apple Glögg

2009-12-07T22:49:00.000-08:00

1 bottle of dry white wine
1/2 cup apple juice
1 vanilla pod
1 piece of cinnamon bark
1 tbsp whole cardamom seed pods
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup calvados
1 apple

Slice the apple, place slices in glögg glasses. Put everything except the calvados in a pot, heat. Strain. Add calvados, serve. Sprinkle a few cardamom seed pods in the glasses.

Traditional Glögg

2009-12-07T01:40:00.000-08:00

2 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1-2 cinnamon sticks
10 whole cloves
1 tsp cardamom seeds
piece of ginger
1/2 cup blackcurrant juice
a bottle of red wine
(1/2-1 cup vodka)

Gently boil the water, sugar and spices for 10-15 minutes. Strain. Add blackcurrant juice and wine. Heat the glögg again, without boiling. Add vodka, if you want to serve a strong glögg. Pour into serving glasses with, a teaspoon of raisins and chopped almonds each on the bottom.

Myrtle Street Review Declares Holiday Season open!

2009-12-07T00:03:00.000-08:00

We will help you celebrate with a different glögg recipe each day!

Apple-white wine glögg

1 cup apple juice

half a cup sugar

ten whole cloves

one bay leaf

piece of fresh ginger

1 tbsp grated lemon peel

a bottle of white wine.

Heat. Strain. Enjoy. Serve with and apple slice and cinnamon stick in the glass.

Happy Finnish Independence Day!

2009-12-06T23:59:00.000-08:00

December 6th my native Finland celebrates Independence Day. The President hosts a ball and then we argue about who had the best dress. This year we also pay special attention to our war veterans, this being the 70th anniversary of our Winter War.

The Most Beautiful Objects in the World...

2009-10-12T14:32:00.000-07:00

...have been selected. By some Italians. And who better to judge? Here is the Top Ten List. Pictured on the left is the winner, a fireplace by Focus.

The Comings and Goings of Our Recent House Party

2009-10-12T13:15:00.001-07:00

Myrtle Cam activity from our party last Saturday.

Going on Hiatus-esque Slow Schedule

2009-09-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

The Myrtle Street Review has been rather overtaken of lately by pressing issues. Otherwise known as Life.

This is not the end, but we need to attend to the aforementioned stuff and do this other project.

If you see things that strike you as worthy of our attention, or if you wan to send poetry or other observations for publication, don't be shy! The email link is right there underneath the video image.

Dumpster Diving! No, really!

2009-09-07T21:34:00.000-07:00

What do you do if you are an urban person without a beach or a pool? Drive or take public transport to the nearest beach or pool? Or take a bunch of dumpsters and build yourself a pool? These awesome people in Brooklyn did just that!

It's part of a much bigger, fascinating project: Macrosea have plans to convert entire abandoned strip malls and other urban spaces to awesome centers of culture, business and civic activity, replete with dumpster pools.

If anyone wants to start a project in West Oakland, the Myrtle Street Review is in. We're SO in.

Scandinavian Design Chant

2009-08-31T23:52:00.000-07:00

Chairs are numberless.

I vow to know who designed them.

Bad taste is inexhaustible.

I vow to diminish it.

Designers' ideas are boundless.

I vow to understand them.

Modernism is unsurpassable.

I vow to embrace it.

(Based on The Four Great Vows of Buddhism:
Beings are numberless; I vow to save them.
Delusions are inexhaustible; I vow to end them.
Dharma gates are boundless; I vow to enter them.
Buddha's way is unsurpassable; I vow to become it.)

(Picture from Indymedia Ireland.)

Finnish Interpretation of the National Anthem of the United States

2009-08-29T13:21:00.001-07:00

See? I said Finns care about the USA.

Horizontal Gardens are So Last Year

2009-08-28T15:52:00.001-07:00

Patrick Blanc has designed the "vertical antigravity forest" for the Athenaeum hotel in London. His first vertical garden was in his room when he was a kid, with plant roots in a fish tank.

Wired Magazine has a story about the design and the designer. "I leave horizontal gardens to others. I only think vertically", says the intrepid horticulturist.

Words are Stalking Our Brains

2009-08-26T16:50:00.000-07:00

Approximately 400 000 pages of different kinds of literature are printed in the world every minute. I heard this on NPR but have forgotten who said it. Words are like organisms, they are born, they give birth to new words, they merge, blend, evolve, die. They fill the earth, in myriad languages, dialects, pidgins and slangs. They are printed on paper, they fill the air, spoken, sung, blasted through loudspeakers. They make forays into the deep sea and into space. Perhaps the language crawling out of me, out of my brain, onto these electronic pages, and onwards into your brain as you read, is a parasitical life form, for the time being using us to be born and to live, all the while fooling us into thinking we are its masters and creators. Or perhaps It is God itself, taking form in human words as well as insects, rocks and wind. In the beginning was The Word. Perhaps everything else is shadow.

Concrete poetry is a term coined in the fifties and sixties, when people started using typography as a form of expression. Or perhaps when language the organism, language the monster, language the Great Consciousness incarnate, found a clever way to play a little, to express its independence of us and its ability to reshape our concept of "meaning". Ubuweb has a great collection of conceptual writing, which takes a further leap into language-for-itself, away from expressive writing altogether, revealing language as a narcissist, gazing lovingly at itself in the mirror of the page.

The South African artist Willem Boshoff has a gorgeous body of work which often takes concrete poetry as its starting point. Through Boshoff, language steps into the concrete world as shapes, objects, codes and secrets. Language is an animal of prey, stalking us in what we thought was our safely structured and manicured garden of meaning. In the late nineties Boshoff created a trilogy of works called Tree of Knowledge. One part in the series, Letters to God, celebrates the tree in its sacrificial form - the book. The work studies the fibrous nature and structure of wood, recreating a model of paper under the microscope. The deconstructed wood pieces conceal letters of the Greek alphabet, the forbidden fruits of the tree of knowlegde. The other parts of Tree of Knowledge are Druid's Keyboard and Broken Garden. In all of these works, language lurks dangerously, as a threat to trees and to us.

In Abamfusa Lawula - the purple shall govern, Boshoff gave a concrete form to slogans and chants shouted in African languages in anti-apartheid rallies. Here he celebrates spoken language, its power to transform and question. In Kykafrikaans, he uses a typewriter as a writing instrument, "a crochet needle" and a paintbrush, creating visually ravishing concrete poems. Some of them act as maps that the viewer can only get lost in, glimpsing the occasional sliver of meaning. Accompanying the works, created in the seventies, was originally a recital of words in a church. A startled audience was asked to repeat loudly words such as "church" or "sand" or to assert "peel" as a swearword. Did God hear the question behind what was spoken? Was "peel" "peel" to God, or was the intention what was actually being said? If I ask you to say "peel" as a swearword, and you do, are you swearing or am I? Is the church a church because of its name, or because of the intentions of its builders? Can the real intentions be known? Is God brought into the church with the words that are spoken in it?

In the eighties, Boshoff worked for 370 consecutive days, seven hours every day, carving a wooden calendar detailing his goals and achievements for each day. The intricate blocks are carved out of different types of wood, and were exhibited in giant panels, alphabetized according to the type of wood. After the initial, brief exhibition they were stored in a specially made set of drawers. Part of the key to the secret symbols on the blocks is in two red notebooks, buried within all the wood chips from carving the blocks, in the base of the storage system.

The 370 Days Project seems to me a gorgeous poem about the universe, about the secrets at its root, and about what we can know. A language known only to itself can only reveal itself to us in glimpses, in segments of code, in shapes which we may or may not misinterpret. Finally uninterested in stalking us, having discovered enough entertaining ways to manifest itself through us, language retreats from the garden. We hear only a slight rustle as it, like a jaguar, softly leaps into the great jungle. The story is not something that we can even begin to know. We are left to prune our bushes, plant our flowers in rows and harvest our fruit trees, creating order instead of meaning.

(Information for this post was harvested from Willem Boshoff's website, and the photograph of Letters to God is his copyrighted material.)

This long thing is another one in a series of re-posts from my old blog.

The Hairy Ball Theorem

2009-08-25T20:49:00.001-07:00

Someone had left this message in the real, 3D Myrtle Street Review notebook: "Suck ma hairy balls."

We would like to like to point out here that if the gentleman in question wishes to recruit someone for this undoubtedly enchanting task, he needs to leave his name and phone number in the note book. Also his mother's phone number, if he is underage. Which we would bet pretty decent money he is.

Now, we learn in Wikipedia that the hairy ball theorem of algebraic topology states that there is no nonvanishing continuous tangent vector field on the sphere. If f is a continuous function that assigns a vector in R³ to every point p on a sphere such that f(p) is always tangent to the sphere at p, then there is at least one p such that f(p) = 0. The theorem was first stated by Henri Poincaré in the late 19th century.

The hairy ball theorem has applications in computer graphics. Also, it dictates that given at least some wind on Earth, there must at all times be a cyclone somewhere.

Hairy balls are pretty important things.

As you can see, the Myrtle Street Review is following President Obama's example in turning immature outbursts into teachable moments.

The illustration, from Wikipedia, depicts "a failed attempt to comb a hairy ball flat, leaving an uncombable tuft at each pole."

Metal Humans' Metal Roses

2009-08-24T22:19:00.000-07:00

When metal humans have metallic desires or tinny regrets or fusible fascinations, or when they experience geologic melancholy, they give each other metal roses.

Entire bushes of them grow from the debris of the metal human factory and because they emerge from the discarded pieces of emotional robots, they too exhibit embryonic feelings.

The roses may feel the very first cellular vibrations of excitement or despair, for example.

Sometimes, suddenly, for unknown reasons, they wilt.

Metal Human Crouching In Wait

2009-08-23T20:11:00.000-07:00

This is a picture from the metal human factory at American Steel on Mandela Parkway. Metal humans are different from robots in that they have feelings. They skulk around West Oakland at night silently emoting. If you get struck by an odd feeling in the middle of the night, now you know why.

Things to consider when designing bookcases

2009-08-22T22:35:00.000-07:00

- Do the books look happy on the shelf?

- Does the shelf appear to understand that it is holding the fruits of difficult work which requires deep contemplation and self-knowledge, and is sometimes completed against considerable odds, in great pain?

- Does the bookcase seem aware that books can reach backwards and forwards in time, some having been written thousands of years ago on clay tablets, or hand-copied in the middle ages by devout monks with secret desires, while some tell stories of distant futures; and that books also have considerable reach in space, across cities, deserts, oceans, galaxies, underground and in the sky, and to the molten core of the Earth?

- Is the bookcase capable of playfulness despite the gravity of some literature? Comedy is nothing to be frowned at.

- Does the bookcase not flinch at heavy lifting?

- Is it a bookcase that can keep secrets, hide journals and love letters, or is it an open and democratic one wishing to distribute the benefits of reading to everyone?

- Does the bookcase know what kind of bookcase it is?

- When empty, does the bookcase look lonely and bereft, happy and expectant, or self-satisfied and not in need of any content?

- Is the bookcase's main function to make us feel or think something about ourselves, about bookcases, about literature, or some or all of the above?

- Who can own this bookcase? Is it likely that person owns any books?

- Does the bookcase invite further expansion of the library, and new bookcases?

- And finally, is it a nice color?

I've decided to re-post some of my favorite things from my old blog. This is the first one. The picture is of the Bibliochaise.

Creviche Thorassic makes dessert

2009-08-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

Creviche Thorassic kept putting her emotions away, and because she had unusually large ones, she was running out of space. Her drawers were full, her cupboards were full, she was using up space under her bed and in her crawl space. Everywhere that was out of sight, there were unused emotions. Creviche had learned that you had to rationally and carefully decide which emotions you were going to have and in what order and size, in order to fit them neatly into your schedule and the larger framework of goals that you had set for your life. If the emotions were unpleasant, there was the risk that they would last too long, and if they were very pleasurable, it was a disturbing thought that they might end, and so it was clear that it was impossible to both have all the messy emotions and cheerfully fulfill all the roles that life demanded. Snip snip, Creviche would only cuf off little samples of each emotion to try, and then she stuffed them out of sight before they got out of control in any way.

The emotions were simply lying in wait, of course. Like a cat getting positioned to pounce, they were staring through cracks and holes and wiggling their butts quietly in the dark. One day, their moment would come.

Nobody was prepared for it - not Creviche, nor the emotions - when it actually happened. On a perfectly ordinary Wednesday afternoon La Cumparsita was playing on the stereo and Creviche was making dulce de leche and thinking about how Argentinians invented it, as well as tango and matches and fingerprints, when suddenly everything broke loose at once. Creviche suddendly could no longer stand her carefully manicured life, and started pulling everything open, and the emotions started thundering out of their hiding places, and suddenly there was a storm of activity and tango and feeling and madness and dulce de leche, and Creviche pulled out long lost emotions and tossed all her boxes and drawers and suitcases and bags onto the street, and she was lost in a tornado of feeling and blown into the sky with her pot of custard, and she flew and flew for a long time and thought she might end up in the moon.

Video footage from the party

2009-08-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

From 6PM to 8PM. Unfortunately the hard disk filled up and we had a video outage from 8PM onwards.

Aerial View of Le Bouncy Castle

2009-08-05T22:57:00.001-07:00

It's official: we are awesome

2009-08-05T22:37:00.000-07:00

Thank you everyone who brought beautiful energy and joy to our National Night Out Block Party: Michelle for amazing food and for organizing the beautiful dancers from the historic Greater St. John Missionary Baptist Church and for total sound system rescue; Chistopher and Alex for more gorgeous food and friendship and service and graciously serving our ONE HUNDRED PLUS guests; Francisco and family for more lovely food and positive vibrations; David and Zaya for the table tennis arrangements and food and last minute ice run; Tony for the best tri tip in the history of grilling; Red for being her usual beautiful centered love energy emanator; Charlene and David and Kellie and Jean and kids and Tony again for being our anchor and the soul and history of our block; Amana for making so many little boys and girls happy with magical face paintings; Susan and family for even more food and for the most beautiful smiles and energy; the talented, gorgeous, inspiring Jessie and Eddie for performing with fire and light for us and inspiring our kids; Steven and Dwight for helping us out so generously and for being there and being gorgeous; the Oakland Fire Department for showing up and smiling and giving fire hats to the kids and setting many ladies' and some of the gentlemen's hearts aflutter; representatives of OPD and the City of Oakland for making a gracious, friendly, smiling appearance; and everyone else who showed up and contributed and smiled and shared and showed each other the real meaning of the word community. This is what it's all about. We should all be very proud of each other. Peace!

The trouble with Finnish people and American television

2009-07-29T08:28:00.000-07:00

Americans, by and far, make very good television programs, and Finnish people, by and far, believe that they are all literally true. I know this, because when I go to Finland, people invariably lecture me on what life in the United States is like. They never ask me what it is like - never, once - and they get really mad if I try to correct something they say.

When you live in a small country, it's very difficult to imagine what life in a big country is like. If I try to talk about how there are big regional differences in the US, Finns nod impatiently and tell me they understand; they've seen it all on TV and they point out that it's not like there aren't regional differences in Finland. (There aren't. Those are not differences, they are slight variations of the same thing.) One Finn gave me a long lecture about the "Deep South", during which it turned out he had not realized that any black people live in the South.

Finns know in theory that there are African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Caribbean Americans, Russian Americans, Indian Americans, Native Americans, and many, many, other kinds of Americans. But it doesn't make much practical sense to them. There are more American space aliens on their TV than there are, say, Asian Americans or Latinos. The picture Finnish people see in their mind when they think "American person" is always a white person. A white, stupid person who has married his cousin and goes on the Jerry Springer Show to rant because she is actually a man. Sometimes Finnish people remember there are black people who work in sports or entertainment or deal drugs. One of my Finnish friends told me that as far as he knows, African American people are constantly having barbeques. I told him I know African Americans who are vegetarians, and he shook his head in dismay. This was not what he had learned from Boston Legal.

A well written TV show or movie creates a believable, powerful world that seems whole and real. A multitude of great, well written shows create a powerful illusion of a place called "the United States". It's not the real Unites States, not even close - but it shares some aspects of reality, and it's really engaging and it seems really real. For a person with no actual experience of the United States, it begins to seem like that must be what it's like to live there. If I tell Finnish people something that contradicts what they saw on fictional TV shows, they simply tell me I am wrong or my experience does not represent "real America". "Real America" is Six Feet Under and Sex in the City and Doctor Phil. A lot of people in this world believe that the '80s in the USA were actually like Dynasty and Miami Vice.

The other problem with American television is that it has turned Finns into psychobabbly whiners. Finns have this self-image of being very stoic, quiet and dignified people, but try asking one how they are doing. They simply won't shut up. They complain and complain about how difficult and challenging their life is in one of the richest countries in the world, with free health care, because they are so very oppressed by having to learn Swedish. Finns already thought they were a deeply victimized people (because Russians and Swedes used to take turns running our country until 90 years ago), and now American talk shows have given them the language to not shut up about it. At all. Especially middle-aged Finnish men, you might have guessed, have discovered that their civil rights have been entirely trampled by feminists and immigrants, and they demand therapy.

I saw a letter to the editor in a Finnish newspaper, in Finnish, addressed to President Obama. I swear some people there know more about the internal workings of the White House - from West Wing - than about the Finnish presidency or parliament. Their lives are filled with American stories and American ideas. They participate, amongst themselves, in American debates about American issues with American terminology, thinking that they actually understand America. I'm not blaming Americans for this. The program buyers for Finnish TV stations are, obviously, Finns. The journalists reporting celebrity culture as news are also Finns. The people basing their opinions on fiction and not questioning their own culture are, guess what, Finns. It's mostly the intellectual laziness of Finns that is slowly turning Finland into a cartoon version of the United States.

How to talk to Finnish people about American health care

2009-07-28T20:10:00.000-07:00

"You've been brainwashed. Your American husband has brainwashed you." So said a casual acquaintance in Helsinki after I had tried to assert that I, in fact, do have some semblance of health care in the United States. Finnish people like to believe that nobody in the United States has any access to doctors. They think that Americans are all fat, sick and dying, except the ones who are on crack, skinny and dying. This may be Darwinistic wishful thinking. Finns don't have a very big talent pool, so keeping as many people as possible healthily competing in the global marketplace is an attractive proposition, especially if the Americans are failing on that front. Finland has free healthcare and education, and Finns must put some hope in Americans messing up their people as well as their economy. I mean, how else are small countries going to compete? Luckily, Americans put their wet clothes in electrical driers bought with credit cards even though the very air itself dries laundry for free, and drive cars the size of tanks just so they can say they do it, even if it bankrupts them, while eating and medicating themselves into oblivion. So there is hope for Nokia. This I am told by all the Finns who know America better than I do, because they see these things on television all the time where things are made very clear and dramatic. When you live in the US, like me, it tends to be more confusing, and brainwashing is a definite risk, so it's a good thing they set me straight on this stuff.

Finns learn about American health care from incredibly popular American television dramas. They see crowded ER waiting rooms where dying children and raging crackheads commingle as they wait hours and hours for treatment, and that's what they think everyone here has - not just a fifth of Americans. When I tell them about the employer-funded insurance system, they shake their heads in disbelief. A bureaucrat in an insurance office decides what care you are eligible for? That's crazy! Do the bureaucrats even have medical training? Shouldn't this be a decision between a doctor and a patient, like in civilized countries? Finns' bureaucratic nightmare vision of American health care is exactly the same vision right wing Americans have of "socialist" health care. It's a perfect mirror image: left is right, right is left, but otherwise everything is the same. When I show people my elaborate, expensive dental work, paid for mostly by my employer's insurance, Finns point out that my poorer neighbors in this famous West Oakland I am supposed to live in probably don't have access to the same level of dental treatment. How can I smile with my new, white teeth in the 16th best country in the world in good conscience? I don't know what to tell them.

So I do my best to entertain Finnish people with the kind of health care stories they want to hear. I tell them about hospitals with wall to wall hallway carpeting, and they shudder in horror. (Finns regard wall to wall carpeting sort of the same way as amphetamine diet pills: fashionable in the sixties, but fundamentally toxic and dysfunctional.) I tell them about moldy waiting rooms. (Really. I've sat in a waiting room with wall to wall carpeting AND mold on the window panes.) I tell them about doctors who are not so much interested in getting you healthy and out of there, as they are in trying as many expensive diagnostic methods as possible to "eliminate possibilities." Of course they don't want to find out what's wrong with you, because then you would get cured and stop needing their care. This is how I ended up with X-rays, an MRI, medication, and an elaborate treatment plan for my knee before a physical therapist figured out the problem was in my hip and fixed it. The doctor had me convinced that my mild but consistent pain could be caused by any number of serious, life-threatening illnesses that could only be diagnosed using an MRI machine, which happily his clinic happened to have, for a special price only for your insurer my friend. I was worried, so I agreed to the tests. This was a doctor. He's supposed to know what he's talking about. But he never even took a look at my body alignment, which was off so obviously even I could see it when the P.T. pointed it out. Did I mention this physical therapist was not covered by my insurance? Finns love that story. They laugh and laugh and laugh.

I also tell them the story about our (insurance-provided) family doctor who refused to prescribe progestin for postponing my period. Why on earth would I want to do that, he wondered? Because menstruation was incompatible with my weekend plans. What were those plans, exactly? I didn't feel the need to specify - what business is it of his? - so he became increasingly suspicious. He wanted to know if my husband and I "even have sex." Here we have a medical professional who is unable to discuss a woman's reproductive system without thinking about, and demanding information about, her sex life. The doctor seemed entirely confused about birth control pills and low dose progestin pills, and about a woman's right to choose when she goes surfing. He assured me this procedure is entirely unheard-of in all of American medicine, and refused to prescribe the medication. He also refused to give me a referral to a female ob-gyn in the insurer's network, when I said I was not comfortable getting examined by a male doctor. I don't know to this day why the doctor behaved in this fashion. Maybe he felt I was being preposterous for suggesting what treatment I wanted, instead of letting him perform multiple diagnostic analyses with expensive machines and labs. Maybe I needed an MRI to determine that I in fact do have a uterus, or lab tests to make sure I don't have some chemical imbalance that causes frivolous surfing on the weekends.

Undeterred, and by now, quite mad, I booked an appointment at Planned Parenthood. It was the only reproductive health care that was available to me on the kind of schedule I was working with - and besides I'm used to same-day or next-day appointments back home so it never occurred to me that I needed to plan my menstrual cycle months in advance. Planned Parenthood, I tell my Finnish audiences, is a type of organization that provides free or nearly-free health care for people who can't otherwise afford it, so naturally those who can afford health care stand outside the clinic calling themselves "pro-life" and protesting. I exaggerate wildly and describe ducking rotten tomatoes, gunfire and hand grenades to get to my appointment with the female doctor. (In fact, at the Northern California Planned Parenthood I visited, there were no protesters. But Finnish people have seen the near-riot anti-abortion rallies on television and they would call me a brainwashed liar if I claimed there were none, so what do you expect me to do?) I describe talking with a nice doctor whose voice kept being drowned out by gunfire and angry chanting. I describe her tinkling, fairy-like laughter when I told her about our family doctor with the moldy waiting room. "Your doctor is crazy," she said, "in America we postpone our periods all the time! We like to be efficient and productive, and we're not going to let a little menstruation get in our way." Planned Parenthood had ready-made, five-pill period-postponement packets ready to go for clients. I didn't even have to go to a pharmacy. Finnish people sigh in relieved astonishment when I tell them that in America sometimes, cutting edge, modern health care is only available to those who can afford nothing else, and to those desperate enough to visit the pregnant teenagers' clinic. I say I was annoyed, yet proud to pay the full, non-insured price for my health care in support of Planned Parenthood's brave work in the war zone that is American reproductive medicine.

I get a lot of my health care when I'm on vacation in Finland, because it is simpler and faster than begging the insurance company and calling around looking for a doctor who will take me in a few month's time. The Finnish, "socialist" health care is much less Soviet than that, and also there are no wall to wall carpets. The Finnish doctors I go to listen to my cautionary tales about American medicine with what can only be described as train-wreck fascination. I do my best to confirm their existing impressions of the third world state of American health care, and they promise to never ever vote for politicians who want to hurt our imperfect, but basically sane, "socialist" system.

Critical Mass West Oakland Style!

2009-07-25T21:52:00.000-07:00

Today at at little before 7 PM, an awesome procession of scraper bikes passed by our house. It is too bad we were not able to capture the music.

The event was called the Bikes 4 Life Peace Ride.

Thanks, guys - that was very enjoyable! We hope to see you in our neighborhood again.

Ethnic Estonian Sneakers

2009-07-25T10:12:00.000-07:00

Indrek Kaing is an Estonian advertising professional and folk dancer, who wanted to show off the colorful patterns of the traditional outfits off stage, too. He designed a series of sneakers based on regional fabric patterns. Each pair of sneakers says which area of Estonia the pattern is from.

Traditional patterns are all the rage in Estonia right now. The sneakers - as well as mini skirts, vests, and other garments based on folk wear - are the thing to wear this summer.

You can get your pair of patriotic, ethno-centric Estonian fashion accessories from the Rahvusmeened website.

And via this link, you can watch several dozen Estonian girls inexplicably folk dancing in their underpants.

(Item spotted on Helsingin Sanomat, Finnish newspaper, where you can see a picture of Indrek Kaing which I did not post here because he looks kind of dorky.)

Myrtle Street Labs: West Oakland is full of freaks who blog

2009-07-25T00:38:00.000-07:00

Some dangerous-sounding hippie has started another West Oakland blog. Oh, no!

(Okay it is actually my husband.)

Dwell thieves get National Design Award

2009-07-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

Michelle Obama today presented the National Design Awards, and Dwell magazine was a winner in the Corporate and Institutional Achievement category.

Which basically means that I should have gotten the award. Because when I had my previous blog, I sent fan mail to Dwell, telling them I feel like I should give them an award because they are so awesome, and on my blog were posts about the Pimp My City Design Contest, and some other thing which I now forget, which topics then appeared in the next issue of Dwell, when they could have simply hired me to write for them.

Michelle Obama, award please!

I dedicate this post to Stephen Colbert.

We glow

2009-07-24T09:39:00.001-07:00

In case you thought that not every single word here at Myrtle Street Review is true, there is now scientific proof that humans actually glow. Meaning, we emit visible light.

"The researchers found the body glow rose and fell over the day, with its lowest point at 10 a.m. and its peak at 4 p.m., dropping gradually after that. These findings suggest there is light emission linked to our body clocks, most likely due to how our metabolic rhythms fluctuate over the course of the day."

Some humans also naturally glow more than others. You know who you are.

Pigeon Attractor Migrates

2009-07-22T06:16:00.000-07:00

The pigeon attractor has been moved from its location to an undisclosed place after giant, swirling, funnel-shaped pigeon clouds darkened the skies, caused electrical blackouts, spiritual disturbances and political discomfort. Many people claimed to feel an odd ringing sensation in their tooth fillings, and some insisted they saw Jesus in the cloud of pigeons. This was not only reported by religious people; the pigeons were in fact exhibiting hive mind-like behavior and forming patterns representing images of Jesus, Marx, Engels, Freud, King, Obama, Guevara, and inexplicably, Jerry Brown and Richard Nixon. People didn't really freak out until Nixon. At that point, bypassers on Highway 80 alerted radio stations, and the media attention in turn out distressed residents, workers at CASS metals, members of the political class and police. The pigeon attractor was removed in the dead of night by unknown individuals.

The pied pipered pigeons have followed the pigeon attractor, and you may have noticed fewer birds in general in West Oakland.

We suspect the birds as well as the device are in Berkeley.

Ee i ee i Oakland

2009-07-21T09:59:00.001-07:00

In case you didn't know, Ghost Town Farm is the interesting blog of the enterprising Novella Carpenter, who wrote the recently published Farm City - The Education of an Urban Farmer. Her urban homestead is right here in West Oakland, in Ghost Town - complete with pigs, goats, bees and turkeys. Reviews are calling the book "utterly enchanting", "very, very funny", and "an engaging inquiry into our culture's complex relationship with food".

This is one of the things that continues to blow my mind about West Oakland: the multitude of creative, revolutionary, brave and righteous approaches that people are taking to food equality, nutrition, social justice, urban life and environmental protection. So many active, resourceful, inventive people who are in it with all their hearts. The City of Oakland has jewels for residents.

If you haven't yet, get the book and read about a fascinating woman's transformational life. Then have your own revolution. The personal is political, nowhere as much as how we eat and create our homes.

The Dumping of the Debris of Bill

2009-07-20T08:05:00.000-07:00

On Sunday morning at about nine someone dumped a bunch of stuff in front of our door from a gray truck. It appears to be belongings of a fellow named Bill. In the following post, we will take a more detailed look into some of the fascinating specimens found among Bill's stuff.

The Debris of Bill

2009-07-20T07:38:00.001-07:00

The condom wrapper appears to have been dumped before Bill's items, as it seems to have been stepped on and quite ground into the street. Among the recent-looking items are several real estate agents' cards, such as Ann Stanley's at First Pacific Mortgage. Is Bill planning to buy a house? He may go to rock concerts or perhaps he visits construction sites. A well worn pair of mismatched earplugs was in his belongings.

Bill appears to be planning to refurbish his bedroom. A plan is drawn on the backside of a greeting card. The colors include latte and white, and among the details are black piping and a new headboard.

On June 1st, Bill had $3616.01 in his bank account at Wells Fargo. That's pretty good, we congratulate Bill on not spending all his money.

He seems to have gone golfing at the Indian Valley Golf Club with his friends Bob, Mike and John, and checked out something at the Lexus of Marin in San Rafael - or maybe Bill Lamphert is actually his own name.

On May 10th, Bill had a dental appointment in Donald W. Guttman's office, and from the same picture we also learn that he listens to The Traveling Wilburys and it looks like his friends Bob and Tom made a mixtape for him with monkeys on the cover.

The undated card signed by Bill's friends, among them Dave Cormoran, Chad Bennett, Jeff Kline, and The Boys, tells us that Bill is a hospitable host, likes surfing, and is or was about to participate in Survivor (the TV series?) after he threw this party for his friends. Bill also appears to be a fan of the game of cribbage.

We wish Bill all the best in his endeavors and are grateful for this opportunity to get to know him better, but we wouldn't mind if whoever dumped his stuff would come and pick it back up.

Save our sounds too!

2009-07-19T19:45:00.001-07:00

The BBC has an amazing project on their website, Save Our Sounds. Basically it's an interactive map with sound recordings of fascinating, disappearing, mundane and moving sounds from all around the world. Listeners can send in their own sounds and are especially encouraged to send in sounds that they may think are endangered.

If you decide to send some Oakland sounds to the BBC, please notify the Myrtle Street Review at myrtlestreet dot review at gmail dot com! We would love to learn how and what you hear in Oakland.

Garry Knox Bennett - for your local furniture punk needs!

2009-07-19T19:33:00.000-07:00

Garry Knox Bennett courteously responded to my fan mail! I asked him what kind of music he listens to, if any, while he works (secretly hoping it was Social Distortion). Bennett said he listens to music continuously, Ipod and regular - across the board, from classic to country, lots of R & R ('70s) and everything in-between. As eclectic as his work.

His work is also on view locally at Tercera Gallery in Palo Alto and semi-locally at Winfield Gallery in Carmel - so hurry up and grab some if you've got the means! Or just go see and enjoy.

The constructivists are now post-minimalists

2009-07-19T18:40:00.000-07:00

The constructivist street art exhibit on the big building on the corner of Peralta and Mandela Parkway has been dismantled and replaced with this post-minimalist piece. It is clearly meant as a commentary on the fleeting character of our endeavors and the infinite interblending of shadows and boundaries, concrete and abstract, that characterizes the human condition.

Reincarnating McMansions

2009-07-15T13:57:00.000-07:00

A very clever Australian project will take apart a McMansion and rebuild it as two appropriately sized, zero-emissions homes. Also, one hopes, less hideously ugly.

National Night Out is Coming Up!

2009-07-14T07:40:00.000-07:00

National Night Out is on August 4th, and our block will naturally be throwing an awesome event. Stay tuned for details. Meanwhile, you can visit the National Night Out Online Superstore and buy some crap if you feel like you need a baseball cap or glow sticks.

Garry Knox Bennett: Furniture as Punk Rock

2009-07-13T20:04:00.000-07:00

Garry Knox Bennett became infamous in the craft/design community in the seventies when he created a beautiful cabinet with exquisite joinery and drove a twisted two inch nail through the front of it. It was his comment on the craft fetishism of much of the contemporary studio carpentry scene, and it drove the furniture nerds up the wall.

Right now is a great opportunity to see a whole bunch of Bennett if you're in DC. He has designed 82 chairs and counting, 52 of which are currently being exhibited at the American University Museum at the Katzen Center, in an exhibition called Garry Knox Bennett: Call Me Chairmaker.

The now out of print book on Bennett - titled Made in Oakland - has a really great essay on the history of the maker end of the American design scene and especially the Bay Area influence on it. You can get the book used or order it through his website. It's really worth getting to know Bennett's work and the great writing on it.

Some of my favorite earlier pieces are his hilarious lamps, which look like empty tin cans full of various crap - except some of it lights up.

Pictures from Garry Knox Bennett's websites and Limn.

Like a Wine Club but for Art

2009-07-12T19:08:00.000-07:00

Compound Gallery in Oakland has launched an excellent new service, Art in a Box. For a mere $30 or $50 a month, you get a monthly shipment of fine art directly to your home. Innovative, thoughtful, and awesome!