East Bay

The first of hopefully many summer mini-vacations

— By Jane Parton |

On Friday afternoon, I decided to get out of the city and its horrid overcast weather and spend the day drinking beers in a rowboat.

Yes, it was as awesome as it sounds.

We met up in Berkeley and drove out Highway 24 into the picturesque (read: bougie, white) town of Lafayette. In town we failed to find Four Loko anywhere (god, suburbia, get it together!) and ended up buying beer and Cooks instead. At the Lafayette reservoir we rented a rowboat and set out to sea lake pond. I won’t go on about the rest of our afternoon, I just wanted to share this lovely day trip with Uptown readers because I imagine many of us tire of spending every sunny day at Dolores Park and, especially given the impending closures, it’s nice to have alternative places for outdoor daytime drinking.

Although we drove, the Lafayette Reservoir is highly BART-able. Once you’re there, parking is $6 and boat rental is $25 for up to 5 hours. There’s a Safeway pretty nearby for picnic food and drink. If you intend to get Lok’d though, you’ll probably have to make a pit stop in Oakland or be sorely disappointed like we were. More info about the Lafayette Recreation Area can be found here. Let’s go Summer 2010!

Things to do this weekend that don't involve eating a burrito

— By Kristen Haney |

Contrary to the title of this post, the entirety of my weekend will involve eating burritos in the sunny Santa Barbara, hopefully with this dude. But if the lure of $10 nachos and high-fiving sorority sluts during their walk of shame wasn’t such a huge pull, i’d be doing the following things:

Pacific Standard Timeless DVD premiere: FREE STUFF. FREE THINGS. tonight, over at Eve’s Lounge (I got a flyer for there once, so it must be legit), they’re premiering Mochilla’s “Timeless” DVD, which from what I can pick up is about concerts in LA. There’ll be lots of free music, including J-Rocc  of the Beat Junkies, who I suppose is good because the event listing touts him as the West Coast’s greatest living DJ. but who cares? ITS FREE.

Thurs @ 9pm, 575 Howard St.

Shake Me! show: Remember when i wrote about these guys? who am i kidding, limited attention spans and diminished brain cells probably means you’re like “who is this bitch with the cat picture posting things?” Anyways, they’re an East Bay band, but they’re playing in SF at Retox on Saturday, which means you don’t have to cross any significant bodies of water to hear awesome music. The last time they played, people came into my bar sobbing and kept muttering “it was so beautiful. SO beautiful” after the show, so if you want to hear music that would make Mother Theresa feel like she hadnt done enough for this world, head over to Potrero Hill this Saturday. if music isn’t your thing, but strange dudes with buttah teefs dancing and interiors that looks like a 70s porno set in an airplane are, you should DEFINITELY go. Besides, I mean, look how goddamned cute they are. if i wasn’t so invested in my future as a cat lady I’d be all like “let’s go back to my place and watch procedural crime dramas!”

Sat @ 7:30, 628 20th St.

So get on with your bad selves and enjoy San Francisco this weekend. I’ll be back on Monday with a sunburn, hangover, and hopefully stories about how I was made to feel like a cougar at the ripe old age of almost 23. THANKS SANTA BARBARA.

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 

Shake Me!

— By Kristen Haney |

You guys should all check out Shake Me!, an awesome band from Oakland. why?

a) it’s something that doesnt suck in the east bay (I kid, I love the east bay). I know, I know, living in the buttfuck of San Francisco, I am well aware that people won’t travel to the Outer Sunset, much less the East Bay. BUT they’re from Oakland, and BART is a whole lot easier to sleep on than MUNI.  TRUST ME.

b) I’ve seen them play at the Retox (which is in SF, you lazy fucks) and they were great! and this was months ago, so i guarantee now they sound almost like if jesus played instruments (did jesus play instruments? he totally strikes me as a drummer)

c) outside of the band, these guys are truly amazing, all-around good dudes, and I may work with a few of them/slang dranks for a few of them. they’re also all super attractive specimens of man, and if so inclined you can play the fun game of trying to find out which ones are available, married, or engaged. It’s a really fun game, I swear. Plus, their significant others/spouses/fiances are lovely women who generally won’t try and shank you when you yell things like “i’ve totally got a huge boner for that singer/guitarist/bassist/drummer!” or whatever inappropriate things about musicians you like to scream loudly in public.

if the combination of public transportation, jesus, and boners has you convinced, you can catch them this Thursday, the 15th, at The Red Hat in Concord (i know, hiss! the east bay!) or on Saturday, the 24th, back at Retox (San Francisco!). They also play on May 21st at Blakes on Telegraph in Berkeley, where “you havent been to berkeley if you havent’s been to Blake’s.” Since I’ve apparently now never been to Berkeley, I’ll hold your hand on BART and we can go together. I promise to be gentle if it’s your first time.

Check out their facebook fan page for more info. 

Heart of Oak Might be the Best Bay Area Street Art Photographer I've Seen Yet

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

Heart of Oak is a streetart photographer that is apparently familiar to many but new to me and his/her stuff is covered in radsauce.  The above photo features stuff like a 98-second exposure, which I’m assuming is impressive but I don’t know how to operate a camera that doesn’t also feature a full keyboard and the ability to dial out.  Heart is also having a showing from April 10th to 23rd at the Common Ground Gallery in Berlin so, you know, why out there or something.  Or you could just buy a book.

Anyways, credit to Everyday Dude to introducing me to Heart’s stuff.  He’s one of the few people part of the favstar/one-liner’s/memetwitters clique whose tumblr is actually worth reading and this is why.

 

Generic1 Gets Street Cred. Oakland Cops Don't Give a Fuck*.

— By Brizz |

(Photo from generic1)

generic1, famous for blogging politics and whatever, had a gun put to his temple by one of two muggers in Oakland the other night and his reaction was to run like Carl Lewis. And he won! Nice job. Sounds like a horrifying experience and we’re glad he’s okay. The Oakland Cops on the other hand won’t even take a report from him, which is the really phenomenal part of the story. You can read all about his harrowing experience here.

*I seriously considered whether it was proper to put the word fuck in the headline, but then I scrolled down and saw a photo of a dog taking a shit, so I figured it was okay.

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