Towne Crier #12
SOCCER GAL
OLIVE FONTAINE, the eight and a half year old daughter of TRES FONTAINE in Loft #105, is playing her final soccer game of the season just down the way. Her Bobcats team from the Rockridge Soccer Club plays the Angel Monkeys at 8:30am Wednesday 5 November at Estuary Park, which is at the end of Oak Street, right on the water. So if you're out strolling with your morning coffee, walking the dog, or whatever - come on down. Estuary Park is a great place for all of the aforementioned activities and then some. They even have real live ducks to feed, not just flying rats.
The Annual Meeting for the Home Owners Association of the Fourth Street Lofts is Monday 24 November at 7:30pm in Loft 409. Among the Agenda Items will be the election of the Board of Directors for next year. The Nominating Committee has a slate - GARY HILL in Loft 401, CHASE MILBRANDT in Loft 104, and DAVID TERRY in Loft 402.
The Meeting Notice will be mailed shortly by Hudson, our Property Management Company. If you are unable to attend the meeting, please complete and return the Proxy Vote, or give it to someone you know will be attending the meeting.
CUCKOO'S NEST WEBSITE
The Cuckoo's Nest right outside our front door has its own website.
PAULETTA CHANCO GALLERY SHOW
PAULETTA CHANCO, whose art studio is in Loft 410, has a gallery show, "Sacred & Profane Space" at the Takada Gallery at 251 Post Street, Sixth Floor, San Francisco 94108. It will run through Saturday 29 November 2003. Among the art on display will be 'Subterranean Link To Awakening,' an encaustic on wood. Pauletta is the artist who did the encaustic on the wall in the first floor lobby.
SQUEAK CARNATH EXHIBIT
SQUEAK CARNATH, who lives and works in the Egg Crate Building on the corner of Third and Harrison, is another neighborhood artist currently holding an exhibition. Hers is "Paper Trail" and it's running through 22 November 2003 at the John Berggruen Gallery, 228 Grant Avenue, San Francisco 94108. Squeak is married to GARY KNECHT, our friendly neighborhood activist.
JACK LONDON DISTRICT ART EXHIBIT
Joanna Adler, owner of Jack London Mail around the corner of us, has organized an art exhibit which features 12 artists, seven of whom are neighbors from the Square. The others are from nearby Piedmont, Alameda and San Francisco. The artwork includes oil, acrylic and watercolor paintings, pen and ink drawings and illustration, photography, photographic prints, furniture and sculpture.
The exhibit will be at 240 Third Street, the empty store front next to Jack London Mail. The opening artist's reception is 6-8 pm Friday 14 November 2003. The exhibit is available the two November weekends before Thanksgiving, 15-16 and 22-23 from 10am-4pm.
The artists are: ROSEMARY ALLEN, painting; ANY SOPHIE BEEN, sculpture; GARRY KNOX BENNETT, furniture; CHANTAL CURRID, photography; MARY ANN HAYDEN, photographic prints; GENE HOLTAN, paintings; MARY LAMBOLEY, paintings; KENAN MALIK, paintings; ALISON McLENNAN, furniture; SUSAN MICHAEL, paintings; TORSTEN MOLLER, paintings; and LANGDON WADE, paintings.
One of the exhibitors, GARRY KNOX BENNETT, is considered "one of the icons of the contemporary craft movement." He is right down the street from us at 130 Fourth Street, and he has a website - www.garrybennettfurniture.com. He does (funky) furniture and gimcracks. Bennett has a beautiful coffee table book, 'Made In Oakland' which will be on sale at the exhibit. He's exhibited at the American Craft Museum in New York City and at our own Oakland Museum, and some of his pieces are on exhibit at both Museums as well as others. Bennett is a fellow of the American Craft Museum. In May he was honored by the city of Alameda for his art and support of artists. Earlier this year he was part of an exhibit at Arizona State University Art Museum and last year he exhibited at the Museum of Craft & Folk Art in San Francisco. His 'irreverent' furniture was featured in a 1993 short documentary, "Cut Loose: New American Furniture makers" and has been exhibited in museums in Arizona, California, New York, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.
This is the first of what will be a series of exhibits featuring neighborhood artists. We have several artists in our own building including PAULETTA CHANCO, MIKE FACKOVEC, STEVE FOSSUM and CONNIE OKSOL. There surely are others about whom I don't know.
ARDENCY ART EXHIBIT
LOU, who used to live in our building, moved his Ardency Art Gallery from Broadway to the Greeno Building, right across the street from us, in the corner suite. The sign in the window says Post Cards The picture framing business has moved up Broadway a couple of miles.
Ardency will hold an exhibit on Saturday 15 November 2003 - the work of CONSTANCE TERRELL, who uses fabrics in unique and creative ways. There also will be other original art, framed prints and posters - such as the great Jazz Age Series. Check them out.
Quantity postcards will also have a special display of new Holiday greeting and note cards.
FOOD BANK COLLECTION BARRELS
Jack London Mail will have three barrels to collect food for the Alameda County Food Bank, which will be picked up by the Food Bank when the barrel is 2/3 full.
POSEY TUBE OPEN!
On Halloween day, a ribbon cutting was done on the retrofitted Posey Tube, from Oakland to Alameda. The first to go through the tube was a caravan of bicycles and antique cars. Say good-bye to the tube closure at nights. We now have (again) 24/7 access to Alameda, which is our five-minute easy access to Marina Square, our closest 'shopping center.'
MUSICAL INTERLUDE IN THE SQUARE
Those who didn't check out Jack London Square two Sundays back missed out on not only a lot of food, arts-crafts and very warm sunshine, but big band music of THE COOL TONES, a self-professed rag tag group of (16) musicians from the East Bay and Tri Valley. It was great. They were playing in the gazebo in front of Barnes & Noble. Anyone wanting to hire them can call LES DUMAS at 925/426-1065.
Down at the other end of the square, near the Ferry Terminal, was blues music with ROB ROBINSON. All for free.
POTOMAC
Next to the Ferry Terminal is the Potomac, the yacht which used to belong to FDR during his tenure. It's available for trips and charters, including the December Lighted Yacht Parade, for $100.
LIGHTSHIP RELIEF NATIONAL HISTORIC LANDMARK
Past the Potomac, down a new walkway is a National Historic Landmark, the Lightship Relief. It is available for tours on the weekends, 11am to 4pm. During the week, reservations can be made for tours by calling 510/272-0544.
CORAL REEFS
Have you wondered about those "Save Coral Reefs" banners posted around Barnes & Noble, with the website www.pcrf.org. Well, it's a ship, the RV Heraclitus, which was built in Oakland in 1975, as a relief vessel to promote saving the coral reefs. Now, after a 200,000 mile sea journey, it's returning home for the first time since it was built. As part of its Homecoming Tour, it sailed down the Pacific Coast. Several weeks ago it was in Jack London Square, and now it's headed to Los Angeles on more fund raising events. I missed it as I was out of town. I hope some of you enjoyed it.
The RVH is the research vessel of the Planetary Coral Reefs Foundation, which is a division of the Biosphere Foundation. It's mission has been a nine-year expedition to map and monitor the world's coral reefs, the only ship continually at sea studying coral reefs. And now you know.
CIRQUE DU SOLEIL COMING TO SF
Cirque du Soleil is coming soon to Pac Bell Park parking lot, and it will run into December. So far, ANDY ANDERSON of the Oakland/Alameda Ferry says there are no plans to run any ferry service from Jack London Square to Pac Bell Park, as it does for Giants baseball games. Too bad. Otherwise, that would make it most convenient to attend. Almost as convenient as it was when Cirque du Soleil was right here in Jack London Square several years ago - before all the ugly apartment buildings were built. We could see the colorful yellow and blue tents lit up every night for six weeks that summer, when it was housed on a then-empty lot of what now is a three story apartment building on the Estuary.
If anyone wants to send an email to Andy, his email address is Panderso@ci.alameda.ca.us
EMBARCADERO BUILDING LIGHTING CEREMONY IN SF
The Embarcadero Building Lighting Ceremony at Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco will take place Friday 21 November 2003.
MARINA SQUARE OUTLET MALL
Just 8+ miles down the Nimitz Freeway (#880) to San Leandro lies Marina Square - at the Marina Avenue East exit. It is a small but compact group of outlet malls and other shops. They have Anna's Linens, Ann Taylor Factory Store, Bath & Body Works, Big Dog, Dress Barn, Eddie Bauer Outlet, Kinkos, La Salsa Fresh Mexican Grill, Marshals, Mikasa Outlet, Nine West Outlet, Nordstrom's Rack, Office Max, Old Navy Outlet, Panda Express, Quizno's, Radio Shack, Shoe Pavilion, Sprint PCS, Starbucks, and Talbots Outlet Store. That's about ten-15 minutes South down the freeway, which is a lot closer than The Great Mall on #101 or the Gilroy Outlets further down #101 or the Vallejo Factory Mall an hour north on #80 or the Tracy Outlet Mall an hour east on #580 and beyond in Tracy.
Have a nice week!