History
Bob Marley’s Last Night In Oakland
December 1st, 2014 | by Raphael Cohen | published in Art, Events, Featured, History, Music
Last night marked 35 years since Bob Marley & The Wailers played their final show in Oakland. Touring in support of 1979’s Survival, widely regarded as Marley’s most politically militant album, the band performed a scintillating two hour set […]
Ben Harper, The Bay, And The Imprint Of Brownie’s Blues
October 27th, 2014 | by Raphael Cohen | published in Art, History, Music
“I’ve been coming to Oakland for years. I used to come up here quite often to listen to the blues legend Brownie McGhee. We used to sit in his garage and eat candy. And talk—and talk some shit, really.” So spoke Southern California-raised singer, songwriter, and slide guitar sorcerer Ben Harper…
Event: A Bay Area Tribute to Sly & The Family Stone
January 6th, 2014 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Events, History, Music
Sly & The Family Stone were pioneers in the world of funk, soul, and rock, due to their eclectic genre-blending sounds, Larry Graham’s invention of slapping the bass, the anti-prejudice messages in their lyrics, and their multi-gender and ethnically […]
Home Field Advantage: Oakland – The City That Changed The Face of Sports
December 18th, 2013 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, History, Sports
My father has been talking about the amazing history of Oakland sports for as long as I can remember. Every night at the kitchen table the whole family was given history lessons about the local legends who collectively told the Oakland story. There […]
East of the Lake: Loard’s Ice Cream
December 2nd, 2013 | by Coolhand Luke | published in East of the Lake, Featured, Food, History
Most Fridays after school, my mom or my aunt would take my brother, my cousin, and I to Loard’s Ice Cream on MacArthur Blvd in East Oakland’s Dimond District for ice cream cones. In those days I was a Rainbow Sherbet fiend, Lara was a Mint Chip girl, […]
93 ‘Til Infinity: A Documentary Review
September 6th, 2013 | by Pendarvis Harshaw | published in Art, Featured, Film, History, Music
The documentary Til Infinity opens with a subtle f-bomb aimed at any and every record label. The voice is that of Del The Funky Homosapien. It’s a voicemail recording he left on Q-Tip’s answering machine in the early 90’s. On that same voicemail, […]
An Ode to The Bay Bridge
September 4th, 2013 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, History
On one hand, it feels like the Bay Bridge has been under construction forever, but on the other, I’m still like “when did this shiny white AutoCad model get erected here?” The eastern span of the Bay Bridge was always a little less glamorous than the […]
A Rare Oakland Gem: Sons and Daughters of Lite
August 23rd, 2013 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, History, Music
No song in recent memory has captured me quite the way Sons and Daughters of Lite’s “Let The Sun Shine In” has. You can literally feel the sunlight emerging from the cloud cover as you drive down a remote California highway. And on several occasions […]
DJ Crimson Presents a Tribute to Stax Records
July 8th, 2013 | by Coolhand Luke | published in Featured, History, Music
When I was an undergrad at UCLA, I took a general ed class on the history of Motown and Soul, cuz that had to be hella fun, right!? Learning about the music I grew up on sure beat Stats and Phy Sci 5 anyway. Studying Motown was fascinating because they […]
