CELEBRATING 2000; REVELRY, INTROSPECTION MIX AT BAY AREA PARTIES
As 2000 made its surprisingly emotional westward trek from the South Pacific Friday, Bay Area residents were fairly sure by midafternoon that the new millennium would not usher in the technological meltdown that would lead to darkness and cave-dwelling. Here, as throughout the world, the arrival of midnight was a…
IN BUSY OAKLAND, CALIF., A SERENE OASIS
The surprise is not that Yoshi and Gengo Akiba harbor a Zen Buddhist temple next to their Japanese-style Oakland house and garden. It isn’t that the temple happens to be next door to St. Albert’s College, whose European grandeur is just as unexpected in this residential neighborhood. It isn’t even…
TEMPLE SPACE UNITES JAPANESE, AMERICAN DESIGN
The surprise is not that Yoshi and Gengo Akiba harbor a Zen Buddhist temple next to their Japanese-style Oakland house and garden. The surprise is that the original house, a seemingly perfect fit for the nightclub co-owner and Buddhist priest, wasn’t made for them. The Akibas used to live above…
Roller derby has Bay Area base
Roller Derby may have been born in the Chicago Coliseum in August 1935, but it was “99 percent a Bay Area thing,” says Roller Derby historian Keith Coppage. After moves to New York and Los Angeles, founder Leo Seltzer enlisted son Jerry to help him move the Derby to the…
HELPING THE HELPERS Essentials, comfort items on wish lists
DURING THE holidays, most people remember to help the poor, the lonely, the children. Not all remember to help the helpers: The people who clothe preschoolers for inclement weather while shivering in drafty offices, or those who keep track of low-income families on a wheezing computer. They improvise, recycle and…
XY A GAY MAGAZINE THAT TELLS IT STRAIGHT S.F. publication gains national recognition with a hip focus that stays true to its teen audience
PETER IAN CUMMINGS sculpts his front locks in perpetual forward motion, frozen in time with the miracle of hair products. The rest of his hair is closely cropped and shaved from the nape up to almost the halfway point of his skull. The shorn pate adds to the impression of…
POKE PHENOMENON Tiny Japanese monsters are the latest toy, game and pop-culture obsession
They look like tribbles with attitude, Gremlins with Transformer tendencies, Sanrio critters who played ball too close to a nuclear waste dump. Known as Pocket Monsters in Japan, Pokemon is the collective name of group of fictional creatures that are taking over the imaginations and memory banks of boys and…
Symptoms of Americachu
How far has the Pokemon craze spread? To date, the industry has sold 12 million GameBoy cartridges, 400 million trading cards and more than a million compact discs. In Japan, a summer movie starring the tiny critters led by relentlessly adorable Pikachu, who zaps enemies with a 10,000-volt blast even…
PC SHOPPING SPREE Environmental gifts are good for the soul, too
WHEN IT COMES to shopping, I take a middling position. I love giving gifts, but I detest the sifting, the foraging, the wracking through racks. Buying must be done all at once and quickly. My shopping inadequacies, though, are never more exposed than in the green and red glare of…
Shopping at a museum offers more gift varieties
Nowadays, visitors can take home more than a postcard from the museum or a rock from the park. It’s not just T-shirts and key chains anymore, either. Most museums will not charge admission if you head straight for the merchandise, but why not make shopping itself a worthwhile experience? Think…