GREAT AMERICAN VIDEO STORE HUNT They’ve got breadth, depth and popcorn, too; best of all, there’s probably one in your neighborhood
By Vera H-C Chan, Randy Myers and Laura Orella TWENTY SCREENS and no place to go. You have hit the dull, winter void in the schizophrenic schedule of movie releases. Plus, you desperately adhere to your lonely stance of refusing to watch for the 18th time a certain bloated epic in which…
Off the Couch Noisy clap skate alters future of competitive speed skating
The equipment is so new, people haven’t agreed on how to spell it. Clap skates. Slap skates. Klapschaats. Klapp skates. Whatever the description, these ice skates have caused international anxiety and drawn an unusual amount of controversy to the sport. Last year, clap skaters surpassed world records supposedly inviolable until…
TRADITION OF SERVICE She didn’t set out to found the Links’ first West Coast chapter, but Loraine Rickmond, 96, had a ball in the process
LORAINE RICKMOND can’t sit still for long. A vibrant, irrepressible energy resonates from her small frame, which osteoporosis has shrunken a couple of inches to under 5 feet tall. Fortunately, a busy schedule precludes any sitting still, what with bridge in the morning, playing the piano every Wednesday at the…
Debutantes showcase pride in their heritage
TWENTY-ONE young women and their escorts wait behind the scenes to make their formal debut. With so many debutantes for the 42nd cotillion of the Links Inc. Oakland-Bay Area Chapter, the turnout had promised to be considerable. Indeed, laughing throngs outfitted in sleek black tuxedos and shimmering floor-length gowns crowd…
CELEBRATING SWEET 15 Quinceanera is a rite of passage and affirmation of a culture
Through the glass panes at St. Patrick’s Church on 7th and Vaquero streets in Rodeo, just enough clouds give the brilliant blue skies a picturesque softness. The winter rains that threatened this last Saturday in January have stayed away and the sunny reprieve sets the scene for Patty Huerta’s quinceañara….
Businesses invest interest in practice of quinceanera
As the Hispanic population has grown in the United States, so has the practice and industry of quinceanaras. “It’s very closely aligned with the bridal industry, ” says Michele Salcedo, a Newsday journalist and author of “Quinceaera!” (Henry Holt, $25) published last October. “I would say it’s got to be…
A DOG’S LIFE IT AIN’T Pups have cultural, social and intellectual options
As the presidential puppy, Buddy the Labrador has attained the highest office a dog can have in the United States. Not since Checkers has a four-legged canine so commanded a nation’s short attention span. As such, however, Buddy isn’t required to do little more than ride Air Force One or…
OFF THE COUCH Kickboxing thrives in its purest forms
Kickboxing has elbowed and kneed its way into mainstream American martial arts and sports circles in the last decade: Distilled from this is its gentler kin, commonly referred to as cardio-kickboxing, which has evolved from a fad to a gymnasium staple like aerobics. The drawback of this popularity is that…
ALL PRESETS ARE OFF Radio stations and formats are changing hands rapidly
Demographics help target specific format selections By Vera H-C Chan and Laura Orella Easy listening doesn’t just mean Chuck Berry, Luther Van Dross or Barbra Streisand. It means listeners who can rest at ease knowing that, in the wake of the merger flurry that has left some audiences stranded and…
SUBURBAN EXPLORER Downtown Lafayette
Musings from an afternoon walk alongside rushing traffic: Why would an emphatically suburban neighborhood eschew sidewalks? Does this imply that casual passers-by are welcome to trod upon freshly mown pockets of private property? To visit one another, do resident children cut across back yards or are they shuttled from door…