4/29/08
Grainger
and graffiti
Grainger Industrial Supply is moving into the building on 7th and Ashby
after an extensive remodel
including new sidewalks.
Our Ryan Lau emails
Hello Potter Creek Neighbors,
We recently attended a meeting of the business community of the
Potter Creek neighborhood about the concerns over the recent rash
in robberies of retail businesses which was hosted by Cafe Clem.
It was a wonderful meeting that seemed to promote cohesion among
the group, who seemed to have begun mobilizing
to become a more active and communicative neighborhood.
The unfortunate part was that because the meeting took place during
the day, it was difficult for residents of the neighborhood to
attend.
We wanted an opportunity to address the Potter Creek
neighborhood at-large to discuss some of the community's concerns over
recent incidences, ie. an apparently surge in vehicle and property
vandalism/burglaries, the rash of retail robberies (incl. Cafe
Clem which calls Potter Creek home) and any other crime-related
issues that the community is concerned about. Please
join us on Thursday, May 1st at 7PM at Ashby Lofts.
The entrance to the community room is to the right of the
retail space on 9th Street. Walk through the wooden gate,
through the courtyard and you will see the community room.
While we apologize for the late notice, we wanted it
to be timely but we were having a little bit of trouble confirming
a venue.
Who:Councilmember Darryl
Moore, Officer Andrew Frankel (BPD) and Angela Gallegos-Castillo
(Neighborhood Services, City Manager's Office)
What:Potter Creek Crime Meeting
Where:Community Room of Ashby Lofts, 2909 Ninth Street
When:Thursday, May 1st at 7PM
"Digital age doomed a musical rite of passage" writes Peter Hartlaubof the Chronicle.
The death of the cassette tape seems like one of society's smaller
problems right now, right up there with the discontinuation of
the Ford Taurus and the cancellation of "Charmed."
Music cassettes were always
hard to love. Tapes got ruined when you spilled stuff on them,
they never sounded as good as vinyl or CDs, they broke easily
and it was almost impossible to do drugs off them. But even as
cassettes disappear and blank tapes become impossible to find
at the biggest retailers, the recording medium still deserves
a proper funeral. The death of the cassette tape also means the
death of the mix tape, and that's something worth mourning.
Music compilations are more
popular than ever, in part because of the ease of getting the
songs you want to the people you care about. On your own or with
sites such as Muxtape.com, you can click a mouse 20 or 30 times
and create and share your audio files with whomever you want.
But as the process gets easier, the gesture becomes emptier as
well. Music compilations forwarded by e-mail are only slightly
less personal than that Hillary Clinton joke you forwarded to
50 friends. ('Gee, thanks. You spent three minutes on me.') By
the sheer effort that went into each one, every cassette mix tape
was a big declaration - of love, friendship or even anger. A mix
tape was an event."
The First and Last Chance
Scooter Club
met at our Bakery Cafe before
their Sunday morning ride.
Check them out here.
Our Dave Kruse now, now-and-then
commutes to work on his Vespa.
"US deep in debt and still digging:You're
paying for the nation's debt addiction through both direct and
indirect taxes. And unfortunately, Uncle Sam is going to need
more money." reports
Jim Jubak of MSN.
"A not-so-subtle reminder
that nothing in life is certain but debt and taxes:The taxes you
paid on your recently filed 1040 included roughly $4,300 to cover
your household's annual share of the interest payments on the
$9.4 trillion in public debt owed by the U.S. government.
That $9.4 trillion is just
part of what we as a nation owe collectively. There's also the
$700 billion trade deficit we ran up in 2007 as a result of importing
more than we exported.
And then there's what we
owe individually. Like the $950 billion in credit card debt we
owed as of the end of March.
And the $1.6 trillion in
auto loans and other nonrevolving debt.
Face it: We live in a debt-addicted
culture.
One day, the bill for all
that debt will come due."
Born April 29,
1899
Piano in the Background.
Duke Ellington, piano and leader. Harry Carney, Paul Gonsalves,
Jimmy Hamilton, Johnny Hodges, and Russell Procope, saxophones.
Willie Cook, Andres Meringuito, Eddie Mullins, Ray Nance, and
Gerald Wilson, trumpets. Lawrence Brown, Juan Tizol, "Booty"
Wood, and Britt Woodman, trombones. Aaron Bell, bass. Sam Woodyard,
drums. Columbia CS 8364 (c1961). Codes: XSM50957-1B 111
H / XSM50958-1B 11 H. 1st Label. Disq Playing Grade 96/96.
Disq Visual Grade 95/95. Inner Sleeve 95. Cover 95/94. In this,
one of the Ellington band's most growling stereo romps, the piano
is really in the foreground. (This one of my favorite Ellington
records.)
today is
Duke Ellington's
Birthday
Want to feel good? Check
out Ellington
at Newport 1958.
Our Rick Ballard has a copy
at The Groove Yard. Email him, groove2@earthlink.net,
and order a copy.
"Ayn
Rand and Alan Greenspan" a Times observation.
"Some prankster must have pasted a Post-it note saying "kick
me" on the back of Alan Greenspan's shirt. He seems to be
getting the blame for the sub-prime mess because he failed to
consider that unbridled capitalism has a tendency to eat its seed
corn periodically.
His autobiography, 'Alan
Greenspan - the Age of Turbulence' starts out by discussing his
early days spent in the New York salon of Ayn Rand, the novelist
and philosopher who wrote 'Atlas Shrugged' and 'The Fountainhead.'
Getting only that far, I set Greenspan's book aside and picked
up a dog-eared 1,200-page copy of 'Atlas Shrugged.'
It was just as I remembered
from my first reading about 40 years ago. Philosophically speaking,
anyone working for the government is a bumbling idiot, and industrialists
working in collusion with the government to create dysfunctional
monopolies are even worse. The heroes are charismatic people who
work independently and who manage to succeed in spite of government
interference and the palace intrigue of what Eisenhower labeled,
'the military industrial complex.' In Ayn Rand's world, it was
collusion between government and railroad people."
"Sometimes Berserkeley isn't so berserk
after all" reports
Carolyn Jones of the San Francisco Chronicle.
"Many ideas spawned
in Berkeley - and roundly mocked by the rest of the country -
have taken root and have been adopted by cities everywhere. Among
them: police radios, a ban on Styrofoam, health benefits for domestic
partners and a switch to biodiesel for city cars.These and other
Berkeley firsts are part of a painstakingly researched show at
the Berkeley History Center that chronicles the city's long history
of civic innovation."
Hmmm,. . . biodiesel for
city cars? So that would mean we are in the forefront of a possible
world food crisis?
Ms Jones and our Historical
Society have missed several firsts.
Sometime in 1962, Al Braver,
the owner of Campus Smoke Shop and Campus Records at Bancroft
and Telegraph, declared the Campanile to be the Center of the
Universe--many professors agreed. Some of our original Feminists
took exception, however.
In the 1970s, Moe developed
the used bookstore--it becomes not just a play-thing of otherwise
unemployable intellectuals--and Moe's Books and Records becomes
a real business.
At Moe's in the 1980s, I
invent the collectible LP. I figure, if Baldock and Wong can sell
collectible books, I can sell collectible records. Customers protest
at prices of $4 and $5.
Also in the 1980s, Mike and
Richards Haley invent the California breakfast at The Buttercup.
They also develop croissants, proving Americans will eat, even
enjoy, foreign food.
Canned Food has "Simply
Enjoy : dessert assortment" for around $4-$5--"European
pastries with custard, vanilla and cappuccino cream, enrobed in
Belgian chocolate." Made in Holland.
Illigitimus non carborundum
Eternally useful
links
In our rainy season you can
find more information about our current weather conditions than
is good for you at www.wunderground.com
Want to see weather coming
in, going out, beautiful sunsets, and much, much more? Check out
http://sv.berkeley.edu/view/
This very hip site was in an email from reader and contributor,
Tony Almeida. Read Tony's Jimi Hendrix story on the only page that routinely gets
more hits than Scrambled Eggs.
Richmond
Ramblers' motorcycle club member, Cliff Miller emails A very
useful link
If you ever need to get a
human being on the phone at a credit card company or bank, etc.,
this site tells you how to defeat their automated system and get
you to a human being within a few seconds.
http://gethuman.com/us/
Markets
is not just a reference for Berkeley-Hills radicals with 1.5 mil
homes and considerable portfolios.
Our City of Berkeley Boards
and Commissions page is here--redone
and friendly.
Our Berkeley
PD Site with crime statistics and more is here.
Crime Log
for 94710 is here
This site is NOT affiliated
with Berkeley PD.
Take time to report
crime!
All reports
of crime-in-progress should first go to Berkeley PD dispatch--911
or non-emergency, 981-5900. THEN make sure you notify EACH of
these City people.
The contacts
are below:
Officer Andrew
Frankel, Berkeley PD - 981-5774 AFrankel@ci.berkeley.ca.us
Angela Gallegos-Castillo,
City Mgr Off - 981-2491 agallegos-castillo@ci.berkeley.ca.us
Ryan Lau,
aid to Darryl Moore - 981-7120 rlau@ci.berkeley.ca.us
Darryl Moore,
City Councilman dmoore@ci.berkeley.ca.us
More
Scrambled Eggs & Lox, here
and
Stories about Berkeley and stories about recorded-music
are at
Journal of Recorded Music 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
ronpenndorf@earthlink.net
The original owner
of all scanned material retains copyright. The material is used
only to illustrate