Did the Mercury 5km walk with Truc a couple of Sundays ago, while Joe did the 10 km run. The best bits were the grade-schoolers band who played the inspirational “Star Wars” theme by the railroad crossing on Park Avenue, and the Fremont Sikh Gurdwara who handed out free oranges and bananas to the race participants.
There were some annoying little things, too, but the only one worth pointing out is that the event organizers didn’t mail out bib-numbers (“too many of them got lost last year”) and made folks come pick them up the day before or before the race. Note to organizers: the solution to bibs getting lost in the mail is not to have people take extra time/make extra trips to pick up their bibs, but to clean up your own act, and find a more competent and reliable method to mail out the bibs. Lots of other race organizers mail out bibs with few mishaps, and they’ve got more participants. For a $23 registration fee, I shouldn’t
have to pick up my own bib.
Last weekend has been good, full of little fun things. We went to Jenny and Paul’s baby shower, which was held in the Tower Lounge of the Oakland Airport (great view, killer parking fees!). Paul’s already planning towards Baby # 2.
Checked out Redwood Park up on Skyline Blvd in Oakland. What a gem. With all the East Bay Regional Parks on Skyline, it’s veritable necklace of open space and recreational opportunities up there. Fantastic views.
Saw the Netherlands Dans Theatre I at Zellerbach. I liked the first program best, even though I’m not a big fan of Stravinsky’s music. The music for the second program was silence punctuated by occasional notes (imagine a Bach
concerto as a high-end car that had been stolen, and stripped for part, with it partial frame abandoned in the ‘hood. ) And annoying lights.
The third was very cute, involving a fence and Ravel’s Bolero. Through it all, the choreography and the dancers were stunning.
Even though I didn’t like the second program, I imagine it’s rather challenging for the dancers to perform to silence, with sporadic noise, i.e. don’t most dancers memorize the sequence of steps based on the melody and rhythm of music?
It reminded me of an artist whose show was reviewed in the newspaper. http://galleryad.com/past_exhibits/tituskaphar04/
His name is Titus Kaphar, and he ‘repainted’ some famous works, namely the portions that showed black people only, leaving the rest blank, as a statement on how marginalized black people have been.
Fishface 