Halal in the Family: A Muslim community gathers at the Islamic law-abiding butcher shop in Oakland.

Originally published in San Francisco Bay Guardian, August 2005

It’s easy to tell that Abdul Huruy, the Eritrean-born owner of Oakland Halal Market, likes to do the butchering himself. Just watch him as he lugs out one of the immense sides of lamb stored in the walk-in refrigerator and begins to casually slice the meat against a spinning electric saw blade, pausing only to indicate the best cuts. “Lamb rack,” he’ll say with pride, laying an open palm on the choice section of ribs.

Huruy’s family-run market – filled with long braids of garlic hanging from the ceiling and posters of Mecca photographed during the hajj, an annual time of pilgrimage – opened five years ago to serve the local Muslim community. Just a half block from a Sunni mosque, the Oakland Islamic Center, the market occupies a strip of Telegraph Avenue that’s home to a North African immigrant community as well as immigrants from elsewhere around the globe, many of whom are Muslim. “We have customers from Fiji, Guyana, Senegal, Egypt, Syria, and Yemen,” Huruy says, highlighting Islam’s ability to bring together people of different nationalities (“Different kinds because Islam is one,” as he puts it).

Read the complete article at the SF Bay Guardian.

Shorts and sandals: One intrepid adventurer explores San Francisco’s summer fashion taboos

Originally published in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, May 2005

FROM HIGH SCHOOL shop classes to construction sites, fashion critics wearing hard hats and steel-toed boots have long cast a disdainful eye on shorts and sandals. And sadly, San Francisco, in many ways an open-minded city, perpetuates that distaste. Wearing white after Labor Day seems as dashing as sporting an Armani suit when compared to wearing flip-flops in the foggy city. Not only do most San Franciscans choose not to wear shorts, but my experience has been that they patently disapprove of those who do: an aberration in the city’s live-and-let-live attitude.

To experience the city’s scorn firsthand, I put on my gold mesh shorts, manufactured from the same material as the liners of swimming trunks, and revealed my pale, hairy legs and knobby knees. I had carefully selected a pair of boxers that would look good through all the evenly spaced mesh holes in the fabric. My snaggletoothed toenails hung over the edge of my Baywatch-brand flip-flops, a toe-flossing pair decorated with an earth-tone, faux Indian motif. On my T-shirt in puffy-paint bas-relief was an image of a red deck chair on a strip of shoreline, with, beside it, an enormous nautilus shell that, disobeying all logical proportion, dwarfs the seagull flying above it. Could I be the flint to ignite the stored potential energy of charcoal gray power suits into the kinetic colors of summer-fun beachwear?

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The Albany Bowl celebrates a half century of Olympic proportions.

Originally published in San Francisco Bay Guardian June 2005

Its pastel and stucco exterior stitched with neon piping, the Albany Bowl beckons with its warmth and light. Stepping inside, one hears the thunder of colliding pins along 36 parallel lanes. The Bay Area is known for its polyphony of opinions, culture, and approaches to life, and its full spectrum can be seen at the Albany Bowl, from rockabilly to hip-hop, from UC students to 9-to-5-ers, from retirees to manic packs of toddlers.

Rising property values have made the large lot size necessary for bowling alleys a bit impractical, and establishments like College Bowl and Japantown Bowl have closed, their space divvied into smaller retail stores. Soon to be 56 years old, the Albany Bowl has stayed successful by accommodating a varied clientele and a steady flow of customers from 9 a.m. until 2 a.m., 364 days a year (the Bowl closes on Christmas Day).

And this alley has a flair all its own. In addition to the requisite burger and fries, the attached diner also prepares a selection of Thai food. Every time a shot is sunk at one of the red velvet-covered pool tables, it’s like the cue ball is attending a gala affair, trotting across the Academy Awards carpet. When I first stopped by, part-owner and general manager John Tierney was seated at one of the pool tables, using it as a desk while preparing a speech for an upcoming bowling tournament.

Read the complete article here.

Best of the Bay 2005

Some contributions to the Bay Guardian’s Best of the Bay 2005

“Best Fully Functioning Classic Film House Complete with Original Newsreels and Animated Shorts”

At Oakland’s Paramount Theatre, Tom Waits, James Brown, and Björk rub shoulders with Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, and the Oakland Symphony. This art deco monument is a double threat: It hosts exemplary live shows and screens films from the golden age of Hollywood. Movie nights include a half-hour performance on all 1,800 pipes of the mighty Wurlitzer, followed by antique trailers for the movies of yesteryear, newsreels that give the latest updates on the progress of Allied troops across Europe, as well as some of the more mind-bending Merrie Melodies cartoons, with their delightful crossdressing and proto-postmodern pummeling of narrative. Save your ticket stub for the opportunity to “win valuable prizes from the house of generosity” playing Dec-O-Win. On first and third Saturdays of the month, the Paramount offers tours that highlight the theater’s history and architecture for just $1. More than 70 years old, the Paramount is the brainchild of Timothy Pflueger, architect of the Castro Theatre and the SF stock exchange. More opulent and better preserved than either, the lobby of the Paramount is designed to resemble a redwood forest, with a waterfall over the entryway and caryatids shimmying among the massive tree trunks. The huge walls and lofty ceilings of the 3,000-seat auditorium are decorated with bas-reliefs of Greek sun gods and Polynesian warriors. The 1973 restoration was the work of many Oakland citizens with a dedication to light fixtures, drapes, and carpeting. The Paramount is also home to the Oakland Symphony and the Oakland Ballet.
2025 Broadway, Oakl. (510) 465-6400. www.paramounttheatre.com.