Oakland News: Oakland Unemployment, Mayor's Race Coverage

The talk is about how ABC's Diane Sawyer focused on unemployment in Oakland, California, but rather than in a negative light, did so with a positive light. The blog OaklandSeen has a good take on this, but overall it's more of the same for our city.

Oakland gets headlines for its negatives all too often, and for good reason. There's little to offset a near-20-percent unemployment rate.

Think about that.

It means one of every five adults you pass by on the street is without a job. Plus, it means that the other 30 percent may be just scrapping by. That's a tragedy. Tech can help save that - starting an online business - but many don't have the know how, and it's even harder to teach people and hope they get it.

But it's got to be done. More on that later.

Oakland Mayor's Race Coverage!

On the matter of the Oakland Mayor's Race, The East Bay Express and other publications are finally giving all of the candidates attention. That's worth celebrating.

As stated before here, anyone who is able to get signatures and get on the ballot to run for Mayor of Oakland is to be honored with media attention. The point is to let the people decide who should be Mayor of Oakland, not the media.

Room 389 Gets Golden Bear Praise

While out in San Francisco at The Balboa Cafe, this blogger ran into Norm, who was a popular bartender at The Golden Bear, what's now called Room 389 (for 389 Grand Avenue). Norm had high praise for Room 389 saying "They've got the right mix of people to be successful." In other words, it's not all one color of people but well-integrated. Moreover, it's the kind of place were you see people from the neighborhood, much like The Golden Bear. Room 389 fills a social void on that part of Grand Avenue that's been ignored for too long. Pay a visit.

The one wish from this space is that they do a deal with the Chinese Food place next door called Golden Lilly. The family that runs the place has consistently good food and service. Bringing Golden Lilly service to Room 389 is the missing ingredient.

Oaktoberfest Today

If you're not into Fleet Week, or can do both, head over to Oaktoberfest in the Diamond District at Fruitvale and Mac Arthur for fun and food.

Councilmember Jean Quan's Newsletter Skirts Law

Oakland District Four Councilmember Jean Quan's latest newsletter comes close to being an ad for her run for Mayor of Oakland. This because of an entry about a mailer by the California Prison Guard union and on Rank Choice Voting.

Quan should have used a separate mailer to address those issues because she's running for Mayor. Otherwise it looks like she's using taxpayer dollars to finance her own campaign. In her newsletter, she states her own take, which is just like Quan would do in a newsletter for her run for Mayor, if she had one.

She needs to establish a newsletter for her campaign, and if she's done so, inform the media.

Zennie62 Growth

Finally, sorry about my lack of posts, but this blogger has worked to overhaul Zennie62.com to where it is now: as a major provider of online news. The last round of code changes has done the trick, search engine placement is perfect, and the next step is to expand the code fixes to the overall Zennie62 blog network.

Much to the surprise of many, one can take a blogspot.com blog and turn it into a competitor for online space against The LA Times, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, and yes, SFGate.com and The SeattlePI.com.

And all of the code changes are not "black hat SEO" but obvious in-your-code-face fixes that blogger's do not write much about. In fact the last few changes were done on a hunch, not the result of research on what others have done. The hunch worked. Now, back to SFGate.com.

I continue to post at SFGate.com and The SeattlePI.com, because The Hearst Corporation has been a good organization to work with.  Indeed, in the digital space, The Hearst Corporation properties have high potential.  What really upsets this blogger is that SFGate.com and The SeattlePI.com can be, but are not as large as The Huffington Post.    That's an issue.   An issue I took up in a different way.

My nature is to be both entrepreneurial and scientific in my approach to media. The only way to show any media organization that there's a different, better way to do media, is to just do it.   Google has been a major supporter here, by providing a fantastic platform in Blogger.com and great support.

What drives me, to a degree, is the fact that in the past newsrooms were closed to blacks, minorities, and women. Now, some want to save the same culture that discriminated against us for so long. It's time to destroy it and move on to a better, more democratic and meritocratic system.

What's holding back progress are the journalism schools teaching the old way, pushing stupid-assed ideas like "hyper-local" which is hyper-stupid, and not teaching students about the revenue side of the business. Perhaps because the J-School people don't know about it themselves. If they did, hyper-local blogs would never have been considered a good idea.

Why? Simple. By restricting news to local areas, the publisher reduces the level of potential revenue that can be made. Period. The rule in media is that big stories pay for small ones. You can't have a successful business with small stories paying for each other. The reason is that local blogs eat each other for attention, and so can't muster enough money to pay salaries.

Yet, Oakland North, and The Bay Citizen.org are with us. In the case of The Bay Citizen, which is the feature of this video...



...it will burn through the $5 million it got from Warren Hellman and that will be that, because it's hyper-local. I don't know who wrote their business plan, if it exists, but I'll bet it didn't factor in the increasing number of blogs in The Bay Area.  The only factor that saves The Bay Citizen for now is the fact that the other blogs don't work with each other for some of the dumbest reasons.  This is especially true in Oakland, where Oakland North is part of the scene.

In Oakland North's case it's the product of the Berkeley J-School and produces no revenue for itself to pay its student reporters. (Really, it's not worth a mention.) So students don't have to figure out how to sustain it, because the Berkeley J-School does that. The result is the students come away with an unrealistic view of media and no business experience in it.

That's the fault of the Berkeley J-School.

Jenn Sterger Playboy And Brett Favre Knock Down Rick Sanchez

The twin combination of Minnesota Vikings Quarterback Brett Favre's alleged sexting of his privates to Jenn Sterger, and the revelation that the New York Jets sideline reporter that she is, is was also a Playboy model has worked to dominate search trends, at least on Google, and knock Rick Sanchez and CNN from the popular search ranks.

What's interesting is that neither topic has been talked about as much on television as on the Internet. Little by little, Internet search trends are becoming separated from television. That's only anecdotal, not a scientific analysis.

But the observation is that as more and more people turn to online sources for news, and as television news becomes more and more fragmented, the trend will continue until television's role as influencer will only be in the case of big national and World events watched by millions, like The World Cup, or The Super Bowl.

What it also means is that more, not less of the time, sex and scandal on the Internet will rule the search trends of the day.

Jenn Sterger Playboy Rules Search

In the case of "Jenn Sterger Playboy" and "Brett Favre," those terms have been repeated with different combinations of words and winding up repeated six to eight times on Google Trends hot searches over the last three days, or since the Jenn Sterger Playboy and Brett Favre issue got hot.

It will only intensify, and keep Rick Sanchez and CNN off the pop search grid, or at least way down in it. If you remember, Rick Sanchez was fired by CNN last week for saying that Jews ran it and the media. For most of the week, until Wednesday, Rick Sanchez was the most consistently popular topics online.

Stay tuned.

Mark Zuckerberg, Make Your Own Movie Called My Social Network

Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly not happy with how he's portrayed in Aaron Sorkin's The Social Network. Moreover, some tech observers have said the movie fails to tell the real story of the development of Facebook.

Heck, do a search for "The Social Network accurate" in Google and you'll find a number of articles and blog posts claiming it's not, and some saying it is.

With all this, Mark Zuckerberg should make his own movie and call it My Social Network.

The Social Network Not The First Silicon Valley Movie

Wired's Fred Vogelstein says Mark Zuckerberg should like The Social Network because it brands him officially as the creator of the World's Largest Social Network. Moreover, he says it's the first movie about Silicon Valley. (Where he's wrong. The first movie about Silicon Valley is called Pirates of Silicon Valley and was made in 1999. Yes, it was for television, but Vogelstein didn't qualify his statement, leaving himself open to correction.)

Hunger For Movies About Commercial Tech People

While The Social Network isn't the first movie about Silicon Valley, it is the first major movie about an Internet company that grew out of Silicon Valley. It's success proves that people want to see movies about the people behind the products they use. That's why Mark Zuckerberg should make his own movie: what better way to communicate his thoughts than via movie form?

While Mark's got the money to do it, spending a lot on the idea that the return will be bigger than that for The Social Network, is stupid. An even better play is to do a documentary-style flick that's in-your-face with Mark looking at the camera and setting the record straight. Not for the whole movie - no one would sit for that - but at least for some scenes.

Don't Like The News...

The point is, if you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own. Mark should know that, being in the Internet business of helping people communicate their message. Now, it's time for him to do it for himself.

Sesame Street: Smell Like A Monster (Old Spice Commercial Parody)

The Old Spice Commercial has spawned a ton of copies (including one by this blogger) but none are funnier than Grover of Sesame Street in "Smell Like A Monster."

Grover strips down to his towel and also rides what he thinks is a horse - it's not. (Actually, it looks like Miss Piggy.)

Then he has a set of tickets in a clam as a gift for you, but the clam bites him on the nose! Poor Grover.

The video contains a number of totally funny missteps and is not to be missed. Here it is":



Oh, and don't forget to watch this blogger's video thanking the Old Spice Man for, well, check it out:



Stay tuned.

Brett Favre Gets Randy Moss To Get Over Jenn Sterger And New York Jets

Oh, and before we forget, Minnesota Vikings Quarterback Brett Favre will get former New England Patriots Wide Receiver Randy Moss to help him get over Jenn Sterger and his Monday Night Football foe the New York Jets.

After Tom Brady's contract was renewed and upgraded, Randy Moss complained that the New England Patriots didn't appreciate him and that 2010 would be his last season with the team. Moss continued to play for the Pats, but wasn't interested in being there.

Finally, this week, the New England bye week, Moss got his wish, and was sent to the team he started his NFL career with, the Vikings. And just in time for Monday Night.

Moss Versus Darrelle Revis

New York Jets Cornerback Darrelle Revis will face Moss, but not at 100 percent. Revis, arguably the best cornerback in the NFL not named Nnamdi Asomugha, said he strained his left hamstring against the Pats, during their victory September 19th.

Now, after not playing, he comes back to face Moss - if Revis plays at all. As of this writing, it's not clear he's got permission to hit the field as of this writing. Revis is missing valuable practice time, so the only idea is that he would go strictly man-for-man against Moss if Revis is cleared to play.

Can Revis Island shut down Moss?

Stay tuned.

Brett Favre Sends Jenn Sterger Photo Of Penis Says Deadspin

Did Minnesota Vikings QB Brett Favre send former Playboy model and current New York Jets Sideline reporter Jenn Sterger photos of his penis when he played for the Jets? The blog site Deadspin.com thinks so, and has lowered itself to a new place in media in the effort to demonstrate it. Literally.

On Wednesday, Deadspin Editor Al Daulerio posted a video on Deadspin that contains two photos of what's reported to be Brett Favre's dick.   The move was totally unnecessary from this blogger's view.

Moreover, Deadspin did nothing to warm the video viewer of what they were about to see midway through the video, unless you happen to read the text below it first. Nothing. The penis photos just popped up, no pun intended. But what's this all about?

Jenn Sterger

It extends back two years to when Brett played for the Jets and Jenn Sterger, a now-26-year old model and broadcaster along the lines of Inez Sainz, was with the Jets in the capacity of sideline reporter.

As Deadspin explains it, Favre allegedly retained the help of Jets PR man Jared Winley in an effort to meet the hot Sterger in person.  Once Brett got her phone number, he allegedly left several messages asking to see her, and sent the infamous text photos.

But Jared Winley says he never met or knew Jenn Sterger and that "he was not the main PR contact for Favre" according to Deadspin.

Al Daulerio's having a hard time, no pun intended, getting anyone to go on the record about this story. Jenn Sterger won't talk. Brett Favre will not deal with it. And no one from the Jets wants to hear about it. Moreover, the photos were obtained from a "third party" as Daulerio says, who also will not go on the record.

Then the voice, the one reported to sound like Brett Favre, is being question as well. Indeed, it looks like the story has little in the way of legs. But then, today, it got worse for Brett.

Now, two women have surfaced at Deadspin, claiming that Brett sent leud texts to them as well. Yikes.

More on this soon.

San Francisco Antique Oriental Rugs and Textiles, Tribal Art Shows Next Week

San Francisco is fortunate to be hosting not one, but two separate international art shows, one featuring antique, textile and oriental carpets and the other focusing on tribal arts from Africa, Oceania, the Americas, and Asia during this next week October 12th to 17th.

It's the 2nd annual Antique Rug and Textile Show at The Motel Capri, at 2015 Greenwich St., in San Francisco’s Marina District. The event features more than 40 internationally renowned rug and textile dealers who will set up their wares in a bazaar-like setting in the Motel Capri.

Show Starts Next Week

Opening night of the rug and textile show begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 12th, and the show continues Wednesday – Sunday, Oct. 13 - Oct, 17, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. The show and sale is free. For more information on this event, visit: www.artaa.org. A number of daily special exhibitions on Tibetan, Chinese and oriental carpets will be held as well as daily lectures for beginners, all offered free.

The 6th annual Tribal Art Show is hosted by San Francisco Tribal, an association of the top Bay Area-based tribal art dealers, will be held Oct. 15 to 17 in Building "D" at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center.

The Tribal San Francisco show will feature an extraordinary selection of African masks and figures, Oceanic ceremonial and ritual objects, Pre-Columbian sculptures and ceramic vessels, Tribal Asian textiles and carvings, Native American art and artifacts, as well as shields, hats, jewelry, masks, and figurative sculpture from diverse cultures all over the world. Exhibition dealers are available to answer questions from beginners to sophisticated collectors and knowledgeable scholars.

A preview reception will be held Friday Oct. 15 from 6-9 p.m. and feature champagne and sushi and an advance opportunity to view the exhibits and sale of tribal art on sale. Preview tickets are available at the door for $30 per person. Included in the price are champagne and sushi and re-entry on Saturday and Sunday.

Tickets Are Just $10 Per Person

Tickets for the exhibition and sale during the rest of the weekend are $10. Hours on Saturday are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Visit the SF Tribal website www.sftribal.com for more information.

In past years, both the Antique Rug and Textile Show and the Tribal San Francisco shows gave collectors, dealers, novices and fans of ethnographic and tribal arts the opportunity to spend time discussing, viewing, learning and purchasing rare artworks from around the world from leading expert dealers.

This blogger thinks it's a wonderful treat to be able to learn and buy textiles and sculptural artworks from some of the world’s leading dealers at the two San Francisco shows. Dealers bring some of their best works to exhibit in San Francisco because of The City’s (and the Bay Area's) large appetite for textile and tribal arts and its worldwide reputation as a center for ethnographic art aficionados.

These two shows display some of the finest textiles and sculptural works of tribal art that the Bay Area has the opportunity to see. The events are growing in popularity, continuing to draw the best pieces at reasonable prices for serious collectors, decorators, enthusiasts and people with a beginning interest in oriental rugs and tribal arts.

And the event organizers say it's not too early to start your Christmas, Hanukkah and holiday shopping at these events.

The Antique Rug and Textile Show’s 40 plus dealers have flown to San Francisco from as far away as Turkey, China, German, Austria, Italy and from all over the U.S.

Noted textile art dealers who will be displaying and selling in the Antique Rug and Textile Show at the Capri Motel include: Alberto Levi - Milan, Italy; Ali Aydin - Germantown, MD; Amin Motamedi – Hamburg, Germany – Andy Lloyd – Bath, England; Ben Banayan – San Francisco; Bertram Frauenknecht – Istanbul, Turkey; Chuck Paterson – Sante Fe, NM; Craig & Nina Hatch – Nomadic, USA; Davut Mizrahi – Vienna, Austria; De Witt Mallary – New York; Ed Koch: Herat Gallery – Miami, FL; George Fine – Sante Fe, NM; Hamid Rafatpanah – Bryn Mawr, Penn.; Hagop Manoyan – NY; Hans Homm – Oberusel, Germany; James Cohen – Milan, Italy; Jeff Dworsky – Stonington, Maine; John Ruddy – Sante Fe, NM; Mark Berkovich – Galilee, Israel; Mete Mutlu – Chicago; Michael Craycraft – Stuttgart, Germany; Michael Phillips – Arvada, Colo.; Mohammad Tehrani – Hamburg, Germany; Nick & Dianne Bendas – St. Louis, MO.; Nick Wright – Williamstown, Mass.; Nunzio Crisa: Urobura – Milan, Italy; Owen Parry – London, England; Patrick Pouler – Santa Barbara, Calif.; Reyn Staffel – Springfield, Oregon; Rob van Wieringen – Nijmegen, Netherlands; Rodney McDonald – Rochester, N.Y.; Rudolf Geissman – Cardiff by the Sea, Calif.; RugBooks: W. Marquand – Culver City, Calif.; Rupert Smith – Hong Kong; Sarah Haberkern – Stuttgart, Germany; Seref Ozen: Cocoon – Istanbul, Turkey; Singkiang: Linda Pastorino – Chester, NJ; Stolp D. Fraser – East Hampton, NY.; Thom Mond – New Hampshire; Udo Langauer – Vienna, Austria; Ulrike Montigel – Stuttgart, Germany; Wayne Barron – Cambridge, Mass.

Renowned Bay Area tribal art dealers exhibiting and selling at the Tribal Show at Fort Mason Building "D", include:

Robert Brundage--Himalayan Art; Erik Farrow--Tribal Art, Weapons & Shields; Wenhua Liu--Asian Art; Thomas Murray--Asiatica--Ethnographica; David F. Rosenthal--Oceanic Art; Vicki Shiba--Asian & Tribal Art; Frank Wiggers--Indonesian Art; James Willis-- African, Oceanic & Tribal Art; Michael Auliso--Ethnographic Art; Joshua Dimondstein-- Tribal Arts; Robert Dowling--Pre-Columbian & Tribal Art; Zena Kruzick--Oceania, Indonesia, Asia & Africa; Joe Loux--Asian & Tribal Art; Dave DeRoche - Art of Africa, Oceania & The Americas; Andres Moraga--Textiles & Ethnographic Art.

Check it out!