Yes, right here in my own backyard. Exciting to anticipate positive coverage, for a change. Don't know how it's gone, at all. You might have been shown views of lovely Lake Merritt, around which I have walked probably hundreds of times.
If you see an old three-story Victorian, edge of the lake, with three turrets on the roof, I once lived in a third floor studio just under one, and there I wrote my first book, Behind the Big Top.
If you happen to see the old Oakland Auditorium, on the south end of the lake, that was the best place to see, indoors, the Ringling show. It sat around six or seven thousand at the most; perfect size; would be ever better today than watching the show in the oppressively huge and dark arena, where the NBA finals will begin. So dark and night cluby in there, I hate the place.
Doubt I'll be watching the hoop-diving stuff. Not a fan.
But what a high, getting the kind of coverage this town deserves -- if, in fact, that happens.
It took East Coast Eyes -- The New York Times, a few years back, to come out here and be very impressed and call Oakland the "Brooklyn" of the Bay Area.
I'll take that.
Even over in "The City" (San Francisco), we are getting a little respect. SF seems to live in fear of its lofty status being knocked down a peg or two. Not likely.
Did I show a snide lack of respect up there? Gradually, it is nesting in my noggin that these basketball players, whomever they are, are one terrific tribe. Maybe they will decide to remain in Oaktown, as the local boys call it, rather than defect to a new arena promised them by a much bigger city -- Yes, the one incessantly in love with itself, where to live there, you have to be either very rich or very poor -- across the bay.
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