Best bulbous land mass evar!
Speaking of reasons to love Oakland (see Jess's post on Oaklandish, below), I finally got my ass over to the Albany Bulb for the first time ever last week, and quickly realized that I was a total retard for not checking it out sooner. Ok, so really it's Albany, not Oakland, but who's counting. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, the Bulb is a man-made peninsula that juts out into the Bay, across from the newish mega-Target (ask one of the Han's if you're not sure where that is).
In a nutshell, it was just a lump of landfill covered with dirt, until a bunch of homeless people moved in and created a cool little art community. Then all the "homeless" people were driven out in '99. Well, not quite all of them - I know there is at least one guy still living there with his cat. The art is still there, but not for long if the city of Albany gets its way.
SF Gate recently had a really great piece on the Bulb in their new "Culture Blog," so I will direct you to that for the full story, rather than just regurgitating what's been said about the Bulb a thousand times.
My point is simply, if you've never been, go, and go soon, before it gets paved over and sanitized. It's like visiting a long-lost civilization. Like what Burning Man would be if you took out all the yuppies, trance hippies, and frat boys, and left only a couple dozen talented artists.
The artwork is inspiring, fun, and incredibly creative. It's a great place to explore, and dogs love it too, what with all the weird things to sniff and the fact that they can go off-leash wherever they please. There is nothing else quite like the Bulb, and it's right here in the Bay Area, so you really owe it to yourself to go check it out.
I'll even take you on a field trip there if you need help finding it, or if you're scared of rats (Windy will scare them away for us. There's not much she can do about Bush though).
(Bulb pics from Monkeyview.net - go monkeys! - and David Zucker.)
posted by stefbot @ 3:00 PM
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