Making the pronouncement, “Oakland is to San Francisco as Brooklyn is to Manhattan”, is the quickest way to start an argument on either side of the Bay (or in the Big Apple, probably). Over-simplified as that statement may be, there are times when I can see why people believe it. I moved to Oakland for two reasons — one, to join the community of artists there; and two, because for the price of a room in San Francisco, I could have my own one-bedroom apartment in Oakland.
But I digress. We’ve got our own free weekly paper, the East Bay Express, and in honor of their 2009 “Best Of” issue, they’re throwing a party at the Oakland Museum of California on Friday, August 7th. Centered as it is around the theme of “Subcultures”, they were nice enough to invite a new music and intermedia contingent to represent that segment of the East Bay’s sprawling underground.
The party itself goes from 5:00 p.m. to midnight, but perhaps you are fashionably late everywhere you go? If so, wait until 8:39 pm to show up. This is when the live cinema, experimental music, and intermedia happenings start. Full details of who and what’s involved can be found here, but I would go just to see Citta di Vitti perform new soundtracks to Monica di Vitti films…and David Slusser make his live audio collage…and Damon Smith mistake his contrabass for his BMX bike.
The Oakland Museum of California is located at 1000 Oak Street in Oakland. It’s conveniently located near Lake Merritt BART, but complete travel advice is available here.