1 August 2004 Interesting looking building in the Berkeley Hills. That gate is actually part of the city street and not of the building.
1 August 2004 The Claremont Hotel is an East Bay landmark
1 August 2004 The Claremont Hotel has been having a labor dispute for 2 or 3 years and so is being widely boycotted
1 July 2004 Around 15 years ago, there was a huge fire in the Oakland and Berkeley Hills which very nearly destroyed the Clarement. The flames were right behind the building. But firefighters worked hard to save the historic building. I watched this on TV and I'm amazed that ti survived the fire.
1 August 2004 Nicole has a new sewing machine. It's digital!
4 August 2004 There is an odd mix of hippie snacks and mainstream candy at the Berkeley Bowl checkout stands
4 Auguat 2004 Nicole investigates the caffeine energy shot bottles at the checkout stands of the Berkeley Bowl
5 August 2004 On the other side of the church were two less standard icons. On the left is Dorothy Day with the blessed trinity (as seen in another icon) next to her head. On the right is Martin Luther King Jr and Jesus.
5 August 2004 Dorothy Day was one of the founders of the Catholic worker movement. She was a pacafist, an organizer,a friend to the poor and is under consideration for sainthood. see http://www.catholicworker.org/dorothyday/index.cfm and note that the picture on the page about canonization is this icon.
5 August 2004 MLK was not Catholic, but it seems that the discese of Oakland wants to honor both a woman and a civil rights leader. His depiction with just Jesus may be intended to contrast with Day's trinity, as Day was a Catholic. There are not very many African American Catholics in the US. My cousin's order of nuns was segregated until the 40's. The Catholic church was traditionally unfriendly to african americans. Obviously, things have improved, but as far as I know, there are no black leftists under consideration for cannonization. The patron saint index lists three black saints: http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/pst00821.htm
5 August 2004 There were stained glass windows. Some of them were depicting a particular set of mysteries, I think the blessed ones, but I'm not sure as I haven't thought about the blessed, sourowful or joyful mysteries since around 5th grade.
5 July 2004 The inside of the Oakland Cathedral. It's got earthquake damge and is due to be replaced.
5 August 2004 That is the largest baptismal font I have ever seen. I did not check if the water was warm, nor go wading, although I was sorely temped.
5 August 2004 Normally catholics don't go for the full immersion baptism. the just pour water on the head of the person to be baptised. Also, most catholics, though certainly not all, are baptised during infancy, so grownups being baptised would all be converts.
5 August 2004 In addition to stained glass windows, there were two alcoves with icons in them. Icons are in the orthodox tradition and not often found in catholic churches. The one on the left is the blessed trinity. The one on right appears to be the virgin Mary. It has greek letters on it, as it is porbably a copy of a standard greek orthodox icon.
5 August 2004 This church is located near Cola's apartment, across the street from the lake. The new cathedral willa lso be across the street from the lake, but on the downtown side. It's currently a parking lot painted with the names of saints.
5 August 2004 A huge crucifix hangs from the celing. The pipe organ looks pretty nifty tho. I'm going to find out if/when they give concerts.
5 August 2004 The altar of this church is weird. There's seating behind it and and beside it and it's round. But the church is not round. I don't know if it's oprganized for lots of visiting cardinal or whatever, or during an idealistic time, they remodelled the inside. The construction of the later is also interesting because of the steps on this side and the ramp on the other.
5 August 2004 The name of the church is Our Lady of Lourdes, http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintb06.htm Saint Bernadette of Lourdes had a vision of the virgin Mary, who told her to dig a hole in the ground and there was a spring there and people who go in the spring get miraculously healed. This apparently happened to my grandmother.
5 August 2004 That bell tower has a carilon in it and sometimes they play hymns which I can hear from Cola's apartment on Saturday morning. It's kind of nice. But they play Catholic hymns, which often aren't very good and they get STUCK IN MY HEAD cuz I know every signle dern hymn.
5 August 2004 I noticed the front door of the Oakland Cathedral was open
5 August 2004 Berkeley has a little park with a bakery next to it. So much of Berkeley looks kind of idyllic.
5 August 2004 Remember I posted something about a 100 year old house built by a washer woman with her bare hands?
5 August 2004 There was some controversy about whether it ought to be preserved.
5 August 2004 Guess which side won. It was kind of an ugly house.
5 August 2004 Nicole's friend Bob gave us a ride to the SF Electronic Music Festival in the Ambience Ambulence, a Burning Man creation from years past. He actually bought an old ambulence, painted the outside and made the inside extra groovy.
5 August 2004 SomArts, the location of the SF Electronic Music Festival, had a bunch of rusty dead old sewing machines around the outside.
5 August 2004 SomArts, the location of the SF Electronic Music Festival, had a bunch of rusty dead old sewing machines around the outside.
5 August 2004 Nicole casts a sidelong glance
6 August 2004 A sidewalk between my house and the North Berkeley Bart Station, I think on Acton street. A bunch of the sidewalks near university in West Berkeley seem to date from the 20's.