The Mayor of Telegraph Avenue

(Above: Moe)

Cody's is gone, Black Oak is gone, and so are most of the other bookstores that used to make Berkeley so unique. But Moe's Books, the used bookstore that started it all, is still going strong.
Moe's will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a party on July 11, the date of its founding.
By no coincidence, July 11 also would have been the 78th birthday of the man who founded the store, Moe Moskowitz, who died in 1997, as well as the 43rd birthday of his daughter, Doris, who has been running the place since his death.
Wherever he is, I'll bet Moe is kicking himself for missing the party, which will include cake, balloons and hula dancers with live ukulele accompaniment.
People think of Moe as the embodiment of the '60s, but actually, Moe hated the '60s - at least, its excesses. He looked kindly on anti-war protestors, but he drew the line at some of their over-the-top tactics. And he threw drug dealers out of the store long before it became fashionable.
Not for him the self-indulgent, self-righteous posturing of the Baby Boomers. Moe came from an earlier generation, a generation that prized words and ideas above all. He never could fathom why people wanted to befuddle their minds with drugs when there were so many good books to read, instead.
And if you loved good books, Moe's Books was - and is - the Mother Church. One of the reason other booksellers revered him was that he revolutionized the used book business.
He did it by the simple expedient of paying decent wages to his staff and giving fair prices to his customers for the books they turned in.
"If he ever caught us paying less than the book was worth, he'd hit the ceiling," said Bob Baldock, one of the longtime Moe's staffers who went on to found Black Oak Books. "Actually, it turned out to be smart business practice in the long run, but Moe did it because he thought of the customers as his family."
And they returned the sentiment. One customer recalled the time when she lost her wallet with a $88 Moe's credit slip in it.
"When I told Moe about it, he wrote out another $88 credit slip, just on my word," she said.
Moe was also a soft touch for the down-and-out. "Even when they knew they were scamming him, he'd still give them a handout," said longtime employee Matthew Wong.
He also let anyone off the street use the bathroom, which tended to make it a tad too funky for some people's taste.
One day, a female customer came up to the counter and returned the bathroom key in disgust, saying the toilet was too dirty to use.
Moe was nothing if not earthy, so he started teasing her about being uptight over something as "natural" as human waste.
"Let me ask you a question," the woman said. "Do you have any kids?
"Yes, two," Moe replied.
"Well," she said, "maybe if you had changed a diaper or two when they were babies, you wouldn't think it was so romantic!"
Then she wrote a check for her purchase and left. The signature on the check: "Ursula Le Guin."

Go Tell The Spartans

(Above: Andy and his buddies on R & R in Naples. Perry is second from the left; Andy is second from the right.)

One of the most historic places in Oakland is the King's X Bar. It was the birthplace of not one but two cultural icons: fantasy football, which started at the King's X in the early 60s, and trivia contests, which started at the King's X in 1970.
That's where I came in. I had graduated from law school and was getting ready to take the Bar exam when I heard that the news director of KCBS was looking for a ringer for the station's trivia team because he was tired of losing to the guys from the King's X every year.
To put me on the team, he had to give me a job. And that was the end of my legal career.
But even more historically significant than the King's X was the man who owned it from 1968 to 1991, Andy Mousalimas.
He made every customer feel welcome. But you had to shout when talking to him because he was hard of hearing.
In 1991 Perry Phillips, the Oakland Tribune's entertainment columnist, died; and I decided to write an obit.
I had heard a rumor that during World War II, Perry belonged to a hush-hush Greek-American commando unit for the OSS (the forerunner of the CIA) who parachuted behind enemy lines into occupied Greece to sabotage the Nazis.
So I called the CIA to check it out. And the CIA guy I talked to said, "It's true. But if you want to know more, there's an OSS veteran in your neck of the woods named Andy Mousalimas who can give you all the details. He's a real hero."
I was floored. Andy had never mentioned a thing. But, then again, bragging was never his style.
I started hanging out with Andy and his fellow former commandos, and the stories they told - both of their wartime experiences and of the discrimination they suffered as Greek-Americans before the war - made the hair stand up on the back of my head.
Every one of them had a price on his head. Anyone who turned him in would receive his weight in gold - no small temptation for a population that was systematically being starved by the Germans.
"But not one single person ever turned us in," Andy said proudly. "Never."
His commando unit destroyed bridges, locomotives, trucks, power plants railroad track, pillboxes, armored cars, culverts, boxcars, telegraph poles and mine shafts. They killed thousands of enemy soldiers and pinned down tens of thousands more.
They got under Hitler's skin so much, he issued the infamous Fuhrer Order No. 003830: “From now on, all enemies on so-called commando missions are to be slaughtered to the last man." And many were.
Andy's hearing is almost completely gone now, the result of his eardrums being shattered by German bombs. But he's still going strong at 84.
This spring, the U.S. Army flew him and his wife, Mary, to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina, where his unit was honored by the Special Forces.
I called him last week and told him I was going to write this column. He said OK, but he had one condition:
"Make sure you don't glamorize it," he said. "There's nothing glamorous about war."
Happy July 4th, Andy. Efharisto. (That's Greek for "Thank you.")

Eat At Bill's

(Above: Judy and Bill Fujimoto)

One day many years ago, I was complaining to a friend that I would never buy another tomato again because I was tired of tomatoes that taste like soggy cardboard. And she replied, "Haven't you heard of the Monterey Market?"
Everybody in Berkeley has their own variation of this story. The Monterey Market was our introduction to seasonal, organic, locally grown fresh food.
It gave birth to a movement that changed the world. California cuisine, neighborhood farmer's markets and every natural food store, from Whole Foods to the Berkeley Bowl - all trace their origins back to the Monterey Market and the man who has run it for the past 31 years, Bill Fujimoto, one of the nicest guys on the planet.
There are two kinds of ways to run a business. One is the paranoid model, in which you do unto others before they do it to you. That means squeezing the highest price out of your customers and paying as little as possible to your suppliers and employees.
That wasn't Bill's style. He took the long view and insisted on paying his farmers a decent price for their produce, keeping them afloat financially until they could get their business on a firm footing.
And if they had more than he could sell, he'd buy their entire crop anyway and eat the loss himself.
"I want you to be in business next year," he'd explain.
He also paid his employees a living wage and kept his prices as low as possible, far less than you'd pay at the supermarket.
If a customer asked him if the pears were ripe, he'd whip out his knife, cut one in half, and say, "Why ask me? Here, have a taste."
Longtime customer Teresa Wong remembers one time when she was about to buy the most expensive peaches in the store.
"Bill came rushing up to me and said, 'No, no, no, Teresa! You don't want to get those! These over here are cheaper and are really good!'"
Among his most loyal customers are the Bay Area's finest restaurants, including Chez Panisse, Eccolo and Bay Wolf.
"We've been shopping at Monterey Market since we opened in 1975," says Bay Wolf co-owner Larry Goldman. "To have someone like Bill, who can talk with our chefs with the same knowledge and passion that they have for the produce and the growers, has been incredibly exciting."
It's been a win-win-win situation all around. Bill created a community between the people who produce food and the people who consume it. And in the process, he started a revolution.
But, unfortunately, this golden age is coming to an end. Monterey Market is a family business - it was founded by his mom and dad, Mary and Tom Fujimoto - and two weeks ago Bill was forced out in a coup d'etat.
Customers and growers are both outraged, and many are threatening boycott. But, characteristically, Bill is taking the high road.
"I'm a Buddhist," he says. "Nothing lasts forever."
There will be a community celebration from 2 to 5 p.m. on June 28 at King School Park, near the corner of Hopkins and Colusa, to honor Bill and his wife, Judy. Considering all they've done, both for Berkeley and the food community, it will be a privilege and pleasure to say thanks.

Kittens By Rosie

(Above: Rosie cleaning one of her kittens)

Looking for the perfect kitten? (Or better yet, a pair of kittens?) Call Rosie the golden retriever.
Rosie, who is a little over a year and a half, raises homeless kittens for Island Cat Resources and Adoption in Alameda, California.
If she's in a calm mood, she'll lie down and let them climb all over her and play with her feet.
If she's in a playful mood, she'll gently roll them across the floor with her nose.
If they get too rambunctious and start nipping or scratching, she'll look up at her owner, Gail Churchill, with a look that says, "Mommy, help!" But she still lets them do it.
It all started a few months ago, when Churchill, who fosters homeless kittens for ICRA, had a litter that was so young, they had to be bottle-fed.
"Rosie was absolutely mesmerized and would sit by my lap while I was feeding them. As babies do, they got messy faces, and I knew mommy kitties clean their babies with their tongue. So I got the idea of holding the baby kitty up to Rosie, and she started cleaning its face.
"This went on for weeks. As they grew and started running around on the floor, she would corral them and keep them where I could see them. If one ever got out of my sight, I'd just go look for Rosie because I knew that's where the baby was."
Before embarking on her career as a kitten raiser, Rosie used to sleep every night right beside Churchill and her husband Jim's bed.
"But now she insists on sleeping in the kitchen, right beside the big kitty condo where the kittens sleep at night, so she can keep an eye on them."
Currently, Rosie is working on her third litter, with no end in sight.
"The number of homeless kittens is exploding this year, and the rate doesn't show any sign of slowing down," says Churchill. "I'm fostering 15 babies right now, and so are many of our other volunteers."
Some news reports say the problem is growing because cats are being abandoned by owners whose homes have been foreclosed, but Churchill says they're only a tiny fraction of the homeless cat population.
"We've seen a few abandoned pets showing up, but the kittens are coming from people not spaying or neutering their own pets or the strays showing up in their back yards."
ICRA has no shelter - which, paradoxically, is an advantage. All the kittens are raised in foster homes instead of shelter cages, so they get highly socialized.
Rosie's kittens are not only dog-friendly, they think of themselves as tiny golden retrievers and act accordingly. They do well in homes that already have a family dog.
Another ICRA volunteer, DeAnne Jarvis, has a very large male cat named Smokey Joe. Although he dislikes adult cats, he's crazy about kittens.
"She puts her kittens in the room with Smokey Joe, and they all nuzzle up and sleep with him, and he loves them and acts like an uncle kitty," says Churchill. "His kittens do great in homes that already have other cats."
Several ICRA foster homes have kids under 14, so their kittens fit right into homes with children.
ICRA exhibits cats and kittens ready for adoption every Saturday at Petco in Alameda from Noon to 4 p.m., as well as on its website, www.icraeastbay.org. Donations to ICRA can be mailed to P.O. Box 1093, Alameda CA 94501.
One of the reasons Rosie gets along so well with kittens is that she herself was raised by cats: the Churchill family felines Howdy, Jackie, Jenny, Yoshi and Jacques.
One day, when Rosie was four months old, Churchill came home and found her standing on top of the kitchen counter.
The look on her face said it all: "What's the problem? The cats do it, don’t they?"

Local Musicians Win Emmys

The Oakland-based musical duo popTuna walked away with two golden statuettes at the 38th annual Emmy Awards ceremony of the Northern California chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences on May 16.
PopTuna - comprised of B.Z. Lewis of Montclair and Monica Pasqual of the Temescal district - won the Emmy for "Promotion Program - Single Spot" by providing the music for a promo spot for KPIX's "Eye On The Bay."
"There are two hosts on 'Eye On the Bay,' and they are very different personalities," said Lewis. "So we used the theme from 'The Odd Couple,' rearranged as a ska piece."
Pasqual said the victory was ironic because the piece isn't their favorite, to say the least.
"We have composed music that we're personally moved by, but that wasn't one of them. But that's the way it goes, I guess."
Their other Emmy was for "Promotion Program - Campaign," also for KPIX.
"In this series of spots, the station gets people to sing along with the music, usually making complete fools of themselves but always having a great time doing it," said Lewis. "Sounds silly, but it won the Emmy."
PopTuna was also nominated in three other categories, but did not win.
Lewis and Pasqual have been working together since 1997, when he was the engineer and co-producer for an album she was recording. But they didn't start composing together until two years later, when Pasqual was working as the office manager for a film company that was making a documentary for PBS about the stock market crash of 1929.
"They weren't happy with what their composer had written, so I said, 'Hey, I think this friend of mine and I can do better.' And we did."
And they've never looked back. In addition to KPIX, their clients include Nissan, the San Francisco Film Festival, the State of New Jersey Division of Tourism and Johns Hopkins University.
"We're their go-to composer for anything they produce in-house," said Pasqual.
They have also composed for MTV, "The Shield," and several TV soap operas, including "Passions" and "The Young And Restless," as well as video games such as "Guitar Hero," "The Sims" and "Madden NFL."
Currently, the new Emmys are resting on the place of honor atop the speakers at Lewis' Studio 132, where many local musicians record, including Liquid Girlfriend, Jesse Turner, Karen Mullally, Deborah Levoy and Frapper.
The glittering, black-tie Emmy Awards ceremony, featuring spotlights and a red carpet, was held at the Plaza Hotel in San Francisco.
Lewis accepted the Emmys on behalf of himself and Pasqual, who was unable to attend because she was on tour with her band, Blame Sally.
Lewis rented a tux for the occasion, accessorizing it with a bright red faux snakeskin shirt.
Most of the nominees arrived in limousines. Lewis took BART.

Save Our Secretary!

(Above: Ms. Wendy)

At any successful school, there's usually one key person who really makes the place work. Often, it's the principal, but not always.
At Sequoia Elementary School in Oakland, it's the school secretary, Wendy Larson - or, as the kids call her, Ms. Wendy. She's a combination of Mother Teresa and Radar O'Reilly from M*A*S*H.
If you get a boo-boo on your knee, Ms. Wendy will clean it and put a Band-Aid on it. If you're hungry because you missed a meal, she'll feed you. If your parents are late picking you up after school, she'll let you stay in her office, even if you're there far later than 4 p.m., her official quitting time.
If there's a fight on the playground, she'll break it up and soothe the ruffled feathers. If you need to finish your homework, she'll let you do it in her office at recess or lunchtime.
When Principal Kyla Trammell is off campus to attend district-wide principals meetings, Ms. Wendy runs the show. In fact, when Trammell was out last fall on maternity leave, Ms. Wendy was the de facto principal.
The kids adore her, and the teachers consider her their most valuable asset.
So what is her reward for 24 years of such selfless, dedicated service?
She was just notified by the school district that, because of budget cuts, she's being bumped by someone with more seniority. She's being offered a three hour per day job at another school across town, with a lower pay rate and no benefits.
The kids are devastated, but they're not giving up without a fight.
They have launched a letter writing campaign to the school board to save their beloved Ms. Wendy.
"The soul of our school would be gone without her," wrote a 5th grader named Allison. "It would be like milk without cookies, or even peanut butter without jelly!"
"She isn't only a secretary; she's a friend," wrote a 4th grader named Kelly. "She makes us feel better when we're sad. She makes sure we take our pills if we have to. You can't take her away from us!"
Kristin, a 3rd grader, wrote, "One time when I was sick and I threw up in the hallway she helped me to the office and gave me some water and told me to lie down. She really helps us."
Perhaps most touching are the letters from the youngest kids, who illustrated their messages with their own drawings.
One little girl named Emma drew a picture of herself with tears running down her cheeks, and she's saying, "Please let her stay."
Another girl named Jemaya drew stick figures of herself and Ms. Wendy. Jemaya is saying, "Please don’t leave us," and Ms. Wendy is saying, "Don't worry, Sweety. I promise."
And there are 350 more letters just like them.
So will this story have a happy ending? Don't hold your breath. I talked with Gary Yee, who represents that area on the school board, and he's a fan of Ms. Wendy, too. But he says nothing can be done; it's all in the union contract.
When I was these kids' age, I was taught that for every wrong, there's a solution if you work hard and play by the rules.
It saddens me that they are about to find out it's not true.

The Ultimate Dead Concert

(Above: A hallway at the Chapel of the Chimes)

June 21 is not only Father's Day, it's also the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year.
And that means it's time again for the coolest, hippest, most unusual musical event of the year - the annual Garden of Memory concert at the Chapel of the Chimes in North Oakland.
Actually, it's 35 different concerts all going on at the same time. The idea is to take in as much as you like of each performance, then move on to the next room, where a completely different performance is going on.
The lineup includes some of the most innovative musicians in the Bay Area, including professional whistler Jason Serinus (aka "The Pavarotti of Pucker"), who will be whistling Mozart arias and Schubert lieder.
Nearby, the Orchestra Nostalgico will be playing music from old Fellini films, "The Godfather," "Psycho" and the James Bond movies.
Meanwhile, composer Larnie Fox will turn people into musical instruments, stretching nylon strings between them and plucking the strings, with rhythmic accompaniment by knitters with microphones attached to their knitting needles.
The women's vocal ensemble Kitka will perform Balkan folk songs and an original piece called "The Origin," with words from the writings of Charles Darwin.
Pianist Sarah Cahill will play a composition by Dane Rudhyar, who is better known as Elvis Presley's astrologer. (He also designed the white sequined cape-and-collar jumpsuit that Elvis wore during his Vegas gigs, but that's another story.)
And while all this is going on, composers/sound artists Thomas Dimuzio and Wobbly will visit other performers in different spaces and record them, then go back to their own space and mix them together to create a sound collage.
Does all this strike you as more than a little whimsical? It is. These are serious musicians at play - which, paradoxically, is when they do some of their most creative work.
They're playing for the sheer fun of it - for their own amusement and others'. That's why they're keeping the price as low as possible - $15 general, $10 for students and seniors.
And just as wild and crazy as the music is the setting - a columbarium, a repository for the ashes of the dead.
But the Chapel of the Chimes is not just any columbarium. It was designed by the great architect Julia Morgan, and she pulled out all the stops: gardens, fountains, cloisters, chapels, nooks and alcoves, all rising into magnificent Gothic ceilings.
But her trademark was stained glass, and it's everywhere - not only in the windows, but in the skylights, too. The whole place shimmers with a constantly changing ballet of light.
That's why the concert is always on the Summer Solstice - to take advantage of the extra light.
It might seem strange to you to have such a whimsical event in a columbarium, but it didn't seem strange to our ancestors, who weren't as freaked out by death as we are.
Keeping in their spirit, composer Gregory Moore will perform right beside the urns containing the ashes of his great-grandparents, Frank and Ollie Kellogg.
The Chapel of the Chimes is at 4499 Piedmont Avenue, next to Mountain View Cemetery. The music starts at 5 p.m. and lasts until the light runs out - usually around 9.
See you there.