signs: Lineman's Club

Lineman's Club

I've been keeping an eye out for this sign for a while. I saw a picture of it online somewhere, and it was described as being in the Oak Tree neighborhood. I finally discovered it today further up East 14th / International in Rancho San Antonio. I want to get better shots when I can, because this sign is wonderful. Besides neon lettering (which is in decent shape), it had a neon drink glass above and neon arrow below. The glass was an unusually shaped martini glass; sadly much of that has broken. But the crowning touch was the shape. Not only shaped like a power pole, it includes the insulators on the cross arms. Now, it would be in contention for best-sign-ever if they'd used real insulators, but I guess including the shape as part of the sign shows up better.

There's an older picture of it on flickr showing the unusual martini glass. I found this blog post about the International Lao Market that's there now asking about the sign, and a response in the comments. Go to the post to read the whole thing, but it sounds like it was quite the place once upon a time:

The club was kind of hidden between buildings and not too many people knew about it. I never let anyone know where I was getting my tickets on game day because they only had a limited supply. I think Ben Davidson or Jim Otto (or both) had something invested in the club and I saw some Raiders having a beer there more than once. Got to build up those carbs for the game, heh heh.

watch the Raiders, help Habitat

Planning to watch the Oakland Raiders take on the Philadelphia Eagles on October 18th? Buy your tickets through Habitat for Humanity East Bay and they'll get $14 for each ticket purchased to help support their mission of eliminating poverty housing, one house at a time. More details on the website (PDF file).

Oakland institutions

photo by
Carlos Avila Gonzalez
The Chronicle

There's a nice article on SFGate about my barber. Rocky has not only been cutting hair longer than I've been alive, he's been cutting Raiders owner Al Davis' hair longer than I've been alive. He's a what-you-see-is-what-you-get, rough-around-the-edges kind of guy, and he's an institution in Montclair.

Over on Piedmont Avenue, fresh on the balloon strings of some publicity from Pixar's Up!, Fentons is celebrating its 115th year. It's boggling to think of all the ice cream that has been served over the generations (at least 3 in my family.) I'm looking forward to my youngest nephew turning 6 so he's old enough to go on the Arctic Tour.

As the new kid on the block at only 40, the Oakland Museum is taking a break to spruce things up a bit. It will re-open in May 2010 after reconfiguring the History and Art Galleries, and upgrading the common areas. There will still be special events at various Oakland venues during the closure.

Prior to the Oakland Museum of California opening in 1969, the Oakland Public Museum was at Camron-Stanford House on the shore of Lake Merritt. The first and last of the great Victorians that once stood near the lake, it was almost lost to decay after the museum moved out. A dedicated group saved it, and it was restored and opened as a museum in 1987.