Bear Vasquez passed away yesterday after a number of years of poor health. Bear was a virtual friend of mine for 5 years. I had first seen him through the Couchsurfing networks and groups of Yosemite, where he lived and then I saw him interviewed on Broke-Ass Stuart’s Kinda Late Show in 2015 and it made me want to meet him even more than I had already as a fellow active couchsurfer. So I contacted him about coming to stay at his place sometime.

Earlier this week Governor Gavin Newsom announced that California would begin partially reopening on May 8th. And guess what, that’s today! So what does that mean? Good question! Today marks the start of Stage 2 of Newsom’s 4 part plan to reopen California. This stage consists of allowing lower risk businesses

PlayGround is bringing the theatre to you! This month marks the 25th year of PlayGround’s commitment to producing new developed works for the stage! Twenty-five! That’s almost how old you are. Wow. Normally showcasing their new works on the San Francisco Potrero and Berkeley Rep stages, this quarantine time calls for a thoughtful restructuring. PlayGround presents their first ever Zoom theatre festival, coming to a home near you! And surprise – most of the programming is FREE!

The 2020 Census is happening now.  You can respond online, by phone, or by mail:  https://www.2020census.gov/en/ways-to-respond.html This is the first census in history you can complete online here! The Census is really important to our Democracy.  The more we know about our communities, the better decisions we can make as

Educators in Oakland met in an electronic town hall on Saturday, April 25, to discuss a raft of problems caused in large measure by the novel coronavirus. Around 80 faculty, staff and community members chatted via Zoom in a conference organized by the Oakland Education Association to organize participation in

You can make a protective mask out of a bra, which DJ Justin Credible is making available via her Instagram where she can also give you a tutorial. “They make sense as a mask. They have the perfect amount of this foam padding in each cup. And you can take

Legendary Bay Area poster artist Lil Tuffy reached out to me the other day about this awesome campaign that’s using art to raise awareness, and money, to support folks during COVID. Fifty-two artists from seven countries are creating work for the Erase COVID campaign, and the profits of each piece sold

Guest Post by Shannon E. Bolt These days, we might think of “essential workers” as the ones who are allowed to imitate normal life beyond their  front doors, even though it comes at great risk to their own health. For San Francisco realtor Ilana Minkoff, walking her dog in Cole