The Bellevue Club

I went swimming with Akaya and Kim, my neighbors and friends, at the Bellevue Club on Lake Merritt. This is the sweetest club. It was originally a women's club and is located right on the shores of the lake, beautifully luxurious in an understated way and kept up as if it were still 1907. What a treasure! Kim is a member (lucky Kim) and it costs big bucks, you can just tell.

We were the only ones in the underground lap pool, which was nice and warm. The dressing room, which now admits a few men in their own cordoned-off area, features a gadget that spins your swimsuit dry (no earplugs or swimcaps, please - the gadget eats them).

Upstairs there are rooms opening out on a balcony over Lake Merritt that can be let to your visiting out-of-town guests, whether or not you're a member.

Further upstairs there's a gorgeous bar with a balcony overlooking a white-tablecloth restaurant, and the lake. The restaurant serves dinner on Wednesdays and Sundays, and sometimes on Fridays. The bar is open when the restaurant is serving dinner. It is unclear so far whether or not you must be a member to eat at the restaurant and/or drink at the bar, but what is clear is that you must call in advance so they can turn the credit card machine on. (!)

The entire building and all it represents is priceless. What a fabulous place it would be if it were part of the regular Oakland scene. But then, it wouldn't be pristine, would it? When I find out whether non-members are welcome, I'll write more.

Birdland Jazzista Social Club

This must be the season to discover new things. I can't believe I've never heard of this before. What a great concept! So this guy in Berkeley started making food for his friends in his driveway and it turned into an "every-Friday-night" kind of party where neighbors and friends got together and drank and talked until the wee hours. Then one of his friends was in a little band, so they cleaned out the garage and set up a light and the little band played for the Friday night party. And then they decided they needed a stage and pretty soon they were booking bands. I mean, wow!

Wasn't long before the authorities moved them off the sidewalk, of course, and out of the street so now they're a social club with membership but still a laid-back neighborhood attitude and, so far as I can tell, free food. I can't wait to check it out myself...The Birdland Jazzista Social Club.

I learned about it from a musician I know who is going to play there...Nicolas Bearde. He's really good and has played with Bobby McFerrin and at Yoshi's and lots of places here and there. Very cool deal.

Musical Hide and Seek at Chapel of the Chimes?

I can't imagine why I'd go to Chapel of the Chimes, which is a mausoleum, unless I had no choice. Like, I am dead and gone, or possibly it's Halloween.

Well, believe it or not tomorrow, June 21, there is some very cool music happening at Chapel of the Chimes to celebrate the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year - and I am going there. Check out the info http://www.gardenofmemory.com/ . I hear it's a walking concert, with gobs of artists hidden among the urns and turns in the mausoleum, where the ashes of the dearly departed are interred in a beautiful setting designed by Berkeley's first and most famous female architect, Julia Morgan. I'm a BIG fan of Julia Morgan.

OK, so I'm going to hear cool music with (cool) dead people in a cool building. Maybe see you there...end of Piedmont Ave. in Oakland, right next to Mountain View Cemetery (which is also a cool place to walk). Am I getting weird?