My City By The Bay

Here we go again.  The Municipal Railway also known as MUNI will be increasing the fares and doing away with eight muni lines on July 1st.  The fare will increase to two dollars for adults.  We do not know as yet the increase to the Fast Pass.   All of this on the heels of an investigation which shows that a dozen or so MUNI drivers are making double there salary or more on overtime.  Does anyone see the problem here?  The riders have to pay for these drivers making double in salary why they cut routes and buses on many of the muni routes.   For people who use MUNI regularly this is $4.00 per day.  Even if you don’t use it regularly it is still that amount because transfers are only good for a couple of hours.  It’s ridiculous and something should be done about this - NOW!

 For A review of the Rrazz Room and this concert series visit:

Photo courtesy of www.sonyholland.com and Terry Dudley - All Rights Reserved

She was just laid to rest and now the attorney defending Melissa Huckaby wants Sandra Cantu’s body to be exhumed so that they can have their own autopsy and investigation done.  They want this done because of the special circumstances attached to the charges.  If Huckaby is found guilty, she will either spend life in prison or be sentenced to death.

It has also been reported that this is not only an extremely rare case that a female and Mother of a child herself would rape another child.  The Tracy police department has been receiving hundreds of calls stating that they are skeptical about Melissa Huckaby being the rapist and murderer.  Is it possible Huckaby’s Grandfather was the rapist and murderer, you know Mr. Pastor of the church where the murder took place?  Could Huckaby be taking the fall for him or someone else?

Another fascinating tidbit here.  A woman from Manteca is receiving death threats over this case.  Why?  Her name is Melissa Huckaby,  she is also 28 years old with a 5 year old daughter and is also a Sunday school teacher.  Scary coincidence.  Nevertheless her life is in danger as a result.

That is the latest.  More on this story at CBS5 News

Guest Post by Rasa Vitalia

Ethnic Dance Artist, Rasa Vitalia , in collaboration with Open Secret Bookstore is proud to present “A Celebration of Rasa: The Summer Solstice” at Open Secret Bookstore Saturday evening, June 27, 2009, from 6pm-9pm. We are looking for interested Artists, Musicians, Drummers, Performers, Story-Tellers, Massuses, Tarot Readers, Palm Readers, Variety Acts, Caricaturists, Writers, Vocalists, Photographers, Videographers, Dancers, Poets, Magicians, Bakers, comedians, arts and crafts, jugglers, you name it (be creative!) etc.. to volunteer/sell their talents and showcase their ideas revolving around the theme of the Summer Solstice. Themes regarding, life, birth, rebirth, summer, celebration, the seasons, the planets, the earth, the moon, the sun, the nature, Ethnic art/dance/song, healing, shamanism, spirituality, the god/goddess, mysticism, folk, etc., are encouraged.  No pay, but wonderful place and people to showcase your work. 

• Contact: Rasa Vitalia: RasaVitalia@yahoo.com with your any ideas, your website, videos, music, writing, etc. that you may wish to contribute.

• Rehearsals: If you would like to dance with Rasa’s Rhythm Dance Group and have the opportunity to perform in the showcase with the group, please come to class! It will be a fairly easy but athletic circle dance. It’s a follow the leader dance. Having rhythm, stamina, ability to follow Rasa, zaghareet, hoot, hollar, have fun, laugh, and clap would be wonderful. Both men and women welcome. A nice, colorful skirt would work best and nice colored pants for the men.  Please bring your idea of a costume during rehearsal. For the showcase, a black, long sleeve top would work best.  Class/rehearsals Thursdays at Open Secret , 932 C Street, San Rafael, CA 94901. Please arrive at 3:30pm if you would like to participate in the show. You will take class first 3:30-4:30. The last 30 minutes of the class will be rehearsal from 4:30-5pm.  Class is $10. Other rehearsal/class times will be scheduled according to participation interest. (I.e. Thursdays after 9pm, Wednesdays at 4-5pm & Fridays 5-6pm work best.)

• Birthday: P.S. This is also in celebration of my birthday. Your talents would make the BEST gift to me. Thank you!

• Arts Alive: I am so happy to have this opportunity to showcase artists! Please contribute and keep the arts alive! It’s even more important NOW than ever! Healing and Peace to all!

• Tell!  Please forward this to those you think may be interested in performing or being in audience at this event!  An official event announcement will be sent out once details are set. 

• Interested? Please respond to this email and let me know!

• More: And for a little more information about Rasa Vitalia, please visit: http://www.RasaVitalia.com . If you click on the “Dance” link, not only will you learn more about her performance background, but also about the meaning behind Rasa Vitalia.

Living in San Francisco all of my life, I spent many weekends and more recently days at Ghirardelli Square .  Being a chocoholic myself, I grew up savoring those bit size chocolate morsels knows as Flicks which were packaged in a cylinder type cardboard box.  I absolutely loved those.  Now they are packaged in a 16 oz. plastic round gift box full of those chocolate tidbits that I loved.  Much more for me to savor.

They have a vast assortment of chocolate treats packaged and available at Ghirardelli Square to include holiday specials, chocolate bars as seen below, chocolate squares and their ever popular hot chocolate which is something I cannot miss whenever I am there.  It could be 80 degrees outside and if I’m at the square, I have to have my hot chocolate.  It is truly decadent.

Although Ghirardelli has seen major changes within the past few years the one thing that remains untouched or unspoiled is their chocolate.  It is rich, dark, creamy, sometimes decadent and sometimes pure and soft.  Whatever your taste, they have it.  The raspberry chocolate bar which is blatantly displayed, in your face as shown below is one of my favorites.  It is an elegant explosion of flavor with real raspberry sweetness and rich dark chocolate.  Plus, it’s good for you.  While I don’t know the calorie count which I honestly don’t want to know with all I eat, it has both fruit and dark chocolate which are both healthy.  How can you go wrong?

Below this scrumptious raspberry chocolate fantasy we also have the Ghirardelli cookbook which displays some mouthwatering recipes including my hot chocolate dream that are just to die for.  Although I do not bake myself, I have tasted a couple of recipes from this book and well,  let’s just say those recipes are clinging to my hips.

Finally, we have the unsweetened bars which you can use for baking.  And another point I’d like to make is that if you go to Ghirardelli you will be paying a little bit more in price for all of these chocolate delights than if you order here.  How do I know?  I basically have a tab running at the square.  Seriously though as they eloquently advertise “give the gift of timeless pleasure” or something like that.

While Melissa Huckaby who is currently in isolation at the San Joaquin County jail receiving credible death threats,  Sandra Cantu was laid to rest in a private ceremony today.  There will be a public memorial for the slain eight year old tomorrow.  More information can be found including video at ABC7NEWS .

Rumors are swirling that Sandra was killed at the church run by Huckaby’s grandfather.  The police however have not as yet divulged any information as to how or why.  Sandra’s pink casket was led through Tracy streets by a horse drawn carriage.  The funeral was attended by over two hundred people to include friends and family.

RIP Angel Sandra.

Melissa Huckaby was arraigned today at the San Joaquin court house where she arrived in a red jumpsuit, crying during the arraignment.  She was charged with one count of murder with special circumstances of rape with a foreign object, lewd and lascivious behavior with a minor and murder during an abduction.  All of these charges could result in the death penalty.  The charges resulted as of the DA’s investigation and completed autopsy which has yet to be made public.  Read the full story here .

Photo courtesy of www.sfjazz.com

Kim Nalley , previous owner of Jazz at Pearls in North Beach can sing the blues like no one else I have ever heard.  I’ve seen her perform in night clubs and jazz festivals and I can say she knows how it’s done.

She will be in concert at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco as a part of the 10th anniversary of the San Francisco Jazz Foundation on June 6th.  You can buy tickets here though the premier seats for the concert are already sold out.

She is quite a performer and knows how to get the audience in a frenzy.  Her ivory tickler, Tammy Hall is one of the best in the business.  I sat there in awe of her performance the first time I saw her playing that piano.  There is nothing like Kim Nalley singing “Need My Sugar” an original song and Tammy on those keyboards.

Kim’s show will be a tribute to Nina Simone.

It has just been reported that Melissa Huckaby who will be arraigned tomorrow on Tuesday for the murder of Sandra Cantu, will not only be charged with murder but may possibly be charged with rape as well.  This latest update sickened me so much that I am just going to give you the link to the full story on ABC7News.com   I cannot even bring myself to spell out the details.

I’ll have more tomorrow after the arraignment.