A Celtic Celebration

Dunsmuir Scottish Games Are Forever Plaid


Brian Kluepfel
Photo by Bob Kuzmeski

In Oakland’s foggy hills, just east of Loch Merritt and Trestle Glen, lies historic Dunsmuir House, host to the Scottish Games, a tartan-clad celebration of Caledonian culture. The weekend fest includes all things Scottish, from falconry to a Highlands variation on field hockey called “Shinty.” At the Pub at the End of the Road, patrons wash down bangers and meat pies with pints of dark MacTarnahan’s Ale.
    This year’s games include a number of Alameda residents, including one John Blakemore in the persona of Zander Campbell, able-bodied swordsman representing the Highlander Warriors historic re-creation group. Blakemore, a 10-year Alameda resident known on the Island as publisher of The Music Scene, relishes the chance to put himself to the test, Highland Claymore sword in hand, addressing historic wrongs. While the battles themselves are staged and scripted, that’s genuine steel, folks, and the Highlander Warriors (founded by Richard Brown, aka Dairmid Campbell, five years ago) engage in some serious training sessions with bamboo replicas until they’re approved to use the real deal.
    “I used to fence as a young fellow, and I’ve always liked swordplay,” enthuses Blakemore. He revels in the encampment his fellows set up the night prior to the festival, cooking stew over a fire on the hillside and preparing for the next day’s (mock) battle. Occasionally a minstrel or group of musicians may wander through the encampment. Among them you’ll find local band Tinker’s Damn, an ensemble featuring fiddles, pipes, button accordion and bouzouki.
    “We enjoy the Celtic clatter and ambiance,” says Tinker’s vocalist/guitarist Tom Wagner. “It’s a gorgeous setting, with lots of shade.” He notes that other open-air Scottish games in America in summer often feature “a lot of people sweating in heavy wool.” Tinker’s Damn hits the main stage for the first time this year, opening for heavyweights like Molly’s Revenge and Tempest. It’s the camaraderie Wagner likes the most. “There’s a fair amount of getting together and swapping tunes,” he says.
    And what would the Scottish Games be without the traditional tests of strength? All manner of things will be hurled through the misty air, including stones, hammers and, naturally, the caber, a piece of lumber between 12 feet and 20 feet long, resembling a small telephone pole.
    Alamedan Colin Close will get down with his bad Scottish self, hoisting the caber with two other training partners, tossing it, end over end, as far as they can. “I like the fact that the Scottish Games have different ways of exhibiting strength,” says Close. Though he and his pals have been unable to train with a real caber (“Where do you get one of those? Craigslist?” he muses), he says, “It’s going to be a hoot.”                 

About an Author


ALAMEDA AUTHOR MICHELENE ESPOSITO ISN’T MUCH CHANGED BY THE SUCCESS OF HER FIRST book. Esposito’s debut novel, Night Diving, was snapped up by independent press Spinsters Ink in 2003, and though it didn’t make the New York Times bestseller’s list, it made strides in its own quiet way: by receiving the 2003 Forward Magazine’s Silver Award for gay and lesbian fiction.
    Through flashbacks, Night Diving tells of Rose, a young girl, and her coming of age despite her mother’s mental illness. As an adult, Rose reunites with a childhood friend and finds herself facing questions from the past and a choice for the future. The story is one of triumph, a warm account of friendship and possibilities.
    Esposito, who has practiced as a clinical psychologist, imbues the novel with her insight into what makes people tick. “Night Diving is about second chances and having the courage to live the life you want to live,” she says. People should “take a chance to be true to themselves.”
    With more literary projects underway, Esposito’s one to watch.

Music Man


There is a quick and easy way to find out what’s happening on the local club, pub, concert and coffeehouse music scene, thanks to Alamedan John Blakemore.
    In January, he started publishing The Music Scene, a free monthly tabloid devoted to the enjoyment of live music in Alameda, Jack London Square and the Estuary. Now about 20 pages thick with a healthy dose of advertisements and growing, the newspaper regularly features an artist of the month, an up-and-comer, a band, a calendar, reviews, blurbs and features on the music venues. Every genre—pop, rock, jazz, bluegrass, folk, blues, punk, classical and more—is welcome fodder, as long as it’s happening here.
    “The Music Scene was spawned out of the frustration that the local media really doesn’t cover the musical happenings of the immediate area,” Blakemore, editor, publisher and production manger of the paper, says in issue No. 1. “There is an abundance of good live music being played locally and most people just aren’t aware that it’s there.”
    Blakemore has established credentials in publishing, photography and graphic design: He produces The Wheel, a monthly tabloid about motor racing for the Sports Car Club of America; and he’s been a prolific chronicler of bands through photos, writings, album covers and concert posters. And, maybe not so surprising, he’s a singer, performing sea shanties with the Starboard Watch and Waterways. (By the way, that’s Blakemore broadsword fighting on page 23 in preparation for the Scottish Games at the Dunsmuir House.)
    Pick up The Music Scene from The Marketplace, McGrath’s, Quinn’s Lighthouse and other local music venues. E-mail the tabloid at musicscene@earthlink.net.

Landmarks


    Alameda artist Beth Bourland used watercolor pencil for these Buena Vista Avenue homes dressed up for Independence Day.

Dog Days


DOGS LOVE TO ROMP IN THE EAST BAY WILDERNESS, AND NOW THERE IS A HANDY GUIDEBOOK FOR THEIR humans, Best Hikes with Dogs, Bay Area and Beyond, from Seattle-based Mountaineers Books (2004, $16.95).
    Part One focuses on canine-on-the-trails basics, from etiquette, permits, regulations and dog first aid
to hydrating, packing and hazards
like weather, wildlife and bugs. The advice comes from author Thom Gabrukiewicz, outdoor editor for the Redding Record Searchlight, who treads with his two pups, Scully and Trinity (that’s Trinity on the book cover), in what he calls “some of the most beautiful places in California.”
    The meat of the book is Part Two—straightforward and surprisingly un-doggy descriptions of 75 trails from the Shasta-Cascade area to the Bay Area. Eleven routes from the East Bay are detailed. With this collection, you’ll be properly informed about taking Fido on all your trekking adventures.

ALAMEDAMADE


Designing puzzles makes Jean Westcott, known to local preschoolers as “The Puzzle Lady,” happy.
    The former management consultant and university professor has been making puzzles for toy-lovers of all ages for seven years, giving 3-D life to her love for drawing and creating critters, from happy farm animals to wiggly-eyed frogs.
    Her passion for the craft started on a trip through Italy, where she discovered a particularly wonderful 3-D puzzle made by a local craftsman. “This was a strike of lightning, and I fell in love with it,” she says.
    Back home in Alameda, she took up lessons on the scroll saw, bought the necessary tools with a few friends and let her imagination drive her designs. Over the years, she’s come up with puzzles in many styles, from basic block and tray-based to 3-D and twist-style toys. Westcott laughs, recalling some of the positive responses she’s received from her designs, noting, “People see these puzzles, and they make noises. It’s so gratifying.”
    The puzzles are sold through toy distributor Pamela Drake Inc. (www.woodkins.com), Alameda’s Toy Safari and Toy House in Montclair. Westcott also accepts commissions for one-of-a-kind puzzles.
    Recently, she has been involved in local programs benefiting low-income children and schools. For instance, she taught members of Alameda’s Even Start Family Literacy Program about tool safety and made each child his own personal puzzle, which the kids then got to color by hand. She says she participates in such programs to increase awareness about the educational benefits of using puzzles and—most importantly, she stresses—to bring people joy.
—Breean Lingle

Knit One, Purl One


EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK, PEOPLE ARE KNITTING—IT’S THE CRAFT DU JOUR, PERHAPS A REACTION TO THE POST-SEPT. 11 WORLD, OR MAYBE A NEW GENERATION’S yearning for simpler times, a way to channel creative energy or reconnect with their foremothers. Whatever the reason, knitting is hot, even in the heat of summer. You can go it alone, or join other like-minded folk at several local gathering places and knit a scarf in time for fall.
    Tuscany Yarn (1916 Encinal Ave.) is open for drop-in knitting during business hours six days a week (closed Mondays), while Yarn! (2311 Santa Clara Ave.) offers open knitting Wednesday nights, 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Both store owners are available to answer your knitting (or crochet) questions anytime during business hours. Another local shop, Quilt Fans (1716 Lincoln Ave.), offers an intriguing crossover class, called “Knitting with Fabric,” for those quilters who want to bend boundaries, or knitters who want to add a twist to their work. Call 749-6717 for details.
    Coffee for Thought, the West End coffee/music/community spot, offers a free Monday night “Stitch & Bitch” session from 7 p.m.-9 p.m. for anyone who knits, from needle-shy beginners to Fair Isle experts. A group at Christ Episcopal Church (1700 Santa Clara Ave.) began an open knitting circle during Lent as a spiritual exercise and intends to keep it going, Sundays at 4 p.m. And the newest shop on Park Street, Julie’s Coffee and Tea Garden (1223 Park St.), hosts a hopping Friday night crafters’ circle; women (and their menfolk) come in with knitting, quilting and other skilled handicrafts (one fellow was reportedly making some chain mail on a recent evening). Grab a cup of tea and pull up a chair; this one’s free, too.
    Both Yarn! and Tuscany Yarn offer classes for the less intrepid, and the Alameda Free Library also stocks its fair share of knitting and other crafting books. Grab a pair of needles and a ball of yarn and go for it.
—Julia Park

Eye in the Sky


Here’s looking at you, and you and you. The Alameda Free Library’s newest piece of technology, a webcam (a camera that records for broadcast over the Internet), sits on top of the Alameda Police Department headquarters and has been snapping images every 30 seconds since March. The webcam documents and records the progress of the library’s construction with a twice-daily capture, so that the collected images will tell the story of how the library was built when it’s complete.
    The webcam was purchased by the city of Alameda, according to library officials. Consolidated CM, the construction management company, will maintain the webcam throughout the building process. Officials say that the images generated will eventually be used in a graphic presentation of the library’s construction.
    In the meantime, visit www.ci.alameda.ca.us/library/webcam.html and see what’s going on at the new library.    
—Brenda Chow