Plot
A love letter to Oakland. The story: A weary traveler arrives in Oakland and see the woman of his dreams, who then siren-like takes him and the viewer on a flirtatious cat and mouse game throughout the city, showing us all the highlights of Oaklands diverse people, topography, architecture and culture.
Oakland ( /ˈoʊklənd/) is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state and the 47th-largest in the U.S. with a population of 390,724 according to the 2010 census. Incorporated in 1852, Oakland is the county seat of Alameda County and is a central hub city for a region of the San Francisco Bay Area known as the East Bay. The city lies directly across the bay from San Francisco.
Oakland's territory covers what was once a mosaic of coastal terrace prairie, oak woodland, and north coastal scrub. Oakland served as a rich resource when its hillside oak and redwood timber were logged to build San Francisco, and Oakland's fertile flatland soils helped it become a prolific agricultural region. During the California Gold Rush, Oakland became the main staging post for passengers and cargo journeying between the Bay Area and the Sierra foothills. In the late 1860s, Oakland was selected as the western terminal of the Transcontinental Railroad. It continued to grow into the 20th century with its busy port, shipyards, and a thriving automobile industry. Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, many San Franciscans left that city's destruction, and a great number of Oakland's homes were built during the 1910s and 1920s. An extensive streetcar network connected most of Oakland's neighbourhoods to inter-city rail lines, most of whose routes continue as bus lines today. Ferry lines connected Oakland to San Francisco and other cities.
Imam Abdul Alim Musa (born 1945 as Clarence Reams) is a Muslim American activist and director of Masjid Al-Islam in Washington, D.C. He is a member of the Institute of Contemporary Islamic Thought (ICIT) and a well-known speaker around the world. He is founder and director of As-Sabiqun and the Islamic Institute of Counter-Zionist American Psychological Warfare.
Abdul Alim was born in Arkansas in 1945 but grew up in Oakland, California during the 1960s. It was during this period that he associated with H. Rap Brown (Imam Jamil Al-Amin), who later converted to Islam.
Having set up a drug dealing operation in Colombia, Musa was arrested on charges including heroin smuggling, currency smuggling and assaulting a federal agent. After evading the authorities for several years, Musa fled to Algeria, where he came in contact with several self-exiled Black Panther leaders such as Eldridge Cleaver. After returning to the US, he turned himself in and was eventually incarcerated at the U.S. Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kan., among other institutions.
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana (born July 20, 1947) is a Mexican and American rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, Latin music and jazz fusion. The band's sound featured his melodic, blues-based guitar lines set against Latin and African rhythms featuring percussion instruments such as timbales and congas not generally heard in rock music. Santana continued to work in these forms over the following decades. He experienced a resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine listed Santana at number 15 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. He has won 10 Grammy Awards and 3 Latin Grammy Awards.
Santana was born in Autlán de Navarro, Jalisco, Mexico. Carlos learned to play the violin at age five and the guitar at age eight. His younger brother, Jorge Santana, would also become a professional guitarist. Young Carlos was heavily influenced by Ritchie Valens at a time when there were very few Latinos in American rock and pop music. The family moved from Autlán de Navarro to Tijuana In La Colonia Libertad, the city on Mexico's border with California, and then San Francisco. Carlos stayed in Tijuana but joined his family in San Francisco later and graduated from James Lick Middle School and Mission High School there. He graduated from Mission High in 1965. Carlos was accepted into the California State University, Northridge and Humboldt State University, but turned down both of the offers. Javier Bátiz, a famous guitarist from Tijuana, was said to have been Carlos's guitar teacher who taught him to play a different style of guitar soloing. After learning Javier Batiz's techniques, Santana would make them his own as well.
Oakland (Oh-oh-oh-Oakland) Oaktown (Oh-oh-oh-Oaktown)
Oakland (Oakland, Oakland) Get on down (Oh-oh-Oaktown)
Straight from the West, Oakland is the best
Baby it's so fresh (Oakland)
It's called the Big Bad O, city of players on the go
You gotta have Trues and Vogues (Oakland)
Baby, that's my town, when all the tops come down
You'll hear my funky sound (Oh-oh-oh-Oaktown)
O-A-K-L-A-N-D, that city was made for me
Just rocking to the beat (Oakland)
Drop tops rolling down the strip, baby it's the tip
Don't stop dipping til I quit (Oaktown)
Trues and Vogues on my car, baby I'm a star
I'm playing at Player's Park (Oakland)
Everybody on the floor, do you really want some more?
We'll get funky like Playboy $hort (Oh-oh-oh-Oaktown)
Oakland (Oakland) Oaktown (Oh-Oaktown)
Oakland (Oakland) Just get on down
Oh-oh-oh-oak, oak-oak-oak-Oaktown
Westside coming through, Northside coming to it, too
East Oakland it's for you (Oakland)
Californ-I-A, can you hear me say
Oakland is here to stay (Oakland)
Oakland (Oh-oh-oh-Oakland) Oaktown (Oh-oh-oh-Oaktown)
Oakland (Oh-oh-oh-Oakland) Just get on down (Oaktown)
Straight from the West, Oakland is the best
Baby it's so fresh (Oakland)
Oakland (Oh-oh-oh-Oakland) Oakland (Get on down)
Straight from the West, Oakland is the best
Baby it's so fresh (Oakland)
Drop tops roll down the strip, baby that's the tip
Don't stop dipping til I quit (Oakland)
Trues and Vogues on my car, baby I'm a star
I'm playing at Player's Park (Oakland)
Oakland (Oh-oh-oh-Oakland) Oakland, get down