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Meet Alameda's Julia Child
You know you’ve arrived at “The Motts” when you glance down and see it printed on the doormat. The appetizer-sized woman summoned by the doorbell simmers energy. She could be wearing her Ecole de Gastronomie Francaise Ritz-Escoffier apron that has her name, Weezie, custom-stitched in bold letters above the Paris-based cooking school motif. But there’s no class today. No guest chef coming in to cook, or culinary field trip, either for the children to whom Weezie Mott teaches French-style kitchen wizardry in the summer, or the adults who attend her cooking classes to learn, socialize and eat throughout the year.
She leads me through the living room, past the delicate shell-inlaid table bought in Turkey from the craftsman who made it. 8
We cross the intricately patterned Turkish rugs that she and her husband, Howard, traded their car to buy. They had, at the time, been living in Turkey for three years—Howard working as Naval attaché with the United States Embassy; Weezie learning the language and about the culture and the food. Before and after Turkey, Howard had assignments in Italy. In total, the couple lived in Naples for more than seven years. “That’s where I learned about food,” Weezie tells me, seated in her kitchen as she steams froth for our cappuccinos.
A detail that informs her teaching to this day is that in Italy she loved eggplant when previously she’d hated it. “I realized it was because Americans didn’t know how to fix it,” she says. After studying cooking in France, she learned to like sweetbreads. “I’d hated them, too, and came to realize it was because I hadn’t tried them properly prepared.” She impresses this on her students. “You don’t have to finish anything—but you must taste everything,” she insists. “It is often not the food one does not like, but the way it is prepared.”
Weezie is 85. Her parents named her Mary Louise. She was born 15 years after the next oldest of five siblings. “My three brothers named me,” she explains. “They said, ‘We’re not calling her Mary Louise. She’s Weezie.’ ”
Howard, whom she calls her Chef Plongeur (a.k.a. dishwasher—but he’s also the wine aficionado of the pair), is 89. Weezie, a former figure skater and World War II Navy nurse, has been teaching cooking in Alameda since 1976. That’s the year Kaiser closed the department in which she’d been teaching nurses-in-training, and offered her the option of another job or a year’s pay. She took the money and headed for London’s Le Cordon Bleu School. The rest is, shall we say, a history that includes a lot of cooking and travel.
Just two years ago, Weezie and Howard gave up their longtime venture—Motoring With the Motts—taking small groups on food-and-wine jaunts to Europe. Weezie cites age as the deciding factor, but not ill health or lack of energy: They haven’t turned down the heat on their personal travels, or doing what she loves best—introducing people to new taste experiences.
—By Wanda Hennig
—Photography by Lori Eanes
The leafy streets of Alameda seem an unlikely epicenter for experimental music. But the sounds created and curated by Alamedans Ninah Pixie and her husband dAS have a fan base that stretches around the world, from Amsterdam to Tokyo.
The founder of the experimental ensemble Big City Orchestrae and a part of the Bay Area radio scene for 25 years, dAS moved to Alameda 13 years ago from a nondescript neighborhood in San Francisco. He was part of an exodus of artists who crossed the Bay Bridge when they were priced out of the city but then discovered they loved the lifestyle here. “I got tired of waking up and walking out and smelling pee every morning,” says dAS, who found Alameda through an ad in the paper. “The East Bay now has more art than San Francisco.” From the studio located behind the couple’s unit in a Victorian house in Alameda, he’s put together some 300 compilations and 60 CDs. Recordings range from futuristic to modern spins on traditional cowboy and pirate songs.
When Ninah Pixie came to visit dAS in Alameda before they were married, she was surprised by the vibrancy of the East Bay arts scene. A trained classical pianist and graphic designer originally from Chicago, her interest in innovation led her to produce a limited release three-CD set called Women Take Back the Noise. Three years in the making, it features the work of 47 women from around the world who sing, ring, tap, rap, strum and hum their way through experimental music and sounds. The packaging is as innovative as the music. Inside colorful plastic pouches are cards that describe each artist’s background and musical manifesto. The sets have been purchased by women, but also by men for themselves and as gifts to inspire their girlfriends to make music. “I was overwhelmed by the response,” says Ninah Pixie. “People fell in love with the fact that it was a project for women.”
In September 2007, the couple set off for Europe to perform at venues in Maastricht, Den Haag, Munster, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Berlin. After that, they’ll be back to the Island Nation. “Once you find Alameda, you love it,” says Ninah Pixie. “All of the bad things about San Francisco get left on the other side of the Bay.”
Hear excerpts from Women Take Back the Noise at www.ubuibi.org/wtbtn/ and at www.alamedamagazine.com.
Track: "Belly"
Artist: Passiflora
Alameda shoe guru Jim Van Dine is at it again, launching a new active-footwear company, Ahnu, from the very same Clement Street site that birthed Keen Footwear, an outdoor-shoe industry darling.
The former president and general manager of Keen, Van Dine resigned from the company in 2006 after Keen moved to Portland to be closer to outdoor shoe industry giants and amp up its empire-building. By mid-year, Van Dine was his own footwear consultant cooking up a multi-sport brand with three primary partners, all former Keen managers—Jacqueline Lenox, Scott McGuire and Jenny Fredericks—and other private investors.
Ahnu’s line of shoes runs the gamut from closed-toe amphibious sandals for water sports to slip-on Mary Janes for knocking around to multi-sport adventure shoes for hiking or trail running.
Hmm, Keens in disguise? “No,” Van Dine says emphatically. Sure, the genetics are similar, and they’re in the same active-footwear category, but Ahnu shoes are light and built for performance, plus they’re sleeker and more stylish, free from Keen’s trademark mondo toe bumper-guard, he notes. And most models sport a one-hand closure system, a smart design without being gimmicky spawned by Van Dine’s torn rotator cuff. Van Dine’s daughter, Ginny, gets the assist on coining the name, suggesting Ahnu for the Celtic goddess of well-being, balance and prosperity.
Ahnu hit better shoe stores, including Scott’s Shoes, REI and Nordstrom, in May. The company also has been making the trade-show circuit, and the brand is finding its way into the shoe press and mainstream media.
Stressing a commitment to sustainable business practices and social responsibility, Van Dine says he wants Ahnu to be successful, but he’s angling for a “much more modest, sustainable growth strategy” than he experienced at Keen, which he characterizes as “quite a ride.”
“It was like trying to out-ski an avalanche,” he says. “I’d like to enjoy the ride more.”
JoanAnn Radu-Sinaiko is forever chasing sunsets; and when she catches them, the results are photographic images full of magic and meaning. She also captures quintessential Alameda happenings—the annual 4th of July Parade and Sand Castle building contest—in her lens. But, it is what she recently did with her colorful photos that is enchanting and remarkable: Radu-Sinaiko put the beauty of Alameda evenings and events on the pages of the official 2007 Alameda, California Calendar, creating a testimony to the natural wonders available right outside Alamedans’ front doors, and to the healing power of connecting with nature’s splendors.
For Radu-Sinaiko, a native Bay Area resident, the road to accomplished photographer was long and, at times, torturous. In her early 20s a life-threatening, ultimately life-changing, East Coast car accident sidelined Radu-Sinaiko and led to a reprioritizing of long held dreams. Misfortune “awakened my irrepressible spirit,” she says. Returning to San Francisco, she pursued careers ranging from massage therapist to cab driver, and found true love with her radio taxi dispatcher, husband Andy Sinaiko.
After moving to Alameda, another physical setback sent Radu-Sinaiko to the beach for recovery R&R. It was there “a sunset met me,” she says. “It was breathtaking and right out my back door. It was a date with destiny.” Camera in hand, she pursued fiery twilights and composed calendar pages that she assembled published in 2005 and 2007. Proceeds from calendar sales have been donated to the Chipman Middle School Drumline Cadet Corp; East Bay Brain Injury Support Group; Friends of Kim’s, benefiting typhoon victims in Vietnam, and others.
Purchase calendars, and enjoy a revolving exhibit of Radu-Sinaiko’s stirring photos, at Café Central and online at www.alamedasunsets.org. The Web site features a map pinpointing top sunset viewing spots in Alameda. Both fundraising and fun raising motivate Radu-Sinaiko who says, “Alameda is the sunset capital of the Bay Area.” She hopes her work will inspire those facing challenges to relish the “simple joy” and easy access Alameda offers to the living radiance of coastal evenings.
What’s that funky-retro vibe you hear twangin’ from the jukebox? Is it vintage rockabilly, mockabilly or the real dang thing? If you’re lucky, you’re catching the sounds of local independent label Star Tones Records, an enterprise dedicated to preserving and promoting American roots music—country swing, hillbilly music, hot jazz and the like.
Steve Merritt, 37, the label owner and record producer, is a Bay Area native who lives on the West End with his wife and daughter. He’s been working on the label for 10 years, “trying to document local bands that probably couldn’t get larger independent labels interested in them.” Over the years, Merritt has developed an ethos about the music: He’s passionate about it, and wants to offer the highest-quality work possible to showcase these musical styles.
Star Tones recording artists include the top-name Cari Lee and the Saddle-ites (Cari Lee happens to be Merritt’s wife), Danny Santos and the Savoys, Royal Deuces, the Top-Hands and the Stillmen. The label has released more than a dozen albums, EPs and singles to date, and each one has been a bit better than the last. Merritt means for that to continue. “We take it very seriously,” he says.
His dedication shows in the technology—or lack thereof—that they use in recording American music. “To do this very honestly and have it be authentic,” says Merritt, he records in mono, not stereo; on tape, not computers; with vintage microphones and instruments, and they, gasp, press vinyl as well as compact discs. He’s even released 45 and 78 rpm records: “’Cause we’re that dorky,” Merritt laughs.
Check out the authentic sound and the visuals at www.startonerecords.com.
1 THE HARBOR BAY GREENBELTS
I don’t have a huge backyard, but because of all the greenbelts in Harbor Bay, I don’t need one. My son and I play baseball at the one near my house, and we sometimes picnic there as a family. It’s so convenient and so welcoming. My wife and I feel really lucky to have such open spaces available to us and love that there are so many to choose from.
2 CAFÉ ENRICO
Even a dedicated Mexican-food lover like me needs some good Italian food every now and then. The great food and beautiful waterfront view are so inviting. And I have to admit, my buddy Rick, the bartender there, makes a mean margarita—and believe me, I know my margaritas!
3 THE GENERAL SPIRIT OF ALAMEDANS
I think the support system in this town is incredible. Whether it’s in businesses, schools and neighborhoods or just between friends—everyone wants to help each other out. There’s a loyalty here like I’ve never seen before. That’s one of the many reasons I never want to live anywhere else.
4 THE TEQUILA BAR AT LA PIÑATA
I absolutely love the mix of people that come to the bar, and I love educating people about tequila, a sometimes very misunderstood spirit. Our bar reminds me in some ways of the bar in the TV show Cheers. At our place everyone knows your name as well as your favorite tequila.
5 ALAMEDA BIKE PATHS
It’s no secret that I work a lot, so the chance to go for a bike ride with my son is golden. The bike paths that we have in Alameda are super. When I’m really busy and feeling like a bike ride would do me good, I appreciate the already planned paths that are available to us and safe. My young daughter is dying to join us, and I can’t wait until she can.
—Photography by Lori Eanes
ABOUT A MUSIC MAKER
Alameda Couple Makes Global Noise
The leafy streets of Alameda seem an unlikely epicenter for experimental music. But the sounds created and curated by Alamedans Ninah Pixie and her husband dAS have a fan base that stretches around the world, from Amsterdam to Tokyo.
The founder of the experimental ensemble Big City Orchestrae and a part of the Bay Area radio scene for 25 years, dAS moved to Alameda 13 years ago from a nondescript neighborhood in San Francisco. He was part of an exodus of artists who crossed the Bay Bridge when they were priced out of the city but then discovered they loved the lifestyle here. “I got tired of waking up and walking out and smelling pee every morning,” says dAS, who found Alameda through an ad in the paper. “The East Bay now has more art than San Francisco.” From the studio located behind the couple’s unit in a Victorian house in Alameda, he’s put together some 300 compilations and 60 CDs. Recordings range from futuristic to modern spins on traditional cowboy and pirate songs.
When Ninah Pixie came to visit dAS in Alameda before they were married, she was surprised by the vibrancy of the East Bay arts scene. A trained classical pianist and graphic designer originally from Chicago, her interest in innovation led her to produce a limited release three-CD set called Women Take Back the Noise. Three years in the making, it features the work of 47 women from around the world who sing, ring, tap, rap, strum and hum their way through experimental music and sounds. The packaging is as innovative as the music. Inside colorful plastic pouches are cards that describe each artist’s background and musical manifesto. The sets have been purchased by women, but also by men for themselves and as gifts to inspire their girlfriends to make music. “I was overwhelmed by the response,” says Ninah Pixie. “People fell in love with the fact that it was a project for women.”
In September 2007, the couple set off for Europe to perform at venues in Maastricht, Den Haag, Munster, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Berlin. After that, they’ll be back to the Island Nation. “Once you find Alameda, you love it,” says Ninah Pixie. “All of the bad things about San Francisco get left on the other side of the Bay.”
Hear excerpts from Women Take Back the Noise at www.ubuibi.org/wtbtn/ and at www.alamedamagazine.com.
Track: "Belly"
Artist: Passiflora
—Elisa Williams
—Photography by Jan Stürmann
—Photography by Jan Stürmann
ALAMEDA MADE
Shoe Business
Alameda shoe guru Jim Van Dine is at it again, launching a new active-footwear company, Ahnu, from the very same Clement Street site that birthed Keen Footwear, an outdoor-shoe industry darling.
The former president and general manager of Keen, Van Dine resigned from the company in 2006 after Keen moved to Portland to be closer to outdoor shoe industry giants and amp up its empire-building. By mid-year, Van Dine was his own footwear consultant cooking up a multi-sport brand with three primary partners, all former Keen managers—Jacqueline Lenox, Scott McGuire and Jenny Fredericks—and other private investors.
Ahnu’s line of shoes runs the gamut from closed-toe amphibious sandals for water sports to slip-on Mary Janes for knocking around to multi-sport adventure shoes for hiking or trail running.
Hmm, Keens in disguise? “No,” Van Dine says emphatically. Sure, the genetics are similar, and they’re in the same active-footwear category, but Ahnu shoes are light and built for performance, plus they’re sleeker and more stylish, free from Keen’s trademark mondo toe bumper-guard, he notes. And most models sport a one-hand closure system, a smart design without being gimmicky spawned by Van Dine’s torn rotator cuff. Van Dine’s daughter, Ginny, gets the assist on coining the name, suggesting Ahnu for the Celtic goddess of well-being, balance and prosperity.
Ahnu hit better shoe stores, including Scott’s Shoes, REI and Nordstrom, in May. The company also has been making the trade-show circuit, and the brand is finding its way into the shoe press and mainstream media.
Stressing a commitment to sustainable business practices and social responsibility, Van Dine says he wants Ahnu to be successful, but he’s angling for a “much more modest, sustainable growth strategy” than he experienced at Keen, which he characterizes as “quite a ride.”
“It was like trying to out-ski an avalanche,” he says. “I’d like to enjoy the ride more.”
—Judith M. Gallman
Sunset Magic and Meaning
JoanAnn Radu-Sinaiko is forever chasing sunsets; and when she catches them, the results are photographic images full of magic and meaning. She also captures quintessential Alameda happenings—the annual 4th of July Parade and Sand Castle building contest—in her lens. But, it is what she recently did with her colorful photos that is enchanting and remarkable: Radu-Sinaiko put the beauty of Alameda evenings and events on the pages of the official 2007 Alameda, California Calendar, creating a testimony to the natural wonders available right outside Alamedans’ front doors, and to the healing power of connecting with nature’s splendors.
For Radu-Sinaiko, a native Bay Area resident, the road to accomplished photographer was long and, at times, torturous. In her early 20s a life-threatening, ultimately life-changing, East Coast car accident sidelined Radu-Sinaiko and led to a reprioritizing of long held dreams. Misfortune “awakened my irrepressible spirit,” she says. Returning to San Francisco, she pursued careers ranging from massage therapist to cab driver, and found true love with her radio taxi dispatcher, husband Andy Sinaiko.
After moving to Alameda, another physical setback sent Radu-Sinaiko to the beach for recovery R&R. It was there “a sunset met me,” she says. “It was breathtaking and right out my back door. It was a date with destiny.” Camera in hand, she pursued fiery twilights and composed calendar pages that she assembled published in 2005 and 2007. Proceeds from calendar sales have been donated to the Chipman Middle School Drumline Cadet Corp; East Bay Brain Injury Support Group; Friends of Kim’s, benefiting typhoon victims in Vietnam, and others.
Purchase calendars, and enjoy a revolving exhibit of Radu-Sinaiko’s stirring photos, at Café Central and online at www.alamedasunsets.org. The Web site features a map pinpointing top sunset viewing spots in Alameda. Both fundraising and fun raising motivate Radu-Sinaiko who says, “Alameda is the sunset capital of the Bay Area.” She hopes her work will inspire those facing challenges to relish the “simple joy” and easy access Alameda offers to the living radiance of coastal evenings.
—Noelle Robbins
Star Tone Records Rocks
What’s that funky-retro vibe you hear twangin’ from the jukebox? Is it vintage rockabilly, mockabilly or the real dang thing? If you’re lucky, you’re catching the sounds of local independent label Star Tones Records, an enterprise dedicated to preserving and promoting American roots music—country swing, hillbilly music, hot jazz and the like.
Steve Merritt, 37, the label owner and record producer, is a Bay Area native who lives on the West End with his wife and daughter. He’s been working on the label for 10 years, “trying to document local bands that probably couldn’t get larger independent labels interested in them.” Over the years, Merritt has developed an ethos about the music: He’s passionate about it, and wants to offer the highest-quality work possible to showcase these musical styles.
Star Tones recording artists include the top-name Cari Lee and the Saddle-ites (Cari Lee happens to be Merritt’s wife), Danny Santos and the Savoys, Royal Deuces, the Top-Hands and the Stillmen. The label has released more than a dozen albums, EPs and singles to date, and each one has been a bit better than the last. Merritt means for that to continue. “We take it very seriously,” he says.
His dedication shows in the technology—or lack thereof—that they use in recording American music. “To do this very honestly and have it be authentic,” says Merritt, he records in mono, not stereo; on tape, not computers; with vintage microphones and instruments, and they, gasp, press vinyl as well as compact discs. He’s even released 45 and 78 rpm records: “’Cause we’re that dorky,” Merritt laughs.
Check out the authentic sound and the visuals at www.startonerecords.com.
—Julia Park Tracey
—Photography Jenny Moe
—Photography Jenny Moe
TAKE FIVE
With Octavio Guzman
1 THE HARBOR BAY GREENBELTS
I don’t have a huge backyard, but because of all the greenbelts in Harbor Bay, I don’t need one. My son and I play baseball at the one near my house, and we sometimes picnic there as a family. It’s so convenient and so welcoming. My wife and I feel really lucky to have such open spaces available to us and love that there are so many to choose from.
2 CAFÉ ENRICO
Even a dedicated Mexican-food lover like me needs some good Italian food every now and then. The great food and beautiful waterfront view are so inviting. And I have to admit, my buddy Rick, the bartender there, makes a mean margarita—and believe me, I know my margaritas!
3 THE GENERAL SPIRIT OF ALAMEDANS
I think the support system in this town is incredible. Whether it’s in businesses, schools and neighborhoods or just between friends—everyone wants to help each other out. There’s a loyalty here like I’ve never seen before. That’s one of the many reasons I never want to live anywhere else.
4 THE TEQUILA BAR AT LA PIÑATA
I absolutely love the mix of people that come to the bar, and I love educating people about tequila, a sometimes very misunderstood spirit. Our bar reminds me in some ways of the bar in the TV show Cheers. At our place everyone knows your name as well as your favorite tequila.
5 ALAMEDA BIKE PATHS
It’s no secret that I work a lot, so the chance to go for a bike ride with my son is golden. The bike paths that we have in Alameda are super. When I’m really busy and feeling like a bike ride would do me good, I appreciate the already planned paths that are available to us and safe. My young daughter is dying to join us, and I can’t wait until she can.
—Gina Jaber
—Photography by Lewis Smith
—Photography by Lewis Smith
