Home Depot, High Street, Oakland, CA.

Ajuan Mance

In the Bay Area, I rarely see anyone wearing old school rugby jerseys. In the last ten or so years, the loose-fitting cotton shirts with white collars and chest stripes (some call them hoops) have given way to form-fitting, short-sleeve jerseys in high-tech fabrics. Come to think of it, I rarely see folks in the newer high-tech jerseys either. Still, when I see someone in one of the throwback cotton hoop jerseys, I assume he’s one of the rugby faithful. When I saw this guy outside Tomatina’s in Alameda, I wanted to ask him if he played, but by the time I passed by the door of the restaurant, he and his party had already gone inside.

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Speaking of people wearing summer clothing during winter weather, this guy at Michael’s was wearing what I can only describe as one of Jennifer Beals’s dancewear-style tops from the movie Flashdance. He had a hoodie tied around his waist, and that indicated to me that he must have worked up a sweat doing all that holiday shopping in the East Bay’s busiest craft store.

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I once observed that Michael’s is like Home Depot for women. Of course, there are plenty of women who shop at home; and there are certainly a small number of men who shop at Michael’s, but the general point stands. This is the face of a guy who had just walked into the Michael’s in Emeryville and gotten a look at the checkout line. During the holiday season, the line at this store is absolutely outrageous. It moves quickly, though, and so it’s never as bad as it looks…but when you walk in the front door of the store, the line is the first thing you see, and it looks pretty awful. I say, bring a book to pass the time, or–even better–shop online and avoid going to Michael’s entirely.

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It’s a week before Christmas, and Oakland is finally having temperatures that really feel like the holiday season. When I went out to my car yesterday, there was frost on my windshield! That hasn’t happened to me since I moved to California (more than ten years ago). Given that this is the closest to East Coast winter weather than we’ve had in more than a decade, it’s particularly interesting to note the number of people who are still dressing like it’s August. The guy in this drawing was sitting with his back to the window at Noodle Theory, a restaurant so small that, no matter where you’re sitting, you are pretty much guaranteed to get a taste of whatever the outside weather feels like. I was cold throughout lunch, and looking at the man in this drawing, who was wearing a short-sleeved summer polo shirt with a t-shirt underneath, made me feel even colder. He, on the other hand, seemed just as comfy as if he was wrapped in a down comforter.

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Wells Fargo Bank, Fruitvale Ave, Oakland CA.

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This brother at the Pier One in Emeryville was making himself at home on an ottoman, which was pretty peculiar, since Pier One isn’t the kind of place where people are encouraged to use the display furniture as a waiting area.

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Farmer Joe’s Market, MacArthur and 35th, Oakland CA.

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This morning I realized that I’d completely skipped drawing #428. It threw off the numbering on all of my posts from 429 to 434 (but not the numbering on the drawings themselves). I’ve gone in and corrected the numbering on the posts, and now I’m adding drawing #428. Although I am a professor, and although my own style of dress might well be described as professorial, I am always surprised when I am on a college campus and I see someone who is dressed like the classic post-baccalaureate instructor. Such was the case with the man in this drawing, who was entering Woo Hon Fai Hall on the Berkeley Campus. I don’t know that he was a professor. As he was entering the BAM/PFA building, the likelihood is that he was a visitor seeking some information about an upcoming film program. Still, his outfit was kind of thrilling to me, including his throwback 1980s style scarf.

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…seen at the Berkeley Farmer’s Market.

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