Shades and a sexy drinking buddy aren't all you need for a perfect vacation (though it sometimes seems that way). In BEFORE TAKE-OFF, OC brings you guides on what to read, watch, and listen to before heading to our five favorite US destinations. This week: Oakland.
1. Watch Fruitvale Station, a Sundance festival-winning film based on a true story of a kid who was unjustly handled by police officers at a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) station on New Year’s Eve. The incident was famously filmed on a flip phone video camera (back when everyone had flip phones!). Shot in Oakland, the film follows 22-year-old Oscar Grant III as he tries to get his life back together—hustles his boss to get his job back, spends time with his daughter, and disposes ounces of weed into the breathtaking setting of the San Francisco bay. Bonus: this route is highly recommended if you haven’t driven through this coastal highway.
2. Prep your Tupac playlist. The late rapper lived in “Oaktown” from 1988-1991, which is when he released albums including All Eyez On Me and Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. He’s still being “spotted” at Walmart Black Fridays, so you may be lucky to catch a glimpse of the man who is resting in peace. Anything for a madly discounted plasma right? Watch him talk about how he claims Oakland because of the game there (5:40) —”Give all my Grammys and shit to Oakland.”
3. Read local novelist Jack London’s The Call of the Wind, a story about a domestic crossbreed of St. Bernard and Scottish Shepherd kidnapped to be an Alaskan work dog. During your stay, you’ll no doubt come across Jack London Square, the waterfront home to many stores, hotels, ferry docks, and restaurants. While you’re there, grab a drink at Heinold’s First and Last Chance, a bar where London often studied as a 17-year-old schoolboy in the 1890s, and later on borrowed money from the owner for his Berkeley tuition.
4. Even if you’re not a martial-arts nerd, you should take this chance to peep Bruce Lee’s legend. Start from flipping through Bruce Lee Was Here, a website dedicated to his Google-street-view history, then sign up (we dare you!) for a class at Jeet Kune Do, home to the style of martial arts invented by Lee. After that, read this book about his controversial (slash awesome) fight that took place in his gym in Oakland with Wong Jack Man, a representative from a mastery in Shaolin sent to combat Lee because he was teaching non-Chinese students. Respect!
5. Chill from ’93 Til—Oakland has nurtured pretty strong hip-hop names but damn, Souls of Mischief, though! Watch their