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Cody's Books celebrated 50 years in Berkeley while at the same time closing its flagship store on Telegraph Avenue. (Two other stores, one on 4th Street in Berkeley, the other in San Francisco).
Needless to say, it was a bittersweet moment.
Fred and Pat Cody (seen on the left) started Cody's Books on Telegraph Avenue in 1956.
In the late 70's Andy Ross (seen on the right) bought the store from the retiring Codys. (Fred Cody died in 1983).
Later, Andy opened a branch on flourishing 4th Street in West Berkeley, and recently another store in San Francisco.
But since the '90's the Telegraph store was losing money. Telegraph Avenue was the problem.
So today they threw a party at the Telegraph store -- first to celebrate 50 years as a bookstore in Berkeley, and to say farewell to the Telegraph store.
Tomorrow, Monday, the store will be closed, everything carted away. Big FOR LEASE signs are already up on the windows.
Independent bookstores like Cody's are closing and few new stores are taking their place.
There are lots of reasons for this. You could say the economy, high rents, high book prices, have made the traditional stores unprofitable.
You could blame the internet for providing instant access to online catalogs and discounted prices.
Or, you could blame the community and local politicians for letting places like Telegraph Avenue, the driveway into the University of California campus, decay and drive away business.
Or, you could just say that bookstores and a reading public are now a thing of the past. Maybe only niche stores that specialize, take up less floor space, employ fewer booksellers, can survive these times.
No one had an answer today. This was a hard and cold business decision. Still, everyone in the crowd had stories and memories of times well spent at Cody's Telegraph, even if you had to fight the panhandlers outside on the street.
I have two memories of my own.
First was in the mid '70's. A guy named John Gage was working part-time at Cody's, managing the math and science sections. I would stop by at lunch and we'd talk about math books. John was getting his graduate degree in econometrics at UC Berkeley, down the street. He eventually went on to become one of the earliest employees at Sun Microsystems.
The other was the time Bill Clinton came to the Telegraph store in June, 2004. I've blogged about that elsewhere.
Still, Cody's Books is alive. The 4th Street and San Francisco stores are ok. No one said running a large bookstore was easy these days. But stores like Cody's, and Moe's, and all the other independent stores in your neighborhood need your support.
Support your local independents!
Everyone must see this movie that Al Gore made. We did last night. Finally Al Gore has found where and how he can be effective. See the trailer. There's not much time left. 
I learned today that an old friend I haven't seen in many years passed away early in May. Han Reiziger was, for many years, one of the major personalities on Dutch TV and radio, presenting programs on music and musicians for station VPRO. Back in the 1970's, VPRO and KPFA in Berkeley were very close, and we often traded programs. And, for a few months, even traded music producers. When KPFA's music director Charles Amirkhanian went to VPRO in Hilversum for a few months, Han came with his family to Berkeley and produced programs at KPFA. And that's how I met Han. 
June 5. Monday. Black Oak Books in Berkeley. 1491 Shattuck Ave. 7:30 pm.June 6. Tuesday. Get Lost Books in San Francisco. 1825 Market St. between Gough and Guerrero. 7 pm.June 24. Saturday. Alliance Francaise in San Francisco. 1345 Bush St. 5 pm.July 12. Wednesday. City Lights Bookstore. Everyone knows where that is. 7 pm.JJuly 13. Thursday. Mechanics Institute. 57 Post St. SF. Members free. Public $7. This will be an evening shared with mystery writer Cara Black. Our theme will be A Night in the Marais.July 14. Friday. Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in San Francisco. 425 Market St. 2 to 4 pm.To register call: 415-405-7700. Cost: $25.July 24. Monday. Book Passage in Corte Madera. 51 Tamal Vista Blvd. 7 pm.
The Del Sol Quartet will be playing in and around the Bay Area next weekend. This is not to be missed. Del Sol is a wonderful group of young players that like to tackle some very challenging music by living composers. This current series, May 24-26, and May 28, features music by two Canadians, an American, and a Spanish composer: José Evangelista, Linda Catlin Smith, Ronald Bruce Smith, and R. Murray Schafer.Program
Linda Catlin Smith: "As you pass a reflective surface" (1991)
Ronald Bruce Smith: String Quartet #2 "Nostalgia" (2006) - World Premiere
R. Murray Schafer: String Quartet #3 (1981)
José Evangelista: Spanish Garland (1993)
This is a great opportunity to hear this wonderful quartet. The Murray Schafer quartet #3 is very rarely performed. Schafer, born in 1933, is quite an intriguing composer, and probably Canada's most well known. His music always has some surprises, yet is rarely performed. Ronald Bruce Smith is from Toronto by studied at UC Berkeley, Stanford, and IRCAM in Paris. His Second Quartet was written for the Del Sol.
Looks like Kinky has made it to the Texas ballot with more than enough signatures!
This could be a new day for Texas, and a new day for the rest of the country.
Ever since Texas took over the country, we've all be headed down hill at an alarming rate. Now, maybe something will change.
More power to my namesake, the Kinkster
Last weekend Victoria gave Suede a long overdue bath. It was finally warm enough to do it. Its been a long winter up at the stables. He really needed it.
A recent PBS/Nova program reveals that the amount of sunlight reaching the earth has diminished over the recent past, mainly caused by air pollution making the clouds more reflective. The net result is that it has slowed the development of global warming. Without this dimming of the Sun, we would by now be experiencing the beginnings of the worst disasters caused by global warming.
That's a strange situation to be in... air pollution slowing global warming. And the more we do to reduce air pollution, the faster global warming occurs.
The only solution is to deal with both, altho scientists interviewed in the program indicate that unless we do something significant real soon (10 years?) we're screwed.
See it for yourself: The Dimming of the Sun at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sun/
After days and days of rain, which caused mud slides and awful green algae growing on the sides and porches of houses, we finally have a sunny day. Needless to say, these days of rain have had an effect on everyone. Many people, myself included, have colds, allergies from mold, and lowered expectations. The constant rain puts everything on hold, especially when we are all expecting a glorious Spring by now.
Jordi Savall and Hesperion XXI are performing next weekend in Berkeley. This is a must-see event. But even if I could afford to attend either of the two concerts, at $52/seat, I couldn't because they're already sold out.
This proves we're at the bottom of the 11-year sunspot cycle. Another day with NO sunspots. This is a real problem for low-power ham radio communication. Radio wave propagation depends on the solar wind generated by sunspots on the sun's surface to create an ionized layer in the atmosphere to bounce signals off of. As a result, high-frequency communication (3-30MHz) has been quite difficult over the past couple of days. All I can hear from my modest radio shack in Oakland is noise. It may take another year before I can hope to make regular contacts in Europe and South America. Read today's report from K7RA.
There are now 150 images on my photo blog. I've been adding images almost daily since September. These pictures come from under my desk, where I've stashed some of the 8000+ slides I've taken since somewhere around 1964. Uploading these pictures has been my nightly practice. A ritual. Very strange to be looking back some 30-40 years. Each picture does have a story, sort of. Maybe I'll start adding those stories. Right now it's just the images. 