Have you ever had the cold-water valve on your kitchen faucet snap off, and while water sprayed out all over the place you remember that you accidently threw out the yellow pages in the last recycling trip? If you're like us you'll head down to your local bar, not so much to drown your sorrows, but because all the better plumbers tack their trade business cards up on the wall for occasions just like this.

The Alley, located near the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, is the ultimate repository for business cards. There are probably ten thousand stapled to the walls, some dating back to the 1960's (possibly earlier - that's one of the things we're going to find out). We're going to investigate the assortment of cards and look for examples such as:

- the best artwork
- any card that has your name on it (or something close)
- the highest ranking state employee
- the strangest occupation

...and so on. There may be other activities related to business cards as well. If you've got an outdated stack from a previous job, bring 'em along and we'll find something clever to do with them.

To see a small sample of what we're in for, look here:

http://www.parody.org/goose/divebar/alley/P1190104.jpg

(Try not to imagine what would happen to this firetrap if a stray match were to get flipped out of someone's hand.)

If we stay late enough, we might also participate in the real-piano karaoke as performed by the legendary Rod Dibble, who has been doing this since before you were born. By the end of the evening you'll have long forgotten about that horrible flooding in the kitchen.

Tuesday, May 14
6:00 PM until Rod tickles the nicotine-stained ivories
The Alley
3325 Grand Ave (at Santa Clara) in Oakland

AC Transit busses: 1, 2, 12, 13, 57, 58
BART - 19th Street Station, transfer to AC Bus #12