Our old comrade Zennie, who plugs away daily with his blogging, and vlogging, and sports coverage, dropped in on the Bay to Breakers office. It's a long (15 minute) video, in which he carries a camera around while he's introduced to the staff putting together the race, including race director Angela Fang. She discusses how every finisher in the race this year (if they're registered) gets a commemorative medal. And how there'll be bands along the course playing music reflecting some of the decades of the 100 years the race has been run (we're sure the drunk people will enjoy that, and it may also distract them from finishing and collecting their medals). The best part, though, is where Zennie admits that a couple of years ago he fell off the back of the press truck, presumably while trying to shoot video of the race. And he hopes that won't happen again. more ›

You may have heard by now, if you follow East Bay headlines, that Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums has decided not to seek re-election. This comes as a great surprise, and disappointment to CityBrights blogger Zennie Abraham. " This blogger predicted he would run and this blogger was way wrong... It's too bad and really sad to see a man I've admired over my life go out this way." more ›

Citizen journalist and onetime e-friend of SFist, Zennie Abraham (we hope he's forgiven us for that Oscars incident, but we digress), was taking a break from World Cup mania and walking down the street recently when he had an epiphany about solving the Gulf oil disaster: What about oil-eating bacteria? He does a little investigating, finds a firm in Florida that makes the stuff, and wonders aloud why Florida governor Charlie Crist hasn't called on the company yet. Then, wouldn't you know, Crist pays a 40-minute visit to the firm. Coincidence? Perhaps not. more ›

Those of you who have become loyal followers of Zennie Abraham's City Brights blog at SF Gate might have noticed that he called us out over the weekend. Zennie is upset about a perceived slight in re: his seeking press credentials for the Oscars. We corrected our previous post so as not to appear that we were misrepresenting the facts, but Zennie still sent us a number of emails, and continues to take issue with us calling him our "old pal." more ›

CORRECTION: Zennie contacted us to clarify that he was, as he explains in the video, invited by AMPAS to apply for a credential, only to be rejected later in what he feels was a discriminatory process. It appears there is some discrepancy between who they invite to apply and the 3,000 members of the press to whom they grant credentials. more ›

Our old pal Zennie editorializes today on his City Brights blog about the "negro" comments made by Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid in regard to Obama's candidacy back in '08. Zennie says that Reid's comments may have been racist, but the man is not, and he goes on to make the (somewhat spurious) argument that, "Much has changed since Barack Obama became the 44th President of The United States, specifically attitudes about race and the overall willingness to talk about race and racism." He also brings up the fact that many (older) African Americans didn't believe Obama could get elected, which was racist in itself. more ›

We are forever amused by our good old pal Zennie, and his many rants and antics in his role as a City Brights vlogger on SFGate. In an effort to find something to do and/or vlog about during his holiday sojourn to his hometown of the south side of Chicago, Zennie discovers the movie Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, and decides to take a long awaited pilgrimage to an actual White Castle. Cue some dizzying camerawork and a lot of repeated chuckles about "burger heaven" and "that's what I'm talkin about." more ›

Our old trekkie pal Zennie Abraham is back on his City Brights blog questioning the display currently in the windows at the Calvin Klein store in the Westfield Centre. A reader wrote in to say s/he thought it provoked images of African-American lynchings, given the ropes and, we suppose, the fact that these are literally black mannequins. We would argue it looks a lot more like circus/gymnastics imagery to us, given the trapeze and all, but sure, someone could make an argument that the bodies randomly slung by two ropes are questionable. Anyway, it's hardly a question for national concern, but Zennie has put up a poll and he's asking you to vote. We've embedded the poll here, so, for Zennie's sake, please let him know what you think. more ›

Remember our old old pal Zennie? He of the controversy and Giants game meanderings? Some of you may know him as a SFGate City Brights blogger (a title shared by those eloquent Getty brothers), and today on his e-soapbox he has figured out how Twitter can finally monetize their ridiculously relentless traffic. His answer: partner with YouTube, which apparently in one step will generate some percentage revenue fee for the traffic sent to YouTube videos, and will help twitterers to "jazz up" their profiles and tweets, like they do with photos. Certainly we'd rather have an instructional video from @Martha Stewart when she twitters a recipe for currant/raspberry crisp, rather than just a lousy photo, but we're not sure this would translate to too many dollar bills. more ›

Oh lucky day. more ›

You may recall Zennie from his complaints about the "outsized" proportions of the futuristic San Francisco shown in the trailer for J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek film. Well, the movie's out, and Zennie's got his tickets! (See link for a tangent about his high school bike club in the 70s.) In the video posted here, in re: the new Star Trek, Zennie asks the question, Where are all the black people? more ›

You may recall avid YouTube enthusiast Zennie from this post regarding the "outsize" buildings in the futuristic San Francisco skyline shown in the upcoming Star Trek film. Well, as it happens, the East Bay denizen's addiction to vlogging did not start and certainly did not end with that arguably minor work. Allow us to point you to his latest opus, in which he takes us to the San Francisco Giants' opening day at AT&T Park, but not without an initial tour of something called BART and something called the N-Judah. more ›