Although he may have been shilling for his protegé in that notorious YouTube video, Willie is worried for Ed Lee's chances in the November election. Using the large-ish brain he keeps tucked under those fedoras, Willie recalls how several other #1 polling candidates ended up losers under the ranked-choice system. Like say - Don Perata over in Oakland, who is probably feeling pretty smug right now. His point, if he has one, is that Lee ought to watch out, especially if Herrera and Avalos attempt to make a play to tag team the progressive vote.

Speaking of party politics and political parties: Willie played the role of Randy Jackson to Paul Pelosi's American Idol contestant at a cabaret-style fundraiser at Yoshi's. "It was hard to tell what was beaming brighter," Willie says, "the spotlight on Paul Pelosi or the smile from Nancy."

As you might expect, the aforementioned YouTube video meant Willie Brown and MC Hammer ended up spending some time together recently, which led to a nice opportunity for Hammer to fill in the former mayor on the latest dance trends. Willie's new favorite is called "Turf Dancing", which is a thing in Oakland that Willie describes as, "like one of Michael Jackson's moves, except they're doing it with ballet connected to it." OK, sure. We might describe it as Cirque infused with a visit to the chiropractor, but it's nice to see Willie taking an interest in what the kids (or MC Hammer, at least) are in to these days.

In case you were wondering, Willie is also a member of the "This Old Bag Club", which is where you donate an old bag that is sold for charity. It does not, as we initially suspected, have anything nothing to do with the ladies he chooses to spend his time with.

While we're on the topic of ladies he chooses to spend his time with, one 35-40 year old woman caught his eye at a recent event. Willie could, "tell by the way she carried herself that she had a connection with someone in the room." When he politely introduced himself as, "I'm Willie Brown", the lady (who was already aware of the fact), explained quickly, "One thing I don't do is kiss and tell." Not that we would ever spread any rumors, but we're fairly sure that means someone at this event was paying for their companionship.

Likewise, we imagine Willie was similarly well compensated for a visit to Ella — The place to eat food in Sacramento. Because he has suddenly decided to start watching his figure, Wille had a Little Gem salad with caramelized nuts. He doesn't eat nuts, he says, but, " the greens were cut in bite-sized pieces so I didn’t need to work very hard."

[Willie's World]
[InsideScoop]
[SFWire]
[OaklandLocal]