What's Good Oakland?

This past weekend, Oakland was the star of America for 15 minutes. First, the release of Moneyball introduced the world to one of the greatest underdog stories the sport of baseball has ever seen. The movie is centered around Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A's, and his breakthrough theory of using Saber-metrics for baseball in order to win at a truly unfair game. As the amazing reviews continued to roll in, the Oakland Athletics had incredible comeback victories in the 8th and 9th innings over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (their rival) to continue to show the league that even though they are out of the playoff hunt, they are still trying to win games for their organization. Next, the Oakland Raiders defeated the New York Jets in a dominating performance at the O.Co Colliseum in Oakland, exemplifying to the league that Raider Nation is back and they are not to be messed with. Finally, Rick Welts was hired as the President of Basketball Operations for the Golden State Warriors by basketball legend Jerry West. For those who don't know, Welts is the first openly gay executive in sports and he recently resigned from his position in Arizona in order to move closer to his partner in Sacramento. Not only does this show the progress of sports in general; but it shows how willing the Warriors are to judge a person by character rather than sexuality.



During the introductory press conference for Welts he proclaimed, "Today, I am the luckiest guy on the face of the earth," taking a page from Yankee great Lou Gherig. Welts left a relatively conservative Phoenix Suns team for one of the NBAs hottest and most progressive franchises, and with that he hopes to take the Warriors somewhere they havent been in over 30 years, a championship. "He's a superstar," said Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob. "Seriously. One of the very best." As the professional sports teams in Oakland continue to find their way, the city itself has been going through somewhat of a cultural renaissance as well. Jack London Square recently went through a significant gentrification by adding beautiful waterfront condos and a some new hot spot bars, Downtown Oakland has been expanding because of new upstart companies like Pandora, Sungevity, and Bright Source, and if the MLB realizes the gold mine in front of them by advising the team to build the new stadium on the water in Oakland, not only will it be the most beautiful park in baseball (Sorry AT&T) but it will give Oakland a chance to be the greatest comeback city in America (Sorry Detroit).





A new waterfront stadium in Oakland would give anyone and everyone a reason to visit Oakland instead of just being "that town next to SF". Oakland has had a very rough history; it has been riddled with violence and crime for the past 30 years but because of that tragic history people are so damn adamant to proclaim its wonder. Every person I know from Oakland has the same passion and love for our city because we all want it to grow out its unfortunate stereotype. We want people to check out Jack London, and the hills, and Downtown because we want people to see what we see, we want people to feel what we feel. With that being said, we absolutely need to focus on our schools as well as the crime but those issues take a long time to fix and also need a lot of money to help settle. Which is why I'm begging the MLB to make a decision on the new stadium... We have been waiting a dreadfully long 2 1/2 years to see what will be the future will be for our team and our city. And yes it IS the future of our city because if the A's move out of town, why wouldn't the other teams move? The Raiders will go to LA to get a new stadium, the Warriors will move to SF for a bigger market, and Oakland will be left with nothing. And if that does end up happening, Oakland will have no choice but to face its history and just be that town next to SF. So Oakland fans, stand up. Bay Area fans, stand up. Underdog fans, stand up and give this city its chance to be one of the best cities in the nation.

Lets Go Oakland.



P.S. I will be sending this article to the MLB Commissioner Bud Selig in hope for a response.

New Jack City

Rooftop Garden View at the Metropolitan Museum of New York

It seems as though On Top of the Hill has been on hiatus for a few months, but here I am in New York City with one week left on my heart pounding journey through America's toughest, strangest, and most incredible city and I definitely felt the need to say how much this town has meant to me.


Tommy's Rooftop spot


Manhattan via Brooklyn

In 24 hours, I packed up my house in SLO, watched my brother graduate college in LA, took a red eye, slept in Milwaukee, got Cam settled in Queens, met up with Adam in Manhattan, and threw one of the biggest bangers this town has ever seen. Since day one I've been on my grind... Which is lesson one:

If you're not on your grind like everyone else, you wont survive.

There is an aura of working chaos here that has infected everyone perfectly. People dont sleep, they need to work out, and they love to party. It all works together to keep the pace up as well as keep people moving. It seemed peculiar at first, coming from the Bay Area, but the longer I stayed here the more I understood. You have to work as hard as you can to get what you want, you need to fail in order to progress, and you need to have fun in order to stay sane. Which brings me to the second thing I've learned in the Big Apple.

Getting a building with roof access is like getting a signing bonus.

Rooftop parties are the shit. Everyone loves being able to settle down, take in the chaos, and reel at the beauty of this legendary city. Definitely one of the best roofs I have ever been to was for my girl Michelle's 21st birthday. 20th floor, amazing view of the New York skyline, good vibes, and having a keg all lead to a legendary night. For most of summer here in NYC, I was working in SoHo at a random clothing store. Nothing spectacular, but it did give me an opportunity to spend a lot of time in one of the trendiest spots in the world. SoHo is unbelievable but we've been trying to stay classy and going to as many museums as possible. Which leads me to my final lesson.

New York City Museums go hard in the paint.

In the past 2 months, I have seen at least four museums all over the city of New York. All four (The Metropolitan, Museum of the City of New York, The Museum of Natural History, and The Museum of Modern Art) house incredible buildings, each with their own style and genres. My favorite of which had to be the MoMA. Only In this six story ode to performance pieces and troubled artists has the world seen beauty and such pain mixed together so effortlessly. Seeing The Postman by Van Gogh or Les Demoiselles D'Avginon by Picasso in the flesh have given me a love for art that I would never have had unless I came to this incredible city.


Mad Decent Block party, South St. Sea Port

All in all, New York has welcome me with open arms and I can certainly see myself living here for an extended period of time. It's infectious. The people, the places, the parties have all shown me what it takes to work for something as hard as you can so you can make something of yourself. Now I have a few days left and will spend everyone likes its my last.

Cheers, New York.

Slocals Only

Here I am one quarter down, back on the grind at Cal Poly... I've just started watching Californication and I'm feeling a little like Hank Moody right now so here goes nothing for that drunken bastard/genius. Winter Quarter is over in SLO and Australia is long gone. However, its not as gloomy and sad as you might think. In the short time that I've been back in America I've seen more than a handful of friends from over seas so far. In two trips to San Diego, I've gone to two different shows, had two amazing times, and had way too much fun. We got to see Calvin Harris again, Steve Aoki, and Avicii all of who were unreal. Each DJ was completely different but ultimately had the same goal, rock the fucking dance floor... And if you asked anyone who was there, that mission was accomplished. Not only was San Diego crackin unlike any other city in america, we got to spend time with true friends which only made it more special. Don't get me wrong, San Luis Obispo is incredible (and the happiest city in America) but its pretty hard to compete with the Devon beach front atmosphere in sunny San Diego. Having said that, I do have to say how proud I am of the music scene here in SLO town. We have no one to thank other than Killa Cam for what I'm bout to drop on you folks. The man, the myth, the legend, THE Wolfgang Gartner will be gracing us with his presence in our little town on April 5th at the Grad here in SLO. This may not seem like a big deal, but for a MAJOR Dj to make a stop on his North American Tour in our fair city is borderline incredible. It just shows what a great atmosphere can do for a DJ and a dank ass company like Collective Effort to bring it all together. Now I just have to focus on finals, and get cruisin on to the next step in this journey called life. Until then enjoy the slice of slaps... SHOOTS!