Everybody's Autobiography

A blog documenting expeditions into California's social, cultural, and natural histories. Short multimedia essays explore the museum's inner workings along with the author's deepest emotions. Eminent Bay Area writers and artists make frequent guest appearances.

Redwood Safari
Monday, February 21, 2011
Andrew Leland

I met Douglas Long, the Chief Curator of Natural Sciences at the Oakland Museum of California, in front of The Planet, J.B. Blunk's 1969 redwood burl sculpture that stands before the museum... more

A Friday Afternoon with Billy Jam
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Andrew Leland

When he moved from Oakland to New York five years ago, Billy Jam brought his radio show—which he'd been doing in the Bay Area, on a wide range of stations (from... more

Museum Looting in Cairo
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Andrew Leland

Amid the flood of news and images from Egypt's massive street protests, several reports came in Friday and Saturday on the destruction of ancient artifacts from Cairo's Egyptian National Museum.... more

Preface
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Andrew Leland

Gertrude Stein did hers and now anybody will do theirs. The Oakland Museum of California has invited me into their galleries to write my autobiography. That's not how they put it, but it's how I... more

Projects

Return to the Wunderkammer
symposium about creating interdisciplinary museum content
Bump City
notes on the past, present, and future of Oakland and the East Bay by Alex Abramovich and Lucy Raven
Portraits from the Occupation
video record of Occupy Oakland
see all projects