Remembering Tom Guerino Of PG&E Public Affairs, A Great Man Of Oakland, Friend To Many
From YouTube Channel: January 1, 2021 at 10:49PM
ONN – Remembering Tom Guarino Of PG&E Public Affairs, A Great Man Of Oakland, Friend To Many
Just got the news that my friend Tom Guarino died via Facebook, which just pissed and pisses me off. It’s a reminder of how not normally connected we are, anymore. We used to get phone calls, and maybe others call each other, but I doubt it. We’re all (except me) slaves to someone else’s fucking platform; I’ve got my own, and it’s my livelihood.
See, Tom Guarino is someone I’ve known for so long that I forgot how long I have known him for so long. I first met him because we were competing for the same job – the one he’s held since we met, which goes back to 1995, or so. We became fast friends mainly because he’s a really cool and easy to get a long with dude, who was what we call a fellow Oakland Politico. In other words, he was someone who followed the doings of Oakland Government and politics, and even to the level of The State of California.
It’s a fun world full of really interesting and smart people, and frankly some of the most dynamic women you’d ever meet in your life, truth be told. But that’s another story; this is about Tom Guarino.
Guarino loved to live life: give him sand, surf, sunglasses, and a bourbon, and work done and bills paid, and he was golden. Tom loved life, and was always down for meeting at an Oakland bar like the now-closed Tribune Tavern, and was always there to help political friends with fund-raising when they were running for office.
And for a guy who didn’t want to be vlogged much, he was really into ideas for topics for me to vlog about. Like this one. I made this Lakeshore Business Improvement District Street Fair vlog, in part, at his behest, in 2009.
And long before that, like 1999, Tom Guarino was there to help me with my Super Bowl: Oakland NFL Bid work, representing Pacific Gas and Electric. His name is on my board of the Oakland Alameda County Sports Commission. As much stress as I endured, Tom was part of the fun of bringing as much of Oakland together to get that bid done. Wow, what a time.
And then Tom was part of the family of Oakland friends that came together to get Libby Schaaf elected Mayor of Oakland. Talk about feeling connected with the town! We were at The Fat Lady, and then the American President Lines building for another fund-raiser, and all of us having good times, good talk, good food, good drink.
We talked about getting together for a livestream talk last year, 2019. He texted me after I was on a ZOOM about the Oakland A’s Baseball Stadium a few months back. The last time I saw him in person, we met for burbon at the Tribune Tavern, November, 5th, 2013, at 4 PM.
I figured I had time this year to make a vlog with him to catch up.
I have to add that we communicated over text and email frequently, and he gave me the tip about the PG&E Headquarters coming to Oakland, last year.
Unbelievable. Sad.
I hate getting older. My Mom is 86, and just trying to get on, even with her body pains. I am focused on helping her, which seems to drive her nuts at times. It’s all a part of trying to make sure the folks around you stick around, especially with this damn virus. And then it takes your friends. It took Tom. That pisses me off, but I don’t know if he was wearing a mask regularly, or not. I’ve been here in Georgia, and yet keeping my place in Oakland, for over a year. Trying to build a company, and just working and helping my Mom. So this happens.
Sad.
Tom is not one to rest in peace; he’s in search of a cool-ass bar in heaven, that pours the best bourbon and makes the greatest steaks.
Stay tuned.
Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. What we call “The Third Wave of Media”. The uploaded video is from a YouTube channel. When the video is “liked” by Zennie62 YouTube, then it is automatically uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective here, on top of our is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours – is the use of the existing YouTube social graph on any subject in the World. Now, news is reported with a smartphone and also by promoting current content on YouTube: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary, or having a camera crew to shoot what is already on YouTube. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.