Photo: Joshua Lott
Last June, Mara organized a bake sale to raise money for Barack Obama. It was a typically chilly summer day in San Francisco, but we made a fistful of cash, AND we got our picture taken by a passerby who happened to be a professional photojournalist. His name is Joshua Lott, and he posted it on a blog called The Stumping Grounds, which features one photo per day from one of the many photojournalists covering the campaign. Ours was posted on June 24th.
I had to include this; it's the current photo, and it's awesome. It was taken by Scout Tufankjian, and her site is well worth a look. She's posted a series on the Secret Service which is both revealing and kind of scary.
02 Nov 08 · filed under: politics, san francisco · 
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Long ago, someone spray painted "US out of North Dakota" on the wall of the Cave, a little bar in the basement of a Carleton dorm. It was directly above the stage, a stage where I saw a lot of good bands (Walt Mink, FIREHOSE, Phish, and probably others). So I spent a lot of time staring at it. It made a deep impression on me. I still think about it. Which reminds me: Secession. The counties of Northern California and Southern Oregon tried to secede from their respective states in the 40's. True story. So anyway, it makes me really happy that Justin took this photo of a Duster in his neighborhood in Berkeley. Dissent! It's your patriotic duty.
02 Oct 08 · filed under: san francisco, visual · (0) ·
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The classiest fam in Hollywood loves Mara's barrettes; this time Violet rocks them. Nice. Buy em here, and pass it on.
14 Aug 08 · filed under: san francisco, tip, visual · (0) ·
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File this one under: Holy crap. It has come to the attention of the tabloid-reading world that Jennifer Garner was seen wearing red barrettes! But, wait, there's more. A certain barrette-making friend of ours made them. By hand. In San Francisco.
This is from Just Jared, and I must say: If the blog really is just a guy named Jared writing about celebrities, my hat is off to him. He publishes some tidbit of celebrity gossip roughly every 5 seconds. That's dedication, homes. If you're interested in the barrettes, you can buy a pair for yourself at Little Something; if you're concerned that they'll make you look like Jennifer Garner, you can ask Mara for some guidance in the proper way to wear them.
I'm glad that the barrettes got the full paparazzi treatment. A couple of photos just wouldn't have been sufficient. Better get 17 and be safe. Check em all out.
(Congratulations, you big loser).
08 Aug 08 · filed under: san francisco, tip, visual · (2) ·
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A couple of weekends ago, I visited the site of an Airstream trailer that Yoshi and I shared outside Stinson Beach, California. The trailer is long gone, but the spot is still the same: Overlooking the Pacific Ocean on a scraggly lawn at the end of a farm road. We spent many a night sitting on a homemade couch out under the stars, listening to an increasingly crusty Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain tape, hanging out with farm people, and getting into adventures. They were simpler times, so the adventures were simpler. One time, police showed up and asked Yoshi if he knew anything about the ritual animal sacrifices happening in the area. Naked toddlers often woke him up by tickling his eyelashes with wildflowers.
Look at our boy now! Gourmet Magazine. Articles about obscure vegetables. Lunches, brunches, interviews by the pool. What's next? Condos in Queens? Indo for weeks? Sold out seats to hear Yoshi Yamada speak?
The article is vintage Yamada, reminding me of the many excellent, excellent letters and postcards that I've accumulated over the years:
I have not put ramps in my pipe, but I ...
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05 Aug 08 · filed under: food, san francisco · (0) ·
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I always meant to write about my close encounter with public television fame -- the only kind that's worth pursuing, if you ask me -- but somehow I got waylaid by summertime, its various parties and good ol times. But I've got a sec, so I should just spill it before the good times take hold again.
Time spent combing hair: zero minutes. Time spent ironing shirt: zero minutes. Number of heart attacks my mom would have if she saw this: countless.
Check, Please! Bay Area is a restaurant review show on our local public television station, KQED Channel 9 (what!). On each show, three Bay Area residents sit around a table and discuss their thoughts and feelings about three local restaurants. At the beginning of the process, each person gets to choose a favorite1 restaurant; then, each participant goes to all three restaurants; THEN, everyone assembles at KQED studios to discuss them in front real TV cameras.
So, yeah, it all started back in June.
Mara and I were at Pauline's ...
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05 Aug 08 · filed under: food, reviews, san francisco · (0) ·
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You may recognize me from somewhere, somewhere like YOUR TIVO.
Pretty much the only thing the director told me: "Don't look at the camera." Dang.
More on my explosion onto the local public television restaurant-reviewing stage sometime soon; until then you can check out my episode of the Check Please Bay Area here.
11 Apr 08 · filed under: food, reviews, san francisco · (0) ·
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Via Burritophile, an awesome resource for all things burrito.
11 Apr 08 · filed under: food, san francisco · (0) ·
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Last Friday night was just another night in the penthouse of the Fairmont Hotel for Mara and I. We relaxed in seal-skin robes, shuffled around in baby polar bear ear fur slippers, snorted the finest powdered snow leopard pancreas, fed Kobe beef to the pigeons who delivered the New York Times piecemeal in tiny scrolls tied to their feet, and generally killed time. (While enjoying the Cooper holiday party).
When we emerged from a blissful reverie, we noticed that the walls were covered with an unusual world map.
It was painted in 1927, by a guy named Robert Boardman Howard. A little poking around on the Internet reveals that his work is scattered across Northern California -- sketches at the Merced post office, a design for the phoenix on Coit Tower, a relief in front of the Livermore post office.
The Smithsonian did an interview with him in 1964, where he talks about another good NorCal project. "Then there was a small theatre up at Guerneville that I decorated. ...
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26 Jan 08 · filed under: inside art, san francisco, visual · (0) ·
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Lots of intriguing stuff at Clare Rojas's opening at Gallery Paule Anglim tonight. Woodland creatures, naked dudes in tai chi poses, an excellent video of Peggy Honeywell playing a slow sad song at a raging frat party filled with beer bongs and keg stands, Amaze, Barry McGee, and much, much more. Worth it.
I call this one "It's Hard Out Here For a Penguin."
I think this one is untitled, but it should be called "Untitleable."
Gallery Paule Anglim is at 14 Geary in downtown San Francisco.
07 Sep 07 · filed under: inside art, san francisco, visual · (0) ·
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I’ve said it before: I don’t like Barry Bonds. So it may seem strange that I wanted to be there when he hit home run number 756. But consider this: I love baseball; the record for career home runs is, like it or not, one of baseball’s hallowed milestones; Bonds plays in my city; the Giants were beginning a home stand as he was poised to break the record. Too many stars were aligned for me to NOT try to get into a game. I could always boo, right?
So, on Tuesday, August 7, I rode my bike to AT&T Park, hoping to get lucky and figuring that I wouldn't. Immediately, I got really lucky, scoring an amazing ticket in the club level (a $70 value) for the price of two AT&T Park beers. At that moment, I had a good feeling. A couple of hours later, Bonds faced a 3-2 count, and I decided to join 45,000+ other fans in pointing my digital camera at the plate. Up to that point, I made sarcastic remarks about mediating the experience in that way. Now I’m posting my crappy version on the Internet. Why? I don’t know. Anyway, a moment ...
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20 Aug 07 · filed under: baseball, san francisco · (0) ·
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This weekend I got an incredible book about San Francisco called San Francisco in Maps & Views. I usually avoid glossy coffee-table historical books because they're so often filled with disappointments -- bad color, bad printing, messy layout, uninspired writing, PLUS they're really expensive. But THIS ONE. This one is different. The maps are very well-reproduced, high-res and colorful, and all are supported by detailed and surprisingly engaging commentary.
After I got over the initial thrill of using it like a flip-book and watching my neighborhood evolve, I started to notice smaller trends in land-use evolution -- a plot labeled "orphan asylum" became "hospital;" many things labeled "cemetary" became "park" or "civic center." "Dunes" become "the Sunset."
I was also intrigued by the use of public places as refugee camps after the big one hit in 1906. Apparently, SF carpenters sprang into action and built thousands of makeshift cottages for the earthquake/fire refugees, turning many well-known SF public spaces into refugee camps, including South Park, Dolores Park, and Precita Park, and lots of the then-outlying, undeveloped areas, like the Richmond and the Sunset. ...
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29 May 07 · filed under: architecture, san francisco, the ancient past, urban · (0) ·
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Mara and I just moved into the Lower Haight earlier this month, and Google just released a new Maps feature -- Street View -- that has a picture of our place. If I weren't writing about this, I'd be speechless. Wow.
Our place is the yellow two-story walk-up that is bustin out of the top of the frame. I love that it was captured on one of those semi-sunny days where little wisps of fog drift through. So nice to not live in the fog belt. Incidentally, here's the Chronicle's fog forecast. Doesn't look good.
Street Level seems like useful functionality, esp. for fancy mobile devices, which I don't have. The controls are pretty straightforward and easy to use on a desktop, but I wonder about the ease with which one could navigate up and down the streets with those teeny arrows on a Palm or Blackberry. This is really nitpicky, but I think it would be effective to introduce more map navigation into the image, i.e. skipping to the next intersection, returning to the original destination, etc. Future-wise, ...
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29 May 07 · filed under: san francisco, tech, visual · (0) ·
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The Warriors playoff ride is over, the Jazz's ride will come to an end sometime in the next week or so, but Baron's dunk over Kirilenko will live on FOREVER. Let's just sit back and appreciate it for a minute. (It's much better live).
Baron elevates and elevates; he begins his leap before Kirilenko and is still going up as Kirilenko descends. Mind-bending. To his credit, Kirilenko said after the game that it was an awesome dunk and that "at least I got to be on the poster." Also to Kirilenko's credit, he didn't foul Baron; if anything, it was an offensive foul. More on the stupid NBA officiating later.
As impressive as the dunk itself was Baron's stomach flash after he landed. Not really sure where this came from. The elementary school playground? An And1 mixtape? Wherever it came from, it was a stroke of genius in that particular setting -- Friday night, Oakland Coliseum, Western Conference Semi-final blowout. You could practically feel the Bay Area elevate that moment.
...
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17 May 07 · filed under: basketball, san francisco, visual · (0) ·
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So how come I just now learned that you can create your own Google Maps mark-up? As a lover of both maps and personal documents, the ability to customize an online map has the potential to have a Shabu-like effect on my life. The above map has all the places I've lived in the Bay Area. Check out the complete, interactive thingy here. It has essential, all-important commentary on each place. Maps I want to make: killer runs in SF; fun night-time wanderings in SF; literary locales of SF (from fiction and from real life); TV/movie locales of SF; (this guy already made a cool music-related history of SF); crazy work travel trips of the past few years; places I want to go; a burrito tour of the Mission; the list GOES ON.
19 Apr 07 · filed under: san francisco, the ancient past, visual, web · (0) ·
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A few years ago, it would have been surprising to see a San Francisco indie crowd move its feet around in a dance-style motion at a live show. Last week, Lightning Bolt got people moving at 12 Galaxies; it wasn't exactly "dancing" but (from my vantage point in the balcony), it appeared kinetic -- lots of mass moving back and forth, a little crowd-surfing, a little flailing around. I took a lot of pictures from my perch above the drums.
18 Apr 07 · filed under: flickr, music, san francisco, visual · (0) ·
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I met Phil Collins (the British artist, not the British pop star1) at a bar in Brooklyn in the mid 90's. At the time, I didn't know him as "the British artist," I knew him only as my friend Tom's legendary boyfriend. I remember little of the night, but I do remember a hubbub accompanying Phil Collins's wanderings around the bar; he seemed to create some kind of event wherever he went. At some point, he approached the table with two tall drinks, placed them in front of me, and said something like "These are from an admirer of yours."
As it turned out, they were from an admirer of his, and this admirer perceived, shall we say, a lack of gratitude when his drinks were given away. There was a confrontation, as I recall, and Phil said something like, "Well, I'm sorry, I never turn down a drink, but you can't honestly expect me to drink [disbelieving voice] rum & coke?" (Or whatever the drinks were).
All of which serves as background to my reaction to Phil Collins's piece, ...
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08 Feb 07 · filed under: inside art, san francisco, the ancient past, visual · (2) ·
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Once upon a time, a San Francisco resident strolling around these chilly city streets could brush by Chris Johanson pretty often. Even before I knew who he was, I'd seen him around the Mission a lot; when I finally connected the dots, I realized that he was the guy who had drawn little signs and bits that I'd been loving for years. As I recall, he drew a little guy above the urinal at the Uptown (or somewhere I peed a lot); either way, his simple figures and their cryptically expressed thoughts would be burned into my brain for hours after I saw them. He moved to Portland a while ago, and San Francisco has been a little less visually exciting ever since. For one thing, his beard is an inspiration to any aspiring beardo, and his leadership in this regard will be sorely missed.
More: A cool profile of Chris from Spark, a local PBS art show.
31 Jan 07 · filed under: inside art, san francisco, visual · (0) ·
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Thanksgiving 2006 came and went, attended by friends, family and the customary dramas.
An East Coast / West Coast feud flared up in the week before the holiday. Gabriel (East) sent what some in the West perceived as "a salvo across the bow" in the form of a PowerPoint presentation (a slide of which is pictured below). It contained a financial-style analysis of Thanksgiving: how Thanksgiving East has performed over the past decade, trends, projections, and outlines for future growth.
Some saw this as evidence of a diabolical plan; I was naive and asked for clarification on specifics:
Dear Gabe, TYs (Thanksgiving years) 2003-2004 were characterized by broad guest sector diversification. What is the likelihood that a diversified strategy, with exposure to the Shanahan sector, for example, will be pursued in the future? Secondly, to what extent will "value" guests (e.g., McClorys and Preslers) continue to anchor the portfolio? Will you pursue more (potentially) volatile "growth" guests in order to boost performance in the coming years?
Gabe replied:...
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07 Dec 06 · filed under: flickr, new york, san francisco, the ancient past · (0) ·
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Being car-less keeps me (mostly) around the southeastern neighborhoods of San Francisco, but every once in a while I'll venture out to the frontiers. Last Friday, we went out to Mollusk, the arty surf shop on 46th-ish Avenue and Irving, (i.e. WAY Outer Sunset), for an art opening and a performance by Peggy Honeywell, i.e. local art star and beautiful loser Clare Rojas. The surf shop setting was informal and cozy; the acoustics actually weren't bad; there were dogs walking around; all in all, it makes me wish that I got out there more. This intimate setting was lots better than the cavernous, loud, obnoxious-people-filled place I saw her perform last, Barry McGee's opening in Melbourne, Australia a couple of years ago.
12 Sep 06 · filed under: flickr, music, san francisco, street art, visual · (0) ·
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Today is Bike-to-Work Day, which means that Market Street was slightly more alive this morning. As everyday is bike-to-work day for me, I would really rather see the "energizer stations" (PDF map of the Bike Coalition's coverage) out there during the winter, when the wind is howling, the streets slick, and the cyclists few in number, but still, it's nice to see a few more people out there dodging potholes and Muni tracks, and the snacks were tasty. Thx, SFBC.
18 May 06 · filed under: bikes, san francisco · (0) ·
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So apparently Google and Earthlink are teaming up to provide free WiFi service to all of SF (via Gizmodo). While we're still a ways from knowing what this will actually mean -- mainly, will be accessible at 14th and Valencia, third floor apartment? -- it is intriguing to me that Google is involved. Unlike Earthlink, Google has never gouged me, or failed to provide service that I've paid for, or sold my name and home address to direct marketers.
So I guess you could say that I'm hopeful. Maybe someday soon I'll be able to work from Pac Bell (er, I mean, SBC ... er, I mean AT&T) Park, or Buena Vista Park, or the little redwood grove outside the Transamerica building.
Or from my roof. (See the photo).
06 Apr 06 · filed under: san francisco, tech, tip · (0) ·
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First Thursdays at 49 Geary can be overwhelming, people-wise, and underwhelming, art-wise, and this month was different only in that the overwhelmingness was crammed into one place: the Fraenkel Gallery. Packed with people, it also displayed a face-melting collection of Richard Misrach photos.
When I first saw Misrach's photos, I thought immediately of Sebastiao Salgado. Both guys address big themes -- civilizations, seasons, landscapes, human endeavors -- but they do so in vastly different ways. Salgado frames his work around human action; his subjects are migrants, activitists, laborers. Misrach works with earth, light, space; he works with dunes, strangers, cars, power plants. Salgado's work is tied to current events, political movements, regimes, definable moments and recognizable things; Misrach works with more anonymous objects and landscapes. There are much more significant differences between them, but they share a social awareness that invests the best of their work with real intrigue and importance.
05 Mar 06 · filed under: inside art, reviews, san francisco, visual · (0) ·
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Last night we checked out the Oakland Art Murmur. Actually, we didn't even know that such a thing existed, and drove over the Bridge intending to see Jason Munn's opening at Bloom Screen Printing. So it was a pleasant surprise to see that little stretch of Telegraph goin off when we got there. Jason's stuff was the best of the art stuff, by far, but the action on the street was out front of Rock Paper Scissors.
That's where we saw a guy burn an American flag. It took him roughly 10 minutes of false starts to light it with a Bic, but just after I took this picture, an ambulance raced up the street, sirens blaring, on its way to some emergency, but it abruptly slowed down when the driver saw the burning flag, and we could see the faces of the other paramedics staring at the guy as they crawled by. It was one of those only-in-Oakland moments. Holla!
05 Mar 06 · filed under: inside art, reviews, san francisco, visual · (0) ·
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The Royal Art Lodge snuck up on me. I wandered into a show of theirs at the Power Plant, a gallery in Toronto in 2003. In a fairly small space, they'd crammed a wall full of collaborative paintings, Polaroids, homemade musical instruments, and many paintings by Marcel Dzama and Neil Farber. It was all very ... hard to describe: thrown together, primitive, whimsical, charming, dark, strange, hilarious. A painting of debutantes sitting in a row on the back of an alligator, smoking cigarettes. Bats. Root beer syrup. A grid of Polaroids, each of which was composed of a person in a strange, homemade mask poking his/her head out of a window of an institutional building.
I couldn't quite believe it and I loved it. It would be hard for any art show to rival serendipitous discovery like that, but last week, I checked out Yerba Buena's show of some newer Royal Art Lodge stuff: Peer Pleasures 1. Worth seeing, like many recent YBCA shows. Not spectacular, but solid.
See also:
Lists of interesting stuff that Neil Farber and Michael Duomontier will swap paintings for (Neil: Micronauts from the 70's. Michael: self-released Joanna Newsom albums).
Marcel Dzama interview with Sarah ...
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20 Jan 06 · filed under: inside art, san francisco, visual · (0) ·
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