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Parents Petition Caltrain to Reduce Train Speed In Palo Alto
Gavin Newsom's Mariah Carey-like Interview Demand
Don't Dump Unwanted Stuff On City Sidewalks
Have you seen these red and yellow birds hanging around S.F.?
Hey Readers. You're smart. So tell us all what's up with these things all over town. Or if you don't know, we have some clues for you. After the jump.
Another sighting here, but Kiwanja thinks they're made of cardboard.
Could this be a viral marketing strategy from the Master Lock company? They're not averse to experimenting with ads. (One of the locks was set to the number "16". We're getting a raging clue right now. Mmmmm)
Or maybe it's another kind of advertising campaign, like an unplugged version of the infamous Aqua Teen Hunger Force effort from earlier in the year.
Tell us if you know. Otherwise we're gonna have restless nights when our Napien runs out. Oh sleep! it is a gentle thing
We have reliable reports of sightings near the following intersections.
Park Presidio and Fulton
3rd St. and Howard
Mission and 1st St.
Market and Octavia
Geary and 45th
Where will they be next?
At length we heard a wooden bird
Thorough the fog it came;
As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.
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I swear i saw a blue and white one at Divis and McAllister.
You all are dorks. First 'GMZEEO' and now this.. have you ever heard of public art? Street art? sheesh.
i believe my friend knows the girl(?) who makes those. i'll ask. cool though, right..
4th and Brannan.
They are cool, fo sho.
Whatever they are, they are definitely cute.
There was one at Howard & New Montgomery yesterday.
They were in New York last year too.
it's an artist from Los Angeles and they are called "berds"
http://la.curbed.com/archives/2007/01/berd_mans_umoti.php
seems like something along the lines of ABOVE, but i cannot confirm it.
theres one at the Hash-bury intersection too, right by the old "GMEEEZO" aka AMAZE throwie.
Those have been there for at least a year (definitely for the one on Park Presidio and Fulton).
three minutes of googling: http://laspraysitself.blogspot.com/2007/07/4eighty-one-keeping-skies-safe.html
the dude's name is 'Browne', the things are called 'Berds'. More info here: http://www.studiobrowne.com/
googling is one of those 'neat tricks' often used by those people who write things on the internet -- you should check it out! it's totally cyber-rific!
fwiw, the magic words were: "street art" plywood cutout telephone lines
yeah, i guess i don't know why i'm such a jerkface about google. i suppose i should apologize.
sorry for being such a jerkface. but seriously, whenever you have a question, try googling it for about 30 minutes. eventually you will learn to find whatever you need in under 10. i guess i do this so often at my work that i don't even imagine that other people might not spend their entire day on the internet.
This weekend we saw one at Van Ness and O'Farrell, outside the AMC Theater.
i didn't know hipsters made it out to the Richmond.
There is a blue one at Haight and Masonic
Is the skull one still at Divis and McAllister?
And why can't I see guest comments anymore?
For the next few weeks, until guest commenting is disabled altogether, you can click "Show Guest Comments" to view them. (It doesn't work on all browsers, apparently. Don't worry, it's not like you're missing much.)
These lil guys originated in Venice, CA from an artist known as "Browne". These are his "Berds". I just moved from LA and find these rather comforting!
http://www.laweekly.com/la-vida/a-considerable-town/berd-on-a-wire/15345/
maubrowncow
So now we know. A 52 year old who really likes birds.
http://www.myspace.com/4eightyone
They come in all sorts of colors:
http://flippingthebirds.blogspot.com/2006/07/keep-looking-up.html
The city worker who takes these things down should eBay them for big $$$.
Perhaps somebody should throw a plywood cat up on the wires and get a dramaturgical dyad going?
I believe they are done by a graffiti artist, but I don't remember the name. Definitely not an ad. I've seen them around LA also.
P
there's one at 2nd and townsend .. been wondering about that all week heh
Matty, if you disable guest comments altogether I will forever love you.
Thanks for disabling guest comments. FYI - I've tried to register three times and never got the confirmation e-mail. Is it my Opera web browser?
mattymatt: What do you mean we're not missing much from guest comments? On this discussion alone three of those pesty "guests" answered SFist's question: What's up with these birds?
SFist is getting a little too full of itself, if you ask me. It seems like it's just an A&E blog. Boring.
Disabling guest comments altogether? Fucking lame.
i believe it is the handy work of a Mr. Jeremy Fish.
there's also one @ haight/masonic.
these things are excellent.
I didn't mind the guests at all - why this big drive to register us all? So you can spam us? So you have a big 'community' that looks good when you flip the company?
I've been in therapy over the fact "guests" can post and hide and make multiple posts pretending to be different people. Thanks for blocking the anon stuff.
The birds look like rubber duckies not pigeons. Are they disguised video cameras and the locks the transmitters?
Mariconsoy: If you need therapy over guest comments, you probably have other needs that are more pressing to attend to. Like, say, getting a life?
If this "company" gets flipped, then they'd likely have to start paying for the full 80% of their site that is simply a link to an article with some fawning (rita) misinformation (mattymatt) or attempted snark (the rest of them) thrown in. I mean, if I was the sfgate I'd charge.
Links to the NY Times and sarky comments? But that's the lifeblood of blogging...
there's one at 4th and Brannan.
If guest comments are disabled altogether, that will be utterly lame. It's not like this is a site with a huge volume of comments as it is (I don't think I've ever seen a thread break double-digits), so it can't be that guests are cluttering up the comment threads excessively.
I am just tired of being expected to register for just every goddamned Web site that I visit in order to use basic functionality. First, there's the initial hoops of filling out the form to jump through, then there's the entering of user ID and password every time you visit. For reasons of my own, I don't store passwords on my computer, I don't use the same password for everything, and I don't visit many Web sites on a daily basis, so keeping track of all these passwords is a major pain in the ass.
So, SFist is free to limit commenting to registered users only, for reasons of its own, but I don't think it's going to improve quality of comment threads any, it's not going to get me to register, and if I can't comment I may visit less often. Doubt I'll be missed, but suit yourselves.
- Alex
I agree. Disabling guest comments will make me not post here anymore. Im tired of juggling ALL 83 of my online user and passwords.
"Sorry for being such a jerkface. but seriously, whenever you have a question, try googling it for about 30 minutes. eventually you will learn to find whatever you need in under 10. "
Yes, but if Jim hadn't posted this, then this tremendous dialogue about guest comments would not have come about.
Seriously, though, I haven't seen these birds, so I'm glad Jim posted and did not just google to satisfy his own personal curiosity.
There's a tremendous discussion going on? Must be I can't see it because "show guest comments" doesn't work on my browser...
this is an artist from the LA area. I saw tons of their work there... I remember reading laist or something like that where they got an interview with him/her.
I'm guessing they've either relocated up here, or enjoyed the indian summer on vacation.
I watched a muni overhead wire maintenance crew removing one of these at 14th and Church
Is there any way to hide mattymatt's comments?
@ 40: Yes; put a paper bag over your head.
The great thing about beating up on "guest" is, there is no actual person "guest" so you're not hurting anyone's feelings. Up yours, guest!
I don't understand how anyone could stand up for anonymity as something that promotes community.
Or how anything is less having-a-life than continuing to read and comment on blogs you don't like.
Count me as one more "guest" vote for keeping guest comments.
I hardly need one more stupid login for one more website.
I've never commented here, but I've been reading comments for a few months. I want to be able to read what everyone has to say... the 'type' who likes to register and the guest 'type' who doesn't want to register - takes all 'types', ya know. Guests do have some good things to say, so what's with the stopping guest comments anyway?
jnice (#43): Your point is fallacious, because not having to register and enter a user ID / password to comment does not mean anonymity.
Plenty of blogs' comment spaces have fields for commenters to put their names & e-mail addys or URLs. Some even have a feature that displays an alphanumeric "hash" (e.g. "AxQ8Hr" or summat) based on a commenter's IP address, to prevent sockpuppetry. And nothing's stopping people from putting their names in their guest posts, like I do.
Also, what does the word "community" mean when used as an uncountable noun? I know what a community is, but what is this unquantifiable "community" stuff of which you speak?
- Alex
you said it best, jnice.
You said it worst, Brock. No one is standing up for anonymity. People just want the freedom to peruse the Web without having to create fake e-mails or register personal e-mails with some corporate "blog." Thanks, but see you later.