Nestled amongst the former mansions of the old railroad tycoons and silver kings on Nob Hill and directly across from the beautiful Grace Cathedral, Huntington Park is an urban oasis for retirees, freelancers, kids, canines, and the homeless alike.
What in God's name is this all about, select participant(s) who engaged in fire play during Friday's end-of-month ride, but by no means represent Critical Mass or the tireless work that they do as a whole?
This glorious shot comes to you from noted photographer exxonvaldez. He captures "[r]unway 1 departures from San Francisco International Airport between 10:22pm and 11:38pm on June 27, 2009, as seen from Brisbane Marina."
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Steve Rhodes was on the scene at last night's Michael Jackson Tribute/Flashdance Flash Mob at Justin Herman Plaza. We hear it lasted for six hours. We're surprised there weren't any zombies. Check out SF Appeal for video footage and links to more photos of the event.
Just a few of Lev's many sleeping problems.
While these t-shirts have already been ballyhooed about over the last week on other sites, we feel the need to bring them to your attention. For those of you who take Muni, which is most of you, why not show some love for your favorite lines via one of these nifty t-shirts? Yes. We know. Muni can suck. But there are the occasional moments that (almost) make it worth the trouble. Take, for example, when the J-Church heads down Dolores Park. Such a view! Or, just before it makes that hairpin turn prior to barreling down 18th Street, the view from the 33-Stanyan. Stunning! Better yet, the all too infrequent 38XA- and 38XB-Geary lines, which whisks passengers from Seal Rock to downtown in record time. Glorious! Anyway, you can get a few of these lines printed on a fashion-forward t-shit over at MuniShirts. (Pst, can we get one with "38XA-Geary" on front and "38XB-Geary" on back? Because that? Would be SO clever.) These shirts not your style? Never fear for a challenger appears. Update: MissionMission is still holding a 'Best Muni-related Anecdote Contest' to win a shirt. Check it out.
Our elite friends in St. Francis Wood - OK, we have none - need to learn how to pick up their toys. The neighborhood is an absolute mess. Home renovations, street demolition and construction projects, and traffic studies are making the posh hood an eyesore. Driving through the main thoroughfare yesterday to get from West Portal to the Sunnyside, we were disgusted by the endless sight of men in hard hats and reflective vests in the place where absolutely nothing but a light breeze of privilege and entitlement should be.
While walking and/or stumbling home one night after leaving "Riders With Drinks," esteemed photographer Plug 1 of What I'm Seeing captured the above shot. ""A drunken mistake of a photograph that ended up working for me," he explains.
Bacon, Valencia Street, "art," San Francisco values, coalition, cupcakes, burlesque troupes, zzz....
In non-SF news: Did any of you catch NYC Prep last night? If not, let us explain it to you: NYC Prep follows around a group of Dwight School students who will be shot and killed execution-style in a public setting when the socialist revolution comes.
Bernal Heights native, artist and film director Abo Greenwald interviewed a lady who makes homes for Homies. You know, those collectible figures based on Chicano characters? That you can buy from a vending machine? Those.
Today’s weather is imported from Scotland, “where the claw of the grouse has the same significance as the rabbit foot in this country. The wearer, ‘tis claimed, encounters only good luck.” Heavy rainfall in the western highlands. Winds swirling about come noontime. The moon will make a series of hilarious on-screen cameos.
Kudos to AP photographer Eric Risberg who snapped this shot of Noonan, a golden retriever poodle mix, standing with his owner, Jay Streets, and others on a bridge inside the downtown SF Apple store. They're waiting to get their paws on the new iPhone 3GS.
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Although we have yet to confirm this, Oakland is not just a city full of crime, poverty, and unbearable heat. Oakland is, in fact, a lot of fun. Or so we're told. You see, over in the Uptown District -- "Oakland’s burgeoning downtown arts and entertainment scene" -- the city presented a free arts festival on Thursday. It featured local music, art exhibits, vendors, and tours of the renovated Fox and the Paramount theaters. And, damnit all to heck if it didn't like more fun than any (increasingly oppressive) street festival in San Francisco.
"Pigeon, out" by The Inadvertent Gardener. Taken at Yerba Buena Gardens.
A class of 17 juniors and seniors at the Urban School of San Francisco have brought environmental education into the 21st Century with their comprehensive eco-wiki, Greening San Francisco. Currently the site covers six main topics: Environmental justice, Waste reduction, Climate change, Reducing toxins, Alternative fuels, and Water use.
SF Indie Fashion posted a compelling story that originally appeared in Action Orange yesterday, in which blogger Lisa Katayama visited a recently abandoned sewing factory located in the Mission. Katayama's friend Jenny spent much of her childhood playing in the factory, while her mother worked among a dozen or so other Chinese women making stacks of dresses for Macy’s at a wage of $2-3 per dress, which in turn sold for hundreds of dollars each.
"Hey you! Come back and get your damned goldfish!" by Darwin Bell. Art (found on Linden Street in Hayes Valley) by Eddie. Check out more of his work, right here.
Today it's the birthday of Trannyshack founder and SF drag queen bee, Heklina. In her honor, here's a sweet video of a vintage T-shack duet she did with Kermit the Frog on "Rainbow Connection." The Gemini diva is currently appearing in some new episodes of the annual drag rendition of The Golden Girls at Mama Calizo's Voice Factory. Seats are going fast, and the show closes on July June 26th. Get tickets by emailing goldengirlssf@earthlink.net. (Hat tip to The semi-NSFW Sword.)
You've probably noticed that there are a great many "service animals" on Muni and elsewhere these days, and this is due in large part to the laxness with which the City's policy on service dogs is enforced, and due to the fear of legal reprisals on the part of Muni drivers, landlords and others who don't want to end up in federal court on discrimination charges. SF Weekly's Joe Eskanazi takes a thorough look this week at the dicey issue of service dogs and the many and sundry pets masquerading as service animals on public transportation and in SROs all over town.
"Closing in on Disaster" by Plug 1 / What I'm Seeing (via Curbed)
Wall Street Journal Senior Technology Editor Julia Angwin recently took an investigative look at the back-stories of MySpace founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, who prior to founding the social networking and glitter-gif bohemoth dabbled in porn, hacking, spam and spyware before stumbling on their mega-million-dollar meal ticket. The book is called Stealing Myspace and you can find it here or at an independent bookseller in your neighborhood.
KayVee.INC made our day by snapping these shots of the adorable Dachshund Derby at Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley on Saturday. Apparently, only one dog made it to the finish line, and all the others ran in the opposite direction.
Although his colleagues couldn't find him, Mayor Gavin Newsom was spotted in WeHo on Sunday, kicking it at LA's Gay Pride.
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Friend of SFist, Daniel, accompanied last night's Flash Mob at Union Square, in which approximately fifty people sang the Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends." He managed to capture about sixteen seconds of video (featured above) before his battery died. He noted that a lot of people were shaky on the lyrics aside from the chorus.
Juliette Tang, writing for the SFBG's sex blog asks the all-important question this week, "Hand Jobs: Are We Having Them?" Now, while we at SFist fully support the concept of a sex blog for San Francisco, and believe that in our fair, slutty, liberally minded city there certainly should be plenty to write about, we have to note that this headline makes us wonder if this was just a truly slow sex news week over there! To wit:
"Why won't you love me?"
Eeps! Squee! Ack! Aw! Oh my! The start of summer means the start of kitten season. And right now at the SPCA is at "kitten overload." According to an appropriately all-capped and superfluously exclamation pointed post at sfspcacat.blogspot.com, "We are OVERLOADED with kittens, adult cats and to be quite blunt...WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF ROOM!!!!" As of today, the SPCA has 130 cats available for adoption. But we strongly urge you to take in an adult cat. Why? Well, for starters, you don't have to train or housebreak adult felines. Also, since kittens just barely "out-cute" their elders, older cats wait and wait and wait for a loving, safe place to call home. So, if you have a little space, a lot of love, some commonsense, and understand that felines are not accessories, adopt one of these little fellas, won't you? In turn, you will be greatly rewarded. (Seriously, this adoption page will probably make you teary eyed. You've been warned.)
Scene from yesterday's budget rally to, like, help save public health. Read more about it over at SFBG.
Wienerschnitzel has a clever campaign going with their hilarious Wiener Nationals. Saturday's Dachshund Derby II will take place at Noon at Berkeley's Golden Gate Fields (1100 Eastshore Hwy). Admission ranges from $4-15, and general parking is $4.
In a shameless attempt at receiving good karma, SFist presents to you this retro-chic Missed Connection.
On Saturday Sunday at Yerba Buena Gardens in downtown San Francisco, the annual Israel in the Gardens Festival took place. As expected, it was more comfortable than your typical daytime outdoor public festival, complete with more shade, good bargains, comfy seating, less dairy, and almost zero SF progressives in attendance.
Aw, recent college graduates. Aren't they adorable? They're younger than you, they're prettier than you, they believe in things, they can drink more than you, and they will steal your jobs. Take, for example, this recent Cal grad who created an awesome solar-powered graduation cap. But it's not just any solar-powered cap; it's a sustainable, green cap. According to Daily Clog's Christine Borden -- congratulations on the big day, Christine; you will be missed deeply! -- this chapeau comes "complete with grass paper (astroturf probably causes global warming or something), a solar panel, a wind turbine, a small house and a mechanical rising sun."
We hear today's Sunday Streets in the Mission was a success. Evidently lots of kids came out of the woodwork, too. The next one is July 19, also in the Mission.
We don't know about you, but we're seriously looking forward to the July 10 release of Bruno, the latest Sacha Baron Cohen mockumentary about a gay Austrian fashion correspondent creating Borat-like confusion around the U.S. And yes, there's been a huge PR blitz in recent weeks, but we don't care. In the news this week (besides that whole episode with Eminem at the MTV Movie Awards), was Paula Abdul showing up on Letterman doing pre-movie-release damage control after she, too, got hoodwinked into appearing in the film -- all while seated on the backs of two Mexican laborers. The full trailer for the movie, after the jump.
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Have you had your head pecked while lunching or lollygagging downtown? This might be the reason: A tiny, adorable, rapscallion of a blackbird has been tormenting pedestrians in San Francisco's financial district as of late. The little bird, christened Swoops, has been "guarding his nest in a behavior experts call 'mobbing.'"
People offer up everything under the sun in Craigslist's free section, including random junk like a bottle of dish-washing detergent and the saddest wheelbarrow ever (too ugly for photos, the ad says). Also available are a gutted old-person scooter that needs a new tire and battery and 2,000 photos of tourists to potentially be cut up into collage masterpieces.
Scene from yesterday's rally at Civic Center to free Current TV journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Both are on trial in North Korea for something ridiculous, facing 10 years of hard labor.
Oh look! Another ad from Supreme Master TV, one that will, hopefully, bring you nobility and spirituality. And this one is in massive billboard form, found above Harrison between Fourth and Third streets.
God, we love KRON 4 so very, very much. Here one reason why. (Not seen: Darya Folsom almost retching over Radnich blood.)
Because we've developed an addiction to this little site called Texts From Last Night -- to which users submit the funny / insane texts they either sent, or received "last night," identified only by area code -- we decided to share the best recent posts from our hometown brothers and sisters in a semi-regular feature. Don't fret, 510 and 650: should your work prove worthy, we'll spotlight you at some point too.
Whether you're an optimist or a pessimist, getting laid off from your job in the shittiest economy in decades isn't exactly swell news, but certainly we live in one of the best cities anywhere to be jobless and broke. In addition to a multitude of cheap food options and pretty parks to sit in and drink beer, there are free outdoor movies and wine country right up the road where some wineries still don't charge for tasting. And there's also the laid back, relaxation-before-ambition ethos that's endemic here and that we all know and love.
Today's Photo du Jour goes out to the Merrill's on Market Street, may it rest in peace.
In this hilarious new video from Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian (a.k.a. LA-based comedienne Deven Green who was responsible for those voice-over spoofs of Brenda Dickson you may have seen/heard round the internet a couple years back), Betty provides a rapid-fire rundown of the many bizarre ways "marriage" is defined in the Old Testament, along with much funny animation of concubines and rapists.
We came across this over at Eye On Blogs. Greg Dewar, N-Judah Chronicle blogger, captured these shots of a futuristic San Francisco as conceived by J.J. Abrams in the new Star Trek movie. Check out more skyline scenes from the sci-fi flick, right here.
Yesterday afternoon, one of the young female falcons that adorn the roof at San Jose City Hall (named Ilahay, which is "angel" in Persian) took her first flight. According to the Mercury News, the falcon "flew over the Martin Luther King Jr. library with ease, but had a little difficulty on her first landing." While reporting on the flight progress of said baby bird's siblings, the Mercury News goes on to call the Ilahay's mother a slut, saying, "Falcon siblings Kya, Tierra and Veer -- all named by San Jose school children -- have not yet been as brave as their sister yet, and have stayed on the 18th floor ledge of City Hall, where their mother and her series of boyfriends and offspring were first noted in 2007." What a tramp. Anyway, bird watchers have since swamped Falcon Cam in record numbers, eager to see the famed bird's flying.
Cintas Corporation, a company that manufactures poo and pee toiletries, is having their annual America's Best Restroom Competition. And the Union Square Macy's 6th floor crapper made the top ten. Yay!
A dream comes true for one lucky kid during Embarcadero Sunday Streets.
Hey sfist something in your comment submit form doesn't work when facebook is unreachable.
[more]
Cyclists: Let the Backlash Begin (or Not)
Verizon Droid: Big Deal? Or Just Another Late Arrival Rival?
Car Thief Steals Vehicle To Get To Auto-Theft Trial
3rd Annual California Dreaming Same-Sex Ballroom Dancing Competition
Photo du Jour 501
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