Miscellaneous

It was a hot day in San Francisco for hanging out on the street during the annual Park(ing) Day, which happens worldwide. Good thing there was plenty of foliage to soak up the CO2 in many of the spots, many of which were spotted downtown and in the Mission. It was duly noted that San Francisco has plenty of green spaces when you seek them out, but it's definitely refreshing to see a small oasis here and there in the middle of such urban settings. more ›

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on SFist. more ›

Hopefully, everyone got their anti-cyclist venom out yesterday, and we can turn now to this scene of unfortunate pain and near tragedy. It looks like a poor cyclist was smacked by a Sports Utility Vehicle going in reverse on Wednesday in Golden Gate Park. Here we give you a pic of the cyclist and after the jump, one of the Toyota 4Runner that hit him. (via SF Citizen) more ›

Found in the window of Kenneth Wingard at 2319 Market. more ›

"Get the fuck off that jelly fish and come here!" by Darwin Bell. more ›

Our old trekkie pal Zennie Abraham is back on his City Brights blog questioning the display currently in the windows at the Calvin Klein store in the Westfield Centre. A reader wrote in to say s/he thought it provoked images of African-American lynchings, given the ropes and, we suppose, the fact that these are literally black mannequins. We would argue it looks a lot more like circus/gymnastics imagery to us, given the trapeze and all, but sure, someone could make an argument that the bodies randomly slung by two ropes are questionable. Anyway, it's hardly a question for national concern, but Zennie has put up a poll and he's asking you to vote. We've embedded the poll here, so, for Zennie's sake, please let him know what you think. more ›

Which would be the more difficult/least appealing task, handling a live or a dead chicken until the owner arrived? Flyer found in Shafter, Oakland. We wonder if it belongs to Novella Carpenter. more ›

Ever wonder what musical theater people do when they move to L.A. to make it big? They smoke/eat a lot of pot and make YouTube videos containing big production numbers about smoking/eating pot. Today's palate cleanser comes to us from Jake Wilson's YouTube series, The Battery's Down (as in "the Bronx is up and the Battery's down...") in which a young actor's struggle to make it big in New York has led him, inevitably, to L.A.. This latest song called "When You're Low" was penned by Micah Schraft and John Hill.
more ›

Curbed reports, via SocketSite, that Albion Castle, the former Albion Porter Ale Brewery in Hunters Point, is up for sale again. The castle is a historic building featuring 200-foot deep caverns that lead to a natural springs next door. It used to be the home of Laughing Squid’s web hosting tech support center and was host to their blog launch party in 2005 (which we still kick ourselves for not attending), soon before it sold for $2.1 million. The castle has been restored, and the current asking price is $2.9 million. The newest owner had planned on bringing back the brewery and opening a restaurant, which probably would have been a feat in this economy. Check out Scott Beale's photos of the castle before the restoration. more ›

"Homeless superhero" by Yan Pritzker Photo/Flickr. more ›

Oh wow. We are starting to enjoy the angry missives written in response artistic license of taggers. Take, for example, the owner of Kezar Pub in the Haight. (Which is a fantastic sports bar, by the way.) It seems a Lakers fan went into the can and tagged the bar's mirror, presumably with pro-Lakers propaganda. more ›

Rounding out the Summer of Death (TM), and in addition to yesterday's loss of Patrick Swayze, we shouldn't neglect to mention the death of punk musician, poet and Basketball Diaries scribe Jim Carroll at the age of 60. Marke B. over at SFBG's Noise blog points us to a section from Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk in which Jim Carroll sits doling out lines of blow for Nico in the manager's office of the Filipino Restaurant-turned-punk haven The Mabuhay Gardens in North Beach (a.k.a. The Fab Mab, now known as Club 443 at 443 Broadway, and dubbed The Old Mab by loyal patrons). more ›

"Fog prelude" by exxonvaldez / Flickr. more ›

David Byrne -- the tall guy in ivy league favorite Talking Heads/the man behind the score of The Last Emperor -- wrote in last week's Wall Street Journal about the perfect city. San Francisco was one of them, or so he thought. more ›

San Francisco 49ers runningback Frank Gore, left, and tackle Chilo Rachel, right, celebrate Gore's game-winning touchdown against the Arizona Cardinals in the fourth quarter of an NFL football game on Sunday. Yay, American football sporting season! more ›

Jeff Hunt of Muni Diaries forwarded us this beautiful map adorned with literary quotes that have shaped our beloved San Francisco, which was created by Ian Huebert. We love the whimsical typography and colors almost more than the quotes themselves. See a larger version. more ›

What with all this ballyhooing over health care, would you like to test drive some alternative medicinal practices? Take, for example, the prickly art of acupuncture, the popular practice of inserting tiny needles into points on your body to relieve pain or promote therapeutic processes. As luck would have it, Community Acupuncture of Marin is offering free treatment for newbies in Tuesdays. "New patients receive the first treatment at our clinic for free when scheduled on a Tuesday. Returning patients who schedule to bring a new patient in with them will also receive their treatment free. Appointments required, mention the promo please." Visit Healing Arts of Marin for more details. more ›

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on SFist. more ›

Object if you must. Call us pandering or lame, but by god it's been at least several days since we posted something adorable-pet-related, and this dog shows some real talent. Clearly higher up the evolutionary chain than last week's star pooch. (Hat tip: Buzz Feed) more ›

Here you go, angry newspaper subscriber. more ›

It was between this, a cute animated video for Google Street View by Google Japan, or this, a clip of backstabbing Tyra Banks acting like a raging hypocrite during an interview with Cynthia McFadden. more ›

"Behind the flowers" by Darwin Bell (with a special guest appearance by... Darwin Bell!) more ›

If you thought Captin_nod's time-lapse footage of a portion of the Bay Bridge construction from last Friday evening was rad, check out this intense footage of the entire weekend gleaned from the Bay Bridge Construction Webcam. We agree with the YouTube commenter who said it needs "Yakety Sax" in the background though. So, here ya go. Update: Thanks to boredpeon for the sweet Benny Hillifier heads-up!! more ›

Cheeky "BBC correspondents" Edvan Cinque Terra and Darvid Tokishi take the piss out of Mission hipsterdom, "a culture where apathy is considered sexually attractive" (hm, sounds pretty British to us, too) in the above video. Dolores Park, t-shirts adorned with "important political discourse," and the defeat of the American Apparel store by people in tight clothing are all covered in the report. more ›

"Beautiful Girl" by Plug1/What I'm Seeing. more ›

Sarah Phelan of the Bay Guardian captured some great footage of the newly opened Bay Bridge this morning. You can see the new, surprise curve that folks have been talking about today at around 40 seconds into the video (just after the 35 MPH sign). Phelan mentions that there will probably be quite a bit of rubber-necking at that point of the bridge for a while. So, remember to take it slow! more ›

Burners climb on an art structure during Burning Man near Gerlach, Nev. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill) more ›

New York publication of note Vice -- that glossy, in-your-face magazine that features stinky Brooklynites wearing too-tight clothing and interviews with depressed music bands -- has come out with a very special San Francisco issue. In addition to featuring an interview with (former?) San Francisco resident Chis Daly ("If San Francisco were a giant, sprawling asshole, Chris Daly would be the inflamed hemorrhoid that just won’t go away"), they have an adorable neighborhood section (which balls out blows away 7x7 Magazine's bizarre and questionable neighborhood issue), a brilliant slam of Baghdad by the Bay that reads us to filth ("Would you like to be part of an entire social movement to extinguish and gentrify a once cosmically diverse metropolis?"), and of course, a section on our city's sourdough bead-like famous gay population. Be sure to pick up a copy at your nearest dive bar/compact disc resale store. Or, better yet, check it out online. more ›

Sporting scene from yesterday's final Sunday Streets along Ocean Beach. more ›

Oh oh. more ›

For those of you killing time waiting to see if the Bay Bridge reopens on schedule, why not spend ten minutes watching this charming film, "The March of Progress," about the engineering marvel of the Key Route trains that once traveled back and forth on the lower deck of the bridge. The Key System served the East Bay from 1903 to 1960, and provided transbay service from the time of the bridge's construction in 1936 until 1958 when the lower deck was opened up to eastbound auto traffic. more ›

Captin_nod put together this mesmerizing video featuring time-lapse photography of yesterday's ongoing Bay Bridge construction and the rising of last night's very lovely full moon. more ›

We would like to take a moment to thank this week's advertisers on SFist. more ›

"Escape From San Francisco" by Plug1/What I'm Seeing. more ›

Heh. more ›

Big but vague protest sign, lots of small text. more ›

Inside the Camera Obscura near Sutro Baths. more ›

Thank you to the kind tipster who warmed our hearts with this story from Kron 4/Bay City News. The San Francisco Zoo is searching for a young girl named Alexis who visited the zoo on August 10 and donated $22 to baby gorilla Hasani, which she raised selling her handmade origami to friends. The zookeeper had run to get a photo of Hasani to give to Alexis as a token of the zoo's appreciation, but when the the worker returned, Alexis had left. more ›

And here ends our coverage of adorable pets for the week. more ›

"Stepfather Factory" by Plug1/What I'm Seeing. more ›

Oh boy. more ›

Everyone from Hilary Newsom to Bevan Duffy to San Francisco treasure/icon Joy Bianchi, above, participated in the NOH8 photo campaign, a campaign to help repeal Prop 8. The campaign involves people with varying amounts of fame (some more than others) wearing white shirts and electric tape over their mouths. But the photos, shot by Adam Bouska, are actually quite impressive, very much so. Check them out. more ›

Socialist democratic republic of Berkeley birdhouses? Sounds about right. more ›

Let's take a look at what our SoCal buddy at LAist sees as the sun goes down. It's both scary and beautiful. Enjoy. more ›

"825 Divisadero" by Darwin Bell. more ›

You know what's funny? Toilet humor. Yes huh. more ›