Results tagged “lightning”

     

Some photos from the lightning strikes this morning that took out transformers at Octavia & Grove and at Broderick and Sacramento, as well as the aftermath. And commenter Zac points us to a great piece of audio of that boom. ALSO: A new photo sent to us from Matt Baume of a duct-taped glass ceiling at the Academy of Sciences and a big patch of wet floor, which may or may not have been connected.

Excuse us if we're a little groggy -- but yeah, how about that thunder this morning! Turns out there was at least one lightning strike (that enormous boom everyone near downtown heard around 8:30) to a transformer near Grove and Octavia, causing a power outage. SF Appeal has a tipster who notes another transformer hit at California and Broderick causing folks in Pacific Heights to lose power. The Mercury News (the Chron is still hungover and sleeping it off) reports that the earliest outage affected 36,000 homes, and power remains out for about 500 homes. The thunderstorm, which was mostly a "dry lightning" storm but we saw some rain here, caused a few grass fires up north too. P.S. If it hadn't been for catching the weather last night, and it being September 12th, we totally would have leaped out of bed in terrorist attack mode.

While it's not very Bay Area-ish, Jesus is allegedly in all of our hearts. And now look what happened? We blame the sodomites. And Code Pink.

Here's todays sports news

Migden, Leno, Peskin, Daly, Herrera all were on the scene at one point or another, and tempers flared. Why? Because Carole Migden stole the show (along with a hefty endorsement) at last night's Harvey Milk Club meeting.

Update: Wow, that was lightning quick! The account has been suspended... and we just posted this minutes ago! Still, for shame, bayareatailgater. Don't you know that the only time this kind of thing is ever appropriate is when it's done in a men's locker room? Jerk.

Anyone else out there enjoying the lightning storm currently underway south of the city? When was the last time we were privy to such a spectacle?

-- Avenue Q: This tee hee-inducing musical features un-Seaseme Street-like puppets (e.g., a closeted homosexual republican, for starters) and an ode to racism. What's more, the indie production won a surprise Tony Award for best musical, as well as best score and book, beating out Disney's Wicked. It opens tonight at 7 p.m at the Orpheum Theater, 1192 Market; $25-$90.

Hey check THIS out. Tryouts for MTV's Real World are nigh. You guys have until Monday, May 7th to see if you'll be the next to fill the shoes of Pedro, Puck, or Judd . . . and subsequently appear on all sorts of weird competitions where you fight people from other MTV shows.

Check out the hailstone that SFist Jim captured on film at around 9:07 p.m. in the Haight! In his poetic phrasing, "bigger than a bb, smaller than a lemon drop." This was all due to a small storm cell above the northern half of the city, and was accompanied by heavy rain and lightning.

The roster is set, and there is an energy and a spark and a focus that hasn't been apparent in past years, but it will take more than a great preseason to wash away the skepticism forged by 12 long, frustrating, painful years spent wandering in the wilderness.

There is hope, but hope is a fragile beauty.

-Electronic devices cause BART tickets to be demagnetized causing mayhem and anarchy on BART.

They’re superheros, but they never have a chance to do anything super aside from bicker and cuss. This week, Isotope’s turned us on to James Cochalka’s , a cutely-drawn story about a band of mostly-abusive twentysomethings with vague powers. The group is recruiting new heros, but the day is overshadowed by conflict: a time-bubble containing Vortex's childhood is accidentally punctured by Jack Krak's elbow; a mysterious pink tumor lusts after the blonde chick; blue-hair guy mocks Plant Pal for being a friend to plants; and Wilbur accidentally reveals that he's used his computer-fists to abuse himself.

This weather? Bugs. Bugs us all to hell. It's not that it's rainy. We can handle the rain, or at least be okay with it. It's always rainy this time of year. No. What's getting to us is the whole schizo-ness of the weather. First it's sunny. Then it rains. For about ten minutes. Then it stops for a few hours. Then it rains again for a few minutes. Then it's sunny again. For a few minutes. Then it rains again, usually at the exact moment we get off of BART or are coming back from lunch.

It's raining buckets out there. It's raining so hard, it's practically washed the streets of North Beach clean of tourists. Not only that, but we're getting some exciting thunder and lightning! Man are we glad we got all our moving done last weekend -- we saw one poor soul driving an open-bed pickup that had wood furniture and an uncovered mattress. Moving a mattress is one thing, moving a wet mattress is really gonna suck.

Hey, remember that time all those SFPD cops robbed a bank at Market & Sansome while sleepwalking? Oh wait that didn't really happen, it's just one of the plot points of "Less Than Hero," a comic book by Jason McNamara and Tony Talbert, set right here in our own back yard and pointed out to us by the folks at Isotope Comics. Concerning itself primarily with a failed dot-com kid who tries to kill himself, an investment banker with the power to control peoples' sleep patterns, and a cult based in the Sunset, the biggest kick you might get out of the story is recognizing an intersection or local low-rent celebrity on its pages. If your favorite thing about SF is its grit and rough edges, this is a book for you -- the art reminds us of something we might see in vintage , in that grotesque/realistic, Mary-Worth-gone-wrong sort of style, and the dialogue is unadorned. The lightning-fast pace of the books match the locale in which they're set, and even though that can cause some confusion, it's a confusion to which we, as SF residents, have grown accustomed.

Folks are lining up for rabies shots in San Ramon, after a cute stray kitten turned out to carry the virus. Authorites estimate that about 60 people were in contact with the kitten, and that 35 people would have to get shots (including one person who was bitten). 26 other people are also getting shots as a precaution. One vet noted that the kitten had gotten a lot of attention because it was just so darned cute. "Everyone loves a kitten." Two pit bulls were euthanized in Concord today, after they killed four animals in a neighbor's yard last Friday. The owner had kenneled the two dogs but claims that they escaped when they got spooked by the thunder and lightning last week. The dogs killed their neighbors' two cats, a goat, and a bunny. Animal Control got to the scene right as the dogs were in the rabbit hutch, and they report that the dogs were so intent on the rabbit that they didn't even notice the fuzz. The dogs also killed four other animals in the neighborhood that evening. ...and we know we're stepping a little on SFist Rain's territory here -- but hey! New Animal Cops SF episodes just appeared on our TiVo! Starting next week! Yay, more Lieutenant Michael Scott!

It was almost a year ago that someone put our names on the mailing list of "Faith: The Bay Area's Lay Catholic Newsletter," and it's been an eye-opening couple of months. For example, who knew that local conservatives feel that their arguments against gay marriage are "too religious," an interesting criticism for a Catholic newsletter to raise, and that they haven't provided enough "secular reasons for opposing homosexual unions." Good luck thinking of any. The prevailing attitude in "Faith" surprised us -- they seem to feel that the purpose of marriage is "procreation and education" and that homospouses are mere "help-mates" to each other, capable of neither. What a fascinating position. Fascinating and retarded.

So far there have been at leat 2 LOUD thunder rolls, the air has a distinct mid-fall feel to it and rain is still possible if not imminent in SF and around the Bay Area. Area rainfall for September is extremely light, averaging below .6 inches everywhere, some places seeing only .1 inches. Rain is definitely a plus for cleaning off roads, sidewalks, and structures from accumulated build-up during a long dry period and plants and trees get a nice dose of perfectly pure ocean-generated rainfall. But really, it's the thunder, which claps about 20-30 times a year, that is a pleasant surprise. We may even get a glimpse of an elusive Bay Area lightning strike.

Good thing we got to the Swedish-American early for Friday night's Porchlight Third Anniversary storytelling evening -- even 45 minutes before the show, the rush ticket line was snaking all the way down to the Lucky 13. And inside, the crowd (women in flower-print shift dresses, men in corderoy) was distracted the arduous folding-chair seat selection process by the gigantic set of klieg lights and steadicam equipment -- KRON 4 was taping the show. (We've always wanted to be on KRON 4!!! Look for us!) Porchlight is basically the live San Francisco version of This American Life -- hosts Arline Klatte and Beth Lisick invite people to come up to the stage and tell an extemporaneous story on a theme. No notes, no patter, and a strict 10-minute limit per person. Friday's show was Porchlight's Third Anniversary show, with the theme, "Eye of the Tiger: Stories of Weird Little Triumphs." Because it was the Third Anniversary, storytellers were limited to 6 minutes, and they featured a lightning round, where five members of the audience would be picked to tell a one-minute story each. After the jump: the tyrannies of a live studio audience, the ominous 2-minute piano warning, and Matt Gonzalez on Archie Manning. Picture of Porchlight hosts Arline Klatte and Beth Lisick by Lori Spears

We headed over to Bimbo's last night with some degree of trepidation, since our favorite rock critic in the whole world, Kelefa Sanneh, had just described headliners the Go! Team as "a British indie-pop version of the Black Eyes Peas," and not in the good way. (Vote for Kelefa (and Will Shortz) in the Gawker NY Times hotties poll!) So okay, we were a little skeptical when the lights went down and the stage lights were set on "swively" and the fun "the band is coming on stage!!!!" music started up, and this teensy woman with a huge voice and hardcore British accent starts scream/rapping over the horn section and harmonica and bass and two drum sets. It also did not help our mood that there was a couple, the man-half of which with that distinctive indie-rocker b.o., making out with the thrashing arm and leg motions that only new couples with an exhibitionist streak like to do. But... it is a testament to the power of the Go! Team's relentless positivity!!!!! that we shook off our befuddlement and decided we were having a funky-fresh good ol' time! They were totally like a cartoon band, like Josie and the Pussycats, or Hi Hi Puffy Amiyumi --like, we had this feeling that on the way to the gig, the Go! Team had just saved the universe from space creatures or stopped a series of bank heists or something, and that any second later, we would fade to black and the Hanna Barbera logo would do its trademark swoopy synthesizer rotation.

So late Friday we get an email reminder about a San Francisco People's Organization party at 111 Minna. You may have read about them in the Guardian a few weeks ago (though we won't blame you if you skipped it and chose to read about carless camping instead), or maybe are planning on attending their founding convention on Saturday. Well, little did we know that not only was it a chance for the city's progressive left to get together, it was also a chance for them to celebrate the birthday of the dreamiest president of the Board of Supervisors in recent memory (sorry, Kevin and Aaron).

Scott Beale of Laughing Squid has been doing the crazy EssEff art and engineering thing for longer than a lot of people have even lived here in the city. Like other big-time bay bloggers, what started as an email list -- about underground art events and projects -- has turned into an internet empire. Laughing Squid, the web hosting service, is responsbile for handling all of these folks sites, among others.

On Friday Noise Pop presented a matinee show with Ringside, Von Iva and Robbers on High Street at Cafe Du Nord. It's quite strange to head to a rock show at a time of day that's more appropriate for happy hour, but having the evening wrap up by 9pm was a bit of a treat. It leaves you feeling like you have extra time on your hands, Daylight Savings Time-style.

Of course, any sort of discussion about flooding caused by rain in these here parts must always be tempered by what happened in South-East Asia, but due to all the almost biblical amount of rain going down in the area, flooding is becoming a problem. Today, parts of the Embarcadero were closed and huge parts of Marin were completely covered in water. Which, of course, meant huge traffic jams onto the Golden Gate Bridge and the occasional power outage. In Mill Valley, the cool-ass photo shown was taken of a man jumping into his friend’s car to help move it to dry land.

It maybe the start of the Festival of Lights, but it’s all grittiness here at This Week in DVDs as we got amnesiac spies being chased by bad guys, Columbian drug runners being chased by DEA agents, and Vince Vaughn being chased by dodge balls. Want more? How about a DVD two pack of Cannonball Run and Lightning Jack? Yep, it's for all those people who wouldn’t buy either until they were released together. This week we also have the continuing adventures of that adorable Rory Gilmore, more Matrix DVDs than you could ever possibly want to watch, and the White Stripes in concert. Aren’t Jack & Meg just the coolest?