Shared posts

28 Apr 22:19

prince forever

by andrea


preteen saturday nights, 1999 on little white casio boomboxes. cheerleading routines that begin with dearly beloved, nervously performed in fluorescent-lit gyms during junior high basketball games. small town saturday night junior high dances, lavender sweaters with puffed sleeves and faded guess jeans. I would die 4 U and 13 year-olds who feel like they could dance forever, live forever. 

post-football game friday nights, beth's house. under the cherry moon on cassette tape, blackest eyeliner, frostiest lip gloss, phone calls from boys, multiple so many phone calls from boys. new position over and over, again and again and again.  anotherloverholenyohead screamed out rolled-down car windows, 15 year-old girls who feel like they could sing forever, live forever. 

late monday night drives in old white datsuns through cincinnati streets with cute college boys. mix tapes with extended versions of prince songs, endless forever rarest of rare extended versions. college boys who play phantom keyboards on navy blue dashboards with one hand and drive with the other while you pretend to like clove cigarettes. cute college boys who turn into boyfriends who turn into husbands who end up as best friends. adore on repeat during early dating days, adore on repeat during newly wedded days, adore on repeat through all the in between days, adore on repeat for always. 19 year-olds, 21 year-olds who feel like they could love forever, totally, forever and ever.

sweaty tuesday nights at star bar, dj romeo cologne and the sounds of early prince, rushes of sweaty, happy people onto tiny dance floors, 27 year-olds who feel like they could probably dance forever, live forever. sweaty sunday afternoons at dancespace on sixth avenue, alexandra beller's dance class and the sounds of new-ish prince, rushes of sweaty, happy people across generous wooden floors, 33 year-olds who feel like they could probably dance forever, maybe live forever. or, at least until the end of the song.

rainy thursday night drives into the city with your best friend for purple rain ticketswhen nothing else can be done. prince on the radio, the internet, in the newspapers, on your phone, in your texts, for all the wrong reasons. prince in the news when you wish he wasn't. starfish and coffee as loud as it will go, feet on the dash, fingers interlaced. 45 year-olds, 47 year-olds who wish prince could live forever, know that he can't. wish they could be young forever, know that they can't.

RIP sweet prince. singer of the soundtrack of my life. you will be so sorely, so terribly missed.
08 Dec 07:11

Untangling The Web

by Warren Ellis

I am still waiting for IFTTT to embrace Known.  I don’t think it’s going to happen any time soon: IFTTT seemed to spend most of this year trying to become the default channel for Internet of Things objects, which is either excellent forethought or a mad attempt to become the premier fish-bicycle dealer for the Western world.

I’m an edge case.  I want an untangled web. I want everything I do to copy back to a single place, so I have one searchable log for each day’s thoughts, images, notes and activities.  This is apparently Weird and Hermetic if not Hermitic.

I am building my monastery walls in preparation for the Collapse and the Dark Ages, damnit. Stop enabling networked lightbulbs and give me the tools to survive your zombie planet.

 

Join my weekly newsletter at orbitaloperations.com. Corey Taylor’s in this coming Sunday’s edition.

09 Aug 23:39

On a stage with no vaginas, there were a lot of opinions about vaginas

by Helen Philpot

Margaret, let’s be clear.  I am obviously using the term vagina in the narrowest sense of the word as defined by the Republican Party: a noun referring to women.  And it was pretty clear at the debate that vaginas  have no value unless a baby needs to pass through one on its way to church or its minimum wage job.  Of course, if that baby is black or brown, then the intended destination changes to either prison or Mexico respectively.

I don’t pretend to think that any of the presidential candidates will ever read what I write, but if they did I hope they will remember this:  

Millions of women have been going to Planned Parenthood for nearly 100 years.  We all remember the exceptional care and the quality of the information we received from the staff at those clinics. We remember when Planned Parenthood staff held our hands and comforted us during some of our scariest moments.  We remember the relief we felt when they provided us with medically accurate information that we so desperately needed.  And women of my age also remember what it was like when safe, legal abortions were not available.

Contrary to what Republican men think, none of us ever went into a Planned Parenthood for a well woman exam, cancer screening or birth control  and mistakenly had an abortion instead.  We know what Planned Parenthood is and that is why we love and support its mission.

And in 100 years, millions of women have trusted and supported Planned Parenthood much the same way Republicans blindly trust and support the NRA.  So to the Republican Presidential Candidates I say in the only words they seem to understand: You can close Planned Parenthood when you pry it from our cold, dead hands. I mean it.  Really.


07 Aug 10:09

If Librarians Were Honest

by Maria Popova

“If librarians were honest, they would say, No one spends time here without being changed…”

My mother was trained in library science, but went on to have a career in software systems. Perhaps it was this epigenetic guilt that planted the unconscious seed for Brain Pickings — my personal digital archive of reading — which was born, twenty-one years after my mother completed the degree she would never use, in the city where Benjamin Franklin founded the world’s first subscription library. As library-lover Steve Jobs memorably remarked, “you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards,” and these formative dots have since been connected to paint a clear picture of my deep love of libraries — those most democratic cultural temples of wisdom where we come to commune with humanity’s most luminous minds; where the rewards are innumerable and destiny-changing, and the only price of admission is willingness. Between the walls of the library are the building blocks of the most powerful technology of thought there is.

That’s what Laura Damon-Moore and Erinn Batykefer, cofounders of the The Library as Incubator project, celebrate in The Artist’s Library: A Field Guide (public library) — an imaginative and practical collection of artists’ stories and ideas for how to use the library as a sandbox for creativity, a productivity-booster for your work, and a source of immense nourishment for the life of the mind. What emerges is an invaluable tool for any artist, by the wonderfully loose definition of “a person who learns and uses creative tools and techniques to make new things.”

Illustration by Wendy MacNaughton from 'Meanwhile in San Francisco.' Click image for more.

The practical tips and exercises are interspersed with various meditations by artists, the most delightful of which is a poem by Joseph Mills — a nomadic poet who gets a library card every time he moves in order to root himself in each new city.

Befittingly, in the context of free libraries, the poem begins with Benjamin Franklin’s colorful complaint as an epigraph of sorts:

IF LIBRARIANS WERE HONEST

“…a book indeed sometimes debauched me from my work…”
–Benjamin Franklin

If librarians were honest,
they wouldn’t smile, or act
welcoming. They would say,
You need to be careful. Here
be monsters. They would say,
These rooms house heathens
and heretics, murderers and
maniacs, the deluded, desperate,
and dissolute.
They would say,
These books contain knowledge
of death, desire, and decay,
betrayal, blood, and more blood;
each is a Pandora’s box, so why
would you want to open one.

They would post danger
signs warning that contact
might result in mood swings,
severe changes in vision,
and mind-altering effects.
If librarians were honest
they would admit the stacks
can be more seductive and
shocking than porn. After all,
once you’ve seen a few
breasts, vaginas, and penises,
more is simply more,
a comforting banality,
but the shelves of a library
contain sensational novelties,
a scandalous, permissive mingling
of Malcolm X, Marx, Melville,
Merwin, Millay, Milton, Morrison,
and anyone can check them out,
taking them home or to some corner
where they can be debauched
and impregnated with ideas.
If librarians were honest,
they would say, No one
spends time here without being
changed. Maybe you should
go home. While you still can.

Illustration by Wendy MacNaughton from 'Meanwhile in San Francisco.' Click image for more.

Mills tells Batykeffer and Damon-Moore:

Lending libraries are beautiful in their basic ideals. In enabling people to educate themselves they are the most empowering and humanistic of institutions.

Forty years after getting my own first card (at the Shawnee Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana), I still feel a sense of amazement at having access to so many materials. In a very real way, libraries have shaped who I am.

The Artist’s Library: A Field Guide is an immeasurable delight in its entirety. Complement it with a photographic love letter to public libraries, Thoreau on his ideal sanctuary for books, and these marvelous vintage ads for libraries.

Donating = Loving

Bringing you (ad-free) Brain Pickings takes hundreds of hours each month. If you find any joy and stimulation here, please consider becoming a Supporting Member with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing, between a cup of tea and a good dinner.


♥ $7 / month♥ $3 / month♥ $10 / month♥ $25 / month




You can also become a one-time patron with a single donation in any amount.





Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week’s best articles. Here’s what to expect. Like? Sign up.

05 Jan 00:32

blackmagicalgirlmisandry: christel-thoughts: wakaflaquita: sid...



blackmagicalgirlmisandry:

christel-thoughts:

wakaflaquita:

siddharthasmama:

king-emare:

darvinasafo:

Chuck Berry

Rock n Roll was originally Black music.

thank you

Yes, him and little Richard never get their due smh

except…chuck berry didn’t invent rock n roll…

Sister Rosetta Tharpe predates both chuck berry and little richard by quite a few years

Two of Tharpe’s hit songs were released in like 1944-45 when Chuck Berry was a) incarcerated and b) still a high school student, Tharpe basically discovered Little Richard, and she’s referred to as the godmother of rock n roll

lol just

throwin that out there

^^^EXACTLY

but Sister Rosetta was a woman and queer… so Black men will totally overlook her.

rock music was created by a black bisexual woman

always reblog.

16 Nov 18:04

down the 101 we went

by andrea
laura jessup

love love love

the glorious 101

xoxo

this was a good moment

crescent city

drive thru tree numero uno


gifts//cafe//burls

wild elk watching

drive thru tree number two

end of the day loveliness

the madrona

what with all the pocket knives

places



trees, trees

charm for days

gift shops, gift shops

giants

you know the saying

drive thru tree number three

avenue of the giants

on day two and three (of the big cross country road trip), we hit the 101. highway of all coastal highways, charmer of road trip takers everywhere. there were trees, lots of trees, some of them, fallen. nothing to do but climb up inside and peek out. we wondered, is there anything better than a magnificent, monolithic root system? it was decided, there is not. somewhere outside crescent city, we said our goodbyes to the pacific ocean. breathed in that dense, salty pacific air one last time, promised to return. elk meadows were stumbled onto and the spectacular avenue of the giants traversed, both experiences that only confirmed my sincere belief in the existence of a brilliant, loving God. experiences that left me feeling infinitely humble, endlessly small. and well, wholly alive.

other things: a few large trees were driven through and the boots of paul bunyan climbed up on. he talks to people, you know. there's proof, should you need it. initials were carved into gargantuan tree trunks (thus, souvenir pocket knife collections put to good use). houses made from one log were visited, as were places claiming to defy gravity, as were eternal treehouses, as were many, many gift shops. urges to buy large wooden clocks were miraculously resisted. children were made to pose in abnormally large wooden shoes. a night was spent at the endlessly charming madrona motor court. well, charming til around midnight, when the toilet overflowed and we found ourselves wading through the kind of water you never want to find yourself wading through. lesson learned: pretty much everything about a 1940s roadside motor inn is charming except for the plumbing. still, I loved that little place, loved it to pieces, midnight raw sewage and all. I wouldn't trade our night there for anything.

by the time we drove through our third (and final) tree, we were all off schedule. this will not come as a surprise to those who know us well and would be a running theme throughout the trip. but early on, we decided we didn't care. and as we drove out of the last of the redwoods and down that last stretch of the 101, further away from our beloved portland, oregon, I loosened my grip on the schedule. I felt my resolve soften. about an hour outside of san francisco, the sky turned a fiery, incandescent pink. as it turned out, we were right on time.
09 Nov 03:55

dead



dead

18 Sep 18:39

Picturing the perfect bar

by TK
I was thinking about Cafe Du Nord closing and reopening as another generic fancy cocktail bar and that made me think about how every bar that opens now is pretty much the same.  I don't even need to go through the elements; you know them by heart.  Cocktails with 5+ ingredients, most of which you've never heard of.  Reclaimed wood.  Probably Edison bulbs.  Bartenders who look like people in Old Tyme Tintypes with waxed mustaches.  It was probably Bourbon and Branch that started this whole thing, but now it seems like Trick Dog is the purest example of the form.


Photo via Eater.
Trick Dog is what it is.  If you want to go there and drink drinks with velvet falernum and Tempus Fugit creme de noyeaux and shortbread in them, go right ahead.  I don't know what any of those things are but I'm sure they're delicious.  Well, obviously I know what shortbread is, but I don't understand how it goes into a drink with gin and vermouth.  Maybe it perches on the side and just watches and hangs out.

The problem is not that Trick Dog and bars of that ilk exist - God bless 'em, they're popular, so there's obviously a reason they exist - but that now they're the ONLY kind of bars that open.  This is the only concept now.  Fancy cocktails and small inexplicable plates of food have crowded everything else out.

And then that made me think - well, what would you want in a bar?  What's the ideal bar?  OK, here you go.

There are about 18 excellent beers on tap.  No macros on tap.  There are Bud and Miller longnecks because this is America.  There is no Coors Light of any kind available.

There is no drinks menu.  The bartender knows how to make normal drinks.  There is a nice selection of bourbon, scotch, whiskey, tequila, and other spirits.  There is no muddling.  If you ask for a mojito, the bartender will smile gently and say, "I'm sorry, we don't make mojitos."  That's if you're a girl.  If you're a guy and you ask for a mojito, the bartender will not say anything but will gently shake his head "no."  No frozen blended drinks are offered.

There is one TV.  It is usually off, unless you ask to turn it on for a Giants or 49ers game.  Then it will be turned on with the sound off.

There is a regular, old-style jukebox, not an Internet jukebox.  The jukebox is stocked either by one of the staff or someone else with excellent taste in music.  You can find the Zombies, the Commodores, the Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street," Tupac's "Me Against the World," the Strokes, Lefty Frizzell, and much more.

There are cups of dice behind the bar.  There is no neon inside the bar, anywhere.

There is still a working payphone in the alcove between the men's and ladies' rooms.

There are some regulars, but they are not the kind of regulars who get drunk and super loud and take over the bar and then the bartender spends the whole night hanging out at the end of the bar with them and ignoring the other customers.

The bartender makes the best old-fashioned you've ever had.  The bloody mary comes garnished with a fresh stick of celery and nothing else.  It is also delicious.

There is no food prepared onsite.  It's fine to bring in food occasionally, as long as it doesn't fill the bar with food smell and you don't make a habit of it.  This is a bar, not a restaurant or a picnic area.

Large groups of loud, drunk people may find that it takes increasingly long waits to get their drinks refreshed.

This is the perfect place to spend a few hours on a Sunday afternoon.
18 Aug 17:22

Query

SELECT * FROM GHOSTS
08 Aug 22:52

We on Earth have just awakened to the great oceans of space and time from which we have emerged

by but does it float
Paintings by Jacob Jugashvili Title: Carl Sagan Atley
06 Aug 17:50

Quantum Vacuum Virtual Plasma

I don't understand the things you do, and you therefore may represent an interaction with the quantum vacuum virtual plasma.
04 Aug 17:48

Thesis Defense

MY RESULTS ARE A SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT ON THE STATE OF THE AAAAAAAAAAAART
14 Jul 17:17

The Case for No-Cook Simple Syrup

by Alice Medrich

Every week, baking expert Alice Medrich will be going rogue on Food52 -- with shortcuts, hacks, and game-changing recipes.

Today: Simple syrup can be even simpler to make -- Alice explains how.

Simple Syrup on Food52

What could be easier than simple syrup? You just heat equal parts of sugar and water until the sugar is dissolved, then let it cool, use a bit of it, and store the rest in the fridge for another use. Easy, right?

But if you're like me, you hate waiting for a batch of syrup to cool in order to use it, you don’t like washing an unnecessary pot, and maybe you don’t want leftover syrup in the fridge (mine is too crowded already). Making a small amount of syrup is even more irritating: It’s shallow in the pot, so some of the water evaporates by the time the sugar is dissolved, which makes the syrup extra concentrated (too sweet). You still have to wash the pot and wait for the syrup to cool before you use it. 

More: Think outside of baking and add flavored syrups to your next cocktail.

Step away from the stove! Sugar dissolves in cool water (or any other watery liquid, including fruit juice or purée, alcohol, coffee, etc.) in as little as 10 minutes, if you're willing to stir it a couple of times.

Stirring Simple Syrup on Food52

To make no-cook simple syrup:
Stir equal parts of water and sugar together thoroughly. Wait 10 to 15 minutes, stirring from time to time, until the sugar is dissolved and the liquid looks clear. (To make extra heavy syrup, increase the amount of sugar). That’s all!

To make exactly the amount of syrup you need:
This is the part I like best: 1 cup of sugar dissolved in 1 cup of water makes 1 1/2 cups of syrup (because 1 cup of sugar becomes 1/2 cup when it’s dissolved in liquid). This means that for every 1 cup of syrup needed, just mix 2/3 cup sugar with 2/3 cup water. For example, if your sorbet recipe calls for 1/2 cup of simple syrup, simply mix 1/3 cup sugar with 1/3 cup of water. 

More: If you have extra simple syrup, freeze it in an ice cube tray.

Infusing Simple Syrup on Food52

To infuse your syrups:
Fresh ingredients such as herbs, fruit, and vegetables taste fresher and brighter infused in cold rather than hot syrup. Use them to create flavored sodas, cocktails, and sorbets, or to splash on a fruit salad. Bakers can combine them with liqueurs and brush them on cake layers.

Here are some tips for further experimentation:

Herbs
Stir a generous quantity of herb leaves (torn or roughly chopped if they're large) or whole sprigs of herbs like rosemary or thyme into the syrup and chill it for up to 10 hours for soft leaves like mint, basil, and tarragon (these start tasting decayed after 10 hours) or a couple of days for sturdier herbs like thyme, rosemary, or even rose geranium leaves (very yummy). Strain and discard the herbs and store the syrup in the fridge. If any syrup is not as flavorful as you like, add fresh herbs after discarding the spent ones. If any syrup tastes too strong, add equal measures of sugar and water.

Other aromatics
Add grated citrus zests or finely sliced or grated ginger to syrup and let it infuse until you like the flavor and strength.

Fruits and vegetables
With a juicer:
There is no need to actually infuse; just substitute juiced fruit or veg for the water when making the syrup.

Without a juicer:
Make the infusion with 1 part water, 1 1/2 parts sugar, and 2 parts finely shredded (or a chunky purée of) vegetables such as carrots, beets, celery, etc., or crushed or finely chopped fruit. Stir and let the mixture stand at room temperature for a couple of hours, stirring a couple of times. Strain the mixture through a fine strainer, pressing on the solids to extract as much syrup as you can. Discard the solids. Store in the refrigerator.

More: Add some simple syrup to improve your iced coffee.

Get excited about Alice's forthcoming book Flavor Flours: nearly 125 recipes -- from Double Oatmeal Cookies to Buckwheat Gingerbread -- made with wheat flour alternatives like rice flour, oat flour, corn flour, sorghum flour, and teff (not only because they're gluten-free, but for an extra dimension of flavor too). 

 

 

Photos by James Ransom

20 May 20:59

James Turrell’s Ganzfeld Stays on View

by lacma
laura jessup

so exciting.

Earlier this month, James Turrell celebrated his 71st birthday. “That can’t be right,” I thought when I heard the news. “He just celebrated his 70th when we opened his exhibition.” It seems like just yesterday that James Turrell: A Retrospective opened at LACMA, filling the second floor of BCAM and a third of the Resnick Pavilion for 11 months. The popular show finally closed in April, and is now just weeks away from opening at its next venue—the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. (It will continue to circumnavigate the globe with subsequent stops in Australia and Japan.)

James Turrell, Breathing Light, 2013, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Kayne Griffin Corcoran and the Kayne Foundation, © James Turrell, Photo © Florian Holzherr

James Turrell, Breathing Light, 2013, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Kayne Griffin Corcoran and the Kayne Foundation, © James Turrell, Photo © Florian Holzherr

While the exhibition has left L.A., Angelenos still have reason for joy: one artwork is staying put at LACMA. Breathing Light, the large, room-sized Ganzfeld installation in the Resnick Pavilion, was commissioned expressly for the museum and was acquired for the permanent collection thanks to the generosity of Kayne Griffin Corcoran and the Kayne Foundation. It will remain on view at LACMA for one more year.

James Turrell, Breathing Light, 2013, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Kayne Griffin Corcoran and the Kayne Foundation, © James Turrell, photo © Florian Holzherr

James Turrell, Breathing Light, 2013, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Kayne Griffin Corcoran and the Kayne Foundation, © James Turrell, photo © Florian Holzherr

The artwork is now included in the cost of a general admission ticket. (Don’t forget—we’re free after 3 pm on weekdays for L.A. County residents; kids are always free, and can bring an adult for free as a benefit of their NexGen membership). Ganzfeld is limited to a few people at a time, so you’ll want to check in with the Ticket Office when you arrive at the museum to reserve your timed entry.

James Turrell, Breathing Light, 2013, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Kayne Griffin Corcoran and the Kayne Foundation, © James Turrell, photo © Florian Holzherr

James Turrell, Breathing Light, 2013, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by Kayne Griffin Corcoran and the Kayne Foundation, © James Turrell, photo © Florian Holzherr

I had the chance to interview LACMA trustee Suzanne Kayne last year, where she revealed herself to be a devotee of Turrell’s work: she and her family have traveled around the world to see Turrell’s Skyspaces and other works, sometimes to remote locations. She experienced her first Ganzfeld at the Turrell Museum in Colomé, Argentina. “It was just like an out-of-body experience,” she told me. “It’s an emptiness filled with light that allows the viewer to feel its physicality.”

But the remoteness of many of Turrell’s works weighed on Kayne. “We thought, this has to be shared by other people. This can’t be kept for just the few people who get to the [Turrell] museum.” Thanks to her generosity, LACMA—and Los Angeles—now has a Ganzfeld to keep.

Scott Tennent


13 May 00:04

The Topography of Tears

by Shayna Kulik

topography of tears2

Have you seen this study? It’s absolutely fascinating. Our tears have personalities that mirror our moods. A simple concept that seems so obvious. Tears from happiness, sadness, athletic release and even onions are all different.

During a period of personal change, Rose-Lynn Fisher started examining her tears under a light microscope and was shocked by the different patterns. To read more, visit her site, you’ll find 100 unique topographic formations.

 

06 May 23:16

SFMTA Time Machine

by Burrito Justice

Last week the esteemed David Gallagher kindly pointed me to a photo of a streetcar from the SFMTA photo archives.

here's one for @burritojustice Mission south of 29th 1904 – from the awesome @SFMTAPhoto Archive sfmta.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/…
David Gallagher (@DavidGallagher) April 30, 2014

The photo wasn’t embedded and I initially thought “Hey thanks David but I’m sure I’ve seen this one before.”

I had not seen this one before.

Mrs. Zaro Case Streetcar 1002

Or any of the photos in the archive save one or two. Warning to San Franciscans: clear the rest of today’s schedule before opening this and any other link to the SFMTA Time Machine.

Anyway, the photo above is looking at where Cole Hardware is today. Here’s the 1905 Sanborn map of that side of the street:

1905 Sanborn 3316 Misssion

The streetcar was turning into the car house across the street. Here is a photo showing the car bar from 1910, looking north on Mission towards 29th — within 6 years, the entire west (left) side of Mission had been rebuilt, including the building that the 3300 Club is in now. (If I remember correctly, the dome was removed during WWI.)

24th Street and Mission Street

Lots of the photos are nicely tagged, but some are not, or hold surprises. For example, this 1905 photo is just labelled with the “22nd 24th & Mission Street line” but for those living in the greater La Lengua Co-Prosperity Sphere will realize it is a shot of Bernal Hill taken from Valencia and Mission streets, looking to the east up Fair.

Foster Case Streetcar 1074

The lower white fence that you can see through the streetcar windows is Peters, and the one above it is (well, will be) Coleridge. Here’s the 1905 Sanborn for reference.

1905 sanborn fair st

The two houses on the right edge of the photo match up with 61 and 65 Coleridge:

1905 Coleridge sfmta photo

Also, that platform in the top right corner of the photo is clearly visible on the Sanborn map.

Here’s a dramatic SFMTA shot of Mission and 29th in 1909, looking down from above what will be the 3300 Club towards what will be Pizzahacker (so sorry verb tenses):

29th Street and Mission Street, Claims Department Case 5800

This is the same curve where our 1907 runaway streetcar jumped the tracks and crashed into future Pizzahacker after it was set loose by union sympathizers who shot the conductor. Zooming in, you can see the signs for Bernstein’s Mission Toggery and Warrens’s candy and ice cream store.

Also, a dog.

1909 sfmta mission toggery bernstein warren candy 3299 mission

Same corner in 1904 during some track work.

Curve 29th Street and Mission Streets

There used to be a kindergarten at 3303 Mission next to proto-Pizzahacker — it closed sometime between 1900 and 1905, so not sure if those kids are escaping from it or not. Can’t quite tell if the real estate/insurance sign was painted over or not.

1904 SFMTA Mission and 29th

Red is where Pizzahacker will be, kindergarten is 3301-3303 Mission:

1900 - 3299 Mission

1900 – 3299 Mission

 

 

1905:

1905 sanborn 3299 mission

Here’s looking up 29th from San Jose Ave towards Mission St in 1904:

Old Crossing 29th Street and San Jose Avenue

And a look north down Mission at the northwest corner of 29th in 1909:

29th Street and Mission Street, Claims Department Case 3058 1/2

And the 1905 Sanborn:

1905 Sanborn nw corner 29th & mission

The dentist (with a saloon on the ground floor) is long gone — that building is where 199 Tiffany now stands, and that particular spot is where Goood Frickin’ Chicken now serves delicious shwarma. But to the right is the building the home of Al’s Diner, and next to that, the new home of Ichi Sushi.

29th Street and Mission Street, Claims Department Case 3058 1/2

Stopping now before this posts turns into a doctoral thesis, but fret not as we will dig up more soon on other corners and streets in this ridiculously fabulous SFMTA historical photo archive.

 


25 Apr 20:59

Old Files

Wow, ANIMORPHS-NOVEL.RTF? Just gonna, uh, go through and delete that from all my archives real quick.
18 Apr 16:15

Free Speech

I can't remember where I heard this, but someone once said that defending a position by citing free speech is sort of the ultimate concession; you're saying that the most compelling thing you can say for your position is that it's not literally illegal to express.
17 Apr 14:35

ACTUAL SUMMARY OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY

Zeus: im gonna put my dick in it
Everyone: dont put ur dick in it
Zeus: toO LaTE
13 Apr 21:31

Night Sky Handbook: Aquarius

by Maxwell Tielman

aquariusconstellation

One of the earliest known constellations of the Zodiac, Aquarius has been recognized by numerous ancient cultures, from the Babylonians to Ancient Egypt, all of whom associate the sign with water. In Babylon, the constellation signified the god Ea, commonly depicted holding a vase. In the Ancient Greek tradition, Aquarius is depicted as a lone vase from which water emanates. In Ancient Egypt, the sign of Aquarius is associated with the flooding of the Nile that comes with the onset of spring. Aquarius has 22 main stars and is most visible in the month of October.








09 Apr 18:00

Night Sky Handbook: Cassiopeia

by Maxwell Tielman

cassiopeia_constellation

The constellation Cassiopeia takes its name from the Greek myth of Cassiopeia—a queen who, after defying the sea nymphs with the proclamation that her daughter Andromeda is more beautiful than them, is banished to spend eternity on a throne in the sky. Cassiopeia has five main stars and is most visible during the month of November.








28 Mar 16:25

Before the Internet

We watched DAYTIME TV. Do you realize how soul-crushing it was? I'd rather eat an iPad than go back to watching daytime TV.
26 Mar 23:37

On Smiling

by Kate

Processed with VSCOcam with f2 preset

On Saturday I held another portrait session day and afterwards Katie and I discussed how taking portraits is an interesting and often sad look at how women perceive themselves. I’ve been thinking about this a lot since I started taking more photos of other people, noticing this knee-jerk reaction to having our photos taken that so many women exhibit once the camera is on them. They immediately point out a physical quality about themselves that they hate and hope the photographer can correct for, a look of shame and disgust washing over their faces while they say it. And 99.9% of the time I can never see what they’re talking about. Never. I get that when you spend a lot of time looking at yourself in the mirror – whether you want to or not – you find flaws and you compare and you notice things. But I’ve also noticed a consistent pattern that this quality was once (or more then once) pointed out to them by another woman in their lives – very often their mothers or grandmothers. Often a classmate at school. Which bums me out because I know that while classmates could be doing it to feed their own insecurities, usually our mom only means well while leaving us with this wounded ego that follows us around our whole lives.

I also notice that so many of us can’t stand photos of ourselves smiling big. Katie and I debated on whether this was just a stylistic trend right now – the moody, artsy photos being more popular (I take part in this often) or if it’s more psychological than that. That photos of yourself grinning ear to ear are sort of a display of bragging or just seen as obnoxious? When I edit photos I’m drawn to the ones where people look genuinely happy and full of joy, but my clients almost never use those photos because they’re give a similar reaction “yuck, I hate photos of my smiling, my face looks weird!” Are we not used to seeing ourselves smiling in the mirror? I myself have very crooked teeth and feel like it’s always been a point of shame for me, so I have to work hard at not being ashamed by my smile.

But we both agreed we’ve been taught a lesson in all of this – to quiet that stupid voice in our head that spits out insults about ourselves to others, to embrace being joyous in photos more often, to be more comfortable in front of the camera. That being said, when someone comments on a photo of me and say I need to smile and look happier, I reject that kind of commentary as it’s just as unhelpful and photos of people not smiling are beautiful as well!

have a beautiful day, friends!

On Smiling is a post from: For Me, For You

11 Feb 01:13

An Estonian Home Filled with Colorful Textiles

by Amy Azzarito

Design*Sponge Sneak Peek
Although clothing designer Liina Viira was born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden, her family is originally from Estonia. In 2005 she felt her Estonian roots calling, so she moved to her grandparent’s home country to explore them. The plan was to stay in Estonia for one year, but nine years later, the country has become home and inspiration for her designs, which are based on Estonian folk costumes. When she bought her apartment in North-Tallinn a year and a half ago, it was pretty much a wreck – which meant it was exactly what she was looking for. It still had all of the original floors, ceilings and windows. The bathroom was the only room in the apartment which called for a full renovation. It had a layout that was common to Estonia in the ’50s (the toilet in a separate room, an oddly-sized linen closet and a bathtub that was incredibly small) so Liina tore everything out and renovated the entire space. The bathroom now feels palatial – so much so that when Liina has a party, half the groups end up in the bathroom and turn it into a dance floor! For the rest of the apartment, Liina stuck to white so her beloved textile collection and cherished metal objects wouldn’t take over. Thanks, Liina! And a big thank you to  Terje Ugandi for the lovely photos. Here’s hoping we can join the dance party in the bathroom one day. -Amy

Image above: Everything knitted! I made a wool-cover for my ’50s sofa. I love this pattern. It’s actually a single pattern that has roots in both, Estonian and in Swedish national patterns. The pillows are a find from one of my trips to Essaouira, Morocco. The veneer hatbox and suitcase are original “Luterma” products (a famous Estonian furniture company established in 1883).

Design*Sponge Sneak Peek
Image above: Chests, boxes, suitcases – I don’t know why I have such a love for them. Maybe it’s because I´m always on the move. Pillows are my own brand – NAiiV.  The clock is a gift from a friend, designer Pavel Sidorenko – it’s the motif of Stockholm made out of a vinyl record.

Sneak Peek Design Sponge

3liina 4liina 8liina 7liina 6liina 5liina 10liina 11liina 12liina 13liina 14liina 15liina 16liina 17liina 18liina 9liina 23liina 21liina 20liina 19liina 22liina

See more of this Estonian home after the jump!

(more…)

28 Jan 01:09

Automation

'Automating' comes from the roots 'auto-' meaning 'self-', and 'mating', meaning 'screwing'.
12 Sep 22:24

Marked Up Photographs Show How Iconic Prints Were Edited in the Darkroom

by Michael Zhang

dean

Want to see what kind of work goes into turning a masterful photograph into an iconic print? Pablo Inirio, the master darkroom printer who works at Magnum Photos‘ New York headquarters, has personally worked on some of the cooperative’s best-known images. A number of his marked-up darkroom prints have appeared online, revealing the enormous amount of attention Inirio gives photos in the darkroom.

Sarah Coleman of The Literate Lens writes that Inirio’s tiny darkroom has many of these squiggle- and number-filled prints just casually lying around. Not just any ol’ prints, mind you, but some of history’s most well-known images.

The comparison images above show photographer Dennis Stock’s iconic portrait of James Den in Times Square. The test print on the left shows all the work Inirio put into making the final photo look the way it does. The lines and circles you see reveal Inirio’s strategies for dodging and burning the image under the enlarger, with numbers scattered throughout the image to note different exposure times.

Coleman wonders whether the magic of seeing this process will carry over at all into our new digital age:

Over the last fifteen years, almost every photographer I’ve interviewed has waxed poetic about that “magical” experience of seeing an image develop in chemicals for the first time. You have to wonder whether today’s young photographers will rhapsodize as much about the first time they color-calibrated their monitors.

Here’s a similar comparison photo of a portrait of Muhammad Ali, captured by Thomas Hoepker in 1966:

ali

A portrait of photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, captured by Bob Henriques during Martin Luther King’s march on Washington:

cartier

Finally, a portrait of Audrey Hepburn, captured by photographer Dennis Stock:

hepburn

Back in 2009, Magnum Photos tweeted two photographs showing Inirio at work in his darkroom. “Pablo Inirio, our Dark Room Printer at work,” the captions say:

11031107

11031129

You should definitely give Coleman’s original 2012 piece a read. It’s an interesting look into the mind of a darkroom master as he works in a rapidly changing industry.

(via POTB via Gizmodo via Fstoppers)


Image credits: Photographs by Magnum Photos

11 Sep 19:23

The night light

by Jason Kottke

Paul Bogard recently published a book on darkness called The End of Night. Nicola Twilley and Geoff Manaugh interviewed Bogard about the book, the night sky, astronomy, security, cities, and prisons, among other things. The interview is interesting throughout but one of my favorite things is this illustration of the Bortle scale.

Bortle Scale

Twilley: It's astonishing to read the description of a Bortle Class 1, where the Milky Way is actually capable of casting shadows!

Bogard: It is. There's a statistic that I quote, which is that eight of every ten kids born in the United States today will never experience a sky dark enough to see the Milky Way. The Milky Way becomes visible at 3 or 4 on the Bortle scale. That's not even down to a 1. One is pretty stringent. I've been in some really dark places that might not have qualified as a 1, just because there was a glow of a city way off in the distance, on the horizon. You can't have any signs of artificial light to qualify as a Bortle Class 1.

A Bortle Class 1 is so dark that it's bright. That's the great thing-the darker it gets, if it's clear, the brighter the night is. That's something we never see either, because it's so artificially bright in all the places we live. We never see the natural light of the night sky.

I can also recommend reading David Owen's 2007 NYer piece on light pollution.

Tags: astronomy   books   Geoff Manaugh   interviews   Nicola Twilley   Paul Bogard   space   The End of Night
07 May 19:29

A Rainbow of Shoes and Legs for Breuninger by John Breed

by Christopher Jobson

A Rainbow of Shoes and Legs for Breuninger by John Breed shoes sculpture rainbows installation anatomy

A Rainbow of Shoes and Legs for Breuninger by John Breed shoes sculpture rainbows installation anatomy

A Rainbow of Shoes and Legs for Breuninger by John Breed shoes sculpture rainbows installation anatomy

A Rainbow of Shoes and Legs for Breuninger by John Breed shoes sculpture rainbows installation anatomy

A Rainbow of Shoes and Legs for Breuninger by John Breed shoes sculpture rainbows installation anatomy

Netherlands-based artist John Breed installed this whimsical leg rainbow in conjunction with German shoe salon Breuninger last year. The piece involved 145 multicolored shoes and legs that were eventually placed near the salon. See more on his website. (via show slow)

06 May 22:34

Artist Uses Found DNA Data to Generate Photo-realistic Portraits

by Michael Zhang

Artist Uses Found DNA Data to Generate Photo realistic Portraits sample4 face web copy

Just as RAW photo files contain all the information you need to put together a photograph, DNA contains all the information needed for a human being. Information artist and PhD student Heather Dewey-Hagborg has a fascinating portrait project that explores this idea.

Dewey-Hagborg finds and photographs DNA samples out in public, collecting everything from hair to chewed gum and cigarettes. She then sequences the DNA, extracting information about certain traits related to outward appearance (e.g. gender, eye-color, ancestry).

Artist Uses Found DNA Data to Generate Photo realistic Portraits extraction

What she ends up with is a comma separated text file that’s roughly 25 megabytes in size. This file is essentially the distinguishing elements between that stranger’s DNA and common DNA shared by humanity.

Dewey-Hagborg then feeds this information into a computer program that uses the details to create a 3D model of that person’s face. Finally, the 3D model is sent to a 3D printer at New York University and turned into a physical sculpture.

Artist Uses Found DNA Data to Generate Photo realistic Portraits 3dsculpture

The portrait at the top of this post was created using a cigarette found under an overpass in Brooklyn, New York:

Artist Uses Found DNA Data to Generate Photo realistic Portraits sample4 3 copy

Artist Uses Found DNA Data to Generate Photo realistic Portraits sample4 4 copy

The DNA revealed that the person was a female of European descent with brown eyes.

Here’s a collection of found DNA samples next to the portrait sculptures they were turned into.

Artist Uses Found DNA Data to Generate Photo realistic Portraits sample2 2 copy

Artist Uses Found DNA Data to Generate Photo realistic Portraits sample2 5 copy

Artist Uses Found DNA Data to Generate Photo realistic Portraits sample2 face web copy

Artist Uses Found DNA Data to Generate Photo realistic Portraits sample6 1 copy

Artist Uses Found DNA Data to Generate Photo realistic Portraits sample6 0 copy

Artist Uses Found DNA Data to Generate Photo realistic Portraits sample6 face web copy

Artist Uses Found DNA Data to Generate Photo realistic Portraits sample7 1 copy

Artist Uses Found DNA Data to Generate Photo realistic Portraits sample7 0 copy

Artist Uses Found DNA Data to Generate Photo realistic Portraits sample7 face web copy

Dewey-Hagborg even did this same process using her own DNA. Here’s what she came up with:

Artist Uses Found DNA Data to Generate Photo realistic Portraits heather

Artist Uses Found DNA Data to Generate Photo realistic Portraits artist

Heather Dewey-Hagborg posing with her self-portrait DNA sculpture. Photo by Dan Phiffer

In the project’s artist statement, Dewey-Hagborg says that by “working with traces strangers unwittingly leave behind,” she’s calling “attention to the impulse toward genetic determinism and the potential for a culture of genetic surveillance.”

Stranger Visions by Heather Dewey-Hagborg (via kottke.org)


Image credits: Photographs by Heather Dewey-Hagborg

04 May 06:08

Christopher Taggart

by admin

The first thing you should know about Chris’s work is that his practice is not specific to any medium, ever. He jumps around a lot, letting his ideas dictate his choice in materials; but often his work utilizes ordinary objects or images that he then manipulates through systems of repetition. When we visited him at his Berkeley studio he had just finished his first public commission, a 50-foot tall engraving on aluminum in the new Veterinary Medicine Research Building at the University of California, Davis. He was also working on pieces for his solo show, Cuts and Splits, at Eli Ridgway Gallery, which is currently up until May 4th, 2013. These pieces included large-scale photographic image composites, engraved aluminum panels, and sculpture made from plastic molds. Upon entering Chris’s studio it’s initially very hard to tell what’s going on and where the work is. This is in part due to the fact that his CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machine, which he uses to make engravings, sits squarely in the middle of the space and dominates the view, but it’s also because Chris uses everyday objects and materials that do not take on a transformative quality until a work is completely finished. So coming in mid-process presented some challenges for me; I had to push myself to understand his methods and it was an effort to imagine what exactly his course of actions would result in.

While interviewing Chris he stated that much of his work is about trying to make sense of our fast-paced, overwhelming world and that “turning information overload in on itself to create intrigue and beauty seems like a worthwhile pursuit.” This statement got me thinking about the phrase “information overload” and what it means when the rate of change, especially concerning technological innovation, accelerates to a point that we can no longer adjust.

Over the last couple years I have had countless conversations about the impact of ever-increasing digital information and communication technologies, and more often than not these conversations are peppered with reoccurring words: anxiety, distraction, over-analysis, alienation, and depression. I think in many ways Chris’s work addresses the weight of these words in our daily lives and attempts to investigate the systems we’ve created by breaking them down into single objects or components that he then resurrects into unexpected forms. A perfect example of this is a recent digital photographic collage in which he dissected and recombined aerial photographs of 21 California state prisons that he had found and culled online. From far off, the work appears fixed and uncompromised, but up close it seems to jitter wildly— the unrelenting repetition, the claustrophobia of multiplication, and the hyper-intricacy give the viewer a sense that the work isn’t finished, that it will not yield to its borders and it will continue to grow. That rapid expansion can feel terrifying… sort of the way creeping ivy vines and spider webs are … and technological advancement, penal systems, population, communication modes, digital information… well the list goes on and on.

How would you describe your subject matter or the content of your work?
In the broadest sense, I am just trying to make the most interesting things I can. Usually that involves a systematic manipulation of common everyday objects or images as a way to denature perception and recast it into something surprising or just plain beautiful to look at. Often the work is based on a simple yet repetitive foundation that leads to a kind of complexity that has its own behavior. When it works best, the behavior outperforms my preconceptions, reveals something unexpected, and gives me a hint of how to make it work even better the next time. When it works at its ABSOLUTE best, it makes you laugh a little too.

What mediums do you work with?
I work with whatever seems to fit the idea. Photos, paper, plastics, metals, video, electronics, plaster. I’ve been moving away from complicated and/or toxic materials and back to things that are more directly manipulated by hand. My favorite medium of late is photos and glue!

You have a very varied art practice in which you employ a vast array of materials, how do you go about choosing them?
I just strive to keep myself engaged and interested and the ideas determine the materials. I don’t want to make super permanent, heavy work; everything is so fast paced and overwhelming right now, so I’m striving to make work that is simple in its materiality but complex in labor. I also try to make things that I can physically handle as an individual. Big heavy stuff doesn’t interest me any more. Even if it is big I want to be able to handle it by myself. I’ve strayed from this a few times, and it sure makes life difficult. If I can’t take it apart and carry it up a flight of stairs on my own I don’t want to make it. All that being said, I just finished my first public commission, a 50-foot tall engraving on aluminum in a new building at UC Davis. It’s 13 panels and weighs a total of 600 pounds. If it’s a public commission I guess I can break my own rules!

In my research on you and your work, I noticed much has been made of your undergraduate work in physics. What do you make of that? Do you think your background in science directly influences your art?
I do have an undergraduate degree in science. But I also have one in art and a Masters in Sculpture. The phrase “science and art at the same time” is a bit of a monkey on my back. Of course my education influences my work, but equally so do my chickens, and the time I spend on my bike, and the fact that the world is so overwhelming, and how amazing it looks when you snorkel, and my ongoing meditation practice, and even what I had for lunch. I feel like today’s art world is credential-oriented to its own detriment. I have a real aversion to looking at someone’s work through the blinding aperture of their CV.

All that said, my art practice can’t help but be permeated by my education in physics. I think a lot about time and probability and how we make sense of the infinite heap of human experience. Physics offers some perspectives that I can’t ignore. I would have never started cutting up multiple images and recombining them if I hadn’t learned about probability distributions in quantum mechanics. But I’m of course not doing particle physics, and the work is not ABOUT quantum mechanics, and I doubt I use any more math than a carpenter. My practice is about getting an idea and seeing it through to try and see something new and interesting and beautiful.

Do you see your work as autobiographical at all? Does personal history work its way into your practice?
Personal history is a weird term. Everything we know is in the past anyway right? Autobiography would mean my own story, which I don’t think is any more interesting that anyone else’s story, so I’m not really trying to tell it to anyone. I’m more interested in the general way we all try to make sense of things through the imperfect nature of our conditioned senses. The kind of self-portrait I’d like to make is one that could be a self-portrait of anybody else. But if there is one thing that is autobiographical it’s that I feel very overwhelmed. I’m not so much looking at narrative qualities in my work, instead it’s more about information overload and trying to make sense of a world inundated with technology and innovation. Turning information overload in on itself to create intrigue and beauty seems like a worthwhile pursuit.

Do you have a day job? What is it? What does it mean to you?
My day job is fixing up our little house. I tore the ceiling out of the living room this past year. It’s very meaningful to have a house of one’s own that you can make just the way you want… with your own hands.

Other than that I don’t have another career— for the last 12 or 13 years I’ve worked solely on my art. Actually, that’s not entirely true. I worked behind the fish counter at a market near my house for a couple years when working by myself all the time in the studio was just too isolating.

My art projects inevitably take longer to finish in the physical world than in my imagination, so I’m very blessed to have a spectacularly beautiful and generous wife who has supported me when artwork alone hasn’t.

What are you presently inspired by— are there particular things you are reading, listening to or looking at to fuel your work?
My inspiration comes in generalities that don’t necessarily correlate to or directly fuel the physical form of what I make. Lately I can’t get enough of Kora music (it’s a gourd-harp from Mali in West Africa). And I’ve been paying a good bit of attention to the sparkly things you see when you look at a bright light with your eyes closed. I have a vague sense that the curly, stringy, ropey way that lava solidifies (Pahoehoe) is going to work its way into my work somehow in the near future.Pruning fruit trees and thinning greens in the garden has a way of influencing idea creation, but I wouldn’t dare attempt to pick apart exactly how.
I also just finished rereading one of my favorite books, The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien. The combination of humor, time travel, and misguided perceptions of reality in that book always gets my ticker ticking.

Is there something you are currently working on, or are excited about starting that you can tell us about?
I’ve been rolling objects (mostly pieces of fruit and sports balls) around on a flatbed scanner to make these strange digital extrusion photographs. Honestly, the one piece I can’t wait to make, that I won’t have time for until after my upcoming show, is this: I’m going to roll the head of a plastic Burger King doll around on the scanner to make a sort of branching fire corral. Imagine swimming up to a coral while snorkeling and realizing the whole thing was constructed by little Burger King heads that had moved through space and left traces of themselves along the way, the same way coral polyps build hard calcium shells into forms that balance perfectly between order and chaos. I imagine it will be bonkers, but I can’t envision it and that’s exactly the kind of project I like to embark upon.

What risks have you taken in your work, and what has been at stake?
I often work in a programmatic fashion where I set up a set of conditions that I then allow to behave on their own to create an artwork. I often have only a vague idea that the system will lead to something worthwhile. Systems with less certain outcomes often lead to the most interesting results. But I’ve embarked on projects that have absorbed months of my life only to fizzle out into mediocrity.

How do you navigate the art world?
With a 10-ton boulder of salt. The art world can be a frustrating place; it’s so much about creating a brand-based career around your own name and less about making the work. It’s all about the quantity of shows, reviews, mentions, and images out in the world; it’s all about building an arsenal to create a brand. It’s very confusing. Often art world institutions seem less dedicated to supporting the process of art making, and instead are keen to follow trends at the rate of the fashion industry. It’s an issue of pace— artists spend so much time and labor on their work, but institutions move on so quickly. It’s impossible for artists to keep up, and I’m not so sure they should.

Who taught you the most about art?
That’s a tough one. Does it have to be a person? I think I’ve learned most about art from walking, sitting, and swimming in nature and not thinking. It’s all about new observations, that moment when your perception has been expanded and new impressions are being made. If it really has to be a person, it would be Mississippi John Hurt, but I of course never met him. Sure wish I could have. Listening to his music, and also learning how to play it, is an ongoing reminder of what I see as truly artful. All he needed were six steel strings, two hands, and his own voice to channel something uniquely magical. On good days I can muster that kind of spirit a little bit in the studio, or at least try to.

Do you have a motto?
I don’t have a motto per se, but I have a couple of favorite quotes.

My father-in-law is a unique and wonderful man. He once wrote me a letter that had the following salutation that I committed to memory: “Easy come. Easy go. Sweat sweat sweat! Pay the price for the greatness.”

A friend of mine was working with his automotive business partner one day. They had a big work load ahead and the business partner said to my friend: “OK. Today we REALLY need to FOCUS on remaining FOCUSED!”

Are you involved in any upcoming shows or events? Where and when?
In March I finished a permanent commission, called Blue Column, for the new Veterinary Medicine Research Building at the University of California, Davis. It’s a 50-foot tall engraving on 13 anodized aluminum panels.

I have a solo exhibition, Cuts and Splits, at Eli Ridgway Gallery in San Francisco that is up until May 4th.

Where can people see your work?
Eli Ridgway Gallery
Ace Gallery (I don’t work with Ace any more however).

Photo Credit: the photos of Chris’ public work “Blue Column” at UC Davis are taken by the artist. All other photos are IN THE MAKE’s.