progressive politics and regressive entertainment. like peanut and butter.
July 8, 2012 2 Comments
826 Valencia is a store in San Francisco that fronts for a literary non-profit, furthering the writing of youngsters (ages 6-18). Plus, they have a fish theater. Enter said store, go to the right, and there’s a four-seat theater in which one can watch the fish.
Don’t think anything goes, though. They do have rules.
June 2, 2012 Leave a comment
I was up in San Francisco the other day and realized that this is what I don’t see down in Palo Alto.
May 24, 2012 7 Comments
It seems unnecessarily derogatory, but here’s how they insult spoons at Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream in San Francisco. I got the Gabba Gabba Hey sundae. Delicious, but no picture of that.
May 13, 2012 Leave a comment
Spotted near where a friend of mine lives in Bernal Heights. Zombie crossings in San Francisco.
April 14, 2012 3 Comments
I’m going to be teaching Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) in a few weeks so I decided to watch it again, but to do so first without my scholar’s cap on. Vertigo is a movie that comes along with a wealth of scholarly literature, but this is just me writing as a movie fan, typos and all. Also, it seems a bit silly to shout “Spoiler Alert!” when discussing a movie made over fifty years ago, but I suppose if you haven’t seen Vertigo yet, you should:
a) explain why. I mean, really, what are you waiting for?
b) turn back now. Come back two hours and eight minutes later, once you’ve had the chance to see the film.
April 11, 2012 2 Comments
I was walking through the Tenderloin district of San Francisco and came across a place that appears to be resting on its laurels. 2004 Best Breakfast! But it was closed, and I was on the way to a magic show with some friends (a strange evening), so I wasn’t able to test their bacon and eggs.
February 25, 2012 Leave a comment
Stephen Colbert returns to the airwaves after his absence due to his mother’s illness.
I just want to address my recent absence from the national conversation. As the hub around which the Republic turns, I can understand why the machinery of this great nation ground to a halt last week when you were denied this. Now I’m sure you felt the same way that I do when I’m in a room with no mirrors.
His guest is Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto, who makes a strong argument for why independent bookstores can succeed where chain bookstores have failed. Patchett’s Nashville bookstore is Parnassus Books.
February 19, 2012 1 Comment
I took a few iPhone photos at San Francisco’s Baker Beach two weeks ago.
January 29, 2012 Leave a comment
Today sees the last performance of The Lamplighters’ production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers, up in Walnut Creek. It’s a play I’d never seen until about a week ago, when they played it in San Francisco.
Image via Wikipedia
January 14, 2012 Leave a comment
I had a drink this week with a friend I hadn’t seen since we were in tenth grade, back in western Massachusetts, in the late ’80s. My friend lives in Texas, which fits his conservative illusions, but he comes to San Francisco for his tech business. It’s a world of corporate offices and corporate bars which he knows much better than I do, even in its local guise. I picked him up at the airport and we went to a Hyatt on the water, a hotel which I’ve never much noticed in my nine years out here. Now I know it has a nice bar, and how much to tip for the valet parking. $5.
January 7, 2012 Leave a comment
On Thursday I went up to San Francisco to see two SFMOMA exhibits. The first was of drawings by the sculptor Richard Serra, which were minimalist even when massive. The second was of photographs by Francesca Woodman, including a bunch of self-shot nudes. Serra is still making art at age 72, but Woodman committed suicide in 1981, at the age of 22.
More after the jump, including one PossiblyNotSafeForWork image
December 11, 2011 1 Comment
Whether you support their methods or not, Occupy Wall Street is doing a pretty good job highlighting how limited the right to political assembly is in the United States.
