I’ve been to quite a few cities around the world and without a doubt this fair city of ours has the most overhead wiring of anywhere I’ve ever been. It does make me a bit nervous to think about the poles coming down in a big quake but whatcha gonna do? I live in a house that will probably be a pile of rubble in a magnitude 5 so I should just let it go :-) It would really be nice to get some of these things underground but I can’t even fathom the effort that it would take and the cost would be mind boggling.

This is a shot of the sculpture in front of the Holy Name Church at 39th Ave and Lawton. For some reason this sculpture grabs me every time I go by. It’s pretty intricate and I’d love to get up close to see what all the little people are doung but unfortunately it’s not situated in the best of spots for personal interaction.

I stopped by the Anarchist Book Fair this afternoon to witness for myself the anarcho-communist crowd engaging in good ol’ capitalism. The vendors inside the fair building are doing a swift business, with a lesser amount spilling out into the blanket sales in the courtyard.

Judging by the how-to books on incendiary devices, and slogans such as “My heroes have always killed cowboys”, destruction style tactics have not gone out of style. Followers of Che, Chomsky, and various “liberation fronts” are well represented here.

Gandhian anarcho-capitalists such as myself found few commonalities within this lot. Just the same, I dropped a handful of Free State Project flyers and stickers on the orphan propaganda table. Maybe one or two of them will eventually come around.

If you didn’t get your fix of revolutionary angst, there is more to be had tomorrow, from the BASTARDs in Berkeley. It runs from 10 am to 5 pm, at the UC Berkeley Dwinelle Hall.

For a limited time only. Though not a blader myself these days (since my pair got stolen out of my trunk on the first of four car break-ins), I’m selfishily psyched that running in the park on weekends will be car-free for a stretch. “This is a six month pilot program that will close a portion of Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park to auto traffic on Saturdays the same way it is currently closed on Sundays. The program will begin on Saturday, May 27, 2006 and end on Saturday, November 25, 2006.” Roll on with The Godfather all weekend long…

Tonight, the deYoung Museum is hosting a member preview of the new International Arts and Crafts exhibit.

Each section of International Arts and Crafts, which is organized geographically, explores the distinctive characteristics of the Arts and Crafts Movement and the different ways in which its ideas were interpreted as it developed in countries or regions from England to Japan.

The deYoung is open until 8:45pm on Fridays, and is open Tuesday through Sunday, 9:30-5:15pm. General admission is $15, but if you’re a member you get in free and to the front of the line!

Tonight’s events include: 6:30 p.m. – Lecture – Homes for the Middle Classes: the International Arts and Crafts Movement; 6-8:30 p.m. Live music (“hotcha”) by the Tin Pan Alley Troubadours and Frisky Frolics, artist demonstrations and Arts and Crafts-related hands-on art making for all ages (Book binding by Gillian Boal
Stained glass demonstration by Flora Dionysia Mangana-Trudeau, Violin making by Peter Van Arsdale).

While I don’t consider myself a tourist anymore, more of a curious citizen, there are a number of things everyone exploring this great city should throw in their pack. I’m going to cover the things I carry with me when I go on walk about over the next few weeks starting with my new 10X Optical Digital Camera Binoculars. These are definitely not top of the line and are a bitch to get the hang of but they’re relatively cheap and if you’re just looking to do some light recon and keep a record these are pretty decent. Now the photo above has had some work done on it in photoshop so the fidelity and sharpness are enhanced. But I’m not about to post some washed out blurry photo on the site :-) And the other problem that I learned AFTER taking this image is that I had the focusing ring set backwards. Like I said, a bitch to get the hang of. So I’m headed up to take another shot in a few minutes on my semi-daily walk. And for reference, the photo above was taken from Grandview Park so you can get some good range out of them for sure.

You don’t have to be Irish to kick up your heels on St. Patty’s Day. Have “The Luck o’ the Irish” take a safe ride home.

The Luck of the Irish

If you had the luck of the Irish
You’d be sorry and wish you were dead
You should have the luck of the Irish
And you’d wish you was English instead!

A thousand years of torture and hunger
Drove the people away from their land
A land full of beauty and wonder
Was raped by the British brigands! Goddamn! Goddamn!

If you could keep voices like flowers
There’d be shamrock all over the world
If you could drink dreams like Irish streams
Then the world would be high as the mountain of morn

John Lennon

A sad update to a post I did back in August of ’05. Anne Calvello, the technicolor Roller Derby Queen was diagnosed last week with liver cancer and died Tuesday at the young age of 76. Anne, a San Bruno resident, was known around the world for the excitement she brought to the game.

Alternate reality games are seriously a pain for me. When I find out about one, I want to follow the narrative, but it comes across in so many channels (online forums, the game’s site or sometimes sites, Flickr, real-life events) and so quickly that it often feels like a full-time job just to keep up and so I don’t. Still, I like the idea of big games ranging all over the city, or even portions of it (a la the Go Game, which we’ve written about before). Even then, those can occur few and far between.

The things I’ll do for 15 points…

Someone slipped our fearless leader a link to San Francisco Zero, which bills itself as a collaborative production game. The short version is this: you sign up, you go out and do some of the tasks, you come back and post proof (text, photos, audio, video) of completing a task, and you get points. If you do an outstanding job, you can get bonus points. Some of the tasks are simple and can be done in front of your computer, but many of them involve exploring the city, interacting with other players or even non-players, and creating physical objects or art. You also have to select one of five teams and don’t have immediate access to other teams’ tasks; for that, you have to befriend members of other teams and get them to collaborate with you, meaning you’re going to eventually meet someone new. Even better, you can participate at your own pace; there’s a sort of narrative going on, but more of a webloggish one than a fictional tale.

There’s a lot more I want to write, but I’m saving it until after Saturday’s event, listed as:

There is beautiful high place where you’re not supposed to go in the center of the city. From there you can see many wonderful things. SFZero will lead the way up. At the top we will provide a collaborative art project to work on. Everyone is invited.

Meet at the Peace Plaza in Japantown (near the corner of Post and Buchanan) at 4pm.

File under urban exploration.

Though I’m sure my drive to play as much as I can in a short amount of time will start to wane once I hit level 3, I’m definitely in for a beautiful high place. It could be a good thing to check out if you want to find out more about the game from the creators.

Improve MUNI

I am wandering San Francisco on a Jim’s Restaurant Sunday and in need of transportation to the Express for Men in the Stonestown Mall. How can I get there from downtown San Francisco? The MUNI of course!

Ah, but wait, to get on the MUNI you have to buy a single use ticket – $1.50 – in exact change. Okay, no problem, I’ll just make change… where? The MUNI transit officer tells me to use the BART ticket kiosk to make change. One useless BART ticket later I realize there is a little button on the side that gives change for MUNI.

Now ready to ride, I feed my quarters into the turnstile, circa 1945, and head onto the tracks. There, while trying to figure out where I’m going using the crap maps, I am bombarded by a constant barrage of computer-announced train arrivals and departures, all sounding the same instantly.

Once I finally figure out I want the M Line to Stonestown, two M trains have past. The trains are so short, two cars and maybe 20 feet long, don’t think I’m odd for missing them. Once in a M Line train, I actually like the ride, or well when I’m not wondering where we are. Seems only the major, not all the minor, stops are put on the MUNI maps, which means you have to guestimate when your stop is coming up.

As we left the tunnels and ventured onto streets in the median, it was nice to see cars yield to a train. Still, it wasn’t all that. Me, I’ll take a trolleybus over the MUNI any day.