Local comics lounge Isotope will be having an after-party on Saturday night, including the awarding of the 2006 Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics. Ooh.

Flickr-hosted pictures from last year’s APE are here and here.

Japantown is one of my favorite places in the city to take photographs, as well as hang out. Last weekend, I was there and had my camera on me, so… It’s one of the few places where I still feel like I’m in a city, but not in the city, you know?

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.

Some Silicon Valley engineers (unfortunately, none that I know personally, so I can call them up and rib them) are participating in something they call Gentlemen’s Fight Club. Donning a minimum of protective gear, they have 1-on-1 and 2-on-2 fights with rolled-up and duct-taped magazines, cookie sheets, Hello Kitty toilet seat lids… You have to watch the video to see just how that works (and be warned, if you’re squeamish: there’s a little blood). And then—and this is my favorite part—they have a guy in a tuxedo to do the after-fight interviews. Is there a vlog of this somewhere?

“Yes, tens of billions.”

“And these are hits, or unique users, or…?”

“Unique users, yeah.”

“So my next question is, given that there’s only six-and-a-half billion people, roughly, on the planet, how are you figuring tens of billions? Did we make contact with an alien race?”

He did not find this question as amusing as I did. It turns out he got the number from another source, and involves the number of users/viewers across multiple forms of media, so there’s a bunch of overlap. He then admitted he should probably clarify it in the presentation. I would hope so… and better that I say something; I’m the webdev ribbing him good-naturedly, not an exec that might also catch these sorts of things who would see this presentation later.

Below is the complaint I submitted online, but I somehow doubt it’ll do any good. I gave them my name, address and contact info since they specify that the only way they’ll respond to your complaint and/or take action is if you give that information. Also, I’m copying the fields I couldn’t fill out, so if you intend to make a complaint online, you’ll know what info to collect while on the bus or Metro.

So a word to Metro users who are as green as I am to the system: If the train sits at the station for more than the time it takes for people to get on and off, and does so for two stops in a row without the driver saying anything about what’s going on: get out ASAP. Get out while you can. Something’s not right in Transitville.

Subject: Getting stuck behind derailment in subway, Tuesday 2/14/06

Date of Occurance: 2/14/06
Time: (be sure to include a.m. or p.m.) 5:30pm
Location: Between Church and Van Ness stops
Line Number: K
Vehicle Number:
(4 digit number painted on all Muni vehicles except 2 digits for cable cars)
Direction of Travel: Inbound
Employee ID Number or Name:
Employee Description:

Message:
On the evening of Tuesday the 14th, there was a derailment on the inbound MUNI subway between the Church and Van Ness stops. This is unfortunate and I know this sort of thing happens. However, the inbound K-Ingleside that I and about three or four dozen other people were on pulled up behind the derailment and sat there for almost an hour without moving or letting us evacuate back to the Church station. This might have been acceptable, except for the fact that a MUNI worker got on our train at the Church station to get a ride down to the derailment. This means that we all could have been told about what had happened, and let out at Church to find other ways to get where we were going. Instead, no announcements were made beforehand, nothing was done at all to indicate that something might be wrong and that we’d be stuck for an indeterminate amount of time.

People on that train were on their Valentine’s Day dates and had their plans delayed or possibly ruined. Some of us just had places to be and were made terribly late. I myself missed the entire event that was my reason for heading downtown in the first place.

Look, what I want to say is that when we get on MUNI busses and trains, we do so with the expectation that we’ll get to where we’re going, or if something happens, be told why we can’t and then given options. It’s not too much to ask. What happened last week was unacceptable. I certainly hope no one was hurt in the derailment, but if it happens again, let people off. If it’s the fault of the worker who got on at Church and didn’t let the driver know, find a way to keep drivers informed of problems on their routes. If there’s a system in place for such things, it failed.

And hey, make sure your drivers know how to use the PA system in their vehicles. I was standing right under the speaker and I could barely hear the first announcement our driver made and couldn’t make out parts of it. The second one he made later we could all hear just fine. I have a feeling that’s only because one of the other passengers that went up to talk to the driver said something about the volume of the first announcement.

You were on my N-line train. You are on the beach in San Francisco. You’re probably about to go LARP in the park. Cape guy, you’re rockin’ it pretty hard, and I dig that. I do.

But hat guy, you add a real twist to this. See, about 100 feet away, someone happens to be filming a scene. And there are actors dancing around. So I made this connection — film, sand, man in wide-brimmed hat and agrarian dress…

Manos: The Hands of Fate.

A week or so ago I was at Ireland’s 32 for a Banter Cut show, and in the restroom I found the little dude up on the left. What interested me about him is that months and months ago, I found his cousin on the corner of 4th and Clement, pictured there on the right (though that one has since been cleaned up, last time I checked). Given the numbers 2 and 6, I’m inclined to believe that there are at least four other of these somewhere around the Richmond. Anyone ever spot one?