World of Housecraft: $738 a world awaits… (SOMA / south beach)

ATTENTION PASSENGERS: DUE TO A POLICE MATTER AT HAYWARD STATION; TRAINS ARE BEING HELD OUT OF HAYWARD STATION UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.. THIS IS CAUSING A DELAY IN SERVICE IN BOTH DIRECTIONS ON THE FREMONT LINE OF APPROX. 15 TO 20 MINUTES., IN ADDITION THE HAYWARD BART STATION HAS BEEN CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THIS INCONVIENCE ..THANK YOU!!!
Last Updated: Mon Jan 29, 6:10 PM

I caught a tiny bit of the info on the NBC 11 news a few minutes ago.

Edit: Story from NBC11 is now online. Possibly not a shooting?

Waiting for the face of Jesus to appear?

I don’t really know what to say here.

A few more here and the Expo 07 pool here.

There are tons of parties that happen during the week of Macworld Expo but last night was the first time the Expo group itself actually threw a party. They called it Macworld Blast and rented out Mezzanine for the night.

I have to say that I was a little disappointed by the crowd. My estimate is that the median age was 38. There were a lot of bald heads in the audience.

The surprise band turned out to be… drumroll please… Cheap Trick. It was very very weird.

To demonstrate the integration of Google Maps, Jobs looked up the closest Starbucks locations and called one. When the woman answered he said, “Hi, I’d like 4,000 lattes. Just kidding, wrong number!” and hung up. So if you happened to be the person who answered the phone at the Starbucks closest to Moscone this morning, Steve Jobs prank called you. John Mayer performed, too, which is when I promptly got up and left…

More pictures to come over the next few days but here’s a pic I took with my cameraphone while in line for the keynote of the people on escalators in Moscone West.

It didn’t end at the ticket counter, unfortunately, but the story is too long to really be relevant. Let’s just say 45 minutes of unexplained sitting at the gate before departure and a sprint through Vegas added to our frustration, but it all culminated with the women at the America West counter in Philly calling my boyfriend an idiot to his face. A manager promised a $150 voucher. We’ll never use it.

We recently found out the total pounds brought in and the numbers are impressive.

Total non-perishable items: 1080 lbs
Total perishable (turkey, ham, etc.): 92 lbs

That’s a total of 1172 lbs donated by a bunch of people on bikes. Things like this make me proud to be a part of the San Francisco cycling community. Awesome job!

The results were amazing. The total number of pounds hasn’t been reported yet, but this gives you some idea of the amount of food that people carried from all corners of the city on their backs and in baskets and panniers:

This picture does not include the pig leg brought back from Chinatown or the various hams and turkeys that were brought in for bonus points. It was a fun race and an awesome show of support from the bike community. Way to go everyone who raced!

Johnson really says everything that I could think of saying in the article, but this is a particularly choice quote:

What’s next, a free pass to Michael Richards stand-up act? There is surely a disconnect between the city’s promotional plan and the marketplace.

And this quote:

Etah Allah, 31, who grew up in West Oakland, summed it up nicely.

“I wouldn’t give them a sling shot,” he said. “In fact, given some of the things that (Axl) Rose has said about black folks, I think I should get a gun for just going to the concert,” he said, bringing a laugh from his friends.

So, is Oakland desperate? Well… yes.

“I recognize that Guns N’ Roses isn’t a band that a lot of Oakland kids listen to, but there are so many stolen guns used in crimes in this city we’ll take any guns we can get,” he [Joe DevVries of Oakland's violence-prevention program] said.

It’s not even really Guns ‘N Roses anymore, it’s just Axl with a bunch of new guys. No Slash, no GNR. But most of the people targeted by this program don’t really care anyway, nor should they care, considering some of the garbage that has come out of Axl’s mouth. At least someone is thinking about new solutions to Oakland’s problems and it was great of Axl and company to donate the tickets. Unfortunately, this just falls short.

The name “Steam” comes from the 19th century nickname for west coast brews. The name implies that the beer was made with crude technology available to early west coast brewers and not the advanced brewing processes popular elsewhere. Steam is now a trademark of Anchor Brewing, and Anchor Steam is a trademark of San Francisco. Its rich body, beautiful amber color, and flavorful taste make Anchor Steam one of the greatest gifts San Francisco has given to the world. Anchor Steam is made in a copper brewhouse which probably has something to do with why it tastes so damn good (afternoon tours are available on weekdays). According to the web site, their “classical copper brewhouse–mash tun, lauter tun, grant, and brewkettle–was handmade in Germany over fifty years ago.”

The history of Anchor Brewing is riddled with obstacles and tragedy, including the closure of Anchor brewing in the 50s when delicious, flavorful beer was nearly forced out of the market by tastless light beers. Your Anchor Brewing history lesson begins after the jump.

The story starts with a German immigrant named Gottlieb Brekle who opened a little brewery on Pacific in 1854. But it wasn’t until 1896, when Ernst F. Baruth and his son-in-law, Otto Schinkel, Jr. bought the brewery from Brekle, that the name Anchor was born.

The trouble began in February of 1906 with the death of Baruth. Then came April with the earthquake and subsequent fire. The brewery was destroyed. They rebuilt at 18th and Hampshire, but before the rebuilding was completed, Otto Schinkel was run over by a streetcar he’d just fallen off of. After Schinkel’s death, German brewers Joseph Kraus and August Meyer kept the brewery going with the help of Henry Tietjen—that is, until the 18th Amendment kicked off Prohibition and brought everything to a screeching halt in 1920. According to the Anchor web site (which is providing the information for this crash course in Anchor history), there are no great stories of Anchor bootlegging during America’s involuntary dry spell. Kraus seems to have stopped brewing for the 13 years that America spent making gin in bathtubs.

On April 7, 1933, 8 months before the ratification of the 21st Amendment, booze began to flow again in 19 states and California was one of them (photo from the Anchor Brewing web site). Much to the chagrin of San Francisco’s teetotallers and the delight of its boozehounds, Kraus started producing Anchor Steam again at the brewery’s new location, 13th and Harrison. However, the joy at Anchor lasted for less than a full year. In February of 1934, the brewery burned down, again. Kraus reopened Anchor at 17th and Kansas and found himself a partner in Joe Allen. They remained partners until Kraus died in 1952.

By 1959, Anchor was not doing well in the market and Allen was forced to shut it down, but in 1960 Lawrence Steese bought it and reopened it, this time in SOMA (8th between Bryant and Brannan). He brought Allen in as a partner but the brewery continued to struggle. Bar owners in the city didn’t want to keep it on tap (why?!?!?!). It wasn’t until the great-grandson of the appliance mogul Maytag found out that the makers of the nectar he loved to drink at a bar in North Beach were about to shut down that Anchor’s future took at turn for the better. Fritz Maytag bought 51% of the brewery in 1965 and became sole owner (and San Francisco hero) in 1969.

In 1971 the first bottle of Anchor Steam was produced, followed by 4 other Anchor beers (Liberty Ale, Porter, Christmas Ale, Old Foghorn) over the next few years. Fritz purchased an old coffee roastery on Mariposa street in the late 70s and in 1979 the first batch of Anchor Steam was brewed at its current location, 1705 Mariposa Street in Potrero Hill.

All of Anchor’s beers are still handmade in those amazing copper pots, by hand. There are taps in the kitchen for employees, who also get to take home a case a week (if I remember correctly from the tour). And I still drink Anchor Steam every chance I get.