I just got my e-newsletter from San Francisco Brew Pub Club and thought I’d pss on that they’ve got lotsa suds related stuff on their calendar if anyone wants to annoint themselves with fresh brewed hops & barley byproducts.

My fave is the beer cruise that never leaves the dock…The Third Annual “Brews on the Bay” on the deck of the Jeremiah O’Brien Liberty Ship on Saturday, September 9 …

Over 50 flavas overflowing from noon until 4:30p.m. under the guise of The San Francisco Brewers Guild. There will also be live music , tours of the ship and The Thirsty Bear will be offering up tasty tapas. Local SF brew pubs offer deals on tickets – $30 includes all your beer, or buy yer way in on the gangway for $40.

More hoppy trails after the jump
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Marina playground’s turtle sculpture, roasting in our well-deserved newfound sunshine.

Rented some kids today and headed out to two different playgrounds. God the weather was amazing! We slathered on the sunblock.

Joe DiMaggio Playground
– I was really impressed, and as my sister always points out, the location is key because it’s, very close to coffee, namely Cafe Columbus, home of the amazing scherma. Right at Lombard and Chestnut in North Beach.

Marina Playground
– Not having kids, I never really took note of this place, but when pressed remembered there were some bright structures near the Marina library. Wow, it is by far the best playground I’ve been in, but I have to say not as close to good cafes as DiMaggio. Good points: soft squishy tread, lots of structures with interesting details, and neat tile work along the walls. Also near older kid stuff like baseball, basketball, and a soccer field.

Henry Rollins performs on his spoken word tour tonight at the Palace of Fine Arts. I watched his “Talking from the Box” DVD a few years ago and was quite impressed with his insights and rhetoric. For those of you asking, “Who is Henry Rollins?”, I’ll give you a short and sweet bio.

Henry Rollins was born Henry Garfield in Washington DC, in 1961. When he was 20, a friend gave him a copy of Black Flag’s Nervous Breakdown. At an impromptu show in a bar, he asked to sing “Clocked In.” As vocalist Dez Cadena was going to switch to guitar, the band invited Garfield to a rehearsal. Impressed by his stage presence, they asked him to become their permanent vocalist. Rollins toured and recorded with Black Flag from 1981 until their breakup in 1986. Rollins began publishing his own books during his time with Black Flag. His early efforts were self-made volumes (photocopied and stapled), though he quickly began printing chapbooks before moving on an independent publisher. He also tours as a spoken-word artist, focusing mostly on social topics, as well as recounting his life experiences. His blend of self-deprecating humor and serious discussion of important social issues has gained him great popularity. In 2004 he became an outspoken human rights activist, most vocally a crusader for gay rights. He has pinpointed the rights for gays to marry as a “vital issue impeding on the rights of Americans today.” He was the host of a benefit concert called “WedRocks” to raise money for a pro-gay-marriage organization. He is also a spokesperson for the WM3 Legal Defense Fund.

Johnny Wilson

Found this behind the Exploratorium this weekend. To the left of this it said “DROPIN SCIENCE” and I’ve been trying to figure out if that’s a reference to Big Will Rosario’s album or a KRS One lyric and so I turned to my psychic-all-week friend Glenda on that instant messenger doodad:

Jason: Glenda!
Jason: Help me not be white for a second.
Glenda: OMG i’ve been psychic ALL . FUCKING . WEEK .
Jason: Oh shit, what.
Glenda: i was JUST thinking about you.
Jason: AWESOME
Glenda: totally.
Jason: Okay, check this and translate:
Jason: “Dropin’ Science”
Jason: Is this a term I might know from hiphop?
Glenda: well
Glenda: “science” is slang for street knowledge or street smarts
Glenda: but in rap terms
Glenda: it more means “rhymes”
Glenda: like, logic
Glenda: to drop science
Jason: Got it.
Glenda: because there’s the beats, and then there’s the logic

So now I’m a little more cool for knowing, but a little less cool for revealing my lack of with-it-ness to you all, so that’s about a zero-sum result. Yay, math!

In the Marina… of course. But what I liked was that her pearls were really a silver string of Mardi Gras beads, like her owner knew the whole deal was a parody of itself.

Or not.

The Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina District, is just a stone

image from announceart.net.

If you are a photographer, pro, amateur or beginner… or even if you just like to look at pretty pictures, Photo San Francisco, the 6th international photographic art exposition, is here, July 21st through 24th at the Fort Mason festival pavilion.

Exhibitions include, of course, photography of all flavors (journalistic, fine art, etc.), but is not limited to stills. There are performance artists, installation art, video art and much more. Some of the scheduled speakers are prominent photographers such as Bill Owens and Catherine Wagner.

There are also a few seminars on photo collecting, as well as panel discussions about producing your own photographic book, amongst the many lectures scheduled throughout the event.

More details on this event can be found at announceart.net.

So this month’s lesson is “never promise video when you’re under tight deadlines at work.” My bad. Tandem-kites can be seen in the larger-sized 7.9MB file or the more eye strain but more bandwidth-friendly 2.6MB file.

I went down to the Marina today in hopes of getting a better resolution photograph of this sticker that I found on a phone booth during the last election, but it has since been removed. Instead, you get the lo-res camphone pic from October.

I also wanted to share with you the video I shot of this guy’s amazing 12-kite tandem dealie and, once I started filming, how with such control he flew them right into my face to hover for a couple seconds before making them shoot upward and back, but transfering video to my computer apparently takes a cable that the camera manufacturer figured was optional. So I have to make a run to Fry’s before I get to share. Trust, though, that it’ll be sweeter than ninjas.

Instead, I can share the photoset of discarded, unattended fixtures over by the Fort Mason piers.