Telstar Logistics has a great post today about the history of Hangar One and its possible demise.

Hangar One is Silicon Valley landmark. Towering above Moffett Field, the huge buidling was originally built to shelter the airship USS Macon — a flying aircraft carrier constructed by the US Navy in the 1930s. The structure is contaminated with PCBs, however, so the Navy is considering clean-up options, including tearing the building down. Thankfully, a group of local aviation buffs have rallied to save the historic structure. The Navy is set to decide the building’s fate in November, so the race is on to preserve Hangar One before it disappears forever.

Link

The family of “Peanuts” artist Charles Shultz, who lived for decades in Santa Rosa, 50 miles north of San Francisco [map], claims a newly released biography by David Michaelis, Schultz and Peanuts, mistakenly characterizes him as a melancholy, distant parent and fails to recognize what a wonderful fellow he was.

Of course, no one who read “Peanuts” for even six months during its long run throughout the second half of the 20th century — it debuted in 1950 and the last new strip was published in February 2000, just hours after Schultz died — could fail to miss the themes of rejection, persecution and despair that filled the cute strip about little kids (its original title was “L’il Folks”), and it didn’t take a psychiatrist to see that its creator had issues.
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A couple of twenty-something guys are hanging out near the trash can, outside Caffe Trieste this afternoon (Sunday). The occasion is that Jerry Brown just finished a long cell phone conversation next to them.

Guy 1: That was Jerry Brown.
Guy 2: Who is that?
Guy 1: The mayor of Oakland, the old governor.
Guy 3: What, Schwarzenegger?
Guy 1: No, he WAS the governator.
Guy 4: I don’t see any black guys in there.
Guy 1: He’s white.

It would be more funny to me if I didn’t have just the same conversation over my phone. Note: this is like Willie Brown, they come to this neighborhood a lot. Yet no Frances Ford Coppola sightings yet!!

While local dining legend SF’s Original Joe’s suffered it’s own fire on Friday, a scary big rig fire in a tunnel near Santa Clarita has severed the main commercial road artery through Northern & Southern California.
[ map of alternate routes around the I-5 south during closure after the jump]

The Governor, possibly eager to please the Republican voting base of Santa Clarita that helped get him into office, Arnie made sure to immediately declare the situation a “State of Emergency“.

One wonders if certain inevitable “Emergency” situations like this can’t be seen coming, and with the obvious transportation risks better managed or mitigated…

P.S Speaking of “State of Emergencies”, seriously, has the governor or any of his minions tried eating out here on the 5? Where the hell am I supposed to find a decent dining location with small plates, that has a trained staff capable of suitable bio-dynamic wine pairings, and perhaps proper vegetarian options out here that go with the smell of the horrendous cow sh*t…

Read the road rage addled rant of a Frisco Foodie Fraught With Fears For Us All after hours spent inching along the I-5 yesterday out of Southern California, miles from a decent warm organic frisee & Treviso radicchio salad topped with thinly sliced pear, sundried heirloom tomatoes, herbed chevre and bottarga in a Barolo-tangerine vinaigrette …

Is this California or Oklahoma for gawd sakes?
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The annual Litquake literary festival closes tonight with its traditional explosion of events and readers, the Saturday night Litcrawl down Valencia St. Check the schedule, arranged in three time blocks, and make your picks now. Then plan how you’re going to get from one to the other of the always jam-packed free readings. Smart audience members usually pick one from the first group, have coffee during the second, and arrive early at their chosen third-inning reading.

And if tonight merely whets your appetite:

• tomorrow at 4:00 pm at Good Vibrations, writer and anthologiest Rachel Kramer Bussel and contributors will read from her anthology She’s On Top.
• On Tuesday, Michelle Tea presents her monthly RADAR reading series, this month with novelists Rebecca Brown and Lucy Korin, critic Masha Tupitsyn, and performance artist Ric Royer. Sara Seinberg will guest-host.

Oh dear… it’s that time again!

Good citizens of San Francisco, this is your FINAL WARNING.

There will be a ZOMBIE ATTACK TONIGHT!!!

When: 7:30pm Thursday 10/11
Wear: Duct tape on torso to indicate participation
Where: The NW corner of the Main Library
Larkin Street, by Fulton
The large metal sculpture (aka “The Double-L Gyratory Zomby Attractor”)
Google Maps: http://tinyurl.com/2xoj6u

Many of you were already taking precautions to stay far far far away
from that area already due to the San Francisco MAYORAL DEBATE going on
at the EXACT SAME TIME. Hopefully the attack will be subdued before the
the debate is completed and the hundreds of attendees leave the building
through the single exit pointed directly at Larkin and Fulton.

Those good citizens, though likely disenfranchised and disillusioned,
are not disembrained, and may thus prove IRRESISTABLE to the shambling
cerebrophillic horde.

If defeat is unsuccessful, an unknown party has offered to capture as
many zombies possible inside a bus, and drive them all to a classified
area (in the Mission) for complimentary “embalming fluid” afterwards.

More information can be found at www.eatbrains.com

Months after I reported here that local blogger Jeff Webb was documenting the dangerous conditions and inept management policies at the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, Matt Smith of the SF Weekly has now jumped on the story with a long sordid accusation filled article on the THC’s “Vice Hotel”racket this week.

I first told of the existence of the scary videos I saw in early August being posted on YouTubefrom the life of a tenant under veritable siege at The 204-room Seneca on 6th Street, one of the marquee properties in the THC’s growing chain of SROs, that provide so-called “Supportive Housing”. The poster complained of loud & dangerous dealers roaming the halls, overstuffed needle exchange cans, and thuggish , incompetent and suspiciously in-cahoots behavior from some of the so-called “staff”. The blogger, Jeff Webb was then told he was in violation of the imaginary “privacy policy” of the publicly funded joint, and was advised to take down his tiny door mounted safety camera, or face retaliation.

Paid scribe Matt Smith delves into far greater detail than I had time here to do on the THC’s Mission Hotel, and apparently may have withheld some of the more juicy stuff & accusations that are flying around. Smith follows up on the long and winding saga of “activist” Randy Shaw’s many minions that are supposedly providing “supportive housing” to hundreds of tenants with millions in “Care Not Cash” funds. Some say it gets more “supportive” if you bribe a desk clerk, and are running an all night crack dealership…

As documented here previously in August, the situation had declined to the point where the THC, a politically motivated non profit that runs numerous SRO hotels, filed a restraining order against one of it’s own managers whom they accused of “extortion” and called a Norteno “gang member”. Interestingly, in typical half ass fashion, no one from the agency showed up to testify, endorse or follow through on the restraining order after it’s existence became public via Webb’s ever vigilant blogging. When the matter went to court, and no one appeared to either defend or challenge it, it was thusly thrown out by the judge.

More on the “Vice Hotel” industry, “Handshake Drugs” , Why “Matt Smith is like the President” etc after the jump:
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Congratulations to Stanford’s Arnold Rampersand, whose Ralph Ellison, A Biography was just nominated for the National Book Award.

In the Young People’s category, Sara Zarr, whose bio says she was born in San Francisco and grew up in Pacifica, was nominated for Story of a Girl.

Also nominated is Berkeley’s Robert Haas for his poetry collection Time and Materials and Linda Gregerson, a Stanford PhD. who now teaches at the Univ. of Michigan, for her poetry collection Magnetic North.

It’s a bit out of control, the way SF fakes its way into fall. I’m sitting at Cafe Divine yesterday and about ten folks walked through the door wearing wool scarves. Having just made fun of these folks, I have to admit I’m quite excited about getting my boots & wool skirt out of the closet.

Didn’t the rain last night just totally rock?

From the good people of the parkway comes this awful missive:

Fox Studios has abruptly decided to cancel ALL theatrical bookings of their
popular TV shows, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and FIREFLY. No reason was given.
This includes the upcoming October 18 show at Parkway and October 25 show at
Cerrito.

Cheers, Speakeasy Theaters

Isn’t that just a stake in the heart? I’ve seen Buffy twice at the Parkway, and both times it’s been a glorious, friendly affair. Everyone sang along, shouted at that screen. One woman came with a giant bag full of plush bunnies to hurl into the audience during one of the numbers. It’s great and spontaneous fun and geeky as all hell. But now it has to stop. No reason was given, but my guess is that people showing DVDs they personally bought doesn’t put enough cash in Fox’s wallet. Or maybe Fox just hates San Francisco and the Bay Area. Who knows?