When hallowed beat goddess Lenore Kandel died six weeks ago, the Chronicle published a nice memorial, with quotes from fellow travelers Peter Coyote, Gerard Nicosia, and others.

I just became aware of another piece, by former SF Examiner columnist Stephanie Salter, now writing for the Terre Haute, Ind. Tribune-Star. In the essay Salter, a former neighbor of Kandel’s on Bernal Heights, recalls Kandel as an aged, infirm neighbor whose infamy as an avatar of the sexual revolution Salter wasn’t even aware of.

Kandel’s 1966 poetry volume “The Love Book” was judged obscene by a San Francisco jury in a widely covered trial; the verdict was overturned on appeal. Kandel was also said to be one of the founders of the Diggers, and she was the model for a character in Jack Kerouac’s Big Sur:

Although San Francisco was one of the first cities to have Google’s camera-equipped cars tootling up and down its streets to produce Street View imagery, the service has never been very good for the southeast part of the city. With yesterday’s update to the service, several neighborhoods, including much of Bernal Heights and Visitacion Valley, still lack coverage. Here’s Bernal Heights:

As a Bernal Heights resident whose block is not covered, I have mixed feelings about being left out. Should I feel exclusive, or excluded? At least it’s an improvement over the original coverage which showed only half the city.

Click the image above for an image that shows the southeastern quadrant of the city, where coverage is lacking.

Previously:
SF stops at Cesar Chavez?
Google maps now displays BART, Caltrain lines
Petition to have bike routes on Google maps
Fun with Google maps

Chris Carlsson has a fantastic post about walking around Bernal Heights and encountering an Edenic enclave of gardens, stairways, fruit trees and wildlife.

Funny to think of San Francisco as a windswept, barren, sandy and flea-ridden peninsula. These days it’s starting to look like a garden oasis, and if you spend time walking on the hills, behind Noe or Eureka Valleys, on Telegraph Hill or Russian Hill, Bernal or Potrero, you are in for a treat!

His Nowtopian blog is solid on my RSS feed.

This San Francisco blogger on Open Salon writes of a “disturbing” police takedown of a fleeing suspect who was, judging from her account, pretty much not fleeing when they tackled him.

He was practically standing still when they tackled him. There was no shout, no order. The first cop hit him squarely from the back, another hit him from the side. They knocked him face down on the pavement, hitting his head on the neighbor’s motorcycle fender. More cops jumped on top. There was no resistance from the guy at all. Now there was a lot of hollering, which seemed to be about handcuffing the guy. It sounded like the cops were saying to each other to get the cuffs on him. There were so many of them — five cops — on the guy, I’m sure it was difficult to do even the simple task of handcuffing an immobilized, unresisting suspect. The guy must have had an even harder time breathing.

The man survived the arrest.

More

The cool air returned to San Francisco last night. When I took this picture this morning about 8:00 a.m., fog masked the skyline and Twin Peaks, but a ray of sun illuminated the inner Mission District. Taken from Bernal Heights.

Meanwhile, more than 100 fires were caused by lightning last night in counties north of the city, and inland areas still expect 100-degree temperatures, though cooling is expected to help firefighters in Napa and Solano counties.

This billboard appeared this weekend on the corner of Cesar Chavez and Bryant Streets, signed by “The Vinyl Institute and Ecological Art.” Click the picture for a large view (goes offsite).

I wouldn’t drop my guard just yet, but after people in Potrero Hill and Bernal Heights were plagued by a spate of muggings over the last several weeks, three men were arrested last night after an incident on Potrero Hill. Police said the men may be linked to the previous incidents.

While “ground zero” in Manhattan will almost certainly feature a Rudy Giuliani sighting and be the focus of much mainstream media attention on September 11th, there will be other distractions and gatherings afoot here on the left coast.

While Megadeth entertains the metal masses at The Warfield, I see that the Alcoholocaust crew have booked a more intimate affair with perennial political punkers M.D.C at Annie’s Social Club that night.

Most popularly known as Millions of Dead Cops, and alternately Multi-Death Corporations, the guys are not without a sense of humor, and have tempered their raging fury at times with humorous odes to preparing tofu spaghetti & respecting the rights of chickens to roam free while doing the “chicken dance”. I believe my fave MDC show was on Divisidero in 1988 at the late Kennel Club ( now The Independent) when the appeared as Mourn Divine Correctly as lead singer Dave donned a beehive wig & ball gown to celebrate the life of the late John Waters’ film starlet.

If drag is your thing, but you take it pretty darn seriously perhaps head over to Club Crash on Sept 11th to attend the the Transgender Law Center’s fifth anniversary. One has to wonder who booked the oddly insensitive named choice for a venue called Club Crash for an Anniversary Party on the typically bleak day of Sept. 11th . Gotta love that sick sense of humor displayed by SF Human Rights Commissioner and Transgender Law Center co-founder Cecilia Chung & crew…

Another Gay themed event occurs at Castro’s Books Inc. store, a release party for a collection of gay erotica edited by Simon Sheppard called Homosex: A Celebration.

The 11th Annual Madcat women’s film festival begins with screenings, and a free Bar BQ plus a performance by musical guests Amber Asylum at The El Rio.

In the East Bay, conspiracy buffs will gather at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater, the politically purposeful movie palace hosting a 9/11 Truth Film Festival & symposium beginning Sept 10th and running through Tuesday Sept 11th.

Details on these events and links to more info including PowerPoint slides of engineering analysis of the WTC buildings’ collapse after the jump
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Do you have a funny name for your hood? It’s compulsive for me, wordplay, that is. So Kathy (a writer here) has the funniest, and I’ll cop it for a moment:

Lauridio: the neighborhood between- you guessed it- Laurel Heights and the Presidio. I am between Fisherman’s Wharf (fishy wharf) and North Beach (nobe – pronounced “no, B!”). When I first moved to Nobe, I tried to be even more location-specific, and nickname it “Fisherman’s Bharf” a juvenile play on how the tourists from Fishy Wharf end up losing their lunch nearby. But to be honest, absolutely nobody likes that name. Instead I’ve slowly started to call it “North Fishy”. “The Village” – another attempt at the cutesy part of North Beach, that was embraced by nobody so I’ve slowly adopted what other folks call it… Nobe.
Tel-Hi: Didn’t know Telegraph Hill had a name until I saw the banners on the street.
Russian Hill: Can’t… figure… one… out.
Nopa: North Panhandle. Kind of reminds me of Soma, which has been thoroughly embraced by everyone, even the Chron style guide.
Chi-town: Chinatown.
Oak-town: Oakland.
Berkeley Flats: the 4th street area. (from AmyB)
Intermission: Inner mission district, near haight/hayes/mint hill (copped from CliffS)
Minty Hill: That part between hayes and haight, near the New (vs. old) mint (copped from Aaron)
Pot Hill: Potrero. Not embraced by anyone but me. Prove me otherwise! (copped from PSB)
Random anecdote:
Walking around with south bay (soba) brother-in-law, and he keeps asking, “What’s this neighborhood?” my reply: “Pac Heights.” He’s like, no no no, it’s something else. A week later he calls me. “It’s PACIFIC Heights, Anna.”
TenderNob (or NobLoin): that also just got into the Chron last weekend.
Clayket: Upper Castro and Market, “where the magic bus turns” (thanks NancyP)
Underneath the Bay Bridge: “in a box?” haha – thanks tharpo.
What are your funny names for local neighborhoods? You’re not that juvenile?

Sunday evening, I am walking down the street with some friends towards Mitchell’s for some ice cream, and one of my friends points to this and says something along the lines of, “That’s weird.”

Fortunately, a fellow blogger, Daniel, was with me and had his camera with him (my camera died Saturday night in a tequila-induced trauma that is too painful for me to discuss further). As we stopped to take pictures, more and more questions came to mind:

Why wasn’t the doll body in the trash?
Where was the other sandal? Because, I mean, that sandal looks pretty new still.
Was this some sort of artistic statement or maybe a viral marketing campaign for a new movie?
Oh yeah, and where was the head?