The Conservatory of Flowers. FREE the first Tuesday of the month.

6 05 2009

Conservatory of Flowers FREE the first Tuesday of the month 5

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Conservatory of Flowers FREE the first Tuesday of the month1

Conservatory of Flowers FREE the first Tuesday of the month 9

I didn’t realize it till just now, but I love how the girl in the pink jacket is standing with the pink flowers and her mom in the white jacket is standing is solidarity over with the white flowers. Thank you both for keeping my picture balanced!

Most people know that the Conservatory of Flowers is free the first Tuesday of the month. What most of those people don’t know is that there is an amazing drum circle that also jams out in front. I was there on a Thursday a few weeks ago and they going off at like 3PM when most people should have been at work. The Conservatory of Flowers drum circle is a really polished group with tight synchronization, especially considering that they included someone on electric guitar and someone else on a didgeridoo.

A Didgery what?

Yes, a didgeridoo.


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Categories : FREE, Golden Gate Park

Back When Frank Chu’s Message Was Somewhat Coherent.

5 05 2009

Back when Frank Chu was somewhat coherent

I took a picture of this Andy Warhol inspired painting at that free party at the De Young museum on Friday night.

Back in the 90s, before twitter, facebook, wordpress, and all of the electronic social networking that exists today, Frank Chu was making a name for himself as being one of the more eccentric people in this city. When I was working in the Finical District I would see Frank march downtown several times a week. The guy also never misses a photo opt. If there’s ever any kind of interesting free outdoor event going on in the Bay Area chances are Frank will be there, just walking the earth like Kane in Kung-Fu.

San Francisco has always had a soft spot for eccentric crazy types. San Francisco took care of Emperor Norton and it takes care of Frank Chu. San Francisco gives Frank free food, named one of her short-lived bars after him, and made a bitching wikipedia page for him. Ultimately though it’s also turned Frank into the most recognizable local Internet celebrity. By far.

That’s what strikes me as the oddest thing about Frank Chu, the idea of self-fulfilling prophecies. Frank’s original beef was that he believed that he was secretly being filmed as part of a reality TV show that was being broadcast in the 12 Galaxies. He wasn’t upset so much about being filmed, but was pissed that then President Clinton was conspiring with the 12 Galaxies to withhold his royalty paychecks. Frank Chu wants to get paid.

But now, after some 19 years of protesting, Frank Chu has become a celebrity, probably the biggest and most photographed non-elected Bay Area resident on the web. People dress up as Frank for Halloween or Bay to Breakers , politicans pay to advertise on the back of his signs, and some raver made a Frank Chu float at Love Fest last year and made Frank Chu the Grand Marshall!

Hell, someone just made a Frank Chu Sign generator page a few days ago.

Whether intentional or not, he’s created this persona and brand identity that, thanks to the Internet, has taken off like wildfire.

So who is the crazy person in this scenario?

The guy walking around claiming that he is an intergalactic reality TV star or all of us that turned that guy into the biggest Bay Area Internet celebrity of the 21st century?

Self-fulfilling prophecies.

It’s something to think about…


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Categories : Insane In The Membrane

The Architectural Turf of Oliver Rousseau.

5 05 2009

SF Gate has been doing some interesting pieces on early 1920’s Sunset architect Oliver Rousseau. I was stoked to realize that several of these homes were in one of my first posts. I’m familiar with this guys work, or at least familiar with his work from the outside. I’ve just never been able to put a name to it till now. Dave Weinstein of The Chronicle described the Rousseaus as “wonderfully quirky Hansel-and-Gretel homes.” I would agree. It adds another surreal layer to The Outer Sunset. From the outside it almost looks like being on the set of a movie filled with silly Euro-Disney impersonations of real houses, but then you have to remember that these homes have been standing for some 90 years now. There are high winds, Ocean Beach fog that eats metal alive, and tropical rain forest levels of humidity and mold in the air. Yet almost a century later these homes that were all built on sand dunes are still standing and going for over a million dollars and change.

I make no claims that any of these homes were actually designed by Oliver Rousseau. These were just some of the more interesting sights that have caught my eye over the years in what is generally accepted as being Oliver Rousseau’s architectural turf: 33rd Ave to 36th Ave between Kirkham and Lawton.

Oliver Rousseau 33

Oliver Rousseau 29

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Oliver Rousseau 3

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Oliver Rousseau 28-tr

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Oliver Rousseau 14-tr

Oliver Rousseau was partial to towers and these neat little single person balconies.

The guy was making Super Mario levels decades before Nintendo was invented.

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Little know factoid – it’s a severe zoning violation if you don’t have at least one house per block in The Outer Sunset that is not painted in some form of a loud, tacky, color.

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Related Posts –

Little Boxes


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Categories : Architecture of The Outer Sunset, The Outer Sunset

420 Party at Stafford Lake. 1997. FREE

4 05 2009

Salad Days 9

Salad Days 10

This was one of the first big free massives at Stafford Lake. Sunset would later put the spot to good use by throwing their equinox parties there, throwing sometimes up to three parties per season up by the lake. It’s really amazing that we’ve been able to use this spot for 12+ years now. Not only have we not been kicked out yet but we’re actually on good terms with some of the park rangers and locals.

I discovered this flyer while digitizing another shoebox of old flyers and realized that the Stafford Lake debut party was also the day after this free party in Golden Gate Park.

Photobucket

What an epic line up and great era from free parties in the Bay Area.


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Ozomatli live in Stern Grove, San Francisco. 2006. FREE

1 05 2009

Ozomatli puts on a great live show and is famous for working their way out into the audience to jam during their encore. I was about 10 feet to the left of them during this moment from 3 years ago. Super fun times.

The Stern Grove 2009 line up. was just released today. The July 19th show with Sergent Garcia and the July 26th show with Lyrics Born look promising. I live for free outdoor parties during the summertime.


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Categories : FREE, Music, San Francisco art and adventure

I’m Starting With The Man In The Mirror I’m Asking Him To Change His Ways And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer

1 05 2009

I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place Take A Look At Yourself And Then Make A Change

I love self-portraits on Ocean Beach because it’s not like a happy-go-lucky beach picture. That could be Burning Man. That could be some post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland. That could be on the set of the new Mad Max movie.

The day after I took this picture they shut down The Great Highway because of all the sand that had blown up and threatened the integrity of the Highway.

Semper Fi.


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That Which Does Not Kill Me Postpones The Inevitable.

1 05 2009

That Which Does Not Kill Me Postpones The Inevitable. 1

That Which Does Not Kill Me Postpones The Inevitable. 2

That Which Does Not Kill Me Postpones The Inevitable 3

This tree at Ocean Beach is really unique. I’ve heard friends say that they’ve seen The Faces of Hell in it. The poor guy has definitely lived a haggard life. Ocean Beach will eat cars and fire hydrants alive and it will brutally torture some selective coast side plants. I’m not quite sure how to interpret that.

Some days I think this tree represents endurance and strength of will. Semper Fi shit.

Other days I see it as a consensual long-term BDSM relationship between elemental forces.

Sometimes you feel like a nut and sometimes you don’t.


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Life is the Great Highway.

30 04 2009

This is another great quirky house that’s on the very last block of The Outer Sunset, right next to The Great Highway and Ocean Beach.

Life is the Great Highway 1

Life is the Great Highway 2

Life is the Great Highway 3

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Life is the Great Highway 4

Life is the Great Highway 6


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Categories : Architecture of The Outer Sunset, The Outer Sunset

Skatin’ Place. Ride the SoulTrain at Burning Man 2008.

29 04 2009

Skatin’ Place is one of my all time favorite local TV shows. D Miles has been doing his Skatin’ Place parties in Golden Gate Park on Sundays since forever and a day. He also produced his own public access TV show for 7 (!) years till he was fired for basically asking some straight forward questions that needed to be asked, like why did you guys just move the studio to a Market Street location where the rent is around $12,000 a month instead of moving to a city owned building off the beaten path where the rent could have been $1 per year?

I don’t know, I live in the real world with real bills and it’s crucial if you want to survive in this city that you know how to live within your means and learn to do without things that are beyond your means.

Now Public Access channel 29 is broke and has been spare changing its viewers every chance it gets. I still like and support some of the shows on there, but no way in Hell I can get behind a bailout of that station. Time for Access Channel 29 to die-off like the dinosaur that it is.

But D is still cutting new episodes of Skatin’ Place and he still Burns!

I love it when I see OG’s that still get excited by Burning Man. It’s pretty trendy for jaded hipsters to bash on Burning Man these days, when they’re not getting American Apparel stores and American Apparel jobs kicked out of the Mission.

As long as D is still making new Burning Man Skatin’ Place videos I will give them airtime.


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Burning Life Aquatic Man.

28 04 2009

DPW blue submarine and home base 1

I’ve seen this DPW Blue Submarine around the neighborhood before. It’s indigenous to The Outer Sunset but this is the first time I’ve seen it docked out in front of what looks like its homebase.

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Check out the rust on that submarine. The fog out here will eat cars and fire hydrants alive.

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DPW blue submarine and home base 2


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Categories : Burning Man, The Outer Sunset

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