Your Editors will be traveling southward for a 5-day photowalk through the oft despised land of Los Angeles.
In the meantime, don’t forget to be thankful and pls make sure to check out some of our friends over there on the left side of this page.
You can also find out more about us and introduce yourselves by checking out our newly designed More Info page.
Have a great weekend!!
April 18th, 1868 - The SF/SPCA received its charter from the State of California, becoming the fourth SPCA in the nation, and the first animal welfare organization west of the Rockies.
1890 - The SF/SPCA moved from The City’s busy Fi-Di district, buying land “on the edge of town” and putting up two small wooden buildings. It forged ahead to prosecute animal cruelty cases and better the lives of the city’s animals, especially SF’s overworked and underfed horses. The SF/SPCA built and maintained public drinking fountains for the horses, and constructed a horse ambulance, the first of its kind in the West.
1905 - The SF/SPCA took on responsibility for the city’s lost, abused and unwanted animals and performed this civic function for the next 84 years.
1906 - After San Francisco’s earthquake, SF/SPCA officers rescued countless horses trapped in burning stables. Because horses were often injured or killed pulling streetcars up and down The City’s steep hills, The SF/SPCA became a prime backer of the introduction of cable cars, the first of which was introduced in 1873.
1989 - After nearly 100 years as SF’s “pound master,” The SF/SPCA transferred the role of animal control back to the municipal government, allowing The SF/SPCA to concentrate its energies on saving animal lives.
1994 - The SF/SPCA forged the historic Adoption Pact with the San Francisco Department of Animal Care & Control, guaranteeing that no adoptable dog or cat in San Francisco would be euthanized.
1998 - The SF/SPCA opened Maddie’s Pet Adoption Center, a groundbreaking facility where animals awaiting adoption live in light, airy dog apartments and kitty lofts with cozy beds, furniture, rugs and toys.
Interested in adopting one of the above pictured pound puppies? Stop in for a visit or call 415-522-3500.
Flickr set here.
YouTubage here.
All aboard The Golden Gate Express!!
This weekend The Golden Gate Park’s Conservatory of Flowers premiered its first garden railway exhibition. The display features 3 model trains, 11 San Francisco landmarks made of discarded materials, and of course, a variety of plant life which forms the surrounding landscape.
“The coolest thing is that all the buildings are made from recycled materials,” says designer Chip Sullivan. “The more you look at them, the more you see.”
Mission Dolores (cash register parts & combs)
Coit Tower (mini-blinds & rulers)
Japanese Tea Garden (unknown parts)
Chinatown Gates (PC chips and mah-jong pieces)
Ghiradelli Clock Tower (light switch plates)
Ferry Building (wine corks, spoons, forks)
Trans Am Building (6000 keyboard keys)
Golden Gate Bridge (unknown parts)
Flickr set here.
Video here.
By using some clever kerning, leading, and other typographical voodoo — this Tank Hill resident has updated their banner to reflect our President-Elect.
See the pre-election signage here.
Being that Your Editor was technically conceived of and birthed in The Dirty Mitten, you can imagine the amusement that ensued when we stumbled across this in our RSS Reader.
With that said, I am unable to determine what happened in 1938 that caused artist Reg Manning to illustrate The City as a bruised and darkened thumbnail.
[via Curbed SF via Strange Maps]
Stray shots taken from various spots around The San Francisco Bay..
Welcome to one of the world’s most unusual cities — a city of the world that gleams like a jewel on the western shore of America.
A compact, teeming metropolis of 800,000 people compressed into forty-four square miles at the tip of a peninsula surrounded on two sides by the greatest landlocked harbor in the world and on the third by the boundless Pacific.
In this comparatively small area, you’ll find sharp reminders and soft hints of all the world’s capitals. Hills like Rome. A skyscraper-studded financial district with the bustling urgency of Manhattan. A magnificent bay that ranks with Naples’s and rivals the glamor of Hong Kong’s. Boulevards and bistros, flower stands and winding streets, and the ever present hint of romance and excitement that spells Paris. And the culture and tradition, plus the occasional creeping fog of London.
San Francisco is all of these — and more. For its Old World charm is accented with the sparkle and excitement of the new. It’s a city that has live a thousand lives in its 158 years, and is still as fresh and buoyant as the ocean breezes that dance tirelessly along its hilly streets.
Oh, and isn’t it nice that the people who prefer Los Angeles to San Francisco live in Los Angeles?? The San Franciscans wholove and enjoy Our City and are not afraid to tell you why.
[From Herb Caen's Guide to San Francisco, 1957]
Wondering what to gift Your Editor for this holiday season? Well, a framed version of the above would certainly be welcomed and accepted.
[via SFBC 13th Annual Winterfest Art Show via Loyal Reader Jane]
Seen yesterday at Union Square, pre-game pep rally in prep for The Big Game on Saturday…
The Cal vs. Stanford rivalry is the only college rivalry that is actually based on social ideology. And by ideology, I don’t mean the traditional left/right variety.
Stanford is a school next to a mall and some golf courses. The faculty is populated by cheerful well-to-do authority figures who want you to be like them. They serve as your counselor, they help you choose your classes, they advise on fraternity memberships. They want you to succeed, because you’re one of them - the few, the proud, the elite, the future 94123 d’bag. You exit Stanford feeling really, really, really good about yourself. And take with you 200k in debt.
On the contrary, you exit Cal-Berkeley happy to have survived the experience. Berkeley is exhilarating; and Berkeley is real. Surviving Berkeley is: being broke for 4 years.
Both sets of alumni wish to run the world, but only one group of alumni feels entitled to run it straight into the ground.
Leland Stanford didn’t attend the university that bears his name. He simply founded it — with money stolen from the pockets of the working class citizens of San Francisco. For shame, Mr. Stanford. For shame.
The University of California, by contrast, was established by Henry Haight in 1868. The UC was designed on the University of Michigan model and sought to make higher education available to all residents of the state, regardless of their ability to pay.
It’s not jealousy, it’s resentment — and there’s a big difference. You see, we know those smug, snarky clowns in red and white are someday going to make The Bay Area a worse off place, if they haven’t already. And we are not happy about it.
Your Editor is by no means a sports fan. He knows very little about it. With that said, if we had to predict the outcome of The Big Game based solely on attractiveness of the cheerleaders and skills of the band — our money is on the fellows in maize and blue.
Cheerleading Stanford Youtubage here.
Cheerleading Cal-Berk Youtubage here.
Flickr set here.
Say hello to the newest member in our family of cameras…
Big Mike & Little Mike have been hustling tourists wheeling and dealing at the World Of Stereo II for as long as I can remember — supposedly since the late 70s. They have never charged me full price for anything, or for that matter, any tax. And of course, cash is always the preferred method of payment.
So when Mooklas (Big Mike) offered me a Canon Powershot G9 for less than cost — I really didn’t have a choice.
Today after work, I took The G9 for a stroll along The EMB and snapped up these snappers.
Thus far, I have evaded buyers remorse. The little magic box fits perfectly on top of a gorilla pod and fits even more perfectly inside of my jacket. So confident am I with this purchase, that the telephoto and wide angle extenda-lens are already in the mail.
30 Miles south of The City via Highway 1 is the coastside village of Half Moon Bay. Way back in 1776, Father Portola had just helped set up SF’s Mission Dolores. Within a few years, this same coastside village had become a grazing paradise for the mission’s cattle, horses, and oxen.
In the mid-1850’s land grants were given to early Spanish settlers, just 50 years before the Spanish-American War. 100 years later, Mexican and Chilean nomads had settled in the area, and the village was quickly dubbed “Spanish Town”.
Over the next two decades it evolved into a racially diverse community, settled by Canadians, Chinese, English, Germans, Irish, Italians, Scots, Portuguese, and Pacific Islanders. For some reason, in 1874, the area officially became known as Half Moon Bay. And the city of Half Moon Bay was not actually incorporated until 1959.
The 20th century brought dramatic changes to the landscape. The 1906 earthquake destroyed much of original structures and left the village flattened. But recovery came quick. By 1908, railroads lined the shoreline from The City to Tunitas Glen.
During the Roaring 20’s, rum-runners took advantage of the blanketing fog and hidden coves in the area to serve prohibited booze to a number of roadhouses, brothels, and speakeasies — a few of which remain in business legitimately today as restaurants.
The subdivisions dotting the mountainsides and valleys came to the area following the mass labor migration of World War II.
A white, watermelon shaped object has been seen almost hourly flying to-and-fro in our front yard. The first few times we thought very little of it. And then we began to wonder. Was it a yet another silly public art installation??
Nope. Three mouse clicks later and we discovered that it was actually an Air Ship Ventures Zeppelin NT flying out of OAK, giving aerial tours from high above The Bay.
The 12 passenger, 274-ft long zeppelin can cruise at up to speeds of 78mph. In addition to sky-high Bay Tours, this pale, fat bastard also travels to Wine Country and Hangar One on Moffet Field.
See the interior of this rogue zeppelin and get the tech specs here.
Have your leased Hummer H2 and One Rincon Hill penthouse ceased to legitimize how awesome you are? Well, you’re in luck because if you really feel like balling out of control — you can rent the entire blimp for you and 11 of your closest friends at the “player’s club” rate of $5750 (per hour).
Oh, the humanity!!
Saturday, November 15th, 2008 at SF City Hall…
The outrage spread from city wide to nation wide today as 100s of cities and 10s of 1000s of people around the world collectively protested California’s November 4th passing of Proposition 8, which again limits the sanctity of marriage to 1 man and 1 woman.
So on November 5th, many California counties stopped issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples. As a result, numerous protests have occurred around the state including dozens in The Bay Area and SoCal sectors.
The back-and-forth definition of domestic partnerships and same-sex marriages has been fought in local and state court chambers for over 3 decades. The heart of this battleground has consistently been Our Fair City of San Francisco.
It is a widely — and understandably so — a very personal issue for many of our fellow residents. For our same-sex friends and Loyal Readers, it has been a long and winding road.
Prior to 1977, the California Civil Code defined marriage as “a personal relation arising out of a civil context, to which consent of the parties making that contract is necessary.” Related wording made vague references to gender, thus later that year the legislature amended the definition of marriage to remove any ambiguity and truly restrict the definition to that “1 man and 1 woman.”
In 2002, voters amended the state constitution via Proposition 22, which in effect stated that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”
In February of 2004, Mayor Gavin Newsom reacted to President Bush’s statement to support a constitutional ammendment banning same-sex marriages by opening the doors of City Hall and performing over 4000 weddings in less than a month. The weddings were halted on March 12th by The California Supreme Court who ultimately annulled the marriages on August 12th.
On May 15th of the year current, the California Supreme Court struck down Prop 22, again giving same-sex couples the right to legally marry. By June, the City Clerk began recognizing civil unions to any and all who made and appointment, paid $82, and said “I do” – regardless of gender.
For almost six months, the marriages continued. But with the narrow passing of Prop 8 two weeks ago, the state constitution was re-amended to re-restrict the definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman. Again.
The official ballot title language for Proposition 8 was “Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry.” The actual wording added to the constitution now reads: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”
More information here.
Two-week hindsight/next steps here.
Protest tracker here.
Civic Center’s coverage here.
One of these things is not like the other.
Is a Vespa a SFMC certified vehicle? What is our local angelic, yet hellish bike rider’s official position on this matter?
The above pictured Gentleman of Leisure, seen here donning a head-to-toe pinstripe suit w/ matching hat, should most definitely make his acquaintance with this fellow. And perhaps these guys.
Thanks to all that came out on Thursday night to check out our 1st photo gallery show. Hopefully this will be the first of many more to come…
Extra thanks to the support of SFist, Laughing Squid, CBS-5, 4Fifteen, and Fecal Face because of which almost 350 folkers showed up at The Public Barber Salon on Geary to see what we had hung on the wall.
Two of the most common subjects arriving in our inbox revolve around editor identity and the purchase of prints. An for almost two years, we have avoided answering these questions at a success rate of nearly 99%.
We told you that so we could tell you this: On Thursday, November 13th, the Plug’s 1&2 will be unplugged.
Why??
Well, we have been invited to show 23 out of the 24,711 photos we have collectively taken over the past two years in a gallery show at the Public Barber Salon at 571 Geary at Jones.
So, if you have free time after work on Thursday between 7p and 10p — pls come by and introduce yourselves. There are several of you that we have been dying to meet.
We would be negligent if we did not mention that other (and far more professional) photographers — including local living legend John Curley — will also be on the scene with prints for sale.
Preview of the prints we are showing here.
Read more about this event here and here and here and here and here and here.
Hyde & Beach
In Spanish, the words “Buena Vista” translate into “Good View”, which is apt considering the front yard of the cafe consists of the Hyde St Cable Car turnaround and of course — The San Francisco Bay.
The original building was a boardinghouse until 1916 when the landlord converted the first floor into a saloon for the hundreds of fishermen and dock workers employed by the nearby Sardine Cannery.
On November 10, 1952, Chron travel writer Stanton Delaplane stopped by the cafe and told then-owner Jack Keoppler that he had fallen in love with an intoxicating caffeinated cocktail served to him at the Shannon Airport in Ireland.
Intrigued, the bartender got to work, attempting to perfect the combination of whiskey, coffee, and cream into the perfect foggy day concoction. Trial and error eventually brought them the right formula, but only after nearly killing taste tester Delaplane who at one point fell out into the street and was almost maimed by a trolley.
Fast forward 56 years and The Buena Vista Saloon Cafe continues to pour the elixir daily by the 100s to a turbo-charged mix of locals, tourists, and alcoholics.
This weekend the cafe hosts their Annual Irish Coffee celebration, while attempting to enter the Guiness Book of World Records by creating a 12-gallon Irish Coffee poured into a custom made goblet. Bottoms up!!
Two months ago, SFist learned us about the new “Green Bus Stop” on the corner of Larkin and McAllister. A speculative turf war sprouted up in the comments section regarding: genus of plant, the meaning of green, reasons why The Mayor would cover a bus shelter in sod, how this helps the buses run on time, and so forth.
Well, the suspected arugula/strawberry field/prunella/medical marijauna patch is still up there, living and breathing on top of commuters waiting in line for the 19 Polk.
Better yet, it seems that this is just the 1st of several zany bus stop makeovers that somehow aligns with the re-opening of The Academy of Sciences — according to Our 10th Loyal Reader — who explains:“You’ll see a rain forest in the Marina, deep space in the Mission and a coral reef right here at Civic Center.”
Makes perfect sense!
Interested in constructing a grass hut “green” transit shelter of your own? Go here and here.
Central & Grove
Loyal Reader Aaron delivered the above image to our inbox yesterday, seen in The Western Addition hobnobbing with MUSK.
Check out more wandering Long-Necker’s in the shooting gallery here.
Have you spotted a Girafa on the loose?? Drop the cross-streets in the comments section or submit them directly via the Girafa sighting tip-line.
