So, someone decided to fly the coop a little early. Welcome sweet baby Owen with the squirmy newborn faces, we are so happy to have you here.

While my friends and family and sonogram techs all predicted an early arrival, I was in the throes of denial. Prodromal labor can go on for weeks, right? Or in my case, about five or six hours. I am definitely NOT having a baby any time soon, I just need to print out 10 pages of documents on how to take care of Bean and tape them up around the apartment and also wash these curtain liners RIGHT NOW, might as well clean the tub while I’m at it, and also stock up on food to last us a couple weeks. NO REASON.

I’m also now 2 for 2 with water breaking in the middle of the night. It’s a breathtakingly dramatic way to go into labor: people to be woken up, family to be mobilized, racing through the fog-soaked, deserted San Francisco streets in the middle of the night, a panicked run through the ER. Highly recommended.

Delivery ended up being one of those miraculously uncomplicated ones. It left Dave and I staring at each other stunned all, “that’s it? It’s done? He’s here? We have a baby now?” Bean essentially went to sleep like any other school night, and woke up to my brother telling her she had a new baby brother.

I wholeheartedly approve of Owen’s dedication to efficiency.

We are both doing great. Dave is once again lucky enough to take a long paternity leave (and how this isn’t standard employment practice is beyond me). Bean alternates between adoring the baby and skeptical over this new obstacle to complete parental devotion. Luckily for everyone, Grandma is in town and, as expected, spoiling Bean with crafts and conversation and trips to the toy store and ice cream shop. Our cat has checked out and given up on the lot of us.

I hope you all have had a good week, and I hope to be back up on here periodically as naps allow.

The post Welcome, Baby appeared first on Far Out City.

San Francisco’s installment of the Alamo Drafthouse opened in ye olden days of 2015. For some unknown reason, it’s taken us over a year to get ourselves there? Ooooh, boy, was that an oversight. Have you gone yet?

What sets the Alamo Drafthouse chain apart from regular theaters, is that you sit at tables with a full restaurant staff ready to bring you appetizers, food, and drinks as you watch the film. They even had virgin cocktails for this pregnant lady!

(A little known fact about me: I actually used to be a projectionist and manager at a sister drafthouse through law school. Now, our drafthouse was more nacho cheese, curly fries, and the stale aroma of beer compared to the antique and culinary chicness going on at the New Mission drafthouse.)

So, in many ways, I am thoroughly biased. Heading into the glam art deco theater felt like a homecoming. Well, if you returned to find your comfortable, peeling home upgraded into a glamorously decorated version of itself. The gilded ceilings, deep red velvets, and vintage brass fixtures are delicious.

The food is also a serious upgrade. In true SF fashion, the popcorn isn’t just buttered, oh no. It’s truffle buttered. There’s also something called a breakfast burger, served on a brioche with bacon jam. Also: fresh cookies and boozy milkshakes. (!!!) The entire menu looks incredible.

If you haven’t been there yet, the Alamo Drafthouse makes for an awesome all-inclusive date night, including a pre-movie cocktail at the swanky bar off the lobby. I’ve already warned Dave that we’ll be doing every date night at the drafthouse from here on out.

The post I’m Going to Insist: A Night at the Alamo Drafthouse, New Mission Theater appeared first on Far Out City.

Man, these weeks are just flying past now. Our life has become an extended to do list with a mysterious deadline. We’re also trying to get in all the fun family time now, before we’re all hunkering down with a newborn for the rest of the summer. This weekend brings a barbecue on the beach, and Dave and I are sneaking out to see Wonder Woman. (Dave: yeah? Me: OBVIOUSLY YES TO THE LADY ACTION HERO MOVIE.)

I hope you all have a lovely weekend as well!

From around the web this week:

Governor Brown is off to China today to begin a California-China negotiation on emissions and climate change. This a day after forming a Climate Change Alliance with New York and Washington. Sometimes, it’s good to be the 6th largest economy in the world.

In local news, IT’S NATIONAL DONUT DAY AND YOU CAN GET FREE DONUTS AT THESE PLACES IN SF. What poor timing to be on an elimination diet.

Bloomberg looked into why infrastructure is so expensive to build in the US, compared to equally wealthy countries. It’s rather interesting.

This article on how Manhattan’s Bleecker Street went from normal to chic to deserted is ALSO interesting. (And makes me wonder if some neighborhoods in SF will see a similar decline. There are already a LOT of vacant storefronts on Valencia that haven’t been rented for over a year.)

Speaking of SF shopping…did you guys know there’s a (fairly) new children’s used clothes store that specializes in french brands (!!!!!). Why do none of you tell me anything?? This is a partnership, people.

I’ve been eating my weight in avocado toast recently (see: elimination diet + 9 months pregnant), and Pop Sugar has an awesome roundup of easy variations.

New York Times’ wine critic actually titled his latest Wine School assignment “Your Next Lesson: Thirst Quenchers.” In case that sounds like something you might want to read.

The post Friday Link Roundup: Free Donuts Today in SF and Thirst Quenching Wines for Summer appeared first on Far Out City.

Here’s our Summer 2017 Festival Guide! As always, each weekend has at least 5 or 6 festivals to choose from, if not waaaaay more. All your favorites are still here — the artichoke, tomato, garlic festival, peach, strawberry, apple, and apricot festivals. In addition to crawdad, soy, and beer festivals. Every city in the Bay Area has their annual art & wine festivals, of course.  And festivals dedicated to classic cars, hot air balloons, motorsports, and sand sculpture.

It’s going to be a busy summer! Enjoy!

JUNE

Northern California Soy & Tofu Festival, June 17 2017, Japantown, CA

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival, June 1-4 2017, The Castro, CA

Patterson Apricot Fiesta Craft and Commercial Street Fair, June 2-4 2017, Patterson, CA

Healdsburg Jazz Festival, June 2-11 2017, Healdsburg, CA

Bonny Doon Art and Wine Festival, June 3 2017, Bonny Doon, CA

Walnut Creek Art & Wine Festival, June 3-4 2017, Walnut Creek, CA

Castroville Artichoke Festival, June 3-4 2017, Castroville, CA

Mill Valley Wine, Beer, & Gourmet Festival, June 4 2017, Mill Valley, CA

Sunnyvale Art & Wine Festival, June 3-4 2017, Sunnyvale, CA

Union Street Festival, June 3-4 2017, Union Street, SF

Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival, June 1-4 2017, Sonoma, CA

Goodguys 24th Summer Get-Together (antique cars), June 3-4 2017, Pleasanton, CA

Portugal Day, June 10 2017, San Jose, CA

40th Annual Haight-Ashbury Street Fair, June 11 2017, Haight-Ashbury, SF

Sonoma County Hot Air Balloon Classic, June 10-11 2017, Windsor, CA

Fairfax Festival, June 10-11 2017, Fairfax, Marin County, CA

Berkeley World Music Festival, June 10-11 2017, Berkeley, CA

51st Annual Sand Castle & Sculpture Contest, June 10 2017, Alameda, CA

Phono Del Sol Music and Food Festival, June 17 2017, Potrero del Sol Park, SF

North Beach Festival, June 17-18 2017, North Beach, SF

Isleton Crawdad Festival, June 17-18 2017, Isleton, CA

Pinot Days, June 2017, San Francisco, CA (unconfirmed)

SF Gay Pride, June 24-25 2017, San Francisco, CA

Juanita MORE! Pride Party, June 25 2017, SF

JULY

The 22nd Annual Tahiti Fete, July 1-3 2017, San Jose, CA

Fillmore Jazz Festival, July 1-2 2017, Fillmore Street, SF

2017 Solano County Fair, July 2-6 2017, Vallejo, CA

Palo Alto Clay & Glass Festival, July 8 2017, Palo Alto, CA

Island Reggae Festival, July 8 2017, San Jose, cA

The 16th Annual Art & Garden Festival, July 9 2017, Petaluma, CA

Halal Fest 2017, July 8-9 2017, Fremont, CA

Bay Area Playwrights Festival, July 14-23 2017, Union Square, SF

Marysville Peach Festival, July 14-15 2017, Marysville, CA

The Breastfest Beer Festival, July 15 2017, San Rafael, SF

Saratoga Classic Car Show, July 16 2017, Saratoga, CA

Pedalfest, July 22 2017, Oakland, CA

The 24th Annual Bay Area Black Expo, July 22-23 2017, Oakland, CA

Gilroy Garlic Festival, July 28-30 2017, Gilroy, CA

Berkeley Kite Festival, July 29-30 2017, Berkeley, CA

Alameda Park Street Art & Wine Faire, July 29-30 2017, Alameda, CA

Courtland Pear Fair, July 30 2017, Courtland, CA (last Sunday)

AUGUST

Sonoma County Fair, August 3-13 2017, Santa Rosa, CA (closed weekends)

American Bach Soloists Festival, August 4-13 2017, Hayes Valley, SF

Aloha Festival, August 5-6 2017, San Mateo, CA

Fremont Festival of the Arts, August 5-6 2017, Fremont, CA

Novato Space Festival, August 6 2017, Novato, CA

Nihonmachi Street Fair, August 5-6 2017, Japantown, SF

Watsonville Strawberry Festival, August 5-6 2017, Monterey Bay, Watsonville, CA

Outside Lands Music and Art Festival, August 11-13 2017, Golden Gate Park, SF

San Jose Jazz Summer Fest, August 11-13 2017, San Jose, CA

Woodland Tomato Festival, August 12 2017, Woodland, CA

The 23rd Annual Pistahan Parade and Festival, August 12-13 2017, Yerba Buena Gardens, SF

Gravenstein Apple Fair, August 12-13 2017, Sebastopol, CA

Los Gatos Fiesta des Artes, August 12-13 2017, Los Gatos, CA

Noe Valley Wine Walk, August 17 2017, Noe Valley, SF

Sonoma County VegFest, August 12 2017, Santa Rosa, CA

Taste of Petaluma, August 19 2017, Petaluma, CA

Oakland Art and Soul Festival, August 19-20 2017, Oakland, CA

Cotati Accordian Festival, August 19-20 2017, Cotati, CA

Fairfield Tomato Festival, August 19 2017, Fairfield, CA

Hayward Zucchini Festival, August 19-20 2017, Hayward, CA

Pescadero Arts & Fun Festival, August 19-20 2017, Pescadero, CA

Russian River Beer Revival and BBQ Cookoff, August 19 2017, Guerneville, CA

Burlingham on the Avenue, August 19-20 2017, Burlingham, CA

Eat Drink SF, August 24-27 2017, San Francisco, CA

Palo Alto Festival of the Arts, August 26-27 2017, Palo Alto, CA

Reggae on the Delta, August 2017, Stockton, CA (unconfirmed)

Oakland Chinatown StreetFest, August 2017, Oakland, CA (unconfirmed)

Goodguys 29th Annual West Coast Nationals (Antique Cars), August 25-27 2017, Pleasanton, CA

The 7th Annual Pacific Islander Festival, August 26 20176, Rohnert Park, CA

Palo Alto Festival for the Arts, August 26-27 2017, Palo Alto, CA

Bodega Seafood, Art, and Wine Festival, August 26-27 2017, Bodega, CA

Taste of Oakdale, August 29 2017, Oakdale, CA

The post All Your Summer 2017 San Francisco Bay Area Food, Wine & Art Festivals appeared first on Far Out City.

A few weeks (months? what day is it?) ago, I mentioned one of our pre-baby coping mechanisms for our daughter was to get her a watch phone.

Those were innocent times. Just get a watch phone! Easy peasy. Add it to the never-ending list of things we need to get for Baby Watch 2017! DONE!

Weeks of research later, we were still dumbfounded at the options. Mostly because there aren’t many good options. Lots of janky options that cost $30 and get horrible reviews, actually. And also: why does children’s tech always need to look so BRIGHT and BUSY.

Our criteria were:

1. Dedicated buttons for me and Dave
2. No apps or games
3. Contact list from which Bean could call only designated people (and only those people could call her phone)
4. Reasonably good phone quality

Only a few watch phones satisfied those criteria, especially the limit on games and apps. We eventually crossed our fingers and ordered the TickTalk off Amazon.

It has worked out wonderfully ever since.

The TickTalk has a very basic touchscreen menu, which is simple for Bean to navigate. The front menu has just four buttons, for mom, dad, emergency, and contacts. Pressing on the mom button instantly calls my phone. SO SIMPLE.

There are some apps on the phone, but they are fairly boring: a calendar and calculator. She can also receive text messages from her contacts but she can’t send them.

The watch phone works via an app on our phones, which lets us organize her contacts, use GPS to track where she is, set alarms, and send text messages. The GPS usually works, but also sometimes shows her standing on the shoulder of US-101 a few miles away. I could see this coming in handy, though, for older kids who walk themselves home from school. (It’s also nice to know that if she wanders off at the zoo, we’d be able to call and locate her easily.)

There’s also some quasi-shady features that let you call the phone and listen in (aka spy) on whatever your kid is doing at the moment. I know! It’s so sneaky, right?

The phone comes with a prepaid SIM card, but we ended up adding it to our T-Mobile account (for an additional $10/mo, not bad) because, well, it ended up being unexpectedly, enormously popular.

We originally gave Bean her watch phone early, so that she was comfortable working it by the time we’d have to be in the hospital. In the way of 21st century kids, though, she was off and running with it (literally) within a few minutes, dialing everyone in her contacts. (Yes, I had to send out a few hastily written texts to everyone warning them of the incoming deluge of Bean communiques.)

Then the next day, she slowly worked through her contact list again. (HI GRANDMA!)

She now calls her grandparents regularly, if not daily. Her aunts get similar treatment. She’s learned to ask everyone how their day is going, and how to properly sign off. We have had to talk about how it’s only really polite to call people once, twice at the most, per day. It has turned out to be such a huge hit, for Bean and for adoring (and patient) family members as well.

The original reason for the phone has dropped by the wayside now. Sure, she’ll still be able to call us whenever she wants while we’re in the hospital. But, she is now also bonding with family in Pennsylvania and Arizona in a way that we never could have imagined. It’s remarkable.

So, if your kids are also chatty and also have distant relatives, I couldn’t recommend the watch phone more. It’s awesome.

The post Quick Rave: Children’s TickTalk Watch Phone appeared first on Far Out City.

Well, summer must surely be right around the corner because our long weekend is all East Bay barbecues. The East Bay: where San Francisco friends escape to own “houses” and “backyards” and “grills.” Like full-fledged adults.

What are your plans for the weekend? I hope it’s sunny and joyous where you are.

From around the web this week:

Alamo Square is open again after a year of construction! Go get your Full House photos in now!

Speaking of parks, you may want to avoid Dolores Park on Memorial Day due to an unofficial (tech) intern event that will likely attract thousands (!) to the park alone.

What do you think about a BART extension to the Richmond? Do we dare to dream? Supervisor Sandra Fewer is on it.

This will likely interest some of you: the Best, Inexpensive Wine Country Restaurants.

This was a great, reflective read on the internal debate of deciding to raise a kid in San Francisco.

Oh my God: someone designed Gilmore Girls lego sets.

These were all great tips: how to take better photos inside museums.

The NY Times is the latest to wonder what happened to J. Crew. (Fewer sequins, more hearty wool please.)

And if you’re in the shopping mood, Nordstrom is having a massive 40% off sale this weekend. After all, the post partum wardrobe really doesn’t buy itself.

The post Friday Link Roundup: Alamo Square Reopens and Where to Eat in Sonoma appeared first on Far Out City.

What a strange thing it is, to be nine months pregnant.

You are so close, and yet for the time being not there at all.

As with Bean, I find myself looking around in disbelief that I’m actually nine months pregnant. It feels slightly (mostly) absurd. Nine months pregnant. It belongs in movies with women with enormously large prosthetic stomachs spontaneously clutching a wall as their water dramatically breaks. Inquiring strangers look at you funny when you tell them you’re nine months pregnant. I want to say, “I know! It’s just the funniest and strangest thing, how all of a sudden I’m nine months pregnant. Trust me, I’m right there with you. I’M GOING TO HAVE A BABY SOON. How unbelievable is that?”

I’ve written before about how this pregnancy was different from my first. Namely, in that it was not that much different at all, except this time I’m living through it with a little person who is all questions and still requires me to be a mother and not a sloth on the sofa. Although the goodbye kisses (one for me, one for the baby aka my stomach) are sweet and I’ll miss those the most.

Just as before, I finally stopped running a couple weeks ago. As before, mostly because I felt people staring at my lumbering self. (Although the kindness of San Francisco strangers to a pregnant lady is one of my favorite things about this city. This time, out on a run, I had an older woman run down the street behind me (“Is that woman chasing me?”) in order to point at my stomach and give me a thumbs up.)

I was proven correct again that maternity clothes really don’t cut it for the full nine months. The non-maternity dresses and stretchy tunics are the only thing comfortable in my closet. I want to set my maternity jeans aflame.

And yet, even then, I don’t feel big. Not like nine months pregnant big.

And yet, It feels equally absurd that in less than a month, I won’t have this protruding, comical,unwieldy stomach with its poking elbows and knees and who knows what else.

I have run out of things to nest with. Kitchen drawers and cabinets have been organized to within an inch of their lives. The refrigerator and freezer followed. Same goes for our closets. The micronursery is finished. We just rounded out all our newborn purchases.

Thankfully, and the reason I’ve been spotty posting here, is that I’ve lined up a series of semi-professional gigs to see me through the end of the pregnancy. What better time to pick up new projects than around the nine month mark?

Which is all to say hang with me, here, folks. Being nine months pregnant is a weird time.

The post At Nine Months appeared first on Far Out City.

I know I’m so late to the Master of None party. Do you watch it? We just got through a binge watching session, and oh my lands, people, have you ever seen anything like the “Parents” episode?

It had me laughing out loud, hands firmly clenched over my embarrassed face, just guffawing at the absurdity of life. Specifically, my life. Or more generally, the life of any first generation American kid.

Man, we are SPOILED.

In two flashbacks, we get to see the lives of the lead characters, Dev and Brian’s, immigrant parents. From their dusty difficult lives in India and Taiwan, through the hardships of immigrating to the United States and the xenophobia and racism that came along with it, to all their hope placed in a new generation…and then cut to adult Dev and Brian whining to their fathers that “NO DAD,” they can’t help with the new iPad, they promised a friend they were going to see a movie together, geez.

MASTER OF NONE, Episode “Parents” from Amy Chang on Vimeo.

There is truly nothing like having an immigrant parent to constantly remind you of your bratty, privileged ways.

My parents grew up during a military junta, with parents thrown into prisons due to political beliefs,  entire families murdered, and childhoods of tending to farm animals and picking cotton. When other parents say they had to walk to school, uphill both ways, in deep snow, my parents retort that they WISH they could have gone to school, what a luxury, and then follow that up with a story about a many days journey involving a blazing sun and donkey (they walked; the donkey carried the stuff) just to see family in the mountains.

Aziz Ansari has nailed it here, in a way I’ve never seen on a TV show. (Even better that his own parents played themselves!) I can’t wait to watch the rest of Season 1 and 2.

(And needless to say, an episide like this is exactly why we need more diversity in Hollywood and TV!)

The post ‘Master of None’: Our First Generation Parents appeared first on Far Out City.

Over the weekend, I was lucky enough to catch an interview with Syrian journalist Zaina Erhaim. Living in Syria as a journalist, Ms. Erhaim unintentionally became a war reporter when the war came to her. Since then, she has not only attempted to document the war within her own country (and now from afar in Turkey), she began training her fellow Syrian women to become journalists as well, in order to get their voices heard.

The result is the Institute for War & Peace Reporting’s Women’s Voices from Syria. The difference from the traditional (and I’d argue male) war reporting perspective is absolutely striking.

In one piece, a young mother, enjoying an evening at her parents’ house, gets caught in an ambush and is shot. As she is rushed off to the hospital, she can’t stop thinking about her 4 month old daughter, “it was time to breastfeed her and put her to bed.”

In another, a teenager recounts her first brush with the violence of ISIS.

Once you begin reading them, it is difficult to get their voices out of your mind. They are so incredibly relatable. Except they are living in a hellish landscape of war and chaos. Where a 19 year old girl is enthralled by “high heels and makeup” and her first year of college one moment, and mourning a dear friend the next.

War reporting is so often about overnight raids, or how many bombs have been dropped, how many troops killed in a firefight, how much money has been spent. Women, especially noncombatant women, are the “civilians,” reported on but always as a generic, abstract (albeit sympathetic) figure.

These stories are another form of war reporting; telling us what is actually happening, what people are actually living through, how it is affecting them.

And once you’ve finished taking in their stories, here is a list of charities that you can donate to that will help Syrian children and families.

The post Voices of Syria’s Women appeared first on Far Out City.

Oh, man, this summer weather couldn’t be better timed. We’ll be spending the weekend at Ocean Beach, me preferably belly up and reading under a beach tent. Do you have any fun weekend plans? Remember that it’s Bay to Breakers on Sunday; getting through the city might be a mess.

Have a great, sunny weekend everyone!

From around the web this week:

Have you checked out the GOP attack ad out of Georgia featuring San Francisco. It’s wonderful and hysterical. (ALL the long haired hippies hang out at Fisherman’s Wharf. You learn that in SF 101.) Related: SFMTA has already sent them a cease and desist letter for using cable cars in the ad.

This may be relevant to your weekend: SFist rounds up the 9 best SF urban hikes.

I really want to see this: the Conservatory of Flowers building will turn into a psychedelic light show to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love.

Valencia got the guerrilla bicycle safety treatment this week, with advocates themselves standing as a human barrier to protect cyclists in the bike lane.

You know the autonomous sidewalk delivery robots? Yeah, they may be going away thanks to Supervisor Norman Yee.

CalTrain is letting us all vote on the exterior design of their new electric trains. (#4 is obviously the only real choice here.)

I really want to know what makes the Ritz-Carlton blueberry muffins so special.

This was a lot of fun: New York college students photographed as freshman and again as graduating seniors.

The post Friday Link Roundup: the 9 Best SF Urban Hikes and NYC College Students, Then and Now appeared first on Far Out City.