San Francisco Metblogs

Save Sloat!

Richard Ault — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:43:17 +0000

SF has declared an emergency due to the coastal erosion happening at Sloat blvd. and the Great Highway. If you enjoy the beach, and give a rats ass about our local government making sound, sustainable, policy in regards to our environment then you may want to read this and sign the petition!

SurfPulse Save Sloat!

One solution to this erosion, which has been used previously up and down the california coastline is to “armor” the coast with rip-rap (lg boulders) or sea walls. Both of which have been proven to be effective in the short term. These “solutions” also have been proven to simply relocate the problem, up or down the coast. E.g. putting rip-rap at Sloat will simply accelerate erosion of the beach, north and south.

40th anniversary of Altamont concert

Mark Pritchard — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 23:09:16 +0000

1969 was a huge year in the history of the U.S., as the free-love hippie movement soured and turned bad. Sunday marks the 40th anniversary of the the concert at Altamont Speedway in Costra Costa County (map) where the Rolling Stones hired the Hells Angels to protect the stage and they wound up killing some poor bastard as cameras rolled for the film that would become Gimme Shelter.

Wikipedia has some interesting background on the incident, and Rolling Stone has a nearly contemporaneous report, including a detailed narration of what the film shows of the killing. An Oakland Tribune story reminds us that the biker who stabbed the concert-goer was acquitted by a jury, which ruled he acted in self defense.

Beat poet Lenore Kandel, recalled by Stephanie Salter

Mark Pritchard — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:25:13 +0000

Lenore Kandel holding 'The Love Book.' SF Chronicle photo by Gordon Peters.

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:

In Bangalore, Newsom inks Sister City agreements

Mark Pritchard — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:58:49 +0000

On his trip to Bangalore, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has signed several “memorandums of understanding” (or “MoUs,” as the Indian paper has it) with our Indian sister city. The agreements, in the areas ranging from health care to culture and fashion, are intended to strengthen the relationship between the two cities. Here’s the news release from Newsom’s office.

Don’t forget, Bangalore is a Metblogs city.

Related: I visited Bangalore for a week in April 2007 and blogged my impressions of the city of six million.

CHP radar on Deadman’s Curve

Mark Pritchard — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 18:10:55 +0000

Those 40 m.p.h. speed limit signs recently installed on the Bay Bridge’s S-curve (aka Deadman’s Curve since the fatal semi truck plunge early this month) mean business.

How do I know? I was just nabbed by a CHP officer with a hand-held radar gun, standing next to her car at the end of the S-curve, at the point where the S-curve roadway rejoins the old roadway just before the tunnel.

So resist the temptation to accelerate when you get to the end of the S-curve, folks, unless you want to spend the rest of your trip across the Bay Bridge with a CHP car on your tail and everyone else laughing at you.

KTVU-TV story: CHP launches crackdown on speeders at S-curve

Celebrate Thanksgiving like a native

Mark Pritchard — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 06:09:28 +0000

The annual Indigenous Peoples Thanksgiving Sunrise Gathering on Alcatraz happens at, yes, sunrise on Thanksgiving. Boats ($14) leave Pier 33 beginning at 4:45 a.m. for the Rock, where attendees will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the occupation of Alcatraz by (what were then called) American Indians.

Affluent teens often blotto at parties, parents find

Mark Pritchard — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:44:09 +0000

In a long feature in today’s LA Times about the death of an affluent teenager at an Orinda party where alcohol flowed freely, local parents were stunned to find out “that students from good families and strong schools” commonly attended such parties. Indeed, passing out drunk was such a common occurrence that “teens who passed out at parties often were ignored” (emphasis mine). Yeah — oh, her, she’s always passing out.

In other drunk news, Sen. John Kerry’s filmmaker daughter Alexandra was arrested in L.A. Thursday on a DUI charge, but released after the breathalyzer showed she was under the limit. Kerry’s filmmaker daughter is not to be confused with Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s daughter who is also a filmmaker and also named Alexandra.

At the Roxie: ‘Ready, Set, Bag!’ benefit for SF Food Bank

Mark Pritchard — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:49:26 +0000

The film “Ready, Set, Bag!” (formerly titled “Paper or Plastic?“) will be shown tonight at the Roxie Theatre in a benefit for the San Francisco Food Bank, the city’s non-profit group that helps feed thousands of families every week using groceries and produce donated by stores and growers. The program starts at 7:00 pm.

The film follows the finalists in the National Grocers Association Best Bagger Championship, which is exactly what it sounds like, I guess. Also on the program is a short, Leonardo, by Pixar animator Jim Capobianco.

Speaking of the Food Bank, VISA is doubling donations to the group right now. So go to their website and give ‘em some money. The Food Bank is a great community organization.

Strike at Berkeley, other UC campuses

Mark Pritchard — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:11:46 +0000

This morning, staff, non-tenured faculty and graduate student instructors at University of California campuses begin a three-day strike to protest the imposition of tuition hikes at the public university. Their website is UCstrike.com and you can follow events on twitter using the #ucstrike hashtag.

According to the strikers’ website, tuition increases this decade have meant that the cost of an undergraduate education has tripled since 2000. They lay the blame not only at the national economic crisis but the university’s commitment to over $1 billion in new debt for construction of new facilities, saying the system favors “construction over instruction.”

The strike is timed to coincide with a meeting of UC regents in Los Angeles. The governing borad is expected to approve new fee hikes.

Literary things to do this Saturday

Mark Pritchard — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:39:32 +0000

San Franciscans have a choice this Saturday: Apollo or Dionysus?

In Apollo’s corner, publishers and writers from two experimental presses, Sidebrow of San Francisco and Les Figues of Los Angeles, will appear Saturday at 7:30 pm at The Green Arcade, 1680 Market St. at Gough (map). Both presses publish poetry and experimental prose in small, interesting editions. I interviewed Les Figues’ Teresa Carmody a few years ago.

At the same moment, representing Dionysus, Writers with Drinks happens at the Makeout Room on 22nd St. Appearing are Javier Grillo-Marxuach (The Middleman TV series), Mary Robinette Kowal (Scenting The Dark And Other Stories), Kat Richardson (Greywalker), Naomi Quiñonez (Invocation L.A.: Urban Multicultural Poetry), and S. Bear Bergman (Butch Is A Noun).