Please be a little wild at heart

BP Oilpocalypse Creates Underwater Nightmare

2010-05-30T08:53:00.000-07:00

Lesbians fighting AIDS in the 80's

2010-05-25T22:06:00.000-07:00

All Star Donuts

2010-05-21T16:30:00.001-07:00

All Star Donuts, originally uploaded by menlo.

Still love those old donut shops. I peak into time past...

To "Curate": A Fun Little Article from the New York Times

2010-02-13T14:54:00.000-08:00

New York Times, Fashion & Style
By ALEX WILLIAMS
Published: October 2, 2009

THE Tipping Point, a store in Houston that calls itself a sneaker lifestyle shop, does not just sell a collection of differently colored rubber soles, along with books, music and apparel. No, its Web site declares, the store “curates” its merchandise.

Promoters at Piano’s, a nightclub on the Lower East Side, announced on their Web site that they will “curate a night of Curious burlesque.”

Eric Demby, a founder of the Brooklyn Flea swap meet, does not hire vendors to serve grilled cheese sandwiches, pickles and tamales to hungry shoppers. He “personally curates the food stands,” according to New York magazine.

And to think, not so long ago, curators worked at museums.

The word “curate,” lofty and once rarely spoken outside exhibition corridors or British parishes, has become a fashionable code word among the aesthetically minded, who seem to paste it onto any activity that involves culling and selecting. In more print-centric times, the term of art was “edit” — as in a boutique edits its dress collections carefully. But now, among designers, disc jockeys, club promoters, bloggers and thrift-store owners, curate is code for “I have a discerning eye and great taste.”

Or more to the point, “I belong.”

For many who adopt the term, or bestow it on others, “it’s an innocent form of self-inflation,” said John H. McWhorter, a linguist and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. “You’re implying that there is some similarity between what you do and what someone with an advanced degree who works at a museum does.”

Indeed, these days, serving as a guest curator of a design blog, craft fair or department store is an honor. Last month, Scott Schuman, creator of The Sartorialist, a photo blog about street fashion, was invited to curate a pop-up shop at Barneys New York.

The term “curator” was not intended to be hyperbole, said Tom Kalenderian, the men’s fashion director for Barneys. Consulting closely with the photographer, a former fashion retailer, the store stocked just the right items to help shoppers achieve the elegant, eclectic look The Sartorialist regularly features on its site.

“It was precisely his eye” that made the store want to partner with him, Mr. Kalenderian said. “It was about the right shade of blue, about the cut, about the width of a lapel.”

Curtis Macdonald, a Brooklyn musician, also says that “curate” precisely describes his job: hiring bands for a local site.

“When given to opportunity to curate an evening of music, choosing the right bands is very similar to curating a museum,” Mr. Macdonald explained in an e-mail message. “Since I, the ‘curator,’ choose personnel based on a particular aesthetic, I am able to think of creative ways of presenting music beyond the traditional ‘call-up a venue and ask for a gig’ way of presenting.”

Indeed, invoking the word can be good for one’s image and business, said Karuna Tillmon James, 30, who has a background in fine-art photography and recently opened a consignment shop selling designer clothing in Brentwood, Calif. It’s name: Curate Couture.

“I knew that people in the know would gravitate toward it,” Ms. James said. The name signals that hers is not just another secondhand-clothing shop, she said, “selling stuff that was gross and old and had been crammed in trunks for years. It would have very specific pieces, selected purposefully.”

Summon the word “curate,” she added, and “people know you’re going to get it.”

Pretentious? Maybe. But it’s hardly unusual for members of less pedigreed professions to adopt the vernacular of more prestigious ones, said Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist at the University of California, Berkeley.

For instance, he said, the term “associate” originally tended to connote a partner or a work colleague who shared “a position of authority with another,” as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it. The description has expanded to include employees at all levels of the organization, including sales and customer service associates.

In the case of curate, which the Oxford dictionary simply defines as “to look after and preserve,” its standard “museum” meaning dominated until the mid-’90s, when references to curating hotel libraries and CD-of-the-month clubs started to pop up in periodicals, said Jesse Sheidlower, a lexicographer with the Oxford English Dictionary.

After 2000, nontraditional usage of the word took off. And as it continues to grow in popularity, others must adopt it, too, or face the consequences. For example, if all the rival nightclub promoters are “curating” parties, Mr. Sheidlower said, you don’t want to be the one left “hosting” one.

On the Web, the word — and the concept — have taken particular hold, not a surprise given the Internet clutter. Etsy, the shopping Web site devoted to handmade and vintage goods, routinely brings in shelter magazine editors, fashion designers and design bloggers to serve as “guest curators.”

Even news-aggregator Web sites, like Tina Brown’s Daily Beast, promote themselves as cultural curators.

“The Daily Beast doesn’t aggregate,” Ms. Brown says in a statement on the site. “It sifts, sorts, and curates. We’re as much about what’s not there as what is.”

In fact, curatorship of photos culled from Flickr pages, or of knitted scarves on Etsy, can be an artistic pursuit in itself, said Virginia Postrel, a cultural critic and the author of “The Substance of Style.”

“Because there are more things to put together,” she said, “the juxtapositions become a big part of the interesting experience of those things. It is a creative activity in itself.”

The talent for choosing among countless objects is not very different from the work of collage artists — or top D.J.s, explained Scott Plagenhoef, the editor-in-chief of Pitchfork, the music Web site.

“Certainly things like structure, flow, revelation, juxtaposition and other elements of D.J.-ing and mixing are considered an art,” said Mr. Plagenhoef, who served as an unpaid “curator” for the All Tomorrow’s Parties music festival in England. “Remix culture is a form of creative expression in its own right.”

And what of actual museum curators themselves? Are they offended by the democratization of their title?

“Maybe the use of ‘curate’ to refer to extra-museum activities is just metaphorical, akin to the way we use the word ‘doctor’ as a verb,” Laura Hoptman, a senior curator at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, wrote in an e-mail message. “If we doctor a script, we are only theoretically operating on it.”

“It doesn’t really bother me,” she said of the trend. “Actually, I’m hoping its popularity will spawn a reality television show — maybe ‘Top Curator’? ”

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/fashion/04curate.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1The New York Times

A New Era

2009-01-20T10:35:00.000-08:00

My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often, the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forebearers, and true to our founding documents.

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land -- a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: They will be met.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the fainthearted -- for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long, rugged path toward prosperity and freedom.

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.

Time and again, these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions -- that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act -- not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions -- who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them -- that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works -- whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account -- to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day -- because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control -- and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart -- not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: Know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort -- even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people, and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat, and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West: Know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment -- a moment that will define a generation -- it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends -- hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism -- these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world; duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence -- the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed -- why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent Mall, and why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive... that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested, we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back, nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations

Mom's Diner

2007-12-13T17:06:00.001-08:00

Mom's Diner, originally uploaded by Bob Jagendorf.

I just joined a group named Vanishing Beauty on Flickr. The name is great. It is all about photos of things, icons that are becoming relics of the past. The attachment to such things is a deeper longing for permanence and also for a Platonic truth or reality (that which is not fleeting):

When the mind's eye rests on objects illuminated by truth and reality, it understands and comprehends them, and functions intelligently; but when it turns to the twilight world of change and decay, it can only form opinions, its vision is confused and its beliefs shifting, and it seems to lack intelligence. (Plato, 380BC)

While being aware of that which changes, we are also aware of that which does not.

I love to become aware of those institutions that are just on the verge of extinction. Noticing the present turn into the past and disappear causes me to feel - I admit, in one moment, a melancholy longing - but at the same time, a feeling of interconnected deep presence, of being a part of this mysterious movement of events and lives - history - which makes time feel so linear.

2007-12-13T16:58:00.001-08:00

notes on being creative

2007-09-07T13:36:00.001-07:00

So you want to be more creative, in art, in business, whatever. Here are some tips that have worked for me over the years:

1. Ignore everybody.

2. The idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to change the world.

3. Put the hours in.

4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being "discovered" by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.

5. You are responsible for your own experience.

6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.

7. Keep your day job.

8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.

9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.

10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.

11. Don't try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.

12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.

13. Never compare your inside with somebody else's outside.

14. Dying young is overrated.

15. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.

16. The world is changing.

17. Merit can be bought. Passion can't.

18. Avoid the Watercooler Gang.

19. Sing in your own voice.

20. The choice of media is irrelevant.

21. Selling out is harder than it looks.

22. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.

23. Worrying about "Commercial vs. Artistic" is a complete waste of time.

24. Don?t worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.

25. You have to find your own schtick.

26. Write from the heart.

27. The best way to get approval is not to need it.

28. Power is never given. Power is taken.

29. Whatever choice you make, The Devil gets his due eventually.

30. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.

31. Remain frugal.

from Gaping Void. this rocks. thx Luc.
http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/000932.html

stein-like

2007-09-07T13:19:00.000-07:00

A straight girl is a straight girl is a straight girl.

urban exploration

2007-09-06T15:05:00.000-07:00

- otherwise known as infiltration. I read an article about this last night. People break into abandoned buildings, silos, tunnels, churches, just to explore and get some thrills. if you are into this feel free to let me know. it reminds me of when i was a punk teenager, and my friend Jen Cobb and I used to explore south of market in San Francisco, which used to be much more abandoned. there was an abandoned brewery and we used to take pictures there and it was all very exciting. i am going to see if i can dig any up. here is an article about the abandoned buffalo central terminal. it's so f'in batman! how cool is that? for photos, and entire website, click on link Exploring Buffalo Central Terminal. It looks much cooler than the cut and paste job on this blog.
The Buffalo Central Terminal
by Ninjalicious and Liz
Buffalo, New York, is a lucky city. True, the weather is terrible, crime is high, the economy is dead and the suburbs are usually on fire, but Buffalo still has a lot going for it.
The city's main attraction is a tall, dark tower that bursts forth from otherwise flat land in the middle of a residential subdivision and soars 20 storeys up into the air. The looming, monolithic tower and the vast, art deco train station to which it is attached were constructed in 1929 and served the New York Central railway, the Penn-Central railway and later Amtrak until being abandoned in 1979. In its heyday, the giant Buffalo Central Terminal was a focal point of the industrial and social life of one of the largest cities in the United States, where the marble floors were kept glistening and immaculate and people dressed in their Sunday best. Today, the relic sits abandoned and empty, largely neglected by all but some local friends of the station and a few appreciative explorers. It remains quite possibly the most beautiful building in the world.

The BCT. The Way In

The BCT is a very big building with a hell of a lot of holes in it. While the powers that be occasionally make entering the building a slightly more challenging puzzle (blocking up doors, sealing useful indoor passageways and erecting a wire fence around much of the perimeter), they have never succeeded in building barricades that would thwart a determined explorer. Breaking in is not necessary — do a thorough perimeter check and you'll find a way in, though you'll probably have to start with a side building rather than the Great Hall.

While the BCT's side buildings are outshined by the tower, the Great Hall and the basements next door, they are quite interesting in their own right.

While the side building isn't the main attraction, it is a very interesting place. The basement is usually flooded, and can only be explored during the coldest part of the year, when one can crawl around on top of six-foot-thick (you hope) ice. Several junk-filled stairwells lead up to the higher levels. The upper hallways are interesting, though many are filled with dust (particularly in areas where the roof has collapsed), water or ice, and in some you will be visible from outside the building. There are several interesting old rooms on the upper levels, including a telephone operators room, a fan room and an old, flooded library, still stocked with soggy or frozen books and typewriters. You can also get out onto a lower rooftop from here.
Stairs down
Inside the window
One route from the side building into the Great Hall involves climbing through the remnants of a glass hallway.
Though someone occasionally seals up some of the passageways between the side building and the Great Hall, most astute explorers will usually be able to find and navigate their way into the more interesting part of the station without causing any damage to the building. This may involve crossing the remnants of one of the several old glass hallways, the floors of which are now mostly destroyed. Wherever you come out, you should be able to easily make your way to the ground floor of the Great Hall.

The Great Hall
The BCT's Great Hall is an incredible sight; though decades of neglect and abuse have had an effect, scraping one's shoe through the caked-on muck on the ground reveals the marble floor underneath, and the tall, arcing ceiling of the Great Hall looks as fantastic as ever. In spite of being flooded and burned and spray painted and having every other window in the place smashed, the BCT is still the most magnificent and dignified building for miles around.
A look around the room reveals the details of another time: carefully etched street names cut into stone. Ticket kiosks done in gold leaf paint. Marble is everywhere — though not for lack of scavengers' trying — and is often sculpted into ornamental scrolls and the like. There is plenty to explore here, but the primary appeal of the Great Hall is its emptiness itself, in which you can see the sheer beauty of its past, and the magnitude of its abandonment. How could something that was ever this beautiful be discarded to time and decay like this?
The room is both stirring in its stillness and oppressive with the presence of ghosts. Dandily dressed travellers from New York City bustle by in the mind's eye, dutifully trailed by young porters — and of course, everyone has a jaunty hat. The Great Hall is a fine memorial to travel, in fact: it recalls both the excitement and the sadness of travel, becoming a real-life monument to that which we failed to appreciate in the rush of life, and that which we fail to preserve now in a society embarrassed to confront its ghosts.
To stand in the Great Hall is to truly feel part of a lost time, and there is little doubt that being there will take your breath away.

The Way Up
One must wade through the station's history in order to scale the tower, as large sections of the second and third floor are covered in old records and train schedules, and one of the stairways up is clogged with old paperwork up to two feet high. There are many places to explore on the way up. When I first toured the building in 1999, everything was open and accessible. Later, between 2000 and 2001, the tower's four clock faces were repaired, and solid new doors were installed to prevent any potential troublemakers from getting anywhere near the clocks on the 12th floor. More recently people have reported that loud alarms have been installed above the fourth floor and possibly in other locations.
No one has yet managed a good look at the alarms, and no one is yet completely clear on what causes them to go off. One point all reports have agreed upon is that they are extremely loud and usually inspire one to run from the building as quickly as possible. While setting off an alarm will never be a pleasant thing, potential explorers of the BCT can take some comfort in the knowledge that one could easily hide in the gigantic station for weeks without being found by the police, who aren't likely to ever try to bring dogs into the building. While it isn't likely that anyone who sets off the alarm will actually have to face any consequences, setting off the alarm is obviously a very nasty thing to do with potentially nasty consequences for future explorers, so please don't do it.

There is lots to see on the way up, including catwalks over top of the Great Hall.

The view from the roof is spectacular.
Those who do get further up will be rewarded; the floors near the top are full of interesting spots. Towards the top, the building narrows and begins to slope inward, and small holes in the walls admit enough outside sunlight to illuminate the dust that fills the air, so that it feels as if one is climbing up the inside of a pyramid. A narrow iron staircase leads up from the upper mechanical rooms out to the small, octagonal rooftop, where the walls are all thoroughly coated in graffiti. The view from the roof of the station is spectacular.

An old reception hall in the basement.
The Basement and Beyond
From the Great Hall, the most direct route into the station's very interesting basements is through the employee corridors at the back of the kitchen. These extremely narrow hallways and staircases lead down to corridors featuring a bizarre three-level maze of larger rooms, hallways, semi-flooded steam tunnels, ladders and ornate staircases, some of which were bricked up at some stage in the building's lifetime. While one will find occasional mechanical rooms, shops, a corridor containing a car stripped bare, vacated apartments used by houseless people and the occasional very attractive landing, the vast majority of the spaces down here are completely empty rooms. There are a few hours' worth of stuff to see in the station's basements alone, and it would be easy to get lost if one didn't pay attention.
From the basement, it's a pretty simple matter to navigate one's way across a little fenced-in courtyard (once a driveway underneath the hallway connecting the tower and the Great Hall to the train loading platforms) to another side building, where there are plenty of further architectural and archaelogical oddities to be found, including strange empty rooms, large unused pits, old scales and other souvenirs of the station's industrial past.
Buffalo Central Terminal
Please note: if you damage, deface or remove anything from the BCT, I will hunt you down and kill you. This is nothing personal. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.

see ya amsterdam

2007-09-06T14:52:00.001-07:00

I will miss the people i left behind. who i will see again. and they will come here. or we might meet somewhere new. because we can. move around. so why not.

Can still hear the bells of the thousands of bicycles and the Westerkerk church. A constant ringing - life saying come on! let's go! tots ziens Amsterdam.

staring at the bright San Francisco sky, watching it cut shadows like modern architecture had sliced through old Europe.The windyness is getting in my ears, gonna take this town by rainbow titanium lightning bolts - splicing and fusing, mutageneticizing anything i come across - making things that would otherwise not exist in nature. And then again - i will also just watch, nature unfolds, I'll take its picture, I'll take it easy, feeling that California home-soil, smell the ocean air. can't freakin' wait.

worked on this ad for Nike Plus, but love the new one i worked on even better, which we just finished and when its done it will be up here too.

yosemite june 2006

2007-09-06T14:51:00.001-07:00

My friend Janine is visiting from Amsterdam so we got on the highways and carefully wound through the wooded roads into the wilderness. We made it over and down the ridges and emerged into Yosemite, into the secret garden, as if we were just born. It feels like home, it feels strange, it feels like God, it feels secret, it feels like love, it feels hidden, it feels like the middle of the earth. I just still want to be there now.

Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation? And what creature of all that the Lord has taken the pains to make is not essential to the completeness of that unit - the cosmos? The universe would be incomplete without man; but it would also be incomplete without the smallest transmicroscopic creature that dwells beyond our conceitful eyes and knowledge. - John Muir.
I'm grateful to this great preservationist for saving Yosemite Valley, the first national park.

17 reasons

2007-09-06T14:46:00.000-07:00

I remember this sign being part of my subconscious awareness while growing up in the city. I stumbled across the sign again while looking up some old punk music. Some bands based in the Mission in the 90's put out a compilation bearing the sign and the name.

I suddenly became aware of that old sign in a way I never had before, though I could remember it being a part of growing up, a part of my environment, a part of me in a funny way. I found out they tore the sign down in 2002. It made me a bit sad, but mostly because I felt like I had always taken it for granted, even though on some basic level, I knew it was a very unique and strangely beautiful icon. I then looked up some info on the sign, and interestingly enough, it has a lot of stories behind it. The "17 reasons" stood out to people as some kind of mystic meaning. I always just thought it said "7 reasons" and thought it was for seagram's 7! no mystical interpretation, but I always did think it was special anyway.
I realized today why I wrote this blog. It's about being aware of my surroundings - a reminder to take it all in, and remember it, and notice how special the world and everyday life is - to not go through oblivious, but to really see it, and feel, and touch and hear.

Sign of the times; There's only one real story behind '17 Reasons': Decrepit sign has existential message, mundane history

September 15, 2000, Friday
FIRST EDITION

Copyright 2000 The Hearst Corporation
The San Francisco Examiner

SECTION: THE CITY; Pg. CT-A-1
BYLINE: VICTORIA COLLIVER

The "17 Reasons Why" sign "minus the Why" on top of the Thrift Town Building at 2102 Mission. The old sign, a landmark since it advertised the old Redlicks store, is getting a little worn out; The real reason for the "17 Reasons" sign is that the store is at the intersection of Mission and 17th streets. There were never any "reasons."

IT LOOMS over the corner of Mission and 17th streets, pretending to answer yet posing the largest question in The City.

"17 Reasons."

The dilapidated metal sign, which stands on the roof of Thrift Town, used to say "17 Reasons Why," but that hardly clarifies matters.

Seventeen reasons to do what? And why 17 reasons? Why not five, or 12 or 358? Why tell us 17 reasons exist, but not share what they are?

Along with being a curiosity, the sign has been a source of inspiration. It's the name behind a rap compilation called 17 Reasons and a now defunct Noe Valley arts-and-crafts shop also called 17 Reasons. A former San Francisco resident named her band after the sign, even after moving to the Portland area. "I liked the enigma of it. Nobody seems to know what the sign stood for, what 17 Reasons meant," said Sattie Clark, lead singer of the pop-rock band, 17 Reasons Why, which disbanded last year. "People would come up with things, but nobody would give me a reason that satisfied me."

Clark, an Oakland native who lived in SoMa from 1987 to 1990, had been strangely captivated by the sign.

"I would see it every time I got to that intersection - I thought it spoke to me personally," she said. "Nobody seems to look at it. It seemed like it was almost invisible, but it was so big."

Many people have lived or worked in the Mission for years without looking up at the roof of the four-story building at 2101 Mission St. Even if they have noticed it, very few have any idea what it means.

'A piece of art' Alex Orszulak, a self-described "non-dot-commer" who has lived in the Mission for more than 20 years, often wondered what the sign meant, but not often enough to ask.

"It's always been sort of mystical," said Orszulak, 31, who uses the sign as a compass because it is visible from many parts of The City. "You're not supposed to ask why."

Enrique Mendoza used to work in the building next door to the sign but still has no idea now what the 17 reasons are.

"I've noticed it since I lived here," said Mendoza, who moved to the Mission in 1986. "I think it has something to do with soda pop - 7-Up, a drink."

Pleas Braxton, who sweeps the streets for San Francisco's League of UrbanGardeners, said whatever the reason, the sign should stay: "It's a piece of art."

Longtime residents will remember - and this is where the curious will learn much of the mystery - that the sign was a slogan for what was one of the largest furniture stores in The City, the Redlick-Newman Co., later simply Redlicks.

But the sign's history is clouded. For example, some people believe erroneously that the 17 stands for the store's 17 showrooms. And if you ask people why the "Why" fell off, many say it was blown off during fierce wind storms a couple of years ago.

Nothing but the truth

To get the real story, you have to go straight to the source: 86-year-old Charles Redlick, who not only is alive and well in San Mateo, but still going to the gym.

Redlick ran the store from 1945 - when his father Abraham, known as "A.L.," died - until he closed the store's doors in 1975.

What was eventually to become Redlicks was founded by the Redlick brothers, including A.L., on 18th and Mission streets in 1906 to help people refurnish their homes after the earthquake, Charles Redlick explained. The store, later Redlick-Newman, moved to the corner of 17th and Mission after that building was finished, around 1913.

The sign, however, did not appear until the 1930s. Redlick said it was erected by the Occidental Stove Co. and said "Occidental Stoves," a brand of gas ranges Redlicks sold.

Still in the '30s, Redlicks decided to remove the ad in favor of replacing it with a slogan for the store. The partnership with the Newmans, who were related to the Redlicks by marriage, ended due to a feud and the company became known simply as Redlicks.

"We were looking for some message to bridge over the fact we were changing the name," Redlick said.

And the reason?

The 17 Reasons was his father's idea.

"My father developed this slogan after much study, asking everybody and their cousin," he said. "He'd gotten the idea from Heinz 57 years back. They had 57 brands of food or pickles, whatever."

The 17 did refer to the fact the store stood on the corner of 17th Street. But what were the reasons?

"People would ask what the 17 reasons were, and we would guff it off. There were no 17 reasons," he said.

Redlick said he closed the store in 1975 because it was no longer profitable. He said the construction of BART along Mission Street, changes in the neighborhood and the growing popularity of indoor malls contributed to Redlicks' demise.

But the sign, which was visible from many parts of The City, remained lit until the bitter end: "When the business closed, we turned the lights out."

As for why the "Why" fell off, the storm myth is dispelled by the building's manager, Comrado Amador, one of few others who knows anything about the sign.

Amador said he took the "Why" down himself in 1995 because of safety concerns.

Impossible to get rid of

"The pigeons got inside, and it got all rusted," he said. Age as well as the bird droppings were the culprit. "We were afraid the wind would come, and the pieces would fly around and hurt somebody."

Why the 17 Reasons sign, which is now covered in graffiti, continues to stand is hardly sentimental: No one has been able tear it down.

Steve Moore, vice president of Thrift Town's parent company, Norquist Salvage Corp., said the building's previous owner, Alexander M. Maisin, looked into removing the sign but found his options - which involved either a helicopter or welding torches - prohibitively expensive.

"The only reason Maisin was interested in taking it down is because he thought it would fall down," Moore said.

Norquist looked into leasing the sign to a billboard company. The company was in negotiations with San Francisco's Infinity Outdoor Inc., which planned to wrap the sign with vinyl and sell the space for advertising, but that deal fell apart because Infinity wanted various safety improvements made.

Thrift Town has been the building's main tenant since 1979 and now shares it with a smattering of dot-com companies, sewing factories and other small businesses.

Promotion bombed

After Maisin died in 1998, Norquist bought the building to keep it from turning into a Rite Aid. But the Burlington, Vt., company was only able to hang on to it for a year before selling it last year to San Francisco's Adare Properties, retaining a 10-year lease.

When Thrift Town first moved into the building, Moore said he tried to use the sign to promote the opening by offering 17 giveaways to new shoppers. "I tried to make a promotion out of it, but it bombed. Nobody knew what the hell I was talking about," said Moore, who considers the sign a "wasted asset." "I don't think anyone pays any attention to it."

Try telling that to Sattie Clark, who still seems attached to the sign even though her band no longer exists and she lives in a different state.

Clark admits learning the sign advertised a furniture store is a bit of a letdown. But, she explained, her attachment is to the physical sign itself.

"If I had a million dollars, I would buy that sign and restore it," she said. "It has suffered so much, even in past 10 years. Someone needs to declare it a landmark and do something to restore it in the very near future, or it's going to be too late."

BOB MCLEOD, EXAMINER PHOTO
LOAD-DATE: September 18, 2000

Cuz MySpace doesn't archive

2007-08-22T17:42:00.000-07:00

I love MySpace. But I really don't like that my little blogs get deleted and I can't look at my old posts or refer others to them. So I'm going for the real stuff now. Hello blog, hello world.