Author: Jeff Diehl

Flag Change at Alcatraz

A bit of a special moment on The Rock that I happened to see while on a tour with my visiting parents. I dig the precision and respect the officers give to the process.

(Be sure to lower your computer’s volume because the wind really batters the microphone, especially in the beginning; the sound of the ratchet later is pretty cool, though.)

The Often-Missed Beauty of Graffiti Tags

Even folks who think of themselves as open-minded urbanoids who can appreciate a good “mural” – unlike these wankers – will often mutter about tags as being mere marking of territory – simple, unimaginative, unskilled fuck-you-ism.

The above visualization of the motion of tagging, however, seems to challenge this notion. Anyone who’s ever paid attention to the kids on Muni as they swipe their markers and fill the bus with dizzying fumes has had a chance to see this, on some level. And yet most cannot get past the criminality (or the smell).

Now they can. (There is, of course, an iPhone app.)

1983 Snowy Winter Scene from a Tokyo Neighborhood

I spent Christmas this year with my fiance’s family in Southampton, PA. Her dad pulled out a DVD of some footage he took on one of the earliest VHS vidcams (a Hitachi) that chronicled a trip around Japan in 1983 when they lived there. This clip is from the small neighborhood in Tokyo – Hatsudai – where they were living.

The 27-year-old footage of snowman-building kids, lanterns, tight quarters, and a thick collection of snow, really evoke the feeling of Winter and Christmas for me. I also love the ambient sound.

Below is the same street today with images grabbed off Google Streetview:

(Thanks, Bob!)

Valencia Sidewalks Close to Being Not Incomplete

More Valencia Street Sidewalk Teasing, San Francisco

Even with the cones (mostly) gone, we are reminded of the temporary nature of existence. Those asphalt-filled areas will no doubt have to be properly cemented at some point in the future, requiring more cones, but in the meantime, here’s a rough vision of how your world may be one day, Mission-heads.

(Thanks, Gwen!)

Ed Hardy Went to the SF Art Institute?

jongosselin_edhardy

Ouch.

The SF Examiner pinned him down recently and asked him about his art:

If it makes you think — takes you outside yourself and opens yourself to the mystery of life — that’s great.

And if it single-handedly empowers jagoffs all around the world to all-new heights of spike-haired scrotitude? That’s great, too, I guess!

Maybe I should have gone easier on the SF Weekly’s current cover story. Any city worth its salt would have been able to prevent such a gigantic train wreck of pop culture.

Love It or Leave It, SF Weekly

Twin Peaks, San Francisco, photo by Ron Kurti

The carpetbaggers over at Village Voice Media, aka, the SF Weekly, have launched an anti-SF hit piece that completely misses the point of San Francisco and why people choose to live here.

Now, like my old buddy, Mat, I hate things about SF – including much of what is covered in this piece. That makes my headline pretty much meaningless – at least I admit that, which is more than the Weekly would do about the one atop the article we’re discussing here. More after the jump…
Continue reading Love It or Leave It, SF Weekly

UCSF Saving the Lives of Pregnant Women in Developing Countries

Patient treatment room in a Zambian gynecologic emergency ward

A friend just left San Francisco for her second “tour of duty” in Zambia, working for UCSF’s Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, which develops a low-tech first-aid device for hemorrhaging pregnant women called LifeWraps. I was impressed and horrified by her efforts combating the high frequency of death and disability around childbirth. More after the jump…
Continue reading UCSF Saving the Lives of Pregnant Women in Developing Countries

If the Trailer’s a-Rocking

I don’t expect much of a Monday night.

But a friend was having a get together at Gestalt before returning to do the Lord’s work in Africa, so I dragged my butt out. It was a crazy night. The high point was when we followed some bumping music to the above Airstream camper parked in front of DoubleDutch.

When security from DD tried to tell the silver-trailer-dweller to turn his music down, the response was not positive. “You don’t come into my house and tell me how to live!” was part of the tirade.

The bouncer backed down.