Spots Unknown » archival http://spotsunknown.com Forgotten places, histories, and events of San Francisco Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:13:15 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Hot Post-Earthquake and Fire Film Footage from 1906 http://spotsunknown.com/hot-post-earthquake-and-fire-film-footage-from-1906/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hot-post-earthquake-and-fire-film-footage-from-1906 http://spotsunknown.com/hot-post-earthquake-and-fire-film-footage-from-1906/#comments Fri, 01 Oct 2010 20:41:58 +0000 Jeff Diehl http://spotsunknown.com/?p=2580

Seventeen minutes of pure awesome.

(Spotted @ Uptown Almanac.)

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]]> http://spotsunknown.com/hot-post-earthquake-and-fire-film-footage-from-1906/feed/ 1 “Playland at the Beach” Documentary Premier http://spotsunknown.com/playland-at-the-beach-documentary-premier/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=playland-at-the-beach-documentary-premier http://spotsunknown.com/playland-at-the-beach-documentary-premier/#comments Wed, 17 Feb 2010 18:31:11 +0000 Jeff Diehl http://spotsunknown.com/?p=1434 Playland at the Beach

This now-extinct amusement park at Ocean Beach was established in the 1880s and dismantled in 1972. It has a rich, weird history. Rick Prelinger unveiled some great amateur footage in his latest Lost Landscapes screening in December.

On March 16th, the Balboa Theater will premier a full-length documentary about the park by Tom Wyrsch.

Gone now for more than 3 decades, it remains one of the city’s lost treasures. Go back in time to see Laffing Sal, the Fun House, the Carousel, the Big Dipper, the Diving Bell, Dark Mystery, Limbo, Fun-tier Town, and much, much more, all through the eyes of the people that were there. The first and only documentary ever made about Playland.

Playland Documentary, San Francisco

(Spotted @SF_Explorers)

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]]> http://spotsunknown.com/playland-at-the-beach-documentary-premier/feed/ 3 Now Online: Lost Landscapes of San Francisco 4 http://spotsunknown.com/now-online-lost-landscapes-of-san-francisco-4/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=now-online-lost-landscapes-of-san-francisco-4 http://spotsunknown.com/now-online-lost-landscapes-of-san-francisco-4/#comments Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:40:35 +0000 Jeff Diehl http://spotsunknown.com/?p=1306 Now Online: Lost Landscapes of San Francisco 4

In case you missed Rick Prelinger's excellent screening of mostly amateur-shot archival footage back in December, Fora.tv has put it online in its entirety. Watch it:

To navigate a list of chapters, go to the Fora.tv site.

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]]> http://spotsunknown.com/now-online-lost-landscapes-of-san-francisco-4/feed/ 1 1983 Snowy Winter Scene from a Tokyo Neighborhood http://spotsunknown.com/1983-snowy-winter-scene-from-a-tokyo-neighborhood/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=1983-snowy-winter-scene-from-a-tokyo-neighborhood http://spotsunknown.com/1983-snowy-winter-scene-from-a-tokyo-neighborhood/#comments Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:51:48 +0000 Jeff Diehl http://spotsunknown.com/?p=1159

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!)

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