Tag: Video

Koko’s Kittens

Koko's Kittens

Koko the gorilla was born in the San Francisco Zoo, and is famous for learning sign language. The other thing she’s famous for is keeping pets – namely, kittens.

Below is video of Koko choosing a new pet kitten, donated by the San Francisco Humane Society, on March 10th. But while viewing this sweet scene, I noticed something that has me confused and a little bit concerned.

On YouTube alone, I see reference to at least 3 different kittens (All Ball, Moe, and Tigger), with zero videos of any adult cats.

Kittens are cuter than adult cats, I admit. But if Koko is ruthlessly going through these adorable little fuzzballs like so many living toys, I think that suggests something a lot of us might not be comfortable with.

Like, maybe kittens are as tasty as they are cute?

UPDATE: Eve at SF Appeal informs me of this:

Koko was very gentle with all of her cat friends.. She cared for her
kittens as she would her own tiny gorilla baby, cradling them gently
in her arms and carrying them on her back. She has never harmed them,
even when they scratch or bite, as kittens sometimes do.

Still, that quote reminds me of this:

Hot, Adults Only Taxidermy Action

Adults Only Taxidermy Action, San Francisco

So this happened while in line for the rain forest at the California Academy of Sciences a few weeks back. It was a Thursday “adults only” Night Life event. I guess they’re “treating” a crow and some sort of falcon or small hawk. Video after the jump…
Continue reading Hot, Adults Only Taxidermy Action

The Best Thing About ‘Up in the Air’ Was San Francisco in the Title Sequence

The Best Thing About 'Up in the Air' was San Francisco in the Title Sequenc

An effective title sequence can give a film a lot of good will in the mind of the viewer while the filmmaker tries to establish what’s necessary to draw folks in. If there was an Oscar category for Best Title Sequence (it has been suggested, and was rejected in 1999), “Up in the Air” would have gotten a vote from me, were I a voting member.

And not just because it features San Francisco very prominently. (You may recall that there are a total of 3 shots of San Francisco from the air in this sequence – watch it here.) More after the jump…
Continue reading The Best Thing About ‘Up in the Air’ Was San Francisco in the Title Sequence

Possibly the Best Use of San Francisco in a Film, Ever

Possibly the Best Use of San Francisco in a Film, Ever

Sure, we’ve got Bullitt, Dirty Harry, Streets of San Francisco, and Trauma. But hot damn, if this isn’t the awesomest use of a San Francisco setting for a film sequence I’ve seen yet…

It’s from the 1958 noir, The Lineup, and I challenge you to watch to the end of this 9-minute collection of clips. I promise you, if you haven’t seen it before, the reward is tremendous.

Not only do you get to see the outside and inside of the Sutro Baths just 8 years before they burned down during demolition, but what’s happening in these shots is downright fascinating. I won’t spoil it except to say it involves one terribly sketchy Eli Wallach, a mysterious dude in a wheelchair, a cop, a blimp, and nuns.

Oh, and a climactic act of violence that has to be seen to be believed.

Part of me now wants to see the whole movie, but part of me just wants to hold in my memory the jarring assembly of clips below as a unified and complete work in itself. Check it out:

Sutro Baths Fire, 1966, San Francisco
Sutro Baths fire, 1966. Photo Copyright Brad Schram

(Video Spotted @)

Heshy Fried is Sadly Not Gay

Heshy Fried is Sadly Not Gay

The Manhattan-based comic ventured into the Castro District (he even got off of his bicycle!) and, in the midst of his many observations about the diversity and wonder of queer taxonomy, worried that he wasn’t good enough to be gay:

I felt like I was in Mea Shearim in Israel, where I would walk and just stare at all the people as if it were the first time I was seeing their type. In Castro, I did the same thing because everyone seemed to become super exotic and interesting…

I saw a butch lesbian with a green Mohawk wearing a leather vest. I saw a man with a handlebar mustache holding hands with a guy in a kilt. I saw a skinny little guy who walked like a girl and I wondered if he ever had trouble maintaining that act, or was it even an act? I noticed a guy that could have been a chabad Rabbi, had he not been wearing baggy jeans and a t-shirt. I saw a lot of men with facial hair. Though, wait, in retrospect, maybe they weren’t even males…

No one gave me a second glance and I began to think that I was not good looking enough for these men. Maybe they could tell I was straight — even though I was wearing a dirty yellow shirt and spandex pants.

What do you think, readers? Is Heshy completely out of the running, or does he still have a shot? Here’s some video to help you decide:

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.)

Blackie the Wonder Horse Swims the San Francisco Bay


Why on God’s green earth did anyone dream up this 1938 stunt? To quote the narrator, “Your guess is as good as mine.”

This poor horse chased a handful of sugar and towed a fat, useless human named “Shorty Roberts,” as it swam the Golden Gate just to settle a bet about whether horses can swim:

The swim took 23 minutes and 15 seconds—an hour less than it had taken an Olympic swimmer. When Blackie and Shorty arrived in SF, the SPCA was waiting, but admitted that Shorty looked much worse than the horse and didn’t cite him. Shorty always insisted that the horse loved swimming in the bay.

Sure he did, and why not?

(Spotted@)

Recommended book: Historic Photos of San Francisco

Film of Japanese Americans in San Francisco, circa 1920

The black and white footage at the beginning of this video, grabbed from the Square America blog, shows some dapper Japanese-American immigrants in the 1920s in San Francisco. Especially dignified given the open historical discrimination against them, even before the internment atrocities of WWII.

Be sure to check out this poignant 1942 timeline from the SF Chronicle of the history of the Japanese American community in SF, which ends with the last of 5,280 people being “evacuated” out of the city.

Last night Japanese town was empty. Its stores were vacant, its windows plastered with “To Lease” signs. There were no guests in its hotels, no diners nibbling on sukiyaki or tempura. And last night, too, there were no Japanese with their ever present cameras and sketch books, no Japanese with their newly acquired furtive, frightened looks…

They left San Francisco by the hundreds all through last January and February, seeking new homes and new jobs in the East and Midwest. In March, the Army and the Wartime Civil Control Administration took over with a new humane policy of evacuation to assembly and relocation centers where both the country and the Japanese could be given protection. The first evacuation under the WCCA came during the first week in April, when hundreds of Japanese were taken to the assembly center at Santa Anita. On April 25 and 26, and on May 6 and 7, additional thousands were taken to the Tanforan Center. These three evacuations had cleared half of San Francisco. The rest were cleared yesterday.

I wonder what became of the hopeful, posing folks in the above film clip during this era. (I presume the second, color portion of the clip means they managed to stay together, even if they had to move to Chicago.)

Great Video Profile of a Cable Car Operator, Carpenter, and Mechanic

The fantastic footage (with ambient-only sound) and trivia, combined with an infusion of pride for San Francisco’s past and present, make this segment, called simply, “Cable Cars,” a great way to spend 5 minutes of computer time. Along the way, you’ll meet: Ken Lunardi, operator; Norm Feyling, mechanic; and Bob Harris, carpenter.

Produced by Greg Burk for SFGTV‘s award-wining magazine series “City In Focus.”

Related book: Historic Photos of San Francisco
From Amazon
From Powell’s

Haunting Dia de los Muertos Video Footage

KevMo over at MissionMission points us to this melancholy yet joyful edit of Dia de los Muertos footage scored with “Hellhole Ratrace” by Girls. He also laments the overwhelming whiteness of the celebration in recent years. I think the video/music mix itself captures that duality.

For extra weirdness, check out the video creator’s other clip.