photo by Scott Beale

Yes, in San Francisco even dog poop can be appreciated as art, represented here in stencil form on a Valencia Street sidewalk.

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After 13 years of near continuous broadcasting, San Francisco micro radio station Pirate Cat Radio (87.9 FM), operating out of Pirate Cat Café, has been ordered off the air and fined $10,000 by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

In a notice dated August 31, 2009 the FCC asserted that Monkey, the founder of Pirate Cat Radio, “willfully and repeatedly violated Section 301 of the Communications Act of 1934” and proposed to fine him $10,000 for the infraction.

By bringing to bear the full weight of the Federal government against continued broadcast operations, the FCC’s order effectively ends Pirate Cat Radio’s thirteen-year run as one of the Bay Area’s most consistent voices of protest against corporate-run media monopolies and monocultural programming.

Here’s the full statement from Pirate Cat Radio founder Monkey.

SF Gate’s “Off The Record” and SFAppeal have more on the story.

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photo by Plomo Media

San Francisco Citizen directs our attention to Plomo Media’s awesome photo of a raccoons queuing up for a bus on the MUNI #18 46 Ave line at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

via Troy Holden

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Wonderfest 2009, The San Francisco Bay Area Festival of Science, takes place on November 7th at Stanford’s Hewlett Teaching Center and on November 8th at UC Berkeley’s Stanley Hall. Admission is free, here’s how to register.

Through public discourse about provocative scientific questions, Wonderfest aspires to stimulate curiosity, promote careful reasoning, challenge unexamined beliefs, and encourage life-long learning. Wonderfest achieves these ends by presenting series of scientific events to the general public. At most of these events, pairs of articulate and accomplished researchers discuss and debate compelling questions at the edge of scientific understanding.

via Susie

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City Arts & Lectures presents John Hodgman in conversation with Merlin Mann on Saturday, November 7th at Herbst Theater in San Francisco. Here’s more info.

American author and humorist John Hodgman has appeared as the Resident Expert on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” “PC” on Apple’s “Get a Mac” TV ads, and was the headline speaker at the 2009 Radio and Television Correspondents dinner in Washington D.C. After graduating from Yale in 1994, he toiled in the trenches of the publishing industry. The experience led Hodgman to write an ironic advice column for McSweeney’s entitled, “Ask a Former Literary Agent.” In his first book, The Areas of My Expertise, Hodgman explores topics from the idiosyncrasies of famous detectives to Colonial jobs involving eels. In his role as Resident Expert on “The Daily Show,” Hodgman has offered insight and commentary on art authentication, presidential candidate style, hurricane season, and mixed martial arts. Hodgman’s latest book, More Information Than You Require, deals with more of the esoteric, charming and just plain eccentric topics that catch the author’s fancy. From tips on buying a computer from a street vendor to get-rich-slow schemes, John Hodgman’s humor revels in a culture saturated with experts of every stripe.

Creator of the website 43folders, Merlin Mann seeks to help ordinary people find “the time and attention to do your best creative work.” Mann’s forthcoming book Inbox Zero, will be published by HarperStudio in 2010.

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Chris Carlsson and Hugh D’Andrade recently launched sfcriticalmass.org, a new blog documenting the history of San Francisco’s Critical Mass bike ride that happens on the last Friday of each month. Starting in 1992, San Francisco Critical Mass was the first Critical Mass bike event, spawning hundreds of Critical Mass rides around the world. Check out the SF Critical Mass FAQ for more info on the event.

What is Critical Mass?

Critical Mass is a mass bicycle ride that takes place on the last Friday of each month in cities around the world. Everyone is invited! No one is in charge! Bring your bike!

You can also follow San Francisco Critical Mass on Twitter: sfcriticalmass

photo by Steve Rhodes

Their most recent post documents last Friday’s October Halloween Critical Mass. Here are more photos of the Halloween ride by Steve Rhodes.

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An awesome tribute to Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes, the Cantina Band from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, doing a street corner serenade in San Francisco.

“Alderaan Road EP” photo by occlupanid

UPDATE: Steve Rhodes shot some photos of the Cantina Band playing around San Francisco on Halloween.

photo by Steve Rhodes

via SF Slim

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photo by Bill Hall

Bill Hall of the Caltrans District 4 Photography Department has a great series of photos documenting the repair of the Bay Bridge eyebar.

See Previously: Detailed Analysis of The Bay Bridge Crack

via Lenore Edman

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Tony Alfrey of Sci-Experiments gives a detailed analysis of what caused The Famous Bay Bridge Crack, along with some close-up photos of the damage.

See Also: Bay Bridge Eyebar Repair Photos

via Eddie Codel

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SF Weekly’s The Snitch presents the “Bay Bridge Fail Whale” by Audrey Fukuman.

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photo by Troy Holden

San Jose Mercury News is reporting that that the San Francisco Bay Area graffiti artist GIRAFA has been arrested.

Steven Free, 30, of San Francisco was arrested Tuesday on a $100,000 warrant, charging him in 10 felony cases in San Jose involving $40,000 in damages.

Fellow photographer Troy Holden has been hunting GIRAFA art for years.

via Caliber & Spots Unknown

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photos by Scott Beale

Our friends at Zendesk recently moved their headquarters to San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood. Here are a few photos from last night’s Zendesk HQ Office Warming Party. Welcome to the hood!

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“San Francisco’s People”, a beautiful video by Philip Bloom shot on a Canon 5D MKII.

The music is “Taxi Driver” by Bernard Herrmann.

via Spots Unknown

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Spider Ball, an annual fundraiser for the Black Rock Arts Foundation takes place on Halloween, this Saturday, October 31st at The Bently Reserve in San Francisco.

Spider Ball is an annual fundraising Halloween extravaganza hosted in tandem by The Bently Reserve and Playa Love, a Burning Man camp dedicated to promoting local organizations and communities both on the playa and at home. Thrown at the historic Bently Reserve, it is a halloween celebration with an underground approach of decadence and elegance that is all freak and funk. There is the main banking hall hosting the main stage performances, beds to chill around the perimeter, a separate chill room and 6 bars.

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guest post by Todd Lappin (Telstar Logistics)

photos by Todd Lappin (Telstar Logistics)

Sure, it’s fun to fly over San Francisco with Google Earth, but there’s no substitute for the real thing.

I recently had the opportunity to buzz the city in a humble Cessna 182 “Skylane.” We departed from Palo Alto under blue skies, then headed north above Highway 101, crossed over SFO right above the runways (the safest way for a low-flying plane to transit an airport is to fly directly over it), then reached San Francisco. At an altitude of about 1500 feet, we made a few loops over The Mission, got eye-to-eye with Sutro Tower, then did a pass over Sausalito and the Marin Headlands before turning east to fly right over the Golden Gate Bridge.

The weather was perfect for photography, so my shutter-finger got a major workout. Hope you enjoy the photos I took during the flight!

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photo by Troy Holden

Troy Holden shot a great photo of the “Fear Heads” mural on Golden Gate Avenue in the Tenderloin District that was created as part of the “Wonderland” artists series.

via Caliber

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“One Evening in San Francisco”, a beautiful time-lapse video of San Francisco as the sun sets shot from Yerba Buena Island by Ben Wiggins. Music is by Geert Veneklaas.

See Previously: Time-Lapse Video of Summer in San Francisco

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A couple of weeks ago Burrito Justice came across a wonderful 1961 General Electric (GE) ad scanned by Eric Fisher showing a future BART system crossing the Golden Gate bridge. Here are more of Eric’s scans of San Francisco transit.

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Playtime Antiboredom Society and SF0 present Journey to the End of the Night in San Francisco starting at 7pm on Halloween night, Saturday, October 31st.

Journey to the End of the Night is a free street game across the haunted cityscape of San Francisco this Halloween. Players sporting orange ribbons will try to make it through six checkpoints on foot or by public transportation, while avoiding being caught by chasers. Those who survive will be praised and feted at the end. Those who fall will become chasers themselves, rising in undeath to pursue their former friends and allies. It works like a race or derive that keeps breaking out into games of tag or hide and seek.

The game begins on Saturday, October 31st, at 7:00 PM on Steuart St between Market and Mission (across the street from the Ferry Building). No bicycles, no skates, no cars, no taxis. You may only travel on foot or by public transportation. Wear comfortable shoes, and bring water.

Prizes will be awarded for top finishers, best chasers and best costume.

via Rubin Starset

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guest post by mikl-em

photo by Scott Beale

Saturday, October 31st more than a dozen bands, performers and DJs will sing swan songs to everybody’s favorite junkyard in San Francisco and the world to raise funds for the Junk Man who has run it for a quarter century as a selfless patron of all those who turn mere ‘dumpster diving’ into the art of divining precious obtanium.

Ace Auto Dismantlers will itself be disassembled by the last day of 2009. Meanwhile there’s a Halloween night ruckus planned at CELLspace to raise spirits and funds for the man behind the yard. All the artists, musicians and metal-reanimators will return 2.5 decades of favors, and throw a party to scare away the bill collectors scratching at Bill the Junkman’s chamber door.

photo by Scott Beale

YOU can come and put some much needed cash in the till, and get rocked, amused, bemused, and dance your junk off. The likes of Extra Action Marching Band, Mark Growden, Attaboy and Burke (they’re back!?!), Los Banos, SEEMEN and many more. All hosted by the singular duo of Dr. Hal Robins & John Hell.

The show is on Halloween Night, Doors are 8PM, show starts at 9–and what a show, full details below. Ticket price is $10 sliding all the way up to how much art and culture mean to you. Please be generous–Bill has tens of thousands in legal fees in trying to fight eviction and related costs.

Dress like as a junkyard zombie, a piece of haunted junk, the ghost of Power Tool Drag Races past, a homeless trash pile, or a nuclear irradiated pirate on a garbage skiff. The Bill the Junkman lookalike contest is sure to be a hoot (girls and guys both encouraged to enter!).

photo by Scott Beale

For me, ACE was one of THOSE PLACES. One of the place in my life that I count on the fingers of one hand. You know what I mean; we all have those places and regardless of our luck in life, good or bad, there are only a handful of them. These places are where the good things happened. Where we met or really got to know our real friends. Where we made the memories that we will take to our graves. The good times. The stupid time. The places where, perhaps, we did really dumb and embarrassing things, and, wonder of wonders, no one cared. Ace was that place for many of us.

During these 25 years, Bill Kennedy (AKA: Billy the Junkman, Junkman, Belinda, William Kennedy and “Ed” among other nom de plumes) evolved into one of the most atypical, generous and best loved art patrons and philanthropists in Frisco.

From the early days of SRL (Survival Research Labs) scrounging big engines and other industrial strength gadget from Ace for use in cobbling together various demonic robots, thru the later era of Burning Man Burnoids picking through the junk in search of just the right widget to make their Playa blinky thing work, Billy has given away more junk (the good junk he could have sold for $$) to starving artists than any fancy schmancy grant council could even imagine.

I hope you will all come out to support William Kennedy in this very difficult transition to the next phase of his life. I KNOW, that without The Junkyard he will still be The Junkman. It won’t be easy to convince him of the truth of that statement, but I think we can do it. See you on Halloween.

-John Law

photo by Scott Beale

Billy is out tens of thousands of dollars from paying an attorney to fight his evil landlady. Let’s help out & raise some dough for a guy who never hesitated to help others when in need. This night, Halloween, 2009, we will conjure the Spirits of the Junkyard long gone. We will usher out the age of ACE and, hopefully help the Junkman ease into his future, whatever that may be.

Here’s the lineup I’ve been bragging about…

MC’s Dr. Hal Robins & John Hell

Attaboy and Burke (who’s first performance ever was at the Junkyard in 1998)

Extra Action Marching Band (in action)

Los Banos

The Turks

Mark Growden

Esmerelda Strange

Marisa Lenhardt

DJ Stradivarious Rex, aka our own zombie lover Big Daddy

Kal Spelletich (SEEMEN) (SEEMEN in action)

K r © B

David Apocalypse

Paul Cesewski

Hammer Horror Classics

Mr. Mark (of Lifesized Mousetrap) & Madame Rose (of Baxtalo Drom), former reigning champs of Halloween with The Haunted Barn, will predict your future

…and loads of archival footage, art, and assholes!

Bill The Junkman himself will take the stage at some point, handing out ceremonial Junk of the finest quality and pedigree to lucky members of the audience.

See it all on Saturday, October 31st at 8pm @ CELLspace

Some of the many folks helping with this Tip O’ the Hat and expression of Love and Respect for Billy The Junkman are: Katy Bell, Simone Davalos, Mark Perez & Rose Harden, Dave X, David Durand, and Linda Lagunas

photo by Scott Beale

Though hundreds came and went over the years, there was a very rare breed who were actually EMPLOYED by the Junkman. So respect and recognition for the special few who pulled a paycheck (or cash or buds or…) at the finest Junkyard in San Francisco’s long, gleeful and sordid history. They including, in no discernible order:

Dave Durrand (#3), Julian Xu, Mark (Einstein) Hampton, Justin C. Atwood (Jarico Reese), Rob (Pervert) Hampton, Simone Davalos, Tym (Circus Boy) Simpson, Sue Glover, Joe Dean, Cheri (Rat Girl) Brugmann, Michael Lyons, Kim Knight, Samantha Campos, Jillian Iva, John Castro, Michael (Flash) Hopkins, Phil Sanchez, Kevin Mathieu, and Nick.

Ace Auto is Dead! Long Live Ace! — Video by Dave (Number 3) Durand

Maybe it’s not surprising that scrappy artists and a scrap yard owner find mutual benefits and common cause, especially in the colorful and costly city of San Francisco. But please come enjoy the creativity and contrariness of some fantastic performers, and also celebrate and help support a guy who has been pouring fuel on that fire for 25 years.

photo by James Sime

See Simone’s earlier post for more on Ace, and don’t forget to READ THE COMMENT THREAD to get bludgeoned even harder by how important the man and the ‘yard were for the SF art community.

This John Law post was channeled through mikl-em.

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