Uptown Almanac

I'm not totally sure how the artist's statement behind this decapitated baby head whirligig would read, but I imagine its purpose is to make small children cry and make big children (me) laugh.  Regardless, it's the most refreshing piece of street art this blogger has seen in Clarion Alley in quite some time.

Here's a moving picture Instagram of it in action:

Whenever I read about local coffeeshop news in TechCrunch, I generally expect the news to not be good.  But in Philz' case, it might not actually be so bad.

According to TechCrunch, Philz raised over 3.75 million cups of Tesora worth of money to expand the 13-shop operation outside the Bay Area:

Today, Philz Coffee is adding some growth capital of its own. Although the company isn’t ready to disclose the exact amount, [Phil] Jaber says that the company has raised an eight-figure round that’s on the lower end of the spectrum. From what we can gather from sources, it appears to be in the $15 to $25 million range. The lead investor in the round is Summit Partners, and as a result of the firm’s investment, Summit Managing Director Greg Goldfarb will be taking a seat on the startup’s board of directors.

It's been a helluva story for Phil and his emerging startup.  Founded 25 years ago as a modest corner store at 24th and Folsom, he spent decades perfecting his secret coffee blends. Then in 2003, after decades of limited growth in the corner store market, Phil pivoted the company launched Philz Coffee in the same location.  Philz soon brought on rockstar Silicon Valley CEO "his son", opened over a dozen more stores, and cemented partnerships with Virgin America and Facebook, giving the small neighborhood coffee house the totally reasonable $40-70 million dollar valuation they have today.

Of course, one of the best features of Philz was never the coffee itself, but rather his shop felt like the kind of welcoming, worn-in den that only an old artist would open.  How they'll be able to replicate that freewheeling culture which they've become know for across hundreds of stores remains to be seen.

[Photo by Ed Schipul]

Because everyone wants to have their bangs trimmed in a motor vehicle, San Francisco is filling up fast with truck-based businesses that cater to more than our stomachs.  That's right, foodless food trucks that instead sell flowers and haircuts are all the rage, according to a glowing profile of she-trucks in San Francisco Magazine:

Sarah LaShelle, owner of the Mission salon Pretty Parlor, and her partner Misty Briglia started taking their new beauty truck, which they dubbed Pretty Parlor a GoGo, to big tech companies such as Facebook and Google last fall, where they offer services to employees. “We’d been talking about how cool it would be to own a mobile salon and decided to give it a shot before somebody else did,” LaShelle said. “Once we made up our minds, we bought a truck on Craigslist the next day.” She and Briglia celebrated with tequila shots and coordinating tattoos. [...]

“It’s definitely a labor of love,” LaShelle said of the undertaking. “The generator weighs a ton, and we have to take it and out to charge it after every trip.” Even finding a space to park the truck in the city has proved a challenge. Yet the duo has pressed on, traveling to music festivals and teaming up with wineries and neighborhood businesses for events where they offer makeup, spray tanning, waxing, and occasionally nail art and hair braiding. “We get a lot of attention as cute girls driving a big truck,” LaShelle said.

Is rolling retail here to stay or just the next passing fad we'll all be over in 18 months?  Either way, I'm pumped for the impending roll-out of the F.S.C. Barber Lifestyle Truck For Men.

[SF Magazine]

We always knew that the people protesting basic freedoms outside of Valencia Street's Planned Parenthood were a bit unhinged, but their tantrum during last week's Board of Supervisor's meeting--when the board created a 25 foot protest-free "bubble" around the city's reproductive clinics--defies our already low opinion of them.  The Examiner's Melissa Griffin caught the scene:

At the meeting, a number of anti-abortion activists came to register their opposition to the law, and while I usually listen to the meetings while doing other work, I stopped multitasking when the first activist said, “This is my daughter. She was born on April 22, much to the chagrin of my husband. April 20 — 4/20 — might have been more fun, living in San Francisco.”

So, yes, it started with drug humor and got worse. “I have a question for the supervisors and all the people present here. Have y’all heard of the Emancipation Proclamation?” said the next activist. “There was a time when, if I had the means and the desire, I could own slaves.”

Then, pointing to various supervisors, two of whom are black, she said, “I could own you. I could own you. I could — usually the black people — I could own them. Yes I could. You would belong to me.” She went on to say that eventually, we will all view abortion like slavery, as something we can’t believe we tolerated. At least that’s what I think she said. By that point, I had crawled completely under my desk.

Fortunately, the law passed.

[Examiner | Photo of a BACORR counter-protest by Steve Rhodes]