Back in the Day

Revisiting 1930's Bay Area Motorsports Culture

Oakland Speedway, Nov. 1931.

Oakland Speedway, Nov. 1931.

Dirty Dave recently scanned a bunch of old photos from his “obviously badass” Great Uncle Harvey documenting Depression-era motorcycle and motorsports culture in the Bay Area.  The collection is full of unknown badasses, midget cars (there used to be an indoor midget race track in Downtown Oakland), a Warren Jalliano Special, and other good stuff.

Now if we're lucky, Burrito Justice will be able to use this source material for something epic.

(photo by SqueakyCleanDave)

Mission Loc@l Profiles Eric Fischer

If you've read any of the various SF blogs over the past few years, there's a good chance you've come across Eric Fischer's work.  His flickr account is full of ancient maps, rad data visualizations, scanned photographs from years past, and photos of misspelled street markings.  Despite the massive amount of content he posts, we generally don't get to hear much about the work from his voice.  Lucky for us, Mission Loc@l got an interview with him:

…he’s spent his adult life trying to make sense of urban geography. “This has been a long obsession of trying to figure out what makes some places work and some places not.”

What works? San Francisco, he says. “It’s one of the few places where for the most part it’s easier to walk places than to drive.” And what doesn’t work? “Des Moines, where you’ve got pedestrian bridges everywhere between buildings so that nobody ever actually goes outside.”

And then there’s the great paradox: “Why does the Las Vegas strip work in spite of itself?” he wonders, citing the large numbers of pedestrians in spite of its inhospitable streetscapes. Could it have anything to do with public drinking? “Maybe,” he shrugs.

Read on.

The Chronicle Discovers "San Francisco's mad, marvelous Mission District"

The Chronicle featured a “virtual stroll” through the Mission today, much to the delight of SFgate commenters (“Thank goodness its only a virtual tour.” / “Beautiful. And smells way better from the comfort of my living room.”).  On face value, there is nothing wrong with a virtual tour of the Mission, especially if it satiates C.W. Nevius fans' desire to explore the neighborhood.  However, this photoessay is a bizarre journey into a Mission that no longer remains.

According to the Chronicle, 12 Galaxies is still open, Bruno's continues to serve food, a “quasi-verified” Banksy mural remains above Amnesia, and Excelsior is actually part of the Mission.  They even mention Mr. TV, who I haven't seen on Valencia since the Summer.

Call me a hater, but shit like this just makes me feel pity for the dying publication.

(Side note, why does Google maps list Buena Vista and Dolores as the same park?)

Newly Discovered Indie Prequel to 'Tron: Legacy' Screening for Free at the Independent Tonight

Unconfirmed rumors speculate that 2k8 internet celeb 'Tron Guy' will make a cameo as Jeff Bridges' digital love interest.

The Independent on Divis is screening Disney's original 1982 'Tron' tonight at 8pm for free*.  In anticipation, I'll be spreading rumors of a Daft Punk/Tron Guy co-DJ appearance via Twitter.  Details @ The Independent.

*= It should be noted that the Independent's definition of 'free' includes a footnote about a two drink minimum. 

Exploring Playland's Past

Ocean Beach Bulletin was lucky enough to score an early copy of the new book, “San Francisco's Playland at the Beach: The Early Years” by local historian James Smith.  While the history of a lost oceanfront amusement park might not be your thing, the book is packed with 400 photos and illustrations of the park in its glory years.  OBB explains:

Smith’s book shows some of the best-known Playland rides in their earliest incarnations: the Aeroplane Swing; the Dodg-Em bumper cars; construction of the Shoot the Chutes water ride that was the first big attraction to the area (excluding the carousel and perhaps the Pacific Ocean). Check out the 1920s kids waiting in line wearing paperboy caps, ties and knickers. View the extravagant nuttiness and racist iconography of Topsy’s Roost, a dining and dancing venue with slides from elevated “chicken coop” booths to the dance floor below. Topsy, a ragamuffin character from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” smiles in pickaninny glory on the restaurant façade. San Francisco was no island of racial sensitivity when it came to selling chicken dinners in the 1920s.

The post goes on the talk about getting beat up for your It's-It money and whiskey being sold in coffee cups.  Sounds like it was my kind of place.

Read on or buy the book.

Piles of Old Newspapers For Sale at Viracocha

Viracocha, that antique shop for cool kids on Valencia at 20th, has a stack of Bay Area newspapers from the 1920s and '40s for ten bucks each.  As you can imagine, the papers are an incredible read:

  • “Holdup on Market Street!”
  • The Board of Sups debate removing the rails from Market Street (2010 cyclists would be grateful).
  • 14-year-old girl shoots “her boyish admirer after a quarrel.”
  • “Don't do it!” was cited, in bold, as a “reason to live” given to a would-be suicide jumper.

Anyway, while digging through articles about killing Nazis and sunny weather, I came across this gem upon the front page of the April 20th, 1922 edition of The Bulletin:

Go while the gettin's good.

Out: The Glenn Burke Story Opens Tonight at the Castro Theatre

 Glenn Burke 

On the heel of World Series fever here in San Francisco, a different look at the game is being screened tonight in the Castro Theatre. Out: The Glenn Burke Story is a film about a man who made two major marks on major league baseball history  way back in 1977. At the end of the season in '77, after former Giants coach and then teammate Dusty Baker hit a homerun, Burke gave Baker a high-five. Later when Burke hit his first homerun, Baker returned the high-five favor, cementing Burke as the creator of the now universal sign of recognition, triumph, and comradery— the high-five. Also in 1977 (1977 people!) Burke became the first openly gay baseball player in MLB history when he disclosed to teammates and the managerial staff at the Los Angeles Dodgers that he was a homosexual.  At the time, one of the most conservative teams in baseball, the Dodgers went so far as to offer Burke a bonus to get married to a woman to keep his homosexuality a secret, which he declined. He later dated Dodgers Manager Tony Lasorda's estranged gay son before being traded to the Oakland Athletics, despite helping the Dodgers make it to the World Series. As if we needed another reason to hate the Dodgers…

To this day, Burke is the only openly gay baseball player in MLB history. Go see his story tonight.

More Info: Movie trailer.  Order tickets.

One Day This Kid...

David Wojnarowicz (1954 — 1992), Untitled (One Day This Kid…), 1990

Before you read any of this, stop. Read the text surrounding the little boy in the image above. Great, thanks.

On October 28th, Tyler Green of Modern Art Notes wrote that the artist David Wojnarowicz seems important right now. Green authored this post about Wojnarowicz, the New York artist who gained notoriety in the East Village art scene of the 1980s, in wake of hearing about the rise of anti-gay bullying and the gay teenage suicide epidemic sweeping our nation. Wojnarowicz's work was created 20 years ago, but as we have seen so recently, his words are still very relevant. I'm also pretty sure that any person growing up LGBT or questioning can attest, anti-gay bullying is nothing new to the community. But finally, there's some major action going on to spread the word that It Get's Better.

In his post Green called for the Museums that have Wojnarowicz's Untitled (One Day This Kid…) in their permanent collection to place the piece on display immediately in order to engage the public with this honest depiction of growing up gay in America. Apparently, none of the five museums Green listed have placed this work on view yet. However, the amazing people at P.P.O.W. Gallery who represent Wojnarowicz's estate are doing their part to use the power of art to effect change in our communities. The above piece Untitled (One Day This Kid…) is now available for download through this site. As Wojnarowicz's said in his book Close to the Knives: A Memoir of Disintegration, “bottom line, if people don't say what they believe, those ideas and feelings get lost. If they are lost often enough, those ideas and feelings never return.” So read it, print it, post it, share it. Because sharing is caring, and in this case it might just help save some lives.

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