The "San Francisco Treat" Edition :: Rusty's Electric Dreams, Issue #172

“You don’t make art out of good intentions.” — Gustave Flaubert

Rusty’s Electric Dreams, an inbox zine for positive deviants and the people who love them
Issue #172 :: The “San Francisco Treat” Edition :: 3:28:2018

The San Francisco Treat…

I moved to the Bay Area in the spring of 1994. It took me five years to get myself across the Golden Gate Bridge.

Everyone back then was “FIVE YEARS?!” In retrospect, that was nothing. It took me 24 years to get myself on a cable car.

I don’t know why I’ve never got on one. It just never happened. When I’ve been a tourist in my own town, I’ve always ended up doing something else, something that doesn’t require a novelty ride on a manually-operated mode of transportation.

Well, for Christmas this year, my brother sent SJ and me vouchers for City Pass (Thanks, Bubba!). With it, you get a booklet of tourist attraction tickets AND three days use of Muni, the public transit system that operates San Francisco’s cable cars.

So, on Saturday, I took SJ to SF to visit SFMOMA. Then, we hitched a ride on the cable car together.

It was fun. It was also mildly frightening. We sat on the wooden benches facing out, the ones open to the street. I looked for seatbelts and there were none. We got off that one and onto a more crowded one. I had to stand.

Someone took this photo of us and sent it to me:

Strangers can be so kind.

(Just kidding. I really did ride the cable cars with SJ but I was too busy holding on to take any decent pictures.)
—
Speaking of cable cars and my brother, check out this then and now portrait we did a few years ago. (I know what you’re thinking, “Why didn’t you ride the damn car back then?!” Well, I don’t remember why exactly. I think it was because it took a long time to find that exact one and maybe it wasn’t actually running to begin with…?)

–Rusty Blazenhoff

P.S. Save the date: a new Bay Area meetup is in the works! (See the events section.) Also: no zine for the next two weeks. I mean it this time.

This space intentionally left up hill

As seen on the Internets

Stash House on Boing Boing

ICYMI: I wrote about our meetup at Stash House on Boing Boing. TL;DR version: it was AWESOME and you should go!

:: Bill Cunningham wrote a secret memoir titled “Fashion Climbing” and asked that it be published two years after his death. June marks the second anniversary since he passed. The book will be released in September. I’m REALLY stoked to read it.
:: https://boingboing.net/2018/03/23/street-style-photographer-bill.html

:: Just start
:: https://medium.com/personal-growth/the-most-important-word

:: “Does Having a Day Job Mean Making Better Art?” (Maybe it’s good to have an “artistic temperament“?)
:: https://www.nytimes.com/magazine/art/artist-day-job.html

:: One man’s chronicle of sleeping on store display beds
:: https://www.vice.com/heres-what-happens-if-you-fall-asleep-in-a-display-bed

:: If you lived through it, you’ll remember: the rise and fall of Yahoo!
:: https://www.fastcompany.com/the-glory-that-was-yahoo

:: Oh, the difficulties of photographing mirrors
:: https://twitter.com/i/moments/977020217652948992

:: I’ve been making homemade granola. Some people think that’s gross (cough*they might be reading this right now*cough) but I think it tastes great and so does my picky kid. This is the recipe that I’ve been using, although now I use coconut sugar in place of the brown sugar and maple syrup. (I know, I’ve become one of THOSE people.)
:: https://cooking.nytimes.com/olive-oil-granola-with-dried-apricots-and-pistachios

:: My heart be still: a great “where are they now?” piece on k.d. lang
:: https://www.nytimes.com/kd-lang-ingenue-tour.html

:: I’m not sure why I’m sharing this exactly: Dates for a bunch of eating contests
:: http://www.majorleagueeating.com/contests.php

:: Slices of ketchup: just because you can, doesn’t mean you should
:: https://boingboing.net/ketchup-slices-shaped-like-ch.html

Real things you can actually buy: yay?

From Japan, ofc… From the product’s translated-to-English description on its crowdfunding page (because I truly couldn’t describe it better myself): “As a pillow pillow, I want you to heal as much as you like, in the chest of men. It is a muscle type cushion male pillow that answered such a thought.”

I’ll take ten.

via

Real things you can actually buy: no way!

Couture Crocs… Balenciaga Demna’ Gvasalia has “a habit of trolling the fashion industry with upscaled versions of mundane items.” Case in point: these bubblegum pink platform Crocs. They’re $850/pair.

Real things you can actually buy: no way!

They’re “to die for”… A friend was getting weird ads from Walmart in his Facebook feed, including one for these Funeral Potatoes. 100% a real thing you can actually buy! (You can also make your own.) I had never heard of them, you?

“Having originated in the West this delightful dish is anything but grim. In various parts of the USA it’s also known as Potato Casserole, Party Potatoes, Cheesy Potatoes, and Mormon Potatoes. Commonly served at funerals and social gatherings.”

Featured events

826 + KML = BFFS

This sounds downright delightful: [4/19-4/28] Killing My Lobster (sketch comedy troupe) has been teaching kids how to write sketch comedy at 826 Valencia (amazing kids writing center). Now some grownups are going to perform the skits the kids wrote. Frickin’ fantastic idea!

It happens at PianoFight in San Francisco. Six performances only. Tickets are $10 to $50 each.

Alameda
[3/30] Saint Stupid: The Movie at Rhythmix Cultural Works, 7 PM to 8:30 PM

Bay Area
[4/28] SAVE THE DATE: Bay Area Electric Dreams meetup #2
— There will be room for eight people total (me plus seven guests)
— Cost will be about $25 plus lunch money
If you’re interested –at all– email me asap and I’ll send out details about what’s on the agenda. From there, you can decide if you’re IN or not. You should be IN, I’m telling you!

Berkeley
[4/5] That Really Happened? A night of true stories at The Monkey House (my friend Cherry takes the stage this night!), 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM

Glendale, CA
[Opens 4/1] The Museum of Selfies

San Francisco
[3/28] TONIGHT: dorkbotsf #99 (former A-i-R Doc Pop will be presenting!) at DNA Lounge, 7 PM to 11 PM

[4/1] 40th Annual Saint Stupid’s Day Parade, starts at Noon

[4/1] The annual BYOBW (Bring your own Big Wheel) event is happening this year on EasterFools

[4/24] Odyssey Works’ Empathy and Experience Design Workshop, 6 PM to 9 PM, Tickets

[5/19] Bikes to Books Five-year Anniversary Spring Ride combines “San Francisco history, art, literature, cycling, and urban exploration,” 1 PM to 4 PM