Update: SFGate/Chronicle wrote a fairly balanced article about CM:15. “The Question”, an unscientific survey on the sidebar, made me laugh.
Ten years a month ago, I arrived to San Francisco with two suit cases and no plan. Sort of knew one person I met in Italy two years earlier, and had done a small bit of AOL browsing online. I found SRL videos, Chicken John devivals, and BLF billboard jams. Only after I arrived did I discover that Burning Man was based in San Francisco, and was shocked to see that I was in the City the very week of the event. Flipping through that week’s Bay Guardian back in late August 1997, I made an even larger discovery: Critical Mass. The month before, Mayor Willie Brown had decided to try to control the five-year-old, ad hoc bike ride home, and arrested about 200 bicyclists in the process. So things where tense in San Francisco my first Friday ever in the whole state.
Amazed that something like Critical Mass even existed, I showed up to Justin Herman Plaza with a camera full of black and white film and a big grin. I didn’t have a bike, but what I saw inspired me to get my old mountain bike shipped to me as soon as possible. With helicopters flying overhead, hundreds and hundreds of cyclists filled the plaza. I got flyers, stickers, offers to drink beer, and walked through the jubilant crowd as they left for the ride. With the SFPD all over the place, the atmosphere was more like a party than a protest.
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So glad that my morning opened up tomorrow, because I spent all day today working on photos. Know that I pared about 60 more of my own because I just checked my trash before I emptied it. I probably edited out about 20 of the submissions, and think that I’m 95% done with that process. Hoped to write today but got busy on the photos after I sent out a batch of e-mails with URGENT in the subject line. Klutch dropped his info, Logan Hicks finally sent his along, and Andie Grace from Burning Man LLC OK’d all the photos (the fact that I just shoot the stencil, and not the art it is on, helped them approve all the pics). And Justine OK’d the Excel format that I gave her for file information. So I hit the photo folders again and again, looking at the flow, finding similar photos, and trying to create some type of narrative with the images. I then dug into the Stencil Archives to try to find a few that where better examples. I lost a hard drive about six years ago and am still paying for not backing up my files. While going through the folders, a new batch of uncredited photos cropped up, so I had to e-mail those artists to ask them how to credit the files. Carrie got back in touch and said that she’d dig into her archives tonight to try to find her Scott Williams mural shots I need. Gee Vaucher, the Sandinista connection may submit, but I’m not waiting around. Now the task of file naming and logging begins, along with the final push of writing the text. Still wondering how it will all fit and hope that Justine has the magic to make that happen. Taking a break from the photos tomorrow to write. They had a mind of their own today, so maybe they’ll be quiet tomorrow. Good luck to Andie and Logan on their paths to parenthood (They both told me that they’re expecting babies today. They aren’t a couple; just a coincidence that they both told me within an hour of each other). Neck and right arm aching from either looking down at the laptop or reaching up to click on the mouse. Ah, the sufferings of a writer obsessed. On a final note, was talking about moderation with Laura yesterday and realized that I tend to moderate the items that come into my life… except stencils and writing! Ahhhhh…. pass the Tiger Balm.
Thought I’d post these while I had time and notion:
I looked at the PARK(ing) Day’s online map for San Francisco and jotted down some stops along the way to lunch with Laura. First stop: Rainbow Coop and Friends of the Urban Forest’s park. Liked the wood chips instead of sod (overheard DPW folks later that day wondering what to do with the sod) as well as the free veggie plants. I took a chard plant for Laura’s garden.
Rolled to Road Rage Bike’s park, and got to catch the REBAR posse on their “parkcycle.” That’s the velodisco art car under the sod, tree, and aluminum siding. Ran into Justin, one of the velodisco’s creators, at City Hall later on, so he told me that a lot had been tweaked. Behind the Parkcycle, the neighboring cosmetology school had massage tables set up. The SF Bike Coalition gave away coffee and cookies, stickers, and buttons. Across the street, One Taste’s park had free chair massages. When the parkcycle drove off, they literally stopped traffic on Folsom St. A delivery truck almost ran over them as they meandered over to the far left lane! (more…)
Photo editing has begun. I have thrown out about 100 of my own photographs (there are still dozens more in the book) and over 60 of the submitted ones (which will end up on the forthcoming stencilnation.com), using reasonings that most editors will understand: this one is similar to that one, this one doesn’t fit what I’ve written, that one is out of focus, that artist has too many in this section, etc. Beginning the photo shearing has also given me an idea of how the page spreads will look for the sections: Tokyo will probably get a page, San Francisco about 4, D.S. Black two, etc. I have also started the photo-file-detail formatting process, detailing one folder and eming it to Justine the designer for her OK on it. Once she likes what she sees, then I’ll begin the process for each and every photo file. Feels like it’s going to be grueling, but like most design tasks, I’ll find that groove and forget about the time (my aching shoulder joints won’t). Visited Scott Williams today and showed him the time line (made a tweak) and the photos that I chose to put in his section (a few tweaks). A friend of his came over, and she has photos of Scott’s 1980s work, as well as stencil photos from Poland in 1990. She even thought she could put the word out for other people to look for old stencil photos around the world! Ahhh, that Stencil History book keeps looking better all the time. Gee Vaucher em’d back with tweaks to the time line, and might try to get photos to me this week. Susan Meiselas em’d back too and will see what she can find in her 1980s Sandinista archives this week. And Klutch finally submitted his images, but forgot the details! Still no word from Andie and the BRC LLC…. Writing time tomorrow. Think it’s going well, this book. Already starting to think of ways to promote it (the producer hat is sneaking on my head), which won’t start in earnest until early 2008.
Photo wrangling continues for Stencil Nation. I think it’ll all come together this week, because it must be finalized now. Yesterday, I biked over to 24th street and picked up a DVD of over 50 scans of 1980s and early 1990s street stencils from D.S. Black. We had a great talk about street art, stencils, Thomas Pynchon, and other things. He began to mention places where I could continue research on stencil history. “At this point,” I replied, “I can’t keep digging and researching the origins.” Pausing to think, I then said, “maybe if someone asks me to write another book about stencils, it’ll be about its origins only.” Earlier this week, Josh MacPhee threw out more leads to follow for stencil origins, and I told him that it was too time-consuming at this point. And this morning, I see two e-mails in my inbox from two people I had contacted months ago for stencil history and historical photos. Gee Vaucher of the CRASS collective dropped a quick line wondering if she had replied to my initial em. Photographer Susan Meiselas finally got in touch with me regarding her photographs in Nicaragua in the 1980s. She offered to look for Sandinista stencils and gave me another lead on finding documentation. So, I’m putting the idea out there for an art history book on stencils. Klutch and Logan Hicks are still on the wrangled list, and an activist here in the Mission is giving me a CD of Oaxaca images today to maybe add to the ones I already have. Still haven’t heard from Andie Grace of the BRC LLC regarding Burning Man stencil art. Ach! Getting close, but no cigar yet. Writing continues and goes well. Justine is working on new cover comps. Will call her very soon! PS: Finally got to read some Overspray ‘zine/mag issues thanks to Janet Attards mailing them my way. Good to see that they’re trying to keep street art real, keeping the communities in dialog about the art, the politics, the fine balance between starving and making a living, etc. Also finally watched some of Matt McCormick’s short “The Subconscious Art of Graffiti Removal.” People keep asking me if I’ve seen it, so now I get a taste of its brilliance. And, sadly, the Albany Landfill seems to have been evicted for “clean up” today. That usually means one less spot for graffiti and radical urban living.
PARK(ing) Day has become an international event in only two years, and will once again bring temporary PARKs to many places across San Francisco tomorrow. What a simple idea: take over parking spaces, set up a temporary autonomous park (grass, benches, couches, etc.), maybe feed the meter, and turn your ideas of urban living inside out. The people at Rebar have done well with this concept; it is now going to happen in at least 12 other USA cities as well as 10 international cities. Earlier this year, I heard Rebar give a report-back about another project of theirs, COMMONspace, at Southern Exposure’s Situationist-themed Annual Meeting event at the De Young Museum. That project also pushed the boundaries of public space, its use, meaning, and definition in the context of a private-friendly downtown.
Hopefully you won’t miss tomorrow’s great expression of literally taking back the streets. If you do, then organize your own PARK next year!
