dennis yang dot com

Photographer Julie Michelle is running an awesome project called “i live here: SF” where she meets up with a San Francisco resident and takes some pictures of them in some of their favorite spots. I was her featured SF’er of the day:

Thanks Julie!

Anyway, if you’re interested in participating in the project, read this.

For the past few years, my friend shooey has gone to this super cool event called Visual Aid — it’s a charity art auction, proceeds of which go to artists with life-threatening illnesses.  How it works is this.. admission is $35, and it’s a “flat price auction,” so each piece of art is $160 — and every person gets to pick 2 pieces they want at that price, first come first serve.  Then, once everyone is done, they drop the price to $130.. people buy at that price.. then $100.. then $75.. and finally $50..  There’s 650 pieces of donated art to choose from, and I’d say about 500 people in attendance.

Since it’s first come first serve, in years past, people have started camping out as early as Thursday to get a good spot in line.  This year, for one reason or other, they decided to outlaw camping, instead opening the gates at 5am on Saturday, and auctioned off the top 10 spots in “line” to raise some more money.  Now, while I was not exactly *thrilled* at the thought of sleeping outside in SoMa Friday night, the whole “no camping” policy kind of put a slight damper on things for me — I mean, I haven’t camped out for anything since college, but yah.. the initial concept without being able to “buy” a spot in line was kind of cool..

Anyway, we toyed with the notion of bidding for one of the top spots in line, I mean.. what’s a few hundred bucks in exchange for a night of sleeping comfortably in bed.  But, I had never been, so I didn’t know the quality of the art, and I think the whole auction thing was kinda pissing me off so I didn’t wanna support it.

So, instead, shooey and I met up at 3am on Saturday.  Ouch.  And, to make things even better, it was FREEZING  and RAINING.  Ok, FREEZING in the SF sense, in that 45 degrees in San Francisco feels more like 25 degrees anywhere else.  It was cold.  I was not happy.  But, luckily, SomArts is like 5 blocks from my house, so after a few miserable hours of sitting in the rain freezing my arse off, I ran home and changed into my ridiculous winter coat and snow pants.  And then.. we waited.

I slept for a bit, listened to two episodes of “This American Life,” and chatted with shooey to pass the time.  We had originally thought to bring cards or something, but it was too cold and rainy to even attempt that.

That said, I think I’m pretty good at sitting and waiting.  It was actually kind of nice to be slightly (ok, I still had my iphone) disconnected from the world for a few hours.  The hours rolled away easily, and soon enough, we had our bid cards in hand, and then I was able to steal away home for a few hours before the auction.  I was #16.

The doors to the gallery opened at 4pm, and we all piled in excitedly.  Sure, there was free food and drink, but I barely remember eating or drinking anything for the first hour, I was so focused on finding the pieces of art I wanted.  I was slightly disappointed to find that my favorite pieces from the art preview that Visual Aid had posted on their site were all in the live auction, and not the flat price auction…  Aondrea Maynard’s Horizon and Gale Antokal’s Place 10 were both ridiculously beautiful in person.  They went for $3,000 and $2,500 respectively during the live auction.

Anyway, I ran around like a mad man looking at the 650 pieces of art.  At first glance, I only liked those two that were for live auction, and I was kind of annoyed.  Grrr!  I didn’t want anything!  But, then I started looking a bit more, and more deliberately, I started seeing a few more things I liked.  Phew.

My first choice was this one:

Bunny Existential, by Addie Shevlin

Shooey also liked that one, which was an issue — what happened if we both had overlapping choices on our list!?  Out of the 650, I had 16 that I liked… out of that list, Shooey and I overlapped on 3.

Turns out, it was moot, cuz all of the ones we both liked ended up taken by the time it was our turn to choose.  Bleh.  Shooey was super bummed cuz the one that she really liked was this bee painting, and on the big board, it was still available — but, when she went to choose, it was gone, so she had to make a gametime decision and choose another.

So stressful!

Anyway, I got up to the desk, heart a-poundin’ and I was able to get my #2 and #3 choices of the show:

Betula (Red) by Phillip Hua 2009, Mixed Media

I really liked the whole idea of making art on newspaper, and somehow, the fact that we cover the newspaper industry a lot at work made me appreciate this pieces a bit more, who knows.

Sleeping Tanks by Manu Schnetzler, Photograph Mounted on Aluminum

Now, ideally, I really wanted a painting — I dunno, I LOVE photography, and I have a lot of it, so I wanted to balance out my collection a bit with some paintings..  But, I couldn’t resist the allure of this piece, which was mounted beautifully on aluminum.  It’s a bit hard to photograph it, so here‘s a better image of the photo (but mine is cropped a bit).

After the excitement of choosing my works, I was able to eat a bit and drink a bit (really strong martinis, hello.)  And then the live auction started..  Now, I’ve never been to an art auction of any sort, but this one, perhaps fueled by 2 hours of free drinking, was loud and raucous.  People were jumping up and down and high fiving after they won their bids.  I may have incited some high fiving.  That said, man.. when thousands of dollars are flying around, it’s insane how ITCHY your head gets.

Head… so… itchy… need to scratch.. but don’t want to bid $5,000 for gummy bear painting…. crap crap crap crap.

But I didn’t end up buying anything by accident, although I was very, very tempted by that Aondrea Maynard painting — after checking out her site, I am coveting even more of her work now.  Amongst my favorite artists are JMW Turner and Rothko, so her work kind of evokes that kind of feeling.  Crap, maybe $3,000 would have been a good deal.  Art is a good investment right?

In any case, the live auction concluded and they started dropping the prices on the remaining artworks.  Mike Mcconnell had a drawing in the sale that I liked, and since his work was kind of lower on the wall, I was hoping that it would go unnoticed and I would be able to swoop in and grab it.  I already have one of his paintings and would love to add some more to my collection.

I had my eye on this one photograph that I wanted when the prices started to drop.  It was of a snowy country field, and reminiscent of some of my own photographs, so I really liked it.  It was hung in a prominent eye-level spot, and one by one, the works around it kept getting bought… but I waited.. $130.. no.. wait wait.. nervously trying to look at it, but not pay it *too* much attention lest someone else notice that I was looking at it a lot and buy it..  $100… steady as she goes.. and finally, at $75, I bit the bullet and bought it.

Hill Road by Jonathan Taylor, c print ed. of 30, 2006.

We got home at around 10pm and surveyed our take.. Amongst the three of us, me, Shooey and Shissla:

17 hours + a few hundred bucks = 7 pieces of art.

Not bad.  Now, just need to figure out where to hang it all.

“The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco.”
   – Mark Twain

Uh.. yah Mr. Twain… you should come check this out.

Is this what summer is? Awesome.

Maybe it’ll snow this winter.

So.. I’ve moved into my new digs here in SoMa, and it’s very exciting.. Andy has now graduated from being my housemate, to being my downstairs neighbor, so that’s pretty awesome. The new neighborhood is a bit different than Hayes Valley. The streets are a lot bigger here, with multiple lanes of one-way traffic running down many of them. That, and the bigger city blocks, makes the hood seem a lot less vibrant than my old hood. However, I’ve found that impression to be only skin deep — the neighbors that I’ve met so far are super friendly, and more people seem to stop and chat on the street than in the old hood (and not just to spare change you), so that’s kind of nice.

Also, there’s a ton of new development going on around this hood that will probably affect change in the coming years. Some notable developments in the new hood:

• The SoMa Grand is open now.. so maybe an influx of fancy people will bring some cool new shops and restaurants to the hood..
• Right next door to the SoMa grand, 1188 Mission is well under construction — it will eventually replace the old Trinity Plaza building next door (current residents of the Trinity are given the option to move into the new building with their rents staying the same). (Sidebar: Joe wrote a very interesting post about rent control the other day.. it’s worth a read.) The fate of the Moonstar Buffet is TBD, I believe. When it’s done, there’s going to be 21,000 square feet of retail and and nearly 1,900 housing units. More people = more stuff to support said people = good for the neighborhood, I hope.
  
• There seems to be a lot of vacant lots/unoccupied space around here… A lot more than in other neighborhoods. Given the super central location of this hood, it seems like an obvious place for people to start moving to. I’m just here a little early. What are the three most important things about real estate? Location, location, location — I’m told.
• Finally, there are some ambitious plans to turn Folsom into a more pedestrian-friendly retail zone. As these renderings show, changing Folsom from a 4 lane one-way through way to a 3 lane two way street would make it much, much nicer. We’ll see if it actually happens, but the plans look pretty cool to me.

So yah, I’m long on SoMa. Hopefully I’m right.

The food options in this hood are seemingly sparse, but actually is turning out to be not bad. There’s no “main drag” in this part of town, so there’s not like a critical mass of retail/food establishments. Then again, union square, the sf shopping center, and the new mall are like 3 (albeit, big) blocks away.. So, the food that I’ve found around here tends to be more pedestrian fare, which is good, cuz I’m actually looking mainly for places that I can grab a quick, cheap lunch. Coffee Mine and Harvest Urban Market are my two current favs, both within a block of my house. Woot. Finally, Bossa Nova is right around the corner, and I’ve heard really good things, so I will be checking that out soon. More food posts will come in the future, as I find the hidden food gems of SoMa.

Anyway.. pictures of the new place will come soon. I’m still buried in a sea of boxes.

A few months ago, a fantastic project, the Panhandle Bandshell, was installed in the Panhandle here.. It’s made of recycled water bottles, car hoods, and computer parts, and it makes me smile every time I run, bike or drive by it.. The idea of it is to be a kind of community performance space — something to bring the neighborhood together with music.. That’s kind of nice. I’ve stopped by a few times now, and seen a few small performances here and there. Nothing too huge and spectacular, usually just a few people playing to a crowd of about a dozen or so people. It was funded by a generous grant by the SF Department of the Environment and the Black Rock Arts Foundation, of which I’m a happy sponsor.

I love community art — here in Hayes Valley, we were blessed with the temple for a few months in 2005.. I was sad when that went away, but now we have a funny little mini golf course… It’s little things like these that me smile. I really want to upholster a tree stump one of these days.

Anyway — so, the panhandle bandshell failed to get an extension on its permit, so on September 15th, it’s coming down. Neighbors complain that it’s never really used that much, except as a homeless sleep shelter. Um.. grrrr. This kind of thinking infuriates me — I mean, the bandshell did not create our homeless problem here in SF — that’s a completely different issue. But yah — it’s not used THAT much, so the noise complaint is kind of moot, but that said, let’s give it a chance at least during the REAL SF Summer (which everyone knows is September-October)..

WTF is up with these people and their assault on fun? Halloween is canceled in the Castro this year (ok, in all fairness the fun was killed by lame people, and not by the administrators).. At least they haven’t messed with Bay2Breakers (yet). But the Panhandle Bandshell seems like the exact kind of good, clean, community, musical fun that we should be promoting, no?

Anyway… as for what to do about this, I’m not quite sure. The extension was already denied on Thursday, so I guess I’ll be going this weekend to check out a few shows before it’s gone. Chicken John is running for mayor, and if his fundraiser is any sign, I think he understands the promotion of fun and art in this city. I think Gavin has done a pretty good job, but I’ll have to look into things more before I make a decision.

Argh. Stop making my fun city less fun you not fun people.

[Found at sfist]

Oh, the summer… We’ve had a few shootings and it looks like the SFPD is going to do something about it, and today, Gavin walked over to our hood (it’s like 3 blocks away from his office, so it’s not THAT big of an effort) and announced that they’re going to increase foot patrols in the hood.

Woohoo.

In other Hayes Valley news (found whilst looking for the police stories).. Hayes Valley is the epitome of cool.

Whilst having lunch at Golden King (mmm. tasty vietnamese food) today, we noticed that there was a midway setup right across the street right on the edge of Portsmouth Square right in Chinatown. How odd. Why would there be midway games? They had most of the classics — “shoot out the star”, “balloon dart toss”, “football through the toilet seat”, “basketball shoot” and “ping pong ball in the fishbowl”.. I was sad that they didn’t have “shoot the water gun in the clown’s mouth” game though — that was always my favorite, although now that I think of it.. that game isn’t really found in the traveling midway, just the more permanent ones at like Cedar Point and the like..

Anyway, $5 for a whole basket of ping pong balls seemed like a pretty good deal…

And after that whole ordeal, the group only got ONE ping pong ball in a bowl (good work, James). The prize? 2 goldfish, of course. In a plastic ziploc bag.

Meredith has named them Ping and Pong. I believe the over/under on their lifespan is.. um, 2 weeks right now. We’ll see how they do.

Psst. This Wednesday, Justin Hermann Plaza, 6pm.

Pillow Fight.

Yes, it’s Valentine’s Day. Extra points for anyone dressed up as Cupid.

So, 7×7 magazine just posted their annual “Eat & Drink” awards for San Francisco.. Hayes Valley restaurants scooped up 5 out of 20 of the awards:

best dessert: Citizen Cake
best pre-theater: Jardiniere
best for a large group: Sauce (woohoo! congrats you guys!)
best CA cuisine: Zuni Cafe
best restaurant cocktails: Absinthe

Woohoo.. go Hayes Valley. My hood rocks. Well, it’s definitely “up and coming” at least… And, it’s getting better — we’re getting at least two more new restaurants in this year, so that’s exciting. As Michelle excitedly reported last week, Miette Patisserie opened up here, which should give Citizen Cake a run for its money. I actually am not a huge fan of Citizen Cake — their desserts are WAY too sweet for my taste.

That said, I’m still a little disappointed with the eating choices we have here. It seems like we have either expensive fancy places, or disturbingly mediocre ones. Grr. I just want places that are cheap and super good… Like Hotei, Weird Fish, Citrus Club, and Hard Knox. Mmmmmm.

Oh yah.. this reminds me, but if you’re in San Diego and are looking for a good place to eat, check out sandiego.eats.it. Doug just launched it, and it’s looking pretty good. I’m waiting for him to launch sanfrancisco.eats.it — I’m all over that.

Just felt another quake! That one was more like a little wiggle. A wee lil’ 3.8.

That’s the 2nd one I’ve felt within a month! I guess better to have lots of little quakes, right?