tomorrow farm

sad eyes and sustenance on 16th

2007-06-17T01:46:00.000-07:00

snub nosed metropolitan

2007-06-17T01:45:00.000-07:00

floating windmill

2007-06-17T01:44:00.000-07:00

abandoned kraut

2007-06-12T14:55:00.000-07:00

hot dog carts in new york now offer dogs in small, medium, and large sizes. when did this happen?

at the candy shop

2007-06-12T14:44:00.000-07:00

the candy shop is an ancient little diner on lexington & 82nd. the food is forgettable but the place is like a museum of authentically decaying midcentury luncheonette decor. that's a borden's malted milk powder dispenser in the photo along with the industrial hamilton beech milk shake machine.

east 14th st

2007-06-12T14:42:00.000-07:00

i just liked the old school, graphic nature of this sign. it seems like fewer and fewer places like this exist in the east village now.

burger nirvana

2007-06-12T14:35:00.000-07:00

for my birthday this year my brother took me to the secret burger joint near his office in midtown manhattan. actually it's really not so secret; there were about 40 people in line ahead of us waiting to get in, but you do have to go through a hotel lobby to get there and there's no name or sign other than a neon burger with an arrow pointing thataway. inside is truly divey and wonderful -- fake wood paneling, cardboard signs preemptively scolding you for not ordering the right way, ugly light fixtures and a ramones poster in spanish (los ramones: wanted, vivos o muertos!). and the burger was the platonic ideal of what a burger should be. worth every minute of waiting for it.

low country, revisited

2007-06-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

my baby brother in the best t-shirt ever. someone very classy must have given him that shirt. i'd hesitate to wear something like this in san francisco, but in south carolina meat is everywhere, including your breakfast cereal.

my parents are friends with a guy who details harleys for a living. this is a self-portait that was hanging in his bedroom.

my parents are retired. they keep their wits about them by betting their retirement funds on cutthroat bocce matches. exciting!

creepy tombstones in savannah, ga. for some reason it's really disturbing to me that i can't make out what george augustus clough died from at age 22. stranger's what? stranger's fate? what the hell does that mean??

some observations, and a fact

2007-05-26T07:33:00.000-07:00

the observations:

1. it's hot in the south

2. it's hard to deny that your mom has cancer when you see her wearing one of those bald lady turbans.

3. it's much easier to deny that your mom has cancer when you see her wearing a wig that looks exactly like her old haircut.

4. retirement communities are essentially the social equivalent of college dorms, except that they're full of older people and instead of gossiping about who is hooking up with whom, everyone gossips about who is potentially sick with what kind of ailment.

and the fact:

high school education wasn't compulsory in south carolina until 1988. yikes.

moods

2007-05-21T11:29:00.000-07:00

this is my "i'm leaving for a 2 week vacation during which time i'm going to eat lots of barbecue and then stay up for 5 nights straight while in new york" face.

this is my "i have to pack up all my shit before i leave because my office is moving from the mission to downtown while i'm gone" face.

this is my "nonprofit poverty sucks" face. no explanation necessary.

digger

2007-05-20T23:03:00.000-07:00

someone on bernal hill has a sense of humor.

19th & guerrero

2007-05-18T22:57:00.000-07:00

ps this sign was posted in the window of what used to be... a deli.

nyc circa 10/06

2007-05-18T22:53:00.000-07:00

I told Claude months ago I would post his photo here. Claude, I hope this was worth the wait.

el verano escondido

2007-05-17T14:37:00.000-07:00

you can rag on me all you want for romanticizing the northeast and its four seasons, but i am just so sick of the wind and the cold and the chill. in less than a week i'll be wrapped in eastern seaboard humidity, wearing t-shirts at night... and probably cursing it, wishing for the fog to roll in. has living in sf for a decade made me that thin-skinned? even worse -- it's made me nostalgic for wherever i'm not. sad.

we are all like balloons

2007-05-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

clifford in my backyard

2007-05-15T17:20:00.000-07:00

It was all I could do not to jump from my patio on top of Clifford the Big Red Inflatable Dog Bouncy Thing, potentially crushing the screaming-with-delight 7 year olds inside. Am I too old to have one of these things at my birthday party this year?

hola guapo mi amor

2007-05-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

darth tater

2007-05-15T17:18:00.000-07:00

easter crime up 30%

2007-05-15T17:16:00.000-07:00

the first rule of tekka is that there is no tekka

2007-04-26T00:56:00.000-07:00

I had tried to take Miwa to a certain unnamed sushi restaurant during each of her prior three visits to the city. Tonight the sushi gods smiled upon us and we prevailed. And availed ourselves of the famed omakase menu. Following is a blow by blow of our three hour meal. I'm still full hours later but also deeply regretting the fact that I didn't have room for the yaki onigiri. Kampai!

First course: tiny clams in the most lovely clear broth.

Second course: a trio of vegetables. This is the asparagus with miso sauce and seaweed salad, and a spicy kanpyo salad.

Third course: tuna tataki.

Fourth course: Kabocha squash tempura.

Fifth course: Agedashi tofu with eggplant and shishito peppers.

Sixth course: tuna poached with ginger; marinated gobo (burdock root)

Seventh course: the obscene plate of sashimi. Maguro, bluefin tuna, albacore, hamachi, salmon, scallop (the best thing i've ever eaten in my three decades on this earth), saba (a close runner up to those scallops), and squid.

are you getting full yet?

2007-04-26T00:43:00.000-07:00

We were. We tried but just couldn't eat the last few pieces. My heart broke a little bit at this point.

But then we kept going. Eighth course: enormous shrimp and mushrooms coated in panko and deep fried.

At this point Miwa gave up and resigned herself to sipping some green tea. I was busy mooching beer off our neighbors and gearing up for course number nine: the largest and sweetest piece of barbecued unagi ever. Seriously, I think it must have been 5 inches long.

There was still the spicy tuna to be had, and the salmon skin, and the grilled squid, and those yaki onigiri they only serve after 10pm... but it had been three hours, and it was time to throw in the towel until next time. Tenth course: fish-shaped pastry filled with red bean paste and vanilla ice cream. Oof.

coming soon to an easter basket near you

2007-03-21T16:25:00.000-07:00

Someone, somewhere, thought that children of all ages would delight in seeing foot-high marshmallow heads staring out at them with their soulless black licorice eyes from between the copious strands of plastic grass in their easter baskets this year. They look delicious, no? Like decapitated edible zombies.

low country weekend

2007-03-21T16:22:00.000-07:00

savannah apothecary

2007-03-21T16:18:00.000-07:00

disgustingly hip biking gear

2007-03-21T16:15:00.000-07:00

when 6-foot owls attack

2007-03-21T16:11:00.000-07:00

Actually, this owl is a peace-loving owl, and would likely never attack anyone despite its monstruous size. Happiest in its natural habitat of frosty mountain slopes, it makes do in Karen's living room, next to the Big Lebowski-inspired "stained glass" window. This house, incidentally, holds myriad pleasures, including homemade oatmeal ice cream.

cheaper by the lb

2007-02-14T15:27:00.000-08:00

various gerunds in brooklyn

2007-02-14T15:26:00.000-08:00

court st, october

2007-02-14T15:25:00.000-08:00

it's just better over there

2007-02-14T15:19:00.000-08:00

don't even try it: there is no denying the supremacy of the new york slice. sf makes a better burrito, and better coffee, and better organic produce. okay? but don't argue with me on this one.

bacon on my mind

2007-02-13T16:16:00.000-08:00

after posting what felt like a million pictures last night, i realized that a good handful of posts include references to bacon, (or pork, pigs, meat in general, etc). and i guess this post counts as yet another. my poor little eastern european arteries. i think i may need professional help.

corners of sf

2007-02-12T23:34:00.000-08:00

yes, but how do they taste?

god bless the st francis fountain. especially on a weekday. just look at all that perfectly cheesey, bacony goodness.

little fuzzy are my live-show idols. i need not explain myself, hmm?

phoenix airport, en route

2007-02-12T23:28:00.000-08:00

this sad photo of my sad shoes was taken while waiting for the second leg of my flight home from new york. i hadn't slept the night before, caught a shuttle at 3:45am, was stuck in a full van next to two screaming gals from milwaukee who not only reeked of alcohol but were *still drinking* guinness out of plastic cups, though they did offer me a chocolate covered entenmann's donut, which i happily accepted. the old finnish man in the front seat kept up a monologue to our driver, who text messaged relentlessly while piloting our van at top speed up 1st avenue. we were on the highway for about 5 minutes before traffic stopped for some enormous accident, so our driver put on the hazards and drove in reverse to the previous turnoff. at which point the finnish man in front began to blow up skinny balloons with a bicycle pump and twist them into animals for the rest of us. by the time i was dropped off at jfk i was about to lose my mind but also kind of amazed and weirdly content, it was such a new york moment. sadly, i was so tired that somewhere between my gate and my seat on the plane i managed to lose my winter coat, from brooklyn and precious to me and never to be seen again. so monumentally stupid as to almost be impressive, actually.

christie st

2007-02-12T23:26:00.000-08:00

underground

2007-02-12T23:23:00.000-08:00

oh! taisho

2007-02-12T23:19:00.000-08:00

st. marks place is now riddled with yakitori restaurants that serve all manner of tasty tidbits grilled on skewers. everything seems to be wrapped in bacon prior to grilling. this is a positive development, i think.

oh! mr taisho is on fire! if he were wrapped in bacon, he'd be even tastier.

dumpling love 2.0: a comparative study

2007-02-12T23:16:00.000-08:00

these dumplings are from a hole in the wall on allen st. please note the "scallion pancake" sandwich, consisting of some crazy chinese focaccia hybrid stuffed with bbq'd meat, carrots, cilantro, and some sauce that must have trace amounts of crack in it because... i need another one... now... for $1.50. the dumplings were better on mott st, though.

yeah! nyc chinatown

2007-02-12T23:15:00.000-08:00

naughty naughty chinatown

2007-02-12T23:07:00.000-08:00

can we please talk about this tissue dispenser? actually, never mind.

the man in the shop assured me these pillows are good for "relieving stress".

i can't imagine the hokkaido department of tourism is too happy about this.

red hook

2007-02-12T23:06:00.000-08:00

dumpling love

2007-02-12T22:51:00.000-08:00

the table full of amazingness above can be yours for a mere $6 -- that's for 18 dumplings and 2 quarts of soup. i may need to explore the competitive dumpling eating circuit. when i move back to new york, i plan on living on dumplings, and not just because they're all i'll be able to afford.

hands are creepy

2007-01-14T21:33:00.000-08:00

entropy building, SOMA

2007-01-14T21:28:00.000-08:00

someone wrote to complain that i hadn't posted in forever. apologies; i have a sizable backlog that i haven't gotten around to in months. anyway, the condemned building above is located in sf's south of market district. note the furniture that frozen mid-fall from the windows. this may be my favorite structure in the entire city. anyway, more to come shortly.

lighthouse (see: pigeon point)

2006-08-23T16:54:00.000-07:00

Those are handpicked (by hands I use everyday, and others I know well), organic berries from Swanton Berry Farm on Rte 1, near Pescadero. All retro honor system style -- u-pick, u-weigh, and u-put the cash in the till and take your change. Rock.

a little sweet, a little sad

2006-08-23T16:53:00.000-07:00

i heart the alemany flea market

2006-08-23T16:51:00.000-07:00

around la mision

2006-08-23T16:49:00.000-07:00

sun. flower.

2006-08-23T16:42:00.000-07:00

dg @ IOB

2006-07-24T16:41:00.000-07:00

2006-07-24T16:34:00.000-07:00

GTD

2006-07-17T12:19:00.000-07:00

Dave, employing the principles of his new cult.

Around the new hood

2006-07-10T16:26:00.000-07:00

Seen on 24th St. These pigs are so happy to be cooking themselves! Those must be some very strong antibiotics they're ingesting in the feedlots.

You can find excellent produce, and eternal salvation, mere blocks from my new apartment.

Moving sucks

2006-07-10T16:15:00.000-07:00

Our wonderful dumpy old apartment, empty and clean. I will not miss the mold, the cracking ceilings, the drafty storm windows, the fog. But still, 8 years. Many many memories.

Best magnetic fridge polemic ever. To wit: "Please never produce tv as it is repulsive & you will be sad. Stop editing essential shots to manipulate the man and woman." Thanks to Pigdog for that. Trying to reproduce this on my new fridge seemed wrong, so I just threw out the magnets when we moved.

New Orleans, June 2006

2006-07-10T16:12:00.000-07:00

Mission miscellaneous

2006-07-10T16:11:00.000-07:00

LA miscellaneous

2006-07-10T16:08:00.000-07:00

just sleeping

2006-07-10T16:03:00.000-07:00

mission dog

2006-05-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

the elliot sessions

2006-05-17T18:14:00.000-07:00

2006-05-17T18:11:00.001-07:00

My grandmother called them valises

2006-05-17T18:10:00.000-07:00

Boobjoblandia (weekend in LA)

2006-05-17T18:05:00.000-07:00

If you've ever wondered what raccoon penis bones look like, well, now you know.

...apparently they also make classy swizzle sticks.

A gentlemen's freezer. Frosty bottles, glasses, ice.

So exciting Pocky!

2006-05-10T13:02:00.000-07:00

looking down, valencia btw 17th & 18th

2006-05-04T10:09:00.000-07:00

But is it art?

2006-05-02T22:36:00.000-07:00

Elliot's earthquake preparedness kit

2006-05-02T22:35:00.000-07:00

Click. Whoosh. Mmmm.... Toasty.

2006-05-02T22:34:00.000-07:00

LA cupcakes

2006-05-02T22:32:00.000-07:00

Note scary neon frosting and military helicopter accessory. Yummy!

UCLA, Sunday April 30

2006-05-02T21:50:00.000-07:00

The picture quality is pretty crappy, but that guy is playing a slide guitar he made out of a skateboard.

He picked it up by pinching its neck.

2006-05-02T21:48:00.000-07:00

This adorably terrifying little albino texas rat snake was found in my place of work last week. Eek. Sadly, he didn't eat the mouse that is also keeping us all in a state of abject terror.

pink bunnies, mission street

2006-04-20T12:03:00.000-07:00

Seen on Mission Street, Wednesday night. A storefront once occupied by a nail salon is now a tiny gallery; on this particular night the gate was shut but three adorable indie rock youngsters were plugged in and playing their hearts out. With all the lights on. Endearing, somehow.

2006-04-19T12:56:00.000-07:00

About town

2006-04-19T12:52:00.000-07:00

bar series, in chalk

2006-04-06T14:27:00.000-07:00

inner city home

2006-04-04T13:43:00.000-07:00

exclamation points are so cute!

2006-04-04T13:40:00.000-07:00

Under no circumstance will this building give you a headache, which I appreciate.

Seeking patrons, not picky

2006-04-04T13:38:00.000-07:00

Do I get a percentage for publicizing your quote unquote art on my blog?

Pretty pieces

2006-03-28T14:22:00.000-08:00

I don't know exactly what it means, but I like it

2006-03-14T16:33:00.000-08:00

“You have to have somebody to write for. You can’t just open the window and make love to the world.” -- Kurt Vonnegut

Credo

2006-03-13T17:16:00.000-08:00

Qué bonito es no hacer nada, y luego descansar.
How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterward.
—Spanish Proverb

I hate it when that happens.

2006-03-13T10:18:00.000-08:00

I like the cars, the cars that go boom

2006-03-13T10:16:00.000-08:00

thoughts on housing, Mission Street

2006-03-13T10:12:00.000-08:00

Analog lunch with Colonel Winard

2006-03-09T14:06:00.000-08:00

I had been reluctant to go back to the third generation of Yamo, which now serves Burmese food and which had sorely disappointed the last time I went. The place redeemed itself this time around. It's also returned to it's pleasantly and authentically divey roots. After drinking green tea with our tea leaf salad, I convinced Elliot that he had to imbibe yet another incarnation of caffeine, the Black Sea Oolong bubble milk tea at Chamalyn, on 19th St. Seven different kinds of tea and roasted malt makes the stuff taste like some crack-infused mix of tea, coffee, and chocolate. Go get some. Right now.

All the great stuff made to make you happy

2006-03-01T09:01:00.000-08:00

That was the subject header of a piece of spam I received in my inbox this morning. I'll take it, all of it.

Two weeks stale

2006-02-28T17:54:00.000-08:00

Why do only the purple hearts get left behind?

Bartholomew Davenport, soul man

2006-02-15T09:13:00.000-08:00

What grows in GG park

2006-02-14T12:15:00.000-08:00

Remember those illustrations of woolly mammoths in old social studies (or were they science?) textbooks, and how they always included a tiny prehistoric man to show the scale of those huge animals?

Seen on Irving St (Dennis & Bebe 4ever)

2006-02-14T12:09:00.000-08:00

Kiss, buss, smack, smooch, peck.

2006-02-14T11:20:00.000-08:00

From today's New York Times:

"The German language has words for 30 different kinds of kisses, including nachküssen, which is defined as a kiss "making up for kisses that have been omitted." (The Germans are also said to have coined the inexplicable phrase "A kiss without a beard is like an egg without salt.")"

I couldn't have said it better myself. Here's to one of the most enjoyable activities on this good green earth.

This is what February looks like

2006-02-14T11:17:00.000-08:00

Sundance 2006, somewhere between a bang and a whimper

2006-02-01T15:36:00.000-08:00

Ah, Sundance. I flew into Park City for approximately 48 hours of films, parties, watching other people schmooze, no sleep, free booze, bad food, and vicarious thrills. Julie and I were smart about it this year and got some tickets in advance, which probably saved us about 8 hours of waiting on line in the cold. Saw five films:

* Right at Your Door (which Lion's Gate apparently bought for 3 million but which I could barely sit through)

* In the Pit / En el Hoyo (doc about the workers who are building the 2nd deck of the freeway which cuts through Mexico City, loved it and the fact that all of the fantastic music for the film was composed using nothing but sounds they recorded on site)

* Special (Michael Rappoport as a meter maid who enrolls in an anti-depressant study only to find that the drugs he takes give him superpowers; very sweet and possibly the first time I've ever thought of him as a real actor)

* Journey from the Fall (which Julie co-shot; received 3 standing ovations and left everyone in a puddle of well deserved tears; about a family split up after the fall of Saigon, when the father is sent to various prison/reeducation camps and his wife, child, and mother escape to the US; devastating)

* Wristcutters: A Love Story (dark comedy about a guy who offs himself only to find that the particular afterlife for suicides is "just like the real world, only a little bit shittier"; very enjoyable, and Patrick Fugit has grown rather adorable since Almost Famous)

I didn't see many celebrities but I did see a shooting star. And it snowed. Yum. Some pictures:

Main Street, Park City.

Park City. Lovely.

Julie chugging Pepto like a champ while waiting to get into the Kodak party. Why this particular party was such a hot ticket at Sundance is still a mystery to me. Nice catering and some nice liquor, but also a bad bar mitzvah style cover band, and no celebs to be found, save Corey Feldman. Who, by the way, is about as tall as I am. Which is not tall, let me tell you.

Me & Julie somewhere in Park City

Seen growing in the so-called "Children's Garden" in Golden Gate Park...

2006-01-02T15:45:00.000-08:00

My little camera phone didn't quite capture the ridiculous shade of electric orange blazing on this mushroom cap.

22nd Street between Mission & Valencia

2006-01-02T15:38:00.000-08:00

If you're the person making the leaf art all over the Mission, thank you. It somehow mitigates the smell of pee that permeates most of the neighborhood.

Seen speeding down 280

2006-01-02T13:53:00.000-08:00

You can't tell in this picture, but that's a camel hanging out of a trailer going about 70 on the freeway heading north into San Francisco. Poor thing's head was just bobbing back and forth in the pouring rain.

Sky over Mission St.

2006-01-02T12:09:00.000-08:00

2005-12-14T09:41:00.000-08:00

There is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening. -- Marshall McLuhan (thanks to FBD, itinerant artist & force of nature)

Fly, little steak-birdie, fly!

2005-12-06T11:46:00.000-08:00

Seen stuck on a barrier at the entrance to Golden Gate Bridge. What happened to the poor little steak-birdie? Whither flies the wee chop-sparrow? This rare species has never been photographed, leaving carnithologists the only option of sketching specimens after a brief glimpse in the wild.

Sonata in D, with nitrates and half-sours

2005-11-30T11:08:00.000-08:00

Carnegie Deli, paragon of all things Jewish and meaty. To wit: Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray soda (yes, celery flavored soda, perfect for those of us without a sweet tooth), half-sour pickles (as opposed to full sours, more salty than sour), and the ubiquitous Woody Allen (towering sandwich of the tenderest pastrami and corned beef in all New York).

Inside Teitel Bros. Market

2005-11-30T10:59:00.000-08:00

Teitel Bros. is an Italian market on Arthur Avenue. The neighborhood is not just a slice of Italy in the midst of the Bronx, but is also frozen in time (circa maybe 1950). Anyway, as you can see, Teitel Bros. sells all manner of Italian comestibles, including the spectrum of porky goodness. Which is interesting, because it's owned by four generations of Jews, and there's a large star of David tiled into the sidewalk right outside the entrance.