San Francisco Pillow Fight 2009 and the UN

Filed Under Pranks, SF Bay Area, Video | 2009-02-16, 03:16

Every year in San Francisco on Valentine’s Day, thousands of people gather to confront each other with the softest weapons known to man. Many of my friends have joined in this battle, wielding pillows of all shapes and sizes. This year I decided that I would lay down my pillow and take a neutral stance as an embedded journalist. I went into Justin Herman Plaza alongside the The United Nations Commission on Costumes & Holidays (UNCCH), who were there to try to defuse the tense situation that seems to happen every year. The UNCCH inspected pillows to make sure they all conformed to international standards, while continuing to insist that they should seek other forms of conflict resolution.

UN Pillow Inspections from Ed Hunsinger on Vimeo.

The pillow militants surrounded us on all sides, and we all knew what was coming. There was no stopping a movement as strong as this one.

The Threat of Pillow Violence is Imminent from Ed Hunsinger on Vimeo.

The clock struck 6:00 and the feathers flew. The carnage was far and wide as an estimated 2,500 people swung pillows, battering others left and right. We stayed around the outskirts at first, but then decided that the story had to be told from the front lines. Along with my trusty cameraman, Steen, we braved feathery weapons to make our way through the battlefield. It wasn’t pretty, but then again Valentine’s Day isn’t always pretty either.

Embedded in the Pillow Carnage from Ed Hunsinger on Vimeo.

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San Francisco’s Western Addition: Then and Now

Filed Under SF Bay Area, Uncategorized | 2009-02-02, 01:31

Having only been in San Francisco a few years, I’m always intrigued with how it used to look. Heather came across some great Flickr photo sets dating back to the 70s and 80s, one specifically dedicated to our neighborhood, Western Addition. We went through the photos and attempted to track them down via Google Street View. Here are the results (links open in new windows):

Page and Fillmore (one building is under wraps but we still found them):
1969 / Google Street View

Stardust Lounge (now a boutique):
1970 / Google Street View

Steiner and Sacramento (building is gone):
1977 / Google Street View

Baker’s Market (Green Chile Kitchen now):
1978 / Google Street View

Wash Dry (we think it’s the same laundromat):
1979 / Google Street View

Fillmore St:
1979 / Google Street View

People’s Temple (now a US Post Office):
1979 / Google Street View

Webster and Hayes (the store is gone but the building is still there):
1979 / Google Street View

Oak and Buchanan (looks pretty much the same almost 30 years later):
1980 / Google Street View

Laguna and Post (beautiful building demolished for Japantown):
1980 / Google Street View

Golden Gate & Scott:
1980 / Google Street View

Hickory St (you can see the old freeway that no longer exists in the background):
1980 / Google Street View

Jack’s Records (they’re still there):
1980 / Google Street View

Hayes and Fillmore (a new paintjob, but still a bunch of muni lines):
1980 / Google Street View

Twin houses:
1983 / Google Street View

McAllister St:
1983 / Google Street View

Steiner and Fulton (the street view car didn’t get nearly as nice a view):
1985 / Google Street View

Oak Street (anti-war banners for the 1st Gulf War):
1991 / Google Street View

Someone else can do the Mission.

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Dracul: Prince of Fire, a Fire Ballet

Filed Under Art, Fire Art, SF Bay Area | 2009-01-09, 16:44

Last night we gathered with a large number of friends for the second performance of “Dracul: Prince of Fire” at The Crucible. We’ve been to several of the previous fire ballets and knew that the tickets were worth every penny. Apparently so did the rest of the Bay Area as the performance quickly sold out.

For those that aren’t familiar, The Crucible is an Oakland based non-profit organization that encourages collaboration of Arts, Industry and Community through training in the fine and industrial arts. You can take classes there on topics such as welding, neon, jewelry making, wood carving, fire dancing, and more. This fire ballet is a celebration/fund-raiser for their 10th year in existence. With your ticket purchase you will get a wonderful show, plus you’ll be helping a great organization.

The show itself was amazing from start to finish. I’m not a fan of ballet personally, but as readers know, I love me some fire. And there was plenty of fire for the evening. I don’t want to give away any parts of the show, but it had me applauding both the performers as well as the people behind the fabrication. In addition there was a lot of amazing aerial performances as well as humorous nods to popular culture.

I highly recommend going if you get the chance. I would recommend wearing warm clothes however, as it is held inside The Crucible’s warehouse, which is not know for its warmth. People will give you envious looks (rather than weird ones) should you bring a warm blanket. The show runs Jan 7th-10th and Jan 14th-17th. There are still several nights left at varying ticket prices, but they will sell out. For more info, check out the page on The Crucible.

The following trailer for Dracul uses footage from previous performances to give you an idea of what to expect:

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New Year’s Eve at the Blogger Bungalow

Filed Under Personal, SF Bay Area | 2009-01-01, 22:19

photo by Violet Blue(?)

When it came time to decide where we were going to spend the evening welcoming 2009, it was a tough choice. There were things happening all over the Bay Area, but not wanting to do the “party circuit” we decided we had to pick one. Enticed by interesting hosts/guests, technology, and gift bags compliments of Good Vibrations, we got dressed, touched up the red in the hair, and headed over to Violet Blue’s Blogger Bungalow for her New Year Party.

The party wasn’t just for invited guests though, as she had all sorts of live-blogging technology setup in order to share our celebration with everyone online. There was an Eye-Fi enabled camera circulating around the guests where photos were instantly uploaded to the Blogger Bungalow Flickr account. There was a Macbook on the table next to the absinthe and chips logged into a WordPress blog and 12seconds.tv. Guests were encouraged to post on either of the sites, and some of us took 12 seconds in between conversations to record silly videos. We stayed up until the wee hours of the morning talking tech, sex, art, and culture. There was even time for some late night Twitter-nanigans.

In addition to the Eye-Fi camera, Scott Beale of Laughing Squid also took some photos, and I grabbed a few with my iPhone. I’m sure there are tons of other photos, tweets, and blog posts if I can just try to remember the names of all the wonderful people I met….

Hope everyone out there had a safe and enjoyable celebration and is looking forward to this new year as much as I am! Have a great 2009!

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Fire on the White Holly In the Sausalito Yacht Parade

Filed Under Art, Burning Man, Fire Art, SF Bay Area | 2008-12-15, 12:01

For 19 years, the Sausalito Yacht Club has held the annual “Lighted Boat Parade”. Everyone brings their boats out lit up with Christmas lights and cruises around the Bay. This year for the 20th time, they held the same parade, only there was a new entry, the White Holly, which took things a step further by being loaded up with fire art from around the Bay Area.

The White Holly is a “High Endurance, Expedition Vessel” primarily used primarily for research missions. It’s a pretty hardy ship, but one has to wonder if anyone had in mind what it was used for on Saturday. Unfortunately I wasn’t there, but I saw multiple comments on my Twitter stream of friends mentioning going on a boat, needing ear protection, etc. The best being “It’s like we took Crude Awakening and stuck it on a ship. There’s nowhere to run or hide. God help us.” I wasn’t fully aware of what was planned until the next day.

So what was on the White Holly? Well up front there was Epiphany, a 25′ steel sculpture by Dan Das Mann and Karen Cusolito that many remember from the Crude Awakening installment at Burning Man 2007 or maybe Maker Faire 2008. It had a “beating” heart of fire. There was El Diablo, a jet engine repurposed for shooting fire (and being noisy) by Jack Schroll. There were also flame effects built by the Flaming Lotus Girls and Bob Hofman installed on the boat amidst the Christmas lights. Don’t forget the Tesla coil hanging off the side of the boat upside down sending arcs into the water. And to top it all off, the loudest air raid siren ever produced, the Victory Siren, announced to the entire area that the White Holly had arrived.

Videos and photos are still trickling online, but here’s what I’ve found so far:
Wally also posted about it over on Planet Wally
There’s also a good video over here.
Friends Leslie and NetDiva were lucky enough to be on board and have posted their Flickr sets from the White Holly.

The Victory Siren

Tesla Coil Test

Megavolt2’s Video

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Urgent Call to Help Oakland Artists and Organizations

Filed Under Art, SF Bay Area | 2008-10-20, 13:12

An email from Michael Sturtz, the founder of The Crucible, went out recently detailing a threat to the Oakland Arts Community that could significantly affect the Bay Area art community as well. We need to act quickly because the City Council meeting is Oct 21st. I’m reposting below:

Hello everyone,

Please read this message, the future of Arts in Oakland and The Crucible hangs in the balance.

The City of Oakland’s Cultural Arts Funding in about to get cut from the City’s budget. The Crucible has already been awarded two years of funding, that is about to be taken away, due to budget cuts. Our budget has been built around having these funds because they were awarded moths ago and now we will have to severely cut expenses to make ends meet.

Here is how you can help The Crucible and all the other Oakland Arts Organizations:

1.) Forward this urgent email to as many people as possible.

2.) Sign the online petition at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Oakland_Arts_Funding/index.html

3.) Come to the City Council Meeting on Tuesday October 21st!

4.) Contact a Council Member and let them know how important the arts are to you!

Here is some more info:

Funding for the Cultural Arts and Marketing Department is on the chopping block and will be voted on by the Oakland City Council this Tuesday, October 21. The meeting begins at 6pm and this topic is currently Item 19 on the Agenda, so it could be a long night. Grant funding is in jeopardy, as are all of the staff positions. This is a serious threat to a thriving but already under-funded community. We do understand that the City’s finances are in a dire situation, but the fact of the matter is that the cultural arts department has historically borne more than its share of cuts and now represents only .4% (4/10 of 1%) of the overall city budget, yet serves 6,273 children and youth through the art in the schools program (most of whom would not have access to arts without these programs), and another 957,650 people through performances, events, etc. Not only will department staff lose their jobs: staff an d teachers in the already-fragile arts sector will also lose jobs. The arts are not a luxury! Children and youth who participate in arts programs and learn positive ways to express themselves are less likely to engage in unsafe or criminal activities. Neighborhoods with visual and performing arts venues bring in $$s to the local economy, help prevent crime and violence by “keeping the lights on”, and add to the overall quality of life in our city.

If The Crucible has made a difference in your life or someone you know, please join us to make our voices heard. TOGETHER, WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

There are currently three council members who are opposed to cutting arts funding: Nancy Nadel, Jane Brunner, and Desley Brooks. All other council members have indicated that they will vote to cut the program. Please don’t let this happen!! Contact your council person immediately (preferably before Monday) and let them know that cutting the arts program is unacceptable. Also, let the three council members that support the arts know how much you appreciate their support. Below is contact info for each of the district council members:

District 1, Jane Brunner, jbrunner@oaklandnet.com, (510) 238-7001;
District 2, Pat Kernighan,pkernighan@oaklandnet.com, (510) 238-7002;
District 3, Nancy Nadel, nnadel@oaklandnet.com, (510) 238-7003;
District 4, Jean Quan, jquan@oaklandnet.com, (510) 238-7004;
District 5, Ignacio de la Fuente. idelafuente@oaklandnet.com, (510) 238-7005;
District 6, Desley Brooks, dbrooks@oaklandnet.com, (510) 238-7006;
District 7, Larry Reid, lreid@oaklandnet.com, (510) 238-7007
At-Large, Henry Chang, Jr., cityochang@aol.com

Not sure who your council member is? Click here to find out: http://www.oaklandnet.com/oit/CDST/DistMain.cfm

Please forward this to your staff, board, friends, students, their parents, your mailing list, etc. It is our responsibility to make our voices heard – and to let the officials know that we represent a larger portion of the public than they think!

Here’s a link to the evite:
http://www.evite.com/pages/invite/viewInvite.jsp?event=ACFFSJPPTIYVQCGKBKXY&inviteId=PBNDQUYBQENJDTPITZEK&showPreview=false&x=15069028

I know that you are all really busy and I appreciate your time.
Thank you in advance for getting involved, We really need your help.

Thanks,
Michael Sturtz
Founder / Executive Director
THE CRUCIBLE™

UPDATE: Funding was not cut! :) Thanks to everyone that helped protect the Oakland art scene.

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Balsa Man at San Francisco Decompression

Filed Under Burning Man, SF Bay Area | 2008-10-10, 13:02

For those of you that missed Balsa Man this year because you were hanging out in a dust storm, this Sunday is your chance to experience some of the magic! There will be an official “Balsa Man Tiny Art Station” at the Burning Man SF Decompression from 12noon-10pm. It will be stocked with balsa wood, glue, and tools but you are encouraged to bring your own as well. Hone your skills (and learn some new ones) for creating mini-art so that you’ll be able to create your project for Balsa Man 2009. For more info, check CatCubed.

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The Blue Angels in San Francisco

Filed Under SF Bay Area, Video | 2008-10-09, 17:29

Yep, it’s Fleet Week and the Blue Angels are out practicing. If you ask San Francisco residents what they think of these jets ~~buzzing~~ rumbling overhead, you’ll get mixed reactions. I’m sure most of my friends have a few words to say based on their Twitters. Personally I’m on the fence. The constant sound of them passing back and forth over the city when you can’t seem them used to drive me nuts while I was stuck inside at work. But now that I’m at home and I can run to a window to see them up close as they scream by, it’s actually kind of cool to watch them practice. I know, I know I lose San Francisco resident “cool points” for saying that. But the very fact that a) we as humans can create technology that allows us to do this, and b) that there are humans talented enough to fly these plans is impressive. The video above is one I was able to quickly capture as they blasted over our neighborhood.

UPDATE (2008-10-10): Went up on the roof to watch them practice a bit today and snagged this video:

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Noisebridge Starts a San Francisco Hacker Space

Filed Under SF Bay Area | 2008-10-01, 13:59

For those that haven’t heard, Noisebridge has acquired a space in which to build San Francisco’s premier hacker space. It’s a great space in an alley off 16th Street, literally across the street from BART. We gathered at the new space for the first time yesterday to clean, and clean, and clean, and then hold our first meeting at the location. I brought along my webcam+laptop setup for a timelapse and put it upstairs in a corner. Here are the raw results:

Noisebridge Cleaning and Meeting from Ed Hunsinger on Vimeo.

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The Balsa Man burned!

Filed Under Burning Man, Fire, SF Bay Area | 2008-08-31, 17:41

The first ever Balsa Man was a huge success. There was a large turnout of familiar and new faces on Baker Beach last night as we all gathered to burn our own Man. The Balsa Man built by Colin and Nifer was impressive in person, even after already seen the pictures of the build. Several art pieces were shown including the Temple of Reduced Expectations (by JRad), a Balsa Phoenix (by Jordan), a last minute Waffle, Balsa Shave signs on the beach leading to the Balsa Man (by MissySB), little pink statues (by Anthony Ricci), and the MiniDDI (by me). There was even a mini-trash fence to keep people from wandering off into the dunes!

The Man burned first of course (even before the one on the Playa due to whiteout conditions), and was followed by the Temple and the Phoenix. While attempting to run MiniDDI, Rubin missed a step in “Butterfly” which triggered a terrible software glitch and caused the whole thing to go up in flames. It was a beautiful disaster.

As with every event, there was of course photo and video documentation:
My Balsa Man 2008 photos
My videos (Balsa Man Burn, DDI Burn)
The Temple Burn (video)
Forest’s photos
~Jeanne~’s photos
ebisue’s photos
Balsa Man 2008 Flickr pool

And of course blog posts:
Official wrap-up from Colin

If you have yours to add, drop a comment. It was awesome to see so many people come out and so much participation in this little event. A huge thanks specifically goes out to Colin for putting everything together.

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