Video of San Francisco Before and After the Earthquake of 1906

Filed Under SF Bay Area, Video | 2010-03-08, 12:56

I love old footage of the early 1900s, especially of San Francisco. You may have recognize part of the above video with an unknown filmmaker’s trip down Market St from the Prelinger Archives. But I didn’t know there was a second film taken of the same trip down Market St a year later, after the Great Earthquake of 1906. Matt Lake combined these two films into what you see above, highlighting the significant change in Market St.

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Thunder and Lightning in SF

Filed Under Photography, SF Bay Area, Video | 2010-01-19, 17:34

The way that Twitter blows up during large thunderstorms, you’d think that lightning and thunder in the Bay Area is rarer than earthquakes. Well, I’m not sure of the stats, but it just might be. Early this morning I ~~woke up~~ gained some semblance of consciousness as thunder rolled through San Francisco along with storms that have continued on and off all day.

After seeing the flash of lightning and the sound of thunder half a dozen times, I decided to setup my Zoom H2 audio recorder and Flip video camera to see what I could capture. Only three minutes later lightning struck again. My Flip video camera isn’t quite up to the task of recording lightning, but you can see a flickr and hear the thunder (along with some guy on the street yelling). The audio recorder is slightly better at it’s job, picking up the echoing thunder as it traveled across the city.

[audio:http://www.geeked.info/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/ThunderInSF.mp3|titles=ThunderInSF]

And of course, once the rain tapered off, it was up to the roof with a camera to catch the awesome light as blue skies returned.

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Santa’s Defense Forces Engage in Operation Yule Storm

Filed Under Events, Pranks, SF Bay Area | 2009-12-24, 12:11

December 12th, 2009 – Santa’s Defense Forces (consisting of the 12th Nutcracker Regiment, the 103rd Sleighborne Division, and the Sugar Plum Service) converged on San Francisco, CA. The primary purpose of the mission: to protect Santa during the annual Santacon (aka Santarchy) gathering in SF. Additional orders included protecting other high value individuals such as Jesus and Frank Chu as well as spreading holiday cheer to civilians.

I was part of the embedded press corp and took photos and video of this highly successful mission. You can check out all my photos in the Operation Yule Storm set. I also highly recommend checking out the full mission report for Operation Yule Storm as well as the back-stories for both the 12th Nutcracker Regiment and the Sugar Plum Service.

Some live reporting on the scene during the Castro Dance Party:

And some of my favorite photos:

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Film of San Francisco in 1958

Filed Under SF Bay Area, Video | 2009-10-23, 15:58

One of my favorite songs (“Alone in Kyoto” by Air) and my favorite city, San Francisco. How can you go wrong? The pairing of the music with the video gives me goosebumps.

Jeff Altman restores and posts old videos from his grandfather on Vimeo. He recently discovered that this one, labeled “Alameda 1958”, included some great shots of San Francisco at the time. Can’t wait to see more!

via Spots Unknown

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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