Read Some Stewf

Mormons and Friends of Mormons for Marriage Equality

Sorry for the shaky shot. That's about as good as I could do with an iPhone and The Palsy.

Tonight, on the eve of California Supreme Court hearings, I marched for the causes of equality and peaceful, respectful protest; and on behalf of my 4 siblings — all active LDS churchgoers, and all opposed to Prop 8. James, Matthew, Marilee, and Deanne: I love you and I'm proud to be your brother. Wish you could be here.

Market Street, San Francisco, 1905/1906

Thanks to Ivo for linking me to this film shot from a streetcar traveling down Market Street in 1905, before the earthquake and fire of 1906 destroyed the city. Remarkable footage of turn of the century lifestyles in California and the transition of transportation modes, from horse and buggy to the earliest automobiles. Interesting to see how well the street traffic worked despite what seems to me like chaos. There were couple of moments that made me yell at people to get out of the way. Look out for that car, fine fellow! You foolish, foolish, fine fellow.

Here is the Western Addition neighborhood and the same stretch of Market in 1906 after the earthquake struck. Almost complete devastation. Though the Ferry Building at the end of the street still stands!

It spooks me a bit to know the Bay Area is still filled with many of the same wood frame structures and potential for seismic activity. Of course, they are earthquake veterans here. My former home, Salt Lake City, sits on a fault just as dangerous but hasn’t experienced a single major quake since it was settled. I hope folks are prepared. Fortunately, being prepared for emergencies is a Mormon strong suit — nearly every one I know back home has emergency food and water thanks to a long tradition of preparedness admonition from Church leaders.

Thanks to the Prelinger Archives for preserving these films.

San Francisco and New York City: Comparing Land Area

I am always curious about how my favorite cities compare in geographic size. Take San Francisco and New York City, for instance: if I walk from The Embarcadero to Ocean Beach, is that about the same distance as strolling the length of Manhattan?

Looking at two maps side by side doesn’t always give a helpful overview, so I made this overlay animation for kicks. There must be a book of maps on transparencies that achieves the same effect in print. Give it to me.

The two source images are from Google Earth, each at an altitude of 20 miles. On the NY map, the compass was rotated a bit to make Manhattan vertical.

Stuff I didn’t know:

• Most of the SF Bay itself is wider than most of Manhattan island.
• NY’s bridges are miniscule compared to those of the Bay.
• There is a lot of land to the east of Manhattan before you get to the Atlantic.
• The Bay Area water is blue in Google’s satellite maps, while New York’s is a murky green.

Happy Thanksgiving

Despite many generous invitations, I kind of relished being ⬆ this guy today. See more of Chris Ware’s covers for The New Yorker »

The Sea Ranch: Mid-Century Modernism Meets Environmentalism

The Sea Ranch is a rugged landscape, dotted with distinctive homes, that extends for about ten miles on either side of Highway One in coastal Sonoma County, California. The building design constitutes an architectural vernacular that is world-renowned. Its hallmark is the attempt to blend man-made structures with their natural setting, and to “live lightly on the land.”

Gary knows the owner of the enviable Obie Bowman house and enjoyed a two-week stay with Deanne and fam. We visited for the weekend.

What I found most beautiful about The Sea Ranch — other than the thoughtful architecture — is that nearly every view is dominated by five large fields of color: the pale brown untreated wood of the homes, the mustard grass, the deep green cypress groves, and the blues of sea and sky.

More info about The Sea Ranch from JLT on Mocoloco SF »
Corii’s gots the beauty Sea Ranch pics from her trip last year »

Rumsfailed!

Superglue and army figure in the Montgomery BART Station, San Francisco.

Dot Com Calisthenics and their Voyeurs

Tuesdays and Thursdays at FontShop are stretching days. We get up from our computers and escape to the roof for a few minutes of bending and meditation. Apparently people like to watch.

Tulip Turntable, Part Two

Over a year ago, I found this curious KLH sound system on Craigslist and fantasized about buying. I didn’t. 14 months passed.

Then, miraculously, it reappeared last weekend, posted by the same party in Martinez. Kindly recognizing my psychopathic aversion to telephones, Martha called and made an appointment to view the turntable and matching speakers.

It was the perfect Saturday adventure. We drove 30 minutes inland, through green hills to the East Bay suburbs, and arrived at a ’70s-era rambler. Piles of junk and tattered La-Z-Boys spilled out of the fenced yard into the driveway which was occupied by five cars, all but the pickup in disrepair. My hopes sunk a little. Was this the home of a Danish modern collector?

Steve greeted us with a hearty handshake and how-do-you-do. His clothes were ragged, and his hands were black from either engine grease or just plain lack of washing. His speech was country.

He led us into the side yard, past the heaps of trash, to the object of our journey. There they sat — three gorgeous wooden pods, floating atop white metal bases patterned after Eero Saarinen’s famous “Tulip” design. It’s named for a flower, but the Finn must have had water in mind when he drew these shapes. After a droplet submerges below the surface, the water recoils skyward in a form very much like Saarinen’s, with a bead of liquid on top. In this case, the beads are walnut boxes — two house stereo speakers, and the third, a turntable and radio hidden inside a lidded cabinet.

Steve found the system in his dad's garage, barely used. He nursed the wood back to health with sandpaper and oil, but the guts needed no repair. This, Steve proved with a disc of Grateful Dead. The spindle dropped the record and the arm gently alighted on the vinyl, releasing that singular phonographic sound. The guitar was warm, and the bass as deep and true as Steve’s voice. “I haven’t heard this album in years,” he chuckled. “Damn! Still sounds great.” He stared longingly at the player. Whether it was genuine or for show, we detected some pretty heavy seller’s remorse.

After the briefest haggle session of all time, he let it go for $45 under the asking price. I arrived that day, ready to play tough, but Steve’s story of all the hours he spent restoring furniture so he could feed his family of five — well, it softened my heart.

We left to get cash and returned to find Steve’s family in the yard, standing around the stereo. His youngest daughter sat cross-legged, directly in front of the console, on a chair that was another of his projects. They were listening to Scrooge, 1970 — the musical. “The kids loved the movie so much we bought this on eBay,” Steve’s wife said. “Never had a chance to play it until now.”

I smiled to myself. “If these kids can appreciate Leslie Bricusse as much as I do, I feel a lot better about giving up on the haggle.” Also, I guess they should be fed.

Steve chatted us up as we loaded the car. He talked about how much better it is to live away from the city, and his early decision to drop AutoCAD and stick with the oddly more lucrative job as a drywaller. We said goodbye, but he didn’t stop talking until we actually pulled away — repeating his recommendations about oil and polyurethane right through the passenger window.

As we drove off, Martha observed that it felt like we were leaving family. As if we were visiting old relatives and going home with some inherited piece of furniture. “Bye! Byebye! Yes, we’ll take good care of it. Bye!”

Indeed, I’ll take good care. My first record player is also the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. Thank you, Steve.

Facts about the KLH Model Twenty-Plus (AKA 20A or 20+):

• The cabinet and speakers were designed by David Price.


• It was produced in the 1960s to early ’70s, and sold for $525.


• Apparently, it’s a rarity, at least among KLH models. Steve’s only seen one other, and information on the web is scarce.


• The turntable is by Garrard.


• The speaker covers came in many colors, as far as I can tell. Mine are dark blue.


• What made the Twenty and Twenty Plus systems so popular was that for the first time you could own a high-fidelity setup which was easy to buy, hook up and use. Previously, components were researched and bought separately -- usually including an amplifier, tuner, speakers and turntable with the associated wiring. A company brochure suggested this model if you listened to music at something approaching concert hall volumes. It featured 50 watts of IHF music power with a very low harmonic distortion of 1 percent. It came with the largest speakers, each having a 10“ acoustic suspension woofer and a 13/4” wide dispersion tweeter. On the back of each cabinet is a 3-position, high frequency level switch to adjust for varying room acoustics. Most impressive was the fact that KLH guaranteed these speakers to match within 1 db over the entire audio frequency range.

Oakland Hills Walk

Sherry and I joined Memphis for a stroll in the hills of Oakland, near Fruitvale, the neighborhood Jen and James now call home. It took me a few weeks to get the pics up, but here they be.

Faux Wood Subway in Seoul

As much as I loathe the oversaturation of advertising, BART should accept ads for their floor, as long as they look like wood.

See also: My favorite BART cars have faux wood paneling.

And: I learned some about paneling and other architectural basics from Martha last night. Plus one to her score.