Invisible Cities

"At times I feel your voice is reaching me from far away, while I am prisoner of a gaudy and unlivable present, where all forms of human society have reached an extreme of their cycle and there is no imagining what new forms they may assume. And I hear, from your voice, the invisible reasons which make cities live, through which perhaps, once dead, they will come to life again." ~ Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

Tonight, my friend Chipmonkey (the lady of the long eyelashes) and The Boy and I will be attending a presentation called "Lost Landscapes of San Francisco."

This lecture will be part of the ongoing use of my Mental Stimulus Package that I came up with recently. For those of you who know my penchant for history, and especially the history of this particular city that has captured my imagination, I can't wait for the rare finds we'll get to see tonight. From the program description:

Rick Prelinger is a guerrilla archivist who collects the uncollected and makes it accessible. Prelinger will be presenting his third annual "Lost Landscapes of San Francisco" event, an eclectic montage of lost and rarely-seen film clips showing life, landscapes and labor in a vanished San Francisco as captured by amateurs, newsreel cameramen and industrial filmmakers.

How we remember and record the past reveals much about how we address the future. Prelinger will preface the film with a brief talk on how fragmentary, incomplete histories are being overtaken by pervasive real-time documentation, and how history, memory and property are combining into a new matrix of experience.

***

On my own, I'm always looking for remnants of San Francisco's past, juxtaposed against the constant construction I see on a daily basis. One of our favorite pastimes is to watch old movies set in San Francisco, and freeze frame scenes that show a location that we might try to place in the maps of our minds. And when we can, we make little pilgrammages, too.

I happen to love finding old brick buildings, because brick buildings of unreinforced masonry are a little more rare when you live in a town associated with earthquakes. But even more so, I love finding these old painted advertisements on the sides of buildings.

These painted signs are becoming an endangered species, whether due to the desecration by graffitists or destruction in the wake of "progress." I treasure my glimpses of them and rejoice when I find a new one in my wanderings. I am trying to take photos of as many of them as I can, my own little collection of San Francisco's city within a city.

I have a recent photograph of a building and that is all that remains. I found the yellow painted billboard advertising for an ancient brand of cigarettes on an early morning walk on my way to the office. And now that building is no more. Just my memory of it and the photograph. Places are always devouring themselves and becoming new, but how quickly a place can become unrecognizable to itself.

I was never able to finish Invisible Cities before. I really wanted to, but it always made me sleepy (I fault myself and not the author). I tried to read the book before I went to Venice, and also when I returned home. Perhaps after tonight I will try it again (I have two copies of it floating around the house), and see if I can't start to weave my own imagined stories of San Francisco, for me and to share with you.

***

ps.: First two photos taken downtown, on Kearny Street. Last photo taken in the Tenderloin.

Mental Stimulus Package

So, if you're like me, you filed an extension on your taxes and waited until the last minute to send in the paperwork.

Me, I don't end up like this because I'm unpatriotic. To the contrary, I think taxes are necessary to have the things a society needs to sustain itself. I just wish my tax dollars went to the most beneficial and practical places to help us be the best nation we can (I won't go there... you know what I mean).

Nah, I just wait until the last minute because it stresses me out with all of those forms and then I have to hire someone to do it for me anyway. So this year, the nice CPA tells me that I'm eligible to get that $600 for the "economic stimulus package" that was bandied about in the springtime. I just figured this refund was either an urban legend or something that I wouldn't qualify for.

The CPA assured me that yes, I do qualify. I asked him if the government still had $600 to give me and he laughed. I don't know if that's a yes or no, so I'll just be positive about the whole thing, but then try not to be disappointed if the government changes its mind about stimulating me.

***

I know that I'm supposed to run out like a banshee and spend the theoretical $600 (see how I'm not getting emotionally attached to it?) on clothes and stuff so I can boost the economy, but the economy is probably so much in the crapper now that I have another idea.

I'm going to have what I am calling a Mental Stimulus Package, starting tonight. This election season has worn my brain out and I need some recharging.

I saw this event being held at the Herbst Theatre, called "Benjamin Franklin and the Invention of America." Just the idea of sitting in a beautiful theatre and learning about men who really broke the mold when it came to making this country sounded like a good way to spend a little bit of the stimulus package that I may or may not get.

I don't know too much about Benjamin Franklin, really. I probably know the things you do. I had a little bit of an imaginary camaraderie with Ben when I was in college. I got my degree in printing, and in my classes, I had to learn how to run a 2-color printing press. The whole deal: making printing plates, setting up the press, running it. I wore the little apron and everything. Watching paper being transformed from blank sheets to printed page in a whirring, breathing, noisy piece of real machinery (and an HP laserjet does not count) is kind of a rush. You feel slightly rabble-rousing and free-pressian and it's cool.

Anyway, that was my very slim association with Benjamin Franklin. But I'm looking forward to learning more about him, as an inventor, diplomat, philosopher, printer, athlete, musician. I hope it's going to make me feel good to hear about people who really did things to build and shape our country, in ways that we don't ever see now. I guess this event will be really inspiring or really depressing.

So, now you know another thing you can do on a Friday night in San Francisco. Be a history geek! I love that idea. I'm looking forward to my Mental Stimulus Package. I hope it helps me be a better American.

For more details about the event, looky here.