Thrifting and bike riding are some of my favorite past time hobbies! Pump up your tires and join me this weekend for a delightful combination of both...
(Afterwards don't forget the Walking Tour with Megan Willis, starting at 3pm)
Here are some photos from the First Annual bike tour last September
North Park is going through some dramatic changes. Many of these changes have been spurred by the fact that it is viewed by many as an art and culture district in San Diego. This perception comes with baggage. That baggage is that when the Arts move in, gentrification is soon to follow. There Goes the Neighborhood! is a four day event that not only hopes to shed light on issues of art and its relationship to a specific community, but to also re-examine, through artistic interventions, some aspects of the neighborhood that are sometimes overlooked. There Goes the Neighborhood! has been organized by a group of artists, architects, and interested parties as a way to initiate a conversation about the dynamics of the neighborhood. Our intention, and why you are now reading this, is to include as many people from North Park in the discussion as possible. We hope to see to you there!
Saturday May 29 7pm - 11pmMusic show on the Bus: The Terrordactyls, Jivaro, Grilled Cheese, The Paddle Boat, Age of Collapse
Thursday June 3rd 6pm - 7pmMusic show on the Bus driving to the San Diego Museum of Art
7pm - 7:30pmVibrating Milk at the San Diego Museum of Art
7:30pm - 9pmPanel discussion at the San Diego Museum of Art
Friday June 4th 7pm - 8 pmPastoral poetry reading curated by K. Lorraine Graham as part of the Agitprop Reading and Performance Series
8pm - 11pmMusic show on the Bus driving to Fiesta Island: Mission:Valley, Riververb, Innerds
Saturday June 5th 10am - 5pmKTGN radio broadcast
10am - noonBrunch & artist talk at the Chicken Pie Shop
noon - 3pmBicycle tour of thrift stores with Joe Yorty
2pm - 4pmCould __ be a classroom? a silk-screening workshop at local laundromats
3pm - 4pmFree Space walking tour with Megan Willis
6pm - 11pmMusic show on the Bus driving to the opening of Here Not There at MCASD La Jolla and Red Ball at Sushi
Sunday June 6th 10am - 5pmKTGN radio broadcast
noon - 3pmLuncheon on the Grass at Agitprop and the Bus
2pm - 5pmTurn Up Everything synthpack workshop with Michael Trigilio
2pm - 3pmHomeland Security walking tour with Leslie Ryan
3pm - 4pmYard by Yard talk, and walking tour with Lesley Stern
6pm - 9pmTaking Up Space a New Orleans-style procession by artist Jessica Sledge. Microcinema film screening curated by Cauleen Smith along the procession route
For links, a complete schedule of events and more info go to: theregoes.org
Megan's FREE SPACE installation was a success! In conjunction with her thesis, the concept of utilizing "free space" was illustrated with her example of various opportunities along C street in San Diego. Selecting vignettes of possibility in bus shelters, light posts, curbs and sidewalk alcoves, she suggests temporary business sites, skate parks, resting places and ipod docks. Sites for temporary drive in theatres, edible urban gardens, voting stations, and much more. The layout of each FREE SPACE was organized in a linear display that clearly identified the range of possibility within so many structures that are overlooked and underused everyday.
A street level video takes you through the entire 17 blocks in around 3 minutes.
(Her use of electric pink duct tape thrilled me! Where can I get some? I want to use it on everything...)
The furniture pieces stored loads of information about shared space events all over the world.
I loved a table explaining PARK(ing) Day, an annual one-day global event where everyone is encouraged to independently, yet simultaneously, transform metered parking spaces into (temporary) mini parks. This event started in San Francisco in 2005 by a bunch of artists from Rebar. It was originally devised as a creative exploration of how public space is used, and according to their website, cities like San Francisco allow less than 30% of the public space for non-vehicle use. Paying the meter of a parking space allows one to lease prime urban real estate for a day!
Here's a video explaining more...
Mark your calendars:
Megan will lead a walking tour of the neighborhood Saturday June 5th from 2-3pm, starting at Art Produce Gallery.
FREE SPACE: A street level look at interfaces between public and private by Megan Willis May 15- July 4, 2010 Opening Reception May 15, 7-9pm Art Produce Gallery in North Park
Free Space is an installation that looks at disparate tactics for appropriating and reclaiming residual spaces in the urban landscape for both public and private use. Residual Spaces are interstices in the city that are abandoned, underutilized, leftover, liminal, and indeterminate. These spaces oscillate between public and private. Residual spaces take the form of alleys, parking lots, building recesses, window ledges, sidewalks, roof tops, fire escapes, blank facades etc. As a starting point, Free Space focuses locally on the residual spaces of C Street in downtown San Diego. This installation uses video documentation, maps, duct tape and furniture to examine these tactics of appropriation.
Gallery Schedule of events: May 15th - Opening Reception May 16th - Interactive Community Event-NP Arts Festival June 5-6 - There Goes the Neighborhood 5th - satellite picnics 6th - residual spaces walking tour June 12th - Reception and Gallery Talk June 26th - Film Screening
Thanks to my friend and P.I.C. (partner in crime) Vanessa, I spent this last weekend in San Francisco! What better way to celebrate a birthday than with a spur of the moment trip to the Golden City. Although this was my sixth trip or so, this time I stayed entirely in the Mission, my new favorite place. Some highlights include:
* Amazing food at Herbivore : a completely vegetarian/ vegan restaurant with huge proportions and variety
* Drinks at Dirty Thieves: big booths, with the best jukebox I've ever danced to
* Lounging at Dolores Park: bring your bubbles and sparkling bubbles too
and of course, thrifting!
We hit up Mission Thrift for their $1 mustaches and ended up with eighties prom dresses (no joke, we're going to prom this Friday at the Pearl).
We were on the bound for some good coffee when I found *Gypsy Honeymoon*
In one word, I would call it delightful. In two words- delightfully enchanting!
Inside I found a wonderfully spun nest of bohemian treasures, everything from vintage teaspoons to this framed 1940's Beetle collection (most likely from a University or museum)
It felt like the genius child of Architectural Salvage and the vintage clothing boutiques in Greenwich Village... with little nooks of goodness everywhere.
Look at this hardware! At $12 a piece, original Bakelite in all my favorites colors. I don't know how I managed to leave without a whole set. These would be great to jazz up an old dresser or kitchen drawers even. Did I say they came in all my colors?
This vignette especially thrilled me. Victorian dolls and a floral shawl from the 70's...
I think tea should always be served with a lesson in Phrenology and purple orchids
This antique medical cabinet is straight out of Mark Ryden's studio... especially because the fellow inside is a wax mannequin made in Paris, sometime in the teens. At $3,200 he is the real deal, with genuine human hair, glass eyes and porcelain teeth. That's hot.
Unfortunately I didn't get a closer shot to share, but this early Nippon tea set made me want to re-do my entire kitchen in espresso and mustard. It's a joke to get a set of 4 cups with saucers, 6 bowls, a teapot, sugar bowl and creamer for only $150. Had I any room in my carry-on, this would have been mine.
This is just a tiny bit of it, you certainly have to just see Gypsy Honeymoon in person to really experience it. It's the perfect place to find something a bit magical and aged, without having to dig through piles and piles of crap first. The best part is you don't have to wear gloves to get to it; the way it's set up lures you into exploring a bin of photographs and/or brooches as if it belongs to your favorite Grandparent (or "antique friend" as I like to call them).
Gabrielle Ekedal, the owner- has an obvious eye for the slightly ghostly and necromantic finds, but with a delicate mix of Victorian charm it feels feminine, not demonic. Like leather and lace (in blush, not black). She took over the store when the owner decided to move overseas, and has been at their current location for 3 years. Before that, Gypsy Honeymoon was just down the street and around the corner, and a little less pulled together.
San Francisco is known for being a great place to shop, and unexpectedly finding shops like this just confirms it. Come to find out, it's actually a local favorite as mentioned in these blogs: