Matt Charnock, Author at Underscore_SF

SF’s Beloved Piano-Playing Robot Makes a Return for Flower Piano Inside Golden Gate Park

18Sep

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Hyperlocal News + Stories

SF’s Beloved Piano-Playing Robot Makes a Return for Flower Piano Inside Golden Gate Park

San Francisco's favorite piano-playing robotic puppet — niche! — made a return to the spotlight this past weekend for Flower Piano inside Golden Gate Park. In San Francisco, kids confuse dragonflies for “baby drones.” (Can you blame them — just look at those dinner-plate eyes!) There’s an LED dinosaur that regularly prowls Dolores Park. Open AI has its gorgeous, surprisingly nature-inspired headquarters in the Mission District. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The best things to do in San Francisco (@onlyinsf) Suffice it to say San Francisco is by no means a city unfamiliar with robotics (and the neural engines that are rapidly changing the world around us). And unarguably the city’s m...

The (Belated) Weekend Catch-Up: San Francisco Finally Says ‘Bye’ to X

15Sep

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Hyperlocal News + Stories

The (Belated) Weekend Catch-Up: San Francisco Finally Says ‘Bye’ to X

Plus: A Sonoma County wildfire was quickly put out, and a fast food franchise was denied a new space in one Bay Area city. Twitter’s Market Street headquarters was once a thing of hyperlocal lore and wonder. It was perched in SF’s downtown corridor, served as a physical navigation point — “keeping on going down Market, past the blue Twitter Bird” — and held cache; it was ostensibly the cool social media company to work for (outside then-Facebook’s monopoly). That all faded into obscurity when Tesla CEO and manchild Elon Musk took ownership of the company in April 2022. The ensuing two years saw, quite literally, everything good and celebrated and beloved about Twitter decay, courtesy of one man’s insufferable ego. Gone are the avian nods and Twitter’s brand-specific blue color tones, ...

What San Franciscans Thought of Harris’s Very Modest, Very Demure Roast of Trump

14Sep

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Hyperlocal News + Stories, News to Know

What San Franciscans Thought of Harris’s Very Modest, Very Demure Roast of Trump

"It was so nice to see someone speak in complete sentences for once," and the "queen of memes" continues to hold her ground — with plans! Over 67 million people watched this week’s televised debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Viewership from seventeen networks all showed a similar trend: Harris’s debate with Trump was must-see TV. About 24% more people — around 16 million watchers — tuned in to see the debate between the former president and current vice president, showing the reignited energy after Harris became the party’s presidential nominee after last month’s DNC in Chicago. The weeks since that confetti-sprinkled August convention have seen millions of dollars donated to her presidential campaign; what can only be described as a perfect social media campaign strat...

San Francisco Had Just Four Mpox Infections Last Month

13Sep

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Editors' Picks, Hyperlocal News + Stories, News to Know

San Francisco Had Just Four Mpox Infections Last Month

The current rolling seven-day average of new monkeypox, formerly recognized by health departments as “mpx,” in San Francisco is a whopping 0.0 — a result of the city's previous robust mpox vaccine rollout. The discovery of a new, far more lethal variant of monkeypox, now known as “mpx,” was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) on August 14th. #Mpox cases in #SF are currently low, but the two-dose vaccine still provides the best protection. Visit https://t.co/qCtcLJacY4 to learn more about the mpox vaccine. pic.twitter.com/ZHXAiVSzMV — SFDPH (@SF_DPH) September 10, 2024 The outbreak of the novel viral infection began in the Democratic Republic of Congo and quickly spread to neighboring countries. The current monkeypox outbreak involves t...

The (Belated) Weekend Catch-up: World Famous DJ Host Inaugural Run-Club-Music-Festival in San Francisco

9Sep

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Hyperlocal News + Stories

The (Belated) Weekend Catch-up: World Famous DJ Host Inaugural Run-Club-Music-Festival in San Francisco

Plus: Oakland's most famous water bird needs help, and Trump won't get sentencing in Stormy Daniel's hush money case until after the election. San Francisco is a running city. The metro's namesake marathon is lauded as one of the most prestigious in the world — a race latticed with gorgeous vistas, historic landmarks, and enough elevation gains to tire a horse. It makes sense, too, that San Francisco hosts the largest footrace in the United States … which is colored by costumes: Bay to Breakers. Recently, world-famous music producer, DJ, and “yes, daddy” legend Diplo hosted a weekend run in SF. SF’s inaugural Diplo’s Run Clubs attracted an estimated 15,000 participants for a morning run along the Embarcadero. The 5K was met with overwhelmingly positive vibes and revie...

4.3M Earthquake Rattles Along Northern California’s Riskiest Fault Line

9Sep

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Hyperlocal News + Stories, Nature + Climate Crisis, News to Know

4.3M Earthquake Rattles Along Northern California’s Riskiest Fault Line

A recent swarm of earthquakes shook Northern California, putting an uncomfortable spotlight on the region's lesser-known, but most dangerous geological fault line capable of producing the next "Big One." California’s San Andreas Fault gets most of the massive earthquake lore and media attention. There was even a movie — (that had Kylie Minogue make a five-minute appearance, FYI) — about a fictitious quake along it, basically ripping the state apart. However, the region’s riskiest geological fault line in Northern California isn’t the San Andreas Fault, but the lesser-known Rodgers Creek Fault. On Saturday, September 7th, a 4.3 magnitude tremor shook the ground near Healdsburg around 7 a.m., causing light shaking that was felt as Fairfield, California — over 70 miles from the quake’s ep...

San Francisco’s New Painted Boulders Are a PSA Against Plastic Straws

3Sep

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Hyperlocal News + Stories, News to Know

San Francisco’s New Painted Boulders Are a PSA Against Plastic Straws

The Bernal Hill Rock is SF’s cultural chameleon in a coal mine of sorts — always changing and influenced by the world around it. The Bernal Hill Rock in San Francisco — made up of three boulders, one tall, center boulder flanked by two horizontal rocks — is constantly changing. It can boast seasonal paint jobs that celebrate yuletide cheer, the right to bodily autonomy, pay homage to puppets with an insatiable sweet tooth … and much more. (Denouncing genocide and unjust wars are also in the topical palette of this famous piece of public art.) But the iconoclastic rock formation’s most recent painting effectively serves as a geological call to action: Put down the plastic straw! Made to cosplay as a sea turtle, Bernal Hill Rock’s center formation is painted in vibrant greens a...

Artist Playing SF Electronic Music Festival Just Endorsed Trump

24Aug

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Editors' Picks, Hyperlocal News + Stories, News to Know

Artist Playing SF Electronic Music Festival Just Endorsed Trump

The rapper M.I.A. has never been one to shy away from controversy or censor herself. However, her recent decision to openly endorse Trump as the 47th President of the United States might be among her most hot-headed, poor choices yet. The multi-pronged talent that is M.I.A. defined the sonic scape for (most of us) Millennials. Her discography spans literal decades, countless god-tier producers, and lyrics that will forever exist in the deep folds of our minds — “I fly like paper, get high like planes.” But time has turned the 49-year-old “Paper Planes” rapper into something of a radicalized radical. From once defyingly standing up against mass deportations and supporting immigrant naturalization rights to becoming a fervent anti-vaxxer and 5G conspiracy theorizer, M.I.A. has fallen...

Two Coyotes Filmed Playing on SF Beach With Golden Gate Bridge in Background

24Aug

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Editors' Picks, Hyperlocal News + Stories, Nature + Climate Crisis

Two Coyotes Filmed Playing on SF Beach With Golden Gate Bridge in Background

Earlier this week, a seconds-long video posted originally on Instagram that showed two SF coyotes frolicking on Crissy Fields Beach went viral for obvious reasons — it was cute and consoling af. Coyotes in San Francisco have a lore all unto themselves. They were darling fauna during pandemic lockdowns, doubling as symbols of how flora and fauna will happily flourish without human meddling. Signs of them popping in and around San Francisco parks are heeded with care by locals and tourists alike. Stories of how they’ve become increasingly acclimated to human interactions continue piling up — anecdotes that exist alongside recorded and documented cases of coyotes crossing paths with humans … and their dogs. This summer has seen a five-year-old girl get bit on the butt in SF’s Botanic...

Yes, You Can Still Rent the SF Bay Area’s Version of ‘Coffin Homes’

23Aug

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Editors' Picks, Feature Pieces

Yes, You Can Still Rent the SF Bay Area’s Version of ‘Coffin Homes’

When these glorified pods came onto the scene in the summer of 2022, people remarked how wildly inhumane they seemed — and, to boot, they were $800 a month to rent. Talk to anyone in the Bay Area for more than four minutes, and there’s an exceptional chance that the conversation will turn toward the state of housing in the area. During a fleeting moment amid the pandemic’s height from mid-2020 and early 2021, there was hope astronomical rent prices and home prices could go down. And stay down. Time show shown that was only an ephemeral longing — one that evaporated into record-high inflation rates, the pop of “pandemic pricing,” and real estate climbing to new, out-of-reach altitudes. In fact: Home prices in the Bay Area have gone up on average, 17% across the board since 2021. (Santa Cl...