Matt Charnock, Author at Underscore_SF

Jonathan Van Ness Is Queerer, Angrier, and More Grateful Than Ever Before

8Dec

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Jonathan Van Ness Is Queerer, Angrier, and More Grateful Than Ever Before

Before their show at San Francisco's The Castro Theatre, we had a cute lil' chit-chat with the Queer Eye star and multi-hyphenate human. Ostensibly speaking, Jonathan Van Ness — who’s commonly referred to by their initials, JVN, which is also the name of their new haircare line — is the nexus of new-age pop culture and queer expression. When their name is brought into the conversational fold, regardless of the context and sexual orientations of those speaking, the consensus is that they’ve helped normalize feminine expression in an outright masculine world. Van Ness is synonymous with self-expression; they exude a certain individuality that reads as amiable and charismatic. Van Ness materializes through a screen, jovial even as if seeing them apparate onto the seat next to you wouldn’t in...

A Microaggressive Letter to My Upstairs Neighbor in San Francisco

8Dec

By Matt Charnock4 Comments

Essays

A Microaggressive Letter to My Upstairs Neighbor in San Francisco

Not sure if the sentient being above me in SF is a bipedal ape... or an Asiatic pachyderm. Hey, asshole. (Come to think of it, I don’t actually know your name. When you moved in and started operating what sounded like a bowling alley upstairs at all hours of the night, my diurnal, kinder formalities surrendered to episodes of late-night frustration. I never asked for your name during that first, brief, severe interaction. So yea: asshole it is.) It’s me. Your downstairs neighbor. I know your unit — its size, its dimensions, its prior date of occupancy — because I toured it two years ago before moving into the one below it. At one point, I was considering signing a lease for that very space but couldn’t justify paying the $250 more a month for what was basically better Golden Hour light...

FYI: You Can Adopt an (Adult) Dog This Month (for Free) in SF

7Dec

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Hyperlocal News + Stories

FYI: You Can Adopt an (Adult) Dog This Month (for Free) in SF

Canines up for adoption through the San Francisco SPCA will have their adoption fees waived until December 31st. Last year, the San Francisco SPCA took in a record 3,242 cats and dogs — with over 3,000 of them finding homes. Those that didn’t find homes were either relocated to different shelters, placed in foster homes, or humanely euthanized due to a certain subset of variables (i.e. health and behavioral concerns). And with the animal shelter’s first return to IRL adoptable animals displayed in its Holiday Windows at Macy’s in Union Square, the shelter is set to have another year of record adoptions. Aiding that goal into fruition is the fact that the San Francisco animal shelter recently announced all adult dogs — “5m+” — will have adoption fees waived. “Now throug...

Weekend Catch-Up: It Was a Wet One in San Francisco

5Dec

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Hyperlocal News + Stories

Weekend Catch-Up: It Was a Wet One in San Francisco

And there's a massive uptick in asymptomatic COVID-19 cases in San Francisco — just as holiday travels loom. It’s officially the wettest time of the year in the San Francisco Bay Area. From now until the end of February, the region will receive well over half its twelve-month rainfall total — which is inherently problematic, though welcomed. (We’ll take any and all perception… as the entire Bay Area, as well as most of Northern California, still falls in severe drought levels, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor Map.) Streets turned into lakes. Diamond Streed doubled as a rushing river. Some high-key hiking trails in the Peninsula were flooded… because, in the thick of an intense rainstorm, they shapeshifted into a storm drain. So, yea: We’re still feeling very m...

FYI: San Francisco Is Still the Most Dog-Friendly City in America

2Dec

By Matt Charnock1 Comment

Hyperlocal News + Stories, Nature + Climate Crisis

FYI: San Francisco Is Still the Most Dog-Friendly City in America

Our dogs are extensions of our families — and it makes us smile ear-to-ear to learn that SF is still the best place for them in 2022. San Francisco is synonymous with urban greenspaces, walkability, and cafes — many of which now have glorious parklets — that welcome leashed canines with affection. During the height of the pandemic, adoption rates for dogs and cats skyrocketed; there was an interesting phenomenon that happened when both kill and non-kill shelters across the country emptied of adoptable animals. And the same trend was observed here in the Bay Area, with the SFSPCA and other animal rescues reporting record levels of adoptions. Those Good Boys and Good Girls and Good Non-Gender-Conforming dogs that found themselves being taken by humans with San Francisco area codes were i...

There’s Now a Lil’ Dog Library on SF’s JFK Promenade

1Dec

By Matt Charnock1 Comment

Hyperlocal News + Stories, Nature + Climate Crisis

There’s Now a Lil’ Dog Library on SF’s JFK Promenade

There are over fifty little libraries in San Francisco — but, as far as we know, this is the only one for doggos. Every time we pass a little library in San Francisco, the inner child in us — the one who found whim and escapism inside the tattered pages of well-worn books — glows. If we’re carrying a book we can comfortably part with, we wedge it inside any shoulder-level library we pass. Hopefully, there’s something we can take in exchange. If not, we’re happy to add to the stack. And with at least fifty Little Free Libraries scattered around the seven-by-seven, there’s no shortage of them to check out. Our four-legged best friends are left out of this exchange; while they have a firm grasp of our spoken languages, they can’t, say, read Joan Didion with such prowess. But now, they...

Don’t Forget the Golden Gate Bridge Once Slumped Seven Feet

30Nov

By Matt Charnock1 Comment

Hyperlocal News + Stories

Don’t Forget the Golden Gate Bridge Once Slumped Seven Feet

The Golden Gate Bridge finished construction on April 19, 1937 — and fifty years later, the suspension would sag when hundreds of thousands walked on it at once. During the working week, over 112,000 vehicles drive over San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. But in 2020, this number fell by over 40% during the pandemic’s shelter-in-place orders. Given the GGB's dimensions, about 1,200 passenger cars can fit on the bridge at once. Crunching some numbers: This means that almost three million tons of weight could be pushed down on the bridge’s suspension during rush hour. That's a fuck-ton of weight... literally. And, if you add an additional million-and-a-half ton to that figure we wrote above, you'll have about the poundage that was weighing down the bridge when bipeds crowded the Golden Gat...

San Francisco’s New Spaceship Toilet: Dark Mode Edition

29Nov

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Feature Pieces, Hyperlocal News + Stories

San Francisco’s New Spaceship Toilet: Dark Mode Edition

After just three days of operating, SF's "futuristic" toilet broke down — but it still looked gorgeous underneath street lights. By now, you’ve likely heard of the hoopla around the “futuristic” toilet that opened in SF’s Embarcadero last week. A favorable review in the San Francisco Chronicle highlighted the Spaceship-like restroom's new-age amenities and feel. The commode, which offers eight minutes to get in and get out to take care of business, is now open right in front of the Embarcadero Plaza between Market Street and the Ferry Building. Juxtaposed with the old-age, decades-old structures around it, the lavish loo draws immediate attention for its harsh contrast to the building around it. Per the newspaper, the plan from the City is to now install twenty-four identic...

Have You Seen These Glowing, Purring, Towering Cats in SF Yet?

29Nov

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Hyperlocal News + Stories

Have You Seen These Glowing, Purring, Towering Cats in SF Yet?

For the next twelve months, the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) is sponsoring a feline-forward installation at Patricia’s Green in Hayes Valley. San Francisco is in its light artwork era, for sure. Entwined — the Avatar-like forest of LEDs that glows inside Golden Gate Park’s Peacock Meadow — is returning this week for its third iteration. Exploratorium’s annual light show, Glow, is now on full display. And just before the Thanksgiving holiday, a collection of six “Catoliths” soft launched at the previously described SF urban park. Called Cathenge — a 3D printed public art piece ideated and created by SF-based artist David Normal, whose work frequently makes its way to Burning Man — the ring of nine-foot-tall felines was announced by SFAC on November 17. The half-doz...

I Spent Friendsgiving at This Eco-Friendly Five-Star Hotel in San Francisco

29Nov

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Food + Drink

I Spent Friendsgiving at This Eco-Friendly Five-Star Hotel in San Francisco

If you're looking to have a sublime meal underneath a climate-controlled forest canopy, look no further than Terrene at 1 Hotel in SF's Embarcadero. The fourth Thursday in November has sat with an evergreen appeal and nostalgic lure for me, especially after leaving Texas nearly a decade ago. It’s a day brimming with sensory memories. The smell of caramelized sugar atop an apple crisp permeating out of the kitchen in Austin; the sight of crumpled tin foil pulled over rectangular serving dishes refracting the incandescent light above; sounds of laughter and convivial conversation, punctuated by clanks of colliding glassware. It’s a day brimming with orchestras of sensations that are rich for memory-making. Alas, since living in San Francisco, the opportunity to spend T...