Essays Archives

San Francisco Mayor’s Tyrant Halloween Costume Sure Was a Choice

7Nov

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

San Francisco Mayor’s Tyrant Halloween Costume Sure Was a Choice

Despite a cosmos of controversy orbiting San Francisco Mayor Breed as of late, she, against all logic, thought dressing up as a fictitious authoritarian figure for Halloween would sit well with SF residents. Whether we choose to abide by the omnipresent principle that social media is nowadays synonymous with daily life is largely up to personal habits; to admit otherwise is to willingly forego the actualities of this present juncture in time. We’ve all, consciously or not, adopted digital avatars of ourselves — internet personas that exist into perpetuity; once it’s posted, it doesn’t ever truly go away, even if it's later deleted. This can all have lasting impacts, including how our IRL selves are perceived in the physical world. This past Halloween, San Franciscans were all r...

We Must Keep Our Queer Families in San Francisco Safe From Violence

18Oct

By Juanita MORE!1 Comment

Essays, News to Know, Queerness

We Must Keep Our Queer Families in San Francisco Safe From Violence

And I’ll continue shouting at the top of my lungs until we all feel secure. This past year, multiple verbal, physical, and sexual attacks, vandalism, robberies, and druggings have occurred on members of our LGBTQIA+ community in the San Francisco Bay Area. Even in what’s widely understood as the queer mecca of the world, we do not live in a safe, little queer bubble. It reminds me of when I first came to the city, traveling back and forth from the East Bay to San Francisco on BART and noticing a change in comfort in my young queer self. We are statistically more likely to be victims of hate crimes than non-LGBTQIA+ people. We are all aware of the extreme rise in anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric and the record number of bills introduced into state legislative bodies across the country; hate ...

Growing Up a Little Brown Gay Boy in the East Bay

18Oct

By Juanita MORE!No Comments

Essays, Queerness

Growing Up a Little Brown Gay Boy in the East Bay

'Coming to terms with my queerness at this age was more confusing than challenging.' When I was four years old, my dad was driving the family car — a 1956 Bel Air Chevy on our way back from a friend’s farm, where we had just finished riding horses. I was in the backseat with my sister, just barely big enough to look out the window. We pulled up to a red stoplight and waited as pedestrians passed, then a prepossessing man stepped off the curb onto the street; I could feel my heart start to race. I looked over at my sister and wanted to ask her if she saw him but quickly turned back to stare again. It looked as though he was walking in slow motion — he was handsome and had a graceful stride and confidence. And then I quietly sunk back into my seat. I questioned my thoughts, as I had...

On the Soft, Supple Joy of San Francisco’s Flower Piano Festival

15Sep

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Essays

On the Soft, Supple Joy of San Francisco’s Flower Piano Festival

Now in its eighth iteration — the COVID-19 pandemic having stolen a season from our 2020 calendars — San Franciscos' Flower Piano concert series returned this past weekend, filling Golden Gate Park with consoling, cushiony recitals. I'm someone who struggles with the concept of satisfaction. Or rather: I’m an almost thirtysomething manic depressive that continues to oscillate between varying degrees of mental soundness. Happiness has always seemed fleeting and ephemeral — a yet-dry watercolor painting thrown into a rainstorm that’s left to bleed toward randomness. On this basis alone, I view happiness with a sideways glance. An emotion to acknowledge in a moment, but one to not chase after it inevitably evaporates. Joy, on the other hand, I’ve come to imply with more permanence; the n...

In the SF Bay Area, Beyoncé Brings Out Blue Ivy Carter — Under a Blue Moon

2Sep

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Editors' Picks, Essays, Feature Pieces, Hyperlocal News + Stories

In the SF Bay Area, Beyoncé Brings Out Blue Ivy Carter — Under a Blue Moon

Days removed from attending Beyoncé's SF Bay Area stop on her Renaissance World Tour, the profoundness, pyrotechnics, and sheer talent displayed remains in our mind — "deadass." Beyoncé, as a concept, is hard to wrap one’s brain around... let alone Beyoncé as a human being. (The mere fact that the 29-time Grammy-winner belongs to the same species as the world’s other 7.9 billion bipedal apes is an enigma enveloped within a riddle.) But Mrs. Carter — or “Mayor Carter,” as she would later say in the first act of her nearly three-hour spectacle at Santa Clara's Levi's Stadium on August 30th, nodding to her honorary mayor distinction of the SF Bay Area county that was bestowed upon her that same day — walks and breathes among us. Nevertheless, sharing the same space as her, no matter h...

Remembering SF’s COVID ‘Reopening’ at the Last Gay Bar on Polk Street

25Aug

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Essays, Queerness

Remembering SF’s COVID ‘Reopening’ at the Last Gay Bar on Polk Street

What was intended as an outing to celebrate SF's "reopening" in June of 2021 morphed into something perhaps more special: an ode to the importance of queer safe spaces in a heteronormative world. "I'll just take a gin and soda, extra lime,” I told the bartender June two years ago on June 15th — the same day San Francisco "reopened" after lifting a long list of then-relevant COVID-19 health protocols. It was a request heard not muffled by wearing a mask. The thirtysomething libation slinger — who was by himself amid the frenetic energy that pulsed across San Francisco Tuesday evening, scurrying behind the bar to contend dozens of drinkers — hurried to mound ice and generously pour house gin, leaving what looked like enough room for two tablespoons of carbonated water to float on top. “Th...

I Got *V* Stoned at SF’s First-Ever Pizza, Bagel, and Beer Festival

23Aug

By Matt Charnock2 Comments

Editors' Picks, Essays, Food + Drink, Hyperlocal News + Stories

I Got V Stoned at SF’s First-Ever Pizza, Bagel, and Beer Festival

‘At one point, I earnestly believed I saw Julianne Moore and Laura Dern cackling over two cold hard ciders.’ As my ostensible youth flickers into irrelevance, few activities coax me out of my innate introversion and into the greater, unknown collective. But the promise of complimentary meals and attractive novelties exist as evergreen proddings. (I could also argue that the opportunity to engage in fulfilling sex lives in that same canon, though time dedicated to after-work napping now usually takes prominence over any fleeting horniness.) This past weekend on Saturday, August 19th, the intersectionality of those two nouns met in San Francisco’s first-ever food festival dedicated to all things carbohydrates, specifically pizza, bagels, and beer. Making things neurochemically more...

22Jun

By Matt Charnock1 Comment

Essays, Nature + Climate Crisis

Welcome to Summer in San Francisco

You’ll be wearing layers in the Outer Sunset come daybreak, shirt-free in Dolores Park by the afternoon — and, at some point, find yourself wiping ash off your window San Francisco is a mercurial figure this time of year. Wardrobes seem as indecisive as someone choosing between an El Rio day party or getting naked at Marshall’s Beach; the summer-themed pastries at Tartine Bakery or the mesmeric Kaya toast at Breadbelly; Lyft’s substantial e-bike rental fees or Lime’s equally unsettling e-scooter fares to get to and from downtown. When there’s a pop-up restaurant concept opening every Tuesday or Thursday or Saturday — each one promising a new spin on $14 cocktails and $17 pasta dishes. Something will be infused with CBD. Guaranteed they’ll be long introductions to hyped superfoo...

Revisiting the DA Recall That Felt Like a San Francisco Heartbreak

10Jun

By Matt Charnock1 Comment

Essays, Hyperlocal News + Stories

Revisiting the DA Recall That Felt Like a San Francisco Heartbreak

It was a mash-up of apathy, exhaustion, and delusion that feels somehow personal — a San Francisco that turned its back on itself, with an uncertain future ahead. This article was originally published on June 8, 2022, after the results from San Francisco's special recall election were finalized, showing that the city chose to remove now-former SF DA Chesa Boudin from office. Brooke Jenkins was appointed by Mayor Breed to serve in the interim until the November 8th election of that same year; Jenkins manage to secure the majority vote to keep her appointment; Jenkins's 11-month tenure has seen a rise in violent crime across San Francisco, department controversy around her swift firings of fifteen former Boudin staffers, objective favoritism by Breed, and support of polici...

My Tweet About a Literal Walk Around San Francisco Was Co-opted Into the City’s ‘Doom Loop’ Narrative

24May

By Matt Charnock2 Comments

Editors' Picks, Essays, Hyperlocal News + Stories

My Tweet About a Literal Walk Around San Francisco Was Co-opted Into the City’s ‘Doom Loop’ Narrative

What began as digital documentation of my stroll around San Francisco turned into irrational pellets used to slingshot SF's apparent decline. The simple act of moving my upright body in a forward motion is a kinetic methodology I’ve grown fond of since setting up roots in San Francisco. It offers a specific well of joy — a celebration of an ability to drag around this tattooed bag of proteins and enzymes up and down different elevations. By nature, it’s an inherently neutral action; one would need to craft lofty fabrications and wax confabulatory to politicize going at a leisurely pace around San Francisco. I’m not immune to such twists and bendings of reality, as it would seem. Why, you ask? Because what was initially posted as a heartfelt, albeit tongue-in-cheek, ode to SF's ...