Culture + Travel Archives

San Francisco Now Has Giant Koi Fish Street Art — No, Actually

10Nov

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

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

San Francisco Now Has Giant Koi Fish Street Art — No, Actually

Consider the small school of massive fish an expanded version of artist Jeremy Novy’s family sidewalk fauna. San Francisco’s Slow Streets Program has given way to a renaissance of public art. Take for example car-free JFK Drive, a.k.a. the “JFK Promenade”: It’s now home to dozens of public art components, which include two new bronze-steel statues that will make any passerby do a double take. Sanchez Slow Street, while delightful and known to act as a concurrent space for hella fine block parties, isn’t as creatively decorated as the aforenoted car-free corridor. (Mind you, the JFK Promenade is also home to the Golden Mile Project — a public art venture fiscally supported by the arts non-profit Illuminate. Nevertheless, the point stands.) Recently, however, a truly awe-in...

4Nov

By Matt Charnock1 Comment

Culture + Travel, Hyperlocal News + Stories

San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park Just Got Brand-New Bronze and Steel Statues

The newest installation is in honor of the Golden Mile Project’s one-year anniversary beautifying the pedestrian-friendly corridor. Golden Gate Park is one of the 100 largest city parks in the United States; it’s even more than 300 acres larger than NYC’s Central Park. However, for such a large swath of public greenery, the area is latticed with roads that bisect and distract from the park’s outright wilderness so many of us seek out. But during the COVID-19 pandemic — a time when our collective isolation, quite literally, forced us to reacquaint ourselves with Mother Nature — San Francisco’s network of car-free corridors existed as a balm for our mental health. Though the erected 24 car-free roads included in the city's Slow Streets Program have since dwindled, many remain… with a...

In a Shock to Literally No One, San Francisco Is the Most Queer-Friendly City in America

3Nov

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Queerness

In a Shock to Literally No One, San Francisco Is the Most Queer-Friendly City in America

San Francisco also has 110% more gay bars than the average American city. At this point, it’s almost comical to remind any resident of San Francisco that the city is, in fact, the queer mecca of the world — a moniker the city has proudly donned since the 1970s. Though broader acceptance of the LGBTQIA+ community has continued to expand, hate remains prevalent; queer victims of violent hate crimes were more likely than LGBT non-hate crime victims to report problems in their lives; 2023 saw an increase in anti-queer incidents when compared to 2022; conservatives continue to lose their marbles at the sheer sight of Target’s Pride collection come every June. Suffice it to say there’s a long, long (long) way to go before queerness is as ubiquitously accepted as suburban sprawls. But, ag...

These ‘Mushrooms’ Are Sprouting Up All Around San Francisco

3Nov

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

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

These ‘Mushrooms’ Are Sprouting Up All Around San Francisco

And no: They won’t get you high or bring you closer to a divine power source. San Francisco is a wonderland of public art. The city is home to hundreds, if not thousands of public street-facing art. Murals paint our walls; colorful lights illuminate city landmarks; ostensibly haunting sculptures look down and through us. There’s magic around every corner of the 49-square-mile utopia. Now adding to that omnipresent wonder is a new collection of dressed-up fire hydrants, painted to look like mushrooms plucked right out of a Disney film — fire hydrant fungi if you will. Painting a hodgepodge of San Francisco’s decades-old fire hydrants, many of which are well into their seventh decade in orbit on this space rock, the aptly named Instagram account “magicmushroom.” “Sprouting up ...

The ‘Nellysance’ Finally Came to San Francisco

4Oct

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel

The ‘Nellysance’ Finally Came to San Francisco

Performing in front of thousands upon thousands of festival attendees, all of whom ranged in age, Nelly Furtado took the stage for the first in the SF Bay Area since 2007 — confirming her resurgence in pop culture as of late. There are icons in the music industry who exist in tandem with cornerstone memories of our childhood and early adulthood; they exude a sort of communal nostalgia. There’s Beyoncé, of course. Some can rightfully argue Taylor Swift. Usher, for sure. Mary J. Blige. Mariah Carey. Justin Timberlake. The list goes on, albeit not for too long. Nelly Furtado — the celebrated Canadian songbird behind chart-topping hits like “I’m Like a Bird,” “Promiscuous,” and “Maneater” — is inscribed in permanent marker on that aforementioned index. But like many celebrated artists ...

The Importance of Explicit Consent in Kink and Fetish — at SF’s Folsom Street Fair and Far Beyond

24Sep

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Editors' Picks, Queerness

The Importance of Explicit Consent in Kink and Fetish — at SF’s Folsom Street Fair and Far Beyond

The largest kink and leather festival in the world descends on SF this weekend, putting into focus the need to ask for permission before exploring sexual intimacy. The human experience exists in tandem with sexual expression, regardless of where one falls on its spectrum. (Asexuality is, after all, a form of sexuality that exists outside the realm of celibacy, the latter connoting refrain from engaging in sexual behaviors, rather than representing a person’s sexual expression; “aces” — the term used to describe asexual people — may still have interest in sex; their intimate lives aren’t organized around sexual intercourse, but rather emotional intimacy and relationship building; aces often masturbate and remain selective if they do choose to have sex with a consenting partner.) ...

Here’s a Rare Glimpse of the Old Neon Signs at SF’s Cliff House

15Sep

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

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

Here’s a Rare Glimpse of the Old Neon Signs at SF’s Cliff House

"Hey Siri, Play ‘Neon Lights (Rock Version)' by Demi Lovato." Earlier this week, it was joyfully announced that San Francisco’s beloved now-closed, iconoclastic Cliff House diner — which sits near Lands End, sacred acreage owned by the National Parks Service (NPS) — will reopen in 2024, courtesy of a newly granted 20-year lease to Sutro Lands End Partners, LLC. Though the structure is expected to go through a major renovation, whatever inevitably will replace SF’s Cliff House must honor the building’s historic usefulness; such mandated services include the operation of a restaurant, cafe, retail store, and event space; NPS is requiring Sutro Lands Ends Partners to commit to these uses. “San Francisco has been good to me and to my family ever since my grandparents arrived here d...

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;...

What if San Francisco’s Crooked Lombard Street Was Car-Free?

7Sep

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

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

What if San Francisco’s Crooked Lombard Street Was Car-Free?

Reinvisiton arguably the most crook street in the world as a playground for pedestrian activities is a lofty longing, for sure. But it opens the door to understanding how giving back roadways to people can liven up asphalt that otherwise only sees car tires go over it. Silver linings are odious cliches that usually coincide with blind optimism and denials around cherry-picked realities. The pandemic was rife with these metallic undertones — for better and worse. Among those upsides, all of which were shadowed by a global health crisis, San Franciscans explored the city on foot. And bikes. Scooter, too. Both of which were likely electrified. Car-free street corridors sprouted up across the city; they grew in popularity; they became subjects of controversy and morphed into political to...

‘Did You Know That [There Was a Pedestrian Bridge at SF’s Ferry Building]?’

25Aug

By Matt Charnock1 Comment

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

‘Did You Know That [There Was a Pedestrian Bridge at SF’s Ferry Building]?’

Constructed sometime in the late 1920s, San Francisco had a large pedestrian bridge on the Embarcadero that saw thousands walk across it daily. Opened in 1898, San Francisco’s Ferry Building began primarily as a welcome portal for people arriving by train. As the Gold Rush continued until the 1930s, thousands of people a day passed through the iconoclastic structures by way of shipping and fishing boats and, of course, ferries. At its peak during this era, SF’s Ferry Building saw as many as 50,000 people walk through the two-story public structure on a daily basis to commute by ferry. Lana Del Rey reminded us earlier this year that there is, indeed, “a tunnel under Ocean Boulevard'' in Long Beach, California — an underground passage opened in 1927 to provide a safe passage to the b...