Culture + Travel Archives

A New Mission District Art Exhibit Challenges SF’s ‘Doom Loop’ Narrative

9Aug

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Hyperlocal News + Stories

A New Mission District Art Exhibit Challenges SF’s ‘Doom Loop’ Narrative

The adage that San Francisco is in a state of perpetual freefall has become clickbait as of late — but a new exhibit reminds us that SF is as resilient as it is beguiling. San Francisco exists as a bastion for so many who left their homes to find a semblance of community; of kinship; to be in a community that celebrates themselves and what it means to live a good life on this entropic space rock. The Covid-19 pandemic forever changed our ideas of not only home but how we move about our daily lives. The past three years have seen the media fixated on SF’s “mass exodus” and decline of its downtown; the "doom loop," if you will. But like we’ve waxed (in countless tones and textures) before: San Francisco’s problems aren’t unique — they exist in every large American metro to some degree. ...

San Francisco’s ‘Fogust’ Is in Full Bloom

1Aug

By Matt Charnock1 Comment

Culture + Travel, Nature + Climate Crisis

San Francisco’s ‘Fogust’ Is in Full Bloom

It's the gloomiest time of the year in San Francisco — but it has a magical quality, all unto itself. There’s something so tantalizing, so ethereal about watching the fog roll into San Francisco. It elicits as much a release as it does an envelopment — signaling the end, or beginning, of a new day. It exists as a balm to any San Franciscan who’s fortunate enough to call this maddening metropolis home; an omnipresent reminder that whatever’s salting your wounds right now, those pains, in time, shall pass; that much like the city’s consistent misty aurora, better days are inevitably on the horizon. Fogust, as we’ve come to denote August, is affectionately monikered — the month-long span where Bay Area locals expect foggy, cloudy, hazy conditions each day and every day. And it’s the...

The Bay Area Sells Out to Taylor Swift’s Profitable Whiteness

28Jul

By Matt Charnock1 Comment

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

The Bay Area Sells Out to Taylor Swift’s Profitable Whiteness

Taylor Swift is set to cause massive traffic delays when her Eras Tour descends on Santa Clara — "Swiftie Clara" — this weekend, bringing with it her brand of Caucasian suburbia. As an aging Millennial, Taylor Swift has remained an omnipresent figure in my life since her self-titled debut album entered the cultural zeitgeist on October 24th, 2006. She exemplifies a basket case of dichotomies. The 12-time Grammy-winner’s work ethic is admirable and aspirational; she, simultaneously, lives under a spotlight of privilege — a white woman, whose affluent family uprooted their entire lives to support her flowery dreams. The woman who constructed an entire anthology off one winter scarf has also built a career on peddling the oft-maligned American Dream. Taylor Swift has, no pun inten...

Leona Cheung: Finding Her Path Through Collaboration

27Jul

By Sean AngNo Comments

Culture + Travel

Leona Cheung: Finding Her Path Through Collaboration

For pianist Leona Cheung, the idea of collaboration has always been in her blood — and it's a musical aspect she's continuing to build her career on. When you go to a small child’s music recital and see a pianist in the background accompanying them, what do you think of them? Your answer is probably nothing. But their work has been tireless and often underappreciated; they’re probably keeping the kid in tempo during the performance, rehearsed with them plenty both to get ready for the performance but also teach them how to play with others, and had to deal with teachers, parents, and crying kids. But their work goes far beyond the beginning pedagogy of music — collaborative pianists (often referred to as mere accompanists) are found at every level of music-making and play a vital role in...

PSA: Stop Harassing Santa Cruz’s Sea Otters

26Jul

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

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

PSA: Stop Harassing Santa Cruz’s Sea Otters

Y'all really need to chill TFO and let Sea Otter 841 vibe. If you don't, your actions could lead to her death. The surfboard-stealing female sea otter in Santa Cruz has evolved from a hyperlocal news story to a ubiquitous touchstone in pop culture. (The New York Times covered the virality around this infamous marine mammal with a chef’s kiss headline.) Though like we’ve mentioned before: The temporary theft of these flotation devices isn’t cute. It’s a territorial act. And an increasingly aggressive one at that. The otter, which has since been well-known as "Sea Otter 841," is also creating dangerous conditions for the other nearby otters. People have been observed approaching other sea otters in the area in an attempt to photograph and engage with what they think could be the noto...

Revisiting the SF Bay Area Uber and Lyft Drivers Who Lived in Their Cars

26Jul

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

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

Revisiting the SF Bay Area Uber and Lyft Drivers Who Lived in Their Cars

The idea of "vehicle residency" has grown in popularity since 2015 amid rising cost-of-living expenses and inflation rates. Because owning or renting a home in 2023 still isn't a human right. The story was a part of the SF Homeless Project, a media collaboration, coordinated by the San Francisco Chronicle circa 2019, to draw attention to solutions to end the crisis; it has since been pulled from its original publisher and republished on Underscore_SF with updated information and edits; all interviews included in the piece remain original and without edits. Outside a 24 Hour Fitness in San Mateo, side-saddling a commercial office space and a tiered parking structure, a swath of strategically tinted cars sit parked, veiled by thin layers of condensation coating their windshields....

A Look Inside San Francisco’s Own Barbie Dreamhouse

24Jul

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

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

A Look Inside San Francisco’s Own Barbie Dreamhouse

It’s Barbie’s world, and we’re just living in it — while paying San Francisco market rents and mortgages. “Barbie” is breaking down plastic doors and glass ceilings with each passing day. Over the weekend, the film domestically grossed a staggering $155 million during its opening weekend — adding to its over $337 million global gross, as of publishing. The film has garnered widespread critical acclaim for its portrayal of gender; of queerness; of male loneliness; of radical vulnerability, femininity, and what it means to occupy the female form in a world rife with misogyny. It also has supplied us with enough pink, theater-stopping regalia to last a lifetime. (Between Taylor Swift and Beyoncé currently touring the world with shows and the domestic premiere of “Barbie,” it really is a H...

With Tony Bennett’s Passing, His San Francisco Statue Becomes a Place to Pay Homage

22Jul

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Hyperlocal News + Stories, News to Know

With Tony Bennett’s Passing, His San Francisco Statue Becomes a Place to Pay Homage

Crowds gathered outside the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, laying down flowers and playing "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" on their phones to remember the now-late singer. There are few cultural iconoclasts as interconnected with the spirit of San Francisco as tight-knit as Grammy award-winner Tony Bennett. His 1962 song, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” is a celebration of San Francisco’s peculiarities, including its climate — “My love waits there in San Francisco / Above the blue and windy sea." Bennett sings about SF — “When I come home to you, San Francisco/ Your golden sun will shine for me” — in a way that makes it impossible not to wax with adoration about the seven-by-seven. When the celebrated vocalist, a singer/songwriter/multi-hyphen instrumentalist (that many youngi...

SF Street Artist fnnch Cements His Blunderous ‘Creativity’ With New Project

20Jul

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Editors' Picks, Feature Pieces

SF Street Artist fnnch Cements His Blunderous ‘Creativity’ With New Project

fnnch, who has come under fire in recent years for his gentrifying street art and invading queer spaces, has a new disputable art project: crowdsourcing funds for a piece organized around “decommodification." You’d be hard-pressed to find a piece of street art more vilified, despised, and outright loathed in San Francisco than the honey bears painted by controversial street artist fnnch. Back in 2018, when the nameless muralist started plastering his cookie-cutter, toddler-sized bears across San Francisco, locals waxed gracious and favorable when spotting them. They, too, became source material for any local journalist cutting their teeth by producing listicle pieces around lifestyle topics. (Alas, I was part of such an ostensibly destitute cohort.) Time, though, has not been kind to f...

This SF Bookstore Is Taking 40% Off Its Entire Inventory. But for a Somber Reason.

20Jul

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Hyperlocal News + Stories, News to Know

This SF Bookstore Is Taking 40% Off Its Entire Inventory. But for a Somber Reason.

San Francisco’s The Green Arcade is closing after well over a decade of bookselling — slashing everything in the store by almost half. San Francisco is home to a sea of bookstores — dozens, in fact. Though even here in San Francisco, which is largely synonymous as a bastion for literature, bookstores, especially independently-owned ones, are retreating like a low tide. In March, San Francisco was hammered with a massive blow to the city’s literary scene when two touchstones, The Magazine and Alexander Book Company, closed amid financial woes, despite increased online sales. The seven-by-seven has to contend with another biophilic gut punch after The Green Arcade announced it is closing. And it's in a hurry to clear its store of books and pageless items, throwing a “retirement” sale...