Pirate Festival in Vallejo

It was Father’s Day and my darling daughter Anita (aka Durt Gurl) had a brilliant idea. The Pirate Festival was being held in Vallejo. I would take the ferry across the Bay and visit her new hometown for some swashbuckling hijinks!

So it didn’t surprise me to see pirates wandering San Francisco’s historic Ferry Building. I knew where they were heading. Some tourists who were out early were curious and asked the buccaneers about their garb. Locals didn’t even notice them. It was just another Sunday morning in San Francisco.  

At least ten pirates boarded the ferry. They didn’t seem to be an especially bloodthirsty bunch. Most of them were older pirates. I knew they wanted to get to the the festival and meet their shipmates, so I wasn’t too worried that the ferry would be hijacked. It wouldn’t make sense to seize the ship on the way there. The return voyage might be a different story. 

It was a clear day, a great day to be out on the Bay. The usual safety announcements were made. The captain warned us that it could be windy, “There will be some chop.” “Don’t move around the boat unless necessary.” “Life jackets are stowed under the seat.” “There is no smoking or vaping allowed anywhere on the vessel... No medical marijuana is allowed on the ferry... Yes folks, I have to mention it.” This would be another anecdote for visitors from less fortunate states when they got back home. “They had to tell them not to smoke pot on the ferry!”    

Before the bridges were built the ferry had been a pleasant way to commute. Each ferry developed its own little community. It was a relaxing way to start and end the day. Taking the ferry was part of a more civilized lifestyle. After a recent BART strike, people are starting to use the ferry system more.    

11:10. The ferry crossing takes about an hour. It’s not too hot. Vallejo had been home to the Mare Island Naval Base. The small town depended on its sailor population and struggled after the base’s closure. I couldn’t find any evidence of pirates or pirate attacks in Vallejo’s history, but it still had to be a rowdy town on a Saturday night. The area has been recovering in recent years. It’s been discovered by many who are looking for an alternative to the high rents of San Francisco.   

  Anita and her friend Elijah met me at the ferry landing. It was a short walk along the water to Vallejo’s Waterfront Park. The festival was much bigger than I had expected. I thought it would take up a couple of blocks of downtown Vallejo. Waterfront Park has a promenade along the Napa River.  It was the perfect place for a pirate festival. It’s right next to the water and Vallejo is in heavy Oakland Raiders territory! 

We entered through The Main Gate. Most of the people on the festival grounds were in pirate clothes. I’ll guesstimate at least two-thirds of the people wandering the festival grounds were dressed up, and they didn’t just wear a tri-corner hat, scarf or eyepatch. The pirate attire was very detailed. People were certainly in the spirit of the event. Their clothes looked authentic. Like many events in the San Francisco Bay Area there was a touch of Halloween in the proceedings. 

It was hard to tell who the paying customers were. People dressed as pirates were paying the admission fee to get in. Were the re-enactors employees? It didn’t seem to matter as the day went on.

It reminded me of the Renaissance Faire. I suspected that many of the same people were involved with both events and The Dickens Faire. Re-enactors are a dedicated bunch. It costs money to get the authentic clothes and accoutrements. I’m not wearing any Pirate stuff. Not even a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball hat. I’ll just have to channel my inner Keith Richards.

We got the lay of the land. Vendor’s booths stretched as far as the eye could see. We’ll never look at this strip of land the same again. To our right was the Treasure Island Kids Stage. Anne Bonney, Jack Rackham and Calico Jack taught the kids essential pirate and nautical skills at The Pirate School. There was knot tying, sword making and a class in walking the plank.

It was a good way to keep the little buggers busy, but is walking the plank a good pirate skill to have? It’s pretty much over when you’re forced to walk the plank. Maybe it’s a good thing to know if you are forced to do it, but there isn’t much of a future in walking the plank. Eventually you’re going to wind up swimming with the sharks. Has anyone walked the plank and survived?  

The kids had a good teacher in Ann Bonny. Female pirates like Grace O’Malley and Mary Read were rare, but not only did they hold their own, they were greatly feared.  

Vendors sold leather goods, jewelry and other essentials of the buccaneer lifestyle. There was “Fyne Jewelry” and beads. Feathers and pirate hats. The leather goods and jewelry looked very well made. There were rum cakes, candies and other delicacies. You could find everything necessary for life on the high seas.  

“It’s a pirate’s life for me.” Pirates looked free and independent. It’s said the crews on pirate ships were an early form of democracy. They had mutinied against the intolerable life of a seaman. It was said every lowly sailor had some say in where the search for plunder went. I had to wonder if that was true.  

It was a little early for the Food Court. The turkey leg looked great, but it may have been a bit too much. A turkey leg could be a good prop, but you would have to carry it around for most of the day.  

There was a surreal sight ahead. Mermaids hung on the edge of a see through tank called The Dive Bar. They say that after too much time at sea sailors hallucinated and saw sea manatees as beautiful female creatures. These beautiful creatures of the sea certainly weren’t manatees. A crowd had gathered with wide eyed children in front, near the tank.

The grass near the tanks was wet and a bit muddy. People got splashed as the mermaids frolicked. It’s the Sea World effect. It was a great photo op. We caught the very end of their performance. The large tank kept the mermaids wet and alive. The brave young women took a break from the water and wind.   

The air was alive with pirate songs and sea chanteys. At the Shipwreck Stage “Penny Opry” played some old tunes with a backup of a button accordion and a suitcase drum kit. Later we would hear The Sea dogs, The Brass Farthing and Skip Henderson and The Starboard Watch.

 

It was time for some grog. We stopped at The Rum Bar for “The Mermaid,” a rum and juice drink. Jack Sparrow swaggered our way. He was a young man with a marked resemblance to Johnny Depp. He seemed a bit drunk, but he wasn’t too obnoxious. A professional. His outfit was very detailed. The clothes. The face tattoo. The flint lock. He drank from a large tankard. He really did look like Johnny Depp.    

He mumbled and slurred some witticisms that only he seemed to appreciate. He approached and talked to people. Attendees were amused, but tended to scurry away. I’m not sure how drunk he was, but he was certainly playing the part. 

The guy was good. Is he getting paid for this? If he is, it’s not a bad gig. Walking around all day at least pretending to get drunk and playing at being a combination of Johnny Depp and Keith Richards. Would it get old after a couple of hours? 

Pirates have captured our imagination for a long time. The Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise and the ride at Disneyland shot new life into the pirate subculture. Most of us first learned about pirates from the movies. An earlier generation saw the Jackie Cooper version of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic, Treasure Island. For Baby Boomers it was the Disney version. Long John Silver! Now there was a pirate! He only had one leg and he was still the leader of the pirates.     

 

Pirates are extroverts. Two grizzled sea dogs shouted loud greetings to each other, ignoring the landlubbers walking between them.   

“What’s the definition of a good pirate? One who hasn’t killed someone... Today!” 

People were lined up for a photo op with a large parrot. This was a big hit with the kids. Parents seemed a bit miffed that a donation for more grog was requested. It reminded me of The Pirate on Fisherman’s Wharf.  

Buxom wenches wandered the festival grounds. Their low cut blouses exposed more decolletage than could be seen in the strip clubs on North Beach’s Broadway. It was a lusty time. This was day two of the festival and many were sporting a strip of sunburn. Faces that weren’t used to being out in the sun were very red. Maybe it was from being exposed to the sea wind up in the rigging.   

Two guys started dueling with wooden swords. There was jumping around and the clacking of wood. It was the first of the impromptu fights we would see. There sure were a lot of weapons around. Flintlocks were secured in the sashes of coats. Don’t bump into anyone here. You could be in real trouble if someone didn’t like the cut of your jib. 

The Brotherhood of Oceanic Mercenaries. (B.O.O.M.) lounged under a large tent. Another group of re-enactors is named the Brotherhood of the Black Flag. They had a great looking spread of food and drink. There were tankards and turkey legs. Now that’s the kind of reenactment I could get into. Sitting around all day eating and drinking. I didn’t know the mates from B.O.O.M. would have to swing into action later this afternoon.   

The main stage is the Tortuga Stage. A Rock band struggled to tune up. They are O’Craven, “A Celtic Pirate band.” They’re wearing pirate gear. The lead singer has a bright green pirate hat on. You don’t see a green pirate hat too often. It takes them a while to get going. When they do start rocking, a group of lasses dances in front of the stage. Elijah notes that they’re probably the girl friends of the band. Pirate groupies must be very tough. Pirates and Heavy Metal make a great combination. I imagined them rocking across the high seas, pillaging and plundering. Search and Destroy!  

Restrooms are called “The Poop Deck.” 

I stopped in The Rum Bar for a Lagunitas IPA. Six doubloons. Six bucks. Not a bad price nowadays. Two friendly barmaids trod the boards behind the bar. They thanked a customer for contributing to their tip jar and adding to their “booty.”  

Who walks in but Jack Sparrow! He has his own mug. The barmaids certainly know him. They’ve been hustling tips with a sense of humor. “We love the booty,” they tell another customer, encouraging him to rattle the tip jar. Jack Sparrow looks a bit wistful. “Yes... I love the booty.”   

Morgan’s Companie was a tented VIP area. Not sure what being a VIP got you, besides a break from the sun, but it did look pretty cool. Blackbeard was supposed to be around, but I didn’t see him. There was a distinguished looking gentlemen in richer looking clothing and a well manicured wig. He must be a barrister or a nobleman of some kind. He is The Pirate Hunter, Woodes Rogers. How did he get away with hanging out with the scurvy scum he usually pursued? 

There were odd meetings of technology and piracy. I heard a grizzled looking buccaneer growling into his cell phone, “What are your bearings? ... What are your bearings?”  

When we got back to the Food Court it was time. There were the street fair staples, but there was also a booth offering various fowl. Chicken, turkey, duck or quail. We settled for a great, fresh gyros! The nearby Blackbeard’s Beverages served drinks.

There were large round tables and we joined two women decked out in nautical regalia. One had a large hummingbird tattoo. “My boyfriend went to the gun range.” They were friendly enough. They were long time veterans of The Pirate Festival and talked about attending some of the first ones.  

We still had some pirating to do. There were some daring activities. People hurtled through the air on a zip line. Now here was a valuable pirate skill! Ideal for boarding enemy vessels! Pirates invented the zip line. Having someone flying overhead on the zip line did put some excitement in the air. 

Large, clear plastic bubbles bounced in a large pool of water. There were people inside the bubbles! Most of them were kids. It was like bumper cars on the water. Two attendants helped people get into the bubbles through a little door. They were a bit more careful when helping adults into the bubbles, but if it was a kid they just threw them in. The attendants knew that as soon as the bubble was pushed back into the pool that the kids would lose their balance and fall anyway. It was a soft landing inside the bubble. It was hard to control where the bubble went in the water. Adults tended to lay inside,  relax and float aimlessly. Kids scrambled around inside their bubble and tried to steer them. Ten dollars got you “four or five minutes” inside the bubble. 

Some of the male pirates looked pretty long in the tooth. What do you do if you’re an old decrepit guy with long stringy hair? Be a pirate! I found myself wondering what some of these knaves did in the real world. How many pirates could have survived to an advanced age? Maybe these scurvy scum weren’t as old as they looked. It was a rough life at sea.  

One old pirate wore a familiar looking coat. Red with white trim. It was a Santa Claus suit! The rest of his outfit was a pirate outfit, but he did have the Santa jacket. Another pirate teased him about his convenient dress. Santa pirate bantered with the other guy, “This isn’t my slow season!”    

A couple of young kids were sword fighting with wooden swords. They probably made them at The Pirate School. Children and sticks are usually not a good combination. Sooner or later something goes wrong. They flailed their wooden weapons wildly at each other.     

There was a time that I valued and enjoyed a good stick. Sticks were a valuable part of our arsenal back in the old neighborhood. There was no shortage of plastic firearms back then, but sometimes a stick was more convenient. A stick of the right size could be a rifle. Another one could be a sword. A good stick was a valuable commodity.

The women in The House of the Rising Son were very enthusiastic re-enactors. Their faces were pale with makeup. The “Painted Ladies” were dressed and made up for business. This was a brothel in New Orleans. All the corsets, bustles and long frilly skirts had to be a challenge on a hot day. Women wore a lot of clothes in the Eighteenth century. They sang a very spirited rendition of “The Cabin Boy’s Son.” It turns out the cabin boy can get pregnant. They looked like they enjoyed singing together.   

With apologies to the painted ladies and mermaids, the highlight of the day had to be the “ship to shore cannon battle.” Evil pirates sailed The Sea Eagle up the Napa River along The Promenade. They had designs on Vallejo. Cannon shots were fired at the gathered landlubbers. There could be pillage and plunder! Maybe worse.     

The Brotherhood of Oceanic Mercenaries sprang into action! They scrambled to load and aim their cannon and return fire from their fortifications on shore. The members of B.O.O.M. saved Vallejo from the invading buccaneers! Blimey!   

It was time to go back to the relative reality of San Francisco. There were still some pirates in the bar near the Vallejo Ferry. I was relieved that there were no buccaneers on board the ferry returning to San Francisco. There was a good chance I’d make it across the Bay without getting shanghaied. Thanks to Darling Daughter for a great Father’s Day!  

 

 

San Francisco Film Festival 2018

The 2018 San Francisco International Film Festival. 

The Festival really snuck up on me this year. It used to start at the end of April and end in early May. The dates this year are April 4-17. I got off to a slow start and missed the members Preview Night at The Castro. 

This would be my fourteenth San Francisco International Film Festival. We got to The Castro in plenty of time for the Opening Night hoopla. It was great to see many familiar Film Festival faces. Terry Hagerty entertained the early arrivals on The Castro Theater organ. 

The Opening Night film was A Kid Named Jake. Director: Silas Howard. Claire Danes is Alex. Her husband is Jim Parsons of The Bigger Bang Theory sitcom fame. Their son Jake is about five. Jake loves to play dress up and prefers toys with a princess theme. He’s a bit obsessed with Cinderella and My Little Mermaid. What will happen to him if he attends a public school in New York? He’s already being teased by preschool classmates.

A friend in education (Octavia Spencer) suggests they mention Jakes’ special interests when applying to private schools. She says it will help him get into a private school. They’re hesitant to take advantage of their son’s special interests. 

Have to hand it to Jim Parsons. It didn’t take long to forget he’s Sheldon from The Bigger Bang Theory. A light PC comedy. Entertaining. Perfect choice for Opening Night in San Francisco. 

The Opening Party was at the San Francisco Design Center Galleria. This was the site of my first Opening Party. It was all a new world to me back then.  

I have fond memories of that night. The entertainment was a Burlesque show. The return of Burlesque was a bit of a fad at the time. There was plenty of free food and drink. A beautiful woman walked up to me in the smoking area, “You don’t belong here.” She meant it as a compliment. She didn’t like the film crowd and told me her life story. She was a little smashed. Later I saw her on stage singing a very suggestive vamp song. It was quite a start for me at the Film Festival.  

The Galleria is an odd combination of old warehouse and modern party venue. Most of the building is old red brick like nearby San Francisco warehouses. A large balcony wraps around a courtyard. Sponsors offered great food and drink. Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers entertained us from the large stage on the ground floor. Her veteran band plays vintage Blues, Jazz and Swing songs. They’re songs from the past with some bite.  

I’m working the Schools At the Festival (SAF) program again this year. My first shift was at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. (SFMOMA) The Festival has had events there in the past, but it will be using SFMOMA more this year. 

One of the volunteers commented, “This is our family for two weeks.” She admits that, “It’s corny, but it’s true!” There’s still a lot of camaraderie! 

Grammar school students came to see Big Bad Fox and Other Tales. Director Benjamin Ritter came for the Q&A and drew some pictures using an overhead projector. Ritter is asked how he got started: “When I was young, I wanted to be Batman. Then I realized I would have to be rich to do that.”  

The kids are great. There’s no filter. They say what’s on their mind. A question to a kid during the Q&A: “What does a director do?” After a brief pause: “He fires people!”

  

The next day is the first big SAF screening at The Castro. 1100 grammar school kids for Wonder starring Julia Roberts. Owen Wilson. Jacob Tremblay. A perfect film for the kids to see. They’re loud on the way in and out, but once the film starts they’re transfixed. 

I try to see films after my shift. The schedules make what I see a matter of chance. This has worked for me. I’ve seen some great stuff over the years. The Festival is more spread out, but there are three venues close to each other downtown: the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. (SFMOMA.) The Creativity Center. The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Screening Room. If there’s any hub or center to the Festival, this is it. The Festival Lounge is nearby. These are all around The Moscone Center. About half of the convention center is under construction. It’s interesting to see the place being transformed. My big fear is that I’ll show up for a shift somewhere and learn that it’s somewhere else.    

The Creativity Center is next to the Children’s Museum. They’re both behind the Looft Merry Go Round near Fourth and Howard. It’s an odd part of San Francisco that many locals aren’t even aware of. The area is not visible from the street. There’s a children’s playground, an ice rink and a bowling alley back there! 

  I see My Life With James Dean there. Director: Dominique Choisy. The film doesn’t have much to do with James Dean. A  young film maker brings his experimental film to a festival in a French resort town in Normandy. It’s a film festival within the Film Festival. The projectionist falls in love with his film and its director.  

His experimental film doesn’t cause much buzz. “How many tonight?” “Two.” Later someone buys most of the tickets to create a sellout. There’s a nod to old slapstick comedy with a pedestrian chase scene. The characters can’t resist following and snooping on each other. 

Saturday. 4/7. I have to return to the real world for an auction. Then it’s all Film Festival for two weeks. I go to the Creativity Center for The Winter Brothers. Iceland. Directed by Hlynur Palmason. Programmer Rod Armstrong says that after a short absence there are more films from Iceland this year. He’s not sure if this was because of a spike in production or just a coincidence. He tells us about Carcasse and suggests we see other films that are: “for the adventurous... I know you’re out there.”   

We get to see life in “an industrial compound.” About a third of the film is shot inside some kind of mine. The beginning of the film is only lit by the light beams from the workers helmets. It looks like an experimental art film for about twenty minutes. I’m not sure what they’re mining. Both below and above ground white dust coats everything. It doesn’t look healthy.  

Two brothers have been making and selling moonshine to their fellow employees. One of the brothers is eccentric. It looks like life in the compound is causing him to crack up. A chronic colleague quickly drinks a whole bottle of their concoction. You’re not supposed to do that! He gets ill and eventually dies. The other miners blame the brothers, especially the eccentric one.

We’re treated to scenes of monotonous work. There doesn’t seem to be many recreational activities available to the workers. There is one woman in the entire film. 

Film Festival audiences still amaze me. The film had beautiful moments and it was a look at another world, but sometimes it was hard to watch. The audience is silent. Very few leave the theater even to take a bathroom break. 

Sunday 4/8. It’s a day off. I’ll go with Joan to the Dolby Sound Laboratory to see Gauguin. The Festival had some screenings there last year, but I couldn’t get tickets. I was stunned when I was able to get these tickets online. 

The Dolby really is a laboratory. There is no eating or drinking in the theater. Screenings with public access are rare. It’s on Market Street near Ninth. This is an area that has shown a little improvement, but the neighborhood still has its problems. Security at The Dolby was tight. They were certainly watching who came through the doors. 

“Here for the Film Festival?” We were guided into a larger lobby. We’re kept in a cordoned off waiting area. There’s no wandering. The building is new and it’s very, very steel and glass.  

We were allowed into the theater in small groups. There is a set of double doors before the theater. The two doors form an airlock. No outside sound will leak in! The theater holds 230. I usually wind up seeing films in older theaters in San Francisco, but I do get to the Kabuki occasionally and recently saw Star Wars at The Metreon. The Metreon is still impressive, but The Dolby Sound Laboratory was another level. 

There was a short announcement welcoming us and explaining the motion activated doors. We were treated to a short trailer that demonstrated the theater’s screen and sound. It was mind boggling. Gaguin is a great film to see here. Most of it was shot in Tahiti, “There’s no CGI.” Shooting on location is becoming a rarity.

   

Gauguin tries to get a group of his fellow artists to leave Paris and go to Tahiti. There would be no distractions there. “You don’t need money in Tahiti!” His fellow artists aren’t as eager to leave Paris, even for an island paradise.

His wife and five children come to live with him in his small, Bohemian room. “Mama, it stinks!” His wife informs him that they’re not going with him on his life adventure.  

He arrives in Tahiti alone. Things seem to be going well at first. His agent does sell some paintings and the money goes a lot farther in Tahiti. After a while his paintings stop selling in Paris. It turns out you do need money in Tahiti. He looks like some kind of nut for leaving Paris. He works loading boats to survive.   

The film is “semi-fictionalized.” Maybe it adds some kind of drama to the story, but wasn’t his life crazy enough? Gauguin had some hard times in Tahiti, but he was better off there than the film shows.

Gaguin passes out. He’s had a heart attack. When he gets himself out of the hospital he packs a mule and heads out into the jungle. The doctor tries to stop him, but Gauguin must see the Taratora water falls.

He falls in with a local tribe. They’re friendly and invite this strange, hairy beast into their home. They feed him. Suddenly they ask, “Are you looking for a wife?” Destiny has brought him around the world to meet the young and beautiful Tehura. It all makes sense now. The only thing that doesn’t make sense is why Tehura agrees to marry this odd man from a strange land. She does have a choice. He’s not looking that great at this point. 

We get to see Gaguin paint on the big screen. Tehura poses for paintings that will  become iconic masterpieces. There are close ups of the canvas and his palette. Color is flying all over the screen.  

The sound is, of course, unbelievable. In one scene they’re huddled in a hut while it’s raining. Gaugin paints. They talk. The storm is getting heavier. We can hear the rain pattering on the thatched roof. There’s thunder in the background. It gets louder. The storm is getting closer. The sound of the thunder does seem to be coming from a real storm that is outside the theater.  

A great cinematic experience. Hope I can get into this venue again!

Monday. 4/9. Schools At the Festival screening at SFMOMA. I don’t get to watch much of the films during school screenings, but I did get to see some scenes from Chef Flynn. Director Cameron Yates. Flynn grew up in the East Bay and got media attention as a precocious thirteen year old chef. He appears on Larry King and other talk shows. 

Chef Flynn is at the Q&A. He’s trying to open his own restaurant in New York. He’s nineteen now. He has flown out from New York and will make a return trip in twenty-four hours!  

After my shift I stay at the SFMOMA to see Claire’s Camera. Director: Hong Sangsoo. Three Koreans who work in the film industry are in Cannes for the film festival. It’s another film festival within the Film Festival. A young woman (Kim Minhee) is being fired for “being dishonest.” It may have more to do with her boss’s affair with The Director, So Wansoo. (Jung Jin-Young) The producer suspects that the young woman has already made it with the director. The young woman decides to stay in Cannes for a while.   

  The director likes to drink. A lot! There is simple direct dialogue on life and love. The table gets covered in empty bottles and glasses. The Director tries to end the relationship with the producer/boss.  

Claire (Isabel Huppert) carries her camera constantly and takes pictures. It’s some kind of Polaroid, so she can offer people copies of the photos on the spot. “Would you like a photo?” She meets the younger Korean woman and they hit it off. It’s a nice comedy with great shots of Cannes, but I was still thinking about Gaguin.   

Wednesday. Creativity Center. An SAF screening. The first film is Un Traducto. Director Rodrigo Barriuso talks to the students.   

The second film is RBG, a documentary on Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Things were quiet so I saw most of it. It’s a CNN production and will be broadcast on CNN. Ginsberg was one of the first to fight for women’s equality in the work place. She is one feisty woman. Ginsberg was very driven. Her husband had to badger her to come home for food and rest.   

Director Julie Cohen talked about how hard it was to get Ginsberg to agree to let them shoot a documentary on her. They were allowed to film the courtroom, but there can be no filming of the Supreme Court in session. Cohen said Ginsberg has a unique sense of humor. She has an odd little laugh. There are scenes of her with an  improbable friend in conservative Supreme Court Justice Anthony Scaduto. Clinton talks about appointing her. A great look at an amazing woman.    

 

Thursday 4/12. Two SAF screenings at The Castro. The second program is Shorts made by student filmmakers. The kids are excited to have a day off to go to the movies! When they leave after the screening they’re usually ready to blow off some steam. It was louder than some of the Rock shows I’ve worked at The Masonic!  

After my shift I walk to The Roxie to see Ravens. Sweden. Director: Jens Assur. Life on the farm in the remote northern parts of Sweden. Opens with great, but bleak, winter scenes. A small, colorful songbird is caught in a net. Snow and ice swirl around the motionless bird. We see the rest of the farm covered in snow. 

It’s a small family. Father, wife, two sons. The father is killing himself trying to run the farm. He’s literally shoveling shit. The older son is a teenager. He’s a birder. A bird watcher. He’s losing interest in living on the farm. Could bird watching get him off the farm? Mother tries to be loyal, but she’s frustrated.

There’s a way out. A corporation wants to buy the farm and modernize it, but the Father stubbornly refuses. He wants to preserve the family farm and way of life. 

Father shows the older son a scrapbook of old family photos. “And here’s your grandfather right before he drowned himself.” The wife tries to please her husband, but he can’t respond. Eventually she turns to a neighbor for some attention.

While the wife and kids are away on a short vacation, Father has a psychotic break. He shoots some ravens, but then he shoots most of the cattle. He’s taken away somewhere for a rest. He does return and things seem to return to normal.  

Director Jens Assur is here for the Q&A. He says the film was set in 1978 for a reason. There was a move to take over and modernize farms then. He admits the ending is ambiguous. It’s up to us to decide the ending. What have we learned here? “Don’t live on a Swedish farm.”

On Saturday I work “College Days” at the Creativity Center. They see The Sower which looks and sounds very interesting. It’s France in the 1700s. All the males in a French town are arrested for sedition. What will the women do? Maybe The Sower can help. I only got to see a few scenes and hope to see the rest of this one. The second film is Hale County This Morning, This Evening. Former SF Film Festival programmer Sean Uyehara comes back for a Q& A with the director, RaMell Ross.    

I get to see Carcasse at the nearby Yerba Buena Screening Room. It’s a small room. Capacity 89. For the hard core Festival patron a film like this is what the festival is all about. 

First we see a short from the Netherlands, The Art of Flying. Director: Jan Van Ijken. Seven minutes. It’s black and white. No dialogue. A large flock of starlings fly in patterns. The patterns are known as murmurations. Scientists are puzzled by how and why birds do this. Sometimes it looks like the whole flock is acting as one organism. Like the flock has one central brain. There is an art to it.  

Carcasse. Director Gustav Geir Bollason. Iceland. Black and white.  

A bleak frozen landscape. There are humans, but they are so bundled up in furs that they look like post Apocalyptic cave dwellers. We can’t see their faces at first. It looks like they’re struggling to survive. Abandoned items are put to new uses. They use discards from a military base in novel ways. A rusting discarded airplane has become a barn. Goats and other animals huddle inside the abandoned plane for shelter. 

What looks like the shells of Volkswagens are converted into carts. The carts are drawn by goats. It looks like it would be easier to walk. The natives sometimes look frantic. They race around abandoned buildings and radio towers. Maybe they just want to get out of the cold. The quickly edited scenes in black and white reminded me of old newsreels of the first polar explorers. We see a husband and wife hand roll some kind of mystery meat into what looks like tobacco leaves. It certainly doesn’t look appetizing.

There’s not much dialogue. Strange concoctions are made and injected into dead animals. If there’s any plot this might be it. The program asks: “Is this the first science-fiction documentary?” 

It is a challenge to watch. It takes a different mind set. The film was intriguing. Mysterious. What are they doing? I knew it was only an hour long. The director was there for the Q&A and I was hoping there would be some answers.   

Director Gustav Geir Bollason is very soft spoken. He did have some answers. Carcasse was filmed on the site of a former U.S. military base in Iceland. The director created the cart contraptions, but he said that locals did improvise and use materials left behind at the base.    

The director was friendly, but he talked too quietly and wouldn’t speak into the mike, even after being asked to a couple of times. Some of his answers were lost. It added to the puzzle. I think this was the world premiere for his film.  

Would I have watched this if it wasn’t a Festival film? If I was at home watching TV? It did have its own unique hook and aroused curiosity. Only one person left the theater during the film, but I heard a couple of Film Festival veterans comment: “This will never be released in the U.S.”

The Festival is still amazing. I see only a small slice of it. I make myself as available as possible, but sometimes real life interferes. There were events I missed: The Kronos Quartet. The Robin William documentary at The Castro, which looked like a real San Francisco event. Joan Jett at the Castro. I’ve learned the live music events are always worth it. Even the most hard core Festival attendees miss something they want to see. 

Emperor Norton's Bicentennial Birthday

Emperor Norton’s Bicentennial Birthday. 

San Francisco has always been a haven for the eccentric. Emperor Norton wasn’t the first to wander the streets in bizarre clothes, but his reign of a little over twenty years made him the most durable and endearing character in San Francisco history. He made being a tourist attraction a profession. There have been annual gatherings at his gravesite in Colma, but this year the Emperor will get more attention on the occasion of his two hundredth birthday. City Hall and Coit Tower were lit in gold in his honor. There were other events planned around the City. 

  San Francisco has always been a great place for someone to reinvent one’s self. There was no shortage of busted fortunes after the Gold Rush ran its course. Most who saw the elephant didn’t profit financially from it. There were other characters working the streets of San Francisco back then. Oofty Goofty let people hit him with a pool cue for a small sum. Two mongrel dogs became the City’s unofficial mascots. There was George Washington II and The Great Unknown. 

Fisherman’s Wharf is the main stage for “street performers.” The circus is in town every day at the Wharf and Pier 39. Over the years there have been jugglers, musicians, magicians, card sharks, mimes, break dancers, people painted silver. They compete for the tourist dollar. Those with more talent get more contributions. 

There’s been a Human Jukebox, a Pirate, The Space Lady, Bushman and so many others that I know I’m leaving someone out. Frank Chu will walk through, carrying his sign warning us of extraterrestrial invasion. Sinister clowns blow up balloons for children. Norbert Yancey played guitar and made silly rhymes outside of Ghirardelli Square.   

One of my favorites was a hardened looking middle aged guy with slicked back hair. He looked like an Okie who had fled the Dust Bowl. He preached fire and brimstone during the day, pounding on his Bible. We were all sinners in this Sodom and Gomorrah! He used a small speaker, but it really threw his voice. At night he switched to singing Sinatra and Dean Martin songs! He probably got more contributions then, “Thank you very much.”   

Among the Emperor’s Bicentennial birthday events was a lecture by John Lumea: “Will the Real Emperor Norton Please Stand Up?” Lumea is a writer and activist. He’s the founder and president of The Emperor’s Bridge Campaign. The organization tried to get the Bay Bridge named after Emperor Norton. It may have been as quixotic as any cause. The powers that be opted for Willie Brown.   

I’ve had a strange fascination with my fellow potentate. Here’s a guy who cracked up after trying to corner the market on rice. He was ruined, but reinvented himself. He became a symbol of the City. Lumea says, “He’s the patron saint of San Francisco.”  

About forty history buffs gathered at the California Historical Society on Mission Street in downtown San Francisco. The building looked like it was an old retail space. 

Of course Emperor Norton was there! Joseph Amster dresses as Emperor Norton and leads Time Machine Tours. He has become the new Emperor Norton. Amster’s uniform certainly looks authentic. He wears a military style jacket and a hat that is crowned with pigeon feathers. People posed for pictures with him. 

Amster is not the first to adopt the persona of the Emperor. Rick Saber, of E Clampus Vitus has channeled Norton for years at ceremonies and events. “In the spirit of the Emperor” the two get along well. There’s no rivalry between the two. Saber rarely appears as the Emperor now. 

Some special Emperor Norton artifacts were displayed in glass cases in the back of the museum. There were imperial promissory notes, telegrams, post cards and some of the Emperor’s own currency that he gave to worthy subjects. The most impressive piece was an ornate walking stick that was used by the Emperor. Most Emperor memorabilia was lost in the Fire of ’06.  

John Lumea is an expert on all things “Nortonian.” He’s a respected academic with articles in many respected publications. He tells us that Emperor Norton I is surrounded in myth and apocrypha. Lumea starts his lecture by asking, “ Will the Real Emperor Norton Please Stand Up?” Amster rises from his seat in the center of the room, but Lumea isn’t going for it. “Nice try.”  

There are two Emperor Nortons. There is the historical Emperor Norton. We do know much about his life. There is also the mythical, folklore Emperor Norton. Maybe more than any other figure in San Francisco’s history, Emperor Norton’s life was embellished by stories, especially newspaper stories printed during his time.   

Reporters, including Robert Louis Stevenson, loved to write about Norton. Mark Twain portrayed him as “The King” in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Unfortunately some reporters created their own stories and even proclamations that they passed off as coming from the Emperor. This sold newspapers, but it created much  confusion. 

One of the more popular acts on the Wharf was Bushman. His act was primitive and ingenious. About twenty years ago a middle aged black man set himself up on a sidewalk on Bay Street. He hid himself behind bushes that he had brought with him. Bushman was patient. He preyed on fear. He was a hunter. Tourists had plenty to distract them. Bushman usually picked someone who looked distracted and off in their own world for a minute. They were usually looking around or talking when Bushman would shake the bushes and give a low guttural shout. Sometimes just shaking the bushes worked. People jumped and cried out in surprise. 

Then came the real fun. People who had been scared would go across the street and wait for the next victim. Sometimes there were twenty five or thirty people watching the show. Bushman had learned to make them wait across the street. Too many people standing around the bushes would blow his cover.  

People would be startled, but after the initial fright most laughed. A few were not amused. I saw one guy screaming right in Bushman’s face. Bushman faced some legal scrutiny after Wharf merchants complained. The City was afraid someone would drop dead of a heart attack.

There is a surprising amount of controversy and debate around the Emperor’s correct birth date. His gravestone in Colma says 1819. Lumea says that research into circumcision records says the date is 1818. A quote in an old newspaper article about his birthday says it’s 1818. It’s believed the date on the gravestone is in error. Maybe there should just be another celebration next year.  

  Lumea recaps the biographical facts that we know for sure. Joshua Norton arrived in San Francisco in 1849. He was what was called a man of means back then. He had $40,000 when he landed, and he invested in the wild real estate market of Gold Rush San Francisco. Soon his fortune rose to $250,000, a very considerable sum for the time, but Norton wanted more. He tried to corner the supply of rice in San Francisco. When ships loaded with rice unexpectedly arrived in the Bay, he was ruined. 

A year and a half later Joshua Norton entered the offices the San Francisco Evening Bulletin and declared that the people of San Francisco had made him Emperor of the United States. He demanded his proclamation be printed. It’s thought that the editor printed it as a joke on a slow news day. Readers loved it. 

The Emperor fit right in. It’s hard to imagine what those first days of his reign were like. Why were the people of San Francisco so ready to adopt him? San Francisco has always been a boom and bust town. Maybe that generated more sympathy for those down on their luck. Those that had succeeded in their new world realized that if fate had been slightly different, they might not have been so lucky.  

It’s interesting that someone who had schemed to create a monopoly became so popular. He must have had some charm. The Emperor was welcome to dine in the best restaurants for free. He was adopted and cared for by the people of San Francisco. The Emperor appeared at important civic events and was treated as a local dignitary. He was invited to the parties of high society. His proclamations were closely followed by newspaper readers. San Francisco loved Emperor Norton I.   

Did he leave San Francisco for a year and a half, or did he stay in San Francisco and just kept a low profile? We don’t know for sure, Lumea thinks he stayed in the City.  We also don’t know what he did in South America before he came to San Francisco. 

Many of his proclamations were created by newspaper editors. Emperor Norton stories sold newspapers. There is debate now over what proclamations were real. An enraged Emperor chose an abolitionist newspaper, The Pacific Appeal, to be his official mouthpiece. It was owned and operated by African-Americans. 

Lumea says that Norton was probably better off and more respected than we think. Early pictures of him show a gaunt figure. We can see he was well fed. As the years went by we can see his girth grow in pictures of him. The Emperor was not a teetotaler, but there’s not much evidence of his drinking. He was a member of all the “right clubs” and “knew the right people.” The Masons paid the rent on his small boarding house room. 

An over zealous police officer arrested the Emperor and tried to have him committed. The City quickly rose to Norton’s defense. Police officers then had to salute the Emperor. It must have been a comic sight. 

Interest in The Emperor has come in waves. Lumea says that in the Twenties and Thirties there were still locals around who had seen or at least heard about him. There was a resurgence of interest when he was reinterred in 1934. Newspapers told his story again when his remains were moved from San Francisco’s Masonic Cemetery and reburied in Woodlawn Memorial Park in Colma.  

  Lumea uses a paperback published in 1939 as an example of the misinformation spread about The Emperor. “San Francisco’s Emperor Norton. The Story of Norton I, Emperor of America, and Protector of Mexico” was written by David Warren Ryder. Lumea is a disciplined historian, “There is no attribution. There are no footnotes!” He recounts one story from the small book as an example. The Emperor is credited with starting the tradition of having a large Christmas tree in Union Square. Despite his curmudgeonly appearance he loved kids, and apparently they were drawn to him too. He came up with the idea of putting up a Christmas tree. 

Some merchants thought it was a good idea. They bankrolled the installation of “the largest fir tree in San Francisco.” Ryder describes Emperor Norton beaming at the happiness he’s brought to the local ragamuffins. To most it would be a heart warming story. Emperor Norton as Santa Claus. 

The problem is that it’s probably not true. There is a date for the ceremony in the book. An event like this would have been covered in the competing newspapers of the time. There is no article in any newspaper about it. Emperor Norton was getting a lot of attention in the daily newspapers. Lumea says there should be a verifying article somewhere. 

When I first visited San Francisco someone told me about The Human Jukebox: “You’ve got to see this guy!” On the lawn near Aquatic Park there was a large hand painted box. Arrows pointed to a brightly colored slot calling for donations. When money went into the slot a door on top of the box opened and The Human Jukebox played. The quality of the performance depended on the amount of the donation. Spare change got you a short toot on a kazoo. I did see someone put in a twenty dollar bill once and The Human Jukebox did deliver quite a performance. The Human Jukebox did take requests. I never saw him get stumped. 

The Human Jukebox was pretty intense. He tried to stay hidden in the box. Always on the edge, he ran afoul of the authorities when he was caught selling marijuana. This was a different era. It became a big story. Youth had been corrupted at a popular tourist destination. The Human Jukebox did return to the Wharf area, but it never seemed the same. He was mentally ill and wound up in a homeless encampment. 

Even in the early days of the Internet there were references and web sites mentioning Emperor Norton. It was an oddly popular subject on the early Internet. There was another spike in interest in 2005. 

Was the Bay Bridge the Emperor’s idea? Lumea says there are newspaper references to building a bridge across the Bay to Oakland before his proclamation, but the Emperor did have an idea for an underground tube under the Bay! 

Lumea says that even full biographies of the Emperor have misinformation in them. Even “the Drury book” has errors. (Norton I. Emperor of the United States. A Biography of One of America’s Most Colorful Eccentrics by William Drury. Dodd, Mead. 1986.) Another imperial biography is Allan Stanley Lane’s “Emperor Norton. Mad Monarch of America.”  

Lumea was doing such a great job of debunking some of the myths surrounding Emperor Norton that I started to wonder if he was a loyal subject. The historian tells us that an accurate portrayal of the Emperor gives us a better idea of his greatness.

The Emperor had egalitarian, progressive beliefs and views that were very unpopular at the time. He wanted Chinese people to be able to sue in court at a time when they weren’t accepted as witnesses. There is a story that he disrupted one of Dennis Kearney’s anti-Chinese demonstrations. The story is doubtful, but it is known that he spoke out against Kearney. He had chosen an abolitionist newspaper to be his official mouthpiece. He proclaimed that land should be given back to Native Americans.    

Maybe it was just safer to have these ideas expressed by someone who was considered mad or at least a bit goofy. The progressive ideas could be laughed off as comic, but they were being said.     

There is a Q&A. 

What about his currency? Did merchants really honor them? The Emperor did have his own currency and even bonds. Most of them were in the denomination of fifty cents. The California Historical Society collection has a rare five dollar denomination. Lumea says merchants had them printed and they gave them to Norton I to hand out as a form of advertisement. Merchants would honor the Emperor’s notes, but the currency was rarely cashed in.  

Lumea points out that the Emperor, and other San Francisco street characters were tourist attractions. They were a big part of the mystique of San Francisco. People did want to see them when they were in San Francisco. Most of the tourists that got the Emperor’s currency took them home as souvenirs. Now they go for nine or ten thousand dollars on EBay. Someone near the front cracks that Emperor Norton foreshadowed Bitcoin!     

Was he mentally ill? Lumea says that Norton was never diagnosed. Psychiatry was in its infancy. We do know that he suffered from depression. Lumea says that there really is a “historic personality disorder.” It gave us the old stereotype of the mental patient that thought he was Napoleon. 

Did he really have money when he landed in San Francisco? Lumea says that Norton’s father was nearly bankrupt when he passed away. Norton went to South America after leaving South Africa. He did have money when he arrived in San Francisco. Whatever he did in South America is still a mystery. Lumea says that we do know that the rice debacle did happen. It was documented in a court case.

“This isn’t really a question, but a comment.” The Emperor’s proclamation to disband Congress may be needed now more than ever. There’s no argument from this crowd.

Lumea says that we know that Norton sometimes stayed in Berkeley and Oakland. Proclamations were sent out from Brooklyn, California. Brooklyn was a separate town near Lake Merritt in Oakland. He visited the University of Berkeley often and was popular with the students. 

Was there really a Proclamation against using the word Frisco? The man in the Emperor’s uniform, Joseph Amster, rises from his chair and recites the Proclamation in his loud, stentorian voice. Use the word Frisco and you will be fined! It is still debated if Norton I made the “Frisco proclamation.” Lumea mentions that during his campaign to eradicate the word Frisco, Herb Caen never mentioned Emperor Norton. 

Lumea introduces Katzu and his wife. They are a couple who came from Japan for the Emperor’s Bicentennial events in San Francisco. He wrote a biography of Emperor Norton in Japanese. The friendly couple take a bow. They certainly win the prize for traveling the farthest!  

A member of the staff at the museum passes on a question. She says the first thing some people ask her is: What happened to the dogs? Where are they buried? Bummer and Lazarus were a couple of mutts who became as famous as The Emperor. They were not the Emperor’s dogs. They became mascots of San Francisco. 

After they died their bodies were displayed in a couple of bars. It was assumed they were lost in the Fire of ’06, but “New information  surfaced!” It was learned that the bodies had been sent to the DeYoung Museum for repairs. Unfortunately they became infested with bugs and the bodies had to be destroyed. 

It’s a reminder that so much of the history of San Francisco was lost in the Fire of ’06. Most of the City and its history were wiped out. Is this one of the reasons we’re so fascinated by the history of the City?

What was the best depiction of the real Emperor in the media? Someone immediately yells out, “Bonanza!” (A later Google search shows that there was an episode of Bonanza where Sam Jaffe played a very similar character.) Lumea mentions the Sandman comic book created by Neal Gaiman. The Emperor plays a big role in the story. It created another spike of interest in the Emperor. 

There will be other events honoring the Bicentennial including a free lunch at the Comstock Saloon on Saturday. “It’s at the border of Chinatown and North Beach.” The Comstock has quite a history. In the old days there really was a free lunch in San Francisco saloons. The price of a drink got you access to a buffet of meat and cheeses. It will take two drinks to get the free lunch on Saturday. “Inflation.” Lumea says that the owners of the Comstock Saloon are big Emperor Norton fans. 

There will be an “Emperor Norton’s 200th Birthday Bash” at the Mechanics Library. Unfortunately it is sold out. Lumea says there was a post about it on Facebook.com, and tickets quickly sold out. The Mechanics Library was one of the Emperor’s favorite spots. He wrote many of his proclamations and played chess there.

He may have been better off and saner than we thought, but we know he did have humble lodgings. After his death reporters converged on his small room in a boarding house near today’s Transamerica Building. The reporters confirmed his living conditions. There were nails on the wall for him to hang up his military coats. His funeral was a huge civic affair. Newspaper accounts say thirty thousand lined the route of his last procession.  

Carl Nolte paid tribute to the Emperor In his column “Native Son” in Sunday’s Chronicle. He says that the Board of Supervisors paid for the Emperor’s new uniforms when his got shabby. Nolte says that the fake proclamations created by newspaper reporters were “an early example of fake news.”

Nolte mentions some of the other characters who have been lost in the mists of time. At one time San Francisco had been graced by George Washington II, the Money King and Oofty Goofty, among others. Only the Emperor is really remembered today. He embodied the spirit of San Francisco.

There are still traces of the Emperor’s reign in San Francisco. There’s an Emperor Norton Inn on Post Street. Emperor Norton’s Boozeland honors his excellency with a mural. There is a plaque at Empire Park near the site of his old boarding house. The Bay Bridge should have been named after him.

   

The tech boom has been transforming the City. San Francisco has always changed, but the recent transformation is more ominous. Artists and eccentrics have been leaving. What made San Francisco different from the rest of the universe is being lost. The legacy of Emperor Norton is still celebrated, but will San Francisco lose its identity? The lunatic fringe was always a big part of San Francisco’s unique character. How would Emperor Norton advise us? What would he proclaim?  

Details of Bicentennial Norton events and much more on Emperor Norton I are at: www.EmperorNortonat200.org.

Lost Landscapes at The Internet Archive

The Lost Landscapes of San Francisco: A Benefit for the Internet Archive. Monday January 29. 

The corner of Funston and Clement is about a half mile from my apartment. On that corner is a large, white two story building. It was obviously a church at some time. It has the classical architecture of a Greek temple. It was once the Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist. On the board that used to announce services and sermons it now says Internet Archive.

The Internet Archive has a goal that seems almost impossible. During the early days of the Internet there was little thought to what its legacy would be. Everything was focussed on the next thing. Links went “bad” and early sites were abandoned. Who cared about the history of the Internet? “The Web was ephemeral. Unlike newspapers, no one was saving it.” It was hard to think of the Internet in historical terms.  

The founder of the Internet Archive is Brewster Kahle. He started archiving the Internet in 1996. The Wayback Machine preserved early web sites. 279 billion web pages! The mission of the Internet Archive is, “To provide universal access to all knowledge.” The Archive started digitizing books (11 million) audio recordings (4 million, including 160,000 live concerts) images and software programs. 

I Googled the former church’s address. 300 Funston. In seconds Wikipedia gave me the history of the building. There was a history of Christian Science. How long would it have taken to find this in “the old days?" Maybe it would have taken a trip to the library. Would I have bothered?

The founder of Christian Science was Mary Baker Eddy> She was a powerful, dynamic woman. Christian Science taught that, “Sickness is an illusion that can be corrected by prayer alone.” Eddy’s followers believed in philosophical idealism. Reality is purely spiritual and the material world is an illusion. Sounds good to me. 

The religion was popular, but membership has dwindled. Christian Science drew media attention in the Nineties with court cases involving parents who did not get their children medical care. 

The Google search led to the Pacific Coast Architecture Database at:  pcad.lib.washington.edu. The cost of building the church was estimated at $125,000. The building was sold to the Open Library of San Francisco in 2009.

Tonight The Internet Archive was joining forces with Rick Prelinger to present Lost Landscapes 12. In the early Eighties Prelinger had started to collect and accumulate film footage that most archives and libraries were throwing away. He was going to digitize and preserve them. He saw film as a look back in time that was being lost. Home movies were a treasure trove of information.

Prelinger put together some of the footage and presented them as Lost Landscapes. They became popular events that sold out The Castro Theater. 

I had been dying to get inside this building and snoop. We checked in and there was a small lobby area with appetizers from the wonderful people of La Mediterranee Restaurant on nearby Fillmore Street.  A TV showed scenes from Lost Landscapes 7.  Tonight’s event was in The Big Room upstairs. It was a large auditorium that had served as the center of Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist. We would sit in pews facing a stage and small screen. A cardboard “Wayback Machine” was next to the screen. 

It was a church, and it was an odd setting. There were mannequins along one wall. Some were sitting in the pews that had bad sight lines to the screen. They were about half size caricatures, but they were oddly life like. In the back, behind the pews were two large black Internet servers. They were framed by church alcoves behind them. Lights on them blinked. They reminded me of an old science fiction move.   

Founder Brewster Kahle comes onstage. Tonight is a fund raiser and he thanks donors. He tells us about an anonymous donor that made such a fortune with Bitcoin that he donated a million dollars to The Internet Archive! This donor will also match any contributions in the next three months by two to one, up to another million dollars. So, if anyone knows how to raise a million dollars in the next three months, let Brewster Kahle know. 

He explains the mannequins. Anyone who is employed by The Internet Archive for three years gets their own dummy! It looks like quite an honor, and an incentive to stay working for the nonprofit. 

Kahle points out the monolithic servers in the back. Lights blink on them. Each light is a sign that someone is downloading something from InternetArchive.org. 

Kahle admits that when Prelinger told him about his idea for Lost Landscapes he “didn’t think it would fly.” Why would anyone come to see someone else’s home movies? He didn’t like to watch home movies of his own. There’s many history buffs and film fanatics in San Francisco. Lost Landscapes became wildly popular. I’ve tried to attend before and found the event sold out well in advance. 

Most of the footage we’ll see are home movies. There are ads and odd commercial footage from the past. Prelinger has tracked down out takes from movies filmed in San Francisco. 

Prelinger asks how many are attending a Lost Landscapes event for the first time. I’m surprised when at least two-thirds of the crowd raise their hands. I’ve watched Lost Landscapes online, but it’s not the same. Tonight is an opportunity.  

Prelinger has a podium with a laptop on it. “Let’s see if I can get this thing to work.” He explains that there will be no sound to the clips. We are the soundtrack. We’re encouraged to yell out comments or questions. Prelinger often finds out during Lost Landscapes where some of the more obscure footage was shot. Sometimes he doesn’t know who the people in the home movies are. “If you recognize someone or something, let us know!”  

We’ve been trained to keep quiet during films, so this is quite a switch. So what do people do? This audience seems oddly quiet. There are comments and questions, but most just watch. Maybe it’s the Inner Richmond neighborhood.

The ads for Lost Landscape gave us an idea of the footage we would see tonight. New Deal labor footage. Out takes from The Line Up. The filming of What’s Up Doc? with Ryan O’Neal and Barbara Streisand at Twenty-Fifth and Balboa. Home movies and the clincher for me: North Beach clubs and nightlife! 

Some of the early footage we see is older. There are shots of the Bay Bridge being built. The City skyline from sixty, seventy years ago! Everything looks small. It was the mythical San Francisco that we have heard and read about. 

You have to feel like a bit of a voyeur watching someone else’s home movies, but the Latino family in the Portrero are so friendly and open to the camera that it seems OK. We see someone’s first Holy Communion and then a birthday party. At the end the kitchen is scanned. Someone in the audience wished it was her kitchen. 

There’s great historical footage. A labor dispute on the Embarcadero. Trucks that can’t be unloaded line up. Another clip shows Chinese protesting the loading of a Japanese ship with scrap metal. Prelinger thinks it's from 1939.  

China had already been invaded by Japan. A clip shows a parade in Chinatown to call attention to and aid Chinese refugees. Prelinger said the parade did have a big effect, including getting the first public housing put up in Chinatown. 

The North Beach footage is pretty cool. Most of it is of the neon signs of the night spots and restaurants. Some I at least heard of, many of them I did not. Ray’s. Vanessi’s. DelVecchio’s. Gay Nineties on Broadway. Finocchio’s gets some applause. Of course The Condor. A shot of The Bocce Caffe.

We see the mysterious Running Man. He’s appeared in Lost Landscapes before. He goes through Chinatown and runs up California towards Nob Hill. Prelinger still doesn’t know who he is. 

There are out takes from Don Siegel’s classic Film Noir: The Line Up. A school group herded by nuns gets off a bus and enters Sutro Baths. We get a great look at the inside of the building. The film is obviously of higher quality than the home movies.  

One family has great shots of iconic San Francisco sites. Coit Tower. A ride on the glass elevator at the St. Francis with a view of the Forties skyline. The huge, almost forgotten Fleishacker Pool. Fisherman’s Wharf. Playland. The movies concentrate on showing two young daughters, but we can spot places in the background. Even casual footage of Fisherman’s Wharf shows the history of the area. There’s an audible reaction during a short shot of the now gone exterior of the Steinhardt Aquarium. The seals frolic outside of the museum. 

People shout out comments and information during the show. It is still a bit surprising how many of us share an obsession with obscure San Francisco history. I’ve stopped wondering why. Is it selective nostalgia? 

One of the last clips is footage of a peace march in June of 1969. Prelinger says he concentrated on faces during his editing. The hair and clothing are very similar to today’s demonstrators. “Not much has changed.”