feather2pixels

This is really funny, right?

On Thursday night I found myself holding hands with thirty-five tired educators in a circle, blessing each other.  This could only mean one thing: teaching in Berkeley is over.

There were two last days, actually.  That’s because there were two of everything this summer: two class sections, two talent shows, two Creative Geometry teachers, two closing ceremonies.  In our final hours, we treated our kids to a final exam, a field trip to the Berkeley Art Museum and individual awards that Adrienne and I sewed out of fancy paper and ribbon.  Awards like “Most likely to become the Warriors’ mascot and move in to Oracle Arena” were a cover for our secret that we really loved those kids.  They seemed amused.

We all reconvened for the closing ceremony, which featured us trying to sound intelligent in front of parents and accepting thank you cards we urged students to write for us.  Then there was a convocation featuring student speakers on the verge of shitting themselves with nervousness.  If that’s what one is going for, this is the pinnacle of cute high school assemblies.  You can’t manufacture that kind of earnestness, you can only force it.

Then I was suddenly at Triple Rock Brewery, drinking a microbrew that was all malt, shouting in someone’s ear about fathers.  Asian fathers like to gamble, apparently.  On some other level of consciousness, I was writing the last six weeks in the books as a success.  It was hard and frustrating and I usually wanted to be doing something else.  There were so many things I would have done differently.  In some ways we even failed.  But I got to do it with Adrienne, we noticed a glimmer of actualization in a few students’ eyes, and I’m reminded why I am a teacher: it is a thing that is impossible to do perfectly and in this way it is an honest human endeavor.

The Creative Geometry art show was a success. The gallery at the Museum of Children’s Art was the perfect size, the art looked great on the walls, and most importantly, people showed up. I think the students were in to it. It made me sorry that I did not extend personal invitations to my friends. Sorry everyone. As a consolation, I put together a really low quality three minute video from my digital camera clips. Behold as throughout the day I slowly drive Adrienne crazier. It’s just how we work together.

On Friday, C.W. and I caught a photography show at RayCo Photo Center featuring the collodion process, which is such an antiquated technique that it was already obsolete by the twentieth century. The process required slathering a salt-coated glass plate with silver nitrate and taking a picture, all while everything was still wet, all in the field, all within about ten minutes. Aside from serving as a thoughtful fuck you to digital photography, the show was teeming with some of the most striking portraits I’ve ever seen.

Even better, though, was the vintage photobooth next to the broccoli table. At $2.75 a print, it’s by far the best one I’ve found in the city so far.

This is where I spent the weekend. Thank god for Mile Rock Beach.

And thank god for this sandwich.

If you live in San Francisco and agree that a good sandwich is notoriously hard to find, then I strongly recommend making a trip to the nondescript corner store at 17th and South Van Ness for the purposes of ordering “The Triple Decker,” pictured here. Since the beginning of the year, this place has been under the watch of a kindly man who has recently retired from a storied career in high profile catering. Vegas. The movies. That kind of thing.  Needless to say, given some time to kill, a man like this will do the job right and for the right reasons. In addition to this beast, which, amazingly costs a mere six dollars, one can order “The Kitchen Sink,” which costs over five hundred dollars and requires some advance notice. For an additional fee that elevates the cost to well over one thousand, this sandwich will include a kitchen sink. Not really sure if that is a joke, but I kind of think it isn’t.

Our Creative Geometry art show is this weekend! At a real museum! Check out the flier:

And check out how crazily beyond expectations Edward‘s collage map is. It depicts his family’s migration from Mexico to Northern California.  Christ, he made the road out of sandpaper.

New work:

Look: a six-layer print! After many frustrating three-layer prints, I didn’t think I had it in me. This is a one-panel piece from an image I produced of Tolman Street, one of my favorite streets in SF:

The print:

And here is a cool little spot in Mission Bay that won’t be around for much longer:

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