Otherstream
IN STEREO WHERE AVAILABLE
About Yer Host
Videolog: Put Your Back to It
November Group
Put Your Back to It, 1984
Boston-based, vaguely lesbian band who also recorded "We Dance", which I was very pleased to finally find in MP3 format a few weeks ago.
David	Videolog	 1 February 2008 25 January 2009 1 Minute
The geekiest pornography store ever
As we move farther and farther into the internet age, the idea of a pornography store in general is beginning to sound just a bit anachronistic. Le Salon on Polk Street, though, was the pornography store to end all pornography stores. I've never seen anything comparable, before or since.
To start with, there were no booths. Le Salon was strictly a takeout operation. It was obvious that their mission was to concentrate on the actual videos rather than the, ummm, incidentals that come with the standard sodomite porn emporium. In other words, there was no shagging in the back room.
But man, did they concentrate on the video. This place was huge, they had everything, and it was all organized: by fetish, by studio, and even by director. They even had cross-reference cards. It really inspired the future librarian in me, and it also really allowed me to develop my collection of pirated porn on VHS.
Le Salon closed around 1997 or 1998 as I recall. Apparently, the owner of the building had a much purer vision of some proposed Lower Polk renaissance that didn't include a big, geeky pornography store. I was reduced to using the rather lackluster outlets on Folsom Street near my apartment, and video smut was never quite the same for me again.
David	Geeky, Reminiscence and Reflection, San Francisco, Sodomy and Sodomites	 1 February 2008 20 August 2008 1 Minute
I'm sure it's been done before, but while driving around this afternoon, I suddenly had the desire to open a little diner somehwre and name it "Hell's Kitchen"…
David	Pop Culture	 3 February 2008 20 August 2008 1 Minute
Videolog: Gone Daddy Gone
Gone Daddy Gone, 1983
You've never lived until you've heard this song performed in a small club across the street from a mid-size college in North Carolina, without the xylophone, because it was apparently lost in transit.
A few years later I saw a different band, the Flaming Lips, in Charlotte without their drummer. He, too, had apparently been lost in transit.
David	Videolog	 3 February 2008 18 August 2008 1 Minute
What is this obsession Charlotte has with vaguely ridiculous-looking disc-shaped public art projects? First, there was the giant sand dollar thing at Trade and Tryon, then the interlocking onion rings at Wendover and Randolph, and now this new (cough) installation, which can only be described as some sort of cubist primitive version of Stonehenge on South Boulevard: Charlotte's own mysterious homage to the mythical power of the contact lens.
It's really bad. There are like eight of these things spaced along two sides of the new light rail line in a particularly ugly stretch of South Boulevard. Suffice to say, they add nothing whatsoever to the aesthetics other than to offer passing commuters a little chuckle thinking of the swindler who got paid for the damned things.
I'd like to think these projects are maybe rooted in some sort of resentment of public art requirements, but I fear that's not the case. Even more, I fear that someone actually took this merde seriously.
David	North Carolina, Stupidity, Urban	 3 February 2008 18 December 2008 1 Minute
It's funny 'cuz it makes no sense and has no punchline…
David	Pop Culture	 3 February 2008 1 Minute
Color me uninformed, but when I posted this the other day, I was blissfully unaware that "Hell's Kitchen" was also the name of some stupid reality show.
I withdraw the idea.
Videolog: My Girl
My Girl, 1981
It's just cool, eh…
David	Videolog	 10 February 2008 19 August 2008 1 Minute
Flash wash
In case you were wondering, a flash drive may indeed still work after being left in your pocket, washed, and dried. Even so, I still wouldn't advise doing it if you can avoid it.
David	Technology	 11 February 2008 18 August 2008 1 Minute
Advisee alert
Spotted this in an elevator on the way to class last night. Are professors actually advertising for advisees now? Or is it just that this Dr. Westervelt believes she's so bloody fabulous that there will be that much competition for her services? It just struck me as rather odd.
Of course, the inappropriate "decorative quotation marks" are another story entirely.
David	Grad School	 12 February 2008 18 August 2008 1 Minute
Four years ago today.
I love you, baby..
David	Personal	 16 February 2008 1 Minute
Making preserves out of history
(Originally published in the now-defunct Twin City Sentinel.)
They're going to tear down Moore School on Knollwood Street. Funny thing is no one seems to care, even here in presevation-minded Winston-Salem? How can this be, you ask?
How indeed?
An unfortunate truth in Winston-Salem, just as in most other places, is that "historic presevation" all too often means "preservation of cute buildings that look really old, no matter when they were actually built." If this school had been built twenty years earlier in some faux Colonial motif, people would be falling all over each other trying to save it. But a unique and significant modernist structure — something with a style that was actually current at the time when it was built, heaven forbid — doesn't stand a chance.
Evidently, historic preservation looks like this:
But not like this:
You might be interested to discover that there's a very good chance that the second building in the sequence (a 1950s style McDonald's on Corporation Parkway, demolished in the 1980s) may actually be older than one of the structures in the first photo.
You see, the first two buildings are from the Old Salem restoration project, a "living history" museum featuring several pre-1850 buildings and probably almost as many reconstructions of pre-1850 buildings. Like Colonial Williamsburg, Old Salem was once an integral part of Winston-Salem, with buildings of varying ages and styles. Many very old structures had been spared the wrecking ball since a large part of the neighborhood was owned by the Moravian Church. However, many of these buildings had been altered over time, and there was also significant infill.
Starting in the 1950s, Old Salem went the "historic district" route, with an appearance commission, restrictive covenants, and more. Very simply, it became a museum, the goal of which was to obliterate any evidence that time had passed. As such, it became impossible to tear anything down in the historic district. Impossible, that its, unless it happened to be a structure built after about 1850. In that case, any building, no matter how architecturally significant, could, and in fact would eventually be destroyed. In addition, any changes made to the exteriors of these buildings were removed, leaving (in many cases) little but new construction based on old pictures and plans.
I call it the "sledgehammer approach" to historic preservation. While the practitioners' hearts may have been in the right place, this approach has been almost as destructive as the 1960s urban renewal programs were. It's taken what could have been one of the most interesting neighborhoods in Winston-Salem and turned it into something of a dead zone, trapped in time, with no hope of escape or evolution. Unless you're a resident (which means you kicked in some serious cash), or on a field trip, or doing research, or showing it to visitors, there's really no compelling reason to go to Old Salem. It's very cute and scenic and photogenic, but there's just not much going on there.
I don't like historic districts that have been turned into museum exhibits, stripped of any temporal context or change. Most aren't as severe a case as Old Salem, but once the designation is applied, almost any such district takes on a certain pretentious aura, its residents trying to apply a past most urban neighborhoods never really had in their heyday, with imitation gaslights and decorative street signs, and overpriced paving stones.
And every house must be from the same decade, dammit. Or at least must look the part. By the way, only houses are allowed to begin with.
I now present my own rules for historic preservation, the ones that will take effect when I am declared emperor:
History did not end at the turn of the last century. Many important things have happened since then, and many of these things happened in equally important buildings that were built since then.
Neighborhoods and cities change over time. Single-era neighborhoods are generally a trifle boring when all is said and done. To ignore evolution is not to preserve history, but to deny it.
Buildings change over time as well. The 1950s modern façade that was added to the lower level of the 1920s office building is as much a part of that building's history as is the original façade, and sometimes more. Additions and modifications should at least be considered for preservation, and not be automatically dismissed.
Commercial buildings, even small ones that may have contained mundane things like grocery and drug stores, are every bit as worthy of preservation (if not more so) than grand structures that most "common people" never visited when they were new. These "everyday" structures are the ones people remember, and can often tell us much more about life in the past than some mansion on a hill.
Priority should go to (a) buildings that are unique, (b) buildings that can be rehabilitated for some useful purpose, (c) buildings that have some physical relationship to the time in which they were built, and (d) buildings where something important happened — although my definition of "important" may differ from yours.
David	North Carolina, Urban	 16 February 2008 9 January 2012 3 Minutes
Sunset People
My first job in San Francisco was at a Kinko's location adjacent to Stonestown Mall in the Sunset District. I'd transferred there from my old store in North Carolina, and it seemed a good way to get on my feet. Working in the Sunset also gave me a perspective on San Francisco not experienced by most young newcomers who arrive looking for that whole "urban thing."
The Sunset is a strange hybrid of urban and suburban on the southwest side of San Francisco. Parts of it, most of them closer in and referred to as the "Inner Sunset," developed from 1900 to 1920, but a large part of the area dates from after World War II. Unlike the crowded areas east of Twin Peaks, where rowhouses and apartment buildings are the standard mode of housing, single-family detached structures predominate in most of the Sunset. Thus, the area tends to be more family-oriented and somewhat more conservative than the rest of the city. The growing Asian population in the area has not changed this tendency at all.
Most "downtowners" view the Sunset as alien territory, full of everything they fled Des Moines or Houston or Raleigh to escape. Of course, they also have no real idea what they're talking about, since most of them have never spent any appreciable time in the Sunset, nor the Outer Mission. Many folks whole live west of Twin Peaks and north of Bernal Heights don't get out much, and it shows; they're convinced that anything outside their little 15-20 square mile area is full of nothing but Wal-Mart stores and gun-toting Klansmen.
I got to know the Sunset fairly well during my years in San Francisco, starting from a strong foundation built while working at that Kinko's branch. I'll admit that it was a bit of a culture shock to move between the somewhat more sedate world of the Sunset and my South of Market home world of bars and sex clubs and live music and general chaos. The first thing I noticed was th fog, which I, of course, loved. Then I noticed that there were actually children and old people around; everyone wasn't somewhere between 20 and 35. People in the Sunset had houses and jobs and drove cars, and didn't brag about having managed to qualify food stamps like several trendoids I met South odf market did. People shopped at the Emporium or in Daly City rather than at trendy little overpriced boutiques, and there were actually supermarkets other than Safeway or Cala.
I didn't particularly want to live there; my take was that the Sunset had too many of the negatives of both urban and suburban living and too few of the positives. For example, it was almost as expensive as more central parts of San Francisco, but generally lacked the pedestrian scale, neighborhood stores, etc. And I still think that's true of many of its neighborhoods, although I later came to be very find of both the West Portal and Irving Street areas, not to mention the full length of Taraval Street. Interestingly enough, these also happen to be the only major transit corridors in the Sunset.
But I found the people I met there to be an interesting, if slightly quirky bunch. The Sunset has a much higher proportion of native San Franciscans (or at least it did in the early 1990s) and I noticed that many felt surprisingly little connection the the city. One of my coworkers, a 20-year-old who was born and raised in the Sunset, regularly went to San Jose for nightlife, saying there was "nothing for me to do in San Francicso." And it's true, I guess. He was black, heterosexual, not into the whole technohousedance thing nor the fashion scene, and I imagine he probably would've felt rather out of place in San Francisco's over-hyped and overpriced clubs.
Compared to "downtown" San Francisco, the Sunset is less white, less transient, less fashionable, less gay, more politically moderate, and more diverse with respect to age (and increasingly even ethinicity). It's not a bad place. It's a pity more San Franciscans have never visited it. I'm glad I did.
David	Personal, Urban	1 Comment 17 February 2008 20 August 2008 3 Minutes
This was a pretty sad sight I wasn't really expecting to see today. They're tearing down the old Pomona Mill in Greensboro. This was less than two miles from the house where I grew up, so it's a landmark I used to pass pretty much every day, and one that I'll definitely miss.
By the time I was born, the building was being used as a Western Electric plant. By the time I was in high school, it had been converted into an outlet mall that never quite took off; that closed probably ten to fifteen years ago. The building had pretty much been vacant since then, I believe.
As far as I can tell, there aren't any plans for the land. It's in sort of an awkward location which isn't really appropriate for retail, and the surrounding neighborhood isn't sufficiently picturesque for it to be converted into lofts for the "faux urban" crowd. I imagine they're tearing it down because they think the land may sell quicker that way, and they're probably right.
All the same, I can't imagine what they might build in its place, and I'm sure going to miss my old mill.
David	North Carolina, Urban	 18 February 2008 1 Minute
Videolog: You're in the Army Now
You're in the Army Now, 1982
In their home country, they were known as Bolland & Bolland, and they actually had hits. In the US, it was simply Bolland, and three or four people bought their album "The Domino Theory". I was one of them.
TCS update
Just by way of a plug, there's new content over at the Twin City Sentinel. It's been kind of a slow start, and Mark's been adding more stuff than I have, but we seem to have finally found our format: sort of an unrban journal, with an emphasis — but not an exclusive focus — on this area.
David	Site-related	 19 February 2008 1 Minute
Videolog: Dancing with Tears in My Eyes
Dancing with Tears in My Eyes, 1984
Most. Depressing. Video. Ever.
David	Videolog	 20 February 2008 1 Minute
Videolog: Take the Skinheads Bowling
Take the Skinheads Bowling, 1985
I got to know one of the former Campers Van when I lived in San Francisco and developed a very slight crush on him. At the time, I found it very cute that a jaded old soul like myself actually could still get crushes, particularly ones that I didn't even act on.
Videolog: The Way
Fastball, 1997
I dunno. I just always liked this song. And it was getting lots of airplay around the time of the Planet SOMA US Tour 1997, so I associate it with being intersting places I was seeing for te first time.
Videolog: Driver's Seat
Sniff and the Tears
Driver's Seat, 1979.
Videolog: Boys Do Fall in Love
Robin Gibb
Boys Do Fall in Love, 1984.
Among other things, this song (along with the two additional videos you'll see in the next couple of days) always reminds me of being in the original Weekends on Peachtree Street in Atlanta one very strange weekend in the summer of 1984.
Videolog: The Love Cats
The Lovecats, 1984.
Second of three videos that always remind me of the original Weekends nightclub in Atlanta and a strange weekend spent adjacent to it in 1984.
I think I'll let other people do the driving today:
First, although I enjoy Mark's writing in general, I really think this is one of his best.
Second, an interesting new site on Charlotte's long gone eateries.
Third, my cool software find of the week.
David	Technology, Urban	 26 February 2008 1 Minute
In the local paper
Not to blow my own horn, but I was interviewed by the local paper about Groceteria last week, and the article ran today, should you choose to read it.
Scary highway signs
The highway planner who allowed this monstrosity to be assembled should be shot, prefereably by one of the poor souls who has to try and decipher the damned thing at 65MPH:
David	North Carolina	 29 February 2008 1 Minute
Videolog: She Bop
She Bop, 1984.
Third of three (1,2) videos that always remind me of the original Weekends nightclub in Atlanta and a strange weekend spent adjacent to it in 1984.
I was scanning some old photos today and I found this one. I just thought it was kind of cool, what with the reflection and the fact that it has that whole mid-1960s muted color pallette, like an ad in Life Magazine or a movie about suburban housewives.
I assume my dad took it with the trusty Instamatic. I'll have to ask him.
David	My Other Sites, Personal, Reminiscence and Reflection	 29 February 2008 1 Minute
Categories Select Category After Dark (141) Books (31) CanCon (194) Current Events (357) Dreams (21) Friends (466) Geeky (171) Grad School (59) Home and Domesticity (247) My Other Sites (180) North Carolina (434) Personal (866) Pittsburgh (104) Pop Culture (802) Reminiscence and Reflection (334) San Francisco (501) Site-related (412) Sodomy and Sodomites (255) Stupidity (342) Technology (240) The Married Years (435) Travel (809) Uncategorized (5) Urban (304) Videolog (257) Work (281)
Archives Select Month January 2021 (1) December 2020 (2) November 2020 (3) October 2020 (2) September 2020 (1) August 2020 (2) July 2020 (3) June 2020 (2) May 2020 (3) April 2020 (1) March 2020 (4) February 2020 (2) January 2020 (2) December 2019 (4) November 2019 (2) October 2019 (7) September 2019 (2) August 2019 (3) July 2019 (3) June 2019 (3) May 2019 (1) April 2019 (4) March 2019 (2) February 2019 (2) January 2019 (4) December 2018 (6) November 2018 (7) October 2018 (2) September 2018 (3) August 2018 (4) July 2018 (3) June 2018 (3) May 2018 (5) April 2018 (3) March 2018 (7) February 2018 (6) January 2018 (4) December 2017 (1) November 2017 (3) October 2017 (4) September 2017 (3) August 2017 (1) July 2017 (1) June 2017 (3) May 2017 (4) April 2017 (5) March 2017 (3) February 2017 (7) January 2017 (4) December 2016 (10) November 2016 (16) October 2016 (3) September 2016 (7) August 2016 (3) July 2016 (4) June 2016 (2) May 2016 (1) April 2016 (9) March 2016 (10) February 2016 (11) January 2016 (24) December 2015 (11) November 2015 (4) October 2015 (6) September 2015 (13) August 2015 (10) July 2015 (9) June 2015 (9) May 2015 (4) April 2015 (9) March 2015 (10) February 2015 (10) January 2015 (8) December 2014 (1) November 2014 (5) October 2014 (4) September 2014 (2) August 2014 (5) July 2014 (7) June 2014 (10) May 2014 (5) April 2014 (8) March 2014 (8) February 2014 (6) January 2014 (9) December 2013 (11) November 2013 (13) October 2013 (25) September 2013 (7) August 2013 (18) July 2013 (12) June 2013 (12) May 2013 (17) April 2013 (11) March 2013 (14) February 2013 (11) January 2013 (13) December 2012 (17) November 2012 (15) October 2012 (22) September 2012 (38) August 2012 (19) July 2012 (20) June 2012 (26) May 2012 (14) April 2012 (19) March 2012 (22) February 2012 (20) January 2012 (29) December 2011 (9) November 2011 (6) October 2011 (25) September 2011 (14) August 2011 (24) July 2011 (15) June 2011 (11) May 2011 (15) April 2011 (7) March 2011 (17) February 2011 (7) January 2011 (11) December 2010 (12) November 2010 (7) October 2010 (16) September 2010 (6) August 2010 (3) July 2010 (3) June 2010 (6) May 2010 (3) April 2010 (12) March 2010 (7) February 2010 (12) January 2010 (11) December 2009 (10) November 2009 (18) October 2009 (21) September 2009 (17) August 2009 (20) July 2009 (25) June 2009 (20) May 2009 (11) April 2009 (22) March 2009 (15) February 2009 (12) January 2009 (29) December 2008 (20) November 2008 (17) October 2008 (27) September 2008 (20) August 2008 (32) July 2008 (10) June 2008 (19) May 2008 (18) April 2008 (18) March 2008 (19) February 2008 (27) January 2008 (20) December 2007 (9) November 2007 (10) October 2007 (11) September 2007 (9) August 2007 (17) July 2007 (17) June 2007 (11) May 2007 (19) April 2007 (14) March 2007 (12) February 2007 (15) January 2007 (13) December 2006 (15) November 2006 (12) October 2006 (29) September 2006 (17) August 2006 (15) July 2006 (13) June 2006 (20) May 2006 (23) April 2006 (24) March 2006 (21) February 2006 (24) January 2006 (23) December 2005 (31) November 2005 (26) October 2005 (25) September 2005 (16) August 2005 (16) July 2005 (14) June 2005 (21) May 2005 (16) April 2005 (9) March 2005 (9) February 2005 (11) January 2005 (12) December 2004 (12) November 2004 (19) October 2004 (13) September 2004 (7) August 2004 (11) July 2004 (12) June 2004 (3) May 2004 (10) April 2004 (5) March 2004 (9) February 2004 (14) January 2004 (14) December 2003 (11) November 2003 (14) October 2003 (10) September 2003 (12) August 2003 (7) July 2003 (10) June 2003 (13) May 2003 (14) April 2003 (6) March 2003 (10) February 2003 (17) January 2003 (14) December 2002 (13) November 2002 (8) October 2002 (18) September 2002 (11) August 2002 (28) July 2002 (22) June 2002 (33) May 2002 (29) April 2002 (25) March 2002 (29) February 2002 (23) January 2002 (28) December 2001 (24) November 2001 (26) October 2001 (20) September 2001 (23) August 2001 (17) July 2001 (12) June 2001 (17) May 2001 (21) April 2001 (31) March 2001 (27) February 2001 (27) January 2001 (19) December 2000 (20) November 2000 (19) October 2000 (11) September 2000 (12) August 2000 (18) July 2000 (17) June 2000 (17) May 2000 (19) April 2000 (12) March 2000 (11) February 2000 (15) January 2000 (13) December 1999 (15) November 1999 (23) October 1999 (17) September 1999 (14) August 1999 (16) July 1999 (15) June 1999 (13) May 1999 (11) April 1999 (12) March 1999 (11) February 1999 (11) January 1999 (19) December 1998 (18) November 1998 (18) October 1998 (27) September 1998 (6) August 1998 (6) July 1998 (5) June 1998 (5) May 1998 (5) April 1998 (1) March 1998 (3) February 1998 (4) January 1998 (10) December 1997 (15) November 1997 (3) October 1997 (10) September 1997 (24) August 1997 (5) July 1997 (1) June 1997 (4) May 1997 (9) April 1997 (8) March 1997 (12) February 1997 (3) January 1997 (4) December 1996 (5) November 1996 (5) October 1996 (13) September 1996 (4) August 1996 (5) July 1996 (1) May 1996 (4) January 1996 (1)