January 14, 1978, at The Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco.
Tag: San Francisco
Do you have enough beauty in your life? Do you need something to make you feel that life is worth living? That you are fortunate to be on this planet? That it is a gift to see and experience these things? If so, you may need a prescription for beauty.
Have you learned to foster a deep appreciation for the strange and wonderful? Do you know how to have confidence in your least shared desires? Can you feel that warm surge for the thing that others may instinctively turn away from? If you are missing such pleasures, you need to develop a practice that celebrates difference a little more. You need a course in Fog Appreciation 101.
Do you know what it is like to use your labor, intellect, passion, and creativity in service of something greater than yourself? When you look at the things around you, do you see representations of your commitment or that of others? Are you inspired by the displays of similar commitment in the work and accomplishments of others? I believe that if you can, if you do, you too will do more with the gifts and opportunities before you. Learn to look at the labor encased in the thing that you admire.
It is on these lines that I was inspired by Simon Christen’s short and gorgeous video “ADRIFT”. Granted, I was well prepped for it. I have been living in San Francisco for less than a year. I am still awestruck by the action of fog. And the play of fog with the rest that this land has to offer. Part of the pleasure for me too, was in watching, considering the commitment that Simon must have had to make this movie for us. Thank you Simon.
And before you watch it perhaps you should consider what these feelings I described above would be worth for you. Think about a reverse crowdfunding campaign, where if you knew someone would deliver these feelings and thoughts to you what you would be willing to pay. Think about if you knew someone would have to hike regularly in the cold and in the wet in the early morning hours and then afterwards sort through the results, painstakingly come to know them intimately, aligning them next to each other to such an extent that the beauty maybe started to diminish and the artist behind them might question whether all those days and hours were truly worth it, would they ever get to a point where someone would say “Yeah, that was worth a dollar of my time.” How can we say loudly “Yes, Simon, thank you.”? Luckily, Vimeo has a tip jar. Don’t forget it after you watch.
Adrift from Simon Christen on Vimeo.
Hat Tip to Ryan Heller for sending me the short!
I am the walrus I mean hedgehog in the fog. Go explore, but never forget what sits by the fire. This should be San Francisco’s National Film Anthem, IMHO.
Hedgehog in the fog from Vikram Dakad on Vimeo.
It was on this day, 43 years ago, that Francis Ford Coppola and friends, established Zoetrope Studios in San Francisco. Indie owes it heart to them.
After all the remains were dissolved and gone and the streets were once again clean and clear, it might look a bit like this here:
Have you prepared for tomorrow night? How do you know one of those revelers isn’t actually what they look like?
Before I moved to San Francisco, I had a dirty rumor that it was difficult to shoot in San Francisco. After I moved to this jewel of a city, I saw this short promo. The proof is in the pudding:
“Fog is cool” I said to myself as I stumbled in from a weekend nosh of idiosyncratic food and drink. Diverse places and people in a city nestling with nature. It sure isn’t NYC — and that’s a good thing. I took it as an omen that this video popped up as I thought of my wife soon joining me here in my new home. Change is a wonderful thing, particularly positive change and the joy of having someone to share it with.
How great would it be if San Francisco was the Indie Film Hub, and this time instead of a group of aspiring artists and entrepreneurs trying to make it, it emerged as a true community that knew that it had to work together, amassing and learning from mistakes, forever aiming to make deeply resonate work, regardless of individual authorship, work that celebrates the expansive aspects of life today, doesn’t shy away from complexity or lack of comfort, and is based on exploration far more than declaration. Ah, a person can dream….
