The San Francisco Citizen

Here’s what’s up with that - If you operate a television news station in the San Francisco Bay Area, life’s a little easier when you don’t plaster your rolling stock with gaudy graphics.

‘Cause if you put your station name on your vans, then some vandals will come around with a can of spray paint (what’s that? you yourself don’t carry spray paint with on your person at all times?) and write “Fuck The Corporate Media” all over said vans. Thusly.

Circa 2008 - a live remote capable truck on the streets of San Francisco, anonymous and therefore safe from mischief. Click to expand:

(If you don’t believe that, then type in “954 Front” in the San Francisco section of Mapjack. See?)

Of course, “Fuck the Corporate Media” was quite the meme back in 2005. Witness the start of the downward spiral of Josh Wolf (aka “Insurgent,” srsly) that ended up landing him in the hoosegow.

But now, this “legend among journalists” is with the corporate media (or what looks like the corporate media, what with all the ads ’n stuff) himself.

Isn’t it ironic, dont’cha think?

Well, things aren’t looking good for KRON’s Bay Area Backroads show these days, but maybe OpenRoad.TV with Doug McConnell will help you get your outdoor fix on, in the future.

OpenRoad was able to visit these cute elephant seals in Marin County just last month, so maybe that placated this poor Point Reyes pup.

This is what it looks like, when seals cry after hearing that BAB might not continue.

Who will document the lives of our cute animals in the future?

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches          5
and then moves on.

Carl Sandburg

The formerly-controversial Sutro Tower, as seen from the northwest through the window of an Emirates Airbus A380 super jumbo jet.  

See the entire Sutro Tower mise-en-scene here, courtesy of Telstar Logistics’ Todd Lappin.

Just what is this tiny figure embedded in the top corner of all one dollar bills in circulation in the United States?

Some people think it’s a Great Horned Owl, but others say it’s a spider. You can see for yourself but that might strain your eyes. Let’s take a look using a Canon Macro Photo MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x lens at five times lifesize:

Not as owly-looking. Here’s a closer view:

You’d have to call that a spider. Or a spider/owl. Or a Spowl.

In this age of conspiracy theories, let’s assume a secret organization put on our currency a little figure, one that sometimes looks like an owl and sometimes looks like a spider.

Who cares about spiders and owls? The Bohemian Club, that’s who. Check out this scary two-hour movie, Dark Secrets Inside Bohemian Grove, to learn more. We’re through the looking glass here, people!

Beware the Spowl.

Local writer Anne Herbert, famous for coining the phrase “practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty,” recently announced on her blog:

The closer I live to Sutro Tower, the more I think it isn’t dangerous.

O.K. then. But who says Sutro Tower is dangerous? Well, for starters, the people who live around it in the Twin Peaks area, in small neighborhoods like Clarendon Heights and Midtown Terrace. Among other things, they worry about EMF radiation. They worry that the tower might fall down.

Sutro Tower at night under a shooting star. Looks safe enough:

But there’s not much they can do about it. The time to do something would have been back in the 1960’s when it was being planned.  

So, let’s take a trip down Memory Lane and check out this 35-year-old piece from Stephen R. Barnett. He alleged:

…the project was cloaked from public view by a media blackout, a conspiracy of silence hatched by the TV stations that own the tower and joined by the Chronicle and Examiner.

Them’s fighting words, don’t you think? You might not agree with his conspiratorial tone, but we all can appreciate little nuggets such as:

“It is ridiculous to assume the FCC will require the entire tower to be painted with alternate stripes of white and orange.” Wheat declared. It “will doubtless be painted a neutral color consistent with the surroundings,” he assured the Supervisors. 

As you can see, it’s white and orange to keep the FAA happy. Note the newish 125-foot-long, 10-ton auxiliary antenna mounted vertically

More recently,  a movement was afoot to prevent the tower from going digital, but that didn’t work out.

There are updates for the digital future slated and there’s a lot of life left in this structure, so it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

The sun always shines on TV.