Green and Brown

First for the "Green" - Dig It!, a greening event in our very own Sunset District is coming up on Saturday, October 18th. This an opportunity to volunteer in our neighborhood, planting trees or helping clean up dismal playgrounds. Here are the details:

The Neighborhood Parks Council (NPC) is collaborating with Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF), Timberland, and SF Rec and Park on Dig It!, an Outer Sunset greening event on Saturday morning, October 18, 2008. Approximately 400 volunteers will work on various greening projects throughout the Outer Sunset, including tree plantings, and playground, park and schoolyard cleanups.

Two of the playgrounds that volunteers will be working on, Sunset and West Sunset Playground, received a failing grade in NPC’s 2008 Playground Report Card, meaning that these sites have safety and health concerns for the children of the Outer Sunset who play there.

Therefore, Dig It! is an exciting opportunity for San Franciscans to improve the condition of the recreational spaces in the Outer Sunset that need the most attention. Moreover, Dig It! addresses the fact that the Outer Sunset is an area of the City that greatly lacks adequate street trees and parks.

EVENT DETAILS

The event kick-off will begin will begin at 8am on Saturday, October 18 at West Sunset Playground at 3223 Ortega. At 1:00pm, volunteers will reconvene at West Sunset for lunch and prizes. Scheduled to appear are Sunset District Supervisor Carmen Chu and world-renowned environmental photographer James Balog.

The first 400 volunteers will receive a special Timberland t-shirt and a ticket to a concert that evening from 6:00 p.m. to 10:45 p.m. featuring Stone Gossard, founding member of Pearl Jam, at the Regency Center’s Grand Ballroom (1290 Sutter).


VOLUNTEER SIGN-UP

To volunteer at a Dig It! park, playground, or schoolyard cleanup project, contact NPC Outreach Coordinator Matthew Silva at (415) 621-3260 ext. 116 or msilva@sfnpc.org.

To volunteer at Dig It! tree plantings contact Reed Milnes at the Friends of the Urban Forest at reed@fuf.net or (415) 561-6890 ext. 103.

And now for the "Brown".
1970's buildings, how ever did you guess? First up, we have a specimen on 21st Ave from 1972.


Pretty typical, we've even seen this tile before. I don't take pictures of interiors of residences, that you can't see from the street. I could have pressed up against the glass to show you the mirrors. So many, many gold-framed, tiled mirrors.


Instead you will have to be satisfied with the wallpaper.


And a close-up of the rocky accent shapes.


As I headed down the block I spotted this cousin of the first. Although the windows are different, the ground floor has the same shape, and the rock stuff is the same color. However, the records show it wasn't built until 1975.

Thom Ross's Buffalo Bill

Mercifully the fog returned today so I ventured down to Ocean Beach to see Thom Ross' Buffalo Bill & Indians art installation. It doesn't have anything to do with Sunset homes, but I know the beach is near and dear to many of our hearts.


The installation is a recreation of a 1902 photograph of William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody and his Wild West Troupe, which was taken at the same spot, below the Cliff House. There's a reproduction of the photo at the event, but photos weren't allowed.

Here's an article at the Chronicle where you can see the original photo and photos of the event when the sun was out. Donald Kinney also has some great photos on his site.


It runs through next weekend (Sept. 14th). The artist was there dressed in western garb and the flyer they handed out says on the 12-14th western historians will be in attendance.

He actually created 200 Lakota and Cheyenne figures in 2005 to represent the Battle of Little Big Horn and placed them at Medicine Trail Coulee. As I understand it, many of the Indian figures are from that installation. It is mentioned in the flyer and I overheard that artist explaining that he didn't create a historically accurate recreation of the photo, but the feeling comes through.

I think his statement about the installation, "The 'meaning' of the installation must be determined by the individual viewer; what they feel when they view this piece will be the 'meaning'", sums up how I feel about the beach. It has many uses and invokes varied reactions. It's a place for recreation or solitude. A place to feel connected to nature or to people. A place to feel the power of the ocean and your own place on the earth.