San Francisco

I think that at the start of the season you would have told any of us that the Cubs would only be a game and a half behind the Dodgers, Angels and Blue Jays, we'd all take it, right? According to his new book "To Stir A Movement", young Jeremy Affeldt would refuse to leave his hotel room on road trips to the Bay Area because, you know, teh gay. Affeldt now says he was wrong and he credits the warmth and diversity of San Francisco (as well as a Starbucks employee in Cincinnati) for changing his heart. His attitudes now is "I'm going to love on them just as God told me to love all human beings. I'm not going to sit there and worry about all that other garbage." So much so that he just signed a three-year extension with San Francisco. Remember those Playgirl photos from the last bullets? One of the hunks of the eighties in those photos was Steve McCatty, who now just happens to be the pitching coach for the Nationals. So what did the pitching staff do for their coach? They had T-Shirts made up with his picture from Playgirl on them, of course. The Mariners sent Jesus Montero down to Triple-A. With Mike Zunino already in Tacoma, it looks like Montero will be learning to play first base there, as well as get his hitting stroke back. The Mets Ike Davis may soon join him in the Pacific Coast League. If the Mets coaching staff can't help Davis, then The Amazing Kreskin has offered to help him find his hitting stroke. Danny Knobler wonders if the real reason for the Yankees success isn't Kevin Long, their hitting coach. Maybe, but since the Yankees are 11th in the AL in runs per game and 2nd in runs prevented per game, maybe Larry Rothschild deserves some credit. David Schoenfield at ESPN.com think the Phillies will be buyers, not sellers, at the trade deadline. He doesn't give his opinion as to whether or not he thinks that's a good idea. In his spare time, Chuck Norris tells Evan Gattis jokes. Not quite, but you get the idea. Jeff Passan has a look at the White Sox secret weapon over the past 34 years: athletic trainer Herm Schneider. Over the past decade, no team has even come close to the White Sox in fewest games lost to injury. The Yankees are labeling Chicago's Goose Island Beer as an import at Yankee Stadium. We always knew they didn't think anything west of the Hudson River was important, but we didn't think that was because they thought that's where Canada started. Since their team name is the Brewers and all, Leinenkugel Brewing Company is making a Bernie's Barrelman Ale, to be sold exclusively at Miller Park. I always had a soft spot for robots made out of beer barrels. Terry Francona got a warm welcome in his return to Boston. One year of Bobby Valentine and all is forgiven. The Rangers released Derek Lowe. Carlos Zambrano's comeback had a successful first step. Joe Mauer says despite an eight-game losing streak, the Twins don't need a team meeting. Shin-Soo Choo is looking at cashing in on a big contract this off-season. The Reds want to keep him, but they may not be able to afford him. An umpire crew that included Angel Hernandez used video replay to review a play that didn't appear to be reviewable under the rules. The Royals broadcast team asked if you'd rather have Nationals slugger Bryce Hunter or Mets pitcher Matt Jones on your team. Jed Lowrie says that the Astros may have been bad while he was there, but he still has fond memories of Houston. Finally, Jayson Stark has a list of all the records for futility that the Astros and Marlins are challenging this season. It's more than just the record for losses, although that's there too. And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster.

Remember that time you gave that long and tearful toast at your brother's wedding, only to find out later that you had a huge chunk of spinach stuck in your teeth? Or the time you stole that basketball and shot that brilliant last-second 3-pointer into the other team's basket? Or what about when you built that giant highway bridge for the city and it suddenly collapsed one day? On second thought, that last one is its own special kind of embarrassing. And one for which you'd probably trade a million spinach-toothed moments. So take comfort in knowing that, if nothing else, your bad hair day didn't put anyone in danger or make the nightly news.Tacoma Narrows Bridge is Falling DownTacoma, Washington, 1940 While buildings and bridges are made to bend in the wind, the engineers behind the Tacoma Narrows Bridge might have benefited from heeding a different aphorism: everything in moderation. Stretching 2,800 feet above the riverbed, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was (at the time) the third-longest suspension bridge in the world, behind the Golden Gate in San Francisco and the George Washington in New York City. Its sleek design incorporated a roadbed only 39 feet wide, making the bridge far more slender and light than its contemporaries. But it was also a lot more flexible.The simple fact is that any structure built without enough "give" is more likely to break in a strong wind. There's no shortage of mathematical formulas for calculating how flexible a structure should be. Yet, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was only one-third as stiff as common engineering rules dictated. Even in modest winds, the roadway oscillated up and down several feet, quickly earning it the nickname Galloping Gertie.While drivers found the undulations unsettling, the bridge seemed steady enough from the outset—at least to everyone except University of Washington engineering professor Bert Farquharson. Worried that it was far too flexible, Farquharson began studying the bridge in an attempt to uncover what sort of retrofits might improve its stability. As part of his investigation, he showed up at Tacoma Narrows on the morning of November 7, 1940, to film the movement of the bridge. His timing was eerily coincidental. As he was shooting, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge began heaving, and soon collapsed. (YouTube link) The Moral: It's o.k. to be a stiff. Materials like wood, metal, and concrete vibrate when they're struck—whether it's your fork hitting a wine glass (causing it to ring) or wind pushing across the roadbed of a bridge. If sustained, the vibrations can build to dangerous levels. It's like pushing someone on a swing; when they reach the back-most point in the oscillation, the same light push over and over will make the swing go higher and higher. You don't have to push harder each time; you just have to push repeatedly at the right moment. Similarly, if wind pushes a roadbed steadily for long enough, it can oscillate higher and higher, creating what's known as resonance.The antidote is torsional rigidity, which is just a fancy way of saying a resistance to twisting. In the case of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the undulating roadbed caused alternating tension and slack in the support cables, creating a twisting motion. The action eventually became so violent that the cables snapped, and enormous sections of the bridge fell into the water below. To prevent this, Farquharson had suggested the addition of stiffeners along the roadbed. Indeed, had this retrofit been made, the collapse might have been avoided.Citicorp Center's Close CallNew York City, 1978 (Image credit: Amar Raavi)Talk about narrowly averting disaster. When the Citicorp Center in New York was completed in 1977, it added a dramatic, sloping peak to the city's skyline. But less than a year later, the building's chief engineer, William LeMessurier, helped it avoid destruction by razor-thin margins.LeMessurier faced a unique situation when it came

If Michael Flatley is Lord of the Dance, then Rhys Chatham is obviously Lord of the Guitars. (Sorry, Esteban.) And now the Man, the Myth, the Legend (Chatham, not the other two — at least not in this news story) is bringing one of his guitar orchestra compositions on the road this summer. That’s right: the legendary Guitar Trio a.k.a. G3, begat in the Year of Our Punk Rock Lord 1977, is coming to a city kinda near you, where Chatham and collaborator David Daniell will teach this seminal piece of guitar art to a coterie of local musicians, who will then stand on stage at your local performance venue and blow everyone’s collective minds. Chatham is also teaming up with Oneida for a series of hot dates. G3 spreads its wings for its 2013 summer vacation on June 7, when San Francisco’s The Lab will become ground zero for the Guitarpocalypse. Then Chatham jets off to Brooklyn for the Northside Fest, where he’ll be jamming along with likeminded souls Oneida. Next up: Oneida and Chatham venture to romantic Montreal, before boarding a plane to a sure-to-be-historic Deerhunter-curated ATP Festival at beautiful Camber Sands, England. Then it’s on to Croatia, where Mr. Chatham will assemble Zagreb’s finest to perform G3. Wow. Fancytime. Instead of a tour bus they have a yacht. Michael Flatley’s yacht. Dates: 06.07.13 - San Francisco, CA - The Lab * 06.14.13 - Brooklyn, NY - Northside Festival ** 06.17.13 - Montreal, QC - La Sala Rosa ** 06.22.13 - Camber Sands, England - ATP Festival ** 06.23.13 - Zagreb, Croatia - TBD * * G3 ** Oneida • Rhys Chatham: http://www.rhyschatham.net • Oneida: http://www.enemyhogs.com

click photo for full-size imagephoto by Donald Kinney A few years ago architect Daniel Libeskind carefully repurposed a power substation originally built in 1881 to serve as a new Contemporary Jewish Museum. Libeskind pushed for a bit of whimsy, perhaps to present a stark contrast between old and new. The resulting madness is a monumental cube made with hundreds of riveted steel panels, unpainted and glistening in the sun, balanced precariously askew on the west corner of the building. click photo for full-size imagephoto by Donald Kinney And of course, this odd design has become a Mecca for photographers. Safe to say that no two photogs ever shoot or process it in exactly the same way. click photo for full-size imagephotos used with permission, Contemporary Jewish Museum On Wednesday my friend Nancy Ewart who reviews and writes about art for Examiner.com snuck me into a press-preview for the Allen Ginsberg "Beat Memories" exhibit. Without doubt, Ginsberg was a much better poet (Howl, Kaddish, Reality Sandwiches, Death and Fame, Planet News, Cosmopolitan Greetings, etcetera) than he was a photographer--however, these images are rare glimpses into his life with his contemporaries (Cassidy, Burroughs, Robert Frank, Jack Kerouac, Ferlinghetti, Corso, Donlon, among others). click photo for full-size imagephotos used with permission, Contemporary Jewish Museum Reportedly these photos went unseen until a cataloger discovered them in the archives of personal papers that Ginsberg had given to Columbia University, his alma mater. Exhibit is on view through September 8. Click for Nancy Ewart's excellent review of the Allen Ginsberg show. CLICK for 40 new photos on my main website; www.photoarrow.com. CLICK for preview of my exhibit at Mill Valley Library during July 2013.

Naming a film Epic is asking for a lot, especially when it’s based on a children’s book of a different and less demanding title, “The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs” by William Joyce.  Mirriam-Webster defines ‘epic’ as “extending beyond the usual or ordinary especially in size or scope.”  To focus Epic on inherently [...]The post Film Review: Epic appeared first on Spinning Platters.

“Did they ever meet?” I would get the question all the time. People would ask what I was working on, and I would say a book about Einstein and Freud, and then would come the question. Same thing with my next book. People would ask what I was working on, and I would say a book about dark matter and dark energy. Figuring these words were more foreign than Einstein and Freud, I would add, “Maybe you’ve heard about this,” or, “I don’t know if you’re familiar with these terms.” “So it’s like…black holes?” “No,” I would say. “Scientists actually know what black holes are. But dark matter and dark energy are parts of the universe that are totally unlike anything else we’ve ever encountered. We know they’re there, and we know they make up 96 percent of the universe, but we don’t know what they are.” A month later, maybe two, I would run into the same person at a party or on the street. And then, inevitably, would come the question: “Hey, how’s that book of yours going—the one on black holes?” These questions, I realized, were telling me something important. They were telling me, in the case of Einstein and Freud, what people wanted to know and, in the case of dark matter and dark energy, what they needed to know. They were telling me that in order to avoid any misunderstandings, I should answer these questions right at the start. And they were telling me that I could turn these answers to my narrative advantage. I try to impart this lesson to my creative writing students. Anticipate what readers want to know or need to know. Then in satisfying that curiosity, give readers what you want them to know. In the book on dark matter and dark energy, The 4% Universe, the relevant material appeared less than two pages into the prologue: “This is not ‘dark’ as in black holes or deep space.” Then I introduced the major theme of the book: “This is ‘dark’ as in unknown for now, and possibly forever…The ‘ultimate Copernican revolution,’ as [scientists] often call it, is taking place right now.” In The Invisible Century, the relevant material about Einstein and Freud came even earlier—in the opening sentence: “They met only once.” Then I spent the rest of that paragraph as well as the next setting up the major theme of the book—that even though their lives rarely overlapped, Freud and Einstein each needed to break with a purely empiricist understanding of the scientific method and make a creative leap. Problem solved! Not quite. While promoting The Invisible Century, I found myself in a television studio in San Francisco being interviewed by a perky young woman who had clearly not read the book. So it came as no surprise when she asked, “Did they ever meet?” I gave her a condensed version of what I wrote in the opening paragraphs of the book. Yes, they met, but only once. Einstein called on Freud during the New Years’ season of early 1927 when they both found themselves in Berlin. But it was hardly a meeting of the minds. When a friend wrote Einstein just a few months later suggesting that he undergo psychoanalysis, Einstein answered, “I should like very much to remain in the darkness of not having been analyzed.” For his part, Freud wrote to a friend regarding Einstein immediately after their meeting, “He understands as much about psychology as I do about physics, so we had a very pleasant talk.” By this point in my relationship with the book—discussing it, writing it, promoting it—I had actually memorized those two quotes. I had given my standard reply. I had done my job. Now it was her turn. “So,” she said, nodding seriously, “they were buds.” I froze. I didn’t want to embarrass her while a guest in her studio, but I didn’t want to mislead viewers, either. I did some quick calculus. The fact is, Einstein and Freud would later correspond from time to time, mostly expressing mutual admiration amid birthday wishes, and when the League of Nations’ Institute for Intellectual Cooperation enlisted Einstein to engage in a public

There is no easy road to the Super Bowl, just teams that make it seem like it exists.The key to reaching the Super Bowl isn't just to plow over every opponent in an easy-as-possible schedule. No, the truly dominant teams that make their path to a potential Lombardi Trophy look simple do it by dispatching all comers, including the NFL's best teams. That's why the team that seems like they have the easiest road to the Super Bowl this year is the San Francisco 49ers, even though they won't travel the path of least resistance to get there.Among the 2012 playoff teams, there are many others with an easier strength-of-schedule than the 49ers, including the Denver Broncos and Houston Texans. But strength-of-schedule isn't a terrific indicator of how a team may perform.Look at 2012's strength-of-schedule rankings: the eventual Super Bowl winners, the Baltimore Ravens, had the fourth-most difficult schedule of the season, and the Denver Broncos, also a playoff team, had the second-hardest. And the relatively easier schedules of the New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers may have given both teams a leg up in their run to the playoffs, but it didn't help either ultimately get to the Super Bowl, as they faced a caliber of team they rarely saw in the regular season.Further, strength-of-schedule is solely determined by the win-loss records of a team's set of opponents in the previous season. In the time between the final snap of the 2012 season and the first of 2013, teams undergo a number of changes, some of them significant—such as bringing on a new starting quarterback or coaching staff—that can greatly alter their ability to win games. What matters most is consistency, though not to a compulsive degree. On the one hand, a team like the 49ers—who just came off of a Super Bowl loss—wants to keep things the same in hopes that it again produces a year in which they reach the big game again. But on the other, successful teams have to avoid hanging onto the past instead of seeing how key changes can actually make them stronger.The 49ers have balanced these two priorities well in the offseason. They weren't beholden to many of their own free agents, having re-signed just two—defensive end Glenn Dorsey and cornerback Tramaine Brock—while adding impact players from the open market, like reliable veteran kicker Phil Dawson and cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha.The Niners also traded one of their many draft picks for wide receiver Anquan Boldin and allowed backup quarterback Alex Smith leave for the Kansas City Chiefs rather than letting him languish behind Colin Kaepernick, and picked up Colt McCoy in trade to back him up instead.In the draft, the 49ers ultimately made 11 selections—an embarrassment of riches for one of the NFL's most talented, balanced and well-developed rosters.The fact that the 49ers already had so many high-performing players allowed them to be creative and almost indulgent in their selections—like running back Marcus Lattimore, whom they took in the fourth round and who will spend his rookie season off the field with ample time to recover from his devastating 2012 knee injury.They also added specialized defensive talent like Tank Carradine, Eric Reid and Corey Lemonier who should all see time on the field in 2013, helping boost an already scary side of the ball. With their roster shored up, the Niners look poised to be stronger in 2013 than in 2012. However, that's but one step to a Super Bowl appearance. There are other, strategic concerns that must be addressed for the Niners to get there.The main one is their offense. The Niners were wildly successful when Kaepernick took over starting quarterback duties for Smith last year, running a read-option offense that resulted in 1.3 rushing touchdowns per game, 164.6 rushing yards per game and 8.4 rushing first downs per game while calling running plays an average of 31.3 times per game.However, the success of the Niners' run-heavy rea

Your browser does not support iframes.After a grueling, 10-day road trip to the West Coast that featured plenty more lows than highs and a red-eye flight home from San Francisco, the Nationals would have been excused had they simply wanted to take Thursday off and rejuvenate themselves.How, then, do you explain more than a dozen members of the roster and coaching staff showing up at Nationals Park for Ryan Zimmerman's annual "Night at the Park" charity event?"It means a lot," Zimmerman said. "We're obviously teammates, and on the field we're fighting for the same thing. But for them to take time out of their off-day — which we don't get many — and getting home at 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning from the West Coast, for so many of them to come out and support me and buy thingsRead more »

GREENVILLE, Calif. (AP) — An earthquake in far northeastern California was felt by thousands of people as far away as San Francisco and in two other states, but there have been no reports of injury or serious damage.

[Apparition of the young Allen Ginsberg in the window of the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco - Photograph by Steve Silberman] Beat Memories, Allen's photo show opened yesterday at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. Organized by Sarah Greenough, Senior Curator and Head of the Department of Photographs at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, the show arrives in the Bay Area after a hugely successful run at the Grey Gallery, New York. Reviews and appreciations of that (which were manifold), and of the original DC exhibition, may be read here, here, here and here.Here's a must-read - Emma Silver's piece for J Weekly - Eyes of a Generation - Beat Poet Allen Ginsberg's Snapshots of His Friends on Display at CJM A "Gathering of Angels", last night, the opening program and party, featured a talk by Sarah Greenough (about the making of the exhibit) and a performance of an original setting of Allen's "America" (by Conspiracy of Beards' (sic) musical director, Daryl Henline). On Tuesday, there'll be a special showing of the Rob Epstein-Jeffrey Friedman "Howl" movie, and on Thursday, Quiet Lightning present (as part of their "Neighborhood Heroes" series) a special Ginsberg-inspired show. More CJM San Francisco events planned in the months ahead (including a three-day festival scheduled to take place July 11-14 (there's more information about that here) and upcoming, (May 31), next week, Jean-Jacques Lebel's multi-media extravaganza atCentre Pompidou-Metz (included in that will be the world-premiere of Lebel (& Xavier Villetard)'s t.v. documentary, "Beat Generation - Kerouac, Ginsberg, Burroughs". (For more information on that, see here) Disappointed to see the New York Howl Festival (also opening May 31) is using that lazy "Moonlight Madness" quote - Well, at least they didn't advertise it with "And The Beat Goes On"! Delighted to see Steve Silberman's "Celestial Homework" ("It's never too late..") get some significant belated dissemination (it's also included in Jim Cohn's Museum of American Poets "Big Beat Bibliography" site (courtesy Randy Roark) To end today's Round-Up on a sad note - We note, belatedly (he died this past month, April 26), the passing of ecologist, anthropologist, biologist, and environmental activist, Peter Warshall. A touching tribute by his neice, Rose, is available here. Audio from a number of his illuminating talks at Naropa in the (19)90's can be accessed here ("On Squirrels On Earth and Stars Above", for example). A late (but, nonetheless moving and inspiring) video(d) presentation, "Enchanted by the Sun" (recorded this past November for The Long Now Foundation) is available here. Do you know where your water comes from? [Peter Warshall (1940-2013]and Doors maestro, rock legend, Ray Manzarek. Ray on Allen (in 1991) - "Allen Ginsberg was fabulous. The man is so filled with energy. He's 65 years old and he's just loaded with energy and charm and wit and his mind is constantly racing" - Michael McClure on Ray & Allen - "I love Allen because when Ray Manzarek and I perform on a double-bill with (him), Ray imagines he's looking at the Russian Revolution and Mayakovsky, and that we are going to go out of the music club (to) sing and march in the streets". Ray again - "I suppose if Jack Kerouac had never written On The Road, the Doors would never have existed. It opened the floodgates.." Here's (from the city that made him famous) Ray Manzarek's obituary in the L.A. Times. [Ray Manzarek 1939-2013]