Rainbow Rumpus: Sand Dollar Anecdotes

I’ve seen it in the old photographs found in those San Francisco souvenir guidebooks, and in too many watercolor and oil paintings: Ocean Beach used to be a grand place, with a boardwalk like the one at Santa Cruz, Sutro Baths nestled among the cliffs by the sea, and a train to ferry people back and forth. Now the beach is a bit more desolate, vast, and cold, and the seaside bluffs are home to ruins of a former era. I feel it’s better this way, having the lonelier natural landscape over a carnival.

In this city of constant change, the beach is one of the few places that has moved in a more simple and natural direction.

Fireflying into the Future: Bushwhacked

Synopsis:
After encountering a booby-trapped spacecraft carrying the lone survivor of a horrific Reaver attack, Serenity is boarded by an Alliance Commander looking for Simon and River.

 

The Geek:
This one’s a bit tough, because it really is more of a psychological-thriller-that-happens-to-be-in-space than a hardcore science fiction story, which, I’d argue, is a benefit (not every episode of a sci-fi show has to revolve around being in space). Whether you’re in space or not, there are some aspects of humanity that are unlikely to fade anytime soon. When a show neglects this in favor of creating a hand-wavy utopia (Star Trek, anyone?), it feels entirely unrealistic, so ten points to Firefly for breaking out of the mold!

Desserted: COOKIE MONSTERS

For all you cookie monsters out there, it’s time to make your very own delicious chocolate chip cookies! These cookies are super tasty and take less than 30 minutes to make. Even better, you no longer have to feel guilty about stealing other people’s cookies! (I see you sneakin’ up on my goodies.)

Happy baking! 🙂

I Shutter When I See You: White Grime

 
She was not ready.

She went in expecting romantic sin.
Soft
Silky
Beautiful sin.
But it is never quite like that, is it?

Sucked up and spit out in stripes.
That is how she feels.

Inspired by three women, one melancholy and two white-faced

This one certainly went places.
In every self-portrait there is a compromise that needs to occur between concept and props/logistics. This is an especially strong compromise when you are as much of an amateur as I am.
In this one I had to let concept go slightly to actually be able to shoot the type of image I wanted. The logistics for the perfect concept image were proving impossible and my prop (namely corn starch) was not as, well, cloudy as I wanted it to be.
Because you do not know the image I had in my mind, you cannot be disappointed by this result! For now, I will leave any relation between this portrait and its inspiration up to you. I want you to interpret it, and the poem, however you will. If you have any questions, feel free to rush down to the comments!

Portrait and Words by Miranda Hollingswood

How Not to make Music: Learn to Read (and Write) Music

So you’ve been noodling for awhile, listening to good music and you really want to know how it’s played. Listening to other artists is inspiring, but you can’t read music and can’t figure out how to play the material! This is bad. Don’t do that (especially if you’re trying to write music). Writing music requires you to be able to read music. Learn both. Once you learn how to read music, you can begin to play pieces from the greats (like me).    

I started taking piano lessons because I kept having surges of inspiration without having the proper knowledge to transform my ideas into sounds outside of my own head. Luckily, I’m graced with perfect pitch (but it doesn’t help if I don’t know what to do with it). Now that I am re-learning how to read music, that skill is becoming more and more useful as I learn to translate thought into sound. If you find yourself, running into similar issues, go back to basics and build your knowledge of reading and writing music. Soon you’ll see notes pouring onto the page in front of you.

Words and Photos by Max Rico.

Cheap Shots: Yu Ling Wu

Name: Yu Ling Wu

Sunset Media Wave: Founding Member

Column: Is This Loud Enough?

Nicknames: Lil Dumpling, Baby Ratch

Overheard: “Gravy is genius dressed in its working clothes.”

Specialties: MacBeth, Lady Gaga, Shoes, Running for office. Getting into concerts for free, Impersonations, Going viral, Hefty bags, All of the above (at the same time).

Is This Loud Enough?: Can’t Stay Away from Charli XCX

I was at a super-upbeat-bubblegum-pink concert for Marina & the Diamonds when I fell in love with the opening act, Charli XCX. What caught my attention were her shoes, because, well, shoes are the windows to the soul. I saw that curly fro-like textured hair paired with a ‘90s grunge outfit and five-inch platforms, and I instantly knew that girl was going to be good.

 

When I found out that Charli would be in SF again, I had to get a ticket to see her. The show was originally scheduled for September, but was postponed later to November due to some reason I did not pay attention to.

The Film Side of the Force: Tis the season of TURKEY

Oh November! You are stuck in between October and December. Everyone is either packing up there Halloween costumes or sucking down their eggnog lattes. But don’t fret because I’m here to give you my top five favorite Thanksgiving films to watch with the family!

1) Places, Trains, and Automobiles

A man must struggle to travel home for Thanksgiving, with an obnoxious shower ring salesman as his only companion.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles is an absolutely wonderful movie. Yes, it is regarded as a comedy, but I think of it as more of a drama. This film deals with so many aspects of what it means to be human, especially the whole concept of friendship. The jokes don’t get old. This is probably my favorite comedy of all time. Hughes takes the traveling nightmare genre to a whole new level, and the screenplay alone is a triumph.

Sketchy People: Surprise!

The other day I was bragging to my mother about this surprise party I had been planning for my best friend (literally for months). Immediately, she then turned to me and said, “A surprise party? I would hate that. Never throw me a surprise party. I hate surprises.” I started to wonder: What do people think of surprises? Do people like them? Hate them? Love them? These questions inspired this week’s theme of “Surprise!” I asked people to draw what they see when they hear the word “surprise,” and the results were rather interesting…