11.30.2005 by Shannon
Breaking news!
San Francisco — Investigations are underway to confirm whether another Starbucks Coffee store did, in fact, close it’s doors for business. The 123 Battery at Pine location had doors shut and lights off at 1:23 PM, which is otherwise during normal business hours.
A man wearing a dark colored business suit outside peered inside the store window and commented that he found the closure confusing.
“I thought Starbucks was always open. Dude, where’s my coffee?”
(more…)
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by Shannon
(No, it’s not an allusion to some sexual innuendo)
Too bad it’s not happening around Father’s Day, because the Ugly Pants Open would make the perfect father-daughter event. My dad could play the sport while I sported today’s entry of Ugly Pants.
How apropos that the tournament benefits Goodwill.
I suppose at some point, when one gets tired of ugly pants all together, one just takes them off.
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11.29.2005 by Shannon
Finally! It only meant waiting until November 29th for us San Franciscans to be able to finally receive some winter-like weather (keeping in mind, however, that “winter-like” means some precipitation and temperatures dropping to a {brrr!} 50 degrees.) Ah, the joy of living in California.
I make an observation about the weather (I know, I know: an otherwise desperate attempt at small talk) because with the reigning in of the rain, the inevitable cries of foul weather spring forth. I’m sort of perplexed by this genuine crumudgeon-ness toward the rainy season. First, we have enjoyed 80 degree weather up to just a few days ago (and it is nearly December), and secondly,
I rather like the rain.
(more…)
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11.22.2005 by Shannon
Absolutely beautiful.
One of the best ads I’ve seen in awhile. And done in our very own San Francisco backyard.
I recommend the extended version and the behind the scenes.
Category Announcements, San Francisco glory | Tags: | No Comments
by Shannon
“Thanks to modern technology, collecting stuff is stranger than ever,” writes Catherine Getches in a recent article in the Washington Post (login required). Due to the ubiquity of information going digital and the ever-increasing ability to store more of it, she reasons, our Pack Rat tendencies have gone digital, too – her husband apparently has 89 episodes of “Seinfeld” saved on their TiVo.
It’s easier than ever to amass volumes of belongings in this form because digital collections don’t take up any real physical space: one’s computer still fits snuggly into one’s laptop bag regardless of how many .gifs of salt and pepper shakers are squished into one’s Pictures folder.
(more…)
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11.21.2005 by Shannon
I still haven’t been able to figure out the Command Z for life.
Category This Modern Life | Tags: | 1 Comment
11.18.2005 by Shannon
It has come to my attention that there is very serious void in Ugly Pants Tracking. We have all seen them — ugly pants. But not until now have I realized the extent of the problem, nor the complete lack of keeping tabs on their proliferation. Someone must keep tabs, and I am that someone. Thus, behold: a new category on my still-nascent blog — the Ugly Pants Category.
Today’s entry is the undeniably charming DKNY Men’s Leather Pants found on Ebay complete with apology (“I unfortunately own”), a narrative (“I bought them many, many years ago under the spell of a woman…”) and a tagline (“Stylish. Expensive. Very much a bad purchase for me”) with is always appreciated by this copywriter. I advise acting quickly — a deal like this doesn’t last long in San Francisco.
It’s a good read, to boot.
Further Ugly Pants notification, please contact me .
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11.17.2005 by Shannon
I work across from the TransAmerica Pyramid Building in San Francisco, a wonderful spire that peeks above our infamous fog in a gesture of victory and optimism. Currently, the Pyramid is being renovated, re-caulked, and waterproofed by Rainbow Waterproofing.
In August I had begun a journalism class in the evenings after work, intending to push myself to produce, get me to begin to reposition myself into “journalistic mode” and carve out a time dedicated solely to writing. I had every good intention on continuing with focus, and then life got in the way.
I know: a good journalist makes no excuses. Which is why I’m in branding.
But I had to find a story idea for the class. I figured I would begin by writing a historical article about the Pyramid and tourism and famous San Francisco sites. But something about the waterproofing process fascinated me, and I wanted to explore why, how and when this was done. I introduced myself to the foreman; interviewed the project manager; left messages for the company headman. I wanted to go up to the top, see the inner-workings, where the elevator stopped short many flights of stairs before the top of the building — and the small, red, radial light that winked at planes in the night. I wanted to learn all about the cleaning, sand blasting, proofing, caulking, bracing, masonry, restoring and art of how to save a building from time.
I ended up negligent on the class, but kept on curious about the profession. And at some point, after talking to the men who climb the building’s side like spiders — who attach themselves with carabiners and platforms and stirrups, to fight the wind and the rain and gravity as they climb and search out the monolith’s weaknesses and soft spots — I realized: it’s not about waterproofing some damn building.
It’s about fighting entropy.
When you begin to really look at why we struggle in such efforts, it is of course not about “restoration of landmark[s] and historically significant buildings” for posterity sake; it’s not about maintaining a building so that it doesn’t crumble into rubble. It’s a symbol for the amount of time and energy and attention that it takes to keep anything from disintegrating into chaos—including and especially ourselves. What we create is all we have, all we will ever leave behind, and that comes to stand for who we are in the present. And without continual maintenance and attention and effort we all become useless clumps of matter. Or worse: morose manifestations of spirits, wandering aimlessly in search of purpose, like the lopsided building slumped heavily I look at nightly from my kitchen window — no one fixes the old sad sap because no one identifies with it. No one owns it, and so it slowly sags and buckles under it’s own weight. We are like buildings in that we need someone to own us, to care when our joints need re-caulking, our surfaces washed clean. It takes a lot of energy to maintain structure and strength, and sometimes one’s own spine isn’t enough.
God, allow me a good waterproofer.
Category Narrative, San Francisco glory | Tags: | No Comments
by Shannon
What the hell is J. Crew thinking? They have, in their online catalog, courduroy dress pants, “each leg panel is a different color (navy, tiger lily, pine & maize).” Yes, it is from the current Winter 2005 catalog. No, I will not be ordering a pair.
Although I’m sure many will visit this site for bleeding-edge trend coverage (God knows I was on top of that metallic shoe trend that — despite misconceptions — started in the Tenderloin, San Francisco, not from Aldo fashionistas), I suspect I would wear out the ole RSS reader before I could even cover half of the trends that interest me. My NewsFire, in fact, is currently bogged down with 365 unread feeds. If only I could be a professional news junkie. Alas, I will instead redirect those interested parties to a site that I find does a pretty fair job: Agenda Inc. as I do want try and develop *somewhat* original material instead of going link-happy (see this paragraph).
But the pants were too good to be missed. Thank you J. Crew for another insightful foray into Fashion 2006
Category Brands/Trends, Ugly pants | Tags: | 1 Comment
11.16.2005 by Shannon
…the Site
This site is devoted to excercises in both writing and life, through the embarkation (it’s a word, promise) upon Projects intended to entertain, enlighten and challenge both author and reader.
It was created as a way to simply get the author to write (nearly) every day, and has evolved into something that allows said author (that’s me) and said audience (that’s you) to explore, indulge in, push boundaries on and otherwise rub a metaphorical nose in, such disconnected topics as love, online dating, linguistics, bad poetry, “modernity,” San Francisco The World in all Her glory, and how to be a decent human being. (Still working on that last one.)
(c) josh hittleman photography
…the Author
Shannon currently lives in San Francisco Sonoma County, is diurnal, and works as a Verbal Branding. No, really: there is no noun in her job title. This gives her a false sense of importance and she likes to think she has the presence of an entire department. The fools that sign her pay check actually give her money to name stuff In Jan. 2007 Shannon jumped corporate ship and now makes her way swimming the freelance waters as a Naming Consultant & Writer.
The picture you see here is included in the event that you are unimpressed with her verbal skills. She may not always be eloquent but she can always fall back on gymnatic party tricks.
A graduate of UC Berkeley in Linguistics and Mass Communications, Shannon is fascinated by words, sounds, and other productive things to do with the mouth. Her favorite sounds are guttural plosives; her favorite words are “snarky” (number one) and “susurrus” (number two). If she had a third favorite word, it would be “aubergine” (maybe).
Shannon is very interested in creative writing and journalism, branding and the ubiquity of mass communications, pop and global culture, the intersection between art and technology, bright colored shoes with bright colored laces that make her look FAST, and how cities are like people. Shannon is currently seducing San Francisco Penngrove. Hello, Lover.
She is a big fan of social experiments, the borders and delineations of society and the self, and utter uniqueness in appearance or character—despite the fact that she is pretty generic looking and hasn’t said anything that hasn’t already been said before.
And she is grateful you’ve visited.
Category This Modern Life | Tags: | 1 Comment