BARTorama
16th to 24th in 4 seconds.
24th St BART cement art, NE entrance. Click to enlarge.
BART stairs horizontal 360, aka if Escher designed a BART entrance…
Suriya Thai — Baby Please Don’t Go
Um, another neighborhood? I think not. We need you back here in La Lengua, oh Suriya Thai.
Hey, I know, move into the Burger King at Valencia and Mission! Or Groger’s Western Store.
More Mother Mother
Mother Mother put on a freakin’ amazing opening act at Cafe du Nord last night. I was enjoying the show too much to take pictures. Flickr to the rescue, these from a Philly show two weeks back taken by GETrevolution.
I believe Ryan’s Queen-like falsetto is tightly correlated to his hair. That’s just the way things are done on the islands in the Straight of Georgia.
Seriously though, check out their two albums. Looks like new one next year sometime. Here’s to hoping they return before that, and are the main act next time they play Cafe Du Nord. I want MMM (More Mother Mother).
Sam Roberts was good, but let’s face it, he’s no Mother Mother. Good lighting meant I got to play around with Panorama and QuadCamera.
Sam moves around stage a lot.
The timing worked out perfectly on this QuadCamera shot.
Animated GIFs after the break:
Mother Mother at Cafe Du Nord Thursday Night
Mother Mother, one of my favorite bands you’ve never heard of, is back in town. They open for Sam Roberts at Café Du Nord Thursday night (March 26th).
I really like the main act, Sam Roberts, aka “Jesus of Montreal”. I am no music critic, so I will steal quotes from others from the CDN web site. The Boston Globe hailed him as “a classic rocker in an indie-rock world”. He’s great live — “performs with such focused energy and urgency, it sounds as if his very life depends on it.”
Brother Down (from his 2003 album, We Were Born in a Flame)
Them Kids (from his most recent album, Love At The End Of The World )
Sam Roberts Website
But I REALLY like Mother Mother. A lot. They rocked the house at Hotel Utah in November. It was pleasantly shocking to see 30 people singing along to “my” band. Such is the power of the interscape.
Two albums, both solid. But Mother Mother is hard to explain. Some of the most arresting vocals I have ever heard. A couple of examples:
Polynesia (2007, Touch Up)
Body of Years (2008, Oh My Heart)
Mother Mother Myspace Page
(Yes, the lead singer’s a dude.)
Other people’s quotes:
“A beautifully bent portrait of vocal harmony, clever, offbeat lyricism, and dynamic instrumentation.” — Cafe Du Nord
“Mother Mother’s layers of harmonies, complex choruses and sheer energy makes this disc one of the best of the year.” — Now Magazine
“Vocal Harmonies even Queen would be proud of” — UR Chicago Magazine
Mother Mother might actually be able to turn a burrito into a sandwich, if you know what I mean. (Please — if you do know what I mean there, do let me know. No fucking clue, that one just sort of popped out.)
Anyway, do yourself a favor and check them out Thursday night, doors at 8, show at 9. $12 tix, $15 at the door, and beer — what more could you ask for? Don’t be late!
A Burrito Is Not A Sandwich
Thanks to the investigative leanings of breadXbread, I have discovered a furious debate in the sandwichsphere around the question, “Is a burrito a sandwich?”
My basic, visceral response is “Are you fucking kidding me? Of course not.”
NOT A SANDWICH
STILL NOT A SANDWICH
breadXbread shares this opinion. Turns out the Massachusetts legal system has weighed in on the matter as well. A mall bakery had negotiated a “sandwich exclusivity clause” and sued when a burrito maker moved in. Verdict — a burrito is not a sandwich. Food topology and anthropology was raised as evidence in the trial (two slices of bread vs a single tortilla, European vs Mexican roots).
The bakery rather unimaginatively argued “for a broad definition of sandwich, saying a flour tortilla qualifies as bread and a food product with bread and a filling is a sandwich.” (Dude, beer qualifies as bread, but you don’t see me ordering a Trumer Pilswich.)
I personally would have used the classic “torta defense” — if there’s something in a parallel food universe that is clearly a sandwich (a torta), then another thing (a burrito) that you are trying to claim is a sandwich is clearly not a sandwich. Q.B.D. (Quod Burriterat Demonstrandum.)
I don’t know if this says more about the sensibility of the East Coast justice system or New England stubborness forcing this to come to trial. (Eating burritos in a mall is a different problem entirely.)
A long debate follows in the comments section of Unbreaded on the burrito/sandwich “question”, including some desperate rear-guard action by the sandwich borg who would like to label any and everything a sandwich. My favorite, however, is the very first by commenter BJN:
The burrito will never let you down. The burrito is a warrior. The burrito has a surprisingly shapely silhouette. The burrito knows what you need, always says the right things and doesn’t hesitate to be just a little bit vulnerable.
The burrito is, by choice, not a sandwich. It doesn’t need, nor does it want, to be a sandwich. Let us not waste more time with such folly! A burrito is no more a sandwich than a hamachi roll, and for that I am eternally grateful.
We do not need, and dare I say that those of us who possess a modicum of sanity do not want each and every one of our food items to be a sandwich. Let us embrace our differences! Let us celebrate our varied tastes and indulge our rapacious appetites! Let us sing our gastronomic idiosyncrasies! I am large. I contain multitudes.
That, my friends, is poetry.
Cast your opinion below if you dare.
Burrito Science
OK, so it’s not a scan, merely a dramatic zoom with the iPhone. But given the overwhelming support for al pastor in the burrito scan poll, I figured a short term solution was in order.
Longer term goals for R.I.B.S. — the Research Institute for the Burrito Sciences — if I get my hands on some liquid nitrogen I could deep freeze a burrito, take picture as I make thin slices, and then turn it into a MRI-like stop-motion movie!
Added bonus – we would have unique appetizers after it thawed out. Viva Burrito Chips!
280 at Twilight
The iPhone camera picks up some pretty nice blue at twilight.
Here’s hoping for a red sunset soon.
Free The St. Luke’s 1912 Steps!
St. Luke’s 1912 building is on Valencia between Cesar Chavez and Duncan. It’s on the right-hand side of this 1920 shot — note the walkway…
…which is gated off today. Not so inviting:
But using special gate piercing panorama technology — much more inviting!
Open it up and people could eat lunch on the steps. I’m thinking a taco truck in front to draw the crowds. Or now that it’s light at night, a dinner selection from the Curry Kart, or MSF!
Or maybe do a remake of the Battleship Potempkin.
Hmm, maybe not. Damn Cossacks.
SF at Night
Some interesting effects with QuadCamera and the iPhone’s longer exposure time at twilight (both outdoor shots were taken around 7:30pm) – the blur helps smooth out the animated gif frames.
Click each for the animation (I figured I’d save you from involuntary epileptic seizures from the flicker of all three gifs loading at once).
City Hall:
24th and Valencia:
BART wall tiles:
Again, click on the image to get the animation. Had I actually planned this one any better I would have walked a touch faster so the pillar in the last frame was a little more to the right, making for a smoother loop. (Sadly this is how i think now, in terms of frames, blur, and sequence.)
Fog Eating Sutro
Sutro departing in 256 colors. One shot every three seconds, thanks to QuadCamera and GIFfun. (Will play smoothly once all 24 frames load.)
(Check out the dude walking from and to his car.)
Or fog-eating Sutro (aka Sutro appearing)? I find the blue bands in this one appealing, but the fog is lacking drama. (Sorry, my hands were getting cold. And yes, I need a mount of some sort – I seem to drift left. Any good ones for the iPhone?)
Vertical panorama (crafted especially for the 450 pixel wide WordPress limit)
Burrito Justice 
