Author: littlebrumble

San Francisco, California | Fascinating Fauna

The first bison, named Ben Harrison, was purchased by Park Superintendent John McClaren on February 26, 1891. His arrival in San Francisco coincided with the historical nadir in bison population, a time when the species’ risk of extinction loomed large.

A female mate by the name of Sarah Bernhardt soon followed, and the two bison began one of the longest-running efforts to breed bison in captivity. Over the last 120 years, more than 500 bison have been born from the Golden Gate herd, and due to efforts throughout the country, the animals are no longer at risk of extinction.

If the animals’ names, Ben Harrison and Sarah Bernhardt, seem strangely delicate for the hulking beasts, the tradition of the time dictated that the bison receive the monikers of their political contemporaries. The original herd included superstars such as Grover Cleveland, Bill McKinley, and Bill Bunker.

Recent years have brought changes to the bison’s naming practices. Throughout the mid-twentieth century, the animals had borne royal Shakespearean handles. As of 1993, the bison have been reclaimed and renamed with Native American names bestowed by the “Watchbison Committee,” a Native American Advisory Committee, and one of their current caretakers, the San Francisco Zoological Society.

In 1980, seven elderly buffalo contracted tuberculosis and were subsequently exiled from their Golden Gate haunts to a paddock at the San Bruno county jail by 1984. As the Democratic convention approached, then-mayor Dianne Feinstein, “didn’t want these buffalo out in the park, so she bought some new ones and sent the mangy ones down [to the jail].” The irony was not lost on the other simian inmates that their new, albeit entertaining, cellmates only included more of the same: Feinstein’s “rejects.”

Among the transplanted animals were King George, Lady Di, and Romeo. Despite having been, quite literally, put out to pasture for a non-contagious, non-life-threatening affliction, the relocated bison were treated well. The guards took pleasure in feeding the bison treats, inmates gawked at the creatures, and the bison didn’t seem to mind as it was reminiscent of the attention at their previous home.

Technically, the “new” herd consists of twelve American Bison given to Mayor Feinstein by her husband in 1984 as replacements. But no matter, the bison seen today in Golden Gate Park are well cared for by staff from the San Francisco Zoo, the aforementioned Zoological Society, Recreation & Parks Department specialists, and have two separate advocacy groups dedicated solely to their well-being.

Portsmouth, Rhode Island | Extraordinary Flora

Long before Steven King included topiary animals in his novel The Shining, plants rendered in unconventional forms have held an enchanting and, at times, disconcerting appeal to outsiders. As America’s oldest and northernmost example, Green Gardens has remained a destination for botanical enthusiasts across three centuries.

The seven-acre estate perched on the edge of the Narragansett Bay was originally purchased in 1872 by Joseph Brayton. Shortly thereafter, Brayton commissioned a well-regarded Portuguese gardener by the name of Joseph Carreiro to turn the landscape surrounding his home into an otherworldly art garden. Carreiro set to work laying the foundation for what can be seen at Green Gardens to this day, focusing much of his efforts on creating live vegetation sculptures.

Topiariy animals made by Carreiro’s kin in the 1940s were crafted from California privet and ewe, heartier plants that are more suited to the sometimes extreme climate of Rhode Island than the boxwood used in more traditional landscape sculptures. Fantastic imaginary figures such as unicorns and a Don Quixote stand along side exotic replicas of camels, elephants and giraffes. In addition to the eponymous animals, flowers and ponds saturate the landscape, and more than 60 topiary trees carved into elaborate geometric shapes guide visitors on winding paths through the grounds.

After the passing of Alice Brayton, who had inherited her father’s gardens, Green Animals was left in the care of the current operators, the Preservation Society of Newport County. Please note that the garden is open during the warm seasons only, due to maintenance of the plant life.

San Francisco, California | Outsider Art

In the heart of the Mission District lies the most concentrated collection of murals in San Francisco. Renowned for their political import and reverential maintenance, Balmy Alley has become a destination for appreciators of street art and political culture alike.

Springing from an area of the city with a well-founded history of political activism, the murals were first painted in 1972 by a two-woman mural team who referred to themselves as the Mujeres Muralistas. Their original murals formed the foundation for Balmy Alley’s present-day incarnation, including referencing multiple Latin American countries and cultures within a single, unified visual aesthetic.

In the mid-1980s, the Balmy Alley murals morphed into a more organized and actively managed purpose. Ray Patlan convened a troupe of mural activists in 1984 to cover all the garage doors and fences running the length of the block with visual meditations on two interconnected themes: praise of indigenous Central American cultural heritage, and protest against the United States’ intervention in Central American affairs.

The group of muralists set about convincing (the mainly Latino) property owners of the viability of the idea, seeking permission to paint on pieces of their private property. After a few residents conceded the use of their back fences and gates allowing the community to experience what the finished project would resemble, Balmy Alley quickly gained momentum in the summer of 1985, during which time 27 murals were completed.

The experience of engaging with the murals in Balmy Alley is emblematic of their greater political purpose; as each mural seems more powerful for its proximity to the others than it would in isolation, the murals have the effect of mirroring a successful force of community activists.

These days Balmy Alley is a constant work in progress, with repairs from weather-related damages taking place at the same time as fresh murals are being painted atop the old. Further diversification of the topics represented in the murals has taken place, making any politicized subject fair game in addition to the original tropes of Latin American human rights.

Bilbao, Spain | Extraordinary Flora

American artist Jeff Koons, famous for his large scale cartoony sculptures, was commissioned to create a piece to be displayed at Bad Arolsen in Germany in 1992.

The resulting creation was named “Puppy,” a 43-foot-tall living plant sculpture of a West Highland terrier. Koons utilized computer modeling to construct his outlandish version of topiary sculptures common to eighteenth-century formal gardens. Koons created the piece to inspire optimism and to instill, in his own words, “confidence and security.”

In a powerful example of how life doesn’t imitate art, as Puppy facilitated a potentially disastrous security breach at the Guggenheim Bilbao. A few days before its inauguration in 1997, the museum was nearly bombed by three ETA Basque separatists posing as gardeners working on the sculpture. In addition to their incognito dress, the men carried flower pots like those on Puppy filled with 12 remote-controlled grenades. A firestorm and pursuit ensued, claiming the life of policeman Jose María Aguirre, though their plot was ultimately foiled. The plaza in which Puppy currently resides has been renamed in honor of Aguirre.

After traveling the globe at exhibitions in Germany, Australia, and the United States, Puppy found its final home in Spain. While the original Puppy topiary sculpture is a part of the Guggenheim Bilbao’s permanent collection, media mogul Peter Brant and his wife, model Stephanie Seymour, commissioned Koons to construct a second, duplicate Puppy for their Connecticut estate.

The combination of its size and imposing reputation in the art world, as well as the live bedding flowers covering Puppy, the sculpture’s legend literally and figuratively continues to grow by the day.

Madrid, Spain | Strange Statues

Though Spain may have loaned its name to one of the most famous Christian witch-hunts in human history, the country’s capital city holds unique bragging rights for having what is commonly acknowledged as the only public monument to the Devil himself.

Located in the gardens of the expansive Parque del Buen Retiro, the statue of the Fallen Angel (Ángel Caído) is set atop a marble pillar in the midst of a fountain. Lucifer is depicted at the moment he is cast out of Heaven, as inspired by a passage in John Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Sculptor Ricardo Bellver cast the statue in bronze for the third World’s Fair in Paris, after which point the piece was acquired by the Museo del Prado. The statue was later donated to the city of Madrid and inaugurated at its current location in 1885.

The statue is renowned equally for its discordant subject matter, as well as Bellver’s ability to imbue a sense of tension and anguish in his rendering of Satan.

Portland, Oregon | Rites and Rituals

The notorious doughnut shop was founded by Kenneth “Cat Daddy” Pogson and Tres Shannon to fill a void in Portland’s late night dining scene. Apparently there was a spiritual void as well as the two gentlemen also preside over Voodoo’s numerous weddings. That’s right: while the doughnuts are the main attraction, committing to eternal love is also an option thanks to several legally-binding wedding and commitment ceremony packages, replete with in-house refreshments.

The tiny storefront in Old Town is decorated with velvet paintings and newspaper clippings of minor stars and public figures’, lit by the one and only Cruller Chandelier of Life. In a city brimming with oddities, it’s the doughnuts that really distinguish Voodoo from the rest of the field. Popular flavors include Cap’n Crunch (raised doughnut, vanilla icing, and Captain Crunch with Crunch Berries), Ol’ Dirty Bastard (chocolate cake doughnut with chocolate icing, Oreo cookie crumbles, and peanut butter drizzled on top), the Bacon Maple Bar (take a traditional maple bar and, yes, add bacon), and the eponymous doughnut consisting of a gingerbread-man shaped doughnut covered in chocolate icing and punctured by pretzels, from whose wounds ooze raspberry filling.

The Voodoo ran into some trouble when they were confronted by the Food and Drug Administration after selling Nyquil glazed donut and the Vanilla Pepto Crushed Tums donuts to wrecked party-goers.

“With the Pepto doughnut, I honestly thought if you had that shot of tequila you shouldn’t have at 2:00 a.m., and then you got sugar, bread, Pepto, and Tums, you’d either feel better or puke your a** off and then feel better because you got it out of your system. So it was a win-win either way,” reasoned Pogson.

In addition to doubling as a wedding chapel, secular events are regularly held at the shops to enhance the communal doughnut loving. Back in the day, the store offered free Swahili lessons to visitors before the evening rush. These days, at midnight on the first Friday of every month, Voodoo holds a doughnut eating contest.

One of these very contest provided the basis for the oft-attempted “Tex-Ass Challenge” in which a participant attempts to eat the Tex-Ass doughnut (an enormous glazed doughnut equal to six of the regular doughnuts) in under 90 seconds amidst an alternately cheering or heckling crowd; rarely do folks succeed, but winnings include the price of the Tex-Ass and some hefty bragging rights. Just say the word and a (somewhat) friendly doughnut staff-member will set festivities in motion.

In 2008, Voodoo expanded to a second location on the east side of the Willamette River (which bisects Portland’s city center). Unlike the original, Voodoo Too has ample parking, seating space, and a bubble hockey game to divert patrons 21 hours of every day. The original location is open 24/7, though the shop’s interior may be closed during low-traffic hours, whence customers belly-up to the adjacent ‘doughnut window’ on the building’s exterior to be served drive-thru style.

Should the Voodoo experience have made a lasting impression, visitors are encouraged to purchase the various memorabilia for sale in the shops. After all, who doesn’t need a pair of pink briefs with “Good things come in pink boxes” scrawled over one’s rear?

San Francisco, California | Mummies

The Sutro Collection of Egyptian Antiquities amounts to approximately 700 objects, including the two intact mummies, three mummified heads, and a mummified hand purchased in 1884 by Adolph Sutro himself. The stars of the collection are the two mummies, who are estimated to date back to the 21-22 Dynasties approximately 3500 years ago.

Nes-Per-N-Nub, a mummy whose rare, triple nesting sarcophagi belie former great import, as the doorkeeper in the temple of Amun, is thought to hail from Thebes. The second, unnamed mummy is a female who is often referred to as The Yellow Mummy due to her sarcophagus’ brilliant color, and is remarkable for having extra sets of bones within the folds of her wrappings.

Recent scientific studies have shown that members of Egyptian society’s class worthy of such immortal preservation were plagued by worn teeth, periodontal diseases, abscesses and cavities, as well as arteriosclerosis (the hardening of arteries). Though CT scans have not shed light on The Yellow Mummy’s cause of death, they have shown that Nes-Per-N-Nub died of natural causes and revealed that he was not immune to such maladies, as the poor guy suffered from a history of both cavities and arthritis.

Unfortunately, all records of Sutro’s purchase of his Egyptian treasures were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and subsequent fire. Renowned for a populist ethos that extended well beyond his term as Mayor, Sutro displayed his collection at the Sutro Public Baths from 1895 to until the baths’ scheduled demolition in 1966. The collection had, conveniently enough, already been moved from the building before the night that the Sutro Baths burned to the ground under dubious circumstances.

The collection was housed for a time at the University of California Extension Center, but the mummies, various body parts, and the rest of the artifacts found their current final resting place at the Classics Department of San Francisco State University in 1972.

The University’s Museum Studies program displays an array of Sutro’s collection at their biannual public exhibition. The mummies are regularly featured in these exhibits, placed beneath glass plates with small holes where the curious can muster their bravery to take a whiff of ancient times.

Sadly the April 2010 Exhibition has been canceled due to budget cuts in the CSU system.

San Francisco, California | Curious Places of Worship

In 1966, a journalist asked John Coltrane what he’d like to be in five years. His response proved to be prophetic: “A saint.” Thanks to the Reverend Franzo Wayne King and the African Orthodox Church, Coltrane can rest easy. Founded in 1982, the Church of Saint John Will-I-Am Coltrane encourages its followers to know God through weekly “sound baptisms” focusing on their patron saint’s later albums.

Keeping with the Church’s stated mission to, “help followers recognize sound as the preexisting wisdom of God,” Coltrane has been incorporated into the beliefs of African Orthodox Christianity not through worshiping the man himself, but rather through studying, “the divine nature of John Coltrane as he ascended to oneness with God through sound.”

At the church, where a sign outside reads “Coltrane Lives!”, congregants pay witness to the “Risen Trane,” Rev. King’s shorthand for Coltrane and his creations from 1957 onward. Prior to that time, the legendary saxophonist had been severely addicted to heroin. Coltrane managed to kick his drug habits cold turkey, and claimed to hear the voice of God during the depths of his withdrawal. Ultimately, the church has used the musician and his musical work as testimony incarnate of the power and empowerment God bestows on each person.

Being equal parts house of jazz and House of God, the Church of Saint John caters to musicians and all those who understand that noon on a Sunday still counts as morning, and isn’t too late for a spiritual soul quenching testimony. The three-hour-long service every Sunday afternoon is a mixture of Pentecostal revival and jam session with musical stylings ranging from jazz to funk, gospel to reggae.

All are welcome at the Church of Saint John Coltrane. The usual attendees are a melting pot of locals from various creeds and races, blended with tourists and gawkers for a little spice. Audience members are encouraged to bring their own instruments to join in on the playing, and dancing is omnipresent, both by the church’s leaders and congregants.

The centerpiece of each week’s sound baptism is Coltrane’s legendary free-jazz album “A Love Supreme,” which is uniquely recreated featuring the choir reciting Psalm 23 over the track “Acknowledgment.” Meanwhile, the audience participates in call-and-response of the words “a love supreme” at appropriate moments throughout the album.

Also, every Tuesday from noon to 4pm on KPOO (the only black-owned radio station west of the Mississippi River) the Rev. Sister Wanika King hosts a live radio show called “Uplift” during which she “spins the discs” of Coltrane’s renewing sounds. The broadcast is a feast for ears, mind, and soul, punctuated by inspirational commentary and quotes from Saint John himself.

Though such spiritual enlightenment by way of Coltrane may sound appealing, the Rev. King understands not everyone can make a pilgrimage to his house of worship. In these cases, he offers the following bit of advice: “If you ain’t happy, you ain’t listening to enough Coltrane!”