Cantilever Project Goes Live Today

When Do You Bake?

It was a fun party on Sunday. Thanks for the videoooooo, Dave Nold.

Music, Memory, Madness

Past tense: In the 1990s, I read Chris Hedges' daily New York Times dispatches from Yugoslavia while I nursed our newborn boy, my grounded career as a photojournalist silently juxtaposed to Srebrenica's horrific mass graves. I wished I could cover the war in Bosnia, even while I was safe and content on the couch, listening endlessly to Kate Rusby and watching Josef grow.

Present tense: Adm and I are producing Enisa's story of coming to America from Bosnia, distilling her courage and strength into a tight two-minute narrative. Simultaneously, a few days ago, big news of Serbian war criminal Radovan Karadzic's arrest after living openly for 13 years in Belgrade, disguised as Dr. David, a new age healer. I contacted Enisa for her reactions. She said, in her beautiful Bosnian accent, that the arrest was good news but that it stirred up a thousand bad memories.

While researching music for Enisa's piece, my friend Lucija Hadziselimovic gave me beaucoup leads, she being a veritable idea faucet. Through the winding path of discovery and grief, I found this tonic for my sorrow.

When We Dream Together

Inspired ideas and living, breathing leadership at the Victory Garden planting today. Amy Franceschini, humble genius and brilliant curator of the project (in pink above), quoted a Brazilian proverb while dedicating the public art + garden installation: “When we dream alone it's just a dream, but when we dream together we can turn it into reality.” Willow Rosenthal of City Slickers on far right, Alice Waters of Chez Panisse + Edible Schoolyard with the dark shades and Gavin Newsom with trowel. I came to plant the curly kale, the broccoli and the sunflowers. It was a great photo op for the full media wolf pack and me with 12 frames left on my son's disposable plastic camera in my back pocket. Sometimes all that matters is where you stand.

Neighbors, Love, Courage, History

I rolled down the window of the bio-diesel as handsome neighbor, Brad was walking his dogs. He said, "Our party tomorrow? I'll tell you what's REALLY going to happen." As soon as he spilled the beans that he and Michael were going to surprise all 100+ guests at their annual Fourth of July bash and have State Assemblyman Mark Leno marry them legally in our great state of California, I was like, "And I'll photograph it?"

In Leno's nuptial speech, he insisted that he fought for the word "marriage" because everyone, gay, straight, or gender non-specific, was entitled to give and receive love in full measure. A human need. Beneath it all. "Mazeltov," he declared. Cue the DJ.

Mural #3 + Pie Contest #2

Full Event Details.
In brief:
Mural #3 Unveiling
Sunday, August 3rd
2:00 - 5:00pm
at Mission Pie.

Music by old time
duo Susan + Sarita.
Baking demo by Joe the Baker.
Sidewalk chalk for the kiddos.

Pie Baking Contest #2 with returning MC Nathan Lynch. Submit your entry by 3:30pm. Spread the word, and roll
your own.

Junot Diaz: History is Here

After returning from a work junket to the Caribbean, my darling handed me a book, and said "You'll like this." Historic, erotic, heroic, what else? Soulful, violent, disturbing, tragic, sadistic, comedic, pure art. From the first sentence of "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" to the final fiery word, the muscular vernacular style pinned me to the page and I'm not the only one.

Below, during a non-brief reading of his 2008 Pulitzer prize winning book, author Junot Diaz discusses living with a dictatorship hidden in plain sight, how history is unspoken but present in the scars on his mother's back, and comic books.

Schlomo the Love Sponge

Horn blower,
cheerleader,
Bard reader,
ring leader,
love sponge,
funkateer,
fire walker,
temple builder,
love seeker,
booty shaker,
mighty, mighty
mitzvah maker,
our beloved Schlomo Waxler,
rest in peace.

To Do Good Work

Last night, an art reception at the new location of the 40-year old Freight and Salvage included images I shot of the awesome Chris Thile, the royal Taj Mahal, and the dazzling Patty Griffin....

....Later, I toasted three climate change activists, the current winners of the Project Slingshot Award with my buddy Jennifer Snyder and her co-workers at Clif Bar. The grantees big plans for the summer? Jesse will study an off-the-grid neighborhood in Portland, Oregon; Maya will build a rooftop garden at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, and Richard will produce five TV spots on nationwide youth activism. Ah, to do good work.

Enisa and Her Mother

Yesterday, I completed shooting a year-long project documenting the work of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund. It's been amazing to bear witness to the love that drives so many nonprofits to do their deep and lasting community work day in and day out. Here's a shot of Enisa, a social worker, and her mother, refugees from Srebrenica, Bosnia. The audio capture was intense. Tears flowed from all of us. Husband gone. Brother gone. Dearest cousin gone. House in flames. Concentration camp escape. Lived as refugees in Montenegro, Macedonia, Austria, Berlin, and finally California. Rebuilding their lives as Americans. Helping countless other Bosnian refugees. Heros living among us, in spite of their ghosts. Or perhaps because of them.

Puerto Rico Frenzy

Traveled to San Juan last week with two other fab shooters to document an extravagant bat mitzvah complete with amazing merengue bands, acrobats and choreographed floor show. While editing my 1,500 pix, this frame rose from the depths of a collective, swirling throng. Here's to the power of passion, the joy of the circle, the frenzy of the hora.

A good photo is taken. A great photo is grooved. L'chaim!

Sidewalk Reception May 17, 1-4pm

Sidewalk Reception for Mural #2
Saturday, May 17, 1-4pm
2901 Mission at 25th Street
Outside Mission Pie Bakery

Have a piece of Shaker Booty Lemon Pie while you're at it.

Video for Javier

In honor of one of my accomplices on the Sky in the Pie project, Javier Gutierrez, I post this video.

A talented young photographer and student at the SF Art Institute, Javier grew up two blocks from our project site. Equal parts creativity and warmth, his disarming smile made many locals curious about what the heck we were up to. His soft-spoken manner soon had them willing to answer our ten questions and pause for a photo.

Thanks for your hard work and big heart, Javi. And thanks for jumping on the 14 Mission bus so we could keep on interviewing that one guy with the pork pie hat. Happy Cinco de Mayo.

Sky in the Pie Mural Project: This Sums It Up

Rest in Peace

One of the memorable people we photographed and interviewed was tragically killed this month in a senseless freeway shooting. Even in the short hour we knew him, my assistant, Javier and I were struck by his generous spirit and the love he had for his family, his community, and his world. After he left with his two beautiful sons in tow, we both looked at each other and said, "Wow. There goes a super cool guy." May Luis "Al" Solari rest in peace.

Donations to the Solari family can be sent to:
Lilia Solari Family Benefit Account
A.G. Edwards-Wachovia Bank
456 Montgomery, 16th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94104-9763

Read the SF Chronicle story

Numero Dos detail

Mural Numero Dos

After four graffiti-free months, numero uno finally got tagged. Oh well, it was time for a fresh mural anyway.

Numero dos asks the question, "Where is the farm in your family?" and in talking with the people at 25th and Mission streets, we discovered some had family farms in places as far-flung as Korea, Senegal, El Salvador, Slovakia, Morocco, Ireland, and York County, Nebraska.

Even if global mobility is vast and fast, most of us have a settled farmstead in our past. I want one now.

Thanks to Bill Cleary for the installation balancing act, Christie Rixford for the design hours, and Chris Hawkins for the print job. Couldn't have done it without y'all.

Sky in the Pie Mural #1

Last week the first Sky in the Pie mural went up at 25th and Mission. I was helped by teens with a drill, a ladder, a lot of rope, and muscles. Up it went. The previous month, my crew and I surveyed one hundred people in the neighborhood about food and farming. Mural #1 has eight of these folks along with their answers to our icebreaker question: What is your favorite kind of pie? At the opening, an urban barn dance inside the Mission Pie shop spilled out onto the sidewalk. Some fiesta. Yeehaw. Three more murals to come.

Ag Flag

This weekend, I participated in the 2nd Annual Farm Art Show at Freewheelin' Farm on the North Coast of Santa Cruz county. On a one acre plot, Amy Courtney and Kirstin Yogg (top photo) harvest enough organic produce for 38 families and deliver it all by bicycle. Post-
petroleum farming, yee haw.

Answers to the question, "If you could thank a farmer..." from my current Sky in the Pie Mural Project, inspired me to create a Tibetan-style prayer flag for farmers. Freewheelin' Farm guests were invited to add their own "ag flag" to this gratitude clothesline. At sunset we left the installation to fray and fade, a reminder of the Great Impermanence, with a magnificent Pacific Ocean
as backdrop.

If you could thank a farmer...

The Sky in the Pie Mural Project proceeds apace. Last week we finished asking 100 people near the corner of 25th and Mission Streets in San Francisco ten questions about food, farming, and pie. We're done with the research phase. Let the production begin!

This is Jeff, a local tatoo artist, whose family used to farm in Sicily. He was the second person we interviewed. We gave him a piece of pie and a cup of coffee.