April 27, 2010

Homesteading Hootenanny!!!


Friends!
Join us at a super fun event happening this Thursday at Southern Exposure! It's a Homesteading Hootenanny put on by the fine folks from How-To Homestead and our pals at SoEx. In addition to all sorts of Homesteading activities (food, drink, films and such), there is going to be Square Dancing!! Not sure if you're aware of this, but it is physically impossible to not have fun square dancing. We know from personal experience.

Thursday, April 29, 2010
7 pm - Midnight


$10 / FREE for SoEx Members
Or FREE with homesteaded goods and items to share (including home brews, seeds, fermented vegetables, pies and more)
**ALSO** Another great reason to JOIN as a SoEx member!!

Hootenanny Schedule:
7:30: Screening
8:30: Tasting
9:00: Square Dance with Pearsons Pork Pies
11:00: Dancing with the Goat Family

From the website:
Join the How-to Homestead Crew, led by Melinda Stone, for a down-home hootenanny of movies, tastings, song, and dance! The evening includes free tastings of home-made beer, booze, fermented vegetables, and other homestead goodies; new homesteading movie shorts, some with live accompaniment by the How-to Homestead house band: the sk8 sisters; square dancing with Pearsons Pork Pies and the night concludes with free-form dancing with the Goat Family, a nuevo-traditional jug band on the old-timey exuberance and infectious tip.

April 25, 2010

Tagged!

Word on the street in San Francisco this week is that world-famous graffiti artist Banksy is in town, and new works have been sprouting up in various neighborhoods around town. The piece above (via SFist) appeared on the side of our building on Thursday, and it's been fun watching crowds of people taking photos of it the past few days. More Banksy photos can be found on the Flickr Banksy Pool, and you can watch a fun video here.

April 24, 2010

Birdhouses available online!



People visiting our shoppe gallery over the last couple weeks have been all a-flutter over the amazing birdhouses that Jeff Canham and Luke Bartels created for their "For the Birds" show. They are now available on our website! Check them out here.

April 22, 2010

Pop-Up Round Up

A huge, HUGE thank you to everyone who came out to Pop-Up magazine #3 last Friday. It was so great to see so many of you there, and we hope you had as much fun experiencing Pop-Up as we had putting it together. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

We purposely don't record Pop-Up. We like to keep in spontaneous and intimate. So for those of you who couldn't make it, here's a super quick play-by-play:

-Laura Brunow Miner from Pictory kicked things off with a special collection of funny, moving, and mischievous pictures on the theme, "Sorry, Mom."

- Steven Leckart (Pop-Up's resident gadget guru, and self-proclaimed Gallagher) killed with a hilarious (and physically demanding) demonstration of some state-of-the-art sleep aids.

-Author and chef Bryant Terry demoed a custom cocktail using ginger-infused vodka, and meyer lemons from his community garden which he christened the Cleanse-tini (hilarious AND delicious!). SKYY Spirits was kind enough to donate the vodka, which meant everyone at the afterparty got to enjoy his tasty creation as well.

-Artist Allison Smith told the crazy and scary and beautiful story of Trench Art.

-Wired magazine's research staff regaled us with amazing facts (and awesome props!)

-Writer, and (obviously insane) adventurer Josh Harkinson took us on an eye-opening, gag-inducing canoe trip down the horribly, horribly polluted Houston Shipping Canal.

- Jennifer Kahn shared the story of her notoriously lazy 80+ year old father's unlikely successes in the world of professional weight-lifting. Impossible to really describe this one. Let's just say the audience laughed, and cried, and gave Jennifer and her dad a standing ovation.

-We had a brief message from the owner of Midpoint Wine Cellars , another one of the evening's sponsors.

-Acclaimed author Rebecca Solnit used a beautifully detailed map to trace the historic and creative convergences of two men who helped make San Francisco famous and great: Alfred Hitchcock and Eadward Muybridge.

-Here we snuck in an unforgettable tribute to legendary photographer Jim Marshall by Zana Woods and photographer Michael Jang. Jim was scheduled to appear for an onstage Q&A with Zana, but sadly passed away a few weeks ago.

-LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne made a compelling case for Dubai (with its crazy buildings, and unique blend of the world cultures and politics) being the best, and perhaps last place to successfully carry out an assassination.

-Writer Jon Mooallem charmed everyone with a story about luck, miracles, serendipity, patience, wallets lost and wallets found.

-Filmmaker Jamie Meltzer created a beautiful short film about Sign Spinners, that was accompanied by a live soundtrack from these guys.

-Writer Elizabeth Weil thrilled and disgusted the audience with her hilarious and extremely convincing argument against French kissing.

-Inspired by Jamie's film, we had a brief ad for another sponsor BrewDog, which featured a rockin' Sign Spinner doing his thing live on-stage.

-Academy Award-winning filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman treated us to an exclusive clip of their upcoming film HOWL, starring James Franco as Allen Ginsberg.

- Radio Diaries creator Joe Richman and Bridgette McGee-Robinson shared a moving and maddening story about Bridgette's grandfather who was executed by a traveling electric chair for a crime he may, or may not have committed.

-Artist Tracey Snelling created a video tour of Bordertown, her multimedia installation which features meticulous miniature versions of often ignored and out of the way places.

- Mirissa Neff, a dj and reporter for PBS's Sound Tracks, gave us a gorgeous lesson in Fado, the traditional music of Portugal.

-Here we featured a message from another sponsor, the W, who gave away free stays at their hotel and free dinners at their XYZ restaurant to 4 lucky audience members.

-Writer Justine Sharrock told the mind-boggling story of how some American soldiers have used Facebook to reconnect with prisoners they tortured at Guantanamo.

-Artist and experimental geographer Trevor Paglen explained how Humans are sending extremely mixed messages into outer space to potential intergalactic neighbors.

-What magazine is complete without a lively Q&A? This time we had the always captivating Lisa Margonelli in discussion with the Douglas Long, the fascinating Chief Curator of Natural Sciences at the Oakland Museum. You'd be amazed how much you can learn about Turkey Vultures in such a short amount of time.

-Finally, we closed with a wonderful piece by NPR correspondent Alex Cohen about the mysterious disappearance of Bobbie Gentry during the height of her career as one of the most popular and respected recording artists of the 1970s.

And then there was the After Party!!! Which to tell you the truth is a bit of a blur. (Having so many generous sponsors can be dangerous!!) But no one could possibly forget the amazingly delicious food from Bento 415, and the ridiculously tasty treats from Pinkie's Bakery. Yum!! And of course it isn't a party without music, and we were thrilled to have DJs M&S Treatzone spinning great tunes.

April 21, 2010

The Curiosity Shoppe + THE THING!!

Just wanted to pass along an invitation/reminder to please join us for an exciting and fun event with our pals from THE THING!

On Friday, April 30th
as part of Joseph del Pesco's Society of Secrets event at the Berkeley Art Museum, The Curiosity Shoppe will be partnering with THE THING to host a secret undisclosed back-room parallel black jack tournament using Ryan Gander and Europa's Issue 9. Not sure how to play? Don't worry, it's really simple, we'll send you the rules ahead of time...or you can always purchase the cards (which come with playing instructions) from THE THING or the Curiosity Shoppe.


The games will begin at 5:00pm and go till 8:00, and admission is free for players. We are looking for 64 participants in the tournament, which is first-come, first-serve. The ranks are filling up fast, so we're not sure if there are any spots left, but if you're interested please send an email to Francois at: support (at) thethingquarterly (dot) com. The winner will receive a cash prize of $100 from THE THING and a $100 gift certificate from the Curiosity Shoppe.

Even if you can't be in the tournament, it's gong to be a great event and a great night, and we'll hope you'll come join in the fun with us!

April 20, 2010

A little decorating


One Sunday a couple months back, we set out early in the morning with our friend Paulina to do a little decorating on the side of a big empty building in our neighborhood. She had the idea to make pennants out of some colorful vinyl she had laying around her studio, as part of a larger project she has been working on, called Tu Y Yo. Tu Y Yo focuses on public art collaborations, community and positivity. We say yes to all of the above!

Unfortunately our installation didn't last more than a couple days before someone removed it, but here are a few pics for you to enjoy.




April 08, 2010

Small Stakes book launch party and signing!



Hello Friends:
Wow! Busy week! In addition to our gallery opening tomorrow evening (see post below), we are also super excited about an event we hope you will join us for on Saturday. Our friend Jason Munn—the wonderful wizard of rock posters—will be launching his brand new, utterly amazing book The Small Stakes Music Posters at our Shoppe. We are truly honored to host Jason and can't wait to celebrate his incredible work. So come on by and meet The Man, buy his book (and get a special limited-edition print!!). There will be snacks to eat, and posters for sale.

WHAT: The Small Stakes Book Signing with Jason Munn

WHEN: Saturday April 10th, 5-8pm
WHERE: The Curiosity Shoppe, 855 Valencia St. (btwn 19th & 20th)

April 06, 2010

For the Birds Opening!!

Hello Friends!
Please join us this Friday evening to celebrate the opening of our new gallery show, For the Birds! Our talented pals Jeff Canham and Luke Bartels have created an array of amazing abodes, perfect the urban bird. There will be refreshments to peck at.

WHAT: For the Birds opening
WHEN: Friday, April 9th 7-9pm
WHERE: The Curiosity Shoppe 855 Valencia St. (between 19th & 20th)

*More images and a write up on Cool Hunting right here.

April 04, 2010

Happy Easter!


The shoppe will be closed today for some much needed R&R... hope you all have a Happy Easter!

April 03, 2010

Typewriter Love

Say hello to our Sears Junior Portable Typewriter, the smallest lil' typewriter in the west! If you want to see some gorgeous typewriter specimens (that are sure to inspire some insane typewriter envy) check out this site. You can search by brand, by period, by author... it's amazing!

Our new secret hide out.

April 02, 2010

Seriously Curious Confections

We've always admired Mary and Matt's great taste in art and design, music and fashion, and so on and so forth... And then—as if to prove their excellence in a whole different realm of "taste"—they started making mind-blowing, explicative-inducing chocolate. They recently sent us some samples which we shared with customers throughout the day. Everyone fell in love. Now you can too!

April 01, 2010

National Park Quarters



We can't wait for the National Park Quarters to come out! Hurray for the little joys in life...